MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC 269

Episode Date: December 12, 2021

After Charles Oliveria and Julianna Pena pulled off upset finishes at UFC 269 to leave Las Vegas with world title belts wrapped around their waists, their paths towards next title defenses seem pretty clear. Justin Gaethje looks to be next in line for the lightweight champ, while the brand new bantamweight queen likely will see Amanda Nunes at least one more time. Those incredible victories are discussed this week, along with future matchmaking ideas for Dustin Poirier, Geoff Neal, Kai Kara-France, Sean O'Malley, Dominick Cruz, and more with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee on the final post-PPV edition of On To the Next One. 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. And welcome to the final post-paperview edition of On to the next one here in the Year of Our Lord 2021 following an incredible UFC 269 event in Las Vegas, a card that had it all. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, career-altering moments for some, emotional crossroads for others. One of the biggest upsets in M.M.A. history. Prospects emerging. much more. This one had it all. And as tired as we are, we are excited to fire this up this week for the 71st time. I am Mike Eck and joining me as always the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the POP, and my best friend, Mr. Alexander Cayley, AKA, we only get to do this matchmaking thing two more times this year. And what a ride 2021 has been, hasn't it?

It's been a ride enjoyable at times, my best friend, quite miserable at other times. Of course, depending on who you are, depending on your situation. It's almost a shame, you know, because you kind of mentioned, like, just what made the card so great is how much storylines are coming out of it. It's almost a shame that we have another card coming up. I would never begrudge, you know, fans for enjoying another card that will be free with, I shouldn't say free, but you guys in the US, ESBM plus subscriptions free for us in Canada on TSN. But it's almost like would be cool. They could have ended on this emotional capper.

You know what I mean? If they ended on 269, it's like, man, a new. one of the greatest upsets we've ever seen, a definitive answer to who is the best lightweight in the world right now. And again, I'm sure, look, I'm sure we'll have storylines next week. Louis Dawkes has implications.

Wonder Boy Thompson's fighting, you know. That's going to be a big step-up fight for Balamohama. And there's other storylines going in. It's actually a really nice card next week, but I don't think it's going to match the emotional and dramatic impact of 269 and how could it? So it would be very fun if this could have been. been the UFC's farewell to 2021.

But maybe other people will see it another way that it'll actually be nice to kind of have one last chill session with, you know, the MMA community before we head off into the new year. It's a house money card for the UFC. I don't think anyone has very high expectations. I think they're just going to watch it just to watch it. And then after that, we get Jake Paul versus Tyron Woodley in the same day. Oh, yes.

So that's what the emotion comes from. This is what I'm saying, though. Wouldn't you rather end the year on two. 69, then whatever happens at, even if Woodley KOs Jake Paul, it just, the whole thing will still just have this icky feeling to it. So I wish we could have ended on 269. And like you said, it's free money. If next week's card is bad, we won't, we won't remember it. If it's great, it's great.

If it's bad, we won't even remember it. We'll remember 269 as sort of the way the UFC capped off 2021. I think you have to end every calendar year with the Derek Lewis fight. and then it just doesn't matter. Like, you just, that's the last impression you get inside the Octagon. Because even if Derek Lewis has, like, it's just not a fun fight, it's okay. It's Derek Lewis. He's going to say something funny after and leave us with some fun.

But speaking of fun, speaking of positivity, let us begin with Charles Dubronx Olivera. He was vindicated, AK, as the best lightweight on the planet. You were vindicated for saying as much for quite some time. He took over the fight in the second round after a tough first against Dustin Porre. The fight seemed to be going the way a lot of people thought it might go, but Oliver overcomes. He submits Dustin Porre in the third round, and he retains the lightweight championship of the world. There's not much to decipher here from a matchmaking perspective. Justin Gaichi is next in line, and what a fight it shall be.

Was I really the only, am I really the only Olivera number one guy? I am, aren't I? And was it always, I thought there was someone else. He was? I thought maybe one other person who knows Charles on there better than we do. I don't know. You would think so. You would think that that traitorous Gierme Cruz would

know. I'm looking at the most recent rankings now. He had 4A number one. So it was just me by the time by the time December rolled around. I don't know if that changed.

And look, for a good reason. Porre is a great fighter and most people assuming he could have been the champion earlier this year. If he wanted to, he chose to take some massive money fights with Connor.

No one can blame him for that. and I'm sure he doesn't regret it even after last night. But yeah, it was the only Oliver first place vote. But, yes, it's good to see that you know, he's our number one ranked guy. He got to fight the UFC champion. And in this case, the UFC

champion, triumph and will now, unquestionably be the number one ranked guy, and that's great. Yeah, look, it's pretty obvious. I'm not going outside the box here. Let's just say it. Justin Gates you should be next. I know some people will want to see, you know, Makachiev gave the shot sooner if he beat

Darius, but that's fights, what, in February or something? Yes. I think that's a long wait. That's a long wait. I have a feeling Olavera'll be ready to go by March like the latest. Or as early as March, I put it that way. It could be like March or April. But as early as March, he'll probably be ready. It's time for him and Justin Gagee.

Another great style matchup for him. Another guy who, I think Olaver maybe now with a little more respect will be favored, but a lot of the same problem is Poirier. You get hit by Gagee enough times. You're going down the first round. So I don't know how many first round punch flurries Olivera can withstand. I mean, his last two fights easily could have gone the other way. And I don't know if he surprised one from Gavejee, but I certainly want to find out.

And I think a lot of people do. So, yeah, Oliver Gage, that's a way to go, right? Yeah, incredible performance from Olivera. And outside of Poria having his moments in the first and really stinging Olivera, the fight actually played out the way I thought it would for the first half, because I thought Oliver would have a lot of success early. I thought he would have Porre in trouble early. would win rounds, maybe the first two, maybe even the first three.

And I didn't, and I thought Poria would sort of kind of turn the tables. I definitely didn't expect Porre to come out as strong as he did. I thought he would shine more down the stretch in the championship rounds by being the one to actually overcome Olivera. That didn't happen. Oliver takes big punishment. He survives. He shot a lot of people up. And that fight with Justin Gaichy is just going to be amazing.

Now, as far as Dustin Porier goes, AK, I know we throw out the word crossroads a lot in MMA, but he literally is at a professional and life crossroads right now after this fight. The guy is incredibly talented. He's a first ballot hall of famer. He's had an incredible year. He's made a lot of money. He's a family man.

Charitable man. But there's going to be that emptiness of what this loss will bring him for a long, long time. He's a very competitive dude. And he said essentially, I can go on another run, get to another title fight, but do I want to? And that's the question he's going to have to answer. And that's a question he thinks he's going to have an answer for pretty soon.

So in your heart of hearts, A.K., do you think he will want to? And if the answer is yes, who might he find himself inside the octagon with next? Mr. Borier, take some time off, rest, relax, enjoy all the money you made this year. I'm sure you did very, very, very well. Look after your charities, you know, just be the good dude that you are known to be. And just wait around for Connor McGregor. Make some more money. That's what you're doing in 2020.

You're making some more money. Again, it could be a while before McGregor's back. We don't know. You know, if you ask McGregor, I'm sure he'll say, I'll be ready. I'll be ready by February or whatever. But again, there's a lot of complications with these sort of injuries sometimes. But best case, Nair, if he's back any time in the first six months, or I'd say ready to be booked any time in the first six months of next year, Yeah, just, Porre, you just tell him you want that fight.

Now, this isn't a lock, by the way. McGregor, of course, is a fickle beast. I'm sure he does want to fight Porre again. He doesn't want the last image of him and Porre in the case of me, of course, him lying on his ass with a leg injury. But also, there are other fights that could intrigue McGregor, other business interests. Maybe he doesn't fight at all in 2022. We don't know. It's hard to predict him.

But if he does, I would hope that he would see how much money there is. And there's one more goal around with Fourier that hopefully doesn't end in a freakish way again. I think Porre is the better fighter, too. I think he should just get to prove it definitively. And then that should be done and get his paycheck. And then who knows? And then Porre, I say take the rest of just fight McGregor, just fight once in 22, take the rest of the year off, see how the landscape of a lightweight and maybe welterweight, if he's into that, looks in 2023.

Yeah, I mean, as much as this. loss will sting Dustin Poyer, the competitor. Dustin Porey, the prize fighter, doesn't suffer all that much here because should he decide to keep this train moving, I'm with you, I think it will be Connor McGregor because I do believe he'll take a good amount of time off and the timelines will probably sync up with McGregor moving along with his recovery. But right now, McGregor is like a cruiser weight at 225 pounds. So who the hell knows? But Dustin's in These wins over Connor puts him in a really good spot because if he wants to fight Nate Diaz, all he has to do is say it.

And there's a very good chance the UFC makes that fight. If Dustin Porier wants to fight his old pal, Colby Covington, all he has to do is say it. Colby will take that fight. That's a very big deal. Or if he just wants to move to 170 in general, like you said, if that's a challenge he'd like to pursue, the UFC will let him take that step towards that challenge. So yeah, it's tough. got a feel for Porre and whatever he decides to do, this is his decision,

but I don't think he'll go out on a loss like that. I just think he's too competitive to let that happen. But it's fair to say that Porre has entered that cherish him while you have him territory. And I feel like that sentiment will be repeated for another fighter at a matter of moments. But before we get there, AK, we have to talk. Oh, you want to go ahead. I want to ask you, if you could wave your magic wand, and let's say doesn't Porre gets paid the same, like a great paycheck no matter what,

Which one do you like better? McGregor, Diaz, or Covington? Hmm. I don't love McGregor. I think we've seen it. I don't think it goes any differently. I understand why the UFC would want to make it because it's just going to be a huge fight.

McGregor's return, Porier, big deal. Diaz would be very big. I think I want to see the Nate fight. I think I want to see it for a multitude of reasons. One, I just, those two have had a B for a while. Let's just settle it and get it done. and two, if Nate really doesn't want to be in the UFC anymore, I think Dustin is favored in that fight.

I think Dustin is a very good chance of winning that fight. You send Diaz off with a loss. Diaz will find a way to swing it in his favor some way, and everybody wins. So I would prefer that. Covington's interesting, too, in its own way. The build to that fight would kind of be awful, especially on the Colby side.

Just leave Jolie out of it. That's all I say. Say it, you know, whatever. They've worked. They've trained together. So if you want to talk about some dirty whatever crap, you know, that happened in the gym. I mean, I don't like that, but that's fine. Leave the family out of it.

Leave Jolie out of it. I swear that's the one that, yeah, if he brought in family and I would hope Covington would be above that. But again, he was taking cheap shots at Camargo's mom's dad, for God's sake. So I don't know. But I do like the Covington matchup just because it seems so, it seems like the most remote option right now. So I think just for the sake of chaos, no pun intended. I would like to see it and see how that would go.

Yeah, and a lot of people are like, oh, they're not going to give Nate that fight. If Dustin wants it and he screams it from the rooftop that he wants it, Dustin will get that fight. But if he doesn't and Nate just goes on Twitter and calls for it, it won't happen. But if Dustin wants it, he will get it. But we have to talk about the brand new Bannamweight champion of the world.

We got to talk about the Venezuelan Vigson, Giuliana Pena. She wanted this fight with Amanda Nunes for almost six years. She kept calling her out. I've done many interviews over the years. Juliana Pena always calls out Amanda Nunes. That name is always off the top of her head. She said, from day one, I will be in her face.

I'm not afraid of her. And I will win. I will defeat Amanda Nunes. And if I fight her, I will become the champion. And she goes out there in front of a capacity crowd and does exactly that. She overcomes a rough first round. She got dropped several times. Seem to garner some momentum at the end of the first round.

Great cornering from Rick Little seemed to fire her back up. and Pena comes out swinging in the second. She stung Nunes many, many times. She took her down, took her back, submits her without a hook anywhere to be found with a rear naked choke. What a moment. What an all-time upset, A.K. But from a matchmaking perspective, we're all mentally preparing for a rematch. Are we not?

Yeah, that's where I'm going with it. And I do want to really congratulate Julianna Pena. I did not pick her, as we all know, by now. Jedman Shoe was the only one in our staff to have the guts to say. I think he picked, did he, I don't think he got the round right, but I believe he did say Pena by submission. I think maybe he was just like a roundoff. I think he said. I think he picked decision, but just the fact that he, just the mere fact that he picked her is unbelievable.

And I believe this is pretty much how he broke it down to. I think how a lot of people broke down how Julianna Pena would win the fight. It would have to be, as she herself had said, nonstop pressure. Oh, he did, did pick by decision. But nonstop pressure, you know, take the champ out of her comfort zone. And boy, Amanda Nunes looked very, very uncomfortable. Like you said, no hooks on that choke. She was clearly just out of air.

And once she felt that Pena put the squeeze on her, it's just like, I got to get out of here. Like, she probably thought she was going to die. She looked so, so exhausted. And again, I see people questioning, well, was it going back down to 135 that affect her? She distracted because, you know, she has all the success. And now she's a mom now and all that. And it's like, let's just give the credit to Pena. Because Pena, like I said, she did what she said she was going to do.

She said pressure was the key and not being afraid of Amanda Nunes was the key. Those things were both evidence in the cage on Saturday night. So, yeah, and I was never as down on her as a challenger some people were. We said, Mike, you know, we all broke down. She kind of was the challenger by default. But Julianna Pena is she's a really good fighter. Like her only losses in the UFC are to GDR and Valentina Shevchenko. And is like, is that supposed to disqualify her from like being an elite fighter?

I don't like that. I never understood. She beat Katzangano. Sarah McMahon, I still think that's a good win. I know Sarah McMahon maybe a little past her prime. I still think she's a really good fighter. I get it. You know, she was never able to put together this super dominant run to the title.

