MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC 321

Episode Date: October 26, 2025

The unfortunate end to UFC 321 left a bad taste in the mouths of MMA fans as an accidental eye poke from Ciryl Gane led to the main event against heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall ending in a No Contest. Considering how things went down, it seems as if the UFC will run that fight back, but is that the fight to make following the historic ending to the contest? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss where Aspinall and Gane go from the brutal ending to Saturday's pay-per-view event in Abu Dhabi. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Mackenzie Dern and Virna Jandiroba following Dern's vacant strawweight championship victory in the co-main event, Umar Nurmagomedov after his unanimous decision win over Mario Bautista in the featured bout, Alexander Volkov following his split decision win over Jailton Almeida, along with fellow main card winner Azamat Murzakanov, and more. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. We are, oh, so live. The Matchmaking Crowns are back following a chaotic, sad in some ways, kind of fun in some ways as well, depending on how you view certain things. UFC 321 events.

We had early day MMA. Maybe we jinxed it. We said pretty much for the last couple of weeks that once we get to UFC 321's edition of On to the next one, we'll have a good night's sleep. It'll be early day MMA. And the chance for the MMA community to be grumpy was going to be in an all-time low. I don't think that's going to be the case here following what happened in the main event. Tom Aspedal's returned to the cage after 455 days only lasted a little over four minutes and it ended in a no contest after Cyril gone delivered. delivered the I poke of doom to Mr. Aspinall.

But that's what happened last night. But today we are going to embark on a journey of matchmaking following this event. I am Mike Heck and joining me to do exactly that. And much more is the co-host, the co-matchmaker. And we need the Prince of positivity today. He is my best friend, the biggest Blue Jays fan I know, the one and only Alexander Cayley, AK, how are we doing today? I mean, you had three, UFC 321, game two of the World Series did not go the Blue Jays way last night.

So tough, tough scenes all around. But I'm glad you're here. Oh, yeah, Yamamoto was amazing. We didn't get a conclusion to UFC 321. My dear Celtic just lost this morning. I have one more football club of support spurs that can save the weekend. So we'll see how it goes. But it's in rough, rough as a fan.

But as a, you know, my best friend, as an objective observer, I didn't mind UFC 321 until the end of course until the end I'm you know I'm not going to I'm not going to tell people like oh you should have enjoyed this card because from the most part it was solid who cares about the ending no I mean I think we all know like when the ending is so deflating like I think this was my correct me from wrong this was the first UFC title fight to end in a no contest no yes like we're not not counting John Jones yeah yeah this is the first this is the first time that happened because we're Because even the John Jones, you know, Cormey thing, you know, when it happened was like amazing, right? It was like, oh, this crazy head kick. Like, what a moment that was. Like at the moment that was spectacular. It was only later when all the stuff came out. And then obviously, it's now retroactively a no contest.

But this was, you know, a no contest through and through. We barely got to see the guys fight. It's just awful. It was just awful to see it in that way. But like I said, like I was having an okay time up to then. I thought, I thought like the prelims were pretty good. I don't know if people feel the same way. I thought there was at least intriguing storylines.

I thought obviously we got a crazy finish from Quillan Seltkilled, Walter Walker, you know, the heel hook streak he's on. So really good stuff. Big a good stuff. Main card, I thought was pretty interesting. I think I enjoyed Dern, Jen Giroba, and Umar-Tista fights, maybe more than most. I thought Bolt's fights were really enjoyable, really competitive. I'm not going to blow smoke up people's asses, Mike, and tell them that Volkov made.

It was a classic. That's pretty rough. Oh, boy. That was really rough. You know me, big Jelton guy. That was rough. But yeah, Mike, I don't know if you can tell. I'm trying to avoid using the word weird because we used it like 500 times last week after Vancouver, right?

That we said was the weirdest card of the year. But it's hard not to say like this, this card also obviously the ending, extremely bizarre, extremely rare. And there were other moments tonight that I'm just like a little awful, a little shaky. But I don't want to, I don't want to use that word again. We had the weirdest UFC card of the year last week. I'm not sure how we'll look back on this one like three months, six months from now. I'm still kind of processing. Oh, I know how we're going to look back on it.

Like there's a couple ways we're going to look back on it. But this was when we look at how bad heavyweight is, we're like, okay, at least we're going to get to UFC 321 and Tom Assonal's fighting and things are going to happen and there's going to be a champion and like someone's going to sleep real quick and it's going to be one of those crazy things like this. We have Volkov and all made it. It's determined who is going to be next in line. So the stakes are really high for both those guys.

And we are just going to get after it. And heavyweight is going to be not very. back, but we're going to be feeling a little bit better about things. Outside of Walter Walker and his fight and then his mic work afterwards, heavyweight is in just a horrific position. Like, I didn't think it was possible for it to be worse than it was heading in. But it is worse with the Hamdi Barnett fight, which, you know, we have fun with heavyweight fights that go over, just two sloggers getting after it. But it was actually really sad to watch Chris Barnett fight again. It just wasn't really fun. Walker was great. Obviously, you mentioned Volkov Almeida.

Almeida, I don't know what was in his mind. Did he not understand that there was a potential championship opportunity at stake here? Because sometimes, and I know, even Damien Maya threw punches sometimes. And I just, I couldn't believe what I was watching. And then the main event ending the way that it did. It was a rough night. And I'm kind of with you. Like I, Jed and I talked about it on the post show. We talked about it during the watch party. Like, I think we made it that way for ourselves.

But up until the main event, like we had a great time watching UFC 321. We really did. We were laughing. We were smiling. We were enjoying it. Jed got to watch McKenzie Dern be crowned champion. Finally, him and Shaheen Al-Shadi got to rejoice together.

So all in all, it was one of those things. But just your overall reaction of the aftermath, of what happened in the main event. You're hearing, and I saw on the post fight show and it drove me freaking bananas. Tom's a quitter. He's a,

I'm not going to say the other words that I saw. He was looking for a way out. That wasn't an eye poke. He was just trying to find a way out of the fight because he had a bloody nose. It was just crazy to see all of these reactions that he's a quitter, that he's all this time. He was just like, well, he got punched a couple of times.

So he over, he had some adversity come his way. So he found an excuse to get his ass out of the fight, which is just such a ridiculous way to look at things. And then you have Cyril God who, it was just such an egregious eye poke and foul. And then Dana White sort of talked about it. You can tell he is so checked out of the UFC at this point with that press conference. So maybe he's just trying to control his emotions a little bit.

But of course, in his own Dana, oh, yeah, watch this. I'm not going to say the thing, but I'm going to mean the thing of, it wasn't Cyril's eye poke that ended the fight. It was Tom chose not to continue fighting after being poked in the eye. And a lot of that probably has to do with some things that Tom's dad said along the way and the whole Daniel Corbier situation and other things that went along, the whole John Jones thing, all of it. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

And just wanted to get your reaction to obviously the moment, the fallout, Dana, and everything you've seen since then. For Dana to say all that after how badly they've mishandled Tom Aspinall is just, like, it's horrifying to watch because I'm not saying Aspinall has that potential to be like an A, like, you know, high A list star, right? I don't know if he ever becomes as famous to John Jones. Certainly I wouldn't put him in that, you know, Rousy, Brock Lesnar, McGregor tier, right? Like, that's very, that's literally a tier on zone. That's three people. Like, I don't need, you don't put, I don't put GSP up there.

I put Anderson Silva. Those are all high A guys. And those are like, you know, the legends are a sport, people who had some mainstream cachet and, and people. people who at some point, like consistently sold like 500,000 pay-per-views and up. Like that, that's the GSP Anderson-Silver Range. When we get to the McGregor-Rousy, Lesnar Range, we're talking about people consistently 900,000 to over a million, right? They're their own tier.

So I'm not saying Aspenol is near that. Aspenol, I think, has the potential to be like a low A maybe kind of star, but not the way they've done it. I mean, stringing him along sort of with the whole John Jones thing was just awful. You could see in the promos, like the promos for 321, how they kind of had to handle it. They're like, hey, meet Tom Aspinall. This guy's great. And it's like, you know, this guy's been like in the UFC.

He's been your interim champion for like almost two years. It's very weird for you to do this like introductory style promo. But also it makes sense because you've done zero work to promote him. You have strong people along. You have John Jones, the undisputed champion. We had people waiting for John Jones, steep, for so long. So it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing to have they handled Tom.

Even if you don't consider him the most like dynamic personality. oh, he's just like a nice, classy guy. He likes to train hard and make little jokes. And that's not your cup of tea. I think we can agree the promotion can help a little bit, right? It could at least help to have kept him relevant as opposed to waiting until John was gone and they finally both this title fight. And like, okay, yeah, yeah, now we're going to start promoting Tom Aspinall.

Like, it's just so silly. And then to bury him after that is absurd. So I didn't see the comments of the post-fight show. I kind of tried to avoid the social media discourse. Like, I think the people I follow for the most part, you know, also I, I didn't have to see a lot of that, but I'm aware, because I wasn't in the MA fighting comments on our website. And so I did see it. You know, you can't avoid the discussion. And yeah, there are plenty of people saying he faced adversity for the first time, like he had never faced adversity

before and thus had to bow out. Let's be clear. Let's be clear. He would have lost that first round. If that had gone, the base the way it was going. You know, if that went to the end of round one, very likely 10-9, Cilagon. Sure. I fully accept that. Zillagan looked great. Let's give credit to Gonn. I think I thought gone looked fantastic. His hands. hips were a mile away from Tom Aspinall, as they should have been. He was circling him beautifully, just using that athleticism. Like, I wish we could praise Gone a little more. I know that's a weird thing to say, considering he committed a foul that, like, ruined the main event.

But I thought gone looked awesome. Gone clearly, like, just, you know, did not care about any of the, oh, I'm a huge underdog. And, you know, this guy's supposed to run through me. This is the beginning of his huge title reign. Gone looks great. And I think he was going to win that first round. And maybe win the fight. But I think for anyone to say, oh, well, that one round is how the rest of the

would have gone and Ton was cooked and there was no chance he was going to come back. It's just so strange to me, guys, how many fights have, do we, are we like, do people who say, have they never watched a fight before? Does the reason fights are three rounds? Does the reason fights are five rounds? I mean, there's, there's kind of your answer. It's crazy. It's not that they, they're just, they're newer fans, plain and simple.

Or they, I can't even do that. They're, they're pissed that they spend 85 bucks, which I get. Or are they, trust me, trust me, I had a horrific betting day yesterday. I didn't win anything. And then I had the all in bed on Aspinol. And I was like, I need this to go. Like, I need this to happen. And it's like a winning day and I'm all good.

And like, yeah, obviously I would have liked to have seen Tom win. But it's just, it's just crazy, man. It's a wild discourse. The dude couldn't see. Kevin Holland shouldn't have been able to fight Mike Ballot after round one. Henry Sehudo and the Song Yidong thing. It's not like Sehudo quit either. Like, it's just ridiculous.

It's just absolutely. ridiculous. He's not a quitter. People on here just trying to start shit. And that's all. Like, that's all that you, you truly don't even believe it when you say it. So Dana White threw him under the bus. And that just makes things worse because now it's like, well, Dana said it. So it's got to be true. Because Dana's never lied a day in his fucking life. But anyways, uh, and then Chil Sunnan and Anthony Smith of all people, guys who have never won championships are like, yeah, this, this guy could have fought with one eye. Anthony Smith's like, yeah, I fought with one eye in Singapore. Great. You weren't a champion.

