MMA Fighting - Most Shocking UFC Hype Trains + Suga Era Predictions, Who Can Aljo Beat At 145? | Rankings Show

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Sean O’Malley is the new bantamweight king — and the UFC’s 135-pound division could be in for one hell of a ride. Mike Heck and Jed Meshew join co-hosts Shaun Al-Shatti and Alexander K. Lee this week to sift through the wreckage of UFC 292 and put O’Malley’s victory over Aljamain Sterling into perspective. Where does Suga rank among the UFC hype trains who surprised everyone by actually going out there and doing the damn thing? How long is the O’Malley era going to last? And where would Sterling sit in the featherweight division if you injected him into the 145-pound ranks right now? Then, the gang examines the next step for pound-for-pound queen Zhang Weili, debate who’s the brightest of the up-and-coming crop at 170 pounds, welcome an old favorite back into the MMA Fighting global rankings, and much more. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow Mike Heck @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew @JedKMeshew 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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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. Podcast Network. What is up, my friends? Hope you're all out there. Enjoying your week, we appreciate y'all for joining us.

This is the NBA Fighting Ranking Show. You already know, I am Sean Oshaddy, and we got the whole gang here. The mind behind the MMA fighting Rankin's panel, the Iron Fist, really at the helm of this whole organization, the Prince Positivety as well. He is Alexander K. Lee, also joined by two of our best pals, stars of the podcast network, you know the Mike Heck, Jedmishu. How we doing, fellas?

Welcome to the Sugar Show, Shaheen. Welcome to the Sugar Show. Wow. That's good. I mean, feels like we're going to get a lot of mileage out of that intro over the next three months. Just clip that. Clip that as our, and put that at the beginning of the show. show from now on.

We don't need that kind of stuff, okay? Over under a hundred welcome to the sugar show leads that have been written as the first sentence of O'Malley articles in the last like three days because I've definitely done one. I would mock this, but I absolutely titled one of them, one of my things said. I'll take, uh, I'll take, uh, low-hanging fruit is the most ripe. I'll take welcome to the sugar show over, uh, so-and-so has that dog in them any day of the week. So this is the new.

So if I have to hear this more than so-and-so has that dog in them, I welcome it. I mean, fortunately for A.K., I think the Sugar Show is going to be a lot less long-lived than having that dog in them. So I'll probably be okay with this. Am I stepping on topics early? No, not really. I mean, that's assuming we get all sorts of title defenses coming. I think that we're about to hit a very weird era for Bantamweight.

But we could get into that. First, though, fellas, I have to admit something to you. For the good of the sport, this might have to be my very last. podcast ever. Oh my. Oh, good. It just might have to be. You see, it's vacation season, AK, you just went to Japan. Ariel's out there, gallivanting all around the world. Who even knows where that man is right now? And I just came back from a week in Tahoe celebrating my one-year-old baby boy's birthday for the first time. It was a great time. We went on a boat for the first time. He caught his first fish. He got so damn sugar hide crazy hard with his watermelon cake.

Did he catch a fish? Dude, we caught 28 fish on this boat. Yeah. How many did case catch? He's won. My wife had him like strapped to the front. He was like doing the reeling, you know? He was like getting a kick out of it. Don't take this away from my boy. How dare you, Jit?

That counts. I am not confident that counts. He went on his first boat ride and that is excellent for him. He did a great job. He didn't get sick. Gene, why is this affecting your potential podcast schedule? I don't understand. So I say all this, AK, to say that I've only missed.

three paper views over the last like a lot of years been in this a while two of them were last year around the birth of my son and those happened to be edward zeusman and izzie perera one and now this past saturday i miss another very crazy event you know what fellas it feels like crazy shit just tends to happen when i'm gone so i think for the good of everyone here i might just have to leave m mb and may forever so y'all can get these incredible results every time i don't think you have to leave m mbma forever i think and correct me you know panel if I think what I'm hearing is you should skip out on the paper views, but you should always be working the Singapore's and the apex cards in particular.

I think you should have to work every apex card. But the paper views, you can skip out on those. We'll handle those. He won't be skipping this weekend. Parker Porter is fighting. So before, Shaheen, you see anything drastic about not covering certain events, Parker Porter is fighting on Saturday. That's very true.

I mean, I couldn't miss that for the world. What do you think I'm, what do you think I'm on this pod for? To pivot the conversation to heavyweight combat in Singapore at 6 a.m. You know what, Jed? I think I could, I accept your proposal, though. The apex cards, I'll work those. If that means I get to lay back, drink a little bit, enjoy my time on the paper views, it's kind of nice. Deal.

Look, I'll never work another apex event. You can have all my apex cards. I'll work all the pay-per-views. I love this trade. Yeah. If the paper views that you miss are really bad, the apex cards that you missed were even worse. So it can only help that you come back and work the apex cards. I'm still super sad that while I was in Japan, I missed the crowning of the new Bantamweight champion, Meyer McElsoilva.

So I am super upset about that. So we don't get vacated. Particularly because Meyer Boy and Silva, you know, awkward spot now. She has, it's a, she has a condition. It's a very serious condition. and this long get cleared up. We're not changed. Ranking's unaffected.

It's all very awkward because at some point this week, there's going to be an article that comes out where she'll be our number one bantam weight, and I'm not even sure if that wins legitimate anymore. We'll see. I want to be clear. It's extremely legitimate. If I could have ranked her higher after this news broke,

I would have. I already had her at one. There's always women's pound for pound. You can always fire her up there if you want. Don't tempt me with a good time, AK. But let's get it. to it, fellas, because we already said, I mean, incredible performance this weekend from Sean O'Malley. The man, say what you want about him, defied the odds, defied the pundits, I think defied the

expectations of almost everyone who does this for a living. I did not see many people out there picking Sean O'Malley to win this fight. And he gets it done with one of the most beautiful sequence you'll ever see, right? Like, it's been said a bunch of times already. It was very McGregor-Aldo-esque, that right hand. We're going to be seeing that on highlight reels for the rest of our lives. And wouldn't you know it, this is all real now. Like, Sean O'Malley is our new Bantamweight champion. He's your new unanimous number one Bantamweight on the M.A fighting global rankings. Also debuts at number eight on the pound per pound list since Sterling toppling down to 14. Before we dive into all of it, we're like a few days out now. We've had time to unpack it. It's still

settling in. But is this weird to you guys? This feels surreal at all. Not to me. I mean, I picked Al Jermaine Sterling. I was pretty confident in that pick. But as I said, while I was in Boston all week in like any of the shows that I did, everything on paper screamed that Al Jermaine Sterling was going to win the fight. But there were vibes in the air, not just, you know, amongst the MMA community, but in Boston in particular, there were vibes everywhere that on this day in that building against that guy, Sean Amelow was going to win the title.

It just felt like it was inevitable, despite what the stylistic matchup look like. like despite it being an absolute nightmare for Sean O'Malley on paper, no matter how you slice it. But it just felt like everybody believed it was going to happen. Like even the people I talked to on Friday, like fans all over the place coming up to me asking me who was going to win the fight. And I said the same thing to them. Like everything tells me Al Jermaine Sterling should just run them over.

But you can't deny vibes and you can't deny inevitability. And Sean O'Malley kept saying the word destiny. She kept saying the word destiny all week long. This is meant to be that on August 19th, Boston. I'm going to win the title. And so I'm not really surprised, honestly, because of the vibes that I felt all week long in Boston. It was just, it was the sugar show the whole time. Every, he, he would, the man from Montana is like the adopted Massachusetts son. It was absolutely insane. It was like Larry Bird was walking into the octagon to fight out Jermaine Sterling. It was

incredible. So no, it's not surreal. It's, it was kind of meant to be. And there was like a third of me that felt that this was the result that was going to happen on Saturday. And on behold, it did in incredible fashion. I'm glad you say that, because you're right, the vibes, I wasn't in Boston, so I didn't get a sense of it. I was completely tuned out. I was on vacation, but like watching the pay-per-view, I feel like there are guys in this sport,

in combat sports in general, and really in all sports, but in particular combat sports, this sticks out, of like people who just have a sense of the moment, right? Like people who really understand the moment and people who, it just feels different when they're approaching a moment. I think Izzy's a guy like this, right, with the walkouts and just the spectacle that he's in, to create. The moment I knew something felt different was when Sean walked out to that

loopie fiasco song. And you just hear the lyrics, and all of it just felt so perfect for the moment, right? Like it just, again, the sense of the moment, it felt like he had exact, like an exact acute sense of what the fuck was about to go on. And just the sense of the moment was spectacular. And at that point on, I was just like, man, I, I don't, I, I picked Aljo. I've always thought Aljo was going to win this fight. But you're right. The vibes were were just weird. The vibes very much just felt like this is about to be a Connor Aldo type of moment.

Dude, that's why I said it for like a week beforehand that the whole thing built towards that. And then the aftermath is just like even wilder when it's like actually Shawton Valley couldn't move. He didn't train for like a month beforehand. Like is there a sadder person right now than Al Jermaine Sterling looking back being like, man, maybe I really should have tried.

to just tackle this dude, particularly early, because like even afterwards, you hear Sean say, yeah, man, like, I was nervous for this fight. Like, I'm never nervous, and I was nervous because, like, this was a big thing. And then I settled in and it was fine. But then I was still nervous to, like, if I wrestled, I was dead. And then he just, it never happened. He didn't really shoot a bunch. And then there we were.

It's just like, man, Alja, way to punt that one, huh? What a tough scene for you, kid. I don't know if it would have been as easy as saying, just tackle him. And except for the fact that Sterling himself said after he regretted trying to make the fight exciting, I don't remember the exact quote. But there's, I'm not saying he was, you know, from what we saw it looked like he didn't, he didn't make any like in great effort to go for a takedown. And his comments only corroborate that because, I mean, there should have been some,

something in there. Like, I don't know if we saw him fainting. He's definitely improved a lot as a striker. since we first saw him the UFC, so I understand the urge. But it was a little frustrating to see him not go all out and try to implement his number one strength. Regarding the vibes thing, there's a couple of things I want to say about O'Malley. He does have that calmness to him.

