MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 27

Episode Date: May 23, 2021

On the 45th 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 27 event at the APEX. Future matchups were discussed for Rob Font following his dominant unanimous decision win over Cody Garbrandt in the bantamweight main event, Carla Esparza, Jared Vanderaa, Norma Dumont, Ricardo Ramos, Jack Hermansson, 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. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one as we are here to discuss the What's Next's coming out of Saturday's UFC Vegas 27 event, which was a card that had a little bit of everything, including a pair of big statements made at 135 pounds as well as 115 pounds. And I hope you're all having a great weekend as we bring you some matchmaking before a rare weekend off for the UFC next weekend. I am Mike Heck and joining me as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker,

the best friend and the Prince of Positivity, the incomparable Alexander Cayley. How are you, kind, sir? Oh, what a lovely introduction. My best friend, Mike, I'm ready for a break. I'm ready for a little bit of a break from the UFC. You guys have Memorial Day weekend next week? You guys have a long weekend next week, right?

Yes. In the U.S. Okay, we had our long weekend this weekend. I can't remember why I'm a terrible Canadian, but we have some sort of, you know, whatever, three-day holiday. So I'm not going to lie. My mind was already sort of sort of set thinking about your American long weekend next week and the no UFC card. But you know what? We had some good showings on Saturday.

As you mentioned, two very big statements made, which was what we hoped. At the very least, I think going into this card, we hoped that the top two fights would deliver what they had to deliver. And I think they did. The rest of the card, I don't know, mixed bag, you know, mileage may very. But yeah, definitely some positives and some matchups to be made here. Yeah, I was thinking about this late last night and early this morning. And then we mentioned this before we hit record. If the UFC took last night off and then booked this card for the Saturday for next Saturday,

I think it would have gone over a lot better. It was a good, I mean, it was a good card. Like, if you go back and watch it for what it was, like, it was pretty good. There were some kind of slow fights, but there were some really good. fights too. I just think like, and I know like everyone's like, oh, you don't stop complaining this is your job. But eventually it's just like, we've been doing this for like 12 straight Saturdays. Like that was probably time for a break after 262 because we were still talking about it on Thursday. It's still overshined what was to come last night. And I just think the hangover

was real, although we had the two big statements in the main and co-made event. We're going to talk about, uh, it would have been nice, Mike, to get to enjoy the charles. Olivera you know basking that's the honeymoon period of the Charles Olivera lightweight championship because I mean like I said we had this other event to look forward to I mean on Saturday and then you know the rest of the week was spent with us in the media yap yap yap in about like oh it's Charles Oliver the real champ but who should fight we didn't even give poor we're such demons we're such click click bait demons we didn't even give you know Oliver time to enjoy it for like oh

it was time for McGregor a pour a come along take the title from like God it's It's just, we're disgusting. We're terrible people. We are disgusting sometimes. Well, A.K., let us begin with one Rob Font. We did the damn thing in the main event, a dominant, unanimous decision win over the former champion Cody Garbrandt in his first main event. This man continues to get better and better.

He shattered his own significant strikes record, outstruck Garbrandt by 113 total significant strikes throughout the five rounds. A.K., I thought he won every single round. The first round was closest of all. I have no issue if you scored it for Garbrandt, but I don't think any of the other rounds were all that close, if we're being honest. I thought it was a showcase performance for one of the founders of the New England cartel.

And normally after performance like that, A.K., and where he is at in his career, the winning streak he is on right now, that would be enough to earn you a title shot. But in this division, there's a lot of roadblocks in play. So I guess the question is, what does Rob Font do now? What is next? He kind of mentioned this post-fight. He's well aware he has to wait for this Sterling Jan Dilleshaw-San-Dill-Shagen situation to sort itself out.

And he's in a great position to get any one of those guys, possibly a title shot. Who knows, again, depends how whether, you know, what happens with Dillishaw-San-Hagan fight. When does Sterling-Yon happen? That's still not official. I mean, I think we all assume it's going to happen. I think anyone out there worrying like, oh my gosh, Sterling got the, you know, cut the next surgery and he's avoiding the rematch with Yan. I think that's crazy. Again, I'm not saying that the fight is definitely going to happen, but I'm saying if it doesn't happen, it's not because Sterling's avoiding it.

I think Sterling would definitely want a chance to vindicate his sort of disqualification victory. So, yeah, he has to wait. He has to wait. I don't know what's ideal for him in that situation. So I'm not picking one of those names because, again, I think the Delaushan San, in person, winner, excuse me,

definitely deserves the title shot, but you could, again, you can make that argument for font. It's a deal a shot. I know a lot of people

don't want to see him get a title shot off of one man back, especially given the circumstances under which he was, he was away from competition. So, I'll make my official pick for font.

It should be one of those four, but if I have to make an official pick, maybe Frankie Edgar. I know font, again, like I said, he's up in the rankings, He doesn't want to fight back, but it's another big name.

I think it's a fight he'd be favored in. I think he'd be at least a two-to-one favorite against Frankie Edgar, and I say this as a massive Frankie Edgar fan. This is something I wanted last year. I think when Sanhagen beat Edgar last year, or even when they were matched up, I remember I wanted Fon to get the winner of that fight. I guess it's been a while now,

and Edgar lost pretty badly, so people don't want to see that now, but I'm still not against it, and this is really just to keep font busy, because the other Dill Shot Sanhagen, I think, were rumored what maybe July, end of July, I think we're hearing. We haven't confirmed that yet.

And Sterling Jan, who knows? So I don't know if he wants to wait that long. Yeah, this is really interesting. And I said this on the post-fight show. I said on the preview show, although it seemed like the Sandhagen Dillishaw fight when it was supposed to take place a couple of weeks ago, was a clear-cut number one contenders fight.

Now with it being postponed until reportedly July 24th, And as AK alluded to, that is not 100% done as of this recording. I think we are in the beginning stages of a quasi-number-one contender mini-tournament. Now, like you also said AK, we have no idea when this rematch between Sterling and Jan will happen. I think the UFC would be absolutely insane to go really any other direction unless Sterling just can't fight for a long time. I know he hopes to be ready in October, and maybe he will be. I just don't believe it in my heart of hearts. I just think that it's too soon after hearing how Chris Wyman overcame that neck injury

and how Tristan Connolly overcame that neck injury and the time it took to build themselves back up. And so there's a clear option to me. And then there's kind of an outside-the-box option, if you'll indulge me for a moment, AK. I think the best way to do it. and it's unfortunate for Sanhagen more than anybody in the situation with what he has done lately. I think Font should get the winner of Sanhagen versus Dillishaw. Throw that fight on the main card whenever that title fight happens. Like if the title fight's going to happen in October, either the co-made event, somewhere on that main card,

you do Rob Font versus the winner of San Hagen, Dillishaw. One, because you showcase a division even further. And two, you have a contingency plan in place in case something does happen, whether it be COVID-related or, you know, maybe Sterling's injury, flares back up and he can't make it. That way you have something in place. The other outside-the-box option, and again, not fair to Sanhagen because the postponement of this fight with Dilashaw was not his fault.

If for some reason it's revealed Aljo is out for longer than anticipated, you can do an interim title fight between Jan and Rob Fon to keep things moving. Not the most ideal situation, but let's just say, like, in two weeks, we find out, you know, Sterling's recovery is taking longer. He's not going to be back to like April of 2022. You got two guys ready to go. I'm sure Jan would jump on that opportunity. I'm sure Font would also jump on that opportunity. And then you just kind of go from there. But not ideal. Option nonetheless, if you need it. But I think if you treat it as a tournament with what's going on in the title conversation with the championship belt, that's the best way to do it.

Fond himself said he said he's totally down for an interim title a lot of fighters don't necessarily say that a lot of fighters say they want to wait for the real thing but I think he's smart I think he knows an interim title fight could end up again either being you know a co-main on a pay-per-view again you get that title fight some extra title fight scrilla so certainly a good thing to want to want to be a part of it could even be honestly it could even if it was him and yon it could even be a headliner on a pay-per-view depending which one depending on it is depending how badly the UFC needs a headliner so I think font leaving that door open with you was really smart. Gosh, it sounds so weird that the stakes of Dillashan-San-Hagan changed so much, right? With both with its qualification and now the fight being delayed, it really did look like. It was so easy. Like the U.C., really, it was so easy for the UFC, even in such a deep division, we're like, ah, it's perfect. It's laid out for them.

Sterling Yon, sell of their business, long-away to title fight. Dillashaw comes back, fight Sandhagen, there's your automatic number of contender. Now, Fons inserted himself into the conversation. I mean, I think this overall is a good problem to have for the UFC. But it is a little bit confusing for the fans. And also it's a little difficult for their marketing team, I think, to kind of handle all this going forward. I even told Rob this when I went out there for that sparr, his final sparring session, I said, you never want to like celebrate losing a fight.

