MMA Fighting - On To The Next One: Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 111

Episode Date: November 9, 2025

UFC Vegas 111 happened and despite a number of impressive performances, one can’t help but still feel a little cold after another sterile evening at the APEX. Regardless, Gabriel Bonfim made the most of his first headlining opportunity, shrugging off a controversial decision win over Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson with a brutal second-round knockout of Randy Brown on Saturday. That’s four straight wins now for Bonfim, who eyes a match with Colby Covington as he tries to move closer to a top 10 spot in the always crowded welterweight division. On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what options are actually better for Bonfim, and break down the best and worst moments on the mic at UFC Vegas 111. Additionally, we figure out what’s the best path to a title shot for Joseph Morales in his second UFC run, and future matchups for main card winners Uros Medic, Chris “Taco” Padilla, and Christian Leroy Duncan. We also dig deep as we make our wild card picks and ponder some fine suggestions from the listeners. 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

Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu, it's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-Doo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses

have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-F-Frey at O-D-O-O-O-O-com. That's O-D-O-O-O-com. Nothing quite makes a holiday-gathering pop like turning on the music. And if you're looking to set the mood, you should check out Sonos.

With Sonos, movie nights feel bigger and more cinematic. While holiday parties come to life with music that flows from room to room, it's the kind of sound that makes a house feel warm and connected during the season. Want studio quality sound at home? Explore Sonos speakers, soundbars, and more at Sonos.com

and discover how easy it is to build your own whole home audio system. 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 are back after UFC Vegas 111 and I know a lot of you out there thinking to yourself self there's a UFC card last night and I say to you yes there was and then you may ask, should I go back and re-watch this event?

And I will tell you no. But we're going to do the best we can to slog our way through the stakeless UFC Vegas 111 event. But we have a job to do. And the good news is it is officially UFC 32 Fight Week. We'll talk about that a little bit later on the program. But I have Mike Hacken joining me to recap UFC Vegas 111. from a matchmaking perspective,

the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, and my best friend, Alexander Kaylee, aka we have left the Apex, and it couldn't come fast enough. How are you? My best friend, we'll be back, though. But this is, yeah, this is the second last

UFC Apex card of the ESPN era. I don't know why I've been marking this down. I don't think it's going to change much in the Paramount era, but, you know, worth noting it started in the ESPN era. It's, we are, so there'll be 100, December, it'll be officially 112 UFC Vegas or UFC on ESPN Apex card. I don't know how people classify these things anymore.

I think we'll obviously, when Paramount starts, we'll still be calling them Vegas 113, 114, etc. But for you sentimental folks out there, just something to keep track of. Yeah, it was, you know, Mike, we were pretty down on this card going in. Our energy has just been low all week regarding really even with 110. We were kind of like, you know, which card is the least bad on paper? and I don't even think 111 was like awful from an action standpoint I think a lot of people would just look at the results

and say oh look all the main card fights ended with finishes and we got some you know exciting people you know probably maybe future players performing on the prelim so like the action was fine but we say this all the time though when we criticize a card it's never about it's rarely about the fighters right

like everyone who fought Saturday should be proud right everyone who got a finish should be really excited but again we're always you know we're trying to speak broadly to the greater fan base here and even if you watch every fight on Saturday's card you probably had an okay time but it just everything just felt so inconsequential and even more so because of course it was in the apex like I think there's a bunch of moments Mike that would have landed differently if there had been more than 25 people watching Josh Hawket for example Josh Hawkins promo it was so just came off a super set is he let let's can we get can we jump

up ahead a little bit like is he your wild card uh no i didn't i didn't go with him okay because i think i just straight up think he's got to get what he wants so i didn't really need to go there yeah it was a great call out um i i'll be honest i hated the promo so much why i he's this is just karaoke what my first thought because i saw a lot people on social media a lot of our you know i have an emma journalism like lists and i saw a lot of it's like oh that was great great promo i know i know you guys liked it my it was a great i great is not the is not the right word but it was it was it was fine it was better than i thought it might be i think because we were all scared he was going to say

something offensive but that's a pretty yeah i thought he's going to say something horrendous i was just like he was as soon as he started going into the rhyming and the chel sonin slash you know superstar billy graham like riff it wasn't it was just karaoke he didn't even say the original it was just karaoke and i was like do people like this like is this where we are like have post-pipe promos become so boring that someone shows like you know the faintest signs of life and we're like excited as we're at heavyweight or we're talking with the heavyweight division too they're getting some characters up there we're starting to get some characters of there um i could not stand it and nothing against nothing against uh like hockett for doing it

because i think like i said at least he tried to do something i don't want to say different because like i said i'm calling a karaoke but something that on the prelims of a card like this is going to catch people's attention is going to be remembered i think if you were to ask you That's the three most memorable things that happened on this card. I mean, there were some great finishes, but he got a good finish and we're talking about it. So, again, I'm not a fan of the pro wrestling aping sometimes. Sometimes it's done right. I kind of like a Michael Chandler does it, though he also just kind of just steal stuff.

But this fell so flat for me. I just did not. I can't believe. I saw so much positivity to it. Again, nothing against Josh Hawkins. I did not enjoy this karaoke promo. Fair enough, but like. I don't get it.

If anyone asked me like five years from now, what I'll remember at UFC Vegas? 111 and i'll have to like wikipedia it obviously of course every single other person uh the biggest takeaway will be josh like josh will be the biggest takeaway of the event outside of like from i i guess just a non-negative perspective because this was this was ufc contractual obligations but this is also ufc you make me want to cry like it's just hearing these fighters just beg for money yes oh it was so bad like poor crispedia like oh especially after watching like his post fight press conference that that clip that was pulled of you know at him asking if he called his his mom or whatever and he just like lost it and I'm like dude like I feel bad for you but

I also understand that like this is we've been telling fighters this for three years now if you go out there and you beg and you ask for a bonus you're not getting it you're not Euros Menich goes out there and just blast out the king of Kung Fu in like a minute. Ask for a bonus, didn't get one. So, like, I actually think he would have been okay. And Jed said it on the post bite show as well. Like, if he stuck the landing the first time, like, just walk off the mat. You don't need to do it again.

And then he was like, no, I didn't like that good enough. So I'm going to go out there and ask for it again. And then the U.S. he's just like, no, not doing it. And it's just so sad. It's just such a sad moment. like get out of the damn apex it's just it's so bad there's i i ufc 322 is going to feel like ufc 300 because of how bad this year has been how sluggish this year has been and then like the last two cards not that the action was bad it's just like it's so soulless it's

i said right before we hit we went live i was like look there's a lot of people who love football you love it but like if you put the division three week zero Texas rivalry game between like teams that had to flip a coin at a gas station to determine who gets the ball first like sure it's football and we like it but the game sucks like there's nothing there's no energy to it there's 11 people there you're looking for fans you're looking for 90,000 people to go bananas and mascots fighting each other and doing flips on the 50 yard line and cheerleading. doing the thing and just feels big. And instead, you flip on ESPN2 and you're like, you're watching the Waterboys team. Southeast Louisiana State Tech University playing another team and they're wearing old copies of the Inquirer on their shoulders for shoulder pads.

Like, this is what we're getting with the friggin Apex. Just get out of that building. Get out of it. You're the UFC. You have relationships with everybody. You have relationships with everybody from You know the commission to the president of the friggin' United States You can't you can't leverage yourself into a building in Las Vegas that seats 1500 people

We can't do this You can't get somebody to pay you a little small site fee To bring some energy into these UFC events You're the UFC your day to white We can't do this we can't go to the Bellagio and put some, you can leverage power slap, but we can't leverage the frigging UFC. It's insane. It's so ridiculous.

And this, 322 is going to feel like a masterpiece because of the shit that they've given us, A.K. And it's so frustrating. And then Dana's going to brag, see, this is the greatest year in the history of the sport. Look what just happened at Madison Square Garden. Because you gave us nothing. You gave us nothing. You got, you, you bought us 1989 Ford escorts for our first car. and then all of a sudden we bought ourselves a Lamborghini and you're like, see, if I didn't

buy those escorts, you wouldn't have appreciated the Lamborghini. Shut up! Get out of the damn building. Then it'll be better. Like, Christian Leroy Duncan would be over so much more right now. Get out of the damn apex. Sorry. Sorry to rant like that, but it's not the fighters.

