MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Episode 15 | Matches To Make After UFC 254

Episode Date: October 26, 2020

In the 15th episode of On to the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee put on their matchmaker hats following Saturday's UFC 254 event which was capped off by Khabib Nurmagomedov successfully defending his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje and subsequently announcing his retirement. Future fights were discussed for Gaethje, co-headliners Robert Whittaker--who earned a unanimous decision win--and Jared Cannonier, Alexander Volkov, Phil Hawes, Lauren Murphy, Magomed Ankalaev, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hey, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one, MMAFighting.com's matchmaking podcast. And this week, we discussed the potential futures for some of the notable names from Saturday's excellent UFC 254 event. And one of those notable names, Habimna Maghamedov, will not be match-made for, despite successfully defending his title, remaining the UFC lightweight champion of the world, because after his victory, he announced his retirement from the sport after he submitted Justin Gagee in

the second round. So that makes things a little bit more interesting for myself. By the way, I am Mike Keck and being joined by my co-matchmaker, co-host, my best friend at this point, and just all around terrific individual. Mr. Alex Galey, how are you, my friend? What a wonderful introduction, my best friend. It's funny, we were kind of sorting out during the card, like, oh, okay, it seems pretty obvious how our show is going to look. There's six main card fights. You know, all the winners put on pretty compelling performances.

That would make us want to talk about them more. Make people want to see the fight again more. It seems pretty simple. And then Havib kind of threw everything into chaos a little bit at the end of the night with that retirement announcement, which in retrospect now, we should be like, oh, okay, it wasn't like super surprising. But for some reason, for some reason, just not something I considered. I don't know why.

I was always thinking he was going to do at least one more fight, possibly more. I don't know why. I guess I got, like a lot of people got dazzled by the. the 30 and O, as if that really matters to Habib and his team, right? So we shouldn't have been surprised now. And everything makes a lot of sense. I wrote about it this morning. So very good timing for that.

But the other thing I want to say, I guess, I meant to retire my gymnastics system. I don't know if it works for, I don't know if it works for sporting events. It's certainly where I think it works for movies and other forms of entertainment. But I think I don't know. I don't think I gave a number on the preview show. But it definitely wasn't like a 10. But this event was pretty close to a 10. And if we're just talking about like quality of fights and finishes and how eventful it was,

it's about as close as you can get. So we've got like just back to back, just like fire events. So Fight Island, the second shift of Fight Island may be better than the first. I was going to ask you, was this the best pay-per-view event of 2020? My memory is terrible with these things. I am not a Jose Young's type. But I, off the top of my head, I certainly can't remember one that was better. I would just say yes.

Yeah, I mean, it's probably between that and 249. but 249 was again like we're just waiting for something to happen. It was like the rebirth of sports in the United States. So there's obviously that intrigue and all those things attached to it. But this is a pretty damn good card. And I think the fact that it started at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time just made it that much better, AK. But right now we do not have a lightweight champion of the world. So rather than matchmake for Habib, who will not have an opponent anytime soon, or at least we don't think he will,

you had an interesting idea. Did you not? I said, well, I guess we just may as well book a vacant lightweight title fight for the UFC. That's the next thing they should do. Certainly the topic of a tournament has been brought up to which I laugh because the UFC will not do that because there's very, very tournament adverse,

which is bizarre given that they were founded on a tournament that is still held in high regard by the fans, held quite fondly. So I shouldn't say never. I should give them a little more credit than that. It's possible that they kind of hear this ground well of tournament talk and be like, you know what? This is a good marketing opportunity. We can bring up all the old hoist Gracie footage, Art Jimerson.

And it's great. We'd have Ken Shamrock stuff, you know. And that'd be cool if they did that and said it back to the tournament days. But it would also take a long time. It's just not how their contracts really work either. I don't think the UFC just don't want to do it that way. So it might be a TV, whoever, one fight, one fight for the vacant title. And that's what we got to talk about.

All right. Well, why don't you start us off? Like, what should we do with the lightweight title? You know what? I'm going to pose it this way. What should we do and what will they do? Because it's probably two different answers. Boy, I mean, what should they do?

I honestly, I still think, I still want to see Justin Gaithi fight for a lightweight title again. Maybe I just want to see him on paper view and I want to see him go five rounds. Because it's just Justin Gates'i's great. Yes, he was soundly defeated by Habib Nameda. But to me, that says a lot about Habib's greatness. Nothing bad about Gaithi. Gaithi just, could he have fought a better fight?

Sure. Of course, he lost. I'm sure, you know, it's foolish to say he couldn't have fought a better fight. But I don't know if anyone's beating that version of Habib that show on. So I want to be involved. But so that's why I should. But I also couldn't really work out a scenario where it makes a lot of sense. So for me, and I definitely talked about this after the fight yesterday, I want Michael Chandler to be involved.

They won me over with how they've been promoting him. He's doing all the media rounds. He's been doing 45 minute to an hour long scrums. The man can talk. He's certainly very comfortable with it. And then they had him on the show yesterday. They ran a promo, even though he doesn't have a fight schedule, which I can't remember last time they ever did that. Obviously, the promo was ready because he might have had to replace one of the main inventors, but they used it.

That's just smart. Use what you have. So I want Chandler to be involved. And I think the guy want him to fight is Tony Ferguson for a vacant title. I feel like Tony, yes, he lost a G. But he still has that. Look, that's what? So he lost one of his last 13 fights.

