MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 100

Episode Date: November 10, 2024

Carlos Prates put an emphatic exclamation point on UFC Vegas 100 with a ferocious face-plant knockout of Neil Magny in the main event. With Prates putting together an impressive 4-0 campaign in 2024, where does the exciting fight-finisher go in the loaded welterweight division heading into 2025? 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 Prates following another bonus winning stoppage win in his first UFC main event. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for former ONE champ Reinier de Ridder after his scrappy submission win over Gerald Meerschaert in the co-main event, Gaston Bolaños following his decision victory in the featured bout, along with fellow main card winners Gillian Robertson, Mansur Abdul-Malik, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss?

Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking crowns have returned following the historic one-of-a-kind UFC Vegas 100 event at the world's most famous Apex. Pour out your liquor.

It is the final Apex event of 2024 on the road, the rest of the UFC's calendar year. and the road travel now heads to New York City and Madison Square Garden and UFC 309. More on that later on in the program. But today, we're going to discuss the fallout of UFC Vegas 100 from a matchmaking perspective. I am Mike Heck, and joining me as always the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity,

and my best darn friend in the world, Alexander Kaylee, aka happy Sunday morning to you. I can't hear you, so we're off to a rip-roaring start. my mic button's always a little funny that's my excuse classic podcaster excuse it's my it's my mic button oh I just like pressed it was so funny it's my excuse and I'm sticking to it and it doesn't matter like people don't really need to hear from me as far as any review of last night I'll tell you I did I barely watched any of it

I kept up on the coverage of course at myfighting.com I keeping up the tweets and the beautiful graphics from Jose Youngs and the great recaps so yeah I'm up to date I certainly saw some of the impressive performances, a lot of finishes that were delivered. But no, I'm sad to say, I did not have a UFC Vegas 100 watch party of my own. I didn't,

I didn't sell, I didn't ring in the occasion with the pompous circumstance that it probably deserved, but I'm happy to be here to match me because just based on the performances and the results, we actually, I think, have some,

like, really fun fights ahead for some of the guys on this card, some of the guys and gals in this card. So, I think we're going to be around the same, Like I don't think either of us is going to go in any crazy direction, but I could be wrong. I could be wrong, my best friend. You do always surprise me.

So I am curious to see where you're going to land on some of these matchup picks. So I don't know if the matchmaking is going to surprise you. I am going to break some news to you a little bit later in the show. And you're just going to trust me on this. We are best friends. You have to just trust in what I'm telling you is fact and true. Yes. And it shall be.

And I think if you go back and rewatch what I'm going to. tell you to rewatch. You will agree, but that is not right now. We have to talk about the man who has locked up MMA fighting's rookie of the year, who if we bring back the breakout or breakthrough fighter of the year, he has locked that up as well. His name is Carlos Pratchez goes in there. Now, four and O in the UFC, all four fights in his UFC career have taken place in 2024, four, four fights, four finishes, four performance bonuses, and now we lock in a main event finish in the first round. He will now be a ranked top 15 welterweight come Tuesday in the UFC's rankings.

I would be not, I would not be surprised if he ends up with the ranking in our rankings after this knockout win over Neil Magni. And I still don't know how he really truly did it, AK, barely touched the man, knocked him down with kind of an open hand slap, which really, really hurt Neil Magni, and then just lands a quick grazing shot and faceplant chaos, just the most veteran fighter in the history of the division. So what a performance.

Carlos Pratchez called out one name. I called this the I applied to Harvard callout, which was Jack Delam Adelena. But his resume and his credentials and his extracurriculars might just be enough to get him into Harvard or into a fight with Jack Delam, Adelana. But he also had a fallback option, which was, you know, Florida State,

credentialed school, great football team, would probably get him a job if he graduated from it. And that was Jeff Neal. So we had a fallback school, if you will, but still a difficult test in Jeff Neal. Did you match up Carlos Pratchez with Jack Delamadalana, Jeff Neal, or anybody else? I want to talk about rankings a little bit.

He's definitely going to be in the UFC rankings, as you said, because I think Magni entered this one with the UFC number next to his name. It's been hard for me to keep him out, I think. So my bottom, this is my 12 to 15 right now. Stephen Thompson just lost to Buckley. Jeff Neal 13, Luke A 14, and young Michael Morales, 15. It does feel like Carlos should jump over Michael Morales. I love having Michael Morales in there, but it feels like Carlos jumps over him.

and probably jumps over Lucay, too, who's heading into this nonsense fight with Nick Diaz, where win or lose, it's not going to improve his ranking. It's just like it shouldn't even be happening. Mike, for you, you also have Morales 15, Thompson, 14, Buckley, 13, Neal 12. Now, are you going to wait for him to possibly fight Jeff Neal before giving him a number, or does he jump over Morales and maybe Stephen Thompson? I think, unfortunately, my fellow Aquarius is going to be. out of the UFC welterweight rankings in Wonderboy Thompson.

I think you have to put Carlos Prattis in there. And Morales gonna stay in? Yes. Interesting. Oh, because they're, they're right around the same. And if Wonder Boy fought either of those guys, he loses to both of them. Oh, I'm like I. Yeah, I think he, I would pick Pratt just to, to beat Wonderboy.

I would pick Michael Morales to beat Wonder boy. I do think Michael Morales, I would probably rank Morales a spot. higher than Prattis right now. Just because I think his youth and the fact that he's nowhere near as good as he's going to be, which is a very scary thing, I just think his ceiling is higher than Carlos Precious is right now. So long-term growth, I think Morales is kind of the guy you invest in more, but short-term, if you're just looking to make a quick buck and get out of the stock market, I think you just

go all in on Pratchez right now. Dude's an absolute savage. Yeah, I'll be surprised if doesn't crack our tough of team. never know. Casey might decide not to rank him higher than like Magamette Umalatov, so anything's possible. Casey might make him number three. You know, we never know. He's a wild card. He's a wild card. Matchup. Yes. Mike, I told the band ahead of time, I said, guys, don't get excited. Don't queue up. Because I did listen to the post fight show last night, so I heard you guys reasoning and I was just nodding my head the whole time. I was not in my head with the Jeff Neal suggestion, Jeff Neal suggestion. I would love the Jack

Della Madelana fight, if that gets booked, immediately one of my five most, like, anticipated fights of 2025. Like, that's just going to be a friggin' incredible fight, whether it goes three rounds, whether some guy smokes the other dude in 25 seconds, we will be talking about, like, that fight for the first six months of, of 2025 and probably revisiting him for, like, knockout of the year by the end, if that's how it went. But I love that matchup. I just think, I think for JDM's sake, he deserves a higher-ranked guy, at least someone in the top

10. So I hope he's, I hope he gets that. I hope he's maneuvering for that. But Jeff Neal makes a ton of sense. And then after there's a lot of sorting out that needs to be done at the higher parts of 170 after he fights Jeff Neal, if he proves himself there and wins that in impressive fashion, he's right for a top seven, top eight guys. So I think it makes a lot of sense. I went, I went to Florida State. Yeah, I think Florida State is a great place to go. And I think you just, you have to build these guys in the almost the exact same way. You know what I mean? Like, I would like to seem, I wouldn't mind Michael Morales fighting Jeff Neal.

