MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 44

Episode Date: December 5, 2021

The timeless Jose Aldo has made a compelling case to fight for the bantamweight title once again following his big win over Rob Font in the main event of UFC Vegas 44. While a title shot in his next fight may be unlikely, a title eliminator fight with T.J. Dillashaw seems to be the next logical step in the eyes of many. What happens if Dillashaw chooses to decline that fight in hopes to get a title shot against the winner of the probable championship rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan? That topic is discussed, along with what could next for Font after a tremendous effort in defeat, Rafael Fiziev, Jamahal Hill, Clay Guida, Chris Curtis, Alex Morono, and more following Saturday's event at the UFC APEX with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. And welcome back to a brand new edition of On to the next one. We missed all of you. Hope you enjoyed your holiday break. If you celebrated Thanksgiving, the UFC return to action this past Saturday with UFC Vegas 44, the second to last fight night card of 2021, the go-home card for the final pay-per-view of the year, UFC 269. And this one delivered.

It was a lot of fun, capped off by a big one at 135. pounds. So we're dusting off the matchmaking books, dusting off the matchmaking microphones and talking the what's next for the notable names coming out of Saturday's card. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for listening to the show as always. And joining me, per usual, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, one half of the final semifinals matchup in the BTL championship tournament going down this coming week. And of course, he's my best friend as well, Mr. Alexander Kaylee. I missed you, buddy. I feel like we haven't talked in a while in a podcast setting.

My best friend, all the comments on the post-fight show last night were, where's Mike? Where's Mike Heck? It showed me so much better with Mike Heck. All I see is four soy boys and know Mike Heck. And it's like, okay. I'm glad you missed Mike. You don't have to put it that way. No, hey, Prince of positivity, easy to be like that after Saturday's show.

Goodness me, that main card was fine. The freelance weren't bad either. I mean, they looked like they were a little forgettable. But they had their moments too. And it's, yeah, man, man, I was going to say, what a way to end the year? But we do have two more, at 269 next week. I know we'll talk more at the end of the show. But this was a really well-put-together card on paper.

I think if I had done a gymnastics score, it would have definitely been in the nine range. But I would have been like, it's probably going to fall short of nine. I don't think they can all deliver. And, man, that main-cary. And we're just going by main card. That's like, that's easily, I think, one of the three best main cards of the year. Yeah, I mean, I can't argue with that. And Bellator had a great event.

This might have been the most entertaining weekend of M&A of the year. It's definitely in the top three or four, maybe five at the worst, right? Like storyline-wise, finish-wise, what came out of it, the what's next and stuff? Like, this might have been the more entertaining weekend of the year. Three insane comebacks. When Spike Carlisle won his fight, I was like, oh, that's the comeback of the year. you know that well that's you know dust your hands up that's it and literally like hours later Sergio Pettus definitely locks it in and uh people want to make a case for uh Clay

Guida they certainly can't as well but uh yeah and Josh Hill got a finish uh that's how crazy Josh Hill very good fighter never finishes anybody he got it he got it he got a standing uh I don't know man yeah I don't know what was going on this weekend but December is off to it just an insane start I mean I'll South the gaunt has been thrown down to whatever to the remaining cards at U.S. 269 and Louis Daucus, they got to bring it because this one was, this was a special card. Yeah. There's just been a trend of violence in MMA that is maybe unlike anything we've seen. Maybe in the last five years, it's just been unbelievable. So the bars, 2022 could be a lot of fun. But let's get right into this thing, aka, let's talk about Jose Aldo,

who goes through an incredible war with Rob Font. This guy is a monster. He's an all-time great. And if he's not a Mount Rushmore fighter for anybody listening right now, I don't know, like, I don't know what to tell you. I think you need to go back, go by UFC Fight Pass, go back into the ESPN Plus archives, and just watch all of what Jose Aldo did to get to this point. He had some stumbles at 45, goes to 35, has the two losses. One was kind of questionable. But what he's done over these last three fights is nothing short of incredible.

He gets it done. It gets a really good fighter and Rob Fon, who proves. that he is the top five guy in this division. This is as easy as it gets from a matchmaking perspective. Font as well. And we'll get to that in a moment. But kick us off, wax poetically about the great Jose Aldo. You know, I'm just looking at his record again.

This is also, by the way, kudos to the UFC. Kudos to, of course, the great Joseoaldo for getting it done and being who he is and just being magnificent. This is very good matchmaking from the UFC. I'm looking at Marlon. So his last three ends, Marlon Vera, Pedro Munoz, and Rob Fonn. Marlon Vera, a very good fighter, and that fight could have been either a boost for, this was December 2020, so December of last year. That either could have been a boost for Marlon Vera.

You know, he's always been looking for that top five, top 10 win, which he eventually later got against Frankie Edgar. But, I mean, he had the chance last December. So that was very smart matchmaking. Aldo was coming off the two losses. One of them a title fight loss, so no shame there. One of them a very, very close split decision loss to Marlon Medeis, which a lot of people thought he won. So no shame there. So the Marlon Vera booking was perfect.

Then you got Pedro Munoz, another guy. I perennial top 10 contender, around Aldo's age. And then Rob Font, another guy around all those age, another guy who win or lose, the UFC gains something. I don't think the loser loses too much. So way to go matchmakers.

I think you have booked this section of Jose Aldo's career so, so well. And then all they have to do, again, is let the man do the rest of the work, and boy, he did it in the cage. And credit to Rob Fott, I know, again, we'll do a pick for him in a second. Credit to him.

There's a lot of moments he could have quit, You know, I'll get this New England, Boston, Massachusetts is strong, whatever you guys want to call it. He was knocked down legitimately at least a couple of times, rocked probably in every round. And the last round could have given up a choke. He's pretty hurt. He's pretty hurt. He and his team probably had to know he was very likely going to lose a decision, barring a Hail Mary. Once all those on the ground, about to choke him out, I'm telling you a lot of fighters, what he's been like, I'm out.

I'm losing decision anyway. Why am I going to this extra 90 seconds, two minutes of beating what's the other? you know, but this guy, he looked great in the parts of the first round and just got beat by one of the crates of all time. There's no shame in it. I don't think Fons stock gets hurt too much. Although, I love the Dillashaw callout. I'm going to go with that.

Our pal Jose Young, so I'll refer to probably a bunch of times this episode. Made the good point that the timeline, it's going to be tough to match up. We don't know when Dillashaw comes back. Although may want to somehow get into a Peotryon title defense, that that has to happen because Alzumain Sterling is also out of the picture. but if Aldo can wait and if Dillishaw's injury is nothing too serious hopefully we can see them fights

sometime in the summer but I think it has to happen I think Aldo Dillishah is just such a money matchup I'd love to see it as a five round fight night main event probably of course you have to throw it on pay-per-view but let's do this new thing where we make five rounders of non-title non-main events on paper views. This does do it

this has to be a five-round fight I see where Jose's coming from I will say I think the timing does match up pretty well because Aldo's not the most active guy in the world. So Dillishaw, I could see, you know, maybe comes back in April, May, Juneish from the injury, because he says it's not like incredibly serious, but something that's going to take a little time. And for a guy like Galdow, that's kind of lines up perfectly with the activity he normally presents. It's a clear cut T.J. Dillishaw pick here,

but let me just throw this out there, just to play devil's advocate for Jose, because I kind of disagree with them here. I don't think the UFC's leash on T.J. Dillish of shot is going to be very long. If for some reason, they offer TJ this fight and he's ready to go and he just says, no, I'm sitting around waiting for a title shot. You don't let him. You just let, you just say, fine, bye dude. You let Aldo skip the line and he fights the winner of Sterling Jan too. I don't care that Aldo and Jan fought last summer and I don't care that Jan finished Jose Aldo in the fifth round. And if a lot of people just go and look at that fifth round and how bad it was and the referee probably could have stopped it sooner.

A lot of people forget what the first half of that fight was like. Jose Aldo was very competitive, and that was only a second fight at 135. I think the fight, I would still slightly lean Yan, but I think if they fought again, it would be a completely different fight. I don't care. What happened in the first one? I will watch it again and again and again. And if Sterling beats Piotr-Yon, this is easy matchmaking.

It's a fresh matchup in so many different ways. it's yaw from dillashah if dillashah says no Dillishaw gets pushed to the side and this division moves forward it is already log jammed enough we cannot let Tj Dillishaw hold it up anymore

if he doesn't want to fight Josealdo step aside bro we're going to keep this thing moving so it's Dillashah or Aldo gets the winner of the title fight that's it yeah I mentioned why this was such great matchmaking because look even if funted one we'd be having the same conversation and the UFC would have the same

additional leverage they would say as soon as they book this They probably maybe sent a little winky emoji to TJ like, you know, we're not saying, we're not saying we're going to give someone else the title shot if you're not, if you're not able to, you know, if you don't play ball with us and whatever our next arrangement's going to be. But we'd say we have options. So, yes, yeah, I don't, like you said, I don't know if, if Dill Shot necessarily is going to come back in time to, it's so tricky.

I've got to think of the Sterling-Yon stuff too. It's going to be tricky to work this time. But yes, whether Fonz or Aldo had won, this gives the U.C a lot of options. But especially Aldo, because he has a little bit more name value than Fonch, so you can slot him into any position you want after a three-fight win streak, three very impressive wins. Again, yeah, you really can't go wrong with this one. So, yeah, I hope. And yeah, regarding the Yon rematch, excuse me, if people, whether you had a problem with Aldo getting that first Telet shot or not, there's no reason you shouldn't want to see it. again. The first fight was very, very good.

Competitive probably until the last round. And again, it doesn't, you know, again, we don't make title fights just based on this sounds silly. Like, oh, well, I think this person has a chance. It's like you have to do, I shouldn't use this word, Mike. You kind of have to do what someone deserves as well. And although

certainly deserves Tal Shot now, more so than he did before. So, no problem with that rematch at all. A lot has happened since their first fight, since the first, all the Yon fight. Yeah, and as far as Rob Fonko, again, this is easy. 135 is still a snake pit.

And despite Rob Font getting hurt and knocked down several times, Rob Font won most of this fight. He lit up Jose Aldo. He hurt Jose. I mean, he didn't really stun Jose. He didn't have him in bad trouble. It wasn't close to being finished.

But if you weigh out, like, the actual minutes of fight one, Rob Font probably won 19 of the minutes. But Jose Aldo is just, so powerful. He's just so fast. He's so smart. And I was looking at the judge's scorecard because I had scored at 49-46. I kind of I might have given

Font the second round. I thought that was... Not the first. I don't know. I had to go back and watch it because it was... The second was competitive as well. The second was the other competitive. The first one had a much more clear narrative of font dominating the first four minutes and then Aldo, of course, not getting the knockdown. So that one, I

think, was the most disputed. And I think that was the one the one judge did score for No, gave him the third. He gave font the third. Okay, I would have said one or two. Which I don't mind that one either. It's not crazy. Although took him down.

Font was on his back, but he was going for submissions. He landed more shots from the bottom. So I don't have a real issue with it. I gave Fant one round. It could have been two, could have been three, who cares at this point. But Fon stock rises despite the loss. He proved he can hang with the top tier of this division. just obviously a little more seasoning he's got to do.

And the main thing heading into this fight, and I said this on the preview show, Rob Font has to win the first round, has to win the first round. And I was like, man, this is huge. And I was literally, I literally had the tweet set up. I'm like,

I said yesterday that Rob Font winning the first round is massive. And then he gets knocked down. And I was like, oh, that's it. I was like, this is not going to be good. So close. You know, with Aldo, and you had such a dynamic round like Font was having,

sometimes it's easy to kind of take your foot off the gas with eight, nine seconds left and around. Then he gets knocked down and the pendulum of the whole fight swung. But be that as it may, things are going to open up a little bit more once this title fight happens between Sterling and Young. 1.35 is still a snake pit. It's Font versus Corey Sanhagen. A win over Corey matters.