Let's not forget how great this guy is. So Chandler versus Forex, so I match him, I just think it would be an entertainment. fight. It would feel just very fresh, and it'd be a weird scenario where neither fighter would be coming off a UFC win but getting a title shot. Very 2020, Mike. Very 2020. So the correct, I mean, the correct answer of what we should do is just get weird. And it doesn't have, like, you don't have to bill it as a tournament. Like, you don't have to say this is a tournament for the way to tell you can just like make a bunch of matchups and we can all, we can decipher for ourselves that it's like a tournament. So like a quasi tournament.

to figure this out. So like if McGregor and Porreier are going to fight in January, let's just put like all these matchups on that same card. And look, like, what's going to end up happening is McGregor and Porier are going to fight for the title. There's just no way around. I would be absolutely shocked if that doesn't happen at this point. That's what I think ends up happening. The rest of the guys, you just kind of see how you see fit. So like in my eyes, same card, Gaichi versus Chandler, because I think Gauchy is the top ranked guy, at least in the UFC's eyes. Chandler is the untested guy in the UFC, so he would kind of be like the bottom of the four.

So Gaichi versus Chandler, Gachie's the top-ranked guy. Chandler is there. It's the fight Chandler wants anyway, so there you go. Then Tony Ferguson gets in there, and this is where it gets tricky because you got Dan Hooker ranked at number five, but Charles Olivares ranked number six. I'd go with Oliver in that spot. He's coming off the, he's on a nice little winning streak right now. Hooker's coming off of a loss of Dustin Porre. unfortunately that leaves Mr. Hooker on the sidelines,

but the two winners of those fights can square off. Winner fights, winner of that fight, fights against either McGregor or Porier, I think this is the best way. Unfortunately, none of that is probably going to happen. Hooker, you know, Hooker can still fight one of the losers of these matches. Frankly, if they're just going to do one matchup for the title,

I would do Chandler v. Gachey or Ferguson, like you said. It's just such a cluster F, but let's, I mean, let's be real. Porier McGregor is going to be the title fight. If that's not the case, completely bewildered and shocked. But let's just put matchups between, you know, Ferguson should be on that card, Chandler should be on that card, Gagee should be on that card. And then if you want to put Hooker on there, fine, if you want to put Oliver on, they're fine.

But that's how they should do it. I know I took us on a journey, but I feel confident that a pretty decent chunk of that will play out in some way. I thought you were going to go an even longer. I thought you were going to go like an eight-man field, eight-man unofficial field. Because then you could fit in Hooker. Because I guess you said, so you said, uh, uh, Gates G. Chandler. Ferguson the Bronx and then I guess you and then somewhere in there you would mix in Dan Hooker you like said to her so the odd man out Kevin Lee hmm and he just yeah maybe

Felder then hooker had to fight Felder again but I I would listen I'd be down to see that I'd be down to see three more rounds of three to five more rounds of that fight Diego Fajara Fiera I like he was supposed to fight Drew Dober then he got injured he thinks he can come back in December Dober's going to move on I think Farhad is better than like I think he deserves an opportunity like that honestly I think he's that good

I think he is that legit he's ranked number eight the problem is he just lost all that momentum from finishing Anthony Pettis because he hasn't fought since then yeah but yeah the only so the only top 10 guy

on my rankings anyway the top guy Gregor Gillespie that's only because we don't know where he's there but yeah if he came back they want to throw him in the tournament he's six and one right he has to I know the last loss is really sticking in people's minds but he was on

a hell of a run before, there was a beef talk before he lost to Kevin Lee. So I hope they do, like I said, some sort of informal tournament. Like, you know, make the marketing clear that like this is a new, a new dawn of the lightweight division.

And then, yeah, you're running promo with all these names. But yeah, you're right. They don't need to make it officially. It'd be cool if they did, but I also understand why they wouldn't.

Dan Hooker, and Dan Hooker's the alternate. There you go. One of these guys can't make it. You slide Hooker in there. So, see, he's got a role as well. But we will see how that plays out.

Lightweight just got. very, very interesting heading into 2021. We'll definitely discuss more about Habib retiring. The legacy is leaving behind throughout the week, between the links, A-side, and other shows. But 155, as of right now, is the biggest story heading into 2021. So, I mean, do we even matchmake for Gatia? Do we just kind of do that?

We basically just did that, right? Like, Gatio should be... Yeah. I mean, I don't know what else is. He's in the mix. Yeah, he's in the mix. He's in the mix. He's at the top of the mix.

He's at the top of the mix, I guess. doesn't really have dimensions, but if the mix had dimensions, he's at the top of the mix. Yes, I would agree with that. So let's go to the co-main event. We saw Robert Whitaker defeat Jared Cannoneer, almost finished him in the third round. What a great fight that was, by the way, at 185 pounds. And it seems like all sides are pointing towards Robert Whitaker fighting Israel Adasania once again. I think that will happen. Eventually, I don't think it happens next for Adasanya. And I think that the fight between Darren Till and Jack Her Manson has gotten much bigger since Saturday. And the reason is, Adasani is not going to want to wait six months to fight again. I just

don't see it happening. Like where Adasania, where Adesania fights like 85, 205, I have no clue. But he's not going to want to wait until April to fight Robert Whitaker. And Whitaker can take all the time off he wants. The man wants to have the holidays, be there and focus on the birth of his birth of his child, like, this is kind of a weak answer, but it's what everyone else wants anyways. His next fight will be for the belt. I mean, that's what I'm going to say. I have no opponent. I assume it will be out of Sanya.

