MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC 263

Episode Date: June 13, 2021

On the 47th 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 263 event in Glendale, Ariz. Future matchups were discussed for middleweight champion Israel Adesanya after successfully defending his title in the main event, Marvin Vettori, new flyweight champion Brandon Moreno, Deiveson Figueiredo, Leon Edwards, Nate Diaz, Belal Muhammad, Paul Craig, 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. Well, hello there, everybody. We are back. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Coming out of a memorable UFC 263 event on Saturday in Scenic, Glendale, Arizona. We have one and still. We have one and new. And we almost had a comeback for the ages.

And there's a lot to discuss from a matchmaking perspective. And that is what we're going to do for the next. hour or so right here, wherever you find, your favorite podcast. Before we do that, I am Mike Hack and joining me as always in this venture, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the best friend and the Prince of Positivity himself, Mr. Alex K. Lee. How are you, sir? Mike, a belated, happy, a national best friend's day, which I think was earlier this week. I'm sorry I didn't, I didn't message you. This would have been, I think, Tuesday, I believe. I met the very next day, I thought I'd message you and then I said, we have a show, we can bring it up then. So,

happy again very belated to my best friend national best friends day and to all the best friends out there and all of our best friends listening to this to this show i consider you i'm very close to all of you i i think so uh yes i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm vah mehico like vah mehico holy crap i know we'll talk about this matchup more but uh i i was not on any of the post fight video uh last night i'm happy not to be on it it was a very very long night i did a lot of writing and i was it was a very It was an excellent night, so it all worked out. But I did want to say, obviously, highlighted the show for me, which, again, pretty decent show. You know, there were some slow parts.

It's fine. But anytime you have a 14 fight card, if you're expecting all 14 fights to deliver, I mean, you're going to be disappointed. So overall, I thought a pretty decent show. And, boy, what a highlight, you know, if we're going to talk about what the biggest storyline. We all won. We all won. I know you've interviewed Brandon a bunch of times. Brandon's always been, Marino has always been very good with the media.

We've all interviewed them. Everyone I was messaging last night, all the other reporters were just like, oh my God, so happy. This is the nicest guy. And that crowd was, you know, we had Jose and Sean on site. I bet they couldn't hear a damn thing because that crowd was on fuego after that win. And it couldn't have been in more impressive fashion. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. So good energy going into this show, Mike.

Yes. A couple of things I wanted to touch on. First off, every Sunday is Best Friends Day from me. me, AK. So we don't need a holiday. Like we're, it's a holiday every single day. Do not make me emotional. Save that for the end. Yes. And yeah, I mean, Brandon Moreno, unbelievable. I mean, it's, it's one of those things where throughout this pandemic and everything, like I felt, and I'm sure you felt this way at times too. Like, I felt, I feel pretty blessed that I could just go downstairs into my little office here and do my job and be able to be a part of these

broadcast and do all these different things without having to get on the road. And there are times where I miss being out on the road. And it was cool going to cover another Bellator event and just getting out there and doing the thing again. But even watching like some of these UFC shows, there's been like very few over the years. I'm just like, man, I wish I was there. Like, but last night seeing Moreno, that moment and the relationship that I've got to bill with him over the years, man, I wish I was in that building. Like, that's one of those ones

that I was like, wow. Like, just imagine being there. Like, FOMO was at, FOMO was at all time highs last night, man. I don't know how you felt. There is, I mean, I'm an introvert and a bit of an agoraph so I never want to go anywhere. But I understand, I understand the sentiment that you're saying. Yeah, and for sure, like I said, I've got to interview Brandon a couple of times. Each time it's just, you know, it's just such a pleasure and there's just such a genuine quality about him. I'm not saying that other fighters aren't like that, but there's a genuine quality about him. There's a positivity about him, which, as you know, they call me the Prince of Positivity. I'm nothing in that regard compared to Brandon Marino.

This guy is just a ball of light. And his story being, this is a guy that you see? I mean, that's crazy, you know, and then fortunately, I think was always, you know, wasn't ever, wherever far off their radar, wins one fight comes back, and battles his way back, gives us one of the fights of the year in 2020 and now one of the best performances of 2021. I don't know if there'll be a better championship performance this year. Yeah, that's, you can't honestly, you could write a book.

I'm sure someone will write a book about this guy someday. It's just, it's an awesome story. Yeah, so that was going to be the fight of the weekend. It was by far the moment of the weekend. And maybe it's on the short list for a moment of the year. It's a moment of the year right now in MMA. And if something beats it, then I'm going to be crying. and like a baby in a big time way

because that was amazing. But it's time to match me. We'll be talking about the new champion in a matter of moments, but let's knock out. The easiest piece of business right off the bat, Israel Adasania goes out there and completely dominates Marvin Vittori. There was a moment where Vittori took Adasani's

back and for maybe a second and a half, two seconds. I was like, oh man, could this really happen? Like, is Marvin Votori get a pull off in my own mind? A ridiculously massive upset? but wasn't to be as he gets out of it. And this was one-way traffic from start to finish.

Kudos to Marvin Vittori for his durability. He took a beating on Saturday. And his facial expression didn't change once. Even when he got poked in the eye. His face didn't even change. He wasn't even wincing. He didn't even blink his eye or anything. He was just like, I got poked in the eye.

To the point where people thought, like, even they even said on the broadcast, Marvin's just trying to buy some time to pulling a veteran move, so to speak, so to he could catch his breath. Then you saw the replay, and Izzy's finger was like halfway into his eyeball. So Vittori's a tough dude. I give him all the credit, but Izzy goes out there, wins, causes a shot. Perfect callout.

Absolutely correct. Robert Whitaker. There is just no way this is not the fight, right? No, I mean, look, the timing worked out exactly as Whitaker would have wanted to. Adasagna's team said, eh, Adesania's team kind of joked about Whitaker not wanting to take the fight. And even they said later, like, ah, we don't know. We just knew he wasn't available. So we're going to take some shots out.

And we knew the fight wasn't going to happen anyway. So they knew when Vittori stepped up, they were like, yeah, of course, we'll fight Votori. So, yeah, Whitaker said he wanted to take time off. He's wanted this rematch for a while. It's, we assume whenever Adasanya is ready to fight again, it'll probably be around the same time. Whitaker is too. It's a perfect fight to make. Hopefully it can happen some either in New Zealand or in Australia.

Fingers crossed. But again, there's all this COVID situations to deal with, of course. But again, we've talked about this before. We think it could be possible if they loaded up the cards. with fighters from the oceanic region. That would probably make things a lot easier. And I've always said, don't even worry about making it a 10, 12 fight card. If it ends up being like a six-fight card, I know that's a tough pay-for-you-to-you-sell.

I know you want to have five main card fights and at least like four or five preliminaries, but this would be a one-fight card. And again, you were doing it really for the fans of that region. I think you can't go wrong if you try and make that fight. I'll play, you know, not double-a-kib, whatever, you throw some possibilities out there. For some reason, Whitaker is not ready to compete. Uriah Hall, Sean Strickland winner, July 31st. Sure, I'd love to see one of those guys get a title fight.

Again, I think it would be after the Whitaker fight, but this is again, this is just in case it can't happen. Jared Kennanier, if he beats Calvin Gastlam, August 21st, fresh matchup. Again, just sort of a mandatory challenger situation. And I thought, is there a chance that Adasanya flirts with light heavyweight again? not going right after the title right away and I just probably wouldn't be next either but like kind of like Anderson Silva did during his

middleweight title run now he was he was in quite a bit deeper into his title run of title defenses before he went up to fight the immortal James Irvin at 205 Sandman so it would be a very different situation but for me it's like that that's the mistake I think with with guys going up and to go for second titles now

is we don't give them that fun warm up we don't necessarily have to I understand that But it'd be cool. Like, I was thinking like Adesanya versus like Ike Villanueva, like March and Prachniew, Clintston Abra. You like you literally just throw him in there with someone a 205 who he's going to just pummel and destroy. And then eventually, you know, you would have talked about a fight with Blockovich. Now, I don't know if that fight ever happens again.

But I'm just saying if for some reason all these other middleweight options don't work out over the next six months, I found him. I'll go up 205 and just beat up some, with respect, jobber. Yeah, well, it was, I mean, it's definitely Whitaker. It's not about it. I feel like, let me ask you, do you feel like, remember where we were last year at this time? Anytime Israel Adasania was mentioned, who was he mentioned with? There was one name he was mentioned with every single time.

It was the illustrious John Jones. Oh, gosh. Not one mention of John, not one question from the media. Is the door officially closed on any Jones-Od-Sahna fight in the future, or do you still feel like there's a day we could see that fight. Now that you said it, now I feel like we're doing exactly what Dana White wanted. You know, Dana White, I think, is banking on Jones sort of fading from the public conscious.

He's never going to go away completely. But as far as, you know, when it comes to negotiating this, a big fight, I think Dana White knows that he and the UFC can wait John Jones out. Meanwhile, John Jones, every month that goes by, that's another month of his prime. That's kind of just whittling away. And again, if John Jones is comfortable with that, he certainly has enough money to do that, that a lot of luxury a lot of fighters don't have. that's great.

But it is funny that you mention that, that there hasn't been questions about this Jones-Adis-Sign thing, because you're right. Not too long ago, it's all we were talking about. We must have written 20 articles about it, some variation about that storyline on M-Afighting.com. And now it's nothing. I do think we see that fight someday, but now we're talking way down the road. We're talking way down the road after Jones finishes his business of heavyweight. I don't want to see Adesania go up to heavyweight. I know he said he would.

I just think that would be a silly thing to do. I think Jones can still make 205 sometime in the future. And by future guys, by the way, I'm talking 20, 20, like three. And I do think we see this fight someday. I'm optimistic. It's a fight. I'll always want to see no matter what. The guys could both be on three fight losing streaks someday.

I'll still want to see it. So I do think someday, yeah, that's a pretty broad range. I think it happens. Yeah, it's going to be talking to Brandon Gibson this past week. I don't see a world where John Jones gets back to 205. Oh. I just, I mean, maybe, like if the money's right and they pull like a rock John Sina WrestleMania thing where they're,

like this time next year we'll do it and then Jones just spends his entire year trying to get back to 205 but he's that he's like 245 right now like and in shape that's that's a lot of muscle you have to like burn away and yeah I kind of I just don't know if it happens and Jones feels like at this point in his career heavyweights like where he needs to be being in his like early to mid 30s but that's honestly I don't need to see a tubby as he going up and fighting him I don't want that no no I don't want 205 is he was was too small i didn't even want to see that i this apart me doesn't want to see that at 205 at this point because jones is a beast man he's super strong and i don't know at just

i like is he at 185 i don't know we'll see what happens when he gets a little bit older maybe his his muscle mass will build a little bit more but that's out of sanya on the flip side we have martin vatori who goes to distance took a ton of punishment i think he thought he legitimately won the fight, which is insane. No. But also smart. And if he really feels that way, he needs to go all in on this. He should be putting out Marvin Vittori.com and selling 2-0 t-shirts.

He should be screaming 2-0 from the rooftops, sell the crap out of this gimmick. It won't get him back to a title fight anytime soon, but at least like it keeps his name out there. And in my opinion, I know a cliche adjective describing some of these fights over the last year, 18 months was a crossroads fight. And it's not to the level like a Tony Ferguson, but this was like a legit crossroads fight from Martin Vittory. Either his life was going to change and he was going to be the champion or he was going to drop way back in the rankings. And unfortunately for him, it is the latter. So you mentioned this fight earlier. I think best case scenario, he gets the winner of Uriah Hall versus Sean Strickland on July 31st.

