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

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

Song Yadong scored a convincing win—with an abrupt conclusion—over former two-division champion Henry Cejudo at UFC Seattle, claiming the most impressive scalp of his career so far. What should be Song’s next move as he continues to climb the rankings? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what the next step for Song is after finally knocking off a ranked veteran. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Anthony Hernandez following a second win over rival Brendan Allen, the spoiler Rob Font after upsetting the previously undefeated Jean Matsumoto, the white hot Jean Silva, and unlikely Fight of the Night winner Alonzo Menifield. Plus, some amazing picks from the listeners, including what to do with Cejudo following his third straight loss since coming out of retirement. Follow Mike Heck: @m_heckjr Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. podcast network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next one. The matchmaking crowns have returned following the UFC's return to the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, Washington, to be exact, UFC Seattle, went down another record-setting night for the UFC, sellout crowd over 18,000 people, and for like the ninth time in consecutive North American fight,

nights, they broke another record. Biggest gate for a fight night in North American history. And we are here to discuss the fallout of that event from a matchmaking perspective. I am Mike Hack, and joining me as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of positivity, and my best friend, Alexander Kay Lee. He was on boxing duty yesterday. And I don't know if you had like the better end of the stick here because UFC Seattle was incredibly fun, but it ended in such a sour way that I don't know how to appropriately grade it.

But anyways, how are you, A.K.? I'm good. I'm good, my best friend. I'm a pretty good mood. I, yes, I wasn't boxing duty, which if anyone was following along, it was like six or seven fights, whatever the card turned out to be in the end. A lot of 12 rounders, because it was several, I think it was five interim or, you know, undisputed title fights. And I was live blocking the whole time, which is fine. It's not like the most difficult job. It is just sort of time consuming, and it requires a certain level of concentration. So I'm not complaining.

It was fun. You get to watch fights. I think at least three out of the five fights in that boxing card were really good. Like the main event was great. Who wasn't in the opener? Callum Smith and, gosh, I'm going to kick myself now. Sorry, everything's a blur now. Callum Smith.

And who did he box? Bois. Boasti. Excuse me. Boasti. Awesome. Awesome fight. There was a couple of like whatever, you know,

Shakur Stevenson getting a replacement opponent. At least he finished him, thank God. If he went freaking 12 Shaker Stevenson rounds with a guy that did just pull off the, I don't say pulled out the couch because he wasn't like, he was in good shape. I think he's praying for another fight. Shout to Joshua Padley. If he didn't finish Joshua Padley, again, even to Chris Stevenson had to end that one early. But yeah, overall, I think anyone who saw the Bivel, better be of two card was more than happy.

Maybe, you know, you didn't have to sit down and watch like six or seven straight hours of boxing as I did. But yeah, and I'm a little, I feel sad. I feel like I missed a bit of a show. with Seattle. Obviously, I'm keeping up with the results on UFC. UFC.mating.com. I just listened to you or I literally just finished listening to the amazing post-fight show with you and Jed and Casey. So I'm caught up. I'm caught up.

I wasn't there in the moment with you guys. But I am excited to talk about this card, which, you know, again, pretty good, pretty good from at just an action standpoint. And just a couple of little things at the end of the night. I feel like really threw you guys off, but that's, that sucks. That's hard to hear. Yeah, look, 12 fights, nine finishes. The first seven fights of the card were stoppages.

The entire prelims were stoppages. So we're up to a really good start. And then the one fight we questioned that was on the main card was Alonzo Menefield. And great guy. But the fact that he is ranked in the UFC in his division is insane. It just goes to tell you just how bad light heavyweight is right now. And I'm not trying to, like, disrespect him. This is just the way that it is.

And any other division, Menafield, would be like the 35th ranked guy. There's just very few light heavy weights. And then he fought a 6-0 debuting 25-year-old fighter. And this was the main card opener. And good grief, man. The only fight outside of maybe the conclusion of the main event that got booze. Like, the crowd was booing. And then I got freaking fight at the night.

right. Rob Fon and John Matsumoto was awesome. Their third round was one of the best rounds of the year. And then Hernandez and Allen two, great fight. It was a different kind of a fight. It was just what you would expect from an Anthony Hernandez-Brennan Allen fight.

And that was super fun too. And the fight of the night goes to Menafield and Walker. It's just, I don't know. A lot of questionable stuff. And then questionable stuff in the main event. And we're going to get to it, but any

thoughts on any of that stuff despite you not watching really any of it. Yeah, and you guys raised a good point. Like, why they, why not just, if you really, whatever,

for whatever reason did not, you know, the talking about the people who make these decisions, if you really didn't feel, you know, Hernandez Allen for some reason or Fond Matsumoto,

why not just do the four bonuses? They love doing the performance bonuses. They love doing the four performance bonuses. We've seen a lot of cards where we're kind of like, oh, that was a pretty good fight. That could have won fight of the night. But they went with four,

you know, performance bonuses instead. and we're like, yeah, we're fine. We're fine with it. Like, okay, so that was a great fight, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't up to their fight of the night standard. Sure, whatever that means.

This is so bizarre. I don't know, I'm happy for Lonzo Meadowfield. Happy for Julius Walker. Seems like a really nice guy. Very happy to be there all week. Very positive vocal guy on social media so far. Like, it just seems to be like, yeah, I love interacting with fans.

It's so cool. I'm getting my opportunity. Get to fight at the night in his first fight. Extra 50 Gs. Good for both guys. never want to say like, oh, I wish they took those bonuses, but it is a peculiar choice. And again, for that, because they got those bonuses, you do feel like people who were maybe more deserving. Look, like, look, like, I'm a Kizal Costa, but he, the first guy to submit

Andre Feeley in like 10 years. That's pretty good. And Melke's got a great story. Melke's, he spoke to Game A Cruz before. He had a lot of nervousness up, but even being employed by the UFC, even though he was coming off a win in his, uh, the last fight of his, his first contract. He was still like, I don't know if I'm getting re-signed. What a great story for him to come, submit a veteran, get a $50,000 bonus. And now he doesn't because of this very peculiar fight of the night choice. I don't know. I don't know, Mike. Is there, are they, you know, are they friendly with the management? I know Julius is a, uh, Eridium guy, right? He's an iridium guy. Maybe they're just, you know, they're like, oh, thanks to Arridium for helping us make

this, you know, keep this fight together on the card. So, you know, obviously we're going to wink, wink. I don't know. And I don't want to take away again from Julius Alonzo. But it's, it's question. Everyone's going to be confused about this for just forever. Yeah, a lot of people I respect to feel the same way. And again, I'm not saying like, they fought their asses off. Like, they put forth the effort. They literally gave everything they had. But in terms of just entertainment and what typically wins a fight of the night, it was not this one. But don't want to beat a dead horse here, AK. We're just, we're going to go from one horse to the next. I was going to say we have another dead horse to be. Again, thankfully, I won't have a lot to add. Again, I did not

watch it as it happens. The main event, guys. If you want to hear the team, takes on it. Mike and Jed, you guys, you guys went off on it for quite some time, uh, on Saturday nights. So please,

guys, if you didn't listen to the postby show, that's all your, that's all your, go ahead, Mike, recap kind of what we, the hell happened here.

Look, at the end of the day, I feel vindicated by all of this, because the amount of shit that I have taken over the years, and Jed has taken over the years by just telling fighters to cheat. It's, it's all come full circle, AK, because those people

who threw the dung in our direction are now the same people who are on Twitter saying yep, just cheat. There is no cheating, there are no rules, just grab the fence, kick him in the ding ding, poke them in the eye, everything's fine. And

my response to all of you is one, welcome to the party pal. And two, we've been trying to tell you this the whole time. The referees have publicly said in interviews, we don't want want to be the headline. We don't want to be responsible for a fighter losing half of their paycheck by taking points away, by doing your job. It's so frustrating. Like, even Jason Herzog,

like, who I'm with Jet, I think Jason Herzog is the best referee in the game. He just handled this so bizarrely that, I don't know, I don't need to really go down what happened. We all know what happened. Song Yidong, in my opinion, was up 3027. I thought he won all three rounds. Mike Bell, I think, gave Sehudo round two. Someone gave Sehudo round three, which is just insane to me without a point being taking. There's just no way.

There's just no way you could give Henry Sehudo the third round. But regardless, that has to be a like, oh, well, a point wasn't taken. So I'm taking it on my, like under my own, you know, power to do as a judge what I, what I can choose to do, which is I can't deduct a point, but I can certainly score the favorite. We've seen this happen before. Very rarely, very rarely, but you've seen fights where like a point was not deducted, but also like, oh, they kind of gave the round to the other person anyway.

So I think that has to be what happened there. Yeah. And it's all the way this fight ends with the, of course, there's a pretty egregious eye poke. It's not done on purpose, but it's two fingers to the eye of Henry Suhudo. Like, this is bad. He took the full five minutes. He was milking it in a way. But it was just, it was a nice veteran savvy move to take the full five.

And then they asked him if he wants to continue. He says, I will. Let's go. And then Song just comes out out of a cannon is just blasting away at Suhudo. Round ends. And Sehudo goes right to the corner and says, I cannot see. They ask him if he can continue. He says, I can't see.

