MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC 287

Episode Date: April 9, 2023

Israel Adesanya brutally knocked out his arch-nemesis Alex Pereira in the main event of UFC 287 to re-capture the UFC middleweight title. With Pereira having three total wins to Adesanya's one throughout their rivalry — which includes a win each inside the octagon — should they run it back next to settle it once and for all, or is it something we can wait on? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee attempt to answer that question from a matchmaking perspective following Saturday's card in Miami. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Gilbert Burns after defeating the now-retired Jorge Masvidal in the co-main event, Rob Font following his impressive first-round knockout of Adrian Yanez, Kevin Holland after stopping Santiago Ponzinibbio, Christian Rodriguez following his upset win over Raul Rosas Jr., 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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And following the UFC's most recent pay-per-view offering, UFC 27, which went down Saturday night in Miami, Florida. We have a new, or shall I say once again, middleweight champion of the world. We are talking about a company with one less welterweight on its roster. and a whole bunch of other highlights and discussion points to talk about from a matchmaking perspective. But I am Mike Eck, thank you for joining us. I know typically we go live after an event like this, but I'll get into that a little more in a moment before we get to the matchmaking. But more importantly than that, let me introduce the co-host, the co-matchmaker.

And the best friend to us all, he is the Prince of Positivity. He is Alexander Cayley, AK, how are you, my friend? Oh, hello, my best friend. I'm feeling particularly positive this fine morning as we record this show. I really enjoyed Saturday's cart. I didn't really have a pre-show, you know, whatever gymnastics rating. I would have set it pretty high. I would have set it pretty high.

I think on paper, it was a strong card, also with compelling storylines. There was a lot of sort of older generation versus up-and-comers, which, you know, was always interesting. And it kind of went, I would say it went both. ways. It went both ways. You had some of the fighters sort of projected to do big things in the future coming out strong, and you had some of them, one of whom we'll talk about a bit more later, I'm sure.

Some of them coming out a little flat. Come a little flat. May raise some questions as to how ready they are for the big show. But we had a really exciting main event. I thought the co-main was fine. It wasn't like a great fight, but there was some drama to it all throughout, I thought. And

a lot of people overperformed, I thought overperformed, I think, better than people expected, which I think is great. So, love Saturday's card. Where it sends us match picking wise is a little funky. And I think that's indicative also of the buildup to this card. We just had so many questions. We had so many questions. And even though the Izzy put out of feud has kind of been answered, what's next for both guys?

I don't think is super clear, but I'd love to see where you landed on that. Yes. A.K., if you could turn your mic up just a tad. I think we have whatever settings we had. It's all right. Let's turn up the volume. Bam. That's better. How's that? Oh, boy. Much better. I mean, you sound like an angel right now.

So, thank you very much. Again, I'm in New York City right now, so I don't have my usual setup. And like I said, normally we go live, it's very strange. Felt good all week. You know, I had to put that feature together, which took up like so much time. then just going through like my normal day-to-day activities and then get through Friday, host the shows, uh, go to the gym Friday evening. And right before I started working out, I just felt my body collapse. It just completely shut down on me. It was a very strange feeling. My body was literally telling me you need to go home and lay down and not do anything else. And of course my stubborn ass was

like, nah, I could do this workout. I'll get through it. And I did because I, I don't listen to Joe Rogan much but Joe Rogan says when you you have the battle with the inner B you have to try to defeat it and I tried to defeat it and it was a terrible choice and I went home and I just felt like I had the flu but I wasn't sick. It was just a very strange feeling where my body just shut down and I woke up Saturday morning not feeling great and hopped on a plane came here slept on the airplane which I never do and then got to the hotel normally I would get a workout in, but I was like, nope, not doing that. Went, fell asleep for a few hours.

Woke up did the watch party. I was feeling pretty bad towards the end of it. Probably like the last two and a half fights, I was really feeling it. And I just battled through and it just hasn't gotten much better. I feel a little worse today than I did yesterday, but I didn't want to not do a show, but I just didn't want to do it live because of all the chaos and everything that was going on. Of course. That is, I'm not a doctor, but that is exhausting.

That is exhaustion, my friend. That is exhaustion. You've been gripping it and ripping it with M.A. fighting for so long. You really, and now with this whole CrossFit Mike thing going, you've really been living that 258 Corey Anderson lifestyle. So now you know what it's like. You know, we all made, people make fun of Cory Anderson. Oh, Beast in 258, like whatever, anyone could do it.

Well, listen, Mike, you're spectacular man, but you are human. and I hope you're feeling better after today. And I think the listeners and fans will understand not getting a live show. They wouldn't want you to do that if you weren't at your best. I also imagine you're feeling a little bit like some of the fighters from Saturday after the first five minutes of their fight. We saw some exhaustion. We saw some gas tanks tested. So I guess you can relate to that now.

Yes. Well, let's get into this. Enough about me. Let's talk about the main event. Let's talk about Israel Adasania. Yeah, he goes out. Fun fight with Alex Pereira, very compelling throughout the entire thing. Like I said, during the watch party, I kind of had Inganu Stepe Meachichich one vibes,

where I just felt like something bizarre and chaotic could happen at a moment's notice. And lo and behold, it did. It looked like Alex Pereer was inching in to end the fight like he did at UFC 281, head out of a side against the cage, just rip into the body, landing big shots. and then Adasani lands a massive defensive overhand counter-right and then lands another one and just deads Alex Pereira and knocks him unconscious on the mat and he's once again the middleweight champion of the world.

And to me this seems very obvious AK of what we should do here, but it seems like not everybody is on board with this idea because I feel like we have to run this back. I feel like we have to do the trilogy, but Izzy doesn't seem all that interested in. thinks that he already exercised the demons, that Pereira should go back to the drawing board, win a fight or two, and then earn his way back. Dana White said, look, I'm not saying this.

So don't say that Dana White says this is what's happening. But he would be shocked if Pereira doesn't go up to 205 because that is a massive weight cut. And that is obviously something that would be a concern as well. It's something we've been talking about for a while. Pereira is not a human being. He is just a massive individual. But to me, AK, if, until I hear the words from Alex Perre's mouth that he's moving up to 205, this is the fight.

This is the fight. We run it back. Not anytime soon. We don't need to do it like in the next two or three months. But November, December, I think we have to do it one more time. I think we're running. This is not a back pocket fight to me. It is in some ways.