For Corey, a win over Font matters. Neither guy, despite losses, completely out of the title conversation. right now. Font takes a step back, of course. Aldo is the bigger name, but neither these guys, based on those two fights, Sanhagen's lost to Jan, Fons lost to Aldo, are completely out of the conversation. So I think these are the two easiest fights to matchmake. Yep, that's the one. I have Sanhagen at four in my rankings. I have Fons now at six. He was at five. Obviously, Aldo jumped, took his spot. So you really can't get wrong with them. And just one more thing

about the scoring. Even if people did score 50, 45, I would have scored 50-45, it's a much more competitive 50-45 than one would think. So I hope people don't look back on this fight and just look at the score and go like, oh, Aldo completely dominated him. It's like, no, he narrowly won, not narrowly. He won a couple of close rounds, probably clearly won at least three out of five, but two, definitely in dispute. And even the ones that, again, maybe at the last round, because Aldo had so much ground control and just just kind of neutralized whatever font was trying to do. Other than that, font was in pretty much every round. And like I said, tough as hell. So, yeah, 50-45, 4-9-4-4.

46, 48, 47, all like not, all reasonable scores. And, and again, either way, even if you're on the, all the way, on the 50, 45 end, that doesn't tell the story. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at the stats right now. It would surprise a lot of people more than likely. Rob Font outstruck Jose Aldo. Or let me put it this way.

Joseoaldo did not outstrike Rob Fond in any round in this fight. Not one. I think that wouldn't surprise me. And that just goes to show, again, sort of how people need to look at stats, right? because not every significant stat is weighted equally. And in this case, again, Aldo landed the majority of the most significant, impactful damaging strike. So this is definitely a, you had to watch this fight to understand why it was scored the way it was.

And I thought up a lot of people appreciate it. Judges did a good job. Yeah. So second and third rounds, Rob Font, Rob Font doubled up Jose Aldo in round two, 48 to 23. He tripled up Josealdo in round. 3, 37 to 12. Round 4 is even 10-10,

round 5, font 18 to 15. Overall, Font landed, just before we move on, Fon landed almost 100 more total strikes in the fight than Joe Zald. 1.93 to 96. Significant strikes, Rob Font,

149 to 86. I thought the judges got this one right. Someone put it out on Twitter. I don't know who it was. maybe with Sean Sheehan, but this is a perfect fight to look at for judges in the future. Yeah, it is. It is. Yeah, that's a good call.

Raphael Fazeve, AK, this guy could be fighting for the lightweight title in the next 18 months. Even in this division, knocking out Brad Riddell with a freaking wheel kick, knocking them out in general is a feat. But to do it like that is just ridiculous. The sky is the limit for this guy. And outside of maybe Michael Chandler, And higher in the actual UFC rankings, I think absolutely everything else is on the table and you can make an argument for pretty much any of these guys.

So what stands out to you for Frizeev? Yeah, on the post-fight show, someone had asked, is he ready for a top of five to six opponent? And we were trying to figure out, well, what that won, what that meant. And if he could sneak in there, now, it's unlikely that he gets, you know, anyone right now in Charles Oliva, Justin Pori, they got their business next week. Justin Gaetchi, waiting for a tell shot. Benil Daryush, Makachev are fighting soon, though I suppose he could conceivably get the winner or loser of that fight. I don't think that happens.

And then you have Michael Chandler, I think, on most people's range in either the five or six spot. And I think Chandler has enough currency with the UFC to not have to face a dangerous, Scott like Fiziv. If I were making, if this were waving my magic wand, that's where I would go. I will not wave my magic wand this time. I will go with Gregor Gillespie. This is the fight that, unfortunately, Brad Riddell should have had. We all wanted to see that match up. So I think Fazeve kind of gets to steal the Gillespie fight.

Great clash of styles. A real test to see. And I think Fiziv has good takedown offense. But we'll see how he would go against a truly, truly elite wrestler, grappler, takedown artist. I don't even know who I would pick. I think the odds would be fairly even going in. Fiziv, probably the favorite, just based off of this insane knockout.

You know, what have you done for me lately business? And I think that's the way we go. And then the winner of that is definitely ready for one of the bigger names. Should they shake free out of that top five, six, top five, six rankings? Yeah, I think you have to do Gillespie. And I hate to even say this, AK, because I like Fiziv a lot. He's such a dynamic personality. He's hilarious.

One of my favorite guys to interview in the sport. He's not a big trash talker. Goes out and calls out Vince Vaughn, who's sitting cage side. I dig it. but man, I really wished even if he put them over huge he threw out RDA and or Tony Ferguson's name

because even if you said like I respect these guys their former champions it would be a true honor and a privilege to share the cage with these guys I don't think the UFC jumps on that opportunity but what if one of those guys jumped on Twitter and said all right let's go dude like what if Tony Ferguson

champ S only let's go Fiziv I'll take you out. Like, the headlines would have gone bananas. And you just gave yourself an opportunity. And you don't have to say, like, Tony Ferguson, I'll kick your ass. Just say, Tony, you're a great fighter, former champion. Let's go. Like, it'd be a true honor. If you would share the octagon with me, like a true gentleman. And Ferguson just responded, that'd have been huge, would have got some impact. But he didn't do that. And that's fine. It's not his style. It's all good. So Gillespie, it is. That fight is insane. If Gillespie gets into the ground, it's really.

really interesting and if he can't, it's probably a Fizziv highlight reel. So I dig it. I like it. The dueling work out of videos alone would be hilarious for Ferguson and Fizzif. Everyone knows about Tony's, of course. If anyone has not seen Fizzis, I think, I don't know if he's done more than one. He did a hilarious sort of parody of just sort of people who don't know how to use equipment at a gym, just using all the equipment wrong in just the funniest, funniest way. And I think he would probably make another one of those just for Tony if that matchup got made. But yeah, I agree. The funny callouts are great.

And I have no problem with that. The Vince Vaughn thing, really funny. Probably unplanned because Vince Vaughn was there at the apex on Saturday. So I don't know if he knew that or if he just saw him. It was like, I'm definitely calling out Vince Vaughn if I win. But it was funny. But yeah, maybe in the future or just take the social media. You're right.

Call out Tony. Maybe you make fun of his tweets. Maybe you copy Tony Perkins's tweet format and call him out that way. How has no one done that yet? That would be great. What's your favorite Vince Vaughn movie? And you cannot count swingers. I will say you cannot count swingers.

He was not Vince Vaughn yet. Let's go post-swingers, Vince Vaughn film. I mean old-schools. You've got to go to the old school. I like wedding crashes good. I like wedding crashes. I'm a bit of a softie. I'm a bit of a softie.

I like wedding crashes. And I haven't seen any other. I don't think I've seen many of his movies recently. Fighting with my family I saw. He's kind of in that. Yeah. I feel like once I think once Vince Vaughn kind of real. realized people thought he was funny.

He just took it too far. And I think wedding crashes is kind of, he was good in it. But I think with old school, he's a little more subtle about it. He was just, he was more him. But he's also great in curbinger enthusiasm, too. Yeah, it's still better than the early, Alec Baldwin. What's the other name I just had? Oh, my gosh, the name just gave me.

Alec, but that phase where, oh, Ben Affleck, that phase where Hollywood discovers you and they just don't know what you are you're like a handsome guy and they just think oh you'll just be an action star you'll you'll be an action star or you'll do serious dramas and Vince Ron's a good actor but I do think like some of it's early I don't know why this turned to Vince Vaughn podcast I apologize I do think he was miscast early and you're right once he became once he realized way he's that funny guy he's still that funny guy from swingers and he's great at doing these kind of improvised rants it opened up this whole new avenue of things now he's still now he's back to doing a variety of projects but uh it was kind of weird that

that that's that stage when Hollywood just thinks you're someone you're not. Yeah. Jamal Hill, AKA, is a freaking powerhouse. That was super impressive against Jimmy Crude. He drilled them early. Kruits recovers a bit and then puts the lights out around a minute later. And I tweeted this out on Saturday. I think Jamal Hill is going to be one of the most interesting guys to

watch in the UFC in 2022. And let me just say first, Paul cost a callout. Tremendous. Tremendous callout. It won't happen because the UFC seems, for some reason to really like Paulo Costa, despite him not really giving his shit about the company or taking his spot on the roster all that seriously in my eyes, which is fine, but the UFC still

seems to like him. And Jamal Hill with that power could be a low-key big problem for Paul Costa 205. So for Jamal, you just sit back, have a nice ocean view, listen to the sounds of the waves, drop a couple ice cubes in that rocks glass and get you some Johnny Watson. because that's the fight, A.K., that's the fight. You sit that slow and just let chaos pursue. That was his other callout, right? He did the two call-outs, right?

Was it Costa and Johnny Walker? The Costa one got all the headlines. That was the one I remembered, but I did see some people say he called out Johnny Walker too. Yeah, he did like a double. Six P's, Mike. I was talking about the six P's. Proper preparation prevents P-poor performance. I won't say, you guys can figure out what the other P stands for.

This is a kid show. He had two callouts. This is like the opposite of the Zee thing, which again, well, fun, you know, doesn't do a lot for him after probably the biggest win of his UFC career so far. So for Jamal to be so prepared after a sub one-minute knockout. I mean, well done, sir. Well done for a guy with only 10, 11 UFC fights. He's like a seasoned vet.

So I loved it. And I am waving my magic wand, Mike. I am going to make the Apollo-Cost's fight happen. So a lot of Domino's have to fall. Costa still has to be convinced to fight it 205. If he has not said, I mean, Dana White says he wants it, but he has not said, yeah, I'm definitely moving up to light heavyweight. And if he does, he probably thinks he has a little more leverage than he does. He probably thinks, like, oh, I can get a bigger name than Jamal Hill, which shouldn't be the case.

If Costa is going to make an actual move-up to 205, he needs to get, I think, at least one, maybe two wins before he can start calling out, you know, some of the big names of 205. So I loved that call-out. And if I were, the matchmaker could do anything I wanted, Hill Costa would be next. Yes. Costa's got to beat Iwan Kutalaba first. And then you give him Jamal Hill. And then you get into it.

So don't forget about that. How about Clay Guida? This guy with any other referee on planet Earth, being in the octagon with he and Leo Santos, he would have lost via first round TKO. Instead, Keith Peterson had zero interest in stopping it. Oh, no. He didn't even look like he was getting a great job.

He didn't even. even look like he was getting into any kind of position to run in and stop it. Like, I'm not complaining about it because, I mean, Guido was in bad trouble, even admitted that he was in bad trouble. And like I said, any other referee on the rock, if Herb Dean was in there, Herb Dean, after all the criticism, he got, he wouldn't have stopped it after like three punches. But Guido-Jerson, would have made the right call there, too. I think Jason Herzog also would let it continue.

Maybe, maybe. But at least Jason Herzog would have been like, got to fight back, dude, got to fight back. Keith Peterson's just like, hmm-hmm. Oh, yes. Chris Tiami, we have no idea. Chris Tiani definitely would have stopped it. Mike Beltran also would have let it continue. I went over this in the post-fight show, so I won't like going another rant again.

I had no problem with the fight continuing. Guida was hurt. He was not finished. He was, I did not think he was finished. This wasn't a case where he was, like, totally being rocked. Yeah, he was taking a lot of damage. But, again, if this was, if we see fighters take a lot of damage and fights all the time, this to me was not a clear cut.

So I would have had no issue with the stoppage. I would, but I am very fine with the, I saw social media was so upset. It's Clay Guida. It's an older fighter. We want to protect these guys, of course. I understand the optics. The optics ever were brutal. I mean, he was just getting his rib roasted, and they put the graphic on the screen, 46 strikes to nothing, Santa.