So we're like, who are you to say anything? You're also the guy who said the thing that no one should have said heading into the co-main event. So I don't take anything he says seriously. And Chale Sutton is a professional wrestler kind of a guy who's trying to start discourse and trying to start shit. So if you're relying on the opinions of those two gentlemen and saying, well, they said it, then you need to look in the mirror. Trust me what I tell you this. So there you have it. But there's three important things that I believe in, AK, with my.

heart and soul. One, if it's not an M.A. fighting, it's not true. Two, golden rule. Golden rule. Golden rule. Two, we can't miss you if you don't leave. If you don't take a break. And three, winning solves everything. So if they run this back and Tom just runs over Cyril Gun, no one will remember this happened. So let's just run this shit back fast. Whatever was supposed to happen is going to happen. And Tom, if, if he wins. This, this isn't a thing. There are going to be some people who are like, well, if Tom didn't quit in the first fight, Cyril would have won. So zero got screwed. And I can already see it happening. But that's not how you should feel about this. And I will give

zero gotten credit. Yes. Because he did look good. And I'm going to blast Tom Aspinol a little bit. His game plan was shit. It was terrible. What do we all say heading into this fight? Just touch gloves, take a step back and tackle him. He should have been Jelton. He should have done the Jalpah. Exactly. What Jalton All Made A Did is exactly what Tom Asmodal should have done. And Cyril Gond is standing there circling, trying to keep range.

And then he realizes, okay, we're going to have a range kickboxing match. This couldn't have gone any better for me. So, like, I just don't understand. And then he shoots one, he shot one takedown attempt. And it was like sloppy. And then just, like, continue to have a kickboxing match until he got. until he got poked in the eye. Like, I'm stunned by the game plan.

And I don't know if, like, the pressure of everything got to him. Maybe it did. It's, he's a human being. It happens to all of us. So having said that, yeah, please. Oh, my, I just want to say one more note about your, like, you know, winning solves everything. Like, we just saw that with Pareda and Ancolaev, right? 100%.

I don't think people had quite, like, jump off, jumped off the Poetan wagon after the first Ankylaub loss. I think because, like, you know, the people accepted that, like, oh, he had a virus, blah, blah. But certainly I saw people like, oh, like, is the Pareda, like, star power diminished now? You know, is it like, oh, you know, the Johns Jones fights gone? The Aspenol fights gone. Like, you know, or is he going to have to go into those with less leverage? And then there was a thought, like, you know, is this the Ancolaev era now? Again, it wasn't quite as strong as this.

I do know there was a lot of people who were still like, ah, just wait till the rematch. Like, pray, I'll get him. But same idea, right? It's like, it looked like, oh, my gosh, what happened to Pareda? What's wrong with him? And now, however many months later, knocks Ankelaib out and around. And it's like we're most people pretending that first fight didn't even happen. So, yes, I think Aspinall can definitely do the same thing.

You don't think. Oh, actually, sorry, Mike. Go ahead. Go ahead to what you were going to say. Oh, no. No, no, please. Continue. No, no.

I wasn't sure because we need to broach the topic of, we've never had this happen before, Mike, you know, where we have a no contest, right? There's another goal. There's the on to the next one. Yes, that's what I thought you were going to go ahead. Go ahead. One is if you miss weight and win, we don't, we don't match rate for you. And the discussion.

It's like your fight never existed. And then, two. to if there's a no contest or anything of that nature, again, it's like the fight never happened on the show. But I mean, I think it's pretty obvious that we're running this one back. Anything else would be ridiculous.

Although we have seen the UFC do some really horrific things in this division. And perfect up, perfect scenario, perfect example. Francis and Gondu wins the heavyweight title. And then like three months later, they book an interim title fight between Cyril Gahn and Derek Lewis. I was like,

what? What are you talking about here? So the only thing that would make me feel better about it is if they did Tom Aspinel versus Derek Lewis and then I would get it on. No, Boyd. Mike, you saw Poetan immediately post a video after the, you know, after the main event ended. If Panetta said, hey, I'm ready to fight. I want to move up to heavyweight and I want a title shot and I'm ready to fight in January or February. I don't want this.

I'm not predicting this. I want to see this run back. You don't think they want to set up. Pineda and Aspinall and then, you know, cross their fingers that Palletta like knocks Aspinall out and then they get their John Jones Poetan fight at the White House or something. No. Is this not what they want? No, they could just do they could just, first of all, Perreira is injured and he ain't fighting for a hot minute.

He said he's probably like to be ready to fight until June anyways. Okay, okay. So do the John. Pereira Jones is the fight, especially now. Like if they, if they put out a poster right now saying Alex Pereer looking to make history, he's going to fight Tom Aspinal at the White House, you think that would go over great? that'd go over like a fart in church right now. Like it's just, it'd be like, oh, why?

Why are we doing this right now? So, but obviously, if Pereira goes out there and beats John or is at least competitive with him, sure, we could do that and have a good time with it. But. Okay. Yeah. He has to go to John to reach whoever's the heavyweight champion. So to do the three-de-bizance.

John's the big fight. They don't need it. It doesn't need a title. Obviously, it doesn't need a title. John Jones. Okay. Even when Dana White was on the horse saying, like, this. John Jones versus Tom Aspedal is the biggest fight the UFC can make.

It's the biggest heavyweight fight of all time. No, it isn't. It was always John and Alex. That was always the fight. That was always the bigger deal. That was always the bigger draw, whether it's silly or not, that has more crossover appeal and more people would buy that pay-per-view

if that still existed than they would John Jones versus Tom Aspital. It's just the world that we live in. John Jones is a huge winner coming out of this because now he could spike the ball and he could have a good time. He could do an end zone dance, even though it's silly. And now he's going to fight Alex Pereira. and people think, like, I got a bunch of DMs. They're like, how bad are you going to be when they book John versus Alex?

The answer is I'm not mad. In fact, I would, I said I would never be mad about that. The only issue I had with the John Alex talk was John saying this while he was the heavyweight champion, while there was an interim champion, not fighting. If he just said, I'm vacating. And by the way, John did say this after he beat Stepe, he said, I will, I don't need a belt to fight Alex Pere. I just want to fight him. And the UFC is like, bet.

I 100% guarantee we're making John Jones versus Tom Aspedal and see how great that worked out for him. So honestly, like, tough, tough for Tom Aspedal, tough for Cyril gone. I thought Tom had a pretty awful week for being honest. I thought some of the stuff was quirky. His dad did not do him any favors at all this week. Just did not do him any favors.

His video production team and social media team did him no favors at all either by leaking a private conversation between him and Daniel Cormier, there's just a lot of, there's just a lot of bad that happened along the way. But now we'll get a rematch and we'll see what happens. And we'll go from there. So just a shitty way to end the card. Like if you spend 85 bucks on that and this is like,

and we talk about this all the time, like it's a budgetary sport for a lot of people until we go to Parabot. Like you only, you're only, most people are like, I'm going to be like, I'm going to spend this money on five pay-per-view. at max a year. And this is the one you chose, and that's how that ended, it sucks. And I feel for you. I ran a poll during the way and stream of like, you know, if you have a budget

of where you only buy like half the UFC papers a year, would this be on your list? And it was literally, I think, like 50%. And like 50 said yes, 50 said no. So that 50% who said yes, and it's probably an even bigger number than that. Yeah, man, it's rough. That's hard. That's a hard way to end the night. I do not.

I can't imagine being satisfied. Well, that's Aspedal God, and that's the main event. When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99? How could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner?

A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Let's go to the positive, Mike. It's got a positive. Listen, I'm here to tell you. And I said this during the watch part.

Say it. I say this during the Post-Fite show. Say it. There are going to be people in the space who have shows and say a bunch of stuff who are going to say, I told you Mackenzie Duren would be champion. And those people are liars. They are all liars. Do not believe them. Because there are two people on this planet who never doubted, who wanted to quit. who wanted to jump off the island and never did. They are our old friend, Shaheen Al Shadi, and our current friend, Jedbushu.

They did not quit McKenzie. They stayed on the island and everybody else jumped off, swam, got on a boat. There were yachts that drove up to the island, said, please come aboard. I compared it to the end of dumb and drummer. They tried to save them. I compared it to the end of Dumme and Dummer 1. When Harry and Lloyd are walking down the street and the Hawaiian Tropic Bus pulls up And they're like, we have this great job for you.

We can put oil on us before every competition. It's a worldwide tour. And they're like, nah, there's two guys down the street. That'd be way better for this. So shout out to Shaheen and Jed for not believing it. And again, I want you to see, if you see clips on social media, people saying, I believed, call it out because it ain't true. So I'm happy for Jed. I'm happy for Shaheen.

They believed. Can I say I don't. Can I say, I don't remember if I ever fully got off the bandwagon, but I was definitely doing a lot of hedging, Mike. I think I've done a lot of it's okay. I don't think, I don't know if McKenzie Dern will ever become a UFC champion, but it's okay if she doesn't. I think I was doing a lot of that.

I was on the fence. I was firmly on the fence. I definitely wasn't pushing the, it will happen someday. After some of those results, I couldn't do that. I think we can agree also. Let me put this way. I tweeted, I tweeted that, you know, McKenzie Dern is a UFC champion, all caps. It was so blown away.

And I think it was John Ray, our pal John Ray, it was like, She's not the number one straw weight. And I'm like, I didn't say she was. I did not. I did not say. She has a belt. She has a belt. Exactly.

By the bare definition of the words I use, yes, she has a huge champion. No, she's not the number one straw weight in the world. Zhang Wei exists. Jean-Weilly could come back anytime she wants. It's never going to be a problem for Zhang to cut down to one of Dean. And if she would be a minus 800 favorite. I was going to go even higher. But at minimum, it might get go down to minus 800 because McKenzie would be like,

a plus like 1100 underdog and obviously some money's going to come in. So I might like, yeah, it might move the lines of it. But yeah, so she's not number, of course, of course. She's not the first person to do this. We've had interim champions like, listen, we had John Jones walking around with the belt, supposedly being the undisputed UFC champion. And let me tell you something, he wasn't the number one heavyweight in the world either. But it's, but it is just a nice, I felt happy for Dustin Porier when he won the interim title.

It didn't mean he was the number one lightweight, but he was a UFC title. He can always say he held a UFC title. Carlos Konda can always say they held the UFC title. So I think these stories are great. And great for McKenzie and Beirna to get this opportunity. No, of course, it doesn't mean either of them as a number one straw weight. Guess what? Ilya, he's not the number one lightweight in the world either.

Islam Makachev exists. But it's okay. It's okay for us to celebrate these moments. McKenzie has always been, like, I think, such a nice person. She has put up with a lot of crap from fans and from social media. I don't know. Maybe I'm a fool. maybe I'm just too optimistic.

I was a really hot. That was a really nice moment. And I also enjoyed the fight. I know a lot of people are slag in it. I don't know. I like the fight. We had a good time. We had a good time watching it.

Is it one will like go back and rewatch and like, is it going to be on the fight of the year list? No. But it was a good competitive fight. Even Data put it over. He said those two women beat the shit out of each other. They totally did. Yeah. Data put it over.

I mean, it was one of his 35, 12 second responses that he had at that press conference. I put all the social media clips up. Data said very little after that event. But now we have to discuss what is next for McKenzie Dern because I think you're right. Jed Mishu wants Yawadiyan and Jacek to come out of retirement in McKenzie Dern. And Jed is absolutely right. If you want to have had six months off the couch and trained, she would beat McKenzie Dern in a fight. I would feel very confident in that.

