MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 43

Episode Date: November 21, 2021

Ketlen Vieira and Sean Brady picked up the biggest wins of their careers on Saturday. While they will both take steps forward, how close are they to championship opportunities following UFC Vegas 43? This week, the On To the Next One squad answers those questions, along with where former bantamweight champion Miesha Tate goes from her first loss since making her return to competition. In addition, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee take a look at what could be next for Taila Santos — following her dominant submission win over Joanne Wood — Rani Yahya, Adrian Yanez, 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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the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible.

The Vox Media Podcast Network. To a brand new edition of On To the Next one, I am Mike Heck, and we are back to discuss the what's next for some of the big winners from UFC Vegas 43 this past Saturday. Some new contenders emerged from the event, But all in all, main card, pick things up at times.

But this was not the most aesthetically pleasing event of all time. I will admit, I did not watch any of the prelims. But all I had to do was just go on Twitter and see how everybody reacted to it to know that I'm confident in the statement that I just made. So I will say this because I see people out there saying this stuff all the time. Shout out to all the athletes who stepped inside the octagon. Mad respect to you all. competitive fights. There's nothing wrong with that.

But yeah, I don't think the Prince of Positivity's gymnastics scale was met on this one. And in this world, as you welcome in my best friend, Alexander Cayley, sometimes, AK, absence makes the heart grow fonder. And this Thanksgiving break, the UFC is about to take, man, it's coming at the right time, is it not? Yeah, there was kind of a nice arc there with some of the events. You know, we had two pay-per-views in a row, and then it only kind, I like that only slightly winded down after that.

Like, you know, I mean, we just had the great, what, yeah, right, yeah, year and the Holloway fight. And now it feels like we kind of took a big dip on, uh, on this past Saturday. So these things happen my best friend, you know, and that's fine. And again, I'm glad you gave the standard disclaimer for all UFC events. Of course, all the respect in the world to the, to the fighters. They're not the ones who make the matchups. They're not the ones who book the cards. you shouldn't I mean you just shouldn't have this many

low-ranked fighters fighters looking for their first UFC win on one card if these were spread across you know four or five different cards you wouldn't notice as much you know you wouldn't notice some of the slog when you put them all together suddenly we have to you know ask ourselves like is this the worst card of the year and again this is not a criticism of the fighters

this is how the cards put together this is what happens when you have to have to have a weekly event you have to have events 46 out of the 52 weeks whatever maybe so so yeah I think it's fair to criticize and again that's what we're here for I'm positive Mike you you know I am the most positive person but with love comes attention and comes criticism and I think that's I hope people realize that that it's not personal and that I hope I wish nothing but the best for almost all the people who fought on Saturday yeah and and just to add to that

that, again, and I bring this up all the time, MMA fans want MMA, the UFC, specifically, to be at the same level as the NFL, the NHL, the NBA, and stuff like that. And if you watch any of those programs, recapping games or days of games or nights of games, if there's a bad slate of games, they're going to talk about it and say,

this was a really bad slate of games. Like, this Sunday night football game was awful. It was not a good game. No one's, like, dumping on. the athletes. Like, oh, actually they are. Like, if Aaron Rogers goes on through five interceptions, this guy sucks. He went out there and had a bunch of 350-pound linemen running after him, but no one cares about that. No one's given them criticism for saying Aaron Roger sucks. And we're not saying any of the fighters suck. We're saying that they're tough and that they deserve a lot of credit.

The car just wasn't great. And maybe it's just because the other cards are so good, we've, you know, it just is what it is. Sometimes they're not gold standard. This was not a horrible card, but compared to what we've seen. This is not great. But let's get into this thing. Can you imagine if an NFL team trotted out like a fifth round pick rookie quarterback like week one and like a lineup of rookie offensive linemen and they got like sloshed like 54 to like negative six? And then people were just like, hey, at least they put a team out there. Don't criticize the players. Don't criticize the team. Don't criticize the team. Don't criticize the ownership. At least they put a team out there. Yeah. And we're not criticizing anybody. There

There might be certain things that happen that we will criticize, but that has nothing to do with the fighting itself. So let's get right into this thing. Let's start with the woman who ended the night with the unanimous decision win over former champion Misha Tate, Caitlin Viera, picks up the biggest win of her career. Again, no disrespect to the fighters. This is not a memorable headliner by any stretch of the imagination. This is not going to be a fight we're talking about at the end of the year for a fight of the year. Vieira gets it done.

I scored at 4946. It could have easily been 50-45 in my eyes. Tate's game plan was questionable at best. Vieira, in my eyes, was the better fighter everywhere. But Tate's heart, her ability to grind it out, make things ugly down the stretch. That was her biggest weapon heading into this fight, and she didn't use it at all. Like, not even for a second in this fight. So, Vieira did what she needed to do.

She got the win. I thought she looked great, considering she's back on track, AK, where does she go now? Yeah, all the praise in the world of Kent and Fierre. People can say what they want about, like, as you were, about Tate's strategy. but it's a nice win for Ketland. Great name for her. She showed that she is a step above the next tier of fighters. I think she's, again, not quite obviously up there with, I guess, Amanda Nunez and

Germaine Durandami. She's a notch below that. I mean, we saw that she's had some, you know, some unfortunate losses. So, and I just mentioned, you know, I just mentioned GDR. I think Jermaine Durandami is the way to go. I think either of these women is. is worthy of a title shot. And when we say this,

it's like when we talk about Valentina Shepchenko, we're not saying either of these women is poised to get a title shot and really rock Amanda Nunez's world. No, Amanda Nunez is going to be a heavy favorite over whoever she fights. But Keltin Vayetta, Fresh Challenger, Jermaine de Randa Mi,

maybe a fight at 135 would be slightly different. Also, the first fight was like not a great fight, but if you ask GDR, she felt pretty good about it. She felt like Nunes had to use, her grappling to sort of win the fight, which she surprised her. So if she could keep it standing, then you can sort of talk yourselves into a GDR upset. But either way, Nunes needs fights.

I think Veyeda or GDR would be a good one. And I just like to see the fight. I think it'd be a nice style matchup. Yeah, I think it's 2-0 Nunes in that series overall. But I mean, listen, GDR has already said she wants one more shot at Nunes. And if she loses, she'll walk away. She'll never fight again. She'll retire.

She'll leave her gloves in the cage. And I think that's such a great storyline. The UFC is crazy for not exploring that storyline. Having said that, I know Holly Holmes looking to get back in there at 135. A lot of people wanted to see Tate fight Holly Holie Holm. If she had won, some people wanted to see Tate get to a title fight. I think we all realize that that would have been a terrible idea. I think Holm is a fine choice for Vietta.

That one works for me. Gets Holly in at 135 against someone coming off a big win against a former champion. She may not get a chance now to exact the revenge on Misha Tate that she wants to, but she can try to at least defeat the woman who defeated the woman. So, yeah, not a ton of options. That one works for me. And then for Tate, AK, there's a lot more options. But to me, this one was pretty simple.

Raquel Pennington's fighting Julia Avila on December 18th. Pennington wins. We get a rematch. I think there's still a little bit of a cloud that hangs over that fight. Pennington dominated. But Tate has said many times. She basically had one foot out the door. she was not mentally prepared for that fight as she went ahead and retired at MSG.

And then Avila would be a fresh face in this division looking to make a big move. And a win over Pennington would merit a fight like that, in my opinion. What do you think? I could already see the hype video footage for a Pennington rematch. Should she beat Avila? I mean, they have the corner audio of Tate being like, you know, I'm just not in it tonight. You know, telling her her former coach and associate Brian Carraway, like, I'm just not in it tonight. I just don't feel it.

It's the fight that signaled, you know, the end of her illustrious career the first time. So it definitely sells itself. I do think that is a fine matchup. And yeah, and if you're Tate, you can definitely talk yourself into, like you said, at that point in my career, didn't want to fight anybody. So, you know, people didn't get my best effort that night. They should see that again. So I like that one.

I'm rolling with Aspen Lad. I think, this could be, by the way, catch weight, 140. This could be 145. I think that'd be the least interesting. I'm sure people want to see it at least close to Bantamweight because people still want to, you know, as disappointing as Lads results and weigh-ins have been lately, I do think there's still people who are fans of hers and see how talented she is and that if she can get that weight right, really can be a contender at 135.

So even if there needs to be a 140, I think I'd like to see them flat. I think they both have a lot to make up for, again, tough performance for Tate on Saturday. She just got beat by a better fighter. she showed her toughness. She was busy, but she did lose. She pretty clearly lost that fight to me. Ladd, obviously, just a disastrous 2021. You know, another bad weight cut, losing to Norma Dumont, who was just on nobody's radar

heading into 2021. And this is supposed to be a nice comeback year for Ladd. So maybe 2022 will be, if she can fight Michita Tate and get a win over her. Yeah, I like that idea a lot. The story is there. And, you know, I feel like Tate has kind of softened up on Aspen Latt a little bit. I think the beef is more towards the coach and the boyfriend Jim West, which I get it, where she's coming from. We've talked about that ad nauseum at this point.

But, I mean, for Aspen Lad, if you can't get up for a Misha Tate fight and make that wait, I mean, there's just no, you're, there's no future for you at 135 at all. So I do like that idea a lot. That's probably one B, maybe even 1A. But 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 and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination. From world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers, and epic desert adventures,

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He was winning the third round easily before Kiesa kind of turned it on at the end of the last 25, 30 seconds or so, and stole the round at the end. Brady's 15 and 0 now. This guy is only going to get better. And while everyone is on board the Hamzat Shemai of train, A.K., a lot more people should probably hop aboard the Sean Brady train at this point. Should they not? You and I, we've been big Brady proponents for a long time. Maybe it's because we've interviewed him. We've had, you know, kind of a better feel for his character, his approach, his sort of his background. But I think even in his fights, I would hope people would understand what is so exciting about him. He's just so poised for a guy with now 15 pro bouts, 28 years old,

just only heading into sort of his athletic prime. He really does, like, I feel like where the influences of Eddie Alvarez and of GSP, a guy that he's, you know, he's admired. I'm not saying he's anywhere near their level yet, but I hope when we hype him up that way, people kind of understand. Now, yes, there's the argument he made. He would, if they had gone five rounds, maybe Keiza would have won, who knows? Keiza, a great fighter.

Top 10 guy and two. divisions for a long time. So no shame in that. No shame in getting a tough fight. We do need to see Brady. I do think we need to see him go five rounds before we start having, you know, talks about him fighting on pay-per-view or getting no more contenders about. I like the Shemaya matchup, but that's not going to go five rounds.

