MMA Fighting - HOAM | Will Shavkat Rakhmonov Fight For UFC Title In 2023?

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

Shavkat Rakhmonov has been a wrecking ball his entire pro career, including his four impressive finishes inside the UFC's octagon. If the 28-year-old can dominate Geoff Neal at UFC 285, how soon could we be talking title fights for Rakhmonov? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses the potential road to a title for Rakhmonov and his fight with Neal on March 4. Additionally, listener questions include the IV rules in the UFC, scoring in MMA, Bo Nickal's ceiling in the UFC, Khamzat Chimaev, rumored rosters for this season of The Ultimate Fighter with Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler as coaches, the stakes in the UFC Vegas 69 main event between Jessica Andrade and Erin Blanchfield, Tatiana Suarez's return next weekend, and 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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Gift sets from summer Fridays, rare beauty, way and more are going fast. Get full-sized favorites and must have minis bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In store online at Sephora.com. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Friday, February 17th, 2023. It is indeed a heck of a morning. We are live on the M.A. Fighting Twitter Spaces on a free-for-all Friday.

You could hear the show in its entirety shortly thereafter on the M.M.A. fighting podcasting network. I am Mike Heck. Hope everyone's having a great week. Busy-ish weekend in the combat sports world. We have Knucklemania tonight. And I got to draw the straw to cover that one. So that should be interesting.

I'm actually weirdly intrigued by it. The BKFC cards, they are what they are. They are kind of circusy. But they fly by, and usually the fights end very quickly. And there's always some sort of spectacle that happens. So oddly intrigued by that. we're on the eve also of ufc vegas 69 which goes down tomorrow main event a big one at 125 pounds it could shake the entire foundation of the women's flyweight division as erin blanchfield

gets her toughest test to date short notice opponent jesska and draj some other somewhat interesting things on this card all at all not a great card but as we like to to say there's worse things you could do on a Saturday. But a couple things. If you saw my tweet, we had the CrossFit Open started today. And I got to do my first open workout. I am exhausted. It just absolutely killed me.

It was a lot. It was you had to do basically 200 reps of really tough stuff in 14 minutes. And that was like the goal. It's really tough to finish. But I almost finished. I got to 197 out of the 200. So I was very proud of myself. We did a similar workout a couple weeks ago.

And I did two more than I did a couple weeks ago. So I was very happy about that. But nobody cares about that. The one thing I do want to talk about, though, and it's been a big topic over the last couple days. We talked about it a little bit on the show yesterday. We talked about it on BTL. And that is this IV-Gate stuff when it comes to,

the Islam Makachchev versus Alexander Volkanowski fight. And there's been a lot of comments. I've been tagged in a bunch of stuff in Instagram stories. People have been DMing me. So let me just say this. I understand how people feel. I understand that this could be a big deal. But the main word is could.

because like we've talked about, and like we sort of talked about yesterday, like we talked about on BTL, we have no idea if Islam Makachev took an IV of any kind, despite what the rules say, despite how the UFC put out the updated rule set, which nobody really knew about,

outside of the speculation and the accusations, there is no proof of anything right now. So as much as I would love to come on this show and speculate and answer I-B questions, and we can certainly do that if you have them. As of right now, there is nothing to talk about. It's just here, it's he said, she said at this point. That's where we're at.

And if there is proof, if there is a video of some kind that comes out, that shows his on Machachev getting an IV, and it was not done correctly. And yes, I know the Australia Commission has rules on their website saying IVs cannot be administered. I get that. We're not dumb. We talked about it. I hadn't seen any of that stuff yesterday morning when we were doing the show, but I've seen it since. But again, here's the thing. We have no proof. There's nothing. There is nothing. outside of people just saying it. And at this point, people are just fired up about this.

So all I'm going to say is until I see something, and I said this on Tuesday when we were talking about this, until we see something, there's really not much we can say here. Now, if it comes out that he took an IV and it was not done correctly or is against the rules, then he should be punished. 100%. If it means stripping up to the belt, it means stripping them by the belt. But at this point, there is nothing. There's speculation. That's it. But I mean, I just couldn't believe. I even woke up this morning and there was like 20 DMs and it was tags in a bunch of stuff. Well, this person said this and it's your responsibility to talk about it. We are talking about it. But we can only talk about what we know and what we know is nothing. We know nothing. So that's all I want to say about that. We can

we can talk about it and stuff. I can get your opinions on it. And that's cool. But again, there's nothing. There is nothing. And yes, I understand when there's smoke, there's potentially fire. But at this point, when I'm, I mean, we're seeing, we're not even seeing smoke. We're seeing people rub sticks together at this point.

That's, that, that's what we're seeing, which is pretty much nothing. If that changes, we have a whole different conversation altogether. But right now, I'd love to sit here and just put a bullshit headline up and have people click on it and be like, oh, IVUs, did someone cheat? I'd love to do that. Actually, I wouldn't. But we could do that, but we're not going to because we have nothing. We have nothing to talk about in that regard. Outside of, he said this, he responded with this, deleted tweet this,

response to this. That's cool. But we don't have any proof. And that's really the point I want to make here. There could be down the line, but as of right now, there is none. So that's all I'll say about that. We can keep talking about it if you want. But that's where we are at right now.

We got nothing. I think Luke Thomas said it perfectly on BTL yesterday, which, by the way, I hope you guys enjoyed that. It warmed my heart to see Luke Thomas on that show and him and Jed just got after it and it was a ton of fun. But even Luke said, if you took this what we have right now

into a judge, into a courtroom, and a judge saw it, he would throw it out. He'd be like, what are we doing here? There's nothing. Case dismissed. But again, if that changes, we see some evidence, some proof. We have a whole different conversation.

But let's get into this thing. Free for all Friday, your show, four quarter sports, you're up. Well, beautiful job yesterday. I'm getting Luke Thomas on. I think it was phenomenal. I think it was maybe top two best BTL shows I've heard. I was listening to last night and phenomenal work.

Like you said, there's nothing to really report when it comes to the IV. The only thing I will say is that Dan Hooker really put an awareness. We're all going to be, you know, focusing on Islammach's next fight as he's trying to, like, cut down on weight. And I think the UFC isn't going to try to try to... zero ends to see, you know, how he tries to rehydrate. But I wanted to talk about me and Lee, the main event. If Aaron Blanfield gets the victory, do you think she gets a title shot in her next fight?

And if not, if you're Aaron Blanfield's corner, are you telling her to try to get the matchup again with Tyler Sancos? Because we all know how close that fight was against her and Valentina. And if Blanchfield was to knock off Tyler Santos, is that just eliminating one contender and ensuring Herb as the next contender for the flyweight belt? All right, thanks, Mike. Thanks, Ann. So a couple things.

