MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches to make after UFC Vegas 112

Episode Date: December 14, 2025

Manel Kape had the chance to muscle his way into the flyweight title picture at UFC Vegas 112 and he more than took advantage of the opportunity. It took a little over three minutes for Kape to remind everyone he’s the most dangerous knockout threat at 125 pounds as he took out Brandon Royval. Now, riding a three-fight win streak, he has his sights set on newly crowned champion Joshua Van. With a card in Van’s hometown of Houston around the corner, does it make sense to throw that together ASAP? And where does that leave presumptive No. 1 contender Tatsuro Taira? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss who Van is most likely to defend against first, who stole the show on the last UFC card of 2025, and who embarrassed themselves on the microphone. Additionally, we make future matchups for main card winners Kevin Vallejos, Cezary Olekziejczuk, Melquizael Costa, and King Green, and take matchup 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

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, for the final time in 2025. the matchmaking crowns are on following a UFC event the UFC's 2025 year is over the UFC on ESPN era is over and it was capped off by a sensational perhaps title shot earning knockout win by Menel Kopp this is the guy we've all been waiting for since he signed with the UFC and now he has three straight knockout wins I think you should be on a super long win right now because I thought he beat Muhammad Mahayah, but that's story for another day, but Manal Cop might have just found himself in a championship fight. Let's see how we sort of matchmade the 2026 and beyond future for Menel Cop and some of the other tastemakers from a super up and down UFC Vegas 112 event.

I am Mike Heck, and joining me as always is the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. Gosh darn, darn, he's my best friend looking festive in his holiday red. You can't see this, though. And you can't see John Cena anymore. He is the one and only Alexander Kaylee, aka Happy Sunday, how are you? Happy Sunday, my best friend.

I am wearing, people also can't see. I've got a hoodie. I've got a hoodie on over headphones. It looks ridiculous. You know, I'm just, I'm being a little down, Mike. This is the end of the ESPN era. It's our last UFC card for six weeks. It's a little somber.

It's a little somber. The holidays are like this for people sometimes. Yes, we are together recording the show. Mike, I was not with you guys. on Saturday night watching UFC Vegas, what was this? Oh, 112, UFC on ESPN 73, whatever people want to call it. I was at a nice Christmas party. I had been, I had worked yesterday.

I did cover the PFL Europe card. So you guys are all welcome everyone who saw the PFL Europe coverage and then Mayfiting.com. Very good card, actually, though. So I'm not, I'm not complaining people. Yeah, I feel like you got the, yeah, the longer end of the stick. No, no, Europe was actually really good. So PFL this year has been very solid. Like I think we talked about this.

I think we talked about this on other shows, like, maybe from like a brand perspective as far as, like, getting their name out there, it felt a bit down. Like, they just felt not, like they just couldn't grab headlines. They couldn't, you know, they felt like they lost a general attention of people. But for anyone who tuned into this year's cars, like, it was pretty good. I would say better than some years where they had more publicity, but like, oh, gosh, like you just ended up some slogs. Like, I mean, some of those cars would, like, people actually, they had people tuning in. It might have hurt them. It sucks because that's how business works sometimes, right?

Sometimes your product is you've got the publicity, you've got the eyeballs, and the product isn't great. And then by the time you bounce back, you have to win those people back again. But now you have less audience watching. So hopefully a better year for PFL. Because I thought they ended really strong. I think PFL was a very, very good card. But yeah, I kept up with the coverage at MAFinding.com, my friend. And it looked like there's some great highlights, though.

I'm getting the sense the overall, watching from top to bottom was a bit of a slog. God, man. like it was this first we lose the second best fight on the card like honestly and thank god for piot like pierre god is getting a clark w griswold esk bonus check he's getting what he got last year plus 20 uh because him winning the belt is so big for my fantasy team because i was feeling i was gonna feel i was feeling pretty good even if like even if barob like won a decision i was like i'm still going to win because Julian Robertson is going to like go in there and beat Amanda Lemos and like I'll still win fantasy and then it didn't happen like if it came down to that and she didn't

fight I would be livid I'd be looking at that card through a whole different lens but yeah that hurt and then there were reports coming out that Amosov and Neil Magni was off and I'm literally on the people's pre-fight show talking to Yaroslav Amoslav's manager uh on the phone for the first time ever. Like any time I've communicated with him is always on social media. And then he gave me like his phone number and I shot him a text and he called me and I didn't like know what he was talking about and he was explaining the situation to me. And there was a moment as I was talking to him the first conversation that I was like, am I being scammed right now? Like I think this guy's like, I don't know what's happening. And then the second time he called me back and I had a muted. I'm like,

oh, now I kind of like understand the context of everything, because obviously English is not his first language. And he's just like, yeah, man, it's fighting. But it seemed like the fight wasn't happening at a time, even on their side of things. Perhaps there's like some sort of thing when it came to like the medical checks or whatever. The UFC apparently at some point,

one of the boxes was not checked, and then they were able to provide those check marks. So that was going on. We're trying to figure out that fight's happening. So as the people's pre-fight show is going on, they go on the broadcast. We know they're going to stall A.K., because we already lost one fight. And if they lose two prelim fights, we're like, oh, my God, we're going to be at the desk for a half an hour to 45 minutes. And then they showed the graphic of the prelims and Magny and Emisov was on there.

I was like, oh, thank God, that fight's happening. It turned out to be a bright spot. But it's just, again, AK, I don't want to sound like a broken record. But, like, and it seems like things might change A.K. because one of the things that happen on the broadcast that stands out to me is the UFC is going to start offering like standard admission tickets to these events to these apex cards

because normally if you go buy tickets for these events now you have to buy like the VIP package and it is like it's like depending on who is headlining like you could be spending $1,000 a ticket to go watch an event at the apex and these are slog fest like a Max Holloway and Yaya Rodriguez is the main event you're probably paying more than that. But now they're saying,

starting with UFC Vegas 113 on February 7th, fans will be able to buy like standard admission tickets. So perhaps things are expanding a little bit. And if they're, if we're putting like 500 to 1,000 seats in there, I got to tell you, okay, I am more okay with the apex. It will not feel as soulless as it does now

and as it did last night. So a sloggy event is one thing, but to do a sloggy event in the apex, with nobody there and just no emotion or anything, it just drags it down. Stephen Aspen was great. Shout out to him. But then Melchie Costa, like, saved the entire card.

Because we had to watch Kennedy and Chuku, Marcus Pichetia fight. God. What are we doing here? Billy Alacana is, like, the only person who applauded that fight. Because now he's like, oh, now that was, I wasn't part of the worst fight of the year. So thank you guys. But yeah, just.

I was like, man, this is going to go out with a wimper, isn't it? And then the last three fights ended in tremendous fashion. So, yeah. So hopefully, I'm trying to stay positive. It's basically where I'm going with this, okay, heading into 2026. And I'm trying not to be a grump is what I'm trying to get to get to. Yeah, it can't hurt to get a few bodies in there, right? Like, $1,000 would be amazing.

I don't know. Is that the plan? As far as I do, they can get $1,000? That seems like a lot. Even like $500. Like, I'll take $500. That'd be great. Right now you have like, what, $6,000?

maybe, including all the production people. You need to get 500 people, like, yelling and screaming in there. That'll, like, wake things up a bit. It could be interesting, and it could be, like, I don't want to come. This might be a little too generous, but, like, remember when, like, you know, NXT was, like, being filmed at full set. I don't know if they still do that. I haven't been keeping up to do it a lot.

But it's kind of cool because you had this very hardcore, and I don't, I assume that was more than 500 people, but you had this kind of hardcore crowd. Now, I don't know if that's the out of the apex. I don't know if you'd be getting in the same people like every week. But if you could make them, like, affordable in such a way that you at least had, like, a section of crazies that were there. ECW arena style? Something like that, right? I love that.

Yeah, yeah. I know people are low when we compare, like, the UFC to pro wrestling and stuff. But, like, that's how it could work. You could have, yes, you'd love to get, you know, 2,500 people watching these white, but 500 dedicated people being loud. I don't know they'd be bringing signs and stuff, but it would be interesting. So you're right. I think we're trying to stay optimistic here. Like, I don't know if we're ever really going to get that kind of vibe with the UFC.

but people cannot hurt. I think I have people there cannot hurt. Yeah, it's Vegas. Like, do what you did with WCW. Just hand people tickets off the street like they did for WCW Saturday night, walking around Universal Studios or MGM Studios, wherever it was,

and just hand them tickets and get them in there. You're yelling and screaming. Like, those are the people you want in there. It'd be incredible. So we'll see what happens in 2022. I have a feeling paramount just from a logistics perspective is going to want a little more ambiance in that building because they ain't leaving.

And I understand why they're not leaving. it's just a great business move for them to not leave. So, but if we can add a little, a little chutzpah, a little animation to the proceedings, I think, I think it'll be okay. I'll be less grumpy about Apex cards if we could add a little emotion into there. But we did go out in the old school way, AK, the, we're back of the world's most famous Apex to close the show. And the last fight of 2025 was a big one at 125 pounds, especially with what happened at UFC 323. We had Medell Cop

Starboy, the former Risen champ, taking on Brandon Royval big fight for both guys. Both guys needed this one badly. And the fight started off incredible. It was fast-paced. A couple of Tasmanian devils. Royval looked like he maybe dinged himself

up throwing a kick at some point, but Royval just kept throwing the kick anyways. And then cop just did cop things. He stalked his prey, found a moment where he had him trapped near the fence, and then he just leveled him with a big shot. Royval tried to bounce back. Cop just kept hammered him.

