MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 25

Episode Date: May 2, 2021

On the 42nd 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 25 event at the APEX. Future matchups were discussed for Jiri Prochazka following his KO of the Year contender in the main event, Dominick Reyes, Giga Chikadze, Sean Strickland, Merab Dvalishvili, 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

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19 and over. Physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. And as you have heard for the last 41 shows, we are here to do some matchmaking coming off of the UFC's return to the apex in Las Vegas.

UFC Vegas 25, which was capped off by a couple of fantastic finishes, including one of the more memorable and frightening knockouts in UFC history. Like this isn't recency by speaking. This is like this is real talk, ladies and gentlemen. But thank you for checking out the show this week. I am Mike Heck. And joining me as always the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the best friend, and the Prince of positivity, Mr. Alex Keeley. How are you?

How's your Sunday? Mike, my best friend. It's great now. It's great. This is how I would love to spend my Sundays, a chunk of my Sundays and me recording this show. 42? You said number 42 this episode? This is 42.

Holy. I feel like we just started like last week. 42, the meaning of life. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, RIP, RIP, Douglas Adams, a fine, a fine book. So what better, yeah, what better number to discuss what turned out, I think, to be a pretty eventful show. You know, nothing was going to match the chaos of UFC 261 before, for something coming in the wake of that show and a free ESPN 2. It wasn't an ESPN show, it's ESPN 2 show, I think, right? Yeah, 2 and plus.

Yeah, and ESPN Plus, of course. So, I mean, not bad story on that way. I started off a little slow, I think, to the first four fights. I think we were all kind of dreading, you know, what could be a forgettable card. But I think we actually got a ton of quality fights and, you know, two big finishes at the top. I would agree. I think the hangover was real and nothing could have lived up to that. It just wasn't going to be possible.

It's like having like in your house after WrestleMania. It's just not feasible to do the same kind of show. It's just not possible. But they did a damn good job, especially with what happened in the main event. we will begin with the frontrunner for fight of the year and knockout of the year. Yuri Perhashka with a third the third spinning back elbow.

I've been trying to say this over and over again just to get it right. The third spinning back elbow knockout in UFC history. Does it against Dominic Reyes. What a crazy fight. What a crazy finish. Yuri coming back from being in big, big trouble in that second round.

And Reyes was coming back from big trouble pretty much the entire fight while landing big shots of his own in return. This fight was amazing. I watched it again this morning, and I was just like, wow. I still can't believe how insane that fight was, and I still cannot believe how insane that NACA was. And Yuri's in an interesting spot, A.K.,

because he is 100% worthy of his next fight being for the belt. No question about it. But is he willing to wait until the end of the year, maybe early 2022, to get that title shot? Or does he risk that sort of top rocker position and fight somebody else to stay active? What do you think happens here? He definitely strikes me as someone that would be willing to risk his position. His post, he's a pretty humble guy, at least publicly.

I don't know, but I don't know privately he might be like an arrogant jerk. I don't know. But at least as far as his, you know, first big post, you know, post-win interview went. He was just kind of bashful. I'm sure there's a bit of a language barrier as well. But he's kind of like, oh, you guys think I should fight the winner of Blahovych de Chera? Yeah, I guess so. Yeah.

It's like I like Jan Blahovitch. You know, we're neighbors. Czech Republic, Poland, you know? So I think he'd be willing to. Should he? I mean, no. I mean, he's done enough to earn a title shot. In a perfect world, boy, September is a long way away.

I mean, in a perfect world, he could afford to just wait and then, you know, maybe get the title shot in December or something like a nice, a big year end fight. But I think so for me, of course, I would lean towards him waiting, fighting, fighting the Blahovic to share a winner, September 4th, UFC 266. But I think the best suggestion that I saw from, I mean, Jose Young's mentioned on Saturday's show, and then I've saw a lot of listeners mentioned. It seems like a common sense thing to maybe consider booking him and Rockich for that card as well. And then, you know, God forbid, something should happen.

He's first in line to act as an alternate. But I understand why people do not want to see him or Rockich, excuse me, necessarily fight and kind of take a loss before that pushes them back on the contenders' conversation. I think most people want to see them both get a tell the shot sometime in the next like 12 months. Yeah, and there's one thing Jose said on the post-fight show that it did not agree with. He said, well, it's up to the UFC. It's their choice. It's their decision.

I completely disagree. I think Gary Poshka is 100% in the driver's seat right now. And I honestly believe that after a finish like that, like if Dana White himself actually will tweet out a replay of a video finish from a main event, like if he does that, that's a big deal that means like he was like wow that means he was blown away and I honestly believe that you're in a position that the UFC will give him whatever he wants at this point like if he wants if he wants to wait and fight for the belt

he can like if the UFC calls him says what do you want to do and he says no I'll wait for the title shot that's like absolutely bro whatever if he wants to be the backup fighter if he calls the UFC and be like listen I'll be the backup fighter I'll weigh in for the title fight in September I'll make weight few extra bucks something happens I could step in. UFC will say,

cool, bro. Absolutely, whatever you want. If he wants to fight Alexander Rackich, which like you said, he is just wild enough to do. He might just call the UFC and be like, I want to fight Alexander Rackich in July.

Like, I just want to fight again? They'll do that. It's a super risky fight, but if that's what he wants, they'll do it for him. The guy's a killer. He's, I mean,

he could be a star. Definitely. Like, that Chuck Republic MMA scene is starting to boil over at this point, it's starting to get a little bit of a push, he could be like the face of all of that. And the UFC loves getting into new territories

and growing marketplaces outside the United States. Yuri can be the face of Czech Republic MMA and sort of build everything around. Like we've seen what's happening with Georgia and some of the other European countries. This is a big deal. And I think the UFC sees a lot of value in him right now, especially knowing like what he means in, you know,

Japan and places like that as well. So he could be wearing UFC gold very soon after that. performance. I am so excited. Whatever he wants to do, I am in. But I think he's in the driver's seat. You can't go wrong at this point. Give him a title shot. Give him rackage. Whatever he wants to do, just let him do it at this point. Okay. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned Japan. Former Verizon champion, you know, if they end up going to Tokyo or Saitama or Saitama or something like that, Yokohama, I don't they ever been to Yokohama, have they? But, I mean, you know, Tokyo or Saitama, two places where they've been before. Have they been to Tokyo?

Probably. Probably. Pre-Zufera? Why does it sound so strange to me? Satama, I know they have. Anyway, but yeah, should they decide to go by the Japan? Yes, he has that fan base as well. Really, really, I feel like anywhere over a lot of places overseas, he'd have a pretty strong presence. You know, normally I'm the Prince of Posthutuity. You're a pretty positive person yourself, but I think you've trumped me in the positivity here.

I'm concerned, I'm concerned the UFC doesn't know what they have with Prohashka. I think maybe he was a little too, like I think that bashful, the bashful guy act makes you likable. I don't know if the UFC knows how market will it makes you. So I'm worried they don't know what they have. If they still find his stuff, a little bit weird. I mentioned before that the commentary team still doesn't see me picking up on what he's...

I see fans, too. I see some fans saying, like, oh, this style is going to get him knocked out. The style's, like, this style is like, oh, it's cute, but he's getting hit a lot on it or whatever, or he's going to get hit by knockout blow eventually. Reyes had a lot of success against him. That's, one, a credit to Reyes, who's a great fighter. And two, again, I still think he's not getting hit as hard in some situations as people think. I do think he has a great striking defense, and he's slipping some of these shots

that look like they're landing cleanly. And again, people, he's had 32 pro fights. He's 28 and 3. It's not like he hasn't been using this style for the last, like a better part of the last decade. Nine straight knockout, excuse me, 10 straight knockout victories now. So he's been the hammer more often than the nail. Of course, anyone can get knocked out, just a light heavyweight. But I think, I hope we're done questioning in style.

I hope the UFC starts digging deep into it to some really, some really cool, like, features. Give me some fancy graphics. Give me an ESPN. I hope maybe he gets an ESPN card sometime. Obviously, I think he's beyond that now, but I would have seen one of those, like, over the top, you know, get some robots in there, stimulating his style. I don't know. I don't know what they do with this stuff. But I'm worried they don't know what they have and that he doesn't have leverage, but I hope you're right.

I think they're going to push him to the moon after that performance. Just because they, 205, I love Jan Belhovic. I love Gloverich-a-shara. Wonderful people, not stars. Yuri Perashka can be a star. They can make him a star? Jan just can't enjoy his shine for a minute, can he? There's always someone.

Like he's getting, I feel like he's gotten, I feel like he's jumped up a couple of notches. Of course. Just the legendary Polish power, the news thing. Like, I think all that stuff, like, people are starting to get to know him more and started to, like, appreciate him more. They didn't know, like, what kind of personality he was. But Yuri's just such a wild man. Like, he has, like, exceeded the hype and then some.

And Dana, like, loves guys like that. Like, be quirky, be bashful. Be humble. Like, the thing, like, just, they will sell, like, mockups of the thing on the back of his head. and sell it on UFC store or something like that. Like they will. Like put a little headband on it.

I can see them doing stuff like that. Just push this guy. 205 needs a star. Make it happen. Now, if they don't do a silhouette t-shirt of like this, you know, profile of him and this, the top,

the top knot, someone's losing. 100%. That's a beautiful shirt. 100%. Or put it on pro wrestling teas or something. Exactly. For Dominic Reyes, this was tough to watch

because Domic's a really good dude. He's a guy that I've been interviewing since he was on the regional scene, fought John Jones to the limit in a fight. Many believe he won. Then he gets knocked out in his next two fights. So first things first. Take some time off. There's no need to rush back into anything at this point.

