MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC 260

Episode Date: March 28, 2021

On the 37th 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 260 event at the APEX in Las Vegas. Future matchups were discussed for the brand new UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou following his second-round KO victory, the now former champion Stipe Miocic, co-headliners Vicente Luque and Tyron Woodley, Sean O'Malley, Miranda Maverick, Jamie Mullarkey, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hello, everybody. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one as we play Matchmaker here on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network following UFC 260 on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada. And we have a brand new heavyweight champion of the world. And we appreciate and thank you for listening to the program. As always, I am Mike Hack and joining me, per usual, is the co-host, co-matchmaker. the best friend, and the Prince of Positivity himself, Mr. Alex K. Lee, AK, how are you? How's Canada on this fine day? My best friend, it's a little gloomy up here, but I am not in a gloomy mood,

because my heart is still racing a little bit from last night's heavyweight main event. I think Rogan and Korme nailed it when they were all saying, and Annick were all saying, like, there was a crazy tension that you just don't normally feel. You don't always feel during, I can't remember the last time. maybe it no I mean I'm thinking of all the title fights we had this year even like a super fight

like Adesanya and Blahovic I swear I didn't feel that same I don't know I didn't feel that same kind of buzz but there was every second of this Miochich and gone a rematch I was just like I am weirdly excited and sweating a little bit and it's uncomfortable but I love it so the whole gamut of emotions Mike

and I'm still feeling it I think again there's no card this week so is it kind of great for the UFC. We'll all be kind of able to dwell and talk about this incredible triumph from Ngano for the next couple weeks. I would say from like a fascination perspective, Peotryon versus Al Jemaine Sterling

wasn't quite where this fight was on Saturday, but it was like up there. Like those are the two title fights that actually stood on my feet and watched. Like I didn't sit, I was on my feet watching them like in anticipation. But in terms of like the intense vibe I don't remember feeling that way watching a fight since the first time Stepe fought in Ganu in Boston.

Like that was that first round, I can't remember like being on the edge of my seat just waiting for something insane to happen like we did last night. Like that was the last time I felt like that intense, you know? I think my heart was racing more after Jan hit the knee, hit the illegal knee. And I was like, what is happening? What's going on? And then we're all scrambling like, all, we've got to cover this.

How many angles can we cover this from? That was so deflating. It was deflating, but exciting in a different way, until you realize the implications of what had happened. Then you're like, oh, okay, this just sucks. It's like you're driving to your destination, and you're so excited, and then you get a flat tire on the highway. Like, that's what that fight was like.

And the flat tire cost you a UFC title. Yes, it was like the Griswaltz going to Wally World. That's how I would describe Yon v. Sterling. But listen, I would love to sit here, AK, and throw some crazy curb balls, at everybody to start the program, but I just can't because Francis Aganu is the new heavyweight champion. If you missed it, he stopped Steep A. Meitchitch in the second round. He pretty much pitched a perfect game, A.K., and now, look, we would all be happy

for Steep A. Meitchitchich to get the trilogy fight. He deserves it, but it's not going to happen. In fact, according to Dana White, he's not even number two on that list. Derek Lewis, according to Dana Wade is like 1A, 1B, probably like 1B2. But the only answer to this question in terms of what's next Francigano is John Jones, a.k. Anything else is pure unadulterated tomfoolery, aka

in terms of business, in terms of fights everybody wants to see, fascination, all the boxes are checked. And I'm not just saying in the heavyweight division, I'm saying, like, for the entire organization, this is the fight to make. I would rather, I'm excited for Connor versus Porre III. I'm curious to see how that plays out, but no fight fascinates me more than this fight between Francis and Ghanu and John Jones.

You want to talk about getting your heart racing. I mean, every second, as soon as that fight is booked, pretty much every second leading up to that fight, and then once they actually step in the cage, I mean, I'll need a dot. Like, I'll need some sort of physician, you know, alongside me as I watched that fight, because that, I mean, yes,

if we're talking about what we would do, if we could magically wave a wand and make any, and make every fighter, you know, happy with their compensation and make any fight happen, that's like number one right now, Jones and Gunner. That's number one. What should happen, Jones and Godd. Again, again, the reality of the situation is, of course, a lot of negotiations are going to happen.

Public negotiations are happening right now over social media. They happen as soon as the fight was over. The negotiation game began between Dana White and John Jones. But again, you've expressed great optimism. This will happen, Mike. I'm the Prince of positivity. I will not go against you. I do think it'll work out.

I think we are going to have to sweat it a bit in the media and fans are going to have to sweat it. There'll be some false starts. We may even see, you know, Dana White and some keep kind of maintain this thing. They're like, yeah, I'm really liking that, you know, the more I think about it, I'm really liking that Lewis and Ghanu match up. But we know in his heart of hearts. He knows that John Jones is the right match from Ghana. And this fight has to happen. I, yeah, I'm no, I'm not going outside the box here.

It should happen. We would make it happen if we could. And it will happen. And Dana would even planted the seeds You know it's one thing to say you want the fight It's another thing to like actually want the fight So he actually like

He actually jumped like three steps ahead So maybe he's smart Maybe he's just like You know what rather than play the speed bump game And have to say this after the next pay per view in Jacksonville I'm just going to say it now I'm just going to say it now Get that part of it out of the way

And let's get this ball rolling I think Dana's being kind of masterful With this whole thing It's like let's stop the BS Let's just get the BS out of the way right now he was definitely ready let me tell us him he was prepared to talk about the Jones matchup after he had the line about Jones

Jones should drop down to 185 after seeing that to Ingano performance which I mean it was pretty funny I'll give Dana credit as good line and it certainly caught Jones's attention right away as the press conference was going on Jones reacted to it in real time he should just called he should just called in I would say I don't know if they had a screen in the press conference room he should just done a video call in we could have a tete-tat tete with Dana White

right on the spot but I'd Maybe that's not where we are yet with post-byped press conference technology. But, yeah, again, we're going to be hearing a lot of this for a while. You'll be seeing a lot of these stories in M.AFighting.com. So look forward to that, loyal readers. I'm just picturing, like, data talking, and then all of a sudden, like, a small flat-screen TV just falls from the sky. And Judge Jones's face shows up. Hey, data.

I mean, can we do this? I think we should look into this. That would have been the best thing ever. Oh man, we get to talk about different ideas for interrupting press conferences besides drunk fans wanting to be signed to the roster. That would have been way cooler. But Francis versus John is the fight. John does the fight to make. This is too easy.

But a very interesting piece of business from a matchmaking perspective is on the other side, the now former champion, Steep A. Meachich. And this was one of the more vicious and violent knockout losses you will see in a title fight. And personally, I don't know if we're going to see him again this year, A.K., I just don't know, because he's got a lot going on. He's a firefighter, obviously. He's been more active over the last eight months than he's been in a long time. He's obviously got another, told Daniel Cormier, he's got a son on the way, so second kid is coming. I don't know what to do with Stepe, honestly, AK. Like, this is a super boring answer, but I'm going with, we need to see how this all plays out in the division.

over the next several months before I can actually have an answer. Like that is my pick. Like if we're, if, if, if Steve A. Mietich got on the phone tomorrow with Dana White and the matchmakers and said, you know what, I don't want to stop. I'm ready to fight right now. Get me in there ASAP. I think Curtis Blades is the fight that makes the most sense. But the problem is Curtis is going to fight somebody else before that because I just don't

think steep is going to be back that soon. So weak answer. inconclusive, incomplete, but just because I don't think Steve-Bae is going to be back anytime soon. I'll be shocked if he fights again this year. Maybe I'm wrong. That's why my answer is inconclusive. But if he is ready to get right back after it, I'm going with Curtis Blades.

That's not a weak answer, right? That's a realistic answer. And also, you're tempering people's expectations here. You're looking out for Steve-Pa's safety. You are not one to mislead America. You will not mislead or America or Australia, wherever people are listening. I know we have listeners from all over the place. And I will have a disgruntled

Little Caesar. I will have a disgruntled reader response for you later in the show. So people stay tuned in. Mike does his best to please everyone. But again, sometimes you just cross people. You cross people, Mike. Yes, no, I like the blaze matchup. I'm leaning more towards Derek Lewis.

