MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC 270

Episode Date: January 23, 2022

Francis Ngannou's game continues to evolve, but will it be enough to get him the respect from Dana White and the UFC that he desires? This week on On To the Next One, that question is answered from a matchmaking perspective following Ngannou's first successful title defense in the main event of UFC 270. In addition, future matchups are discussed for Ciryl Gane — who suffered his first pro MMA loss at the hands and wrestling of Ngannou — new flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo as he regained the title in the co-main event, Brandon Moreno, Michel Pereira, Said Nurmagomedov, Michael Morales, and more with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee. 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 a live and very special new edition of onto the next one. We are on video as well as audio on the M.A. Fighting Podcast Network this week as we're getting ready to discuss the what's next for some of the notable names coming out of UFC 270. And joining me on this venture, by the way, I'm Mike Heck, a little sleep deprived. But joining me on this venture is the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the best friend, and the prince of positivity. my fellow sleep deprived colleague, Mr. Alexander Cayley. Good morning, AK. How are you, my friend?

Wait, Mike, my best friend, what's going? Wait, people can see me right now? They can see you right now. They look at me right. Wait, oh, okay. Watch us. Watch us. Watch us.

Whoa. What are you doing? And we're going to edit. Wait, hold on. This is being edited later. This isn't live. Like, we're not actually, people aren't watching this right now, right? Oh, they sure are, okay.

There's some crazy people out there that woke up extra early to watch this program. I feel like you told me this last night and earlier. I think that you told me this multiple times this week. And every time you mentioned it, I'm shocked. No, this is great. Like we said, I think at the end of last or the last time we did a live show, very positive. Were we live the first time we did it, Mike? We weren't live.

We did video. No. But we had a very positive reception to the video version of onto the next one. So guys, we're giving you more of that. Again, following pay-per-views, following special events, really following anything that, you know, hey, on a lark, we might go like, Mike, let's do some video Sunday morning. You know what I mean? So paper views for sure.

and hopefully you'll be seeing more of us in general. But thank you, everyone. Anyone who's just watching for the first time, any of our regular listeners, you guys are super loyal and had sent in a ton of great picks. I am so excited to talk about this show, the first UCP review of 2022. Mike, I don't know where to go from here.

People can see me. Normally I nod off when I'm not talking, but I guess I can't do that right now. Yeah, to pull back the curtain, normally we're looking like Ebenezer Scrooge up in here. We got the pajamas. We got the cone pajama hat on. We're just rolled out of bed and hit record, but we had to dress.

Sometimes I'm in bed. I don't know what you mean rolled out of bed. I've recorded many shows in bed. I don't know. Unbelievable. Rolled out of bed. Well, okay, let us get into this thing. I think we know where to start.

Let's start with Francis and Ghana, because the man is a damn warrior. This guy with all the pressure in the world upon him, bet on himself, fighting a super difficult puzzle in Cyril Gahn, cornered by his former coach. And by the way, basically on one leg, loses the first two rounds, finds a way to out grapple and out wrestle. Cyril Gahn en route to a unanimous decision win, just absolute craziness. So, a lot of narratives, no Dana White at the presser, no Dana White wrapping the belt around Francis's giant waste. We got the contract issues. Now we have the injury.

he might have to opt out for a little while for surgery on the injured knee. This is kind of tough, isn't it? It's kind of hard to throw a name out there with so many unknowns, right? It's pretty much impossible, especially since a lot of the best options and what a lot of people are talking about are just not UFC related things. Yes, Inganu, of course, winning and retaining the UFC heavyweight championship does sort of tie him to the promotion. But at the same time, he's not like completely locked in.

there's all kinds of chicanery going on, let's put it that way. And Dana White not showing up was fairly telling. Now, we should say we still do not know why Dana White did not show up or even like tweet anything after. So I see the comment on screen, Hank Hill saying, Dana looking too petty. We don't know. Again, I hope nothing bad happened. I hope it wasn't like a family issue or some sort of emergency for him.

People know me. I'm very positive. I don't want to assume it was malicious. He didn't show up, but I understand the speculation, of course, with everything leading into it, him not putting. the belt on him. And again, not even any sort of comment after from him. We didn't get any update from PR. So again, I hope everything as well with Dana White and his family and friends. But it did, it was a strange look to put it kindly for him, for him not to comment after.

So, Mike, I mean, number one, I would say, I want Francis and Gano to get paid or to get out. That's it. That's like the ideal. I think most fans would agree. I'm sure there's a few people who weren't super excited about his performance on Saturday. I thought it was mesmerizing in the way that only heavyweight MMA can be. And I know a lot of people agree with that as well. So I do want to see him get properly compensated. I think he's a great champion.

I think he's very exciting. And I think he's very marketable if the UFC, you know, resolves this beef with him and works out. He really can be a crossover star. If he has to fight someone, a title defense, I kind of thrown out like Tom Aspinall if he beats Volkov in impressive fashion on March 19th. And that's it.

That's really just to pick a fresh. challenger. I'd be very surprised if we've seen Ghanu book a UFC fight within the next within the next six months. He might fight again like by the end of the year in the UFC if they work it out. I just don't see that happening soon. It's the John Jones fight for me if he doesn't need to miss a lot of time because that surgery and depending on how bad that injury actually is and how long he's going to be out for, if he has to miss the rest of the year, then the next battles with himself and his team and free agency because if what he and his team says is true with the contract, even with the Champions Clause stuff, that at the end of this year, he's done,

who knows? This makes things really interesting. That's what they're saying. Not really sure if it's actually true. There's two sides to every story and somewhere in the middle is the truth. So if I'm Francis, it's John Jones or nobody until I make the free agency rounds and see what's out there. because what is out there, as we saw by the commission figures, probably much more than the UFC paid him to fight last night in a main event spot. So yeah, it's a really interesting story. It's not just the contract. It's this injury and how long he's going to be out for.

Because if he can't fight for a year, go into free agency and test the waters and see where you're at. But do a bunch of interviews, go on the MMA hour every week and talk about your grievances. And let's have some fun. So congratulations to France and Ghana. Congratulations to Eric Nixick. and Dewey Cooper and the whole team over there because that was some turnaround performance.

Now, for Cyril Gahn, AK, again, this is tough because we don't know what's happening with Francis and I feel like we need to know what's happening with Francis before we can make an educated choice here. Because if Francis can fight John in the not too distant future, I like the Steepa Miichich fight for Cyril Gond. But if Francis is out for a bit, the UFC will probably do what the UFC does

and try to do Steep A versus John Jones for an interim title or something. something like that. So it's either Steppe or if Tai Tuvasa beats Derek Lewis, Zero Gone versus Tai Tuvaasa is probably the direction we see maybe by the middle of the year. But again, it's tough without knowing what's going to happen with Francis in the whole situation there. What say you, my best friend? That would be an incredible clash of personalities. And I think they'd get along and do some sort of post-fight thing where Gone would do like a shooy of some classy French wine.

Again, I don't approve of shooies, but that would be quite a scene. I would love to see Sidilgan embrace, you know, Tuvoss's tradition. That's maybe the only shooie that I enjoy, just to see it. And it would be a great fight as well. I think regardless, I haven't mentioned John Jones at all because I just cannot factor him into my matchmaking. There's just so many things that are going on with this guy, both from a legal standpoint and then his, you know, people forget,

even before that, he was budding heads, negotiating. with the UFC. I mean, Dana White had kind of come forward and said, we want John Jones to fight for the heavyweight title next. Then that happens. And I just can't bank anything around this guy. I mean, in a dream world, yes, he cleans up his act and he fights Ngano or he fights Depe. For me, I'm really thinking that, again, this Ngano situation does not get resolved anytime soon. So there will be a vacant slash interim title fight. I'm not sure however they're going to handle it in Angu's absence. And it will be Miotichengon. So I'm leaning towards their direction, that direction, and I think it'll be something they'll try to use to headline a

pay-per-view and put some gold on there. I like where your heads at. Matthew Neville, so glad you guys are trying this on YouTube this week. It's one of my favorite shows, this and every week. Keep up the great work. Thank you very much. Thank you. Did you guys know about Francis's new injury?

I felt uncool not knowing the way the commentary team knew. I didn't know. I mean, the knee sleeves had everybody talking, but I don't think anyone truly knew. There's rumblings and things that you might hear, but you never, can really confirm that stuff. It's just kind of the, it's the gossip. And that's it. A lot of rumors on the Dirk web.

But the same kind of dark web that's, you know, tweets out like RIP, but Brian Callan all the time. So, you know, it's hard to say. It's, it's really hard to say with that kind of thing. But there was, there were rumblings. There were rumblings. Just nothing, nothing anyone could substantiate. Right.

So that's the heavyweight title picture. Let's go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum, AK, the flyway title picture. We have, there's Anne New and and still. Now we have an and one. once again champion. And Davis at Figuero, super close fight with Brandon Moreno. No robbery.

Could have gone either way. Arguments to be made both ways. I scored it from Moreno watching it live. I do have to go back and watch again because when you're covering these events, you're doing 15 million things at once. So it's hard to actually like analyze the fight by itself. But Figgie Smalls has the title, AK, which means this series is one, one and one. And that means we got to do it again, right?

