MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC 258

Episode Date: February 14, 2021

On the 31st episode of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee put on their matchmaker hats following Saturday’s UFC 258 event at the APEX, the promotion’s second PPV event of 2021. Future matchups were discussed for UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman—who retained his title with a phenomenal third-round TKO win to surpass Georges St-Pierre for the most consecutive wins at 170 pounds in UFC history—Gilbert Burns, Alexa Grasso, Kelvin Gastelum, Ricky Simon, Julian Marquez, Anthony Hernandez, 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. Everybody and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one, the fastest rising podcast, not just on the NBA Fighting Podcasting Network, but in the sport itself. I'm confident enough in saying that at this point, as we are here to discuss the What's Next coming out of UFC 258, and it was capped off by another successful Walterway title defense by one Camaro Usman, and what a performance it was.

I am Mike Hack and joining me as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the best friend, and the Prince of Positivity himself, Mr. Alex Kaley. Hey, buddy, did you get enough sleep? Michael, no, of course not. Michael, happy Valentine's Day weekend. Yes. Look, I know you're a happily married man, but, you know, someone has, as I mentioned a previous show, someone did call us the Dustin and Jolie Porrier of the podcasting, of the MNMEA media sphere. So I cannot think of a better way to spend a part of my Valentine's Day weekend and with my best friend, Mike Heck.

So I hope everyone out there, single married, you know, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever relationship you have to be in or not be in. I hope you're just having to love yourself and having a great, having a great weekend by the time you hear this show. Yeah, hopefully you're sitting down. You get that nice little rug on the floor. You get the fireplace roar and you're blasting onto the next one in the background while you're eating chocolate-covered strawberries.

I mean, it's just the stuff that dreams are made of right here. What an image. What an image indeed. Let us start at the top of this card. The big story, my friend, Kamara Usman, defends his title. He stops his friend, former training partner in Gilbert Burns in the third round. He got into some trouble early in the first. Burns rocked him.

He recovered. He showed incredible composure. And he gets a big, big win. And on top of that, he surpasses the legendary George St. Pierre's consecutive win streak in the UFC's alterweight division. What are performance? The man has options. He called for Jorge Mazvedal. Do you think that's the direction they go, AK, or do they go the more meritocracy route? I think that's the direction they could go. We debated it quite a bit in the post-bite show we did on Saturday. I don't love it. There's many, many good points that you brought up and several other

people brought up on social media. A lot of people like it. Brought up by Usman himself, as you said, of course that he knows where the money's at. Their first fight on short notice with really not that much time to promote it, 1.3 million reported pay-per-view bias. That's an insane number these days, especially in the ESPN Plus era and in the 12 pay-per-views a year era, 50 fight cards a year, 1.3 million. When you're not Connor McGregor, you don't have a name like that, or Habib, impressive.

I still think a rematch wouldn't do as well, but if still cracked seven figures, I don't think you complain if you're Uzman if you're getting those sweet, sweet pay-per-view bonus points. So I'm not against it. But I went, I went a little bit outside the box here, and I went with a choice that some people will probably be like, what in the world am I talking about? This man's free now. And you know what? I think he's done enough to earn the rematch. I don't care. Let's just book Usman Leon Edwards.

Let's the whole Leon Edwards thing, him trying to find a fight from him, has been a roller coaster. And I don't care if it ends. I think it'd be wild if it's ended with them saying, you know what? Forget it. We're done with the Shemaya thing. we're just giving you the Ouzman a rematch. The first fight was like five years ago. Let's just hope it doesn't fall through. Usmaid needs a challenger. There's not an obvious one at the moment.

Leon Edwards, Ousman, too. That's it. I don't feel strongly by that one either, but that's where I would go. As you sort of alluded to, I said this after the fight. Kamar Ushman was the biggest winner on Saturday. Second on that list was not Alexa Grasso.

It was not Julian Marquez, although he may have surpassed it with what we just saw in social media with Miley Cyrus. But still, I don't think he was the second biggest winner of the night. He's a very close third. Number two on that list is Jorge Mazadol. To have Kamar Usman win a fight

like that and get on the microphone unprovoked and call you out the way that he did, that was a gift, an absolute gift from the Nigerian nightmare to Mr. Gainburne himself. And because of that, I think this is the way they do end up going.

And I agree with Usman here. We need some movement. We need to see some activity in this division and we need to see some contenders emerge. And the reason that this is a good option is because we haven't seen that. No contender has emerged. I understand Leon Edwards is on this great streak, but he hasn't fought in almost two years. I mean, it's been a long time since he beat Hafeeld Osangos, and that's the best win. That's his marquee victory is the Hafeel de Sanjos win. And it was a dominant decision, but it wasn't a performance where you're like, oh my God, this guy is the number one contender for the 170 pound title.

You can make the argument for it, but there was no definitive response of, oh my God, if this guy's not next, I'm done watching MMA. It just doesn't, it just isn't going to work like that. So I think Mazadol is going to be the guy. I think it makes sense. It's the best financial fight. And if you don't do it now, I don't think he can do it because if Mazdal takes another fight, it's going to be against Edwards or it's going to be against Colby.

And I think he loses both of those fights. So if you're going to book it, you've got to do it now. So I'm okay with it. It's just so weird to me to give him an immediate rematch. I just wish he, I just wish Mazvedal had fought anyone, anyone. He could have fought someone outside the top of Dean. You know, we'll say this all the time. They don't do two-no fights in MMA.

This is one situation where it would have been cool to do a tune-up fight for Mazel to remind people of how, you know, how he got so hyped with the Ascran win and, you know, becoming a knockout artist out of nowhere, getting another finish. Nate Diaz getting into the finish in there would have been nice and I would have been so down for it and you raise a good point that Edwards it's been even longer as he fought but at least he's

coming off a win so in my mind I was thinking of like when Woodley got the title shot with Robbie Lawler and there was kind of that weird I think it's like a 14 month 15 month gap because he was supposed to fight Johnny Hendrix and Johnny Hendrix couldn't make

messed up making the wait and that fight got canceled so I think in that sense a lot of people side that is like a default win for Woodley so maybe that's why that title shot wasn't so strange but I'm seeing I imagine I'm thinking of Edwards the same way where yeah it's a big gap but I do feel like he's coming up a decent win it certainly would draw a fraction

of a small fraction of the peer view buys of Usman Mosvedal two rematch but yeah this is again not what I think will happen if I were booking I'm going with Edwards yeah it's tough I mean what's a tuna fight for her I got like Mazdal who's sitting at the at the head table right now in terms of superstardom.

It's a, yeah, it's an interesting spot, but again, this is a point we try to make on this program, especially if A.K. and I match make you coming off of a win, you take these fights. You don't sit on the sidelines. You say, yes, you take these fights and you fight, and then we don't have these problems.

