MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Episode 22 | Matches To Make After UFC 256

Episode Date: December 13, 2020

In the 22nd episode of On to the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee put on their matchmaker hats following Saturday's memorable UFC 256 event at the UFC APEX. After Devieson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno fought to a draw in an instant classic for the flyweight title, they'll likely be matched up for a rematch in 2021. With that, future matchups were discussed for Charles Oliveira, Tony Ferguson, Mackenzie Dern, Kevin Holland, Ciryl Gane, Cub Swanson, and the rest of the winners from the final PPV event of 2020. 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. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a super jam-packed special edition of On to the next one, MMA Fighting's Matchmaking Podcasts. We are fresh off. Let's be honest, the best pay-per-view, the best event of 2020, UFC 256, and there's just so much to talk about coming out of this thing. I am Mike Keck being joined by the co-host, co-matchmaker, the best friend, and most importantly, the Prince of Positivity, Alex K. Lee and AK, this event had it all. And while

some things stay the same, a lot of things change for the UFC on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Did it not? We have talked so much about this card already, Mike. We did it before. We did previews. We did a pre-fight Q&A. We did a very, very long post-fight show. And you know what? We could do a two-hour show every day for the rest of the week to talk about this card. It was so much fun. And we wouldn't exhaust all the kind of storylines and potential storylines that came out of it. So I am I am so ready for today's show. Super size it. Mike, do people, is that still, I haven't been, I don't eat McDonald's regularly more. Is supersizing still a thing? I don't remember that? I don't think so. Yeah, I don't

think you say like, I don't think you say supersizing. No, that documentary, remember that documentary supersized me? Yes. That was 16 years ago, man. So that's why I don't know if this term could be long dead. And I think I could have obviously kind of wanted to get away from that, that, that, you know, that connection. But super, but yeah, for anyone who's our, Remember, it supersized this episode for me, Mike. We are because, as you mentioned earlier, we've talked a lot about this card, and we're going to talk even more. It is a supersized edition.

We're going to do something we haven't done on the program yet since we started it. And as much as we love doing it every week, there will be no wild card picks because we're going to go through all of the winners. How about that? It's a matchmaking party in extravaganza, if you will. We're getting into the holiday spirit with the, as AKC, a supersized edition of the program. And AK, although we're not matchmaking for either guy because they have another date with each other in 2021. Davis and Figurato and Brandon Moreno fought to an epic draw, one of the best fights of the year, one of the best title fights in UFC history.

And I feel, sir, that it would be a disservice to ignore what those guys did inside that Octagon for 25 minutes on Saturday night. Yeah, look, if for some reason this fight can't happen, you know, if either guy has to withdraw, it isn't available. there's certainly options. I don't even want to talk about those other options, though, Mike. This is the rematch that we should all be thinking about. This is the rematch that has to happen. Dana White, thank goodness, did not dawdle at the show. He said, after Saturday show, excuse me.

He just said, yes, that's a fun fight to look forward to in 2021, isn't it? Yes, that's the one to make. So, yeah, I don't know how much time we had to spend on that. It was an amazing fight, one of the best fights the year. Could end up being one of the best fights of 2021. You know, we might have a frontrunner already. So whatever names, people are thinking, up and I know I know that people are out there cooking up ideas. No. No. Figgy,

Moreno, too. This is the fight to me. Yeah. And I liked what Dana White said as well, because he was asked, well, if like Moreno's hurt and you can't be ready, maybe we do Cody Garbrand. Dan, it's like, no, give these guys as much time as they want as they want. They have an open time frame because they just turned around and fought again on three weeks notice. I mean, it's just crazy. And people, like, the fight was so good that people actually kind of forgot about that. I'll admit that I forgot about that, too, because those guys fought such an epic war like the fifth round they got tired but even if they had like 14 week training camps in that fifth round they still would have fought like that because of the pace they put on it

was just such a crazy fight my hat kid could not come off fast enough and uh really looking forward to see what these two guys can do on full training camps when they're healthy in 2021 but incredible stuff from those guys you uh like you had to drop the g bomb didn't you the garbrand bomb but it's worth mentioning because we should say someone who was who weighed in for Saturday's card a little bonus matchmake for you guys, a man who threw down the gauntlet on your own show, what the heck, calling out Cody Garbage. Manel Cape wants that fight. And let me tell you something.

Again, if everyone's healthy, then that rematch for Grady of Moreno. And then Cody, Cody Garban, I know he doesn't want, he's not going to want to sign up for this fight, but he should have to. He should have to deal with Manel Cape first before he gets to tell a shot. Yeah, that's a scary fight for God. If I'm Cody Garber, I'm staying far away from that one. No, no reason. But listen, you don't, he doesn't have the public, like the public appeal and the

public support right now. Like, he's just, he's, he's not even a heel or a baby face. I just don't think people really care at this point. So him fighting, him, him just going in and be like, you know what, Minel Cape, I'll fight you. I'll earn my shot. I think he would get a lot of support for that. But we'll see what happens.

Let's talk about, uh, the lightweight division. We have a brand new boogeyman at 155, AK. Charles Oliveira. Absolutely dominates Tony Ferguson. 3026 is across the board. I actually thought the judges did Ferguson a bit. of a favor because you could make the argument that Oliver got 10-8s in every single round. It was just a dominant performance. DuBronx is no joke. Nine wins in a row. He just did something

that we have never seen before. In fact, it was something maybe we thought about, but we just couldn't like imagine it clear enough. But we saw it with our own eyes on Saturday night. What is next for Charles Olivera after that super impressive performance? Look, Habib is retired. Charles Olivera is the best lightweight. in the world right now. I am throwing that out there. I was that convinced yesterday. And by the way,

based on the other six consecutive finishes that he's had during this run, that's just, guys, that just doesn't happen at lightweight. Lightweight is the toughest, has been the toughest division in the OSC.

In the world, I shouldn't say, there's other, and if you're taking to cut other divisions and other promotions, it is the deepest, it has long been the deep,

you don't finish seven straight people of the level that the Bronx has fought. So he's the best right now, Which is why I'm saying, whatever happens next, it has to be for a title, whether it's undisputed, interim, whatever. He called out for the Porre McGregor winner. That is the fight to make. I'm picking him now to beat either of those guys.

Otherwise, I wouldn't object to Justin Gaetje, Michael Chandler, for an interim title. But that's it. I'm not going anywhere outside those four names, and Charles Oliver and his management shouldn't either. Yeah. I mean, I'm totally in agreement with him. I think he has his finger on the pulse enough to know that McGregor-Poree, either that fight will be for the bacon title, and we just haven't, it just hasn't been announced yet, or the winner of that fight will fight for the vacant title. Either way, like you said, Charles Oliverer's next fight

will be for the lightweight title. If Habib somehow comes back, it's Havib versus Olivera. The man leapfrogged everybody last night. I don't care what Justin Gachie does next. I don't care what Michael Chandler does next. It doesn't matter. Oliver's next fight will be for a title and nothing else makes sense. In fact, if that doesn't happen, I will riot, AK, I will riot. Because we've seen some crazy things in the UFC. This is a no braider. There's no other option. I don't care whether he speaks English or not. I don't, I don't care. I just want to see this guy fight. Listeners, this is the magic of recency bias, by the way. We are, we are in crazy for Charles Olivera right now. Yes, that's right. We are all in, I don't care. I'm aware. I'm aware that this is recency bias.

