MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Episode 6 | Matches To Make After UFC on ESPN 15

Episode Date: August 24, 2020

In the sixth episode of On to the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alex K. Lee put on their matchmaker hats following Saturday night’s UFC on ESPN 15 event at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. Future fights were discussed for headliners Frankie Edgar and Pedro Munhoz—following the former lightweight champion’s split decision win—Mike Rodriguez, Joe Solecki, Shana Dobson, Daniel Rodriguez, 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. Hello there, everybody. Welcome to another episode of On to the Next one, the podcast here on MAMAfighting.com. Your new cure for the Monday blues. You wake up, you're on your way to work, and boom, we have you covered with the MMA podcast, first thing in the morning.

That's what we aim to do for the fans of our great sport. As we discussed the fallout of UFC on ESPN 15 on Saturday night, with some matchmaking. I am Mike Heck, and joining me as always. always, the Prince of Positivity himself, following a wild and crazy event in Las Vegas. Mr. Alex Kaley, how are you, buddy? Are you well-rested? We had the UFC and Cam Soda all in one night. How are you feeling? Frankie Edgar is back.

Frankie Edgar is back. I cannot wait for Edgar Jan. We talked about this last night. I think you, Casey Leiden and I all agreed that Edgar Jan, that's the fight to make. Sorry, spoilers, everyone. You pretty much heard the whole episode on to the next one. That's really all we are going to be talking about is why Edgar deserves the next title shot at Bantamptonweight after that lopsided. I think we would have got a lopsided win over Pedro Munoz.

So I have not had a chance, by the way. You mentioned Cam Soda to watch Cam Soto yet. Hopefully there's a way to replay it. I'm actually not sure there will be. So I'm going to have to find nefarious ways to perhaps view some of this footage. But I did see a lot of the reactions and a lot of the footage. So we won't be talking about that on today's show.

But everyone, you know, put your safe search on and look up Camp Soda Fight Circus and see what some of us may have missed on Saturday night. No, of course, I'm kidding about the Edgar Yon thing. We will discuss, though, what our plans for Edgar and others today. Yes. So let's just get right into this. Let's talk about the main event from Saturday night in Las Vegas.

The aforementioned Frankie Edgar makes a successful Banimoy debut, defeats Pedro Muño's via split decision, and just an awesome high-level five-rounder. And Frankie, although you kind of kid about the on thing, he's in the hunt. And I'm just going to make this one easy, AK. I mentioned this in the post-fight show Saturday night. There was one fight that I've wanted to see at 135 for a long time. I've wanted to see it for three years now.

We still haven't seen it. And it looks like we're still not going to see it anytime soon. I want to see Marlon Marais versus Dominic Cruz. That is like my spirit animal fight. But even though the stars align, this fight to be made so many times. It's just not happening. Marius is expected to fight Corey Sanhagen in October, I believe. So now, this is a no-braider. It's Dominicruz versus Frankie Edgar. To me, ranking schmankings, this is the only fight to make.

Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with the very technical term you use their ranking schmankings, because these guys are at the stage of their career. We're again, we're talking about prize fighting here. And these guys are fighting for the most money they can get, the most publicity they can get, adding to their legacy. Of course, it's a popular thing we hear all time. And again, yeah, who cares? Two fight win streak, two fight, losing streak, whatever streak they're on. These guys are big names. There's never a bad time to make a fight between them. It makes sense for them right now. And especially if you look at the bantamweight rankings, sort of how they need to be sorted out, where guys are potentially going to be.

We know that Cody Garbrand's out of the way. He is, for at least one fight, he'll be competing for the flyweight title. We are fairly confident that the company will do the right thing. excuse me, and Kiv Alzermaine Sterling, the Peoria title fight. So there go. There's a few big names already out of the way. And then there's other names that need to be sorted out or just don't make sense for Edgar at this point for him or for these potential names. So Dominic Cruz, absolutely the perfect opponent. You will have no disagreement for me. It's a fight we need to see happen.

