MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC 259

Episode Date: March 7, 2021

On the 34th episode of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee put on their matchmaker hats following Saturday’s loaded UFC 259 event at the APEX in Las Vegas. Future matchups were discussed for light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz following his first successful title defense in the main event, middleweight champion Israel Adesanya following the first loss of his MMA career, featherweight champion Amanda Nunes, Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan after their 135-pound title fight ended in a title switch via DQ, Islam Makhachev, Aleksandar Rakic, Dominick Cruz, Kyler Phillips, Askar Askarov, 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 back to a brand new edition of On to the next one, MMA Fighting's Matchmaking Podcast. And man, we have a lot to break down, look at, and discuss following UFC 259 on Saturday night in Las Vegas. What a wild card it was. Two champions retained. One lost his title via disqualification.

Unbelievable. But before we get into all that, I am Mike Hack. And joining me as always on this adventure, the co-host, the. co-matchmaker, the best friend, and the Prince of Positivity himself, Mr. Alex Keeley, AK, how are you, my friend? Mike, heck, my best friend, I am still in a tizzy after Saturday's show. You know, on a major card like that, you hope for maybe like, you know, two kind of big storylines to run off up to be talking about.

On the, I mean, the main card, again, it had at least like three or four wild stuff that we never, stuff we never seen before. And then the rest of the card was exciting as hell. So, gosh, there's a lot. We knew, and we knew going in. I think we warned people on last week's episode of this podcast that it might be a deep dive. It might be a deep dive. And I think we are going to have a deep dive.

We will get to the listener suggestions, as always. It might be a little bit more truncated than usual. But I think we'll make up for it with some of the questions we answer in our own matchmaking choices and other things that we're discussing because, boy, there's a lot of questions. after this one. This reminded me of like an ECW show from like the 90s. It had like a little bit of everything. You had like kind of luchador action like five star wrestling matches.

But then you had like a really controversial stoppage. But you had like a really incredible heavyweight title fight at the end. Like just one of those things like a big, big, big sort of opportunity. And we got a little bit of everything last night. It was just some was a lot of great. Some were sad. somewhere okay but in the end

it was an emotional roller coaster and that's not always a bad thing AK that was our I mean you mentioned that the DQ was straight out of pro wrestling except in pro wrestling

the title wouldn't have changed hands but yeah that was again I wish we there was I wish we could just tune in to Monday Night raw to get our answers you know tune into the you know this is we just we just saw the

pay per view the rating should go to the roof for the Monday show but unfortunately that's not that's not going to happen we're going to have to wait till I think at least Tuesday day before the UFC match figures figure out what to do with that Sterling Jan mess. But our listeners won't have to wait.

They will not have to wait. We will settle that today. And we're going to sell that. We're going to get into this right now. We're going to start with the main event. Jan Behovic, Hans Israel, Adasanya, his first loss. He thwarts Izzy's attempt at becoming a two-division champion. He gets it done.

He pulls off the upset and listen, there's really only one choice here, AK, right? Like, Jan was a big winner. The other big winner is the name I'm sure you're going to say right now in regards to who is next to try and have an answer for the legendary Polish power. You're shaking your head. I'm a little worried right now. No, no. Shake my head in a good way.

Oh, okay. And I don't want to hear anything else. I don't want to hear. Yes, of course, we are talking about beloved veteran and UFC 259 standby, Glover to Cher. He was, he was there. He made weight on Friday. I think that he was, some people are saying, you know, that once Sunday, morning rolled around he probably was just and and everything was fine maybe or at least maybe a few

hours for the show i think he was backstage until the very last second uh i i imagine uh hopefully someone will talk to maybe uh you know giir may cruz marseid talks that knows all the brazilians i would hope he would talk to cover i would love to know how long glover was on was on standby for and when he finally got to relax i think he didn't get to relax until both guys were in the cage and uh the bell rang and i think then finally they were here you can now you're allowed to eat or whatever but he's the only answer. He's done more than enough. He's on a win streak. He's beaten all the other contenders. He arguably should have gotten this shot. So, yes, if someone has a better answer than Glover to Chera, I would love to hear it. I can't imagine what it would be. Yes, it is New England's

own Glover to share getting the shot, no doubt about it. And I would, I would even add, he probably wasn't comfortable watching that fight until it was over. Because had Israel Adasanyu won that fight, Glover's not getting the title shot for a long time, unless it's like an interim title fight of some kind. So this is the best result. Like Jan Belhovic was a huge winner for the night. Probably the biggest winner of the night. Glover Tashira, you can argue,

was the second biggest winner of the night. I wish I had something slick and amazing to add to what you just said, but the M.MA God has decided for a change. You know what? The Bannonowice played out in a pretty awful way. Let's make things fair. There you go. Behovich gets a win.

Adasania's stock rose in a loss because of how he handled it and how he competed. And Gloved Toshera gets the title fight he did. deserves. So in the end, the card ended it a good way. Hogan must pose. Everything worked out. Everything worked out. That's a funny way of looking at Saturday's card, but I know what you're saying in a roundabout way, a lot of the concerns we had over sort of how some of these titles were handled. You're right. It's kind of turned out fine. But look, we're here to ask questions. We're here to worry about things. And when things work out, then we're just relieved. Yes. And for Israel-A-Sania,

I think it comes down to how a couple of these big 85 fights play out. Like we have Darren Till and Marvin Vittori. We have Robert Whitaker and Paul Costa. If Whitaker wins, I believe he's the guy. But Darren Till is right in there if he beats Amar and Vittory. And if he goes in there and gets a highlight real finish in that fight, Till could very well be the front one. Either way, if Paul Acosta wins, the winner of Till Vittori is likely next.

But I favor the Whitaker rematch should he beat Paul Costa. Yeah, anything to add to that? What about Kevin Holland if he beats Derek Brunson? I don't think he gets a title shot next. Oh. I think he talks the way into it. I think he talks to way into it. No.

There's too many guys up there. Like, Adisade has even mentioned Kevin Holland's name once. It has to be a statement win. It would have to be a Kevin Holland, like a first round knockout or submission and a good promo. If he does that, I think he jumps the line. I think Kevin Holland jumps. So that's a lot. That's a lot of big ifs.

I'm not disrespecting in Derek Brinson. Brunson could beat him for all we know. Sure. This is not even like, Holland's definitely going to win and all it matters how he doesn't. No, no, no, no. Derek Brunson is a spoiler.

We've said it for the longest time. He beats anyone that's not like a champion or a future champion, which Colin might be, but we can't predict that, right? So Bronson really usually, Bronson, Brunson usually does beat the best of the best.

So he's a very smart test for Holland right now. But I think, I do think the opportunity is there for Holland to jump the line. Yeah. I mean, it would, it would take a Joaquin Buckley knockout, in my opinion, to jump all of those guys. Because you got to remember, you get Calvin Gasolm up there, too. You know, there's a lot of, 85's really exciting right now.

It's really deep. I think Till and Whitaker are the two guys for sure. I think Vittori's right there because he took that opportunity. That was Hollins originally. We'll see what happens. Listen, anything can happen. Dan Henderson got a freaking title fight. Yeah.

And there's heat with Votori, of course, you know, the rematch. the rematch. They've been, you know, they've been jabbing each other non-stops as that fight, which is, which is perfect. That's how you want to kind of keep a rematch routine to, I would say, younger, two young guys alive. So, yes. But, yeah, I think we would agree. Whitaker, if he wins, priority, Vittor, if he wins, Fittori, if he wins, and does something

spectacular, maybe it's kind of, can sneak in there. Yeah. And Daryntel, obviously, is the wild card here for sure. Oh, yes. Co-made event. Amanda Nunes needed just over two minutes to submit Megan Anderson. and Megan got hit once, AK, and whatever chance she had in that fight, you just sort of saw it float out of her body and just fly out of Las Vegas. I mean, Nunes just continues to build her legendary resume.

