MMA Fighting - On To The Next One: Matches To Make After Noche UFC

Episode Date: September 14, 2025

Diego Lopes isn’t stepping out of the championship contender picture just yet. With a resounding win over Jean Silva in Saturday’s Noche UFC main event, Lopes kept himself in line for another shot at the featherweight title he fell short of capturing this past April. But just how much closer is he to going another five rounds with Alexander Volkanovski? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what's next for Lopes as he looks to further separate himself from a crowded 145-pound pack that includes rivals Movsar Evloev and Yair Rodriguez, and former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for the fast-rising David Martinez, surging lightweights Alexander Hernandez and Rafa Garcia, and 21-year-old debutant Santiago Luna. Plus, what to do with Kelvin Gastelum after another weight miss debacle, and listener picks to close out the show. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠ 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

When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss?

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A very mid-NoC UFC. We did get an incredible main event. We did have some moments on the main card. Probably had one of the worst preliminary slates. we have had in 2025 and maybe even a little further back than that. But the event is in the books. It was not at the apex. And then the best news of all is we were treated to a masterpiece from Terrence Crawford,

just a few hours later against Canello Alvarez. So what a day to be a combat sports fan. But today we are matchmaking following Noche UFC, heading into a rare weekend off for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I am Mike Eck and joining me to discuss. the fallout from this event from a matchmaking perspective, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, my best friend, can we have the same enthusiasm for Friends Forever moments?

Can we have as many as we had last week, Alexander McKayley? How are you? My best friend, I'm spent. It has been a long week. As you said, there's no J.UFC. Canella Crawford. I had, they let your boy out of the house, Mike. They let your boy out of the house.

The M.A. fighting sent me to go watch. the smashing machine at the Toronto International Film Festival. And I'm not complaining, but again, as most our listeners, no, I'm the man at the desk. I'm the man behind the monitor. You know, I just like to sit at home and do my blogging and do my podcasting. But they had me go out schmoozing at some free movie reception. It was so, I think they were like filming me.

I'm just the most awkward person at these things. So it was cool to like be, you know, five feet away from the rock, but also not cool for just me just standing there being like, I'm too scared to talk to the Rock. And then we did have a little like media junk thing online on Friday. So I kind of got to ask a question to The Rock, which was neat, to Rock and Mark Kerr and director Benny Safdi. So anyway, guys, check out, check out the smashing machine.

Decent Flick. Definitely enjoyed it. I will say it's not like any other of a main movie I've seen. And not like most biopics I've seen. Probably because it was based so much on the, you know, the documentary that has that kind of very realistic, almost sobering vibe to it. But I was quite enjoyed it. So there's a little quick review of the smashing machine. Because I'm trying to stay positive, Mike,

because I don't have a ton positive to say about Notia UFC, particularly the prelims, nor Canelo Crawford, the majority of the undercard. Outside of that banger between Envili and Martinez, which was fantastic. That fight was incredible. That was awesome. But that was, and actually, and the prelims of Canelo, Crawford weren't bad either.

There was like some proper squash matches on there. So, like, that was booked really well. But, yeah, I mean, I don't want to complain about, you guys can go on social media. I don't want to complain about Callum Walsh being in the Coma. That was just brutal. The opener also was like a just, thank God it was shorter at least.

But yeah, man, I am tired. I am ready for a new week to start and be refreshed. And I'm ready to talk picks. I'm ready to talk matchup picks. That's what I mean. Yes. We can't forget Friday night, AK, so much happened Friday night as well.

We had. Gable Stevenson. Gable Stevenson just destroys Braden Peterson in, I believe it was 96 seconds. or something to that effect. One of the quickest heavyweight takedowns you will ever see in a mixed martial arts boat. And I'm not talking about like he just ran across the occasion, tackled him.

Just literally the movement from throwing strikes to taking to Brady and Peterson's back hitting the ground was one of the most insane things I've ever seen. And then Gabe will just beat the hell out of them. Incredible performance. Definitely somebody to watch. Hopefully he fights for LFA again. and then can kind of do the same thing before he gets the UFC call because he will be in the UFC student rather than later.

And then shout out to 48 years young, Yuel Romero, doing the thing over at BKFC, 48 years young, clean-shaven, just annihilating the poor enhancement talent fighter that he annihilated in Hollywood, Florida on Friday. So this was an insane week for combat sports and the MMA world. But now let's do some matchmaking, AK. Let's discuss what happened at Nochi UFC. And Nochi UFC was capped off by, I'm not going to say, a star-making performance from Diego Lopez, but this felt big.

And it was mostly because one, John Silva played the heel incredibly well all week, including the walk to the Octagon, which seemed to have taken 15 minutes. So respect to him. And then when Diego's music hit, he, it was like Stebe in Cleveland, man. It was unbelievable. It felt huge when Buffer was announcing him.

Like I was getting chills. I was so pumped for the fight, even more than I thought I would be. And my expectations were very high. And then Diego Lopez almost finishes John Silver in round one. John survives. And then round two happens. And John looks like he might finish Diego Lopez. He's landing big shots.

He has Diego stumbling back a little bit. We have not seen Diego hurt like that in a fight. Spinning back elbow lands. And it looks like John Silva has turned the tide. And then a massive exchange, a spinning back elbow from Diego Lopez cuts open John Silva, who is a bloody mess. Diego Lopez just pounds away. Referee stops the fight. Diego gets the big win.

John Silva is very upset about the stoppage. through a little bit of a cheap shot of Diego. Cooler heads seem to have prevailed. But damn it, AK, Diego Lopez sent a message to the rest of this featherweight division. Yeah, I may have lost Alex into Volcanoz, but I ain't going anywhere. What a performance from Diego Lopez. There are options here, AK. Our own Damon Martin tweeted out very publicly that the UFC matchmaker's job is done, essentially.

We were going to throw him in there and a rematch with Bob Zara Vloyav, and there's no other fight to be made. Are you on that same side of things? It's way too logical. It's way too logical. It makes way too much sense. I'm not. I'm not. You know why, Mike?

Because remember, remember, like, five months ago when Dego Lopez lost to Alexander Volcanowski and happened to be fighting on the same card as another Mexican fighter that he does not like, Yaya Rodriguez, there's a lot of beef there. I still want the fight to happen. At the time, that was a matchup and wanted to see made. I still want it. I still think it's right there. Yeah, year has not booked a fight.

He's been in a lot of rumored fights. There's always a lot of rumored fights with the year. But no pen to paper, as far as we know, nothing firmly in the works. So if he's out there, let's get that fight going. I know, I understand the logic behind the Mosa R rematch because we all said if Diego beats John Silva, obviously he's not getting the title shot right away. He just fought bulk earlier this year. He needs to do what.

We all agree he needs to do one more fight. Momsar is also unbooked. First fight was competitive. I mean, Diego made his name off of that competitive loss, right? that people still talk about to the day, not even calling it a robbery, like they all acknowledge he lost. They're just like, oh, wow, he really took it to, you know, this undefeated guy on short notice.

And, yeah, all credit to Diego for taking advantage of that moment. So I think we will see that down the road. I just don't think I need it next. I want to see this year-year fight. I feel like that is, I feel like the year-year fight is closer to, like, if we don't book it within the next 18 months or something, it just might never happen. Maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe that crutch match will always be there. But I like it, and I like it for both. guys, I get it if Yahir wins. We are, well, I mean, listen, that year wasn't talks apparently to maybe get another shot of Volcanowski anyway. So we would all rather see the most star Lopez winner get it. But the fight I want more ignoring title implications is Lopez and Giger. So I'm going to combine sort of different ideologies of this whole thing

because I'm essentially going with what I said after UFC Shanghai, and I'm not going to really change course on this. Diego Lopez versus Algebra and Sterling is the fight I'm going with. I think Aljo, look, of course, Aljo took advantage of a situation. That was not his fault. He fought Brian Ortega and he destroyed Brian Ortega. The fight was not competitive for a single solitary second. And that is a great win.

