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

Episode Date: August 4, 2024

Umar Nurmagomedov continues to live up to the hype as he added longtime contender Cory Sandhagen to his hit list Saturday in the main event of UFC Abu Dhabi. Despite a stiff challenge from Sandhagen, Nurmagomedov persevered and won a convincing decision on the scorecards, possibly booking his ticket for a title shot. Is he set to face off with the winner of the UFC 306 main event between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee and special guest Jed Meshew discuss what’s next for Nurmagomedov as he ran his record to 18-0. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Sandhagen after a valiant effort, Shara Magomedov coming off of his first Fight of the Night bonus, Deiveson Figueiredo after he beat Marlon Vera to improve to 3-0 at 135 pounds, as well as Michael Chiesa, Mackenzie Dern, Joel Alvarez, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Mike Heck is on a well-deserved vacation. Instead, we have the esteemed, the classy Jed Michoud who has filled in on the next one so many times. Jed, welcome back to the program as we get ready to do some matchmaking after a pretty lively UFC Abu Dhabi main card. I'm excited to be back. I'm excited for a number of reasons, AK. First off, because Mike has been on vacation, I have been tasked with hosting stuff this week. And I got to tell you, it's exhausting. Mike makes it look effortless.

But it's so much easier to get to just be the guy who comes in and pops off at the mouth, says a couple things, and then slips away. And now I get to do that with this. I get to give you my unfettered thoughts about UFC Abu Dhabi instead of trying to moderate between two people. so excited about that and honestly I'm just excited about the card who started slow but the main card was exceptional a lot of really good fights a lot of really good outcomes

and a lot of good storylines coming off of this so thanks for having me yeah I was going to say you are actually just like an hour removed from hosting the end may fighting post fight show so I hope you got your thoughts out on there Jed I know there's you got to share a lot of space with Newer Rick and Jose Youngs

and Casey Leight and just a whole bunch delinquents and if there's anything else you'd like to add about the card of course you may but let's do so i guess as we go through the fights um i was not in the post-fight show i will just say i gave the fight i gave the card a pretty high like pre-event rating it said like 9.2 but i was saying that was like mainly focused on the main card i don't think anyone who watched tonight's card from top to bottom thought this was a 9 and 8 or maybe even a 7.5 it was not one of the best events of the year. But the main card was solid. The main card was solid. I thought we got some great fights and good finishes. And we got some storylines. Great fights, first and foremost, our main

event between Umar, Nomago Medov and Corey Sanhagen. This looked to be a title Eliminator. I think it served its purpose. I thought Umar's win would have been great position to fight for a title. I don't know if you agree, Jed. I don't know if you want to see Omar just like dust, Corey, if you thought the fight was closer than it should have been. Did you like Umar's performance? And what is next for the young man? I thought it was an exceptional performance. It was not the performance I expected. I have been perhaps higher on Umar than anyone else on our website for a very long time.

And I was on the record this week saying, I think Umar is going to come out. And I think this is the most difficult test for him in the weight class. And I think he is going to pass with flying colors and finish Corey Sandhagen. I do think he passed with flying colors. I thought it was a terrific performance. And we, you know, we don't have to get into the nitty gritty. It's not really what you guys do that much here. but we talked about on the post show,

you can go get more of my thoughts there. Basically, I thought Umar's striking was substantially better than I imagined. And I thought, you know, for all the credit that is given to Corey for being such a cerebral fighter, a very smart fighter, and rightly so, he is those things. I thought Umar was the one who made better adjustments and just top to bottom, just beat him. Competitive fight,

but it was one of those wins that he really rises, even in my already lofty expectations. And so, of course, A.K. Of course, based on that, like, there's only one way to go. If he had barely won, I still think this would have been the answer. But I think it's undeniable. Umar no Megamatov is your number one contender. And, you know, if I'm him hopping on a plane, I'm going to have one of the very few seats in the sphere

because I'm going to be sitting next to the cage when Marabd Valdesvili challenges Sean O'Malley. Because the winner of that fight is the guy I'll be fighting next. probably not at Abu Dhabi that would be too quick a turnaround but looking at early 2025 he should get his opportunity to fight for the belt yeah I hope they use that six sphere technology

after the fight is over to just like project Umar's looming visage over the octagon like I think that'd be so frigging cool like what a great way to hype it up because he has been the man who's been looming let's let's not lie undefeated just needed to get a signature win other than finishing Corey I mean it's hard to get a

signature win than that against the guy who has just been a top five guy in the bantamweight division for years has fought for an interim title and like you said what was amazing was umar's adjustments like we've seen umar dominate we've seen him get cracked too the last fight got some trouble so his ability to both dominate and to adapt is kind of what makes him so scary he mixes martial arts so well so yeah we're not going to do the the band is here i told mike to help shell out for the band but i told him this is pretty obvious not some of our listeners at least one or two had other suggestions or i thought were a bit strange i'll get to those later uh see there were a couple of people commenting on the post show sure what they say a couple of people who i think they're more coming from a place of

if sean omalley wins he's not going to want to fight umar yes i don't agree with that stance at all i think sean would be very open to fighting a guy with the last name of margaretov because i also don't think Sean O'Malley is going to get any opportunity to go up to 145 or box Ryan Garcia. So I think you'd be very open to it. But mostly it's seen there coming from that and saying, Umar was probably enough to fight again because Amali's going to want to wait around. And so a couple of options there. But I think all of that's just stuff and nonsense.

Yeah, I think we're crystal balling. I think we're both also waving our magic wand a bit. This is the fight that needs to happen. Umar, I don't know. I'm little curious. what is your ranking going to look like? You're not going to put him number one. I'm going to go to number one now.

Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Breaking news. I originally, the highest I've ever had him was at three. And not because I did not think I wanted to put him at one. But I do try and at least there needs to be some real evidence outside of my just vibes that this guy's the best before I can put him over accomplished fighters. And so three felt like the highest I could justify going when his best win is, you know, not anyone meaningful, frankly. Not his fault.

He didn't get those opportunities. But with this, I would pick him to beat any Bannon weight in the world. Though I will say, we talked about this on the post show some. I am excited to watch him fight either Marab or O'Malley, either one of those fights I'm very interested in. I do not think Marab has a very good chance against him. I mean, we will be a fun fight and there are avenues. But if Mara beats O'Malley, I think Umar is a really tough matchup for him. I think Umar can be a very difficult matchup for O'Malley.

But based on this fight, I think Sean can take some signs to him. Like, all right, Corey Sandhagen was able to kind of minimize the grappling in these ways. I can do that too. And I'm a more dangerous striker on the feet than Corey is. I can present a real threat to him when we are striking that Corey couldn't. And so if I can minimize the grappling, I've got a revenue. I am more excited today for O'Malley versus Umar than I was yesterday. Because yesterday, I would have said Humar is going to rinse him.

It's not going to be competitive. Today, I think Sean O'Malley can take some things and that fight can be. Still pick Umar, but I'm just very excited to see either way it goes. That's great. You want to see your number one bantamweight get his shot. Guys, you're going to anyone. Listen, people always ask when they see like random weird number one votes sometimes in our panel.

It's almost always me. Well, there's someone else. We don't need to out him as well who also put some weird out. There's another person who occasionally has one, but it is almost always me. Well, people will know. And it's a situation like this. I'm like, this is the guy. I wonder if you'll be the only one, I think.

I don't think anyone else is ready to get froggy as froggy as you are. Normally. We'll see. We'll see. There's a lot of respect out there for, for Umar already and a lot of respect for Corey. I think I'll be the only one. but it wouldn't shock me if one or two other guys went rogue. Yeah, even I personally think Umar is the best.

Like if you asked me who I think is the best, I think he's the best. I will pick him to beat either man, but I need to see him do it. I need to see him do it. I think now, I believe now if you polled the website, it would be unanimous. There were a couple of people I know who were Corey Sandhagen is the best Bannamweight. After this, I would be pretty shocked if you pulled him in a fighting and it wasn't unanimous that Umar is, umar is the man we would pick in a fight against anyone else at Bantamway. That's a truth. I think I'm not ready to uncover yet. I'm not going to put that in our Slack channel because you might be correct. I don't know if I want to create that controversy. You mentioned San Hagen. We're going to pick for him too. Normally we only reserve a loser. You know, it sounds so harsh. Loser picks for guys who didn't win in a title fight. What a loser. But this was a title fight level matchup. I think we can all agree. San Hagan was excellent. I mean, he just falls. Listen, he falls from the car. People are going to see 50, 45.

494946, 4-946, and they're going to think like, oh, like, they'll look back on this and be like, oh, I guess Umar handled him. And it's like, no, if you watch this fight, a couple of those rounds could have gone either way. First three rounds are toss-ups. Yeah, it's, if it was a much closer fight in those scorecards and reflect. And I hope people will remember that, but this, M.A. People will forget by Tuesday. So, uh, but I think we should pick for the young man. I am going with Dominic Cruz, Jed. I don't know how you feel about that. I just couldn't, um, find someone like, Like that was active, that was ranked that makes sense for him right now.

So I'm going with Dominicruz, who is out of our rankings due to inactivity. But it's a fight Corey has won in the past. And I think it's a fight that would get Dominic Cruz out of slumber. Is this a weird matchup? It's not a weird matchup. This is a very popular matchup. Certainly in the post show, a lot of people are saying it. I think Jose Young's threw it out there.

I think New York Rick was also a proponent. And I want to be clear, if this fight were to happen, I'd be down. Like I've always found it very amusing that Corey specifically has said he patterned his game off Cruz, but also they just look extremely similar as humans. I have called Corey Sandhagen a palette swap version of Dominic Cruz akin to old video games where Sub Zero and Scorpion are the same just with a couple of different shadings. That's them. So I would be down. I did not go this way mainly because I don't think it will happen because I'm not going to pick for Dominic Cruz. he hasn't fought in two years.

I'm just, I don't know if he's retired or what. Maybe it could get him out, but Dominicruc is ranked in the UFC rankings and Super shouldn't be. And I was like, I don't want Corey Sandhagen to be spinning his wheels this way.

This was one of the more tough ones because he's already fought a lot of dudes in the weight class. He'd have to really be fighting back to let somebody else get a shot that he, you know, song it on, he beat not that long ago, letting Song fight him again.

That doesn't feel right. I ultimately, settled on Henry Suhudo just because I think it would be a very good fist fight. And I don't know of Suhudo how much, you know, he's got left in him. But it doesn't seem like Suhudo is going to fight Brandon Moreno, which just feels like a fight that was out there. And so I like it. It would just be a good matchup. I just watched Corey show the best wrestling of his career. You put that as a five-round main event for a fight night. Hopefully not an Apex card, but maybe they didn't do an apex card. I just like the matchup. So that's where I went.

I saw a lot of people suggesting Cheeto Vera for Sehudo that we were supposed to get that fight some paper views ago so I guess people are still revisit that which makes sense but I do agree that I think next for Sanhagen will be like a veteran name just because there's no one again no one currently like active in the rankings that makes sense the other like veteran I think would be Aldo who just got booked with Mario Batista Aldo would have been it but he got booked

so he could get the winner maybe if Aldo wins maybe he got Corey Sanagan I don't know if the time timelines correct in it's just although would have been my number one choice but he says you just got booked i don't really know where to go with that and decide it will bounce but yeah i think the best possible case for sanding right now is a a veteran legend name because uh yeah it'd be exciting for him it's a winnable fight and uh always looks good in the resume if you could beat one of these names so uh i dig that for him uh we have some controversy with this co-main event jed uh shah magamadov picks up pretty convincing decision over uh mcgoloogsacek no complaints there

Best performance. Great. Earns a fight of the night bonus. Shameful. Lucky for you, Michael Olegsoce, who pretty much just got your ass beaten for the better part of 50 minutes, extra 50 Gs, good for you, Michael. And, you know, he comes forward a lot and he gets hit. So that's, he gets credit for that. But Jed, you and I discussed before the show whether we should even do Shara, because after the fight, Shara calls for, he uses post-flight mic time to call for a fight with Nick Diaz. Yes, everyone listening in case you didn't see it.

