MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC 276

Episode Date: July 3, 2022

Israel Adesanya appears to have a big title defense ahead of him following his unanimous decision victory over Jared Cannonier in the main event of Saturday's UFC 276 event. Will the UFC move forward with a third combat sports meeting between Adesanya and Alex Pereira? On a brand new On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee give their thoughts in the top of the middleweight division following the promotion's big International Fight Week card. In addition, future matchups are discussed for Jared Cannonier after coming up short in his first UFC title shot, Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway after their co-main event title fight, Sean Strickland following his KO loss to Pereira, along with Bryan Barberena, Jalin Turner, and more. They also discuss whether or not the UFC should run back the fight between Pedro Munhoz and Sean O'Malley after their bout ended in a no contest. 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

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19 and over, physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggettcasino.com for details. Please play responsibly. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. I am Mike Heck, proudly dawning the matchmaking hat.

Once again, following a big, a memorable emotional roller coaster, if you will, of a UFC 276 event. I am still in Las Vegas. I get to stay out in Sin City for a full extra day, catching the red eye out of here. Jose Youngs and I, we're going to go check out the Fight Pass Invitational grappling event later on at the UFC Apex. but I'm ready to get home to my family, ladies and gentlemen, mostly because I can't stand the sound of my own voice anymore. And luckily, I think the universe is hearing that because they're taking it away.

I got about 10% voice left. If we're using the Jedmishu damage bar on my voice volume, it's slowly starting to fade with each word. But we're going to push on through. And that is easy to do because joining me is always my best friend, the Prince of Positivity, the co-host, whole matchmaker. Mr. Alexander K. Lee.

Hello, sir. Mike, don't strain your voice. You don't put so much sauce on these things. You're trying to rest your voice here. Well, I mean, I appreciate the advice, but come on, we either go all in or not at all, okay. You're such a showman. You're such a show. You can't turn it off. You can't turn it off. It's amazing.

I totally lost my train of thought. Oh, yes. I had a whole, right, I was going to say, Mike, I'm glad you're going to go home. You know, you'll be with your family soon, but you're with your family now. You're with the on to the next one family. The extended onto the next one family. A legion, a legion of very intelligent, thoughtful MMA fans, none of whom I assume were in my Twitter mentions yesterday in regards to the very controversial main card

opener. Well, I guess we'll touch upon it later. We're not going to matchmake for either of the fighters involved, per our policy of, you know, no contest just being essentially ignored for those purposes. But I went in on social media. I went in on it on the post-fight show, and I'll be happy to mention it again. But I am no less fired up about these bizarre Munoz-O-Malley takes.

We will get to that for sure. We're going to probably keep the show to about an hour because I still have to pack my stuff, my lazy ass, and get ready to check out of this hotel in a little while. But let's get right into it. Let's start with the middle-weight champion of the world. Israel Adisona. Or Adasani, however we want to say it.

No one's wrong here. But he gets a pretty lopsided decision win against Jared Cannonier. Izzy was not in danger for a single second in this fight. Maybe not the most exciting performance of all time, but it is a win for Izzy. A big fight awaits him, A.K., as we, more than likely, at least in my world, we're knocking out two names from this card right away. It's Adasania versus Alex Perjada 3 this time,

in the Octagon with UFC Gold up for grabs. is the only option here is it not i don't want to hear anybody going well alex preada needs to fight another contender he needs to beat he needs to beat Derek Brunson he needs to beat uh uh Darren Till or Jack Hermanson or who else who else is I mean ahead of him in the rankings even after last night this flies a little few days he needs to beat the Martin Vittoria Rob Whitaker you know again cool fights but those fights can happen anytime the time to strike on the trilogy, quote-unquote trilogy belt between Addisnia and Pereira is now. It's now. The UFC

did their job here. The UFC's job is to build towards big fights. They did a perfect job with Alex Pereira. Signed him after a huge win in LFA. They gave him really good opponent steadily for him. And who was the first guy? Mikhailidis. Mikhailidis. And then Bruno Silva. Bruno Silva? My brain is not. working right now. It was brutal. The wonderful, the wonderful, bledado Bruno Silva,

who a very dangerous opponent, by the way. I mean, people can say, well, Michaelitas might have been a favorable matchup. Silva was two style-wise, but there's also just like a guy who I think is a sleeper at 185. So it's a great fight. And then you give him an actual ranked opponent

and probably the best style matchup for him in the top 15 or top 10, I think, as we had, I believe we had Sean Strickland ranked there heading into Saturday. So matchmakers, beautiful job. You've laid out the groundwork.

People, we don't need to complicate this. make this Alex Padetta Addisina title fight happen now. You know, at least book it, schedule it some time within the next month. And then Alex Padetta says he's ready.

He says, give me two weeks to chill. And then whenever, whenever Edisonia wants it, let's go. And I'm sure if they call Padetta this week, he's not going to, you know,

he'll pick up that phone anyway. Yeah, I think throw this maybe on the September card. So many people thought that John Jones versus Stepe Mietchich was going to get announced on this broadcast last night.

Did they? The entire, like half of the commenters during the live from Radio Roe stream, that was their question. Are they going to announce Joan Steepa tonight? And I was like, I wouldn't put my hopes on it.

Maybe. Maybe. But from all indications, and this is what I heard as of maybe a week or so ago, that's the fight everybody wants, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen in September. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. If that fight doesn't happen in September, I think

Izzy Pahedisha headline that September 10th And then we have Al J. Stirling versus, as we believe it will happen, the T.J. Dulleshaught fight. That could be the co-main event. Yeah, I like that idea. For Canaan Air, I'm going to make this quick. Again, I'm knocking two more names off the list who competed on Saturday. If the two winners of these main card middleweight matchups are fighting each other for the title,

let's pair up the two guys who are also not victorious. Canada Air versus Sean Strickland is perfectly fine matchmaking in my eyes. Yeah, I don't mind that. a lot of that coming in. I'm being a little more, surprise, surprise, conservative with my pick here. I kind of want to see him fight Uriah Hall. I kind of want to see him fight Yarra Hall.

Maybe this is me, I guess, be viewed as a favorable matchup for Canineer, though I'm not sure. Again, it depends which version of Yariah Hall shows up. But, yeah, I don't know if we need to throw Canineer in there with another contender. A Cannear versus Hall fight could headline a fight night show or at least be a co-main event, a legitimate Coleman event on a fight night show. I'm sure Kennear does not want to be thrown back into the UFC Apex, but yeah, I just went back a little bit further.

The shirt strictly makes a ton of sense. And boy, those two guys, their theories on life are unique, to say the least. So you'd be real galaxy brain matchup. But I'll go with that you are at home. Yeah, there's a lot of ways they can go with this. They could even throw a cannon air in there with another guy who won on this card and did so very impressively against a name you just mentioned. co-main event

It's where things get a little wacky, my best friend. Alleghen of Volcanovsky, a man I will hereby declare once again the best fighter on planet Earth pound for pound pitches himself a perfect game against Max freaking Holloway, 25 minutes of just greatness. And then to find out that he actually broke his hand

in the second round and just kept going and you didn't even notice it, makes it even more impressive, huge showing. This rivalry is over. We have finality. And now, A.K., Mr. Volcanovsky, has a lot of options, doesn't he? He does, but in a way, this was oddly, man, one of the toughest, like, matches for me to make. Like, he does, but in a way, he kind of doesn't.

Let me explain. Let me finish. Let me finish. So, here's, I landed on. I'll start at the end here. I landed on wanting to see him fight the winner of a matchup that I assume will have made, Charles Oliva and Islam Makachab. It's not official.

It's not announced. But, you know, I think the gears are in motion for that fight to happen at some point for a vacant title, you know, because it's just that weird situation where Olivera was stripped for missing weight. So I do want to see Volkovsky fight Oliver someday or Makachib. Again, so that's why I think that is resolved first. We were saying on the post-fight show that, look, he has not cleared out his division, Okay, this is not a statement that has cleared division. He's not close to clearing out his division.

There's so many promising names in there. Just looking at Arnold Allen, Bryce Mitchell, Moussar of Loyaev, Josh Emmett, who just picked up, of course, that big win, close win over Calvin Cater. Don't rule out guy, again, Yair, don't rule out guys like, Giga Chakotay. He just took that one loss to Cater that doesn't, like, remove him from talk forever.