Same as Zhang Wei Lee. She would smoke McKenzie Dern and that's okay. That's all right. Zhang has done everything she could in this division. She's going for a new challenge. She doesn't want to cut to 1.15 anymore. She could have she wanted to, but I think she's really truly done doing that and putting your body through it.

So now we have to discuss what's next for McKenzie Dern. What is next for McKenzie Dern? A name that has come up an awful lot is Tatiana Suarez. Is this where we're going with this? I'm okay with it. I think logically as well, but I want a different direction, like maybe a little bias on my part. I don't know. I know where you're going.

I don't know. I love to pick, by the way. I've heard birds tweeting that maybe the UFC's coming back to Canada early 2026. I don't know. It was, you know, they usually, they've done some Toronto shows in January, obviously, but I've heard it could be January February, maybe Toronto Montreal. We don't know yet. Very likely a major, you know, major Canadian site.

And we happen to have a Canadian straw weight who's doing some damage. She has to fight on December 13th. She has to fight Yasmin Lucindo. So, of course, I'm talking about Gillian Robertson. Now, the timing is a little weird because, again, let's say she beats Yasmin and then the Canadian peer view does turn it out to be in January. We're talking about a one month turnaround at best and seems unlikely. February, though, I think it would be doable. I think if you told her she beat Yasmin against a title shot, I think she'd do a two-month turnaround.

Fair or not. I think it'd be great. Let's bring Gillian home. Let's have a Canadian challenge for a UFC title on home soil, something we have not seen in, I don't even know how long. And we've tried to match up Jillian and McKenzie before in the show. On to the next one. And as I have listened, there's been a very popular pick. And I think it still makes sense with the way their careers have gone.

McKenzie now is a belt. Joan Robinson will have won, I think like five straight fights or something at Strawade if she beats Lucinda, who's very good. So I'm calling my shot. I'm not saying the winner. I'm not saying win-liss. I don't think Lucinda is quite there ready for a tell the shot. But I think Julianne Robinson is.

And I think she's a really exciting fighter. And I think their styles, her and McKenzie would make a great, great, great title fight. So there we go. So just to get this out of the way, I want the Robertson Lucinda winner to fight Vernaz. So do you think Lusin? Oh, to fight Vero. That's where that goes. And that'll be like if they beat her, they get a shot.

If they go McKenzie Dern, if they go Tatiana Suarez right now, I will lose my mind. I will lose my mind. She had, in my opinion, a horrific 2025. Horrific. She got dusted by Zhang. And everyone thought this is the crowning moment. She's going to go in there and beat Zhang Wei Li. I never believe that for a second. This fight, this fight was, that fight was not competitive at all.

It's competitive for like two minutes and then Zhang just rolled her the rest of the fight. So what does the UFC do? Because the UFC wants Tatyada Suarez in this spot. They give her Amanda Lemosch, who is not like a bad fighter, but stylistically, this was the perfect fight for, Tatiana to go out there and do Tatiana things. Go out there, get a finish, cement her opportunity. And I'll say this, and maybe this is the hottest take I've had, but I'll say it again. Considering the rankings, why the UFC put this so low on the card and people fought for it,

what this fight could mean and more, this to me was the worst fight of 2025 in all of the UFC, was Tatiana Suarez versus a man Olamoche. brutal fight. Tatiana squeaked out a win. Pride rules she lost because Lamostata put the boots to her at the end of the third round. You cannot give Tatiana Suarez a title fight right now. However, I'm going to give her another chance to get one. She is going to fight Lupi Godineas. Next, if she beats Lupi, she gets title fight. And it has to be a good fight. It cannot be. terrible. It needs to be like a Tatiana Suarez-esque performance. That's what it's got to be. You like handing her a title fight after that win over Lemoche is brutal. It's a brutal choice right now. I'd rather, I'd rather pull Gillian Robertson from the Lucindo fight and just give it to her.

Yes, that's probably would. But I think the UFC will lean towards Suarez, but she's got to do something a little more emphatic before she gets there. So give her loopie. That's the fight. Hey, you know what, AK? do that fight in Canada. We got Loopy as well. We do that fight in Canada. Of course. We do Suarez versus Loopy. We love that fight.

Fights McKenzie Dern for the belt. And I know Dirk just beat Loopy. But if Suarez wins more specifically, then Swars gets the shot. Yeah. That's fine. And then Robertson's like on deck if she beats the Sucydne. That fight is going to be super important, which means it'll probably be like the opening fight at the apex on December 13th on the prelims, which is ridiculous. So yeah.

Yeah. And let me say, guys, be ready. There can be, I don't know how long McKenzie Duran is going to hold on to the belt, but if she does, there's going to be quite a few rematches in there, I think. Because this is why, like, I don't want to take away what she did. And I say, like, winning a U.C title is amazing. And she's deserving of being called the champion. Like, I think it's great.

But she lost to Amanda Lomache February, 24. Like, that's not long ago. And it's not like a, like, she lost to, she got destroyed by Jessica Andraj, less than two years ago. Like these, yeah, yeah. Yeah, she's injured. Yeah. Seanan was a bit longer ago, but again, I think pretty clear win for Jan.

I don't remember that being a bad fight. I just saying, I remember. Yeah, it was clear. It was clear win for Yan. Yeah. So, like, she has lost to a lot of fighters in the top 10. And I know it's two, whatever, one year ago, two years ago, three years ago. I get it.

I get it. Like, again, if they run it back, they'd be totally different. But this is sort of like our, you know, if you were going to criticize the title fight, this is what you're looking at. You're like, wow, man, how could Dern get in there when she's lost to so many top 10 people? But, hey, the timing worked out. And congrats to her.

But yeah, she has no shortage of fresh challengers, hopefully. Mike, the worst. What did you say? Suarez, Lemosch, the worst fight of the Navajo Sterling, Yvonne, No? I'm not, if they were like top five fighters, yes, that would be. Oh. These were top five fighters with Suarez likely fighting for a title shot. And that's what we got.

I can't mention Hamdi and Chris Barnett then. That's a whole different category. I had more fun watching Hamdi, Chris Barrett. I had a lot of watching. A lot of fun watching that fight, but probably not for the reasons that we would normally. Obviously that moment in the second would Barnett try to get up and handy sneeze, essentially, and Barnett fell over. Yeah, I was sad watching that. And then we got to see the derrier of one Chris Barnett.

That was kind of sad. But I did enjoy it. Like, watching Sloggy Heavyweight action is always a good time. Although I did have a ton of fun watching Volkov Almeida until they announced the winner. I was like, good. The judges got it right. Judges were fine, some good refereeing on Saturday. Like it was, there were some positives.

Rich Mitchell. Rich Mitchell set the tone. What a king. And then Mark Goddard's like, oh, he can't do that. I can't just let him get all the glory. And then not another point was taken, including McKenzie Dern, who up kicked the shit out of Verda Gensirova. And it was not a legal one. And Goddard's like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Don't do that. What is going on here? Should he turn into Mr. Belding instead of the freaking. Instead of just a referee of a mixed martial arts championship bout. So do you have a matchup for Verna Genarova? Oh, I do. Yes, that's right. Tap of the Rishi.

That's right, man. I want tab to be. Okay. That's a good one. There you go. That's really good. Let's go to the Badaway division. I would say the man who had maybe the most pressure on him on the entire fight card was

Umar and Amaga Madov Madov, Madov, Wally. A lot of talk. Press conference. He was like, hey, Dana, question for you. Make this a number one contender fight. Dana's like, nah, bro, do something impressive. And maybe it'll happen, which is pretty much the token Dana response for, no chance you're getting a title shot next unless you do a Huracanrada into a triangle

and get a submission win. That did not happen here. Although, I enjoyed this fight a lot. Mario Batista was great. He stung Umar. I thought, I thought my plus five and a half point spread bet on Mario Batista should have cashed. I thought Mario won the second round because he had the most impactful moment of the round. Need him right in the face, dropped him.

Technically, in my opinion, that was sort of a knockdown. And I know Umar like grappled and did some other stuff. But Umar clearly won the fight. I think it should have been another 29, 28, but it's all good. But Umar wins. And he got tested. So this is really good for Umar. He learned a lot.

I loved his post fight scrum. I thought it was fantastic. He was very honest about things. Uh, but he's not getting a title fight. he's not fighting Marab. It's just not happening. Now, if Yan somehow beats Marab and they don't run a right back,

maybe you could do that and I would kind of be okay with that. I don't suspect that that's going to happen. So Umar is going to have to fight at least once. If I'm the UFC, if I am matchmaking that division, I'm making Umar fight at least two more times, maybe three before I throw him back in there with Marab. Because if he loses the second time to Marab, like he's toast, absolute toast. And he's so good.

Like, he is the second best man in the world. I feel very confident in saying he is the second best guy. He's just not going to beat Marab for as long as Maraub is at his peak and healthy and all of that. So Davis of Figurato is my choice. Let's just do Umar versus Finky Smalls. Let's have some fun and we'll go from there. Yeah. I think that's logically the way to go.

It's just where, you know, Davis can come back a win. You know, he just broke his losing streak. Got a name, very tough opponent still. Someone who like, you know, if Umar beats him, it's respectable. He'll be a favorite. and he'll be a big favor in the flight, but it'll still be viewed as like, oh,

he'd beat this guy, who's a former UFC champion, very hard to put away, right? That's what made Corey's win so impressive, right? He actually finished Figy. I,

I just want to say, like, I think Omar was kind of in a tough spot here because I'm a big Omar fan, by the way, you guys. Agreed. Yeah,

because he was told to put on a show, and that's nearly impossible against Mara Batista. Because Mara Batista is excellent. I'm not even criticizing Mara Batista here. He is so frigging tough and so versatile, and I give credit to him, team too because i think their game planning is just amazing i think they know exactly

how do we how do we make life difficult for our opponents as you saw it in the josie aldo fight you definitely saw in the patchy mixed by he just dominated patchy and and if you watch this fight again i know i know people are saying oh there's a lot of grappling just grappling that didn't lead to that significant offense i'm not like the biggest like i'm not like a jihitsu expert guys but this one like i was watched this i was mesmerized because mario batista at no point in the fight did he ever just say okay i'm going to settle in and put this guy in full guard and just play around in here and hope for a stand-up or stall

until I can get into a position to stand-up. He was always fighting in every position. When Umar was trying to get side control, he was fighting. When Umar got his back, he was constantly. Watch every time Umar gets us back. Almost at no point did he like, I think there was a stretch maybe 90 seconds in one of the rounds where like Umar was able to kind of get a few punches from behind,

almost try and work for a choke. But Bautista was was so, so good at, and so active. Like, I don't know if you guys to know how much cardio this took from both guys. This was also a big sign for Umar. I know it's three rounds, not five rounds. But he was dealing with a slippery eel for 15 minutes. And that's not easy. Like, Bautista has worn out a lot of people with his skill set.

So I actually really enjoyed the fight. I think, like you said, Mike, we learned a lot about Umar. I think Um, I think Um, I carried himself pretty well during the week. Um, again, not the kind of person I was going to jump off the page and sell paper views. But, you know, was humble, was very honest about, yes, if I fight Marab next, great, I want that rematch. If I don't, that's fine. I'm willing to wait.

That's where he should be. So I'm magic one. like Marab too, only because Mike, I think the question really is, do you think Marab is finally going to take a break if he beats Peyote Riyadh? Do you think he finally take, no.

