MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC Fight Island 7

Episode Date: January 17, 2021

On the 27th episode of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee put on their matchmaker hats following UFC Fight Island 7, the promotion’s first event of 2021. Future matchups were discussed for Max Holloway—who put on a masterful performance en route to a unanimous decision in the main event—Calvin Kattar, Carlos Condit, Li Jingliang, Alessio Di Chirico, Punahele Soriano, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One, MMA Fighting's Matchmaking Podcast. And for the first time, since December 20th, we are back to do some post-fight event matchmaking on the program coming off a big debut for the UFC on ABC. We're going to be talking the aftermath of UFC Fight Island 7, which was capped off by an absolute masterpiece by Max Holloway over the toughest man on planet Earth, Calvin Cater. I am Mike Heck, and joining me on this venture, as always, is the co-host, the co-matchmaker,

the best friend, and the Prince of Positivity himself, Mr. Alex K. Lee, aka welcome back to the matchmaking hot seat, my friend. It's good to be back. It was fun to do those year-end and look-ahead podcasts, but yes, I know what people, people really come for. what's next soon, what do we think will happen soon. We need to help them sort out the wheat from the chafe or the other way around, whichever way it goes. We know the UFC matchmakers, of course, listen to this show on the regular lead.

It dictates much of their decision-making. So, as always, guys, thank you for tuning in, everyone, whether you're affiliated with the UFC or not. Yes, my best friend. It was a great show. A lot of live dogs, which I think made our matchmaking interesting. What was the other point? Oh, yes. You know, it's funny, before we started, you know,

because I wasn't on the post-fight show, so I do want to say something about Calvin Cater. I saw a lot of people saying, fight of the night for both men was a bit strange, which I understand sometimes, yes, there are situations where it's kind of a one-sided fight, and it's like, why would both people get it? I think the biggest one that comes to mind

was when Anderson Silva just clowned Forrest Griffin, and it's like, and they want to fight it, and Forrest Griffin got 50 grand for that. And I'm like, okay, that's pretty good. I don't know if I would have given Forrest Griffin that money, but buddies with the UFC. He was part of it, very, very entertaining moment. Fine. In this case, I think it was well deserved by Cater because, yes, I know if you just look at the

scores, you're like, oh, this was a completely one-sided beat down, which it was, but Cater's persistence and ability to hang in there for five rounds is a big part of what made this an exciting fight. I know it sounds a little sadistic. I know it sounds a little two-faced, given that, of course, we were always advocating so much about fighter health. But I mean, we also appreciate that still that part of the sport with the toughness in the spirit and you know the guys who go in there and leave it all in the line That we still that stuff still that's naive, but we still love that stuff and again I don't know if this again if this is like a if this fight ends in the second round

Fine, you know you then you max Holloway gets a performance the night bonus but you don't get that fight in that I do think cater was a very fight of the night I do think he was kind of in it through three rounds I mean I think it was obvious that Hollow is a better fighter but I think when people watch again And they'll realize how much cater, it wasn't just his chin. He was fighting back a lot. And it was just a superior, like for most fighters, once in the lifetime performance for Max Hollow. But I think a well-served 50 grand for both guys. I do not have any problem with that being the fight.

And I think it'll be a strong candidate by the end of the year. But we'll see. A lot of fights to come. Yes. I will agree with everything you have to say. I'm sure we're going to dive in a little bit more in a matter of moments. But you know what? Let's just get right after this thing.

Let's talk about Max Holloway. And look, I am, I got lamb basted on social media. I actually had somebody DM me on Instagram, which I've had, I've had this happen maybe like twice in my MMA fighting career where I've gotten, I've gotten like a lot of positive DMs, but I've gotten like a couple of really negative ones. This one was interesting because someone said, go drink battery acid because you and the New England can. cattle have this relationship and it's ridiculous. And I couldn't hit block fast enough because it's just absolutely ridiculous. But I just want to say this. I am mad enough to admit that I am wrong and I was wrong.

But I'm going to defend my case here, AK, only because I picked Calvin Cater to win on Saturday if he were to fight the Max Holloway that we have seen over the last couple of years, who is a very, very good fighter and arguably has been the best featherweight in the world throughout that time. we did not get that guy on Saturday. We got a completely different guy. We got the very best Max Holloway personally that I've ever seen. In my opinion, this is a better version than the guy who went all those fights on the way to the belt.

This is a better version of the guy who beat Jose Aldo twice. This is a better version than the guy that even decimated Brian Ortega. This Max Holloway was a completely different fighter, a completely different human being. And I couldn't have been more impressed with what he did. Like, honestly, I was bleak. blown away by his performance. And I'm going to let you go first. This is an easy, easy pick for me, AK, but was it as easy for you?

It was. But two things, though. One, you were not the only person picking Cater. If anyone says that you were out on a limb, I know, I know I picked Holloway. Jose picked Holloway. I think Casey picked Holloway as well. But there's definitely, if you just take a glance at social media, there's a lot of people who thought that this was Cater's time.

And I bet even after the first round, He was throwing some heavy leather in there. I bet even after the first round, there's some people thinking like, oh, if he just needs to land one good shot and he's going to rock hallway. And, of course, didn't turn out that way. But you were not on the line there. Secondly, did he actually say New England cattle? He said New England cattle. That's really good.

That's really good. And I'm upset that I didn't think about that. Because you know, I am, I loathe this New England cartel thing that has come up. I love everything related to New England, really. Except for you, Mike, you and your lovely family. You're really the only thing from New England that I can stand. So New England cattle, whoever came up with that, you. You are a genius, sir, whether it was the guy who damned you or someone else, you're a genius,

and I am writing that down for future use. Okay, so Max Holloway, well, I mean, yes. I mean, I don't know if it's obvious, but the ideal situation is if Brian Ortega beats Alexander Volcanowski at UFC 260, then Holloway should get that fight, should get another title fight because he dominated Ortega at UFC 231. That's what I think is obvious. I am not as high. I actually do, would love to see him fight Volcanowski a third time, but I can understand

why the U.S. wouldn't want to book it. So my pick is, I have two picks, but my main pick is really dependent on Ortega beating Volkinovsky, which I don't think is going to happen because I'm a big Volcanovsky fan, but it should it happen, Ortega Holloway, too. That's my call. I agree with you to a point. And look, I don't care who wins on March 27th, whether it's Volcanovsky or Brian Ortega.

Max Holloway is next. I don't care if Volcanovsky is 18 and O against Max Holloway in his career. That dude who fought on Saturday night is the number one contender to face the winner of the next title fight. And no matter who wins, I cannot wait to see it. I, on Friday, I did not want to see Holloway versus Volcanovsky 3. Not now. But after Saturday night, I can't wait to see it again. And if Brian Ortega wins, it's a no-brainer.

But Max Holloway versus the champion after UFC 260 is the only fight to make without question after that performance. Three Volcanowski fights? That's three out of holloways. I'm not a huge boxing buff. I certainly follow casually. I keep up with the big fights, big names. I'll keep up with the, you know, I know the history a bit. They wouldn't even do that.

Do they do that in boxing? They certainly do immediate rematches. They certainly are not afraid of trilogies and, you know, quadrilogies. They certainly will book a fight four times, which you almost never see an MMA. But you'll see that in boxing. But not in such a close period of time, right? That doesn't seem. I feel.

I feel, I mean, I'm sure there are examples of this only, and only say this because the second fight was that close. You know what I mean? Like, it was so, it was so close. So many people thought Holloway won that fight. The 80 to 90% that Holloway said is a little ridiculous. It wasn't that much, but a lot of people thought Max Holloway won that fight. I did not think Max Holloway won that fight.

I thought Volkinovsky, I thought Max just kind of, Max kind of cruised, probably through the second half of that fight. He was talking to the commentators. He was saying things to John Anick. And he did that against Calvin Cater, but he waited until, like, the fight was pretty much over to do it. And it became, like, one of the most memorable moments I've ever seen with him just yelling at D.C. being like, hey, I'm the freshman.