But again, same caveat. It's, look, that hammer fist, I cannot express how much if you had put, if that was a watermelon, I think that water like that hammerfest would have just that would have Gallagher that that one no one I know you get that I said that ever specifically because I know you'll get it I hope a lot of people I don't know how people are in our age range I'll understand the Gallagher thing but that that if that was a watermelon you would have watermelon chunks everywhere if yeah that was an unprotected Francis and Ganu full downward strength hammer fist and I and thank God again see him also tougher than a watermelon is tougher than a friggin boulder because I and I hope that hope he's all right, but I can't imagine that that's good for your health. I know it's quite quite the diagnosis there, right? I would be very surprised if he fought again for the end of the year. And as you said, when he comes back, who knows? Maybe Seidel Gahn will be a top contender,

I mean, he is a top contender, but we'll be in that range from Mioch just wants to Fett. Taito Vasa could be top 10 by the time, you know, Steve Mioch comes back next year. So people can throw out all kinds of matchups. Again, I'll sort of tease in advance. Our readers did not have, I think they're like us. I think they're thinking it's either a big matchup soon or he has to wait because yeah Lewis and Blades both makes sense but both those guys will be fighting sooner rather than later probably sooner rather than Miochich so yeah we got to wait and see but yeah I like the Lewis matchup if for some reason if somehow Miochich is fully healed up and recovered in six months and really wants to get back in there but that seems doubtful I have I just

thought of what the perfect mashup can be is and this and this is only if like things the way they're heading right now. January, February, 2002, Stepe Mietich versus Chris Dachus. Firefighter versus police officer? Are you kidding me? But Dachs got to win a couple of fights, obviously.

But, I mean, that's fun. By the time he comes back, that could be the most logical match for him, right? We might, Daucus could be about like 5 and O in the UFC or something. And we'd be like, man, did? And, you know, we could do it onto the next one, like I said, by the end of the air,

and just going, you know, it would be a good matcher for Dacus? I heard Miotis is playing in return in January. Yeah, no. I, I will check, we've got to check these tapes nine months from now. I feel like this will be a familiar conversation. Absolutely. We head to the co-made event. Vicente Lucke gets over the hump.

This was a very fascinating fight. This was the pure definition of a Crossroads fight. Like Crossroads has been used very loosely over the last several months. But this was like the pure absolute definition of a Crossroads fight. because could Vicentee Luca get over the hump? Could Tyrone Woodley get back on track? Lucke gets over the hump. Fight of the night's submission win over Tyron Woodley, the former champion.

And Tyrone Woodley, to his credit, he showed up ready to scrap and put on a show, and he did exactly that. But Vicente Luque walks away with the biggest win of his career. Where do we go from here? It just made me realize that there was several crossroads fights in the card. And all the younger, all the younger challengers kind of stepped up and showed out, right? Right? Lucke certainly, yeah, picking up a submission,

first round submission victory over the former UFC Welterweight champion, one of the greatest welterweight's in promotional history. I'm going, there's two really strong choices here. And there's some bigger names. I like the Nate Diaz call out. I just don't see that happening. It's so remote that I won't even do that if I can make any fight happen. I would because I'm not even sure I would.

I don't mind the Leon Edwards rematch. It's not a super sexy fight. I get it. Leon Edwards himself is saying, just give me my title shot whenever that's possible. He just wants to move on from the Bilal Muhammad iPok. He feels he shows enough in that fight, which is he looked good. I don't know if he's showed enough to get a title shot.

So I think he needs a test. And I actually do think this is a winnable fight for Lucke as well. This isn't just a, well, let's give Edwards a win before he steps into a title shot. I think Luca could win this one too. I think it's a real competitive fight. That first fight was four years ago. I think Lucke has gotten a lot better. Edwards has probably gotten better too, but it's a sort of situation where we won't know exactly how much more advanced other guy has become until they fight again.

So four years is a long time. It might as well have not have happened. So yeah, give me Luca Edwards too. Boy, momentum is really interesting in this sport. And it depends on who has it coming out of a win like Luca had because people are talking about you. Everyone's throwing out ideas, a big fight that could get next. The fighters themselves, like you said, they shoot for the stars, they hope to come away with something, calls out Nate Diaz,

then says, essentially, Kamar Usman stole my fight with Jorge Mazadol. I love the gusto, absolutely. But there's five other guys that are in this range, and I don't know if he fits into that equation right now, because he's not going to fight Wonderboy again, because we just saw that. He's not fighting Colby. I don't think he gets the Leon Edwards fight.

It makes sense. I just don't think he gets it. Just because of, like, the other names involved, I think best case scenario, from, like, a realistic point of view, it's Michael Kiesa. I just feel like the four other guys ranked above Kiesa right now that aren't in a title fight,

those four guys are going to get matched up with each other. It's going to be like a Ron Riazza. Round Robin kind of thing. I would say Colby Covington is like the biggest wild card here. Like if he's willing to take a fight, it's going to be with one of those three other guys. So I feel like although Kiesa, both of these guys like deserve that next step up.

And they're going to be like six, seven on Tuesday. I just feel like it makes the most sense in the world. Kiesa is kind of the last man standing as the last domino. So it's Kiesa or unfortunately he has to take a step back. So look at Kiesa, pretty interesting fight. who's that's another kind of like crossroads fight in a way like who's who's a top five guy you know walterweight is just so interesting right now it really is so i think i think luke kies is the fight yeah the only reason i didn't pick that is i'm still holding out hope for uh kesa covington but like

you said that seems i don't know i don't know how close that one would even be to to come into fruition but i like the keys of fight and let me tell you something if i had to pick and yes this is recency bias because we just saw him put on amazing performance last night i like luke's chances in that matchup. He's known, obviously, for his striking, but he's a really, really good grappler. Is he on Keiz's level? Does he have Keizza's, like, gas tank? I don't know. But I'd like to find out. I do think he could match Keza on the ground, at least early in the fight. And in the striking, I would favor Luque by quite a margin. So I would love that fight. But that should be a five-rounder. I would love to see that be a fight-night main event if we got Luca Keza.

Yeah, I'm in for that. I think that's a great fight. That's a really interesting matchup. Luke against like anybody's interesting because you just don't know how it's going to go because you feel like you feel like Luque can beat all these guys now he just did that one win so we could all like believe in him and I feel like that belief is now there like it's getting there it's like the the cup is filling up if you will and each win it's going to get more and more and then it's going to overflow perhaps a title shot look at look at all this visualization oh my goodness were you an english major no oh my goodness yeah man With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver, so you can over-share your preferences.

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1866531-260. 19 and over, physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. But now we get Tyrone Woodley, who showed a lot of heart. Man was ready to go, delivered the goods. That fight was wild and insane for as long as it lasted.

He went in there, looking to finish the fight, and he deserves a lot of credit for what he did last night. He lost, he got put away early, but he deserves a lot of credit for coming out and showing that pizzazz, so to speak. He's now lost four in a row, three dominant decision losses, and now a first round submission loss. A.K., you were a defender of the UFC and Woodley coming to terms and sticking around and moving along here. Do you still feel that way? And if so, what do we do? Yeah, I think they figure something out. I think they figure something out.

Maybe not the typical four-year deal. You know, that's pretty standard with fighters. Again, I don't know. Maybe if it's cheap enough, could be longer than four fights. But I doubt it. I think if they work something out, it'll be a smaller, maybe like a two-fight deal, something like that. And if that's the case, one of those fights, I would hope, would be something we've been calling for for a long time. A rematch with Robbie Lawler.

A rematch with Carlos Conner would also be interesting somewhere down the road. But I'm just looking at it in a very basic way. Woodley, four straight losses. Lawler, four straight losses. Their first fight was a good one, but it was, you know, it was short. And I think there's a lot of people who would like to see Loller get another crack at him a while ago. he was just never quite able to fight his way back to a title shot so we didn't see it but now obviously that title is long gone from the equation for both men uh so yeah give me woodley and

luller to i it if should of course if woodley uh is even uh is even brought did we did we mention that that was the last fight in his ufc contract uh was it though so this is what i'm hearing this is what this is what people are saying he basically the word in the street okay so just i heard this as well and i don't remember him saying any like that I know he was on with Ariel and Ariel asked him about it and his response was you know I want to go out on top there's always one fight left on your deal. Like he wouldn't give like an exact number he just was like there's always each fight is like a contract essentially because if you lose you could be done and if you win you could get a new

contract so he's basically the approach of the fight was a one fight deal so yeah I don't know if he didn't tell Ariel those things I don't think he said it at the scrum and I admittedly didn't watch the entire thing. I think they were saying that he mentioned something on the ESPN post-fight show or he's, oh, sorry, he didn't mention, I'm sorry, that they were talking about his situation. But again, you're right. He did not, as far as we know, he did not say that this was it. But people seem to be speculating that it was.