It absolutely should be a title shot. When that happens, no idea, but his next fight should be for the belt. Kind of a weak answer, AK. No, it's not a weak answer. It's a logical answer. There is no reason that Robert Whitaker should have to fight anyone again before getting the Izzy rematch. As you said, look, the best, the happiest,

guy besides Whitaker for that win was Darren Till because Darren Till knows I beat I beat Jack Hermanson I'm getting that tell a shot there's there's some buzz between me and uh is he ever since I even before he moved up to 185 he was there's there some some talk there so he has to get that win Hermanson it's not quite as clear I wouldn't mind it and I believe I believe he was one of the names that Izzy mentioned he mentioned Jared Kennedy or first of course after beating Paula Costa and I think Hermanson was in there I think he threw his name in there Izzy's really smart with setting up setting up his next fight so it wouldn't be terrible I mean Hermanson again he lost

the canoneer, that's fine. But I went over Till, especially, you know, a finish, you could talk people into it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be a blockbuster pay-per-view, but at least, at least Izzy gets himself another challenger. But Till would certainly be easy. He beats herminton, it's a lock he's getting in there. So yeah, no, I don't have much more to add besides, yeah, Whitaker, enjoy your holidays, blessings to your child that's coming in January, and just wait to fight easy again. There's, that's, that's, many, many people have gotten rematches for less without having to get two very good wins, which he has done. He's the number one contender still.

Yeah, I think that fight is much more important. I think it's more important. I think it's just as important. More important than the win itself is that Till or Hermanson finishes that fight very quickly and is able to turn around very quickly. Like, they have to be like, their mentality is I have to go finish this guy in the first and second round and they get ready to fight in January or February. Because I think that's the only way that they skip the cue and skip Robert Whitaker.

and that's if out of town, he decides to stay at 185. Like Dana White's been saying, it's great to have options, and that man has a lot of them. So how about Jared Canineer, A.K., first loss since dropping down to 185. He had a very good showing for himself and defeat. I think a lot of people kind of like overlook how good Cannonier was in that fight. Those leg kicks are great.

The ability he had to survive that onslaught, I thought that fight was over. He gets up to his feet and almost knocks out Whitaker in the third round of that fight. He was, it was a closer fight than the score is indicated. He does have finishes of David Branch, Anderson Silver,

and Jack Kermanston along the way. He's, despite the loss, he's still in a pretty decent spot. What is next for the kill of gorilla? Yeah, it's not Jared Kaneer's fault that one-legged Whitaker

is like 90% as effective as 100, as like full strength, Whitaker. Like, that like was, that like was after a round was like getting killed. He was getting killed.

And even though he wasn't selling it, you could tell, you could tell Whitaker, it took away some of his explosiveness, but again, he's such a great athlete. Taking away some of his explosive just made him kind of rely more on his fundamental technical skills, which we know he has.

So he just, yeah, look, you just, Canier just got beat. He didn't have a bad performance at all. He got beat by a better fighter. That's, guess what? That happens to a lot of fighters. That's life. This matchup, I think I saw floating around on social media.

I can't remember exactly who said it might have been more than one person. And once I saw it, I was like, okay, it just makes sense. I can't get out of my head. Apollo Costa. Canaanerreira Paulo Costa, right? It seems like a no-brainer. It would be an awesome, awesome fight. Someone's getting knocked out.

Great test for both guys. Whoever wins gets a title shot. It's simple. Let's not overthink this. We were talking before the show, and I was saying, I think, for the most part, this car is out of a couple of names, outside of a couple names, pretty easy to match people up. And this was one of them. So, Canineer, Apollo, I think everyone wants to see it. Let's just do that.

Yeah, I mean, that's my pick, too. The other option that I do have, Y'all Romero. I'm cool with that too. If you want to do Cannesair v. Romero, sign me up for that. But at the end of the day, Cannon in the Air should have already gotten his freaking title shot. Let's give him the opportunity to get one back against the last man to fight for the title. So heavyweight division.

Alexander Volkov puts away Walt Harris in the second round. Drago looked great in the fight. He picked Walt apart. Eventually got the stoppage after just a painful, brutal need to the solar plexes. And this is interesting, AK. because it's kind of tough at the same time because there's a bit of a log jam in the heavyweight division.

Like we have a lot of fights booked up. Stepe v. Francis and Gano is the heavyweight title fight that isn't going to happen until at least March of next year as it looks right now. So, I mean, to me, this is a two-horse race. It's Alistair Overeux and it's Jarzino Rosenstrike. Both are fine. Volkov wants the Jarzino fight.

I'm okay with that. I think Overeem is more in the title hunt than both of those guys right now because of who he is. the storyline of one final run of the title. So I say, let's give Volkov what he wants. Let's give him Jarzino. Overeem can fight Derek Lewis win or lose,

depending on how he fares against Curtis Blades. That's my pick. What do you think? I'm glad you mentioned the log jam and heavyweight. That is what has made some of our, we picked a lot of heavyweight fights over the last couple months or so. And that's what has made it tricky is. We kind of keep having the same names,

lump together because nobody can really move in the division. And this is sucks, as Francis Ghanu always so eloquently puts on his tweets. And of course, he's the man. He's the man who would know the most how much this situation is sucks, as it were, because he should have had a title fight like, what, like four months ago? But I agree. I think Alastair Overeem's the way to go. They were supposed to fight St. Petersburg, Russia, April of last year.