But I think anyone who's seen a Julianna Pina Faita. I'm really surprised that people were so down on her. But credit to Jed and anyone else who picked Julianna Pina. You guys are really sharp and a little bit. guts here than the rest of us. So yeah, the rematch is the way to go. I'll say, there's a lot of other kind of cool options. I'll save that from the listener picks. I think listeners were really creative for the most part with what could be next for Nunes, what could be next for Pena. But yeah, if a men of Nunez says I want this immediate rematch,

that's what's going to happen. If you told me, remember how we did our prediction show last year and I said make a bold prediction. If your bold prediction was one of the more interesting divisions in 2022 will be the women's abandonweight division, I would have laughed my ass I would have laughed in your face, A.K. But sure enough, look at us now. 2022, one of the more interesting divisions in all of the UFC will be the women's band-and-weight division because of what happened on Saturday night.

And this rematch will be a good one. It'll be very interesting. And I think it'll create a lot of intrigue. And I think people will really care about it. Good for Pena. It's always fun in sports when the major underdog comes through. And for Nunes, she's likely in the same place Piorier is in a lot. lot of way, but she's obviously in a different spot because she, no matter what happened on Saturday

night, she is still the greatest female fighter of all time. She deserves that immediate rematch for sure, and I am all in for it. But again, like I said about Dustin Porre, cherish Amanda Nunes, the fighter while we have her, because I don't think it'll be there much longer. I think she'll be appreciated far long, far more after she is done fighting than she is right now. And it's interesting to see Amanda Nunes in a position where she now has something to prove in her own mind after pretty much doing absolutely everything in the sport. So I think this rematch is really interesting. And yeah, I'm all in on it. I'm all in on this rematch. I'm not as sure that this sets us up for like an intriguing, you know, 135 pound landscape in

2022 because one, I think in Nunez, if she got it, she wants to rematch and wants it soon, it'll be in the first quarter of 2021. And I think she will. would get it back. And I think that would set up a trilogy fight. I do think that, you know, they would want to match them up again right away. And that's fine. And I don't think that's a bad idea at all. So for me, that would just freeze the top of the division again for probably the whole year. I don't know if they'd be able to fit any other title, 135 pound title fights in the schedule outside of Nunez, Nunez Pena 2 and Nunes Pena 3. So, yeah, I don't know. And again, it's just such a talent deficient division right now. But you're right. Maybe that'll change. Maybe some

things will shake up, but I'm not as optimistic because it was a pretty stagnant division this year and it could be next year other than seeing Nunes and Pena fight a couple more times. I would certainly favor Amanda Nunes, but it would not surprise me in the least of Julianna Pena beat her again. She's got the blueprint. She's got the blueprint. And if she doesn't, I think she set the table for others to do so. So very intriguing stuff, looking forward to it.

And congratulations again to Julianna Pena. Oh, I have to ask you one more thing. Sure. Let me go to our rankings here to make this a bit easier for both of us. Again, this is probably going to spoil some of the listener picks. But again, you know what? The listeners, they get so much time. They get their say all the time anyway.

They're already spoiled. They get more time than us. They're already spoiled. This is a big card. This is our show. And we had to share time on Saturday night with those nincompoops, Jedmishu and Shaheen Al-Shadi and E.K. C.L. It's ridiculous. It really should just be you and me all the time.

but what Challenger do you think Juliana Pena would be favored against in her first tell defense? So I'll go from the top. So we both agree

Nunez would be favored. Yes. GDR. I think GDR. She beat her. She beat her. Yeah. It would be a slight favorite.

Slight favorite. Holly Holm, I think he's favorite. I don't think she should be, but she probably will be. Bigger name, right? bigger name. Okay. Eddie Naldana, I think Pena would be favored.

Yes. Payne would be favorite in that fight. Raquel Pennington. Yes. Probably Payne as well. Okay. And that's probably the next five or six contenders. Other people aren't as close.

So, okay. So there's a couple of names in there. I was about to say. So we'd have to go, but we had to go down about three names. So not horrible. Forget about Aspen Lad. I know she hasn't fought at 135 in a while, but don't forget about her. She goes in there and fights Bisha Taiton rocks her.

Julianna Payne is going to want to avenge that loss. Sure. Well, I would hope Pena would be favored against, I would be favored against Aspen Ladd. But yeah, like I said, that shows kind of the outside the top three or four. The division is how lightly regarded the division is. But yeah, it's going to be an interesting championship run for Pena if she does get past Nunes.

Let us move ahead to Jeff Neal, who was on the wrong end of the highly anticipated Neal-on-Neil matchup, picks up a split decision when he bounces back against Santiago Ponziabio. I scored it for Ponziabio, super close fight, no issue with it either way. No way the word robbery should be anywhere near this conversation. But Neil gets out there, does the thing. Been a tough year for him in multiple ways, and he goes out. And I didn't even really look into this, but Jeff Neal said that this is the first victory

he's had in the UFC over a ranked fighter since he's been there. And he wants to do it again. So who might that fighter be, okay? Um, I like, first I like what you said. It was not a purely controversial fight. It was close and, uh, not pretty at times, which I think sometimes leads us to, uh, to maybe think the scoring, you know, didn't go the right way. It was wonky, if anything. I'm just looking at M.A decisions. Uh, about four people, four out of, uh, looks like 12, 13, uh, MMA media members scored it for Ponsonibio, 29, 28 Ponsonibio. The other's Neil. Uh, Sean Sheehan and, uh, of Severee of May and Ben Duffey of Sherdog, both guys who are really good at scoring fights. Uh, both sports. Uh, both sports. Uh, both scored at 3027, Neil. So again, and I'm sure they would acknowledge some of those rounds are closer than others. So, yeah, just kind of a, kind of a mucky, odd fight.

Again, I didn't get too creative with this one. Kind of looked at my own secret rankings and saw where Neil landed after beating Ponzanibio. So I think he gets the leech, the leech, Li Jing Liang. Li Jing Liang recently beat Santiago Ponziabio. So, again, those three guys are kind of in the same, kind of in the same mix right now. So, yeah, didn't go too crazy with it. Let's just see where Neil is, see if you can give a little bit more of a spirited performance

than he gave on Saturday against a very, very aggressive fighter. So I like that. Yeah, it's kind of hard to go wrong on the bottom end of the top 15. I went Michael Kiesa. I think it's a fine matchup. Makes sense for both guys. Nice resume name, potentially for Jeff Neal. Kiesa's lost two straight.

Needs to beat a guy like Jeff Neal. If he ever wants to join his close friend and longtime teammate Juliana Pena in the championship club, If you can't beat Jeff Neal, you're probably not going to be a champion or get anywhere near fighting for a title. And this is no disrespect to Jeff Deal. This is just what the Walterweight division is like. This is just the top of the division. If you can't beat Jeff Neal, you're probably not being the Wonder Boys and the Gilbert Burns of the world. So, yeah, I think that's a fine fight.

But congratulations to Jeff Neal. Tough year for him and he gets it done. A.K. Kai Kar, France, picks up the biggest win of his career on Saturday. He absolutely bolted Cody Garbrandt, a former world champion. huge win, clips him quick, pours it on until the fight was stopped, massive, massive performance, and he's not mixing words. He's not mincing words at all. He wants to fight for the title in his next fight. He even has gone as far as said, I ain't fighting again until it's for a title, which I think is absolutely wishful thinking on his part, to be honest, but that's exactly what

you should be saying after a win like that. In the last 15, 16 months, AK, this guy got stopped by Brandon Royval, mostly due to strikes. And Brandon Royval is not really a striker finisher, but he really stung Kai Kar-France in that fight before he put him away. Then he bounces back, and he gets his first two finishes in the UFC, both in the first round and both against talented fighters. Unfortunately for Mr. Kaira-France, I think he takes a big step towards the title,

but I think he's going to pull the short straw. and get Asker-Asker-off. I just think that's what's going to end up happening. Because Asker-off has that argument. He's screaming for a title shot. But as we do on the show, the weight miss in the Benavita's fight has to lead to some sort of consequence.

And that consequence is a fight with the surging guy named Kai Kar-Franz. This is not saying that Kai Kar-France can't win that fight. I think he's got a very good chance to win that fight. But of all the guys he could be fighting next, I would say Asker-A-Sker-Raf is probably like the... I don't really want this one, but I get it. But that's just kind of what this division looks like right now. So, yeah, that's my pick.

What's at you? Yeah, both guys have, unfortunately, I've worked too. Like, Ascroft should be the number one contender, but like I said, missed the wait, was unable to, I mean, I don't know if he was offered the Moreno fight before, before they booked the Figurato-Marino trilogy, but unavailable, either way, miss weight in his last one. And unfortunately, it feels like he has been jumped over

by Pantoja, who he beat, but Pantosia, again, has a history of Marino, and again, has also looked very good, and it's widely regarded as, again, one of the five best flyways in the world. So, yeah, and Pantio, definitely ahead of Carverance. So great for Carre France, big win. He's so good. I'm just, I'm sad for Cody Garbrand. I am a fan of his fighting. And I hate that this has become, you know, more about should Cody retire and how bad did Cody

look than how good Carra France? Look, Kai Carre France is so, so, so good. And it is great that he got two first round finishes back to back to kind of really put his name out there. But yeah, he's not getting a telefight right away. So I'm going with a fun one, which I also think has title implications. Actually, the matchup I picked, I wouldn't be surprised if either guy could then with a win could then wait for a teloshot sometime next year. Give me Carfrancombe and L. Cop. We got to do it.

Cormier tweeted it out. Cop himself was like, yes, let's go. We got to see who's the harder puncher. A great call for Kopp, who by the way, kept his options open, right? Last weekend, he was like, they should be calling to fight me. But I think he's smart. He's like, well, I know Kai's name just went up after beating Cody Garbram, former UFC champion. So now is the time for me to call someone and mention him.

So very strategic work by Minel Kopp. And, I mean, just be a surefire banger. Early fight of the year candidate. I would love to see Kar-France fight, Kopp. Kar-France, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I do not think you have the leverage to not fight and wait for a teloshot, I think you're going to take a tough one. And like I say,

it's not like me ask Rob or as I like, I'm an L cop. I like that idea, but I only like that idea if it happens very quickly. Like if for some, the UFC, no matter what Dana White and Israel,

Adasanya said, the UFC officially announced Adasania versus Whitaker 2 on February 12th, which will be my birthday, by the way. Put that fight on that card. Put it on that card. And I'm fine with it.

If we're delayed, if that can't happen, I understand travel restrictions in the world suck ass right now. It's just the world we live in. But yeah, if I'm Kai Kar-France, I try to get on that card and fight Minnell Cap. Minow Cap will certainly fight in February. And that's a big deal. If not, plans change. And that's just where we're at right now. As we head to-

So you're saying you hope that the announcement is no cap and that it has cop on it. Mike check time. I'm just trying to. I'm just trying to be cool. I'm just trying to be cool. So, Dame, we have been on this Adasanya Whitaker fight, probably more than anybody in the score. Like, honestly, we have asked for the managers. I think we have asked for updates on this fight between the two teams more than anybody else.

I know it was reported by other outlets, but no one has done the due diligence that we have. Robert Whitaker signed the contract to fight Israel Adasania. weeks and weeks and weeks ago. Like, this has been in the works for a while. I know Eugene Barrowman said what he said, created some curb balls along the way. I was basically told, do not ever believe a word Eugene Barerman says from some folks.

And the fight has been targeted for this day for a while. It had been reported for January. January was never really on the table. It was always February or March. It seemed like February was the way to go. Whitaker signed the deal probably a month ago at this point. and I think there without diving into a whole lot

I think the UFC UFC'd this thing and for the Adisania on the Adisadia side and I know Ariel's talked about not being all that close financially and I think there's probably some truth to that I think there's probably some truth to the cap tweet as well

the UFC likes to announce fights before their official ally Quinta perfect example with the Bobby Green thing. Sometimes the UFC tries to nudge it for it a little bit by just all out announcing it on a huge card. And I think there's some truth to the no cap. Do I think the fight will ultimately get done? Yes, I do. I think you need this fight to happen in February, especially after you announced it. But there's some truth. Where there's smoke, there's fire, AK. And there's a little smoke here. So that just kind of clears that. It's definitely, it'll happen. But it's not officially

done yet. I can tell you that right now? No cap. Mike, can I hear you say no cap? No cap. Yeah. See, did that feel cool? Manal cap. No, no, we want, we want, yes, yes, yes, we want, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, you can't see this, but what I'm wearing right now. He is wearing a cap. And now I'm taking it off. Now there's no cap. Now I no longer have a cap. Yeah, okay, good. So this is, this is, I think our rating, our demographic is really going to go up. I really feel like our younger demographic is going to like is going to get into this. So, so no cap, the card will happen. Yes, cop. Hopefully we'll be on it. There's our theme. There's your hashtag, AK, when you quote tweet the tweet. Hashtag no cap. Yes, cop. Okay.

Now we head to probably the two most interesting pieces of matchmaking coming out of this card. Both are in the band of weight division. First, we start with Sean O'Malley, the Sugar Show. Howley-on Piva was a legit test. I've been saying it for a while. He dominated him. He put him away quick. He certainly didn't look like a legit test.

But I really think there's some truth to the Or. that Sean O'Malley provides. He is there for a reason. People come early to watch him fight, whether it's on the prethums or you open up the main card. It's a big deal. The UFC promotes the crap out of it.