And Jason Herzog says, I'm going to start the fourth round. And then I'm going to wave it off. And then we're going to go to the judge's scorecards because that makes it a tech decision. Now, had Henry Sehudo said in round third, three, I cannot continue, I cannot see. This is a no contest. This is not a loss on the record of Henry Suhudo. So I don't know if he knew this or not.

It's not like the coaches can tell him this because you can't be coached in these situations. I'm surprised he didn't know this, honestly, because he's a pretty smart guy when it comes to the sport and knowing the ins and outs of it. But now, instead of a no contest, it is a loss. And Song Yidong gets the biggest win of his career, certainly not in the way he would have liked to get it. And then Song Yudong was like, hey guys, Seattle, very sorry that this is how it ended. Let's run it back. And Henry Sehudo's like, yeah, man, let's run it back. And then Dana White says, nope, no interest in running this back at all.

And I got to tell you, A.K., I don't blame the man. I don't blame the man. We saw the fight. The whole entire card, AK, and I know you didn't watch it, was promo videos of Sohudo, his coaches, talking about the work he put in in this camp. This is the best Henry Suhudo we've seen in years. He's done everything right. He's gone back to his old coaches.

This guy's hungrier than I've ever seen. And that he went out, and in my opinion, he lost the first three rounds of the fight. To me, while it ended in such a weird way, I have no interest in seeing this rematch. I feel like we're just going to see the same fight again. And I think Song probably beats him more decisively the second time around. But I don't know if this is fair.

or not. But the whole notion behind Henry Sehuto right now, AK, is that he was looking to, he was looking for a way out. He wanted this fight to be over. I don't know if that's true. The body language was not great. He was not finding a lot of success. He was swinging and missing a lot. He was getting pieced up by song. So it's kind of a weird situation. So long story short, AK, I'll just go to you. Do you want to see this rematch? Do you think this is what the UFC is going to ultimately end up doing. What happens here? Just to touch upon the like, did he want out thing?

I think, again, not to recap your entire post-vite show, but I don't know if it was your Chad who said, like, well, if you wanted out, then he would have just gone out. Like, he wouldn't have come back after the five minutes. He wouldn't have taken the full five minutes. He wouldn't have come back out of the five minutes. He could have used that opportunity to say, I can't see. And then I think it would have gone to a no contest, right?

That they hadn't reached the three rounds yet or something. It would have gone to a no contest or I guess a disqualification. No, it wouldn't have no contest. I don't think they would have DQed songs. Yeah, they wouldn't. Yeah. So he could have gone, like he could have gone out. He could have, that would have been his way out, not fighting to a very bizarre, you know,

a little extra time and then somehow go into a decision. Anyway, yeah, I mean, listen, we could wave our magic wants here and run this back, which would be okay. It's not like the ideal scenario. I think there's a few people who had seen enough as far as like who's the better fighter right now at the stage of the careers. Pretty convincingly song you dong, based on what, you know, based on what people, how people scored the three rounds we had.

So I'm okay with not running back. I'm okay with a different runback, Mike. I think it's time for him and Cheeto Vera, I guess. I don't know. I just don't know how much songs ranking rises after this fight. I know Henry was ahead of him. He was in our rankings, much to my dismay. I don't have Seudo ranked, but whatever.

So Hudo is one spot ahead of song. He's number seven, song was eight. And Cheeto is one spot ahead of So, Suhudo. So, um, ahead of that, people are booked or either just not likely to fight to song next. So if we want to keep song moving up, which I think he deserves, I guess the only option is the rematch with Cheeto. Cheeto would definitely want it, of course, did not agree with the first

fight. Song, probably not as enthusiastic about it, but would want to earn a more definitive win, wipe away whatever controversy there was. And again, it's been some times the first fight. So that seems the kind of boring crystal ballie pick. Yeah. Song looked good, man. His take-down defense is on point.

He didn't get taken on a single time. It's not like Suhudo shot a whole bunch, but when he tried, Song was right there. Sohudo looked 38 in there. And I'm not even knocking him because most 38-year-old bantam weights are getting the doors blown off them by Song Yudong. Like they're not competitive at all. And Suhudo was still quick. He was still landing shots. He just was very telegraphed in a lot of the things that he did.

And Song saw everything he was doing a mile away, especially in the second half of that fight. But Suhudo's got a chin on him at 38 because Song was tagging him. He was kicking him in the legs a whole bunch. Sohudo just kept coming. Like I was, he's not going to beat a lot of guys in the top 10 anymore just because this division is so deep and it's so, good but so hoodo can hang with all these guys still so shout out to him dude's tough as hell

in the end of the day so he's fighting song you don't again uh i'll tell you who he is going to fight in a little bit but uh song you don's gonna fight umar and amaga made off next a k i'm sticking to it i'm going with it because sure we could do the chito fight but again this ended in such a weird way but it's not like we ended the third round and we're like oh man like this fight was just getting good to Hudo had all the momentum it's too bad we were like okay like we would have seen two more rounds

but I think we do how the rest of this fight was going to go so yeah I count this as a win at the end of the day and yeah it is and it is it is a win it is it is officially a win in a way I know we probably all disagree with exactly how it was handled but it does feel like it would have been a shame right if they just said no contest.

And again, even if a no contest, they probably still wouldn't have run it back. So now it's just this weird blip on Song's resume. Sohudo, you know, we'll probably fight again, which I'm not sure I want to see. I don't know if I want to get a matchmaking for him. But yeah, so somehow, like, did we kind of get to the result? That was best for the division in a roundabout way, right? Like, it screwed up. It would have been, I think overall, especially with like the newer fan base.

Yeah. who watched Song Yadong fight for the first time. I think they would have seen like a full-on conclusion to this fight. We didn't get it. But at the end of the day, I think when we go back and think about how this fight actually went and we take all the controversy out of it and the eye poke and stuff, you can't blame Song here, man.

Like, there's an accident. Even Suhudo in his Instagram statement was like, I'm not pissed at song. I'm pissed at the rules. And I'm with Sehudo at this point. Like, take a point. go to replay, like do whatever you have to do. Let's fix this a little bit because that's absolutely ridiculous that the fight has to end that way.

But song gets the win and weird way to get there, but we got there. Let's go to the middleweight division. Anthony Fluffy Hernandez is now 2-0 against Brendan Allen, fun fight, a lot of scrambles. And Hernandez wins again. It was a tight one. It was one heading into the third round. I didn't think Here's what I'll say, okay

A lot of people weren't blown away by Anthony Hernandez I actually wound up quite impressed by Anthony Hernandez And I'll tell you why And I mentioned this in the post fight show He did not have it He didn't It was not

He probably brought his C plus game to the table And I had actually Talk to a member of his team Last night some of that he trains with and I was like, is he okay? It just doesn't seem like he's all there. And they didn't want to tell me what it was.

They were like, maybe he'll say it. And then Anthony Hernandez sort of revealed like he had a rib injury. He got sick. He was on antibiotics, like pretty much towards the final stretch of getting to the fight, which led to a really horrific weight cut. And when you fight a guy like Brennan Allen like that, it's not easy.

And he went in there, had an off night and still won. Clearly, definitively won this fight. And he's just rising up the ranks. And now there was two choices for me, AK. He was either going to fight Sean Strickland or Robert Whitaker. I don't want to see the Cannonyer fight. A lot of people like that one. I think Fluffy just destroys Jared Cannonair. I went with Robert Whitaker, okay. Fluffy Hernandez versus Robert Whitaker. Let's just see, man, like, if this dude's going to fight for a belt, we got to stop effing around here. Let's give him one of these names. If he beats either of them, he is right there. And DDP can obviously is Hamza Chamaev to worry about. But after that, if Fluffy beats Robert

Whitaker, like, you've got to give him a title shot. So let's, it, there's no fight I want more at 185 than Anthony Hernandez challenging drink a suplice because that is just, that is the grimyest championship fight maybe in UFC history right there. So I, I want that. And let's just see what Fluffy can do. Let's fast track him a touch. Give him a big fight. If he could still be fun fight, Fluffy Hernandez.

If not, he goes out there and beats Bobby Knuckles. Dude might be a world champion. Will Fluffy be the backup? Could he be the backup for Shemayev DDP? Probably not. It would more likely be a Kyo or Nasserdean, I guess. Yeah. I think he would be ahead of him.

Yeah, Jed said this, I think on BTL, and I completely agree with them. Whenever DDP Shavaya happens, I'mov versus Pahalio should happen as well. Oh, the same card. That should be on the same card. And if something weird happens with Hamzat, you give one of those guys the bum. Yeah, you've put yourself in a much better matchmaking position this season so far, this season, I say this year, in 2025, Mike, because I didn't. So I know after Yemovov, you said there was only one fight to make.