Tetrology, quadrology, whatever you want to call it, we got to. We got to run this one back. Do we not? I think we, obviously, look, I do want to see these guys fight again. I went a little bit away from the obvious suggestion. The fight was amazing. I was one of the people who was all in on the trilogy bout when, you know, some people were rolling their eyes. Maybe they weren't aware that Ascroft wasn't available and Pantosia wasn't available. I knew that.

So I guess that's why I was like, oh, great. This is the number one and number two flight weights in the world. I want to see him fight again. Sure, it could have, you know, this rivalry could have used some time to simmer. But if they can fight now, they can fight now. they did it was a great fight i think it'll it'll be in the running for uh for fight of the year when uh when it's all done we're a long ways away from thinking having to think about that but i'm saying people just just put a pin in that one uh but i this isn't just me want to see something

fresh i just feel like i just can't imagine the ufc booking four fights between the same guys in a row again they've never booked four fights between uh two fighters ever much less consecutively so it would be unlikely it would help if they could book you know, the fight in Mexico City or if they could book the fight in Brazil. But even in that case, if they book it in Brazil, then really Figy can fight anybody, right? Then in that case, you're banking on him being the draw, not necessarily the trilogy, not necessarily his rival. Excuse me, the tetralogy and his rivalry with Moreno. So, well, I guess we'll get to Moreno in a second.

For me, I would like to see Davidson Figurito fight the Ascar-Ascarov, Kai Kar-Franz winner. I think Kai Kar-Franz has got a lot of buzz after that Garbrand win. And Ascroft is the rightful number one contender. It's unfortunate he had that blip missing weight. But he beat the other guy who I think is right up there, Pantoja. So I think the winner of that fight deserves it. And I think one of them, that's going down in March. Hopefully we get a very clear definitive winner.

And they're healthy after. And they can turn it around and a couple months later fight in Brazil. If that card does get, does get made. I get it. And there's a lot of other people agree with you. Glenn, why are we skipping the Dane and Francis drama? because we don't we've talked about it at nauseam already but we don't know what the drama actually is we don't know if anything happened like maybe dana got a call there's an emergency

and he had a beat feet it's hopefully not hopefully not but we don't know that's not the case but we don't know before we can fully speculate we don't know the answer to that um what does that say there we go european europe stand up yeah i mean listen i'm going to make this brief figgy marino four to settle the score it writes itself there's your poster there's your promo, everything you need to know. Let's just do it. And like I said on the post-fight show, the UFC has put up,

done interim title fights for way less than this. And if they want to move the division forward and give Kai Kar-France a chance and ask her, ask her off a chance and the metal caps of the world and the guys that are on the come-up, just have them fight for an interim title. And then just once this rivalry is over, we'll unify the belts.

Like in this case, I'm fine with an interim title. Go for it. Do it. It's cool. Like the flyweight intercontinental championship. Sure. I'm all in for that. But we got it. We don't know who the best fighter is.

We still don't know after three fights. We don't know who the better fighter is. I think it's pretty obvious. I think it's pretty obvious, Mike. I'm not going to say it because I think we all know who it is. But, you know, everyone watching, guys, you don't need to comment. You guys all know who the better fighter is. Mike will figure it out.

Don't worry. I think we all know. It's pretty clear. Again, I don't need to say it. We're all thinking the same thing. So I know you're matching you up with those two, Mike. So for Moreno, the other thing is selfishly, I do want to see the Marines. Pantosia, that quote-unquote trilogy sort of resolve itself.

I know a lot of people view it as like just two because their first fight was on the ultimate fighter, then they had an actual fight in the UFC. But it's kind of a trilogy in ways. And Pantosia finished Moreno on the ultimate fighter. So it would suck to like discount that, that win. So I selfishly want to see that happen. I know theoretically it could happen any time in the future after Moreno and Figuado resolve their tetrology or whatever, how many fights it turns out to be.

But I want it now. I want it now, and I'd be fine. This sounds terrible. I'd be fine if the star is never aligned again, and we didn't see Moreno and figurative fight again. Or they could fight again someday and not for the title. I don't know. I don't know.

I'm throwing that out there. This is MMA. Things don't always work out. But four fights in a row would certainly be incredible. I'm not against it. But I do kind of want to see the Askar, Askara France winner maybe get their opportunity. And also, I want to see Pentosa and Moreno resolve that feud sooner rather than later.

interesting question here is a possible marine a star power rose even with the loss oh absolutely he looked like a star and the way he handled the loss like a like a star i'm going to give his side of the story why he didn't wrap the well well i'm sure he'll do an interview with with brad ocumoto or something like that or i'm sure maybe in the next couple of weeks but listen there's a pay for coming up in less than three weeks. So we'll see him again, I'm sure. By the Jonathan Mercado, it is not the year of the raw dog. Stop it.

Stop. I will ban anyone who puts a year of the raw dog. Stop it. Yeah, give me seven of these. Best of seven, Figuero, I'm in. A.K., I'm going to turn this over to you because Michelle Paheta. Oh, yes. Now has four wins in a row.

He gets a decision win over a very game, Andre Fialho. Great performance. He had a tough first round, but he got. guts it out and gets a big win. So go for it, my man. Who you got? Yeah, Andrew Fialho looked great. The guy's a veteran. He's fought for a bellatory. He's fought for PFL. So it wasn't surprising. It was a tough fight. A difficult guy to prepare for. I actually thought Pantosia would be able to put him away. But boy, they both took some shots. And Pantosia sort of continued his evolution that's happening in front of us of being, yes,

flashy. He certainly did some flashy stuff. There was a there was a rolling thunder in there. There's a Superman punch. I'm pocket forgetting some other things. Of course, his entrance is spectacular as usual. But he also continues show he's a great, like, technical, accurate striker what he wants to be. Like, his striking is so high level. And he can mix in wrestling. He's a huge welterweight.

So just on strength alone, I mean, maybe he's not like, you know, Division I takedown artists. But boy, he knows how to time it well, and he can get those takedowns and change things up. So really, still one of the most fascinating fighters in the UFC in any weight class. So I see people saying he deserves time for him to move up. He is kind of sitting around like the 25 to 35 range of welterweight. It's a very deep division.

There's a lot of options for him to move up. So I went way, way, way, way up, Mike. I'm giving him, I'm going top 10. I'm giving him a top 10 name. I kind of want to see him face Sean Brady. Sean Brady, we've said it's a cliche, like we think he's going to fight for a title, almost guaranteed. The Kesa fight was great. He faded a bit in the end.

I want to see him face another big guy, another big welterweight. And see how much he's learned. See, it's a different opponent than Kesa for sure, obviously, more striking-oriented. to think grappling. But it was a striking that kind of gave him some problems in the in the third fight. And questions about his gas tank and all that. And Pajeda, as much as people kind of take shots at him, has actually shown to have a pretty good gas tank outside of that weird Tristan Connolly fight.

So, yeah, I'm going big. I'm going big. I'd like to see Dermol D'A door and Sean Brady. I don't know if the U.S. matchbreakers are going to go in that direction, but I think that'd be cool. I think that'd be a cool thing. Okay. So I feel that this could be a really interesting spot for a number of guys.

I thought about this, and this is kind of a dart throw once I figured I narrowed it down. But there's two names that really stood out to me. One was Daniel Rodriguez. He's likely getting ready to return. And when he's ready, he doesn't need a lot of time to get ready. So if he says, I'm clear, I'm good to go. He'll probably fight like three weeks from then. Who knows how long pay it is going to be out for.

The other name, you're talking steps up, AK. You're talking step up in the rankings. And we love this guy so much. but it makes sense for styles, makes sense for trajectory. Why not, A.K. The guy's in a two-fight losing streak, but name still carries a lot of weight.

He ain't the BMF champion. He's the NMF champion. Paheda versus Wonderboy Thompson. It seems like a very interesting chess match, a pretty interesting fight. And I am intrigued. I am intrigued enough to say this into a live microphone on the Sunday morning.

Why not? This is a why-not fight? Why not, A.K. Why not Paheda versus versus Wonderboy. That's Moe Caliente. Yeah, it'd be great. You know Michelle Paheda would love that fight.

I still wish he had somehow, remember, he called up Mazvedal. I was way onto that. I understand that fight is probably never going to happen. But again, but I like that he went big. And I like that we're both thinking top 10. And if you're a Wonderboy, again, he hasn't made any talk about retiring. He's saying like, no, I still want to fight. I don't care.

I feel good. Maybe, you know, decisions are, I'm not winning fights. he's had some tough stylistic matchups, but you put him in there with the Michelle Beheada. I mean, that's right up his alley. So, yeah, I love the idea of Wonderboy and Demolador. We'll see what happens. We move ahead to the Bannamweight Division because Bannamweight is just awesome.

And I'm sure we're going to talk about Bannemate quite a bit on this program. Saeed Nirmaga Madoff just goes out there and melts Cody Stamen, puts him away in 47 seconds. Holy moly. What a performance that was. Absin certainly made the heart grow fonder. He comes out. just nobody does that to Cody's statement and he did it this seems pretty easy to me you give him a guy that's

in the top 15 but like on the lower end of the top 15 and I think this should just be such a fun highly entertaining energetic scrap Sayy Naragamata versus Ricky Simone just seems like a perfect fight for me AK yeah I saw a lot of that did he actually did he do a post fight scrum and mention Simone no he mentioned Marlon Vera mentioned Marlon okay I saw some people saying that he was injured in Simone if I maybe maybe some other interview

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I did something I don't normally like to rely on when we do on to the next one, Mike, but I'm going with someone who was on the card. And you mentioned someone, you know, in the sort of outside the 15 range. This is where this guy landed for me after his performance and the featured prelim. To me, Victor Henry right now is a top 20 bantamweight in the UFC. I debuted him at number 20. Obviously won his work and rise and he's been fighting high-level competition for a long time.