Now, however, the one other option that are out there is if Corey Sanhagen beats Marlon Mottice on October 10th. Not the other way around Mardis and Edgar are pretty close. friends but I believe they train together so same same representation very unlikely that they would fight for anything less than a title so that fight isn't happening but if Sanhagen beats Monash then you got a little bit of revenge story there obviously it's a fight the Sanhagen would want to take get a big name on there and and Edgar would get a chance to knock off another top 10 ranked guy and if he has wins over Munoz and Sanhagen I don't think there'd be a lot of complaints if we got a

to tell the shot yeah and as far as Pedro Munoz goes a lot of people thought he won that fight. We talked about it on the post-fight show Saturday night. I think 16 or 17 out of 20 media members on an in-made decision scored it for Pedro Munoz. I scored it for Frankie, but I'm certainly not going to chastise you if you scored it for Munoz. It was a fantastic fight. However, in the books on the dirt sheets, so to speak, he's lost two straight. He'll drop down a spot or two more than likely on Tuesday. What do you do with the young Punisher after that incredible fight. Well, I literally only dropped him one spot, and that's just to take Frankie from the featherweight rankings and put him at phantom weights. So he technically almost didn't drop anything in my rankings.

Again, his performance was so, so strong. That's about as strong as you can look and defeat. Like he said, very close-billed decision. One of the judges had it 49, 46 for Munoz. So, I mean, it could really, really could have gone either way. So for Munoz, I had a little bit trouble with this one, because as we said, there's a lot of sorting out that needs to be done at the top of 135. So it almost seems like you're going to have to match them up with someone. Of course, someone else coming off a loss as opposed to maybe an up-and-comer. I'm going to go with Hafeel Asunsao. They fought before.

And this is just bad luck for us. Sun-Sau is one of the only fighters I know who's just constantly giving past conquest the opportunity to avenge their losses. Because he did it for, he did it for Marlon Mottis. He did it for T.J. Dillishaw. And both times he did lose the second time. So it would suck if he if he has to give Bunoz that opportunity and then also and then have it happen again. But that's just, you know, that's a credit to us in a son-in-saw, I think, that he's been around for so long. You hang around the top 10 that long.

You're going to fight guys in the top 10 more than once. So that's kind of the name that popped out. I'm not like thrilled with it, but it's logical and I could see it being booked. Yeah, I, you could definitely do a Sun-Sau. It makes sense. You could put that on any card and people will be excited about it. I would not hate that idea whatsoever. But I feel like despite how Munoz performed on Saturday night, when you lose two straight in a division like this, I think you have to take on kind of an up and coming guy right now.

I think you're kind of in that position where you have to be like, all right, are you, can you get back up there? Let's see. Because these other guys want to get up there too. So there's two options for me. One, you can do the guy coming off loss against a guy coming off. a loss. You could do Pedro Munoz versus Cody Stamen. I don't mind that fight. Stamen, I believe, is ranked number 10 right now in the official UFC rankings. Cody's a tough out at 135. He's a dog, so that'll be interesting. I do like that idea. Or, I think we talked about this on Saturday as well.

You give him the surging Marab de Walsh-Wally. I think those are two very fair options if they don't roll the Sun-Sau. But I do agree with you. I think Javier Sun-Sau is probably the favorite here. What do you think? I hate the Walsh-Wallish-Willy match-up. up for Munoz just going to because again you know he he has nothing to he doesn't have a lot to gain from that I mean it would be a cool moment it would be like a Vera beating O'Malley thing you know Brunson beating Shabazzian thing kind of a derailing a hype train there's value in that you know there's there's certainly value in that I shouldn't say he has nothing to gain but definitely more to lose especially with what we've seen with Walsh really I mean the guy is just an absolute

monster but it would be fun to see Munoz chaff a little more of his ground game we didn't get to see that on on Saturday though of course he did use his grappling to counter you know Frank Edgar's takedown. So obviously his ground game is still on point. You know, it's not like it's not there. But he does love to brawl, you know, for a guy who has such great jiu-jitsu, he loves to brawl. And a fight with DeWalach really would just be completely different.