So that's like five or six names. At least to Puria, if he comes, if he can get back down to 145 consistently. Those are all names that I want to see fight Volkanowski. Some of them very legitimate threats. I know Volkanowski is at the peak of his powers now. And I think that's why I couldn't find someone to match him up with just yet. I just don't think some of the – I think a lot of the guys are one or two fights away.

Arnold Allen has the win streak, but man, it still seems to be missing that. He needs to get a top five, top seven win, and he doesn't have it. I think he totally can get it. He just doesn't have it. Yayir needs to beat Brian Orte. If you want to shot, Josh Emer probably has to wait to see what happens with that Ortega and Rodriguez fight to see if he gets a shot. There's just a lot of ifs at featherweight.

And Volcanopsi really does want to stay busy. And I don't know if the UFC wants to book him against any of these guys before the year is over. You certainly could. Again, Evoje, Arnold Allen, Bryce Mitchell, all guys undefeated in the UFC. I just think it's too soon. I won't complain, but I think it's too soon. So I think the only option and the best option for him is to wait to see what happens with the lightweight title. and fight the winner of that.

Because like Israel, I disinia, he can go up just like Izzy did against Yan Blahovitz. You can lose. It's fine. Come back down. Go back to defending your title again. So, yes, I'm not in a rush to see him become a, quote, unquote, two-division champion. But I do think it's very possible that it is what's next.

I want to see Volcanovsky versus Charles Oliver so badly. I want to see that fight so badly. I just want to see what it looks like. And I know Islam Makhathef fans are going to think that I don't like those guys. It's just not true. I just want to see what that fight would look like. I just want to see it. And the broken hand in the second round

sort of changes my course because coming out of that fight, I was sticking with what I said after Oliva beat Justin Gaci. Olavera versus Alex Volcanovsky. That's the fight I want to see. There is no lightweight champion. There are options. He has a compelling case to move up and fight for the vacant title,

right now. I think this injury, depending on how bad it is, could actually delay those plans. I think it would have happened sooner rather than later, but I think this injury is going to keep him out a little while, maybe put a little roadblock in it. Because if you're Volcanofsky, if you're not in the mix right now, he's got to be waiting a little bit. So if he doesn't get this vacant title fight, when we're looking at Makachev and Daryush and some of these other guys, I just feel like he could be waiting a little while to get that shot. So I think I'm kind of with you. This is kind of, this is a couple of boring answers here.

Because I think Volcanowski will probably have to defend this title again, at least once before he makes the jump. And like you were saying earlier, I think all the pressures on Mr. Yaii Rodriguez, because if he beats Brian Ortega in 13 days, I think he's the guy. If he wins a decision, knocks him out, no matter what. If Yair just puts on a fight that people are like, wow, that was a great fight. I think he's in. I think he'll get the guy. Vortega wins.

Josh Emmett gets the fight. That's sort of where I'm at. And on the other end, I think it's actually maybe more interesting for Max Holloway, what his next move would be. So this is going to be even more boring than the Volcanowski answer. Because the first thing I want to do is get some much needed rest. And then the actual answer is kind of anyone he wants. He could, outside of a title fight.

He could stay at 45 and fight the of loyves and the Teporeas and the Bryce Mitchells and those types of guys. Or he could also go to 55 and fight Gaichi, fight Chandler, and just have these like fun challenging fights and just have some fun out there. Like get those competitive juices flowing. And so he just a fun fight that'll challenge him. Okay. Fence answer for going any type of otno points.

This is, uh, this is an incomplete. This is a wait and see. It's kind of funny how in combat sports, uh, how much a loss kind of frees you can, can be freeing. Nobody wants to lose, of course, uh, you know, winning and being stuck with, you know, limited big name matchups is a good problem to have. But second to that, if you have a guy like Holloway, who's established himself as one of the 10 best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Yeah, it's good, it's good.

He's not tied down to having to defend the title. He's no longer tied down to this Volcanovsky trilogy. I doubt we'll see this fight again. Saturday's fight was entertaining only in the sense of how impressive Volcanopsies' dominance was. It was not competitive. But I'm just going to, I know you're saying he could go in a lot of directions and we really got to wait. But listen, you've been pushing for this fight for a long time. my best friend I'm with you

Justin Gachy it's got to happen will it happen next I don't know I feel like it has to at least be talked about and I feel like we will see it booked sometime within this the next 12 months is again is it next I don't know but I'm waving my magic wand and that's that's where I'm going to go with that I'm going to make it happen I want to touch upon

Volcanowski one more time back I'm going to ask you do you think Yeya Rodriguez beats Brito Tiga and gets Telshah I don't know I have to watch, I have to go back and watch them all fights. I would say, yes. Like, right now I'm leaning Yair in a close fight, but Ortega is, Ortega's a slick one.

He is. He's a sly dog. So, if this fight gets to the ground, it could get really interesting. I know Yai'eer's, you know, no slouch down there. But if this fight is just a striking fest, I think Yaya is going to win that one. But Tatega can crack too. Just ask Alexander Volcanowski about that. I think it stays in the feat and Yahir wins it.

But this might also just be me wanting to see a fresh challenger for Volkanowski. This could be some matchmaking. Please help make our matchmaking easy, Yairir. So everyone, take that one with a grain of salt. And by the way, I would love to see Brian Ortega fight fight again someday. Obviously, that's not next. I mean, if he beats Yaya, that's not next. But that first fight was so good.

It was so good. And look, maybe Volkanowski watches them in the rematch. Just like a complete, like, he dominated most of the fight against Ortega anyway. but man, there was a couple of super exciting moments. So I would love to see them fight again. But, yeah, that's far away. Brian Otheka has string together like three or four wins to get another shot at Wokanovsky. Yeah, completely agree.

Holloway, Gachie actually could make a lot of sense timeline-wise because Gachi's scheduled to get some nose surgery later on this month. So he's going to be out for a little while, healing that up, and we'll give Holloway some time to heal. Just make this fight. Come on. I've been telling you to make this fight for like two years now. Let us move ahead to...

Excuse me, Brian Barbarina, A.K. This fight with Robbie Loller delivered. What a finish. You feel bad for Robbie. He took a beating down the stretch towards the conclusion of that fight. And Brian Barbarina, Bam Bam was glowing, A.K., he was glowing. His dreams came true. And this is the fight he's always wanted.

This is the type of fight he always wanted with Robbie Loller. And he threw out a couple of fun names that he'd like to fight. But what do you think is next for Bam Bam? Matt Brown. then Robbie Loller, do we keep on this sort of Legends tour, or do we mix things up a little bit? It's certainly an option for him. I saw some good veteran namesstone out there for Barbarina. But yeah, this is, listen, there's a fight I didn't even know I wanted.

And we kind of, I'm already removing the ban on this guy from the show. Andre Fialio, you're back in. You're back in the fold. I want you to fight for Ryan Barbarina. A year ago, again, Fialio was in the PFL. I wouldn't have even thought about this fight. the way Pialio has PfL PfL Fialio

Fialio Pf Lio Fialio the way Andre Fialio has ingratiated himself to the fans and to us with his incredible free swing style my goodness yeah let's see that fight with Barbarina happen Rankings shankings I just want to see some dudes back

I mean listen there's nothing wrong with that he mentioned several names there's one name that he mentioned I really liked I like the Santiago Ponsonzo idea, Eric. Just let these two guys get after it. And let's just see what happens. He mentioned Nico Price. He mentioned some other names. Like, Barmerie just wants to get some, getting some fun scraps. And I think we should just let him get into fun scraps. Just give the man what he wants after a crazy fight like that. Like you said earlier, when a fight on the main card doesn't have

an actual winner or a loser, we forego it. However, I think we should talk about this, okay? We should talk about Sean O'Malley versus Pedro Munoz because we are a matchmaking show and while we would not matchmake normally, there are questions that come up. But first, you mentioned this earlier. If you have no idea what we're talking about what happened on

Saturday, fight was stopped in the second round, accidental eye poke from Sean O'Malley, Pedro Munoz checked by the doctor, says he can't see, fight is waved off, it's a no contest, and Twitter exploded. Absolutely exploded.

