MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 40

Episode Date: October 17, 2021

On the 63rd 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 40 event at the APEX. Future matchups were discussed for Norma Dumont following her unanimous decision win over Aspen Ladd in the featherweight main event, Andrei Arlovski, Jim Miller, Manon Fiorot, Nate Landwehr, 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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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. It's matchmaking time coming off of a, when the moments counted, they really counted UFC Vegas 40 fight card? I mean, that's probably the nicest way to put it, but no matter how a fight card shapes up, ladies and gentlemen,

we show up here the next morning, and we talk to what's next. I am Mike Heck, and joining me, as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, my best friend, and your best friend as well, but I'm at the top of the list. He's at the head of my table, Mr. Alexander Cayley. How are you, sir? Mike, you're the only best friend. Again, I'll say this every week. I do appreciate people when they message me saying,

what is that my best friend, A.K. Lee. I appreciate this amendment. I love you all. There's one best friend when it comes to the May World. All right, and it is my kick. First of all, Mike, I couldn't join you and Casey and the listeners and fans on the post-fight show. I was taking point on some UFC stuff on Saturday night, so it was not available. But I should follow up my gymnastics rating.

I said this card had the potential to be a 6.5 at best if everything went right. I feel very comfortable with that assessment now and also saying that it did not hit that mark. I've never failed a UFC card before. And again, it is all said with respect to, of course, the athletes who are signed on to compete on these things. This was like a 4.8. This was a fail. This card was a fail. This was like if someone asked me straight up, is this card worth watching top to bottom?

No. No, I would say it's not worth it. You can pass. It's fine. I would say pick a couple of fights, watch some of the highlights on MAAfighting.com. And that's it. That's what I was at. I would say you cannot justify watching this card top to bottom, even skipping commercials, skipping the brakes if you're, you know, rewatching it. It was not a good card. So I fail it. It fell right off the pommel horse, Mike. It fell, it did, you know, it's on the balance beam. Just the same thing. Yeah. I would say watch the fights. I would say watch the finishes. And that's probably it. Yeah. But be that as a May, let's get right into this thing, AKA I'm not going to mince words, kind of building upon what you just said. The main event of this card, to quote one of my all-time favorite people covering the sport right now, one might call him my best friend.

It was a fight. But it was a fight that Norma Dumont won. Yes. And, you know, I know I'm sprinkling a little salt here, but all in all, I had zero issue with the game plan from Norma Dumont. she fought tactfully. She defended taked downs. She was in very little danger in this fight,

hardly any trouble at all, and she won a main event fight. Is it a performance will remember for years to come? No, but will it make her bank account a little heftier? Yes, and that is more important than anything you, I, or anybody else could possibly say about it. So the question is, A.K., where does Norma Dumont go now from her first main event victory?

Just rebook the Holly Home fight I don't care for it being for an interim title I think again this is a fight night The thing is if they rebook it again I don't know if they would want to make it a main event I mean this was really again one of those main events where There is to what 10 straight weeks of cards Something's got a main event

Holly Holmes is still a big name I would be surprised if they rebooked this fight and want to make it a main event again So And I have no interest in seeing it for interim title fight. I just, it's not necessary. If I guess the fighters paid more, fine, but as we always say, just pay the fighters more. You don't have to put some trinket on the line. So I say rebook it. I would like to, and actually, I'm fine with it being a three-rounder. I'm kind of okay. Like, it sucks again. It would be a less prestigious fight if they re-booked it's

on another car, not as the main event, but I don't know if we need five rounds of this. So what a start. What a start. Yeah, I mean, here's the way. Here's the way. I'm approaching this, okay? I'm not approaching it. I'm approaching it more of what I think's going to happen, and I know this is going to be a completely unpopular answer, but it's a consistent one and one that I'm actually quite confident in, even after that main event,

Norma Dumont's next fight will be for a title. Now, the level of said title, based on kind of what you said, it depends on the champion of this division. So if Amanda Nunes rolls through Giuliana, Pania and she decides, you know what, I don't want to cut weight. I'm going to go back up to 45 and defend this title. Dumont's getting the title shot. Undeniably, she's getting the title shot.

However, if Nunes wins on December 11th and says, you know what, I'm sick of people talking about it. I'm sick of that Mike Heck dude and those rogue panelists from MMA fighting, questioning whether or not I'm the best pound for pound women's fighter on the planet. Let's end the debate. give me Valentina, then I think the UFC is going to probably overbook themselves on pay-per-view at some point in the first quarter of 2022, where they put way too many title fights on like three consecutive cards and we're like, now what are we going to do to kind of fill out this card that doesn't look as good as the others?

It would not shock me at all if the UFC rebooked the Dumont versus Hollyholm fight for the interim featherweight title. We're all aware, AK, that this division is on life support and it leaves. lives with a man of Nunes, but it could also get a whole bunch of new life if the UFC can come to terms with Kayla Harrison. So I think the UFC is going to make an attempt, at least for now, to try and make this division as interesting as they possibly can, at least for the time being, so that's my pick. It'll be a title fight for Dumont. It's either going to be against Nunes for the straight up title. If Nunes sticks at 35 fights Valentina,

they will 1 million percent do the home fight for the interim belt. Guarantee it. That is some prince of positivity stuff there, Mike. But I like it. Like, I've been very critical of the mere existence of the women's featherweight division. Just because, again, it's almost to everyone

out, why aren't, why don't they put the division properly? And it's like, it's really difficult to. There just aren't a lot of athletes, a female athletes in that sort of weight class who can fight at the, at a high level. So there could be some growing pains if you want to see it grow up.

But you're right. I think that's one way to do it is for the UFC to lead the charge and sort of obviously bringing Kayla Harrison and then, yeah, keep Dumont or, you know, busy. Keep, you know, it's definitely something that can be built, but it's going to take a lot of time. It's going to take a lot of time.

More longer than it took to build straw weight, longer than it took to build, fly weight. Again, two divisions that already had a lot of talents around the world or talent in the UFC that could change weight classes. So I also kind of like what Dumont said about she wishes some of the 135ers would just go up to 145 and just compete there and not worry about the weight cut

but this is not just this is not just about 145 this is about a lot of weight class I think we would say we're like we'd like see many people cut out the extreme weight cutting part of their regiments and just fight another weight class Mike I think people I'm sure you talked for this on the Postright show but I I if you could just repeat for our reiterate for our onto the next one listeners your thoughts and sort of the Aspen Ladd Jim West you know coach Jim West's controversy.

Yeah. So Casey and I were talking about some different things in regards to that. And I see both sides of it because one argument is this is too much. It's uncomfortable to watch. And I get that. And the other side of the argument is, well, Jim West talked to Aspen Ladd like that before the third round of the Yanakun, it's Kaiafite. And Lad went in there and just annihilated her and finished her.

So motivated her in the right way. So it's hard for me to. like watching it on television, it was a little weird down the stretch. It just, it was like a volcano was like starting to pour out a little bit of lava. And then by like the end of the third round, it was starting to spew a little bit. And then before the fifth round, it just full on erupted. And it was, it was a little weird to watch. But we need to understand a couple of things.

One, Jim West and Aspen Ladd, they are together. They are a couple. They're not just trainee, trainer. they have a relationship. So he knows this woman better than anybody else in the world probably. I feel pretty confident in saying that. So maybe that's what she wants. You know, like I talked to Lauren Murphy after the Valentina Schifchenko fight.

Her corner took a vicious beating on how, like on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Oh, you got to be honest with her. You got to be real with her. And people were so upset. Daniel Cormier blasted Lauren Murphy's husband. and the rest of the team for not being real with Lauren and telling her that she's getting her ass kicked and she's down. And now we have as real as it gets essentially and people are upset about that too.

Like what's the middle ground? Like what do you want? You're getting both. You have problems with each. Is it just finding the middle, like the right down the middle? I don't know. But Casey and I kind of landed on, it's more on Aspen than Jim West because. you could see it right away.

Aspen wasn't there. Mentally, she was not there. And maybe this is Jim West, who took blame for this. He apologized, said it was a little too harsh. He took responsibility for it, and good on him for doing that. But she wasn't there. And the whole thing to me was, we need to understand that sport is sport.

Fans are very vocal in the sports world. And it's there for us to watch and judge and say what we want about it. And it's harsh in every sport. But we have to also remember these athletes are people. They go through serious things. They have emotional roller coasters that they take rides on. Aspen Ladd has been on a serious emotional roller coaster, not just for three weeks, for two years. She's fought in two years.

She's getting ready for a huge fight with Giuliana Pena. Pena falls out and gets injured. Then she's getting ready to fight Sarah McMahon a couple months later. She tears her ACL and her MCL, knocks her out for over a year, trying to recover, trying to get ready to get back in the octagon. Then she's ready to get back in the octagon. Fight gets canceled the day before against Macy Chiazon. Chiason suffers an injury, fights off.

