MMA Fighting - No Bets Barred: Joshua Van And Alexandre Pantoja Battle For The Future Of Flyweight

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja are set to run things back. On Saturday, Van and Pantoja meet in a flyweight title rematch in the main event of UFC 331 in Los Angeles. With their first fight ending due to a freak injury that crowned Van champion, this matchup offers an opportunity to Van to prove the injury didn't matter and for Pantoja to correct the record. But who will reign supreme? On the latest episode of No Bets Barred, host Jed Meshew flies solo as he dives into the full UFC 331 card. Topics discussed include where Pantoja can reclaim his title or if #VanLife is here to stay, Arman Tsarukyan's precarious position against Mauricio Ruffy, Patricio Pitbull and Doo Ho Choi banging it out, the rest of the undercard, The Climb, and more. Tune in for episode 165 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. It is up, y'all. We are back with another edition of No Betts Bar.

I am your host, Jed Mishu. And we've got a pay-per-view event this Saturday. I know people don't really... There's some controversy, but I'm going to stick to calling on pay-per-views. One, it's easier. Two, I'm not going to call it premiere, whatever dumb shit. I'm not going to call it a numbered event. I'm going to call it a pay-per-view.

People around the world still have to pay for it. They have to pay for these views. So we will call it a pay-per-view, and this is the 333-5. first of those pay-per-views, and it is headlined by Joshua Van, taking on Alessandre Pantosia in their Flyweight Championship rematch, and also co-main event five-round non-title fight between Armand Sarucan and Mauricio Huffy. So pretty decent car. We're coming off the heels of the Noche card, and we're going to break it all down.

Very quickly, let's talk about Noce. My Cold Street continues. The summer has just been brutal. I was basically even, I think, heading into June, and all I've done is lose since then. I only had a few bets last week. I actually went two and two on bets last week, but the parley was not plus money,

and so ended up down like $26, $27, I think. So still down overall in the year, tough. But the most important thing, as always, the climb climbs on. Martinez gets it done for us. 14 steps accomplished on the climb. If you don't know what the climb is, we'll talk about it this week because there is the step 15, the halfway mark, is coming this week and we'll talk about that when we get

to it. For now, let's dive into UFC 331 and we're going to do the new normal. In case you haven't been here in a while, welcome back. But we're going to go bottom to top the same way we will be watching these fights on Saturday night. And the first one, the opener, quite honestly, a little bit surprising that this opens the proceedings as Giga Chikaze takes on Joe Anderson, Brito, in a featherweight contest, Brito a very large betting favorite, minus 425, the comeback on Chikaze plus 300. And a lot of these early fights, I'm not going to have that much to say about it because I think the lines for most

of these are doing, they're telling you what you need to know. Chikazes on three. fight losing streak, he just got knocked up with Kevin Vigheos. The losses are to good opposition, no doubt about that. Three losses in a row when you're 38 years old, that's probably telling you something. Brito, meanwhile, on a two-fight win streak, Ninja choke, Jordan Levitt his last time out. I'm not entirely sure why the UFC has made this. I don't believe Chikadze is still ranked. So this isn't like, let's get Brito into the rankings.

Again, just not really sure what happened here, but, uh, Gigi, Kichikaze, very strange career. I don't, at some point I kind of want to go back and take a deeper dive because he had a moment, like a real moment in time of like, ooh, maybe this guy's a dark horse. And then that never even came close to happening. I'm sure that a lot of it is just we were, we were probably higher on him than we should have been. But still, you know, like, it's a very strange career.

Anyway, I anticipate you, Anderson Brito is going to, I mean, for a really, lack of a better word, walk through this? Like, this shouldn't be that challenging for him. I don't think, you know, Giga's got the kicks. He's got the long-range striking, but Brito can sort of, I mean, he can grapple. He can force action how he wants to. He just kind of crash into him at times. I don't like, I mean, the price is frankly too high to feel amazing about it.