I think when we did the matching for Overeem after his last fight, I said Volkov, I said Volkov if he beats Harris, which is what happened. This was in September. I said it then, still the fight to make. So, yeah, he named a few people in his post fight. I think he was saying like, oh, you know, I want to get a Volkov did. He said, I want to get some names that gave me towards the title. He mentioned Overeem.

He mentioned Jarzino. He tried to mention Jarzino. Thankfully, he was helped out with the pronunciation on that one. They're a little difficult for a non-native English speaker and us as well. And JDS, he mentioned this well. But JDS is supposedly inexplicably being messed up with like Sidial Gan. So I don't know what that's about. Dana White mentioned it.

I've seen nothing else on that front since, but it's at least in the works, I guess. That's not one. So, yeah, over it. Over him's the way to go. So Overim for you, I'm fine with that, too. Rosenstrike from me. Either way, it works. Flip a coin.

I'm cool with either of them, but just the top position because, I mean, it's just ways what it is. It's the heavyweight division right now. So we go from heavyweight back to the 185 pound division, AK, with one Mr. Philip Haas, who disposed of poor Jacob Malcun in just 18 seconds, one of the original super prospects of our great sport. He suffered some hard losses early in his career. He picked himself back up, dusted himself off, paid his dues internationally,

and now he's in the UFC getting highlight real finishes. So, my friend, where does Phil Haas go from Saturday night? First of all, you and Casey, you mischievous little rugg rats, guys, I think you guys got me in trouble because you made me talk about Phil Haas in the show after and kind of explain some of the trepidation I had over Phil Haas being on the main card. And I got a message from someone purporting to be Phil Haas's brother, Lamar Haas. This is on Twitter, so it might be fake. And he was not happy.

I believe, maybe I assume he watched the full spite show. He was not happy with me. So, so you guys might have gotten me in trouble. I said by the end of the day that Haas was like super impressive and I was happy for him to make it. So I get it. I think there was some, there was some joking in there about like, oh, why did it take Phil Haas so long to get to the UFC? And I, look, sometimes we joke. too much. So if Lamar Haas, if you're listening to this show, I apologize for any

insult that I put forward because maybe I was out of line. But this guy's a little tricky because I don't want him, you know, we were joking after it. It was such an impressive performance. He has faced such high-level experience already, more so than most guys who have just made their use to debut. So I understand that the urge to push him up. But I was just kind of picking out guys who I think are around his range. And I'm just Nasor Dene imov. Okay. I know. It's not a sexy matchup. He's another good prospect. In my rankings, they're around the same range.

I have other names. I feel like Wellington Turman, who was actually supposed to fight this week, but I got COVID. And Bartoszvabinsky, if you want a guy with a little more UFC experience. So I know. These names are, these names right now are just a fly buzzing in people's ears. But I'm not wanting to put Haas against a name veteran at this point. I'm not doing it. Well, at least we get to disagree on something, AK, because I think,

He has put himself in a position where he has no limitations. Wow. I feel like you can't really slow roll him anymore because you slow rolled him as much as you could for his first UFC fight. He demolished his opponent. There's no need to slow roll him any longer. I'm not saying we throw him a top 15 or anything like that. But I think he does need a vet test against someone who would be hungry to take out a prospect that people are excited about. And because this man did so well,

building up his last fight against a big prospect, I say we give him another opportunity to get that taste out of his mouth. So my pick is one Phil Haas against Gerald Mearshard, Megatron versus GM3. I like that idea. It's a good step up. If he beats GM3, there you go. Then we can start sniffing out top 15 opponents

or at least getting much closer. But I think that's a good side. I put Mirchard, what? 30, 35 in that division. Haas can't be that far off. Can he? He certainly can be, sir. In my rankings of approximately about 70 middleweights, give or take, I have, I mean, I already

debuted Haas. I put him in at 49, which I would be like, oh, 49, it's so low for a guy just put an 18 seconds. That's really, that's really high for guys. That's, that's, that's 21 spots higher than a bunch of people who have already fought multiple times in the UFC. And I have Gerald, maybe a little too high, I don't know, 26, so top 30. I get it. Look, I was going to say, oh, we can't match him up with a guy like Gerald. Joe has so much more experience.

Gerald has more experience than like everybody. The whole world. Yeah. So there's really, there's really that's someone you can have to match up with someone. I don't hate it. I don't hate it. Again, I'm just a little more reluctant to move, Phil out. I don't want to talk about it anymore because you're going to get me in trouble with Lamar,

with Lamar Haas. So I'm sticking with my story. I want him around guys with similar UFC experience. But I get, if you're going to go up, you could certainly have worse matchups than Gerald. Yes. And what I think is going to happen is that one of these upcoming 85 matchups of the next three or four weeks, someone's going to fall out and Phil Haas is going to get inserted in. Yeah, this is one of those guys like we've been saying recently, probably not someone we can really reasonably matchmake four. He's going to get some sort of short notice fight that we can't

even predict. So put him on that list, really. That's probably the most accurate prediction we could make. Yes. And now we get to one of the questions that I've been getting the most, AK, emails, tweets, post-show questions, what is next for Lauren Murphy after her submission win over Lillia Shakarova? And I've thought about this quite a bit over the last 24 hours or so.

I waxed poetically about it on the post-fight show. And last week on this very program, I said that Jessica Androge should either get a title shot, fight Lauren Murphy, or fight Cynthia Calvio. Shevchenko is getting ready to fight Jennifer Maya on November 21st.