And you and I, there were very few media members that were given Megan any kind of a chance in this fight. You and I kind of tuted the horn for Megan thinking that she could make things interesting, but all it takes is one shot to change the narrative, and that's exactly what Nunes did. There is not much left for her to accomplish right now, A.K., so I am curious. since we didn't hear from you last night, because we had a million things going on, your thoughts on the next move for the lioness? Well, I'll first say,

you know, we did our best to talk about this matchup, Mike. You know, we never want to tell people a matchup is going to be a pure blowout. Of course, we were realistic about it. We knew that Nunez was probably going to win. But I still stand by a lot of things you said. I think the best version of Megan Anderson, and maybe that was,

but I still think, I don't think we saw the best version. I think puts up better than that. But regardless, the best version of Amanda Nunez beats anybody. So I guess that does really matter. I love the, you know, I love the Giuliana Pena idea. I love the Julianna Pena idea. I like the suggestion we got from Matt Maggio on Twitter. First of all, Matt Maggio, shout us to Duval.

Duval! That's for Matt. He said, wouldn't it be cool if they could do a quick turnaround with Juliana Pena because Holly Holm is apparently out of that upcoming fight and did all three women's title fights on USC 261 with the 135, 125, and 1.5 pound. I know you already responded to Matt. But it's a cool idea. I love the idea from a marketing standpoint.

It would be so, so cool. I don't know if I'm ready for another three title fight card yet, though this one was great. But I don't know if I'm ready for another three title fight card yet. It might be unnecessary. And again, it would really leave their options limited for the next, whatever, the three months following, 261. Not that I don't know if Nune is going to fight anytime soon, but you at least want to be a possibility. Because she probably could turn around pretty quickly after the Anderson fight. But either way, I do think Pena is.

the next choice and I think I think she should wait unless unless the Holly home fight can be rebooked soon I know I know there's a lot of people who would hate that you know not having to fight someone and then going from that and to getting a title shot it's happened before in the UFC I think Pena has talked her way into it and won as well let's that's not take away from marian cage of column so I'm not against it it's not an exciting it's not the most exciting matchup but guess what for men and Nunez there aren't a lot of exciting matchups out there that could realistically happen. I'm torn on this one because one thing that Amanda Nunes has deserved as much as the

praise that she has garnered over the last couple of years, she deserves to have some clout here, A.K., she deserves to have a dog in the fight, so to speak, my best friend. Giuliana Pena is absolutely there. But when Nunes was asked about it at the press conference, she didn't seem all that enthused about fighting Giuliana Pena. Dana White was asked about it. This wasn't the kind of response that you wanted from Dana White. Like Dana White was like, yeah, I guess we could do that.

Like, first of all, he doesn't make those matches after these cards anyways. But unless, like, you know when Dana White's all in on an idea. He was not all in on this idea. And Amanda Nunes did say in the bill to Saturday, that one fight that does sort of interest her is another fight with Jermaine Durandini. And as GDR said on what the heck after she submitted Julianna Pena, if she fights Amanda Nunes again and loses, she will retire from the sport. She will put her career on the line to fight Amanda Nunes for the opportunity to become a world champion. With that storyline, A.K., unless Kayla Harrison comes over, which she's not until 2022 at the very earliest,

I think this is the biggest fight you can make for Amanda Nunes. Storyline-wise, career versus title, I don't think you could do anything bigger. Juliana Paney's fresh, but if you're building up a promo, Jermaine Duranmi saying, if I don't beat this woman, I will throw my gloves in the middle of the octagon, I will walk away, I will never fight again. It's as good as it gets. It's the only thing worth a challenge. You know what I mean?

Like, Undertaker beat Sean Michael is at WrestleMania. The only thing, Sean Michael, the only thing that would get Undertaker back in there, wrestle him again, was for him to put his career on the line. This isn't pro wrestling, but it was a hell of a storyline. We do love a good retirement match. And actually, what a wonderful moment it would be if Nunez decided to retire the same time.

Not that I want to see that, but I'm one of the few people who enjoys Amanda Nunea's squash matches. If she wants to continue beating mandatory challenges like the next two years, I'd be so down for it. I don't think she will. Like I think, again, I think she's at least going to take some time off at some point

before fighting again if that she decides to do that. But yeah, it would be a very classy moment if her and GDR fought again a third time. And regardless of who won, if both retired at the end, I can see both got champions just kind of standing in the ring

and they're very classy about it. So it'd be very cool. It would be a nice moment that we really, we don't always get to see in MMA, unfortunately. Yeah, other than, look, other than matchups with Chrysiborg, which we would hope we would see at least a run-in

because of critically Chris Cyborg or her team or her team, someone from her team, parked to Chris Cyborg, decorated van or truck outside of the building, and Chris Sebrose was joking about it later and having a laugh about it. But obviously, Cyborg the Belt or champion right now, that's very likely not going to happen. But that's a rematch I would love to see down the road. And you mentioned Kayla Harrison. That's also going to take a while.

But we do want to, for anyone who doesn't know, she did make featherweight in her most recent fight. Kayla Harrison was loaned to, for lack of a better term, to Invict to FC for a fight in November, and she came in 145.9. So well over, you know, championship weight, and that that point nine is substantial. That is substantial.

I'm not going to act like, oh, she can clearly easily make featherweight. That will not be an easy make for her, the 145 on the dot, should she ever decide to do that. But at least now we know it is possible. So if she does come over to the UFC, like you said, within the next two years,

and Nunez is still fighting or decides to come back to fighting, has to happen, has to happen someday. The only 135 are in the top five that is on a winning streak right now is Yanakunitskaya. She's the only one. Indeed. So, I mean, there's an argument there. My opinion, were you, sorry, were you suggesting GDR3 at 135, at 35? At 35, at 35.

Or 45. I mean, either one. I guess it doesn't matter. Why make them cut? That's the thing I kind of think, 145. You could do Payne at 145. Like, what's the problem with that? Like, if we want to do that in May, you could do it at 45.

Who cares? It's still a title fight. Yeah. You know, whatever. Put both titles on the line. I like that idea. See, we're building storylines, A.K., this is great. You do, my opinion, do Pena versus Aspen Lad, winner gets the next title shot.

Let GDR get her shot. Winner retire. Pena versus Lad, winner gets a title shot. Holly home fight somebody at some point, and we go from there. Let us talk about the Banimoy title. We have a new champion. It is Al Jermaine's. Sterling, but not in the way that he or anybody else on the planet would have wanted it to happen.

He defeats Peodor Yan, who looked to be on his way to his first successful title defense, but he throws an illegal knee. He is one million percent to blame. And according to the rules in Nevada for the sport of mixed martial arts, Piotr Yan should have lost the title. And on this show, when something like this happens, AK, it sucks. It stinks to talk about. But in terms of preparation and our jobs on this program, it makes it pretty easy because we just run this one back as soon as possible, right? Yes. Short answer, yes.

I don't see any reason why if everyone's healthy and everyone's ready to fight again in three to four months. I don't see why you don't just put together again. How funny is it, Mike, that all these, I was thinking about it, all these Serolongo championship winners, I think it's fair to say that their title fight wins have been. been, I don't even know. There's some sort of common thread. I was struggling to make a common thread between them, but let's

see if I come with a word after I explain it. Matt Sarah, of course, with one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. I still think the biggest upset in MMA history when you look, especially when you look at it in retrospect with everything that happened after with both his and George St. Pierre's careers. So the biggest upset. And then

he got the title fight off a reality show, which will never stop being funny to me. So, Matt Sarah already, Matt Sarah already setting this you know, set of the precedent for unlikely champions. Chris Widman, not unlikely to me, but a huge underdog to Anderson Silver at the time. And I still remember, I know people will think I might not remember this now.

A lot of people saying it was, oh, it was a fluke. Oh, Anderson Silva was goofing off. That's what he got caught. He was uncharacterically, I'm doing air quotes. Uncharacteristically goofing off. No, he was fighting like Anderson Silva, he got knocked out. But Chris Wyman did, there was a lot of people. He was the underdog in the rematch, you know.

There's a lot of people who saw that Chris Wide to win as like, yeah, I mean, okay, he got lucky. You know, again, he got lucky, which is ridiculous. And now we have another Serralongo man in Al Jermaine Sterling with the first title win by disqualification. So I'm a fan of the Serolongo team. I think Aljo is a worthy champion, but it is funny how this whole team, all their, all their titles, I feel like they're not always getting their respect they deserve. But you know those guys. They probably thrive on that. I thought what was interesting about that fight over all is like people seem to be scoring that all over the place.