And he beat a guy who I had in the top 20, Howie Barcellos. So he takes his spot and also has the resume to sort of back that up. And I would like to see him fight Saiden or Megamatta. Again, you know, when you see two guys get great wins like this, I understand that the inclination to kind of build them both up. But Victor Henry is a veteran. And I think he's the right test for Saeedner Megamatov right now.

Obviously it'd be a great, just super exciting matchup. And I think it'd be really competitive. But if Saeed and Megamatta can blow through a veteran like Victor Henry, then we're really talking about like, okay, this kid needs, now he really needs to be pushed. You put the rocket to him and see how high he can go at 135 because I think it'd be a great fight. But I also thought the Stamen fight would be a lot more competitive. And like you said, he submitted him in under a minute, which none of us saw coming. And we don't blame Cody's statement at all because that choke was like a, it looked like a lead pipe across the throat. So I think anyone would have tapped in that

situation. So best of luck to Cody Stamen, whatever he does next. But I think Sainer-Nir-Megamatov, I have no issue putting him in there with a heart and veteran like Henry. Something tells me that Victor Henry's name is going to come up a little bit later when we get to the wild card round. And I think I got something spicy for the wild card pick. So we go to the main card opener at 170 pounds, 22 year old Michael Morales. What a debut he had against Trevin Giles. Trevin Giles making his welterweight debut in the UFC looked good early. And then all it takes for Michael Morales is to land one shot.

to change everything and that's exactly what happened in this fight huge win he's moves to 13 and 0 with the victory and i mean no better way than to kick off your career to do it in in front of a big crowd a crowd that was very supportive of you and uh he looked kind of like a star like a star on the rise so what do we do with young michael morales a k after that victory uh i'm sticking again nothing's i i'm not as eager to push him up i get it undefeated uh great a great wrestling background which is not common for some of these Latin American fighters. So he's, I mean, I get the thrill. I was a little shock because I actually thought pretty highly of Trevin Giles.

I had actually picked him to win a decision or to surprise Morales with a submission because I thought Morales is, again, a good wrestler, good top game. But, you know, again, young, inexperienced, facing someone like Giles. So I thought he would get caught off guard. But he looked absolutely incredible as advertised. So I'm going a little bit like here. I like a matchup with Mnir Lazez, another guy who's sort of promising quite a bit older than Michael Morales.

Similar amount of M.A experience, though, I believe Lazzaz is about 10 years, 10 years, maybe more older than him. But experience-wise, I think it matched up nicely. And I want to do a little bit of a slow burn with Morales. So let's, yeah, give me the Lazz matchup. And who knows, maybe it's Lazz upsets him and gets his career back on track. So Sunday mornings, I always wonder if we're going to be like actual best friends and be on the same page or if we're just going to be on complete opposite sides of the spectrum. You woke up and chose calculated good matchmaking, right?

Let's build this guy up slow. Yes. I woke up and chose violence. I chose violence. Michael Morales versus Nico Price. Give it to me. Give me all the chaos, all the bananas, all of it. I want to see it.

I want to see what Morales does when he's in the fire like that. Trevin Giles was like a good test, but let's see him really in the fire with the guy who's not going to go away very easy. And I just think that's so much fun right now. Nico, Nico's not going to be a title contender. He's not going to fight for belts. He's not going to be main eventing cards, but he is the perfect guy to open up main cards or be on a featured prelim. And Michael Morales versus Nico Price just sounds like so much fun. So let's do it.

Let's have some fun and make Walter Waite just as exciting as it can possibly be. I'm really intrigued to see the ceiling of Michael Morales, especially getting a quick win. How active can he be? How quickly can he bounce back? He could have a big year. He could be a guy that we're talking about at the end of the year's Emmy Fighting's rookie of the year for 2020.

The year could be. So he's well in his way. It's a good, great start. So that's the main card. And for those who are new to the program, let us go to the wild card round. What we do in the wild card round is we choose one fighter we have not match made for yet, and we match him up.

So either they won on the prelims, they lost on the main card, and we figure out a way to get them in there and show them some extra love. How about this matchup, A.K., what do you think of that? La Frappe de Patia, Mike Heck versus Daniel, a mirror match, some would say. I didn't know we had to take technology to set up a fight like that, but sure enough, sure enough, someday YouTube must come face to face and just confuse the hell out of everyone when to seeing the scene. But, Mike, yeah, sorry, should I go forth with the...

Oh, yes. Wild card us on the Sunday So I went with my fellow Canadian as it were Jasmine Jazzeus I owed her one I picked against her Maybe a reverse jinx not that I believe in that sort of thing but I had picked against her

Also I've been mispronouncing her name wrong repeatedly so I think I at the very least I owe her I owe her a wild card pick Now I did kind of cheat Here because I don't know there's anyone Currently on the roster That's not booked that I would want her to fight It's very tricky again when you just want to know

because I do feel like I always thought but the flyweight division is a little bit further along than people think. The prospects who are in it are way ahead. Again, you wouldn't throw her in there with a Firo or a Aaron Blanchfield. It just doesn't make sense to me. So if you can find someone

else and bring them in as a new opponent for I think that'd be great. But ideally, I think this is what will happen. She just stays trained, stays on notice and gets ready to jump in for a short notice opportunity. There's actually quite a few women's flyweight spouse that are already scheduled for the next like three or four months, like up until April.

And I think some of those she could fit in, so I didn't pick some of those names. So just stay healthy. And I bet we will see her. You know how cards just are just chaotic these days? I think we will see her take a short notice fight for her next fight. I just don't know who. So I'm not getting any out-no points for this one, guys.

This is a cautious sort of just like look ahead and sort of props to Jezavizius for a really, really nice debut. Yeah, even after she got a contract on the contender series, she actually stuck around Las Vegas for the next two weeks. wanted to fight after that. She's ready. She's ready. Jeffrey was fighting on the contender series. She stuck around and was like, if they need me, call me. And yes, that's basically been her whole career, just taking short notice fights and just jumping in enemy territory. And, yeah, would not shock me to see her back soon rather than later. I'm going on the Victor Henry train here.

He was someone that us hardcore, Casey Liden and the rise in the rise in marks knew of very much. We're very excited about finally seeing him in the UFC. Water performance he had against Hione Barcellus. He was the biggest underdog. on the card. But I said this in the buildup. That had trap fight written all over it. Hione Barselyt-Barsallos deserved a lot of credit for taking this fight because there's no reward in beating Victor Henry. It's been a super risky fight. And Bannamway is so freaking good. And to me, there's a perfect matchup that's just staring us in the face, AK, that is equally interesting, fun, and incredibly sensible for being honest. We throw the wily, internationally traveled,

Victor Henry inside the Octagon following his big win into a big fight with another fellow prospect a guy who's probably ranked right around the same area. How about Victor Henry versus Adrian Yanez AK? Yes, I saw a lot of very popular listener pick.

I think everyone who's who's been sort of fantasy matchmaking is really in tune with that one, Mike. Yeah, it just makes a lot of sense. Skill wise and experience wise, I mean, Victor Henry is more experienced than he is. So yeah, no, I do Like, I do love that one.

And I just know a lot of people, man, we talk about people who broke out on Saturday. I mean, you would say, we said Moreno, even in defeat. Saeed, no, Megan Medina, probably number one, Michael Morales and Victor Henry, right up there. I mean, for people who aren't familiar with his work outside the UFC, awesome, awesome, fight. Very good, very good undercard in general, I thought. Fight back? Like, fight back?

Like back in the rankings. How? You can make the argument that beating Hione Barcellos, name value-wise, and where Hione-Barcellos was in the rankings, was better than any win Adrianianus is that. And Adriana's is very good wins. Davy-Grant win is a nice win. But beating Hione-Barsellas, to me,

carries more weight than beating Davey Grant. Yeah, that would not be fighting back. I have, like I said, I have Henry at 20 in my personal rankings. I actually have Ayanez at 33. Before anyone freaks out, like, oh, my God, he's outside the top 30. just remember how deep the bantam weight division is. Like you could shuffle that. Like from 20 to 30, you could shuffle it.

You could have Yannas probably anywhere from 21 to 35, right? It's just there's so many good. It's so competitive. And you're right, it's based both on win streaks, which Yannas has, 4 and O in the UFC, but also quality of competition that Barcellos win for Henry is just huge. So I'm with you, Mike. I don't think that's fighting back at all.

Yes. All right, do we have any check the tapes? We do. I'm sure we have checked the tapes. So check the tapes for those who are just checking the show for the first time. If you made a matchmaking selection following a card and it comes true, that we shout you out and you get a very valuable otno points. Yes. Especially if you get this by yourself.

If you're on an island, that one otto-no point is huge. Most people have to have to share otno points. Yes. It's still valuable. It's crazy. Very valuable in itself. Even a quarter of an otno point is worth like, you know, 11 cents. So there you go, AK. I'm not, you know, I'm not up to date in the market all the time.

