MMA Fighting - Laura Sanko Reacts To Ilia Topuria's Title Winning KO Over Alexander Volkanovski At UFC 298

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

UFC color commentator and ESPN analyst Laura Sanko joins MMA Fighting's Mike Heck to react to the big storylines from UFC 298 this past Saturday, Ilia Topuria's incredible knockout of Alexander Volkanovski to win the UFC featherweight title, discusses Topuria's star potential, Volkanovski's championship reign coming to an end, Robert Whittaker, Ian Machado Garry, and Merab Dvalishvili's big wins, and more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. ...to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody, UFC 298 is in the books.

What a card it was. And we have a new UFC Featherway chair. His name is Ilya Tuporia after knocking out Alexander Bolkanowski in the main event and joining me to give her thoughts on the event, the main event and much more. The great Laura Sanko joins me once again. Laura, thank you for doing this once again. How you doing? I wouldn't want to miss it for this one. Man, what a crazy weekend. I was there. And I mean, so much to talk about. But yes, I'm doing well. Thank you. Yes, great to have you here. And I was going to ask you about that because the contrast between the build to you. UFC 296 and UFC 27 to what this one was

it was so different. Like the build was so great. There were so many questions surrounding not just the main event, but a lot of other fights, the narratives, the storylines, everything. The people of Anaheim just seemed to be on another level. Like the press conference, I enjoyed it thoroughly. It just seems like a super

fun fight week. It just, it felt cleansed by it, if that makes sense. What was it like just being there? Yeah, no, it felt big. It felt very, very big for a card that I think, you know, just can easily be lost in the 96, 97, 98. You know, we're all thinking about 300 so much that I'm not going to say it got lost in the shuffle. But, yeah, being there, I can tell you that the energy was insane. And, I mean, the Georgian fans, the Spanish fans, the Mexican fans, I mean, and of course, the Brazilian and American fans that always show up, it was an amazing mixture of energy.

And I can't get over, in particular, the vibe that Ila Tuporia had all week. He had about 60 people with him. They were constantly in the hotel lobby. It was like every time he walked into the hotel, it felt like you could feel Team Tuporia. And that really, it bore out in the way that that fight played out. But, wow, what a night. What a night. Did it kind of feel reminiscent of Shot O'Malley in Boston?

Because it just, I don't know, like being there and being around there, that whole thing. fight week, it just seemed like it was Sean O'Malley's week. It just felt that way the entire time. And with Ilya, I thought heading in, like all the vibes heading into fight week were solely on him. It was just, it was his fight to lose. And then we get to the media day. We get to the press conference, an old man Volk. And it seems like he was starting to get the vibes on his side. So it was very, very interesting and intriguing. Not at that, but like that fight couldn't get any more intriguing, but somehow those two guys were able to do it. So when you say the vibe, is it reminiscent to kind of what Sean was like back in August or was this a little bit different?

Very much so. And I think anytime you have the chutzpah, the balls to go out there and really truly call your shot. And I mean, but Ilya did it in a way that we haven't seen anybody do before. You know, changing his Instagram bio, not only saying I'm going to beat the greatest father of weight of all time, but I'm going to knock him out and I'm going to knock him out. He said first round, but listen, we'll take the second. Like we're not going to critique that. You know, he knocked him out early exactly like he said he would. And I think there's just something, man,

there's just something really magical about when someone is able to put themselves out like that. That is a very, oh, man, it's a very vulnerable place to put yourself. It's one thing to say, oh, I'm going to win. I'm better than this guy everywhere. I have the skills to beat this guy. We hear that, we hear that from literally every fighter during fight week. What Ilya Toporia was expressing was different. And it was said differently.

The energy behind it was different. But still, you are putting yourself out there saying these things, stating these things, having a documentary crew follow you around, changing your Instagram bio. And then to go out there and deliver on those promises, that's what makes magic and that's what makes stars. Yeah. The fight was as interesting as I thought it was going to be for as long as it lasted. because round one to me was, it was like three rounds in one where Volk came out looking all Volky and then Tuporia started to turn the tide with the calf kicks and just the pressure.