I can feel it, and I'm trying to counteract it, and I still can't. I want Olivera fighting for a title. I don't care who against who. Khabi would be a dream match, but any of the guys as we mentioned, put them in there, and I want to get gold around this guy's waist before summer 2021. Is Charles Olivera on the Mount Rushmore? No, I'm just kidding. That's way too. I'm just kidding. That's way too recently. Hey, hey, hoist. Hey, hoist, Gracie. You're out, buddy. You're out of here. He has more UFC submissions than you. If you guys met your prime, he'd kill you. So, yes, he's

knocked Hoyce Gracie off the Mount Rushmore. Put Charles Oliver's face on there right now. So that is the bright side of that fight. We saw a new star emerge. And as far as Tony Ferguson goes, as I mentioned on the post-fight show, I would like to see Tony Ferguson take a break. Because, and I thought about this a little bit last night before I fell asleep, sometimes this sport can be cruel. And you can become so engulfed in things that it almost like messes with you mentally. And some of the things he was saying heading into this fight and before the fight, and before the fight, and probably like throughout the entire year, a little concerning, if I'm being honest.

And Ferguson is a guy who, and I'll say, I'll just throw this out there to peel back the curtain, early on in my career, 2015, 2016. Tony and I did a lot of interviews together. We have the same birthday. Like I'm literally, he was born literally one year after I was born. So we've talked about that a lot. We've had a few conversations over the years about parenthood and being fathers, like just randomly texting each other, like, shoot each other, like cool quotes about parenthood.

and just like striving to be the best dad possible. Like Tony's a really good dude. But this sport can just take its toll on anybody, even somebody like Elkaku. With that said, I want to see him take a break. Take a long break. Stay out of the media.

Stay out of the news. If training makes you happy and put you in a good mental place, do it. But just step away from the limelight for a little while. Like train for the love of training, not to prepare yourself for a fight or set yourself up for a fight. And like I said, Saturday night,

I don't think Tony Ferguson is done. I think he has a lot left in the tank. I just think the sport and all the craziness within it, it's just been chipping away at him over the years. And before the tree falls, I don't want to see that tree fall. Let's let the roots sort of like restrainthen and then have him come back. If you want to go play baseball, go play baseball. If you want to do something else, go do something else.

Just do something that you enjoy and get your mind out of the fight game for a little while. And whenever that happens, give him Paul Felder, who is not a guy who's going to be fighting three, four times a year. I think it would just be a super fun fight. Felder would want it. Ferguson would be up for it. And at the same time, it's a very winnable play for Tony Ferguson, in my opinion. I like that. What's a U.K.?

You mentioned it on a Saturday show? It's perfect. Paul Felder. I'm not going against it. It's perfect in so many ways. Felder has been saying he's really only looking for big fights. I believe he's mentioned Ferguson amongst a bunch of other names. I think Ferguson was one of the names he's thrown out there in the past.

And I think when he initially did, it didn't necessarily make a lot of sense. This might have even been before Ferguson fought Gateschi, though maybe not. I don't know if Felder would have said he was, he was, you know, he was poised to, like, you know, get in the way of that 12-fight win streak. But it wouldn't have surprised me if he did. I do know this sometimes here. He did mention he wanted to fight Ferguson. And I don't know. And I thought, ah, the rankings don't quite line up.

Now, two straight losses. Felder coming off, you know, short notice lost to Dosanos. But, yeah, it fits the bill. It's a big name. It's a big name, Felder's wanted for a while. It'd be really a nice reward for Felder 2, I think, you know, and a test kind of see where Ferguson is at this point in his career. Because, again, I think that Olivera was so dominant, and I don't want to give all the credit to him and not focus on a lot of the talk you see online. Like, oh, Ferguson's washed.

He lost to Justin Gaithi and Charles Olivera. All right? Those guys are really good. If you lose those guys, there's no shame in that. He went to the fifth round with Gaithi. He went to distance with Oliver. It was not competitive. I admit it was not competitive against Oliver.

and that was troubling to see, but I still see him as a top, clear-cut top-top-ten guy, and Felder's right up there too. And I think, and the crazy thing is, if this happened a year ago, Mike, I don't think anyone would be picking

Felder to beat Ferguson. Now, whenever this hypothetical matchup happens, I think Felder might be favored. Do you agree with that? No, I don't agree with that. No, still he wouldn't be? No, I just don't think the level of competition is even close to each other.

Like RDA, like I know, RDA is a player and stuff, but he's not Charles Olivera. He's not just in Gagee. At least not right now. I mean, maybe he is. Maybe he's the greatest lightweight of all time. We just haven't seen it. But I would have to favor Tony Ferguson in that fight.

He's just got way more tools in the toolbox and way more ways to win. But you know that fight's kind of up on the feet and they're just going to be slinging at each other. It's just a fun fight. MMA math. You know, Felder was the last guy to beat. I'm just saying, you know, Felder beat Oliverer beat Ferguson. So really, you're right. You know what?

Maybe this fight shouldn't even happen. Because we've done the MAA math already. I think Felder would kill Ferguson. No, I'm kidding, of course. But yeah, it's crazy to me that that was the last loss for Oliver. Now, obviously, I think that was, I'm looking at out, that was three years ago now. I think Oliver would win the rematch handily against Felder. But it is amazing that that's the great career of Felder.

So I think, I don't know. I think Felder's had that, you know, again, that was three years ago, but Felder just got some big wins on there. So I'll tell you right now, I would pick him. I can't know what I'm saying this because I picked Ferguson to beat Oliver. Maybe I'm just course correcting too hard, but I think I would pick Feldo to beat Ferguson. Yeah, I mean, it just depends. Like if they, if Ferguson's like, oh, I'm ready to come back in February, I'd probably

pick Paul Filder. Right. But if they did this fight in like November or December of 2021, I'm picking Tony Ferguson because it means he took enough time off and he did the rejuvenated. The rejuvenated Tony. Hopefully next time we see him in the rejuvenated Tony. Yeah, Tony 2.0. Let's see what happens.

Oh, that's scary. Let us head to the strawweight division. Mackenzie Dern is now 10-1 as a professional MMA fighter. She picked up a gritty, hard-fought, unanimous decision win over Vierna, Jean de Roba, three wins in a row for the number 11 ranked strawweight contender. What do you like for her next, A.K.? I think we've called for the business fight at least on a couple of other shows. I know this is what I wanted for Dern.

I think the last time she watched it, she beat Marcos. I still want Dern Michelle Watterson. I still think this is a good fight to make. Some may argue that with a win over Jen Judaba that this fight isn't necessary anymore. Maybe people had, I don't see why they would have Janja Duba ranked higher than Waters. I think Waterston's accomplishments are certainly considerably more notable. But I still like it. I think it's two personalities.

I think obviously the UFC likes. They want to get behind. I don't think either woman suffers much with a loss. I think it's a big test for McKenzie Dern, certainly on the feet. her stand-up's getting better, but I mean, against someone like to be karate-hottie, I think it would be, I don't know. We definitely see what holes there still were,

if any, by the next, by the time, Dern fights again. Because her striking is getting better, I will say. And, of course, the ground game, just on another level, which opens up a lot of things for her. So I still want to see that fight. I'm sticking with it. I've mentioned it before. Dern, Waterson.

I don't dislike it. I actually, if they made it, I'm fine with it. For me, this might have been one of the easier picks in the entire card. I saw some folks throw out Tisha Torres. I don't love that idea. I'll watch it, but I would rather see the UFC rebook Torres and Angel Hill. I think you do Dern versus Klaugalia Gidelia. I mean, Gadelea is right number six.

Gadillion Dern's interesting. And I know you probably want a slow roll Dern as much as possible and not throw her to the wolves, but I think you got to throw her into some sort of deep water. And quite frankly, if I'm buying fighter stock, I'm buying a lot more of Janderoba than I am. Adelaia and Dern beat John D'Oba last night. She had a great third round.