Apparently it was mentioned on the post-fight show. But yeah, I don't know if he himself confirmed that. So, but as we're saying, either way, this does seem like this was the last fight of this, I don't know, this section of his run with the UFC. so I don't know if he gets cut or again just doesn't get resigned but should he be should there actually be another fight in his contract and it must be fulfilled Robbie Lawler's the answer for me I I've said it before I'll say it again I don't think he will be back in the octagon I and again I don't know what his contract situation is

if that was his last fight I think there'll be a mutual parting of the ways if there's more I think he gets released more so because of the amount of money he makes compared to to other exciting fighters at 170. I bet he made triple what Ficente Leuke made in a win last night. Unless he takes a massive pay cut, he won't be back. I don't think he's going to do that. However, there is one option that I think the UFC is going to present him, and it's either take this fight or future endeavors.

Hamza Atchamaiv. That's literally it. that's literally it you fight homzat when he's ready to apparently he's ready to come back in july i know the neil magni thing has a little he and they're going back and forth i get it but hamzat gains way more from beating tyron woodley even on a four-fight losing streak than he does beating neil magni it's just true like neil's a great fighter one of the nice guys in the sport

but tyrant woodley still has a name tyrant woodley still brings numbers people care about Tyrone Woodley, whether you like him or not. But this is it. This is like, dude, you fight Shimaev, you win, we'll talk. If you lose, you're out of the family. I just, I think that's it. Like, I think that's literally the only thing they will present him and try to, like, try to get that last bit out of him.

You know what I mean? I think that's what you do. Other than that, I don't think he comes back. I am shocked and disturbed that you would just drop a Hamzat bomb like that on me without any warning. I did not see that coming. Mike, I already told you I'm reeling.

I'm still reeling from last night. And then you just throw Hamzat versus Tyrone Woodley out there. Shocking, shocking. Now that you've explained it, okay, I can see the angles for it. I can see the reasons for it. Gosh, that would be, it's a very easy fight to sell. 100% That's a very, very, very easy fight to sell

Boy, because this card because there was supposed to originally supposed to be two title fights around it there really wasn't a chance to sell the sort of is this Tyron Woodley's last ride. I don't know if I missed a video package. Did they do any sort of video package

for him and Luke A? Anything special? I mean, on the normal pre-fight stuff? I mean, I'll be honest. I was my role last night was doing the post-fight videos and getting them on YouTube. So there were pieces of stuff that I missed. I missed the package.

I saw the walkouts, but I missed the package. But during the week, I don't think there was any... I don't think embedded. I don't think there was a lot of stuff about it. This deserves whenever he does have his first UFC... This could have already been it. But if he does get one more shot and then they actually have a chance to build it up properly,

I think it would be a nice thing to do. I know this is the fight business and sentiment mentality has its place and it might maybe again they didn't have his place this week but this is a former UFC champion this is a guy who who love him or hate him love some of his matchup choices some of his campaigning for certain fights you know I wasn't always supportive of some of those comments some of the guys who wanted to fight as opposed to facing the challenges but he did fight all the number one contenders he was supposed to fight at the end of the day whether he wanted to or not he did right and he was a good champion he was a good champion I'm not saying all his fights were super

exciting I'm not saying again he's the most likable champion but he was the shame for a long time and it's a shame that he might just go out that that that might have been it you know him going out with an exciting fight but not with any sort of much fanfare around it so yeah i i i i if you got matched up with chams on let me tell you UFC would go all in i'm promoting that fight uh and i would like to see that as a as a as a uh either a per preview co-main event or a or a fight night um headliner but yeah now now you've got me thinking i'm i have to take me time to digest that kind of bomb I just think there's nothing else that makes sense.

Like, you can't have him fight a guy that's not ranked. Like, Loller, if you made the Loller fight, yeah. But I still want to see, you know, Lalar conned it again. So, I don't know. I don't know. I think that's it. Like, this is do or die, kid. Like, this is a legitimately do or die for you.

Now, Mike, this will surprise you. So here was Taran Woodley's last disclosed payday that I could find. This was from UFC and US, USC, Vegas, whatever. ESPN 9, I don't know, the Gilbert Burns fight. It says he made, reportedly, $200,000 to show. That's a lot of money. Pichente Luque, who fought at USC 249, this disclosed pay I could find,

for his fight with, what am I looking at here, with Nico Price, he made $180,000. That's not including the bonus, too? That is not, he did not win a bonus. He didn't? That wasn't the fight of the night? That was not the fight of the night.

That's right. I don't believe. Wow, I am surprised. Okay. I should strike my comment from the record. But I mean, your comment that Tyrone Woodley makes a lot of money still stands, though. Yeah, still $200,000. $200,000 in losing four fights in a row.

Like Marion Runeau doesn't make $200,000. That's why she's getting one more shot. Right. Yeah, I don't know. Man, we'll see what happens, but. We'll see. Like we said, we just did a bunch of matchmaking form. He could find out he's cut this week.

Yeah, but we'll honestly don't know. I give him, give me Woodley Shamiah. Just, just do it. Oh, my stop it. Stop it. Just do it. Just give it to me. My heart.

My heart again, right? Imagine if he goes out beating Hamzat though. Like, there's your fanfare, man. Dana White would hate that. That'd be so crazy. The UFC would not want that. Wow. Or Hamzaa does.

I mean, Hamzaa probably a massive favor in that fight, too. He would be, yeah, at least like four to one. Which is nuts, which is nuts. Wow. All right. We need to move ahead because we can talk about this all that long. Let us move ahead to, in my – obviously, outside of Francigano, the biggest star of the night.

Sugashon O'Malley looked phenomenal. He bounced back in a huge way, viciously, knocks out Thomas Almeida in the third round. I went back and watched the third round of that fight earlier this morning. The referee did a horrible job. they should have stopped. I mean, Mark Smith, he's one of the best of the business. No way that last punch should have landed. But it is what it is. Everyone makes mistakes. Jeremy the law is way worse. I'm not going to get into that. But I will say that a lot of names were thrown out.

Like my Instagram DMs started shooting off as soon as that fight ended. I don't think he gets a top 10 guy. I don't think he gets a top 15 guy. And I don't think there's any need to rush the man, AK. You could do still, if you wanted to, you could still do the Brian Kelleher fight because there's still some heat there. My pick is Ricky Simone, man. Like, there is nothing easy in this division. This just seems perfect. Like, who is ready to take that next step forward up the ranks?

Simone has looked great lately. He has quietly flown under the radar. And the last time he was on what the heck, he basically said, like, dude, Sean O'Malley will never, ever take that fight. He'll never do it. like I tried calling him out I'm going to keep trying to call him out my manager is basically like dude he's never going to fight you so let's see if

Sean O'Malley is willing to step up to the plighton and fight a man who says he won't fight him so I want to see you that one I'm intrigued by O'Malley versus Ricky Simone right now AK yeah I have them pretty close to my rankings I have O'Malley I love providing these secret rankings

that have no context if you don't know the whole list to feel because I'm crazy so I still have O'Malley 20 or I guess that would be the number 19 I count the champion in my list. So, I mean, no, 20, including the champion. And I have Ricky Simone two spots above him at 18. Now, my suggestion is a bit higher. And again, people are going to, how could this person be higher than Ricky Simone?

It's like, again, certain people beat certain people and they kept climbing over each other. Just bear with me, all right? So I, people know I hate protecting prospects. I'm a terrible person. I see prospect. I see someone having success and I immediately want to see them brought down. That's just the kind of person I am in my life. So I right now, but I also like fun fights, Mike.

All right, let's be serious. I do not care. Throw these boys into the fire. Give me Sean O'Malley and Kyler Phillips. Do it now. Do it now. I do not need to wait. I do not need to wait until both guys are in the top 10 or whatever.

No, this is a super, super exciting fight. I would love to see it now. I have Kyle Phillips 13th in my Bantamweight rankings. He's up there. I got to tell you, AK, that was a very passionate plea. Go. I appreciate your... Oh, wait a minute.

Your gusto. Go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm going to say? Well, I just saw something. I just looked at my own rankings and I'm like, oh, wait a minute. There's a reason they... Okay, go ahead.

Yeah, they're not going to fight each other. Oh, yeah. They're in May Lab, right? Do you want to know why? Yeah, do you want to know why? Yeah, do you want to know why? Yeah, they probably fought each other 5,000 times. Oh, why did I not remember that?

