MMA Fighting - No Bets Barred: Jean Silva And Jose Delgado Are About To Go To War At Noche UFC

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

Jean Silva vs. Jose Delgado isn’t the fight we wanted, but it might be the fight we deserve for Noche UFC. On Saturday, the UFC heads to Glendale for the latest installment of its Noche UFC series, headlined by a featherweight banger between Silva and Delgado. Originally, Silva was supposed to fight Yair Rodriguez, but a late withdrawal changed things up and now Delgado gets a chance to establish himself as a legit player at 145 pounds. On the latest episode of No Bets Barred, host Jed Meshew flies solo as he dives into the full Noche UFC card. Topics discussed include whether Delgado is a live underdog against the heavily favored Silva, if this is the end of Brandon Moreno, why Manon Fiorot vs. Alexa Grasso is getting such short shrift, the latest on The Climb, and more. Tune in for episode 164 of No Bets Barred. Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to MMA Fighting⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out our full video catalog⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Like MMA Fighting on Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, Mike Keck here from MMA Fighting, and my good friend Jed Mishu is here with me as well because Jed, the day has finally arrived. It's App Day, the all-new SB Nation app. It's live now. It's live, Jed. It's alive.

Yeah, man, I'm really excited. And it's awesome, man. Combat sports, like all sports, but combat sports fan, especially, you guys are going to have your voices heard like never before within SB Nation. and MMA boxing, not me, but you pro wrestling, Mike. It's, it is a community-based app. It's all about community with the USB Nation app.

It's so easy to use, and it can keep, obviously, combat sports fans connected to their favorite teams and all of sports too across the board, so I can keep up with the Red Sox, the Celtics, the Patriots, and the Bruins, all on my phone, and it's so simple to use. Yeah, like you mentioned those teams, but there's so much more,

because I don't care about Boston sports, Mike. but I get to follow the NFL, all the other sport, F1, the various sports that I care about outside of combat sports. And then there's the live experience because that's, to me, that's one of the coolest things. You can chat with us during fight cards every Saturday. And you can chat with other people in the communities as big events are happening. So it's a really good time.

So ladies and gentlemen, come fight with us over on the all new SB Nation app. Download it today. Download it right now. What are you waiting for? Download it. y'all we are back for another edition of no bets barred apologize my voice is a little weird today uh slightly under the weather but we have fights to talk about because this weekend noche ufc is upon us once again it is that time and not only is it that time but get a little two for one

special this weekend because now that zufa boxing is uh in play not only do we get noche UFC but we also get I don't know if they're calling it anything in play you know special or fancy but we get the Zufa boxing card featuring Jaiopatai competing against norah mickelshaan I'm sure I butcher that and of course the big one Ryan Garcia taking on Connor Ben I won't actually spend any time talking about those this week but I believe the plan for the UFC and Zufa is that these events are both on paramount and roll one right into the other so you can wake up. Noce Star Time is a little earlier. Fire that up. You watch all the fights, and then you switch over to the boxing so you can watch Ryan Garcia and Connor Ben settle their differences. So big weekend of fights. I mean, there's plenty of other action going on. There's super rising this week. There's one. There's a lot, but we are going to stick to the Noce card because that's all I got bets down on. Speaking of bets. Let's recap where we are, because where we are, is quite bad. I was even like a month and a half ago and I have cashed almost no bets since,

which is pretty tough. We are down 12 units at this point in time. Hopefully we can claw back a little bit of it. But I have gone functionally over the last three events. So that is an important preface to give out because if you wonderful people at home are so inclined, just bet the opposite of whatever I'm doing here, at this point, it might pay off for you. Let's continue on to actually discuss the card because Noce UFC, whatever, UFC, Glendale, whatever the shit, I don't care. Not a bad card, especially in the context of we are talking a lot about UFC 332 and its main event and all these things.