Like, that's fine too. You go from Magny to Jeff Neal. You beat Magny, you're a top 15 guy. If you beat Jeff Neal, you're a guy who could contend for a belt. That's just how this works right now. And Jeff is a tough fight for anybody. Just ask freaking Shafcott Rockmanoff how tough that fight was. Just ask Ian Machado Gary how tough that fight was.

It ain't easy to beat Jeff Neal. And if you can beat him, you have a very good chance of fighting for a belt. So I think that's the way to go. But I don't care who they match him. If they do Carlos Pratchez versus Michael Morales, that would be incredible. I have no problem if they do that. I really don't. It would just be one of these dudes has to go.

If Morales loses, so what? He can come right back. He's 25. No big. We chalk it up as a learning experience. however Morales goes out there and just lumps up Prattis, that could be tough. And Prattis still would just be a super fun guy to watch. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, and it's funny because I normally advocate for not protecting guys on Winstreet's. Like, I'm normally like, give it to me now. Like I want to see Prattis and Morales someday. So why not? Why not next? But I think right now we have enough river room to not put those guys up against each other. But yeah, no, no problem at all. If that fight was made, Jacked,

and Madelena fight, practice is a man right now. I think he'll be, he has to be also top five just fighter of the year. I mean, I think he'll be, I know it's hard. I think when people look at our past list, it's almost always people who fought in title fights. It's usually like at least four out of five people who are in UFC title fights, or if they were in another promotion, had like two really good title defenses. Like, you pretty much have to be normally in the top five or fighting for a title or have

fought for a title or won a title anyway, somewhere in that picture to make our fighter of the year's list. I think he has to make the top five. It's also been kind of a weird year, too. I think people, when they look back at the activity of certain champions and some of the big names and how active or inactive they were, it's going to like muddy the water. So I think he can slide in there. I have not even thought about my list yet.

Of course, Prudetta, Toporia, right there at the top. I feel like Prattis can slip in in the top five. So I'm excited because four and OME, the UFC, four knockouts, four performance bonuses, very good division. It's got to count for something. it's going to be interesting i think one of let me see it's going to be it's it's tough to say it's tough to say if if buckley beats i'm a chado gary i think he has a stronger case and i can't believe i'm saying this into a live microphone beating stopping lukei beating near sultan roots of biaff knocking out stephen wonder boy thompson and then beating him chado gary that's a

four and oh that stacks up better in my opinion, then projects. Wow, that was all in 2024. This has been the year of Buckley. It's been the year of Buckley. It's been the year of Buckley. It could be. Forget to Poria and Praneda.

This has been the year of like sneakily the year of Buckley. Yeah. If he goes out finishes Ian Gary, that's three finishes. And the resume is just, that's three ranked guys. Yeah. You know, even though Lou Geh and Thompson are clearly on the back now, that's still three ranked dudes. And if he beats Gary, giving Gary his first loss, that would be,

he probably gets on the list if he wins this fight. If I had told you at the end of last year that Joaquin Buckley would be in our talks for fighting earlier here, what would you have said to me, my best friend? What would you? I would have said, interesting. After the, if you said in May that he would be up for Fighter or the year, I would have said absolutely not. Because there's no chance it happened.

But now he's in a position where it could. Talk about the changing of the guard. Like, Joaquin Buckley just turned, turn me real quick. Jamal Hill just keeps turning the other direction. And I'm just like, man, like, you can do this. Joaquin Buckley showed the world. You can do this. You can get back in and become the plaintiff in the court of public opinion despite

being an absolute defendant earlier on. But we'll see what happens there. Walter Wade is fun again, AK. Mike. It's very fun. If I had told you at the end of last year that Roug Roug would be in talks to be a top five fighter of the year, what would you? I would, I would jokingly laugh and approve because that would, that's just a world I kind of want to live in. And boy, I think he's making our top of theme in heavyweight. I think he's, I think we have to rank him at heavyweight. Even if you, even if you put him below malach, uh, well, let me talk about my, maybe even if you put

him below malacan because you didn't feel like he won that fight on. Friday. He's good. I think he's going to no, no, no. He's not going to crack the top team, but he's going to be a FAR. He's going to be a FAR. That is for sure. He will have, for sure. He will be receiving votes. He will be receiving votes. Oh my God. No doubt about it. Okay. Uh, AK, it's time to break some news. Let's break some news right now. Uh, we have a new middle 80, middleweight champion. We have the man who sits on top of the throne of middle 80, middleweight champions. Christoph Jotko is the Alexandre Panthosia of middleweighty middleweights.

Rainier de Ritter is the Demetrius Johnson of middleweighty middleweights. RDR is the king of the middleweighty middleweights. He is the greatest middleweight champion we have ever had, even after just one UFC fight. This fight with Gerald Mearshardt was the most middleweighty fight in UFC history. And RDR won that fight. And Jed and I came to this conclusion. he is the guy. There is no one better. Jotko walked so RDR could run. RDR is the goat of middleweighty, middleweight champions. And I don't care if he loses his next six fights, that belt is staying on his

mantle after this fight in performance. This was the best, the most fun I've had watching a middleweight fight, maybe all year. It's just so funny and fun to watch. Two incredible grapplers trying to kickbox each other almost like both guys were buried in quicksand it was the most fun the best and rdr is not going to win a belt he's not even going to crack the top 10 it's not going to happen he struggled with gerald be charred he is just going to be in fun middleweighty fights and you know what i'm here for it there are people saying we have a new contender at middleweight no you don't you don't have a new contender you have the middle-weighty middle-weight goat and that is just the best position to be he will be put over on this program for the rest of time and after this impressive outing this incredible fight maybe one of the ten best fights of the year at least from a watching experience in my eyes rDR versus robocop will be next and boy oh boy is that just gonna be swell i'm so excited so you're saying if i go back and watch one fight from bell to bell on this card it should be i mean it didn't go the distance but you know what i mean

any fight that went beyond the first round i put that it should be this fight oh yeah this this is whatever you want like when this fight was booked you had a vision in your head thinking to yourself i hope it goes like this this surpasses even your wildest hopes for what this fight could have been it's the it's the best it truly is the best if there was a fight of a night it would have gone to this one and it absolutely deserved it this is when we created the middle middleweight middleweight title okay it was it was for this fight we we've just been waiting all this time for a fight like this to happen and it did and it was awesome there's nothing more middleweight either i think than not even like being a middleweight technically before he came to the