That's a guy who's fought for a world title two times and was a top five guy and has been a perennial top five guy for a long time. So what we're going to do is I'm going to take Jed's idea of doing what's happening at middleweight and doing it at featherweight. Because Aalzinovokovsky is going to fight Lorone Murphy next. That is the next title fight. In the meantime, let's create sort of a four-man grand prix-ish style situation that we're having at middleweight. And this also makes sense because we have the four names. And we've mentioned all of them. We have Lopez, we have Sterling, we have Movesar, we have Yaiy Rodriguez.

why don't we do this like playoff basketball? We have the number one seed who is Movesar of Loiaf taking on the number four seed Jaia Rodriguez and we have the number two seed Diego Lopez taking on the number three seat Alchibade Sterling and then we could either, you can leave this open ended AK. This doesn't have to be a best performance wins. We could just say it's a tournament. We could turn it into a little, a little dirty. So I think those are the four guys that should be involved here.

and but Lopez versus Aljo I think is a really interesting fight and I'm kind of curious to see how Aljo does in this fight because I gotta tell you, I feel like even if he beats Lopez even though he Lofts to Mozar, I think there's something there with a Volcanovsky Sterling fight

especially if Volka defeat Diego Lopez. So featherweight is fun and yeah, I like where we're going here. There's no wrong way, but I think Diego versus Sterling of Loy every year. All of those make sense. And I think they were all very fun. And your tournament alternate is the winner of our brilliant matchup we made last week, Mike,

the William Go Me, Aaron Fico. There's your tournament. Just in case. I'm just saying, just in case, just in case. Remember that, Mike? Remember that? What a moment. And then we did another one?

Oh, man. That was incredible. That was unbelievable. I'm saying. We'll see what happens with John Silva. Moving forward, that was the... I think we're going to friends forever now. You think we're going to friends forever?

I don't know. I got a feeling on this next one. On David Martinez? I think so. I don't know if we are. Okay. We'll see. But David Martinez is going to be...

I don't know if he's going to be a top 10 bantam weight because I think Rob fought was number nine heading in. I don't know if they're going to rank him in the top 10. Maybe he ends up like 11 or 12. But either way, after two fights of the UFC, AK, this young man, who, has a lot of hope and people are very excited for him coming off the contender series and about him beats rob fun this is a a good performance solid first round was was pretty tight uh

i saw some people score round one for rob fought i didn't hate it i know the striking numbers were almost like triple for david martinez which was kind of surprising but fought definitely landed the better shots in that round uh i scored it from martinus but martinus went 29 28 seemed like all the momentum heading into round three was with Rob Font and then David Martinez just said, F it. He listened to his dad, he listened to his sister, and just went all out in that third round

and he hurt Rob Fon to the point where the crowd was so loud that Dan Murgliata could not even hear the horn sound that the fight actually went an extra 10 seconds after round three because it was so loud in the arena. It was a wild scene. I'd never seen anything like that, but David Martinez gets it done. And this is a fine win, A.K.

A fine win. I don't think he's going to get a ranked guy next, despite being in the rankings himself. So there were two options for me. One makes a little more sense, and I went with this one, and you may not like it very much, A.K., but I feel like this is sort of a name

that helps get him over a little bit more, especially if you put this fight in a fan-friendlyish place for David Martinez. I went with Bryce Mitchell. I want David Martinez versus Bryce Mitchell because I think David Martinez wins that fight and I think getting a win over Bryce Mitchell in 2025 heading into 2026 that can only do nothing but good for you

in your career right now. So I think going Rob Fawb, Bryce Mitchell back to back is very beneficial for David Martinez. Yeah, that's definitely the right range of opponents I was looking at him. I did not expect David Martinez to win. I had picked Rob Fott to win. So I guess I was really unprepared to kind of

to pick an opponent for him. So Rob Font, so when the Tuesday updates come around for the U.S.C.'s official rankings, Martinez will be ranked. Font, I'm looking now, was number nine heading into Saturday's event, number 13 in our rankings, I believe, again, which includes other organizations. And the guy I have picked for him, I did not realize till now was ranked higher than Rob Fond, I think because I don't have him ranked super highly in mind, my personal ranking. like song yadong song yadong is it too soon yes i didn't realize song yong is number five in the oc's rankings

and again i didn't that's not where i have songs so for me like i have song i think outside of my top ten so for me that makes sense but i just literally did not realize till now and we have song number eight so yes he is a fairly unanimous top so for me i guess top ten phantomway um it was hard this this was probably the trickiest pick of the week. I'm very happy with the song in a pick. I don't feel it's too soon, mainly because, again, Martina surprised me. Like you said, it wasn't like a,

it was not a dominant win over Rob Fon. He did not, he did not, he'd not like truck Rob Fon, but he showed, you know, he showed he has an extra gear, which you'd like to see from,

from a fighter kind of just entering their prime, like of the recent guys that, Fon has been booked against, you know, Raul Rosa, which all right, didn't happen, obviously. And, um,

Matsumoto, uh, Dan Martinez is the oldest. I think he's almost a most mature. I guess it's hard to say, and I must have so much experience. So maybe he is genuinely a top 10 guy, Mike. I'm not trying to fast track Dave Martinez to a telethshot,

certainly. He barely has a dozen pro bouts under his belt. But I'm willing to test if, again, I'm willing to test if he is higher caliber than I expected going to NoJ UFC. And song maybe is too high. But again, in my ranking, my personally, I have a song 11 in the UFC rankings. So for me, he's right next to Martinez after the fallout.

I'm officially higher on him than I am Raul Roses Jr. Or Mottaker or anybody else. Yeah, of course. Like I think his ceiling is higher. I think there's definitely more skill there. I think he's only going to get better. I like seeing that dog in him. I actually thought Rob Font would beat Raul Roses Jr.

I thought he would win this fight too, just classic Rob Font decisioning, a 29-28 style win. Rob looked every bit of 38, especially in that third round. And I'm not trying to take anything away from David Martinez because David took advantage of that. And that was just incredible stuff. Like that is just a ballsy win right there. And I respect it. The reason I didn't go with Song is there was rumor and innuendo that Songuong is fighting

Sean O'Malley at the end of the year. We have not fully confirmed this information. But from conversations I have had, it appears like we are that there, smoke to this fire. So that's why I didn't go into that fully. But yeah, I mean, dude, Adam White's great. And David Martinez is just another fine example of why this division is deep and fun and definitely somebody to watch.

So great performance, great fight. Hell yeah. I got to see the listener's suggestions. I have not had it taking a close look at them. I'm really curious what it came up with. I am too. I just, I haven't really looked at him either. So let's go to the lightweight division, AK.

It was at this moment where, because the man who missed weight in one prior, I thought that was the featured bout. And then I looked and realized, I'm like, Jesus Christ, we still have three more fights. This is insane. This card had too many fights. If this year, I mean, not just an event, but this event was certainly endemic of it because of how forgettable the prelims were. We need to normalize like 12 fight UFC events and someday, God willing, 10 fight UFC events.