But he might even have to go back further than that. I think honestly, Hall Strickland winner is the best case scenario for him. What do you think? I want to see him fight Paulo Costa. I want to see him fight Apollo Costa. Now, of course, Boca Chania is currently in royal, is the latest fighter to become embroiled in a contract dispute with the UFC. So I understand he may end up on the onto the next one band list soon.

You know, it could be this depending how. I think Danaway has already responded, depends how much further this war of words escalates. I think at some point business will be done. I think, you know, Costa has somewhat of a reasonable complaint, of course. saying, look, if I'm going to main event a card, I want more money. He's not the first fighter to say it. He won't be the last, I'm sure.

But at some point, I do think he's just going to bite the bullet and take a fight. I would just love to see him fight Vittori. I think there's a lot of attitude there. I think it's sort of the, you know, the Israel-Adesania championship fight runner-up battle. I think it would be, it does, it keeps both guys in the title picture. Definitely, you know, like you said, Vittori fell far. He beat Costa. I don't know, keeps them in there.

I'm not sure how eager the UFC will be to build up a third Vitori fight. Should he beat Costa and then it be somebody else? As you said, but hey, if he leans into this conspiracy theory thing, questions the judges, doesn't appeal. How could it be 50-45? I want at least two of those rounds, which I would disagree with. Then it's a possibility. But either way, for me, just ignoring contenders' stakes, I think it's a fun fight.

It's a fun fight. It's a fun fight. It be filled with some very enjoyable, occasionally awkward trash talk. I think both guys would probably try a little too hard. At some point, go way too far. And regardless of what happens, it would be hilarious

for us. So I'll go Vittori and Costa. Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. I think Vittori's like completely out of the title picture. More likely, if anyone falls out of one of these upcoming fights, you mentioned, Hall Strickland, Cannon Near Gasolum, he jumps in.

I think he jumps in. I don't think he was I'd be surprised if he was too badly hurt from this fight. I don't think we're seeing a six-month suspension. So I think he stays ready. I actually think he'll be right. He'll probably want to fight again real soon. And fingers crossed, nothing happens to those fights. But if it does, I think Vittori jumps right in.

Yeah, I think Vittori is like a great heel, a tremendous heel. I liked how he walked out to the Mendello theme. I know it's not the Mdala theme. I know Sean Lyshire is going to be all sad. Yeah, I know. I said that for a reason. But go ahead. Enyo, okay, fine.

I'm pronouncing. Of course I know who, Ennio Morikon. Morikon. I'm just, I'm over-pronouncing now. Enio Morikon. Of course I know who he is. All those classic spaghetti westerns. I'm not, I'm not like, you know, deep into his music, but I know all the, you know, most of the big ones.

I, if you're a UFC fighter and you come out to a song that's been used as the Modelo theme for commercials featuring UFC fighters, we're going to make Modelo jokes. All right? We're going to make Modelo jokes. that's not on us. A lot of us in the media did it. A lot of other these cool, oh, these cool guys, like, oh, MNMAA Fighting's Damon, and he's like typing out the Italian name of the song. And then saying, oh, and by the way, this song's called whatever, field of gold or field of whatever.

And then, you know, trying to make us all, like, feel bad. Okay, guys, you guys are cool. You guys are cool. Guess what? It's the Modelo song. It's the Modelo song. I'm sorry. You know, that's what we all know it has now.

So, of course, respect to the great enumericone. but yeah and listen listen listen i i understand you want to take that like hipster stance and be like i know the actual song but anyone who said that's the medella song was not wrong nobody was incorrect you're all right in your own different ways you want to show off your musical knowledge and in such a vast variety good for you but it's still a modella theme and by the way i'm glad you mentioned that let me just say one thing to you centrum vitamins oh my pick another song pick another song i'm sitting there doing some work, watching the broadcast at ESPN Plus, and all of a sudden, I'm like, that song sounds very familiar in the background of this Centrum gummy vitamin commercial.

It's the on to the next one theme song. In the background, I'm like, gimmick infringement. Gimick infringement. Centrum, listen, I just want to say I am in Canada. We did not get that ad up here. This beef is strictly between you and Mike. Mike, don't get me involved in this. I have no problem with Centrum.

I did not see this commercial. I am glad you're defending the honor of our show. But I, please don't get me involved in this. Please. Yes. Don't be mad, Centrum. You know, don't be sitting in the corner eating that peanut butter and jelly. You know what I mean?

Don't be jelly of onto the next one. Trying to steal our theme song. Trying to build upon the hard work, the sacrifices, the dedication that we put into this show each and every week. How dare you? All right, Mike, settle down. All kidding aside. Let's, okay.

I'm getting a little rile up. I'm getting a little rile up. Back to the positivity. Yes. And Serenity now. Brandon Moreno. Okay, I feel better now. Brandon Moreno, the new UFC Flyway champion.

We just sung his praises at the top of the show. Again, feel good story. Just tugs at your heartstrings. He just goes out there and dominates. And then submits Davis and Figurato. He's the man. Wow. Congratulations to him.

What a moment. He accomplishes his goal. He accomplishes his dream. where does this guy go? I mean, it seems if we're going next man up, we got a guy ready to go and ask her askeraf. However, AK, something tells me you we're not ready to give Mr. Ascaroff a title shot

based on the man I know. My best friend would probably not give Asker Asker off the title fight, and I think you know why. No, I actually, I mean, I think that is the logical pick. I like the Ascarov or to Twitter right away, right after. It's got a picture of him slamming, you know, slamming Moreno. So that, yeah, he too, for anyone

didn't see that, Ascroft tweeted, it's like, we had unfinished business. They fought to a split draw. You know, and that was Moreno's first fight in his return to the UFC. I think a lot of people thought Moreno won. Let me take a quick glance at

MMA decision. I thought he won. I thought Moreno won that fight. So I understand why people would have a gripe with the decision there. Yeah, I remember being a good fight. So on MMA decisions, we have about, A quick read here.

13 media scores, and 12 of them had it either 30, 27 Moreno or 29, 28, Marino. And our buddy Drake rigs were they, 29, 27 for Moreno. Only Mabrasil.com.com. B.R had it 2928. So media certainly saw for Moreno. And it was only a tie because Sal DiMato gave a... Ascrov, a 10-8 third round. So I'd have to watch that fight again.

I don't remember if a 10-8 was just a fight. I do remember. It's insane? Okay, I'll have to watch the fight again. But I remember it was a competitive fight. But 10-8 by Saudi Amato made it a draw. Oh, sorry, sorry. Sorry, I just said, Junichiro, Camijo, 29-28, Ascrov.

Bladimir Puga, 3027 Moreno. So scores all over the place, definitely one we want to see again. And Ascrov has also, I think, been unbeaten since that, pretty sure he's been unbeaten since that first meeting. So, yeah, I don't have any problem with it. Now, I'm not sure what you, Mike, what were you alluding to? Where did you think my head was going? I didn't, I didn't know where I thought your head was going in terms of a matchup,

because I think Ask Ruff is the answer to this question. But you are, you have been a guy who has been very vocal about not rewarding fighters, even coming off of a win, despite the streak you're on, after you miss weight. And Asker Ascaroff, weighed in 127 pounds for his decision win over Joseph Benavitas in March at UFC 259. Completely forgot. I completely forgot he missed weight. So what do we do now? So, well, the obvious answer.

Stop it. So the obvious answer. But I didn't think, I think this is, I just don't think the timing lines up. August 21st, Alexandria Pantosia and Brennan Royviler fighting. Now, Pantoja is kind of the boogeyman of Brandon Mereno's life. He beat him on the ultimate fighter. He beat him in the UFC. They rematch the UFC.

He beat him again. This is a fight that Moreno, I had to say, need, certainly wants. But, man, if he beat Pantosia, that's a huge part of his legacy. Because, again, this is a guy who has beaten him twice. Again, one official fight, one exhibition about, but essentially he beat him two fights. So if Roy Vowal beats Pantosia, I don't know if I'd be that, if I throw him in there with Moreno again. But Pantosia definitely. Pantosia definitely is, if I'm him, and we'll probably talk about this on August 22nd episode of the on to the next one,

he has to wait. If he beats Royval, he's got to wait for that Moreno matchup. He's done everything he can to earn it. He's one of the best flywheats in the world. And I think a lot of people would think he has a good chance to beat Moreno again. How can you not think that after he's beaten him twice already? So that is the other option, but that's August 21st. The timing is, I don't know if it's going to work out.

Yeah, it's tough. But yeah, I think Asgraf will end up getting it. My concern. He actually did, Ascraf did make $125 on the nose when he fought Moreno the first time. Okay. Maybe there's something about that rivalry. And there's not an answer questions there, so I would like to see that fight again. I did think, I did think it was a clear-cut win for Moreno, but it is what it is.

But another option that is in this mix, I know Moreno at the press conference talked about maybe Cody Garbrandt. And another option is Davis and Figurato because if the UFC wanted to, they could run this right back since most people felt Figgie won the first fight outside of the point getting taken away. And it's hard to argue that fact. Like you take the point away,

we don't even see this moment, we don't even see this fight on Saturday. But Figurato said, either way, give me four months and I'm ready to get back in there. So what do we do? Does he still have a future? at 125 or do you think his next fight is up at Bannonway?

What do you think he goes from here? You know, I downplayed the way-in issues he had a lot in any talks I had before Saturday's card. And I still don't want to blame it entirely on that, but it's inarguable that he did not

look his best. Part of me was wondering, was he just conserving energy because of kind of how the first fight went in the fifth round, both guys were a little lackadaisical. Maybe he thought, well, if I conserve energy, early than if I'm in that same scenario, if we both end up in that same scenario in the fifth round this time, I'll have that extra gear. Maybe he won't that I can push through and get a finish.

No judges needed. But it has to also be more than that. So it's probably some combination of these things. So for people who just, a quick refresher, he came in 30 seconds before the official way in window on Friday morning, which is extremely, extremely problematic. He didn't look great. He was crying afterwards. You can find that on the last episode of UFC 263 embedded. he was literally hugging like

Walid Dish Malin's going like I'm going to cry like I'm just so and I'm amazing he could even cry because he probably had no water left he probably felt like he wanted to cry and he would have just cried dust so I do think at some point he goes up to 135 I don't know if that's what's next for him but you're right that

it could be considered one apiece friend of wondering there was a groin strike point deduction otherwise the cards would have been I think 49 46 and 248 47s for figurato so it would have been a unanimous decision if it wasn't for the growing strike. The growing strike may have also affected Moreno's performance, but whatever.

But it was a little too definitive, and Moreno even mentioned that, so I think we need to move. I must figure out stays at 125, and if so, highest ranking guy, I think that makes sense for him. Kai Kar-France. That's what I landed on. After all that, that's what I landed on, Mike. Yeah, I'll tell you what. I think my answer or my selection answers a lot of questions and I think it makes everybody happy, okay?