Mike, I believe one otto-no point is something like 75,000 Ethereum. or something like that. Again, you guys, in the comments, you guys know this more than I do. It's like 75,000 Ethereum. It's worth like 100 and like 15,000 like Bitcoin, something. It's just crazy. It just keep, again, it's very volatile. I will say do not bank you, if you get an Notno point, please do not bank your child's future like college education on Not No Points. Very volatile. More as volatile as crypto. So, but they're good to have. They're good to have, certainly to save for a rainy day. You can't go wrong having it on no point. And some people will have shiny auto points here.

Matt Bradbury, for me, he's the only one I saw, called the Macy Barber, Montana de la Rosa fight April 23rd. So Matt Bradbury, I'm giving you a not-no point. And Hayesby 3rd, and Antonina Shochenko versus Courtney Casey,

which apparently going down April 30th. So there's a point for you as well. And for the rest of our genius listeners, you guys can share Volkov versus Aspinall going down March 19th and Glover-Deshire versus Yuri Perashka. We all thought it was happening. We all kind of want to see it.

UFC 247, May 7th. So enjoy the points, Please enjoy the points. Or the fraction of the points. Or the fraction of the points. Very bad little stuff. Yeah. Get you and your crew to the big shows with Go Transit.

Go connects to all the main concert venues like TD Coliseum in Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto. And Go makes it affordable with special e-ticket fairs. A one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel across the network on any weekend day or holiday for just $10. And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for $5. by yours at gotransit.com slash tickets. Okay, so the people have submitted their matchmaking selections. And if you guys watching live right now want to submit your matchmaking selections, let's be interesting, let's be different, let's think outside the box,

because if you want an Otno point, you're saying Franciscanianan versus John Jones, probably not going to get you a full out, no point. But if you say Francis and Ganu versus Alexander Romanov, and that happens to be the fight, guess what, you're probably getting an Otno point if they put that fight together. So, AK, for the newbies. And for the regulars, the disclaimer, because I feel like you got some things to get off your chest here. Well, very quick.

First of all, like we said, you really only get a solo, like a special golden auto point if you were like one of the only people to have it. So hard to do. It means you have to go, again, you probably have to pick an unorthodox pick. But if you gamble and you get it, I mean, hey, take your auto point. Please guys, pay attention. And this is for anyone watching live, we're going to call you out. Okay, I'm going to review some of these picks live. please make sure you've got the right weight class that the people if they if you suggest like a rematch that you mentioned it's a rematch because otherwise I'm going to think you just didn't know that they fought like last March or something it could be someone who's been injured now for a long time or they've been released or they could already be booked so I think we're going to see a lot of that today Mike I know we're going live so I won't be too hard on people who haven't kept up with all the sort of official and speculated bookings but I will still mention it or we just won't read it if your suggestion doesn't get read it means you effed up

And that's kind of the also leads to our most important rule. Your pick might just be do-do. And we don't want to read it. So we'll be the judge of that. And don't feel bad. It just means you suck. And, you know, try again next time. And one additional rule this week.

People stop making strawweight matchups for Jez de Vesias. She is a flyweight. Yes, she fought Kay Hansen, who has fought a strawweight. But Jez DeVizius is a flyweight. I saw a lot of people making strawweight matches for her. No. No. I don't know if she can never make it.

I'm just saying, as far as I know, she's a flyweight, if you booked to a strawberry matchup, you messed up and you didn't know. Wow. AKA on fire. Hey, they're lucky. I didn't call individuals. This is, like, one of those work emails where, like, one person messes up, and then someone sends in a work email and says, hey, guys, could everyone using the coffee machine, just remember

to do this? When it's really, like, we all know, it was Dave who, you know, didn't, who messed up the coffee machine. So this is the same thing. I'm not naming names. You know who you are. You messed up your Jes de Viziest picks. I feel like we're going back into the archives of life right here. So let's go into this.

Let's pull these up. Poppy underscore Bryant, long time submitter says go-niners. Congratulations to 49ers fans. Hold on. Wild card pick Madelana versus Danny Hot Chocolate Roberts. No way Jack's hurt that bad. Turn them around semi-quick.

Get this fight on that London card. Don't have a problem with that. Man, Poppy underscore Bryant is ready to test Michael Morales. Court McGee, AK. Michael Morales versus Court McGee. That's tough. That's tough. But that's where Corr McGee is now.

Cormeagia is the, we will match him up with anyone guy. He likes Naraga Madov versus Ricky Simone. I feel like the UFC's going to give him a top 15 opponent, ex-Payada versus Muslim Salikov, just rebook that. He likes Figuero, 4. Ingano versus Fador and Bellator. But he's just kidding. I think him and the UFC will work it out and do in Ghana versus Jones.

And then he says, P.S., I always get nervous during the post-fight show and someone else on the crew suggests a fight, and I hear you an AK rip on it. And I'm like, oh, God, I hope this isn't me tomorrow morning. No, we're nice. Great picks. Great, great, nice. Great picks.

Love, love. Don't joke about it. Don't joke about it. I'm gone to Fadoe. I love it. John Ray, first time in two years. I didn't buy a pay per view, but I couldn't pay $75 bucks for two fights.

All right. Domopoulos, maybe the biggest star in the card is to her, from where she started to where she's at now. Oh, sure. Yeah. Versus Ashley Yoder, fine fight. Matt Frivolta. What a crazy fight that was against Joseph Lecky.

Tony Graveley versus Davey Grant. Victor Henry versus the Trevin Jones, Basharat winner. Morales versus Stoltze. Namaga Madov versus the winner of Kyler Phillips versus Rojo Yeah And yeah

Moreno versus Pantosia 2.2 and a half Figy versus Ascaroff If he eats Kai Kar-Franes Then we do Morina Pantosia winner Gone versus Blades Okay Brandon Nunez, Henry versus Hafiel Asunsao

Now from my understanding Asunsao is a free agent right now I think he fought out his deal On the last fight But it wasn't like released I think we're still trying to figure this out. So it's not out of the wrong possibility. Did this say gone versus blades or Inganu versus Blades?

Gone. Oh, thank goodness. I was like, I don't need to see Blades versus Ingano three any time soon. Okay, Michelle Bejada versus Santiago, Ponzanibio. That seems to be a pretty popular pick. Yeah. Cyril Gaon versus Chris Dachos, probably a bad matchup. If you want to kind of, this is no disrespect to Chris Dachis.

He's a very tough guy. But if you want to, you know, let Gahn take a step back or something. I think that's a fine fight. It's a fight that he'd probably be pretty heavily favored in it, for being honest. It's both coming off losses. Hey, both coming off losses.

Same boat, right? Same boat. And he said, and Gond had just pulled a CM punk, but hopefully he gets the John Jones fight, dropping pipe bombs and pulling the money in the bank move where he takes his title elsewhere. I don't think it's going to go down that easily.

Casey Ryan, Gond versus Steppe, Paheda versus Randy Brown, Sayynamagamata versus Kyler Phillips, who wins on February 12th. Morales versus. Lisez or really anybody outside the top 15 because he's young and still very green, no need to rush the incline with him. Drew Hilty, D1 and Gano is born, A.K.

We love it. All-American, all-American. Cyril versus Tuivasa, if he gets back Derek Lewis or anyone not named Curtis Blades. Vigy versus Kai Kar, France, Askeroff winner, cannot keep the division on hold anymore with the fourth straight Moreno fight. I don't agree with you, but AK does. Morales versus Lizez. Once again, wildcard.

Victor Henry showed he might be a top 15 guy with that win. Match you up with Holly on Piva for some fireworks, I say. Go ahead. I love all the Morales-Lazzo support. This tells me that people, maybe if they don't write it down, but people keep it internal rankings because I love that. I think people are aware that if you major rankings, that that's where they're, if you ranked like literally every fighter in the UFC, that that's where they would be.

So well done. Acknow listeners and now viewers, because of the best. Because they're amazing. So smart. Harry DeWoskin. Matt Revolta versus Steve Garcia, Jr. Seems like a decent fight. Matt needs some contenders

where he doesn't fight like a maniac for me to want him to fight real contenders. Tony on Tony time, AK. Tony Gravely versus Tony Kelly. Hashtag. Yeah, hashtag it. Jack Delametteleana versus Gabe Green, Worley Alvas was a bit too much of a step up for me,

in my opinion. I don't know about that. I think JDM is super legit. Victor Henry versus Pedro Munoz, A.K. We ready for that? I did I see? I think I saw. Oh, no. Okay. I do have one of someone who threw one of those out there. Again, it's interesting the guy like with Henry because he has been competing outside the

UFC at a high level for a long time. So really, if you want to throw him in there with the top 15 guy or top 20 guy, it's, I mean, they just did. One, they just did. So yeah, absolutely. You know, Munoz, again, is coming off some losses. Needs a good win to bounce back. Henry would be a great win if you get that. Otherwise, yeah, you keep building up Henry, this unique personality, to put it nicely. He also likes Michael Morales versus Aboubakar, Nargamatov, Saeed Narragamato v. Ronnie Yaya, Michelle Beheada versus Jeff Neal. That's fun. Yeah, I looked at that.