Nick Diaz. Now, Nick Diaz was supposed to fight Vicente Luque as the original co-made event of this card. So I guess Shar is thinking, well, you know, we got slaughtered in and this weird new main events. I would like to fight someone who had that prestige that was originally supposed to be in this spot. I don't, I don't know why I'm justifying this. This was a terrible call. It made me so angry. I am like, I am refusing.

I am refusing to make a pick for him personally. This is a one episode ban for Shara. Also, I'm mad that he didn't finish Michael Olexeychek. It's not like Oloxatechuk as like an iron chins like demon. I feel like he's pretty tough. He's only been stopped with strikes one time. He gets submitted all the time. All right.

Who finished him with strikes? Isn't the UFC? Like it was in like, no, it was pre-UFC. It was like 2010 or something. It was a long time ago. All right, all right. He's very durable. I shouldn't be so hard.

Unless you're submitting him. We couldn't get a clubbing and subbing and something. Okay, anyway. I see what you're saying. He's hard. He's hard to rock. He's hard to rock. So fine.

But the callout, unforgivable, stupid. I am not making a pick for him. You said you will, but you have a strategy for handling the situation, Jed. I do because, again, I was very adamant about this on the post show. I believe this to be the most shameful callout I've ever seen in mixed martial arts. The only thing that's even remotely comparable that I can draw off the top of my head has been, this isn't really a callout it's a fight that is happening is jake paul mike tyson horrible because nick dyes has not won a fight since 2011 that win was b j pin who as we all

know didn't have the greatest end to his mma career so this is just ridiculous like it's so transparently bad that to me it's not even about not using your time wisely or making a good call out it is it's so shameful that you must be punished. There must be consequences for something so off the board. And so Shawor Bullitt in his callout, you know, said, I would like to fight you,

you will strike with me. We will strike. We should do this in Abu Dhabi. Also, the fact that he called for it in Abu Dhabi, which kids, I don't know if you understand about Abu Dhabi's rules around marijuana, but there's a reason Nick Diaz did not fight this fight card. And that maybe isn't like officially the reason given.

But, you know, the UAE isn't super keen on marijuana, and Nick Diaz is Nick Diaz. He's never going to fight in Abu Dhabi. So all parts of the Buffalo were rotten and terrible, and as a result, you must be punished. And the punishment is you wanted a guy who's only going to strike with you and who is super famous. I'm going to give you a guy who's not going to strike with you whatsoever and is not super famous. Jacob Malkoon, come on down. Wessel this dude a billion times over.

This is the price of your arrogance and your treachery, Charle bullet. You wanted easy money striking. I'm going to give you a hard money grappling. I have joked that Jacob Malcun is someone who his fights. I just don't remember them. I think someone matched him up once. And I told him I like blacked out when the matchup was made just because, yeah, right, that is what Malcun does.

He is a, very much a middleweighty, middleweight, I feel. And rankings wise He shoots 100 takedowns of fight And rankings wise This even makes sense For me I have Shara at 19 Which may be too high I don't know what people will think

Way too high It's like in the zone Of what I think people will have him Yeah you know Rino Silva is a good win And I have Malcun just behind him Two spot 21 So like it sounds weird

But like if you are gonna match him up I guess that's probably where I would have gone to I'm just so upset with it You made me more upset I totally forgot he even said That he wants it Abu Dhabi Which is just I've just, it's so upsetting.

It's not as bad as Makayev, but boy, he did not. I'm talking about guys coming off a win who like hurt their reputation more. You know, the only way they could hurt it more is if they lost. He's up there, man. This was rough. Like, this is the win that's supposed to. Anyway, best performance was career. This is the wind that's supposed to write the ship, get that Shar-hype-train back going

because Dr. Koli fight wasn't like amazing. I don't feel like back. He won by third. Oh, he got a finish, though. It's pass to be better than this one. No, it was bad. That's a bad fight against a guy who, like, was also on short notice. It's a bad fight against a short notice guy who is bad.

Horrible. So this was supposed to write the ship. And instead, the ship is arguably rockier than ever. But hey, we're talking about it. He got his headlines. It's in our MAFine.com headline. It's in our MAFine.com headline wins the fight. calls out Nick Diaz.

So I guess he got what he wanted. W matters. And I guess. But when we were talking about this pre-show, the entire plan I was like is I'm going to give this dude Jacob Malcolm. I don't think the UFC has any interest in doing this. But if I've got the magic wand here, he getting Jacob Malkoon, and we're going to send a message to everybody else.

Yeah. You don't have to have good post-fight callouts. You can't have abhorrent one. You might as well have called out Tony Ferguson, my brother. Like, you just can't be doing that nonsense. So that's where I'm at. Yeah, guys, if you can think of a worse callout, it doesn't have to be UFC in MMA? Let's keep it MMA.

I'm sure there's boxing some dumb stuff too. Let's keep it M.A. If you think of a worse one, please, guys. DM me, I'll try to read them out and check the tapes next week because I, this was horrible. This was just so, so, so, so, so, so bad. Okay, let's move on. Let's move on.