Let's be honest. That's either. That's someone smoking somebody in that matchup. I think we've got to go Neil Magny. I think Neil Magny, it sounds backwards because Kay's a beat Magny, so why should Brady now have to, you know, go backwards? Steve, quote-un-oco, go backwards, and fight someone who, the guy he beat, just beat. But again, Neil Magnet, such a tough test, a different kind of opponent than Keiza,

and someone who, again, he's going to give you five rounds. Let me tell you something. He can give you five competitive rounds, and if Brady can win a decision over him or even finish him in the championship rounds, because I do think it would be tough to put Magni away in the first three rounds. Then we're talking number one contenders bout or high-profile pay-per-view card about. Yeah, this is Magnus. is probably a popular one.

I haven't really looked at the suggestions yet. From what I understand, and I don't know, I have to go back and watch past interviews with John Brady. I have been Magny are pretty tight, like really close. So I don't know if that fight would happen. I think if, you know, number one contender fight for the title,

I think they would do it right now. I'm not sure. But who knows, things would change. Money talks and both guys need fights. So it is a possibility. Friendship is overrated. The friendship is overrated. hours, except ours.

Yes, rules, rule and friendships. Except for ours, but in general. I agree. 170 is just so loaded. It's log jammy, if you will, to create a word. And Brady beating the number six guy in the world has to mean something. And it should get him a big fight. So I'll throw this idea out because I think it makes a lot of sense in the current

landscape of this division. I know people are jumping in in reporting that Shamiya's next fight was in the works with Gilbert Burns. And as I talked about on the preview show and other shows, there's very, very little, if anything, remotely accurate about those reports. So since Gilbert Burns is such a gamer, and he's looking for a fight,

and Shemaya probably doesn't happen. And I doubt he fights Colby. I doubt he's definitely not going to fight for Sente Luque, because they're buddies. I don't think Leon Edwards takes a fight with Gilbert Burns right now. Wonder Boy is booked against Bilal Muhammad. Mazadol is hurt. I don't think Mazadol takes that fight because he's got Colby or Leon.

Kiesa just lost. Why not do Brady versus Burns? Good test for both guys. Burns is probably the fourth best welterweight in the world right now, maybe even the third best welterweight in the world, behind Usman in Covington. But Burns has told me before

he's in no rush to get back to a title. He's not fighting to get back for the bell. He'd like to get there eventually, but he's not going to be, he doesn't think he's getting back to the belt in like a fight or two unless the title changes his hands. And even if it does, he wants to fight Usman.

and take the belt off of him. He thinks it will mean more to him. And he'll be ready when the time is right. So, yeah, I agree with you. Main event of a fight night card, February or March. Let's just do Gilbert Burns with Sean Brady. Who's going to complain about that fight? Yeah.

As long as it's five rounds. As long as five rounds, that's the, if Sean Brady's next fight is three rounds, it's another co-main or like a fight night main card opener for some reason, somebody messed up. Somebody messed up. And I understand, you know, Dana White might not be enthused with this performance, I understand the master makers might be like, oh, it wasn't as exciting as

kind of we hoped it would be. I thought it was a good fight. But it wasn't like, I guess, as super exciting. And, you know, he did lose the third round, which might leave a bitter taste in some people's mouths for whatever reason. So I could see them, you know, not doing this math in their head. But I hope they realize this guy is a clear future title contender. Give him the five rounds.

And then if he falters there, then you can sort of recalibrate. But otherwise, just keep pushing him until he really stumbles. I agree. Being Mike Kiesa is a big deal, and it should mean something. So I don't want to see him go back. I'm sure there's going to be some crazy suggestions that there'll be memes about that I just crap on everybody's thoughts and suggestions. But I'm going to do my best to not do that. But just come on now.

Do you, Mike. You do you. Yeah, I guess I have to. Now, the fighter who probably made the biggest jump of all, AK, was Tyler Santos. I believe heading into this fight, by the time the fight started, she was a minus 370 favorite against Joe And respect to Joanne Wood, I thought this line was way off. I thought it should have been closer to like minus 500, minus 550, maybe even higher than that. Santos is just so good, so many weapons.

And we do our fight picks all the time. And again, no disrespect to Joanne Wood. But, I mean, this was my easiest pick of all. Like Santos beating Joanne Wood was probably the easiest pick I had on this entire card. There just weren't a lot of avenues for Joanne Wood to win this fight. I mean, Jojo is a gamer. She should get a lot of credit for taking this fight with Tyler Santos on short notice after Alexa Grasso had to withdraw.

I didn't like the match with Grasso for her either, but I thought she had more avenues to win because Grasso's more of a striker while Santos can do it all. And she proved again that she is the real deal. But how high does she go, A.K., because a lot of people are ready to throw her right in there with Valentina Shepchenko, and we've talked about that possibility on this show before. One more big win, she could be there. and she got that big win. Personally, at this point, at this point,

I'd like to see her get one more win. Just keep the options of plenty because we don't know if the UFC, the UFC could just go ahead and mess around and pull the trigger on Nunes Chichenko 3 after UFC 269. Maybe they'll do that. And maybe they need to see a little bit more

from the 125 pound division before they make that decision, weigh their options a little bit. If they did Santos-Loran Murphy or Santos-Angri-Lee, I'd be okay with that, but I really want to see the Murphy Lee rematch. I think there's just too many clouds over that fight. I think there's that there needs to be closure there.

So I'll say, Tyler Santos should stay by the phone. And if something happens to either Caitlin Chacon or Jennifer Maya, ahead of UFC 271, slide right in there. If not, I would give her the winner of that fight. I'm leaning Caitlin Chukagan.

So I think Tyler Santos versus Caitlin Chukagan, sometime in the spring makes all the sense in the world. And if she wins that, you give her the title fight. What's say you, Aiken. Chikagan is fighting Maya, I think, right? She's not fighting. She's fighting. Yeah, they're fighting at UFC 271. I lean Chikagan to win that fight.

Okay. And if, yeah, I mean, whoever wins, even if Jennifer Maya wins, you do Santos Maya. Either way, she gets the winner. And if she wins, she fights for the title. Yeah. First of all, I picks Jojo. And I think you know that. You did?

I didn't know that. I really didn't. Stop it, Mike. How dare you, A.K. I mean, listen, you were trying to be different. Listen, best friends, we bust each other's balls all the time. I think that's what's going on here. You know, I'm.

the only one who picked Jojo. I thought the 300 line was mostly fair, though I did think like it. I just thought Jojo, I'm still a believer in Jojo would. Probably a bit of a stand. I think that's what went wrong here. Because I'm pretty sure I'm the only one on our staff who picked Jojo. I could be wrong.

But he's also a Jojo stand. So again, that doesn't really prove anything. Yeah, Talas Santos looks great. I mean, just dominant. I think I saw someone say, Jojo had never in all of her her entire career had never been knocked down once she got knocked down twice by Talas Andos

And then submit it so for anyone who just looks at the result And they're going to think like oh Talas Santos you know went to her wrestling again And she won that way it's like no no no no no she beat Jojo would clean on the feet Dominate her on the feet and then finished by submission because that's that's what was presented to her So yeah awesome performance so if they don't do Nunez Chifchengo three and Valentina Shcherchenko wants to stay busy, which she always does. She said many times, I don't care who I fight next, just keep giving me title fights,

keep putting those jewels on my belt. Then you could throw Tilos Santos in there, and after that performance, I don't think anybody would complain. Now, does it have any sort of like crossover appeal? Like, could you sell this to people who are, you know, hopping on after watching Valentina Shepchenko beat up Halliberry on Netflix? it's probably a tough sell. But Taos Santos has got a nice record.

It looks good, like 19 and 1, you know, one four straight fights. And you show that finish and suddenly you're in a good spot. But I would have, yes, I would have loved to see the Andrew Lee matchup, but you're right. We have been campaigning for that, the Lauren Murphy rematch. It makes too much sense. So, yeah, I'm going to say she either gets the title shot

just because Val needs an opponent and doesn't end up fighting Nunes. Or as you mentioned, gets that Chukagian Maya winner. Presumably Jukagian and I would lean towards a title shot. kicking as well. So yeah, it's weird. She's jumped up, but doesn't really have a super clear path for what's next. Yeah. I mean, like I said, you want to do Murphy or Lee? Totally fine. I think this, our options, the way we are presenting it kind of like puts it in the best position for everybody. But we'll see. I mean, best performance of the night by far and made the biggest jump in my eyes. So we went to just a wily veteran, aka, honey, yaya. The man just keeps

getting it done, took advantage of, I think it's fair to say, some pretty poor fight IQ from Kyeong-Hokang. I mean, two straight wins for Yaya. I don't want to take anything away from this win. He's only lost one fight over his last seven Octagon appearances, aka the 36-year-old, the spry-36-year-old, just keeps defying the expectations. My second most confident pick on this card was Kong, and I was way off. The man just says, oh yeah, I'll show you, Mike. You're an idiot. I'm going to go out there and just go out there and win. And we've said it many times, aka ban and weight rules, rules, rules, rule, so many options. Which fight do you like best for Mr. Yaya?

I mean, I know we're criticizing Kong's game plan here, but like, man, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, if you're, you're this hulking Korean wrestler man, you see this, a little bit, this older Brazilian guy who's got that wiry strength. But if you look at honey, yeah, yeah, he does not look like a bodybuilder. He looks like a, he's in good shape. He looks like a guy who does regular runs. He's like, oh, this guy stays fit. You wouldn't think he's that strong. So if I'm calm, I'm like, man, look at me, man. I'm diesel.

Like, I'm going to throw this guy around. And he certainly had his moments in the wrestling. But yeah, man, once you play around in that jiu-jitsu with yaya, it's no joke, man. That third round, he was rock. He was beaten Yaya. He beautifully blocks, he beautifully sprawls to block a takedown. But chess holds on to that sprawl position a little too long. And that's all the opening, Yaya,

needed to just do some jih Tjitsu magic and reverse it and some hand up on top. I don't even know how he did it. It was so, it was so elegance and yet powerful at the same time. Honey, yaya is great. Yes, we're praising the bantam weights, but I actually want him to go out of 135 for this next matchup. Mike, we had a little joke running, we had a little running joke for a while when we were doing this as a written version where I would throw up one man's name pretty much every edition that we did this.