But here we are. Hello. The whole tough thing, I could care less about the ultimate fighter thing. I mean, if you do it, great, but I don't care. I don't care. It's fine. It has nothing to do with the fight itself. If you're going to do it, just book it, and hopefully we can get it in and out and this division can move forward. As we now head to the game challenger, Gilbert Burns, who was, man, so close, so, so, so

close to becoming the Walterweight champion. He hurt Kamarouzman badly in the first round, got a little overzealous to quote Milie Cyrus, came in like a wrecking ball, and in the end, he was finished, he was heartbroken, and he took it on the chin, showed up to the press conference, answered all the questions, and he wants to get right back in there. This is the Gilbert Burns that we all know and love. I'm going to take two or three weeks off and I'm calling Dana and you could throw me on a March card. And I'll be honest, I have no idea where this thing goes, okay?

No clue. He'll literally fight anybody. If you want to put him against the 25th rank guy in the division, he'll do it. I just have no clue. But I'll say, I know he wants to get right back in there, but let's give him a little bit of a breather. So it's two options for me. Wonderboy in May. or Michael Kiesa in July.

Those are the choices for me that are possible. Unless the only other option, and this would be bananas if he does it, turn right around and fight Leon Edwards on March 13th. Seems super unlikely, but if there's one guy in this division who could do that, it is Gilbert Burns. I don't love the idea,

especially coming off of a knockout loss like that. But to me, it's Wonderboy or Kiesa, but man, what a story that would be if he just says, you know what, F it. I'll fight Leon Edwards on March 13th. 13 the month after I lost the title fight to Kabar Uzin. What do you think is going to happen here? Yeah, look, I mean, I don't know how hurt Burns is from the fight.

He took some hard punches. He took some really, really hard punch. Both guys did, but definitely Burns, you know, some of those shots were really laid in there by Usman. And, you know, like if that happens, and we saw him have a quick turnaround, you know, again, much like Miley said, Gilbert, if you wrote there, I would love to see you again, Cyrus, you know. Listeners, it's only begun. But, you know, we were just talking about what is a, what kind of fight would be, would be good for Mazadal, Horamazvedal to earn his way back to a telesthot. So I said, now, why can't he fight Gilbert Burns?

It's weird. I didn't see, I don't know if I saw anybody mention it. And I was literally kind of just going through the reader submissions. And I don't think I saw any of the readers who suggested either. So I don't know if people think this is outside the realm of possibility. Again, I know I'm going kind of a way with what's likely to happen. I don't know. I think Mazvedal would want to take that fight.

Burns certainly would. I think anyone would want to fight Mazvedal now. Like we said many times, he has a name. But I like that. I like a stylistically. I like it as a test for both guys. I think it's a fair way for Burns to earn an immediate, not immediate,

but earn a one fight, one win and a rematch. He hurt Usman. You know, people, he looked good. He looked good in this fight. Nothing about this fight said, ah, well, that's it for Burns.

He's not going to fight for the title again. He absolutely looked like a potential world champion. I mean, when I pick Usman and a rematch, Yeah, I'll pick Uzman against anyone at 170 right now. But the possibility of Burns winning is absolutely there. So, yeah, we'd love to see him go against Mazvedal and one of them getting a rematch. Yeah, I'd love to see it. Not going to happen, but I would love to see it.

It's just unfortunate that this is where we're at right now. But maybe, I don't know. I don't know if it's like a detriment to Mazadol or credit to Mazadol. Probably more credit because you go out there, you lose four rounds to one easily on six days notice. And there's a modicum of truth to Kamar. And even Colby said he goes, the only reason Mazdal is taking this fight is because he's got a built-in excuse. And I'm not saying that this is an excuse per se,

but it's not bad business. You win. Unbelievable, you're a hero for going in on six days notice and beating Kamar Usman across the world and cutting 24 pounds in less than a week. And if you lose, you took a shot. You took a shot. You took on one of the more dominant champions in UFC history. And you gave you your all and you didn't get finished.

So smart move, man, smart move. Co-main event, we saw Alexa Grasso defeat a very game, Macy Barber. She looked really good. She overcame the flurry in the third round, and she gets a big win at 125 pounds. And with that, to quote another Miley Cyrus song, the climb is on for Alexa Grasso. She likely will jump into the top 10 with this victory. What do you think is next for her, AK? First of all, what a great thing.

Yeah, look, Grasso, that was as much as Barbara was hyped up, I think the UFC did an okay job of also shining a little light on Grasso. You know, we know that they're behind Barbara a lot. She's kind of everything they want in a young prospect, very confident, exciting style, a fight finisher at 125 pounds coming off contender series. So she's kind of a living endorsement for that whole project. But I'm glad they didn't completely overlook Grasso because I think, you know, Grasso again, was once that blue chip prospect is still only 27. years old is looking like she's reaching her athletic prime is getting into like the best shape of her life and again and then a new weight class is just prefer and and uh we always knows we's always we's always great grammar we've always known she's had the skills and had the potential and she really put it

together uh on saturday is there still stuff to work on of course i mean she lost the third round you know so a little late late game finishing probably needs to you know you to refine that but like i said 27 years old uh she's only she's less than 15 fights into m-m-a-cure We'll be seeing Grasso competing for a long time. Or hopefully not. She makes a lot of money in retire. Whatever works out for her. So I'm not shooting too big here.

I'm not shooting too big here. I just went with, I looked up, I went to consult my rankings. I said who's in the area around Alexa Grasso with a similar record at 125? And I went with Talas Santos. Huh. That's an interesting matchup. I know. It's not, again, it's the kind of fight.

It's name value wise, big step. back from Barber. I get it. Big step back. But they're both two and one as fly weights in the UFC. And I think that's that to me is just let's let's like you said. You said you mentioned you know, you took my the climb reference. But I was going to say like, you know, it's about, it's not about getting big names. All right. It's about the climb for Alexa Grasso right now. We could do this all day with love with Miley Cyrus songs. I'm kind of out of songs, actually. But I might have one more. There could be seven things I could say about this fight. Yeah. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done.

Listen, if you watched the Post Fight show, this is not a surprise, but this one is super easy for me. I think it's probably the easiest pick on the whole card. It's Jessica I. Grosso versus Jessica I checks all the boxes. It helps get Grasso over because of how people seem to feel or react to Jessica I. I think people respect Jessica I as a fighter. They like to watch her compete. They just, for some reason, just find her a little cringy.

And I think the second this fight gets booked, Alexa Grasso gains fans. She gets Instagram followers. She gets a little bit of a rub before she even makes that walk to the Octagon. So, yeah, not much more I can add to that. I like that idea for sure. I think it's best case scenario for Alexa Grasso at this point. So I like it. We head to the middleweight division.