I know, I know if you're going to say, AK, how can you say that when, like, if you did that, they would cut so many fighters. Like, literally, legitimately, if they went to 10-flight UFC events, they would probably have to cut, like, 150 fighters. So their roster is insanely bloated right now. And listen, that sucks. That sucks.

I get it. I get it. But I think we can all agree also the UFC, just being signed by the UFC these days is not, like, a gold mine. I know it's more money than most of these fighters make on the regional scene by, like, a large amount. I completely understand these things. but sports

I'm saying this fighting is supposed to be a meritocracy and I don't know why they need to keep stuffing these cards with so many fights. It is an unpleasant viewing experience after some time. Even when the fights are good

like you've been watching MMA for five and a half, six hours, I don't care how good the fight is. Your brain is fried. So people are wondering like we criticize the events or so many things. They are just so many fights.

And I know you stack them because hey, one or two fights might drop out, but we are getting 14, 15. I think we have, I don't know if we have a 16 fight card. I think Perth or something is like a huge amount of fights. It's getting ridiculous. It's so bloated. And again, it's not like every fight top to bottom is a banger. Let's be real here. Some of these fights feels so perfunctory and like we are just filling out of schedule. And that is not fun. That is not what fighting is

supposed to be about. So yeah, I don't know. I don't blame you, Mike, for kind of just losing track of what the hell was going on by the time Rapha Garcia and, and Jared Gordon walked out. Wait. Don't go anywhere. Wait till we run down this Perth card. Just wait. I don't have that much time. I got a place to. You have place to be. Yeah. Wait until you hear this entire lineup. You are just not going to believe it. I'm telling you right now that this is a that people are going to spend money to go to this event. It's actually unbelievable. But the lightweight division, Rafa Garcia, probably down two rounds to Jared Gordon, comes back, gets the finish in round three. Bala Muhammad tweeted out that Jared Gordon got hit by a friggin car the day before this fight and still won the first two rounds. And somehow it was fighting. I don't understand it. Jared Gordon did have a blue knee brace on.

And apparently it's because he got hit by a car and his knee popped. And then Jared Gordon ended up fighting anyways. I don't even know what to say about this whole situation. But anyways, Rafa Garcia has, I'll just get this out of the way, okay? Ralph Garcia is on a nice little run right now. But if you truly look at this man's run and the guys he has beaten, um, Ralph is beating the old,

beating up a lot of the olds. He's beating a lot of the old men up. Uh, so let's just keep the train going, okay, let's do James A10 Miller. Let's do a little Jim Miller action for, uh,

for Raffa Garcia. And let's keep the, the road of the olds alive. Dan, we were so close. When you said, oh, really?

I mean, there's a lot of old lightweights. I guess it probably, probably didn't narrow it down that much. I'm going to Edson Brabosa. Edson Brabosa. Oh, okay. I like that, too.

But we have the same idea. Good for Rafa Garcia. Great run. Four out of five. Not easy to do it lightweight. Don't care who you're fighting. But yes, I don't think we're pushing Rapa to like a top 25 spot or something like that. You know, just good performances.

Great, great job. Yeah, to stick it in there with Jared Gordon, get that win in the third round. Crazy the car crash story. Again, we're kind of working to, I mean, we did. I think we have confirmed that it happened, you know, beyond Ballal's just tweeting it. and hopefully someone can talk to Jared this week. I mean, the man has had so many incredible stories in his life already. And now I think this is incredible slash sad.

I don't know how you guys want to look at it. But yeah, that was a tough one. And people in his DMs, please be nice. I know there's probably a lot of angry betters out there who may have involved, I don't know, corn and some sort of parlay or something. Please be nice, guys. He was hit by car. If you're giving this man shit for getting hit by the car and fighting the next day.

And it was a fun fight too, by the way. It was one of the better fights in the card. Yeah, I think it would be okay. A.K., people come to the show for knowledge. They come to the show for guidance on how the UFC matchmakers might actually proceed. And then they come to hear AK talk about fighters who miss weight and get wins. And they're curious, is AK going to matchmake for Calvin Gassum? Because Mike is just going to follow AK through the fires when it comes to this thing?

What would you like to say about the Kelvin Gasolum situation? He did get a victory over Dustin Stoltzvus, not Dusko Tadouravich, but Dustin Stolzvus. I was confused by both of these gentlemen, too, because I was just about to say, Doescoe Tadourvich? How are you feeling about the stock of one Kelvin Gaston? I mean, I'm just, this is a classic, you know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me, shame on me situation, right? Like normally when someone misses weight, especially by this much, I'm always going to

like, oh, you know, what was going on with this person's health, and I hope they're okay. And to some degree, I still feel that way. I don't know what's going on in Calvin's life. Maybe there's a reason he missed weight by five pounds. He said in the post-fight interview, like, oh, you know, we really only got this fight on a month's notice, which I don't think is a great excuse. Mike, you and I were talking about before the show. These guys are professionals. This was Calvin Gassum's 25th pro fight.

He has to know at this point, you cannot balloon up to, if you're going to be someone with the mentality of, oh, yeah, I can sign a fight on one month's notice. then how are you even getting to the point between fights where you're ballooning up to, I don't know what, well north of 200 pounds, we have to assume for Calvin, right? It's bad, man, it's bad. He can't be doing that. I think if he had lost,

it would have been the last fight for Calvin Gaston, which sounds strange because the UFC loves him. I think Dana White has always liked him. The guy puts on exciting fights. His fight was Stultz was really good. Like, if you didn't know anything about the weight cut, he's like, yeah, it's another good fight for Calvin Gaston. But we got to do something about this.

And I was joking in the slack with Damon, like the guy's got to move up. Calvin at Light Heavy would just be hilarious. He is not a tall man. And I know Light Heavyweight is a craft division, but seeing him in there trade hands with some of these taller guys at 205 would be truly, truly stunning. So I'm not put on a name. But I don't know how many fights he has left in his contract. They just need to throw him in there at Light Heavyweight or even, as Damon suggested,

heavyweight. Just once. Just once. Damon said Chris Barnett, which would be the funniest fight in MMA history. I'm fine with just like a 205er. I don't know who. And as I was looking at the list, I was like, he could beat a lot of these 205ers.

Like, I was just looking at the bottom half. I was like, I would pick him to beat, like, Raphael Sequeira. I'd probably pick him to beat Yvonne Ursula Erslan, Julius Walker. Sorry, Julius Walker, respect, but I think I would think Calvin to beat him. Junior Tapa. I think Calvin could beat Junior Tapa. So like.

Tucotokos. Tuccoes? Billy Alicana. We are laughing. But maybe, again, just one fight. Just one fight. I still believe Calvin can get his weight right at 185. They'll keep in on the same guy who probably said years ago.

Like I think he can get locked in at 170. But yeah, if he's going to stick around, put him in a fun weirdo fight where he really doesn't have to wear a cutting weight, can come to the scale with a hamburger in his hand. Like, I don't know. Like, just let's have some fun with it if we're going to keep Calvin around. But yeah, Calvin, figure it out, man. Figure it out because you're great fighter.

And it's going to hold a very weird spot in NMA history when it's all said and done. if we were going to match week for him I was going to say after Atiba Gautier just straight up destroys Ozzy Diaz you have to feed Calvin to Gotea Gotea may not finish him but he's got beat his ass You think so? I think Calvin is so tough though

I think Calvin could still win that he is so much more experienced Like who would you Like Calvin struggle with Dustin Stoltz's man And Dustin, like, I'll respect to Dustin. Guys, he's a trier. He's absolutely a trier. Yeah.