I would love if there was some way, if they had some sort of like bio, like just an Apple watch on him or something where we could have seen his heart rate, it looked like it didn't move a bit as he made his interest as he went to the ring. I'm sure it did. I'm sure it did. maybe he's just he's really good at hiding it kind of keeping his composure on the outside but it feels like he's the kind of guy the kind of high level athlete that does not feel that pressure in that moment they they they when they say what they what they mean um in the lead-up like yeah when the

time comes i'm you know i'm not going to be i'm not going to be intimidated about what's happening and it seems very very very very true with him and as far as his like living up to his destiny i know we're going to talk about this bit more but i want to go sort of the other side of fighters who didn't because he could have gone this way guys like darry The best examples I come up in the lead up to the fight, I did a little article of guys who had this, not destiny, but certainly were pushed pretty hard towards the title. And you felt like when Fight Night came around, like this was going to be their moment, Daryntill was up there for sure. Francis Ghanou, I don't know if people remember the first time around. It really felt like the UFC was, you know, before the bad blood came in between them.

They were anointing him before he had even beaten Steve A. They were ready to see him run over Stepe. Of course, he lost in the first attempt. Same with Henry Suhudo, who later became champion. but there was a lot of hype between Henry going to the Demetrius Johnson fight. I don't know if he's expected to beat Mighty Mouse, but from the moment that Sohudo kind of entered the M.A. realm, there was the thought he would one day fight for the title and become a U.C. champion.

So those are the examples I think of. And O'Malley could have gone that way, but he didn't. He went the other way. It lived up some pretty massive names if you want to compare him to them. Yeah, and I think that just comes back to, again, the vibes. There's just, there are certain figures within this game that the vibes are just so strong. So I want to explore that a bit because it's not common that we see something like this, right? Like I think that's one of the things that was so special about this past weekend.

We've seen it before. Connor is obviously the biggest example of a guy who is so hyped, a guy who is so pushed, a guy who is almost predestined to do this thing who sells you on it so hard during his journey. And yet all the doubters, all the people don't expect him to actually do it. And then he goes out there and perform spectacularly. And it actually all just comes to fruition. when you look back on the history of just the UFC in particular, what would you say, like, where does Sean rank on sort of these hype trains who actually

panned out? Because if you look at the list, like, it's actually a surprisingly short list, right? Like you mentioned Francis, aka, that took two tries. I don't even know if that counts. I think Izzy was probably in this boat, but that also didn't feel surprising in a weird way, like, right? Like the escalation was right for him and just the dominance. Maybe it's surprised some people.

but he was putting it out there for a while. Alex Pereira, I think you could throw right in that boat as well. But again, he had the backstory. So, like, some of it made some type of sense, even if you want to go further back. I think BJ Penn, but he felt inevitable. Like, it's not the same, same with GSP. Also took two tries. Well, three tries.

BJ took a couple ties. GSP took a couple tries. Really, there aren't a lot of names that you can compare this to in the Connor, O'Malley type of just meteoric rise and almost like jumping levels, right? Because like Connor fought Mendez, but before that he wasn't really fighting, like I guess Porriere and Holloway, but those were like young Porriere and Young Holloway.

Like he wasn't fighting the murderers at 45. And same with O'Malley, right? Like he fought Jan, but outside of that, I don't know that he was really fighting the murderers of this division. He kind of avoided a lot of those guys. When you look back at sort of the high-trane's paths are remarkably similar. And the criticisms.

Also the criticisms against some like the people why people like counted them out in their fights. He's not the same fighter, Connor is, but he's playing the hits. Like he is, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. Yeah, perfect. That's perfectly.

He sees the playbook and he's following it to T. So when you look at the history of these hype trains who actually surprised everybody by paying it out, where would you put Al Malley? Like, if you had your top three of these hype trains that worked out, is he in there? That's an interesting question. I spent like when you gave us these topics.

It's been a while trying to figure out my thoughts on it. And I don't really know the answer because like it sort of feels like the correct answer for the number one here is Connor, right? Had all this massive amount of hype clearly elevated himself. But in a very real sense, did Connor McGregor work out as a fighter? He worked out as a prize fighter. Yes. And he had success at fighting.

But by a lot of metrics, he has. if you if you separated cona mcgregor from his stardom is he a fighter that we care about in any substantive manner historically but this is talking aftermath though this is talking aftermath because we don't know what's going to have with omel that's that's where i'm going with the omali thing is it's hard for me to rank him in this sort of conversation because it is so fresh and so new and i know that at the minimum he has etched his name as a champion and that is what that is always in forever. And so that is important and sufficient. But like, I don't know really how to couch this, right? Like, because I'm not entirely sure that I think Connor is like the hype train

who worked out so much as he he had a moment of success that was great. But do you guys get what I'm saying here? I get what I get what you're saying, but I would argue I would push back on it that I think there are two elements to sort of Conner's prime, if you will, or like accomplishments that would push him into that stratosphere, one of which is 13 seconds, which is iconic, regardless to whether we like it or not. Like, that's just one of the most impressive results in the history of combat sports to do that to Jose Aldo. And then the two-division thing, right?

Like, becoming a concurrent two-division champion, beat in the legitimate Eddie Alvarez to do it. Like, I think those two elements would push Connor into, like, we saw what it became, and it wasn't that great. But, like, just that period alone. like that's that's incredible right like that alone is a hall of fame career for somebody probably is I think my where I'm coming from though is like I think the way this is presented the answers are probably supposed to be like yeah Connor Sean O'Malley is sort of in that uh conversation and

finding like a third who really fits the same mold is he probably feels like the best answer I came up with Brock to me Brock felt like sort of similar yeah I'm surprised you're not Brock Lezzer's not jumping to mind he's a He's definitely a different case than literally anyone else in anime history, but he fits sort of that hype, that newcomer question. Maybe just how fast it happened to, right? Like, yes, the speed of it, to me, like, I don't know. I, and maybe I'm just being a homer or an elitist snob, but it's just like, I don't know.

Like, I thought Josie Aldo was going to be dope when I first saw him in WEC. I was like, man, that kid's kind of rule. And then he actually, like, even surpassed my expectations of how we, incredible he could be. And so I would be like that kind of fighter feels more along the lines of what I would want to to ascribe to this sort of a ranking system than I think what we're shooting for. Because it's a cop out, I don't have any idea where O'Malley's going to go from here. Like there is every world where the, the, the, him surprising us is he rolled high twice.

He got a decision he probably shouldn't have against Peoria on. And then he spiked Aljo. And, look, you can't take that. away from absolutely spiked aljo in the same way that conor spiked aldo but if the next five years of his career him getting dummied by the other bantam weights and who you know whatever else happens he's a success but it's if it doesn't feel all the way genuine to call him a success in the terms of of fighting he is certainly a success in terms of prize fighting see i i don't agree because again i'm just i can't focus on the aftermath too much i understand the perspective that you're

you're coming from, but just gauging, again, because I was looking, when I was doing the research for this, a lot of fighters, unfortunately, who completed that ascent from, you know, contender to champion within four or five fights. I mean, O'Malley's journey was a bit longer. A lot of them couldn't live up to it, right? Cody Garbrant's probably the biggest example, just felt immediately off a cliff, probably dumb matchmaking after making a fight T.J. twice. I'm not entirely sure why they did that.

Brock, yeah, he won the, he did defend it once. Heavyweight, though, it's kind of the nature of heavyweight. It's a very fickle division. It's hard to hold on to the title. He was already up there in age. He had a lot of wear and tear from pro wrestling. You almost can't. He's such a unique case.

I do find comparisons there, but he's such a unique case. Holly Holm. I mean, she's had a long successful career since, but it really feels like it's still peaked with Rousey and she's come nowhere close, I would say, to, like, matching that success. So a lot of these fighters fall off a cliff after. It's kind of funny, unless you want to count just to be expected. Unless you want to count Anderson Silva,

but. But Anderson's probably When you're talking about Anderson, Anderson had like a wide depth of ability and career to draw from. And that's sort of the thing I'm getting to. Is this list strictly who are the guys who are a high rolling? The tricky thing is, if you go just by UFC thing, you know, he had the

one UFC fight. And you remember he won a poll as the story goes. I couldn't find the poll. I was trying to find an archive the poll. But the way they always tell the story is after he beat Chris Lieben, they had a poll on like UFC.com or once upon time. I'm surprised I couldn't find it to say who, you know, to ask who should be Rich Franklin's next opponent and Andrew, Andrew Silver was voted in.

You'll never see that again. So that's why he kind of fits in this, he kind of has that weird category, but for sure he has such a long career before the UFC that he doesn't compare to O'Malley in that way at all. The way, the way I viewed this question was, you know,

the vibes and the shock of the title win all and all, like combined with the vibes. So to me, it was Sean O'Malley's number two. It's Connor number one, Sean O'Malley's number two. And I actually think Cody Garbrandt's number three. because he went in there in that Dominic Cruz fight. I remember breaking that one down, and I thought, well, Cody might catch him.

But other than that, Dominic just kind of kind of dance around him and win a 49-46. Like, this is just what's about to happen here. But Cody ended up putting on a masterclass against Dominic Cruz. And now, Sean is kind of in the same position as Cody was where he has a fork in the road to take. He can either go the route that Cody probably should have taken and go the prize fighting route,

which, I mean, you could say, somewhat argue that T.J. Dillishaw at the time was like the biggest fight he could get. I think that's definitely true. Yeah. But also the risk reward factor isn't necessarily there like it is for Sean O'Malley to fight a Cheeto Vera right now because he could go and just rematch Aljo and it's got to be a big fight. But he's just not going to do that because why would he? You know what I mean?

He's never going to do it better. And why put yourself through that risk no matter how big the fight is just to lose to the guy? It's the same reason we never saw Connor Aldo too. Yeah. Exactly. He's never going to do it better. So go make the money, man. Go get the biggest fight you can get. Him and Cheeto is the biggest fight you can make in the history of this division. It's going to do bonkers on pay-per-view. It's going to be bigger than any Aljo rematch. This Aljo fight. Sean, welcome to the prize fighting world. Like, this is what it's going to be. And the biggest losers on Saturday, the biggest loser of all was Barab de Walsh, really in a heap of trouble. Even though there's a really intelligent storyline here, much like, Cody versus T.J. Unless, like, the UFC comes up with Bucco dollars or Marab de Valsh really, like,

just absolutely murders Henry Sehudo in the most impressive way where it gets Sean's attention. I don't feel like Marab's ever getting a title shot as long as Sean O'Malley's the champion. So it's a, it's just a weird time in this division. Things are going to get super weird at 135. The division's about to suck. This division is got to be real weird, man. It's going to suck.