And there is a difference between fighting Kyler Phillips to the apex and fighting Sean O'Malley in a sold-out T-Mobile arena. There's something to Sean O'Malley and you have to be able to just not care about that stuff. Chris Mutineo clearly didn't care about that stuff. But, I mean, the talent discrepancy

were just so wide, but Moutinho got the rub because he didn't care. He just went in there and fought and gave it his all, and he went after O'Malley, he took a beating, and he became a very big deal because of it. Haliang Piva tried to be too technical. You got to get in there and brawl with O'Mail, you're going to make him uncomfortable, and Haliang Piva typically fights like that, but he did not fight that way. I think he got lost in the shuffle a little bit. I think he got a little overwhelmed by the moment.

Sugar Show did not. He looked great. He moves on. Dana White gets on the microphone of the post-fight. presser and just sings music to shot on mallee's ears looks like we have to open up the checkbook and pay this man and he's probably right i don't mind the slow build to a certain extent okay but we have to get him in there with the guy at the number next to his name after this fight right no i'm not of that thinking i'm not of that thinking i keep in mind he is in a super deep division

so when we say someone with a number next their name like when you get down to the i don't know in band to wait, 13 to like 30 range, all those names are really, really quality names. So it might not be someone with a number, like a UFC number next to their name or an MMA fighting global rankings number next to her name, but I do have him against someone very high. Before I say that, I will say, I do want to elaborate on that he's such an example of how hard is to quantify the it factor and how, and to become a star. What is it about him? Is it the fact that he plays video games?

Is it the fact that he's, you know, is it the way he talks on the mic? Is it his look? Is it the colorful hair? Is it his fighting style? Which is very exciting. Is it all those things combined? Is it, is it a controversy? Is it easy to hate?

You know, and then all these things sort of mix together and give you this, again, give you that it factor, which you cannot manufacture. And it's difficult enough to define, much less manufacture. So, and I see a large segment of people who say they don't get it. I saw Jedmishu saying, I don't understand the appeal of Sean O'Malley. And I thought about it, I'm like, well, he might not be for us. He might not be for a certain age group. And you've got to understand the UFC for a while. I don't know if it's changed now.

Had a big demographic problem. It was mostly, it was not a young person's like, didn't have a young person's audience for a long time. I think it's getting better now. I think the ESPN, ESPN Plus deal helped. I think it's like expanded their audience. But they didn't have people that, like it was mostly, again, people our age who got into it and we were younger and then carried over. And they didn't bring in a lot of a younger audience. Now I think it's gotten better.

And I think it's because of guys like Sean O'Malley who help a lot. So he is the star for this, I think, generation of new viewers. Maybe I'm overstating it. But I just, for people who are out there who are like, I don't understand the whole Sean O'Malley thing, I'm just trying to sort of explain it as I understand it and see it from the perspective of someone who is much younger, even though, of course, I am only like, what, 25 years old, Mike, as we know. But I mean, you know, I'm talking about even younger people.

No, I'm very old. I'm knocking on 40 for anyone who doesn't know. So, yes, I'm trying to understand, just like I did with the cap thing and I may be over-compositing. But Adrian Yannis, all of that is to say, I would like to say Adrian Yannis fight. I don't think Yonnes is, I mean, again, rankings-wise, yeah, I get it, he's not a top. I don't know, he might not be a top 20 guy in some people's rankings, but very talented. There's a little bit of heat there. I think both guys, I don't think a loss hurts them too much.

I want to see these guys taking tough fights at this point in their careers. I don't want them being protected. And so I'm down with that. I'm happy to see what you have planned for him. I think I know what you might say, and I'm a little scared. Okay. First of all, I want to go back to what you're saying about O'Malley and, first of all, what a brilliant job guiding his own career.

Like, this is a, this is the, this is prize fighters. stuff. Sean O'Malley is building up a prize fighter, like stock portfolio, if you will. And every once in a while, a fighter comes along and it's just a perfect storm of stuff. Like, there's comparisons to MVP. And I think it's a pretty apt comparison in a lot of ways, but mostly because I feel like with Sean O'Malley, and yes, the UFC has had bigger stars along the way than Sean O'Malley, but I feel like Sean O'Malley is maybe legit their first, like, homegrown guy that they've built from the ground up. And what I mean by that is, like, Connor became a massive star. He got the UFC push. But Connor was already a pretty big star before he came to the UFC.

He just wasn't a big star in the United States. Connor and Cage Warriors is a very big deal. But I feel like with Sean O'Malley, the UFC built him up immediately. even before his contender series fight. They basically built the entire contender series season around Sean O'Malley. They brought in freaking Snoop Dog to do color commentary, and it made sense because Sean O'Malley could go back there and, you know, do what Sean O'Malley and Snoop Dog would do

on a random Tuesday morning or afternoon or night. They went in there. Yeah. They used medicine, and they got really hungry, and they watched movies and laughed way more than, they would have had they not taken this medicine. And of course,

O'Malley delivers with a sensational knockout on the Contender series. And Dana White just built him up from minute one. And then Sean O'Malley on his own, got out there, did a ton of media, and people got to know him. Started his own podcast, started his own merch company. We're learning who Sean O'Malley is. The dude is a gamer, like in the octagon,

but he's also like a video gamer. And people know who he is outside of the cage. he's got the promotional push, but kind of like the opposite of Amanda Nunes, O'Malley does his part too. And it just worked out as just this perfect storm of things. And I feel like O'Malley in a way, he's the face of the contender series. He's maybe the first like homegrown prospect that they have built from the ground up. I mean, hardcores knew who Sean O'Malley was. That region of the country, Arizona, the West Coast, they knew who Sean O'Malley was.

but a lot of like the American odds had no idea who Sean O'Malley was, but the UFC got you excited even before his contender series fight about who this guy was. And shot is delivered. Win or lose, taking beatings and fight, the legs, all that stuff. Sean O'Malley has done the damn thing. Good on him. He deserves a big fight. And if he doesn't, people are just going to want to watch him fight.

Now, to go upon what you said before you turned it over to me, this pick is going to hurt some feelings. But here we are. There are a number of options for Sean O'Malley. none of them are wrong. I think Hafeel Asunsao is a fine idea. Yes, I am very well aware he's fighting Ricky Simone on Saturday. But if they did that fight, no matter what happens between Asanau and Ricky Simone, I'm certainly fine with that.

A Sunsau is kind of in that position at this point. But I know some people are poo-pooing the name that I'm about to say. They're poo-pooing the Cody Garbrand idea should he return to 135. I am absolutely not at all. In fact, I'm doing the exact opposite. That is my absolute ultimate first choice. and it was my first choice after Garbrand lost to Rob Fawn. It's a step back for Garbrand.

It is a step back. The reward for beating shot O'Malley is absolutely worth some of the risk it would entail. And same with Marl Marais. Same with Marlon Marais. Maris, yes, he's on the Schneid, but he is still a very exciting guy. He still has a name that carries weight, and he was seconds away from stopping Maraub de Walsh, Mali is still dangerous, and it went over O'Malley would give him a boost. It would turn his career around.

and on the flip side, O'Malley would get the rub with wins over either of those two guys. So from a business sense, my official pick will be Cody Garbrand, should he return to 135? If Garbrand wants to stay at 25, Marlon Marais is the pick. And then, like, Hafiel Sonsau is kind of like option C if he need one. But the official stance, Garbrand, if he stays at 135, if that's not an option, it's Marlon Maraeris. I totally understand the Garbrand pick.

I do feel like the ship has sailed a little bit. I know there's a history there. I definitely would have wanted to see it sometime last year. Again, I'm in this weird. I want to protect Cody, Garbrandt. I still think he has a shot at 125. You know, I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I will say I just, I think O'Malley just kills him at the stage of his career.

And again, I know we can say about a lot of people at 125 and 135 right now. It's the level that Garbrand is at, it's so hard to find a matchup that is quote unquote winnable slash does not. not end in him face down on the canvas again. But I don't know. I just don't want it to be O'Malley right now, who would get a great boost from, again, beating a former UFC champion as Kai Kar-Franz just did.

We're getting even bigger boost than, of course, he's already, you know, he'd find a way to promote it even more. But, yeah, I don't know. I'm just, I'm really conservative with it. I'm really conservative with it. And I don't want to push him too quickly, and I just don't want to throw Cody Garberman back onto the train tracks right away. And the same token, if Garbrand beat Sean O'Malley, that's massive.

Like, that's huge for him. People will literally forget the past fights if he beat Sean O'Malley. That's just the way the sport works sometimes. But here we are, and we'll see what happens. Like I said, there's no wrong answer. You can throw him in there. If you want to throw him in there with Rob Font right now, Rob Font would take that fight in a heartbeat.

He would take it in a second. And I would have no issue with that and neither would anybody else. But if you want to give him Adrianiananas, you want to give him a Montel Jackson, you want to give him an up-and-coming prospect, sure. No one's going to complain. Some people would because they were like, oh, come on, dude. Many would. Come on, give him a rank guy.

But, I mean, if you're going to pay Sean O'Malley, he's going to fight a rank guy, and that's it. Now we get head to Domna Cruz because he defeats Pedro Munoz. And normally we wouldn't matchmake for somebody on the prelims. But Dominic Cruz, at this point in his career, he became the big story of the week with this whole beef with Daniel Cormier. We're going to give him the rub and put him on the fastest rising podcast in MMA in the best matchmaking show on the planet. I think he dominated this fight, A.K. Yes, he did get dropped hard in the first, and it was close. And kudos to the referee for getting this right, Mark Goddard.

But aside from that, I thought Cruz definitively won this fight. I thought this fight went exactly the way I thought it was going to go. I thought Cruz's footwork was going to be way too annoying for Pedro Munoz. He was going to frustrate him. That's exactly what happened at this fight. No disrespect to Pedro Munoz. This is just a bad stylistic matcher for him. This is no controversy.

Cruz loses the first, clearly won the second, clearly won the third. Good win for Dominic Cruz. To me, AK, this is so easy. Let's just do the damn Frankie Edgar fight. Let's just do it. If you did Sandhagen, you did font, sure. If you want to do the rematch with Garbrandt, yeah, I'm not really interested in that one. But yeah, I understand the appeal of it.

I know a lot of people are on the rooftop shouting for Jose Aldo, evergreen tweet, let's do it. Cruz gets so much more out of that fight right now than Joseo does right now. Although's next fight could be for the title. It very well could be for the title if Domino's fall in certain ways. And it seems like most are in agreement that at worst, with the top of this division in shambles, Josealdo should fight T.J. Dilloshan next if he doesn't fight for the title. I certainly want to see Aldo Cruz at some point.

Once Joseo Aldo loses a fight, sure. Throw him in there with Dominic Cruz. Let's rock and roll. But for right now, let's just do Dominic Cruz versus Frankie Edgar. It's fun. People love it. And, AK, to go on your point with the Cody Garbread thing, nobody's going to get majorly hurt in this fight.

It's just a fun stylistic legends fight. And this is a absolute no-brainer for me, AK. I don't know. At this point with Frankie, I think he's taking a lot of damage. I think Cruz might actually be able to knock him out. But again, even if that happens, look, like I said, we can only protect, quote-unquote, protect fighters so much, you know. Any fight is a chance with good strikers.

someone gets hit in the right way, and especially guys who are a little bit further along in their career. It's that they go down, and that's fine. I have no problem with that. But, yes, I like the idea of this being, potentially being like a classy, probably goes on pay-per-view, but I think it'd be cool if it was a fight night main event, or if they did put on pay-per-view, give the guys some extra money and maybe turn it into one of those non-title, non-main event five-rounders.

I think that would be a lot of fun. But, yeah, I love to see. I'm with you all the way on this one, for sure. Frankie Edgar was my pick. I do want to see Cruz Aldo someday. and now the timing is definitely not right, although has other goals right now. But that's one, you know, down the road,

when one of them or maybe both of them are thinking of retirement, what a great way to end that and truly put a caper on the WEC era. And just, oh, you get so much footage you get to play around with. It's a great fight. I really hope we see that someday, but it's not next. Frank Yeager's next. Yes, that is the fight to make. Now we head to the wild card round, AK.

We head to the wild card round. We will matchmake for a fighter. We have not match made for yet. Kick us off, A.K. I don't know where. I actually have no idea where you're going with this. Normally I have as an idea, but with this, I don't know. I don't know. I got to hinted at it. Hashtag free Cody. Free Cody from, I'm not sure what. I'm just, I just want to steal the free Britney thing. Hashtag free Cody. I, I just think there's ways to book Cody Garbrandt without. And again, this is being, this is, this is magic wand booking, by the way. This is not how do I think the USC views him? Because we talked about this a lot in the previous show. Of course. course the UFC still sees a lot of name value with Cody Gorbrand. Of course, Cody Garbrand himself probably says, no, I'm one or two big wins away. I don't want to go back in the rankings. I don't want to fight on the prelims, you know, I'm a main card guy. I'm a main event. Give me

main event names and main card names. I'm going way out of the ball. I'm like, I think Cody Garbrandt, I want him to stay at 125. I know he looked bad, but he looked bad at some of his bantamweight fights, too. I don't think it was the weight cut. I do think adjusting to a new weight class is a chance was a challenge, and a lot of the stuff he's dealt with, too. Again, spinal injuries, COVID-19. I'm making all these excuses for Cody Garbrandt. I still think he's a talented fighter and someone who could string together a few wins at flyweight. It's a great division, so is Bantam.