Or maybe not because Diwali really also, with the Dodson fight, kind of want to show off some of his stand-up as well. So I don't know if I love for him. The other names I kind of threw out there were, and this is, again, a guy that we're now we're just throwing out any time someone at 135 needs an opponent, Josie Aldo. But I don't feel super strongly about it. And kind of playing off what we said with the Edgar's matchmaking, Maybe Marlon Marlon Marys, if he loses to San Hagan, could be messed up with Munoz.

So sort of another chance to beat it, to beat someone, a jersey guy, quote-unquote Jersey guy, as it were. Yeah, I think it's just that Muno is in a tough spot. And eventually you just have to get to a point where it's like, I know you don't want to drop back and fight a guy ranked below you. But we need to like, I love 35. It's so good. And there's so many up-and-coming guys. But I feel like none of them are going to get over the hump. Like, none of them are going to get over the top 10.

Unless you're like Peyodor Yan and, you know, everything just falls into place perfectly. But Marab de Wallis really should be fighting a top 10 guy. Marlon Verr should be fighting a top 10 guy. Like these guys should be fighting top 10 fighters. And I feel that none of them are going to get that opportunity anytime soon. And it kind of irks me. But I do understand it's, you know, it's prize fighting. You want to try to get the biggest fight you can.

You want to get to that title. But eventually he's one of these guys going to have to fight Marab. Like it's not going to be pleasant when you look at that contract. and you see his name on the other side. It's going to be like, oh, God, I don't want to fight this guy. We've seen it before with the other divisions. I think like Walter Wade a few years ago

where like it comes to talent comes to a boil. You know what I mean? And at some point something's got to give. But you're right. There's certain, you can't blame guys for angling a little bit. Kind of like, oh, you know, maybe just being a little more picky

with their matchups once they reach a certain level. And right now at Bantamint, you have like seven or eight guys who are at this level where they want to be protective of their spot, but they want to move up, but you can't do it without fighting. So, yeah, we are a little bit of stalemate Antimoint Division.

Yeah, I mean, you can do Jimmy Rivera, too. I don't mind that. He's in there. He's in there. Co-main event, which wasn't supposed to be the co-man event. We saw Mike Rodriguez pick up a much-needed win. He looked fantastic. Dominated Marcine Pratch Neo.

Put him away in just over two minutes. We all know what happened with OSP. That's why that got bumped up to the co-main event. But when you have a guy like Mike Rodriguez, and even Marcine as well, who I don't think Marcyneen is going to get another fight in the UFC anytime soon, It's just interchangeable. Like there's so many options for Mike. Like maybe the winner of Justin Liddette versus Dustin Jacoby in November.

But I would assume after a short night like that, Mike would probably want to get back in there sooner rather than later to try to keep this momentum going. So let's do Mike Rodriguez versus Alexa Kamer. Alexa defeated a fellow Massachusetts native in Fabio Chorant on the contender series. with a highlight real flying knee. I think those guys train together now, Mike and Fabio. So it could be, you know, a little bit of a revenge fight for Mr. Rodriguez.

That works for me. Mike, you know, he's not going to get a top 15 guy or anything really close to that after that win. But, you know, give him a little bit of a step up and see if we can get him there. What do you think? Yeah. I mean, look, that was the best case scenario, I think, for the UFC. Can you imagine if they, we'll talk about this later. Can you imagine if they had, like, boosted Agapova to the co-main?

Like, is it trying to push her? and then after what happened. But we'll talk about that in a bit. That was the best case scenario because you had a kind of a weird station with like a crack now O and 2 in the UFC, Rodriguez coming off a loss. And again, they weren't supposed to be the co-main. But, hey, anyone who just tuned in and didn't know about the records, so really good performance by Mike Rodriguez.