It's the UFC not trying. They're not trying. And they're winning. And it's annoying. You guys can probably picture this. Mike's face is turning Dana White beat red right now. Yeah, he is, he is a shade of crimson. They deserve better.

He does, he deserve better. Not even the money thing. I'm not even talking about like, sure they do that, but like, that's, I blame them for them not getting the money they deserve. I'm not going to blame the UFC because they're not doing anything to change it. They could change it literally with like a few phone calls. They could change all of this. They choose not to.

But just, like, they're not even getting the opportunity. Like before it was like 80s WWE where it's like, Hey, we're not going to pay you all this money, but we're going to give you the opportunity to make all this money. And now they can't even do that because they're stuck in these stupid cards that nobody cares about and nobody's going to watch. I bet like 6,000 people watched this card last night. And it was like the hardcores of the hardcores. No one else. No one else.

No one gave up plans that were possibly in the works to watch this event. That's so bad. It's so bad. A.K. It's bad. It's just depressing, you know, and that's, this is why, guys, if you're wondering, like, why does Mike get so fired off about this and why do us in the media always complain about this stuff? Because, like, we know it can be better. We're not, we get so much, like, criticism, like, why are you guys always, like hating on the UFC? Like, no, we love, for the most part, right? We love the UFC. We're MMA fans a lot because of the UFC, of course, other promotions as well. But, you know, a huge chunk of us. And, of course, what we consume is the UFC. Our jobs are, our base, our, like, revolve around so much of the UFC. 90% of our jobs revolve around. 90% of our jobs revolve around the UFC. So we don't want the UFC's downfall. We just want you better. And we want to be better for the fighters. Like that's the thing. Like you're, I'm just trying to think of all them. So let me just go very quickly from the bottom of the card and up. Like Zachary Reese's, you know, gets blood, comes kind of comes back wins. That

would have gotten such a great pop. Like I know it was, it's early prelim. So the whatever venue this could have been at, it wouldn't have been full. But you would have had people there. And it would have been a nice moment. It would have been a nice moment for Zach Reese. Daniel Marcos. This guy's like a legitimate sleeper at Bantamweight. He's getting a great. I forgot that fight even happened. I know. And it was the best, in my opinion, it was the best performance on the entire fight card. He's so good.

And he didn't even get a bonus. No one remembered that fight even took place last night. That's a problem. Daniel Marcos is so good. Sorry, I'm just running out here. And, yeah, Miles John is very tough to finish. What a great moment that would have been. Josh Hockett, we already talked about.

Of course, that whole debut and promo needed a live crowd. anyone just randomly tuning in. Imagine them just seeing this guy shouting into a microphone in an empty room. People just be like, what the hell is this? Like, is this performance art? What's going on here? That was bizarre.

The Barcelos-Simone fight was so good. But like, there's no reaction. There's no energy to it. And I'm like, this is a great fight. Like, it's a really good fight I'm enjoying. But it's so weird when like they do a slick sweep, this great back and forth exchanges. And there's just no one but their corners.

And I guess the few people there that are making noise, it feels so bizarre. And they had all these finishes in the main. card like CLD, Padilla, Medici Morales, like these all would have been nice moments that would have totally popped the crowd. Gabriel Bond theme, a little bit of confusion, but it was a great, great strike, a huge reaction in the moment. And we don't get any of that, you know, it sucks.

Yeah. Again, and I say this all the time, I don't want to do this. I don't want to talk about how, like, miserable it feels to watch these events. And at least like, and a lot of you, in a lot of the people who say, like, oh, you're so negative about everything. I can assure you, I would be willing to bet big amounts of money that you're not watching every Saturday. And you're coming out and saying these things. We are watching every Saturday. And I know, oh, it's your job to watch the UFC. It's our job to like talk about the sport and like the news and the comings and goings that are happening. Like, how do you think we feel

when we have to go on to a post show and there's like, there's nothing to talk about? We have to talk about UFC 322. Jen and I have to like work our tails off to like find things to talk about and eventually we'll just him and I just have so much fun and AK and I have so much fun that like we'll make an hour post show work with anything that the UFC gives

us at this point. Like we are so we're such vets when it comes to this but like I just I just want these fighters to have more of an opportunity. Just get out of the damn apex man. This is the John Jones is the heavyweight champion calling out Steepay of the UFC right now. Like just

Stop it. Like, if John just vacated the belt, I don't care if he fights Alex Pereira. If the UFC gets out of the apex, I don't care if Christian Leroy Duncan fights Max Jimenez next time. Just get out of the freaking apex. Just get out of the damn building. And it was funny. One of the things, one of the constant things that I almost wanted to name the post-fight show, this is like a headline. Paramount paid $7.7 billion for this.

Like, how could any executive was just watch that card last night was like, wow every dime that we threw into this well spent but you bet like but again they'll watch 322 they'll probably be there because the UFC's smart about this they probably kept them they probably like booked them on a vacation where there's no televisions no internet no nothing so they could avoid this card at all cost but you bet the paramount people probably be sitting front row uh for UFC 322 and they'll be like see this is why we invested 7.7 billion dollars but yeah 32 we cannot come quick enough i'm so excited we need this you need this aka the fans need it the ufc needs this dana white needs this like everybody needs this right now and it could not come soon enough

but let's please for the love of god like put ufgas 111 to bed once in for all forever because i can assure you even on btl if you ask a question about this card i'm not answered it all right this card This card is over and done with after today. All right. That's it. So let's talk about Gabriel Bonfim. Oh, Gabriel Bonfeme. Oh, we didn't even.

Yeah, he was the main event. He was the main event on this card. And in front of a capacity crowd of 14 people. It was great. And he goes out and knocks out Randy Brown with a nasty knee. I thought it was a double knockout for a second. And I was like, oh, this is the best. Like, thank God this is happening.

Now we have like something to talk about. But it turns out Gabriel just slipped. But that knee landed flush. Randy Brown goes down. A little confusion about the stoppage, but it worked out just fine. It wasn't the best stoppage, wasn't the worst. It was just fine. And Gabriel Bonfim gets the win in an AK.

He gets on the mic and delivers D-minus work on the microphone and calls up Colby Covington. Just why is this keep happening? Zero chance he gets this. He's going to hate my pick. Your thoughts, AK. What's next for Gabriel Bonfeeb? I did not hate the Colby Covington.

comment can call it as much as I think a lot of people did I agree it's silly there's a very slim chance he gets it but he's sort of sticking with this gimmick he said he's won this fight for a long time at some point you should pivot you should definitely pivot I mean you just won your first UFC main events for whatever that's worth you know it being at a Vegas card but um so I didn't hate it as much I didn't think it was great I guess I was just I was just mostly indifferent towards it which is probably a bad thing which is probably net bad when you could try worse yeah yeah Yeah, yeah. So obviously I didn't go in that direction, Mike. I'm not, I'm not going with Kobe Covenant. But again, Colby Covenant is on my list of people who just, I have like no interest

in making matchups forever again. So, you know, if they fight, great. If they don't, I'm cool with that too. I think, let me say this, you know, Prince of Positive E. Gabriel Bonfim is a very good fighter. It sucks that him and Randy Brown are like at the center of this whole like, my gosh, what are we doing with these cars discussion? And like, you know, we're in this whole thing where the UFC could not announce any big fights for the last like three months. outside of the, you know, the O.C. 322, but no, like, no Iliotoporia, no Kiel Harrison. All these, like, fights were anticipating for, for, uh, because obviously the Paramount deals coming up, they're going to, they're going to do a big splash and like in the first

three months of, of 2026 with the, with these games, um, getting thrown out there. So that's why we ended up with some really, really, really lack, more lacklister than usual, uh, apex card headliners. Um, but again, that shouldn't take away from Bonfume and Brown. Brown, great veteran just gets caught. Bonfine, now what, 18 and one? 19 and one? Like, I mean, I mean? I mean, it's a nice looking record. He's looked good in the UFC. You know, he lost Nicholas Dalby.