They rebook the fight, lad misses weight, takes a beating from everybody. A week and a half later, she gets a chance to fight again. Less than that. Probably not even over everything that she'd gone through and was basically put in a must-take fight scenario. There's no way. the UFC offers you that fight. If she says no, she's probably cut. The UFC probably probably releases her. She says, yes, takes the fight. Emotionally, she probably isn't even ready to

take this fight. She took it. She didn't perform. And I think all those emotions just sort of capped off when she made the walk to the octagon. Because there's always emotions going in there. I can't imagine what that's like when you're walking into a cage getting ready to fight another human being. It's already crazy emotions there. But now you're taking everything that you've experienced the last two years and pile of it. that on, that's a lot for anybody to handle, especially somebody like Aspen Lad, who's only 26 years old, people forget. So I think it's more of that. She just wasn't all there. And I think in a way, Jim just tried to fire her up. Like, it maybe was a little harsh and he said as much himself.

But I think you, honestly, I was a little uncomfortable with it, but all in all, only two people know what motivates Aspen Lad, and it's those two people. And she didn't seem to have a huge problem with it. So neither do I, I guess. Mike, I think you covered a lot of points there. I agree with a lot of it. I think one, well, and I agree especially because

let's be honest, this is, we got a very, very brief glimpse of their relationship in this, their professional relationship, I'd say. This is like, these are sound bites. This is a minute in between corners, broadcasts on national TV. We don't know that's such a small fraction

of their working relationship, right? because the hours in the gym, like I said, they're also in a personal relationship. How do they communicate with each other that way? And a lot of us are now basing, you know, sort of our thoughts on this on just these two snippets we saw in between, I think, rounds three and four, rounds four and five. And that's a very harsh thing to do. So I do understand the optics of it. I don't know how many people were aware that they are a couple.

I don't know if that makes it better, if that would have made it better or worse, frankly. I'm not sure how people would say it. I think some people would say, well, they're in a personal relationship. They can talk to each other a certain way. And then at the same time, we would say they're in a personal relationship. They shouldn't talk to this person that way on national television. I don't know. And I don't know where I sit on it because, like I said, I don't know enough about them

professionally and personally to really make a judgment call. There's also the opposite of course. Anytime a coach is sort of, you know, is that she is a woman, a woman fighter. And, you know, it's just always going to look different. A male coach yelling at a woman, to a lot of the audience, yelling at a woman fighter, yelling at a male fighter. I saw some people saying there's like a double standard. And I'd say, I don't really know if there is.

I remember, like, I would point to the Max Roscoff situation where his coach wasn't yelling at him, but was definitely pushing him, you know, maybe past the point of what was comfortable for a lot of us watching, if any remembers, and then Max Roscoff quit on, quote unquote, quit on the stool and got a lot of criticism for. His coach has got some criticism for it as well. But I think that would have in the same situation, man or woman. This, I think maybe it would have been a little different, but it's definitely worth mentioning that there are gender dynamics in play as well. So, but I agree with you. I think we should withhold a lot of our judgment.

Let's take the statements that they both release after on Instagram at face value for now. If this becomes a bigger story in the future, of course, we're now paying attention to it. But yeah, it was what I just call sort of an uncomfortable coaching moment, of which there are many in this sport, if we're being honest. Especially the empty apex national television, you're going to see some stuff you don't want to see. So, again, I think there's a lot of valid opinions on it. Misha Tate, definitely a voice that should be listened to. She's a, she's a fighter who's competed at all levels. Of course, an influential woman in the sport.

And she called it abuse. And again, I don't know if I would use that word, but again, this is Misha Tate. I think she has a different perspective on it. So definitely someone worth listening to when it comes to this controversy. Yeah, we actually had a viewer chime in asking if Misha Tate maybe saw a little bit of herself an Aspen Lad because Brian Carraway was her longtime corner. and they have not had the best of relationships. So maybe there's a part of Misha that just kind of sees herself from seven or eight years ago as a 26-year-old.

And, you know, it's been out there. The kind of guy Brian Carraway has turned out to be. So we're not breaking any news here. But it is kind of interesting. And a lot of people were talking about James. Like James Krauss rips into dudes sometimes. Sometimes he doesn't. But like the Grant Dawson fight against Leo Santos, he,

ripped this dude absolutely an eye of him. Hey M. Fer. You get an eff dude like, he freaked out on him. Is it all time? And then he goes out and finish it. And then Dawson goes out and finishes with like a second left in the fight. And it turns out to be one of the all time great promos. Now, what I'm curious about is if Aspen Lad

came out in that fifth round and knocked out Norma Dumont, would we be having the same conversation? Yeah. No, it would be a different conversation. But I will say this. I saw a lot of people throwing that hypothetical out there. Well, if she had come out and won, we'd be praising him. Which I agree. I absolutely would. I think a lot of people would. But then on that same token, because she did, because she kind of, you know, still end up losing the fight, then I think the criticism of what, I think the criticism is warranted. If we're going to offer hypothetical praise, then I think we also have to, we can remain critical of how the situation actually unfolded. But I'm sorry, Mike, I didn't mean to a deal. Oh, no, it's okay. It's okay. No, it was uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable to watch. MMA is supposed to be fun. I always say this. So thank you. Sorry, you had to rehash. I know some of the stuff you probably you said on the

on the post fight, but I know you, again, you're always so eloquent about it. So, okay, I just wanted to get everyone who may not have heard the post fight show to get your, to get our take on it. And I will have you know, normally I don't like to reveal this information until it's done. But I have, I am trying to get Aspen Lad, trying to get a conversation with Aspen. We try to get something going for Fight Week. It didn't happen. Her team promised me that Aspen had already agreed to do an interview after the fight.

So hopefully that stands. I don't know if this conversation and this sort of. quote unquote controversy changes things, but I'm going to try to have this conversation because I feel like if anybody can have it, I don't know. I feel like I'm in a good spot to have this conversation with her and let her speak her mind and tell her truth. And maybe we'll get some answers and we'll feel better about it one way or the other. But that's the main event where Aspen Lad goes from here.

I don't know. I think she stays at 45. I think she should stay at 45. But I don't know how many options she's going to have. But if the UFC tries to build this division, we'll see. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe, but this time, why not look a little further? To Dubai, a city that everyone talks about

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I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 988, Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. Co-main event, AK. We have Andre Arlowski, winning his second straight fight, second straight co-main event

and A.K. He is four and one in his last five fights. So we know where this goes, right? He is going to... No, he's not. He sure is. He can't be. And he's going to fight a guy who may or may not be a potential top

15 guy. It's going to be a guy, maybe like a cusp top 30-ish kind of guy that the UFC seems to like, that the fans seem to like a little bit, and give them a test to see if they can make something out of man. And then I thought about how this could all make sense because Arlofsky's fought like everybody. So it's really tough. And I haven't looked yet at the DMs. I like to be surprised when I do it.

But I can see a lot of people throwing out Alexander Romanov. I could see it. Heck, I suggested that not long ago. But I'm pushing for that Ramanov Espino rematch. So I'm going to leave that behind for now. With that said, A.K. And maybe this is the regional bias in me. I'm going to New England for this one. Andre Alovsky versus Paca Port, A.K., let's rock and roll. I'm into it. I'm into it.

No, I like that. I like that one. For some reason, I did not think of it until I was reading some DMs after I'd already done my picks, but I like it. I'm going in a very, very different direction. I kind of, like, I'm kind of feeling a potential Walt's I know we keep trying to find that that feel good fight for Walt and I don't know if this is it, but I don't know. It's so they fought, you know, a few years ago, three, three years ago now.

Walt Harris won. It was overturned. Walt has a positive for, what was this? Oh, Sarm, a Sarm. And it was not a great fight. In fairness, it was a very, very bad fight, if I recall correctly. But I like it for Arlowski because I oddly have. have Harris ahead of him in the rankings, probably because of some wins. Oh, because I guess

Harris beat what, Olinick and I think the wins that, Sergei Spivak, like he has good wins and he's only lost to top 10, top 15 guys. So I've kind of kept Harris near the top 15. People may disagree in them, but I dropped him out of top 20 by now. I don't know. But I still have him ahead of Arlofsky. So this for me is a chance for Arlofsky to again jump up in the rankings, continue this unlikely resurgence. Or maybe Walt Harris finally gets that win that we want him to have, the wake of all the tragedy he's had to deal with. So yeah, I'll go rematch on this one. Yeah, I don't have it.

I would be fine with that. A.K., you know how we were talking about, like, if people asked, should I go back and watch this card or people ask you about this card? I would answer that question in three words. Jim freaking Miller, who is on the verge of getting stopped in a record-setting 308th UFC appearance in the first round against a very game. very good fighter and Eric Gonzalez, and then he comes back and delivers

an insane highlight real knockout of his own in the second round. The man wants to get to UFC 300, A.K., and with the right matchups, you know what, even with some somewhat questionable matchmaking, he can do it. It would not shock me to see him at UFC 300. So the question remains at this point

after a win like that, how do you match up a guy who has fought 38 other dudes at this point? there were so many directions to go. I'm all in, of course, on an eventual Jim Miller-Serone rematch. I do love the idea of that being fight number 40, so we're not there. So we're won away. So, yeah, this is the tricky one. You can go in so many different directions to get that bridge to that Soroni fight,

assuming they, I mean, look, that felt to be crazy if it's the 41, 42nd, 42nd, 43rd fight of their careers too. But I like the, you know, people like round numbers, so 40 makes sense. So how do we get there? I need to see Jim Miller fight Bobby Green. I need to see this. Bobby Green is fighting Alia Quinta on November 6th,

UFC 268. They've twice been booked to fight each other years apart. This wasn't like quick rebooked and it was back in like 2014 and then a little more recently. So there was years apart between trying to get these two together.