Royval's head was bouncing off the canvas like a basketball. Fight was stopped by Herb Dean. Brandon Royval protested. And then if you watch the replay, Royval was knocked out at least twice, maybe three times during that flurry. And Minnell Cop just gets on the mic and cuts the diaper promo.

It's unbelievable. Paramount era, I'm changing your diaper alive. I'm taking your diapers alive. Unbelievable stuff from Medal Cop. This is A plus performance. the cage fighting with the microphone in hand and it just continued on throughout the evening with the post-fight show with the UFC the post-fight press conference cop just dropping pipe bombs everywhere is he getting the shot okay are we are we giving him joshua van

are we giving him tetsu or tyra what are we doing here because the ufc as a matchmaking contingency they got to be thrilled right now you cannot go wrong with either of these options either Pantosia comes back at a decent time and can fight and we get the rematch that people want or if he's not, you could either go Tyra or cop and people will be into either of those options. This is a great spot to be. Mike, I just had a thought.

I had a horrible thought. Well, first of all, last week I think we agreed we thought they just run Tyron Van, right? Assuming Pantosia is out for... We still don't know the severity of the injury. It could be not as bad as we hope. um but you and i were like tyra van we we were down with that right or van tyra i guess i should say yes and i i believe i put out the caveat unless cop just like goes out and kills brand robo

which he did we knew this yes we knew this was a possibility we knew this was a possibility absolutely um so but i would hope so in a perfect world we have a thing where like you know both guys get a shot right like tyra first i would say because cop doesn't fight that often and you know he's always got some weird things going on it wasn't his fault this year i think i think i think what the first rival fight got post he hurt his hand or something so whatever there's a foot injury yeah put injury put injury so you can't but in a weird in a weird uh full circle moment okay that injury led to the josh van run like josh van yeah cop even said it uh in his post fight speech like if i didn't hurt my foot i'd probably be the champion right now not you and he's not wrong i'm in

he's definitely josh van would not have fought for the belt this year if cop didn't get hurt so in a weird way like what a story would be a little culminate so to speak so I still want Tyra Van but and I would like to think like you know if world that we get that somewhere in the first quarter and then we get cop and then cop just sits waits gets a tell shot gets the winner of Van Tyra in the summer right I don't it's never that neat I don't think that's what's going to happen I think cop probably will have to I think whoever doesn't get the title shot between cop and Tyra who'll probably just have to fight again which sucks because I think both guys have done enough to earn a shot but I just had this very dark

thought like what if Mike what if what if what have we really what have we really what have we really build up let's say it's cop what if we really build up van and cop by making them coaches on the upcoming season of the open fighter oh my gosh oh no oh he did it he did it what if i gotta tell i gotta tell you dude this this is actually a great idea i mean it is actually a great idea well it means though you won't see the fight until like august like it's going to delay the plan on because they have to do the tryouts yet they have to film the show then they have to air the show should should you do van pants is the coaches then because of all that time and i do love this idea of putting the flyway division in that somewhat spotlight maybe

you'll get three or four new people like knowing who these guys are but but i feel like cop is the important element because like listen i don't love this i'm not the biggest fan of trash talk but he's such a wild card and you put him in front of a mic for what is it six weeks they filmed the show I don't know what's going to happen. He might hate it. Like, he might hate the whole experience. He might not want to, like, you know, everyone signs up for it. But he might go into that environment of being filmed.

I think the coaches aren't filmed as constantly as people in the cast, but you still have a camera in your face more than usual. He might just lose it. And that would make a great television. So I feel like COPS has to be part of it. So I don't know. I hope this doesn't happen because I do hate seeing these title fights delayed. Like, I love the older fighter, but I always say, like,

don't put champions on there because it just delays the title fights. It's so annoying for the fans. But again, I don't know. It's when is Pantosia are going to. come back is it van or cop that's going to get the title shot so all that stuff matters but i think it was cop and van i kind of want to seem like like a weird little show you know so when do you know when they're going to start filming around i have no clue it would probably be it would probably be around it's probably closer to the summers because it's it's always sunny well it's in Las

Vegas I guess it's always good weather I should say it's always good weather so probably near near the end of like end of uh April maybe May April May would I guess what stick with me here okay okay I'm here What if they do what if they do cop van and cop wins the belt? And as they announced, Keoggi Horaguchi is fighting Amir al-Bazi and he's probably going to win that fight

in the co-main event February 7th. What if the tough coaches are Minel Kopp and Kioji Horaguchi? I have to tell you. Oh my God. I would watch every episode. And they have history. They've got history. They've got history.

They do have history. He's got that W over him. Cop has always said he wants it back. He's always wanted to fight Kioji again. Yeah. It's terrific. I think we have done it, okay. I think we saved the ultimate fighter.

Paramount's first season, I think we've done the thing. I would say we saved the ultimate fighter, except you cannot save what is, has always been amazing. But I understand your sense. I get what you're saying, yes. Similar thought. Similar thought. I mean, this is all going to come down to when they want Josh Van to fight. Do you like the idea of, because like the overwhelming sentiment I saw on social media and even on the post-

fight show is just do it in Houston. Yes. Like, let's just do it on the fight night card. They already have a main event for that card. They have Sean Strickland versus Fluffy Hernandez. So, I mean, could you just make that like a five-round co-main event and still pay them the same money? Sure, you could do

that. But do you just chuck van in there? Like, as it's not like they're selling pay-per-views anymore. Like, that'd be a nice little treat for the Houston crowd. If cops willing to turn around in two months or whoever's ready to turn around two months to do that do you just do that immediately like we just set the tone and then AK we set the tone for Aspinall gone to on a fight night card in London

a couple of weeks later like what we've booked already for the first quarter of 2026 this incredible stuff we're doing. Please UFC do this. You don't need to randomly put all your champions in T-Mobile or in Abu Dhabi or like I understand you want to have champions on these cards but like doesn't sell it doesn't selling tickets matter or two. And if you were ever, like, I know fly weights are not like the biggest box office job, but if you were ever going to have someone sell a big chunk of tickets in their hometown, it would be Joshua Van in Houston right now, right? Like, I think his name's pretty

hot. I don't know if single-handedly he's selling out whatever 20,000 seats at the Toyota Center, but he'd be a big factor in that. He'd need to get a huge reception. Even if it wasn't sold out, the crowd reaction will come off so good on TV. And we already mentioned the Aspinall things. So we're hoping, Mike, that they get more creative with their sort of how they choose to headline their events. Because yes, the options are right there. You got to sell those tickets. You got to sell those tickets. I would do cop van right now, depending on pants.

If it's between those two guys, I would do it. It's just, just make the fight happen. Because Tyra's so young, like, it's not like the train's going to leave the station anytime soon. You know, he could still fight Keoggi after Keoggi probably beats Albaazi. So, I mean, there's, like, there's so many fun fights you can make for all these guys. And as impressive as Tyra was against Moreno, I, I was a little more blown away by what cop did overall, just the overall performance before, the after, the post-fight stuff.

I would give it to cop, but again, UFCs in a really good spot right now. Let's go to the co-main event, AK. We talk about A-plus performance on the mic from NL.Cop. I get, because I'm in such a jolly spirit, AK, we mic-checked Kevin Vallejos, and he got a big, fat, old D for me for his post-fight work. The performance against Giga Chikaze was awesome. It seemed like Giga was well prepared for this task at hand.

He had a pretty decent first round. He was giving Valleos a little bit of trouble, but Valleos kind of seemed to me like, and it kind of seemed to me that he was pewter yawning things a little bit, just kind of like getting a little bit of information in the brain as things are happening as he was getting kicked a whole bunch. And then he just obliterated Giga Chikaze I'd say, knocked him cold, well, not cold, but knocked him into another planet.

You could tell Giga was incredibly disappointed. Big win for Vallejo. He's got to be a ranked fighter come Tuesday in the UFC rankings. I don't think he'll be ranked in my rankings, but that's another story for another time. And then he gets on the mic and he calls a Cub Swanson. And I was like, what in the blue hell are you doing? And then, you know, Jed and I were hoping, you know, he's a little green. Maybe he'll take it back.

Maybe he'll go to the place to fight press conference. Maybe he'll go on Twitter and he'll take this one back and be like, yeah, wasn't my best work. And then he's doubled and tripled down on it. Like, this is the thing that the people are asking for. And I really want to take my D grade back and give him an F. I really, really do. But I'm not going to go. I'm not going to do that.