I show the camp ranks in my rankings specifically to avoid these kinds of misunderstandings. Well, I mean, like, O'Malley, like... O'Malley has more of like a custom team built around him, but he still does have ties. Like he's with, Ticino is still the jiu-jitsu coach, Augusto Mendes, who is still works over at the lab as well. So, I mean, he has ties. Like, he's cool with Casey Kennedy, obviously. He's cool with Kyler Phillips, obviously. Yeah.

I just don't, I don't see that fight happening unless it's for the belt. The guy who does a podcast. Tim Crouch, the guy does a podcast? Tim Welch. Tim Welch Tim Welch Is he Is he the M.A.

Is he the M.A. Lab coach? Is he like you said He's kind of with O'Malley's sort of side? Yeah, I think he was there at some point. Like I don't know what they're really, basically like Welch is the mentor. But O'Malley,

I know O'Malley still trains at the lab and enrolls there and all that stuff. So I know Benson Henderson has a big influence on him. Listen, I'm not saying it would never happen. It's just probably not going to happen now unless it's for the boss.

Well, this is embarrassing. No, this is embarrassing. Listen, I will say this. You're not the only person who threw in the media space that threw that suggestion out. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I blew myself, as they said, on arrest development. RIP, Jessica Walter. Sorry, I had to squeeze that in there. I'm embarrassed. Let's, let's cut. Mike, can we move on? Yes. Do you want to go with Ricky Simone, too?

I'll let you piggyback. Yeah, yeah. Let's edit it. And I just said, hold on. Hold on, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

Hold on. Hold on. Yeah, Mike, it's amazing. You know what? I also came up with Ricky Simone. I don't know how we, you know, sometimes you and I are just in the same wavelength. It's a great veteran opponent. I have two spots ahead in my mystery rankings.

I have O'Malley at 20. I have Ricky Simone at 18. So it's a great matchup. I think obviously Ricky Simone wants it. I think he'd love to knock that smirk off Sean on Amalley's face. And it's good. It's good that he brought us up. I saw some crazy suggestions out there.

He fights like one of his teammates or something from M.A. Lab. And it's like, well, go on. What are we doing here? I love how you morphed into like a Boston sports radio guy. I had to. Listen, it happens. We've all made blunders. I'm not even calling that a blunder because, you know, the main affiliation, he's not,

he doesn't represent the MMA lab. He represents Sean O'Malley. He's just part of, you know, it's all good. But let's move ahead to another exciting prospect. Miranda Maverick, who did three things, AK on Saturday night. She gets a big win on pay-per-view. she will more than likely be a top 15 fighter after two fights in the UFC come Tuesday and she tried to do our job for us, AK.

I don't know, I haven't decided whether I love that or dislike it, but a great performance nonetheless against a very gritty Jillian Robertson. What is next for Fear the Maverick, AKK? You know what I love about her performance, Mike, is she did something a lot of young process don't do, which is they, we've, here's what a lot of young projects do do. Great first round coming out, showing all their strengths and, and have us going like, oh yeah, this is, this is, you know, this is why yeah, this person is highly tired. And then second round, some sort of setback, you know, some sort of challenge, some sort of difficulty. And then, and then that prospect just

never recovers. We've seen that happen with, with a lot of fighters. That second round can be a trap. And while we kind of discussed us on Saturday's post-fight show, while I actually still think Maverick did enough to win round two, I know it's a little controversial. She also was clearly controlled on the ground for well over four minutes. So there was a weakness showed there, and under different circumstances, she could have been, she could have taken a lot of ground and pound, she could have been submitted. And then in the third round, her in her corner, they made adjustments.

She came back, and very impressive for a 23-year-old. You really do not see that for a lot of prospects. So I hope people appreciated that. I'm very measured with my matchmaking for her. I don't want to go too crazy. You'll see that in the reader suggestions later. Right now, just give me JJ Aldrich. I think JJ Aldrich is a good, again,

Slightly more experienced opponent than her tough fighter. I think another fighter who she would probably go the distance with, or if she managed to put Jig Alders away, I think that would be really impressive. But another fighter I think she would go the distance with and get to show off her intelligence, her resilience, and how much she's a valid. Winnable fight for sure.

I think she'd be pretty strongly favored. But I do like that. I need to see fighters go 3 and O before I start in the UFC before I start going nuts. I am all in on Miranda Maverick. and I think one of the biggest reasons why I'm all in on Miranda Maverick is because she clearly listens to this show, clearly listens to On to the next one. Because what did she do? What did she do?

She called out Antonita Shevchenko, which was absolutely perfect. That's exactly the kind of fighter you need to be calling out because you're planting the seeds. She listened to the post UFC 254 addition of On to the next one. Go for Valentina. You know, it's a fight down the road. but if you want to get Valentina's attention for that fight down the road, you take out the sis. You try to beat the sis.

And she calls on Antonina. I also, on top of that, like the matchup with Andrea Lee. And if Andrea Lee wasn't booked to fight Antonina Shevchenko already, I would go with Miranda Maverick versus Andrew Lee. That would be the fight to make. So, since these ladies are already going to fight, we're going to do check the tapes again for these ladies down the road. The winner of that fight gets to fight Miranda Maverick next.

That's it. I'm giving her exactly what you. she wants. It's a very sensible, very, very smart, calculated, planned out call-out by Miranda Maverick. I am in. Cudos to her A-plus. Poor Antonina, though, that she has become a plot device in the Valentina Shufchenko movie. She has become, she's essentially Jean-Claude Van Dam's brother and kickboxer, I guess. We need to see something horrible happen to her to get, so that she piques Valentina's interest. And it's terrible because, obviously, Antonina is a talented fighter in her own right.

But I absolutely understand. Look, and I think Antonina knows when she signed off working to the UFC that she'd be a target. She'd be a target fighting the same division as her sister. Obviously, never going to fight her sister herself. She is that target for everyone coming up to add a Shepchenko name to their resume. And as you kind of said, kind of make it personal and build towards the storyline. So look, and look, Antonina could win that fight. She's very experienced fighter, very mature.

So, yeah, I don't mind that or the potential Andrew Lee matchup at all either. The main card kicked off with a bang, the first UFC finish, the first UFC win for Jamie Malarkey, knocks out Kamalworthy in 46 seconds. We had been saying since this fight was on the books, it was not getting out of the first round. It sure didn't. Jamie Malarkey on the board, huge win. And this is one of those cases where you can, this is kind of like wild cardish. You can insert like a variety of names.

All of them make sense. So kind of throwing the proverbial. start. I'm going with Jalen Turner, A.K. I think that one fits. It takes on a guy who's won two straight. It would be a slight step up in the wherever these guys are ranked. It's an interesting challenge with Turner's ability, his size, his skill set, and that one makes sense to me. What do you think? I dig it. I have Turner at 58 in my lightweight rankings. I have Malarkey at 52, so they're right in that range. But I also stuck with my rankings to try and figure this one out. I had two names I was looking at. Number 54, Devante Smith and number 45.

People are going to love seeing these rankings someday. Number 45 Christos Gagos. I think I'll lean towards Devante Smith. Obviously, a little bit closer in the amount of UFC experience they have. Gagos has been around for a bit. Though I would like that matcher to be Malarkey, Devonte Smith. But as you said, he just got his first, Malarkey, just got his first UFC win. he has a reputation of being an exciting fighter but doesn't have the results yet. So there's just a lot of good matchups in that kind of mid-lower tier

lightweight region for him. Yeah, I think Giegoes is fighting Joel Alvarez. Oh, I like that. Which is a good scrap. I like that one. But yeah, I mean, there's so many options. You can insert multiple names.

Devante Smith, I'm still holding out hope that we get Devante Smith versus Nazaret Hakbarast. That's like my like low-key, all-in, check the tapes. hopefully that fight gets booked. Speaking of the wild card round, it is officially time for the wild card round.

We will select one fighter that we have not matched made for yet, and we'll do so right now. It could be a winner from the prelims, a fighter from the main card who is not victorious that we haven't discussed anybody that we have not mentioned, A.K., who competed on Saturday night. Who is your wild card selection following UFC 260? Look, I just had to go.

It was only a 10-fight card, which is always nice, a nice, tidy little 10-fight card. So there's not a lot of other options outside of ones we've already discussed. So I went with just deferred to my fellow Canadian, Mark Andre Barreot. And again, it was technically his second win in the UFC. His first one was overturned. A win over Oscar Piaota because of a Mark Andre tested positive for Osterine. So I don't know how the matcherick is one look at it.

If he's on a two-fight win streak or one-fight win streak. So I just went with the person I got right next to him in the rankings. one Mr. Daltja Lungiambula. Just a good matchup. I think both guys are coming off wins. They're still still trying to prove the gun.