That's fine. No Brazilian can beat him. I mean, there's no shame in that. And, you know, the Wonderboy win was sketchy. But this is exactly when he needed. We said this man needs to bounce back, fix his reputation. I think he's right there in the top 15. I think he'll find.

He's in the UFC's. I think he'll be back in ours. I think he was there and kind of dropped up. Mike, I want him and one of the welterweights from UFC 322. One of the contenders. Win-lose-or-draw, Leon Edwards. Wow. Wow.

Yeah. Well, I say this because... I think there are two people that the UFC has no interest in during a title fight any time soon. That sounds so mean to Leon because Leon is like literally a former welterweight champion. But if you guys think that like Leon beat, let's say he just dominates Carlos Prochase, let's say dominates either, you know, gets a knockout or like 50, 45, 50, 45, four just like clears him um he's leon is not getting a title shot in 2026 um like he's not getting a title shot ever we can't say that he might string together two three four straight wins we don't know it won't matter but he's far he's far and his job going forward at least i think for his next three or four

fights we'll be taking on unfortunately the gabriel bond beams the up-and-comers the guy's looking to take his spot so this is really more about a matchmaking for leon i guess that is for um bonfeme but i'm saying bonfeme is the kind of name that you can expect we're seeing it right now Carlos Prochis is a guy's probably seven or eight spots behind Leon in the rankings. And Leon can only defend his spot. He does not move up by beating Carlos Prochus. He'll get another tough fight in Gabriel Bonfem after. I'll tell you what, man.

If you're on Team Bonfim and he heard what you just said, he is like, wow, that would be great for me to fight a former champion and have a little bit of cachet in my next fight. Yeah, I don't think he's getting Leon. I don't think he's getting Colby. In fact, A.K., I don't think he's getting a ranked fighter next. And he's not going to, according to my calculations. There is a super, duper under the radar fight coming up between two guys competing in welterweight fights who didn't think a couple of years ago

they would be competing in welterweight fights in the UFC. It's happening at Qatar. It's a really interesting fight. And Bonfim is going to hate this so badly, but this is what I think is going to happen. There's a fight coming up between Jack Hermanson and Mick Tebeck Oralby at UFC Qatar. The winner of that gets Gabriel Bonfim in an opportunity at a ranking. That's the best he's got to do here, I think, after beating Randy Brown. And, you know, Randy's a fine fighter.

I thought he had a good chance of winning this fight. But this is one of those fights where I knew 90 seconds in. Yeah. we know exactly how this fight's going randy brown cannot win this fight and uh yeah he'll get a good one but he's so far away from like even being an interesting player in the championship conversation that this is his this is his 2026 right here is just fighting guys like this and it's unfortunate and it stinks but so it happens when you are stuck in that damn apex but there you have it And all this is before we even get into, like, what happens if Islam wins, you know, next week.

Like, he's not fighting. I don't know what the plan is, but like this whole, the whole welterweight contender line just goes out the frigging window. If Islam wins, if Islam wins just cancel I'm Machado Gary versus Blalemont. Because that fight, that fight literally means nothing if Islam Machachev wins. And I'll explain why later on. Oh, no. But let's go to the flyweight division, AK. I'm going to have me go first on this one, too, because you're going to.

Joseph Morales goes out there and just does what you're supposed to do against Matt Chenele. Matchnell should be employed for the rest of his life with this company if he chooses to do so. The UFC is not going to pink slip Matt Chanel at all because it doesn't make a ton of money. He gets got great and if he wins, it's usually in pretty fun fashion. So, yeah, Matt Chnell is who he is. Joseph Morales does, did what exactly what he was supposed to do. And then he gets on the mic, and then Paul goes like, who do you want to fight next? And he says, I want a UFC event in Sacramento, which means unequivocally there will not be an event in Sacramento.

Oh. Unless Joseph Burales can convince the Sacramento Tourism Board to pay the UFC $100 million. There will be no UFC event in Sacramento. But, AK, he's your guy, the ultimate fighter. He's your boy. Where does he go from here after this massive win? at the world's most famous apex he's such a nice guy he's such a nice guy he also spent most of his post his scrum time just binging up his teammate saying sign on this guy sign this

guy so great stuff for jose and ralz in his second run up with his ufc guys remember he was in the ufc long ago ran some tough competition came back went strung together some win took some time off strung together some wins on the regional scene uh and now uh wins the ultimate fighter finale in uh he was pretty pretty big underdog against um uh elite ali ali abi ali idris i believe and i picked joseph morales to win so i'm happy about that and then i'll speak him to win on saturday as i think most people did he was a massive favorite this time around mike i'm going to say something bold here i'm going to shock i'm going to shot this not my not my pick necessarily but my long-term prognostication for joseph morales's sophomore ufc run

he will fight for the UFC flyweight title someday okay will it be soon no will it be nationally against Alexandra Pantosia no but down the road there will be a contender spot for a flyway title fight jose Morales will be part of that now he's not there yet beating match now nice but again he shouldn't have been as big underdog in the final

also fighter finale had a lot more high level experience than that guy so that wasn't surprising and finishing match no was not surprising so i'm going to keep him with what i think is a favorable matchup but a tough matchup uh i'm going with jeff fell filio like really fun matchup both guys great grapplers i'm not ready to bump morale towards like the top 25 yet i know know again he's kind of in a second run he's a mature guy but he's not like old he's not an old fighter um i think he's just right in his prime i think he has a year or two more of like you can kind just give him uh fights to really see where he is in this division because flyweight again is not a big roster but it is like top to bottom a really really tough division so i'm not a

hundred and sure where he is right now i really think he'll fight for the title someday uh but we're not there yet we're not there so jeffelio after that you'll hear me if he's on the main card obviously will make a pick for him otherwise he will definitely be my wild card pick when he wins his next fight and i'll probably go for the top 25 guy then uh i with uh lonnie cavana oh that's is very fun fun yeah and it'll be the test like if if this guy's going to fight for a ufc belt he's got to be lonnie cavido and he's got to do it convincingly and i i would like to see if he could do that i would like to see if he could do it so fly it's a very fun division right now there is no wrong answer to this question if we're being honest hell rebook him against match

shnell see if he could do it better i don't have a problem with that either but yeah Morales, Cabot, should be very, very fun, and your pick is good as well. Let's go to... Support for this show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need.

It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, Odu replaces multiple expensive. of platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try Odu for free at Odu.com. That's ODOO.com.

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Roscoe Cadulian and the rest of the Phoenix Colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love the downloaded two ghosts in the machine available now only from audible to euros medich who had a bonus in his grasp and then he asked for it and it went away really really quick goes out there and just wrecks the king of kung fu gets the job done I did like the fire in his belly with the promo and then I was hoping for a name to be called out

and of course we got the there is nobody safe in this division dot dot dot when I am healthy and I'm like oh no oh no and there are people on the post fight show in the comments I kid you not saying

we need to give this guy like a top 20 guy someone even said into a live comment he should fight Daniel Rodriguez next and I was like do you understand the type of fighter we have here this is not a guy we're putting on the ladder to success

to climb towards championship gold no no no no he's just a fun dude he's a fun scrappy guy he's Nate Landware of welterweight that's how we need to treat this gentleman uh so doing so we're just going to book him in like fun fights with weird people

and Charles Racky just want to fight just got to finish himself a little Chuck Buffalo Euro speditch right now the 58th ranked guy against the 59th or 60th rank guy

good fun scrap that you could put on ESPN prelim for a pay-per-view main card at the world's most famous apex no matter where you slice it there's no way that fight stinks damn someone's getting rocked

someone is getting rocked very very likely Euros Medich who has never has never been to a decision when this is a drop. God bless him. I went in a much more morbid direction. Vizente Luka. Vesente Luque. Oh, wow. This is a much more grim. This is either a, hey, maybe Vicente, you know, comes back. Listen, Vicente is one of the, really the best, one of the best welterweight finishers of this generation. I mean, the guy who's has tons of knockout submissions. He could, he could definitely beat Vizente Leuke. But I don't know. I don't know

if I'm putting Vesente out to pasture here because you could also see Bacente getting his third straight 63 second knockout somehow. That would be an amazing coincidence. So, yeah, I'm just going for fun here. I'm going for under one and a half is what I'm going for. Okay. The thing that worries me is if he wins, then he's going to fight like a legit top 17. Let's do it.