It's the holidays. But I am going to give him a pretty interesting opportunity, AK. He is going to fight the former two division, Bellator World Champion, patricio pit bull in his next fight that's what i that is a that is a name you have given him a name sir um that's what he should have called out and i'm just going to i'm going to do the work for you kevin you're welcome buddy yeah he is going to be ranked your right because giga was 14 i think 14 or 15 in the official rankings i think plus brian ortega is in the rankings and it appears he's going to be moving up to 155 to rematch an out to my conno so that's another spot

that they should they would hopefully just take my as he will be in ours i think we're going to remove Brian Ortega soon we have him in our rankings as well geek it's weird though because like you know for our matching purposes like I feel like giga I don't think he'd be in our top 20 again we only rank 15 we only do 15 names I have feeling most of us wouldn't have you in the top 20 so I feel like we're always a step ahead of the UFC rankings and and for me that means that means like we don't have to give Vallejos um someone in the top of D like we I know they want to uh but he's pretty young that's like 24 I think he's 25 years old yeah he's pretty young Mike, can we talk about Vlahos and Malki at the same time?

I did not match them up. I did not match up him and Malky cost him. Sure. But do we talk about that at the same time because they're kind of in a similar positions. I think Malky is a little more established at this point. Valleos is obviously sort of the hotter name. Melkeye looks great, of course, K.O. Like you said, saved the card.

Amazing Kio of Morgan Cherry. I would not have predicted that. I thought cost up by decision. But head kick within the first 90 seconds would not on my card. He's had an amazing year. What was Mielke's year? it was morgan charierre jewellian erosa christian rodriguez and feely was feely this year uh early this year was let me just uh let me just double check because that is yes that is a feely rodriguez erosa

charier four and oh a guy that is uh often forgotten in these fighter of the year nomination discussions he has to be consideration now um so yeah i like both guys and both guys like you feel like would be worthy of a top 15 opponent like we said milky beat a top uh a ufc ranked guy so he's probably yet milky i don't know if they're going to quite jump him there yet but you can argue that melkies are maybe more deserving of a top 15 guy with the run he's been on uh so i went i'm just going with some veteran names here i i didn't want to match him up against each other coston balejos but i did want to give them other featherways that are kind of um you know have had success lately so i'm going pat sabatini for valetos and

and nathaniel wood for costa so you guys you guys can tell i'm not i'm just not quite ready to push either guy into the stratosphere yet if the ufc does it i have no problem with it if they can find a top 15 featherweight to match up with these guys like you said um uh a picture you put pit bull some like that i'd be totally fine with it and that's great uh i think they just need to mix it up a little bit just outside the top 15 a bit more and then we'll see in 2026 but uh strike with iron is hot i guess both guys looks great on sarah yeah yeah i'm very excited for for Valleos, no doubt about it. He's got to get better on the mic, though.

It's brutal. No Cubs Swanson for him, Mike? I was surprised. I thought you're going to go, Cub. I mean, that is just, like, it's super doo-do. I mean, the man, the man is, like, basically retired. Unless something super exciting gets him fired up. And I don't think Kevin Vallejos is exciting and as good as he is on paper right now.

I don't think that's the guy that Cub Swanson and his, especially his wife, is going to be like, you know what come go back for one more and fight that gentleman i don't i don't think that's that's the one that's going to do it so uh pit bull i like and i'll knock out the cost to pick too because i really like what this guy's doing um i'm giving him david o namma so i'm giving him a ranked guy just a guy just got in the back end of the top 15 uh i loved i love the steve garcia call out i thought that was that was great i think he he called for a rematch there yeah because they they had a weird fight at lightweight i can't remember why i got like postponed once and then it got And then they had, then they got the fight.

They're like, something was, was weird with the wait. So I, yeah, I don't think he's going to get that fight, though. I think, because Steve Garcia, I think, is creeping into, like, getting top 10 guys. I think we both said he should get a top 10 guy or something last time. So, yeah, I penalized him. I penalized him for his awful callout of Max Holloway and the BMF title, which was one of the worst callouts of the year. I have to do, like, a top five, like, Mike Check worst callouts of the air. I think this is a thing now.

People were very excited to get my thoughts. on Vallejo's callout. It was very bad. It was very, very bad. But great performance in the last. Boy, A.K., I'm telling you, the middle-weighty, middle-weight title, we've almost like removed it from the universe, and we moved it up to heavy-weight and light-heavy-weight

because I feel like those divisions, you know, have been more deserving of those titles. But I've got to tell you, man. Cesario Olegzecich may have just, may have just single-handly brought it back to the middle-weight division, because boy, oh, boy, was this a middle-weight? weighty fight with Seizor Almeida. It was tough scenes, just a whole bunch of lay and prey, like very, Christoph Jotko was watching this fight and just, he was giving it a standing ovation,

the goat of the middleweighty middleweights. This was not fun. But it was a win for Olegs Zeycheck, and I guess that's all that matters to get the second half of his paycheck. I didn't even know what to do here. So what did you do, A.K., I'm curious. The funny thing is, that fight is only on the main card because they assume, it was like someone was going to knock something. That's one of those fights. They're like, oh, why are these two guys in the main card? This is weird.

And you're like, oh, they think, you know, Cesar Amade, obviously, is a ton of kickboxing experience, has a lot of power. And Cesarri is, you know, a pretty good finisher up until now. But he was very smart to not just stand and bang with Cesar Al-Meda. You know, that's what you get. That's what you get. But it's very funny, but it worked out the opposite. I mean, I had to go random here, Mike.

I tried to find someone who has experience, but is also only, like, you know, one or two fights in the year. of C. And it helped. After I did my rankings, it kind of shuck out like this. Shuck out. Shuck out, Mike. It's shuck out. Cesari Olexeychuk versus Usri, Belgarui. How about that? Some overseas card. If they're going out, I don't know if they're going back to Paris in the next six months. But how about that? So a little home cooking for bulgaru's, Belgarui, something like that. Yeah, my dart landed on Andre Petroski. Oh. It's just like, okay. too i mean this might be that might be the actual middle lady middleweight championship

oh my goodness like we have to put some stakes on that like that that actually might be like the next gen championship contest right there those guys it can get real middle lady up in there and uh i guess i'm kind of here for it so damn luckily we don't get to matchmake for kennedy and chuku and marcus beccecha but god okay boy was this bad this is awful you can't if you want to Mike. No. No, if we're not matchmaking for Jan Bojofovich and Bogdan Guskov, which is actually fun, we're certainly not matchmaking for these gentlemen. I will say, here's the thing I will say about this fight. I don't even know if this is like an actual shoutout, but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway. Herd Dean did the thing where he goes on Bisbing's podcast and he's like,

yeah, so we have this meeting and all about the rules and I pokes. And, you know, he's, and And years ago, we put this rule in effect that you can't have extended fingers to poke people in the eye. That's a point deduction. But we decided not to go with those rules. And what we decided at this new meeting is the rules that has been in place for the last several years, we're probably going to start enforcing it more. And then for the first time since that wacky ass, we're going to just enforce the rules in place rule, Herb Dean was put in a position, AK, where he had to make a choice. We had an eye poke.

Kennedy-Zuchuku wins the first round. he pokes Marcus Proccecha in the eye, fingers extended, everything we're waiting for. And then I put out the tweet of just all the, it was like a nursery rhyme of all the, it was in the rules, but it's not in the rules, but now it's back in the rules because there's always a rule thing. Will he do it? And sure enough, AK, he did it. He took a point.

He took a point from Kennedy and Chuku. He does the thing, which led to a 2828 draw. So good for you, Herb Dean. Good for you. And unfortunately, it was washed out. by a horrific night at the office by mark smith uh the refereing is just a joke it's a travesty but herb i'm going to give you credit where it where it's due well done you promised something you said you would do it and you delivered so uh that is the highlight of kennedy jr versus

marcus buchetcha because god what are we doing here i have heard mark smith's name way too many times this year and i don't remember oh boy it's a bit rough year for big dan as well yeah that's not good that's not good guys you you you are the best referees we are not mentioning your name uh overall i think refereeing this year pretty rough you know we're singling out a couple of names but boy there was way too much referee talk um it's just bad i want to shout out dandy sagura uh our old friend who here's why mark smith was so bad a kay this is obviously you know him not taking points is one thing but earlier in the night during the stephen aspen sean charoff fight he almost let sean shirap get killed in that octagon he allowed sean to take

too much punishment. And literally a week ago, he let, he probably could have let Brandon Moreno continue on against Tetsu Retire a little bit longer, but he decided, you know what, I'm going to give a little more grace to, to Sean Sharoff in his second UFC fight and his first fight in over a year. It's just unbelievable the decision making going on by the third man in the Octagon, Mark Smith. But golly. But that was the fight that happened. And we'll move on and we'll move on quickly to a 160 pound catchweight bout, A.K. King, don't call me Bobby Green, taking on Lans Gibson Jr. in a fight that nobody saw coming. Nobody saw coming. If anybody predicted that fight, you went on to the next one. We end the show forever. And that just didn't happen

because it's the most random fight of the year. Happened on a few days notice. It went to a splitie. Don't know how that's possible. But King Green gets the victory. and I went with what did I pick here I'll go up into the notes I just want with your car close because it's two guys

who have a bunch of fights and they just somehow haven't fought each other and either of them are going to go fight for the belt anytime soon so let's just do a fun thing and have those two guys fight each other

I didn't know what else to do AK Anything as possible with King Green by speaking wise he's he's in there he wants to get in there get a paycheck win or lose

he's been this business a long time I'm saying this because I don't think this guy is giving indications he's retiring so how about like a runback with Edson Barbosa how about that like a lot again at lightweight the first fight was a lightweight as well

I mean of course it was yeah so Edson's one up in this series but I don't know I think there'd be a fun fight to put on again you can put it anywhere you can put on the prelims of a PLE what do we call on the paper use number just numbered events numbered events

numbered event I kind of like PLE right the W.E right is that not what we're going to start doing with you see it just sounds like I don't know we're just so used to say in pay for you another abbreviation so yeah you know you can put on that you can put on the main card of a sorry a main card of an apex event you can put on a road show card you want a road show card these are both well known they're both you know fans like them so you know again just a random thing I don't think King Green has any cares about title shots to this point if he gets one he'd be happy but he's just trying to stay busy I think the same with Edson, too. It might just be a very classy fight. Maybe Edson's last. We don't know.