And then just when you think he's about to take all the momentum, Volk sees something and ends up stealing momentum back. And all three judges, I, along with a lot of other people, thought Volk squeaked out the first round. And then round two looked like Volk was starting to pull away a little bit. Like he was having more success. It seemed like he was finding reeds, but then there was a part of me that saw Topori just creep in a little bit closer. He's coming a little bit closer with those big shots. And then boom, the fight is over just like that. As someone who breaks these fights down, how fascinating was that for you just to watch it all play out, the swings of momentum, the technique, everything about it from both guys before the knockout?

It was, I mean, there's so much to dissect, you know, in what happened there. I think the jab of Okinovsky was an incredibly useful weapon, as it always is. You could really tell that Ilya was struggling a little bit with the speed of it and the angle from which it was coming. Some of those jabs were really kind of taking him by surprise. And then, like you say, the calf kicks of I was one of the people that thought the calf kicks of Volcanovsky would be a huge tool for him coming into this fight because we've seen Ilya struggle with them. But Ili has very good calf kicks of his own. And that was certainly an effective weapon there. but one of the things I think that has always stuck out about Ily Tuporia and will continue to make him a very difficult puzzle moving forward is the way that he's able to put together long, effective combinations in a very traditional boxing sense.

And I shouldn't even say overly traditional because he blends it into MMA seamlessly. He's not a boxing guy that's plopped into MMA at all. But he takes the fundamentals of boxing that sometimes get lost in MMA striking. and puts them back in place. And to put together longer effective combinations that mix going to the body with going to the head, along with that very smart pressure style that he has where he constantly is just, like you said, inching guys, he doesn't get greedy with it. He doesn't get greedy with the range.

Ever so slowly, he will inch guys back, back, back. And then he has this like sixth sense about when he can go and change up the rhythm and the speed at which he's attacking and put together a five-shot combination. And that's exactly what we saw happen. I mean, Alexander Volcanovsky is one of the most intelligent fighters that you will find. He knew that coming in, that he could not get backed up against the fence. He knew that Iliot-Tupori had excellent combination work. And yet, and yet, and that's what makes it so impressive for him to, for Ilyar Toporio

to be able to suck Alexander Volkinovsky into a game that he knew ahead of time he could not get sucked into. That to me was probably the most impressive thing about that performance. It was a brutal knockout. And if that one, if that is not the knockout of the year at the end of the year, then we're going to have a crazy year because that was just nasty and the stakes and everything attached to it. The pressure he put on himself with all the confidence and all the things he was saying in the IG bio. Just incredible. To do it to a guy like Volcanowski at 145 pounds, absolutely ridiculous. And I know when you're doing those, you're right around the arena floor.

Sometimes you're in the back. How close were you in the actual arena as that fight was happening? I was not. I was, I'm trying to think if I was not in an interview, thank goodness. Because sometimes the way that the interviews stack up, I have to interview someone because that's when they're there. Wall of fights going on. I absolutely hate doing that because part of me is like, pay attention to the interview, but I can see a television out of the corner of my life.

Sometimes it's fun because the fighter even will. like quit paying attention to me. I'm like, good, because I don't even really want to be talking to me right now. I want to watch this fight. But no, I got to, I got to watch that one unfold. I was in the back. And the way that I was situated, I was kind of underneath in like a little area underneath where the rafters would have been.

That place felt like it was going to crumble because so many people were just going to absolutely, absolutely crazy. I think, you know, I'm heartbroken for Alexander Volkanowski, but I am simultaneously overjoyed for Ilya. And it's just such a mix of emotions. And yeah, everybody went crazy backstage too. How big of a star do you think he can be?