And then dodging a five-piece combination and then landing a right hand. Like, that's just... I felt so bad for Cater in that moment. I'm like, oh, my God, I cannot believe this was happening. And Cater just took it all in stride. Just smiled. It was like, wow. This is actually happening right now.

I had to imagine that point he was fun and instinct, but he'll probably, when he gets a chance to look back, so he decided to rewatch that fight soon, he'll probably be like, wow, he's like, wow, that was like, that's really, that was all was that was happening? Like, I've never, I've never, I'm sure he'll say he's never had that happened to him in a fight before. I don't know if anyone has ever had that happened to a fight before outside of a few people, especially in the UFC main event. So, uh, absolutely unreal. Yeah, I get it.

I look, again, I said, if you wanted to, for one thing, I'm in favor of high level rematches all the time. If they make sense, you know what I mean? Like, if some guy knocks another guy in the first round, I usually don't care. If they keep fighting to exciting decisions, maybe the first Holloway Volcanovsky fight wasn't that thrilling. But that second fight was so good. And like you said, a large contingent of people. I was just trying to bring up the numbers here for how many people, I believe, on M-May decisions, it was 52% voted for Holloway, plus another, another, that was that 4847 score, and then about some other scores for Holloway, some other wider scores.

So about 60% on the MMA decisions. About 60%. On verdict, the verdict app, for people who follow that app, Volcanowski actually did get the win, surprisingly. It's a little bit confusing how they scored it, but they did. On our MMA fighting, we took a poll, 81% holloway. Oh, my God. Our social media followers, 81% holloway.

So this was taken right after, of course, right after the fight happens. So, you know, all these numbers are going to look a little different. But yes, so the incident reaction, according to our site, was 81%. So I've written a robbery review of it. I feel that it was a fair call based on how the scoring is, though Max Holloway, I think, also did land the most impactful shots of that fight. And I totally understand why people think Max Holloway won. And if we're going with pride rules, Max Holloway probably won. So I'm not against him, like, not against.

I would obviously prefer an Ortega rematch, which is funny because it might be a less competitive fight, because Holloway might just handle him again. But I'm willing to see if Ortega has improved much. But yeah, you can't get wrong with that. So the other kind of wild name I throw out, only because you saw Holloway's post-fight press conference. He's kind of like, oh, I'm chasing legacy fights. I'm not so obsessed with chasing the title anymore, which I think he's just saying, of course, he would take a title fight. At 155 pounds, maybe Raphael Dosanos. That's interesting.

It's not a super exciting fight. I get it. I know Desaiguel's not a huge needle mover. But I think it's a former. UFC champion. I think stylistically it's a fun matchup. I have said in a previous show. I want to see RDA fight G but I also have feeling that's a fight that G, I mean, he would take if it was offered, but is not going to volunteer himself for. I think he's still kind of trying to stay in that top five, top six championship loop. I think RDA is maybe one fight away from there. So this works

for RDA too. Obviously if RDA beat someone like Max Holloway, he's definitely in the UFC lightweight title talks. For Max, it would just be a fun fight if he can't really get anyone else that makes sense for him at 145, which outside of Ortega and Wolkenowski. Here's something I said on the post-fight show. And by the way, I'm going to preface this by saying, I don't want any BS from you folks that are in bad moods, okay? I said this on the post-fight show. And it makes sense, too, because Dana White made this quote-unquote announcement, okay?

And the entire announcement about Habibna-Maghamagamatov was, impress me, kid, impress me. Do something to impress me. How did Max Holloway not impress him? Like, seriously, like, above, like, anybody else? And Holloway was supposed to fight him at some point. I'm not saying, like, Holloway is even competitive in that fight. Maybe he is.

I don't know. And it seems like Holloway is a little too small for 55, all right? But if we're talking legacy fights, and Max Holloway kind of like planted some seeds. He goes, you find the, whoever you think is the best fighter in the world, tell me about him. I'll fight him. Like, Max Holloway had to have blown Habib away on Saturday. I'm not saying this is going to happen. But still, I don't think it's not a terrible option.

It's not a terrible option, is what I'm saying. So there's a lot of, right now, Max Holloway is in a primo spot to kind of round this all out. You know what I mean? Like, he could fight for the belt or he could go after like one of those kinds of fights and has a good shot of getting him after that. He's the talk of the town right now after that performance. It is crazy how close we were to once getting Max Holloway versus Kabib and Regamette off.

They faced off. They faced off. They have pictures of them at the press conference. This is a real thing that happened. It feels like years ago now, but I guess it's only a couple of years back now. UFC 223, of course. the Brooklyn fight week that seemed to last a month when Ferguson, one of the Hargson Fabi Bookings fell through, the Ferguson.

I believe this was the tripped over a cable incident. I think this is this one. Yes. And then we'll end to that cancellation. Holloway comes in last minute. And then there's concerns about his health. So then he's not allowed to fight. And then that's how we got to Khabib and Ally Quinta.

But yeah, I was, I admit, I was scared to pull the trigger on that one. But yes, I think that would be such a cool fight. Is it one that Habib would come back for? I personally don't think so, but you're right. Based on the criteria that, that's so high school, based on the criteria that Dana White said, that Habib said, yes, I think Holloway did a good job of doing something special. Now on the flip side, we have Calvin Cater, who is officially the toughest man in the world. That dude took a beating and a half, and he stayed in there until the final horn. And look, he got beat in that fight handily.

AK, but there, and I think you tweeted something pretty similar to this on Saturday. There was not a point in that fight, no matter how bad it got, that made me believe that Cater was completely out of it. Like, I still, even in that fifth round, there was a, like, I sat there and I was like, there's still a chance he could land something crazy and win this fight. Like, the guy is an absolute warrior. And I hope he takes a little bit of a breather after Saturday. As far as what's next, it depends on what you do and what card you put him on, in my opinion, because I have two options that are on my mind, AK. One, if you're going to throw Kater into like another main event spot on a fight night or something like that, then the answer,

in my mind, is the Korean zombie. I like that option. I know I mentioned maybe doing zombie and Josh Emmett at some point, but something tells me that Kater's going to be ready to come back and fight before Josh Emmett is ready to come back and fight. April, May. That could head, a fight night card for sure. The other option, if you want to put Cater on like a pay-per-view main card or something, in a three-round fight, you can do it against a guy with a name, a guy people know, a veteran of the sport where they can go out and just, you know, have some good old-fashioned fun.

Cater, I'm sure, wants to be in the hunt for the Featherway title. I get it. He should feel that way. But ranking schmankings, A.K., I'd like to see Cater fight the rejuvenated Cub Swanson on pay-per-view. a little bit of a step back, but not that much of a step back. Like, I know there's numbers next to Cater's name, and there's not one next to Cubs, but I like that option.

If you're going to put that on pay-per-view, I would absolutely watch that. That's a great appetizer for a good title fight, a good main event. Those are my options. Main event, give him a guy like Korean Zombie, top five, top 10. If you do pay-per-view, vet you with the name like Cubs Swanson, that would be a lot of fun to watch. What do you think? Yeah, yeah.

And look, we talked about legacy fights with Max Holloway. Cater is nowhere near the end of his career. I don't think so anyway. I know he's experienced, but I do feel like he has a lot of good years left in him. But a name like Cubs Swanson is one you're going to want to, you would love to have on your resume and look back on, you know, whenever Cater is done fighting. Yeah, and it's good for Cub Cair too. I mean, Cub Cones would love that. This is a top 10 guy.