Yeah. I'm down. I love how Bobby Green, like, who's so, or King Green, excuse me, his final message was, hey, uh, come to my club. Come to my club and, and have a drink. I don't know what it was for, but I mean, if you're going to tell the crowd to do that, you got to pick an apex guard. So like, he'll get an extra, like, 35, 40 people come into the club to have a beverage and, and, uh, and cut a rug. I don't even know where this club is. He didn't give an address or a name of it, the mystery club of One Kig Green. And I might have to check this place. Mike, if you don't-

Seems pretty wild. If you don't know where the club is, then you don't deserve to get in the club. 100%. It's one of those. 100%. I don't deserve to coax, I don't know where it is. No, no, you got it. Yeah, yeah.

Only the people who have access to the club already know where the club is. AK, we're about to make our final matchmaking suggestion of the year. The wild card round for UFC Vegas, 12 we'll select one fighter we have not match made for and we'll match big for them now aka who did you select uh amosov right didn't you do amosov too mike okay we both we uh yeah i very very happy for him let me put it this way uh you know the ocdb probably a long time coming not that there was like any window we were like oh he's going to jump from belator but um he did it the right way he did the right way he became a free agent i think went and fought once the

original scene beats Curtis Millinder and says hey guys listen I'm here maybe maybe you want me to prove that I'm still a good fighter because he was coming up what I lost to Jason Jackson or something did it finish the guy who had UFC experience gets Neil Magny perfect matchmaking I'm going with a Brazilian veteran Mike for Amosov I'm going with a Brazilian veteran for Amosov I saw like well suggesting one I'm going the other way I'm going with a former champion this man should be ready to compete again in 2026 he had to take a year off because he injured just knee in his last fight that had ACL injury.

How about Amosov and RDA? Oh, Raphael Dos Angeles. Okay. All right. Artia, does it already train in ATT, a little ATT versus ATT flavor? I don't know. I mean, look, we can't even do-do those anymore because these dudes are all ready to

fight each other anyway, so. Mike, where do you rank Amosov after that way? Just GOC. Let's let's not, it's going to be a complicate. I haven't looked at my overall. all well during ranking it's really weird because obviously i have him behind like jason jackson right now um but i don't know this is a good win and i i can't remember what jason jackson i feel like he did fight since then um anyway but doesn't say that's that's very complicated just uf

you're plop in the uf rankings mike where do you have so so i have amos off ranked and not jackson anyways uh i have cura maga madeoff ranked oh yes after he just kind of like did whatever he did in that fight um so i have amosov currently ranked to 15 okay before this even happened okay i'm probably going to bump them up a couple of spots um i think i'm going to bump above that gene i'm probably going to bump him above jeff neal which perfectly sets up my next fight oh give it um and i will credit jed mishu because he said this on the post fight show and i'm like you just nailed it and i'm absolutely stealing it but i'm absolutely giving credit um this is a gentleman who has taught us all that especially in mixed martial arts and especially in the world of

sports no matter what you do you can always come back can always make your way back but having said that even though you're you come back and you're in the good grace of everybody you can mess it up in a second and nobody has done that more than this man over this past week. Just trying to stay in the headlines and just the worst way as possible. Yaroslav Amosov is going to fight Joaquin Buckley next and I think it's perfect. And in my official rankings, as it will be moving forward when I fix this up, Buckley is ranked number 12. Amosov will be ranked number 13. So that will be the fight. And I think that makes sense. This whole notion that like nobody wants to fight Joaquin Buckley, this whole thing is like

everyone's turning me down. I don't believe it for a second. Like which Welchewate is like saying unless it is like Shafcott who wants a title fight? Like who is saying no to this fight? It just seems like such a good opportunity, especially if you can grapple. Like it seems like a great opportunity if you can wrestle to fight a guy like this. Um, so yeah, this is this is 100% the fight that should be made if i'm in the shan shelby mcmaynard seat i'm already on the horn with both teams trying to put this fight together uh put it on the march paper view or p lea on the undercard of max holloway charles olivera for the bmf belt that's a main card opener right there amosop versus walking buckley or or a feature prelim that's what i'm doing seeing buckley just

get like grounded and like 3027 by amosov would be very very very funny um it's it's what it's yeah I mean, it's probably what will happen. But you never know, man. Maybe Buckley chins him. Who knows? It's a good opportunity for him. It's definitely a fight he should be pursuing. Yeah, I'm right with you, Mike.

I have him just above, I have a head of Bonn theme and Burns and just behind Buckley and Usman. So, yeah, about the same spot. So good, but yeah, great to have Amosov in the U.C. And I hope they give him someone with a number next to their name and not just kind of. Because, you know, Magny was the litmus test, right? I think he can't get anyone in the top 10. All those guys are obviously just kind of.

targeting and dancing around with each other but yeah just outside the top 10 probably seems right possible yes uh so i had one bet on the card at least coming in and it was on neil magni and boy i got toasted real quick in that so because i got absolutely done up at ufc 323 outside of the pierrean bet that i had um which wasn't even like that great because i i juiced it up the alternate point spread so badly that all i needed yon to do is win around to win the bet um but obviously him winning helped that i was like i have to i have to end the year like with a win somehow and like i looked at the card and i'm like how do i do this and like get the most value and i was like oh i'm going to go do the thing that like has helped me in these weird

spots over the years like i'm not going to overthink this i'm going to the cage warriors fade uh and i went with melchi costa and i went kind of heavy on it and it was the best decision um and morgan cherry i really like but i just think Costa is like so good. Uh, so shout out to Belke Costa for like saving the day, uh, saving the month really with the, with the bets because I was, I needed a win bad. I only had one win, uh, at 323. So at least we end the year with a little bit of a bag. Uh, Mike, Mike, Mike, I should have given you the big tip off, man. You should, I should have had you with me on the heavy weight overs on the under on the prelims. I hit both. I hit both of them. Don't bet on

MMA people. Don't bet on MMA. But heavy eight overs, I think we're back in a big way this year. Even should have parlayed all three, A. We should have parleyed all three. As Jedmishu says, we don't parley underdogs. But if you had parleyed all three, you'd be having a real good night. Yeah, because both, I shockingly, both the Pat win and the Aspland win, they were both plus to go over. And I'm like, have people not seen, like, debuting head?

And I get it, Aspline finished, but one and a half. It crossed the one and a half. It was close. It was close, but it hit. So look forward to that in 2026, guys, as well. If you didn't, if you didn't hit those in 2025, I don't think they're going anywhere. i think 2026 you're going to see a lot of heavyweight overs so they're back they are back in a big big big big way and shout out to our guy john ray who we're going to hear from in a moment uh

i was like oh herb did the thing he took the point and john ray was like well the only reason he took the point is because this fight's not going this fight's not going to the cards so it makes him feel better i'm like this fight's absolutely going to the cards with kettie kett kett kett kett and marcus buchc and he was like yeah you you you weren't wrong about that one so A.K., before we go to the peeps for one last time, I believe you have, uh, I believe you have to bring something to my attention. We would talk a lot of matchmaking, Mike. I don't think we talked about the, I don't know, the best or worst callout of the weekend. I'm not even sure.

I liked it. I don't know how you feel about it. I'm like, Cyborg, the great, the legend. Chris Cyborg. Oh, you guys didn't see Mike's physical reaction. It's not good. The let, he's drinking. He's drinking a beverage right now.

It says you're embarrassed to answer this. the legendary chris cyborg makes easy work of sarah collins no surprise there gets on the mic calls for lea mccourt first calls for a featherweight appropriate opponent but then i think makes a way more head line worthy call-out guys and she said dakota i'm willing to cut down she didn't say to how much she didn't say how much i believe the i believe the implication was like 140 though she did later reply to some post on twitter saying i could make 135 once like for the right fight so she's she's just 10 pounds and meet him 35 they can make the super fight happen uh your thoughts on that call up i mean if you're to quote to quote jad bishu if you're going to be a if you're going to be a bear group be a grizzly

like you should have just went for dakota right away um and you should have clarified i i get what she's doing because i think she is is looking at things through a realistic lens right the more she fights and even with these wins the more she distances herself from like the greatest women's fighter of all time conversation because she is winning no doubt about it but i mean just look at the resume ever since the nunez loss it's brutal outside of the lorissa pacheco win which is a which was a good win wasn't like a a terrifically great win but it was a good way like a very good win but like just look at the rest of the names just so tough

to like sit there and be like okay but then you look up and down the roster and it's like who is who is Chris going to fight to ever change this like I'd love to see her fight Pacheco again Pacheco's not even in the company anymore she's gone she was released so like what are we supposed to do here

with her so from a like prize fighty sort of perspective and like building some anticipation perspective like this wasn't bad but to go from leah mccourt to and if that doesn't work i'll go fight you dakota if you're going to do it you should have been like hey dakota ditchevah you think you're you're one of the best fighters in the world pound for pound well in my final fight let's find out for real i will drop to 135 i will drop to the ban on weight division to fight you for the one and only time in my career not at 140 not at 141 i will make 136 for my final fight

one time and one time only to fight you the ball is in your court mic drop boom get on out of there that to me would have been like okay i get it but there is so much wiggle room there's so much to this that is like left to interpretation that i hate it so much i don't like it um because i don't believe like without her taking that moment because by the way if you're familiar with Chris Cyborg's Twitter game. It's not her tweeting. I think anybody knows that, but I'm just making sure she's not tweeting any of this stuff. There's somebody else behind the scenes that's doing it.