I mean, he's got some big freaking names that are collabing with him on IG. Dana White, soon as he got to the press conference, he's like, yeah, we're going to Spain. We're definitely going to Spain with this guy. How big can he be globally with the style?

He's only 27, so he's only going to get better. How big of a star can he be? sky's the limit because the only thing that holds guys back is can they talk check he's very obviously his english is excellent and he's willing to he's willing to put himself out there but it's also in a very respectful admirable way um but the other thing that holds guys back is is especially in the smaller weight classes is if they don't finish very much and he's a finishing machine so not only do you have you have to have the results for people to really get on board when you have the results and you're good on a mic, and you have the look,

and you have a sensationally hot partner who's like, I feel like the envy of every guy out there right now. I love, I can't, I don't know that they're officially married, but whatever, his partner, his wife, his girlfriend, whoever she is, I'm, well, I love her. I absolutely love her. He just checks all of the boxes to be representing a new market, to be essentially the only fighter representing that market.

He's going to bring in not just Spain, but, you know, anytime you get a Spanish-speaking champion, that brings in more than just Spain, of course, all of your, like, the sky's the limit for this guy, truly. And like you said, he's only 27. If he can continue to call his shots and make good on his promises, sky's the limit, truly. I'm going to have you wear a different hat right now, Laura Sanko, matchmaker,

because. I thought you went. No, not like literally. No. This is my podcast, Mike. No, I literally thought you were to have me take my hat. No, put a man to make a funny hat. No, metaphorically speaking, we're going to put it.

What a blonde moment from me. I'm like, what? You don't like my hat? As soon as I finished the sentence, I was like, I probably could have worded that a little bit better. Could add it something else, but so funny. Who should he fight next? Because if anybody deserves a rematch after losing their title,

it's Volkanowski. and we'll talk more about revisionist history and how people react to these things in a moment. But Volk wants to get right back in there. Personally speaking, I would like to see him take as much time off as possible. I know we're talking about Tupori being 27. Volk is not 27. He's been at this for a while.

He's been very, very active. He's also been brutally knocked out two fights in a row in a matter of four months. So if you're in the matchmaker, in Spain, from what I understand, late summer, fall would be the target if they can somehow put it together. How would you match make for Ilya? I think ideally, first I'll talk Volga. I think ideally Volk would take just the right amount of time, right?

You don't want him to sit out so long that that age becomes a bigger factor because I do think that ring rust is more of a factor the older you are and the lower the weight classes. So you don't want him to spend so much. timeout that he doesn't that he loses you know timing and speed and all those things that you really do need to keep sharp on a daily basis um but i do think man he he needs he needs he needs a bit of a break so i think that although he is 100 percent earned a rematch dominant champions always do i think that rematch will be there for him when he is uh rested up and ready to take it on so in the meantime i mean my wish fight would be to see ilia toporia fight max holloway now i'm the way i'm aware

the Max Holloway is booked. I'm just saying like, that's the fight that I really want to see at featherweight. However, the winner of Yaira Rodriguez, Brian Ortega,

I don't hate that fight either. I know that they both got beat by Volcanowski, but it's a fresh matchup. And as we always say, styles make fight. So either of those guys would be good.

But Max is, Max is probably the fight that, like, my heart was like, ooh, that one gets me. Max's a good one. Max, good.

Yeah. Gaichi Holloway has been like, it's like the fight for me. I've been waiting for, I've been calling it for like three years every time they have a fight and we have to match make for them after. All right, now's the time.

Now's the time. And it's finally happening. And it's like the worst time for it to be happening. I know that I'll be forced to be champion. I know. It's crazy. I know. And that could potentially be like a total,

like that probably is going to be a war. So how soon will Max be ready after a fight against Justin Gachie, you know, win or lose? Who knows? I expect both of those. guys to get pretty banged up in that fight. So I don't know.

That could really affect the timing. Yeah. And then you got Mousa Evlaya over here going, guys, what do I need to do? I was just going to say. I was just going to say, we need to finish some people. But listen, I think there was a time where Maravd Wellish really didn't get much credit for being a draw. And it was not that long ago.

