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

Episode Date: August 27, 2023

Max Holloway delivered his first finish since stopping Brian Ortega in the fourth round at UFC 231 in December 2018 when he sent all-time action fighter The Korean Zombie into retirement at UFC Singapore with a walkoff knockout. With Alexander Volkanovski still reigning supreme atop the featherweight division, there are still a lot of interesting options for "Blessed," like, perhaps, welcoming a former champion up to 145, or Holloway potentially making a move up to 155. On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what could be next for Holloway following his third-round knockout in the main event of Saturday's card. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Anthony Smith after his split decision win over Ryan Spann, Giga Chikadze after a successful return to the octagon, Erin Blanchfield following a gritty win over one-time title challenger Taila Santos, along with fellow main card winners Rinya Nakamura, Junior Tafa, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Vox Media Podcast Network. There, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking hats are back on following some super early day MMA. The UFC was back in Singapore. They brought the violence. They brought some memorable moments. And in the end, we saw the final fight of the legendary,

fun career of the Korean zombie, thanks to a ferocious knockout from one Max Holloway. But I am Mike Hack, and joining me as always in a day early, thanks to early day MMA, the co-host, the co-matchmaker. He's the best friend, just the bestest friend in the whole wide world.

He is Alexander. Kaylee. Hello, AK. Hello, my best friend. Still, excuse me, choked up. Still a little emotional from what we witnessed at U.C. Singapore. It was a hell of a night. A night over there, day for us. Great show. I thought early morning, M.MA, always welcome. Was done by like noon, noon, eastern time. Lots of memorable results. A lot of ranked fighters holding on to their positions.

Some fighters maybe finding themselves at a crossroads, you know, But we'll see which direction they go in. Some people's had good performances that didn't maybe raise their stock that much. Some people had, you know, not so bad performances, but that still kind of dinged their stock, as it were. But, yep, a strong preliminary card as well, Mike. I'm really excited to talk with this card. And the matchmaking felt mostly straightforward.

Yeah, I would agree with that. For the most part, there's one fight where there's potential bumps in the road, and we'll get to that in a moment. But one thing I want to say real quick, Because as we record this, we wrapped up our live post-fight show, probably like an hour or so ago, maybe an hour and 15 minutes ago. And some of you out there are just wonderful viewers and listeners to our shows and you're very positive. But man, some of you are grumps. Some of you are grumps. The comments that I saw, oh, you guys are celebrating Korean zombie because he got face plant, caoed by Max Holloway. You guys, I understand your newer fans, and this is probably the first time you've ever seen the Korean zombie fight, do yourself a favor before you say stupid shit.

Why don't you go back into the archives and watch Korean zombie fights? Go watch the Dustin Porre fight. Go watch the Leonard Garcia fights. Go watch the Dennis Bermuda's knockout. Go watch some of the highlights of his wonderful career and then come back and say the bullshit if you truly mean it. And then you're just going to look foolish anyway. Stop being so grumpy out there. Stop being so grumpy.

Just because zombie lost and he went on on his shield. That's the way he was supposed to go out. Stop being grumps. These aren't real people. These aren't real people. We know they're not real fans. And I'm pretty sure they're also not real people. Probably not.

But I just wanted to say that. Stop being so grumpy. Just be a little less, I don't know. Grumpy. I'll just stick with the grumpy. Just think. Just try to have some perspective. Try to think about what we're really saying. It's not even, I don't even think. I'm trying to think about what we said on the post-fight show, Mike,

and I don't know any tweets we might have made, you know, anyone in the staff. And I don't see how you could, like, misconstrue our celebration of this moment of like, oh, we were so happy to see Koreans zombie get his block knocked off. Like, what? What do you guys? Come on now. No, I think they were just like downplaying who he was as a fighter, that he was a bomb. And that we were like, oh, he was so good. Yeah, that's how I interpreted. Yeah, that's how I interpreted all of this.

Yeah. So stop being grums. Let's get into this. Unfortunately, we will not be matchmaking for the Korean zombie because he went out the way he wanted to. He is no longer going to be competing inside the octagon or any cage at this point. Because he got knocked up by Max Holloway in a super fun fight, third round, zombie came out and said, you know what? Either you're going down or I'm going down.

and I'm cool with either. Max Holloway lends the big punch, knocks out zombie, and now he moves on. He obviously fought with a very heavy heart. I'm just going to go first on this one, AK, because we literally talked about

Max Holloway last week on the show following UFC 292, and I'm sticking with it. Even though I don't feel as confident about it as I may have felt a week ago, I still feel like this is the fight that should happen. If Max Holloway is staying in 145 pounds, and I do believe,

he'll stick around for one more. It's Al Jermaine Sterling. There's no other fight that makes sense at 145. Him fighting Mobsar of Vloyaf makes no sense. I saw some people say, oh, just cancel the Iliot-Tuporia Volcanovsky title fight and just do Max versus Ilya.

It was a terrible idea back then after Ilya beat Josh Emmett. It's an even worse idea now. So stop putting that out into the universe right now and let Ilya fight for the belt. Max Hallway does not need. need to be at 145, but if there is one more fight for him, it is the former Banimway champion of the world, Al Jermaine Sterling.

A.K., what's next for Max Holloway in your eyes? And anyone's suggesting this Ilya Max Holloway thing. Okay, these aren't real people. I want to know, I thought Elon Musk was supposed to get rid of all the bots. I thought he got rid of, because these are bots. These aren't real people with logical thoughts who think that's a good idea who want to see I don't mind seeing Ilya fight Max. Sunday. We said this about so many Max Holloway opponents. We're like, I don't mind them

funny Max Holloway someday, but, you know, at the point where they're in their careers, it doesn't make a lot of sense. It's kind of silly to hear. You've been beating that algebra from since last week. So, Mike, again, I don't know. I think you know, not just myself, you're my best friend, myself and a lot of the staff, we're kind of not with you on this one. A lot of us are, we see where your head is at, but we're not quite with you. As far as being like the best possible option for Aljo. If you're Max Holloway, you jump on that in a second. I mean, that's a big name.

It's a probably winnable fight. And I don't know, you just stay busy because that's what Max wants to do. I don't know. We know he's in title limbo because as long as Volkovsky's around. But I imagine he's fairly well compensated for a former champion. And he just wants to stay busy and keep taking good fights. Like he gained nothing from beating zombie other than, you know, the honor of being his last fight.

And also just, you know, he enjoys fighting. He enjoys fighting and enjoys getting paid for it. With that somewhat in mind, I'll go with a name that we have called for so many times. This is if he goes up to 155. I want to see him fight Justin Gaichi. This is just a bucketless fight. I don't know if it'll ever happen. I know Gates'i probably just thinking, I'm going to get that title shot of lightweight.

That's it. I'm waiting for that whenever that option comes around. But I don't think he's guaranteed anything. No one is in this crazy business. And if he has to take another fight and he wants a big name, Max Holloway would be fantastic. what a magnificent legacy fight for both of them. Anyone who's listened to the show longer than a year knows that that is my dream fight. It's just not possible right now because just a Gagee and fight in anybody else unless it's for the undisputed lightweight title.

Interim title will not do. It has to be for the undisputed title. But if he loses to Makachev or Olivera, then we can certainly pivot back to the Holloway fight, and I'm totally cool with that. Here's the thing about Al Jermain Sterling, and I thought about this the other day. If Al Jermaine Sterling doesn't go up and take this. fight, he's going to have to fight Umar and Amaga Madoff, and that ain't good. Because

the UFC ain't given him the rematch. The only other fight they would offer him just to be assholes about it is Marab. And neither of them are going to take that fight. So it's either you stay at 35 and you fight Umar, or you go up to 45 and you fight Max with a chance

to fight Vol. Kind of feel like it's a no-brainer to me. And Max isn't going to say no to any fight at this point. Aljo really should just won that fight. I probably should solve a lot of... That's my advice. I'm not saying I'm not caught myself a sports manager or anything, but, boy, he really should just won that fight. Yes.