But normally you want to be like the last one to compete because this is a recency by a sport. In this situation, I thought this was this favored Rob Font more than anybody else. even more so than Cody than Cody Garbrand Sandhagen and Dilisha Rob Fond getting a two month head start on these two guys this is the best thing for him

and him going out there and having that performance was just huge so he's on to bigger and better things and we'll see what happens this is just kind of a cluster F right now and it's just the way that it is but we head to the co-made event in AK it seems like a no-brainer here

but for some reason much like the Aljo situation last year, Dana White is not ready to pull the trigger on Carlos Sparza being next for Rose Namuunis when there is absolutely nothing more she could have done from a competitive standpoint. I think we all agree, and I know it's not necessarily her nature to do this,

but she could have been a little more fiery in the post-fight interview, cut a little more of a pro-eat. Like even if you say it like, hey Rose, congratulations on the win, I finished you once. I'll do it again. I'll see in the Octagon. Anything besides, Hey, Dana, come on, man.

Let's do this. I deserve it. That being said, I said it after 261 on the show. It would not surprise me in the least if they did the rematch between Rose Nami Unis and Zhang Wei Lee. But Rose put her away emphatically and very quickly.

I think Carla has done more than enough at this point to earn a title shot. And if I'm Rose, I'm making a post, even if it's like the most respectful post of all time. Hey, Carla, great fight. Let's do it again. Be an honor, something like that. But I will say this. I'm not going to do anything crazy. Carla should get the next title shot. And at worst, if they go at the rematch between Rose and John Wei Lee, it would not surprise me.

Carla should not fight anybody else but the strawweight champion in her next fight, whether it takes six months, eight months, a year, a year and a half. Carla Spars his next fight in that octagon, will be for the Shraway title. What say you? Yeah, and, you know, we discussed this on the Post-Vite show, and I think everyone knows about this by now, or at least as these discussions, like, you know, as people will kind of talk about this,

like what's going to happen with Carla and Rose and Zhang Wei. They all have the same management. They're all Brian Butler, right? Brian Butler's their, you know, sucker punch? Yeah. So in that sense, I think it's almost, I think Carla will be a little more comfortable waiting, the fact that they're all under the same umbrella,

because at least, again, there's that communication there and they can let her know like, like you said, yes, it might take a while if you get this rematch, but we're, like, you know, I'm making sure, I'm speaking as her manager, I'm making sure no matter what happens with Rose and Jane and Wei Lee that you are next, Carla, you know, again, it's, I think it's just a little bit easier and a good problem to have for sucker punch entertainment. So, yeah, gosh, do we even have to do this one?

It's as far as it's, right? It's silly, it's silly. And we had the other thing we said in the Postby Show was, Jose made a few good comments about saying, if only she had gone full heel and just started making fun of Paul Felder, being fun of his retirement, like his career. She should have called him Pat.

She should have been like, yeah, thanks for the question, Pat. Yeah, you listen. It's just super disrespectful. But I get it. It's not in her nature to really be that way. It wouldn't have come off well. I understand. I understand why she didn't.

So, yeah, other than talking your way into it, there's just there's not a lot more she can do. And look, RIP, hashtag yon, yon, yon. We hardly knew ye. We hardly knew ye. And look, I'm not counting yon shone on as coming back someday and being a contender. I'm just saying after last night, for now, hashtag yawn, yon, yon. It won't be trending this week.

Okay, let's put it that way. Yes, it was fun while it lasted, at least for the time being. It wasn't that fun. Yeah, and listen, the path for Carla Sparza got even cleaner with Tatiana Swarer is saying she wants to move up to 125. Yes. Like there's, because you know exactly with the UFC, have done in this situation. They would have thrown Carla right back in there with Tatiana's

warres, gave her the rematch, you know, chance to avenge the loss, number one contender fight. There's no doubt in my mind. They would have tried to make that fight. I think they would have given Tatiana fights, not an easy fight, but like a winnable fight to just have her jump the line, to just jump over Carla. What have been, what am I thinking? Maybe, but Tatiana already finished her. So, yeah, that's what I don't think that's why I don't think they would want to see her fight Carla again right now anyway. Yeah. I think, I think they, I think they remember that that first fight and be like, eh, let's not, it's, there's no point in a rematch now.

Let's give Tatiana, quote unquote, tune up, whatever that means in, in that division. But, and then had her leap over Carla, which would have sucked. But again, like you said, they could have mentioned the first fight. Yeah. Just fight it that way. So those were the two athletes that over-delivered, but a fight over-delivered in a big way as well on Saturday. Jared van dera gets his first UFC win.

He bled for. it literally against Justin Taffa. I mean, his blood was all over the canvas, all over himself, everywhere. I mean, it looked like I was watching the second Mighty Ducks movie, and instead of using shaving cream on poor Dwayne Robertson's hand, they use ketchup. What an esoteric. What an esoteric reference. Yes.

And yeah, great performance from Jared Vandere. He moves on to bigger things. But how big do those things get, AK? What would you like to see next for the Team Quest product? Mike, do you think it was a glove that caused the cut? Because when they showed the cut after, it was like a really small cut. It was just one that I think popped open really quickly and started bleeding really quickly. Yeah.

Do you think it was the glove? They showed the punch. It was almost like I think it was like a left hand that caught him pretty good, pretty good on the top of the head. I do wonder if there was like he just a seam in the glove that like sliced him. But I wasn't. Could have been like dry knuckles, maybe. Could have been dry. It was a bizarre, uh, it was a bizarre cut that, that they cleaned up really fast.

called a great team. And he looked, he looked like a new man in the third, in the third round. Someone posted like the before and after screenshots. I was like, oh, good job. Good job. Cut men, quarterman. Yeah, charges Daniel. I think charges Daniel is a name I saw thrown out there.

So I'll give proper credit to people later. But, well, no, I won't because a bunch of listeners suggested. So I won't be naming names. But yeah, Jarges Daniel, there's a lot of directions to go. I think this will be a bit of a theme for the rest of this main card we're discussing outside of Hermanson. Because these were some lower ranked, some might say. They barely ranked fighters on the main card.

And yeah, I just think that Daniel would be a fun matchup. He just got his first UFC win recently, which was wild because it happened up to like a four-year hiatus or something from the Octagon. And yeah, Jared Vendera, judges Daniel, nothing fancy. There's other options. I have many other options listed. That would just be my number one pick. Yeah, I'm fine with that. I had a feeling you were going that direction, so I went a little bit different.

And then the more I thought about, the more I convinced myself that this is a no-brainer. I saw some people, I saw like a few people throw out Andrei Orlovsky is an option for Jared Vandera. That is, I'm sorry. That is absurd. That is absurd this early in his career. Yeah, I saw it a few different times. That is an absurd idea. It's just, he just came off his first UFC win.

Arlowski also coming off of a win. And you're going to throw him in there with Jared Vendera. Listen, I like Jared Vendera. He's a good dude, a very good fighter. He's a guy that has a lot of potential and a lot of talent. and if he can kind of get it all put together, he could be a very tough out at heavyweight, but let's pump the brakes a little bit.

This one actually was pretty easy for me. I think Dontail Mays is fine. Like he doesn't have an opponent. You got two guys coming up their first UFC wins. That's a good fight. That's what I would do. But your option is just fine as well. Yeah, Mays was literally right up.

I can show you the screenshot right under Daniel, right on my list. Now we head to Norma Dumont, AK, who picked up an upset. set win over Felicia Spencer. I thought Norma clearly won the fight. The split to me was bizarre, but the right fighter in our eyes got the nod. And I think everybody knows at this point in today's UFC,

my best friend, that her future at 145 pounds is bleak at best. Her move to 135 begins as soon as possible. Get yourself to the PI, Norma. Start the process. And then go fight Jocelyn Edwards because that would be a lot of fun. What do you think? Oh, I like that. Yeah, for anyone, again, giving Dumont crap about wind-up fight at 135, I do hate that she has to cut to that way.

I wish there was a featherweight division. Clearly, it's difficult for her. Again, and she hasn't made it in the UFC yet. She waited 139.5 for a fight with Ashley Evan Smith, which she won. And then 139.5 again, for her most recent fight, which was canceled because she was a little too overweight for the commission's liking. So, yeah, but she's right about wind to fight at Bantamweight. just more to do there. Featherweight at this point is just a rush to get your ass beaten by Amanda Nunez.

135, yes, the end of you're still going to get your ass beaten by Amanda Nunez. But at least you can build yourself up a little more. You're not just chasing that one championship paycheck. Again, and by the way, friend, and Dumont has said this herself. Again, she's an interview with Gierreme Cruz on our website, and she said, look, I'm really in no hurry to challenge to call out Amanda Nunez. She really wants to go back down to 135. So good for her. Build up your name.

there's also life outside the UFC Look, she's maybe she's not with the UFC in a couple of years She'd like to have some wins, some UFC wins in her resume As opposed to, again, just being someone else who got knocked off by Amandaunez. So I'm going at Bayamalecki, pretty boring pick They were supposed to fight at UFC on ABC 2 in April This is the fight that ended up getting cancelled when Aaron Blanchfield stepped in, but Dumas just couldn't make the wait

So the fight didn't happen. So yeah, Bayamalecki, I thought it was a good matchup before. Experience-wise, I think it makes sense now. Yeah, so wherever, wherever my lucky is, whenever she's coming back, Norman Dumont, that's the way to go. You know what? I just thought of one that makes a lot of sense as well because I believe she's ready. She's very close to coming back. I think it'll be later on this year.