Take some time, heal up. Take it easy. Like don't even think about your next fight or like when you can come back. Like don't even think about any of that stuff. when he does come back, I don't know, man. You kind of have to wait and see how this division shapes up. But here's the thing. Like, I know we want him to take this big step back

and get a quote-unquote tune-up fight. But we saw with the Chris Wyden's situation when he was on that big skid, when you're making the kind of money Dominic Reyes probably makes, I'm sure he's a six-figure fighter easy at this point. You can't really go too far back in the rankings. So it's a wait-and-see kind of thing. I like the Anthony Smith idea.

I like the Misha Sarkinoff idea. But take some time. Like wait to see how things play out. It's a little too early in my eyes to pinpoint a specific person. You know what I mean? Like I felt like I had the same problem with Calvin Cater. Like you can just throw, like I throw a Cub Swanson. Like that would just be like a fun fight after the Cato lost a hallway.

But I feel like with Reyes, kind of have to wait and see how things play up. But Anthony Smith's fine. Sarkinoff's fine. I just don't want to see him in there with the Ankylaefs and the Johnny Walker. is like I don't want to see you that. You know what I mean? Mike incorrect. I have the exact name who he should fight.

I put a lot of thought to this. This is a young man from Australia, New Zealand. I need to stop mixing these two things. I thought that I can't tell the difference. It's just I don't, I just that I don't know where certain fighters come from. Because, you know, there's a lot of, you know, look at Robert Whitaker. He's like born in Australia, but he represents New Zealand or the other. way around. You know what I'm saying? There's a lot of crossover there. Okay, this guy's Australian.

And he's from New South Wales. That's just confusing to us in North America. I'm sorry, we're terrible. I'm terrible. I'm terrible. I'm terrible in this thing. But my, yes, my pick. This is who he will fight. This is not even a, I'm putting on my magic matchmaker hat here. This is my prediction. This is a crystal ball. I think he will fight. Tyson Pedro, somewhere down the line, possibly before the end of the year. Tyson Pedro, I think hasn't been able to fight because of an injury. But he recently posted something to the effect of he's about six months away from returning to training.

Now, if we think Dominic Ray should also take time off, like I said, which I agree. So I wouldn't like to see him compete until sometime in maybe October, October, November, December. Maybe that's too early for Tyson. But we'll see. But I think we could see Reyes either fight near the end of the year or early next year, take some time off. And I think he's going to fight Tyson Pageer, a guy who has a little, some stand up, but not quite as powerful, I would say, as Jorya Prakka

or Jan Blaovich, could be the guy that Dominic Reyes needs to just sort of get that confidence back and get back on the winning track. Because as we keep saying, we think this guy has a lot to offer for the UFC, both from a personality standpoint and entertainment. This Pajajka fight was so, so, so good. And Reyes has nothing to be ashamed of being knocked up by a guy who he hit cleanly several times.

And he took a lot of clean shots from him as well. It took a crazy-ass spinning elbow to put him down for the count. So Reyes, Pedro, let's clip this for a check the tapes like seven months from now. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I just don't see it happening. Because you've got to put Reyes. You have to put Dominic.

Unless they have an event like in that neck of the woods and they need a co-main event or something, I just don't see a world where that happens. Like Dominic Reyes is a fight night main event fighter. or he's like a pay-per-view main card guy, maybe a co-main events guy. I just don't know if, I mean, the fight's fine. I just don't know with like the position Dominic's in in the company if Tyson's the guy.

Like if Tyson were to come back, if Tyson were fighting next week and he gets a knockout win and then he fought again in July and got a knockout win, yeah, okay. Maybe he's the top 15 guy at that point, but I don't think he's anywhere near the top 15 at this point. That's why I picked him. All right, I dig it.

I'm going outside the top. 15 I want I want I want I want a quote unquote tune up fight of which is really no such thing in the UFC but I mean we I think we can try and sort of emulate that sort of concept this will be the ultimate mic Mike let's we got a clip this whole last five minutes of conversation that you you will be checked Mike you will be checked at some time at the end of this year early next year Tyson Pajjo Dominic Reyes I'm speaking into existence I thought for a second the way you started that out I thought we're going to get hashtag root for crout but uh we'll save that It went a different, it went a little in a different direction.

We'll save it. So those are the main eventers. Let's go to the co-main event because we saw the official coming out party for one, Giga Chakadze, stops Cub Swanson in just over a minute with the nasty Giga kick to the liver of the legend. It hurt him badly. Cub instinctively grabs a leg. Chikaze very wisely, stayed patient. He stepped back and then landed the finishing shots. And that's it.

Minute three seconds, I believe was the final time. but what a performance, and he gets on the mic, and he goes on to play the college application game with his call out. He applied to Max Holloway University, shot for the stars, and then he also sent his application to what he believed at the time was his backup school, the University of Calvin Cater. And now he's like all over the place. Now he wants, you know, Yaya Rodriguez International College,

and now he's going to Donald Soroni State College. Like, he wants to go there too. It just has, like, a big party on the beach. Like, I don't know what this guy's thinking right now. But I think I'm confident in saying that the Holloway and Cater callouts are probably both out of his range at the moment because he's 100% not getting the Holloway fight. And I don't think he'll wait until, like, October, November for a Calvin Cater fight because that's kind of the time frame at this point.

But I don't know what to do here, A.K. Like, what do you believe we'll be next for Giga Chikaze? say, because I feel like he is almost putting himself on the band list with all of these callouts. I was thinking that as well. We've got to be careful here. He could be making a quick turnaround of some reasonably highly ranked featherweight drops out of a fight within the next six weeks. Easily, you could see Dika just bouncing on that opportunity. But I love the school analogy.

Don't you hate a keener? Don't you hate a keener? I mean, can he just kick back and just kick back with a cold one for the next month or so? No, no. Like I said, he's already looking for, oh, can I do an internship while I'm, you know, while I'm studying? Can I, what can I do for extra credit? What a keener, Chikazia is. But, you know, what a great fighter he is, too.

So this is going, again, now I'm going away from Crystal Ball to Magic Matchmaker Hat. If I can make him fight someone and it's impossible, the guy I picked, is impossible to predict what he's up to. We never know, though he did recently have some Usada situation cleared up. Yair, Rodriguez. It's one of the names he mentioned. I think we just had a story go up today, some from basically. on post-fight quotes where he said he'd like to have a mortal combat-style fight with Ja'e-year.

I hope Geiga got a check for that plug for that movie that just came. I think just came out wide release this week or this week or last week. So, yeah, if I can make any fight happen, Giga, yeah-year, makes sense for him right now. Yeah, Year's a top-10 guy, stylistically, it's a fight everyone would want to see. And I'm all in on the Giga train, man. I mean, I picked Swanson to Wings. I said, Swanson's going to be a big test, and he passed that test big time. You know, this is the guys you've got to beat to get to the top 10.

You got to beat these veterans who are still dangerous, Swanson on his best day. I mean, honestly, I think if he fought Chaccazi, I still think if he fought Chaccazzi again, maybe he wins one out of five times. I don't know. But I do think flowing too, Swanson is an impressive thing. It's not if I hope people don't scoff at it, like, oh, Cups Swanson, whatever. It's like, no, he's still good. So that just makes Chikaze look better in my eyes. So Chikaze, yeah, you're Rodriguez.

That's the one I would make happen if I could, if I had complete control of the UFC match break. That's a big step right there. And listen, the performance, they want to make that cool because Yair is not a top 10 guy. He's not a top five guy. Yeah, here's a top three guy. He's ranked number three right now. What? Yep. That's not that crazy. I think he's fourth or something in my rank. So I don't know why. Yeah, Giga's 14. Yeah. Cub was 15. So he probably isn't going to move that much. Oh, no. I have I have him. You're right. So the use that the UFC rankings has in third. So that I mean Volkanowski champion and then Holloway. Yes.

Yeah, year? Yeah, yeah. So I just, I overreacted. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. You know what happens. That's accurate.

That's accurate. He is tough three. What I think will happen is kind of the popular choice. And I don't know what, like, kind of listener suggestions you've been getting. What I think will happen, his whole fight, the winner of Shane Burgos versus Zambarboza. What I want to happen is Giga Chikazzaa versus Bryce Mitchell. I know Andre Feeley is a good striker, but he,

He is no Giga Chikaze. He just isn't. And I'm not trying to be a jerk. It's just the way life is. So I would love to see how Mitchell would do against an elite striker, an elite kickboxer, an elite stand-up killer like Giga Chikaze, who loves to pick you apart from the outside. And on the flip side, one of the major questions we have with Giga is what he will do off of his back. Like, what's going to happen when you're taken down or attempted to be thrown down over and over and over again?

Bryce Mitchell is that guy. He will do that. And we haven't seen Bryce since October. I know he was dealing with some injuries. I think he had hand injury and some other nagging things. But this division is loaded up with up-and-coming talent. Like a loss, and I understand the trepidation once in a while from the UFC to book these up-and-coming guys against each other this quickly.

But a loss wouldn't be completely devastating for either guy. It would be a setback, sure. But it's not like a total crushing blow, of how good this division is. That's the fight I want to see, depending on when Bryce can return. But I'm totally fine with the Burgos Barboza winner because that fight's happening in less than two weeks.