So if Chris went on the mic and said, I will cut to Bantamweight for this fight. That would have been a little bit more into it. Chris ain't cut in the... She ain't cutting a Bantam White, man. She ain't doing it. She wasn't going to do it in the UFC for some of the fights she could have got... Like, if she wasn't going to do it to fight Rhonda friggin' rousy, she ain't doing it to fight Dakota Dichiva.

I'm sorry. It's not happening. So I can't get too excited about a fight that will never take place. And could they pay to convince Dakota to fight her at 140? Sure. But then I'm like not as interested in it. You know what I mean? Like I would pick Chris to win just because she's bigger and more physical.

It would be quite the moment for Dakota. And it's a, it's not a bad option for her because even if she loses, like she's expected to lose. and she like totally did the like i dare to be great thing um but overall there's just too many holes in it and i don't believe i don't have any interest in this fight happening at 140 and i don't believe for a second that chris is dropping to banam weight for this fight and that's the only way that fight makes any sense so um i see what she was trying to do the lea mccourt thing then dakota drops at points the i will meet you somewhere in the middle of the it'll drops the points and then the non-chris i the non-chris i the non-chris cyborg responses on social media

uh that she will which means she won't um c-minus damn c-minus that's real that was real i i didn't put that much thought to it like you know i just i was in the mox because i was watching live i just caught up in the moment so i enjoyed it but uh those are all definitely valid points uh nemcov would you like to have seen to make a more i don't know if you saw that he actually didn't call for Francis in the ring he did the whoever the league wants me in a fight or they organized i can't remember the word which is super dumb that's horrible but he got there though right they had to walk him out of the cage i swear they set up a second postway no seriously on the on the broadcast i guess this was only like i guess this one didn't go out to people in the crowd so

this was just like for us watching on well in canada watching via um nefarious beats um and yes they had to like pull him aside and like essentially ask him and i swear i think it was mike cogan doing the translation i i swear he must have prompted him like So he says it in Russian, so I don't know exactly what he was telling you, but I feel he was kicking him. And then all they really got out of him was like, again, a second, I'm willing to fight anyone. And then, oh, yeah, and I really want to fight Francis. It was, it was so half-hearted. But he must know that they're having trouble getting Francis in the cage.

And I'm not blaming Francis entirely. I have a feeling it's a money issue. Like Francis, you know, we remember when they signed that deal, they said something like, well, Francis is always going to make something, what, like two million? And his opponents are always guaranteed two million. And so it costs the company a lot of money when Francis fights that that that's one of the huge issues here. Yeah, but they fumble this so badly with Francis. Horrible. Like they did they've just and I, and yes, can you blame Francis to some degree?

Sure. But I mean, once coach him was on the town hall and it was just like, yeah, man, Francis is a premium product. We're not just going to trot him out there and spend that money for him to fight anybody. I'm like, what the frig are you talking about? Like, you have no highlight real for. Francis and Ghanu, you have nothing. You truly have nothing. Like, how are you supposed to promote any of his fights?

You're just going to show the clip of him ground and pounding the worst grappler ever at heavyweight? Like, in Henan Fahara? Like, that, you're just going to keep showing the ground and pound over and over again? Like, you have no highlight reel of this guy. You should be chucking him in there against any heavyweight or light heavyweight who has ever fought the UFC even once. Like, he should have fought Parker Porter.

He should have fought. Chase Sherman should have been a PFL. signed fighter and just trucked him in there with Francis he knows the role like these are the guys you should have chucked him in there with and you give chase shirb in a payday who gives a shit doesn't matter a lot of money you got to pay chase him like two million dollars so what at least you have a highlight reel that you can like use to promote other fights rather than make cgai godzilla versus king kong promos like it's what are we doing like you screwed the whole thing up It's brutal.

And now the fight you're going to give us is Francis. Sure, from like a, from like a meritocratic perspective, Francis versus Nemcoff is interesting, right? But if we only have one Francis fight left, like one guaranteed Francis fight left, I ain't giving them Nemcoff, man. I want to go super weird with this.

That's what I want. Like, I want either Parker Porter in just a selfish way, or I want Eddie Hall. Like, that's what I want. want or we could do fill the freeze like that's even more fun little cross promotional rivalry stuff but like i mean do how you how intrigued you're about nemcoff francis honestly i am only because i think nimcov just i'm really impressed by nemcov um not to say that francis doesn't have a great take down defense so i don't think he would get like you know what happened

to fededa what happened to him but i just think them coves that damn good i'm sold now i was i will say i was probably late on this bandwagon like when he decided to move to heavyweight i was like yeah and then he beat up what timidie johnson or something i'm like okay fine like what is it proof and you know henna if fahed is not like a top 10 guy either but listen you give me three three good wins against like you know decent heavy competition okay i'm impressed and i believe that he could give uh francis a really good fight he probably wouldn't be favored obviously frances way more well known i think just just the way the odds work it like he would be uh francis'd be like minus 200 probably but i would be jumping all over nebcobs and underdog he could take frances down he's got good striking too

Like he wouldn't want to dance with Francis for Dool-on, but he has power too, man. He could hurt Francis. So, yeah, I see big things for Nemcom. I'm into that fight, but I know what you're saying. I'm not, I'm not begging for it to happen. If it got booked, I'm not like, oh, wow, like, oh, that fight's happening, you know, March or April. I wouldn't be like, oh, man, I can't wait for March or April to come around. It'd be one of those things.

No, I'm sorry. Yeah, no, I hear you. We'd have a meeting. We'd have an editorial meeting and we'd be like, oh, that's like, that's next weekend? Like, okay, cool. Like, we'll just decide who's covering that. Like, it'd be hard to hype up. Yeah, it's, again, if, if John Martin goes on his interview parade again and says,

we have, we have re-signed Francis and Ganu for four more fights. And then they, and then they subsequently announced an Emcoff fight, I'm into it. That I'm fine with it. I'm good. But if you're telling me right now that he only has one fight guaranteed left for this promotion and may never come back again and fight for them, He might have never fight MMA again. Like, this could be the last time we see Francis fight an MMA.

Do you really want to do Nemcoff? No, I want to get wicked weird with this. Like, that's what I want to do. But that's just me. I mean, from a like just a, ooh, this is like an interesting fight perspective. Sure, it's fine. But like, we got to do weird, wacky shit with Francis. Come on.

We only get one more shot with this. It's really sad because I see people complain about all the time. Like, why is Francis always talking about UFC? And why are we always writing articles about Francis and his comments in the UFC? And so I'm like, I'm like, that's how. how little he's had to do with PFL over the last, like, year and a bit, guys. Like, there are no, like, Francis PFL stories. There just are it.

Like, he just had, he has, like, to say about it. They had nothing to say about to say about him until recently. The same they're going to get him a big fight. Like, that we're still, like, he's still so strongly associated with UFC, which makes sense. He had a great run with them. But, like, people almost, like, had forgotten that he's even with the PFL. Just because they, you got to fight.

Like, you just have to fight or put him in positions, like, where he's there prominently and being used as an ambassador or something. and it just feels like none of this has happened. It's really, it's just really disappointing. Dude, we are approaching a world where France Ogunnizu has only had two mixed martial arts fights in the last four years. Oh, that's sad. Cyril gone, head in Fahedah. Like, that's it.

Like, he signed with them in January of 2023. We're approaching three years since he signed with them. He's fought for them one time. Once. It's insane. Like, this whole, this whole thing has just been. This would be a great 30 for 30. I'd love to know, like, the behind the scenes of all of this

and how this is bungled so badly on both sides. But let's go to the peeps, A.K. I didn't get a lot, but, you know, it's UFC Vegas 112. I didn't expect to get a ton. But let's get into it. Speaking of Francis Inganu, Vadim Nemcoff, Micah kicks things off with his weekly Otno picks. Nemcoff versus Inganu is right at the top of the list.