So the optics were so bad, but I was watching very closely. And I'm like, Clay is still in this. And Leonardo Santos is effing up because, and I hope this becomes a catch-fing. of mine if I'm not I don't know if I invented this but he was trying to manufacture a finish Mike instead of finishing the fight he was looking to Peterson and instead of timing his shots and really either going for he went to the head at later when his arms were cut already dead instead of trying to like find openings to land really big bombs and put clay out or real or to the body to the head or going for a freaking submission because you're Leonardo

Santos apologies to anyone's headphones there he really could have actually finished indisputably, I think. And again, this is total backseat coach. I'm not going to tell Leonardo Santos how to fight because he was doing great. And like we said, if Peterson had called the fight, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. But I do think he tried to play the game, and the game this time did not work out in his favor. So, and then he gassed himself out and submission almost became as shocking as it was, kind of predictable. Kind of what happened to Jacques Adééé and Adolfo Vieira earlier this year.

So, yeah, I had no problem with Peters. I think that Keith Peterson did a great job, and we got a great comeback out of it. So no problem if it had been stopped, but I thought the right decision was made. Oh, clearly the right decision was made. Keith Peterson knows Clay Guida very well, apparently. And Marad de Welsh will even chimed in and said, Keith Peterson's a great ref. He lets things go on because he was the referee for the fight with Mara Mara.

So anyways, Guida survives. I think it was trolling Dom, too. I think Rob was trolling Dom a little bit there. Oh, yeah, probably. Very subtle Dominic Cruz troll. Oh, yes. Yeah, but listen, Guida survives. Dude is an animal.

Santos cooked. And we knew as soon as the first round was over. Like, Quiglita is going to play Guida and win. Submits him in round two. Craziness, indeed. Insane. What do we do with them now? I mean, there's so many options.

I'm boring here. I think it's time for the Grant Dawson fight still, right? I know that's been talked about a lot. I think that's the way to go. Grant Dawson's super talented guy. Also has a win over Leonardo Santos. And had his issues in the Riqui Glenn fight. Again, we know how good Grant Dawson is.

We know he has a potential to. to be a top 10 guy, has not quite put on that performance yet at 1.55. And again, Ricky Glenn definitely tested them in the last round of their fight. And I think Guida is the right test. Again, I know it sounds weird what I'm saying. Oh, Dawson is close to top 10. And it sounds like maybe going back a bit with the Clay Guida fight. But after that win, Guida's name once again has a lot of value.

He's just someone people know would be a nice notch for Grant Dawson if we'd win that. Or a nice notch for Clay Guida in one of the craziest MMA career. we've ever seen. A.K., we joke that we're best friends all the time, but I think maybe the week off, we've become even more best friends because I'm completely with you. And I know that this is weird to say about a guy who is just about to turn 28. This might be a little bit of a hot take, but at 155,

it's do or die for Grant Dawson to go on a run and make that big move up the lightweight ladder that he wants to make. This is a guy who, for as long as I've been interviewing this guy, since he was a regional fighter. And he said that he always had 2020. I'm going to be this. 2021. I'm going to be top 15.

22. It'll be top 5. 2023. I'm going to be a world champion. The talent is there. He's got a great team. He's James Krause's right-hand man in a lot of ways. But what is in question a bit is his cardio?

And I like Grant a lot. But his heart is in question as well. He faded against Ricky Glenn in a fight that he was winning easily. And if they fight again, I'd feel quite confident that Dawson is the better fighter. He won't make those same mistakes. He would win the fight 30 to 27, maybe even finish him. With Clay,

Dawson already called, like after he knocked out Leo Santos, he went on this whole media tour calling out Clay Guida. So this is a story there. There's no resting on your laurels with Clay Guida. There is no space to fade even a little. So that fight answers probably all the important questions about the future of this division. So that's what I would do.

I would do Guida versus Dawson, just like you. Let's see if Dawson is a future top 15, maybe top 10 lightweight, or is he a future top five, maybe a guy who could fight for a world title? I think he has the skills, he has the ability and the surroundings to be the latter, and I felt that way for a long time. But we were at the point with Grant Dawson, where we need to know, and this is the kind of fight that gives us those answers. Is Grant Dawson going to be a guy who challenges for a world title,

or is he going to be a back-end top 50? 15 guy at best. I sincerely doubt it would end up as a fight night main event unless it was like a Co-main and another fight fell through. I would love to see five rounds of that. I feel like we're talking about the, you know, the questions of cardio, questions of heart, quote unquote, heart maybe. Clay Guido would put both those things to the test big time.

Grant could certainly finish him early, but if he doesn't, boy, and that went to the fourth and fifth round, I'd love to see how that turned out. Yeah, I would favor Clay Gwita if it was a five-round fight right now. I would love to see it. A.K. Chris Curtis. Chris Freaking Curtis is 2-0 with two finishes in the UFC. And the year of our Lord, 2021. My heart, Mike. This is definitely a bizarre year in our M.MA journeys.

Is it not? He goes out and destroys Brendan Allen, puts him out in the second round. By the way, I think it was the only M.M.A. fighting Stafford to pick Chris Curtis. and this man might have a ranking next to his name at 185 pounds on Tuesday, a.k. This is insane. And to me, I'm just, I spoke with Chris Curtis this past week. I was like, are you just going to stay at middleweight? Like, if you win, why would you go back to 170? He's like, well, I might go back to 170. He goes, well, you know, we're actually thinking about putting on some size and just staying at 185. And he's just like, but this is house money. I guess if I keep waiting, I'll just stay at middleweight.

This guy might be a ranked middleweight on Tuesday. So let's just go crazy. Let's do Chris Curtis versus Uriah Hall. Let's just go nuts. And look, I understand something could happen. He slides in on short notice somewhere. But there's not a ton of like marquee middleweight bouts on the books until February-ish. So let Curtis crush some weights, put on a little size, February of March.

Let's rock and roll Maybe, maybe, A.K. In the year of our Lord, 2022, in one of these 500,000 fight nights, maybe Chris Curtis versus Uriah Hall could headline a fight night. How do you like them apples? Please.

I love that matchup. In the year of our Lord 2021, Mike, I said this last night. So we've seen Jacques-Are, Hadolfo Veyra, Leonardo Santos, get submitted in fights. we've seen Chris Barnett debut in the UFC

did he debut this year he got his first win this year did he did debut right it's been such a long year yeah he debuted against Ben Rothwell and that was this year okay

he made the UFC Chris Curtis made to the UFC 2 and 0 under the most of course Chris Curtis the strangest the only circumstances that Chris Curtis could make it into the UFC

volunteering on less than a day's notice and then having the fight postponed and then still getting and then having to fight postponed to a bigger card and Madison Square garden and then winning and now two and now. And listen to this too. Listen to this too. Signed an initial contract to fight Phil Haas.

Kept the contract. Knocks out Phil Haas. After he knocks off Phil Haas and he takes this fight, they offered him a new contract. Good. A better contract. And he said that he talked to the UFC. He's probably going to get another new contract after this win. Are you serious? This is awesome. This man has been betting on himself for a long time. I opened my Alan. Curtis predictions section with I literally wrote this Mike when will I stop picking

against the action man I literally wrote that and ended with I'm doing the cowardly thing and going with Alan to win a decision I don't know why I like why do I'm not even going to read the middle part because it's all gibberish

nonsense at this point I picked Alan to win and who cares he didn't so I don't know why I keep doubting him I don't know if it's a reverse jinx not that I believe in those things either way I'm just so happy for Chris Curtis And by the way, your Chris Curtis impression there, spot on. I mean, he just sounded exactly.

I thought I was interviewing him. It was just incredible. No, I can't wait. I can't wait for until, what did you say? Like, February? Like, get some, no. No, I want him to fight next week. I want, there's two middleweight fights.

God forbid should something happen to Jordan Wright, Bruno Silva, Andre Munez, or Eric Anders. But if any of them should not be able to compete, you know Chris Curris is ready. He said he's ready. He said he'd love to get in one more paycheck. to get in a seventh fight and seventh fight. He went four and oh on the regionals before getting that USC shot. So six, six and oh so far in the UFC in 2021.

I'd love to see him go seven and seven and oh. I think he'd be undeniable as one of the fighters of the year. Top five, maybe top three, maybe number one breakthrough or rookie for whoever, you know, tabulates those things. If, gosh, if one of these guys could just step aside to, if the USA could just give them some make right money,

I mean, I would He, I would love to see him fight Bruno Silva. I think him and Bruno Silva would be And I guess it makes more sense to just say Have him fight the Jordan Wright Bruno Silva winner or Bruno Silva if he beats Jordan Wright You could go that way with it But I mean, like you said, he'll probably be ranked

So that probably won't be just made on its own I think it has to happen as a short notice replacement thing I, Jordan Wright Again, waving my magic wand Hey Jordan Wright here's your show money and some extra money on the side Apologies we're putting we're giving Chris Curtis your spot. He's fighting for No Silva at U.S.

269 next Saturday. That'd be such a gangster move. I think Curtis is ahead of that right now, which is crazy after two fights that he's not even a middleweight. He's a welterweight, which is just wild. But yeah, that was an easy pick for me. After hearing Brennan's interviews

heading into the fight, just clearly was overlooking Chris Curtis, clearly not giving him the respect he deserves. I knew Sean Strickland's presence would be a factor for Brennan Allen, and Chris Curtis was so open about like Brennan Allen's just weird. Like I don't know where he thinks this rival where Sean comes from

with this rival with the gym comes from. He goes, no one at our gym even talks about him at all. We don't care about him at all. He just no-souled the whole thing. And Curtis's confidence was just like, he's going to win. He's going to pull off the upset. And I wish I gambled. I would have definitely put money on Chris Curtis.

But big win for him. Just rolling through in the UFC. Now hopefully he gets the respect. deserves from people outside of the hardcore fan base, much like Alex Marono, AK, who now has 10 wins in the UFC, which surprised a lot of people, sweeps the scorecards, 3027's Mickey Gall, fight plays out on the feet for the most part. Marona gets it done. He now has three wins in a row. Kind of interesting to see where he's going to go from here. Where do you think he should go from here? Yeah, you know, it was funny when I was looking at Marano's record. I thought he was one of those

guys who had like you know fought for the OC been released and like in his second run no he's had a he's what we 10 10 4 1-no contest and has been with the company since uh january 2016 so it'll be six years soon for alex morano just steady work some very nice names on there Kyle noke Josh berkman max Griffin serroney and now Mickey gall boy yeah what do you do with this guy I'm gonna be I'm gonna kind of stick with a fight I really want to see for a while I really wanted to see him fight Balal Muhammad. Of course, Balala is fighting in a couple weeks against Wonder Boy Thompson, which is a great matchup. I'm glad they made that

fight too. So maybe the loser of that fight. More so if Muhammad loses, I think if Wonderboy loses, I would be surprised if he had any interest in a fight with Marano or if the matchmaker's even bothered to send that one his way. But Balal, should he suffer a setback, which is very possible.

Wonder Boy is so tricky. I think Marano would be a good either bounce back fight for Balaw Mohammed or an advancement fight for Marano, who I think is ready for a ranked guy. And it would be a good competitive fight. So, yeah, we're seeing some nice movement at 170, and I'd like to see Marano be a part of that.

I kind of like where Marano's at right now. Like, I think he's in a primo spot at 170. I think it's a good spot for a fight with a guy like Miguel Baezza. Look, I made this comparison on Twitter. You're probably going to roll your eyes. Alex Marono is the Bill Miller of the UFC Walterweight Division. Here's what I mean by that.

A lot of people, like 19- By the way, I have no idea who Bill Miller is. By the way, I was going to retweet that, except that it involved a Boston Red Sox. So I was like, no. It was such an astute observation, and I said, I'm not retweeing this. It's so true, though. I refuse. I refuse.

It was amazingly, seek this tweet out people if you're interested. I do not, I do not encourage this Boston Red Sox propaganda. I wish you had gone any other direction with it because there was a very well-crafted tweet, but I'm not retweeting anything involving the Red Sox. It's not happening. So Bill Miller was a member of the 2004 curse-breaking World Series champion. Boston Red Sox. Kind of a hybrid player.

