MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 23

Episode Date: April 11, 2021

On the 39th episode of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee put on their matchmaker hats following Saturday’s UFC Vegas 23 event at the APEX. Future matchups were discussed for Marvin Vettori, who earned his fifth straight win with a unanimous decision over Kevin Holland in the main event, Arnold Allen, Julian Marquez, Mackenzie Dern, Mike Perry, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Everybody and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Back to matchmaking this week coming out of UFC Vegas 23 on Saturday as we're on the road to Jacksonville, Florida, on the road to UFC 21 and less than two weeks. Thank you for checking out the program this week. I am Mike Heck, and joining me as always is the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the best friend, and the Prince of Positivity, Mr. Alex Kaley. How are you, my friend? Mike, my best friend, we have made so many new friends. I am staggered at the amount of listener suggestions we got this week.

Not surprised, I guess. It was a fairly eventful fight night. And also, of course, there was the one week break. So, you know, I think the absence made the horror grow a little bit fonder. And I think we had listeners chomping the bit to get their suggestions in. So I will do what I can to mention everyone, but we have a lot. and of course our own to get to. Yes, it's funny because I've noticed that over the last few weeks,

the DM numbers have grown, at least on my end on Instagram. Like, I have people actually DMing me after each fight now. Like, they're just like, let's make the list as we go along, which is pretty smart move because there's a good chance, especially with the promises I have made that you'll probably get on the program. But let us begin. Never promise them, Mike. I know. So far, so good.

But let's start with the man who closed the show, earned a unanimous decision in the main event, Marvin Vittori, took a risk. I don't think a lot of people are giving this enough credit. He took a risk after Darren Till was forced to withdraw from this car with a broken collarbone. Obviously, Darren Till is a massive name in this division. He takes on Kevin Holland instead. Holland, clearly the better striker on the feet, clearly the more explosive striker on the feet. but Vittori's advantage with the wrestling and the grappling, the takedowns and the top pressure. It outweighed any advantage Kevin Holland might have had in that fight.

So Vittori, of course, did what we expected him to do, called out Israel out of Sanya, called for a title shot. He thinks he's done enough. What do you think, A.K., has Marvin Vittori the Italian Dream done enough? What should be next for Mr. Vittori? Okay. First part, has he done enough to earn a UFC title shot? Yes. really more than enough based on what we know of how UFC

Telos jobs are handed out. Five straight wins in the division. Some nice names on there. Last two, Holland, Hermanson. You know, top 15 rank guys. Hermans, I think, was top, almost I was top five, at least no lower than six or seven when they faced up. I believe he was five. And then I think Venturi took a spot. So, yeah, Carl Robeson, I think is a good name. Cesar Muchans. There's a lot of good names there. So five straight, yes.

The call out, sure. I know I saw a lot of people just rolling their eyes on social media. or when he said he's like, oh, I'm ready for the title shot now. Like, oh, people are like, oh, not after that performance. It's like, guys, he just won. He won. I agree. It wasn't super exciting.

It was on ABC. I'm sure, I'm sure Dana White and some of the, some of the officials were kind of like, oh, why, why like this? Why on our second ABC show, you know, did this? But again, they had to know that was a possibility coming in. We all know what Holland's weaknesses. So, yeah, I didn't mind him saying he deserves it. It wouldn't be what I would book for him yet.

I don't think he's, I don't think that's in the cards. And I don't think it's a compelling rematch yet. I'm not feeling that heat yet. So for me, I almost my process of elimination. I went to Jared Cannoneer. Coming up a loss, yes, but three and one in middleweight. He is still, at least in the official rankings, higher ranked than Vittori. I don't know if that would be the case when Tuesday rolls around.

They might flip the rankings around a little bit. But I do have Cannoneer higher. I think it's a good fight. And again, I'll let you go first, Mike, before I kind of go down into a library, like, you know, obviously why a lot of other matchups in the top 15 don't really make sense for him. But go ahead, Mac. I want to hear what you got. Okay, so I agree with what you say when it comes to, has Vittori done enough to earn a title shot?

He has done enough to earn a title shot. He has not done enough, in my opinion, to earn a title shot in this division against this champion right now. He just has. And look, I will also sort of agree with you on this. It was a very good win for Marvin Vittory. He won. He did so in a one-sided fashion.

But outside of the second round where he busted up Kevin Holley, Busted up his eye, left him a little bit bloody. It was pretty much the same exact thing Derek Brunson did three weeks earlier. The name of the game is winning. And I said the same thing about Brunson after that win. I get it. But when you get to the top 10, the top five, especially in a division like this, one that really sticks out to Dana White, the next most important thing besides winning

is to separate yourself from the pack. And Vittori accomplished step one on Saturday. No doubt about it. He absolutely did not accomplish step two. And I'm not saying this to Dogmar and Vittory, but Darren Till may have been the biggest winner of the weekend, and he's hurt. He has a broken collarbone. He's sitting at home recovering from a broken collarbone, and he might be the biggest winner of the weekend. Robert Whitaker and Calvin Gassel fight next weekend, that fight becomes even more important because Vittori gave him an opening.

They gave him an opening. The door has opened up a little bit. They can sprint right through it. the fight to make is Vittori versus Brunson. I know they have the same manager, but so freaking what? Brunson has ranked two spots higher than Vittori. Vittori probably isn't going to move up very much, if at all, after that win. They both just beat Kevin Holland with the wrestling.

That's the fight. That is the fight to make. Yeah, no, I love it. The only reason I didn't go with this, I'm still kind of holding out hope for Brunson, Paulo Costa. Again, we don't really know. We know Paula Costa had some sort of, I think, flu, some pretty severe flu. Lou, which is why he was out of his last fight.

So I don't know. I'm not sure when he'll be back. I was assuming it wouldn't take too long to come back, but who knows. So I'm still holding out for that fight. But yeah, that one makes a lot of logical sense. It'd be a cool matchup for Brunson, too, because like we say, Brunson typically only gets either former champions and, like, legends or up-and-coming guys trying to take his name. This would be the first time in a while, not the first time ever, definitely.

First time in a while where I think he's facing someone who's, like, right around his level, not maybe not in terms of experience, but in terms of where they are as prestige goes and like the level of challenge just really evenly matched of course and they're both coming off winds over Holland

so yeah I think people are very curious to see how that one would turn out man we couldn't have gotten we couldn't have waited like a couple of weeks and Till and Votori as ultimate fighter coaches there you go that would have been awesome I don't know like it wouldn't have held up a title shot

I know Till probably wouldn't have been oh I guess he wouldn't have been able to be as involved because we know he has an injury. But again, there's a lot of ways they could work around. That's TV, right? It's TV. I'd just so much rather have that fight be booked and then hyped and delayed than what we got with Volcanovsky and Ortega. But that's a whole other story, I guess.

I'll tell you what, if, like, if Robert Whitaker wins, if Robert Whitaker starches Calvin Gaslam, he's getting the rematch. But if he goes out there and wins a close decision, I still think Daryntill is going to be the next to fight for the help. I really do. So Vittori has options You know Let's say Votory has options The title is certainly one of them It just

I think in our eyes And I think we're speaking a little bit Through the eyes Speaking to the eyes You know you speak through the eyes Speaking to Hashtag speak through the eyes Speaking through the eyes

Of the matchmakers I don't think that they They have Votori at the top of their Title fight list either I would agree If we're being fair I do want to touch on Kevin Holland, AK.

But, yeah, we have to. I assume you think the move to 170 is imminent. That's it. Yeah, we mentioned before he's banned on the show. He's definitely banned making middleweight matchups because he'll jump in any of those in a second. We were saying on the, I don't know if it was a preview of the Q&A that like look for him to replace either Whitaker or Gaslam if God forbid something happens to one of them. And that's what he'll do. So he's banned.

