MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC 284

Episode Date: February 12, 2023

After the historic champion vs. champion main event of UFC 284 in Perth, Western Australia, what is next for Islam Makhahev after defeating UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski to retain his lightweight title in an instant classic? While it seems obvious that Volkanovski will face the new interim featherweight champ Yair Rodriguez following the best performance of Rodriguez's career, where does Josh Emmett go after getting submitted in the second round of the co-main event? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee attempt to answer those questions from a matchmaking perspective following the promotion's second pay-per-view event of 2023. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Jack Della Maddalena after his first-round finish of Randy Brown, Justin Tafa following his knockout win over Parker Porter, 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

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We're live, everybody. Hello there. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. We appreciate all of you just absolute savages who are here on very little sleep. to keep the buzz and the momentum going, following a very fun, very storyline-heavy UFC 284 event. And if you're new to this program, we are here on the day after UFC 284 to discuss the what's next from a matchmaking perspective from some of the notable names from this card, which includes the two men who put on an incredible fight in the main event for the lightweight title, the champion versus champion matchup that was won by Islam Makachef against Alexander Volkovsky.

We have a new interim featherway champion. We have emerging names and contenders. A lot to get to. And a lot of this seems pretty easy. Some, I think we're going to have more of a conversation about it. But I am Mike Heck, and joining me as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. And he's the best friend, folks. Mr. Alexander Cayley.

A.K. What's up, buddy? My best friend. Thank you for the introduction. My best friend and the birthday boy, Mike Heck, for anyone who wasn't watching the watch party and why weren't you on Saturday? As soon as that clock struck 12, our own Michael Heck, Michael Heck Jr. turned the ripe old age of 24, 25. It's hard to tell with you. You're just such a youthful baby face. It's incredible. You just look, you just look fantastic. So happy birthday to my best friend, Mike Heck. And Mike, you're right. Listen, this one easy one. I don't know if we need to take that much time. I think our part, the picks take like 45 seconds. And we just move on to the live YouTube comments. That's why we're doing a live show today. The card was so easy. I don't even need to explain some of these picks. who we have for on to the next one for some of these fighters. So I don't know.

I'm excited. But that was a great card, wasn't it? I agree. It was a great card. I think it was much better than a lot of people gave it credit for. The main event delivered. And I think that was the biggest part of this, that the main event hadn't delivered. Or if the main event went the way that a lot of people thought it might,

we might not have the same feelings that we have the day after. So that's something to take into account. I really, it will talk about that for sure. But before we get into the actual matchmaking, a couple of things are out the bat. This is the post-paper view addition of the program. So the usual format changes a little bit since it is live. So the normal submit picks on DMs and email thing, we're probably not going to get to a ton of those. But when we talk about a fight or a potential matchup specifically, throw your thoughts about that specific matchup in the chat.

We'll go ahead and pull them up on the screen. And at the end of the show, we'll do a rapid fire 10 minutes. or so go to the peep's wild card sort of lightning round where you guys and gals you can chuck out a bunch of different matchups that will pull up we'll discuss we'll debate and that's that but before we get into the actual matchmaking which i do agree with you it's very very simple here uh i do want to talk about the main event i do want to talk about the big story from last night because like i said the main event was a lot of fun and to me sure And I think a lot of people are looking at it through this lens.

And what did it have been an iconic and just incredible moment if Al Jena Volkovsky had pulled it off last night? Of course. But not a lot of people expected that to happen. Or if we're being honest, and if you listen to the People's Free Fight Show, not a lot of people, Jed Mishu and others in the media space especially,

they didn't think this fight would be even nearest competitive that it actually was last night. But it's a fight that, in my opinion, is going to age gracefully. It's going to age incredibly well. And if we go back and watch this fight in a vacuum two, three days from now and just watch it for what it is, I think we're going to enjoy this one more and more with each viewing. And I actually think this all worked out in the best possible way, AK, and I'm curious to get

your take on this because Mokachev's next fight will be incredibly intriguing. Plus, he got to show some things that we really haven't seen before. since he has been so dominant. And Volkanowski's stock rose tremendously, even in defeat. And I'm seeing in the comments now, a lot of people still feel like Volkadovsky won that fight. And either way, he came off like a massive star last night. And his next fight is much more interesting now than it was heading into UFC 284.

So I think all things considered, if you're looking at this from a UFC perspective, even as a fan's perspective, I don't know if you could get much more out of this main event, because I think it worked out pretty much for, every single person involved here outside of maybe Volkanowski thought he won the fight. So what did you think of the main event, the performances from both guys, and sort of the aftermath of this all?

I said, you know, I gave this event a degree of difficulty of 9.4, and I said pretty much almost all of it hinged on the main event. I said that if the undercard was exciting, which it was, it still wouldn't be able to reach that number if the main event somehow failed to deliver. But the main event delivered, arguably over-delivered in terms of drama, in terms of, as we can see from some of the public replies, some of the comments from other fighters, controversy, but I think good-natured controversy, which I like.

So this, Mike, this hit that 9.4. This was a 9.4 at a 9.4 event. I think it just completely nailed what it was going for. It was a super enjoyable event. 283, I think, might have fallen short on most people's pre-event expectations. This was the opposite, of course. Most people, at least outside of the top two fights, weren't, like, incredibly thrilled with the lineup.

And that was more than fair. I was one of them. I think you were as well. I think most of us, M.A. fighting were, we were like, you know, look for some entertaining moments on the undercard,

plus the top two fights have to deliver. And again, both fights did. We'll talk about more about Yea, year and Emmett, which was incredibly entertaining in its own way. And then, you know, some of the other awesome results and highlights that we had and storylines that we had on UFC 284.

But regarding the main, I have just have nothing but nice things to say about it. And I hope, and I believe, I believe, I shouldn't say I just hope. I believe, for the most part, people feel the same way. Even if you thought Volkanowski won, it was super entertaining to watch. So if you felt Volkanowski won, you're feeling, you may hate the judge's decision,

but you're feeling somewhat vindicated because there's a large public swell that says, this guy was a smaller fighter. He performed as well as, or better than anyone could have expected, and depending who you asked, they believe he did enough to win the fight. I scored it, 4946 for Makachep. I was with the 4946 judges scored it the same way, first four rounds from Makachab. But round two easily could have been a Volkanowski round, no question. Round three was the round that most people felt Volkanovsky, aside from round five. Round five is the one they felt he definitely won all three judges agreed.

I think everyone agreed Volkanowski won the fifth round. Three was another one where Volkanowski did great. But so did Makachev. I think people overlook Makachov's output in that round as well. But if you wanted to give Volkanowski rounds two, three, and five, I don't think that's crazy. I don't think that's crazy. Even though I'm a 49, 46 Makachev, two of those rounds, two and three, I think we're super, super close. Again, I lean towards Makachev, but I don't know.

But three, obviously, a lot of people thought Volkanowski won. I'll have to rewatch that one. Two, could have gone either way. So I feel very strongly in Makachev, one. But either way, if Volkanowski had had his hand raised, I would have been thrilled. It was just such a great fight both ways. I wouldn't have felt it was a robbery either way. And I really don't think people would think it's a robbery the way it actually did turn out.

I think that's a bit crazy. And the one thing, I'll nip this in the bud now. I already saw someone on YouTube mention it. And of course, a lot of people on social media are calling it this way. Like, Islam was exposed. He was exposed. Yeah, he was exposed by the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Like that, you have a competitive fight with a guy who is the number one pound-for-fight in the world,

and that means you were exposed. Okay, he's the bigger guy. You can be disappointed that the bigger guy didn't dominate. You can believe that the featherweight champion won. That's fine. Makatio wasn't exposed. He fought an incredibly good fight. He showed up really good striking.

The wrestling was on display. A level change that had Shaheen Al-Shadi openly weeping. I think he composed himself for the post-fight show, but he was on Slack and said, I, he said, there are two, in the last 18 months, the two most important moments of my life have been my child being born. and that level changed by Makachev. And he said, and he said, it's close. It's close.

This is all in Slack. I can't show you guys, but I assure you, I wouldn't lie to you. He said, is neck and neck. Becoming a father, seeing Islam take down Volkanowski with that beautiful level change. And listen, I don't disagree. I don't disagree. It was breathtaking. So, yeah, I don't think Islam was exposed, even if he thought Volcanovokanovsky won.

And I certainly, and I certainly am with people, though, who say Volkanowski still asserted himself, maybe as the best pound for pound fighter in the world, even in defeat. but we're going to be talking about that for a while, I think. And that's why this is so good for Volcanovsky, because I am willing, as you are, to listen to all of these conversations. I'm willing to listen to the Volcanowski still the number one Palm-Fepon guy.

I wanted to do that, and for a moment, because tearing down the fourth wall, we had to turn in our Palm-for-Pon ratings before we went to sleep last night. And for about five minutes, I had Volcanowski still in that spot, and then I just couldn't live with myself. So I changed it.

