MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 109

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

Anthony Hernandez made it look easy against the very tough Roman Dolidze in the main event of UFC Vegas 109 to add another wrinkle to the already loaded up middleweight title picture. Was the performance from "Fluffy" enough to get him a title shot or a No. 1 contender fight, or will he need a couple of more wins to get there? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what's next for Hernandez after submitting Dolidze in the fourth round to pick up his eighth straight victory. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Steve Erceg after defeating Ode Osbourne in the co-main event, Iasmin Lucindo following her decision win over Angela Hill, along with fellow main card winners, Andre Fili, Jean Matsumoto, Christian Leroy Duncan, and more. All that and another fine selection of listener picks. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Wi-Fi available to AeroPlan members on equip flights sponsored by Bell Conditions Apply see Air Canada.com to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. The matchmaking crowns have returned following UFC Vegas 109. We had to wash a little bit of the sludge off of it because we had to find him at the apex. But nonetheless, some big things happened at the world's most famous apex, including in the main event.

What a performance. One of the at worst five best performances of 2025. put on by Anthony Fluffy Hernandez. We'll discuss what is next for him and some of the other tastemakers coming out of UFC Vegas 109. But I am Mike Heck and joining me as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity,

and my best friend, Alexander Cayley, aka, how we doing on this wonderful Sunday morning following another wonderful apex event? My best friend, I am doing great because I didn't really watch last night's card. followed the coverage, of course, I'madifying.com, but I was out at a nice family gathering with a pool. It was just a good time, man.

So I'm relaxed. I'm refreshed. I actually had time to go over the listener picks like before today's show, which is always fun. So, of course, I sort to sort through that a little more comprehensively and avoid too many repeats. So I can't wait to get to those. Listeners did a bang-up job, as always.

I did good at my picks last night, I think 10 out of 12. The card actually turned out pretty, like pretty much as I would have expected. There was a lot of potential for big finishes on the preliminary card because, I mean, we did see a lot of mismatches on paper, so some of those turned out well. And I think we knew there'd be quite a few decisions on the main card. But I don't know, like, again, I said, I wasn't watching live.

You don't sound super thrilled with what you saw on Saturday. I can't tell. I know the prelims were crazy. We had some great finishes there. But yeah, 12-fight cards, some fights and went the distance. you're not head over heels with the you don't sound sad that we don't have another apex book card booked for the rest of the year yet it was I think we assume they'll go back there but this could be the last visit for a while it was fine like it just was what it was like it sounded as empty as

it did in 2020 it just it was just so bad like just so soulless like you watch elijah smith power bomb a man through the canvas and you could hear a pin drop. Like I can understand the pin drop sounds coming after the fact because he was down for a while, but a moment like that, that deserved to be celebrated by a couple thousand people instead of a couple of people. And that's what clobbered me about it. And then on top of that, the pacing of this card was atrocious. I mean, this is this is PFL pacing what we were dealing with. It took like 25 minutes for the first fight to start and you always know you're off to a rough start when that happens. We had some terrible judging.

We had some questionable refereeing. It was just tough scenes, man. It wasn't like a bad watch, but the prelims are so good. We get Christian Leroy Duncan. I thought he was on the road to middle-weighty, middle-weight greatness. Turns out he just went out and killed Eric Anders, which is always fun. and then we just went to slog city. Like John Matsumoto, Miles,

it was like, was like fine. Andre Fili Christian Rodriguez, okay, like it was fine. Yasmin Lucindo just kind of thumped up Angela Hill for 15 minutes. Okay. Vinnie Siggs needed a win,

got it, but it's on a fight we'll ever watch again. And then we got to see Fluffy Hernandez just beat down Roman de Lidesa in such lopsided fashion that it gave us at least something to talk about. But God, you got to i don't want to make this every week of get out of the apex but jesus christ you got to get out of the apex it's just so brutal the the viewing experience is just so bad it's just takes away

from the performances of some of these fighters because no one will ever go back and watch this these apex cards because they're so bad like there's just nothing to them you need a crowd you need some energy and we just didn't get it last night unfortunately but how is the uh oh first i want You mentioned PFL. We should shout out PFL. Like, you know, we call it PFL pacing. And it's true. I think they still have that issue.

Man, PFL has been, I think, pretty solid this year. It been way better. Yeah, I think the pacing is better. And I think just overall the quality of the product. I saw, I think it was Sean Sheehan on Twitter, like kind of just putting out a tweet, like, hey, people should appreciate, like, how decent, how solid the PFL product has been this season. And obviously, there's some recency bias. They had that PFL card yesterday, which, guys, even if you just go to, like,

PFL and may and check out some of the finish from that card. Truly insane stuff. Just really, really exciting stuff. And I think PFL is really trending in the right direction. Probably it helps that there's been like a lot less just chatter outside of the, you know, what's happening inside the cage. I think getting like as much as this suck to lose some of those, you know, big Belator names, they really did have to like just cut those ties and kind of start fresh and just give those guys.

Like it really helped. It's going to create a, we knew it's like it creates a short term sort of like, oh, poke fun at PFL. Oh, look how they just lost these names for nothing. But sometimes you have to do that. You know, it's like you're watching your franchise rebuild, right? It's like you just kind of got to blow it up. It's going to hurt.

But they've looked pretty good. And I thought their first, the season, like the first tournament finals went well. I think they've got some good names at the top right now. That John's been really nice surprise. So, yeah, shout out to PFL. I think it's just been overall a, we'll see how the last two events go, but overall, like a really net positive season for the league. Of one thing, how was the cost thing?

How was the commentary? I saw a lot of comments about the commentary, but I wasn't listening live. Mike's eyes just rolled 720 degrees in his head. I will say this. I felt so bad for John Gooden last night, and I'll leave it at that. You could visibly and audibly hear the frustration in his voice on multiple occasions in this card, and I will leave it at that. It was, who, you thought,

1008 was bad this was this was this was something else i mean jeez i i'll and that that also took away from from some of it as well um dominic cruz couldn't get a word in edgewise um yeah it was it was a it was a car that happened okay and so let's discuss some of the moments that came from it, especially Anthony Fluffy Hernandez, who is now officially Daniel Cormier's favorite fighter on the roster. He told Fluffy Hernandez this after his victory. And I'll say to Daniel Cormier is, it's about time. Thank you for jumping on the bandwagon. Fluffy's been my boy for quite some time. And now the world is finally getting to see what I've been seeing for so long. He just dusted up Roman Delizze. It wasn't even just a beatdown.

you don't get to see humiliations in this sport all that often. He humiliated Roman Delizze. He embarrassed him. He kept taking him down. He was like doing whatever he wanted to. He let Roman up and then he'd just do it again and again and again. And then finally, like Roman just kept cheating and grabbing the fence so egregiously that her dad just like, F this. I'm done.

I'm just going to choke you. And then dragged him across the cage like he was Kane Hodder playing Jason Borgies. in Friday the 13th, Part 8, Jason takes Manhattan. Such a humiliating finish to this fight. Fluffy Hernandez is the man. And I'm just going to go first, AK, because this better happen. And if it doesn't, I'm going to be livid.

Give me Fluffy Hernandez versus Ryanier-Diritter. I want nothing more out of this world right now. I know, Jed, it might slow down the RDR DDP potential for Jedmishu. And I understand that, but give me Fluffy versus RDR. Just think how much bigger the winner of that fight versus DDP or Hamza is going to be. Yeah, this is the one. This is the one. I feel like because of how RDR's fight with Whitaker went, which again, it was a good performance.

But it was kind of like a closer win. I still want to see RDR do more work. And that means fighting another contender. And Anthony Hernandez just makes so much sense. Well, I'll go to rant there in a second. The first thing I want to say was like, I rarely, if you will go to see my predictions for this fight, I'm rarely going to say like someone has no chance. I hate doing that.

Usually I'll say like, you know, I'm strongly leaning to one direction. Here's how the other person can win. Like for Roman, I was just on paper, this was such a nightmare of a matchup. He has, he's a really tough guy, skilled, it's got power. But his like slow kind of plotting style against Fluffy was just going to, it was never going to work out. It was never going to happen. So it doesn't surprise me at all to know that he got dominated like that.

But yeah, Roman will be back. But that was just not a matchup. He's going to win nine times out of ten. I want to see, yeah, I want to see Anthony Hernandez and RDR now. I just, I'll say it now, we got a lot, a ton of submissions for, uh, Hernandez versus Strickland. I don't understand why people want to see this by. Why do people want that? I don't know.