I don't want to say it, but just tell like it is, Jed. I started on the post show immediately, and I was like, and I stand by this. Like, I think it's dope that Sean Amalley won. I think that that is very cool and an interesting development. And maybe better than Aljo winning and then bailing on the division. But there I wrote this this week, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, man. And Isaac Newton's here to tell you that the last time somebody high rolled their way to a title real fast and got real popular, they effed up the best division in the sport for three years afterwards.

Connor, you can, there is a direct line between the lightweight division and how it has become a division populated by the same names and faces at the top of it and people squatting on rankings for years on end that is traced back to Connor winning the belt, bailing on the division and making everything wonky. We are very likely about to have the exact same thing happen to the second best division in MMA. and that kind of sucks if you're like very much into the meritocracy of it all but you know it is what it is i think might going back to your list because ed jen i agree with you i mean this division's about

to get really really weird unless chito can maybe come on here and do something and surprise some people which is a very valid i actually think there's a really good chance that he can do that too that is a very they're going to run it back a third time is it if it's oh two you think they do it if it's oh too yes yeah Because he's not O2, Shehingia. It's either 01 or 1-1, depending on which Sean O'Malley fan you were talking to. There's one, no contest, as far as Sean O'Malley's concerned so far. I don't know. I think he's been saying he won the fight as well.

He says that he varies. He varies. The Munoz one, he always says he won the Vero won, sonny says he either won it or somebody says, oh, we don't even consider that a fight or something like that. It's a great gimmick. It's a great gimmick. I appreciate the gimmick. Chelson and Chelsea Sona himself, right?

Take him from the best, right? But Mike, I do think the Garbrand shoutout is probably one of the, I think that's maybe one of the closest ones we came to find to this. Because you look at Cody in his run, like, who's the best guy he beat before he fought Dominic? What, like to Gail Mizigna? Thomas Alameda. Yeah. Like, it was the same type thing.

Like, at least Sean had the Yon win, which was somewhat controversial, but like Cody didn't even have something to that degree. So this is just so rare. It's just so rare to see something like this actually play out. I think that's one of the reasons this was just felt so. again, seeing that man in the cage with the belt wrapped around his waist, just holding his arms a lot, like just looks so weird in the moment. Because you just, through all this, you don't see that actually happening in the way that it does. It wasn't, it wasn't as weird for me, though.

And as someone who wholeheartedly picked Al Jermaine to win the fight, by the way, people can go to see my prediction before. I was like, I was like, you know, just not possible. Not possible for Sean O'Malley to stop the grappling, feel very comfortable picking Aljo. It wasn't what, I don't even think I used the word puncher's chance. I think I didn't bother. I'm like, people know that that's, you know, going to be the storyline going in for O'Malley.

Oh, can he land the big shot? Can you land the big shot? And I was like, he's probably not going to land the big shot. We saw him taken down by Jan. You know, we saw not a great, not a great wrestler. So I, but even when it finally happened, I kind of just had a, this is MMA feeling. I had a, again, because I'd sorted these, these names, these big names, all these names we discussed into like two sort of sides in my mind.

It was just a matter of me, for me, of shifting him to one of those. side. So he shifts into right now into that, I guess, Garbrand, McGregor, Brock Lesnar, Holly Holie home side, you know, where this goes after is TBD. But it felt, I don't want to say it felt right. I want to say it felt right. But the part of me that does like to see change, that likes to see exciting things happen in the UFC. And yes, for better for worse, whether you like someone or not, that likes to see people complete that arc from prospects to contender, to star to superstar, it's kind of fun to see.

And MMA is supposed to be fun. So I don't know, again, for people out there, if you're a fan of O'Malley or not, but it is fun to see people complete that journey. And I had fun. I had fun seeing it happen. And I got a lot of respect for Al Jemey and Sterling as a fighter too.

But it was definitely entertaining to see it go down the way it did. And respect to Alja for the way he's handled this man. Like Jed said to open us up, like I can't imagine what that man is feeling right now. he even tweeted something to the effect of like this is a terrible nightmare or like a terrible dream as he's watching sort of the celebratory revelation that's going on last few days. They both described it as a dream.

That's what's so weird. O'Malley also, I mean, of course you would describe his dream, but both not in terms of just like, oh, how good, like, and how good it felt or how terrible it felt. But like and how surreal. Because O'Malley was like, oh, the perfect scenario in my mind dreaming would have been, he never gets close to taking me down and I knock him out. But like, you know, I don't actually think that's going to happen. That's just what I, what I, like, you know, I visualized. That's how Jermaine Sterling would fight back and not just dive headlong into my best punch. He didn't quite say that.

But yeah, it's amazing. They both viewed it as a surreal moment. Like, they both can't believe how it played out. Yeah, Sterling certainly would imagine himself not getting a takedown and getting just knocked out cold. And O'Malley couldn't imagine like, wow, just a stand-up affair and I win. Like, this is incredible. So that, that is how bizarre this whole moment was. Hearing Ray Longo talk about it is super interesting because.

Yes, I agree. Aljo not darted in, had Aljo not darted in with that punch and have this need to make the fight exciting because he cared what the crowd had to think, but yet still being frustrated about O'Malley bouncing around the cage wall, yet not giving Aljo any kind of target to shoot for is super interesting. Because if Aljo just listened to the corner, because all they told him, but heading into the second round was like, all right, do that, but be like a little more kick heavy. and the way Ray Longos saw I was like, this is going to be Izzy versus Yoel Romero the whole side.

Until Sean got frustrated and darted in and tried to do something crazy. Then you could start to shoot. But Aljo was just like, nah, I'm going to take my shot here and just go for broke,

which is so unlike him. You know what I mean? Just like that moment, him making the rare mistake of, well, caring what the crowd had to say and like, oh, I don't want the crowd to boo.

Like, that is so unlike Aljaman Sterling. But again, the vibes and destiny like all that we just got to him man the vibes the emotions the stakes all of it it's the same thing with josie haldo right like josie aldo right like josie aldo doesn't fight it was like he fought at 194 and she just doesn't and then we saw it it's when there's so much built into something like a lead-up like that in josie's defense one Connor was the most obnoxious person alive and so i understand really wanting to hit him and two he at least hid his diving in behind a camera

Well, behind the lead shot, he didn't just be like, yo, here's my chin. Would you like to hit it? That's, you're right. That's a good point, though. I mean, we can say McGregor really got into his head. The taking the bell thing was just obviously a classic moment. Is that? And I do think it's the stakes, too.

Sure. Because I don't recall. That big moment. Yeah, the pressure of a world outside of the MMA bubble knowing that this is happening. That's what it was. Sterling has said many times that he does pay attention to, like, online check. He's been on the M. May hour. I'm glad he says that because he's very obviously the...

Well, Ariel asked him, like, do you care of this? He's like, of course I do it. But he's like, oh, I'm having fun with it. I noticed. I don't mind playing around the trolls every now and then. And it's like, I think, because I don't remember O'Malley saying anything particularly inflammatory before the fight to get into his head. If I just played it cool, I think Sterling got into his own head.

Like you said, from all the chatter, because he does pay attention so much that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. He played a perfect him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He put it over the entire week.

Yeah. You're the best of all time. Yeah. You're the best of all time. And Aljo didn't. Aljo did not do that. He said, I'm going to run this dude over. He's a decent striker, but I'm going to take him down.

I'm going to choke him. And Sean just played it so well. And another huge factor in this fight is Al Jem. And you mentioned the pressure and the stakes. Aljo had all of it. 100% of the pressure and the stakes were on him. Sean was playing with as much house money as you can get for your first title fight. He loses that fight.

Who gives a shit? He wins one more and he's right back in there. Like this, especially with the injury. Especially with the Andrew excuse. Would have been a tough week for him. But other than that, he would have been right back in there. He could have fought anybody.

They could have thrown him in there with like Rob Fawn or something. He beats Rob Fawn. He's getting a title shot next. Like everything was on the line for Al Jemate Sterling. There was very little pressure on Sean O'Malley. And you could hear it in some of the stuff that was like clipped out of podcast and everything. Like, oh, if he chokes me, like, oh, well, like he's probably going to choke me. Like he just expected that to happen.

So this whole thing is insane. It shouldn't be happening. We shouldn't even be talking about this right now. but we are. And for all those people, it's kind of going back to what Jeb was saying, who was like, you know,

Sean O'Malley winning is the much more interesting and more fun thing that can happen here. I think a lot of those people are getting a, a sense of where this division is going to go and the reality of it all. Because if Aljo won and vacated, like this is a whole new division with all different names, meritocracy is still there.

But now that Sean's here, she's Louise, man. It's going to be... We're having Corey Sainagan are not touching a title shut. any time soon. Corey might get a shot before Marab. Like, I actually think this worked out for him.

The injury came at like the best time for him. As long as he stays somewhat relevant and says interesting things, which he did during the fight week at his little media day scrum, he might be okay. I think Sean might be interested in fighting him at some point. But Marab and the Umar and Amagamatoves of the world, I feel like they are stone cold out of the title picture, at least in the Sean O'Malley world.

Well, so let's get a, that because the last two things I want to hit on this fight before we move on, just sort of looking ahead for both these guys, I think we can all agree. We've said it. The Shana Malay era is going to be very weird. Just in terms from a meritocracy standpoint, from what we're going to see from the pecking order title fights, this Tramante Davis thing is not going to go away. With every win, this is just going to be louder and louder and louder because, again, this is the playbook. He is following the playbook. The man knows what he's doing. It's wealthier than like 99% of UFC fighters already. And there's a reason for it.

If you saw the merch drops, like the dude understands the fight game on that, on that type of level. Aljo, we saw. I mean, he was a record-breaking champion. Longest win streak in U.S. Bantamweight history, most wins in the division's history, most consecutive title defenses in the division's history. He had three coming into this one. What does this title reign look like for Ashanao Mallee? If I gave you over under 1.5 title defenses, so he wins his next two fights,

regardless of who they're against. You're going over or under? Because this Pantomweight division is loaded. Jed, I want you to go first because I think I'm going to be totally different. I was also going to let Jedd go first. First, I'd just like to say, can we stop with the Javanta Davis? Can at least be interesting? You got to do a new gag.