And I was like, all right, I have to do this. And I honestly, I don't feel great about putting Mokachev there either. But I guess if John Jones goes out and beats Sierra Gond, then none of this really matters anyways, because John's probably going to just slot right back in the night in one spot anyways, because that's where he was before he left. But we'll see what happens. And then if you score for Volk, and I can't wait to rewatch it.

Like I was got to rewatch it again today, but I was like, I want to give it a little bit of space and then rewatch it with sort of a fresher mind and give it the attention that it's a sense. deserves because the fight was great. I thought one was a competitive round, thought Makachov won. I thought two was really close. Thought Makachov won it. But if you scored it for Volk, I'm willing to listen to you. Three was a Volk round to me. But again, it was close. Four, I thought Makachov won. And I see it all over the place. Well, you just had him on the ground.

He didn't do anything. You just had his back. Yeah, he has back for like four and a half minutes. Volk landings and strikes, but didn't do a lot of himself. So I just don't, I can't. I can't I just can't give it to Volk. Maybe I'll watch it again feel differently, but I just couldn't. And then five was the clearest round of the entire fight, which is Volcanovsky winning the fifth round, the momentum in his favor. So there was a part of me that was expecting a splitie for Volk, getting a 48-47. But I scored it in the end, 48-47 for Islam Makachev, great fight.

Both guys stocks rose. It was tremendous. And like I said, four or five days from now, four, five months from now, four or five years from now, we're going to look back on that fight. and it's just going to age better and better and better. And we're going to remember it for just the fight and the action and not the divisiveness of who won and who didn't, just the overall competitive nature of the fight.

So just tremendous stuff from both guys. I don't want to hear robbery. I don't want to hear exposed. If that's the narrative that you're taking out of this, I'm sorry, people, you've got to be more critical. You've got to be more critical. You got to be more generous. Maybe I may say the word generous with how you're praised fighters,

because if you thought Makachev looked bad on Saturday, I think you're crazy. I think Volcanovsky looks fantastic. You could say he fought the better fight. Like he just looked better. Again, based on expectations, based on being the smaller guy as well, add all that up, how he defended against the wrestling, you know, for the most part, you know, at least avoiding damage when it was on the ground.

Fantastic. Incredible stuff. Volkanowski rules. He's great. Being who else rules, it's on Makachev. He's a very good fighter. He didn't dominate. He didn't dominate.

And I think that hurts, too. I think the expectation for him is to smash. He's got to smash, you know. And if he doesn't dominate, oh, then he lost. He was exposed. And I think that's silly. I think he adapted. We give Volcanowski credit all the time for adapting.

Why does Makachev not get credit for adapting and doing really well in a stand-up battle? The round, round three, by the way, and stats do not define a fight. But this round three that everyone is saying is a wash for our blowout for Volkanowski, Makachov had more significant strikes. He won 16 to 14. Does the stats tell the story? I don't know. But I'm saying if you had the eye test like me and you thought

Machachab actually did pretty well in that round, then help you a little bit with that argument. But even ignoring the stats, I had Makachev and one of the judges did too. And I'm sure other people who scored it 49-46 or gave, you know, gave three rounds to Makachev had it that way. So again, people, there doesn't have to be these narratives of robbery and expose. Expand your vocabulary.

Expand how you look. Expand how you look. Like, I don't, why is there, why does one fighter have to win and be the best? and one fighter has to lose and they were exposed. I'm so tired of it. And I'll bring it up, I brought it up before. I'll bring it up every time this comes up,

it might happen with John Jones and Cielagan. It might go to a competitive decision. And then it's like, John Jones loses. Oh, John Jones was exposed. He was never good. Or Cielgan loses and like, oh, Cetlegan, he can't win the big one. He was never good. If that comes up, I'm just like, I'm like disgusted.

I'm like, what are we doing? So I'm getting mad about something that hasn't even happened yet. I'm supposed to focus on the positivity. And I just want to say both guys just fought like incredibly well, incredibly well on Saturday. And I think the right man won, but you couldn't have gone wrong either way. It was just, it's what a battle of champions should look like. Yeah. John Jones has been exposed 14 times in his career at this point. So, but again in the aftermath, and we'll transition into the matchmaking right now, this is a great result overall for both guys, because the next fights

for both of them are going to be super interesting. And we know what's going to be next for Volkovsky. and we'll get there in a moment and talk about what Yeyar Rodriguez did, but what do we do with this on Machachev, A.K., because there are some interesting bouts in play for him stylistically. There's fights that are very sort of UFC-ish, where there's names who might not necessarily, from a meritocratic perspective, may not deserve a title shot,

but they draw more eyeballs in money who are coming off of wins that are fresh matchups. There's possible big fights in the division being, worked on that can factor into this or perhaps maybe they won't and maybe an audible is called so i ask you on this february 12th 2000 and 23 what is next for the lightweight champion and in some people's eyes maybe not in all the best pound for pound fighter in the world you know you should not have to fight charles oliva that fight i know is rumored i know it's you know in the works cancel that bin lydia you should get the tal de shot he should fight islam machinchev he's done

more than enough other than campaigning for himself, which is so frustrating, but that's fine. He has other things that he prefers to talk about in his post-fight speeches, important things, too. So I won't, I won't crap on him too much for that. But I understand people want to see Darius make more of a case for himself on the microphone. It's part of the game. He should be better at that. But when it comes to fighting, it's not a lot more he can do. When it comes to fighting, winning fights, he's done it, man.

He's done it all. A fight with Charles is awesome. I think we've mentioned it as a possibility of onto the next one. We probably picked it. We probably picked it after Darius's last win or Olivera's loss saying like, you know, Darius clearly hasn't made his campaign for the title fight, so make this happen. But I think the talks of a Darius-Olivares match might have been a little bit dependent on Makachev losing.

I think if Magachchev lost to, excuse me, had lost to Volkanowski, then, yeah, you just roll through with the Darius and Olivera match and see what contender emerges from there. but I don't want to see, I know people would pick Darius to beat Olyver, but even then if Olyver beat him, I'm not in a rush to see him fight against Lama Kachachov again. So that prospective fight, I'm not going like, well, the winner of that fight, no, I'm saying, just don't do that fight. It's a cool fight. You can book that fight any time further down the road.

Darius has earned his moment. I just want to see Mokachev get back to defending the lightweight title against lightweights. No immediate rematch necessary. Would love to see these two fight again. Let them take care of business in their respect to the divisions. both two of the best divisions in all of MMA. And then we revisit this a year from now, 18 months from now. We'll see.

We'll see how dominant these two guys still are. If Mokachev is still at lightweight, I don't know. Maybe it's becoming too difficult a year from now. He moves up to welterweight. But for now, no immediate rematch, please, and don't make Benny jump through any more hoops. Give him the title fight. Charles Oliverick and plenty of other exciting fights. Agree.

And just to play devil's advocate here, to say that somebody like Dustin Porre is not in play for this fight would just be wrong. He is, he is in play. I guarantee the UFC's thinking about that right now. But, because that's just what the UFC does. A Machachev-Pourier pay-per-view is just going to do, it's got to do better than a Makachov-Darie's pay-per-view. It just is.

And right or wrong, the UFC thinks about that kind of thing. And especially if bad luck hits the UFC with these cards, like if the UFC needs to get a big fight on the books and one of these upcoming, like, big pay-per-views is just lacking and both these guys are ready and they need to get a like a decent draw, sell some tickets, sell some paper views. Porre is in play. I guarantee it. It would be a very good option for them.

And there's a story with Porreux losing to Habib. Porre probably his last chance at a title shot. But I want to be hopeful that this is done right, AK. The answer is Benny Daryush. I do think he's going to end up fighting Charles Olivera. I do think they're going to go forward that. Makachev looked pretty beat up at the end of that. He took a lot of leg kicks.

I mean, just really nasty leg kicks in that fight. His face was beat up. I don't think he's going to be bouncing back at three or four months. So I think they will go ahead with this fight. And I actually think Benny Darius is going to beat Charles Oliver. So either way, if there is any doubt, just because of this discussion of whether or not you go with the big money fight or you go with the more intriguing draw, if Darius goes out there and beats Charles Oliver, it's undeniable. you have to give them the title shot so sign me up sign me up anyways it's a there's a part of me who thinks this pick is it's right but it's also cautiously optimistic but dariush is the pick and i really

hope it happens because what we learn from this volkovsky fight is that a dariush fight is going to be super interesting stylistically like really really interesting i have one fear for that uh and justin cabral in the comments thank you for uh for mentioning it i was just about to say the same thing um if islam let's say islam decides i'm going to take a lot of time off i'm really only i only plan to defend my title one more time this year it doesn't matter whether it's this summer or it doesn't matter whether it's this uh you know at the end of the year i'm going to wait i'm going to wait for the winner of connor regregor versus michael chandler i'm not saying he should do that i'm saying let's say he take let's say he's taking two months off three months off

and then he's watching the ultimate fighter and he's like oh you know what i'm kind of feeling like i'm still not ready to come back i hold the cards i took a really tough fight with wolkenoski I went into enemy territory. I'm sure the UFC is very happy with me. If you asked Dana, the paper view was trending in a very strong direction. So I've made the company money. I'm a star now. I'm at least somewhat of a star now.