I don't know. I didn't love it for some reason. Oh, I think because I wanted something else for Neil already. I think a fight that's still possible. So I can't go back on my Otno selection just yet. It's a little too soon. And Gadda versus Derek Lewis. if he doesn't leave the UFC just to get it back for Ingano,

and it might be a weird fight. We like weird fights. Gerard Biagin. Ooh, a flyweight tournament where there is Figgie versus Pantosia and Moreno rematches, Ascarov, Kair, France, Royval, the fourth fight can happen after.

We do a tournament and a Grand Prix, a flyweight Grand Prix, and maybe we get Figgie Moreno 4 in the finals. But Cop is in there. Cop's definitely in there. to continue the year of Verizon. What could be the year of rising, God help us. Victor Henry, Prochka, and Kopp.

It's just scary. I like that idea, but the UFC isn't fun, so they won't do that. Saeed versus Pedro Muñoz, unless Sugar-Shan wants that Dagestani smoke. Michael Morales versus Dwight Grant, Victor Henry versus Adrianianas, winner gets top 10 to 15 opponent. Jack Madelana versus Gabe Green.

Matt Favola versus the Patty Pimblet Vargas winner for more one-round chaos. Yeah. Why not? Francesco, our fan from Italy. He likes Pahada versus Li Jing Liang, Morales versus A.J. Fletcher, Gravely versus Lewis Smokha,

Henry versus Manus. Henry versus Manus would be crazy, but I think Henry has kind of surpassed that at that point. Owen Carroll, Jazz and Jazz DeVizius versus Pollyanna Botelio, Demopolis versus Mallory Martin. That's a good fight. Matt Fravolta versus Mason Jones

would be all sorts of bananas. Tony Graveley versus Sideyukub, Hawk Romanov. Madelana versus Semelsberger, Victor Henry, Hafiel Asso, Figurato, Ascarov, France, Moreno, Pantoja, Ingano versus Lewis Tuovassa winner for the title. Tino Alvarez, John Jones, DiMijic, if Ingana wants to hold out,

they should fight for the interim vacant title, have Francis fight the winner. Victor Henry versus Chris Gutierrez is an interesting fight. I like that. Mike Maffervola versus Leo Santos. Demopoulos versus Tabitha Ritchi, Jazz DeVizis versus Courtney Casey, although Courtney Casey is booked to fight Antoninaeot Chonko, April 30th.

Robbie Ryan, Madelana versus Worley Alva's rebooked as an appropriate step up in competition, or Semelsberger. Nirmaga Madov versus Sean O'Malley. I just don't see a world where Sean O'Malley is jumping all over that opportunity. That doesn't make a lot of sense for it. Not saying he couldn't win the fight, but he's so calculated with how he takes his matchups. That one seems a little dicey. Yeah, he said maybe Simone as well.

Everyone else ranked 9 to 15 is on a skate O'Malley. Norma Madov gives the fight more name value. I just don't see O'Malley's being excited for that one. Bahana versus Alex Marono. Yeah. That was the first one I looked at. I have them right now. I believe I have them right next to each other.

I think Paheda's one spot behind Marano in my rankings. So yeah, but the only reason I didn't go with that is because like I said, I think you and I are both thinking, let's give him a real real, like big, big, big, big, big step up. And, you know, he can always go back into that Morano range, right? Moreno Figuay 4, Ingano Lewis, too.

After he knocks out to Evas, I'm a proud Aussie, but I'm a realist. Wow. How about that? Tristan Gordette, Saida, Saita Maga, versus the winner of Dina Batskaree and Montel Jackson. I know Syed called out O'Malley and Cheeto, but I don't think he'll get those opponents.

I don't think he'll be ranked yet, so this seems like a more realistic and appropriate fight to make. Michael Morales versus Gabe Green. Wildcard, Victor Henry versus Umar and Amaga madeoff. Wow. Hione Barcelos. And Hione, Barcelos versus Adrian Yanez.

Barcellus ranked 21. Yannes is ranked 22 in the band and weight division of the UFC according to the MMA world rankings. He likes Jazz and Jazz DeVizius versus Diana Belbeda. Belbita is actually booked, I believe, against Gloria de Paola, February 12th or 19th,

something in February. So, no go for that one. AKTU, my man. I was going to say, I didn't, I'm sorry, that went by so quickly. I was going to react to the Bat Goury Montel Jackson fire, which I wasn't even aware, where was the thing? So that's March 26th, apparently.

Oh, that is a thing. I have no idea. What a freaking fight that's going to be. That's, again, for anyone just tuning to the show, is one of the best parts of the show, by the way, is we cover so much news, and just so much MMA, it all blurs together. So seeing everyone talk about matchups and having to remind ourselves which matchups are already made,

which fighters are available or unavailable, it really helps keep the brain sharp. And again, now I'm aware of the now that Jackson-Den-Backery thing is in my head now. So I really did not know that if I was happening. Oh, goodness me, where do I begin? First of all, I just got a IG DM with an obscene name right after someone was asking me if I check my DMs. Enrique Ortiz, was that you? because I'd rather say Enrique Ortiz than the name of the account.

I mean, it's not like, I mean, I can read it. It's just, you know, it's like raw dog offensive. You know what I mean? It's not like totally inappropriate. Oh, where did I want to start today? Oh, right. Okay, well, some of the most popular picks, again, you've read them. Of course, Ingana Miocchich 3 was like one of the biggest suggestions I saw.

I think most people, again, are thinking more outside the box or slash outside the octagon, I should say. But I think it sticks around. They just kind of want to see that trilogy be resolved, which I'm fine with. And Gone versus Miochich was also. was also a topic of conversation. So Steve A, look, sitting it out, but people are talking about him. Surprisingly for Moreno, what I actually saw more than the tetralogy was him getting

to Ascroft-Franceran. I saw several people recommend that. So that's going down March 26th. And again, that's not where I'm leaning. Like I said, I'd rather see him fight Pantosia. But I do think Ascroft, Carfranes should get one of those guys. Maybe it's Moreno, people suggest it. Yeah, you mentioned Paheda, Ponsenibio, very private.

popular pick at U.S.MMA Newsnet, saying it's time for Michelle to get a top of being opponent. I think we agree. Thank you for the message, by the way, from that account, first time, first time messaging. Ricky Simone, Nomegameda, very popular. What do you think of Victor Henry Brian Keller, Mike? Let's go. Hopefully, Keller, you know, his belly issues don't affect him heading into the fight, and things are much cleaner in that sense.

But, yeah, it's a fun fight. If you want to treat, you will watch the opening of this week's between the links where we had special guest Brian Kellerer. And he quite lovingly talks about sharding for his most recent fights. So there we go.

That's the only kind of quality journalism you get here at MMA fighting. Regarding that matchup, Hayes with Third, I wanted to read this. He says, I matched up Brian Keller with the winner of this fight last week, and I'm sticking with it.

Might be viewed as a step back from Barcellos for Henry, but I do rate Keller fairly highly. And also that fight would be an absolutely a banger. So who wouldn't want to see it? Also, the prelims, the U.S. 270 prelims were awesome. Yeah, I did. I quite enjoyed them as well. And as far as Henry versus Yanez, Max Block, the engineer, not Max Block photography.

We have two Max Block guys who contribute to us regularly. And the other Max Block did chime in later, so I had to make this distinction. Victor Henry, haven't just beat Bricelos easily. Top 20, top 25, band, to wait two weeks notice, should absolutely be rewarded with another big fight. He mentions Yannis, and he's very specific. He says, Yanez at UFC 275. Is there a rumor date for that for that one, Mike? 275.

I know we saw 276 was in, it was just got announced for international fight week. I guess 275 would be the supposed May card, the Brazil. Is that the Brazil? No, that's 274, I think. So 275 would be June. July, right, July is the 276. So I guess, yeah, so 275 in June. I haven't heard much about it.

I guess obviously we're just assuming that's where to land. So Max Block, very specific there, we're saying for 275. Yanez coming off, Big Win, David Grant. assuming he does not get the O'Malley. Who's O'Malley going to fight? The winner would absolutely deserve Top 15. Both styles match are great. If you're going to get the finish,

Ritno, Henry, can be a smooth operator on the feet. So, yeah, I like that one. And, yeah, Gravely versus Tony Kelly, very properly, we saw that. Barry O'Reilly, specifically saying, Battle of the Tonys, and the loser has to start referring to themselves as Anthony. That's not the worst thing. Anthony Kelly sounds kind of nice. You might want to lose that.

Anthony Gravely, I don't know, I'm quite a lot of this. So, again, there's a lot of consensus picks. guys, I keep track of those, don't worry. But let's move on to some of the individual suggestions here. A.O. Its dad on Twitter says, Henry versus Nathaniel Wood, Michael, Michael Morales, Nicholas Dalby. Man, we want to see Nicholas Dalby back in action. And there's that Michelle Pahad of Daniel Rodriguez suggestion.

Ngano versus Alexiolinick, Mike, in submission underground. ADCC slash Sugg. And Ganu has drawn a lot of interest. That's sweepie hit on, you know, I mean, maybe it wasn't necessarily. Gond's best offense there, but he did hit a pretty crazy-ass sweep in the later rounds that I know had a lot of people talking. So would you want to see that grappling match? I mean, sure.