I need to see it. I would love to see Jim Miller fight Bobby Green. So the loot, but I think Ayahuinto would be fun too. So the loser of the Ayahuinta Green fight, at USCD 68, kind of rooting for I equitaine to the wind, though, because I want to see Green Miller.

I should have just said Bobby Green, whether he wins or loses against Ayahuanto, but I think Green would move up a little bit if he beat Reginald. So that's my idea. We'll see. His opponent will come from that pay-per-view. Let me take the listeners on a little bit of a journey about how my brain works, okay? Because my plan all day yesterday was to watch the UFC card, do some post-white fight work, do the post-fight show, whatever post-fight work needs to be done.

And then just like watch Bellator like kind of on the side while like hanging out my kid who ended up falling asleep. But then I started thinking about like matchmaking ideas. And this Jim Miller thing got me to a point where I watched the Bellator card. I jumped on the post-fight coverage and I just stayed awake, fully engulfed in what we do with Jim Miller. Okay. The Soroni matchup, obviously the pop. popular pick. If it can be done, cool. I don't think it's going to be done for a little while.

Maybe we'll see at the end of next year. Seroni just seems to be kind of detached a little bit from getting back inside the octagon, which he should. Take your time, do your thing, do your movies with Gina Carano. Cool. And I weighed a lot of options here because like you said, there's so many ways we can go with this. So I finally narrowed it down to three names. One is Alexander Hernandez. But I ended up removing him. because I can see him sliding in somewhere before the end of the year. He wants to fight before the end of the year. So I can see if like a 55 or anywhere drops out of a fight,

I think Hernandez will slide in there and fight. The others are on completely opposite sides of the spectrum. One guy has one UFC fight. The other has 19 and has worn UFC gold at one time in his career. So the choices that I can't get out of my head are Patty Pimblit. And the name I'm going with, because of this point in their careers, the paths they are on, if this fight's ever going to happen, now is the time to do it. And nobody will complain about it.

My pick is Jim Freaking Miller against Tony Freaking Ferguson, AK. My best friend, now's the time. Because it gives everybody what they want. Tony Ferguson gets the step back, quote, unquote, that everybody wants to give them in terms of rankings and Jim Miller gets to fight Tony Ferguson. Like he gets rewarded. Everybody gets what they want. Literally everybody gets what they want here.

I love that there's just, there's no such thing as a bad Jim Miller matchup. Even the Eric Gonzalez one, I'm sure like at first it raised an eyebrow. But then within like, within like two seconds, I was like, that's going to be a fun fight. I was like, you know what? That's going to be a fun fight, right? Jim Miller just wants to get in there. And he said as much as post fight. He's like, look, I'm just not going to call people.

I've never done it. don't call people out. Just I want to show up and fight. He just loves doing it. He's such a salt to the earth guy. So I love both those options. Yeah, Ferguson, it would almost seem like a shame if they never fought. But the Patty one is so intriguing.

Like what a guy to really test. And there'd be a big face heel dynamic. You know, I think Patty naturally lends himself to being a heel. I don't know if he sees himself that way. But I think just his look, his persona, the fact that he's so young and so brash. And again, going against someone like Jim Miller. depending where the fight was, man, it could be some major heat. So bless Jim Miller.

You know, what a, just, what, what a, what a, what a, what a class fighter. And I, I don't know. Again, yeah, there was a lot of, lot of selections and the offered by the listeners. And I just, I just can't wait for him to get booked again. Absolutely. We move ahead to Manon Fioreau. Hmm. Picked up unanimous decision win over Myra, Miano, Silva.

And I know Casey wasn't too, like, overly enthused with her performance. He didn't look at Fioro and say like, as Jed Mishu likes to say all the time, Valentina Shepchenko didn't lose any sleep over this fight. But she needed a fight like this. She needed to go the distance. She needed to get tested against a durable fighter. And she went out there.

She won. She won pretty easily. There is no controversy. She's someone to definitely be excited about. And I think she's ready for a top 15 opponent, AK. There's a fight coming up. November 13th, between Andrea Lee and Jessica. I, I think the loser of that fight is a good step up for Manon.

I think Lee will win that fight. So probably Jessica I here. But whoever loses should be Fioro's next opponent, in my opinion. Your thoughts? Yeah, I think that's pretty good because I would say Andrea Lee and Jessica I, at least in the MA fighting global rankings, probably outside the top 10. Andrew Lee, I guess, would be higher. Should take a look at that.

I don't know if she is ranked in our rankings anymore. I went a different way. I'm going to go with someone who was supposed to. to fight on this card. I'm ready for her to take on, I think, Sajara U-Banks. I like that matchup. I don't care to rebook the Sajara-U-Banks,

Luana-Carolina matchup. I'm sure it's something they would consider, but that itself was already kind of a short-notice fight. That was like a second opponent for Lwana-Karolina, so I don't see why the matchmaker should be locked into that one. So, yeah, good test for her, maybe a little less experienced than Jessica I and Andrea Lee, but someone who, again, I think, is a strong,

looks really good at 125. So I would like to see how Fioro does against her, maybe test her grappling a bit more as well. So let's go with UBanks. Yeah, that's, I thought about that one. And I was just like, how would the UFC approach this? Like, would they throw in there with the UBanks? Or would they throw in there with like more of a striker,

more of a grinder? And I feel, so looking at the rankings, Jessica I, number 12 in our rankings, Andrew Lee, not in the M.A. fighting global rankings. But with the winner-over-just guy, she will probably find herself in there. So a lot of Oshfiro, someone would definitely be excited about. We talked about Jim Miller, and I feel like if Jim Miller's performance didn't happen on Saturday,

it would be the Nate Landware show today. We'd be talking about Nate Landware. It kind of took some shine away from a guy who I thought had an 8-plus night. He made things gritty with Ladovick-Kline, took his opponent out of his comfort zone, and then he gets a finish, Anaconda Choke of the 3rd, and then he gets on the microphone, it spits some gold, some Tennessee gold, AK. It was awesome.

It was a great night for Nate Landware. Where does he go from here? Yeah, I said on Twitter, the man is Tennessee. He is so Tennessee. And our pal, Aaron Bronstetter, from TMTSN, said he sounds like a 1980s WCW heel, and I'm like, these are all accurate descriptions of Nate Landwehr. He's wonderful. I'm glad.

I hope, I don't know how many people, this is their first time seeing him fight. This is fourth UFC appearance. I hope they're starting to understand what a fan favorite this guy could be for a long time. Like he's either, his losses were even entertaining. He was on some like brutal UFC losses and his wins have been amazingly entertaining. The Darren Elkins's bloodbath was fantastic. Well, you know, now that we, now that we've seen, you know, we always talk about grapplers becoming, getting highlight real chaos and calling them, you know, K1, like K1 Damien Maya or whatever.

So now that we've seen ADCC Landware as a like. to calm Abu Dhabi combat club land wear I wanted to go up against another guy who's very versatile another featherweight veteran featherweight very versatile uh damon jackson uh hat tip to uh m m m a heads who suggested that damon jackson fight the winner of this fight uh last week so i i don't know if i subconscious stole the idea there but i'll check to see someone else said it so m a mayhads i agree let's go with landware damon jackson yeah i mean this is one of those can't go wrong type of pick. So I also with Damon, don't call me Martin Jackson. I mean, it just lines up perfectly.

I mean, it just lines up great. I mean, Jackson's looked good since coming back to the UFC. He does have a loss to Ilya, but I think Elyoteporia in the next two years we'll fight for a world title. I think he's that good. He's one of the best 45ers on the planet. So no shame in losing of that guy. Beat Charles Rosa. It was always a tough matchup. Submits Merced Bercid Becht on like a week's notice. Yeah, I think the stars have aligned. for a little landware on Jackson, Octagon, chaos. Yeah. Just give these guys fun fights.

Landware and Damon Jackson are the kind of guys who, if they ever fight for a title or end up in the title picture, it'll be by accident. It won't be by them like angling to fight ranked guys. It'll just be like, oh, like Nate Landwer was on a four-fight win streak. How did that happen? Okay, well, now we give him a ranked guy and then he wins and ends up getting some random title fight. But both guys, just give them fun fights.

It's so entertaining. Yeah. Put Landware on main cards. Oh, yeah. Promote him, let him do interviews. Get him out there. People want to hear him. No doubt about that.