Lauren Murphy is hilarious. Said, you know what? Screw it. Take Maya out and put Androge in. And then Lauren Murphy would get the winner of that fight. That's what she wanted. So it's a little too late for that unless something bad happens to Jennifer Maya and she can't make it. And I hate to say this because I like Cynthia Calvio and it sucks that she tested positive

for COVID-19. Unfortunately for her, the fact that Lauren stayed on the conference. took the risk. She deserves to have the lead between the two, in my opinion. So my pick, we do Murphy v. Androge, clear-cut number one contender fight, keeps both women busy between Chfchenko's title defense and whenever she's ready to come back and defend again. Because let's remember, Valentina Chifchenko, heavily favorite to retain her title. She hasn't fought more than twice in a year since signing with the UFC. The last time she fought three times in one year was in 2015, and two of those fights were outside of the UFC.

Now, I will say this, recency aside, she did fight three times from June of last year to February of this year. So maybe she'll be more active now. I just don't want to necessarily bank on that. So put Murphy

and And Raj, December 12th, December 19th, winner gets the next title shot, and Calvia's going to have to fight Caitlin Chuggan or somebody like that. Like, that's just we're at this point. I don't know. What do you think? This was tough.

I'm like you. This was the one that I just could not find an easy answer. I feel like there's no home run answer. In a perfect world, you know, Lauren Murphy could wait and get that title shot no matter what, whether it's, you know, whoever gets it ahead of her. But again, then we're talking about waiting six months, seven months, eight, I really have no idea. And I don't think she wants to wait on the sideline that long. She wants to fight and she wants to fight for the world title now. How crazy is it, by the way, that, you know, we always get on the UFC for not booking.

fights enough ahead of time and not giving fights, you know, proper time to get, get hyped off and marketed. And they book this Maya Shochenko fight well ahead of time. It's not even until next month, I think, end of third week of November or something like that. And it's not until, and yet during all this time now, it feels like Andrage and Murphy have hurtled Maya as far as fan interest goes. There wasn't a lot of heat to the Maya Shochenko matchup to begin with. I mean, there was a, there was like a nod of like, oh, yeah, she's a deserving challenger.

And at the time, we couldn't think of anyone that should be hired. We're like, yeah, okay. Then And Draj comes up, huge win. Murphy keeps her winning performance going. Looks amazing against a newcomer, but took care of business like she's supposed to. And suddenly, I think a lot of – I kept forgetting that Maya was even getting the title shot. And when the time the fight rolls around next month, you're going to have people going like, why isn't – why isn't Androge getting this title shot?

Why isn't Lauren Murphy getting this title shot? You know, I think you're going to have a lot of those questions forgetting that this fight was booked like two months ago, as – as fights should be. So kind of a no-win situation for the UFC there. I feel a little bad for the matchmakers in that case. But gosh, I, Jessica Andraj, last week I said I wanted to just see her fight Shcherchenko. So I can't go against that. I did not think it was fair to Murphy if she got a win against Shakarova to have to fight Androge. And I wanted to win.

So, but again, there's just all these contradicting things going on. I think the Cynthia Calvio rebooking is the way to go. But then there's almost a question of like, what was the point of having, of the fighting Shakarova then if she's just going to have to go through Calvio anyway but I think Androche could the title shot against the Maya Shevchenko winner and then I still If Murphy wants to stay busy and I think it's fair to

Calvio as well I think she's going to want to fight I think you go Calvio Murphy This is how I think people talk to the tone of my voice how strongly I feel about this Lauren Murphy should be getting a title shot Should be getting a guaranteed title shot She is but she will not and I think she will have to fight again And I think it will just be rebooked Calvio. And here's what both ladies said after their wins, And Raj and Murphy. I don't want to wait. Like, I don't want to wait. I want to fight. So let's just fight them. Like, just fight each other and call the day. Because like you said, like if Murphy just waits, she might be waiting a year to fight again. And she sure as hell isn't going to do that. So, but good on Lauren Murphy. And I said, I think we were all in agreement during the post-fight show, A-plus. She was, she, she, she, besides Habib, I think she is the highest grade of anybody.

A plus the way she delivered from start to finish because she did everything she could with what she had and Vensum, she literally could not do any more besides going to Valentina's house and slapping her in the face. Like that's literally all she could do. And she did it so good on her. Robert Wittaker

would be my second star of the night. If only I love Care Free Willing Whitaker. He's just nonstop laughing now when he does interviews now. He's laughs at the questions. He just He goes very curt but polite answers. He's pretty much fully embraced the absurdity of MMA. And he seems in a much better place than he was when he was, you know, the stress of being champion and all the, you know, and having to deal with the media.

And whatever he's doing to take care of his mental health and keep doing it, Robert, because he seems to be loving life right now and making very good decisions. Despite like this cluster that is kind of confusing and we don't know what the hell is going to happen. It's the most interesting the women's flyweight division has ever been. Like it's not like the division's been around for 20 years. But since its inception, it's been kind of looked at. It's just like, eh, now we've got 35ers, you know, going down. We get 15ers going up. It's just like this colossal mix of misfits in a way.

And the division just hasn't gotten that interesting because Valentina is no one's going to beat Valentina. But, man, just getting the road to Valentina, this is the best and most interesting the women's 25 division has ever been, right? I think at the end of the year, Mike, when we look back on some of the best stories of 2020, I think, the rise of sort of the of the women's flyweight division is going to be up there with sort of the realization of the depth of the men's band of weight division

which many some are calling now the deepest division in all of them may just if you add in Beltor. So kudos to the match makers and of course the athletes in the flyweight division for really, really making it a division to watch.