But just physically, I just don't think it's a back pocket fight. And if Pereer is going to make that cut, he's the only. going to be able to do one more time and it's got to happen next. Otherwise, it's just going to have to be a very strange road to get there. Like, Pereira is going to have to go to 205, win the title. Izzy's going to have to just run through everybody else in this division and make the decision to go up to 205. And you'd probably get an immediate title shop.

But I think the luster of this could be gone by then because it could take a while. So my vote, we just run it back. We do the trilogy. Pereira, I apologize. guys, I know that weight cuts tough, but the bank account will thank you. What do you think? I intentionally went away from this suggestion. Not because I hate it. I'd be totally fine with the running back with these two. The drama that these two create is just amazing. The contrasts of personalities, their style, when they enter the cage, the results of their now four previous fights.

It's compelling stuff. It's compelling stuff. There's really not a great reason not to do it, other than, oh, like you said, Izzy said, I just don't want to keep fighting the same guy over and over again. I don't know how many fights I've loved in my career. I want to face new challenges. And I'm sure out of UFC, I guess depending how much business this event does, I don't know how high they'll be on it, but I don't see why they wouldn't. They love booking rematches. I mean, for goodness sake, Mike, we're getting, we're getting Amenanonez versus Julianna Pena three. If we're getting three of those fights in a row, I think we can, I think people should be okay with Israel, Edithania, and Alex Pareda three times in a row.

Apple's an origin of comparison. Obviously, I'm making a broad kind of gag there, but the optics just look bad. If we book that trilogy title fight, and then we don't, and then those people are like, oh, but we can't do a Disney versus Panetta 3? No, listen, if we're doing one, it's one certainly as possible. So I do like it. I don't know if Izzy should have the final say and saying, like, all this feud is over because, again, one in one in MMA, one in one in May, throwing the kickboxing.

That storyline is still there, and it's just so fun to watch them. So I went away from it. think you'll hate my pick for Adisanya and I think you'll love my pick for Peretta though. These are my non-trilegy picks. For Izzy, first of all, I wish he'd just do a random sojourn up to light heavyweight like Anderson Silva used to do when he had no obvious challenge to 185, but I don't think that's going to happen. I think if Izzy goes up, it's only to fight for a title.

Djukus duplice is the right way to go, but he just hasn't earned it yet. he needs one more win, so that's perfect. That could lead to some ugly trash talk. There's some nationalistic stuff going down there, but there's drama. It'd be a great fight. It's fine. I'll go Magic One. I'll go Magic Wand, and I'll shout out one Mr. Jan Blahovitz, who is very smart to

immediately jump onto Twitter after and say, hey, let's do the rematch. I'll drop down to 185. I don't think he ever has. As far as I could tell, I'm pretty sure he's fought 205 and above his entire career. I don't think it's unreasonable. I'm sure if it was just for the one fight, he could do it. But I'm interested. So this is Magic Juan.

This is he can make 185 comfortably and we get that rematch. And I don't know. Does that tickle your fancy at all, Mike? I love the callout. It just if Jan went, like, what good does this do for the UFC if Jan wins and he's only going to do it once? Then we just vacate the belt and then Pereira's out of the division too. Like, it just seems, I don't know, I'd rather see Pereira fight Blaovich at 205.

That too was, I thought of. Yes, that too I thought of. But it's tough for Izzy, though, because like you said, other than the trilogy, I'm just looking at other fighters who are in Windsor. Again, we mentioned DDP. Jared Canier, he's already beaten. Robert Whitaker again, that trilogy, I don't know if it needs to be done anytime soon. Izzy's up 2-0, pretty convincingly. Martin Vittori, again, another trilogy.

Sean Strickland's, I know a lot of people will call for it. He moves the needle in a very uncomfortable way for me, but I think that's a little, again, if Driggas duplac's is one win away, Strickland's at least one or two wins away from getting a shot at Izzy. And then Calvin Gasselam rematch will be fun, but I don't think you can give one win in his past, what, five, six outings. I don't think you can do that.

So I'd love to see it again someday. I'd something happens. And Brendan Allen, listen, he's busy being the middle-weightiest middle-weight. So he's got his own, he's got his own title defense. So, yeah, if he stays at 185, I think Padreta is the only option, or Jan Blahovitch, if Yon can magically make the weight.

For Alex Pareda, again, this is assuming they don't do the trilogy. He goes up to light heavy weight. Who does he fight up there, Mike? Who does he fight up there? There's some top 15 veteran guys you could throw him in there with. Some of the people are books. Some of them are sort of tentatively booked.

Like, I don't think you throw him in there with an Ankleev. I don't think you necessarily throw him in there. When Anthony Smith has a fight coming up, I don't necessarily care about him getting the winner of the Smith Walker fight. Nikita Krilov, it's not setting my life on fire. But then I thought about it. Mike, there's a man at 205 who loves, uh, spoiling glory kickboxers. Their chances of winning. There's a man. Why don't we have, why don't we have Alex Pineda and Mubo 2.05 and his first fight, be with the man who's beaten called Roberson, Dustin Jacoby, Gokan Saki. Give me Alex Padetta versus

Khalil Roundtree and a fight that will not last more than two minutes. Wow. That would be that would be fun as out. That's how you slow roll up. Again, Pareda's probably in this mindset now like, oh, you know, I should be able to jump immediately

into a title shot, but I, again, again, there's options at 205. You know, Jamal Hill's still up there. Yerick for Hachas is going to come back. I mentioned Akalaya. We mentioned Blackovitz. These guys should be ahead of Padeta. So Pareda should have to fight someone and you kind of do what you do with the middleweight.

You just give him favorable fun matchups. And one or two wins, set them up for a light heavyweight title shot against one of those guys. And you start with Round Tree. I love it. Interesting idea. I don't think anybody would be mad at it. I don't think anybody would be mad at it.

So way to think outside the box, AK. Yeah. I like that idea. Let's move to the co-main event. Gilbert Burns defeats Jorge Mazadol. I said this during the post-fight show. Some people agreed. A lot of people are kind of unhappy with me.

for saying this, but I did not come away from that fight feeling like Gilbert Burns' stock rose at all. If it, like, maybe even dropped a tad in my eyes because he was the biggest favorite on the card. I thought this fight would be more competitive than it was. And then I watched Mazadol fight for like the first four minutes. And I was just like, yeah, Mazadol is somewhat competitive in the first round, but this is not, he's not going to win this fight.