On Twitter, the judge's scorecards. I mean, in my opinion, at least until that moment, Peter Yan won every single round. I thought he won all four, three and a half rounds. I thought he won all of them. But Sterling was very good. Like there were people who gave Sterling the first round. I don't know how you can give Al Jermaine. Sterling the first round.

he got dropped. Like, he got dropped pretty hard in that round, and he got dropped with a leg kick. He essentially got dropped one and a half times. And Sterling had his moments. I just don't understand how you could score that round for Sterling when he gets dropped like that. And a round that was pretty highly contested on both sides. It was just a really good fight. It was an unfortunate ending.

I thought Jan was starting to pull away. He made a huge mistake. And it is Sunday as you record this right now. It's 11.30 a.m. Eastern time. I've been on Twitter today, and Twitter is a disaster. It is a dumpster. fire, AK, because people are given Al Jemaine Sterling

crap because Marab de Wellish Willie, who is Aljo's like really good friend, his trading partner, they're buddies. They're like they're best friends. Marab says, you know what, Al Joe, you're home, glad you're feeling better. Take a picture with me.

Put the title on your shoulders. And Marab posts this picture on social media. And everyone is just destroying Al Jermaine Sterling for this. Oh, you're a paper champion. Everyone's giving you crap about it. John McCarthy's weighing in and saying all this BS. Listen, Alcho's the champion. There's no rule that he can't take pictures. He didn't even post

the frigging picture. And people are just ripping him to stress. There are media members right now, media members that I'm not going to name that are just clowning Al Jemaine Sterling on Twitter. This is ridiculous, man. It sucks. We're all pissed on how this thing played out. I thought Peot-Rion was winning every round. But it is what it is. Pierre Jan made the most costly error in UFC history last night. He did. He lost the title. He's not the champion. Al just the champion. Alger's not having a parade in New York right now. He posts for a photo on his friend's Twitter page. He didn't even post it and he's getting crap for this. This is ridiculous. I'm mad. I'm actually upset about this. I had very much the same

feeling you did, Mike. My mistake was I went to our M.A.Fighting.com comments. Oh, no. And there are some, let me tell you, I do some moderation. for our say. I don't like to ban people just for being a-holes. And I didn't do it today. I didn't do it today. I didn't do it last night. If, if it were up to me, if obviously, if I were to use my even more discretion, like personal discretion, I would ban so many these people for some of the stuff. They've been saying about all joke. Nothing's, like, again, you know, if anyone crossed the line, of course, like, you know, and use inappropriate comps about race, gender, you know, sexuality, anything like that. Of course, that's a banning.

But there's some people who are just being total dicks. And, and I cannot ban them for that. I cannot ban them for that unless I feel like they've crossed the lines. So, yeah, it's just as bad as our cause. There are a lot of people who are rightfully just criticizing Yon and also saying, you know what, they're not, just like, I'll joke. They're not thrilled with what happened, but they understand. So I'm only criticizing sort of a vocal minority here. I love our readers and I may fight knock on.

But yeah, that's, Mike, this last night's event brought out the worst in a lot of a certain segment of the fans, you know, like I said, certain vocal segment of the fans. Israel, Adasania, exposed, exposed, overrated, obviously. was never good. You know, Israel, you know, we, we should have known Israel Adesania, never good. Megan Anderson, can, you know, a can. Again, obviously, I can. Amanda Nunez, can crush her.

You know, Amanda Nunez isn't good either, apparently. She's a can't crusher. Never beats anybody good. Both Sterling and Jan suck, okay, because Jan obviously cheated like a fool. Sterling was acting. This kills me. This is the new, this is going to be the new, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, fully support, you know, of Sterling, of course, getting the DQ win.

But this is what people say when they're like, well, why didn't Anthony Smith do it? Well, because this is going to dog him for the rest of his career. And again, I don't think that's, I don't think Al Jemey's Sterling should care. I don't think he should give one crap about a fan saying he's acting or whatever, or whatever, or whatever, for the next, whatever, rest of his career. That's stupid. You know what he else he is for the rest of queer? UFC champion.

Sorry, sorry, sorry for everyone out there. Guess what? He'll forever. You can't take that away. You can put asterisk next to it, whatever you want. but he will forever be in the books, UFC, Bantamie champion, Al-Maine Sterling. So I don't want to dwell on too much.

I thought about waking up this morning and just posting everything positive. I like Jan Blahovich, great performance. Adasanaana, a strong performance and losing effort. Amanda Nunez, a beast. She's the best. The Sterling Yon fight was great until the DQ. I thought that was one of the best fights in the night, until the DQ. I thought it was so fun to watch.

And, well, you know, we'll talk about other people on this show. But there was so much positivity taking the show. I just hope people just don't dwell. the negative. I know it's easy. I know it's an easy route to go down. I thought we saw a lot of great things on Saturday. Yes. Be better, everybody. Be better. Don't be like John McCarthy and

Josh Thompson saying that out there's faking. Like, enough is enough. Really? You named names. I'm saying it for those two guys. I got no problem to say it. I didn't know that. I didn't hear that. I think I knew Josh Thompson was going on about it. I didn't see McCarthy, but I know they did the show together right here. Yeah. And then, you know, McCarthy compared

it to the Chris Widman situation and whatever. I don't. It is what it is. I understand why they did it. It's not because I don't think it's because it's truly how they feel. I think it's because they want numbers and views, and that's why they took that clip and they posted it. But it just is what it is. They got something to say about it. They can gladly say it, and I'll gladly debate them about it.

But it is whatever. We'll talk about this one for a while. Regardless as how people feel about it, we'll be talking about it for a while. Piotr-Yon, our friends at best fight odds, Peuter Yan is a minus 250 favorite for the rematch, which I think is more. than fair. Mm-hmm. Yep.

He looked like the better fighter on Saturday. Yep. Let us move ahead to some more positive stuff. How about Islam Machachev, AK, a good lord, is this guy a scary matchup for anybody at 155? Absolutely dominates a very game, very handsome Drew Dober, submits him with a nasty, ferocious arm triangle in the third round, like on the opposite.

Like, just hearing people actually break down the submission and just seeing it from that perception is, it's just, it's just more impressive than I thought it was last night. And a little bit of a layoff, pays off, lives up to that massive minus 450, minus 500 line. What do you think should be next from Makachaf after that performance? Was that an arm? So it was, it was an arm triangle, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was a modified arm triangle.

But the way he did, okay. It was something, yeah, it was. It's the closest thing to like an arm triangle, I guess. So I guess you're going to define it that way, unless he wants to give. his own fancy name to it. The look on Dober's face, as he was, before the submission, sheer pain. Some people, like, you know, when they're putting like an arm triangle, they don't quite, it kind of happens, and then before you know what they're tapping, like, oh, I didn't

realize, like, how much pressure there was. No, you can see how much pressure Drew Dober was under. I think we just rebook the Rafael Dosanos fight, right? I mean, I have RDA booked in a hypothetical match with Justin Gehche. That's still a fight I'd like to see, but that seems to be. I don't know, becoming more and more remote as the months go by. So I don't know if that's anywhere close to being booked. I haven't heard anything about that.

So I say just rebook the RDA flight. I think it's a great test for Makhachev. Great name for him if he can beat RDA. And for RDA, if he, of course, can beat Makhachev. You know, he stays in contention. So, yeah, I like that. I'm cool with that one. He calls for Tony Ferguson, which honestly, if I was as a lot of Machachev,

that is one million percent the call that I would. would have made as well. I don't think that happens. RDA's fun. I think that's going to be a popular pick overall. I'll tell you the fight I want to see, and I think it could line up timing-wise. There's a man looking to come back in the summer.

There's some heat there. Kevin Lee. Kevin Lee's got a name in the division. Former title challenger, Makachev is probably ranked higher, I'm sure. Both of those guys want to fight Tony Ferguson, AK, make him earn it. Mokachev versus Lee, winner fight Tony Ferguson.