Kelvin Gasselam. Talk about a man who had the weight of the world on his shoulders, aka, comes into this fight, three-fight losing streak, goes out there and throws Ian Hinesh around, dominates, nice win for him. Heinish had some moments in the third round, took his back, but Calvin stayed calm, cool, collected, and it gets a big win. And he wants to be available in case something happens with this Robert Wittaker versus Powell costume matchup, which apparently has some sort of tiny wrench in it because it's supposed to be April 17th. UFC want to do a week before on ABC, there's no agreement there. I don't know what's going to happen, but I feel like they'll get this fight cooking. I like the idea of Gassum keeping himself available, especially if they can't make this thing

happen. It makes sense. If that can't happen, I don't want to see Gassim, like, rush right back in there. I kind of like the idea of him fighting Jared Kennedy or next, depending on how soon Jared can get back from the forearm injury. It's a good test for both guys. The only other option, I'll let you go because it's obviously. another option that I have and I don't want to take yours, which could be yours. So what do you

think is next for Calvin? Is it the sexy, sexy option of Calvin Gasolum versus Bari Medov? No, there's not the sexy option of that, but I, I, I've, look, I'm looking at my selection and I'm like, look, I get it. I went away from buzzworthy, buzzer of fans that fights that the UFC wants to generate rating. I'm doing a lot of air quotes right now, people for your just listening, but a lot of, oh, who care about ratings and paper. per view buys and making money. Okay. Oh, yeah, because that stuff matters.

And, you know, no. But I, again, I don't know if I had troubles this week coming up with creative matchups. So I did stick to my rankings a lot. So Akhmeadov is sort of, I mean, he's not in the top 10. Gasselm held his spot in the top 10 with the winner of Heinzsche. Akhmadov right around in, you know, the 13 to 15 range. I think stylistically it's a good fight.

I like it. He's not a massive middleweight. I mean, these are kind of the best vice for Gasselam when he's fighting, you know, know, not like the hulking guys at middleweight, because he still, he does still look like a 170 year at times. He's definitely failed out. He looks a little more, a little more like a guy who should be fighting at 185, but he's always going to be undersized when it comes to the, when it comes to the top of the division. But, and I'd have to give a shout out to Harry Lipsky, one of our, one of our listeners who did suggest this. And I think, I was looking back on the

onto the next one notes. I think whenever Akhmatov's last fight was, he suggested that the Gasolome, the Gaslam Heinish winner. So there we go. Gasolum 1, and I think it's a good matchup. So thanks to, hat tip to Harry Lifeski for that suggestion. He can't be tamed, ladies and gentlemen. Another Mileson. All right, now I'm not about doing it anymore.

That's a good one, too. The other option I had was the winner of Derek Brunson versus Kevin Holland. That makes sense, based on the rankings, where these guys are at. Either way, that win put Kelvin. It's nice. Calvin comes in there. Oh, man, three-fight losing streak. If he loses, he's going to get cut.

I saw that so many times, even though I didn't think that at all. But now he gets a win, one win. And everyone's like, he's back. Let's get him these top ten fights. Let's see if he can get back to the belt. Like, winning changes everything. Does it not AK? Yeah, absolutely.

Do you think, yeah, no, there's no remedy to, there's no career fix like winning, just winning a damn fight. Do you think that the Brunson-Holl and loser could also be an option? Like, doesn't necessarily have to be the winner, right? Just one, either the winner or a loser from that fight, depending how they're kind of how their schedules shake out. or would you prefer just the winner or only the winner? That's interesting.

Yeah. Huh. Now that I think about it, it could be just Kevin Holland either way. Holland would like that. I feel like we've proposed Holland Gaslone, but somewhere in between Holland's third or fourth or fifth fight of last year, I feel like we have definitely brought up Holland Gaslam as an option. We just didn't know when Gaslam was coming back. So that fight probably would have happened last year if Gaslam was what,

was going to get booked for a fight last year. Lots of options for Calvin. Congratulations on the win. Good guy, and he's back in the win column. As we head to the, how do we? The feather bantamweight division. Yeah. It's a good division, whatever it is.

Yes, or is Brian Kelleher called it the Boomerateen division. Ricky Simone represents team mullet, picks up a unanimous decision win over Team Crystals. Brian Boom-Kelleher, the aforementioned Brian Kelleher, fun scrap. Simone did his thing. The guy's a tough out, man, and he wants a rank guy next.

So are you ready to give it to him, A.K., are you ready to give Ricky Simone a guy with a number next to his name? I have to check if this guy's ranked because I don't know if this guy's ranked or now. But let me first say, I just love, I know he lost, but I just love that Brian Keller, her,

I'm fighting at 145 pounds during this like pandemic strategy. You know, he's four straight fights now at 145. But I just like that. we all kind of understand, these are bantamweight fights. These are bantamate fights where guys aren't cutting weight. Hunter Azure at Bantamweight. Cody Stamon, Bantamate, and now Rookiee Samoa and now Rikis Simone, Bantam.

Cody Stamen has taken a couple of fights at 1.45 as well. So, guys, this is smart. I don't know why. I know it's easier maybe in this division and maybe flyweight as well because there's just the 10 pound difference. Maybe guys at welterweight and middleweight and light heavyweight can't really do that. But I wish they could. I wish a lot of these guys were just like, I'm not, just screw it.

I'm not cutting weight. I'm going off and fighting it like, you know, I'm 2.05 pounds, and I'm just having a big turkey. I'm having a big steak dinner the night before. But, yeah, I mean, these guys have the right idea, so hopefully they keep up with that. Yes, the name I'm thinking of is ranked. Okay, I'm just looking at the official rankings. He's certainly ranked in my own rankings as well. My notes are a bit of a jumble here.

I don't have them in my top 15, oddly, I'll be know. I want to see this rematch. It's been mentioned on the show four. I have to another hat tip for a reader, Michael Perrigini. Marab Dvalich really rematch. It's time. It is time. The Volusvili had a fight fallout, right?

He was supposed to fight Stamen? Excuse me, yes, yes, yes, yes. So if that doesn't get, I don't know if that's going to rebooked. I would like to see him fight Simone again. First fight, April 2018. A lot of controversy. A fight Marab was winning until the end. And then we had that bizarre guillotine choke, the feet kind of kicking and was Marab out.

Was he not? he recovered right away. So I think that's an unanswered question. And as I said, in the official rankings, Nawalj Philly is higher. Oh, he's ranked and Ricky Simone is not. So there we go. So I think Simone would absolutely be down for that.

This is tough because Bannamway is just, and we talk about this weekly on the show. It's just so deep with talent. So good. So good. Simone is a problem. Like he proved it again on Saturday. I just don't know.

