MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC 331

Episode Date: September 20, 2026

UFC 331 delivered one of the best fight cards of 2026, and in the main event, Joshua Van defeated Alexandre Pantoja in their highly anticipated rematch in an incredible five-round battle, while Arman Tsarukyan earned himself a shot at Justin Gaethje and the lightweight title with a brutal knockout of Mauricio Ruffy. Is everything 100 percent locked in, or could a couple of curve balls come their way? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what could be next for Van and Tsarukyan after their big wins to close the show at UFC 331. Future matchups are also discussed for Patricio Pitbull following his knockout win over Doo Ho Choi, Sean Sharaf after he career-altering 12-second destruction of Gable Steveson, along with fellow main card winner Iwo Baraniewski, and more. Download the SB Nation app here ⤵️ 📱 iOS: ⁠⁠https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sb-nation/id6789240983⁠⁠ 📱 Android: ⁠⁠https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbnation.app⁠⁠ 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, Mike Heck here from MMA fighting. And my good friend Jed Mishu is here with me as well because Jed, the day has finally arrived. It's App Day, the all new SB Nation app. It's live now. It's live, Jed. It's alive. Yeah, man, I'm really excited.

And it's awesome, man. Combat sports, like all sports, but combat sports fan especially, you guys are going to have your voices heard like never before within SB Nation. MMA boxing, not me, but you pro wrestling, Mike. it's it is a community-based app it's all about community with the new sb nation app it's so easy to use and it can keep obviously combat sports fans connected to their favorite teams and all of sports too across the board so i can keep up with the red sox the patriots and the bruin's all on my phone and it's so simple to use yeah like you you mentioned those teams but uh there's so much more

because i don't care about boston sports mike but i get to follow the nfl all the other sport F1, the various sports that I care about outside of combat sports. And then there's the live experience because that's, to me, that's one of the coolest things. You can chat with us during fight cards every Saturday. And you can chat with other people in the communities as big events are happening. So it's, it's a really good time. So ladies and gentlemen, come fight with us over on the all new SB Nation app. Download it today.

Download it right now. What are you waiting for? Download it. Well, hello there, everybody. And welcome. to a brand new edition of On to the next one. We are live on this Sunday morning following just an incredible, a wild, a chaotic UFC 331 event last night

in the City of Angels, Los Angeles, California, I.A. Joshua Van is still the UFC Flyway Champion following an instant classic with Alexandra Pantoja. Armand Sarukian will get his day in court after a brutal knocko win. We had the biggest upset in UFC history. on this card. Unbelievable stuff all around. Outside of the White House and the pomp and circumstance that surrounded that event and that event obviously delivered in action. This was the best event of 2026 and there is no third place at this point. Unbelievable stuff. I had a great time.

I literally am so tired but I don't even care because I'm just pumped to talk about this event. I am Mike Heck. And joining me to do some matchmaking following this unforgettable card is the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity and my best friend. And there he is, Alexander Kaylee, aka how we feeling? Did you enjoy yourself last night? Man, my best friend, M.A. supposed to be fun.

That was fun. That's just a damn fun card. I think heading into it, I know some people have been kind of down on this event. Like maybe they were lumping it in with 331 or just this whole sort of like uncertain last stretch of events we were having, you know, to close out the year. And, you know, we just got the 334 card,

which I think looks, oh, okay. Again, you know, that's something we'll probably debate as we get closer to it. But I think a lot of these cards are facing the same criticism where they look a little top heavy. It looks like there's a few too many squash matches. Maybe some fighters who are, like, you know, are so many experience and getting high positions on the card. But again, from the most part, it's worked out. We've had really good fight nights. And as far as major events go, like this was just like everything was good.

I think there was maybe one forgettable fight, you know, Edmund Chabazia and Bruno Fahedda. Other than that, pretty solid all the way through. I think fight of the year candidate at the top, some great knockouts, double some memorable finishes. is crazy upset, as you mentioned. This is good, man. The UFC has had a really, really, really good 2026. You can have qualms with the matchmaking for sure. It's not perfect.

It's far from perfect. You can question the strengths from the divisions, the lack of star power, all that is totally fair. But as far as the just experience of sitting down and watching an event this year, like nine times out of ten, you're getting a pretty good show. Even if you sit down for the whole six, seven hours, you're doing all right. So I think great job by the matchmakers and especially the fighters. and the fighters that just really brought it. 100%. And like one of the things you talk about on the show all the time is like a lot of these events are like you said, super fun and they're great times.

The problem is none of them have like staying power. We just talk about it for a couple of days and they go away. This one we're going to be talking about forever. The Sean Sharaf knockout will be played forever and ever. That'll be on the Baba O'Reilly video heading into main cards. Like that is one of that's going to be an icon. iconic knockout for for many, many reasons. We have multiple things that happen that we're going to be talking about in December when we're doing our awards. Casey O'Neill, submission of the year,

candidate, Sharoff, knockout of the year contender, Armin knockout of the year contender, Van Pantosia, fight of the year contender. I mean, just so much happened that we're going to be talking about for the rest of the year and beyond. And that's just what makes these events. Like, normally these events, like we do on to the next one and then we're just really done talking about When we get to BTL on Thursday, we're not talking really about anything that happened the previous week. This one, especially with how pretty rough UFC Vegas, Meshugida is on Saturday. I mean, this one's going to have some staying power. So unbelievable stuff.

What a night. Did you say Casey O'Neill? You said Casey O'Neill, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we might not get a chance to, I don't know what your wild card pick. I'll suppose it's not Casey O'Neill. It is. Oh, it is.

Oh, great. Okay. It is for me. She deserves to get her flowers. You're right. This had one of the five best submissions of the year, one of the five best knockouts of the year,

probably, and one of the five best fights the year. Two of maybe the five best knockouts. Yeah, yeah. And these were like, and again, and outside of the ones that won bonuses and the ones we just highlighted,

there were some other really good finishes and some really the really good storyline. So, yeah, awesome work. Awesome work for the promotion and the fighters. Grusome injuries, all sorts of stuff. I tried to forget about that, Mike. Thanks. I'm so sorry.

So we are live on Twitter. We're live on YouTube. live on Twitch and we're also, you can watch us right now, live via the SB Nation app, which you can download. You can take part in the program. Normally you don't take pre-show or even during show matchmaking suggestions outside of the chat here. But we're going to take some from the SB Nation app at the end of the show.

What is Bailey do? I don't like what's happening here. We've got some live dog. Don't you eat my Greg the Hammer Valentine picture. Don't do that. Don't you do it. Lay down. Don't do that.

Don't do that, you're maniac. There you go. Yes, you can sit there and lay between the couch cushions. There you go. So let's get right into it

before Bailey starts eating the entire house. Let's, we talk about what Josh Van did last night because there's only one choice in terms of who he's going to fight. I think the Pantosia side is going to be more interesting

for a matchmaking perspective. But I had so much fun watching that fight, AK. It was spectacular. It was so competitive. The 50-45 scorecard was atrocious. I mean, it's just an absolutely. Can I, can I make a case?

Not for the 50-45, because I also found a question of what is the round that surprised me that people had an issue with? Like round? No, actually, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. But so for me, I had it 49-46 for Vann. But I did give Van round four. I actually gave Pantosia round two. I actually thought that for me, I don't know.

And it was pretty, a lot of the rounds were back and forth. I thought that the round two was like, you know, when Pantoja obviously came back a little bit stronger, that that was his round. So I'm surprised there wasn't more discussion about that because I do agree 5045 is a little crazy, though I didn't think all the rounds were pretty close. I didn't have an issue with the round four. I tweeted this like, yes, Pantoja's on top for most of the round. And of course, the opposite to that are always, well, this guy won. And the exchanges on the feet to start the round weren't like super definitive. And obviously Pantoja had that really nice kick to start off the round.

so I get it. And people were like, oh, that was the best strike of the round. So he had the best strike and he had the control. I actually don't agree that he had the best strike because if like shortly after, Van kind of flurried and actually landed quite a few strikes. I think the significant numbers were the same. So people were kind of coming at me on social media with that. Like, oh, they landed a similar amount of significant strikes in that round. But that doesn't tell the whole story. I just thought Van landed more. And then Pentosha did like literally nothing on the ground with this position. So for me, it wasn't even. It wasn't like, oh, you have to go to the the control criteria because the striking was even or damage was even impact whatever it wasn't in my eyes i thought van had the more impactful strikes for that round so that's why i gave him round four so i do think 55 is a little strange um but i am kind of like i'm not in on people filing on ron mccarthy that was the judge who gave that score um Andy foster spoke about it after shout to Aaron bronstadter was reporting from this call that they have in a post fight call they have

in california i wish every state did this and they talked to Andy foster and McCarthy and other officials they got to kind of share their opinions on it. And whether you agree or not, that kind of transparency is great. So I understand the outrage around 50-45. In a very competitive fight like that, seeing in 50-45 is very shocking. And I personally don't agree with it. I just don't think it's like the craziest score. I think it's pretty bad.