Like, he just didn't, he's not the same guy. he was slowing down early in the first. He was pretty much not donezo, but did enough to survive. And I think Burns could have, it Burns really wanted to. I think Burns could have gotten him out of there in the third, or at least put the foot on the gas a little bit more. I know it's important to get a win and keep the train moving along, but it just would have been, we'd be talking about Gilbert a lot more

if he put his foot on the gas. And he didn't do that. Wins a decision. It's not one we're ever going to go back and watch again. And then Gilbert Burns goes to the post. fight press conference and he demands not only to be the backup fighter for the Leon Edwards Colby Covington fight, which we're definitely going to get now, but he said that he's demanding to get the winner of that fight and a title shot next. And I just don't know if this man is

in a position to demand such things, A.K. And he even said something to the effective, if you're not going to give me the title shot, my next fight, release me. Get me out of the contract. I'll be done. And I will do other things. which I thought was kind of interesting. We don't hear Gilbert really talk about that. So I'll start with you, A.K., will Gilbert Burns get what he desires? I know Dana White said if he wants to be the backup shore,

but that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be next in line for the title. Is he playing this correctly? Will he get what he wants? I don't know if he's playing correctly. I did love to hear that fire from Gilbert. I loved him. I thought post-fight immediately in the cage and speaking to the media after. I thought, well done.

well done. He should be at least attempting to make some demands. You need to be a squeaky wheel in the UFC. Dana White, you're right, was kind of half-heartedly because it was, you know, it was asked by them. It was asked by reporters after and he was just, Deanna White, he didn't say yes. He was kind of like, yeah, sure, yeah, that's what he wants. Okay, we'll do that.

That did not make me, give me a lot of confidence that he actually wants to do it, and that he's guaranteeing Gilbert Burns anything. So, I will say, though, I did go chalk. This is kind of a magic wandie, but also, I think it's possible. I do think he will at the very least be called up to be the backup for the London pay-per-view wherever that lands, whatever date that lands on, I mean. Whether it'll be like Covington, he shows up ways in and is guaranteed the next title shot, much less likely,

definitely sketchier. There's a lot of people who could slide in ahead of him, Shavkat, possibly Balal, assuming those two are fighting, and that hasn't become, that hasn't become a thing yet, quite yet. God help with Stephen Thompson. I don't know if he could somehow leapfrog if he wins in his next fight, but it's not impossible. So he will be the backup.

So I think this is like a half, half truth on Dana White's part. He will be the backup, but I don't think he gets the same kind of privilege that Colby Covington got. So that's where I went with that. I just want to see him be the backup and see where it goes from there.

But I do think you're right. I don't know how much leverage he has. But I'm not sure if, and he may have to fight someone else first. So I'm not sure which you're, where you're going with that. This is probably the toughest one for me because of what Gilbert had to say.

Because I could see a world where Dana is just incredibly petty about this. And it's like, all right, mofo, you want to show up here and talk a bunch of trash and say, release you. Okay, bye, bye, see you. Like, they could do that. Or if Gilbert, if they call Gilbert's bluff, I can see them giving them the backup spot. I don't see a world where Colby like Mrs. Wade or anything like that. So he's just going to sit and watch the title fight.

Balmah Muhammad wants to fight Kamar Usman. Dana actually seemed more interested in that idea than Gilbert getting a title shot. So if they go that route and they go Balal versus Uspen, who the hell is Gilbert going to fight? He's going to fight Shafkat Rakmanov. He gets demoted to the Rachmanoff fight and that ain't good for anybody. But at the end of the day, I just am not in a position where I feel comfortable booking Kamar Usman in any fight right now.

So I do ultimately think that cooler heads will prevail and that Gilbert Burns will fight Bilal Muhammad. I was hoping that Burns would get on the mic and just call for Bilal. I mean, if you go back and watch the watch party, we were like, it was like Gilbert turned into Blah Muhammad in that moment. But like, come on, man, just call out Balal. He's right there. He's in the building.

Like, this is perfect. And then he calls for Leon Edwards. And I was like, oh, my God. And we just knew that he pears. that he pissed away a callout like nobody's business. And I love Gilbert Burns. Nice guy. He motivates me every morning with his tweets. Just gets me all fired up and positive. But I think he, I think he fumbled a bag here. I think he had a miss. And I think he ends up getting a number one contender fight with Bilal Muhammad. But that's me thinking positively. There is a world where this goes really bad for him

and he doesn't even get the Balal fight. And he would either fight Shopcott or the UFC will just say to hell with you. Goodbye. like we're just not gonna like have you on the roster anymore yeah and I don't think he has to be much he has to be in the low six low six figures probably even show money right that I don't think that's crazy right

to imagine he's making like 100 K to show he fought for the belt right I feel like that moves him up a tax bracket um and uh the UFC doesn't need to pay people like that frankly they they like Gilbert is good like Burns is a really good fighter he's a really good fighter he might he he like could go in there and fight Leon Edwards and maybe he wins the belt. Like I wouldn't, I would have to

think about how that fight's going to go. But he's not a star. He's not a pay-per-view generator or anything of that nature. He's a very solid hand. And he's pretty much in this, I think Balal Mohammed is right this moment like a half a notch above Gilbert in the Star Department. That might not last long, but at least for the time being, I think Bilal's got a little more buzz than Gilbert does. So we'll see how this plays out I think Gilbert could have handled this a better way but maybe it'll work out for him

we'll see what did you what did you think of Balal's Colby shirt t-shirt I mean he's got a little he's got a gimmick going on I dig it yeah I think I don't know I feel like when

when you have someone else's face on your on a shirt that you're wearing I don't feel like you didn't own them I almost feel like they owned you a little bit I get what he's going for it is an unflattering image of Colby Compton I'm sure everyone's side, you know, it's the Colbytoning, you know, his, his jaw busted up immediately after the first Usman fight.

But damn, it's almost, it's, I don't know, it's almost like the, you know, that's that's that cliche, uh, living in your head, rent free and all that. So good for Balal to show up. I think it's actually good that he showed up in Miami. I think that was, that was the right call. Uh, I don't know if I'd go around wearing another man's face on my chest as some sort of like, gotcha. I don't know if that was.