And it's kind of like the problem Rob has. And I don't think it's to, the same level as Marab because what Marab does in there is just freakish. And I know Simone is a win over him, but there's just not a lot of top 15 guys are going to be like, oh, boy, Ricky Simone, yay, let's fight that guy. I don't know. Like, you could do maybe a Hafeel Sunsao. Marl Mara's seems like an interesting option. Maybe a Cody Stamen, but if he does that, it's something he'd probably have to like turn around quickly to do. But he just fought like twice in three weeks, so I don't see, like, the need to do that.

So unfortunately, he's probably going to have to take another fight outside of the top 15, maybe inside the top 25. And I, personally, I don't like to matchmake winners from the same card unless it calls for it. But Simone versus Chris Gutierrez seems like a fun matchup to me. Because how good are your takedowns when Gutierrez is landing the them tree trunks on your thighs and your calves. It sucks. Like I felt bad for Andre Ewell watching that fight.

I'm like, oh my God, I can't imagine the pain this man is in. And Gutierrez is looking to take that next step as well. The guy's unbeaten his last five fights. Andre Ewell is a tough out. And this is a no-doubter win on the cards. This wasn't like a controversial decision whatsoever. He went in there and blasted him in that third round. I like it.

I actually think that's what ends up happening here. And the winner of this fight gets very close to that top. 15 if not like in the top 15 itself okay it's it's a great fight how amazing is it that gutierrez by the way was able to implement those leg kicks a technique which was just invented by Dustin Porre like a month ago I think you know according to Connor there was no way there was no way to see that technique coming it's like a let kicking my leg what I was not expecting this so Chris Gutierrez my goodness well done well done studying that footage and bring it in like guys leg kicks this is I'm just

saying get on this this is we're probably a little bit late in the bandwagon now, but this might be the hot new technique of 2021. So I would love to see how Simone would navigate those. He's so explosive. He's so fast. But yeah, those leg kicks, man, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, uh, they, they, uh, first of the first round. You might make it out of there, but, uh, yeah, I, I, I, I like that, too. I, I, I, I, I, I agree.

It just doesn't look like there's a top 15, or top 10, I just say a top 10 opponent, uh, for Simone right now that makes a lot of sense main card we go to the MVP we go to the MVP julia marquez what a story what a comeback he's down two rounds to maki pitolo needs a finish and between james krause's kind words probably has mylie's party in the ufsa blasting in his brain heading in that third round he comes from behind and submits maki patolo just the stuff you love to in this sport after being out for almost a thousand days. First win in almost four years, just absolutely remarkable. And as heroic and as much as we love Julian Marquez right now, we're not pushing this man too high. We just want to see him fight. And we just want to see him

have fun fights where his personality can shine. And I was thinking about this when I woke up this morning and I was like, you know, this is one of those situations where you just can't go wrong. There's no wrong answer, but there's no like real right answer until it hit me, AK. There is a right answer. And to me, there's only one answer. The answer is John Young Park, because these two guys, with these two personalities going out there and just having a good old time for our enjoyment, this is the fight, AK, this is the fight. Crush me with greatness. Marquez versus John Young Park. I don't know if this is because we've been doing the show that maybe we have been like we have brought unity.

to the universe. Jun Yonge Park is my pick as well. There was at least three readers that suggested Marquez, Jun Yong Park. And this again, it's kind of weird because this is, it's not like Jun Yon Park is a household name. Marquez is certainly not a household name. And unless everyone was like me and keeping their own rankings,

I don't know why they would necessarily have them in the same sphere. But it really only took me like maybe a couple of minutes of like kind of looking at my rankings and kind of thinking of like logical matchups. And Juniang Park, normally I have alternatives. John Yon Park is the only name I have down for some reason. I guess we're going to have to tweet this out a few times.

Marquez Park, this is the fight to make. Like he said, the personalities, I think it's a good test for both guys. I'm just surprised that we're a guy who's in the middle of the pack of his division and Marquez, that there wasn't a more diverse range of options. Juniang Park. People are talking about it. There's a real buzz about it, Mike. It's just right.

Like Park is such a fun guy. can like just just the builds between like the faceoff it'd be like the friendliest fun most fun face off in the history of the middleweight division i love it i love it it's great i think this is the only this is the fight and any other fight makes no sense let's make it happen we need to find a clever hashtag if you're listening right now think of something we will run with it and make this fight happen we do have to give some love to anthony fluffy hernandez a k we just have to big upset win not just beating, not just finishing, but freaking submitting Hadda

an ADCC champ. No one has ever done that to a former ADCC champ in the history of the UFC until now. Fluffy Hernandez makes us on to the next one debut, A.K. What a moment. People talk about wanting to win world championships in the UFC, but some fighters just like, I need to be on on to the next one. And you've done so, Anthony Hernandez,

with this big win of yours. What would you like to see for Fluffy? man I like Anthony Hernandez but I honestly I didn't know I don't remember if I maybe I didn't see his Contender Series fight the Big Finish overturned for silly reasons there's marijuana I think right

Yeah Anyway 40 second Ready 40 second was this a little wait he Did he he won? Yeah 40 second win that's right This is a Jordan Wright thing where like I always talk about Jordan Wright and Jordan Wright's quote unquote undefeated But there's a technically

A loss that we all saw on Contender Series So I don't know I remember I remember I didn't get what the big deal was around Anthony Hernandez. A lot of people I know in the M.A. media and M.A. fans are like, man, this guy's like really good. It's like a future star. And I'm like, okay. I got, right. I guess. I did, I think he, I did think he was a live dog against Bada. Vada was maybe the biggest favorite on the card. One of the biggest favorites. I think one of the two biggest favorites. I don't know if he was number one. And for good reason. But no, I love what, I love

what Hernandez did. He survived the first two minutes. That was the most important part. And then it was, and then just put it on, put it on, Vienna from there. So I don't know. You know, I didn't have as easy a time as this one. So I settled on the March 20th battle between Trevin Giles and Drixis de Placey. And I'd like to see Hernandez fight one of them. Again, just guys that are in his range that I think I still want to see a little more from him before I get a proper gauge of like how far up the rankings he should go.

So I think he has to wait for another fight to play out as opposed to me kind of like cherry picking an opponent for him. I want to see this fight play out and him take on whoever gets out of it does not get past that one. Yeah, I mean, I get where you're coming from. I landed on another sort of specialist that would create an interesting matchup, especially with how tough and explosive he is, the momentum he's carrying coming out of the win. He's this gentleman's coming off a win too. I kind of like the idea of Fluffy versus Dulce Lung Gambula. I just think it's a fun fight.

You know, let Fluffy get in there and. fly a little bit, you know? He's going to fight a submission, like one of the best submission. The guy, Dana White said was the best submission guy, best ground guy in the UFC. You survive that, get a submission one of your own. Let's let them try to style in there and have a fun striking match with a decorated kickboxer, like a moitai fighter. I like it. Middleweight is, is getting, having a surprising, middleweight, I think, I would say, has not been one of the deeper divisions historically in the UFC. And I was just looking over the rankings, they're a surprising amount of fun matchups.