And he's gay and I respect the hell out of that, man. But, yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know. We'll see. 205, like, you know what? Okay, I changed my mind. Calvin Gasolm versus Uron Salta Baldiav. There is.

That's perfect. That's perfect. That's going to be a tough scene. So Calvin, good God. I will say if they did do the Go-T-A matchup, just make it a 205. That's my only thing. Oh, okay. Now I'm with you.

I'm like, I'm like, just don't even bother. Just say, hey, guess what, T-Bah? You don't got a cut weight either? Come on. Yeah, the Go-T-A is such a selfish pick for me because I need the fantasy points. And if I could have a great-grateful, it'd be incredible. So. Now we see the real man.

Yeah, hopefully we see what happens with Calvin Gasol, and it's a man who does not miss weight anymore. Get you and your crew to the big show. shows with Go Transit. Go connects to all the main concert venues like TD Coliseum in Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto and Go makes it affordable with special e-ticket fairs. A one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel across the network on any weekend day or holiday for just $10. And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for five. Buy yours at gotransit.com slash tickets. How about Alexander Hernandez four wins in a row, his longest win streak as a UFC fighter,

which is pretty crazy to think about when you look back at his career. Another knockout win. That's two knockout wins in less than a month for Alexander Hernandez. And I got to tell you, AK, I effing loved his callout. I thought it was fantastic. Calls out Michael Chandler, does it in such a simple way, didn't do. it like an asshole, just was like, hey, I want to top 15, Michael Chandler, let's go. And then he just walked away.

It was perfect. I loved it. Your thoughts on the callout. And did you go in this direction for Mr. Hernandez? No, but I love the callout too. I love the call out too. That was the right thing to do. If he gets it, obviously amazing.

But I think like even it's a, you know, I say this all the time, shoot to the moon, you land in the stars. I feel like he's at least going to get a name in that range, which is the direction I went in, though probably a little unexpected, probably a little unexpected. And maybe a match with that people, that will have people thinking I'm a little cookie. Four straight wins for Hernandez. Just great. He's only 32, Mike. He's only 32. Like, he's still in his, well in his prime. And yeah, just kind of maybe getting the right matchups and just focusing. I was going to repeat his quote that he said last time after he beat Chase Hooper, but I don't think it's not age

appropriate, so I'm not going to talk about it. But I retweeted it the other day. You guys can find what he was saying, like how he was when he first came to the UFC. I want a rematch, Mike. I'm booking a rematch for him, a fight from three years ago, well, almost four years ago. I think he just was not in a good stage of his career. I think he maybe wasn't prepared for this opponent. And his disguise is quite a bit older now. So I do want to see if they're, you know, if they're kind of going in the directions,

I think they're going. Hanata Moikano, too. Hennato Mucano 2. Because I want to give him a ranked guy. I want to give him a ranked guy. Chandler, I guess, would fit the bill too. He can't possibly still be ranked by the UFC, right? Michael Chandler?

No. Dude, I'm sure it is. Don't. Number 12. One spot behind. It's so good. One spot behind Wicano. What do we do?

Just because of the Dan Hooker win? Like, what's going on? Anyway, Macana's number 11, the UFC's ranking. So, yes, I get, like I said, he's in the same range. I didn't realize McConno was. I thought McCona was still in the top 10, but. Yeah, but that's actually perfect because I don't think Hernandez should get a top 10 opponents. Number 11 suits me.

And yeah, and I want to see if this is hernandez thing is real. Because if he beats Mike in a rematch, then we are talking about the guy who has actually improved, evolved, and heaven help us, Mike, is like two more impressive fights away from maybe challenging for the lightweight title. I think he's probably more fights than that away. But I didn't give him Chandler either. I gave Mauricio Ufi. Okay. Yeah.

I just think it's a good, it's a good fight for both guys, considering where they're at right now. I think it's a good bounce back fight for Mauricio. And another good test for Hernandez. Like, if you can go out there and knockout, Mauritio, first third straight knockout is fifth straight win. Then we can start talking like top 10 guys. So I kind of like that one.

I'm curious if the listeners had to pick for Hernandez. because it is lightweight and lightweight's very fun. I want to have to chuck him in there with, like, Grant Dawson or something. I kind of hope that doesn't happen. It makes sense ranking and timing-wise, but I very much intentionally avoided that fight. I was like, I don't want to see that right now. Maybe, like you said, if he beats someone, if he beats Chandler and Dawson also fights in there and it gets a win, maybe then you match him out.

Again, for some weird, like, dark horse, like one of these guys could realistically, I think, fight for the UFC lightweight title. But I don't want it next. I don't see the need for that. As much as I love the Chandler call out, if Hernandez had called out Dawson, I actually think that would have been like a sick ass call out. I'd be like, damn, no one,

because no one's calling out of Dawson. Not a single person. Why would you? Yeah, no one's calling him up. But Hernandez been like, hey, Grant, let's go. I'll kick your ass. I would have been tremendous. Let's go to Santiago Luna, AK,

who I'm going to say is the MVP of Noce UFC. He is the MVP. And I know Diego Lopez got two bonuses and will remember him. But without, Santiago Luna had to run, had to walk so that Diego Lopez could run. Because I got to tell you,

that crowd was dead. They were done. They were bored out of their ever-loving minds after those prelims. And Santiago Luna brought them to life with that finish in the opening main card bout. And Quang Lee, shout out to Quang.

This guy just knows how to get got. And boy did he, 21-year-old Santiago Luna gets him. And now, A.K., we have to throw Santiago Luda in there with the guy who many bantam weight prospecty careers have been built upon. And I think it's now his time to go in there and probably finish Cameron Simon. I mean, that's just kind of what has happened here is that you win a fight, then you fight Cameron, you go and finish Cameron, and then you're off and running. Just look at the guys like Cameron Simon has had to fight so far over the last run here in the UFC. Three straight losses. Christian Rodriguez, who, you know, undefeated guy at the time.

Peyton Talbot and Malcolm Wellmaker. And now we had Santiago Luna to the list. Man. This is kind of where he's at right now. This is we are with camera. It feels like just yesterday. He was like a fresh-faced, like 22-year-old kid entering the year. year old kid. Much like Santiago Luna,

wasn't that? He talked out two of his first three opponents. Yeah. All three of his first three fights, AK, were all on pay-per-view events. 282, 285, and 290. Two of the best cards in the last five years.

Cameron Simon was a part of, and that it was this is Apex, Apex, Apex? Apex. Well, Maker was definitely Apex. Was Peyton Apex? And Malcolm Wellmaker. Nope. Wellmaker was just in Kansas City. Okay. So yeah, that's where I'm going.

Yeah, it just feels weird to me because like, ah, this is where we are with Simon? Like we're already, he's 24 years old. We're already using him as a development talent. Or enhancement talent, excuse me. Yeah, that's, it makes sense. Again, at least it's age appropriate. At least it is someone closer to, to Luna's age. So, yeah, Luna, just a baby man, 21 years old. We don't know what this guy can be, but that was a very, very nice debut. He turned, he made his amateur debut in 2022. Like, man, this guy is young, young, young, young, young. Okay, Mike, if you want to sacrifice assignment to him, so be it. Again, I kind of went in the same direction.

I will say this. This is my wild card are essentially just dart throws of trying to find guys that my picks can, you know, knock out or style on. Toshiyomi Kazama, Mike Toshiyomai Kizama first and Tegu Luna. I have no other real comments to make about it. But like I said, let's try and build this kid. And again, let's stick with guys who are in the last. lower half of the very, very talented and very, very tricky bantamweight division.