This was terrible. Guys, let me know some of your worst callouts. This is so bad. Speaking of post-fight shenanigans, Michael Keisa and Tony Ferguson kind of went as we all expected Keiza using his grappling to take Tony down and submit him. I thought it also could have been a depressing 15-minute decision, but either way, I think we all knew Keiza's grappling. was going to be the difference here.

I actually thought he could have taken Tony down in like the first like 30 seconds, and I think he was just too respectful of him. Because once he went for a take down, he took him down very, very, very easily. Instantly. Yeah, instantly. So, Jed, I'll go to you first. We should note, by the way, everyone, I guess if for some people, people didn't watch the show or listen to the post show, and this is your first time getting UFC Abu Dhabi news.

Tony Ferguson half retired. He left a glove in and then through his other glove into the crowd. It was very confusing. I do hope this is the last year of Tony Ferguson. But Michael Keza, back in track. First win since 2021 or something. It's been a while. He won on three-fright losing street coming into this.

I don't remember the year. January 20-19ny win whenever that was. And very dominant win over Neil Magni. And then everything just went haywire for old Mike Kesa. What is next, man? He's back in the W column, Jed. He is back in the W column. Just so, you know, to explain to anyone who doesn't know,

what Tony said was, I don't want to retire, but he's fought out his UFC contract. The UFC is not inclined to re-sign a fighter who's on an eight-fight losing streak. So he left the door open to possibly return, I think under the hope that maybe the U.S. you'd keep him around. But it's functioning going to be if Tony decides to compete elsewhere or if he decides he'd rather end his career in the UFC, even though he would still like to retire. Certainly hope it's retiring, but I guess we'll see. And along those lines, I would like to see Kea's retired. He's kind of mentioned it before in passing.

He was way too excited about beating Tony Ferguson afterwards. Like he, I mean, you heard him say, F, yeah, like a bunch on my broadcast. Because the mics around the cage were hearing him scream. He was so excited. Yeah, three years. Three years, Jen. I'm not saying, don't be excited. I'm saying don't be that excited about beating a dude on a seven-fight losing streak.

who you were comically larger than. And also, again, respect to Tony, he looked old. Like, standing in there, he looked old. So, Keyes was just too pumped, and I would like to see him, because he has mentioned it before. I don't think he's going to make a title run. They were calling him a UFC legend, which I think is not true at all. And I would just be fine with him calling it career on this one. It doesn't seem like that's the case.

And so I went for a grappling heavy matchup. if he is not going to retire, give him Gunner Nelson. Let's see how that's going. Oh, I wonder if they've ever been booked. Now you've got me thinking. I've no idea. Didn't look at that at all. Yeah, that's a really good.

Gunner, where is this guy? He fights once every like 18 months or something? Yeah, he doesn't fight a ton. It's quite strange. I don't think he's ever been booked. Probably for the reasons that we just mentioned, he's just not available. But if he is, Gunner, come on down. I think that's a great matchup.

I went with I think we have the same theme here Jed of I almost called you Mike I almost did it I think we have the same theme here Jed of age appropriate matchmaking we could still these people still have good fights and I went with someone who himself

had an age appropriate fight last time he lost to Muslim Salakob I would like Sima Ocasa and Santiago Ponziadivio 35 and up at Welterweight it's a hard place to be guys Walter Waite it's like it's not quite lightweight and below where the youth just completely devour the old but it's it's pretty close it's pretty close it's pretty close so that i feel like

this for kesa is i don't feel like any inclination to match me up with anyone like it's 28 29 30 i just don't want that so you said gunner nelson's 36 years old i would like santoona ponsonibio i think ponzi's 38 and there we go guys if these welter weights you got them on contract they have names people like them you want to keep them in there let's keep mixing them up with each other so ponsi for me and gunner nelson for you uh also a great pig jenn Jeff, one of your favorite fighters. Mackenzie Dern. You have skipped over the feature fight of the evening, by the way.

Oh, did I? Oh, I totally. We, I thought you were just doing it out of order because. No, twice. But, yeah. Wait, why don't I? You go first, Jed, because I completely forgot to make a pick for this fight. You didn't even make a pick for Davidson Figaro versus Chito Rio winner?

I swear I had something written down. And I thought you were just moving past it because it was such a seamless transition because we were already talking about Tony. And so we're like, we'll just talk with this and then we'll loop back. And then you went to McKinsey there. And it's like, we have to give Figgy Small as a good opponent. Had I more time tonight, I would totally edit it so it seemed that way. But let people see the strings. That's what I say.

Let them see how the puppets dance. Let's see how the puppets dance, Jen. I love that. Figurato was a really interesting one because. I also really want to book Davidson Figurato versus Jose Aldo. If you gave me a magic wand, I would pick Davis and Figurato versus Jose Aldo as my magic wand fight. Again, Aldo's booked, and I try not to have all fights be magic wands.

It feels like you've got to be sparing with your use of magic. We don't want to oversaturate the world with it. Particularly in this instance, I think there is just such a clear-cut option that is happening here. I will be pretty surprised if Figgy Smalls does not end up fighting Peotryon. Yeah. And so I, if there was more uncertainty about who we might fight, but it seems very, very straightforward that Peoriaon's going to get it. So I opted for Peotter.

I also, I just did right now. I started before you said it, but I'm not going to count that as a friend's forever. I think for the reason that we, I think that's fair. I mean the reasons we just explained. I literally had to check, does Peter Yon have a fight? Oh, no, he doesn't. Okay, that's perfect for Figgy. Great.

They go and throw him in. So, hosting is hard. I think in like, like, 900-something episodes of the show, however many of we've done. I don't think Mike has ever accidentally skipped a fight. I could be wrong. Hardcore. He's a professional.

I've been doing the hosting thing this week. It's tough. It's more tough than you think, listeners. Yeah, but I think we can all agree. Peter Jan and Figuie makes a lot of sense. That, like, I would love to see that on a bigger card, but for me, that's the UFC's licking their chops to make that a fight at apex headliner, which would suck, considering both guys are former UFC champions.