I'm fine with that, but either way, I think the time is now to make that fight happen because I just don't know any other time that it makes sense. Yeah, shoutouts to my old roommate, Mitch Sanderson. I love you out there, Mitch. He messes me with that matchup as well. He said, he said, is Islam going to fight your cousin, Kevin Lee? And I was like, and I'm wondering why my roommate, Mitch,

is getting special treatment and getting mentioned so early. Listen, this guy had to live with me. Okay, so if he sends me a matchup suggestion, then he's getting mentioned. But yeah, I saw other people mention that as well. It's a somewhat popular choice, McAachev versus Kevin Lee. Style-wise, great, like I said, timing. Yeah, and I think that could work out best. And keeps my hopes of RDA just in eighth July.

There you go. And that's what we try to do, teammates, friends, best friends. To kick off the main card, AK, after a wild preliminary slate, Alexander Rackich gets a unanimous decision win over Tiago Santos, a very strategic fight in performance. It wasn't the most wildly entertaining fight. But listen, he won. Rackich won.

That's all that matters. He wants the title shot. We all know he's not going to get it. And in my eyes, he's going to have to get another win, and it's going to have to be an impressive one if he wants to get to the belt. So to me, he either fights the winner of Dominic Reyes versus Yuri Prakashka, or he fights Magabed Ancalaif. I'm not sure anything else makes sense of this point.

It's one of those two fights, A.K. Ankleis is the way to go. You know, I know we just matched him up, I think, last week, he fought last week, right? As last week's episode. And I don't think Rock Hitch was my number one choice for him. But now I've seen how things unfolded, it really does make the most sense for both guys. I think they both have a little more to prove before they're a surefire, you know, title contender. Like, it wouldn't be crazy if they got a title shot, but it would be, you know, it would be like, I think right now as an injury replacement or just for some reason other people ahead of them in the rankings weren't able to take a certain date.

but but with a way if one of them were to beat the other person in definitive fashion then that's a surefire you call for a touchdown. Rocket has done it twice now, I think. I know he called for it after his last, his win over Anthony Smith and now he call, I know he wants it. Rockets, you're not quite there yet. A great fighter, like I said, I'm not criticizing the fight for, on Saturday for being light on action.

Both guys fought the way they had to fight the way they thought to win. Rockich pulled it out. So he pulled it as we, as we, to make our, get our Buffett references going. So good job. Rockets there. Yeah, he makes the most sense. And you mentioned Redis Praschka, of course, May 1st. Yes, it's a little bit further down the line. So, yeah, if Anglayaev is down, I think that's the way to go.

And congratulations to Rackage on the brown belt as well. Nicely done. Good moment. There you go. Yeah. I mean, kind of oddly timed for being honest, but still, very happy for the man. He's got colored belts and I do not. So tough to get. Yes, they are. Featured prelim

and thinking about it, now like it's not surprising, but it's a while to think about that Dominic Cruz got his first win since June of 2016 last night. UFC 199 was the last time Dominic Cruz won a

fight until last night. Dominic Cruz beat your eye favor UFC 199. The last time he got his hand raised in a fight. Did you know that? The favor, the third favor fight? That was his last win. That was his last win. That's wild.

Is that crazy? I was barely working in MMA at that point. It was 2016. I had, I think I was an intern, I'd an intern somewhere. I was definitely not in the NBA fighting. This was pre-em-M-A fighting. That's great. I knew it had been a long time.

When you say 2016, so we're talking five years. So five years. That was a lifetime ago. Yeah, him and Carlos Condit, right? Wasn't Condit like five years before between wins? I think so, yeah. That's wild. But Conant was more active, right?

I mean, no, maybe not. No, I think he was, yeah. A little more active. I mean, a little more active than Cruz, that's for sure. because Cruz has what, four. We say first win, but he's only had, what, like, four fights since then? Garbrandt, Sehudo. Yep.

That's it, right? Is that it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so he's only had two fights. Two fights before Saturday. So, okay, so definitely a long time between wins for a reason. And I think, I think heading into last night, him and Casey Kenny had the same amount of UFC wins.

which is absurd when they started their fifth of careers right yeah but listen dominic cruz wins beats a very game guy via split decision it was a very close fight cruise looked good kentie looked good but kenny looked good but kenny just couldn't get it done overall and i think he's going to take a ton away from those 15 minutes going to be kind of one of those defining fights in his career so but dominic cruz looked sharp had his moments had a very uh very interesting call out after the fight which obviously he's not going to get, but what do you think is realistically next for the dominator?

For the dominator. He's the dominator, right? The dominator. He is the dominator. I think anyone named, if you're an athlete and your name is Dom or Domit, any variation of Dominic, you are the dominator.

You have to, you have, it's like anyone with a, you know, T, bone. It's just in your national. I always get him and Ray is confused because I know one's the dominator and one's like the Devastator. So I think Cruz's the Dominic,

that's right. Dominic, I think, only went with devastation. out of respect to Domit Cruz. I think if there was no Dominic Cruz, Dominic Ray as clearly would have gone by the Dominator as well.

Are we not allowed to suggest Frankie Edgar anymore? Is that just not happening? I feel like we suggest that 100 times. Do it. Well, no, because my other suggestion is another one that I think we've brought up a bunch of times. I'm wondering if we start using the Jose Young's corollary

of don't want anything from the UFC because then it will not happen, which I don't believe in, you know, because I don't believe in jinx There's anything like that. But just to be safe, just to be safe, maybe we should acknowledge that theory. So no, aside for Frankie Edgar, really my top choice now is just, is Josie Aldo. You know, Josie Aldo is coming off a win.

Both guys coming off a win. It's a dream. It's a dream matchup. It's a dream matchup. The problem is, you know, both guys have a lot of leverage. And I'm sure they can afford to wait. They'll also have been the business for a long time. They can afford to wait for matchups they want.

But why would they not want this? It's just fun. It's just so fun. Hans Mollon Camp aside. Give me. Give me Dominic Cruz versus Josie Alda. It's time, A.K., it is time. I feel like we can finally get it.

Give me the fight I've been asking for for almost four years now. Give me former UFC champion versus former World Series of Fighting Champion. Dominic Cruz versus Marl Marius. Give Marl Maraeris a chance to get back on track. Give me the fight I so desperately desire. It is a selfish pick. That's what's great about having our own show, A.K., once in a while. we could be selfish, but this is a very realistic option, AK.

This makes a lot of sense. I think we can finally get it now, Cruz versus Marius. There are a lot of good veteran choices for Cruz. And I think we're saying the same thing as far as that's what we hope will happen with some of, you know, again, we don't know how long cruise much longer Cruz can to fight for. It could be one year, it could be five years. You never know with him, right? Depends out he probably wants to still make up for a lost time. Like we said, he had a long break in there.

I'm sure he still wants to fight as long as he's able. But for me, it's like, yeah, at least over the next few years, just veteran fights. Just love to see, like I said, dream matchups, matchups we never thought we'd see. That's kind of what's so cool about it. If he falls bass-acwards into a title shot, great. But I don't think that should be his goal right now. And I don't hear him talking about that much either. So yeah, please bring on these veteran fights, these future legends fights.

Let's do it. I love it. I will have you know that I asked about Rob Font. I said, what about Rob Fond versus Dominic Cruz? And I was told flat out no, makes no sense. But who told you this? A source is close to the situation. Oh, I was going to reveal names.

But I hope it's not the internet. I hope you're having to talk to the internet. Just feels like the resume doesn't line up for a number three to fight the number three guy, which I get. It's clearly just a get over with the name type of fight. Definitely not a merit fight. But I think we've had good. Oh, I think, well, I know last week I wanted font and I think Pedro Munoz, I think it was. Yeah.

I think that's more realistic than Cruz, but I don't even like the moon. I don't even like the moonio's idea at this point, just because font's number three. And I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen there. We'll see. But sticking with this very interesting and loaded and deep 135 pound division, we're going into some bonus territory with this card because it was that big. A breakout showing from one Kyler Phillips, a guy I have been high on for a while,

a guy that got a finish and under a minute on the contender series, but did not get a contract. went to the ultimate fighter, got a loss on the ultimate fighter, and then went back on the regional scene. And let's be honest, I've watched the fight on the regional scene. Got the big fat hose job by the judges, lost a split decision, and since then gets a win in LFA, comes to the UFC, he's got four wins in a row, got a big opportunity against Song Yidong, a top 15 guy,

a guy who had been unbeaten in his UFC career against guys like Alejandro Perez, who he viciously knocked out. fighting Cody Stamen didn't lose that fight I thought he'd lost it but it was a draw he beat Marlon Vera a lot of people don't believe that but still it goes down as a win against Marlon Vera ranked in the top 15 like I said Kyler Phillips goes in there and gets a huge win

puts the division on notice and in a division like this to be ranked three fights into your UFC career that is absurd and that is what likely is going to happen come Tuesday so I'm going to play the two choices here A.K. One, give him Ricky Simone, because Simone is an uncrowned top 15 guy, in my opinion. And I think people are really starting to see what Ricky brings to the table. I think he's got some buzz now. And, you know, give Simone the rank guy that he wants.