Look at this. This is actually a pretty solid card. I still do think it's among the worst noches, and the main event is a bit of a disaster as far as promotionally. Jean-Silva versus Yeo-Rodriguez made a lot of sense. It was big. Yeah, Eir pulls

out because he doesn't fight anymore. And now you get in a replacement of Jose Delgado. The main event feels the weakest of any of these noches by far. But the rest of the support pretty strong. Some of it doesn't make sense, surely, but pretty, pretty strong.

I especially like this main card. And, you know, even for that main event being curious, I I think it's a super fun fight, if nothing else. So we're going to have a good time watching this event. And hopefully we can keep on with the climb because, ladies and gentlemen, the update for you, the climb is 13 steps down. Taking a couple of weeks off because we wanted to really, you know, we're high up the

mountain now. We're trying to really be cautious about the steps we take. But there is, honestly, there were several that I was very interested in this week. Instead, we are only going one, but we will get to that in a little bit. And when we do, I'll explain the climb to those of you who don't know, in case it's your first time here. But let us dive right in. And as has become the new normal, we're going to start at the bottom work our way up top. So we are going to follow the flow of the card as it will come to you on Saturday.

And we begin with a women's flyweight contest between J.J. Aldrich and Regina Taran. This is a fight. J.J. Aldrich, pretty big, underdog, plus 260, Tarr, and minus 300. You know, Aldrich's on a pretty good run right now. She's won four of her last five. She's on two-fight winning streak. Granted, the opposition's not super high level,

but then again, neither is Taryn. Her last fight was a win over Jamie Lynn Horth. Taryn, meanwhile, won her UFC debut against Ernest Akiricati. She's 21 years old. You can't feel real confident in Taryn. in this fight is all I'm saying. And a minus 300 price tag,

which is what she is sitting at, that is probably more than I'm willing to wager. If you just want to throw in, you know, a fun Mexican stew or whatever, sure. But I just, I wouldn't really feel comfortable,

even though I actually thought she looked quite good against Caracady. You know, she, maybe quite good as a bit of an overstatement. But she, She showed signs of being a real prospect. She is 21 years old, like I said, 21 years old, big for the division,

threw a lot and had a high level of volume. Super fun fight. So, you know, she's probably good enough to beat JJ Aldrich, but there's a big experience, Delta here. And even though JJ Aldrich isn't good, she's significantly better than Ernest Carey. I don't think I will be laying this juice personally. Moving up, we go to the featherweight division for two debutants,

as Sean King takes on Jesse Rosas or Rojas. I'm not a thousand percent sure. These are, like I said, debuts for both, and it's a closely line fight, King, a slight favorite, minus 165, Rosas plus 130. King, my notes are very short on this because straight up I did not go look into these dudes. I just wasn't going to do it. They combined have like 11 professional fights. King is a 22-year-old prospect out of Fury FC with a 6-No record, mostly beating cans.

Rosas is a 23-year-old prospect out of UWC, though he's fought some other places, who also mostly be cans. I didn't watch tape. These are two debutants. I'm unclear why this isn't, you know, just put this thing on the contender series. That would make sense to me. But instead we get this here, we'll see. I'm not doing anything with this one. We move up the card to the lightweight division.

Hafa Garcia, Rafa Garcia, I think, probably not Hafa. takes on wrong zoo, wrong zoo, a minus 190 betting favorite, Garcia plus 155 as the underdog. Garcia, on a good run, four and one over his last five.

He's on a three-fight win streak. Coming off a unanimous decision win over Alex Hernandez back in April. Wrong zoo, meanwhile, three and one in the UFC. Though I'm not 100% sure what counts and what doesn't count in the UFC. He's one of the road UFC competitors,

and he has since competed on Road UFC cards. I believe they were in UFC fights on Road UFC cards, but that whole dynamic is very strange to me, and I don't quite understand it. For functional purposes, though, he's fighting under the banner of the UFC, and he's coming off a TKO win over Victor Martinez his last time out. This could be a fun little fight. I don't have any action on it. I was looking at a couple of props here. So I think the most likely outcome here is that Rongzu wins this fight via decision. And if you're going to take a bet on this one, that is where I would stash my cash because he's a good defensive wrestler and he's the better striker of the two.

