MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC 274

Episode Date: May 8, 2022

Who will Charles Oliveira face when he fights for the title he was forced to vacate at the start of his submission win against Justin Gaethje on Saturday? This week on On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee try to make sense of a chaotic lightweight division following UFC 274 in Phoenix and attempt to figure out who "Du Bronx" may end up fighting for the title later this year. In addition, future matchups are discussed for Gaethje after falling short in his second bid to become undisputed champion, new champion Carla Esparza, former titleholder Rose Namajunas, Michael Chandler following his KO of the Year frontrunner, Tony Ferguson, Ovince Saint Preux, Randy Brown, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe. But this time, why not look a little further?

To Dubai, a city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination. From world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers, and epic desert adventures, to museums that showcase the future, not just the past. Choose from 14 flights per week between Canada and Dubai. Book on emirates.ca. today. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Three, two, one, here we go.

Hello there, everybody. My screen is smudged, hold on. This is every going. Normally we're not on camera for onto the next one. This is normally podcast only, but as I'm sure you're about to let people know. Yes. Welcome to a very special live edition of On to the next one. It's great to be back here on YouTube, smudged camera or not.

I am Mike Kek. Hope everyone's having a wonderful day. While it is important to discuss the aftermath of UFC events, it is also important to wish a happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, including my wife, my mom, my mother-in-law, all the mothers out there doing the damn thing. We salute you. Well done.

But we are here to discuss the fallout of an absolutely chaotic UFC 274 fight week event. from a matchmaking perspective, which normally it's kind of easy to do. There's a little bit of a challenge, but I feel like this event brings a whole bunch of different challenges. So we would also love to hear

your matchmaking suggestions. So put them in the chat. We'll throw them up on the screen, especially if we're talking about a certain fight, if you have a matchmaking suggestion, there you go. We'll pull them up. We'll discuss if we can.

We'll try to get to some of the DMs at the end of the show. But we're going to try our best. We're going to try to do this for about an hour. All right. That's what we're going to try to do here. So, but we're going to have some fun. And joining me on this ride, as you can see, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, damn it, he's my best friend, Mr. Alexander Cayley.

Hello, sir. How are you doing on this Sunday? Hello, I'm happy. Happy Mother's Day to everyone. My best friend, yes. It's always a great, listen, I hope people are showing love and respect to their moms, regardless of what day it is, but it is always nice to have a day. We can give them that extra shout out.

And of course, and by the way, for anyone out there, of course, who might have, you know, their mother may have passed or may have grown up with that one. We are here for you. We ought to know as a family and we're here for you. So for anyone, you know, just in a different situation, I want to say, we see you guys too. But, of course, a general happy Mother's Day to all. I'm excited. And by the way, I will say, I do think we're not going to have a lot of time for DMs. I got a lot.

I mean, obviously it was a very eventful. It was an eventful paper view. There was a lot to talk about, both positive and negative. So I'm not promising this, but if I have time today or tomorrow, probably over the course of the next 48 hours, I'll try and shoot messages back to people who sent me picks. So you'll be getting a personal Alex Lee message instead of necessarily an on-screen shout-out. So better or worse?

I don't know, Mike, but I'll see what I can do. There you go. Well, if I'm not like looking at the camera or anything, it's because I'm actually running the desk right now as well. So I'm trying to do multiple things at once, including host this program. John Jones is going to tweet about Dan. Cornier's Hall of Fame thing any day now. And Mike, you're going to have to be on that.

I know, damn it. Tony Ferguson is going to give a reaction. It's probably going to give some incredible speech about what happened last night. We'll get to that in the moment. A hard to read tweet. Yeah. Let's get into probably maybe the most interesting matchmaking pick we have ever had on this show because Charles Charles Olivera is no longer the lightweight champion.

He's now the number one contender for the title that he lost as that crazy fight with Justin Gaichi began. And again, overcomes adversity, knocked down twice. It looks like Gaichi was on his way to becoming the champion. But Olivera, that quitter, does it again.

He hurts Gaichi. He gets on him. He chokes him. Taps him. It appeared Gaichi went unconscious after the tap. Wow. What a performance, A.K. So the question is, what do we do now? Olivera is going to fight for the now vacant title that he had right before this performance, was stripped of right before this submission happened,

and now he's going to fight for the vacant title against somebody. But who, AK, who? Is this that difficult? Just give me the fight I want. Give me Makachev. Give me Makachev. I have outlined the scenario since, I want to say before the Porre fight even, probably after he well i mean it wasn't about charles olivara specifically but i always said

after habib no magna no megamara i was somewhat abrupt retirement after he beat g i said this guy is still you know relatively young i know i understand why he's walking away i think we all kind of understood it we applauded it um they just didn't feel like there was a lot left for him to do and anytime you know a great athlete can walk away from uh m m m m m a you know with having taken as minimal damage as you can, I would say, for a fighter. Good for you. But I think that competitive fire has to still be there. And for me to continue this narrative, I need Charles Olivaara to fight Islam Makachev.

I need him to beat Islam Makachev. I need Habib Noreh, Nama Medov, to be out there somewhere watching that saying, that's my guy. That's my guy. And also, when he sees Charles Oliva, you know, if he beats Makhchab saying, like, man, that's a challenge that I'm really interested in now. That's the kind of thing that's going to make me come back because I need to, I want to test myself.

I want to see what's up. So I do think that fight needs to happen. I know there's a lot of people that want to see the Benile Daryush rebooking. I understand. Guys, that fight is not official at all. Dary Eush didn't have a leg injury.

I understand. I'm sure, of course, obviously Daryush wants that one back. But I'll say this. I think it's more beneficial to Dary Eush to not get that fight. I think he would lose to Makachev. I think you can preserve Benial as a contender by giving him

another opponent without having to possibly derail him with a Makachov fight. So I'm actually looking out for both guys. I think Makachab, you give him that fight right away. He deserves it. Yeah, he doesn't have that top five win. Well, let's, you know what, but we've seen the skill set. Tom in there with the champ. I think we all, who doesn't want to see this?

Who doesn't want to see this? Benil, give him maybe another top ten opponent, maybe even just top of Dean. Just keep Benile busy and keep him on his win streak. And then you give him the next table shot. So there's a lot of good options, but Makachov is pretty clear for me. Okay. So if you're new to this show, we matchmake in different ways. Like sometimes we matchmake for like what we want to see happen.

And if we were the matchmakers, this is how we would do it. But we also have these very valuable things called Otno points where if we get one right, you bank an Otno point. So I'm going to take a risk here and explain myself. And I'm going to take everybody on a little bit of a journey because there's a lot of options right now. but Dana White in all of his glory said something that led me to slightly dip a toe onto a side and I'm just going to stick with it. But there is a hurdle, AK.

There's a hurdle. There's options. A lot of people think that it will be Connor McGregor. That will not be my selection. There's people out there who think after that sensational knockout, Michael Chandler has earned his way back to a fight. I'm not going to Michael Chandler. There's Islam Makachchev, like you just mentioned,

would make a lot of sense. There's been Neil Daryush. It just doesn't seem like my brother involved, Dana White, is on Makachov getting that title shot right now. He was asked point blank, and I know we don't make fights right after these cards, but you would think that

if Makachov was the guy, he would just sort of said it. We're going to do it in October. It's going to be Makachov. Bolivar for the title. He didn't say that. And he seemed very excited about rebooking Machachov versus Darius for that Abu Dhabi card. So I see some people going in and taking guesses here. Dach Schuf, you're right on the money, my man. There's a fight coming up on July 2nd. And I'm going to get crazy, AK, if Alexander Volcanovsky beats Max Holloway a third time,

and he fancies himself a chance to get on that short list of two division champions, I could absolutely see the UFC giving Volkanowski that shot. In fact, Dana White said, should he want to do that, he would get an immediate title shot. And this featherweight division is in a place right now that if he beats Max Holloway, the division needs to play itself out a little bit. There are some big fights coming up. But what's bigger? What's bigger for Volcanovsky right now? Fighting Calvin Cater? I like Calvin a lot. What about Josh Emmett would be a really cool story? Not a big fight. Volk going up to 155 in fighting Charles Oliver for the vacant lightweight title.