Because there was a fight booked last year that was met with sort of mixed reviews when it was booked. I know I was totally against it at first because of where Moreno's at, because of what Figurato was doing as champion with where this division was going. And I feel like after what happened on Saturday, this fight makes all the sense in the world. now and it makes way more sense than it did last year. Now we can do Figgie Smalls versus Cody Garbrandt. Like if Cody wants to make the move to 125, you fight Figgie Smalls, you beat Figgie Smalls, you got your title shot. You get no arguments from me. And yeah, I feel I didn't, I understood why they tried to make this fight last year. Like you wanted to give the division a little bit of a boost. Garbrandt had a name. I think the storyline is much more fascinating now. Now the Figueroero is not

the champion. This could be a headline fight. And if Cody Garbrandt goes out there and beats Davis and Figurato, he gets a title shot. And there's no moaning and groaning about it. It's like, damn, get this dude in there with Moreno. So that's the fight I would make. Like if Cody really wants to go down to 125, which I think at this point in his career, if he wants any chance to fight for a belt, he's going to have to go down to 125, do it. Do this fight. Four months he needs. So what's that? October? October November, there you go. There's a fight night main event right there for you, A.K.

But how do you like Figurato going up to 135 to fight him in a fight that would not have immediate title implications? It just makes no sense. I mean, you could. I mean, just, it's just a fight at 135. You know what I mean? Yes. Like, it's not like Kellerher taking a fight on two weeks notice against another Bannamite at 145.

Like, this is, there's actual implications. here. Like, if Figgie wants to get back to a title shot, you beat Cody, you got a good chance to do in that. Cody wants to fight for a belt ever again. That's the fight you have to take. Like, I just, I don't think Cody's name value merits him a title shot right now. I think he has to go down there and get a win first. I think that's clear his day. And yeah, go fight Figgie now. Makes sense. And if you win, you get your title shot. Because you ain't getting one at 1.135 anytime soon. Unless you run off 10 straight wins, you're not getting a title shot at Bantamway. It's just not happening.

That'd be a hell of a way in to look forward to, though. Figure 8o and Garbrand at 125, or as 126 to say, for a non-title fight. Oh, man, I don't know. I'd be so nervous for both guys. All right, maybe that's a pay-per-view fight just so we could do the live stream and we get A.K.'s reaction. Oh. You love the drama, my man. You love it.

No, I want no drama on way and day. But, yeah, so that's what I would do. Let us head to Leon Edwards, AK. who for 23 minutes on Saturday looked like an absolute world beater. He looked like the guy who came into this fight is nearly a 6 to 1 favorite. And let me, before I make my selection,

let me reiterate what I've said a few times in this past week. Unless Rocky knocked Nate out in the first minute of this fight, and I hate to tell you guys this, there was no way. No way he was jumping the queue. There's no way he was leapfrogby and Colby. It just wasn't happening.

His best case scenario is that they can't come to terms with Colby. But I think that will ultimately get done. I think we will see who's been Covington too at some point next in 2021. So to me, Leon Edwards' next fight should be for the belts. He's like in a Carla Spars the spot right now where his next fight should be a title fight. But if that's what it ends up being, he's going to have to wait a pretty significant amount of time before that can happen. So he's going to have to wait for Uzman Covington to play out.

Right now, we're probably looking October, November, at the earliest, because we're seeing how these cards are building up. But he could sit and wait, or if the UFC... Here's the other option. I mentioned this on the People's Pre-Fight Show. If the UFC is, in fact, going to London, and he just wants to get in there and fight in front of his home people, he could get on that card whenever it happens.

He could fight anybody. And it makes sense. You get another win, you get some more money. and then you just kind of wait. You know what I mean? Like, if they could somehow book Edwards versus Mazadol and do it in London, that would be sick. Like, that'd be the best thing.

That's the best case scenario. Leon's probably a massive favorite in that fight. He gets a good payday, wins. He can call himself the BMF champion, and then go fight the winner for the belt. I think that's the best thing he can do for himself, his career, his family. Get not one big payday. It's a risk because Mazel is dangerous guy,

but now you get two big paydays and a title shot to boot, and you get to fight in front of your home fan. So that's the best thing that can happen to him at this point, but I don't know, man. He's an interesting spot. It's either you wait, wait maybe a year to fight for the belt, which I don't think he wants to do,

sit on the sidelines that long again, or try to get yourself on a London card and hope you can get Mazadol. I have trumpeted wanting to see that Edwards' Mazadol fight forever. I, and I'm glad, you know, again, and I love the idea. If that were to happen, if that scenario were to play out, Edwards, Masvedal in London, perfect, beautiful, beautiful. That's money.

That's printing money right there. But I am, I am waving my magic matchmaker wand here. Give Edwards the frigging title shot. Just do it. I know. Look, I'm not dealing in reality here. I understand the Cumberton-Uzman rematch. But what are we doing?

Like, you dropped a lot of truth bomb. Let me say something. You dropped a lot of truth bombs there. I hate it, which I hate it. You had to do it. I understand you are a respected journalist. You cannot lie to America. You are just painting the picture that is in front of us.

I hate that Covington is ahead of him. I hate that. I said this sort of jokingly to Sean last night on Saturday. I said, is Nate Diaz now closer to a welterweight title shot than Leon Edwards is just based on that last moment? And like in the eyes of the fans, yes, in the eyes of the fans, they didn't, those first. four very effective rounds of mixed martial arts technique by Leon Edwards mean nothing to so many like so many fans out there who just want to see you know like you said that first round finish that Edwards needed and it didn't come so when so when Diaz instead almost puts him away

in the last two minutes of the fight it just turns everything around and for me that's insane wins and losses have to matter I understand there he could he could have finished stronger. I understand Leon Edwards' fights are not always pretty. I completely get it. He's won. He's undefeated in 10 straight, ignoring the no contest, won nine straight fights. How do you not he deserves the title shot? He deserves a tell of shot. I'm sorry. I'm not saying it's going to sell better than any of these other matchups we mentioned. It's a dirty word in comment sports and I don't care. He deserves it. He deserves it. If I'm booking it, it's Edwards versus Usman, next.

That's it. That's for that's, I've decided. Yeah. Nate Diaz was like a wedding DJ. And what I mean by that is everyone comes for like the bride and groom, but everyone comes for the party. And the DJ could be good. They could be bad.

They could start off awful. But if they play like three straight bangers at the end of the night, everyone forgets about the rest of the night. Like you, people could be sitting there and be like, dude, you are awful. But if you play don't stop believing, at the end of the night and everyone's out there and they're taking video. Like, no one, everyone forgets the rest of the night. And that's exactly what Nate Diaz did on Saturday.

The last couple of minutes, ridiculous. Super fun had Leon in big trouble. Like, this wasn't like a Joe Rogan, he heard him. Like, the cliched, he heard him. This was like legit. Leon was on jello legs. And I was sitting on the edge of my seat. I was on my feet pacing around.

Like, could this really happen right now? Could Nate Diaz knock out Leon Edwards? has knock out Leon Edwards and win this fight and then fight for the title because guess what if Nate had done that he would have he would have jumped Colby he would have jumped the queue and fought for the belt next which is insane to think about when we just talked about Leon who has this incredible streak and he's going to be the odd man out but what an incredible turn of events that would have been but let's be clear Leon did whatever he wanted to do for 23 minutes like he busted Nate up anything he wanted to do he did and did it easily but the thing about Nate and

you sort of alluded to this, everybody will be talking about those last two minutes all week long. Like when we talk about that fight on Between the Lanks, we are leading with the last two minutes of that fight because that's just the way that it is. Those two minutes were way more impactful than the first 23 minutes of the fight, which is insane. That just shows you how much popular Nate Diaz is. It's so insane. So despite getting thoroughly dominated, his stock rises even more, which is insane.

Mike, Mike, he hit him with the, he hit him with the Don't Stop Believe in. He did. Forever Young, I think we might have been in there. This is uptown funk. This is shout. This is you shook me all night long. He played all the hits. A little you shook me all night long.

Just to, just to cap it off. Are you describing your own DJing style, Mike? Be honest. Or are you more consistent? Are you all killer from beginning to end? I take it very personally when people don't dance. So I go out there. I'm like the Brandon Moreno of wedding DJs.

I go out there and try to. put on a show every time. So two-part question here, because this is a matchmaking show. One, what do we do at Nate Diaz? And two, the even more important question for you personally, because we talked about this fight on Between the Links during the 50th episode Gauntlet, you said, and I, let me sort of paraphrasing here, Nate is a tremendous B-side. Not an A-side.

He's a tremendous B-side. Yes. Do you still agree with that? Do you feel like Nate is still just a great B side? You don't think he's an A side? You don't think he has a seat at the adult table right now? He was not even the co-main event of this card. Now, it was now, okay, he was supposed to be the co-made event of U.C. 262.

I admit it. I admit it. So that's a big, and that was a big position to be in in Houston. But he's not even the main event of these cards. I understand he can't be because of the, unless, your Connor McGregor, you know, the UFC will not, will just not put a non, non title, sorry, will not put a non, non title fight. Oh gosh, my words are, I've forgotten how to use words. They, they always have to, they feel like they always have to put a title fight in the main

event of a pay-per-view. I understand that. So that's why Diaz can't be. So the real question is, theoretically, if that wasn't the case, would we see Diaz main eventing more pay-per-views? I think he'd get one in there. Yeah, I think he might get one a year. year, you know, and I'll admit that. I'll admit that. I think he still, in most of those cases, would be paired up with either someone of equal, it's hard to say popularity because he's so damn popular, equal success, at least maybe someone on a win streak, someone who is, you know, higher up in the rankings, and I put that

way. So that kind of is going to inform, I don't know if you want me to move on to this part, like it's kind of inform the pick that I've made for him. Yeah, go, yeah, for sure. I, I went, the fact that he took the Edwards, like really opened up a lot of things for me. That's a fight I think a lot of us thought he was never going to take. And I kind of like what he said about it.

He's just like, why when I, he's like, look, I sign up to fight the best. I've always signed up to fight the best, which is somewhat true. I mean,

he's been picky with opponents, but he's always usually landed on someone pretty good, so I'm pretty high up in the rankings. So that tells me he's willing to take fights again with guys who aren't necessarily super popular, certainly not as popular as him. Like we said, Leon Edwards doesn't have a fraction of the mainstream popularity that Nade Diaz has.

So I, So I think he'd be open to fighting Vicente Lucke. I think this is a fight I've mentioned before. I think, oh, and I had to because Luque called for it. After UFC 260, a lot of people were saying, what a waste of a callout, that fight will never happen. I don't know. I'm glad Luque did it. I'm glad he put it out there in the universe.

I see no reason why it can happen. I think Diaz would know it's a fun fight. It's a fight. Another fight he could win. I'd probably pick Luque, but this is a guy who's going to get wild sometimes and may produce some super fun brawling moments. And there's a fight night main event if there ever was once. Or a pay-per-view, Co-main, maybe another five-rounder for Diaz. So, yeah, I like the idea of Diaz-Luke.

This might be me waving my wand again, but that's the direction I went. I'm going to say something that might blow your mind right now, A.K. This might be the hottest of hot takes. I'm bracing myself. Nate Diaz, in my opinion last night, officially took a step. And I am anointing Nate Diaz, the most valuable fighter in the UFC right now. And what I mean by that is Nate just being there makes everything better

and he gives the rub to everybody he's involved with and win or lose it makes no difference. Nate wins every time. But so does the guy he fights. Like I understand Leon, I understand Leon is not going to be talked about as much because of those last two minutes.