I rewatch it this morning because when you're doing the watch parties again, like it's, and you're trying to produce stuff, like, it's impossible to like give it full attention deserves. So I was able to do that. turn the commentary off, which, golly, I think a lot of people could benefit from that. Tough night from what I could hear. But I scored it, I scored it 48, 47 pants last night, but mostly for the gimmick, because I had a bet on them.

And, like, Jed just beats me in our straight up, like, one-on-one fantasy picks. And I needed pants to win. We were actually even heading into it. So it was just kind of gimmicky that, like, even if he got obliterated and lost all five rounds, I was still going to score for pants, gimmick was. But even on the rewatch, I, I scored a 4847 fan. I thought pants one round one and I thought he won round four. Two was close, but I gave it to Van.

Three was clearly Van and five was 100% fan. Like, I don't think you can quibble with who won. So, like, that's why I wasn't like super weirded out. I mean, the scorecard was just atrocious and it's one of the worst I've seen in a while, in my opinion. But at the end of the day, the right guy won. And that's really all that matters. Josh Van is a friggin maniac.

That fifth round was special, man. Like that was just special, special stuff from the young man, 24 years of age. And he's already this good. Fifth round van is a mythical man. Like he is truly a mythical fighter. We try to throw around like, you know, funny narratives about mythical fighters.

But fifth round Josh Van is a friggin problem, I, okay. Man, that might have been my favorite fight of the year. I don't know if the best. I mean, I also loved, you know, I thought Hawket. Hocket and Blades was so dumb and so funny. So I love that. But damn, like at least with the first. I know the fourth round of it's slow, but I think if you look at every great fight,

there's, you know, it's not my favorite fight ever is like, um, Lala Condit. And that fight is not like nonstop action. It has some insane exchanges. I think it's the, again, the best fight I've ever seen. But not every fight is like all action. This was close, man. And this was so high level. God bless Pantosia.

I, I'm very interested in what we do with the matching for him because I didn't know where to go. But I love just right out the gate. He's like, I'm just, I'm going to run it in your face. I'm getting in your face. Hit me. Hit me? grapple with me. If you can do that for 25 minutes, you deserve to be the champion because very few people

can't. Very few fighters in the world at any weight class could keep up with the kind of attack and the kind of pace that Patotia started off with. Obviously, the fight goes on. The younger fighter, you know, outlasts him. So I get it. But it's not like Pentosia was, like, dead in the fifth round. Like, it was a dominant van round.

But Pandoja is still trying to throw back clearly a step slow, like clearly the takedowns are like coming from, you know, much further away. But the fact that a guy at his age with his amount of experience, is constantly looking to push the pace and just drown his opponent with pressure is insane. And as you said, it's a testament to van that he's able to withstand it, outlast it, out-technique him, like the takedown defense, the grappling defense, the combinations. Gorgeous, gorgeous. That is just the highest level of MMA.

I don't think we could have hyped it up. We were asking, was this the most, excuse me, I don't know what that was, the most intriguing, like, flyweight fight ever on paper? Yeah, you know, it probably was. and was it the best the best like five-round flight we've ever seen? Yeah, maybe, man. It was real good. It was real good.

I love that fight. So good. This is, I think this is the 2026 Armand Gamrott in a lot of respects. Like people are just going to keep going back to that because it's such high-level stuff. And, you know, you can quibble some of the cards and stuff, but it was just so damn good. He's fighting men, all cop, right? And I can't wait for that fight.

I hope so. Long away. And, man, he's dangerous. You know, a lot of the discourse going in was, you know, Kent. If Van gets over this, will he be the next great champ? Now he did. We're still asking, was this a sign that he's the next guy that can go four, five, six straight, tile defenses? Like in today's day and age, you know, we don't, you won't hope to reach DJ GSP numbers, John Jones numbers.

But five or six in this day and age is like you're a legend. Like it's just hard to do. And it seems possible. But cap could end it like that. He really could. This version of cap we've seen, Mike, could beat any flyweight in the world. And you guys know I'm not the biggest cap fan. Like I've always said sometimes he's disappointed.

He has not been disappointing on this charge towards a title shot. He has looked incredible. And if Van is able to beat him, man, this run is like this all run is already great. And there's just, there's a lot ahead for him. So yes, we're totally agree. It has to be caught. Has to be. I don't, is any other name even possible?

No, no, right? Can't even. Absolutely not. I can't wait for that fight. It's got a bang. First quarter of next year would be great. But I could see Van being like, now I'll just fight in December. Why not?

Like, I'm a maniac like that. I will say on the rewatch, I was, I mean, I watched the fight with like rose, rose colored glasses. I could not wait to watch the fight again this morning. And then the headbut thing came happened and second round two, I'm like, shit, man. Like, I wonder what would have happened had that moment not transpired because pants was looking real good up into that point. And then things started to fall a little bit. But I mean, when you're, when you're exchanging like that and you're just going out there chucking them as hard as you can, like, that stuff's going to happen and I mean just an incredible fight if you go back and rewatch it if you're on the

like shirukin gamrot was like my treadmill fight I would just watch it over and over again this could be your treadmill fight just keep going back and watch me have a great time so pump you up is this the first great like uh numbered main event we've had in a while I was I was looking back this morning and I was like yeah we've had some like disappointing action wise what since January maybe yeah we've had yeah yeah we've had some clunkers not not not counting well not not counting white house counting number uh you know traditional pay-per-view. 324, Gaichi and Pimbleau.

So anything not involving Justin Gaetje. And this was way better than that. I thought this fight was way better than Pimblec Gage. And that was a good fight. I think this was way better than that. And then we've just had some good main events on paper, but some didn't, you know, some didn't exactly deliver from an action standpoint. I think to play.

For sure. Yeah. Great fight. Let's go to Pantosha. Crazy stuff. No idea. So I know I went a different direction with this gentleman, but I'm taking it. off the table now because I want to see this fight. I'm going Alexander Pantoja versus Asu

Alamabayev. Okay. Okay. All right. I got to look at how's Asu doing these days? Is Asu, I'll be honest with Alessandro Costa for some reason. No good reason. Just constantly confusing them. Which one of them also has been doing wrestling, right? Or grasped. Asu did our, Asu did R.F and lost badly. He's won three in a row. He just Suluev's stretched Charles Johnson in June. Right. It's not bad. Yeah, not bad. So he's won three in a row. He got knocked out by Menal Cop in March of 2025,

beat Jose Ochoa, knocked out Alex Perez with a sick come, or submitted Alex Perez, I think a sick come from behind guillotine. And then a submission of the year candidate against Charles Johnson. So I think, yeah, man, he's pretty exciting. He's seven and one in the UFC. I don't mind giving him a shot. Yeah, I guess that's it. Pants is in such a weird place because like I said,

I want to see him fight forever. But if you're him, even as he's an amazing shape, great fighter. I think he has to know he's probably closer to the end than he's the beginning. It's not even about, you know, it's not even about age, age. It's like fight age, right? This guy's been in a lot of big fights, five rounders. Like the way he fights feels not sustainable, even though he's been doing it for a long, long time. He's like a Justin Gaithius like of the flyways.

We're like, how he can't. He has to change his style. He can't keep fighting like this. Nope, there he goes again. There he goes again. He's a maniac. Yeah, I guess he just has to fight younger guys now. I mean, younger up-and-coming guys.

So that makes a lot of sense. I said Tyra. Maybe Tyra would be a fun matchup. I know Tyra's coming off a loss, but, you know, just a big name, another guy in the top 10, a little bit higher than Us, who maybe we want to keep these guys away from each other. Tyra and Pantosia, I don't know. But it'd be a fun fight. But yeah, not sure.

I'd like to see Pan's take some time off. But he took a lot of time off, so he shouldn't get back in there. I mean, him and Moreno can just fight a whole bunch of times, too. I wouldn't mind that. All their fights are absolutely incredible. to a best of seven. I mean, Rano's got to get one eventually.

I mean, I thought he won the last one. I thought he won that. I had that splitting from Rano, but it was a close fight, great fight. Let's move to the co-main of NAK. We did it.

We finally did it. Undeniable Armand Sarukian. We're going to cash in those chips finally. The longest all-in bet of my MMA reporting career of my MMA fandom. We're approaching like, we're approaching like eight years of this.

where I was like, Armand Sarucan's going to be the UFC Lightweight Champion at some point. And here he is. Knocking on the door, he is when 2027 rolls around and he gets in the Octagon next, he's going to win the lightweight title. I'm so excited. He goes in there, don't strike with this guy, Armand. Don't strike with him. And he was having some problems.