She showed me a lot in that fight, especially with the grittiness factor playing into it. That's my pick. I think that's, it's kind of a no-brainer. In my opinion, I like the Waterson idea. Torres, eh, not too fond of that one, but I would watch. But I think Adelaia is the fight to make. I think Adelae would also be willing to talk a little more ish. You know what I mean?

Like, Waterson and Dern would just be like two months of mutual admiration. Oh, you know, this person is. Look, they're both super nice people. And that's cool. That's cool. I have no problem with that. That's an inch, but people, look, people like people slinging dirt. And Cordelia, I think, is low-key pretty good at building up years.

I think if anyone looks at any of her previous fights or even fights that she's been trying to get, she'll talk a lot of crap. And I don't necessarily think she's cross-line or everything like that. But she definitely is the kind of fighter who can make things personal up until the point of the fight, which is good. She's professionally disrespectful, if that makes sense, Mike. I like it. So I don't mind that either, yeah.

As we head to the star of the night, A.K., the man who was banned from the show on multiple occasions. Oh, he's back. Kevin Holland goes out there in the UFC Apex, and he knocks out Jokkeri Sosa. I've never seen anything like that in my entire life. Survives on the ground, violently finishes Jokore, gets a bonus, 5 in 2020.

Now, last week, I sit on this very program. Give the winner of this fight to Jacker Manson, who's ranked number six in the world. And after that performance, I am changing my mind. And I would love to see Marvin Vittori. I don't think that happens yet. But I think late February, March maybe, you headline a fight night card with Kevin Holland taking on Derek Brunson. There's some heat there on Holland's end. Brunson would be crazy to not take that matchup because there's so much hype on Holland right now.

I know Brunson wants like a high-ranked opponent. he wants a title shot sometime in 2021. He feels he's not getting the respect he deserves. But if he fought Kevin Holland and Kevin Holland's on the other side of that contract, he would be absolutely nuts to say, no, he's not ranked high enough for me. I would go that way. What do you think? Yeah, no, I agree.

There's heat there. Brunson is, for lack of a better term, a gatekeeper. You know, that guy probably standing in the way of Holland really comfortably moving into a top 12, top 10 spot. First of all, I still regret lifting the ban on Holland. For everyone who doesn't remember, we have banned him because he's willing to take a fight at any time, thus making our matchmaking speculation pointless and having us waste our breath. But you're right, his performance was so good.

The knockout was incredible, and it was such a big-name opponent that fine, he is allowed to return, even though he'll probably end up frigging himself against, like, Trevor Smith or something on the first show in January. We just don't know with this guy. What's the point? What's the point? But yes, if we are a lot to speculate, first off, shout-ups to my old roommate, Mitch Sanderson,

who sent me a message and said he'd love to see Holland Gaslum, which is a fight I've also campaigned for before. I still think that's a good one for him, even after beating Jacquetay. I do have him jumping over Gaslam in the rankings with the Jacquetay win, but I still think it's a good one. So, screw it. I'm just going to go with what Holland wants. If he wants to come back to our show,

give him Hamzad okay not next week not for the 19th screw it screw it I've been very good about not pulling the Hamzat card every week all right I'm sure we've mentioned it several times but this would be such a good fight it'd be such a good fight it should happen I think at 185 even though even though shemaya is a top 15 ranked welterweight for some reason I think it should be at 185 and then hey maybe we can end this welterweight thing and at least put them in the middleweight rankings for like a few weeks like Jesus but I'm into it I'm into it it's they're just the build would be so good. It would provide a different kind of, you know, test than Leon Edwards.

I know people wanted to see the Leon Edwards fight so we could know what we really had with Hamzat. I think the Holland fight would tell us a lot as well. So for those purposes, it would also be great. But yeah, let's just give everybody what they want. And people are calling this for well before I thought it was a good idea. So Hamzat and Kevin Holland. Yeah, I think you just kind of immediately make Kevin Holland the backup fighter for that fight.

It looks like it's going to go down January 20. That's what Dana White says. You know, and if something happens, like, you know, maybe they both land in Abu Dhabi and one of them tests positive, you'd do it at 185, Holland versus whoever's remaining and just have them ready, I guess. I'd kind of like see Holland take a little bit of a break, if we're being honest, like wait until February to fight again, but you know that's not going to happen. Like you said, he's probably going to fight, you know, some guy coming off the contender series

in his debut who was like the fourth replacement. for the co-made event of some kind because that's just who Kevin Holland is but what a performance that guy I mean literally if you threw Kevin Holland in there with anybody I'm watching anybody in the top 15 I think you can make an argument for it so I'm down let's do it I need my monthly fix any of my monthly Holland fix what month did he just didn't fight in November I think right that's like the only one he missed recently was a number yeah yeah because he found Halloween was the last one right and he was supposed to fight in November gosh this guy's crazy no no he's just what

All right, it was supposed to be first week of December. Okay, so yeah, yeah, Halloween. So he just missed out on November. I'm sure he would have fought on November fee if he could have. Yeah, and the only reason he didn't is because he booked the fight with Hermanson, like in early November. August, September, October, December, his last four fights. That is wild.

Yeah, what a year that man has had. Heavy weights kicked off the main card as Seril Gan, gone, put away Junior Ros Santos in the second round. I'm glad we finally figured out this pronunciation after all this time. But I think this is one of those situations where we knew it was going to happen. It was sort of inevitable. We just didn't fully want to allow ourselves to get to that place. But we unfortunately had to see it all go down. Serial gone to 7 and O, definitely a super prospect. What do we do here, AK?

Gone along with Holland was one of the guys who I think we said when we were talking about the card before was, would be his win would really kind of make, make him a little bit difficult to match up. Holland, I think, had more options of 185. Gone at heavyweight. Once you reach that, now that you're breaking that top 10, it's all veterans. It's all veterans who probably don't want to fight you. But I mean, at this point, I guess the matchmakers have to put their foot down. So I'm all in. I'm all in on the Gondrain. I think he's a future world title contender. So I'd like to see him face the Alexander Volkov. Alster Overim winner. They fight on February 6th. There's a bunch of other veteran options, but that's

the one that jumped out to me that. I said, you know what? Overeign would probably hate it. But I also think the UFC would be willing to make Overeem gone kind of a title eliminator. Again, that's a very tentative term, given that we don't even know when Miochich and Ngano were going to fight. But I think if you dangle that in front of Overeem, say, hey, knock off this young guy, you're back on that. You're definitely at the front of the short list for a title fight. I think Overeign would be fine with it.

Yeah. On our little preview show Q&A, I said there's like no need to rush gone, slow roll him as best you can. And I'm totally wrong at this point. Like, throw this man into the top five right away. My first choice, if they can make it happen, Derek Lewis. You do Gone versus Derek Lewis if they can't rebook the Curtis Blades matchup. And it all depends on Derek Lewis because it seemed like the plan was doing in January.

It doesn't seem like Curtis Blade is going to be ready for January. So if Derek Lewis is like, screw it, I already had a training camp. Like, let's fight. Throw gone in there and see what happens. I think that is like the top option for me. I feel like they're eventually going to rebook Lewis and Blades at the end of the day. So I'm down for Jarzini, Rosenstrike. Process of elimination, fun fight, the greener guys in the division in terms of MMA competition,

but still, combat sports and striking pedigrees. It's those two guys, in my opinion, Lewis or Rosenstrike, flip a coin in my eyes. I don't really care. Either of those two make great sense to me. I'm excited for it. I don't know why I keep overlooking the Rosenstrike matchup. It was definitely brought up, and I don't know why. I'm just not, I don't know.