I mean, it wouldn't go well for Francis, but maybe power bombs Alexia Linnick unconscious. Yeah, is that legal? I mean, anything's legal when you're, I feel like when you're when you're fighting Francine Gunn, I mean, are you going to tell him he can't do something? Chale Sonny ain't going to tell him. Actually, they'll try. At Nicklinville on Twitter just wants to say their left field takeaways. Steepay should move down to light heavyweight if he changed on to charge.

chance at winning gold again. He's pretty big. I don't know if he wants to do that. Oh my gosh. He says, I feel like this new breed of heavyweight, too much for him to overcome. And Ganu and Ghana are just different mind-blown emoji. Would love to hear your guys' thoughts on a hashtag gear of the, no, I'm not going to read that. Nice try, Nicklinville.

Nice try. You're not going to. No, I'm not really good. No. For corner sports, NY. What's up? We see him in the comments. I know you've been commenting on this episode.

Francis Ngano gets a tell us stripped of him by Dana White. Dana puts steep A versus John Jones for a vacant heavyweight title. And for some reason, if Ingano does fight again, then it'll be against John Jones. But yeah, all of that, again, so much of this is possible. I just don't know when it's going to be resolved. Saeed Nemehamehmetta versus Jack Shore. I like that suggestion. Shore is fighting Timor Valley of March 19th.

But Four Corner Sports says win-lose-dra make it happen. They were booked a fight at some time last year. That fight didn't happen. So, yeah, I'm absolutely down with that. Henry versus Miles Johns, if he beats John Castaneda. I'm not reading everything here. The Demopolis Yoder matchup was a rebooking as well. So he points that out.

So thank you for that. So I like some of those picks. Thank you, Four Corner Sports. Mike, someone tried to call me out and poke fun of my beloved Raptors. What? I don't know what I did to provoke. Oh, sorry. I will say I did deserve to be called out.

This call out is just weak. Nate Andrews. First, I'll read Nate's picks. Francis versus Brock in the WWE. Oh, sorry. Oh, wait a minute. I'm sorry. Sorry, I'm reading the wrong guy here.

Sorry, this is my bag. I've got my notes jumbled up here. Let me read Dax Pike First. Francis versus Brock in WWE, which I love. My notes are an absolute mess here. Gone versus the Rosenstrike, Tibura loser, Favola versus Othman as Zaitar, Steam Rolla versus Bulldozer.

They were also booked the fight last year, so that would be redone. Sorry, it was Nate Andrews, excuse me. So thank you for those picks, Dak. Nate Andrews, who came at me first, suggesting Michelle Paheda, Max Griffin, the Almagney winner. They're fighting March 26. I like it. And I don't know if it's possible.

Saeed Nirmagometov versus Umar Nirmagamatov, Mike? Hashtag Nirmagamatov on Nirmagamatov? Geez. Because as far as we know, Saeed, it's a little confusing. He is, I don't think he's a direct blood relative of Habib. I think Umar is. but also I believe Saeed is still part of that

like cluster I think he's called like a cousin of Habi but I don't know if it's cousin like just like a sort of informal you know what I mean like oh they're so close to like family but I don't think that would happen I think Nate just wanted to see that hashtag so there you go

congratulations I'll read their comments so I have listen I've said some raw things about Buffalo I'm not a fan of the city of Buffalo I just haven't had good experiences going there so I'm sure that people find people of Buffalo are good people and they have to be to live in Buffalo. But Nate Andrews did not take kindly to my buffalo bashing.

Now he says, I understand if it was from Mike looking down the barrel of legions of Bill's mafia, nine bud lights deep at all times. So proud about it. Revelling in the most cathartic win in franchise history. But you? He says, I don't come into the Otno picks, talking about how awful it looks that the Raptors let Kauai walk over not wanting to trade Siakum for Paul George when the Clippers did. I mean, I don't know if that was even realistic.

Plus, I'd rather have Siakun than Paul George right now anyway. If you've been watching the Raptors this season, Siakum has been amazing. So very weak attempt that a Raptors put down. Also, listen, a band who's fly forever in the Raptors are champions. The Clippers aren't close. So poo poo on the clippers, poo on the general Buffalo area. By the way, let me just say to all you Bill's fans out there, you best keep that same energy.

You better win this game because if you don't, I got receipts forever and Twitter's going to get ugly if you guys lose to the Chiefs today. I'm telling you right now. I will say I am hoping for the bills to upset the Chiefs because we do want to see Ariel Hawani's Bills versus Damon's Cincinnati Bengals in the conference finals. So that would be very exciting. So Nate Andrew is saying, okay, I'm not, he says I'm not mad at me. He's just disappointed.

Well, I'm just bored with your comment, Nate. So thank you for the picks as always, a regular contributor. And watch some more basketball. Maybe you have some better basketball-related put-downs. By the way, Four Corner Sports asks if the bills won the Super Bowl. I wear a Josh Allen jersey. Absolutely not. Never. Continue.

Yeah, that ain't happened. Liam Perry just says, Inganu, if he stays, has to be Jones. He likes peheda versus Neal, so there you go. Again, I'm not crazy about it, but that's out there. And some other we've already seen, Fovola versus Scott Holtzman. I felt like that, like I've seen that fight already. Very logical match him. Yeah.

Hayes with third, I want to read their comments on Inganu. They said they don't feel good about it, but him and John Jones is the fight to make, I don't like Jones still being in the fight game at this point, but it could really be the biggest fight in the UFC headway history, of course. John's making a fight, though, is another story. And he has a bold prediction that if Tuva gets an impressive K.O. of Derek Lewis, that they give him a title fight. I can easily see Dana cash in on Thai in hopes he can be a new star, and they can probably pay him

a lot less than Jones. Yes, that's a big factor as well. I feel like I'm tired to half a point, at least if this happens. I'll give you a full point, Hayes. I always appreciate your input. So cool pick there. Anything new here? Matt Favola versus Jai Herbert.

I like it. And Jazz DeVizius versus Mandy Baum. That's actually what I looked at as well. So a good pick there. Braden-O'Neil, Michelle Pajara versus Zaleski. Caparra versus Caparra, essentially. Michael Morales versus Dwight Grant. Sure.

Yeah? They're with me on Henry versus Saeed. Sayyid and Morgheimatov. And Domopoulos versus Loma, Lukbun-Me. Hmm. Classist. She probably goes similar way. She gets cracked again and then tries to get something off her back.

Probably, yeah. I mean, I mean, she definitely has the strength advantage in this fight. Yeah, it would be interesting. She's bigger. Lomo with those leg kicks and the clinch. Yeah, that'd be fun. Man, Demoplas got hit so hard. So hard.

I said in the slack, I think her brain got knocked into the sixth row. But she's tough as hell and obviously a great instinctive grappler because, I mean, she caught Huarez making a mistake and made her. pay, so that was fantastic. Seamus Law says, Francis Gainu, gives the middle finger to Dana and the UFC and signs with Jake Paul management. Hey, maybe that's the way to go. I don't know.

Victor Henry versus Seij Jacob Hakramanov. I like that one. Tomopoulos versus Pollyanna, Viana. Favola versus Borchiv, he just recently won. And Jazz DeVizius versus the Lawana-Karolina Molly McCann winner, March 19th. A lot of Jazz DeVizius talk. Again, a little bit hard to book right now at this stage. but not for other people, apparently.

Marcus McGehy, sure enough, calls this the D1, Francis edition of On to the next one. So thank you, Marcus. Michael Morales versus Phil Rowe, Jason Whitwinner, and Demopoulos versus Stella Nunes. So some good stuff there. Like you're going to like this. Oh, God. No, no, no.

I mean it's in a good way. This is at the expense of one of our loyal listeners. So Thomas Collins, a few days ago actually mess to me before earlier in the week, saying, I'm going to try something here. I'm going to try something new. He was going to do predictions, and also ahead of time, predictions who's going to win the fights, and then just do his picks like on Thursday.

Unfortunately, almost none of his picks were correct. I feel his pain. He picked Sidil Gan. He picked Brandon Moreno. He picked How many Barcellos, and he picked Kay Hanson. So, hey, I'm with him. I picked Marino and Kay Hansen as well. So those unfortunately didn't panic.

But Thomas Collins do not be deterred. There's a lot of good thoughts in here. I won't read them all out. Very in-depth matchmaking based on if these people had won, which they did not. But thank you. Thank you, Thomas Collins. Who else do? I got a lot here.

I got our first paper view of the year. Timmy O's show, Jack Delamadalena versus Nico Price. I mean, I don't like it. We're all in on that. Saeed Nomagomatov versus Sean O'Malley. Or I'm sorry, that's what he would have said. he said he thinks there would have been tons of sugar versus Saeed matchups and then they changed their mind

and went with Saeed versus Ricky Simone. You were wrong. Everyone's picking Saeed and Ricky Simone. It's the Amali matchup that I think is a little bit more doubtful now. So Timi, you got to stick with your gut, man. And our last from Twitter, Barry O'Reilly. Matt Frivolta versus Gudam, Kutatse, Saeed.

Oh, Mike, you're going to hate this. Saeed and Omega Medov versus Mirabhawalishvili. Wow. I mean, how dare the disrespect to Marraud Gwis, really, who's a top five Bannerway right now, you're going to send him to fight unranked. Where is the reward for Marab there? There's zero. Absolutely zero reward.