Marisha Ruffi improved takedown defense. Armum was starting to wear on him a little bit. There was, I don't know what happened to Armand's eye. I don't know if it was a headbutt or what. but and then Armand just delivered the elbow from another planet just nasty shit right there from Armand Sarukin and the answer is he's fighting for the belt next 100%. I hope it's Justin Gachi. I really hope Gachy sticks around and fights him.

And I know him and his team are like, Justin's only going to fight like the big fights. He only wants big money fights. Let me tell you something. If you're listening, Justin, if you're listening, Ali, this is the biggest fight you can get right now. This is your, this is your big fight. Connor ain't coming through that door. That fight is stupid. And Ilya Tepori rematch is stupider.

And this is it. Like, Armine is super, did you hear that crowd in L.A. last night? They were so loud. He looked like a friggin superstar last night. And Armin is super over. He's got a huge following. This is the fight.

This is the big fight. If Riffie had won that fight, I could see Gachie being like, eh, don't really need it. Like, he would get a little bit of a rub, but he wouldn't get like the superstar rub. Armine's a star. This is the fight.

Make it happen. And if Gajie doesn't fight Armin, Pingo Raff in the sunset. It's not cowardly. It's not a scared thing. The dude just beat the shit out of Ilya on the White House lawn. He's given us everything.

Like he's literally given us everything in his being throughout his career. He's the most exciting fighter in the history of the sport. If he wants to end his career right now, no one's going to say a bad thing about it. Go get it. But if you're going to fight again,

you have to fight arm and sarukin or nobody else so do that but armans fighting for the belt next and he's going to be the champion i'm so excited yeah i i think i think we're all glad that uh jed will not have to leave the m a industry um it does sound like because arm and surrician has he's done the matchmakers of favor here he said don't worry about mulling over oh should it be elituporia should it be should be arman surikian can we sneak max holloway in there you know isn't that what justin would want sort of a legacy fight get the w back you know max knocked them out um there shouldn't be any discussion like when it's comes to this a Tuesdays matchmaker meeting just go like everyone look around arman armin armin okay we're good let's

start working out the paperwork let's send them the contract soon let's have this announced by you know before the end of the year i know it's going to happen in 2027 but let's announce it and like let's let's let's you know november for january why not let's give it proper months of hype i i know i know a lot can happen with armin god knows he could get an injury something like that but just announce it at least make it real because he deserves it we cannot do the ilia rematch now i i oh god no It would be, we see this, like, every two months. If this happened, this would be like the most egregious thing we've ever seen. And Jed would justifiably leave.

Like, if that somehow happened, Jed would be gone. He's an intelligent man. He would find other things to do with his life. Because I, and I might join him. Like, and I'm not even all in, like, against the Gaichi-Chi-Tiporia rematch. Like, I got the logic of it before this happened. I was like, okay, yeah, Srukian doesn't impress or if he wins, fine. I loved the first Gaetji-Gi-Tipori fight.

They're both big names. whatever it's what gaiti wants for his last fight wants to beat up ilia again sure sure sure all that i just like kind of had talked myself into it but that was before sirukian delivered one of the best knockouts of the year one of the biggest statement performances of the year you just you cannot you cannot within reason and again if something happens to arman and you can't make that date cool slide ilia in no problem won't complain but the plan plan a b and c has to be armin it just has to be hot take arman's case was impressive but his wrestling was totally neutralized i was selling spent a lot of energy in round one. That fight could have went south quick.

Also, by the way, after rewatching that fight this morning, Marisha Ruffy should have lost a point for the most egregious fence grab I'd maybe ever seen in a high stakes fight. This was so bad. And Jason Herzog looked right at it and did nothing about it. And Rufi was about to go

for a friggin ride at that point before he grabbed the fence. So I don't blame Ruffy for this because you got a cheat, bro. And he was about to get taken down and his night was about to get real dark. But yeah, just grab the fence. Nothing's going to, you're not going to be warned.

You're not going to be penalized. No one's going to say a word. It's crazy. So there you go. Congratulations to Armin Sarukian. He's about to be the chap. I can't wait. Everything Lovese said there.

I'm like, yeah, that's why. But that makes even more intrigued to see the Gachy's way. Because I think you're right. I think Gachia has a chance. Like I think we saw a thing. Like I still, I would pick Armin. I think we've seen advanced odds. Armine's a pretty heavy favorite.

But guess what? So was Aaliyah. He was pretty favorite against Justin too. Worked out pretty well. for Justin. Yeah, Justin has the skills to give Armand a tough fight. Like, it's not like, I do not expect Armand to just roll over Justin. This is why we want to

see it. It just looks like a great fight. Yeah. Let's go. I don't need to spend a lot of time of Marisha Rufi because I already laid this one out after UFC Paris. I said Saladin Parnasse's next opponent is going to be Marisha Rofi because he's going to lose to Armin Sarukin. And now we can

just have some fun with those two guys just beating the brakes off each other. Because as much as I would love to see Saladin Parnas fight Max Holloway, there's Zippo chance that fights happening and that Max even knows who he is at this point. So let's just build him up a little slow. No need to rush Parnas.

Let's just do some fun, crazy shit. Rufi versus Parnas scratches me right where I hitch and I'm ready to go. Yeah, I didn't matchmake for Hoopi, but he's going to have a lot of great fights. I don't know if you saw, I told Jed, I think Hoofie's like the New Age, Edson Barbosa. Oh, I like that.

Do you see what I'm talking? Like I think he's the guy. I pick any pure striking battle on 155. Right now, I pick him to win. That's how I felt Barbosa when he was in his prime. I also think he could beat some of the, you know, grapplers, some grapplers, which Barbosa was able to do. But I think when it comes to the elite most well-rounded fighters, I think that's where

who he's going to fall just short. Again, very Barbosa-esque. Their fighting style, very, very different. I'm not comparing their fighting style. But in terms of like entertainment and kind of where they're standing, I think, is going to be in the lightweight division for the next five years, however long. who he sticks around. I think that's a great place to be.

And I'm still miss Edson Barbosa. I'm not over him retiring. So I need a new Edson. Maybe there's me coping. But yeah, I really look forward to whatever this guy does next. What about Patricia Pitbull, A.K., what a performance from him?

Like, that was just, that dude just came back from out of nowhere. And what a performance goes out there and just beats the bag out of Korean zombie, or not Korean zombie. It's a Korean superboy. He went out there and battled, man. He went out there and tried, and it was a very fun fight for as long as they lasted.

They had almost an impossible task of following what Sean Sharap did to Gable Stevenson. But they went out there and brought it. They beat the brakes off each other. And then Pipple got the better of them. People called though John Silva. We want just a horrifically bad callout pit bull. I mean, no chance. Just no shot at this fight.

And he is going to feel that my wrath with how bad this callout is because he has got a hate where I'm going here. But, AK, where are you going with Patricia Pitbull? I'm intrigued. I was hoping we could get like a friend's forever, but I don't think he would hate my pick. I landed on, this is tough. It's really tough to evaluate where Pitbull is because we know, again, he's not, you know, the star that he wasn't Billator.

We acknowledge that. He's looked good at times. He's also looked awful at times. He's looked, you know, tentative, right? I think De Ho Choi was amazing matchmaking, exactly the kind of guy that would bring out the best of him. We saw that. how can we do this again?

Who can we find that's actually going to get, again, make, it gives an entertaining pit bull fight. And not just sort of like again, not just sort of like, you know, where we're just, you know, turning the tires, you know what I mean? I landed on Steve Garcia. Yeah.

I have no great explanation for it. This is just looking, this is just rankings math. I don't see anyone in the top 10. I really think is available for him to fight right now. But I'd love to hear if you, found someone. I didn't find anybody and top of that. I almost went Steve, I almost went Steve Garcia

and I was just like, nah, I'm going further back. I want to see this guy get an opportunity. I want to see this dude get an opportunity. He went out there as a, as a pretty sizable dog. People thought he was about to get dummied and then he goes out there and gets a finish. Maybe the most

underappreciated and underrated fighter in this entire division. I'm going, Patricia Pippel versus Jamer's, okay? That's where I'm going. Wow. I believe Emers is ranked in the meta ranking, so it would be a ranked up, it would be ranked opposition. He is streaking three straight Ws. He's not getting John Silver.

He's not getting any of these fights that he thinks he's going to get because of the, the Bellator rep. Like, you just went out there, like you got bodied by Yair and then you got dominated by Aaron Pico. Like, you can't just flip-flop wins and losses and then go fight the dude who's next in line to fight for the title. Like, it doesn't work that way. You've got to work your way up, and you're in a really tough division that is just so loaded up and stacked and deep right now. So, like, you've got to, you're going to have to go back a little bit to move forward. And the only other option I was thinking of, and I honestly just, I can't, unless like there's no other options, the only way I was going to go in the rankings was Kevin Vajajos. There's just nobody else.