Yes, like I said, it warmed my heart to have Luke Thomas on and just bringing media people together, despite how some people feel about some things. It's just so cool. Like, it's just so cool. And I would love to exist in a space where I could. could just bring anybody on BTL. Like, I would love, I would love that. But unfortunately, we are in a competitive space. And in some ways, it's, like, oddly weird that there's, like, rivalries and stuff.

Like, not for me, but I won't, like, get into that. But it's just, it's just weird. And I would love to live in a world where I could just hit up anybody to come on BTL. And it just doesn't really work like that. But again, Luke gone, it's so frigging cool. getting BC on is cool getting all these different people on it's the best it's just the best

and I had so much fun yesterday and I hope you guys enjoyed it I get what you're coming from with the Islam stuff here's what I'll say Dan Hooker did positively and we talked about this on BTL as well now because of this tweet

we now understand what the fucking rules are because we didn't know The fighters didn't know. The managers didn't know. The coaches didn't know. Nobody knew what the rules were. I had no idea that they changed the rules in 2019.

No clue. I don't think anybody was even notified that the rules were changed, especially in the media. Now, I wasn't working at MMA fighting at the time. So I wasn't, it's not something I was really looking for. What I was doing in MMA in 2019 was basically interviews and hosting shows. rarely wrote anything unless it was breaking news. So I wasn't really tapped into that per se,

but I probably wouldn't knew about it, at least in some way I would have remembered it. It would have tickled my brain cells a little bit. But nobody knew anything. Nobody knew. And it's crazy. It's crazy that four years later, we found out that a rule got changed from 2019.

Like, if there's anything positive that has come out of this so far, it is now we know what the rules are when it comes to IV use, which is insane to me. It is insane. So at least we got that nugget of information. As far as the main event goes, Aaron Blanchfield beats Jessica Androge, and I don't care how she does it.

I don't care if she goes out and bolts her. I don't care if she wins a unanimous decision. I don't care if she sneaks. out a splitty. If Aaron Blanchfield beats Jessica Androge tomorrow, her next fight is for the belt. There's no other way to go. If she beats Jessica Androge, especially on short notice, she's getting a title shot. I will accept nothing less. The Tyler Santos fight was intriguing. This is a tougher fight. This is a bigger fight. And if she goes out there and beats the absolute savage that is Jessica Androge on short notice in a main event, she's getting a title fight.

She's getting a title fight. She is the legit number one contender in the division if she does this. In my eyes. In my eyes. I know Alexa Gros is fighting for the belt, but Blanchfield's getting the winner. I mean, if Alexa Grasso somehow beats Valencia and Schochenko, they'll probably run it back. But her next fight will be for a title. And if you want to do, and look, the UFC has done interim titles for sillier things,

if you want to do it's just like an interim title to determine like a legit number of contender to do an interim title fight, Aaron Blanchfield has to be involved. But I think Valentina Shepchenko will beat Alexa Grasso. I think it's a more competitive fight than most people think it's going to be. I think Alexa is going to show up and have moments. But again, I think Valentina is just going to be so pissed off about the fallout of the Tyler Santos fight that she's going to have an Androge-esque kind of performance. And it's just going to be one of those nights where nobody's going to be able to beat her. That's just how I see it. But at Blancheville win, she's getting a title shot, 100%.

And she would deserve it. I wouldn't have said the same if she beat Santos, but if she beats Androge, yep, she's getting a title shot. Tristan, what's up? Mike, can you hear me? Yep. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I also wanted to talk about that as well,

the main event between Aaron Blanchfield and Jessica and Dros. My prediction to me, this thing could go either way, pretty much. I think about this, I was thinking about this fight so much, and I'm like, well, Blanchield grappling has been absolutely phenomenal, especially when she grappled Miranda Maverick. Miranda Maverick is strong, and that fight aged well because Miranda Maverick's on a run right now, So she was able to chain wrestle and just pretty much dominate that fight.

But then I have pause about Aaron Blanchel because of the JJ Aldridge, where she was getting pieced up in that first round. I was getting really worried. I was like, this is not good. So what Jessica and Draught, Jessica is going to draw, to obviously it's just such a much greater fighter than JJ Aldrich. And she's improved, especially coming off to Valentina when she got dominated with the grappling as well.

So she's going to be very aware of what's going on. So this thing can go either way. If she stops Aaron Blent's stakedown, I can't see Aaron Blenthal winning this fight. You know, because her strike is not great. It's good. It's decent. But it's not, I mean, pretty much,

oh, my God, I'm having a break-fall here. Jessica and Judge will just pretty much kind of piece her up because that's how phenomenal her striking is. But then on the other hand, with Jessica and Josh, that Valentina and Chattchenko was fresh on my mind. And, you know, she got destroyed in that fight. And we'll see if Aaron Blancher could do the same thing. I have to think Aaron Blancher and her team

walked that Valentin and Svchenko fight. And then because the way how Blancho works is she goes by tendency. So if she sees certain tendencies that Jessica and Judge does, that's what she just jumps on it and just goes to town on you. So again, my prediction is this is going either way. From a strategic standpoint, how do you see it? Thanks, Mike. So I'm with you with the JJ Aldrich fight, and it's mostly because a lot of the strikes and a lot of the success that JJ was having in that fight was because JJ was grappling very well defensively. and Aaron was leaving herself open when she was trying to get inside it and make those moves and she was getting clipped.

I would have to assume that Aaron has made those adjustments since. And but who knows? This is, this is Jessica freaking Androge. And if she makes a mistake, especially early, it could be a lot. It could be a rough one. I do feel like in, I know Jessica Androge is someone who kind of gets better to as the fight goes on. Like she doesn't just gas out. She, we saw it in the second Rose Nomi Unis fight.

Like she gets, she can get cooking. But it's different when you're fighting somebody like Rose, who's just going to stand there and mostly strike with you, as opposed to someone who's just going to relentlessly try to take you down. So I could see a world where Androge finishes Aaron Blanchfield in the first round. I can see that world. But I could also see a world where Blanchfield can extend this, thing out and and win the decision.

It's very possible. It's very possible. A lot of people when they saw this match were like, oh, poor Aaron Blanchfield. No, I actually think stylistic, she matches up pretty well. I think she does. But you got to be, you got to be pretty mistake-free against Jess Conradge, especially in like the first 10 minutes of the fight. Because eventually Blanchefield's got to get going.

She's been training for a fight for a while. And Andrade fought Lauren Murphy, and it wasn't very competitive. But she dished out a lot of punishment in that fight. So that has to take something from you. And then for the last few weeks, Aaron's been preparing for a five-round fight. So it's going to be interesting. It's going to be interesting. But I think the longer goes, the more it favors Blanchfield.

And if we're going to get a finish in this fight in the first couple of rounds, it's probably going to be from just Goddraj. So I haven't landed on an official pick yet. because I keep looking at it. The JJ Alders fight is one that I've gone back and watched and kind of studied a little bit. But you have to think at this point, Blanchefield's kind of clean that thing up.