Can we just get him in there with Ryan Hall? Can we just get y'ya in there with Ryan Hall? he'd be giving me of size but who cares and it's not like Ryan Hall's this massive featherweight let's just do it man we got to see these guys a role I know there's all kinds of grappling competitions they could do too but it feels like you need that extra element of being an m-ma fight that extra chaotic m-ma side to it to really make me thrilled about this one so I'll watch them grapple for sure if that happens but I want to see them fight too interesting yeah I mean win or lose no matter what happens with Hall's

next fight with Derek Minner. Yeah, you could throw Yaya in there. I dig it. So, I mean, listen, we're in the spot. There's so many choices. Yaya's kind of in that position where you could throw them in there with pretty much anybody to make sense. You can even throw them up in another weight class and it makes sense.

So this is hard to narrow down. And not only that, but you have to kind of go back in time and think about other band-and-weight matchups that you've chosen in the past. So I'm going to change course a little bit. I think this is a perfect. spot for Montel Jackson. I think Montel needs a fight like this. He needs to be sort of dragged through the mud a little bit by a terrific grappler. He dealt with that in his loss Nathaniel Wood. And Yahya needs, you know, and Yaya kind of needs that. I'm telling you, I'm ready for the top 15 kind of fight. And if he

beats a guy like Montel Jackson, I think it does just that. So be a huge win for Montel if he gets it done. Be a huge win for Yaya. And that's the type of win, especially in the hardcore fans' eyes. says give him a top 15 guy perfect fight right here and if he goes out and wins you best believe i'm coming on sunday morning and giving him a top 15 match up okay so yeah can't go wrong but i think this is perfect timing in their careers for both guys yeah it's the right test i like it i like it so let's stick around at the deep division that has bantam weight and let's move to a guy who is becoming a lot of folks's new favorite fighter adrian yadas what a fight against davy grant Davy is as tough as they come.

Yanez has just a superb chin on him as well. Both fighters have incredible chins. Best fight of the night by a country mile. Yanez gets the split decision win, and Tony Weeks, good grief, gets the award for the worst scorecard of this event, maybe the worst scorecard of the year. And this was not even close. 3027 for Davy Grant is an all-time horrendous card, AK. You could certainly argue two and three.

I have no idea how he could give round one to Davy Grant. It's like literally, this might be the worst one round scorecard since Diego Sanchez Ross Pearson. I'm not exaggerating. Like, I have no idea how you could give that first round to Grant. He was in there, but he got rocked real bad. I don't know if 20 weeks made a mistake or something. This was, that made no sense.

I don't mind two and three. I still would have scored the fight for Yanez, but two and three, Graham was, you know, he was lining some bombs in there. He probably was getting hit way too much. I think that's just the way Davey Grant is now.

So, so, you know, you could definitely give it to Yanez, but, um, round one, that's clearly a Yanez round,

clear as day. I, that was real bad. It's a really bad card. That was bad. I actually went back, like, I went back,

I woke up, grabbed a drink of water last night, a little dry in the mouth, and I went back and watched the fight again. Okay. Adrian Yanez. I scored this initially 2928 for Yanaz. After the rewatch, I'm scoring at 3027 for Yannes.

The other way. 3027 for Yannes. Yanez has not only is his boxing incredible, but he's got that Tiago Moises sort of defense to him where it looks like he's getting hit, but he's really not getting hit. Like he took some shots. Davy cracked him a bunch of times in this fight,

but a lot of the times where the commentators are going crazy saying, oh, a big shot landed by Grant. He didn't land. Like, maybe grazed or hit the glove or hit the guard or Yannis just barely got out of the way. I mean, Yannes' defense is so good. I mean, he got hit. And it's hard not to get a hit against Davey Grant.

But a lot of the strikes that maybe Grant was getting credit for in first watch, I didn't really give him the second time around. But Grant is a gamer. Love the fight. Great effort from both fighters. Tony Weeks is just a terrible scorecard right there. but the right fighter won. At the end of the day, the right fighter won.

So Jan has told me before the fight, A.K., and I'll get to you. He wants to take some time off. I think he's deserved that. He wants to mourn the death of his coach, Saul-Siles. He didn't get the chance to really deal with that at this camp. And even when I was asking him about him when we talked, like very emotional. He's holding back tears.

He wanted to just let it out, but force himself to hold it in until after this fight. So he wants to take some time for himself, his team, etc. And then he wants to come back and face a top 15 guy or someone just outside the top 15s. So who is that guy for you? After, yes. I'm glad you mentioned the Salis-Lis thing because, I mean, man, and letting it out after the fight. He let it out immediately after the fight was over.

I mean, he just collapsed and just ball was bawling. And it's completely understandable. You're right. He was keeping it together as much as he could up until, again, the fight was over, business was taken care of. And then he could barely compose himself. And that was a great human moment for Yanez. I think there was a star-making fight. yes it's on ESPN Plus, not ESPN or even ESPN 2,

but it was a main card opener, excuse me, against his best opponent yet. He showed out, he won the fight, had this emotional outburst, and then also got to talk more about Salis following the fight. So that was really just great overall. And you mentioned, you compared him to Tiago Moises. I'll give you an even more, like, stronger comparison. Like, he reminds me sometimes of Anderson Silva.

I went there. I went there. I am calling. I don't know if anyone is coined to this. I am calling Adrian Yanis the algorithm. I can now call him Adrian the algorithm Janice because it takes him, depending who the opponent is,

anywhere from half a round to a round to get those lasers. Like we used to say with theirs. Get those laser sights on his opponent. And once he does, man, like you said, he's kind of slipping everything. He's just avoiding damage while staying in the striking range

that he wants to stay at. That's the mark of the elite strikers, you know? And you're right. Sometimes it does look to the next. could eye like they're getting hit or they're losing decisions but and he's not as theatrical as and so but that's august i mean he's definitely a little more a little more uh contained self-contained in the way he fights but watch i would tell people as you did to watch the fight again and watch how he watched the difference between like the first two minutes of the fight and then the next you know however

the remainder of the fight he just really has a way of bringing people out and you can see it in this last fight too um so he didn't get the knockout this time but he really did figure out a dangerous opponent So Adrian the algorithm, Yanez. What is next for him? I like the Sean O'Malley beef. I think I do think of Sean O'Malley beats Paiva. I saw some people saying win or lose. He should fight Sean O'Malley.

I think win. I think of Sean Amali wins. I think Yanez is next for him. I think if O'Malley loses Taipei at UFC 269, then Yanez kind of, in my eyes, would leapfrog him in the rankings. Maybe you give him someone higher. But no, I like the trash talk.

I like the social media interaction on Saturday. And I'm very happy to see that match. Yeah. A.K., as you've seen throughout the 68, this is the 69th episode of this program, in our line of work, there are times when people try to do our jobs for us, they throw up matchmaking ideas and oftentimes they're just really bad. Like the Andrea Lee versus Manor Fioro matchmaking idea is maybe on the top of that list from last week's show.

That might, in my opinion, be one of the worst matchmaking ideas of the year, if we're being honest after that win over Cynthia Calvio. And sometimes, AK, an idea will come along that just works. And the idea came from Mr. Sean O'Malley. He got this one right. He called for it in March. Of course, O'Malley, like you said, fighting Haliampaya, not an easy fight by any stretch. And I'm going to go against you, AK.

I think win or lose, it works because Janus can keep fighting these guys. And yeah, I know the UFC was like, you should call yourself Adrian the Apex, Janus, because you could fight all your fights in the apex. At some point, you got to throw this guy in front of fans. You've got to throw this dude in front of a crowd. And if you fights O'Malley... It's almost backhanded. I know.

But you're never getting out of the apex, buddy. Yeah, you win all the time of the apex. The apex just suits you so well. Like, if he fights Sean O'Malley, he's leaving the apex. He's fighting in front of a crowd. He's fighting on pay-per-view. He's getting an opening main card spot or at worst. He's getting a featured prelim on ESPN.

You've got to give this guy some spotlight. You got to let people see his story. You've got to put him out there in front of many people as people as possible because Janice is not only a great fighter he's a great dude like he's a great guy with a great story and people can learn more about Salis and why Saul hated the spotlight why Salis always hated when Adrian Yan has brought up his name at the end of every single interview he did and Saul hated it hated the spotlight and not a lot of people know that so get Adrian out there to tell those stories and fighting Sean O'Malley would allow him to tell those stories and allow people to get to know

him better. O'Malley, of course, throwing up March, he would be the question mark in this situation. I think Yannes would fight in March. I just don't know if O'Malley can bounce back in three months. I think he's been a little more active over the last year and a half or so, but O'Malley doesn't really bounce back incredibly well these days. At least he hasn't throughout his career. So I think this is the one. I expect O'Malley to win and I expect him to plant more seeds ahead of the fight after he wins. If he does win and stylistically, very, very much. fun fight and a good test for both guys. So I am all in on this fight, AK.

Yeah, and I think everybody is. I think, again, we always, like you said, we don't love, we don't love when people do our, try to do our jobs for us, Mike. But sometimes things, it's nice to see some people try to do what we do. You know, I respect it. Well done. Let's head to the wild card round, AK. I mean, there's, the prelims were not tremendous.

I didn't watch it. I know what happened. I read all the tremendous highlights on him. fighting.com, so I've caught up. I am aware of what happened on the prelims. But maybe you're going with the maid card, someone who competed on the main card, aka, and did not get their hand raised.

What's your wild card pick coming out of this monumental event this past Saturday? I'll be quick. I'll be quick. This was easy. Just rebook Terrence McKinney and Pereszeon, please. That's, uh, that we got, hopefully, and hopefully by the end of this year. So this, anyone who didn't see,

I know, they probably know, obviously the fight was canceled. It was because a cornerman, uh, touch a positive for COVID, uh, not Terence McKinney as far as we know. hopefully again he did not contract it himself and he can be back in there as soon as possible same as far as zium i mean keep him in las vegas pay for their hotel or whatever they're bored and uh whatever you need to do to keep him around we got an apex card two weeks you know we got a little break apex card December 4th and we got another apex card December 18th i had this whole narrative uh that i was working on mike with terence mcini being arguably the breakthrough fighter of 2021

he'll still probably make my list but he'd been like he would have been like a candidate he's done like a solid top three candidate with one more win in 2021. If he's got a big knockout, I mean, he might have been number one then in that case. So, but if he doesn't get another fight, that kind of hurts his argument, having just the one UFC appearance. But, yeah, and it's just a good matchup.

And if both guys are ready, I'm sure they'd love to have it rebooked sooner rather than later. So it was one of the fights we were most looking forward to, I think, the top three or four fights on Saturday's cards, so losing that one really hurt. Yeah, honestly, that affects Terrence McKinney. I think a lot of people want to see him, but I really, like, and my gut read on that fight was it really affects Foresse Eam. Because I picked Foresz to win that fight.