Like, no other fight makes sense. I don't know. He keeps teasing. He tweets a lot. And he's always tweeting these things like, oh, here I know. That's who he should have called out. Something's happened. Yeah.

He should have called up with JOs. That's the one. Even if you don't get it, you call out the dude that no one wants to fight in this division. Bailey is in agreement. You said that. And Chiloh. Oh, so you have two dogs. Bailey and Shiloh.

As soon as you said that, pulling. Started chiming in. That's the one. This is what we need. We need to have your dogs more involved in the show. I'm just saying. I know.

They make their confidence boosters. Yeah. We'll work up the paperwork. I don't know. They might be a little demanding, but we'll see if we get involved. 100%. Yeah.

I like that. Should we talk about the MVP of this event? The low key hero in a lot of people's eyes? I have to say this. The SB Nation app, I know we talk about it all the time. But we got to see sort of the beauty of the SB Nation app last night because there are a lot of fans

who were quite thrilled with the result of Sean Sharaff versus Gable Steven and people were celebrating. You saw people on Twitter and you kind of just throw stuff out and then you just walk away and maybe someone will like it and maybe someone will comment on it or whatever. The SVNation app was like,

it was like a nightclub of celebration when Gable got knocked out. Everybody was celebrating. Everybody was going crazy. It was unbelievable stuff. So that's just the beauty of getting the app. You could have celebrated and partied with everybody in the app. There's just so many comments of like Sharaf's the man, Sharap's a hero,

Ha Ha, Gable's unconscious, all sorts of crazy stuff. But I mean, no one saw this coming. Nobody saw this coming. Even Sean Sharaf to like a certain extent was just like, yeah, man, just hit and don't get hit. That was like his mentality. And now he's a made guy. That knockout is going to live forever. He can lose every fight the rest of his career.

And it doesn't matter. He's the guy who not. knocked out Gable Steven. Is he going, are they going to push him? Are they going to do something with him? Or are they going to get a big tune to him? I don't know. I truly don't know.

So now we're going to have to give him Rebellis to Spain. And then he's going to knock off Gable and Rebellis and back to back fights. Because I, I thought Ty had a really good chance against Rebellis. People laughed at me for this take, including media members. And I'm like, no, man. I'm like, I think Ty's just going to try to tackle him. And like, that fight's going to be pretty competitive. I was like, but Rebellis,

should annihilate him it around, but I just don't think Rebellis is that good. I just think he's like a big dude who hits hard, and Rebellis's role in the UFC should be to fight guys who are like one in six on the regional scene in the UFC and just knock him unconscious. That is what his role should be. It should not be

to put Rebellis on a title run or anything like that because he's not going to beat a lot of guys. So let's do Sean Chirap versus Rebellis. I think Sean Chirap can win that fight. Yeah, Rebellis should be a circus attraction. Okay. It's a very rude thing to call a human being. But yes, I would love it. They just line them up. It's like, oh, hey,

closing out the prelims or opening up the main card. It's the how quickly can Robelis knock a dude out show? And they have no shortage of heavyweights already on the roster, much as like you said, guys that could pick up in the regional scene to fill that role. So wild, wild, objectively terrible fight with Ty, but it was everything I wanted when I, like, said this is one of the low-key fights I'm kind of looking forward to. I did think it was going to like ended a knockout at some point, but instead a three-round slop fest, just good stuff. But sorry, we're here to talk about Sean Chiraff. I think that was Sean Chiraff.

You went with a more notable name. I have no clue because he's got a lot of buzz off of this. I definitely didn't want to go like top 20. I didn't want to go top 30. Like I didn't want to put him up against other, you know, heavyways who have kind of just debuted and are like actually like kind of starting to get some momentum. I just didn't think it made sense. I'm just digging up Terrence Chapman.

He just lost Anthony Wintz. I don't know. Like, I kind of want to keep Sean Chirat. Like, I'm trying to give him favorable matchmaking from a like wins and losses perspective. And again, I don't know how good Sean Chirap is. It could just be that Gable is like truly terrible. And maybe Terrence Chapman like turns Sean Traff's lights out and then all the, you know, all the good vibes we got from this are just ruined. It's possible.

So maybe you're right. Maybe we need to give him a notable name now. so at least like you know win or lose at least we can say we gave him a chance you know we gave him a chance to grow his profile because if he beats terrence chapman doesn't really do much unless he knocks him out if he loses terrence chadman be pretty disappointing but yeah i just i didn't know where to go with it picked out a random name i'd love to go to the comments after and to the to the app and see what people said but i do want to comment on gable real quick um i was not someone i was not of the why are they matching you up with sean shiraff uh like people i don't know what was your thoughts when this was made of Did you want to see him get a bigger test?

See him able to get a bigger test? No, I thought this is like exactly what they should have done. Yeah, I saw so many people questioning it and just being like, oh, I thought this guy is supposed to be the next big thing. He's going to be the champion, you know, in like 18 months. Like, shouldn't you start testing him now? I'm like, no. No, I saw nothing in the Alicia Allison fight that I was like, oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, this guy's on another level. Like, it was a good performance. But guys, go back and watch that Alicia Ellison fight. It didn't, if you didn't, I think I said this after that fight. If you didn't know how hyped Gable was, you would not have walked out of that fight going like, yeah. Yeah, yeah, this guy. Like you would say, oh, this is a guy who's a young heavyweight with some talent,

and he won the fight. But because of what we know of Gable, the good and the bad, there's just a lot of a lot of buzz around his, around his eyes. And he was a ridiculous favorite. I think minus 2,000, some of that. I know Sharaf was a plus 1,200 underdog. It was just ridiculous. Probably never should have been that way.

That's how odds work, I understand. But yeah, I was very satisfying to see Gable, knocked out obviously you guys know about you know previous accusations even discounting that the way he carried himself during fight week just seems so unlikeable the john jones association never good never a good sign you're doing for john jones like cosplay um so yeah uh that that was not not a good fight week for gable steveson i'm frankly not curious see if he bounces back or not i know a lot people are but uh yeah full credit to sean shrap clearly did not care about all the talk came into this week very prepared fully focused

did not pull any punches with the interviews and definitely didn't pull any punches when it came to actually fighting because 12 second knockout Mike damn tough wow enough scenes

tough scenes honestly I actually am kind of intrigued to see how Gable bounces back because I don't know it's a psychological thing with this old because it's like no secret where like you know the accusations and all that stuff and everything sean shiraph said like Sean just going there and seeing how Gable reacted to it I was

like oh pretty pretty wild stuff like not a lot of people would go there and the thing is gable Gable had no clue what he was walking into I don't know how he didn't know what he was walking into, but he has no clue what he was walking into. He underestimated the UFC fan base so bad because he can go wrestle for RIF and he can go wrestle in freestyle matches and like people are like, oh, that's Gable Steves. And he won an Olympic gold medal. And like, it's not that they don't like, they don't care about his past or whatever and the accusations and the allegations, but they're just like, oh, we're pure wrestling

fans at the end of the day and we respect wrestling. We're not going to sit there and yell and hoot and holler. The UFC fan base hates him. Like, they all hate him. I mean, this is some super duper hatred heat. And it's not even like, it's not turn the channel heat. It's like, I want this guy to get knocked unconscious every single time I see him on television. And like it or not, there is money to that.

There's money on that. So Gable has one choice and one choice only because I don't think he can bounce back from this. The only way he can bounce back from this is he just has to go full blown brick. Like he, that's just,

that is what he has to do. Like, no more, no more. I'm so blessed that you guys get to come out here and cheer us, boo us, all that. No, just be like, no, you don't deserve to be here. Third person, you are the rock in the nation of domination. Like, that's who you

are. And maybe, but you're not going to get Over, Rock eventually got over, but the people hated him. Hated him. They were chanting die, Rocky die at him. Like, he needs to just go full-blown, worse human on Earth. And that's like literally it. There is no way, like, there is no other way of coming back from this. Yeah, I hate to say it because you know who's kind of doing that?

Another person I can't stand personally. Josh Hawket. Like. Josh just went full-blown heel. I don't like him. I think his stupid, like a number of reasons, guys. Even recently he was making social media, like, you know, he's kind of on Twitter and like, I'm making, oh, I'm an edgy jokes.

I'm an edgy, corny jokes guy now. I'm joking about 9-11. I'm joking about these recent murders. I don't even want to talk about the specifics of it. It was so stupid for him to make a joke about it. And then, of course, again, all the other stuff he's done. But two things. Like you said, he's going all in as in, I don't care of people like me.