Even Joe Rogan didn't help with this narrative at all, saying that Pedro wanted a way out of the fight. He didn't want to be there. He, quote, unquote, quit. He just found a way out so he didn't have to lose, wanted to, quote, unquote, hold his ranking spot. And you know who wholeheartedly agrees with those people? Sean O'Malley agrees to those people. So, AK, you said you wanted to say some stuff about this, get some things off your chest. the floor is yours, discuss this, and then I'll ask you the question that,

just sort of the easy question that comes out of this one from a matchmaking perspective. I shouldn't even give this more lip service than it's already gotten. So I tweeted pretty shortly after the fight was over, please log off if you think, Pedro Munoz wanted out. A pretty, you know, provocate, no, yeah, I mean, by my standards, a provocative tweet. I mean, clearly I know that's going to ruffle some feathers, get some engagement, it's fine. So I welcome all the responses. Well, I don't welcome them, but I expected some pretty rough responses.

There was quite a few that understood, and we're like, yeah, it's crazy. This is Pedro Munoz we're talking about. I mentioned today that this guy, and I mentioned on the show, I can't repeat this enough. I don't know how you can look at this guy's record, just his recent record. And he's been, he has 28 profile. He's been fighting since 2009. Just his recent record. Dominic Cruz, Joseo, Gia Merva, Rivera, Frankie Edgar,

Al Jermaine Sterling, Cody Garbrand. That's six top 10 phantom weights, including the current champion. He knocked out Cody Garbrand. One of the hardest hitters at 135. I don't care if people think about him, like, oh, okay, he doesn't win fights.

We all know he can punch hard, okay? At the very least, Cody Garber can punch hard. This is not a guy, Pedro Minos, who's going to quit in a fight. It doesn't make sense unless there was... He's not going to, he's not going to, quote-unquote,

want out of a fight. unless something is really wrong. If he says he can't see, he has earned the benefit of the doubt that he can't see. That's a serious eye issue. I don't care if he took 30 seconds to make the decision. I don't care if he took two minutes to make the decision. He thought in that moment, I can't see. According to him, he'd been fouled more than once.

He says he had been poked in the eye a couple of times. And also we saw definitely a groin strike in there, you know, which was sort of close to the waist, but also there was definitely growing contact. So I'm okay with people questioning the severity of the fouls. That's fine. That's another thing altogether. Like, you know, people can run over that footage a million times say, well, he didn't really poke his eye. He, like, poked his lid and it pushed his lid into his eyes.

That's not a big deal. Maybe it didn't look, okay, maybe it doesn't look bad. You're not Pedro Munoz. I'm sorry, you're not. You're not Pedro Munoz. You don't know what was going on in the situation. People are saying, well, try not to get in his head and try and predict like, oh, was he trying to get out. And that's, and like, that's not what I'm trying to do.

I'm calling it what I saw. What I saw was, he says he was poked. and the referee and the physician stopped the fight based on his reaction. That's fine. That's what happened. You can't question his toughness.

You just can't. He won round one on two of the three judges' cards. You know, unless you think like whatever, the little trouble he was starting to have in round two was enough to like make him quit. Pedro Munoz to make him quit from a fight. You are insane.

You're insane. You have no perspective. You don't know anything about fighting. I'll go as far as I say that. It's a horrible. It's just, it's just, bad of a take. If you think Pedro Munoz wanted out at UFC 276, you do not know anything about MMA.

That's a huge statement to make, and I don't care. I'm happy to make it. Come at me, bros. You've been coming at me all night. Bros and brosettes, you've been coming at me all night. It's fine. I welcome it. But, man, people just think.

Just think. It's not a lot to ask, Mike. Just think critically. Why would he want out? I don't know. It doesn't make it. any sense. It's just fight fans are nuts. It's crazy.

And there's a lot of good one. A lot of great. You know, the majority. I'm sure you met a bunch this week. I know you said you met a bunch this week. Yes, it did. So many great people will watch. The majority of great people. So this is again, I'm sorry. I'm a broken record. I sound of the stuff on Saturday Night. This is for the vocal minority of morons who are pushing this narrative.

Pedro Munoz did not want out. He is not wanted out of any fight in his entire career. Enough. Yeah. It's, I hate the take from those people. I actually hate, I actually am not a fan of the Israel-A-Sanya was boring take as well, because I don't blame him for the fight. I don't think it's his fault.

I blame, I think more emphasis should be placed on the shoulders of Jared Kennedy than Israel-A-Assani. Israel-A-Sahni. His job is to go out there and win a fight. He's expecting a certain game plan from his opponent. That didn't happen. And he had to fight the fight that he needed a fight to win. It was after a Volcanovsky's performance, it's a tough spot to be in anyways.

It was just such a weird night. But before we move on to who got the graduation, if you will, to the main card Otno list, do we run this one back, A.K., do we just run back O'Malley Munoz? Or do we move on? Do we turn the page? Get rid of this negative juju, and both guys can take different paths. I'm fine with both guys moving on, but I think the easiest thing. is to run it back. I mean, you've even got some heat now, right? I mean, I think the fight

had some pretty good heat behind it in the first place. You know, great, great choice for a main card opener. Perfect opponent for Sean O'Malley. Again, a veteran guy who's hanging a little bit of a slump, but I think most people would still consider to be a really, really, really, really tough test for him. Again, I ran over the names that he has recently fought. So if Sean O'Malley could add his name to the list, again, like guys who have beaten Munoz, Dominion Cruz, Josie Sterling, and all those, that's a huge feather in Sean O'Malley's cap. So give Sean O'Malley another chance to actually get an official win. I know he's kind of joking on Twitter that like,

oh, I'm the first guy to finish Pedro Munoz, which is just silly. But yeah, give Sean O'Malley another chance, give Munoz the chance to silence all this bizarre, all this bizarre talk. And, look, maybe he loses. Maybe he gets properly knocked out. That's probably better than whatever nonsense he's been having to deal with

over this, there's no contest. Yeah, it's a tough spot for both guys. I say we would just move on, honestly, at least for now. Like, let's leave it a little breather, because, boy, I didn't think I'd be saying this name on this show. But Henry Suhudo actually went out and did something right last night. He of course followed it up with something really dumb and nonsensical

with the whole Volcanovsky, basically begging to fight Volkanowski, giving his verbal job resume, he's basically giving a job interview for himself to Alleghen of Volkanowski, when earlier in the night, he actually did something right. He went to his division, called out a guy who at least is ranked, and said, give me a tune up fight. Let's do it. And of course, Shotomalley had some choice things to say about Mr. Sehudo during the post-fight press conference and even in that moment.

But Henry Suhudo actually went up to a Banimate fighter that actually makes a little sense. I think the UFC should just go with this. I think you put out a fight offer for this fight immediately to both guys because I want to see how serious Henry Sehudo really is. And if he takes this fight, will I spend an entire heck of a morning singing the praise of Henry Sehudo? Probably not because he was still kind of dumb with the Volcanowski thing. However, offer him this fight.

If he says yes, we now know he's. serious because even O'Malley with this whole comeback feels the same way I do. He's not coming back. I don't believe it. I'm not buying it. And I don't really care. O'Malley and I have the same sort of thought process about this. I'm not going to say what I'm not going to agree with him with the other stuff, but just make it. Just offer it today. Send the contracts out to both guys. Offer it today. Do it for September or October, November, December, whenever, because I guess that's when Suhudo can come back. Just put it on the books and let's do it.

Then I just don't have to talk about the Suhudo thing anymore. But he actually did something right. He went to a Bannamweight and said, let's fight. I still think he should fight Piotr-O-Jan, but I actually like the O'Malley fight. This is a huge test for O'Malley. Love it. And it's win-win for Sean, too.

If he wins, that's massive. And if he loses, it's, listen, he's Henry Freaking Sehudo. He's the two-division champ. This guy, one of the greatest combat sports athletes of all time. it's not a shame if he loses and a win like the risk reward factor for this fight for shot o'malley is about as good as it can get right now so go with that let's see if sehudo serious if sehudo is not serious which wouldn't surprise me if we're being honest then run it back but i think the ufc their first priority should try to do we try to do we try to do amali sehudo first Mike, I'm glad you're giving credit where credit is due, even if technically he hasn't even really done anything yet.