So either way, he's facing tough competition. I went way back here, but a guy who's a good fighter, a veteran opponent for him. I want to see Cody Garbrand and Tyson Nam. Now, I know Tyson Nam is a power. puncher. So if you were going like, I thought you were trying to protect Cody. Like Tyson NAM could turn Cody's lights out in a second. And that's fine. And like I said, that's honestly, that's going to have an Eddie Cody Garbrandt fight. I don't care who he's fighting. He could be fighting Hanna, Yaya. I'd be worried that Hana Yaya would hit him with the spinning

back versus knock him out. So it's going to happen against anyone. But I think Tyson Nams is a good veteran name. I think a fighter that Garbrant is on paper, I think more skilled than. and again, a real test to see if 125 is for him because win or lose, I do want to see how he performs. If he won like a close decision that still would make me think, okay, maybe he should go back up to 135, but I think he deserves one more chance at flyweight as bad as that debut was, which again,

I credit more to Kai Karfranston than to any deficiencies in Garbrand's part. So, yeah, I'm going with another veteran that I like. I'm going with Tyson Nam, and I'd like to see that fight on, you know, on a coal main or something of a fight night, something like that. I like it. But again, if he gets bolted by Tyson NAM, like that just crushes him. Like, he's done.

Like, he's done. There's no coming back to that. This is no offense to Tyson NAM. Yeah, but I still think he's done almost no matter what. I think if he gets another like drubbing like that, like he got from Kai Kar, France. Boy, I don't know if it's retirement or, again, he just gets cut by the UFC. But, yeah, I think any loss, any bad loss that he suffers,

it might be the last we see of him in the UFC for the foreseeable future. I just think there's no. there's no reward fighting Tyson NAM. Like you beat him, no one's going to care. Like, no one will really care. They'll be like, hey, good for Cody, but that's about it. That's all he needs for him. Honestly, that's all he needs right now.

I think any win, I don't care who he beats, will be very encouraged into Cody Garbrand and Cody Garbrand's fans. I don't think it matters who. I really don't. Yeah, he's going to fight Minnell Cap, probably. But we'll see what happens. God, no. This is interesting because I wanted to give

Aaron Blanchfield some shine after that. performance over Miranda Maverick and this division is is interesting especially up the top and I know that I've saying we do not want to rush Aaron Blanchfield but still at the same time the how the UFC ranking shape up at 125 are really not an indication of what this division actually looks like right now then some of the names that I'm going to present like probably shouldn't be ranked where they're at they should probably push further back um my first thought was having Aaron Blanchfield after beating Miranda Maverick fight Cynthia Calvio.

I think that makes perfect sense. It checks off some boxes, right? Because Cynthia Calvia is very good on the ground. Aaron Blanchfield is very good on the ground. And it'd be interesting to see how that one would play out. I think it's a good test for both ladies, but Cynthia Calvio took a beating in the Andrew Lee fight.

So I kind of want to see her take some time off. I'm ready to give her... Right now, this fighter's ranked number six at 125, but I don't think she's the number six ranked fighter. by any stretch of the imagination. Let's give her Joe Ann Wood. Give Aaron Blanchfield Joe Inwood.

I think Aaron Blanchfield beats her. I think she'd be favored in that fight, and I think she would win a lopsided unanimous decision, or she would finish Joanne Wood. I got no issue saying that. I just don't think Joe Enchfield is the same fighter anymore. I just don't think she's an elite 125er. I think Aaron Blanchfield is an elite 125er.

Um, yeah, I think that's a good test. I think that's a good test. And I don't want this to sound like I'm crapping on Joanne Wood because I'm not. She's fun. She's super fun. And I think she still has a place in the UFC. I just don't know. I don't know if she beats Aaron Blanchfield.

After watching that Tyler Santos fight, I just don't know if she beats her. If that fight gets to the ground, she's going to be in some big trouble. And without Calvio, I think that's the fight. And then it's just kind of this new wave of 25ers right now, right? We got O'Neill, Manifioro. We got Macy Barber. Yeah, if you want to do the Macy fight, sure. But I don't think you need to do that fight right now.

Roxanne Modifery is about to retire. Alexa Grasso is kind of part of this new crop of 25ers. Jessica I is fighting Manifioro. I don't know if the UFC decides to keep Jessica around. If she loses, you could do that fight. But I don't know if they will keep her around. Andrew Lee is way too far ahead. Viviani Arrugio is part of the new crop of 25ers.

Jennifer Mai is up there. Laura Murphy's up there. Caitlin Chican's up there, just Gondrages up there. It's kind of process of elimination. Tilos Santos could be fighting for a title soon. I think Joanne Wood or Calvio, that's just kind of like the two dominoes that remain here. That's where I'm coming from. And I think Blanchfield's favored in both those fights.

Yeah, you know me. I'm going to bring them on a little bit slower first. Or I think people know before. I need to see three UFC wins before they get a ranked opponent, depending on what, their previous experiences. And again, she's only, what, 22 years old? She hasn't even had 10 pro-fes. yet. Yeah, of course she'd probably be favored in a matchup with Jojo. I prefer the Calvio suggestion. I think she would probably be favored in either fight, but I do think it's

jumping the gun a little bit. Maybe if she had, like, she really dominated her two fights in the UFC so far. The Sarah Alpar fight wasn't close, and Miranda Maverick, very talented, and she still lost unanimous 3027s across the board. So that's great. For some reason, I feel like a finish, a finish may have put the exclamation point on one of these for me and may have convinced me to really propel her up the rankings. I know it's not the deepest division. So, yeah, I don't have a name. Honestly, I don't have a name for her myself.

I just, I'm not so convinced that she needs to fight a ranked name. But again, I did just say she probably would be favored against number six. Like we said, number six in our rankings, Jojo Woods. So, I mean, that has to mean something, right? So, yeah, I say take it slow, but nothing would surprise me with the matchmaking at this way. And again, let's say she lost to Jojo Wood. It's not the end of the world. It just provides, again, gives us a better feel of where Jojo Wood is at her career and certainly where Aaron Blanchfield is in her young career.

Yeah, it still gives Aaron Blanchfield like three or four more fights after that to fight for the title, at least how she's viewed. And again, I don't want this to sound like I'm crapping on Joe and Wood because I'm not. It's just the shape of this division. It's not a deep division. It's not a ton of fighters. And there's really not a lot of direction to go after beating Miranda Maverick, especially how people view Miranda Maverick. That is an impressive performance. I'm not saying it's not like I wasn't giving Blanchefield a chance,

but I thought Maverick was just a step ahead, and I thought she'd win this fight. It thought it'd be very competitive and close, but this wasn't competitive at all. This is a one-sided drubbing from Aaron Blanchfield, and if she takes these fights to the ground, she's going to be a problem. You want to do the Tracy Cortez rematch?

Sure, because that was a robbery of epic proportions. Yeah, I just don't really see much else that makes it. Maybe Montana, but I think she's, I think she's above Montana right now. I really do. I was going to say, for anyone who doesn't know who's only kind of like just learning by Aaron Blanchfield, her only loss, very controversial. Yeah. Very controversial.

She is in the minds of many pretty much undefeated. Yes, I would say so. So we'll see. Very exciting prospect right now. 125 is going to be super fun over the next couple of years as these prospects developed. It's really good. We've spent this before on many shows. It's quietly, like the way they've booked it, the talent they've found and the way it's just been, it's kept moving.

again, with the exception of the fact that there's someone at the top who is not going to be budging, excuse me, with the exception that there's some of the top who's not going to be budging from that spot anytime soon, the rest of the division has had good fights, again, veteran names, you know, mixing it up, new challenges coming in, mixing up with those names, taking their spots. I would implore anyone to kind of just look at, again, it's not the deepest division, but to look at how women's 125 has shaped up over the last couple of years. And I think you'll really be pleasantly surprised, but like, yeah, this is a good, this is a good division. It was in the shadow of Starry and Bantamate for a while, but I think people knew eventually some 135ers would migrate to 125, some 115 years would go up to 125, and now we have ourselves, again, I think, a really underappreciated division in all of them in May.

Do we have any bonus content here, A.K., before we go to the listeners? Just want to check the tapes. A lot of people really want to see Amanda Hebas, Michelle Waterson. that's going down March 26th so listeners good job on that one uh we had a bunch of fights announced and I was surprised see I don't if I'm wrong guys feel free to of course DM me after if I'll give you an on no point next week if you had something and I didn't mention it but the only one I really saw was really certain we had mentioned on the show was uh hebus and and waters and so uh yeah fun matchup and it's what the people want disclaim oh yes well you know again uh guys we're gonna try and focus mostly on your winners listener picks uh but

But at this case, there were so many big names. I mean, we're going to be all over the place with your suggestions here. And thanks for sending those in. There's a lot of good ones. Otno points. You're going to get a special Otno point, guys. If you were somehow the only person to pick a fight, which again, very unlikely with this card. So many people sent in submissions.

Guys, please, pay attention when you're making these fights. You may have done the wrong weight class. You may have picked people who just fought already and you seem to be unaware of it. Someone injured, someone released, someone that's already booked. Stuff like that. Pay attention, please. And most importantly, we didn't have a lot of that this week, Mike. It's one or two times.

But your pick just might be doo-doo, and we don't want to read it. Though I will say, some of the doo-do picks, I am going to read out this week, I think. All right. Let's get right into it. Poppy underscore Brian, our old friend, great fights tonight, as usual. Thanks so much for the show, guys. His wildcar pick, Bruno Silva versus Brennan Allen. He likes Sugar Sean versus Marlon Marlon Marais,

Kai Karfranz versus Pantosia. I don't want to give Cairofran's title shot just because they were going to give Cody one. He lost to Roy Vell two fights ago, whom Moreno handled easily. And I like the Ascar fight, but he isn't super active. So let's do this for a number one contenders fight. Sure. Jeff Neal versus Daniel Rodriguez. And Wao Pena versus Nunes, too.

Won a couple of my buddies some big money. Oliver Gagchi. Those are the obvious ones. So let's get it out of the way. John Ray, Jed wins BTL automatically. Just saying. There you go. He likes Gillian Robertson versus Montana de la Rosa.

Ryan Hall versus Alex Caseras. Aaron Blanchfield versus Macy Barber. Munoz versus Silva. winner gets a ranked guy Tuivasa versus Abdurahimov Cruz versus Marlon Vera sure Josh Emmett versus Arnold Allen

Sean O'Malley versus Song Yudong I don't really want to see that just yet I think that's a fight I know Bannon Wait's loaded but that's a fight we could see in a couple of years for a title or right there and then he likes Jeff Neal

versus Michael Kiesa Brandon Nunez Munez versus Chris Curtis Okay I'm in Josh Emmett versus Yaya Rodriguez O'Malley versus Edgar. Sorry, A.K. There's a lot of people apologizes to me

about with that this week, I'll tell you. Cara France versus Minnell Cap. Pena versus Svchenko, too. Okay. Maybe let Amanda take some rest. And then, yeah, Nunez could fight the winner. Sure. Owen Carroll says this is the card of the year.

He likes Tony Kelly versus Casey Kenney. Like the fight, too. Ryan Hall versus Chase Hooper. I mean, I liked the idea of it, but no. Did he say hashtag Kelly Kenny? No, he did not. Come on, man. And then he said, did anyone notice that Minner kicked Hall while grounded to escape a heel hook?

I did not notice that, but I was doing a million things. There was a lot going on in that fight. There was a lot going on the ground. Audrey Munes versus Brad Tavares, Bruno Silla versus Christoph Jocko, Taitu Vasa versus Martine Tibera. Cruz Sandhagan, O'Malley, Garbrand. And he said, if Sean can do that injured for three weeks, no grappling, no sparring, he will finish Cody.

he wants to talk. S, it's time for him to get effed. Wow. He can't say no to the fight if he wants to keep his job. Wow. Are you doing the censoring here? Are you doing the censoring? I'm doing the censoring.

I'm doing the censoring. I didn't even, I should have probably screened that one. Kai, I thought. Kajar, France, versus Svchenko, as well. Because no words to describe what I just watched. I watch sport. M. Ruffles 115. He's got the graphic for us.

Porrege McGregor. He likes Penae, Schifchenko as well. He likes Nunes versus Durandumee, which would be interesting. How big a favorite would Shifchenko be in that? She'd be at least like three to one, right? Probably bigger. Probably bigger.

That's crazy. And that's not a, I think that's more because of Shafchenko than. And she's, I mean, we saw the first fight. I mean, it's not like, you know, it's not like we don't have a history. He likes Neil Rodriguez as well. KKF versus Ascaroff. He likes Omalionnas. What's new here? What's new?

Taitu Vasa versus the loser of Derek Lewis versus Christakis. Silva versus Duplice. Aaron Blanchfield versus Lauren Murphy. Wow. Ryan Hall versus Damon Jackson. That's fun. Tony Kelly versus Nate Mainis.

That's fun. And he likes Julian Robertson versus the winner of Melissa Gatto versus Sajara Eubanks. Drew Hilty says Dusset versus Connor four at one. not what I want to see, but that's what will happen. Kai versus Pontosia, I guess. This is probably the hardest person to matchmake for me. O'Malley needs a step up.

Thought about him versus Garbrand, but at this point, I don't think Cody has anything for him, so instead I'll get another alpha male rep in Song Yudong. Wildcard Garbrand versus Cruz 2, back at 135. I'm sure Cruz would love to get that one back. Gerard Biagin, Olivera versus Gaichie, Porier money fights, either Nate at 170 or the icky,

but still profitable. Connor 4. Ponsinibio versus the Muslim Salikov, Michelle Bejada winner, Kai Kar, Franz, Asker Asgraf, Emmett versus Yair, Cruz Sanhagen, Dom's last chance to prove his title worth.

That's a good way to actually kind of present that fight. Munez, another Munez versus Chris Curtis. Ryan Hall versus Lerone Murphy, A.K. What are your thoughts on that one? I saw that one, too. Like, I like Laron Murphy. Why would I want to do that to him?