Clearly, clearly. Like, I think there is that element of whatever him and his team. They're like, if people are going to boo me, let them boo me. But he's got a fan base, too. like he's got who people actually like him mostly because he's also good he's winning fights the curtis blaze fight was freaking awesome he's undefeated like he's he's actually beating i think okay competition i mean your mileage may bury on 2026 derrick lewis but still you have to win you have to win you're right mike that's why and and hawk it can as if he keeps winning it's about to fight for

the freaking ufc heavyweight title he might be the undisputed heavyweight champion by the end of the year he might be he might be one of the greatest breakout years we've ever seen in any pound for pound um But like as long as he can maybe adjust the act. I hope he does anyway. I just like, I cannot stand the guy. But you're right. Stevenson already, that's off the table for now. Like he is now coming off a humiliating loss, which will never escape him.

Even Aaron Pico, it took him years to get away from the loss to, I feel so bad. No, no, the very, very, his pro debut. Remember his pro debut? Oh, Zach Freeman. Zach Freeman. Shout out to Zach Freeman. It took him years to get over that. years, years, because people kept bringing it up.

And so Gable's in the same boat. And I don't know if he has the inclination. I don't know if he has the time to turn it around in that sense. So, yeah, Mike, you're right. If he's going to be a viable combat sports act at all, it really has to be like, okay, I'm a bad person. I'm a bad dude. People don't like me.

Bring it on. You can't be smiling through it all. You can't be laughing at your opponent, making light of your past transgressions. You can't be doing that. You can't be doing that guy. Not good. There is, like, and there's always exceptions to the rule.

And in some cases, like, this still reigns true. But there's a couple of things that I live by when it comes to sports. One is that we can't miss you if you don't leave. And two, winning solves everything. I don't know if winning can just, I don't know if just winning is going to solve anything for cable. Like, I saw someone be like, he needs DC, not John. It doesn't matter. Like maybe from a skill set perspective and maybe from like the growth of his

career. I guess you can kind of make a case for that just because of the wrestling pedigree and what DC was able to accomplish late in his career. But no one is going to like him, ever. Like there is not, like anybody that booed him last night is never going to share him. There's nothing he can do. There is no coming back. He went a hundred fights in a row and it will not change a thing. The UFC fan base will never like him. They will never cheer for him. It's never going to happen. So just be a dick. Like, just be an absolute prick. And honestly, like, the look on his face when he left the octagon and walked by the camera and had that, like, little FU smirk on his face, like, that's him. That's the guy.

Just be that guy. Stop trying to pretend to you're something else. Just be a prick. And let the chips fall where they may. So what a performance for Sean Chirap. Good for him, man. Like, just crazy stuff. Got 100 G's. He's another 500 apparently to reportedly get out of debt. So, what a good start what a good start so Sean Suraff biggest upset in UFC history goes out there and knocks on Gable Steven in 12 seconds Alonza Menefield want to fight what a horrible night for me fantasy wise geez Louise both my keepers get Zippos Gable and Iwo jewell the future I still believe I still believe

I don't know where to go I didn't know where to go with Benefield so I just I was like I'm just gonna close my eyes and the first name I see, I'm just picking it, and I want to grind your to ridder. Oh, I thought there was a chance for the same. Manessus Pocascus. I don't know where to go with it. I just... For some reason, that was my first thought too,

but I was like, I didn't even look at the topology. I'm like, I feel like these two guys probably fought each other like four times. I know, me too. I had to triple check. Mike, oh man, that was a tough one for me. I had a five leg parlay. Guys, don't do five leg parlayes. Really, don't do any parlay. Parlays are, I think, if you just Google, people will say parlays are how these vetted. sites make the most money just because everyone thinks ah three leg even two legs i just need two

bets to hit it's easy yeah this is how they get you guys i tried to do a five-legged very unwise but i've been doing very well picking prelims recently so like i got geranerson breto kisi o'neal edmund shabazian uh and what was the other one i go oh gondra and then i just needed menafield i started i needed baranuski and that was the shakiest like i knew that like you guys read my fight prediction i said i love you or baronuski love what my jed said he's could be the light heavyweight Terrence McKinney. I love all that. Like I just think he's a great prospect.

He's very young. He's very young for light heavyweight. I think he's going to be great. I still think he can win a title. But Alonzo Menefield is a very, very tough matchup. A guy with a number next to his name for a reason. And he loves being the spoiler. Um, Rsi was undefeated when he fought Lonso Mendefield.

Couldn't beat him. There's Zhang Meng Yang, just coming off that fight. Back and forth brawl in China. Supposed to be this homecoming fight for Zhang. Nope. When he filled him out. This guy likes to play the spoiler, man. And he wasn't like a massive underdog in this one,

I think two to one, three to one, like big, but not massive compared to the other two fights. And did it again. So add with a freaking thumb sticking, bone sticking out. It's horrible. So, yeah, I'm just such a fan of Alonzo Menefield, but good for him, man.

I hope he fights another 10 times in the UFC if he wants to and gets paid accordingly. I don't know or care if he ever, like, becomes a title contender. But boy, he is a great test for some of these fighters out there. And just someone who always, you always know you're getting 100%. I know that sounds very cliche and corny, but I've never, like, except for the William Knight fight,

which was just, we don't need to talk about that fight. Generally, I think a loss of moneyfield always brings it. So good for him, Matt, good for him. Very, very, you know, ugly fight at times. But, hey, get the W. Yeah, I thought he were won. Really? I thought he were one.

I was scoring this live. I think I had it for Meadowfield. Round two was, was it round? No, which round was super close? Three. Three. I thought one was EO pretty close. Well, it was obviously EO.

Two was Benefield and I thought EO won the third. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. He'll be back. Plus the doctor should stop the fight and Evo should have won by knockout. I know.

And I'd be $5 richer, Mike. I'd be $5 richer. But yeah, Ewo. He'll be back, Mike. Oh, yeah, he's fun. He needed this. He needed these 15 minutes. Yeah, he's super fun.

He learned a lot. Before we go to the pebs, Wildcard time. We'll select one. I'll just knock mine out because it's not anything like, it doesn't really need an explanation. There's no journey here. I'm just giving Casey O'Neal what she wants.

I lost a parlay because of Iwo, because it was like Jed Mishu has his family. My family's very small. I'm the Jerry Seinfeld of having fighters in your family. I only have like three or four of them. And three of them fought on this card. Casey O'Neill, Iwo Baranuski, and Armin'surukeen. And I felt real good about this parlay.

Casey O'Neill does the thing and kicks it off in a big way. That was to me, like, the scariest one. But now she has a submission of the air on a record. It was an A plus night for her. She was like the intercontinental champion of UFC 331. Like just incredible work, but won't be talked about as much, despite deserving to be so. And she called up Macy Barber and this was A plus work.

This is how you make callouts. This is what you do. You be smart about it. You be realistic about it. And the UFC should one trillion percent make this fight. Casey O'Neill, Macy Barber saw me. I'm giving her what she wants. That's my walker, I think.

There is a much higher than zero chance that Casey and Neil is fighting for the flyweight title in 2027. Wow. If she gets Macy and beats Macy, that's top 10. Sure. One more win. I mean, it's tough. It's tough on those flyweight women's flyweight streets. It is.

But we've always loved Casey's talent. She was our, she was our rookie year, breakout fight of the year, whatever her first year in the UFC was. And yeah, she had a lot of injuries. She had a lot of injuries. A couple of disappointing. losses it happens but I think the talent is there she's young I think she's what 27 28 years old she's in getting into her athletic prime I really think she's dark horse contender I think I said this after her last win right I think I was like oh man we forgot how like

like she she really is good and really talented and then again just really only now I think starting to put everything together so I don't know I don't I don't know it might be a bumpy ride to the top if not 2027 I still see her fighting for the title someday I think she she will get there big Casey O'Neill fan. Yes. Who's your wildcar pick? Oh, yes, my wild card pick. Oh, I went with Rovelas.

I think, I think, can we just give him Derek Lewis? Is that just sad? Is that a sad thing to do? Are you worried that Derek will just tackle him? He could. He should. He could and should. Just body lock, body lock, pulling down.

But you're like, here's my fear of this, is that, while Derek Lewis is revered by many as just a lovable guy I don't think people look at him skill set wise that way. Josh Hokic just got a friggin title fight after beating him. And like the scariest thing you could possibly do to the development of rebellious Spain at this point is give him anybody halfway decent

because he's going to lose and lose bad to all of those people. He might just go, he might just lose to Derek Lewis. If Derek Lewis can just put him up against, the fence for two minutes, he knocks, he knocks him dead. So, eh, I don't hate it. I actually don't hate it. I think Derek could win that fight. I'd probably pick, you know what? And I would probably pick Derek to win that fight. Imagine he fights Derek Lewis, or eventually beats Derek Lewis and then gets like Sergey Pavlovich next. Imagine that. Imagine in 2027, rebellus to Spain versus Sergey Pavlovich. That would be hilarious. Rebellus Waldo too. Maybe he gets some revenge.