I thought I like McKinney a lot. I like his personality. I thought he went in there a little too confident, looking a little too far ahead, too much Patty Pimblet talk, all that stuff. And I need to see Terrence just get out of a first round and just see if he can, if he could tough it out and keep on going. and I think Fores was a tough matchup for him. So maybe this is good for Terrence. You can reset a little bit, maybe approach it differently. And Foresz was one of the more underrated guys on this entire card,

maybe undervalued on this entire card. So I hope they rebooked that soon. I'd like to see it for the end of the year. This one was an easy one for me. Two women who fought on this card, both got wins. Luana Piniero versus Lubi Gona is the fight to make. Just pair them up. And the reason is Pinero is incredible.

incredibly talented. I mean, I picked Sam Hughes to win the fight, and the reason I picked Sam Hughes to win the fight is because of how the fight played out, actually. She gave Sam Hughes a lot of chances to get back in that fight. But Hughes just didn't, if the Sam Hughes, who showed up to fight Lomo Lekbunmi showed up to fight Luana Pinero, Sam Hughes wins that fight on Saturday. Pinero is, she gets so tired, man. She gets so tired. If she doesn't put fighters away in the first round, she falls off. And Sam had chances to win that. that fight. She just couldn't get to that second level. And Lupi Gaudinez only has one level. It's like level 10. Take down, take down, take down. I'm never going to stop. Gonna keep coming after you. And loopie is not concerned about rankings. You're not concerned about titles, top 15, any of that. She just wants to fight as often as possible. But here's the caveat for the prestigious Otno points. This is a wild card for Pinero exclusively. Okay? This is not the Lupi Godinez pick. This is my. Luana Pinheiro pick because Godinez might just mess around AK and fight next week.

She might just fight in two weeks. But Penaero's next fight, whenever that is, she should fight Lupi Gaudinez. Ah, so you're saying even if Lupi doesn't fight her next, you want that point if this happens like in March or something. Yes, if Luana Pinnero, her next fight in the UFC is against Lupi Gaudinez, great. Lupi might just, we'll probably fight seven times before that happens. Did you see during the fight she actually said, like, I don't think I can fight next week, guys. Oh, it's so funny. It was so funny.

Well, she can't anyways, because there's no card next week. Because there's no card. But there was one. She definitely would have been thinking about it. Absolutely. So. Yeah, and too bad for Sam Hughes. I just want to shout out Sam Hughes. I think a talented fighter, is this not a weird bit of mismanagement that she took all her fights on short notice? And like, we know she can, we know she can fight. But for someone with only, she only had six pro fights going into the UFC, man, And her debut against Tisha Torres?

Your first UFC fight? And then Loma, yeah, like you said, she fought well, but it's tough matchup. And then again, just another short notice opportunity. I don't know. Part of me is hoping that she does go back to the regional scene. I imagine the UFC, I know they reward people for taking short-noticed fights. And especially someone who all her fights have been short-noticed, you would think they would keep her around. But what might be good for her is giving her sort of an unwritten promise that we were keeping an eye on you.

Maybe you go back to LFA. maybe go back to some other regionals and just get some more experience and and get some wins under your belt because right now again we just keep putting you in there with killers on less than full camps and I just don't think that's any way to build a career. So for Sam Hughes's sake, I still think she has a bright future. Just not the UFs. I think just take a break from the UFC for now. Yeah, completely agree. There's lots of good regional promotions, CFFC, LFA, CES. I mean, there's plenty to throw in. Fight for Invicta. Fight for Invicta.

It'd be great in Invicta. Invicta, indeed. Yeah. I mean, yeah, take a year and fight for the PFL. Who knows? Like, just do something. Get out there. Just tough matchups.

I don't blame her for taking this fight. I think it was the right call. I know she was supposed to fight. Who was she supposed to fight? She was supposed to fight Lupy before. And then she got COVID. She tested positive for COVID. And like her and almost a couple of her teammates and coaches tested positive for COVID.

So she was out. That's when Loopi got her first submission win against the replacement on short notice so yeah i'd like to say i think she's got something there she's she's tough but yeah go back to the regional scene season up a little bit and come back in you're probably gonna take a short notice fight your first time in but for your first fight back but then the rest you know establish yourself and get some actual fight so uh let's go to the meets of this program okay the holy crap the check the tapes any you know mike checks anything like that the floor is yours sir we have so many we have so many okay uh let's give out

some single ought no points to MMA heads who Mallory Martin versus, wait, hold on, this is the thing right, Mallory Martin and Cheyenne Valisma,

Valismas now? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm trying to interview Cheyenne. We've been talking back and forth, we're trying to work something out. I would love to get to the bottom of this. Yeah. But this fight became, was Mallory Martin stepping at,

someone stepping in as a replacement for someone else, right? This is a replacement. And is stepping in as a replacement. Cheyenne is for Monster at Ruiz. Oh, yeah, that's much like Keneho, yes. Okay. So anyway, yeah, but you know what? M.A. has take your point.

Martin versus possibly the former Cheyenne Bayes, of Cheyenne Belismos. I'm sure you guys are seeing the social media chitter-chatter and UFC.com changing her name. So anyway, well, that's a whole other issue. Nate Andrews also gets a point. Carol Hossa versus Sarah McMahon, March 26. Well done, sir.

And all the listeners were on top of Megamette and Kalaya versus Tiago Santos, which should be happening March 12th. So points all around for everyone. Take your points, please, enjoy. I want to shout out Lucas Schildbach. You'll be hearing more from Lucas later in the picks, but he had to check my Game of Thrones reference from last week. I said something about the Golden Company being the bankers of the Game of Thrones universe.

Grossly incorrect. I do apologize. The Golden Company are sell swords or mercenaries for you, not nerds out there, sell swords in Game of Thrones. I should have referred to the Bank of Bravo's or the Master of Coin. Either of those references would have been better, as Lucas pointed out. He says, I love the show. And yes, Mike, I already called Lucas a nerd on social media, so that's taken care of.

Don't worry about that. Thank you, Lucas. Take your correction on no points. It's a different kind of point. I don't know if we'll know with this. We do have other point parts sort of currency. So there's a go to Mike Check currency. So enjoy that, Lucas.

And I do want to shout out, oh, crap, which one should I read first? You know what? Let's read the bad one first, actually. Oh, boy. So, yeah, Mike, we got a mic check, buddy. We got a mic check. We got a mic check from Matt Bradbury. Oh, and I got to find, hold on.

I got a phone, how did I lose this? Matt Bradbury. I don't think he normally sends him picks. I don't think he sent him a pick this week. I think he just checked you. Oh, my gosh, why can't I find it? This is bad. Is it on Instagram?

Did he on send it? No, he definitely did not unsc- No, no, he definitely didn't. Oh, boy. He definitely did not unsend it. Oh, there it is. Okay, what's right? The Tom's doing.

All right, Mike. So this is pretty long. I'm not going to read this whole thing. This has something to do with last week's Chaos Williams. The D-Rod pick? Yes. What happened again? What was contentious?

What was the issue? D-Rod is a ranked guy who was ranked. He was offered a fight with Neil Mag. that he had to turn down because he was injured. So the response of the listeners was, let's bump him back 15 spots and fight Chaos Williams, which I think doesn't make a lot of sense right now in D.R. I should have just screenshot this for you.

It's way too long for me to read. I'll try to sum it up as much as they can. So he's just saying, he says Chaos Williams versus Neil Magni is the fight to make. Daniel Rodriguez won't be fighting Neil Magne. He'll be fighting Robly the Lawler first. This is very confusing. Maybe I will just screenshot

Why? Okay, I'll go on. He says, firstly, you think that Nico Price versus Nico Williams, uh, Chaos Williams, excuse me,

is the fight to make, claiming he is higher ranked, uh, than Chaos despite Nico being two, three and one in his last six, come on, Matt Bradbury, you know,

it's about a ponice, not actually, uh, correct. The record. Yes. Uh, and he says,

chaos has only one loss in his last six, controversial one, two, Michelle Panetta, which he shares with Nico Price. So despite them both being great fighters, he does give him praise. Uh,

any kind of win over Miguel Baezza, who had previously been ranked around 19 in the world. I don't know. He's not an NBA fighting ranking, so I don't know. It's far more impressive than anything Nico Price has done. Okay, I'll have to look and think about that. Neil Magny must be active. Daniel Rodriguez out until March.

I believe Chaos Williams is an active guy, granted an average less than DROD, but stated that he was looking to fight in the next two to three months, which would be ideal for Neil. Oh, Mike looks pissed already. Mike is a two-part message. Furthermore, I believe that chaos,

I guess I couldn't cut it down. Chaos is a top-fteen opponent more than Dan Rodriguez. goes over the records again. Oh my gosh. I think DROD is more suitable for top 30 Robbie Lawler, Screw Tim Means, versus Robb... Why am I reading this? Why am I reading this? Why am I reading this? I read it to the screen this message. This is terrible. I mean, this is a bad Mike Jack.

Children, children, children, if you're listening, earmuffs, I'm sorry, earmuffs. He says, screw Tim Means versus Robbie Lawler will come back to that. So Chaos and Magny's booked. He says if Chaos and Magny is booked, but this is fair. If Chaos and Magny is booked, I want one otno points. But I have a further offer. If Robbie Loller versus Tim means it's not book next. I want 10. Hell no, you're not getting 10. You'll just get the standard

one for chaos. You don't get points for predicting matchups that won't happen. Let's not start doing this. Okay. So I think we know who the anonymous VVY is on. No, no, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. No, no. Okay. We'll get to him. He was much to him. He was much them. We'll get to that much nicer this week. Okay. Let me just say this. All right. I'm not going to freak out. I'm not out a freakout. You shouldn't. Now, here's where we differ, okay? Because I, if the UFC,

if the UFC booked Chaos Williams versus Neil Magny, I would not have a huge problem with that. I never said that's like a bad, like, I don't even think I mentioned that as an option last week. What I'm saying is, like if you want to throw chaos in there and give a step up against a guy like Neil Magny,

sure, that's okay. But to have Daniel Rodriguez who just beat Kevin Lee, on short notice who, listen, I understand he's not a, he wasn't ranked at 170, but Kevin Lee is a big name. That win has a lot of weight, more weight than anyone K.S. Williams has. It's just the way that it is. So to have D-Rod have to turn down a Neil Magni fight because he's fought like 18 times in the last 18 months. I mean, the guy's fight, like the guy has so many fights. He broke his hand, head surgery, and he's not out until March. He says he could probably fight in

January, he'd probably be cleared by the end of December to start like training full hard again and then maybe fight in January or February. And because the win over Kevin Lee put him in the rankings and they offered him the Neil Magny fight in December, it's because he has an injury. You shouldn't bash him back him off to like the, to fight the 28, 29th, 30th ranked fighter. It just doesn't make any sense. Now if you do the Lawler fight, name value wise, sure, makes sense for D-Rod. But if it's not a guy like Robbie, then he should be fighting a top 15 guy 100%. Him fighting Chaos Williams doesn't make any sense.