That's a super interesting fight. So I'm going to stick with chaos, AK. That is in my theme for this entire fight week. Volk has to win for this to happen. But that's a big if. That's a big if I'm in. That's the one I want. Yeah.

How can you be against that? I mean, I like a good buildup as much as anyone. You know, I like good storyline. I like good buildup. but I'm also pretty impatient as well when it comes to match. I mean, look, I just said give Makashov the fight right away. You know, I don't want to see them go through Derrush and all this stuff.

So the same thing when you propose a superflight like Volcanovsky and Charles Olivaa, I'm just do it. Just do it. If it is possible to do it, like you said, if he beats Max Holloway, fairly and he's fairly injury free, and he's like, I'm ready to turn around and get another fight and I want to challenge Oliver. You just do it. You don't think like, oh, does, you know, does Volcanowski, you know, is there any, like you said, is there anyone else's a featherway and he needs to fight first?

Just Charles Olivera, again, you know, what about the lightweight contenders line? That's a super cool fight. It is, we should have the number one, like, rule. I don't know. Is it a cool fight? I should add this to the disclaimer, Mike. It's like, have you thought about this fight? Is it a cool fight?

Yes. Yes, absolutely. It's an awesome fight. Yeah. So I went, I think, a little bit more midway with like what I think is more realistic to happen. So I'm like, okay, so that's why I'm leaning towards Machachev. But if I had a magic wand pick, give me a Volcanovsky and Oliverer tomorrow.

That's just to be so cool. And I think Volcanowski would be favored. I do think there's the element of hopefully no one calling Olivera quitter, but I mean, that he has, you know, we've seen him lose in different scenarios before. It would be like, it would be like, let's not forget, back, back, back in the day once in one time, Charles Olivaire lost to Frankie Edgar. And it was not a close fight. Frankie Edgar handled him, a very clear-cut decision.

Volcanowski is like super, is like the super evolution of Edgar. He's got the same technical skills, more knockout power. just that speed that inhuman like hand speed I think he'd be favorite I think he'd be like a minus 150 favorite by the time fight night rolled around Volcanozky would over Olovera. And you could sell that fight as I mean I know Oosman right now in a lot of people's eyes is the pound for pound guy but you could you could absolutely build that fight as whoever wins this one is the best fighter on the planet right now. Absolutely promotional 101. That's how you do it. And there are people who are just like, eh, Olivera just going to run through Alex Volkovsky.

I don't think so. No way. I think that's a super interesting fight. And listen, I love the Makachov fight. I think all roads lead to Olivera versus Mokachev. I would love to see that fight. But that fight could be bigger. But we need Mokachev to beat somebody else.

We need him to get a marquee win. And that fight just becomes more interesting. He goes out, beats Binaldair Ush. He gets the winner of that fight. And Islam Mokachev title show. out when it finally happens becomes that much bigger. You give it to him now, it's still very interesting, but it's not as big as it could be if he goes on and gets that, that wit.

So. If anyone who thinks he'd run through him, at worst, you're getting the Charles, what has become the Charles Olivera formula? Charles, Oliver gets hurt early. He comes back to some crazy,

crazy-ish, fires back on the feet, lands bombs, and then goes to the Jiu-Jitsu and gets himself, gets himself another chokeout. So even if that happened, even when we're kind of like, oh, he won that way again,

that'd be freaking amazing. Like even if you didn't get a back and forth battle and you got this, the now patented Charles Olivera comeback. If he did that to Volcanovsky, that'd be insane and amazing. Benil is injured, but he's on the road to recovery. He was even saying

he could fight this summer, but they're not going to, Islam is not fighting until October. The UFC's not going to risk it. They're going back to Abu Dhabi. Islam Makachev is going to be on that card. Are they going to put Oliver on that card with him? I don't know. I don't know. I can see Oliver fighting before that.

I can see the fighting before that. Benil could be in that card too. He could get a fight on that card. Yeah, they could actually. I actually think that's the fight. They should just fight each other. Then we have a clear cut number one contender. Let's let this silliness of the division play out.

No, no, no. I'm saying Makachab, Charles Olivera, and Benil fight someone else. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, you could do that as well. I mean, there's lots of ways to go at this. I'm taking just, I'm taking a risk here. I'm taking a risk.

And I admit that I'm taking a risk. So it's going to be interesting. I don't know. It could be Connor. Most people believe it's going to be Connor getting the title shot. So who the hell knows? We're probably all wrong at this point. Who knows?

But let's go to Justin Gagie because he falls short once again in his bid to become a world champion. I'm ready to see a rematch AK. It just kind of needs to happen at this point because we have one guy that's kind of on an island looking to get off. And we have a guy that's just kind of in a position where he's just going to have super. Super fun fight. So no one's going to complain about this one. Justin Gaci versus Dustin Porriere, too. Let's just have it.

Let's just make it happen. Massive fight, super fun. Dustin just wants to fight somebody. Let's have some sweet, sweet, violent fun. What do you think for Gachi? I think Pori would agree to it. I just think no human being should have to fight Justin Gaci more than once. And I'm sure if Porre had other options, he will.

And I've been campaigning for an RDA rematch. I know that's kind of off the table because they are booking Hafeel versus Hafeel. again. But I'm still holding out for that. I'm still holding up for Porre to to fight some besides Gates G. That was my first choice of the gate to your match because I was just running down to all the options

from like, you know, all the top 20 guys and there's people who are booked, people who just don't make sense for Porier. So I understand it. And it's been what, four years, I think, since their first fights. It's been a while. It's been a while.

They're different guys that'd be an amazing fight. Who's going to say no? You make that a five round. Oh, no, actually, you know, for their sake, just make it a three-rounder. That's you're going to pay them more. I went in a crazier direction, Mike. I went with a guy that you actually, as the commissioner of Eagle FC,

plan to make an integral part of that promotion one day when you take over. I want to see Gaichi kind of try going up. Maybe not permanently, just for a few fights. Go up to 170. Give me this fight. Give me Gaichi versus Vigente Luque. Damn. Go up to 165, 160, whatever.

170. 170. It's not easy for Lucke. 170. Let's just do it. Let's do it. Why? I think Gathe, I get it.

He's going to be in the title conversation as long as he wants to be. He's always one or two highlight real knockouts away from getting another title shot, especially if Charles Oliver loses the belt, then you try and set up Gajum at some point. I get it. I get it. But those fights will be there no matter what happens. So give me this fun fight with him and Luke A, and I think that would just be, I don't know.

I just think that would be insane. That would be freaking wild. I think Luke A is just gigantic compared to Just to Gachi. But, I mean, listen, if they book it. No one's going to complain about it. And yeah, I mean, Gache has just kind of been that fun, crazy fight realm right now. And that's pretty much where we is. So hack the holidays with the PC holiday Insiders report.

Try this PC porquetta. Crackling, craveworthy. You going to eat that? Who are you? I'm the voice for the next ad. Car commercial. But I noticed that show stopping roast and... Help yourself.

Mmm. Designed for indulgence. Precision crafted to navigate every corner of my mouth. All for just $18. Okay, okay. Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Please feast responsibly. Workday knows there are two kinds of people in business,

backward thinkers and forward thinkers. And when you're a forward thinker, you need an AI platform that thinks like you do. Built to evolve with your organization, Workday reimagines how you manage your people, money, and agents for long-term success. bringing all your most valuable resources onto one powerful platform so you can add value even faster. Workday, moving business forever forward.