Oh, God. He's going to get run. Who can he get? Oh, maybe, you know what? Maybe he should get Leon Edwards. Maybe like who never gets, who always goes through the decision? Who can we find in the wealth? Like, I want to see how much this U.S.

Magic Touch works. Like, that's crazy. He's the anti-Tisha Pennington. He's like, it's crazy. He's just never, it's like, you really have to have a mentality of like, I just do not care if I'm going to get knocked. Yeah, dude, he could be this. Wonderboy.

He can be this generation's Nico Price. There's nothing wrong with that. Dron. He was mad because Nico. Oh, dude, D. D. Rod would wreck him. I want to see it. I don't know.

I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. A lot of guys only go to decisions that, yeah. be interesting well let's see see you're very people are so high on euros managed but like fun we got to keep we got to keep our minds in the right place here we don't want this man getting out there and getting hurt and ruining his stock like we have to we have to shower him with the praise with what he brings to the table okay but we shall see if he goes out there and

just uh just annihilates vicente luke that because that would probably happen if they fought again Let's go to Chris Taco Padilla, aka. I just wanted this man to get a bonus so badly. And he's just in the wrong fight organization in order to get one. He goes out there and beats Ismail Bonfim who missed weight by five pounds. It didn't seem like Bonfim even really tried to make weight. And Taco was part of the second loudest fight. I've ever heard at the Apex AK.

There were a lot of Taco Padilla fans in the Apex. I believe there were about 11 of them. and only behind Calvin Cater when he beat the T-Total shit out of Giga Chikaze and there is about 13 Catermania T-shirt wearing fans going crazy for Calvin Cater. That is still to the day the loudest fight

ever in the apex. But Taco might be the silver medalist right now. It goes out there, gets a finish. Remains undefeated in the UFC, AK, Taco Padilla, our boy E. Casey Liden's guy making waves in the UFC's lightweight division. Where are we going here for good old?

Taco. Do we think Taco is at least on the last fight of his, you know, his initial contract, right? Four and no, isn't that typical of these things work? Four fights, contract? We don't know, right? We don't know for sure, right? People could sign. So, maybe he's at least in for a raise. Yes. He might be going from 10 to 12, I could at least. At least get like 40. Come on.

That ain't happening. This is crazy. This guy is a really good fighter. And he's exciting. Like, I know it's not nonstop highlights. I think when I say exciting, I know the show who i might watch some of tacos fights and be like oh man like it's not it's not like a back and forth thing he's actually pretty like technical and a bit unorthodox like he's certain there is volume in there but it's not like crazy volume but at the end of the day the guy finds finishes um and i think he's a really enjoyable striker to watch again as long as you're not like if you'd never seen taco fight before and uh you just look at this record and you thought like oh he must be

going in there and sucking it out hunting for knockouts it's not it's not really what he does he let he lets the knockouts come to him he's great at it uh so i am going with another another gentleman who has shown so impressive knockout power again this is like not worried about rankings i don't care about that stuff um i would like to see him throw down with quillan self killed mike bring him and quill and cell killed to be a super fun matchup again both guys whatever are they title contenders are they top 15 guys do not care right now at the stage in their careers i know salt killed knocked out hack brass so there's a lot of people that want to fast track him more towards like top 20 top 15 i'm not there yet i'm not there plus i don't know that

Taco Padilla isn't a top of Dian top 20 guy, right? He just, I think he just hasn't beaten that big name yet, right? I guess really Ishmael is sadly kind of like the biggest name he's beat, and Ishmael Bohnfim's not that big of a name. So this is kind of for both guys to get a better gauge of where they are. And again, I think just produce a fun fight and someone very likely getting knocked out. Yeah, I kind of just, you know, went back to the same formula as I did for Gabriel Bonfim here. I'm going to give him a tough matchup coming from a fight that is coming up very, very soon.

And I kind of tease this in the preview show. We have a, Nerula Aliyev is fighting Shemrock in Rock's UFC debut on the guitar card. Taco fighting either one of those two guys. Whoever wins that fight, that's who Padilla fights next. And there's no way it's a bad fight. And we'll learn a lot about all of those fighters over the next few weeks. week so yeah i think that's that's kind of where he's at right now but he's on a nice rumb he's also in the toughest division in mama right now it's got to take him a decade to get

to like a top five spot it's it's not his fault it's just the way that the ufc operates so um excuse me yeah i think that's a good fight can't really go wrong with padilla and yeah i think we're both on the right track here let's go to christian leroy duncan aka i I got to say, A.K., maybe I was a little wrong about CLD. What did you say? That he was a fine fighter, that he could be in line for the middleweighty, middleweight title. I think I was wrong on all fronts. Now, do I feel like he's going to be a top 10 fighter?

No, I don't think so. Is he going to fight for a belt? No. Could he crack the top 15? Yeah. I think he can. I think CLD can crack the top 15 after watching this performance. He goes out, gets the nasty knockout against a really good dude and Tullio.

And I would like to see him get a Wikipedia page. That would be a great step. He needs somebody to like really push him from like a management perspective because just not enough people know how good this guy is right now. And usually the Cage Warriors curse follows a lot of these fighters. And I'm typically right about that. But CLD is one of the few guys that has broken through a little bit. And I'm like, all right, you know, maybe there's a, there's a little bit of extra skill here that I, that I didn't see coming that typically does not come out of that organization and that team.

So, uh, pretty solid stuff from CLD. I was really, really impressed. And now, AK, it's happening. It's happening. This might be, this might be one of my most anticipated fights of 2026 AK. Because I, when I, when I put this together, I was like, I don't know what's going to happen. and there's so much on the line for both guys because neither can afford to lose here but they're both like right in the right spot for this fight to happen so a k i present to you

christian leroy duncan versus edmund shabazzium it's very good it's very good i had it was actually my first thought i think i had matched up edmund with some i can't remember who i matched him up with i believe i had matched up edmund with someone else uh previously so i technically he's off my board but obviously that's a very good match that's the right matchup and again like we don't know what we're doing with cl d as far this to me was the hardest one to make i think yeah because we have quite a bit of like sample size with those christian leeway duncan now like it was eight u i think six and two or something eight ufc fights it's so weird his has like some of those his losses or at least the army protection ones left such a stink in my mind

But it's just one loss. Like, that was one performance. For the most part, he's been pretty good. These gets finishes. Like, you were not wrong, Mike, to put him on middle-weighty, middle-weight radar. Like, you weren't wrong. There was a hint of it. And I don't think he's clear yet.

I honestly don't think he's clear yet. But he is exciting. He fought an awesome, awesome fight on Saturday. Like, that's the CLD you want to see all the time. Because I thought it was Tuleo who was going to come out and be aggressive. and I thought Tullio would bring the best out of CLD. And I think it was really Leroy-D that kind of set the tone. It was great.

And he needed to. He needed to. And Marco Tullio was just off for the rest of the fight. I don't know if he expected it. I think I'm going a little higher ranking. Actually, I don't know who would be higher ranked, but around the same range, Mike. I'll just go Jen Young Park, the Iron Turtle. He just coming off a loss.