Now, and let me also clarify, I didn't have a problem with the booking. I'm not even going to read it. I'm not reading it. It's too much. It's a novel. It's a novel. Yes. And yes, D-Rod versus Chaos is a fun fight.

It's just not a right now fight. You do that maybe later in 2022. A couple wins for both guys. They have no choice but to have their paths meet. Sure. But right now it makes, it doesn't make a lot of. a sense. So sorry, Matt. I mean, if they do chaos versus Magni, sure. I don't have an issue with that. I don't like Chaos versus D-Rod right now. I think D-Rod deserves better. And that's that.

That was my point. Okay. And Matt, listen, you're going to get a point if it is Chaos Magni. And you, I mean, you bet what we'll visit this conversation. So this, you may only get one, no point. You'll get a lot of bragging rights if you get this one right. So thank you, Matt, for the long message. I'm sorry. I tried to sum it up, but there was a lot going on. more from that later as well let's move to the positive mic first of all i want to shout out so there are people you know we put this on the podcast network and we also put it we make a post on the site and ever since we started doing the podcast only version every week there's people like oh my gosh can you write this up can you transcribe it can you transcribe it can you transcribe a 50 uh 90 minute podcast

yeah let's just yeah let's just run it through a transcribe machine just copy and paste that into a freaking post you jaggs um like i don't care i don't care people don't want to listen to it. And there's lots of great writers out there who do written versions of matchmaking posts. I would say listen to us and go read those. Some great matchmakers out there in the M.A. Mediosphere. So much love to all of them. Go read those. You can do that. And if you want to listen to the podcast, listen to a podcast too and vice versa. But for those people who, and again, this message obviously is only gay to who already listen. But we really appreciate that because I think you understand, I think anyone's listening to the show now understands why a written format just doesn't work.

You and I go back and forth. We do a lot of, we do these special segments. We do a lot of explaining why certain matchups work and why we're going with this matchup instead of this matchup. And in the written form, it would just be so clunky. And I think just not the way we do it and not fun to read. So thank you. I want to my special shout out to Chad Cherry, who's always commenting every week saying he listens to the show. And even telling other people why he listens to the show.

Chad, you don't need to do that. But we really appreciate it. That's great. And of course, your former nemesis already turned a new friend. BVY 5397, who was sort of recapping some of the stuff that went last week. I do have to read this message. It's very nice. First, I want to thank you for realize that you were not trolling them.

Obviously, you handled that whole thing really well. They said, you were gracious, and I accept your willingness to give me five my cat pocket-up points. It proves for the sandman takes place in May. You come to the bargaining table, so a lie. Anyway, his people will contact your people. And he also just said, they also said they love our opinions on why Bellator doesn't succeed. Thank you for not going along with the usual EKC light and typical UFC slander.

He says, I'm a good Robin to your Batman, Mike. He says we work well. This is why the show works. All the trolls who say they would rather do a printed version are missing out. You guys are amazing together. Thank you, BVY, 5397. I do want to read this as well. You're between the links show.

You just need to have Jet on every show. He says, you and him have an amazing chemistry. I guess talking to me. I stop listening. Oh, I don't want a certain name of people. Some people are not as fan. He's talking about the, uh, me and Jed did like a couple of Jed talks versions where it was just me and him before the tournament. And, uh, yeah, we, there's like just no, we just hit recording.

Oh, yes. Yeah. I said it's hard to find chemistry, but your episode before this tournament with Jed where both you just ripped was pure class. It's so much fun. More of that. Glad you returned a video. Uh, not glad that E.KC is now back being part of it. He brings out the worst in you.

Now this is me trolling as I really do not appreciate EKC. Liden. And he just takes away from your pure excellence. Keep up the good word, loyal listener, BVY. Thank you, VVY. So that was very nice. So that's all. There's peace once again to land up on now,

until, of course, we get to the reader. As I was just say, listener submissions. And once again, there will be war. All right. Sweet. Is that it? That is it. What a wonderful check with taste we had, yes.

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All right, do you want to go through the standard disclaimer before you start running this down? Yeah, again, really quick. Ambrosius, winners mostly. though, you know, we had some high profile losers this time. We'll go into those for sure. Scatogories rule, guys, you're definitely going to get a point. If you're like somehow the only person to pick the match up, you're going to get a point.

Careful guys with mistakes. Wrong weight class. They fought already. If they fought already and you want to rematch, you have to clarify it's a rematch. Someone could be injured, released. That came up a couple of times this week. Fighters can already be booked. I mean, that happens. I just made that mistake like two times in my own picks. Your pick might just be doo-doo. We don't want to read it. And I have a little role this week, Mike.

I honestly, I won't be reading any Cody Durdon picks. obviously was not a fan of his comments that he made telling Eric Key Lang go back to China where you came from if people don't understand why this is offensive I'm not going to explain it here you can feel some type of way about it

that's fine it's a really really raw thing to say he shouldn't have done it he has people dug into his past he has some very offensive tweets in his past you guys again can do that research yourself even if he didn't and his past was clean as a sheet this is a very dumb ignorant comment

so Mike I know you're gonna you haven't screen some of your picks. If there's Durdon picks and you read about, I don't care. I'm just saying I will not be mentioning Durdon picks. I will be mentioning people criticizing Durdon. I did see some very thoughtful messages, which I really appreciate. But other than that, I have no interest to match you up. Cody Durdon this week.

Fair enough. I will also do the same in support of my best friend, unless there's a, like, a tremendous reason why. I mean, I don't care. If it comes up, I'm not offended. But, yes, my reason. Yeah, my reason why you won't hear. Mike, if you do, I don't care.

But you just think why people won't hear it from me this week. Solidary, your best friend, solidarity. Let's get right after it. DJ Brandon. Janice versus Marlon Marius. Might be a slight push, but well earned from Yannas. Santos versus Angioli. Brady versus D. Rod.

Good win for Brady, but some holes in his game. Rodriguez helps legitimize him even more while the division clears up. I'm okay with that one. I don't like the prospect versus prospect, but I'm fine. Top 15 guys. Brady's a top 15 guy. I'm okay with that for D. The reason I don't like this problem.

I'm a big prospect versus prospect guy. The reason why I don't like this one is they're a cusp above. They're definitely a cusp above prospect at this point. They're not prospects, but they're not contenders yet. They're in that weird in between spot. And this is a spot where I feel like you need to keep those types of guys away. When you have those guys who are like four and oh, five and one, whatever may be in the UFC, and like they're so clearly headed towards like a top 15 ranking,

I'd rather they face someone in the top 15 to sort of get to take that spot rather than just like jostling with each other to get into there. You know what I mean? A great matchup, obviously, I'd be super pumped if it got made. But for their career purposes, kind of like to keep them apart. They're very similar, but very different, too, which would be a cool story to tell someday. D. Rod's been through it so much. Sean Brady's been, they're just like, they're similar guys with, like, similar love for the sport,

and they found it in different ways. But D.Rod just has been through hell, and Brady just, I mean, that, that filliness be a very cool story. and he likes Vietta versus Holly Holie Hattie Hattie Hannaia versus Cody Stamen, Yannes versus Sondi Dengue Dengue. Brady versus the winner of Neil Ponzanibio, another Tyler Santos versus Andrew Lee. Tristan Gordette getting the early shine. Tate versus the winner at Pennington Avila.

Sean Brady versus the winner of Bala Muhammad and Wonderboy makes sense to me. Brady mentioned this matchup during his post-fight scrum. He also likes Michael Kiesa versus the loser of Muhammad Wonderboy. Santos versus the winner of Caitlin Chiegigan versus Jennifer Maya and his wild card is rebook Pat Sabatini versus Gavin Tucker. I'm cool with that as well. Owen Carroll, endless cage grabs

and back of the head shots all night. Can we just fire every referee from the card? Okay. No referee. No referees going forward. No referees. Let's just go and we'll push a button. Be like America's got talent.

You can't miss calls if there are no referees. That's very good point. Shalian Nuer Dan Bianchi versus Chase Hooper. Okay. Lupi Godinez versus Luana Pinero, Rafa Garcia versus Yeros Medich, Sabatini Tucker, Yanas versus Marais, Hanayah versus Montel Jackson.

There you go, Talas Santos versus Valencia Shepchenko. Lame, and not a fan of it, but Valentina needs a fight, so whatever. You kind of glossed over, Mike. How do you feel about Yana? I assume that's Yonaz versus Marlon. Versus Marlon Maris.

Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Man. I like, I think it's fine. I think it's fine. Marlin, I still have in my top 10.

So I don't know. I just don't know if I want to throw Yonnes in the top 10 yet. And also, you know, and also they're very much going in opposite directions as well. Yeah, I mean, if you're going to throw him in there with a rank guy right now, Marlon's probably the guy to do it. Yeah, I agree. Or Frankie Edgar, one of those two. Don't you hear.

Stop it. Sean Brady versus Hamzaa Shamaif. I've asked Brady about that fight in the past. He likes the idea of it, but he's also a businessman and understands that that fight will be bigger down the road. Keep him apart. Yeah, VRGDR. Gerard Biagin. Tate versus Kuditskaya, sure.

Brady versus Vesente, Lucke, because he needs to have his striking tested. I think Luke is, I mean, I know what you're going to say. If you say Luke A is too far ahead, how can you match up Burns? But I think Luke Burns already fought for the belt. Luke A arguably could be fighting for the belt right now. I understand the reasoning. I'm not going to dump on it. But I think Luke A is probably a little too far out of that conversation right now.

Kiesa versus Li Jing Liang. Sure. Yeah, yeah, versus Nathaniel Wood. Kyeongho Kong versus Alejandro Perez. Yannes versus Timor Valleyev. That's a crazy fight. He believes Yonnas needs a little more seasoning. And he likes Davy Grant versus Trevin Jones because that's a good fight.