ufc because let's not he was the middleweight uh champion of one but that he that was 205 pounds over there, right? So, yes, as we've said many times, we kind of, right? He dwarfed Gerald Beershardt. Oh, okay. So he is. He's also not a huge, like, middle way. I always felt like, but I don't think he cut to 170 either. I feel like Gerald's in that's that in-between spot where you feel like some, you know, there's that big gap between like, you know, 1805 and 170. You're like, you feel like Gerald would fit in there. It's not a massive, like, 185 or. But yeah, it's, I, what a glowing review. I'm now excited to go back and watch

this fight. RDR, again, just kind of a weird, such a weird case, like a guy who, excuse me, I'm about to cough, excuse me, I spared the, what a professional. Thank you. My button worked that time. It's such a weird case of a guy who was like a star during the, I want to say, I don't see rise, but sort of like when one was being viewed as this kind of fun alternative to the UFC, even with all kinds of sketchy stuff going on and questions about

their true viewership numbers and how the hell they're getting all this money and blah, blah, RDR was up there, him on Lanzang and the Lees and there was that buzz around the MMA portion of one and RDR was a big part of that. And it feels like though we are getting him well past that time when people are like, ooh, how would he fare in the UFC? There was like, oh, how would he fare against like Israel or dissonia? Like no one was asking that question anymore. No one would dare to ask.

I think it would be interesting fight to see in the future, but it's not like it was when like, oh, champion versus champion, how intriguing would that thing. So yes, him being the middleweighty, middleweight champion of the UFC in his very first fight for promotion, it just makes sense. It just makes a lot of sense. It feels right. I think I might have given him another middleweighty matchup. I like him in Roman DeLidezze. I had originally booked Roman to, I had him as Hamzat insurance.

I said he was going to step in and 308 and fight Whitaker. But that was really me just doing all the, you know, reverse jinxing I possibly could. And thank goodness that fight happened. So Roman is free. So I think him and the RDR could work out. And we could get more middleweighty goodness. We really good. That would be super fun from a middleweighty, middleweight perspective.

Like RDR and Michelle Pereiro would be fun. Keep him away from Anthony Hernandez. That's what I keep telling people. I see so many people saying he has to fight Anthony Hernandez. No, he doesn't. No, he does not. That is not going to go well for him. So let's not do that.

let's just throw him in fun fights against, like, car crash type of fighters, and he could just kind of middleweight all over him. He's like the next generation of middleweighty, middleweight. He's what they all strive to be when we created this belt, and he will carry this thing proudly until the end of time. It's going to take something insane for him to lose this belt, and you will have so much fun. And one other wrinkle to this fight, AK, that I did not even realize,

which made it so much better, is that Gerald Mearschart through all of his like pre-fight interviews and even in the packaging as they were getting ready to show this fight Gerald Mearschart was like I'm fighting for the honor of the UFC that these guys can't

come over for another promotion and beat UFC fighters and I was just like what a terrific way to build tension for this fight I was so impressed by all of it it was great it was very AEW Escapian it was very like I'm tired of these guys

coming in to A.W. I've got to protect the ring. We built this ring with our blood. That's like, that's like one out of every three AEW like angles these days. It's just the same thing over again. Yeah. I think we all should strive to work for a company like AEW because everyone just defending the company. It's unbelievable when I started this. Okay. I'm sure. I don't want to go on an AEW round right now. Okay. You know, you know. Oh yeah. I know. I know. I know well enough. Let's go to the bantam weight division. Gaston Bologios spoils the UFC debut of Cortavius Ramius.

And this was just kind of a, it was a scrappy little battle. These guys just scrapped it out. And Bologios was the better guy. I thought it was 1-1 heading into round three. And Bologios wins the third round. Two of the judges disagreed and thought Bolognaos won all three rounds. And that's totally fine. Blanios gets the win.

And this is kind of the weirdest fight to select on the entire card because I don't know what to do here. So I threw a dart. I'm sure you did as well. Where did your dart land, AK? Well, we wouldn't even normally be with respect to both guys who, good for them for making the most of an opportunity that, again, they just kind of fell backwards into, right? We lost Gibson, Johns some ways back. Then we lost, what did we lose during this week? Then we lost the penultimate bout between Ricky Tersios and Bernardos-Pi.

Pretty Garbrandt, yeah. Dalby Zaleski, which I think wasn't, I don't think was scheduled to be on the main card, but either way, and it's another. So the card, there was some shuffling. There was quite a bit of shuffling. And, hey, these guys got their main card spots. I hope no one cropped on them and said like, oh, who are these guys? Why are they?

Someone had to get it. I mean, you could have put Zaleski on there, but he was fighting a newcomer. So anyway, yeah, you can really only do a dart throw here. I don't know where to go with Bologios, but we've got someone who fought recently. Pretty big experience, guys. but I think it could make for a good clash of styles. Let's go with Bolognaos and Cody Gibson. How about that?

Just let's throw it out there. Competitive fight, I think. I don't know what to expect from Bolognais yet. Because I kind of like Cotavius Romeas, and I think he'll be fine. Like, I don't think that this loss, like, is going to, it's like, oh, well, he's one of another contender series guy. He's going to wash out.

I think the best is still to come with Gortavius. So, you know, this was just, you know, didn't go his way. So we'll see more of him. But I think Gaston, maybe I'm throwing him in against the guy who's a little too, that's a little too much experience. But again, just the timing is going to work out that they can probably match up him and Cody Gibson. Yeah, I went with Garrett Armfield. Just throw the dart, land there.

Armfield's coming off of a fight he should have won, but lost on the cards. A little home cooking up there in your neck of the woods, AK. But yeah, let's go with that. Fun fight. Armfield's tough. Let's go. If either of us land this, I will be shocked. I will be shocked.

There's almost no way. Listeners, listeners, if you nail this Bologna's pick, please let me know. I will try to keep an eye out for the next time. It won't be for like two months until we hear when Balaunus is booked again. So my chance to remember this are almost nothing. So please, if you somehow get the Bolognaos pick correct, kick me in my DMs and I will make sure to mention it. Let's go to the Women's Strawweight Division, aka Gillian Robertson. on a roll right now. She did not look good in Jacksonville when she fought Tabit the Ricci.