I'm sure her team has helped her clean that up. Over the last couple of fights, we didn't really need to see too much in the Molly McCann fight because she just kind of ran her over. But that's going to be something. The first five minutes of this fight are going to be, like, edge of your seat kind of stuff, at least in my eyes. And then it's just going to be,

Androge is always dangerous, but I think it's going to become a little more chess matchy. And if we get into the championship rounds, I think Blanchfield can steal it. So it's going to be an interesting fight. And this could shake up the whole damn division if Aaron Blanchfield wins this fight. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice?

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Hanging in there, as they would like to say, but swinging, swinging like Tarzan. So I'm going, so since this is a free-for-all Friday, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on MMA, but, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that we might have on our hands a hardcore delight. And to say that this is coming from a women's flyweight division, which hasn't been very exciting. other than, you know, I love watching Valentina Ashafchenko fight. I think she's my fighter crush. But to say that there is an exciting fight coming up, you know, in the Women's Flyweight Division is amazing.

And no, that is not Jessica Anraj versus Erin Blanchfield, a.K., if you're listening to me, you like this. Tatyana Suarez beats Montana-Dalrosa. And imagine if Aaron Blanchfield beats Jessica And Raj. Of course, Erin Blanchefield would fight Valentina Shufchenko next, but can you imagine Aaron Blanchefield versus Tatyano Suarez? That is an amazing matchup. I would watch the hell out of it.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention that. If possible, AK, we would like to hear from you as well. It's free for all, isn't it, Mike? So maybe we can hear from him as well. And moving on, I just wanted to share something about, So I am a research student in Cardiff University. And when I'm not in the university, you know, doing experiments, working in the lab, I either, you know, listen to your podcast or I watch MMA, the other matches.

Or I also have a part-time job in this organization called Residence Life, where we host a lot of events and basically social engagement activities, for students living in university residences. And as a part of that, I am running a well-being Wednesday book club where we basically talk about mental health issues and how to overcome them and just, you know, to spread some positivity. And I don't know if you can see a tweet that I just shared. So there is this positive affirmation wall

and where I just write a few things on a post-it and I stick it on the wall. So I would be extremely grateful, you know, If you could share a positive affirmation. I mean, I actually thought it would be nice if you could just write something on a piece of paper and send a, I mean, tweet a photo of it. I'll print it and I'll stick it on the wall over there. But I think that'd be too much asking a few. But if you can just share a positive affirmation, I mean, anyone really, anyone listening, anyone on this program, if they can share a positive affirmation in their call, it would be great. And thank you so much for hearing me out.

It's been, I really enjoy sharing my views on this program. I'm listening to everyone's views. Thank you. Yes, that is it from me. Thank you, honey. And I'm always up for some positive stuff. Let me just, let me see if I can find this tweet. Positive affirmations on a piece of paper and share the photo with me.

I'll print it and put it up on the wall on me. It's for a book club running. appreciate your support. Take what you need, give what you can. Let me think about it. Let me think about it. I'll send you something. Give me a day and I'll send you something that you can put on the wall. You have my word. And I think AK would agree with what you, what else you had to say? We had bull in line, but then he left. So if he comes back, he could be next. QP. Prime. Hello. QP. Prime. All right.

let's go to Abswalia what's up abzwalia hi man how are you I'm good I've got

two questions asked my first question is how well does legging Leanne star this match up against Marko KSR and

how do you see the fight between Gilbert Burns and Massadal playing up thanks for having a heck of the morning Leachin Kass is interesting it's an interesting fight I mean, if they stand, you got to go leech.

And on the ground, leach is solid, but I think Kies is better, especially with this offensive grappling. Not that Leach is a slouch, but Kiesa is clearly better. So it's going to be one of those fights where if Leach can keep it on the feet, I'm not saying Kiesa can't strike because he can. But he'd be better served on the ground. And Kiesa, if he's on, he's so tough to deal with. Just asked Neil Magni. I mean, he put it, he put a pace on Neil Magni, a guy that's really hard to do that, too. And he did it for 25 minutes.

So it's an interesting fight. I love the matchup. I'm clearly, I'm definitely intrigued by it. My pick will probably be Kyessa by decision, but that fight could go either way. Burns Mazadol is interesting. I want to see what the betting lines are on that flight right now, because that last look, and I'll bet on MMA, but if I were to bet on MMA, I actually would look at Mazzadol plus minus 450 plus 360 for Mazadol.

I honestly think this fight is closer. I think it's closer. I don't think Mazadol's, I don't think Mazadol's, I don't think Mazadol gets enough respect for his actual grappling. Now, his defensive wrestling isn't great, as we've seen in some of his previous. fights. We saw it in the Colby fight. We saw it in the first Usman fight. His defense, and he's admitted this himself, his defensive wrestling in terms of

defending shots and takedowns. He's a pretty good defensive grappler, but eventually you can work, outwork him and get him to the ground. What Mazadol does pretty well is his actual on-the-mat grappling. It's pretty solid. And I don't think Burns is going to take him down and just kind of sit on top of him, I think Burns is going to be advantageous on the ground and try to get submissions

and try to play a jiu-jitsu game more so than a wrestling game. And Mazadol doesn't get enough credit for how good he is with his actual jiu-jitsu and his grappling. Not as good as Burns, clearly, but he's very solid. And if this fight stays on the feet,

Burns can strike, but Mazadol is better. So I do think this is an, interesting matchup. And I feel like Mazadol has, I mean, just everything to gain here and, but also a ton to lose. Like, he's got a lot riding on this fight. He has to deliver.

He has to deliver. And there's a lot for Burns, too. If he wants to get back to a title fight, he's got to beat Mazadol. And I do feel like if Leon Edwards wins, on March 18th, if he beats Kamar Uso again, There is a real world where the winner of this fight gets a title shot. And it sucks for Balaamah, Muhammad. I get it.

But you best believe him Mazadol wins and Leon wins. Mazda is getting the title shot. Whether you like it or not, that's just the way the UFC does things. And that pay-per-view is going to do better than any other matchup for Leon unless he fights Hamzaa Chimaef, which doesn't seem like that's going to happen. So, yeah, my pick is probably Burns. but if you're giving me plus 400 on Mazadol, be worth a sprinkle,

honestly, because I think this fight's closer. I would say burns maybe like a minus 300, but minus 450 just seems awful wide to me. But off the review a little bit more before we go into it. But I do think this fight's closer than minus 450 plus 360. Cole, what's up? Good morning, Mike. Kind of one not.

related to MMA really. What are your top, if you had to pick like top three favorite states in the United States, maybe once you visited, maybe once you grew up in, I'll hang up and listen, thanks. Top three states. I mean, obviously Massachusetts, depending on when. Any time in Massachusetts between like April to October, I love. love Massachusetts. I love the fall. Like September, half of October is the best. Like, that's just the best. I could deal without the winters, although they haven't gotten a ton of snow this season.