But as I've started to do lately, I just took a bunch of leftover part of. pieces and I threw them in a stew, just a little stew going, just the Anthony Bourdain this week, and I figured I'd throw Brito in it, why not? It also helped get the number to a positive number instead of just on that borderline. So got Berto in a parlay. I would not say that you, you know, don't feel compelled to do it if you don't want to, but not a bad fight to open the card. And similarly, move to a ranked women's flyweight bout next.

I'm not going to get on my high horse, get on my preaching stone here and start yelling at you, but you can't be putting ranked women's fights in the early prelims of pay-review cards if you want these divisions to mean anything. I'm not saying you have to put it in the main card, but you've got to give it. You can't just be burying it like this. Casey O'Neill taking on Eduardo Mora O'Neill. Oh, sorry, in a women's flyweight contest. I don't remember if I said it. O'Neill, your betting favorite minus 225, Maura.

off plus 180. O'Neill coming in on a two-fight win streak. Again, she was streaking, lost a couple, seems to have gotten her mojo back, still only 28 years old, which I was stunned when I saw this, coming off a TKO win over Gabriela Fernandez back in March. Mara, meanwhile, coming off a unanimous decision

lost to potential future champion Wang Tong in February. A couple of just notes, as I was compiling my notes, just some things that jumped out at me. for one, I think Casey O'Neill is going to win this fight. I think these odds are appropriate, though. If you were going to make me pick a fight or pick a bet here, I would bet Casey O'Neill on this one,

because I think, well, I think the odds are right. I do think she is just, Mara can, Mara's advantage is in the grappling, I believe, but I think Casey O'Neal can sort of stall that or come out even there. And she just works so much as more output, so she should win. Don't feel like amazing sticking this in anything, so it's not my parley. But a couple of notes I just wanted to point out about this fight. One, this will be the fifth Brazilian opponent in a row for Casey O'Neill.

I don't know what she has against the wonderful nation of Brazil, but she lost two. She's won two. Going for three in a row of Brazilians, perhaps she has unlocked the key to defeating the Brazilians. We will see as she takes on Mara Hu. you know, obviously not recording this before the way ends. Maura's missed weight in three of her five UFC fights, so will she miss weight again? Can she at least get to 500 for making weight? We will find out.

For me, I have no bet straight up. I am taking the over one and a half in this one. That's minus 500. And if you look at their fights, Mara mostly goes to decision. O'Neill's a couple more finishes tucked in there, but this fight just seems. to me extremely likely to make it over the seven and a half minute mark. So that's thrown in the big old stew of leftovers as well. We move on to the final early prelim car or final early prelim fight because we only,

and I say this, we'll only have 12 this weekend, which I love. I love a 12 fight card. I think that's a 10 to 12 should be the number. We lost one, of course, and so we're down to 12. The final early prelim fight, again, like a, the early prelims are better than the middle, prelims, which is super weird. But Edmund Chabasian taking on Bruno Faheta is a fun fight. That is a fun middleweight scrap.

Shabazian also a moderate favorite minus 180 Faheda plus 145. And again, I feel that those odds are correct. You know, Fahedas on a two-fight losing streak. They've come against very good opposition. So they step back, which is an opportunity for him to get back to being, you know, a top 20, top 25-ish guy, not really a top 15 middleweight. Shabezian meanwhile He's lost to a bunch of good people

He's lost a lot, but it's all been to good people And usually when he takes these sorts of Opponents, this level of opposition He is You know usually victorious here I like the style matchup Shabazian is very is still hitable Not like super defensively sound

Brito Fahetto He doesn't do a lot But what he does is hit hard and swing Like swing well So that makes this sort of a compelling dynamic A very interesting fight to determine who is the 23rd best middleweight in the world or what have you.