You want to see him fight for Havahou at some point to determine the next time of a contender. and I was trying to keep them apart for some reason. I don't know why. So I went with Nassar Dean and Robert Whitaker, which is, I think your matchup of Hernandez, Whitaker is more likely after yesterday. So I will stick by my own rules and just not go with guys I already picked,

but you are very much on point. And I've really shackled myself here because it doesn't leave a lot of options if he's not going to fight upwards and fight someone like Whitaker. It won't be Izzy. Again, we don't know if he's going to take time off. We've had picked other matches for Izzy.

And I can't even pick Strickland. Because for Strickland, I said I wanted him. to fight, oh, Vitori. I'm fixing on him fighting Votori, for some recent, win-lose or draw against D'Lizze. So I have no choice.

So my only person I have left now is the other half of that equation. So this is not a great pick for Anthony Hernandez. It's almost definitely fighting backwards. I'm not sure where people rank the Leets say. He might have been ahead of Fluffy before Saturday, but at some point, like Fluffy's, what, seven straight wins now?

Even though he hasn't beaten too many guys ahead of him, at some point you kind of just have to give him. And you're kind of projecting where he has, he's kind of being the top 10 now. right so uh yeah him and i'm going with him uh versus delete say win loser jar versus vittory i still want vittory strickland so this is more again of a i've just i've booked myself into a corner here in fantasy world so i need to see some of these matchups shake actually shake out so i can free free some of these names but uh yes my middleweight booking is uh is on a bit of a weird trend

right now so i don't love that pick i think whittaker makes more sense but i can't use whittaker again yeah i actually wanted like i would pick strickland if if it was up to me But I just don't see a world where Sean takes that fight. You know what I mean? And not that he's like afraid of him. I just think that there's other options that are in play for him that would be more sensible. I think he's a little more business savvy these days. And I just don't know if the UFC, I think if the UFC is looking at Strickland and Whitaker and they're saying, okay, one of these guys could get back to a title fight.

They're both good. and at any given point they could beat any guy in this division, who do we want to sort of put our money behind so we don't mind him getting another title shot? It's probably strickling over Whitaker. So let's go back to Bannonweight, AK. Well, technically we're going back to 140 because that's where this fight between Rob Fott and Gian Matsamoto

happened. It was a catchweight. Matamato was supposed to fight at UFC 313. Rob Fon was supposed to fight Dominic Cruz. Matsumoto moots over. And it was a good, scrappy-ass fight. I thought Rob Font won rounds one in three, Matsumoto round two, but round one was very, very close.

Round three was close. Like, it was just a close competitive fight. I learned a lot about Gian Matsumoto. He is going to be a guy to watch in this division. He got a big step up real quick. And Rob Fon, shaved head, Rob Fon. I'm telling you, the Boston dudes with the light beards

and the bald heads just continue to crush it. And Rob Fon gets it done. And it's going to be interesting to see where they book him. I have a thought. I have an idea. What's say you, A.K. What's next for Boston Bobby? Yeah, Rob Fott. Listen, he's just, he's such a spoiler. He's such a spoiler. They keep booking him against tough guys. Some of the toughest guys in the division. People are trying to take his spot. Some people pass. Some people don't. Kyle Fulips didn't. Jan Matsumoto didn't.

But yeah, and it's not like these guys got embarrassed. I mean, this is a close. From what I'm seeing, the scuttle butt, Mike, this could have gone either way. Close enough. Close enough. This could have gone either way. It was very close. Yeah. I was very close. I scored her for font, but if you get, if you scored it for Matsuboto, I ain't mad. Yeah, Matsumato doesn't lose anything like, oh, he's exposed by a veteran. It's like, no, God. There's no fraud check.

Yeah. No, not enough. Well, God, I hope. I'm so tired of that phrase. 16 and, you know, 16 and one now, this is a by far the most difficult opponent of his career. So good for a Matsumoto for stepping out. And good for fun, again, for holding onto a spot. That's what you do. That's what you got to do in your veteran, man.

People are coming at you. They keep getting younger and faster and, you know, you keep getting older and wiser, hopefully. So I'm going to go with another person trying to take his spot. We've got a card coming up in Montreal, in La Belle Provence, up here in Canada. I think Amon Zahavi's going to be on it. I think he's going to need an opponent, and I think that opponent will be Mr. Ravel. Oh, come. Are you serious, AK? Yeah. Do I have to do-do you? Why? He's booked. I have to do-do you? Has he booked? No. His brother was freaking in his corner the last two fights. Oh, for us is in Rob Fons Corner. Yes. Oh, I didn't know that.

Straight up, straight up did not know that, did not realize that. Did not watch that star night. He was in the corner for Kyler's too. He was in Kater's corner last week. Where is Rob? Wait, a minute. So if he was. Rob is a tri-star. Yeah. Wait, who was in past two fights? You said he was in, oh, he was in Fons fight a corner for the Kyler Phillips play. So Hobby was in Fon's corner for Kyler Phillips as well. For the Kyle Phillips, right. So he's 2 and 0 at TriStar. He's two and under the tutelage of Barrae-Sahabhi.

Yeah, that's my second half. You never know. Maybe it's a fallout, AK. You know, it does that because of me. Yeah, I just, I just started it. I just started it. That would be a true. Honestly, like, if Fott wasn't training there.

Damn it. Boston versus Montreal, like, that would have been sick. Like, we should do that. How did I not know this? I don't know. You're tired. All that live blogging of. boxing that's my excuse got just got just worried out i blame you and all your new england so but he's

still a new england's car tell guy yeah right tyson's not so tyson's not coaching him anymore but he still managed him man so i did not know i 100% did not realize this is happening or two two fights into the tri-star experience and brought fun did not did not notice i'm not changing my i'm not changing my pick it is what it is what it is so i see you never not. So I teased this not that long ago. And as I said earlier, Rob Faw was supposed to fight Dominic Cruz on this card. And Rob could have said no, I'll fight at a later date, I'll wait for a different guy. And the UFC offers him Gian Matsumoto. There's literally no reward to this fight. High risk, no reward. It's not moving up in the rankings with a win here.

It's just a tough-ass fight with like little to gain from it. But when you owe, when the UFC owes you a favor, no matter how big or how small. Sometimes you get to cash that in. So, Rob Fod didn't get to fight Dominic Cruz, did not get to fight Cruz in his retirement fight. So now, Rob is going to get the chance to have another fight against a guy who would probably retire with a loss. And is the man who lost in the main events to Song Yidong, Rob Fawt versus Henry

Suhudo. I think they owe him this. I think they owe Rob Fon this fight. And that's where I'm going. age appropriate matchmaking how about that that's not bad yeah yeah and and this gives you another well i guess he wouldn't be a main it's a main card it's a main card fight it's a cold main it's a cold main it's a cold main it's a cold main somewhere again on the road again uh or it's a it's a main card fight in a pay-per-view i think right so hoodo especially if sohudo sells it as i think this is

it like if i lose if i lose this is it because he didn't really have that energy going into the song fight. I think he's one, I think he's pretty confident he was going to win. And two, just, you know, didn't want to have that energy going into. Like, yeah, I'm out. I think he, obviously, it's come up. He's been asked about it. But I think if he,

if he did book that font fight next, he would have to really sell it. I was like, yeah, this is, there's the last time you're going to see Triple C, buy your tickets now, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. Yeah, I like it. I like it. I'm just throwing out another name, Daniel Marcos.

How you like that? How do you like that? Yeah. I mean, look. Pretend I said that. Can we fix that in post? Can we fix that in post? Yeah.

No. Listen, I've had lots of do-do as well. It happens. At the end of the day, the 30 for 30 on Henry Suhudo's fighting career is going to be absolutely incredible. Just the most mistimed sports retirement of all time, in my opinion. I still can't believe it to this day that he did this and did it like that.

Rob Font, to me, Rob Font is the best thing Henry Suhudo can hope for right now because he's not fighting Song Yung. He ain't fighting anybody ranked above him. He's not getting no mallee. He's not getting Chito. He's not getting any of these guys.

He's either fighting Rob Font or he's fighting some dude at Bantamweight who is just lighten, or he's fighting Montel Jackson. Like that's where he's at right now. He's either got to be the guy to probably put over another

up-and-coming fighter or he can get the age-appropriate matchpicking with a guy like Rob. So I think if you're Suhuda, you're hoping Matt contracts is Rob Fon's name. So, yeah. Let's go to Featherweight. MVP time, AK. The MVP of this card was not Song Yidong, was not Fluffy Hernandez.

It wasn't even Rob Fon. It was Gianne freaking Silva. This guy posterized and kind of humiliated Melasick Baggdizarian. He's just playing. He's having a good time. He's high-fiving. He's being good butt. with Melzik Bagnasarian.

And then he hits him so hard. And Bagazarian goes down and Gian Silva is standing over this man's lifeless body with a smile on his face. And he's looking at referee Kevin McDonald. Like, you should probably stop this thing because I'm going to really hurt this guy. And Kevin McDonald's like, I'm not stopping it. And he's like, are you sure you're not going to stop this? And Kevin's like, sir, have your dessert.