You do Norma Dumont versus the returning Jessica Rose Clark. That's fine fight. Yeah, yeah. She's a knee injury, right? She's dealing with a knee injury, yeah. Yeah, Vegas training versus Vegas training. That's totally fine with me. A little storyline there.

Little, I like it. Interregional rivalry. But let us move to the always exciting featherweight division. We got Ricardo Ramos, who defeats Bill Algio. And shout out to my buddy, Daniel Levy, from half the battle, who tweeted out something to the effect of, if you have some sort of variation of perfect in your nickname, Ricardo Ramos has your number. Because he's got a win over Mr. Perfect, Kyeong-Hokang, and then now Signor Perfecto, Bill Algeo. But listen, that was a fun fight. Goodwin for Ramos.

Featherweight is just a breath of fresh air right now. What would you like to see next for him after his victory last night? Yeah, and look, and Villaljo's got to avoid the Hikardos and the Ricardo's, because now that's lost to Lamos and Hamos. So, yeah, some interesting name, name coincidences there. Andre Feeley. I think, I like what I've seen from Hamos. I get it.

He's got some serious, like, defensive deficiencies. But he's that kind of long-ranging, versatile featherweight that I like. I think he's just so, so, so talented. And I don't know. I don't know how close he, maybe he's already at as best he's going to be. But if that's the case, then I think he's ready to challenge Philly now. I would favor Feeley in that fight. But I think I like Feeley being in that range of, yes, sometimes you can throw him in there against top 10 guys.

But I also like him being a bit of a test for some of these, again, talented guys who are still working on making names themselves. a bunch of other options, but Andre Fili was my number one for now. Interesting. I'm not ready to go that high just yet, especially since Laurel Murphy, you know, kind of dominated him. I thought about this last week after 262 because we saw a really nice showing from Tucker Lutz. I thought the winner of this fight would be a nice step up for him after that win over Kevin Aguilar. So I'm going to kind of stick to my guns there. Ramos versus, or Hamos, excuse me, versus Lutz makes a lot of sense.

Let's see how good Lutz is. And then Ramos can sort of continue to build his way up the division. And it just seems like a fun fight to me. I'm fascinated by it. I have no idea what happened. It's one of those fights where I would have to really think about before I would confidently, actually more unconfidently make a pick for all of you to see in here. But let us head to Jack Hermanson, who opened up the main card.

Great win over Edmund Shabazzian after a tough first round. Hermanson is just so good, man, at making adjustments and just flipping that switch whenever he needs it. And he gets it done in the final 10 minutes. And he's in a bit of an interesting spot right now, AK, not as high up as Rob Fon, but kind of a similar spot where we have to wait and see how things play out perhaps. So he's probably going to face one of the Lerner, losers of the two August main events between Derek Brunson, Darren Tiller, or Paul Costa versus Jared King in the air because he ain't getting the Bobby

Knuckles fight. I think he already knows he ain't getting the Bobby Knuckles fight. But I think that was a smart callout on his end in case maybe something triggers up. And, you know, they need it. And Bobby Knuckles is just like, dude, I just want to fight. Get me in there with anybody. But do you agree with that? Or are you going a different direction with Mr. Hermanson? I'm going a different direction. But, yeah, Hermanson's smart. He knows he, he was almost like font. He's like he knows what he has to wait for. He knows. who's in the mix, he knows where he is in the mix.

He doesn't want to fight bank of the rankings, again, like font. But there's a matchup which I think he would find intriguing. I think he would want to avenge his fellow veteran, his fellow, a man that he shared, he shared the cage with, and they had a great fight. I'd wonder if he would take a fight with Andre Muniz. I think Munuz is becoming a bit of a boogeyman at 185. I do think he people, when you break Jacari's arm, I mean, not a lot of people are rushing to get engaged with you.

I think Hermanson would do it because he is a great grappler. I think it would be a good matchup. So I am going outside the box. I think it's certainly more likely. He gets messed up with one of the August, a big middleweight fight losers. But if I'm waving my matchmaker wand, I go Hermanson, Mniz. Damn, that's fun. I like that.

I like that. I don't know if it happens. Maybe me, if, I think if Mniz can bounce, if Mniz can come back like in the next six weeks and fight again and get another win, I think he gets that fight. I'd like to see one more victory out of him. But if he could, if he could, I mean, he wasn't in there very long. He didn't take any damage. So if he could bounce back relatively quickly and get another win, I would love to see that

fight. It would make a lot of sense. But it is now time for our wild card selection. Oh, wait, wait. Sorry, do you have a preference of Brunson Till co-star? I would kind of rule out cannoneer because, I mean, they sort of just fought. Though I'm sure Hermanson would love that rematch, but I don't know if they would that. But of those four, do you have a preference?

Should whoever loses? I'll say, who do you think is going to lose and who he would you fight? I guess. I'll say, you know what? I will take Policosta versus Jared Canaan near out of this equation. Whoever loses Derek Brunson, Darantle fight, that'll be the fight. Okay, okay. So if Darantel loses, you throw him in there with Hermanson. And same, same with Derek Brunson. But. Right. Okay. So for check the tape purposes, I don't want to Uriah. I don't want to Uriah, I don't want to Uriah, myself like into the last time.

Yeah, that's what this is all about. I really just wanted that for the record. Yeah. And you know what's going to happen is something's going to happen. And Jackramance is not going to fight Paula Costa. And I'm going to look like an idiot again because I made the wrong decision. Never. It's now time for the wild card round. We're going to choose a fighter.

We have not match made for yet. And we will do it now. As per usual, the Kenny Lofton of the program, Alex K. Lee will lead us off. I will be the Roberto Alamar to either. move you over to third or drive you and my man who's your wild card pick coming out of ufc vegas 27 well i don't think you want to be your brodo alamo right now unfortunately okay damn it a bit of a cloud hangover tony i will i will be carlos byerga excuse me there we go

much better much better uh i i hope you didn't go with beast boy chris burnett for your wild go ahead i did not did you i did not okay excellent okay good look i i saw uh some someone say in the con i'll i'll miss this got a lot later leon perry one of our regular listeners. I saw him say, oh, Chris Barnett didn't look as good as we kind of been hyping up, had been hyping up on some of the preview shows and stuff like that. Yeah, look, I was a little disappointed, like we said, not as showy as we had hoped. I thought he actually fought okay. He was hitting, he was actually hitting Rothwell a lot, but you could see Rothwell kind of knew exactly what he, what to expect. He was any shots he was taking, he wasn't like taking them hard. He kind of like,

you know, he knows how to get hit. Let me put that. That's a nice way to put it for Ben Rothwell so and look and none of us were saying Barnett was going to uh well I might have picked him like I did pick him you pick me I did pick him yeah but I as soon as he as soon as he walked to the octagon I regret in my pick uh the energy he wasn't given off the right energy correct but I actually didn't think he fought badly and and I actually think he did show glimpses of kind of like for people who haven't heard of him before of how like fun he can be I like the effort and he looks so he's so small compared to Roswell it was like comical it was comical how much

shorter he was. Oh my goodness. So yeah. So I need and look, oh, let's give a hat tip to our buddy for this pick. Our buddy Craig Allen. He did this out there. So I have to give Chris Barnett, Rocky Martinez. Yes. This is, I want this fight. Rocket Martinez is fighting Josh Parisian. He's got an upcoming fight at Josh Bresian as Liam Perry again reminded me. And I told him, I told him like, don't be that guy. Don't ruin this for us. So, but yes, that fight exists. I'll say I don't care. Win or lose. I want Rocky Martinez to get another chance. Put him in there with Chris Barnett. Make this fight happen.

It will be amazing. Yeah, I thought about that as well. I knew you were going to go with that exact pick. I think Chris Barnett's arrival to the UFC gave Rocky Martinez a little bit of hope. Like I think win, lose or tie, Martinez is fighting again because they're going to match them up with Chris Barnett. Or this happens in Risen. Honestly, they both get released and this happens in Risen next year.

It really doesn't matter. That fight has to happen at some point in any organization. They're both from, they both fought there. You know, to go back. I have the fight there, who cares? Yes. Perhaps I'm cheating a little bit, but my mind was changed because normally on this program in this round, I will take us on a journey.

That is a guarantee. But I always stick with my own guns. And before we even did the post show last night, I had my wild card picked already selected. It was Cody Garbrandt for. is Marab de Walsh Willie. And I would still love very much so for that fight to happen, more so for Marab because the man deserves the chance to fight somebody in the top 10, and he deserves the opportunity to fight somebody with a pretty big name.

