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

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

Johnny Walker entered the UFC Shanghai main event with Zhang Mingyang as a massive underdog and left the octagon after the fight a winner after earning an upset second-round TKO victory. Is Walker now poised to make a run in the light heavyweight division, and should he get his wish of fighting former champ Jan Blachowicz next? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and guest host Jed Meshew discuss what's next for Walker after his big win in Saturday's headliner. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Aljamain Sterling following his lopsided victory over Brian Ortega in the catchweight co-main event, Sergei Pavlovich after his decision victory against Waldo Cortes-Acosta in the heavyweight featured bout, along with fellow main card winners Sumudaerji, Taiyilake Nueraji, and more. All of that, plus listener picks to close out the show. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠@m_heckjr⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠@JedKMeshew⁠ 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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I am Mike Kacken joining me this week. week. The new co-host, at least for today, the new co-matchmaker. I don't know if he's the prince positivity. I don't know why the music keeps going on in the background. I get my own music. I get my own entrance music. Jed Mishu is here by best friend substitute since Alexander Cayley is on a much needed, much-deserved vacation from the wonderful world in mixed martial arts. And Jed, how are you doing on this Sunday morning? First off, shout out to AK. Hope, hope Roma is treating you well. Looks like it is based on some photos.

Good. I, so I did not watch, I watched a couple of the undercard actions. I, I wake up every morning, around six, five or six, depending on like just when I roll out before,

as I almost always beat my alarm clock. And yesterday was no exception. I woke up at like 5.30. So got up, you know, did a few things. And then tuned. in for the main card. So it's all the main card action. And I have since, I don't know if you know this,

Mike. There's a pretty good website out there. It's called M.AFighting.com. Got to catch up on some of the big highlights. My former boy, Demoli door, tough loss, great win for Kyle Dawkes. My current boy, you know, pretty tough for Lonnie Kavanaugh. I got to see some of the great highlights. I've caught up a little bit. I'm not all the way caught up, but I'm good enough to be dangerous today. And so I'm excited to put the matchmaking hat on, confident we will have no friends forever moments. Well, we shall see. Let's get right into it and let's discuss what could be next for Johnny Walker. You know, Jed, it's kind of funny. Sometimes we go on shows and we look at a fighter and we see the talent that this fighter possesses. And then we say publicly, you know what might help this fighter?

If he went to a different gym. What are you talking about? And Johnny Walker is a guy who, you know, he's at a renowned gym with good coaches and good training partners. But sometimes you just need to change a hold a little bit. You need a new hold. You need a new look. And with a guy as talented as Johnny Walker, perhaps he needed to shift gears a little bit to a different team and just kind of get a new look. And wouldn't you know it, Jed? How crazy is this?

He went on and did that. and then he went out and won a fight. It's insane how that works. It's not disrespectful when you say that. It's just sometimes you need a little change of pace. And Johnny Walker went and did that. He headed on over to Extreme Gator, took some time, got better, improved himself, got some new voices in his ear.

And wouldn't you know it, Jed? A talented guy who changed course a little bit went out and got a relevant win. a huge win in fact Johnny Walker for his relevancy goes out as a massive underdog and stops Ming Yang Zhang in the main event. It is insane how that can work in MMA.

But Johnny Walker gets a huge win. It's unheard of. It's truly unheard of when suggestions like that are made and then they go through with it and then it works out. It's friggin hilarious how that happens. But we are not experts as some people like to tell but Johnny Walker called out Janbovich wanted to get a piece of the legendary Polish power. Do you like this idea?

Is that what you went with? What is next for Johnny Walker after this massive win? It is not what I went with, but I love the call out from Johnny Walker. You guys talked about a little in the post show, which I did listen to yesterday, or almost all, not to have like the last 15. I think it's a terrific callout because like nobody is. going to call out Jan Belhovic. They never do because you

shouldn't, right? Like he's got it, he's a former champion and he has a big name and a fairly high ranked number, right? Like, I believe he's five in the UFC's lightweight rankings. But no fighter. Like, the last dude to look good against Jan was Glover. Like, do you

just nobody looks good fighting him? You might win, but ask Carlos Holberg, like, ask Alex Pereira. Like, you might win, but it's going to be a slog. people are going to be like, wow, that wasn't what we were anticipating. And so, like, he might get it because he picked the right name. They've both been around long enough that you could sell it.