Co-main event, AKA Youser, Carla Isparza is the Strawway champion of the world once again. She defeats Rose Namibyudas. Not a spirited battle by any stretch of the imagination. I guess that's as nicely as I'm going to put it here. on the Sunday morning on like 32 minutes of sleep. Carla wins. She gets it done. Dana White said, and I think a lot of people agree that if you want to be

Zhang Wei at UFC 275, she's in, I tend to agree with that. So that's my half of the pick. What do you think? I'm going magic wand here. Can we just get the Marina Rodriguez fight out of the way? Listen, I'll even admit it is not the, specifically Marina Rodriguez title fight rematch with Carlos Sparza

I understand even I as I'm making this pick I'm like yeah I'd probably rather see Yachachic in a Sparza rematch I'd probably rather see Jean-Wei Lee and Carlos Sparza Even Jessica Andrash Carlos Sparza is probably a more appealing match

Of these all these former champions facing the new champion or the two-time champion now far more compelling But I just feel like Marina has done enough I feel like she's in the position Carlo was in last year We were kind of like, oh, man, like, we just get her the title shot. She deserves it.

I wish that win over Yan Shanan had been more definitive for Marina. I wish that fight had been on the main card instead of Sergei Spivak versus some nameless jobber. So that shows you how bad the chances are of Marina actually getting that title shot over the other candidates we've named. But for me, again, magic wand pick. Give Marina that shot. A lot of people thought she won the first fight with Carla. She deserves it. Joana Yatchekic, Zhang Wei, Jessica Andrage, they're going to be there.

Those fights will be there. They'll be there to fight Asparza. They'll be there to fight Rodriguez or she beats Asparza. I'm going against what I said before about how I want things now. Those are stalwarts. They'll get their title shots. Yeah, Luke Beaver's Marina, sure. But I am all in on Marina getting her title shot.

And again, I think she's just a great matchup. I know her last fight was not super compelling and not, you know, a statement win as far is getting a teleshot, but look at her body of work, look at the first fight with Carla. Let's make it happen. It's Joanna with a win. It's Jessica Andrage of the loss. Fresh batch up. I think Zhang Wei will need another win if she beat Joanna.

Marina Rodriguez is certainly there. But unfortunately, when you have these types of scenarios, there's always one odd woman out of the equation. And I feel like Marita Rodriguez is the odd woman out in this equation. And this is no disrespect. I just feel that's kind of the position she's in right now. If the Janjanon fight went a little bit differently, I think we'd be talking a little more confidently about Marina getting this title fight. A win is a win and that's great.

But I think for me, I have a lot of, my expectations for Marina Haudriguez are very, very high. And I think once she does get to a title fight, she has a very good chance to win. I don't think she's ready for it right now. I think she needs to get another fight in before she does fight for the title. So yeah, I think if Yuana wins next month, they're definitely going to make that rematch. And Jessica Androge gets it if she doesn't.

So the road kind of sucks if you're Carla Spars. Like she's probably either getting Ywana, the woman who has been giving you nightmares for the last six years, or Jessica Androj, who probably is giving you a couple over the last three or four years, just thinking about what she has done to people, including Rose Damienis. Now, speaking of Rose Dameunis, AK, we're on a journey. So bear with me. If Yawanna wins June 11th, it's Rose Namibuas, Justkan, Drogh three.

The trilogy fight happens, that's it. If that doesn't happen, God, I don't even know. Rose, Rose Marina Rodriguez? Rose McKenzie Dern. My nose. My nose is about to start bleeding from these permutations, Mike. I'm giving Marina the rub. I'm going to give her this fight, okay?

Okay. I'm going to give Marina Rose if the chips fall where they may. I don't know. It's tough after a fight like that because we don't know if Rose is going to take a year off. Because she doesn't take losses very well. So, yeah, I'll go that route. What do you think for Rose? You know, it's funny.

Last time when I was picking for McKenzie Dern, I had defaulted to Carlos Sparza if she beats Rose. sorry if she loses to Rose Namajunus. For some reason I hadn't considered the other option. I don't know why. I guess I just wasn't interested in seeing Dern Namajunas at this point. But it's almost like I feel like,

it's almost I feel like after that just bizarre performance from both women on Saturday that they have some reputation rebuilding to do as far as a less because she has that gold belt around her waist at least. And now because you can say she has officially beaten, you know,

Namajunus twice. That's a nice feather in her cap. But now, Majunis, I don't know. I saw a lot of, you know, fans turn on her very quickly. She's kind of like that. She's kind of a polarizing fighter when she's exciting. Fans, you know, a lot of fans love her. When she has one of these kind of disappointing performances, boy, they come out of the woodwork to slammer.

And I don't think that's warranted. But I do think there are, I do want to see if she can continue the trend, as Jed Michoud said rightly, that she performs well when she's not the champion. There's something about the championship pressure. Obviously, you're just facing elite competition. So it's always going to be, you know, so many tough. There's something about the championship pressure that seems to take away from her aggression. So now that she is once again chasing the belt, I want to see how she do against McKenzie Dern.

I think Dern is obviously a great style matchup. I think on the ground she beats anybody, including Rose Dominguez who has a very strong ground game. I think Dern beats her down there. On the other hand, I could see her just knocking McKenzie Dern. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Okay. K, come back to me.

This is, I mean, trust me, this is going to be riveting stuff. Oh, he's back. He's back. Can you hear me? I'm back. Oh, okay. Anyway, too long, didn't listen, internet broken. Yeah, I just think, I am now interested in seeing Dern prove herself against Namedin.

Nogynos could knock out. A motivated Namedon just could knock against a Dern out like two minutes. I don't know. But if it goes to the ground, of course, Dern always has a chance. And the U.S. really wants to push Dernabrook. turn to a title shot. That's the path to it, man. If she can beat Rose and Imagenus, huge win. I'm interested in seeing that now. I wasn't like two months ago. Now suddenly I want to.

Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. I saw a lot of that. That's not nice, I saw a lot of that. No, he's talking about you. It's talking about you. You're not internet. Oh, they are. But that's also what people were calling. Oh, yeah. Too much. Yeah. Not very nice. What do we look at at here? Okay, so there we go. We're back. AK's back.

I'm back. Co-main event is out of the way now. Let's head to the man who stole the show, AK. His name is Michael Chandler. A plus, plus, plus plus plus plus plus plus is all the way up my walls right now. Performance with the knockout of the year, maybe of the decade, then the promo of the year. maybe the decade, probably not, but man, this guy just crushed you last night, A.K. This guy is crushing life since going to the UFC.

He's two and two, but nobody cares that he's two and two. And everybody's eyes, he's like 18 and 0 with the performances, the fights this guy's having. That and knockout of Tony Ferguson was absolutely redonculus. He goes out, gets on the mic, he screams bloody murder, calls for the winner of the main event. or I will go up to 170 and fight you, Connor McGregor. You got to come back and fight somebody, bro. Are any of these real options for Michael Chandler after that sensational finish of Tony Ferguson?

Yeah, Connam McGregor, let's do it. Let's stop messing around. Connor Greger, moving on, moving on. Moving on, Mike, moving on. It's a good call out. I know everyone, listen, I get it. Everyone calls out Connor McGregor. Connor at best to a lot of these guys response on Twitter.

He did immediately, I think, like seconds after, Chandler's post-pipe promo was over, he sent out a pretty, like, moderately, you know, worded tweet. Just kind of like, yeah, yeah, 170, that'd be fun. Yeah, it's got a good knock. Yeah, and makes sense for both guys. I mean, how can, it's a good matchup for McGregor.

It's a winnable fight. I think I would favor Chandler, but I think the odds would probably end up McGregor's favor. He's just so much more well-known, and he's so, obviously, you know, you got that casual betting coming in. But it wouldn't be big.

He wouldn't be a huge favorite. And how can McGregor, how can you avoid a guy who technically is only not actually technically who is two and two in the UFC McGregor's going to duck this guy come on it makes a lot of sense it's a good excuse me it's a guy who's willing

to come up to 170 just do it Connor get get healthy get healed wait for this tell Dana White you want this fight start promoting it now let's go I could not disagree with this comment more he hasn't proved

anything yet in the UFC come on dude come on the dude went hammer and tongs with Justin Gagey for 15 minutes when that clearly wasn't his path. He has the knockout of the year, one of the greatest knockouts in the history of the company, and he was seconds away from becoming the UFC lightweight champion.