I don't understand this. I can't. He's going to dust up Sean Strickland in a non-competitive fight. I think that's why. I think people are thinking like they want us to like keep all the contenders alive. I think they're doing this thing where they're trying to keep because, you know, the top of middleweight is so fun right now, right? We have imov and Bahalio. One of them could be deserving a tell the shot if they win.

And like we said, RDR coming up to Whitaker win, people already like, give him the title shot. And Anthony Hernandez, eight straight wins, dominant main event performance. You should get a title shot. So I agree with all that. Like, it'd be cool. In a perfect world, all these guys get a tell the shot. It's just not going to work out that way. And I think trying to manufacture these paths were like, oh, give this guy the stay busy fight where he beats, like RDR is going to beat Izzy.

And Anthony Hernandez is going to beat Sean Strickland. I think trying to line up these things is a mistake. It's such a mistake. I think you're passing up on a lot of good fights to try and. again, set up someone for DDP or set up someone for Hamzat. So I like, I understand the reason and I don't hate it, but I want great fights now. I want great fights now. It would suck if like, you know, Anthony Hernandez RDR costs us an RDR duplicacy matchup or

an Anthony Hernandez duplicity matchup, but I think those fights will happen in some form or another, whether it's for a title or not. I think you will get those in the future. And I know, I know we want all these fights to be for the highest of stakes, but guys, sometimes you've just got to make the fights happen. And like Hernandez, RDR is such an exciting fight. I can't imagine a world where you want to see that instead of shot circling. I don't care what you're trying to build to.

Like, just give us that fight now. That's such an amazing fight. On paper view. On paper view, please, not, obviously not the effects. Yeah, like, you're guarantee, you're pretty much guaranteed to get Fluffy versus DDP or Fluffy versus Homestad or RDR versus Homsat. Like, it's a lock. One of those guys is going to fight the other one of those guys.

That's awesome. Like it's a win-win And very rarely when you get to matchmake a division towards the top Do you get to set yourself up for a win-win situation? This is beautiful. It's beautiful timing. Instead, we're just going to make Fluffy Hernandez fight Sean Strickland who got decimated in his last fight by Driggis duplicy

And one of the most, like, least competitive fights of 2025. Like, what are we doing here? Give Sean like somebody else. like Sean won't fight Roman because they like trained together but like Sean Strickland should be fighting Roman like the Roman de Lise of the world right now. Izzyada Sandia should be fighting the Roman deletes days of the world. Like these guys should not be anywhere near the championship conversation right now. You know what I mean? Do Sean Strickland versus Robert Whitaker.

That's the fight. That's the fight. Let these two veterans, former champions like fight each other like big name versus big name. It's like golf. Like if you have a couple of parrots like. Like get out of the way for the dude that's putting putting for birdie and fighting for the championship. Like, clear the stage. Clear the stage for these up and coming guys who want their chance to fight for the belt and put themselves in the position to fight for the belt.

Why can't we do that, okay? Why can't we have nice things? This is just the UFC in 2025 and it drives you crazy. Yeah, guys, we can't have it all. Honestly, we can't have it. We're going to miss out on one of these like create matches. I'm not going to lie. Like, Mike, you just listed all the possible options.

One of those probably isn't going to happen ever. And guess what? You can't have it all. But if we don't overthink it, we can have a lot of great. We can have a lot of great matchups in middleweight. Because you guys are right. Again, you guys told me on this a year ago, you and the rest of the crew, a MA fighting crew, like that this division, I was getting so hot and so compelling.

And we are seeing the fruits of that now. And I am so excited to see how happens. But let's not overthinking and make these weird gimmicky matchups, guys. We don't need to do that. Absolutely. we go from middleweight to flyweight. Our guy, Vincenzo Ersegh, Vinnie Sig,

Zag, back in the wind column, got a little hairy for him, three losses in a row, they're against a murderer's row, but then he gets O'Day Osborne, who can be tricky. The guy's very talented, he is explosive.

He might be the best one-round fighter in the entire division, but boy, once that first round comes to an end, he is just brain flatulence. I don't understand where this comes from because he is so talented. He just gives, Odei Osberg just gave this fight away in the second round. Just gave it away.

He was so aggressive and on the attack and then decided, you know what? I'm going to stop doing what was working so well for me. And I'm going to let Vinnie Sig's just, just beat me. And that's exactly what happened. He gave this one away. But it was a good thing for Vinny, for Vinny Sig, Steve Ersegg believes he might have been fighting for his job, A.K. And I thought the matchmaking was great here. And, man, O'Day Osmore's just so close.

He's so close to being like one of those dudes, but he just can't get over, not winning in the first round. It's really tough to watch, especially for a guy that's so thoughtful and such a good dude like O'Day. But having said that, Steve Ursaig, A, K, it's been a while since we got to matchmake for Vinnie Sigs, who we match him up with. What I think they're going to do is try and rebook the Alex Perez fight. But I get a little squirly anytime I hear the words rebook and Alex Perez because we have seen, we're just being honest. Guys, go to his topology phase. Look at all the gray on there. It's an insane amount of gray for a high-level contender.

Like, he just, maybe it's bad luck. I don't know. The guy gets injured. Sometimes it's his opponent who falls out, but he's had a lot of cancellation. So my prediction would be that's what they're going to do. I'm trying to get Vinny back in there. I know he got stung a little bit by O'Day, so maybe doesn't want a quick turnaround. But I would like to see him fight at UFC Rio against Alain Nassimento.

I think, yeah, I don't know where we go with Vinny. Again, became a contender out of nowhere. But I don't think we need to keep throwing in there with top 15 guys. And I'm not quite calling him a gatekeeper either. I'm not saying, like, well, he's the guy now. We throw up against, you know, guys in the 20 to 30 range. I think if he fights in Alain Nessimento and looks good against him and beats him, then we're like, oh, okay, let's now we start working Ersegg back to whatever,

for the top 15. I think he does have a number next week. I know he does in our rankings, pretty sure in the UFC. So, yeah, I'm not, I don't need to keep putting him in top 10 matchups. Like I said, I think the UFC will. I think they'll try and do Alex Perez. But for me, let's just keep getting him in there because he's a really solid fighter and a really good test for a guy like Nassimenta who's kind of flying under the radar.

Yeah, I like that. I think, I mean, it just depends on what he's ready to come back. Rio would be fine. Perth would be great, too, for one, Vincent. or Seng, although it didn't go very well the last time he fought in Australia. He got dusted up pretty good by Kai Kar, France. But yeah, Tim Mellie is fighting Kaius Akura on Saturday, the winner of that. I think that makes sense, not too high, not too low.

It's kind of like right in that sweet spot. And Ersake versus either of those guys would be pretty fun. So yeah, let's just, let's go ahead and do that. Most popular listener pick I saw for him was that, was just him, see what happens next week and then. So any things in there. I feel like there's going to be like a lot of that going on with the matchmaking on this card. Maybe with Yasmin Lucindo who defeats Angela Hill. It was pretty clear-cut decision. I thought it was a 30-27 for Lucinda across the board. I think there was a 29-28 in there.

I'm not really sure. Angela Hill. The way Lucindo kind of sold this fight to our own Gerema Cruz is kind of funny, where she's just like, yeah, she'll be my mom. That was kind of interesting. But yeah, and that's sort of how the fight played out, A.K. She just was quicker. She was more athletic. Angela Hill is dog tough. So respect to her for going out there and battling. But Yasmin Lucentio was just quietly, top 10 contender in this weight class.

Lucindo took the moment with the microphone with Daniel Cormier. She couldn't get it back to put herself over, but she put her teammate Van de Janjarova over. I thought that was really cool. So I think with timing, Tabitha Ritchie, why not? Will Lucinda Ritchie action? I don't even, I haven't looked to see if they have fought each other. And if they have, then we'll add a two to it. But yeah, Ritchie's coming off the win over Amanda Hebas.

Lucindo just continues to win. Let's just line those two up and see what happens. I think if we're going to go with the trend of Lucindo fighting, there's no, there's no elegant way to put it. You know, fighters were older than her. And that's not saying much. She's insanely young. She's 23 now.

