MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC 289

Episode Date: June 11, 2023

Amanda Nunes dominated Irene Aldana in the main event of UFC 289 to retain her bantamweight title, and then announced her retirement from the sport. With the women's featherweight division likely being shut down, and the 135-pound title being vacant, where does the division now go? 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, while also discussing what could be next for Aldana after coming up short in her first UFC title fight. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush after the former champion stopped the surging Dariush in the first round, Mike Malott following his second-round submission win over Adam Fugitt, Dan Ige after his unanimous decision win over Nate Landwehr, along with fellow main card winner Marc-Andre Barriault, 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian

in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. Hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. Yes, UFC 289 is in the books, and it's time to matchmake after a pretty fun card in Vancouver. one of the all-time great fighters

has announced her retirement after a dominant title defense. The next challenger for Islam Makachev appears to have a name, and his name, you know what his name is, and much more to discuss from a matchmaking perspective from Saturday's card.

I am Mike Eck, yes, we are coming off of a pay-per-view event. Yes, we are not live, couldn't swing it, because I have a flight to catch it a few hours, but we wanted to give you a show, wanted to make sure we can make that happen, And joining me to give you that show is the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, and my best friend, gosh darn it. Alexander Kay Lee.

Good morning, AK. Good morning, my best friend. We're recording the show just hours after you and I were on the live watch, watch party. We watched on the main event. We watched Amanda Nunes and we ran Al-Dana. And you're even less hours after the Post-Fight show. I didn't realize, I forgot, you know, it's a pay-per-view. So, of course, we got to wait until after the post-fight press conference.

And then I think as I was sort of winding down on the night, I saw like, oh, preview shows going live. And I'm like, this is insane. This is, why are they like this to us west coasters? I mean, honestly, even if you were on site, even if you're on West Coast time, it would probably be a pretty brutal turnaround. So, but you know what, Mike, the card was, I thought, pretty entertaining to watch. History was made in the main event. You know, we had a moment. It's the only moment where I kind of regretted not being in.

Vancouver, but only only a little bit, to be honest. It was actually kind of fun to be able to see, you know, on the broadcast, how awkward sort of the whole retirement ceremony when he started off. But ended very well. Great night for Canada, Mike. Great night. Five and O for fighters born in Canada. And shout out to, of course, Deanna Bobita as well, who, who I think a lot of Canadians

are claiming us their own now, fighting out of Stony Creek. So I have nothing bad to say about last night's card. I thought it was just a really fun show. all around. And I went 5 and 0 on the main card picks for the first time and God knows how long. Does not happen often. Nicely done. Thank you. What did I do?

I think of, no, I went three and two. I went with the Aldana pick, which a lot of people did. It seemed like the way I mapped it out, I was like, this is going according to plan. And then it just never got better for Ernie Aldana. It was just a dominant performance from Amanda Nunes, who went on to announce a retirement. here's what I loved about this, AK. One, she didn't retire in the first place out of spite. And then she actually retired sort of out of spite again, which I thought was fantastic.

Like, Julianne is in the crowd. They show her on the camera. She's sitting there saying, it's one in one. I'm the one. I should be in there fighting. I'm going to get my shot next. And then Amanda just slams the door in her face and retires kind of out of spite. And out of sort of necessity.

and want and need, but it still kind of went to the spite story, which there's probably a semblance of truth to the spite. And I just, I loved it all around. And as cringy as Giuliana Pena's response to it was, as Jed said on the post-fight show, you got to respect it. If you're going to live your truth, live your truth to the fullest, even if you're the only one who believes it. And boy, does Giuliana Pena feel like she's the only one who believes it?

I don't have to respect it. Pretty much kind of an A-plus all around. I don't have to respect it. to respect it. I don't have to respect. I don't respect anything that Juliana Pena is doing. I respect her for beating Amanda Nunes. I respect her for again, maybe we'll get into this. Probably getting, you know, if they do the vacant title fight, probably one half of that. I respect that. But everything she says is just embarrassing. And God help us, she might be the UFC champion, like the next U.S.

Bantuway champion. And that's fine. Again, like I said, then all the respect to her. But I don't respect any of this hurt tactics immed is running and i have even let i have zero respect for anyone uh who even remotely agrees with what she's saying because if you do you're just a you're an absolute idiot so i don't think anybody actually like believes what she's saying but she believes what she's saying is this is why there's there's some respect trolls out there mike there's some trolls out there oh i know that that's for that's for sure so you mentioned that Pena could be one half of the next title fight. This is the perfect opportunity for the UFC to do a tournament.

This is the perfect opportunity. We talked about this a little bit on the post-fight show. The UFC is not going to do this. They're not going to have fun with this. It's just going to be the same kind of names that are in the mix. Holly Holm is fighting Myra Buena Silva. We got Pena. Raquel Pennington is the back of fighter who is also in the crowd.

I have been on the show every time Pena or Pennington fights. They have to match these two up. This is the fight that needs to happen. But is this the fight you think the UFC is going to make for the belts? How do you think they're going to handle this now that Amanda Nunes is no longer the Bannamway champion, no longer the featherweight champion, and it appears that the featherweight champion chip is no longer a thing. Mike, did you update your, we didn't have to. So we'll let people know this week. We're going to do not, I don't think we're doing a full ranking show. Normally after a pay-per-view, fans, you know, or

MMA fighting readers, are used to seeing we do a pound-for-pound update, we do a global rankings update, all the divisions, and we do a podcast. I think we're only doing a pound-for-pound rankings update this week. It was not, listen, going in, it wasn't the strongest card.

You and I are pretty positive about it as it went down, but I think it lived up to our modest expectations. So it's not like we're jumping for joy. It killed all expectations. No, it lived up to them. So we're only doing pound for pound. But, Mike, I want to, did you update your bantamweight women's rankings just in your head?

Did you do kind of a quick, like, well, who's the number one women's bantamweight now? I mean, it's probably Juliana Pena. Yeah, yeah. Probably Pena, Pennington. Yeah. That's how I would do it, one, too. Yeah. That sounds, that feels wrong.

It just feels wrong. I know, and I know, I know Pena was legitimately the number one, 135 pound fighter in the world, you know, for a moment that she beat, She beat Nunes. So it's not like this is not the first time she's been number one. But it just feels wrong. But again, like we said, we said, Pena, Pennington, one, and two in some order. And it feels even weird to say Pettington's number one. And then behind that, you have Ketland Baer, you have Holly Holme, René, Adana,

Mayor of Buenos Silva, and then Yana Santos and so on and so forth. Again, this is, I could read off all the names, the women's band to wait division. It would not take long. There's not that many. But yes, so Juliana Pena, as much as I'm like, you know, saying I find her trash talk and stuff. so deplorable and dull, she has to be part of that one half of that vacant title fight. She has to be. And Pennington, if they go by Colby Covington rules, successfully weighed in as a backup, she did the UFC as solid.

She has to be a little and a half. Like, the only other thing you see is maybe if Schifchenko says, I want to go back up to 135 now and have a shot of that belt because, you know, I've always wanted to. And, well, it's a shame I couldn't fight Amanda. I still want to see if I can, if I can become a two-division champion. but I think it would be unfair, pretty unfair to both Peña and Pennington to not have them fight for the vacant title and let Schochenko jump over either of them, as much as fans would love it. And we would love it in the media probably. What would you rate the chances of, and it seems like they're going to do Valentina Schochenko versus Luxegrasso 2, maybe on that September 16th Mexican Independence Day card in, of all places, Las Vegas, Nevada.

let's just say Schifchenko goes out there and wins. Sure, they could run it back a third time. But what would you rate the chances of Valentina Schifchenko, who has been doing this for a very, very long time and seems to be, like, she's still very good, but kind of on the back nine from a skill set and just sort of a perspective of athletic prime, sort of on the back nine of that?

What would you rate the chance of Schifchenko if she wins back the title just saying, you know what? I'm going up to 135, Pena, Pennington, whoever wins meet your maker in the next fight i think she would at least have to offer uh or or the uc would want her anyway to offer grouseau a trilogy bro i know it sounds silly why would you have these two fight three times in a row it's not like rassos has a resume that even compares sschenko's yet but they kind of did it with the moreno and davison there was a

reason for it of course there's a you know those uh that first um you know the davison uh marino a few kind of served off kind of wonky, but I would think they like Grasso enough that they would give her another shot. And that, win or lose, act as Shevchenko's farewell to the 125 pound division, right? And again, it works out for them because it's not like they need her to come up and fight for this

135 pound title. So now that I've said that, now that I've said like what makes sense and what I think, I think they'll do, obviously Shepchenko is going to beat Grasso and then vacate the belt and go jump to 135 and take one of these spots. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know, Mike. And the many is, I'm not against it. I think Shepchenko beats Pena or Penington. We've seen her beat Pena. And I'm pretty confident she beats Pendington too. So really, there's no reason for her not to make that move to 135 as soon as she can win or lose against Grasso on her next fight. Again, I would be picking her to win.