I mean, he was going there anyways, because he had a corner his teammate. Right. Ignacio Bahamundas. But yeah, I mean, it was fine. Let me ask you this before we move on. Do you prefer Balaw wearing the shirt with Colby's busted face or Mike Tyson wearing a Mike Tyson shirt? Is that what my... Oh, I prefer the Mike Tyson thing then.

I am all... Wearing his own shirt. Yeah, I would wear a shirt with my own face on the front. And I've always said, I'm going to make a shirt someday. My own face, the front of my face and the back of my head on the back. Just to really confuse people. So I'm all for self-branding and wearing your own stuff, yeah. All right, fair enough, fair enough.

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Vite. Procurre you see form of standard and mini, regrouped for a better quality price. On link on Ciforna.ca or in magazine. Let's go to the feature bout. Rob Fott reminded a lot of people

that he's a bad man in Jamma. The New England cartel member just goes out there and him and Adrian Yanez had a great fight. They beat the hell out of each other. Rob was busted up. He was landing.

Yanez was on the back foot a few times and then Rob just clocked him. Landed a double jab that had Yannas on skates and then Fon smelled blood, went in for the kill and finished this man in the first round and we were talking about this.

You know how we sometimes always tease we're going to play the game of what we're going to nickname pay-per-views and we never do it. Post-fight show we came up with one, UFC 287, experience matters. And I think that was the perfect definition. Shout out to

Shaheen Al-Shadi for putting that all together. But, But that was my biggest concern about this fight is that Rob has just fought the who's who this division. He's just fought way better competition. And he might have come in on back-to-back losses, but they were back-to-back losses to Jose Aldo and Marlon Vera, two of the best in the division. And Rob hung with both of those guys, especially the Aldo fight. He was with him step for step.

Got knocked down a couple times, but he's with him step for step. So that was the big thing for me. I just could not ignore the level of competition between these two guys. I didn't expect Rob to go out there and finish Adrianiannas in the first round, but he did it. And what a massive win for him. And I'll just do a callback to onto the next one pick from before. It's Piotr-Yon.

Rob Font versus Piotr-Jon is the fight to make. If it was Adrianiannaz, it would have been Adrianian-Yon versus Piotr-Jon. Winner of this fight gets the Piotrion sweepstakes. Rob Font, come on down. A.K., what's say you? That's a great matchup. I'd love to see Font and Jan throw down. It's a winnable fight for font, for sure.

Like you said, he can hang with the best. I'll talk about more of that in a sec. But first of all, experience matters, tough to put on a poster, not the sexiest name for pay-per-view. If you really want to capture that mid-2000s magic of naming pay-per-views, this is UFC 287. Headstrong. Come on. Is he? That was the most shocking walk-up music I have heard.

I know that song very well. we're dating ourselves now Mike but I know that song very well I was a teenager once and when I heard it I immediately recognize it and I thought like is this the in-house DJ like this isn't Izzy's music this is like the DJ music still in between music and it's going to be some crossover with like I don't know Lady Gaga like let's dance or something um just dance excuse me please don't don't kill me for that um but yeah headstrong listen trapped a highly objectional band character wise I'm not supporting it but that song really took me back. So yeah, U.S. 287, Headstrong. It fits perfectly.

I'm shocked that the U.S. never got a chance to use it. Hopefully, retroactively when they should put this on Fight Pass with Colin Headstrong next to it. Let's just make that happen. But yeah, Mike, you were on the money in the lead up to this Fonte Janese fight as well. You said experience is a big

thing. Like, you know, when you go five rounds with Jose Aldo, you can go five rounds with Marlon Vera. That means a lot. And it probably helps you a little bit more than you know, a first round finish of Tony Kelly or finish of Randy Costa, right? Again, great performances from Adrian Yannis, a guy I'm still super high on.

I've called him the best boxer in MMA, any division. I think he's the best boxer. I still kind of stand by it. But one of his strengths is adaptation. I kind of nicknamed him the algorithm. And I don't think he really gave himself a chance. I don't think it was actually also Rob Font did not give him a chance. Rob Font got in his face, met him punch for punch.

They were exchanging hard jabs. Like they were in the middle exchanging hard jabs. And if you're a guy like Yanaz, and I think you need a little time to sort of, like assess the situation, that is not the best way to do it. Rob Fonk is hard, man. You're not taking punches for him and just kind of shaking him off

and, you know, downloading that data. That's knocking data out of your brain. And sure enough, Rob Fon, awesome performance, takes Adrian Yonnas out. I'm kind of lazy here. I just went with, we've got a Ricky Simone, Song Yadong fight coming up later this April, and I'd like giving him the winner of that.

Mike, could Font have accidentally won the Umar sweepstakes? No. No? You don't know that this one solidified that. I think this one solidified that Marlon Vara won the Umar sweepstakes. Oh. Oh. Okay.

Okay. Okay. All right. So I'm going with April 22nd matchup to Simone's song, but a lot of good options for Fon at 135. A lot of good options. I mean, the guy has earned himself again, another big fight. And look, I'm not fully convinced that Marab is out of this conversation for

them are either, even though it seems pretty clear what we should be doing here. Let's go to the, back to the welterweights. We had Kevin Holland versus Santiago Ponziabio. It was an interesting fight. Seemed like Ponziabio, I mean, I thought the second round was pretty close. Turned out all three judges scored the first two rounds for Holland. But it seemed like, in my eyes, I was like, yeah, Holland might have lost that round. Like, he might have lost round two.

So he needs to go out there and do something impressive. and boy did he knocks out Ponsonabio, knocked the face first onto the mat and Ponsadio was protesting the stoppage. There's no protest to be had. Face hit the mat, follow-up shot, left him still. Great stoppage, in my opinion. Kevin Holland gets it done.

He was the focus of a lot of news this week when it came to Jorge Mazadol. Was he? Why didn't any reporters ask about it, Mike? Because, look. We don't have enough security, all this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of understood where Dana was coming from.

Like, I still think you can't, you can't just, like, shut that shit down like that, but you can't just be like, oh, come on, dude. Like, no, no, no, no. Let it simmer for a minute. Let's simmer for a second. There was a little Colonel Jessup in there. There was a little Colonel Jessup because he said his answer at the Post-Five press conference was you guys stir up, you guys create drama.