That's a fun fight. Poppy Bryant. Hey, Mike, thanks for pointing out my note about the Songy Dong versus Dominic Cruz fight. Love trying to make those mid-card fights to some good storylines. Wildcar pick. Sabatini versus Daniel Paneda. Sure. That all depends on when Panetta.

is back from his suspension. Yanez versus Shigashan, no matter. If he wins or loses his fight against Piva, Yaya versus Frankie. Honey Yaya versus Frankie. Nice step back for Frankie. Nice chance for Yaya to get his name out there. I also like this because I feel like Frankie won't retire off a loss.

And if he loses this, it won't be brutally like the last few. What do you think about that? Rani Yaya versus Frankie Edgar. This is the BJ Penn, Ryan Hall thinking, you know, where when he got messed up with Ryan, Hall, we're like, well, at least Ryan Hall's not going to, like, kill him with like a flying knee or something. So, yeah, I do, I do like, I mean, that did end horribly for BJ. But, you know, any, any fight has a risk of injury. So, you know, you can't, if you're going to put Edgar in there with someone, yes, I prefer kind of

a grappler, someone who's, who's comfortable, how do I like striking? He's just not an at least striker. He certainly enjoys the striking element of it. He just knows how his, how his bread is buttered. And once he gets in trouble, you know, he goes to it, which is great. So I do think, yeah, fun matchup for Edgar. I'm such a ranky Edgar fan. I'm in a weird place, Mike. I don't want him to retire, yet I also never want to see him to fight again. Is that possible? Is that a physical, is that like, is that a physical, like reality that can happen?

Does that make sense? I mean, maybe he can just be like a behind the scenes guy. Just put him on the broadcast. But I want to still think of him as an active fighter. Like I want to say, oh, yeah, Frankie's an active fighter. I mean, like, we keep making matchups for him, but he never actually fights. Yeah, just keep throwing me in there. Yeah, just throw them in there and then just pull the fight, like last minute.

And then insert. But then let the third person know that they're actually fighting, like so he can train and prepare and let them know, like, hey, listen, we're going to announce Frankie versus, you know, whoever against Adrianianas, but it's actually going to be you fighting Adrianianianas. And then a month before, we're going to just, we're going to say Frankie's out and then we're going to put you in. But you train because you're fighting. Yes, that's how it should be.

And gosh, that pick of him getting kicked in the face. to Zoom. You're wrong for that one, New York, Rick, if you're out there. You're wrong for that social media post, yeah. I know. Santos versus Lauren Murphy likes that. Brady versus the winner of Wonderboy Mohamed. Vieira versus Juliana Pena. In parentheses, yes, I know, fighting Nunes in three weeks, guess you got my prediction for that fight. John A. Ray 92. I would like to humbly ask that we ban Lupi Gaudens from all suggestions.

She's a badass. For her own good. Yadas versus the Marcel Rojo, Kyler Phillips, winner, Yaya versus Davy Grant, Santos versus Murphy, another Brady Thompson-Mahman winner, Tate versus Macy Chesson. You know what? Macy actually kind of deserves that fight after everything she's gone through. Yeah. I don't think Tate, obviously, if you're Tate, it just doesn't do a lot for you. But for Chesson, I mean, you should be campaigning for it, for sure. Harry Duoskin, Luana Penaura versus Pollyanna Viana because I rate Penae way higher than Sam Hughes.

Penero needs to have more experience with tough opponents so she can improve her cardio. I agree with that. Shailon versus Mike Grundy, fun grappling, sure. Cody Dernan versus Jepalina was the only good thing Durdon said on Saturday. Tim Elliott said he would fight him as well, but it feels like there would be a bit undeserved. Okay, I'm confident enough reading that one. Hey, we're talking about him. We said on the post-fight show that we did with Jose and Casey, like, it's a horrible

thing that Cody Durdon did, but boy, we're talking about Cody Durden more than we ever thought. And again, by the way, it's not encouraging what he said. This isn't, but we were saying like, man, if this, if this jerk's idea was to like get himself some publicity, and I don't think it was. I think he just doesn't think and it was just being ignorant. We were shocked. We're like, we're talking about Cody Durdon a lot. Yeah, I agree.

And we're like, regrettably. Lupita Gutinez versus Jin Ufry seems good to me, even though Loma beat Jin, because Lupita still needs more experience. Sure. Ralph Garcia versus Mason Jones. That's a crazy fight. Adrian Yannes versus Barra-Morayas is the evil option the UFC might go for, but Yannes versus Batskaree would be a good fight for a spot in the top 15.

That's a, wow. Denaa Batz-Gri versus Adrian Yannes. Holy cow, that's a crazy fight. I like DeNas has to be a bit ahead of him, right? Is he? Like, it's close. It's close. They're very close.

Wow. Interesting. I like the matchup. Yeah. Yeah, yeah versus Casey Kenney. Santos versus Jessica Andraj is the best fight I could think of because Chagian is booked. Vieira versus Hollyholm, I guess, who cares? Oh, okay. Interesting.

All right. Last week, we had a little discussion about Max underscore Block, AK. Yes. More clarification. Hello, Mike. I hope you're doing well this week. I'm not sure how I can convince AK I'm not Max Block photography and not trolling. I love Otno and have really tried to step up my picks game since my first submission in early May.

If it makes it easier for everyone, I can go with my middle name Brandon. So I'd be Max Brandon Block to put this to bed to bed once for all. How can obviously Max Block, the same Max Block that's messaged me, you have to find the other Max Block and take a picture with him and say, see, we're not the same guy. And then I want both you to post that picture on your respective social medias. Only then will I believe you. the easiest, most obvious solution. Come on, guys. Let's not overthink this.

Yeah, I think they're both from Canada, too. So... They are. Yes. There you go. There you go. There's your answer. Canada's very small. We're all in the same place. It's not hard to find each other guys. As for my special pick of the week, Pat Sabatini looked very impressive this weekend, capping off a very dominant decision over the game, Tucker Lutz, proving he can grapple in unique ways for 15 minutes at an insane pace. He's truly a problem at featherweight. Sabatini's yet to be tested on the feet in a serious capacity. And Mr. Heck, I know the man to step up to the plate to give Pat Sabatini the hard test he needs,

a man who will in turn receive a big test in this matchup. This man is also riding a three-fight UFC winning streak and has shown himself to be a massive threat in the division, a man who fans love to see, a man who's striking is ferocious, possessing one strike knockout power in almost any setting. Mike, I want to see Pat Sabatini fight with Lorone Freakin Murphy, Almost a clear-cut striker versus grappler matchup with high stakes as a win for either man would catapult them into a top 15 or maybe a lower tier top 10 fight. What say you, USA versus the UK. I think Murphy is ahead of him right now.

If they made it, especially the way you just presented it, I got no issue with it. I think Murphy is a, I think Murphy deserves a top 15 guy. If not a guy just outside of it. I mean, Murphy's fought some pretty good competition along the way. But if they made it, cool. It's a fun fight. Francesco, fan from Italy. Brady versus Burns.

Yahya versus Valleif. Yannes versus the loser of Dominic Cruz versus Pedro Munoz. Interesting. Wildcards. Kiesa versus Diaz, five rounds. I saw Nick or Nate? probably Nate Nixon 85 or

must be forget this is true you know who you know listen Kays it looks like a freaking 85er in there geez Louise I know he's massive I don't know how he does it Same interesting take Luana Pini versus Jessica Penae Garcia versus Trey Ogden

the UFC's newest lightweight after earning contract finally on looking for a fight this past weekend Godinez versus Pollyanna Viana And this is the last one, A.K., and then I'll turn it over to you. I wanted to save this for the end. We had a gentleman on Saturday submit his picks before the fight card.

He even said I'm playing a dangerous game if it all goes wrong. So let's judge it. He did pre-fight Otno picks, just feeling confident in how he thinks it's going to go out. And not bad here. So one, I mean, he didn't know. But this is actually his first time contributing to the show. and he did pre-fight Otno picks. Brady versus Wonderboy,

classic style clash. He's obviously aware that Wonderboy's fighting Ball Muhammad. Adrian Yannas versus Song Yudong. And then he said, and Les John O'Malley wants to get taught a lesson acknowledging O'Malley has a fight too. Don't want to upset anyone. This is pretty darn good.

He also went with Terrence McKinney versus Mike Davis, but of course that fight didn't happen. And then he went with Sabatini versus Herbert Burns or Ryan Hall. This is before the card. He sent the same. Saturday morning.

And those are his pre-fight otinopics. What's his person's name again? Toby Foster Taylor, who I believe might be a fighter himself. That's kind of scary. That's pretty good. The accuracy. And then he thanked us both for the show. But that, well done.

Well done. I'll give you props for that way. Even if they did Terrence McKinney, Mike Davis, like, next. I mean, I would feel bad for Fores I am, but that's still option. Like, that's an option. So good on you. to you, my friend. Damn, that's a nice one to end on.

All right. Okay, I'll see how. Well, consensus listener picks for Vietta, most people just said Holly Holieholm. Again, some of the names you mentioned, but the ones I saw the most, just Holly Home. Brady was all over the place. Lucke, Magnet, Thompson-Mohamed winner, any one of those. I think they're almost all equal neck and neck with how much people wanted those. Tala Santos versus Jessica Andrage is a popular pick.

Cody Hartman kind of lays this out. He says, this is too easy not to make. and then you do Lee versus Murphy on the same card. If Lee and Santos both win, then you put them in a title shot eliminator, and then you have Valentina Nunez 3, or if only one of them wins, either Lee or Santos,

then one of them gets a title shot. So thank you, Cody. That's actually very well thought of. The other options, very popular for Talasanto, Shikig and Maya winner, January 15th, and of course Lauren Murphy. Yaya versus Haoni Barcelos was a very popular pick,

and I'm glad, because now I get to say, hashtag honey on howony so it needs a little work but anyway and the most popular pick I saw for Adrian Yanez was Casey Kinney do I go on Casey Kenney

yeah that's fine yeah Kenny's got a name he's fought some good guys so I mean if you're going to go outside the top 15 yeah that's it's not a bad pick on email

Jay Donaggie are the Poconos picker he said before he started off his email by saying, hmm, decisions, decisions, decisions. Get it? Get it? Hey-oh! Pun intended.

And a few good picks. I really liked Sabatini versus Sean Wood. I'm down for that. Going to Instagram. Now, just one email for me. I'm going to Instagram now. Let's go to one of our first timers, Jonathan Stewart, who I know introduced himself on one of our pre-fight shows.