And Giann Silva drops a bomb on him. and then Melza covers up and then just being the kind-hearted soul that Gian-Silva is. He left the man's face alone and then just delivered some of the most violent body shot elbows I have ever seen a man deliver

in that position and he's just elbowing this man over and over again to the ribs and the liver and it was just tough to watch. And then finally Kevin McDonald had a heart and stopped the fight. And then AK, Giann Silva gets the microphone. and calls out Bryce Mitchell,

wants to give Bryce Mitchell a history lesson. And I love this call out so much. It was terrific. Unfortunately, like you mentioned earlier, with one of your picks, I already booked Gian Silva. I booked him last week, and I'm sticking to it.

Giann Silva is about to fight a guy who just got ranked in the UFC featherweight divisional rankings, a guy who got the biggest win of his career, and a lot of negativity surrounding that performance. We're going to get Gian Silva versus Yusuf Salal, and just a fun-ass fight,

a fight that Yusuf's going to just have to be fun in, honestly, or he's going to get badly, badly hurt. So I love that fight, but if they do Giann versus Bryce Mitchell, you ain't going to get a damn complaint from me. Yeah, there's a long matchup. It was perfect. I don't care about, and a great callout,

you know, absolutely respect for calling out Bryce, but again, I won't be making matches for Bryce Mitchell at this point. Like, I just, guys, I have not moved on. I know the new cycle moves on, like crazy. I have not moved on from Bryce Mitchell's initial ignorant comments. and I just don't feel like matching for him. I don't care to do it. Of course, he is going to get another UFC fight.

He'll get probably several more UFC fights. So I'm not saying at all like, oh, the UFC is going to card him. No, that's obviously not going to happen. They would have done that weeks ago if that was an option. But yeah, I don't care. I don't care for matching him up right now. But, yeah, him and that was a very smart call up by Silva, and absolutely could be what's next.

I've gone with another, I've gone with another bit of an odd pick here. But I'm like you, Mike. I kind of want to just keep pushing him up against, top 10 people. Featherweight is really, like that contender line is fit to burst right now. Like I just feel like you're going to have three or four legit contenders establish themselves over the next like 12 months. Unfortunately, they may have to do so by climbing over each other's backs.

We already have one of those fights coming up on April 5th. You've got Josh Emmett and Lorone Murphy fighting one another. Great matchup. I think I want Gian to get the winner of that fight. now now it's sinus sucks for lorone if he wins i get it like lorone feels like he's so so so so so close to a title shot but i think even if he beats josh emmet he's on the short list but doesn't like you know move to the front of the line unfortunately and again there's a lot of movement at the top of further rate right now which is great that's great for guys like lorone and great for josh if josh wins but i just don't

know if it's still um enough for lorone to get up there unless he finishes josh emma which would be awesome. So I kind of want, and I want to push John Silva fast. Like I want him to be won away, just the way he's been doing it, four UFC wins, four knockouts. I think he could gain a lot if you fought the winner of that fight, take a little bit of their steam, take a little bit of their cachet, you know, they're more veteran in the promotion than he is. And again, we could find John Silva. If he beats one of those guys, we could find him in a title shot by the end of the year. Like, I think there's so much buzz around him and I think you have to capitalize on it. And I don't think you need to like soft foot around it.

So I'll go with that for now. I'll go with that for now. It's a bit tricky. It's a bit unfair for some of the parties involved. But I agree with you that it's got to be top 10 next. It just has to be. I love the pick. My issue with it, and I almost went the same direction,

but after kind of going through it, and this is kind of how I landed on things last week after this a law fight, Laura Murphy and Josh Yemen are just not the most active guys. No. And I think you need Gian to fight as often as possible. I'm not saying he needs to fight six times, but he needs to fight all these three times this year. And if Josh Emmett beats Yusuf Zalal, or not Yusufzal, if Josh Emmett wins his next fight, like we haven't seen him in 14 months.

We haven't seen him. Like, by the time he fights, it'll be way longer, right? The Bryce Mitchell Naka was the last time he's fought, and that was December of 2023. That's a long-ass time. That's a long layoff. That's 16 months. That's a lot. And then Lerone fought in October.

Six months, not like the longest time, but I think you kind of want to get Giann in there way sooner. So that's like, was my only hesitation there. But look, man, something might happen along the way. Maybe Gian stays ready. That phone might ring. If anything happens to Emmett or Lorone, maybe he steps in and gets a main event. Right in there. Can Ken Gian get Arnold Allen?

I feel like I just, range wise, I don't know why, but I just feel like they don't want. I don't know why. I have a vibe that they just don't feel like booking that right now. But it kind of makes sense. It's another matchup that kind of makes sense. Arnold has got no dance partner right now. Nope. So he's dealing with some not like super bad injuries, but I know he's getting some stem cell treatments.

And earliest he could fight is like June, I'm told. So, I mean, timing could line up, honestly. So I don't hate it. Interesting. I do not hate it. We got to go to light heavyweight AK. Fight of the night. Fight of the night.

Alonzo Menefield. And Alonzo Menefield, look, first thing I noticed, before the start of this fight, no Pat Barry in the corner of Alonso Menefield. Safe Salyud, Ryan Span, back home at Fortis MMA for Alonzo Menefield. And what happens? Fight of the night bonus. Losing Street comes to an end after going winless in 2024. And now he's back on track.

He defeats Julius Walker via split decision. And now he's going to fight Modestis Bacoscus. I'm just getting this out of the way. Okay. Medesis Bacoscus, the man who opened up the prelims with a big knockout of Hafiel Sequeira. And then Alonzo Meadowfield opened up the main card in a fight that happened. And I think Modestis Bukascus was more memorable at the end of the day.

So plus light heavyweight is like 37 fighters. And Bukascus is probably like this 18th ranked guy in this division right now. So let's do that. Why the hell not? Yeah, makes a ton of sense. I went with the Anthony Smith retirement fight recipient, Zhang Ming Yang. And win, loser draw, win loser draw. It sounds like Anthony Smith is also like, again, no matter what happens, it's going to retire.

So that's fine. If Zang wins, great. You just beat a ranked guy or a guy who's been ranked for a long time anyway. Now you can get another ranked guy in the field. If you lose this, well, you can bounce back by facing the number. 15 guy in Mendefield. So, yeah, I think Boccost makes a lot of sense. I like Zhang getting that spot.

It's Light Heavyweight. It's the mid-tier of Light Heavyweight right now. Almost any matchup makes sense. So I congrats to Menafield for getting back in the wind column and getting back on our show, Mike. I don't think we haven't had to do it. I don't know pick for this young man in some time. It's been a long time.

So shout out to him. Let's go. 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.

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when you lost the fall bake-off to perfect Penelope Johnson? Okay, a bit TMI, but we're here for it. So download the app today and get zero delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacard, groceries that over deliver. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Go to the wild card round, AK. No, we're not going to go to the wild card rounds because we're going to check the tapes first, Mike. Because listen, I've had a rough show today.

I acknowledge it. Some of my picks, either dull or straight up just wrong. But, you know, a little fight got announced this week, Mike. but for one Mr. Patty Pimlet. You don't know if you heard. I don't heard my buddy Michael Chandler on April 12th, UFC 314. Someone's been calling for this fight for some time.

I don't want to say who, but several people. I am certainly one of them. I guess I did want to say who. And I've been leading the charge. I know Sean Sheehan, Sean Sheehan, shout out of Sean Shee. I know you're out there. You've also been calling for this fight. And a lot of fans have also mentioned it.

but I was, I really feel like I was one of the early adopters of, you were the first one. I hope so. Sean Sheehan, do not take credit for this. I'm sorry. You don't get to take credit for Tony Ferguson or Michael Chandler. I'm sorry. A.K. was way before anybody.

I am the Pimblet matchmaking whisperer. I don't know how this is happening, but I just got a feel for what they had for the UFC and their plans for this guy. And a lot of people, people straight up hated the Ferguson matchup. hated it hated it when i brought it up chandler i don't have to hate it as much they just thought it was unlikely and weird and it still is unlikely and weird even though it's happening but that's m m maman man so i'm very excited to see that happen i just think it makes a ton of sense for both guys it's a winnable fight for chandler i wouldn't pick him at this stage but that is definitely a winnable

fight for chanler i'm curious i assume odds have dropped already mike let me look that up while you yeah it's pretty much a pick um uh chanler open is a slight favorite but i i'm I don't know. Yeah, the line is flip. Paddy's the favorite now, minus one third. I was going to say, and I think he will be when fight night rolls. I don't think him being crazy. He'll be like minus 150.

If he moves to two to one favorite, I would be shocked. I'd be like something people must know something about Chandler that I don't. But I think it'll hover minus 150, minus 175 for Patty by the time the fight actually he rolls around. Fingers crossed, nothing happens to it because I love it. And that's what we need a lightweight right out. Something like that. So I, can I, please?

Can I be honest with the world right now? Mm-hmm. I love this fight. Yes. I really love it. Yes. I think it's super good. Like when you first,

when you first called for this to happen, and like you nailed it too. It was like, you basically said like, Chandler's not going to fight Connor. So let's just do the Patty fight. And even when they booked it, you're like, nope,

I'm not changing course. No. He's still not going to fight Connor. That fight's never going to happen. I'm still sticking with Patty. Through all the ups and downs, you stuck with it. and after the Ferguson win, I was like,

I don't want to do this. I don't think the UFC would do this. And then Chandler just got dusted up by Charles Olivera in such a way that this fight just makes all the sense of the world right now. And I'm fascinated by it. I might be more intrigued by this fight than Volcanowski versus Lopez. Oh my gosh. Like just the opening feeling about it.