I have leverage. And I don't want to see this happen. That's why I want to make the Darius fight happen now. Because there's a chance Darius fights Olavera. And even if he wins, it's like, okay, well, I got to wait now a few months for Islam. And the Islam says, well, keep on waiting, buddy. Because now I'm waiting for the winner of Chandler and McGregor. And that's the fight I'm going to take this year.

And then you have Daryush waiting until 2024 or in typical Daryuch fashion having to fight another top 10 lightweight on his eternal road to nothing. So I want Darius to get it now. But the timing is really, the time is going to be really important here. I don't know, man. It just, I don't think, like, Islam just doesn't seem all that interested in it. Like it'd be an easy win and easy money, but he just doesn't seem like all that interested in it. now if chandler wins i think it's a different story i think he'd fight chandler and if chanler meets connor then i mean what's the difference i think it's a little more competitive he gets so much buzz

and maca chaf probably wins that fight so i i don't know i don't know i mean connor's always a wild card in all of these situations but just anytime because you can see it like anytime there's a press conference or a media scrum or anything with islam he's always asked about connor and he just kind of no sells it he's just like eh he's going to retire after chandler beats him Like it doesn't even, he would kill, he'd be a minus 1,200 favor against Conner. As he should be. But the thing is, I'm not saying he's going to campaign for it, but if the UFC offered it to him, he'd be good with it. He's like, yeah, I'd love to fight Conno.

I'll do it. Yeah. And this is kind of what it is, too. I think they did the whole thing with Habib. It didn't go well. I think there were a lot of regrets coming out of that from things that were said, the buildup, things that happened after the Habib fight, obviously with him jumping over the cage and everything, and trying to fight Dylan Dennis, which apparently everybody in the world is.

trying to do right now so i guess hebib is kind of a trendsetter in that way which he has been in a lot of different ways so but we'll see uh ron thwanson's asking how many roadhouse trailers do we get during tough uh not as many cocaine bear mentioned as the cocaine bear manned was that just the best that was the best boy that was that made it for some incredible moments i will say oh my god incredible broadcasting great moments in broadcasting uh several happen on sarai night and they were all revolved around cocaine bear i'll tell you what Cocaine Bear just put all of their marketing in, like, all their marketing promotion just on UFC 284.

I think it was a Grand Slam home run because Cocaine Bear was trending like crazy. Anytime that graphic popped up, Twitter just went bananas. What the hell is Cocaine Bear? And then they were showing like previews for it. And you see the Cocaine Bear just like walking off of his back and just making weird faces. Like I just don't even know what that movie is, but I'm more interested in Cocaine Bear than I ever thought I would actually be. So there you go.

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Now for Volcanowski, he's likely going to fight the new interim champion, Yayar Rodriguez, who submitted Josh Emmett in the second round. Rodriguez looked spectacular, okay? It was a, I don't think the result was all that surprising. I think all of us sort of picked Yaya to go in there and finish, but I just think the way he did it, it was an over-the-hump moment for him in a lot of ways. And this fight, while it had some interesting wrinkles before the card, a possible Volkanovsky versus Yaya Rodriguez,

And I would have heavily favored Volkanowski like 12 hours ago. The Yair that showed up last night, I still favor Volkanowski to beat him or any featherweight in the world for that matter right now. But that fight, Volkanowski versus Yair, it's got a little bit more juice to it. Does it not? Yeah, I mean, that you make that matchup happen, you know, instead of the Islam fight. That heat, I mean, Volkanovsky is a minus 400. 400 minus like, that's crazy, four to one favorite against the guy who again, now is the interchanted. But now with this the way Yayae looked on Saturday with Volkanowski losing, losing a close fight, I think the odds, I think the odds are definitely big closer.

I think they'll be minus 250 or at least that's how they'll start. They'll probably move further in Volcanovsky's direction again. Everyone who watched that fight knows how good Volkanowski looks. But, you know, they might be, at first, they might be able to snag that casual better who only saw the results and didn't know, didn't know the actual how the fight actually played out. So I think it'll open like minus 250, something like that, but maybe move closer to that crazy line. mentioned it first but yeah and i'm super compelled for the fight mike we should i know you're in a public place so you can't but we should be seeing friends forever back to back because i mean we were we're we're said we want to see benny dariush we want to see yairdriguez versus

volkanowski so we're we're on the same page here man for your birthday it's not a coincidence yeah this is the fight to make saturday's culminate event was essentially a a number one contenders match really good for josh emmett and good for yai year that a title was on the line so that the ufc can extra money in their arbitrary way when they could really do that too for every number one contes right every co-main event they could really hand out more money anytime they want but you know under the under their guidelines like oh only if there's a belt on the line well in this case there was and again good for both guys they got paid more and put on a good performance i mean yair was far and away the better fighter but emmett looked good too emmit emmett hurt yair in the first round emmett looked

like as advertised a guy with constantly dangerous one-punch power he just ran to the best version of a year Yeah, Year Rodriguez that we have ever seen. And we've seen good versions of your, yeah, Your Rodriguez before. But the best version was something else, was spectacular. You could really, really talk yourself into if that guy shows up on Flight Night to fight Volcanovsky. And imagine if they're in Mexico City or something like that.

I mean, he's going to give Volcanovsky a hell of a time. I'm still picking Volkanowski all the way. But that's just because of how good I think Volkanowski is. That's nothing to knock, Yeah, Year Rodriguez at all, especially after the last night. So beautiful stuff from Yair and anything but him getting the title shot, next is absurd. Sorry Arnold Allen if you beat Max Holloway,

but hey, he's, Alan's first up on the backup list if he managed to pull that off. Completely agree. Now, Josh Emmett, there's a vacuum going off. I apologize.

Okay, good. Josh Emmett, we talked about this and the build to it. Seemed to be the guy on the card, despite the high stakes in the main event and the legacy all attached to it, to have the most to lose on this entire card, because it took up a very, very long time. to get to a title fight.

He gets it and he lost. He had some moments in the fight. He got lit up early and off into the body. To his credit, still fought his ass off. But now, barring some weirdness, he probably won't get another title shot

for the rest of his UFC run, especially with him being 37 years of age, especially in these lower weight classes. It just doesn't happen. And that weight cut is a rough one AK. We saw what he looked like on Friday, but he's already pretty undersized in a lot of ways at 145, and a move up to 55 is just a pretty tall order, I think.

So is he now in the high-level litmus test spot for these up-and-coming killers in this division or does something else stand out to you? Yeah, this might have been, and I say this with not insulting him, this might have been the peak of Josh Emmett's career for now. Like you said, it took him a long time to get up there. He's 37 years young, I should say. But yeah, he's up there in normal. in, you know, how we normally tell time, like normal human years.

He's a bit up there in fight years. I believe this is his 12th year of pro competition in addition to whatever other athletics he was involved in before MMA. There's a lot of wear and tear on there. You can see it. He wears it on his face. He wears on his body. You can see it.

And for him to get a title fight is wonderful. You know, he can always say he fought for UFC title interim or otherwise. He can always have that. It's a long road back for him. he has fought at lightweight before but this was early days of the ufc he did okay he's got he has some ufc wins a lightweight and of course before the uc fought a lightweight uh he could always return there for fun fights i don't think he's a contender one pt five he has an outside shot at one forty five but for now he should focus on getting fun fights and that's kind of where i went with with my

ought no pick ever this guy is ready josh emma would make for a fine retirement fight opponent for the Korean zombie Chen Sung-jong-jong. I love that pick. I didn't even really think about that one. The back is coming fast and furious. But I just saw somebody suggested I pulled up on the screen and then you said it. Love that idea. But it's the wrong idea. It's not what's going to happen. I do love the idea, though. This would be a great backup plan. So there'll be no friends forever here. I think a lot of people in the chat are going to agree with me on this one. Because we talked about this on the post-fight show, it's Ilya.

It is Ilya, that is the fight. And the reason why is not just because it makes sense from a rankings perspective, but can you AK just imagine what that effing fight is going to look like? You're going to have two guys who will not be swinging technically to try to get points in win rounds. These two guys are going to try to not, like literally knock each other's heads into the third row. They're going to be standing in front of each other like Bryson DeChambo hitting a golf ball. they're just going to uncork everything they have into each punch until somebody falls down. That fight just rules stylistically.