And Cody Garbrant would check all of those boxes. However, Jose Youngs brought something to the table last night that I'm completely going to steal for this program. I shall give him the proper credit. So the proverbial hat tip to you, Jose Young's. but if Sean O'Malley beats Lewis Smok on July 10th, and that is a big if, my friends. I know a lot of people on Twitter are like, oh, this is a stupid fight to layup for Sean O'Malley.

I think you're crazy because if that guy that we always tout on this show, the full of potential totally focused Lewis Smokka shows up, I think he gives Sean O'Malley all he can handle. Having said that, I still think shot O'Malley will find a way to win that fight, even if the best Lewis Smokalke shows up. But if he does get that victory, you do O'Malley Garbrandt 100%. That is, that's the wild card pick.

Thank you, Jose. I am going to take some credit after today, but right now, credit to Jose. That's, that is the wild card pick. Do we have to credit Jose that much? Weren't they beefing before? Didn't, hasn't there been some Twitter beef well before this weekend? Crazy? They tweet words at each other, Cody and Sean O'Malley.

I know Sean O'Malley took shots in him, I believe. Right, but just because, just because there's like rivalry, doesn't mean that's the fight to make. Like, I know, like, Cody Garber and Pejorian, like, had to be separated on, like, on a backstage skirmish that was cut on video. And never once did I ever say, we need to see Pieterian versus Cody Garbrand fight. No, we don't. I just don't want to credit Jose. We've had too much New England-New Englandishness on the show. Rob Font is the star.

You're here. Now we're bringing in Jose. Enough. Enough. The New England cartel. What are you trying to say? I think I've said it. I don't think I'm trying to say anything.

I think I said it. Were you celebrating the Brooklyn Nets last night? You know what? I'll also say quickly. I think that that series is hilarious to me either way. If Brooklyn loses, funny. If Boston loses, always good. So really, again, I'd much rather the Raptors win the playoffs,

but seeing this kind of chaos is the next best thing. Before you continue on with MMA conversation, I will say one thing. I think right now in May of 2021, I think the dumbest person in December, sports is Brad Stevens. I just watched the highlights of the game. What happened? There's nothing to do with the game last night. Brad Stevens has been offered, like, so many jobs from, like, the top college basketball

programs in the country where he will make, A, a lot more money, and B, have a lot more control, and C, not deal with the bullshit that he has to deal with in the NBA and with this organization. He should have gotten right out of there, and the Celtics would have let him go. Like, he may not have gotten, like, his full money, but the Selig's, and they were, Salix probably would have been pissed. Forget Danny Ains. She makes terrible decisions anyways.

But Brad Stevens, if you're listening to me, dude, you blew it. You blew it. I agree. For anyone who doesn't really pay attention or, like, are like casual basketball fans, NCAA, like, you're in college, one, you're very well paid generally. And two, you're like a god. Keep mind, you're like a god on, when you're a university. And the NBA is the opposite.

You are, you are dealing with 12 to 15 people that are probably making more. way more money than you are and all this management. And yes, a whole new fan base that does not care. They do not have any affection for you. They just want results right away. So, yeah, I didn't even think about that. But yes, he should maybe go back to college at some point. But I don't know.

Maybe he believes in Jalen Brown comes back. Maybe he believes in his nucleus. I'm sorry, people don't want to hear about this now. Yes, but there you go, Brad. I think you've done as good as you could have done. This has been sports tack with Mike Heck, with Mike Heck, AK Lee. I wicket,

I enjoy this conversation. But do we have any of our Check the tapes or A mic check as well, perhaps? No, that's really more a check for both of us. This is more of an us check for our for our stupid

Vanil Derrhus. Yes. Look, we got to. First of all, our logic was sound. If we're just talking about rankings and results and ignoring, you know,

real life. Our logic was sound. But I, Several people reminded me. I don't know if you got some messages to you, Mike that. Darius and Hapeldoz are very, very, very close friends. Shout out to the MMA heads Instagram account. I think they were the first to sort of send me a picture,

the sort of Instagram picture from them last week saying like, oh, we're brothers. I'm like, yeah, it doesn't sound like they'd fight. And I think Darius has said, I don't know if an interviews or a tweet, like this is the last guy in the world that'll ever fight. We're very close. So we got deservedly checked for that one. Yeah.

And that's why I kind of like preface. at last because I had no idea. I'm like I know RDA used to train at Kings and then he left. So I didn't know if there was I didn't know they were like still BFFs. I didn't know we were dealing with like Zach Morris and E.C. Slater here. Yeah. So there we go. So yeah, you know what guys? Hey, we got some of these wrong. That's why that's why you're here to check us. So thank you for the check. I've got a couple of good reader picks that reader slash listener picks that that materialized Mitchell Robinson Stan picked Daniel Rodriguez versus Abu Bacar and a Megamadov, which I I believe is coming up soon.

And then Michael Perugini, he kind of laughed at his own pick. He was like, he picked Cheyenne Bays and Gloria DePaula. And I think he was just like, he was just like, he barely took pride in it. He was just like, yeah. I don't know. Yeah. So well done, but well done Michael. Either way, take pride in your picks.

And someone, I wish I could find the name. I don't know who picked this, but someone did had Clay Grida versus Marco Madsen. So, listener, if you're out there and this is your pick, please remind me. I will look out of to verify, but I know someone had this. It wasn't me. I don't think it was you, Mike. No. Someone had that.

So that's a nice deep cut. Well done. Well done. Whoever it is, mystery listener, who sussed that one out. And I also got checked individually. Oh. I mean, it was not really a check. I think, I don't think.

Where is it? Zach Rabie on Instagram said he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, agree, he's with my zombie or both the fight. Only because he thinks, I think, if zombie beats Igay, he would rather see zombie then get the Holloway fight, which I think is fair. So a little, I mean, I didn't even get checked for being wrong, but a little bit of a story. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, why?

Why should he, you're telling me the Korean zombie who just got whooped on for 25 minutes by Brian Ortega in the stand-up department. If he beats Dan Igay should fight Max Holloway? are you crazy? Are you checking this? I'm checking this listener. That's, that is a bad. If you're,

if you're going to check my best friend, you best believe that I'm coming back if I don't agree with you. I understand. We're all friends here. I understand this affinity for, for the Korean zombie. I love the man too.

He's great. But to say that beating Dan Igay gets you Max Holloway after you just got, you just got whooped on for 25 minutes by Brian Ortega, that is in this division, That's craziness.

That is craziness. I would love to see the fight. There's so many other guys in 145 who deserve that opportunity. More than Korean zombie does. Well, thank you for standing up for me, Mike. We'll have more from Zach later in the listener's suggestions, but I thought it were worth mentioning.

And I don't think anyone would complain about a zombie holloway fight. But I get you're saying. It seems like we're a few fights away from that one happening. Yeah. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver, so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it.

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Service-piece exclusions in terms apply. That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it. Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this?

Oh, yeah, way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bell Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply. Are we ready for the peeps? Yes, the tapes have been checked. All right, let us rifle through these from IG. Patrick Austin, I mean, this van might be the busiest listener in the history of onto the next one.

I mean, after every fight, he comes through and just starts just rifling these off. So shout out to him. He starts off by saying, I do want to say, Court McGee versus Nick Diaz just to get under your boy's skin, but I won't. So I'll go with Cort McGee versus Gunner Nelson. I have no idea what's happening with Gunner Nelson. People ask me about him all the time. I have no idea. Yeah, yeah.

I got that too in the list of suggestions. I don't know if we have to put them on the do not suggest list, kind of like we have with Josh Emmett for a while. and like, yeah, I don't know if it's injury. I don't know if it's, again, COVID travel restrictions, visa stuff, but we may have to not be mentioning Gunner Nelson's suggestions. That's, again, no disrespect to Gunner. It's just, you know, I think when he fights again is when he fights. I don't think we can really predict matchups for him right now.

He said Demir versus Kevin Lee. That is not going to happen because it appears that Kevin Lee has this next fight at 170 pounds. We have confirmed one side of that report. Take that with however you would like. And no date yet. I haven't seen any date anywhere for that. I've been told July 10th is the targeted date. UFC 24.

Edmund Shabazzian versus Calvin Gaslam. And then he go, okay, there you go. He said, forgot Kevin Lee was going to Walter Waite scratch that. Demir versus Dr. Carr Close was his new selection. He also went with Chris Barnett versus Rocky Martinez. Ben Rothwell versus Marcos Ruggiero de Lima. He said, I really want to see Carla versus McKenzie Dern in a number one contenders fight. Tatiana Swars, do you miss you?

And then he said, Cody should drop down, should drop to 125 and fight Joseph Benavides. Yes, let's discuss that one now. I also got that one. So, obviously, they were friends once. I imagine they were probably still friends.

However, I know Garbrand did express a little, this is a long time I went out, at least like five years ago. He did express a little bit of being cheezed when, you know, Benavides went up to elevation to go train with Dilleshaw. I think they're also still kind of chummy.