But Leon still gets the win. And I think when people really think about it, like if you look at Leon Edwards' resume like six months from now. If you go on Tapology and you're writing articles about Nate Diaz's next fight or Leon Edwards' next fight, Nate Diaz is going to be on his resume. And Nate winner-lose always has a rising stock and he helps put over the other guy. That guy's stock will also rise.

Like look at Jorge Mazadol. Like that was one-way traffic. One-way traffic. That fight was not close at all. Mazadol becomes this BMF champion, fights for the title. And Nate's stock didn't drop an Iota. even though he got thoroughly crushed that entire fight. There was the blood and the weird stoppage,

but let's be clear, that fight wasn't getting any better. It was only going to get worse for Nate. And Nate somehow still comes out of that fight looking like roses. He gets pieced up. Like the images of Nate Diaz throughout that fight, just blood everywhere. He looked like a, as Joe Rogan said, he looked like a horror movie. Outclassed.

He was just about to turn around before those damn cage that, that damn New York commission. They don't know what they're doing. How could they stop that fight? He was just about to turn around. I think Nate is so valuable. He is worth the money, not just be...

Most valuable. He's the most valuable fighter in the UFC right now because he's not making Connor money. Like, Connor's stock will rise and fall, rise and fall. And if he loses to Dustin, like the sizzle behind Connor starts to fade a little bit more.

But Nate, people like don't care. They don't care if he wins. They don't care if he loses. no matter what, Nate comes out as a star. That's just who he is. And the guy he fights, the guy who beats him, gets the rub. And Nate knows that. Like, he doesn't care about wins or losses.

None of that matters. And that's what makes him so valuable. Just pay the man what he wants. Let him fight. He's going to get you a potential next star. At least somebody's going to be more popular than they were before. Leon takes a step forward, no matter what. Like, more people know who Leon Edwards is now than they did heading into this fight.

And that's what makes Nate so valuable. I'm not saying he's the best fighter in the world. Far from it. But in terms of like investment and value and what he does for that promotion and the guys he steps in that octagon with, there might not be anybody better than Nate Diaz right now. You know, they always say the Diaz brothers don't lose fights. They just run out of time. I don't remember who coined that, but I love that quote.

And I'm just looking at ever since, so his fight with RDA, probably the last time he would, well, not the last time, but probably a fight nobody really talks about because he was just clearly handled it. I mean, RDA just dominated him. Since then, he bounced back from that with the win over Michael Johnson, which is like one of his most entertaining performances ever. Of course, the Connor McGregor win, his, you know, is his probably most famous whenever. The majority draw, sorry, the majority decision lost to McGregor, which a lot of fans will, I mean, I've learned a lot of people call the robbery. I don't think it was, but it went the distance.

Diaz hadn't badly hurt during the fight. So there was a lot of like, oh, Diaz, you know, a lot of Diaz fans could still like, nah, no, he won. He won two and O. Two and O. person McGregor. He beats Pettis, Mazvedal, cut stoppage. Again, we know that that fight was not going anywhere good for Diaz,

but I remember, I think Diaz tweeted, like, shortly after, like, a moment where he was, like, one of the rare moments he was above Mazvedal on the ground or something,

and he was just like, this is when the fight was about to turn around and then the fight got stopped. But it was out, right? And then, like, if you're a fan of it,

you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then now we have the Leon Edwards fight where right at the end, he had the most damaging sequels of the fight, he almost knocked him out. So that's six straight fights where he either won, or if you're a fan of Diaz and a supporter, you're like, did he really lose, though?

But did he lose that fight? And that's amazing. Like that is, like he said, he has his aura already, but the way his fights go somehow perfectly feed into that or that existing aura and only make it like bigger. He gets a post-fight interview. Poor Marvin Vittori waiting around for Joe Rogan to interview him after the fight. I wanted to hear from Marvin so badly. because I wanted him to say like, dude, I got screwed, I got robbed, and I would have like ate it all up. But Nate gets the post-fight interview.

Nate gets the post-fight press conference. The man, he's so valuable right now. Like, it'll be this way forever. Like, Nate can lose 27 fights in a row, and it'll never change. And that's why I feel he's so valuable in that sense, from a business perspective. He's not like the MVP of the UFC, but he's the most valuable. He's probably the most valuable fighter on that roster right now with what he could do. for himself, for the company, and for anyone who fights him.

I'm tweeting this. This is part of the onto the next one tweet on Monday. I hope you know this. Did you see my tweet where I said, is he becoming Benicio del Toro from the usual suspects? Is he becoming Freddie Fenster from, I mean, he kind of always has been, but I think I just haven't heard him talk so much in a while. He was talking a lot during Media Week.

He was pretty open with the media. He was part of Embedded. So we got a lot of Diaz interviews and talk this week. I know he's always talked this way. It really reminded me of Benicia del Toro in the usual suspects. For anyone who doesn't remember that, he'll flip you. Yeah. He flip you for real.

He flip you for real guy. And then the other line, which I can't repeat. But people watch that movie and tell me if Diaz has gone full Freddie Fenster. That's pretty funny. It's getting there. You know what's crazy throughout all of this? I didn't even make my pick for what's next for Dias through all of this. What do you go?

Okay. So I think. Let's work people now. We told people last week. This is going to be a long one. That's going to be a long one. It'll be worth it. Yeah, because we didn't have a live post-fight show to react to all this.

So we're just shooting the breeze. We kind of warned you about the set of time. I think we sort of have to play the wait and see on July 11th game because it's obvious. If Connor McGregor loses Dustin Porre, this is a no-brainer. But again, this is wild. I believe Nate has a good chance of fighting the loser of that fight either way. I'm going with that. There's a history with Porre.

Pori, we have no problem going up to 170 to fight Nate. it's essentially a lightweight fight at 170. Those two guys have been circling each other for a while now. I'm going with that. No matter who loses that fight on July 10th, they get Nate next. It doesn't interrupt the flow in a crazy lightweight division

or doesn't interrupt the flow in a crazy welterweight division. It's just a fight between guys with big names who are very popular, who have a lot of fans. And for Porier, like, he'd be so excited. Like, if he loses to Connor McGrath, to Connor McGregor and then he gets to fight Nate Diaz next. That's probably a five-round

either co-main event. That could even headline a pay-per-view if it needs a main event. That's big. That's big. And it could give Poria that extra rub to maybe get back to a title fight. So again, the value of Nate Diaz comes into play here that he can boost whoever loses this huge, very important fight on July 10th. So I think there's a very good chance Nate fights the loser of that fight. If it's Connor, if Connor loses, no doubt about it. That's the fight they make. But if Porre loses, I still think he can get that fight too. Yeah, yeah. McGregor Diaz, of course, is kind

of evergreen trilogy about which we've been talking about for like five years. I mean, you can book you can book whatever you want. And Diaz has been saying ever since that first for a fight was supposed to happen and, you know, it of course it was canceled that, oh, I'm one and up. I count it as I beat him. He's been saying forever, yeah, I beat Poria.

You didn't show up. You didn't show up on flight night. So that means I beat you, which, again, as we talked about it, for his fans, there's some internal logic to that. But yeah, I like that either fight super-sellable, and there's a story to both of them. So, yeah, very logical moves.

That could be next for Nathan. Yes. Nate Diaz, the 2000s version of Nature Boy, Rick Flair. Yes, the 2000s version. I'm not talking about the 16-time world champion. Yeah, sure, sure. The flare just putting dudes over, making everybody more valuable. And there you go.

Belal Muhammad, let us not forget the name because we were talking about Nate for so long. Belal Mohamed gets another win. He beats Damian Maya. Wasn't the most fun fight to watch, but I think we sort of expected that to this. This fight played out, let me just be clear, exactly the way I thought it was going to go. Like, Maya's going to get him down, Mohamed was going to avoid the submission, and then just win the next two rounds, and here we are. But it appears Damien Maia's had his final fight. I'm not here to push people out the door, but at this point, I feel like that's probably the right thing to do.

But on the other side, it's very difficult to look good against Damien Maia. What Gilbert Burns did was super impressive. That doesn't happen very often. But Bilal goes out there, does what he needs to do. He gets the win. But to me, it's two choices, AK. One, the best choice of my eyes, you give him Neil Magni. I really want to see that fight.

I want to see these guys put their respective paces on the other. Or the other option, and this probably isn't going to be super, uber popular for Bilal, but give him the winner of Sean Brady versus Kevin Lee. But Magny is my pick. What say you? Yeah, Magny was the easy pick for me. They're right around the same spot in the rankings. They're both guys just amazing cardio.

I would love to see that as a five-rounder. You know, again, we sort of talked about this on other shows. Like, I hope non-main event five-rounders become more of a thing. So, I mean, this could be the main event of a fight night. Sure. But even in the case where it isn't pay the guys, pay the guys more money for two extra rounds. And let's give them the five rounds. Because, again, I just want to see both these guys could go 10 rounds.

You know, Magni and Muhammad are just always in amazing shape, always pushing the pace. Again, we saw that in the Muhammad Maya fight. I mean, he just in a 15-minute fight, clearly outlasted him. I'll have more to say about that fight later. But yeah, no, I'm not going to stray too far from that. I do kind of like the idea of the Brady-Kevon-Lee thing. But for me, you know, Magny makes the most sense. Magne, I know he's good to call people out.

He's also good to sign on with whatever name they send them. So this is, I think, the right move to make. We head to the light heavyweight division. It kicked off. The rivalry was real. The heat was there. But Paul Craig, man, just goes out there. Everyone keeps sleeping on the sky.

Comes out as a massive underdog, and he brutally stops Jamal Hill with the arm bar. He broke his arm. And referee Al Guiney decided, you know what? That arm's flopping around going from side to side. But it's cool. Maybe he can come out of it. Maybe he could beat him with the bone that's loose in his skin.

Like 20 to 30 seconds, dude. the correct answer is Paul Craig should fight Al-Giney. Like, that is the correct answer. But it was just so bad. We can't approve that sort of. Come on. If the commission lets Al-Garney ref, they can certainly approve him to fight Paul Gregg.

But in all seriousness, like, what do we do with Paul Craig right now? Because the guy's on a nice little run right now, and that was a big win for him. Well, you mentioned like the arm flopping around. I believe Paul Craig, if I translated the Paul Craig Scottish accurately, I believe he called it, it felt like a wet fish was flopping around on his body. So that's nice. So that's great.

That's something you want to feel when you're in the middle of an MMA fight. I feel like his next opponent has to be someone from this sort of, and I was surprised that all these guys were unbooked. I swear they had fights. But from the Volka and Uzdemir, Alexander Rockich, Megamette, Ankalaya of Cluster. these guys are doing fights both. I've said I want Rocket Shankolaev to fight one another, and that makes the most sense. So that leaves Oostomir. I think that's the way to go for Paul Craig.

Higher ranking guy has proven to be a stiff test for everyone at 205. I'm not going to call him gatekeeper yet. I still think Oudemir has the potential to go on a run and maybe fight again for a title someday. Right now, though, he's kind of in that testing lower ranking guy's phase. So I'll go with Craig and Volkan Usdemeer. There's really no wrong answer here. There's, it's, it's the, the options are plenty. I'll go with Nikita Krilov, why not?