But she has won all of her fight since then. She's getting a bunch of finishes. I thought she was to get a steamroll Luana Pinero. That did not happen. Luana Pinero showed up, had good takedown defense, was scrambling. But Julian Robertson is just such a terrific grappler. Once she gets you on the ground, it is very, very difficult to get back up or improve your position. But Julian Robertson gets the rare decision win her win street continues on she's on a good run and i think it is time to do a little canada on canada crime we do julian robertson versus loopie godineas aka oh yeah i had thought about that i i'd it loopie is what's she coming off of a loss couple losses I think

Godineas is I think that's that's stopped me a couple of but she's been fighting good fighters though I mean that's the loopie's whole deal

she'll fight anyone she doesn't care ranking really doesn't matter yeah she's lost to verna Janjoroba who's probably going to fight for the belt and she lost to

Mackenzie Dern and no shame in it no shame in it but you mentioned McKenzie Dern I think it's about time for these two to maybe nearly cross past

we got Dern fighting Amanda Hebus again at UFC Tampa December 14th. I think Roberton has earned the winner of that fight. I think she has. Three straight wins. Some good veteran wins she's got in there. Maybe some

fighters, you know, closer to the way out. That's fine. Whatever. But wins are wins. Wins or wins. She looked good at Flyweight. And never quite all came together. Never really got that run to the top five. Straway might be the place for her. So she kind of, I think she'll get a chance to almost leapfrog someone she lost to Top of the Ritchie.

If she gets the winner of This fight, now that I'm saying it, it sounds like, you know, Dern or He was, probably won an opponent higher than her. Either way, I'll go with it. I'll go with it. Not because with Duren, there's also a lot of rematches in the top, in the top 10. So if she won, she would need a fresh opponent. It could be Julian Robertson.

Amanda, he was to fight anyone. As long as she doesn't just randomly fly up to 125 again, I think she'd get Gillian Robertson. So not quite as much of a dark throw as our last matchup pick. But yeah, let's give her the UFC Tampa winner. Yeah, I don't, if they book Dern and Robertson, I have no issue with that. I just, I would like to see Julian Robertson, like out dog somebody. Because the last time she was kind of in that spot, she didn't win. And that was sort of the tap of the Ritchie fight.

Loopy will put her through hell to win. And I kind of want to see if she can, she can out dog Loopy. And that's not a lot of people can do that. So if she could do that, then we know we're on to something. We can go to the Derns and all that. But either way, if they want to just skip all that and go right to the Derns of the world. I'm totally cool with that. Let's go to one of the big standouts of this card, Mansour Abdul Malik, this guy, AK, you should probably go back and watch this fight too.

I saw the finish. I saw the finish. Yeah. I mean, you should probably just go back and watch it all. Every time this dude landed a shot, it was, you had to go like this, cover your mouth and go, oh my God, like the sound it made, the echo through the world's most famous apex was wild. This guy is a hammer. And boy, Dusko Tudoravit should be employed for the rest of his life. Thank you. Thank you. He is that special kind of talent you need for situations just like this. Dude is durable. He's tough. And can take a beating. And boy, did he take one here.

Menser Abdul Malik is about to fight. Zach Rees next. Zach Reese is fighting. He said Riquet Dumas, UFC 311 in January. and I don't care what happens in that fight. He's fighting Zach Rees next. We're just going to have pure and utter chaos when those two dudes fight each other. When loser dry, interesting. Always a fun pick.

Yeah, listen, we need, I always advocate for the Dusko Tudorovich's, the Victoria Leonardo, who should still be with the promotion. Shout up to Victoria Leonardo. Got a win at Invicta. She sure did. So just this week.

So good for her on the other side of it. Hopefully she'll be back in the UFC Sunday. Or at Invicta, just putting on, getting involved in exciting fights, win or lose. Like, you need, I hate to use the term jobbers because, you know, obviously it's a pro wrestling term for, for, you know, athletes who are meant to lose and make the other person look good. But also generally are only, like, viewed as like losers.

So I don't want to use that term for professional fighters. I just think it's a, it's a bit too derogatory. But yes, you need guys like this who are, like you said, tough, durable, credible, but also probably going to get finished and probably in spectacular fashion because they're so tough. The only way to put them down is by doing something impressive. So, yes, this was a great, great matchmaking for Abdul Malik. He could be such a fun addition to 185. I was watching his contender series fight.

He just wants to land power punches and head kicks. That's all he does. I don't know if he's ever, I don't know if I've seen him throw a combo other than, other than power punch into power punch, which I don't really count as like a combo. That's like the Banduli Silva combo. So there's a lot of ways we could have gone. Yeah, I went, I think, a little bit higher. I said Dariyev. I don't know. I'll bet Dariah again. We're really guessing here with Bolognaz and Abdul Malik. And with Abdul Malik, I don't know if this guy's future is top 25, top 10, future world champion. I have no idea. I would be surprised. Again, he seems a little limited in what he can do. But what he can do is awesome and really fun to watch. And he's very young in his career. So big props to him for a good debut. And I'm really excited to see who he fights next.

Yeah, he is very raw and rough around the edges, but dude's at extreme couture. Eric Nixick loves these challenges of taking guys with just this raw natural talent and then turning him into mixed martial artists at the highest level. And this guy is just on his hell and he's violent. Dude is absolutely vicious in there. So what a performance from him. Let's go to the wild card round, AK. Let's select one fighter we have not match made for.

It will match me for them right now. who did you go with here I went with Zaleski bad luck bad luck I mean well maybe good luck because he did avoid

a second fight with Dalby and I know you know we all want to see that one again first fight went to a draw but remember Dalby just does not lose to Brazilian so either we were getting a draw or Zaleski is going to take an L

so maybe it was a good thing that he got handed a newcomer and unknown property and Zach Skroggen poor guy had to give 20% of his purse to Zaleski even though he saved a fight That's so weird.

If I'm Zeliski's team, I would, well, I mean, I would take the money because I'm a piece of crap. But, you know, I assume they have more integrity than I do. And it would be nice that they did not take the 20% to give it back because he saved the fight on like four days notice. That's a whole other thing. I could have been lazy here and just rebooked the Dolby fight because that's probably what they're going to do. But I'm going to give him a fun name. I'm going to give him a very notable fighter who's probably hovering around the, top 15 guys, depending on how your rankings look at 170.

And I know this guy really is only kind of looking for fun fights at the stage of his career. We just saw him grapple Carlos Condit, Mike. I'm going with Michael Venom Page. I think stylistically a fun matchup. Age appropriate. I'm always big on age-appropriate matchmaking. Both guys are 37. I don't know how old they'd be by the time they fought.

But either way, they're veterans. They know how to put on a show. I think Zeletsky kind of deserves a name the stage of his career. I just think he's putting a lot of good work for the UFC. So this is definitely not a crystal ball pick. I think it's much less likely than just them just rebooking to LB and finding some, you know, a more, maybe a more famous name for MVP. But I'm waving my wand.

I'm waving my wand and I'd actually really like to see this fight happen. So big. Interesting. Yeah. You don't want to give MVP what he wants, huh? M.P. wants to fight Char a bullet. I kind of like that. I like it.