And so Garcia is going to need to make this grimy, get takedowns. But mostly I just think this is the correct line on the fight. There's no real value in the line. If you wanted to look at a wrong-zubai decision, sort of one of those props, that could be something that I might be interested if I was you. but again, I've had such a bad run. I'm trying to really pick my spots right now until I feel like, until I got the hot hand again.

You don't want to just be jacking up every shot that comes your way because right now I'm cold, but you can get a wrong Zubai decision at plus money, and I wouldn't say that's the worst bet, frankly. We stick in the 155-pound division if we go to Drop our clothes taking on Tommy Gant. in a very fun fight. Jocker close, big underdog plus 375, Gantt minus 5, 25.

I actually think that line might even be moving some since I took these notes. Close. Despite being around forever and just kind of being a perennial top 25-ish lightweight, still four and one over his last five, right? Like still in a good run right now, though granted his last win was a win over Edson Barbosa, and that doesn't mean that much in the year 2025, which is when it happened.

Gant, meanwhile, comes off Contender Series. He's 1-0 in the UFC. He Kowed Arder Minnev in May. I did not rate Gant that highly coming out of Contender Series, but I was very specific in that he, he's really, really hurt by his age. He is a former wrestler and sort of followed that path, I think, for a little longer than many would.

An NCAA All-American, not just a former wrestler, but he's 33, you know, like he turned 33 this year. That is simply too old to be a really good prospect, considering how much work he has to do. He is 12 and 0 in his mixed martial arts career, but basically all of that career has come in the past two years, right? Like he turned, he took up MMA in 2023 at an amateur level. I think he turned pro in 2024. He has been doing the things that you would want a guy in that situation to do. Namely, you do not have much time.

Your window is very, very small. Fight as much as humanly possible. Good on him, he's been doing that. But his long-term prospects I am not sold on because he still has development to do. And, you know, hard to teach an old dog, new tricks in the timeline he would need. That being said, I do think Druckard Close is on the decline right now. I think that's why this fight is being set up. He is 38 years old.

A lot of hard miles. in the UFC for a long time. Granted, still, like I said, still still showing out, still putting in good performances. And quite frankly, the odds on this are probably too long, given the Drucker Close is a pretty

decent defensive wrestler and just a much more experienced fighter. And that is the combination you get for upsets to occur. But, I don't know, I like Tommy Gant. I'm wishing him the best for however long we have with him to make something

happen. And so, as I've been doing lately, I just took a bunch of leftover odds and ends and threw them in a stew. My Bourdain for the week. We'll have Tommy Gant in it. It's just three pieces of leftover parlay stuff, stuff together. Probably not even smart, honestly, because I do think Jock Harclose. My assumption is that Jocker Close is going to be good enough to make Tommy Gant work, but we can see sort of how talented this, you know, not even young man. old man is. We continue on up the card. We head to the 185 pound

division as U3 Belgari takes on Jordan Santos. Biggest betting favorite on the card, Belgari is minus 1 850. Jordan Santos plus $500 on Jordan Santos. This was of course supposed to be Belgari taking on Kelvin Gasolin who pulled out. Santos

steps in. Belgari coming off that TK. O'Mehmantzor Abdul Malik back in March that has people very excited about what he can be. He's enormous for the weight class. You know, violent man. And I think that this really looks like

we're going to get more excited about him. Jordan Santos. I mean, there's a reason these odds of this long. This is a set-up fight. Vagari's going to be significantly bigger, significantly more dangerous. Jordan Santos is probably going to get mushed. He's too big to even put in this sort of

leftover stew of stuff. minus 850. So I'm just on a full-on pass here, but feel free to throw them in your own kind of soupy parlias. We continue to move up the card to the welterweight division. Ignacio Bahamondes takes on Muslim Salikov. Bahamondes, a minus 600 betting favorite to come back on Salikov plus 400, depending on your book. Both men are three and two over the last five.