I think Krilov's a top 10 guy, sure. But there aren't a lot of bad choices. I feel that worked. You can throw them in there with anybody in the top 15 and it's fine. Or, you know, if something falls out, you can slot him right in. But the man's a player now. He should definitely get somebody in the top 15 and, uh, sending obviously positive vibes to Jamal Hill who somehow didn't even break his arm, dislocated it.

it popped back into place, which is absolutely unreal. So kudos to Paul Craig. Kudos to Jamal Hill and all the best of those heavyweight division. The high-la-heavy division is a little weird right now because those guys, like we said, they're not booked. And some of the big fights that are booked are in like August and like September. There's nothing coming up next month. And when we say August, we mean like like second half of August.

So it was a bit of a wait before, you know, and some of these other names that Craig might fight will be free. and I don't know how long he wants to wait. So great win for Craig, gruesome win. And yeah, now he's kind of, he's in an odd position as far as wanting to either take a lower ranking guy to get a quicker turnaround or having to wait until maybe the end of the year to get his next fight. And now we head to the wild card round, AK, and this is going to be interesting.

I'm very excited to hear what you have to say about this. We're going to select a fighter for those who are new to the program that we have not match made for yet, and we will do it right now. So, AK, before you go to the peeps and check the tapes and all that fun stuff, who is your wild card selection coming out of UFC 263? Well, I don't want us to pick the same person. So I went with Lauren Murphy. I'm not sure if you picked Lauren Murphy.

I did not pick Lauren Murphy. Well, this isn't exactly a wild card pick then, because I think it's pretty obvious that Lauren Murphy should get the next friggin title shot against Valentina Shoechenko. I mean, so I am using my wildcard slot to essentially just say what we all already know but Dana White refuses to promote ahead of time. I understand when Dana White says, I'm not making any commitments to matchups now.

We do our matchmaking meetings on Tuesday, blah, blah, blah, blah, standard boilerplate answer. I understand. But you are not just the U.S.C. president. You are also a promoter. It does not hurt you to throw it up. If the fight doesn't happen for whatever reason, that's fine. That's okay.

You are a promoter, and you should capitalize on moments as they happen. Al Jermaine Sterling right away, he should have been pushing that, you know, the Peodor Young, that Peotor Yon fight. We said that ad nauseum, why is he not promoting this? There's negotiation reasons not to promote ahead of time.

Of course, he doesn't want to give leverage to the fighter. I understand. Lauren Murphy has been a company woman through and through. I don't think she's going to give the UFC too much crap. I don't think her head's going to be too big or that her team. I shouldn't speak for her on her team. I can't imagine them hassling the UFC too much at the negotiation table, even if they're like, okay, well, we know, you know, well, he said we're number one.

So that means we should hold out. I just I can't picture that happening. So she's done everything she can. People can to dispute the decisions she won. That's fine. But I believe she's won out won five straight fights. She's beaten several top 10 opponents. Does she have a chance against Shepchenko?

That doesn't matter. That's not how we book championship fights. You book worthy challengers. She is the most worthy challenger at 125 now. Give her the Valentina Shepchenko fight. Please. I would agree. And let me just say I scored the fight for Lauren.

I thought she won the first two rounds. I thought you won the first. I thought Calder War won the third. But even that was a close round. The second round was just so dominant. Like that was the clear-cut round of the fight. I know 10-8s are hard to come by, but in this new language,

you probably could have made an argument for a 10-8 because it was just that dominant. But I just hate the scoring in general. It's awful, and it makes no sense. That a 10-9 round where, like, you land one extra jab is the same as Lauren Murphy controlling and dominating around the entire time. It's just stupid.

For me, A.K., I'm giving the proverbial wildcard rub to one, Brad Riddell. Because that fight with Drew Dober was, it was great. It was better than I thought it was going to be. And I had very high expectations for that fight. And I think they have some of this guy, A.K., I really do. And if Adasanya does fight Whitaker in October, which seems like could be the plan. you have to throw Radell on the same card. So here's where I'm at.

And I just decided this maybe 10 minutes ago. Because this fight now, for some reason, makes a ton of sense to me. Let's give Brad Radell an opportunity. Let's give him Tony Ferguson, man. Give Braddardell Tony Ferguson. October gives Ferguson four months. Radell would certainly take that fight, regardless of how many consecutive fights Ferguson is lost.

It's the right step back for Ferguson. I know we want to throw Tony in there with, a guy coming in off the contender series just to get him a win. But the man has a contract. He makes six figures every fight. He's got to fight somebody ranked. And I'd like to see a guy like Riddell, who has won seven fights in a row, get a shot. You got to build up some more contenders.

Dan Hooker got some opportunities. Let's get Brad Riddell that same opportunity. Get him in there with Ferguson. And let's just see what he does. I know the popular choice is the Gregor Gillespie fight, rebooking that one. And if they made that, I'm all in on it. but I kind of want to see Radell get a step up. And if you throw him on that same car with Adasanya,

maybe a co-made event spot, at least on the main card, I think that's a good thing, man. Like, I think you're maximizing Ferguson's volume. If Ferguson gets a win, cool, he's back on track. And if Radell wins, you have another contender in the top 15. I think Radell is a great personality. He's got a great story. Being with Adasana doesn't hurt at all.

Being part of that city kickboxing team. I'm going with it, man. I'm ready to take that. I'm ready to take that leap with Brad Radell after that fight. You're not alone in this. I definitely saw, I know we'll get to the reader suggestions in a bit. I definitely saw Radell Ferguson floated down a few times.

It's such a fun fight. It is, I think it makes sense for where they are in their careers. And man, Redell, like he's a real, he's really coming up as a sleeper, right?

I had forgotten that he is unbeaten. I don't know why for some reason. I think, and this is going to sound terrible, just because they're from the same region, I think I kept getting him. mixed up with Jamie Mularky? So my apologies to Brad Redell.

He is now 4 and 0 in the UFC, 10 and 1 as a pro. And yeah, and his biggest wins for, I think his first win over ranked opponents. So all I know is, I'll say, we also got just a lot of matchup suggestions in general. If Diaz was the, Diaz and Reno clearly the biggest stars of this card, sorry, I had Edwards. Diaz and Reno clearly the biggest stars this card. Radell might have been third. I'm trying to look at this list. I think he's

If anyone who watched the card from top to bottom, I'd be surprised if he wasn't the one that everyone was talking about the most, I would say, even over his teammate, Israel Adidasania. Yeah. Do we have a check the tapes or a mic check or anything like that? Oh, do we? Oh, do we, Mike?

Listen, people said, well, people didn't really care about this matchup, but I'm going to pretend in my head that people were on me for this. I refused to Tracy Cortez was a name that was thrown around on a recent episode for who did the people want her for? Who were the flyways

who fought last week? Fioro. For like, oh, Fioro, yeah. I think you can people even Who was the other one? Matea de la Rosa. Lipski, some people said Lipski.

And I said, no. No, because on this show, I have booked her to fight J.G. Aldrich. I have made this fight and it is not real yet, but guess what? Reportedly, now,

it looks like this fight. It may happen August 28th. It's not official. It is reported. So me, me, me, I called that one. That's the fight that I don't even know if I really want to see it. I just called it and I felt very strongly about it. Speaking of Manon-Firo, Barry O'Reilly called this one last week.

He wanted to see Piero and Buenos Silva. And amazingly, the fight was, she booked a fight days after that win over Tabar de Rici. So Fioro versus Buenos Silva. I didn't write down September. So a card in September. Sorry, I forgot to write down. The exact date here. So, yeah.

So there's the tape check. And look, we're all a team here. We're all a team here. I got one, too. Another women's flyway fight. Oh, please. Jessica Androge is coming back, and she's fighting Cynthia Calvillo. Did you call, you called that?

I sure did, AK. It sounded so familiar. I only take notes for myself and for the listeners because I'm like, I trust you to take your own tape checks. It sounded so familiar. And now that you say, I'm like, yes, this must be where it came from. There you go. We're a team.

We're a team. You, me, the listeners, and the listeners, Beery O'Reilly again, thank you. So the listeners, we're always, guys, someday we're going to predict like an entire UFC card together. I can feel it. I can feel it.

We're going to do that. We should do that. We'll figure that out. That's what I'm saying. The light bulb just popped into my head. Oh, no. Okay, yeah. Something in the future.

Something in the future. Yeah, something in the future. I do want to do a reverse mic check because, the last mic check we had, I kind of went off on our good friend Sammy James, the Hebhammer. And I will say I met Mr. Sammy James in person on Wednesday. And then I saw him again on Friday. And it was a pleasure.

It was a pleasure. He's part of the Bellator PR team. And I got to meet him in person. And we discussed my rant. He thought it was like the greatest thing in the world. So yeah, I wanted to give him a shout out. Good dude, fellow New Englander, and a very nice guy. It was nice to meet him in person.

And obviously kind words to say about you, AK. He had a message for us later. Not a message for us, but a mess. A masch making message later. So we will talk about Sam. And he sent me some very nice messages on DM. He told me how much he loved your rant as well. But yeah, we'll mention Sammy again later as we move on to our, we're ready to move

on to our listeners. Yes. I'm going to fire through these. Okay. Standard disclaimer, guys. We usually prefer to mention winners unless they're in the main event of title fight. We try to only mention a match more than one. So we're trying to, you know, unique matchups.

You've got a unique matchup. You've probably going to get your name mentioned. A fighter could already book people. Please do your research. Also do your research. Maybe you're talking about the wrong weight class. Maybe the two guys fought already recently. You just didn't remember.

Someone's maybe injured and thus, you know, we're just not matching for them. And most importantly, your pick might just be do-do and we do not want to read it. Go ahead. All right. Going right to the Instagram DMs, which you can do at M underscore, heck, JAR. Ronan Murphy, Paul Craig, worst stoppage I've ever seen, almost threw up.

I've been scarred. He likes the Nikita Krilov-F idea. Bilal-Mohamed versus Li-Jing Liang. Leon Edwards, obviously, for a title, but for some reason he can't and wants to fight again, I would like to see the winner of Wonderboy versus Burns. Moreno versus Ascaroff with a sad face,

but Figgies his boy. He said Figg either moves up or fights Garbrandt, And then, of course, obviously, Adesanya versus Bobby Knuckles. Brandon Nunez, Hakeem Duwado versus Shane Burgos, Mavzar Evloyov. By the way, another big star of the night, versus Bryce Mitchell, or the winner of Ryan Hall versus Ilya, Ilya. So many fun options, man.

But Hall versus... Oh, man, I just started with a hall versus if all over Loya. Oh, my God. Okay. That's so sick. Drew Dober versus Ally, Quinta, or Diego Faheda. Brad Riddell versus Hafiel Fazeve. That's a fun fight.

That's a sick fight. Both those guys are in pretty similar spots. Fight of the night. Again, hey, you want another fight of the night award? There's your go. Hill versus Crute or Alonzo Menefield. Craig versus Vulcan, Mohammed versus Magni, Figure 8 versus Cody. Brandon Nunez says,

do it at 135. I don't agree with that one. Moreno versus Ascaroff, yes. And then Vittori versus the loser of Darren Till versus Derek Brunson. Yeah, I feel like Vittori versus Till has to happen at some point. I think that that... That's so fun.

Like you said, could make for top, top UFC heel. And if he never fights for a title again, he could still make a lot of money with some feuds at 185. Bryant Chambers. Poppy underscore Bryant. Riddell Gillespie, Craig Krylov or Serkinoff, another Mohammed Li Jing Liang. Neal's going to be off.