I just, I don't know. I think his next fight is going to be at 170. I don't know if he's going to jump up like that. Yeah, we'll see what happens. I went with, I just went, I'm going back to the well here because I think we just need it. I don't want to see. Look, Carlyne Ekovic, she's fun. She gave Denise Gomes a tougher run than I think most people thought she would.

She's durable as hell. She took some big shots and just kept coming. And I just kind of want to see her. fight Angela Hill now. Like these two have not fought each other. I don't know how that is possible that they have not fought each other. But now they should just fight each other because what else is

there for either to do really? A vet on vet action. That's a, you just did a prelim, a losing prelim fighter? Yeah, but in one of the more meaningful fights on the card that got buried on the prelims. Yeah, that's very rare on this show.

That's very rare on this show. I did that we... I just didn't know where else to go. Like, I didn't I really truly didn't. Like I thought about doing. Trayshan. Maybe Elizu, but then Treyshan maybe. DeMond Blackshare maybe, but he's already fought like pretty decent guys already. And the Cody Stamen thing is just wild to me, just seeing, you know, what's kind of

happened with him because he's got everything and just keeps losing and losing bad. But yeah, I just kind of went with that. Like, that's just a fun little scrap right there. So that's what I went with. It'll be fun. I really hope they don't do Trayshan and Manstor. I think that would be, I mean, it would be a good fight. It would be fun to watch.

But again, this is sort of like, you know, just don't. Not yet. Let these boys breathe a little bit, you know. Let up cook. Trashon was out for a while. Chishol's had such a tough run in the UFC since the ultimate fighter. Yeah, absolutely. All right.

Let's go to the peeps, AK. A lot of suggestions this week. Yeah. More than last week. Maybe it's the historic aspect of the, the event. So let's get into it. Let's start with Micah. Picks for Otno, Pratchez versus Neal, although Covington would be really funny. RDR versus Hermanson, that's very middleweighty. Bolognaos versus the loser of Janyes versus Marcos, which is coming up in Tampa. So

might be a little bit too big of a step up, but I don't know, maybe not. Let's go to Alex. Alex says, while since I last sent some picks in, but I've been inspired to return to matchmaking by the Grandor of UFC Vegas 100. Here are my picks. Carlos Prodigus versus Jeff Neal. I think that's going to be a popular one. RDR versus Robocop. Gaston Belanos entering the sweepstakes, A.K. versus Cody Haddon. Jillian Robertson versus Marina Rodriguez. That's pretty interesting. Ooh. Ooh. Abdul Malik versus the dualist, Ehor Potia. Golly. How has Ehor not officially been really?

I don't even think he's popped up on a roster tracker, right? Or did he, did his name pop up on the roster tracker? No, he's, she. No, right? This guy, the dualist, I mean, he is, he's get or get got, man. He kind of can't, he kind of can cut him. Okay, listen, hold on. I am not putting, you know, I refuse to put him on the list of the, the discontradurvich's

and the Victoria Leonardo, even though he has served that purpose well. Don't get wrong. He has served that purpose well. he's got some stinkers in there too this is a guy who and it's not his fault they booked him to end shogun's career or sorry he didn't end shogun's career for the last fight of shogga

we will never forgive when they forget I know it's not his fault he didn't book that fight but I don't care I do not I don't like Eey or Toporria okay I'll just say it I don't like him I don't like him and for reasons that have nothing to do with him

I don't he's how is he not released so I'm sorry that's our original question He's 0 and 4. He just talked about how valuable fighters like Gihar are. You know, he's a Gary Gitt God All-Star. All right. Let's go to, let's go to Leflane, who actually got a Otno point, or probably a sliver of an Otno point, after picking Prattis versus Magni after Prattis beat the Leach.

There's no way he was the only one that picked that, but he did remind me that you got to tell us earlier. You got to tell us earlier. Well, he didn't realize it. He went through like old that picks and was like, oh, shit, I didn't realize that I picked this one. one. So these are your picks. You got to, you got to keep track. We're not going to looking back for you. You know, I get a whiteboard. Yeah. And my younger in my younger days, I used to comb through those picks guys, but I'm an adult now. I don't know if you guys heard. I'm an adult now. And I, I don't have that I apologize. I do not have time to look at

these things for you. But yeah, to get sure, sliver. But we've got, we've got plenty. You've got plenty. Okay, the duelist is mentioned again. And we'll get to that in a moment. Uh, left lane. Also, I mean, probably. Pachos pick is pretty universal with Jeff Deal. Magni versus the Brian Battle, Randy Brown winner, RDR versus the Joker, GM3 versus Muniz with a loss to Icram Alaskaroff, Bolognaos versus the Miles Johns Lima loser,

Mansor versus Abdul Razak, Sazar Almeida loser. I don't, Mansor and Sazar Almeida, I believe, both train at Extreme Coutor, so I don't think that if I could happen, but just throwing that out there. Elizu Zaleski Dos Santos versus Jake Mani.

Matthews, Chuck Buffalo versus Euros Medich, DeMond Blackshear versus the Yanja as Marcos winner, and Trashon Gore versus the dualist, AK. We're giving the duelist to Trashon here. Okay. Yeah. I mean, these are logic. You know what?

You're right. These are logical uses. If you're going to mention E.R.'s name on the show, these are the good. These are the reasons. Yes. You're pointing him up against a young, like a young killer, for lack of that way. he says also not from this card but if we could do ot no for one other for one championship rug rug rugs versus ingano for the pfl's debut in africa is the only fight to make that makes sense an mma for

ingano right now my opinion what a frigate well i mean he's earned it right we were saying malikin how much we were talking about malikin we were looking like past the rougar fight we're just like oh malikin's one of the guys people should look at malikin could fight in ngano next we weren't even considering rougar like we were like i think we might have been like laughed about it uh would be such a spectacle. I don't know if PFL can pull this off. Not necessarily the Rook-G-Rug-Rug thing. I think co-promoting with one would actually be pretty easy

and getting Rook-Rug-Rung-G-G-G-Nan-U to make that happen. But yeah, having it happen in Africa, that would be something different. I mean, that would be real, real sports news, not just combat sports. Like, that would be something. A fight of that magnitude in Africa would be unbelievable.

It cannot happen in, like, Washington or Florida or, like, it'd be fine. This fight cannot happen outside of Africa at all. I'm with you. Okay. Okay. We're on the same. Absolutely with you.

Oh, yeah, absolutely with you. And I didn't really want to see Angano versus Malikin because I was done Engana would kill Malikin. Like, Malikin's good and won a bunch belts. But I didn't think his competition was that great. Even beating the middle-weighty, middle-weight champion a couple of times, like is impressive. But Ingano's In-Gano, man. Like, he's, it's a whole different levels to this. But Ingana versus Rug Rug Rug, just for that area would be absolutely gigantic.