Maybe I don't want to see two guys who I think could be, you know, world title contenders derail. But I'm usually all for that. You know, me, I like matching prospects of prospects, tenders, and tenders. So, yeah, that's a great suggestion. I don't know. Just for me, it just keeps not popping up in my mind. Other veterans, I thought of Marsa Dibura. He fights Greg Hardy next week.

Anjaralovsky, Ben Rothwell. So again, if you want to, like I said, I think he's above those matchups now. But when you consider he's only had seven pro fights, I wouldn't be against the matchmakers saying, hey, here's like a little bit of a step back from here. And depending what people think of junior, maybe it isn't a step back anymore. You know, Junior D'O Santos has now lost four straight fights against very good competition. And the one thing that popped up a lot in the reader suggestions, Mike, Augusto Sakai. People are really into this.

I think he's past that matchup now. I think so, too. I do think the junior win. It absolutely, on paper makes a lot of sense. I mean, you're just seven and oh. That's only seven pro fights, Mike. It seems crazy that we, he's pretty much a top five heavyweight or at least top ten with that win. So Sakai is actually really sensible.

So readers, I'm kind of disappointed in how sensible you're being and how much logic you're using. This is not what I come to you guys for. I come to you guys for wild matches and make no sense. Leave the sensible stuff to us. But I do want to throw that out there. Sakai was a very, very popular choice on social media. I saw that as well. And now that was kind of a fight that hurt our feelings a little bit.

But now let's flip it to the feel-good story of the night. Cubs Swanson, superhero dad. What a performance in his first fight after tearing his ACL and knocks out a surging, a guy who's been super dominant over the last couple of years, Daniel Paneda in the second round. Cub is one of the truly good guys in our sport. He gets a huge win. This is tough because there's like no reward for this win.

You just have to throw him into a tougher matchup. You just have to throw Cub into tough, tough fights. I mean, that's just the way that it is. There's no other way around it. 45 is ridiculous. It's so deep. And there's so many guys that are ready to take that next step. I'm ready to do it because his name comes up a lot on the show.

A lot of times in the reader suggestions. and if you're not going to give this this guy a top 15 opponent, which I think he deserves, this is exactly the kind of matchup we need to see. This is the spot for Giga Chikaze, right, AK, Jekadezza versus Swanson? I just think you have to do it. I absolutely love it.

The more I think about it, the more I love it. I'm speechless because that actually, like, wasn't my, wasn't one of my choices. I'm just looking back at my data right now. I'll check the tapes here, Mike. I think the last time we spoke about, Giga, it looks like I said Herbert Burns?

Herbert Burns or oh then there's the Jeremy Stephen stuff too that little feud there. Yeah, I never suggested a couple. I mean at the time I guess we talked about him. Cubs was still on the shelf but no, yeah, it's a good, I'm just a good matchup. I don't know if it's as as clear cut for me as it seems to be for you but

I wouldn't be against it. It's like you said, it's Cubs whole career is either is again, either fighting top 10 guys or having to deal with prospects. You know, Do Ho Cho, was an example of that. So this would be kind of another version of that. I'm not against it. The name I really liked, who we haven't brought up a lot in the show because he has been dealing with a pretty severe knee injury.

Josh Emmett, I don't know when he'll be ready to fight again. I would hope by, you know, end of first quarter next year, fingers crossed. But, I mean, Cubs Swanson just had a knee injury that kept him out for a year. Emmett is also a ligament thing. So it could be till next, it could be next summer. But Swanson, I don't think he needs to jump back in right away. I'm sure he wants to. So that to me was I think would be a really great matchup.

The other one I love, but the only reason I can't pick it is because I've already kind of stuck to this on another show. I would love to see Cubs Swanson and the Korean zombie. Oh, man. But, but on previous shows, two previous shows, I've said I want zombie Barbosa. And if I had to choose between zombie Barbosa and zombie Swanson, I'm probably sticking with zombie barbosa. But would not be against a Swanson zombie match at all. I don't know. Ryan Hall didn't kind of steal the zombie fight with his brutal,

trash talk in his graphic making on social media? Ryan Hall came up a lot in reader suggestions as well for several people as he often does actually. Oh man. Let's head to another bonus winner. Let's head to Raphael Fizzis.

What a performance he had. Absolutely annihilated Hanato Moikano. This guy is the truth, AK. He is a legit threat at 155 pounds. What would you like to see for Adam on. First of all, why couldn't this be a six-fight main card?

Was Moikano and Fiziv not originally on the main car? Am I crazy before this week or before when it was originally announced? Wasn't it a main card fight? They switched this fight out for Dern, John Girobo. Which is fine, which is fine. I think Dern, John Ginova, it made a lot of sense to the main card fight. Why can't pay-per-views be six fights? Why are Fight Nights six fights, seven-fight main cards?

When you have a card that stacked, why don't you put six fights on the pay-per-view? I am surprised to hear you ask this question, A. I don't understand. Well, there's only 10 fights on the card, so I think it was kind of spread out. Kind of been in that early, that one early prelim, right? Like, what's the thing. That's the thing that that's what bothered me more than anything else, is you did the Barrett Hooper fight, and then you had like the graphic of, you know,

copyright infringement, you know, brought to you by whatever. Like, it was like two different shows, yet you had one fight for one show, and then you did the prelims and then that makes no sense. I'm with you on that. You know, we're not the guys who work at you. PSPN, ESPN2, okay? They get paid the big bucks to figure this stuff out, not us, so whatever you guys doing that and there,

whatever, good stuff. Yeah, I would have had, because this was such a brilliant performance for physique. This is a star-making performance, which, you know what? Again, I know, I get it. ESPN2, ESPN Plus, maybe you're getting just as much exposure as people who buy a pay-per-view.

So I totally understand why it's kind of silly to complain and say, oh, maybe, why isn't he showcased in peer-review? It's like, okay, fine. Maybe people saw it on anyway. But, yeah, phenomenal performance. I actually had a little bit trouble with this one, but I went with the name which I thought I had matched him up before, but I guess I didn't.

He's coming off a loss, but I think he'd be really good test and a really fun style matchup. I'm going King Bobby Green. Oh, okay. I like it. That's a good one. I'm just going to come out and say it, A.K., if they threw him into a top 15, top 10 matchup right now,

hashtag would watch easily. But I want to see one more really good win before that happened. And I'm with you. It's not always the most fun thing to book a guy coming off a win against a guy coming off a loss. But in this case, it is fine for a few reasons. One, the loss is a super close fight. Two, still a lot of hype and excitement around this guy. And three, I'm selfish and I just want to see it.

You match me and threw this guy in there last week, I believe. Raphael Fiziv versus Matush Gamrott. Good God Almighty, AK. Oh my Lord. Yes, that's what we're doing. That's the fight. Wow. This is the second time you've left me speechless.