And I really can't say enough about the matchups we had on Saturday. Gasslam Hinesh was great. Hernandez-Varader was great. And, of course, Marquez and Patola was so much fun. So it's really cooking. I think if people look at the maybe like the middle 20, 25, 30 fighters in the middleweight division, you'll find a – you could really pick a couple of random names out there. And you're going to get some good stuff.

Like I mentioned, DuPc C. I think DuPlae C is a lot of fun to watch too. So good for the 185 division, the UFC for kind of help starting to – really finding ways to build that. I don't know if it's guys moving into that division or people they signed. I'm not sure, but it's, it's looking good. It's looking real good. Remember that Q&A?

Dana White did with Laura Sanko? He was asked by one of the fans, what do you think is the best division in the UFC? And he said middleweight. Did he? Yep. Thanks middleweight's best division in the UFC or no. I wouldn't go. Well, I wouldn't go that far.

I think, again, Bantam Wade, I think lightweight, welterweight. Lightweight, of course, Bantamweight, welterweight, even featherweight. But I would put middleweight in that mix. And if you asked me that, like, even two years ago, I would have said middlelates not close to being one of the five best divisions in the UFC or MMA. But you can make an argument. I do really like the middleweight division right now. There is still some like, there is still some like fun with this division where like it's

very competitive, but still at the same time we get these like kind of interesting matchups. And I love when you say it's like the most middleweighty of middleweight fights. Like it's just so. I can't make that joke. I don't make that joke anymore, Mike, though. I don't know. I don't know. Because no more so than other divisions.

You know what I mean? Like that it was a good running joke for a long time about the, I don't know, I'm the, what a middleweight, the texture of a middleweight fight is so unique. Now we got some good, maybe I'm just high off 250. You know what? Maybe we'll have some middleweighty middleweight fights in the next like a month or so. But after last night, no, I'm retiring that phase. I'm putting that phrase on suspension for like at least a week because middleweights you delivered on Saturday.

Well done. Nicely done. But now we head to the wild card round where we find a fighter that we have not match made for yet, whether it be someone who is victorious in the prelim, someone who is not victorious in the main card and we'll match me for them right now. So, AK, who is your wild card pick coming out of UFC 258? I was worried we might pick the same guy. But then I said, you know what?

If we did, he deserves a lot of shine because he could have been on the peer-of-you-main card. I got to go with Bilal Muhammad. Awesome performance against a game Diego Lima. A game Diego Lima should really be his name because that's kind of what Diego Lima is. Really tough opponent. He's going to pick up some wins against mid-tier guys.

He's probably not going to beat top 20 guys like Balal-Mohamed. But he looked great. He looked great hanging in there. But Muhammad, man, the nonstop pressure is such a beast. So look, you go with someone like-minded, you can go with crazy three rounds and nonstop three rounds. A higher ranked guy. I liked the Li Jingleian call out, but I'm going to go a little bit higher. Go for a guy coming off a loss.

And I'd like to see Bala Muhammad and Neil Magni. You know, that's a, that's a cardio. Oh, my God. I can't believe I just heard this. That could be 10 rounds. That could be a 10-round fight. And those guys aren't going to slow down. So I would love for that to be a fight nightmate event.

That fight should not be on, like I said, it would be cool if Milham was on the paper view. But if he gets this fight, please, five-round fight-night main event. I would need to see these guys go for 25 minutes because they can't easily. What was that? What's that? Jeff Neal's calling right now? He's mad at AK. Listen, I know Neil on Neal is alive again, and I'm excited about that.

But I am ready, I'm ready to move on for now. I still believe we'll see Neil on Neal someday. It doesn't even need to happen this year, though. I know. I thought about that as I was making this year. Wild, man. Unbelievable. Ashadat Balal kind of did the work for us.

I mean, if they do Muhammad versus Neil Magni, I'm down for that. I like the Lee Jingling call out. I like his explanation behind it. The man gets it. He understands what's going on. I'm into it. I dig it. I am going with Macy Barber.

And mostly because I just want to say this again, this woman is only 22 years old. She's young, she's tough, she's violent, and yes, she's very confident. And there's nothing wrong with confidence. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with having goals and aspirations. If you watched my interview with Miranda Maverick, she's got goals and aspirations too. After her first win, she mentioned Valentina Shivchenko's name and that rub people the wrong way.

But if you actually listen to what she said, it wasn't like cockiness or being conceded. It's just like, hey, I have goals. I think in 2022, I can fight this woman. Nothing wrong. She didn't say, I'm going to go out there and smash Valentina Shepchenko, no. And it's the same kind of thing here. I have a goal. I want to become the youngest UFC champion of all time.

That's not cockiness. That's just like, I think I can do that. And as I talked about on the preview show or maybe the way-in show on Friday, I actually questioned the matchmaking with the Alexa Grosso fight, because even though the betting lines are close, Barbara has that power that can change things in the second. This just was a surprising piece of business after a 13-month layoff and after she suffered her first loss. Be that as it may, Macy Barber had her moments in this fight.

She had a great third round. And she should not be getting destroyed for it on Twitter or whatever after that fight. Having said that, the road doesn't get a heck of a lot easier for her. But you can see that she's close, right? I feel like the foundation is there. Those violent tendencies are like great weapons to have. But if she can like find the right team, the right coaches to channel that energy in a healthy way, she's got to be a tough out at 125.

She's going to be really, really good. Like her development, she's not even close to being where she's going to be in the sport. So I have two options for Macy moving forward. And if you listen to the post-fight show, this is not going to surprise you too much. One, Molly McCann, because you have to learn something about yourself when you fight Meatball Molly. She's going to be in your face. She's going to be getting after it. It's a super fun fight.

But it's also a very winnable fight for Macy Barber, in my opinion, against a name that people have a ton of respect for. The other, if we're going to go for something with a little more name value, I like the Andrew Lee idea because Andrew does have that name. She's got a big following. She was close to fighting for the belt two years ago. Like if she had beat Joanne Calderwood to UFC 242, she probably would have fought Valian. Valentina for the belt. But she's lost her last three fights. They certainly weren't blowouts. But again, I think it's not a fight I look at on paper where I would question the matchmaking and or her Macy Barber's career management if they booked that fight. It's a fight Macy can win

and gain some confidence from. Those are my two choices. Anything more than those options would be ludicrous in my opinion, AK. Yeah, look, and I'm glad you said those sort of those things about Barber's prospects. still because look look we're not we're not we're not trying to sugarcoat the loss you know whatever she lost two rounds at three grass was a better fighter but yeah people need to remember uh that crosso was in a similar position to where barbara was five years ago she had her own struggles and look where she is now everyone she's reminding everyone why she was kind of viewed as a future championship contender and and and we're not guaranteeing

anything with barb we're not saying like oh you guys all should follow keep supporting barbara because she's going to be a future champ we're not saying that she's 22 years old two years from now she might decide i don't even want to fight anymore you know what I mean She might say, I'd want to be a veterinarian or a lawyer or a doctor or something. Who knows? Or I want to be an astronaut. So we're really just saying withhold judgment. It's fun to have snap judgments.