So then who, well, then it has to be Umar, right? Then who will he defend against in whatever March or January, February, ideally, I think, I think early February would be Umar's goal because he has Ramadan coming up after that, but. If they book Song Yudong versus Sean O'Malley

and Song wins, Song gets a shot. And so, but what if he doesn't? Then ask him. you give to Amos a hobby. No, no, no, the correct answer is what, is what Jed and I talked about on the watch party. If both Marab and Pantosia win at UFC 3.43, you do that fight because Pantosia literally has beat everybody in the division.

If he beat Josh Van, like, he's nothing, there's nothing left for him to do. What's he going to do, beat Monell Cop or Rand and Roy Vall again? Like, we don't, he's already beat him. He's already beat these guys. So if there's one, if there's one champ versus, champ fight that I can get behind. It's that one because both have, like,

literally just rematches the rest of the way. So, yeah, pants gets the shot. Go do that. Man. But if song beats O'Malley and does it impressively, they'll give it to him.

You think Aiman's slightly ahead in the, in the, in the break glass in case of emergency title shot for, you know, if Mara Wals. They go to Canada. Jeline Robertson versus McKenzie Duren and Maraud Walsh, really, versus Aeman.

Yeah, tough scenes. Can we get Aspinall and Gone as well? Can we just get the rematch? Don was huge. It doesn't even as Montreal. Gone was the TKO champion. He's big in Montreal. I can see it.

Who's the Canadian heavyweight who had the mullet? Tanner Bozer. Tom Aspinall, Tanner Bozer. For the heavyweight belt? Like, we'll just do Canada versus the world. We mess with Sierra up here in Montreal. And when I say, Umar needs like two or maybe three. It's not because I think he's bad.

it's that if you throw him back in there with Marab too quickly, he's going to lose. Because they gave, the UFC stacked the deck in his favor for that first fight. Marab was not in any condition to be fighting Umar or anybody else. Just go, I talked to Barab before that fight. He essentially said the same without getting into details. And ever since that fight, you listen to John Wood or anybody on his team, they all said like, dude, he was like 50% in that fight.

And that was like maybe being generous. And Marab still beat him. So Marab's just better than Umar in a lot of respects. It's just that. And if you throw him in there a year later, 18 months later and he loses again, like, you're screwed. Like you just ruin this dude. So you can take your time. He's only 29.

He's only going to continue to get better. Worst case, like this guy is going to win the belt. It's just not going to be now against Marab while he has it. So I guess he could hope that Jan pulls off an upset somewhere. So do Marvers face the big fight. Go ahead and do that. And we'll see if the chips fall in the place. But I think the UFC sees it too.

Like, yeah, we like this guy. He could carry this division a little bit, but he's probably not beating Maraum. So why stunt his growth in that regard? So let's go to, and by the way, let me just say this about Mario Batista. So we're doing a post-fight column. We do it every time after a pay-per-view. We have a question of like, who's the biggest winner and who's the biggest winner? and who's the biggest loser,

you can make a case that Barrie Batis is both. Because I think he, I think he showed a lot in that fight. I think he opened up a lot of people's eyes in that fight. And I think he out kicked his coverage in that fight. I think he was way more competitive than most people thought. However, I think he loses a ton because now he's never fighting for the belt.

And this is his chance. And it was a tough one. It was a tough hurdle to jump over to beat Umar. But if he did, no choice. There's nothing that can stop him from fighting for the championship. Like you, not even pants, not even Pantosia. You've got to give it to Batista.

Nine wins in a row or eight wins in a row, whatever it was. I think it would have been nine. And he beat Umar, like, you're giving him the damn title shot. But now he's going to have to win like six or seven in a row again. He's just not that guy, unfortunately. He's not the, he's not super popular or anything like that. He doesn't have the cachet that you would need to just leapfrog everybody. So, Mike, he's, he's fighting Montail-Jaxon, right?

It's the only way for it to go. for both of them, right? Because I feel like I had deja vu there. I felt like you're literally saying the same thing about, about Tal. You're like, that was it. That was his shot.

You know, that he was grinding. And that was his shot. He might be fighting like Farid Basharat next. Like that's kind of what he's going to be going to be up against at this point. So he's going to be the dude that just fights the young hungry whippersnapper that is on his way up. And there's no shame in that. Like,

you think I'm going to be mad if they book Basharab versus Batista? I will watch the shit out of that fight. So, yeah, let's continue on. We were trying to avoid this, Mike. Oh, I don't want to do it. Alex Jada Volkov had a fight, and he won that fight. Yes, he did. If you want to talk about a guy who may have lost a lot,

Alexander Volkov, like, goes in there, wins a fight. Karma was on his side because he beat Cyril God in December. Like, big no bones about it. Volkov won that fight against, except for a two-joujoum's. judges that were sitting cage side. The only two people at Earth who thought Zero God won that fight. And now Volkov gets the win. He's next in line.

He's sitting there. He's like, I'm just going to wait for Aspin all and gone to settle their business. And then I'm going to go and fight for the belt. And then the main event happened. So now where does Alexander Volkov go after beating the great Jailton Almaty? Is this just sit back and wait and hope you fight for the belt in the next year? Or is he going to have to fight again after this? No, because even though he justifiably won, it wasn't a performance that did a lot for either guy, right?

I don't think, guys, can you see my live blog? I actually scored it Fred Shelton, but I also kind of prefaced it with like, I have no idea how the judge is going to see it. And immediately after the announcement was right, I was like, yeah, that's fine. Like, if Almeda had, I don't think it would have been a robbery either way. I would have, like, accepted arguments for robbery if Almeida won more than, you know, what we got. Like, I think the way we got was probably the best results. I'm sure there's still people out there who are like me, big Al-Meda fans, we're like, no, he controlled him for so much of the fight and blah-blah.

But if you're just looking at the minuscule amount of, like, damage that was done during the fight, I do feel like it was pretty clearly in favor of Volkov. So I had, like I said, I had it for Al-Meda, no problem with the way it was scored. I'd have people for Volkov. Mike, I think, can he run it back with Curtis Blades? Is it time, Volkov Curtis Blades, too? Sure. Right?

And then one, and then listen, Volkov wins. get his rematch with uh well i get either it'd be either gone or uh aspinall for assuming that rematch gets booked or curtis blades aspiral trilogy about mike so many unanswered questions it's one and one mike it's one and one goodness he was dominating uh tom in those 10 seconds actually don't think he was i remember i don't think anything happened other 10 seconds before but who knows listen we're running with those same storylines we're like oh who knows what happened it looked like Curtis blades really had uh tom's number tom quit you know by blowing out his knee in that fight so that's time to run it back.

One in one, Mike, one and one. Too many unanswered questions. So I don't know. But I don't know if Volkov a Polkaup Blades vatch would have any sort of contender implications, but I just feel like I don't know what other options there are for the guys right now. They didn't want to give Blades the interim title fight. They had to just so Tom could fight in the UK.

Yeah. And that fight did not go well. It did not go up. It sure didn't. And then he squeaked by the newcomer Shabiel Gadsiev in his next fight. So, yeah. Yeah, we, we don't talk enough, Mike, we don't talk enough about how tough Volkovs, like schedule has been over the last, like, however long he's been with the UFC.

He's essentially, like, almost the Edson Barbosa of heavyweight. Like, and I know, I'm not, listen, featherweight is a much strong, featherweight, lightweight, much stronger divisions than heavyweight, obviously, heavyweight's a bad division. But I think, like, the, I'll just read it out. Almeida, obviously, Cidalgan. Sergei Pavlovich, top five guy, tied to Avasa, was on a losing streak at the time, but was still, like, weirdly ranked.

But you can write that one off. want. Ramanov. I know people are going to say Romanov is not even the U.S. anymore, but there was a time when he was considered a threat. Jarzino, I think it's a good heavyweight. Obviously, he fought Tom Aspland once in the time, March de Borough, been in the top 10 forever. Seleoghan, oh, I forgot that he fought Ceylon twice. Sorry, it would be a trilogy if they fought again. So Ceyl-Logne, and then before that, again, whatever, it's like Walt Harris, another Curtis-Blaid's fight. But man, this guy is like, he's fought nothing but killers. I screwed up. It wasn't Shemiel Gatsy, but it was Rizvon

Cooneyev. Oh, the, the Blades. That was the Blades fight. Correct. It was a close spitty. A lot of people didn't think Curtis Blades won that fight, but my bad, I screwed that one up. Yeah. If this was literally any other division, I would say wait.

I mean, I would say take a fight. Whoever the Curtis Blades would be of any other division, I would say, go do that. Dude ain't getting any younger. He should have been made eventing against Tom Aspital on Saturday. Yeah. It's not like the heavyweight belt gets defended more than like once or twice a year anyways. So it truly in this division would not hurt him one bit to wait. It's not like anybody's coming to take the throne.

You know what I mean? Like maybe Derek Lewis, like if he fights somebody and gets a huge win, like maybe you could jump him in there. Shit, I've been still, I've been fighting for Derek Lewis to get a title shot ever since he beat. Talosin freaking Deshera. Like just do the fun thing and throw Derek in there. But at this point, with what they're trying to. to accomplish with this division trying to move forward in some way i think volkov actually got a lot of steam this week uh i know the fight wasn't great but he still like derailed almeda so we don't have to

see that again and the flow the flow went over huge um well serious oh i think i think you should wait i think he'd be crazy to take another fight uh i feel like walter walker could have moved one step closer but i love that he called out hamdi and it's just like i like that walter walker's goal is like oh i don't i'm what i don't care about fighting for the title someday i'm just trying to see how many heel hooks I can string together in a row. Like this is, even he at this point is like, wow, I can't have got four in a row. Maybe I can't get five, six, seven, eight in a row if I keep calling out like outside the top 15 heavyways. And you know what?

He probably can. So it's a great gimmick. And if he someday stumbles into a title shot, like more power to him. That's hilarious. Yeah. He could just wait, dude. Like, what do you get to lose? So it's, sorry, what's your pick for Volkov?

The winner of Aspidol gone too. The winner of Aspid all gone too. The winner of back, Volkov gets next. Wait. Just, oh my God. Yeah, go, wait. Like, this is... I don't think he can.

Why? This division, no one fights in this division. The bell is never defended. It's going to take like five months for this fight to even get rebooked at this point. And there's nobody else. It's literally like, do we do, it's either we do merit, it's either Volkov who just won a number one contender fight the way the UFC put it together. Or we chucked Derek Lewis in there if he beats another guy that nobody knows.

Like that's, that's where we're at right now. What about Mike? Oh, my God. Gone wins. Antidilicia. Oh. Let's see. But what if Ante loses to WCA?

Oh, yeah. He's playing Waldo. Then Waldo Castel shot. There you go. Why five months? Why five months? Because Tom Aspinall's eye is wrecked more than likely. And plus, we have November's done.

They're not going to book that for November. They're not going to book it for December. They're not going to book it in January. unless you're bringing Tom Aspinall to Sydney, Australia. I don't think that fight happens in February. You're probably doing it in March at this point. That's probably where that rematch happens. Yeah.

You're not just going to chuck that on a rando card. You know? At worst, February. And then Volkadovsky's the co-main event. And I don't see a world where Volkadovsky is not the face of that event if they go back to Sydney in February. So, yeah, it's got to be March. And that's that.