He's still a guy who people, fans like. He's still, for me, in the top 20, top 25. Again, CLD's in there with him somewhere. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I'm ready to throw up. uh leaver and duncan in there in the top 10 yet i think he can get there as far i mean he can fight an opponent there i'm with you mike i don't know if he is a top 10 guy and he can get a top 10 guy it just won't be next it'll be sometime in in 2026 if he wins his next my uh my other thought

my first choice was icram alaskarov oh i was like let's just let's just throw him in there like he can't like if he loses another fight like it's not like he's done but the title aspirations are gone forever if he loses another one so let's just throw him in there if he beats ikram then like i know i know they have a guy who can make a run and then i'll be even more wrong but then i i thought to myself like ikram probably deserves a rank guy at this point like he's so good and the only time he fought a rank guy was after cutting weight two weeks in a row and then saved the ufc's ass by having him fight robert whittaker on a big card in saudi or yeah i think it was saudi so maybe Alice Garp deserves a little bit more,

but yeah, Shabazian, dudes look real good. I like your pick as well. Yeah, CLD, good for him, man. Give us a little something to talk about. Let's go to the wild card round, A.K., let's select one fighter he have not matched four, and do so right now. And boy, oh, boy, am I curious to see who you picked here

when it comes to the wild card selection. Why was it Jacqueline Cavalcanti, AK? No, listen, there's no need to match up. for Jacqueline there's only a few names ahead of her so like i think it'd be i didn't even look i just assumed if i looked at who to match her up with it would be obvious like there's only a few names that need to that i think that are even available uh above her because i think when whenever we update our rankings or when the ufc updates rankings um calvalcanti i think she was i mean i had to match she was already ahead of madda buenos silva uh who just fought

yeah because she just came back to women's phantom weight oh no okay and the ufc rankings calvalcanti is a I've been met of Buenos Aires 10. So now Calvacanti will officially jump in the top 10. Yeah, I don't know. You guys can match me for her. I'm not going to use that spot. I had to talk about Daniel Marcos. We said before maybe had the most impressive performance in the night, like just

dominating a, I don't know I say dominating because the first one, the first round is competitive. But choking out a guy very tough to finish in Miles Johns. So really impressive. He's, he's from my mother's home country, Peru. So there you go. Got a shout out. me primo daniel marcos i'm sad to say this mike i'm gonna give him montel jackson i i i like this one it's a fun fight but i wonder sort of like i did with the luke thing am i is this

where i am with montel jackson now am i viewing montel jackson as a stepping stone are we permanently shutting the door on you know montel jackson we'll fight for a title because if you lose to dan marcos then it's a very clear sign i was like yeah that's it you know montel jackson good run but obviously just you know not not a not a contender and that's okay it's nothing wrong with that but um yeah i i just hate having to use him to potentially you know boost up uh dale marcos yeah i like i mean he's never fighting for the belt anymore it's such a bummer because he's so talented but you got to step up on that stage man you've got to be able to throw punches and like do stuff to win and they've given him chances and he's falling apart in those spots every time

and plus he doesn't fight so he's just in the wrong division at this point so yeah tough i i like that fight a lot though like i think i i think i know everything we need to know about montel jacks at this point like he's fun and he's going to be one of the more frustrating guys uh to kind of be on his side for because you know he might just go out and knock daniel marcus out in 11 seconds like one punch deads him and we're like oh there's the guy and then they'll put him in there with like Rob Fott next and then Rob Fott will tune his ass up and we'll be like oh well again we're back in the same spot but speaking of the band of white division AK shout out to hyoni Barcellos who had to deliver the goods in an empty building where no one could care

or watch or see or you know that fight deserved way more than it than it got and shout out to both him and Ricky Simone for for delivering the best fight on the card by a mile and they didn't get a bonus and nothing really came of it but it was a great fight hioni barcelos I we're talking about this on the post fight show the UFC has been trying to get this man to lose for a while like I'm fully convinced of this and he has just foiled all of their plans at this point like they threw him in there with Peyton Talbot we all knew why they threw him in there with Peyton Talbot they're like Peyton's going to

highlight reel this 41 year old guy and then he didn't and they're like shit now what do we do I know we'll put him in there with Cody Garbrant who there's no chance Cody can get knocked out there's no chance but

and if we take that factor away then Cody might actually win like this is our bounce back fight for our guy who were trying to build into a star a decade ago and then he goes out and beats Cody Garbrand. So he's

foiled two of their plans. So now the matchmakers go into the meeting and they're going through the bannam weights of what to do and they look at Hione Barcellos again. They're like, this fucking guy, we're trying to get him out of the way. We're trying to put guys over. Now we just need to like get him out of

the way for good. How do we do this? We can't give him like a superstar in this division we can't give him a killer let's give him a really tough fight against an unranked dude who has looked really good at his last couple of fights let's give him ricky simone rickie will clearly beat this guy and what does he do looks like it's getting a little tough for hyione but who has the gas at the end of the fight the old man goes out there and beats him hyoni barceles does not care what the ufc's matchmakers want or what the organization wants he's foiling plans left and right

so i think the ufc should probably go into the meeting on tuesday and be like yeah man we tried we tried to get this dude out of the way so let's throw him a bone here a little i guess to the best you could do with hyoni barceles some age appropriate matchmaking and a fight out i kind of like to see for both guys Let's do Haione Barcells versus the aforementioned Rob Font. Let's get after it. Like average age, like 39 years old, I think, maybe 40. We'll just have these two dudes go out there. And we're not trying to table set for a young up-and-coming hungry whippersnapper.

Rob Font did you a favor. He was supposed to fight Raul Roes Jr. And then I find David Martinez, who's maybe a tougher matchup, did it on short notice. And now let's repay him with Hione Barcelos. repay honey barcelos with the rob fun fight what do you think about that okay are you ready for top 15 bantamweight harony barcellos because if he beats rob fun i'm pretty sure i mean maybe they just maybe rob fawn just no i'm pretty sure you would have to put he'd be ranked he would be ranked um i kind of hope he wins there's a part of me because the ufc would be so upset if hioretti barceles

won the ufc bandomway title it kind of would be one of my favorite things to happen in the ufc right now barceles could just sit there even though they're throwing all this all these hurdles in his direction barcelos who's in his 40s just getting better just jumping over all of them it's tremendous stuff he might be i might just draft him in our fantasy draft next year as my battle settle down because i want i want him to win so badly be just to foil their plans oh he fought three times here all those yes all those things you're talking about all 2025 yep it's Is he honorable mention, Fighter of the Year? Not top five, obviously. Not top five,

but it's got to be, I feel like he's got to be mentioned. Yeah. How can you not? Talbot Garrents some, wow. Man, he was like, it's a top run. I'm looking at his record. He had that one in four stretch. And I think we just kind of left him for dead, hadn't we? I think we were just kind of like, well, you know,

Henry Bostellas, great start to his career, runs into, you know, some suffer competition. He is who he is. But they dialed it back appropriately. Like, again, we know he's, fighting guys outside of the top 15 outside the top 20 but see some names like I said garbrand Talbot I don't know wow what a what a strange career yeah I don't know I love the age appropriate matchmaking I yeah I hope hardly keeps doing it man it's just fun to watch fun to watch

yes it is also fun to watch our wonderful otto know listeners come in with their picks I can spoiler earlier at AK I did not get a lot here I got very few. I got a total of four. So I'll rifle through these real quick. And shout out our great listeners who just come bring it every week, even when there's nothing to talk about. Micah, we begin with him. Bonfim versus the loser of Morales versus Brady.

Okay. Brown versus Renot. I almost what we're not for Bonfim, the way Renauds looked as well. Morales versus Estevan, Medich versus Brahimage. now that's that's excellent that's excellent matchmaking like there right there bedich brahimage two finishers two fun dudes to sort of under the radar guys but two guys who probably aren't going to be like ranked fighters uh i like that padia versus alexander hernandez that'd be a big step up for taco duncan versus coppeloff after lost

to rodriguez i kind of like that yeah makes sense emmers versus bashi I think if you're the UFC and you see anything in Osambashi, you don't even entertain the idea of that fight. Because Jamal Emers will 30, 27, Austin, Bashi in a fight that we won't remember or ever watch again. Yeah, we didn't get a chance to talk about Jamers at all. Great win for him. Yeah. He did the most important thing.