You know, he'd sign up for that in an instant. So I'm surprised. I don't know why I didn't consider it. I think for the reasons you mentioned, like maybe it is a little bit of a step back for Cater. But I think if we look at, we sort of mentioned in the Holloway thing, if we look at the featherweight rankings, guys are either booked or kind of, or in Hollywood's case, he's fought most of them already. Cater Cater's actually fought a couple of guys in the top 10 too so that's another reason it's a bit tricky to match him up

so yeah I like that I love the zombie suggestion though I was you know I'm kind of fixated on this Edson Barbosa zombie thing which I really which I really want to see happen and I think it will so I'm doing a lot of future prognosticating here we mentioned Barbosa zombie on a previous show

I think that'll happen fingers crossed and I think Cater should maybe get whoever loses that fight assuming it happens well actually it doesn't matter if it happens soon because like you said we need to see Cater take a break. I think if he fights before the summer, I'd be surprised. I don't think he has to. I don't think he should. If he wants to, more power to him. But I'm sure there's people who are concerned for him who will tell him six months. Please, six months, relax, rest. Really, ideally, honestly, after a fight like that, I love seeing cater fight. I'd love to take a year off. I know that's not going to happen. I know that's not how MMA works. I'd love to see that happen. My other thing is I wouldn't mind him getting the loser of the Volcanovsky Ortega fight. I'm sure some people will say, you know, like you said, now maybe that's keeping him too far forward.

Yeah, maybe this is a holloway test. He needs to take a step back from the top three. I'm kind of okay with seeing if he, if he, like I said, I saw a lot in that holloway fight. Yes, he was outskilled and out fought. But, man, that toughness is so good. And I would love to see him match up with another super, super, super, super high level guy. and that's certainly either Volcanovsky or Ortega, regardless of who wins, that title fight. So that's kind of really actually would be my preference.

I don't see them making that happen, but I think that would be, I'm going to go that way with it, take the loser of that fight. Yeah, I mean, listen, amazing display all around from Holloway, an amazing display of heart and grit and toughness from Calvin Cater, which is unbelievable stuff. And listen, if you watch Max Holloway at the post-fight press conference, that dude did not look like the winner, all right? Like, he was banged up. Calvin landed his shots.

So it's not, I mean, yes, this was a one-sided beating. That's just because Max Holloway took his volume striking and turned it up to like a thousand. Like the numbers, just go look at the numbers for this fight. The amount of significant strikes that he threw and landed, go follow Aaron Brunson on Twitter because he's finding all these, like, ridiculous comparisons. Like he's Max Holloway, and I want to make sure I'm getting this correct. I think he said Max Holloway in that. fight landed more significant strikes than Zhang Wei Lee and Davis and Figurato have landed

in their careers combined. That's insane. That is insane. He landed 441 significant strikes. That's a lot. It's so ridiculous. I wouldn't be able to take one significant strike from Max Holloway, much less 400, over 440. No, that's not almost things to do.

And, man, I know people can say maybe we're giving cater too much credit. But keep in mind, people, I hate everything about New England. So this is pain for me, right? I'm not biased. Calvin Cater, there's a lot of shots in that fight. If he had landed on almost literally, by the way, Max Holloway, also legendary chin. Yeah, God. That guy is unbelievable.

And we knew that already. Both, you know, his blade to slip a punch, but also he can just take a shot. I think he took a clean shot and just shrugged it off. He just got that kind of chin. There's a lot of shots of that fight that would have knocked out or at least rocked a lot of other guys at 1.45. That's why we say we think Cater had a chance. Yes, in that fight, maybe not against Holloway, because Holloway's, again, as inhuman as Cater is.

But there's a lot of people. He would have floored with some of those clean shots. He was lined with clean hooks, haymakers. He just, he just, he was just fought the better man that night. That's it. That's all that happened. Yeah. Crazy.

As we head to the co-made event, Carlos Condit gets a unanimous decision over Matt Brown. A lot of wrestling in this one, which nobody could have predicted. But what a fun fight it was either way. Perfect matchmaking, perfect fight to slot right before that main event. Condon gets the win. Last fight on his contract. but it does seem like he'd like to stick around in the UFC. And in my opinion, there is a place for him on this roster, A.K.,

but what do you think could or should be next for the natural-born killer? I have two options. I'm going to go with one. I think I know which one you picked. If you didn't, then I'll say that one. But I kind of like Condit and Wonderboy. Yeah, I'm going this way because I think initially last time Stephen Thompson fought, I said Stephen Thompson versus the winner of, well, I said versus Santiago,

with Ponsinibio because I assumed he would beat Li Jing Liang, which did not happen. We'll get to that later in the show. And I said I was not interested, though, in the alternative, if Lee beat if Lee beat Ponzanibio, I wasn't exactly thrilled out him fighting Wonderboy. Maybe it's changed my mind on that, but still I didn't love it.

So, now that essentially that cancels out my other pick, the results of Saturday's card, I think Wonder Boy is free now. I think Carlos Condit. There we go. That's a name. Again, very behind in the rankings from Wonderboy, but he's got that name. He has a top 10 name, even if he doesn't have the top 10 results over the last couple of years.

And I think I think Wonderboy would happily take on that fight. I think again, another fan favorite fight. Interesting clash of styles. I mean, you want to talk about that. Now, that would definitely be a striking battle. I mean, Condit might try and take it to the ground, but it would be a tactical striking battle, not a brawl. You're not getting a classic Condit bloody brawl.

I don't think so. But I think, yeah, two big names, very intriguing for Wonderboy, very intriguing for Carlos Condit, so why not? Very interesting. Longtime fans of the show are probably going to give me crap for this pick, but I don't care. I'm doing it anyways, and there's only there's like one and a half answers here.

But the top answer now unfortunately leaves our good friend Jeff Neal without an ex-opponent. Because the correct answer is Robbie Lawler. The rematch from UFC 195, Robbie Lawler gets the win, although most people believe Condit got the big fat hose job and should have won the Walterweight title that night in January of,

2016, I believe. But at this point in their careers, this is the fight to make. Now, the alternative, if you want to go the Diego Sanchez retirement fight route, there's a story there as well because you got the Jackson Wink versus Diego Sanchez angle. You got the former teammates angle. That works for me as well. Lala rematch is my number one, Diego number two, AK. I want to see the Lala rematch someday.

I do feel like if we don't see that one run back, it would be really, really sad. Not a tragedy. I don't say it's a tragedy. Those men have blood enough, frankly, and there's a lot of people who maybe never want to see that fight again, based on how much damage they did to each other. But yes, that's always in my books. I just don't know if I want to see it next. Also, hashtag Lobby for Robbie for Tim Means.

Mike, I thought what happened? We wanted this for Tim. Yeah, but I already gave him to Jeff Neal, Robbie Lawler, to Jeff Neal, and now I've taken him away from Jeff Neal. Okay, well. But don't worry about it. Trust me what I tell you. don't worry about it all right tim i'm still lobbying i'm still hashtag lobby for robbery for you you deserve

the law like i don't even know if you want i can't remember i even brought this up but i still want to see robby and tim means that's that's the fight for me i thought you were going to mention james kreuse or is there a reason this didn't question but you don't think that cross and con did you happen i don't dislike it i know laur sanko love that idea if you watch the post fight show she's a big fan of that idea I just want to see Condit fight rematches or, you know what I mean? Like guys kind of on the tail end. Not saying that. And Krause in a strange way might be just because he's such a preeminent coach.

And he's doing so well with that. And he feels that he's a better coach than he is a fighter. And he's not a guy that's going to take three to four fights a year. But James Krause has won like six or seven fights in a row at a hundred. 170 pounds. That's not an easy matchup. Like, I know he's a seasoned veteran, but he's still a very dangerous guy. Like, he just beat a guy who hadn't lost since, like, in over a decade and beat him handily on one leg on two weeks notice in Abu Dhabi.