I like it. I think the odds are pretty straightforward. On this one, I have no bet at all. We stick in the middleweight division as we move to the middle prelims here. And Ryan Gandra takes on Ozzy Diaz. And Gandra's a huge betting favorite minus 600 Diaz plus 400. Gandra, a contender series product who actually didn't rate very highly coming off contender series.

but has proven me wrong thus far 2-0 in the UFC combined knockout wins totaling less than two minutes total and you know coming off of whatever it was I think it was like a minute long to to beat Zach Rees in July Ozzi Diaz he's 1 and 2 in the UFC he's when he lose we know what this is this fight's this fight's pretty obvious Oz Diaz is lost to a table go Tia and Zeng Ming Yang they he loses to dudes who can be physical and bomb on him and for whatever reason, the UFC has identified Gandra as a guy that they want to push and they're giving him another opportunity to bomb on somebody. I highly anticipate that's what will happen. So we threw Gandra in the stew.

There's only one other piece of this little leftover stew here, the Bourdain, as I like to call him. And we will get to that a little bit later in the car. That's not coming up soon. Michael Aswell Jr. taking on Jusong Yu, where Jusong U coming in is a minus 2. 260 betting favorite in their featherweight fight as well plus 210 Aswell's on a two fight losing streak Lost to Gaston Bologios in June Jusong Yu also lost coming into this one he lost in October so he's been out for almost a year

This fight gets my I'm working on a visual thing to Coent like to go with each Each of my betting cards every year and or not every year, every event. And this one gets my stamp on it that just says, who the hell knows? Like who the F knows what's going on in this one? As well as a pressure guy, you can kind of make this fight ugly. I think Jusang used a little bit more polished. But if you have like a very strong read on this fight,

good on you, I don't. This is, this just feels like replacement level fights happening. And guys who are relatively evenly matched, nothing jumps out at me one way or the other. So pass, no interest. You know, like, I guess definitionally, I'd say dog or pass here because it's almost a two to one underdog. And I can't, like, this feels like a coin flip of who cares to me, but I'm not going to be taking that. We moved to the heavyweight division and a fight that I also don't care about, but for much worse reasons,

as Tai Tui Vasa looks to tie or break the record. I think it's tie. Let me confirm this. I should have done this. If I was better at podcasting, I would have done this beforehand. But Taitoivas is currently on a seven fight losing streak in the UFC. A truly monumental occasion. And he is looking to tie the record held by Tony Ferguson with eight loss in a row.

He's not looking to do that quite obviously. But it seems very likely he's going to because rebellious to Spain is a minus 750 betting favorite over him with Tui Vasa coming in at a plus 475. I mean, Ty, what do you say here? Like, rebellus is not good. But he's physical. He's good at bombing on people who can be bombed on. At this point, Ty is a guy who can get bombed on. Ty just lost the unanimousician to Louis Sutherland.

Like, he doesn't seem to have it anymore. And it fell off so quickly, so rapidly. Tai Tuivasa was moments away from knocking out Cyril Gan and fighting for the UFC heavyweight title. And instead his career has taken the turn that it's taken. And, you know, I think there probably could be a lot of reasons for it, but to me it feels like it shows how much a confidence game, MMA is.

Like, you just have to be really, like, you've got to be in the right mental state and it doesn't seem like ties there anymore. He'll have a fun walkout. Robillis has, you know, just beat JDS at the MVP event, right? like whatever. Rebellis is only back in the UFC. I don't think, like, they probably should have cut him, like, because he's not good enough to be here technically.

But that's also not how the UFC operates anymore. So when he didn't come back, was like, that's very weird. Now they brought him back almost purely out of spite for Francis and Ghanu. Like, oh, he was going to fight Francis pretty clearly. That was getting set up. So we'll just sign him and now Francis can't do it. We'll see what Rebellis can end up doing. If he could learn how to defend some takedowns, there are,

that many heavyweight tool will even push it but like if you can learn it he can still be an exciting fun dude you know and this if you can not care about the fact that tie to evasa has lost seven in a row and is suffering irreparable brain damage for for minimal gain here then you might have some fun watching this but mostly this is just sad unless we get some sort of epic sick comeback and i don't i don't think that's going to happen so i actually chose not to even put rebellious in in the stew. But I am,

I'm bringing back an old bit, ladies and gentlemen, and it's not the old bit you're thinking of. Long time listeners this show will know that I used to do a bit called heavyweight overs.