But this is what the UFC thinks of flyweight. No, we need the Apex 100 headliner, champion versus champion. Sure. As long as it's five rounds, I don't really care where it happens. It would be cooler not to happen in the Apex, but it just needs to be five rounds. I am a little sad we didn't get five out of Cheeto Figgie because I think two more rounds would have been very, very nice for that fight. Definitely compelling, and I'm sure Cheeto would have loved two more rounds too. Hold on. Hold for edit.

And McKenzie Turn, Jed, one of your favorite. favorite fighters. Mackenzie Dern with a gutsy, a unanimous decision win over Lupu Kudinez. Not an easy fight by any means. Lupi's just so aggressive, so much pressure. She busts up McKenzie Dern pretty good. But McKenzie improving stand-up for what it is, managed to get enough takedowns, have enough control to win this one, 29, 28 on all three score cards.

Jed, I'm curious. I had a lot of difficulty with this one. I definitely want to hear where you went first for McKenzie. dude this one was super super difficult to do yeah because McKinsey is is in that position where she's fought like most of the people even around her in the rankings and so like it's not even really where I think like a lot of rematches make sense or there so I went uh this is my least excited one but I do think it makes sense Julian Robertson's on a decent win streak she's fighting Juan a Paniero that matchup itself doesn't make sense since I think Penaero is on two

losses in a row and Robertson has won back-to-back fights, but I'm going to assume Gillian Robertson beats a lot of Pinero, and I'm going to say Jillian gets an opportunity to move up the rankings against McKinsey, Darren. We get some grappling. You know, Jillian Robertson

makes her hay on the ground. Pretty tough to do that against Darren, so I think it's also helpful for Darren to just pick up some more wins, continue working on her game. I don't love it. It's not going to blow anybody's doors off, but I do think it makes sense. I actually do love it.

I actually think Jillian is the perfect pick. So other than her being booked, and I think having in November was more my issue, because I actually did pick someone who is booked. So I could have just gone, Jillian Robertson, as you said, after she beats Juanif Inero. It's just going to be an exciting matchup. Like, I really think her and Mackenzie Dern need to face off at some point. But I just don't, I think McKenzie would want to get in either end of the year or early or January. And I just think, I don't know how long she'd have to wait for Gillian if that fight happens in November with

Pinero so but that is really the perfect fight. I think if I could pick someone, it would be Gillian Robertson. The other options would be all these rematches, but actually a lot of those rematches are booked. Like a lot of people, she's had fights with her booked. The straw weights are all booked. Yeah.

And straw weights are great division. And Angela Hill would have been my pick out of there, or one of my picks out of there. But she's fighting Tabitha Ritchie. So I'm going to said, go, we end up with a fresh matchup after Tabitha Ritchie beats Angela Hill on August 20. an August 24th card that is not even listed on UFC.com, but I assume is actually happening.

It's still happening, right? That card's going to happen. I believe so. I was very close to picking the winner of that fight, but then I was like, I specifically did not because of Angela Hill wins. I don't care to see them rematch. I was like, no, let's just move down the line.

Jillian Robertson, sure. No interest in the rematch. That's McKenzie won, right? But there was controversy. She did. Well, all of her wins. Like, I would watch any of them. I even thought about doing a rematch with Marina Hadriguez, but she's booked as well.

I know. And so it's just like there's a lot you could do. Honestly, one of the ones that I really actually would have liked a good amount had had this event happened a couple of days ago, I would have gone Carlos Sparza. Carlo Sparza obviously has now booked her retirement fight against Tisha Pennington. So that's no longer. If something happened that Tisha Pinnington pulls out, I think Carlos Sparza would be the actual perfect ideal opponent, particularly if it's going to be Asparza's last one, be our last chance to get it. But can't do that now. So unless something happens to Pinnington and she's forced out, yeah, Jeline Robbins is fine.

Yeah, McKenzie Dernan, team, stay ready for that event. That would be a really, really smart fight to take, Carlos Sparza. That would be really smart. Okay, opening the card, we had a really highly anticipated, and I think it turned out great, a lightweight fight, Joel Alvarez and Elvis Brenner. Joel Alvarez looks fantastic. I don't know how he makes 155. I don't think he'll ever make championship weight, but that doesn't matter.

He won. He never going to fight for a championship. That's fine. Well, I'm saying, the opportunity comes. I don't think he's ever hit 155. I could be wrong. He's a big guy, and he's missed 1505 a couple of times, pretty badly once. Yeah, pretty badly.

It's been a while. He's huge. He's a large boy. 21 for 21 unfinishes. And you know what? I like his call out. I thought the King Green call up was smart. I just feel like maybe that's,

maybe that's where King is at his point of his career. I hate to just use him with a stepping stone. But like that's a very high level opponent. Like if you're King Green, that might be the kind of guy you want or you probably want to to fight other veterans. But I like the callout. I'll reward Joe Alvers for performance and for his gusto. And I'm going to be lazy and going with King Green.

interestingly you liked the call out because a lot of opinions on it on the post show none of them positive oh no it was certainly not nearly as bad as shahas but um the idea i would have liked it better if king still was ranked but losing the ranking kind of takes even some of the that away from it i don't think it's like a terrible call out and it would be a fun fight and it could happen still um this is my greatest work though i've i have solved the equation And it's the only correct answer here. And let me tell you, I don't think anybody else is seeing the Matrix like I am. Nobody else is putting the pieces together to get us to this opponent.

But this is the only one. It's not Jalen Turner. A lot of people like, oh, they're two big Walterweight slash lightweights. They miss weight, let them fight. I would watch it because I'll watch these dudes fight anyone. They'd be fine. But no. One, Jalen Turner needs to move up to Walter Waite so he can ascend and be his true self.