Played second base, played a lot of third base in the playoff run. And people always remember during that playoff run. They remember David Ortiz, of course. They remember Johnny Damon and Derek Lowe. Even they remember Dave Roberts with a stolen base in game four

against the Yankees and they're down three games and nothing. But everyone forgets who drove in Dave Roberts with that tying run on that long, cold October night at Fenway Park against the Yankees, against the greatest closer of all time. His name, Bill Miller. Bill Miller. owned Mariana Rivera. I think he hit like five something against

Mariano Rivera throughout his career. Marono does not get enough credit. Like Bill Miller, fundamentally sound, lots of singles and doubles, comes in up in big spots when you need him. If he needs to hit one over the fence, he'll hit one over the fence too. A very serviceable piece on a very deep and talented roster. I think give him Biazza. It's a perfect spot for both guys. Is Biazza a guy that can contend for a title? A guy who earlier this year, we all pretty much unanimously thought, this could be a guy who could contend for a title.

Pons and Ibio fight happened. Then the Chaos Williams fight happens. Now we need to see if he can bounce back. Barono, I think, is a perfect test for him. And I think Barono is a perfect test for a lot of these guys. That's why I like him in the spot he's in. Now, if he goes on and starts winning six, seven in a row, you got to give him a step up. But right now, I think he's in a great place right now, and he ain't complaining about it.

So you don't care. Just give him those kinds of fights. Are you done? Are you done with that necessary? Red Sox mentions 17 years ago. Let it go. We've all moved on. We've all moved on.

All right. Oh, there's got other curse breaking. Okay, we've all moved on. And besides, they've won, what, like five World Series since then. So, I mean, you've certainly had plenty of other things to celebrate. It's an apt comparison. Apt comparison. Bill Miller.

Yes. You can't use Stephen Drew because he sucked, except for the playoffs. Bill Miller was consistent all the way around. But anyways, now time for the wild card round. Bill Miller is great in wildcard rounds as well. We're going to choose one fighter we have not matched made for yet, and we'll matchmate for them right now, AK, kick us off.

I'm totally unprepared right now. I actually forgot. You want to go first? No, no, no. I'll go right now because I want to match up for Cheyenne Blissmus. I want to match up for Cheyenne Blismissmas. Very nice win, very nice win. Mallory Martin, I know her record doesn't look great.

Again, really talented fighter, definitely a little, you know, somewhat one-dimensional. She's a very strong wrestler She wasn't able to get that off against Chey and Blissmas. So obviously she didn't win the striking battle And Blissmas looked very crisp, very good in the feet. I saw a lot of people though.

I know straw weight is pretty shallow. So I saw a lot of people going like, you know, throw her in the top 15 and da-da. She's seven and two now, two and one in the UFC. Again, I think a future ranked fighter maybe by the end of 2022. She's very talented. Let's let's end more talented marketable

Let's pull in the reins a bit people Don't you don't want to do these things too soon I know the urge The top of Dean of the Strawaway Division Is filled with veterans With really really good veterans Maybe Jessica Penne as a name I would feel comfortable throwing her in there with

As far as a winnable fight for her But even then I think Penna is probably better than people give her credit for And just a lot more advanced than than Blasmus is right now So let's not go there Let's let's stick in the range of again, sort of similarly experienced people.

I'm going to throw out there, I know a lot of people would love to see Lupico Dinas, but again, I want to keep them, kind of want to keep them apart. Maybe the, Carnalosi, she got matched up, right? Carnalosi is fighting, is she fighting fried? Did we finally get that muscle battle? I don't know. She just fought, didn't she?

Am I making that? No long ago? She fought in October. So she's not matched up. You know what? I know I've said I want to see Nunez fight like a Chinu Frye, just for the visual of it, almost the strawweight version of William Knight

and Alonso Menefield. But if that fight is not made, Carnalysis, yeah, you know what? If people want to see her get a test, let me see this Carnalasi fight. I think it'd be competitive. I don't think either woman loses too much steam. Again, I don't think, I think Willisness is good.

I don't think she's in the range where we want to necessarily be protecting her, but also like I said don't want to throw in there with a challenge that's that's really like out of her realm of winnability right now so I'll go stick in mid range I like the carnalasi matchup and I like both I like both fighters a lot so yeah I say feel just pump the brakes a little bit on on the Vylamis hype and let's let's build her up the right way so she's contending 12 months from now yeah there are the as you'll hear when we go to the listener picks there were some interesting choices for Chey and Velizmos there's one that really had me scratching my head. That was like, it was actually really interesting. Oh. So, we'll get to that in a minute, but no surprise here. A.K. knew this already. I'm going with Minel Kapp.

Guy makes weight, gets an insane finish. He cuts an A plus promo. So he gets the rub here. I saw some people on Twitter, even media members calling him out because he didn't have a name to call out. Hogwash. That was an A plus promo.

I'm the best. These guys should be calling me out. A plus swag from the Starboy. And I think, I really think that promo opened up Dana White's eyes. I think he opened up the UFC matchmaker's eyes. I think they realized they might have something with this guy.

And I've been saying this since he was signed. I've been riding shotgun alongside Casey Lydden. I know Casey Lydden's been tooting that horn all the way up the highways, but I've been right there being like, toot it, dude, toot it. You're starting to see that man get comfortable inside the Octagon. So there's a big

one coming up on Saturday at UFC 269 between Cody Garbrandt, Kai Kar-France, and if Cody wins, I'm sure, and this, I don't like it at all. I'm sure the UFC will give Cody Gar-Brant the title fight against the winner of Moreno, figure 803. And if he loses, I think that's the perfect fight for Manel Cap. Manel has been calling for Cody Gar-Brant since he was signed with the UFC. That's the one. And you know what?

If the world was fair, Manel-Cap should fight Cody Gar-Gab. Garbrandt win or lose. But if Cody wins, Kai Kar-France, that's fun as well. Monell-Kap is expressed interest in fighting Kai-Car-France. So loser of that fight, but more so if Cody Gar-Brant loses, he needs a name. Like, he needs a name to help put him over. Both would suffice, because I think people know both those guys. But if Cody does not beat Kai-Car-France, that is a no-brainer, especially if he makes

the weight without an issue. So, yeah, that's what I'm going. Mel-Kal-Kap versus winner or loser of that fight. His best performance yet. I mean, last fight, obviously, he looked great. Unfortunately, a slight ding for missing the weight, but, I mean, that was another big finish. He's looked great.

He has looked great. I agree. The promo was on point. I think it was the right thing to say at the right time. And again, I think he's aware. I'm just trying to look, I'm just looking the names ahead. It's just not the right time to call him anyone specific right now.

After his next fight, definitely, again, if he beats, if he gets Carbrand, I mean, it'd be amazing. If he beats Kai Karfranz, then you'd definitely call for him. for someone in the top five, definitely have a name ready, depending how it looks. But for now, yeah, you talk about your,

you talk about yourself. If you're a male cop, you talk about that win was about you. Right now, your career is about you. And you can give, you can give someone else and the potential match up some shine later, depending what happens next. Do we have, check the tapes. We do.

We do. Any craziness. I have one, I think, again, I'm sure, I only had one of my people send one of my, uh, suggestors mentioned this one. So Liam Perry, special shout out to you, Otno Point, for Edson Barbosa versus Bryce Mitchell. I know a lot of people were not calling for this, but I checked my notes. He had this one, and that's happening on March 5th.

And listeners were on point with Hermanson Strickland, February 5th, Darryush Makachev, which is something I said I didn't think was going to happen because of the same management. It's not for a title. It's not for a world title, but it could be a world title, a number one contenders opportunity, excuse me. And also, I would hope that both men are getting good. good money out of that fight and uh sarukyan versus alvarez uh both those fights happening february 26th and i have to give an otno point to listener chris baker or listener and ma fighting dot com reader for correcting an error uh which is just between us so no one don't worry about

is the error i had in my uh in in an article uh so i'll give him an otno point because he asked for people don't start doing this okay this is a this is a one-time thing because i make a lot of errors and I don't need anyone, one, be reminded all the time by listeners slash readers, and I'm certainly not giving Otno points away. So this is almost like maybe once a month or once every once in a blue moon. So Chris Baker, take your editorial Otno point. That's it. I don't know.

Oh, gosh. Okay, you know, I should read this now then, shouldn't I? Oh. I didn't understand this because I don't know if they contacted you and now they're contacting me. Who's PJ Oost? P. J.O. Ost. I'm not really sure. They seem to have a beef with you, Mike.

A beef with me. Yeah. Oh, okay. They just said, this might sound familiar to you. I don't know. Maybe, Mike, you say so many inflammatory things. I don't know who it is. I don't know who or why you anger this person. Anyway, they're P. Jiao out P.J.A.U. Ost, A.S.T. they wrote to whom it made concern. They said, I'm not going to check. And their subject is Mike Heck, I mean Mike Check.

So they must have made some suggestion that maybe it's someone in your Instagram DM's Mike that used a different name. I don't know. They said, I'm not going to check up with the fact that Dan Hooker's going to featherweight. I'm not going to check up on the fact that Mike Heck, in a literal sense, booed other Andrea Leafpicks, then proceed to give a small segment on why Andrea Lee versus Casey O'Neill was like the best. I'm not going to check up on the fact that your bestie booze like the lady from Princess Buttercups Nightmare at the beginning of Princess Bride

Okay, that's a very, very specific reference That's one I've never heard someone reference that scene from Princess Bride That's odd choice And I'm not going to check up on the fact that I'm down 2018 When the scorecard between Tristan and myself is clearly 1919 Is Patrick Gostin? I guess so Okay, there you go, that makes sense, PJ Oost, okay

but I will check this I've been referred to as a lot of things I've been recalled many many names but heel a heel Mr. Lee your best friend hurts me he said right here and he motions

he's stage direction beats on chest I mean that's cruel I've done nothing to suggest I want to be a heel I'm on the fighter's side I'll even be the shop steward for the fighters if they were able to unionize Dana and Sean

would be outmatched, but calling me a bully. Mike, heck, you offend me, sir. This is, and he sends a second email. This is two emails. This is the smartest listener, by the way. So is that Patrick Austin? Yeah, it's Patrick Austin. We've talked about this before.

Awesome, Patrick, why are you emailing me? He thinks... I know I read out the mic checks, but... He thinks we give Tristan too much time in the show, because I rip him apart, and Patrick wants me to rip him apart. And I'm just not falling for it. I'm just not falling for it. Oh, well, I just did.

So. And do not compare the awful, the awful, horrendous attempted booking of Manon Fioro versus Andrea Lee. Horrible. And by the way, if you go back and listen, I hated all of those types of matchups, but I said if there's one fighter that would even be in the conversation to fight Andrea Lee that is not ranked ahead of her, it would be Casey O'Neill if she beat Roxanne Mottavari, but That's it. And I don't even like that idea.

Like the Man of Fioro, Andrea Lee booking, the idea of that was one of the worst matchmaking suggestions of the year, in my opinion. Just terrible. She goes out there and just has the two best performances of her UFC career. And you're like, you know what, Andrea? You're probably a win away from fighting for the title. What's knock you back? 10 spots and you can fight Manon Fioro, who is a dangerous fighter who not a lot of people really know right now. That makes no sense.

silliness. So I'm not going to defend that again. Patrick, I know what you're trying to do. And you made some picks that I'm about to read, you pain in the ass. Well, I will say, Patrick, you're getting, obviously, he's got what he wanted. I see, I didn't know it was him. So that's why it's, maybe he was smart to change his email name or address as different a. He snuck through. You're not making it through my spam filter next time, Patrick Rosson. All right. I'm on, I'm on it. I'm on it. I will clear this with Mike first. Like I said, I'm a little unprepared this week. I will check with Mike first. And spam filter upgrade. I'm upgrading

the spam filter tech, the ought no spam filter tech. But there you go. There's your mic time. It looks like you're going to get a little more. All right. Disclose. Oh, yes. God, I'm so unprepared this week. I don't even have written down, but you guys know the rules by now. We're really, you know, primarily we like to focus on winners. Of course, we talk about the main event. Loses a lot too. Scattergories rule, guys, if you had a unique pick or one of the only people to get a pick, you're usually getting an otno point that way. please try to guys double check your picks go to tap biology go to sherdog whatever mab fighting dot com whatever your news source is weight class did the guys fight already and you didn't mention that you want to see a rematch is a person injured like a long-term injury released that's happening a lot lately and fighter could already book the most common mistake i see was a story names of guys who were like like either just got booked or have been booked for a while and it's like you just forgot uh most importantly your pick might just be doo-do and we don't want to read it very good

go. All right. Let's get into this thing. Max Sherman kicks us off. Fizziv versus RDA, Katt versus Sumiderji, Guida versus Holtzman. How has this fight never happened? Jamal Hill versus Volkan, Ozedemir, and then he says also Michelle Paheda will fight for the belt in early 2024. So big Michelle Paheta mark. The BMF belt? The BMF belt? Not the Lept, not the Welterweight. I don't know why I'm saying. I love Michelle Paheda. What do you think of the cop Sumerati match? What's all that? a bit. I feel like he jumped, I think he's, Assumpergerger's really good.