Same stuff we said about in Malarkey just in the middleweight division. So Barrio and Lengibula, let's go for it. I'm going with Omar Morales, a, K. He had a nice win over Shane Young, who's a very tough customer. One via unanimous decision. This is no controversy.

He looked good. Bounce back from the loss to Giga Chikaze. and very similar to 135, 1.45 is just so good. And Morales is a really interesting fighter in this division. I think he can do very well. I think he could go places. He got thrown in there with Giga. He lost, but I still am ready to give him another step up.

Nothing crazy against a guy who will be looking to get back on track who's coming off of a pretty bad loss. Omar Marales, speaking of Canada, versus Gavin Tucker is my wild card pick coming out of UFC 2. I think it lines up beautifully rankings-wise, trajectory-wise, position-wise, name-value-wise, how fans would react to it.

Sometimes I like to put myself in this position. Like, if we go on Twitter and we say multiple sources confirm that Omar Morales is fighting Gavin Tucker on such and such a date, how will they react? I think they will react very positively to this fight. Absolutely. Love it. Love it. Love the Cancon Mike. Shout out's Julian Robertson.

I'm sorry, we couldn't match you up this week, but I'm sure, given her schedule she usually keeps, she'll be back in there two months anyway. That was my first choice. I wanted a matchmate for her. Because I was impressed with her performance. I actually thought, I thought she performed very well, especially in that second round. You know, she was competitive in the third as well. I thought start to finish. Like, I know she's gotten a lot of stoppage wins, a lot of submissions, but I thought like start to finish. This was like the most promising 15 minutes of action for her where I was like, all right, she's got some,

you know, she's got some spunk out of the first round. Like that's usually when you get out of the first round with her. We watched the Tyler Santos fight. We know what happens. It usually cruised to a decision. But Gillian didn't make it easy. And she deserves some credit for that. So good for good on her. But, uh, all right, do we have check the tapes before we go to the, to the peeps? We have some check. We have, I'm expanding the scope of the check the tape session. We have a, we have a little thing I'm going to call here. I'm going to call it a mic check because someone took umbrage with your criticism of their fight selection. I mean, I think I also criticized and I think I let you handle the in-depth shot-taking, as it were.

Our regular contributor, G, at Young Rabbi 86 on Twitter, had a somewhat odd suggestion last week of Derek Brenson versus a Duran win. And I think we were both like, okay, why? So he wanted to respond. He said, I think he wanted to make sure I read this to you, Mike. He said, this is a long answer. So this is at Young Rabbi 86, right? Yeah, seeing Brunson completely exhausted but still able to take Holland down

reminded me a tiny bit of a higher level win versus Antonio Roryo. The idea of Darren and, is it Darren, it's Duran? Duran win. Duran. The idea of Duran and Brunson in a five-round main event, continuing to continually taking each other down until they both gas made me feel very froggy. Okay. One day that heathen,

excuse me, one day that heathen, Mike Heck will understand my vision of the Platonic, ideal of a middleweight fight. And he says, you should understand this more than anyone. OK, it's true. I do love a good middleweight fight. I appreciate the shout out, though. Keep up the good work, guys. You make my Sunday morning walk something I look forward to every week.

Heathen. Wow. Mike Heck. I mean, if it's coming from a young rabbi, then I get to re-evaluate some things. Listen, it's a dream. If that's like your dream middle-weight matchup, I mean, good on you. And maybe if Duran Wynn's coming off a win, maybe he can keep this train rolling a little bit. And maybe at some point, I mean, this will be like the check the tapes of all check the tapes.

If we get Derek Brunza versus Deraun win. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have not. I appreciate you listening to the program. I hope you're walking. And I thank you very much for your contribution. But my stance has not changed one iota when it comes to that fight.

Sorry. So classy. That was our first. And hopefully last mic check that we do for check tapes. Shout us to the readers who did call for a matchup between Omari Ahmedov and Brad Tavares. It goes down on July 10th. I'm amazed at booking fights like that so far. And thank goodness they are.

I approve of booking fights far ahead. I know people are like, oh, the fights are going to fall through. If they fall through, they fall through. There's no harm in booking them people. So yeah, a bunch of readers suggested that one last time. And another subcategory. This is the no way anyone called this category, Mike. Jacques

Seza versus Andre Munez May 15th Completely out of nowhere I love that fight I love it too It's just It's you know

I just wouldn't put their names In the same kind of atmosphere I don't know But again it's not like Jacqueside On a hot street or anything So sure And of course

Definitely when no one's not coming Misha Tate versus the return of Misha Tate Versus the Marion Renaud July 17th Wow I think that was Literally out of nowhere So that's the no way

anyone could have checked those tapes I would agree Readers, do you want to go to your DMs first? Yes. Some first timers, we'll get to them. Peter Rydell, or Reidel? Appreciate it. Short and sweet.

It just goes, my matches, last names, let's go. Ingana versus Jones. Ooh, Steve Amitius versus Alexander Volkov. Interesting. He likes the idea of Lucke versus Diaz. Woodley versus Muhammad. And a very popular one, Sean O'Malley versus Peyton.

Pedro Munoz. Oh, I did not see that one. Yeah, I've seen that a few times. Really? Okay. Zach Diamond Sampson said, I would like to see O'Malley versus Jimmy Rivera to test those ankles. And I think Menefield and OSP should run it back. Grappling only winner gets to rename the Von Flu. I love it.

Von Flew on a pole, Von Flew choke on a poll match, I'm in. You get to change the name. I'm down. Matt Bradbury. our good buddy. I think the UFC is going to give Tyron Sean Brady essentially JDSing him. That's we're on to the next one.

Okay. Where are we going here? Where are we going? Where are we going? Where are we going? Man, there's a bunch. O'Malley versus Hione Barcelos. This is from Christian Lee, by the way. Vesente Luque versus Michael Kiesa.

One champion, Christian Lee? It's not. I thought that at first. I was like, wow, this is pretty good. I got a little excited there for a second. Entire and Woodley versus Belah Muhammad and then in parentheses, unless he retires or gets cut. So there you go.

A lot of Woodley versus Muhammad suggestions. Jack Porter back on the program. Sid Faron to the next one. Vicente Lucke versus Leon Edwards. He's on your side with that one. O'Malley versus Jimmy Rivera and one last banger. Well done, Jack Porter. Woodley versus Shimef.

Wow. It's out there. It's out there. Or he's even raising the stakes a little bit more. If it's not Shamaif, Shafka Rachmanov. Oh. That's interesting, too. Oh, that's such a, that's such a though we're wanting to build.

I guess that's every woodley fight for now. It'll probably be, unless it's one of his rematches will be getting someone to use his name. Oh, I don't know. I do. John George. What's up, Mike Eck. Lucas is a throwaway when an open shot at Leon. was totally there for the picking.

And a fight like that with a win like that, put himself right into the title hunt. Then O'Malley rematch a Cheeto, or maybe a fight between Sean O'Malley and Song Yudong would be a good test. Stop feeding the man these semi-tuff, but still very broken down fighters. Oh. How about Alonzo Meadowfield versus Tyson Pedro

if he's still around extra light heavy weighty? Also, a message for you, A.K. Oh. Alex check Alex Also tell Alex The uncrowned BTL champion Who says

Between the links was a complete robbery This past Thursday He wanted to wish you a happy birthday Oh okay alright Thank you It's not my birthday It's never my birthday but thank you And then the last one I got

Moments ago from Henry Terry Mr. Heck Hope you enjoyed the fights last night For on to the next one Sean Amalley versus Marlon Marius. So replace one Marlon with the other. Lucke versus Chiesa. Malarkey versus Jarkar Close.

But Chaucer close fighting Jeremy Stevens. So maybe Malarkey could be on standby if something happens with Stevens. Miranda Maverick versus Alexa Grasso. Hmm. Was the other option. Who's that from again? You said Harry Terry? Henry.

Henry Terry. Henry Terry. Yep. We had some other one, another sort of mic check here from Javan Johnson on Twitter who said that he suggested Miranda Maverick versus Grasso a while ago. Okay, so we'll see how that one goes. He also said you're upset because I think he suggested Maverick versus Agapaba, and you were like, Maverick would Merck Agapova. Oh, she would, it would be a smushing. Well, this guy says he stands by his choices.