So yeah, like you said, he wasn't supposed to be in the co-main. And I should warn people right now. Please keep listening, of course. But the name recognition of everyone we're about to discuss from now on, it's going to drop considerably from Edgar Muno. So Mike Roger, you guys, one name I just kind of threw out there, Jamal Hill. Okay, he's just kind of in the same area. Two and O in the UFC.

And then another strange one, and this would be a few dominoes would have to fall in the right place. Roman DeLitze. So he's supposed to fight John Allen on November 21st, supposedly. But there's a chance that fight doesn't happen because John Allen is supposed to fight at Herman in September as well. He's double booked, which I don't know how that happens in the UFC. see Rodriguez sliding into that spot if good sense prevails and John Allen doesn't fight twice in again I don't know whatever two months it doesn't sound that bad but it's just very strange you can't really run back at John Allen and Rodriguez I don't think

Rodriguez wants anything to do with that they fought before and Rodriguez lost it was overturned when Alan failed a drug test so I like I really liked the Roman deletes a matchup I just think you know unfortunately a lot of things have to fall in the right place but Jamal Hill probably if you just want to throw one together now and Rodriguez wants to get back in there quickly before at the end of the year. That's probably one to make. Yeah, I don't mind that one. Again, interchangeably, you can throw like any of those guys from 25 to 50 at Mike and all of them makes sense. Let's talk about Joe Selecki. Big win for him, standing rear naked choke in the first round over Austin Hubbard. Now, two in the UFC,

two very dominant performances after the contender series win. What is next in your mind for Mr. Selecki? Now, Mike, you are very familiar with Mr. Selecki. You're very high on Mr. Selecki as a talent. I am not as familiar with him. So much like with Mike Rodriguez, I'm a little bit all over the place here as far as I'm not sure what should be next. The one name that jumped out to me, which would have been my number one choice, except I don't know what the deal is with him.

It could just be because of travel issues, of course, COVID-19 stuff, making things difficult. He hasn't fought since last September. I don't think he's injured, but the Magic Man, Don Madge. I just want to see him fight again. Very exciting fighter out of South Africa. And also 2-0 in the UFC. So it just lines up if you want to make the number.

convenient but the other options I had were going another way maybe give him a veteran on a bit of a slump uh Gabriel mogli Benitez would be a would be a good challenge for him and not someone too difficult but a good name good test series and then back to the prospect area uh spain's joel alvarez who uh looks really impressive against joe duffy but the question is is that just because joe duffy you know was on the version of retirement or is uh is joel alvers really one to watch at a 155 so is he the real deal i don't know I think you put them in there with someone like Seleki, you find out. So my number one choice would probably be, actually, put it probably Mowgli. I think Selecki deserves a veteran.

I actually, when I was thinking about this, Alvarez was my first choice. I was like, I love that fight. That's an interesting matchup. Long, lean striker against a guy with the grappling prowess of a Joe Selecki. It's tough because Joe's going to be a dad like any day now. Like I think it's the first week of September is his wife's dude. date, but this could happen at any point. So we may not see him until maybe November. So it would likely have to be somebody that is a state side or be someone that can travel to Las Vegas during

this crazy time unless he wants to go to Abu Dhabi in October, but he is a big family guy. I think he would rather wait until fatherhood is kind of underway before getting into a full-on training camp. Not that he won't be at the gym getting working. I just think before he gets into a full-on training camp. He probably wants to let the dust settle a little bit with that. So after kind of diving a little deeper, there's two options for me. One, the winner of Roosevelt Roberts versus Matt Fravola on September 12th. That seems like a good step up. The other, how about we match up the last two guys that beat the legend Matt Wyman? We do Joe Selecki versus Violin Bob Ross, because Luis Peña has a name. He's coming off.

a couple of losses, sure, but Payne is going to be kind of in that back against the wall scenario where he doesn't want to drop three straight, so we're going to see probably the best of him, and Selecki would love to have a name like that on his resume. I believe him and I have talked about that matchup before in the past. I like that fight. Why not? What do you think? For some reason, I thought, for some reason, I thought Luis Pena had been booked.

