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

Episode Date: June 25, 2023

Ilia Topuria has officially arrived in the UFC's featherweight title picture after a one-sided performance against Josh Emmett in the main event of Saturday's UFC Jacksonville event. While Topuria's showing opened up a lot of eyes, was it enough to get him a championship opportunity against Alexander Volkanovski or Yair Rodriguez? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee state their case for Topuria to get a title shot following his breakout win, and why Topuria fighting Max Holloway in his next appearance is not the way to go. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Maycee Barber after her incredible showing against Amanda Ribas in the co-main event, David Onama following his sensational knockout victory, Brendan Allen after stopping Bruno Silva in the main card opener, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. Yes, it is officially summer of 2023, the MMA schedule. Most notably, the UFC schedule is ramping up. We're on the road to international. National Fight Week and the summer slate kicked off officially for the UFC on Saturday

with some early day MMA. Yes, UFC Jacksonville saw a couple of up-and-coming fighters announced their arrivals. This was probably the most no gray area card that I can remember where the fights were either excellent and fun or awful and brutal and there was no in between. But we are here to talk about it all from a matchmaking perspective. Mike Kek, and here he is the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, and damn it, he's my best friend, Alexander K. Lee, AK, how are you, my man? What's up? What's up, my best friend, Mike Kek. You were there. You were there. You were in,

you were in Duval, Duval County. How exciting. And yeah, listen, there's just, there was just a different energy around the event. Before, after, people watch the post-fight show. Shaheen, Casey, and I just had a little more a little more pep at our step. You know, we're not up at frigging two, three in the morning, doing post-fight stuff. It was nice. It was nice. And as you said, if you just kind of slice, if you, if you slice this card right down the middle and you just took the more positive half, pretty, pretty fun card to watch. This is the thing. This is what? We ended up with 13 fights. They're not all going to be winners. This is one of the problems with, I feel like modern M-May these days.

It's just too long. The shows are way too long. I shouldn't say modern M-A, because it shows have always been long. But I think the whole, I don't know, feeling like you have to be locked in from the first prelim to the last. And if you are and you enjoy it, great. But I do think it's somewhat of a slog. Especially if there's any fans that were in there from the arena, you know, in the arena from the first fight to the last. I know that's not everybody, but there's definitely some people who show up for the first prelim.

him. Mike, I don't know. I wasn't sure. I heard the crowd was harping on the, sorry, the commentaries were harping in the crowd a little bit, like, because not always being the most energetic for the entire, the duration of like the 13 hour card. What was the, what was your vibe? I know you're probably running around a little bit, but like, did you sense the crowd was, what, peaking or were they a little out of it at times? What do you think? I think they, at certain points, they just booed right away. Like, I think 30 seconds into the, you know, the Emmett Toporia fight they were booing. Oh.

And it was just weird. Like it was just very weird. But when things are happening, they were up. Like they, it was, it was pretty electric in there. It was announced that there was like 14,000 people there, aka I'm here to tell you there was not 14,000 people there. There's no effing way that there were 14,000 people there. Maybe 10, maybe.

And I don't even know if they had 10 in there. But people were into it. They were there from the first fight. Very loyal fans. A lot of Floridians were in attendance to see Cedricas Dumas and Phil Rowe and fighters like that. But boy, were they into the co-main event. They were very much into the main event. Josh Emmett got over like Rover, man.

That dude just took so much punishment. And he was a start. When he got up in the fourth round after getting 10-7 on one of the judges' scorecards, I mean, that place was ready to name him the mayor of Duval. ready to name him the mayor, the president of Duval County. They loved them some Josh Emmett. So, yeah, there were no gray area crowd. If they hated something, they unanimously hated it. And if they loved it, everybody loved it. It was, it was pretty, it was just a pretty interesting card. And maybe it's just the early day of May. Maybe it's just the vibes. Maybe people had a few

too many libations early in the, in the hot Jacksonville sun. I don't know, man. But, uh, yeah, they were interesting. But that's good. That's how it should be. You're, you're, just telling me they reacted well to the good stuff and they didn't care one crap about the bad stuff. And again, it's nice when you have crowds who are like kind of, you know, able to maintain a high energy all the way throughout. We've certainly seen like, I don't know, London. If you go to like, you know, the U.C. London cards, I'm sure they were low points, but, you know, our memory of those events is like, man, that London crowd just from beginning to end was just, you know, through the roof. And maybe it wasn't that way in Jacksonville. But that's okay.

That's okay. Fans should not be obligated to cheer for a, methodical encounter between Neil Magny and Phil Roe. Oh, that was bad, man. They paid their ticket. They paid their ticket. I don't like booing fights like that, and I assume there was some booing. I think I didn't have my, always have my audio one when I was watching the show. I assumed there was probably some booing.

And, you know, I don't love that, but certainly having a negative reaction to a fight that's, you know, light in sheer entertainment value is fair, is fair. So I'm not going to criticize the good people of Jacksonville for that because, yeah, 13 fights is a lot of And like you said, some of them were fights. They were fine. You know, they're perfect. Listen, we're not going to be talking about Neil Magny, Phil wrote at the end of the year. We're not going to be talking about Randy Brown and Wellington Termin at the end of the year. And it's nothing to say, like, all these guys are bad fighters.

The fights were just unmemorable. They were unmemorable. Good for the guys who won. Sorry for the guys who lost, but it's a 13 fight card. You know, it's very rare that every fight's going to be something to write home about. Yeah, it started with Dumas and Brunage very, that was tough. tough, tough fight to watch. Jenkins and Emers is fun.

Champion Mariscall and Trevor Peake was just the most chaotic thing I've ever seen in my life. That fight was, that was Griffin Bonner-esque where you just wanted to, like, tell your friends that, listen, I know you don't watch fights, but like watch this fight. It's so ridiculous. Trevor Peek. Trevor Peek, there's no angle from which he won't throw a punch. It's tremendous. He was like, he was like on one foot. He was like, he would get punched.

He's like getting punched, like, wobbling around. He's like, nope, I feel like I can still land a haymaker. It wouldn't even come close. He was just throw a haymaker and miss by like three feet. But one day one of those going to land. My God. Yeah. Josh Van gets his first UFC win.

That was a pretty fun fight. And then it just kind of went downhill a little bit. Tabitha Ritchie, Jillian Robertson. We ain't going to be watching that again. Batush Rebecca. That was just kind of vicious what he was doing with the leg kicks. Everybody got transferred on this card too, A.K., like half the card got transferred.

I'm sorry. Yeah. For people who don't know, we normally, you know, we try to up, you know, provide winners interviews on mafighting.com and then may fighting youtube and every other fight it was Mike sending us a message like nope first I'm going to the hospital it's go they're going to the hospital go to the hospital so you didn't really have to do a lot of you get a lot of chance to a lot of backstage interviewing yes rebechki transferred randy brown transferred and I'm like oh my god this is wild but let's let's let's we'll get into the FC card in a minute but okay i feel like

I feel like we started this show for a reason. I feel like this became a show for a reason. And it dawned on me Saturday morning that maybe we need to expand our matchmaking horizons. Maybe we need to think outside of the box, maybe go off of the interwebs and into the front offices because the professional fighters league, they need matchmakers badly.

And I think they need to call us, because they are the laughing stock of the sport right now because of what happened. Everybody, I'm sure, is well aware of everything that went down Friday night. In Atlanta, Georgia, we had Natanzholt against Hausch Manfio. They had a regular season fight. They're like best buds, their godfathers to each other's kids. We knew exactly what this fight was going to be weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks ago

when it was announced, and the fight was actually worse than we thought it was going to be. It was a play sparring match. It was so terrible. It was... Any card on this UFC fight card was better than this. And that includes Cody Brundage versus S.D. Dumas. Like, all of it was better than this. It was so bad.

And then we find out Saturday morning that both fighters are suspended. I believe Natanz Cholte was supposed to be in the playoffs. He is ousted from the playoffs. And now Shane Burgos is in the playoffs. Just out of nowhere. We're just suspending fighters, taking away wins. We're taking all of your points away. That's like us taking Otno points away from everybody and then giving them to somebody else.

And Shane Burgos is in the playoffs, AK, what the hell is going on here? Every time we have this, and the number two discussion is so stupid. Like we've talked about it a million times. Like, we're number two. No, no, no, we're number two. I don't think PFL is number two today, man. This is a bad thing, man. This is a bad look really, really bad.

And I don't know what Don, what graphic, Don Davis's graphics department can build and put together that is going to dig them out of this hole. I like the PFL. I'll be, I've supported the league from the beginning. I've liked the idea of a format. Just someone doing something different. Just an organization doing something different. in the in the M.A space, but also familiar because their whole thing is they're modeled after, oh, you know,

we want to be like a major league sport, regular season playoffs, and I'm like, that's cool. Like maybe you can attract a different kind of fan. So I like the league, but this was, when we saw this news, we were just unanimously like, this is wrong. Like, this is wrong. Even

when the fight was happening, you know, I was, I don't think I was watching the fight, but I was keeping up on social media. I just saw a lot of reactions to it. Even people who were kind of mocking the fight, were like very aware that like you guys know like everyone seemed to be aware like yeah we know why this fight is bad like we're criticizing shulte and manfio sure but we're more so criticizing the pfl so pfl really took it on the chin like right away this is even before again the decision they made later um and then when the news came out and they released the statement that like oh this fight wasn't up to

standards and this is what's in the contracts of the fighters are expected to do it didn't help things it didn't help things like it just it made this them seem so even more they seemed cold and and corporate when they booked this fight, and then just releasing a statement about it after to explain their decision of suspending both fighters. It just made it worse. It just made it so much worse. Like, these are human beings.

These are human beings. These are not robots. You can't so cleanly define. How do you cleanly define, like, well, they didn't, you know, they didn't use their tools enough. They didn't use their tools. I used the example of Phil Roe and Neil Magny last on Saturday. You see Jacksonville.

Obviously, I think there was a little more intent for both guys to win the fight there. But it's not like, watch that Magniro fight. It's not like either guy was swinging for the fences, aggressively going for submissions. They're both fighting their fight, and that's fine.

But that fight was pretty low intensity too. So can the UFC go like, well, we didn't feel like Neil Magny nor Phil Roe really did enough to try and win this fight. So we're withholding Neil Magne's win purse. Like, can they do that? I don't know what the language is in the UFC contract. So it's such a slippery slope.