It's probably not going to go well for Josh Emmett at the end of the day. But these guys are just going to stand there and throw punches and kicks as hard as they possibly can for as long as they possibly can. It's just fun. And I kind of feel for Josh, but these are the fights he's going to get right now. they're just going to throw sledgehammers at each other. So I'm going to go with that. I'm going to go with it. Because if we don't get it now,

I just don't think we're going to get it with Josh N and 37 years of age and Tuporia on the rise. So there you go. Let's just do it now. I'm looking at some of the comments. Putra Ritzaprata saying, you're going to get Emmett killed, Mike. Max Rabkin, imagine them both connecting on hooks at the same time.

Rocky 2 style, right? Yeah, that would be fun. Brandon, the bombs being swung will be insane. Yeah, I mean, listen, that's super, super fun. I'm very high on Toporia. He deserves a top 10 fight. Josh Emmett's right in there. Top six, top seven.

That's definitely the way to go. Yeah, I'm a fan of it. You can't go wrong. And I've been saying Toporia is a future champion. He's going to, I'd be shocked if he never at least fought for a title. And Emmett might be the path to go there. But I like the zombie fight. I like yours.

I suggest to you, Mike. Any thought to Max Holloway, win, loser, draw against Arnold Ballant. Because the Max Holloway wins, he's not getting Volcanowski again. It's possible he just moves up to lightweight. I guess people would think is there a time where Max Holloway just moves up to lightweight, but he doesn't seem in any hurry to do that. So when loser drag against Arnold Allen, do you think that maybe we line up him and Emmett next? It's tough because I honestly think it's going to depend on how that fight plays out.

Like, if Holloway loses, I think it makes sense. If Holloway wins, I don't think it makes any sense because then he's going to have, like if then he'll probably have to fight to poria or somebody else you know what I mean because he's just going to be the dude fending he's going to be and I'm not comparing the two fighters but it's he's going to be in the sort of katelychukagian spot for as long as volkinovsky's the champion he's just going to keep knock it off number one contenders or at least trying to but I mean Holloway tkc could be an option if he loses too so and I don't like if holloway goes out and loses to arnold allen and it's not all that competitive

I just don't know how much longer Max is going to do this for. Like, he makes a lot of money fighting, but he also makes a lot of money not fighting. Like that video game stuff he does, he makes a lot of money doing that. He does very, very well outside of fighting. And he's a star outside of fighting. So Holloway, I don't know.

It's just all about him and how long he wants to do it. So it's an interesting one. If they did Holloway versus Emmett, I'd watch it, but I would favor Holloway to win that fight. You know, I see people throw it in Barbosa, Billy Q, is a possible option sure i don't have a problem with that there's as jad likes to say there's really no wrong way to eat these races especially at 1.45 and josh i've been against a lot of these guys would be fun of loy of would be kind of a tough one i don't know if i want to see that one but to pouria

sure zombie i like that idea especially if it's going to be both guys final fight of their careers that'd be a really good story so we'll see 45's a lot of fun right now let's move on to Jack Delamette Al-Alana. Oh, speaking of fun. As Shaheen-Elshaddy called him Jackie Three Names. I just love that. That's great. That's not bad.

That's not bad. This is perfect matchmaking against Randy Brown, who had been looking great, and looked great in this fight early. When this fight was taking place in space in the center of the cage, Randy Brown was flowing out there. He was feeling himself, looking good, using that range really. The kicks were good. Lennon, the jab, moving great.

He was just flowing out there. as we're watching it on the watch party the second randy brown's back hit the fence wall we just all knew that something really bad was about to happen to him and that's exactly what happened because jada jadiam closed the distance got inside landed one big shot and randy brown went down and it was scary man the way he hit head first it was it was like pavlovich derrick lewis i thought goddor's going to step right in there and stop that fight the way he fell down to Brown's credit. I think maybe the Matt woke him up a little bit.

And JDM cost a lot of people some money because not just, I mean, a lot of people bet on JDM, but a lot of people are picking JDM to win by first round KO. I don't think a lot of people at JDM winning by first round submission against Randy Brown.

And he goes out there, it doesn't. The crowd goes crazy. And I'm just going to get this out of the way because I've been throwing this fight out for a week. This is my ought no spoiler. So a lot of people may have heard this. And if you have, I'll say it again.

it's JDM versus Vicente Lucke and no other fight will do it for me book it do it international fight week July is this a friends forever moment I'm here the band sorry I started not because the band is starting to play the band is tuning up one two three ball friends forever awesome I mean that's the fight that's the fight and then whoever asked yeah whoever asked him I don't know if he was asked about it at the at the press conference but yeah that's the fight that's the fight moucho her hair is a good idea too because perere needs a new opponent but it doesn't seem like it doesn't seem like jdm wants to bounce back and like fight next month or fight in april she wants to fight in june or july so i think it was our regular listener joseph boza who asked in the preview

show could could jack delath madelina get a top ten opponent with a win over rindy brown and i said at first like oh yeah people saying the fight would be sick of course it would be uh and i was like I was like, oh, I don't know if he can get a top 10 guy. Then I looked at the edge of the top 10. And I'm like, oh, Sean Brady's in there. He'd get that one. Of course, Vicente Lucke was in there. Vigente Lucke actually trending in the other direction.

He's lost two straight fights. We talked about Josh Emmett having a ceiling. I think we kind of know the ceiling for Vigente Luque, too. And it's fine. Vigente Luque's place in the UFC is fantastic. He's in there and he fights in bangers and he picks up bonuses. And I hope he fights in the UFC and gets paid a lot of money for them, like, as long as he wants to. So even if Lucay goes in the UFC.

there gets smoked by della medalina i don't care i want to see the fight happen adem man he has that quality almost like we saw with drew dover against um bobby greener like and i think jdm's a step up technically from dober i will say um he might be one of the best boxers in in the ufc he has that that that factor that meant it doesn't matter if you're getting outstruck as he kind of was by randy brown for however the opening moments of a fight that power that and finishing instinct some people have power not finishing instinct that finishing instinct changes everything. And when I say the difference between instinct and power,

watch Delamadena's first three finishes. They're not one-hitter-quitters. He's not going on there and throwing overhand right and decking people. He stings first. And then once he sees weakness in the opponent, man, he starts throwing accurate combinations. Like he doesn't just swarm throwing wild. He's in there.

He knows exactly where to go. And just like with this fight, he didn't just try and when he hurt Randy Brown, just trying to go for another highlight real knockout, But it's the submission that presented itself. So he's like, okay, that's what I'm going for. That's what I'm going to do. And that's an amazing gift to have.

The sky is the limit for this guy. If you want to say he could be a UFC champion someday, I don't see how you can argue against it. If you think he's going to be maybe the next Vicente Lucke, just a top 10 guy who puts on exciting fights and never gets a tell of shot, I could see that too. There is some risk to the way he fights. You know, he does go for the kill. And when you do that, guess what? Sometimes you're the one that gets killed. And that's fine.

I'm so excited about the future of Jack Del and Madelena, whether it's title contender, whether it's UFC champion, whether it's fight of the night, record-breaking warrior. I don't care, but we're going to get a good gauge of it, Mike, if he fights Vicente Lucay next.

That's the way it's got to go. Walter, it's getting kind of fun right now. We're getting some guys. JDM, I think Ian Gary, in like 18 months to two years, we're going to be looking at them potentially

in a similar way. I think they're just building Ian pretty slow, and I think they should do that. J.D.M's a little older, a little more closer to his athletic prime, a little more seasoned than Ian Gary. But Ian Gary has a lot of the makings of being in a position where J.D.M. I do want to throw one other matchup because this is something that I thought about, but I ultimately didn't go with it because I just don't think Wonderboy would take this fight. But Jadem versus Wonderboy, I mean, stylistically, and I know Jadim has some submission threats, as we saw, but he's not going to sit there and shoot. a bunch of doubles on Wonderboy. He's going to stand there and strike with him.

What do you think about this one? What would you gauge the chances, one to ten? Of it happening or of Delano? Of it happening. Of it happening right now, like for the next fight. I'll play it safe. I'll go, no, I'll go lower. I'll go lower.

I'm going to say six. I'll say seven. I'll go six. So I'll go a little bit lower than likely. So I'm going to say like somewhat likely. Seven I'd say is likely. Six is like somewhat likely. And there's only because, again, Wonder Boy is really smart.

He might see an opportunity. in, he might see an opportunity in Jack Delamette, a guy who's a good matchup for him. Because look, for the most part, Wonderboy win striking battles. I mean, he soundly beat Lucke. He beat Jeff Neal, right? I'm not crazy. That's the thing that happened, right?