Magnity to fight Shemiath. That's true. Magni Shemiah, but for some reason, If that fight hasn't been announced yet, I don't see it happening, which is kind of unfortunate. So Edwards versus, he's calling for the title shot. Edwards versus Usman. Moreno is kind of the same. Or Pantosia if he beats Roy Vow, since he got the win over Moreno, Izzy versus Whitaker.

Figgie could also get the trilogy with Moreno, but not right away. He needs to take him time off or get another win. Sneakers, flippers are fan from Italy. Title matches are quite predictable. So he says, Edward should get a title eliminator against the winner of Wonderboy versus Burns. Muhammad versus Michael Kiesa.

What are your thoughts on that? Yeah. I think it makes lots. Again, both guys on win streaks. Again, when I say win streak, people, I usually means I'm discounting a no contest. So that's, how many is that now for Muhammad? Five straight.

Five straight from Muhammad, four straight for Kiyasa. Yeah, as far as they, they're not like best friends or anything, are they? I don't think so, right? I'm not, we're not missing some connection that they might have. They're both on the broadcasting. I'm sure they both respect each other. Yeah, I'm sure.

Muhammad would love that fight. I'm sure Kieso would not be too thrilled with that one, considering where he's at at this point. But he also likes Collier versus Espino, Evloia versus Cub Swanson, Radell versus Sarukian. What do you think of this one, A.K.? Although, let me just throw out the disclaimer.

Diaz has said that his days at 155 are behind him, but that is not me. But again, when you have Diaz, it doesn't matter. Nate Diaz versus Michael Chandler. God, that's so good. That's so good. Make that a 160 pound catchweight.

Who cares? Who gives it? Who gives a crap? That one doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah, why? Why even make it 155? Save Diaz, the five pounds.

I'm sure Chandler doesn't want to cut that extra five pounds out. He's not like a big lightweight or anything, but I'm sure he'd love to have an extra burger that week. Patrick Austin, who always, usually he like will make matchups throughout the night. He didn't do that here. He set the time. on Friday and like planted a seed for a matchup said I've been doing some research I think Drew Dobler will win probably by K.O. In his last eight fights he's only lost to Darush and Islam

extremely underrated and it would be the perfect opponent for Tony Ferguson. That fight would make so much sense for me. It's the perfect step down for the boogeyman and step up for Dober. So then you responded with Redell versus Tony Ferguson. I clearly called that fight wrong. So there you go. I'm a completely in agreement with you. Now we got Harper 8. Harper H. Hooper is way higher than him in the rankings, but Hooper versus Kevin Krum, he likes. After Chase Hooper's lost to Stephen Peterson,

rebook Hakeem versus Burgos, Brad Riddell versus Grant Dawson. That's a crazy fight. That's a tough fight for Brad Radell. And a tough fight for Grant, but Grant's only had one fight at 55. I don't like the Gillespie rebooking either. Let's stop throwing these guys in with grapplers.

I don't care to test these guys take down defense. That's not a concern to me. I just want to see the Drew Dover match. It was so perfect. Both guys you can see just not a care in the world. They're like, you know, I mean, they did do some wrestling both of them. But for the most part, they just knew like, yeah, we're going to, we're going to stand as long as we can. Harper likes Figurato versus Ascarov, maybe as a number one contender fight.

And he likes Drew Dover versus Drachar close. What's it? What happened to Jakar? Wait, Jekar. Jokar is the one that got shoved by Stevens, who's still hurt. Stevens now is another fight booked, so. So, yeah, that's gone. And then Will is the last one that I see here, I'm sure, knowing my luck, all of them

they're going to come in after the show, that's usually what happens. Will says, we need to see Nate Diaz versus Kevin Holland at 170 pounds. And Evloia versus Gigacizekade. That is such a sick fight, and I'd love to see that one. It's just we won't, we probably won't see those two guys. square off unless it's like a number one contender fight or a title fight at this point. I'm fine with it. You know me, Mike.

I love it. I love it. Guys, unbeaten UFC guys at each other. I say screw. I just do it. But I also, you know, there's promotional reasons not to, for sure. Yep. All right.

All right. Well, first I'll say, uh, obviously the most, like this, this came up at least probably maybe a dozen times. Adasanya Whitaker rematch, of course. Moreno Ascarv rematch. Figurato versus Pentosia actually was the most recommended. I'm not sure if people forgot the pentosier. has a fight coming up or they just assume that he's going to beat Brandon Royval.

But either way, there's, oh, sorry, I'm thinking about Morena. Sorry, so I'm getting them mixed up. But either way, people do want to see Figurato, Pantosia, which would also be a rematch, I believe. So there we go. Sorry, that was, I should say, Figurato versus Pentosia 2. Again, Edward versus Usman. It's just common sense. People are like me.

They're just pretending this coldly thing is not going to happen, even though it probably will. Bala Muhammad, yeah, a ton of matchups. Muhammad versus Lee was probably the, most popular one. Redel, I love the Fizzive idea, but I think the one that I saw the most was him and Diego Pajara. Craig versus Crylov

was the most popular pick I saw for Craig. Murphy Shepchenko, again, was right up there with Adisania Whitaker 2, Moreno Ascarov 2. So all those kind of, these kind of title fights,

people seem to believe they're set in stone, and I'm down with that. The one I saw most for Joanne Calderwood was her and Viviare are a show. I like it. Makes a lot of sense. And I've Loya,

a lot of matchups, as you said, one of the biggest stars from the show. Yeah, Bryce Mitchell. Oh, people want to see this eevolve-thugnasty Bryce Mitchell matchup, which would just be, oh, God, the scrambles and the wrestling, and it would just be so much fun. So, yeah, there's a lot of other popular picks,

but I'm not going to go over everyone. Just know, guys, I do see you. A lot of these picks kind of overlapped. I do see you. I will credit when it is time to check the tapes should any of these fights happen. We had someone hit us both up on Twitter. Danny Capps at Mule Floyd on Twitter.

some good suggestions. Craig versus Olexicich, Felipe versus maybe the Chase Sherman Parker Porter winner on August 21st. And he said, you know what? He called hashtag lazy matchmaking, Farisium, and Terrence McKinney. Yeah, hopefully

McKinney's not injured and not out for a long time because I was just thinking that stoppage was so quickly, was so quickly. That stoppage was so quickly. That stoppage was so quick, Mike, that Matt Favola could be back within like two weeks as far as we know. I don't know badly he was hurt and we might not see McKinney for a year if it turns out that he like tore a

ligament or something that is how that's how silly guys fighters don't jump off the cage all right don't climb the cage don't jump it it's it's amazing I get it it looks cool I get you got you got a quick finish like that he must have had so much energy coursing through his body that he need to get rid of I understand don't don't do it that don't as soon as the fights over that cage should be electrified and just just no I wanted to read out, oh, someone who had a nice thing to say, Hot Take Higgins. He loves our post-fight work. It was a little sad.

I'd see us last night. Don't worry, Hot Take Higgins, we will be back, I'm sure, for another post-fight show. He said, Edwards, if we're on to the next one. But we know Dana hates Edwards, so it'll never happen. I don't know if he hates him. He doesn't care. He's not in love with him. He's not head over heels with what Edwards brings to the table on fight night. And our old pal at Mighty Magic Mart.

He just said it's been a while. Chaos. He said he'd love to see Redel versus Ferguson. So there you go. He's one of a few people who did it out there. But I think he's the first one I saw. So definitely, definitely, Mike, you are not off track.

That's a fight that could certainly happen. At Sports London, this is a new guy I've reached out to me. He wants to see Edwards versus, he just said Edward versus Burns, Thompson. So he probably doesn't care, winner or loser. He's, I think, one of those two, which I can agree with. Though, again, I'd rather see title fight. Craig versus Crute 2 I saw the few people

mentioned this one as well I remember I think I said I thought people forgot this match happened but it was almost two and a half years ago now so I don't hate it I don't think that's impossible

and Terrence McKinney versus Luis Pena I feel of that hmm people were all over the place with their McKinney picks again it's fine it's fine

when you win a fight in seven seconds I guess you are going to get a pretty big range of options McKinney versus McKinney versus Kamalworthy just sounds like all sorts of chaos Oh, I think that's yeah, that's down there for sure Yeah, someone to mention that for sure Dustin Gedko

Ibloyev versus like I said versus Burgos I think that was one you mentioned And also the zombie Egei loser How did you feel about that one Mike? I've got the loser of next weekend's main event I will have you know That my silver had you gone with Brad Riddell And picked that fight my backup was exactly that

Oh, okay So you and Dustin Gedko on the same page, excellent pick. Diaz versus Tony Ferguson. I'm fine with that too. I mean, I don't love it. It's like a fine like, hey, let's take a nice trip back to the good old days kind of fight. But I feel like Nate Diaz, aka the most valuable fighter in the UFC, it does nothing, it doesn't do a whole lot. Like it helps both fighters in a way, at least for the build of the fight.

but in the aftermath, it doesn't provide the value that Nate could provide, like he provided for Leon, like he provided for Mazadol, Connor, et cetera. I feel like Tony doesn't get that same rub at this point in his career. Yeah, that's almost like a dream fight that feels like we would have wanted to see that maybe a couple of years ago as opposed to now, but I don't hate it. And he has a bonus selection. He has a BTL matchmaking offer for you, Mike. He wants between the links, he wants to see me take on.

the wonderful Fernando Plachis. He said it's very obvious. Fernando was robbed on her debut. She sparkled with counters and stunned Jed every time she was in trouble. And this is kind of insulting to me. I propose this match as Fernando needs a strong bounce-back performance against a respected staple of the company, which for me, it sounds like I'm being called a gatekeeper or a journeyman.

That's a nice way of saying gatekeeper. Listen, I'm still a contender. I'm not near my prime yet. Don't worry about the record. I'm like Nate Diaz. The record doesn't tell the story. And let me tell you something. Fernando Pratas, I love her to death.

She's a dear, dear, dear friend of mine. Mike, if we are matched up in between the links, I will leave her head on a pike. All right, that's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. I'm just saying, okay? Wow. A dear friend, but you step in that octagon with me.

You step into the BTL dodecagon with me. I'm not sure what the theoretical BTL structure is. I will end you. I'll end you. I would love, first of all, I would love to see that matchup. It's going to happen. Second of all, Jed Michoud was given a heaping pile of humble at the end of between the leagues last week.

He beat James Lynch and waiting in the wings was the undisputed champ, Phoenix Carnivalet, who entered the fray, sent a video over to Jed Michoud and said, enjoy the win, but I'm back next week, bro. Oh. So, the fight, the matchup of all matchups goes down next week. And then, yeah. And then Jed's, we threw out the idea of a tag team matchup.

Okay. So Jed and Fernanda, we're going to team up to face Jose and Sean Al-Shadi and like a tag team BTL matchup, which we're still trying to figure out the logistics in my brain. But we might try something different. But I will say, as the commissioner of Between the Lanks, duly noted, I like it, and we'll take it under advisement. By the way, I don't want to make it too many cooks, but you might need a special enforcer for that tag match as well. I'd be happy to back on. I know Casey and you kind of serve as moderators slash judges. I'd happy to be there as a special enforcer.