Because I'm obviously fascinated by Volcanowski-Lopez. I feel like it could go a certain way. This one, I have no idea how it's going to go. Right now, I think Patty Pimlet's going to win. I think he's going to win, and I don't think this fight's going to be as competitive as people think it's going to be. But who knows? Maybe Michael Chandler fight smart, but something tells me he's just going to get in there and try

to go after it, and maybe that's the way to beat Patty. It might work. I might work, man. Patty Pimlet tackles Michael Chandler. He's, Chandler's in for, like, one of the worst nights of his life. because Pat is a big ass freaking lightweight. Yeah. So interesting.

Three rounds of Chandler going crazy could be real bad for Patty. Could be real bad. I don't know. Five rounds. Five rounds. It's a five rounds. It is? It's the five round cold main event.

Stop it. This just gets better. This just gets better and better. This just gets better. I'm so happy. That's probably better for, that's actually probably better for Patty. I don't know, but channel is a maniac. Anyway, Mike, I'm sorry.

I realize you, you were. going to wild card, not listener pick. So I got a little too excited. I was fit to burst. And like I said, I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit off this week. So I'm sorry. I did, I did not mean to interrupt the wild card pick, the wild card. Listen, anything to delay me having to read the UFC Vegas 103 fight card before we get out of here. So let's waste a much time as possible. Who's your wild card selection, AK, for UFC Seattle? Ricky Simone Ricky Simone

I Ricky I owe you an apology I don't know if everyone's I feel this way I feel real bad just about like counting Ricky out so much in his after his past couple of fights

and maybe we couldn't be blamed for it you know maybe those just weren't Ricky's best nights and you know we all thought like well again this is a division that just keeps moving along and if you go on a losing streak this division will not wait for you to catch up

you can get left behind real fast he's always had the talent he's beaten some good names he just hit a slump and uh i thought javid bashrat i think javid bachat's really good i know it's between him and ferried for he's considered the better um you know the better prospects for being a title challenger someday totally understand but i still think javid's pretty good so this is a huge win for ricky simone uh not just getting the win first round knockout should have probably oh he did get a bonus congratulations he did get a bonus and yeah a j ain't nothing but a number and I'm going to match him up with someone else that was kind of counted out recently. And not as bad.

I think a lot of people, a lot of us thought this guy at least had a good chance to win, though the odds were against him. So I'll go with Ricky Simone and how are any Barcellos? How about that? Let's get some veterans in there. Two good fighters, great band and weight matchup. Again, two guys who were very heavily wagered against and came out on top.

You can't count out these veterans. I have apologies to give as well. my apologies are to Alonso Mena Field and my other apology goes to Austin Vanderford because I think I was the only one to pick against either of those two gentlemen No I did I did I picked I picked for it in a cove I'm pretty sure Okay yeah in hindsight that was maybe the worst pick I've ever had I didn't realize I didn't realize this dude had no ground game at all

It really truly none But a man I will not apologize to is Ricky Simone because I believed in Ricky Simone. And I believe I'm the only one on our staff who believed in Ricky Simone. I felt like this is a very winnable fight for him. Did I expect him to just dead Basharat? Hell no. But I thought his wrestling, his grinding style after seeing what Amin Sahabee did to defeat him, I felt like this is a very winnable fight for Ricky Simone. And I'd even factor in the fact that Ricky Simone was fighting a two-hour drive away from his house. I didn't even throw that into into consideration. So that certainly helped as well.

So shout out to Ricky Simone. I went with Mansour Abdul Malik, okay? I went with Mansour Abdul Malik. And the reason I'm going with him is this dude is a powerhouse. He's a freak athlete. The foundation is there. Terrific bones. Everything about this guy just screams.

Like you can build a terrific house here. The problem is he is great. greener than goose shit. Like he is green as grass. He doesn't know how to fight just yet, but he's such a freak that it doesn't matter. His athleticism and his power are just enough. And he's got a great wrestling pedigree.

This fight with Nick Klein was super weird. Because now we learn that Mancer Abdul Malik has the chin of chins. because he ate a full-on 10,000 mile per hour spinning back elbow and didn't go down. Like, I was stunned. After this landed, he just walked through it. And then he battled back, started to pull the trigger a little bit. Eric Dixick's in the corner like, come on, man. Like, do what you do.

And he's like, bet. And he went in there and just, like, the way this fight ended, this was just, you saw Nick Klein's soul leave his body. Because Nick Klein comes in close and it looks like they're going to scramble. And then Mancer Abdul Malik literally puts his hand on his face. Like he's going to give him the iron claw and just stiff arms him to the ground, chucks him down as hard as possible. And Nick Klein just looked at this man and was like, oh no. Something bad's about to happen.

And boy did it. So this cannot be an Edmund Shabazzian situation. I am making this matchup just to make sure that the UFC, books this man appropriately. This is a baby step fighter in this division because he's got to be damn good. This guy could fight for a belt at some point, but we cannot ruin his rise up. So we are going to give Mansor Abdul Malik a matchup against the winner of the co-main event of UFC Vegas 103 AK. Yes, this is the co-main event of UFC Vegas 103 next Saturday. Cody Brundage versus Julian Marquez is the co-main event of UFC Vegas 103.

Let us give Mansour Abdel Malik the winner of that fight. That's the next step. My best friend, you've taken us on yet another journey and the many on our journeys you did. And I'm not sure where we ended up. And I'm a little scared, but I'm also excited, which is probably the sign of a good wild card matchmaking, I think. Yeah, like I just don't, I don't want to see this.

dude get too big of a jump. imploring the UFC matchmakers, do not rush the sky like just one step at a time. Let's just get to the next level, to the next level. You go from Nick Klein to Cody Brunge or Julian Marquez.

These are both guys who could beat him at this point in his career. Like, Julian Marquez is a dangerous cat. Cody Brundage, when he's on, is a tough dude. Like, he's a tough-ass fighter. Can grind it out. I think this is a good next step.

All right. Let's go to the peeps, AK. Let's get right to it. I didn't get a ton. Bullets fire them through. We have a first timer, AK, Max, joins us. Welcome to the party, pal. Welcome to the party.

Max disagrees with me and you and many others. He's saying, let's re-book song, you know, versus Henry Suhudo. Sure, sure. Let's go right to it. It won't happen, but it's, if I could wave a magic wand, I would probably just do it. There's no chance this fight. No, it's not going to happen. He's with me on Fluffy versus.

Whitaker. Rob Fawn versus Venetius Olivera. Interesting matchup. I feel that would be tough scenes for Rob. Kyler Phillips, Gian Matamoto. He's a spoiler. Annesius Olivera and three straight fights. Hey, maybe it'd be tough things for Loke Dogg.

Maybe he's for Loke Dog, man. I don't know. He's a spoiler. He says Gian Silva should go back to lightweight and fight Raphael Fiziv. Golly. I love it. And that's probably John Silva's fate, like, somewhere down the road. It's just like, you know, I think he'll get a title shot.

point maybe it doesn't work out maybe it does but we don't need to have him jump in between weights now again he did have that miss which is why he went up to lightweight for that one fight with dover but i hope his weights on point and we just keep seeing it at featherweight for now yeah he's not a big featherweight either so he's just a freak uh lots of menofield versus navajo sterling i don't like that one i'm sorry i don't know i like you but these men of field picks these man of field picks are just i've got several and you know it's just hilarious had to a fight like that. I don't even know where you,

where you position this guy. Sterling fought Tucococos. Yeah, Tocos. At UFC Tampa and grinded out a three-round decision. Like that, they set up that fight for Navajo to just run that man over and he didn't. So he's a young man.

Yeah. They got something with him. I don't think he'd throw him in there with Alonzo Meneffield just yet. And his bonus pick is Iwan Kuchelaba, who is the vice MVP. If something happens with Gian Silva,

and he cannot fulfill his duties as MVP, then Iwan Kuchelabu will have to step in. First submission win in forever for this guy, and then he was terrific on the microphone. I'm going to give Max a little bit of a pass here. It is his first time. He picked Min Yang Zhang and just kind of left it to that. Zhang is booked against Anthony Smith, obviously.

So I'll give you a pass. But next time, could get a little tough way. He could be thinking like me, when lose or draw? When does her draw, right? Maybe. Yeah. You know, just make sure you put that in there. Let's make sure you put that in there.

Let's go to Chris. He likes Song Yidong versus Umar, Sehudo versus Fond, Hernandez versus Canaanier. Ooh, I'm going to leave that one. I'm sure you got this one too. He likes Gian Silva versus Bryce Mitchell, Kuchelaba versus Bogdan Gooscoff. That sounds terrific. Yep. Costa versus Montel Jackson?