And I'll throw out another name. If you watch the post-fight show, I threw this out already, because I have no idea what the hell's happened with him, or if the fight that's been rumored is real with Iliotiporia, the Ryan Hall, giga-chiccadze idea.

That scratches me right where I inch as well, A.K. Yeah, look, I think a grappler is the logical next test. for him a high octane. Well, I don't know if I'd call Ryan Hall high octane. Bryce Mitchell certainly would call a high octane grappler. Because look, they built up Giga the right way. I love that he was able to get in four fights in 2020. You know, and it honestly, it didn't matter who he'd find. I know people were like, oh, Jamie Simmons, who's Jamie Simmons? Like, it doesn't matter. When you're a guy who, yes, he had, of course, a background in kickboxing, but was unknown, pretty much unknown to most MMA fans.

So for them to get him four fights in 2020 was so, was clutch, and then getting him a name opponent for 2021 and then now getting him, again, a young opponent, a young opponent, a one that has a stylistic challenge. This is how you build contenders. This is how you build champions and you build fan bases for these guys. So he's saying all the right things. Again, like I know we said, he was a bit scattershotted and his callouts, but otherwise, it's good to have a name.

It's good to have many names. So, yeah, I'm totally down for that. I get, like I said, yeah, year, Bryce Mitchell, either one of those. I'd be, I'd be thrilled to see those be an extra geek. I just hope he doesn't take a step back in the right. I hope, I know he's eager to fight, but I'm really hoping he and his team. kind of think like, you know, if it's someone like outside the top 20, maybe, maybe don't take that one.

You know, you probably win it, but maybe don't take it. Yeah, that's why I mean, that's why I like Burgos Barboza so much because they're both ranked above him. Burgo's the top 10 guy, so he's still getting his wish. I mean, there's no shortage of fun fights for Gigi Jakadez. There's no doubt about that. But we'll see what happens. As you know, A.K., we've done this 41 times at this point.

We all know the rules. We only matchmake for the fighters who pick up victories on the main card. Iwan Kutalab and Dustin Shikobi fought to a highly entertaining split draw, but in the spirit of the fight, in the UFC career of Kutalaba, I will throw out the idea of a rematch between these two gentlemen

and somewhat break protocol here. But I feel like it's warranted. We got unfinished business. It seems like all the tomfoolery may be squashed. I don't think we'll be seeing any craziness at the face-offs for the rematch. I feel like as rematch or bust, agree or disagree.

I'm trying to think, I'm down for the rematch, I totally agree. I'm trying to think of people who have fought in back-to-back rematch series. And then I remembered Frankie Edgar used to be all the time. So I just had to look it up quickly, BJ Pan, BJ Penn, BJ Penn, Grey Maynard, Gray Maynard, Benson, Henderson, Benson. So he fought three series in a row, three two-fight series in a row,

which is extremely uncommon. It would be, I think it would be really uncommon for someone not in a title picture. Obviously, it makes more sense when there's a title on the line. this would be just very, very bizarre for Kutalava, this four-fight stretch. Should he fight, Jacobi again? Which I think could have happened. I could also see him going off in other directions. Readers had a lot of, I would say readers, listeners, and readers.

Listeners had a lot of good suggestions for both Jacob and Kutelava, so we'll get to those later. But for me, yeah, it was a good fight, and I'd like to see them run in fact. But how about Ankleyev, the weird fake TKO? and then they sell it after the rematch, and then now it split John Jacoby and possibly another fight with Jacoby. So Qilabah, you know what? Strange series of fights for a strange man.

Yes. He's only 27. That's what? Crazy. No, he's not. I swear to God. Stop it. He's only 27.

He's younger than Frohachka. Oh, my goodness. He's younger than a lot. I think he's younger than Alex Hernandez. I think he's younger than like a lot of these guys. I would say probably one of the younger guys at 205. 205 and, you know, like Heavyweight and Heavyweight tend to be pretty.

old. I guess heavy way more so than that heavy way now. We've got some new blood. But I wouldn't think of Qutelaba as part of that new blood. He's been with the UFC for five years now. Yeah, so only, yeah, only 27. Wow. Another crazy number, A.K., Sean Strickland now has 10 wins in the UFC. He is now 3 in O at middleweight since returning from that very scary motorcycle accident. He goes in there on Saturday and defeats a very tough, very game, Christoph Jocko via unanimous decision. Now, John Strickland was ranked number 15 coming in. He certainly deserves, in my opinion, AK, maybe you feel differently. He certainly deserves to be in the blue corner in his next fight against somebody ranked above him.

But how high do we go? A few things here. I'm just looking to do realize this was technically since his coming back and moving up to 185. Technically, this is actually his first win in a 185 pound bout, again, since coming back up. Jack Marshman missed weight for their fight in October of last year. That was technically a 187.5 catchweight bout. And then Brendan Allen was a 195. A scheduled 195 pound catchweight bout.

And now we had a catch. So it's kind of a weird thing. I just like to say he's got a three-fight win streak at middleweight. But I know there's record keepers out there who are like, oh, no, you don't count catchways. And I'm like, essentially a catchweight fights in the catchment division. But yeah, just a little statistical quirk there. The funny thing with Shriclin is I feel like people don't believe what they're seeing.

He has looked so good in these three fights. and I feel like for whatever reason I think we had like a couple of questions in our pre-fight show and pre-bush show sort of based on the premise of can Strickland be a contender Strickland for real and I'm just like what

like you don't see a lot of guys who win fights as he had his last three fights and get questioned like this I don't know if he's making it look too easy though the Jocko fight was certainly competitive or I don't know if because he's a former welterweight and because he's been around the UFC so long

that people are just kind of seeing this as like oh what a nice story you know what a nice story this guy's having a having sort of a resurgence. He's only 30, but again, he's got a bit of fight mileage on him. But it's weird. I just don't see people, because I think he is absolutely on the path to becoming a title contender.

I think he's maybe two fights away. And I just don't know if people feel the same way. So I don't know if he needs another knockout or, again, just a big name, as you mentioned, which is kind of like why, but even my matchmaking, I don't know if I'm ready to go that direction yet. So I think he has to wait for some things to shake out. I looked at the Ahmeda Tavares winner. July 10th. I looked at the Jacare versus Andre Munez winner on May 15th, he was the 262.

On that same card, I think I would have Strickland lined up with the Hermanson Shabazian winner. So I'm not quite committing to a top 10 yet. If Hermanson wins, it is a top 10 Shabazzian. I don't know if he takes Hermannsen spot. But that's where I settled on. But I do think he has to wait. I don't know if you have someone who's unoccupied that you've got lined up for Strickland, Mike. Yeah, I mean, this is kind of an interesting episode, at least for these first.

three fights are matchmaking. Like it's very, it's hard to like land on like the right side of the fence because there's so many options. It's like, and you have to wait for a lot of things to shake out and there's so many different roads that that can be taken here. And I said this a couple weeks ago ahead of the Kelvin Gaslam, Robert Whitaker fight. I think it was after that fight. And I said, I looked at Gaslum to fight the winner of this fight between Strickland and Jocko.

That fight makes sense to me. I am also aware that Strickland likes to get work over at King's MMA. Gasselm also likes to train at King's MMA. If you go on Instagram, you'll see that there's photos taken together. But I don't know, but Strickland is like the man's all over the place. He trains in Vegas. He trains at Kings. The dude is all over the place.

So I don't know if this is like a, hey, we're good buddies kind of a thing. If they somehow like aren't that close, that's the fight I would make. I'd like to see Sean Strickland get an opportunity against Calvin Gasolam. Gasolm's a name, but Gaslam is kind of on the Schneide right now. I mean, he has the winner over Ian Hinesh, but he's had a bunch of losses since then. But Kevin Holland's fun, that's interesting. Another option that I thought of, and this is only if both of these guys want to get right back in there, especially the former that I'm about to mention, your eye haul would be interesting.

Like if your eye haul just wants to get in there and fight and be like, I have a bad taste in my mouth, just put me in there against anybody, Uriah Hall versus Sean Strickland's fun too. But I think the UFC has maybe bigger things than place for him. But if your eye is just like, dude, I want to fight, let's go. I'm down for that fight. Is Uriah Hall your official ought no pick or Gasselam? I'll go with Gasselom, but it's kind of like a, I don't know.

It's a contingency pick because I don't know, like, I don't know their relationship. But Gassel would be my pick if they're not like close friends. Okay. This is for Check the TAPE's purposes. I don't know if I can credit you for both. So now that are these fights you look, I feel like I will only credit you for Hall. I feel like you have to pick one.

I'll go with Gaslam. I'll go with Gaslam. I'll take the shot. I know it's a riskier pick, but I'll go with Gasolm. I like both matchups. I thought of Royah as well. So I like both matchups.

I just went with a bit of a bit. I kind of went with a safer and not necessarily top 10 ranked range. But, of course, yeah. I mean, Gaslam Hall, both good matches for him. So Mike says, Gaslam, strictly. Yeah, I got to stick with what I said a couple of weeks ago.

So we head to the main card opener, and what an opener it was between Marab de Wallis-Willi and Cody Stamen. This was a close fight. Stamen had his moments, but like I said on the pre-fight show, you got to do something out of the ordinary to beat Marab to Wallis-Willi. Like, you got to go out there and take some sort of risk in a fight with that maniac, and Cody fought great. But if it's like, if you're looking at just like two guys who bring their A-games and it's just like a real. closely contested fight. Marab's going to win those fights 99 times out of 100 just because his work rate is just so

unbelievable. It doesn't matter who you are. But Marab goes out there, gets you a unanimous decision. He's won six in a row. And to me, if you remember the onto the next one that dropped after UFC Vegas 20, that was the card headline by Cyril Ghan and Jarzania Rosenstrike.