Be like Carlos Alcraz. You need the horse of Wendler than let's go. Like, do something else. Like, you can't keep playing the same hits that others have come before. you got to mix it up in some other one v1 contest that you're also going to get freaking smashed in so it would be fine um yeah i'm going to go under i'm going to go i would go under under half a title defense oh uh i think cheetah's going to beat him um and i say this i'm sure that the the ghosts listening to this will react and say that the hater shana mow i want

to be clear i picked him to beat aljurman sterling i've actually been relatively high on shone o'malley as a talent relative to the peer, like my peers or whatever, because I think he has a lot of ability and is certainly not a bad fighter. I think Al Jermaine Sterling should be the worst style matchup for Sean O'Malley in the division because of his strengths.

But, you know, sometimes you roll high. Sometimes Aljo doesn't fight to the best of his game plans. And, you know, we end up where we got. I would still pick probably Aljo to win a rematch, but it's fine. I think Cheeto is the other end of the bad matchup spectrum for him because Sean, I mean, one, we saw them fight before and whatever Sean wants to say, Cheeto won that fight and was winning that fight. Over five rounds, it just seems like a really, really tough ask for O'Malley.

He can win it. He obviously has a lot of talent, but the way Cheeto fights building round over round, The way his offense is both a scoring offense, but his game is largely predicated on getting finishes and his own durability just really matches up well against Sean O'Malley, who mostly wants to knock you out. And he's not quite the glass can and Connor is, but against Cheeto, eventually that fight is going to come down to

they are trading shots. And I am dead certain that Cheeto can get hit full force by Sean Amalley. and be a okay. And I am also pretty certain that if Cheeto puts the mitts on him, Sean O'Malley, who I have seen get knocked cold by a Cheeto elbow on the ground and get severely hurt by Peoriaean is not in a good way. So I think a five-round fight against Cheeto,

O'Malley's not going to Corey Sand taking him. He is going to try and do the striking thing, and I think that that's probably pretty bad for him over 25 minutes. So I think he is going to lose to Cheetaheux. in his first out of defense. That's where I'm officially at right now. I mean, the durability is a good call. There are a few men in the sport who can take 200 punches

over the course of 25 minutes and look like he didn't get hit whatsoever in the fight. It's very bizarre with that man. There are a lot of things, like there's so many things you can talk about and break down fights. But for some fights like it, like at a core, this game is, can you hurt the other dude more than he can hurt you? And if you can't be hurt by God nor man, that's such a massive advantage to your ability to fist fight some dude.

And so the way you then beat Cheeto is you have to outpoint him and wrestle him and take him away from his scoring opportunities. That's not what Sean's game is. Sean's game is, I would like to hurt you more than you hurt me, but Cheeto can't get hurt. So I don't know how that works for him, man. This is a tough out.

Mike, what do you think? Jets going under? I'm going over. I'm going over. I think Sean's going to find a way to get that win. I don't think it's going to be like a clear cut win. I think we might be taking a trip to Splitty City. There might be a little bit of controversy.

And then Sean knows how to play that game so, so well. And he's got enough people that back him that'll be like, what are you talking about? He won 4946. What fight were you watching? And Sean will still come out of it in a whole different way. And then we get to the second title defense. And this is where things are going to get real weird, my friends, because I do host a matchmaking show.

Great show. kind of feel that this is the direction we're going to go. I kind of feel like this is the direction we're going to go, and it's going to be super weird. I kind of feel like Sean O'Malley's going to play the prize fighting game, but turn it into a legacy game that makes no sense. What he's going to do? If you say Dominic Cruz, I'm going to be so mad.

That's what he's going to do. You know what? There's a debate about who the Bannamweight goat is. Good job, my best friend. I already knocked out one Bannamweight goat. What happens if I knock out the other one? What happens if I knock both of these dudes out in a three-fight streak? And I'm the greatest band of weight of all time.

And then he can go fight Gervante Davis and do whatever the hell he wants. But this is Sean's world. And if he wants to fight Dominic Cruz, it appears that Dominic might be fighting Davis and Figurato. If Dominic somehow is at least competitive there, I think Sean's got the Izzy juice, man. Is he wanted the Yo-Ole-Romero fight? Is he got the Yo-O-Romero fight?

And I kind of feel like Sean could get this Dominic-Cru's fight if he truly wants it to. So this is he wanted the Strickland fight. He got the Strickland fight. Yes. And Sean is a bigger star right now than Israel Adasanya is. And he's only going to be a bigger star if he beats Cheeto Vera. So I kind of feel like this is where we're going.

And then Sean's going to take some time off. And then maybe Marab finds his way into a title fight. Not for the undisputed title, but maybe he sneaks his way into an interim title fight. But this is this is Banimway, baby. This is where we're going. This is the direction. You think Sean a must be like, hey, Umar, you look great. I'll kick your ass.

No, he's never going to say that. But he's going to go after prize fighting legacy by beating the two best Bannam weights of all time. And it's going to make no sense to anybody, but everyone's still going to watch him. They're going to sell that arena out. And it pains me to say this, but I kind of feel like this is where we're going. So I will say over one and a half, he may not defend the title again after beating Dominic Cruz. But I feel like we're going over one and a half because this is the sugar show. And the sugar show is going to be really weird and obnoxious.

Shaheen, I'd like to lodge an HR complaining for all of what he just said. It makes me very uncomfortable. But am I wrong? Am I totally wrong? Because I hate everything. I hate every word that just came out of the amount. HR is going to deliberate on the correctness of your take.

Jed, I just know that I feel uncomfortable right now. Hold on a second. I have a feeling AK is going to, Mike Brink. I was going to say, Jed, before you send in that complaint, Shaheen, before you pass that along to H. I'll send the second one out.

Don't you join? No, no, no. Save the email or save the paper, whatever. Add my name onto that complaint. Yeah. I hate to go all friends forever. It is going to be, I do like his chance to beat Cheeto.

Not refuting any of the, any of Jed's breakdown. Jed explained pretty clearly why Cheeto has an excellent chance to be shot on Amali. But I just think, I think, O'Malley will go into that. Like, if he wins that fight, it'll be one of those. Wow, this, like, O'Malley looks better than he's ever been.

This is like such a mature, a more mature O'Malley. like he would have to be to win a fight with Cheetos. So I do think we see that. I think he's peaking at the right time. His skills are getting better and better. So I like that for the first offense. I've also talked about the possibility of an Aljo rematch. I know there's like oh, it seems zero chance to happening.

But if that happened, I'd probably still pick O'Malley to beat him again. I mean, he shouldn't, like for like you guys said, what do we call this one? Two rounds. What are we calling this six, six minutes? I don't know what you're going to call it. But yeah, I don't know how he'll do better. But there's a slim, slim, slim chance that happens. I still think O'Malley finds a way to squirm out of that one, get another win.

So either that or Cheeto, and then I agree, some weird legacy fights can happen. Either, sorry to say it, Domino Cruz, or worse, unranked phantom weight Henry Suhudo is also an option. Don't rule about T.J. Dula shah either, man. He's resting up. He's had a lot of time to rest. That shoulder's probably feeling good as new these days. I do think legacy fight is in the cards for his next offense. But my real answer is really, how long can he keep Umar, Norma Kamatov, away from him?

and I think pretty long. Oh, forever. You can avoid Umar forever. To me, Marab is a horror. Yeah, the Marab question is much more. But the thing is, I actually think he could be Marab. I do too. I don't know that I would pick him to be Marab.

I think that that is a, that's a fight he can win, though. I think so, too. He can win it, but Marab is also not going to give him six minutes without like a real take-down effort. No, he's not. Yeah, he's not. Yeah. I think that that's a fight I would be much more likely to think that Sean can win than Umar.

Yeah. No, Umar is the one because if you want to talk... Umar's the best band away in the world. If you want to talk about the McGregor comparisons, if you want to talk about the McGregor comparisons, we could see O'Malley's run of the top definitively end, just like I did with McGregor with...

Dude, plus, I mean... With the Enormagomatov taking him down. How about that? Cheeto plays the Diaz role. He already lost to him, but he gets the rematch. He wins a fun fight that he just outpoints him barely with leg kicks. and that's starting to line up like a thing that could happen against Cheeto. Dude, if Sean, if Sean goes and beats Cheeto, he, he might just call for Volk and just go up to 45.

What's Volk going to say no? Of course, he's going to say yes. It'll be the biggest fight he's ever had. That's Volk's wet dream is to lame that. Yes. I think he should do that. It stuck out to me that O'Malley had no, wasn't even close to mentioning that in his, post-fight presser.

There was no inkling of, it was, I'm going to fight Cheeto and Davis. It was no like, I want to get a second belt. And I don't know why that was other than maybe, maybe Sean O'Malley understanding. He did briefly, briefly, briefly touch upon it when he was talking about what's next for him. And then he says, he kind of brushed it off saying something, like, I don't know, but more like, you know, maybe I need a few title defenses first and like something, something. So he did briefly, but he didn't go out. He didn't go out.

Like beating Cheeto and then trying to get Vol. is I think by far his best course of action. I just wanted to be known that I am going to forward that HR complaint. Okay. Up the chain. That's I respected. I love you, Mike Heck, and I love you, Alexander K. Lee. You're very dear friends.

I hate every single word that spilled out of your mouth over the past 10 minutes. I hate it with a passion. It made me feel very uncomfortable. It made me feel very weird and very uncomfortable, and I hate that you're fucking probably right. Gene, you say anymore, and I'm going to add you to that HR complaint. I'm with you, Jed. I'm with you.

Just to round out this conversation. I go under. I don't think he lasts too, but I also think that's maybe just because we don't even get a second one. Maybe something weird happens if he beats Cheato and then he just does fight a boxing fight or he does try to go up a division. I could see a Connor level of stalling out coming in this division. But we'll see. Last question for me on this one.

And this probably is the most interesting question, at least in my mind. moving forward is what the hell happens to Al Jemate Sterling? Because poor dude, record-setting champion, very good case for the greatest band-to-weight in UFC history. Definitely not ever going to get that rematch. Definitely not getting an immediate rematch. And I just don't know that there's a road back to any sort of title for him as long as Sean O'Malley's the guy holding it.

Feels like featherweights to move. Mike, you're shaking your head. I'm very curious. What's up? Do you disagree? Dude, Al Jermaine Sterling needs to stop. Stop focusing on Sean O'Malley. Stop calling for the rematch.