I don't want to see him fighting a top 30 guy until January, 2027. Let's like this next year. Let's just get some good buzz building around border boy and, you know, get some highlights in there. Maybe a tough fight in there where we see like, you know, see who have to gut it out. There's potential. It's potential. But yes, you're right, Mike.

He bless his heart for bringing the crowd to life. Oh, we needed it so bad. So shout to Santiago Luna. All right. Let's go to the wild card round, A.K. It's like one fighter we have not matched made for. We'll match me for him. Now, who did you land on here?

Mike, can it even be called a wild card anymore? Much like, listen, I would have done two wildcards the last time with Ali B. Adiris and Joseph Morales, all right? If the other tough finale had not been postponed to this event, of course I have to pick a fight for. Tough 33 welterweight tournament winner, Daniel Donchenko. the newest billionaire in the United States. Ukraine's own Danielle Dechenko. Great performance against Rodriguez-Zanando.

I actually picked him. Mike, this is the first time, I think, in years, why I've gone two-for-two on tough season winners. I don't know why I've always had a bad feel for it. But I like Morales for the upset, and I think Donchenko was favored. So that was a little bit easier to pick. Let's build this guy out.

I'm just finding someone in the bottom 10 of the division for now. And DeNeco might be better than that. I don't know. But let's take it easy. Daniel Frunza. Daniel Frunza. Mike, come on down. Come on down.

I think this would probably make sense to happen on an international card. I don't know when the next one is going to be. They have to take a trip to Europe. But yes, let's load that up. You know, hey, there's still space on, and I'm not saying this is Europe people. I know geography. Is there still space on UFC Perth, Mike?

I think we could squeeze one more fight in there. Stack it on. Stack it on. So there you go. Yeah. Wait till I read this lineup off. You guys are not going to believe it. You're really building this up.

I went with Tatiana Suarez. And this was, this is one of those fights where we looked at it. Because in the current UFC rankings, it was number two versus number four in the strawweight division. And they buried this thing on the prelims. And we kept thinking ourselves, why? Why did they bury this in the prelims? And then the damn bell rang. And we knew immediately why this was on the prelims.

I say this with all due respect. But I'm a man who calls it like I see it. This fight between Tatiana Swares and Amanda Lamosh, considering where they're ranked, the stakes involved, everything about it, the card plate, the card that was on,

etc. I can confidently say, and I feel really good about this take, that was the worst fight of 2025. That was the most incredible fight of 2025. Damn. It was bad. Like,

it was just super bad because Tatiana did not, nothing and Amanda did less. So whatever number is less than nothing, that's what Amanda did. And when Amanda actually did stuff, it worked. She actually hurt Tatiana in round three. And honestly, like, I was going to go back and rewatch this and then I realized that I cannot do that to myself. I think you can make a strong case that Amanda Lemos won this fight because nothing

happened in the second round. Like literally nothing happened except for a jump. jumping guillotine attempt at the end of round two. And it was tight and it was nasty. And it was like the only thing that happened. It was the only thing that happened. And there were some, I think there were some people in the M.A.

decision who actually scored the fight for Lemos. And I got to say I respect the hell out of it. I really do. But Tatiata wins. And I'm curiously what the listeners picked. But here's, I think my biggest takeaway of all this. And there's two.

one is that coming out of UFC 312 I looked at Tatiana Suarez and Jean-Wili and I was like you know what like if they fought 10 times like I think Tatiana might get her like three times like two or three times my takeaway coming out of that performance in that fight was they could fight a million times and Zhang would go a million and O Katiata Soros is never beating Zhang Wei Li in a in an M. May fight. She's just not. She is way too limited

at this point. She's very good at what she does, but it is not appealing at all. And if you just watch the last three Tatiana Suarez fights, there is an unbelievable blueprint to beat her. So this is, and I don't want to, she did

win, and it was important because Tatiana is not like a huge star and a win was super important. You cannot lose two in a row in this division. So I will give her credit that she needed to go out there and win. Having said that, she's not fighting for the belt next. She's not fighting the loser of the title fight.

She's not fighting Verna. She's not fighting McKenzie Dern. In fact, she is taking a step back in the ranking. She's stepping back even further than Amanda Lamos for me. She is going to fight somebody. And I'm going to say this right now. And again, I mean, this is all their respect. I'm picking this person to beat Tatiava Suarez.

And I didn't think I would say this. I really didn't. She's fighting Lupi Godinez, and Lupi Godinez is about to beat Tatiana Suarez. Why? Because Lupi is a better striker than Tatiana Suarez. She's not a terrific defensive wrestler, but Ahmed Halemois is a far worse defensive wrestler, and she eventually figured this out. And Luby physically can kind of match the grappling prowess of Tatiana in a lot of respects.

I think this is the fight you make, AK. Like, if you're going to turn Lupy into a title contender, like you have to book this fight right now because I actually, Lupi has a good chance of winning. I really do. So give me Lupi versus Tatiana. No Janjohn, no McKenzie Dern,

no Verna-Janjarova. She's going to have to win at least two more fights before she fights for the belt. She has to take a step back and fight Lupi who's on a good run right now. I think this is what you have to do. I love it. I hope it happens.

I hope it happens. I think that is just a fantastic pick. Lupi has, I'm so lose to use this phrase, but she has that dog in her, Mike. She has a classic, she has that dog on her fighter, right? She might not be the best striker in the division. She might be, like you said, her defensive wrestling is not great.

So, like, overall, she might not be the best wrestler in the division. But she goes in there to win fights. This is not someone who goes in there to, again, as you said, credit Santiana. She won. Did what she had to do, cut the W. But, like, Lupy goes in there to win fights to try and finish fights. I'm not saying she's an amazing finish her, but she is trying.

She is trying to finish fights and beat up her opponent and inflict pain. That is what Lupi does. That's why we love her so much. And she'll do it on 12 hours notice, if you asked her. And this is the real test Tatiana needs because Lupi, I think, would bring that out of her. I think Lupi would make Tatiana fight. And I think Tatiana can do it. I totally can.

I just need to see more of it. And if she can't, like you said, Mike, if she puts on, even if she beat Lupy, And she put on another performance like she did on Saturday, it would just keep her, it would either keep her neutral or arguably somehow move her even further away from the talos shot, right? Like it's just, she's in a very tough place right now because of how the Zhang fight went, because of how some of her fights went before that,

because of how the Lamosh fight just went. And I think looping her against Lupi would actually be like doing her a favor. I think, I think it would help to hopefully showcase some of her strengths and some of her strengths that maybe we haven't seen enough of. Yeah. I almost went further back than that. Matt. The first name I wrote down was Tabitha Ritchie. Like I was, I was going to go that far back to like number eight. And Tabith's coming off like the best performance of her career. So that would be like kind of a gamer ass fight too. But look, I don't want this to sound like I'm just like dumping on Tatum's photos. She fought multiple times this year. Like this is great. This is great. And the way she performed against Zhang Wei Li. I was like, man, we might not see her to like mid-2026. Like I hope.

she's okay um but she came back and won it was just not a it's just not a performance we're going to remember and it's not one that's going to get her a title fight and jed said something and i was like thinking about this a k straw weight not good anymore oh boy yeah you know what that's a fair question asked i i have been pushing straw weight like as one of the best divisions for a long time um like almost like a sleep i want to say sleeper and at some point i was like i wasn't even a sleeper at some point they were just consistently like putting on good fights and i was like you know people were sort of coming around i'm like yeah it's a good division duh now it does feel like we've gone the other way where i think the good vibes of maybe the past couple of years are maybe at least

for me clouding my perspective on the division because yeah like kind of just looking at the top of dean kind of just trying to remember what good fights we've had in the division recently it's not jumping out at me um some people need to be booked more i know alexia tanara is i think she's a fight coming up i want to see more of her i know we have some young prospects coming up we got like fatima McLean. So yeah, this is a tricky spot to, the division's in a tricky spot.