Seconds away, one misstep, one mistake. He'd be the champion right now. I think this has been a tremendously successful run for him in the craziest division in the sport right now. So, yeah, I'm with you, I'm giving the man what he wants. Give him Connor. Chandler deserves that fight. Let's rock and roll.

He's not here for a long time. He's here for a good time, AK. So let's have a good time. 170 pounds. Michael Chandler versus Connor McGregor. I'm into it. No one's going to be upset about that fight being booked. Let's do it.

Dana White's favorite fighters, favorite fighter versus Dana White's actual favorite fighter. I'm in. Yeah. Imagine seeing someone land a kick like that, a once in a lifetime kick on a guy and flooring someone out cold as durable as Tony Ferguson and then being like, and being like, yeah, but have they really shown anything, though?

What does that really? What did that really prove? Oh, man. Guys, it's okay to enjoy. It's okay to enjoy things. It's okay not to be a fan of guys too. Like maybe you're not a fan of Chandler. I get it.

And maybe you're like, oh, why is he four or no, seven two and two? Sure. Sure. Could he be better? I mean, yeah? Has he been pretty damn frigging good in the UFC so far? Objectively, yes. It's okay to enjoy things, guys.

It's all right. He's become a top five, at worst, top five must watch fighters in the company right now in four fights. It's not enough for some people. It's not enough for some people, Mike. Now, when we have a moment like this, somebody has to be on the opposing end of it. And that man, unfortunately, was Elkakuwy, Tony Ferguson,

who had, it looks like the old Elkakuwee was coming back, AK, he wins the first round. He knocks Chandler, on his ass. Chandler takes him down, but he's on his back and he's slicing and dicing with elbows. I mean, it was, it was a clear Tony Ferguson round. He won around for the first time at over three years. Nobody saw this kick up the middle coming. In fact, Michael Chandler didn't even see this kick up the middle coming. So do you want to kick this off? You want to kick this off? Because just to peel behind the curtain, you kind of questions whether or not we were going to

matchmaking for Tony Ferguson. So I'll let you have that at it first. Yeah, listen, I very, I very, rarely like to advocate for a fighter to retire because we don't we don't know what's going on in their heads and it's easy for us to say oh a fighter's lost three four fights and just took a vicious knockout and say they should walk away so if this is my my caveat for any any fighter who I think like should possibly walk away if they have enough money if they're satisfied with their career if they have other things in their life that they want to pursue please you know consider retirement and don't take any more damage because Tony Ferguson has been fighting for 14 years I think And he's been in wars, man.

Like, this is a hard 14. This isn't like, this isn't like he's been like, oh, yeah, he's kind of like, he's been grinding out decisions and like dominating. Like, he gets damaged a lot. People remember the Landovana fight he got rocked in. I mean, he fought, he went almost five full rounds with Justin Gates. He probably would have gone five rounds if he had a choice. You know, I think the referee really even could have stepped in earlier.

It was such a, that was such a nasty, gnarly fight. So, yeah, I mean, I advocate for retirement. But I hate telling fighters to do that. And I won't assume they will. I don't get the vibe from Tony Ferguson that he's considering that. So I did get him a fight. And I think it's one that would just be super fun. I don't think he's at risk of getting like bolted like we just saw on Saturday.

And I'm a little amazed this fight has never happened or even been booked before. Give me Tony Ferguson and a guy who recently headlined a fight night event against one of the best lightweights in the world. Give you Ferguson versus Bobby Green. Ooh. Yeah. That's a popular one. By the way, Joe McCarter, that is absolutely false as the most false statement we've seen so far.

All three judges, I'm looking at the scorecard right now. All three judges scored that first Rappettoni Berks. Why do people say the things? You guys know you can look this stuff up, right? It's right there. It's literally right there. It's at UFC.com, if you want to find it. I mean, I don't mean to throw some shade, but I'm on notes.

No, do it right now. You know, you're doing this person a favor. Help them. It's called the internet. You can Google Ferguson Chandler scorecard. It's right there. So, I mean, it's really funny that we go, we've gone to Tony Ferguson and by far more picks are coming in for Tony Ferguson.

I thought Ferguson's first one was great. He gets colded by a super sneaky kick that I've never seen Chandler throw that, you know, he's probably never thrown as well. So it's clear that his hopes to ever get back to a title fighter are officially gone, right? They're officially gone. but there are still some fun scraps that could happen. And as we've seen, AK, numbers don't lie.

We don't like to go behind the curtain too much and talk about clicks and views and stuff like that. But Tony Ferguson was the man this week. I mean, everybody wanted to know what he was doing. Everybody wanted to see what he had to say. Ferguson versus Green is fun. I hope he takes some time off. But when he comes back,

I'm kind of in the same boat, but I'm going a little bit different. and I see some people actually going through there, Tony Ferguson versus Jim Miller. Let's just do it. Let's just do that fight. It's a big-time vet matchup. It's good matchmaking.

I really like it. Tony Ferguson isn't going to get hurt in that fight. Jim Miller is just a freaking demon, so he's probably not going to get hurt in the fight either. So worst thing that happens to Tony Ferguson, he might get dropped a little bit. He's probably going to get submitted. Worst case.

And then probably the same for Jim Met. Like, it's just a fun vet fight that I think both guys, See, even my dog likes Tony Ferguson versus Jim Miller. So, yeah, I'm going with that. I like the Bobby Green suggestion. Let me ask you this. There's another one that got brought up last night. What about Dan Hooker?

If we're going to do a rank guy, I think that Dan Hooker probably makes the most sense. I dig it. I dig it. This is why, this is why, again, as much as I'm, you know, clutching my pearls and saying, oh, I wish these lightweights who have done all, you know, these lightweight veterans who have been like 20 plus fights and just like put their bodies through it. They should retire. Listen, if they don't want to and they want to keep fighting,

that's great. That is their grown men. They can make these decisions themselves. And I hope we see more matchups like we saw. Unfortunately, it got canceled because Soroni had an illness. Like Donald's Sorony or LaZan. I think Ferguson is in that range now. Now, a little bit, you know, not specifically against Sorony or LaZan.

But yeah, other veterans, Jim Miller, Dan Hooker, Bobby Green. There's a lot of great fights to still be had. Put aside, oh, what does this mean for the rankings? What does this mean for TED Talk? that doesn't matter for some of these guys anymore and it shouldn't. We watch fights because MMA is supposed to be fun.

That's the one, our rule we always say. Do you want to see Tony Ferguson fight at Jim Miller? Yeah. Do you want to see him fight Bobby Green? Yeah, who would say no to these things? These are great fights. These are fun fights.

So for Ferguson, he's in that range now. I hope he keeps making good money. I hope if he signs a new contract with the UFC, it's another, even though he's not in the contenders line significantly anymore, that he gets another pay bump up.

and that he can continue fighting and hopefully get to that point where he's satisfied and can walk away. But if he's not, a lot of fun fights ahead, I'm into it. Man, I like the ally Quinta idea too. Yeah. That's fun. But Al's kind of, and I hope Al is in the Joe Dazan range too, where he's kind of like, I'm just going to, because he kind of said, I think the last time he's like, you know,

he's definitely considering retirement, but it not hasn't quite walked away. I hope he's like Joe Dazan where obviously he's got that booming real estate business and can just say, yeah, I want to fight once a year. I want to fight like every 18 months. Like I just want to fight when I want to. If Ally Kinta has that freedom, more power to you, man. Because rest, recover, train when you want. Train on your own schedule and get fight, get the big fights when, whenever they come around.

I love that stuff. Listen, and everyone saying Al's retired, Al is retired 5,000 times. Okay? He went on Ariel's show and was like, you know, I still kind of dabble. Like, I guarantee you're still in the Usada pool. So I guarantee you still in the Usada pool. So I would say, Al, is not retired. Al would certainly fight Tony Ferguson if it was offered to him. If he was retired,

his retirement would end. That's for damn sure. But these are the kinds of fights. I do not want to see Tony Ferguson fight Armand Sarukyans of the world. Those are the fights I don't want to see. I don't want to see him fighting Raphael Fizives, those types of guys. No, no, no, no. You want to do Dan Hooker. You want to give him a rank guy, cool. Like, that's, that's it. Other than that, Bobby Greens, Jim Miller's Those are the kinds of fights. Ally Quinta, I'm in for that. Other than that, not Fazeev. I just don't want to see him get badly knocked out or badly hurt.