So I don't know. So I'll go percentage-wise, chance that she, man, pretty good chance if she, after the, she beats Grasso, still pretty good. Like 60%. I think this is a pretty good chance she just goes for it. But that would suck for Grasso though.

Yeah. I think the more you talk about it, the more you almost talk yourself into it. Yeah. Because it just makes so much sense because what else is there for to accomplish? Like the only thing she can really add to her resume is winning that belt, winning the 135 pound title like what else does she need to do if she beats the lex grass i mean there's

still a a young crop of contenders on the way up but it just seems that i don't think she wants to stick around and fight like six more times i think she's got like three or four fights at most left in her and i think she wants to accomplish that goal she's not going to be able to fight i man an nunez for a third time which i think at the end of the day i'm okay with after watching those first two fights that they had and it's just unfortunate that we're not going to get it even though it seemed to be the fight that everybody wanted to see for the last two or three years during their runs. But congratulations to Amanda Nunes, incredible career, incredible run. So we know what she's about to do.

She's about to sit back and enjoy the retirement life. But Arrina Aldana, AK, stepped into her first UFC title fight. This did not go well for her at all. She was hesitant. She was, she looked very nervous. She looked fired up what she got in there. But once the fight began, it was just a whole different ballgame. I think she got credit for landing 41 significant strikes in the fight,

and I would say that's probably much too high if we go back and count actually every strike she landed in the fight. Manna Nunes broke the record for the most significant strikes and most strikes she's ever landed in a UFC fight. It's just a tough night at the office for Rainy Aldana. But we are going to matchmake for her. She is one half of the main event. Where does she go after coming up pretty short in her first UFC title fight? Yeah. Yeah, it was a tough night for Alana.

Great, great performance by Nunes. Probably one of the best versions of Nunes we've ever seen from a physical standpoint, from her technique, the mixing of the martial arts. She was dominating the striking early, mixing some grappling later. It was just a complete performance for the champ. So, Al-Donna, tough as hell, you know, no shame in it. I'm sure she'll watch the tape, though, and be frustrated with, you know, if the possibility she could have just presented a little more of an offensive challenge to

a manor news, but it's fine. Listen, we've been saying this division. There's not a lot of ways to go with it. I think I'd like to see her fight Ketland Veyt-Eyad again. If Ketland Veyt-Veyad beats Pani Kianzad, the fighting in London, I believe, July 22nd. And at the same time, if Kianzad beats Veyed,

then don't worry about that rematch, then you have Kianzad fight Aldana. But, yeah, Aldana, I'd be very surprised if she was in consideration for the vacant title fight, whenever that happens. other than that boy don't has fought a lot of people in the top ten already so yeah I'm going I'm going

winner here I'm going she should chill you know let her her face rest she took a lot of punches on Saturday wait to see what happens in London and then have her team you know try and get the winner of that fight so my suggestion for the Pena Pennington fight

is that it should not be it certainly shouldn't be a paper remade event you cannot do that I wouldn't even my suggestion is because there's so much hype behind this season, that's the main event of the Ultimate Fighter Finale. Like go back and do like an Ultimate Fighter finale event.

Do it in a smaller venue, whatever. However you want to do it. Like don't do it at the apex is like a mix in with the fight night card. Do like its own separate thing. That could be the main event. That the rivalry stemmed from tough. They were on one season. Dana White thought that those two were going to fight in the finals.

It didn't come to fruition. And now all these years later, they could finally fight each other and do so for a title on the most hyped season of the show ever, I think that would be a pretty cool idea. Mike, you are speaking my language. You are speaking my language. I love that you said Ultimate Fighter finale.

Because they stop calling these shows that. They're just like, oh, here's a UFC on ESPN show that happens to have the Ultimate Fighter finale on it. And I'm like, come on. Call it what hashtag tough 30 finale. Hashtag tough 31 finale. How dare they disrespect these once thrilling and honored finale shows? I would love that.

I think that's a tremendous idea. You're welcome, UFC. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything.

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For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. As far as Aldana goes, we mentioned her name already. Myra Buenos Silla is fighting Holly Home, July 15th. I'm going Aldana, Mara, Boido Silva, win or lose. I don't think they're going to drop her too far.

It's a fresh matchup. If Holm wins, Plano Silva takes a slight step back. And if Splito Silva wins, she's probably going to have to wait for a title shot for a little while. So she probably going to have to win one more. Give her Rini Aldana, if she wins that, give her the title fight. If Aldana beats Mara Buono Silva, there you go. Maybe she doesn't get a title fight, but at least she's back on track. And we can go from there.

And again, there's just no division. There's no division. This division sucks. I saw some people saying, oh, great, it's like, it's better now because now it's wide open. Like, no, it's not. It's worse. You know why it's worse? Because Amanda Nunes isn't fighting anymore.

So it's all, by default, the division is worse. How are you going to feel when Hollyholm, when Hollyholm fights for the title in 2024? Because she's going to. And wins it. I can't wait. Two times. Two times. Two times.

Let's go to Charles Oliveri. Can we? Can we, please? The co-main event. we there's a part of me that like Casey and I were talking about this on the people's pre-fight show if the fight ended in the first round there's going to be a small part of us that we're going to be disappointed because we wanted to see this fight go as long as possible because it got built up for so long and we're all excited for this is the in a lot of people's eyes this is what they considered the main event

this is what all their attention was on but ultimately I think this fight was perfect because we got to see as you like to say the mixing in the martial arts We got to see them banging out on the feet. We got to see them on the ground for like almost two minutes, just doing all these different things, a bunch of scrambles. And in the end, we got a first round finish. Charles Freaking Olivera does it again. Knocks up Anil Darius.

Just the viciousness of his striking is incredible. And guess what, AK, UFC President Dana White did not pull the, we don't make fights after the fight. No, we're going to have the matchmaking meeting on Tuesday. no, we're going to do this or that. He said, look, I'm not going to play games. This is the fight that should happen. This rematch needs to be made, and I can't wait to see it.

So there's no friends forever here. It appears we're going to get Islam Makachev versus Charles Oliver 2 in Abu Dhabi in October. Your thoughts, and this has to be the unanimous pick, correct? Yeah, that's the way to go, man. Charles, first of all, congrats, breaking the Canada curse. I swear, we weren't putting the bad juju on them. I don't know why he couldn't win up in Canada.

That's the three of those fights, I think, were at featherweight, or at least in scheduled featherweight bouts. So really lightweight, Charles, I think, was only 0-1 in Canada. Yeah, I, listen, it was, you encapsulated the fight perfectly. That's as good as, like, a one-round fight can get. They both guys, there's more action in that fight than you see in a lot of three-round fights these days that, like, you know, listless fights that have in the apex, so can't ask for more. Darius, I thought had the right game plan, except for maybe brawling, probably brawling a bit too much.

We've seen him. He likes to do that. And it's worked for him in a lot of fights. Don't wrong. Dary's just tough as hell, but not against the guy, I think, of the level of, like, the finishing power of Charles. So he kind of rolled the dice there and paid for it. But I love that he was not afraid to play around in Charles's guard.

Del Bronx had a great heel hook attempt, but Darius's grappling is frigging awesome. So I was very doubtful that he was going to get leg locked. But, yeah, that was really fun to watch. I'm glad we got to see that of that because both guys just top shot. shelf there. So Dariusia wasn't his day. But hopefully, hopefully, we've talked about this a lot in the lead up to the fight.

This does not remove Darius from, you know, title contention forever, but it does sucks to see that eight-fight win streaks snapped. And I don't know, maybe he needs to win ten fights in a row now. I don't know. I've said, I don't think the window is as close as people think, but I know a lot of people are feeling

pretty down for Darius this morning. Yeah. But he's got to go somewhere, okay? He's got to go somewhere. We are going to match me for him because this was such an important fight. And obviously, you feel bad for Benny. This is a fight he didn't have to take.

He shouldn't have had to have taken, but here we are. And now, and I am the gloom and doom when it comes to Benile Darius. I don't think he's ever getting to a title fight. There is, I would say, like, out of a 1 to 10 scale, I'd give it like a 1.5. I'm not going to say zero because you never know. maybe there's a lightweight title fight on the books and the challenger has to pull out like 10 days before the fight and Benel Darius raises his hand. We get like a Michael Bisbing substitution type thing where he steps in and gets his chance. But other than that, I don't even think 10 wins in a row is going to get him there at this point.