It's not as, it's probably still, I think it's still the best women's division. Oh, better than flyway. I'm looking at the flyweight division right now. Nadia. Yeah.

And Alexa Grasso. Yeah. I think the fights are just better. Yeah, yeah. I think the fights are just better. I still think the average strawweight fight is just better. But it's close. It's honestly a coin flip at this point.

It's really not, I can't comfortably say like, oh, it's shot weight is clearly better than much. No, I don't think anyone can make that claim. I think the women's side of things, the UFC is like, it's, you know, it's in a bit of a, it's in a bit of a low right now. And I think, you know, people have been very critical of it. I've been defending women's M.A. in the U.S. for a while. But guys, this is what happens when there's not money invested into,

into a business, right? Frankly, again, look at how other women's sports are booming and how much salaries are increasing in other women's sports. WNBA can jump out at you, but there's other sports as well. Of course, NIL deals in college. People are getting probably your average college athlete is making as much as a mid-level woman in the UFC. So guys, you got to invest because there was a time. Dana White was right.

There was a time when he was at the head of the game as far as paying women athletes. This is one of the true when the Ronda Rousey era was happening and probably some years after that. I think the UFC has fallen behind now. I think because we know pay overall men and women has not increased dramatically over the past five, six years, while it has in other sports, you're guys, you're now seeing, you're now seeing what's kind of happening to men's light heavyweight and heavyweight.

You're seeing that happen to a lot of women's business now, too, and that sucks. So this is why, guys, it's so important to get fighters paid more. I know some fans don't care. This is why it's important to get fighters paid more, because you need to get better athletes in there. And that's not, we're not having a huge influx of talent into M.A. right now, particularly other women's side. I mean, Alice Pera, like what else do I need to say, you know?

I mean, this is what we're signing. now to the O.C. Sorry, Alice. That was a tough watch as well. But I mean, that was just, it was way too early. Way too early to have any use. I hope we were talking about this after the event, too. Like, I hope they, like,

they should just pull Alice Pereira from the UFC roster and just, like, be like, you are now under a developmental contract. Like they did with Chase Hooper, like they did with, like, the William Knights of the world. Here's Fight Pass. Here's all the events we have on Fight Pass. You could fight on any one of these anytime you want.

But you're going to do it for the next five fights to build a little bit of experience. So that's OJ UFC. Let's go to the peeps. Let's fire through these. We have a first timer. Welcome. Eric with a K. Hello, first time, Otno submission.

First of all, this is such a wild pick, AK. But I actually loki respect the hell out of it. Eric says, I think the next fight to make after Noce, and you can't see this coming from a mile away, okay, is Diego Lopez versus Justin Gaichy at 155 pounds? Here's the explanation. Okay. It doesn't make sense,

it doesn't make for straightforward divisional progress for either guy, but the winner would deserve a title shot in their home division. It's the kind of fight that would build the legend of both guys. Damn, that is a welcome to the party pile I've ever seen. Hell yeah. Eric, good job on that. I love that. I don't hate it. Don't hate it at all. Justin Gagej would never take that fight. No, it's not happening.

It would literally be like some of the worst decision making of all time if he said yes to that fight. Because that win does nothing for him. It truly does nothing for him. Yeah. But ballsy, maybe the, look, for the, for the birth of this show up until UFC 300, all I kept saying is I want Justin Gagetri versus Max Holloway. And it took years. And we finally got it. It took four years of doing the show. And then we finally got it. So maybe this is your Max Holloway versus Justin Gagee. And I respect. Live your truth, Eric.

Live your truth. Dossin. Here are my out no picks. Diego Lopez versus Yaya Rodriguez in Mexico ideally. David Martinez versus, I actually like this one. Marcus Beghee. Yep. Good guys.

Perfect range. Yeah. Rafel Garcia versus Ludwig Klein after losing to Rebekchi. Alexander Hernandez, Mauritio Rufi. Kelvin Gaslam versus Darren Till in boxing at 205 so Kelvin can still miss weight. Oh, wow, Dawson. Damn. Crazy.

This is the first time I'm looking at these, by the way. John Ray, Donchenko versus Prado. Rendon versus Mullins, Coria versus Osborne, Aguilar versus Kavanaugh. versus Kavanaugh. That's actually a really interesting fight. Suarez versus Loopy. Like it. Silva versus Hernandez.

Wow. Hernandez had a four-fight win streak. We're throwing him in there with Joachim Silva? I mean, good for Joaquin for beating Claudio Poyas, I guess. But that doesn't mean what it would have meant like two years, three years ago. So I don't know if that's the way to go. They never fought for. CDF to net a BJJ.

Okay. Tadorovich versus Pulaev, Luda versus Lacerda, Garcia versus Davis. Okay. Rava Garcia versus Mike Davis. Love it. Down. Awesome fight.

David Martinez versus Marlon, Cheeto Vera, win or lose against Amon Zahavi. I thought about it. It probably makes sense to my song you don't pick, frankly. I thought about it. Cheetos name was definitely in there. Gasolm versus U.S. well romero at 205 for pkfc that fight actually bangs it kind of god it kind of does bang gaslands fights are fun this is why he's such a relevant figure still when he actually gets in there

he's fun that like i said that's the fight was stals was fun man like except for the huge weight miss it's good yep uh john silva versus steve garcia that's wild and diego lopez versus bozard of live two uh i got one more left lane diego versus s s s sartre of live two uh i got one more left lane Diego versus Aljo, John versus Josh Emmett, no matter the result against Yusuf Salal. Garcia versus CDF, Gasolm versus Tullio. Do we have anything? Luna versus Ricky Tersios. Oh, okay, this is right up your alley.

Dusko Todorovich versus Dustin Stoltzvus. There could only be one. I'm going to screw that up so many times if that gets booked. I'm going to have to. If you visited M.A. If you visited M.A. fighting over the weekend and you saw erroneous, any read those Gasselm articles, and you saw Gasselov versus Tadoravit, that is my fault. I apologize now to America.

I screwed that up so many times. Mike had to jump in and fix it. I was out. Mike had to jump in and fix it for me at some point. So it was very confusing. It was very confusing. So please, Mike, I actually don't want that match to happen because I will screw that up intensely if that goes down.

Silla versus Gordon. Aguilar versus Osborne. just cut Dumas, Coria versus Borjas, Donchenko versus Radke. I feel like you get a mandatory Radke selection anytime an unranked Walter way wins a fight.

And Left Lane's like, I don't care, Tatiana Suarez versus the Duren-Virna winner. I just don't think you can give her a title fight after that. I'm sorry. I mean, the UFC can. That's such a stretch. The UFC can.

They just shouldn't. They certainly would. I mean, they could, but like, that is just not the kind of performance. The UFC rewards. But yeah, those are my picks. That's what I got, A.K., what do you got? I didn't get too many either.