I'm going back to that same well. Pedro Munoz beat Jimmy Rivera. Everyone was ready to throw him back in there with Rob Fawn and give him a top five guy. And I said, I just don't see it happening. He's going to have to take a step back. It's just what this division looks like right now. I said Munoz versus Moraab made sense then.

It still makes sense now. It actually makes even more sense than it did back in February after Moraub got that victory. So Marab deserves an opportunity. That one is there. I would love to see that maybe sometime this summer, A.K. What do you think? Yeah, Munoz is the name. I was one of the people who wanted Munoz and Font, but Fonnell now is Cody Garbrant.

that matchups out. So that potential matchups out of the picture. Munoz is the way to go. I do want to touch upon something you said about Stamen, him for whatever reason, just not finding that sort of extra gear to put guys away. The other thing is he's such a skilled, well-rounded guy.

He seems really content to let his opponent dictate where the fight goes because he's so confident. So I think he's like, oh, if Marab wants to strike, I'm going to strike with him. No, I'm going to stand and strike him. I'm going to let Marab decide to be a strike. Just to show that I'm the better striker.

If Marab wants to wrestle, great, I'm a great wrestler. I'm going to reverse. I'm going to sweep, which he did. I mean, he had some great moments. He reversed take-down attempts. But when it's this close, when you're dealing with guys who are this talented at 135, that it's really difficult to win fights that way. I mean, you really, you have to be out. You can't just be matching guys, you know what I mean? You have to be outclassing them. And I think while he got the better of some of the exchanges on Saturday, clearly Marab was, again,

pressing the action, landing more. And I think winning more of the exchanges as much success as Cody was having. So it is funny. He's like, he's such a great test for people. and so obviously a tough fighter, a tough guy to put away. But, yeah, does he have that ability to impose his will? I know it's a cliche, but it is a big thing in combat sport. So can you impose your will on your opponent? I'd love to see Stamen find that ability someday, but we don't know. But yeah, Pedro Munoz all the way for DeWallis really.

The only other name I thought Marlon Mardais, but I'd have Munoz above that right now. And I think Marab is deserving of that fight. So, yeah, I think that one's pretty simple. Cody Stamen is like the Wade Boggs of the UFC. Had to fit in an England sports reference, didn't you? The dude will hit like 370 every season with 50 doubles and he'll get on base a bunch of times. But like what we want from Cody Stamond is like the 1987 version of Wade Boggs where he just goes out and says, F it, I'm going to hit 25 home runs this year.

Like that's like I would love to see Cody Stamen go see Trevor Whitman and just like go with him. and just like work on like something a little more on the striking end like that that would like Cody lost the fight but in my opinion if you go back and watch Cody Stamon's entire UFC run I think that was the best Cody Stamen we've seen fight in the octagon he just took on an absolute maniac in Marab de Walshilly and now you got bearded Marab de Walsh, really that's like a totally different guy Cody look great his skills are so good he is a solid as you can find. And the guy who fought Marab last night

beats a lot of guys at 135. Yep. No doubt about it. But if he could just like find something more, just I don't know. He was so good last night. And I hate what we're saying that. But I don't know if he's like a championship kind.

I don't know if he's fighting for titles. But if he can find that like extra oomph somewhere, I think he's a top five guy. He very well could be because he's so solid. And his fight IQ for the most part is really good. He's just missing something. Just one small thing. No disrespect to his team.

Was he with, do you know who was in this corner? Do you remember who was in his quarter? He's not with Extreme Coutor, isn't? He's for this fight. I don't think he was for this fight, though. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because when I talked to him, he said he didn't even want to take the fight.

He was just like, we've already gone down this road twice. And then like some of the guys who trained Extreme Coutor like reached out to Cody. I was like, dude, like we trained with him. Take this fight. Like, take this fight. They gave him a little like insider tip. Okay. But yeah, no disrespect.

You're saying he could maybe just try to get a different coaching look. No disrespect to the team that he's had. Again, they've taken him very far. He's out of three of the career so far. But you're right. We've seen talented fighters hook up with like Trevor Whitman, hook up with like an Eric Nick Sick, you know, in some other cases, you know, hook up with a James Krause, you know. And like you said, it's at this, at this level, people might say, oh, it might only make him like 5% better as a fighter. 5% at this level is like a lot.

Five percent is like, huge. There is between, again, top 20, top 15, top 10, title contender. So, yeah, like we said, great. And again, great showing by Marab de Walsh, Philly as well. Hell yeah. Oh, yeah. That dude is a murderer. Oh, our future contenders.

We get him in there with Munoz, he boots Munoz. I mean, that might put him in line for a title shot already. He might be won away. Yeah, I mean, he's not going to fight Al Jermaine, but I've been saying for like two years that there's not one guy in the top 15 that is going to be like, Yay! Marab de Welsh really get to fight that guy? Like, nobody is saying that. Even like Corey Sandhagen.

Like, if Corey Sanaghan is like, yeah, I'll fight any of these guys. You get Marab's name? He's just like, damn it. I can't say no, but this fight sucks. All right, so let us head to the wild card round before we get to the peeps, and a lot of you have chimed in here. But we're going to select one fighter. We have not match made for yet, and we're going to do so right now. So my best friend, I don't know.

Something tells me we might be in the same boat here. Maybe not. What is your UFC Vegas 25 wild card selection? I don't think we are in the... I'd be surprised if we are in the same boat because I went with... I went with someone who lost a fight. Did you?

I did not. Okay, good. Okay, so we're definitely not the same boat. And I went with someone who had one of the more unfortunate losses on the card. I had to go with my fellow Canadian, Ronda Marcos, who I think now is going to get another chance. If she had lost a decision, if she had been finished, she was almost definitely going to be cut.

But because of this weird situation with Luan Marcos, with Luana Pinera where she landed what is no question in a legal upkick but I think some would say it happens so quickly it almost looks like she was trying to kick her off and then the position just changed so fast and then boom you get that heel right on the jaw Pinero

I don't know if I care for the you know Pinero was hamming it up angle I don't know if I agree with that I've seen all the video evidence I've seen people slowing it down and talking about it Paul Felder even mentioned the possibility of it on the broadcast I'm going to give Pinera the benefit of doubt here and assume she was rocked and she fell in the bad

way and it's fine and I have no problem with her accepting a DQ win but I think Marcos gets another chance so I I'm breaking it I'm breaking the glass in cases of urgency I wanted to find another fighter in her division who's on a four-fight losing streak so there's a couple but the one I went with was someone who I I don't think she I don't think she's been released so the ultimate loser leaves town match Ron and Marcos Hannah Sait first let's do it all right all right like Let's do it. Let's do. I know it's, I hate saying, I don't, that's not sure. I like saying Lizzarleased town. But in this scenario, it seems a little cruel to say, but also, I think that's

the way to go. Your last chance for both, for both women, release this go around. So, Markos, Cifers, let's go. Okay. So a lot to digest there, because I thought on the back end, we were going to be on the same page. It turns out we weren't. This is like a roller coaster of emotions. I will say one thing. And I'm glad you brought up. up Luana Pinero. I spoke with somebody late last night after we did the post-fight show. They reached out to me

who was in the back at the apex for the card. And he told me this individual. Let me just pull up the exact words. I'm going to tell you who sent it to me. Someone's intriguing. Let's see. Let me find the exact words.

Hold on one second. Excuse me. Basically, so basically what I what I was told, because we were talking about the whole situation because she was carried out. She was carried out. This individual took a lot, took a lot of exception with people saying that there was some acting or some phony baloney stuff going on. And he reached out to me to kind of clear the air and be like, dude, I saw what happened. Like, so I had questions about him.

Like, why wasn't the stretcher out there? She was carried out. And it seemed like, you know, the coach just wanted to. to get her to the medical room as fast as possible. So he's basically like scooped her up and got the hell in the back. And stretcher came in the back because when Luana was in the back in the medical room trying to get to her feet, she couldn't stand up. Like she tried to stand up.

And every time she tried to stand up, she kept losing her balance and almost like kept falling to the ground. So this is a pretty serious situation. This is a lot more serious than it looked on television. And she did get stretchered. but from the back to the ambulance to go to the hospital. So, yeah, this is, this is bad, a lot worse than it looked. So you're saying she's either, she's either a Christian Bale, Dustin Hoffman-level method actor

who's like continuing the schick even after the camera's off and after she's legitimately to the hospital, or maybe people can take this at face value and see she ate a really bad upkick and actually was legitimately hurt. Yeah, she was, from what I understand from this person's account, she was, she was badly hurt. There we go. So there you go. I'm going with Loma Lik Boon Me, AK. Okay.

Hard fought win over a gritty Sam Hughes. And I will concur with what you have been saying, A.K., I think, and I hope the UFC will give Sam Hughes another shot. I hope they do anyways, because she has had a tough road. Tisha Torres and then Loma Lekbunmi, look at some of the 115ers in this division right now. There's a lot of up-and-comers with, like, similar records and similar experience that you can throw her in there with. That'll be fun. There's some fun fights out there. But Loma Lik Bumi gets another win, and I think she deserves some kind of a step up.