Phillips can build his street cred, so to speak. The other option, Cody Stamen. Either of those work for me. But I'm excited to see Kyler Phillips again, no matter who he fights. What do you think? young Kyler has won me over look we got off we got up to a bad start

on the ultimate fighter which is where I first saw Kylea Phillips oh and hold on I'm sorry I meant to start off with this I'm amazed you did all that Carla Phillips talk but they'll bring up his hair I credit to you sir

because it took you two seconds to mention how handsome Drew Dover is so I thought if we're going to talk about the man's hair he did not talk about the man's hair he did not have this hair on the Ultimate Fighter. He was he was he was he was neatly shorn I wonder if because if on the show it would have just been a hassle to deal with

But even if you look at I think at his sure dog picture Maybe even his topology picture It's a it's a short hair It's short hair at Kyler you would not Good looking guy but you would not think And he wouldn't stand out in a crowd Long long lustrous haired Kyler Holy crap the first time I saw I didn't recognize him

Because like I said I'd seen him on the ultimate fighter and I watched all these seasons. So I had a very distinct image of him in my mind. So when I saw him in all his glory, I was like, oh, geez, this is what that dude. This dude's real personality. This is what he's really like. So, yeah, so he won me over.

It took me some convincing. Even after his first couple of USC wins, I was like, okay, good, you know, strong prospect, young guy. But, you know, like you said, song is ranked. So in my personal rankings, he jumped about like 20 spots last night. He was probably in like the mid-30s, and he jumped all, he leaped a lot of people with the win.

over a song. And like you said, people can criticize Song's sort of recent results all they want. Those last couple flights, whatever you think of if they were robberies or not, they didn't definitively beat him. Kyler Phillips beat definitely, definitely, you know, beat him without a shout of. There's, I don't think any way you could watch that fight and not think that Phillips won. I think there's room for debate with the same fight. I think there's room for debate with the Marlon Vera fight. But Phillips and song, Phillips clearly the better fighter at this stage in their careers. So, and it's amazing. I also had multiple options and no overlap, Mike.

So we're very high in this guy and his possibilities. I love the idea of him facing the Sean O'Malley, Thomas Almeida winner, March 27th. I know if Amali wins, they're going to put him, you know, right back on that hype trains me cranking again. And who knows, maybe there was a storming there with someone in the top 10. I don't think that needs to happen, especially given the depth of the top 10 and the names that are actually in there. I don't think that O'Malley necessarily automatically gets a top 10 fight. So I think if he beats Almeida, or even the other way around, I think Almeida's a logical matchup for Carla Phillips as well. So I love that.

That's actually my number one choice. And I know this man's dealing with about a COVID. Hopefully everything is okay. But also, Howney Barcellos. Howany Barcellos, I think would be an awesome, awesome matchup with Carl Phillips. But we just threw out like seven, eight names. All of them would be killer. So, Bantaway, it's so good.

I think I have to take one of those names away from you, though, like AK. Oh, no. Sean O'Malley, since they are both MMA lab homies. Okay. I mean, I don't know. Like I know, yeah, I think they're pretty tight. But I could be wrong. I don't know.

I know I haven't seen Kyler Phillips on the Sean O'Malley podcast yet. Talking about booty calls. We'll see after this win. It could be this week. Yeah. It could be this week. Yeah, get a strike while the iron's hot, I guess. But we'll see.

I mean, shoot, that would be. a lot of fun to watch. That's for sure. Now we move to the flyweight division, AK. Askar Askerov remains unbeaten. He goes out there and absolutely dominates Joseph Bedavides. Like this fight was not competitive at all. He looked phenomenal. Everywhere in the fight, on the feet, even on the ground, which surprised some folks.

The dude is the real deal. It was a perfect night for him. However, we have a conundrum, as the kids say, AK, because a lot of people, myself included, believe that he has earned himself a title shot against the winner of Davis of Figurato versus Brandon Moreno 2 on June 12th, especially if Davis of Figurato wins. But Ascarov missed weight by a pound. So my question to you is kind of a two-parter.

One, what do we do with Asker-Ascaroff? And two, should that miss keep him from a title shot? Like, did his performance outweigh the weight miss? Yes. two should the weight miss count against him. Yeah, no, he should not get a title shot off a wait-miss. I know what's happened before. I know the one that everyone kept bringing up, of course,

is Figuero's second rematch with Joseph Medevides technically did come off a weight miss because that's why the rematch happened in the first place. Figurato missed weight. But that's a different circumstance. That's Apple's no. And that's a different circumstance. Figurato earned the first vacant title shot with a knockout win and in a fight that he made weight in.

And then, yes, he missed for the first Benavides opportunity. But it made so much sense to book the rematch right away. Fair or not, fair or not to Benavidez. Well, no, it was fair to Benavidez because he got an instant rematch. A guy against the guy who just beat him. So totally different. You won't see circumstances like that again. Yuel Romero, I know also got a title shot off of a fight where he missed.

And that shouldn't have happened either. I was against that, too. I was against that, too. I don't care. I don't care. It results in an exciting fight with Whitaker. He shouldn't have gotten that second title fight again. Sorry.

So no, I have a strict rule. If you miss weight, you should not be getting a talent shot. Even Vitor Pelfort off a catchweight. I mean, he had a 195 pound catchweight bet with Rich Franklin and then got a title fight, middleweight title fight off that. He didn't miss weight. I'm just scheduled 195 or, but still, I didn't like that. You have to win in your weight class before you challenge for a talent.

So no. Like, no, he shouldn't get a tell shot. That one pound cost him a title shot. That's how I feel about it. There's another guy who's in the title talks, and who I also don't think should have gotten an immediate shot, but obviously his reputation precedes him, but I think these two should fight.

Give me Ascar Ascarov and Cody Garbray. You'd love throwing Cody right into these fights. I do. I like where your heads out. It's never going to happen, though. I love throwing Cody in anything, but an immediate title shot at the Figurato-Marino winner. I just don't think that's fair.

I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I want to see either Garberant. Keep competing at 135 or win once at flyweight for getting a title shot. It's not a lot to ask. 100% agree with you.

I wish that was the world we lived in. But unfortunately, there's not the game. Listen, for me, and especially now, this stuff happens. It's a pandemic. He missed by a pound. And we don't know the whole story. We don't know what happened. Okay?

We just saw a man jump on the scale and weigh 127. Now, if he weighed in at 129, I'd be like, hell no, that's a big miss. But in this case, I'm going to give him the benefit of the dough for this one. Give him the title fight. But we talked about, at the end of this card, the MMA gods decided to be fair for once. If they decide, hey, if we're going to punish Asker Ascar Ashkarov, Brandon Moreno wins the title on June 12th. If that's the case, Ascaraf, Ascaraf's not fighting Brandon Marino after June 12.

He's fighting Davis to figure out for a third. time, which would mean Ascroft would have to take another fight. There you go. That's karma coming around. But I say give him the title shot after that show. I favor Figuero to beat Moreno on June 12. That's a very interesting fight with Ascaroff. I mean, flyweight's buzzing right now.

I just don't know what else you get. You can throw Garbrain in there, but I don't, I would, I actually think Ascarov deserves more than Garbrand, even if, even missing weight. I think he deserves it more than Cody does. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. If you miss his weight again, I'm on Team A-K on this one, no doubt about it. If it was a choice between the two, Ascroft all the way. And even if it isn't, if Ascarov emerges from a pile of worthy contenders,

I'll lightly protest. I'll bring it up once on the show, and that's it. And then I swear, I'll shut it, I'll shut it. I'll shut it. I'll just do my prediction like a big boy and cheat. But ideally, no. Has he done enough to earn it? Obviously.