I really like South Carolina. It's from living now. It's like 80 degrees out today. Can't beat that in February. I like Florida. Not a place I would live, but a place I like to visit. My parents live in Florida. So I enjoy going to visit them. New York has kind of grown on me. Again, not a place that I would live, but a place you can walk around. There's stuff everywhere.

I like Texas. I've been to Texas a bunch. I have family in Dallas. Good times. I've been to Austin, cool place. Been to Houston, cool place. San Antonio. Texas is cool.

Oddly enough, I haven't traveled that far west. Like I'd love to see the rest of the damn country. I think the furthest west I've ever traveled is South Dakota. And I had to cover a bare knuckle card out there before I came to MMA fighting. It was the Ken Shamrock put on event that I went out and covered, which is super interesting. And good and in for bad.

But yeah, those are the ones. I mean, obviously I've been New Hampshire and Maine and Connecticut. and all those, but those are the ones that, you know, I would kind of hurry back to go see, go visit again, depending on what city and what part of the state. But interesting question. We'll go to Lone Wolf, then we'll go to JSTAT, then we'll go to Chase.

Hi, Lone Wolf. Yep, got you. So I want to talk about the card that is going to happen in next month, where John Jones is fighting with Saryl Kahn. I think it's very exciting as John John is like coming back more than after three years. And also on this card, Rakhmanov and a dude named Neil is fighting. And I want to ask you, my first question is that what do you think about will John Jones win or lose against Sarel Gahn?

as also Saral Gan is a strong dude and he's a heavy weight, professional heavy weight. He's been fighting in this division longer than John Jones. It's John Jones, I think John Jones, I don't know much about John Jones because I started watching MMA like for past two years.

I don't know much about John Jones, but I know that he's a good and he he's got a very well record in the MMA like his defense's titled for 14 or 15 times And what do you think will he win or lose? And second, my question is that about Rakhmanov. He literally finished 16 guys in his MMA record.

And it's 16-0. So he's a threat in the Velterweight division. And what do you think about his title shot? Till when he can get the title shot in Welterweight division. Like at the end of this year, or do you think in next year? year. What do you think about it? And my third question is about Bornekel. Boer Nickel is a new, is a new, a new player in the UFC game. He said he's a threat for Israel Adesania and Alex Frida. He can, he can give them a hard time. What do you think about Bornekel? Do you think

he can give them a hard time and win the title against both, both these guys, but he's new, but he's saying he can he can pull it off what do you think about it michael sturties thank you thank you mike thanks man so i mean look i appreciate bow nichols confidence and if they booked bo nickle against either of those two guys right now kind of sight unseen i don't know if i would pick them but they are it's they're both intriguing they're both intriguing and that says something about the ceiling for this guy so i mean like i said I dig the confidence and there are people out there who would pick Bo Nickel to be both of those guys right now, despite only being three and no. I don't know if I would necessarily go that far because I think experience does matter.

And it's different when you're fighting, let me just go through Bose pro record. It's different when nobody's punching you in the face when you're fighting the Donovan Beards and the Zach Borregos and the John Nolan's and the Billy Goods and the David Conleys of the world. It's a whole different ball game when UFC caliber fighters are punching you in the face. Jamie Pickett, Alex Pereira hits like a freaking truck, Israel out of Sonia.

We haven't, I just have, I have questions. I have questions. And like I said, I respect this confidence. And there is a world that three wins from now, we're going to be having a much different conversation.

There is a chance that that's a conversation we're going to have. But I just need to see more before I can confidently pick a three-and-o guy as talented as he is in the combat landscape to beat the two dudes in the UFC right now. So ceiling high, we'll see what he does. Will Rachmanov fight for the title this year?

No, he will not. And it's through no fault of his own. He's just not going to get the fights, unfortunately. I think he's going to I think he's going to beat the hell out of Jeff Diel he's going to do to Jeff Dio what he's pretty much done to everybody else and then you have to throw him in there with somebody

that is going to be willing to give him a shot that's inside the top 10 and I don't see a lot of these guys at 170 that are going to be lining up to fight that guy so I think it's just going to be a long road for him I think his I think hardcore fans understand how good this man is

I just well Jeff Neal's number seven that's wow I didn't think he was that high but I mean he's look at the top five in the UFC right now it's Usman Covington Hamzat Balamoh Mahamin Gilbert Burns

Then there's Wonderboy If he beats Jeff Neal he's gonna be number seven So he's gonna have to fight one of those five guys and I just don't know if anyone's got to be overly thrilled to fight him. It's got to be tough. Plus, I don't think he comes across as like a big star. Hamzad at least, and again, I don't blame Rachmana for this, but it'd be something that he might want to get rolling with.

Like, we've seen Pieter Jan. He's starting to speak English a little bit better. Hamza can speak English. Him adding that to the resume, so to speak, so to speak will help get him over a little bit more. But yeah, I just think it's going to be a long road, especially if Leon wins. Because there's just too many guys right now.

Like what's happening with Hamza? What's happening with Colby? We have no idea. Where does Belal fit in this? What if Mazadol beats Burns? Probably getting a title shot. Like there's just too many hurdles for him to get over. I will say this.

If Shafka-Rabonovat, Leon Edwards, right now, Like, if that was the title fight, I would pick Shafkat Rokhmadov without hesitation. And there's no disrespect to Leon Edwards, but I would pick, I would pick Rokmodov to beat him. I would pick him to beat a lot of these guys. I'd pick him to be Balaal. I'd pick him to beat Burns. Burns would be a tough fight, but I think I would still pick Rok Madoff. Colby's interesting.

I might lean Rok-Modoff in that one, and Ousman is stylistically interesting, too. but I just don't know if he's going to get any of these fights after the Jeff Neal fight. I just don't know if it happens. And then Jones gone. I mean, we talked about this yesterday. I don't know. Like, I don't know. I don't know how this fights with it.

If this is a, again, if this is a, if John Jones can't get Zero gone to the ground, I think it's going to be a horrible night for him. But if John has learned how to wrestle in space and, shoot takedowns, then he's going to be very successful in this fight. So I just don't know. We haven't seen the guy in three years. All we've seen his photos and some videos of him hitting pads and dancing with Walt Harris.

Like, it's just, I just have so many questions. It's just one of those fights are just going to have to see how it plays out. But just going by what we've seen from John over the last several years and throughout his career, John's a tank on top, man. But it's just a matter of how he's going to get Cyril gone to the ground. Because typically John Jones is a guy who delivers great trips in the clinch, battles against the fence. And those are very dangerous spots to be in when you're fighting a guy like Cyril gone. So I don't know.