Just to make sure there's no chicanery. I love it. That's a great idea. You can be the Mike Tyson in the situation. Yes, I again. I'm just going to be there in the corner in my little video box in the corner. And every now and then I'll chime in. Okay. In case he starts, it's a little too, I'll bring a whistle.

You mentioned our pal, Sammy James, and you finally got to meet in person, and he just said, not much of, well, unsurprisingly, he has a Beltor-related suggestion. He says, not much of my suggestion, but he says, Usman and Yaroslav Amasov are the two best 170 years in the world. I don't think Edwards has much of a shot against Usman, and it's a shame that we won't see the two best fight it out. So he's doing a little side promotion for a possible crossover fight.

He would love, and I agree. I think that would be a very cool matchup to see, especially what we saw from, from Amosov on Friday night. So yes, Sammy James, we like that idea. Yeah. Ryan Doherty, I want to shout up Ryan just because Ryan's a loyal listener. And he's just down with all the rematches.

He just says, he's like, look, Moreno Ascarob 2, figurato, Pantoja, too, had to sign Whitaker 2. So thank you, Ryan Doherty. Javon Johnson is always telling a story. he says so this is the Javan Johnson tale this way he says I don't care that this makes no sense I want to see Mowvsar fight Marab

Davalishvili okay they're not in the same way class I guess Marov could come up I don't know why he would do that but he just he says that also I want to hear Buff for announce those last names I don't remember I don't I don't know how we did it Yvloya last I don't think he did terrible but man I think he was fine yeah and then he said who else is going to fight Marab

no one else wants the smoke I'm sure Mofsar would accept a fight with him I just don't know if it makes sense for Marov to go up and fight probably someone as many bigger than him. And it's also a great wrestler. Liam Perry always comment on with the hotness. He says, Vittori versus the Till Brunson loser. He says, he says, I can't match for Diaz. He says, we may not see him again for two years, but Diaz McGregor three would be

nice. So this is true. The man is Mercurial. And like I said, as cool as it was that he surprised us by taking the Leon Edwards matchup, we don't know. Is that the beginning of a trend? Like I said, where he goes to fight guys like Lucke, or is he going to wait for these big fights like at Diaz and Gregor 3, when will that happen? We don't know.

I'm glad you, I'm glad you mentioned that. I'm glad you mentioned that because what people, what a lot of people don't realize, and this just is another point added to my Nate Values, the most valuable fighter in the UFC. Oh my gosh. Mike, you're wearing it out. No. Listen to listen to this, though. This is a true story. And it's been pretty much confirmed across the board. This is not a fight the UFC just went to Nate Diaz with and said, here, here's a contract against Leon Edwards. That's not how this went down. Nate Diaz went to the UFC and said,

see this guy that's on a streak right now? This Leon Edwards guy? I want him. I want to fight that guy. Nate picked this fight. Serves the value even more so. And I think he knew it. And that just shows, again,

he knows what he's doing. He knows if he goes five rounds with Leon Edwards. it doesn't get finished. He wins. He still wins, but so does Leon. So he's helping put this guy over further, but also putting himself over. Again, value, value, value, MVP, MVP, MVP.

You're welcome. I'm going to continue on. I'm going to tweet this. I'm going to tweet this. But that is cool, though. He is more savvy than people give him credit for. He likes to, he has always presented the image of the, I don't care.

I'm just a fighter. Oh, I don't care about the business side of things, you know, personality. but he's definitely savvy, and I think he should get credit for that. Eric Anders, if he stays at 205 versus the OSP, Maxime Grecian winner from June, it's on June 26. I think that'd be cool. Sure. Do you know if the Anders, I know Darren Stewart said he hates cutting down to middleweight,

so he might be sticking around 205. Anders has never had an easy time cutting down to 105, sorry, 185, excuse me, and he's taking a couple of fights at light heavy way now. Do you think he sticks around 205 as well? I would like him to. I mean, he's, it's kind of a different place than he was when he was fighting, you know, Tiago Santos and guys like that and getting Leo to Machita in main events. Like, Anders isn't a top 15 guy.

He's kind of far from it. And he's always, he said for a while, like he's cool bouncing back and forth. I think for the time being, he can stay at 205. Okay. Just, I think so too. Don't throw him in there with the top 15 guy. No, no. OSP would be close though

If OSP beat, I don't know if OSP's ranked right now He was, you know, he wasn't trenched in the top of team For quite a while, but he's probably out of it now Yeah So yeah, that'd be cool, that'd be cool if he beat If he beat Grishin, right, Grishen would be a good matchup too Sure Stephen Peterson, look, we hate the guy missed weight

But there's certainly fights he made for him So Liam Perry says Stephen Peterson versus Shane Young And then Foresseum versus Alan Patricke. So, that'd be, recent eye-po victim, Alan Patrick, who fingers crossed will avoid a six-month suspension. He was diagnosed initially with some sort of damage around the eye after getting poked.

So by Mason Jones. Is it? Am I remembering this? Mason Jones. So fingers crossed, you can come back soon. J.C. Rodriguez, shout out to the DR. Marvin Vittori versus Paul Costa. Yes, I'm so down for it.

This matchup you hate, I know, but Fagie versus Garbrandt, 135. Redell versus Sarukin, he likes that one too. and Terrence McKinney versus Devante Smith. McKinney really left a big impression on people, and they really want to see him in another fight that ends in like 30 seconds, apparently. Yeah, actually, you know what? I think I got a little, I think I got too prematurely excited for that fight. I don't want to see him fight Devonty Smith,

because I think I legit feel Devante Smith is the real deal. I think he's a guy who could fight for a title at some point. I think he is legit. I think he had the hiccup against Kamowworthy. There were so many weird. things that play they were they were playing into that fight like fighting his friend having three different opponents less than a weeks notice the all the injuries he suffered like i feel like devante is a legit player 155 and it's going to take time for him to get there and terence is

like is in a great place his stock rose immensely and i think once people learn more about him it's going to grow even more yeah i feel like throwing him in there with a guy like devante would be would be a big mistake yeah for both them like i said you have You don't want to stunt McKinney's growth. And also, it's not really fair to Devonte, I think, to throw him in there with one of these, a guy who has nothing to lose, like K.R. It's, so yeah, fun fight for us. For both fighters, maybe not what's best for them right now. Jerry McNulty coming in from Ireland, he says, I want to reload the messes.

He said, AK, how are you? Bit of a struggle this week in Ireland here with a time difference. Watching the card, he means. And the lockdown, the pubs open back up and, you know, we love drinking. So it was a lot harder to stay out for the fights this week. So he said, what a week for UK fighters. And he wanted to shout out the Figy versus Garbrant matchup. But like you, he says prefers it at 125.

I believe that's what I'm reading here. Yes, he said, Davis should fight Cody if he can make the wait. So there was a bit more there. But Jerry, I hope things are getting better over in Ireland. Brett Mobley, go Rams, as always. He likes the Vittori versus Till, Brunson winner. Moreno versus Ascarov, but really anyone.

He says, he says, Moreno versus anyone, any effing wear. And then he was giving me some matchups and then said, again, another one of our listeners, too intoxicated to continue

because of Moreno. Oh, intoxicated on life, not necessarily on alcohol. But please set him up with anyone because he's the best 125er on the planet. Change my mind. Well, he certainly has a case for it. And I think he also mentioned

Diaz, versus Masvedol to, yeah, I don't know. You know, that's low on my list of rematches for the eyes, if I'm being honest. Marcus McGehy, dubbing this week's ought no, Mike, just simply the style bender edition. And he came in with Felipe versus the Tuivasa Greg Hardy winner on July 10th. Felipe asked for it. He said, give it to him. Fresium versus David Tamer.

We need to figure out where David Tamer is. I should reach out and look for that because he has not fought since losing Charles Olivera. And before that, he was really looking like a contender at 155. So, yeah, I would love to see that fight be booked just so we could get tamer back in action. He did not, he was not happy with Stephen Peterson missing weight, Mike. And he says, Peterson versus T.J. Laramie, which he says, this strikes me as a suitable punishment for missing weight. I guess so. It's not like T.G. Laramie is a killer.

But again, it's a tough, theoretically a tough fight where Peterson would have more to lose than to gain. So I guess that's the punishment idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, it is what it is, man. Listen, the guy was out, the guy was out for a while. He's never missed weight before. This is a tough miss. I get it. And he came out and he owned it.

He admitted it and said he screwed up and there was a timing thing. And he vowed he will never happen again. So I'm willing to give, especially like in this, we're not post-pandemic yet. You know what I mean? Like we're getting back to normalcy, but we're not fully. there yet. So I'm willing to give fighters the benefit of the doubt in certain situations. Now,

Asker-A-A-Sker-off, I understand why you'd be mad at him because he's fighting Joseph Bedavitas. He's arguably a win away from fighting for the belt. So I understand people who don't want to reward Asker off with a title shot after missing weight. But Peterson, being out for 18 months and, you know,

dealing with some of the injuries and things he's had to come back from, I'm not, it's, it's stinks. Chase got himself a, I don't think the weight made a difference in the fight. Chase was probably going to lose that fight. That fight probably goes no differently. Chase gets a little extra money. And it's bad. We don't say, yay, Stephen Peterson won. You missed weight. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. If he misses weight again, we're going to have a whole different conversation. And the rant I had about Diaz versus Shamiyev will probably be extended times

three here just because I just basically put myself out there in support of Stephen Peterson making a mistake, owning up to it, and making sure it never happens again. I don't know why the UFC's response to the, you know, Hooper beating Peter Barrett was to say, rather than downgrade him in competition, let's put him in there with a 27-fight veteran. Like, what are they doing with Chase? We said last time, either it would be cool if they would let him go back to like, sort of this developmental deal

and go fight on the regional scene or bring in guys from a contender series who are closer to his experience level to fight him the Peterson matchup was so bizarre 27 fight veteran has never been submitted why did they are they not trying to build up Chase Hooper's I don't understand I feel like they're trying to build him up

as a star and the matchmaking is like the exact opposite of that this kid's going to get hurt I know that sounds stupid he's a fighter but I mean his like career trajectory is going to get seriously hurt if they keep messing around with him like this so matchmakers i think you've been doing a great job lately you got to do better with chase hooper i don't know what's going on um yeah i mean he's in he's in a weird place right now man why this matchup why this matchup i don't know what like i don't even know what what what you can do right now like i would like i just don't know what do

what do you like who makes sense for chase right now again bring in bring in guys who who lost on the contender series for him to fight bringing guys again just closer and experience level i'm not saying bring in pure cans whatever that means at the uc level but there's much more winnable fights than stephen peterson and peter barrett again i know he beat peter barrett but he was essentially you know it was the last second you know last round submission right like i'm not mad like if they did chase hooper versus t j laramie yeah that's fine like i think i think that's good matchmaking that makes more sense but he took a lot of damage to this fight too he took a lot of like heavy ground and pound. This is not good. He's 21 years old. His brain is still developing. I think it's fair to say.

This is not good for him. Guys, figure this out, please. Well, Marcus, I also want to, he had some good picks. Terrence McKinney versus Yonzi Madero's Damir-Hazzovic winner, June 26. Eric Anders versus Danila-Marquez, Ed Herman, winner, June 26. And Muhammad versus Ponziivia, which I quite like. I got quite a few to run here, guys, to run it through here, so I'll try to speed it up a little bit. Andy Bekera, shout to Andy Bekera. Radell versus Makachev. Again, why are we matching it with Grapplers?