Like, Krause is a tough matchup for a lot of these guys. That's why they didn't match Joaquin Buckley up with James Krause, because they were like, eh, this is a bridge too far, probably for Mr. Buckley. And we kind of saw that a little bit on Saturday as well. I don't, if they made it, I'd certainly watch and I'd be excited about it, but I just feel like at this point in Condit's career, he's not going to be, he's not fighting top 15 guys, he's not going to be looking towards the title. Like if they booked the Wonderboy fight, I don't, I actually like that idea,

but for Wonderboy, you're going to have to sell him pretty hard on that. It's going to have to be like, all right, Stephen, listen, you do us a solid, we'll give you a title fight if you win. Like, it's going to have to be one of those types of situations, but Lawler rematch, fans would go bananas for it. If you do the Diego fight, there's some heat there. I like it. But outside of that, like, I don't want to see him fight a young buck on the rise

or even like a middle-aged buck on the rise either. You know what I mean? But I'm okay with the cross fight, but it's not one of my top selections. Yeah, yeah. I think we have, excuse me, I think we have a range, experienced range for conduct, which makes a lot of sense. Again, knowing him, he'd probably take a fight with anyone, but I do think he's being a little more.

more selective in his matchups these days. And that's not a bad thing. He deserves it. You can earn that in this business. Okay. And I think he's earned that. Well, let us head to the man who played spoiler for the long-awaited, highly anticipated return of Santiago Ponsonibio. Li Jingleong puts Ponsonibio away. He finishes him in the first round. Massive, massive win for the leech. He looks sensational. AK, you would say that I'm a fair man, right? Like, I try to do my best to make everybody happy as much as I can. Is that like a fair statement on my part? Sure. Would you, yeah, sure. Well, since Robbie Lawler will not be fighting Carlos Condit, the fair thing to do is Jingliang

on Neil, right? Like, I think after a win like that, he's earned a matchup like that. I think it's very much in play. It's deserved after snapping a long winning streak like that. Let's give him a shot at the top 15 guy, AK. How about Li Jingleang versus Jeff Neal? Jeff Neal is, you know, now is out of the Robbie Lawler fight that I had proposed after the December 19th card. and now he gets, you know, he gets a matchup with Lee Jing Liang. I like that. You know, you lose one guy and you get another guy with a lot of momentum. What do you think?

I want a little crazy on this one, Mike. I'm not proud of it. I struggle. This is one of the ones that probably took me along is because, look, it's no secret. We have a bit of a cluster biff at the top of 170 in the top 10. There's guys who are just waiting. Waiting for what? We don't know.

Waiting for maybe Usman and Burns to fight and sorting off from there. Waiting for their fights to be rebooked, like Leon Edwards and, Hamza Shemayev. So it's a cluster. We have guys who are fighting next week, Michael Keiza and Neil Magny. Lee has earned a fight, like you said, at a ranked guy. In my rankings, I actually have him higher than Jeff Neal. I think that's maybe why I didn't consider it.

I have him a little bit higher than Jeff Neal. He is my 13th ranked welterweight. Keep in mind, I do not have Hamzat in my welterweight rankings because his last fight wasn't at Welterweight. So, anyway, that's a whole other discussion. So yeah, I have Lee in my top 15 already So I was just trying to look at the names Usman Burns, they're fighting in the title,

Covington's not going to take that fight, and he's holding up for something, Mazvedal's holding up for something, Maia's holding up for something, not Li Jinglang, that's for sure. And then we said, Keisa, Magna already fighting. Nate Diaz, forget about it. Wonderboy, I just matched up.

I think so the name that I pulled out of the top ten, I don't know, this is Maziav. Lee and Tyrone Woodley. Wow. I don't feel good about it. I don't feel good saying it. I just wanted to pull a name for the top ten. I just said it to set it.

Sometimes, guys, listen, listeners, sometimes we say things just to say them on the show. All right, I'm not going to lie. I love the idea of Woodley versus Ferguson. Shout out to a Jacob Best, who brought that up from one of our shows near the end of the year last year. But we don't know if Ferguson is actually considering move up to 170.

That's just a kind of, you know, that's just a fun idea on our part. Also, yeah, look, we mentioned Diego Sanchez for Condon. I like him for Tyron, too. and then suddenly it's also come on one of our shows. But, I mean, that hasn't really been brought up too much either. So, I like, I don't know, I want to give Lee a big fight. I want to give Lee a big fight. I think Woodley, I don't think he's ever thought about Lee Jingleong in his life.

I think he was brought up, I think it would raise an eyebrow. Yeah. Wow, it's very interesting. Hmm. Maybe. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, Tyron Woodley's not in a position to turn that one down, that's for sure.

Hmm. So this is one of, if it happens, I will never shut up about it. Yeah. I mean, that would be like, that'd be like my Calvin Cater for Fighter of the Year pick. Wow. Listen, I have no issue with that fight. Woodley has to take it. He can't, he can't say no.

I need a catchy hashtag, that's all. Let me forget a catchy hashtag. We'll get that going. Hashtag Woodley, L.I. Oh. Bam, bam, bam. I'll add that in later. There you go.

So now we've been. move ahead to the man who not only shut down Joaquin Buckley with a nasty headkick, but he shut down John Anick, and he shut down the rest of the MMA media in Abu Dhabi after he did it. Alessio DiCherico puts a halt to the hype train of Joaquin Buckley, does it emphatically, biggest win of his career, and he probably

saved his job in the process after losing his previous three fights. So we all agreed the betting lines are way off on this one, AK, and Manzo gets it done on ABC. So what do you think is next for him, in your opinion. Yeah, we all agree the betting lines were way up, but I don't think on any of our shows we actually picked DeKirico. I think we all chickened out. Like, we all, we all said

trap game. We all said DeKirgo's being disrespected. We all said he's not a walkover. We said everything about DeKirko pulling off an upset except actually picking him. So I'm embarrassed. I feel like we should have we should have known. We should have known. When we kind of did. Casey knew. Casey picked. Jose knew. Jose knew. I said

I said trap game on the way-in show. And yet somehow, when it came done time to doing our picks. We all just said, oh, let's go save. It's Gold Buckley. But, yeah, it's great performance to Kierko on ABC. Shocked a lot of people. And then very bizarre post-fight. In spirit, I like what he was saying. You know, the whole, yeah, it'd be cool if we gave proper respect

to both the winners and losers. But there's actually a lot of logistical reasons to not interview the losers. So anyway, not the sexiest matchup. It's just, I don't know why this one jumped out at me. I, if you're going to hate this, I kind of want to see him fight Duran win. All right.

I don't know why. I think Duran, I'm still kind of a believer in Duran as a prospect, even though there's so many, the guys that's such a physical disadvantage. Just the way he's built, but he's cast a fight at middleweight. He's just so, but he's so short. And I know he's essentially a one-dimensional wrestler, but I don't know why. He's on a win streak.

Di Kierko just got off the, I'm sorry, he just got off the Schneide. De Kierker just got off the Schneid. I just feel like it's one of those weird matchups that they would make. So this is more of what I think could happen as opposed to what I really, really want to happen. Yeah, this, we're starting to get. into a place where things are starting to get difficult. And this one is kind of tough because, like you said, there's a lot of these middleweights are booked already.

So I think I'm going to go with the winner of the upcoming fight that was actually supposed to happen on this card before Dishiro did his thing. How about the winner of Phil Haas versus Naserdin Imabov? Like, that's a good fight. Gives him a chance to halt a winning streak either way. and if even Vov stops Haas, you know, he gets that same kind of rub that Alessio got. So it's kind of like height-trained derailers battling it out. And if Haas wins, Haas gets another step up against a pretty tough guy.