Bahamondi is on two-fight losing street coming off a unanimous decision lost due to Tafik Mousayev in March, whereas Salikov got TKO'd by Euros Medits in November. So he's been out for a good long stretch since that TKO loss. And also he's almost for like this one, I very, very strongly considered climbing with this. Bahamundez is significantly bigger than Muslim Salikov. Maybe not as technically refined in some instances of Salikov, but just a significantly more dangerous fighter, especially at this phase of their careers. bigger. He's too big, too young, too powerful. He should find a way to get a fading Musum Slyakov

out of there. But I was consulted by Alexander Kali. Lee. I told not to include it. And, you know, it's not that hard to make me not want to climb with a guy on a two-fight losing streak. Even though I like it, you know, I like Nacho. I like it. I like it. I say, well, I won this. So I threw him in the soup with Tommy Gan and one more leg that we will get to. But, yeah, I think that this may be the last run of Musum's. Msalikov in the UFC. We head to the prelimane event, the flyweight division

as Tim Elliott takes on Edgar Chires. Tim Elliott, a plus 170 underdog, Shires minus 2.10. Elliot, three and two of his last five, also pushing 40. So for that, you know, pushing 40 with that record in this white class, not bad, but he's

coming off a decision loss to Steve Erseg in May. Erseg went on to get Gott. So, tough loss for for Timbo. Shirez four and one over his last five. He's on three-fart winning streak. He's coming off the submission winner of Brunner de Silva in June. We're going to make it choke. This is straight up to me. You know, Chyres is not a great wrestler, so maybe Elliott can have success. But we're talking a significant age gap between the two, not quite 10 years because Chavez is also 30, I believe, but, you know,

eight years. Shire was in the prime of his career. Credited Tim Elliott for still hanging on and kind of turning in enough quality performances. Time comes for all of us. And Shire's a significantly better striker. Though, Elliot's funky and weird. So, you know, things could, I guess, get a little wonky because Shireaz is not the best defensive wrestler, but Shirez

probably gets it done. That being said, it feels like a doggar pass to me, right? like because Chavez is such a, has historically been such a bad defensive wrestler, granted, he's actually really good grappler, and so he could find something in a transition. But Tim Elliott is,

like that's sort of his world, this weird, funky transition grappling game. I decided I just wanted to stay away from this. I don't have a good read on who wins. Like, I don't feel massively confident in Chyres to win. I don't feel massively confident this fight to go short or long,

submission, whatever. So this one, I ended up just passing. Again, trying to pick my spots. And now we move to the main card where we got six fights and all of them are quality in one fashion or another.

And the first one we'll speak about is a bantam weight contest between David Martinez and Dan Ige. Fittigay, Dan Ige, making his bantam weight debut. This is a man who fought a 165-pound catchweight belt with Diego Lopez a couple of years ago. And now

he has dropped down to 135 pounds. He is a big underdog, plus 275. The comeback on Martinez, as the favorite is minus 350. Martinez 3 and O in the UFC. UD win over Cheeto Vera in February. Ege won four of his last five. Got knocked out for the first time by Milky Costa back in February.

I want to say that that ruined a climb of mine because my whole thing was Dan Igay doesn't get knocked out. So, and then Melke did it. And honestly, Danigay almost had. had the stoppage not occurred, there's a real chance to any heat battles through and stays alive to hit the over that I believe I bet. Alas, crying over spilled milk and whatnot. But big favor for Dave Martinez, and I see why I really loved this kid coming off contenders series. He's one of my higher graded prospects of the season.

No superpower, nothing jumps out, but he is just, he is A to A plus, you know, maybe not A plus. he is B plus to A's in all categories. And Dan Ige, God love him, but he has been doing this a long time. And he's pretty clearly started to fade. That sort of is the one in four record he's had over recent years. And I do not like the shift to bantam weight. Coming off the first knockout loss of your career, the idea that I'm going to drop a weight cost just doesn't sit super right with me. So we'll see it.