It's all good. It's heavy weight. No one's going to miss it. it. It's freaking heavyweight. What a bummer, man. What a bummer. How many, we've had quite a few heavyweight fights. I feel like over the last few cards. And I feel like it's only reinforced our our thoughts that this is the work. Clearly, I mean,

by far the worst male division, obviously, you want to make the argument. It's brutal. All the divisions are obviously a women's band to wait in there. It's bad. It's just so bad. And Walter Walker, listen, he's a, he's a shining beacon, but outside of that boy. What division would you, what division would you buy stock? in right now. Heavyweight, the men's heavyweight division, the women's bantam weight division, or the straw weight division. Well, that's easy because I still think straw weight is good. Like, I have never gotten on the, like, straw weight is like a bad division thing. Like, I actually

don't agree with that. I think it's one of those things where Zhang was so dominant. It kind of made the division look bad. But I think on average, straw weights usually produce pretty good fights. Now, I've talked about does it have a strong contender line? That's a different question. That's a different question. Because like I said, we now have a champion who has lost all these letters who are in the top 10. So I don't know if I'm going to do. But like I think like talent wise, entertainment wise, I actually think straw weight is pretty good. So I would buy stock in straw weight.

Definitely. That's easy call for me, not when it's bad to wait or heavy weight. My goodness. I think straw weight's just like it's just like it's one of those like long term accounts that gets like zero point two percent build over time. So you're not like it's just a safe play. Correct. With recognizable things. So, like, you're not going to lose money there, but you're not going to make a ton either.

So for me, I'm actually with Lazy Bed. And I can't believe him saying this. He's joking. He's joking. He's joking. He's joking. He's joking. It's women's madden.

If it's between the three, I'm doing it for women's vatabit. Melissa, Crodin. Yeah. And Melissa Crotin. Michelle Montague. Hey, Michelle Montague is coming. Shout up Michelle Montague. Oh, last night was not great.

I think, I think there's more, I think there's more. stuff in the future at women's 135 than 115 right now i do now that could change i have no comment julian robertson could get up there and lucindo fatima klein yeah on a nice little run although i don't want to rush her into a title fight because she's got something there uh but 135 like could get real fun so but there but let's debate let's make no mistake those are the three worst divisions of the sport and it's not particularly close at light heavyweight is uh is is making ground. They're looking closer the gap a little bit.

But, I mean, they got Yuri and technically still Pereira. And Kulilil Roundtree's there. It's way more fun, I guess. Speaking of light, heavyweight, Osamaat Mirzikhanov goes in there. Jab K.O. Of poor Alexander Rackich, who has now lost four fights in a row.

Hasn't won a fight in quite some time. And it's just a good win for Mersie. The guy just keeps finding ways to win. He's fighting these. He just looks so tiny in there. He looks like he can't find his range. And then someone tries to grapple with him. And then second that it doesn't work, he all of a sudden is like, okay, you can't take

me down. I can now go in there and just fight crazy and win. So big win for Mursa Kanoff. Where are we going with the surging light heavyweight contender, A.K. Well, attentive listeners will know. I had already set this up. I had San Goliath should get the winner of this. fight. That's where I go. He's getting Ankleyev, guys. He's getting Ankyov. Now, I don't know if this

means, you know, he beats Ankylaev and gets a tell of shot. But Mersakhanov is not a young guy. I think he turned 36 this year. He's experienced too. He's 16 and no, 15 and 0 after, like, that's quite a bit, quite a bit of pro fights guys. So 36 light heavyweight is right in that essentially, I guess your prime as a light heavyweight. So they can't really toy around too much. I think you got to see what you have with this guy. Like, that was a very impressive knockout. I did not even know what he hit him with when he got it down. But that kind of power is just great. And it's a shame because I actually would be really curious now to see how a fight with

him in a poietal would go. But I think that's just never happens now. I think like the cars just don't line up that way. I think it's more, you know, Marizaconda is fighting, potentially fighting at Goliath for a shot at a vacant, you know, at the prayer with moving up, I guess, a vacant spot. Or, you know, if Carlos Olberg, fight someone, I think we talked about that before. Yeah, Yeri, right? So that's perfect.

Either way. But I do think Marizakana up can get to, can get to that Talishot, even though it's not Panetta. Because Padetta would be a fascinating matchup with him. I think that'd be really, really fun. But where that's not happening. So I'm like, like we're not good friends forever. I'm going ankle life as well.

Yeah. But it's, it's my fallback because. And I had this thought out for a while. Like I know who Mercosacanov's going to fight. Like it's the perfect fight. It's a perfect matchup. And then we got an update on this gentleman. He's not fighting for for at least a year at this point.

Merzicato, Jamal Hill was the way I was going to go. Uh, there's just perfect at that point. But yeah, he'll hurt, hell's hurt, just had surgery. He ain't coming back until he's 100%. So yeah, let's do big onk. And I think that's the way to go. I don't think the UFC's going to be in any huge rush to get ankle eye back to a title fight. So, you know, he could just be the sort of the Caitlin Chukagian of the division where no rush to get there.

I mean, unless he's just, there's no other choice, they'll throw him in. But in the meantime, he's just, he's got to be the dude. He's going to be the goalie. He's going to be the goalie and he's going to keep the puck out of the net and keep him away from the title shot. So let's go to the wild card round, AK, and let's select one fighter we're not match made for. It will matchmate for them right now, AK, who you got? And why is it Hamdi Abdullahab? Oh, oh, he's involved.

He's involved. You know what? Technically, I guess he is my wild card pick because really, really I was going to make Chelsea Lameda for Sammy. That is my wild card pick. So that's right. I didn't even think about it. technically I did two wild card picks. I matched with two wild cards.

I love, like I said, love the Walter Walker callout. But I would need to see. I'm a gelatin guy. I want to see him kind of get back on track. And listen, he has the same thing as Walter. You want to put him in there with like bottom, you know, bottom half guys in the heavyweight division. Yeah, of course he'll finish people in the first round. So it's like, you know, Almeida takes a lot of crap because, and deservedly so.

No, deservedly so. He has not been able to, you know, do the same sort of thing. He should have finished Derek Lewis. Like, I think controlling a big guy for five rounds is impressive. And that's great. I don't think your average fan gives a crap. And I think he needed to submit Derek Lewis or he needed to, you know, TKO him, something. It was just, it hurt his stock so badly that Derek Lewis find.

And he won. Like, he dominated Derek Lewis. And his stock plummeted. Plumeted. And after last night, his stock could not be lower. Like, again, a competitive fight with Volkov, but you fought in a very unappealing way. And you didn't even get the win, right? The judges didn't even go your way.

It's horrible. So let's get him back there. beating up jobbers. I was contemplating doing the light heavyweight move, but I have a feeling, and I think that will be in the card someday. I have a feeling he is not interested in that. So yeah, I'm saying, sorry, Walter.

Someone is going to be getting a first round submission against Hamdi of Dhab soon, but it will not be Walter Walker. It will be Jeltson. Jeltsin should go to 205. He really should. At some point, I don't think he wants to yet. Yeah.

I went with Walter Walker, and he's not fighting Omdi. It's time. Walter Walker had, in my opinion, he had an A night. Like if I were to give him a letter graded today, he was this close to an A plus. I thought he was going to do it. And he didn't do it. He should have called out Derek Lewis.

It's time. It is time. Walter Walker versus Derek Lewis. Like, he has gotten to the point where this is the litmus test time. This is for literally everybody. You are doing a science experiment right now. You are doing a science man. We have a man who has shown incredibly jujitsu by getting a submission four times in a row that,

I think he tied Rousseau-Baharas, who had four in like 12 fights. This guy just did it four times in a row. And you are putting him against a man who has proven many, many times. Jiu-Jitsu does not exist. Jiu-Jitsu is not real. Yeah. This is in shape, abs, skinny, Derek Lewis, just wanting to get in there and fight. So let's just do that, man.

Like, let's just have some fun. And here's the thing. Walter's going to talk a lot of shit about Derek all the way. And Derek's going to just like take it in and their face off is going to be nasty. And Derek's probably going to knock them out. And Derek's going to have a great post-fight interview. And like this is where heavyweight is at right now. And at this point, following UFC 321, the two most like desired and exciting heavyweights in the world are Walter Walker and Derek Lewis.

Like those are the two guys. That's it. Besides Phil DeFries, Phil DeFries, you're the man. most underrated fighter on earth. But as far as the UFC goes, like, those two guys have, like, the most momentum. We're like, yeah, I kind of want to watch these dudes fight. And anybody.

So let's just throw them in there together. Volta wins this huge win. If Derek Lewis wins, then just give a damn title shot. Like, what are we waiting for? They should have done this anyways. You're so sly. I was like, I didn't think you'd just get out right to say it. I was about to say, like, ah, this is another stealth,

Stealth, Mike trying to push Derek Lewis to a title shot. It's not even stealth. You're just saying it. You know what? Yeah. You know what? F it. Winner gets a title shot.

Okay. Even if Walter wins, just throw them in there. Who cares? Like, who cares to this point? There's literally nobody. There's nobody else. If he heel hooks Derek Lewis,

that's like, and do you think Derek Lewis will be like, okay, Jujisu is real? No. Do you think, no?

It will prove nothing. Derek will probably wear like a fake boot. Do the Eddie Guerrero thing. You just bash him over the head. Slip it off. Oh my gosh. That is a really good matchup.

God, that'd be funny. It'd be so fun. That'd be so funny. Like no one's going to look at it and be like, this is going to be bad. This is going to be boring. No one's going to say that. Oh, one more thing, Mike.

I don't know if you've updated your heavyweight rankings yet. Where do you put Volta now? I'll tell you right now. I have, and you can tell me if I'm glad you reminded me. It's all right. You can tell me if you would not put him ahead of any of these names. So I think going on, I must have had Volter obviously is somewhere in the top 20. But he, with that win, I had him jump over.

I'll be in order. So here's like who's directly behind him and then keep going down. Marcos Hoseogario Delima, much more experienced guy. But I put him, would you put him above? Marcos. Yeah. Yeah. Shemila Kaziev.

Yes. Okay. Mick Parkin. Yes. And this is, well, I think this is clear, but I, and then Mario Pinto,

right? Mario Pinto, you wouldn't rank above him yet, right? Mm. Four in a row, man. I know his loss is, is a bad one. We don't talk about it.

We don't talk about it. That's just a blip. I don't know what the hell happened there. It's so random. Would you rank him above Bartine Taibora right now? I would not. That's where I stopped. I actually have,

so that's actually a perfect du ass. I have Marchine at 11. I have Walter at 12. Do I bounce Anatoly Malikin from my rankings for Walter Walker? I think, I can't jump on by the Great Rooker. Oh, I haven't even looked at my.

How dare I even think about that? I mean, he has to be in the top of Dean now, right? Walter Walker has to be in the tough. Yeah. I think I think I'm going to put him in a 15, I think. He, uh,

we should note, though. He hasn't. We haven't touched these rankings in quite some time. No, no, we had a little bit of a break. We wanted, because there were two, you know, two paper. The heavyway ones. We should note, respectfully, Walter has not beaten anyone good.

Is that just like, that's why. He's fighting and winning. He's fighting a lot and winning. You can only fight who they put in front of you. We say that all the time. And impressive fashion, right? He's not grinding out 29, 28 decisions over these guys. He is looking like he is leagues above the guys who's fighting, which frankly, he probably is.

But yeah, this is my, I do not have been. my top 10 because he just has not beaten anyone's good. Yeah. I do love the Hamdi call out. Like Volcker, Volter knows ball. Like he was like, hmm, Hamdi's probably back talking to the media right now. Jose Young's, the great journalist, is probably out there asking him questions right now. So I'm going to, I'm going to call him out as he's sitting at the dais with the microphone and it worked out great. So yeah, Falter's got some momentum right now. So let's get after it. All right. Let's go to you guys. We'll open things up. Let me tell them. Yeah, let me tell Yeah, next 10 or 15 minutes.