Wonder Boy, yeah. Yeah, after Luke, he beat Jeff Neal. He just beat Kevin Holland. If you stand and strike with him, most often you're going to lose. Anthony Pettis was an exception, but I mean, Anthony Pettus pretty sure lost the first nine minutes of that fight before landing a super awesome knockout punch. It would be a real test for J.DM. And Mike, that's the reason why, like, maybe I don't want to see it happen. I don't know if I want to see JDM lose a close decision to Wonderboy.

Yeah, I think it's too soon. I think that might be the wrong way to go. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe JDM is, you know, is not even at his peak yet. Maybe he's closer, close enough to his peak. And Stephen Wonderboy Thompson is far away enough from his peak that the gap is closed. And even if it's a stand-up battle, J-DM could win. If he knocked out Wonderball or even won a convincing five-round decision on the feet,

man, that would, it would just be another test pass. Because I thought Randy Brown was a huge test, and he passed with flying colors. If you could convincingly beat Wonderboy striking, I mean, you're launching into the top five at that point. and then we're talking title fight sometime by the end of the year, early 2024. Like, that's how good this guy has looked and could potentially look. Yeah. The reason I brought up, and someone in the comments brought this up, the reason I brought up Michelle Behaer's name is because Sean Brady is out of the fight.

Undisclosed injury, so he will not be fighting. Pereira actually put that out there himself. We confirmed it yesterday. Yeah, Brady's not fighting him. Brady's going to be out for a minute. So Pereira needs a new opponent. not sure if he's going to fight in March or if they're going to push him to a different card. So that's why I threw him out as a potential option right now because he doesn't have a dance partner right now.

But, yeah, JDM Wonderboy is fun. It's just not, for me, it's just not a right now fight. Get another win, maybe two. And then you can do a main event with Wonderboy. Go back and do a card in Australia, like a fight night card in Australia and have Jack Delamette, Elana versus Wonderboy Thompson is the main event. That's money right there. that that that just be good stuff so i can't wait to see where this guy career this guy's career goes

and yeah we we got a potential star in his hand on our hands and you know what jdm should only fight in las Vegas during international fight week or all of his fights should be in australia i don't want to see him fight anywhere else because he just got so over so big and he's just it was it was pretty cool um he's a star unfortunately he's a star we did have we did have some bad news last night, AK. The build towards a potential mega fight rematch for the UFC heavyweight title

potentially, between John Jones and Paca Porta is no more. It is no more. We are not going to get Jones Porter to because Justin Taffa said, you know what? Forget you, MMA fans. We're not going to give you, I'm not going to give you what you want. I'm going to take this man out. I'm going to try

to go after that myself. And Justin Tava gets a win. Knox L. Parker Porter. Great performance. It looked like a star. Great post-fight interview after the fact. He had a great quote. I forget what it was. We talked about it on the post-vite show, but it was really, really good. I'm going to make this very easy, AK.

And I feel like I throw this guy's name out all the time. But until he's booked and it's put out into the universe, I'm just going to keep throwing the name out there. And this would be fun. Justin Tapa versus Chris Barnett, book it. I strongly thought about it. It would be an incredible matchup between the only two men. to ever miss the heavyweight limit in UFC history. There's you, there you go, there's yourself right there. I can't remember, I think I have Barnett.

I was looking back sort of my notes from previous shows. I think I had Barnett booked against someone else, or if I didn't, I think I felt bad about just constantly throwing Barnett out there for people. I'm sure I have mentioned him as a potential opponent for someone else. He is not booked, so it's fair game, and he'll fight anyone, and it's heavyweight. So anything outside of the top, like you could literally match up anyone outside the top 10, and it makes sense. So I obviously, I would love to see it.

I went a different direction, a more boring direction maybe. Just rebook the Dantel Mays fight. They were supposed to fight at, I think, 277 last year, and it fell through atopah had to withdraw. But they're kind of where in the same area in my rankings. I think you're going to, someone's getting knocked out. So, yeah, I'm down with it. You reach, I teach.

Oh, that was the line. Yeah. Thank you. Someone saying I said Toppa was only heavy way to miss away. Yeah, I said that on the way and show and then Barnett missed. I know. And then I literally just corrected myself. Come on, you two.

Catch up. Please catch up. Listen, listen, give us a break. Where's Hamdi? Hamdi is serving a use out of suspension. So we won't be seeing him any time soon. Of course, the Otto rules, if you fight to a draw, we don't matchmake for you. But Jimmy Crut and Alonzo Meadowfield, that was a fun fight.

Crazy fight. And Mark Goddard took a point. We just don't see that very often. We always talk about how all coaches should teach your fight. had to grab the fence and cheat because nothing will ever get called. And we had about 35 potential point losses up until that point, and not a single point was taken away. And then Mark Goddard takes the point away.

Good for him. But I do want to give these guys credit because it was a great fight. There's a great way to start the main card. Both guys want to run it back. Do you just want to see these guys just chuck them again? I actually, my media reaction was like, I don't know if I'd need to see it run back. It was a draw by the like strictest definition of a draw for sure.

So like by that, by that, if you're, if you're of the, who's our guy who's always, we have a guy, Mike, a regular listening who's always saying run back all draws. Oh my gosh, I need to find this person's name. But I'm not, I'm not super excited about necessarily seeing this one run back. You could. We saw Menafield striking. He certainly had crude in danger multiple times. of the first two rounds. We saw Crout's

toughness. We saw him use his grappling to salvage this draw. So I don't know. So I can't really complain if they do decide to run it back. But also, I think both guys are shown enough that I'm fine with them pursuing fresh matchups. I just don't, I don't know.

Am I crazy about this? I'm crazy that I don't need to see a resolution. Like, I'm not dissatisfied by draws. Maybe that's the other thing is it's a shame. Both guys, for one thing, should get their win bonus because they both put in a hell of an effort. It would have been fighted the night, if not for the spectacular main event. It was really, really exciting. Almost a heavyweighty, light heavyweight fight, so I'm not

sure if that hurts, helps or hurts the appeal. For me, that helps. But I don't necessarily need to see a runnerback. I don't know who's next for both guys. I really want to see Alonzo Menafield fight Khalil Roundtree. But after a draw, I kind of muddies things up. And like I said, we aren't really doing an official pick here. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, Almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice?

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Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. So let's go to the wildcar round. We will select one fighter we have not matchmate for yet. It will go ahead and matchmake right now. As you can hear, the hotel lobby is fired up for the wild card round. So I think I have a great pick. I think I have a really good pick. I'm very happy with it.

I looked at myself in the mirror after I made this decision. I smirked a little bit. I think I have a banger on our hands. But I'll start with you, AK. What's the wild card coming out of UFC 284? I had to go with Loma Luke Boone, me, man. I mean, listen, she got robbed of a bonus. And if you were asking, you know, anytime I say someone got robbed or snub,

let's say you're talking about like all-star teams in like baseball or NBA or whatever. I say if you say someone got snubbed, then you have to say who you wouldn't have given an award to. I would have gone with Loma over Jack Delam Adelaina. Jack Delam Adelanis finished was great. But if I had to choose a bonus, I would have given it to Loma for becoming D1 Loma lukebunni first with a great slam on Elise Reed.

And then ADCCC Loma with an amazing rear naked joke. this was incredible and she's already again i think pound for pound one of the best strikers in the entire ufc she's an incredible moitai fighter uh so we got to see a bit of the striking for sure and then just not shying away from the grappling at all standing back take drag alice read down go with some mission so good uh she should have gotten a bonus really everyone who got a finish should have gotten a bonus and every fighter who gets finishes in the oc should get bonuses and it should be 100k not 50k and there should pay fighters more and blah blah you guys know where i'm going with this who should Loma fight next

I'm not ready to push her into the top 15 even but I do think she's ready to have a name and that name is a woman who once fought for the UFC Straubweight title someone who's also a very accomplished Mouytai fighter and someone who I think Loma Lik Bumi can beat I'm going with an alliterative matchup Loma Likbunmi versus Karolina Kovakovich Oh

oh that's fun That's fun. I like that one. Good, good choice. I have to go with the man who needs a new nickname. Jack, the leg snapper Jenkins. This guy is just, I mean, just seeing the statistics, I think five, he's broken five legs in fights,

and three out of his last five opponents, he's broken their legs in a fight. That's nuts, dude. That is just nuts. I thought that fight with Don Cheney, This was exactly what I thought it was going to be. Chesedness is just a dog and maybe too tough for his own good. And it was a great fight.

So Jack Jenkins looked great. He's just going to be one of those guys that's just super fun fight territory. This might be a little tough, but I want to see it. And I feel like if we don't do it now, we're going to be waiting like three or four years. We're playing a risky game. And I feel like with where these two guys are at in their careers, a loss won't really hurt either of them. But I just got to see it. I just got to see it.