Leron Murphy's a rising contender. Why do you want to ruin his career? I don't even, no, no, no, hard path. No, and he likes Bruton Silva versus the winner of Joaquin Buckley versus Abdul Razak Al-Hassan, which would just be an absolute banger. Zippa T. Ripa, long time listener, first time call. I love the podcast. Always look forward to y'all popping off on foolish matchmakers.

Takes a big chunk of my Monday morning slog. Hope it's all right. I send my picks here because I don't have Twitter. We don't do that. I just do that. I'm waiting for the first meme to pop up on the new Instagram page. You're very polite. You're very polite about it.

He said, he won a bunch of money, betting on Pena, lost a bit of my soul, watching Dustin get choked out, riding away of mixed emotions, ain't that the game. Anyways, Oliver versus Justin. We'd love to see Justin eat some crow for saying Charles has no heart. All right.

Porre v. the loser. Amokachev versus Daryush. KKF versus Alex Perez. I'm sure Alex will want to get back in their ASAP after his fight fell through. That's not a bad idea. Emmett versus Zombie. Cruz versus Rob Font.

I know y'all hate prospect fights. and so do I. How fun would it be to see a ground war between Blanchfield and Casey O'Neill, should she beat Roxanne Mottifari? Garber versus Marias. Loser gets the prestigious cracked-up chin championship. And let me ask you about this one, A.K., for Jeff Neal. Jeff Neal versus Kevin Holland.

Bangor of a rematch, years in the making, makes sense for both guys, both trying to find their footing at 170. What are your thoughts on Jeff Neal, Kevin Holland, too? Well, I had to be reminded that that is a rematch. So this happened. So I'm literally, I'm literally just went to Wikipedia right now. So this was January 28, 2017. What I assume was probably the main event.

I could be wrong. Of extreme. Oh, it had to be. Yeah, I mean, it was for a vacant middleweight title. The vacant X.K.O. middleweight title. Extreme Knockout 34. At Jeff, you know, lost to Kevin Holland, third round T.O.

So this is, I mean, I'm sure you guys all know this. This is something that's probably seen before. completely forgotten about. Yeah, I mean, that is the right name if Kevin Holland is going to make this, you know, long discussed move down to 170. Again, he didn't really have a reason to drop down anyway. He was just, he was cooking so much at 185. He's like, why? Why drop down? But, you know, that hasn't been the case this year. So understandable, it's going to happen. Yeah, I think I love the, the Holland possibility. And I think a lot of people are going to be getting an out-no point, because this really could happen. Yeah, that's a great idea. That's a great idea.

Dylan Dilbo 84. Hey, Mike, hope both you and AK are doing well through this holiday season. Here's my second round of picks. So this is a sophomore appearance. Dustin Porreya versus Michael Chandler. I don't know if that one gets him up in the morning, AK. Oh, Porier? Yeah.

Chandler was talking so much Guff on Twitter after the main event. He kind of was almost about like a Twitter ramble. Sort of talking about the fight, then talking about himself, then talking about Porre. I think, I don't know, he was all over the place. Yeah, I mean, like I said, this goes more with our hypothetical question. I asked you, like, if you could pick any matchup and the money was the same for Porriere. I would have Chandler very high up there, but we know the money is not the same. And probably, like you said, not high priority in reality.

I think Chandler saw kind of his counterfeit idea maybe float away a little bit. But who knows? Maybe Porreux jumps on the Nate train, and that's an option for Chandler. He likes Pena versus Svchenko as well I honestly think it would set up a rematch perfectly of Nunes and Valencia wins. Jeff Neal versus the winner of Stephen Thompson versus Belal Muhammad.

No, because Jeff Neal already beat Bilal Mohammed and he just fought Stephen Thompson a year ago and lost. So I just don't know if there's any value there. KKF versus Cop. O'Malley versus Munoz. Emmett versus the winner of Chikaze versus Cater. Maybe. Maybe the loser that fight.

We got to remember. This guy just came back from a lot. a long layoff and that was a very close fight. I can understand why people would score for E.K. Cruz versus Edgar, it's time for this legend versus legend throwdown and I'm tired of waiting for it.

Well said. Max Sherman, Carr, France versus Ascroft, Neil versus Keseo, O'Malley versus Edgar. We go back to Italy. Our friend, Francesco, Neil versus Kiazza, Ponziabio versus Robbie Lawler, A.K. No, we are lobbying for Robbie for Tim Means. What about this,

not understand. I like it. Robertson versus Calvio 2. Not bad. Tiavasa versus Jarzina Rosentrague. I really like that fight. Emmett versus Rodriguez, Cruz versus Sanhagen.

Oh, AK. Ryan Hall versus Billy Q. Oh, I didn't see anyone in my... That's a great fight. I really like that one. Yeah. R.P. Billy Q. But, I mean, what a way to go up. I really like that one.

Aussie, Dad, Bloke, Robbie Ryan. Good day. blokes. Need to wait for some movement at 135 to match up Pena right now and match her up with Caitlin Vieira. Cruz versus Garbren 2. Ege versus Rodriguez or Ortega. Cara France versus Moreno versus Figuilla.

He says, give him a title shot. Nunes Defends 145 versus Kayla Harrison. I'm glad this is brought up. We can address that in a moment. As an Aussie fan, Tuovasa versus Tibera. As an MMA fan, Tuovasa versus Aspinol. So there you go. Taking the bias out of it.

I have to ask, was Kai Kar-France on anybody's title, like flyaway title radar before he beat, like it's crazy to me how many people I'm saying, I've seen say like, yeah, he should just get the title shot now. He, so before this fight, he had sort of alternated wins and lost, but against very good competition,

including a fight against the champ, Brandon Marino. And like you mentioned earlier, this sort of somewhat disappointing performance against Brandon Royval. If he was going to lose to Brennan Royval, it was not in a way that he should have lost, right? He should be, he does on paper scene that the better striker and was outstruck and then submitted.

It is crazy to me that people want to see him jump the line right to a teleth shot right now. I'm not against it. I think it's fine. I think he does have a overall body of work that's very strong. But man, that's all it took is this main card pay-per-view win over a possibly washed Cody Garbrand. And now he's the number one contender. That's, man, this is a what have you done for me lately business, eh? You see the value Cody Garbrant provides it.

Jeez, Louise. Well, I don't want him to be used. used like that. All right. Well, I'm sorry. That's, that's what happens. I'd rather,

I'd rather happen now than when he's 38. He has his own value to himself, all right? Yes. And I think that should be, we can still work on that. Well, I mean, if you,

if you want to provide, keep that value, then you just, you just might not have, you just might not be able to fight anymore. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's just where he's at right now.

That's what his name presents. He also really wants him, McGregor versus Chandler for the next title shop, but he's pretty sure they'll make Connor Poria for, because dollar sign, dollar sign, dollar side. Okay. Let's bring up Kayla Harrison. Big storyline coming out of this.

A lot of people felt like Kayla Harrison saw a whole bunch of money fly away. I am in complete disagreement of that. What are your thoughts? That loss for Amanda Nunes, you saw the clip on ESPN MMA of Kayla Harrison reacting the way that she did. In your eyes, was that a reaction of a woman who just saw a woman? a lot of money fly away from her? Because to me it didn't. I mean, I think inside

there was certainly that thought in her mind. She's very savvy. She's very aware of what made the Amanda Nunes fight so valuable and how valuable it is now. Again, I still think it's worse something. I still think it's a big name fight. You know, technically Amanda Nunes is still the, certainly

the dominant champion at 145. Kiel Harrison, that is the division that she would like to lay claim to eventually. She has been competing 155 pounds but she made 146 for a fight in Vic Dund and I believe in her in her mind you know if she if she had to make 145 like a couple times

a year like on the dot she could probably do it and I wouldn't doubt her she's very hardworking and it wouldn't be fun it wouldn't be fun but she can definitely do it so yeah I think there was some of that element in her reaction for the most part I think like the rest of us just sort of this what the F unbelievable type just out this outpouring

of emotion but yeah I've made the case like I said I still want to see this fight happen I still want someone to see a fight in the UFC. I still think it could be what's next for her, even though she has plenty of options and has been making all the right moves to give herself leverage

and not necessarily have to play the Dana White game, which many fighters have not been as fortunate to be able to manage. You know, most people, it's Dana White's way or the highway. Kayla Harrison doesn't have to do that. But I still think we see that fight sooner rather than later, possibly next year. I don't think we ever see that fight.

I just don't see it. I never thought we'd see it. Like, I never understood why there was so much hype around it. I just don't get it. I think Kayla Harrison is just savvy. She's asked about it multiple times. But they have a really good relationship. Like, they actually have a pretty good relationship.

Manda Nunes is a big part of Kayla Harrison's run to the finals in PFL. They train together. There's photos of them training together. They both have talked about working with each other. I just don't see it. I also don't see, listen, I get it. the competitor in Kayla Harrison, sure, you want to go to the UFC and prove you the best of the world and all that stuff. One, there's no division for her to prove that to.

Like, you fight Amanda and then literally you're done. Like, that's it. That's your entire UFC run. You fight Amanda and you're done, but you're signed to a four-fight deal. There's nothing for her there. There just isn't. And I truly don't think. I think out of the three options, she makes the least amount of money in the UFC.

I think Bellator pays her whatever she wants. I really think Scott Koker's blank, like blank check. her at this point as he should. And I think she can make a lot of money in the PFL. And I think she'll have a lot of power in the PFL. She's the face of the company. And if they're doing as well as they make it seem that they are, they're just going to continue

paying Kayla Harrison what she wants. And I will make the argument that Kayla Harrison actually made more money last night, despite the loss, because just her being in the building and the UFC throwing a lower third with Kayla Harrison's name on it, that made her more money. Because Bellator

and the PFL were paying very close attention. to that broadcast. They saw Kayla Harrison in the crowd on television. They're going to pay her more money now. So I don't think she lost a dime. In fact, I think she made more money last night just by being there. Zara Farn. Leah Letson.

Norma Dumont. Holly Holm, go up to 145, GDR. What home doesn't want to go up to 145? She might for a fight with Kayla Harrison. So she'd get judo to death, all right? Maybe that was a few feeling to her. don't know. You don't know, Mike. Or she can just stay in the PFL and fight a 55, and then she doesn't have to cut to 45

and make millions and millions of dollars. That's certainly a possibility as well. But, but I, look, there is a prestige to fighting for the UFC. I get it. Prestige doesn't pay the bills. Prestige really is a, prestige really should be a means to making a million dollars, which Kayla Harrison is already doing. But I think the UFC can still give her a good deal. I know Dana White, he's really said all the things that makes you think he's that. They're setting her up for like the most low of low ball offers that you can manage. I don't think so.

Well, I'm saying she isn't Elliott-Del-Azzi's client. Eli-Aub-Del-Zis usually gets his fighters a decent, you know, a decent payday, probably not the best they could get if we're being honest with ourselves. 100%. But he does, you know, most of his clients will tell you they're very happy with their compensation. So I think that that is key to that deal come together with the UFC. And yeah, could she make more money in the PFL? Yeah, most likely it was it.

both by her whatever she gets paid for a fight normally, plus the $1 million prize at the end. And Bellator too. And Bellator as well, sure. But I do think there's a prestige to the UFC and opportunities the UFC can offer that other fighting organizations just cannot. And maybe that's an archaic way of thinking, but I do think it still holds true in heading into 2022. And yeah, I'm optimistic that we get to see in the UFC, even if the opportunities, like, as far as we should are going to fight there, are fairly limited.

I still think she could sign with Bellator and then still fighting the UFC down the road. Sure, sure. Like, I think she, like, looking at Bellator right now, like I know Aegee McKee is there and all of that, and I don't know how much longer he's going to be there, and I think Bellator is well aware of that. I think Kayla Harris could be the face of Bellator,

like truly be the face of Bellator. I don't think she can be the face of the UFC. She can't. We didn't even mention pro wrestling. Like, she clearly, for someone who was, you know, we always say like a couple years ago, probably like even farther back,

I mean, like three years ago. We all wondered, oh, but is she going to be able to kind of get into sort of the combat sports rhythm of cutting promos and stuff? And she did real, PFL did a great job helping her along. She developed a personality that feels natural and that she's comfortable with. The couple of times she's been on All Elite Wrestling have been hilarious. Like she's, again, she's just mostly been in the background. But you can tell she's like having fun. I think she'd make a lot of money for AEW or WW if she chose to go in that direction.

And again, she wouldn't have to work there long. We're talking like she could have a six-month run. She can have a run for a year like Ronda Rousey did. She's not as big as Rousey, but there's money to be made there as well. So, man, she has so many options. And kind of lending to her, she might never land in the UFC thing. It's like, yeah, let's say she does Belator. After that, she could say, yeah, I'm going to go to All Elite Wrestling for a event.

I'm just going to do some fun stuff with Dan Lambert and, you know, ATT, and maybe I'll team up with Paige Van Zand and beat up some of the women over there. So she has options. And it's just, it really is exciting to see how, how her career has come along ever since her. I don't know if I'm going to even do MMA days. Yeah, good for her, man. She's doing it well. And like Ali is the manager, but I give Kail 100% credit for everything.

I think she's done everything on her own, even to the point of going on Ariel's show whenever she wants. I think that's great on her. And she, she does it right. The manager works for the fighter. And if Kayla Harrison wants to go on Ariel's show, she can go on aerial show. And Ali Abdulaziz is not going to stop her. And I really respect that about her. So good on her.

And she's in a great place right now. A couple more. Tristan Gordat. Jeff Neal versus Drod. Drod. Drod deserves a rank guy. That fight seems fair. Oh, look at you, Tristan Gordet. Now you're on the D.Rod deserves.

Drod deserves a rank guy train. Don't start, Mike. Don't start. I'm just kidding. All good. Florida, Mike. Florida Mike, Florida Mike, Florida Mike. Men's flyweight.