Like, Jim Miller is just, it's a fun, scramble fest scrap. And people complain about that fight. Come on now. That fight rules. And it's going to be super fun. Let's make this real quick, AK, because I don't know if you know this, but OSP fought Shogun last night. Oh, did he now?

And he won. And with all due respect, I don't want to spend a lot of time here. The fight was what it was. OSP got a victory and two paychecks. Now what? Ryan Span Yon Kutalaba fight next weekend. The winner of that fight will fight OSP. There we go.

Done and done. I'll make it simple. Mine's way better than yours. Okay. OSP versus Ed Herman, AK. Let's just do it. That has to have been booked for it. That's never been booked.

It's never been booked. It's never been booked. It's never been booked. That's not possible. But I feel like that fight will be less terrible Because I feel like Ed Herman will make OSP fight a little bit Because Ed's not winning a lot And he gets hurt in a lot of fights

The Mike Rodriguez fight is nuts But I feel like Ed will still go after OSP And like try to do stuff And force OSP to like try to do stuff back So I mean listen OSP for Ed Herman We got two young bucks looking to make a name for themselves why not now this was an emotional roller coaster of an event because it's the main card started off pretty fun welter weights fun scrap in the main opener then we got osp then we got chanler ferguson

then we got the co-main event and then we got the main event it was just literally an emotional roller coaster ride but the main card opener was was really good randy brown overcomes a tough first round gets the split decision win over chaos williams chaos thought he used to I did not think he won. I thought the judges got this one right, that Randy Brown won the second and third. I think this would be a good spot for the returning D-Rod, A-K. Randy Brown versus Daniel Rodriguez.

I'm in. That's my pick. What say you? Yep. In lockstep with you, buddy. That's one we've talked about on the show. I feel like I don't know before. I think our pal Marcus McGahey, I was looking through kind of the old past

no picks. He's definitely someone who brought that up. So hat tip to Marcus. And nothing else needs to be seen. said both guys i think it'd be great if they got like a top 15 opponent for sure i'd love to see that direction as well but it doesn't feel like the schedule is quite working out for them that way so i think you have to throw them in there with each other and again a loss does not knock either guy out of like contention forever it'd be a great fight it would let us get a better gauge of which

one of these guys is really top 15 top 10 potential maybe both them maybe it's both of them but um it'd be cool to see and uh yeah uh we haven't seen d rod in a bit i think that's the fight for him to uh to come back to. So perfect matchmaking. I'm with you on that one all the way. All right. Let us head to the wild card round where we will select one fighter. We have not match made for yet. We will do so right now. So it could be somebody from the main card that was not victorious. Could be anybody from the prelims winner or loser. So AK, as usual, you are our Kenny Lofton. You're our lead off hitter for the wild card rounds. What are we going with? There was a very obvious name to pick of a standout performance from the preliminaries, but I'm not going to because this person, I think, well, we'll address him

in a bit. We'll address him shortly. You may have picked him, I don't know, but I went in a different direction. I am one of the weird people who's like, for years, I've been saying the women's featherweight division is just like not a division that you can really invest in. I always see those going on like, oh, why don't they do a featherweight ultimate fighter to, you know, build up that roster. they did that.

All those women turned out were actually bantam weights. So that did nothing. It's just not, it breaks sort of that athletic threshold where like if you're a coordinated athletic woman who is like around that 145, 150, 155 range and above, you're probably going to try and play another sport. That's just that's why people ask also, oh, why does even the, you know, in the men's side, why does the people seem to get less skills to get bigger and bigger and bigger? middle weight, light, heavy weight, heavy weights.

Because once you reach that level, if you're coordinated, you're athletic, you're going to try something else. You're going to try football. You're going to try basketball. There's not enough money in MMA to attract these athletes to it. Like, say what you want about, like, the amount of money that some of these, like a WNBA player makes, it's still way more than your average MMA fighter. So anyway, that's a little side rant.

But I am going to Masey Chiesin because, Mike, you know I have been pushing for, again, I'm building my long-term narratives here. I've been pushing for Josie N. Nunes to fight Amanda Nunes someday. I want little tiny Josia Nunes to stay at 145. She just fought Pasquale on a short notice. I obviously wasn't intended for her to stay at 145. But why not?

If this division is there, quote unquote, there, and they're going to keep booking fights in it like they did for Saturday, like Norma Dumont versus Macy Chiasin, then let's keep making fights happen. Give Macy, Josian Nunes, give the winner of that fight, Amanda Nunes, regardless of what happens with Julianna Pena. that featherweight belt exists I know it sounds weird to say it exists it is still around Amanda Nunes

waist I think if she wanted to defend it she would because that's an easy championship paycheck for her and possibly pay for viewpoints so and whether it happens at featherweight or not I actually just kind of want to see that fight so Macy Chiasan Amena Nunes uh excuse me Josian Nunes at

145 I think but at 135 that's good too I'm in I like it I just want to see Josian Nunes fight because it's just just hilarious because she's like 5-1 and just massive like just jacked she's got superb power for somebody that size unbelievable. A.K., you already know where I'm going with this. I'm going with Brandon Royval. We're celebrating the year of the raw dog after. Oh, come on. You're going to, you're going to censor that on the podcast, right, when it comes on the podcast.

No. It's a nickname. It's a nickname. Did I show you? Someone sent me that. Someone sent me like they tried to do me a favor. They sent me the nickname and they like bleeped out like the like some of the letters. And I'm like, it looks worse. It looks. Because it's just, because it's just, it's just, it's just raw. It's just like raw D and then like three asterisk. And I'm like, that's worse. It looks. That's worse. I do. I do, I did see this question. So I'm going to address it right now. Dana White did say that they're probably not going to do Moreno versus Viggy 4. I don't think he's saying that it's not going to make it like for it's, it's, they're not going to make it like, forever until the end of time. It's just that figurato is hurt.

He's got a hand injury. They were thinking he spoke to Garmei Cruz from MAAfighting.com. Figy was thinking like September, October. Now it's looking like it might be even later than that. So there have been talks, from what I understand, to have a fight between Branagh-Morano and Kai Kar, France. Now, I don't know if they're going to do an interim title. I don't know what, but from what I understand,

Brandon Moreno wants to fight this summer. against figurato or Kai Kar-France or anybody that wants to fight him. Okay. So right now, timing just doesn't work out. Brandon Royval said that he has heard that they're going to do Moreno versus Kai Kar-France for an interim title. That part I don't know, but I do know that there have been discussions about doing Moreno versus Cairo-France sometime this summer.

And I love that fight a lot. Having said that, this is kind of a selfish pick. for me, and it's a realistic pick because Brandon Royval was actually really smart with his callout. He's not going to fight Brandon Moreno right now. He wants that fight back badly. But if the UFC does go the route of booking this fight for an interim title between Brandon Moreno and Kai Kar, France,

and something happens to one of those guys, I feel like Roy Val is going to be the first phone call that's made to step in and take that fight. Why? Because he's the highest ranked guy without a fight right now. And he's also fought pretty much the whole top five outside of Asker Ascaroff. But Asker Ascarov is fighting Alex Perez in July. So he's likely not getting the title fight. He could be ready, have the phone near him if the phone rings.

AK, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Two of my favorites. This is guaranteed violence. But again, hurtled to jump over. If the former Rise in Bannamwe champion, Manel Kopp, beats Hagerio Bonterine on June 11th, UFC 275, Brandon Roy Val versus Menel Cop.

Good Lord. You're welcome, world. You're welcome. That's another one round fight of the night waiting to happen. Like that could easily go one round and still be like, again, because they just gave Roy Val and Schnell a fight of the night for a fight that didn't even last two and a half minutes. So I could definitely see that happening with him and him and cap. Yeah.