A battle of two up and coming featherweight fun fighters that people are just going to want to watch. Jack Jenkins versus Francis Marshall, AK. Let's do it. I had trouble ranking, updating my rankings, and I think I had to, and one of them was, do I rank him above Francis Marshall? So our heads, it's not a French forever moment, Mike, but our heads are absolutely in the right place. I have and I put Jenkins ahead of him. I put Jenkins ahead literally one spot. I have it's super low. It's a feeling I say that's super low. But again, there's by my count about 75

active straw weights in the OCR right now. And that's only including people of a plot. So people who they just signed is by close to like 80, 85. I have Jack Jenkins at 64, Francis Marshall at 65. So well done, sir. Well done. That is that is the way to go. They're right next to each other. I say put it down. I like But I would say to Francis Marshall, I just don't fight Jack Jenkins because based on history, it's not, winner, like even if win or lose, you might get your leg broken. And that sucks. So I don't think, yeah. Sorry, Jack Jenkins. I'm warning everyone not to fight you because that is a hell of a thing attached to your name going into any matchup that you, your opponents end up with

broken legs. So good luck finding guys to sign up for that. Yeah, do do some squats, have somebody take a tree trunk and just smash your, smash your legs over and over again, build those babies up so you can prepare yourself for the worst possible case scenario. But that was a great fight. Jenkins and Chanis brought it. Good stuff.

So some other name, like Josh Kulowal, great win for him. Modestis Bacchus. What a story. Coming back, beating Tessup Pedro. Great win for him. Called up Paul Craig for UFC London. Love the gusto. Absolutely.

So this is what we're going to do. Oh, Francis is booked? He is? Let's look into this. Cancel it. Cancel it. William Golmes? That's right.

That's right. That's right. I'm not calling a doo-do pick because they should just... Oh, we might have to. No. You might have to take this one. Dude, it's April 22nd. No.

It's your birthday. Okay, you know what? It's your birthday. No. Cancel it. Cancel it. I don't think we can... I don't think we can do that.

If we're going to cancel... If we're going to cancel it. Cancel Banyl there, you're used for Charles Olivera. We can cancel Francis Marshall versus William Gomez. That's not even close to official. Come on. But it's your birthday. I'm giving you a birthday exemption.

I'm giving you a birthday. That's what I'm giving you. I forgot. I forgot that fight was booked. So did I. I mean, I'm, I share on this doo-doo with you, sir. Because I also did not call you on it right away.

Yeah, it's our breath. Thank you, the real mind-kech. All right. I'm getting do-d-lefted right, but still. It happens. This happens. Listen, it's like MMA. Francis Marshall.

All right, Francis Marshall, win or lose against William Gomez. There it is. There it is. Good night, everybody. Good night, everybody. It doesn't land quite as much as it did originally, but. Okay, this is what we're going to do for the next nine and a half to ten minutes. Oh, wait, Mike.

Wait, Mike. We didn't talk about, I know he missed wait. We didn't talk about Clayton Rodriguez's butt knockout. Oh, my God, man. But really quickly, listen, you miss weight. Obviously, I'm the way-in guy. I love way-ins. It is a personal insult to me if you miss weight.

And frankly, Mike, we don't know that that extra one pound might have made the difference in the spinning butt strike that he hit that he hit for Shannon Ross with. It's possible. It's very possible. If Clayton Riggas had made weight that that Shannon Ross gets out of that danger, but that one extra pound on that bodonka donk. Might have made the difference. Might have totally rocked Shannon Ross send up past the point in no return. And so I'm glad, listen, Clayton make weight that that spinning.

but strike was dope, but I want to see you land that, you know, actually on point on the scale, please, because we don't know. That win has a little bit of an a little bit of an asterisk next to it, Mike. Always, listen, always cheat. A little bit of an asterisk next to it, Mike. Always cheat. And if, I mean, look, he, what do you lose, 20% or 25? 2%. 20%?

Then you guys win bonus, it all worked out for him anyways. So yeah, make the weight. But until there's actual penalties for weight misses, like, we're just going to keep seeing this kind of thing. So there you go. But that was, I mean, the comments are funny. I'm just, I mean, look, I'll take the do-do loss in stride. So there we go. All right.

So for the next like nine-ish minutes, maybe 10, here we go. Wildcar round, fire him off. Let's go. Picks across the board. Let's go. Oh, let me tell people. Let me tell people. Let's start this.

I've seen a lot of this. I don't see why you can't just run this one back. Benny and Charles number one contender fight. Hold on a second. Where did it go? Okay, there you go. I don't see why you can't run this one back. Benny and Charles, number of contender fight, run this one again.

Both fights will finish around the same time and be perfect for both winners. I don't hate this idea, but I don't love this idea. I do feel like these guys are going to fight again. and the reason why, and it's not just going to be like a random thing. It's going to be, it's going to happen at the time that the Jedmishu's and people who thought like Jedmishu of the world, those kinds of people and fans, like it's going to come at that kind of a time where Volk's just going to win four or five more title defense at 45. Machchchev's going to win four or five title defense at 155.

Both guys are getting to the point of their careers where we're getting to the, final stretch, but are still very high level. And then Makacheph will initiate it and just be like, look, there's nothing more I can do at 55 before I call it a career and cap off father's plan, so to speak, and my old coach and doing it for his legacy as a coach and where I've come, I have to beat Volcanowski convincingly. I can't have any doubts. I can't have people saying it was a robbery. I can't have people saying that this fight was even competitive. I have to fight this man one more time to show what I'm made of. Otherwise, I just don't know if we're going to see it again.

But I would like to believe that something like that will happen and we will get to see these dudes fight again. But not now, like two years from now. Yeah, it's an amazing fight. If you want to run a factory, you want to know, I'm not going to complain. The fight is so good. I mean, just from ignoring all external factors, the fight was so good. But like, same same with like, you know, Moreno and Figgy.

Imagine that they wanted to run that one back a fifth time. I'm like, yeah, we're going to do it. Run that one back fifth time, six time, seven time. Just from an, you know, objective aesthetic standpoint. Yeah, I want to see these guys fight forever. But there are so many factors to consider outside of just the matchup, right? John Ray has a good comment here. The featherweight division has waited long enough.

Yeah, listen, this fight already sort of held up two divisions. You know, they kind of fixed that by just saying, well, let's put an interim title on the line for Yaya Rodriguez and Josh Emmett. But this easily could have been Mokonovsky versus Yayir headlining Australia show and Makachev. maybe not on this card, but fights, you know, defense is the lightweight title against one of the big names of lightweight in the first, in the first quarter of 2023. That's easily how this could have gone instead. And then the divisions would have just chugged along.

So now you want to, if you want to do an immediate rematch, you're putting two of the deepest divisions on hold again. Then you probably, does the Ayr defend the interim title? Does, do we introduce an interim lightweight title now? Like, I don't know. It's just so bizarre, like just for someone else to fight for because we keep, keeping the champions, both champions busy. So it's just too strange to me.

I'd love to see them fight again somewhere down the road. If it doesn't happen, I won't be heartbroken. We got to see it once. We are blessed in that regard. But both men have such compelling fights in their own divisions that let's just, let's move along, please. All right. Tristan, Loma versus Skora McKenna, JDM versus Jeremiah Wells. Don't love that one.

I think Jadden has earned a ranked guy for sure. Josh Kulabar versus Lucas Almeida. Yeah, I like that fight. Yeah, Lucas Almeida needs a new opponent who's supposed to fight Andre Feeley. underfile unfortunately some sort of i think eye injury or something so he had some sort of surgery recently so we don't know no he'll be back uh luke bunmi and mckenna uh i think luke bunmi and mckenna uh i think luke bunmi would destroy core mckenna but you do have a bit of a grappler we kind of look pretty good in the last fight definitely some grappler striker aspect there

and of course by grappler i mean uh local loma luke bunmi after last day so d1 loma cost the slam was that was ridiculous i'm like what are you doing uh prado versus jubli that's fun Yeah, that makes sense, yeah. The king of lions and shall jubli. Yes, Rodriguez versus Durdon. Sure. Yeah, I'm down. Rodriguez versus Sumiderji.

Is Sumergi booked? I don't know. I'm not in any position to be handing out of Joubler. I will do research. I will do live research. I don't believe he is not. Sumer deergy is not. Dubai versus the scale, since he can't make way to 45 for you.

Yeah, I feel like. I feel, yeah. Will there be a robbery review for that fight? Because people were calling for it. There won't be maybe just because the low wattage of the fight, maybe because I'm mad that Zubarii missed weight at, at 155, a weight class that he above what he normally competes at. So brutal.

And to upon further thought and some review, the only real robbery is the 3027 card. I feel pretty confident at 2028. There's certainly an argument for Brenner. Some of those rounds were definitely closer than people, I think want to give Brenner credit for. But the 3027 is absurd. So if you're just measuring that cart,

there is no way you can give all three rounds to Elvis Brenner. There's just no way. This was Judge Evan Field, who did that score. He's had some history at the U.S. It's not like he hasn't done cards before. He's been employed somewhat frequently over the last few years. I don't know. Maybe Evan just had an off night.