He stands by the Grasso suggestion, I guess, not so much the Agapagovah. Maria, you're this bright up-and-coming prospect that we want to push, and I know you're coming off a loss to Sean Adopson, so we're to throw you in there with Miranda Maverick. I mean, come on now. No longer at the UFC. Sorry, Mike, any, was that any more DMs, sir? That's it. That's it. A good plethora. We're growing every week in the, in the DMs. Well, we'll return to Instagram. We both got a message on Instagram, so we'll touch the part. But we want to say that it's a very special message. So we'll return to Instagram. Okay. We got a ton of other suggestions for people, so I'm going to have to kind of be selective here.

But the most popular suggestions I think I saw, obviously, Ingana versus Jones, number one. It's pretty much everyone saying, let's just make this happen. And Ngano versus Lewis, too, a close second. And there's this narrative building, Mike. I'm sure you've seen it, that people are saying, is Lewis more dangerous, a more dangerous heavyweight opponent than John Jones? That's a thing that's happening. And it's not like crazy. Because if you're just talking power for power, Lewis, of course, would have the advantage.

Of course, everywhere else? I don't know. Maybe you lean towards Jones. But we're talking power for power. It is, it is lowest. And I know we all keep forgetting this fight actually happened. Lewis won the first time. It's true. You want a decision.

He quote unquote won, all right? If we want to talk, he has a win over and gone. So can he beat him? I mean, yes, he can. He already did. But Emilich v. Lewis was the most common Stephen Miotich matchup. Luke Hake versus Chesa, everyone wants it. Luke H.E. versus Jaza, it makes so much sense.

That's the popular one. And Woodley versus Lawler. So those are the five. We discussed it a lot in this already. Those are the five that pretty much everybody wanted. For O'Malley, yeah, people threw out more veteran names. As you said, Jimmy Rivera, a very popular choice. Frankie Edgar, another one people threw out.

And someone a little bit closer to him in age, Howney Barcelos, which I like. That's not bad. Yeah. Did you mention in the reader, sorry, I missed it. Did any of your readers mention Maverick Barber, Macy Barber? No, I did see that on Twitter, I believe. Yeah. For some reason, I'm not like super excited about that potential matchup yet.

I don't know why. Like I said, you know me. I said I like matching up prospects. But that prospect versus prospect matchup for some reason does not intrigue me right now. No. It's one I'd want to see later. No, they're going in completely different paths right now. Like your goal if you're the UFC and it's very hard to do this.

But you want to get Macy Barber like an interesting matchup, but one that you feel confident that at least to an extent. that she will win. Like, Macy Barber needs to win her next fight. Throwing her in there with Miranda Maverick is not the way to do it. No way. Is she younger? She's younger than Miranda Maverick, right? Barbara's younger than Maverick, yes.

That's crazy. Right? That seems so crazy. Yeah, she's only 22. What? What? Oh my gosh. Anyway, the other one I liked was Maverick.

A couple of people sort of combined to make the suggestion. Maverick versus the Roxanne Mautifari, Tyler Santos winner. They fight on May 8th. I do like the Tyler Santos matchup because Tyler Santos just beat Julian Robertson and then Miranda Maverick just beat

Julian Robertson. So it was kind of like, okay, well, they both beat her by decision. Let's see how they fare against each other. But Santos does have to beat Roxanne Madaferi first for that to be a possibility.

Malarkey, we got Euros Meditch, we got Mike Davis. Mike Davis would be, oh, that'd be fun, wouldn't it? I think he's hurt right now. Oh, no. Okay, well, if he's able to heal up or if Malarkey can wait,

I like that one. did people say Menafield versus Olexeychuk? I did not see that one, no. The classic, you know, both guys won on the same card, right? Both guys won the same card, why not? I don't mind that one at all. And another oddly popular one, Olexeychik versus Dustin Jacoby.

I don't know. Wow. People just in the same wavelength. And for Barrio, people liked him versus Phil Haas. Phil Haas becoming a popular onto the next one name. So I think feel are really looking forward to whenever he steps back into the cage. let's go I'll go ahead Mike

I don't the thing with Menefield is like fighting Fabio Chirot was great like getting that win and getting your confidence back wonderful I mean it's great when that happens

I mean it was just it was not a competitive fight and I'm honestly shocked that so many people were picking against Alainso Meneffield this fight and I I like yeah

I mean I just saw them everywhere that's weird Fabio Chirant is a good is a nice guy. I'm glad he made it to the UFC. That is just a tough ask to ask a guy like that to take out a monster like Alonzo Meadowfield on two days notice. And I know the experience levels are pretty similar.

But Alonzo's been in there with Devin Clark. He's knocked out Paul Craig. Like he's been in there with some really tough guys. I hope they're careful with him. Like I just think, like I know William Knight is rebooked to fight Daun Jung on April 10th. Like if we're if we're matchmaking for Alonzo Menefield, the winner of that fight is the way to go. Especially if William Knight wins,

we throw that one back on the books. Two guys with a lot of confidence, two guys with, you know, not in great shape, obviously. Right? I mean, you know, so that's a hard fight to sell. Yeah, hard fight to sell.

I mean, get down to like 4% bad, get down to like 4% body fat, and then we'll talk, you know. You will be on the same wavelength. But yeah, that's where you go. You don't want to get too crazy with Alonzo coming off that win. Yeah, fair enough.

Go into email, Justin Gordette, I like this one, Sean O'Malley versus Saeed Nirmagomadov. He's reminded us, Said did call out O'Malley after Mark Street? I didn't remember this. He probably did. I think everybody's called on O'Malley at this point. It would be cool. Look, that Nirmagov name, even though Saeed is, by the way, is not blood related to Khabi Nameda. They are very, very close, apparently, but they are not actually part of that Nirmagamatov family.

But still that name has a lot of cachet. And I think a lot of people were just seeing O'Malley versus NomegaMetam. Oh, this sounds amazing. It's like, and look, we have a lot of Nemeanor Megamettos running around and they're all going to be making big impacts. Including Abu Bakr, of course, we want to start out. Tristan is also down with Baguio versus Langeambula. So we are, thank you, Tristan for backing up on that one. Matt Bradbury always throws out a million matchups.

So I'll just mention a couple. Abubakar, Nermagamatov versus Mickey Gall. He says this would be a make or break fight for Mickey. I don't know if it would be a make of a respect for Mickey goal. I actually would. I'd rather see Mickey fight Jared Gooden for being honest. Oh, interesting. You know what I mean?

Like, like, Mickey just fought Mike Perry. You know what I mean? Like, we haven't seen him in a while. Who was he booked to fight? He was booked to fight. Oh, man, what is this? How am I forgetting his name? Massive welterweight prospect.

Like. I'm looking this up. Oh, this is, I cannot believe this. And I apologize to this fight. So you're asked him on Mickey Gall, right? Yeah, because he was, he was matched up with somebody, and I was just like, why? Mike Miguel Baezza, like, don't do that. Put him in there with Jared Gooden.

Both guys need to win. It's a fight that, it's a fight that, you know, if it stays on the feet, it's Gooden's fight. If the fight goes to the ground, Mickey probably wins that fight. Both guys need to win badly. I think that's the direction you go. Abu Bakar looked really, really good in that. fight. Like if you told me, if you told me that he was going to stand there and outstrike Jared

Gooden for an entire 15 minutes and hurt him and sting him and put him in big trouble, I would have laughed at you. I'd be like, I'll put $1,000 on the fact that that's not going to happen, and I would have lost $1,000. I was really impressed. I mean, what a bounce back performance, especially after getting submitted in the first round in his Octagon debut to come back and have a performance like that, especially on the feet against a guy that dangerous, really impressed with him. Yeah, look, these other Norma Medovs are not all just grapplers, all right? Let's not forget, Umar is while Umar came in and frigging, he's, he's, I don't know if he's

the black sheep of the Norma Mada family or something, but he's throwing crazy ass spinning strikes. And so, uh, yes, these guys are doing serious damage on the feed. This is this is for real. Matt Bradbury also, Matt Bradbury also threw Jamie Malarkey versus Lando Vanada, just saying absolute madman. That is for sure a fight at the night. Such a good fight.

I agree. I thought I saw more than one person recommend this, but he said Maverick versus Cynthia Calvillo way too soon. Right, way too soon. No, we can't do that. We can't do that. I just wanted to let him know that we couldn't do that. We can do that with like one more win maybe or two, but not now.

Too soon for that. Harry Dwaskin wants to throw a bubukar in there with a veterans. Just give him Worley Alves. I'm down for that. Really? It's so much more experience in the UFC. I'm fine. I'm good with that fight.