But yes, in the broad sense, I think myself and a lot of listeners and readers and watchers are all saying he's got to try 170, right, Mike? Yeah, I mean, listen, I think the plan is you take some time off, you take, you chill out for a few weeks, you know, maybe do what you do with the, the wacky tobacco, relax, have a bite to eat, watch the movies, get your nutritionist ready to go once that time to kind of deal with what you dealt with fades away. And then you catch a flight to San Jose, get to AKA, you work with Habib and D.C. and Luke, it. and all those guys, Javier Mendez, and those wrestling machines over there, and then you go to 170. You take your time. There was a lot of rhyme in there.

I didn't even realize it. You just driving bar? I thought you had, you were going to, there was a fight. I'm like, what AKA guy's name ends with an ACE sound? Because like,

he's about to drop something here. There's got to be somebody. But the plan, but go to 170, and then you fight Mike Perry. There you go. That's what, that's what you do.

That's how you introduced to 1170. There's heat there. Perry's got one fight left on this. I think they would keep him around for a fight like that. That's what I would go with. So hopefully. But you know what's going to happen. Kevin Holland's going to end up fighting in three weeks.

I didn't want to deal with that. I don't even want to talk about it. That's why he's banned, banned from the program. Kevin, take a break, Kevin. Take a break. You're such a talent. So clearly, I get it. He did not look great against Tori or Bunsen.

But you see the, you could see the flashes, especially in the standup. I mean, especially in the standup. You could so see the flashes. And, you know, again, we're not saying a move to 170 fixes all the wrestling problems. There's so many strong wrestlers at 170. But that 15 pounds that you have to cut, it makes a lot of difference. It makes a lot of difference. So that plus, of course, like you said, really cracking down on the wrestling, just going all out on the wrestling defense and learning, you know, really, really getting those fundamentals down.

It'll help. There's no way he won't be a better fighter at 170. Completely agree. Now, the co-main event on paper and in the Octagon, as it played out, was the most interesting fight. of the entire weekend. We had two top level 45ers, unbeaten in the UFC, they collide and Arnold Allen comes away

with his O in the UFC still intact, his 10th straight win overall, now 8 and O in the UFC, now is the longest winning streak in the division right now, even above Alexander Volcanovsky. He hands Sadiq Yusuf his first UFC loss, and you know what, AK, whatever this guy

is selling, I'm buying it. In fact, I'm buying multiples. I'm going to BJ's wholesale club, and buying it in bulk. And having said that, Arnold Allen deserves an opportunity, and I want to give it to him. And the fight to make is Alan versus Sabit Magamette Sheripov.

Zabit is not fought since November 2019. He was booked against the I-Yea-Rodriguez a bunch. He kind of mismanaged his entire 2020 and didn't fight even when he had chances to fight. So this division, like I said, many times already on this program, it is passing him by. he needs to fight.

So fight Arnold Allen because he's not going to get the hallway fight to beat that is. He's not going to get a title fight anytime soon. He just needs to fight. That's what I'd like to see. You get two searching contenders in there. That's it. That's my pick. What say you?

Yeah, I agree. The title fight is not happening. That'd be crazy. I think we've all, I think we also want to see it someday. But for the most part, we've moved on from a year, yeah, years that beat for now. If it got booked, obviously, we'd be excited. But I don't think anyone will be disappointed anymore if, like, the next. fight for either of those guys as not each other.

There's just been too many stops and stars. And some weird circumstances do. I like, I like Allen's suggestion he had post-fight press conference. He's just kind of looking ahead and said, what would be a fun matchup? And he's like, oh, you know, maybe the Dan Egey Korean zombie winner. It is a little bit far ahead. It is June. So that's a long break for Arnold Allen should he decide to wait for the winner of that fight.

But he kind of mentioned something about wanting to take some time back home. Obviously, he was a long layoff. He was off for over like 440 days. And I'm sure he wants to get back in there soon. But at the same time, a little rest and relaxation isn't going to kill him. Spending time and back home in England is probably good for him. So if he decides to take a healthy break, it's got another, yeah, not as long. I like that idea.

I definitely like that idea. And my only thing with guys matching with guys up as a beat, Bryce Mitchell is I'm just, I just don't know where these guys are as far as getting set up with fights because they get thrown up by listeners all the time. And honestly, I don't know. We just got to track these guys down and find out what's up. But yeah, Zabit would be a great matchup. I would love to see Zabit call for it or his management call for it.

Either one, I don't know if that's going to happen. And then, but otherwise, yeah, maybe he waits for an exciting fight with Ege or zombie. Yeah, I'm fine with that. I know Calvin Cater is a popular pick. I'd be down for that fight as well. So we'll see what happens. 45 is such a good division. It's super deep and there's a lot of talent.

No doubt about that. Nice win for Arnold Allen. So did Yusef. pretty solid performance and defeat as well. So we move ahead to Julian Marquez, one half of the fight of the night. He puts Sam Alvey to sleep with a rear naked choke after hurting him badly on the feet. Marquez now 2-0. Two submission wins in 2021 after a super long layoff.

He's called on Miley Cyrus. He's called up Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey. Who are you calling, AK, to be the next opponent for the, Cuban missile crisis. I, excuse me, I am sticking with the mashup that we all wanted after that last win. You know, this is a turnaround, a quick turnaround for Marquez. He was replacing Zach Cummings. That's why we're doing Marquez again so soon. Unfortunately, the guy I recently wanted was booked, but I still want this. I still want Marquez versus Jun Yang Park. Park is now fighting Tefan and Chukwe on May 8th, but if Park wins, I think that's still the matchup to make.

I don't know if people feel Marquez, you know, now because he's got another, he's got another win I think three wins now in total in the UFC that he's kind of leapfrogged Park or or it was already ahead of him and so far ahead of him doesn't make sense anymore But for some reason that matchup is still sticking out to me If in Chukwe won, I wouldn't be as jazzed to see him fight Marcus I think he's a bit further behind So so it's kind of weird I kind of need Park to win on this one but I'm standing by There's other options, but I'm standing by that one. It's still a fight. I really want to see for some reason Yeah, I think that was my pick as well Coming out of the Marquez win in what I think it was I don't know when it was but it wasn't long ago

Oh, March maybe. But listen, the correct answer, and we've talked about this already, the correct answer is Joachim Buckley. But as he told me on what the heck, that is James Krause's fight. Krause called dibs and basically laid down the gauntlet to anybody in the gym. Either Krause fights Buckley or none of the glory guys fight Buckley. Like when you talk that greas in this, Krause wants that fight and doesn't want anybody else taking it. And I get that.

So I like the park idea. If he wins, cool. If something happens with Enchukui and he needs a new opponent, you could slot Marcus in there. That's just fine. If not, listen, Marquez versus anybody is fun. Anybody. But I'll go with Marquez versus Andrew Sanchez. That's a fun scrap.

Ah, yes. I'm cool with that. Al Derte. El Derte versus the Cuban Missile Crisis. That's just fun. That's a Jed Mishu special right there. He's got such a good gimmick going, Marquez. Such a good gimmick.

For anyone who, by the way, he didn't see that he called it the Chief Players. And the Chiefs players all have responded. So again, I don't know if there's something going on where Marquez has some sort of Hollywood sports entertainment like connection. And that's, you know, if these callouts are like predetermined or whatever. But either way, even if it is, let me put this way. Even if all this is like the stuff with Mys Cyrus and stuff with the Chiefs is all kind of like part of, you know, some business plan. And they're all in it. I still think it's cool.

I still think it looks cool. I think it looks cool for a fighter. I think it looks cool for the UFC. So, yeah, whether it's real or not, whether it's all kind of put on. I like the act. And I think it's a very, very good for Marquez. Yeah. Now we go to McKenzie Dern A.K. And I'd say like once an episode, we go on a journey. And I think this might be the journey because what a- Yeah, what a performance. She submits Nina Nunes in the first round with an arm bar. She made it look easy.