So from the guys who are available and what's kind of sort of on the docket, I think the winner of that fight makes sense for Desherica. I don't know. It's a tough one. Any interest in him versus either of the guys fighting next Saturday? As a form, there's Andrew Sanchez, MacMud Mordov winner, or Brad Tavares, Antonio Carlos, Jr. winner? I think the latter is tough because both those guys are fringe top 15 guys. I think it's a little too high to give a guy who just snapped a three-fight losing streak against a guy who, you know, let's be honest. Nice wins, but probably was a little too overhyped.

and I think we saw that. Yeah, I mean, I don't hate it. I don't dislike it. But I feel like kind of you look at the Amovov and Haas fight, I think like rankings-wise, if like whatever rankings that we're going by or have in our minds, I think that's kind of like even Stephen, you know what I mean?

I think they're all pretty much around the same spot regardless of what happens in that Haas-em-Bov fight. Yeah, yeah. No, like we said, he's going to have to wait for some bookings to shake out, unfortunately because there's just there really was no again let's I'm just a circle back I came up with Darren win for some reason

or Duran win all right I don't know how I guess I just was trying to find someone who wasn't booked who was coming off a win and that's where I'm but yeah more likely more likely he waits for like you said one of the winners of either next week or the if the Haas imov fights gets even if it doesn't get rebooked you know what it's possible

he just gets Haas right I mean depending what the condition is with Haas what it is escaping him out if there's nothing too serious it is possible that maybe they move on from the Haas imov matchup their plan is to rebook it, but they can know it's, I don't think they're married to that matchup. Right. Yeah.

First fight in the main card led to the first finish of 2021 for the UFC. Punahili Soriano took on fellow undefeated fighter and prospect, Dusko Tadorovich. This was one of the fights that I was really looking forward to, but Puna Soriano, my word, that was a ferocious knockout after a year or so away from the game. It's now 2-0 in the UFC, two first-round finishes, seven first-round finishes overall. this guy is somebody to keep an eye on 185 pounds, no doubt about that. As far as the next step, I'm torn. Like, I still haven't officially made my decision yet because I was tempted to go a certain way with this.

But I don't know if I'm going to. It's tough because, like, middleweight is really good. And this is definitely the hardest one for me. So I might be, like, any meaning it. You know what? I'm just going to pull the trigger, A.K. Punis Oriano versus Sean Strickland. I know Sean just beat a prospect in Brennan Allen.

Brendan's going to learn from that. And I was thinking maybe doing Puna versus Brendan. But that's tough because, yeah, we just did the unbeaten prospect versus prospect thing. But to match Puna up with a guy and match Brandon Allen up with Puna after coming off a loss to a wily veteran, it's tough. So you know what? Sorriano versus Strickland. I think Puna is that good. And Strickland is a tough fight, man.

But I think he's that good. And I think it's a good test for him. And if he loses, it doesn't kill him. It doesn't kill him. What do you think? You're shooting Puna right into the top 25 of the UFC middleweight rankings, whether it's a stricken or the island match. My goodness.

No, I am. Mike, you know me, I generally, if it's not someone coming for another promotion, I generally, sorry, another like major promotion, I generally have a three wins before I like to kind of shoot them up, shoot them up the rankings. So there's 2 in 0 now, very impressive. He has a style that's going to be a nightmare for a lot of people. He's just so aggressive and I think like deceptively smart. Like I think he comes out swinging a lot.

But there's like a, there's a, there's a craven intelligence there behind his, his brawling style. So I'm not quite ready. So I just went, I said, who else is 2 and O? Who else in the UFC? Who else is undefeated coming off the contender series? And I said, Andre Munez. Andre Munez, I think it's a, now stylistically, a big challenge for, for Soriano. And actually, and I'm saying the other way around.

Sure. I want to see Mune is a little bit more. See where he's striking's at. Again, I'm sure he's a competent striker. I'm sure he's a good striker. Does he want to stand with Soriano? Probably not. So give us a little grappler versus striker here.

And yeah, I think it's perfect. I think I will mention later some of the other readers I saw pop up the suggestion as well. So I think there's a vibe here. I think this is a real thing that could happen. Okay, fair enough. As we head to everyone's favorite segment, it's been a while since we've done this, a.k. The wild card round. We're going to choose a fighter that we have not match made for yet, winner or loser, and we do it right now. So, AK, first wild card selection of 2021. What do you got?

I got a few quick hits first, but I don't want to step on your toes. Are you doing Jocelyn Edwards? No. Okay. So I got some quick hits here. Jocelyn Edwards. I think she should get the honor of retiring Bech Goheja. She replaced Kohle against Wu Yan. So now I think as a reward, she should get to fight Bech Goha. And then, Justin Edg's, by the way, it was so fun to watch on her debut. Holy Christ. All all, she was trying to finish from like every possible angle on her back on top standing. She didn't get against the cage. She was something. She was always looking for a finish.

She was really, really good. Austin Lingo, someone who isn't a zombie like Jacob Kilbron. I feel like Lingo would have gotten one of his like 30 second KOs. He's still searched for one of the UFC. If he hadn't fight, wasn't fighting Kilbrun, he was just eating shots. And I'm like, holy crap, it's killed him guys really good. So Austin Lingo, I do want to see him fight again against someone, someone who's human. And my fellow Canadian Sarah Morris, maybe maybe laser eye surgery or something because

her strikes they were not coming close Mike she was I haven't checked this significant strike I'm sorry look she won't give me

crap for this Sarah is Sarah is tough as hell really talented fighter a great grappler striking is a work in progress for her honestly and I think we saw that

against against Vanessa Mello last night a lot of key eyeing a lot of key a lot of noise a lot of sound some people on social media were saying it was

she would sometimes make a noise and not even throw a strike, which was shocking. So it was, maybe there's just something wrong with the distance, you know, because she was hitting a lot of air. I think she threw at least 100 strikes and maybe landed like 15. So, yes, please, Sarah, you know, come back home and rebuild. And hopefully she can stick around in the UFC, but we'll see what that. So anyway, I went with my walker pick Buckley.

I think we need to get Buckley back on track. The DiKirko matchup was terrible. And I'm not saying this, even if you had won, by the way, I would say that matchup was terrible. The win would have done nothing for him. Clearly, they thought DeKirico's three straight losses was a walkover, which is insane. And that, you know, this is on ABC. They're like, oh, great, we got our 2020 breakout. One of our 2020 breakout stars on ABC.

It's going to get a huge knockout against the guy who's just like, who's made to be knocked out, which made no sense because DeKirko had never been knocked out before. And it's way more, you had way more UFC experience in Buckley. So let's get this guy back on track. We have a young man, speaking of Canadians, we have a young man returning from a drug suspension. Time already served from Quebec. Mark Andre Barrio, I think it would be a great stylistic match for Buckley. I think he's going to stand.

I think he's going to try and trade with him. I think it would be good for Barrio because his last win was overturned to a no contest, unfortunately, because of a drug suspension. But of which I believed he was absolved of wrongdoing. Though don't quote me on that. I think it was a fairly innocuous suspension as far as those as innocuous as those can be. So yes, Power Bar. I would like to see Power Bar and New Mansa face off. I think that's a little bit closer to where Buckley should be.

I think that, again, the matchup on Saturday was very, very poor decision-making by the matchmakers. I dig it. That's a fun fight. Well, if you follow me on Twitter, you may know where I'm going with this. And, A.K., you like when I go on these journeys and do something completely outside the box, right? Take us on a journey. Okay. I'm going to do something that I don't think AK has ever been done, at least on my end,

in the history of this program for a wild card pick. But I'm going to go ahead and do it. I'm going to select Justin Taffa, who fought in a super fun fight on Saturday. It was a blast. He was on the wrong side of a decision that he probably should have won. So I'm choosing a fighter who did not get his hand raised, which is quite significant for this program, because I've never done that before. I usually pick a winner from the prelims and match them up.

But that is not the first time moment I prefaced earlier, A.K., my pick overall is the rematch with Carlos Felipe, because Tafa deserves a chance to get that one back after getting the big hose job, in my opinion. And also, let me just ask this question, AK, who would actually be upset about this matchmaking if the UFC turned this right around and made it again? I'll tell you, nobody. Absolutely nobody would be upset. In fact, people would be praising it.