She was 22 when she was fighting. like Marina Rodriguez and Carolina Kovalcovic and then she was 23 when she fought Amanda Lamoche. I put out a tweet issue like it's crazy like because Gies article made me think. I'm like, oh yeah, wow. Like Angela Hill 40. Lamos was 37. I think Rodriguez was 37. I think Carolina was 38 when she fought Lucindo.

So like I was a little surprised that they kept going this direction because I felt like, man, they got to be careful with her. I actually picked Angela to win this fight. But it was great to hear that Lucindo kind of, you know, is maturing and did really well and won a pretty pretty uncontroversial decision um so i'm saying maybe like tisha pennington you know titian pennington's 35 years old maybe uh how old does yan shaunan would yon shot on fit in that fit in that range yon is 36 so i don't know but i didn't i went a little bit closer i think you guys are right uh at top of the reachie was a was a popular pick as well and that makes a lot of sense i went

with jillian robertson like i don't know if you had a more compelling matchup for Jillian on another episode. I was looking back and I was like, oh, I haven't matched made for Gillian in a while. So I think that's the way to go to. We have, we have a stradwick contender here. We have a, the Stride Division, I always say this is like kind of quietly cooking. And it's just a shame. There's so much uncertainty at the top with, with Zhang Wei because there's a fresh batch of contenders coming. Like, I would love to see Zhang fight Vyerna. I would love to see fight, uh, Zhang fight the winner of maybe Lucindo and Robertson down the road. Of course, everyone thinks McKenzie Duren is, you know, one fight away from a title

shot all the time. So there's a compelling list of challengers. But Zhang right now, I think we all know, is eyeing 125. Yeah, I think I went with, I think I went with Janjan on for Gillian Robertson. I gave, yeah, I was at the point where it's just like, all right, let's just, let's just give it to her. Just throw her to the wolves and see what happens because she's just on such an impressive run right now. So yeah, maybe Strawe's on its way back, okay? Who knows? But Other way it is still here, still thriving, still fun. Andre Feeley goes out in defeats Christian Rodriguez. I believe this is a split decision, which again, the judging was pretty atrocious

last night. Chris Lee was awful up until the main event. He was the only one to give Anthony Hernandez a 10-8 round. My brother. My brother. Yeah, Chris is very, very bad. Chris Lee, come on. I thought this is a clear cut 3027 for Andre Fili.

Christian Rodriguez was tough, battled. Christian Rodriguez is not a featherweight. Can we just stop with this? Oh, man. Do you need to get disciplined and become abandam weight again? He was favored, right? He was favored. Not a huge favorite, but he was favored in this fight, right?

Minus two something. Oh, whoa. He was like two to one. There was only one fight. There was only one fight where both fighters were in the ones. It was the Lucinda-Angelo Hill fight. Everything else was like minus 225 or bigger, and there were eight fights. Eight of the 12 fights, AK, featured a favorite of minus

310 or higher. Did any of those underdogs win? I don't think so, right? I'm trying to look. I don't think so. Pretty sure it was a good night for the favorites. Yeah. Feeley was a dog.

Yeah. Did any of the big one, like you said, any of the sort of, I guess, I don't, like you said, there was Eric, I think Eric Maconico was the biggest underdog that, that won. Dang. Okay. And by the way, not that you would ever go back and rewatch this fight, but he didn't win. A little, a little, good old fashioned robbery to start things off, a.k.

Whatever fun of the review on the new and improved MMA fighting. Cody Brundage got robbed? Oh, yeah. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. I thought so. Damn. Tough scenes.

That's sad. That's sad to hear. It is. What were we talking about? Oh, Andre Feely. Yes. Boy, the Christian Rodriguez veteran curse, it's just he can't, he can't break it. He can't break.

I think, I'm sure when you get your listener picks, Mike, I don't know if you've looked them over. You'll see, like, I imagine almost everyone's like, oh, let's find someone who is undefeated in the UFC or like a up-and-comer and put, like that seems to be the course correction for Christian Rodriguez every time he loses a veteran. It's like, well, let's put him against an undefeated guy or, you know, someone with one loss or something.

But yeah, you're right. I was still about the size because I picked Philly for this to win this one because he has almost the exact same dimensions of, like, Malkisel Costa, who Christian Rodriguez also had a lot of trouble with because these guys are huge featherweights. And yeah, he just looks, he looks so small. there. You said it perfectly, man. He's just not a, he's not a featherweight. He's not a featherweight. Are there certain feather weights he could beat? Sure. Sure. We've seen it. We've seen him get some wins over feather weights. But these more experienced

guys with the size advantage, oh man, it's just, it's going to be a struggle every time. So, Mike, for Andre Feely, because I said this on the pre-fight show that, the preview show, he's 25 fights and his UC career and somehow has never even managed a apex main event. I don't know if this is the record. I didn't dive deep. Excuse me. But I have to think he's the only guy to have this many fights and never made an event a single card.

So I, Jesus, my throat, guys. Sorry. So I went with, I'm trying to manufacture an apex main event for a mic. Sometime before the end of the year, I assume that going back to the warehouse.

Him and Yusib Zalalal maybe is good. Can I tell you that as a fight night headliner? Because I was trying to, like, you have to have a ranked person in there. Like, I think, okay, that is like a bare minimum. I will say this for fight nights. They have had the bare minimum that was having a ranked person. We just saw Tyra and Park. I mean, that was supposed to be two ranked guys, because it was supposed to be Albaazi.

But at the very minimum, they could sell like, oh, we have a top 10 person here. So Lal is top 10 in the UFC's official rankings. He's number nine. So maybe, I'm trying to get Philead in main event. Maybe it's not the time yet. Maybe Philly needs to get another win. But that's it. Otherwise, I don't know who else he could fake.

I don't want to give me anyone higher than that, certainly. So this is me trying to make a main event. I'm trying to make Feeley Fetch happen. And it doesn't sound very convincing. I mean, I'll just say this, okay. I'm stunned by this, but not in a bad way. I actually think there have been way worse Apex made events than this. So look, and you could do something similar to what we're doing in a couple of weeks.

Maybe you do a road to UFC card and then that fight can like headline the road to UFC card Like we're getting a couple UFC fights just sprinkled in at the top to get more eyeballs which I think is a great idea by the way I I threw a dart landed on Sean Woodson I think it's fine I'm okay with that but just see and yeah that's that's pretty much all I have to say about that Andre Feeley is a good fighter about this post fight interview was hilarious And yeah, good win. Yeah.

If someone out there nails his next pick, guys, to remind us because you could go in 30 different directions with Andre, if you like, your next fight. So if you get it, guys, if you get it, please ping me whenever that fight is announced or we report it or whatever. And I'll definitely mention on the show because I have no clue. Let's go to John Matsumoto, AK, very, very confident young man. Also tough to pick. Also, the matchmake. Yeah, I just was like, yeah, that. I think this is probably the right one because I'm just curious to see how it goes.

But yeah, felt like he beat Rob Fott. He didn't. I just, I don't know who needs to tell him this, but he did not beat Rob Fon. It was competitive and he showed a lot for a guy who took that fight on pretty short notice. Gets Miles Johns. Most people felt like this would be one-way traffic. Miles is good, but John is just better all around. And shout out to Miles Johns, man.

He gave lots of motor. very tough fight. The way the judging was going, I was like, man, he might just go ahead and steal this one from John Matsumoto. And the judges, I think, got it right overall. 29, 28, Matsumoto was probably the right score, although John's had some big moments. But Matsumoto gets on the mic, AK, and doesn't do the thing. He says, hey, Rob, I took that fight on seven days notice. So come to my home country and fight me again in a rematch. One of the worst calls of all time. What are you doing?

So there's no chance I'm giving him that. So who I'm going to give him, if he wants to fight Rio fine, but he's going to have to fight an unranked guy who may give him some real problems. Come on down, Victor Henry. That's really good. That's really good. I saw a few people put that out in. I think it's a perfect pick.

I have known, like for all the reasons you mentioned, Mike, like they threw him in there with Rob Font in his, well. That was a second UFC fight. second UFC fight third UFC play so yeah it was pretty pretty quick that's crazy like they threw him in so early and if he had gotten that win he'd be ranked like he'd be top of dean so i don't know how they i'm not 100 sure how they view him i think miles johns was really was definitely the right direction to go like definitely dial it back another veteran guy a guy who can give him a challenge but now i'm like stuck in between i think victor henry is the in between there um

but to sort of preface my next pick mike let me ask you something who do who do you think is better right now not who do you think is going to have the better career but like right now um not necessarily head to head but you know who if you if you stack the level against the same 20 opponents who would have a better record uh Matsumoto or Peyton Talbot oh man yeah it's a really good question yeah I think I would lean Matsumoto just to like have a better record but it was like whose fights will we will we remember more? it would be patent Talbot by a long shot. I asked this because I'm going with Harney Barcellos for...