To save himself a lot of headaches because we don't know what he's going to do now. You should be a head code. You should open a gym, AK. Thank you. You should. Let's move on to the co-main event. A fight we're probably not going to watch again unless we want to kind of have a lesson on how to just throw a fight away. Anthony Smith defeats Ryan Span for the second.

time. Splity, not a lot of people thought Anthony won that fight, but in the end, you can't just let a guy come back when you have him badly hurt and beaten. And like I said, on Twitter, I think Ryan Span is going to go back and watch the second half of that fight and be like, that was really, really bad. So, but Anthony Smith gets it done. He's got a little more mileage left in the old, the old truck, AK. What's next for Lionheart after UFC Singapore? I'll credit in the world. To Anthony Smith, I harped on Ryan Span's performance a lot. Talking about things I'm still not over.

I'm not over the zombie retirement. I'm not over how infuriating it was that Span did not finish that fight in the second and did not pull away in the third to guarantee himself a win. Just bad scenes. But credit to Anthony Smith, he's so tough. He's so tough. He hung in there. I don't think he won the fight in the traditional sense of the word,

but based on the M.A. scoring system. He did enough to avoid a loss. That's for damn sure. So that goes as a W. Two and O against Ryan Span now. So Mike, luckily for me, I was prepared for the situation because I had called for the winner of this fight to fight another light heavyweight, top five light heavyweight recently. After Jan Blakovich lost to Alex Brer, I said, I called it. I said, Anthony Smith after he beats Ryan Span again. I wish I had remembered that before I made my predictions because on Friday I changed my pick to Ryan Spann. But I'm already set. Mike Stenstone, Jan Blockovich, Anthony Smith. Both guys are kind of in a weird spot right now.

Both are veterans. And this could ease this is a, this has not apex, I hope, but some sort of fight night headliner all over it. I don't hate it. There's history there. They try to make this fight. I think a time or two. I'm just, I can't do it. I can't. I'm, if Anthony wants to continue to fight, I'm fine with it. He wants to fight the Ryan's fans of the world. He wants to fight the back end of the top 15 or like top 25 guys. I'm okay with that. I certainly don't want to see him go up there into the top five and I'm not trying

to be a jerk about it. Luckily, I had a matchup made for one Chris Stochis, but apparently he is no longer on the UFC roster. I'm told he wasn't outright released, but he perhaps fought out the end of his deal. I know UFC roster watch put his name out. out there. So because of that, even though I have no idea what's going to happen. I don't know if there's any true validity to this, but at least has given me an excuse to pivot.

So the fight I'm going to make is a matchup between two guys who on any other day, with any other feeling, could have both beaten John Jones for the light heavyweight title. Anthony Smith could have just taken the DQ and become the light heavyweight champion. let's throw him in there with the guy who many believe actually defeated John Jones in a fist fight for the light heavyweight title, a man who is not one since or even look good since. Let's do Anthony Smith versus Dominic Reyes, okay?

Let's do Anthony Smith versus Dominic Reyes. Because I don't feel like, I don't feel like we'll be heartbroken by this one. I just think like two dudes is going to scrap and get after it and it's going to be fun. And Dominic Gray's ain't going to be able to really, like, ether. Anthony Smith, and I don't know if Anthony's got the pop to really eat their Dominic Reyes. Could he finish Dominic Ray? Sure. I don't think he's going to like brutally knock him out like Ryan Span did. I think it would just be like a rear naked choke or something. Something would be like, all right, you're just going to take a nice little nap, but you're not going to get really hurt.

I feel like this is just a good fight for both guys. And I feel like it's one. We're just like, all right, this is cool. But no one, none of our hearts are going to really shatter here. You know what I mean? And I feel like we could feel that with either of these guys fighting anybody else in this division. That is a strange fight. Like I'm looking at it. It just looks weird. Dominic Reyes,

0 and 3 since the John Jones loss, so really four straight losses. Neither guy really close to title contention probably won't get there ever again. They certainly have a name. They have the John Jones opponent pedigree, of course.

Because if Anthony beats Jan Belhovic, like, if he somehow gets another like split decision, like they're, going to throw him in there with like Yuri Pajshka and or Alex Pereira do we want to see that AK do we really want that he wants he's I don't think he's counting himself out and that's what he wants that's what he's not about what we want so Anthony Smith wants um I'm almost a trying to envision

like how the fight with Dominic race would go you're right I don't think either guy starts just the other like with some huge shot in the first round I could see someone getting finished though I mean oh it's almost definitely getting finished to say nothing is going to a decision I just don't know how how it plays out exactly Exactly. It's a weird one. That's a weird. You've got a kind of a twisted mind sometimes, my best friend. They're a little twisted. Oh, man. Kind of like Gigacizzi's post-fight promo, AK. Wow. There were twists and turns.

Seemed like he was getting really reflective on things, this long road to recovery. The long road since Calvin Cater just battered him all over the Octagon for 25 minutes, but the long road led to this fight with Alex. Casaris, who was quietly amassing one of the more impressive runs at 145 pounds. Gijcadze sweeps the cards, 3027 across the board. Giga throws a big hard kick. Casaris blocks it, shatters his forearm. So to Casares his credit, basically fought one of the best strikers in the division with one arm. And Gigi Chkazze did the damn thing. It got it done. Now, I will say this. I wasn't overly impressed with this.

performance, it was fine. You got to knock the rust off and you got to get a win, but I didn't come through this saying, hey, this guy's back and he's about to make a title run. He called out Yaia Rodriguez. I think there is negative 5% chance that fight happens at this point. I feel like that's a terrible stylistic matcher for Gigacacizadez right now at this point in his career. And I feel like Yaia Rodriguez, that is a gigantic step back after fighting, after losing the interim title in fighting Alex Juno Volkovsky in a fight to unify the belt. So,

I'm just going to kind of keep Giga where he's at. And there's a fight coming up September 23rd. I have a feeling we're going to be going back to this date multiple times on this program. But Giga Chkaze versus the winner of Danny Gay versus Bryce Mitchell on September 23rd. I kind of feel like

Danny Gay is going to win that fight. Giga versus Danny Gaye just seems like the perfect fight. hear the music uh-oh one do the music two

three friends friends I thought you're going to do a one two one two three four that was my mistake I don't

just one two three go we just get we just get to it I'm from Massachusetts no you do a one and a two and a three and a four

and then you bring in the horn I didn't know we were doing this whole thing I didn't know we were playing a piano bar okay yes that's the logical matchup. Like I said, Giga, good for him, got the win, enough to hold onto his spot, of course, not enough to move him up. He just, again, I updated my rankings, my personal rankings,

just before we did the show. And yeah, no movement either way. There's good names ahead of them. E. Gay and Mitchell, I have him ranked above both them for now, which is just based on the past success he's had. So yeah, it'd be good for one of them to have a chance to get his spot. And again, for us to get a real better gauge of where Gigi is, because I'm, I know he's older, it's not like we can say like, oh, you know, he's still developing, which he is in some ways, but there's not going to be, I don't think there's been any major huge jumps in his skill and progression from now on. But I do think, again, Casares, credit to him, very tough opponent.