Obviously, he's done enough to earn it. I just would prefer that he had made weight. But yeah, yeah. All right, it is now time for the wildcard round, A.K., we've given you some bonus picks, and now we're going to give you one more bonus pick. We're going to select one fighter. We have not match made for it yet, and we're going to do it right now. A lot to choose from here, A.K., so I'm wondering where you're going with your wildcard selection coming out of UFC 259.

Let's go for a flyweight who actually made weight. and also I would say Saturday's star from city kickboxing it was potentially a big night for city kickboxing but one man emerged not only as the only winner from that camp to compete on Saturday but in amazing fashion maybe a career best maybe a career best UFC performance for Kai Karra France

who has a couple of fight in the Night of Wars too by the way so it's not like he hasn't been making waves already while also winning fights but comes back from a tough start against Hoggerio Bon Torrine certainly makes more headlines for kind of a strange finish. He does the walk-off. There's a little confusion with Erb Dean.

I keep saying Herb. It's fair, it's a French-Canadian part of me. He kind of ruins his own walk-off because there's some confusion with referee Herb Dean. He wasn't exactly sure. His corner wasn't sure the fight was over. I think they were shouting at him, like, go back and make sure it's over. thankfully Herbine steps in again and then no extra damage

to Bonterine but yeah Kankar France has been in the top ten since pretty much he came to the UFC he's a really good fighter and so I would like to see him face Alexandre Pantosia this would be a rematch from the ultimate

fighter 24 Pantosia beat him and I'd like to see the real thing I'd like to see that and this tough 24 was quite a few years ago now so I'd like to see the real thing run it back with those two I still think either those guys is a potential world title challenger someday, and this just keeps them on that path. I'll tell you, like, the first thing that crossed my mind with Kaykar-France, if Manel Cape wins on Saturday, you do Manel Cape versus Kaihara-France.

Good God, what a fight that would be. That would be absolutely insane. So there you go. I thought about Sean Brady. I want to give him a little shout-out. That was a great win over Jake Matthews. Enough with the, I'm not sold on John Brady yet. I mean, come on now.

jump on the train. I've been trying to tell you guys about Sean Brady for like five years now. Jump on the train, hop a board, put your seatbelt on. That was a performance and a half against a really tough guy in Jake Matthews. I like the call it of Lee Jing Liang. Does my job. That's on my pick. I like the idea of rebooking Trevin Jones versus Randy Costa after that fight.

Costa seems to be on the up and up when it comes to his recovery, got injured. I would like to see that fight. And I think we could put Trevin Jones in that category with sea level cane. with his second round. Second round, Trevin Jones is like fifth round, Robbie Loller and C-level Kane and motivated Connor and all this stuff. Like, we're there.

And maybe long-haired Kyler Phillips as well. Got on to Legend status. But I'm going to give some much-deserved shine to Amanda Lamehosh, who, in my opinion, and I agree with Casey Liden on the Post-Fite show, she should have gotten a bonus. She should have gotten a bonus. How many 115ers get stoppages like that in the first round?

Doesn't happen that often. And she stopped a woman a very good fight, a former Invicta champion, who had never been finished before in her career, in a very long career in Levina Susa. This woman is the real deal. And I think Amanda Lamos could give fits to a lot of women in this division in the top 15 right now. So my pick, we got a fight coming up on Saturday. Angela Hill versus Ashley Yoder. I think Angela wins that fight. Whoever wins, they should fight Amanda Lamos next.

It's a tough, it's a tough batch of for Angela. She's had, kind of had to go through Murderers Row at this point. But it's the right piece of business. Amanda Lamos is that good. Throw her to the wolves. I think she can hang in there and eat a little bit, AK. Yeah, I got Lamos right at the top of Dean, not including the champ, Jean-W. So yeah, I got Lemos right there in the top of Dean.

And yes, I agree. It lines up. You mentioned the bonuses. Yes, you should have got. You know who else should have gotten a bonus, Mike? Everyone else who got a finish on that car should have gotten a bonus. We got to either, again, overhaul this bonus system and make it so that if you get a finish, you get a bonus. Or in a perfect world, Mike, getting rid of the bonus system altogether, increasing the base pay for these fighters.

I mean, they should all be making, I mean, I can't even put a number on, like, 75% more, like, show money than they make now. I'm not exaggerating. I mean, and then if you got rid of bonuses, get rid of the bonuses. pay all the fighters 75% more than they're making now this is a pipe dream i'm just saying yeah look we get we get upset not upset but we we question some of the bonus choices every week it seems and really it's just kind of obscure as a larger issue but yeah she should be enjoying an extra 50,000 dollars right now

uh i would agree no doubt about that uh before we go to the peeps because the peeps have been very busy are there uh are there tapes that need checking okay yeah yeah let's do a quick a quick tape check here. Matt Bradbury, regular email contributor to Matt Bradbury, was one of the readers, I think the only one I could find, that picked Jimmy Flick versus Francisco Figurato, which has now been booked for me.

So well done, Matt Bradbury. Mike, I believe at some point you had mentioned an Andrea Lee versus Antonina Shavchenko matchup. I know, again, I think we discussed Antonina a few times, actually quite a bit on this show, both for matchups that she should get and shouldn't get. I know Andrea Lee did come up. So partial credit to you, sir.

Yes, I'll take the partial credit. Yes, partial credit. Unfortunately, also, I had to check the tapes on our Fight of the Night, UFC, 259, Fight of the Night Fix. It's not good. It's not good for us. You mentioned one of our listeners, Jesse Thunderclius suggested Euros Medici versus Ailon Cruz. Not a fight of the night, but Medici did get a performance bonus, so that was nice.

Our special guest, pre-fight guest, Julia Avila, Carr France versus Bon Torrine, which was not the fight of the night, but was probably one of the most talked about fights again because of the results and kind of the craziness that happened right after. Casey and myself, Alexander Rockich versus Tiago Santos,

and I stand by it. I stand by. It was a great technical battle, should have won a fight of the night, but probably was not at the top of the decision makers list when UFC 259 was over. And Mike yourself, you hyped this up,

for so long, the Savage versus Steamboat of USC-259, you said Sterling versus Jan was your lock. I don't know if you said lock, but it sounded like you were saying it was a lock for a fight and honestly, it might have got, might have gotten there if not for the it was a very good fight. People are going to

complete, no one is ever going to talk about the first three and some rounds that fight again, but it was a really fun competitive fight, I thought. Even if you thought Jan was winning, I liked the output from Aljo. It was a fun fight, but it did not win for the night

Mike so we we whipped on that one but I gotta put us on blast sometimes it's all I'm saying it's all I'm saying we made some pretty strong picks there and uh what actually oh and out of nowhere Kennedy uh... endzachucair Carlos Alberg

why are you celebrating so much because I was the only one to pick Kennedy in that one I told everybody to pick to take Kennedy in that but go to the betting window and take Kennedy and you won our picks like won our staff picks 10 out of 15

15. No one else hit double digits. Should have been 11 out of 15 for being on this. This is true. You also picked Peter Yon and then he screwed you. As soon as Trevin Jones knocked up Mario Battis, I was like, oh, man, it's going to be a rough night. But congrats to Inzscheuca, by the way. That was, again, another, I hope people, you know, it's not overshadowed by some of the other weird stuff that happened in the night because that was an awesome performance. He really was roper doping, wasn't he? He's a savage. That dude is a monster.

But that was legit roper doping. Like he wasn't, he wasn't just trying to figure out Olberg. Like that looked like a game plan. That looked like I am going to let this guy kind of get his striking off early. And I know he's going to tire. Yeah. Yeah, that was intentional, right? I think most of it was because he had the guard up a lot.

I don't think he took, I mean, he got he got clipped a little bit. But I don't know how you could rope a dope those body shots. Like that was just not fun to watch. Those were just landing. Yeah. So maybe not the best roper dope a lot in MMA, but we don't see roper dope a lot in MMA, mainly because there's a lot of circumstances where it could be stopped. I mean, we even saw poor, who's the Ankleyev's rival,

you on Kutalaba. You on Kutalaba. He feigned being wobbled for like a half second, and that fight was waved off. So playing rope it up in M.A. is tricky. But Kennedy and Zuchuku, you did it, and it was beautiful. Okay. Listeners, I'm going to run as many as I can. We don't want to go too long.