You're never going to get it. His sole purpose comes Sunday morning or Saturday afternoon, he needs to go all in on the Max Holloway train. That's what he needs. Go all in on this man. Call this guy out. Make it happen because if there's one thing you can do to get a Max Holloway fight is just get the man's attention.

And if Max Holley sees any interest in it, he will just jump on the opportunity. So if you're Al Jermain Sterling, going up to 45, I'm just like, yeah, I want to run off a bunch of defenses. No, that's a terrible idea. You want to go in there and fight Mobbzor of Lov? No, don't do that. You want to go fight Brian Ortega?

No, don't do that. You want the shortest road to not only a title, you beat Max Holloway, we've seen what happens in this division. You beat Max Holloway, you get Volcanovsky's attention. What if for some reason he does be Max Holloway? And one of two things could happen. One, he could go fight Volkinovsky. and if he somehow wins that fight, that's a check in the box.

If Volk decides to just vacate and go up to 155 after fighting Iliate Teporia, Al Jemaine Sterling finds himself in a vacant title fight. And should he win that fight, guess who might come up and fight him again? Sean O'Malley. So if he ever wants the shot O'Malley rematch, he's got to win the featherweight title and the best course of action for him at this point in his career, even though he's not like super old, but he's getting there, go up there, challenge yourself against Max Holloway.

meet max, you're probably fighting Volcanowski next. So I think you just go up to 45. You just take this whole dream of a rematch out of your system because it ain't going to happen unless you win the featherweight title. So go fight Max Holloway. Even if Max loses, you still go fight Max Holloway. But he's not going to lose on Saturday. That's the course of action for 100%.

You are 100% right. I agree with every single word that you just said. And that actually leads to me where I was going with this, which is it feels like featherweight is the most advantageous. sort of move for him forward at this point. That's not like a lateral move. Because you're just trying to do the bantamway thing at this point. You're screwing with Marab a little bit.

And also just like, what are you trying to reclaim? Right? You're already that guy. So if you just look at our featherweight rankings right now, current top 15, very quickly. Volk, Holloway, Rodriguez, Teporia, Ortega, Pitbull, Allen, Emmett, Qatar, Evloev, Zombe, Chakaze, Mitchell, Kabileev, and Dan Eke. Zombies about to bounce after this weekend.

Yeah, yeah. He's going to return. tire, so he'll be out. But so if you just look at that 15, just skill-wise, you inject Aljo into this division, just skill-wise, not resume-wise anything, just talent and where you think he could, who you think he could be. Where are you slot in Al-Jo? So I want to push back on the featherweight idea in general. I think that a lot of what Mike said makes sense, and I understand where you guys are coming from, I think it fails to take into account one extremely important piece of information, which plugs into your,

question here. Aljo going to get his ass beat at 145 by a lot of these dudes. I think objectively what Mike said is probably the path forward for Aljo. And Max Holloway is going to hand him his rear into bite-sized pieces and feed it to him. That fight won't be competitive in the least. Shoot your shot, I guess. I think that he's relatively young and it may be, because for a while I was on the featherweight thing.

And I still think, I think the truth is he's just in the Franklin zone, baby. Like he's just going to fight dudes around middling weights that are fun fights because that's who he is now, as former champion. If he wants to do the max thing, okay,

once you lose to Max, is he going to stay around 145? That doesn't seem likely because... You got to give a shot. You got to give a shot. And somebody is going to beat Max eventually. Do you? He's been a...

somebody's going to be out joe it ain't agree with you i agree with you but it's going to be somebody and max has just been in so many wars at this point right he's 31 but he's like a rora macdonald he's like a josie aldo 31 you're preaching to the choir i've been saying for three years that max holler's going to fall off and he just keeps not doing it my thing is if you want to go do it i understand that i am not a hundred percent sure max even takes the fight because he's talking about bmf titles and i think max takes a little right that's a big fight what else is he doing I don't know, pursuing other things, maybe going up to lightweight, doing other things. We'll see.

I'm not 100% sold. He takes the fight. Maybe he does. My point being, I get the idea at 145. I think that it's ultimately capped by the fact that he is not going to have success at 145. I think 145 makes sense if he's going up and immediately shortcutting the line to Volcanovsky and can have a chance at it. That's not going to happen.

I think his best bet, it feels a little counterintuitive. It's hang around 135. because I personally don't think we're in for a long Sean O'Malley rain, and you never know how those cards are going to shake out. And being a former champion in a weight class gives you a lot of opportunity to retire for two years and then come back and fight for a belt. If you're Henry Sehudo, something like that. Maybe Sohudo ends up getting the belt in a year and a half,

and he wants to run it back with Aljo. I just think he's got more opportunities at the weight class where he is clearly the best of his abilities, even if those opportunities aren't getting a rematch without with O'Malley. That's certainly not happening. I think staying at 135 probably is just his best bet,

but I don't think that's going to happen. I do think Mike's right. I just, I'm just saying. Let me say, let me say, let me say, well,

I don't fully support what Jedd is saying. There's an example of a guy who got suffered a devastating knockout to a superstar and then came back and became a two-time champion. That man's name was Josie Aldo. He just hung around 145, one of an interim belt.

A little bit different circumstance. Connor immediately. I mean, he had the belt and, He got the belt like a year later where he became, he did become champion. The exact same thing can happen for Aljo at 135. If Sterling gets injured,

uh, refuses to fight, they do an interim title and they're like, all right, well, Al Jermaine versus Sohudo too or like, it's, it's not cool with the Marab situation.

Yeah, that's what's the sticking. That's a sticking point for me is I feel like he really does want to get out of his buddy's way. I think he can also just hang around and not be the in the way too. So I, if I was his thing, corner, I would say, all right, maybe go fight Max.

When Max is done, you're just back to 135 forever because that's it. I get the upside of Max. I just, I don't know what the odds are on that fight. I'm smashing Holloway at minus 1,500. He is going to kill Algeman Sterling. I don't disagree with you. That fight is not remotely competitive. I don't disagree with you, but also, again, at some point somebody is going to beat Max

and who knows, right? Maybe it's not a dude who can get him. A lot of a dude who tackles him. Is tackling Max Holloway an effective game plan? No. That's why Habib was kind of a fun idea. Then I'm interested for your answer here. Play out the exercise.

You look at our featherweight rankings. Where would you inject Aljo in there? Just purely based on skill and who you think he could be. I mean, I think that he could beat Korean zombie who is faded and clinging to a top 15 spot. I would not pick him to beat any of the people that are current. I might pick him to be, I'd pick him to be Dan Iige, who's our number 15.

So Josh Emmett, like Josh Emmett's what, seven for us, eight, you wouldn't pay him to be Josh. I think he could beat Josh Schmidt. I am probably picking Josh Emmett. Because the other part of Aljo's thing,

like, and we don't talk about this probably near enough for several fighters, I think it's also applicable to Sean O'Malley. A lot of his vent, like a lot of what makes his work, is that he's just enormous like he's so much bigger have been like Habib would not have been nearly as good a welterway I think he still could have had a lot of success at welterweight but like he's just a massive dude compared to the dudes he's fighting Sean O'Malley

happened to be the first guy he fought who had a reach advantage and gasped him like it's I don't think I would not pick him to beat anybody other than Dan I gay maybe you could talk me into Korean zombie I think he could beat up to Josh Memeh. it. And I guess pit bull. He could, and I might even pick him to beat pit bull, but I also don't really agree with how high we have pit bull ranked. You could convince me, it wouldn't totally shock me if he beat Brian Ortega, I guess,

is as high as I would go. I would be pretty freaking surprised if he beat Volk Holloway Rodriguez or Taboria. Yeah. Or Arnold Allen. That's where I land too, because again, this is a very hypothetical, theoretical question. I'm around the same. I landed in the same spot when I was looking at it. this list. I said probably a toss up with Pitbull,

probably a toss up with Ortega. There are a five and six spot. Like you said, Jed, you know, mileage may be a toss up, but I think he could win that fight. Mileage may vary also on having pit bull that high. I think I do. I know you don't. He just got just kind of where he averaged it out too. But I'm okay with saying he could beat Arnold Allen. Arnold Allen's really good. I just, I don't think

I think Gordon Allen beats a hell out of him. Oh, I would slightly favor Aljo. Emmett, I would favor Aljo, Cater. The size of factor for sure, I think Arnold Allen is going to tower over Alchamette. starting what they fought sure but I think Aljo is I think he has enough skill enough talent to overcome some of those sizes disadvantage he wouldn't be a massive featherweight you're right he'd be like a normal size what whatever a normal size further way is supposed to be

Dan I gay yeah yeah exactly or something like that it's or pit bull even pit bull right even like a giga chikaze I think he'd be but I'm okay with saying like he could land comfortably in the top seven at six or seven uh if we're just gauging talent but um it is not I would say if you got top seven uh that would be a successful run for him. I think that he could, I would expect because he was a champion in another weight class that he should end up in the top 15. I just think that works sort of across the sport.

Any champion in a previous weight class should probably be able to pull off top 15. I think if he finished, if he managed himself to the number seven ranking, that would be a great outcome for him. What do you think, Mike? Yeah, I agree with that. Number six,

I'd probably slot him above Pitbull. because I think he could be Brian Ortega. I don't know if I would necessarily pick him to beat Brian Ortega, but I think he could beat him. That's the fight out most important. Yeah. For Aljo next, that is the fight I'm the most interested in watching on the merits of a fight.

Yeah, it would be pretty interesting, honestly. I would probably think he'll win. Mashes him. Maybe. If Alja gets takedowns, I don't, I mean, who knows? That's a whole different fight. And then Holloway probably wins.

but again, it's not easy to tackle Max Holloway, but Aljo's really good at that when he can actually do it. And then Volk, I would pick Volk 100 times out of 100. Paradoxically, I think Aljo has a better chance against Volk than Mike Holloway, but it's not a good chance. Yeah, but Aljo's also really good when he's spot on. And he wasn't spot on on on Saturday. Or maybe he was and just couldn't mess with Destiny that night.