I do think he's quite a bit ahead after that win. I don't know. Like, I don't. You think it's possible? Yeah, I think caps ahead of them. I think, well ahead. Yeah, for in a number, for a number of reasons. Yeah. The personality, the promos, etc.

The pre-UFC work. Sorry, the pre-UFC work is outstanding. Yeah. I mean, that'd be a fun fight. No doubt about it. Poppy underscore Bright. Good evening, Mike and AK. Hope you both had a great week off. Make Thanksgiving. Obviously, Canadian, AK. I'd love to see maybe in one of the end of the year episodes, your guys picks or guesses for the Bellator Bannamweight Grand Prix bracket.

Okay, maybe we can do that. He likes Cap versus David Devorak. Marono versus the loser of Michelle Paheda versus Muslim Salikoff. Curtis versus Christoph, Giacow. Wow, what a 2021 for the action man. Greta versus Jared Gordon. Hill versus Johnny Walker. Don't like the cost to call out.

So let's go with Costa's fellow countrymen instead. Fizzis versus Gregor Gillespie Aldo versus Tiji Dilloshaf. If Yon versus Sterling was closer, I'd say maybe Sterling. Guess you guys get another fight prediction. Unfortunately, that fight hasn't even been made yet. So let's put this on the same card. Winner fights the winner of that.

Sure. Brandon Nunez, Marono versus Tim Means, AK, you forgot that part of the disclosure. Leave Tim Means out of it, but do they like Marono versus Means? We got to mention, we got to remind me to remind me to mention, Mike, our special Instagram page that we saw that was made for us.

That's how I want to close out. That's a little teaser. I just want to close out this section here. Which I'm very humbled about. Chris Curtis versus Brad Tavares. I don't know if they're teammates, because I know Curtis is an extreme Cotaur guy. I believe Tavares is.

So I don't know if that could be possible. I don't know. Something to maybe look into. Maybe I'll see if Ariel will ask him about that. Little hint for Monday's MMA hour. Jamal Hill versus Volcano. It was a mere another one for that. Owen Carroll, Vince Morales versus.

Nate Maynus. Claudio Poyez versus Demir Headsovich. William Knight versus Ryan Span. Sure, I picked Alonzo, but he honestly deserved the L after laying and praying in the clinch. Shian Valismas versus Levina Sousa. Brian Barbarina versus Francisco Trinolo.

Levina is released, right? She did get released, didn't she? Yeah, I think she got released, unfortunately. People. No rules. Come on, disclaim her. Mnell Katv versus Tim Elliott. I think that's been a popular one. Desco Todorovich versus Tom Breeze.

I believe Tom Breeze also released, was he not? That one, I don't think was, I want to say that wasn't confirmed, but I remember when the report, I did see reports coming out that he had been, it wouldn't surprise,

he just like he's had so many unfortunate, like, health setbacks, and I do wonder if they're sort of patience with him has worn out. But I don't remember that one ever being confirmed.

I did see his name lumped in with a block of releases, I think, a couple months ago. Okay. Chris Curtis versus Edmund Shabazzian. I think Brennan might be better suited for that fight after their Twitter back and forth.

Clay Guida versus Durcar Close. That's interesting. He likes Hill versus Costa. Fizzi versus Michael Chandler. Brad Riddell versus Bobby Green. Aldo Dillishaw, Font Sanhagen. John Ray throwing a Bellator pick in there. Jeremy Kennedy versus Aaron Pico, AK.

Wow. That was such a big win for Kennedy. He's such a talented guy. He's been doing damage, you know, around the world. So it was nice to see him get a win over a guy like Sanchez against such a respected 1-45er. I love that matchup. Yeah, I think it's time again. I think, I was going to say a step up.

I know Pico would be ranked beneath Emmanuel Sanchez and a lot of people's rankings, but he's trending upwards so highly right now. And I think he's finally, Pico is finally ready for a test like Kennedy, if that makes sense. And vice versa, Kennedy is ready to face a guy as dangerous. as Pico. Well done. I hope that fight happened. Mike, keep that one in mind. We've got to give that guy a point. Who is this again? John Ray. John Ray, please remind me or Mike to give you a point if that fight gets made. A special Bellator point. That's awesome. I think it's perfect. I love it. William Knight versus the winner of Ed Herman versus Maxim Gryshin. Cheyenne Velismus versus Loma-Luk-Bunmi. Brian Barbarina versus Miguel Baezza. Manel Katz versus Tyson Nam. We wanted this fight

so long ago. I just think it's too far gone at this point, but if they made it, cool. Todorovich versus Jun Young Park. Marono versus Randy Brown, Curtis versus Shabazzan. Okay. Casey Ryan, Sup, Mike. I heard how you were sick this week. I'm currently sick, too. I hope you're feeling better. I do feel a little bit better. I hope you're feeling better, too. He likes Hill versus Dominic Reyes, or just give him Walker. And he likes Clay Guida versus Ricky Glenn. All right. Con Whizzle 91. Hey, Mike, great night of fights from a strong card. well, a Clay versus Dawson matchup makes a lot more sense now

than when Dawson beat Santos. I agree. Strapped a rocket to Chris Curtis, give him your eye haul next. I agree. We get a new submitter, Dylan. Mike, I had to make a new profile

just to send in my picks because I couldn't remember the password to my old one. Anyway, I'm a long-time listener. This is my first time sending in picks. Fellow Missouri boy, so I have to give a quick shout out to Darien Weeks for showing up

against an always game, Brian Barbarina. agree. Anyway, let's push Manel Cap. He's obviously, is finding his footing in the UFC in a very shallow division. Let's give him the winner of Kai Kar, France, and Cody Garbrandt. Not against that at all. Other picks are Marono versus Elizo Zaleski

Dos Santos, Chris Curtis versus Geria Hall, Clay Guida versus Jeremy Stevens, and Fizzis versus Dan Hooker. I'm going to address that one in a minute. Gerard Beagin, Font versus Munoz two, winner lose against Dominic. So a big step back for font, according to the rankings.

Although a lot of people, I mean, that's been maybe the most popular Rob Font selection of the year is doing the rematch with Pedro Munoz. Fiziv versus another Tiger Mouytai product. Keep me at 155 for now, Dan Hooker. Revenge angle is there, plus Dan may have to break out the grappling. So Fiziv is also a Tiger Moy Thai guy. In fact, if you go to the Tiger Moy Thai website, Fiziv is listed as like a coach, like one of the striking coaches at Tiger Moy Thai.

So he's already fought a friend. In a sort of teammate, I don't know if he'd want to do it in back-to-back fights. Plus, Hooker looks like he might drop to 45. And I think the UFC really likes Dan Hooker. And coming off a finish loss to Islam Makachev, I don't know if they want to throw him in there with an absolute animal like Fiziv. And I don't know if Fiziv would want to do that. So I don't, I think if they gave him the choice in Fiziv said no,

I don't think they should have any problem with that. So that's just sort of addressing that. Riddell versus Tiago Moises. Don't mind that. Jamal Hill versus Nikila Krilov. Jimmy Krupp versus Cleo Roundtree. Chris Curtis versus the winner of Munis versus Eric Anders. Another cat versus Nam.

Knight versus Oleg Zaychuk. Poyas versus Jared Gordon. No, they're teammates, I believe, at Sanford M.A. Right, yeah, yeah. Because Poyas moved to Sanford this year? Yes. Yeah. Viziv also worked at Sanford, M.A ahead of this fight.

So that might make the Chandler idea another one sort of not possible. Oh, right. Yeah, that's right. Drew Hilty. MMA fighting was my most listened to pod on my Spotify wrapped. Thanks for many hours of quality contact. Well, well played,

Drew. Auto picks Alda versus T.J. I'll go so far as called T.J. a duck if he doesn't take that fight. Font versus Vera. Wow, that's okay. Fiziv versus Ferguson feels wrong,

even feeding Tony to Fizier, but you got to defend that ranking. Don't mind it. Loved Hills call out of cost to make it happen. And he likes the loser of Cap versus Kikar, France. versus the loser of Kikar friends, Cody Garbrandt.

Francesco, our big friend from Italy. The last week, I miss more your show than the fight night. So he missed us more than the UFC, A, K. How about that? You don't have to say that, Francesco. Unbelievable. He likes Fizzis versus RDA. Alder versus Dilleshaw and Hill versus Cost are perfect calls.

Guida versus Seroni, weight category, not important. I'm okay with that. Curtis versus Dracus duplice. Font versus Vera, Cap versus Tim Elliott, Barbarina versus Matt Brown, rebook that. How about this, A.K.

Alex Marano versus Kevin Holland at 170 pounds. A little Houston versus Dallas crime, A.K. You know, Kevin Holland's been talking a lot of mess about the welterweight division and finally making that drop down after kind of teasing it on more than one occasion. So, yeah, Marano's the right test for him.

I know, again, kind of like we said, with Costa 205, probably thinks he can get a bigger matchup, But Marano deserves it, like we said, 10 wins in the UFC, three straight victories. He is, Kevin Holland is not above him. Should he, he does not immediately slot into a spot above Marano should he drop down to 170. So that's a good match. We got our man.

Hold on one second. I have to look this up because I just, I just posted the one thing. Hang on. Excuse me for a second while I go through. Ah, our man M. Ruffles 115 with his little graph. Oh, let me look at it. I have this as well. He's got the one championship matchups.

Very cool. Bellator 272. I mean, we already have a Grand Prix, so Pettus. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think they're going to do Pettus Stots. Kennedy Pico. I guess he's just kind of making some of the bracket here. Oh, wait, but he didn't because he put Josh Hill and Megamatov,

and Megamatov is in the tournament, and Hill isn't. Maybe he didn't know about the Bannamie Grand Prix. How? Oh, I mean, that's automatic. M. Ruffles. Maybe he's like, cancel the Grand Prix and just do Pettus versus Stutz. Nobody wants to see that Grand Prix anyway. Nobody.

Hill versus Magamatoff, Johnny Eblum versus Costello von Steenis. Oh, he also had Kennedy Pico. Okay. Yeah, that's a good one. So there you go. M. Ruffles and the other gentleman, you'll get a point. He likes Aldo Dillishaw, unless Dillishaw gets the title shot, then he do Sandhagen. I don't like that at all.

Fizzis versus Gilles. What do we got? Anything different? here. Gwita versus Oh, Raphael Alves, sure. Curtis Gastilum, preferably at 170, no. Marono Matthews,

Desco Tadorovich, Roman DeLidese. What else we got? Velizmus versus Ariani, Cornolosi. There you go, okay? I love that. I'm Ruffles. Thank you for that. If you were going to match up Curtis and Gasolm,

why in the world would you force them to drop down to 170? They both are having a lot of fun, to fighting, I mean, Curtis having a lot of fun to findy 155. Gaslam, clearly, I just don't know if you can make 170. Why would you make that at 170? Yeah, I don't like that at all. Another night span.