We've set a pretty low bar for Henry Suhudo doing stuff right now, like as far as his comeback talk. So this is like, yeah, this is like really good compared to the usual nothing that comes from his social media activity. Yeah, because Suhudo had an had an F minus all week with the Sterling stuff and the Volks stuff, like just horrible. But this is like the one thing he actually did right. I liked what he did here and I think they should try to make that fight happen. Let's go. I would much rather see that fight than the

Munoz rematch. And Munoz rematch would be great. But if you're telling me it's that or O'Malley Suhudo, give me O'Malley Sehudo. That's just fun. Yeah, it's a fun fight. It's a fight to Hudo probably be favored in and it's a winnable fight for Henry, but big opportunity for Sean O'Malley. And if Sean loses, then you just throw them in there

with somebody fun and try to give him a win and build the momentum back up. Speaking of momentum, speaking of finishes, the tarantula. Jalen Turner graduates up to the main card here in our show. What a performance against Brad Riddell. I don't think people were stunned that Jalen Turner won this fight. Some people still weren't 100% sold on Jalen Turner. I thought Brad Radell just, just kind of that.

I thought maybe he was being overlooked in a way because this is a recency by a sport. His last performance, we saw him get knocked up by Rafael Vizeeve. I thought just the technique of Brad Riddell would be enough here, but damn, Jalen Turner had different thoughts, submits him in under a minute. And now he gets, this is the biggest moment of his career, A.K., pay-per-view, numbered card, gets the bump-up to the main card on onto the next one. What do we do with the tarantula? Yeah, I feel like we would have been fighting, whether he got this bump up or not, you and I would have been fighting over like the right to make him our wild card. He was just, it was that impressive. I'm going to, I

I landed on Gregor Gillespie, who I currently still have in my UFC lightweight top 10, probably counting other promotions. He's probably just out of it now. I can't remember. But he is ninth, just talking about UFC fighters. They do have him at ninth. And I want Jaylen Turner to move up. I think he deserves a step up.

There's certainly still compelling lightweight matchups for him that are closer to the middle of the pack. I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to see him fight a lot of these entertaining and talented guys that are slightly below him. But I have Jaylen Turner, my top 15 now. And yeah, I say give him a top 10 shot. Gregor Gillespie would be a huge test as he is for anyone. Gregor, of course, has been picking and choosing his fights. But as we keep saying, at some point, he's just going to have to sign a contract to fight someone.

So why not be very, very dangerous? But beatable, but beatable if you're Gregor. You've got a lot more experience. You know, you're a grown man. Gregor Gillespie and Jalen Turner. Yeah, and some of the other names of the top ten, I think I'm just, just don't quite line up with Jalen Turner yet. or they're also prospects and they also deserve top ten opponents. So let's keep pushing this new wave of guys, Gamrod, Sirukyan,

Isma Gulov forward and, you know, not match them up unless we have to, like they did with Gamrod and Surukion. I am actually going to take the path that you're not taking here, and I am going at Demir Izmugulov. I think this is like the perfect opportunity here. I think this is where you have it because Demir beating Guram and the way that he did, we all feel like he should be in the same spot Jalen Turner is in right now. So let's give him that opportunity to take that spot that Jalen Turner is in right now.

Both guys, I have so many questions about both guys, especially if they fight each other. We don't need to save this one. There's no reason to, especially in a division like this where it's all chaotic. Like, do we really want to wait a few years? Maybe these guys will fight for the belt, or do we just do it now? Like, I just feel like we just do it now. not Turner Isma Gulaff, that fight is tremendous. And then we're not talking, the guy who comes out of that fight, this is not just,

ooh, it's, they could enter the top 15. No, these are, this is like, they're going to be top 10. They're going to be very close to fighting for a title, whoever wins that fight. So love it. That's the way to go. I know Demir has been a name that's been thrown on an awful lot the last couple of weeks. Kind of a tough spot to figure out. But after that fight, I think we found it.

We just line those two guys up. 14 and 13 in my rankings. Turner at 14 is Magulah at 13. Why not? Wild card time, AK. Jaylor made it to the main card. Oh, yeah. So now it's wild card time.

We'll select one fighter we've not matched made for. It could be someone who's not victorious on the main card or somebody victorious on the prelims. Or who knows, maybe somebody not victorious on the prelims, aka, how crazy do you want to get here? Pretty, pretty safe, boring pick for me. But this, man, this card is just so stacked. Holy crap, there's so many fun options to throw out there. But I got to talk about Andre Muniz. Arguably the second best

middleweight on the card. Arguably had the most impressive performance by any middleweight on the card. Though, of course, trickus duplicacy, Brad DeFarrest was a hell of a lot of fun. But if we're talking about just like sheer dominance, my goodness, And Jouiniz did what he does and jiu-jitsued his way to a,

you know, not super exciting victory. I get it. I saw some people a little questioning the entertainment value. But listen, Uriah Hall's tough. Your Hull's never been submitted. And so getting, and doesn't get dominated on the ground as often as people might think for a guy who is a, you know, a striking specialist. He's always been pretty good at staying on his feet. And Monez made it look like that was not the case at all.

So, yeah, big things ahead for Andre Munez. I'm going all in, man. Mike, I'm going all in. Give him the Robert Whitaker, Marvin Vittory winner, those two throwing down, U.S. Pair, September 3rd. And if he beats one of them, give him his mother-fn-title shot. He is not far off. I know people will look at this and say Well, what if Whitaker beats Vittori

And then Then suddenly Whitaker has a chance Like then he maybe he beats Moonez And then now what happens Now you've knocked off two contenders again Well I mean Vittory It's not getting that shot at this thing again But now you've knocked off Moonez is a contender

I'm Here's the thing is I'm this confident That Moonez beats either of those guys Wow I would pick him to pick Whitaker Or to beat Whitaker or Vittory That's how high I'm on Moonez So yes I don't care

Bring on Whitaker for him next, bring on Vittori for him next, he's going to beat one of those guys, and he's going to get a title shot. And he'll face either Addisonia or Alex Pereira. And I'll tell you, he would not be a huge underdog in either of those matchups, I don't think. I thought we're going to have a friend's forever moment, AK. Oh. I thought we're going to be on the same page.

I was a little more AK-ish than you in this respect, where I was a little more, a little more, let's, I mean, I'm sold on Muniz. If you listen to one of the ranking shows we did, which guy from a division that's not in the top 10? Could you see fighting for a belt by the end of the year? And it wouldn't surprise you. Andre Muniz is my name. I think he's that good as well.

He also sort of has an outline of how he wants this to go. He does feel he's two wins from a title fight, but he called out a name, and I actually like the call out a lot. I think it makes all the sense in the world. I like the Derek Brunson fight. He said, I want Derek Brunson, then I get a number one contender fight, and then I fight for the belt. So I think Munez knows he's going to get there.

I don't, he's not in like a, I have to fight for the belt now mentality. It's this guy's next. I'm going to submit him, and then I'm going to move up, and I'm going to submit that guy, and then I'm fighting for the title. So he wants Derek Brunson. Let's get him Derek Brunson. There are, we, that could headline a fight night. That could be a fight night made event on an apex card somewhere. That makes perfect sense.

We can headline this. Muniz has a chance to get over and get himself in a very big fight. So we both picked Muni. So it was a half, half of Friends Forever moment. Friends. We were so close. And that's it. That's it.