Coming back from 600 days, it's going to throw you off a little bit. So I think the best of Giga could still be to come, whether he becomes a top five guy or not. And putting him up against Igay or Bryce Mitchell would definitely help me to figure out exactly how much he does have left because both those guys would be a very difficult challenge for him. Yeah. Let me just look at the UFC rankings because my initial thought coming out of this performance

and it will like again, I wasn't like, oh, this guy stinks or anything like that. But I was just like, eh, you come back. You want to like make your presence felt in a super deep division with a lot of up-and-comers. I figured going out and winning a competitive decision against a guy with one arm is probably not the way to do it. And I have both Dan Ege and Bryce Mitchell ranked above Giga Chikaze. My initial one was I was

giving him an unrank guy in the UFC, Lorone Murphy. I was about to pivot all together and give him Lorone, but I was like, eh, I don't want to downgrade him too much after the layoff and coming off of a win. So I ended up settling on the, the Ege fights like perfect. Like, that's just perfect right there. Win or lose Ege I kind of like. But if Ege beats Bryce Mitchell, makes sense. Yeah, I'm down. for that either way. Yeah. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you.

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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com. Bring home to life. Let's go to the Bannamweight Division, A.K., we get another one. We get another Bannamweight just climbing the ladder and is super fun and exciting. Rinya just put it on. Fernie Garcia, the unfinishable for Nekyllis for Nguer. Bernie Garcia. Reni Nakamore 8-0 now, AK. This guy is really, really good, tremendous grappling. He's got knockout par.

This guy could be a very exciting prospect at 135 for a long time. I'm curious where you went with this one. I was so tempted to go top 25 with this guy. He's an absolute stud, incredible international amateur wrestling background, just super legit. Yeah, I could have gone as high as top 25. I did the opposite. I defaulted to what I normally do,

which is like, I need to see you go, you know, three and O in the UFC before I really give you a big step up. So I'm playing it super safe here. I'm going with Ricky Terseos. Pretty Ricky. Ricky does that is that what I'm? Ricky Terseos. Pretty Ricky.

He hasn't fought in a while. Not sure what's up with him. Nakamura would be a huge favorite. As he was on this card, I think the biggest favorite on the car. I know he was minus 800, minus 850 or something, depending on he looks. I think he was minus 9. By the time the fight started. It's minus nine.

Okay, so definitely bigger than Holloway. And for a good reason. The, the, the, um, if you're not going to slow roll him, I would understand that as well. He's 20 years old. So he's in his prime. He has a pretty extensive amateur wrestling background. So it's not like, it's not like he's this incredibly young prospect, despite the fact that he has only eight pro fights. He's in his prime right now.

So theoretically, you could be putting him up against better competition. Again, let me see three and no. Maybe he gets a quick. turn around, that would be nice, maybe he turns around, you know, normal within the next two or three months. And 2024 is when we can see him sort of, you can open up, you know, the new year with, with a more well-known, more accomplished upon it. But I'm okay with just sticking with, you know, throwing different looks at him and seeing just how, you know, getting a better idea of just how high this guy can go. I'm going back to September 23rd at the apex, which, like, the more I look

at this card, there's like more more interesting storyline potential on this apex card than there is for UFC 293's main card, which is wild to even think about. But there is a Bannamway fight coming up, a very fascinating one for a number of reasons. Miles John's fighting Daniel Argeta, September 23rd.

Rinya versus the winner of that makes a lot of sense. I'm not, I think that's kind of like top 30 to 37 range. So I think that's like a good spot to put him. If you want to throw him in there against top 25 guy, I have no problem with that whatsoever because I think he can hang with all, a lot of those guys. Like if you threw him in there with like Mario Batista,

I wouldn't do it, but I would have to think about that one a little bit. That's probably too big of a step up, but if Rania beat him, it wouldn't surprise me. So I think a nice little step up, Miles Johns, Danielle Argetta, two dangerous guys who looked pretty good at times

and sometimes not spectacular. I think this is a good fight. So September 23rd is going to have a lot of impact when it comes to matchmaking from UFC Singapore, I guess. Bantam weights. Bantam weights. And more to come. A little teaser for what's going on the show.

More to come. There is so much talent at 135. It's getting insane. I love it. Let's go to one of the loaded divisions for the ladies. 125. Aaron Blanchfield making a case for a title shot. This is a very busy time for the women's,

125 pound division, a. Aaron Blanchfield gets a hard-fought, gritty win over Tyler Santos, who in Santos's previous fight took Valencia Chofchenko to the limit

and lost a very close decision. And next week, we have Rosnami Unis, fighting man in Fiore, big fight at UFC Paris and the co-main event. And then two weeks after that, we get the rematch for the flyway title

between Alexa Grasso and Valencia Chico at Nocei, UFC. So I'll start this one. There's a lot of ifs and butts and all sorts of roadblocks is the one I was talking about that's kind of weird and we have to take a little bit of a journey. But Aaron Blanchfield should fight the Grasso Schifchenker two, Schifchenko two winner. However, if Rosenami Unis beats Menon Fioro in any way, shape, or form, they're going to give her the title fight. And it doesn't matter who wins the title fight. Even if Shivchenko wins and Alexa Grouse was like,

oh, I deserve a rematch. They'd be like, yeah, you do deserve rematch. You're just not going to get one now, but we're going to do Shipchenko versus Rosenomi Unis. So if Rose wins, if Manon wins, Aaron Blanchfield gets the shot. If Rose wins, Rose gets the shot. And if Rose wins,

we do Aaron Blanchfield versus Macy Barber. That's the fight I would do. Oh. I would make that fight. It would be a five-round main event for an apex card or some low-level place. They've both been talking about each other. Macy's coming off of a great

win over Amanda He-Boss. Macy's talked about Aaron a bunch, vice versa. Let's just do it. Let's see who's ready for that next step. And I'm okay with a slight step back. Because the more time you give Aaron Blanchfield, the more experience

you give her, the more equipped she is going to be when she does fight for the title. And I've been saying this for a little while now. As soon as Aaron fights for the title, she's going to win and she's going to hold that bell for a really, really long time. So if we have to wait another fight for her to go in there and fight a Macy Barber and get tested in a different kind of a way, I'm fine with that. But I would still pick Aaron Blanchield right now to beat Alexa Grasso or Valentina Shipschenko, even though this wasn't the most impressive performance of her career. This is maybe the worst pick I've ever made. This is a

terrible pick. As I was listening to you and just thinking about my what I went through making this pick, I'm like, this is bad. This is a bad, boring pick. The flyweight title is kind of in the same situation that a little bit, not the same, a little bit worse thing with straw weight, where it feels like they have an abundance of challengers and like talking with strawweight. In a perfect world, Zhang would fight Jan Shaan and would fight Tatiana Suarez. And I'm sure another name I'm forgetting right now. My brain isn't functioning. Mike, I don't know how you're still up, by the way. You've been, as of this recording,

you've been up for approximately 20 hours, I think straight or something like that. No. And fly away again, yes. It would be great to see whoever wins on, between Grasso and the Shepchenko rematch, it would be great to see Menelfrio get a tell a shot. If you were going to see Rose get a tell a shot.

It would be great to see Aaron Blanchville get a tell the shot. But as we know, very likely it'll be, of course, only two out of the three, maybe one out of the three. You know, sometimes we see these crowded contender situations, and the timing just never quite works out for all these names that we want to see get a title shot, get it. So I hope that's not the case with straw weight and flyweight, but it wouldn't surprise me again if Menon never got a title shot, you know, if I guess somehow Jan Shaan got squeezed out, which seems ridiculous at this point. Anyway, so I went safe. I said Blanchfield needs to fight again. I don't know how this other stuff's going to shake out. And this is a pretty winnable fight for her and also someone who's in the top 10 in the ranking still.