He seems to be on point to make weight. We'll find out if he does. But a lot of this does not pass the sniff test for me. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why this is my climb for the week. This will be step 14 of the climb. Now, I've mentioned the climb a lot. If you're new here, first, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Second, let me explain what the climb is. The climb is my endeavor, my dream, my ambition, to string together. 30 consecutive bets of minus 500 or thereabouts all rolled up one after the other after the other so I can turn one $150 bet into one $10,000 plus payout. If you do 30 minus 500 bets and roll them all up into each other, that is how you end up getting there. So we are 13 steps down on the climb. This is our best run since our faded run that went 21 steps before failing. tragically. We've already hit the checkpoint. We've cashed out a little bit of money of

overage money. And now we are slightly over 13 steps from a from a cash standpoint. And this is going to be our bet here. Minus 350 is the price. But I say going to be. I have not put it in yet because I had a scare a couple of weeks ago when Kettlen Vieira missed weight by seven pounds and I already had the bet in, especially with Danny Gig dropping down to Bannonweight for the first time. That gives me some pause. So I have decided to hold off on this bet until Friday weigh-ins. Make sure that nothing's rotten in Denmark. Everything goes down smoothly, at which point then we'll push the money on David Martinez to be our climb representative for the week. Also, just one other thing to note, so of you know, I do like to look at betting trends for fighters.

None of the others have really been pertinent, though I guess I'll say in the previous fight, Tim Elliott just does not cash as a dog. He's two and aides and underdog. He's two and aides and underdog. Vegas knows him, that Vegas has him pretty well pegged. Danny is only four and eight as an underdog. And, you know, that's not like off. This is probably about what you'd expect. But it's not a, Vegas also is a pretty good beat on him. So putting him as a clear underdog, there's a reason. I strongly anticipate he is going to lose this fight. We head up to the big boys here as the lone heavyweight contest on the card. Waldo Cortezza Costa takes on Curtis Blades. Cortezza Costa, mine is

200 blades plus 160. Cortezicoza Costa 3 and 2 over his last 5 coming off the unanimous decision lost to Alexander Volkov in May. Blades, meanwhile, 2 and 3 over his last 5 lost to Josh Hokit in a fight of the year contender in

April. Speaking of trends, Cortezic Costa 7-0's betting favorite. He has yet to let Vegas down when they've installed them. Blades, 2 and 2 his dog. That's more of the thing you're looking for if you're on a dog bet, is at least getting close to a 50% batting average.

I don't think he gets over 50% this time, though. It feels like Kurtz's Blades has fallen off. It's a shame there was a period of time where he was like the best of the rest and just never, you know, he did get to fight for a title once, so at least there's that. He doesn't have to, you know, not have been one of those guys who never got his day in court. But it seems he's falling off. And part of it could be, I think part of it is.

is mental, where he has decided I wallowed for most of my career as the wrestler of this weight class and nobody cared. And so now I'm just going to try and bang it out. And he certainly did a lot of that with Hokit. And also, rewatching the Hokit fight, it feels like, and I could be entirely wrong. So I'm sure psychologist. It felt like he just kept fighting, like kept punching Hokit because he kept working. Like, it's not like when he was hitting Josh Hokit and nothing was happening.

happening. Hoke was stumbling all around the cage, too, and so he was not nearly as fast as Hoke it, but he kept the landing, and I think he may have gotten tied up in that, but also he's just been declining lately. And the biggest issue here is Cortezza Costa is very athletic, and if Curtis plays athleticism is declining, Cortezzo is already a good defensive wrestler. He can't get him down. He's going to be forced to strike, and that is a significant advantage to WCA. So my first single bet of the evening is a bet on Waldo Cortezza Costa at minus 200.

We move on up to a fight that I cannot believe is this low, astonishing to me that they've done this. It wins flyweight contest between Manon Fior and Alexa Grasso to a former flyweight champion and a former flyweight title

challenger. Realistically the top two or like the numbers two and three contenders in the weight class and it's getting It's the fourth on the card. Also, with Alexa Grasso, a woman who's headline Nocha U.S.C. before. I'm not entirely sure why, but whatever, this, it is what it is. Anyway, Furo, sizable betting firm.