So that may well happen. It's not what I went with because as great a win as this was for Johnny Walker, credit to him, I mean, just fantastic turnaround. I still think, you know, one win does not make a streak. And I still think he is in, uh, defend his territory. position as opposed to advance up the ranks position and so you know he is

currently number 13 he held he held serve against number 14 I'm going to give another up-and-comer we're going to try and do what they just tried to do with Zhang Ming Yang with another guy he is currently booked

but I know the rules Mike I know how to not do do and so Navajo Sterling is fighting Hidalfo Balato. He is going to beat Hidalvo Balato and Navajo Sterling

the city kickboxing standout contender series signee. Guys got a big gym behind him, a gym that the U.S. he beats Adolfo

Balato. They're going to give him Johnny Walker and try and get this kid moving into the title picture. That is what I went with. Wow. I did not see that coming

for a mile away. I got to tell you. I like the gust of here. I can't lie to you. If they're going to get a good way to do it. Look, I'm, I'm a reserve player, you know,

like when, when you're a third stringer, you're not coming out there to make form tackles, you know, like you, oh, oh, player got hurt,

you got to go get in there. You're trying to put some film on tape, trying to make an impression to get called back. I got to shoot, you know, shoot big, Navajo Sterling. That's my first one.

I love that pick. I'm actually going to give Johnny Walker what he wants here, because like you said, no one calls out Janbovich. And yes, I understand rankings are what they are and the number means something to some people. But the number next to the name sometimes does not mean exactly where they stand in this division. And I think Janboovic, as cool as he is,

and the name and the legendary Polish power, the gimmicks incredible, I think he is so incredibly far from a title fight right now. It's just not really close. he's probably got to win like three fights before that happens. So I think the UFC just kind of has to see what they have with Johnny here. I mean, it's not like Johnny has been in the UFC for two years. He's been in the UFC for quite some time at this point.

And if this truly is, hey, this is Johnny Walker 2.0. We're really going on a title run here. Let's see, man. There's a lot worse you can do at 205 right now, considering the crop of contenders. I mean, I know there's a little bit of a log jam, but shit, let's just throw Johnny in the mix and see what happens. He goes to beat John Boehovic. It's a big win that we can throw him in with the... We could be very close to a potential Johnny Walker-Hri-Prahashka fight

and who the hell wouldn't want to see that. So let's go from Yon to Yeri and then maybe to a title fight. Who the hell knows? So that's what I went with. I got to tell you I was pretty close to just say an F at Yeri for the fun of it. So if your fight gets as close to Yeri versus Johnny, I mean, because that Johnny Walker and Yer-Pra-R-R-R-Pra. Haska is real fun for however long that last.

Probably not long, but it's, it's a wild kooky time. It sure is. Let's go to the featherweight division. Al Jermaine Sterling, the former Bannamweight champion is now two and one at featherweight. Actually, he's one in one of featherweight and he's one and oh at 153 pounds. He just, he just annihilated Brian Ortega. This fight was not fun. It was not close.

I don't really blame Al Jameen that much because Ortega just handed him a win on a silver platter and at this point in alger's career you got to take that and run with it uh he did land some fun moves he landed the the spinning back elbow and how crazy with that aband if brian ortega was a human being and that landed against anybody else because aljo would have had a spinning back elbow KO more than likely massive win over ortega i know ortega there's some people who put like a little bit of an asterisk nice to it i don't uh alger could just said f you i'm not fighting and all would be well i don't think anyone would have complained but but Aljo went in there and it did the thing.

And this, it won all five rounds. And it was not even competitive. So I think the UFC owes him a little bit. Hopefully he got some more money for accepting this fight at 153 pounds. He already told me he didn't get any extra money for fighting five rounds that he would have made fighting three. So hopefully that was rectified with the Brian Ortega way in drama. And I think this is pretty simple.

You could give him the title fight. I don't think they're going to, I don't think this performance is enough to jump Lorone Murphy. But timing is perfect. John Silva's fighting Diego Lopez at Nocha UFC. Whoever wins that fight, throw him in there against Aljo. I believe John Silva will probably win. And then you do Aljo versus Silva in a legit, clear-cut title eliminator at 145 pounds.

I don't hate it again. I knew I knew this is where we're going. Almost did it, but it just, I don't know. I've got the strangest feeling that that won't happen for some reason. And so I am going to something very different. And I don't know that this will happen. But I kind of just want to see it, Mike. Kind of just want to see it.

Give me Al Jermaine Sterling and Yaiyir Rodriguez. Okay. Let's, you know, Yair, if the winner of that can fight for a belt, sure. Right? Like they kind of tried to do it with Yairier. Sort of fell apart. Aljo's been on the cusp. I know that that would, it can be a situation like middleweight currently is where you've got, you know,

John, Laurel Murphy appears to be the next guy up. You've got Jean-Silvin Diego Lopez fighting and you've got, and you do Aljo versus Yair. Whoever is the most impressive winner of those two, book that guy against the winner of Lerow Murphy, Alexander Volkanovsky. Yeah, I don't mind that either. I don't know what's going on at the Yair at this point. Federer's going to start picking up again because Yair is going to fight again. Arlen's supposed to, I know, like in the next month or two, he should be cleared to book a fight.