I think Blanchfield is going to have to test out whether she can avoid a Chukagianing, Mike. Oh, no. I'm not happy about it. No one's happy about this right now. So she goes out and beats Tila Santos and you reward her with the Chukagian fight? A Chikigian, yeah. Potential Chiqui Anning. She's not going to get Chukagian, though.

I think she's better than that. But that would be the worst loss ever, right? Not for Blanchfield because I don't think Chagian is best. bad fighter, like for the UFC's plans to build up Blanchefield, having her, like, like, UK, 30, 27, Chukagian, it would be like, it would just be painful to watch. Like, that's not doo-do, but like, what's, what's the non-dudu-ish opposite of Friends Forever? It's just bad. It's just bad. I don't know if there's a word for it. It's just bad. And I know it's bad. I know it's bad. But, and the Macy Barber pick is good. I just got a weird feeling. It might,

it might be what's in line. I don't know where Caitlin Chukagian is. If you're heard, don't they train together? That's a possibility. Aren't they both like, aren't they both like Hensel Gracie cats? Perhaps that can save us from this possibility? And then it would be slight doo-do, which is probably better than I feel about this.

I'm just, I don't know how to look this up. I'm trying to look at social media. I think they might not train together anymore. I think they do. They did. Don't do this to me, my best friend. I really want this fight.

We have to prove it now, but I'm pretty sure they do change together. I see that they're both part of Henzo Gracie something somethings, but like, I don't know. Isn't there like 10 Hensow Gracie gyms out there? No, but I think they train like literally at the same gym. Listeners, you will know better than I. If I'm, if I am out of line here, I mean, by, I already am out of line just by you. even whether they train together or not, because it's a terrible fight. If I'm out of line because they are training, you know, a very active training partners,

then I will, I will accept that. I will accept the doo-do. Okay, fair enough. I'm pretty sure the, yeah, I think, like, what's his face? Mark Henry, like, coaches both of them. I could be, I mean, I could be crazy. That's very, very possible. I said what I said.

Okay. I said what I said. Congratulations, biggest win of your career. Now you have to fight you, Kagan. Enjoy the UK eating Who you may be best friends with As far as I again, I don't know I guess I haven't kept track

Let's go to The fighting family The Toffas who just Paca Porter is having a tough time With the Taffa family And it was one of those things Where in my staff picks I went 11 for I went 11 and 2

In the 13 picks I did pick Paca porta Because I felt like The game plan is there. Just run and tackle him. That's it. Don't throw a punch. Don't even pretend to throw a punch. Just, you ready, you ready? Run, tackle, submit. That's your game plan. Five seconds after that fight started, I knew what was about to happen because Parker Porter looked like he wanted that kickboxing match with Junior Tafa. And I knew immediately what was about to happen. And that is what happened. Junior Tafa,

face plants, Paca Pota, right to the mat. And Tafa calls for the bonus, which is usually the big curse, ends up getting it. I wouldn't have given it to him over a couple of the other names on this card. I thought Waldo Cortez Acosta's Naka was a bit more impressive. I thought Darren Armfield's performance was better than both the heavyweight performances. I thought honestly, I thought Gary and Armfield had the best performance of the entire card, if we're being honest. I thought he had the best performance of all, and he didn't get a bonus. So where are you going with Junet Tava?

I'm not trying to take anything away from his win, but that fight, like, I think you knew, anybody who woke up early and watched that fight knew five seconds in what was about to happen. Tafa knocks out Paca Pora. Where's Tafa go now? Off the top of your head, Mike, can you think of, oh, I just found one day. I was just, I was searching for this while you were speaking. I think of a pair of, like, how many fighters are there that have been knocked out by a pair of brothers? specifically knocked out.

I mean, many of have fought both brothers, I think, but I just found one example. What example is that? Shogun and Ninja, Maricio and Marillo, who both beat up Akira Shogi once in a most of the time, both won by first round knockout.

This was back in the heyday. It also looks like it happened very recently. So this was, it was almost like what just happened with Parker Porter where he didn't fight Justin too long ago and then had to fight Jr. So Marisha and Marilla have at least one example. Again, I'm not looking to their entire record.

So other than that, it's not a common thing, right? Take it your ass kicked by both brothers. In the UFC? Yeah, it's probably not something that happens all that often. Maybe like on the regional scene, like, I'm sure the Cozy brothers, like, shared an opponent at some point. You think so? Probably. Even they both beat up Jay Ellis or something?

That's a pretty good name right there. We should just look at Jay Alice's record and see how many brothers would be. can find on there because he might have like he might be responsible for a lot of these or people let me know DM me please uh if you still can't i don't know what's going on with X people who don't who I don't follow they can't see him or something I don't know it's just hit me up just tag me on Twitter tag at me just at if you know uh if you know any notable answers that I'm just completely forgetting Josh Perrezean is he still in the UFC Mike he is right I think as far as we know I'm in there didn't you just fight yeah probably but I wondered

if he was released. Like, I don't know why in my mind, I feel like I thought there was, he got not released or there was people saying he got released after. Oh, Martin Boudai, like just, just annihilated him. Or was the last fight of his contract or something? For some reason, I thought I thought I was, I don't know, he's only at six. He's only at six.

I thought I was doing like a happy trails thing on my head with freezing. If he's still around, whatever, throw in there with Junior Tapa. I really don't have a lot of thoughts on the Junior Tapa matchmaking. I mean, there's only one way to go. Let's just make this, like, if you're going to do something, let's just really do it. Let's make this brother's thing a gimmick. I think Justin Taffa is going to knock out Austin Lane at UPC 293.

And after Justin knocks out Austin Lane, let's just chuck him right into Junior. And let's see if he can avoid the same fate that Paca Porter did. It's an amazing idea. Yeah. It's an amazing idea. You told us about it. I didn't want to. That's the only reason I went another direction.

But yes, they should be a tag team. This is where tag team animation happened. They should be like the Uso's, right? The Tafas and the Uso. They could have fought Parker's. Like it. They could have fought Parker Porter and, like, Chris Barnett. Imagine Parker Ford and Chris Burnett teaming up against these guys.

Now we're talking entertainment. No one's being that team. Oh, this is true. No one's being that team. Because Parker has the best cardio in the history of the heavyweight division. And Chris Barnett gets better as the fight goes on too. He's an anomaly. Two unicorns in this heavyweight division.

But yeah, let's just play the gimmick. And if Austin loses Justin Toffin, I think you will. Let's see if he could be junior. Tag team of me. Let's go to the wild card round, AK. We'll select one fighter we have not match made for yet. We'll matchmake for them right now. You said you're sticking at 135 pounds.

I assume you're going with, are you going with Mr. Armfield? Of course. All right. Yeah. Garrett Arnfield had a bit of buzz going to the UFC, but, you know, he signed on short notice as a replacement for, I can't remember who, to fight David Onama. And Onama is his own thing, man. That guy's, you know, featherweight shouldn't be fighting him, much less natural 135ers. So he's really good.

And I don't think we saw what Garrett was capable of in that fight. And we did on Saturday. That's for sure. Look fantastic against Toshioomi Kazama. I think he's another player at 135. We just can't say enough how deep the division keeps going and going and going and going. Even for guys who aren't going to be contenders, the kind of matchups you can make that are almost going to guarantee like a memorable fight, a bang or a finish. It's just you can mix and match.