And on Tuesday, she will be at worst a top six fighter at 115 pounds, maybe even a top five fighter in the straw white division. And she is absolutely a problem for anybody in the, in this division. She could do what she did to Nina Nunes to anybody in this division if a fight gets to the ground. And the scary thing is, she is nowhere near a finished product, nowhere near it, which if I'm somebody at 115 in the top five, I'm like, I better get her now. But look, I know I've talked to McKenzie Dern a million times over the years. She isn't a big callout fighter. She's not a trash talker, but those aren't always one and the same, AKA, like calling somebody out doesn't make you a trash talker, doesn't make you a mean person. So I kind of think she missed an opportunity here, my best friend. I really wish she called out Yawani and Jacek. And even if she said her name,

doesn't mean she's getting the fight, but even if she said something like, listen, I want somebody in the top five. I know Yowana doesn't have an opponent lined up. I would like that fight. Something like that because had she done that, that would have generated a lot of buzz. Every headline would have said, Mackenzie Dern submits Nina Nudez calls for fight with Yawani and Jacek, something to that effect. Instead, she's still going to get like an important fight, but it won't be that big. And had she mentioned Yauta's name, I bet the UFC looks at that fight very seriously. That could be a fight night main event too. What I think ends up happening now, even though it's a risky fight, I think the UFC will go the McKenzie Dern versus Marina Rodriguez track because it makes sense.

The rankings will line up perfectly. Either Dern's going to be a spot ahead or behind Marina Rodriguez. And hardcore fans will love that fight. I will love it too. I will sign up, sit and watch it and enjoy it. But I think she could have gotten the Yana fight. She still could, but her chances would have been better if she just said her name somewhere in that post-fight interview. I'm not mad at the approach.

it was a slight whiff, a slight one, in my humble opinion. But she'll have some other options as well with the fight coming up with, we got the title fight, we got Asparza versus Janjanan. Great night for Dern overall. A minus, could have been an A plus. I took us on the ride, but you and I talked about that in our Slack DM yesterday. I was just like, call out Yuana, say her name, and she didn't do it. What did you think?

And she could have been so nice about it, too, just like, oh, you know, I've always looked up to her. It would be an honor to fight her class. You know, the classic, it would be an honor. And you could ramp up the trash talk later. But yeah, you're right. Again, she mentioned a bunch of names, too, because she mentioned, of course. She mentioned Zhang. She mentioned Rosenomero Junice.

She mentioned Yon Chonan. She mentioned Carlos Garza. She mentioned a lot of people except for Yohanna. So for me, that would be a great matchup. In a perfect world, I would also love to see Tatiana Suarez matchup. Again, in her world, Tatiana Suarez is completely healed for whatever's ailing her and can, you know, gets a big fat pay raise and she fights McKinsey Duren. But again, I just don't know what's up with Suarez.

So whenever her matchup gets announced, you know, we'll all be happy. but no idea. I don't hear anything brewing. So for now, I do like also the idea of the Jan Asparza winner. The only issues I'm sure someone would argue that Yan or Asparza should become the number one contender after that fight, which is fair. It would probably depend how they won if it was a competitive but an eventful decision. I could see the UFC not wanting to necessarily give them a title fight and wanting to give Dern a chance at one of them instead. So that's sort of my boring choice.

Is the worst option? I don't know why I thought this is possible. But is this like the worst possible option? Like a Tisha Torres. Is that like the last person you want Dern fighting right now? Oh, she's, yeah, that's the worst. She's beyond that. She's way, she's beyond that.

Probably below, so yeah, yeah, Tisha, I mean, well below Dern in the rankings right now after that win last night. And also someone who I think would be a tough, a tight fight for Dern as well. Maybe not someone you want to master making. If you're trying to build up Dern, you want to throw in there necessarily. Yeah, I mean, it's, It's kind of a risky fight, but I think, I mean, I would push Dern as a heavy, heavy favor in that fight. Because her striking is getting a lot better.

Like, she went in, she got inside Nunes real fast. Like, she was able to close that distance real quick, get her up against the fence. She was landing some good shots. Torres is good at keeping from distance, but eventually Dern's going to get her hands on her. And there's, I don't care who you are in that division. She's so strong, though. You're going for a ride. You're going down and you're getting subbed.

I mean, Tisha Torres is so strong, too. She is. No wonder. I want to see it. I think it's a bad matchup. Just, I'm not necessarily bad for Dern, like, I think you're going to lose, but just bad as in stylistically, I don't know. But it'd be cool, though, but I think it'd be a nice test.

So, I don't know. I could see that. I could see that matchup being made. I'm just done people will check the tapes six months from now. Don't be surprised. I don't love it, but I could see it be happening. Yeah, I think. That's a warning.

This is a two, if it was like two fights ago, I'd be all in. Yeah. But when you go in and you sub a top five fighter in the first round, I don't think you can go back and fight Tisha Torres at this point. But we'll see. If she wants to stay active, she wants to play the Kevin Holland role, we could see that fight. But now we head to the Walterweight Division. We head to Daniel Rodriguez, battered Mike Perry for 15 minutes to earn his fourth UFC win.

He should honestly be 5 in the UFC right now, but I thought he got a bit of a hoax job from the judges against Nicholas Dalby. But good bounceback win for D-Rod, good name to have on the resume. And we found out after the win that he fought with a torn pectoral muscle, which he's suffered a month before the fight, which is even more impressive. But big win for DROT, AK. What do you want to see next for him? Let's give Daniel Rodriguez. I have another boring choice.

Guys, I'm a boring person. We know that anyone who listens to the show regularly knows this. Let's give him the Randy Brown, Alex Oliveira winner. They fight on April 24th. I know. I know there's a lot of people that probably want to jump DROD into the top 20. maybe he's there already. I don't know. I don't think he's quite there yet in my own personal rankings. But I love what I see from Daniel Rodriguez. He's already got wins over some veteran guys.

But I'm just, for me, I want to see him. I just want to keep testing him. I want to keep testing. I'm in no rush to put him on that championship track where we're talking about how close you are. Do you think you're ready to a title shot? He might be like two fights away. I don't know. But I don't want him to have to answer those questions yet. I want him still taking fun, competitive fights and build up his resume. and so that a year from now, I would look at a year from now, we're really talking about Daniel Rodriguez and the Weltoite telepictures. So boring answer, April 24th, Randy Brown, Alex Olivera. Give me, give DeRod the winner that fight. There's a lot of fun options out there for D.Rod.

I like the Nico Price idea that seems to be a popular one on the post-fight show. Carlos Condit was thrown out there. I like that idea. Robbie Lala was thrown out there. I like that idea as well. but kind of like you did with Julian Marquez, I'm going to go back, check the tapes to last year when Rodriguez knocked out Dwight Grant. I'm going to go back to it. Rodriguez versus the James Krause.

I still think it's the fight to make, especially with Buckley out of the equation. And a win over Krause gets you very close to the top 15. So that's my pick. I'm going with that one, AK. I'm not going to lie. I keep forgetting to make matchups for James Krause. I just think of him as this brilliant coach now. he's also a brilliant fighter

you know that's right and it's not like he hasn't been active he's been he's been fighting recently so I don't know what I just keep forgetting to make matches for him so yeah no it's a great matchup it's a great matchup but yeah I just keep the game as coach uh coach a match against imagine if James Krause could coach James Krauss how powerful he would be I just I hate the one thing I just don't like about ESPN Plus

oh god like why do you go to so many commercial breaks like we're paying a premium for your product like come on now like if you want to do it during the premium it's fine, but once we get to the main card, like, I want to hear what James Crows says to Julia Marquez between rounds. Like, I love that stuff. We miss the Grant Dawson advice until we started on social media the next day. Come on.

Let us see the corner advice, especially when Krause is out there. Yeah, yeah, I'm up in Canada. And we get commercials because, again, it's on TV. I am not, we don't have ESPN Plus appear. So I'm not paying. How much is the month? ESPN Plus? It's five.

It's only five bucks a month. Five USD. That's like $30 Canadian. So give or take a few percent. That's like $30 Canadian. And if I was paying $30 Canadian for a subscription service a month and getting commercials, I'd be like, what, I mean, what the, what the hell is? So that really, that should be one of the benefits of a streaming service is that you get

to show everything, right? Isn't that one of the cool things that like when you have a fight pass or you have a ESPN plus that you think like, oh, cool, I'm going to get to see everything and then you get hit by, I imagine the same three commercials over and over again as well. And that's what pisses me off too. Oh, that drives me nuts. That sucks. But to more positive things, let us head to the wild card round.