Kikar, Franz versus Alex Perez. UFC will matchup Ascarov versus Pantosia, so Francis Perez seems the next logical step, sure. He likes O'Malley versus Mariah. So Marey gets a rank guy. Mariah's last chance and has no choice but to take the fight. If he loses, he gets released. If he wins, he keeps his job.

I don't know if he gets released. But yeah, he's kind of delegated to that spot until he gets a win. He likes Josh Emmett versus Arnold Allen. I know Ellen called out TKZ. I just not sure if he gets that fight. I don't think he gets that fight either. And I will say, I know I can tell you this.

and if you actually read our article about confirming this fight, the initial idea was Josh Emmett versus Arnold Allen for this card. Arnold Allen wasn't cleared. So Danny Gay takes the fight on relatively short notice, says yes, and that's why we didn't get Arnold Allen. So Bruno Silva versus Alex Beheada, wow. Wouldn't call this prospect versus prospect, but a great matchup.

This fight seems more appropriate. Wouldn't give silver rank guy like Tavares just yet. Nah, can't really complain. He likes Blanchield versus Cortez, too, sure. Toby Foster Taylor. Mr. Heck and Mr. Lee, the last month of M.M.A. Has been good to me. Wins for my OG favorites of 10 years.

Dom, Aldo, Dubranks, and even a big win for Cheeto. My heart is full. Let's see what S-Show 2020 has in store for us. He likes Jeff Neal versus Kevin Holland, too, at Walter Wade. I wanted it last week, win or lose for Aldo. I don't need to see him fight T.J. Arian again. Dom look great. Cruz versus Aldo.

Kai versus Cop on the Izzy card. Bruno Silva versus Carl Roberson. Andre Munez versus Ian Hynish or Fluffy. Hynish is about to fight Sam Alvey. Fluffy is injured. We'll see when he gets back. He likes Blanchriel versus Wood as well. Tony Kelly versus Ricky Tercio, sure.

Thanks as always, guys. P.S. Jed also said Oliver didn't stand a chance and that Poreo was a guarantee. Team AK down with Jed. Thank. How easily we forget. All the props in the world to Jed on the Pena pick, but he 100% could not have been more wrong. And by the way, I said this multiple times, but he just kind of caught on this his Pena thing.

And it's good on him for it. I've been saying Olivera is the number one lightweight for like six months or whatever it was since he won the title, even before that, I think. So give me my flowers, please. And yes, let us temper our expectations of Jedworth in the future. He nailed this prediction and the Penae Pena prediction. It was so far off on the main event. I can't wait for our 2022 prediction show because I actually.

get a little vindication as well because we were asking like who would be the champion in each division at the end of the year and I picked Charles Olivera would be the lightweight champion at the end of 2020-20-21 so uh we'll have to go back and check those picks out we'll see what happens. AK, we're on to you, my friend. Oh my goodness. Okay. Uh, all right, all right. Well, let's talk about first some of the most popular picks here. Yeah, Olavera Gaci is pretty much a lock. A lot of Porre-Channler, Mike. Out of actually all the Porre picks I got, there were, There was some go up to a welterweight to fight Luque, which I think would be a lot of fun, the Makachev Darius loser, of course, the McGregor Quadrilo and Nate Diaz.

But I saw a lot of Porre-A Chandler with one listener, Colin Avery, saying this would probably be the 2022 fight of the year. So we're not even in 2022 yet. People are already predicting what the fight of the year is going to be. But, you know, hey, sometimes these things are predictable. If you had told me that, if you told us last December that Porier, I'm sorry, excuse me, that Gaith G and Chandler were going to fight some time in 2021. We probably would have said, yeah, that's a top three fight of the year candidate.

So sometimes these things are pretty easy to predict. Everyone wants to see the Pena Nunes rematch. Otherwise, of course, Pena of Chico rematch, as it were. I think people just want to see Shepchenko become champ champ, and it would likely happen. Again, with respect to Pena. Neil versus Caza, most popular. Oh, well, Neil versus Gingley-Liang.

Both very popular for Kai Karfranz, either Ascrov or Pantosia rematch. Rematch, Mike, people had to remind me. Hat tip to Tilt Gerting Jensen and Marcus McGeehy for reminding me that they did fight on the Ultimate Fighter tournament of Flyweight Champions season. And I believe Pentosia won a two-round unanimous decision, I want to say. So technically a rematch of sorts. A lot of picks for O'Malley. The most popular one was Yanez, so a lot of it with me on that one. Emmett, Zombie, very hugely popular pick.

And Cruz versus Sanhagen. It was actually I saw that most common. I think I didn't see too many. Cruz versus Edgar is sent to me anyway. like Cruz Sending. To be Vasa of Rosenstrike. Maybe the most popular matchup of all that I saw. I think like eight, four out of five people who sent,

who sent picks this week. It was Toouw Vasa versus Rosenstrike. For Munez, I like Gaslom. I saw a lot of Gaslum picks. Blanchfield, Calvillo, most popular pick for her that I saw. Also the Aurauzzo Grasso loser. Mike, what were your thoughts on that one? They're fighting U.C. 270.

Both of those fighters, I would think, somewhere in the top of 15, either in our rankings or in the UFC rankings. Yeah, that's not a bad one. I don't mind that one. Ryan Hall versus Alex Cesaris. I really like that one. I do think that would be what's next.

Though I also liked Ryan Halvers, Andre Feely, which Thomas Collins said. The problem with matching for Ryan is finding a fighter that would be willing to fight him, given his awkward style. I think Andre is the one that will be willing to fight him. Yeah, Andre is kind of a quirky, like, funny guy. I didn't think he would think I could just take. He probably would even want to roll with him a little bit. Right.

And a lot of people want to see Robertson and Tracy Cortez. Should I move on from the Cortez and JJ Aldrich matchup? That's not getting rebooked, I guess, huh? Yeah. I should have the time for me to move on with my life? You was time to move on from that like eight months ago. No. All right, let's go to our emails first.

Casey Carpenter, a freak contributor. Well, wants to give it a lot of love to Jed. They, what did they say? Oh, they say they want to send a shout out to the Georgia Theater Company and Pooler Cinema They say it's their go-to place to to watch paper reviews and save money. And then, in case he says, they can also tell my girlfriend I took her to the movies.

So that's smart. There you go, you're killing multiple birds of one stone there. Garbrand v. Nicolao. I like that. I like Garberan versus Nicolao. I'm very high in Nicolao. As high as I am probably on Kaikar, France. But that to me is a guy who's probably not going to knock him out.

And again, if it's not going to be Nicolao, then it's just, we're all just really sad. And Casey says this is the correct answer, by the way. Ryan Hall versus anyone. This is always the right answer. And Casey knows it was great to see him back because, you know, he was supposed to fight in January, but they don't remember that happening. Yeah, none of us do. Again, I remember.

It's supposed to be fight with Ilyto Prairie. If I recall, it just did not happen for whatever reason. Just a big blank spot there. Arnie, from shoutouts to – I'm going to butcher this. Arnie, I'm so sorry. Groningen of the Netherlands. Thank you, Arnie. Not a first-timer.

It has sent in picks before. Peña versus GDR2. I do think we'll see that eventually. I don't know if we'll be a tell defense. And then Olavera versus Darius, assuming he beats Makachev, Arnie says they will book Gaetia Oliver, but if Gasey gets injured,

sorry, predicting that Gathe gets injured, something swimming pool related, apparently, then Dariush beats Islam and takes Gathe's spot. So big Islam, excuse me, Benial Darius fan here. Let's go to Twitter now.

I've got a couple of first timers. Happy to welcome them. And maybe even bust their chops a little bit. I'll start with Tony Perez. First time, long time, would like to see, Cruz Font,

Emmett and Dan Hooker. Of course, Hooker drops down to 145 and O'Malley versus the winner of Ricka Simone and Hafa Alice and South. So thank you, Tony, first time.

Another first timer who had a little bit of a ruffer go of it, Brando. This is Brando on Twitter. Sorry, I want to bring this up here because I got to bust their chops a little. So they asked versus this where I send picks. Of course, they said, Ryan Hall versus Hakeem Dahladu, Tony Kelly, Benito Lopez. There's a name we haven't seen in a while. And Bruno Silva versus Edmund Shabazian.

Hakeem Dawu is booked to fight Mike Trezano on February 5th, which Brando did remember. And he said, Hakeem is already booked. I'm going to kill myself. I was drunk and forgot. At Brando, it's okay. These mistakes happen. Do you not need to take these things? We take these things very seriously, but that's fine.

Everyone knows it. Who knows? Maybe, like, Trisano's had a hard time getting back in the Octagon. So maybe something happens and get to slot him in. And then maybe you get to check the tapes. There you go, Brando. See, people think Mike is me. See, we're picking Brando up.

Brando slipped. He stumbled. He knows he made a mistake. And there's Mike there to pick up. First timers. First timer. I mean... First timer.

Yeah, that's the false sense of security. If you do it again, I'm going to roast your ass. But go ahead. Just kidding. Jerry McNulty wants to see you and I do a shooey. Where do you stand on the shooey, Mike? I'm not doing a shooey. Ever.

No, I'm not doing a shooie. Are you against the whole practice of it or you're just not doing it? No, it's just not for it. I'm not against the practice of it. Taitu Vasa loves the shooey, and if he loves the shooey, he should do shooys. And if you love doing shooys, you should do shooys. If you don't like them, you should not be forced or requested to do them. And if you say no, to said requests, no one should give you crap for it.

Uh, no. Would you do it out of your own shoe? No. I'll cheat. I'll cheat. I'm just testing the boundaries here. I will put a, I'll put a rocks glass in the shoe and put the liquid in the, in the rocks glass, and then drink it out of the rocks glass in the shoe. That's an old wedding trick, by the way.

If you DJ a wedding and there's a family tradition of a shooey and the bride doesn't want to do it, you convince her to do it by putting a shot glass or some sort of like sniffer. of some kind in the shoe, pour liquid in the shoe, then you drink it out of the glass while in the shoe and the family thinks you're drinking out of the shoe. What wedding have you gone to where there was a, you've gone to a wedding? I DJed like three or four weddings where shooies were like family traditions of the groom and the bride was totally against it and I suggested the shot glass and they were like, oh, that's a great idea. And the groom's family is obviously inebriated to a certain extent where they didn't notice and she was a hero and she didn't drink out of her shoe.

I don't drink alcohol at all, so doing any sort of shooey, it sounds insane to me. Maybe I'll do a milk shooey. Doesn't that sound great? Oh my God. Doesn't that sound wonderful? A milk shooey. It's very curt angle of you. Yeah, that would just make people vomit.

I think seeing me do that would just be straight up make people nauseous. So anyway, Jeremy Nelty, I don't think Mike or I will be doing a shooey anytime, an actual legitimate shooey anytime soon. He wants to see Cruz Dilloshat too. And he mentions Ortega versus Yaya Rodriguez because he wants to set up then Emmett and Zombie and then the winner of those two fights fight for a talishat. So yeah, that'd be kind of cool. At Ayo, it's dad.

I had a nice, what a card. I don't even want to book Pena. I just want to bask in watching such an upset only going two and oh in 2021. She has an argument for Fighter of the Year for this win over the consensus, quotes. No. No, she doesn't. I'm sorry. Not over Valentina, just no chance.

Not over Valentina, not over Kamar. He's saying fight of the year, period. Oh, like overall? Not female fighter the year? No, he's the same fighter. Payne definitely has an argument for female fighter of the year. She's definitely in the top three. I think Shavchenko wins it.

But yeah, she's in the discussion now. That's for damn sure. This is true. I will say she might just make the top five based on this one win alone. That's fine. I won't fight that. But not the fighter leader. Not over Kamar Usman.

Neil versus Curtis. I think there's a wonderful way to pay back Curtis for his impromptu. middleweight performances fast-tracking him in welterweight i don't know if a jeff neil fight is fast-racking him in welterweight i also think jeff should fight down more time before another shot at someone like brady or quesa uh yes but i agree but i just don't agree with the fast-track notion bruno silver versus kevin holland boy that would be frigging tough that's uh that's welcome welcome to one 85 sir welcome to one 85 yes going back to 170 kept stay away from that fight ryan dardy uh tony kelly versus nate manis i like it ryan hall versus bryan ortega

This has been proposed before, I think, on this show. I am. You could do it in submission underground. I say do it in the UFC. I say do it in the UFC. You want to see Ryan Hall get really hurt, don't you? Would he? I don't know, man.

On the feet, dude, I think Brian Ortego, I think Brian Ortega would have an incredibly huge advantage on the feet against Ryan Hall. Sure. I think it's going to go to the ground, though. I think it's going to go to the ground. And then let's see how that fancy, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu does against Ryan Hall Jiu-Sutzy. It's all I'm saying. Yeah, it's a nice.

It's a nice fight. It's just not a nice fight right the second. And then Ryan Doherty also proposes Bruno Silva versus Eric Anders. I guess he wasn't happy seeing Eric Anders getting Jiu-Jitsu to death. He also needs to see him getting Blendado bombs to death as well. Okay. I don't know what Eric. I actually don't have a big problem with that fight.

I don't have a big problem. Why? Bruno Silva's like is moving way up. I guess he's. Stylistically, Eric Anders could hang in that fight. I don't think he wins it, but I think he's okay. I think he would be competitive in that fight. I don't know if anyone outside of the top of Dean hangs with Prunosilva in a striking battle right now.

That dude is a maniac. I don't know if he's technically the best striker, but man, once he smells blood, like either his own. No, specifically his own, I should say. He just goes bananas on people. I don't know how far that's going to take him, but man, don't stand and bang with this guy. Nunes v. Oh, Hayes v. Third. Sorry, this next bunch of picks here.