I mean, we have to do that stuff all the time for our job. We've got to appraise these fights an hour after they've happened. We have to make this judgment call about, you know, oh, well, what did that fight mean for this fighter's career? But really, you've got to, people need to keep perspective of sort of the long view here. And, yeah, look, if you don't like Macy Barber, that's fine. You can dislike whoever you want. But if you want to say that, oh, these last two fights have exposed her. and there's no way she's ever going to,

she's ever going to make it in this business. Like, she's not even close to her. This is the start of her career. This is when you're supposed to be taking tough losses to veteran competition. You know, it's nice to be undefeated, but you can learn a lot from these things. So, yeah, really great main event. And again, so much praise for Lexa Grasso, who, again, a great performance and really looks like herself,

looks like someone that could be one or two fights away from a title of by. Valentina needs fresh blood. There you go. what are the peeps thinking okay what are they thinking well uh let's run okay so quickly let us run off some of the most part you uh mike you've mentioned in your sort of your alternate options for some of these uh picks you had a lot of the readers are totally with you so i'll run these off quickly uh these are these are things that were mentioned by multiple readers multiple listeners uh gilbert burns versus either colby cumminton or michael kiesa gaslin versus cannyer very popular choice

I must have seen that at least four or five times. Edmund Shabazzian, I saw a couple suggestions, and then either one of Brunson or Holland. That's sort of why I asked you because I saw some people say Brunson-Hawland winner. I saw some people say Brunson-Holland loser. That fight happens on March 20th just to remind people. So we'll find out soon enough which one of those guys is a more viable candidate. Gravrovis I, Mike, a lot of people with you on that one. They like the idea of Grasso versus I.

Calvillo was the other name that came up. This is one that I can't believe neither of us. Oh, did you, if you mentioned this, Mike, I'm sorry, and I missed it. I apologize. Marquez versus Buckley. Oh. Yes. Our Instagram pal, Jay Steiner mentioned this is the close.

This might be the closest thing we'll get to Krause versus Buckley. And I had not even thought of that, honestly. But I was like, yeah, yeah. The proxy, Marquez as, right? Buckley, when I interviewed Buckley after the, not the cause I, after the Jordan Wright win. He said the UFC offered him that, like they wanted that fight.

Marquez. They wanted Marcus versus Buckley, and he said he claims the Marcus turned it down. And then I think he said something like, I don't care about that team anymore, something like that. He said the whole team, okay, he said, I don't care, right, Buckley? Like, he was moving on from that.

Like, he doesn't want to start beef with that team or something? Before the DeKirico fight, he was like, Buckley, she was like, Krause had a shot. He had his chance, and now I've moved on. But in that interview, he called out the entire Glory MMA team. Oh, it's the opposite. He called out the team.

He goes, I want it. He goes, I want to fight every single person on that team, all of them. So I can't believe none of us mentioned this. But so, yeah, I like that. That's not a bad idea, though. Yeah, a few people mention that. And again, I don't think Krause Buckley's ever happening. But Marquez, Buckley, and you know, Marquez would sell the hell out.

Well, they both would. Simone versus Ess and Sal or Marlon Marlon Rice. Yep, very popular option. Another one that came up, I hate it and I love it. Ah, Simone versus Frankie Edgar. Oh, damn. someone said it's because Simone's a wrestler and he probably wouldn't

starch Edgar but Simone actually has really good hands I know I know he does rely on his wrestling a lot he actually has a lot of pop I do think he hasn't had a knockout the UFC I think he actually has a knockout way to happen and I don't front Frankie to be that knockout on the other hand I also kind of like Frankie's chance in that matchup so I certainly wouldn't put that forward but I guess it wouldn't be the worst if I saw it booked

I wouldn't I wouldn't be upset yeah I kind of I think there there comes the time where you get these opportunities against these like former champions, these legends, so to speak. I feel like someone got that already with Faber and it didn't work out for him. I'm not saying he can never get back to that point, but there are other ban and weights that probably deserve an opportunity to fight somebody like a Frankie Edgar. I mean, Casey Kenny is getting the Dominic Cruz fight.

If you threw Frankie to like Marab or something, like I don't like that idea. But or even like a, even like to a stamen. Because Stamen, like, said like, that's his dream fight. He wants to fight Frankie Edgar. That's fine. But Simone's already gotten that shot. He didn't come through. At least for now, I think there's other guys that could probably get that option.

But listen, if they booked Ricky Simone versus Frankie Edgar, hashtag we'll watch. Yeah, of course. And Chris Gutierrez, great to see him getting a lot of matchup, a lot of people mentioning for him. Popular ones were either Umar Nirmagomedov or the not Habib related Saeed Nermagomero. So people want to see some good tiara's nirmagumatomat action in some form. So I thought that was neat. I think those are good suggestions. So I do like that.

Let me say a quick glance at some solicitations I put out through our MMA fighting account. I asked for Grasso and Horito 1828 on Twitter says, John Calderwood, which would be a great fight and I think happens someday. I think we agree. We just want to see Jojo's either earned a title shot or I don't know. I don't know honestly. I don't know if she needs to fight again. Oh,

but she said she's open. Or we said Lauren Murphy, right? Yeah. She needs one more. Yeah. So a great match. Again, I think we see that fight someday. I don't think that's next for Joanne Calderwood.

Agassum, everyone just says cannoneer. I'm just looking at it. The post on our site, all the responses is cannoneer. So I guess that's really the one to go with. I mentioned Muhammad and Neil Magny, and I see people saying Muhammad Jeff Neal. Okay. I see Lucas. Lucke, the fight didn't

That fight hasn't happened, right? Muhammad Lucay. No, Jeff Neal did, though. Yes, okay, okay, I'm getting things mixed up here. So people say, Luca, it gets brought up every time I ask about any welterweight that's like around the top, the bottom of the top 10, 15 range.

It's always Luke. So I don't know, maybe I just stop even mentioning those. We all just want to see Lukei fight again because Luke Hey rules. I know, okay, Jake Marshall tweeted at both of us at Simone Stamen, sure. Bobby Adkins. I did not screen these, by the way, so if anything inappropriate happens here,

likes the Brunson Holland loser, and our classic listener, Mighty Magic Mart, likes... This is a little confusing. Oh, he likes the Muhammad Lee suggestion. Oh, this one I like to. This was brought up, I think, but I call people. Brad DeVares, I think Brad DeVaraz has maybe earned that fight finally by winning the gatekeeper battle with shoeface. Maybe he earns himself a top 10 fight. He's just been around for so long.