Yeah. Friends today, I guess. Friends, yeah, today. Yes. And by the way, for anyone, yeah, and you're right about Muniz being a guy who's not in a rush. That's, anyone who didn't see our own Gierme cruise, of course, had a wonderful feature on Andre Muniz ahead of the fight. So we're just talking about his journey and how we could.

up kind of how he got to the UFC and got to this point. So definitely check that out. And you'll see why he's kind of, yeah, he's got a level head about his career. He's, he's rushed before. Let me put that way. He has rushed before early in his career and it didn't work out for him. So now he's definitely just like, you know what, bring him on, bring on all the fights. And when it's time for me to get that title shot, I'm going to be ready to roll. So, yeah, this guy is a contender for sure. Do we have any extracurriculars before we go to listener picks? I'm probably missing some here. Oh, you know what? Before we do it, because I always say, we got to start doing this in the middle of the show now

because we always forget the end. Happy trails. Multiple happy trails. Start off, of course. Donald Soroni. I think it was becoming more and more clear that he was going to retire before hitting that 40 UFC fight milestone before hitting that 50 combined UFC WEC fights milestone. So he would have been two away after this one

because he has 10 WECB fights. And this was UFC fight number 38. So he still had two fights to go for hitting that 50 combined mark. just the really just the ongoing stress he elaborated on a lot of this stuff of course in his post-fight interview on Saturday night

he's been mentally sort of checked out from a competitive standpoint for a long time and he said this in the past dude this isn't like out of nowhere he has said many times very very open about like how his competitive fires just go up and down

up and down up and down up and down and at some point I think there's been more downs than ups so a good call by him to call it a day rather than go, again, go for some magic round number just to do it. He has a family. He's put in more than enough work inside the cage for the fans, for us. And it's just an original, you know, it's a cliche, but there definitely will never be another cowboy seroni.

We can't even go over all the memorable moments he's had. You could pick just his welterweight run, and that's like an amazing run he had in the UFC as brief as it was. And then, of course, you add in all the lightweight work, all the stuff he did in WC. He's fought literally everyone. It's a shame we didn't get the Lozahn fight, really. And this is probably a happy trails with a, with a, you know, a tip of the cap without a full tip because I'm not super convinced he's not coming back, Mike. But never a bad time to say to say thank you to the cowboy for everything he's done as far as fighting goes. Well said.

Well said. And, of course, happy trails to Jessica I as well. wants to be the female undertaker in the pro wrestling world. Well, yes, we'll see about that. I could definitely see her doing some pro wrestling work. You know, she's one of those love for her, hate her fighters. I mean, she's been very vocal. She's always been vocal in her career.

She's had a lot of haters, a lot of hashtag haters. Some of it justify, maybe. Some of us she brought herself. You know, she's very active on social media and on responding to fans and things. And that's going to bring, you know, both positive and negative attention. But yeah, she's fought some great fighters. people forget at one point she really was you know one of well two points

before come to the UFC she was one of the top fighters in the world and then she fought her way to an unlikely flyweight title shot she has a you know it's whatever an ugly looking UFC record is like five and ten but it's all what decision loss is you know it's a very good fighters

Julianna Pena's in there Sam McMahon Misha Tate Jennifer Maya these are these are good fighters right these are good fighters so she's been a company woman for the UFC and always willing to show up. So listen, I'm not saying people need to hold her in the same reverence as Cowboys

Sroni, but she had a good career. She had a good career. Yes. Fought for a title. And without Jessica I, this is probably not a women's 125 pound division. There you go. So she was the spearhead. She was the one who was so more vocal about that division than anybody else.

She deserves a lot of credit for getting that division off and running. And now it's already passed 135 as an interesting division. and it could very well surpass 115 the way it's going right now, A.K. Do you know who her first? Do you remember who her first UFC opponent was? The spout ended in a no contest.

Oh, sorry. Sorry, it didn't end in no contest. It ended in a split decision win for I was later overturned to a no contest because of the wacky tobacco. The wacky tobacco. I'm trying to remember. This was...

It's tied into this segment. It's tied into this segment, if that might give it away. Donn-Soroni? I'm just kidding. Obviously. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember. Yep. And I, see, I like what you're doing here. Yes. Our old friend, multiple-time panelists on shows like BTL, like post-fight shows, the one the only Canadian, Sarah Kaufman, right? Sarah Kaufman, that's right. Sarah Kaufman won a split decision. Oh, sorry, Jessica, I won a split decision. So she was technically victorious in her first UFC fight. But, of course, it was overturned. Because, again, you can't, you smoke in the devil's lettuce. I mean, she's lucky she's not in prison.

But yes, happy trails as well to Sarah Kaufman, who also announced her retirement this week. You know, she didn't get the chance to do it in the OCE or really leave her gloves in any octagon or cage. She fought most recently this past November, beat Beltorvette Jessimile by first round TKO. Her first ever featherweight fight, I mean, that's how it was. Like, it's just been really hard for her to get fights. She fought it lightweight, 155 pounds for the PFL, which was ridiculous in the hopes of getting some fight with Kayla Harrison, which would have looked comical size-wise. So that did not come about

And then she's fought for Invicta UFC One of the original Strike Force champions Back when that was You know the best women's really The only major women's title in the world I'm sorry, that's a hugely disrespectful to Japan I should say in North America So yeah

She's a Canadian She's a friend of MMA fighting And you know we're glad She's got to retire Very respectful record 22 and 5 She's fought them all She fought them all

Misha Tate, Valentina Shepchenko. I mean, she's fought the best of the best, the best, the best. Just an awesome, awesome career. And again, if someone who decides to come back, great. But, again, it hasn't been really hard for her to get fights. She always campaigned to come back in the UFC for whatever reason there was no interest. I feel like that was a huge misopportunity by the UFC.

But even without that, her brief run, she had a great career with the UFC and just overall, really won to remember. So thank you, Sarah Kaufman, Jessica I. And Donald Strzron. Happy trails indeed. Happy trails. To that trio. No more matchmaking. No more matchmaking for you guys.

Go enjoy life. Go enjoy it. Be a movie star. Be a pro wrestler. Be an analyst for some MMA promotion. Sometimes the best gifts aren't gifts at all. Their experiences, journeys, something that unwraps them. This year, help them explore their past with ancestry DNA.

Help them discover where they come from and who they're connected to. Now with even more regions, exclusive features, and engagement. credible detail. They can see where they're from and the paths that shape their family's story. This holiday, give more than a gift. Give AncestryDNA. Visit Ancestry.ca for more details. Terms apply. All right. Disclaim, A.K., we got about 15 and 20 minutes ago. One very quick check the tapes. Marcus McGehe calls us the Alexander Wept edition, very literal, literary reference for there were no more worlds to conquer. And a point for myself, by the way, and listeners, for a fight that Guillermo Cruz just broke. Tony Lipsky versus Priscilla Cachewera going on August 6th.

So the fight that everyone wanted. So I have a point and I will share some of that point, residuals from that point with the listeners. Oh gosh, the disclaimer, you know, I'm not going to read the whole thing. Guys, just don't be due to this week after last week. I don't know what the hell was going on last week. From what I saw, I had a chance to look over some of the listener picks. I think people were on much better behavior this week, Mike. I will admit, I have not looked.

So hopefully we keep this going. I'm ready to fact check. Robbie Ryan. Ossie, Aussie, Aussie. Obvious fight to make is Volk versus Max 4. Winky phase. Okay, for real. Adisadia versus Pahara has to be booked now.

Volk versus either Emmett or Olivera, Machachev winner, Barbraina versus Jingliang. Salukov winner, Ron O'Malley versus Munoz back. I honestly think Munoz took the out. Wow. Not off to a good start in Nike's eyes. Blocked. Wow, Card.

You might have seen the last of Max Holloway at 145. It's a long road back to the belt. beating two to three guys you've already beaten before. Perhaps another crack in 55. Some sort of a fun superfight against Gaci, Chandler, or Porier. Could be on the cards. Don't disagree, but we'll see where Holloway's heads at after some recovery. Jared and Coata, Holloway versus Ingano, just to see if anyone can crack his chin.

Like it. But I understand where you're going. People got jokes today. But I think Holloway's done at 45, and he gets Chandler next. I can see him also against RDA if he beats Fiziv. He likes Barbarina versus Ponzi Ian Gary versus Zaleski

Too soon winner lose Yeah Slow burn on Ian Gary who looked fantastic Boston Rich Izzy Paheta Volcanovsky Porre at 155

or Chandler So Volcanowski Porreye or Volcanowski Chandler Interesting Interesting All right let's pull up the ones over here Where are we at? John Ray

Macy Barber versus Andrea Lee Muniz versus the loser of Hermanson Till I really like Barbara versus Andrew Lee actually that might be next for her Oh boy No Oh boy Mike Mike

Miller versus Stevens Since the UFC won't let him fight anymore What? I don't know boy this is not good John Turner versus the Diego Faheda Drak close winner Don't mind that one

Barbarita is kind of on the same page with the Jingle-Liang fight. Pereira versus Out of 73-ish. Holloway versus Gaci for every bonus ever. Volkovsky versus Evett. John Ray, come on, man. Ian Gary versus Robbie Lawler. What? They're teammates.