Go get the W. He got the W against the guy who, like, you know, we, you know, Hyder came with a bit of steam, you know, winning his first three UFC fights, and he gets knocked up a Dogato last time. emmer's a weird guy i actually he's actually like uh i was updating my rankings last night um i just ufc only rankings and he's it's like impossible to position him because he's got he's got like losses to jack jenkins and someone else and then also but then hider amel was kind of high because he beat go me so now emmers beats him so this whole middle chunk of like

my featherweight rankings looks so stupid right now because there's just like the mama you can't do mhmath like it doesn't you need more complicated m a math because uh this like this is cluster of guys who've all kind of fight each other and beat each other so i don't know i don't know i don't know where to put a meal i don't know where to put emmer's i don't know where to put go me it's a whole mess but a great good drop by emmers though great job yeah i bumped emmers up to 43 behind jack jenkins one's fine but then where does okay oh so did you keep a meal ahead of him uh no i did not so emil drops but then does go me also drop go me i have go me got go me beat joe and brito so the whole again the whole it's a mess it's a mess yeah the math is totally broken go me i have at 28

okay uh a meal i have at at 47 and like that's okay because it's not like a meal like dominated gomi it was a very very close fight yeah so like you can kind of you can kind of go like okay like i think i had him above gomi brief because you got the win but now these emmer's loss kind of i guess recalibrates like how where i can put amiel but yeah very very strange this is why ms math guys is so tricky right it's like guys be guys then losing the because gabriel bond theme lost to dalby randy brown beat dalby anyway yeah go on uh he like wow michael likes barceles versus marlin chito vera i actually like that fight too yeah why not i like that fight too if he beats font i love the the vera idea

because like bars and i would and jed said it best like i would probably pick barceles because he would actually try to do stuff which is so very well of a fight for Versailles. Yeah, it is. Totally is. Cavalcanti versus Arrini Aldana, Hokit versus Walter Walker. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen.

As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are

focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. There you have it. Left lane.

Mike, let me say. So you think he's getting Walter Walker for sure. I think they're insane. to not give him that it really was the perfect call-out there's only two names like for me it was two names to call out it was him about derrick lewis like there's no no other names would have made any sense especially with walter almost laying the groundwork for you know i don't want to fight anyone the top team it's like i don't want to fight a ranked guy what's like well guess what this unranked debut time literally just fell on your lap and he there's there's immediate heat behind it gosh that was

a perfect call-up again i know i wasn't a fan of the promo but the name spot on spot's terrific uh left lane what's bonfium versus neil reedy brown versus joel alvarez i kind of like that fight that's really good morales versus bruno silva meditch versus cheetah pedia versus brenner cl d versus edmund all right shout out emmers versus go me side note shout out emmers for breaking his streak of trading wins and losses that's lasted since his debut at ufc 248 that's right that's right i didn't it's true yes he was and i was like nine straight uh alternated wins and losses that was crazy yeah he did what else we got barceles versus font cavalcanti versus yanna santos hoaget versus austin lane i mean you could do that former football players yeah going after but i mean

i think that fight is not even competitive or we're just gonna is that how we're building josh which i'm fine with if we're just going to squash match hoak it i knew i knew as soon as they were like, he's going to fight Max Jimenez, who's six and one. I'm like, have you seen who he's fought? Have you seen the guys Max Jimenez has fought? He's fought the dude the best record, like the only fighter with a losing record he did not fight along the way. And a bit, like a big losing record was his pro debut where he fought a guy who was also zero and zero. All those other fights were against like nine and 19s and stuff like, eh, but hey, just terrific matchmaking.

That's what you're supposed to do. frankly you know we're we we we have to write a bit about bo nickel uh for you know you see three 22 coming up mike like these the kind of guys they wish they found for bo for literally like his first like four ufc fights they did no but like why why did he who was because he fought what was the paul uh not paul craig um not paul craig what's the third uh who's the who my thing paul craig yeah was that's his third ufc fight he should still he should be beating up the max still been being up the uh the max and menaces of the world like they did james judey k even cody brundage even cody brundage is like a level above where i think

he should have been like the guys he should have been fighting like i i i know boz of prodigy but like if they want to keep throwing josh hawk at easy w's like guys like max himenez and other people from the regional scene like that i say that's that's how you build a guy up that is how you build a way too quickly and i get it you can't help it because all it takes is like three straight wins for fans to go like oh storm into the top 15 guys so like but you have to ignore the fans you just have to ignore the fans for a while i know and then he'll beat another you know another whatever quote-unquote can fourth win the people go like oh they never farts anyone good never fights anyone good but again josh hockett is what seven and oh god seven pro

fights isn't long i know he has combat sports experience i know i know i get it he's a he's a great wrestler i understand but mma is different i wish we'd build these guys up better but um not a lot options mike not a lot options so yeah it's got to be walter walker or you like he said he could have even gotten derrick lewis honestly probably could have gotten derrick lewis yeah he's still might oh my he still might this is this is what they do with uh with heavy weights you get one good win against the worst fighter on the roster and then you get derrick lewis in the next fight like it's it's it's a it's a never-ending cycle right here so what else we got gombs versus and dros marcos martinez reese versus ozzi dyes can we just give zach riz to

a tibagotier that'd be terrific let's just keep the stretch alive here i think he gets robert valentine the guy he replaced right isn't that how that was who goatee no uh no not again we already we already did that oh maybe maybe uh and then left lane with his weekly freeing of the roster space column uh he picks matt schnell isbiel bonfim myr buenos sylva and jackson mcvay can all be relieved with their ufcd's match now ain't going nowhere he's too valuable to this promotion right now bonfeme i believe is done has to be right you cannot give this band another fight yeah mbs wow what a fall from grace uh yeah i think like i wouldn't even like advocate for getting rid of her because there's literally 13 women in this division right now right but she was so bad

last night she was just so bad i think you just got to let her go and mcvay that was a fun nice fight though i think he'd get another shot yeah sure maybe they do that maybe they rebooked that to that fight the valentine fight because that's what it was supposed to be and we thought valent i'm okay that it was getting pretty one more chance favorite i think so he kind of got a bad bad break there one more chance all right joe cotke c ld versus edmund we we've started a trend here i love this uh hokit versus brando perich in australia yeah okay that's again that's the right range for me that that's exactly i think i have been well i have a bit above front parritch but yes that's the right range exactly like another guy who

Sorry, Brando, respectfully, probably should not be in the UFC right now. Yeah. Zachary's versus Mark Andre Bariel, Powerbar. Again, you could have told me that that fight happened. I would have believed you. Honestly, I thought they'd already fought. Hioti Barcellos versus Montel Quick Jackson, aka. He's with you.

Emers versus Feeley Padilla versus Chase Hooper. No, I wanted Marcos and Montel Jackson, but I like... Oh, Markos of Otel Jackson. I like Marcellus. Yeah, Taco Chase Hooper, Medidge versus Axel Sola. Oh, wow. Okay. I like that.

Morales versus Tim Elliott. Sure. Yeah. Ultimate Fighter winners. I get it. Yeah. And let me just make sure I got all his... Yes, I did.