So all these names do a bag, pull out. You're getting some incredible action at Phantom Way. So I'm going with him. Nothing fancy. This is his first UFC win. I just wanted to shout him out and shout out his performance and throw a little Marcus McGee at him. Marcus McGee, kind of one of the surprises of the Bantamweight Division. A guy who's sticking them, it took him a while to get to the UFC.

Two and O now, I think bold. Out of the first fight, he was the underdog for sure, because he's on short notice. The second fight, I'm not sure he was. He would be the underdog again, I think, against Garrett Arndield. So let's give, you know, Garrett more work soon, and let's see if McGee can continue to play the spoiler. I decided we're just going to do a fun matchup at 185. We're going to do a matchup, which might have the most letters involved in a middle-weight fight. What a performance from Miguel Olegzecuk.

I was very impressed. He beats up cheating Jokwani. He got beat up pretty bad early in that fight, came back, weathered the storm, and got a great finish. There are not a lot of, like, intriguing matchups for Edmund Shabazzian that I want to because of the threat of the takedowns and just getting grinded out on the mat. But I kind of like this Oleg Zaychuk-Edman-Sherbazian fight, A.K. I feel like we can't send... We've already given him the Dalchalung Gambula treatment, so we can't do that again.

We can't throw him in there at like some of these wrestle-heavy middleweights. So let's give him like a really tough, nasty middleweight who's probably not going to take him down. Let's do that fight. let's do Oleg Zeychuk versus Edmund Shabazzian. I like everything about it. Some people might roll their eyes at it, but I feel like stylistically, if we're going to get Shabazian back on track, he's got to win a fight like this. And Oleg Zaychuk is a tough out and a winner, and a boosts his stock a little bit,

much more than beating Chidi and Jokwani, who's not lost three in a row. I like this fight. I think this fight makes a lot of sense. Yeah, we've been pretty down on Edmund after some of his fights, but because we've been saying, like, just he's not a great. defensive grappler or he doesn't have great submission defense he has to fight somebody mike and you're right why not my not michael looks a chick he he has his reputation of being a very good striker he's had some great knockouts in the ufc before he went in this slump so that's the way to go i love that

i love edmund versus michael we've i i'm so afraid that the ufc's still going to find some terrible matchup for edmund i'm not sure why i feel like they're invested in him they're going to give him bo-nickle or something right i feel like they're invested in in in him and yet have no idea how to build him. And they've been doing a good job with some of these prospects recently, but not Edmund. Edmund, they just cannot seem to figure out. I'm not entirely sure why. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get

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On link on C4.A or in magazine. Anything else we want to say from the Peeps

before we go to the peeps? Not at the moment. What did have to not know. I'll have to

call those in the fly. I did not have a great chance to look at the the other. I know we

have a few first timers so I'm looking forward to shutting them out. But otherwise, Mike, I'll just say it's, guys, if you want those points that Mike just mentioned, you'll really likely only get them if you're the only person to pick a fight, very rare these days. You may have made a mistake. You may have made a mistake that has this calling

your pick, do-do, wrong-weight class, fault already injured, guys or got out recently released and fighter could already be booked teammates, which I may have just done in Invertingly, which you K again, Blanchfield, I'm not sure. And, of course, your pick just might be do-do for its own reasons and we don't want to read it. I just got this literally a minute ago and I'm just going to run through this real quick because there's some bad in here. And I love you, Chris London, haven't heard from you in a couple months. You already broke the first cardinal rule of the program.

You booked Holloway versus Ilya which makes absolutely no sense, like zero sense. Or 155. I'm okay with 55. Anthony Smith versus Jailton Almeida is on this list who is booked at a heavyweight fight against Curtis Blades, a win away from fighting for the heavyweight title. Why would you do this to poor Anthony Smith? What did he ever do to you? Does he mean someone?

Is there not something? He must have meant someone else. Who else is there? He must have meant someone else. Jack Almeida? Who's Jack Almeida? I don't know. Joe Almeida?

I'm trying to no. No, no, no. Boy, that's a weird. He hasn't even fought at light heavyweight in how long now? He at least over. He's a win away from fighting for the heavyweight title. Well, let's cancel the Curtis Blades fight and haven't fighting in Smith. Ryan Spam versus Rackage.

Oh, no. Oh, he beat up Parker Porter. It was his last. Yeah. Anyway. No, Paco Porter is a heavyweight. Oh, sorry. Sorry, that's his first heavyweight fight.

My bad. Danila Marche's last year. Yeah, like, I'm sorry. February 2020. Span versus Rackage, Blanchefield versus Schifchenko Grasow winner. Santos versus Rose Fiorel loser. Okay. Yeah, that's why what happens, yeah.

Nakamura versus Cody Garbrand. Are we willing to make that big a record? Why? Chris, what are you doing, man? You know, this is what early morning. I have a feeling we might see some wacky stuff. Again, I have not gone over my, the DMs I received. Chris, maybe take another month off before we see again. Oh, Chris.

I'm just kidding. I love you. Only uphill from here. Only uphill from here. God, I hope so. Ooh, Jake Marshall. Heck of a Saturday morning. I think Alex Caseras versus Billy Q would be fireworks.

Maybe put it in the MSG card. I would like to see that. I don't know how long one recovers from like a broken forearm because that's what he suffered in this fight. So, yeah, I mean, if he could turn around and fight at MSG, they'd be pretty sick. I'd be down for that one. Drew Hilty.

Korean zombie will be missed going on his sword. What a legend. I like to see Max go up to 155. There's a big name starting to realize he needs a new dance partner. So why don't we do Max versus Chandler makes all the sense in the world. world could be a potential fight of the year. I am okay with this. If Chandler is like, okay, McGregor's never happening, but I need someone fun to fight, you could do far worse than Max

Holloway, so I'm okay with that one. Why does that sound familiar? Does someone bring that up on, like, heck of a morning or something? It's on the post-fight show. We talked about this. How long? Just today? Today? Today. Man. We were talking about potential fun 55 matchups for Max. Man, I'm reeling right now. I'm reeling right now. I'm reeling. I've got to recover. I'm reeling. Holy shit, dude. Wow. I'll save this one. I'll save this one. I will save this one. I will save this one because I, it's not a horrible pick, but it made me like cry inside a little bit. He likes Giga versus the E.Gay Mitchell winner. I like it. Nakamura versus the Miles Johns. our ghetto winner like that. Blanchield gets a title shot. Taffa versus Waldo Acosta.

I think they were scheduled to fight before, so it makes sense. Anthony Smith, A.K., versus Khalil Roundtree. Do you have any interest in this? I have none. I, this is like, it's a punishment fight. And I don't think Anthony Smith deserves to be punished. I don't. But.

But it does. it does give Roundtriot chance to claim a top 10th. And a main event. And a main event. It's a reward for Khalil. It's a reward for Khalil. Oh, I don't want to see that. I don't want to see that.

Imagine if Anthony Smith pulled out another splitie. That would be so fun. This is what I want from Anthony Smith. I want us to see him in matchups when we're like, oh, Anthony Smith's going to get run over and just pulling out split decision after just getting just enough points at the scorecard Mike to keep his career going. And Anthony Smith, controversial split-y, stops this run of violence that Khalil Roundtree has been putting on everybody. That'd be comical.

Oh, man. Four Corners Sports. Anthony Smith versus Dominic Reyes. Okay. I like it. Ryan Span versus Colleal Roundtree. Okay. Now you want the Roundtree punishment after that performance?

Sure. But I still don't like it. I think Roundtree deserves a little bit better than that. Chikaze versus Emmett. I don't mind that one. I don't mind that fight at all. Josh, Emmett, he didn't say he's retiring, right? It's just...