Oh, I love it. Yes, the man who beat Talbot. So I'm like, okay, let me... I don't want to see Matsumoto and Talbot to fight anytime soon. So let's maybe at least use some MMA math to sort of gauge who's the, you know, the Potter prospect right now. So yeah, I want to see... I think you and I both landed in the same way, though, like we want to see him fight a... He still needs to keep fighting veterans.

Like, he's a young guy with a very... a very nice looking record and also a lot of experience for a guy his age. But it's so weird because, again, he is young, right? He is young. So it feels weird to keep throwing me there with veterans. Like, I wish we could throw in there with younger guys. But the way he's performed, he does look like he's ready to because Miles John's a veteran, Raupontz veteran.

You mentioned Victor Henry. I mentioned Brousel. So, yeah, let's go with that. Let's go. You know what? Matsumoto, the young veteran. Let's keep that going. And then we'll see what we have with him because really talented guy.

Really talented guy. I think I'd like to see that extra gear. Like I said this in my prediction, he needs to find a way to start finishing fights. And that's easier said than done when you're fighting the fonts and Miles Johns of the world. But if we're going to put him up there as like, you know, a really a future champion or something, I need an extra gear. I need an extra like just, I don't know, level of aggression or something. Yeah, there's there's some Peodor Yan vibes going on here. Okay.

Like a guy who, you know, usually takes a round off and then just bullies you with pressure. Yon is obviously like a much more exciting guy to watch. It's almost like watching moving art when yawn fights. We're not quite there at Matsumoto, but there are definitely like foundational things in Matsumoto that sort of are similar. So let's go to back to the middleweight division, Christian Leroy Duncan versus Eric Anders, AK. If I, if I said, AK, how is that fight going to go?

How would you have thought it was going to go, like on paper? I almost predicted it exactly, actually. Really? Almost. But, but with the caveat that like this could, get super ugly. If, if CLD doesn't like open, I think, like, I was so high off of Ler Duncan coming out of Cage Warriors.

Like I said he's one of, because there was a big run of, like, Cage Warriors champions who kind of, like, fell flat in the UFC. And I said, I said, I don't, I think this guy's going to break that curse. One, he kind of also broke this trend in Cage Warriors of, like, the middleweight title was getting passed around, like, a hot potato. Like, no one could defend it. I think, I think when he successfully defended it, he was the first guy to do it in, like, two years or two or three years, something like that.

So I was like, okay, there's something here with this guy. His highlights pop for sure. But then we've seen his first few matches. And there's just these moments where, like, you wish he would do more. Like, he has that middleweight problem. And I thought Anders was a great matchup for him. I said, yes, this is a guy who's got, I think, is going to bring out the best in him. Certainly did.

We got a nice highlight real knockout. So I'm really, really, really, really high on a CLD. And I'm glad he got that knockout, which I think happened, what, second round? And I think I actually, oh, first round. Okay. So I said second round. So that was not a perfecto for me. I said second round. Not going to think I missed. But I did, I did think he was going to find a way to put Anders down, which is really impressive. Yeah. So who did you go with? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I did not say. I was sorry. I was giving my overall thoughts on the CLD experience. Sorry. I think I like him for the winner of Edmund Shabazzian versus Andre Muniz. That's going down October 4th. Yeah. I want to see him fight Shabazzian.

Shabazian. Like I, that's probably leaning more in that direction. But like I said, Shabazzian is booked. So if Shabazzan gets passed there, then you put him in that battle of two guys who were, I think, really good middleweight strikers and also, I think sneaky contenders. Like, again, I'm probably way higher on CLD than others. But I do think there's a potential to be a top 10 guy. And Shabazian, man, he's kind of rounded that corner, showed some improved defensive grappling. He could also be a top 10 guy. So this is my borderline top 10 guys, bad job. Or, hey, maybe Munez wins. We get that one. I'm leaning towards Edmund. Yeah, I'm not quite there with CLD. Eric Anders, I think that was his final fight.

Yeah, what was that? Did he say that before? I saw people tweeting that. I wasn't sure. Well, he told me before the widen fight, he had two fights left on his deal, and it was probably going to be done. So this just kind of flew under the radar. And obviously, Eric didn't get the chance to retire in the Octagon,

because he just got melted by Christian Leroy Duncan. So, yeah, it's fine. And Eric Anders win in 2025 just doesn't mean the same as it would have been like 2018. And that's a zombie taking a shot. That's just reality. He did lose to Arm and Petrosian and to Gregory Haudriguez. The Haudriguez one is obviously, that's a tough one. The Armine Petrosian one, I think it's going to haunt him for a little while.

And just like Pepperidge Farm, Pepperidge Farm remembers, I can't get that one out of my head. Oh, no. Uh, Roots of V and Brian Battle are fighting on Saturday. The winner. Yep. Let's go ahead and do the winner. Very good. Very good.

Okay, let's go to the wild card round because this, this seems to me like it's going to be a very fascinating selection from both of us. We'll select one fighter we have not match made for yet. It will match make for them right now. And if somehow we get a friend's forever here, AK, this would be the most shocking thing that has happened in the history of the sport. There's no way. Because I went with Jocelyn Edwards. I don't think you want Jocel. No, I would.

I went with somebody less likely to choose than her, probably. Oh. Yeah. Not Elijah Smith? I did not go Elijah Smith. Oh, I thought for sure. Although I have the correct matchup, but I didn't go at that. Okay.

Let me blow your mind with something here with Jocelyn Edwards. It's really not going to blow anyone's mind. You know, that she finished her. You know, this is three straight wins all by finish, Mike. Do you realize? Yes. And women's band to wait. I don't know if I need to tell people that is exceedingly rare.

I think you'd have to go back to like Ronda Rousey. Because you know who never did it. Amanda Nunes never finished three straight opponents at 135 pounds. There was the run of title defenses, but it was like, phantom weight, phantom weight, phantom weight. The Chris Cyborg, K.O. was in there. So, yes, she did record three-street finishes while she was bantamweight champion, but technically not 135 pounds.

Now, technically, Jocelyn Edwards didn't either because the first fight of this run was a, she very badly missed weight. So I'm trying to manufacture a statistic here, Mike, and failing, What I'm trying to say is it's, this three straight finishes is very impressive. It would have been even more impressive if it's for all three she had made weight. But yes, very rare thing. You just don't see this kind of run. I should have just gone too straight because I'm trying to think like the last women's band-weight fighter to finish two straight fights is probably a man of Nunez.

So I'm putting Jocelyn Edwards in this kind of rarefied air with Nunes and Rhonda Rousey. Okay. This is my very flimsy way of doing it. This is the Thaddeus Young, you know, has. this many minutes points three-pointers shooting percentage with as larry bird muckle jordan ball block a people know hardcore hoop heads know what i'm talking about uh but she deserves a reward she deserves a reward she deserves a chance to maybe might become the next contender for the bantam weight title like that's where we are um and she always kind of had this talent so it's not that crazy

she just need to make weight she just needs to make weight and now she's done it uh two times so um i guess big clap for finally making weight twice in a row um let's give her a rana lada let's give her every renaldana she beats a rene this contender line is extremely thin legitimately a win over rene could just get her a title shot um and uh because again we don't know what debating one has with kela with amenne nunes and and all that business and julia pain you obviously getting a rematch someday because you know to somebody unanswered questions eventually they're going to need a fresh challenger could be could be edwards yeah i mean i wouldn't mind edwards versus juliana either i thought about that as well but i feel like juliana

is just going to hold out forever for something i don't know a quote unquote big your name, which is, which is weird, because I did like she has a chance. What division is she looking at right now? Roderazzi ain't walking through that door. At least I don't think so. The correct wild card selection, I think, AK, is, it just kind of goes full circle to to what we're talking about earlier because, and I'm not going with this, by the way. It's Elijah Smith versus Christian Rodriguez going back to 135.