So he'll be back in the mix, which would be really nice. And look, you could throw Yai, if Aljo fights the Silva Lopez winner, Yaya can fight the loser. Like, all those things are fine. You can do Yair versus Arnold Allen. I don't think anyone's going to be too upset about that. There's just lots of fun ways you can build fights at 145 pounds because it's a damn fun division. honest to God forgot about Arnold Allen existing and I love Arnold Allen I know he just does not compete yeah he's become like the Jared cantonyere of featherweight and just because Arnold Allen is going to have to fight the winner of use of the law Josh Schmidt which got announced that's what he's going to be doing yeah because that fight will he'll be available to fight in eight months when that what fighter is ready to go whatever yeah and Aljo hurt his elbow I don't know how long he's going to be out for so I don't I think John Silva versus Diego Lopez is going to be a heater and both guys won't be coming back pretty quick from that fight.

So maybe the timing works out good, especially of Volk fights in December against Lorone Murphy. 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. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots?

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Two-in-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-hraxia, but I didn't pick Waldochaz-A-Costa because I was confident he beats Ariya Pavich. I mean, it would have been nice, but I just know that Waldo's going to fight at least one more time, maybe two before the year is over. So I think we get a couple good, a couple more cracks at the Waldo-Cortez-A-Costa game. But Pavich wins the decision. This is a different guy that we've seen a few years back. And the guy who fought Tom Aspinall,

was just nuking everybody in 15 seconds every time he fought. Now he's fighting a little more composed. The win is more important than the highlight reel. And Sergei gets it done. Jed, look at this guy. He's come out of nowhere and he's back. He's making his way back. So what do we do with your guy, Sergey Pavlach?

How do we build upon the fantasy points he received here? I'm doing him dirty is what's happening. A huge supporter of what he's accomplished. and a big fan of that W, he's got himself a streak going. Two is a streak. We love a streak. I just don't think he's close to fighting for the title right now, given Tom Aspenol is the champion.

And I would like to see the two of them fight with, you know, not like a, hey, you guys are fighting on three days notice. Pavlovich was preparing for John Jones or Steep A. And then it's like, J.K., Tommy Aspinall comes in. So, like, maybe give the man a little bit more notice, then that fight might be more competitive, certainly. But I think that he's probably just deep in line right now. And looking at the sort of laid out heavyweight matchups currently,

it was hard to find the right place for him. I'm like, okay, if Jailtena Meda beats Volkov, he's fighting for the belt. And if Volkov wins, like, I guess he could fight. I don't know. So I went different. I was like, you know what, let's give another guy a crack to move up, guy who's on a decent little run right now. Guy Sergei will probably beat, but when he beats him, it's a top seven win.

It's Marcyne Taibura. Give me Sergei Pavlovich, Marcine Taibura. That is the main event of an APEC show all day long. So we're kind of lockstep here, but you dropped a little doo-do, Jed, unfortunately. Because Marching Taibor is fighting at the next UFC event. Oh, is he? He's fighting anti-Delijah at UFC Paris. Oh my God, I forgot all about that.

That's definitely due to then. So I'm on a similar. The winner of Morsesid Taubour and DiLaja. Cue the band, baby. Yes. Pavlovich versus the Taibor of Delajia winner. I think it just makes sense. And Pavlovich hasn't fought either of those guys, which is fun because Pavvich has fought

everybody else at this point. So it's really hard to find matchups for him. And after Tyborup beat Mick Parkin, I was like, well, this is the fight anyways. and then they went in different directions with both guys. So we could maybe get back to it. So let's go. Heavy weight? We're in the same.

We're in the same zone. I'm just bad at this. I'm not a professional. I'm not a professional. This is when the third stringer comes in and he drops the easy interception. It hits him square in the numbers and he gets too excited that he's about to get a pick six. And instead it goes right through his hands. The ball tumbles to the ground and he's sprinting.

And then he puts his hand. on his head. Oh, no, I could have made the roster. Now we didn't. You're watching hard knocks if you couldn't tell. I can tell. Yeah. So many football analogies. It's fantastic. Now we're going to get a little weird here. Sumerger gets a nice win at flyweight. Took on Kevin Borhaus and Kevin Boras decided, you know what?

I'm going to go all the way to Shanghai and just not fight. I'm just not even going to try. And Sumer Deergy pieced him up. when Borhouse decided to try, it just wasn't enough. Consumd Energy looked two-way classes bigger than him. It was just a good, solid win. And I went with Andre Lima, Jed. Andre Lima, why not?