And I just, I just hated, like you said, Schulte and Manfield best friends. Shulte is the godfather to Manfield's child. Schulte, with the million dollars he won from the first season, helped to pay Manfield's bills. He put food on this man's table. He put a roof over this man's head. What did you think was going to happen when you had them fighting in a non-turnerment

by? If this was the tournament, I guarantee, you know, with either one fight away or in the final, literally fighting for a million dollars, I guarantee you get a much better fight. And you have a story to sell there too. But randomly matching them up in the regular season just made no sense from a promotional standpoint, from a fairness standpoint. It's so horrible.

Did you see our pal, Daniel Rubinstein, did you see what he mentioned regarding the commission? No. The only, because this all happened, like, literally when I got to Jacksonville. I left my house too early, and I got to Jacksonville too early. And I was like, well, am I going to do for the next hour and a half? Mike, you can never get to Jacksonville too early. That's true. But, I mean, when you're in that area where the arena is and there's, like,

six people there. There's not really not much you can do. It's not like you can go to a, there's nothing. You just have to sit out in the heat and I eventually just sat in my air-conditioned car for 45 minutes. But I didn't see anything about the commission. I agree with Rubenstein when it comes to the seeding. Like how do you just slot Burgos into that seed? Like where, they just receded the whole bracket. Like it's just, the whole thing is a joke. Like all this is a joke. But what did Daniel, what did the great Daniel Rubinstein say? It looks like he just dug into a little bit, and he mentioned that the commission was involved in the decision, but at the end, it was the league who made the decision to actually do the suspensions. He mentioned the commission, then later in a

later tweet said, the only clarity I got was that it wasn't Georgia commission. It was PFL who suspended them. And then he wondered if PFL will also withhold Schulte's win bonus, as they are well within their right to do so based on my reading of the promo contract and Georgia about agreement. So there's a bit of legalese here. And again, these fighters and their managers should be up in arms. They should be doing everything in their power to fight this because it is ridiculous. Listen, I don't want to say it's all conspiracy to get Shane Burgos like into the playoffs because he's someone they invested a lot of money and promotional time into. So I'm a little bit sketchier on suggesting that. It did work out for them in that sense. Obviously,

that's a guy that they want there and I'm certainly happy to have there. But yeah, just just removing Shulte. So, spending both guys, but Shulte, the one who was, you know, was going to advance the postseason, is, it's just such a sketchy horrible thing. It goes against their whole mission statement of you win, you're in. The only grounds they would really have, I would think, to do something as if they could prove that Shulte and Manfio, you know, conspired beforehand to have Shulte win. But there's nothing, how the hell would they even prove that?

I have no idea how they would prove that. You can prove, you can certainly argue that there was a gentleman's agreement. not to beat the hell out of each other. That was obvious on, you can watch the fight. That was obvious of the fight. Did they decide for a hand who would win? I don't know. I don't think the PFL can prove.

I don't think anybody can prove that. So unless someone slips up and says something dumb, I don't know what grounds the league really has to do what they're doing. But we haven't heard the last of this. At least people are still talking about PFL, Mike, after PFL5, right? We said PFL5, people six, how are they going to follow up? They're still talking about it. Here's what I've been seeing a lot of.

well if Dana did this if the UFC did this you all be crying about it like you all be going crazy about it and guess what PFL that's the problem because nobody cares like I care I care and I just think people just

the way people have viewed the PFL the last couple of years this isn't a surprising thing like something like this is not a shock it's just people don't take them seriously and I don't say that to be mean I'm just saying like I host a freaking call on

radio show where people call in and give opinions and they DM us like questions all the time. And you know how many questions I get about people not taking the PFL seriously? A ton. A ton. So like Ariel always says, you know, he always quotes Dennis Green. We are who you thought they were. I'm not saying that. But this is, this is classic like, hmm, the fans are mad about this fight.

What can we do to make them happy? And I think they just overplayed their hand here. I just think they overplayed it, overthought it. Try to do something to like wash the taste out and like make the fans be like, oh, you know what? What a profound move by an organization like to give the fans what they want. And that's not how this came over. I think it went over like a fart in church and people aren't happy about it.

And this is going to be bad, man. Like this, this is going to be bad. And how they bounce back from this, I have no idea. If I'm Bellator right now, if I'm Viacom, do I want to get into business here? Am I willing to sell the goods after this story? I don't know, man. I don't know. Craziness.

It's a brutal misstep. It's a brutal misstep. So bad. I wish people were talking, you know, more about the Saturday we see spin kick, which was pretty insane. What was the... OAM, man? OAM?

Listen, looking like the best welterweight in the world. I don't know. What did I do with our rankings? I think we have him at 15. I don't know. Listen, he's fighting slightly below. Lightweight. slightly below U.S.

A lightweight, excuse me, slightly but slow UFC competition, I think, with respect to Anthony Nirmarrow and other guys that OAM has beaten, you know. But, yeah, I wish we were talking about that stuff instead. And then the PFL just drops this bomb and says, nope, here's something for you guys, you Monday morning talk show radio host to chew on. So thank you, PFL, I guess. Just wait until, I'm telling you, wait until Ariel gets his hands on. He's going to have a field day with this on the MMA hour, so that should be fun.

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Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Well, let's go to more serious matters. Please. The UFC in Jacksonville, the main event, big one at 145 pounds. Ilya getting the main event rub taking on Josh Emmett, former interim title challenger.

And this fight was the Iliate Tupori show. This dude came out and looked tremendous. He was very patient. He's very cautious. And the way I viewed this fight was, Tepore gets hit. He's eventually going to get frustrated. And he's going to go into the pocket.

And he's going to just throw absolute hammers at Josh Emmett. And this is where, Josh Emmett has a chance to pull off the upset. And maybe Ilya heard all the people breaking down this fight because he did the exact opposite of that. But still, watching this fight Cadeside, AK, Josh Emmett is just throwing everything from the ankles and just chucking as hard as he can. And he's barely touching Ilya. And Ilya just like with a quick little snap. The quickness of this man watching him throw punches.

like 10 feet away, I was blown away by Iliate Tuporia and his athleticism. His defense was incredible. And just his performance, I mean, 50-42 on one of the scorecards, we got a rare 10-7 on the card. And I got to say, okay, I don't hate it. I don't hate a 10-7 in round four. I do not hate it. But this is the Iliot-Tuporia show.

Kudos to Josh Emmett for being tougher than a $2 stake. But in the end, it's Iliad-Tuporia. He wants the title shot. He's willing to wait for it. he said he would fight Max Holloway under one condition. We'll do it in Spain. But he wants the title and he's willing to wait as long as it takes. So is that where you're going here?

If Volk beats Yaya-Rodriguez, we just do Volk versus Toporia. What are we thinking? Mike, you're normally the storyteller here, but let me take you on a journey. Oh, let me take you on a journey back to the tender time of 2008. when a young a young A.K. Lee, still in his somewhat formative years of becoming an M.A. I guess I was probably at least two or three years deep at this point of like really, really, you know, getting into M.MA. I'm watching Kenny Florian dominate Joe Stevenson. Just runs through Joe Stevenson and then says, I'm ready for BJ.

I'm going to kill, like I'm going to kill the master. It's my time. And I'm at home. I'm a filthy, I'm still kind of a filthy casual at this point. And I'm clapping my hands. And I'm like, I think Kenny's going to do it. You got to give Kenny that shot. Coincidentally, BJ was just coming off that decision lost to George St. Pierre.

He had just, you know, he was a champion who was coming off a loss to, in an attempt to go up and wait and fight and become a two division champion. Similar to what Alexander Volcanovsky has recently done. So once again, I want to believe, Mike, that there is someone around like me kind of, you know, on the cusp of their hardcore fandom, who watched casually tuned in to ABC, watched, you know, normally only watched the paper views, but says,

hey, you know, so they know of Volcanovsky, and then say, I heard about this Toporia guy. Oh, he's on ABC. I'll flick that right on. Watched him dominate Josh Emma and said, wow,

I think this guy, if he fights like he did tonight, I think he could beat Alexander Volcanowski. I need to see that fight. So that, that I think is the moment we just had was Toporia. And so anything, like,

anything besides Toporio, Poria fighting Volkanowski, well, really, the Volkanovsky Rodriguez winner from UFC 290, I think would be ridiculous. We said before the show, the cards might just not fall right for Ilya, and it's like, he said he's willing to wait. He also said he was willing to fight Max Holloway in Spain, which is a whole other thing. And I just know, he's willing to wait for a title shot. But the thing is, this could be three months.

This could be six months. We just don't know what's going to happen. If year wins. if Volkanowski wins and is able to get himself another shot at Islam, which is why so soon, I don't know. But I'm waving my magic wands. And I'm also, listen, I feel confident predicting this. The Volcanowski will stick around for another telephense.

Because he's always saying, listen, oh, someone needs to step up. He's saying, like, I moved up to, you know, one of the reasons I went out to lightweight, no one was making a statement at 145. Toporia just did. He should get the winner this five. I think Volkanowski beats you a year, but either way, I don't care. sorry I don't want to I don't even want an immediate rematch for Volk even though he might deserve one Toporia deserves a title shot next I want to see him for the end of the year so the winner of the UFC

290 featherweight title fight for uh for alia I mean this isn't even a friends for everything it's the only thing like I it's I think Volk's gonna win I think yeah is going to give him hell and I don't think we're going to be seeing Volk like three months later so I could see this because we don't know what the hell's going to happen with Connor and all these titles and all these champions not being able to defend and finding spots for them all, I would say December, January, we do Volkanowski versus Tuporia. Now, the only way this doesn't happen is if Volk just runs over Yair

and just gets them out of there in like three minutes, which is not going to happen. But if it does, and Volk cuts a promo, he will get the Mokachev fight, and then we could do Tuporia versus, I don't know, Maybe who does? Maybe this is, this could be the bone they throw to Al Jermaine Sterling. Like if he beat Sean O'Malley and, well, you want to get up there and fight for the featherweight title.

We can't give you the featherweight title shop, but we'll give you an interim title fight against Ilya Taboria. Yeah, welcome to the division, Aljo. Holy smokes. So, yeah. But yeah, he should be fighting Volcanowski. I want to see that fight badly. And even if Teporia loses, so what? This dude is going to be a mega star.

The UFC is going to go to Spain, and they're going to have him headline, and he is going to look like a hero. I mean, the way this guy carries himself, he is going to be a star, A.K. He is going to be a star. The people that were in the building watching him, I have no idea of who they are. But apparently a lot of people know who they are. Soccer players, football players, who are very well-known global.