Yeah. Really, look, this is, you know, again, this is a philosophical thing with people who, who, who, who, who, keeping up with Fizz's career. He clearly has top 20 talent. There's no argument there. Does he need to bolster his resume more? I think you and I both agree he does. Because, like, again, I would put Bobby Green about in somewhere in the top 20 to 30 range. So that's why I think Fiziv is as well

I think he would need I would have green higher than Fiziv of course So I think he needs to prove it And I agree Someone like Yamrod also Probably I would Well I wouldn't put higher than Fiziv Just because he hasn't fought as many times in the UFC

This is a UFC Very heavy rankings that I make But yeah I mean Basin's accomplished outside of the UFC You could argue he's He's that this would be a step up fight For Fizib not for Fiziv Not for Gammar

So yeah no I like that A lot of good ways to go with Fiziv But like you said Who knows and maybe they hot shot him to a top of Dian matchup. He just looked, he just looks sensational so far. Sort of lost in the chaos Saturday night was a super impressive performance

from Canada's Gavin Tucker because, AK, it is not easy to beat Billy Quarantillo. It's another thing entirely to dominate him for 15 minutes the way that he did. I was blown away by Gavin Tucker's performance, and you know what? Sometimes I shrug my shoulders. I get a little upset when fighters tried to do our jobs for us.

But in this case, AK, I love it. It makes sense. I'm going with it. If you wants Bruce Leroy, let's give him Bruce Leroy. Good fight. I dig it. 145 rocks. I'm in.

What sticks out to you? For some reason, I didn't love that call out. Really? I don't know why. Yeah, I should. I have Tucker at 38 in my rankings. I have Caceres at 36. So they're literally right next to each other.

They're both on three fight winning streaks. I don't know why. I just, I had a lot of trouble with this one, by the way. So maybe I should have just taken the logical way out and said, Casares. Somehow, I landed on, this took a while. Somehow I landed on

Nate Landware, who just missed out on a fight with Obloev. I just think it'd be a really cool, fun fight. Maybe people don't think that highly of Landware. I do. I'm probably maybe a little too high on him, but I do have Landware fairly highly rank coming off to Elkins' win and the work he did in M.1 Global. So stylistically, I think that would just be so, so much

fun. Maybe Tucker would dominate him? I don't know. I don't think so. I think Landward's really tough. And I think he'd be able to somewhat deal with the wrestling of Tucker. But that's my pick, only because I was just too stubborn to say Casaris. I don't know why. You don't think the UFC is going to rebook Evloev and Landware? I think Obloev's win might have. They didn't.

No, he didn't fight. I'm on drugs. No, he didn't fight. The fight was scratched like three hours before the event started. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I totally forgot. That's a big whiff on my part. They might.

They might. But, you know, it was a lawyer who tested positive. Hopefully he'll be fine. He's not out for too long. But if for whatever reason there's any complications, and he's not necessarily from that for anything else. And he's not ready to fight again. Then I'd like to see Nate set up as soon as possible.

So I'm sticking with it. I think Nate Tucker, Nate and Gavin would be a cool fight. Yeah, I mean, good fight. Definitely. I want to see more Gavin Tucker. He, I mean, just really good. Just so technically sound. And to see him outpaced Billy Q?

That was wild. Did not see that coming in a million years. I thought Tucker would win the first two rounds and then Billy Q would turn it on in round three. Tucker got better as the fight went on. It was awesome. He is a legit guy to watch. Definitely got to pay attention to at 145 pounds in 2021. But I'm going to make this next one easy AK.

I already said it. So I'm just going to reiterate it. Tisha Torres. treated Sam Hughes accordingly. In fact, she actually looked even better than I expected her to look. I mean, I saw her going in there and cruising to a decision, but she let Sam Hughes up, and this is the time to say this, like a Christmas tree, excellent showing. I just think they go back to the wall with Angela Hill.

That's a fight, a rematch people were excited about. I just think they got ahead and do that. What do you think? No, very logical. And by the way, I think it was beautiful at Teach's performance was, look, she's a smart fighter, not just in the cage. I think when you hear her talk, when you're doing interviews, She's a super intelligent person.

And I think sometimes she maybe thinks too much inside, inside the, and even the opponent facing this, but not a bad thing. But against Sam Hughes, I don't think she overthought at all. I think she had to realize, this is, you know, I am one of the best fighters at 115 in the world, and I have been for a long time. There's no reason for me to think of like any worst case scenarios here. I am the superior fighter. And she went right at, she was throwing Superman punches.

She was throwing four, five punch combinations, just lighting Sam Hughes up. She treated it like the mismatch it was, and that's why she got her first finish in quite a while. So, yeah, congrats to her for that. The Angela Hilton makes too much sense, so, of course, I didn't pick it. It was very logical.

I knew you would, Mike. I knew you would. I knew you could cover that base. I actually liked Gadelia for Torres, and was surprised that this fight has, I'm not crazy, right? This fight has somehow never happened before? Not to, geez, not the top of my head.

That's shocking. I just, I was like, I was like, oh, this would be a rematch. I'm like this if I looked this up. No, somehow they've never fought. No, I think, I think Torres is two consecutive wins. I think she's, again, yes, against less experienced competition. But I think she's earned her shot again at another top 10 opponent. I would like to see her against, against Gidea.

I also think she's a bit too much for McKenzie Dern at this point. So that's, I'll bring that up later. Some readers suggested that. But yeah, I like Torres Gideaia. I say throw those two veterans. there, I'm into it. Let's see that Cadillia trash talk. Let's see if Torres can finally break into the top, well, in the top 10 can finally break

a little bit further through into the top 10. So that's where I put Cordelia on the show. Here lies maybe the most befuddling and interesting pick in the history of this program, Chase Hooper, AK. This man, 21 years of age, one of the youngest fighters in the roster, just was able to go to the bar and order an alcoholic beverage, chose to turn that down in lieu of M&Ms and candy and cookies. The man was down two rounds to Massachusetts' own Peter Barrett.

Slippery Pete was beating him up. He's fighting very smart. Had his first UFC win in the palm of his hands, AK. He's headbutting fists. He's headbutting fists. And then Hooper comes from left field. Iminari roll. Patience, patience, patience.

fist to top of head and forehead, hill hook and taps Peter Barrett out. I felt so bad for Peter Barrett because he knew that he screwed up. He knew that he made a mistake. Crazy comeback for Chase Hooper. The man is a talent on the ground, no doubt about it. He is two and one in the UFC.

He is two and one in the UFC. I cannot believe this. But if this man cannot get his striking, I mean exponentially, otherworldly better. He is going to have a very difficult time. I have no freaking idea what to do here, AK. I spent more time on this one than any other fight on this card. What do you do with this man?

Because something tells me that the way you think, you got just a perfect pick here. Sure. Well, first I'll say, Peter Barrett, by the way, I have never seen someone get caught by an Iminari role, survive, and then get caught by an Iminari role again in a UFC fight or maybe in any MMA fight. And I remember after round two, he was so frustrated with his corner.

He was like, oh, I can't believe that happened. I can't believe that I let him, you know, hit me, get me with that move. And then he got caught by it again. So, oh, poor Peter Barry. He must be so frustrated today. Hopefully he's not too hurt and we see him fight again. And get one more shot in the UFC, I think. But for Hooper, no, I cheated here, Mike.

I cheated. I reached into the, I also struggled with this because there's just so many options. I mean, I'm just looking at the lower third of the featherweight rankings. There's a lot of really matched me up with. So instead I cheated and I dipped into. the contender series hat. I reached into the hat of random contender series names.

Some of the guys, I'm just kidding, this is random names, by the way, who won contracts on this season, Luis Solana, Colin Anglin, Hafeel Alves.

I couldn't tell you much about these guys. I'm not going to lie. I'm just saying, if they threw any of those names in there, I think that'd be appropriate. But then I kind of, I shuffled the hat again.

It kind of came up with someone, a contender series person who has already made his debut. More Canadian content for this show. One Mr. T.J. Laramie. Laramie was heavily favored in his UFC debut against Derek Minner, which I think was insane. I believe he was like over a three to one favorite, which again, when you're making a UFC debut is just wrong. And he caught by submission.