Let's have a good time. We were really close to being there, which is in shame, an absolute shame that I didn't go for. Not what I did. It felt like maybe a step back for Andre Lima, who's on a good run. So instead I'm again, this is a sumadereji good for you.

You are still in not we're not pushing you territory. You are now a better stepping stone for somebody else. And that's somebody else man who just lost to Josh Van. Ray Saruya kid I like a lot. Needs a W and Sumadherjee's kind of guy who he'll get some good work in. It'll be good effort. And so yeah, Ray Saruya. That's a good pick.

What about Ty Leaki Newaraji, who I mean, man cheated. Man certainly cheated. He got two points taken from him. He did try. And then one immediately. Yes. Luckily, he was fighting Kiefer Krasby, so it didn't really matter. Kiefer kind of knew that I have to fight.

I can't just take a DQ because I might just get released from the UFC if I do this. So he went in there and try as he might. He was finished about 10 seconds later. So where did you go at this? Because this is the definition of an on to the next one, dart throw. I think that this is some of my finest work because, yes, it's a dart throw. Does this fight make sense? Only in one very specific way, Mike.

And it's a very specific way that is very specific to me. Mike, you may, I don't know if you listen to No Bet's Bard this past week, but it was a wonderful episode. I had multiple parlayes in play. one of those parlays was the fun hat parlay because our boy knew irajji's got a fun hat and i was very excited about that for him he ended up getting the w uh urin sotabaldeev also had a fun hat also got a w can't put them together welterweight and light heavyweight not the same

but there is a welterweight out there with the fun hat or few of them but there's a welterweight out there in this kind of range we're looking for with a fun hat his name Mick Debeck Oralby. Oh my. McDebeck Oralby versus Nuraji. Nobody will be able to pronounce this.

We're going to get John Anick his work. He is going to earn his paycheck and they're both going to wear fun hats and it's going to be a good time. Oh, wow. Maybe we're just throwing this man to the wolves that I and I respect it.

Let's do it. Absolutely respect it. And I love how you have Oralby. He's just automatically a welterweight now, which I completely agree with. He should be. for the basis of this program, he will be a welterweight until he fights again.

He should be. There's no reason for him not to be. Yes. Neweraji, at this point, look, this is a win, a finish, good on him,

but there is a little bit of an asterisk on this because of the illegal knee. And if he was fighting anybody else, he may have lost via DQ. In fact, Mark Otter probably could have just decued him. And I don't think anyone would have had a problem with it, but there's just kind of a weird situation for Keeper Crosby.

So at this point, point. Let's start over with Newer Argy. Let's let's give him another guy who he is just going to run over and look good doing it. And hopefully there's not a penalty to be to be found. Good old Preston Parsons. Let's just throw him in there with Preston Parsons. Preston will go after him. He'll try to fight him. And he'll probably get knocked down in the first round. And New Argy will look good. And then people will forget about the illegal knee and him beating Kiefer Crosby. So yeah, we'll just build up a highlight real at this point, at least for the next fight. I think that that's a much more reasonable thing than what I did.

But again, I'm to shoot, Mike, and I'm out here. I'm chucking up triples. Half court heaving them, seeing what falls. Well, I am very interested to see where you're heaving this one. Somehow we have to come up with a wild card for UFC Shanghai Jed. We'll select one fighter who have not matched made for yet.

And then we'll matchmate for him right now. So who we go with for your wild card pick for this event? This was so hard. Like, it was just genuinely very difficult for me to decide what I wanted to do here. What I ultimately decided I would do is be true to myself. And just frankly, the only other person that I considered at all was Sata Baldeev because he had a fun hat. But there's a man who used to me and my boy on this card. He suffered a pretty bad loss.

It's a third loss in a row. I think you might even wildcard with the opposite. end of this potentially. But Michelle Paheta, DeMolli Dore, roller coaster relationship with him, loved him before he came to the UFC and he was a crazy person,

hated him for the period of time where he's like, what if I become boring? Loved him when he moved up to middleweight and was like, I'm going to be fun again. Now the roller coasters, we're back in the valley,

you know? And we may still be in the valley, but God damn if I'm going to be in the valley, we're going to go out on terms strongly, strongly considered a Mikhail Olegsacic-Cic fight just for the fun of it. But I think this is a better plan. And it's sometimes, Mike, you know, when that old horse, its legs broke, you got to do the right thing.