So where is Benile Darius going to go from here? Who do you think he's going to have to fight? Will they give him a top five guys? He can have to fight way back against one of these young and hungry whippersnapper. at 155, what's next for Benille? Listen, Mike, he's at least on the short notice call list, right? He's right near the top

of that short notice call list. That's not a terrible place to be. It just means a lot of... It doesn't mean he doesn't have control over his fate. I think we can put it that way, if we want to put it nicely. I like the chances of him fighting Michael Chandler, win, lose, or draw

versus McGregor. Lose, I mean definitely. If Michael Chandler loses to Conno, McGregor, I would be very surprised if they didn't make Darius versus Michael Chandler. But even if he wins, even if he wins, I'm not convinced that he gets the same. We've all said, if Connor McGregor beats Chandler, he probably gets a title shot at 170 or 155, whichever one he wants. He's freaking Connor McGregor, I understand. I don't know if Chandler quite gets that benefit.

Yes, they're very happy to throw in high profile fights. Yes, he's already gotten one shot at a title, a vacant title when he fought Charles. So it's possible if he, like, Catoed McGregor, that they just like, launch him right into a title fight with Islam, very possible, or the winner of Islam Charles, whatever, whatever, however you want to phrase it. But I would, there's going to be a lot of time, I think, between Chandler's fight,

well, again, the fight isn't even scheduled yet, when that fight happens and when, you know, we see another lightweight title fight. So I think Chandler should stay busy, and I think he'd have to fight Darayush. And now if Darious lives that fight, then we're talking, boy, he probably does not get that title fight call again. But it went over Chandler, right back in there. So I'd read, and I'd just think, again, another banger at 155.

incredibly an awesome fight. So as of right the second, even if Chandler doesn't fight Connor McGregor, Michael Chandler is like number three or four on the list of phone calls. He's before Benal Darayush. There's no doubt about it. And like if for some reason Charles Oliver has like a nagging injury coming out of this fight and he can't fight in October, Michael Chandler's the first phone call they're going to make even before he fights Connor.

Like they're just going to throw him in there. There's no doubt in my mind. Like I know Dustin Poria and Justin Gachier about to fight, but they're going to beat the hell out of each other, and there's no way either of those guys are going to be able to turn around and fight us on Makachev. So, Benil Daryusha Michael Chandler will be fun,

but that is not what is going to happen because we are waiting for these lightweights that are on the come-up to get their opportunities to fight guys who have been in big opportunities and big situations. And it's got to start with a certain fighter. It's started already. Matush Gamrott got the opportunity to fight Benyled Ariush, and I kind of think this is the direction

that Benil Darius's career at 155 is about to go. He's about to just fight all of these young murderer lightweights. And it's going to begin with a guy who's fighting six days as we record. Armin Sarukian is getting ready to fight Joachim Silva. I fully expect Armin Serucyan to win that fight. And then he will be rewarded with a fight, maybe by the end of the year against Benile Darius.

Surruchin's going to get his chance. The number eight, as of right now, the number eight ranked lightweight in the world. He's probably going to go out there and dominate Joaquin Silva, maybe get a finish. At worst, it's going to be like a 3027. And he's going to go fight Benny Darius

at the end of the year. So, Serukian is my pick, okay? I had definitely thought about Surukian. Man, that is a tough. It's just not an easy life for Bineal Daryush. is it. There is no easy

next fight for him, right? If he has any hopes of staying in the title picture, it's going to be something, God, just another challenge just to climb over. It really sucks that he hasn't fought for the title yet, that he like, as you said, it seems highly unlikely he will fight for the title.

At the same time, the cards never really quite fell in the right way for him, did they? The, the, after Makachev won, that was really the best chance, right? And then Volkanowski presents this tantalizing challenger, and again, they really had no choice. UFC had to put that fight together. I don't blame the UFC at all for making Volkanowski versus Makachev.

Oh boy, Derr is just the odd. He just shouldn't have had to fight Charles. I think that's what we're all agreeing on. But yeah, I'd love to see him fight Surukhan. I think he's a real test for him, too. I know Siru Kian would be a huge favorite going to that fight, but that's a big, big, big step up. I know Sirkyan has already fought Islam, you know, and it looked fine, did not look out of his element at all.

but I think Darius brings a different kind of challenge to him so I'm totally down for that matchup Mike I like that and I'm not here to pile on B'Neil Daryush but kids if you're going to get into this MMA thing if you're going to make it to the UFC you're going to fight at 155 and find success if you get in a pay-per-view spot and you fight a guy who's ranked really highly and most people feel like if you win this fight you have done enough to get a title shot don't ever go on the microphone and say

I will fight 10 more times before getting a title shot. You call for the title shot. You don't have to be a dick about it, but just ask for it. And if you had just done that to begin with, Benil Darius, I really do feel like your fate would have been different. If you had just gone out there and said,

before the whole Volcanowski thing happened, if you just said, hey, Islam, Habib is a man of his word, I think you're a man of your word, nothing but respect. If you win this fight, you already said you were giving me the title shot. You and me, my man.

I wish you all the best. I hope you win, but I'm hoping for just a great fight. I wish you all the best. But if you win Islam, it's you and I next. If he had just done that, he's getting the, like, he's getting a title fight. He's already on the marquee to fight in Abu Dhabi. But instead, no, I'll fight 10 more times, whatever the UFC wants me to do. And he shot himself in the foot.

You got to be, I'm telling you, like most people feel like the callout is not as important. That mic time is not as important. It is very important. It is very important. It is imperative that you make that moment count. And now, like, it's worked out for Bala Mahomet. He just keeps winning, but I still am not convinced he's getting a title shot. It's just a tough row for Binald Darius.

I respect the hell out of that guy. And he deserves all the credit in the world for even taking this fight and getting in there. And I will always have immense respect for Bidio Darius. But this is prize fighting. This is the UFC. And if you want to get a title shot, you got to have it all. You got to have it all. you got to make a count. You're not fake by calling for a title shot. You're not not being

yourself by asking for a title shot. Just don't be fake about it. Don't be like, you took everything I worked for, MFer. I want your ass Islam. No, just be respectful about it. Just call for it. Just put it out into the universe. And you can get these things. But if you don't put it under the universe, you're not going to get it. Close notes. Don't get fed, okay. Mike, I like how you brought up probably two of the, like one of the, one of the worst and one of the best examples of using your post mic time because I'll fight 10 times you know 10 more opponents before you get a tell shot one of the worst lines ever I'm not saying the whole I don't remember the rest of the promo what for that single line one of the worst lines most disastrous lines I've ever heard

just does nothing for you I don't like it does I don't think it made any fans like love him more I don't think there was any like like oh man Darius this is my guy man I got a I got you know I got to follow this guy now on social media I got a I'm a cute I'm a Darius fan for life because he said this It was almost universal derision. And like someone, why did they not cut his mic and save him from himself? And then you bring up the Diaz example, which is the number, like, I think maybe the number one example all time of calling your shot. If he doesn't, if he doesn't call out Khan of Greg in that moment and do it in his such an incredible Dia's way, there's a very good chance he's not the guy who gets called to replace Dos Anios when that, like, he was at the top of that list because people remember like, oh my God.

oh like those nantes is out like oh man and then they heard about diaz like this is crazy and then resulted two of the biggest pay-per-view buys in ufc history Diaz legitimately becoming a crossover star one of the few crossover stars in mMA and i'm not like you said not everyone could be nate diaz and cut a promo like that but you could certainly do just a little better you can certainly do a little better and not completely nerf your chances of getting the next title shot so there you go there's it matters these these post these mic moments really, really, really, really matter. They really do. It was a universal groan in the MMA community.

Even Islam and Habib in the back, getting ready to fight Charles Olivera, they were groaning. Like, well, we guess we're calling out Volcanovsky now because we have nothing. We have nothing to promote an upcoming fight. So we're going to have to do everything and make our fight happen. But feel bad for Benile, but it's the UFC. It's fighting. And this is the Cadillac Division. This is why, yep.

They'll be back. And he will still make a final. living and he's a dad and he's a family man and I think life is still very good for Binaldare you she's got a lot of great things it's life is not just fighting for him he has a lot of other great things happening for him so I think this is all and all a bump in the road it was the complete opposite of a night for proper Mike malott aka we thought that this could be a potential star making night for him being in Canada we didn't expect a him fighting against Adam Fuget in a fight that was stylistically perfect for him,

didn't expect him being the sixth leg of an undefeated night for Canada coming in. He's five and O. He gets to close the show. And boy did he ever, knocks out, knocks down Adam Fuget, jumps the gilly, nasty, tight, gets the tap. Fans go absolutely bananas, cuts a great promo afterwards. A plus night from Mike Mollat. I think they have something with this guy.

I don't know how great or how good he's going to be overall, but I think Mike Mollat's going to be a guy that anytime they go to Canada, Mike should be fighting on the card, 1,000%. I think they're going to build him to be a potential face. Maybe not like, he may not be GSP part two, but I think he's going to be a potential face of Canadian MMA, at least for the company, the more they go back there. And I think he has it all.