From the division? It says M Jackson. I can't be right. I don't know if there's another Jack. I think he did mean Montel. Let me see. Is there a featherweight M. Jackson? I don't think so.

Oh. Did he mean. No, I don't see. I mean Damon Jackson? Did he mean Damon Jackson? Who also? He's not retiring anymore. Yeah.

And also, didn't he fight it lightweight in his last fight? Maybe he goes back down, you know? For this. Maybe you realize Jim Miller was just too much, too big, too strong. Did Montel fight it? It happens. It happens. It happens.

Abdul Malik versus Al-Hsan. Go right in Al-Asan territory. I have, I do have them ranked right next to each other. And is he not kind of like a young Al-Hassan in a way? Is that, is that a wild comparison to make? There's some similarities. With physicality, the, the rawness. maybe Al Haasam was a little more refined when he came into the UFC, but it was still

kind of raw. I think there was some rawness there. Yeah. It kind of makes sense. Yeah. He looks Pukakis versus Menafield as well. Yeah. This is the one I saved, because I think this is a terrific idea.

For the undisputed middle-weighty, middle-weight title, Brennan-Allen versus Rainier-Durrither. to me He's the Jose Aldo of middleweighty middleweight champions Yeah Multiple title defenses People kept trying to tell me This guy shouldn't be the middleweighty middleweight champion And I'm like, no man

Do you see what happened to his career after You guys forced me into taking the belt off of him Where is he gone? The winning streak is over Yeah Yeah, he's done He has to fight for the belt now We gotta get all in back

To where he was And he did all that damage when he was the middleweighty, middleweight champ. So maybe that's what he needs at this point in his career. I don't know. He'll fight Ryanair at some point. I just don't think it's next. I do like the thinking behind the matchup. It won't be next.

Robbie, Rob Fon v. Chito Verra 2. John Silva versus Nazim Satikoff. I don't know if I'm in, if I have a handker here on Chevara 2. John Silva, John Silva and Azim Satakob. Everyone wants to see him back at lightweight, I guess. no and I like Sattacos isn't a pretty good I don't I just think they're name wise they're pretty far apart yeah I mean Zatikov's coming up a really good win but again why Silva's not gonna go up to lightweight to fight Nizem Sattikov like that's just

where's where's the reward I will say I do I do think people are just trying to make fun matchups for Jansel which I support which I support because we always say not everything should be about oh how do we move someone up the rankings how do we get them towards tell a shot like of course you know ideally you'd want both, right? You want that for Jean Silva that he keeps getting first round knockouts or not necessarily in the first round, just crazy, auspicious knockouts. And, and also, you know, turns itself into a title contender. But I think some people are just taking the attack like, we'll worry about him becoming a title contender. It's later we just want fun fights.

Again, I'm at the point where I'm wanting to move him up the rankings, but I get it. I get where some of these matchups are coming from. He also likes Alonzo Manafield versus whoever, who really cares. Okay. We don't need to go that for it. Or Montel Jackson. wild card Montel Jackson versus Giann Matsumoto. Yeah, like you said, we haven't seen Montel for a while. Yeah, I don't know if I like that one though. It's tough.

Matsumoto, you got something with him? I think. He's young. Chuck him back in there with Montel. That could be tough. I don't know. We'll see. He also says that everyone should check out

the Australian National Rugby League games kicking off their season in Las Vegas next weekend. And he says, if you do, you will have your mind blown. So there you go. A little cheap plug there. Rugby is sick. Rugby is sick.

John Rootsabai versus Jacob Malcun. Sure. Wow. Very middle weighty. That fight's going to end in a super weird way. Vanderford versus shout out to Austin Vanderford. Makes his debut, gets a win. A shove happens and no one's talking about him.

You guys were, you guys talking about how crazy it is that like, you know, if he had been in the contender series like two years after he was on it, he would have been signed right away. Of course. He was in that era. I remember you guys mentioning him. And then I don't even got if you guys mentioned like Chris Curtis. Remember Chris Curtis had like a really good knockout on Contender Series and didn't

get signed? And I was like, that would be wild today. A guy with like 30, 30 pro fights getting a big knockout on the show and not getting signed would not happen today. Impossible. Impossible. And yet weirdly. Weirdly guys with big names, a little buzz behind them back then.

Even with getting a finish didn't get signed. So strange. You don't even have to win on the Contender series anymore. No, it's true. It's crazy. but John likes Vanderford versus Brahebaugh. And I think that's a good fight. Brian Mosch coming off his first career knockout win.

Simone versus Pedro Munoz. I actually, I like that one. Another Mansor Abdul Malik versus Abdul Razak al-Hsan choosing. Costa versus Kyle Nelson, Kutalaba versus Bukascus, Menafield versus Gooskhov. Silva versus the Josh Emmett, Lorone Murphy, loser. Loser. Okay, I had said loser for Zalalal, but, okay.

Fair enough. Rob Font versus, boy, Mario Batista. I feel like Mario Batista might be the most impossible guy in this division of match. What did you do for him last time? Do you remember? For Mario Batista. Coming off the Aldo, quote unquote, win? I think I gave him Montelraxon.

Maybe. I know I just said run it back. I mean, I was so annoyed. I was like, no. I just walked him. Yeah. I think I gave him like the worst possible match. Okay, okay.

And main event, I consider a draw, so I will not match big for that. We will end with... Making a statement. Hey, if they'd taken the point away, if they'd taken the point away, Mike, and still gone to a decision, majority draw. Yeah. Majority draw.

Yeah. Majority draw. Leplane. Song versus font. If it had been a finish or non-controversial fight, he would get Umar, but I think they'll just rebook this.

Did they book, try to book... I was going to ask, sorry. Yeah, I was going to ask you, what, where is the... It feels like they've been around for so long. It must have at some point. I, maybe.

No, I don't see it. Those two have both been along for around forever. Did he mean, well, Rob Font was supposed to fight. Who was Ralph on this card? Oh, Dominic. Robb. You're supposed to fight Dominic, yeah. Okay, yeah, I see it here.

I see it on topology. UFC 292. UFC 292. Oh, okay. That's right. That's right. They pulled that's right. They pulled Font from Boston to fight Corey Sanhagen after Umar couldn't fight.

In Nashville, I believe. But it turned out Song. was injured anyway, so Rob wouldn't have been fighting on that card. I remember this. I remember this now. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Now make it. I'd like to see it. So Hudo versus Aldo, period. Dana, I think Dana White said at his post-fight press coverage that Aldo and Sean O'Malley want to fight each other. And if that's the case,

ding ding, ding the Otno point for me. Oh, yeah. That's been my choice. John Silva versus Bryce Mitchell, Meadowfield versus Kuchelaba for maximum goofiness. Ibo Azlan versus Yvon Ervon. Thank you. I support the name gimmick from AK. He also likes Melky versus Melzick. More name gimmicks needed.

Oh, Melky and Melcich. Yes, I actually got confused when I was taking my notes for this. I was like, I kept having to like, can I just write this name down? Okay, yeah, I like it. Melky versus Melcette. That's good. Mansor versus Cody Brundage after the Marquez fight this weekend, just to see if Brundage could get another back of the headshot, no contest slash DQ.

Wow, what a weird. whatever gets you going. Veretnikov to the GFL. Guys, stop matchmaking for the GFL. There is no GFL, okay? It's an idea. Roots of Bive, stay in 85, fight, CLD, winner, lose, UFC, London,

Bukascus versus Dust of Jacobi. I thought about this as my wildcard, AK. I almost pulled the trigger, but I had to just make sure Mansour got match made correctly. And it is a Ricky Simone matchmaking suggestion, AK. Ricky Simone versus Cody No Love Garbrandt.

I mean, yeah, he's got a Cody. I was looking at Cody because when I was doing my rankings, I wasn't sure whether to rank Suhudo ahead of him. This is where I am. This is where we are with the Suhudo experience in my world, by the way. I know people would still rank Suhudo in the top 20 based off of the Sterling comeback fight, like how competitive that was. I'm not interested in hearing that.

I have Suhudo like outside of my top. 30. He doesn't want to fight this 2020, guys. I don't care how close to Sterling fight was. He didn't win it, at least according to the judges. And I have him and Garberant, like, neck and neck, like right next to each other. That's so, I don't know. So,

this was Cody versus Ricky. Ricky Simone. It could happen. It could happen. Cody sells a name, too. If you're Ricky, you're like, you're definitely signing up for that. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation, here we come.

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Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever, plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. On to you, AK. Oh my gosh. I got so many. People are crazy. Okay, I'm going to have to run through the. I'm not going to read every one top to bottom. There's just so many. Clearest values, hilarious. He wants five rounds of Metafield and Kudelava at the UFC Apex. He said, I would take out loans just to have Zuckerberg at the Apex that night. That would be magical.

That would be a magical evening. So thank you, Clearous Values. Braden O'Neill. Let's see if we got anything new here. Hernandez versus Vitori DeLise II winner. Yeah, again, I'm kind of along the same lines. It's just a weird, Fluffy's in such a weird situation where he deserves the top five guy, but gosh, it's hard to shake those guys loose.