Sergio Ramos. I don't even know who that is, but everybody else seems to. Is that the most famous person who has ever been to a UFC event? Not to an event. We were discussing in our Slack a fight night event, almost for sure. But Damon did mention Leo DiCaprio had been to an event. So I would put Leo number one. Sergio was certainly up there.

But we had a little debate about it. And I have to give the edge to Leo. Leo was in Titanic, you know, 1997, which is one of the biggest movies worldwide of all time. that was six years before Sergio Ramos even made his pro, like his, you know, a senior club football debut. Now, Sergio's insanely famous. Again, he won the World Cup with Spain. He's played for Real Madrid for like 12 years, a huge run for Real Madrid, which is obviously one of the top three most famous football clubs in the world, maybe number one. So hugely famous, hugely famous, especially outside of North America.

But I think Leo would be, I would give Leo the slight edge. It's hard for me to gauge, obviously. I can't speak for, you know, so many other countries. but Leo has just been around longer and he's been in, you know, these movies play everywhere. So does football, but I'll give Leo the slight edge. But yeah, Sergio has to be up there.

I know a lot of, people are talking about this in social media too, and there's a lot of like North American fans. Like, what? I don't even know who this guy is. And I'm like, well, listen, that's an America problem. That's not a Sergio Ramos problem. So sorry.

That's like me watching these like influencer boxer events where everyone's like going crazy for him. They all have like 39 million followers. I'm like, no clue to this person. Yeah. I'm like, I don't know who. wings of redemption is and you just hold it millions of people who are like oh you don't know who rings of redemption is that's a you problem not and i'm like you're probably right you're probably right

what kind of what kind of are correct yeah well let's go to the co-main event because aka i'm telling you are you you give yourself a little bit grief about your predictions but more often than not in twenty twenty three okay you see a prediction you put it on paper and you nail it and boy did you nail this one. Macy Barber just trucks Amanda Hebas and that fight was so fun. It was so fun. And then the fight got to the ground

and even before that, Barber laid a nasty elbow. Mandi Hebas is gushing blood. Fight goes to the ground. Hebus is trying to get a leg lock doing Jen Michoud's favorite move, not releasing the leg lock while getting punched in the face over and over and over again. Referee doesn't stop it. Heba's starting

to have a little success in round two, gets another takedown, and then Barbara gets on top of her and beats her down, and that's it, fights over. What a performance from Macy Barber and the evolution of her game is there. I feel like the personality's kind of veering back to Boston Macy Barber from 2019.

It's a little standoffish with the media at the press conference, but boy, did she deliver one hell of performance, and this fight was awesome. Would you make a Macy Barber's performance? I believe you called second round knockout. I did. Exactly you got here. One of my more shocking on-point picks of the year, that's for sure.

I think initially, because I did the preview show before I finished doing my predictions, I think I just went with Macy. I mean, I did think she had a chance. I didn't think it was like I wasn't just being completely contrarian, but just because we wanted, you know, to have a variety of opinions. I think I think Shaheen had said, had said Hibis. And I'm like, well, okay, I'll go, I'll go Macy. I'll just explain the Macy's.

Was it Shaheen? Who was I with? Was it with Jose and Casey? Anyway, whoever I was on the preview show with, sorry. Yeah, so was Jose. Listen, I love all these guys. We just do so many shows together. They all blur together, trust me.

This stuff happens all the time, these mistakes. But yeah, anyway, they were all picking Yivas. I picked Barbara. Yeah, because, and for the main reason that Macy has really, even though her results, it's so backwards that she was getting finishes earlier in her career, but, and then, you know, down on a recent round of decisions, I feel like she's like her striking has gotten better and her potential for finishing is actually higher now. If you watch the Andrea Lee fight, she's really looking to finish that fight the whole time. Andrew Lee's just super tough and had enough grappling to

kind of at least slow Macy down from landing those haymakers. But I mean, he was a little bit smaller, a little bit smaller, Macy Barber. I think the size mattered. And especially when she was trying to take her down and hold under her leg, you just have this larger woman just sitting on you and punching you in the face. He was maybe stay at straw weight. But yeah, a big thing's ahead for Macy Barber. I think logically, I just keep moving up from the top 10. I still feel like she's maybe one or two fights away from a title fight. I know she wants to fight Alexa Grasso again, but let's, you know, pump the brakes on that, even if Grasso beats Chocenko and needs a challenger. Listen, there's Aaron Blanchfield's out there. She's fighting Talas Santos. Talo

Santos beats Aaron Blanchfield. I think Santos gets into the title shot. So Barber is not next in line. But listen, there's a great veteran opponent and Jennifer Maya just waiting for her, Mike. top 10 good fighter very tough test let's see if macy barbair can pull that one now very that'd be again another tough test

this is how you build up a young fighter and I think I think she's on her way and I think they're doing things right that's good that's good I thought we're going to have friends for every moment we do not have a friends for a moment but I'm on the veteran train

as well Lauren Murphy yeah that's that's a great fight look macy barber impressed the hell out of me that was the performance that she asked absolutely needed.

But I think the overall reaction outside of just, there was a lot of positive to come out of this, but there was negative to come out of it too, not towards Barber. It was more like, look, Manejibos is just too small for this division, despite this is how it was supposed to play out because Macy's just bigger and stronger and all that, which I didn't necessarily agree with, but good for Macy Barber, man. That girl's been through a lot. The fans have been given her crap for a long time and seems like her mind is right. game is getting better and when she hits man she hits real hard and Amanda he best found that out for

herself great performance from macy we'll see what happens with her next featured about we're not going to talk about because there's a rule on to the next one if you poke an eye or there's dequeues or there's draws or whatever there's no matchmaking so we're not even going to talk about this fight we're not even to talk about this fight eye blood main card what do we do i blood i blood you know what talking about eyeblood? We don't talk about eye blood. No? All right.

I mean, we can talk about eye blood. We're just not going to talk about their next fights. Just do it again, Sydney. For Austin Lane. Two contender series tryouts. The first one, he gets sparked by Greg Hardy, just sucked. And then what took him four years? Three in some years, two.

No, four years. Four years. Four years to get another shot. And then gets his chance at the show. He's what? He's 35 years old. It's not like he has a ton of fights lived in him. And then he's a Jacksonville guy.

I think he played for Jacksonville, right? Yeah, he briefly played for Jacksonville. Jacksonville guy, I don't know if he fights out of there. Either way. He does. He does. To see Austin Lane. The fight lasts 30 seconds.

I poke. Again, I think entirely Austin Lane's fault. So I say, you know, too bad for him. I think it was entirely his fault. And it was an accident, but it was an avoidable accident. And then neither man walks home, walks out with their winners check and everyone's unhappy. I don't know.

Hopefully they just run that one back, I guess. Do it in Sydney. Yeah, do it in Sydney. But again, that sucks for Ross Lane because there's supposed to be a, man, he could have gotten that win in Duval County. And you only get one shot at it, right? We only get one shot to debut at home and for it to end that way. That's combat sports, man. Combat sports, there's not a lot of fairy tales, that's for sure.

Mom's spaghetti. Mom spaghetti. Stop poking people in the eye. We don't have to talk about this. Oh, man. David Onama didn't poke anybody in the eye. He just punched dudes in the face. That was a fun fight.

a knockout from David Onama, puts away the very game Gabriel Santos, and then does the Israel Adasania arrow shooting celebration. Didn't really get over as well as he thought it might, I would guess. But what a knockout. David Onama just continues to be an exciting guy at 145 pounds. And you know what? I'm ready to throw him in with a guy who just knocked out a very tough guy. It's a guy that's very hard to finish these days.

And he did so in April. Fernando Padilla knocked out Julian Arosa on a fight night card April 29th. Let's do David O'Nama versus Fernando Padilla. We could do it on that September 16th card at T-Mobile, the Mexican Independence Day card, as it's being sort of foundationally laid out. That's a fun-ass fight for that card. So I'm going with that, A.K., what do you think is next for David O'Nama? Yeah, there's so many fun fights ahead for David O'Nama.

I would say Nate Landau, but listen, we already saw that, and it was friggin' incredible. I would love to see it again. Yeah, Padilla is a great choice. I have Padilla pretty high. What did Padilla do? He beat Erosso, you said? Knocked out Erosa, yeah. He knocked out Erosa, yeah.

So that kind of launched him to like my top 25 already. So it kind of unbalanced the rankings a bit because I have Onama quite a bit lower just because some people, Enama's lost to. But man, Onama like feels like a top 25 talent already. You just watch him, like the eye test. If you didn't like, if you ignore whatever his record and again, the fight with the land where was awesome. Like, I don't think he lost any stock in that fight.

There was a lot of names I could have gone with. I think, where did I go here? Oh, yeah. I got, Mike, I'm selfish. I just want to see this fight now. I want to see this fight now. I feel like you obviously could push it back to another time. Both guys are pretty fresh in the featherweight division.

I'd love to see him fight Jack Shore. So I'm going to go Jack Shore. Let's make that happen. I had other options where I'm kind of like, well, let's keep building up this person in this direction. Let's keep building on Namma in this direction. Screw it. Screw it.

I'm selfish. I want to see it now. Again, a loss is not going to derail either guy's career. They're both still, like I said, pretty young, pretty young up-and-comers, I feel. So I want it now. This is a child's pick. This is a, I see something and I'm just reaching out and grabbing it. I would love to see Onama and Jack Shore a throwdown.

It's very possible. Very possible. So let's head to the main card opener, A.K. We have a debate, Mike. We have a debate. We have a debate. The middle-weighty, middleweight championship debate. Now, everybody is well aware of how this came to be

And where this thing just kind of started And it's grown into this thing Where people talk about it all the time I met somebody outside of the arena While I was waiting to get in there And somebody mentioned to me They were like, oh, are you my heck? I said, yeah.

And they're like, is Brennan Allen still gonna be the middleweighty, middleweight champion if he wins? Like, first question he asked me. I was like, I don't know. We're gonna have to talk about this. you have been against Brendan Allen being the middleweighty middleweight champion pretty much from Jump Street But we haven't really defined what this is

Like no we started it as this is just going to be like the number 16 Ranked middleweight in the world Like that's how it was going to be positioned We wanted that spot to feel important And usually that spot is held by a middleweighty middleweight Christoph Jotko is the goat of middleweighty middleweights. When it comes to, he is the George St. Pierre of middleweighty middleweights. When it comes to the goats, he is at the top of the mountain.