He has the potential to be a star for the UFC. So after this big win, what are we going to do here? How big of a push do you want to give him? What sorts of matchups are you looking at? What was the one that you ultimately landed on? For a few things. I'm so sad that I didn't bet on all five Canadian fighters and Deanna Belvita

because when am I going to get the opportunity to do this again? Like again, I don't gamble and I'm made in general, but like if I, and I was looking at my picks. I'm like, the only Canadian I picks against was Jasmine Yassadavish and Jasmine if you're out there, I apologize. I keep doubting you. And that was a phenomenal performance. we might talk about her more later.

I could have won some serious money. If I had just gone with my heart and believed in my fellow Canadians, I believe I picked all the others to win even. Yeah, Kyle Nelson, who I think was an underdog. And Mike Malat mania sweeping the nation. I have not seen, listen, fans are literally clamoring over the rail. They are breaking down railings to try and touch Mike Malat.

That was very shocking to see. He said afterwards he only kind of realized, that the railing had collapsed behind him as the sounds of some 41's fat lip were playing and he made his entrance, but that would have been an all-time freak injury. If God forbid the railing or a human body

had fallen him and he just tweaked his ankle and was not able to compete, I don't know, that would have been so insane. But Mike Molotmanian is a real thing. Listen, he's a fight finisher. The UFC loves that. Pretty sharp-looking guy, I think. If I may say so myself, pretty sharp-looking guy. Comfortful in front of the mic.

delivered in a very big spot in his home country. The UFC loves to see that. That makes you a star, a star in their eyes. So, yeah, great performance. This is where we start to have a little fun, because I think with Aldana, Oliva, Daryush, and the whole vacant phantomweight title picture, it was not like too many options.

With Malat, it's wide open. How high do you want to go, Mike? I settled on, I don't want to go too crazy, but some of the names that are a little bit closer sort of like at the fringes of the top 30 where I'd like him to go already booked and I did end up going there so I'm going

because I thought oh like Nicholas Dalbyr or Muslim Salakab would be perfect and they're fighting each other they're fighting each other the next weekend so it's a I think it's a huge step up but Malat is like weirdly experienced he's not he kind of started his career a long time ago and there was a hiatus and now he's

now he's fully into it Muslim Salakov, Nicholas Dalby winner June 17th for Mike Malat next. But there's so many ways you could go. I'm intrigued as to what you went with, Mike. The man is booked that I'm choosing. He's booked for a fight in July. And win or lose, I'm going with this. Because I want to give him not necessarily a big step up,

but I want to give him a more relevant name, an exciting guy in a fight that if people see this on a fight poster, they're going to be like, ooh, this is going to be fun. And chances are it will be fun. And chances are this one ain't going to the scorecard. So my selection is a man who is fighting Mahmoud Murdof on July 22nd, win or lose, Mike Malott versus Bam Bam, Brian Barberina, aka. That's what I'm going with.

Mark, I feel like I didn't even know this fight was happening. Muradab is coming down from 185. Is that right? I believe so. Am I crazy? Yeah. Wow, I totally forgot this fight was happening. Wow.

Bam Bam or Muradov versus... Just Bam Bam. Not Murdov. Oh, just Bamam. This is a win-lose-dry. Win-Lusor Dry fights Brian Barbarina next. Oh, that makes sense. Okay, okay, okay.

I'm sorry. I'm looking at the booking now. This is, is this fight that... Or is Brian Barbarina going up to 185 for just to do it? I'm seeing on top of all just, I don't remember. I don't remember this fight being booked. I think we wrote it up on M8Fighting.com, but I honestly don't remember the circumstances is around it.

I guess it's a middleweight fight. Either way, I assume Brian Barbarina is not staying in 185. So, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Win, lose or draw, Brian Barbarina, Mike Malott. I'm trying to see where I have. I have Barbarina in the top 25 of my UFC rankings. That'd be nice. That'd be a nice way to get Mike Malad in there.

And I think Mike would be favorite. I think Mike would be like, by the time, fight night rolled around, like, minus 150. I think it'd be a solid minus 150, which is, I don't know, people might think sounds low, given how much. steamy has but we're also talking with a guy with three ufc fights versus a guy with like almost 20 ufc fights so i think minus 150 would be pretty respectable for from a lot if that's uh that's how

shook out yeah it's even put it in the espn fight center as a middle-weight fight but maybe it's just like barn's just like okay i'll fight i want to fight i don't want to cut weight i don't want to cut weight i just you know what i feel like uh i'll get healthy before this right yeah he's not stick around yeah he's like he's like you know what i'll go to london again i cut weight on short notice to fight gunner nelson the last time. Like, I'll go back to London, but I'm just going to be a fat kid and not cut weight.

This is Brian. This is like Brian Keller her during the COVID era. He's just like, why am I cutting down to 135? Why? I'm going to find guys who want to fight other bantam weights who want to fight at 145. Let's just do that until this craziness sorts of self out.

You know, why doesn't matter. Well, what are we doing? Like, why? So Brian Brian Barbrain is smart. He's a smart guy. Yeah, it's good, good pick. Nice win for Danny Yegay. Yes.

It's Nate Landware. fun fight, Nate did his best, but it was a rain, it ended up being like a boxing match. And Danny E. Gaye is going to win that fight every single time. If that's the kind of fight that happens, Nate is going, Dan Ege is going to win 100% of the time. And Nate had his moments and he was fun and he was game and he was tough as hell. Dan was landing big on him. We dropped him a couple of times.

But Nate just tough as hell and was able to go the full 15. I scored it 3027 for Danny Gay. I think only one judge scored it that way. I think two gave it 29, 28. By the other way, the right guy won. Danny Gay is in a very interesting spot, A.K., because there's... The gatekeeper thing gets thrown around a lot, and I do think there are certain fighters in certain divisions

who can be categorized as gatekeepers. But I feel like Danny Gay is more of the litmus test at 145, more so than a gatekeeper. I compared him, not to like a Neil Magny at 170, but more of what like Hafiela Sunsao was for a long time at 135. Like if there's somebody on the come-up,

you chuck them in there with Hoffiella Sunsau, and it's more of a test. Like, is this dude the real deal? Could he be a top five guy? Could he be a guy who potentially fights for a title? Let's throw him in there with Hafiela Sunsau and find out. And I feel like that's what Danny Gay is at 145. So, but he's already, he's taken on all these guys.

And he was on the long loose. And then he beats Damon Jackson, who was on a nice run. Then he beats Nate Lamware, who's on a nice run. He's already had to defend the ranking twice. So to me, he deserves a step up in competition. But as the way most people view him as the litmus test, we can accomplish two things at once, okay. We can accomplish two things at once.

We can have a litmus test fight, but we could do it against a guy who is ranked higher than Dan Igay. So my pick is Danny Gay versus Giga Chikaze, AK. Any idea we thought about doing Giga versus Brian Ortega, scrap that all together. And let's do Danny Gay versus Giga Chacazza. Next, fight night main event. Do it in Vegas. Do it at the apex.

I don't care. Doesn't matter to me. Maybe September, October, sometime in the fall. Danny Gaget, Giga, Giga, Chacazza, five rounds. That's the next fight. I forget, do we know what is taking Giga? Because I feel like we've brought him up and on to the next one a lot. What is taking him so long to actually book a fight?

Oh, he said something like he's, he said something like he's, he's looking for fight and they haven't been giving him fights right that's sort of his that's he said that in social media I think yeah it's I don't know I don't know if he's just like the he's been saying just a lot of things that just haven't been true right the UFC wants me to fight this guy and then they like totally don't do it and now he's saying well the UFC wants me to fight Brian Ortega which to me makes absolutely zero sense to put that fight together because giga was not competitive with Calvin Cater for a single second of that 25 minutes like Calvin and beat the living hell out of him for 25 minutes.

He does not deserve a Brian Ortega fight. And I know Brian's coming off of a tough ending and an injury and all that. I get it. And I even talked about this on the post-fight show. If you want to do Dan Igay versus Brian Ortega, like I'm actually more in on that idea than Giga getting that fight. Like I understand the rankings and Giga's number eight and going from, you know, three versus 13 is, you know, it's a big jump, but I get it.

but I'd rather see Dan Igay get that fight because he has defended his spot twice. He's fought a lot more since Giga fought Calvin Cater. Dan's been in there with everybody, and it's time to see if he can make a run here. This is probably his last chance to make any kind of a push for a title. So I would rather see Ege get the Ortega fight if it's between one of those two guys.

But to me, let's just have him fight it out, and the winner can fight Brian Ortega. So Ege versus Giga is the fight to make for me. I love it. I think that's the way to go. Yeah, Ige did mention Ortega as one of the names he was interested in fighting after. The other name he mentioned was Bryce Mitchell, and I still want to see that one. This is a pick I've made on on the next one.