And two, we got more fun stuff to do with Joel Alvarez. And that fun stuff, namely, is a moving parts pick, AK, because we're going to. It is a new segment on the, I did not approve of this segment on the show. You can't do this. This is puzzle time with Jed Mishu. I'm calling Mike. I'm calling Mike. Here's what we're going to do, AK.

There's an upcoming fight that's, I guess, theoretically, a main event, though, that seems weird to me. Joel Alvarez from Spain, I need you to book a plane or get on the train. We're going up to Paris, France, because we're taking Hanato and Moicano out of his fight with BSD. We're letting Money Moikano go fight Patty Pimlet like the good Lord intended. And you, Joel Alvarez, are slotting in there against Benoit Sandini for an absolute banger, b capital B, capital, anger, b, bangor. Joel Alvarez is going to be lighten him up on the feet Benoit's going to get a million takedowns the scrambles are going to be unreal

the submission attempts are going to be in real violence personified and then we get Moikano versus Pimbled like everybody wants this is a win-win I've solved it first of all I feel like this is a no-bets bar tie-in and you are just trying to arrange this fight to happen so that you can bank on a two and a half under two and a half because there's no way in the world that that goes to the middle of the third round. most fun possible.

The easiest bet you've made in your life. It would be the most short thing since we just saw Shameel and Tantel Mace go over. That over was a lot. Goodness me. Second thing was, Mike told me to only call him in an emergency. And I'll tell you something. I had six digits dialed. Well, eight digits.

I'm in Canada. I had eight digits dialed there, Jed, ready to call him. You can't just make up segments. I don't know where it. This is an emergency. emergency meeting, stop the presses. We need to make this happen because Joel Alvarez versus Benoit Sandini

is just shoot that into my the style matchup is so perfect. It gives Joel what he wants to crack to get into the top 15. Benoit has to fight back anyway. We free up Panato to fight Pimbleau which is the obvious solution for all of us. It's just

too perfect. I don't know. Somebody get me it's not Joe Silva anymore. or give me whoever's matchmaking this. I don't know if Shelby's in charge of this one or what we're doing. Well, get me on the phone with them. Let me make some calls because this needs to happen. Damn.

People let me know what you think of the new segment because it got sprung on me. And it's pretty spectacular. I'll admit. I'll admit. Everybody would be so down for all. Like, oh, we're getting Pimble and Morcano and we're getting Joel Alvarez versus Benwess on knee. That's awesome.

That's going to be super fun. Jed, we have a more traditional, Mike and AK approved segment here. It's called the Wild Card. So I hope you have a pick here. I will tell, I will tell,

no, I'll let you go first on this one. I'm curious, you went with the obvious choice here, or you went with one of the more like, because again, this undercard, like this prelims didn't thrill.

I guess you could have gone with one of the main card losers as well if you're feeling frisky. I have no idea. I can't even anticipate. I can't anticipate where you went with this. I didn't even think of going. a main card loser, which I actually should have done, honestly.

Several of those would have been more interesting. The prelims had two options that I was even remotely interested in. And then one of them, like I thought about doing Guram, because a great win for Grom Puttta-Ladzei over Jordan Vucinich. But nothing jumped out at me as like it's lightweight. Just throw them in against any lightweight. It's going to be good. And since nothing jumped out at me, I did go for the obvious Azamat Mirzikana

of knocks out Alonzo Minnefield brutally gets on the mic calls for the top five opponent, but mostly just says he wants to get, you know, he wants to be fighting for the belt. Let me get a top five guy. I'm not willing to get him a top five guy. Just because it's hard for a lot of those, Jamal Hill is going to be out for a while. Seems like, though I don't know if we've confirmed Ancolaia versus Rockich is going to take place. Yep, yep. Announced.

It has announced. We just Dana White. Dana White would never lie. Yeah. I didn't know if that was confirmed. That's a weird fight to make, but sure, I guess they're doing that. I think there are some ways to go, and this might be mean-spirited, but it's not intended in such fashion.

I want to see this dude punch people in the face, and Johnny Walker's real good at getting punched in the face, man. He is exceptional. He dies well, is a quote I have used about him. And I honestly don't know if Mersikanov would finish him like that. This is very possible, but it's also very possible. Johnny Walker is still an athletic Marvel and packs a while up in his own right. I just think it's a good matchup.

Helps Merzaconda move up the rankings. And what else are we doing with Johnny Walker? So that's where I went. I dig it. I thought for a second there, you were going to go with his, you were going to acknowledge his request for a top five opponent. And we would have our first ever wild card friends forever moment. Mike and I have not had one ever.

And how crazy would have been if you and I just landed it out of the below. I hope I know where you're going to be. going and I will watch it if they booked this fight. Yeah. But it would hurt me if he were to beat this man. It would hurt you if Mersakana beat the guy I'm about to say. Assuming I know who you're about to say. Jan.

Oh, no, I thought you were going to say Yeri. No, no. I don't know what to do with Yeri. I can't remember what I did with Yeri on. I think I've booked him already on another episode. So I've just technically he's off the board for me. I think Yon. Yon is recovering from some injuries.

We don't know when he's going to be back. But if you're Mosea Kana up, You can wait a little bit. I would say if you can avoid fighting for the rest of 2024, if that's what it takes to get the Blockovich fight, you do so. You do so. And Jan has never been the type.

Maybe he's at a stage of career where he's going to be more picky. I don't know. But he really has never been the type to, like, dodge opponents, as far as we know. You guys can look at his resume. Like, he's fought guys in the top five. He's fought outside the top five when he's been in the top five. He takes anyone on. So I think he happily fight Mirzokanov, because it's a winnable fight for him too

and keeps him in that title picture. So I don't know. maybe it's a pipe dream, but that's our wildcard pick. Jed, let me go to the, I don't want to keep you too long, but let me go to the tapes here and let me go to the listeners real quick. I want to give one check the tapes. I want to give a point and a rare, no points. A coveted. Because I don't think anyone else would have picked this.