And this was a bit in response to flyweight unders, which was back in the day when me and Connor Berks were running this thing together, he started and we kept pushing flyweight unders,

which was just, flyweight fights don't go the distance we have a super fun it at a moment in time and then i i took a derivative of that and i did heavyweight overs and was like look let's let's let's root instead of rooting for violence let's root for awfulness and it it also had a day in the sun it was also fun well fun might be an operative term but what i've decided to do this time is instead of rooting for the heavyweight over because the heavyweight over actually the heavyweight over of 1.5 is a plus 200

so I don't even think that's bad and the heavyweight over two of over two and a half rounds is plus 400 which I do actually think is a little bit worse I think the odd majors are fairly smart they didn't juice the over two and a half huge because if this goes over seven minutes it's probably going over 12 so I think that's

good odds making there what I wanted to do instead is this I don't see a World War II Vasa wins his fight and if it If Rebellis can't finish him, instead of getting that price at plus 200, I can get plus 900 for Rebellis to Spain by decision. I'm only throwing 10 bucks on it and not putting a full unit down. Just a little $10 flyer, but that's what I will be rooting for when this awful, awful fight happens, is that it is truly awful and Rebellis eaks out a decision win.

And then we move to the main event of the prelims, the final fight before we move to the main card, as Marlon Chito Vera takes on Charles Jordane in a bantam weight contest. Cheeto plus 185, Jordan minus 240 as the favorite. It's not quite as impressive as ties, 7-fight losing streak, but Cheeto is on a four-fight losing streak coming into this, and that's why he's a clear underdog to a guy like Charles Jordane. He most recently got UD'd by David Martinez. Jordane, three dubs in a row,

you name's decision whenever Kylie Phillips in April. I just want to get this out of the way. You can't bet on Chito Vera. If you do, Godspeed, I wish you to the best of luck. My head might look at this and be like, if Cheeto tries, he wins, okay. But trust me, trust me on this. As a man who has held Cheeto Vera slips and just had to stare at them while he stood and did nothing for 10, 12, 14 minutes. There is no worse feeling in gambling than that.

Like you, you immediately will regret your decision if you bet on Cheeto Ferry here. That being said, I'm not suggesting you necessarily bet on Charles Dordaim, but this fight is pretty clear. Cheeto just doesn't do anything. And an optimist, the optimists out there might be listening to like, yeah, well, Cheeto's not with Perlough anymore. Cheeto switched up his gems. You know, Cheeto, you hear Cheeto at Media Day talking, he knows that this is a problem. He said he's worked on it He's going to come and he's not going to do nothing

For the first two and a half rounds He's going to come out and be a Cheeto who Who throws and tries to win the fight I don't buy it I won't believe it until I see it If I see it okay we could talk about it But I don't believe that until I see it Because you know

Israel Adasanya told me something similar Anderson like so many fighters when they're in a losing streak And they're trying to get back to where they were they say this and then they get there and they cannot do it. It's one thing to say it's another to do. I won't believe it. And so, Chito Vera is going to have two minutes to win this fight. The last two minutes of this fight is where he will win this fight.

And I mentioned him earlier. Shout out my boy Connor Burks and our old gimmick of third round Jordan. Because how can Chito win the third round when there's third round Charles Jordane? If you get that joke, thank you. You've been rock with me for a very long time. otherwise I just think Jordan's going to do stuff and Cheetah's not and he's going to win a decision

and so I can't bet Vera I don't want to bet Jordan at that price I'm going to take a shot on Jordane by a decision you get half the price basically minus 115 to a pickum basically depending on your book so Jordan by decision because Cheeto Vera while he won't throw is incredibly durable

so he's probably not getting knocked out either now let's move to the main card we open the proceedings in the light heavyweight division as Alonzo Menefield takes on Iwo Baranuski. Baranuski, two to one favorite, minus 225 or so, plus 180 on Menafil in the comeback. Menafil, I think he's still ranked right now. He's three and two of his last five. He, these are the fights Middifield gets now.