Send us your matchups. There you guys. I shout in all caps, guys. Mike, let me, I know we don't normally do this. I do want to, I did get a couple of first timers. And sometimes the first timers don't come back after. I mean, some of them do something else. So I do want to read, just shout a couple of first timers real quick.

Arvon-sur-Ruquian Stan account. Of course, I support that. So I had to read this out. Welcome to the party pal. Gone versus Maladino, I get. That's not going to happen. Um, Merzacanov. What?

Merzikana of round. This is the first timer. Merzakana of Roundtree. He said, I guess. He said I guess. Merzikanov, roundtree. I don't think that's going to happen. Umar, Jan Marab winner.

Yeah, well, Batista Zahabi. Actually, it has to happen someday. Has to happen someday. Oh, God. Oh, yes, please. God. Mike Hamdi Talasant to Chera. Oh, come on.

Yes. Yeah. Could you? It should be Hamdi, Moe, Moeusman over and over again. Like, they should just run the best of seven. That was once in a lifetime, all right? I was once in a lifetime.

Thank you. Our monster can stand. And Jack Decker, I want to shout to me. Another first time I'm welcome to the party pal. Aspin al-Ga-you-ob, you obviously write it back. During Suarez, Marav was Omar too after the Marab submits Piotr-Yon, calling a finish, calling a finish. No, you can't do it.

Can't do it. Too soon. You will ruin his career if he loses to Marab again twice and less than a year. You can't do it. Volkov versus Delicia, after Delugia, Nukes, WCA. There you go. There's your Tom Aspinel storyline. Merzacanov.

Listen, our first time was they love Merzacanov Roundtree, and Quillen Saul killed and Maricio Rufi. Oh, my. We didn't talk about that knockout. I'm sure you guys talked about it on the post-fight show, but I just want to say that was so. It was nasty. Scary.

His leg was twitching. They went to, like, when they finally, you know, kind of had turned him over. He was still unconscious. Like, they told him. Eyes rolling in the back of his head. It was a nasty one. He's a good lightweight too, man. That is a silky.

And shout out to Silkyl, because he is coming up fast. I'll tell you what, man, Hanata Boycato was talking a whole bunch of noise saying like, hey, after Nazrat wins, like, he'll call me out and I'll fight him. Let's see. Put your body of your mouth is now. Put your body where your mouth is Hanato. Go fight this dude. I don't know if there's going to be a lot of lightweights being like, yeah.

Let's go fight this like six foot seven lightweight. He just looks so big in there. He's huge. Yeah. That head kick was so nasty. Crazy. All right, a couple of super chats. Oh, God.

I mean, I'm throwing this up. I don't want to embarrass you, David, but I appreciate you. What's for those jerks in Montreal's jumping Arnold Allen for not speaking? I saw this. I think David's joking. I, David, I hope you're joking because, yes, I know it got aggravated a lot. But, I mean, Arnold himself, and you watched the full clip, clearly said it was, like, indicated it was a joke after. He's a very, very dry sense of humor.

So I understand the isolated clip, like people saw and are like, oh, my gosh, could the story be? true but I mean it's it's not true I mean Mike you've reached out to people it was not it was not an MA fighting no it was not in a may fighting for a reason we had I had a good time talking to the people uh and ask him about that we we had many hearty laughs at the ag sites who kept throwing that out there um we had we had a great time talking yeah you guys got you guys got to be careful with this stuff because uh yeah the obvious does a ridiculous story that's not something that's going to happen in Montreal Arnold Allen has trained in Montreal for years so this is not he's not going to be enough for what one person

his team was like, do you think we're going to let a Brit lose a fist fight to a Canadian? Oh, okay. Oh, it's like that. Oh, it's like that? Now I have to see if there's any Canadian feather weights that he can match. See, we're joking around. That is great. That is a great time.

Yeah, but it is a guy. He said it himself the next day. He was tweeting like, I can't believe so people around with this. I know. People are unbelievable. RS 40s. Nathaniel, what a player at featherweight. 10 and 3 in the UFC.

He's not a nice. run right now. I didn't think he won the fight yesterday. I will say that. It was close. I don't, like, I don't think it was a robbery or anything, but I thought, I thought Delgado won, but it was close enough where I'm not mad that would won. That's a good win, man, and he beat a dude missed weight, which also helps. Yeah, I like that. I play, I don't know. Like, if we, it does what you mean by player, right? You're talking about someone who can fight for a title someday. I doubt it. And that's just because, guys, he's in a super deep division right now. Like, I know he went from one super deep division to another.

Like he was a former bantamweight deep division, featherweight, deep division. Just so much has to go your way. And Mike, earlier when you were asking, like, which division would I buy stock in? I thought you were going to let me answer that we weren't going to troll three divisions. I would have, if I could pick anyone, I would pick like featherweight. I think featherweight has so many hitters right now. Like this division is ready to just explode. And at some point, like, Wokanovsky is just going to retire.

And either lose the belt or retire and sort of just really, like we're going to move on from this era. Like I think there's this era of Volcanovsky, Holloway, Aldo, and all that. And I think we're going to move on from that. And we have a lot of, like, great fighters. And not just like good fighters, like exciting, exciting fighters coming up. And I think, frankly, I think like Delgado is one of them. Like, you know, he lost a close fight. And what is in there?

But I think what is more going to be like the test for some of these guys coming up? Very good fighter. And not an easy out at all. But I just don't see him being a like perennial top 10 guy or like a title contender. But that's okay. He's going to have a long career and make a lot of money. See, and he's in a real, he's in kind of like an interesting spot right now because he could get, he could get somebody decent right now. Like I think he could get Arnold Allen.

I think that fight could be possible. There's, there's a history between those two dudes. Uh, I think Danny Gay would make a lot of sense. Like this is kind of the moment where it's like, let's see how good you really are. Are you really a top 15 guy? Either you beat Danny Gay at a split decision or he knocks you out in two minutes. Like it's one of those types of situations. But yeah, featherweight's great, man.

Like, Chappay Marisculls. on a tear he's won like six fights a row whatever it is and i think i forget who they're matt they just pat sabatini maybe they're throwing him in there with yeah but there's just this division rocks it's so damn good yeah uh will you the william go mez of the world uh melchi costa costa four straight i mean it's it's just a it's just a really good debate iron pico still there so fighting for him to fight somebody julina rosa's like must see tv like i'm valetos is coming up I was way down to the rankings, but that's a guy's going to do some damage, man.

He's going to do some damage to this division. Yeah. Gabriel Santos, uh, Yadir de Vali. I mean, there's, it's good division, man. It's a great division. It's a great division. Uh, unrelated by RIP to Jets legend Nick Mangold. Yeah, this is just broke right now.

Yeah, well, only 41 RIP, you know. That's sad. That's sad. Very sad. Uh, eBay Factory creates eye pokers, number one export. Yeah. Yeah. Tough.

Oh, man. It's so, it's, my God. Very bad night for, uh, for Cyril God. Yeah, both guys, man. There's just like, what a rough, like you have everyone calling, uh, aspiral quitter. You've got people calling Ghana a cheater and, oh my gosh, just brutal. Hey, Gerard. Uh, Dirdre d'Urude Suarez. No, because Swar's got to win another fight. Sorry. Uh, Verna Androge, Umar's a hobby. All right. Now, now we're cooking with gas. Yeah. I mean, I'm fine with Umar's Zahad. Uh, Volkov Blitz, too. Wow. Okay. How about that.

Look, another Azamah Khalil. Are we off base here? Is this the... Well, I think it's a fine fight. Oh, okay, okay. I would have gone that way, but I just... I don't want Khalil to fight again for like a year and a half. Dude is taking so much damage.

Like, I want him to take a break. Ooh, killing Jarkar. Close. I like that one. I think I have them very close to the rankings after that that Kulin win. Yeah. Ikram versus Dele-eze? I actually like that one, too.

I assume Dele-Ze is still ranked. If that's the case, I would definitely go with that fight. Would go me? We can't just go me. fighting aren't pico uh delgado feely klein baha mondays two walter versus marchine tibora uh we both said go me versus pico right that was our friends those our greatest friends for everyone right oh yeah yeah yeah yeah that's right that was uh that's fantastic yeah it looks perfect uh tristan uh killin versus estabodovic oh my lordy that fight is insane yikes i love that so much that's good good one tristan god now we

gets to throw Sal killed into all these, like, fun, lightweight fights. This is just a terrific time. So it's the best division in the sport, everybody. Icrum versus Edmund Chabazzian. That's really good. Wow. Yeah, that's really good. Ludwig Klein versus Alexander Hernandez.

I like that one, too. Very good, Tristan. Great picks. He's a veteran of the game. Tristan is a veteran of the game, man. He knows how to do this. Klein versus Grant Dawson a little bit of the old, uh, dude de ru right there.

Grant Austin is booked. He's fighting, uh, Manuel Tori. at UFC 323. So perhaps down the, maybe down the line. That fight could have another super chat. Am I crazy for thinking that John versus Alex is now clearly the biggest fight they could have made at heavyweight? No. It's not even now.

That was the biggest fight to make it like at heavyweight six months ago. That was probably the biggest fight to make it heavyweight a year ago. Like, yeah, of course. It was the biggest fight to make when Alex Pereer beat Kalilio Roundtree. Like no one wanted him to fight out Goliath. They wanted him to go fight John. Like that was that was the fight So yeah that's that's been the biggest fight they can make

So let's go ahead and do that Can you get an interview with Arnold Island soon? He said he has a potential fight for December I'm not sure her he's definitely ready to come back now I thought he was I thought he was gonna be ready to fight like in the fall So I'm kind of surprised he's not booked So he got jumped by a bunch of people from Montreal like I don't know You heard about that yeah he might be up for a minute

But he's obviously trading he's obviously getting after it What else you got? Coconut Bomb's got a submission last night on Tough Enough and Big John McCarthy made his return to pro-M-A refereeing. By the way, Dago Brando won again. What? I was splitting. Kai Kamaka the 30.

You want to split decision. Oh, gosh. Just, will he ever be re-signed by the O.C.? Yes. I'll say yes. I just give him another chance. I can't remember. I don't know if something happened behind the scenes or something.

I can't remember someone who has tweeted so consistently since they've left the UFC every week. It's literally every week, probably every day, but almost every week at Diego Brando, whether he's a fight or not. He's tweeting something about like, oh, this person's the UFC, I could be. Or just like, oh, hey, this is such, such anniversary of my fight with blah, blah, blah. Like, God bless him. He was his last point at the UFC was in 2016. He lost to Brian Ortega. Yes, I'm looking this up, guys.

I did not remember that. I'm not Jose Young's. So this is going to be 10 years ago come January, 10 years ago, and he's still at 38 years old is saying, I want back in. He has not given up. I'm trying to get back in. So what a story if we see it. I'll be good insights. I mean, they should have got.

I'll say, you know what? I'm going to say they won't resign him because why do the fun thing that every single person wants. Like we wanted Will Brooks back. Yeah. We wanted Will Brooks back to do it right, right? Like he admitted he was kind of. a douche back in the day. And he,

you know, he figured it out, family man. And then they did this like, ultimate fighter season where they had the veterans against the newcomers. We were like, dude, just get Will Brooks in there. Will even took fights at Welterweight so he could try to be a part of it. And, um, they didn't do it. So,

but now that, like, after seeing how fun UFC Rio was, can you imagine throwing Diego Brando's like return fight? Like a fight night card in Brazil? It'd be incredible. Uh, Shane, Doug. five to 80 does raise the good point of. They just gave it a bunch of contracts at DWCS.