Brennan beat him. Brandon Allen beat him and became the middleweighty, middleweight champion. Then Brandon Allen fights Andre Munez. And he goes out, gets a main event spot as champion, mind you, and has the best performance of his career. then he bounces back, gets a crowd card, taking on Bruno Silva, not his original choice, not his first opponent,

was supposed to headline, I believe, against Jack Hermanson. That fight was off, so now he goes to Jacksonville, fights Bruno Silva, goes out there, slugs it out, gets the submission. So now, as the middle-weighty, middle-weight champion, Brennan is proven that that title obviously means something to him, That title is important to him because after winning the title,

he's had the two best performances of his career, AK. So while I agree with you in the basis of what this championship actually signified to begin with, I kind of feel bad taking it away from Brennan Allen when he's become a top seven middleweight in the world since winning the title. So in the spirit of the middleweighty middleweight title, Perhaps Brennan Allen should not be the champion. But with the way that man's performing, I feel like if we take the belt off of him, could lead to some disaster. It's almost like you picking Brandon Allen to win his next fight.

It can't be good for him. It can't be. And I won't. For his sake, I won't. Mike, we cannot tie him to this illustrious title. It has to be like one of those, like Disney movies. Like, the power was within him all along, you know? The title is great.

Like the title is gay. If it bolstered his confidence, fantastic. But it only enhanced the gifts that were already there. Yeah. So you and I, so I think, I think one key, I think one key in our disagreement over, you know, him being whether the middleweighty middleweight title and how the middleweight title works is. In my mind, it is not lineal. So that is a key for me.

That is, that is a key. It is not a title that can really be traditionally won and defended and lost. It is, for me, obviously, Jocko, when they fought, yes, Jocko was the middleweighty, middleweight champion. No dispute there. But as soon as Brennan did something exciting and finished him, that title became vacant. That title became vacant. Jocko lost it, but Brennan did not win. He was too exciting.

If Brennan Allen had won a dreary 29, 28 decision over Christoph Jocko, absolutely, you put that middleweighty, middleweight title around his belt. but Brendan Allen has an identity his fights are exciting and memorable he's becoming this guy who he challenges people at their strengths like again you know he submitted Andre Muniz great jiu jitsu guy Bruno Silva it's gonna people look at the we'll look at this you know by the way back oh he just submitted him

it's like no he rocked him on the feet first and finished with a choke because he's a freaking killer and he's just too exciting he's just saying I need it I need my blobby not in terms of shape, but in terms of the way their fights. I need my blobby, like, difficult to parse middleweights to hold onto this style. That's why we talk about the Mark Andre Bechios, the Armin Petrosians, the, I'm looking at my list here. Some of these people are having a little too much style.

Frankly, Brad Tavares, with respect to the guy, has fought 22 times. I can remember maybe four of his fights. And again, this is not an insults. Part of being a middleweighty middleweight is longevity. Eric Anders, my God, the wonderful Eric Anders. He might log 30 U.S.C. fights under his belt someday. And if you remember five of them, you're either a better man than I or you're Eric Anders himself. So I was never on the Brent Allen middleweight title train.

I think it's up for grabs. And I think we have some very, very lively candidates. But Brent Allen, you know what? May have to settle for a real title shot someday. And I know it's not quite the same, but he'll live, I'm sure. So who is the champion right now? It's vacant. From my mind, it's vacant.

Okay. Yeah. It's vacant. Okay. Maybe we'll decide by the end of the year. Brennan Allen is no longer the middleweighty middle of the champion. He's too real. He's too legitimate.

He's too legitimate. He's a real, like I said, top 10 middle weight. Could be honestly, depending how long is he stays at 185, could be like one fight away from the, uh, the, oh, we're supposed to matchmaking for him, right? Is that where still? Oh, we're going to get there. Oh, I forgot. I'll just, look, Brennan Allen's great. Please.

I love the Hamzaat Shamiyaf idea. Him versus Hamsah would actually be really interesting, but he kind of, I kind of asked him because he was like, my manager told me not to call it Jared Kahnir, but I did it anyways because apparently he has a fight. And of course, when I hear a fighter say that and not get into it anymore, I have to ask him about it. And of course I asked Brennan.

So are you guys hearing perhaps Jared Kinnonier versus Hamsat Shemayef? Is that what you guys are hearing? And he said, I'll plead in the fifth. And I said, well, what about you and Hamzad? And he got into it and was like, I fear no man. And dug that. My pick is, I'll just play it safe. The Whitaker DDP loser.

But I'll probably say Brennan Allen versus DDP is the fight to make. But who knows? Anything can happen. I'd say maybe DDP goes bananas and catches Whitaker with something wild. Brennan Allen versus Robert Whitaker would be fun too. So Allen versus the loser of that fight. I'm super high on him right now. He's 27.

He's really good. And he's going to be one of those guys that probably won't get the credit he deserves, but I think he's starting to get there. If Robert Whitaker beats Dreykis DuPocci, as many expect him to do, are you all in on the third?

Like, you just give him one last crack at Izzy? I might be on an island here, but yes. I want to see that. I don't think a lot. Yeah. I think it's a thing where, like, people just accept him as the second best. And it's kind of like, well, we either keep having him kill challengers or we just give him one last shot for God's sakes and get this over with, right? Because my thought was, would you consider it all, and I did not go this way, but I had to bring it up.

Would you consider it all Brendan versus Robert Whitaker if Whitaker wins? No. No, too high. Or you don't want to kill off Brendan. You don't want to Max Holloway him. That's part of it. And, nah, we can't. It just doesn't make sense to it.

I would want to see it. I just don't want to see it right now. No, right now. I asked Brennan about this, and he thought it. He kind of, like, answered like I was a crazy person. I wonder if he's in play to fight Izzy now after this performance. And I'm not, like, look, if this is like a wide open field, there's no way that this is a thing. But timing is everything.

And let's just say, Abis Magamatoff wins next week. week. Let's say DDP and Robert Wooder could just beat six shades of caca out of each other. And let's say Iqram Malasgarov and Paul Costa like fight to a draw or something like that. And Izzy's got to fight somebody? Like who is he going to fight? Like who the, I saw Jamal Hill in Jacksonville. I don't know if he's fighting any time soon. I don't think he's fighting in September. I can tell you that right now. That dude's loving life right now. I would say heavyweight bout? Maybe Izzy versus hit heavyweight? He's just living the dream And I don't blame him for it You're a champ dude

Get out there and have a good time But There's like nobody There could be nobody else for Israel Adasani to fight And Brandon Allen's coming off of a finish Ranked dude He might be the highest ranked guy

Realistically available for him right now Like that's the world we're living in at 185 So I don't know A.K. I don't know Weird position But he's very great spot right now.

Yeah, I, listen, the Jared Canineer callout was probably the right one. That's what he mentioned him. He mentioned DDP. But last week I said I want to see Canineer. I said I want to see Canineer fight DDP after he loses to Robert Wyrtoe. So I've got to take Kennedy out of the equation for now, even though I could totally see that matchup happening, if assuming neither guy, like you said, ends up just being the mandatory challenger for, uh, for, um, is he.

And I don't think it'll be Kennear because that was just too recent. The fight was terrible. But Brendan Allen, for sure. So I settled on the loser from last week's fight. Vittori. I think, I think, again, just to give Alan the top 10 guy, I think a good, good style matchup and a good test. I want to see if, because I think that's a winnable fight for him, but Martin Vittory is just, we always say every fight is super tough, very tough guy to put away. Brent Allen, been in a hell of finishing streak. If he could finish Vittori, I mean,

we're legitimately talking about Allen is the no doubt number one contender for the middleweight title, which sounds, for some reason for me, sounds crazy. I don't know why. I just, I guess it's never viewed him that way. All the middleweighty middleweighty middleweight talk. kind of clouded my view of Brennan Allen. It's an illustrious. It's a career changer. It changes careers. You're not,

the evidence is right in front of us. Brennan Allen is example number one. The crazy thing about Brennan Allen is he's 27. He looks and acts like he's 38. It's great. So people are like stunned when you tell people. I'm like, Brennan's only 27.

No, he's not. He's like 35. I'm like, no, he's 27. And they're like, oh my God. This dude's got to be a champion. once they find that out. So good for you, Brennan Allen. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on amazing gifts. So you don't have to. They've bagged this season's Italian leather handbags.

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Regrouped for a better quality Prey on link on C4A.com or in magazine Let's go to the wild card round AK We'll select one fighter We have not matched made for And we will match make for them right now Who is your wild card selection From UFC Jacksonville

I don't have anything fancy here Mike I had to go with Chip A Mariscall That was like the obvious You know this in the fight with Trevor Peak Was fantastic He was a guy you mentioned Before the show As like having oh people might look at his

record and be like, oh, this guy's, he's, he's not undefeated prospect. He's not on, like, you know, 14th fight win streak. Like, they just bring him in for peak. And it's like, no, like his level, the level of competition he's faced is legitimate. This is a very tough fight for peak. And you were 100% correct because he gave peak hail. And if it was anybody else, Chepet probably would have gotten a finish. So I'll go with Chepa.

And nothing fancy. Let's, you know, I said, let's just go. I was looking at the lightweight list. A lot of guys are booked. This division is just chugging along. A lot of great potential style matches for him are booked. So that's good. That's a good thing for lightweight.

So let's just put him in there with Robeschi. Matush Rubeski, who also won. Looked great against an overweight Loik Ratsabov. And he's streaking. I mentioned guys being on a streak. This is like, he's like 115 straight fights. He looks like a player at 155, but obviously still has more work to do. Same with Cheppe.

Let's just keep him in that lightweight meat grinder and throw him in there as soon as both guys are ready to fight. Yeah, keep him at 55, huh? Throw him in there with that, dude. Look at you, AK. Look at you, the all-violence team. Chepa's an interesting cat because he says he wants to go back to 45. He said he, now that he's in the UFC, and he's got the PI at his disposal. He might even drop to 135.

Oh, my. He told me, yeah. He said he might go to 135. He said he might fight. He said, I want to be a guy that could fight in three different divisions. How about that? That's scary. That is pretty scary.

He wants to pull off what Patricia Pitbull couldn't. Yes. Three titles. My low-key MVP for UFC Jacksonville is my wildcar pick. His name is Jack Jenkins. And this is what I'm doing, AK, Jack Jenkins versus Connor McGregor. Give him the bag for having the wherewithal, even with a UFC Mike flag on to call up the stupidity of this Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, horse shit. So whatever that dude wants, he gets.