We're going to select a fighter. We have not matched for yet. And we will do so right now. So it could be a winner on the prelims, could be a loser on the prelims, could be a loser on the main card. The sky is the limit, my best friend. So what is your wild card selection coming out of UFC Vegas 23? Oh, I don't want to possibly spoil your selection. Are we not doing Joe Selecki, the big featured prelim winner, Joe Selecki?

I wasn't planning on it. We can. Go ahead. Yeah, if you want to go select you. Go Selecki. Yes, I'm sorry. Normally we would do six. It was a five-fight main card.

But it's such an eventful main card. I didn't think we, yeah, you're right. But I'll throw it out there. I, again, another guy, kind of in Daniel Rodriguez's position, so many directions to go. A lot of good listeners suggestions, so I'll leave some of these alternates to them. But I got a, I got a weird thing where I want to fight another veteran. And I like him fighting Leonardo Santos. I think it's another good veteran test.

I think it's someone who's higher than him in the rankings. I think it's a good style matchup. I also like Santos a lot. I want to see how much Santos has left. I know he got knocked out by Dawson at the end of that fight, but I felt it was pretty competitive going up to that point. Dawson was going to get the decision to win anyway, but I felt it was pretty competitive up to that point.

So I want to see how much Santos left, one of the older guard in the lightweight division, but a guy who I still think looks really good and can beat a lot of the lower half of the lightweight division. So Lucky, I think, is no longer part of that lower half, but how closely to the kind of top 20? I don't know. This is a good test for him.

So yeah, that's so you can take that as much. maybe a half wild card for showing some love to Solekke. Yeah. God, I don't know what to do with Selecki, to be honest with you. I mean, it's a good win. He did what he had to do to get it done. He's a mature guy. You did a great interview.

For anyone who didn't listen, by the way, Mike, Selecky did do, was on what the heck recently. Great interview with Mike. He's a dad now. So there's some dad's strength there. Recently he came father. There's some dad's strength there. And he's also a Jersey boy.

So it was kind of cool that he got to fight Jim. I think he said he said they'd never. They never really, they never met, but obviously I think any fighter coming up in New Jersey over the last decade knows who Jim, you know, kind of looks up to Jim Miller as a guy who's just an absolute legend. 37th, 37th UFC appearance for Jim Miller. That's insane. That's so wild. You know what? Because I'm going to go to the winner of Jukar Close versus Jeremy Stevens.

Where wins that fight? We'll go. It gets Joe's lucky next. I'm not, I'm not ready. I know Dana White kind of sold this fight. as listen, we like Joe Selecki. We see a lot in him. You know, if he can beat Jim Miller, he's ready for the top 15.

And he might very well be. I just don't know if that performance was enough to get him a top 15 opponent. I mean, this is still a step up. I think close and obviously Stevens has a name. The winner of that, I think is fine. I think that's a good little step up. Lightweights loaded. But wild card wise, AK, who you got?

I got to show some love to Daun Jung. I thought he looked great against William Knight. I picked against him as a, again, well, my picks are terrible, so that means nothing. So, yeah, I like what he showed against William Knight. Look, nothing fancy. He knows it's a better wrestler, taller fighter, take this guy down, control him. William Knight, dangerous guy. So good strategy, you're down.

3-1 now in the UFC unbeaten. That's always nice. So it's time for him to step up. You know, when I see you get that third year, it's time for a bit of a step up. Not a big one, but I want to see him fight a guy who just won a close decision. Michael Oleg Sechuk. So, you know, again, nothing fancy, but just keep both guys moving along to, I think, potentially, I think top 15, light heavyweights.

I'm not saying world title contenders, but top 15 ranked guys, yeah. So Daun Jung and Michael Oleg J. Chich, that's my option. There's other options for Young as well. But again, some of the readers covered these, so I'll leave those mentions to them. I also picked William Knight to win that fight. And I'll tell you what, the way those first two rounds played out was exactly the way I thought the first two rounds were going to play out. And I thought, like, Knight was just going to, like, come through in the third. Because, like, literally, if you go back and you, if you watch every William Knight fight, like, that's pretty much what happens in every William Knight fight.

Like, he gets beat up. He gets in big trouble, almost gets finished. And then he comes back and wins. Like, that's what he does. So I just kind of pictured more of the same. didn't happen. I think Dao Njong did his homework well, his team especially. So good on him, good win. But I am going with Matush Gamrod. I think this guy is the real deal, picked up his first knockout win of his career against Scott Holtzman. I know he's had some

TKO finishes along the way, but this is his first knockout in the books. And Holtzman is tougher than a $2 stake, to quote good old J.R. So this is a good win. That was a good test, especially coming off the kind of controversial loss to Gurum Kutatalatsi. But I want to see more. I think he's ready for a top 25 guy. I think he's ready for a top 20 guy, okay? And I'm ready to give him a good test. So let's do it. Matush Gamrot versus Drew Dober.

Let's have some fun at 155A Kizzle. That's fire. That's such a fire matchup. There's a lot. Listeners, Gamrot, I would wager, was one of the three most matched up fighters this week, I think. Like I said, there was a lot of listeners just this week. So I'm probably, it's probably close, but Gamrod real, look, he had a lot of buzz coming into the UFC, let's be honest here, a two division champion in KSW.

He was 17 and O, I think, coming in. I think that his, the Kutatilatze loss was the first one. And it was such a close fight. I know some people actually had it for Gamrod. So people were really kind of expecting him to do well against Holstman. I don't know if they saw a knockout, but, and such an impressive one too. But, yeah, he really showed up. So, the Gamrod stock.

If it was down at all, it went right back up, right back up after the last night. Yeah, even Kutata Latsay scored it for Gamrod, if you remember his best interview. So do we have some check? Do we have check the tapes? Oh my gosh, don't we? I'm giving myself credit. I'm sure some listeners called this as well. But Seville Gan versus Alexander Volkov.

I think what I said specifically was, well, because I've been matching this one up for a while, it was something like I wanted, oh, Volkov versus the gone, Rosenstruck winner. This is way, way, way, long time ago. And then when Gone won, I said, stick with that. So I've been on this path for a while and given myself a little pat in the back, a little tape check. Again, I know other people wanted to. That one goes down, Gone versus Blockoff, June 26th. Mike, I think you just, I don't know if you was whatever, the last card that Toibasa fond.

And that was two weeks ago, right? Tuvaasa? Two weeks ago or three weeks ago. Tuvasa and Greg Hardy? Yeah, it was a 260? Two, 59, maybe? It was a lot. It was the most recent pay-per-per-view, I think.

Anyway, I remember it's terrible. But anyway, you definitely called for Tuvasa for Zhe Greg Hardy. That was going on in July 10th. Again, I know other people did too, but of course I give Mike credit first. So check the tips on that. Mike, that's a point for you. A point for everyone and for freedom. They're rescheduling of Neil on Neal.

I mean, this is, I, Mike, my heart is so full. I'm sure they reached out to you as well. So many people reached out to me when they said. So many. Literally the message were just like, I'm so hyper for you. That this is like not even. So I'm so happy And I'm like, I'm happy.

And I just replied as a few I'm like, I'm so happy for all of us. I'm happy for everyone. So May 8th is, I mean, a month. It's still a month away. So fingers crossed. I hope everything's okay at both these guys and this fight goes down.

Because yes, we need hashtag Neil on Neil. People, we made this happen. We made this happen. Shout us to the listeners. A lot of them wanted Macy Barber versus Miranda Maverick. And that is now going down July 24th. Tristan Gorda in our emails was particularly proud, boasting about it.

He said you, I don't know if he said you didn't like it. Or he was like, I'll read the Tristan's message. Tristan said, I think Mike is going to want to edit out what he said about Miranda fighting the winner of Lee and Antonina. I don't know what that means. Were you particularly against Maverick, Barber? I wasn't against it for the matchup. I was against it because the UFC sees Macy Barber as like a potential big star for this division.