And people also want to hear about our wild card picks, A.K., because there's a five-fight main card. We got one wild card pick. We have some options to choose from here. Fighter, we have not matched for yet. Who is your UFC Vegas 40 wild card selection? I should have gone with Danaugh-Bakeree, who as you were just saying, like how,

aside from Jim Miller, maybe Nate Landberg, was the breakup, you know, had the breakup performance and then I, uh, Dana also would have been the other option. It would have been Dana or Nate Lan. There's so many people who had time about Dana after this card. Uh, but I cheated, Mike. I did not go to a nah. And in fact, I cheated with my pick. I'm going with

Lupida Godinez versus Ariane Carnalosi because I, well, one thing I had called, I cheated because I had called for this matchup last week. I'd called for this matchup this week before uh, uh, Lupi shocked us all by taking a fight on less than a week's notice, the quickest turnaround in Monument. modern UFC history. So this loss to Luana Carolina at flyweight does not change my opinion of her, does not

change her trajectory too much in my opinion. She is a straw weight. So just back down to Dean and let's see her fight to Carnalosa, who was victorious over Estella Nunez in the opening fight of the card. Yes, Estella Nunes and her fence grabs. Yeah, listen, I know what everyone's thinking. Mike's going to pick in a bat garee. He's picking the bannamweight.

He always picks the bannam weights. And you're right. most of the time because Danai Macri deserves some shine but he's not going to get the Duke here. So I'm just going to put this fireworks matchup into the universe. Hope the universe listens because it's a no-brainer

because they should listen. Bruno Silva versus Punisoriano is the fight to make. You're welcome world. That is the wild card pick. Someone's getting 50 Gs. Maybe both guys are getting 50 Gs. I don't have to make a sale on this. I just need to say those two names

and everyone's going to be like, oh, that's ridiculous. So that's the pick, A.K. I think if there's any theme of our picks today, Mike, is that, and again, this is how the card was laid out, really, is that nothing, very few these fights really affected any sort of, again, rankings or title fight talk. But it did kind of, you know, show us who's up and coming

and also, who's just fun to watch. There was some fun fighters to watch this card. Like I said, overall, the total packers of the card was not great. But the highlights were good. and even the fighters who won sort of, you know, decisions that weren't, like, thrilling, like, like, Fioril and Arlowski, you know, you saw something where you still want to see them fight or you want to see them fight again. So is Puna, is he, oh, he fought in July. Okay, so he's just not booked. Okay, I was wondering.

I thought he was injured or something. I think I'd keep getting a mixed up with Mackey Patolo. Yeah. Okay. All right. Do we have any, uh, any check the tapes? Any fire? Oh, crap.

Yeah, we do. And I forgot to vet this. So, uh, this is going to be a little, oh, gosh. sponsor. That would be the perfect time. Okay. Let's start with the plus. Let's start in a positive note first. Check with tapes. One solo point this week to Barry O'Reilly, the only solo point. He predicted Rangzhu versus Ignacio Bahamundas. That's going down February 26, which feels like a lifetime away from now. But the way time moves now, it'll be next week when we'll be talking about it. And then some

points, shared points for the listeners, Miguel Baezza versus Chaos Williams, November 13th. And Ponziabio versus Jeff Neal, UFC 269. December 11th. So shared point for everyone. All right. Now, the Ponziabio-Neil, I should have just forwarded this message to you because it's such a wail of a message. And I don't even sure I understand. It's from our palestr, Tristan Gordet, Mr. Umar and Omegal Madoff himself. All right. Oosh. So he emails me. I don't know why he doesn't just DM you on Instagram. He emails me.

I guess he wants me to read this out for you. Okay, I'm going to try. This is pretty lot. I don't want to have to read the whole thing. He says, this is Prince of Positivity. It's an email to me, but it's a message to my best friend, Dana White. My best friend, Mr. Dana White, the second's, the one and only, Mike Heck. Okay.

This is a rant. Wow. So he says he believes back in like Otno, episode 49. that we did some sort of mic check. He said, Mike proceeds to go on a rant of how Santiago Ponsenibio did not have the right to pick

or choose his next opponent. He says, why is my email? Okay. When I was listening to this rant, oh, goodness. Oh, this is horrible. My email just logged out. No.

No, no, no, let's take two seconds. Hold on. I remember this rant. I remember this rant. This is live podcasting. I mean, we're not live. But this is how live podcasting is, people. You do remember this rant, Mike.

I do remember this rant. This is one of my all-time great rants, I think. Thank goodness. I had no idea. I mean, all your rants are my favorite, Mike. So I had no idea where Tristan was exactly alluding to. All right. So he says, when he was listening to the rant, he says, I just to read this as Sam.

When I was listening to this rant, I was so surprised that Mike would disregard his colleague, Jose Young's remarks about how Ponsnibio was not going to fight another young prospect, since he already beat one in Miguel Baezza and was only taking fights against a, bonus that are ranked above him. Well, here we are. As your colleague, Damon Martin, put the story up in the site that Santiago, Panzinovio versus Jeff Neal is in the works. Now, if we look at the official UFC rankings, we don't care about those, Tristan. He says, Mr. Lee, can you read to Mike where Jeff Neal is ranked? I'll wait. Okay, what point is he making here, Mike? He's ranked higher than, he's ranked lower than Ponziabio, right? Well, he's in the top 15, I'm pretty sure. Not 15. Neil is tied for 15. Ponziabio. Oh, sorry. Sorry, it's not currently ranked in the moment, I think, because of, probably because of inactivity.

And he lost to, to Li Jing Liang, right? Sorry, this is going. He says, so there you go. He says, Mike, I don't know what he means to him. He says, there you go, Mike. Jose tried to tell you. I tried to tell you. You just didn't want to listen.

It's okay. It's cool. We're good. I will leave you with this in the words of the late Kobe Bryant, Revenge of Sweet and Swift, blah, blah, blah. He says, you mocked me when I misspoke while Usman, Nuregamedov, when I meant Umar. Oh, how karma comes back around, but it's all in good fun. Love the show as always. Keep up the great work. And he said he would like his ot no points to me. So that's what I don't understand. So what did he say? He wanted, explain them. Explain this beef to me. Okay. So I, I remember the

rant. I'm trying to remember where the rant came from. But it was something to the effect of like, there were, there were lots of matchmaking suggestions out there. And there were some folks who actually were like, Ponziabio shouldn't fight anybody unless it's above him. And I'm like, and my response was, you're going to reward him. He just got knocked dead a fight ago by Li Jing Liang. And he had been out for a while. I get it. He goes and beats a unranked at the time, I believe Miguel Baezzi was unranked,

but a very promising, but kind of untested, really young prospect in Miguel Baezza. And it was a great fight. One of the best fights of the year. still, and I hope it's a fight that's remembered when we're talking about award season. So there were a lot of different options for Ponsonibio. But to say like Ponsonibio earned the right to only fight a guy ranked above him is an assinine point. Now, just because it happened doesn't mean that you have the right to take a victory lap on this,

Tristan Gordette or Jose Young's for that matter. You can't take a victory lap for this because they offered you a fight. Do you think Ponzanibio was offered 18 other fights? And he was just like, no, he's not ranked above me. No. And the UFC was like, oh, Santiago, you're right. Let's give you a guy ranked above you. Oh, no, we can't offer you Sean Brady.

He's ranked below you. We can't offer you Muslim Salikoff. He's ranked below you. I don't care. He is the best nickname in M.A. Or one of them? Nah, we can't do that. What about Daniel Rodriguez?

He's a fun prospect. No. Give me a million dollars and I'll fight Daniel Rodriguez. Of course, Santiago. Who am I talking to, Santiago? That's right. We've got to give you a top 10 guy. So let's give you Jeff Neal.

Who's lost two fights in a row? Who's had extreme health issues? And let me just say, I'm very surprised that Jeff Neal is even fighting this year. After everything that he's gone through good on him, like I said, a couple of weeks ago, we could start throwing him back into the matchmaking pool because he is training. He's feeling better. I was aware of that. I'm kind of surprised he's fighting before.

for the end of the year, but here we are. What, like, what fight did you think he was going to get? Do you think he was getting a Wonderboy? Or Mazvedal? Like, are you crazy? Jeff Neal is probably the only guy in the top 15 that he could get that's ranked above him right now because Jeff Neal has lost two fights in a row.

I'm shocked that Jeff Neal's in the top 10. I'm shocked. What's it? Where is he ranked in the NBA fighting global rank? Is he 15? Tide 15. Is Santiago Ponzenegovia even in our rankings? He is not at the moment because the loss,

the loss to leave really hurt him. So, before you take your... So still, he gets a guy ranked above him, even in the rankings that matter. But it's, like, it was just there. It's not like Santiago wore three-piece suit to the UFC headquarters and demanded a top 10 opponent and got it. You are insane.

If you're getting... This is what you're resting on. This is your victory lap. Take it. Take the victory lap. Take it. But enjoy it. I'll give you the damn ot no point.