So there's friendship there, but I don't know. There might also be a little bit of heat there. And Garbrandt also trains, I know he's an alpha-mill guy, but also trains with Mark Henry as well, right? He did this, I think he's done his couple of camps with Mark Henry now. Yeah, Mark was in the score last night. Right. So there's like some degrees of separation there.

I thought it was a weird suggestion at first. Like I said, I had seen someone else mention it. I think it's possible. I think it's possible. I don't know if they're, again, I don't know if they're RDA Darius close. You know what I mean? So.

Yeah. Not the worst suggestion. Yeah. Our man Harper, oh, my apologies, Harper. He's got to check the tapes as well. Rosenstrike versus Augusta Sakai was his selection from a while back. Who was this? Who was this listener?

Harper. Okay. At Harper H. H-A-R-P-U-R-H. He suggests Cody versus Marais if he doesn't drop to 25. Janjanon versus Michelle Waterson, since they're both coming off of a recent loss. I'm thought about that. And then he said either Rothwell or Vendera versus Wanaspino.

And then he suggests David DeVorek versus Kai Kara Franz, which would be a fun fight. Damn. That's a fun fight. Jack Porter, our longtime listener, Rothwell versus Romanoff. That's not a bad idea. That would be kind of interesting, honestly. I got that one too And it made me think

Does Rothwell They've been pretty good about not using Rothwell as like a gatekeeper guy Right? He always seems to find himself in He's in weird fights all the time He's in weird fights right But I never feel like they put him in there

As that guy to build up another prospect This would be like the first time In a way we should look it up for it It might like happen his last fight I'm completely forgetting But I do feel like he normally avoids that situation And this would be the first time Where I would see that booking

Be like oh they're trying to make Use him to kill him to get Romanov moreover, but yeah. He said, Hermanson versus the winner of Uriah Hall versus Sean Strickland. Dumont versus Nunes if they ran out of things to do for Amanda,

Cort McGee versus Mike Perry. I saw that a lot. Yeah, in Vandera versus Dan Ho, which is one of your suggestions. Did I get anything on? Oh, I did. Holy cow. Wow, I missed a lot of these. as Twitter DMs?

Yeah, I just saw them right now. Our man, Aussie Dad Bloke. There we go, my apologies. He calls us the MMA podcast, A-Team, AK. And that's pretty much a guarantee to get you on the program. Robbie Ryan, he goes, Dumont, Dumont won a featherway fight, so she's now the number one contender. Vandera, tough dude who can strike, step up to someone who will return fire like Todd Duffy

or Walthatch, by the way, Todd Duffy. Guy looked like he was, he was in Daytona Beach at 19 years of age. I should remember who tweeted this. Oh, no, was it in our Slack that someone said this, that he looked like, he looked like James Franco and Spring Breakers? Got it. Yeah, I'll take, I could take credit for that one. Was it you, Mike, that said that?

That was me. That was me. Oh. A very, a very gigantic, very gigantic James Franco in, in a yeah but van dera versus Todd Duffy would be pretty interesting. Walt Harris of course is fighting next week against

Marchine Tybora Carlos Sparza earned her title shot Rob Fon's gonna have to wait for Sterling and Yon to sort things out and neither fight the Sanhagen Dilloshaw winner or stay ready and hope for an injury replacement or possible interim shot of Sterling is out for too long and then uh with a winky face attached

Cody Garbrand has obviously earned a title shot at 125 pounds That's so funny That's very funny I wish we were kidding I still feel like there's a chance They would just throw him in there But gosh I hope not

Alec Ehrlich I Nilien Isma Gulov versus Joe Selecki What do you think about that? I like it I think oh gosh Did I see that for him

I know I saw Selecki's name pop up Yes I've yeah I saw that I nodded my head I said yeah That's that's a good test For Selecki right now And for his Magulov

Like I said I think he's one win away From getting like a considerably higher ranked person. So yeah, that's that to me. I have no issue with that. Yeah, I'm going to go through these and try not to repeat. Brunson versus Hermanson, Ramos versus or Hamas, excuse me, against Darren Elkins, Rothwell versus the winner of Alir Latifie versus Tanner Bozer, AK. Yep, yep.

Oh, God, I would love to see Rothwell and Latifie. Oh, my gosh. The memes. The memes. Alec also not giving Carl Esparsar a title shot. Dang. But he's also, he's booking the fight that I would have booked, or at least. tried to book before this fight with Janjan, Asparza versus Yawani and Jacek. Yeah. And look, I'm not even blaming, I'm not even blaming the listeners who are like who are

skipping over that because, again, I think they're well, I think they've done the thinking we have and they're thinking like, we've got to find other options for Asparza if they pass, if they pass her over for the title shot, which it sounds like Dana White is considering it. Yeah. And if I'm not fighting anybody unless it's through the bell. No. Brandon Nune is Brandon Allen versus Edmund Shabazian, Hermanson versus Luzer, Brunson Till, Sparza versus Rose, there

you go, Jan versus Nina Nunes, Cody versus Marab or Marlin, and then he likes Font versus Piotr-Yon, maybe for an interim title, but we'll see how that all plays out. I would have to be. Jake Marshall, Van dera versus Dano, another one

for that. Font versus the loser of Sanhagen, Dillishaw. There you go. Let's see. Poppy Bryant. Hermanson versus loser, Broz-a-Till. Ramos versus the

Hamos versus the winner of Minner versus Elkins. So there's another one there. Dumont versus Daniel Wolfe because there's nothing else. Who else? Come back. Save us, Leoleson.

Save us. Save us. The vision. Evan Rodriguez. Agrees with you, A.K. Jack Hermanson versus Andre Munez. Yeah.

Our man, I think. I think, I really think. He would take it. Evan Rodriguez, I really like this suggestion. Bruno Silva versus Manel Cop. I saw that a lot. I do think that's the one to make. That's a great pick.

Josh Kulabar versus Danny Chavez. Just inject that. Inject that. I love it. We already got that. Cody Garbrand versus Jimmy Rivera. Yes. Someone made a note to me.

It was like, that's one fight that he kind of, you, It looked like it would have happened if Cody hadn't risen through the ranks so quickly. He kind of like skipped over that fight. So that's, yeah, that's one where I think I'd still like to see it happen. Zach Andrews, Hamos versus Gavin Tucker. I'm fine with that. Yep. That's a fine fight.

Droker and another Hermanson versus Strickland Hall winner. Another vote for Silver versus Cop. Zach Andrews says, call me crazy. And when you say, call me crazy, you know something that's while it's coming. Vandera versus Alexander Gustavson. I think Gus is another guy we're going to have to remove from this like discussion on the short because we just don't know one when he's fighting again is he going back to light heavyweight is he going to continue fighting in heavy we don't know right yeah I have no idea and he says he's coming back so I've where I have no clue I like on Gus's name out there it's just he's such a mystery I don't know we feel like he's a guy again we can mention him we can mention on every episode but we're never going to make it we're never going to get it right right and our friend Frances Francesco from Italy thank you for checking out the program. Vendera versus

Jay Collier, win or lose, no matter what happens there. Oh, he's fighting, Felipe. Yeah, so no matter what happens versus Vandera. Hamos versus the winner of Herbert Burns versus Billy Q.

Fine fight. I think too much. I think they're a step above him. I don't know. I wouldn't do that. I think they're a notch above him. I think whoever wins that, I think deserves even higher up

in the cards on the rankings. Another vote. Ford, Dvorak versus Kikar friends. Janjanan versus the winner of Amanda Hebas versus Angela Hill. Yeah, Angela would love to fight Jan Shadhan out again if she beat Hebaas, I think. Yeah, I'm okay with that.

He likes title fight, just do Yowana versus John Wheely rematch. But here's, we will end it with this before we turn it over to you in the rest of the peeps. For Norman Dumont, he's not suggesting a move to 35. He's not suggesting fight Amanda Nunes. He's not suggesting

fight in the UFC. He's suggesting go to Bellator and fight Katzenegano in a title eliminator. So that's for Norman Dumont? For Norma Dumont. I mean, if she was a free,

I don't think she fought out her contract. Yeah, I don't know how that works. I mean, I'm sure. I don't mind it. Listen, if Norma Dumas went up to the UFC and said, can you let me out of my contract, I have a hard time believing they're going to like beg her to stay.

I think I'm not trying to be a jerk. It's just the way that it is. is she's not a big star for them she's not like generating a lot of dollars and ratings at least i mean she could maybe they see something in her and she's a good fighter she's going to get better maybe she's a killer at 135 oh another suggestion from two listeners ago was dumont versus julia ovula which would be a fine fight um i believe although it hasn't been officially announced yet the plan at least as like around a month ago was to rebook the ovula stole a a ranko fight for june 26 now i know that hasn't been officially announced uh but i know that was

the plan to try to rebook that one so if for some reason that fight doesn't happen or stoli erika can't make it for whatever reason yeah if you want to throw a new mon in there i don't know if she can make 135 in a month but or five weeks but maybe she could who knows i think it's it take a while for she gets to 135 unless the ucpi works some miracles with her uh the the stoli rank go avilaeufat was that the one it didn't it fell through because still Larenko. She wanted to, like, fell on the scale, yeah. Oh, gosh, I feel so long ago.