Yeah. I mean, cool. Obviously, a great opportunity for Saeed, but yeah, Marab. But hell, Maraam might not have a choice. Who's going to sign the dotted line to fight that guy? Right. So, I mean, that's, look, that's exactly what Barry said. Barry says, nobody will want to fight either of these guys.

Let's match them up for some Eastern European violence. So that's certainly one way to look at it. Michelle Paheda versus Kevin Holland, if he beats Alex Cowboy Olivera, UFC 272, March 5th, and Gone versus Aspinall, Vespinal, beats Volkov. Hidalfaillera versus Gerald Mears shirt. And they just want to know, do you guys know why he didn't fight? We've heard some things, nothing again that I think can really be. reported right now. Again, we're kind of just hoping it is just a medical issue, health-related,

not COVID, and nothing related to like a weight cutter and like that. So hopefully that gets all cleared and we do see Hidal-Vibarada back. Because I think a mere short fight would be super fun. And, you know, Gerald would love it. Yeah. Okay, let me go quickly to email here. What the heck. Hey. I got to call some people out. Sorry, Mike, by the way. I have not been paying super close attention to the comments anything anything jumping out at you from there i've been pulling them up when there's a lot of bickering going on it's oh isn't isn't that always the way people be that people i don't know if you know this isn't one of those youtube shows we're like oh we do this hot debates and we're like oh step i shouldn't even said his name but stephen a smith just shouting

some some dumbass opinion and then let's let's argue about it this is a place this is a safe space this is a place of positivity yeah sometimes we'll call you out for for uh you know for talking some do-do but It's out of love. It's always out of love. And Mike will tell you that, I mean, Mike has, sometimes you've got to check. Mike has checked some people in the past. But I always think everyone you've checked, Mike, you've improved their lives. That's my opinion.

I try. I get a little angry once in a while. You do get, you get a little heated. You get a little Dana white color in your face sometimes. And now people can see it now that we're doing video. So that's true. Laura T. Coming in with Jazz DeVizius versus Leanna Josua.

I don't think Joshua was in the UFC anymore. I believe she announced her. she's been released. So sorry, Laura, I've got to call you out. But I also wanted to, apparently, Laura, my fellow Canadian, so she cashed in on Jazzy Jay as a plus 300 dogs. So congratulations on that. And Laura, I did like the Favola versus Madsen-Michel winner pick.

So they're fighting U.S.E.C. 273 April 9th. I like that pick. So thank you, Laura. Casey Carpenter, always coming in with a nice compliment, one of our most supportive listeners. They really enjoyed what Jed and I had to say about the announcers this week. Guys, if you didn't see it, we did an article, the Great Divide,

best commentary trios, worst commentary trios, and sort of what our fantasy commentary trio could be if we could pick names wherever. So please guys, go read that and there's no what you think if you have the chance. So, and Casey is bummed out

that they wanted to focus on watching football and they couldn't because of the UFC. So there's some conflict there. So sorry to hear that, Casey, but Anganu was loose two if he beats two Ibasa unless Jones is going to fight, then of course it's a Jones-Igano.

Sayy Norma Manga Mata versus Casey Kenney. Yeah, I mean, I don't hate it. I don't hate it. It's basically like you're basically putting Saeed in a position to just start knocking dudes out of the UFC. Because if Cody's Damon, if that loss knocks Cody out, if he beats Casey Kenny, that knocks Casey out too. Because that'll be three in a row, I believe, for him as well. So yeah, he could just be the, the ban of weight executioner.

It's such a deep division. We'll just send Saeed in there to start knocking these contenders off. There we go. And Michelle Behanna versus the Leijing Liang. That's a very logical fight. I was surprised I hadn't already even been attempted to be booked. I thought it sounded in my head, like it had been booked and fallen through, but I don't think it's even been reported or suggested.

So I like that. Denny Capps, my last emailer here. He says, oh, I want to read something from Denny. Oh, underwhelming card on paper, overdelivered. I mean, look, you only remember the ones that are underwhelming and overdeliver. There are plenty that are underwhelming and stay underwhelming. But not recently, though, I will say. You see, I think it has some pretty good luck.

And God has need, and he's time to heal. So he waits for the winter of Gone versus Stepe. And then, Danny, going outside the box a lot here, picking some people who aren't in the UFC. Mike, should I allow this? I mean, what's your thoughts on this? I mean, those are Supreme Otno point potential picks right there. I don't even think these are signed. Has Euros Gerizic?

Has he been signed? He's an ACA guy, I think? I don't know. Sorry, guys, I should know better. But Michael Morales versus Eurosurisich, sure, I guess. This is a really bad one. Danny, I got to call you out. Jack Della Madelena versus Sultan Aleyev.

Sultz and Aliav retired three years ago. He hasn't fought since 2019. So I guess I like the idea. Like I like the creativity, but he doesn't fight anymore. So, you know, you got to check yourself for you wreck yourself. And then Jazz Devisius versus Natalia Silva, one of the top Brazilian prospects. Again, I don't know if she's been signed. So, Denny, if I'm wrong on this one, and Jurystich and Silva have already been signed.

And Elieb has miraculously come out of retirement. Then I apologize. I'll give you a bonus out. No points of any of these come around. And Domopoulos versus Tabith Ritchie. Again, I think reaches ahead of her, but it's a pretty tight division. So I can see it happening. So thank you, Danny.

And I did want to shout out. So I won't read this all, but I did want to shout out. The other Max Block, the engineer. Right. All right. So I mentioned it earlier. Yes. Okay.

And then Max Block Photaguer also coming in on Instagram. I'll get to that in a second. But, okay. Mike, I don't normally do this because Instagram's a bunch of wild boys. I normally screen these picks pretty thoroughly. So, guys, we're in the home stretch here, but I will read these out, mostly untouched. Our guy ought no at MMA fighting memes.

Follow that on Instagram people. It is a hilarious account run by Michael Connoffry. Della, Madelena versus Zawada. And Kyler Phillips, if he makes it through Rojo, should fight Victor Henney for the Gemini Man title. Do Kyler and Victor look like? The hair and, yeah, I mean, baby face Kyler Phillips. Yeah, I can see it.

They fought before. Victor has a win over Kyler Phillips, doesn't he? Back in 2018, yes, he does. Yes, there you go. A rematch. A rematch, storylines. Truly, the Gemini Man title. Dad Jackson, this was his predictions before.

Cediel beats Francis by decision, wrong. Moreno beats Biggie, wrong. Michelle Paheda does a backflip. I believe he did during his entrance. So there you go, correct. Stamen beats Nomegometov wrong. And Jerry the King Luller continues to duck him in 2022. That's his own thing he's got going on.

I shouldn't have even read that. I'm sorry if anyone sees that. It's just confused. So well done, Dad, Jackson. You really nailed all this prediction. there. Carlos, oh gosh,

what's it? Carlos Torres, Buckley, Casettis, Morales versus Eric Anders, wrong weight class.

Come on, guys, Carlos, what are we doing? Come on now. But I did like that he mentioned. And Ganyu's

grappling made him look like one of the monsters from the movie Teenager Ninja Turtles to Secret of the Ouse. He's so freaking strong, very impressive. Shout us to Toka and Razar,

by the way, for people who remember that movie. so. Lupac Mirage. Gosh, these names. You guys are Instagram, which is crazy. On Ghanu versus Anthony Joshua. And he's already warning that this could be a dude.

He put his own do-to emoji in the message. Fury would be a murder. Like I said, if he would just destroy Engano. Wilder would just be weird. But I think Joshua's status right now could use a big name flight to make people care about him again? I don't know. So, yeah.

And you could sell the hell out of an Angano, Anthony Joshua fight. I'll tell you that much. Henry Osson South, Kevin Holland. There's a Kevin Holland for us. So thank you, Lupak. MMA heads, always setting a ton of picks. Again, sorry, guys. I just cannot read these all this week.

I do keep track, though. M.A. heads and Matt Bradbury. Again, you guys are excellent. Matt Bradbury does want to know what's going on with UCA for Miga is he retired. He might be retired from M.A., Mike. He's been doing grappling competitions. He has not fought in M.A. for over 18 months, which is why he has not been in the M.A.

fighting global rankings. It would not surprise me if he did not fight MMA again. But Mike, I don't know if you've heard anything. I haven't. Jeremy Cruz would probably be the guy to ask about that. But yeah, I don't know. My guess is he's just taking it by ear, right? He's doing grappling competitions.

He's a great jiu-git-s guy. That's where he came from. He's going back to his roots and enjoying that. The wear and tear of MMA is a whole other thing. He's in the Twil-Live's career. So he's probably just being picky with whether he wants to fight again in the UFC or again, like I said, maybe walk away and just just grab it. Uh, tune breaking my heart here, one of his picks, Sayyid No Magamettev versus Frankie Edgar.

People stop trying. I've said this on many, this is I should have added to the disclaimer. And I think I had in a, and a previous, uh, a previous episode. Stop trying to kill Frankie Edgar. Okay. I know you guys are probably just being nice. I know you think you're being respectful, keeping Frankie busy, giving him relevant fights. I, I'm not saying he could lose that.