Take the damn. I'm Otno point. It's the worst Otno point ever. Take it, Tristan Gordette. Wow. Silenious. Just throwing a point away out of split. Mike, that is not what we do. Take it. I'll give you one of my points. Mike, stop. That is not what we do

without, that is not no points are four. You're not, you're not Decaprio in Wolf of Wall Street on the, the guy's the FBI agents going away from the boat. Kyle Chandler's going away from the boat. He's throwing the money out of him. Please, please, don't do this. I want to funny. I love it.

No, Tristan, you're the man. You're the man, buddy. Victory lap. You are crazy. Tristan got Florida Mike mixed up with South Carolina, Mike. Yeah, you should have sent this message last week, Tristan. You should have said this message last week. I'd have been like, you're right.

It ain't the same thing. Please tell me that's the only mic check. I don't think they're, even if there were others, I would save them until next week. This is an ongoing feud. So I'm sure, Tristan, you know what, again. Hit me back on the email up with your response or hit up Mike in his DMs. But of course, we're excited to hear back to me.

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So download the app today and get zero delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacard, groceries that over deliver. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Why don't you read off the disclosure before we go to the people, including Tristan Gordat, who has sent in his matchmaking suggestions. Oh, did he? To me, yeah, I got him.

Why did he send me the rant and send you the pics? For you smart. He's the smartest listener we have. Double air time. It's clever. As usual, guys, we're going to try to emphasize time about winners, but of course, the loser's main event. Get some shut too.

Categories ruled, you know, try to focus on unique picks. Guys, please pay attention. Fighters already booked. You may be putting them in the wrong weight class. You may be booking people who have fought recently, and you just forgot. It could be someone who's had a very notable injury and is out for a long time, or it has straight up in release. this happens.

Your pickers might be do-do and we don't want to read it. And my most important thing this week, and maybe going forward for the near future, guys, stop sending out picks for Tim Means, unless your pick is about Robbie Lawler, because I'm sorry, no, there was one Tim Means pick, and I just ignored it this week. Guys, we're hashtag lobbying for Robbie in this house. So I know we all want to, I love Tim Mead. I want to see him fight anybody. But right now, I want Robbie Lawler.

I will be ignoring all Tim Means picks unless they, like, suggestions I just say unless they completely blow my mind or something. We always replace one rule with another, so the Jeff Neal rule is no longer since now he has a fight. Now it's being replaced with the Tim Mainz rule. So let's get right into this. Jake Marshall always just quick and quick and at it with these. He just goes,

I'm not sure how much sense this fight makes, but Nate Landware versus Jeremy Stevens would be lots of fun. That's the whole message. I like it. I mean, no issue with that whatsoever. That would have been a great. If Nate Landwer was the type of person to call people out, which he isn't, that would have been the one to call out.

Yeah. Our friend Sean ConWizzle 91. Wow. Norma Dumont versus Amanda Nunes for the 145 pound title after Nunes murders Pena. Just. He's also on the, he's with you, A.K. Arlofsky versus Walt Harris, too. Winnable fight for Harris.

And should he lose, as sad as it would be, it'd be proof that it's time to retool on the regional scene. Jim Miller versus Jeremy Stevens, if Stevens still has a job. Vioro versus Montana de la Rosa. That's actually not a bad pick. I like it. I like it too. Nate Landware versus Choi versus Casaris winner next week. No problem with that.

Bruno Silva versus Zach Cummings. That comeback was awesome. Pull letters. Do not hit that man in the nuts. You're right. Definitely not. Flips the switch. Brandon Nunez.

Silva versus Murdof. Murdof, that popular name. That's a great match. That's a great match. Arlowski versus Spivak. Ladd versus Tate, win or lose when she fights Caitlin Vieira. That seems like a good pick.

Dumas versus Holm or GDR. No Nunes. Owen Carroll. Whoa, we got a lot here. UFC Vegas 40. What I learned from this card. Cage grabs are confirmed legal. Back of the headshots are confirmed legal.

Chris Lee needs to be sent to the Squid Games. I don't really know what that means because I haven't watched yet, but you probably get that more than I do. Get on it. Get on it. I know, I have to. Ariani Cardalozi versus Brianna Van Buren. I don't know what's going on with her. Yeah, I think she's about,

she hasn't made any announcement about, you know, wanting to come back yet. Of course, she had a baby. But I think she's, my understanding is, you know, she hasn't made any indication that it's going to be like a super long time off, at least on social media. So I don't mind people booking for Brianna Van Buren again.

And I do think she'll fight again probably, you know, at some point, first half, 2021. Yes. And then he added, good thing she got the finish, because Nunez grabbed the cage four times. Absolute joke. Should have been a point at the second time. And both times after that,

absolute disgrace. I agree. Keith Peterson was like some nonsense. Keith Peterson. Then he went to no nonsense pretty quickly. Dana Bakari versus Montel Jackson. I bet that's going to be a popular choice. Carolina versus U. Banks.

Ami versus Worley Alves. And he goes on me, 1327, maybe 29, 28. Anyone saying Roberts 1 needs a mental evaluation. Wow. Oh, he's bringing the heat this week. Okay. Bruno Silva versus Murdof comes back from a S ton of fowls. The man is a beast.

So if you come back from flagrant fowls, Owen Carroll is going to support you 100%. He's on the land where Jackson train, Fiora versus Roxanne Mataferi, a UFC 270. Jim Miller versus Dracar close, AK. Yeah, I just want to see Choucar get back in there again after like, you know,

just the whole Jeremy Stevens stuff is just so weird. But yeah, good matchup. UFC 300 should be April 2024, so he needs to not fight a lot and stay healthy. Arlowski versus Spivak, Dumont versus Holm, let's keep 1,45 alive. No need to kill her off against Amanda just yet.

Carol. Owen Carroll. Holy molly. Yeah, I saw a lot more, Dumont versus Holmonds, then Dumont title gets a title shot. It was pretty strongly saying, just do the home fight. John Ray, I mean,

even if you repeat it, but if you give a nice explanation, I'm going to read it. I was wanting Arlowski versus Alexei Olenik because in 130 combined fights, they've never faced each other. But with Olenik booked, I'll go with Arlofsky versus Walt Harris, too.

I love Walt, but he's ranked and he's not going to get an easy fight. At least he kind of, quote, unquote, won the first one. And then he threw out a bellatory, prediction, Brent Premis versus the winner of Peter Quirley versus Patricki Pitbull. Oh no, the loser.

You're saying the loser? The loser. Wow. So who should get the title shot then? Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, what are we doing? Poppy underscore Bryant, Landware versus Zubaira Tugaf, another Fiora versus Montefari with an explanation.

They gave her to Schiffchenko after two fights in the UFC, gave her to Maya after two fights, U-Banks after one fight, it's where prospects go to either move forward or take a step back. It's true. It's definitely true. Yep. Jim Miller versus John McDessie, Arlowski versus Sergei Pavlovich, who I believe is booked against Tanner Bozer. I think, but I don't know if that's 100% confirmed yet. Uh, so that's, those are the unique picks. Uh, Gerard Biagen, UFC Ladd versus Dumont matchmaking. Uh,

Ladd versus Caitlin Vieira, winner lose, I would assume. There it is. Arlofsky versus Romanov. Jim Millie. versus Marco Madsen, Manon Fiora against any ranked opponent. Bruno Silver versus Punozoriano. There you go. Thank you, Gerard. Chris London.

Let's see. Miller versus Patty Pimblit. Fiora versus Jessica I. Landware versus Lando Vanada. Vanada has a fight. He does. Lutz, Tucker Lutz. Tucker Lutz, yep.

Yeah. Bakery versus Adrian Yanez, but Yannes is also booked against Dave Graham. Yes. But so, yeah, win or lose, we'll see. Our man, Francesco, our big fan from Italy. Another Oloovsky versus Ramadoff, Miller versus Ferguson.

Perfect opener for a pay-per-view main card. I'm with you, Francesco. Great minds. Great minds. He is suggesting Fioro versus Caitlin Chukagian. We need a number one contender. That's too soon, isn't it? I saw someone making some sort of reference, not for Fioro versus Chukin, but it would be like,

blonde blonde fighter versus the blonde fighter I think someone was something to that effect Landware versus Rosa I think Landware is probably ahead of that at this point Wildcars Ladd versus the winner of Felicia Spencer versus Leah Lettsin I don't have any issue with that whatsoever That fight's happening? Oh I'm so bad I totally did not

I was just literally just earlier today before filming this like where is Leah Lettson I forgot that fight was a thing Yes Bruno Silva versus Christoph Yako, Luana Carolina versus Antonina Shepchenko, okay. M. Ruffles 115. Let's see what we got here. Jim Miller versus Leo Santos, Manon Fioro versus Viviani Arujo.

That's an interesting fight. Is she a 25er? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Yeah, she is. Is she a 25er? No. No.

Yes, she is. Oh, she's 25. What am I talking about? Yes, yes. I don't mind that one. I feel like... It's a big step up. Big step up.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm not worried about the step up more than the killing off of two prospects thing, because I think Arrojo could be a future title contender. Landware versus Feeley. Don't mind that. Another Silvasoriano. Roberts versus Worley-Alves.