They're buds. They were talking about each other like on the weekend. I just said people were on their better behavior. Sorry, the least Jingleong picked two. You said people were saying winner lose versus in his next. Were people acknowledging he has a fight booked? Yeah, it's winner of July Alan Solicoff.

Yeah, okay, okay. Let's see, let's go to Marcus. Anything new? He likes Volcanovsky-Levera. Strickland Duplice, Barbarena, J.D.M. Not bad. Jalen Turner, Demir, is Mogulov.

I got to tell you, Marcus, you have really turned the corner on this matchmaking. Let's see. Where are we? Where are we? Man, this is a lot. Jacob Benny with multiple messages here.

Hi, Mike. I will start to get my Otno picks in before the beers takeover. After the DDP win, I would like to see him fight. No, do it after the beers takeover. Yeah, maybe it will go downhill. We can just see the digression of it all. After the DDP win, I'd like to see him fight Darren Till, regardless of the result of the Hermanson fight.

A fight for the fans who love to see two blokes throw hands. Jacob, nice start, some rhyming. And keep it on the Till Hermanson fight, I would match Monez up with Jack. I would like to see Munez tested against someone in the top 10. I feel Jack's top pressure would be a good test for Mniz. These fights help push new blood into the middleweight top 10. Sure.

Turner is a damn problem at lightweight. I think the loser of the battle of the Rafa and the Hafa would make sense. Too many lightweight staples at the moment are not active enough. Not a bad idea. I'm not against it. I feel like it's too soon, but Turner should jump at that opportunity. O'Malley and Pedro should just run that back next failable opportunity

I had Pedro winning that fight up until that fight with O'Malley just not being active enough. Interesting. It's not related to this card, but could someone in the top 15 agree to fight Jake Matthews, wonderably would be the perfect opponent. Barbarita versus the dirty bird beans, and I think this is where the beers really start to kick in here.

Okay. Sign me up. And in fact, there is how good are beers in the AM and UFC? We all know they're going to be Gizzy versus Frere. But I wouldn't mind getting one more, fight on the books before that. So Max Perhera with the winner of Costa versus Rockhold. Oh man, you are so

smash right now. Why? You are absolutely ripped. Why would you do this? It's like 800 fosters in your belly right now. Come on. Hear me out. Pound for pound title on the line. Volk versus Usman at 157 and a half. You are the drunkest. Thanks for listening. I'm going to punt

some more beers. We watched a man's night unfold through the magic of Otno matchmaking. Yeah, listen, this is family. Like we said, this is the Otno family. He's the little brother of that. We're just like, come on, man. Get your shit together.

Oh, man. That was funny. Jared Bioggan. Let's see. Anything new? Cannon Air versus the winner of Rockhold. Costa. Holloway to Lightway versus Gachie,

Strickland versus Derek Brunson. Barbarina versus Tim Means to complete the 2020. 22 Legends Whooping Tour Robbie Lawler versus Roby Lawler

versus Court McGee with a stip Loser leaves town loser retires That's don't Yeah That's like I don't mind

I'm still not done lobbying for Robbie for Tim Means This is not over It's not over Listen I'm I'm officially throwing my name in the hat

For lobbying for Robbie right now AK Tim means Robbie Lollah let's do it not let's yeah guys this matchup is evergreen as long as as long as they're both fighting actually if you want to do ravi lala versus wonder boy right now i'm totally fine with that yeah okay i could do that o'mali munoz two one forty five in august or september turner versus isma gula five straight

ufc finishes versus five straight ufc decisions jim miller versus the michael johnson jami milarkey winner ian gary versus danny roberts dd bc uriah hall entramunis versus jack cramson win or lose against darren till Adam Marvin Ooh I'd like to first apologize to AK for my do-do pick last week

I got a lot of apologies this week But thanks for having my back Mike The winner of the evening was the Undertaker walkout With Volcanovsky win a close second I got Izzy Pahanna Emmett fight doesn't really get me excited And I don't think Volk would be excited for it either So I got Volk versus Charles at 155

AK Adam's on the same page as you Bam Bam versus the No More Ban Ban Anand, Andre Fialio Sean O'Malley, Pedro Munoz rematch, Turner versus the Battle of the Raphael's or Hafeel's loser, Duplice

versus Gasolam. Thanks and great job at Fight Week. Drew Hilty, hit or miss card tonight, but as Max would say, it is what it is. I'm trying to find some new stuff here, Category's rules. Strickland versus Till, winner, lose? Yeah. I'm okay with it.

Yeah. Until, yeah, that would be fine. Barbarina versus Jake Matthews. For people who don't like Strickland, I should say, I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon. I think he has a lot of big name fights ahead of them, at least for the next couple of years. So, yeah, you know, for those who don't like him, he's here to stay.

O'Malley and Munoos-Hart ways fight wasn't great. So he likes O'Malley versus the loser of Corey Sanhagan versus Song Yudong, and he likes Pedro Munoz versus Adrianiannas. That's actually, boy. if you want to continue to build the Sean O'Malley, Adrian Yana's story, you throw Adrian in there with Pedro. And if Adrian beats him, he'd be like, see, Sean, didn't need to poke him in the eye to do it. Perfect. And I put Yonnas a level above O'Malley, so I think that's exactly what would happen.

And then the last pick is one that I saw a lot of on social media. And I didn't, I understand this seems a little hypocritical, considering how I matched Jalen Turner up with Demir's Magulov. for some reason I don't I don't like this but a lot of people seem to like it Jalen Turner versus Armand Sarukyon I just I don't want to see that I don't want to see it

it's not my top pick but I don't have an issue with it I don't have an issue with it I mean if they find yeah they put on the books I'd watch it but I just I feel like there's better options for Jalen right now it's a tough thing and probably for Armin honestly they're probably better options for him too

but I don't mind them putting them together. All right, two more. It's late, but hopefully they'll get red. Adesania versus Paheda, Kennedyar versus the Till Hermanson winner. Volk versus Sehudo. Oh, get out of here.

If he is serious about a comeback, if not, give Volk, Josh Emmett. I don't see Volk going up to 155 being successful. Oliveira's too big prim. So instead of booking Volcanovsky versus Charles Olivera, you would rather book Alexander Volkinovich versus Henry Sehudo.

Come on, man. Henry Sohudo does not deserve a title shot in either division. He certainly doesn't deserve a title shot at 1.45. Go fight somebody else. And then you can start lobbying for these things. Okay? No. Terrible idea.

We're not doing it. No. If I'm Volcanovsky, I'm saying no. Go get a win first, then come fight me. Don't like it. Not doo-doo, but I don't like it. Holloway versus McGregor, if it can get booked. If not, Holloway versus Dan Hooker at 155.

Don't hate that at all. Wouldn't be a bad idea. Holloway versus Dan Hook. Wow, you can keep that story going. I'm okay with it. I like it. Barbarita versus Zelaski-do Santos. I assume winner will lose.

Pedro Munoio Sanguong. Booked. Shot-O-Malley, Dominic Cruz. Booked. Come on, Tard. Jim Miller versus Bobby Green. Rebooked that. Ian Gary, winner of Claudio Silva,

Nicholas Dolby, DDP versus Calvin Gassel, Meney's Brunson, Macy, Barber, versus the loser of Lauren Murphy, Misha Tate. Stoliarenko versus Lina Landsberg. That was, I mean, talk about up and down, emotional roller coaster.

That's what those picks were. Last one, Tino Alvarez, Macy Barber versus Caitlin Chukagian, AK. What do you think about that? It's too soon. She just doesn't have, she doesn't have the striking vocabulary, which is a phrase I love to use. She does not have the striking vocabulary to deal with Caitlin Chukagin. Caitlin Chukagin just knows how to win MMA fights. I think she has a very thorough understanding of the scoring system.