He was over-eager. I think anyone who watched that fight will tell you that probably wasn't the best that they've ever seen from DJ Laramie. So yeah, look, he has some rehabilitation to do with his reputation. I think Hooper's the right opponent for him. And let me add one more thing, Mike, because we were very hard. on Joe Rogan in the broadcast team. I don't think Joe Rogan was wrong in suggesting that it would be interesting

to see where Hooper would be if he was building his way up still outside the UFC. He kind of phrased in a weird way. Everyone was kind of saying, are they saying they should cut Chase Hooper? Which isn't really what he was saying, but I think suggesting that a 21-year-old with his talent would be better served

not necessarily fighting in the UFC right now, I don't think that was wrong. So that's kind of another reason that why I picked the way I did, which was going with guys he would essentially meet on the regional scene if he wasn't part of the UFC right now. Yes.

I thought about the Laramie fight, but I mean, I've watched Laramie fight for years now. I think, like, honestly, if the odds makers, like, have any idea what's going on, I, I think, Laramie would be, like, a 9-to-1 favorite for me. Like, I think he would absolutely destroy Jay Tzupper. Like, I think he would. I think he would wreck him. I think he just kind of slipped on a banana peel against Derek Minter for being honest. No, I really want to see this fight.

This is tough because. I don't like Cooper's chances to answer a lot of these guys at 45. I picked Peter Barrett to win last night. I thought he was going to win easily. I thought he was going to cruise. And through two rounds, he cruised. The fight went exactly the way I thought it would go.

And unfortunately for Peter Barrett, I think we saw the last of him in the UFC. It sucks. I like Peter. I've known Peter for years. It's unfortunate, but I just think, you know, if we're talking about trimming rosters down, this is a fight Peter Barrett knew he had to win

and the way he reacted to it afterwards, I think he knew that the writing was kind of on the wall. Even like the contender series guys you listed, I don't like Hooper against any of them. They're good. I just like Sal Dana, I think Sal Dana ruins Chase Hooper. Alves, I think ruins Chase Hooper. You know what?

I think Colin Anglin beats Chase Hooper too, but that's what I'm going with. The dude had a war with Mahabha John Nymoff on the Contender Series. One of the best fights in Contender Series history. It was just those two guys just beat the brakes out of each other. Colin's a bit green, super gritty, former hockey player. Colin's story about how he found fighting is pretty cool. He was just driving and saw a sign on the side of the road, said,

Come get into a fight. And Colin Anglin told his dad, there's a sign on the side of the road to Kogan. into a fight and his dad was like let's go and they went and Colin ain't got no fight and fell in love with the sport ever since so he said the guys got a little more experience because Michigan had like a non-sanctioned mMA world for a long time and Colin was like thrust in the middle of that at a very young age so Colin's tough the dude is a scrapper I think it's a good debut fight for him quite frankly it's the only fight that makes sense the only other thing you can do what you probably should do but it makes no sense because chase hooper although

though is a very popular guy in this company, you just bring in regional guys with three and just let Chase just run through these guys until he builds experience. I mean, but they haven't done that for anybody else. So I don't know. I have no idea. See, so Rogan was right. He should be fun in regional regional. He should be.

Quote won't go cans. But I do think, Mike, this is why we're a team. This is why we're best friends. Because I think we landed on Colin Anglin. I think our numbers combined with the math. together, I think, landed on Colin Anglin. And look, this is what the, I'm glad we saved Chase Hooper for last, because this is what the, what the listeners came for.

They came for, oh, gosh, I think a lot of people out there, like, gosh, I hope they talk about a Hooper, Colin Anglin matchup. Well, guys, we've done it. Chase Hooper, Colin Anglin, matchmakers, if you're listening, the people, we've suggested it, the people want it, book it for Chase Hooper. Now that you say that, let us go to the readers, because I'm sure there's a ton of Hooper versus Anglin suggestions. I have a quick check the tapes.

we didn't well okay we didn't nail any check the tapes this week but I do want to touch upon two names which you've discussed a bit so Tom Breeze and Omari Ahmedov I feel like these two guys that when we had had to talk about them in the show kind of bounced around a lot of options for them

and I only bring this up because I wanted one of them to fight Sean Strickland so I'm a little disappointed this match happened but obviously I kind of had them in the same sphere so kudos to the matchbreakers for making that fight happen and I don't know what's due with Strickland because I wanted one of them So that'll certainly something we'll discuss on a future show. But that's a little check.

Any check the tapes notes you have, Mike? Anything that came up this week where you're like we kind of may have discussed in the show? Not that I can think of. I know we were talking kind of in our Slack channel about Sean Brady being booked to fight Jake Matthews, which I love that fight. I think it's great matchmaking. But none of us thought about that one. Not one of us. Okay.

Readers. I warned a lot of our readers who direct message me, I don't know how much time we have this week because we, We unloaded, we had to unpack so much of this car, more so than usual of our own picks, Mike. But I'll try to throw these out. A lot of a regular reader's course, made contributions. Tristan Gordette, always sending me an email. I realize he might be the only one because I haven't said what my email address is on the show. Alex.

Dot Lee at SBNation.com, guys. That's Lee L-E-E-E. So, yes, if you want to send me emails, please, go ahead. It'll get right through that spam filter. Sturton Gourgette, a couple of good ones. He thought about rolling the dice with Hermanson and Holland again? Do you think Holland's beyond that now? Yes.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Wouldn't mind the fight. I suggested it last week that the winner of that fight should fight Herbanson, but I don't know. I think sizzle on the stake, I think Brunson's more sizzle. Okay. And again, you know, we match up winners with winners, right? This is one which neither of us had mentioned.

I do not like it, though. And I did touch upon it a little bit. The McKenzie Dern, Torres, you know, they both won. I just think Torres at this point, I think she really. really give Dern a lot of problems and not in a good way. I think she would kind of expose Dern. I just don't think that's the kind of striking matchup that Dern is ready for yet. I know I said

Michelle Watterson, but she's a different kind of striker than Torres. I think the super fast pace of Torres, I don't know if Dern would have an answer for that right now. I just don't think you could throw Tisha in there with prospects you have a lot of stock into. They have, they like Dern.

I almost like would rather see, like, if you want to throw Jondaroba in there with Torres, I'm not completely opposed to that. But Dern, I just, I think it's, I think the UFC sees a lot of McKenzie Dern. That's a tough, that's a tough matchup. I don't know. Yeah. It's, that's, that's, uh, Dern always one to watch.

And I think whatever her next matchup is is going to be intriguing. It's not an easy one for the matchmaker necessarily, though I think we've, again, I think we don't know some good options for them, Mike. Uh, Chase Hooper, just listening things from our, I'll run through some stuff listening from our, uh, our account. Chase Hooper, a lot of joke suggestions. Someone said he needs to get a girlfriend Someone said needs to eat a cheeseburger Boxing coach Yeah okay you know that's actually not terrible

That's actually not a bad idea Someone said hook him up with Trevor Whitman sure But there was some reasonable suggestions I liked Oh okay well hold on I'll read a couple readjustice and then we have a fighter We had a fighter call him out I don't know if you saw that Mike

I did not Okay well we had a fighter call him out Some of the redistricts I liked were From at Trotman picks Jamie Simmons sure. Yeah, why not. Again, this is kind of an A. I don't like this one.

From E. Porter 261, Charles Jordane, I think Charles Dane. I think Charles Oh my God. That's probably good. From Julio Cesar Fibblis Romero, this guy, this is going to sound crazy

because I think he has a much bigger reputation. There's a lot more experience in combat sports, but Cron Gracie. Cron. Cron. Cron Gracie, It would only be a grappling matchup. I mean, I think it's a graphing matchup where he would destroy Chase Hooper. But, I mean, if we're talking about something where we wouldn't have to see Chase Hooper's kind of striking deficiencies, I guess that's one.