So why in God's name would you put her in there with Miranda Maverick? Like that's why I wasn't against it. I wasn't against the fight. I was against the notion of the fight and the way the UFC handles themselves because they've put Macy in some tough spots already. First you throw in there with Roxy. I mean, that's fine.

Like, I actually thought that was the right matchup. Yeah. But then you bring her back against Alexa Grasso, which is a really tough fight. And now you're putting her up against Miranda Maverick? Like, that's why I was against it. Like, why would you do that to her? Like, it's not like she can't win,

but I'm definitely favoring Miranda Maverick in that fight. Yeah, it's even for me, you know me, I'm always like, I don't care, throw prospects against each other. Even for me, I was kind of like, I didn't love them doing it now. So I'm looking forward to the fight. I don't think a third loss for Barbara should be like the end of her as a prospect or, and I'm sure the UFC would not cut her. I think they have a lot invested in her.

My own hope is should Barbara lose again? And again, it's not guaranteed. Like I said, we're all favoring Maverick. Barber's very talented. Who knows how much she improves for her next fight. But if in the distinct possibility that she loses again, I would hope the UFC would recalibrate how they're masturbating for her. Because she is very talented and very young in her career. She's taking fights that most people her age should not be taking.

And while that's a selling point at first, once you start losing those fights, it just becomes, oh, this person's inexperienced and shouldn't be having these fights. So sorry, guys, that has a whole other podcast there. Also, everyone wants listeners, Zombie versus Ige. It was just a logical matchup. Everyone wanted it. Dan Ike wanted it. Korean zombie wanted it. Listeners want it.

So that's June 19th. So there we go. And I think I have to give credit to our regular Instagram contributor, Jacob Best, for Amanda Hebas versus Angela Hill going down on May 8th. Again, this is what a lot of people called for, but I think it was after, who fought more recently? Hill, I think. And I think a lot of people called it for that.

Jacob Best has been on this since January. So he called this three months ago. He wanted to see Heba's fight, Angela Hill, excuse me. So I'll give Jacob Best to credit for that one. So check the tape. So yeah, a lot of tapes are check, guys. I'm sure I missed some. And again, credit to anyone who had some of the suggestions I mentioned,

but I want to sort of give to first mention the tape check. Yep. Yeah, I think that was, I'm pretty sure I picked that one at some point. Yeah, it's a great matchup. Aspen Ladd versus Macy Chiazon, which is added. Did you call for that? I did not call for that, but that was just a fun matchup that they added. Some good stuff.

Some good stuff. Let's go to the Peeves. I'll just read the DMs. quick because there's so freaking many of them. Henry Terry, Dern versus Marina, book the damn thing. That's all I have for on to the next one. He is excited. Harper.

Harper H. Drod versus Ponziobio, Julian Marquez versus either Brad Tavar's or Akhmadoff. Unfortunately, he goes, unfortunately I'm going to use the Josh Emmett card and say rebook Emmett versus Arnold Allen. Obviously Marvin versus Costa, just so I can see Marvin get knocked out.

and then if Uriah Hall wins beats Chris Wyman and he says Holland versus Uriah Hall which is an interesting fight Of course again I have to throw out the Josh Emmett contingency He's going to be out for a while He'll be in my opinion

I don't think he'll fight this year he might If he does and won't be to like December So could be quite a bit of time Before we see him Let's see Sean Bradley Dern went out and dominated against number five she deserves a big fight against Ioanna and Jacek. Might be a jump, but I think she's the real deal.

Holland had some huge strikes, but Marvin dominated. I'd love to see Marvin versus Whitaker, if he wins next week, and the winner will fight Israel Adasani later in the year. I'm a big Holland fan, but he needs to drop to 170. If he wants to be a contender, I think I saw Neil versus Neil on the book. So let's get Holland versus Ponsonibio at 170. That's interesting. Arnold Allen versus Sabit.

from Jack Porter, Dern versus Joanna, Marquez versus Tavares. Also, I think you could re-book Vittori and Till for a chance of the title. If they aren't going to give Vittori the title shot first, obviously that would be down the line, though. That's from Jack Porter. Let's see.

John George, Mike Perry versus Michelle Paheta. Last fight on Perry's contract, good opponent to make a possible splash against or book his ticket back to the regional scene. Jim Miller versus Michael Johnson. Kind of the same thing. Loser Goes Home match, but still good. opportunity for either play to revive themselves.

Sardig versus Cubb Swanson, if Cub can get a win in his next fight. Here's an interesting question, A.K., from Mr. George. Could Kevin Holland be the one to get Nick Diaz out of retirement? I saw that. I saw people suggesting this. Is this a thing? Why is this a thing? I didn't even think it was a thing.

It's a thing apparently. Is it a thing? Yes. Yeah, I got some. I'll, yeah. Who sent you that? This was John George. Okay, no, we got, John George, presumably, from the United States.

I could be wrong. But the other concession came from our boy, Toke Gerting Jensen, in Denmark, who also, he said, apparently, he said he was doing, Chil Sonan was doing a watch-al-al-al-and, and I think Chelsonan might have brought it up. I don't, I'm not saying that's where George got his idea from, but it is out there. Somehow it is out there. So it was apparently suggested by one Mr. Chal-P. Sonan. So no higher authority than he. him. And I guess that's, it's being spoken into existence. Yeah.

All right. Patrick Austin had a lot of suggestions. And a question for you, AK. Oh. He says, Gamrod versus Alexander Hernandez. Joe Selecki versus Magaamemun Moustif. D. Rod versus Nico Price. Dern is ready for Yohanna. Kevin Hahn versus Hamzat Shemayev, either way class. And his wildcar pick is Sadiq Yusuf versus Bryce Mitchell, which I I actually like that fight. I think that makes a lot of sense. But Patrick Austin would like to know, is there a spot where the fans could see the rankings for the fighters?

Yes, look, we are, I don't want to build up too much hype. The gears are in motion. The gears are in motion for an MMA fighting rankings. My mystery rankings shall remain a mystery. Perhaps I may periodically tweet out sections of it, but my rankings are, Because look, we all have different criteria. So I would not dare to speak for M.R. May fighting.

But we will hopefully have some sort of consensus rankings out. I am going to say on the air to force myself to get this sort of thing. Before the end of the summer. That seems reasonable. So before the end of June. Or sorry, by the end of June. There you go, guys. I'm saying on to the next one.

I am setting a very soft deadline for myself. We will have. And hopefully before that, hopefully before that. But there's a lot of complications. One of the biggest things, and if people have suggestions, excuse me guys, if people have suggestions on, like, and questions about sorting out the rankings, because that's our biggest thing. Just trying to figure out what the rule should be for rankings. There's so many things. When do you remove someone if they don't have a booking or if they're injured? If they change divisions, they compete in two divisions. There's, how does MMA math work? You know, you have three guys who fight each other sort of in some sequence and then one guy beats another guy, da-da-da. There's a lot. And we all disagree. I mean, on staff, we all kind of have different opinions and have view these things. Should the UFC champion, by the way, when we do rankings, it'll be probably be UFC belt or everything. So should the UFC champion always be number one? I know there's people on our staff who don't agree.

I have some people say, Al's Remain Sterling, I'll ask you, Mike. Is Alzerman Sterling the number one bansomweight in the UFC right now? Well, he's the champion. I agree. But we have some people, Casey Leiden, who still have Peotor Yon number one. And I tried to explain to him, Casey, the UFC tells me who's number one by who they put the gold belt on. So I don't know what you're talking about, having an opinion that the UFC doesn't agree with. I think you're crazy.

So, no, I don't know. But it is a legitimate question because if there's people out there who told me that they think Peotor Young is still the number one bantam weight, there's a strong argument for it. I don't agree. I would put Aljo, but how can you definitively say Aljo is better than Peot or Yan? We don't know. That's why we need to see that rematch. Fingers crossed, hopefully October.

So sorry, guys. Yeah, so to answer that question. Rankings soon. Fingers crossed. I'm crossing my fingers, guys. You can't see it. but I'm crossing both of my fingers, and I do want to have MA fighting rankings.