Am I wrong? Louis Pena doesn't have a fight coming up? I don't think so. Let me check. You might be right. I think I thought they were going to throw him in there. with Jesse Ronson after that callout. No, he is not booked.

Okay, yeah, no, that's absolutely. But I actually really liked the Favola of Roberts' suggestion as well. I hadn't thought of that. I looked at it for some reason. I hadn't really strongly considered it. But, yeah, there's a lot of good options for Seleki coming up. So good for him for taking matters into his own hands, possibly putting on a performance that maybe should have won a fight night bonus,

depending on who you ask. But it looks like you have plenty of opportunities for that in the future. So, yeah, a lot of good matchups ahead for him. And a quick correction. I was incorrect, inaccurate in stating that Luis Pena has lost his last two fights. That's not true. He's lost two of his last three. He did beat Steve Garcia sprinkled in between the Vola and Kamalworthy fights.

So before the standing rear naked choke happens, we had young Shauna Dobson go in there and pull off probably the biggest upset in UFC history based on the odds. I mean, depending on what website you looked at. But she finishes Maria. Agapava. Agapava. See? It's tricky.

I'm saying we should just, we had this discussion before. We should just anglicizing names. I know I love properly pronouncing foreign names, but here's my little, here's my little linguistics rant. But it's like when you're talking in English, it makes sense to anglicized names because let's say I'm talking about Song Yadong. That's how you would say it if you were saying it, if you were speaking Cantonese or a Mandarin, sorry, this is embarrassing for me, but if you were speaking Chinese,

song yadong that's how you would say it but that doesn't really flow when you're having an english conversation so people say song yadong and there's nothing it's not it's not 100% accurate but there's nothing wrong with it because you you just have to you have to change your pronunciation i feel like depending of course what language you're speaking in so that's just my opinion again agapava is the correct pronunciation people want to keep throwing that out there but i think agapova is fine as well same with uh israel adasania israel adisina i like to use the correct one but adasania is colloquially i think in english is correct so anyway So that's what I'm saying Mike.

If we want to keep saying Agapova, I think we'll just let it fly. Yes. Agapova lost in the second round. Because I'm cultured. Yes. She weather's, shot it up, so that it is, weather's that storm. Yes. I mean, there's like a tornado hurricane combination.

She gets a huge win. She needed it badly because if she had lost, she's probably done. So she's going to be sticking around a little longer, which is good news, because Shauna is super tough. She's a very hard worker. I think the move to elevation fight team has been a good one for her. Now, I wasn't sure where to go with this, A.K., this is one of those tricky ones. My first thought, pretty much right off the bat, was we do a fight with JJ Aldridge.

I think that kind of lined up perfectly. That's there. That would work. But I started digging around a little bit this morning. I saw an Instagram post from one, Rachel Ostovich. Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking. She does have lots of booty picks, but as a married man, I wasn't there. looking for any booty. I was seeing what's going on.

Something was interesting in a post from two weeks ago. As people probably listening to this know by now, she was suspended by USADA for a positive drug test for a year. I believe that was retroactive to January 12th. However, she posted two weeks ago that she's going to be cleared to compete next month. So maybe she was able to prove the supplement was tainted, perhaps a reduced suspension. Maybe she, She chirped a little bit on somebody else. Who knows? Let's say that is, in fact, the case.