Minus 2.50, Grasso plus 195. Furo 4 and 1 over her last 5. Knocked out Yasmin Yazadavisish in October. Grasso, meanwhile, 2-2 and 1 over her last 5. Knocked out slash submitted because she kind of did both to Macy Barber back in March. I think this is a This is the fight to make I'm glad they booked it

I'm interested to see how it shakes out Because at her peak Alexa Grasso feels like a better fighter She's had higher highs She can be more dynamic than Menonfior But she is very much A mercurial fighter Does not always deliver her best effort

And Mano Fior is metronomic She is like the phases of the moon You know what she's giving you Every time out I say that because I also want to say that I considered climbing with a piece of this fight here and then I didn't and I didn't climb because the climb I wanted was fight goes to a decision or just the over the over two and a half thing was minus 500 at the time and I thought I should I should climb with that and then I didn't because both of these women

were responsible for the death of climbs this year men off your knockout over Yasmin Yazadavish I had the over in that. Alexa Grasso's finish of Macy Barber, I had the over in that. And in both instances, I was massively confident because they had not finished fighters in years. And then they do that. And so it felt like playing with fire to climb here. So instead, I took that fight, goes to decision prop at minus 400, put it in the soup

with the rest of them, and it pays out around a minus 120-something. So that's the soup. As far as this fight goes, I'm going to sigh with Fior because she's a little bit bigger. I think she is more physical, though Grasso can be sneaky physical, but this mostly is a kickboxing fight.

I think Fior has a little bit better control of range, and she's got those kicks, and the physicality here should play a difference. But realistically, this fight feels more closely lined than these odds are. So I wouldn't hate a dog splash on Grosso, just not something I chose to do. We move to the feature by the evening

a featherweight contest as the new hot thing. Tommy McMillan takes on Marwan Rahiki. McMillan A minus 185 favorite, Rihiki, a plus 155 favorite, both prospects off of the same season of Contender series, both 2 and O in the OCD, both coming out of TKO wins over some guy.

McMillans, though, was a bit of a star star making performance. An incredible fight. He said a bunch of things. if you're a certain type of person, you're really stoked about time at Millen the prospect. I am not. And not just because, like, I don't really care about his personality. I also just don't particularly think he's good.

He is not awful. I don't want to be really clear when I say this. But even if you go back and you watch the Alberto Montes fight, like, he gets hit. So he is so concerned with awful. And that work, like that is a real thing, right? That, uh, especially in this sport where defense is like not that many fighters are defensive irresponsible.

You just bring overwhelming offensive effort to bear and that can get you a long way. Problem is Mara Rihiki can crack. And if, you know, McMillan just kept getting popped with shots by Amontas and Mara Rihiki a little bit older, but a prospect I really liked, coincidentally, compared him to Sean O'Malley, McMillan's training partner coming off Contender Series, and he also has a little bit of defense, but mostly, like, I think McMillan is just going to continue

to walk headlong into offense, and maybe that does end up breaking Rehiki, but also maybe he just gets drawn, and that's the game for him. So at plus 150, I like the odds. I took a shot on Marlon Rahiki. We went to the co-made event of the evening. Brandon Marino takes on Joseph Morales

in a very, very, very, very close to the line flyweight fighters. Moreno is plus 100 and Morales minus 125. Moreno, two and three over his last five on a two-fight losing street, coming off the unanimous decision lost to Lani Kavanaugh in February. Morales, 2 and 0 since coming back to the UFC. He was in the UFC left. I think he did tough, but that's a recollection of not certain. It's not in my notes.