Now, I guess it wasn't that long ago. Yeah. Yeah, that was about, hopefully she, yeah, hopefully that does get rebooked and everything's okay. Okay, well, so I'll run down quickly some of the, I mean, some of the, I mean, some of the most popular ones. So, like I said, Mike already said some of them, so you can guess how popular these were.

I think, I think font versus Aldo Munoz winner on August 7th, that was actually more popular than font facing either Dillashar or Sanhagen. Maybe because more people are thinking the Dillashah Sanhigan winner is going to move on to a title fight, which I actually agree with. So, yeah, Fond versus Alda Munoz makes a lot of sense. That was probably the most popular listener's tradition I saw. Asparza versus Namajunis was almost unanimous other than for the reasons we mentioned. You know, people, I think people thinking she might not get the fight and Namajunus is going to rematch Jiang, which shouldn't happen. But if it does, yeah, there's some good Asparza options.

But otherwise, for the most part, all I saw was Asparza, Namajunus has to happen. Let's be serious. And for Cody, yes, there was devolished for these suggestions, but I think most people want to see the rematch with Cruz, which I'm very much down with. I'm down to that. Yeah, I don't know if it'll be next. I do think that there's a chance they fight each other again before it's all done. I would hope another five-rounder.

I'd really want to see that headline of Fight Night. rematch the three-rounder would kind of defeat the purpose of it. Yon v. Marina Rodriguez was a big one. Vendera Daniel, Vendera Felipe Linz. you said Hamos Tucker Yep, a lot of people said that And also Hamos Omar Morales I saw a couple of times

How do you feel about I think you might have mentioned this as well Hermanson Rockholds We like it, right? Yeah, I mean it's fine It's I understand Luke Rockhold is a former champion in all But like

When was the last time he's going to fight? Oh dear I mean it's been a while I mean he's been out for a while In a while. Yeah. He lost a bunch at 85. Then he got knocked unconscious by Jan Bojovich.

September 16th, 2017. Okay. TKO of David Branch. And that's his, and that's actually, that's like he's one and three in his last four. Because then he lost a Bisping, of course, the title fight. And then before that was that Chris Wyden win, which is all the way back in December 2015. Yeah. And two wins, two wins is 2015.

Listen, I Luke Rockhold Like if you're gonna go after this thing Like go after the big fish Like I Fine Fine fine But to sit there and just be like

These guys should fight me Like are you serious Like It just it drives you crazy Like Jack Hermanson Like this isn't 2019 bro Like Jackermanson's not like clamoring to fight Luke Rockhold right now

Like there's I feel like he's And I like Luke If Luke wants to come on What the hell? and call me out i'm down but to for luke to be firing out these demands it's just is asinine to me it's insane i i think he's more likely uh hermansans more likely to fight muniz than he has to fight rock hold 100% i actually think that's yeah i'm more appealing that's up for him right now made more dangerous

but i think more appealing and i said this and i and i said this on the post fight show i would like see edmund shabazzian and fight luke rochold because i think he would beat luke rochold i think he would beat him. I do. I would favor Edmund Shabazzian in that fight. I would assume that they're going to stand there in trade, and I'll take Edmund Shabazi in a stand-up war with Luke Rockhold, who hasn't won a fight in four years right now. I would. Now, if Rockhold's smart, he takes the fight to the ground and tries to smother him out, but Luke's not that kind of a guy. He doesn't like sit there and take you down and try to grind out a decision, which means he's going to try to stand there with Edmund Shabazzian, and I don't feel like that's going to go very well for

him. So take that fight, Luke. Go fight Edmund Shibazian. Throwing down the gauntlet for him. More popular than that pick was the Hermanson versus Hall Strickland winner, August 7th. So, yeah, I know a lot of people mention that one, which I love, which, yeah, I actually think that would be awesome. So, yeah, totally down for that fight.

Rothwell versus L'Atefi winner. June 5th was popular. Rosswell versus Spino was popular. Silver versus Jeff Molina, I should be clear. Bruno Silva versus Jeff Molina, and Bruno Silva versus Matthias Nicolao, his popular picks for him,

and Devorak versus Bonterine. There you go. Those are sort of the most popular consensus picks. I want to shout out a couple of listeners, first time pickmakers. Brett Mobley, who just in his bio has CSU class of 23, which I assume means Colorado State. So shout us to the Rams, I guess. If not, then shout out to the Rams anyway. And he liked that font versus Sterling Yon loser. Again, that could be a long wait. He was one of the other people who suggested Garbrandt versus Benavides. Hermanson, Brendan Allen, Grappler's Delight. How do you feel about this one? And he had two suggestions I like. Well, we mentioned Silva versus Mill Cape. Perfect.

Edmund Shabazzian versus Sam Alvey. Hmm. I love it. I love it because I'm still in the UFC? Oh. I think so. Because he was, what happened? He just fought a middleweight, right?

He just got knocked out by Julian Marquez. He did. I believe he is still part of the UFC. Yes. I'm fine with that. Like if, yeah. Yeah,

I'm okay. Like, Sam's never in a boring fight. So like, I could see like them keeping him around. It's not like, I mean, he's losing and he's losing

in pretty devastating fashion, but he's like, he's in fun fights and he still, still kind of has a name that there's respect behind it. So yeah, that's not a bad idea. Yes,

those are the kinds of veteran names, and even rock holders you mentioned, that I want to see Shibati. matched up with. I think, again, I think Hermanson, I think Brunson may be a bridge too far for him right now. So, yeah, so thank you for those suggestions. Brett Mobley. Braden O'Neill, another first-timer, sent me a nice screenshot of his notes as opposed to writing down, which is fine. Rothwell v. Romanov, Shabasian versus Kevin Holland. You know what? I was just thinking. Someone had just sent me that one as well, and I wanted to get

your thoughts on that one. Yeah, I mean, I don't know why I hadn't thought of it. Yeah, I don't know why not? I don't know why not. I mean, it would be unfortunate if both these guys had to take another L, because it would be three straight. Then it would put one of those guys on a three-fight losing streak, right? Yeah, that's... Yeah, which is, which again, is, I think at this stage in their careers is fine. You're, like, I'm of the belief that you're, like, losing streaks are not, I know, I know, there's almost sort of an unwritten rule in people's minds, like, oh, three straight losses of the UFC, you're, you're, you know, unless you're a veteran, you've been around for, like, 20, you know, 15, 20 fights. But I, I don't think it has to be a death sentence. I think

like I said, those three straight losses of anything lead to a recalibration and like of where you are in the rankings, which is fine. That's you can course correct, right? You can create proper matchups to build people back up. So I'm surprised. I didn't think of that one. So Braden O'Neill, I really like that suggestion. If it happened, I would not be surprised. Unless Holland, of course, drops to 170.

But if he stays at 185, yeah, Shabazzian. I don't know, Mike. Yeah, I'm fine with it. I mean, it seems like a risky fight just because I feel like the UFC has something with Kevin Holland. maybe a potential star so I mean and then he gets Shabazzian who is listen he's 23 years old

like he's lost two in a row the kid is a stud like for as far as a prospect goes super young in his career be tough like sending one of those guys in a three fight skid I think you want to try to set them up for success at this point put him against somebody that each of them can beat and try to build

them back up but if they make it I'm watching that's a fun fight yeah that that That's just good thinking. Yeah, again, like I don't know about the kid. Disregard the losing streaks, like you say. It's a fun fight. I think it's a logical matchup.

I'm down with it. Michael Perugini, always coming in with good stuff. Jared Vandera versus Hafeel Pizoa. And he kind of simplified the math for Vaugh-Fa-Fond. Just saying Fond versus either Jan, Sann, and Hagen, Dillishaw, whichever one isn't getting a title shot. So I guess that would be, I mean, directly be two of them wouldn't be getting a title shot soon. But yes, pretty much whoever's free.

It doesn't matter, win, lose, whatever. Thomas Collins. Is Magulov versus Braddell Drew Dober winner? There's a lot in Is Magalov. As Magalov, it's a shame we didn't talk about him more because he was the opening fight. I thought it looked really good against Hafeu Alves. And again, it's one of those sleeper guys who I think like one or two fights away from us going like, holy crap, this guy could be like a top five. Like a top five lightweight.

Again, he has to get the names for sure. But it looks good. Yeah. It looks real good. He's won like 18, 18 straight fights or something? on the UFC that had an light weight um

sorry where was that with this uh uh Devorak Nicolaou uh he says paiva should go up to bantam weight like bonteurine I'm pretty sure

Bonnterine was just a one-off I think him and Chanel it was just because they their fight was really quickly booked I don't think I don't think that was a peron and move to um to 135 but I understand what they're saying

Paiva go up I agree yeah and uh they wanted Lee Shamaia but as we've said previously uh we pretty sure sure Lee is going to fight Brady on what was it is it July 10th working for July 10th UFC 24 yeah so there you go so so that can't happen but I guess someone to drop a Shamaia bomb so here we are Nate Andrews what did I like hear from oh Garbrandt versus Molly Marais I know you mentioned that he said screw it Vandera versus Rothwell I think that's probably

way too soon for Vendera given their relative gap in UFC experience and he also liked oh I made a note to read this one because, yes, another man, part of the Rock A versus Chris Barnett gang. He said literally, no fight pick is more important than Chris Ronette versus Rock A Martinez. Nothing can be more important than that fight.