But yeah, I think he's top six at worst right now. Couldn't mess with destiny. It's a brand new world, it's an exciting one, it's an interesting one. We're going to see how it plays out. We're going to take a quick break and then we're just hit a couple other things on the end of it. Unwrap holiday magic at Holtrenfrew

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Black Friday. IKEA. Bring home to life. All right, fellas, we are back. Talking UFC 292 real quick, still. And let's look at the other title fight. Straw weight out there, Zhang Wei Lee, I mean, a lot has been said about this performance.

I think all you really need to say is 296 to 29. Because that is one of the most absurd striking stats that I have ever seen in my history of watching this sport over 25 minutes to outland somebody by, what's the math on that? I can't even do math in my head really quickly, but almost like 170 strikes more or less. That's just incredible.

It's one of the most dominant performances if we've ever seen in a title fight. I think it is the most lopsided, striking total for a title fight ever. Just incredible stuff from the strawweight champ. And now we find ourselves in a really interesting place with the strawweight division because there's two, I would say,

very compelling challengers waiting for this woman. And it is unclear which direction the UFC is going to go, which direction the UFC should go, wants to go. But it's also just a very rare thing. Because you look at the women's pound-for-pound ranks, our updated pound-for-pound ranks that are coming out this week, I don't know that I can remember seeing something like this where

the number, Zhang Wei Li is number one for us. Her top two challengers are both in the top 10 pound for pound for the women's side. Tatiana Swar's number eight for us now and Jan Jaunan, number 10 for us right now, two of the top 10 best female fighters in the entire world waiting to fight this woman. I don't know, guys.

To me, this is a very interesting question, and I'm still not sure where I feel like I lean. I think my heart goes one way, my brain goes another. I'm curious where you guys are at. What should be next here for Zhang Wei Li in this strawweight division? What's the title fight that should be happening next? What do you want to see?

I feel very little conflict. I want to see Tatiana Suarez fight for the title now. People who listen on to the next one know I can be a bit of a brat, Gene. I can be a bit of a child. When I see something within reach, I just got to grab it. And I want that Zhang Suarez title fight. what really got me thinking about it was of course I liked the

Zhang versus Jan title fight as well you know get it in a card in China what a historical moment 1.9 billion views Great what a big money making moment for the UFC and then it was that last part I'm like wait why do I care why do I care that this is a money making moment for the UFC you could go and then go down the root

up it's also a big moment for that for the sport of MMA but I've constantly said that MMA isn't a sport so obviously that doesn't matter to me either I want to see Tocatian as far as fighting for titles now and defending titles now. I feel like there's a bit of a clock with her. She's been in combat sports for a long time, pretty much her entire life.

You'll remember anyone who comes from sort of that amateur wrestling background, there's a ton of pre-MMA wear and tear. She turns 33 by the end of this year. So again, not old, not super old, but old in terms of like she has got a lot of fights. She's got a lot of fights under her belt with one form or another. She's had injury problems. She had thyroid cancer, of course, before, before, you know, when she was trying to get to the Olympics, 11 years ago,

I don't know how much longer we have Tatyana Sor as a sport. Hopefully another 10 years, right? Hopefully she's fighting high-level fights for another 10 years. But in all likelihood, based on what we know about athletes, when they, when they're competing in a sport like this, and then once their body start to break down, hopefully that's not where she is, I don't know how much longer we can wait. So if she is healthy, if she is ready, I want that title fight to happen now.

If the Yan Shan-Tal fight happened instead, I'd be jumping for joy, awesome fight, Jan deserves it. But as far as who I think is the best straw weight in the world right now, not named Zhang Wei Li, it is Tatiana Suarez. And she would run through Yan Shaanan, in my opinion. I know that's not how we determine title fights. You could just qualify a lot of title contenders if you're playing that game. But if you ask me, what I want to see personally want to see happen next, I want to see Tatiana Suarez fight potentially win and then, you know, go in her own. dominant title. Not a guarantee, by the way,

Zhang Will, he's an incredible champion, but I'd want to see this fight now, now, right now. I mean, look, to me, it's a location thing,

so if they go to China, it's going to be Jan. The UFC already ruined my onto the next one plans because I thought I laid it out absolutely perfectly after Tatiana Suarez just ran over Jessica Andraj.

Just do Zhang versus Jan and then in an apexe, fight nighty, or you travel somewhere, very, you know, it's kind of smaller market main event. You do Tatiana Swores versus McKenzie Dern in a five-round main event. Just give her that five-round experience. She probably runs over McKenzie Dern.

And if for some reason McKenzie finds lightning in a bottle, then the woman they've been trying to push to a title shot for all these years gets her shot. So it's a win-win for the UFC. We still get the big fight between Zhang and Jan. And then the winner gets the winner of that. But obviously, I don't know who the hell's managing Jessica Androge these days. she's just going to keep fighting horrible stylistic matchups, and she's going to fight McKenzie Dernet at UFC 295 in New York.

So don't really understand that. But now you get Tatiana in the wings. But listen, if they go to China, it's Jan. If they don't, it's Tatiana Suarez. And to me, there is no more, there's no more fascinating women's fight than Zhang Wei Li versus Tatiana Suarez. And there's a Mount Rushmore of fights I have to see sooner rather than later. It's Zhang Wei versus Tatiana Suarez.

It is just so friggin fascinating. So, yeah, this all comes down a location for me. Yeah, give me, Anjanon. You're here for the China versus China. I am for a couple of reasons. Look, if it ended up being Tatiana Soros, like AK said, I wouldn't be fine. I do believe she is probably the best women straw in the world right now. So I'm not going to be too perturbed by having the best woman in the world.

at worst, I think she's the second best. So I won't be too upset. But, you know, I would like there to be some level of meritocracy in this sport. And as much as I do think that Tatiana Suarez has a reasonable case for it, she has two wins this decade. And I'm not entirely certain that beating Montana de la Rosa and then beating Jessica Androge. After Jan Shao Nanjahe-Ethered Androge worse than you did, Tatiana Suarez, like should should let her jump the line here.

I think from meritocracy standpoint, I think Jan deserves it more at this point in time. It's not entirely Tatiana's fault that she was out for four years. But I also don't think you can just sort of look away from those four years gone and treat as if that's not real. And then straight up, like, I think the Tatianosaurus, you know, Wiley Zhang fight is meaningful and will be fun. I don't think that's going to get nearly the shine.

that that fight should deserve from a broader public if you let Tatiana get one more win that maybe develops. And I think the Wiley-Jon fight is going to be incredible. Like, it's going to be this momentous occasion for Chinese MMA and for women's MMA and for Chinese women's MMA and doing this grand event there and making it a spectacle and what that event deserves to be. I'm interested in that.

And we'll keep pretty interested in the fight. I wouldn't have been. but Janjaunan sending Jessica Andraj to the spirit realm That's that buys you a lot of good graces for me Because who who's done that to her really like people have tackled her and tapped her That's a real thing but who's iced her out on the feet like that like Just anyone has anyone? Yeah exactly so like and we know that was the conversation heading into this fight

With the mandolimo she's jang can also get hit on the feet. She is, she is way too susceptible to right hands, particularly fighting in space. I think that fight is a little more competitive,

certainly than I thought it was a year ago. I'm pretty interested in it. So give me Anjanan, I think for all of the ancillary reasons makes me more interested in that right now. But again, if you go, Tatiana, I'm not going to be upset by it.

No, and honestly, if I had my druthers, I would like see Tatiana have one more fight. That's the thing. Give her Amanda Lemos. I just do this fight in December. I just don't trust a Lemos. I don't trust it anymore, man.

I just don't. You got her Amanda Lemos. She'll win that fight. I just laid out the blueprint on how to beat her. So just do that and that's it. Yeah, I'm pretty confident in Tatiana's ability to beat any woman, so I'll be okay with it. It's not an issue of beating for me. It's an issue of health.

And I'm exactly where AK is where I'm just a child. I'm a small little boy who sees the shiny gold thing sitting in front of him. And I won it now because I've been wanting this thing for seven years. I've been staring at this shiny gold thing for like seven, eight years, saying, oh, it's going to be so cool when I get this shiny gold thing. And it just keeps evading me because this woman can't stay healthy. And like, this is finally what? This is the first time she's competed twice in the same year, almost ever.

I mean, since the beginning of her UFC career, you just, this is where I say my head goes one way, my heart goes another. Because my heart badly wants this fight. I'm with you, Mike. If there's a mountain rush more of fights that I want to see right now that are not booked, Suarez, Zhang, is on that Mount Rushmore just because I agree, I think she's the best straw weight in the world.

I want to see this play out. My head, though, I mean, we all saw Dana White's reaction when that, assumedly Chinese reporter spit the $1.9 billion number at him and Dana White, you saw that dollar sign. It's a big number. I don't know if you know how much a billion is,

but it's $999. It's more than $999 million. It's a lot. It is hard to fathom it was like, This was almost two of those billions. Yes. It was hard to have them. Those are almost power slap numbers.

He's like, God, I got to capitalize on this. Oh, man. You put it on rumble? He should have followed up. How do they feel about power slap in China? That's what he should have asked. He should have gotten over two billion in power slap impressions, social media. I think there's a very real chance the UFC goes to China before the end of the year and that we're getting this.

I think that's almost a certainty at this point. Yeah. Because how can you, like this would be an all-time fumble if you don't score on this moment in when it's like, this is not going to happen again. Like, this is it. This is the moment to do it because I agree. They couldn't do UFC Africa when they had three African champions.

So I wouldn't put it past them to botches and shit. They're putting, they're putting Grasso-Shifchenko too in Vegas, right? Team Mobile. Yeah, this is Team Mobile. This is not the Apex, but yeah. It's true. It's not even a paper view.

Also, that does make sense. No, J. UFC. Yeah, but no, there is like a business case for that because I know that Vegas does a good amount of trade for Mexican Independence Day. Oh, yeah. Big box universe in Vegas always do well for. They botch a lot of things, so it wouldn't shock me, but I think we're very likely

to get this fight in December. But let's just find, again, they also had multiple Mexican champions and also had to not go to Mexico. So there's no good, none of this is guaranteed, but I do think China is going to have. Well, so either way, again, two very compelling challengers, both of whom were in the top 10 of our pound for pound list, I want to do the same exercise we just did with Sean O'Malley. over under 1.5 more title defenses for Zhang. Do you think she can get past both of these women?

Does anybody, I think we all are high on Tatiana Swars, is anybody going over on this? Not me. Not me. Mike. Mike is. I'm going to say no as well. Mike raised his hand.