Like that is, and I know, I know Smith has a loss on his record already, but we almost like don't even count that one he seems he feels undefeated to me like he's got that vibe to him so that would be like the right fight to make at 35 i'm going for the funniest fight of all time this fight could steal the show this fight could be i hope i truly truly hope that this fight is an opening curtain jerker fight on any fight night card well we're doing the people's pre-fight show because without question, we will stay live and watch this together. It will be a light heavyweight matchup. Julius Walker, who just got his first UFC win, gets it done.

It would have been in the fight of the night, by the way, and it was a bad fight. But the third round was just so insane with all the knockdowns against Cirqueira. Julius Walker versus Billy Alicana might be the most electric fight of all time. And that's what we're doing, AK. opening fight on a fight night watch along this is going to take martin poodai versus buchetcha and just stomp it into the ground so that's what we're doing you're welcome m mhmai world you're like can i ask you a question yes please are you proud of yourself i'm so proud of yourself for putting that out to the universe yeah it can't be a main card

fight. It can't be a middle of the road prelim fight. It has to be the first fight of a card. So we can all watch it together. And if we all do that, we will enjoy that fight so much. And I want to make that happen for the world.

I like my gift to you. I like Julius Walker. Fair enough. He's having a strange. That would be, that happened. Like he's having a strange. He is. He will make Billy Elicata fun. He will make him fun. And that's what this is all about. Are you saying Julius Walker is the master of the bad, good fight, or the master of the good, bad fight?

I'm not sure. He's, if he, if he, this is like a starring role in a movie for that part, Julius Walker is getting ready for like the final round of interviews. Like, he's one of those guys. And I respect that how odd out of it. That's weird. That's weird. Uh, let's go to the peeps. No, can I check the tapes first, Mike?

Oh, okay. I have a personal check the tapes. For yourself? Just for the world, for the universe. Oh, okay. Like, did you see this week, UFC Perth, you know, the card, I think it's about full. I think it's about complete. I don't know.

Oh, no, they might still, they'll probably still add some fights on there. Do you see that Yvon Erslan got booked? Yes. Did you see that Igbo Aslan also got booked for that card? Yes. Did you see that they're not fighting each other? I did see this. Why?

What the What Why would they Do this? Like, this is an attack on me personally, right?

They know I've been campaigning for, for Erslan versus Aslan for at least a year. And then they actually put them on the same card. They'll be fighting back to back, Mike,

the current line. I don't know what the final lineup is, but like the way it's laid out now, it could be Junior Tapa versus Ivo Oslan and then Jimmy Krupe versus Yvon Ursula. Like, why would they do that?

Why? I'm an, I am so angry. I will tell you right now, I don't know. I just look at this card a little bit, but I think my wild card pick, no matter what happens, no matter who wins,

I'm just going to keep pushing Ersla and Aslan. I don't care if they both lose. I don't care if one of them wins. The other guy loses, I don't care if they both win. This fight has to happen. And UFC, you are super messed up for like teasing it. For teasing, for making me look at a tweet and go like,

oh, Arslan and Aslan are fighting at UFC Perth and then breaking my heart. So that is my mind. check the stage for the UFC. I'm just, I'm so angry. I need hashtag Aslan Erslan or Erslan, Aslan, whatever. Guys do this for me. Make it happen. Please. Maybe one of their opponents will fall through and Mike. They're just backing each other up. They're back. It's, they're both like, they're both in backup fighter rules. Just in case this happens. We are one step away. Oh, I just got excited. Okay. You give me a little bit of hope. You give me a little bit of hope.

Let's go. Let's let's get to the piece. I didn't get a ton of them, but let's party. Max, Anthony Hernandez for Shoshan Strickland. I just don't understand the need for this fight. I don't get it. Everyone wants it. So many people ask for this. I don't get it though. I don't know. We can bury Strickland forever. Like, is this what we're doing here? I have zero. I truly have zero interest in this fight. This fight is not. compelling to me in any way. What if he won? That'd be a good time for everyone, wouldn't it?

Yeah, then you'd get another title fight. This is a guy, by the way, so many people are getting mad at me for saying Paulo Costa could get a title shot if Homs out Shemaya of wins. And I know how ridiculous that sounds. But Exhibit Q, Sean Strickland got a title shot after beating Abus Magamatoff at the apex. So if Sean Strickland get a title shot after beating a boost maga made off at the apex, Paul Ocosta with a storyline that he's that Hamzaa Shemai have slid into his wife's DMs in 2025 in that modern day UFC catering toward the fans the UFC is trying to cater towards there's a very real world where Paul Ocosta could find himself at a title fight.

So I know people are sick to be saying that and think it's ridiculous. It's not ridiculous. No. It's absolutely not ridiculous. We don't want it. We don't want it. We're not like talking to what he wants. That's like the least deserving title fight in the history of the sport.

Of all the potential, like, title shots we've mentioned, that's like not even in the top. Not even the top 10. I could probably pick, yeah, I could probably create some other millimeters. I'd much rather see fight for the title than Paulo Costa. But the sea, there's so many Cs that are implanted for that matchup. And I hate it. I hate it so much. But people are going to owe you a lot of apologies if that happens.

And I really hope it doesn't. I really hope. Yeah, I do too. Ersek versus Albazi, Lucinda versus Fatima Klein. I think that's a little crazy. Age appropriate, at least. for finally putting in there with some of her age. But yeah, it'd be a weird drop-off from the level of opponents that she's been facing.

She's going to be like the number seven ranked fighter in the division. And Fatim is, the risk reward is just not worth it, in my opinion. Andre Feeley versus Kyle Nelson. I like this. Maybe we can throw this on the Vancouver card. I think that would be fine. My fellow Canadian. CLD versus Mamba Melcun.

Boy. Is he not booked or something? Is he not booked? I don't think so. Maybe we'd throw that in Perth. middle lady middle ladiness at its finest i did not know his nickname was mamba you just blew my mind he's nicknamed his mama i mean i don't know if this is a a gimmick or whatnot like cobi maybe he's he the coby bryant of m m m m m a i mean when i think cobi brine of m m m mary i

immediately why are we not getting osloon versus urs oh sorry sorry sorry my brain broke for a second i How about Elijah Smith versus Victor Henry? Or is that too soon? Do people know Elijah Smith is like 22 years old? They do now. The guy's a baby. He's a baby. I'll tell you that that's not even the most like egregious matchup, like veteran match.

I have so many people throwing in there. Almost all the picks I had are like throwing in there with veterans. And I'm like, guys, like he beat Toshioomi Kazama, who is a UFC fighter by name. but like Toshio Kazama is not like some like top 40 guy that he took out like he's 80th ranked band and win he's like the 80th ranked band away yeah so I don't know I'm just crazy to me I think Victor Henry would would tune Elijah Smith up I think a lot of his veteran well I'll get to those picks I'll show you there's a lot of picks that I'm like he's not ready yet he's not ready it's 22 max is saying all these fights should take place at the apex like that could be apex card which it could be considering the names yeah uh Steve fluffy versus

RDR, there you go. Feel bad about this just because I sort of feel like Fluffy has done enough to get a title shot with the run he's on right now, but I think this is a good number one contender fight to make. I mean, just reasonable thinking. Mm-hmm. Just well done. Delizzee versus Metafield at 205.

I mean, DeLeste, he was ranked at Light Heavyweight when he beat Anthony Smith. He beat Anthony Smith. And I don't blame him for going back down to 185. Like I wouldn't say, oh, Roman. 100% go to Light Heavyweight. He definitely should. It's time. Because I think he's lost a bit of speed.

I mean, let's be honest, he's a little bit older. He's probably lost a bit of speed. He wasn't the speediest guy to begin with. Now he's lost a little bit of a step. Hey, you go up to 205. Suddenly you're looking a lot faster again. Do with Anka-Life as champion. Like, Delizzi might just, like, need three wins and gets title shot.

There you go. So Erseg versus Alex Perez rebooked. Maybe in Perth that both men could make the date. It's never good when a name is mentioned on the show. And there always has to be a comma with an explanation. that's sort of where i i i wish alkspre's the best it's just he's just he's just so snake he's the definition of snake bitten when you ask like snake bennan athlete yeah him and cop both yeah uh lucinda ritchie feely versus darren elkins i think they're teammates and buds so i would say that is not a

fight that can happen matzumoto versus filippe lima c ld versus edmund shabazzian dodo chabazian is booked yeah do people not know about this we broke that fight baby oh oh oh in androini's this is personal now This is personal. So you will get absolute doo-doo. Walker versus the Craig Bukoskis loser at UFC Paris. Sure? I mean, Craig's like a, oh, man, I don't know. Walker, I don't know what people think of Walker.