Absolutely. What a change for Lauren Murphy over the years. This is just, she's been a great story herself to seeing where she's where she's gone and kind of gone from, and she's admitted herself, kind of a laughing stock to a title contender in a

matter of like 18 months to two years. So good on her. She's definitely a factor at 125. But I'm interested to hear where your thought processes at, AKA with the first fight of the main card, the ending of the rivalry between Magamette Ancolaev and Iwan Kutalaba. Ankolaev knocks Kutalaba stiff in the final minute of the first round, exclamation point city. He cannot move on as a top 15 guy in fight ranked guys, aka like he should have been doing in the first place, but Ankelaev looked phenomenal on Saturday. He deserves a reward going through this whole ordeal, booking cancellation, booking cancellation, COVID.

It was crazy. Where does he go from that win on Saturday? He can move on from Yuan Kutalaba. We all can move on from Ankalev, Kutalaba, because that saga, again, it was really only eight months ago when they first spot, but that saga did really seem to go on forever. It was booked multiple times. where does he go? Man, I mean, look, he's been, people have been calling him a sleeper in the 205 division for a while.

And with the way the division's shaped up now, I mean, that sleeper, he woke up in a big way last night for anyone who wasn't aware how talented this guy is or why he's been in the top 15 in the ranks, I think for the last couple years. I like, there's like two really good matches. I like the one, but I'll say the one I favorite the most. I think Misha Serkhanov, I think is a good way. Maybe I have Misha ranks too high still. He's definitely, obviously, he hasn't fought this last September. So I don't know how much he's dropped in the rankings of some people's eyes or even at the UFC's rankings. I should check that.

But I think it's a good style matchup. Again, two guys who I think are right on the door of the top 10. I think whoever wins that probably gets the top 10 spot at light heavyweight. So yeah, I'm sure we haven't seen since last September. So hopefully he's healthy. And, you know, it's just sort of travel and travel issues and, you know, how difficult it is to train and prepare for things during this pandemic era we're living in. And otherwise, I hope it's 100% healthy. And we can see that matchup made.

So right now, Ankelaif is ranked number 11, Circonoff. rank number 10. Oh, there we go. Yeah. So it's actually, I like that idea, but I'm ready to get all sorts of weird A.K. You always are.

It's been a crazy year for Mr. Ankleyev, and I think we should just get a little crazier after this year. So you said Cirque off, which I like, the number 10 guy, and we have two guys in this division who are looking to break the wall down. So I say we just matched them up. Let's go a spot above that. So give me Ankyloff.

versus Johnny Walker. I want it. I need it. Walker's rank number nine. I already said last week I wanted to see Jimmy Kruve versus Volkan Osamir. I would have given him Ozdemair had I not said that last week with Jimmy Crude on last week's program.

Ankelye versus Walker is just bananas, weird, wild, and fun. I'm in A.K. That's what I want to see. I liked Walker Crut so I cannot recommit Walker. The other name I really love, Nikita Krollaw, which is one I think I saw people mentioning. So, yeah, Ankolaev is, again, there's that, like, there's like five or six guys which is right outside the top ten. And I think they slot right into fights with each other, like, perfectly.

A lot of people I saw on Twitter wanted to see Ankolaev versus Pohashka, no way. Nope, we're not doing that now. I want to see it. I don't want to see it now, though. That is to be like- We just want to see Pajka booked. We got to get this guy booked. Yeah.

I mean. That's exciting. Yes. I thought we're going to see Pohashka cry off already or Pajaska versus Rackachachach. I mean, that's the fight to make. I don't know. I don't understand. I don't get it.

But that's fun. I mean, anything for it. I just want to see Ankelye fight, you know, a top 10 guy. He's that good. I just want to see how good he really is. As we move on to the wild card round, where we choose a fighter that we have not match made for yet, and we go ahead and do it right now.

I love the wild card round, favorite part of the show outside of the listener submissions, AK, start us off by man. What is your UFC-254 post-bortem wild card selection? Well, first, my usual rundown for guys who I think neither of us are going to pick. Joel Alvarez, great win, make weight. That's what's next for you, buddy.

Miranda Maverick, keep working on that PhD. What a young, brilliant talent. Tait to Avas, stop doing shooies. That's a general life advice. He doesn't really need advice for me. He got a good win over Stefan's True, go back in the wind column. Just stop doing shooies. They're disgusting.

It's not, it's not cute. It's not cute. So I went with, but I went with the one I got, I tried to match up with, was Shavkat Rakmanav, who I boldly stated on Twitter, I think, is as exciting a prospect as Hamzaa Shemayev. Okay, if we're talking about guys at 170, this guy's legit. Obviously, Hamzad is too,

but I think what Rachmanov did against Alex Olivaura is as impressive as the Gerald Mirchard win, certainly more impressive than the John Phillips or the other recent key wins. So, and people got to realize he's more experienced than average for UFC debutante, though he is just 1-0 now, and he's only 25 years old.

So some names I threw out there, he was originally supposed to fight another veteran, Alizu Zaleski, instead. So that makes a lot of sense, but Doleski, he was removed from that fight because of an LCL tear. So, you know, at the time, he's not getting surgery as far as I know, but the time frame there is a little shaky. I don't know if we don't know when he'll be back. I don't know how when they were going to want to book Rachmanab again.

Munir Lazez, who was supposed to fight again on October 17th, he got COVID. Maybe if that clears up, we can match him up. Diego Lima was the name I really want to see him fight. But he's, again, neck injury. You can't play around with those. I assume he'll be recovered soon, but we'll be. Again, we haven't been given a timetable on that. So going with someone with just a little more UFSI experience in Rachmanab and also a very solid record before joining the promotion.