Tell us. I think, I just think, I think Zhang is just on one right now. She's just, she's on one. And look, if Tatiana Suarez's beat her, it would not,

I would not be. surprise. But I feel like this is going to be one of those situations where Zhang is, I'm going to say she's overlooked, but I think a lot of, I think Tatiana Suarez is like, I don't know, she'll be the darling heading in, like the story and everything she's gone through and the layoffs and everything. I think she will be the darling of the fight. And I think people will, will do everything in their power to kind of will this moment, like you said, she, and you're waiting seven years for her finally getting to a title shot. We knew she would get here.

I just feel like you're going to give, if you give Jan Zhao Nan, or not Janjani, Zhang Wei Li and her team and all the different coaches she has all this time to prepare for Tatiana Suarez. I think she's going to win, man. Like, I don't know if anybody's going to beat Zhang Wei Li in the next two years. I really don't.

I really don't. I just think she's that good. Now, if this fight happens again, somehow Tatiana gets back and Zhang's like, you know what, I'll give you another chance. years from now. Maybe it's Tatiana. I know she's a little bit older, but I just think Zhang is, I just think she's that good, man. It's got to take something special, a special, perfect performance

to beat her. And as good as Tatiana Suarez is, and she's really freaking good, I don't know if she can pitch a perfect game against Jean, again, again, Zhang Wei. And that's the only way you're going to beat her right now. If Zhang pulled that off, if she added Suarez and Yon to her resume, that would be, I mean, I don't know if she's already top five women's pound for pound all time, but she would be soaring towards like the top three because it would be those two names plus Carlos Sparza, Yawanna twice, Jessica Andrage and then before that some good wins. Tisha Torres. Jessica Aguilar, I think is a meaningful win.

The only loss is being to Rose is relevant. That's the big one. That's the one name she's missing. One woman has beaten her in her career. Yeah. Moves you very high up that list. Jessica Aguilar was probably not a meaningful name by the time they fought, but I think people forgot how good Jessica Aguilar was once upon time.

That's still a hell of a time. If you can add those. was one of the best fires in the world. So, I mean, she's getting up there. She got past those two. I don't know who she'd add on next, but that would be incredible. That'd be incredible.

Yeah, I'd just disagree with Mike. I think Tatiana runs her. I agree. That's where on that. I mean, I could be wrong, but I would not call Rosnam Yunus a terrific offensive wrestler. And she took Jean down a lot.

And I know that there's more time in prep. But your John's also, I think, I just, I just, I thought John won't get a lot. Sure. being on. I did think she won the fight. It's not about winning the fight. It's just, if Rose is going to take you down, I don't care how much better you've got at it, you're going to need to be exponentially better at that against Pattyana Freakens Juarez. And I just don't think that that's, I have not seen enough to be confident in that.

When the time comes, they will fight. We're going to get it. Well, let's move on because we have one other quick thing to note from UFC 292. The welterweights. We finally have a little bit more movement here. in the well-to-weight division. Ian Machado Gary, spectacular performance, most impressive performance of his young career by far over Neil Magny. He now debuts for us at number 12 in the world in the welterweight rankings. It feels like almost he's overtaken.

You correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels like he's almost like overtaken the lead horse status from Jackie Three names, Jack Della Madalena, for like the up-and-coming welterweight who we are just all high on who's going to be that title threat in one to two years. So just I wonder for you guys, you look in outside our top five, which right now for our purposes

is Leon Edwards, Kamar Usman, Bala Muhammad, Shafkat, and Gilbert Burns. Of every other name outside of that top five, including Gary, including JDM, all these guys. Two-part question. Who gets to the Welterweight title shot first? And who's the first one to actually win the belt? So you got Gary,

Madelena, Sean Brady, Kevin Holland, whoever else you want to throw in there. Gary gets to it first. Gary wins the belt. I've staking You're all in. You're all in. I think he's the best prospect of Walterway. I probably felt that way before Jackie Three Names's most recent fight. It was certainly much more of a question.

But watching Jack Delam Adelaena make a series of horrific fight decisions and then still pull off a win, cools me on him. Yeah, I think he can Gary's younger than JDM. Not 100% certain on that. Yeah, I think this dude is the next guy. I think Shavkot is the next champion who will maybe have a couple of defenses, but I think 2025 is my prediction for the Shavkot versus Ian Gary Welterweight title fight.

I don't know if Gary wins that one, but he's still only 26. I think that he will fight for the title at least twice in his career, and I think one of these times he's going to get it. Particularly if you believe what he says. He says that he's like the best grappler that's ever existed.

I'm not certain that that's true, but his post-fight presser is all like, I'm going to go win a Nogi World title because whatever, y'all don't even know how good I am on the ground. If that's true that he's the next GSP, I don't think that that is probably true, but I think I love what I've seen from him. I love his work ethic, everything.

I'm all in, all in on him as the next guy to hold this belt for at least a few fights, at least a few fights when he does get it. Well, no one is bigger on Ian Gary than Ian Gary. I think that's certainly true. He loves himself to me as it should be. Yeah, guys, it's what you got to do. Love yourself, homies.

I don't know if you're familiar with that. I mean, I'm sure you're familiar with saying, if you say it, you are it. You know, if that's, I think we all agree that that's how this game works. That's how I live my life. Yeah, if you say it, you are it. So I'm Machado Gary, I mean, clearly, again, future ADCC openweight champion. I'm glad you mentioned Shafcott, Jed, because we do want to tell people, I'm sure people for a second, like, whoa, what I should. Shopcott's kind of past the prospect, like, rising.

He's just a guy who we think is one fight away from getting it. Like, he's almost a lot. He's not a lot of the way in the world. He's not part of this discussion. They just won't let him fight for the belt. He's not part of this discussion. We're talking about, oh, Sheen said, outside the top five, right? So, Shotcott's obviously getting it for all these guys.

I, I'm so, I'm such a victim of recently bias, as people know. So I guess just to play devil's advocate, I got a weird feeling Kevin Holland's going to sneak in there somehow. He's, I guess he's also, yeah, I guess he's just. And I don't want him running into Ian Machado Gary, obviously, because clearly Ian Machado Gary is going to take him down and just submit him in like, you know, 45 seconds based on what the future has had to say about it. But that top, that top seven is a lot of news who can tackle. Trust me. He's skipping names to get there. He's skip, this is a, this is a Sean O'Malley.

He needs to get one weird decision win over a name, like a Bala Muhammad, maybe. I don't know, be right, Bala Muhammad. Probably can just take him back as well. I'll say you're right. Bala Muhammad, famous for never tackling people and sitting on them. Hey, I'm just saying weirder things, weirder things that happen. I think he has some currency from his middleweight run. I think the UFC likes him clearly because of the whole I'll fight anytime anywhere,

actually living up to it. He's a known commodity to the fans. He talks a lot, and I don't, I won't say he's great on the mic. He talks a lot. That is, that is for sure. He has a lot to say. And every now and then gets a good, like, viral clip. And that's what you need in this business to be considered good on the mic, apparently.

So it's really just to play devil's advocate and just to throw another interesting name about there. I wanted to throw on like Michael Morales. I love that kid. I think he's going to be a potentially future champion, but he's very far away from a title fight. But I love what I just want to make sure he's his name somewhere in people's minds. But he's probably even outside the top 25 right now. Depending depending how aggressive you are with your ranking, he's probably outside of top. 25. I mean, Dana White clearly knows who Michael Morales is. I don't know if you watch the Post-Fight

Press conference. What do you say? So funny, it's the funniest thing that's happening in a I miss this forever. The dude who's Ecuadorian or whatever. He was like, hey, uh, what, what's going on with Michael Morales? And then he just like looks at him. It's like, you know, you know this one I need to leave when I'm starting to get these sorts of questions. Yikes made all the better because Cheeto fought on the card and the Ecuadorian dude didn't ask about Gio. That's about Michael Morales.

It was insane. I loved it so much. Respect. Respect. To me, this is going to be a hot take, ladies and gentlemen, because...

Oh, I might be there with you, though. Let's see. If Colby Covington beats Leon Edwards, Ian Gary's getting a title shot for Shafcott is. Sorry, that's just the way that it works. Because Colby is going to do everything in his power to not fight Shofcott,

because he doesn't see money in Shafcott. He will eventually see money in Ian Gary because Ian can talk and they will have a press conference and those two will go back and forth and it'll get uncomfortable. It's just the type of thing that'll cross over into a casual audience. So Ian Machado Gary is going to fight Wonderboy next.

They're going to, even if the UFC has to pay Wonderboy the 299 money just to get him in the cage with Ian Gary, they will do it because Ian will beat Wonderboy and then he's one win away and they will be very, very careful with how they book him after that. I know Ian's like, oh, four wins and I'm getting to a title fight. If he beats Wonderboy, if he beats him convincingly, and they might just throw him in a title fight. Like, if Colby wins the belt and Colby wants to fight Ian Gary, which would be smart on his part to try to get Ian

now before he gets really up there, I would not be surprised if Ian Gary gets title shot before Shofcott. This is obviously contingent on if Colby wins because of Leon wins, I don't I think the UFC really gives two shits in an F what Lincoln Edwards wants to do. But clearly with Colby, they care about what Colby thinks and what he wants because he's had this title shot for since March, just because he's stepped on a scale. And whether people think he deserves it or not, Colby is in the UFC's ear and they like him, just like Ian Gary. If you ask Dana about Schofcott right now, he would have some nice things to say about him,

but he would talk for eight more, eight extra minutes about Ian Gary. And that's a very good thing to have on your side is Dana putting you over in every single interview he does. So I love this take. Yeah. I think Gary clearly is going to get a title shot first. And he might get it before Shafqad. Like there is a real world where he gets it before Shafqad does. And it's why he might get a title shot before Belal freaking Muhammad gets one.

And that wouldn't be surprising either at this point in both of their careers. Belah Muhammad getting a title shot would be the most surprising thing at this point. That's where we've gotten. If you don't think Colby Compton doesn't already after Saturday, or even before, maybe after the last Ian Machado Gary fight, have a, like, have people helping him write a promo about Ian Machado Gary taking his wife's name. You are a fool.