So he would, uh, he would annihilate Rogue, brook, though. I mean, I just, it might take like 35 seconds. Yeah, but it's still, just the bill to it and like what it would mean, the amount of attention would get in that area would be absolutely incredible. And it's very rare that I say this about PFL, but one would be absolutely insane if they're already not on the phone trying to make this happen. Like, they need to go to PFL. even Chatri, hat in hand,

even though he thinks they have billions and billions of dollars and billions and billions of eyeballs, you need to get Don Davis on the phone and do this shit immediately. You need to already be talking about this. This fight needs to be on the books in 2025. No doubt about it. Let's go to Saul Kapamagian, who makes his Otno debut. So welcome to the party pal.

Neil Magne versus Renat Fokradinov, RDR versus Roman DeLizzi, with you, AK. Belanos versus Hanayyaya, Jillian Robertson versus Lupi Gaudineas, Mancer Abdul Malik versus Cody Brandage. Who was this, who was this pick?

This is Saul Kapamajian. Okay, I'm not sure if I'm going to read the same person. What was the pick before Malik and Bruntage? Gillian Robertson versus Lupi Godinez. Oh, okay, this is different person. Okay, great. We got two newcomers here. Okay, great, great. Good stuff.

Welcome, welcome. And we wrap, uh, With John Ray, Dixon versus the, man is smart. This guy knows how to play the game. He's even matchmaking for Melissa Dixon or Melissa Mullins. I believe this is the only listener's suggestion. She missed wait. Twice in a row.

Twice in a row. Melissa Mullins. Get it together. Damn. Dixon versus Yada Santos. John Ray, Gore versus Malik, AK. Oh boy. This guy is just not, not on your good side right now.

Blackshear versus Ricky Simone. Ratkey versus. Ooh, this is a. Interesting. Ratki versus Temba Garimbo. I like that one. I don't think the UFC would do it. Just based, that's a tough fight for Temba.

I have such a hard time gauging where they view Tembo for a competitive standpoint. Because I do think they love his story. I do think they love the connection to the rock. So I keep thinking they're going to book him in bigger fights and they actually will. So Charlie Rakke actually, like, I think that is smart. I think that is in the range. And I think that's a fight Timba could win. And I think Radke's a really exciting guy.

But Radkeke might end up, Mike, on our list of guys who could be really fun losers. He's doing well right now. He's doing it right now. And he was certainly the hammer on Saturday. But I wonder if he's a future like guy who just get, you know, get or get God, you know. Yeah, Rakke. I mean, Racki's only UFC losses to Carlos Prattas. So that is going to age pretty well, I think.

Dosatos versus Leach 2, Gomez versus Robertson, RDR versus Paul Craig, win, loser, draw. I love that idea, by the way. That is actually perfect. And Pratchez versus Lukee after, well, let's not talk about it. I think I saw some people, I think that sounds like people match. Like this is one of those things right. People just say Luka and don't mention like win-loseer like draw versus Nick Diaz. I'm not even going to ding them a thing.

Like I agree. Let's all pretend that fight is just not having. I'm fine with it. Yeah, dude. Crazy. So you're up. Oh, geez. Okay.

Okay. Thank you, Red. I think someone sent to both of us, but I'll, it's just stop me if you hear a name for it's familiar. But start off with our pal. Tristan Gordet in the emails, always only sends like a handful of picks. Gore versus Petroski, a former teammates from the ultimate fighter facing each other won't hurt. They'll be fine. Will we be fine with that matchup?

I don't know. Charles Radkeeky versus Jacoby Smith, Smith's UCDivue, Denise Gomes versus Ketlis versus Ketland Sousa a little Brazil on Brazil crime. Ketland's not. I am going to be getting Ketland Sousa and Karene Sava confused for the rest of eternity, by the way. So guys, bear with me. One of those, just sometimes you have those names that are barely close to each other. And they fought each other, which doesn't help me, which makes it even more confusing.

Yeah, I like that thing. Let's go to the Instagrams. Gerard Biagen, Gerard Biagen. Carlos Pratchez versus Lucay, win or lose. Again, you didn't really need to say that. We're just, we're moving on. RDR versus Hermanson in Europe. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, Neil Maddeny versus Zoleski. Okay, sure. Gillian Robinson versus Angela Hill, Friends Forever. Fine with that. Let's see. So keep moving on here. Blake Lewitt, Carlos Prachis versus Stephen Thompson. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

No. Nope. Mike's such a violent reaction I don't like it I don't like it why I mean no I just don't I just don't like it we just did it we just did it

like oh this is wonder all over again yeah and I don't like I actually picked Wonderboy to beat Buckley and I thought Wonderboy won the first two rounds and was winning the third

before he got knocked out and so it's it's not like he'd get run over by Wonderboy. I just, I don't know. I don't know. I think Wonderboy, like, in a weird way, might, could win. And I just don't even want to put Prochus in that position right now.

It's a lose, lose. Because if Wonderboy wins, you've just knocked off a contender. And if Prochus knocks out Wonderboy, that's just sad. So I don't think anything good can come from it is why I don't like it. Yeah, I agree with all that. I do think Wonderboy is at the Tony, I'm going to say, it's terrible. I do think he's entering the Tony Ferguson stage his career, where he's winning fights until he isn't. Right?

That's, I mean, well, Tony was a little bit worse because we had matches with years straight up dominated from like the first round to the fifth round. But again, there was like this was like a Michael Chandler fight. There's been examples of fights for Tony Bergson where he's looked okay in the first round. And then, yeah, his father time catches up and all the wear and tear they've had catch stuff. I think that's where Stephen Thompson is because he used to be better at slipping punches. He used to be better.

I think his chin, of course, just naturally used to be stronger. Just the defense was a little better. The defensive qualities were a little better. I would strongly favor Prattis II just knock him out. And again, after maybe like a first round of, oh, man, is that wonder boy, that tricky movement is really making it difficult for process to fight his range. but just like Pratchez did on Saturday,

we'd be like, oh, shit, Pratchez locked the lasers in, Stephen Thompson is about to die. I think that would happen. So no disrespect to Wonderboy. I do think there's still great matches for him that he can win, but I'm kind of with you.

I don't feel compelled to put him in there with some of these up-encomers, just so they can build their name off of him. It might be time for those, you know, those veteran fights, and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. And there's probably other lower-tier welter weights he can beat,

but guys like Buckley and Pratchez who run the come up, you know, maybe he needs to avoid those going forward. But it's not like the worst matchup. I know you're not a fan, but I'm, okay. Blake, I didn't mind it. Jason Dernay, let's see. Dernay, I think it's right. Sorry, Jason.

He likes RDO Robocop. He's a fan. He supports it. Gomes versus Tisha Pennington. Yeah, I like that. Bolognaus, Cameron, Simon. I should be reading out all these Balaños picks, because, yeah, if anyone nails it, you're a genius.