I don't know. Jay Statt, what's up? You too. What's up? Hello. Hello? Yep, I got you. Okay, what is next for Umar and Amaga Madov?

I really feel like he is a future champion of the Bannonweight Division. And also, who do you have winning the Johnny Walker and Anthony Smith fight? And how does that fight play out in your mind? Thank you. That's an interesting fight. Johnny, this could be a big year for Johnny Walker. It could be a very good year for Johnny Walker. Anthony is a tough out, though, man.

I know he doesn't get enough credit, but he's a tough out, especially in a five-round fight. Man, that's tough. Honestly, it's a tough fight. I would, like, maybe slightly favor Johnny Walker right now, but not by much. Not by much.

It's a good fight. It's a pretty evenly matched one. Johnny's probably the more athletic guy, but Anthony's been through the fire so many times. He's fought better guys. He's beaten better guys. Johnny's looked good, but I think he's had some pretty favorable matchups,

if we're being honest. So I think I would slightly lean Johnny Walker, but I'm not totally confident about that. What's next for Umar and Amaga Madov? I have no idea, because just like we were talking about Shafkaa Rakhbanoff, I don't know who's going to want to fight this guy.

So I would, I would guess just looking at, what things currently look like, how I would do it, because I am so high on him, and I wanted to see Umar fight Marab anyways, maybe the loser of Marab and Peyotry Jan would be a nice fight.

I think he's going to fight before that. I don't think he's going to have to fight a guy who's not ranked first. Because again, like Gutierrez is booked, Janice is booked Munoz's book Sonny Dong's booked Dominic Cruz is there but I don't think

Dominic takes that fight and why the hell would he Fon's booked Sanhagen's book Cheetos booked Marob Yon booked Sean O'Malley ain't gonna take that fight

right now so yeah he's probably gonna have to fight backwards just to stay busy but I would I mean honestly I would give him the Jan Mara Walsh really a loser

I don't think that's a bridge too far at all but he's gonna have a tough time getting fights That's for sure. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time.

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King Cat, hello. Hey, Mike. I hope you're doing well. So there's been a lot of talk about what's next for Aaron Blanchfield if she wins, but what's next for on drudge if she wins or loses. So we know that she's gunning for the weightly matchup, and it's a different weight class.

We know that Dana loves her. He's always praising her after her fights, and, you know, she's doing this short notice and putting on an exciting fight. So sorry, I'm out of breath. I was trying to run to my phone. So if she loses, you know, does she just have one more fight in Strawway and get the title shot because, you know, it could be like, well, she's, we've noticed, and, you know, she fought recently.

And if she wins, like, do we think she automatically gets the Whaley fight? Thanks. Automatically, no. I wouldn't hate if they did that. I honestly think she's going to fight Rosnamet Yunus next. Whether it's at 15 or 25. I just think that's the fight to make. Even if she loses to Aaron Blancheville on Short Notice, I would still make that fight.

Because the winner gets, winner get a title shot, winner gets back in there with Zhang. Rose already beat Zhang twice. Like it would, and we live in a world where it wouldn't be shocking if Rose just got a title shot against Zhang. But we got Amanda Lamosh there. I wouldn't mind seeing Jean-Wealy Amanda Lamos do the damn thing. I think Amanda's earned her spot. And then let Jessica and Josh a Rose fight. They could fight at any weight.

They could fight 15 or 25. Rose wants to test out 25 and see what it's like, because she's talked about it. She wants to put on some muscle before she comes back. Teasing a move, perhaps. I mean, they can just do it at 25, and it will still have the same stakes of 15. So Rose is the fight to me. They're 1-1. I would like to see that fight.

But I don't know what they're going to do at 115. But, I mean, I found Drog just kills Aaron Blanchfee. tomorrow and she demands it and Zhang Wei Lee is in and both can come back because I mean this is two fights in a month for Jessica and Drudge that calendars and timelines are going to be important but Rose is the fight I would make

either way but I think all those options are on the table Mike yep what's up for what's up for on snagreb heck of a morning I just want to ask real quick out of the many things that's wrong with the UFC what are the top three things that you would prioritize and change, whether that be weight cutting, how fighters are promoted, or just anything that's wrong with the UFC.

That's it. Well, I think fighter pay is the first on everybody's mind. But again, I don't fully blame the UFC for that because the fighters themselves allowed this to happen and this is what, this is the world they live in now. You know, they had, they had chances to come together and they didn't do it. When the company was sold, when they signed the ESPN deal, other avenues with sponsorships, many opportunities to come together and make a change, and they didn't do it. So as much as I mean, people love the shit on the UFC for fighter pay and these fighters deserve more money.

You can't fully blame them. But I would like to see them get a bigger piece of the pie for sure. That's got to be number one. To the, like, there's just, look, I, I, I. I don't want to be that dude who just sits there and whines about stuff, but there's just too many cards. There's just too many cards. And I understand why, because they have this ESPN deal and ESPN is paying them,

I mean just so much money to put these cards on. But there's just too many cards. Like, it's just too many. And because there's too many, they get bogged down. And like this card tomorrow is not good. Like the main event's good, but the rest of the card is just, it's okay at best. And that might be generous. Let's pull this up.

So we got the main events good. Zach Pauga, Jordan Wright is the co-main events. Josh Parish and Jamal Pogues is the featured bout. William Knight, and I love me some Willie Knight. Love that guy. Super personality. Fighting Marchine Pratchie. Jim Miller, Alexander Hernandez is interesting.

Nazim Satikov versus Evan Elder, Evan Elder, a former BTL guest. Lena Landsberg, Myra Boino Silva, two ranked fighters, which, by the way, they have to be ranked. Landsberg especially, not a shot on her,

because they have nobody in this division. And there's never fights at 135 for the women. Jamal Emmer's, Kusain Ashkaboff, OSP Philippe Lins, A.J. Fletcher, Themba Garimbo. Thumbra Garimbo's got an incredible story, so I'm happy he's in the, UFC and then Juan Camillo Ronderos, Clayton Carpenter.

I mean, that's that's a UFC card on ESPN Plus. It's not great. It's not great. And I guess I'll kind of add to that. I mean, there's other things too with I'd love to know what the rules are. We're starting to learn more about, I'd love to know more about like USADA and how I probably have more questions about Usada and the relationship with the UFC.

And if they have proven through this relationship that it actually works on making fights safer, if that makes sense. Like, I'd love to know that. But the other thing I'll say, attached to too many cards, if you want to do the same amount of cards, fine.

But this one, we had so many casualties that we have 11 fights. So that's like okay. But doing fight night cards that have 15 fights is just insane. It's insane to me. Fight night cards should be like eight fights.