All right. Excellent. So look for that soon. Peter Rideau, Vittoria versus Canaanair, Holland versus Woodley, which I actually don't dislike that too much. Although I don't think we're going to see Woodley again.

And then a random pick was Holloway versus the beat. Zach Diamond-Sampson, Marquez versus Eric Anders, D-Rod versus Jake Matthews, Giga Chikaze versus, Sudeek Yusuf? Hmm. And I need to see Rugg-Rug-Rug against anyone.

Yes. Shout-outs to Rugg-Rug-Rug. Evan Rodriguez, Marvin Vittori versus Paul Costa, Arnold Allen versus Calvin Cater, Julian Marquez versus Ian Hinesh, McKenzie versus Yuana, Daniel Rodriguez versus Robbie Loller,

Jack Shore versus Nathaniel Wood, England on England. Let's do it. And then D-Rod versus Ponsadibio from our good friend Matt Bradbury. And that's all mine, I believe. Yes.

There you go. Daniel, wait, Jack Shore is also English. I always get him, I'm getting people confused. Yeah, Jack Shore is from. Where's Jack Shore from? No, he is Welsh. Welsh. Oh, damn it. How dare you?

How dare you confuse the good people of Wales? For all our whales, listen to there, I know what happens. See, that thing. I know what happens all the time. I've done it before, too. I'm pretty sure I've called like Brett Johns and Englishmen. and no it is not the same thing it would be like calling me an American or calling you a Canadian right it's not it's not they're calling someone from New Zealand Australian calling from Washington from Australia anyway but yes well Welsh versus England story robbery

that's all that's all mine yeah I'm gonna do a quick rewind I don't know if you can find this one you mentioned one match up for Michael Johnson what was it can you go Miller Jim Miller oh I didn't see that okay I have I saw how to Michael Johnson matchup people suggested I was that it wasn't that one though but yeah I guess it was that one though but yeah I It easily could happen. Okay. So that was a lot of listeners. I have more.

Guys, I'm going to have to skim through. If I skip anyone, I apologize in advance. So Vittori, yes. I saw a pretty split. This is, by the way, just a general reader suggestions. For Votori, I saw a pretty even split between Canaaner, Costa, and just waiting for Till. Arnold Allen, pretty even. Oh, well, the only one we didn't mention somehow.

Calvin Cater. Calvin Cater, Mike. Is that not, do we just not know when Cater's going to come back? I mean, Cater's come up. I mean, Cater came up on the post-fight show. Cater came up through that slew of DMs a couple of times. I don't know when he's coming back. It seems there to, like if you watch the interview, I do a Tyson Chardier, like a month after the fight,

he basically said, like, we're slowly going to bring him back. He's going through concussion protocols. I believe the next trip to the PI is scheduled for July where Cater's going to get checked out again. just to make sure that, you know, everything's progressing the way they wanted to. And the plan was like the fall, September, October for Cater. So, and it could be that way, or maybe it could be longer. But they're taking a very slow, calculated approach as to when he comes back. He will fight again this year, but I think it won't be until like maybe October at this point.

Yeah, okay. And I agree. That's why Alan versus Cater was not. the top of my list, but I did see a few people mention it. Kevin Holland versus the Sean Strickland, Christoph Jockko winner. They fight on May 1st. Holland versus Strickland is one, frankly, I wouldn't mind if you fought either of those

guys if he staying at 185, which I don't think you should do. But we do want to see him fight Strickland at some point just for the, just the amount of talking about this one for a while. I think this came up, I think last year when Strickland started putting the other wins, we were like, yeah, him in Holland. It just makes a lot of sense to be a great fight. So again, win or lose. I wouldn't mind seeing him matched up with Sean Strickland.

Yusuf, people kind of want, I think there's a bit of people that want to see Yusuf and Edson Barbosa rebooked. So whether Barbosa beats or doesn't beat Shane Burgos, I'm okay with that. They were supposed to fight October 10th. So I could see that getting rebooked regardless of what happens with Barbosa's next fight. Marquez versus Giles, they said. So there's a little revenge for James Krause. So kind of, so not the Joaquin.

Oh, yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, that's interesting. Okay, I could see that. He could sell that too. Joe Selecki versus Vince, Vince Pichel. It's a good test. I looked at that one. Yeah.

I mean, what I'm concerned about is that that fight would be like exactly the same as the Jim Miller fight. I kind of. You know what I mean? I think he might have passed it. Yeah. I mean, where is Vince Pichel? That's what I want to know. Where is he?

Just chilling. He just fought last year and got a big win. He's like, I want to stay active. We've even seen him since. So we'll see. I feel like we've thrown Pachella out so many times on this show already. Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's a good veteran option.

I had to mention this one just because people kept asking, at least two people asked for this. Rodriguez versus Tim Means. Guys, he beat Means. He beat Means his YouTube. And that was last February. Guys, it wasn't a long time ago. He submitted him. I know he mis-emitted him.

I know COVID time is like double, so it feels like maybe it was like two years ago. But this fight is still very fresh in my mind. So I'm a little surprised at least two people threw that one out there. Guys, that's he beat him or he beat Tim Means. A rematch somewhere down the road, sure, but I mean like way down the road. I don't see why they would, I don't think Don Rodriguez has to take that rematch now. Did you say, any of your suggestions, Rodriguez versus Robbie Lawler? Yes.

Yeah, okay. That makes a lot of sense to me. McDessie versus Bobby Green, but I just bring it up because how does it not happen before? I know. And I was saying, like, have they been matched up and it got canceled? Like, I don't think so. I could be wrong. Maybe it was booked at some point.

It just sounds like it's been booked. You know what? You know what to be an interesting one for McDessie? Rebook the fight with Devante Smith. There's some, there's some sizzle there. There's some heat from the past. When were they supposed to fight? Last year?

Yeah, that was the one where, after it went from John McDessie to clay collared to Commonwealth. Oh, yes, one of those mutant fights. I love them. Shoutouts to Man Mountain, George's Daniel, who comes back after over friggin' five years of not fighting, gets a one-punch case. no $50,000 bonus. And by the end of the night, completely forgotten.

I didn't see anybody talking about it. Thank goodness, of course, our listeners are always on point. They liked George Stanoe versus Dantel Mays, good matchup. And one that kept coming up, which I love because I have them right next to each other in my mystery rankings. Impakasanganae versus semi-the- Jedi Matt Semmelsberger. Whoa. I like it. It's just one of those weird matchups where somehow...

God, that's fun. It's such a weird. It's such a weird one. but I like it I like it because I'm gonna I looking very good at 170 big guy huge guy okay now okay so I'll tell you I just so many

I don't want to waste so much time like I'm doing now with my philippe with my bluster but I'm gonna skip some people but I don't want to skip a lot of our I never want to skip our new contributors so Justin Wennecker on email that said I've been listening to start have no clue why it took me so long to get on the fun freaking love you guys thank you Justin we love you too and he had some good suggestions as well

He wants for Tori v. Brunson, Gamrod Hernandez, and he's also down with Marquez versus Eric Anders or Andrew Sanchez. So thank you, Justin. He also says he fought a few professional fights 10 plus years ago, and all that really means for me now is that I watch these fights with such astonishment at what it takes to do this, fight in and fight out, which means I watch every single fight I possibly can. Gain to talk about it with my best friend every week as my job.

Sounds like a pretty awesome life, and you both seem like dudes who deserve that. And he says short emails in the future, promise. No, Justin, keep your emails long. write as much as you want your email was very welcome sir so thank you very much it is a pretty good life Mike yes uh Tirsten Gordette uh Dan Rodriguez chaos what's up with chaos he didn't get booked he hasn't been booked now there's chaos that that's fun now yeah I like that chaos Williams Jack Shore

Kung Ho Kang I like that and this one I really liked I should I should mention this first Joe Selecki versus Mark O Madsen now I know again we said Selecki is three and oh now he's kind of I am way above Oh, Madsen in the rankings. But I think it would be cool to have an Olympic wrestler. Let me put this way. An Olympic wrestler on his resume. Good style matchup.