And he explains, you can make an argument that Nemcoff is the best heavyweight in the world that grappling was clean uh i'm not going to make that argument based on him beating henna vera who cannot grapple at all um so i'm not going to make that case and i don't even think you could really make that right now um and unfortunately nemcoff being in pfl is not going to give us the answer to that question anytime soon um but an interesting fight nonetheless uh didn't think we get a lot of jamie lynn horth matchmaking suggestion but uh got one right here jamie l'orth versus gabby fernandez pat versus parkin fry versus gable steveson ufc debut uh steveson needs a ufc debut and fry should be an easy win

i think pretty confidently i'd pick gable steveson to not only beat but ragdoll and wreck all six of those heavyweights uh that competed on saturday and what my my biggest Vegas 112 AK was simply this Waldo Cortez Acosta didn't deserve to fight on this card like we couldn't have snuck him in there against either of these guys just to like is that what happened though is that what happened they couldn't find a spot for like that it's it's not like they were trying you know they well it was true they were trying but he got booked he ended up getting booked you know for next year but he still wanted a fight on that card too just to do the six fights in a year thing but we could have still done it we could have thrown him in there with with

Buccecha or any of those dudes. Stevenson, I'm trying to imagine them up, but like you said, well, oh, fry. Oh, what, fry? Did you pick, do you say, oh, this person suggested fry? Said fry because it would be an easy win. But I would, I mean, he would wreck Buchetcha. He would wreck. Kennedy and Chukwu, like, he'd smoke all these guys.

I'm just trying to think if they made fry. Honestly, that might become the biggest, um, favorite in UFC history. Would it be more than Ramana versus Chase Sherman? What was that? Do you remember minus... It was like minus 2,000. It was the big... I think that's the biggest ever.

It should be. Honestly, it should be. It should be like minus 2,500. Which sounds crazy because... Oh, it actually is... What is it? What do we got? The biggest ever.

Romanov was one of them. Okay. The biggest UFC betting favorite ever. It's often cited as Bo Nickel. Oh. Who is a massive minus 2,400 favorite for the contender series. fight and minus 1,600 for his debut. But Isaac Dolgarian

set the official record for UFC fight at minus 2,400 odds for UFC fight night, 242 in September 2024. Who was that? Yeah, what? Boy, you didn't even give us this?

Like, what are we doing here? This man's name keeps popping up. Who was he what? September 2024 was Brendan Marat. Oh, yes. He was mine. He closes a minus 2,500.

So I think he is the biggest favorite. Yeah, Stevenson would be in that range, maybe even higher. Honestly, you could talk me to minus 20. You could talk me to minus 3,000. Like, yeah. And I know that sounds strange because we're talking about guys who are a lot more, like both the fights you mentioned, the Ramonov-Sherman one as well, like are, you know, are featuring much more experienced people.

But there's just so much hype around Stevenson. He's made very short work of like, you know, his people who's fought in his post-amateur wrestling career, whether it's a dirty boxing or MMA. and um yeah you know something again these lower tier uc heavyways just they are what they are they are right yeah i would say minus three thousand anything less than minus three thousand i'll probably take it minus 2800 you know what i'm putting i'm putting 500 bucks on that you know screw it because i just that's not going to go well from wherever if one of these guys gearma pad or like you said buchetcha it's not going to go well for them yeah uh let's keep on going

Santos versus Jocelyn Edwards, Aspline versus Hokit, after he wins this next one. Heavyweight Max Holloway versus heavyweight Colby Covington, plus Hokit already called him out. Yeah, there's some social media stuff going on there. I think it's finally time for Brito v. Ege. Amos-Medich, winner gets D-Rod? Well, I mean, look, if you're basing this off a room and innuendo, it doesn't seem like D-Rod's getting a fight anytime soon. King Green versus the loser of Alexander Hernandez versus Michael Johnson. I'm shocked he hasn't fought either of them.

Cesari versus Gautier after he beats Pulaev. I was high on Cesari after Contender Series, but after that stinker, he's getting fed to Atiba. I don't know if they will do that. And I think that's a tougher mashup than this person thinks. I don't think Cesaris, I don't think Cesaris bad. I think he just fought super safe to get his first U.S.E win. Yeah.

You know. Valleos versus Pitbull. Got an Otno for Valleos's last one. Let's see if I can get two in a row. there's no way he's fighting Cub Swats. So, yes, you're not about that. Giga versus Josh Emmett, AK, thoughts on this.

I know it's a step up in the rankings for Giga, but this feels right for where they both are at in their careers. Yeah, for sure, for sure. No, I think that's, that's smart. It's, it's, again, I don't know if either guy feels like they can make a championship run in earnest anymore, but they also feel like they don't want to retire. So, yeah, you've got to give them fights. You throw them in there to go.

I would give. Who would I give to Giga? Pat Sabatini. Sure. Like it would be somebody like that. I'm trying to look and see. Jamal Emers. William Go-Me.

He's fighting. Aaron Pico. Can't do that. That's right. I'm so sorry. Do we give, do we get, how about do we give Giga Aaron Pico? Nah. No?

Nah. I kind of feel like that's like the perfect thing to do if you're trying to like, I think we nailed that with that. I think we know it with Go-me. Go-Mea is actually, like, the fight I kind of want to see. It would be really interesting because Go-Me is super good, but no one talks about them. Chepe? Chepe?

Sure, but Chepe just, like, convincingly lost and cheated his ass off against Sabatini. So I'd rather give the spot to Pat. But, yeah, I mean, featherweight's so good. I mean, if you want to do Emmett, it's like a double retirement fight kind of a thing, then I'd be okay with it. But I think you have whatever, whatever juice is left in Giga's name, I think you have to, kind of feed it to the up and coming contenders roeval versus the loser of tyra versus van either way it's a rematch of a fight of the year contender uh and man he ain't giving cop a title shot at all here uh he's saying cop versus brandon moreno after the win over amabia at ufcc mexico so wow all right

that's kind of a shocker okay wow for poor uh poor cobb poor cop no and uh sorry who's he Oh, I'm a buyer. And I'll just count them out like that. Yeah. I mean, it's probably not wrong there. But you never know. John Ray, uh, Horth versus Casey O'Neill.

Gamry Pat versus Peterson. Santos versus Myra Buena Silva. Wow. What a talk about Meyer Buena Silva. What a, what a fall from grace. And where we were a couple of years back. Number one.

To fight Rickel Pennington. Number one band. Oh, God. Uh, Stephen Aspland versus Janada Denise. Brito versus Feeley, Amasov versus Covington. John says, I know Colby won't take the fight, but it makes too much sense to me, so I don't care. Okay.

Green versus Kyle Nelson. Costa versus Vallejos, just match-make-them. I don't mind that. Olegzecichek versus Dustin Stoltzvus. Don't mind that either. Roy Vaugh versus Kai Kar-France 2. I like that idea. I think Tyra gets a title shot.

Dana does to watch Apex shows. Cop versus Horde Gigi 2 if he wins. Sure. That actually, yeah, that can lay. like that. Not too bad. We end with left lane. Cop title shot. If I had to put money on it, I say he gets it next. Royval versus Charles Johnson, too. Bet a lot of people didn't know that this has happened with the win over Perez. Falejos versus Emmett, Olegzecich versus Stoltz again, Melchie Costa versus Dan Igay, Kennedy versus not fouling, Buchetia versus actually utilizing

your world-class level grappling at the unranked heavyweight level. green versus mckinney a k hands down taunting ain't working here don't mind that's interesting that'd be so weird when's the last time uh king had a first he didn't finish did he finished dober in the first round right i'm sorry dober finished him excuse me dober finished him when last time king green smoked some oh grand dawson's i'm sorry grand tosses was i'm sorry grand tosses was i think of yes yes that's yeah so okay not that long ago i mean a lot of of fights to go for king green because he stays so busy but like not that long old year i say so i don't know why i was mixing up grand dawson drew dover um so yeah he's capable of doing it certainly if someone like

if uh like terence mcini's coming at him i like that a lot i don't think it's going to happen but boy that'd be interesting yeah who did i like for mckinney who did i like for him there was so i don't know mckinney is so guy so fun there's somebody that i said i just i just needed to see it um Um, I'll put some names on here. Maybe with somebody who won at UFC 323? I don't know. There's something I needed to see really badly. I'm, I'll think of it while, uh, while the show progresses while you're reading

up your picks, but, uh, he likes Amosov versus Leon Edwards. Okay. I don't mind that either. Neil Magdie versus Oralby, Brito versus landware in either Texas or Seattle, Aspland versus Sutherland, Pat versus Max Jimenez. God. What a, I don't even know. don't say about that heavy weight overs are back i i i saw though it was the other one earlier pat

peterson or something like oh yeah people are just trying to set they're just trying to set up heavyweight overs and i and i applaud it i applaud it yeah no moosevin anywhere in this conversation which is wow he is the king i can't like they cut handy i'm so angry i'm so angry they were losing they were losing way too much money books were getting wiped out on handy fights like they're like no no please you please you got to cut this guy like we can't he's never going to finish he's never going to finish or get finished and he ends with the fitting close to 2025 with some freeing of roster space. Left Lane suggests the UFC partsways with Bleda,

Sharaf, Buccecha, Almeida, and Giga can all be relieved of their UFC duties. Damn. And that's okay. Mike, you mentioned, he mentioned, this is Leflane? This is Leflane, yes. Man, Amosov and Edwards. Imagine if Amosov just like, again, outr wrestled him for three rounds. And that's it for Leon at that point, right? You're just, I don't know if you're retiring, but I don't know. Oh, yeah. I mean, you can,

the UFC booted him now. Like, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Like, honestly, like, if you're going to keep him, just do the frigging Mazadol fight. Like, what are we doing here? Like, that's the only fight of interest to anybody right now involving Leon Edwards. But, like I said, like Leon is fine. He could just go to PFL with his brother who's about to fight for a belt. Leon would probably immediately get a title shot the second he goes to PFL. And they'll probably pay him a bunch of money to go there, probably more than he's making now.