So, you know, Julio Cesar, thank you for that recommendation. Interesting. Yeah, I don't know. Someone raised their hand, a fighter. He raised hand emoji, said, just a suggestion. Someone who spoke to our own Guy Cruz recently. One Mr. Augusto Tenkino Mendez. He added Dana White and added Sean Shelby saying, I want this fight.

So he's a 135 or normally. He'd be willing to go up to 145 to take on Chase Hooper. He's in his interview with Greene, he's mentioned he's had trouble finding fights. He's kind of a dangerous guy on the ground. He's also been out of action for a while. So if you're a fighter, there's not a lot to gain from fighting him. And again, he's a guy who could heel hook you in a second. So I do see why he's probably kind of jumping at any opportunity and get.

So he wants to go up to 145 by Chase Hooper. I wouldn't like that fight for Chase Hooper either, frankly. No. No. It's just a tough spot from Nabyin. It's just, I mean, it's literally Colin Anglin or you just pull guys in from the regional scene. You pull a Bellator. We've got to tweet out this Anglin Hooper thing.

We've got to get this heat going. I'll have to find a funny, a funny, like, hashtag for it. But we got to do it. Fiziv, man, people are just all over. I apologize to people. I'm not going to read everyone's names here, but I've seen Dan Hooker. Of course, it'll be a great fight. I think that's somewhere down the road.

Feldr, I just don't think Feldr would want to take that fight. No. No, that's scary. Returning Kevin Lee, yeah, Kevin Lee would take it. That's a great pick. I'm so mad. I'm actually angry right now because I thought about that last night. I'm like, this is the perfect pick.

This is the perfect pick. The problem with Kevin Lee is, we just don't know when he's coming back. Yes. But he'd be so down. You know, he would love to derail the Fiziviv Hype train, right? He'd be all in on that. So because that pick was so, you impress. You impress Mike so much.

Thank you, Mahir NIR at Mahir MMA on Twitter. Well done, sir. And someone else said, Drew Dober, who of course is set to fight Makachev. But, yes, that would be a cool fight if Dober Makachev had not just been bloved. So very good, very good Fizib suggestions. I really enjoyed those. Cubs-Wanson. Cubs-Swanston is another guy we asked for.

We had a few good suggestions here, some of which we may have already touched upon. Sorry, I just got to bring this up again. Jeremy Stevens. Why did we not suggest Jeremy Stevens? What's up with him? He was hurt because he was supposed to fight Arnold Allen. Stevens pulls out. Arnold is still waiting.

I think that they were going to try to rebook that one at some point, but it hasn't been done yet. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. And then we thought Stevens Chikaze, which made sense too, but it doesn't look like either of them are happening. And the other match that people liked, we had a couple of suggestions for Barbosa, which I think would also make a lot of sense. Again, like I said, I think we've kind of matched up. We've kind of matched up. We've kind of matched up Swanson.

So that's why we did Swanson separately. But they're not booked. That fight could easily happen and would be frigging awesome. Sidil Gan. Sidil Gan, like I said, a lot of, a lot of Sakai. The two matchups, the two most talked about matches out of the show. I think Chase Hooper and Colin Anglin and Augusta Sakai. And Lewis was also a popular option.

So there was some of that as well. Kevin Holland more Kevin Holland talk gosh someone said Sean Strickland I think just for the trash talk right that'd be awesome that would have been great like

after Halloween yeah it's Holland I think is past that now right oh god he's past like Jose with with the boy the best question of holiday goes because remember after you beat Fluffy Hernandez you called up Mickey Gall and you thought about like

Kevin Allen's like yeah it's crazy right he goes he goes back then it would have been an interesting test he goes but if I fought Mickey Gall right now I would kill him I would kill Mickey Gall I would not put I would not bet on that matchup I do like God I would like to fight Sean Strickland someday but now the stars are certainly not aligned for that matchup

but that's a that's a put extra mics in the cage if we could mic up their shorts that'd be great if they could have one of those heavy microphone like you know the mic packs right on their right on their shorts that'd be great I know it probably interfere with the fight but I think we need it definitely want a microphone like a boom mic on the like in the referee's shirt I think that'd be great.

I just want to hear every word that those two say to each other. At Tommy Callahan J4. Tommy Callahan Jr. Tommy boy. Yes. Izzy, get ready to hand that belt over. All right, settle down. Settle down. Love it.

How many fights away, you think, Mike? We talked about, let's say, assuming, for whatever reason, Addisnia returns to 185 next year for whatever reason, whether it's of his own choice or he loses a light, heavyweight, and comes back. how many fights away is Holland? I'll tell you what. If they give him Derek Brunson in a main event

and Kevin Holland puts him away, he could be one win away. Could be. He's one or two away. That's exciting to figure out. He's one or two away. I think, God, like, I almost want to book Holland Vittori

for a number one contender fight, like right now. Like, I honestly think that either of those guys are right there. They're the two most interesting guys in this division that have a chance to fight for a belt. I love Robert Whitaker, and I feel like he deserves this shot over anybody else. We haven't even mentioned him. How have we not mentioned him this entire show

with all this Holland talk, right? Yeah. Not necessarily that they should fight, but that it's almost like we were talking about Holland, like he's past Whitaker in the rankings, which he hasn't. I don't think he has. No, I don't think so either. Yeah.

But if we're talking about, like, what fans want to see and draws, right now Kevin Holland is one of those guys, man. Like, people want to see him. They're excited to see what's next for him. I don't feel that way about Whitaker. And it's kind of disrespectful to Rob Whitaker because I thought he looked really good in the cannoneer fight. He beat Darren Till. He's had a great year, especially after losing the belt to Adisania and getting finished the way that he has.

I really want to see what would happen if Wittaker and Adesania fought again. That's a fascinating fight. I mean, yes. Man, it's just interesting. 185 is really good. It's really interesting right now. Oh, there's more coming. Oh, man.

I told you, I wanted to do it. I want to do a shorter reader saying, but I just can't. Readers brought some heat again, as they always do. Chris Stiles on Twitter added both of us, and he had a couple of good suggestions. You probably saw this. One of them, which was, I didn't want to say this matchup. I had thought about it, but I think people will just find it so boring, but I actually think it's very logical. Fiziv and Vince Pichel.

I know. Vince Pichel is not the sexiest name of 155 pounds, but he's a really solid test for people. Fiziv, again, probably with that knockout has leaped way ahead of him in most people's rankings, but not for me. For me, I actually have them closer. Butchell had that win over Jim Miller, which means a lot to me. That has a lot of currency. So I'm not against that. So, Christod, I think that's a good one. He also likes Ferguson and Mahavachev. I guess he's not taking new account. That's really the Habib proxy, right? That's the Habib matchup we never got. I think a lot of people are kind of still hang on to Frizen Habib. And if there's some way we can

get it in the form of Ferguson and Machachev, then I guess people are going to. to go for that. I don't know. I don't know if I care for that anymore. Yeah. I mean, I don't, it's actually like a pretty sensical pick. But Mockachev's fighting Drew Dober, I believe. He's by Judova. Correct. If Mokachev beats Drew Dober, why not? I still want to see the Felder fight just because it's fun and crazy and ridiculous, but, you know, it just depends. That's a fight that I would love to see Ferguson, like, take a year off before he takes a fight like that. Harry Lipsky on Twitter This is a good pick

The only reason it won't happen Like we said I think Holland's gonna fight Well before I don't we don't know when this guy's gonna fight again But it could be any moment So that's why I wouldn't pick this one Holland versus

Uriah Hall Chris Whitman winner Don't mind that one Yeah Probably more so Hall I don't know if I care for Holland Weidman Holland Hall I think would be fun One if Hall beats Wythman

That rematch But again February 13th, that's so far away. Holland will have booked two fights by then, so it's really, it's pointless. Can you imagine if Yol Romero is still on the roster? I mean, Holland versus Romero is the no-brainer pick. Isn't it? That is so much fun.