Chase Kowl. He picked Trevor P. versus Yanal Ashmoos, which is apparently going down September 7th. If someone else picked this, let me know, guys. me the proof. I don't think anyone did because why would you? This is wild. Chase, you get your point, buddy. You get your point. So good for you. Uh, listeners real quick. What a pick. What a great call. And all lot no points are are equal. So it doesn't matter. That's how you do it. You got to go off the board. You got to pick something nobody else is thinking about. You got to work the edges and find your lane. Well done. I feel like we're encouraging some very, very wild takes. But hey,

if it gets your point gets your point some very popular listener picks Figgi and Jan Mirzikanov and Krilov which I think is actually perfect I just have Krilov I think matched up with someone else already and more heavyweight overs for you Jed

Gaziv versus Rodriguez Nassimento so that fight happens straight to double your winnings again from Twitter shout out to Mikey Bats really good dude Mikey thanks for chiming in man Dern versus John Jaroba 2 I don't like it I think John Gis done enough

to get a title shot you can't do that That's a terrible booking. I don't like it. I don't like it either. I like you, Mike, but that's a terrible booking. Goridez versus Amanda Hebus. Sure.

I like that. I also thought about Hebas for Dern. I don't know what Hebus is doing. I have booked her to fight Miranda Maverick, but Hebus makes a ton of sense for McKenzie Dern. So I just couldn't pick her. I have her off my board. Nick S.

Welcome to the party, pal. Joel, first time picker, Joel Alvarez, Rafa Garcia, Grant Dawson winner, Dern versus Ritchie if she beats Hill or Hill too. So this person wouldn't mind seeing that rematch. And Keza versus Li Jing Liang, Pratchez winner. At Pag Cap, Shara versus Jack Hermanson. Though they ask with a question mark.

So I don't know. They're not very confident about it. I think that is, is that a mean choice? Sharra specifically asks for a dude who's going to strike with him. Jack Hermanson's going to strike with him until he takes his ass down and taps him. Good choice then. Braden O'Neill, I don't get this. Umar versus Figgie.

I think that is an exceptionally poor fight for Figgi. I mean, we might get it because Umar might get the belt and maybe Figuke gets his way to a title shot. But no, that's a ridiculous thing. Yeah, I just like I don't need like another number one contenders. Like why? Just why. Shara versus Cedricas Duma's. I think Shara is well ahead of Cedricas in the rankings.

I would hope. That's, I don't know. You don't hate it? You think it's possible? I mean, I don't think it is possible. I do not believe there's any world in which they would book it. But I also don't think they'll book him against Malkoon because they're not going to be vindictive like I am. But if you're coming from the he deserves to be punished, fighting the guy like Sarduktu Ma is not helping him.

I'm not going to read all these. Braden literally matched up everyone on the card winners and losers. Some of these are nice though. Merza Khanab, Uzdemir, love it. Kawi Fernandez and Kurt Hollabbaugh, shoutouts, ultimate fighter. 31. What else we got? Shout out Michael Keesa, who's now three and O against tough champions. Oh, the tough killer.

The tough champion. Saw that stat out there. Only a tough champion can beat another tough champion. I don't know if you've heard of that before. That's deeply undrew. Tony Ferguson is out here proving that to be false all the way down. All the guys he lost two were tough champion caliber. I think that's the better way to look at it. They definitely were that.

And shout out to Sam Page. I don't know if there's a lot of Sam Hughes picks out there, but another she took someone else's oh again her and aryani carnalisi i like that four corner sports uh anything here oh shara versus kevin holland when loser draw with chris curtis but i think we said uh he doesn't deserve that so no no but that does feel a lot like a fight they would yeah uh joel alvers jeline turner like he said very popular pick brenner versus joe seleke uh let me see john ray what do we got here joel alvres versus drew dover sure maris ozkov guskovs shovsha Sure, Dern versus Jan Shownon, too.

Yeah, again, there's a rematch out there for her somewhere, so it's certainly possible. Jed, what do you think is from Marcus McGehy, Shara Bullitt versus Joe Piper? So, no. Again, that goes against my general concept of I don't want to reward him. And Joe Piper could absolutely beat him and might, but there's also, I guess, a world where Sharr wins that fight and gets some glow up. The same reason I didn't book Bo Nicol. I think Bo Nicol would absolutely annihilate him.

But on the off chance he wins, then beating Jacob Malkoon is a respectable win, but no one's going to talk about it. So that's where we go. Joe Pfeiffer, though, does sound like a fight they might make. They do, the UFC does tend to not want to match up prospects. They usually save those for like very specific moments. And this feels doesn't feel like that point in their careers where you got to do the two prospect fight, not until they get kind of top 15. but I could see that. I could see them doing that fight.

I wouldn't stun me. Marcus also suggests Kesa versus I assume Randy Brown. Yeah, because Matt's retired. Hez versus Randy Brown. I don't like that matchup for Kesa right now. Just because I think Brown just handles him. Joel Alvarez, Bictelbeck Oralby, sexy pick, but I think Joel needs to get a higher ranked opponent.

Let me move on here. Scott, Scott McCrate. Umar versus, uh, hold on. There was a funny one here I wanted to read. Sorry, Scott. I'm butchering your picks here. Kesa versus Waukeen Buckley. Hmm.

I don't know if Buckley would take that fight. Oh, it'd be funny, though. Yeah, I mean, it'd be fine. I just don't know if Buckley would accept. I don't think Case is not ranked in the O.C. I don't believe so. And a great, great deep cut by Scott, who's given Jordan Fuchinika,

one of the, one of the, he lost to Quirtilatze, but put on a good fight for a guy coming on a short notice. Fought well, lightweight, not his best avenue, had most of his success. and Cage Wars at 145. I'd like to see him get a do-over against Andre Feely at Featherweight. Yeah, that'd be cool. Andre Feely again.