At some point, he has to get one of those fights, right? Right. So thank you, guys. That was a bit of a glance from the readers. Gloss over our, I keep saying readers, listeners. A glance, I'll go over our DMs quickly. Orransky Hernandez versus Carl Roberson. Yeah, that's fine.

I like that one. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. But I like that. Michael Piergini, Grasso versus Roxanne Maudoferi. I wouldn't be against that either. I would not be against that. I think it'd be a cool fight for Grasso again. and you get kind of that new generation versus pioneer battle,

and I just, you know, again, fun match to watch. What else we got here? From Mitchell Robinson's stand. Get well soon, Mitchell Robinson, by the way, of the New York Knicks, has a little injury. It's going to put him out for 68 weeks. He threw out a bunch. I won't read them all.

Andre Yule versus Sergei Morozov. I like that. I just like Morozov a lot. I want to see him back in action. I think if we had done a wildcar pick, we probably would have suggested this for Ian Hynish. Brandon Allen. I know it's it that that's not a curse fight right that's going to happen someday right that has to happen now right two to cancellations No reason not to try and put that one back together and he uh Mitchell Robinson Stan also

Macy barber Arianna Lipski. Yeah sure I'm into that I'm into that too we got a new contributor Mr. Liam Perry who was very busy messaging me he said he was at work while the card was happening and that he was bored So he had a lot of suggestions many of which were repeated by others. so, Liam, I won't read those ones out again. But I did like this, it's a very musical matchup. Pollyanna Viana versus Breonna Van Buren.

So. Okay. So hashtag Vianna Briana. I'm a sucker for a good hashtag. Mike. It's going to be a while. It's going to be a while for that fight because Brianna is about to have a baby.

Oh, gosh. That's right. Oh, well, congratulations, of course, to Brianna. But yeah, I guess that fight, what won't happen. Oh, no hashtag Viana Brianna for now, but someday, someday. Brianna, very young, long career, Hedderby. And Barry O'Reilly

liked Hernandez versus Darren Stewart, which I also like, for somebody's really piqued my interest. Stewart is fighting Eric Anders on March 13th, but so is the reason I brought up to remind people. But I don't mind. I like the idea. I think the winner of that fight would be fine. It would be fine for Hernandez. Sure.

via email we've got a few contributors harry dwarfskin leh he with you her and this versus jimba so there go great minds and barbara versus leanna jojua which i like because i want barbara to take a big step back and get to style on someone with respect to josua i think she's a bit closer to barbara's level where i think barbara is developmentally uh matt bradbury paliana viana versus loma lukbunmi i'm so for that oh man And one of my, Matt Bradbury, one of my favorite reader suggestions, Hadolfo Valletta versus Joaquin Buckley. Jeez.

Chaos. Chaos. Chaos. Wow. It'd be the craziest four minutes in MMA history. What a cool fight that would be. For some reason, I just don't think either camp would be looking in that direction. I just think it would be such a cool fight if it did, though.

Tristan Gordaunt wants to see the world burn and one of his suggestions was Gilbert Bruins versus Nate Diaz sure I love the fight I love seeing Gilbert get that fight but just unfortunately not going to happen I wanted to read this out

I wanted to read Marcus McGahey who normally hits stuff on Twitter did send me an email possibly because he wanted to write a more comprehensive matchup message he likes Alexa Grasso versus Caitlin Chukagian and oh my gosh

why is my email not working right now Oh my gosh, Mike. I don't. Stall. Stall. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

What are your Valentine's day plans? Mike? No, no, no. I got it. I got it. I got it. What are your Valentine's day plans, Mike? Not much.

I think I'm going to take my kids sledding today. Yeah. Unfortunately, the wife, she works in the dental industry. So she had her second round of the vaccine. And she got a yesterday. So today, she is. not feeling all that well. She's a, uh,

that, that, from what I've been told and what she was told yesterday is that the second round is like way worse than the first, put you on your ass. Oh. Like that second day. And she's dealing with that right now.

So, uh, might just be watching movies and, uh, doing some sledding today. Hey, that's a perfect balance. I would,

that's sledding. That's a good idea. That's a perfect Valentine's day. Uh, sorry. So I'm sorry. So my email is fixed. Uh,

and he says, okay, This is Marcus McKay he had to say about Grasso versus Chichagin. He also kind of talks about the flyway version. He said, admittedly, this is my only one truly selfish pick. Still, it's worth bearing in mind that plausibly three women are vying for a flyway tell shot at the moment, namely Jessica Androjo, Jojo, and Lauren Murphy. Assuming one of them gets the call without competing again, I'd like to see the remaining two fighters go head to head for the number of contender spot. That leaves just two fighters coming off a wins that are also ranked higher than Grasso in his own rankings of those two.

I like the Chakina matchup, more than the Aroja matchup. Nevertheless, I get pairing Grasso with the latter, with Arjo possibly, given their proximity in most reputable ranking. So thank you, Mark Kimahey, for the suggestion and also for explaining it so nicely. And lastly, of course, our Instagram boys always closing the show. Very quickly, Jay Steiner, shout us to Diego Lima. You know, I like to use the readers for fighters that we didn't necessarily match up. Diego Lima, Alex Marano, beautiful matchup. Marano, he didn't, no, he didn't get released.

What do they? No, I don't think so. I'm sorry, the guy he beat, he beat, he beat, and Reese McKee got released, unfortunately. Jacob Best likes Usman Wonderboy, also likes Grasso Chakigian, and what do you think of this one? Brian Keller versus the O'Malley, Sean O'Malley, Thomas Almeida, loser. That fight happens on March 27th. Winner or a loser. It's fine with me.

We really want to see him fight on a Molly. This is a lot of heat behind that fight. You've got to make that one happen. And I close out with these guys because they both recommended I shouldn't even, this is such a gratuitous mention of this guy's name, it's not even, why am I doing this? From Jay Steiner and Jacob Best, they both said, Valal Muhammad versus Hamzat Shama. Yep, shout out to John George on Instagram as well, send me a DM. I wouldn't mind seeing Balal against Edwards, like if they booked Leon versus Colby, the loser of that

or Balal versus Hamzaa would be, would be fun too. Yeah. First of all, let's move on from the Edwards matchup. I wasn't against the Shemai' Edwards matchup. I didn't love it. I wasn't against it. But it's not such an intriguing matchup that we need to keep rebooking this thing over and over again. So if we're time to move on, it's time to move on.