So Jonathan, good to hear from you in Otno. Long-time listener, first-time DMer. Only did four predictions because, please ask Mike to take it easy on me. Vianna versus Holly Home, Brady versus the Wonderboy, Bala-Moham-Moham-Mohamed winner, Talas Santos Lauren Murphy,

Yanez versus O'Malley Paiva, loser. Thank you for reading this, and I hope you guys have a great day. So just a little positive. Thanks, Sean. Thanks for chiming it. I got nothing bad to say.

I would hope not. Michael Confrey, I made a note to read, oh, I asked you about this, Janez versus Marlon Monash. So, sure, I like it. the reasoning. They said the back of the Vantamate Top 15 is full of younger guys trying to make their way up.

Marlon is desperate for a win. He's desperate, but needs one. So the stakes would be very high for both men. I agree, Michael. I think that's pretty good reasoning. DeWizzle 97. There's just a comment I wanted to read from them. They said, don't forget to mention Mike benching the 100s was impressive. Was that, what's that? Oh, yes, yes. I posted a video on Instagram of me doing inclined dumbbell presses.

I didn't miss this. With 100 pound dumbbells. It's the first time I've ever done it. I only use my personal Instagram for, no, really. I actually don't look. I don't not keep up with you guys' lives. I'm sorry.

Yeah, I'm pretty much the same way, but I was, I filmed it and I was like, I don't want to put it on Twitter. I'll just throw it on Instagram. Watch that video when I get the chance. Well done. Well done.

Way to be swole. Way to get small, Mike, but I'd even your props. And then we have M. Mayha's Matt, Brad, coming in, of course, always with a fire pick. So M. Mayhead's coming in with just saying Santos, Valentina Shepchenko.

I didn't see a lot of that. I didn't see a lot of people calling for her to get the title shot. I guess they do see a scenario where she needs one more win, but M. Mayhead's saying, just go for it. Sabatini versus Swanson Elkins' winner. That's going down December 18th.

Rafa Garcia versus Austin Hubbard, Lupi versus Arianei Carnalosi, Niren Bique versus T.J. Laramie, and Pinero versus Luke Bunmi. So that's not a terrible idea. and Matt Bradbury had Penaero versus Vinyana, Pollyanna Vianna,

Nerdin BK versus Alan Patrick, Codynejo, that would be so much fun, and Rapha Garcia versus Christos Gigos. All right, all right. Back to the Twitter machine. Everyone loves the tweets, and my goodness, you guys always have something to say. I shouted out Lucas earlier.

He actually sent him picks for the first time, but thank you, Lucas. He got the Welcome to the Party Pal gift. He calls, he said, this is an, oh my gosh, monkeys from your neck of the woods. He says, nerd Lucas from Massachusetts here. Got you guys, you, you Massachusetts nuts. Decided to give this a shot, felt like the only fair thing after fact-checking you last week.

Thank you, Lucas, and hope on picks aren't too terrible. Ketland, Valletta, Holly Holie Homme, Misha Tabor Kellington, too. Brady, Magny, Kieza Shavkat Rachmanov. Oof. I thought, I thought. about that one. I did, I did think about that one. Both are managed by the same

manager, which could make things interesting. They're both under the same management umbrella. Did not know that. So I guess like if I guess if the price is right, sure. Sure. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think Kiyosu would love that fight. He mentions Rachmanov by name. I don't know if that was just to like put the fellow

you know, management umbrellaed fighter over which wouldn't be bad. But I mean, Kiyazzo, has dropped the name, so would not shock me to see. I'm in. I'm in. You hear that? Did you hear that? Tristan Gordette, did you hear that? There you go. I do wonder if Keaza will sort of accept that he is in a, at least for now.

You can fight your way out of it, but it is for now kind of in a gatekeeper, high-level gatekeeper role. It's a hard thing for fighter to accept, but he's very cerebral, very honest guy. Obviously, he's a great analyst. I think he's one of really underrated as an analyst when he's doing a, you know, ESPN stuff or UFC, I say UFC shows. So he's a thoughtful guy. He probably knows where he stands and he would take that fight.

But I think you're right. The money would have to be right. Lucas is calling for Talas Santos to get the Shetchenko matchup. Joanne Wood. Andrea Lee, too. The first fight was a split decision. It was a while ago. Okay, yeah, maybe. I don't know. I think Andrew Lee again sort of exactly down the road. She's passed her right now, unfortunately. Yannes, Casey Kenney, Pat Sabatini, Billy Quarantillo. And then Lucas just wants to say, thanks for all the amazing content.

you and Mike in M.A. fighting as a whole are a vital part of my MMA fan experience. I shouldn't have read that one so early. I'm getting emotional now. Chris at Dragon Slayer 2. Janez versus Alejandro Perez. I like it. At AO, it's dad.

I did want to read what they had to say about the Durdon situation. First, Brady versus Ponson of Yille winner, U.C. 29. I like that. He said Darden versus himself. He said, you lose fans immediately after winning a fight. He says, I hate when someone apologized for saying or doing something disrespectful and then say, I'm sorry if I offended anyone. That's right.

For anyone who missed it, Durden did tweet out a classic non-apology afterwards. A.O. His dad goes on to say, you're apologizing because you're aware that people are offended, no contingency needed. Just be sorry and be better. Thank you. Yes, I think that's the right sentiment to have here. Braden O'Neill sent in a bunch of picks. We mentioned before us. I'm just going to gloss over here.

Rafa Garcia versus the Levitt Sales winner, December 18th. That's pretty cool. And Norton VK. versus Tristan Connolly. Yeah, you know, let's give some shine at these prelim guys. Like I said, they were the most exciting fights, but we did have some winners on there. I like to all making matchups for them. Hayes B'3rd. I mean, again, Tate v. Pennington-Avolo winner, December 18th.

Brady versus Burns, if he loses to Hazma, if that fight happens. Or, as you said, Mike, that fight is not completed yet. You know, it could just be him and Burns. re-books, Zabatini Tucker. Nairden BK versus T.J. Brown. Yeah, I'd like to see T.J. Brown fight again. Sure. Scott McCraight, very loyal

MMA fighting show watcher and now Otno contributor. Just said they'd love to see Keiza versus Shemaya, but don't think it will happen. I agree. I don't think that is what's next for Shemaya, but it also is a fight. I'd like to see at some point, but I don't know. I don't know. I actually think that,

makes perfect sense, too. Like, if it's not, if, how they haven't booked him with Neil Magni yet is beyond me. Like, what, what else does Neil Magny need to do? Just give the guy the fight. For God's sake, this is like exactly what you're looking for. And if they don't,

which I still don't understand, it blows my mind at this point. Kiasa, Kiyos is a good choice. Kias is a great choice. But I think Shamiah will probably want to get in there again before Kiyasa wants to get in there again. Mm-hmm. Terrence Leverett, I like, he says,

Lupi versus Overkill Angela Hill, regardless if she wins her next fight, she's fighting Amanda Limosh, December 18th, for the title of 115 Cowboy. Yes, these two will fight at the drop of a hat. We talked about seven-fight series last week, Mike. They should do a seven-fight series next time the U.C. has a ten-card stretch. Just pick seven fights in there and seven cards in there

and just throw Lupi and Angela Hill on there. And Tate dropped to 125. Apparently she has mentioned it. Do you think that's possible? I don't know, man. She's in great shape right now. I don't know if I want to see her cut 10 more pounds. But if she wants to do it, cool.

I mean, but I would rather not see that. Yeah. Cody Hartman throwing out Tate Jasson and Yaya versus Nathaniel Wood. Ooh, that'd be a fun one. Timmy Oshow wants to say, oh, I just wanted to congratulate. They said they had to take, they were contributors. fighting before and they said they took a few weeks off for their CPA exam but they're back and ready to hunt for odd no points so good luck with that i hope i hope it went well to me sabatini

versus guadignis versus felice herrick and he just kind of wants to know where felice harrig is we talk about all the time she's making good money with whatever her side gigs she's got going on recovering from a lot you know whatever injuries she's accumulated over a pretty long career she's in no rush to get back if she never fought again i wouldn't be surprised she's doing very well for her as far as we can tell. Yeah, knee, I believe, torn ACL. So she has been rehabbing it and trying to get back. No rush. But yeah, no super hard rush. If she, if she can afford not to rush back, Felice Harrogh. We say this all the time when we mention her. More power to you. You just keep doing you. Ryan Doherty, Brady versus Shemaya, Stephen Brighter, Yaya versus the Shore,

Umar and Ramagamette loser, which is rumored for March 19th. From what I'm told, by the way, from what I'm told, and what we have been told. Deco. Very premature. One side was a hard no, and the other side was very early, hasn't even been officially offered yet. So how the report came out, I don't really know.

You didn't see it in an NBA fighting, it ain't official, and we're just saying. Exactly. And he's just a Biaeta versus Lad. Oh, I don't know. I mean, why not? Ladd, I think, was actually higher ranked than her in the UFC ranking.

before her in. She was like three. She was like number three or something, right? Yep. That's crazy. Yeah, you know what, Stephen? That's not crazy. So, Stephen, thank you for that suggestion.

Ain't no expert coming in with, what's some ones I like here? Yannes versus Julio Arcei. Maybe you're a bit ahead of him. Sabatini versus Lando Vanata. That's fine. He just wants me to pronounce this one. Hold on one second. I got to warm up.

Shailan Nurden Bke versus Melsik Bagdasarian. And he just wants to set a record for like the most letters in the last name matchup. I got to check with Susie Cousie Cousie on Twitter, I think, what the Scrabble score for that fight would be, I imagine, would probably set a record. Marcus McGehy calls us the

phenomeno edition of On to the next one. Ketland Baer versus Pennington Obila winner. A lot of people kind of interchangeably, I guess they're trying to say this fight didn't do much. It didn't push Veeta up that much and it didn't knock tape down that much. Because a lot of them were sending in the same matchups

for either fighter. Did you notice that? Yeah, I mean, it was just a fight. Like, it was just a fight. Like, there were stakes there for Misha Tate. If she won, they were to thrown her into a title fight because she's a name. And then for Viera, she's just going in there with easy, breezy pressure, and she wins, doesn't really do much for her. It was the Misha Tate story either way. So, Viera was just going in there to fight and getting more money than she would have fighting a three-round fight against anybody else.

Right. Godinez versus Viana. I like this matchup. And Mark is saying, and that's either Martin or Cheyenne pulls out of their fight, in which case, Lupu will definitely fill in for that one.