I mean, he did get Menefield in his first fight, so he got like a top 20 guy in his first fight. Elijah Smith versus Brad Catona. Cotona is released, is he not? I think so. I believe I saw. I don't know how official was. I'm sure. I think it popped up in one of those online roster trackers.

Yeah. Edwards versus Meyer Buena Silva, Medi versus Oban Elliott. Edwards was supposed to fight Buenos Aires. No, at this event? Wasn't that originally booked? Something like that. I think so. I think so. So, yeah, at first I thought it was weird because I'm like, what's going on with NBS? You're fighting it. But I believe MBS is going back up to Bantamweight and was actually supposed to fight Edwards. So, yeah, I totally make sense. Just make it happen. John Ray McConico versus Trashon Gore.

I mean, that just seems like the fight to make. Yeah. Sean is still on the roster. Like I said, I still want to see Trayshan go back to the regional scene. But if he was back on the regional scene, he'd be fighting guys like Aaron McConaco. So, yeah, hell, may as well just do it in the UFC if they're on the roster. I don't have an issue with that. Gabriel Fernandez versus Casey O'Neill.

I saw a lot of that. Yeah. Makes sense. Edwards versus Aldana, AK. Mm-hmm. Smith versus Ricci Lang, Walker versus Bruda Lopez. as CLD versus Jack Hermanson. You like that?

Give him a ranked guy. I think, I just, I think he could be a ranked guy. So yeah, give him a guy in the top team. Matsumoto versus Jonathan Martinez. I don't mind that. Wow. Do not mind that at all. Yeah, that's a really good matchup.

Feeley-Watson, Lucinda versus Pennington, Erseg versus Ulan Beckoff. Boy, that's a tough one. Hernandez versus Izzy, only because I don't know if Strickland can fight, soon. And of course, we need the rubber match to Lise versus Vittori 3, headliner of the first card of the new TV deal. I don't know why we're laughing when that fight is almost definitely going to happen.

It's got to happen. Yeah, if not next, like you said, at 205, especially at 205, yeah, that's like the way to go. Yeah. Dan Tredadu, great night of fights. Here's what I got for Adano. Fluffy versus the Kio Ibovoff loser. If Fluffy wins, given the title shot a three-man turning between dd prdrdi ruffy is peak m m m aursig versus albasi cld versus sharra bullet eliza smith versus rickie terseos another winnable fight for smith to get experience in the octagon and then this is this is why i like dan so much on second thought i just watched the post show and you guys are right fluffy versus r d rdr is the fight oh thank goodness you damn right you damn right that is the fight uh giving fluffy the kio imovoff loser would be promotion

malpractice in my humble opinion yeah that feels like it's like we're trying a scenario we're very much trying to avoid yeah if he's gonna fight a loser of a fight right now it is the loser of the title fight on sat right that and that's how i would do it uh left light just got in right at the buzzer here uh making sure i get my point for park versus bruno silva side question what's the fastest booking that has secured boot secured both of you and ought no point For me, that fight was made four days ago. I also got Hill v. Roundtree alongside a few others on the same week he lost. I mean, you get no point for Hill versus Roundtree because literally everybody in the world picked that fight.

But Park Rudo Silva, sure. Wow. That's good. Park literally just lost and then he got dusted real bad and then gets rebooked very quickly. Anyway, Fluffy versus Strickland. What are we? You guys are kidding. Take the point back.

Take the no, no. He's not the only one. He's not telling a half a point. A lot of people are calling for this, Mike. It's fine, but like Fluffy is going to kill Sean Strickland. Like, I don't think you guys understand this. He is going to mow down Sean Strickland. And maybe that's what you want.

Maybe that's the type of booking we need. But Sean Strickland is not the, he says he's going to fight until somebody dies. But that's not what he does when he actually fights people. So I don't know. Again, I think we should clear the way for these new contenders. let's trickle in an Izzy fight again. Let's trickle in Whitaker fight. Like that's what we need to do with these guys.

That's just one man's opinion. Who knows? Deleidze versus the Abus Pfeiffer winner at 320. The winner? I think both of those guys could... The weird thing is deletes they entered Saturday in the U.S. official rankings. He was ranked higher than Anthony Hernandez for...

Yeah, he was a deletes Avers and Hernandez card. That was so weird. So I guess, like when I say they can do better than delete's day, that's not necessarily true like whoever either of those guys would be you know chasing it he won't be top 10 I think after uh delis he won't be top 10 I think on Tuesday but he'll still be in the top of Dean so I guess

technically it makes sense but I don't know it just feels weird to me don't don't like that uh what else we got Erseg versus Asu Amabayev Lucindo versus Andrade after she loses to loopie Fili versus Kevin Vallejos interesting I don't mind that might be a little soon for Vallejos, but people are high on him.

He almost beat John Silva as they say. They keep saying that's going to be that that's one of those things that's going to keep money up his matchmaking is like, you know, he had that competitive fight with John Silva on the Contender Series, right? So that's always going to come up and people, people say like, oh, who should fight next? But yeah, I wish they could bring him along slower. But he's got a lot more buzz than your average like Contender Series guy, a loser, right? Because the one guy he lost to.

I asked John Silva about that fight like literally two days ago. So that interview is going to be dropping, I believe, on Tuesday. Heck, John Silva chatted it up. And he was just like, no, that wasn't my toughest fight. Are you kidding me? Because I was on contender series. I was trying to show these guys that I could do all this stuff because if we fought now, I'd kill them.

And just classic John Silva. John Silva stuff. Where are we at here? C-Rod versus Del Valle. As I've said, the undefeated gimmick needs to continue. Okay, Matsumoto versus Normaga Madoff, CLD versus Michelle Pereira, regardless of the Kyle Docis result.

Where are we here? Walker versus Balato, Winlucer dragon, Sterling, Smith versus Cody Gibson. Okay, that's, I think that's the kind of thing we're looking for for Elijah Smith. Wow, just like treating Cody Gibson like a veteran to be sacrificed. Oh, wow.

Or maybe a veteran that could hand out a vet lesson. Yeah, I don't know. Okay, okay. Okay, that makes a little more sense in some of the other veteran options that we're throwing out there. Medich versus Chaos Williams. Oh, yeah.

No matchmaking for Gabriel, I chose one the least relevant, impressive fight from each card to ignore. Wow. Damn. And finally, Cody Brunge versus Torres Finney,

I get all the points regardless. Oh my goodness, me. Boy, that actually like is probably the fight. That's not a big That's so guaranteed to be weird Can we make that happen at 205 for no reason Can we just say like oh Cody's not coming back down the middleweight And just a heavyweight who gives a shit

Just just just go all the way weird with it Cody's going to be coming off a no contest A controversial split decision loss And then fighting Torres Finney I can't even imagine what could happen Wow Just bizarre I actually love that fight

That makes up for the for the fluffy Sean Strickland but to you A.K. Okay, all right, let's see. Let's see we got here. I got quite a few actually, quite a few. From Twitter. Oh, actually, let me run some, I want to run something by you, Mike. Because I don't think you had this one.

I had a couple of people recommend Andre Feeley, Calvin Cater, two. Oh. It has been, I'd look it up, seven, eight years, eight years since their first. But this was a lifetime ago. This was Cater's first fight in the UFC, actually, was Andre

Feeley. Is it time? Is it time for these, these lifers to run it back? Dude. Yeah, I like that. That's good stuff. That's not, could that headline a UFC apex card? Sure. Absolutely. Ooh, we found. Dude, that's, that's really good. I love that. Yeah, I think I really like that. I should have written out. If we, if we, if we cannot live in a world where I get Calvin Cater versus Edson Barbosa at featherweight or lightweight, it doesn't matter. If I can't get that fight, that's, that's right there. I'm okay with that. That's great one.

That might have been my favorite pick that multiple people submitted. So good job. I think it was, I should have written down this. I think it was a couple people. But you guys know who you are. Well done. Also,

most of the people say they won a McConnell versus Finney. Finn Hamilton said purely to set up the rematch that will headline the UFC Vegas 200 prelims. So he's not just booking McConnell versus Finney. He is booking McConnell versus Finney too as well. So incredible stuff. Yeah. That's great. Finn also said

Not matchmaking related But Chris Tione should never be allowed Inside a cage again What did Tione? What was his gaff on Saturday? Tione? Yeah. The Elijah Smith fight?