And I know that's a pretty difficult thing in this division and with the current landscape of this division. But we have a fighter getting set to make her return from all indications, somebody with the name, somebody looking to get back on track. And coincidentally enough, A.K., somebody who's also on a four-fight losing streak. And to add to that, someone who has fought for. a UFC title. So my wildcard pick is Loma-Lukbunmi versus Carolina Kovilkevich. Oh.

Dang. That's a step-up. You weren't kidding. When you said step-up, I mean, that's a step-up. It's not that big of a step-up, though. What are we going up? I don't know what your rankings look like. Three spots, maybe four?

I mean, the rankings is only like 40 names, so I guess you really can't. It's not a... But I mean, what else are you going to do? Like, I don't want to see her in there. Like, I'm not ready to throw her in there with, like, a bunch of grapplers right now. Like, Carolina, like, is solid on the ground. But for the most part, she's going to stand there, and those two are just going to sling. And you don't want to – Carolina is on a four-fight skid.

She's in five and over a year. You don't want to throw Carolina to the wolves. I think that's a good fight. I think that's exactly the fight to make. You're welcome, world. Check the tapes. Penny? Penny?

If you got another former title contender, Penny? Yeah, yeah, that's fine. That's fine. It's not letting your world on fire. I don't know. Penny's, yeah, Penny's kind of grappling heavy. I don't know if I love that. I don't know.

I mean, if she fights Penny, fine. You know what's going to end up happen. They're going to book freaking Penny and Kelloggledievich, and I'm just going to look like an idiot. And Luke Boone's going to be like completely on the island looking for an opponent. So there you go. That's my pick, AK. That's, it's a fun.

I'm excited about Luke Boone's future. Again, the real thing would be UFC opened up a 105 pound division. for her. Would that be nice? Not just for her. I think there's other people, fighters who would benefit from that as well. But I don't think that's going to happen. So, yeah, while working within the straw weight confines, I think, I think, man, Kovalkavich, that'd be a fun one. That would be a fun one.

Do we ever check the tapes or a mic check? Do we have any of those special programming? We've got a little short segment here. I will say, let's give a hat tip to the listeners. I don't think you or I picked this one. And also, we don't even know if this fight is technically real yet, but next Saturday.

day, it seems like the replacement main event for Dillashah Sanhagen will be Michelle Waterson versus Marina Rodriguez, I think. It just hasn't been announced by all by that. That is targeted, you know, that's targeted. But a lot of listeners asked for that one after, I think after Watersh's most recently win, or maybe Rodriguez, they're both of them. I did as well. So you did as well.

Okay. So Mike, you got that one. You might, I'm also giving you credit for, I don't know if you're officially made this not no pick, but I'm giving you credit for Randy Costa and Adrian Yannes because you. you helped to put that, I feel like you helped put that back together. It was a peanut butter versus Dr. Pepper. Reese's peanut butter cups, Reese's pieces versus Dr. Pepper.

Randy Costa is Reese's, right? Yes. Team Reese's all. And I like Andrew N. But now I'm team Reese's all the way. I actually, I don't, I can't have a lot. So I drank a Dr. Pepper. Are they two great tastes that tastes great together?

Or would you not mix those? I'm with Randy Costa that I think Dr. Pepper is horrendous. It sucks. It's bad. Sugar, right? I guess all pop drinks are. But July 24th. So Michael, give you some credit for that, too.

Now, I'm glad we're giving you credit because we have a mic check. From Sammy James at Hebhammer in 94. You know, I'll just read this whole thing and I'll chop as I can. So he says, oh, you're not going to like this. Oh, no. You're not going to be accepting this mic check. I'll tell you. This is not, you're not going to concede defeat on this one.

Come on, Sammy. Be nice. Sammy, no, he's nice, but I'm just saying you're not going to like this. You're not going to like what he's defending. Mike hated this idea on Not No. but I have a reasonable explanation for Shamiyev versus Nick Diaz. Since the UFC clearly, I wish people could see the disgust on your face as well as your reaction you just made. Since the UFC clearly loves Shamiab and wants to win over the top, they want to match him up with someone to likely beat, fair.

Diaz, meanwhile, likely won and done this time around. Can't imagine him signing a multi-fite deal at this point. The UFC gets the most out of Diaz by matching him up against Shemaya. Everyone and their mother would watch. Plus, Shomaiov will likely get his first win over a noteworthy name. Diaz being 10 years between wins means nothing to the casual fans. He's Nick Diaz. The fight will do big numbers.

Skyrocketed Shemaya's popularity even more than his two wins in 10 days slash 17-K-O. This match is made with the Shemaya's future in mind, not Diaz is the future, the former being more important to the UFC at this time, and it would be a much bigger story. This I don't agree with. Sammy comes up with the heat at the end. It would be a much bigger story than Diaz versus another old timer like Condit, Brown, etc., snooze, period. hope this makes it out of the pot

Mike you have Hold on the moment I have to I will give you 30 seconds but you're not in the clock yet as soon as you start out I'll put you on the clock Okay I had to make sure that this is the same person

that I was thinking of and I was absolutely right It was the same person I was thinking of First of all If you watch between the lengths You know how I feel about this fight This fight is the dumbest idea in the whole entire world

For a number of reasons One I agree with Nick Diaz's manager Kevin Muban on this one. What has Hamzat Shamiyev done to earn this fight? Like, I liked the Leon idea because it just made sense. Like, it made sense for both guys because both guys were on a trajectory towards the belt. Like, if Hamzat beat Leon Edwards, you give him a title shot. Like, we've gone into that direction. And if Leon Edwards beat Hamzaat Shamaev, like, he gets the Shemai of rub, you give him the title shot. At that point, an M.MA revisionist history,

that fight made all the sense of the world, and it was interesting. Now you enter Nick Diaz, who hasn't fought in six years, something bananas like that. Like a long time. Like, I don't know what the hell I was doing. I was barely married six years ago. I think I was like about to become a dad. Like whole weird situation.

Six years? That's a long ass time. And you want to put him in there with Hamzaa Chamaev? Like the guy seems to be taking things seriously. And you're going to throw him in there with that animal? why? Why would you put him in there? You can milk so much more out of Nick Diaz if he fights. How about Jorge Mazadol? Wow, that's a bum name, isn't it? That's a massive name. Jorge Mazdaal versus Nick Diaz for the stupid BMF title would be way bigger than Nick Diaz versus Hamza at Shabayev. Are you crazy? Are you

crazy? And by the way, Sammy, why would you book the riskiest fight in UFC history? Getting Nick as in the octagon is one thing. But your dream matchup, the one that makes all the sense in the world, is a guy who scares the hell out of me in terms of his health. The guy had a horrendous bout of COVID. I don't know when he's going to come back. Like all signs indicate, like he's doing better and stuff like that. But how disappointing would it be if you book this fight?

You put all this fanfare behind it. You can't just bury it. Like, we're not going to see this fight announced on an ESPN-Bless fight-pass broadcast. No, this is going to get the full fanfare. We're going to see promos for months. What's going to happen two weeks before the fight when either Nick Diaz says, nah, bro, you're not paying me enough

or something happens with Hamzat and you can't make it to the fight and it doesn't happen. Play it safe. Nick Diaz versus anybody is big. You could throw him in there with Condit. You can throw them with Waller, but the fight to make is Mazadol. And the fight not to make, the one fight not to make in the whole world

is Nick Diaz versus Hamza at Shamaev. I'm sorry. It's too risky. It makes no sense. None. And if you got a one and done out of Nick Diaz, if you want to try to milk more out of Nick, you're going to throw him in there with Shamiyaf? Come on, no.

Come on. Sorry, Sammy. You're my boy, dude. You went over the 30 second. I don't care. 30 second marker a little bit. This is the stupidest idea ever. Sammy, he's not a fan of the idea.

I think we learned from this mic check. And this is a warning to all the other listeners out there. If you're going to check Mike, I'm just saying you better be. ready. He checks back. He's not just going to take these things. Not every time. I think I was a lot more friendly last week and I took it on the chin. I'm not

taking this one in the chin. I knew you would. I actually deserved to win between the links last week for making that points. Even Jedmishu said that. They Casey gave me a point for making my point of why this fight makes no sense. Well, I think you just won out now if that helps you at all. I'm so angry that I even have to talk about this.

Oh my gosh. Can we move on to the listener? You'll feel better. We always feel better than we move on to this. Mike, you can go first, but I will give this now official disclaimer quickly. I'm going to give this for every episode. Guys, we emphasize winners, unless they were in the main event or title fight. We like to look at a unique matchups. So if one was mentioned a lot of times, you might not get mentioned.

Your name might not can mention, I should say. Be careful guys for fighters that already books. Try and look that up. I saw some people that were much better about that this week, so good job. You may also just made a mistake. You could have gotten the wrong way class. Guys who fought already, you might have forgotten someone's injured, maybe out for a long time. Also, your pick might be doo-doo.

So, Mike, with that in mind, please go ahead with what you received. this weekend. First of all, let me just, let me just go back to Sammy and just say, the only reason I went off, Mike, the only reason I went off so harshly is because I know Sammy very well, he's a good dude. But the idea still sucks. But he, he got it more than like anybody else would have. And that's just, that's just fact. Okay. Out of love. Out of love. Yes, it was out of fun. Patrick Austin, our good friend, some interesting selections. He went with Collares versus Gabriel Benitez. I don't know if that's going to happen. because I don't see Benitez

going to 45 anytime soon. Lomo Likbumi versus Janderoba. That's a big step up and I think Janderoba's fighting somebody. Let me just look at this real quick. Wait, you mentioned the Kalaris Benitez.