And I think he finally broke through that this weekend. But my point is that Mopsar Evvvvvv, Iev, Yavloyiv, excuse me. is kind of in that same spot. And if he can string together some dominant wins, find those moments, those moments that people can really get really drawn into his fighting style, then I think he can get it done. But I mean,

the man's got a tremendous win streak. I love the idea if he wins, because Spain versus Mexico, in Spain would be ridiculous. Or at the sphere on Mexican Independence Day, can you imagine? That's a good one. That's a good one.

if Lov's a good one. I mean, Volk, when he's ready to come back, his next fight should be for the belt. Whether Ili's the champion or not, he should come back to a title shot, 1,000%. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What?

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there was all these questions heading in was, should Volk have taken the Islam fight? Should he have done this? Should he have done that? Should he taken the rematch so soon? And then was this too soon? And the only way Volk could have answered those questions in a positive way to make people look foolish was to go out there and win this fight. Unfortunately, he went out and got knocked out, and now the questions remain forever. And we'll never truly know the true. And Volt doesn't seem like God to be like, you know what, I shouldn't have taken that Islam fight because then my bank account will be way lighter than it is right now. Yeah, exactly.

In your heart of hearts, do you feel, one, that it was a mistake taking the Islam fight in hindsight? I know we have it right in front of us. And two, was this too quick of a turnaround in your eyes? Again, we'll never know the true answer to this, but the way you're thinking coming out of this fight. This is going to be a very, like, spiritual answer. It's probably not what you're looking for. but I truly believe that things are the way they are because that's how they were meant to be.

And of course, yeah, of course the logical mind in me would say that he should not have taken the second Islam fight. But I'm not, I'm not him. I'm not the one creating possible generational wealth for my family, right? So like, he got a new contract with that fight. And from what I understand it was a substantial difference from what. it was before. So who am I to say that, oh, you shouldn't have taken that fight? If that money is important to you and your family and the generations to come, take the fight. Like that, it was, it was, I guess this is a weird way to say it. It was the right thing to do because that's what he did.

And I know that's a very like, like I said, sort of spiritual way to look at it, but I don't think you can, I don't think it's necessarily a fruitful exercise to go back and dissect decisions like that because it is what it is and he did it and he is a wealthier man for it and the outcomes were what they were and we are where we are and he is still the greatest featherweight of all time at this point greatest featherweight of all time i've always i've felt that way for a long time i think so i guess the grates get beat right yeah greats get beat like i i still this is the this is my problem with the the the the the MMA hummingbird memory.

Like, one loss does not erase greatness. You know, like, it's not, those are not the same thing. When you talk about, by the way, greats, you're talking Josie Aldo, you're talking Max Holloway, and you're talking Alexander Volcanowski. And I'm a big believer that Alex was the greatest of those three. It's a great argument to have, though, because certainly there's a strong argument for any of those three guys. Jose Aldo probably would be second in my book.

But this doesn't just doesn't like erase that just because, you know, just because he lost. It may be the last time that we see him at the top of the mountain at featherweight. Again, it doesn't change what he did. 100%. And I completely agree with you. This is a debate we, we have all the time when it comes to like, because oftentimes when it's, oh, the consensus greatest featherweight of all time.

if you want to put him, like, he should be in this conversation, one million percent. And to me, it was, it's Aldo Volk Holloway. But, and I understand that Volk has a win over Aldo, and he has three wins over Max. So I totally get if you want to play this card and I'll never be like, you're wrong about this. To be like, if Volk had won this fight, if Volk had beat Toporia and got title defense number six, he's won behind Aldo. or if you want to play nitpicky, he's technically like three behind all though

because I count the WEC ones because that division wasn't in the UFC and although just kind of came over as the champion. So to me, I kind of add those to the list. But he goes out and beats Tporia. I think the gap is almost shut completely. And then if he fought Mobsar of somebody else, he's the guy undeniably to me.