These two are supposed to fight in February anyways. Let's just rebook that one. I think that's a good fight. It's an important fight for both ladies. Rachel is still a name. She has a following. I think that's the fight to make. If we are to believe what Rachel said on social media is accurate and true,

I guess we'll find out in the next couple of weeks anyways. What say you? I'm all for Sean Adopsin, you know, taking on the role of spoiler. She certainly wore it well on Saturday, again, again, against a point who was so heavily favorite. I mean, we talk about how big an underdog Dobson was. I believe the favorite odds for Agavava were minus 1,400, I think, on some books. So massive. I think, again, one of the biggest, not just in the UFC history, that's one of the biggest

MMA history, if I'm not mistaken, probably top, maybe the top five. So, yeah, I think, and just looking at the matchup, like almost everything Dobson does, she's going to be booked as the spoiler. So I think she has to wait for things to shake out. I feel like we've said this a lot about the women's flyweight and straw weight divisions, which I think is a good sign. I guess it means they're keeping the divisions moving.

So a couple options I had were tough housemate Justine Kish, if Kish beats Sabina Mazo, not Mazo because Mazzar already beat Dobson. That's on September 12th. And then maybe the winner of, I know they probably want bigger things for her, but maybe the winner of Pollyanna Battaglio versus Gillian Robertson.

Again, both fighters have been really successful, probably closer to the top 10 than fighting Shana Dobson. But again, spoiler, right? This is why we say Shana Dobson could be a spoiler. But someone who's not booked, and I think this would be my top choice, this would take place on Fight Island, the Fight Island special. Shauna Dobson and Meatball Molly McCann. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah.

Give Shana, I think probably a bigger name than the four I just mentioned. Damn. That's a good one. Right. Be good scrap, I think. Yeah, even just stylistically speaking, yeah. And I assume it would probably have to take place on Fight Island. Wow, I like that one.

You might have, you might have swayed me. That's a really good fight. I think that's perfect, actually. As the great Jedmishu would say, those two ways would get in the octagon and start throwing them bolos. That would be a fun fight. Man, that's really good. All right.

I like that one. Let's move on to the, I believe, the second fighter to go three and O this year in the UFC. I don't think anybody else has done it besides him and Yusuf Salal is Daniel Rodriguez. Finishes Dwight Grant in a wild first round. Sure, some reffing controversy, perhaps, but still goes in the books as a win for D-Rod. Lots of options at 170 for an exciting guy like him. What would you like to see for Daniel Rodriguez coming off that victory on Saturday night? Much like Shana Dobson, he might have to wait. I like him. I was looking at these names. A lot of names that jumped immediately in mind, so I had to remind myself that someone.

them are booked. Like I thought I think Brian Barbarina would be a great step up. Brian Barbarina is fighting Anthony Ivey on September 12th. So I think the winner of that fight either way. Because I think Anthony Ivey if he beats Barbarina is also worthy of getting a big fight. And again, Rodriguez, three and no in the UFC this year since making his debut earlier this year. So that's big. He is an undefeated UFC fighter. Again, there's been like zero publicity around him, but he's made the most of every opportunity. And you can't argue with the results. So hopefully the UFC gets starts to push him a little bit ahead of his next fight. And then I shouldn't do this, but maybe the Diego Sanchez, Jake Matthews winner.

I don't know. I mean, it would be a big gap in experience for sure. Of course, Diego, one of the most active U.S. fighters ever. Jake Matthews is very, very experienced in the O.C. For a guy his age, he already has double-digit UFC appearances. So that might be a little bit more than Rodriguez is ready for on paper. But Rodriguez is a pretty polished guy.

I actually think he'd fare really well against either guy. a chance to beat them. So that's September 26th. But again, we're going for someone not booked. I thought about Alex Cowboy Olivera. Again, another experienced guy. D. Rod is a associate of Donald's Cowboy Soroni. So this would be almost like a, again, I know Soroni and Oliver have already fought, but this would be like, you know, one for Cowboy, one cowboy disciple facing another cowboy. This is kind of a tough one for me because the easiest answer is. to rebook the Sato fight. It just seems like the easiest answer here.