I'm not saying he could win that fight. He could certainly beat a Saeed never mega medaub. He's so experienced. But gosh, every fight now, it feels like. he's one highlight real strike away from just having his face just mashed up and turned to a meme so um tune how dare you uh thank you for the picks but how dare you and one that just answer we have an answer to the uh please um mega question please uh he's fighting at lFA 24 what's on february 11th what yeah he's fighting he signed with lf a he's in the main event of lf a 24 the day the night

right before UFC 271. Did you Google this or did you just message Gwee? No, I go like I, some people said it in the chat and I just looked it up and our buddy Big Marcel got the fight poster. So there it is. It's not on topology. So I'm sorry, I rely heavily on topology, but it's not there. Yeah, that's right.

I mean, he got released and yeah. Yeah, that's right. He's definitely right. So thank you by the way, listeners again and viewers again. Like I said, I always say the people who watch the show or even if you're first time or tuning into this show. You're doing it because you're a smart, intelligent person, smarter than us. So thank you guys in the comments who pointed that out and getting us in the right track. It'll be great to see him for me to back. He's a top, look, he's a top 15 flyweight style.

I know we haven't seen him a while. I still look he's top 15 flyweight. He has some huge wins over guys in the flyweight division. So depending what happens there, you guys could see him back in the ranking soon, even if he doesn't go, you know, even he's not in the UFC anymore. Oh boy. Oh, boy. Oh, what? Mike, please. Go ahead. Francis and Gano just tweeted out a fight poster. Inganu Fury, 2022. No, Francis. Three minutes ago.

Actually, why am I saying no? What I think? Good. Go get that money. This is in response to Tessifuri tweeting earlier today. Congratulations, Francis. If you want to make some real money, come see the Gypsy King. So this is a response to that.

So excellent news, excellent news. But yeah, people stop booking fights for Frankie Edgar. I wanted to exist like Schrodinger's cat, Schrodinger's fighter, in this perpetual state of retirement slash non-retirement and just forever. and we can talk about him and talk about fights for him, but just not actually have him fight. And I guess I have to read this out. I don't know again if this was the person who asked if I was taking DMs

and the YouTube comments. But this is from an account called Naya Enewie, bitch. I am so sorry. This is live. Guys, this is live television. I don't know to tell you. And I'll read their whole message because it's the first time. Hey, AK, hope you see this long-time listener, first-time submission.

I'll go with the Megamagometa versus the Marais Song-Yadong winner. Wow. Baheda versus Gunner Nelson for Gunny's comeback. Oh, I like that. Yes, we should see Gunner Nelson compete again in 2022. So it's got to be on that London card, right? They can't have to think. Let's bring, let's bring Dunladee door to the UK.

So that is there a, no, they want an out-no point for that if it happens. So I'll keep that in mind. And finally, prospect versus Prospect Della Madelena versus Bat Samblisberger. I don't even know it's called Samblisberger prospect, but I get it. Some relative UFC experience. So thank you, N-I-B, which is what I will call it. this account from now on. And thank you everyone else to send in picks.

Again, you guys are frigging amazing. Is that it for our listener picks? I like? I think so. Everyone's just asking about Chale Sunnan and ESPN and why Dana didn't show up to the press conference. And again, we'll reiterate. I have no idea.

It'll, yeah. Yeah, our minds can race. And we're probably right. Like, our minds take us in the direction. That's probably what's actually going on. Yeah. Dana is probably thinking. of a way to respond.

But again, we don't want to speculate because if we speculate and then like something happened and there's a family emergency that we all like anything. Exactly, exactly. You could terrible. You could tell me. TBD. TBD, but. Hopefully everything is fine with Dana White, his family, his friends, his close loved ones,

and he's just being an A-hole. That's our fingers crossed guys. Prayers that Dana is just being an A-hole and nothing's going wrong in his life. I'll address this because it's been asked 417 times. What did you think of Inganu laying on top for three rounds? The dude, he won. He won the fight. I wouldn't even call that laying on top.

He was working super hard to stay on top. And Francis laying on top of you is like, I mean, that sucks. Like there's, it's like you just sit there and you're just like, oh, this isn't so bad. You have a massive individual just laying on top of you, deeming you incapable to move or get back to your feet. Like, listen, we're all in agreement. This is not a fight that they're going to put on ESPN Classic on Tuesday and be like, Like, you have to watch this. It's not going to happen.

But Francis dug deep. And on one leg, mind you, one knee, beat Cyril Gahn in the final three rounds after being down two rounds and none. It ain't pretty, but the man went in there in a must-win situation, especially with what he put on the line and won the fight. All right? It wasn't pretty. It's not an all-time classic.

But it's a fight, the most important fight of both these guys' careers, I think. Francis, for other reasons than Sierra gone from what he'll take away from it. it's not pretty, but a very important fight in the careers of both these guys. When the biographies of both these gentlemen are written, this fight will be a very important chapter for both. Yeah, look, to give us somewhat dated reference now, and I'm sorry guys, I'm not up to date with the new music. But this is like when Kanye West did 808s and heartbreaks. Not my favorite Kanye West album, a very strange. Some people love it.

I think it's objectively not a very good album. But without that album, you don't get my beautiful Dark Twits as fantasy. You don't get Yeez-Sys. So we had to suffer through this fight, and I think both men will be better for it in the future. So I'm sorry, guys. If there's a more current music reference, please insert. I'm very old. But, Mike, and by the way, let me just say this, especially for people who have just become fans of like the last five years,

there are way worse main events than that one. Oh, yeah. And Anderson Silva was involved in like two or three of them. And this is when he was the greatest fighter on Earth. It happens. People have great champions of stink bombs. A lot of GSP, I mean, one of our greatest champions takes a lot of criticism of some of his fights. And some of his fights, even if you like his style,

I mean, you can't watch, like, GSP and Jake Shields and go like, oh, that's a great fight. It's like, no, that's a terrible fight. Terrible fight in one of the biggest UFC cards in history. So it happens. I mean, guys, it happens. Mike, we got a lot of first timers, you know. We might have a lot of first time viewers. So we got to let them know how to reach us.

We got to let us. Guys, I am all over the place. Slide into my DMs. They are open on Instagram, open on Twitter. On IG, I am Alexander KKK. On Twitter, I am Alexander Klee, just the 1K. And hit up my work email, guys. Alex.com.

at SBNation.com. Hit us up with that. Hit me up with whatever you want. Mike, where can they get you? Instagram M underscore, Heck, JR. Best way to do it. I look at that more than I look at anything else. So, yeah, best way to do it.

And we have to create like our own Otno Instagram account. And then everything can just flood right into that account. I think that's where we're good. That's a goal for, for 2022. So no show this, no show next week because there's no UFC event. And I know Tristan Gorda is like, oh, but there's Bellator. Let's do a Bellator show.

When Bellator proves to me that they deserve an Otno show, they can have one. All right. There's her mic. I thought we were going to escape without a mic check, and Mike checks the whole promotion. Dang. I mean, I'm kind of joking, but. You're kind of not. Listen, it's a decent guy, like Brian Bader, Valentina Moldovsky.

That's a good point, Anderson, Mabadov. It's a pretty good card. Henry Corrales, Aidan Lee will be bonkers. Sabahamasi, Jolio Willis. Just say it. Just get to the guy who you want to say is fight it. Go ahead. The first fight of the.

the night. See, this is a problem. This is a problem. This fight should not be the first fight on the card. It should be the co-main event. Big tuna versus Sullivan Collie. Big tuna is not a prelim curtain jerker. Come on, baby. Come on. But that's what's going to get people to tune in right away, Mike. People like, oh, Big Tunas fight. I got to, like, that's how to remember the card's even happening, Mike. Yes, that's what people want to do on a Saturday at like 4 p.m. Eastern. Oh, is it Saturday? It's on YouTube and watch Big Tuna. Saturday. It's got to be Saturday. 29th. 29th, right? Yep.

Saturday. Yeah, so I would say probably not. Maybe we'll come back and do a Ask Mike and AK anything kind of a show. Sure, sure. It will do that. No promises. No promises, but we'll see what happens. The UFC returns February 5th, middleweight made event, Jack Hermanson versus Sean Strickland.

We also got Puna Soriano versus Nick Maximoff, Mark Andre Barrio versus Chidi, In Jaguani. Right. Jason Witt, Phil Rowe, Danilo, Marquis. Marquez, Jelton Almeida, Miles John's John Castaneda, Julian Arosa, Stephen Ocho Peterson, Hakeem Dowdow is back against Mike Trisano. The actual Ultimate Fighter

Finalee fight is going down between Brian Battle and Trayshon Gore, Malcolm Gordon, Dennis Bonder, Carlson Harris versus Shafcott Rachmanoff. Don't sleep on that guy. We're waiting for him to come back. Shopcott is fighting next week. Popular Otno pick.

Sam Alvey is also fighting in two weeks against Phil Haas. In the UFC? in the UFC and Alexis Davis, Canada's own, takes on Julia Stoliarenko. So there you go. And by the way, we should mention this is two weeks out. So Mike, I'm glad you did that rundown. Half those fights could be canceled slash postponed by the time we talk to our viewers again.

There's a very good chance. And that is the go home show before the UFC second pay-per-view of the year, which is going down in February 12th in Houston, UFC 271, headlined by the rematching Israel Sonia and Robert Whitaker for the middleweight title. So that's it. We're out of here. So until the next time we see you, whether it be next week or the week after that, for A.K., I am Mike Heck.

Always remember, especially for you newcomers, don't take the stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. We'll have fun right here next time. On to the next one, the podcast. Peace out. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.