But I'm glad you brought up the hummingbird stuff because this has been driving me insane. ever since this fight ended. This guy was never that good to begin with. He's the Australian BJ Penn. The stuff that people are sending me in my DMs talking about Alexander Volcanovsky and who he was as a fighter is ridiculous.

It drives me crazy. MMA fans in their revisionist history. His title reign was incredible. Absolutely fantastic. In fact, I thought between the Korean zombie defense, the Max Holloway defense, and the Iyer Rodriguez defense, I'm very confident saying

that those three title defenses were three of the 10 best title defenses in UFC history. Perfect game, perfect game, perfect game. It doesn't happen at 145 pounds. It just doesn't happen. So five, 10 years from now, when people come to you and they say,

Laura, tell me about the time Alexander Volcanovsky was the featherweight champion. How would you describe his title run? he was he was he was he was greatness he was the great he was the greatest of that generation and possibly of all time in my mind because here's a guy who wasn't built for this division height wise right like he he was always the shorter guy um and he had to develop he had to develop skills as he went which to me is always very impressive when people do that at the highest level like if you if you if you remember early on,

he was pushing out guys up against the fence and grappling, right? And that wasn't necessarily going to win him a ton of, a ton of fans. But over time, what was always so impressive to me about him is that even when I thought he had reached, like, oh my gosh, this is the greatest further weight of all time,

then he'd go out there and he'd have another fight. I'm like, how did he find another level to his game? That third Max Holloway fight was bananas in terms of what he went out there. there and did. That fight to me is part of the reason why he's the goat, because to do that to arguably one of the other goats is insane. And Max Holloway, you can argue, of course, that his win over Jose Aldo, Jose not at his peak, but Max Holloway still very much at or near, very, very near

his peak level, and he went out there and styled on him. It was an absolutely incredible performance. So to see a guy like Alexander Volcanovsky work and evolve, even at the top of the mountain, you know, you look at the best champions of all time. That's what they struggle with. How do I, now that I've gotten here, how do I stay here? How do I stay motivated? How do I stay hungry? How do I continue to improve? And somehow he found a way to find just enough chip in every situation where he was doing that. And to me, that that will be part of his legacy, is just his ability to outdo himself every single time that he went in there.

Every single one of his title defenses were awesome. Every one of them from the closest fight I have ever seen is Vol Callaway 2. That is the closest fight. Sean Strickland Drick's Duplice is very close to that. But that was the closest fight I've ever seen. And it is an underrated classic that does not get enough credit in the conversation. Brian Ortega fight is insane. Absolutely ridiculous.

Probably the best round. Best title fight round in UFC history. There I said it. Yeah. I don't disagree with you. So for all you people watching this right now and you're thinking, oh, this guy wasn't that good to begin with. And maybe you just became a fan a year ago.

Just do yourself a favor and go back and watch all of these title defenses. They are, every fight is ridiculous. Fight of the year contenders, like performance of the year contenders. Everything about his reign was unbelievable. So don't let a one loss throw you away, especially at 145 pounds. This is not about Volcanovsky being bad.

And yes, father time catches up with everybody. And there is, you know, you can make the point that Volk's on the back nine, but he's still freaking really good at the game. So him being in the back nine compared to most being on the back nine is totally different things. Ilya's just a guy right now. So let's not discredit what Volcanovsky's been able to do.