Give me one more win. And then he likes Alonzo Menefield versus the Danilo Marquez versus Ed Herman winner. That's happening on June 26. I like that. That's kind of cool. Oh, man. Can you imagine Alonzo Menefield versus Ed Herman?

Good God. That is like... Yes, I can. That's a Jedmishu special right there. Yes. Now I really want. Please, Ed Herman, take care of this on June 26 so we can this.

this fight can be in the play. Okay, tons of Twitter with the ones. I'll have to run through these, but I do want to mention, of course, people who reached out for the first time. I always find that fun. Dominic, on Twitter, contacted both of us at writing a blank on Twitter. And he's like me. He fell for the O'Malley Phillips, how sweet that matchup would be.

So thanks, Dominic. I know. We're both, we both have egg on our faces now. And he also asked, can you imagine in Ghanu versus Rumble Johnson? I would love to see that. Of course, Rumble Johnson is in Bellator now in their light, heavyweight tournament. and that fight has been his fight with Romero has moved back to Bell Tour 258 I want to say May 7th or something like that May 6 or 7 yeah so so you will see Dominic you will see rumble fight soon it got pushed back it was supposed to be at Bell Tor 257 but soon enough we will see we will see Romero and rumble Johnson's bell tour debuts Sammy James thank you for chiming in he likes O'Malley versus Marlin rod ice so there we go so I know we've talked about Marlon and Marlin a lot but Marlon race very very likely that that could be next for Sammy James. Thank you for Sammy James. games. And Triple B, chiming in for the first time, thank you, Triple B, likes Miotich versus

Blades. I know that was you're a fan of that one. And Lucay versus Jeff Neal. I mean, I like that fight. If he doesn't get Kiesa, it's going to be something like that. He's going to have to take a step back. Andy Piserra tried to get in last week. He was just a little belated, but he literally just got in before the show started, Mike. So I do want to shout out Andy. He's just, and I'll read his comment. Lucay versus Magni is also the fight for the love of God. I'm sorry, Lucay. You're never going to fight Nate Diaz.

Andy, you never know unless you ask. I have no problem with the callout. I know you said one of your suggestions said he threw away his call out. I think he did the smart thing. He did the Diaz call out on TV or on paper view, I should say, excuse me. And then post-fight, he mentioned Wonderboy, he mentioned Edwards, he mentioned

like the rematch. So he had it both ways. He had it both ways. He did, he saved the big, flashy callout for the broadcast and then post-fight mentioned some other possible rematches he would want to have that i will say this though i'm with you on this one a k like i i don't think he's going to get the fight okay but i did like the call out this time around because he did his research he did his homework he basically said like hey nate you're looking for a guy that's that's been winning that's on a streak that's on a surge with a comp you are looking for a competitive fight with a guy who finishes fights it's really exciting and that's winning

I'm doing everything you asked of me. This is the kind of fight you want. Give it to me. I'm here. You want a fight at 170? You want to Charles Oliver? I'm a streaking guy at 170 right now. Let's go.

I have no problem with the callout. It's not going to happen. And it's just unfortunate for him. But the fact that he presented the way that he did last night, I like to call it. I don't think it's a throwaway at all. I agree. I agree. But I always like when people swing big.

I'm sure there's examples, but people at college has just made no sense. sense, but I, swing big, you never know. At Young, your nemesis at Young Rabbi 86 also said, do you prefer this over, Calvio? Miranda Maverick, if they were to do some crazy matchup, what don't Miranda Maverick versus Jessica I? What would you prefer if you had to choose, which I don't think either happens, but I or Calvio? Oh, I, easy.

Okay, yeah. I still think again too much. And then I like this one. Someone a little bit closer to Woodley's age for a matchup, Woodley versus Alan Jovan. I like that. I actually don't mind. I mean, it's not as cool as like a Woodley Lawler,

a woodley like Condit rematch. But I don't know. I thought that was interesting. So if we want, if we don't want to run it back with one of his past opponents, but still is wanting a veteran that, again, a little closer to him in age, Alan Jolban,

I don't mind it. Yeah. And kind of going back to the other one, if something happens with Jennifer Maya before, because I think they're fighting in July, if memory should be correctly, Jessica I versus Jennifer Maya is done deal. If July, June July was,

what Miranda Maverick was hoping for. If she's not booked and she's needed to fill that gap, that's a good piece of business. Okay, that I'm okay with. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. I mean, I is still

tough and gritty. She showed some of that hard and determination in the Joanne Calderwood fight, but not a fight that she was, it wasn't a close fight, but she was, it was a competitive fight. Like, Calderwood clearly won and clearly pulled away. But Maverick can, I think Maverick's a pretty sizable favorite in that fight if she fought Jessica.

I think so too. I think so too. No disrespect to Sky. You're kind of, you know, they're just going in different directions to their careers right now. And you know, I, I think, would do a good job. The disrespect she would feel if she got matched up with such a youngster. Oh, boy, she would not. She'd be pretty vocal about it.

Yeah, I mean, look at, just watch the Cynthia Calveo fight. Calvia just kept taking her down over and over again. That's exactly what Miranda Maverick would try to do. Liam Perry I like a suggestion for Mark Andre Barrio he likes Roman Delise a very cool matchup I think Marcus McGahey he's with me

on Barrio and Langemula and also Maverick Aldrich so thank you Marcus always having my back and he says Engano versus the winner of Godzilla versus King Kong in theaters next week so excellent excellent use of advertisement time

Marks McGahy official sponsor of the UFC well done how do you feel about O'Malley versus Montel Jackson Oh my God that I mean I mean, that is such, and that's, that's a positive, oh my God. Yes.

Like, there are a few fights outside of the top 15 where I would probably, and I can't do a cartwheel, but I would try to do a cartwheel if they booked that fight. O'Malley versus Montel Jackson would be absolutely insane. I think if you're Amali's team, you probably think your star power is a little bit past Montel Jackson right now, but matchup wise. And plus, from a competitive standpoint, like risk reward, I wouldn't take that fight if I'm Sean O'Malley. No, no, no, definitely not. Not saying he can't win, because

O'Malley would probably be favored in that fight, and I get it. But that is, I mean, beating Montel Jackson is just like it's cool. Like, hardcore fans would dig that. I don't think you're going to put away Montel, like you've put away a lot of these other

guys, and get that rub and get that viral. And if he did, it's like off to the races. But man, that's a risky fight for very little reward. Somewhere down the road would love to see it. Oh, absolutely. That's, that's your Marlon.

That is like what Marlon on Marlon is to you or Neil on Neal, that's like my future pick for that kind of a fight. Sugar versus Quick. Yes. Barrier-O-Raleigh, Charlie, Ireland's Barry O'Reilly, and he's with you. He loves Morales versus Tucker. And he likes Aldous Sajic versus Devin Clark and Yuan Kutalaba,

which I just want to mention because I forgot the fight was happening. So that's on May 1st. So that could see that happening. Yeah. I don't, Chris, At Dragon Slayer 2 on Twitter, likes Morales versus Casares. So Morales has entered the Casarist zone, as we call it. He's in that range of the long, long, long, long time U.S.

veteran Alis Kusasas. So he's in that range now. Michael Perugini, two good suggestions that caught my bailiol versus the Kasanganae, Sasha Palatnikov winner, April 10th. Again, I just wanted to remember that fight was happening. But hold on, hold on one second. Just one caveat. No, no, no, the fight's happening.

But that fight's at 170. Oh. Consangana is dropping to 170 for that. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, Palatacos are well. Yeah, okay. Okay. So, yeah, unless a Qasangana I won and decided to take a fight up at 185, I don't think

Palatnikov would, but yeah, maybe more Kasangana. Yeah, but on paper, I kind of like the idea of it. And then, but I did like his other match. No, actually, I didn't like it. And I just want to see you make a face. Tyron Woodley, I shouldn't even, I shouldn't even. Versus to Ron win? No.

Your favorite? No. I shouldn't even put this out there in the universe, but I didn't do it. Michael Perugino did. I can't be responsible for this. Tyrone Woodley versus Sean Brady. That's a popular pick. I don't have a big problem with that.

I think Sean Brady would kill him at this stage of their careers. Would absolutely kill him. I just, I don't think there's value there for the UFC. Like, there's value for Sean Brady. Unless it's just to give Brady a name to say we see this. It's literally all it is. This is a put Sean Brady over kind of a fight. I don't like it.

Because, again, I don't mind using Benadley's, veterans to build up guys. Look, I understand the purpose of it. But Sean Brady is like a younger, he does all the things that Woodley used to do, but like he's younger. He's how, I don't know how many years younger he is now. Super well-rounded guy, amazing wrestler. I don't know.