Zoleski versus. chaos Williams, shore, more Eeyore, Gore and Eeyore. Now that I say it, now I kind of like it. Mullins versus Jocelyn Edward. Did they not fight each other? I mean, you're probably, this is probably right. They didn't. Mullins has only had like three fights in the UFC.

Yeah, I thought that was one of them. Oh, no, she fought Nora Cornel and Noricorneau fought Jocelyn Edwards. Man, bantamweight sauce. Wow, never thought I would hear you say that. Oh, men's vent to win. I mean, sorry, men's manton weight. Oh, okay, okay. Women's bandit is amazing.

He's back. He's back. That was unrelated, unrelated to what I just, I just hate men's phantom weight so much that I just felt like saying that. And I love women's phantom weight so much. I love playing, you read, Tino Alvarez, Tino Alvarez. Trey Cheshon Gore, Zachary Reese, if he defeats Duma, you said win-l loser draw, he wants, he wants Zach to earn, earn the Tresong Gore play. Oh, Desmond, Blachier, and Raoul Rosas Jr. Mike. Ooh.

How's Domain doing? Has the one been doing in the UFC? Let me see here. Let me see. I guess that wins a bonus winning performance against Cody's statement. Always a tough out. Coming off back-to-back losses to very tough competition, Montel Jackson, Mario Bautista. Okay.

No, no shame. Mario Batista was on like six days notice. He fought two fights in a week. Yeah, his losses are tough. His losses are to Montel Jackson, Mario Batista, Farid, Bosharat. So, okay. So, I mean, there's a pretty clear ceiling so far for, for Dumas. Okay.

That's interesting. Hmm. That is it. That might be like really good. Because again, I don't know how good Demona is. We don't know how good Raul is, but Raul would enter this fight as like a three to one favorite or something just because he's he's rules. I don't know, man. Maybe.

Rawls is a big. There's a big boy. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. That's pretty interesting. That's not bad. Good piece of business right there. Yeah.

That's not bad. That's not bad, Teno. Any of these others we haven't seen before. Wow, a lot of, uh, what, did you say, did you hear, you said a lot of Abdul Malik. You know what? Abdul Malik and Brundage again. Brundage, I think, is one of our guys who is, you know, a potential highlight candidate. So maybe that's why you put him in those matchups.

B'lanjo, Suri City. I like that. I like that. That might be, Tina, there could be a point coming your way. I think you're in the matchmaker's hands. That actually makes a lot of sense. I don't know about this. Mike RDR and Stoltzvus coming off that hot win over Power Bar.

If I didn't matchmake for Stoltz this last week, that would have absolutely been my point. Okay. So, yes, that is perfect matchmaking. And then just a handful here from the Twits attack. I made just one pick, RDR and Demolidor. Sure. That's fun. Yeah, it's probably not really brought that up.

Balaños versus Elijah Smith. And we are casting a wide net. Maybe we are, maybe as a team, maybe we are going to hit this. Like, I've seen a lot of names out there. This is Marcus McGahy, by the way. Hey, Marcus. Freaks and Geh. Eakes edition of onto the next one. He calls it. I guess that's as apt as anything for this.

Gomes versus Marina Rodriguez. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Marina Rodriguez kind of trending down. Gomes, kind of a nice win there with Carolina. Okay. Blackshear, Yaya, Mullins, Lisboa, Gore, and Dylan Woodka. Okay. Four, did you read Four Corner Sports? I did not. You did not? Four Corner Sports, our old friend. No due to this week, please. No due to this week. I'm just looking over.

RDR, Jun Young Park. I like that. Mershardt, Jacob Malcun. Oh, that is real middle-weighty. That's for the interim middle-weighted championship. Okay, I got to do a quick double-dick to me to make sure that fight that hasn't happened.

Okay. Gillian Robertson, Tisha Pennington. I think Jillian's a little bit higher in the rankings right now. I don't think she, the name for sure. I get it. She's just been around forever, but I don't know. Denise Gomes and Loma Luke Bune. Ooh, that's fun.

Where does Loma been up to? You know, you know, where Loma's been up to, Mike? You know where Loma's been up to? She's been up to thinking about the first time she fought Denise Gomes in September 2022. Four corner sports. And beat her. I'm not saying they couldn't rematch, but four corner sports,

I trusted you. I read your picks without review. I forgot they fought too. Mike, I knew something was fishy. Four corner sports. You're close to suspension.

I swear this is like two or three weeks in a row of a doo-do pick. I might be wrong. He's leading the league. If we were giving out doo-do points, four-corner, you are well ahead. But thank you for the picks.

Thank you. I don't mean to be so hard on you. But guys, come on, just check. Just check if they fought before. Throwing a two. I'm going to assume you meant two, four corners, guise. Of course you knew they fought before. Braden, O'Neill, another Bolano, Simon.

So go, could we get multiple points for that one? Gomes, Godinez. Abdul Malik and a Zaitar. There you go. There's a knockout way to happen. I don't know about this. Zaleski and Grimbo. I could see it.

I could see it. I could see it. Magny and. And Nersultan Ruzaboyev. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Magny says he always wants challenges.

I mean, that's a winnable fight for him. It's not like that's like a stepping stone fight. He could win that thing. Could be where he's going. Neil Magny, get to fight 50 times, man. What a pro. Melissa Mullins, Chelsea Chandler at 145. Winner gets one, this from Barry Riley.

Winner gets one last chance at making 135. I like that. Yes. Make them earn a phantom weight opportunity. I love this. That should be the main event of the first Contender Series card next year. Yes. Right.

Please tweet Contender Series to put on like fringe UFC fighters on the card. Who's those? Demo in Blackshare, Tony Gravely 2? I assume this happened before UFC. I'm not crazy. Did this happen in the UFC? Tony Gravely is in the UFC still? I don't know.

This cut is way too deep. I mean, And he might not be, he has not fought in a while. I don't remember if he was officially released. Probably got roster one. He is no longer on the roster. This was as of. Oh, we reported this, yes.

We were the first to report this. Yes, this was in June of 2023, well over a year ago. Okay. As Tony Gravely even fought since then? I mean, they could bring him back. He has not, he has not fought. They could. Maybe they'll bring him back for just this one fight.

Yeah. Sorry, Barry did ask, is he still in the UFC? There you go. Yes, they apparently fought several years ago. I'm going to call. Shout out. Fight Lab 50, September, 2015. 10 years in the making is pretty much.

Why not? Let's see what else we got. So I can't read all these. Zelisky, Stephen Thompson. Sure. I think that actually makes a ton of sense. Abdul Malik Bruno Faheda. Yes.

Yes. Maybe a bit of a step up. Bruno's also a wild card. He could definitely get KOed. Jeline Robertson, Rose, too. Rose should go back to show eight. Robertson deserves a bit of a step up. Holds a win of a Rose and crap.