It's tougher to get back in the UFC. Yeah, no, this is true. It is much harder because if you're Diego Brando, you shouldn't be accepting a whatever minimum contract. You're a veteran of almost like 60 fights. You should be getting, you know, confidence. And that's horrible, but that's like, that's like, that's probably why maybe his management is just like,

no, if Diego don't. You need to make us, you don't have that many fights left. You need to be making as much money as possible, not selling for less than you see. Because someone else in the comments mentioned Juan Archoletta, Yeah, he'd be a great sign by the UFC. Who's the former Belator champion, the welterweight champion? What's the name?

Amazon. Amosov. Oh, Amosov. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why is he not the U.C.? You know why? Because he's probably demanding more than like 20 and 20. So it sucks because obviously the U.C knows who these guys are.

And again, and in fairness, it's not like Amosov is a huge star, and it's not like he has the most fan-friendly fighting style. So why would the U.S.C. want to pay 50 and 50 to Amos? when they could pay 16 and 16 or whatever it is to a contender series person who's like a bulldozer who's just going to go in and get or get caught and fight at the apex i fight at the apex there's your answer guys right 45 cards the math doesn't work out for the veterans unfortunately dirt versus androge too who's just like on drudge fighting i mean she just lost the loopie so is she booked i thought she was but i don't know i guess you know she just lost loopie that's right yeah that wasn't

that long ago i mean i i i'm trying to figure out who will who will like she have to rematch first because someone's going to get a rematch in there. Someone's going to get a rematch in it. Yeah, I mean, Janjohn-on wouldn't be a bad one because she actually has a wait over McKenzie and she's ranked like number two or number three. So McKenzie versus the Jillian Yasmin winner. Absolutely, that's it.

Uh, do you do what else we got? Umar versus Sean O'Malley's a hobby gets a title shot. They're not going to do that. Sorry. I don't think they're going to be in any rush to give him its hobby a title shot. uh, re-signed Warn Archoletta. Forget, dig,

well, I mean, it's not like Wannericholeta was, you know what I was saying? He was a Bellator guy. Um, so I mean, see,

this is what like Contender Series is about though. Like, can you imagine if we're throwing like Amisov and Warnat Joleta into like contender series fights? Like that rock. That'd be great. It would. I just,

man, but the, I just the thought of them having to like get minimum U.S.C. contract is so gross in my head. Like, oh, no. These guys are been fighting for years. Years.

They've won titles. It's like, Notable promotions, they should be making at least, frankly, like $75,000 should be making like a hundred thousand dollars guaranteed. More than that. This is a terrible number I'm throwing out there. But again, this is not how our business works, guys. I'm living in a fancy line. I know.

They need to bring back Ohio. You know what? Hold on. I lied to America. There are three things that I, I said there are three things that I truly believe in. Don't do it. There has actually four things that are true. Don't do it.

And point number four is the UFC does not need. to do anything. Oh, yes, yes. They're... I'm just going to say it, okay, I'm sorry. Mahamahev will never fight in the UFC again. Oh, that's what I was scared you were going to say. Because you're right about the golden rule.

The U.S. doesn't need to do anything. They're not going to resign them. Ever? There's no need to. They don't need... It's not like he's... It's Mohammed Makhai.

I know, but I feel like he will play ball with them, though. How? To get back in. Like, I think he won't... I think him and his management will not, well, you know... Is he a... He's not a league guy, eh? No.

I don't think so. I don't know if anybody manages him right now. Whoever it is, I have a feeling he will, he is not, he will not, should the UFC express interest in resigning him, he will not hold them over the coals. Let me put it that way. He wants to fight the UFC. I don't think he's coming back. It'd be a shame.

It'd be a shame. But here's it like, it's, the fighting style didn't help. No. It really didn't. I mean, boy, he came out like a, he came out on, fire. Like got the quick finish of Cody Durdin. You know, and I even thought like the next performance was really impressive. And yeah, he got some finishes along the way, but it took him forever. And he just, he was like almost all made-ish where he was just like, the dude doesn't want to

hurt anybody. And it's hard to win fights at high levels when you're, when you're not going to hurt people. He shared the octagon with arguably the most exciting flyweight in the world. And it was like the worst fight of the year that year, considering what was involved. And on the trash talk. All the trash talk. I'm like, both guys, both guys.

Hotel. It fights in the freaking hotel lobby, which the UFC hates that shit, by the way. No. Like, they truly don't like any of that stuff. Like,

you have a shoving match on the stage, like helps sell a promo cool. But like, they don't want dudes fighting each other in a hotel lobby. And the worst, the thing that hurts the most from Ohio is that you can say what you want about Data White. And you can,

you can like them or not like them, all of that. And even if you don't like them, One thing, Dana White, there are two things that describe Dana White perfectly. One, he is a stubborn ass. And so am I. So we're Boston dudes. Like, we are stubborn.

Even if we're wrong, you show me a videotape that I did something wrong, be like, that wasn't me. Dana White's the same way. But two, if you are cool with Dana and you're loyal to him, he will be loyal to you. And Baha'iav wasn't. and the worst thing he did, and it's something Dana has talked about since, is that Muhammad Mikhail was an asshole to the staff.

It's got to take something special for the UFC to forgive that, especially Data. And Dana likes to hold a grudge, truly likes to hold a grudge. So I don't think he comes back. Yeah. It sucks because, like, he is really good. And, you know, Jedd, I thought he could be like a two-division champion.

That's how special of a talent I think he is. but he's not like a star, he's not a needle mover. He's none of those things. He's just a very good fighter. And in today's UFC, that's not good enough. It's just not. Yeah. And if that's true, then I'm glad that Dena, like, spoke up on it.

And if that is the reason, then that's fair because, you know, we criticize the UFC. We criticize Dana White a lot. We criticize the executives a lot, the, you know, just the organization as a whole. But, I mean, I can't speak highly enough of the UFC staff and the experiences I've had with them. Like, they're just, these are the people who really, you know, again, keep this giant promotion moving along. And like on the ground, I, again, I've nothing but nice things to say about these people. I've had so many interactions with U.S. staff. So, yeah, if that is the case and Makiaev was like, was not good to them, that that's like a strong reason to not want to work with them.

It's that the division could use top guys with Hyves undefeated Markle too. Let me tell you something. The true answer of like if there's one division I would buy stock in right now, it's the UFC Flyweight division. Oh, okay, yeah. It's friggin rocks. Like, it is, it is low-key one of the more, it's one of the most exciting divisions in the sport right now. They don't need, they don't need Mekiah.

There, it's, it's a fun, it's just a super fun division right now. Like Charles Johnson is an incredibly fun fighter, and he's like the 20, he's probably like the 22nd best flyweight in the UFC right now, and he's very, very fun. So, again, they don't, they don't need them. they just don't. They don't need Connor. They don't need John.

They certainly don't need Muhammad Mikhail. So you cross the boss. If you're John Jones, you might get another chance. If you cross the boss and you're Mahavamukaiv may not get one. So I'll say never say never, but if I were to make a bet on it right now and I bet I would get plus money on it, I would bet that McHiaf is not, never fights. Oh, I'll take the negative. I'll take the minus, uh, minus 250 or whatever maybe minus 150.

Probably more closer to minus 150. actually it's not that's not that big of a favorite that he's going to fight in the UFC again. But yes, I did not expect to talk about Makayev that much on the show. But thank you for bringing that up. All right. Good topic. Do we have any other matchup questions? Yeah, guys, get those matchups in.

If you got any left, I think, I think, Mike, I will say, I think, like. Okay, so I want to, I want to, I would have proposed this. Obviously, this is a joke. Is it? Is it? It's a joke. Read it out. Read it out, Mike.

Oh, I'm sorry, yes. Yeah, for the pod. People are going to listen to the pod. We Are Live 503 says, Gone versus Aspinall, rebooked for the apex. Could this be? Yeah. Because remember, old school fans of this sport said after Anderson,

Silva and Damien Maya fought, Dana White said, for the fans that bought this pay-per-view, for the fans that spent harder money watching that, we owe you one. And Dana never gave us that. Never did it. is this is this the fight i mean it doesn't matter now they're going to paramount anyways so is could

this could they just chuck this on a fight night card not a paid not a numbered event could this be a road show main event of a non-numbered card in on paramount just to like boost things up a little bit saying like oh why you know you're scheduling these saturdays to stay home because these are the big cards. These are the ones that we're going to stack up with title fights and stuff. But for you great fans out there, we're starting this Paramount deal off with a bang. We're going to Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, the main event, Tom Aspinall versus Cyril gone for the heavyweight championship. Well, I mean, first of all, if the apex was good enough for Cormier and Steepay,

then damn it should be good enough for hospital and gone. But no, I make you right, though, but going on the road is perfect. Why not UFC London? Why not London? Why not Paris? Why not? I don't know when they're playing. You know what?

But because Paris will be September. They're not going to wait that long. But usually they go to London in March. Could you do a fight night in March? Because let me tell you something. He needs this. He needs to fight in London right now. Not only does he need this, but the UFC owes London.

Big time. Because when they started going there and Dana was like, there's a place we're going to every. year we're going to make it the best possible card it's london and boy did they like they did it for like the first couple but these last two these last couple of london cards stunk they stunk they were real bad like okay made events the rest of the car was shit and then you like overcharged people like all the fun fans that sing songs and like get smashed and like make the event what it is like they're priced out of the event so you know what you should do ufc you want to do you want to do you want to make things

right with the people, you do UFC London and then you just give away the tickets for free. That, that's how you do it. Well, okay. I mean, don't sign Mohamaka, but do a free event in London. How's that? And we'll put the title on the line. Okay. You had me until free.

I think that is, let's, let's maybe, you know, maybe they can have a little bit cheaper tickets or something. But I think we've hit it, though. I think we've hit it. There's so much bad sentiment around Aspinall right now. I think the answer is you give them some home cooking. You give them a home date. you get those Tommy Aspinall chance going in.

You remind people why he was regarded as like someone they could push as a star. Because the stock is real low right now. The stock is real low. So Paris would be cool too. But like you said, probably not going to happen until next September. And I think it's Aspinall whose reputation needs a little bit more work on it right now. So there we go. Do the right thing, guys.

UFC London in March headline it with Aspenol gone for quote unquote free. That's it. Good for the Paramount deal too, right? Go for the Paramount deal as well, right? It's crazy that Asperall's like. reputation took such a bad hit after getting like fouled. Poked to the eye. Al Jermaine is still recovering from getting need in the face.

You didn't mean illegal need from Peter Young. He's still like by the rules. You should have been a DQ. Crazy. What would have been honestly? What's what would have been worse? Like what's worse in the court of public opinion? If Tom lost to God and like a firefight and just got clipped and not knocked out and lost

the title or what happened yesterday? This is way worse. I agree. I guess it was worse. That was like that was like, that was something that I was like thinking about from from the public opinion perspective. Now obviously for like Tom himself, losing the belt would be is way worse. Losing a fight, losing the belt, losing everything is huge. But for just like the court of public opinion until he actually fights again, he, I mean, I'm truly shocked by like how big of a percentage of the NBA community is like, yeah, this dude's this dude's a quitter.

looked for a way out. Like, that is his rep right now. Dana didn't make it any better, which stinks for Tom. Mike, do you know why it's worse than losing? It's because people are assuming he would have lost. That's worse. People have drawn out the rest of the fight. They have created this image in their mind of how the rest of the fight would have played out.