Was so what happened? Wait, there was the slam. And then there was two brutal follow-up punches While Sam was out like a light. I guess I wasn't paying attention. I think I just saw the slam And it wasn't like what happened. He wasn't in position?

He could have gotten in there quicker. Tione? Well, I mean, he got the power bomb almost happened on top of him. So Toyote had to get out of the way. And then the power bomb happened. But at first, we, we kind of watched it and we're like, okay, we'll give Tioni a pass here because how many times you could see a man realistically and legitimately power bombed. So like, it was almost like Casey brought up the reference. It was almost like referee Dave Hepner after a big move. goes, oh, it was like maybe compare it to that. But then we go and watch a replay and we're like, yeah, dude, you got to get in there a little bit. All right.

Well, Tione, I think, you know, we're, maybe not his worst moment. Jocelyn Edwards versus Ketland Vajor. Okay, we think, we think Eric Anders is retired, right? We just don't, but we don't know for sure. I don't know. Well, anyway, Finn matched made form. Anders versus Petrosky. And he said, this is a two, if you count.

They had a grappling match. apparently. So I thought that was cute. Angela Hill, Pierre Rodriguez, Osborne versus, speaking of guys who I'm not sure retired, I know he's coming off a win. Matt Schnell, he's still fighting, right? He won his last fight. Okay, he's still fighting. So, yeah, O'Day and Matchnell. Love it. Fantastic. DGB, Medici, Oban Elliott,

Julius Walker, Marchant Prachnio. Actually, really like that. Matsumoto, Beckett-Al-McCon. I hate this so much. Andre Fili, Austin Bushy. I hate this matchup. What are we doing with Austin? Why?

That's why too soon. Way too soon. Way too soon. I don't think like Philly has lost that much of an athletic. Philly is not a guy who gets like out grappled. His take down defense is pretty solid. So I think if he stuffs a couple of- Austin Bashi lost to Christian Rodriguez, right?

Yes, correct. Yes. You're going to give him the guy who just beat Krista Rodriguez? I don't know. What is happening here? He'll get a little crazy with these prospects, man. He just beat literally the worst featherweight on the roster. like literally beat the worst featherweight on the roster

and we're going to give him Andre Feeley but he's one in the UFC and his one win is against the worst featherweight on the roster oh John Yannis John Yonnes and Zeta Kumpo, that's right okay I forgot uh right right right right okay I totally forgot that fight just happened hopefully forgot good for Bushie though good performance

yeah Zach Schultes what do we got in here Lucindo versus Jessica Andraj Win Loser Draw versus Loopi I don't mind mind it like Lucinda. I was going to say like Lucinda would be fighting back in the rankings either way, but she also fought back in the rankings in this matchup with Angela Hills. So yeah, maybe that's the way to go. CLD versus Pfeiffer Megamatov loser.

I actually read like that. Sure. And Zach, I really love Medici versus Malat at UFC Vancouver, October 18th. I love that. I think that's such a good matchup. I think Malat would be favored and I think Malat would win, but Medeach is just pure. excitement and you're getting you're you're not going to see the score cards which is always a good time f rod uh i don't want to read this because you just said this matchup will make you mad so i'm not going to do it mike christian rodriguez marvin santos i think that's the right way to go uh again this is people trying to match him up with someone who hasn't lost the erc yet i don't mind it and jimald emmer's shor matumato matumato sai nirmagumadov mede medici and gorimbo yes yes people yes

Four Corner Sports. I think no doo-do this week, so good job, poor corner sports. Lucino Robertson, I agree for UFC Vancouver. I think it'd be great. Angel Hill, Luke Boone-Me, Tynara winner from UFC Perth, and noted that it would be Hill versus Loma, too, if they fought. And I actually really want to see that because that was back in 2020 when they first fought.

So I'd be totally down for Angela Hill and Luke Boon-Me too. But Luke Boonee might be, no, no, she would be a good matchup. Christopher Rodriguez-Valai host, again, a young, up-un-com. guy versus creature every guys i get it mike c ld versus gastilum so there's there are rumor and innuendo uh let me just go and look this up real we love rumor and innuendo i don't know if we've like fully confirmed this or not but i'm just going to pull it out there i like this lot because i actually almost made this pick myself this was definitely in my like made my short list when i was thinking of um matchups for cl d i think i think

Gasolm is booked somewhere. It was kind of like a surprising one. Let me. Let me. I'm going to join you on the search real quick. Yeah. Let's see. Do we have some?

Let me see the rumor mill. Oh, I just saw this rumor now. I had not heard of this. Dustin Stoltzvus? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had not heard of this. I have not heard of this either, but I like it. Alex Pahoonen.

I see tweeted about it. I don't know if he was an original source, but I do see Alex Buh, Well, it does have a Ruby Sports and Entertainment logo on the bottom right-hand corner. So Dustin Stoltzvus is a member of Team Ruby. So it would make a lot of sense. I had not heard about that. So no doo-do for you for Corner Sports because I was not aware.

And I also thought that was an appropriate matchup for CLD. Marcus McGehy, Elijah Smith versus Bernardo Suppai. I like this a lot. I know it's one of those things where people are like, oh, let's keep the young guys away from each other. Don't care. I'd love to see the fight. Jocelyn Edwards, Luana Santos. That's right.

Luana just recently moved up to 135. Gabriela Fernandez, J.J. Aldrich, McConaico, McVeigh, sure. Braden O'Neill. What's up, Braden, O'Neill? Feeley versus Sabatini, I like. Elijah Smith versus Brady Heastened. Yes, again, people, you're moving in the right direction.

Braden, slap on the wrist. Jocelyn Edwards versus Carol Hosa. That's a two. How could you forget their February 6th, 2021 clash at the UFC Apex? Shame, shame, shame. Pretty much every fight at Women's Bannibway now is going to be a two or a three.

It's true. Be prepared. You should write a two or a three and then erase it if it isn't. Toby Kinsella. Matsumoto versus Ricky Simone. I like this. I like this.

Or is this too much, two veteran? No. I think it's fine. I think it's fine. Leroy Duncan versus Sharra Bullitt at Abu Dhabi on October 25th. Elijah Smith versus Ramon Tavares. Thank you.

Yes. This is more in the range I'm thinking. Barry O'Reilly. I love this. Justin Edwards, there's no way that this fight will happen. Justin Edwards and Misha Tate. Oh, my. Zero chance.

Zero chance. But I think that it's such a good idea. Yeah, I forget. Misha's hurt. Yeah. She's not going to fight Johnson Edwards. Had no interest. No, she, that would be terrible.

Is Jocelyn at, I don't remember if Justin's at extreme Couture or not. Oh, I don't know. If she is, then her Misha probably trained together. So I don't know if like, but again, I don't know if it's like an ATT type situation where they're just like they both train there, but they're not like teammate teammates. Yeah. I still think Eileen Perez, Misha Tate is like the fight to make, even though Eileen would win that fight.

But I think that's like the one that gets her over the top a little bit more. But we'll see. Yeah, Jocelyn Edwards versus Bichita. Was Jocelyn minus 600 in that fight? Yeah. As much I love that pick, I hated this one. Christian Lerer-D Duncan and Mansour Abdul-Malek, I think CLD would F of Mansour Abdul Malik right now real bad.

I don't know if that's true. No? It could be the case. It's too soon for answer. Without question, it's way too soon. He's such a talent, but boy, I just, that's a big jump for me. And Antoni Andes versus Shemayev, win, lose, or draw. I love this, actually.

Yeah, this is Barry says, this is more of a magic wand pick. I would love to see how Fluffy's gas tank and pressure and ground game compared to Shemayev's early pressure, digdowns, and dominance. Yeah. Again, this is one of many matches at the top that we just need to see. Let me hop on over to IG. Just a couple here. Gerard Biagin, Delite, Gregory Rodriguez.

Boy, that would be really fun for the first two rounds, potentially really ugly for the last one. Or three rounds, if that's an apex main event, which it could be. What else? I just want to say, you've read some of these already, so I'm not going to repeat some of these. But thank you, Gerard. Harry Newhouse, Feeley versus Arosa, love. Mike Elijah Smith, Adrian.

Yannes. Oh, come on. No, right? No. What are we doing? Okay, no. He's 22. He's about to turn 23.