That's good. I don't know if Yucinich wants to stay at lightweight or not. I would like to see it. I think he looked very good. And you can attribute his loss to Grombing very good and him coming in on short notice. But if he wants to try his hand back down at Featherweight, I would also, you know, be interested in seeing that. I just chuckled because Harry Newhouse on Instagram has the same idea as you, Jedda.

But punishing shower. Adolfo Vieira. Have fun with that, Shara. Yeah. Have fun with that, you Nick Diaz, jerk. Malkoon is optimal,

but that's not that. He's barking up the correct tree. Merzikana of Oldberg. Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Ulberg is just like injured, right? So maybe,

but I don't think it's like a severe injury. I don't know. I also don't think they will book that because they were trying to give Ulberg a real jump up. I know. So I don't think they're going to have him fight functionally backwards.

I think, They will choose one of those two dudes to get vaulted into the top. And my guess is they're going to back Oldberg in that situation first. But maybe both guys get top shots. I'd love Seymour's a kind of in Oldberg. That'd be so sick. It'd be really fun. But I would guess we're going to get Yerry versus Oldberg.

That would be my guess. Oh, wow. Harry, I also like Sam Hughes, Bruina, Brazil. I think that's a good one. So many Gaziv Nassimitos. Everyone's just trying to cash down heavyweight overs. They really are. I'm so sad.

I mean, the fight makes sense, but God, it's a bad one. It's, I don't want to say it's one of the, like, some of the heavyweight matches we've got this year. That might not even be in the bottom five. I'll be honestly. We've had some stankers in the heavyweight division. You just should be rooting for these things to happen, people. Tristan Gordette, a email. It's got a couple more here.

Guaram versus Rebetsky, sure. Lupi versus Molly McCann. Hmm. Jed? Thoughts? It's not. How many fights has Molly McCann lost in a row right now? One, just the one, just the one, because she went down.

Was she on the winning streak? Yeah, yeah, she changed weight classes and was sort of like. Oh, yeah, she'd be bowing out. Just garbage. Who she'd already, she'd already beaten, by the way. Yeah, she'd already beaten in his garbage. It was a full on, we got to get her a dub here. In credit, she finished her early, but garbage.

She's one in three in her last four. I've heard worse things. I don't know that that's where I want to go, but it wouldn't be the worst than it's ever happened. And then I'll go to Jay Donagy here. Felice Coupilianoos. I assume he means compilagios, but I mean my Spanish is that amazing. There's only one thing he could mean there.

Yes. My Spanish isn't amazing. Maybe he means something else. Cumblianios is happy birthday. Straight up going. Oh, I see that I'm aware of. Maybe there's a Feliz Coupiliano. That means something else.

Nope, I'm real confident. All right. Umar versus straight up saying Marab's going to beat O'Malley. So Umar versus Mara. Sharra versus I'm kind of like that. Figy versus the loser of O'Mali, O'Mali Marab. So Amali. Keza, Mike Malat, Mike on Mike action.

Alvarez Oralbaa again and Merz O'Connor Oberg again. So peace love and chicken grease. Thank you, Jay. That is it. That is it, guys. Amazing fix. If you're not going to punish Sharah, Shara versus Iqrum is not bad.

That's a reasonable matchup if you're not going to punish him. He doesn't deserve that. He doesn't. That's what he should have done. He should have called for that fight, but he fucked up. So we, all right, guys, that is it for this week. You know what to send your picks. Mike will be back next week.

I'm not sure. Jedd is Mike back next week? I'm going to vacation soon, but I think I'll still be here next week if my math is correct. Yeah, we've got quite a card next week. I'll just go with what ESPN has lineup. Tabura, Spivak, too. Back at the apex, Jed, get pumped for that. There's going to be some over-heavy-wading in that one.

You don't think this one could get finished? I think it's unlikely that it gets finished early. People listen to No Betz Bar this week. It'll be a juicy one. Chris Gutierrez, Javit Basharat, that one's rescheduled. Awesome fight there. Damon Jackson, Chipei Mariscal, Yana Santos, Chelsea Chandler, Bantamanteway, action, baby.

Alan Nessimential, Jafel Filo, Toshuomi, Kazama, and Charlampoos, Gregorio, Johnny. Parsons, Usaku, Kinosita. Is this is the fight? I think this one might be off. I'm thinking of something else. Danny Barlow, Nikolai, Varetnikov, Carol Hosa, Pani Kianza, Janata, Danese, Carl Williams. That could be a heavyweight under.

It could be. That will be. I don't know. Carl Williams. Yeah, but Denise is going to die or be done. Yusuf Zalalal, Jarno, Arons, and Stephanie Luciano, Tiliata, Al-Alan, apologize. Is anyone if I got that wrong, just reading off ESPN M-M-A's,

which isn't always updated with the latest, a hot cost. So that's it, guys. Get pumped for that. Thank you, Jed. Again, we'll probably see you again on the show soon. Look I said, I'll be taking some time off soon. And Mike will need you. But Mike, show you back next week.

And otherwise, Jed, any final thoughts? I don't know if you have something to say about it. I just wanted to say thank you because normally when I get called to service, it's for the worst cards imaginable. So getting to call and talk about real actual good fights with fighters I care about and I'm not matchmaking from bozos, who I have no interest in. It was a refreshing change of. face.

This is, these comments are from a man who has been writing and podcasting for the last 10 hours, people. Please, fighters, do not take this personally. Do not take it. But it's 11 hours. I'd like you to know. And I feel like you're watching the boxing, too. Sure am.

I've got that. I've had that on the whole time. Thank you, everyone. And we'll see you next week on onto the next one, the podcast.