Come on. Just come tackle me, bro. Sometimes. Yeah, I can see that happening. So, all right. Let's go to you guys. We'll try to rush through some of this. Shout out to Boulder Wolf,

who just there was five bucks and had nothing to say. So if you meant to do that, thank you. If you didn't mean to do that, throw a comment in. Chef Nerman says, Muhammad versus Pan. I assume he means Mohamed Mokai if Muhammad wins he gets a title shot. It's going to be tough,

Chef Nermanman because Mohamukai's never fighting the UFC. This has been a long. with Armant Sukion will be lightweight champion. This has been like your other, I feel like, take you have never wavered from. He will never. He will never sign him. I don't care if he wins 100 fights in a row on the regional scene or in other promotions. He will never fight in the UFC again.

They just don't, they don't like him. They don't want him. They don't need him. They don't like him. He's not coming back. He will not fight in the UFC again. I'm sorry. Coker FC, key MMA, go get him.

MVP MMA, go get him. Like he's perfect. Perfect for your organizations because you can tout that you have the best flyaway in the world that's not fighting in the UFC. Because he's not fighting in the UFC again. They just, they don't want the headache. He's never fighting in there, never fighting there again. Who do you, who do you pick in that matchup? Like I think Pentosia is still favorite.

I'd pick Pentosia. Okay. I would pick Pentosia. There's something about those Octagon lights that had Mahama Mahama Mahi just not try to hurt people at all. So, and it's such a bummer because I was so high on him after the Durden win. And even before that. like he went out there and flying need him into oblivion in 30 seconds i was like that's the dude right there and he just stopped trying to hurt people in ufc fights and it was annoying so yeah i pick

mantosh that fight so i still like the suggestion but yes uh yes chef nerd man um god if mike is right which he often is it's just just it what if that happens it won't be in the ufc let's put that way maybe somewhere down the road yeah some other promotions able to MVP mMA in 2028 maybe uh but the only the only chance there the only chance there the only chance there the only chance in hell. He was coming back was when Van got hurt and they had to push the Pantosha fight back for Miami because the Miami card like that that one lost a little bit of steam

because they lost that fight and I know they wanted Pantosia to stay on the card and he probably would have stayed on the card but if you did an interim title fight between Pantosia and Mahayev like that was literally the only way they were going to bring him back and they didn't do it so that just tells you everything you need to know So let's go to the SB Nation app for some picks here. And then we'll work through here. Sarah E, shout out.

First time submitting picks, hopefully no doo-doo. Van versus Cop, Pentosia versus the return of my kai of God. I wish I didn't. Mike, you didn't see that. You got to give the people what they want. You got to give the people what they want.

People may want it, but the UFC is like, no, we're not doing this. They'll just triple down on not bringing him back and more people ask for it. Armin versus Pimblit for the belt because Justin retires Sure Pipple versus John Silva for top dog As he called for There's just no chance that might happen

Sharap versus Alvin Hines Win or Lose against Lorenco Vera versus Talbot Winner Lose against Figgie Ooh I like that one O'Neil versus the Bacy Barber Yeah shout out Sarah Sarah was very active in the chat last night

Welcome to the Party Pals I guess I got to do a bunch of these I guess welcome to the party pal You know I'll do a broad Welcome to the Party Pell everyone who submitted picks on the app because we love it. Love to see that. Our guy, Hermann, my match is

for the winners on the main card. Van versus Cop, Armour versus Gagee, Pitbull v. Arnold Allen. I actually liked Pitbull versus Arnold Allen if I didn't think about that because Arnold could fight by the end of the year. I know he's not fighting Aaron Pico anymore, but that's actually a good one. I didn't even think about Arnold Allen. What was the pick? I'm sorry.

Pitbull versus Arnold Allen. Pitbull versus Arnold Allen. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. That actually makes sense. Alan is an opponent now. they'll be ready to go I thought wait I thought I thought Alan oh I'm sorry Pico Pico got an opponent Pico's fighting Kada yeah I'm sorry yeah

Alan's team says their plan is like hopefully the end of the year he's not going to be ready for October 23rd or whatever that event is Sharap versus Sergei Spivak that is that's quite the leap and then Alonza Meneffield versus Dominic Reyes for the losers Pantosha versus Albaazi Rufi Parnas

Duho Choi Josh Emmett Gable Tai Tui Vasa Iwo Volkan on another Casey O'Neill, Macy Barber for wild card. So who who. Gable could be Tye actually I don't even know. I mean I really don't know because if he truly the gable kit, Gable could win that fight if he just doesn't throw one punch.

Not one. Are you ready? Are you ready go and he just charges across the Akron double like that. Then you wins. Fake glove tap full heel. Fake glove tap. Just double like. If Ty hits him, he's probably going to get knocked out.

So it's a dangerous fight, but he could win if he doesn't attack. And you know what? This would help with the prick I hate you persona if he just never threw a punch ever again in the UFC. Big time, big time. And just hold. Very little ground and pound, little baby. Just old a little, Brock Lesnar baby hammer punches.

Talk to the crowd the whole time being credible. Oh my gosh. But yeah, I, I was just, I was thinking like, Gable definitely can't knock him out because, man, I can't believe some of the shots Thai eight last night. Yeah. More bells were hitting him clean with shots that were caoing gibronies. in karate combat in like 15 seconds and Ty ate like 50

of those. I went to dinner with two media members on Wednesday and they were telling me that like Rebellis to Spain is going to be the champion. I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm like, he might not even beat Ty to Ivasa. And they were all like looking at each other like I was the craziest person on earth.

And I was like, guys, Rebellis should be on the roster. It should be like the Undertaker versus Barry Harrowitz. Like that's how they should treat Rebellis. I'm like, he's not on a title run. He's not going to beat anybody. decent anyone who can wrestle he's going to lose to him like this guy this guy lost every second of 15 minutes to austin lane and he's not going to beat any it's like he might lose to tie to evasa

and you know what and people's hearts of hearts he lost a tie to ivasa last night so i felt super vindicated and it was great mike just wait until he beats derrick lewis and sergey poplavitch right and we'll be having you will be having a different conversation about the big big shout to jett did he mentioned on the post fight show that he hit he hit robellis by decision yes Yeah, and I had, and I had, I had, I had to bet on tie. By decision. Just tie in general. Oh, yeah, okay.

So, like, it was, I was strapped, like, I was freaking out at the time. I was not a happy camper towards the end of that fight because we were trying to get the watch party launched and it wasn't working. It got on Facebook and nowhere else, and I was not happy. So I had to, like, work behind the scenes and get through it, but we got it done. But, uh, yeah, that was a fight that certainly happened. And, uh, now we know what rebellious is. okay. Kevin Philip, van versus dude that knocked out Erseg would be

awesome, but I guess cop. That is Ramazan Tamirov. Please arm in title shot. Pitbull versus Calvin Cater Yair or Chandler? People versus Kevin. Actually don't mind. I didn't hate. I don't know.

I think Cater's like a little too far gone at this point. That fight doesn't really make it. I did think I was going to ask you. I was going to ask you where Cater is. I mean, imagine he's just probably like, you know, figuring out what he wants to do with last few flights in his contract. Chandler would be a rematch, no? Didn't he,

KO Chandler? Oh, yeah. So there's some heat there. You could do something fun with that. I think Cater's got one fight left on this deal. And then he's probably going to be done. It'll be interesting. Honestly, people will be really interesting.

Yeah. Shara versus the Walker Spivak winner. Alonzo versus Hill or RDR. Alonzo versus Hill. Okay. Isn't Hill? Jamal's going up to... Yeah, he's a heavyweight.

Heavyweight now. Yeah. RDR is interesting. Brando, Van versus Cop, Armand Justin, Pitbull-Laron. He's not going to Lerone. Shrav versus Lewis,

give him the hoak at running start, Alonso versus Volkan, and give Casey the call out of Macy. So it seems like everybody is unanimous. Give Casey O'Neal Macy. Casey, Macy. I like that. Oh, well done.

That's a hashtag. Saku's missing ear. Catch weight, Du Ho-Choi versus Marlon Vera. No, it doesn't make any sense. I'm completely wasted. I'm just excited because Vera finally learned, that he's careful my careful about reading these live by the we got to bet these we got to bet these

yeah uh i'm just excited because vera finally learned that he's allowed to fight in the first two rounds and i'm sad choy got knocked out so i want these two to fight for my personal damn amusement and if it's entertaining then the ufc should give a big ass paycheck for their service to fun need to change my username to pints and boomer bias okay uh roadside grapefruit seller or neil got to get the macy fight thunder cougar falcon bird gable steveson john jones uh And then last one, Sean C from the 603. Just came in live, Mike. Just came in.