They'd be standing up and clapping and applauding if the UFC ran that one back because there was so much fun. So hashtag history made. Hashtag Felipe versus Tafatu. Hashtag best of seven series, bro. All right. First of all, let's be real here. This is a really fun fight. It probably should have won fight of the night.

It was a really, it was a good one. But let's be real here. Most people did not watch. I mean, it's a preliminary. It's a preliminary fight. We watch, of course. It's our job. We're hardcore.

core fans watch it and I'm glad they did. Most people didn't watch this fight. So you're right, Mike. Most people wouldn't complain because most people by next week won't remember that this fight happened. Oh, boo. And that's no insult to Taft von Felipe, who were freaking amazing. I'm just saying this is how the prelims are sometimes.

I do hope people why. So by the way, for anyone who's having to skip the prelims, please, if you have a fight pass or whatever, or ESPN Plus, I'm in Canada. We don't have ESPN Plus. Can you replay fights on ESPN Plus? Yes. So if your ESPN Plus, fight pass, whatever you have for rewatching UFC fights. If you miss this fight, definitely check it out.

Really, really, really, really fun heavyweight fight. Dana White, I bet you didn't watch it. Or at least wasn't paying close attention to it because he was kind of crapping on the prelims. And if he had watched that fight, and actually, there were some good fights in the preams. I'm not sure why he said, I know they all went to a decision, but I don't know why he said the prelil, other than the mellow Morris fight. I actually thought all the other four preliminary fights are pretty good. So I don't, yeah, so I'm not really sure why he was so down. Again, no big knockouts, whatever.

So Dana White, I almost tell you, didn't see it. So that's why I don't see why they would rebook it. You're right. We should set a precedent here. We should set a precedent where, as I mean, since it is a low-stakes fight, so it's not tying anything up. It's not like, oh, Felipe and Tapa really need to, we got to move them on.

We've got to keep the division moving. No, they're both so inexperienced. They're the bottom third of the division right now. So I don't love it. I don't see why the match records would do it. It would be unlikely. But you're right. In a way, Mike, in a way, I'll give you this.

It would be cool. It would be cool if they tried it. Just as you're right, just to see the reaction, just to show the fighters. They care, that they are really paying close attention to these prelims, and that they're aware that, yes, a close, perhaps unjust, an unjust decision went down on the first UFC on ABC prelims. So, okay, Mike, okay. You're not, you're not completely out of, out of, you know. Let's have some fun, you know.

Listen, I'm not going to throw out the term robbery. It wasn't a robbery. But Taffa should have won that fight. So, I mean, it was, it was like, it was a row. just without the Bury. You know what I mean? We're with the first two letters of it. Tafa got hosed.

He should have won the fight. Let's do it again. And then let's do it five more times until somebody wins four times. And I think we're okay. You can throw that on any prelim. Just keep doing it. Best of Seven series.

Like Booker T, like they used to do in WCW and WWE. I like it. Yeah, you get to make gimmick matches eventually. You know, maybe the four ones a gift match. Yes. So chain in there, some dog collar match, you know. Yeah.

A little mix and match. One hand tie behind the back. all sorts of fun stuff. I don't know if this should check the tapes, but I'm sure the peeps had some suggestions. Yeah, I forgot about checking the tapes. No, I did no check the tapes this week just because I completely forgot to check the tapes.

So if anyone else wants to check the tapes and tell us that you guessed any of the matches, people always feel free to throw this in our faces. So no checking the tapes. Especially since we do have quite a few reader suggestions. Look, first show of the New Year. No, the surprise. Readers are coming in full force.

They had something to say. So on MMA fighting, I did solicit a few questions. I wanted to know about what people thought for Amee, what people thought for leave, people thought for Condit. So for Amive, we had a couple of good ones, Miguel Baeza. I like that. I think he's a little bit past Miguel Baezza, but Beza has beaten some really good competition,

so I could kind of see why people liked that one. And that was from Adson Oliveira. And then Dane Fox says, Brian Barbarina. Hmm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Barbarina, once the last time he fought, some people are going to say it's like his last fire something like a like a grappler trying to think usually the UFC is pretty pretty good about just making him fight putting him into action fights yeah it's been a while I'm just looking at his he almost always fights guys yeah they don't really they don't really match him up with grappler so that would be different colby cummington that was for over four years ago so I don't know maybe maybe maybe maybe Barbarian would be down for that but I know he's still recovering from some surgery you had to do so hopefully he's okay so there are people out there for amoeve um do you have any amive suggestions anything for amoeuvre come to your mind we don't know we I didn't see anything now. It's good. It's a good fight with Zabata. Lee, the Leach. We had someone put up a gift of Nick Diaz. Okay.

That's, I mean, no, that's less reasonable than my wouldly pick. So there you go. I'm not the most insane person picking fights for Lee here. Someone said, and I don't know why I didn't think about this. I think because Lee should be considerably ahead of him in the rankings, but Chaos Williams. I'd rather him fight Pajeda and chaos right now. Yes. Yeah.

Oh, right. It's true. And that's a wild fight too. Paheda has come up. I'll tell you that. But yeah, I mean, style-wise,

actually really like Chaos versus Lee. It's just that chaos is what? Like two and one? He's two and one. Two and one. And I think Lee picked up his 10th, his 10th UFC win on Saturday. And it's not like Lee's been fighting,

like, he's been like fighting guys in the top 30 for a while now. So I don't know. That's a huge step back for him. I, that's pretty much a. Chaos would have a lot to gain from that fight. Lee wouldn't have much to gain other than, you know, knocking off a fighter who's somewhat hot.

I don't know. If I'm Lee's management, I kind of don't avoid that one. I will say this. If Chaos gets booked relatively quickly and he gets like another ferocious 30-second knockout, then the fight makes more sense. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Then you've got a really white-hot prospect and then someone you will knock off. That was from E. Porter 26.

Thank you for that. Suggestion, you're suggesting Chaos Williams. Condit, like you said, rematches. People just want rematch. Sorry, God, I'm not going to go through individual names here. People want the Nick Diaz rematch. They want the Robbie Lawler rematch. They want to see him.

And then some fresh ones. Oh, they mentioned Diego Sanchez. And then some fresh ones, Jorge Mosvidal. I don't think Mosvidal is going to want to do that. He should. I think they'd be a great fight. Cowboy, which I think they've met their friends, obviously. Condit and Cowboy are friends.

I think they've mentioned it before. I feel like it's been mentioned in interviews that they would do it. I don't think either of them is pursuing that fight. Right. They have trained together in the past. I think they're pretty chummy. Again, they would do it. I mean, Soroni's fought friends before.

I think Conda has as well. But yeah, I'd be down for that. And I actually could see that being made. Someone said, someone broke glass in case of emergency and Vicente Lucke, a name. We just want to see Vicente Lucke fight. We're always starting his name out there for everyone. But yeah, mostly rematches. Nick Diaz, Robbie Lawler, things of that nature.

And we'll see. I'll show you some later. Another rematch, of course, it comes up. We got some people shouting us out, going right at some of our regulars. Mighty Magic Mart on Twitter. Always always messaging both of us. He likes Lee versus Lucke, and he likes, oh, sorry, no, he likes Lee versus Neil. So, there you go.

He's backing you up. Excellent. And Condit versus Means. I like that, too. I do, too. It almost gets me off Lobby for Robbie for Tim. Almost. Not quite, almost.