I think Muhammad would wait for Shamiyev as long as it takes for Shemayev to recover from, hopefully fully recover from these COVID-19 symptoms, which is wreaking havoc on the poor guy. But whenever he's ready, I think Muhammad, that's a fight. Muhammad should wait for and I think it's a much more appropriate matchup for Sharmaya still still honestly higher rank than I would give him but Edwards was even higher than that so I like it I like it stylistically I like it name wise for Muhammad no it's not a top 10 guy but he's wanted a big name Shemaya is still one of the more intriguing names out there and if Muhammad beat him boy he'd he'd steal a lot of

that thunder it'd be really good for Bala absolutely same management team too which would make things a little interesting in the negotiation table I did have one on Twitter from Orrin Sleepwalker at Orrin 83. For Kamara Usman, he said the only fight that makes sense is Leon Edwards. There's even a story to be told there, slightly similar to the Connor Dustin one. You beat me long ago, but I'm not the same fighter now. Running back Mazdaal or Covington makes no sense. Yeah, listen, it does.

The Mazdaal fight does make sense. And the Covington fight makes sense. There's sense to both of those fights. And those are the two biggest fights for Kamara-Uzman right now. Let's be honest, they're not meritocracy-based, but they're the two biggest fights. And as a fan, I want to see the Covington fight again. Like, I would see how that plays off the second time around. Like, could Ousman just go in there and just starch him?

Or does Covington make the adjustments and win? Because Covington looked pretty damn good once he moved to MMA Masters and fought Taryn Woodley. That was like a different guy. And I want to see how that fight would play. Of course, Covington's going to need another win. For Gilliburns, he said the right fight would be Burns versus Mazadol, but there's no chance in hell for that. Yeah, he knows.

So Burns, Kiesa, or Burns Wonderboy, although they're both coming off wins and should be fighting each other. Jeff Neal is an option, too, but probably too big of a drop. Mike, you mentioned that the Covington and Mazadal have you mentioned to make sense for, makes sense for Usman. They make dollars and cents. Am I right, buddy? Hey.

Hey, I'm listening. I'm the first person to make that. Steal that phrase, all right? I just, I just invented that. I just invented that joke. Nobody steal that. I have to read out this, Mike. As we're recording, I just got a message from our pal in Sweden.

Excuse me, if I get this wrong. I think Sweden, Finland. Oh gosh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Toke. Toke Girding Jensen. Stahl. Stahl. More Stalin.

The Netherlands. I'm sorry, the Netherlands. The Netherlands? I believe it's, but Tote Gerdin Jensen, at Tok D.K on Twitter. I'll shout him out so you guys can follow him on Twitter as an apology for my my North American ignorance has a suggestion which we hadn't thought of and again hey close more age appropriate matchup for macy Barbara possibly Kay Hanson. But she likes Barbara versus the Hanson Bayes winner. So very cool. So you got that got that in at the buzzer.

I had to mention that. But most importantly, Mike, before we, thank you all the readers, by the way. You can reach me at Alexander K. Lee on Twitter at Alexander K.K. Lee on Instagram. Instagram, Alex.le at sbnation.com. And Mike, how do you want them to reach? What's the preferred way of reaching you again? Probably Twitter at Mike Heck underscore JR. If you want to hit me up on IG, I do my best.

I'm trying to get better with that. I saw like a couple minutes ago. I was just looking at like my DMs, how they go in like the other folder. And there's some that just I hadn't seen and some people are kind of upset with me that I didn't see them. I apologize. I suck at Instagram. I've said it before.

I'll say it again. I suck at it. Are you big timing? the listeners. Look, I know this is the hottest podcast out there right now. I know we're taking over the podcast world, this developing industry that is podcast. But Mike, you can't big time the listeners. I'm not trying to. They got us here. They're the ones who got us here. That's true. I apologize. I will get better. I will get better. It might be like the summertime. I'll be like, I'll be an Instagram wizard, all right? You'll be TikToking by, by summer.

You'll be TikTok. God, don't say that. Don't say. But yes, yes, thank you, readers. Awesome suggestions. always. But yes, the most important matchup of the week as we touched upon earlier. I was really touched upon throughout the show. Julian Marquez and Miley Cyrus, my good. Look, this is, I'm not, I have to talk about this to end the show. For anyone who doesn't know, the story is up on MAAfighting.com. Julian Marquez used his post-fight time to say, I'm going to read out,

verbatim. I've been 31 months to get on this damn mic and to call these people out right now, dramatic pause. This is my time to shine. So Miley Cyrus, will you be my vatim. And I just realized now, I think he rhymed that on purpose. So, so well done. And sure enough, late evening on Saturday following the card, Miley Ray Cyrus replies on Twitter, shave an MC into your chest hair. And I am yours, heart emoji.

Happy V-Day. And congrats, my love. This is real. Marquez Miley is happening, and I could not be happier for them. So, uh, let's, let's, Mike, I know you. You hopefully will speak to Marquez soon, and we will get more. This developing story. Such a nice, happy story for what has been some.

There's been some negative stories in the MMA media this week. Let's be honest. So really happy to see this one. Cap off Valentine's Day weekend. So beautiful. I'm all for it. Miley Marquez. The UFC needs to jump all over this thing.

Like, we need to see a love connection type show where, and I, I'll be happy to host it. Julian, tell us about your date. We got Miley in the other room. You know, we rate it. Do we want to,

do you want to go out again? Like, I want to see how this date plays out, where he takes her. I think it, I think it would be a blast. I think, I think Miley would have,

like, the best date of her life with a guy like Julian Marcus. How can you not? Do you see just, the, the, the, I don't know if the,

what do we call him? Jiffs, Gifts, I don't know really sure. I say gift. I think the gift of Julian Marquez, like, walking to the octagon, which is like that bouncy, smiley face

is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. Shear joy, sheer joy. My love. Quote, unquote. I think they're internet married now. I don't know how some of these, again, I'm a little bit older guy. I don't know how some of these internet rules work.

I think they're technically internet married. Again, that might not be recognized by the government or, you know, but I do think they're internet married. My love. I think Julian Marquez's Facebook's, just changed to interrelationship. He didn't leave a name, though. Didn't leave a name.

Still trying to keep an anonymous, you know? Keep us guessing. The mysterious. Oh, Julian Marcus. Unreal. My hero. Nicely done, Julian. And nicely done to the listeners like AK alluded to. But join us next week as we discuss the aftermath of UFC Vegas 19.

We're at 19, right? This is 19? Sure. Yes. That will be headlined by Curtis Blades versus Derek Lewis, the co-made event is Ketland Vietta versus Yana Kunitskaya. It is not the, let's be honest, not the most loaded card in terms of name value, but there are a lot of fun scraps on this card. And we just found out one of those fights the other day.

We found out that Jai Herbert is out of his fight against Dracar Close, and now Dracar Close will now be fighting violent Bob Ross himself, Luis Pena, on short notice. So that should be a fun little scrap as well. But until then, ladies and gentlemen, for Alex Kaley, I am Mike Hack. Remember, don't take this too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun and we'll have fun once again next week right here on on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.