Oh, right, that's the two. Yeah, we've talked about this in the show before. I think it has made a lot of sense, but I think Rose can be stubborn and fight at 125 one more time, unfortunately. But Jillian could fight her at 125. How about this? Or yes, or that. How about this big step up?

I'll read, you know, I'm going to read the description for very first. I'm willing to put practice in there with someone who will test out his ground game more than anyone else has so far. This fight would tell me more than a Jeff Neal won. Precious and Gilbert Burns. So I think they're like buds. Really? So I don't think they would actually fight each other.

Come on. They're not like training partners or anything, but I think they're they're like friends and they have a relationship. So I mean, look, I guess if the dollars make sense, then potentially. And I think from where this division sits right now, that fight would make a lot of sense.

Do you like, what are your thoughts on Pratis versus Sean Brady? Is that too much? I like it. Because I think you'd get the same answers. I like, I know people don't like the idea of him having to deal with someone who's going to wrestle a lot, but it's going to happen eventually. Or it doesn't have to happen. It doesn't happen.

Again, another, there's so many messups for Prachis that like, if they happened, I'd be very fine with an end, even excited. about, I mean, again, there's others. I like more than others, but where he goes from here in 2025 is going to be really compelling, and I have no problem with him testing. He's grappling. I'd love to see him in there with more stand-up fighters. I think that's more

fun. But this whole let's test and see if he's a contender. I'm interested in that too, too. So I think Gilberin's a little too high. I think you're right. I think Brady's more in the range. It makes more sense. And we close out, Mike, with Gustavo Martinez, a newcomer. Welcome to the party

pal. Couldn't message on IG. You know, you're probably in Mike's request, which he never checks. It's probably got 50 million requests in there. Yeah. I looked. That's how I found one of the newcomers. You've got, you've got hip-hop artist trying to co-lab with you with DJ Mike and they're not even being left on red. They're on unseen. They're being left on unseen.

So, Gustavo, welcome to the party. College Pratchez versus MVP. Oh, Oh, proxies versus MVP. No. No. No. No. Bad style matchup.

MVP not going to engage. Yes. This is not, it's just, I like, I honestly, when MVP told me he wanted the Shara bullet fight, I was like, that is absolutely perfect. That is terrific. Because it doesn't affect the welterweight division at all. MVP is not fighting for a belt. I think he kind of understands that. he just wants to have like fun fights and just fight a bunch of different dudes.

So I think he's in just a very different place right now where it's not about becoming a UFC world champion. It's just about having fun fights. And that I think stylistically would be fun. And I honestly believe that like Sharra Bullitt could maybe make MVP sort of fun. Not saying he's not, but it's just really difficult to look good against him. And as devastating as process is, MVP stylistically could make,

could slow him down and possibly frustrate him. I mean, it is very, very difficult to shine against him. And if he goes out and has like a lackluster fight with him and wins a decision, just, I don't know.

No. So no. I just, it doesn't. And again, I don't know what this, what this accomplishes. You know what I mean?

Like a prox just wins and beats MVP. Like, it's a nice name on the resume, but it doesn't get him any closer to a belt, you know? So I don't love it. I don't love it. Okay. Yeah, I think we're leaning more towards Neil. I think as a community, we're really leaning.

Yeah. RDR Joe Pfeiffer? Oh, man. Sure. I mean, that would be fine. Joe's like these are the types of fights we need to see RDR in like just let him middleweight all of these these car crashers like this is exactly what we need to see so sure Joe Piper would be a good one Gaston Belanos Brad Cotonna that's a 28 2928 Cotoning way to happen

Jill Robertson Marina Rodriguez menser abdum Lee Cody Brunders two pretty popular picks this week and I like this is a nice well Gustavo well done this is a nice wild card selection Chuck Buffalo and a gabriel bond theme oh that's fun very nice very nice so there you go thank you everyone who's sent in uh don't worry about sending in next week guys because uh like we've got the week off this week right there's no there's no big combat sports events this week i think it's like we got a week off right totally yeah it's just one it's just one is there was there one part bryke paul versus mike tyson yeah this jake pa versus mike tyson we don't need a match break for that i didn't even remember that

that was i was i thought there was nothing going on this week but yes you know what and that's it just that no events We'll see you next week, everybody. We'll see it. Yeah. Look, UFC 309 is happening. John Jones versus Depe Mietchich is supposed to happen one way or the other. And I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for this fight to be over. I really truly cannot wait for this fight to be over.

But it is happening. We are going to take the week off because we're not going to match to make for either guy. We're not going to have to when they both lay their gloves in after it's over. We'll see. we shall see i'm very curious to see what john says on the mic if he wins this fight and i'm still holding out all the hope in the world for the funniest result we could get in the history of this sport which would be stepe a meitch beating john jones it would be the most electric thing that has ever happened but we shall see how the ufc heavyweight championship fight

goes down we will see if this is the final fight of the careers of john jones and stepe meitch we will see what john jones has to say on the mic if he wins we'll see what stepey has to say on the mic if he wins. Talk to John Anick about what could happen with the result of this fight. And Tom Asmanal, he had a pretty interesting take on this. So that'll be coming soon. But the co-main event, I think, is why we're all coming to the dance. This is why we bought our prom tickets.

We came to watch Charles Oliver and Michael Chandler do the damn thing for the second time. Bo Nickel versus Paul Craig. We have Corrine A Silva versus Viviani Ara Ujo. It is time for some fantasy points for your boy from one Karine A Silva. We got Mauricio Hoofi taking on James Launtop and the type of fight. You just need to build into a John Jones versus Stepe Mietchich fight. Jonathan Martinez, the underdog against Marcus Begui, Chris Widman versus Eric Anders, Jim Miller versus Damon Jackson. We got middle 80 heavyweights, at least Martin Taibora is, but Janada Denise, a knockout artist.

Big step up in competition. She's supposed to fight Derek Lewis. now we get sparking tibor instead micky gaw is back against remise brahimage we got oban elliots against basil hafez and veronica hardy has become the best opening fight of a card fighter maybe in ufc history she once again opens another fight card this time of the world's most famous arena against edwarda mara there you go i k that's ufc 309 i feel like if veronica hardy fought like valentina shifchenko and the preliminary opener over paperview like she would beat her i think like this is her spot. You do not, you do not fight. You do not fight me in the very, very, very first fight in

that. This is, I own this. She gets, she gets her power from a quarter empty arena and, uh, people, uh, grogly turning on their fight pass or ESPN plus accounts. So let's knock on wood that this card stays intact. Yes. We may get another fight. We may get another fight at it on. David O'Nama might end up getting another opponent. I don't know. Keep it together. Please. We need to move on for this. We need to move on for this.

Yes. Please call on. 12 flights currently on the card. And we'll be live on YouTube next week, following UFC 309 right here. On to the next one, the podcast. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.