Like, you guys say these things and the fighters hear it, and then they start. getting into, you know, trouble because of you, which didn't make a lot of sense because this was the incident that was, you know, asked about at the press conference happened the day before. So it was more of like a follow-up to that. So there was already stuff going down between Mazda-on-Han, that's not media generated. Why didn't he say anything about Bala Muhammad who put it all in frigging video for all of us to see in the fucking first place? Again, listen, this is the Colonel Jessup. We've got some misinformation. But the two orders thing was, one, he's saying these people, these guys are grown men. Uh,

Sorry, these guys are grown men, but they can be influenced by the media to fight each other, apparently, I guess. Fine. Sure. And then later, the security thing you mentioned, he's like, oh, I wanted more security for Kevin Holland after the press conference, but he said no. So which one is it, Dana? Are they grown men who are easily influenced with media? Are they grown men who can make their own decisions and cast off security? Why the two orders, Colonel? Why the two orders? You ordered the code red. so I didn't like that I was very it was I was very annoyed I think you're right that he was almost getting to sort of a point that was accurate almost yes almost that's why I said I've kind of understood

where he's coming from because yeah I hated the whole I know you need your effing clicks and all that no that's not what it was about it was a big story like everybody was talking about it so how can you not ask about it like if Tom Brady showed up in New York and you know him and Mark

Sanchez almost get into a fight and Mark Sanchez wasn't even playing that day. He was injured and the backup quarterback was supposed to start. You don't think anyone's going to ask Tom Brady or Bill Belichick about that incident. They will no sell the crap out of it, but it's going to be asked of them. Like, that's sports. That's what happens.

So it was all very weird. But anyways, Kevin Holland wins the fight. No security. Just beat the UFC security team and Santiago Ponson to be on the same week. What's next? I was really tempted to say Masvidal because I don't think he ever said the word retire. Like, I did not hear the word retire. There was the taking off of the gloves.

There was the emotional speech. There was the, you know, I started my career here. Thank you, everyone. He never said the word. He actually didn't say I'm retiring, but pretty, pretty implicit. So that's fine. Also, this is MMA, by the way. So even if he had said the word, he could have said the word retirement like five times.

I'd probably still be like, he'll come back for the right fight. I don't know if Holland's it, though. I don't know if that tickles is fancy. I don't know if the money, I don't know how much money that necessarily makes both men. Again, I don't think they're getting like pay-per-view points for it. If they like commain somewhere. And it also depends where it is.

Like I said, this was the perfect send-off for Mazadol, getting to be the co-headliner in Miami, 20 years between UFC cards in that city. And, you know, at least he didn't get knocked out. This might be one of the better ways to go. Didn't get knocked out. Didn't get submitted. Sure.

the lopside decision. So assuming he does not fight again and does not, and if he does come back, probably doesn't fight Kevin Holland. Because again, who would want to watch that? No one, you know, there's no, there's no heat behind it, obviously. I decided to go between who is the better of two Neal's,

and we've talked about us a lot on onto the next one. I still think there's smoke behind that Jeff Neal rematch for Kevin Holland, of course. Holland defeated Neil back in January 2017. And it's come up multiple times on Otno. I think it's going to happen eventually. Why not next? Okay.

Don't hate it. I like it. I went a different direction. This one actually came to me immediately because I, it was obviously to me, it was a choice for me. If Mazdaal loses and retires, then Mazdaal is obviously off the table. So we will pivot to a fight that's coming up in a few weeks time, a little over a month. I believe it's May 20th.

I could be wrong. I think it's May 20th. Uh, Welterweight bout. a man that was scheduled to fight Kevin Holland on multiple occasions, Daniel Rodriguez is getting ready to fight Ian Machado Gary. And I think the winner of that fight will fight Kevin Holland next. If Ian Gary beats Drod, throw him in there with Kevin Holland. Boy, oh boy, is that an interesting matchup.

So I think the winner of that wins the Kevin Holland sweepstakes, A.K. I love that. May 13th, about May 13th. May 13th. I love my best friend. I love that. That's a great. for one thing, I think Daniel Rodriguez will beat Ian Machado Gary.

Though I've counted Ian Machado Gary before, he stepped up pretty nicely. I do think this is where we kind of finally, he takes a little bit of a step back. And that's not because Ian Machado Gary is bad. I just think Daniel Rodriguez is that good. And then I would love to see John Rodriguez and Kevin Holland. So, yeah, great matchmaking. Great win.

Great run from Kevin Holland. You know, another one of those fighters, probably not the biggest fan of the guy personally. But he has been really compelling to watch a 170. and I don't know how many wins he needs, but it would not shock me if he just someday just gets the right matchups, puts on the right performances, and falls ass backwards into a title shot somehow.

And if he doesn't, who cares? He's the Derek Lewis of the Walterway Division. It does not matter. People just like to see him. So, yeah, we'll see what happens with Kevin Holland. Now let's move to Christian Rodriguez, AKA, kicks off the main card with an upset win over 18-year-old Raoul Roses Jr.,

we talked about hashtag Headstrong, hashtag experience matters. And Christian Rodriguez showed that this was actually another easy pick for me, A.K., at the end of the day, because I felt, how do we tie Christian Rodriguez into another fun storyline? I know. Let's put Christian Rodriguez, a guy who struggles to follow the rules with weight management against a guy who struggles to follow the rules when the fight is actually happening. So I have gone with Christian Rodriguez versus Cameron Simon, aka.

Let's go 135 pounds. I don't know if we're going to call it Cheater versus Cheater, but I mean, listen, again, if you follow any of fighting's content, we don't frown upon cheating that much, especially in this sport because nothing ever gets called or penalized, really, outside of a little chunk of the purse. But, yeah, Christian Rodriguez, Cameron, Simon. I think that's the way to go. Yeah, and we definitely, this is why you're the man. This, and we definitely don't criticize cheating when you win.

Christian Rodriguez, missed weight, won. Cameron Simon. There you go. I poke in, groin, kicking, fence grabbing the crap out everybody. He's 2.0 in the UFC. What do you want? Yeah, it's, that's a great matchup. That's good.

You are the man. You are the man. I went with something. I was a little bit dispirited because this should be, this should have been an automatic, like, this should have been Chris Curtis and and Calvin Gossum. I'm not that bothered by it not being on the main card. I think getting featured as the last fight.