But I think after getting that win on Saturday, I think he has surpassed that booking and is on two bigger things. No disrespect to Sato. He was there. He won. He got to finish and one of the craziest fights of the year. My first thought was B'ul Muhammad. I don't know why that popped into my head,

but I actually believe that Balaal deserves a much bigger fight with someone like just outside the top 15. Like, Belal should be flirting with the top 15 right now. So I scratch that right away. I do want to see Rodriguez get a step up against a veteran though. So I'm going with it. How about D.Rod versus the James Krause in Las Vegas, Nevada? There it is.

Let's see what he's got. Because Dana White had some high praise for him on Saturday night after the card. If D.R.R. I could beat James Krause. he's sniffing top 15 then you get a fight with like a Bala Muhammad let's reward the man for taking a fight on a day's notice with a different opponent

and finishing. I like that I think that's the fight. I felt a chill. I hadn't even thought about that. I have them very close to my rankings. I have Rodriguez just out I love providing these rankings with zero context but who else is right. I have Rodriguez just outside the top 40 and

James Krauss right in the top 35. So they're right next to each other style-wise would be great and like we said we're talking about a guy who's experienced Kraus is one of the most experienced guys in the game

and also very much a guy who I feel like takes I think well I think we saw when he took the Trevin Giles fight on just like oh whatever 185 sure like one day's notice sure I'm just going to do it he really will fight anyone

because I think he's a guy he's not afraid one he's obviously confident that he can beat anyone and two I don't think he's worried about one or two losses setting him back he's a veteran he's seen it all I would love to see that

and I think he'd be very willing to give down has the chance to have a good have a good fight with him so yeah i like it i didn't even thought about that that's good go look at us just swaying each other back to back as we move ahead to everyone's favorite part of the show the soon-to-be award-winning wild card round on onto the next one where we select a fighter that we haven't match made for yet and do it now last week ak and i we had the same exact pick not sure if that happens again although this card was pretty light in terms of number of fights, number of winners and losers, et cetera.

I don't think it's going to happen this time if I had to guess. But what do you have this week, A.K., who is your wild card selection? If people could see the look on your face, it would be unbelievable. I made, yeah, I'm glad this is only audio. I made a lot of faces. I didn't love a lot of the wild card options this week, if I'm being perfectly honest. I thought about Jordan Wright, because I thought the kid's intriguing. Jordan Wright are, as I call him, stage Northcut Light.

And then Agaphava was certainly someone worth discussing, if only because she was so highly touted going into this. And I'm sure a lot of people wondering, well, what do you do now after she suffered a stepback like that? But no, I'm going to go with maybe the most boring option possible. But only because I feel like she, even though it wasn't the most exciting performance, I felt like it was a nice convincing win for her. I think Amanda Lamos, this was her second fight at Strawweight after, you know, she was funny at Bantamate for whatever reason. She lost the licensing. So she's 2 and 0 at straw weight now.

She put on, I think, a good performance against Mizuki Anui. And I'm also doing this because I did not match me for another straw weight up and coming, but another contending, potentially contending straw weight that fought last week that I thought we could have matched me for, but I didn't think of anything obvious. But why not? Amanda Lemos and Lavinia Sousa. Battle of Brazilians, again, this may be another Fight Island option. And I need to see more from both fighters.

Because I feel like on paper, maybe my view of them is bigger than it should be. So I do want it because they won their fights convincingly, but not in a super exciting way. So I want to see more from both women, throw them in there. And let's see if either it really is a top 15 contender or if they're just kind of, you know, doomed to to hover around sort of the middle of the strawweight rankings. I'm going to go to the first fight of the night for my valid card pick because I don't think I stand alone in this sentiment. I want to see more of Timor Valleyev even though he lost. Like that's who I want to see maybe more than

anybody else we haven't discussed outside of the main event. Like maybe more than anybody else in the card I want to see more of him because he's just super legit. Like I've been waiting for that UFC debut for so long and he looked awesome until the fight was

ended and the way that fight played out sucked. Like it really sucked. I watched it again this morning and I was just like, man, What a bad stoppage. However, it made for a tremendous story, and it set the table just beautifully for what we were going to see the rest of the night. So I will take the good with the bad. That's just the positive mindset that I have.