I don't want to call him out for his credibility or anything. I don't know enough enough about the man or his record. record in depth, but that is already a front runner for the worst scorecard of the year. I don't know how you gave three rounds to Elvis Brenner. I watched that fight at like 5.30 this morning and just because I wanted to see, because I didn't watch

a second of it. And I wanted to see what all the hub up is about. Yeah, 3027 was awful. That's a horrible scorecard. But I also came out of it thinking like, this wasn't great, but I've seen way worse decisions than this one. Just the 3027 just makes

it so much worse. It puts it over the top. But I don't know. I just don't know if Zubaira is long for this UFC world anymore. I mean, this guy's had 8,000 chances at this point. I just don't know what else what else he could do, really. That was kind of a must win and must dominate spot for him against a newcomer. And he didn't do it. Loma versus Angel Hill, too. That's exactly the kind of fight I was trying to avoid. Maybe somewhere down the road, I still think Loma has has some work to do. Again, I've been joking about how great she looked. And she did. And again, I actually think she, with the right matchmaking,

she could be a contender, like a top five starweight, but it has to be the right matchmaking. I think, like this, we saw her lose to Lupi, you know, Lupi Cadenas, right? So there's still some grappling holes that need to be short up. Angela Hill, again, just had a little bit more experience. Great, you know, great stand-up matchup for sure, but just a bit more experience and, you know, more ability to mix the martial arts. But I love what I'm seeing from Loma. And I think that could happen, just not next. Um, do you, we're never going to know the answer to this question, but do you think this pay-per-view does better than the serial gone John Jones card?

Uh, no. I don't think Joe either. John Jones is such a big name. It's heavyweight. We talked about how poorly promoted this event was. Um, I'm sure it'll still do a fine number. We know it did a fantastic date, but I think that Jones and gone will take the next level. And if anything, because that fight was advertised well in advance.

So congrats to the UFC on that. There's people who may be, uh, financially speaking. make a choice, you know, however many, however many U.S.P.A. reviews are going to buy a year, just if you go quarter by quarter. So if you were picking between 284 and 285, you probably went 25. So I think just by taking that in account as well, 25 will fare better. Alarkey versus Patty Pimbled. I like to call out. G.C. didn't love the verbiage behind the callout because Jamie won a decision. He's like, oh, go knock this guy out. And G.C. was like, he just wrestled his way to a very good decision. Don't be calling it. Don't be

calling for knockouts if you didn't win by knockout i didn't necessarily like i didn't fully agree with that but i thought the call it was good and i think with where both guys are at right now i think this fight makes a lot of sense i k i think a ton of fights makes sense for pat i listen i i i've been out there with friggin tony ferguson pharison versus patty so you don't need to convince me that a patty fight makes sense i mean i did you could talk me into almost anything outside of throwing him in there with you know uh who was the last guy who was the last guy who was the last guy who called out and I was like I was like Patty Pibble dude oh Tiago Moises like guys like Tiago Moises guys who just like I have that that really dangerous mix of experience uh who are better

grapplers than him because I mean he's a good graphing is his strength so he does not want to go in there with someone who's a better grappler than him so he wants to have at least have that advantage in any matchup he gets into and again guys who know how to really really finish fights and I count Moises among there as well so guys at that I would avoid malarkey makes more sense I'm with New York Rick though The timing is a bit weird And I don't blame Malarkey for his strategy Prado's really dangerous on the feet

He's kind of a wild card He's a 20 year old guy He doesn't have that grown man strength yet So your best bet was to Yeah go mix the martial arts I'm saying this Mix the martial arts Go to your wrestling and neutralize him

And that's what happened Malarkey gets a win He gets another He gets his win bonus And he moves on He moves on to But not I think to a fight with Patty even though the callout does make sense ranking-wise where they are i think a skill level i think

they're right around the same area as well i don't know if that's the fight it's going to happen it was it was a very good call-up but it was a very good call-up is the right name for him i just don't think he necessarily gets that one since twitter is apparently expanding its character-based uh 4,000 or so the hashtag for buccas versus negamiriano would be a little more fitting so i think the timing for this is perfect i like that this is another one i struggled with whether to put uh Bukascus above Nega Mariano because Metafield I have ranked higher than Negamiriano. And so now we're delving into MMA math. And I think I settled on, I did end up putting Bukascus up.

Oh, no, I didn't. No, I did. I actually have Nogamirani, even though he lost his last fight pretty high. But yeah, I like it. Good match up. Yeah, we had a Lins versus Bukoskis, Jenkins versus Dooh-Hoe Choy, JDM versus Niko Price. He's above Niko Price.

Is Lins not, what happened to the Lens-O-SP fight? Did that not get re-booked? Am I crazy? or did it get rebooked and they get canceled again? Yeah, that fight just kept changing like every day. OSP had like 71 different opponents. I know one of them is fighting. It did get rebutted.

Okay, it is happening next week. So I'm sorry, he cannot fight. Maybe OSP wins and then fights him, but that is happening. Alex, and it won't fight for November this year. So my pick is Josh Emma versus Nathaniel Wood. Maybe. That's Nathaniel Wood up too. I think he also had a...

It supposed to fight Laurel Murphy, but now that's not happening. had he beat lorone murphy that would have been a very sensible match yes it's not having because of an injury to nathaniel woods so i don't know depending on how long josh emmett wants to wait but pretty nasty cut for uh nathaniel when you guys can find i think we put that on the website uh he posted on instagram a lovely a picture of the gash in his life so you can watch you can look at that while having lunch today mike i can't watch the screen you have a boston hat yankees day i agree back you're screwed off yeah i've been walking around new york with this hat on. And I've been very, people have commented. They'd be like, oh, you really think you should be wearing that hat?

I'm like, I'm a respectful Boston fan. I'm 40 now. I'm wise beyond my years. I'm wise beyond my years. Go ahead. I used to love watching those Yankee teams in the 90s. Like, I hated that they won all the time, but as a like baseball fan, I mean, this, it was textbook baseball.

It was the GSP of baseball. You know, you're not going to be welcome in Massachusetts or New York after that take. Oh, my. My goodness. Textbook baseball. Leadoff guy gets on base. You bunt him to second, drive him into third. And then they scored.

I mean, just beautiful baseball. Those Yankees are ridiculous. What else we got here? Oskis versus OSP was an option. Ocascus, getting a lot of, getting a lot of love. Good. He deserves it. Jack Jenkins versus Sean Woodson?

Yeah, I'm okay with that. There'll be a lot of leg kicks on that fight. Someone's legs getting broken. That's about Jen's over. About freaking time. That was awesome. getting the hall of fame. I got to do the write-up for that.

So people, if you want, for anyone doesn't know, if you want the Cliffs notes, I probably didn't even do them justice, but you'd want the cliffs notes of why Jenz Boliv is so important of the sport, you can check out at myfling.com. I wrote up the induction announcement. But the lighter weight class is, he is, listen, he's going into the pioneer wing for good reason, because that is, he is the definition of a pioneer when it comes to fighting at lightweight,

fighting at featherweight. Remember, there wasn't a lightweight division for the longest. time guys he is the inaugural uc lightweight champion he had great fights with cauluno great fights with bj pen the ultimate fighter season five arguably the best season of the old fighter ever him and pen on other teams nate dyes came out of there gray manor came out of there really just strong cast overall so and then again his feud with uh with uri favor in the wc for the featherweight title as uh dave melzer reminded me on twitter that was the first fight that versus really really pushed uh the wc product saying hey you got to tune in because there's here's this former

UFC champion facing a guy who, you know, outside of California, people might not know about him, but the hard cores know. And we really believe in your eye of favor as a star. Sure enough, again, that two-fight feud really helped to elevate Faber, elevate the featherweight division. And there's a direct through line from that feud to the featherweight division and the bantam weights and the fly weights being in the UFC today. So you really can't give Jen's Pulver enough credit. Just a great, great, great fighter and watch the video of him reacting to it. He was just absolutely in tears. It's beautiful stuff. Oh, so cool.

such a cool moment JDM versus the Leach's books fight Michael Kiesel. And Jadiam wanted this before he got the Randy Brown fight. He said he said he said he was fighting Leegee, do you remember that? He said an interviewer like I think we're in the works to fight. It was never official, nothing was signed. I think he just

his management was probably angling for that fight so he was saying in an interview or two that like I am fighting Leijing Liang next but he got Randy Brown instead which I would argue is maybe an even better win. Let me break out one of a few for my from my Twitter here while we Annie Gulipali, I think a regular

on heck of a morning, Mike. I might be mistaken. Yes. What do you think of JDM versus Neil Magni? No. No? Not ranked high enough? Or do you don't like the style matchup? Both?