Hey, listen, I like it. That's the pick. That might be my best wildcar pick. ever. But of course, again, Melikov has to fight on June 11th, and he has to win on June 11 for this to be a thing. So there we go. Do we have any extracurriculars here? I just want to shout out our listeners for nail on some of these picks. Obviously, some very obvious ones. But I like to give a little rundown of stuff that's kind of become official this week, guys. So, or mostly, sorry, not official, but at least in talks, you know,

we've got sources saying that these are definitely going to happen. Some of them announced. Some of them were announced on Saturday. So we got Sarukyan versus Maturias. Gamrod, June 25th. It looks like we got Adisania and Canaanir and Volcanovsky Holloway 3. That's official now. U.S.C. 276, July 2nd. Ancolae versus Anthony Smith, U.S.i 277 on July 30th. And in the works, Tuivasa versus Gone for September 3rd.

Fingers crossed in Paris. That would be so sick. And Tuivasa takes France, it just writes itself. So a lot of our listeners had those picks together, guys. We picked those as a family. So great work there. And I'm going to give out individual points. MMA heads, always sending out great picks.

O'Malley versus Munoz, U.C. 276, July 2nd. And to our pal, the Otno coin collector, who I haven't seen in a while. But they picked Sean Strickland versus Alex Bejta, also going down UFC 276. So well done, everyone. Well done, listeners, regular listeners of Otno. And if you're new to the show, people, send in those picks.

Let us know. Do those comments in. Pentosia literally defeated Roy Ball last five weeks. No, we're not excluding him. all I'm saying was I liked the callout. I liked the fact. And listen, what we're going to remember, this is a recency by a sport.

Brandon Royval did that in front of a crowd that loved him and reacted very positively to what he did against match now and a very exciting fight for as long as it lasted. So if there's a choice between Royval and Pantosia, meritocracy aside, Royvall's gotten that phone call. Like he's getting the phone call. He's the more exciting fighter.

Pantosia is very good. And if this is Bellator, he'd probably have fought for the title. But this isn't Bellator. This is the UFC. And yeah, I mean, it is what it is. Not excluding him. But I just feel that it was a good callout. And Roy Val is going to fight Minnell Cap anyways.

So everybody wins, okay? Pantosia needs to start talking crap on Twitter, all right, guys? Because that's the, here's the one problem with Pantosia, who might be the best flyweight in the world. We don't know. in between his fights he kind of just like doesn't exist he's not the only one who has this no right

but he's not the only one who has this problem but he has no like social media or even conventional media presence he's not out there doing interviews and I personally don't mind that like I find that kind of like you know privacy refreshing but we are talking about

MMA we're talking about combat sports we're talking about sports entertainment and Pantosia does not play that game the game he plays he's very good at again maybe the best if at least one of the top three flyweights i think in the world but you got to play the game a little bit and that's why he just does not come up in these conversations loopy goadnez getting some love here shy and volismus that'd be an interesting fight uh a lot of islam versus charlie olive's love here should be islam olivera chaneler versus conner for

sure winner fights for the belt definitely it'll be fantoja figgy i don't think so sorry The only person, I mean, listen, Pantosia has an argument, but Kikar France clearly would be the guy to fight for the title decks. Like if something happened in like Moreno couldn't fight Figgi, they're calling Kikar France first. He's there. He's earned it. The whole discussion has been, is it Kikar, France or is it, or did they just do the fourth fight with Brennan Moreno? I'm with do the fourth fight with Brennan Moreno, but Kikar, France is next in line. He's the on-deck batter. and by the way,

Brent Roy Vell put away Kai Kaur friends and that win is aged extremely well, extremely well. Please no interim title, by the way. Please no interim title. I understand belts are props. So,

I mean, if they make one, it's fine. It's not hurting anybody. But you don't need to make one. Just pay, here's a thing. Make it a five-round fight.

Pay both guys what they deserve. Give them pay viewpoints. For anyone out there who's like, oh, you got to give them a title and then pay your viewpoints and then you make more money. Guys, this is a UFC decision. They can pay people more money anytime they want.

They can people pay people pay for points anytime they want. That's why there's different contracts for the fights. That's all you sign on. They can add these things. This is in the UFC's power. They don't need to add a belt to the equation. That's just what they say to limit the amount of times that they have to do this, to limit the negotiation.

So I'm not, it's fine. It just sounds silly if they make an interim title fight. If that's what it takes to get these guys paid, then at the end of the day, I'm fine with it. But normalize five rounds. non-interim title fights between guys and guys getting paid a lot more money for those fights.

You know it's an interim type. You know it's going to be an interim title fight. That's dumb. Pardon my language. I haven't got a lot of sleep. That is dumb. Unreal. Wow.

Yeah. I mean, if they make that fight, you know the O.C. You're going to put an interim title on it. Because, by the way, these cards are filling up. We're starting to run out of champions here. And we got lots of pay-per-views to fill up. We get July 30th to fill up.

it would not shock me in the slightest if they put that fight on that July 30th card for an interim title. What's going to headline it? I have no freaking clue. But yeah, we'll see what happens. I'll get to a couple of these. There's a few that I like.

Rose versus Dern, sure. I'll get to a couple of these picks. I think we have like 10 minutes to go before we hit that hour mark that I wanted to hit. Let's go to Matt Ravelli. I don't want Michael Chandler to get a title. shot off of this. Yes, it was oppressive, but I want him to fight the loser of B'Neil

in Islam when it happens. All right. Robbie Ryan, Oliver versus Islam, Asparza versus the Yohanna Zhang Lute? Wow, okay. Sorry, I read this wrong. Too tired. Sparza versus Yohanna Zhang winner, which she will lose.

And then Chandler versus Begregor, and he said UFC 274 was a disaster. All right. Jaron Kowada. Do Bronx versus Holloway 2 after Max beats folk? Wow. Randy Brown versus Kevin Holland. We didn't give the disclaimer.

Come on, man. You're better than that. Kevin Holland has a fight. He's fighting Tim Means. Yeah, come on. Chaos versus Nico Price. And he says, chaos should have won.

No, he shouldn't have, but I do like to fight with Nico Price. OSP versus Maxim Grishin. Trinaldo versus Olleski. What do you think about that? Yeah. Yeah. I'm down for Trinolov for almost anything at this point.

I love that guy. Give Tony a bounceback fight and a chance to avenge his loss to Michael Johnson, okay? I think that's kind of too far back if we're being honest. And again, Michael Johnson has a fight. He's fighting next week, isn't he? Is it next week?

He's fighting Alon Patricque, isn't he? He is. I can't believe that fight's actually happening. That's crazy. That's insane. Tristan Gordettes. Let's see if we have anything new here. Justin Gagey versus Desta Poria 2.

Dana said he's not making the fight with Poria versus Dates. So this makes the most sense. Yes. Randy Brown versus Gunner Nelson. Chaos Williams versus Jeremiah Wells, winner lose against court. If Jeremiah Wells wins or loses against court McGee at UFC Austin on June 18th, wild card Brenner-Rivaiva versus Bataeus Nicolao,

Trinaldo versus Li Jing Liang. Lupi Godinez versus the winner of Jessica Penny versus Brianna 14o happening July 16th. Jessica wins. Lupi could try to get that one back. If Brianna wins, I feel like the matchup is really good stylistically. Yes, by the way, we haven't seen Briata 14o, a. Briata Van Buren,

she is fighting Jessica Petté FCA. FKA. FKA. FKA, yes. Also known as, but yeah.

P.A. Yeah, previously known as PKK. Formerly known as. Oh, tremendous. Yeah. Oh,

by the way, yes, I apply this for not reading this claim. I won't, I won't read the whole thing, but that's where I wanted to mention our rule for Andre Fialio. He's,

he's getting the Kevin Holland ban because he's already said that he spoke, to the UFC and they're going to book them for next month's card in Singapore. So a matchmaking for him is really futile. You can throw those matching things out there, go ahead. But if you think what you know what Andre Fialio is doing next, you are wrong. The only thing that we know is he wants to fight as many times possible and might fight like

eight times this year for the UFC. We don't know. So he's getting the ban. If they make his own versus Darius, who will all there a fight? I think we, yeah. Connor is. Listen, you're going to hate, a lot of you are going to hate to hear this, but Connor is definitely in this conversation right now.