And we're going to do the right thing with Michelle Paheta. We're going to feed him to a man who's booked for a fight against Ozzie Diaz coming up. But after that, the table of Gautier, it's your time to shine, get a big name. on that that resume Mike you should love this one I believe a table is is in your fantasy squad he's gonna kill Ozzie Diaz and then it's a table go tia time let's start pushing a kid I am really high on I love this idea selfishly of course as you just laid out but yeah maybe we could do that in December like we'll just turn go to year right around maybe per hour we'll be ready to go in December and we'll just chuck that on the last card of December and goatea as I predict it will be

the highest point score in all of our fantasy league, which is, if he gets Ozzy Diaz and then gets a turnaround against Beheada in December, he is going to be the. Oh, 100%. No question. Because he's got to get another finish and another bonus, and it's going to be lovely. So I didn't go the other end. Kyle Dachas, I figured that the listeners would do a lot of Kyle Dacchus matchmaking.

So I'm just going to leave that to them. I went with something that I mentioned on the preview show. I'm not really breaking a whole lot of news here. I'm going with the opposite end of the main event. Zhang Minyang, still 28 years old. This is a big opportunity to push him up the ranks pretty quickly against the guy like Johnny Walker, throw him in the mix in a division that needs as much as excitement as possible. Unfortunately, Johnny Walker at other plans.

And if we really think about it, Johnny Walker could be the fun guy that just adds a little fun to this division. So, uh, John, I'm sure is going to be out for a for a little bit. I don't know how long he's going to be out for. I assume that leg is in some tough shape. So we'll let him heal up a little bit. And whenever he is ready to return to action, there's a man named Iwan Kutalaba, who will be waiting for him, just send him in there with an absolute lunatic,

let him get a finish, and have him work for it a little bit. And yeah, I think that's like a good bounce back kind of opportunity for Mingyang to fight somebody. who is tough and dangerous and fun and go get a win. You could throw it on a main card up a pay-per-view. It could be a prelim main event on a pay-per-view or a premium event, whatever it's going to be. Lots you could do with this.

So I just went with that. I think that'll be a good little step back for him. I think that that makes total sense. You got to build this kid back up. Again, like a performance where sort like not a fluke, but sort of a freak incident, right? Like it was it was one leg kick. It's, that is not historically the way fights in from one, one leg kick just kind of collapsed his old body.

If they fought, you know, 10 times, maybe Zhang wins seven of them. But just wasn't his night on Saturday. So you just want to keep building him because they still do have something with him, especially as they go to China once a year. He's a perfect dude to kind of main event, co-main event those cards. Yep. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa, is this economy?

Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast-free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels.

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I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this? Oh, yeah, way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply. All right, let's go to the peeps, Jed. We got a bunch of selections.

I think half of like AKs, Regs sent the picks to me. So we'll go through them. We'll react and we'll get on out of here. We'll start with Owen Balzerini. He just had one pick, Jed. This guy's just straight to the. point. He wants to shout out Charles Johnson. Charles Johnson, the contender killer. He's a get or get a got all-star for sure. And one of my favorite fight is to watch for sure. Can't wait to

hear what you got next for him on Otno. I'm calling for a fun matchup with Tim Elliott, timelines match up and a guaranteed banger. Let me know what you think. Owen, I'll let you know what I think. That's the exact fight I would make if Charles Johnson fought on the main card. So love the idea. Johnson is a banger. Not bad at all. I mean, credit to Charles Johnson. He was losing that fight until he wasn't. And he did not lose it violently. Credit to Lonnie Kavanaugh, because look, the last guy, Charles Johnson knocked out.

He's about to fight for the belt. Dan may win the thing. So apparently Lonnie Kavanaugh is about to go on a run at 125 pounds. It's very possible. Kavanaugh's, I was, I was looking so good until he died. I was like, holy shit. Like, this guy is, this guy's real problem. him. I was massive. He was one of my favorite prospects on contenders series. I was feeling so good. I was like, hell yeah. Look at, look at my boy out there. And then oopsie daisies. Yeah, I could, I could kind of feel the momentum shifting like two minutes into the second round. And I think Johnson's team heard it too, like saw it too, because at that point, I was driving to Dunkin' Donuts to get my coffee. So I could drive back and I had the ESPN Plus on in the on the Bluetooth.

listening in the car. And all I could hear was Johnson's team saying, hey, he's slowing down. He's getting tired. Go, go, go, go, go. Because the crowd was so quiet at that point. And I just kind of felt like something weird was going to happen. I didn't think you'd cold him like that, but just some sick stuff from Orlando, Florida's own, the pride of St. Louis, Charles Johnson, one of my favorite parts of the event. Barry O'Reilly. Horrible. Hey, Mike, happy Saturday. My Pixar. Uran Saltibaldia versus Iwan Kuchelaba. Gorilla versus the Hulk. Okay.

I like it. This seems to be a popular one. This is what I would have picked if I went for Kyle Dachus. I would want Kyle Daucus, Bekello, Zaycheck. Perfect. Let's just get him another finish possibly, or he gets finished on the other end. Jou Rang versus Trevor Peak.