Walk before we run people. Adrian Yannes? Maybe he's the Yasmin Lucindo of the Featherweight division, Bantamweight Division. There are 18, 22 year olds at Featherway right now. This happens to be like Wadden that just got a power bomb knockout. So that's, come on. We'll get there.

Just not yet. And two of the emails. Jay Donagie, a bunch of that have already been read. But CLD versus Mark Andre Bakillo, CLD versus MAB. I like it. Sounds good. Tristan Gordette, Medici, Phil Rowe,

take the under. Take the under. God. Once we were broke and sometimes finish late, though. But I think that's going to finish fast. I actually think that that would finish fast. Does not make round two. Johnson Edwards, Jacquelinea Kovacanti,

Elijah Smith and Mouin Gaffarov. Guys, we just saw Gaffrov defuse a very talented. talented 135. He beat Rania Nakamura, and I would rank Rania Nakamura over Elijah Smith. So I don't. I'd rank Rania Nakamura over a lot of guys 135. I'd rank him more than Matsumoto right now.

Oh, oh. Yep. I would buy, I would buy stock in Nakamura over Matamoto. So yes, I don't like this. Again, I think our takeaway from this episode, guys, is Elijah Smith is 22. Okay. I know we're all over the moon. Let him power bomb everybody.

And then we could start talking. Mike, we're going to end with some. We're all getting along so well. Toke is coming at you. I don't know if you remember, Toke made his triumphant return to the show recently. And you guys were not on the same page, I think, with some of these picks. Let me just read. Toke's time off has not been beneficial.

Oh, I think he would disagree, Mike. I think he would disagree. He calls this ought no, U.C. Vegas, Infinity. Let me read this whole message. I've heard that six people went to a warehouse and watched fights. I may as well act like I was a seventh person and matchmaking for the card. And I made Mike mad last time. So here I am again.

Ready to make fights Mike disagrees with. So here we go. First, I will double down on RDR fighting Izzy. I will say this very briefly. The Whitaker win wasn't emphatic enough to get the title. He needs the name in a common event on a paper view to get to the title. Oh, Mike is shaking his head already. It's one of the worst matchmaking.

I can say Anthony Hernandez versus Sean Strickleck. Go ahead. Go ahead and say that. Izzy is it? I don't want this to be the path every time, but it's the path here. You're wrong, Mike, and that's okay. You're really the only person left on this island right now. Literally. Everyone else who picked this fight has fallen off the island. I respect the fact that you are you are doubling down on this, but you are the only person. So please continue.

I mean, Mike, it's not done. He's not done. As you said, of course, obviously he picked Hernandez, Sean Strickland, to make you He's a delinezschebazir Munez winner erseg, L.Asocura winner, Lucinda, McKenzie Dern, Fili, Chikaze, actually, you like that. Lucindo McKenzie Dern? I mean, I don't know. McChryrd is probably fighting for a title next. We don't know that. Only if Zhang is.

We don't know that. John is going to go up to 125 and 5 pounds, you know. And McKinzner's going to fight for bumps. She's just say, no, no, I'm not going to do that. Let me get off the poker table. and sign a contract to fight Yasmin Lucindo instead of fighting for the belt. Oh, my Lord. Continue.

Gian Matamato, Collar Phillips. And this last one is going to make Mike mad. I am so sorry. Tocke, I don't think you're that sorry, to be honest. Christian Leroy, Duncan, Bo-Nichol. Bring the shouting, Mike, many regards. Toke from Denmark. I'm not mad.

I think it's, I think that's fine. Like, I actually think that's fine. No, I think this is a very fair pick. I think it's a very fair. It's a fight that Bo will not ever take, right? I mean, he certainly won't take it right now. But if I'm the UFC, like, I'm kind of nudging him in that direction. Unless, like, the plan is legit, just give him the worst dude in the division to steamroll.

But if we're not doing that, if we're like, hey, we just kind of kind of keep Bo on the same track, like, CLD makes a lot of sense. I don't know, maybe give Nicol Petroski because I think he'd probably run Petrosky right now. Petrowski keeps calling for that fight, so at least you can build some sort of storyline. So having said that, going around and taking myself on a journey, I'm okay with this. This is far better than RDR versus Israel, Adasania. And it's a hundred times better than Fluffy versus Sean Strickland. Because at least this would be a competitive fight. The other two would be outrageously non-competitive.

So I don't want to see non-competitive fights at the top of one of the best divisions in the sport. Just because they are quote unquote bigger names. We don't, I don't care. I don't care. I want to see these guys fight each other for a chance to fight for a belt. None of these fights. Like Hernandez is a minus 700 favorite against Sean Strickland. And if it's, like if it's any.

anything less than that, I will bet the house on Anthony Hernandez. That fight is so not competitive. And then RDR versus Izzy is, I mean, what are we doing here? Like, let's, why are we doing this to Izzy? We're just going to keep throwing him dangerous dudes that very few people know to get to get absolutely worked. What are we? So come on.

Come on. See, you know what? You won this round, because you did not get, you did not get angry. You were very calm. I feel that's a fine match that's a fine sensical matchup that makes sense based on the merits of this division RDR versus Izzy makes no sense considering RDR has you know one fights and just beat Robert Whitaker and Fluffy Hernandez has not lost since COVID like and now we have to go backwards I mean technically the rankings like Sean Strickland be forwards but

I don't want to see fluffy run over Sean Strickland. I just don't have any interest in that. Nice try, Toke. You tried to get a rise out of your boy, Mike Hack. And guess what? He's ready for you, man. This isn't his first rodeo. He's repaired.

Yeah. This is not only the part where I would say where people can reach us, but they won't need to next week. We are back on the pay-per-views trail. We are back. We will be back live on the YouTube's after next week's event. I will tell people now, it'll be my last. one for a couple of weeks. We only have one events after before we

have a week break. But there'll be U.S. Shanghai. Mike, I won't be on that. I'll be going on vacation. You know, I'll be going vacation for a couple weeks. Seeing lovely Italy. So yes, hopefully you can drag Jed maybe onto a Shanghai matchmaking show. I think that'll be fun. And you'll probably be doing it the same

day because that card is at like six in the morning. So that's going to be a great time. That'll be fun. But Mike, what's going on next week? UFC 319, everybody. Take a look at this card. I'm actually quite excited for this one. I mean, obviously the main event,

Drake is Duplicity versus Hamt-Shabaia. Absolutely rocks. We will get the Octagon debut of Aaron Pico against Lorone Murphy and the co-main event. Interview with Aaron Pico dropping, I believe, Monday, as you hear this. Great conversation as he prepares to fight Lorone Murphy. Jeff Neal versus Carlos Pratchez.

That's going to be a banger. Jared Kennedy versus Michael Page. I don't know what to think about this. I truly do not know what to think about this. Who knows? In the world of Token, a lot of other people, maybe the winner gets to fight Fluffy Hernandez. Maybe that's what we'll do.

Tim Elliott versus Kaya Sakura opens up the main card. You know, that's going to be absolutely chaotic. As of now, the future prelim is King Green versus Carlos Diego Faheda, which, I mean, that fight's going to just rock. Gerald Beershier versus Bikale-Oxaycheck. Picture perfect matchmaking right there. You can't do any better than that. because someone's going bye-bye jess got drudge versus lupe godinez interesting matchup alexander hernandez

versus chase hooper interesting matchup edsa barboza versus jacar close interesting matchup nerseltz briba versus bryan brytzeilv versus tioni barboza and we got a couple of tough finale fights aka uh alibi edris versus joseph barallis and then there's another one that i think we're going to find out what on tuesday i will find out tuesday yes um uh uh uh Reginald, Reginald, Rodriguez, excuse me, I apologies, Rodriguez, Rodrigo Sessonando versus TBD, either Matt Dixon or,

oh my gosh, Daniel Danchenko. So there you go. I'm looking at this card right now. The way they had it structured on the broadcast last night was that there'd be like a super early prelim card, and then there'd be like the middle prelims that started seven and not eight. Okay.

Now I'm looking at the website and I don't know what to think because it's just, I don't know. We'll see. Either way, we'll have a watch party. It's going to be terrifically fun and UFC 319, I think is a fine card. I think it's way better than 318 on paper. More stakes. And we have one of the best fights of the year, which is always fun. Between Hamza-Jubayev, could he finally capture UFC goal?

That is a question. Follow from that. It's really, really fascinating. And we'll talk about the next week right here on the program. Okay, I am like, thank you very much back next week. Right here. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.