Takashi Sato, he's a little bit of a question mark as well. He was supposed to fight Daniel Rodriguez, August 22nd. He was ruled medically unfit to compete after weighing in because we don't know what happened. I assume it was tied to the weight cut and hopefully nothing more serious. But yeah, that's the name of throwing out there because just wanted to book Rachmanab again. I think it's a big, big prospect. I will have some reader submissions later, which are probably more interesting than what I suggested.

But Takashi Sato, Shafkat Rakhmanov is a fight that I'm eyeing. Well, this happens from time to time. I also chose Shafkat Rokmanoff. Because he was one, I mean, in my opinion, if we're going like five stars of the night, he's in that top five, in my opinion. I mean, the man just took out Cowboy Olivera who missed weight in his UFC,

UFC debut in the first round. Like, good things happened. Yeah, he beat chunky cowboy. Like, that was super impressive. And he deserves something really good after that. I'm not ready to give him a top 15 guy. He called out Donald Seroni. I'm not all that thrilled with that idea.

But if they do it, I'm okay with it. I have two names for Rachmanoff. I think he's, I think he's right there, man. Two guys where I look at them and I say, you know what? You're doing well. You've been damn impressive, but let's see how good you really are. Let's see if you are top 15 material. So I have two.

Rachmanov versus Daniel Rodriguez, or my first choice is Rachmana versus Jake Matthews. Give him a step up with a win, knock on the door of a top 15 spot. Either of those two guys works for me, but that's the kind of step up I want to see. Guys like, you know, 25 to 20 range. And I think both those guys are probably in that neck of the woods right now.

there's some really good looking kind of welterweight you mentioned danel rodriguez so we were talking about rakmanov sean brady of course absolute blue chipper that that's sort of middle of the pack right now of younger welterweight guys that's exciting that's like guys you can see like in the top 15 in like a year 18 months from now like damn this is nice this division is looking nice again yeah Brady versus bala mahomets a great i'm very excited for that um do we have any listener matchmaking submissions hold on hold on hold up what happened to kacey kenny what happened to your boy kasy kennie i told I said this. Casey Kenney, I mean, there's this one option for him right now.

Like if he wants to fight somebody relatively namewise in the top 15 before the year is over, he's going to have to fight Marab on short notice. And I don't know how excited Marab would be to do that. I went in heading into UFC 254 with a wild card pick ready to go. Casey Kenney versus Rob Fond. That was going to be my pick. But Rob Fawn had to go ahead and book a fight with, I don't know, Marlon Morayas for his comeback. I guess that's okay.

I mean, Casey Kenney would have been cool too. But no, but seriously, like as soon as I heard that, I was like, well, there goes my wildcar pick. And then Miranda Maverick I was thinking about, but I was just like, she should fight like Justin Kish or somebody like that. Like, I don't want to rush her. You know what I mean? It's just all the winners, like you don't want to rush or they missed Wade or like it's, I feel like Rock Botoff deserves the shine. Yeah, definitely. Again, this is a guy.

I wish they'd been able to hype him up a little bit more. more, but I think after this win, I don't know if he's going to get that Shemaya push. The one thing I'll say about Shemayv, I'm always kind of kind of talking about how, like, we're pushing a little too fast. Part of that is he does make very good use of his English. You know what I mean? Obviously, he has limited English, but he's picked up, you know, the sort of the Habib smash thing, which people like, you know, people in North America like.

And yeah, and just has just enough English and is very, very good with his words when it comes to kind of generating headlines and calling people out. So that is something that Shemayev has over a lot of other prospects. So I'll definitely give him that in addition to him being a pretty damn amazing fighter. What do you want first? Do you want DMs or do you want an email I got? So DMs first. That we'll do the email.

I'm intrigued by emails. So DMs, I got one from Aronski. That's at Aronski, S, ending S-K-I-3-I. Anyway, you guys can try and find this guy on. He DM me. He had some good. So, Rockman, what's good, you know, he mentioned Rockmanov. Rock-O-Martin.

was the name him with her out there. And I didn't want to steal it because I was like, yeah, I could see that. I could see Rocco Martin. And Jesse Ronson, I like, except I believe Jesse Ronson probably has his eyes on returning to 155. I don't know if he wants to be fighting top well-to-rate prospects like Shaukot Rockmanov. It's not a fun thing to do. He liked Casey Kenney versus Song Yadong, or I think this might be too much to see it.

I believe he's saying Hafeiela Sunsau. I actually like that. I actually, I think that's a good. I think that's a good fight. I mean, he'd love it. Kenny would sign on for that in a friggin second. He likes Anka-Lyaf as Crylov. I thought you mentioned this in the show yesterday.

Phil Haas as Zach Cummings. I think this is one of the names you were there. Yeah, that was one of the names throughout there. It makes sense. So, again, we're talking about veteran guys in that sort of mere shirt range. Tui Vasa versus Philip Linz. I don't know if he's going to be for the UFC anymore. Or Romanov, Romanov wins the next fight.