Batgaree versus... Listen to this, Tristan. Umar, your Magamato. But Umar, I believe is fighting Cody S. Damon? Yes. Carnalosi versus Carolina. Okay. We'll save Tristan for last.

Let's see what Patrick Austin has to say, man, I'm working Saturdays now. UPS working that overtime. I hate missing the day cards. I'm ready for the return of actual fight nights. Shout out to Cory Anderson. Disagree. Jim Miller.

Jim Miller and Bobby Green versus Raging Al and a three-way handicap match. Sorry guys. Oh, hold on. Mike, hold on. I gotta tell you something before you get mic checked. I believe Cody is fighting Sayyed.

Sayy and Armagometa. Excuse me. At least they're in the same. At least they're both in the freaking UFC. I'm just saying Tristan has paused. His, Tristan paused the episode. I'm telling you, he paused the episode already. He's not even on this part and he's already writing another email like, ah, you know,

who's getting your, no Mago Meda. I'm mixed up. So I hope you listened a little bit of further ahead. We are corrected. He meant, clearly my best friend meant Said. At least they're both in the UFC. so I'll go over that route. Jim Miller, Bobby Green versus Raging Al and three-way handicapped match.

Our guys don't have anything intelligent to say this week. Maybe Ladd versus Sarah McMahon, maybe Fiora versus Miranda Maverick. And he said, we've got to get Raging Al back to a title shot. He's the only one that went the distance with Habib. Not in life. Habib went the distance with like almost everybody. And now we end with Tristan Gordat, the main event of the evening. Mr. Otno Point himself.

He likes Jim Miller versus Jared Gordon Another Fiora versus Roxanne Matafari UFC please keep Fioro away from Casey O'Neill And Maria Agapova Keep building these prospects up Featherweight Nate Landware versus Charles Jordane I know Jordan is coming off a loss Most of the fighters of featherweight

That are coming off wins are already booked You will not be getting an out of no point for that one, Tristan, Gordat Because Charles Jordane has his next fight booked Stay tuned Wildcard, Bannamweight Dana Bakari versus DeMontel Jackson rebook this fight, definitely want to see it. And he's even got a

Bellator pick. Mukamed Berkhamov versus Roman Ferraldo. That is a deep cut Bellator pick from Bellator 268. What was the Jordan pick, sorry, Mike? He liked Landware versus Jordane.

But Jordan... Jordan has a fight. Okay. All right. I just want... I'll read this comment now, then. Pike Putt, someone who sent him to me, wanted the train versus air for the best method of transportation in 2021. So sadly we, but I mean, that could happen.

That could happen somewhere down the road. So I did that comment. Yes. I saw, I had a few people recommending that one. Okay. So that's not happening next. Yes. I know who's opponent.

I have already confirmed his opponent. I'm still trying to confirm Charles. The fight is signed sealed and delivered from all indications. It's a fight. All I'll say is take 100 guesses. You'll probably get it wrong. So there we go. Go ahead, A.K., on to you, my friend.

Oh, okay. All right. Well, I think we've given Tristan enough shine today. We've enabled this young man enough. Well, Dumont, as I said, Dumarver's home, probably the biggest pick for the main event winner. Ladd versus Spencer was also popular, Jay Donagy, saying maybe Ladd won't wait until the last round to start fighting. Harsh. For Arlowski, people mostly want to see Romanov and Sergei Spivak, though I love Azadak I couple people with Ivanov's suggestion. I actually like that one a lot.

Miller was all over the place. Firo was all over the place. Landwer, Damon Jackson, the most popular pick for him. Also, Pendiada. Liam Perry picked this and then corrected himself saying Pineda is suspended until March 2020. He does a positive for amphetamine. But I don't think that rolls out of Landwerpenaed match.

Landre probably wants to get in there a bit sooner. But I don't think it's guaranteed. So for anyone who recommended Landre versus Bensis, Daniel Paneda, which is quite a few people. I think it's a valid pick. As you mentioned, multiple times, Bruno Silva versus Mahmoud Merida. But I also saw a lot of Bruno Silva

versus Christop Jotko. And one other popular pick, first of all, and Dana Bakkeri, so many picks for him just all over the place. So he really did break out. And then Carnalosi versus Kanako Marata, Harry Dwaskin, calling this a mirror match of short but jacked straw weights.

Really, any, any, I feel like any time you put Carnolosi in there, now we just want to see it. It's like, again, 1980s, we just want to see her in there with other kind of muscle, muscular monsters, as it were. Harry sent me the picture email. He also liked Danny Roberts versus Mickey Gall, Land Rover versus Mike Grundy, and Miller versus Pimble. There go. He says, would be stupid and fun, but kind of winnable for Jim. Harry also says he's sort of working in an elementary school and he's been wiped.

So good luck with that, Harry. and also that he has, he says jury duty, he has actually freed him up. So also good luck with the jury duty. Jay Donagy, the Pocono, the Poconos picker. Let's see. Miller versus Gagos is the man from Sparta versus the Greek Spartan. And Bruno Silva versus Buckley.

That's pretty cool. And then he quoted me saying, as one would say, don't bet on MMA. Judge Chris Lee 3027 in the Roberts amoev fight for Roberts. shameful, shameful. And Joe Young, who calls to be our Melbourne matchmaker, likes. And this made me loud. Okay, first is for UFC, Miller versus Drew Dober.

Dober coming up, two-fights kids should fight down the list. Miller coming off the big chaos, why not meet in the middle? He says, full disclosure, I'm being disrespectful to the legend Jim Miller, because I would see this matchup as a bounce back fight for Dober. That's a little disrespectful. respectful. And then his first part of the email made me laugh. So he had a Belator suggestion. Joe Young says, I would match up Corey Anderson and Nemcov. He says, my thinking here is, you know, they both won their semi-final fights. Let's put them in the final together. So yeah, very, very logical,

Joe Young. I agree. I think hopefully Belator goes in that direction, matched up Nemcov and Anderson sometime in the near future. And then he also joked that, listen, in this economy, you got to get those precious out-note points wherever and however you can't so i'll give you an honorary point for that crack uh but people no one is getting a point for anderson nemcombe right if anyone suggested that seriously because obviously that's that's uh that's already all but booked uh going to i g here uh just a few people here dad jackson i uh arlowski versus the jan valante versus chris barnett winner uc two 68 november 6th i did not know that fight was happening it is happening okay that's a wild fight I love it so much

it's like the perfect that is like the perfect piece of matchmaking for both guys I really hope Chris Burnett wins now and I can get Chris Burnett versus Arlovsky dad Jackson I'm gonna give you a point out of my personal stash if if Chris Burnett wins and he ends up when Aralovsky I'm giving you like you're getting an official Otno point and then I'm giving you from my personal collection of auto points another point I I really want to see that now Mokokonofright. Dona White Batgree

versus Nathaniel Wood. I'm not, we're not, this is not his official nickname, but I don't know. Hopefully, I don't know. It just made me laugh. Dona White. Roberts versus Carlson Harris. Firo versus another call for Firo versus Aura Ujo. I want to see the thinking here.

Oh yes, this is the comment about Arrojo should get a chance to redeem her loss against Chukagian blonde fighter by beating the blind fighter. Oh, so he thinks Menolfiore. is the blonde fighter so there you go that's uh michael thank you for that reference there uh our losskeepers olinic hardy winner ufc 270 january january january january 202 i think a lot of people will just want to erlowski and uh and olinic throw down someday uh carlos torres uh buckley cosettes excuse me uh he says oh i want that i want to add that uh aspen lad looked like a teenage girl being yelled at by her angry father during her corners.

Okay. Well, I mean, listen, they are, like I said, there are a couple. There is a personal relationship there. So maybe it did seem different than other corner shouting. Lovsky Walt Harris, too, Fioro versus Casey O'Neill? You can't do that now. I think this was recommended. Did we not comment on this last week, people saying, or whenever the last time

Casey O'Neill fought, as you should fight, Feevo. Didn't this already come up on our show? Yeah, it just came up to this week, too, saying someone said, like, keep them far away from each other. Yeah. I doubt the UFC makes out fight. All right. And then, Danny Roberts versus Long and Good.

Love it. Dana versus Tony Gravely. Love it. Oh, I need you on this one, Mike. Contender Series picks here. Boudai? B-D-A-W-D-A-Y. What is his name?

Who's that? B-U-D-A-Y? Oh, Martin B-U-D-A-Y. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He just fought. Yeah, he just got a con-he's a heavyweight, I believe. All right. He wants him to fight Jared, another contender series veteran,

Jared Vendera. Jake, it's Jake Hadley, right? Jake Hadley, yep. Yes, the controversial missed weight but got a contract versus Ulaan Bekov Nasamento winner, U.S.C. 267, October 30th. And Borashev, what's his first name? He got the big, he got a big K.O., right?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's so many, yeah, yeah, Slava Borchev. Slava Borashev versus Christos-Yagos. Yeah, that's a good fight. Yeah, keep sending those in. I like the contender series picks. I apologize guys for messing up those names. There's so many.