Brennan Allen versus RDR. All right, so I'm alone and thinking that that's not next. You have to do it. Like, we just have to. Someday, it doesn't have to be next. Jan Silva and Steve Garcia insanely sick fight. Garcia was supposed to fight Edson Barbosa, obviously, on this card. It could happen.

It feels like Gian has more to lose there. But I also think he doesn't care. He just does not care. That's a sick. fight um what else we got here there's another simone and rickie bucassas versus umar c that's kind of interesting uh ruzaboyev versus oh no what is this versus matthews i don't know is there a middleweight matthews because i are you telling jake to go up to 180s oh oh i think because maybe he thought oh it's five well maybe he thought this fight was at welterweight because rizabov just fought at welterweight

and then, but he came back up to 185 for this fight. I don't want to see him go back down to 170. So I'm okay with this. There's no do-do at all. Roods-Avive said in his post-fight interview with Michael Bisving, anybody at Walter Wade or Middleweight. Wow. So he does.

He wants to bounce around. All right, right. Maybe, you know what? Because he did drop down to fight Joaquin. I think he was, he wasn't favored against Joaquin, right? But it wasn't like a, I remember it was, it was definitely thought to be like a competitive matchup. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. It just was like one of those weird fights that came together super quickly. And we were like, this fight's not happening because Roots 5, no way Rootsby has got a big 170. And he did. So good on them. It probably wasn't fun. Wow, just according to topology, it was only plus plus 115. So like it was pretty almost a pick. Almost a pick him. Okay.

So yeah, maybe he's not done at Welcherey. All right. Good job, Brad. DGB. What is up, DGB? Vanderford Basel-Hapes, sure. Font Barcellos, I like it,

yeah, Songya Dong, Cheeto 2. Okay. Good one that fix me. Why would Rob Font fight Hione-Barsellos? Why?

Why not? Because he's like a top 10 bannam weight. How many's like in the top 25? That's a rough fun. That's insane. Rob fun. I think Ruffin will fight anyone.

I don't think he's the kind of, But this is silly. It's that or they keep throwing guys like loch dog out. Like so hoodo would make way more sense. I like it. I just don't. I don't know. I just don't see the U.S.

being interested in. And I don't see font or Sehudo like campaigning particularly hard for it. If I hear font mention it publicly, I'm all in. I just, I don't know. It's weird. I don't still feel like he's like. No, I mean, give Sehudo Hione and give Rob somebody else. Oh.

I mean, but I mean, Sehudo's not going to care about fighting Hone either. Uh, what is this? Riani was from yesterday. Not sure you guys caught this women's bantamway fight on the cards for now. I don't know what this means. Josian Nunes versus, oh, okay. This might not have been from any, Riani. Thank you for the note.

Just, just mentioning. We're so back. Fighting Priscilla Cachewara. That's me a good fight. I don't tell it, okay, if there is anybody that Josian Nunes could get a highlight reel against, it is someone who should never be unemployed from the UFC. And that is Priscilla Kachewara. Even though she has cheated multiple times,

she has gone over the cheating. She's gotten past it. And now she gets got about as well as anybody else in women's MMA can. So, yeah, we're back. You're so back, AK. I say this unironically. That's going to be a really good women's phantom wage fight. I know we knocked the division a lot.

Like Josian Nunes and Priscilla Kutra is being fun as F. That is going to be a really fun fight. Okay. Finn Hamilton. He's got a lot of notes after listening. He made some mistakes. I didn't have time to vet these guys. I'm sorry.

Modestus Bukascus, Vitor Petrino. Did that not? They didn't fight already, right? I thought they did. I thought we did. Don't, don't tell me this is no. They did. Finn.

That's a two. Yeah. No, no, he nixed it. November 2023. Okay, in fact, he did. Okay, so that's one of the things he said. Oops, he said, whoops, that was doo-do. Don't worry, Finn.

I had huge doo-doo this week. So, okay, all right, they did. He already corrected it, Finn, so don't worry. Aslan-Ehraslan. Yep, that's what I keep calling for. Abdel Mazzaa. Yeah, so it's a lot of stuff we've seen. Anything in here jumping out of me, Hernandez, John Strickland.

Is there a Katrina moving to heavyweight? I hope so. That's great. I would love it. A lot of Pixar, right? Thank you, Finn. Speezy 32. What else we got here?

Run it back, Song and Henry, Fluffy and Sean Strickland. Fontaldo, two. Zero chance of that happens. I'm so sorry. And it was a good fight the first time around. I cannot imagine the UFC having any interest in booking that again. Melke versus Nate Landwer. I like any Nate Landwer matchup, but that wouldn't be near my top.

Sorry. Ricky Simone, Charles Jodin. Yes, because Charles is down at 135. that. I don't mind that. In Montreal? Perhaps. Makes more sense than my Montreal pick.

Thanks, Speezy. Gustavo Martinez, Ron Silva, and Nate Land were, I need to see this fight, but Gian is just so far ahead of Nate in the rankings right now. Again, Jan wouldn't say no.

I just, if I'm his management and I'm the UFC matchmaker, like, let's at least try and think of him as a possible title contender. And I love Nate. He's just not in that sphere right now.

Down the road, please God, give us John Silver. the mainland where that's so stupidly insane. Austin Vanderford and Thumba Carimbo. The Rock's best friend versus Paige Van Zanz's husband. How's that sound for a headline? Is that selling you?

I actually think it's pretty good. That's actually not bad. It's kind of interesting. That's pretty good. Gustavo, you may have been on to something here. I kind of like that. I didn't know how I honestly did not know how to matchmake for Austin Vanderford. This might be.

this might be the perfect pick that ain't bad that's one of my favorite who is this this is Gustavo Martinez Gustavo well done you might have won

on to the next one yeah this week that's really good this pick that's really good Marcus McGahy what is up song and Aldo

I really want to see it I don't know how oh did he do did he do do do do do do do do do do do do brothers fought and Zahavi all right no

Marcus Marcus Marcus I am with you we you know what I'm changing my pick back. Forget Daniel Marcos. I'm changing my pick back to Zahavi. I'm not alone in this, apparently. Maybe there's some, you know, maybe there's some try star infighting.

Maybe, maybe for us spent a little too much time with Rob. So bad. And aiming got pissed. And now it's battle for the brother's attention. I don't know. I don't know. Marcus, I'm with you, man. I totally messed that up.

Malki is Sadiq Yusuf. Oh, that's a big step up. But nice win against Philly. Philly's a veteran. Maybe that makes sense. That's actually, you know, maybe that makes sense. I don't hate that. When is the last time.

Suddegguse has fought anybody. I don't know. I think he's another guy. It feels like it's been a while. I don't mind it. Dude, was it, no,

couldn't have been a long ago. He's lost two in a row. He's lost, he's two and three in his last five. He beat Bruce Leroy and Don Channis, and his losses are to Arnold Allen, Edson Barbosa, and Diego Lopez.

So could be one of those where you at fights for Sadiq. Maybe it needs to be tested, see where he's at. Fluffy versus Reiner de Ritter. Oh, someday. Someday. Not next. It's not having next.

God willing, someday, we see that madness. Thanks, Marcus. Thomas Collins, Song and Umar, Jean-Sillo, Bradshaw, sure, sure. Rob Fland, Marcus McGee, I thought about this.

Again, I, again, Rob can be put up against anyone. And especially guys who are, like, climbing up the ranks, it could easily happen. So, uh,

Barry O'Reilly, uh, yes, I have recovered from the Celtic loss to Bayern Munich, but I am reeling from the Celtic loss to her, and so it just keeps coming on. Modestis Bukascus, Rockets, huge jump up.

Huge jump up. I don't know. Austin, Vanderpher, Tim Means. I don't think it happens yet. I don't think it happens yet. It's not terrible. I don't think it's a terrible pick. Is Tim still fighting?

Did he officially retire? I think he is fighting, no? I mean, maybe. I just don't, I don't remember. That's a good question. I don't recall it, I'm just googling real quick. No, no, no retirement.

Sorry, I'll keep going through this. Kutalaba, Dustin Jacoby, run it back. Yeah. That's a bit, it's been sometimes. And I remember enjoying that first fight. So, you're on Silva Arnold Allen. So Barry says, I am ready to give Silva a title shot now. But I guess you'll need a fight or two before that.

I roll emoji. This is a guaranteed banger. Most of the division's matched up. So okay with the big step up. Yeah, I don't know why I just kind of ruled out Arnold Allen, but he is free. And if you want to give Giansela in the top 10,

damn, maybe it is Arnold Allen. I don't know. Thanks, Barry. Four corner sports. What do we got here? Sehudo, Aldo, retirement for Sehudo. Might be a retirement for Aldo, too.

Let's be real here. Brennan Allen, RDR, Mike, people want it. Rob Font and Lochdog. Gian Matsumato, Saida, Nirmagamette of Medov. Modisip Koskis, Hodolfo, the Lato. All right, don't mind it.

I got a lot on Instagram as well Blake Lewitt, what is up, my friend, San Suhudo rematch, Jan Silva. John Silva, Cater, I just think you can't.