I think earlier this year, I want to say, the last time Danigay fought. Of course, then Mitchell was booked a fight of L'Oyev, and that fight fell through, so some people wanted to see that fight rebooked. I've kind of moved on from the of Lov-Mitchell matchup for now. Not like I never want to see them fight. I just think, like, now I want of Lov to get like a higher-ranked guy. I actually have E. Gaye slightly ahead of Mitchell in my rankings, so this wouldn't be like a great move for Danny Gay, excuse me. But he is behind, we'll see what the rankings look like on Tuesday.

He is behind Bryce Mitchell on the UFC's official rankings. So if he's looking at those, him and his management are looking at those, they could see that as a logical flag. And knowing that is why he's one of the names that was mentioned at EGA's post-fighted press conference. So I'm still cool with that. I still want to see that fight. this falls kind of in between what you said. Like, it's not really a litmus test, not really a gatekeeping. They're actually kind of around the same, like, position right now.

But I just think it would be really fun fight. And again, it's something Ige wants. It's something Ike wants. And he feels will, like, you know, maybe boost him towards, like, a top seven or eight opponent. And he might be right. That might be the win he needs if he can pull that off. So, yeah, I'm still on the E.K. Mitchell train. I still, like, would like to see that one happen.

I'd be fine with that fight. I just feel, like, I feel like, I feel like, style. would probably pick E.A. to win at this point. I know Bryce is still very good, and I don't want to take the Deporia loss as like, well, this is who Bryce Mitchell is forever. But I feel like Dan would probably win that. I would favor him to win that fight. For the same reasons, I picked him against Damon Jackson,

for the same reasons I picked him comfortably against Nate Land where I feel like it would be a very similar thing. Experience matters in the sport, not just getting in there and fighting, but the quality of competition, I think is so important. And this would obviously be good for Bryce, but I do feel like they're going to go to the Bryce Mitchell, Mavzar of Lof, well, they're going to try it one more time and see if they can put it together. They're kind of circling each other. They're taught each other out on social.

So I do think they're going to end up going in that direction. But we shall see. But, AK, the main card kicked off with the fight that we called maybe it's the middle, to crown the new middleweightiest middleweight champion. And it turned out of the 11 fights, this is the fight of the night, AK. Mark Andre Barrio. 50 geez. And Eric Anders went out there in.

had a hockey fight. They had a hockey fight in Vancouver for most of it. It really did. It was great. It was a fun fight. But in the end, the no-bets barred, chat GPT bet caches again. Mark Andre Barrio wins a dominant decision against Eric Anders. And the Vancouver crowd was very happy to see Power Bar get his hand raised. So what do we do at 185 for the number one or number two contender for the middle-weightedist middleweight title? Who knows? Maybe he's not even in the running anymore after that fight. No, no, I think he still is. That was the perfect middleweighty, middleweight fight. I know we sometimes used middleweighty, middleweight in a derogatory way, but this was perfect. This was like, because it was a fun fight. I'm glad they got to 50 G's.

It probably was the most entertaining back and forth fight of the night. I mean, I know it was 3027, Badiou, but it was, Anders had his moments. Andrews was at least like sort of coming forward the whole time. It was, it takes two to tango sort of thing. And he was coming in for a lot and engaging. And, you know, Baguil was just sharper than him. And that's why he won on all three cards. But Anders did not.

I don't think he embarrassed himself in any way. I thought he had a lot of great moments of offense. And, you know, again, made it an exciting fight. And it helped to, it was a well-deserved both guys getting that bonus check. But it's also a middle-weighty fight because I don't know how much, I'm glad you described as a hockey fight. Because I don't know, other than that aspect of it, how much of this fight we will remember.

by the end of the year. Like, I don't think this is making anyone's top five lists. That doesn't make it a bad fight. I'm just saying it's kind of funny that it's a fight of the night winner, and I will not consider it probably in the top 10 for fights the year when all is said and done. And also, if you took, other than the knockdown by Power Bar in round one, if you took any moment from the fight and, like, didn't show the time and didn't show the round, you would have no idea what part of the fight you were watching.

Because so, it was just so consistent in it. it's in its action. Like I say, it was just a lot of in-close fighting, a lot of Andrews coming forward, a lot of Baccio trying to counter. So fun fight, fun fight, but perfect middle-weighty belt lived up to it. And we talked about Charles Olavera breaking the Canadian curse.

Power Bar, by the way, had not won in Canada since signing with the UFC. Former two-division champion in Quebec's TKO promotion. Very high expectations coming in. His first two fights were in Canada, and he lost decisions in both of them, and then had not found Canada since. until Saturday.

And there you go. It gets that much needed win. So good for him. The bad news is, Mike, I don't know if they see him as a legitimate contender or just someone that they can always put on main cards when they come to Canada, which is fine, not a bad way to live. Like we said, that may be Mike Molot's future someday, right?

Just high placement on cards when they visit Canada, occasionally getting a ranked opponent, but maybe not viewed as a true contender. I was going up the list to see how far. we could push Mark Andre up. A lot of people are booked. So if you guys, he's already fought, I think they might use him to build up one Joe Pfeiffer.

And I'm not even saying that's necessarily like a fight. And that's not a fight that Bachel can't win, but that would definitely be looked at as Joe Piper is the A side, getting a name against a tough guy for his third UFC fight before Joe Pfeiffer, you know, gets a top 15 opponent. I'm viewing it as a matchmaker. I'm trying to be objective here. I think there's a good possibility that fight happens.

I like the idea. I thought about that as well. I forget who I suggested for Joe Piper before, but Joe Piper posted something four days ago. Getting, it looks like a surgery. He's in a hospital bed. He's flipping the bird. And it said, here we are again, getting some injuries fixed up.

And we'll be back big dogs. Can't stop, won't stop. So I don't know how long he's going to be out for. So I ultimately did not go that route. What I did do AK was I don't know if it's a last chance here but I think we're getting very close

and I feel like this is a good matchup where this particular fighter could get a win but if he doesn't it could be pretty bad I'm going Mark Andre Barrio versus Edmund Shabazian that's the fight I'm going with AK Yeah I think

I think we have to go here because we can't we gave Edmund no and I don't mean this to be disrespectful but from a skill set-wise perspective Dalchellang Gamboa is it's very easy to prepare for like you know what you're going to get you're getting a guy's going to try to take your head off and for a guy's technical on the feet is Edmund Shabazi and that is a tailor-made let's get him back on track matchup so the UFC has already given him that favor then they throw him in there with Anthony Hernandez and he just gets run over terrible had his moments but gets run over hated that matchup this is a lot of this is a lot of this is a lot of this is a matchup this is a lot of this is a matchup this is a is this is right in the middle. This is right in the middle of that it's a fight that Edmund could win. I think it's a fight that people are going to pick him to win, but it's a fight that Mark Andre Beiro can play spoiler as well. And if he does do that, I think we have to take a look at Admin Shabazi and be like, look,

not saying you can't ever be back, but we got to take a break. The Ross and Rachel. Ross and Rachel ultimately got back together on the last episode of Friends, but they took a break and they took a long one. And that could be kind of where Edmund Shabazzian and the UFC's relationship goes if he can't beat Mark Andrea Barrio. So I'm going with that, AK. Yeah, that's good. And I actually have, it's going to sound weird.

I actually have, well, I shouldn't sound weird. Edmund has more experience. Actually, has some big wins before going on this slump. I actually have Edmund ranked above Joe Piper. So, yeah, if either way, Mark Andre gets either those matchups, like I said, Piper, we don't know because it could be injured. He maybe moves in the top 20. But yeah, I think he's definitely an underdog against Joe Pfeiffer. I think he'd be the underdog against Edmund as well.

I do think even though Edmund, I think people know Edmund when he's in a matchup against someone that's not a dominant grappler has at least a pretty good chance of winning. He's got great finishing power on the feet, good striker. Not to say that Mark Andre cannot grapple, but he's not of the level like Anthony Hernandez or some of these other guys that have really put it on Shabazzian on the ground. So, yeah, I think you do end up with the stand-up fight. And if you're Shabazzian's team, that's all you can hope for, I think, at this stage for his next matchup. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on amazing gifts. So you don't have to. They've bagged this season's Italian leather handbags.

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major quality price. On link on C4A. or in magazine. Well, let's head to the wildcard around, A.K., nice tight 11 fights. Like, pay-per-views, I think,

should now be 11 fights because that was enjoyable. We got two two in the first prelims, four in the second prelim. Like, it was perfect. Started at 7 p.m. At no point did I feel like,

oh, I've been watching fights forever. It was nice. Like, 11 was a perfect number for a pay-per-view, especially one of this caliber where it had the potential to be fun but it just wasn't not a ton of star power on it

not a ton of people were going to shell out $80 for it and I get that. But let's choose a fighter we have not matchmate for yet and matchmate for them right now. I gave away my wild card pick on the post fight show. I did not see it. So I'm not cheating here. I'll reveal it again.