We will end with John Ray. Reese versus Michelle Pereira, okay. Zach Reese versus Michelle Pereira you like this boy I do because I still I haven't given up on Michelle Podetta I mean I've given up in him becoming a moral title candidate that's just never going to happen now but I haven't given up on Michelle put out having a fruitful like 15 more fights in the UFC and I'm not saying Zach Zach Rees is like an easy win or anything but I feel like that's the kind of guy that's like a favorable matchup for pareda assuming he doesn't just like break down in the second round yeah i like the lot thinking behind it though that that's that's that's be a fun that'd be a

fun sloppy ass fight marcos versus rob font okay so he kind of gave the barcelos idea but to marcos instead gomes versus andrage john ray i this is unbelievable i i'm i'm i'm going back to this at the end uh he likes cavalcanti versus viera sure barcellus versus wicklac sure emmers versus fernando pedia cldd versus abouce paddea paddi versus the Duncan McKinney winner, Medidge v. Chedi, Morales, versus Kavanaugh, Brown versus Siok, uh, Junco, Bonfine versus Burns, hopefully in Brazil, forgive, and retire. John Ray likes Hokit versus Tai Tui Vasa. John Ray is the, like, every time I say, I've been saying like, Tai Tuvasa should, like,

should fight like rebellist to Spain or Chris Barnett or somebody like that, just like somebody who won't tackle him because, like, he's so out of the title discussion. John Ray is like, no, man, he's got, he's got a ranking next to his name. So we have to like put guys on winning streaks in there with these rank guys. So you're going to throw Josh Hokit. So Josh Hokit deserves this opportunity after beating the worst heavyweight, maybe in the UFC in the past five years. We're going to throw him to tie to Ivasa on a pay-per-view in Australia. That's that's your argument against Chris Barnett.

getting this fight i don't understand it is going to be the saddest thing ever because hoak it yes he knocked up max himinez he's not going to fight tied to ivasa on the feet he's just going to tackle him no no no we're not doing this this is bad bad john ray bad john ray smacking him with the newspaper i mean dude like if you're going to defend a meritocratic world at least live in it. Like, let's live in this world with guys who deserve ranked opposition. Now, if you agreed with me and it's just like, yeah, who gives a shit? It's heavyweight. Like, none of this stuff matters. Then sure. We can throw Hokit in there with Ty to Evasa in a fight that will just make us all sad. But, like, can we just have Ty not fight a dude who's going to tackle him? Let's give him a striking match.

I would love that. It's okay to ask for that. And if Ty loses or wins, like, it's not like, it's not. like whoever it's it's not like that person is a threat to win ufc championship gold or anything right now it's just what are we doing here we got to get on the same page aka i i turned it over to you i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i love you john but like your your your response to the chris barnet let's just do fun things and then we're like yeah let's give josh hoak at the rank guy after he beat the 35th ranked heavyweight out of a possible 19 heavyweight heavy weights on the roster see i don't even know how that's physically and mathematically possible but yes we're there right now like i don't no please aka sorry all right let's start with the twits

uh dj dj b a zachary reese versus dante johnson that'd be a fun twist because i think you guys you know people saw the reports that uh dante was like they they were kind of trying to get them in there uh to fight jackson mcbaid did not get cleared mike as he reported and uh but obviously he's ready to fight again soon i imagine zacharice would be as well so i mean that cut is nothing you know nothing serious it makes a lot of sense saccharis dante johnson good job djeeb uh some matchups we've already seen mike he's with you on cl d shabazian pedia agnacio bahamondes i like that a lot he's with me on mediche versus luke uh josem rouse versus silva so he means uh bulldog bulldog

silver yeah i thought about that fun theme versus walking buckley mike where is buckley he's just he just he's just he's just wisely taking some time off right he's chilling right yeah i mean it's not like he's been out for a year he's been out five months yeah i don't mind i don't mind that one like that'd have been a really good call out honestly to call out to call up to call up buckley but um who i matched buckley up with somebody else who was a welterweight that like fought well but then just was so terrible on the microphone that i was like you're not getting that you're getting buckley it sounds like so many people um it's like the whole division honestly uh yeah i don't remember or maybe it's something yeah anyways yeah i would like to see i'm fine with that

I'm okay with it. He ain't going to get it. If he called for Buckley, I think he had a very good chance of getting it. But yeah, I don't mind it. Armand Srukian Stan account

says Varselaus, Kyler Phillips 2. Okay. Yeah, I actually wouldn't be against that. Sure. He says, Michael Morales would be my choice for Bonfine, but he's booked.

So Bonfim versus Jeff Neal. Yes, it seems very possible. Yoros Medich and Mike Malott. Yeah. It'd be nice because, again, that may mic might get itself a finish it would be nice uh spezy 32 fun night at the apex yeah listen it was kind of fun it was fun if you're just basing on the action but as we said all the vibes around it are just so so off so bond theme versus colby no it's not it's not

it's not serious nice of you they're not serious nice of you to accommodate the call out but no yours medici joel alvarez taco and drew dober feels like that's going to happen someday I think it may be but I think Cavalcanti is like ranked well

ahead of her at this point so what else we got here Gomez versus Amanda

Abbas yeah Daniel Marcos Farid Basharat oh oh oh

man that is two really really good phantom weights do I want to throw them in there do I want to throw them in there now

yeah I think you have to yeah amazing fight god it'd be an amazing fight I like it I like a spezy

and then he says Zachries and Tullio picks by Frod just trying to see Randy Brown and Euros Medici uh damn

yeah I wouldn't go any higher for marriage than that and even then I'd probably pick Randy Brown in that fight I don't even know

how Randy Brown is right now uh Barry O'Reilly Barry O'Reilly Barry O'Reilly Daniel Marcos Jacob Wiglash, Denise Gomez versus Alexia Tynera.

Might seem a bit too soon. Might seem being a bit too soon for Alexia, but she has a win over Loma who beat Denise Gomez. That's right. That's right. So MMA math, you could make it. No, it's definitely not too. It's definitely not too soon for Tyner.

I would give Tyner, I think I already gave her Andraj. Like I would give her, if they want to throw Tyner in there right now with, like literally it, if they wanted to give Tyner Janjonan right now, I'd be totally fine with that like I would absolutely be

on board with that of all the rising strawweight contenders right now Tyner is the one that I'm like most interested in yeah because she is skilled and she's a demon out there I love it she's fun I like Tanara so much

uh Hawk Mike what do you know about Hawket versus Tulleson hmm Big Tree fall hard I don't mind that another Brazilian, which kind of fits the, the Hokit mode of things right now. I don't mind that. I mean, yeah, sure.

I like it. Chris Padilla versus Tofique Musayev. Casey, is this your burner? Is Casey out there, baby? Barry, Casey is with Uncrown now. You don't need to cater picks to E. Casey Light is not here anymore. I like that fight, though. That's not the fight.

sick as hell and varies with me on morales and jeffel philette uh zach schultes bonfine versus the brady morales loser oh okay yeah again i i have a feeling he could get one of the four guys from next week that are not in the title fight uh bobo of uh marales versus whoever drops out of the copperoy val fight how dare you jack shultes how dare you that is so rude uncalled for that is great that is so good that is so good good that's uncalled for let's go to instagram gerard biagin uh randy brown sam patterson oh man that'd be a huge opportunity for sam patterson wow boy that could i like that fight morales edgar chires c l d charra bullet uh it feels like it's destined to happen again that's just makes

so much sense uh okay daniel edwards yours mediche versus uh e z d s i i don't know why i tried to Alizu Zaleski. I know why I tried to make that fancy. Or the winner of Dalby versus Izak Majev? Okay, I don't even know. Mike, help me. What is that? What does that fight?

It's a fight that's happening. Whoa, who does? Who does? Why is Nikolvi fighting a guy like a deep? Oh, okay, it's a former. Oh, wow. I feel this is my ignorance showing through. One standout, for sure.

I did not recognize the name at all. did not recognize it at all. I confess. I'm a casual. Okay, cool. Uh, yeah, interesting, interesting pull there. Daniel Edwards, thank you. And Chase Steiner also likes Morales, Tim Elliott. Uh, both tough winners. It sells itself. That's right, Chase. You, you know, you've got to get the people what they want. And we'll hit up the emails here. I got a handful from Sean. Just Sean. Okay. Morales, Mitch Raposo. Um, don't do that to Mitch right now. Come on now. I like both these guys. I want to do this to my guys. Uh, Padilla versus King, Green. Oh, my gosh, another E.K.C. Lidens special.

Hawket and Jr. Taffa. Didn't one of them get cut? Who's not? I thought one of the Taffa brothers got cut. Can we, like, not do that? No. We're just not doing it. Yeah. Like, again, like, these are, these are, like, Tafas, Tafas should be in there for, like, fun fights. Like, Hokit's just going to tackle them. And that's not fun to me. you know i don't know we'll see but the ufc like if you're looking for an otno point and

not entertainment like that's probably the pick like you probably nailed it uh lucas cortes wants points for picking brown bond fame guys you need to message me when the fights are what's not he's asking for this fight nah no no horse all i respect that lucas sent me this in a reply to the email in which he initially picked brown bond beam so well done. But tell me when the fight is announced. This fight was announced months ago. This was announced for Rio, Lucas. This was like way, way, way

long ago this fight was announced. No, I'm sorry, guys. We do not give points after the fight happens. No posthumous points. So yeah, a pat in the back for sure. Good job. Good job calling it. But I can't get a point like that. This is a very delicate process. Simone, Victor Henry, Barcellos, Raupont. There you go. There's the age-appropriate match.