He's never really going to get a push, so his job is to be, he is, I know people hate the term. I actually think the term is not necessarily disrespectful, but his term is, his job is to guard the gates. He dictates who gets to come and who does not get to enter the top 15. He just did it with Zhang Ming Yang back in May. He gets an opportunity to do it against Baranuski. And honestly, it's entirely possible we can do it here, right?

Like, it is very... Baranusky coming off Contender Series, had a little bit of hype. Seems fun. Is fun. But look, he's had three fights in the promotion, and they have all lasted less than 90 seconds. Like, he has never been to the second. in it, much less the second round in the UFC. What is he, is he just Terrence McKinney?

Like, he could be a 205 Terrence McKinney where if he doesn't win in three minutes, he falls off a cliff. We won't know that until he's pressured until he has to face some adversity. It is possible he does the same to Minifield that I think that's totally in the realm of possibility. I also think it's just possible that Minifield is veteran enough, can survive enough, and maybe we at least get to see more Baranuski here. That being said, even if we do see more of Baranuski, I think he's going to win.

Like I said, I liked him as a prospect. But, you know, just this feels appropriately aligned. Bernuski's not up to a three-to-one favorite. You know, Minifield's not a two-to-one dog here. So it's just, for me, no bet on the fight. But I am going to take that under one and a half because I think the way Baranusky fights, he's going to force it. It is going to be get-or-get-got.

And so if he can't get Minifield out in the first minute and a half, he's still just going to keep doing that. And then that will result in one of them going down of Bernerski never been to the cards for a very, very obvious reason. So take that under one and a half, which is minus 275. Put it in that stew, those four things I mentioned. Baranuski Minifield under one and a half, Ryan Gandra, the O'Neill Mara over one and a half. And Ewanerson Brito, the four of those together paid out plus 136 at my book. We keep moving. Gable,

Steven continues to move up the heavyweight division. We're just not going to talk about this fight more than a minute. Gable Stevenson, biggest betting favorite on the car, one of the biggest betting favorites of the year, minus 2,500 versus Sean Schroff, who is a plus 1,000 dog. Stevenson won as UFC debut. Sharoff's a two-fight losing streak.

This fight is exactly what it looks like on paper. Stevenson is, like, mad at Sharaf for talking trash about him. I don't know. None of that matters. if you gave Sean Shroff a baseball bat before he had it like stepped in there okay maybe he's got a chance but otherwise he's going to lose his fight

he's going to lose his fight fairly quickly he's not like he's even that durable Steven has issues absolutely has issues I hope to see him work on those at some point from a prospect development standpoint but it's Sean Shreau's not even like the kind of guy who can take advantage of him being overly aggressive in his chin being in the air

you know like these aren't it's just this isn't there's no avenue here and so this ladies and gentlemen is the climb now what is the climb some of you may be asking out there in podcast world let me explain to you the climb is my mission my life's ambition to go from one to 30 that 30 consecutive bets rolled one right into the other into the other up because essentially what that is is a 30 leg parlay basically. And if you do a 30-leg parlay and you even take all minus 500 betting favorites, you know, like somewhere in that range, you can turn 100 bucks into over 20 grand. That was my initial goal. I lost so many of them. The 100 bucks started to really add up. We dumped it down. We went

havesies. We were down to a $50 climb. And this would be step 15. The bank roll as it currently sits after David Martinez last week is $675. That is, honestly, that's almost exactly halfway between steps 14 and 15 from the number board that I pulled together of exactly minus 500s. So, great shape. We put this one down. It will pay out, again, it will actually put us about halfway between steps 15 and 16 numerically, but it will officially be step 15, half the first.

halfway mark. We have only been here one other time. This is the second furthest the climb has ever been. The longest we went to 21 before falling. We're on the home stretch. We've passed the first hurdle, the first checkpoint. We're at the halfway mark if we get this one. And it's not Gable Steeveson straight because he's minus 2,500.