Bring him back. It's not too late to bring him back. Bring him back. That's another hashtag going to bring back you well. Marcus McGahey, our buddy. Gavin Tucker, I like this one too. Gavin Tucker versus Loran Murphy and Douglas Andraj That's on January 20th Yeah I'm in again I'm not shooting Tucker that far off the rankings yet

So I'm into that And Lauren Murphy if he beats Douglas Andrage Well I've had a hell of a start to his UFC career Yeah I like that fight I have to mention this guy We had a first time contributor And longtime listener Barry O'Reilly Thank you Barry

But unfortunately I had to bring up his name To shoot down his idea He wants to see And this is a delightful idea on paper Chase Hooper versus Ryan Hall. Now, unfortunately, I believe they are friends. They have Chase Hooper shouted Ryan Hall out afterwards, actually, saying they have trained together.

That doesn't mean they can't fight each other. I don't know if they're regular training partners. He just said that they had trained together. Ryan Hall helped him out a lot with securing that. Ryan Hall, the master of the 50-50 position, of course, was exactly, which we saw a little bit of that and what Chase Hooper did to Peter Barrett. So maybe somewhere down the road, a student versus master's fight, you know, once Hall's kind of in the middle of his 20 fight, unbeaten.

streak and they kind of need to find someone who they think and you know who knows his style and can challenge him maybe we see a more mature chase hooper fight him then but uh until then uh keep an eye on their social media maybe we'll see some some cool sparring footage but uh thank you barry though for the for the suggestion yes thank you yeah fun uh i would like but they could do you know if they're regular training partners mike i don't know if they're like regular but i mean i know they were yeah i don't know like i think hooper's like gone out to virginia to train with hall prior to this fight I would think so. Yeah.

That's who he should. That's who he and really every young man. When I was 21 years old, I wish I had someone like Ryan Hall to look up to. Let me put it back. Absolutely. Andrew Nally, also as our last Twitter DMs. Cubs Swanson and Sadiq Yusuf. Sure.

Is he used to fighting somebody? No, he was supposed to fight Barbosa, and then he lost that fight. I'm not sure if there's been rumors of another matchup since then, but I haven't seen anything official. Yeah. Yusuf versus Barbosa's probably. Yeah. That's good. Yeah, I don't, I'd watch.

And I liked Gavin Tucker versus Zubaira Tukhov. This is Tobir. There's no way to Zubair is still in the UFC, right? Wait, what happened? Did he lose his last fight? He missed, did he miss weight and still lose? Oh, no. You're kidding.

I mean, he lost. Duwado, right? He fought Hakeem Duado. Oh, I don't think he got cut, though. Oh, come on. How is this guy still in the UFC? He missed wait one time. Come on.

What do you know I? What about the whole Conner thing? Oh, yeah, the whole Connor thing. Yeah, that's not, that didn't get him in the good graces. As far as I know, he has not been officially released, but let's just say he could be a part of the unfortunate 60 that has been brought up recently by Dana White. Still, I don't mind that matchup. If he's still on the roster, I could see it happening. If anything, maybe it's a punishment fight for two.

Maybe they think Tucker would beat Tukukov and it's kind of a, now you're going to get cut, buddy. You know, this is our, you lose this. Trust me, you're done. I have to close out with our friends My two best pals on Instagram People can find me on Instagram I don't even use it that much so I'm sorry I can't I'm struggling to remember my own on Instagram

But if people want to find my Instagram look for I think I'm Alexander You know I'm just going to look it up Before I mess this up Alexander KK Lee So there you go Alexander 2Ks LE On Instagram My DMs are open people

Hit me up I want to see the suggestions But our good pals Chase Steiner and Jacob Best Always chiming in Jay Steiner had an associate for Hooper, Jonathan, JSP, Jonathan Pierce. I think JSP marks him. Probably.

And one which I hadn't considered, but now that I was mentioned, McKenzie Dern and Marada, Kanaka Marata. That's fun. Yeah, it's obviously they have different levels of UFC experience, but when you take into account what Marada has done outside of the UFC,

it probably is actually a very even matchup and very strong a grappling encounter. Yes, Mike. Jacob Best on Instagram, I think I have to give him the closing spot because he mentioned something that I had not thought of. I know you haven't thought of it. I don't know if it's a good matchup, but it's it's perfect for talking about in our show. Jacob Best wants Tony Ferguson to go up to 170 pounds and fight Tyron Woodley. What? Wow. Wow. Damn. I don't know. Wow. 2020, right? Oh, man.

I'm beyond speech. I'm beyond speech. And look, we're giving him the closing spot here. Not because we think this is like a great matchup. I don't know, but it certainly has me thinking. I don't know if I love it or hate it. There's no in between. I either love this one or I hate it.

And I can't decide on which one, which emotion is taking over me right now. Ferguson won the ultimate fighter at 1. That was at 170, right? Him and that was a, he was a welterweight season, I believe. Yes. He could do it. That means that.

Oh, yeah. Man. I don't know. I don't know. He'd be giving up a lot of size. I mean, it's one of those times when you saw them step into the cage, you'd be like, whoa, holy crap. Like Woodley's got at least like 10, 10, 15 pounds on him. But I guess, again, you know, this is the old fighters struggling, maybe taking out the weight cut and put him in a new weight class.

You talked about him taking time off and figuring things out and coming back as a new man. Maybe this is part of that rejuvenation, Mike. I don't know. But we are putting it out there on the show. We've called us a pretty wild matchups on here. So this is the chair in the cake this week. Ferguson Woodley at 170 pounds. Wow.

That's interesting. that's something to think about. That's a good one. Yes. Now you're going to drive me crazy all day thinking about that one. Boy, Hacks show. Yeah, keep those suggestions coming as we're over at the 60-minute mark. Hit us up on the Twitter.

He is at Alexander Kaley. I am at Mike Eckhart. In terms of matchmaking, we have one more show for the year next week. We do have some fun ideas for the winter break. So stay tuned for that. But join us next week as we discuss the aftermath of UFC Vegas 17. What a ridiculously loaded up card. This is even losing the Leon Edwards,

Homsat Shemaiah fight. This one will now be headlined by Stephen Wonderboy Thompson and the surging Jeff Neal, Jose Aldo versus Marlon Vera, the co-main event, Chaos Williams versus Michel Bejada, and much, much more. A lot to love on this card, A.K., isn't that right? Yeah, this is, look, we are not ending on one of those cards

where we're going to struggle to come out with matches. We're going to have a lot of storylines coming out of this one, whether it's the veterans who win, whether it's some of these up-and-comers who, make a name off of those veterans. We're going to have options. It's going to be a really, really fun last proper matchmaking show of 2020 before we get into some of our special programming, Mike, in the weeks to come.

Yeah, so stick with us over at MMA Fighting.com. This is going to be a very fun week. I have a good feeling about that on all of our various programs. And on the website, it's also for Alex Gaylee. I am Mike. Thank you for listening. We'll see you back here next week once again on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

You know,