So I'm going to try and be pretty short here, Mike, with our comments as well popular choices Cruz versus Aldo everyone most people want to see Ask Rob get that title shot that pound

did not deter people if want to see the title shot Sean Brady a couple of veteran choices here Mike let me know which one you like more Robbie Lawler or Damian Maya

Wow I didn't even think about Damian Maya I put in my notes wow so yes I would I'll go with Robbie Lawler

okay Okay, okay. I like it. Brady is a future champion, by the way. You cannot come to see that guy's not a future champion. He's unreal. If we're going to give him a matchup like that, we want to give him somebody that. Damien Ma's just tough for anybody, though. Like, that's the last thing you want to do is throw him in there with Damien, especially like his last fight and he like has this historical moment, a submission win off of you. Like, I wouldn't want to take a chance like that. So give him Robbie. Not saying that Robbie would definitely lose that fight. I would say Brady's probably like a three. half to one favorite to win, but I think that makes more sense than the Damian Maya one. I'd take it put on like minus 350 over Damian Maya. I think he has the wrestling to like counter Maya and I don't know.

But experience doesn't matter a lot. This is true. There's levels of this, right? Makachev, people love the RDA and Tony Ferguson suggestions. So they're all in on either of those. Yorosz Medici. There was some really good matchups for him. And these are people around the same page of this.

So thank you. Listen, these guys are so educated. Mason Jones. Oh, good God. Yes, that's the one And the name that, again, I'm surprised multiple mentions it. It's not a bad matchup at all. I just you know, amazed people to know who this guy is.

Medici versus Luigi Ben-Dramini. So I like that one too. That's not a bad matchup. If you want to bring them on a little bit slower. Tiago Santos versus Johnny Walker, I feel like this has been brought up before. And then, of course, probably the most popular matchup for Nunez, the germane derail trilogy. So people didn't specify featherweight or bantamate, but again, like it was

really a matter of it. for Dominic Cruz oh you know we've gone over a lot of this again Edgar someone someone just said Marlin and I honestly don't know if they meant Marlon but ice or Marlon Vera because I think I think Chito called him up didn't he on Twitter after I believe Cheeto called called for a fight with Dominic after so

so that's in people's minds but yeah people really I'm just looking people really love that Aldo match up we had one commenter on our site on our Twitter say This is from at Larry Fisher Mac. He said, honestly, I'd like to see Dominant Cruz hang him up. Go out on a high note, be a broadcaster, nothing left to prove already a multi-time champ

and first-bought Hall of Fame. I don't see that happening. But I'm surprised that that talk is kind of already begun. Yeah. I mean, I get it. But no, I'm not a fan of it. The guy wants to keep going. He looked good against a really good guy.

I mean, let him keep going. He's not saying, I want a title shot tomorrow. He's saying, you know, I just like doing this. This is fun. It's a challenge. I want to keep competing. So there's plenty of fun matchups for him that do not have title implications. I honestly think he could fight till he's 40.

His style, again, he's getting a little hit a little more than he used to for sure. But his style lends itself other than the stress it puts on his body, especially his knees. But other than that, as long as the knees hold up, he could, I honestly could fight till he's 40. Also for Macachap, people say, Dan Hooker, Charles Oliver, Michael Chandler. Yeah, again, all these guys need to be sorted out. And he'll probably fight at least one of those guys someday. It's a little hard to see him that happening next, though. Also from Twitter, what do we got here?

Sorry, guys, a little disorganized. Of course, people like the Brady versus Li Jing Liang matchup. Oh, I wanted to, I'm sorry. I wanted to highlight some readers, especially first timers. I love when we have people chiming for the first time. Thomas Collins. This is a nice match. Thomas Collins might tell us I've been watching on the next one for a while now love the podcast thought I was just the matchups I would like to see following USC 259 I'm from the UK so the main event finished around 6 a.m. It was a tough card to stay awake for us. Thank you Thomas Collins for sticking in and messaging he likes and yes and for giving us some good matchups.

Santos versus the Paul Craig Jamal Hill winner March 20th. Alex Perez versus the Schnell oh sorry oops I forgot I think this is all right sorry guys I didn't write this hopefully. Ascarov versus Perez-Schnell winner, May 15th. Again, it's a little bit too far off. I think Ascarov would want to get a booking before that. Not necessarily fight before that, but I mean get a booking that's scheduled for that. And then Kai Karfantz, as you said, versus Cape, which would just be so, so sick if Cape beats Nicolao. And Cruzebzegger, another popular. Another first timer, Roy Summers, thank you, Roy Summers for chiming in. He had a bunch of matches that other people had mentioned. But he's that for Nunez, he says

Nunez and a damn polar bear But that would be illegal As she'd murder an endangered species So we're running out of We're really running out of options for Nunez Which the ones that would be advocated by Animal Rights and Animal You know preservation groups

Michael Perugini Enzichuku versus I think he just did this to make me pronounce all these names Enzichu versus the Alexeiuk Pukukukukukukukukukukukus loser March 27th Happy now Michael Perigini Yes Liam Perry

likes Benavides versus Pantosia Pantosia I don't remember Did he weigh in? I remember he was in talks to be a backup for the second Benavitas figurato

I don't remember Did he weigh in on Fight Island? I don't I don't think so I don't think he did either He had said in multiple interviews that he was the reserve So I'm not sure how official that was

But there you go Clearly something that could have happened. And a fight I wouldn't mind seeing someday. I think Benavides, is Benavides his coach on the Ultimate Fighter? I'm glad to remember that. But I know there's some sort of connection there as well. Okay. Barry O'Reilly likes, he wants to see Song Yudong avenged by his mentor, Uriah Fabor.

He says Phillips versus Fabor. Ooh, God. I think there's only one fight for favor at this point. But we'll see. And Scott McRate says, how about Carla Phillips versus is Marlin Cito Veda. Yeah, so it'd be an awesome matchup. And I think Cheeto should take it.

I know, I think if it was brought to Cheeto at first, he kind of raised an eyebrow. Like, maybe he's beyond Kylea Phillips. But I think now is the time to catch a guy like Collar Phillips and steal some of that shine. Because I think a year from now, he's going to be even better. Maybe that's when you don't want to match up with Collar Phillips. Yep. Sorry, Mike, I forgot that. Did you get any Instagram DMs this week?

I did. I did. We shout some out. Sean Bradley hit me up. He said, Book Islam versus Dan Hooker. God, can you give a guy a worse matchup? I mean, the guy fights Michael Chandler, gets knocked on the first round. He's away from his family for like 50-something days,

and now you're going to have him fight Islam-Machachev? Good God. He dig it. Of course he would. He's a maniac. No. If they did it, he would take it. I don't want to see it.

I want to give Dan Hooker somebody else. I think he's earned a little bit of a reprieve, so to speak. Jack Porter hit us up. He also likes Kyler Phillips versus Cheeto Vera, and on the low key, Islam versus Connor could sell some pay-per-views down the road. Not next, but down the road. Oh, yeah. What else we got? Danilo Collins.

Hey, Mike, back with some more suggestions. I'm sure most of these will be super common. Brady Jingleang, Medich versus Soriano? Okay. Which Soriano? I don't know. Puna? Puna.

Down to Welterway? Wait, he's a... No, no, no, no. I'll have to look that one up. Okay. No, no, no, no, no I think I saw that come up, yeah. And Rackett versus the Reyes-Perharto winner.

Okay. Harper on Twitter at Harper-Harets, or Instagram, excuse me, Jan versus Glover, obviously. Kyler Phillips versus Jimmy Rivera. Yeah. I like that one. Winner of O'Malley Almeida versus Sangy Dong. Islamynev versus Kevin Lee, if he ever returns.

Rockich versus the winner of Reyes-Juri. Jesse Thunderclius didn't have a matchup suggestion, but he sent me a photo and he says the knee was legal. Please tell me, not the knee vaguely hovering above the mat, possibly after the knee connection. Yes, I know.

Oh, my gosh. That's floating on it. And then our friend Magic Mighty said, I did send my submission via Twitter as always. However, I'm just thinking another fight that absolutely has to be made is Mockachev versus Kevin Lee. He hit you up on Instagram? He did. And he said, thanks for Millie's birthday shot out and the terrible twos are real. Oh.