Eight to ten at the most. You're just asking a lot of fans and you're asking for burnout. And it's just, this is too many cards. And because there's too many cards, the lineups is just not great. Like, let me look at next week. Like next week's okay. There's some interesting storylines. The key to cry off Ryan Span is a main event.

Munez, Brennan, Allen's good fight. Augusta Sakai, Don'tel Mays, eh, Mike Mollots back, Tatiana Suarez is back, that's a big story. Jordan Levin, Victor Martina, like Haley Cowan, Elyn Perez, Jose Johnson, Garrett Armfield.

I mean, it's just, it's just there. I don't know. But there's a lot of problems. There's a lot of great, too. I mean, there is a lot of great. UFC 285 is sick. Like, UFC 285 is ridiculously good.

It's the best main card of the year. Like, by far. It's not even, like, this isn't even a debate. This is the best overall card on paper for 2020-23 for the UFC. And it's not even close. Not even close. 14 fights. They're all good.

There's something intriguing in pretty much every single fight. I mean, that's awesome. But there's just too many cards. Too many cards. Cody, I'll go to you and then Mikey, then Zeke. Cody, with him? Hey, Mike, just a couple things. I want to touch on our Hamzot.

I know he hasn't fought since September. I don't know if he's battling some inside injury or whatever it may be. But, you know, he's a guy that's, you know, he's face of the UFC as far as, you know, as far as the eye. I mean, he's one of the top guys, you know what I mean? I'm thinking, why isn't he fighting more often? what's next for him it's been what five months

he just ran through Kevin Holland his only test has been Burns who and let's be honest if his ego is not getting the better of him there he probably runs through burns too I just feel like he should be fighting more often and my other thing was with the rankings you mentioned

guys like Shafcott not being able to get top five guys or you know people turning down fights when is the UFC going to start punishing guys as far as the rankings go maybe they lose a spot if they're turning down a guy like Shavcock. It's happened with Islam, Deporeye, no, Shavkat, Hamzat.

I think it's happened with Andre Munez, people not fighting him. When's the UFC going to start saying, hey, either fight this guy or you're going to lose a spot in the rankings? And then my last thing was the Volcanovsky Islam fight. Why are judges, why does somebody have to win the round? Why aren't judges more either 10-10 or 9-9, whatever may be, call the round even two two was close three was close

um I know probably answer my own question here but it's probably just because the fans want a winner the UFC wants a winner they want to pick somebody to win the round but um I feel like those rounds are so close to hey let's just call it even

go on to the next one um that's all I got thanks uh thanks thanks man yeah I don't think they're I mean there's examples of people just getting pulled out of the rankings mean, Leon Edwards is probably the best example. They try to bash him up with Hamzot.

He was like, nah, and they just pulled them out of the rankings. And then he was like, all right, I'll fight him. And then they put him right back on the rankings. Like, the rankings are stupid. Like, they're all stupid. They don't mean anything. And I don't think, like, if a fighter gets pulled out of the rankings, like, I don't think it matters. Like, I really don't.

It means nothing. And the reason that it means nothing is, perfect example. If Mazadol beats Gilbert Burns and Leon Edwards beats Kamara Usman, what's Mazdaal right now? 11? Mazdao's 11? He's going to get a title shot. Well, Blah Mohamed who's on a great winning streak is just going to get passed over. It's just crazy.

It's just crazy. So I don't, the rankings don't mean much. It's just a number. makes things look more interesting and competitive, I guess. That's why I don't think it matters. And the UFC is obligated to offer these guys three fights. They say no. They just go on to the next thing.

There's risk, reward, and everything. That's just kind of how it is and spend this way for a while. As far as Hamzaq goes, like, I don't, it's a blessing and a curse to become an active star in the sport. because Hamzat just trucked everybody, he was fighting all the time, and then he became a star, and he became ranked, and he wanted to fight for belts.

And it gets to the point where, once you get to that status and you're making new contracts, and you're making more money and all this, I would love to see a world where, you know, these guys just get in there and scrap. Like when Shafcott was supposed to fight last month against Jeff Neal and Jeff

to pull out. I would have just kept Shafcott on the card and just let him dump truck somebody. Like just get him on television to look powerful. It doesn't matter who he fights. And then if you want to do the Jeff Neal fight again on, you know, UFC 285, cool. Like, then he's active and he's on twice a year. There's just not a ton of opportunities like that. Like Kevin Holland took advantage of a lot of them, stepping in in in main events, fought five times in 2020. look great. He became a star. But once you get to that sort of echelon,

it's not as easy to get the four or five fights. It just isn't. So things just slow down. Adrian Yannas, I spoke to him. Perfect example. Dude was fighting a lot. Got into the rankings. Was looking for suitable matchups.

Couldn't get them. Not as active as he wants to be. So you fight often to be. come a star and you fight often to get in those spots. But once you get there, it's not as easy to stay active. It's just, it's not. That's just the nature of the sport and the formula that there is. And as far as judging and scoring goes, that's a whole show altogether. I hate the scoring system. It's so stupid. It just doesn't make any sense. It just doesn't make any sense. And I would love to world where there's more 10-10 rounds. But 10-9s are just not the same. Ten-nines are just not the same.

I don't know how you fix it, but there's plenty of 10-9 rounds that happened this past Saturday that were clear 10-9 rounds, and then there were 10-9 rounds that are like razor-close, and they're scored exactly the same. And it's just so stupid. It's a boxing scoring model for not boxing. And you could try with the different verbiage and, you know, this is top priority and then it goes to this. And that's why

we have the debate about the fourth round of that fight. Because it's ingrained in everybody's head that damages the top priority. Damage, damage, damage, damage. But how do you define damage? How do you define it? And I'm with Luke.

Because Luke talked about it on BTS yesterday. if you score the fourth round for Volkovsky, it's just wrong. It's just wrong because Islam won the striking before the takedown, which is incredible. And all Volk did, sure, he had the back triangle, didn't do a ton with it. He put on a couple of neck cranks that were unsuccessful. But Volk was just landing like punches over his own face. And they're annoying, but they're not damaging. Those aren't damaging strikes.

they weren't more effective than what Mokachev did on the feet before the takedown. But the fact that we're like, oh, well, damage is number one. Like even the new rule set isn't great. Because of the fourth round, now we have to look back into it and try to dig deeper and define what damage actually means. So there's so many flaws with the scoring. So many. And I don't know how to fix it.

All right, we'll take Mikey and then Zeke. Mikey, what's up? Personal rent, but first of all, yes, the rankings are kind of silly, but remember, 10, 11 years ago, the reason why the rankings were made was because people were getting sick and tired of not knowing what meant what. I remember in 2011, Jim Miller had like an eight-fight winning streak. He won at UFC 128, and Rogan stuck the microphone in his face and basically was like, so do you want a title shot and he's like no i'll just take the next fight over it's like dude you're on

eight fight winning streak but he but he wasn't ranked you know if he would but everybody every other publication was like yeah this guy's probably like a top five lightweight so i think the funny thing about all the griping about the rankings is as much as it sucks it at least gives you a marker of where someone is maybe it's not perfect but it's sure as hell better than just guessing on mma twitter or in other publications you know and as for the vocinoffi thing you just talked about like yeah man like i understand volkenoski was punching Islam, but he was in a body triangle. It was a defensive position.