They were the prelim closer. Yeah. The last fight in ESPN, it's pretty good. It's pretty good. I bet a lot of people saw this fight. I bet Gasselman Curtis got a lot of fans. They're very likely to get paid the same way, whether they're the main card opener or the prelim closer.

So that's not a huge deal. But this should have been an automatic us talking Gasselm Curtis. So we still might. But yeah, for Christian Rodriguez, I'm going boring. I'm going, I just went right to my rankings, and he's one spot behind Christian Quinonez. So I'm going, hashtag Christian on Christian, two guys, very young in their careers, talent, super talented guys. Kunonez quite a bit more experienced, I will say, outside the UFC. But as far as UFC experience goes, just the three fights combined between them.

So a fun little fight there. I will say, I laughed at the, I think they, I don't want to put words in the mouths of Cormier and Joe Rogan. believe one of them called Christian Rodriguez, like, a season veteran or something. And he's certainly more experienced than, um, Raul Roses Jr. Not just in a amount of fights. He had like two or three more fights, but the level of competition he's been at. He's been in a few more years. He's fought for Bell, Tor, LFA, CFFC.

I mean, he's just been fighting, I would say, better competition. Not like hugely better. But calling him like a season vet and saying like he was so much more experienced was just a little strange. little strange to me. So, and we don't need to talk too much about the commentary. On a UFC, a pay-for-view commentary.

We harp on it all the time. John Anick, wonderful. Rogan and Cormier, you know, get better, guys, get better. Just keep working on your crowd.

Yeah, the one thing about the watch party is you don't really hear the commentary that much. Thank goodness. You hear it a little bit because we have it on the headset. But we, there's so much going on, we're talking amongst ourselves that we don't really get to hear them too often.

I actually was, we were talking before we went live, I actually thought they were doing a pretty good job. Like, I thought they were common fights good. I thought Rogan was more well researched about certain things than he had been in the past. But I guess the main card did not deliver that same sentiment. So let's go to the wild card round, A.K., we'll select one fighter we have not matched for yet. We will matchmate for them right now. So lots to choose from A.K., who did we go with?

Like I said, I want to talk Gaslim Curtis. I'm going Gasselm, Mike. I'm going Gasselm. That was a great fight. That fight is just pure fun, man. I mean, I tweeted this. We forget how good Calvin Gasselm is, you know? And I don't want to call him out for the weight stuff.

I don't want to say, oh, if he was just more disciplined, oh, he could so easily make 170. Because I don't know that. I don't know that. I'm sure he could make 170. I don't know if it'll ever be easy for him. He's a stout guy. Like, he is a wide stout man.

And for sure, he could change his. body type. I'm sure there's an ideal version of Calvin Gasselma at 170 that would just blow our minds. Like we would, you know, he goes away for a year, you know, comes, goes into this crazy, you know, insane, changes his whole lifestyle and diet and looks like a different person. But if he doesn't want to do that, that's fine. That's a very difficult thing to do. He's turned 30, still a young guy, a 31, excuse me, still a young guy. And if he wants to do that, that'd be great. But I just can't judge him. I would love if he could somehow come for the make 170 because I think he's a contender down there.

But boy, he's fun to watch when he gets going. Great striking, endless cardio and Chris Curris is right there with him. I love this fight, Mike. This is one of my favorite fights of the year so far. I hope it lands in the top five by the end. I wasn't sure what to go with him, though. His first win in so long. So, again, I kind of went cheesy here, like the different font.

Good look at that April 22nd card. Fun fight with either Brad Tavaris or Blendado, Silva. they're fighting on that card. So one of those two, I think, would be great. Otherwise, it's a little bit hard to go on in the top 15. I think people will be surprised how many top 15 people he's already fought. Or it just doesn't make sense to fight them right now. So, yeah, I'm going with just another fun fight for Calvin.

And if he's able to make it to the cage and put another great performance, I mean, the sky's the limit. He could still be something in 185. I'm kind of boring with this. I went a little off the board because there were other probably, There are other probably bigger storylines on the prelims. Could have went with Joe Pfeiffer. Could have went a different direction.

But I decided to go with a guy I was pretty impressed by. Ignacio Baja Monde's, AK, just his patience, his striking, his ability. I know Joe Rogan was very impressed with Ignacio Baja Mondays. Next level type of performance, according to the podcast King right now. So I want to see more from him. I think he's pretty damn good. I'm not ready to chuck them into a top 15 matchup, but I feel like guys in Ignacio Bahamandah's position,

when you are ready to see if you are a top 25 to 30-ish lightweight, you have to pass a certain test. And I'm ready to give him that test. The Nazrat-Hak-Pras test, that is what I'm going with. He goes out there and beats Nazrat-Hak-Pras. That's a win that probably vaults him into the top-25 or top-30-ish echelisel. on bigger fights, bigger names, more interesting matchups. So let's step him up and see how he does.

I'll throw him in there at Nazareth, Hackbarass. Think it's a fun fight. Hackbarass looked pretty good in his last fight. So he seems to be on a nice little trajectory right now. So yeah, that's what we'll do. We'll go that route. Kind of a boring pick, but that's what I want with. All right, all right.

Yeah, I had to look. I was trying to see if he's been booked. He was supposed to fight at 284, had an injury. I don't remember what that injury was, but that's a couple of months ago now. Again, we probably expect to see. Bahamundi is in two or three months, four months. So timing could line up. Timing could line up. Very solid test, Mike.

I think we were very reasonable with our wild card picks this time around. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with that. Nothing crazy. All right. You want to do the disclaimer, AK? I'm going to rifle through my picks.

Go to you. Sure. I guess so. Yeah, I haven't really vetted these. So I'll have to rifle through as well. But yeah, listen, we've been a little skimp with the Otno points, but that's because, again, we've had so many submissions these days. It's very hard to get one.