Let's see what we got here. Let's go to the Instagrams for us, just a handful. Daniel Edwards, for Reese McKee. So in Reese McKee in there with Dunchenko. McKee gets a UFC win, then loses his next fight. He's right back into enhancement talent status apparently. Daniel's saying, poor Reese put it again. If he loses to a guy with one UFC win,

I think that's the right matchup as they matched McKee against the guy with no UFC wins last time. Daniel Edwards, you're not wrong. It's very likely that they're going to call Reese McKee for Daniel soon. Gerard Beagan, he agrees with the popular choice of Lopez of Loyaev 2. Rafa Garcia versus Nasrat Hackpress 2. I actually thought about that as well. I actually would like to see that fight again. No problem with that rematch.

Oh, Calvin Gasselin versus Eric Anders. That's a funny one because Eric is. planning to retire, right, with his next fight, right? I think so. Eric trained at fight ready for a little while. I don't think he's there anymore. Right. So I don't know what his relationship is with Calvin and vice versa.

But that's interesting. Alex Fernandez Bahamondez. Santiago Luna, Al-Tang Haile, Dusko versus the Atiba Gautier, Ozzie Diaz, winner. That makes sense. Love that. Let's go.

Joachim Silver is Terence McKinney. this would only be interesting because Joaquin Silva goes to the cards a lot, right? Yeah, almost. Oh, no, no, there was a stretch there where it was ending in the distance. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. We've made a lot of matches for McKinney this year.

That wouldn't be in, like, my top five. I get the logic, but it would not be in my top five. Okay, I think that's it for Instagram. Wow, thanks guys. A few more on Twitter, DGB, Suarez versus Ritchie. Throw over Akeem Sylva in there with Rapper Garcia, sure. Alexander Hernandez Benile too You know what?

I thought about that The glove tap heard around the world Or sorry, the no glove tap Excuse me, there was no glove tap That's something Boy That would actually be super interesting now Benio would definitely want that fight

But like Hernandez, I don't know if like that does anything for him Because he already nuked him in like a minute How was a lifetime ago, man A lifetime ago and also God, what a moment that sent Hernandez's career on such a strange direction because he immediately had to

be a top of rank's top of 15 after he beat Vanil. There's a lot of controversy over should he have tapped Vaniel's gloves. So like there was this, he kind of got this reputation, deserved or not, of like, oh, I don't like this guy.

Like, this guy's cocky. And he was a young guy coming in too. Like he has a young athletic guy, he has the look of someone that, like you kind of want to, he had a bit of a healish look already. And then he did that. Because people were really happy

when he lost to Saroni. I remember when he lost the cowboy? Man, people were cheer. They were like, yeah, he got what he, you know, he got what he deserved and all that. Then there was a controversial win over Trinaldo that he didn't even think he won. It's just such a strange, such a strange career that it seems to have righted itself. And that would really bring things full circle. And if he beat Banneal again, man, top 10, top 10 fighter, Alexander Hernandez.

Yeah, I dig it, actually. I really dig it. When you look at David Martinez and Loke Dogg? I like, I want to see the fight. I just don't think it makes sense now. I'm surprised to hear you say that, A.K. That seems like that that would be a fight that you would be all in on. Next.

Rising prospects that, uh, yeah, sometimes. Just do it now. What are we waiting for? Yeah, but like I said, I'm so confused with what David Martinez is. I just don't know. I just don't. Is he legitimately a top 15 guy? I don't know.

Or did he, again, catch, you know, the right guy, the right top 10 guy at the right time? Because Rappon is tough. Like, that's a legitimate win. That is a legit fight, though. I would want, that would be really fun. Yeah. Finn Hamilton says, first and foremost, I want to check the tape for Fatima Client versus Angela Hill. You know, I said this last week. Guys, remind me. Finn's probably not even the only one who made this pick, but he is the only one who gives you a little tap on the shoulder. Finn, take your point. Mike, are you okay with you? You look a little skeptical.

It's fine. Take your sliver of a one thousand. You definitely remember a lot of people picking that fight next. Yeah, it's just natural. Anytime a straw wait goes on a wind streak, you throw in there with Angela Hill before. it goes to three uh korea we got a pick for uh alden korea how about that i don't think i heard a lot of these match schnell there they go he wants to give him the match snail uh knockout slash submission slash bonus winning performance well done to taura viz versus torres finney because we lost the meconico matchup i'm here for all torres finney matchups guys uh what else we got here gaslin versus you on kutalaba yes wow that is like this is what i'm talking about yes wow that's why that's why

This is what I'm talking about. A lot of pictures we've seen already. In the interest of fight circus and Jed's mental well-being, I want Jed versus Mike Bobo. Yes, if you follow Jedd on media, not happy what's going on at UGA right now. Our Slack channel, we had some of it was flooded with him, hating on Mike. I don't think anyone was even responding to him. He was just Jed going like, I hate Mike Bobo. I'm so angry with the University of Georgia right now.

So, yeah, that fight may go now. They won. They did. They did. They came back and won. Tennessee with the old choky job. Yeah, I don't think that made Jed feel any better about the situation. He has not been happy about this signing from day one, and it's not happy without things played up. Zach Schultes, Lopez versus Yusef Zalal, if he beats Josh Emmett, I don't think that's going to happen.

It's a good fight. I don't know. What? I don't know. I'm not for it. That is. I would be shocked. It's like Yusuf Zalalal like your cousin or something?

Yusus on a good run. I mean, uses what? Use is one. It's like Diego Lopez. Seven straight, Mike. Seven straight. Not all in the UFC.

It was like four straight. He's on a run. Diego Lopez is made. He's like a main event fighter now. Like he's headlining fight nights. Or he's like, I'm co-main event on a pay-per-view. And I just don't think Yusuf so well is that guy.

I'm sorry. Very creative. I just don't think that's going to happen. Gas, versus Brunson for the inaugural dirty boxing light heavyweight title that would be great that is such a good idea hernandez versus mortato too thank you Zach all right well these are there we're back uh Zach Bassoa we have oh back back back the Zach attack you might say like we didn't get to a friends forever but we got a Zach attack here wow yes uh Diego

was more star too sure John Silva versus yeah yeah okay that's uh Gaslam versus Mike, he wants the Gotei. Gotei actually kills Ozzy. Let's go. Come on, guys. Let's go. Alexander Hernandez and King Green.

I keep thinking this fight happened, but it somehow didn't. The timing's right for it, but it feels like they should fight it somewhere. Marcus McGehy, just seeing if there's anything new here. Garcia, Mauritio, Rufi, okay. Hernandez and Ferris Ziam.

Yeah, I actually really like that. I think they're in a weird spot right now, I don't know if they're going to go that way. Korea versus Chires, Randon versus Claudia Segula. Good Lord. Jonchenko, Frunza, Marcus. We are friends for everybody. Four Corner Sports.

Dave Martinez, Kyler Phillips. Sure. Rob Font, Malcolm Wellmaker. Wow. Okay. Tatian Osreras and Jan Chownon. I actually could see them going that route. And I don't know if I...

That's a fight. That's visually appealing. I could definitely see it happening. Picks by F. Rod. He likes the Marcus McGee matchup, like you said, for Martinez. He likes the Bryce Mitchell matchup for Rob Fon. Actually, yeah, actually. That sounds terrible.

Alex Hernandez and Michael Johnson. Again, another fight I am shocked, has not happened. Alden Korea and Ronaldo Rodriguez, Joaquin Silva, Daniel Zell Cooper. Just three more here. Attack MMA. Another King Green, Alex Hernandez suggestion. Lemos versus Jan Shanon, making four. Not for Tatiana.