I had a quote that I can't remember who published it earlier in the week, but like just how one of the things that we as a sport need to do a better job of is appreciating greatness when it's right in front of us and not allowing ourselves to constantly either ask for more or for some strange reason find ways to like, once guys reach a certain height, it's almost like we have this tendency to try to pick at their greatness, whether it's Israel on a Sonia or Kamara Usman or like there are so many champions. It's like once they've been up

there a certain amount of time, I don't know if it's people just get sick of seeing them at the top, but there's this tendency to start to inject a bit of negative narrative into whatever it is that they're doing. And I just, it's just something that we have to stop doing because it steals a way it steals away the moments of like knowing that we are watching the best of the best in real time at their peak and like there's something incredibly touching and awesome about it's like we're honored to be able to to witness that level of greatness and we need to like recognize that and appreciate it and not try to tear it down and turn it into something else just because that seems to be the cool thing to do these days. Yeah. It's the Daniel Cormier, Demetius Johnson effect. You're going to miss them

when they're gone. You're going to miss them when they're gone. You're going to appreciate them more when they're out of here. Michael Bisping. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And you wish like, man, I would love to see DC a DC fight again. Of course, he's not going to come back. But like if that age of DC, if Prime DC could come back, oh my gosh, how excited would I be? If Prime Michael Bisping could come back and have a fight, like that's what I mean. We have to appreciate how excited we are. for these people while we have them. Completely agree. And Robert Whitaker is one of those guys that people had a lot of questions about

heading into this card. And no one can turn, like Bobby Knuckles is one of the nicest people you'll ever talk to. Like you have an interview with him and it's just a delightful time. And then his music hits and he walks to the Octagon and Bruce Buffer starts announcing that he's about to fight, fist fight somebody. And the look on his face is just, he's just a different dude altogether. and him and Paul Costa just beat six shades of, you know what, out of each other.

And that fight was incredible. It ruled. And Robert Whitaker is just a gangster. This guy just gets thumped up in every fight and just finds a way to keep coming forward. And Paul Costa gets thumped up and still looks like he could be on the cover of Time magazine when the fight is over. It's absolutely insane. That fight was awesome.

Robert Whitaker, y'all must have forgot how good Robert Whitaker was, people. A tremendous fight. And it exceeded my expectations, if I'm being honest with you, particularly from the Paul Alcosta side. Like, I will fully admit that sometimes I allow things like a weight miss or a weird fight with Luke Rockhold to sort of color how I receive him as a fighter. And, yeah, I think he went out there. He reminded me, remind me, remind a lot of other people just what a special specimen he is.

Like, a guy that size that can kick that fast, that fluidly, just be a brute. be so physical and he didn't, you know, he didn't lose a beat. His cardio did not wane. He was there with Robert Whitaker the entire time in that fight. And that really impressed me. And that's only because I was already expecting Robert Whitaker to go out there and do special things because he has proven time and time again that he's a professional. He's always going to show up at his best. The one, the one time that even he admits he kind of took his eye off of the prize, you know, the results came back and bit him and you could tell that that was the most dangerous that Robert Whitaker was going to be and will be from now on because of the loss to DDP.

So Paul O'Costa was facing a very dangerous version of Robert Whitaker because when he came out, man, I don't think I've ever like, he's a he's a tactician. He is incredibly calculating. He's a very high fight IQ fighter. You can see that in his fights. I don't always associate him with like brutality and violence. But you could tell just from the energy emanating from him that he was out there for blood. Like he was looking to hurt someone that night. And that's exactly the type of fight we got. It was awesome.

So good. And now the options for Robert Whitaker are incredibly fun. We could do Robert Whitaker Hamzaa Chimaeif. We could do Rob Whitaker versus Sean Strickland. I let go. We could do Rob Whitaker for Sparer. Usman. If he stays at 1.25, like this, no, as my buddy Jed Mishu said,

does no wrong way to eat these wises. I like that. Yeah, it's what a fight. Paul Cost, I can't, I'm very excited to see what he does next. He's still a very popular fighter. I think his stock actually rose coming out of this fight despite the loss. I agree. I think it should. I absolutely think it should. And I would love to see him go back and revisit that fight with Shamiyev. Oh, man, I'm down for that too. Do that in Saudi. Ian Machado, Gary. What an interesting story. This, this young man has. become because you could I think we all any of us have eyes and can watch fighting knows that Ian Gary is really, really good at this and he's only going to get better. And he fought Jeff

Neil, who is also very, very good at this. And when Jeff Neal is on his game, he is very, very tough to beat. And look, was this a barn burner? Was this Whitaker Costa? No. But all that matters is if you don't have your best and you still win, that's all that matters at the end of the day. When you go to Ian Machado Gary's Wiki page or his tapology page, Jeff Neal is covered in green because he won the fight. Your thoughts on Ian Machado Gary and just, why do people dislike him so much? I just think it's so weird.