But if you're the only person who got a piece. pick, then guess what? We'll get you, we'll get to your point. So, and feel free to nudge us. Real free to nudge us and ask for it. Because, again, our memories are not what they used to be. And please, guys, just try to pay attention. If a fighters are already been booked, if they're, you know, fighting a different

weight class, if they've been released by the UFC, if they're close, for obvious, like, close friends and teammates, very public, close friends and teammates, you know, those things aren't going to happen. And please, just don't make your picks do-do. And we'll happily read them. All right. So we're going to start with this one. Shea Shea O'Toole

Had a different name And I'm not going to read it Try to catch me Try to catch me off guard with this Oh, geez, okay And I ain't gonna do it But nice try Nice try, Shay Shay or should I call you

Zuck I'll leave it at that Yeah, the last name Will make sense But I'm not gonna read it Oh well done Nice try He likes the

Run at it back With Adasanya Pereer Burns Shafcott Rachmanoff font versus he's with you the simone song yidong winner kevin hall michael kiesa he's with me christian rodriguez cameron simonore mnese launa pinero versus the loser of the marina hodriguez vienna jandra robophite at ufcatea lupy godinez versus michel watson gomez versus michelagozegovitch ignacio baha hume's versus deemore viz de mrs dameur hattzvich

steve garcia versus the julina rosa fernando vina govicic What do you think of this one, AK? Joe Pfeiffer versus Chris Curtis. Oh, man, I can't believe we'd even talk. We didn't have time to talk about Joe Piper, who looked fantastic. We said that fights either a first round knockout for Pfeer or Gerald Mousher takes him in Deep Waters and pulls out a win. And we got the first round knockout.

We got the first round knockout. So good for him. I think that's a bit of a step up. I think Chris Curtis, not easily, but I would certainly pick Chris Curtis to win. But yeah, if you just want to go match up winner, not winner, excuse me, but guys who performed well on this card. Yeah, Pfeiffer and Curtis, you could certainly do a lot worse than that. And by the way, my great call on Sam Hughes.

Did you end up eventually, did you pick her? You picked her, right? I did not pick her. Okay, but you said a lot of things that kind of played out that she was a really, really massive test for someone with just making their UFC debut. And as only used the first round, she had a really good chance to win. Yeah, and I did it. I said the same thing about Gerald Mearschart, and I pulled the trigger on Mearschart as the dog and not Sam, which is hilarious.

But either way, I think both assessments were right. I think if Merechert had had gotten out of the first round, a very good chance he wins that fight. Sam Hughes did get out of the first round. She won the fight. Yeah. Dad Jackson, Ignacio Baja Madas versus Mark Jacasey, Lupe de Juana Pinero,

bodybags Piper versus Chee and Jokwani, perhaps wanting to help Cheedy slide out of the middle-weighty middleweight conversation. Definitely would. Yeah. Kirste Curtis versus Nassar de Imovov. Rodriguez versus Lawrence. he dad Jackson saying Rob Font won the Umar and Amalgamate up

sweepstakes Kevin Holland versus Gilbert Burns all right um Robbie Ryan this is actually the last one I got because I think people thought we were going live today they have to do

Adisania versus Perrier 3 Burns versus Leon versus Colby winner Shirley and Adesania has just claimed Kio of the year it's the leading contender right now agree or disagree I have the memory of a goldfish, but I immediately went to add it to our sort of internal best of 2023 chat on MMA fighting.

So it has to be up there. It's not a super long list so far. I mean, there's been some great chaos. But yeah, I mean, as far as championship level chaos, it's in the clubhouse leader for the year. It's the clubhouse leader. That was pretty great. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I agree with that assessment.

Totally. All right. That's it, AK. It's on to you. I don't have too many. I don't have too many either. Paltress and Cordette on. on email sending me

Sam Hughes, Cheyenne Valismiss Steve Garcia Sean Woodson gosh Steve Garcia is fun that guy's so fun Kevin Holland versus Jack Delamadelena I don't love that

right now Gaslam for Sean Strick That's interesting Is it time for JDM did he not So he doesn't have a matcher We're trying to chuck him in there with Vicente Leuke

I think Collins Yeah But I'd rather see a luke fight Gaslam Sean Strickland Shore Lupiginez Yasmin Haragi Instagram

MMA heads. Welcome back, MAHEDs. Pretty prolific fight predictor normally, and it's just been MMIA for a while. So welcome back. I hope everything's okay. Adisanya Shemiyev. Mike, how'd you feel about that? I just, I need to see Shemayev

went to fight at 185 first. Yeah, yeah. Give him Paula Costa. If he beats Paul Acosta, give him the title shot. Let's see, some of these have been read out. Burns versus Neil, Jeff Neal. Okay, yeah, font.

Yeah, there's font again, Song-Simon. Skip some of these. Sorry, guy. Derns versus Jeff Neal? Wow. You know, hey, listen, that's what you get for talking about walking out of the UFC, right? Pinheiro versus Dern Hill Loser. Pfeiffer versus Jun Yonge Park.

I feel like a lot of people pick that after Piper's first win. And some of these we've read already. Thank you, M.M.A. heads. Matt, Matt, is this Matt Bradbury, I believe? Matt Bradbury. Oh, again, always sending in great picks. Sorry, I got I lost my screen for a second. Sam Hughes, Cynthia Calvio.

I don't know if Cynthia Cavio is going to... Mike, this has to be it for her, right? It was a fun fight. She didn't look bad at all. She didn't look, she did not look bad. She did not look bad. No, she didn't look bad. It just took too long to get going.

I thought she won the... I thought the 327 car was Garbo. I thought Calvio definitely won that third round. It was close fight. It was close fight. It was a good one. But yeah, I think Calvio is probably done. Gasolam Derek Brunson

Brunson is not retired, right? He had sort of a thank you tweet after his last loss, but I think it was just meant more as like a, like on face value, right? Oh, just thank you everyone for supporting me. I'm doing fine. Like, some people have read it as a retirement. I don't think he's retired.

Well, I mean, he said like, thank you to anybody who has ever watched my fights ever in my life. I mean, it was, it seemed like he was fishing for like responses to be like, Oh, you're retired. Like, how do we feel about this? But he didn't actually say the word.

So I think he, I don't think he's done. I think he's done either. I would say he is less done than Mazdaal. Mazdaal, I think, is done, done. At least in the UFC. Could we see Mazdaal, like, go and box, sure. But I don't think he's fighting in the UFC anymore. If they ever run another game bread boxing event,

he should definitely be on it. I mean, he didn't even show up for game bread boxing four. which was messed up. It would be nice if he actually main-evented the next card with his name on it. Rob Fawn versus Dominic Cruz. How you feel about that? Oh, that's fun. That's fun.

I think he's stage. I didn't love his callout. If there's one thing I will knock on Rob Fon, I didn't love the Figggy Smalls callout. Wasn't a fan of it. I mean, Fingy Small is fighting Cody Garbrandt, so. Be damn right he is. Why even waste the callout? David Cartwright.