Oh, you don't think he's, because, I mean, that fight was at 1.45 on Saturday. But I think it was because it was put together in a weird way. Luke Sandidge was supposed to fight somebody else. Kalaris was supposed to fight somebody else, I think. Or San...

Yeah, because Colaris is a 35er anyway. They're both 35ers. Yeah. It was... But I think he said Benitez because it did take place at 145. But I think just because both guys' schedules got so screwed up by losing their opponents. And they kind of... Yeah.

But I do understand where at least the suggestion came from. That might wasn't 140. But they're definitely both going down to 135. Their first chance they get. Certainly. And Mowgli is... I mean... Not making 45.

It's even a 145 or anymore. It's not happening. Loma versus Vandaroba. I mean, maybe. I mean, Verna's fighting Kanaka Marada on June 19th. So maybe if something happens to Marada, you could slide her in there. And Patrick likes the idea of Marab de Walsh-Willi versus one Frankie Edgar. So there you go.

That's not a matchmaking selection. My apologies. Jack Porter. Reyes versus Tiago Santos. I can't believe this fight hasn't already happened. He says Gigacizekadezzi versus Sadiq Yusef. the Burgos Barboza winner, Strickland v. Holland, Coutalaba versus OSP. Marab versus Marlon Marius.

Time to get this guy towards the title. I can't argue with that. Christian Lee says, I think the Uri title shot predictions are going to be pretty popular. I don't necessarily agree with that. This win, albeit impressive, was against a Reyes on a skid. I'll be more on board for the title shot if Glover ends up beating Jan. Jan just beat Reyes less than a year ago. Just seems like one more win.

would be warranted if Jan is able to defend again versus Glover for Reyes damn got a feel for the guy based on the end ground champion a lot of people's eyes a year ago. My ideal matchups, Yuri versus Rackich or Ankoliath closer to the number one contender fight.

Reyes take some time off, fight to Anthony Smith or lose coming off of a Santos rematch. Plus if I can matchmake for Reyes outside of the Octagon, Christian Lee going the Cody Stamen route that I went. Let's get Dominic Grace to Trevor Whitman.

Interesting. Matt Ravelli is on the Giga-Bergos-Barboza train. Also with you on Mar-Av versus Marl Marius, your backup selection. John George, also in for Ray as Anthony Smith. Let's see. Originally, I wanted to

Cove versus Sudec Yusuf, but with the loss, I will have to retract that. So loser of Duwado versus Mobzar or step in as a short-notice replacement. Then same things with Marab as I wanted Cody Stamman to fight Frankie. I guess Marav wins that now. And last but not least,

happy birthday to the man, the myth, the often imitated, never duplicated Alex K. Lee. Oh, it's not my birthday. I mean, A.K., like, the amount of kind words that have come in in the DMs. Sean, con-wizzle 91.

Big fan of the show. He thinks it's crazy that Dana said the winner of tonight's is getting a title shot, with Jan Glover not happening to late fall. I think winner of tonight, Uri should fight rackets for the number one contender in September October. That seems to be a popular suggestion here.

Let's see. Loma Lomboomy versus Kay Hansen. This is from Max underscore Block. I think that's kind of a step back. No offense to Kay Hans. I think it's kind of a step back for Loma. T.J. Brown versus Luis Sal Dahlania. Oh.

Oh, AK. A.K. Listen to this. Max is suggesting that when Luana Pinheiro is ready to return, she'd do so up a weight class at 125 pounds. The matchup he suggested Luana versus Luana. I knew it. I dig it. That is an AK Lee special right there.

Look, I'm not that easy. You can't just throw those out there and think that I'm going to nod at my head every time you get some cutesy hashtag made up, all right? I hadn't thought about it. I admit I'm intrigued. But I'm, come on, I'm not that easy to win over. And Luana Carolina missed weight. I mean, I'm not, I'm not matching. Yeah, that's true.

Good point. Luana, ex-linged Juana. Come on. Peter Reedley. I mispronounce his name last week. Peter Reedley, Mara Marius, Strickland versus the loser of Hermanson Shabazian. Rematch Kutalaba Jacobi. Chikaze versus Bryce Mitchell.

Again, Prahashka versus Rackage for the title shot. Brandon Nunes Maraub versus Munoz and Marais Jaco versus Heinish Strickland versus Gasolm Jacobi versus Alonzo Menafield

I don't mind that one Kutalaba versus Nsichu Yep That's fun Devin Clark versus Carlos Ulberg Clark the odd man out of

Swanson versus Feeley Giga versus Josh Emmett or Sadiq Yusv I was wondering when the Josh Emmett name's coming I Folks go back in the archives is watch my interview with Josh Jemitt.

You'll see that that fight, if it happens, isn't probably happening until 2022. And then he likes Dominic Reyes versus the winner of Hill versus Craig. And another Uri versus Rackage suggestion. Let's see. Zach Diamond Sampson, Kikaze versus Dawadu, and Yeri Prahashka versus my Wi-Fi provider. That's... Zach always comes through with the crazy. This is from

DJMDSL Hi fan of the show Listen to your shows every night Before I go to sleep I'm glad being AK's voice Could put you to Betty by Thought I would drop some matchups Micolitis versus Jordan Wright

In a battle to see who is UFC worthy Strickland versus Holland No explanation needed Marob versus Dominic Cruz Like the Marob callout It is all in I'm actually like overwhelmed by all of these,

AK. That's, I'm glad. Evan Rodriguez, Perashka for the title shot, Reyes versus Nikita Krilov be a tune-up fight for both men, and it would be fun.

Chikaze versus Kater, fun fight, Giga called them out, Giga's real test and a great comeback fight for Kater to throw his name in the title mix. I don't mind the fight. I just don't think it happens anytime soon.

Like if Giga can win another fight or two, by the time Kater comes back, makes all the sense in the world. Yeah, Yeah, Strickland Gasolm again, another Marab versus Frankie Edgar. And he's matchmaking Kai Kamaka versus Nate Landware. And he said, I'm aware that Nate has a fight booked, but this fight is such a banger and I want it to happen. Also, Kai definitely won that fight.

So he's matchmaking as if he won. Zach Andrews said casuals missed out tonight. It was a great event. Uri, title shot Orakich, Giga versus Burgos Barboza, Strickland versus Tavares, Ekmeadoff winner, Marab versus Jimmy Rivera, wildcard pick. Kai Kamaka versus Melsik? I don't know if I got that right. Melz.

Melsik? I don't know. My apologies. Let me think about that. Yeah, we'll think. Jordan Isle, winner of the Strat versus Yuri, Mazadol versus Nick Diaz. Thank you, Jordan.

Thank you. Just saying, talk about it because we can't have Nick versus Hamzat and he thinks it's a terrible idea as well. Holy cow. Literally just for on to the next one. Did you get the, DM from from from him as well no who who is this they can't literally just for otno oh no what they

went to you what he said okay there it is you traitor no he said what's what's up mike hope you're doing well i figure i've been bugging mr lee enough the last few weeks with giant list of fights that i want to see happen so i guess it's your turn to endure it here are my fights to make losers luke sunder sander versus jordan griffin kb boolar versus carl roberson are you kidding me i i like Are you trying to get K.B. Buller killed? What? Come on, though. What? Come on. I'm sorry. I just, I don't think, I know he's a fellow Canadian, A.K., I just don't think K.B. Buller is UFC worthy.

And to reward him with a step up in competition? Come on, dude. Or punish him with a guy who could seriously hurt him. Yeah, Roberson might murder him. That's another guy who should go to Trevor Whitman, by the way. Sam Hughes versus Ashley Yoder Not a bad idea Battaglio versus Molly McCann Kamaka versus Danny Chavez

Good God, what a crazy fight that would be Cody Stamen versus Nathaniel Wood That's fun Jocko versus Darren Stewart Kutalabin Jacoby II Swanson versus Gavin Tucker Reyes versus Krilov Winners Kalaras versus

Silvede Androj Miccolitis versus Dalja Lunggambula Lukumi versus Vianna Carolina versus Gianne Kim T.J. Brown versus John Phillips. Is that right? T.J. Brown versus John Phillips?

John Phillips? Isn't John Phillips? One no longer in the UFC. Isn't he like a middleweight? Isn't he like the white Mike Tyson? Yeah, I think he's like a middleweight too. Isn't T.J. Brown versus him? That's a fight circus kind of fight. Aaron Phillips? Maybe Aaron Phillips. That must be what it is.

Okay. Luana Piniura versus Amanda Lamoche. DeWalsh, Ruelly versus Marais. Strickland Gasolum. Jacobi Kutlau'u'Ratze, Arnold Allen. I don't think we see that fight just yet. I think we would see Mitchell before we'd see the Allen fight. And then Prahashka versus for the title.

And then the last one from David Jones, Chakazza, another Barbosa-Bergos, Yuri for the title, Strickland v. The Loser for Mansen, Shabazi, and Reyes versus the Ed Herman Marquez winner. That's interesting. Okay. Ed Herman versus Danila Marquez are fighting.

They think the winner should fight Dominic Reyes. Wait, sorry, for Dominic. Again, look, I said going outside the top 20, I'm okay with that. That's, I mean, that's not terrible. I don't think that's necessarily. But the winner of that fight? The winner of that fight would fight Dominic Reyes. Yeah.

I mean, that's what I would want to see. I would want to see something like that. I like that. That's tune up talk. Yeah, it's not going to happen. But I know. That's what I would like to see. And if the world was made of sunshine, rainbows, and lollipops.