He was defending himself. That doesn't necessarily appear in control. He had to punch Islam because Islam was on his back. Anyways. And the rant I actually really wanted to go to was apparently the cast of Tough 31 that McGregor and Chandler were going to coach got leaked and it's primarily lightweights and phantom weights.

And on the surface, it's fine. But I have to just to extrapolate more, I'm a little cynical about it, man. Like, a lot of those guys were already former UFC guys. I know that's supposed to be the theme, but it feels so cynical. Like, okay, great, you're just taking

guys and shoving them onto the real out instead of actually bringing anybody in, like, new. Or like, oh, you know, God forbid, introducing a new weight class. Been clamoring for women's animal weight. And you have coming back and probably everyone's going to watch that show and you have a chance.

You can't do women, but you're like, nah, let's just retread it with a bunch of lightweights and Bannon weights. You know, the two weight classes that are so damn deep, you probably don't need any more in them. You know what I mean? Anyways, that's my rant for now. Have a good weekend. You guys, enjoy the fights tomorrow. So I saw these reports.

I know nothing about it. So these could be right. This could wrong. I have no idea. I have no idea. But what's being reported for Bannumweights. Let me pull this up. Mani Luzoya.

Apparently he's going to serve as a substitute. Timor Valleiv. Wow, that's an interesting one. Mando Gutierrez, who lost to Raul Roses Jr. On the contender series. Carlos Vera, Trevor Wells. Rico DeCili. Got some New England representation on here.

RICO's on there. Hunter Azure. Cody Gibson, Chris Mutino, Anthony Bert. Wow, Anthony Burchack, that's an interesting one. And then the lightweight ones. Let's see. Loic, Reds, Radzeboff, Dakota Bush. There you go, AK.

There you go. Nicknames galore. Aaron McKenzie. Jason Knight. Wow. Wow. Austin Hubbard. Mitch Ramirez, Lucas Clay.

Kenny Cross. I like the Kenny Cross one. I think he's been UFC ready for a while. But again, I don't know what's fact and what isn't. These are just reports. I've seen others that said that this is not the actual lineup. But we'll see. We'll see how it all plays out.

but the fact that Will Brooks, I mean, the fact that Will Brooks is on the show is a travesty. Like, come on. Like, that's, I mean, that is as easy as it gets. This guy has been,

this guy's been out winning fights on the comeback trail. He's got a great story. He's humbled up. He's willing to go back on the ultimate, like he's willing to go on the ultimate fighter to prove himself. Like, that dude, that was a no-brainer. That's a no-brainer.

And there's a lot of, I mean, some of these names are interesting, but there's, I don't know. If that's the lineup, I don't think it's a spectacular lineup. There's a couple names on there that are intriguing, but, I mean, there are others. Like, you cut Saeed, you come Hakurman off like that, but throw him on the alternate fighter. Like, that dude deserves a shot back in the UFC. He's, that guy's super legit.

I don't know. But Will Brooks not being there is a freaking travesty. Joe Gianetti would have been a good name to throw on there. I think you would have been, that's a great name to throw on there. But I don't know. We'll see what the actual lineup is. Maybe some of those names are on there. I have no idea.

Zeke, hello. My man, Mike. I'll be short and sweet since on the last caller and I'm moving around today. I'm not sure if the connection is great. But here we go. First thing's first name that I love to talk about, of course. one of, you know, the UFC's, I don't know if he's a Hall of Famer, but in my eyes, definitely a Hall of Famer.

Eddie Alvarez got some fight news coming up. It looks like maybe Cole, not core, could be the PFL, could be bare knuckle, could be boxing. What do you think, you know, Eddie's cooking up over there? And then question for you, if I give you like a little fantasy draft, you know, some of the things that MMA fighting likes to do of the next two cards, can you even put together a main card for me? Like, I can give you four fights.

I can be like, all right, yeah, you could stick that together. on a main card, maybe a pay-per-view or fight night. But try and find a fifth fight, and I wish you the best of luck. My man, Mike, have a heck of a weekend. Thanks, man. Let's see here. Well, I think you're going to find most of them coming off of next week's card. I think the main event for this week's card would be the main event for the total card.

Cryloff Spam co-main event. Munez, Brennan, Allen. Ellen, yep, there's three. I would do Jamila, Alexander Hernandez, and I would do Tatiana Suarez, Montana de La Rosa. That's not a bad main card right there. That's a pretty solid main card. It's a pretty solid main card right there.

Yeah, I like that main card. That's, I mean, if that's the main card we're getting tomorrow, I would be a lot more positive about it, but it's not. It's not what we're getting. And next week's card is not great either. It's better. there's more intriguing storylines to it.

Nothing is more intriguing right now over the next two weeks. And this includes tomorrow's main event, if we're being honest. Then Tatiana Suarez coming back. I mean, I'm just so curious. She hasn't fought since June 8th, 2019 when she beat Nina Nunez.

And probably, that win probably would have got her a title shot. but she's i mean she was a wrecking ball for she left and she got injured in the nunez fight fight fight was much more competitive than people expected she's booked to fight raxan modafari then she had the knee injury she's gone through so much over the last four years i just don't think there's anything more intriguing in my eyes than her comeback over the these next couple of cards i mean once we get to a 285 then we have lots there but if swores just kind of picks up where she left off

very curious to see where she goes and who she ends up fighting will it be a 15 or 25 seems like she wants her back to 15 but Montana's a tough out she's going to scrap Montana's had a pretty pretty relentless strength of schedule throughout her UFC career She's like, she's that fighter that just does not give a shit who she fights. Her UFC run. Maddie Kessam, yeah. Andrea Lee, Mara Borella, Viviani Arrugio, Mara Buena Silva, Ariani Lipski, Macy Barber, Tatiana Suarez. Golly.

And she was booked to fight Tyler Santos, too. She don't care. She don't care. Got to respect that. All right, we'll take one more. Unknown Ack. Hello. Hello.

Okay. All right, Daniel, take us home. Yep. Perfect. Well, top of the morning, man, heck of a morning. Happy Friday. And I just wanted to just throw a quick one at you here. I know Alex Hernandez is fighting this weekend.