No. No. No, he just lost to Ilya. I like that fight. All right. I kind of like that one better than the Ege pick, honestly, but... Don't say that. Yeah, it's pretty good.

Pretty, pretty good. Reni Nakamura versus Garrett Armfield. Damn. Want to match these two dudes up? I mean, I did think about that. I did think maybe this is just a logical way to go. It doesn't kill either guy. No, I like it.

It's kind of lazy. Any Billy Goughlove yet? No Billy Goughlin. He's a belt collector. I didn't know a lot of, but you probably knew more about Billy Gough than I did. I did my research this week. I'm like, this dude just goes everywhere. He just wins titles.

He just piles up titles. He's like a three-division CES champ or something like that. Aaron Blanchville versus TBD. She fought to the final belt, but Tyler Santos defended every single takedown. And Blanchville didn't have the performance that screams the UFC should move or in her title fight. before Rosamie Yunus's debut Fighter 125. Next week, there will be an answer. A lot of people are saying, like,

well, why should Blanche feel good a title shot? Because she went 0 for 14 on takedowns. She went 0 for 14 on takedowns and still won. That's why you should give her a title shot. She didn't land a single takedown, her bread and butter, and still won. And there was no robbery. Zippo controversy. She had the worst takedown performance of her life and still won.

Against Tyler Santos. Found away. You people. I do understand people not being as super high as they were, you know, after this play. I do think that something like, oh, well, she should have ran, you know, not that anyone runs through Talas Santos. But I'm sure there was that thought. Like, oh, she's supposed to be all that. She's, you know, undefeated in the UFC.

And, you know, she should have ran through her. And I don't say I agree with that, Mike. I'm not saying I agree with that. But I'm a man of the people. I do think that's where it's coming from. I think they just, you know, we're a little just. How many times Not an entertaining

Fine It didn't have to be It didn't have to be She proved a lot in there But you know I get it It was light on it I asked

I asked those people This question How many times That Hamza Tremai I've take down Gilbert Burns How many times That happened And did he still win

Did he still win Despite not having his best His best maneuvers Do he still win And it's a really good guy A lot of people didn't like A lot of people Turned on Hamza

After that fight too Which is insane Which is insane Which is insane The fight of a year, in my opinion of 2022. Junior Toph versus Dante Mays, Alex Echuk versus Robocop.

Damn. That's fun. Fun fight. Toby, Cortez Acosta versus Walt Harris. Not sure what's going on with Walt right now. Walt was supposed to fight Josh Parisian, which was like a perfect comeback fight. Positive drug test. His name was on the commissioned docket,

along with Meyer Buino Silva. And neither were giving, they got like just extensions of their suspensions, but no actual time frame. Looks like there's going to be resolutions for both of those. So stay tuned for that. Another Smith-Khalil. Good Lord, people.

Giga versus Yair. That's what Giga wants. Not a fan of that one. I think that's way too much too soon. And I think Yaya runs him. So I'm not a fan of that fight. Not saying it could ever happen, but to jump from

Kisaris to Yair after, I mean, he got a thumbed by Calvin Cater. And I think of those guys fought a hundred times. I think that fight goes exactly the same way. A hundred times. Yeah. Rock, you got to walk before you run, man.

You got a walk before you run. I thought for sure he was going to go to the post fight and call for a title shot. I'm so glad he didn't do that. But this is like the second worst thing he probably could have done. So yeah, I don't like it. Wu Choy versus Melsik.

Song versus the Losa Reese McKee winner. Oleg Zaycheck versus Chris Curtis. Not bad. Tafa versus Michael Parkin. Rinya versus Ricky Terseo. You got friends forever with Toby. There you go.

There we go, Toby. Robbie Ryan. Oh, boy. Let's see. Robbie Ryan let us down. Be nice. He let us down last week, I believe, for two weeks ago. Did he comment on it?

Did he say anything? He apologized for the endless amounts of doo-doo that I'm still shoveling off my shoes to this point. Just kidding. Junior Tava versus Carl Williams, an infamous name in Australia. I don't know what that means, but I will take your word for it. Who did Carl Williams?

Did he beat someone? I don't know if Carl Williams is, there's just another name of a pivotal sports figure. Oh, it could be that kind of gag. Maybe. You got to explain those. Robert, you got to explain some of those jokes. So again, we've been, you know, we've been covering early morning MMA.

It might not be as sharp as we could. Blanchefield, 110. This is, these are the, these are the ones that I find the most humorous. Blanchefield, 110% the bullet grass a winner. So we're beyond the 100% AK. We're going to 110. And then there's parentheses. Or fill in as a backup.

We went 110%. percent she gets the winner and unless she feels in it as a backup then that's not 110 percent that's like 91 percent i love you buddy nakamura versus marcus beguilla i like that fight chikaze versus arnold allen rodriguez ortega alan emett cater all coming off of losses alan is the pick of them i don't mind that one that's a bad fight for giga chikaze though i think it's a really tough stylistic matcher for him yeah i don't know how to feel about I don't know. I still think Giga himself is a tough test for a lot of these guys,

but I understand the thinking that he needs to be a little more. He and his team need to be thoughtful about what they do next. I agree. I will say this if they make that fight the second. And look, I know I'm not a big gambler, but for the sake of watch parties, I'm going to sprinkle some shekels here and there. I'll tell you right now,

if they booked this fight the second the lines drop, I'm betting on Arnold Allen without hesitation. Sure. Because I'll probably get it as good as I can. It'll probably like minus 165 for recency bias purposes.

But by the time they fight, Arnold Allen's going to be like a minus 3.30 favorite. And I would get him at such a value. So give me Arlenal in that fight. But who knows? Maybe I could be dead wrong. Anthony Smith versus Alexander Rackett's return fight. Sure.

Holloway versus. Well, did they not fight already? That's why I said return fight. Return fight. Wait, but that's... It could be a number of things. He didn't put two. It could be a return fight as in like return match,

a lot of wrestling as in for Rocketsch, like a return for Rockich from injury. But it's also in the pro wrestling world, return match is a rematch. I've never heard that before. You never returned that? You never heard return match? I don't think so.

Oh, man. That's a true story. I'm not calling that dude. I don't do it. Ryan, I trust you. Uh, versus Al Jemaine Sterling, give Max a $200,000 bonus. He's just trying to sputter you up.

No, because he's just buttering you up. Mike, do you ever meet people in person and they are disappointed that you're not the dad from the middle? What in the, what? Do you ever see the TV show in the middle? No, I kept getting confused with Malcolm in the middle, which has nothing to do with that show. So this, this show, I, like, I've watched like two episodes of his. It's not bad, but I hate it on principle because for years there's just, you know, what the heck, obviously.

And then this show comes out, and the main character's character name is Mike Heck. Oh. So, like, they're the Heck family, and the dad's name is Mike. So they call him Mike Heck. So, like, me and my dad, like, both have to deal with that because of this stupid show, which actually isn't terrible. Is Robbie Ryan from Australia? I believe so. Okay.

Because I had to do, I did, Mike, I did some research while you were finishing that read. Who is Carl Williams? Carl Williams with a C, not like the UFC fighter, Carl Williams. Carl Anthony Williams was a, he died in 2010, an Australian convicted murderer and drug trafficker from Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. He was a central figure with the Melbourne gangland killings as well as their final victim. Hey, Rob Ryan, thanks for bringing that up and really, uh, really shy. really, you know, giving us a light topic to talk about on the show. Sheesh.