Oh, God would have just, what, 49, 46, you know, 50, 45 decision he was dominating him. Gone would have caught him in the second or third round and knocked him out. Like, these things didn't happen. Like, but people are projecting how Tom would have lost. This is way, way, way worse. You make a great point. You make a great point. It's so much worse.

And there's a lot of people who are like, and look, God, God did great in that first round. No doubt about it. He outperformed what most people expected. But people are acting like Tom did nothing in that round. Like Tom was landing big shots too. Yeah, for sure. Like, just because Tom bled from his nose did not,

it wasn't like a 10-8 round he lost. He like lost a, may have lost a competitive round if the round ended at that moment. Like, it's all good. And again, if we're listening to Dana White, Shale Sunnan and Anthony Smith for your perspective on things, you probably need to take a look in the mirror and look elsewhere for where you get your stuff. So, yeah, again, as Meat Rocket says, Cyril looks good in that round. He got the fight he wanted. Absolutely. But it's just a gnarly ass eye poke.

I was waiting for it. Someone did a business. There you go, lazy bed. Someone match made for Mizuki in UA. There you have it. Good for Mizuki, man. What a comeback. One of the biggest underdogs in the card.

Hadn't fighting. Fight. Maybe just fight. Like more than once every Olympics. We don't know. She might have some health issues or something. But she came back. First fight in over two years.

Good win. Good win for her. Jacqueline Amram really. Yeah. That was a good win. I didn't think that was going to happen. Good for. Oh, you know what?

While we're doing that, we're doing all this stuff, Mike. Mitchroposo. Mitchiposo, New England's own. You know, I don't support New England sports teams, New England athletes are a few. I love you, my best friend, but we are at odds on this. But Mitchiposo, this guy has been through so much dog shit in his fighting career, trying to get to the UFC.

Ultimate Fighter was competing at Bantamweight, which was just silly. I mean, he's not a bantam weight, right? He's like a small flyweight. Like, he's not a big guy. So that was silly. Contender Series loses to a top guy in Andre Lima. I think we know Andre Lema is like a probably going to fight. You know, he has all.

Contender Series lost to, he lost to Jake Hadley who missed weight. Oh, that's right. The first offender. The first time in contender series history that a fighter who missed weight got a contract. Got a contract. Was that fight. And after like pissing off Dana, too or he was pissed off the matchmaker's or he pissed off Dana.

Like apparently. No, Dana. So apparently Jake Hadley was like Mohammed Bakayef that fight week. He was an asshole to his staff. Like all that. He missed weight. but Dada was like he's so great. Like his ground game is like the best I've ever seen.

So we're going to give him a contract. We're to give him a shot. And then, yeah. So poor bitch. Sorry, I didn't remember. Totally forgotten in that. And then he fights Andre Lima.

I think as like a short notice replacement, not a short notice, but. On his UFC debut. You see debut. Very tough opponent. Less than a week's notice. Like I think five days notice he accepted that fight. And Lima.

And Lima, who had a fight scheduled on that card missed weight. Crazy. Crazy. This was his last shot. This was Mitch's last shot. Could not say no. the fight after his opponent again missed weight by three freaking pounds. Jed was saying this guy just cannot win inside an octagon, you know,

contendive series also a fighter UFC. He had, he said he had octophobia, just fear of eight sides. And man, he, he, thank goodness, Rich Mitchell, great officiating, just no nonsense from Azat Maxim at the end. Great cheating by Azam, by the way. Great cheating. Missing weight, amazing. To grabbing the fence, it worked perfectly.

Like it actually did like completely reverse position if the referee had like treated it like most referees do. Who knows? Maxa might have come back. and won that fight. It was a beautiful bit of a cage grabbing. But Mitch, man, fought through it all. So, so happy for him. Because damn, man, that was it. He loses this fight. I don't think it would matter that his opponent missed. I think that was it for Mitch. He was probably just going to get released. And the circumstances is like crazy. And he's a good fighter. Like, Mitch is really, really, really

talented. So clearly talented. Just some really bad breaks. Like, I know we don't want to make excuses for fighters all the time. But damn, some weird bad breaks. And he beat a very good, like a guy who came, as at Maxim came in with quite a bit of hype when he came to the UFC. So this is a huge win. There you go. I'm happy to talk about Mitch Roso. You all I know my first thought was outside of Jed being like you know what Mitch has never done. He's never wanted

a fight in a cage with eight sides. I might draft Mitch Roposo in our next draft. Ooh. I just needed to see him get one win. Yeah. And now it's now. And now he's off to the races. Now we're going to, now I think people are going to see the Mitch Roposo that I've been hyping up for like seven or eight years now.

I mean, who like everyone told me about when he was like 16 or 17. Like there's this kid coming out of that out of that camp with like fond and, uh, Cater and, and Tyson Chardier and you need Losons and all that. Like watch out for this dude. And finally after winning like multiple regional championships for CES and Cage Titans and, you know, fighting these big spots looking for that UFC opportunity, he finally gets a win. So shout out to, uh, to Mitch Raposo.

I got goosebumps. Hey, you know who else lost the first two UFC fights? a guy named Maraud Walshveley. That's very true. I'm just saying. I'm not saying Mitch is about to win his next 14 straight fights, but. And he got the end. I don't know what as a backs of his making.

I would say not a ton. No. I think he probably ended up with, you know, maybe 4,000 extra bucks. Good chunk of change. A 30% there. Good chunk of change. Not too shabby. Not too shabby.

All right. We're getting out of here. I didn't think we were going for an hour and 31 minutes, but boy, did we? But it's amazing what you can do when, you don't end your work night at like 6 a.m. And get two hours of sleep. So that was nice. And of course,

all of you guys who came on here, whether you agree with us or not, we love you anyways. It was nice, respectful dialogue for the most part today. Much better than the post fight show, which is an absolute dumpster fire. The chat was much better this time around.

There were a couple of people out there trying to, trying to rile us up. But for the most part, well done by everybody. Obviously, we'll be talking a lot more about this throughout the week, because, oh, let me, we got to pull it up. It's, it's been a while since we've done this.

Oh, my gosh. Don't go anywhere, people. Don't go anywhere. We're back. We are so back. It's been over two months, but we are back at the world's most famous apex on Saturday. And the good news is, at least for people who don't want to stay up late watching fistfights, it's a 4 p.m. Eastern start time for this event, 7 p.m. main card.

The main event for the world's most famous Apex Return, Steve Garcia versus David Onama. Good fight. Should it be a main event of a UFC card? No, absolutely not. The original main event, which was the one that was being circled up until the Garcia-O-Nama fight, is now the co-bate event. And in case you were wondering, yes, it is a heavyweight fight.

Waldo Cortez-Acosta versus anti-Delijah. We have Jeremiah Wells back against. Temba Garimbo. Isaac Dolgarian is getting into a fist fight against Yadir de Valle. I'm actually kind of looking forward to that one. No one will care, but I am looking forward to it. Charles Radke is back against Daniel Frunza. Alon Nassimento versus Cody Durdin,

Kevin Christian versus Billy Ellicca. Oh God, Billy Alicon is fighting on this card. Okay. Timmy Kalamba versus Changho Lee Dante Johnson, who I like a lot. This dude is a wrecking ball, fighting Sedrique Dumase, okay. Yep, that's happening.

Okay. So far buried on the prelims. The highest stakes fight of the entire card, Ketland Vieira versus Norma Dumont, Monsterat, Conejo Ruiz versus Alice Artilean, Phil Roe, Soquhounco, and Tolita Allen Carr versus Ariani Carnalosi. That is just scream in Apex,

although not the worst card. No, I'm going to say, Well, the main card, I'll say, like, that's actually really good matchmaking. I would say I had not taken a close look at this. I think all those fights could be like, I think all those fights could be really good. Well, I mean, I think the first four fights in the card could be really good. I think the main event could be really good. There's one fight that's kind of sticking on like a sore thumb.

But I mean, but hey, that fight also has maybe contender implications, Mike. Okay, maybe that's a contender implication. Well, let's take, hold on. Before we judge, let's take a look at the November 8th lineup. Oh my gosh. We're doing it? We're doing a special treat for the people tuning in live? Yeah.

Gabriel Bonfim versus Randy Brown is the main event. Good fight. Yes, good fight. Not good main event. Matt Schnell versus Joseph Morales is the co-main event. Good fight here. Ricky Simone versus Hione Barcellos. That's good fight.

Love it. Ishmael Bonfine versus Chris Taco Padillo. Muslim Salaf v. Marcos Saldioreh, versus Christian Leroy-Duncan, a.k. The adointed one. Myro Buena Silva is back against Jacqueline Cavalcun. We need to delete that rankings update where we had her is the number one

phantom way in the world. And officially, lazy bed with some doo-doo. Tisha Pennington is fighting Denise E. Gomes on this card. Which I forgot was even a thing. I don't even think we can give him a doo-do for that, though, honestly, because I completely,

because I completely did not know that that's- So I'm looking up and down this card. I think we're looking at a better slate here. Oh, you like this one more. Adrian Yannes is back against Christian Kenyonez. Josh Hockett is making his UFC debut, so I'm sure that is going to be classy as hell, taking on Max Jimenez.

Jamal Embers versus Hyder Emile? That's going to be an absolute heater. Middleweighty, middleweights, okay? Possibly for the chance to, at least if this gentleman wins, has the chance to maybe fight Atiba Gautier next. Robert Valentin versus Jackson McVeigh. No, Robert Valentin should get a second shot. He should be beat Jackson in the face.

You got lucky. Yeah, yeah. I want him again. I want him again. And then Luana Santos versus the newest surging women's bantam weight, Melissa scare croton. Quick turnaround, quick turnaround. Let's go. Listen, fast track to the title shot.

Let's go, Melissa. Listen, is this going to feel soulless? Is this going to feel like we're not feeling any better about ourselves watching it because we're watching it in the soulless building that is the UFC Apex? Yes. We are not going to have as much fun as we normally watching fights because that's just what we see on television. Are we going to have like if we're just watching fights for fights sake

and taking the ambiance out of it? Do I think we're going to have a pretty decent time watching these cards? I do. I think we could have some good times here. It'll be okay. Yes. I still like the November 1st card more. I'm leaning towards a November 1st card.

But you know what? We'll do a whole, we'll do a whole breakdown after November 8th, comparing the cards. We'll do like two and a half hour deep dive into the return of the Apex. And then it is the week from hell coming up after that. Because we got UFC 322, which is great. But we also have the Jake Paul versus Tank Davis card that week too. And we're going to be all over the place.

We're going to be at both of those events covering them, boots in the ground. So yeah, get ready. See you all there. Get ready for some craziness. Gentlemen, of course, stick with us at M.A.fighting.com for all your news. why did Arnold Allen have cuts on his face you stick with us

at may fight.com we'll give you the true answers to those questions and much more. So back next week following UFC Vegas, is this 111? I think it's 110 and 111.

110 and 111. All right. So back to podcast form after UFC Vegas 110. We'll see you back here live on the YouTube stream for the next one following UFC 322.

That's going to be hopefully a lot more fun than this one regarding the Aftermath and such. So for AKI and Mike Heck, back next week. Have a great Sunday.

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