Okay. I'll reveal it again here. But what is yours, AK? Did we both go with Jasmine Yasadavages? Yes. Okay. We're halfway there. Like, we're halfway to a.

I feel like you didn't go with my. I'm not going to, let's not do the countdown thing. Let's not embarrass ourselves because I'm pretty sure we did not have the same pick. I went really high in the rankings. Did you also go high in the rankings? All right. Let me ask you a question. That's like a game of guess who.

Okay, okay. Did you pick a fighter who is booked to fight already? Oh, no. I don't think so. I don't think she's, let me double check. We're not going to, we're not going to pick the same person then. You did pick someone who's already. to fight. Oh, yeah.

Oh, okay, okay. No, no. No. No. This fighter has not fought since January. She suffered a tough loss. She's tough as hell. She's in the top... Where am I? Okay, my own. She's in the top... firmly in the top 10. Number six in my UFC flyweight rankings. I think... I think... Yes, Doff just can get a fight with Lauren Murphy. I think I would have loved to see that callout. It's probably just not on her team's mind right now because again, she's pretty far back in the rankings.

But that's two straight wins now, three out of four. Her one loss was to Natalia Silva. Natalia Silva obviously looks like a world title contender, so there's no shame in that. This win over Miranda Maverick really opened my eyes. Again, I had picked Maverick to win. I picked this fight as my most sort of like my low-key banger.

And I'm not... And one, it was a pretty, I thought it was a pretty exciting fight. And two, it was exactly what I, what I was hoping for as far as is this fight illustrative of where their two careers will go. Because don't count out Miranda Maverick. We say this all time. Excuse me. Sorry. We say this all the time.

Don't count her out. She's young. But this was a bit of a tough watch. Because she looked, she really looked out of sorts. We did find out after I believe she posted social media that she had, uh, uh, some sort of injury to her eye, I think. I think she said she could barely see. So I don't know if there was a broken orbital or something like that.

So there was a lot. Listen, Jasmine really hurt her in the first round, and I guess something might affect her first to fight. So don't know what the deal is. Don't count up Miranda Maverick. But definitely count in Jasmine Yassadavish's just because that was a great performance against someone that she was an underdog against. And I think she can get Lauren Murphy.

I think that'd be a great next fight for her. Interesting. That's a good pick. I'm going with a fighter that's not ranked, though, A.K. I'm going with a fighter that's not ranked. Because I think they have something here with her. I think they have something here with her. And I feel like they need to get her.

Like, this is an impressive performance. But as we kind of heard on like heck of a morning and stuff, which was kind of surprising, but maybe it's unfair. a lot of people are jumping off the Miranda Maverick train. Like this win I don't think is going to age as well. Like I think we're going to remember the performance. But I don't think this win is going to age all that gracefully. Like all in all, which seems weird to say about a 25-year-old opponent who we were very high on just a few fights back.

So we need something to like really get her over. And to me, this will be obviously a favorable matter. as well. And it's one that's going to put the spotlight on Jasmine Jazzavizius, much like it did for a fighter who is made at worst a win away from fighting for a world title and someone who I feel is going to be a world champion for a very long time. And it started with matchmaking against this particular fighter to put the spotlight on her. And she treated this person accordingly, absolutely dominated her and is in this great position right now. I know she is booked right now. She's booked on July 22nd against Julius Stoliarenko in a matchup that makes no sense to me for the weight class since Julius Stoliarenko has literally collapsed on a scale fighting at 135. Now they're making her cut to 125.

I don't understand this. But I do feel very confident that the matchmakers know what they're doing here. The fight to make is, and I said this after Jasmine's last win, and I said this after this fighter's most recent performance. The correct answer is Jasmine Jassovisius versus Molly McCann. That is the fight. Let's do those two. I think Molly's going to beat Julius Stoley-Ranko.

I don't want to wait for London. I don't think Jason and Jazazzovisis is going to be mad about this at all. I certainly don't think Molly McCann will be mad at this at all. We do it in MSG in November. Jasmine Jazz DeVizius versus Molly McCann. Let's make it happen. First of you want to see another alliterative battle. they're always fun.

J.J. Another M. Another M. Another M. Another M. for Jasmine, Josavitius. Why not?

I'm trying to see here. What was the, did she collat? That had to have been a 125 fight that. No, it was before the Julia Avila fight. And they canceled the day before. Julia had to go home.

Oh, God. And then they fought like three months later. And Julia tapped her. Oh, God. That was a terrible. That was a terrible moment. Yeah, she should not be fighting at 125. Her last fight was a catchweight bout.

140? Yes. At 140. Is it a London fight? It's a London fight. All right, all right. This is the complete opposite of what Brian Barbarina is doing on that London car. They couldn't have made this a 135 pound fight?

Like, just screw it. Like, who cares? We just want to get Molly a fight? Why does it need to be a flyweight fight? Why? Just let Molly not cut weight and fight at 135. This is bad. Yeah.

You know what? Hey, Julius Stoleranko. wrong. Show us you can make $125. That is, this seems ill-fated. But yeah, yeah, I like, I like it. I would love to see Jasmine fight at Molly McCann within the next like nine months. I think that'd be awesome.

The Lauren Murphy idea is very intriguing, though. I wonder. I wish she'd called for it. I wish she had a name and she called for it. Yeah, she's just, she's not that type of fighter. She's not that type of fighter. I wish she called for Molly after the last win. That would be good, too. I mean, is that my time?

You have to make it now. Like, this is it. You have to make this fight now. Miami can't beat Julius Soliorenko. Like, you have to make it now. If you don't make it now, it's never going to happen. So if Jasmine gets too high and gets too hot, they're not going to make this fight. So let's just do it now.

And I dig it. So there you go. There's the wildcar pick. We'll get to some listener picks. We don't have a ton of time. I do have to catch a plane in a little bit. So we'll rifle through some of these. Do you want to give a quick disclaimer?

I don't know people sent in for Otno point. We can always... I would rather... There's a ton of list of picks. I don't know if we'll get to them all. I would rather also shout out a couple of people. Just a quick... So a couple of check the tapes, Mike.

Brad Severin, from... I think, believe from Alberta, said... We were talking on the previous show. Who was the way... And someone was asking. Who was the most northern most Canadian fighter? And I'm terrible with geography. But Brad says it is Tanner Bozer,

who is from Bonneville, Alberta, which is just north of Edmonton. So, yeah, could be. could be that sounds right to me thank you Brad and Tom Fletcher this is a follow off to BTL Mike we had a lot of talk about the number two promotion and I'm so mad I didn't think of this line

Tom said if one FC changed his name to two FC would that settle the debate of who was the number two is promotion and I'm like how did we never how have we never said that how have we never said that it's right there it's right there wow anyway he gets it I'm giving him

a half of a no point he should he should I want to give them credit because we are going to use that joke again in the future. So thank you, Tom. Yes, I don't give the full disclaimer. Just people don't just don't send us do-do. I just look up, look up matchups. Look if they're already fighting. Look if someone's injured, pregnant, whatever.

Please, before sending us your picks. All right, Mike, please. Go ahead. Go ahead. All right, first timer kicking us off. Message just coming in. Breaking news. Jason Colburn, first time submitting my picks for Otno.

Please be kind. Belbeda versus Sam Hughes. Sam Hughes just got booked. Like literally just got booked. Yes, yes. This is not Do-Doo. No. I mean, it just happened.

Lupi Godinez, September 16th, I believe. That fight is happening on this Mexican Independence Day card at the T-Mobile. But it literally just, we just confirmed this on Friday. So, knock on doo-doo. Jazz DeVizius versus Andrea Lee. Not a bad. I like that one. Barrio versus Jun Young Park.

Did they fight already? I feel like they were booked. Like I also thought about the fight, and I swear I thought it had happened. Or did Erickander's fight, Jen Young. No. Eriganders fought. No, no, no. They think they both did.

I think they both did. So this is December 2019. But listen, I'm not going to call it D-Doo because I totally forgot this fight happened. And so I'll let it slide. It's a first time or two. It's a first time. Rematch. Maybe it's a rematch.

Let it two next to it. EGay versus Billy Q. I like it. Billy Q is also booked, by the way. It's okay. Damon Jackson. I forget what date. But again, these are very new developments.

Oliver versus Islam. And then maybe Sarukian with the win in this next fight. Okay. Stephen Erseg, who made a debut. What about this, AK? What do you think about this? Stephen Erseg versus Muhammad Mahayev. Oh, wow.

I like it. Because I've said, I think, I like it too. I think Makayev needs to do some, a little bit of rehab, reputation-wise, after that very tough fight against a completely unknown guy. So, yeah, let's see. If he runs to Steve Versaig, back on the hype train, Mike. Stephen's going to get in that man's face and make him fight aggressively. So I actually like that idea quite a bit.