Jay Climann, what did Jay Climmon here? Jay Climant on Twitter said, he likes Lee versus Luccair Baezza. Okay, fair enough. young rabbi at young rabbi 86 gosh these names I don't know you guys come up this stuff another relievers luke oh I like this one okay I brought this guy because he's he messed up our boys Carlos filippe and taffa but not against each other he likes Carlos filippe versus Jake collier okay that's fun wow that would be that is fun justin taffa versus chase German or Parker porter like that too yeah so some good so there you go people looking up for

heavyweight boys. People looking up for our heavyweight boys. From the DMs, I'll try to run through these a little quickly. We've got a lot of regulars here. Aronski. He loves the Suriana versus Munoz's fight. Thank you, Aronski. We're on the same page, buddy. We're on the same page. And he threw out Condit Lyman Good, which I was

kind of like, I guess. Not bad. That's a bit out of left field. And then the other rematch which could happen, and I think who would see, Condit Woodley. Yeah. Ended an injury right the first time. Good win for Woodley, but there was just that little, little bit of controversy because it did end an injury as opposed to like a clean finish or a clean

decision for Woodley. So yeah. So yeah, we a lot of rematches on the plate for for Conant. Barry O'Reilly says Soriano and Buckley. No. God, no. You can't do that. Can't do that to Buckley. No. No. Lee versus Shavkat Rachmanab. Again, I think Rockmanab needs a few more. I think people don't know how experienced Lee is. I think they just haven't seen his record, looked at his record, while. That's interesting. Hmm. Wow. That's interesting. I mean, they gave Rockmanov, they gave Rockmanov Olavera

who's even more experienced than this. So I guess if they want him to be this like veteran, have to run through these veterans, I don't like that match for Lee at all because I think Rockmanab is the real deal. If I'm Lee, I'm furious if they give me that. Hey, Lee, great win over a guy who won like nine fights in a row and probably could have been a title

contender. So let's give you this undefeated prospect. that nobody knows and nobody's talking about after one of the most ridiculously impressive debuts of 2020. How about you fight Rachmanoff? No, he wouldn't be happy about that. He'd probably take it, but that's, man,

that's a tough fight. Barry O'Reilly also wants Felipe to apparently become a nemesis to the Oceanic region because he wants Felipe versus Tide to Ivasa. Ooh, yeah. Oh, I'm sure he has nothing against the good people of Australia and New Zealand. Come on now. Let's not start. Let's not start this thing.

By the way, there is breaking news. There is one person who wants the best of seven series between Felipe and Taffa. His name is Justin Taffa. He just liked the tweet that I put out. Let's do a best of seven with Felipe and Taffa. Taffa liked it.

He wants it. Best of seven. Let's do it. Again, like I said, we're doing the matchmaker's jobs for them. It's that easy. It's that easy to make these happen. And the last one from Barry, he likes.

And this is also recommended by Marcus Begahi. Austin Lingo versus Spike Carlisle. Oh, man. That's fun. That's another guy with a big chin, though, that I think would take a lot to finish. But sure. That's a fun fight, too. Harry Lipsky, he really wants Steve Volcanovsky Holloway 3.

He doesn't care about, you know, how the recent the other fights were. Now, for cater, here's a couple I don't think we mentioned. Cater versus, he's a Cater versus Ryan Hall. Now, I don't know if he's not aware that Hall has that, had that EGY fight just booked, or he's assuming that Ryan Hall wins, which is correct, by the way, good assumption, Harry. But yes, a cater of Ryan Hall. I actually, I thought about it for a second. I don't hate it.

And I think Cater would take it. Of course he would. Cater would fight anybody. That's true. That would be, I'd like that, actually. That's interesting. I like it. And then Cater versus, Cater versus, he said, possibly the Zabit, if this fight ever happens,

the Zabit, Yaya Rodriguez, loser. So, you know, possibly as a beat rematch or fresh, on a full camp, hopefully this time, or the Yairir, fresh fight with that year. Yeah, yeah, I could see that. But again, there's a beat, there's a whole Zabit, Yerthi, thing. I have no idea what's going on with that fight. We all assume it's going to be rebooked, but we just don't know. You know, neither of them fought in 2020.

So this matchup is becoming a millstone around both their necks at this point. What have we learned over this last 13 months? We have learned that you got to fight. If yours is a beat, I don't care who they offer you. You say yes and you fight because Calvin Cater just jumped over you, getting in got this huge fight with Max Holloway. He jumped over you because he was active and he took fights. Didn't matter who it was, didn't matter who the rankings were.

He said yes, and he took fights, and he got this massive opportunity. And now Max Holloway just took Zabit spot even more so after that performance. So Zabit is like, he is further behind now than he was on Friday. So he needs to fight. I don't care if it's Yair. Like, you need to get off, you need to get off the soapbox Zabit and fight anybody. If they offered you a debutante, a guy who just got a contract off the contender series, you say yes, and you treat him accordingly.

and you get a fight. You cannot continue this process because 45 is going to be massive this year. There's going to be a big year for that division. There's so much talent there. And if he continues to sit on the sidelines and wait for these specific fights, he's going to be an afterthought. You can't do that. There's so much talent.

Look at the hype this guy has gotten since he made his UFC debut, even before he made his UFC debut. And now it's been well over a year since he's fought. And he's an afterthought right now. Like right now he's an afterthought. People are like, oh, Zabit's in there somewhere. You've got to fight somebody. It doesn't matter who it is.

Get in there and fight and get your spot back. We have seen, you know, we have seen in the past guys wait, not necessarily wait, but have a lot of time on the shelf and then come back to, you know, to come back to big opportunities. But it's certainly not during the COVID era. I think we've said, specifically during this COVID era, those who have stayed busy have been rewarded. And that is definitely what Zabit needs to do. You're right. You made a good point. That was funny. Fans turn on you real quick. You go from being that hot undefeated prospects,

or I guess, you know, undefeated the UFC, I just say for Zabit, to fans saying, hey, buddy, what have you done for me lately? Or where are you? What is your reason for not fighting? So absolutely, we need to see him back in action. You're right against whoever. Marcus McGehee then says he likes the Kater zombie matchup. A lot of people did, actually, to see a few people recommend that. And speaking of Zabit, he said, why not Zabit Holloway?

Nope. Hall is way. Holly's way out of him now. I mean, Zabit would love that matchup. Of course. If you brought that to Zavis match, he's like, yes, sign me out. I'll just leapfrog year right into the,

right into it against top three guys. Yeah, it'd be a cool fight, but somewhere down the road, I think. That fight happens to be somewhere down the road. Not this, I don't even think this year. I don't think that's something we see this year. It's crazy, man. If Zabit had just stayed on that August 30th card or whatever, if he just stayed on there, because Kater said,

I'll fight you. If he just fought Kater again, and if he beat Kater, he would have fought back his hallway yesterday. Like, he would have fought that. He would have fought him. Yep. It's crazy.

It's crazy, man. Like, I get it. Like, I get it. You're tied to this guy. You think you might be able to sneak into a title fight. I think him and his team, they whiffed. They whipped. Swing and a miss.

Huge swing and a miss. And now he's, it's like, yeah, I don't know. It's, he's so far behind right now. He's so far behind. Especially with Holloway doing that. Now you have this fight. Like, that's why in our prediction, so I said, I don't think Zabit fights for the belt's in 2021.

And this is exactly why. And people, by the way, for everyone who thinks that Mike's going in on Zabit and his management team, we see this out of love for Zabit talents. We want to seize a beat fight and get into big fights. It's, it sucks for him not to fight in 2020. You know what I mean? It sucks when you see a guy with that much talent, just a year of his prime spent on the show.

And as far as we know, not for any injury-related reasons. I don't think so. Injury or COVID-related reasons, as far as we know, just the match. up just didn't materialize. You're right. He couldn't stay on certain cards. And that's it. One year just gone, right?

For an athlete and for a fighter, that's big. Joshua C. Wenberg on Twitter coming in hot with Lingo versus Chase Hooper. I don't know. I think Lingo might kill him. Oh, you think the other way? You think Hoover might be too much for him, the grappling? I don't know. I don't know.