He has that ready. That's the angle. That's a hundred percent. It will take him less than two seconds at the press conference for him to bring that. And by the way, for anyone out there hating on Ian Machado Gary for that. And there's plenty of things to not like about Ian Machado Gary. the taking his wife's name thing it's for the children for God's sake let's see so many people going after him it's for the kids I mean they were going after a guy for doing for his kids like

also Natchato is like a really legendary name within the combat sports space I like you can add that if you can add that to your name you add it to your name oh you definitely doesn't affect your lives why would you possibly but but that is that is the first thing you can say that about anything jenn yeah I know I agree wait till colby pounce is on it and any jimoke out there who wasn't nowhere ever will something to be doing all these memes and i'm just like oh mike why'd you even speak into existence colby colby will try for connor and if he doesn't get connor he will focus all of his attention on he and gary one thousand you know what this makes me sad about really all of this two years ago this was supposed to be hamzat's division and now we're just here in this mess he

should be the dude and now look at us he's not even ranked at welterway for us anymore everyone took him out is shame everyone took him out just i i have to say honest i i have to say honest I'm not surprised on one respect that I do believe Ian Gary will get to this title shot first. Of all these guys that we're talking about, he is the cleanest path, he's the best talker, he is the guy that the UFC is obviously the most high on, at some point he's going to go to Ireland, and that's going to be a spectacular show for the UFC. It's just going to be a big thing. The second part of this question, though, I am surprised that we have all just dropped Jackie three names,

just out of existence. After one very bizarre performance against a very very, short notice, decent fighter who, like, after a very weird week where he was supposed to fight multiple times, it just didn't end up and, like, stayed in Vegas. And just the whole thing around that fight was weird. And everything before it seems to have been forgotten. All the spectacular knockouts, all the performances, all the first round finishes, just out the window because that one fight, I still think that guy's a champ, man. He's 26 years old. I still think that guy's going to end up doing it.

That seemed to me like the, he's not Habib, but that seemed like the Habib Gleason Tabau type of thing. We're like, hey, yeah, you had a difficult fight against a decent guy on the way up. It's not a big deal. The issue, my issue is he didn't lose that fight because Basil Haifah, or like have those issues because Basil Hafez is like uniquely well able to combat his particular skill set. He just did the dumbest thing possible over.

and over again, and that is a much more concerning trait for him moving forward. Like, hopefully you're right? He was probably out of his mind. I don't know. Does that, does it jack your fight IQ out of existence? I think it definitely affects your mental game, just experiencing the whole weird two weeks that he had. I don't know, but when your corner is specifically being like, dude, stop, stop jumping on guillotine. You fucking lunatic. Just punch this dude in the body. He is falling over. Like you weren't killing him. Like that, that's it.

And it's not like I dropped him out of my rankings. He's still 26. I still think he probably ends up fighting for a title. And if you fight for a title, you can win a title. That's how it works. But I am, the fight IQ is so much stronger on Ian Machado Gary than at least in their most recent fights. One of them showed me exceptional fight IQ.

And the other showed me some of the worst fight IQ and a winning fighter I've seen in some time. So it has cooled me on being like, J.D.M to the moon, this man cannot be stopped. Can I, can I give a little insight? Hold on. I give him a moly again. I give him a moly against the last one. Can I give a little inside baseball?

Jed, you disliked that performance so much that despite the fact that two people, you dropped him two spots out of your top 10 behind Stephen Thompson and Jeff Neal, who are both scheduled to fight this past month and didn't. And they still go high. I think that. That's how much you hated that performance that much. I'm comfortable. you two points for repeatedly trying to lose a fight.

But he tried to lose. Which is almost worse. It's way worse to try to lose. Like, I would probably, I mean, I still would have docked him if Basil had beaten him or whatever. But like, the fight IQ is just such a critical part of fighting. And he maybe, hopefully you're right, Jean. And he gets him all again and he never does something.

Maybe this is where he learns. I should probably not jump that guy so much. But I, that was a very disheartened. as a man who bet on him, I was very concerned. I'm very concerned about him moving forward. Now we see the real man. I know that Ian Machado Gary studies a shit ton of tape.

He is always doing the appropriate things. Even when he probably should have put the pedal to the medal against Neil Magny and buried him, he was still like, hey, remember that time I almost got gassed up in a fight that I ended up winning by a million? I should, let's be responsible here. Let's not have our GSP moment.

And I respect that about his game. And to be fair, on my end, I've never had, I, I've been high on JDM, but he's not a guy that I looked at like Hamzaa, like Shafkat, like others. It was like, this dude's going to fight for a title. I have not been there on him yet. In fact, if you go listen to the UFC 290 preview show before the Josiah Heral fight was taken off the books for just awful reasons. I told you, I was, I wasn't picking Josiah, but I had a feeling based on. Josiah's style that he could give JDM fits. And I actually would have picked Sean Brady if he fought Jacked out of

Adelaena for those exact same reasons. So you learned a lot and I think he's going to take a lot away from this. I am very interested to see this fight with Kevin Holland on September 16th. How is he going to fare? Can he avoid some of those mistakes? If he goes out there and melts Kevin Holland, like just batters him, then I'm back to where I was, which is probably still not. But yeah, this dude's definitely fighting for a title because I am concerned what happened.

I don't think he's going to get the same push that a Gary's going to get or some of these other guys that the UFC's really trying to push and get into these big spots. I just don't know if it's quite there because he's very popular in Australian. People like him and they see a high ceiling with him. I just don't know if he's a star like Gary is or like even Schofcott's not getting like a big huge promotional push. Even though the fans want it, Gary's going to get it. And that's why, that's why this whole thing. And he's just getting better. This dude is just getting better.

He's training with all of Avers team. He's going to different places to learn his craft better. Just pieces of his game trying to improve it week after week after week. And I don't know if JDM's doing like exactly the same thing. I don't know if he's putting in the grunt work like Ian is. So he's good. I just don't know if I was right. I don't think I've ever anointed him as like,

this guy's definitely fighting for a title just yet. And JDM isn't the best crappler in the world. too. It all comes back. Factor in. Yeah. Factor in being the best. Say it.

Be it. Say it. Be it. All right. Well, we're at like an hour and a half already. So let's go ahead and wrap with what we like to wrap with on this show. We're going to pour one out. Celebrate the new names coming into the rankings and maybe pay some respects to some names leaving.

And this week, I'm sorry, this month, not many departures, really. Another short ranking cycle. Really, we only had a few events, a few fights. consequences. So we have one each. And for our poor one out this month, this one hurts my heart because I've been standing this man for like a year and I've been alone on this island

and now he's gone. Lorenz Larkin. My favorite. My favorite Belleter, Weldor Weight, drops out a welterweight after a loss to Andre Koreshkov. Question to all three of you, did you know this fight happened or was happening? Not until I had

to do the rankings. Really? You guys weren't paying attention to that? There's Bellator v. Risen. Those are like fun cards. It was also on the same night as UFC paper. This wasn't, I guess that's true. But it happened afterwards because it was late. Yeah, like five years.

This fight wasn't all that fun. But and it's, you know, it's very Andre Koreshkov to ruin somebody's good time while not being interesting yourself. It's, that's the Andre Koreshkoff story. And that was a rematch. That was Lorenz Larkin won the first fight by Splitty.

Back in the day. So they're one and one. We're now going to get another one. Good. The Trillog James I've been waiting for me. But yeah, Lorenz did the old Grandpa Simpson.

He was in, he was out, and then nice to see you. Nice to see you, Lawrence. I tried so hard to fight for you, Lorenz. And this is what you do to me. I've been getting shamed on these shows and in our Slack rooms for like months. And then this is how this happens.

And based on this result, you got what you deserved. I got what I deserved. It worked out. And then lastly, welcome back, a man who we wish farewell to not too long ago.

And I think when we talked about it, pretty much everyone, the exception of maybe one person was like, eh, this is probably the end of it. Welcome back, Derek Lewis, the Black Beast. He's back. He reclaims the number 14 heavyweight spot after that 33 second finish of Marcos Rogerio, Lima, which at this point feels like it was three years ago. And just a tremendous showing that he had all of it,

taking the pants off again. Just what a man that Derek Lewis is. Back in it, fellas. The Black Beast is here to stay. We were too harsh. And I feel like we did a whole episode topic. Is this the last we see of Derek Lewis in the rankings? I'm pretty sure after the last loss, that was one of the three topics we touched upon.

And I was, I think I was firmly. You won't see him ranked again. So Derek Lewis proved me wrong, big time. He got an important W. And like, he would not be ranked for me, but for the fact that we have been forced to remove Francis and Ghanu. So a space opened up and why not go with him? That is true. Yes, correct.

Yeah. And good thing there's no rankings for. best free agents because he would not be ranked on that list. Sure. The worst agency of all time. Bungled it. Such a terrible, terrible free agency. It's the worst thing I've ever seen this point.

I hope he got just such an exceptional bag from the UFC because it better, it's not going to cover the two million dollars he would have made to make to box Francis and not boxed, or not box, but fight Francis and Godin. Plus, I would have given him a hundred of my own dollars to join BKFC afterwards. So, I mean, really, he's missing out on a lot of money. There was a beautiful work. world ahead and we just didn't get it. I just didn't get it. I was going to have to fight Paco Porter and I feel bad for him. My heart hurts for that.

I mean, you don't. What Parker Porter is going to do to that man? It's just. Bleed on him? It's not. You disrespect the goat. And let's end on that. This has been another episode of the NBA Fighting Ranking Show.

We love you guys as always. That man is Alexander K. Lee. Welcome to the Sugar Show. Topical. You did it, A.K. Good job. For Mike Heck, Jedmishu. We got another fun stretch coming in there.

I think just like a UFC pay-per-view of what? Like two, three weeks? Like how, we don't even have a long time here, right? Before Australia. And what a pay-per-view it is. All 10 of those fights, really. When, when Sean Shickland wins, it's going to be the best. Oh, God.

It's going to be the best. I'm so close to talking myself into it. I am almost there. Are you in on this? I'm almost there. I'm going to start. Two weeks and we can maybe make it happen. I'm trying real hard to talk myself into it.

I'm just going to start slacking you random Sean Strickland facts. I'm going to just nudge you. I don't know if that's going to help or hurt. I don't know what Sean Strickland facts make him come across better, but he could try. Stats. You know, fun fact. Stats. throw in some topical life stuff.

We'll see. In the meantime, we love all you guys. Keep a tune to the M.A. Fidey Podcast Network. Great network. And we'll see you next time. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter.

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