He's always in the conversation. Like he's, like he's in the conversation. There's no doubt about it. He's in the conversation. Again, but there's lots of things we could do with Oliver. It's super fun. Lupia top 15. Man, she looked like a top 15 fighter last, last night.

That was impressive. She ran over Ariane and Karna and Losey. I thought she would win and I thought she would win convincingly. I didn't think she'd do that. There should have been at least one 10-8. There could have been two 10-8s in that fight, for sure. Ascaroff, Royval, a fight to make. Again, Ascarov has a fight.

He's fighting Alex Perez. Andre Fiala versus Alex Marono, AK. Yeah, look, again, listen, there's a lot of great... I can see Alex going to Singapore on a short notice. Sure. Nick Doroff, remind us, if you're on Twitter or whatever, just DM me, or remind us on one of our shows later, If that gets booked like this week,

you definitely get an auto point. They can make Charles sit out, wait for Connor. Also, we give Carl her process or at least going for finishes sticking to her style. I mean, no one really went for any finishes. I'm being honest.

Dubrox versus Islam. Rose next fight on Dancing with Stars. Listen, Peter and Brzeini, you're joking, but that would be a good thing for it. Didn't that show just get canceled though? It did? I think it's on hiatus. Hold on.

I got to call my mom. She freaking launched that show. I know Tyra Banks got canned. I'm sorry, guys. I know this is I know way too much about Dancing with the Stars. Tyra Banks is on Dancing with the Stars? I was the host. Yeah, she replaced Tom Berger.

She was? Yeah, it was not well received. Oh, man. Boston's own Tom Bergeron? So good. So one of the best hosts in television history. I think either he just wanted to get paid more or he just lost. Sorry, guys.

I'm talking about Dancing with the Stars here. I'm sorry. I thought I heard something about the show, or at least getting put on hiatus. But yeah, that actually would be a good. I'd love to see Rosenavidu doesn't dance with the stars. I get that's a crack up on the fight, but I'm just saying. Yeah. Tom Bergeron, by the way, is a legend. He used to host.

He used to host a local show in Boston that like nobody watched on Sunday morning is called People Are Talking. And I just thought he was such a good host. He's amazing. He's like Bob Barker-esque, but his ability to be like glib, like really glib and burn people when they do. Anyway, that's a whole lot of it. He's good.

This is one that has come up a lot. Michael Chandler versus Dustin Porier. I would love to see this fight. I just don't think it happens. I don't think Dustin has any interest in fighting Michael Chandler. Why not? I think, well, Michael said some things like along the way that really irked Dustin Porrier about, oh no, remember?

Okay. Remember they booked, at least they were in discussions to do Dustin Porier versus Tony Ferguson. Remember this? This is like, I don't know if this is in the middle of the pandemic or if this is before. But that fight was discussed and it looked like it was heading

in the right direction. They just needed some eyes to be dotted and T's to be crossed, but they never were. So for some reason, Dustin kind of like was out of the conversation and Michael Chandler's like, all right, I'm here for a good time,

not a long time, I'm in. And Tony Ferguson was like, no, bro, I wanted to fight Dustin. I'm standing by the guy I wanted to fight. And Dustin thought that was kind of a bad look for Michael Chandler. and since then he's just kind of no sold him every single time. So, I mean, if it comes down to it and Porre just wants to get back in there, I guess, but I get, I do, I just, I think he'd rather fight, I mean, I think he'd kind of rather

fight Gaichy a second time that fight Chandler, if we're being honest. I just don't think he, I just don't think he wants to give Chandler any kind of a rub at all. I want to fight Justin Gaethe twice. Oh, my God. I mean, he probably thinks he could beat him. I mean, he did already, so. Yeah, or beat him again. again. Probably wild as hell, of course.

Tracy Cortez versus Ariene Lipski. I think we got to go a little higher with Cortez now. That was a good win over Melissa Gatto. I will say this. Props to Tracy Cortez for her defense on the ground. Melissa Gatto had her chances. It looked like things were going to get a little hairy and Tracy battled through it. But to me, man, like good for her getting the win.

This one screamed Melissa Gatto lost this fight and gave it away more than Tracy won it. That's just how I viewed it, watching it live. Great win for Tracy, great moment for her in front of the home crowd. I bet Melissa Gatto, I think if they fought 10 times, Gatto wins seven of them. But Cortez got it done when it counted. So do we think, is she ready for a top 15? Do we throw Tracy Cortez's the top 15 opponent right now? Are we seen mad at this? No, yeah, listen, give her the, I shouldn't even, I shouldn't even bring this up.

Give her the, didn't she, wait, what's the, what's the, oh, Aaron Blanchfield. Yeah, give me the Aaron Blanchfield rematch. I don't know. That was the She narrowly She, she, That was a, I got a robbery review that Sunday. Yeah, I got a robbery review that someday.

Inicta, her last appearance for Invicta for Contender Series. Yeah, she won a very, very narrow split decision over Aaron Blanchfield, hotly contested. So, yeah, just give her that rematch, right? But no, I don't know. I think you keep them, you keep them away from each other for now. But hey, if you're Blanchfield, you should try and get that fight.

RDA if he beats Fizzis versus Olivera, I don't think, I mean, I don't think that happens. but I mean Stranger things have happened It's just not I mean he's way down He's definitely on the short he's maybe on the short list But he's probably at the bottom of the short list

So yeah Canaan Air Adesanya Coming up It's official July 2nd We knew this is coming If you listen to heck of a morning Basically been telling you This is probably going to happen

For like three weeks now It's just awaiting one signature I think it probably happened Very very close But I think that The promo the UFC put together was probably Adasanya approved. Like, Adasani is probably like,

I want to see how you're announced in this fight and then I'll sign the contract. I wouldn't be shocked if Adasania got to look at that promo video that put Adasania over like a megastar. This is like Razor Ramon making his WWF debut kind of a promo. We're putting this guy over in a huge way. And then it's all Adasadia the entire time. And then at the end, there's Canada airspace.

They're fighting July 2nd. So what do you think of the matchup? This clearly was the first. fight to make. This is the number one contender, but main event for International Fight Week, you're down with it? Yeah, listen, this is how meritocracy works. I think, I just know, is at that level where his name,

he's enough of an A-side that you don't need, he doesn't have to have like the sexiest opponent. That sounds so rude to say that, um, Kenyere's not a sexy opponent, but you guys know what I mean. He doesn't have like a lot of mainstream cachet and like your average person just has nobody who Jared Kenanier is and that's fine. Um, but

Kenanier has fought his way up to that level. Um, he, he's, he's a knockout guy he's an exciting fighter so i mean he has he has everything you want in a challenger he is the he's the legitimate number one contender i'm very into the fight uh yeah and i'm perfectly fine saying that this is the headliner of the ucc's illustrious international fight week um so yeah i like uh i like that match up a lot i love the video uh mike you threw it up in our slack of him at the event on saturday surrounded by like the rep patty pimblit molly mccan and aljo you know people who when they're on when they're on when they're on you know when you put the

Cameron Aljo, Patty, Molly McCann. They're going to give you like, yeah, you're going to freak out. Like they love, they're like fans. They're like fans when they're in there, you know? And then Canineer is just, he's like me when I'm out of party. Like he's just kind of, he's just kind of sitting there like, like, kind of minding. Sorry for podcast listeners. I'm doing like a, I'm doing like a vacant expression on my face to show like just being

uncomfortable in this big public setting. I'm like that. Canineer is me. Canaaner is I think there's a lot of us in that clip. So it's going to be tough selling it as far as like the lead up to the fight interviews and things. Kenneur can be an interesting guy, but he's not like a top-tier trash talker, I don't think. Like, I think his injuries are okay, but he's not a top-tier trash-toker.