Charles Johnson versus Asu Almabayev. Johnson is good. Already has a win over a hot prospect. From Kazakhstan, while Amabaii still needs to rebuild after the cop defeat. Yeah. I mean, that's, man, That's just another tough fight for Charles, just fighting Temeroff and Maxim and all these,

Cavana, all these undefeated dudes. That's a hell of a run for him to like have to just chew through, you know, like, that is. Yeah. Sue Mederji, like the worst guy he's fought and he's a perfectly fine fighter. Yeah. Newarky versus Reese McKee. Let's see if New Argy could beat another Irishman who needs to prove if he belongs, well, a win for McKee would be huge.

True. Maderjee versus Nassah. Nassimento, Pavlovich versus Josh Hokit, making this match in the hope that Pavich can knock this fool out cold. Okay. But the thing is, that's bad matchmaking, because if he doesn't, suddenly Hokic is fighting for a belt, I guess. Yeah. And that honestly, like, Hokit's going to be a problem in this division for a while. I'd like to see, like, if you're looking at Hokit as a guy that you're trying to invest into, I'd like to see him put out a couple more pounds because it's like a 220 pound heavyweight yeah but his his style's gonna be really tough

to be man it really is uh aljman sterling versus the lopez silver winner winner gets a title shot up to murphy sorry mobsar johnny walker versus jamaul hill too what do you think of that don't hate um don't yeah i think that makes a lot of sense honestly yeah say kind of think be okay if johnny Walker wins terrific if if he'll wins again you know it's just like all right we've got ourselves he can bounce back because he's in kind of free fall yeah yeah that's actually interesting i didn't think about that uh thanks for all the great content looking forward to the podcast gerard johnny walker versus dustin jacobie i don't know if it does the same i'm less into that it's not terrible but i'm less into that it would make sense i liked your pick better

if we're got to go with like a guy who needs it more i think dustin's got a lot of those opportunities at this point. Gerard's with you with Zhang versus Kutalaba, Sterling Lopez of a winner, Pavlovich versus the Tibora Delijah winner. He's with us there. Dachas versus Dersulton, Ruzabayev. I don't know if those guys are like cool or not.

They're both like train in the same area. So I don't know. But if they make that fight cool, what about this, Jed? This would be like your dream fight. At 155 pounds. Brian Ortega versus Michael Chandler I honestly think that fight makes a ton of sense

from the I hate both of them standpoint dude Ortega just it was like one of the worst fights I've ever seen and that's impressive because this like two weeks ago not even two weeks ago we watched Dracus Duplice get laid on for 25 minutes and be unable to get up and he was still somehow more competitive than Brian Ortega who just did nothing.

He simply did nothing in that fight. I don't. Just out of sheer curiosity of what would happen, I think that's a matchup to go with. I'm cool. I'm cool with that. Other than that, like, I just don't see a world where like the UFC has to keep Brian Ortega on the roster.

I mean, I don't understand it. I think there's a real chance he gets cut. Yeah, I just can't see. an argument for it at this point. I don't want to see him lose his job or anything like that, but like, man, you've got to make wait. Like, you've got to try.

I don't get it. Like, I know there's talks about moving to 55. I asked him about it. He literally said, like, the biggest reason I want to move to 55 is because the UFC told me they wouldn't have a featherway fight for me for like a year and a half. So maybe go to 55. And then he's like, all right, I'll do that. And then they're like, oh, yeah, by the way, you can fight Diego Lopez.

And then all these changes happened. So it opened up all these different opportunities for them. but man, I don't know where he goes. I truly don't know. I would love to hear what he's thinking right now. But yeah, Chandler versus Ortega would be, would be something. Let's go to Dawson.

Hey, Mike, here are my picks. Johnny Walker versus Bogdan Guscoff. That's fun. Yeah, that's really fun. I don't hate that at all. Also, if that could happen, if we could do that in this year, they put it in Rio.

That's cool. let's get bogged in some more points baby that'd be fun uh he's going aljo versus john already picking the win over lopez just book and be done with it abovich versus derrick lewis too not not awful briefly considered and i was like eh just no but i get i get the sentiment and if they like if they announced that i don't think anybody would you know turn their nose up at it no and this is like spelt in shape derrick lewis That's a fight nine main event somewhere. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Subrida-R-G versus Lazy Boy. I don't think that'll happen. I believe Lazy Boy is moving up to 135. He's had weight issues at 25. So I believe that's where they're going with him, but I'm not going to do to you. New R.G.

versus Billy Ray Gough, wildcard. I have to match me for Uran Satabaldiav because he was my hipster pick in my fantasy league. So he's going with Uran versus Julius Walker. That is an incredibly hipster pick, but good on you. My next fantasy team will be exclusively me drafting guys with fun hats. So Iran will be there. I think you'll do pretty well. Honestly, I'm going to do really great.