It's like the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine was dating a guy who had the same name as a serial murder. Rifkin. Yeah, Joel Ripkin. Joel Rifkin. Joel Rifkin. Could you please come to the box? It's not the same guy. Robbie, this is two weeks in a row.

What are you doing? It's two weeks in a row, buddy, where you're getting a lot of air time for the wrong reasons. Man, Robbie. Way to bring us down. All right. Right. A.K., please, save us all. Oh, goodness me. Okay. I don't know if I can. Like I said, I've... Well, first-timer Matt Hearn on Twitter, welcome to the party pal.

Just said, if Islam wins, I want Max Holloway versus Charles Olivera, too. I like that idea. I like that idea. That was a shoulder injury, right? His shoulder popped out, right? DeBronx. Yes. That is... I mean, look, if Max is going to 55, that is, that's the fight. Gates, he's fighting for the undisputed title. Charles Olivera,

who is about to fight for the undisputed title again, if he loses to Islam Makachev, which I confidently feel he's going to. If you want to do that, that rematch,

Olivera Holloway 2, I'm so down for that one. Matt, that's such a good idea. I really wish I'd stolen that and not giving you credit. That was a really good idea. Hayesby 3rd,

Holloway, I guess I have to pause hashtag Hollowayechi for the time being, okay, since Justin's flying next to the belt, I'll go with another 155-a-tho pick Michael Chandler. Main card, UFC 300. Let's see who else you got. Giga, nice win. I think rushing him back could be a bad call. I'll go with

Sadiq Yusif if he beats Barbosa, which I think he will. I like that. That's good. Good fight. Nakamura versus Johns-Argweta winner. Another call there. Tafa, Carl Williams. Another Tafa, Carl Williams. K-A-R-L, not the convicted Australian murderer.

Thank you, Hayesby 3rd. Okay, Aldrich Julius Stolierenko. Let's keep over along here. Four Corners Sports New York. Also likes Holloway Chandler, also likes Anthony Smith, Dominic Reyes, also likes Ryan Span,

Coleo Roundtree. So we've got some familiar ones here. Let's move on a bit here. Francesco, our big Italian fan. There you go. Holloway Dolob Bronx, too, lightweight if he loses the title fight. Caceres versus Joshua Culebel.

That's kind of nice. Oh, look, Seychuk versus Roman Kabalov, Josh Fram, the winner, sure. J.G. Alders versus Molly McCann. That didn't happen? Am I making this up? That did not happen. Aaron Blanchevarez. What did they go on? But isn't Molly? Molly's moving down. Does she not? I, she should. I just sounds familiar. It sounds very. She said she was after she got thumped by Soli Ranko.

I could see that. Okay. But she hasn't moved down yet. So Francesco, I am not going to, I'm not going to give you doo-doo. She has not moved down yet. Technically, as of this date, She is still a 125er, but I do, that does make sense that she would want to go down. Liam Perry, afternoon, AK, first of all, thank you, zombie. Like most, he is one of my favorite fighters. A kill or be killed type of fighter loved watching his, and loved watching his cheating way in video he did. Oh, that was like a thing he did on YouTube, right? Yes, it was wonderful.

Yeah, that was fine. He's got a good sense of humor. I miss zombie already. I'm missing. It's been only even a few hours, and I miss zombie. Blancheville, Grasso Shichchenko winner. Oh, what else we got here? Oh, look, Stitchin versus Murdov.

Nakamura's Tertios, man, that's going to happen. Justin with a Y, only one pick. Korean Zombie is a town scout slash brand ambassador for the UFC in Asia. Like, what do your thoughts on that? Yeah. He should be in America, too. Does he strike you, though, as someone who's interested in that? Yeah.

Yeah. he's a thoughtful. He's a thoughtful guy. He does. He's a very thoughtful guy. And someone who actually, we say this all the time, like, man, a lot of fighters, and I'm not judging them at all, don't actually watch MMA. Like they're so focused obviously on their own careers and maybe their division, but they're not religiously watching every fight in that card. They're not religiously watching every, probably every pay-per-view.

They're probably just focused on their own business. But TKZ isn't pretty self-aware, not self-aware, but aware of the landscape. So I guess that could be interesting. Justin with a Y. Well done. Yeah. Bear Riley, happy early Saturday. Not a great result for Celtic last week.

Not a great result for Celtic this week, Barry. Trying to friggin' last place, St. Johnstone. Are you kidding me? Sungwood Choice. Sorry, Mike. Versus Dennis, Bazookja, Billy Gough, Trey Waters. I have them right next to each other in my ranking.

These two guys are the press of abuse that don't like to go to decisions. Fan-friendly fight, I agree. Mike Garrett Arfields versus Ronnie Lawrence, too. I believe. When did they fight? Do they fight an Emmy? I have to look this up right now. LFA 67, both men, not even five fights into their careers.

And Ronnie Lawrence beat or get armed field via unanimous decision. I believe, and I just want to look this up for context. I believe that Ronnie Lawrence recently said that he is taking some time away. from the sport. I believe I saw that. I will look for further context, but I'm pretty sure he announced that. Ronnie, if that's the case,

Godspeed, Godspeed, right? And hopefully we'll see you back in action. So, Aaron Blanchfield, now we're June's Fiotto a winner. Valentino beat Grassel will get the jersey. So unless these girls won't wait a year, they'll have to sit busy with the number one contender.

Fight. Rinyan Nakamura, Brady Heastand. I don't think he did. You know what? Pick one of these ultimate. fighter guys, is Heastin, or it's, uh, or it's Cherseos, fine pick for me. Gigatechikaze versus Movesar. I think the only problem is, I think Movesar has passed him now.

I don't think Movesar needs to take that fight. No, he does not. He does not. Although, let me see. It's tough, man. Like, who's he going to fight? Cater's still, I mean, Cater's still out. Ortega's probably not taking that fight.

Ilya's fighting for the belt. Yair, maybe? Like, if Loya is a better shot at getting Yair than than Giga does, there's Arnold Allen. Vloia of Arnold Allen's fun. Yeah, he's very, I think he's very far ahead of Gia. Like two wins ahead. I'm seeing Porriere versus, oh, sorry, I should say this wrong.

I'm sorry, German, German, Holloway versus Porriere three. I don't know if I, care for it only because Porre is up to nothing in the series, but their second fight was so effing good. It's almost like, yeah, throw it out. Throw a highlight for his Prairie 3 out there anytime. I can't imagine why no one would want to watch that. So I don't think it happens, but who's going to complain?

Yeah. Anthony Smith versus Blockow, which I'm doubt that. And John Ray on Twitter, Taffa versus Waldo Cortez-A-Costa. Nah, I see if you're going away from each other. Nakamura versus Timor-Ville. Yes, hopefully Timor got signed. Mike, I don't know if, do you know if he's one of the guys who got signed off

alternate fighter. Did you hear anything about that? I have not heard anything about that. The only, I mean, the only guy outside of Hollabo and. Katona. It's Cody. Is Cody. Yeah.

And I don't even know if that, how true that is. Dana said, like, we're going to take care of him. Okay. So we know he got the 50 G's. I don't know. Yeah. Hopefully he got signed as well. And then, uh, Holloway, Sterling, Smith, Krillov, Giga, Mitchell, E,

winner. All right. Let me wrap up here with some Instagrams, including first timer, Jason Colbrose. and welcome to the party pal. Tapa versus, oh, I see, I don't like, Jason, we're off on a bad start. Junior Tapa versus the winner of Mo Uzman, Jake Collier, theoretically makes sense, except that Tapa just fought Moizman.