So that thank you from Ronsky-Hulst that he said, loves the show. And thanks for considering his picks. And then Harry Lipski, who's messes me in the past. I keep telling this guy, this is at Harry Lips 5 on Twitter, keep telling this guy, get your picks in Saturday night, and we'll try and get it on the show. So he got it in, buddy, he got it in time. He likes Gathe McGregor for the belts, of course,

as I'm sure the UFC does as she would as well. He apologized with apologies to Dustin Porriere. The Whitaker is the rematch, kind of near Costa, Bolkov, Overeem. He also mentioned JDS, but again, there's the gone thing. Walt Harris, Augusto Sakai. Is that the guy we think, Mike, that we could finally get that feel?

good moment for Walt Harris. The guy is not an easy, it's not really an easy out. It's a tough fight. Yeah. There's a huge athleticism and speed gap, which again,

which we saw, I mean, even against Volka, we saw Harris kind of had that advantage. So, I don't, I'm not against it, but like we said,

we kind of want to see them being a real jobber for, for Harris to have that field of moment. Antler, Tony Ferguson, and Murphy And Raj. I'm seeing a few, I saw a lot of Murphy Andrages.

It does, I don't know. That's just so unfair to Murphy, I feel. And then random, This is where we get wild. I read it into the wild west of random Twitter onto the next one's solicitations. I won't read them all.

But for Shavkat, we got our first fighter volunteering for an on to the next one. Yes, PFL and UFC veteran Glyco Franca chimed in when we asked who should Shavkat right next? He said, me. Nice. So the U.C. wants to bring Glyco franco back a fine, fine welterian talent to fight Rachmanov. He is volunteered. So there we go. he's got a little bit of a name.

People say, Hamza, Michael Keesa, come on. Tyron Woodley, and Adam knows better on Twitter with the lovely CM Punk. So there you go,

nice. Very good. Yes, that's what people want. I don't want to run through everything we have here. We already talked about Kenny and Kallayev. Murphy, again,

you know, there was just no, I think, no really no good solution. I want to see if people have smarter solutions than us. People were throwing out straw wigs.

date names no this the these you know guys you haven't been helpful shemaiah shemma yeah true shamayev is in there uh Phil haz well that you mentioned it phil hos shemaiyev's so enough for that someone else said Eric Anders Kevin Holland no and they both they both have fights booked okay Edmund Shabazian I'm not that's not terrible that's not though I think the push of Shavizan should continue I want him not matched up with another prospect and uh Christoph Shacko my boy Jocco's got I think he is booked. Is he?

I thought he was booked and then like something happened. Right, right. That actually sounds more familiar. Robert Whitaker, we had some comments. Mostly just people saying he's going to lose to Izzy again. And I think we're, look, maybe he would, but that's no reason not to make the rematch, guys. Come on. And Miranda Maverick.

The last one I'll read the random solicitations. Miranda Maverick from Javon Johnson. He says either Maria Agapova or Alexa Grasso. I could see Agapova. That might make sense. Grasso. I don't want to see that. I do not want to see that.

Honestly, and this is no disrespect to Marie Agapova, I think Miranda Maverick would just annihilate her. Just murk her. Wow. It's just not fair. Maverick would run through her. The Miranda Maverick top gun jet. Yeah. She's not even a train.

It's a jet. Yeah. And then from Bramverick. regular review listener and contributor at Mighty Magic Mart on Twitter. He likes Ankleya versus Ouzdemeir. He just wants to move him up in the top ten. And what else? And then Casey Kenney versus either Song Yadong, which was mentioned before,

or the winner of Kelleher, Ricky Simone. Hmm. Maybe if Simone wins. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. I don't think Keller wants to go to 35 like any time soon. Oh, right, right. He's enjoying the, the, uh,

bantam weight fights at, at, at, at 145 that he's been doing. He sure is. He sure is. Not going to wait, not to worry about it. Yeah, no, he's, he's been very smart about it. Yeah. Hey, maybe Kenny, maybe Kenny would go up to 1.45 to do the, the, the 145 bantam weight dance. I don't know. Maybe. So, uh, so there go. We had quite a slew. I, I could have read a lot more, but there's only so many hours in the day. And I want to, thank you everyone who, who, who, uh, commented on Twitter sent in replies with it. And especially thinking for people who DM'd, uh, an email. Did I say that email from Tristan Gordette, our usual, another one of our usual viewers, Tristan Gordet. He sent the email? Well, I appreciate that. Yeah.

Christoph Jocko is supposed to fight this coming Saturday against Mahmoud Mordoff. I'm so bad. I'm right. I said yesterday I'm like, when are, I was like, when are Tilling Hermanson fighting? You guys like, next week? I'm like, what? Tillinghamson is December. December, I think. I really have no idea what's going on. I think it's. Uriah Hall, Amson Silva, right? That's next week. That's next week, yes. I'm back.

I'm back. I'm back. There you go. And listen, if you guys are listening to this right now and you're like, oh, I want to get my suggestion and get them in there. We'll talk about it on the Twitter, all right? A.K. is at Alexander K. Lee. I'm at Mike Heck underscore J.R.

Join us next week as we discuss the fallout and futures for some of the notable names of UFC Vegas 12. Is that what we're going with here? UFC Fight Night, Silver versus Hall or Hall versus... Listen, at the end of the day, this is what's it's supposed to be the final fight of the legendary career of Anderson Silva. So back-to-back events with legend retirements. He takes on Yariah Hall, really good featherweight bout between Andre Feely and Bryce Mitchell as the co-main event.

Greg Hardy versus Maurice Green is on that card. By the way, just because we mentioned Walt Harris, I think the winner of that fight should fight Walt Harris next. That's just my pick. But as far as this week's show goes, we are out of time. Alex Kaley. I am Mike Kack and as always, folks, do not take this too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. It is our job to make it that way. So we'll see you next time right here on on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.