There's so many of these cards. And I don't watch every week. I don't watch every week. Matt Bradbury, last of our Instagram. Dana versus Haonee Barcelos, sure. It's a bit of a jump up in the rankings, but I don't mind it. Luana Carolina versus Ariane Lipski. Now, I don't know if Matt is calling for a rematch or forgetting that Lipski almost tore Luana

Carolina's leg off. I guess it was three fights ago. go now, but I think he just forgot. But I just want to remind people of that horrible, horrible scene. Roberts versus Nico Price, Land River versus File, again, you mentioned that one earlier. I think that's great. Firol versus Grasso. It was Grasso who had to withdraw from the Calderwood fight, right?

Yes. So she might have some sort of injury, but that would be interesting. I don't see them making that one. But I'm not against it. Bellator. J. Lon Bates versus Keith Lee. Albrexton versus Julius and Gleekis, yes, I love it.

Brent Primis versus the, he wants to see the Pitbull Qualley 2 winner, which I think made more sense. And then Bader versus, oh, Rumble Johnson rematch. So rematch from way back when Johnson just smoked Bader, but I think enough time has passed.

I would like to see them run that one back at some point, assuming, you know, whatever the hell situation is with Rumble. And then, of course, Anderson versus NEMCOB. Again, no point, guys, for that one. All right, let's close up with our Twitter boys. who are always bringing the heat. We got some questions.

We got some comments. Mike, going to open up with a question here from at Jarvis Plum. I believe this is the first time mystery. At Jarvis Plum. He says, he's been listening to Otno for a while, and he was thinking, what if the UFC started punishing weight misses by banning fighters from that weight class for like three fights? Force them to move up, fight at a more natural weight, and they get a bit of a bit of punishment.

Love the show. I don't know, Mike. What do you think about it? I mean, we've seen California Commission kind of try to recommend fighters move up. But what do you think about the UFC stepping in and making a formal, like, you know, making a formal rule, hashtag rules rule about missing weight and the kind of penalty you should get. Maybe if, like, you miss weight multiple times, you do something that severe. I mean, you never know.

Like, the body's a crazy thing. Something happens. Maybe you just can't get there. Maybe it's a short notice fight. There's different stories for different people. Maybe someone takes a fight on a day's notice and they miss weight and you bump them up a weight class. Like, I don't think that really works out. I like the idea. I like the idea of docking a point. Dock at a point right away. I think that's, that's super fair. And then,

like, some of these newcomer, newcoming fighters who are on, like, introductory deals, if they miss weight, which is smart. Like, honestly, like, there's, it's frowned upon, but it's not a terrible, I mean, it's smart. It's smart thinking. Like, your goal is to get as much money as possible. So if you cut and kill yourself and you make in 10 and 10 or 12 and 12 or 15 and 15 and it kills you to make the weight and then you go out and lose like yeah, but if you go in there and you miss weight and you four for 20 percent and you win, you get more money. But there's no penalty for that. So the point is huge. I think that's the way to do it. We figured out somehow how it affects the actual fight itself, not just from a physical sense, but from a mental sense,

from the scorecards. I think that is the answer. We find a way to dock. It's not about the purse. Losing a fight, docks the purse enough. But I think, you know,

even if you want to take 20%, and you deduct a point, I'm cool with that too. But I think we got to hit him where it hurts. The pockets, the wallets, the pocketbooks, so to speak,

and the score cards. Yeah, yeah. It's an interesting idea, but I agree. Raise the penalty, maybe find a way to have it affect the actual fight.

I think forcing guys to move up is a little tricky. Definitely something the UFC, I think, wouldn't want to do for, like, they open themselves up to a lot of criticism if they make a law where you have to move up and wait and push guys to potentially face opponents who are 10, 15, 20 pounds heavier than them on fight night and making them do it. Like, if someone makes their, if that's their choice, that's fine. But forcing them to do it, boy, that's kind of, that's a can of worms right there. And again, I don't mind the suggestion, Jarvis, but I don't know if that's the most elegant weight. handle it. I think, like we said, points, money. That's really going to matter. The money especially is going to matter more to them anyway. Yeah. Scott McCrae, a man off your old fan number one.

He says, thanks for a shout on the pre-show. We did mention that. And he says, Fioro versus Moros, if the UFC can't make the Agapova fight for whatever reason, or Cynthia Alvillo, who's ranked number 10, and enemy fighting's global ranking system. He calls it the best ranking system for MMA. Thank you, Scott. Flattery will get you everywhere. That number 10 spot is Madnans for the taking. So again, if anyone who listens to any of our shows now, Scott is all in on Manalfeuro

someday at least challenging for the flyway title, if not winning it outright. Let's go out. We had a lot of good suggestions here. Braden O'Neill, Miller, Jim Miller versus Demir Hadsovich, Roberts versus Nicholas Dalby. Carnalosi versus Ronda Marcos Levina-Suzza winner, October 23rd.

So that'd be a big test. Pike Putt. At Pike Putt. Okay, sorry, his name is different from that. Dumont versus Durandami. Germain has no route back to a Bantamate Teleth shot for a bit and would only have to beat Dumont and maybe home again for the 145 shot.

Yeah, I don't think people want to rush for that one either, but I agree with the thinking there. I disagree. I disagree. I think, I think Duranemi, I mean, I think Duranemi could get, I somewhat disagree. How about that?

I think Duranem could, I think with one more win, Duranmi would get a shot, only because only because she told, like, from what she said to me when I last interviewed her after she submitted Julianna Payne, she will put her career on the line for one more fight with the man in Nunes.

She will put a career versus title. I mean, that is the most... At 135 or it doesn't matter. At 135 or it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Either, either division. Either division. Either division.

One more fight with the man. She said she will put her career on the line for one more fight with Amanda Nunes. If she wins, she's the champion. She will move on and defend. If she loses, she will drop her goal. gloves in the middle of the octagon and walk away and never come back. This is a narrative I would love to see unfold.

Not because I want to see Demerunemy retire, so a great fighter. But it would be such a great thing if the UFC and ESPN got their hooks in that story. Oh, they could really have a moment. And again, something else that, if it happened at 145, something to keep that division kind of chugging along. Sure. Arlowski versus Espino. I like this. I know we've kind of been saying Espino Romano rematch, you know, just because the first one was such a junkie fight.

but I don't mind it I'd love to see two older guys kind of go at it Miller versus Saroni two cowboys But he said But Pike Pot's saying that should be Cowboys Retirement fight so he's not saying both guys Kind of like just go on the way to You know up to 40

I'm saying that would be it for Cowboys So I don't know He's at 155 or 170 Shamis Law Arlowski versus Latifi Jamila versus Jamie Malarkey Firo versus Cortez Something I didn't really think about

How do you think about that? Do you think she's, is this something again? You just want to keep them separate for now? Yeah, I would kind of put Tracy in that. She's like neck and neck with some of those next generational, like up and comers that could fight for the title. I need to see more from Tracy. I need to see her go out there and just flat out dominate somebody

and get a finish and just, you know, I think all the other fighters have gone out there and just obliterated opponents. Tracy has won fights and is a good fighter. She's got a lot of potential. but she needs to go out there and make a statement. She hasn't done that yet. So I put her slightly behind the Fioros and the Blanche fields

and the Casey O'Neill's at this point, and then Miranda Mavericks, so forth and so on. But I think she's right there. I mean, if there's anyone unranked that I would match one of these fighters with right now, it would probably be Cortez. I think Cortez is probably the more marketable of all of them. But she just hasn't had that performance just yet.

So, and at 125, you can afford to make a move like that. And Cortez is kind of like the odd woman out of like that conversation right now until she goes out there and has a statement win. Yeah, I agree. I'm not against the matchup. But I do think Cortez is like you said, kind of viewed by the UFC in a different way than some of the other, both in terms of talent and marketability. So I don't know if they'd want to do that right now.

And Shamishlaw also had some good conditional picks. I like these. Bruno Silva versus Allen. Mavarra's winner, December 4th, Danny Roberts versus Grant Trinaldo winner, October 23rd, and Luana Carolina versus Casey Jojoa winner November 13th. So I like those. So get ready for a point, Seamus, if those things unfold. Marcus Mageehi, our boy, he calls this the, he didn't want to call it.

He said, I'm going to avoid a Norma Dumont, Du Haas, parody. I don't know if you remember the song, Duhas by Ramstein. Yes. Yes, a very aggressive, lovely song. So I guess he's been saying Dumont to the tune of Duhas in his head. And now it's now it's in my head too. So thanks, Marcus. Marcus also, by the way, said last week he called it the Rodriguez II edition and you

got a second Rodriguez edition. And you guys kind of explained like he must have just named the first time Marina Rodriguez fought in the main event, the first one edition. So he said he would have gone with, this is the Rodriguez-McKinsey-Durrne main event, Surfer drowned by Marina edition of, he said. He thought it was a little mean. I think that's hilarious. I think that's funny.