Jack Porter, Walker versus the loser of Yuri versus Roundtree. I think it would be a super fun scrap. And with the loss, either of those guys would be a ways out of the title picture. I don't mind that. Yeah. I'm okay. Hey, gets us closer

to Walker versus Yuri. It does. I'm okay with that. Brian Ortega versus Charles Olivera, if he loses to Raphael Fiziv. It's interesting. Um, uh,

may, I might be okay with that. Because if he lose to Fiziv, Oliver, like, he'll drop down the rankings. And so, like,

it wouldn't be that bad. It still might not be ideal if, ortega somehow won. And then, like, number five ranked featherweight or lightweight. I'll say no for me, but there is a level of intrigue.

Yeah. And if he loses to wrap you up his eve, my heart will be just broken because that takes us even further away from the Max Holloway fight, which they should have just done in the first place, but that's neither here nor there. The problem is Oliver will just kill or take it,

so that fight probably won't be competitive. because like Ortega doesn't he blocks punches with his head like olivera is just going to light his up yep it's probably what happens feed waldo to walter walker charles johnson versus uh-huh back off again just charles with that edson barboza like run here jesus no free meals for charles johnson energy had to fight for his keep no kidding uh let's go to Steve Langford Walker versus the Rockich Merzacconoff loser, Zhang versus the Taffa, Osloon winner. Aljo versus Lopez, win-luser draw versus John Sullivan.

No matter what, he fights Diego Lopez next. And then, yeah, and he also likes Ortega, he's back with this, Ortega with the versus the Fiziv Olivera loser. Whoever loses that fight, that's who Brian fights. Yeah, that would make more sense. but I mean, I don't know. I feel like there are just a lot of things you can do with Ortega up at lightweight. And most of the things I would do probably wouldn't involve a ranked guy.

Yeah. Or like if it's a ranked guy, it's like BSD. You know, it's not a guy like at the top, like in the top seven. Yja versus Roberto Romero. Kyle Daukes versus MAB possibly on the Vancouver card. Rongschu versus Elves Brenner. That's fun. Gage Young versus Slava Claus.

I mean, Gage got a path to victory. Just tackled, man. Charles Johnson versus Kai Kar, France. Hey, given him, at least, I mean, that's a hard fight, but at least it's a big opportunity fight, you know. He's getting to move up with it. It does feel a bit much. But, you know, you want to do,

let me check the UFC. I mean, guys lost four out of five. So, I mean, it's not. But he's still, like, he's still ranked high. So it's winnable. Like, that would be a very, that would be the fight Charles Johnson should hope he can get. Charles Johnson is now

ranked. I didn't realize Charles Johnson had gotten ranked. Yep. Hopefully he gets a bump because I think he deserves it after this way. He might get a little bit of a bump. Maybe he can get it. That'd be terrific for him if he could. Yeah. Really, really great for him if he could. Throw him in Perth. Be the 18th fight on the card.

New R.R.R.G. versus Franza. Super D.R.G. Joseph Baralis. Heavyweight's too tough to match. Make four right now, but I think Pavlovich versus Cyril Gaon makes a lot of sense if gone loses to Tom Aspinall. If he loses, yes. I originally was like,

I'll book the two, I'll book Pavlovichian's gone. And I was like, oh, wait, they did their letting God and fight for the belt. Got it. forgot about that. Let's go to left lane.

Walker versus John, Sterling versus Arnold Allen, Ortega move up and fight BSD after he gets slept next weekend. Wow. Waldo versus Derek Lewis, Super Deerjee versus Kaya Sakura. Newer RG versus Charles Radke, Young versus Hubbard, Johnson versus Stevie Erseg.

Charles Johnson versus Vinny Sigs? I think that makes sense. Yeah, I think that would be pretty decent. And that's, that I think is probably more likely than Kikara, France. What else we got? Kavanaugh versus Cody Durdin. He'll be back getting fluked by Charles Johnson is the key to contendership. Just ask Josh Van.

Yeah, that's right. I don't love the fluke. term. He threw the punch and that punch landed. Ain't no flute. Yeah. Maybe it's a fluke once, but when you do it to two guys like that,

it's not really a fluke. Zhu versus Dober, Dacus versus Atiba, Gautier, after he beats Diaz, one word, sorry. Why are you sorry?

Gontes is beating everybody. Like, it doesn't matter who he fights, beat everybody. So, yeah. Pereira versus. Maybe he mormit.