But he's coming off a submission winner over Matt Schnell in November. Yeah, man, this is a sad day that Brandon Marano's here because Pete Marano runs the table on Marales. It's a pretty tough one. He looked so bad against Lenny Cavana. Maybe it's the Cavanao style was a little weird, and Moreno is getting older, but it is hard to feel confident in Marino. That being said, I'm going to try, and this is as much willing something as I believe it

to be true. but Moreno is a much, like the best version of Moreno is a significantly more potent offensive and defensive fighter than Morales. And I got to hope that he can find it again because I know he's got a lot of miles and that's the concern. Still, he's only 32. So like age-wise, he's not that old. The problem is he has been fighting professionally since 2011 and 15 miles, a lot of miles

to have on the old odometer. So it won't shock me if Morales, kind of gets this one here and then we're all looking at, I guess Moreno's done, you know, retire early, but I'm going to hope he gets one back. So I put a splash on him at plus money because let's live the dream. And then that takes us to the main event of the evening, John Silva taking on Jose Delgado. Delgado stepping in for the injured, Yaya Rodriguez.

John Silva minus 425 betting favorite Delgado plus 300 to come back. both men won loss in their UFC 10 years. Silva's six and has six wins, though, coming off the unanimous decision win over Arnold Allen, a UFC 324 in January. Delgado, meanwhile, in a two-fight win streak, picked up a decision winner over Austin Bashie in July. It's a fun fight.

It's a weird fight because Delgado, it's a short-notice fight, and that is what it is. John Silver is trying to stake a claim for a title fight, and now he gets Delgado and that's not the case, but still a really fun fight. Delgado should have a clear size advantage to most people do over John Silva at this weight class. He is not the tallest 145 are in the world.

But, and like, and the thing is Delgado is offensively potent too. Like that you have to be aware of that because John Silva is so irresponsible at times. And I was on the record saying that I hoped the law, loss to Diego Lopez would sort of reconfigure his brain. And the way that Justin Gagey famously, after getting knocked out twice and I was like, oh, I have to change my style. I don't have to completely abandon crazy Justin Gagey, but that can't be the only thing I'm doing here.

And he got a lot better. And now he's a lightweight champion in the world. I had hoped that that would be the case for John Silva. And we saw a little bit of that in Arden Island. The Arnold Allen also is sort of the kind of opponent who will bring out less of the bozo in you that Jean Silva wants. Delgado's sort of offense first game plan feels like it will bring out plenty of bozo and John Silva. And this will be a good test to see if he can fight the urge to do something silly and hug seven times and get knocked out because he's way too aggressive and not even remotely considering the offensive weaponry coming back.

at him. That being said, I think he's a more talented fighter than Jose Delgado. I think that when he is in his groove, it does take him a little bit to get there, but once he's in his groove, he's as dynamic and captivating to watch fight as probably any striker in the UFC, and that's likely going to be too much for Jose Delgado. And so I do sort of wonder if these odds are too long. I'm not saying they are. I do sort of wonder if they are, especially because, because John Silva can put it on you, but Delgado never been finished, super durable dude.

So, especially if Silva starts really ramping things up early, maybe Delgado Homer Simpson's him, you know, gas him out with his chin and wears him down. I don't know. The fight is going to be really fun. I'm airing on the side of Jean Silva

is a big favorite for a reason. He's beaten much better levels of competition. And stylistically, I think that Delgado is mostly going to be wearing it, though he'll get some of his own licks in. And, you know, if coming in on short notice, I don't know if he can come in and have a game plan of, I'm going to do five rounds pushing a heavy pace on short notice.

That might not really work out for him. So no bet for me on this one. Thought about climbing with it, but I like the fight too much from a action perspective. Do you want to be tied up into that? So one climb this week. That is our action. Thank you for sticking with me for this.

Glad we could do an. episode this week. And next week, we are back to the pay-per-views, babies. We head to Los Angeles, California for UFC 331, Joshua Van versus Alejandro Pantoja, the rematch. So keep it locked and fighting all weekend. Download the app. You're going to hear ads before and after this about the espionage app, but it is genuinely super, super great. And I am on there constantly. So one, I'm a single dude in his 30s, a follow-on sports. It's great for that. but it's it's great to be part of the community mixing it up in the comments in the feed and the like so download the SB nation app thanks for tuning in see you all next week love you all right mike heck here from mary fighting and my good friend jed meshew is here with me as well because jed the day is finally arrived it's app day the all new sp nation app it's live now it's live jed it's alive

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