I think she's very good at what she does. And, you know, whatever, putting on fight of nights is certainly secondary for her. And again, that's fine for her. I think she easily decisions Macy Barber. Again, Macy Barber talented, but her skill set is nowhere near where it needs to be to take on. I think anyone in the top five of the Flyweight Division yet. Julia Stoley-Ranko versus Carol Hosa. Muniz Hermanson, win or lose,

DDP versus Gasolm, Ian Machado Gary versus Max Griffin. I actually don't mind that one. Miller, Rick Glenn, interesting. Jalen Turner versus Isma Gullough, Sean O'Malley versus Rob Fond. I don't think they're going to go that direction. If Shotomalley won, I think that's exactly where they would have gone.

They would have gone to Rob Fon. Bam Bam versus Jeremiah Wells. Volcanowski versus Olivera for the vacant title, if not Josh Jemit versus Volk, and then obviously Izzy versus Phaeda. Over to you, AK. All right, sir. So for Izzy, yeah, everyone's saying, look, Alex put out of fight.

A lot of Holloway versus Gaichi or hashtag Hollowaythi, as I think, Hayes-Bethirds. I'm going to credit Hayes-Bethir with that. Holloway-Chi. It sounds a little weird, though. It sounds like a Halloween-themed, like Justin Gaithi party or something. So that's a bit of an odd one. Barbarina is wide open. Fialio, Delamattelina, Nicol Price, all good options.

What else is the car? Jim Miller versus Michael Johnson, Win-Loozer Draw, versus James. Malarkey on July 9th. Jim Miller versus Tony Ferguson. I saw someone say maybe at Welterweight, just so just neither guy, kind of like Lerone, just neither guy cuts weight and they just have a fun fight.

A lot of people with Fialio, but they want to see him fight in Gary. Like, that's a winnable fight for Gary. Like, I love Andre Fialio. Andre Fialio is not some, you know, I don't think he's like some top 15 lock right now. He can certainly fight us way there, but I don't see him as like, oh, he's going to blow away anyone outside the top of 15.

I don't think he's there yet. So I kind of like that. Again, I'd rather see Piaio versus Barbarina just for the shits and giggles. But Gary is, that's an option. That is definitely an option for Gary. So all of you guys who recommended that one, that's pretty solid. Interesting. Some people just want to see Muniz versus Strickland.

Again, you know, same card, whatever, throw them together. And, you know, there's a little disrespect there. Strickland gets a main card fight, and no more contenders fight. Moonez has arguably been just as successful at 185. Why is he not the main card? Why is he not in the world? discussions. Well, after Saturday, he definitely

is, and a fight with Strickland would push him even further. All right, let me go to Twitter here real quick. Hayes Bethard. I want to read out his whole plan here he has for Volkanowski. Okay, if Yajir beats Ortega, then Yayaeer gets a shot. If not, Josh Emi gets a shot. I think

if he won that fight, oh, if Volcanoes then beats one of those guys, a double champ attempt would for sure be next. I just think they need to do Charles versus Islam, get the belt on somewhat at 155 first. And then, yes, it was Hayes who came up with Holloway for Max Holloway. Rebook Jim Miller versus Bobby Green.

Yeah, I'm okay with that. Mike, how do you feel about Robbie Lawler versus Tony Ferguson at 170? Sure. That's fine with me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know why I hesitated. Ryan Doordy. What I like from you, Ryan. Ooh, Duplice versus Chris Curtis. I like both guys so much. I'd hate to do it. but it feels very possible.

They were booked before. Let's go. And then that was, was that one of the replacements for the gasoline fight? Or was that before the gasolm? He was the original one. He was the original. Okay, right. Okay.

So put that one back together. So I forgot that. So, Ryan, you're off the hook for going. He said, Miller versus Lozahn 2. And I had to remind him, that would be three, sir. That would be Miller versus Lozon 3. But again, I had a little gap there myself. So, Ryan, you're.

I think, I mean, listen. I think if I said this maybe during the stream, but I think the biggest, one of the bigger losers of the night, and I mean this with all due respect, was Joe Lozahn. Because he had to watch Jim Miller get a submission, and then Cowboy retired.

So like the one fight Lozon really wanted, it's not possible anymore. He can't, it's not happening. So maybe let's throw Mr. Lozon a little bone here. Let's do that fight, right? Let's do Lozon. Miller. I think that's one that sort of stuck out to both guys. I think just do that fight and maybe that's it for Lozon after that, you know?

I think that's kind of the only fight you can make for Joe at this point. And the crazy thing is I could see a fight between Lozan and Soroni like if it had happened playing out like very similar to what we saw with Miller and Seroni. So that second round submission, that right to retire Seroni, that should have been his. And gosh, just two freakish things happened and he missed out. Owen likes Duplice versus Moonez. I want to keep them apart, but it'd be a great fight. And Barbara versus Joanne Wood.

I think Macy can aim a little higher, which is also not in the top 10 yet. However, this is, this is not a doo-do pick at all. This is, if it happens, if this name is mentioned again, it's a doo-do pick for the foreseeable future. But this kind of flew under the radar. It wasn't really picked up by a lot of people. but even Macy mentioned it last night that Joanne Wood has decided to take some time off.

Oh, that's right. That's right. She posted that a few days ago. I forgot about that. Yeah, it flew onto the radar. Nobody's really talking about it, but she's going to be out for a little while. And even Macy was like,

I like the Joanne fight, but she's going to be out for a minute. So now you've heard us, now we're saying this to you, okay? So next week, if you put Joanne Wood into a matchmaking fight, then if you throw her name out there, it's officially do-do.

But today, not so much. We know you guys listen to every minute of every episode. So you have no excuse that. You love the listener picks. It's like the longest segment in M.A. And you all listen to it and memorize every moment of it. So no excuse now. Brandon Hahn, I just like what he said here, he said Holloway.

He just wants Holloway to stay at 145 and just keep knocking off other contenders like he did to a caterer and yeah. So he's like having a fight with Bryce Mitchell. He said, Evloev, Ilya. I mean, look, I'm not confident he beats necessarily beats. I would pick him against Mitchell, of Loya and Topori, I'm not so sure. So I don't know if that's even an option for him. But I do like the idea. Just screw it.

Just stay at 145, Max, and just keep spoiling it for everyone else. Dax at Pike Putt had a creative option here. Can I near go up to 205 and fight Johnny Walker? I mean, that is out of left field for sure, but I mean, I'd watch it. Four Corner Sports NY. Okay, okay, I love this. I got to take the good with the bat here. I love Julius Stoliarenko versus Josian Nunez.

Awesome matchup, so I have to mention it. I love it. And then I should never speak to this person again because Sean O'Malley versus Frankie Edgar. Not the first person to suggest this. I feel like I may have, I think, I feel like before I had made my, I never want to see Frankie fight against stance.

I might have thrown this matchup out there. I don't want to see it now. I don't want to see it now. Frankie, again, still a super tough matchup. It's conceivably a winnable fight, but I think O'Malley would rightfully be a minus 200 favorite at least going to that fight it's just it's just a father time thing it's just a father time thing no disrespect to the great frank yager uh marcus mcgey again i mentioned him earlier

i just this guy gets so cute with this stolierenko versus tainara lisboa a muay tchampian who was recently signed by the ufc so listen if that happens marcus big point to you again i it's just calling fighters off the board uh gary versus berberina also he likes that one uh joe corbin O'Malley versus Font You kind of explain why that's not going to happen next James McDonald Ian Gary Machado versus Jake Matthews Our man in Italy, Francesco

Holloway versus zombie I still want to see it I do wonder when zombie will fight again I guess I wonder when Holly will fight again too Gary versus Mickey Gall I don't hate it especially for people who are You don't like it It can't happen

Are they also training at Sanford They're teammates Oh, okay. They're bugs. Yeah, they're bugs. Francesco, you're not. Not doo-doo. Not doo-do because I, because I, I messed that up.

So the doo-do is, the doo-do is all mine. The do-do is all mine. I should, I should have checked that myself. Thomas Collins. Jim Miller at 170, Mike. There's Kevin Holland. Kevin Holland would be like twice as size, right? Kevin Holland.

I guess he's not a massive, I guess he wasn't a massive middleweight, so I guess it wouldn't be. We saw, I mean, we saw Miller as big as he'd get. is he's probably ever going to be. So, yeah, let me ponder that. You keep going. Okay. Someone's not going on that. Yeah.