Nothing under the sun. It would be like watching Bull Walruses. Is that a thing? A Bull Walrus? I'm going to Google that after. I can already picture what it looks like. It would be like watching Bull Walrises fight over a patch of sea ice

in a David Attenborough documentary. That fight absolutely must happen. We need Barnett, Martinez, and then I did tell him that's about the Parisian fight, and we said, and this is where we said, you know, it can happen in Risen. It'll happen somewhere. Risen, UFC, it'll happen somewhere. So Nate Andrews and a lot of others, we all want this one. Jacquharis, just is Rothwell Abduraheimov?

First of the person I thought it happened. Do you think of Diorahimov on a different track right now? I don't know. That's good. Yeah, I mean, yeah, sure, sure. Asmagelov versus Leonardo Santos, I like that one too. Again, as Magalov, really, his matchmaking options are pretty wide open now. Because then he's 4-0, but he hasn't really faced a big name yet,

so I'm honestly not sure we'll go with him. But I do like people suggesting kind of veterans who are not like top 15, so like Leonardo Santos would fit that bill. Hayes with third, DeVorak versus Matchnell. Yep, again, Devorak, another guy in this card who, you know, improved his undefeated UFC record. and has all these, excuse me, matchmaking options. Marcus McGehy says, I'm pretty sure Ricardo Ramos is, sorry, Hikardo Hamos is Cody Stamon's

Brazilian half brother. I mean, just, do you say Cody Stamond or Cody Garbrand? So I should read this, I should read this correctly. Marcus, he said, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Does he? I didn't get that at all. Okay, I don't know.

Maybe that one, that's what I was going to ask you. It does Haccaro Hamos look like Cody's Stamen? I mean, I can see it a little bit. I mean, just take the mustache off of them. Look around the eyes? I don't know. All right. Hair?

You know what? Listeners, you decide. Let us know if you think that Marcus is completely on base here, and I'm the crazy one for not seeing it. Court McGee, this was an odd matchup versus Carlston Harris. Wow. It's like an 18 U.S. 18 U.S.C. fights versus one?

I don't know. It could be a fun matchup. I don't know. Maybe he meant another. No, he said C. Harris. Is there another C. Harris at Welterweight? No, right? Yeah, I don't think so. Okay, let me just quickly. Yeah, Carlson Harris and there's Walt Harris at heavyweight. Okay. He also asked, is there a reason that McGee and Matt Brown haven't fought? We've actually discussed this

matchup on the show before for sure. Obviously, both guys have great stories overcoming drug addiction, and I'm sure that's something that the UFC and USPN could, you know, could use a sort of an inspirational tale behind a few to build up a fight between them. But do we know why they haven't fought, Mike? Is there any reason? Timing and, yeah, sometimes just matchups don't happen. Yeah, spots in the rankings, I guess, yeah. And then he said, so he said he'd like to see that.

Yeah, I'm totally down with that. I love this idea. Bruno Silva, if Tyson Nam beats Ulymbekov, silver versus Tyson Nam, I think that's great. I think you should do Silva, NAM, and Kapp, in a triple threat match. Yes, yes. Again, we always say just flyweight.

I don't know how a lot of these matches are going to shake out, but there's just so much good stuff. Josh Kulabow versus Jonathan Pierce. Yes, again, Josh Kulabau is a really fun fire to watch. A lot of fun matchups. Isma Gula versus Grant Dawson. Ooh, that's fun. Yeah?

Do you think Grant Dawson would want to take? What was Grants last fight? That was the last second knockout of Santos. Of Santos. Yeah, okay. I think this is a logical test for him then. Yeah, that's a good one. Liam Perry coming in with Izmagelov versus.

Nazan Haq-Paras. He believes David Dorak, he said, has won the Alex Perez sweepstakes. I think that's a little too high for David DeVorek right now. I do not. I don't. You think that could happen? It's possible. I wouldn't be against it.

Like, that's not an absurd pick. Like, Devorak's legit, man. And he's kind of in that, like, Marab boat where it just, he just beats whoever they put in front of him. And it's going to be hard for him to get a name. unless you just give him one and just see how he does. Kulabal versus Juliana Rosa, Songwu Choi winner, June 19th. Cort McGee versus Alex Cowboy Olivera.

I hate this one. He wants Shavazian to get Moonies. No. Why? Why? Why would you do that? Maybe he hates Edmund Shabazzia. He must.

Let's throw him in there with another absolute killer on the ground. Yeah. not no we're not we're avoiding grapplers at all costs here people i shouldn't have read it out i shouldn't have read it out uh hamos versus alexeris sure alexeris i'llis if i'm sorry kerosis i'm sorry cacuris let's fight anybody uh just a few more to go here barry o're riley o'reilly is myridae v mcgalli is my godman as i'm gonna zitmane kuhlbara versus mcgaret versus mcgaret versus mcgaret versus macex gunner nelson right yeah and we're just like we just don't know uh vandera versus may's font

versus, oh, he specifically wants Font versus Dillashaw if San Hagan wins because, sorry, let me rephrase this. If Sanhagen wins, he doesn't want to see Sanhagen fight font, he just believes Sanhagen should move on to a title shot. And if Dillishah wins, he believes Dillishah should have to fight font before getting the title shot.

A lot of people are not happy with the drug suspension and then, you know, possibly being one fight away. I totally understand. Sure. Email boys, I got a couple. Tristan Gordet, always coming in with good stuff. This was an odd one, though. Asparza versus Tisha Torre.

it. They fought on in the Ultimate Fighter 20 tournament as far as it won a majority of decision. I don't think it would, I don't, I mentioned the matchup because obviously I don't think it'll happen next, but I do think that rematch does happen sometimes. So I don't think it's a bad fight idea. I think it's a cool fight. It'll happen in 2026. Oh, geez. In the PFL. It'll be the co-main event to Chris Barnett versus Rocky Martinez and Risen. it's going to happen well the rematch because that fights happening again that's fights happening yes yes yes vandere versus uh Felipe call your loser uh he says collier and vandera sounds like a fight that I wouldn't be able to look away from

just the type of terrible striking defense that makes for a fun fight what a ringing endorsement it's a jett mishu special right there Hamos versus feely or pinata uh so let's close out with some instagrams again a lot of these are repeated so guys if i don't read your suggestions uh oh i didn't read the disclaimer of the beginning it's fine I'll be yeah you're good people can people you guys you guys know the disclaimer now I'll read the next episode Michael Connoffrey uh Dvorak he says Dvorak versus Jopi so man people have a high I know I get it do it oh man do it flyweight's not the deepest division so I get it if you're 3 and O you're

gonna have to get a jump up in competition at some point and and you know why not Benavides why not a Alex Perez it's true it could happen Garbrand versus Stamen for some Cody on Cody action which is just fantastic. You got me. You got me, Michael Connerfrey. Well done. This is a first time contributor. That's how you do. That's how you do it. Brandon Haley, Garbrandt versus Kyler Phillips, if Kyler Phillips beats Sun Sao, July 24th?

Too soon? No. No, I don't think so. Not at all? Not at all? I think Kyler's a problem, man. Yeah, yeah. He is. Seriously. And Brandon Haley had a question for us, Mike. He just wants to know about a takedown defense. He says, in a close round, striking if a fighter, let's say 10 takedowns and only gets two, should his opponent get any sort of credit for stuffing the other eight

takedowns that didn't do any damage, didn't result in any significant like position change. Do you think that defense should matter in the judge's eyes? No. And I don't think takedowns should matter all that much either. Right. And I remember this is like a long time ago, Damon Martin, when I used to have my old podcast,

just to come on all the time after pay-per-views. And we would talk about takedowns and the importance of them. And he said something like before the commissions like change the rules and stuff that always stuck out to me. Like if you take a guy down and you just lay on top of him for three minutes, like you're literally just standing. It's like it's like you're standing up and no one's throwing a punch because it's the same thing. Because it's just it's the same thing as being on the ground is the same thing as being on the feed. If you don't do anything with it, it doesn't count for anything. So like that's like saying that if.

If Rob Font threw a right hand and Cody got out of the way of it and moved, should we give Cody points for getting out of the way and, you know, using good head movement. So I understand where the question's coming from. I just feel like there's too much emphasis being put on takedowns in general on MMA at this point. Too much, yeah. Too much emphasis, you might say. Yeah, like, for example, I thought, I thought Josh Kulabah won the first round, even though. Well, that's expressly, yes, that's what this question is referring to. He said, i.e. Kulabal, Nerden, BK, round one.