But his striking is not, I mean, his striking has gotten better. And he'll even admit he knows he needs to get better with the striking too. So Woodley would have a pretty good advantage in the striking department. It's an interesting fight. It's not like a complete domination for Brady. I mean, he would be a two to one favorite. No doubt about it. But checking off all the boxes, having value for everybody involved, I don't necessarily see it.

Like, is it worth giving Tyrone Willey another shot to put a guy like Sean Brady over? Or is it worth keeping Tyrone Willie around for the chance to maybe put Shamiyev over even more? That's why I like the Shemiyev one better. There's just more value for more people. involved in the situation. Considering the match, as we've picked, I really just hope Woodley is either released or or decides to retire.

I just don't want to see him getting pummeled by some of these just young, incredibly dangerous fighters. But that's the fight game, right? That's a fight game for anyone who decides to stick around too long. And in a perfect world, like, if they didn't book, if they didn't book Woodley versus Lucke, you could have done Woodley versus Brady easily. And it would have been like the same kind of a thing for me.

You know what I mean? Sure. Let's go to Instagram. We got some nice Instagrams. Dylan shoot. I think this is the first I've mentioned to him. Remember the second time. Malarkey versus Fizia.

Fiziv. We really just want to see Fizif played again. Another onto the next one guy. Oh, oh. No. We're getting a head shake. No, you can't do that. Fiziziz's way too.

Yeah. Fiziziz's like knocking on the door of the top 15. Like, Malarkey gets like two or three more wins and Fiziv somehow like doesn't fight until then. Then you can do that. I mean, it would be a fun scrap. But, I mean, Fiziv just picked up a ridiculous win in his last fight. The guy's ready for something big. People are jumping on board right now.

Can't do the Malarkey fight. Our boy, Jacob Best, had some good ones. Luke A versus Cunnington, which you said would be a great matchup. We just don't think it's coming to would we have any interest in that fight. Malarkey, Jekisi, Abu Bakar versus Chaos Williams, Omar Maris versus Daniel Paneda. But I liked his O'Malley versus Cruz, Dominic Cruz. He says, could headline a fight night, real proving ground for both guys. I saw somewhere that apparently Cruz would be interested in that fight according to Chale Sonan,

super interesting, clashing styles, personality, the whole lot. Very visually pleasing fight. Yeah, yeah. I think Dominic Cruz would be interested in that. And obviously, O'Malley would take that fight in a heartbeat. I like all of those picks. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And so thank you, Jacob Best. We're just winding down here. So, guys, I'm rushing through some of these. Jay Steiner just made in. I got to mention our boy, Jay Steiner. I think he's, oh, I'm sorry, he says, he checked the tapes. He says he picked Tim Elliott versus Sumergerji. It did sound familiar to me.

I said with a fight that was just recently booked. I swear I thought someone had mentioned that. I couldn't find it in my notes. So, Jay Steiner, I will give you credit. I assume that it was you. He's with you on Miranda Maverick versus possibly Antin the Shepchenko, Andrew Lee. And Abu Bakar versus Takashi Saito. Barrio versus Darren Stewart.

Oh, this is one I saw Kov mentioned to, actually. Omar Mariles versus Charles Rodin. I think would be sick. Oh, that's a good one too. Yeah, love that. So, and he's also down for something we discussed, the sugar versus Chito Vera rematch. So, uh, E. Casey Leiden wants that one. So there go, Jay Steiner.

You've met you and you and E. Casey Liden are on the same page. I was so mad listening to that conversation last night. I'm not a fan. I was like, come on, man. There was a freak thing. Like, no, I'm not getting into it right now. But it's all right. Listen, I agree.

That's another 20 minutes. I don't agree with Dana that often. I agree with him on this one. You can go to that well anytime you want. Exactly. Exactly, exactly. It's not that we never want to see it again. It's like, but that storyline will always be there.

That storyline of didn't really meet me, that'll be there forever. If you have to go to it, you might not need to. You know, both guys might end up going other directions, but it's there. All right. Now, two more messages. This one from someone in your area, your boy, Boston Rich, I'm sure you know him. This would have normally closed the show. So he, I didn't think I read this right correctly when I saw it.

He says, why not Francis versus Glover to Chera? and he wrote Mike is so confused I'm intrigued he wrote he wrote why does John Jones get to jump over somebody

who has earned it so I guess he's suggesting Teshera has been more active at light heavy weight and thus should have the options that John Jones has that John Jones is claiming to have I don't think Glover has ever expressed

any interest in going up to heavy weight I'm sure if you asked him he would say I do not want to fight Francis Nagano he's about to fight for the he's about to fight for the light heavyweight title I listen this guy's from Boston all right

you you yeah you yeah for him it's up to to rationalize this okay because he's just but I get it I think I take it there's some animosity maybe not a John Jones fan and he's just wondering why does this guy just get to do whatever he wants and stay on the shelf and not fight

and then jump with no heavyweight experience got to jump into a heavyweight title shot. If he can do it, why not Glover, who is, you know, the number one, he's the number one contender at heavyweight right now. So why can't he also be the number one contender at heavyweight? I don't know, even as I'm saying it, Mike, I'm struggling to make sense of it. Yeah, I don't know. Unless it's like an epic Glover to share a heel turn that nobody saw coming. But you know what, but you know what, Boston and Rich? I don't care. I like that you suggested it. It's a unique suggestion. Definitely no one else mentioned it. That would also be an

epic call the tape check the tapes if uh somehow we had a club to share ever if this might ever happens i'm giving i'm giving boston rich credit it's more it's more likely than derrick brenson versus deron win why are you i'm just kidding i'm just saying sorry young rabbi i know it's it's sunday i shouldn't be saying this on sunday walking walking is already terrible all right i hate walking walking is already terrible and now you are making it worse for young rabbi 86 uh we only we only we only poke fun because we like you. Can we end on a positive note? Absolutely. Can I have the, do you want to read this? You can read it. Can I read? Okay. This made our boy, uh, Magic Mighty Mart. I believe this is at Mighty Magic Mart from Twitter. At Magic Mighty 67 on Instagram,

messaged both of us. And at first I was ready to throw this in the spam bin. Uh, and until I read the message and I realized it was our pal. Uh, this is such a nice. Okay. So he says, gentlemen, I didn't want to make either of you upset that I messaged the other. I guess it's, you know, it's just one of us. So I thought I'd DM you both. Apologies for lack of matchups the last few weeks. His little boy just arrived three weeks early and he's well, thank goodness, and his big sister adores him. The wife wouldn't let me call him Michael Alexander, though. So we had to go with Ruben Elijah, uh, money, magic money, right? That's a beautiful name. Uh, your podcast kept me going through the labor and first week of sleepless nights. So thank you as

always. Uh, now to suggestions. I want Keza versus Lucke. O'Malley versus Carla Phillips. Yes. Let's make it happen. You guys are awesome. from across the pond Martin's. I am so Mike. Congratulations, Martin. Nice to do you know.

This is why we do this. This is what the show is all about. And I don't even know. I'm emotional. If there were other suggestions to read, I can't, I couldn't do it. I'm emotional now.

I can't do it. I'm feeling for clumped. I'm feeling a little of a clint. There's a topic. Talk about yourselves. Talk about yourselves. Rhode Island. Not a road or an island.

Oh, man. So we appreciate that message. We appreciate all the messages. And for those who want to submit messages or comments or ideas down the road, AK, if they want to hit you up, how can they do so? Oh, yes. Does that even matter anymore? At Alexander K.K. Lee on Instagram, that's 2Ks.

At Alexander Klee on Twitter. That's 1K. And alex. at spination.com for emails. Twitter at Mike Heck underscore JR Instagram M underscore heck JAR So next week

No UFC event We got a rare Saturday night off from UFC But Bellator is back The night before So there is still plenty of mixed martial arts action For your viewing pleasure But AK and I We're

I would say a decision has not been fully made yet We're thinking of a way To have a show next week Without having a card to matchmake Do we take a week off? we come up with something? TBD.

We're pondering that as we speak. But the next event for the UFC is April 10th, which will be the second event to air on ABC. And they return with the main event at 185 pounds, Darren Till versus Marvin Vittori, big one for the middle-white division. But until then, he is A.K. Lee. I am Mike Hack. Thank you for listening.

And remember, don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. We have more fun coming your way right here. on on to the next one, the podcast. So you thought I was going to go really long that time, but I just went super short. Yikes. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.