But I don't think Timor should be penalized too badly here despite the loss because we're in a loaded division. And we're kind of in an interchangeable place here. So my pick, just because I'm selfish and I want to see how it would play out, I want to see Timor Valleyev against another guy who can strike, another guy who has brutal and ferocious kicks of his own, let's do Timor Vallev versus Chris El Guapopo

Gutierrez. Give it to me. Give it to me. I have to throw a little water on this one because I think it's a cool matchup. I think they fought before. What? When? I believe,

they may have fought twice, Michael. Oh, Jesus, Christmas. I was so excited. about that pick. Well, I mean, it was a long time. I'll put this way. It's a long time ago. They're probably very different fighters in the word, but they, yes, they actually have fought. They did fight twice. In 2016. In the World Series. But they're one and one. Yes. They're one and one. Yeah. So what you meant to say was I really want to see the fight because the trilogy needs to resolve. Okay, Mike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm sorry. I should have let you finish. I

about that. Tusha. But yes, that makes it even better. That's a life. Four years ago is like 20 years and MMA years. Like, I don't think there any anything near. I don't think Chris Gutierrez probably was as good as he is now. Valiyev, again, probably not as good as he was now. Maybe a little bit closer, but a great fighter. Yeah, I think there'd be no reason not do that fight. And I would just love to hear the words, World Series of Fighting uttered on a UFC broadcast.

So, yeah, that's the fight. There's so much. I mean, this is the story of all stories. Trilogy fight. Two guys, you know, looking to get back in the wind column because Gutierrez got a draw, although I kind of scored it for him. I thought he got hosed. I kind of thought Valiav got hosed.

to there's just i mean the storylines are endless they're just i the more i talk the more they keep coming to me ak but gutierrez valiav three explosion noise that's uh that was a that was a note for post by the way we'll add an explosion noise there it is well i think we do breton that yes but that uh that wraps up another edition of on to the next one the podcast thank you all for listening to the show make sure you subscribe give a nice review we got to honestly i've looked at the reviews last night for the first time since I joined an M.A. fighting. A lot of love for A.K. for his on to the next one.

I don't believe that. The most recent review was onto the next one is great. Alex K. Lee or A.K. is fantastic. So there you. Oh, yeah. I wrote that. You wrote that yourself? Yeah, I did. What was your moniker? Do you remember? Are you testing?

Yes. It's K's for quality. Oh, okay. All right. So you didn't write it yourself. I believe the guy was Slim Slim, Slimmington, if we're being Oh, I can, that's not that. But give a kind review. Say some kind words.

Say some kind words. Say nice things about AK. That's much appreciated. Maybe we'll shut you out on the program for your kind words, just like we do for Slim Slimmington. Incentive, but we like that kind of thing. Positivity. Next week, the fallout from UFC Vegas 8.

I'm going with that until I hear otherwise. Anthony Smith versus Alexander Rockich will be your three-round-made event. Plus the return of ruthless Robbie Lawler, take it on Neil Magny. Should be a fun. one should be a fun one but for Alex Kaylee I am Mike Heck don't take this too seriously everybody we're just a reminder we're just a couple of fantasy matchmakers just like you trying to make the best fights possible for fight fans around the globe and for ourselves let's be honest

I still still to this point have we had anything booked since we started the podcast that we predicted yeah yeah yeah Louis Olinick yeah definitely one of us said a Louis Olinick that and that happened yeah I don't know if that was a podcast pick though I think that was a oh since we do the podcast yeah zero percent zero percent 0%. Okay. We'll get there. We're going to start rolling.

We'll only start a few weeks. We've only begun the next cycle of matchmaking. Wait till we see. Wait, the next three months like by the end of the year. We're going to nail some of these. Yeah, we're only six episodes in here. But we will see you next week right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.