That's sorry for Kyle. Yeah. Sorry, Kyle. you just got back to the UFC and now you're going to you're going to lose some brain cells I mean I love that you want to you want to do that I'm totally fine with that uh prayer versus bay cough after he beats usury again sorry you not actually sorry for you though I don't know what that means ja versus ramos Wilson versus yaya golly I didn't think we get a west and Wilson match baked but uh versus bohamed yaya I think that kind of makes sense that should headline

That should headline one of the contender series cards, and it's a loser leaves town match. That's 100% we should do. Poor Weston Wilson. But he got the one. He got the one. It was nasty. And didn't get a bonus, which is absolutely insane. It's pretty tough.

You versus Fletcher, Uron versus Paul Craig, regardless of the result against Modestus Bukas. And let's go on. Chris London has just one pick and one pick only, Jedmishu. It is Brian Ortega versus Joel. Alvarez. I mean, Joel will kill him. I would love that.

That would be the best. The featherweight versus a Walterweight. That would be the best. John Ray, you versus Sadi, Rongzhu versus Mota, Charles Johnson

versus Alex Perez. I've seen some different picks for Charles Johnson. He's the most popular guy in the chat. Young versus Peak. Sumerger versus Nassim. Pavlovich versus gone, win or lose,

why not heavyweight sucks, Ortega versus Benwastanee, Hoopi winner, Sterling versus Yair, only because I have the Lopez Silva winner fighting Movsar. Zhang versus Alonzo Menafield, sure.

And the final listener selection, Johnny Walker versus the loser of Carlos Ulberg versus Dominic Reyes. It would be fine, but I, That doesn't get the haystown up on back.

Carl Zulberg after Dominic Grace gets a title shot. I mean, I don't know if you want to do that. Not really. But at the same time, I'm also, I'm booking him against Navajo Sterling, who is like young Carlos Zolberg. Yes. Yes, absolutely. And that's it. Those are all the picks.

Did you anything your way, Jed? Oh, nobody. I don't know that anybody knew I was doing this. So no. Okay. Well, there we go. that's uh that's on to the next one for this week and guess what no show next week because there is no ufc car we get an actual breather from ufc action but it's okay we still have lots of uh on-site

coverage for you misfits boxing 22 big of it's 22 i think uh sure sure look rock old darrett series whatever the hell it's called tony ferguson versus salt poppy dylan danis doing some That's going to be tragic and great. Yes. Tragic and great. Can we just cover the card for the last three fights? I think that would be just absolutely perfect. So poppy's going to knock out Tony Ferguson and she and out shot he's going to be the saddest panda.

Yep. He sure will be. So we'll be back in two weeks. By the way, I mentioned this at the end of the post fight show. We are not in the world's most famous apex till November. Wow. November. I didn't realize that.

I didn't either. No, no apex card till November 1st. So pretty spectacular stuff. September, no apex at all. And we begin in Paris, France, big one in 185 pounds, Nasardine Imovov versus Kyle Bajolio. Then we have Benoit Sontadie versus Mauritio Rufi. That fight absolutely slaps. I can't wait for that one.

We got Oki versus Mason Jones, Modestis Bukascusis versus Paul Craig, Ferris Ziam versus Kawi Fernandez, Patricio Pitbull versus Losing Kaita in making his debut. That fight is awesome. Umarcy versus Brenza-R-Robero, Marche-Tiborra versus Ante-Dalajia for the Sergei Pavlovich sweepstakes. We got,

oh, this slaps too. We're not Fokritina versus Andreas Gustafson. That is going to be a wild-ass fight at 170 pounds. William Gomee versus Robert Ruchala. That's a bangor, too. How did I miss that one? shit sam patterson versus tray waters brad tavars versus robert bright check and shana banon is back jed bushoe uh against sam hughes that will be the curtain jerker and your first bet of the ufc paris

card jed because you can't let the first fight go without putting a bet on it oh uh i had 100 and we know what we're going to be doing well i excited to have a week off the ufc happy labor day you know those who benefit uh misfits would be a little fun and then yeah i didn't realize we're not going to be in the apex for that long but i did know that paris that like has some pretty good stuff going like i'm i'm really into that main event i'm really into that co-main um and then there's some other like fun stuff happening as well so yeah one pretty the people uh kaita fight is like weird but kind of great there's a lot of happening yes because then after this, we are in San Antonio for Nocha UFC.

Then we're in Perth. Then we're back in Vegas for UFC 320. Then we're in Rio. Then we're in Vancouver. And then we're in Abu Dhabi. So just terrific stuff. Love this. See the world.

We'll see the world. And we don't know what the November, November slate looks like just yet. Only two cards officially on the books, November 1st, which is the apex. We have UFC Catahe. November 22nd. I assume MSG will be mixed in there somewhere

and we'll see how the rest of the ESPN-era UFC schedule plays out. But that'll do it. Thank you so much for joining us. For Jed Mishu, I am Mike Eck. We'll see you in two weeks following UFC Paris right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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