But in all seriousness, I thought Jack Jenkins. had a tremendous call out and it makes 100% sense and I'm going with it. Jack Jenkins, Nate Landware, Sydney, Australia, September 10th, that fight freaking rules. Let's go ahead and do that. But Jack Jenkins, I salute you, my friend. I salute you. Thank you for saying what you were saying. Thank you for speaking for us all.

This, oh my God. Now I have to go down this rabbit hole. Hopefully for the last time because this is so dumb. So Dana White wasn't in Jacksonville at all, not really promoting anything. And then a video pops up on his Instagram and he's wearing a UFC shirt that says Zuckerberg versus Musk on it. And it's this the most ridiculous thing. I threw up on my mouth a little bit. So Dana was doing this thing where people were commenting and he's responding to the comments.

And some person goes, but this is a gimmick. fight and Dana and I'm kind of like paraphrasing this is like no a gimmick goes the definition of a gimmick fight is when an MMA fighter goes to boxing and loses to the boxer because we know that's going to happen does Dana might understand what a gimmick fight actually is that's a very specific definition that's very specific that's the only definition for a gimmick fight like this this whole thing oh my god AK what are we doing what are we doing do you do you have any interest in this at all? Yeah, the baseline interest of just seeing any two human beings fight,

any two human beings who also just happen to be insanely famous and, of course, absurdly rich. No, listen, if I had a choice, I would not care. I would not make this fight happen. But if it gets booked, of course, I'm sure I'll muster up some level of interest, especially since, Mike, I'm at the point where I feel like it's definitely going to happen, in some form, in some form. We talked about on BTL a bit.

I think we talked about the Q&A yesterday. Listen, we're going to be, we're going to be talking about it because it's being acknowledged by everyone. It's being acknowledged by Elon Musk. It's being acknowledged by Mark Zuckerberg. It's being acknowledged by Dana White. John Jones, George St. Pierre, a lot of fighters just kind of chiming in, obviously seeing, how can I get a piece of this clout and maybe a little piece of that, however much money this fight generates if it happens. I'll say it, I've said a million times, sorry, but after Mayweather McGregor, I say nothing's impossible, especially when there's money involved. And again, you can't get much more money involved in a weird gimmick fight than this.

So it's going to happen in some form Whether it's in the UFC Whether the two guys set up their own sort of little show Just to make it happen Whether it's getting Just sort of a glorified sparring match Whether they do it over the metaverse Like it's just their avatars right

Somehow this this fight's going to happen So yeah Mike I've talked myself into Not like how will I How will I approach this If I have to write about it If I have to watch it It has to have to discuss it with people Because I guarantee

Everyone we know who has a casual interest in sports. It's going to be like, oh, wow, is this really happening? Like, you work at M.A. Is this really happening? So we're going to have a lot of those conversations. And it's going to be for a while. So it's real, man.

It's real. And there's no matter who wins, we lose. It's, you know, this is an alien versus predator shit. But I've accepted. I've accepted that this is more likely to happen than a lot of other gimmick fights that are floating out there. Last thing about this. Please.

Dana continuously says that the biggest fight in the history of combat sports was Floyd May, whether versus connor mcgregor and it's not true we already know that it's not true but it's up there it's like top five top three top five he says that this fight would be the biggest fight in the history of combat sports they would do like i mean six five six million but because i think mayweather pack yeah it was like five and a half million pay per view by something crazy like that i think that was what the number was um and danen thinks this is bigger than that like do you think this is bigger than that especially if he charges a hundred bucks a pop

Do you think this is doing better than that? Listen, this is going to come down the metrics, right? Because they're going to, if you go by social media impressions, I bet it will somehow surpass it. And it helps that, you know, both men have control over the two. Oh, well, I just say two of the D2 biggest because meta, oh yeah, meta owns Instagram. So I do Instagram and Facebook combined. And then Elon Musk has Twitter. Every base of social media will be covered.

Whatever media connections they have, they're going to use, whether it be against CNN. Fox News, you name it. This is going to get like mainstream covers. And again, this is beyond fighting, right? This is people who don't know anything about fighting. Certainly there was that with Mayweather McGregor as well, but this is literally anyone who has even knows who these people are, which is probably, I don't want to give a percentage here,

but anyone with a computer or a TV or a tablet or a monitor knows who Marks Rukh is, knows who Elon Musk is even more so than Floyd Mayweather, even more so than Connor and Gregor. So yes, in a broad sense, I do think this has the potential to be the most talked about, most watched, uh, fight,

fight in quotations of all time. Um, but again, it depends by what metrics you do, because if you sell this on pay-per-view, I'd be, man, I,

I, I think you just have a lot of people illegally streaming this thing. No. And listen, maybe, maybe, uh, maybe back in 2017,

I know that's, It's only six years ago, but with every year technology and the ability to pirate gets more widespread, gets more common. So maybe Mayweather McGregor would take a bit of a hit from a bigger hit from pirates if it happened today. But it's not just that. It's that this fight does not seem like something people want to pay money for, even though it'll be like, oh, such and such will go to charity. I'm sure this amount of money go to charity. You should, just why you should buy it. But I don't think pay for you wise it passes Mayweather McGregor or Mayweather-Pack, you.

I'd be stunned. I'd be stunned. What a world. All right. Let's go to the peeps, AK. Do you want to give the disclaimer? Yeah, I don't even have it. Let it up.

We don't know. Listen, guys, just please, no do-do picks. Just keep track of whether someone's booked. If they're fighting a teammate, if they're fighting someone they already fought, at least add a two or three next their name that people have fought before. And yes, please just don't send us do-do. No doo-do picks. No Musk versus Zuckerberg picks is what we're saying.

All right, let's go. Dad Jackson. Randy Brown versus Drod, Magny versus the Leach if he's healthy, if not Gunner Nelson, Onama versus Bruce Leroy, AK. I feel like, dad,

I feel like Dad Jackson just hates Bruce Leroy. Bruce Leroy coming off a nice performance. Dude deserves a ranked fighter. And now we're going to give him a, the 27th ranked killer in David Onama. Come on, man. Did I hear it? I don't know.

To defend Dad Jackson, I will say they do kind of use Casares as a jack of all trades. like we throw him in there against prospects, we're there against veterans. But I agree. The timing doesn't seem right right now. Did he say Magni Li Jing Liang? He did. Did he put a two?

No. Do you do. There you go. You see 248, March 7th, 2020. Come on now. That's right. I forgot about that fight. Thank you, A.K.

Dad Jackson. I knew I knew they'd fought before. I'm not banning you, Dad Jackson. We've had you on probation for a while. I think you've gone through the probationary period. But come on. Get it back together. Chris, been a while, Toporia for real, rest of the card fell flat.

I don't really know if I agree with that. That's a bit harsh, yeah. He likes Toporia versus the Volk Holloway versus Volk slash Holloway. So maybe if Volk wins, it's Volk, if Yair wins Holloway. I have no interest in seeing Iliate's Poria fight Max Holloway. Not that I feel like it's... Someday, someday, why before his title shot? He can easily fight Volk, let's say he loses to Volk.

and then oh what's his what's his next fight after you've told me there max holloway it's perfect beautiful beautiful he wins gets right back on track or he loses it's fine he's 26 years old back to back to back losses to wolkenovsky and holloway are not going to ruin his career he can build back from that that holloway that holloway it doesn't have to be now it doesn't have to be now if deporia wins the title he could fight max hallway he can find max hallway in a title defense there you go he would love that would love to give max another title shot now max holly versus the korean zombie I know people are so mad about that booking. It's fine.

Like that's the... Like, this is what we need. This is the fights. We're in fun fight territory with Max. We don't need... He doesn't need to fight for titles. Okay? I know...

I get it. I understand that the trepidation in the fight, but I would rather just see Max and Crean... Two guys want to fight each other. These two dudes want to fight each other. And it's not out of bad blood. They just want to have a scrap before Korean zombie rides off into the sunset.

I don't think there's anything bad with that. He likes Emmett versus... Emmett. versus Casares. All right. Now we're on like the complete opposite side of the spectrum. I dig it. Macy Barber versus the,

how about this for News, A.K. on Friday. Rose Namibunis versus Manon Fioro going down at 125 in Paris. He likes, Chris likes Barbara versus the loser of that fight. The loser of that fight. Yes. Okay, good.

Yeah, I like, I thought about some, because I thought I was going to say just the winner because I think if Menon wins, she's suited, she's waiting for a tell. shot. I think she beats it gets at Rose Navajunis to her resume. She's going to be like, yeah, I don't want to fight anyone else. I need that title shot now. But yeah, loser? Yeah, I do wonder if Rose, I still think, I know Rose is committed to 125 or sounds like she is. I still think if she loses, she might consider going back down to 115. It's possible. Alan versus the Duplice

Whitaker loser, Magni versus Randy Brown. Onama versus Emmer's. This says Nam versus Nam, but I'm guessing it's van versus nam I would hope so hashtag van nam I love it hashtag van okay Tabitha Ritchie versus Angela Hill like that fight Oh yeah

Rebeske versus the Grant Dawson Demir Isma Goulov loser Whoa I like that idea a lot too We're pretty high in this Rebeske this young Robesky man aren't we Again a 15 fight win streak

It's pretty nice pretty nice John Mariscall versus Peak over and over again Because that was awesome Run it back Ritchie versus Marina Rodriguez, AK What's Marina

doing right now? She's lost two straight, right? Yes. Damn. Man, remember she was supposed to get a title shot? Or not what was supposed to, but we were all like, damn, just like...

She probably should have got a title shot after she beat McKenzie Dern and then she had to fight like three more times. That's tough. It's wild. I don't mind that one. Rebetschke versus McDessie, Brown versus Lee Jingleong,

Magni versus the Vicente Lucke RDA winner, Alan versus Vittori, Onama versus Nernernbeka, Barbara Murphy, Emmett of Loyaev. I kind of think Emmett of Lov is probably the direction we're going to go here. Ah, AK, I'm sorry. The last pick, Ilya versus Ryan Hall until AK admits the fight actually happened. What fight?

What? I don't get it. I don't get to... That's weird. That's so random. That's random. Jason. Brandon Allen versus Roman Delizze.

Onama versus Jordane. Toporia versus the loser. Volcanowski Rodriguez. Emmett versus Ortega. CV. So, Mike. Hope Jacksonville treated you well this weekend. Here in my ot no picks.