So I like that. I think, I know it's, again, he is behind Selecky in the rankings. But I think so lucky if that was floated his way, he'd be like, yeah, that's interesting. So I'm down with that. And Harry Dwaskin, always contributing via email. We didn't mention, I got to throw this one out just because we haven't mentioned one of the winners. Luis Sadania versus Austin Lingo, fun matchup. Jack Shore

versus Chris Gutierrez or Kyler Phillips I didn't think of either of these names did you? I did not. They're ahead of him? Maybe they're a little too far ahead. I think the Gutierrez fight

is really interesting. Phillips is in the top 15 so I don't think that makes a whole lot of sense right now for him to step back and fight a dangerous guy like Shore but I like the Gutierrez matchup. I feel like Gutierrez,

I think they're right around the same place right now. I'll go to Twitter now, so many. Okay, Sammy James wants Gamrodroth versus Guida. Oh, Grant Doss. I would not be happy with that. Don't take my Gwina fight, Matthews. Back off, buddy. Marquez versus Mugman.

Oh, I know I mispronounce that. Murdov. MacMood Murdoch, excuse me. Oh, boy. Come on now. Sick. No, don't do that. Don't do that.

You can't give him Murdof. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come on. We like Julian. Like, I'm not saying he can't beat Murdof, but Murdof is an absolute animal. Like that guy, no, not yet. No, not yet.

If he wins one more. If he gets one more win, we'll give him Murdof. I'm into it. Sammy, I agree. Julian can do it. At casual Eves on Twitter, at, I want to say it's at, at casual Eves. Eves like Eve Edwards, Y, VES. He wants Michael Johnson versus John McDessie.

I think he even made a little graphic. So if you guys want to find Eve on Twitter, little graphic, show him some love. Eve, the hardcore casual, if you just want to search for his name. And there's another one of those, how is this fight not happened before? I just feel like it's a matchup that's been made, but Aronski, I don't know how I feel

with this, Mike. Shore versus Kenny? Sure. I'm in for that. Yeah, it's weird. I just don't, I don't know. Maybe I'm being too careful with Jack Shore. I know people were asking us before, like, they're very high in him saying he's a Gregor Gillespie level grappler and that he could have the same kind of success at 130.

35 pounds. So yeah, it's not crazy. Triple B had a really good suggestion, which I actually thought of two. I just don't like it because it's too far ahead. Punis Suriano and Anthony Hernandez are fighting on June 26th. And yes, either of those guys would be a great matchup for Julian Marquez, but June 26 is a long way away. And then after that, of course, they take their own breaks. So I don't know if Marquez wants to wait four or five months for his next fight or for his next, sorry, not even next flight. His next booking for it to be announced. So I do, but on paper that makes a lot of sense. And for some reason, he wants to set out or had to. I like that one a lot. So thank you, Triple B.

Oh, I had another message I wanted to read from Thomas Collins. Which matchup did I like here? So he still wants, he wants Allen versus Yeyer. He wants Allen versus Ayer. He says, I doubt the UFC is going to make Rodriguez versus Megamacharapov, given the number of times his previous meeting scheduled and canceled. I agree. So I propose this fight, which may give Allen a real boost in rankings,

and I think is a potential fight for him. even though it might be too big a jump. I don't think it's too big a jump. However, it is dependent on whether Alan can fight in the next six months. True, as he has fought quite infrequently over the past few years. And if he does not fight soon, I'm concerned he will unjustly be given someone outside the top of Dean as his next opponent. Yeah, I think that's actually a very legitimate concern, which be crazy because he's won eight straight fights in the UFC. Shoutouts, again, I mentioned Till Gordon-Jensen before.

I'm sorry, my boy, I'm going to have to skip over here. We have mentioned some of those matches already. Oh, I got to skip people. Mike, I hate skipping people. I'm keeping an eye on our timer. I just don't want to go too long. At Young Rabbi 86. Gamrodt versus Dawson?

Interesting. We mentioned, maybe after he hears this possibility that he might steal the Guida fight. I like that fight. I feel like, I don't know, I feel like they're going to give Grant what he wants and give him the Guida fight, even though I don't. I didn't love it at first. After talking to him, I like it more. but I'd rather, as a fan, I'd rather watch Dawson versus Gamrot. I like it.

I like that. But maybe my favorite Gamrod matchup. I love him to go a little bit outside the box, Mike. Barry O'Reilly says, Gamrot, let him welcome Patty Pimblit to the UFC. I love it. KSW versus Cage Warriors, let's go. Wow, I like that idea, too. That was so smart.

It's funny. It's funny. Literally, like, another idea for Mr. Gamrott just came in. Zach Anders just DM me and said, Gamrod versus Hanato Moikano. That's fun too. I'm telling you, he got so much buzz after that way. That was huge.

That was huge. Or so I should say, regained whatever buzz that he might have lost a little bit with not getting the decision in his debut. But yeah, Barry O'Reilly, very smart. I love that. One of my favorite. Gamrod from Michael Perugini, Gamarrod versus Mike Davis, I think is good. And Mike Davis versus anyone at this point. It's super exciting.

And then Julian Marquez, he joked Julian Marquez versus Liam Hemsworth. Ha, ha, ha, Michael, the Miley Cyrus. jokes are very are very like two months ago man come on let's we're on to a kansas city chiefs jokes now i know and then he says uh but really he says really darren win i'm like yeah okay marquez versus darrell mckelahy our guy he says uh young versus jung versus kutalaba yuan kutalaba devon clark winner that's on may first and he's like he also mentioned the possibility of gamrot versus uh close stevens april and last one from twitter leum perry i can't actually made it through these and got to mention almost everyone uh leon

Perry what did I made a note okay he wants a Vittorra he he says Vittori versus Adasanya let's just do it probably others are in contention but is he was going to give it to till with was going to give it to till with a win so just give it to Vittori okay Holland take time off working his take on defense dropped to welterweight and and then face the loser of Neil on Neil sure yeah I hadn't even thought of that he's fought Jeff before he's fought Jeff but Holland has fought Jeff before before on the regional scene

who won I have to I have to go back and look I'm not sure I think I want to say I want to say Kevin won where is that

where is it where is it where is it where is it wow this is way early Jeff Neal TKO win third round for Kevin

Holland for Kevin January of 2017 XKO 34 defended the title defended the XFO middleweight titles. So that'd be cool.

Yeah, I would love. Hey, I always love regional matchups back on the UFC level. I always think it's a fun, fun little narrative wrinkle you can add. Oh, sorry, there's two more because I like said, new people. At SEP underscore Fred with two D's, I don't know. Hollins train take that defense, go to Welterweight Division. And face an unranked guy. He says he wants Holland to face an unranked guy like Daniel Rodriguez, Miguel Baezza or Michelle Pereira.

After the win, you put him against a ranked welterweight. So he doesn't want to jump up Holland too fast. So, but I think we're all in agreement. Holland, please, Holland at the Walthyrate. And also, is Bittard, last name spelled the same way as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, C.J. Batard. Holland versus Pereira, he wants as well. Dern versus JJ. And more love for Jarvis Daniel versus the Tava Vandera winner, May 22nd. Oh, there's one more after you.

Guys, I'm sorry. Bear with me. We're doing good. We're doing good on time. Okay, okay. You're listening to yourself. This is yourselves, all right? Nate Andrews.

And I also say, listen, you might notice a common theme with some of the people I make sure to read as people who kiss our butts. So kiss our butts or send us money and you're guaranteed to have your contribution. Please do not send money. Nate Andrews says, long time listener, first time contributor loves OTTNO and a lot of compliments. And then this person gave us a Bell tour versus one matchup. That's why they need to be mentioned. So how awesome he says what a cross-moded Beltor versus one.

Juan Archiletta versus Adjiano Maraisch, Fight, B. Of course, Adirano is the flyweight champion of one, but they do fight at 135. So he wouldn't be like undersized against Archaletta. I mean, he looked pretty big against DJ. So, yeah, it wouldn't be terrible. I think he might be giving maybe a few pounds to Archiletta, but it wouldn't be crazy. They could build this fight as the title as Best of the West versus Beast of the East. And to me, this is one of the most fun, 135-pound matchups you can make worldwide.