Okay. If Darren can get a title shot, Lamosh, the better fighter, can get another top five opponent. So I don't know if he's saying Lamosch is better than Tatiana and better than McKenzie because she beat McKenzie

not too long ago. So I don't know. You know, TAC's sticking up for Amanda. All right. Tack must have had an Amanda Lamarmoch scorecard and like we said, we respect that. Oh, rebook font, Raoul Roses. This is from Thomas Collins.

Rebook fonts and rural roses, Mike? I'm okay with that. Yeah I don't know I still pick Rob I didn't love that matchup to begin Well It's not terrible

I think Rob would win I think he'd beat Raoul Rush Jr Amanda Lomosh winner of Jillian Robertson Yasmin Lucindo Tatanas Fuerreys Jan Shononon

Waukeem Silva Fernandez That's fun That's fun I'm sleeping on Kaui Fernandez for way too long That's a fun fight That's a great

That's a good pick And we close out with Barry O'Reilly Barry you always got A bunch of great picks I wish I could read them all But I'm also Randon

versus Josie and Nunes in the white-hot women's band-to-weight division. With Amanda potentially coming back, we need to get Josie back on track to the ultimate showdown of Nunes versus Nunez. I'm still, I mean, listen, that ship feels like it's sailed, but I am holding on. Aguilar Chires II might not be next for either guy, but should be booked for next for Noche U.S. They fought, what, in LFA or something?

Who is this? Jesus Aguilar and Edgar Chires. Oh, you. What a point. Well, UWC Ultimate Warrior Challenge 23, Mike, in 2020. Of course, we all remember this play. Yes. San Diego Luna, Cameron, Simon, you got that mic.

Gaslam, Paulo Costa. Oh, Lord, light heavy weight, or just any. You know what? That's any weight fight. That's whatever, as long as they're within 10 pounds of each other, you just throw them in there. I'm final. Damn, David Martinez, Loke dog. Bill wants this.

And Diego Lopez, Jaire, Rodriguez. We saw how exciting this bad blood matchup was, can see that, Yayaeer buildup and fight being even better. I agree, Barry. I agree. it for this week. I got no emails. So people step up your game. Hit me up in the emails. Alastatley at SBNation.com. It won't be next week though, Mike. No, it will not. I think we're we're pondering doing like an ask us anything, but probably not.

We'll see. Well, we probably need some time off bike to brace ourselves for this card that you have been, you have been hyping up this lineup reading the whole show. And I would not be surprised that they had another fight to this. Oh, God. UFC Perth Listen to this fucking card Which by the way Noce was bad But at least it was like a 3 p.m. Eastern start time

This is not that Take a listen to this event Which is a six-fight main card At 10 p.m. Eastern Carlos Sleberg versus Dominic Reyes This is the fight to make Always was the fight to make I get it co-made event.

So much light heavy weightness going on. Junior Tafa versus Ebo Ocelon. The featured bout also at 205 pounds. The worst division in MMA is the top three fights on this card. Jimmy Crute versus Yvon Erslan. That's the featured bout

for a fight night in front of a crowd. Mike, why didn't they give us Ursulun versus Aslan. Why did they do this to me? Why did they... I'm so angry. I'm so angry. Okay, go on. Jack Jenkins versus Ramon Tavares.

That is a main card fight in the Year of Our Lord. Jake Matthews versus Neil Magny. Tom Nolan versus Charlie Campbell is a main card fight. The replacement fight, by the way, for Tom Nolan. My favorite fight on this card, outside of Dominic Reyes fighting for his title hopes, is the featured prelim. Loma Lopoombev versus Alexia Tainara. I actually liked this fight, but boy,

this is a card. Navajo Sterling versus Hidalpha Balato. That is our fourth light heavyweight fight on this card. Mike, no. Colby thickness versus Josias Musasa. Luana Carolina versus Michelle Montecue, who I like, I think Michelle is a, a decent talent.

This is certainly a card. You can't have a fight night card without Jamie Malarkey taking on Rolando Bedoya. Brando Perichick versus Alicia Ellison. How about that? Yeah. We have another taffa competing on the card.

By the way, the Parachic-Ellison fight is a heavyweight fight. And what leads into a heavyweight fight on the prelims? Stop it. Better than another heavyweight fight. Louis the great.

Louis Sutherland taking on Justin Taffa. Then Andre Petroski versus Cam Raustin. And as of right now, Jonathan Misalaf versus Oban Elliott. Holy

shitballs. This is a 15 fight card with a six-fight main card that has four light heavyweight fights on it and two heavyweight fights, six fights from light heavyweight and up. And a women's mountain weight fight just for good measure. And a women's band-a-way fight. Oh my goodness me. What is going on? With Luana Carolina, who is not a band-in-weight.

If you are, let me tell people now, if you are attending this show, shout us to all our fans in the Oceanic region. If you are attending this show, whether you're flying in, whether you're driving in, wherever you've got to come from to attend this show. Send us, please, screenshot, DM us, whatever, not screenshot. I mean, take a photo, DM us. If you are there from the first flight of this card to the very end, like just send us, whatever, send us a, you know, a show before the first video, send us a picture. And I will believe you. I will take you word for it, that you sat through this entire card. because you are a hero.

Anyone who does that, you are a hero. If you guys were watching Canelo Cropburn, it was a typical boxing situation where, like, no one showed up until the end of the, the closing moments of the co-main event and then the place looked packed for the main event. Thank goodness. But otherwise, it was empty seats.

I would not blame the UFC parade crowd if that was the case. If they didn't show up to, like, again, Alexa Tainara and Loma are stepping into the ring. Because this is a wild crowd. And I get it. I'm sure there's people who are there in the area who know these fighters better than we do. That's cool.

this is a long, long, long card. This is a tough stretch. Yeah. This is like post-fight show wraps at 3.30 a.m. Don't do it. Kind of a card. Like you don't have to do that. You do not have to do that.

You don't owe people this. AK, I know you make the schedule. I might do a cross-foot workout next Saturday and tear my ACL and be stuck in the hospital for like all day and all night. You can work from there. You can watch the show from there. If anything, now you can't escape. That's a terrible. Yeah, now I have to watch it.

But yeah, this is, this is tough, man. This is, this is just a tough one. Plain and simple. But, again, at least we'll have a little bit of enthusiasm from the Perth crowd. It will not be in the world's most famous apex. And then on top of that, we know deep down AK that the second that card ends, we're rolling into UFC 320 fight. week, which is a damn good card.

The two title fights. We just got to get through the slogginess of the UFC Perth. And then we get just some good shit in October. UFC 320, UFC Rio with Charles Oliveira versus Raphael Fiziv. Then Ryan DeRitter versus Anthony Hernandez, UFC Vancouver. And then UFC 21, Asthma versus Gone. Why are you teasing up with these fights? that are so, so far away, my best friend.

They're so, so far away. But you know what? Hey, UFC Perth fighters prove us wrong. We are sitting on our couch. Oh, I don't think it's going to be like a bad watch. It's just literally, like, there's no stakes outside of the main event. I hope. And Lambeam Cam Rousden or Alicia Ellison or Michelle Montague, I hope these are future UFC champions, Mike, that we are.

And they're going to laugh at our faces someday when they have gold around their waist. Yeah. We shall see. Trying, Mike. Two weeks from now. So, I mean, like AK said, we get to mentally prepare ourselves for the longest stretch of fights, maybe in UFC history. This is going to seem like the longest carnival without question. But we'll watch together.

We'll get through it like we always do. And then October looks amazing. So there you have it. But thank you all very much. We'll be back in two weeks to do some matchmaking. following UFC Perth, right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.