Brennan versus the Sean Strickland, Abis Magamatoff winner. David Onama versus Edson Barbosa. Good Lord. That is a fight. Drew Hilty. Got 11 early fight. card 3 p.m. on the West Coast as I'm sending this and the whole day is ahead of me.

Deporia Volk for the title. That's the only way he's getting a title shot of Volk loss and him and Yair have to run it back. Hopefully, the UFC doesn't UFC this and make him fight Max. Well said. Macy Barber versus Caitlin Chukagian. Can she avoid getting chuked? The masses must know. What do you think about that idea? I don't mind that one. I like it also because I think Barbara is at the point where she would win that fight. I like her odds in that fight. And again, again, I feel like she's one or two fights away. And I don't feel like she gets to skip over as impressed as I've been by a lot of her stuff.

I don't think we're at the point. We're like, oh, Macy Barber should skip this contender, skip this contender. No, she needs to fight some people. Lauren Murphy, Jennifer Maya, Caitlin Chacon. They're all ahead of her. And she should fight one of them. Onama versus Daniel Paneda. Damn, that's a crazy fight.

Love that. Take the under. Take the under. Yep. Allen versus DDP because he's getting dusted by Whitaker. Wild card, this is silly and Jenkins isn't ready for it. But Jenkins versus Edson Barbosa, I want to see these dudes kick each other in the legs until someone goes down. Oh, my.

I could see that happen. Listen, Edson's in that range where I feel like they'll match them up with anyone. It's preferably some of the top 20, but if you're on a win streak, they'll probably throw it. Edson's a possibility. So, yeah, I don't think that's crazy at all. to go from Don Chanis to Jamal Emmer's to Edson Barbosa and three-fight stretch. Tough. Wow.

That's crazy. Marcus, Teporia. No, this can't be right. I'm going back to this because we're going to try to work on this together. I'm going to see what this is. Okay. All right. Josh Emmett versus Arnold that one.

Macy Barber versus Jasson Chastavizius. Don't hate that fight, but I feel like Mason, the way Macy just stouted. Amanda Hebas, I don't think she's going back to fight Jess and Jess No, she shouldn't have to. Rebetsky versus Rafah Garcia, Brennan Allen versus Hamzaa Chimayev. Marcus has Ilya Tuporia versus Michael Chandler. Uh-huh.

Is this, like, do you understand this pick? I mean, this is just a, this is just a assuming, again, if he doesn't want to wait. You know, worst-case scenarios where Volcanovsky, again, either loses and gets an immediate rematch or fights Islam, And, like, Ilya has to wait for six months. I see the logic behind it. I see the logic behind it.

It's a super dangerous fight for Ilya. That's one reason not to take it. There's also the thought, though, that if he lost it, let's say he lost a fight it lightweight to Michael Chandler. Would that really kill his featherweight prospects? I think not to the matchmakers, but I get it. You want to keep him undefeated. You want to keep him. Because, you know, again, we're talking about a more, like, a casual fan doesn't distinguish between, like, oh, well, he lost it,

lightweight, it doesn't matter. No, they'll just see, oh, he's 14 and one now. and he lost that guy that was supposed to fight Connor. So that's probably not a great look. But I understand, I don't think it's insane. I like the logic behind it because if our, if the logic does not prevail, Mike, Ilya will have to fight again. And I'm not sure who would have 1.45 makes sense for him.

So maybe chasing a, chasing this sort of a high profile fight with Chandler could work out. I don't know. I mean, it's everything, the Eliate's uporia. It's nothing from Michael Chandler. Like nothing. That fight just nothing for him right now. If he wins, again, take a guy zero away. What does he gain from beating Iliate to Poria?

Takes a zero. Takes a zero away from him. He gains nothing from that fight. Shalers a gamer. Actually, no, he's been pretty picky about his UFC fights. He should be. He should be. Smart.

He's a businessman. Yes. Tino Alvarez. Dumas versus Soriano rebook. Jenkins versus Lucas Alexander. Sydney, Cheppe Mariscall versus the winner of Chris Duncan, Yonal Ashmoff, which either of them would be another war similar to the peak fight. Joshua Van versus Stephen Erf.

Bersaig, UFC, Sydney, Tabitha Ritchie versus Michelle Waterson. I like that fight. Brennan-Ele-Vosz Nasredeen Imovov, UFC, Paris, David Onama,

Bill Algio. Toby. Tuporia versus Ortega in Spain, the UFC has to go to Spain. They have to go to Spain with I would love that. I would love it. Spain is beautiful.

Barbara Lauren Murphy, Onama Ricardo Ramos, Alan versus Hermanson, Magni Brown, Rebetsky Selecki, Van versus Malcolm Gordon, Jenkins versus Padilla, Mariscall versus, I believe this must be Herbert Burns. Yeah, must be Herbert Burns. I said Burns, just as Burns. Yeah.

It's got to be Herbert. And this is interesting, AK. Josh Emmett versus Matt Fravolta at 155. I said that one of the things that Emmett might do should he lose on Saturday is maybe go up to, again, because go up to Lightway. because obviously he'll be a bit undersized at 1505. There's no question, especially some of the larger guys are just going to, it's going to look a super ridiculous matchup. But, you know, you get older.

You don't, you certainly cannot love the cut down to 145, even though he is, even though it is an ideal weight class. So if he decides, look, he's got, listen, he said, go back, talk to my team, there's certainly no talk, was no hint of retirement yet. If he just wants to, you know, fight out what's left on his contract and then see what happens there, go take some fights, some fun fights in 155. Why kill yourself to cut to 145

at this point? He's fought a lot of the big names in 145 already. So if he can go back there later, he can't, he should, but for now why not? Why not dip his toes in the lightweight? I don't mind that. Jarrah. Josh Hammett versus Deguzef. Macy, Barbara, Caitlin Chacon, Neil Magny versus the fact routine off. Kevin Lee winner. That fight going down

this Saturday. Back at the hallowed apex. Harry, Josh Van, Van, Victor Altamorano, Jack Jenkins, Bill, Elgio, Mariscall versus Landware. Holy smokes. That fight would be ridiculous. Gabe Santos versus

Weston Wilson when he inevitably gets murdered. Please let him get an effing win. Magny versus Nicholas Dalby. Yeah, Weston Wilson is in the UFC. Kiki. Michael! I got the Michael out of this.

Tuporius performance got me buzzing, my guy. I messaged AK before, I think through email, but decided to go on the gram this time. This is more of an AK-type message, but make sure. to give me a point when this happens. Here's a journey, AK. In 2025, after Ilya club and subs, then champion Armand Saurucyan and cements his status

as a megastar, one beloved fighter will come out for one more swing and challenge Toporia for his title. His name is Dustin Porier, giving the followers of AK what we all need, but maybe didn't know until now. hashtag Toporier for the lightweight strap. Serious match. But then he has a serious matchups. What a journey that is.

It doesn't even sound that good. Just to get to the journey was to get to to Torrier. Hashtag to Porier. Tchardous. That journey left me somehow exhausted and also unfulfilled. So I'm sorry. Serious matchup. Definitely want to see Teporee get a title shot.

versus Nern and Becca. We'd love to see how the technical Jenkins handles a powerhouse like Narenebeca and David Anamo versus Rikato Ramos. Thank you all for your picks, AK, you're up. Did you read Tino Alvarez, Mike? I sure did. You did. Okay.

He said he messages. Okay. Yeah, I got Tino. I got Marcus as well. Guys, feel free to send to both of us. I don't mind just to make sure we don't miss you. Yeah, I'll stick with Instagram too. Beans Extreme Memes.

What do we got here? Toporia Arnold Allen, Title Shot Eliminator. Please No More Young Contenders to be fed. to Max. But then you're just feeding two young contenders to each other. Is that better? I don't know. I just don't think Max, like, I don't think Max has to be the, hey, you can't get to

Volk unless you beat Max guy. You know what I mean? I just don't think Max is that dude. I saw, I saw New York Rick on Twitter saying, like, I don't, why do we have to push guys like Holloway and Whitaker aside? I'm like, because they've had their chance, push them aside. I have no problem with it. Push them aside.

I'm all for pushing people aside, even though. they're clearly the number two best person in the division. I'm sorry, this is the fight game. That might be cruel. Justin Tafa versus Mo Usman Revenge for Junior Tapa. Sure, that makes a lot of sense. What else? I don't want to read too much stuff.

Rebeske-Clay Guida. You know, I thought about Clay, Mike, for a lot of these, for him and also for Chepe. But I think Clay, I would hope they don't use him as the, you know, they're not resigned to using him as the fight prospects guy. that's not where I want this to go. No. No?

Okay. I'm not with that. Martin Grisham. What do we got here? We got some rebookings. They're with me, Chepe versus Rebetsky? Yeah, listen, that was just the easiest thing to do. Van versus Jimmy Flick.

I like that. Boy, I wonder if that'd be a loser-leged town fight for Jimmy. What else we got here? Rebooked off a lane. Yeah, I'm for that. Barber versus Santos Blanchfield loser. Boy. Either way, that's a huge step up back.

that's a monster step up for macy Matt Bradbury Jack Jenkins Kyle Nelson another Ritchie Marina Rodriguez Randy Brown Alizu Zaleski dos Santos

wait a minute these two guys haven't fought no way did I make this fight happen in my mind no they never nothing never made my stop Hey good pick

good pick Matt Brent Allen was Ritorio I'm down with that Onama Algeo Macy Barber versus I said to read this.

I'm assuming this means Caitlin Chukagian and there's some weird autocorrect here. Me? Or Mike, if this is you watch Contendor series more than I do.

If this is a fighter, I'm not aware of. Macy Barber versus Caitlin Serminara? That's Chukagin. How is that Chukagian? That's her, that's Chukagian's married last name.

You're lying. Kyle Semenara is her husband. How do I not know this? because she doesn't call herself Caitlin Seminara. This does not even show up in her Wikipedia page. Did she recently get married? No, she's been married for a while, right? She got married right before UFC 244.

That's a while ago. Or she was getting married, like, right after that. It was in 2019 or 20... Should I make this a dude who pick out of... Listen, should I... Okay, it's in her Instagram. It is in parentheses, in Instagram. So, first of all, I will apologize to Caitlin and her husband, by the way,

for thinking that their name was an auto-correcter. I do apologize. So Caitlin, sure, Seminar, she might, I don't know if that's her legal name. She is Caitlin Chagian everywhere else, but obviously it is a real name. I'm angry. I don't know if I'm angry at Matt or I'm angry at myself for not knowing this. But she's clearly billed as Caitlin Chukagian literally everywhere. Yeah, I mean, look, this happens all the time.