I guess I should actually point this out. The bet is Gable Stevenson or Gable Steeveson and the under one and a half and my book is minus 425. So Gabe will got to get him out of there under seven minutes or under seven and a half minutes and then we are at the halfway mark of our climb. Let's go, baby. Hope it works.

When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere and two out of three women rocked the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when West Jet welcomes you on board.

Here's to Westjetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at Westjet.com slash 30 years. A featherweight division for the feature battle of the evening, Patricio Pitbull takes on Doho Choi in what many people seem to think is going to be either the most fun or the second most fun fight on the car, with good reason. Choi, big favorite, minus 275.

Pitbull plus 220. Since coming to the UFC, I didn't realize that Pitbull has had that many. fights in the UFC already. Because honestly, I stone forgot he fought Aaron Pico. Like that, that fight dropped out of my head. I remember Yai year, obviously his UFC debut. I remember getting the win over Danny Yeh. And then once I thought about it, I remembered the Pico fight.

But it is like that just right over my head, couldn't have, would never have recalled it. And that, that fight happened, you know, fairly recently, honestly. They happened in April for just a few months back. Troy Carling on 3-5 win streak. TKO Daniel Santos is last time out. There are two narratives, two ways to view this fight. The obvious one is that these two dudes are very exciting. They swing.

They're going to come out. They're going to have a really fun fight for how long it lasts and one guy goes down. And that guy's probably pit bull because he's pushing 40. Troy's not young, but he's just looked in better form. recently. And I think that narrative is fair and I won't dispute it. I also have a second narrative and the second narrative goes like this. That could happen. And so we're clear. If that is the kind of fight we get, Pitbull can still win that fight. That fight is still a winnable fight for Pitbull. But there is also an opportunity for Pitbull to just get a W here. We all like

Du Ho-Troy. He's super fun and he's good. He's never really been an elite elite fighter and Pitbull definitely was. Troy's one of his big weaknesses. He's not an amazing defensive wrestler. He gives up takedons and Pipple is so well-rounded that maybe he looks at himself and says, I need to get dubs here. I got to get wins. I can't

just keep losing UFC fights. I don't want to be Michael Chandler coming over here and doing that. So maybe he mixes explosion to takedowns, you know, haymakers to tackles and can off-balance De Ho-Troy and a real veteran

performance here. Plus, if it does get to the ground, pit bull underrated on the floor, I think you'll have a lot of success. At a two to one over two to one odds, I took a stab on Patricio Pitbull. I only did a half unit, threw 50 down on it, but I think there's real value in pit bull coming into this fight. It takes us to the co-main event of the evening. You all know by now that these are quick breakdowns here. I don't spend too much time. If you want a deeper conversation about these next two fights, one, MAPFighting.com's YouTube channel, we're going to do the preview show on Friday.

I'm certain that we will spend probably the bulk of that time talking about these two matchups. I was also on morning combat this week, so you can go check that out at their YouTube. We talked a lot about the main and co-made events this evening. The co-main event is Armand Sarukin taking on Maricio Ruffi, potential lightweight title eliminator fight. And Srukian's a clear betting favorite, 3 to 1, minus 325, Ruffy plus 260. Huffy, however you want to say it. both men entering on win streaks, Armand on a five-fight win-streaks,

submitted Dan Hooker and Cutter in November, hoofie on a two-fight win streak, knocked out Michael Chandler at the White House event this past summer. This is a head-heart bite for me, and my head just says Armand Sarucan should win, but I am getting some vibes, like that might not be the case, and that might just be my chicken little vibes, you know, like MMA can't have good things.

MMA, this is a sport that defies. expectation and ruins like merits at every turn. It just never wants things that should happen to happen. And so a lot of that energy feels like, yeah, if I was trying to be the most chaotic, awful sport, you know, like where nobody can plant anything, I'd have a few in this fight. It feels like the MMA gods could be that way, because on paper, I still believe Armant's who can you get this done? I think this is not just how easy Benoit Sandini had like it was such an easy effort for him in that fight and Armin could do something similar.