So, Jason, for future reference, I would go, you know, Collier win or lose versus Moizman, I think would have been a good pick. But if he ends up, they're not going to match Mooseman again. It just makes no sense. But if two guys fought a no one. one remembers it except for the two fighters. I remembered. I remembered.

All right. Blanchfield versus, oh, Grasso-Shevchenko loser, Mike. So let's say she does get leapfrogged for the, uh, by Rose. Should she take on the one of the loser that fight? No. No. I don't mind the thinking, though. I could see it happening.

I agree. I don't know if I would book it. But I could, There's a logic to it. Shevchenko, yes. Grasso, no. There's a lot more because she's getting Shevchenko off two losses.

Shevchenko is the biggest name in the history of the division. She's the greatest champion in the history of the division. And beating her, despite Grasso beating her twice, would still have a lot of cachet more than anybody else on the roster. You could even make probably a, you could probably make a case that Blanchefield beating Shevchenko, not for the title, would hold amongst the casual viewership, hold more weight than her winning the title against Alexa Grasso. So if it's Shevchenko, yes, Grasso, no.

It feels like Blanchfield does need to get that one on her resume at some point, whether it's for the title or another fight. So there's a logic there. So Jason, I actually kind of like that thinking. Taos Santos versus Luzer of Anabonis versus Vioho. Nakamura versus Rosa. what Rosa is there at 135, Mike. You're talking Rosas?

Raoul Rosas Jr.? Who's booked? I hope it doesn't mean Charles Rosa, who's a featherweight. Any very big featherweight. Raoul Rosas Jr. He must mean Raul Roses, Riosus Jr., even then I would don't like that.

And I think Nakamura would annihilate Rosas Jr. And the U.S. is never going to make that fight. It's like two of the prospects they're really going to focus a lot of their time on at 135. Uh, Chikaze Mitchell, E.K. Jason, well done. Smith versus Roundtree. What's out there?

Holloway versus the winner of Chandler versus McGregor. Yes, I know it would be McGregor too. And yes, I want Holloway to move up to lightly. Well, thanks, Jason. Uh, just a, man, a few more here. I'm not going to read them all out. Sorry, guys. Beans Extreme memes.

Max versus Aljo. Mike is right. It's perfect. Do you hear that, okay? What does he call it? Perfect. It's perfect. Another Nakamura versus Joe's tough versus Rootter.

UFC versus tough, that's right. CV, you guys knew here, hoping to bounce back from some mild case of do-do picks last time. Holloway-Pourier, two, Holloway-Pourier, three, CV. Boo! We're already off to a terrible. Do-do-do. So, Kanzai versus Yusuf, we just said that Yusuf is booked to fight Edson Barbosa. So you got to give me a winner thing here.

Anthony St. versus Dustin, it's Justin Kobe, fine. They're teammates. No, are they really? Yes. Mark Montoya was in his frigging corner. C.V. What's I take a little doo-do for not

I recognize that immediately. But C.V., what's happening here? You're saying he was bouncing back, he said. Oh, he bounced. You bounce back like doo-doo bounces back. Yeah, he bounced up and then right back into the doo-do.

Oh, CB. Nakamura versus TV ground. And Matt. Matt. This is Matt. Brad, I always forget who this is, Matt Bradbury, just met Matt Bradford. Keenan song, Trevon Jowls, was very good, right next to each other in my rankings. Oloxat Sajik Murdof, Chikov, Chikajik, Mirdov, that Chakajajal-Eygian.

That Chicago Eagle Mitch Mitchell and it has to happen now. I feel like this 10 times on the show. Yeah, it's the one. Anthony Smith, Mersakanov. I don't know if I like that for Anthony Smith. No, I don't like that either. That's worse than Pahlia Roundtree. Talas Santos, Macy, Barber, and Max Holloway, Josh Shemitt. Guys, thank you for your picks so far.

please reach out to me sending your picks via DMs if you still can I don't know what's going on with social media but Alexander K.K Lee on Twitter Alexander KK Lee on Instagram Alex.ly at SBNation.com on email. Mike, how can they reach you? IG M underscore heck JR. I ain't messing with Twitter because it sucks. Twitter just stinks now. It's awful. Thanks Elon. Ruined everything. We get early day MMA next week too. Not as early as this one. We get a, this one starts seven hours later than Singapore did. They head back to Paris France, Cyril Ghan versus Sergei Spivak.

I still cannot believe that in a single calendar year, we're getting two Sergei Spivak main events inside the UFC Akduan. We got Derek Lewis, now we're getting Cyril Gond. Seagong looking to bounce back from a very tough night at the office against one John Jones. Massive fight at 125, Manon Fioro versus. is Rose Namayunis, Nami Yunis, making her flyway debut in the UFC.

William Gomi versus Lucas Almeida, liked that fight a lot. Benoit Santini versus Tiago Moises. We all got Otno points for that one. I believe we got a friend's forever at no point for Benoit Santini versus Tiago Moises,

okay? Great times. That fight is happening. Janis Gimore versus Kowlin Lofrin. What? Yeah, exactly. These are both, Are they contender series?

Who are, what is this? I don't know. Janus is a French fighter. Lockerin is a Irish fighter, probably for Cage Warriors. Yes. More Bantam Wits? Bring them on. Bring on. Bring on the bantam waste. That's what I say. So Cage Warrior Fighter making his debut, not in Ireland.

I might have to put a bet on Gimori, even though I've never. I don't know I know who he is. Volcan Oostomir versus Bogdan Guscoff. That's your main card. If there's, like, if we have fights where there's two or three names on a main card that I've never heard of, it's not great.

I'm not seeing a lot of Wikipedia entries here. Yes. Jocelyn Edwards versus Nora Cornole. Angeloza versus Reese McKee. Reese McKee back in the UFC. Good for him. Taylor Lopoulos versus Mouin Gaffer Hey, Taylor Laplos.

All right. Good. He's, am I getting confused? No, this is the same. Okay, I thought he, I know he has a brother. So he's coming back, coming back to the UFC. Yes. Overdue, actually.

He probably could have come back to me. Morgan Sheriere, finally getting a shot against Manolo Zikini. Farebasharad against Clayton Rodriguez and Zara Fairen versus Jacqueline Cabalcante. I am looking forward to this. No, not that, not that fight. Boucherat. I was sorry, I had delayed reaction. Free Boucherat. That's good fight. That's good fight.

I'm excited. Javid is scheduled to fight Victor Henry, but I heard a rumbling that that fight's no longer happening. And that makes me really sad. But yes, noon eastern time for UFC Paris kickoff. And then we're off to Sydney for another non-Apexie apex card. For UFC 293, that is a tough hang main card. If you guys saw the graphic earlier on the UFC single.

April broadcast and it's Noce UFC at the T-Mobile Arena and then we're back at the apex for for a fun one between that's the Raphael Fizzi versus Matush Gamrock card yes and the fight that will determine the next opponent for Giga Chikaze as well yes Danny Gay versus Bryce Mitchell we got Daniel Argetta versus Miles Johns oh I like that so yeah and then we get a break I was about to ask you right that's it right we're not No, we're not even doing a bonus show. There will be no bonus shows. No, no, no, no asking Mike and AK anythings.

None of that shit. A.U.N. Ask us nothing. That's the show. That's the show we're doing that. It's just going to, we might just put up a feed, and it's literally going to be nothing. And then that's the whole thing. It's going to be a two-second show. But thank you all very much. We will see you next week following UFC Paris right here on On On to the next one.

Always remember the golden rule. Don't take the stuff too seriously. Anime is supposed to be fun. Good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.