Drew, don't know if you're doing a live Otno, but here's some picks. What are the odds UFC folds 135 and 145 now that Amanda is gone? They're not going to fold 135. Charles versus Islam, only because I don't think the winner of Justin won't be ready for an eight-week turner. Volka Thore wrenching that if he demolishes Jaira quickly. I don't think that's going to happen. I think Oliver's got to get the fight.

The way he did it, the reception he got in Canada. The reception he gets everywhere. He's a star. He's a star. I think he's going to get the fight. Benny versus Armin if he wins next week. I'm with you there. Milot versus Alex Marono, AK.

I actually like that idea. That's a tough matchup. That's a tough fight, though. I think Marano beats him right now, so I don't want to see that. Ege versus Giga. Hopefully he's good to come back in the fall. I like that, again, we're on the same page. Power Bar versus the copy love

Ribeiro winner. Wildcard Erseig versus Nassimento seems right. All right. We're getting some Ursaig love. I appreciate that. We should have given him more love. He won a fight of the night bonus with a decision. That is very rare and well-deserved.

Very rare. Let's see. Marcus. He's going Pena-Pennington for the new title. Alvair Machchev's obvious. Mike Malav versus Santiago Ponzanibio, AK. Again, maybe a little too much too soon,

but I don't mind it. That would be a great name for him to get. He's with you with Ege Brice Mitchell, and he likes Mark Andre Barrio versus Sheriboutin Magamadoff. Deep cut. Middleweight, listen, let's keep the middle weighty, middleweight train going.

I love it. That's super middleweight. John Ray closes us out. Erseg versus Bruno Silva. That's fun. Pitbull, right? That's fine. I was like Blondado.

I'm like, I don't like that. Oh, right, right, pit bull. What's the name? Pit bulldog. Bulldog, what's the name? Bulldog. Bulldog. Bulldog.

But Pitbull actually would make sense. Not enough of those. Not enough of those, Mike. Not enough pit bulls, I say. This is an interesting fight. I actually think this would be fun. I just don't know when this person is coming back. Jasmine Jasdevis versus Tracy Cortez, A.K.

Yeah. That would have been my pit. If I had any idea of when Cortez was going to fight again, easily would have been my pick. But I just, yeah, the timetable is just completely unknown. Mark Andre Barrio versus Chiti and Jokwani.

Now, I thought about this and there was, I didn't end up going with it. And I'm trying to think, is Chidi... They also fought. Is Chiti... They fought. They fought. Oh, yeah, they did. That's why. Because Chidi knocked him out in 16 seconds.

That's due to do. That's due. That's good. I'm sorry. That's kind of dude. Sorry, John. Egey versus Alex Caseras. don't hate that one that's not like a I think last week I saw a lot of people recommending that

I think after Casaris is Yeah that's not a bad one I saw a lot of people are caught for that How about Malat versus Carlston Harris Sure Yeah good again Is Harris booked?

I don't know if he's booked But I have him A bit lower than quite a bit I think quite a bit I think Malat jumped over him with this win But sure again If you want to keep giving him a lot

Again sort of mid-range challenges I have no problem with it Let him keep building up that reel There's no, there is, like, you and I have been a bit aggressive with our matchmaking from a lot today. There really shouldn't be a rush, I feel like. I think he's, what, 31? There shouldn't be a huge, yeah, he shouldn't be a huge rush to throw him up the rankings. If you can, great.

But listen, he's a finisher. If you want to just let him keep racking on finishes, that'd be awesome. He also likes Bedarius versus Surukian after he wins next week and then added, sorry Benny. Eldana versus the Vera Kianzad winner, Pena, Pennington vacant title. and AK, this is music to your ears. John Ray is saying, don't fold the featherweight division, at least not yet.

Not until we get Norma Dumont versus Josian Nudes for the vacant featherweight title. Mike, I keep women's featherweight rankings. I don't know if you know about this. And there, in the UFC, there are seven, technically seven. And I'm counting Carol Hosa, who just went up for literally one,

145 pound fight is probably going back down to 135. So that's counting Carole Hosa. And right now with Amanda Nunes gone, Josianne Nunes is the number one ranked featherweight. One out of seven. Way to go, Josie. So John Ray, you're not wrong. She deserves to fight for a title. Wow.

Okay. Okay. On to you, my man. That's all I got. I don't want to read all these out. Again, I actually have quite a few. Our palettes, Tristan Gordet. I just want to ask you, Mike Malott, Joaquin Buckley?

That's probably like as risky as I would go with the matchmaking. honestly. But yeah, I could see them going there. Someone's getting chaos. Or it's one of those fights. They have so much respect for each other. We actually end up getting like a crappy 15-minute fight.

But I'm intrigued. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. But I don't think, I don't think Tristan's crazy for it. Casey Carpenter's with me on Jasmine and Lauren Murphy. I like that. Also, Power Barber's Inja Kuanian. People, did people not remember this fight happened?

This was, this one, this one. He deaded him. He deaded him. It wasn't like, I mean, it wasn't that. It was last year. It was last year. guys it was 16 seconds guys dude al-dana versus home two will be fine no it won't i have no earth to ever see that fight again um all right but anyway thank you kacey okay uh instagram did you read out marcus

did you did you did marcus send you i can't remember if you read our pal marcus of the of the yes i read marcus crave plumbing uh pain never's painting vacant vacant vacant belt short chucky alas versus islam and abdabi yeah there's really not a lot of ways to go with there darius versus Fiziv and Abu Dhabi? Maybe. It seems like Fiziv and Gamrod are circling each other.

Okay. So they might just go in that direction, but it just seems like, it seems awful soon for Darius to fight after what just happened. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I guess.

I think it's a winnable fight for him. Barrio and Malkun, because that's some sweet middleweight action right there. And I guess Krab is from Australia. He says, my boy, Steve Ursaver, versus the former Eternal Flyweight Champion in the big land of Oz. Oh, sorry, he is, sorry, he's the former Eternal Flyway champion versus Mateus Nicolao. Yeah, that'd be interesting. He's a keep up the work, keep up the good work, both you and Mike. I'll choke someone out in honor, in your honor at training tomorrow.

Okay, well, you know, thank you. Uh, Zhabi versus Hanayaya, uh, Bakuio versus Phil Hawes, that hasn't happened, right? I feel like Mark Andre has fought everyone for some reason, but I don't think Phil Haas is on that list. I know. Oh, AK, we lost you. If you can only see what I'm looking at right now.

What happened? I don't know what's happening. Oh, no. Ak's laptop just died. Wait a second. There he is. Okay, AK, do we have you? Yes, we have you. Okay, we're back. Okay, thank God.

All right, let me, uh, I'll pick talking i'll talk about charles oliverr chris martin charles oliverr canner gregory sorry i my laptop uh the battery i didn't think was that low it it reset at like 30 percent so okay i'll have to keep on that in the future all wow yeah so the reasoning uh we're just we're just we're just going to keep this thing flowing so yes uh why give me the reason why because you were about to give the reason and that's when it all froze okay okay uh charles olivaira versus connor mcgregor he says uh chris writes i got nothing for chuck that wind deserves a tell a shot but do we really want to see the islam rematch so soon. I think it's actually not a terrible matcher for McGregor, since Oliver doesn't

typically go for the ground game immediately. I disagree. I think Chuck, at this point, Charles Alavara just disintegrates Connor McGregor. I, Mike, I don't know if you agree with that. I mean, I think it would be fun just watching them Chuck mits at each other. The way Charles is thrown with absolute vicious intent, there's a part of me that wants to see it. I would pick Charles Olivera very fast, but that'd be fun while it lasted. That'd be a chaotic fight. Bearer Riley coming in with some fun sort of prelim fights here. Belbita, Demopolis, Steve Erseh, Alana Semento, Kyle Nelson Diego Lopez, I like all those.

Mike, what do you think of Jasmine and Karine Silva? Or do you want to keep them away from each other for now? Crean Silva, if you follow MAAfighting.com, great website. We reported that Karene Silva's next fight is already targeted. She's fighting Marina Morose in Boston, August 19th. Does Natalia Silva also? I was getting mixed up with Natalya. doesn't have a fight booked, right?

Natty Ice does not have a fight right now. Damn. Okay. And Jasmine already fought Natty Ice, so we can't do that. Jasmine. Oh, that's right. I was talking about her one loss in the UFC. Barry O'Reilly.

Also wants to see Charlie Hollis versus Connor. I guess it would be fun. I shouldn't crap on it too much. Tom Collins. So does this mean we're giving Michael Chandler a title shot with the suggestion? I guess that's what they're implying. And again, based on Michael Chandler's career in the UFC so far, probably not super surprising.