I think Armin is, I don't think Armand would win a full striking bout, but with the threat of takedowns a willingness to engage on the feet, I think he still can have success on the feet against Heffi and then use that into takedowns. over five rounds that does give hoofy a lot of opportunities to catch armin with something but i'm not sure even gets there if arming can start getting takedowns i think this goes downhill in a hurry and for as good as is to work at city kickboxing and work within you know leave the fighting nerds which i do think probably was good for for hoofy uh armin kind of nailed it and was like what's working with volkinovsky and uh isra udisn you're going to do like those aren't they're not me like it's not you like it's not so in my head this fight looks like hubyb versus connor because both fighters kind of fight like them uh we'll see i i the tactics of this fight are very interesting to

me how if he looks like when he gets down does he go butterflies to scramble up position arman is not that great at consolidating position if you don't consent to play guard like if you're trying to move then he'll just play to take you down to Again, so we'll see. A fascinating matchup. I'm sticking with Armand Suruke, and because I believe in him, and because this is 25 minutes,

and I think Armand probably does need to make a statement here to make sure he gets the next title fight, I'm going to Armand inside the distance, minus 120. And then that takes us, ladies and gentlemen, to the main event of the evening, the rematch, Josh Van, versus Alejandro Pantosia, Vanier champion, minus 130 pants, plus 105 is the underdog.

We know the story by now. is a rematch of the December fight that Van won the title in after Pantosha dislocated his elbow moments into the fight. He throws a kick, Van catches it, dumps him, he posts the arm out, and freak injury, elbow goes, fights over, Van is your champion. I want to be clear when I say freak injury, I mean it, that's a freak injury. That does not mean that Van's win is illegitimate. I believe that that's a legitimate win, but I also think we can all be adults and be like, that's not necessarily indicative of how a fight between the two of them will go in the future and the past. It is just, that's a thing that happened that time and probably wouldn't happen, you know, more than one in a hundred times or whatever.

So had it gone the other way, same thing. Now we get the fight. We spent so much time on morning combat talking about this. I know we're going to talk about it on Friday so much. I love this fight as one of the most interesting flyweight fights of all time, the stakes of it, what it means historically, the narratives at play, and then just the style matchup, the personalities, the clash of generations. But to me, this fight boils down to a couple of things. It really boils down to one thing. Josh Van is the future and Pantosia is the past and the future beats the past. It, you know, the past can try and hold on, but eventually the future comes for it. And in their first fight, I picked Pantosia. I thought, and all the reasons I picked Pantosia are still in my head.

Van can give up takedowns. He's a really dynamic and interesting scramble. He uses butterflies a lot. We saw that against Tetsuro Tira. Tira got him down consistently. And there was a way to view this fight and just say Pantosha is a better striker than Tira. And Tira was pretty close to beating Vahra. if he frankly just could have been a better striker.

Also, Pantoja's more durable than Tira. And so, like, there's a way to look at this and say Pantz should win. But, like I said, the future comes, and the thing that really boils down to me is, I know that on Saturday night, the version that we get of Alejandro Pantosia is at best the same that we've already seen. He's not getting better. Fighters don't get better into their late 30s. When you are a fighter, you achieve the level, and then it's whole, whenever you get to your max level, it's like a video game.

You know, you play Madden, you play FIFA. The character gets to its max score, and it's never getting to 92, you know. It's 91, and then it's trying to stay at 91 as long as you can. if Pantosia the best version of him is just the best version we've seen Josh Van is a champion of the world and just kick this shit out of

a legitimate title challenger and he's 24 years old and progress isn't linear but man fighters tend to get better when they're that young it might not be oh he's he's getting better at the exact clip every time but it's he's probably

better than he was the last time he might come out it would stun me if Pantoja came out and looked like an entirely different fighter in a positive way, it would be absolutely normal. Nobody would be shocked at all if Van came out and suddenly was extremely disciplined at defending takedowns in transition. He's good at defending takedowns if you're going to shoot from very far away, but he is so willing to engage in exchanges that a lot of time of success in takedowns just came from, like, oh, we're both punching now I'm wrestling and you're still punching, you go down.