Yeah, I absolutely gave the first round of Kulabal. Yeah, just the last 30 seconds, just him landing those shots won him the round. It doesn't matter. Like, it doesn't matter what happened the rest of it. Coolabal landing those shots in the last 25, 30 seconds, won him the round, in my opinion. Yeah. And we're not credited in Kulabal for the defense. Obviously, not getting taken down as good.

It's for the damage he was able to do when he wasn't fighting off takedowns. That's really what we're scoring there. But it's a good question. I agree. And you mentioned the dodging and punches thing. I still feel like that's how the cruise Dillishoff fight was decided. I think the judges were so dazzled by the punches that like Cruz was like dodging that they like gave him credit for like style like you know he's that was like prime Cruz he was like dodging punches it looked amazing and I'm like he's still getting like he's still like not necessarily throwing anything back and somebody it was a close fight don't get wrong but I still think dealish I'll always think Delishaw won that fight I just think deal shot did a lot more but because not all of it was hitting I think the judges was like oh yeah like Cruz Cruz is making a miss and I'm like okay that's one part of the fight that's not that's not scoring but yeah it's interesting yeah crediting defense I think it's something sometimes people do that and you really you probably shouldn't I think it's fair to say you really shouldn't put too much

Emphasis on on on on defense, but but a fair question Zach Rabia mentioned before coming in with Hamos versus Landa vanada which I like but I still think but I'm holding out for Vanada and Jodaine But that is a good matchup Jacob Best long time contributor Vandarov versus Chase Sherman I'm messing up the emphasis and everything and his Magula versus Al Ayacquinta he feels very strong strongly about this. He says, don't scoff. Were you scoffing, Mike, at Esmegalov versus Ally I Quinta?

No. No, we're not scoffing. It does a preemptive. Preemptive, don't scoff. But I think Ally Quinta is also approaching the band list. Oh, we can't mention it. We just don't know when he's fighting again. He says, Demir 3026, he currently ranked Tiago Moises for his hiatus, his hiatus and is incredibly talented. I think he deserves a lower ranked name like Al, who probably shouldn't be ranked anyway, based in inactivity anyhow. Yes, and probably shouldn't be on our show anymore, I don't think he's going to cry Allison feel too sad about it

MMA heads I gotta give them a lot of credit Dumont versus Montanio that would be like a huge size difference I feel like be interesting Rothwell versus Pavlovich Kulabov versus Damon Jackson these are all fun tips just three book Devorak versus Paiva

and is my oh I like this one man so many good Is Magalov fights is Magalov versus Alexander Hernandez Yeah that's fine I don't like Hernandez's chances in that fight Let's close out with Matt Bradbury, always bringing the heat on IG. Is Magulov versus Armand Sarukian? I don't like this matchup for some reason, but I could see it being made.

Kulabal versus Mike Trisano. This is like the worst. This next one is like the worst. I don't know why this is suggested, but I had to bring up Victor Rodriguez versus Monell Cape. I guess we, look, we've been saying, we've been saying, Manel Cape needs a win against an opponent he can style on with respect to Victor Rodriguez. I do think Cape would take up a pretty big win if they were messed up.

But I don't think Victor will be with the UFC after this weekend. Happy trails, Victor, get healthy, get back in that regional scene, build that record up. Hopefully we see you in the UFC or on another major league again. Dumont versus Ladd-Chiassin winner, their fighting on July 24th. I think whoever wins that fights probably closer to a top five opponent than top five, than top two featherweight, Norman Dumont. font oh font versus dominic cruz no that's it done

no listen if if the ufc offered him cruise for like last night would have made a lot more sense but after like after beating cody the way he did like that's just a fun fight like it's fun fight like if he goes in fights for the belt and loses then you can do that fight but nah just you can't do that right now

And Matt coming in with the Bell Tour picks. That's right, guys. Come on, we had a Bell Tour card on Friday. Cyborg versus Katzengano. And by the way, credit to Cyborg for the callout. A lot of people are like, why should call out Katzangano? Guys, that's probably the matchup they're going to make anyway. She knows that.

This is called Building Up a Fight. And any interest you can kind of drum up in it because, again, she's Cyborg. The chance of anyone beating her besides not named Men in Union is slim. You have to do it. So Cyborg, good job building up that matchup already whenever that gets booked because it is probably next. Leandro Higo versus Rofi and Stats, which I like, and Darren Caldwell versus Josh Hill, got to get Caldwell back on track and to get him up against another grinder would be interesting. And then he had two Natsworth, I thought were wild.

Austin Vanderford versus Tokov, who has been away for a bit. And I think it would be a huge step up. Okay, so I want it. I'm glad this fight was brought up because I was obviously covering the Bellator event on Friday. and multiple times on the broadcast, Josh Thompson said that Gagar Musasi was fighting Tokoff for the... Oh. But I asked...

So I didn't jump on any of the media scrums until Scott Koker came up because I wanted to know. Because I was just like, what? Like, when was this announced? And I was like, I literally just talked to Scott Koker face to face two weeks ago. And I said, okay, are we doing Musassi versus Salter? that seems like to fight to make. And he was like, he goes, yeah, I'm pretty confident we're going to see that. But literally, I think five times, every time they went to the desk and they were talking about the middleweight division, he said, yeah, if Vaniford wins, you know, he should get the winner of Musassi versus Tokoff when they fight for the title.

I'm like, what? So I asked Scott Koker. I was like, I thought it was going to be Musassi versus Salter, but it was set on the broadcast many times that Musassi is going to fight Tokoff. Like, who's he fighting? and he wouldn't give me an answer. Like he no sold me, completely no sold me. I think he was mad that that was set on the broadcast. That was the, that was sort of what I felt coming off of him across the computer screen.

I don't think he was happy with that. But if that's the case, like, so basically I'm with this listener. Like if they do the, if they do Masasi versus Salter, then Tokoff makes all the sense of the world. Versus. That's a big step up. But if they do. A huge step up. Dude, he's the number three guys.

He's the number three guy right now. Who is? Vanderford. Vaniford is. Now, yeah. He just beat the number four guy. You got, I mean, it's one of those two guys where he fights for the belts. Like, there's no other way to go.

Hey. Was he ranked ahead of Fabian Edwards going into the fight? Yeah, he was three against four. Oh, I didn't know that. I thought Fadeford. Look, good for you. And the other one was, I don't know why I'm closing on this one. But again, it's a weird bell to our matchup.

He wants to see Tyree Fortune, who just came off his first loss, fight Phil Davis? What? No. No, I mean, I get it. Look, Phil Davis is going to fight somebody. Tyree Ford's going to fight somebody. I think we can do a little bit better.

Not, I don't say better. I don't want to insult Matt's matchmaking. I think we can find a little more even matchup experience-wise for both guys. But I will say Matt Bradbury, thank you so much for the Bellator picks. I think he came up with them last time there's a big Beltor show. So he's always bringing the heat. Always has a lot of great deep cuts with the matchups. So thank you all the listeners for your amazing matchups.

I'll just say really quickly. you can find me on Twitter at Alexander Klee, on Instagram at Alexander KK-K-Lay-Lie 2Ks, and alex.lee at sbnation.com on email. There you go. On Twitter, M-Ikech underscore J-R, Instagram M- underscore heck-JR. I may not see your matchmaking ideas right away,

but by the time the show rolls, I will see them and I'll be blown away by how many that I didn't see. So I suck at Instagram, trying to be better. My resolution has just not. been great. But I have been looking, at least for the show, I think I've accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. But that's it. And we're off next week. I don't know if we're going to do anything. Maybe we should just take a weekend off. Maybe. Look, this is a long episode. So guys,

look, you got plenty of time to catch up on it. Break it up into parts. You might want to listen to this one as a two-parter. Yeah. Maybe, yeah, I think we'll take next weekend off. I think. If we have a brilliant idea for a show, maybe you'll hear us, but a tentative, I think, a tentative break, I think. Yeah, I think after the whole New Year's, you know, December and January, we gave you shows every week. The UFC was off like four or five weeks. We gave you, we gave you shows every week. I think we're going to take a weekend off from on to the next one. Give you a time, a little bit of a chance to miss us, you know?

That's what they say in New England, right? Some days off. Some days off. Some days off. That's the big New England's year, right? Yeah, I think everyone can enjoy, especially in the U.S., enjoy the three-day weekend. Don't feel like you have to listen to us. Like, you know, just enjoy. it. You know what I mean? But then, two weeks from now, we will discuss the fallout of UFC Vegas 28, which will be headlined by Jarzini Rosenstrike versus Augusto Sakai. Not the, let's be honest, not the greatest UFC card of all time, but there are some fun fights on it, and we will talk all about that coming up in two weeks. But until then,

always remember, everybody, MMA is supposed to be fun. Don't take this too seriously. For AK, I am Mike Hack. We'll see you in two weeks right here and on to the next one the podcast. Show's long enough. Yeah, no podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.