Oh, no. You know what? That's a dad to dad. You know what? Mighty Magic Mike. Keep hitting Mike up in his DM. You guys can share dad's stories. Yeah.

So I'll go again. I'll just go quick. Max Block. He likes Cruz versus Bond, which again, like you said, probably is not going to happen. Josh Abu Kai, Josh Abukai, shame on you for this matchup. Blatens. What's the podcast version of clickbait?

Blatent listen bait. He just said Sean Brady versus Kamsatsha Shamaev. Get out of here. Get out of here, Josh. I shouldn't even read that. Get out of here. Stop it. I got to.

No. Wow. Yeah, I mean, not today. Not now, obviously. talking about this. That's something I'm thinking about for the future. That's like, that's a seed. Seeds are planted.

Way in the future. I can't even see that far ahead. That's so far ahead. Fluffy Jitsu, I'm sorry, I don't know what actually about fluffy Jitsu, likes Makachev versus Binal Darayush. Jacob Bass. Oh, I told myself I would read these. Okay.

Our boys, Jacob Bass and Jay Stann are coming in with some heat. But I like, I like, listeners, I like when you come in with explanations. I won't guarantee I'll read them, but it's definitely going to make me give it a second. Makachev versus Nate Diaz Jacob Beth says This is me bring my hot one this week Yes, I acknowledge this fight probably doesn't happen But Nate tweeted that Islam has a feud with Habib

Wants to fight 155 hours on a win streak Albeit at 170 Islam is on a 7 fight win streak Would boost the star power Why the F not? Nate probably doesn't accept So Tony Ferguson is appropriate But yeah I saw other people also mentioned Nate Diaz

Because again We're really using Islam as a Habib proxy at this point which there could be worse. There's worse things to be. True. Jay Steiner, which match up here that I like that I want to read about? Oh, okay.

Joe B. He says maybe done with the UFC. He said, released. Sad to say, because one of my faves, seems to be in the same boat as Overeem and Dos Santos. One FC could be a good spot for him.

I don't know. Like, I don't think Joe's in that spot. Like, Dana was asked about Joseph Benavina's, and they were like, I believe it was our own Jose Youngs who asked him about it. And he said, he asked him, is it time to have that conversation? And Dana said, no, I don't think so.

I didn't think over him was in that spot. To be honest, I didn't think so. I felt heading into that. I felt with Overim. It was like, he was like, and I know I'm throwing pro wrestling references around like crazy, but I actually thought Overim was in that Rick Flair spot. where he's going to, the UFC is going to keep him around as long as he won. And I think Overeings making way more money than Joseph Benavita is.

Yes, yes. And he had implied that himself. He had, he had embraced the last run, last ride narrative over him. So there was reason to suspect that either, you know, that when he lost, it would be a retirement or parting ways to the UFC. So fair, fair. Maybe I should have been a little more aware that was going to come. And let me wrap up with our email boys here, Mike, very quickly. Chisend Gorda.

I love this matchup from. Tristan, Yoros Medici versus Jordan Levitt. Ooh, I like that. Too soon. Too soon. No, you can't do that. You can't do it. Why?

These are two like super young rising prospect. Like this is the future of your division right here. You can't throw them in there against you. You can. No, terrible idea. Let the young feed upon one another. Tristan Gordette, I like where your heads at. If we're talking about like main events four years from right now, that could be one.

But it's not the fight you make now. It's just, it's tough. You kind of have to bring in, I don't think sacrificial lamb is the correct term I'm going to use, but something to that effect to build both of those guys up. You can't throw them against each other now. God, that's, that's tough. Oh, you want to, doing air quotes again, you want to properly build prospect. I know, who am I?

Whatever. Harry Devolsch, Gary, Harry, please tell me if I'm next time you email me. if I am just butchering your name. It's either, I like, I do have a tendency to overpronounce. So, Harry, Devoshkin, it's probably Duoskin. I don't know. He's probably from, like, he's probably from like Milwaukee or something.

He's, I don't know why I'm reading it's such a foreign name. He likes Lamos versus, this is also recommended by Marcus McGehy, so thanks Marcus. He likes Lamos versus Tisha Torres. Interesting, yeah. Yeah. That's kind of the edge of the hill range we're talking about. And then, you know what? You know what?

I'm sorry. mean to interrupt you, that's the fight to make. That is the 100% fight to make. I've changed my mind. I didn't even think about Tisha, but that is one quadrillion percent the fight to make. Because that's the test. That's how we know if you're a top

10 fighter in the Straw White division. You beat Tisha Torres, you're a top 10 fighter. If you don't, you're not there yet. She's not a gatekeeper, but she is the ultimate litmus test for that division. That's the fight to mate. Lamos versus Tisha Torres. percent is the fight.

Well done, well done, well done. Thank you, Harry. That is the most Mike Heck-impressing pick of the week. He also liked Brady

versus Neil Magny. I could absolutely see that being made. Matt Bradbury had another option for Lamos which I have to mention because again, I'm a sucker for a good hashtag.

Amanda Lamos versus Amanda Hebas, obviously Amanda X-Amanda. So obligatory mention I don't even love that matchup. I think obviously Hebuss I think is a little bit further ahead than Lamos.

I don't think she should need to take that fight. But again, Amanda v. Amanda, how can I not say it? And then he also liked Nunez versus Kunitskaya, which again, at this point, I'm referring to a lot of these opponents with respect to them as mandatory challengers like they have in boxing. Right. And lastly, I wanted to shout out Austin Deschamp, a longtime listener, first time commenter. And I also mentioned a matchup that's very close to my heart, which I think would be very cool. he wants to see

Joseph Benavides versus Tim Elliott now Elliot and Benavides are friends they have trained together before but Elliot has mentioned in an interview

I spoke to him about it actually that it would be a very cool kind of a dream matchup if one day when Benavides does decide to retire he would love to be Benavides as his last opponent so this would be a call

you know if this part would have him this would be like a fight of respect two great veterans it would really be emotional. I think it would be a real moment. So I'm totally down with it. So awesome to DeShamp. Great suggestion.

I hadn't thought about that fight in a while, but I do think the stars are aligning for that possibly to happen again. So I don't know how close. Look at us. We don't know how close Benavitas is to either being done with VEOC or retiring. It could be a while. But if he is thinking about it, Tim Elliott, you could do a lot worse than Tim Elliott for your last opponent.

I like, I mean, I love it. That's a great idea. I mean, it's two choices. You either do Benavitas versus Elliott. if you're going to do something before the fall, or if Benavitas is out until, like, the fourth quarter, I like Benavitas versus Brandon Royval, too. Yeah.

But either way, yeah, I think, guys, listeners, guys, listeners. Unbelievable. Great job this week. We all, let's pat ourselves in the back, too. Mike, I think we did a great job this week for the very, very stacked card. Again, stacked card that did not necessarily give easy options for everyone involved, But a lot of excitement, especially for some of the guys coming out, Carla Phillips, Yoros Medici, Sean Brady. Just exciting, man.

It's exciting to see where these guys are going to go. No doubt about it. Keep those suggestions coming if you'd like. AK, what's your IG and stuff? Yeah, throw that out there. Of course, hit me up on Twitter at Alexander K. Lee on Instagram at Alexander KK Lee. So that's 2Ks on Instagram. And then hit me up on email, Alex.dly at SBNation.com.

Mike? I find me on Twitter at Mike Heck underscore J.R on the IG M underscore HeckJR. See, I'm getting better. I'm getting better

with the DMs. I've read them all. I've read them all over the last two weeks. Mike, you're crushing it. I'm doing the best I can. But join us next week as we discuss the

what's next coming out of UFC Vegas 21, headlined by a big fight, 170 pounds between Leon Edwards first fight

in almost two years as he takes on Belal. Remember the name Muhammad, Misha Sirkenonon versus Ryan Span is the co-made event at 205 pounds and pretty interesting matchups. 14 fights on the slate should be a good one on the road to UFC 260, which is coming up at

the end of the month. Until then, for AK, I am Mike Hack reminding you not to take this too seriously, MMA is supposed to be fun. And I'll say it again, MMA is supposed to be fun. All right. We'll have more fun next week right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You know, Thank you.