If he fixed that in the last like three months, wouldn't shock anybody. That's what really super talented young athletes can do in short spans of time that elder athletes can't because they've already learned what they're going to learn. The older you get, the more becomes fine-tuning. The younger you get, you are stacking abilities on. And so the only real concern I have for Van here outside of like a, a genuine, here's how this fight should match up fully X's nose. I am a little bit concerned about his activity.

This is six fight in 18 months. That's a lot. It's an enormous amount of fighting to do. And we have seen time after time after time the fighters who are this active, the banana peel comes, you slip. You can't have your best performance time in time out. He's still very young. That is generally mitigated the younger you are

because younger athletes are just more apt to be able to do this. But if he looks a little flat on Saturday, also, like that's the one might be like, yeah, maybe I should have given that more credence. Nevertheless, I think Josh Van gets it done. I've got a bet on him at minus 130. And I also have a bet on the over three and a half. That is that even money plus 100 because I think he's fights going along.

Pantosha is incredibly durable. He's only been finished at one time when his elbow popped out of socket. That seems very unlikely. to happen again and as such i don't think van gets him out of there if he does it would be way late would be my guess if someone's going to get a finish here i would i would think that it is going to be pantosia that gets a finish and i looked at the uh pantosia finish no bet line let me see if that's moved at all actually because when i initially looked at it i wasn't quite into it so pulling it up right now finish only winner pantosia's plus 110 honestly i actually don't

I don't hate a flyer on that either because like I said, I don't think Van gets a finish on him. Pantosia is just extremely durable. And so you can get a plus money on a Pantosia win. Being said, Pantosia can win a decision, right? Like it could be a, I get to the back, I hold your back three out of the five rounds. I win the fight. That's also possible. So maybe don't do that, but I've given you an option if you so choose to take it.

I took the over three and a half because I think this fight is going to go along. We're going to get a great one for the main event. And that is it, ladies and gentlemen, 36 minutes on my clock. A little bit long, but it's a pay-per-view. I didn't have a guess this week. There's just too much going on. And honestly, I kind of like keeping these things sub an hour. I'm pretty into that.

So tune in Saturday for the fights. Then guess what? We're on the road. Back to the apex, I guess. Technically not really on like a great road here. But they're going from L.A. to the apex. As Raul Roses Jr. takes on Haone Barcellus in the main event of UFC Vegas 120 and a card that is bad, just straight up bad.

We will talk about it all over next week, but honest to goodness, it is hard for me to think that there has been a worse UFC card than this on paper. But that's next week. This week, 331, man, that is, we're taking that as the go-home show into 332, which is quite possibly the worst pay-per-view of all time in the modern era. That is a tough, tough two-week stretch for the UFC, but we will be with you all the way EnmeFighton.com and guess what?

You're probably sick of this by now, but I'll keep it tight. There's a new app, SB Nation app. So when you are watching the fights on Saturday, you can have the app up, and you can join our live chats, our game feeds, as we're shopping it up,

watching the fist fights on Saturday. If you've got something doing, you've got a wedding, you're doing something else, you can't watch the fights, download the app. Then you can just pull up the ad, be like, oh, okay, I can see what happens without having to go to the website to scroll through everything, find what you're looking for, easy to use app, free in the United States

and Canada, SB Nation app, download it, then join us for the fights on Saturday. Thank you for joining me for this discussion today, and I guess we'll see you for UFC Vegas 121 next week. Thanks. Love y'all. All right, Mike Heck here from MMA fighting, and my good friend Jedmishu, 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.

MMA boxing, not me, but you, pro wrestling, Mike. It is a community-based app. It's all about community with the new SBNation. nation at 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 i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm just so simple to use yeah like you you mentioned those teams but uh 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 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 SBNation app downloaded today. Download it right now. What are you waiting for? Download it. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.