I wanted to say, congratulations on my run the BTL tournament. Thank you, Hayes, mentions that I think a reality where Jake Paul knocks out another former U.S.C. fighter and Tyrone Woodley focuses on his rap career aren't ideal. But I say praising me for putting that out there going toe to toe with the goat of BTL Phoenix Carnival. And he says, I will say I'm a bit disappointed. I never heard hashtag we believe LEE as a tagline for the run. I'm not disappointed. I'm glad we never heard that. And thank you, no one for bringing that up. It's terrible. let me see Garbrandt versus Jeff Molina Now we're all very high in Molina Mike He likes this one He says

Staying 1 to He thinks staying one to provide Is the right call If he can still make the weight comfortably He's been fighting top quality guys Just needs to step back Set him up for And Jeff Molina

Might be odd But Malina's upon some fun fights He can become a rising name The Division with a win And Cody keeps his name alive If he wins And Molina wouldn't lose a ton of stock I agree

But I think that's one of those Things you would say Mike where Molina has much more to gain than Garbrand does. He has 100% more to gain than Cody Garbrand does. But I also think it's a winnable. Like I've just said it before. Any fight that Cody Garberman would be. I would favor Jeff Malina in that fight.

I think a lot of people would. But I don't think that means that he would like steamroll Garbrand. I think he, like I said, any win that Garberan can get is a good win. I don't care who it is. Yeah, I'm not. I get where you're coming from. This is more of a I really like Jeff Bolina more. You much see Garbrand gets smashed by Manel Kopp or Sean O'Malley or

anyone right now. This is what you are, man. Like, this is what, like, this is what you've become. He's 30 years old. You were booked to fight for a title. He is not, a stepping stone.

It's time for him to go back. That's exactly. I hate, stepping stone is so, it just sounds rude. But that's essentially what he is. That's essentially what he is. But I'm still putting him in position

to shine. If he wins, it's all forgotten. It's like Tiger Woods. It's like Tiger Woods. It's like Tiger Woods. You go out there and you do dumb things and your wife attacks your Cadillac Escalade. People think you're the worst person on the planet.

But then you go out and you win a golf tournament. You go out there in a playoff against Roy McElroy, no one thinks you can win. And you go out there and you beat him. Everyone forgets about it. They don't care. That's sports. You go out there and you beat Jeff Molina cool. But it doesn't, they're just going to be like, wow, I beat Jeff Molina.

They're going to beat the guy only has two fights in the UFC. I disagree. I think it doesn't matter who he beats. You and Casey are so. adorable. He needs a win. He just needs any win. If you don't think, I get, look, it'd be great. If you get him a win over a bigger guy, of course, that would matter more. Any win will help this guy at his career. Any win. I don't care if it's Jeff Molina. If I'm his manager and they offer me that fight and Jeff Molina, you better get a new contract and a bump and pay or else that fight means makes no

sense to you. He has no leverage right now. I don't know. He has no leverage. He just has to fight someone that he can beat. But he's contractually getting paid a lot of money to fight. Sure. Sure. And Jeff Molina is probably making contender series entry level money. And yeah, what? Like, there's not even a ton.

There's not even like a ton of financial and business upside for Jeff Molina to fight Cody Garber right now. Like, he'd win. We just said he'd have 100% more to gain from that fight. Right. In some ways, but still, like, you got to be smart about it. and say, sure, it's a great fight, but at the same time, like, this is a big name, and you're only paying me 12 and 12 to fight this guy.

I think we need to bump this up a little bit, like in triplicate. So it's the Molina side, you think, is getting... It's the Sean O'Malley. This is the Sean O'Malley blueprint. Like, this is what you should do. Like, if I'm Sean O'Malley and I'm offered Cody Garbrand, I'm not taking that fight until I get a new contract, which it appears he's getting it. Like, there's so many intangibles.

It's not that I want to see Cody Garberant just get folded. It's just there's intangibles. This gives everybody the opportunity to shine. I don't know if it gives Cody that. Like, it's a win and cool, but you're a guy that was booked to fight for a title a year ago. And if you beat Kai Kar-France, they would have put you in a title fight again. But instead, because you lost, we're going to have you fight an unranked rookie prospect in Jeffelina. No, that's terrible.

Listen, listen, this is all. These ifs were all great. If he fought for the title last year, he didn't. If he beat Kai Kar-France, he didn't. We have to recalibrate dramatically our expectations of Cody Gar-Brandt and his potential leverage and negotiating power, of which he has none now. Other than, like I said, he's already on a really good contract. But I don't think him or his management, or if the people book to fight him,

like, I don't think anyone has that much leverage in the situation. So, regarding whatever government comes up. So if Alabama loses the SEC championship, and they're a win away from the BCS. And they had a tough year. They lost a game like early on. And, you know, they were so close to getting to the BCS tournament. Let's just have you play.

You should probably play in the Rose Bowl against, you know, a team that's like rank number 11. That's come out of nowhere. That's done very well. But no, we're going to put you against Boston College, who was three and seven, but they won three fights and three games in a row. Like, it's just, no. This is a very creative analogy. This isn't college football.

It's not anything like college. It's sports, AK. It's not even. This is like when people try to make the open scoring argument and say like, oh, but like basketball, they don't know the score. It's completely different. It's a fun analogy to make that they're not accurate comparisons at all. It is the definition of apples and oranges.

You cannot compare the matchmaking in MA to the matchmaking or schedule of any other sport. It just doesn't work that way. And also, by the way, Garbrand does not have the track record of Alabama. Let's not act like he's the Alabama because he was a former UFC champion. That he's the Alabama of the UFC Bantamese. division, that's a way, way, way out there. And it would be far more. Clemson or Georgia or something like that.

It's not. But the scenario you present is, is, it sounds absurd. You're right. Because the exact example you pick is absurd. It would not be absurd to see Cody Garbrand matched up with Jeff Molina or Zavruke Adishev or I don't know, Zalgasuma Gulob. It really wouldn't be that crazy. It would be pretty brutal.

It wouldn't be. I think if you're, I think if you're the, I think if you're the WFL right now, you're listening to this and thinking, how can we change? MMA. Like your goal is to change MMA. That's what we do. We just we're going to pay everybody exactly the same, which they're trying to do by the way, and I think that's great. But now we don't have to worry about meritocracy. We're just worried about building these guys' careers. It's not about what's best for business and all that stuff. We're all equals. We're all equals. And if you lose a couple of fights, you go back and you fight somebody ranked well below

you. And that's okay in that company. It's just not the business practice. of the UFC when the pay discrepancy is just so outrageously different from fighter to fighter. And it's not Jeff Belina's fault. It's not even Cody Garbrand's fault. It's just the state of the company. And the fighter's not coming together to collectively bargain a better deal that would make a fight like Cody Garbrandt versus Jeff Malina a lot more sensical. It's just not a sensible fight for the UFC right now. It just isn't.

and it's unfortunate because I'm not a mean dude. Like I would, you know, I'd like to see Cody go out and get a win. But I look at things from the view of what is more likely to happen. And the UFC is not going to be like, dude, we have the Zarugata Chef guy who only has like four pro fights. Why don't you go fight that guy? I just, it's not going to happen. It just, it sucks, but that's just, that's life. That's life in the UFC.

For me, it's why Cody, you have no leverage. And that's why Kayla Harrison, go to Bellator. Yeah. Don't go to the UFC. Go to Belator. Stay where you're at. Cody has no leverage. I think whoever they throw on him, I don't think he can object.

And like I said, I don't know what the match picks are thinking with him. He has no leverage, though. It's whoever they say he fights, he's going to fight. That's how I look at it. Sure. Cruz, what do you think of this one? If Al Jermaine Sterling loses to Piotr-Yon, the rematch, fights Dominic Cruz. Hmm.

Hayes is thinking he. is that obviously if Sterling beats Cruz, you know, it's just good for another name to add to Sterling's resume, keeps him legitimate. And if Cruz wins, he is literally probably one fight away, or at least right put in the short list for a title shot. If he fights, if that's what in fact happens, if Piotr-Yon beats Al Jermaine Sterling and the UFC bounces Sterling back to fight Dominic Cruz, if Dominic Cruz wins that fight, he's fighting for the title. Like there's no FSA or buts about it. There's no one more win. He's fighting for the title. And it would not shock me.

And that's why, like, I'm, I don't love Cruz Aldo. Like, I just don't love the concept of it just from a sensical standpoint. But from a UFC standpoint, I kind of like it because it would not shock me in one bit if the UFC booked that fight and the winner would fight for the title. Like, Dillishaw be damned. It would not surprise me at all if that's the UFC's approach to this. Like, let's give, let's give Dominic Cruz one more shot. let's give, you know, let's give Jose Aldo one more shot over some of these other guys. It wouldn't shock me at all.

It really wouldn't. So, yeah, I mean, I don't, I actually like that. That's some good outside of the box thinking. Well done. Yeah, I agree. That is probably one of my favorite picks of the week. So thank you, Hayesford, for that. Let's go on to Dax here, who had some good picks.

I really liked Ryan Hall versus the Elkins Swanson loser from December 18th. I'm more focused on the Elkins part of that. I feel like I need to see Ryan Hall and Darren Elkins fight. That you feel like that would just be a wacky one of those fights. If you think you can predict how it's going to go, I mean, other than Ryan Hall's submission in 12 seconds. Other than that, if they didn't go that way, I have no idea how that fight would go. Wait, who? If you fought Elkins.

Ryan Hall? Yeah. They already fought. Did they? Yes, Ryan Hall was laying like spinning head kicks and dropping Darren Elkins. I have no record. So you're not wrong. Like, that's exactly how the fight happened.

Like, that's exactly how it played out. and Ryan Hall beat him. Did he also fight Ilya apparently? What? I'm just, you know what? No, this is to be, you know,

Wikipedia, anyone can edit, you know, anyone can edit. It's free, right? Anyone can go in and edit. So that must be what happened here.

Okay, I don't think he fought Darren O'Operia. This is all. I don't remember any of this. Okay, well, anyway, well, that is, Dax's suggestion.

And look, and that was a couple years ago. I'd be down to see them fight again. So I don't mind reading that one out. But Swanson would be interesting. I don't, Swanson had got a severe like knee injury in a grappling contest not too long ago. I don't know if he wants any part of Rhinel.

Yeah. Four Corner Sports, NY. Just trying to kill me with this O'Malley versus Edgar Beck. I know he wasn't the only one, but goodness may, I just, I cannot take it. You hate Cruz versus Devalch Feeley as much as I do, right? Oh, God, yeah. Don't do this, right? Just don't do this.

Yeah, I mean, if you want to do, man, Marob's in a tough spot. Like, he really is. And, yeah, I don't know. And by the way, I really hope Cruz gets booked not against Corey Sanhagen really badly, just so I can win the battle with our little website troll who comes in and just attacks all my picks all the time. And he's not getting five. He's not getting five of my personal lot, no points. I'm not doing it.

I think the pieces have made. I haven't seen the reason. Stephen Breeder also throwing out the Bruno Silva versus Edmund Shabazi and match. Definitely my most hated matchup of the week. Why? I think Bruno Silva would kill him. Maybe I'm just super high on Bruno Silva. I think Bruno Silva would just kill him.

So what's wrong with that? I don't want Erdman Shabazzazzian. I have nothing against Edmund Shabazzian. I don't need Edmund Shabazzian to die. What is... This is fighting. He's not going to die. He might get hurt, but he's not going to die.

His career will die. He just got bolted by Nassardine Emelov. He's a very good prospect. by the way. But like, trajectory, those two guys fighting would make a lot of sense. Would it? He's the last three in a row. Shabazzhi's the three in a row.

Exactly. And that's what I'm saying. Like, Bruno Silva, shouldn't he be fighting someone who's on a, like, has coming off a win? Why? Why are we throwing a guy on a three-fight lizard streak in there with Bruno Silva? Bruno Silva is a vile, evil man. Again, name supersedes rankings more than half the time.

Edmund Shabazzhi's name is not that big. It cannot be that big. It's bigger than Eric Anders. his name. No offense, Ariganders. I like Arroganders. Nice guy. Again, like I said, I know the UFC is merciless. I think even they have to be, again, recalibrating their expectations of Shabazian.

Well, essentially, we will see in 2022, Mike. We will see if there's any change, I mean, I don't know why there would be, but any adjustment in their philosophy regarding guys like Cody Garbrant, Edmund Shabazian. Couldn't you mentioned earlier. Asun Sal. Asun Sal is coming off, he's coming off three straight losses or may think of someone else? Yeah.

Asun Sal, right? Yeah. If he loses to Ricky Simone, what they're going to do with him? It is interesting, like you said, these are all guys who are good fighters with name value. And I don't think they get released. I mean, I could, maybe it's true. Maybe in us and Sao there maybe he's a bigger ticket, like sort of contract. It is, it is funny. How much more losses can these guys take?

Because there's still valuable fighters. And the UFC is still scooping up, you know, Contender Series guys constantly every week. So I don't know. I hope a lot of these guys get more chances. Anyway, I hate the Bruno Silver Shabizing. And that's, and see the contender series would actually be a great play. platform to answer some of these questions. Oh, we've talked about this.

Yeah. Like we sort of a redemption aspect, yeah. 100%. And you give the guys the option. I know. Like Garbrand after last night, you could be like, dude, like, you're making a lot of money. You just got bolted again. Like, you're in, so we'll give you two choices.

If you want to stay, okay, if you want to stay, go on the contender series and fight another 35, like fight Hot Fiela Sunsau again. Or fight somebody who's lost two or three and a lot. The Tyson Nam fight. If you want to do Cody Garver's Tyson name on the Contender Series, winner stays, loser goes home. Like, how much more interesting would that be? I know.