Poets-Poyers versus Mason Jones. That's fun. Vince Morales versus Nathaniel Wood. Fun. Tristan Gordet. Lightway. Clay Guida versus Mason Jones. Ah, hate to.

Their teammates, both at Alpha Male. Can't do that. Come on, bro. What was that matchup again? Clay Guida versus Mason Jones. Both Alpha-Mail guys. You can't do that. You're better than that, Tristan.

Dusko Tadorovich versus Duran win. All right. That's an interesting matchup. Manel Cap versus Amir Al-Bazi. I think Cap's way ahead of that. No offense to Al-Bazzi. He's been winning fights. Patrick Gosson, our good friend, man, man.

Joseo v. Connor McGregor at Featherweight. The weight cut is too much for Aldo's gas tank in the fourth and fifth. How about we see McGregor at his best weight class again? It's the closest he will ever get to gold. Okay. So your idea is for Josealdo to not cut weight. But Connor McGregor, who's like 220 right now,

you want him to cut down to 145 to fight Josealdo. And he bolted in 13 seconds. I like the idea, but at 155 maybe, like in two or three years? Come on, dude. Chris Gardner's first. He misses skeletal. He misses skeletal McGregor. Come on.

kind of miscaldel McGregor, right? Bones, Bones McGregor. Yeah, send that email to A.K. Patrick. No, don't. Chris Curtis versus Calvin Gaslam. Gasselm needs a step down. Curtis is demolishing top prospects like a vet anyway. Let's see him face the UFC bet.

Sure. Alex Marona versus Nico Price 2, now that wacky tobacco is allowed. That's okay. Kat versus Nam again. Dusko Todorvich versus Phil Haas, sure. Brian Barbarina versus Jake Matthews. William Knight versus OSP, sure. This is the, Patrick, I'm about to give you some credit.

This is the one that had me thinking, hmm, Cheyenne Bayes, welcoming back Brianna Fortino, FCAa, Brianna Van Buren, AK. Also, see, he should, but he didn't say Blismissmus. He just said Cheyenne. Did I say Cheyenne Bayes? That's my fault. That's my fault. I mean, you've interviewed her so many times, yeah. Yes.

Cheyenne Velismus versus Brianna 14o, AKA. Brianna Van Buren. Comeback fight. Brianna named some names. She didn't really call it any of the top 15s, but she was calling out the Ashley Yoder's in the world. So, like, they're saying, Cheyenne is thinking like early, like late spring, early summer,

and that seems to be the timeline for Brianna to come back. She was thinking like April May. I think that's, I think that would be a fine matchup. Like if you're going to, if you're going to give Cheyenne a big test with somebody in the top 15, I think Breonna Van Burenne or Burenne, Brianna 14 now. I think that actually makes sense.

I think that's a fine fight. You don't want to, the division's kind of shallow and it's good up the top. There's always fun fights. I think, I think this wouldn't be okay. Yeah, that's the range I'm talking about. I totally agree with that. That's the range I'm talking about. And again, wins and losses.

I know, you know, when we were talking about younger fighters, sometimes we want to let's say, oh, well, how can we get them both moving in a winning direction? This is developmental time for these fighters. It sucks that they have to do it at the UFC level because sometimes at UFC you lose one fight and you're out and I wish that wasn't the way it was. But I would hope that the UFC would have some leeway with people like a bliss miss like Brianna Fortino.

Like even again, Mallory Martin, she probably is getting released after this fight. I would like to see her get another shot. I think she is a good fighter. But I understand. I understand how the business works and the roster, how big it is, is fine. I'm not going to cry if, again,

someone like Mallory Martin gets released. But wins and loss, I hope they wait, look at them differently, sort of in the lower tiers of some of these divisions. I don't think you should release Mallory Martin. I thought she looked pretty good in the fight. Like, she got beat on the feet, but she looked better. She looked improved, especially on the feet.

She took a little bit of a beating. She couldn't get the fight to the ground. Could have, might have been different. She got fight of the night. Like, I kind of get why. That's true. That's true. But I think, like, random Marcos fought out her deal.

I think Mallory Martin could be, like, random Mark. goes 2.0. Like, get in there. She can win fights, but she also has somewhat of a veteran name in a way where some of these up-and-coming fighters, like, whoever wins the Jazz DeVizius K Hanson fight, that's a perfect, Mallory Martin would be the perfect next step fight. So I think there's value for her still in the UFC. I agree. I agree. Like I said, this is, I hope that they're looking at it this way as well. As far as I know, I think Hannah Seifers is still on the roster, right? So. I believe so. Maybe they are again, like a division like this, which is not as loaded.

They are giving some of these fighters a little more, a little more rope. So that's a good thing. On to you, my best friend. Oh, goodness. Okay. All right. Like I said, I didn't have time to really parse through this week. I apologize to everyone.

It was a very late card yesterday, by the way, as great as it was, 10 o'clock start time, six-fight main card and then television pacing. So you guys can do the math there. But I'll do my best guys, not to sort of run over all this stuff. Mike has already done. I do want to shout out all the listeners, as always, and all the people who sent in picks.

Let's start out with Instagram because I'm going to round back to it. So we have got... Oh, who do I'm going to start off with here? First shout-outs to our boy, Trip Harper, our boy in New England, sending some very nice pictures from Bellator. He was at Bellator,

and he took pictures with everyone from... It looks like Mara Ranallo, Stats, Dan Regliata. So thanks for sharing those trips. Looks like a lot of fun. I want to say, we got a message from Belgium. I don't know if this is our first. We got a message from Belgium.

Mr. It just goes by Tune on Instagram. Tunehoven, Tune Hoven. So I just said, big fan here of the previous shows and not know. So thank you. Shoutouts to Belgium. Ghost Coffin or

as is known Jose. Carlos Torres, Buckley, Cazares. Excuse me, Carlos. His picks Aldo, Diwali Vili. What else do I like? Guida versus Joe Selecki.

I thought that fight already happened or was booked or something. Curtis versus Darren Till, I feel like we're going to see that fight someday. And yeah, Marano versus Bayez. I agree. That's good. That's a good pick. And they want to add it. The ranking show was very fun to listen to.

The debates and humor were fantastic. Please keep them coming. Was there any humor? I don't know if there was any humor. That was rough. That was a car crash. Chad was on fire. I think if that had been recorded,

it in a studio, the studio would have been on fire. That was, I got violent. Jonathan Stewart says obviously has to be Oliver Dilleshaw, but for some reason that can't happen. Aldover, San Hagan, be awesome. RDA versus Fazeve. Jamal Hill versus Nikita Krilylai-Lan Turner. Man, Kliqaeda could literally fight anybody.

I think we say this after every Klai-Guita fight. He's not like super picky. Thank you, Jonathan, for some of those picks. MMA heads, always coming in with some great cuts. I see some, again, similar ones with, you know, matching up teammates with teammates. We don't like that. Todorovich versus Dolce Lungiambula. Did they know?

Oh, no, I'm going to confuse someone else. Barbarina versus Brown rebooking. Yes, I like that. As you just said, Mike Blissmus versus winner of Kay Hanson versus Jasmine Deutivis. There you go. William Knight versus Tafon and Chukwe. Morales versus Kyeong-Hokang. That's right, Kyeong-Hong Kang, who was also recently.

recently. Victoria, oh no, he lost, right? He lost to Ranihaniah. He did.

He lost. He heft around in the ground and found out. Yeah. And a fight that he could have won. First timer

doesn't even say hello, but thank you for sending these picks. Jordan Ely. It's just, all caps. All caps.

Jamal Hill, Volcanouznamir. Aldo Dila Shah. What a fight. Clopping emoji. Fizivivéhaeda is all I really got for Fiziv right now.

Oh, No, of course. I hope Mike is feeling better. And I hope you are doing well. Thank you, Jordan. I'm doing great. Justin also sent me a message. Mike, what is the account that he sends to you?

If you could check really quickly. Does he send it under T. Gordet, 1982, or does he have another account just for you? I believe that's what it is. Let me just double check. He did not send me a pick. I'll read this question out. Yeah, it is that. Okay.

He just sent you picks, right? He didn't send you this question. I didn't get a question. Tristan, why don't you just ask him yourself? He says, can you ask Mike? Because on the NBA fighting's ranking show, he says, you picked, and by the other, I don't think this needs that much addressing. Look, if we're getting Patrick Austin this time, I guess we're giving Tristan this time.

You picked Armand Surukian to make the biggest jump in the lightweight rankings. This leads me to believe that he's fully confident and convinced Surukian will beat Joel Alvarez on February 26th. Is this punishment towards Alvarez since he missed weight twice in a row? I'd be really hesitant picking Surukion over Alvarez in that fight. There's a second part to this. But let me just say, Surukon is really good. I don't know why you would think, Tristan,

Mike, don't even have to address this. I might have just shut this down right now. I know you want to, but Tristan, like, Joel Alvarez is also talented, but like I don't think anyone picking Syrukian is crazy. I would imagine he will be favored going into fight night. So I know you're just trolling, Mike. So I'll give Micah's chance to respond.

I think, honestly, and this might be a hot take, because I am a big time Raphael Fiziv Mark right now, I think Surukia might be the overall better prospect. Sure. He's just, he's got it all. He can wrestle. He can smother. He can strike.

He can submit. The guy went the distance in his UFC debut with Islam Makachev. He went to a decision with Islam Makachev in his UFC debut. Like, that's sick. That's silly. No one else in this roster could probably say that. How old is he? He's young, man.

He's very young. He's 25. He's 25. 25 this year. He's a fresh 25. A couple months ago. And he just got his first finish. Like, in all of his other, like, the other wins that he had, total domination.

He's a beast. Like, total domination. Destroyed for Vola. Destroyed Davy Hamos. destroyed Olivia Abbey Mercier. These were not close fights. And then Christos Gagos, who was on a winning streak, it was finishing dudes.

He went out there and bolted him in just over two minutes. Like, don't, like, I think he's a, I think he's probably, he might be a three to one favorite against Joel Alvarez. And Alvers has been super impressive. Don't get me wrong. But Serugian takes his fight to the ground. It's going to be a rough night for Joel,

I don't, I don't understand why he'd be hesitant to pick. Why would anyone be hesitant, to pick Sirukian in this fight. I think Shrewdown's going to finish Joel. Yeah. And again, Joel Alvarez is good. There's just a weirdly worded. If anyone wants to mic check Tristan over this strange take, the strange Sirukian Alvarez take,

I welcome it. I thought you were going to, I thought we were going to have a Shafcott Rachmanoff. I don't know. Because he got booked against somebody that wasn't in the top 15. And Justin else says, by the way, AK, you're right. Mike is definitely biased towards anyone in the New England cartel. I mean, Tristan, we know this. And yes, we still wouldn't be sure that he would have picked font if he was from another state.

like I don't know, South Dakota. I would have. You're always going to pick your guys. Well, Mike, we'll never know because we live in a war. And by the way, William Knight, I picked William Knight. And I think I was the only one to pick William Knight. Again, that bias is just unbelievable. I know.

And I know these guys. I know that in a firefight, William's a durable guy. And if he can get out of the first round, he'll probably win. And that's what happened. Yeah, he's like, would you say he's the Kevin Eucalus of MMA? I don't even know. Like, why do we need to? I feel, I just got nauseous.

Just bringing that, just bringing that name up. I just felt ill. He's like the Kevin Malar of, oh, God. He's like the Kevin Malar, we're just like, oh, God. There's so much, like, nothing surprises you. Like, like William and I could go get knocked out in 10 seconds,

or he could win a hard fought, gritty decision against one of the best 205ers in the world. Like, nothing surprising. Like, nothing shocking about him. Mm-hmm. I don't know why I brought it up. Cowboy up, okay. Cowboy up.

Oh, God, stop it. I need to. I've got to get through a few more listener picks here. Matt Bradbury just wants to say, Spark Carlis, Dan Mrett, an incredible fight,

fight of the year and comeback of the year contender. Yeah, probably. Spark Carlis versus Henry Carlis would be insane. Yeah, definitely.