And at times it is, but oftentimes it's not. So I think that's the where we're living in. But I'm a little overwhelmed by the DMs, folks. Thank you very much. I know I kind of flew through them. A lot of first timers, which I appreciate. And I turn it on over to you, AK. Yes, first timers almost always be mentioned.

I first want to read something from a guy I meant to do this one last week, as he goes by, the Watts Riot on Twitter. and this was stuff sort of relevant to 601, but I don't want to mention it. He said he'd like to see Brendan Allen rematch any one of his losses in the legacy promotion, Anthony Hernandez, Eric Anders, Trevin Giles. I just like the LFA shout out.

He said, also I'd like to be known. The MMA gods punished Jorge Mazadal for one for supporting Jake Paul and cowboy Olavera for braiding a dollar sign into his hair. So apparently a lot of carmic justice was dished out last week, according to the Watts Riot. So on the Twitter, that was from the Twitter as well, but on the Twitter as far as some matching this week, responding to our tweet about, you know, what could be next for Devalishvili?

Tyler Stargill on Twitter says the winner of Garbrandt versus Font. That would be on May 22nd. That would be really high. We had four corner sports and Y tag both of us in a tweet, Mike. and jump out with some pretty familiar some pretty familiar ones Reyes versus Diego Santos Reyes versus Volcano Ouzdemeer

and Chikaze versus Barbosa Burgos winner I should say sorry so the most some of the most popular listener picks this week were of course just to give Prohaska the title shot and a couple people mentioned the Prohastca weigh in as an alternate option Chikaze versus Bergenboso when I just said

Strickland versus Gaslam as you won before I think that was the number one for Strickland people throughout people will still throw out Strickland Brendan Allen rematch. I don't know if it's because Strickland had that great clip go around of him just verbally running Alan down. But, I mean, there's heat for a rematch there maybe somewhere down the road. They just fought in November, guys.

It wasn't that long ago. So I don't know if people forgot or really, really want to see it. If Strickland accidentally talked himself into an Allen rematch to the opposite effect. People really didn't have a – I didn't see a big consensus on Reyes. As we said, Anthony Smith, Maheta. Johnny Walker were the options and that pretty split. And then Walshvili, Maraisch, Munoz, and Jimmy Rivera was another name of people throughout there. But I didn't see one, I didn't see one that like everyone seemed to agree out.

Statement, I don't know if you, did you have a state, did you toss any statement matchups? Nathaniel Wood. And Nathaniel Wood. So the one I saw from, I think, like three people. Casey Kinney. Yeah, I like that one. I was thinking that one too. So good.

So good. And the other thing we look at asking me is, will there be a rival review for Kamaka and TJ? British yesterday, T. T. Brown was the winner and Kai Kamaka. Yes, there will be a robbery review. I don't care about spoiling. I feel pretty strongly that Kamaka won that fight.

But hey, you know what? I've had my mind change before. On fight nights, Mike, you know, we're juggling a lot of things at once. Sometimes we're not always watching the fights, like, as closely as we could. So maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. I've made decisions. I know every media member that scored it on social media scored it for Kamaka.

So I think it's worth, I think it's certainly worth taking a look at. So you guys will see that on Monday. Okay, so other people on Twitter through the DM. Some newcomers, Garrett Thompson coming in. He likes to Oswaldi-Munios, Strickland Gasselman-Ghazzoz, Soudique Yusuf, and he prefers Yerdy versus Yerdy versus Yerdy versus D. Yerty versus Rectady versus Yerty versus Recton versus Yardin versus Hatton-Rodagh. That's a fun fight. We got to get him a fight book soon, though, because he's a fight-bush-in-law now.

he's getting thrown in every week against anyone who wins in 185 pounds. They're just like, word up, word off. And I totally understand why. And then a user named Lachtagon. I think I said I was going to read this message. Good name. Why is I going to read this? Oh, he says they've been spamming your Instagram DM, so I don't know if you've missed Lactagon or not.

But also, yeah, I've just said they love, love the show. And they want to see, Yon versus Piotr Yon versus, this is somebody that message sent to me earlier in the week. Piotr-Jon versus Sanhagen for an interim title. I see, I've seen that throwing out a lot. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know.

I mean, I'll still be back. He'll be back. He thinks he'll be back in October. So at this point, we have to take him in his word, right? Yeah, that's not that far. Piotrion can wait. Seroni saying Clay Guida should step in to fight Donald Soroni. Sort of, you know, a similar, similar Diego Sanchez vibe as far as how better

and he is and kind of wild man in the cage. I can't imagine Clay at 170 though. I guess Seroni's not doing one. I'd like to, yeah, that would be weird. He's fought as low as 145. He would look tiny at 1.000. Imagine Giga fighting him in 170? That'd be wild.

That'd be strange too, right? Yeah. He'll do it. Hell that I would. And speaking of Giga, as you mentioned, we don't know what's going on with this Ryan Hall to prayer to fight supposedly for a DOS East East 4,

but as we've said, you know, we've spoken to a lot of people who have said, Ryan Hall has some, like, health stuff that he needs to make sure is cleared before he can take that fight. I don't think it's signed. Is it signed? As far as I know, it's, I mean, I could be wrong.

Like, I looked at Ryan Hall's social media all over the place. Yeah. To see if he's, like, announced it and he hasn't. Yeah, I don't think it's not. And then, so, again, that one's still in the air for me. I know I see it in all the databases as being upcoming, but I really don't think that's official guys. And then, like he'll said, possibly for Chikaze, I don't think this guy, obviously,

has earned this fight yet because he has a great fault. following overseas, but I think he also had some unfortunate George comments to make about the country of George just said there's some heat here. But Patty Pimbleau. No. No, not fair. Not fair to Giga. Oh, no, no way. I mean, listen, Patty, Patty's a good talent, fun guy, glad he got the UFC rub. But, I mean, that'd be a disservice to both of those guys, for being honest.

Lock the gun, he's just throwing it out there. Michael Perugini always coming in with the deep cuts. He likes Colars versus Matt Sales. He's kind of wondering where Matt Sales has been. Michaelatus versus Jamie Pickett and Jordan Wright winner. Luana Curlina versus Maria Agapaba. T.J. Brown, Jordan Griffin, Luana Pinero, Mallory Martin. I'm going to scroll down a bit here.

Just skip some of these. Thank you, Michael. Again, I'll always call him with decuts. Barry Riley, also some decuts. Corales versus John Castaneda. McAlius versus Nazardine Imavov. I'm just thinking once I haven't been mentioned before. Davalish Vili versus Umar.

Magamatov. Eh, Umar's got earned that one. Super talented guy. So I'd love to see that fight someday, but they're just a different part of their UFC careers right now. Nate Andrews, our man who came with a very touching story last week about his injury, I wanted to read a little bit of this message. Prohavka versus, so his pro-Havro versus Rockets, he just says, yes, the chaos is outstanding,

but URI is two fights into his U.C. career. Rockich still has still put some great Ws together. Considering that Young Glover is in September, the winner, most likely he won't find until December, January. The earliest just makes sense to me. Yiri is the guy that won't let Rockich coast, and Rockich absolutely can break that iron chin of Yuri if he lands right. So good job, Nate, selling that one. Liam Perry, yes, Dominic Reyes, the Paul Craig, Jamal Hill loser.

Strickland versus, he's with me, Strickland versus the Hermanson, Shabazian winner. T.J. Brown versus the Woodson Zalal on June 5th. I didn't want to mention to remember that fight was happening because I think that's a cool matchup. our guy yes go ahead mike yeah yeah whatson's interesting because i know he's trained at glory mame i don't know if he's there still or it

goes there once in a while i don't know it doesn't sound like it maybe can't yeah maybe i don't know fun fight though marcus mackay he coming in with colaris versus zahabi uh he's going out he did this last week with uh dostal chuck uh he's going off board again the guy was yet to uh this time of russia

fighter who is yet to make his UFC debut. He wants Michaelidis versus Kisriev. I should look up this guy's first. I should have been down first. McElhliuskab Kisreyev. So Markim's a game, I'm on to your tricks. You're not going to get away with this every week, but I do like thinking outside the box.

That's a crazy fight. Loma Lekbuni versus Pollyanna Viana and Luana-Karalena versus Aaron Blanchfield or Kaysu O'Neill Lara Pocopio winner on June 19. Fred, our man from Brazil, likes Chicago. Chikaze versus a zombie. E. Gay loser. Javon Johnson coming in with, oh, boy.

I remember that I made a note here. Javan Johnson says, Yeri versus John Jones. He says, look, I watched, he says, I watched Dom a monster get murked. I felt like he was supposed to report to the authorities, quote, he's a savage.