And I just knew he's going to do a lot of the heavy lifting, hopefully avoiding any of the kind of juvenile insults that we saw on the Vittori fights and the Costa fight. But you got to do what you got to do to sell. So, Izzy, you know, whatever he says, lead to this fight, take it with a grain of salt. But yeah, good matchup. Arnold Allen versus Brian Ottega. There was a report that came out from ESPN to Porteys last night. at July 16th, we're going to see Brian Ortega versus Ja-Year Rodriguez.

Based on conversations I had, premature. That's all I said. Premature. Fight is not done. I don't even think it's been verbally agreed upon from the conversations I had. There you go. Dustin versus Diaz, that was the fight. I think it's fizzled out at this point.

If you haven't made it now, I don't think they're going to. It was right there, but everybody wanted it and you didn't do it, so it was dumb. Should Marina fight Carla? Yes. AK says yes. I say she needs one more win before that fight needs to have, before that fight happens.

Gillespie needs to fight. Yes. Apparently, and I don't know this for a fact, but I've been told by people who would probably know this, that Gillespie was offered the Armand-Sauru Kian fight. He was the first option, didn't come to fruition.

Now we got Matush Gamrod and good Lord. Tony Ferguson versus McGregor coming off a law, so sure. Yeah, it's doable. I don't think the OFCs would be pursuing that one right now. McGregor versus Dubrox, it's possible. Oliver better be a minus 600 favorite if you get smashed up in Regger. Outland versus L'OCAXA. That's like the fucking rules, by the way.

Yeah, that's great. What else we got? I'm going to run through a few more of these. Gagey versus the RDA Fiziv winner, AK? Let me drop a couple. Oh, yeah. Keichi, well, I've been advocating for RDA to fight Dustin Poria at some point. So, but I mean, that's kind of right in the same realm if RDA beats Fiziv.

Or you, yeah, you kind of mix those guys up, right? I mean, you can have Fiziv by Keichi, RDA by Porier, regardless, you know, depending who wins and loses. There's just so much fun that we had at 155. And we always say it's, you know, ban to wait. I think right now has been like the hottest, like deepest division. But lightweight, there's a reason why it's historically been considered the deepest division in all of combat sports.

Just look at some of the matchups that were thrown out there today. Like, it's just amazing. Coming off a win, coming off a loss, so many good options for, for, for, for, for, Charles Oliver for Tony Ferguson, Michael Chandler, Justin Gagee. You really can't lose. You really can't lose with a lot of these options we have here. So I just want to throw out a couple of comments I got. Just from Marcus McGehy, he called this the, he always labels our shows.

He called this the and no edition and the and no edition because obviously we suddenly have no lightweight champion. And I think if we're up to a lot of people, the common event not only would have been a draw, but I think they would have liked to have seen the belt taken away. from Rosamajunus and have that belt vacated as well and then just give it to the Yawanna Jongue Lee winner that's coming up yeah that was just so I think and no is the perfect

title so well done Marcus our pal Ren Odenheimer who we haven't heard from in a while throw out some picks Oliver Macachab Asparza Zhang Wei Yuanai Jazeik winner but I really want to point out that he says does E. Casey Lighted look like

Kyle Vinn and Hobbs cartoonist Bill Waterson. So guys you're going to have to Google that they sent me a picture they both have a fine mustache some facial similarities but you guys can google that uh bill waterson of calvin and hobbs fame so kacey if you're out there you might have another doppelganger i've seen a lot of we got a lot of does casey look like so-and-so so there's another one for you kacey and uh casey carpenter always a loyal listener enjoying gc and jed's new show yes people keep an eye out for that please there's that new betting show on the m-m-mabiding podcast uh network

with Connor Birx and Jedmishu so definitely isn't that don't bet on M.A. As I always say, but if you must, listen to this podcast first. And what other picks we have here? Fight of the year,

as far as it, should defend against Rodriguez as well. There's no need to be sarcastic. Rose and Raj 3, Randy Brown versus D.Rod. Yeah, a lot of people are talking about it. So there we go. Guys, like I said,

I got a lot of DMs, so I'll try to respond to some of those. I'll try to send messages back but otherwise, thank you everyone, man, for who sent in comments and who's tuned into this YouTube

because I think a lot of you were up with us last night. Mike, you know, we were up till about 5 a.m. Eastern time? I hit pillow,

head hit pillow 610 this morning. And my kid was, my kid came into the, in, into the bedroom at like 642. And yeah, that's what happened. Anyone who was up with us

last night and is on now, you guys are warriors. And anyone, but hey, anyone who's joining us on a Sunday, spending time with us on a beautiful Mother's Day, a beautiful Sunday, I really appreciate it. So thank you guys for leaving tons of great YouTube comments, great picks. And for anyone listening on the podcast, hopefully we, you know, we conveyed all the picks that we got because there were a lot. But yeah, thanks to everyone, listening, watching. Love doing this show, Mike. Love doing the show with you.

We did the best we could. I did not want this to be a two-hour show. I feel like we hit the sweet spot here. I said run an hour 10 is as good as I wanted to go. So we'll be back next week. It will be in podcast form. We'll be back live probably after UFC 275. I'm curious what start times and stuff are going to look like.

So that's the plan. UFC 275 will be back live. But listen to the show on the podcast hour because it's the same damn show. Next week, the UFC is back once again. Jan Bolhovic versus Alexander Rockich is the main event. We got Ryan Spann versus Ewan Kucheloblob. the co-made event. Louis Smolka, Davy Grant,

Caitlin Chukagian going up to 125 to fight Amanda Hebas. Oh no, she is a one-to-a. Amanda Heba's going up to 125 to fight. Yeah, like a weird fight. Very weird fight. Frank Camacho, Manuel Torres. Hey, Frank Camacho's back?

Yeah, he's fighting Manuel Torres. Jake Hadley makes his UFC debut on this card against Alon Nassimento. Wow. I forgot this fight. I knew this fight was happening. I didn't think it was happening next week. Big one at 125.

Viviani Araujo versus Andrea Lee. Andrea Lee has been on an absolute tear. Michael Johnson versus Alon Patricke. Verna, Janderoba versus Angela Hill is on this card. How are some of these fights not on the main card? Has the main card been finalized? How are some of these fights not in the main card? I don't know.

Nick Maximoff versus Andre Petroski and Carlos Candelario versus Tetsuro Taira. Postponed. Which just goes to go down eight days ago is now happening. six days from now. A lot of hype are on Tyra. Not a bad card. Pretty, I mean,

a lot of hype. Pretty solid card. I think they'll have to reshape this main card. Just a little. I hope so. I think Angela Hill and Jan Girova or our, I mean, Arrojo Lee,

I get at the position as the, looks like maybe possible the featured prelim, so that's okay. But I don't see why Jake Hadley or, and respectfully, because I love Frank Camacho or Frank Camacho Torres should be above Arrova,

Angela Hill. But we'll see. We'll see. Like I said, I don't know if this is finalized yet. Well, once it's over, we're going to talk about it. All the finalized things that have happened. And yes, this kind of makes me giggle. The Drake curse lives on.

And we knew it, too. As soon as soon as that was made public, we already were like, oh, Gage is going to lose. I don't believe in that. So people know, I don't believe in curses, jinxes, any superstition, any of that. I don't believe in that sort of thing. But I will say he's involved sometimes when these. these upsets happen.

But I'll tell you, he was pretty good luck for the Raptors, 2019. You know, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Well, his luck ran out. And thank you all for joining us. We appreciate you very much. UFC 274 matchmaking, at least for right now, is in the books. If you came in a little bit late, you can go back and watch it.

Or you can listen while you drive or wherever it is you want to do in the MA fighting podcast network, it will be up surely there after. Or jog or jogging. I know your joggers out there. Working. Good job. Good for you. Get that cardio going.

Or jogging. as it's called in some places, but all right, we're done. We'll see you next week. Blahovich versus Rackich. Always remember everybody. This is a very important rule.

MMA is supposed to be fun, so don't take this stuff too seriously. We'll see you next week on to the next one. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There.

The last... one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.