Jeremy Kennedy, Pedro Carvalio. I like that. Emmanuel Sanchez versus Daniel Wichael. That fight, that would be a rematch, right? There's no way these guys have not fought.

Okay, they did. Yeah, yeah, Okay, we got Bellator 159. They fought twice. So this would be a trilogy, bad, I think. I'm not crazy. Did Sanchez win both?

No, I think it's one in one. Oh, do it. Why not? I wish, you know, I wish he'd say it was a trilogy. No, I assume he, Matt Bradbury is pretty deep. I think he knew that's a trilogy about. What I think, oh, I should look this up quickly, but, and then he's, oh, projecting, I think he's projecting the Bantamweight field.

So I want to make sure the Weichel thing. Yeah, one in one. I think he's projecting the bantamweight field here. It says it'll be Pettis, Pachy, Mix, and Horaguchi Archiletta in the first round. Yeah, I do. Yeah, sure, sure. I think those make sense. Vince Morales, Alejandro Perez, Louis Smoka, Khalit Taha.

Kalita Ha, still with the, yeah, I think he is. I think so. Yeah, okay. Sorry, guys. My memory is shot right now. Like I said, normally I do a little more prep here. What else do I like here? Man, there's a lot of, I think are the most popular picks I'm seeing, like, Cop, Tyson, Nam, so popular.

And I think he mentions Jamal and Volcan Oostomere. Like, man, a lot of that, a lot of that. I'm not, nothing too crazy with that, but the Tyson Nam, I think that that ship has sailed for Ra-Tycin-N-N-Amp. Cop Tyson-N-N-N-A-N-R-Kal-R-R-R-Kal. Right, yeah. Clay-Qaeda versus Brad Riddell. Oh. I like it.

Yeah, that kind of makes sense. Yeah, that actually makes a lot of, man, give Guida a real. ranked guy and then redell of course had to bounce back from his first UFC loss tricky I like that mad Bradbury definitely getting your point for that one if that happens Dad Jackson keeps making new

has had to make a new Instagram account for some reason I don't know why he might have gotten canceled so I but he likes the Uriah Hall matchup to and Jamal Hill Johnny Walker matchup he wants to see a rematch with Bobby Green I don't think that's necessary I do think it was a good fight and yeah I know Bobby Green had him in trouble in the third round

but he says a main event rematch. Sure, I'd love to see them go out of five rounds. I feel like there's something you do somewhere down the road if it has to be done at all. And they said Aldo Dilleshaw, Fon, Sanhagen. 135 has more killers than Oz right now. Damn, that's it. Shout us to Oz.

Great show. And always underrated. And then he wants to get a shout out to his podcast. I will not do that yet, Dad Jackson. I need to know why your last Instagram account was banned. If you have been canceled, then I will, I need to know. But send me an explanation. And I will shout out your podcast in the future, if assuming it is you are unjustifiably banned from Instagram.

I'll be coming back to that. Like I said, I wanted to mention a special account that was made. Shout out some people on Twitter. Chris at Dragon Slare 2. Chris Curtis versus Bruno Silva. I agree. Like I said, I know Bruno's fighting next week. But rules and match make it be damned.

Just make it happen. Meathooks versus Blendado bombs. Yes, as they said, just book it if Silva wins. So, okay, they did correct themselves. Braden O'Neill, thank you for the picks. Curtis versus the Moonez-Anders winner. Yeah, like I said, you could just pick one of the winners from next week card as opposed to having to do my crazy suggestion. Guida versus Jai Herbert's.

Yeah, sure. I don't mind that. Yeah, Valismus versus Tab of the Richie. I think that's a good one, too. Just kind of running over some of these here. Ryan Doherty also wanted that. Oh, no point for Alvarez, Srukia. Guys, everyone, you get so much.

if you'll pick this. Another copse to my Diargy pick. To Doravs versus Carl Roberson. Yeah, I mean, sure. Sure, sure. Versus his first win in the UFC, so yeah. What were your thoughts? I think you mentioned this already.

What were your thoughts on Font versus Cheeto? Interesting. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's interesting. I think, like, if the, I think the San, I think the San hand fight is about as 100% as you can get. I just don't know any other option. I think the UFC likes that idea.

And I think had this fight not come together and the interim title fight not happened, I think there's a very good chance that Fon in Sanhagen would have been matched up. Right, right. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, and I do hope we see that fight someday. I think it should be next, if not, it has to have a great fight. Redell, Tiago Moises, Jamal Hill, Tiago Santos. Clay Guida, Al-Aiquinta,

the only thing is Al-Aquinta kind of talked, I don't think he's officially retired. Santos is booked, by the way. Santos, who's Tiago-Sato's fighting next? I have to look it up. He's headlining a card, but... Yeah, apologies to people for... Sorry, I mean, my brain is mush right now.

That same. But Clay-Guita-A-A-Quinta, the only issue is, again, Al has kind of talked about retiring before, but it's not made it official. He's kind of made overtures to this sort of thing before. He's had a long layoff, of course. Ankelyev. Ancolaev, thank you, good matchup.

Chialasant does Ancala. But yeah, Clay Good Al-Aquinta, definitely a good matchup if Reginald is sticking around. Another Curtis Shabazzian. People, we don't love this Kurdish matchup. That does seem to be another popular one this week. Brendan Allen versus Alvey-Hinish loser. That's good thinking. That's good thinking.

Even if it's Alvey? You know he's not getting released. It's so wild. I hope Alvey's in the UFC for the rest of his life. Is that a gift or a curse? I don't know. The guy still loves what he's doing, apparently, so why not? Is he, like, secretly an M.M.A. purgatory, and we don't even realize happening right in front of us?

Maybe he's the random Marcos of the other random Marcos. I'd go, I'd say it. Nate Andrews, Crute versus Da'ung, Knight versus Kaleel Roundt, and he says, would you guys mind waxing poetically on the night metafield fight? Disappointed both in the refereeing, allowing Stahn to go to the entire point. Yeah, so also curious your thoughts in the cards. I think we can be pretty quick about this. I had no issue with the decision.

I had very closely rewatch the last minute of the third round. I think most of us had it one one going in. I cannot give men to field points for chess holding night against the fence. That did literally nothing. At the same time, did night land much in that last flurry? I watched closely. I think he landed three strikes, including three punches and a leg kick. but he also got hit by a couple of

Menafield counterpunches. So controversial for sure, but I have no problem scoring it for night. We said that main event is a good example of how to score. I think Knight and Menafield also could be put under the microscope and you can kind of see the thinking behind it. Shout out Michael Bisping did a really good job explaining why they might have scored that last round for a night.

I'm not saying it's correct. I'm saying why the judges did it that way and why they're not like crazy for doing it. And William Knight almost tripled up Alonso Menefield on strikes in the third round. Significant strikes, 19 to 8. There you go. No issue with that. I thought the judges got it right.

I was, like, impressed that the judges got it right. I posted the scorecard, and that was like one of the, that was the most popular tweet that I posted last night. Yeah. I said all three judges scored the third round from William Knight. And it was outside of maybe like one or two people, maybe like the cousins of Alonzo Menefield. Everyone was an agreement that the judges got it right. They were all impressed. Yeah, and look, Metafield's a good fighter.

He just has had some troubles really strained, like with consistency. And this situation, I would have liked to see him break apart and take his chances. I get it. I get third round. Both guys are pretty tired. You feel like as long as I'm holding the other guy, he can't possibly be winning. But you mentioned the significant strike count, Mike. I do think Knight was trying to throw, at least throw some stuff in the clinch, probably those who have counted significant strikes as well.

And, yeah, again, look, just an ugly fight. It's not like either guy blew the doors off with a winner or a lot. with winning it. But yeah, no problem in the scorecard. Let's just, let's move on from that one. Yeah. Dax wants to come in. Chris Curtis versus Zaleski at Welterweight where he belongs.

I do think you want to see it, but I think Chris Curtis is really loving life at 185 right now and would not shock me if he stays at middleweight for the rest of his UFC run and maybe never goes back down to 170 because he's having a good time. But I like that idea. He's got no pressure. He's got no pressure.

all free money he's playing. He's loving life. He's loving life. Cody Hartman is very excited. He's back. So are great cars. Again, a lot of the same picks we've gone over. Curtis versus Ponzanibio. I like it. He wants Zelisky to fight Alex Morano. Sure. That's a cool matchup.

Cobb versus Amir Albazi. I think cop is again quite a bit ahead of him. Vlissmus versus Luke Bunmi. And Knight versus Kuchelaba. Once again, Mike, after Kuchelabas settles his business with Paulo Costa, of course, wishing me good luck on BTL. Thank you. I will need it. I'll be facing the wonderful Phoenix carnivalry.

Marcus McGehee calling this the King of Rio edition. Yes, well deserved. Todorovich versus Joseph Holmes. I assume this is a contender series guy, Mike? Joseph Holmes won on the contender series, got a finish. And Dana White said, we like this kid. Let's put him on the looking for a fight card that they did for Fear. FC and he fought a guy that was a former teammate of his that actually called for the fight on

social media thought Joseph Holmes was going to be like a bum because he had like worked to them in training when Holmes just broke in so Holmes took the fight very seriously and Holmes whooped that ass and got a contract so yeah I like it well done yeah good match good matchmaking uh Marano versus Nicholas Dalby we just man where's Nicholas dollby a lot of great matches for him come back hopefully hopefully he's healthy and whatever the issue is he can he can come back and fight soon. Phiziv versus Gamrod Faheta winner. I like that. Paias versus Mason Jones. That's a good matchup.

And Morales versus Nathaniel Wood, I'll read this out for you, Marcus McGehy. They went in thinking the winner might pair well with one of my personal favors to watch, Dangerous Davy Grant, but Morales asked for another Englishman, namely Nathaniel Wood, and given his emphatic win over Luis Smokka, I say, let's give it to him. In short,

Morales Wood is my pick. Nevertheless, happy to see either fight made. Yeah, I don't I don't mind it. Again, I think Nathaniel Wood is, I do have him above Morales in my rankings. But I keep underrating Morales. I keep forgetting he has three UFC wins. Terrence Levrette.

What do we got here? Cot versus Tim Elliott, Cheyenne versus, did you read Terrence Levinard already? Brianna Fortino. Hayes Bethard. A lot of good fix here. Guida, Alexander Hernandez. We just said Hernandez is fighting Faheda, right? Oh, no, Fernandez.

I'm sorry, I'm fighting Cameron. I'm sorry. It's all getting met. is fighting you gotta be kidding me guys we are messed this morning I'm sorry no no it's fine I should like I said I should I would normally have these prepared

just a little is a little disorganized today I will find it it's all damn it I had it like it's and then I keep going back to Hione Barcelos for some reason I don't know why Hina Tomewikano that's what it was and that was before I looked it up on topology that's Guida Gwida Hernandez Moikano winner I think be more appropriate come on Hayes

Tadorovich versus Roma DeLite. Yes, DeLizze has not been able to get a fight down. He keeps having to withdraw or have opponents withdraw. Knight and Crute. Oh, just put Knight and Crute in there together. Makes sense, ranking-wise, both them fighting on the same card. Sure, I don't mind that. I think Crude does need to take a bit of a step back.

Semi-Cal MMA. Curtis versus DuPlace C, Guida versus Bobby Green. No need for judges in either. Didn't we not just see Guida versus Bobby Green? Did we? Am I the one whose mind is melting now? I mean, we know my mind is melting, but... I'm sure they fought at some point.

Oh, June. It would have to be a rematch. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, people, yeah. Listen, that was... I mean, it was a bit ago, but listen, people. They said, no need for judges in either of those fights. I think a agreed a Bobby Green fight, I mean, it already went to the judges and we'll go to the judges again.