I don't know that's too mean at Al, Marcus. Some of his really good picks here. I like Danny Roberts versus San Canaan. He's also thrown in for Carnalosi versus Van Buren. I do think she'll come back again at some point soon. And Felipe, he likes, he says, what do you think about Felipe versus Walt Harris? Yeah, that's fine. Maybe that's the way to go, right?

Hard to reward a guy coming off a loss of the ranked fighter, though. it's so weird again I know a lot of people will disagree with us that Harris is ranked but I believe he is ranked in the UFC rankings as well he's not in our rankings is he he's not in our rankings he's in my personal UFC specific top of D and I think if I was including all promotions

he wouldn't be but I do have like I said I do have him still up there just the level of competition he's face Hayes the third this is just for the hashtag Carlos Felipe versus Chase Sherman Carlos versus Chase he says he calls it hashtag the car chase guys you're really reaching with these all right and I love you for it but you're reaching

uh Bruno Silva versus imovov Shabazi and loser uh and Donov versus grant Yanis loser November 20th uh Liam Perry coming in with I love this matchup of old guys Miller versus Leonardo Santos uh the only thing is I'm kind of in favor of seeing Leonardo Santos versus Alexander Hernandez still just rebook it but if that doesn't happen for sure Miller Leonardo Santos really fun Danny Roberts versus Calvert's boy olivera mike sure yeah yeah yeah uh carolina versus jean kim uh dena versus the honey yaya uh kong kong kong looser november 20th again big step up but he's he's looked good and uh let's go to thomas collins arlowski versus alexander gustafson um he says i think arlossi deserve step up in

competition alexander could be the perfect opponent for when uh gustavson returns from injury it could be a good battle of veterans of the sport yeah i could see them that'd be interesting that's the stays as a heavy way yeah uh dena versus uh kasey kenny and landlborough versus zalalal just a few more to go here uh four corner sports nai dena versus gustavo lopez uh firov versus aldrich i should be shooting down aldrich cortez suggestions by the way i still want that fight to happen but i don't it's it's not quite at uh hashtag lobby for robbie levels but it's you know i'd be looking at but and he's with you our lapski back up boata uh denny kaps carnalosi i think this has been recommended in our show before And I think by Denny.

Battle of the Biceps, Carnalosi versus Hannah-Golte. Danah versus Nate Manus. Roberts versus Randy Brown, great fight. Silva versus Julian Marquez. I guess he's, forget about re-booking the Jordan Wright fight. Just make Silva versus Marquez happen. Sure. He has this to say about, oh, this is a great matchup, by the way, that I had not thought about.

I don't know why it couldn't happen. Miller versus RDA. RDA? I guess RDA is so banged. I guess, I remember RDA is like a top 10 guy both lightweight and welterweight that like it seems like he wouldn't face someone

outside of the top 10 now. Yeah. The only thing. I mean like the Ferguson fight is there. But that's probably like the only guy ranked that highly that I would put Miller in there with just because of paths. Yeah.

RDA probably wants to get to the belt. I don't think Jim Miller gets him any closer. And Thomas. Oh wait, which one I'm reading here? Danny Capp's had this to say about Arlowski and the women's featherweight division. He says he'd rather see Arlofsky right off into the sunset rather than matchmake for him. And he has even less enthusiasm for the women's featherweight division. So he's not even going to bother. So Danny, now that's come on.

That's not playing the game, Danny. And we'll close out, we'll close out with a big odd no point winner of the week, Barry O'Reilly. Carnalosi versus Pauliana Vienna, Dana versus Ricky Turcios. I really like that one. That's a good fight. Danny Roberts versus semi-the-Jed eyes, Matthew Semelsberger. And then a couple of good explanations here. Jim Miller versus Guram Kutatslaz. He says, just keep giving Miller prospects, see what they're made of, Garam look great in his debut. He's been masked of a few times, why we have we not seen him in so long?

I think he's just got injured, I think, ahead of his last fight. So hopefully nothing serious. We will see him back soon. And then Norma Dumond versus Kayla Harrison when she wins the PFL tournament and ultimately signs for the UFC. PFL finals, October 27th, I believe. As she trains with Amanda and maybe wouldn't just come straight. straight in to fight her, but after beating one of the only two credible 145ers, then the title

fight is inevitable. So I think that's a solid suggestion, Barry. Yeah, listen, I'm convinced at this point that as much as we hyped it up for the last couple of years, there's no way Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes fight, right? Like, there's no way this fight happens. I don't, it definitely feels more like a Nunez would just either retire completely or retire from the featherweight division and let Kayla run wild, yeah, even though it would be a pretty, pretty decently, you know, compensated fight for both of them. I don't think,

unless the UFC was guaranteeing, like, millions for both of them, which is highly unlikely. It probably wouldn't even headline. It probably wouldn't even headline. They probably wouldn't, yeah. So I don't know. Again, we all want to see it.

It'd be a cool fight. But keep in mind, yes, they are, they train together. They are friends. It would take a lot of money that I don't think the UFC is willing to shell out to make it happen. Right.

And it's a cool fight. It's not one that the world is hankering for right the second. It would be one like a couple of years from now. I'd be like, wow, what would happen if they actually fought each other? Yeah. I mean, and that's okay. I'd rather see Nunes.

I'm more so than ever on Nunea Shepchenko at this point. Like normally, I was like, I want to wait another year. We'll wait, like do it for Nunes his last fight. No. After Valenzina Shepchenko on the M.MA hour, book it now. Get it done. Be Pena. Let's just go.

Let's just do it. Shofchenko's mic skills are really caught up to her in cage skills, haven't they? She's always been a solid interview, but she plays the game now. Now the Grasso's out of the Jojo fight, there's just nobody really at 25. I mean, if Jojo beating Tyler Santos is a nice win, but I don't think it's a win that everyone's going to be like, yeah, give her a title fight. I mean, Santos is tough, man. She goes out there, if Santos goes out there and wins, maybe you throw her in there.

But I feel like that's kind of soon for somebody like that. But I think the winner probably fights Chigua again next, if we're being honest. But we'll see. Well, Mike, I know people know by now, but we should remind them, guys, if you want to reach us, I'm at, at a DM, slide my DMs. Guys, they're all open at Alexander K.K. Lee on Twitter, at Alexander K.K. Lee on Instagram. Alex dotly at SB Nation.com. And Mike, where can people send their furious Mike checks to? M underscore heck, J.R on Instagram.

No one's sliding into my Twitter DMs. Say it to my face. Say it to my face. Yeah, just send a video. Can you send videos on Instagram? Is that a thing? No, you can't. Not really.

I don't know. Okay. Someday. So that is UFC Vegas 40. Mm-hmm. And just when you thought the UFC was going to take a break, they're not taking a break. They're back next week with an interesting main event in the middleweight division. We got UFC Vegas 41 headlined by former middleweight title challengers,

Paulo Costa, and Marvin Vittori. Fight week should be very interesting with these two gentlemen. Where's the trash talk? Have I been missing it? Have they not been like, where's the trash talk? Yeah, so people have been hitting me up being like, why haven't we seen a promo video or even a poster for this fight yet? I was like, the promo of it, like, they talked about it a lot on the broadcast,

but maybe like they put these two guys and did interviews of them, and they're just like, no way we're airing this. These two guys are insane. Marvin hasn't even tweeted since October 9th. So I guess he's in full training mode. I mean, he's done interviews. I think our own Damon Martin just talked to him the other day. So be on the lookout for that.

welcome. Co-main event, Grant Dawson versus Ricky Glenn. Jessica Rose Clark is back, good on her, taking on Jocelyn Edwards. Yeah. Ike Villanueva is back versus Nick

Nogumariano. Nicko Negrimiriano. Correct. Alex Cisteris versus Young Wu Choy. Dwight Grant versus Francisco Trinaldo. Levina Suza versus Randemarcos. is back taking on Daniel Lacerda

Jun Yung Park versus Gregory Rodriguez Tabitha Ricci takes on Maria Olivera Kamoworthy versus Jai Air Hey Herbert Why am I doing Bobby A Bear here? I've done that many times

I've done that so many times It's Herbert It's Herbert But Bobby, but the quarterback Bobby A Bear Yeah I like it's classy It's spelled the same Jai Jai Hebert A bear

Ebert I wonder if it's a loser leaves town kind of fight between these two two talented guys too yeah but like shark tank and good personalities too uh and then kicking us off loriano stareopoly taking on jamie pickett so there's your ufc Vegas 41 card i'm just scrolling up real quick and i'm cringing oh it's an early start time yeah yes i was like i was like don't be 10 p.m eastern 1 p.m. eastern this thing kicks off, at least according to topology. I like this card.

I actually like this card. I mean, a lot more than a much brighter view of this card than I did the one this weekend that just passed. Yes. I mean, obviously, the main event is the real fight with stakes here, if we're being honest. But some interesting fights surrounding it. So we get a good main event and a good, you know, supporting cast for this card. And it's an early start time, which makes me even. happier.

So until then, my friends, I am Mike Heck. That is Alexander Keeley. And always remember, don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. And we will, of course, have more fun right here next week, even with you, Tristan Cordette, right here on, on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.