This is the magic of the app. Guys, download the app. You could be getting in live on the next one, between the links, a preview show, well, I don't know. Actually, I don't know if you're checking all that. But on to the next one for sure. We'll make this a regular thing. Sean C might have actually nailed it for Rebellus,

and we'll get there in a moment. Pantorcia versus Horaguchi. Dang, dude. I'm actually like really mad. I didn't think of that. I did, but is the timing right, though? Sure. Dance ain't getting another title fight.

and it's the two guys that just are going to be the outside looking in. But they only want to fight for the title. They're buddies. They only want to fight for the title. And it has to be a five-rounder. I don't want to see them like a combing event. Just create. You got that.

Like ATT has so many belts there. Like they can just take a belt out of the mantle. Create one. You know, and just. Give me five rounds. Pipple versus Garcia. In Shanty from the 603's rebellious pick. Rebellis versus Talas and Shara.

Let the big giant guys rumble. actually kind of like that, I would pick Talasin DeShera to finish Rebellus to Spade. How did we not think of this? But that is, that's actually like tremendously perfect. That's really, how did I not think of that? I can't, do I not have to, do I actually delete to share my rankings? Where the hell is he? I don't know.

I don't know how I did. That's an amazing pick. The last two guys who beat Tai Taisuivasa makes all the sense in the world. All right. Let's go to the peeps here on. we'll rifle through these. Joseph Josh versus Cop, Justin Armin,

Pitbull, Kevin Vajos, Sharra, Petrino, Menafield, Whitaker, O'Neill, Macy, Barber. So there's a couple of things we've learned today. The M. M.M.A. community is united

on Gable losing and Casey O'Neill versus Macy Barber. That's the one. That's the, you got to get the people what they want. I actually also thought

about the Whitaker Mennifield fight. That'd be real interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I'm curious. I'm curious that they get creative and throw that one together. Rich Luciano

Before they send Sean back To the Bush Leagues for developmental They should book him for Alex's comeback Man needs a payday Do you agree Do Sean Chirav versus Alex Pereira Wow This is why I had no idea where to go with Sean Shorra

Because everything to me sounds crazy But it also sounds like possible Because his profile Increased by like tenfold this week And its heavy weight is not that deep Yeah how do you capitalize on this guy If he fights soon enough It could be a big name

if by some chance he can't fight for like six, seven months, it's going to cool off pretty quickly. So hopefully he gets back in there soon, yeah. But man, Poetan, I don't know. Gerard. VanCop, Pintosha, Temerov, Loni, Tamarov, Loni Kavanaugh winner, Armagee, Rufi Moikano,

Nolan winner, Pitbull Vijayhos, Sharaf and Chukwu. Actually, that's pretty good because Sean, like, might win that fight. Alonzo RDR, Cheeto for Reed. Rebellis Lewis, Brito Emers, Edmund, Routabayev, O'Neill, oh, Gerard, the one person, O'Neill versus Dionne Barboza,

and Gondra versus Almeida. Yeah, we shout to Hian Gondra, taking care of business. I thought the Death Note gimmick was kind of cute. I know people were saying, dude, you're like an 8-to-1 favorite. You can't be doing this anime shit. But hey, it worked for MVP. Maybe I work for Hean Gondra, all right? Yeah.

Another Pantosio Horaguchi. Tristan, Marlon, Vera, versus Ethan Ewan. I like that fight. Geronis and Brito versus Jamal Emmer's. Okay. Is Pereira fighting Pavlich next? Which card? Doha or 335?

No idea. I haven't heard anything about that. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what Poetan does now. I mean, he should be fighting Volkov. I know Volkov's booked. Just pull him from that stupid fight and give him Alex Pereira. Volkov should be fighting.

He should be fighting gone. Gone. And Hogan should be fighting. The trilogy. That's how I would have done it. The trilogy right now. I keep forgetting that they fought the first time. Shout to John Ray for reminding me about the,

But the first time Volkov and Gaon fought, gone was dominant and the second fight was just weird. East Coast Safi, Gabel versus Tye's genius matchmaking, to be honest. I'm glued to the screen. Man, maybe. I have to imagine. I think this is why I didn't pick ties with my wallet or anything. Mike, if his contract is not up, which I didn't hear any talk about that,

I hear a single person mentioned if this was the last fight in his contract, he has to be released, Mike. What are we doing? Yeah, him and Giga should be gone. Okay. Him and Giga should be gone. Yeah, to do what's the first. to do other things, guys, to go to other, not to the time to retire.

Dude, I can go to BKFC or BKB or R.RF. RIF. It's spectacularly funny. I would love Tait to Avas and Ria. Did you see his wrestling prowess last night? Be spectacular. Him versus Wyatt Hendrickson. Book it.

Oh, man. Poor Wyatt. Why are you doing this to Wyatt? Yeah. This is actually a great Lord of the Pyes of Gable. Fake love touches hits a double leg and then destroy somebody on the ground. I might like him. That's it.

Just go full, yeah, go full prick. He's not. a good person. Guess what guys? There's a lot of people who are not good people in M.A. And I'm not excusing what any of the Gable or any of these people have done or Leslie done. I'm not trying to brush it off. So I'm sorry if it sounds like that. But I'm just saying, listen, Mike, me, Jed, all of us, we kind of like signed this contract when we got into combat sports acknowledging like, yeah, we're going to have to like objectively analyze some people who are not good people. Shocker. Welcome to M.A. Yeah, welcome to M.A. So Gable,

which I'm just speaking about his career, if he's going to be successful, yeah, that's exactly kind of stupid shit he needs to do. And the funny thing is, like people who are actually good people, just look at the John Jones Daniel Cormier rivalry. And just look how, and it was so, like, everyone hated DC. Good dude, family man, didn't do anything wrong. John was the hero that everyone wanted. It's crazy. Bo, Nickel is like legitimately a good dude.

He's terrible when it comes to tweeting on the microphone, but he's like an objectively great dude and everybody hates him. Like, it's bananas. This sports hilarious. Uh, cap 8805, Van versus Roy Ball 2, self-admitted cop hater. You know, at least you admit it. At least you admit it. That'd be a terrible, I mean, amazing fight to make.

I would love that if they could run it back again someday because the first fight was awesome. But, um, go, come on. We can't pass over cop. I don't like cop either. This is not confusing. Cap, I don't like cop either. But, uh, he deserves a tell the shot, man. He's a great fighter.

I love the show so much because like, you, we're usually so wrecked. Like, and I've been, I'm wrecked for like, last month. That I forget about certain matchups. I don't even like put two and two together on some things. Pantosia versus Tyra would friggin rock too. I mean, that's just spectacular.

Armie Geh, Rufi Gamrod. He needs a bounce back and I still believe after especially after a showing last night. Look, are you sure Ruffy is going to be employed with the UFC for as long as he wants to be? He's super fun. He's going to nuke a lot of people. He's not going to win a belt. And that's okay. That is totally okay.

Terrence McKinney is also going to be employed with the UFC forever. and he's going to fight at Madison Square Garden against Jim freaking Miller. Like that fight's awesome. He will never be out of a job. It doesn't matter. Like sometimes you're just not going to win the belt,

but you can still find ways to be successful in this business. And there you go. Duke, Pantosia, Kavanaugh-Tamara-F winner, Rufi versus Musayef. Ooh, that's really fun. Banger. Bangor.

I think Rouss like another win away, but we're right there. That's so good. Right there. Choi versus Wood, Gable versus Max Jimenez, Iwo versus Ewan. EWO versus Ewan.

want it feels like they're destined to fight someday we got iwo versus ebo which was somewhat pleasing i mean the fight was amazing i mean the name matchup was mostly pleasing yeah you iwo you on sure uh fair to say ufc isn't as high as kail bohali is there on the other fighting nerds top five against an unranked guy so here's here's how i think that fight came to pass i think the plan and i don't know this for sure but it just after speaking to him last week it seems like this is kind of what's going on uh i think they're going to try to do Hamzaa Shamaa versus Kaaba Hali. That's what I think they were going to try to.

And I think they were going to try to make that fight probably for MSG. And Hamzach is going to take some time off and heal up some nagging stuff going on. Like he's not like super injured. He doesn't have any broken bones or anything. He's got like a little, you know, annoyance with the knee, some hand stuff. And yeah, he's going to wrestle and then he's going to chill off for a little bit. And then after Strickland and Nemov fights, he hopes to fight the winner. So you can go check out the interview.

That's kind of what he said. And I think they were like, oh, Hamza's not fighting. What are we going to do? And they probably reached out to a bunch of people. And Usory was like, yeah, dude, I'll do it. I don't think he was the first choice there. Yeah. And I don't know this for Chio.

I get it. It's a high risk, low reward fight. Like, Usory is super dangerous. But I also think stylistically a favorable matchup for Kyle. Like, for me, I think Kyle should be. I think Kyle could win. I think so, too. Like, I think he should be a three to one favorite this fight.