Jay Donagie, Bonfim, Daniel, Vard. Rieges, Morales, Sumeroyergy. He just beat a guy who beat Sumernergy. I don't know if he needs to do that. Fun fight them. Medici, San Paterson, does not go to second round. Yeah, no kidding.

Crazy. Christian Leroy, Duncan, Nur-Sultan-Ruziboyev. And wild car, that's not people missing social media. Barcellos and Bryce Mitchell. The UFC is not going to do that. They have already learned their lesson. They're not going to use Haione Barcellos in matchmaking that they believe could favor the opposition.

Because Barcellus will just go out there and beat Bryce. And they will be really upset about that. So, no, that fight will not happen. Tristan Gordette, Emers versus Jose Delgado, Dio Marcos, Chris Gutierrez. I like that. And Casey Carpenter, great work for all of you, still killing it. Currently watching the post-fight show. Oh, they wrote this last night.

I agree with Mike. They won't, but I love Sacramento Card with the blue canvas and Joe Martinez. And I'd say, God, that'd be fun. And he says he wants to see Faber and Swanson in a fun, pointless fight. Guys, they don't do anything fun. okay the movie doesn't do they never gonna happen okay this is to make dollars and cents now uh again just some emmers versus juicy j two okay uh christinaway duncan iron turtle i agree taco versus daniel zell huber oh i don't like that for zell huber do not like

there for zell huber uros medici and chris curtis is chris not booked no right we were still waiting for his next fight right we're still waiting for his next fight and chris curtis will tune up euro speditch though he will the chris curtis also get suspended for the the i don't think so i think he just i think he just got dinged up okay um yeah like i mean maybe i'm maybe i'm just missing something maybe i'm maybe i'm just wrong about euro speditch like i don't think i am i don't know i don't know what to make of them i i just think he's like a super fun action fighter where like you win some you lose some and there's so many fighters who like we revere and adore who are like him like he has the makings of like the nico prices and the nate landwears and at

times the robbie lollers of the world like it's not exactly the same especially the tail end of robbie's career but like euros has like those things uh yeah i mean if you want to throw them in there with chris curtis just kind of jab him a whole bunch sure go ahead and do that Mike Casey Carpenter also says Bonfame versus anyone not named Colby Covington because the Covenant talk on the post show, I like Mike's four options. But, and Mike, I don't know if this was some of the options you brought up, I feel like it isn't. The fight is Colby versus Connor. Casey says, Casey says neither are title commanders. I know some will hate it, but to me, being crazy and enjoying lunatics on my screen, the build would be amazing.

the build would be amazing i that to me would be one of the least watchable like you know press conferences interview uh interview runs i i'm casey carpenter god bless you one of one of my favorite people uh i'm not with you on this one i have no interest in ever seen those guys fight i think the trash talk would be horrible they're both irrelevant right now uh just please no i can't do it Nah, that's a stretch. Like, you just do Chandler at this point. Like, why, like, the UFC would be nuts to not do Michael Chandler. Like, if Conner's truly fighting, like, Chandler is Mr.

UFC. Like, he's that dude. He, he toes the company line. He waves that flag everywhere he goes. And the man has suffered enough. Like, just give him the Connor fight. And, like, cool people just tackle Connor a whole bunch. And that's, like, not fun.

so yeah i think connor chandler's fine like i get where he's coming from it's got to be colby it's it's either colby wonder boy colby burns or colby mazadol too like that's what they're going with colby especially if they're doing it at the white house and probably not colby burns but wonder boy is like the fight like just go ahead and do it i it just makes all the sense in the world so it won't be bonfied that's that's for sure that's shocking if it's somehow the fight happened I would be shocked, truly, truly, truly shocked if Bonfram got what he wanted. That's it, Mike.

All right, people, listen, don't remember. You do not need to send in your picks to us next week. We will be live. Mike and I will be live. We couldn't be more live next week. I'm very excited for this. And as I said earlier, we don't want to come on this show in all these shows

and just be like negative grumps. Like, we don't want to do that. But the UFC has forced us to do this. They've put us in this position. And I don't like it. however the world just like the world needs love the mMA world needs ufc 322 like this could not come at a better time it's just one of those like we just need this to happen we need something it's like you know you it's finals week in college and you've studied all week and then you took

your final test and you just go and you do like a hundred keg stands like you just needed it you needed to let loose a little bit and remember why you did this in the first place that's what ufc 322 is this is for us this is our ufc 300 do not let the ufc take all the credit for this we deserve this we deserve what's about to happen this week and i think it's going to start off at a big way i think we're going to wake up tomorrow morning i said this in the post white show we're going to wake up we're going to jump on our laptops ready to take on the day okay and we're going to log going to Instagram sometime in the late morning and the UFC is going to put out a message. Alert, alert, alert, Dana White going live to make a big announcement.

And then he's going to announce Iliate Tuporia versus Patty Pimbled. It's going to start the week off in a big way. Before we even, he even sets foot in New York City. Dana White is going to shake up the MMA world by announcing the Paramount fights tomorrow, on Monday. He's going to do this and set it all up. And then we're going to be something else cool will happen on Tuesday.

And then Wednesday, it's Media Day and the Thursday. We'll have the press conference and, you know, all the fun stuff. All the fun stuff you are accustomed to throughout the week. And we are going to be positive and we're going to be fired up. And we are going to celebrate UFC 32 and all it has to offer. And why are we going to do this? Because here's the lineup. The most anticipated fight, anticipated fight of 2025 for the ultimate fighting

championship the main event madison square garden exactly why we want the ufc and msg is for cards and fights like this jack delam adela adela versus islam machochev history on the line massive moment for both guys women's flyway title on the line valentina shivchenko defending against the former strawweight champion the number one pound for pound fighter on planet earth chang way lee then we got leon edwards versus carlos prachis we got sean brady michael morales we got benil Daryush versus Benoit Santany Aaron Blanchfield, Tracy Cortez 2

Jimmy Suss Banzigur Sersakaya versus Eric Maconico Angela Hill, Fatima Klein Gerald Bearshart Kyle Daucus Like AKA says If you told me those guys

have fought 18 times I would have believed you Bo Nickel Hidalfa Vieira Roman Coppulov Greg Rodriguez Malcolm Wellmaker versus Cody Hadden Sign me the F up for that

fight i have no clue what's going to happen and i love it so much chepe mariscall versus pat sabatini and as we reported the other day uh a new addition to the card slava claus vyshlav borshev versus matthias camillo uh going down at ufc 322 that card rocks especially like 10 of the fights they're meaningful they matter their circumstance it's happening in a an arena the best arena to watch sports in the entire world i can't wait aka i cannot wait this is what msg is supposed to be for the ufc and i thought about this i was a little shocked when jed said this but he actually might be right jed said this is the best msg card since ufc 205 which is the very first msg card do you agree with that yep yep i agree wholeheartedly yep this is the

this is the the second best and i don't know depending how it plays out man i don't know maybe uh man 205 was fantastic but maybe uh maybe depending how the results go just could be even better like this is a great card this is this is why you man this is talking about the ufc this is it i have nothing bad to say about this awesome i'm excited man i still i still don't i haven't i'm not 100% locked in my picks yet i don't know between now and next week i don't know i don't know what i'm going to i'm going to land as far as uh how many times we're going to hear you know and new I cannot wait, my best friend. I cannot wait.

It's going to be a great week. It's going to be fantastic. Stick with us, MAPFiting.com for all things you have C-322. For A.K., I am Micak, back live here on the YouTube channel next week, right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.