Yeah, that's a really good question. I don't know that I've ever really gotten to the bottom of it either. I think that people in this sport, the fans, and sometimes other fighters too, if you are too, maybe cocky's not the right word, if you are too confident too early before you've proven it, enough times against high-level competition, people get annoyed, right? And if you don't tone it down, they get even more annoyed.

And if you turn it up, what she does, they get really annoyed by that. I think that's precisely what it is. So the biggest thing that Ian Machado-Garry has needed do is win and he has done nothing but win. And you can't take that away from him. He is a tremendous fighter. Seven and O in the UFC. That is so difficult to do, especially in this Walterweight division. And I don't care that, I mean, obviously as a fan, I love fun fights, but like, that was a smart fight, right? He needed to go out there and get a win against a very dangerous,

dangerous guy in Jeff Neal. And he fought a really intelligent fight. He managed the range very well. he avoided a lot of the big shots of Jeff Neal. I mean, Jeff Neal was missing a lot in that fight. He dealt with the grappling moments, did not get taken down. Like, none of it was overly sexy, but listen, that was a strong win against a real jump-up in competition. So he continues to prove himself. The only thing that didn't go his way was, I'm sure it would have been nice for him

to have like a middle finger type of performance, right? Like to really just go out there and knock him out or. do something absolutely crazy to shut some people up. So he's still going to have guys, they're like, oh, you barely won or, you know, you're born, whatever. I think it's going to take a minute, maybe a fight against Colby Covington, for a certain chunk of the fan base to be won back.

But I think he can do it slowly but surely. And I don't know if he wants to be won back entirely. I don't think he really, I don't think he really cares, but I do think that he's not a natural, heal in the sense of like every time he's on the microphone he's not going to be spewing negativity in generally you can tell that like he likes to be a positive person he loves this shootbox team like he loves Diego Lima he loves training there and the spirituality that they inject into their community and the family atmosphere all this type of stuff you can tell that he likes that positivity

so i don't see him being someone who fully embraces that you know just birds in the air I almost did that, but I was like, he might have to bleep that, or he might have to plug it out, so I'll just keep my arms out here. I'll just off screen. But if he can keep winning and if he can win in impressive fashion, which he's certainly capable of doing, I think eventually people will get past all the craziness. I think a lot of it is just, you know, Sean's fan base is very passionate about whatever Sean says, and it's, you know, they take it as truth, which is not always the truth. So very true. I love the step in knee. He kept thrown to Jeff Neal.

It was nasty. Just right to the body. Every time he made a move, just nailed it every time. Yeah, you could tell how frustrated Jeff was in terms of like, how on earth am I going to close the distance on this guy? You could see him every time he would have to like disengage, reset. He'd find a new angle. And sometimes he'd have to reset it again. And anytime you got a guy having to reset over and over and over again, you can tell like, I got your, I got your number.

because you're having to figure me out and I've already got you figured out. Yeah, love the Colby idea. I think honestly, if Colby watched that fight, there might be a part of him that's just like, you know what? I think I can beat this guy. Oh, yeah, 100%. I think the timing's perfect. If he waits like two years to fight him, it's not going to go well for him.

Yeah. No, Colby needs to be more active. And I agree. I think if I'm Colby Covington watching that fight at home, I'm like, I can beat this kid. Yeah. Marabda Wallace, really. What a guy. What a performance.