You know, this is a semi-cassual M.A account, so... So openly, but, yes, they fought already. people if you book a rematch please you got to let us know or a trilogy about you got to let us know that you're aware otherwise we just think you're a fool uh Liam Perry I think I gave you your point lots of good picks here I'm trying to find ones that haven't been read out I just want to say they're from the UK did not know much about Curtis until recently listening to you guys and may fighting what a fighter he is beating guys that feel the UFC were sitting up to lose against yes going up with your right going with your eye hall next so that's a very popular pick

and Mike, I think he might have been right on point, suggesting that one. Thomas Collins said they had to miss a week due to work commitments. Work sucks. Fazeve, Tony Ferguson, the fight the night winner, any UFC card would be a striking battle. Great way to boost Fiziv's name. Another one for Curtis Gassum, but I assume they mean it middleweight. What a start to Chris' UFC career. Throw them in there against Calvin, see whether this amazing UFC run continues.

They want to check the tapes for, oh, Firol versus I, which is that they suggested. So okay. I also suggested that. Okay. And I think a lot of listeners did. Maybe I didn't mention that one. I don't think. That was the right matchmaking for a few of them.

I believe this is a popular listener pick. I wasn't. Oh, hold on. Oh, hold on. Leon Pair. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa.

Yes, a reverse check the tapes? Well, I'm just, I believe, Liam, if I'm wrong, send me a screenshot of the message, the message your reference and wrong because I saw you said that versus the I Lee loser which was supposed to have November 13th that fight did not materialize um maybe so maybe I'm sorry maybe you're referring to it further back so he would mean Calvio then technically well I don't know if he wants credit because the fight didn't happen and so is saying like while I kind of threw I in there no or or if he had previously mentioned I but again if you had previously mentioned I and then

changed it later to and had to change it because I got booked. No, I'm sorry. I cannot give you a point for that. And it's not your fault, Thomas Collins. I think a lot of stuff happened since you may have made that suggestion. So it's not your fault. I cannot give you a point for that. No, sorry, they will leave me no point.

Thomas Collins, an excellent fight suggestor. Timmy Osho, Marano versus Chaos Williams. Really dig it. They already. Did they already? Oh, Cass Williams won. And knocked him on like 20 seconds. Oh.

And then they want to mention, okay, so I shouldn't have read that one. And then just said, Paul Craig didn't fight in this card. but they want to see him fight Anthony Smith. Timmyosha, you're all over the place. I'm sorry, but shout-outs. Thank you for the suggestions. Beer O'Reilly, a very long message. Sorry, my guy, I cannot read this off.

I cannot read all this. They wanted, again, yeah, whatever. They wanted the Sarukia and Alvarez people. Brian Barbarina, Ian Gary. I think there are different stages. I could see it happening sometime, but I don't think, I think Ian Gary's name is so hot right now. I don't know if that one gets made.

Datorovich, Andre Pertrowski. Oh, I like. that. That's fun. I really like that. Berra. That's a great pick. I hope that one gets made. I will definitely give you a point for that, sir. Fiziv, RDA, Aldo, T.J. Dilloshat, no one contender for the winner of Jan Sterling. Let's just hope that gets made. Orrin Sleepwalker, our last Twitter here before I go on to our, just a couple of emails. Fonts, Marlon Baerra. So there you go. Not ideal, but everyone relevant is in the six to 12 range, either booked or has already fought. Rob Fon. Kroov. Jimi Kruit, Devin, Clark. Fiziv.

Connor. Fazeve, Connor Gillespie. What the? Wow. This is what happens when I, look, I'm not the only triple threat match.

I'm not the only one whose brain is scrambled apparently. Obviously, I assume you mean Gregor Gillespie and not Connor Gregor and a Bradredale Tiago Moises. All right, guys, thank you for those picks.

Again, I apologize for me a little more disorganized this week. And just a couple of emails. Casey Carpenter always coming in. Also wishing me luck. They want to see me face Jed in the BTL championship. We'll see guys.

I've got to get past Phoenix. Who, by the way, as someone pointed out to me, I should mention to point it out to me. She apparently tried to call Matt Sarah on the undisputed podcast, unfiltered, excuse me, the unfiltered podcast, tried to call him the prince of positivity or I don't know, the king of positivity, I suppose.

Phoenix, that ain't right. That ain't right, Phoenix. I don't know if you just had it in your head because we mentioned it so many times on our shows. But don't you dare. Wow. Gimic infringement? That's a big gimmick in Frisement.

That's a big how dare you. So whoever let me know about that. Listen, oh, thank you. This is from CT Kook on Instagram, letting me know this happened on. UFC unfiltered, apparently around the 37-minute mark. So I did not go back to listen to it. I love Matt Serra. I'm a huge fan.

I'm not trying to start a beef. But Phoenix, we already got beef. And now that's only going to be worse. I'll tell you that right now. I'm coming for everything you got. You are not making the finals. And they say, Jed and me, would be like the Patriots, God, all these New England references,

Patriots versus the Giants, I'm the Giants, and that's narrow for sure. Or Eddie Guerrero versus Brock Lesnar, I assume. Eddie versus Brock, Eddie Grosner, I'm definitely Eddie Guerrero. I'm a big jetaholic, but always cheer for underdogs. Thank you. I'm the ultimate underdog. Alex versus Gunner. Oh, Murano versus Gunner, great fight.

Curtis Christchuk. Yeah, I could see that happening. I think Curtis, again, his name has a bit more heat than that, but I don't that's crazy. What else? If Vince Vaughn isn't available for F's Eve, we can do Gillespie. Radell Moises, and I don't think Tjie will do a non-tuttle fight, so sadly, Aldo has to fight someone behind him.

Cruz, if he beats Munoz next week, Mike shaking his head, that ship is... No, the UFC, if he says no to that fight, the UFC will move on. Yeah, the no leverage. And then if Cruz loses, maybe I'll have Aldo fight Marab. And Fawn for... Oh, Fawn for Sunoz needs to be made. People are forgetting about San Hagan. Guys, San Hagan's the easy pick.

And our last email from Justin and listener suggestions thing from Justin Wenaker says before they give their picks, let me tell you how brutal my night was as an Emmy better. Mike, you won our picks, I think eight out of 13 pretty solid. It was a tough, it was a tough night for some of us. I think Casey had three out of 13. Yeah, and I took some flyers. Like the Mallory Martin pick, I wasn't thrilled with, but I thought with everything going on with Cheyenne, I thought that was like a safe dog choice. Yeah, I mean, I took a couple flyers So I probably should have done better

But yeah, I'm happy with 8 out of 13 Justin Wenacher says they used to play the UFC fantasy game Always get about 10 out of 12 fights Or close to right out of the 12 fights close to that Something like that. So I decided to put $10 parlay Each night where I pick the fights I'm most confident last time my $10 bet would have paid Almost two grand

If I won, I hit 8 out of 9 8 out of 9 Which one did I miss? Oh no, Alonzo Metafiel Oh, that had to be torture to watch that third round, knowing that Menafield probably wasn't doing enough to win. Oh, Justin Winneco. I am so sorry. The UFC owes you some money, and maybe Menafield does too.

Anyway, some picks, Fiziv RDA. Gus, if he's going back to 205, Jamal Hill. Oh, I like that. Yes, I like that a lot. I don't know if the matchmakers would go that direction, but Guida versus Hot-Sossolts-Holtsman, Chris Curtis. I saw a lot of people saying this. Chris Curtis versus Adasana. Yeah, just screw it.

This is, uh, Winnecker says now need it. Yeah, why not, right? Uh, with Hey, Whitaker and, uh, hasn't officially booked yet, right? And, uh, take another suggestion for Knight and Chukwe. Can you imagine the square off? Yeah. Look, again, we just saw a night in Menefield. So can it get more muskily?

Uh, so there you go. Thanks, guys. And I just wanted to give a special shout out to, uh, Michael Connoffry, who I don't think he said in the picks this week, but started an ought-no meme page, uh, which Mike and I have seen. It only has one meme on it so far. But guys, please give this page a follow. Let me make sure I give the exact address. I think it is just Otno.

It is Otno meme meme, underscore page. Yes, Ot-T-N-O-Meme underscore page. Oh, he did send me the pics through the meme page, not his. But these are ones, a lot of other people have made. But yeah, he'll give that a follow. There's only one so far. And it is a me reacting how I might react to when people make picks for Robbie Loller or Tim Mien. that are not as a breaking hashtag lobby for Robbie rules.

So guys, check it out. Let's see some more memes on there. It needs more followers, Michael. So hopefully you can get that out there. But check that. Again, that's aught no underscore meme underscore page. Mike, that's it for picks. Again, they can reach out to me on Instagram at Alexander KK.K. Lee at Twitter at

Alexander K.K. Lee. Email, Alex. Sorry, Alex Dotley at SBNation.com. And Mike, before you sign us off, I do want to finally do a segment I keep forgetting to do called The Last Match, which we kind of started a few months ago. I forgot to do it for, I forgot to do it multiple times

for poor, who's the New York gentleman who retired, not Alecquinta, Jean Valante, I meant to do one for him, completely forgot. So he seems he retired. So shout us to him. But also the last match this week, it looks like no more matchmaking for Felicia Spencer. She announced her retirement to fight bananas and then, of course, confirmed it to us and a number of other sites. And Felicia Spencer Young had a very eventful brief run in MMA, becoming an invicted champion, fighting Chris Cyborg, fighting Amanda Nunez for the U.S. Featherway title.

And now is walking away, walking away, having hopefully made a decent amount of money. she she kind of subtly threw Dana White's own words back in his face saying this fight was sorry MMA was an opportunity for me and not a career I know she is a teacher as her full-time job and it looks like she

you know maybe we'll be dedicated to that and starting a family whatever she decides to do so Felicia has always been I think for a lot of us a great interview a very likable person very positive and I think she did wonderful with her brief time in MMA again Fadaman and you know as Chris

Cyborg there's really not much else you can do at 1.45 and beat Megan Anderson another good fighter. So wishing her the best. And hopefully if she decides to fight again someday, great. If she doesn't, then this is the right way to go out. So that's the last match, I think, for Felicia Spencer. Well said, AK. And we wish them all the very best in the next chapters of their careers. And the next chapter for the UFC is next Saturday. UFC 269 Final pay-per-view event of the year

Headlined by Charles Olivera versus Dustin Poirier for the lightweight title Amanda Nunes versus Giuliana Pena for the Bannonway title and the co-mainte event Jeff Neal, Santiago, Ponzanibio, Kai Kar, France, Cody Garbrand, Sean O'Malley, Haleom Piva,

the return of Josh Emmett versus Dan Igay, Pedro Munoz versus Dominicruz, Augusta Saki versus Tai Tuivasa, Bruno Silva, versus Jordan Wright, Andre Munez versus Eric Anders, Aaron Blanchfield versus Miranda Maverick,

Alex Perez versus Matchdell, Ryan Hall. I thought we're going to get some sort of reaction on AK versus Derek Minner. My only thing is friggin Sean Sheehan on Twitter

suggested, in response to the Jacques Adelefa Vietta, Leonardo Santos, like I can't believe all these guys got submitted this year. Just cheekily, it was like,

you know, Ryan Hall fights next week. And it chilled me to the bone, Mike. Derek Minter has a lot of submissions. I don't, no, no. Ryan Hall is not getting submitted.

Stop it. Well, I don't think he will. All four of those guys getting submitted in a year, Mike? It'd be like, is there time for Damien Maia to fight again and get submitted? I know. I could. Why not? Why not?

What if Forreys submits? Actually, Oliver has been submitted before. So that's not. It wouldn't be so crazy. Randy Costa versus Tony Kelly. That's a good one, too. And then Priscilla Kachuaera versus Jillian Robertson will open things up. So we will be there live with all your.

With all your post-fight coverage, all your coverage throughout the week, lots to discuss, lots to talk about, and make sure you follow along wherever you find MMA fighting content. So that's it. This week is in the books for A.K. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for listening as always. We knock the rust off. Back again next week. Always remember, everybody, don't take the stuff too seriously. M.A. is supposed to be fun for more fun next week with the final paper of the year right here.

And on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.