What's up, David Carr? A lot of the same picks we've read out. versus the silence behind the violence Jonathan Martinez. I considered this one as well. Golly, that is fun. I love that fight. I thought about it for Font, though, too. Maybe it makes more sense for Yonez right now.

But Martinez is on what, four fight, five fight, five fight winstreet? Yeah, Fon. Fon's going to be a top five Bannamway. He's going to get a bump up in the rankings to the top five after that performance. So, yeah, I don't think he'll be fighting TSTV. Christian Rodriguez versus Cody Garbrandt. Zero chance that fight happens. Calvin Castle,

Impaolo Costa, and Piper for his André Muniz. Have a great weekend. Thanks, David, from Scotland. David, I don't know if we talked about this. You better be a Celtic supporter and not a Rangers supporter. Or Boston. Well, okay, not those Celtics. I hate that I have to root for Celtic,

and people think there's a chance that I think I'm rooting for the Boston Celtics, because that will never happen. And then quickly to Twitter, let's go. Crabs has one big. Steve Garcia, Andre Feeley. if Ryan Hall wasn't injured it wasn't injured I'd have had him too

a bunch of brothers in that zone with fights booked already including your favorite all caps juicy J well so we see Toke our pal toke Gerdin Jensen

I know you're not going to read on air can't be there for the live show jokes on you Toke we're not live we are going to read it he can say I could steal these picks now I'll give you credit sir Poetan stays to make it a trilogy if he goes up he should face Yon

we might talk about that Burns has to fight Bala another font Figgie. Did he send you a message on? Am I reading out one you already just read? No. That's a Rob called for. Rob called for Figgie. Oh, Rob called for you. I'm sorry. Oh, there you go.

So I'm sorry. Toka. Toka's down with that. Kevin Hall and Sean Brady. Time for Curtis to move down to Welterweight and fight J.D.M. Amazing fight. I think Chris Curtis is loving life at 185, though. Yeah, we talked about this on the post-fight show,

and Jed sold me on it. Completely goes, why would you do that? like, Walter weights a way better division. Middleweight is not a good division. And he could just fight. Because if it's, you know, it's the choice of fighting the Jack Delamadalian's and the Vicente Luce and those guys or fighting Jack Hermanson, you take the Jackermanson fight. Yeah.

So I think he's probably, I think he's happier just being in middleweight. And he just got an extra 50 Gs for a fight of the night at 185. So not cutting weight, extra 50 grand at a weight class where his cardio is probably so much. I mean, he's good cardio. 170, but 185, probably fantastic, no issues, no cutting weight. He's loving life up there. I'd like to see it because I think there's good matchups, but if he says if he never fights at welterweight again, I have no problem with it.

Chris Curtis, love your life. Hayes with third, Adisanya Pedetta 3. What else we got? I don't want to read stuff we've already read out here. Font and Peotryon, sure. Christian Rodriguez, Ricky Terseo. It's pretty Ricky. Where are you, sir?

Get out here and fight this man. Bahamandis, Fresium. Garcia versus Almeda Dawadu winner Hermon I got just a couple more here Hermon Gaslam versus Imov

Maybe we can finally see this fight I agree Another Rodriguez-Turcio matchup I like that Holland versus Luque Burns Balal Addisina Hamza people come on

And Alex McAdam will close us out Joe Piper Jo Piper Wachenebuckley Love it, banger Michelle Warson Gomez Corey McKenna Luana Pinero Loma Lupunmi

Okay I like that Raul Rosas Jr. versus Brian Kelleher, win or lose April 29. No, we're going the wrong direction. He needs to go less veteran, not one of the most veteran guys at 135. No, what are we doing?

Holland, J.DM, Shore, again, Vaughn, Piotr-Jolm, Scha, Alex Padetta, Marvin Vittori. Okay. And Izzy and Hamzat. Mike, it's out there. People just throwing Izzy Hamzat out there. Look, if Izzy wants new challenges,

Hamzot's a pretty damn good one. Jeez, Louise. If you're not going to do the trilogy, Hamzot's the biggest fight. It's the biggest fight out there for him right now. Wow. Listen, people want it. Great picks to everyone this week.

Send in your picks to me on Twitter at Alexander K. Lee. On Instagram at Alexander KK. K.K. Lee. And email me, Alex. Dotley at SBNation.com. Yes. Instagram and underscore heck. JR.

Sorry for the late notice of the switch of format and all of that. But next week will be easy because we're going to be doing a bunch of fight nights. So we'll be on the podcast network for those. UFC Kansas City going down next week. Pretty good card. Pretty solid offering here. We have obviously a great main event.

Max Holloway versus Arnold Allen. We have Edson Barbosa versus Billy Q. Dustin Jacoby versus Osamat Mirza Kanoff. That is going to be an absolute wild firefight. Ewan Kuchalaba versus Tanner Bozer, a.k. That's a weird fight. Have you seen light heavyweight Tanner?

Have you seen? No, and we talked about this for a long time, like that he said, like, he looks ridiculous. Like, he is jacked. I'm looking at it up right now. I'm looking at him right now. I think it's on his Twitter. It's ridiculous. Keep going.

Keep going. Yeah. Pedro Munoz, Chris Gutierrez, Clay Guida, Rafa Garcia, T.J. Brown versus Bill Algeo. Brandon Royval. Trying to make it the year of the raw dog. Takes on Mateus, Nicola, Ed Herman, Zach Cummings, Pierre Rodriguez, Julian Robertson, Landa Vanana, Daniel Zelliellie. Bruna Brazil versus Denise Gomez, Gaston, Bologios versus Aaron Phillips, and Jocelyn Edwards

versus Lucy Pugilova. Did you see the photo, AK? I did. He's got abs. He's got abs. Dude looking shredded at two o'clock. That's wild. That's a good card.

Yeah, it's a very solid fight nine card. It's one of the better fight nine offerings for the ultimate fighting championship. We'll discuss the aftermath of that from a matchmaking perspective right here next week. So thank you very much. Hope you enjoyed all of our coverage. Shout out to Jose Youngs. Our boots on the ground in Miami. The man.

The myth and the legend. The man with the lilac hair. Mr. Jose Young's. Incredible stuff. So back next week, right here on the program. Always remember, don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. And we will have lots of fun following UFC, Kansas City, right here.

And on to the next one, the podcast. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.