I don't know. And then he has an answer to our Hooper question. He says, send Chase Hooper back to the regional scene. And he also wanted to mention that city kickboxing's Israel Adesania is now up to O'Sman on King's MMA after Saturday nights. So a little rivalry there. Hayes Bethard. Okay, I don't have to read all the, said, oh, he had a little equation for Usman.

He said, if Uzman is going to fight in the early fall, Edward should be the fight. If Udman wants to wait, Wonderboy should get the title shot. If he beats Gilbert Burns and then Leon can fight Colby. I like all that, Hayes. I like all that, all of those suggestions. He threw out Craig versus Dominic Reyes.

Craig would love it. Reyes, that's another I don't know how we build Reyes back up. I don't feel like Paul Craig is the answer. I actually really that's a really interesting fight. It's an interesting

fight, but they're going in different directions. But that's the fight to make. That's the fight to... Wow. That is actually the fight to make. Because the one thing we're really concerned about with Dominic Reyes

is taking a whole bunch of damage on the feed. Like, having those losses getting knocked out brutally by Yombollahovic, getting knocked out like, I don't even know if there's a word that you can use that's like 10 times more than brutally. to Yuri Phrashka,

I think Paul Craig, while he poses very interesting threats to finish the fight, that's an interesting fight. He won't, like, it'll be more, if he loses, he loses by submission. He doesn't get brutally knocked out.

Yeah, he might, he might, you know, break a limb or something or a muscle, like a bone might snap, but I would rather, I don't want to see that happen either, but if it's a choice,

I'm taking that over getting brutally knocked out for the third straight time. Mike, if he gets his knee shredded, by a Paul Craig leglock, I'm coming to you, sir. I'm coming to your door with some stern words. But again, look, you can't protect Dominic Reyes when you get to the level he's at.

There's no easy fight. So I don't know what the answer is. I agree. It's not like the worst suggestion, but it just didn't jump out of me. But thank you, Hayesby 3rd. Mike Heck approves. Barry O'Reilly, our old pal, Barry O'Reilly, what did I like here? Ziam versus Joel Alvarez, Terence McKinney, versus Ottman, Azitar.

Mosao Ivoev versus Giga. He also said, Mike, he said, excuse my brashness. I want to introduce a new category to the show. This is very brash. What the heck podcast suggestions? And he says, I don't know why, but I really want Mike to interview Jordan Wright. Jordan is kind of interesting. He doesn't have much of a social media presence.

I haven't seen him do a lot of interviews. When I went to look it up, I know our pal, James Lynch, has interviewed him several times. outside of that, I don't see a lot of Jordan Wright interview content. Is he a private person? I'm not sure what's going on there. I've interviewed him in the past. Before the O.C.

Yeah, this is probably like three or four years ago. This is before the contender series fight. Sure. But every time I've tried to reach out since then, I haven't gotten a response. I don't know if it's me or if it's just like he just doesn't check his social media or what. I have no idea. I don't even know who manages him at this point. I don't think you're the only one.

Like I said, when I looked, I saw maybe one or two other interviews, and there was like four interviews with James Lynch. So I don't think he's doing a lot of media, but I, I, I'm not going to make any promises for Mike. But like I said, Mike said, he's been reaching out to him. And if we can get him on what the heck, obviously we'd love to have the Beverly Hills Ninja on that show. So it's in the works. It's in the way. Look, it's in the works. The ball is in Jordan's court.

Thomas Collins. I want to read out some of it. He always has well thought out things. So bear with me, guys. I'm going to read out. He says, Mosar Ivloia versus zombie Danigay, loser. He said, Mosaar is deserving anyone in the top 10,

given a streak at feather rate. Either these two have a loss, ideal option from to fight, I have not chosen Ivloia versus the winner because he thinks that Arnold Allen should get the winner. And he says he is biased towards British fighters. So he also wants Vodal versus Tiago Moises, no matter what happens with Makachev. And he likes a fighter who we haven't talked about much,

unfortunately this episode, but she had a great, a solid win, close fight. Pani Kianzad versus loser of Irina Aldana, Yana Kunizkaya. I think this would be a good test for Pani for us to see whether she can become a future contender. And the loser of next month's fight between Aldana and Kuniskaya would help us to establish that. So I agree, Thomas Collins. Well done. Well thought out. I'm getting through these guys.

Michael Perugini, always with so many good picks. He says Diaz versus Hamzat. He says, I know, I know. Hamzat is the guy we avoid, but the UFC wants to push him. so much and if they want to give him a big name other than Neil Magny, Nate could be the guy to give him a big push. Radal versus Iaquinta, raging out, we just got to get you a fight somewhere. Anders back at middleweight versus the Gerald Mearschard versus MacMed Mordov winner, August 28th. McKinney versus Mike Davis. He says, after McKinney heard his knee at the celebration,

he says Davis is also healing up for his own injuries. Let's book them at the end of 2021, early 2022. Good thinking. Oh, my God. What a sick fight that is. Good thinking. Stephen Peterson versus Ludovic Klein, the Battle of Featherweights with recent weight misses. Farras Zium versus Joe LaZan. Too soon. I think a little too soon for Zom. But Zium looks good.

And, God, it's so much fun. Carlos Felipe and Ben Rothwell. Again, maybe too soon, but I don't know. I think Ben might do it. And Jay Climman came in with suggestions while we were doing the show. Radell versus Matush Gamrott and Carlos Felipe versus Juan Espino. No emails this week, guys. but I do, so I got to give some love, though, to my Instagram crew.

I know, guys, it's the longest episode ever, but let's go to the Instagram crew here. We've got some great suggestions, including two new contributors, long-time listeners. Bailey Gardner says he's chiming in from the Australian countryside. He likes for Del versus Ferguson, Mike, he said, looking at the rankings, Brad Sliden at 13 after that win. The next guys above him are all stupid good grapplers. He does not a great matchless for him. And Dan Hooker was a teammate. So, you know, he said, I wanted, I mentioned I wanted Tony to fight backwards before, and he says that that would be a good stand-up fight to build Brad's name.

So very true, Bailey Gardner. Well done. Good thinking. Well explained. And forgive me, I'm always bad at pronouncing Irish names, but Kieran, Kieren, Colombo, likes Leon Edwards versus Michael Kesa and Paul Craig versus Jimmy Kruit, the rematch. So we got some deep match, Matt Bradbury, always with these, Fares Diem versus Claudio Pueyes, Stephen. Peterson versus Landa Benada, Terrence McKinney versus Jim Miller.

I don't know if Jim Miller would want to take that fun. Not because Jim Miller couldn't win, but it's just that's first one with one UFC versus one with like 50 UFC fights. Disagree. We already know Jim Miller's next fight. He should fight Donne in Seroni's final fight.

That's right. Brandon Haley, I just wanted to read his message about he says good champs. He says this is about good. He's the last new champs, Rose, Charles Alvara, Brandon Marano. He says, I don't know about you guys. He says, it hits you right in the fields, watching them achieve their goals after all of their adversities. Another one for the good guys. I agree, Brandon. It is always nice to see

fighters with these personalities that we've become attached to win fights. M.M.A. has great suggestions here. Craig versus Misha Serkernov, Eric Andrews versus Fluffy Hernandez, Terrence McKinney versus Kamaworthy. I know he said before that that's been mentioned. This one, I didn't remember who was talking about because it's been so long. He said Stephen Peterson versus Gracie. And I tell you, I'm like Gracie. I'm like, oh, Cron. Like Cron, we just haven't seen Cron forever.

So this to me sounds like a frontist's fight because I think Cron would have his way with Peterson on the ground. But yeah, look, we just got to figure out where Cron Gracie is and then we'll talk about it. Foresseum versus Davy Hamos, another guy. I don't know where this guy's at. So M. Mayheads, I think on Instagram,

thank you for reminding me. These guys are in circulation somewhere. And Carlos Felipe versus Andrei Arlowski. I think that fight would be super ugly. And not a bit. And I'm ending. with some self-indulances here because I have a fellow member of the GTA. I don't know exactly where in the greater Toronto area this young man is from,

but he did want to shout out Markham. So if he's from Markham, much love from a neighbor of neighborhood around Markham, of course, much love as well. So this is from, forgive the pronunciation, Nevathon Kugantham, who likes Davidson Figueroero, versus Manel Cape. And again, I just want to say, this is shout-outs to all my people's in the GTA. And thank you for listening, man. So there we go, Mike. Big, I know, big episode this week, guys, but we had to break it down for you. We gave you, we got to give you all the listeners, all the huge matches we have on this card.

Again, reach out to me on Instagram, Alexander KK. Lee or on Twitter at Alexander K. Lee. I got no emails this week, guys. Come on, fill my email inbox, Alex.com. Yeah. So, first of all, we warned you this is going to be a long edition. Plus, we didn't have a live stream post-fight show, so consider it like a combination of the two. And we appreciate that. And listen, for those who listen while they do their runs, we get a lot of runners

who listen to the show. Guess what? We just helped you prepare for a marathon. Now you're going to run even further. Don't die. Don't die. This is a two. There we go.

You know what? This is a two runner. The two runner. Yeah. Just go 15K. Half marathon. We got you covered. So that's it for this.

UFC 263, at least for now, from a matching and perspective, is in the books. Join us again next week. week as we will answer the what's next coming out of UFC Vegas 29, a very interesting main event in the featherweight division. The Korean zombie, Chan Sung Jung, who, by the way, he was on what the heck last week. You can go back and check out that interview. We'll take on Dan Ege. That is a great fight.

Alexei Olinick versus Sergei Spivak is the co-main event, if you could believe that. Very interesting fight. Diego Lima versus Matt Brown. We got Marlon Vera versus Davy Grant. The rematch there, that's interesting. Tim Means is back fighting Danny Roberts, Verna,

Jen D'Oroba versus Kanako Marata, Josh Parisian versus Rocky Martinez. Take all my money. Take all of it. Juliana Rosa is back against Young Wu Choi,

Lara Procopio versus Casey O'Neill. Her second UFC parents, I know a lot of people are excited about that. We also have a banger to kick things off as well between Matthew Semmelsberger and Chaos Williams. And by the way,

AK, we're going to see Joachim Silva take on a returning fight. A guy who wasn't competed in a while. And a man who changed his first name. Added a Y. Rick Glenn is now Ricky Glenn. And this is real.

This is a real thing. He is going by Ricky Glenn. Did he break this to James Lynn? He broke this James Lynch. He did. To the great James Lynch. He's Ricky Glenn now. And I love it.

I love it more than anything. Listen, well, I'm reading his Wikipedia now. So I guess his full name. He should add in the middle name. Apparently, Ricky Lee. Ricky Lee Glenn. That's a fighter name. Ricky Glenn.

Yes. If he added in the Lee, I'd be into it. Just the Ricky by itself, he's a, Mike, he's a 32 year old man. I love it. We'll tell you what. We'll talk about this more next week, show. This is a whole, guys, this is at a whole other 15 minutes if I want to go on how I feel about adult Rickies.

So there you have, but we can't go out better than that. But Matthew Semmel's Ruggler's Chaos Williams is the opening fight on this card. At least as it looks right now, absolutely ridiculous. So it should be a lot of fun. But until then, for Alex Keeley, I am Mike. heck thank you for listening always remember don't take the stuff too seriously m ms supposed to be fun we'll have more fun right here next week on onto the next one the podcast