Yeah, probably. It's so predictable at this point. This is like we were saying about Kevin Holland last year. It's like same thing. Every time I fight, there's a middleweight fight coming up, we're just like,

yeah, you mean, you probably feel Kevin Holland in there. Pinero versus Penne. Just rebooked that one. Yeah, that'd be fine. Four Corner Sports NY is with me on Tate versus is Lad. They say, I understand this can be a head scratcher, but Lad is coming off two losses

against GDR and Dumont. I can see the UFC giving Ladd a big name like Tate, with Tate's big name still, although she lost to Vienna, three rounds, we're close. She still has value to the company, and I don't see the UFC putting her against women who are in the up and coming that will be favorites over her, like race Chiasan or Julie. Okay, so he doesn't, so Marcus doesn't think that she will have to face the Chiasan, Avila, that they'll keep her sort of in that top 10 established range, which I think is very possible. Joe Joe Wood versus Casey O'Neill

if she beats Roxanne Montefarii February 12th, the little Scotswoman on Scotswoman in violence there. And Grant versus Miles Johns if he beats Cassoneda on February 5th. Oh, that would be a great fight. So many great fights for David Grant. I don't care if he loses five straight fights. You keep David Grant at the payroll.

Yep, go see. Agreed. Just winding down here. Oh, someone has a question. Barry O'Reilly has a question, Michael. Which you'd probably know better than I have. I've spoken to Brady like one time. I think you've interviewed him a few more times than I have.

He wants to know. Oh, let me read some of the picks first. Pinieroa versus Verna Jandrova, Luana 2 and O, including the DQ, Verna 3 and 3. So it's a big step up, but it would show where she's at and give Virona a decent comeback win if she can beat Luana Pinero. I agree with that. That's good, very good matchmaking.

Godinez versus Marata. That's what I would have gone with, actually, if I picked a fight for Lubby. Raphaa Garcia versus David Onama recently debuted Sabatini versus Tukagob Oh, good matchup And let's get to this question here Oh no, sorry, they also suggested Diaz Sean Brady versus Nate Diaz

Barry says they want to make Diaz versus Shemaya But that doesn't happen, why not put Diaz's last fight Against another unbeaten prospect Who would get a huge boost in popularity if he wins Yeah, sure, yeah, yeah I would, if I'm Nate Diaz I want no part of that match What was it quite?

Yeah, I mean, look, Diaz had, you need the Diaz tweet. You need the Diaz tweet. And we didn't get it. Like, Diaz will, like, after Luke A's win, Diaz was, like, right out there. And how that fight wasn't made is insane to me, too. I mean, come on. They're giving it to you. They're handing it to you.

Oh, silly UFC sometimes. The question is, and I think, I actually said, even without doing much research, probably the answer is yes. Do you know if Sean Brady has actually? Irish roots. Barry of course says he says he's Irishman he has the Irish flag in his Instagram bio and he says as a proud Irishman I would love if we could claim him as ours I mean Sean Brady from yeah I would I would think so he's a Philly Irish kid there's no I mean there's no doubt about it it's definitely Irish so there you may you may claim him you may claim

him Dustin getco I just want to shout out I think Brady versus Kevin Lee sort of rebooked that one that kind of fell through I'm into that still I still like that one the moment is fast? Yeah, I just, D-Rod stole the shine. Whatever, like, lingering shit. I mean, Kevin still, and he just, he just goes on the May hour or do an interview and he gets the shine back

because Kevin's still like a great, a big, huge, polarizing personality. Yeah. But, man, Kevin Lee's got to win a fight. Like, he's got to win a fight and throw him in there with Brady. He's not going to beat John Brady. He's not. He's not that guy.

He's not going to beat John Brady. He's not that guy. He's not that guy. Our man in Denmark, tilt creating Jedson. And I like Janes versus Dana, which we mentioned before. And I just wanted to read his intro. He said, I don't have any original ideas, but I want my points. So here goes.

And then he threw a bunch of matchups out there. Guys, I worry that you guys are just doing this for the points. That's not what Ott knows about, all right? You should want to, you should just enjoy doing this for fun. And then the points are a bonus. So I know we talk about the points a lot. We are responsible for this, Mike. I do worry.

We've somewhat damaged the purity of onto the next one. with our new point, with our points economy. A little bit, but I mean, yeah, it should, don't, you don't say it. Like, if you're looking at it that way, and maybe there's some truth to that, you don't just flat out say it. Now you're going to make us question everything we've done. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's, come on. The spreadsheet might just go away.

I'm thinking about it. No, no, don't. Locktogons put a lot of work. Yeah, I know. We can't take it away now. We've told him many times, please don't. And then Nate Andrews just making it into the wires. This is the last one I'll read here.

Vietta-Al-Dana-Tadl Eliminator. I don't know if you remember that they already fought, and Vera got smashed. It was a while ago, though. I guess it's not the worst idea, but I don't think Aldana feels like she would have to take that fight again.

Brady versus the Neil Ponsenebio winner, Yanez versus Song-Yadong. The only fight that makes sense to me, utter madness. And I want to read what they have to say about the Durden situation. Durdin versus appropriate usage of the fighter's code of conduct.

Yeah, that's a thing the UFC cares about. Oh, yeah. Nate says, I have no time or energy for that. crap if the UFC is already already going to scrub the comments from ESPN Plus and fight past then they know it's bad oh I didn't know they were doing that again I don't have we don't have us being we don't have USPN Plus in Canada just because MMA doesn't mean we should hold these athletes to lower standards when it comes to what they say it's

time for the UFC to man up and grow up it's not 2005 anymore Dana you can't just spew the F word every nine seconds and it goes away because clown dudes think it's funny grow the hell up and enforce your damn code of conduct between coveting things ass, Strickland, the Javida Basharat situation, even outside the UFC with Michael Graves and all the other fighters that have said disgusting stuff, I am sick of

fans and the UFC not holding MMA athletes accountable the way they need to be. Sorry for the rant, but damn, AK, it just pisses me off. So Nate Andrews, like I said, I don't want to comment on the situation much further. I think you've said quite

a bit there. Did Dana White speak with the media last night? He did not. It was not available. Okay. Yeah. Here, see, but what's interesting about this entire, I mean, it's nothing interesting about it. Cody Dernan crossed some lines, and he has crossed many lines in the past. Yeah, yeah.

However, this could be a prime opportunity for the UFC to come out. Just because of where Cody is on the roster. Like, nobody cares about him. Yeah, if Connor says it, no one, yeah. If Connor says it, it's going to fly, it's just going to fly away. John Jones does anything flies away. Cody Dernan, this is your opportunity. When you're asked all these questions, why is John Jones still on the roster?

Why is this? Well, we released Cody Durdon. He said some bad things and we let him go. Let's how we handle that situation. Yeah. So, I mean, I honestly think he's in jeopardy, man. I honestly think he's in jeopardy. Like I know Dana likes to say, we've 700 savages.

We can't control them all. These guys are fighters. He says the dumbest things when it comes to that stuff. But yeah, you don't come out and say that. You just don't come out and say that. It's not smart. And if you do come out and admit that you said it and just admit that you said something stupid, like don't just say like if I offended.

And I agree. If I offended anybody is ridiculous. That change the if to that. Like I have a whole, like a wholehearted apology when you say that. You don't go to the post-fight press conference and double down because there's no doubt in my mind that you didn't check your phone and search yourself. Guarantee you did. So this could be the opportunity for the UFC to maybe even the playing ground from a public relation standpoint.

But we'll see. Definitely. We'll see if this is a big deal or a week from now with a no UFC fights, it's just completely forgotten because that's what happened to. I don't know.

But thank you guys. Thank you, everyone, for all the picks. Please keep sending those and all your love and support to us on social media at Alexander K. Lee on Twitter at Alexander KK.K. Lee on Instagram

and Alex dot Lee at espionation.com and you guys know where to reach Mike by now. Okay. No show next week. No show next week. What do we do? We just don't have a show next week. That's weird.

We just don't have a show next week. Don't worry. We'll make up for it at the end of the year because we're going to have a couple weeks without shows. And you know what Akela and I like to do. We like to do some different things. Talk about awards. Our prediction show, which guard incredible stuff. Now I have to go back and listen to the 21, 21 prediction show.

That was, we just threw it all these insane predictions for the year that was to come. We'll see how we stacked up. And then we'll ask similar questions for 2022. So we'll make up for it. but it is Thanksgiving weekend in the United States. So there will be no Otno next week. But the week after, there will be an Otno because the UFC will be back with UFC Vegas 44 with a great main event.

Rob Fond. This is a great card. Yeah, Rob Fonfant versus Jose Aldo. Raphael Fizzis versus Brad Riddell in the co-main event. Great fight. Matt Brown versus Brian Barbarina. Brandon Allen versus Roman DeLizze. Just announced.

Confirm this moments ago, as a matter of fact. William Knight versus Alonzo Menefield will take place on this card Claudio Pueyes versus Chris Gritzmocker Jimmy Crute versus Jamal Hill Zalgus Zuma Gula versus Manel Cap, Lewis Smolka the Casey Leiden Special right there

That's a Casey Liden Special Louis Smolka versus Vince Morales Jake Matthews versus Jeremiah Wells after that incredible debut he had The Matt Wells matchup The Matt Wells matchup Mets Clay Gwita versus Leo Santos Alex Maroto versus Mickey Gaw

Maki Pitolo versus Dusko Todorovich. Really like that matchmaking. Mallory Martin versus Cheyenne Vlysmus or Cheyenne Bays. And Philippe... Yes, Mallory versus Cheyenne. And then Philippe Lins takes on the debuting contender series contract earning Azamatt Merzacconoff, who is a savage. I like... That's going to be an interesting fight.

That's a good card. M.A. Gods. I complain usually about... cards that are too long, but keep this one together. These are really good ones. These are really good fights. And from what I understand, this is going to be your typical Saturday night of fights. I believe prelims are at 7 p.m. Eastern, which means the main card is at 10 p.m. Eastern.

So we've been spoiled with some afternoon cards. Then we have two full weeks, two straight weeks of pay-per-view-style start times, AK. How are we feeling about this? Winter is come. Winter is come. But we'll be back next week to talk all about those great matchups and a lot more as we get you ready. That'll be the Go Home show for the final pay-per-view event of the year, UFC 269, which is shaping up 3-1 heck of the time. Until then, for AK, I am Mike Eck.

Always remember, don't say stupid stuff. And don't take the matchmaking stuff we do on the show too seriously. M.A. is supposed to be fun. We'll be back in two weeks with more fun right here. And on to the next one. the podcast. Have a happy Thanksgiving if you're celebrating this coming week.