I mean, if I hit the mat, we know what's happening. And Lingo is good. But, I mean, that's what happens. You know what I mean? And Peter Barrett's a really good striker. Like, the guy's got some pop. And Chase got a chin on him, man. Alex Casares couldn't put Chase Hooper away.

You know what I mean? And that fight at some point is going to hit the mat. I don't know. I don't know. Speaking of the devil, Peter Barrett, Jacob Kilburn. That's what Josh Rossi, Wenner wants to see. I would love that. If Peter's, if Peter's, he'd be still around after that Hooper loss.

Yeah, it's good fight. I like that one. And one of my, excuse me, guys, I apologize for clearing my throat on air with big, big, no-no on the podcast world. One of my favorite matchups suggested, he said, because I still like David Savada.

I know if you're going to look at his record and go to the guys one and three in the UFC, I think he's a really good fighter. I like David Zavada. I want to see him stick around. One more. And Wenberg, I'm calling Wenberg,

like he's a professional professional. Joshua, he says, Zavada versus Alex Marano. I love that matchup. Yes. Give me a stand-up fights for Zavada. Give me a stand-up fight for Maron unless these two go at it.

If Zavada loses, then you know what? Maybe it wasn't meant to be in the UFC. But I really, really, I still really like this guy for some reason. And I would love to see that fight out. So that's one of my favorite readers submissions of the week. Instagram DMs. We got one from a new Instagram buddy of mine. Max Block, who quite liked the Cater Josh Emmett suggestion.

Yes, if their recovery scheduled lineup, it really is the perfect matchup, right? It's great for Emmett, great for cater. action-wise, that has to be a five-round fight-night main event or something. That just be so, so exciting. Our old pal, Jacob Best, coming at hot in 2021. We mentioned Pajeda before. He wants Pajeda for Ponsinibio. I don't like him.

Why? I like it for the fact that stylistically, I don't know. We might have to see technical Pajeda again, which nobody wants. But Ponsonibio, I still see as a top 20 guy. Maybe I'm still riding a little too high in that two-year-old Magny win. But I just feel like he got caught by Lee. Lee looked amazing, by the way. That's the best Lee I think we've seen.

He looked like he was an amazing shape. And fighting-wise, it looked great. So I don't want to take too much away from Poncinibos's performance. I think it was just a flat, you know, return from a long layoff. I wouldn't mind it. I actually think it would be fun. I'm not comparing the two situations because they're vastly, vastly different. both very serious but vastly vastly

vastly different I'm putting like I have Ponzi and Mbio kind of in the same conversation as like a Walt Harris like their situations are very very much different

but we both want to see them matched up against somebody that we feel very confident they can get a win over you know what I mean like nothing would make me happier in this world as someone who covers the sport than see Walt Harris go in an octagon and get a win Like that would just, after everything that man has gone through,

nothing would make me happier than to see him get his hand raised. And I feel kind of the same way about Ponziinibio for different reasons, obviously, because of the roads back and things they've had to deal with. I think that's a nightmare matchup for him, at least right now. Like, he needs a confidence booster. I'm not saying, like, throw him a one-and-o fighter. I'm not saying throw him to, like, see him punk or something. but throw him against a guy with somewhat of a name, a fight he can win, let him get a victory.

Then if he does that and he looks pretty good doing it, if you want to throw him in there with a guy like Pajara, fine, I'm okay with that. I'd like to see him get a victory first before we throw him in with supremely awkward, massive human beings like a Michelle Paheda. You know what I mean? Like that fight does a lot more for Paheda than it does for Ponsonzebio. Yes. You know what I mean?

And I don't want to see him in that position right now. Give him somebody, like if you want to throw Ponziabio in with a guy like Lyman Good, like Lyman Good's like a very powerful guy. He can finish fights. He can do some damage. You want to throw him in there with like a Lyman Good? I'm fine with that. That makes more sense.

Let's give him a tough guy who's very dangerous who can finish fights. But if he wins, you're just like, all right, Ponzi's back. And I would favor Ponziubio in that fight. But it's a fight he could lose too. It's a fight he could get caught in. Mike, so thoughtful. Just looking out for what's best for Ponsonivia. Such a thoughtful man.

I'm trying, you know. And Jacobus also had a couple of fun middleweight things. He said, why not just throw Soriano and DeKirico in with each other? Again, I think they experienced capsules. I mean, you could. I wouldn't be against it, but I think they can go in other ways. And then Buckley and Jack Marshman, which in my rankings, they're very, very close together. I like that one, too.

Tristan Gordet in our emails, a lot of ones people have already said, but I wanted to, shout-outs to you, he also loves Soriano versus Sean Strickland. So I guess you're not, you're not completely out to lunch. You're not completely out to lunch on that one. Tristan Gordaette, again, he contributes every week. So he's experienced a fantasy matchmaker as we are. So you guys are on the same page. And then a newcomer, Matt Bradbury, who is very excited of getting into our first,

the prospect of getting to our first match picture of the year. I'll throw out a few good ones. Vanessa Mello versus Jessica Rose Clark. I think that's fun. Amive versus Alan Juban. Makes a lot of sense. Like that fight? That's a veteran step up for sure.

I had to call him out for one. Buckley versus Charles Bird. I believe Charles Brod is retired. Yeah, he's definitely on the UFC anymore. I don't think Charles Burd is fighting anymore. So I believe he had a quiet retirement announcement. And then I wanted to give him the show closer because I actually do really like this one. Matt Brown versus Court McGee.

Cort McGee can't be in the UFC, can he? I think he, I don't think he's been officially cut. So both guys would be coming off losses to Condit, obviously. Cort McGee, I don't know if he was, no. As far as I know, I don't think he's been. released. I think he's active. But, you know, it's two guys who are good, who are good volume fighters.

And, of course, they both have incredible, incredible stories. You know, this would be stuff, again, if you're going to do another ABC show, this is perfect ABC inspirational fodder because, you know, both kinds of incredible stories, overcoming, you know, addictions in their early careers and going on to have successful M.M.A. careers.

I mean, and beyond all, if you don't care about that stuff, which I think you should, like I said, I think that stuff is such an important part of, of what makes them fan favorites, is what they've overcome. But even if you don't care about that stuff, I just think it's a good matchup in Cage. And just one I hadn't thought of. So I'm going to shout out to Matt Bradbury.

I think that's our, for me, is my reader suggestion of the week. I also loved Joshua C. Winberg's Zavada versus Marano. But yeah, as always, lots of great readers suggestions. But yeah, Brown, McGee, sure. Yeah. I totally see the U.C. making it. Yeah. I like it.

It's a fight where Matt won't take a ton of damage. It's not blowing you away. It's not blowing you away. It's not blowing you away at some of our great readers just. I think you liked, what was the one you really did? You said you like Buckley Marshman. It's just fun. Yeah. And some of them you just really agreed. I think a lot of the fans were on the same page as you with some of this stuff. So it's getting good. We're all, you know, at 2021, we're all together. We're all together as we can be during these times anyway.

Yes, positivity is key, ladies and gentlemen. It's a new year. It's fresh paint of coat, as the kids like to say. Obviously, it's coat of paint, but mixing things up a little bit. But the kids do say that because they're dumb. Yeah, they think they're funny. So here we are. But listen, keep those suggestions coming. Hit us up on Twitter. He is at Alexander Cayley. I'm at Mike. heck underscore jr normally i would say join us next week but you're going to get yourselves a bonus show this week because the ufc is back again on wednesday ufc fight island eight early morning start time nine a m eastern time with the prelims noon eastern time main card on espm plus main event is michael kiesa versus neil magni that show will drop either wednesday evening thursday morning at the latest and then of course we have ufc 257 coming up on saturday headlined by dust Coria versus Connor McGregor.

The winner may or may not fight Habib. We will see. But in the meantime, we are done. So thank you so much for joining us for AKI and Mike Keck. Remember, do not take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. We'll have fun once again later on this week right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.