So it's not a bad place for Leon to be, honestly. So, yeah, go fight Mazadol. or have your team be like, hey, can I, can I go to PFL and what is the UFC going to say? No. Of course they're going to be like, okay, peace out, homie. My guess is Amazved all knows what he's worth. And I assume he's still under some form of UFC contract, right? Like he's not like, yeah, yeah. So I guess he can ask for too much, but he probably is asking for some sort of bonus or something for coming back out of semi-retirement.

Yeah, but like no one is, it's not like the UFC is asking him to come back. Oh, I know. I know. He doesn't have a lot of, this is what I'm saying. Yeah. He probably knows his price, wants a certain amount, and the UFC's like, okay, cool, we're not paying that. That's probably why this fight is not. Yeah, exactly.

We just spent seven, we just, I mean, they just got a lot of money, but I mean, no, we don't, we got, they're not burning money for no reason. So, yeah, if they came to some sort of agreement, that's it, but neither party I feel like feels they need to blink, and they probably don't. I think Jorge is doing fine this post-UFC career. UFC is obviously doing very fine without him. At Vandal Casino, you get even more ways to play. dive into new and exciting games

and all of your favorite casino classics like slots, table games, and arcade games. Get more on Fandual Casino. Download the app today. Please play responsibly, 19 plus, and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerned about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2,600,

to speak to an advisor free of charge. Maybe it's just a phase you're going through. You'll get over it. I can't help you with that. The next appointment is, In six months, you're not alone. Finding mental health support shouldn't leave you feeling more lost. At CAMH, we know how frustrating it can be trying to access care.

We're working to build a future where the path to support is clear, and every step forward feels like progress. Not another wrong turn. Visit camh.ca to help us forge a better path for mental health care. Okay, Mike, let me go to some emails here. First timer, Eli Hattala. Eli, email me if I butcher that pronunciation. I'm so sorry.

Long time, listener, first time submit her. Welcome to the party pal. Let's hope I'm not sprinkling. Do you do everywhere. Manel Kops, the next fight should be Joshua Van. Not necessarily for the title. I think Koppers, hold on. I think Kopp, I'm confused now.

Kopp versus Van for the belt, we booked, but Kopp is so unreliable getting to the fight earning scale. So Tara will weigh in as the backup and will beat Vand for the belts. Oh, and then go on to fight Pantosha. Cap will have to prove himself again. Oh, I had to prove himself reliable and fight Van later in the year in another number one contenders fight. Oh, inch, wow, this is a lot of projecting ahead. So Van's going to lose the title.

Patoche is going to come back and get in the mix. And Cop's going to fight Van, but by then the belt will already be off band's waist. Damn, Eli, that is some, that is some looking ahead. Kevin Malihos versus Dan Igay. Please don't give him Cups once in. Another Alexei check, Gotea after Gautier. Oh, is Gotei booked? Yeah, he's fighting Pulae for that.

Okay, okay, okay, I missed that. Yeah, yeah, that's what they said. Okay, they say he's fighting Puli, okay. Costa Onama, King, Green, Duncan. Oh, King, King, Chris Duncan. Damn, that would be a sick-ass fight. I feel like Duncan deserves someone higher ranked. He deserves.

Yeah. Another Amasov Edwards, oh my. Stephen Aspland versus Ryan Span. A knockout. Span is bulls. Oh, yes, yes. He says after Span loses to Kuni. Yeah, sorry, sorry.

Eli is on top. Eli, this has been a very good first submission. There's a lot of people who he mentioned that already booked, but he mentioned their books. Knockout over the shredded span, which would be a fun site to see. Yes, Aspland is a finisher, but honestly, I would still take the over one and a half on that. And that would be plus. That would definitely be plus money on that.

So I'm still, I'm all heavyweight overs, man. I'm telling you. I don't know if I'm seeing any huge, like, first round chaos or finishes for any heavy weights anytime soon. Thank you, Eli. That was fantastic. Lucas Cortes, our old friend, Cop versus Van. I don't know what the F his diaper threat meant

but a three-fight chaos streak and beating where a Trump's tirest case for the belt would be an absolute banger. Yeah, it's just an awesome fight. Bleyhouse Ike, Amosov, Gilbert Burns, Costa Onama. Wow, a lot of people want to see Costa Onoma. Have a great rest of year.

Tell Mike I said, Merry Christmas. Talk to you again in the Paramount Era. Thank you, Lucas. Oops, I have my tweets open and then I closed them. Let's go to the Twitter. I think I had another first timer. Well, I've spoken before. This is their real first time getting the picks up here.

Welcome to the party pal, sovereign free thinker, cop versus van. Sorry, Tyra, your old news. Who does that to Rod Dog? Yeah, that was amazingly impressive. Balejo Sabatini, my man, Alexeiq versus a job application for a different line of work. Oh, come. Wow. He's the holidays, dammit.

He's fighting a super dangerous hard-hitting kickboxer. He mixed the... I know you guys thinking. A.K., are you defending? Mixing the martial arts? Yeah, in this case, I'll defend it. I'll say he mixed them. And technically, he didn't mix the martial arts

because he chose not to... He kind of put striking aside and chose to wrestle. So he kind of actually did do what I say fighters should do more. Mixing the martial arts more might have actually been bad for his health. And the Chuku versus Pacheta 2 in the VFL, in the VFL, hopefully the comane oh to the crone crazy fight when it happens doesn't don't want to see either in the ufc after that yeah hey hashtag justice for boudai yeah oh you got rid of boudai guys you thought he was the problem uh by the way fighting for the heavy title uh in octagon uh next weekend i believe king green

and jrkar close okay let's go let's go eric boshane just one pick uh buchecca versus walter he says i need to see how good walter's cheat code is i think he would do it i think he tapped buchetja that's how that's how disrespectful i am right now to buccecha you know one of the one of the greatest competitive grapplers of this generation i think i think walter could could you oh well i mean walter would absolutely destroy but could he tap him yes could he tap him could he tap him it would have to be a heel hook to big is the most legendary run i've ever seen um god that's interesting this i've actually into this if we can make it happen i want to see if walter can heal hook him would be incredible maybe that's the way to go i don't know that's interesting or i don't have any

other suggestions like that that fight could also just be an absolute stink bomb that fight could be best possible oh my gosh that fight could be so so awful um so yes i want it obviously say i want it um and again that's that's that's its own watch i'll be pounding the over that'll be a that'll be a minus over one and a half and i'll still think people will will have a feeling like me like that could just be really bad it'd probably be like a minus 200 over one and a half i'll still take it i'll still yeah um ben hamilton i want to start this off by just saying rest in peace jimmy v and steward scott oh yeah you know it's yeah what wait why is this coming i know there's the stewart scott documentary that came out recently right or it's coming the december card's always the

the v foundation event yeah so there's a lot of uh there's a lot of steward scott and jimmy b promos yeah and i know again there is a steward scott documentary out or coming out i think uh so 30 for 30 love me some which i'm very excited love me some steward scott um aspland my new favorite fighter versus louis sutherland yeah good fight there santos and macy chiasan yeah she's so much to uh lewana santo beating my fellow canadian um listen brito landwarsh or thomson ricardo hamo Wow, just giving Thompson tough fights. I know he's a legit prospect. Hell yeah.

I was so happy to see him perform well last night. I've been at Isaac Thompson guy for a while. Yeah, you're telling me. If you go back into the annals of the MMA fighting archives, there's a long feature I wrote about Isaac Thompson a couple of years back, which featured the likes of Uriah Faber and others who have worked with him along the way. Yeah, he looked really good. Brittle, I thought Brito would finish him in round three, but kind of invoking the same

tactics he used in the fight. Because I kept saying, like, if this fight remains on the feet, like Thompson has a chance and it could get real fun. And then Brito kind of realized like, oh, oh, I need to tackle this guy. And Thompson's grappling's got a lot better, man. So, yeah, it was a good fight, good performance from both guys. Yeah, I think you call this one perfectly. I think you, I feel like you talked about this before on the preview show that you said, like Brito's probably going to have to, you know, grapple, uses grappling. And that, that'll that'll make the difference especially with short notice right um a fin also adds i had pre-written herb dean versus own words uh match made after that ipook but he actually did the damn you said you

point this out mike he did the damn thing and uh that's the only match making i want to do from that uh hese let's go to hezzi cop versus van as co-main to charles versus max when's what's that's that february favorite that is march 7th march 7th cop versus van co-main that'd be interesting yes that's a very good comment if they decided to Well, don't they have to... No. No? No, they have an interim title fight headlining over Kayla Hickson and Amanda Nunes.

They don't have to do anything. Okay. Morval Erseg, Vallejo's Josh Emmett, Amazon versus Neil Holland loser. Okay. I don't know if he would... I don't know if he would get one of those guys. I don't even know if that fight's happening yet, by the way. Okay, okay.