Love to see him getting cheered. He's going to get a title shot. everything about Rob is the man. It was incredible. It was just so good. Just doing that to Henry, to Henry Freaking Sohudo? Man, that was unreal.

What I love about that fight, it felt like, it felt like karma finally was like bringing back to him what he had given in terms of not calling for a title shot when Aljo was at the top. You know, very gracefully

supporting his friend throughout his title reign, waiting for his title. waiting for his shot, you know, waiting way longer than he probably had to, right? Going through all the times where people thought he was kind of a boring type of fighter. So to come out there and not only like he won in his style, but he made it fun and he made it interesting and he made it dominant against the greatest combat athlete of our generation. So I don't know how it gets better than that.

To pick up Henry Sohudo, like a toddler, toss him over your shoulder and then just be like, Oh, where do I take him? Where do I take him? Oh, right over here. Okay, perfect. Plop him down. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

Unreal. What a performance. This guy. He looked like he was having fun. So much fun. So much fun. And so Hoodle looks so good early too. Yeah, he looked real good in that first round.

He did. One thing about Marab's fighting style that, like, finally clicked for me. Obviously, we all know he's got insane cardio and insane wrestling. It's like he, there's a certain point in grappling that even grapplers don't enjoy living in because it's so difficult. And it's the final moments before you get the takedown or before you don't get the takedown. It's the full peak effort of like, I have shot, I'm trying to get my grips, I'm in the process of elevating, whatever it is, it's that peak physical output, moment that he is capable of living there and going there over and over and over again.

And I have never seen, we've seen dominant grapplers. I've never seen a grappler be willing to find that moment and just find it over and over and over again. Like, because top control is not necessarily his game. But he did a phenomenal job, you know, of doing that to Henry Sehudo, almost got the joke, but was like having a conversation with Zuckerberg. It was his Habib versus Michael Johnson moment. Yeah.

Exactly what it was. Now he's strapped the rockets to him now because he's going to take off just like Habib did after UFC 205. You know, not the same promo of I'm going to fight your chicken like Habib dad, but still really good promo. It was like the 14 minute interview with Joe Rogan. It was incredible. And he's been so smart about how he's handled himself outside of the octagon, you know,

leaning into his happy, funny personality, allowing himself to be, you know, become this character online that people freaking love. Like, he is so, he's one of the best Instagram follows in all of MMA. And like the red jacket moment to think to do that. You know, I, I look forward to a potential fight week between him and Sean O'Malley because it won't be like gross and negative and all these horrible personal attacks, but it's going to be really, really funny because Marab will find a way to make it funny. They're going to like prank each other all week. Yeah, that's what I mean.

That's what I want. It's just seeing each other's clothes. Yes, that's exactly what's going to happen. Oh, my gosh. There's a lot of fun there. Sean O'Malley went on the MAA hour today as you record and said, I'm not calling for Mara. I'm calling for I'm calling for I'll if he beats Cheeto, which got to tell you, not a fan of it at all.

Come on now. one title defense and we're moving up what are we doing here yeah yeah i i i'm a huge sean o'm alley fan i really really like sean as a fighter as a person but i i i you have to you got to take care of your business in your division before you start looking to you know double champ yourself it's not really like it's not really i guess alex perera did it and we and we allowed that to happen but i i just it's not really how it's meant to be down you you become the reason the new bigot to double champ is because you run through your division. And he hasn't, he's not even begun to run through the division yet. So yeah, he's,

he's got business to attend to at featherweight for sure. Yes. He's got, he's got business March 9th in Miami against Cheater very. I can't wait for that. And hopefully Laura, we could talk after that reacting to what I'm sure will be an absolutely insane night in Miami, Florida with that fight and Dustin Poria versus Benwasantini and just so many great fights on that card. But Laura, thank you very much. I appreciate at the time as always. And safe travels to Miami. I'm sure you're excited for that one. I am. Appreciate it. I'm excited to go someplace more. It'll be good.