But Usri is very, very dangerous. We know that. We know that from his kickboxing career. We know that from what we've seen in MMA. Very dangerous guy. But I think it's a win that keeps Kyle busy, gets him paid, and still keeps him in the mix. Listen, he win. Just don't get head kicked or something.

But yeah, it's to stay busy fight. It's a stay paid fight. I get the criticisms of it. But Mattis Square Garden, can't that main card. Cater's going to be next for McMillan. Please don't do that. I don't do that. I don't like that.

That's cold-blooded. That's just sad, man. I don't want to see that. Why does the O.C. push Amossoff the same way to do with Edmund and Usry in terms of getting a top-five matchup? You know. Because no one wants to. Plus, no one wants to fight Amazon. Like, no one's going to say yes to fighting him.

That's why my Jeremiah Wells take, I still stand by it. I still stand by the Jeremiah Wells take. Just get him in there. Jeremiah gets his rank guy. Amossoff's off the sidelines because no one's going to fight him. There you go. Say it's aging. It's aging well.

If they make that fight, I win not now. That's my Tony Ferguson, Natty Pimbled right there. What else do we got? Let's rifle through whatever we got here. Do, do you do? What else? Do anyone, did anyone come in on the app? Let's see there's any late app.

I don't see anything. Activity. As well, I replied to. Piper versus DDP next. It's going to happen. It's going to happen eventually. Yeah.

I just replied to Sean C from the 603 saying, I loved his rebel's pick. And he said, that fight would be so gross. But it would, but it could only be great entertainment. Yeah, pretty much.

I think that sums up how we all. Holland getting them at each fight is kind of nuts. Yeah. I'm sitting there reading the 334 lineup. I'm like, really good. And then I see Kevin Holland versus Euros Madage and I'm like, what the fuck is this? This literally makes no sense.

I know. Poor Euros, like he's angling for a top 10 guy, just can't get it. And now he gets a guy who's like, you know, going to give him an exciting opponent. But could, Euros is a get or get got guy. He's on a great run here where he's been getting, getting, getting, getting, and getting. You guys remember, he got, got several times already in the UFC and Kevin Holland could just flush, knock him out.

So, yeah, not, not my favorite match. All right, two more in the route here. J. Dash, thank you. If I'm a lot of Amabayev also Temerov and Temerov also Amabayev. If so, Boch Van versus both of them in the same bout for the title and use the Spider-Man emoji. This is the best super chat I've ever seen. Wait, do they look similar? Well, people confuse them all the time.

Okay, I see it a little bit. Yeah, they don't look the same, but I get it. I like physical structure-wise. I get Asu and who was I saying? I got Asu and Costa. Okay, so I'm in my own world here. I did not know. I did not know about the Tamarov Amabiaf confusion.

Are they both? Are they from the same country? Oh, Tim Robb is from Uzbekistan. Alba V is from Kazakhstan. Okay. I don't know. I get it. I see it. All right.

Last one. Duke Madduck. Tommy McMillan versus Patricio Pitbull. If UFC resigns Pitbull, they're going to give him these kind of prospect. I forgot his last fight on his deal. I love that, except I'll tell you, I'm picking pit bull. I made money off pit bull beating Choi. I will say that.

I did pick pit bull just straight up. as a two to one underdog. I think he'd be a two to one underdog again against him Miller, I picked Pit Bull again. Yeah, and then they can merge Danny Gay and Rob Fawn. Oh, man. No, they had to fight. They had to fight first.

I like that. We need, we need Danny Hakey and Rob Fon to fight. Please, please do this for me, UFC. Yes. Okay. This is a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Thank you all very much.

We're going to get out of here at a moment. But first, we got to do the thing we do at the end of every show. The Ultimate Fighter 34 finale, Mike. Get it right. Before you misspeak, the Ultimate Fighter 34 finale. I don't want to get this. They should, whatever, whatever. They should absolutely promote it as such because this card is, oh my goodness gracious.

Okay, go. Here we go. UFC Vegas something. Main event is Rolla Roses Jr. versus Hione Barcelli. I like it. The co-made event is Hidalfa Vieira versus Robert Breichick. Oh, my God. Okay. Rini Nakamura versus Brady Highstand.

That's the featured bout. I don't mind that. Hey, Brady's back. It's the featured bout. Okay. On a UFC event in 2026. Alimbach, Akabek versus... Are you kidding?

Jeez. Osman. Mohammed Ali, Osmond Ali, Osmond. Yes, this is the Bantam. Should I take the next two, Mike? This is the bantam weight final of the recent season of the Ovalid Biter. And then the strawweight final is Melissa Amaya versus... I mean, they have her list as Velasca Machado.

But we all know her as former Invicta champion. Tina Black. Can I just say actually I'm really looking forward to that fight. That's a really good. I'm actually looking forward to that. This, I'm not kidding. The fights and the talent on this season

Delta Fighter 34 were actually really good. So outside of the fact that some people would consider the show pointless, and I wouldn't agree with that. The fighters were good. The fighters were good. I thought they got to show personality. I think Amaya is a real star.

I think Tina Black should have been signed by the UFC a long time ago. So very cool, but they get to fight in a, finale and a little bit more spotlight, I guess, if they were just debuting separately. I really like the main card opener too. Elvis Brenner versus Josiah Hirel. This car is great, Mike.

What was what's, what's all the trepidation in your voice before? This card is great. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. I just saw the next fight you're going to be. Hidalfa Bellato featured prelim, by the way. Hadolfo Balato versus Christian Edwards.

I'm going to have to see what the over is on this because. Hammer, hammer, hammer. a fight that should absolutely be on the main card but is not montal jackson versus ricky simone what are we doing here that should be the co-made event that's that should be the co-main event uh john castaneda versus aletang a lee that's not bad uh also buried here norma dumont versus ilyne du maz what the top five bantamates grudge match grudge match these two have been talking trash or at least ilean prez been talking trash for under du ma'am for a long time this got it should be on the main card And then the second fight of the evening in a middleweight contest, not welterweight, Mickey Gaul is back. What?

Mickey Gaul is back. He's fighting Siddrique Dumas. Shut up. Sederigi Dumas fresh off of his victory at dual arena. I want to be clear. I know this is we've, I think we've all reported and confirmed it. I just want to be clear. This is not listed on UFC.com.

Okay. There's still a chance. This fight is a joke or something because I know. It's happening. crazy. It is not on UFC.com. And it's happening in middleweight. I hope they tell Mickey Gall and Dumas next week. Oh, this was a mistake, by the way.

Sorry. We didn't mean. You're not actually booked. First fight in two years. He's moving up to middleweight. This is Papa Mickey. This is Mickey's first fights. It's becoming a dad. And he's been spending all this time being a dad. So yeah, that is a fight that's happening.

And then Yasmin Hadeghie versus Vanessa Dumopoulos. I feel like this is the quintessential. apex opening fight. This is everything. And I think that's a fun fight. I think it's a fine opener. It's like perfect opener for this card. I've had to be a bigger advocate for women's anime than ever before this year because

yeah, it's had some low moments. Don't get me wrong. But also in the last four months or so, man, we've got some great finish. Maybe it was Alexa Grasso took the lid off. Like I think there was some good fights before her. But then she like knocked out straight murdered Macy Barber. I don't know if that opened some hell door because we're getting a lot of awesome like women's anime finishes, not just in the UFC.

but if you guys go in the regional scenes, like some, some ladies are getting clapped. So great stuff, great stuff. Maybe the women's fires are there have just heard the criticism. I don't know. But women's M.A. as a whole, I think, is doing much better than a lot of people seem to think. And I don't know if, like, Dumont Perez is going to be a great fight, to be honest. But I like Demo and Hargi. And I also really like the Melissa Lema of Bleska Machado, Tina Black matchups.

So we're back. Women's M.A. is back. But, yeah, Mike, I see what you're saying about the card. Star power, not super high. It's, it's, again, I don't want to, like, you have to be heard of here. There's no, we're not saying, like,

there's fun can't be happy. Very possible to fun can be happy. But on paper, and with the same power that this could produce, this could be the worst event of the year and maybe the worst of the last few years. Like, come Sunday, like, we are, we, we,

it's our job to do on to the next one. But, like, literally by 1 p.m. Eastern on Sunday we'll never speak of this event again you might want to start scouting now because you're going to have a hard time and then go out with some names for these we'll never speak in this event again and then I will and then we'll be on to freaking Salt Lake City for maybe the worst numbered card in the UFC in recent years so it's gonna be a tough go for a little while but uh we're gonna be here we don't go anywhere we don't pick and choose we're here for every preview show post fight show on to the next one SB nation app download it hope you guys get some rest have a great

rest of your weekend for A.K. Lee, I am Mike Heck. This has been on to the next one and we're back after UFC Vegas, Bashugada. Hione Barcellos versus Raul Roses Jr. We're out of here. Hudson and Rex. It's a great show. It's great show.