I know I've come in here and talked a couple of times about retirement, you know, like Frank Yeager, Chris Gutierrez. I know last showgun fight we were talking about against E. or just thinking maybe there's a chance he can do it. Alexander Hernandez, before his last fight against Billy Q, he said, I think I only got one more fight in me. He goes down to 145 faces Billy Q, loses. And now he's coming up on short notice and I think taking on Jim Miller now back at

155. And like, I just don't know. Like, did he retire? Is he coming out of retirement? Did he say he was going to keep fighting? I guess I'm just kind of confused where Alex Hernandez stands, you know? And even if you don't think so,

just what you think a win or loss would do for him here. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, honestly, that's the first I've heard of that. Maybe I'll go back and watch his media day and see if he addressed that at all. That'd be pretty surprising. Like, I've been, I've known Alex and been interviewing Alex since before he got to the UFC.

That'd be pretty surprising. He is a pretty emotional guy, though. He's only 30. Like, it just, I believe he just turned 30. He turned 30 in October. So, I mean, athletically, he's still in his prime. He's just such an interesting story. Comes into the UFC on short notice to fight Benile Daryush,

and he knocks out Benny Daryush in 42 seconds, which is insane. then he fights Olivia Ob and Mercier tougher fight in terms of like what happened in the actual fight and I actually was really impressed

with that OAM win a lot of people weren't he wasn't at all I thought that was that that did more for him than the Daryush win in terms of how I viewed him because the Darius win

is just comes in he blitzes lands a big punch people will somewhat question it maybe it's lucky maybe it's not and then he fights OAM and just outworks them. And it was just miserable to watch OAM in that fight because Alexander Hernandez was just relentless with this grappling. And then the Soroni fight happens

and this dude's career just kind of plummeted right from there. And then he fights Francisco Trenaldo, close fight. A lot of people thought Trinando won that fight. Fights Dure Dover, gets finished in the second round, knocks out Chris Gritzmacher, loses a really, really fun fight to Tiago Moises, one that Hernandez still to this day thinks he won. I don't agree with him. But it's just, it's one of those fights that I look at.

Not for new fans to watch, but for fans who have been watching for a while who are looking for more of like a technical breakdown of striking, the Tiago Moises fight is a really good example of just defensive savvy and actually landing and just landing shots. and not getting hit, even though it looks real close. That's what the Tiago Moises fight was like. Knox out Mike Breeden. Then he gets submitted by Hina Tommoyano. After he looked pretty solid in that first round.

He looked really good against Billy Q in that first round. I don't know, man. Like, he's in a tough spot if he loses this, but him stepping in on short notice probably gets him another fight. To me, it's always been mental with him. It's always been a mental thing. And he's pretty strong mentally. Like since he's gone to Factory X, I feel like a lot of that mentality has changed.

I feel like he's improved. I feel like it's something that was on his radar that he knew he needed to improve. But, I mean, that Seroni loss is just one of those fights that it's just so hard to come back from. You know what I mean? Like, I couldn't, like, it's, it had to have been, I mean, literally, to this. this day. I remember I interviewed Alexander Hernandez for my MMA news

in 2019 like three days after that lost Donald Seroni. And I remember that interview very well because I was living on Cape Cod at the time and I was driving back to the Berkshires so I could see

my family and then Hernandez's team hits me up and says he'll talk now. And this is while I'm driving my car back to the Berkshires. So I did that interview, no video. I did that interview in a Burger King, pulled over to a Burger King that had Wi-Fi, and we hopped on Skype and we did an interview. And to this day, to this day, people are still commenting on that interview from 2019

shitting on him because of what he said at the press conference and talking trash. and Soroni just beats the breaks off of him and teaches him that sort of vet lesson and I just don't know if he's ever recovered from that and how like and I'll blame like that's that's got to be so difficult because if he beats Seroni that night after talking all that noise

and then he goes out there beat Seroni like that's a huge moment for him his career looks so much different if he wins that fight but Saroni showed up and beat his ass and he says he's gotten over it. I just don't know if he has. And I don't know a lot of people who would.

So I don't blame him for that. But he's just had such an interesting run because he comes in, knocks O'Darouche, beats OAM, who is the top guy. He's ranked like probably in the top 10 going into the Saroni fight. He never really had, like he's never really had the chance to develop. had a bunch what was he? He was nine and one when he got into the UFC.

Had some fights in LFA. A lot of RFA, LFA, I think he had two fights outside of the region. Had RFA LFA, LFA, right to the UFC, right to Benny Darius. It gets a 42-second knockout.

So if we think of different forks in the road for Hernandez, there's two that come to mind. One is the Saroni fight, super hard to come back from, but I think maybe a more pivotal road for the entirety of Hernandez's careers. What if he went in there with Darius and they have a scrap and he loses like a 30, 27 decision

in that fight? But fights well. It doesn't get the doors blown off him, but goes in there and just loses a fight. What would his career look like? Because he ain't fighting OAM his second fight and he certainly isn't fighting Donald Seroni's third fight. They would give him a step back against like a top 50 light, like a top 30. 35, 40 lightweight.

And he would develop. But he never really got the chance to. He got thrown right into the wolves, right into the fire, right off the bat. And he's had to basically, since his entire UFC run, be a top 10 to 15 guy. It's just so interesting. His career trajectory and what could have been for this guy. But now he gets a shot against Jim Miller. And he's 5 in the UFC.

30 years of age. He's made a lot of moves, a lot of sacrifices. He beats Jim Millett's a great win. But it's going to be a tough fight. If he can't get old Jimmy out of there in the first round, it could be a rough one for him. I don't know. He's a really interesting case.

I know people don't like Hernandez. I like Alex a lot. Again, I've been interviewing and talking to him for, over five years now. And yeah, I know the Seroni thing really rubbed people the wrong way. But I think there's probably some regrets. Hindsight regrets with that whole thing. But it is what it is.

But that's an interesting fight. And we'll see if you can get just a huge win. Because his last two wins were against Chris Gritzmacher and Mike Breeden. And the Ternaldo win didn't aid. gracefully. So beating a guy like Jim Miller would be huge for him. It would be huge.

But we'll see how it all plays out tomorrow. All right, everybody. You are all the best. I appreciate it. I'm going to take a little breather from the MMA world for the next few hours. I will be back 3 p.m. Eastern for the preview show for UFC Vegas 69. Then we will have BKFC coverage for you.

for Knucklemania 3 over on the website. And then tomorrow, People's Pre-Fight show, I believe, at 3.30 p.m. Eastern because we have 4 p.m. prelim. We'll have the post-fight show, reaction to UFC Vegas 69. And then my best friend and I would back on Sunday do some matchmaking on onto the next one. And then we will literally be on to the next one with UFC Vegas 70. Bellator 291 is actually a really strong card. They're going to be Dublin. You know that crowd's going to be on fire.

and then we'll be on the road to UFC 285 and the long-awaited return of John John. So thank you all very much. Have a great rest of your Friday. We'll see you later on this afternoon for the UFC Vegas 69 preview show. Have a heck of a morning, everybody.