All right. I'll, okay, I'll leave, listen. We'll put it in the hands to read it. Listen right now while Mike deals with what could be a assassin at his door. Liam Perry, Canaaner versus Till, if he beats her mansons. He wants to see the killer versus Darren Till, the gorilla. So hashtag gorilla warfare. I always like that.

Nate Andrews, I want to read his intro here. here. Nate says, I haven't sent any picks in a while, but after hearing the Do Do Do Festival last week, I have to chime in again. And if any are Doodoo, feel free to call me a dipshit on air. Nate, most of your picks are similar to others, so I don't have to read those out. I think you're pretty safe here, but I do look a couple of comments he made. Turner is officially in the new lightweight era that includes Islam, Arman, Gamrott, Damir, Guadam, Fizib, and Claudio Pueyes. They often forgotten Claudia Poeus. So, yes, I agree.

Man, 155 is looking good. It just never runs out of town. Poyos has a fight coming up, doesn't he? Does he? Oh, yeah, I actually don't remember. But, yeah, he's not, like, matching him up. He's just, you know, saying, who is, let me, for the sake of completion. In Jalen Turner, it's just a fun fight, too.

Sure. Pueyes does not have a fight lined up. I wonder if he's done a prominent callout. Yeah, I don't know why keep forgetting Claudio Pueyes. So disrespectful, so disrespectful to my fellow man of Peruvian. heritage. My mother would be ashamed to me right now.

And Nate also says it's official. DDP is the most exciting middle weight in the world. Wow. Just saying that, I mean, we just saw Alex Panetta smoke shot in striccline. I think Alex Panetta has to be considered. But that

Dirkus too please he's so much fun. He's a wild man. DDP's a wild man. I call them at the post-by press conference. He didn't really love that. But he that's how he fought. Like you fought, he fought like a wild man last night.

And when you consider, with respect to Brad DeVaris, he's not always involved in the most exciting fights to draw like a slugfest out of him. I mean, well done. That's a great, yeah, that's an excellent point, AK. Okay, quickly on Instagram, West Scroggins, Ian Gary versus Chaos Williams, Sharpshooter versus Chaos Williams. Sharpshooter versus Chaos, I don't mind it. I mean, Chaos, obviously, I'd put a league ahead of him, but I really don't mind it. Matthew Jamaisie, Barbina versus Jake Matthews, Run Munio's Amelie back, Macy Barberia. Barbara versus Cynthia Calvio.

I keep forgetting what's going on with Calvio. Is she fighting Brana Fertino or Nina Nunes or what's going on there? She's fighting Nina Nunes. She is fighting Nina Nunes. Okay. But yeah, she should fight. I wouldn't mind seeing her fight one of those two, honestly. Very tough tests, though.

Matt Bradbury, always was some great picks. What are you got here? It's all in a barber versus Aaron Blanchfield. Aaron, Ian Gary, Matt Brown. There's another one. So people think he's right. The future, the male future, impressed a lot of people on Saturday Night.

So good for him. M. Mayheads also comment in with a lot of great matchups. Another one for Barbarina versus Machado Gary. Duplice versus Gastilom. Yeah, I know Duplice wants that one just rebooked, unfinished business. Stoliarenko versus Wuyanaan Pudolovo winner. Sure, I'm into that. Let me jump.

Oh, sorry, we have a first timer. I apologize. I always like to read the first timer. So thank you. I don't even know how to read this out. M-M-E-M-A-R-I-88 on Instagram. a first timeer boy I normally would like to read

oh you know I will read them all up Dear Prince Positiveity long time listener for the terrific to the repot first time submitting picks hope to avoid the Prince alter ego the demon of do do with my picks here and in the future thanks to you and Mike

for all the great entertainment week to week fights to make I'll stick with winners for the most part Adesanya versus Pereira Volcanoski versus Olivera Makachev winner it's got to happen at some point Turner versus Dosanos Fiziv loser

impressive Turner wants to step up I would like to avoid the other rising star groplers with Lisa's next matchup. This would be a fun fight either way. A real test for the tarantula. Barbarina Nico Price, Andre Mourniz versus winner Till Hermanson, duplice versus Gasolum. Gary versus

Baezza. How did the UFC not interview Gary after his win? I agree. What a strange missed opportunity. He's not here to take part. He's here to take over. I think he invented that. And rebook Miller v. Green and Lawler versus Matt Brown, too. Yes. All right. I get it. People want to see it. And just two emails. Let's close up

a couple emails from our regulars. Casey Carpenter, another apology for a doo-to-pick. They forgot that Dawson left glory. That's fine. That's some Grand Dawson thing. Awesome work for all of you this week. Mike, that's especially for you. All right, I'm adding that to the message.

Barbara versus Jennifer Maya. Muniz versus Drickland. Drickson versus Gaslam. Gary versus what would Jeremiah Wells? Rebook Green and Miller. What else we got here? We book O'Malley and Pedro for 278 because Mike has been saying that Card needs more star power. Barberina versus Nico Price.

Volk versus Oliva for the lightweight title. Volk deserves it over is. Make Islam fight a top 10 guy just rebook Daryush. Ouch. I love that. I mean, coming in. Come in.

It's not a terrible take. It's not a terrible take. Facts only. And they're going to do Izzy versus I put it, obviously. And then our pal, Tristan Gordette, Tristan, I'm going to let you close the show. Always, always a valued listener to A, no, a valued caller on heck of a morning. Brian Berberina versus Francisco Trinaldo, both are veterans, both on win streaks, want to have those two go at it. The lead savers is Duplicee.

I know Duplicee asked for Gasolum or a top 10 opponent, but, but, I would like to see him fight one more outside the top of Dean. Ian Gary, Nico Price, Jim Miller, Matt Favola, and Jalen Turner versus Demir Isma Gula. Wow, very popular pick. I had his Magulov facing Gamrod, but I think Gamrod may be ahead of Izmogulov. I feel this fight would be better. We'll see if Turner is that dude. Great suggestions this week.

It was, you know, it was a card that's slightly disappointed, Mike, I think. But I don't think it was a bad card overall. Just the first two, the top two fights were very one-sided. and the main event was not fun to watch. But overall, I thought the card was good, a lot of storylines, retirements, things like that. Great matchmaking options. So thank you, everyone.

Send those matching options to me. My DMs are open. Twitter at Alexander K.K. Lee. Instagram at Alexander KK.K. Lee email at Alex. Alex. Dot Lee at SBNation.com. If I'm sending your picks to me on IGM underscore, heck, JR. UFC back next week. They're back at the apex once again.

We're finally going to get Hafiel versus Raphael Fisiv, main event. Another Cairo-Barrallo Co-Main event, AK. Mr. Co-Maine. I know. Taking on Armand Petrosian.

Saeed Armaghamedov versus Douglas Silva-Dey Andrade, Jamie Pickett versus Dennis Tallulian, Jared Van Derr versus Chase Sherman, Michael Johnson, Jamie Malarkey, Cynthia Calvio, Nina Nunes. Oh, right, there it is.

Amen Sahabi, Ricky Terseosio. Ricky Tersios should be on the main card. Respect the ultimate fighter winners. Antonina Shvchenko is back, AK, fighting Courtney Casey, Cody Brundage, Trayshan Gore,

Kennedy and Zichuku versus Carl Roberson. And the first fight of the night is a banger, ladies and gentlemen. Ronnie Lawrence against Saeed Yaqab, Haq Ramanov, two very exciting guys at 135 looking to take that next step.

That is a great opening bout. Main event's really interesting. I don't know how it should be a fine card. It should be a fine card. This card is not as good as UFC 276 on paper. No, I think I think you're right. Spicy, spicy take. I know.

But that's it, everybody. I'm going to pack up, get ready to head out of Sin City and head on home. I have like a day and a half of travel ahead of me, but like we said, we fight on through. I want to thank everybody for checking out the coverage throughout the week. I want to thank my best friend, AK, for joining me once again. You're very welcome. For dealing with the times. and all of you for the patience.

I know we didn't have BTL this past week. We were to try to rectify that this week with the big show. So stay tuned for that. But ladies and gentlemen, we are done. International Fight Week is in the books. Join us next week as we discussed the fallout of UFC Vegas 58, Raphael versus Raphael. And don't take this stuff too seriously, everybody.

I may be fun more fun right here next week on onto the next one, the podcast. Media Podcast Network.