And it gives you, and it gives you exactly what you want, and it makes sense. I know. And who wouldn't watch this stuff? Who wouldn't watch a little tweak to the Contender Series or the Oldenade Fighter? God forbid, we do anything to these sacred cows that the UFC is established. But, I mean, please, guys, just play around with the format a little bit.

Oh, so fun. And look, how much are the fighters like it? I don't know. But I mean. But you give them the option. Or they can just get released and go fight somewhere else. Like it's up to them. They make the choice.

That's our thing. Look, as much as we hate how much control the UFC has over its fighters, the fact that they do means maybe you can, you know, if you are going to be this controlling, you know, entity anyway, maybe have a little more fun with it. Nate Andrews is insisting, I had to read this. We need to give Jed an Otno point. He said, hashtag rules rule at the same time every so often in sports, we have these moments where we break the rules for what makes sense. that Pena win was one of those moments, therefore you have to give Jed not no point. He'll probably be wasting it, bidding it on UGA football anyways, but he deserves it. That was absolutely bananas.

No. Michael Perrigini also likes Garberman versus Koff. I really could see that one being made as much as I hate it. Cruz versus O'Malley, there's heat there, but I don't know. I don't know if I want that now. Emmett versus Barbosa. Mitchell winner, they're fighting March 5th, U.S. 272. A little bit farther ahead, but I could see.

I'm at waiting. I don't know if he's in a rush to get back in there. Rebooked to Ivasa versus Walt Harris. Ryan Hall, Damon Jackson. I like that. Cody Hartman, Cruz, versus Edgar. Thank you. Monez versus Duplice, rebooked that one. And at the end, he says, looking forward to Chris Dawkes-K-O next week. Calling a shot.

And this year's been great. Every event makes me love to support more except for Tate versus Valletta. Ouch. Thomas Collins, just rebooked Perez-Schnell. and Cara France versus the Moreno for a greater loser. Braden O'Neill, I got to read the end of this one too. I like this pick. I know we both mentioned, I think, already.

Blanchefield versus the U. Banks, Gato winner. Actually, that's like a pick I like the most for her. Ryan Hall versus Tugugov. Tony Kelly, Altaang-Hiley at Marvison versus Antonina Shepchenko. And they know you could honestly make any matchup with Emmett, Zombie, Yaiyar Rodriguez, Arnold Allen, and you wouldn't be wrong. Yeah, I hope we see some combination of those in 2012. 22.

That's fantastic. Liam Perry, Pena versus Payton, and she beats Chiasse in December 18. Bruno Silva versus Brendan Allen. Oh, tough matchup. Tough matchup. I think that one I like a lot. You got to do Brennan-Varland versus Shabazzian. I know I was talking about Shabazzian earlier.

I like that. Yes. That's a heat fight that would be a great contender series headliner fight. Yes, perfect. Our redemption, the redemption series headliner. Tocke Gertin-Jensen, I just wanted to give him credit because they, Oh, he said, our man in Denmark says, I hope Cody Garbrandt is set up for retirement. That's the only matchup he wants to see.

He said, I can't watch this anymore. So I talk, I don't think you're the only one who feels that way. And Bruno Silva versus Jack Martian, one of the ones I hadn't seen before thrown out there. Marcus McGahey called this the face. I really should have screened this one first. The Face the Pena edition. Oh, that's excellent. It's all worth it.

It was all worth it. Martin Munez Monez versus Brendan Allen there go and Alan coming up again Bruno Silva versus Dariyev because he wanted Puna

versus Dariah before I think and said Puna is now booked so now I call on my guy Bruno to deliver cat justice yes Dariav has some unfortunate videos in this past where he's training using a live cat

which is unsavory Barry O'Reilly almost at the end of the Twitter here Barry O'Reilly Ryan Hall versus Cron Gracie we don't know where this guy is but obviously it would be a great fight Yep.

Blanchefield versus Maria Agapova. I just feel like Blanchfield's probably jumped ahead of her at this point. Yeah, no way. No way. I think most people would be like a three to one fit against Agapha. Muniz versus Hadoopo Valletta if he beats Wellington Tourman. So it's a little jit-suitzoo contest. And then Josh Emmett, Yair, Jeff Neal, Daniel Rodriguez.

Orrin Sleepwalker says that Augusta Sakai just needs to go to PFL at this point, which, yeah, I think would make sense. So you can go win a million dollars there. Yeah. All right, let's wrap up with Instagram here, guys. Let's go with a newcomer who just messaged me as we were doing the show. And their only, is there a message disappeared? All right, maybe I shouldn't read this?

All right, this is weird. This is freaking me. This is freaking me out, guys. Their thing was just like a crystal ball. And I, okay. Well, no, here they, so I have their picks here. So first timer from FFS 0807, Ryan Halvers, Tugov, Carfranz, As Ascarov,

with some other good ones here. Garbrand's either Tim Elliott or Tim Elliott, if he wants to regain some confidence, Timelae could beat him. Or Manel Kopp, if his ego still pushes him to believe that he's still one of the best players in the world. Spoiler, he is not. Ouch.

Wow. Coming in hot on the first one. Love from France. So thank you. Marisipoku, FFS 0807. All right. John Brake, first timer. Dustin should move

up to 170 face to face Nate. Diaz just want the best business move for him at this point. Could scar on him to a title shot at 170. Sadly, that's true. Without having to fight any ranked 170 poundsers. Yeah, this is very true. Amata Townland where Dustin beats Nate and Conner McGregor at 170, the momentum would be insane. Yeah, I mean, look, that's the way the business works. I know some people are probably rolling their eyes, but for sure, you think they they wouldn't book him in Usman, Porreuxman, they'd love that. John Stewart, I think is name? Neil versus Holland, Car France, Ascarov, Bruno Silva, Chris Curtis, and Monez Gastel. There's a lot of gasolm getting thrown in here with some of these guys.

Dylan Schutt, where are you, Dylan, Dylan, Schute, super excited. They are from Australia. So, first of all, I want to say, I really love the shows of late. Hope you and Mike have been well. OMG, how good did the boys from Australia and New Zealand look tonight? They did everyone proud. So, well, happy for you, Dylan. Zach Rabi, Carr, France, versus Alex Perez. And Mayheads, O'Malley versus Munoz, yeah, right? Sure. I do.

He's not calling. Sheesh. I mean, listen, listen, stylistically, that might be the worst matchup for O'Malley right now. Oh, you think so? Because of those leg kicks, man. Man, I mean, he's brutal with those if he's on. Oh, yeah. I get it.

Yeah, I mean, I'd like to see. I think that's, that actually might be the best fight of all, just to see. Like, that's going to answer all the questions. Because Pedro ain't going to be nervous about that sugar show. And he's got a style that would give O'Malley some problems. So, yeah, I'm in on that one. I like it. Dad, oh, sorry, Matt Bradbury, Garbrandt Brazil.

I also throwing on Garbram Brazilian and a bunch of other picks. Matt Bradbury always delivering. Dad Jackson. I want to read their intro here. Well, this isn't loading for some reason. Oh, anyway, I also want to shout out Dad Jackson. They said, they wanted me to shout out their podcast last time, shed dogs on Spotify. We'll do so now.

I just wanted to make sure they weren't banned from Instagram for some reason. They said one of their accounts was taken down because they were harassing Jerry the King Loller or something. So I don't know what that's about. That sounds a bit weird. Look, I don't want to get into it. But, you know, that's Dad Jackson's business. Ryan Hall versus Sadiq Yusuf, Bruner Silva, Darren Till. I know there's a rumor he's fighting your Rye Hall, but I don't.

I don't think we've had any real. I don't know where this, I don't know where these reports come from. Listen, here's the deal. And this is a lesson to everybody. I know some people cruise through Facebook and they see certain websites who have, who treat social media in a different way. If you,

if we haven't reported a fight, it's not done. It's not a thing. So, and it stinks because like fighters, like, André Munez had an opportunity in the cage. to just call out Darren Till and cut a promo on him.

But he's under a belief because of some of these websites and some of these social media pages that Darren Till has already booked. Darren Till's not booked. All your eye hauled it was just say, hey, Darren, let's fight. And that's it. And your eye hall is doing exactly what your eye haul should be doing. He should be calling out Darren Till. And I liked Andre Me as calling out Darren Till.

And I think that fight is still an option for him. But as far as I know, that fight is not done or anywhere close to being done. but Darren Till should probably headline that card against somebody. I like Brunasilva Till too. I like that suggestion as well. Emmett versus Dan Hooker if he dropped down to 1.45. Carlos Buclez Torres Buckley-Cazeres

likes through Pena versus Rine-Aldana out there. Okay. I just thought it was worth mentioning. I mean, sure, but no. I mean, after the Hollyholm fight, yeah, after the Hollyholm fight, she needs at least one more win, probably two.

Thank you for the pick, Carlos. And Michael Conifrey, let's close out with Michael Conno who does run the Otno and MMA fighting meme page. So thank you for that, Michael. He's been adding to it every now and then. Scott only got a few posts right now. And I missed this last week because he's messaged me through the meme page, not through his personal page.

He was successful in his amateur boxing debut. We won by TKO. So congrats, Michael. Nice, dude. I don't see if there was any other details he gave me here. But yes, that's why I think he wasn't available to send him. and some picks, but yeah, so amateur boxing to be won by TKO.

So congrats, and your listeners could kick some ass as well. And Nunea's really pushing for Nuneo Schenka-Chanko 3, which could still happen. I don't know if that happens next right now. And Porre v. Covington for the inaugural bruiserweight championship. So there we go.

A lot of guys, you can reach me at Alexander KK.K. Lee on Instagram, at Alexander K. Lee on Twitter. Alex.com.com. We had a big show this week, Mike. Yeah, this might be the longest show in the history of the show. And worth it. It is.

We got one more matchmaking show next week. Okay. Coming out of UFC Vegas 45, right? Yes. Around 45. Okay. Derek Lewis versus Chris Dachas, the main event. Stephen Thompson versus Bilal Muhammad, the co-main event.

Great fight. Our good friend Angela Hill, fighting Amanda Lamos. Boy, that's a fight. That's an interesting fight. Hafeel Sunso takes on Ricky Simone, great one at 155, Diego Faheda versus Matush Gamrott, big fight for Faheda, probably needs to win that one. Darren Elkins, Cub Swanson, Gerald Mearschart has his like 487 different opponent for this card,

now fighting Dustin Stoltzviz. Hione Barcellos is fighting Victor Henry in the UFC in the Year of Our Lord 2020-201. Victor Henry is fighting in the UFC next week on short notice. Justin Taffa versus Henry. Harry Hunsucker, Sejarra U. Banks, Will Sagato, Charles Jordane versus André U.S. Andrew Ewell, making the move up to 145, his featherweight debut in the UFC. Raquel Pennington versus Macy Chesson. Donnell Mays versus Josh Parisian.

That fighting ain't going long. And Jordan Levitt returns to the Octagon for the third time taking on Matt Sails. So this should be fun. And by the way, so how many fights is that? Was it 15, 14, 2, 3, 4, 14 fights. but 1 p.m. prelims. 4 p.m. Eastern Main Card because that's smart. You do not want to go head to head with Jake Paul and Tar and Willey because no one's going to watch it.

No one's going to watch your card. Gosh, we had to keep reminding people that. That big fight is next week, eh? Yes. So we've got a very busy week coming up. I will be actually heading to Tampa on Tuesday to cover that card. Florida Mike. Florida Mike.

So I'm going to be in great spirits. Floor and Mike is just a different guy. and hopefully maybe we record the final matchmaking. No, while in Florida, while I'm maybe in the airport waiting to catch the plane back home. Yes. And I'm glad Mike we record a big one this week. Because, again, obviously we are doing,

we will do an episode next week, come hell or high water. Oh, it's happening. Yeah, I don't know if you a little bit later than usual, but we will do an episode. But, again, we've got a fat episode this week. You know, it might take people some time to gnaw through it. But again, after next week, we won't have another UFC card

until middle of January. So we don't know yet. I don't know if we are going to do sort of, you know, a free week show. We might. We don't know yet. We can't confirm. I don't know if we are going to do a year-end show. We will do another prediction show because that went over very, very well.

Okay. We will do that. And I think we owe our peeps one more AMA episode because that actually did really well, too. Okay. It just came out of nowhere. We're like, let's just do an AMA. And we're like, yeah, do people care? Some people, I guess.

So maybe we'll do that just to fill a spot. We do get sent a lot of questions along with the picks that we don't always read out. So, yeah, I guess you guys won't be without Otno for that long at all then. I was trying to warn people to, you know, put it in there, nestle these Otteno episodes away. They might not need to. Yeah, I'm going to peel back the curtain a little bit. Oh. I'm probably going to cheat on the prediction episode a little bit.

I'm probably going to cheat. Probably got two part the hell out of this thing. So just to fill some slots, you know, give you some episodic, no, podcasting, some evergreen content, if you will. Everything in moderation, Mike. Everything in moderation. Because the prediction show is going to be nuts because I have to go back through the old show to see how we did.

And that was a, I mean, that was a monster of a podcast. And then we have to ask like a lot of similar questions, plus some new questions for 2022. So that, just preparing that episode is going to be a beast within itself. But speaking of the Beast, Derek Lewis takes on Chris Doc as in the main event next week. So we'll see you back then to recap it all. For AK, I am Mike Eck. Thank you for listening.

Always remember, don't take this stuff too seriously. M.A. is supposed to be fun. We'll have fun. One more time as matchmakers for 2021. Right here next week on. On to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.