I know what you're thinking, what are John versus Francis, but at this point, he says, that's Tony versus Khabi and won't happen until after it makes sense. So, poor Javon has given up on us seeing John versus Francis in the reasonable time frame and kind of, I think, something I joked about on Saturday show,

saying, you know what, John's just going to come back to town to 205 eventually not find a fight at late heavyweight. So I think, I think, Javan Johnson, along those same lines. Hayes Bethird says, Maraud Vajvili, Jim Rivera, or the Sunsao Kyler Phillips winner, Strickland versus Amarraf Mettov, Tavar's winner, and run back to Lava versus Jacoby. Thomas Collins, I made a note here for him as well,

he wants to see Evolishvili versus Aldo I doubt Aldo would ever accept this fight it'd be interesting to see how well Aldo's takedown defense with hold up

against Marab's relentless takedowns plus it gives a chance for see how good Maraub's striking us so yeah I think Maraub would love to have that fight

but I agree with the first sentence I don't think it happens and then T.J. Brown versus the Ameri Nate Landver winner on a June

Nate Landver I know he doesn't like pronounce Landware winner June 5th so thanks for those suggestions Tom Collins that's that for

Twitter. Just a couple of emails from my usual guys, Harry Tuoskin and Tristan Gordet. Harry likes Kalaris versus Ronnie Lawrence. I'm excited about seeing that guy fight again. And Kuchalaba versus Inzichu. And Tristan Gordet also throwing out Inzacu, but for Justin Jacoby. And he likes T.J. Brown versus Jonathan Pierce, who didn't get the chance to fight because Benitez's enormous weight miss. And we're going to close out with some Instagrams. We have our usual, one of our favorites, Jacob Best. And he wants Chagazza versus Barbosa winner lose. So he's not hedging. He's not going Barbosa-Bergos winner.

He's just saying, no, no, let's make that happen. I'm like, okay. I'm down. I think it's more likely he gets the winner of that fight, but I would not object to Chikaze versus Edson-Barbosa at all. He wants Strickland versus Uriah Hall, which we've mentioned. He said, Uriah probably deserves to fight higher, but needs a quick turnaround after the winder result,

and Strickland seems very active. Great striking battle. Yes, I agree. Jacob Best and Swanson versus Philly, which we just mentioned. We have one new user on Instagram whose name, I cannot read out, because this is a show for the children, Mike, but it is F Steve Harvey. You guys can figure out what the F stands for. Funny. I guess he's still mad about the 2015 Miss Universe pageant.

You know, some of us never get over it. He says Reyes versus Anthony Smith and Chacottza-Beribis-Barbosa. So, yeah, man, people really are just saying they just want to see that one. Matt Bradbury, another guy I always kind of with the deep cuts, Colaris versus Gustavo Lopez, Micheladis versus Jacob Malcun. And he got me.

T.J. Brown versus T.J. Laramie. On T.J. on T.J. Gosh tag T.J. on T.J. on T.J. That's a good fight. You got me. T.J. hashtag T.J. on T.J. Piniar versus Yoder. I like that one, too.

This person, Matt said, how about Kobukovic versus Marcos? I don't know. I feel like Colvikevich has a little more leeway because of the opposition. Sure. Chikaze versus Sadiq Uycusev. Oh, that's so good. MMA heads has my back and Chikaze versus Yair.

Dillon Shute also, I don't want to hit this out there because he had some good matchups I thought for Kutalaba and Jacoby. He likes Kuchalaba versus Devin Clark and Jacobi versus Da On Jung. Another guy is becoming a popular Otno name. Maybe Don Jones is going to end up fighting Macmood Meridav. That would kill two birds with one stone. And I'll close out, Mike, with a happy birthday to Jamie Casey.

Now, people, I will very likely read your message if it's your birthday, but I am keeping track. You cannot trick me. I will keep track. If you're trying to just get mentioned, you can only say, every 12 months, I will keep track of these things. It's not hard for me, guys.

We can't slip this one fast for me. So Jamie Casey says, he's turning the tender age of 25 years old, Mike. God. Good for you. I know. And so happy birthday, Jamie. And here he is suggestions. Marab de Vallechevili versus Dominicruz. Sean Strickland, Kevin Holland, Giga-Chiccatsi, Bryce Mitchell. And of course, Prohachka versus the Blahovich. Gover to Chera winner. So pretty focused this week. I don't think we were all over the place. I think the listeners had some amazing suggestions. I think you and I covered a lot of the bases. So I think we got it all. Yes. No stone unturned. All right. I want to leave you with a question, A.K.

Oh, please. Before we wrap this up, because I'm honestly blown away by the amount of people who saying Yuri Perashka versus Alexander Rackage. I'm shocked, especially after a knock-all like that. Like when on the history of this show has someone in a position that Yuri Prashka has been in gets a finish like that and a fight like that? And everyone's like, dude, immediate title shot. Like immediate. So my question to you is AK. It's kind of a two-parter.

One, if this fight between Janbovich and Glover Tachara was not booked for September, let's say this fight was booked in July, would we have the same reaction? And two, if this fight wasn't booked at all, would Glover Tosher be in like big trouble? Like, do you think he'd be in big trouble? No, no, no, no, no. Oh, you're crazy if you don't think you'd be in big trouble. I think your first question, yes, if it was happening a little bit sooner, we wouldn't have to worry about What's next for Prochka?

You'd lock them in for that title shot. If it wasn't booked at all, Blakhovich was still waiting for a challenger. I, this kind of flips what I said at the beginning of what with our Prohashka talk. But I think the UFC would do the right thing. Actually, this goes with my prohashka talk

that I don't know. I don't know if they know what they have in him. I think they would do the right thing and give to share his talo shot. I'm not against the Rocket Friedman. I know you said you're surprised. We shouldn't be surprised because it is a,

just ignoring, I know, when we're doing a matchmaking show you can't enter other things. But just ignoring title implications and all that stuff, that's an awesome fight. I agree. So maybe now is not the time for it, but I do understand why people, I like that people have done the math, have looked at how far ahead the actual upcoming title fight is and have, you know, have been very logical about it. So I'm not surprised at all. I think people are very smart.

And I think that perhaps, well, thankfully we don't have to answer this question, but I do think to share it would have still gotten the show. Yeah. And let's also be clear, a lot of the people that probably suggested the rackage idea, know Yuri Perashka very well. And they know what a wild man he is. And they know most fighters in this position probably would just say like, nope, waiting for the title shot. And Yuri's just like, eh, I'll fight anybody. I'll fight rackage and Belhovic and to share at the same time. Yeah.

I'll do it. Let's go. Yeah. It seems possible. They're right. That's kind of helping the Rockich talk, because it seems possible. Again, and as I feel it's just likely, like that it's either book for the same card or in the same vicinity. with either of the guys possibly acting as an alternate for that main event.

Well, according to Dana White, that fight was a number one contender fight. But we'll see. Dana White has said many things in 85 to 90% of the time. They turn out to not be accurate. So that's just the way that the cookie crumbles. But we're getting out of here. I think at this point, you guys know where to find us on social media by now. We didn't even need to say it.

Like, we didn't even say it. And you guys find us. So just keep doing what you're doing because we're getting more DMs and more matchmaking suggestions than we have ever had on this program, and we cannot thank you enough for that. And we will be back once again next week, because we will discuss the fallout of UFC Vegas 26, which right now officially does not have a main event. I mean, as a, the targeted main event from everything that I've been told and everything we've confirmed is Michelle Waterson versus Marina Rodriguez.

If the fight happens, I'm told it will be at 125 and not 115 because of the short-nurtish nature of the fight, which is fine. But it's not done. Like, the fights a week away. We watched the whole broadcast. We got the whole UFC 263 fight card before we got next weeks. This could be different by the time this podcast goes out. Well, I mean, I assume it's going out shortly later today, but I know a lot of hope I'll

listen to on Monday as well. So by Monday, this could be different. But here is, if you go to the UFC May 8th event page, what you see, what you will see is Junyang Park versus Tafon and Chukwe. And then to be determined versus to be announced. That's it. That is what the event page looks like right now. If you will go to you.

So not great. Not great when you have an event that's less than seven days away now. So hopefully by Monday, this will be outdated news and they'll have a full glorious 10-11 fight card with possibly Michelle Waterson and Marina Rodriguez in that spot. But yes, that's not ideal. Yes, and as of right now, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. So if Haredegas Waterson happens, there's 11 fights. We expect Donald Seroni to fight on this card, so there's 12 fights. We still get Ben Rothwell-Filippe-Lins.

It's fun. Amanda Hebaugh's versus Angel Hill is fun. Neal on Neal. We're getting Neil on Neil. Diego Faheda. Not like Neil on Neal, M.A. Gordoghazte. And Diego Faheda versus Gregor Gillespie is redonculus.

That is a tremendous fight. Lidavitha Clients will see you back. This is a good card. Ladova Kleinsback, Phil Haas, Kyle Daukes is a good fight. This is a good card. If this card actually exists, it's a good card. Like, just look at what could have been. Seroni Sanchez, Holm Pena, Jimmy Flick, Francisco Figurato,

Roxanne Mata v. Tyler Santos, Nicholas Mata versus Demir Hadesovic, Corey Sanhagan versus T.J. Dillishaw, Francisco Figuerado versus J.P. Bayes. Like, all those fights were on this card at one point. This is a curse card. Oh, boy, I think we've got to have our, we're going to have a keep our eyes on, uh, on, on the scene this week. Because fingers crossed, what's left stays there and what hasn't been announced becomes official.

But oh my gosh, I don't know, Mike. Bellator's feeling pretty good right now. Are they? They might be. They might be. Something tells us we're going to see like Paul Felder fight Donald Taroni. Oh, there we go. And that'll be the new made event.

Speaking of Belter, you'll be on the road. I will be on the road. Yes. I will be out there Wednesday. I'll be there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Come back on Saturday before the UFC event. I'm planning on making a trip on Saturday, possibly to see the New England cartel.

So Sammy, don't hold that against me. Do not hold that against me, Sammy, for my rant. Again, it was all out of love. All out of love and respect. But we'll be back next week to talk to fall of UFC Vegas 26. Made event officially TBD. So for AK, I am Mike Keck.

Thank you for listening. And always remember, don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. We'll have more fun right here. Next week on on to the next one. The podcast.