Well, we don't know. Only Holland has said it. It's Holland. Like, literally. But Holland, like, literally, like, an hour before that is like, I'll fight anybody. I want to fight an inducing card. So, like, I don't know. We've tried to confirm it and I've gotten nothing back.

So we'll see. Magni versus Oral By. Yeah, it's time. I think it's Oral By. This is the Magni, the litmus test for Oral By. Yeah. Thomas Collins. He wants Copp and Horaguchi.

Okay. So I'm as he's probably in the Tyra Van Camp. Amoslav, Dan Rodriguez. You already touched upon this, Mike. Uh, excuse me. Aspline, Denzel Freeman. Got to take the over. and rebook Robertson-Lamotia that was that was by the way okay and you record uh have you seen

joshua van's twitter are as this right now is 31 minutes ago as we record oh my joshua van and i quote houston texas oh at menel cop let's run it talk is cheap please ufc you'll please do it that would be sick if you throw a title fight you throw that title fight on a fight night card in freaking use in Texas like that's sick man that is awesome and then Strickland Fluffy

the co-main like we're cooking with gas right now I love this idea uh yes guys the whole point is don't don't number to events mean nothing anymore I don't know why they need to like put so much priority on

on those cards anymore right like you have these opportunities we go on these on the road and anyway we were this is a horse a dead horse we might be beating for a while like until it actually happens if it does it all but please just let this man headline in houston um um Zach Schulte's uh one selection day since i canceled my ESPN plus

subscription a week early by accident and chose to watch john Cena's final matches said brandon versus brandon three and a loser leaves nameless match after moreno loses to alma bio so Zach is predicting a moreno loss wow and then one of these guys goes just by either moreno or roi ball which is actually really cool for the brand just like a mononym just going forward So damn, Zach. Four corner sports. Don't let me down. Don't let me down four corner sports.

Manel Cobb versus Josh Van and Houston. Yes. Slide Strickland versus Fluffy to the Co-Main for a five-it-a-five-round fight. Is that what's currently set to headline in Houston? Yes. And Van Capp as the headliner. Yeah, that's the, you know. I like this idea, though.

Like just keep paying. It's not like the UFC can't afford to pay Fluffy and Sean main event money to step aside is the co-main event like just do it yep uh so anything new here so sorry a look satech versus michelle pareda that'd be interesting though he might just ground his ass is reportedly booked against Zach Reese yep yeah actually four corner sports ignores sorry four corner sports i only read the first part of your message uh he said i meant to say if perera defeats the back bruce it's almost he actually said trying to avoid mike hitting me with the doo-do pick so there go he was yeah he was ready like he foresaw this conversation

That in particular, I wouldn't have do-dood, only because we haven't, like, fully confirmed that as a thing. And, yeah, and even, like, the Ryan Span one, I wouldn't have do-dood, because they just kind of, like, dropped his fight without, like, any pomp and circumstance on the broadcast last night, on a card that very few people watched. Like, even the fighters are watching it last night, and they watch everything. So it's crazy. uh vilejos and zalal oh my goodness that oh that'd be big that's too no you dude that is as bad as use of zal has been with the callouts and stuff um this would be a travesty it wouldn't be fair if he's a law how to fight valetos like after what this man just did josh emett like he is firmly in a position where he should be fighting like a top five dude

next and if he gets matched up with balejos sheesh that just tells you everything they you need to know about how the ufc feels about him uh f riddle says the one of Santos versus Chelsea Chandler. If the UFC is smart, they'll put McKenzie Dern, Tracy Cortez, Loana Santos, and Eileen Perez, all booked on the same card. Preferably Miami Card and April, what a card that will be. I assume because these are all attractive ladies or something. Is this, Efrod, is this your matchmaking here?

Is this where we are as a society, Mike, that we're trying to sell it. Sex sells, Mike. This is where we are as the society. I can tell you right now. I was looking forward to the Luana Santos fight last night, but it had nothing to do with Luana Santos. So I was like, yeah, we got the scarecrow. We got scarecrowded.

Scarecrow into 135, like an exciting finisher. And then she got Loada Santos and tackled and laid on for the fight, which is smart. Like, this is, you got to go out, especially when you're put in that preliminary hole right there. Like, you got to get wins. And that was the smart way to do it. So, but yeah, it was just a bummer to see the Croton experiment just kind of like die. in like two months she'll be back she'll be back luanic sent us you did what you had to do good for you uh let me go to the instagram we got just one george bioggin you're closing out the show you're

our only instagram of this week uh manel cop oh backup ooh for for band tyra i one i don't think if they'd be cool with that even if they pay him i don't think he's not the most reliable guy i don't think you want him as your like the whole point of backup guys is you know if something goes wrong you have someone steady that you can trust to weigh in and make the fight that that is not manel cop i do not think he would take the backup role seriously is what i'm saying um he made he did not make championship wait for this fight we say and i don't think he did for um the alma buy a fight either which is i think was the last one he has before he's made 25 125 in the dot before it's not easy for him i don't know if he would do it as a backup um it's not an enjoyable experience

Perez winner, sure. Ballyhouse, Ige, Cesari. There it is, Andrew Petroski, that's the one. Costa Sabatini, King Green, Rebechki, yes, very possible. Oh my gosh. Amoslav? Amoslav, excuse me, and Belal. Hmm.

That's the same realm as Leon, right? You're almost trying to send a message to, like, one of these former champions that, like, listen, this is your test now. You better be able to beat this bell to her. guy otherwise you your your very slim title chances are completely gone if you can't beat amazon like we're talking about this on the post fight show like walking buckley should be focusing literally every bit of his attention on blah mohammed like that should be where all the callouts go not to not a 50,000 dollar challenge to hamzat or the shopcott fight that will

never happen because shopcott is like probably like should be fighting for the belt yeah so we're certainly not going to step back and shop got saying like yeah you're the third option is hilarious but buckley should be like if buckley was good at this uh which he can be he he could focus all of his attention on the because he got the usman fight right we were saying that you know during the the the buckley redemption we're all like oh like eventually he's like usman's the one to get and he wanted it and he got it and i know he lost in retrospect and say oh well he he shouldn't have fought usman but no that was his chance that was his way to get a tell if he had beaten usman very likely would have ended up fighting for a title at some point.

I know there's all these other names in the way. But so he did nothing wrong up until the Usman fight, even getting the Usma fight, did nothing wrong. And I think Muhammad is in that same range. Like, yeah, maybe he would lose to Muhammad, but the risk for Ward is very much in his favor. So yeah, you're right. You're right, Mike. He should be, that's the name. He should be talking about more.

I don't know if he's mentioned Balal at all. Maybe probably in one of his other videos where he names like six or seven people, but I don't think he's targeted Balal. He really should. That's the name. like i don't know what he's doing he really should but yeah that it that is it that's that's that's no i'm sorry guys that is it for our last official matchmaking show of 2025 wow yeah but they're not done with us mike they're never they're never they're never done with us no they're they're they're never done um and that's and that's and that's and that's great uh we they're done

with us at least until after Christmas, I believe. Trying to think of the calendar off the top of my head. But there will be no show, obviously, next week. There is no UFC event. And then there will be no UFC event for six weeks. But we're not going to leave you hanging that entire time. AK and I, like I said, no show next week. And then we're going to kick off the two-part extravaganza of the predictions shows,

which if you guys have been following along. the first show is always the recap of the prediction show the year prior, which I have gone back and listened to earlier this week. It is spectacular. I forgot most of the stuff, including the fact that I picked Peter Yan to be the Bannamway champion at the end of the year. Until I listened to the episode, I was like, oh, my God. Because I like to go on journeys with these things,

and I started the journey. I'm like, oh, my God, I picked Yon to be the champion. And then I said it, and then it was in writing. There was some wild picks. So please, start submitting your buy-sell questions. I'm going to give you an example of some of the questions we got last year that I thought were pretty interesting. For example, fighter of the year will be a fighter currently outside the top three in the UFC rankings. Two or more UFC champs fight for second titles.

Again, these are by ourselves. current Bellator fighter fights for a UFC title obviously that's not a thing anymore and you can even go something like this aka Jason Tatum ends the 2024-25 NBA season with more 40 plus point games than UFC 311 has total knockouts that was one of the questions on the show last year and you'll get the answer to that question next time you hear from us in two weeks and then the following week we will be live all over the place uh especially on the youtube channel where we will do the prediction the twenty six predictions extravaganza or answer the buy cell questions we'll do our champ predictions

and then a k and i always drop a wee calliente bold prediction uh for the year to come so stick with us m auffling dot com a lot still to come we will have jake paul anthony joshua coverage this week our man hose back on the road one last time in 2025 uh so we'll we ain't done by any stress of the imagination and we thank you so much for your support for all your great matchmaking suggestions throughout the year and we are going to see you the first two shows in 2026 for matchmaking are both going to be live okay oh my gosh to back to back PLEs to kick things off so uh we're kicking things off at a big way just like the ufc and for those who are taking a break from mixed martial arts and combat sports while the ufc is on break or at least through the rest of the

year. We appreciate you. We hope you have a fantastic holiday season. And we will see you in two weeks for the kickoff of the predictions extravaganza right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.