He also says, I want you to know about Neil on Neal. I don't think I've been as happy for someone as I am for you since my friend got engaged last May. So thank you, Nate Andrews. That is such a lovely sentiment. All right, guys, one more run of names here. Harper also contacted me, Mike. I'm glad you got to his suggestions. He used me as his backup.

So glad he got on the show. Abakai Saldania versus Josh Kulabau, Jacob Best, Gamrott versus Diego Fehera. Too much too soon? No. He's a champion. I keep, again, you know right, I keep thinking like Gamrodt, oh, he's only got two fights in the UFC.

It's like he's been doing damage over in a major promotion overseas. He's not an experienced guy at all. Okay, yeah, that's a good man. Thank you, Jacob, best. You said Matt Bradbury contacted you, right? Yeah, I read Matt Bradbury. Matt, you're not, Matt, you're not doubling up. Come on, man.

He's done that before. I know he has. And email. And he emails too. Let's try, Matt. Dylan, Dylan shoot says, Dan D-Rod, excuse me, versus Li Jing Liang.

Very possible. And then, Mike, I'm so excited because our guy, literally, whose username on Instagram, is literally just for Otno. Yes. That's literally just for Otno on Instagram. OTT on to the next one.

I got to read this whole thing. What's up, AK, I hope you're having a good weekend. Thanks for the shout on Otna. We did mention the account a couple of weeks ago, even though he had not, or last week, I think, even though he had not actually mentioned me yet. I'm not a big social media person, so I created this account just for suggestions for the show.

Not sure if you guys are doing anything for Bellator, but I thought I'd throw some names for the winners anyway. Just in case, this guy did a whole, like a whole Bellator 260. I think, sorry, 256 matchups, I think. I can't remember when I'm in 255 now. I'm just going to rapid fire these out there. John Duma, C.J. Halmson, Diana Absaragova, one of the stars of the weekend with her insane knockout of tariffraff versus Randy Field.

I don't know who Randy Field. Sorry, Randy Field if you're out there. I don't know who Randy Field is, Mike. This literally just brought him. This guy knows what he's talking about. Ninoa Dung versus Baby Slice. Jalen Bates versus Ittee Lipsick. You always talk about Ittee Lipsick all the time.

So I know you'll appreciate that matchup. These are real people, right? Can you look these out while? Jalon Bates. Jalon Bates looked awesome. Yeah, he looked phenomenal on Friday. It's a lipstick. I'm sorry, I've never heard of.

I'm going to be honest. Cody Law also had a big good win. Gabriel Varga. Jornell Lugo versus Franz Mlambo. Tolitin O'Gera and Leah McCourt. Dalton Rasta, maybe the most handsome man in Bellator. Sorry, everyone else in Belator. I think you're playing for second place.

Romero Cotton. Dan Marett versus Sydney Outlaw. Dan Maret winning that close, close, close, close, close, decision highly disputed winning winning highly disputed let's put it that way over at goy yamuchi uh he says katsungano just give her the the next title shot up to the cyborg smith with respect to uh what was olivia parker and gabriel holloway clearly they were filled up fights to get this zangano uh eventual zangano cyboric matchup so or or hey lesnarro smith pulls off the upset we don't know either way zangano title shot i'm down with it or or you

Megan Anderson and you do the rematch. Ah, yes, the eyelid. Oh, that's, that's, I don't mind if we think about that finish. Oh, the eyelid. Adam Boritz versus Mads Brunel, so Rogers winner, and Liz Carmoush versus, give her the title shot as well. He says, just throw in there, Julianna Falescas. So, and shout us.

He's from Brantford, Ontario. So shout us to Bramford, Ontario. And I am spent. So thank you. That was, I'm so excited. We got a whole Bell tour thing. He knows more about their matchmaking than I do. and literally just fraught no you are best.

But all of our listeners are the best, Mike. They are. Anyone I missed? Oh, sorry, Mike, go ahead. I'm going to read one more real quick for Zach Andrews, just one suggestion because Dano hasn't gotten enough love. Dano got a suggestion versus Jacomo Lamos, who has yet to make his UFC debut. Lamosch was supposed to fight Tanner Bozer in 2019, and that fight did not happen.

Let me just find out why that didn't happen. Is a contender series guy? Who is this guy? It was a failed drug test. Where do you come from, though? Contender Series or just a signing? There's a signing. Brazilian fighter.

Yeah, he failed a drug test, so maybe his suspension is about to run up. Maybe he got two years. These listeners are so creative. Sometimes we pull out Contender Series names, but it is always hard to just kind of like, you know, guys who haven't debuted yet. But, man, I like them. I like him with listeners do. I think it's just such a clever thing to do.

So, but yes, you guys are the best. Anyone I miss, I know I miss at least one or two names, so I apologize. I'm kidding. Of course, by the way, if you have nice things to say, please do. That will not increase your chances of getting red in the air. Money will make me happy, but will not increase your chances of getting on the air. Just keep being your brilliant, beautiful selves listeners. And I assure you will get your time in the sun because you guys are amazing.

So if you want to reach me, you guys, for suggestions, you can email me at alex. Atle at SBNation.com. Hit me up on Instagram. KK. Lee on Instagram, that's 2Ks. And on Twitter, the same thing, but just with 1K, Alexander K. Mike, where can they get into your increasingly stuffed DM inbox? You can find me on Twitter.

Mike Kek underscore J-R. IGM-U-S-K-K-J-R. And keep plugging them in. I'm trying my best here. I'm trying to read them. Trying to respond to as many as I can. But come on now. You're doing great.

You're doing great, Mike. And I also appreciate the kind words for the 261 promo as well. Because my phone freak it blew up. I'd even know what the hell happened. Like my phone just started blowing up. And I was like, what? Like, I read upstairs. And then, so I was like, you were on the promo.

And then I saw the Slack channel. I was like, oh, go, you weren't. Hold on. Don't be, let's not be humble now. You led the promo. I wasn't looking at the screen. I wasn't looking at the screen. I just heard your voice.

And I'm like, I'm like, did I leave something on? Like, did I leave Skype on? Is Mike calling me? And I was looking at the screen. I was like, whoa. I'm like, this is the promo. This is my voice over it. So you led, sir, you led the promo.

Yeah, that was pretty bizarre. Yeah. But I was like, so I just tweeted out, hey, that's me, because I didn't know what was happening because my phone just was like blowing up like crazy. And of course, my wife found out about it and she came down, maybe rewind it like 50 times. But God bless her.

But listen, that's that. Join us next week. We will discuss the fallout of UFC Vegas 24, the Go Home show before UFC 261. Of course, Ben Asker versus Jake Paul goes down on Saturday as well. We will not be matchmaking for that. Yes, we will. Listen, if you got...

Speak for yourself. Okay, here we go. All right, a challenge, a challenge for the listeners of this program. Okay. Match, like, just in the zaniest, most outside of the box way possible, matchmake solely for Ben Asking versus Jake Paul. Okay, wait till the fight plays out, see how it goes, but have some ideas in mind.

We'll read off, like, the craziest, most ridiculous ideas and just have a good laugh after, uh, you done. We could be a painful night. What have you done? I'm so excited. I'm so jacked up. But listen, so all that goes on Saturday, we will talk all about that, but we'll discuss what's next for the winner of the main event

between Robert Whitaker and Calvin Gasolum. Will one of these gentlemen do enough to get to a title shot? Jarkar Close versus Jeremy Stevens is the co-main event. And as we confirmed earlier, this past week, excuse me, Chase Sherman versus Parker Porter is no more. Stepping in on short notice is Andre Arlofsky in the featured spots in the heavyweight division on Saturday. So lots of interesting fights.

This is not as star-studded as the last few, but some really interesting matchups. So get ready for that. But until then, he is Alex K. Lee. I am Mike Heck. And just a reminder, do not take this stuff too seriously. M.MA is supposed to be fun. We have more fun right here next week on onto the next one, the podcast.

Just keeping it easy this time. Short one. Hey. You know,