Like, we just, Michelle Watterson's been married to her husband, Joshua Gomez for a long time. We just got, yeah, we just got the Gomez added to her name. Matt, I'm angry right now because you made me look like a fool. But also, I feel like I'm not the only, I don't feel like I'm completely the fool here. That is literally, that's just not her working name. That is not her professional name. Her professional name is Caitlin Jukayyan. I should have remembered that she was married and that I should have known her her married name.

But that, there's a sprinkling of doo-doo there. I'm very upset. And maybe, again, maybe I need to. deal with this on my own time. MMA heads, Depore of Loconoski, Barbara Murphy. That does feel like

that's the fight that's going to happen. Brennan-Hermanent, I felt like I thought that fight happened before, and then I had to look it up. I'm like I didn't. Ritchie Waterson-Gomez, we said it's good.

Jenkins versus Nelson. Which Nelson are we talking about here? What's going on with my brain right now, Mike? It's probably Kyle. Kyle Nelson. That's right, thank you. My God, my fellow Canadian. I should remember that.

All right. I think that's it for Instagram. Let me jump on to Twitter. Let me check my email quick. Usually we get one there. Usually Tristan. Our pal Tristan Gordette likes to get in there. No Tristan.

You know what? Tristan, I hope you're enjoying your weekend. That's good. You don't need to be fixated on Otno all the time. Dedicated listener. Let me read Dale Brooks first. First timer. Good evening, fellas.

Dale from the UK, with my first time picks. Rebook Alan versus Hermanson again. Oh, that's why I thought it was booked. Ilya versus Allen. If rematch for a title is necessary. Okay. Hey, so some people don't mind the Arnold Allen fight. Barbara Chiggan, Rebecca, Rebets, Rebecca, Rebetsi, Rebetsi.

I got a, sorry. I think it's Rebetschki. Rebetschki, thank you. I had it at the beginning, I had it, and then I lost it. Ritchie Warrison Gomez. Van versus Sumadairji. Where's Sumed ergie, Mike? Do we know?

That's a great question. I have no idea. Has he, did he just recently fight? I'm trying to think. I mean, this year. He fought this year. Yeah, I think so, but not like super recently. He fought him in Al-Qa-Qaeda.

right? That was, is that, no, it was, uh, yeah, not since that in,

that friggin insane fight with Matt Chanel. That was last time he's fought. Yeah. Well, oh wow, that was almost a year ago. Okay. So,

again, that was a war. You know, if he's recovering from the injuries from that fight, I don't blame. Uh, Phil Roe versus,

just as Roe versus Brown. Uh, I'm not sure why, maybe he thought Phil Roe won that fight. It was a split call, right? Yeah, and I assume he means Randy Brown,

not Matt Brown. You know what, it's your first time. Thank you for... It's probably great. Oh, my God. I didn't even send them the Welcome to the Party, pal. There you go.

Hold on. Yeah. I got to write this wrong. Welcome to the Party, pal. Bruce Willis. Die hard, Bruce Willis, welcomes you. All right.

Let's run through some of these quickly. I got quite a few. Let's see. Seattle Drew, only one pick. I like this pick so much, but this man is booked at Trevor Peak versus Terrence. Oh, no, sorry. Sorry.

No. It's covered his basis. Seattle, Drew, says, Peak versus Terrence McKinney, win or lose, but I think a loss to Nas is likely. just wants to see Peak McKinney no matter what that would be effing fire

Alex McAdam Jenkins Gabriel Santos Chepa versus Daniel Zell Hubert Tabith of Ricci-McKenzie Dern Has been ahead of her in the rankings now A bit? Yeah A bit

A bit ahead of her in the rankings A bit Mabetsky versus Sandini Win-Loo-Loolead draw against Ismail Bonfim I think Ismail Randy Brown versus Kevin Holland win-loser draw against Keesa.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Who did? Oh, I was thinking of Nico. I somehow got Nico Price and Kevin Holland confused. You know what happens all the time. Neil Magny versus Sean Brady, Jack Delamadena,

Loser. Okay. Okay. I see that. I see that. I see that. Brennan, I'ma-Vob. It's going to go for the winners here.

Onama versus Charles Ordain. I love that matchup. I almost went with it. It's a good one. almost went with it. I love that matchup. Let's move on here. Gerr, because some of these just repeats. German. Brendan Allen versus Roman Delitzéézai.

What's, oh, right, Delitzis is down at $1.85. Brown versus Holland case of winner. So, okay, some people looking ahead to that matchup. Thanks, German. Thomas Collins. Ilya de Pereira versus Volcanowski. If he wins against a year, I see no other featherweight contender who could have the next towel shot.

Ilya is exciting and is deserving as they come. So book the title fight. You see, you're listening? This is basic logic. Just do it. David Onama versus Du Ho Choi What a violent fight

Thomas Collins says Gosh that would be That would be nasty Man what does do ho Choi do to you man Jeez Zach Shultes Toporia versus Ortega I don't know why

I still want to see him more familiar Also I dislike Brian Ortega So it would be nice to see a beat down Yikes okay well listen That's not why we make fights here And on to the next one But Emmett versus Igay 2 Okay

Barber versus just, Yasdavs. Pretty much everyone else is booked. Okay, I got him. Don't love it. There's presents an alternative

option there. Rebetski versus Jai Herbert no matter what in London. Sure. Josh Van versus Seiji Vergara, Salvador, loser, U.C.

291. Another Chepe versus Kyle Nelson. Okay, all right, all right. He's got a few more here. Barry O'Reilly. Let's see. Let's start from the top here.

Toporia versus Arnold Allen again. Should get the winner of Volk was a year, but if Volk wins, he goes to Womtify to Fight Machachachiev again. While Laffe win, they do the rematch, so ALE can stay busy with this number one contender fight. Everything else I think we've already mentioned.

Brendan Allen versus Paulo Costa, if the Alaskara fight doesn't happen. Mike, is that fight, that's, I mean, I know it was announced, but we're pretty sure there's no. Costa's kind of being weird about it. It's UFC real, but I'm still not, I'm still not fully. Until I see both those guys actually in the cage, I don't believe that fights happened. Yeah, we still. I could be wrong. This is like with no insight.

This is just me being like trying to get inside. the brain of Paul Costa. Like, why would he take this fight? So it makes absolutely no sense. Chappan Maris call, Mike Davis, banger. Mike, how do you feel with this? Randy Brown, Mike Malott. It's a good one.

Yeah, I think it's not too high for Mike at this point. You think it's the right range for Mike? I mean, Mike's not a spring chicken, so. This is true. And Randy. I think they start giving him top 25 guys. Top 25 guys. Yeah, I think he's right around there.

I don't have an issue with that one. Oh, I should have read Barry's comment. It would be rude, boy, not to make this fight happen, as it is the proper matchup for these two. And then Barry says, I'm sorry. Yeah, you better apologize for that crap. Hilary-Otega, again, from Four Corner Sports. Biggest fight he can get outside of fighting Max or Volk, but there seems to be some type of beef between Tepore and Ortega. I mean, Tepore just wanted the fight.

I don't know how much there's a beef there was. What are we got? Barbara versus Manuel Firov. She loses the Thug Rose. Amanda Hewis versus Tracy Cortez, rebook it. I didn't remember that was booked, but I'm into that. Mike, Neil Magny, Calvin Gasolam? That would be the most middleweighty,

welterweight fight maybe in the history of the sport. Now, listen, I love the Gaston Shafka Rakhmanoff idea because that's literally that's the best fight Shafat's going to be able to get right now. He ain't going to be able to get anything else, and he's going to have to fight backwards. And if you're going to have to fight backwards, you might as well take on the guy with the most name value.

that's actually going to fight you. So Calvin Gassum, fight Chavcott. That's the one. I think that's the fight they're going to make. Mike, Heidi felt about this one from Four Corner Sports. Trevor Peek versus Jim Miller.

Four Corner Sports, similar on that for a second. Four Corner Sports says, Peek, technically, still a newcomer. Not, I mean, not technically. He's newcomer to say those nine fights. He fits in qualifying to fight for Jim Miller. Oh, right, because of my whole thing saying,

I want to see Jim Miller fight, like complete nobs. And who doesn't want to see another Trevor Peek, Slobrenocker fight for this time with the UFC veteran like what he thought's to peak Jim Miller no he's thinking no no I don't like it

I don't like it because I think Jim Miller wins that fight like I think Jim I think I think Jim will win two to one favorite two to one favorite Jim will win and then Trevor Pete like I don't even know if we I don't even know if we'd get Trevor Pete could come out and just start swinging

his hand like his ass off but Jim eventually is going to just take him down and tap him, right? Like, quickly. I don't, I don't even think that fight's fun. I mean, it could be, because it's Trevor Peek, but I feel like Jim, like, would have him figure out real quick and tie him

in a pretzel real fast. So, no, not no, I don't like it. Trevor has to, like, dude, you can be fun, but you have to win, you have to be able to win a fight or two. And not saying, not saying Trevor is no chance, but that's just a terrible style of

matcher for him and a guy with way too much experience we need to just get Trevor in there with like just fun dudes. Terrence, like Terrence Ricady's a great idea. I love that. Terence McKinney, win or lose in his next fight with Sattacoff. Just chuck those two guys in there. Like that's super fun. That's super fun. I'll go to Haysbeth third now. He has Brendan Allen. He didn't really make a pick for him, I don't think. He just said it looks like Alan joins Gerald Mears shirt on the list of better strikers than Alex Panetta since they dropped Silva and Alex Pinedetta didn't. So listen, that's good math.

And they train together, right? They're good friends. So listen, they know the secret. Gerald Mirchart was there. I saw Gerald Breschard. Gave him a hug. I haven't seen Gerald in a long time. We did the handshake into the hug then.

He was in Brennan's Corner. Yeah, good to see Gerald Mershard. He'll be fighting in Boston. Neil Mayorses, I say this on Magni. I want to give him a chance to fight up, but I can't really find anyone in a lot of prostitivocative books. So here's my idea. I think as you and Mike have talked about, oh dear.

Balal might need another win with how drawn out the potential Leon Coli fight is. If you're Balal, why wouldn't you take this fight that you should be able to win decisively and try to go for a big finish just to keep your name out there? Obviously, Magni is a tough opponent, but it looks as though Balal as a level above at the moment based on recent fight results. Seems like a good idea for all parties, question mark? My question mark, not Hayes. No.