Okay. All right. Both. Both. J.D.M should be fighting a tough, like a legit top 15 guy that's coming off of, either coming off of a win or is like number 12 coming off of a loss.

Magny is not the fight I want to say. Magny, because he's gotten finished in the first round in his last two fights. So I think Jadm is above him right now. Or no, two out of three. Because Magny beat D-Rod in between. But J-D-Rodd is interesting.

Yeah, if they booked it, I'd watch it. It would be an interesting test for him. But, yeah, I like the Likai fight better. Very. a very tough fight. If you're right Dan Muregas, you should be trying, I think you should be trying to angle for that fight. As dangerous as Jack Delamadena is, if you managed to get that win, you are... He was booked. He's booked. Who's he fighting?

I know he's booked. Who is he fighting? He is fighting on the London card against Gunner Nelson. Oh, I like that match up. Okay, okay. Actually, I'm so I feel bad. I didn't remember that. Yes, that's a good matchup. I like that for both guys. So maybe the winner of that fights. Well, nah, I don't like the winner of that one. I think they go in a different direction. I don't think you go out of the go JDM for them. Kulabao versus Builder. There are a couple more. Onama of. I've got William Perry chiming in.

Tyson Pedro versus Kennedy, Kennedy and Zichukwe. Is it too cool? Not bad. Not bad. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I think he meant Tafon and Tafon and Chiqui. Okay.

Is he filming? He is, right? Yeah, he should be. He should be, right? He, that's not a bad one. That's not a bad one. Okay.

I'm just pulling some randoms from my socials here. Michelle Perey versus Phil Roe, UFC San Antonio. I don't know if that's booked, but I mean, it would be, Phil Roe would be a good little replacement. But I don't know if Pereira takes that fight. That's literally nothing for him. Wow, I am seeing a lot of tough of his Chris Barnett.

Oh, maybe I should have just gone. that I guess it was that obvious. Justin Taffa versus Derek Lewis, I just saw. Jack Jenkins versus Pass Sabatini. Magny's still 13th in the UFC's rankings. We don't hold the UFC rankings into account because they don't matter. Guys, come on. I may fight in global rankings.

I'll do want to mind. What do you think of Tava versus Derek Lewis? Or Taffa versus what? Is Tafa the Walt Harris pick officially? Because apparently Walt's ready to come back. Is he? I guess so. he's training on a comeback, at least from an interview that I,

that I recently, it was a couple months ago, but it seems like he wants to come back like maybe this summer. Is that the one? That's the right range for sure. I don't know if I like this one from Max Rabkin. Tafa versus Maboy Arlowski. Oh, man. You know Arlowski's going to make that ugly.

I don't know if people are assuming Tafu would just knock him out in the first round. Again, any heavyweight fight that Arlowski's in, that's always possible, but more often than not, I'd say three out of four times. One out of four times, he gets viciously knocked down. the other three out of four times man he is dragging people into some mud fights and i don't know i don't know if justin tafa wants wants to deal with that um it's that's that's a very that arloffsky is still a tough matchup for anyone but i i understand the uh oh there's a mask graph is saying no rlossi is going to style his way to split his city and i'm like yeah i know

do you want that i love how people were saying earlier that uh like when i when i was like do josh i had versilia toporia that we wanted like josh i'm to like get killed or something Clifford Johnson I mean Justin Toppa is coming off just a career defining moment and you want to chuck him in there with Jailton Almeida come on

minus 1600 Almeida higher and that might be low that might be low he's he's where Romanoff was when he fought Chase Sherman and that's why it happens and there's no disrespect to Justin Tava this is just this is all respect

to Jailton Almeida yeah There's very few, there's like three people at heavyweight that I think are giving, I'm made a challenge right now. I'll be honest. Pedro Coutelaba is kind of interesting. Oh, yeah. If you want to, if you want a completely, that's a complete, that's either going to be a

super exciting fight or the worst fight you've ever seen in your life. That's just completely unpredictable. I want Arlowski to fight until he's 50s since they took a linic from us. That's a great comment right there. That's a great comment. I think we're done. I don't know. Like, I literally have about 30 votes left before I just have no more voice.

Okay. I'm going to produce this show for the podcast network. Get it ready for the website. Get it launched for your audio listening needs. And then I'm going to go get some lunch and I'm going to go to the airport. It watched the first quarter of the Super Bowl there. And I'm going to watch the rest of the game on an airplane. So you guys are the best.

What a card this was. What a week it was. I want to give a shout out to Jose Young's because this dude went to the other side of the world and just absolutely crushed it with this coverage out there. dude's just the man. So well done. Oh, real quick, okay, because people bring it up earlier. And I made it a point to want to mention this, and I didn't.

Aaron Blanchfield, no longer fighting Tilos Santos. I'm not really surprised because we had heard that potentially Tilesantos, some members of her team, we're going to have some visa issues. Turns out that's the case. And now Aaron Blanchfield is fighting Jessica Androge next Saturday. In the Apex, your thoughts on this new main event. She is fearless that Aaron Blanchard, I'll tell you. I mean, not that she was going to say no to, I think, any replacement, but boy,

if there was ever a time for a young player to go like, hey, maybe, maybe I don't take this fight yet. Jessica Andrage would be it. I actually, I know a lot of people like this matchup more. I don't blame them. I mean, you put Jessica Androge in any matchup instead of whatever fighter she's replacing. You've probably made that matchup better because Jessica Andrade rules and she's super exciting. But I also, like, was more eager to see either Tylos Santos rematch Shevchenko.

That's a rematch that I feel like if we never get it, something will be lost there. And or if Aaron Blanchfield is able to beat her, man, you see Aaron Blanchfield rocket into a title shot at age. What is she now? 24, 25. Like, that's frigging crazy. So I think either way, she still gets a title shot if she beats Jessica Andrage. I don't know if Jessica Andrage gets a tell shot if she beats her, which sucks because that's also another rematch I'd like to see, Schenko and Jessica Andrage.

But that was a lot more lopsided than the Santos fight. So I'm somewhat less interested in it, but would still watch. I just think it's less likely. She's guaranteed to have a flight. And also, I mean, just talking about this matchup itself with her in Blanchefield, there's a huge difference between Santos and Andrade. I know that's stating the obvious. Santos is a good fighter, but, you know, someone who's probably going to go to decision.

Jessica Andrash is going to smash your face in. Win or lose, she is going to smash her face in. Ask Rose Navajunis about the second fight that throws one a decision. I don't think she was the same after. I think she saw Jesus multiple times during that fight. because jessica and drash is so scary so um i'm not crazy about this new matchup but listen if they wanted to save that main event you could certainly do a lot worse and lord knows i'll be tuning in and the tension is going to be super super high for as long as that fight lasts so good job

good job for the matchmakers good job for and josh for stepping up and good job for in blanchville we're saying bring it on yeah that's it i'm going to be the champ bring it on that's that's the parting shot here that's the important thing because i like when this thing was announced it was like literally and I walked into the studio and I was like, what the hell is going on here? Jessica Drodger deserves a lot of credit for stepping in on like this, 100%. But so does Aaron Blanchfield. Because Aaron Blanchfield could have just said,

nah, I'll wait for Tila to get the visa thing straightened out. And we could do it in March or we could do it in April or whatever. We could do it on a pay-per-view. And they're like, nah, she can't make it. You want to fight Jessica and Drudge instead? And she's like, all right, cool. That's just ridiculous.

that is just ridiculous. So good on blood ladies. Yeah, good on both ladies. It's not a lie, man. Yeah, and I didn't, like, if Aaron Blanchfield beat Talas Santos, I still wasn't really convinced that she would get a title shot. I think she'd be, like, one more win away. If she beat Jessica Andrade, she's getting a title shot.

Oh, you have to. She's getting a title shot, 100%. Whether she's ready or not, you just have to do it. Yeah, like two weeks, two weeks after the fight, they're going to truck her in there at Valencia Shetchenko and just do it. So, all right, we are done. Thank you very much. KK, do you have a Super Bowl pick?

Chiefs or Eagles? Who you got it? I've watched Zero American football this year. I've watched a lot of association football, Scottish Premier League, Go Celtic. But I'll say, I'll say, oh, Chiefs, I'll go with Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes. That's what I know. He's a good player, and I believe in Dynasties, and I believe he's part of one. So there we go.

Happy birthday, Mike. Thank you. Appreciate it. The Big 4-O. Appreciate you all very much. So for A.K. I am Mike. We'll be back next week. usual format, and always remember, everybody.

Don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. We'll have fun next week reacting to the fallout of UFC Vegas-69 from a matchmaking perspective right here, and on to the next one, the podcast. Have a good rest of the weekend. Enjoy the final round, the waste management open. Enjoy your sports.

Enjoy the Super Bowl, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.