Thomas Collins, E.G. Chacadecaciz, listen, people like you're right, people like it. And run back Imavov-Kurdis. Yeah, we didn't even have time to talk about that. I hope that you run that one back, Mike. They should. They should, right? There's no reason not too, right? In Las Vegas, like, just do it in Vegas. It can be a fight. Look, there have been far worse fight night main events over the last two years than Chris Curtis versus Nazareneen Imabov. Do a five-rounder inside the apex. Give these guys a

couple extra bucks. And let's see. Let's see if Chris Curtis is cursed Chris Curtis or, I don't know. That fight was he's starting to really get good. Even if I had a great first round. It seemed like Curtis was starting to cook a little bit. And just another headbutt, man. Just crazy.

First guy to take Chris Curtis down in the UFC. That was impressive. I was really, really impressed. German likes, is with you, Darius, Thrukehan, make it happen. if Armand wins his next fight, of course. Ege versus Sudec Yusuf. Again, probably a step back ranking-wise for Egey.

But I'd love to see Sadiq's prediction for that fight. So I'm into that. Sadiq's not... Yeah, for him fighting his... Yeah, him predicting his own fight would be tremendous theater. Sudec's not booked, is he? He isn't fought a minute, has he? No.

Once his last fight? He's got a good thing going. Was it the Don Channis the last opponent? It could be. October, right? It was 30 seconds. A 30 second gilly. He hasn't fought since.

That's wild. He's got a good thing going to social media profile. Blowing up, man. Blowing up with his can't miss 100% picks. I'm believable. That is my favorite thing that has happened in M.A. In a long time. Hayesby third, again with you in the Darius Army.

Look at how they massacred my boy. Definitely a tough loss to see as a fan of Mniel. as I still think he should have just been given the title fight. Also, I'd love to say he gets some money fight. I'm not that dumb. I know he's going to fight Armin after he presumably wins next week. Boy, it does feel like the stars are lining up for that fight, eh? That is tough.

He's with me with Malat versus Dalby, Salakov, winner. Run back, Curtis Imov. Yes, Dobbius, Andrew Lee. So a lot of us are all on the same page, it feels like. And we'll close with Ryan Doherty. Ryan, what is up? Belbita versus Martinez. I assume Melli, Mali Martinez.

Hold on. How many Martinez's are there in the Straway Division? Melissa Martinez, right? Yes. Yeah, must be. Okay. Super Meli booked? Is she?

I hope so. I wanted to see for Super Melly back. I think she is booked, but let me just double check. Yeah, I'll be with you. I'll take a quick candor as well. Is she fighting Yasmin? Oh, no, she was booked by Yasser Lisen. No booking.

She's free. Okay. She's young. She's young. She'll get back in there soon. Yastafius J.J. Aldrich. J.J. versus J. J.J., sure.

Listen, not confusing at all. with me on Barrio v. Pfeer. Mike Malat versus Miguel Baezza. I think Malat, I would say, has passed Baezza in my rankings at this point. Is he? Beres is still in the UFC? He might not be? Let me check my rankings real quick.

I'm not calling the studio, by the way. I have him in there. I have him in there. And I have him actually right around the same range as Malat. So sure. But they're kind of going in different directions, right? Yeah, Baezza's lost three straight. Mike Malat 3 and O in the UFC so far.

I don't know if I don't know if I like that for Malat. It's kind of a medium. risk, little reward. Oliver Islam, of course, Darius Fiziv, and if Amanda doesn't take time away versus, oh, no, no, he wrote that before the retirement. So Pennington versus Pena for, he said originally interim, I assume he means bacon. So Mike, I think we're getting Pettington Pena in the future, and the Bantamway Division just continues to chug along, just like our show, just like our listener picks.

Guys, send those in to me, please, Twitter at Alexander K. Lee, Instagram, Alexander KK. Lee, email, alex. Lee at spination.com. Mike, where can they hit you up? IG M underscore, heck, J.R. You guys are the best. Look, if you guys liked UFC 289, you were going to love UFC Vegas 75

because nothing makes me feel better after a nice tight 11 fights for a pay-per-view set time lineup where the main card is five fights at 10 p.m. Eastern. Then a 13-fight fight-night card, 14-fight fight-night card. card that also has a main card that starts at 10 p.m. Eastern, but has six main card fights and ends

with a middleweighty, middleweight, all-time classic between Marvin Vittori and Jared Canaanernery, which is undoubtedly a guaranteed lock to go 25 minutes, at least. Marm Vittori, Jared Kenanier, Armand Sarukian, Joaquin Silva is the co-main event. Christian Leroy Duncan, Armin Petrosian, Pat Sabatini versus Lucas Almeida,

Nicholas Mota, Manuel Torres, Muslim Salikoff, Nicholas Dalby, six-fight main card that starts at 10 p.m. Eastern. And then before that, we have eight other fights like Hione Barcelos versus Miles Johns. Could be fun. Jimmy Flick, Alessandro Costa.

Kyiung Ho Kang, Christian Kinyones. Carlos Hernandez. Wow. Yeah. Carlos Hernandez versus Dennis Bondar. Felipe Bunez versus Zalgas Zuma Gulov with the hair. I'm very excited.

that. Terissa Bleda versus Gabriel Fernandez, Ronnie Lawrence back against Daniel Argetta, and kicking things off, AK UFC Vegas 79, it's 75, Medesis Bukascus versus Zach Pauga.

There you go. This is not a bad card. It's not a bad card. Look, if this is two fights lighter and a main card started at 7 p.m. Eastern, I'd be much more enthused about it. They can't be a six-fight main card.

That's cruel and unusual punishment. It's a six-fight main card. Hold on. Let me check ESPN real quick. Hopefully, wait a minute. Let me check ESPN real quick. That's sadistic. It's 10 p.m. Easter, I'm telling you.

The graph that was on during the watch party last night. Your time is right. It's six fights. Why would they do this? It's because they're, I don't know. And we have Bell-Tor the night before, which is a way better card than this one. Yeah. This card isn't bad, though.

It's not bad. Christian Leroy Duncan I love the Bantamway fight I love Miles Johns, Heinzbo Salos Jimmy Flick Alcancho Costa I think Flyweight Under is going to have a comeback It's not a bad, it's not bad It's not bad

It'd be a little bit of a tough hang early on Yeah, we're going to have a post-fight show That starts like 345 a.m. Not a yet. Vittori Canada Air is not going to start to like 1 a.m. And they're going the full 25 And this is probably going to be a nutshot

An accidental clash of heads an eye poker two, it's just going to be the longest main event of all time. And I'm hoping for the best. I'm hoping for the best. But this is a fun card, and then we're going to just get... This could be a torturous card.

It has all the makings of it. I don't care for the main event, but otherwise I like this card. Actually, the card is not bad. Maybe I'm just grumpy. Maybe I'm just tired. I'm just tired with like 90 minutes of sleep. But we'll be back to matchmake for this card next week.

And then after that, it is on to Jacksonville, Florida for the event headline by Iliot Tuporia and Josh Emmett. That is an ABC card. So we're going to make up for it. We get a 10 p.m. Main car with six fights. And in the following week, we get some afternoon M.MA, which I love so much. And then we get more middleweights, AK, the following week, Sean Strickland, Abis, Maga, Madoff, UFC, Vegas 76. And then it's onwards.

It's onwards to International Fight Week. UFC 290, Volcanowski, Ray Rodriguez, Brandon Moreno, Alexander Pantosia, and more. And then, boy, oh boy, things get fun. We go back to the Bannam weights, the women's Bannam weights,

Holly Home versus Myra Bueno Silva, headlines UFC, Vegas 77, and then we go to London for the July 22nd card, and then it's UFC 291, July 29th. Don't bury the leave here. Is it too late to make Holly Home versus Myra Brino Silva

just for the vacant, the recently vacated title. Yes. Yes, he said plainly. I'm just saying, it's like a month away. We got a month until this card. If they were made eventing,

if this is the main event of Jacksonville, I could see them doing it. But they're not going to do a title play at the apex. They can't. Come on. For the love of God, I can't. This belt cannot be unclaimed for this law. We need a champion of this division.

Can you imagine the universal reaction if they'd made that decision? I'm hoping for it now. It would go over with a whimper at best. Oh, my God. I'm so hoping. We got to go. We got to go. A.K., you're the man.

Thank you very much. All right. Appreciate all of you guys. Don't forget, MMA hour on Monday. Ariel already revealed one guest on the watch party in studio, the middleweight champion himself, Israel Adesania. We'll be in studio, and may are on Monday.

So get excited. A lot of recapping of 289 and more this week on all of our programming. We appreciate you very much. Back next week right here on the program for some more matchmaking. Always remember the Golden Rule. Don't take this up too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. I will have more fun right here next Sunday on onto the next one, the podcast.