Can you imagine if Balal Bahamas title fight hopes were derailed by Neil Magni? Can you imagine? It would be It would be really funny I mean it would just be hilarious Look, Balala is going to have to fight again There is just I don't know

The way things are kind of playing out right now Is that terrible? Is that a terrible suggestion? Yeah, it's a terrible suggestion No, no We're not doing that No, we're not doing that Look, I get where you're coming from I think we're looking at Bilal's situation

in a dire way, and I think we should. I think if you're Bilal Bahamad, you cannot be confident your next fight's going to be for the belt. However, watching how this is all playing out in real time between Hamzat, probably going to 185, and Connor being in the position he's in right now where everything is up in the air, I feel like Bilal could probably get a title fight at this point,

but we just have to wait and see how these other, domino's fall. We have to wait and see, like, if they, if we somehow go an answer that Hamzot's fighting Kamar Usman at Welterweight in Abu Dhabi, then Balala's screwed. There's no chance to getting a title fight. And if we find out Connor's fighting Michael Chandler in December at Welterweight, Connor, probably the winner of that fight jumps Balah Muhammad. So, I mean, as long as none of those things happen, Balal is probably going to get the winner, the winner of Leon versus Colby. And then he probably needs Leon to win

because Colby's going to just do the prize fighting thing as he damn well should. God, I feel like Belal's like never going to fight for the belt. I just, I don't know. Maybe he does fight Neil Magdie. Let's do it. I don't mean, I don't know. And maybe, listen, maybe that's how Magi, listen,

I hope I want to see Blalph fight with the towel. Maybe Magny beats him and he gets a tell the shot. And then Neil Magnie is a title shot? Well, just one of reward. He's the U.C. Welterweight record holder for wins, career wins. career wins 21 he picked up number 21 he extended his record on Saturday 21 wins of welterweight he's the jim miller of welter rate right and you know we all wish jim millard got in a title

shot but all right i just that would be that would be the funniest i mean that would literally be the funniest thing ever poor ball and then and then neil magnie versus ian matrato gary for the welterweight title the callout comes back full circle there you go you see what i'll love it jeez uh i got a couple just a couple more chris martin the sleep bad dude Duval Crowd Edition. So there you go. Listen, everyone's a critic. Ilya, winner of your bulk.

Emmett Molsar. I think Emmett has moved into gatekeeper to the title shot position. Vloyub is the next up-and-comer, ready to make a case for a spot in the top of the rankings. Sorry, Josh. It's harsh, but probably true. With me with Barbara Jennifer Maya, Onama Jardin, Brennan, Brennan, Vettori for the middle-weightiest, middleweight belt. Let's not go back on that discussion. What else is anything here?

I want to point out. No, let's end with Dax at Pike Putt, who was all. also critical of the crowd. So maybe because Dax says he was there. And he said, so a few of those fights really lulled the crowd to sleep. Though, Mike, you said the same thing. You did say that some of the fights were not.

Like, it just wasn't universally well received. But listen, some of the fights were bad, and the fans reacted badly. I think Emmett could go on a Legends tour lightweight. Mike, starting with, how do you feel like Josh Emmett and Jim Miller? That I'm fine with. Yeah.

Let's do that. I kind of like that. I kind of like that. Who's this? Oh, Who is this? This is Dax. This is Dax.

At Pipe But on Twitter or Dax. Dax. Dax, great job. Yeah, I like this. This is all. This is what I saved Dax for last year. Onama versus Julian Erosa, sure.

And this is an interesting one. Brendan Allen, I can't remember if you mentioned this. Sorry if I missed it. Brendan Allen, Sean Strickland rematch if Strickland wins next Saturday. Brendan Watson.

Yeah, timing might be. He's mentioned it a few times, right? Yeah, he called for. Yeah. Yeah, he called for it amongst the 37 other things he called for. He, Sean Strickland was on that list. You just made the list. The timing is right and would produce,

assuming Sean Strickland wins, would produce an extremely unlikely number one contender, but worthy, but worthy at that point, because if John Strickland wins, then he beats Brennan Allen, he would have three, that would be three straight.

That'd be the win over Abis. That'd be, sorry, Imov, then Abis and then Brendan Allen. And again, I hate the guy. I think he's like just a total dirt bag. But he has some sort of connection with the May fans. You know, you guys can do the math there.

And U.S.C. would be fine, I think, with giving Strickland a tell a shot. But they might want to tell him to chill out on social media a little bit. But that would give you a title contender. If Sean Strickland wins on Saturday, is he firmly in the driver's seat right now to fight Israel Adasanya for the title? God, I hope. God, I hope not. But like we said, we just said, what are the other options, right?

What are the other options? Kenner, who we already fought. Brandon, I like Brennan, for some reason, I just feel like they wouldn't slot him in, I just don't feel like he's in pole position, though based on a resume, maybe you should be. Yeah, he's not going to fight Brandon Allen.

That fight does nothing for him right now. But Sean Strickland would sell the shit out of it. And even in a disgusting way, he would do it. Izzy has mentioned Strickland before. Izzy is aware of Strickland's candidacy. Let's go that way. He's mentioned Strickland before. And that means a lot to the UFC.

The UFC pays attention to that stuff. So I do like the idea of Allen and Strickland rematching. Um, even though God help us if Strickland beat Alan again, it could actually lead us to a Strickland's UFC title shot. Uh, I kind of ended on a sombrough note there anyway, but I'd say, I'd be happy for Brent Allen to get that fight and get that opportunity. So, uh, at Alexander K. Lee on Twitter, at Alexander KK. Lee on Instagram, Alex dotly at SB Nation.com.

That's where you can send me picks. Mike. Um underscore, Heck, J.R on the IG. Uh, we'll be back next week. Uh, so right now, this is not a, this is not a, Look, this is not the best card in the world. However, it's not early day MMA. It's not late night MMA.

It's just day MMA. What's right back in the middle? 4 p.m. Eastern prelim, 7 p.m. Eastern main card. Yeah. That's kind of a... That's like, that's the sweet spot. That's where every one of these Apex cards should be. 4 p.m. 7 p.m.

That's how it works. Sean Strickland, Abis Magamatoff, the main event at 185 pounds. The co-main event. Demir is Magulov. Grant Dawson, big one at 155. We got Max Griffin versus Michael Morales, Ariani Lipski versus Melissa Gatto, Benoit Santini versus Ishmael Bonfim.

A lot of people are excited to see Ishmael Bonfim back in there. Bruno Ferreira is back. He will take on Nurse Sultan Reza-Boef. I don't know who that is, but he's got a ton of fights. He is a newcomer. Yeah. Wasn't Bruno, what was the, wasn't he? Oh, he was rumored to fight Ah, Hassan.

Okay, that's right. That did filter. Right. I was like, because you mentioned, I'm like, wait, Fruna Faradah's fighting this newcomer that I'm not familiar with? Okay, sure, sure. We also, AK, you have the UFC return of Kevin Lee taking on Renat Fakritinoff. Wow.

Yeah. That's got to end up. That's got to end up the main card, right? Or do you think that they're going to keep it featured? Do you think they're called feature prelim? That is the future prelim, I believe. As of right now, that could change. It's even on the website.

That can't be finalized. For a division that is no longer existed. Apparently we're getting a women's featherweight matchup Between Yanatos and Carolosa, aka yes Mike, you promised You promised when we started the show You would not lie to America I mean, I'm just looking at what I see right here

You can't just say stuff like that That there's a supposedly a featherweight fight It's a featherweight fight No there is not That's not a thing Even put it out there, she said unfortunately my opponent can't go up We've got a new one and we're moving up a weight, remember? Okay, okay, okay

They're doing it because she was supposed to fight someone else at 135. She's supposed to fight Macy JAS on. She was supposed to, and that was a 135. Yes. Okay. All right. You know what? Yeah, yeah.

It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. This is just a bantamate fight where they're not cutting away. Okay, all right. You scared me. I'm like, what's going on? It's being contested at featherweight.

It is a featherweight. Yes. It is legally a featherweight fight. We have Ivana Petrovich versus Luana Carolina. we have Joe Anderson Brito against Weston Wilson boy I've interviewed Weston Wilson a couple times nice dude but boy is this going to be a tough one for him we can't heavyweighty heavy weights AK I mean this is the definition we might have to create a new belt Alexander Romanov against Blagoi Ivanov that is the

second fight of the card whoa he's just buried in the prelims and guess who's starting the main card. I guess you're starting, who, who, this is the curtain jerker, okay?

I can't even, I can't guess. Guram Kutantalazzi. Oh, he's back. Is in the curtain jerker. He's taking on Elvis Brenner.

That is the first fight of the night. Probably the 17th best lightweight in the world is, is the curtain jerker for this card. This is a strange

card. It's very strange. Is that fair to say? It's a strange card. It feels very, um, Eurasian.

Is that a fair? It's like, this is a, Is this, what, like, is this a time zone thing? It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's head, you know, we got Mago Medov in the main event. Isma Gulaev from Kazakhstan. Um, what else we got? We got a lot, like, there's a lot of, Rouszeboev from Uzbekistan, Fakritinov, Russia.

Um, Romanov's from, where's Romano from, Romanos from, Romano's from Moldova. We have France. We got France. We got, France. From Georgia. This is a hell of a, this is a hell of a, this is a hell of a. of a like, was it, even as Bulgarian?

Wow, this is this is an internet this is a representation on here. It's international fight week. We're just about, we're knocking on the door for international fight week. Don Davis, get that graphic ready.

UFC Vegas 76. Is this 70? Is it 76? 76. 76. 76. 80% Eurasian because this is, this is wild.

This is like, again, is this is going to like play really well over there? like over that side of the world this is crazy I'll tell you what and look I don't want to like put negativity out in the world maybe it's just me being selfish and tired

this one lost two fights I think we're right in the sweet spot this is a they give me this card with 10 fights at the same start times I think we got something here like I think this would be a tremendous thing but 12 fights I'm not going to complain about that not going to complain about the start time

it's a very strange and weird card, but A.K. and I will be back next week to recap it all from a matchmaking perspective, and then we get you ready for UFC 290 in their national fight week and just a very busy time in the combat sports world. So thank you very much. We appreciate you joining us back next week. UFC Vegas 76 matchmaking. Thank you for joining us. And always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. M.A. is supposed to be fun and we'll have more fun right here and on to the next one, the podcast. listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.