Cater's about four straight losses now, right? Yeah. Yeah, something can go through that direction. Metafield, Fuscov. Gerard, Biauggan, what is up,

Gerard, Fluffy and Canaaner. I could see it happening, we're just not like super excited about it. Like, Brendan Allen, Bonickle? Too much too soon?

Yeah, I don't love it. Not yet. Maybe another win. We could do something like that. One of our colleagues suggested at our Slack channel is like, the UFC should do Fluffy Hernandez versus Bo Nickel. I'm like, yeah, the UFC eight ever put, this is no chance, man.

We're three years away from UFC putting Bo Nickel in front of a guy like Fluffy Hernandez. It's just not going to happen. Tino Alvarez, what do we got here? Melki and Duho Choi. Interesting, interesting. Rob Fonta, but he still, yeah, we've kind of batted that one around a little bit. Hernandez versus Vitori after Oh, he's picking Votori to just beat Deleizze

and have it be a five-rounder. They go Apex Main Event, right? And Song and Umar. Thank you. Harry Newhouse, last one on Instagram. Songs of Hoodo, run it back. What else is here? Font McGee.

I actually like that one. Now that people are mentioning it. Abdul Malik-Sizzer Al-Meda. Yeah, again, you want to see a little bit of a Haas battle, sure. I think they train together. Oh, it's possible. Okay. So, anyway, just Harry, throwing it out there.

Vanderford, Puna, Sourri. I don't mind it. Punez looked real good at one. He has. He has. Ruzaboyev, Gerald Mearshirt? I mean, if you want to, if you want him to lose, Rizabayev, I mean, yeah, sure. I don't know how to feel about that one.

That's a lot of subs between two guys. Rizaboyev 20 career submission wins. Gerald Mearsherstow, what, like 100, I think, career submission wins. Some of that. That's a lot. I don't mind it, but I just, I would love to see if it, if I guarantee they're going to grapple, like, yeah, give it to me. And just, I got a trio here from some regulars on email. Thank you guys.

Jay, Donagie, how about them prelums? How about them prelums? We are checking the tapes from December 2020. I guess this is when I first said this, Mike. This is when your best friend said, I'd rather see Patty Pimblet fight Ricky Waters than Michael Chandler. So there you go. And apparently I said it may not happen next. but it will happen.

So there you go. Hernandez and Izzy, again, I don't mind this matchup. I just think he's going to have to wait for Izzy. And Hernandez, he just can't wait right now. He can't wait. I don't see Izzy fighting in the next six months. And I would like to see Fluffy's fight sometime in the next six months. So I get it.

I understand. Metafil Giancuchelab, let them brawl. Simone and Jonathan Martinez. That's not a training. No, no, no. No, no. Yeah, that's fine. Okay.

Thank you, Jay. Thank you. Tristan, what's up? Our old pal, Tristan. He also wants a dual Malikin Almeda. So we got to look at that training situation. Simone Montel Jackson, 2. Simone Montel Jackson, too.

Thank you for, I did, I had to remember this. UFC 27, August 2018. So it's been a long time. Maybe, maybe it's time. Maybe run it back, sure. Ricky won that fight, right? Ricky won the first one. Yeah, you know, I'm position.

That was Montel's debut, was it not? probably yeah montaile took that fight on like super short notice man even that was his debut and it was a fun that was a really fun fight even more reason to run it back great to great pick there tristan and we'll close out with kacy carwood what's up kacey first off great work for all of you lately as always most important pick is the trinity the trilogy we all need bring back the pleasure man to finally give us pleasure and him beating oslan again i guess they fought before the ufc is this is this is this they fought in the but they must have fought also before because like trilogy right okay they fought for brave so they fought in brave it hurt my soul during all the ibo aslan packages to see the pleasure man getting dead

uh so good good pick there because i don't think i don't remember i thought he was in the gfell trap can't remember if he got picked i assume he was because it's frigging pleasure man but for some reason he wasn't picked absolutely run that back one more time banderford brian battle oh wow maybe vanderford like wasn't really good middle the late in Belta. I know we all laughed because like he got murderedized by he got murderedized by Musassi and like the Beltaur middleweight division is not incredibly strong. I understand but he was a

he had a decent run there. He shouldn't have been a middleweight. He shouldn't have been in well. Now he's back at 170 maybe maybe this is right. Brendan Allen Paulo Costa. I can see it. I can see it. John Strickland Fluffy. I don't mind Hernandez Paula Costa either by the way. No, no that's that's a good one too. Song you Dong O'Malley. If O'Malley does doesn't get the title shot.

No chance. He says Dong versus Song Yadong versus font as his official pick. Silva versus Halal, halal. Halal. Halal. Zalal. I don't know. I'm going to assume, Casey, you meant Zolal.

Worst, but in the night winner, Meadowfield versus the whole, who's the, oh, you won and Matsumato, Matsumoto and Demosoto. moment blocks here. So there you go. A lot of picks. Yosa Seattle. See how really good card. Really good card apparently. Again, I've said, I didn't watch. I'll go back and watch them for sure. Very unfortunate we just had controversy at the end with the way the main event ended and one of

the strangest, but in that picks in recent memory. So Mike, I'm sorry. There's no putting it off anymore. There's no putting off your next task. Thanks for joining us. Next week, we will be back to discuss the

follow from UFC see Vegas 103 and boy oh boy listen to this fucking lineup made event good one manal cop versus assu elmabayev it's not brandon roi ball this fight could we could be taking to slog city real quick uh or menel cop does menel cop things and it ends rather quickly but if we get past like the seven minute mark yeah was there co-made event cody brundage versus julian marquez Penultimate. Penultimate. That is the most penultimate. It's not a Komei. It's not a stop. William Go Me versus Hyder Emile. I like this fight. Good fight. Hyder Amil could, by the way, if Hyder Amil wins, he should fight in Atlanta.

And even if he loses, he should still fight. Danny Barlow versus Sam Patterson, Nazrat Hat-Prasse versus Esteban Rievovich. That should be okay. Like Rievich is coming off a, when many believe was the fight of the year last year, definitely the round of the year. And how do you kick off a main card like this, A.K.? There's only one way you can do it.

With heavyweights, Austin Lane versus Mario Pinto, kicks off the main card in the featured prelim, Montana de la Rosa versus Luana Carolina. Before that, Lucas Almeida versus Danny Silva.

Before that, you want to talk about impressive streaks, A.K. How about Andrew Lee? Five fight losing streak taking on J.J. Aldrich. That's a fight that's happening as well. This is a good one. Charles Johnson versus Ramazon Temeroff. That's good fight. Douglas Silva Dan Droz versus John Cassadena and Ricardo Hamos versus Chepe Mariscall. Is the first fight of the... What the... What? How is this the first fight of the card? All right, a few things. I will say this card is not.

Did we get a graphic? Did we get a UFC? They never did a UFC Vegas 103 graphic. We got the main car. The main car is exactly what I read on. That's locked in. They showed it last night and we were like, whoa, this is, this is something that's happening.

Okay. Yeah. Oh, no. Okay. Okay. No. This is where we're at here. They changed the light up.

I don't know. Rundage Marquez still the penultimate fight. Hackparas Rievich, the featured bout. Lane Pinto, no longer the opener. They said, you know what? Too damn good to be the opener. Let's move it up to the third fight of the main card. Hyder Amil versus William Gomi is the opening main card fight.

I thought it was a six-fight one. I don't, dude. I still think this could be changed. Like, people should know we normally get emails for the like, oh, here's what's going on on Saturday, ESPN, UFC event. that's when we get like the quote unquote finalized finalized cards so I'm going to wait till this upcoming Thursday before I'm sure what happens though I can't imagine them changing too much obviously we have our main event I think they'll keep brundage Marquez in the penultimate spot hack press rivets should stay on the main card they're definitely going to keep the heavyweights on there Charles Johnson should probably be on the main it should be they're fly weights so they don't respect them but you know now that you run down the card Mike it's not horrible and I think I'll talk myself more into it throughout fight week as I often do. It's definitely just lacking, of course, in name power

and in fights that have any real, like, substantial stakes. That's probably the tough style is you have people who are going to win and they'll move up from number 45 in their division to number 41. And it's like, wow, that gets the fans going. I will say this, though. I feel a little bit better about things. Not much, but a little. 4 p.m. Eastern start time.

So we get a little bit of solace there. And who knows, Wayans could happen. We could lose a fight or two this week. If we can get this down to like nine fights at a 4 p.m. Eastern start time. Like this is, you might be cooking with gas here. But until then, perhaps not. But yeah. We are, this is, by the way, this is the car that is going to sell UFC 313 to the masses.

So just throwing that out there. This is the go-home show for UFC 313, which is. goes down in 13 days from right now. But that'll do it here. We will see you back next week for maybe the quickest episode of onto the next one we've ever had. Following UFC Vegas 103 for A.K.I. and Mike Heck, always remember the golden rule.

Don't take the stuff too seriously. I'm going to be fun. We'll have more fun after UFC Vegas 103 right here. And on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to luxe beauty and fragrance sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point.

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