MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 46

Episode Date: January 16, 2022

How close is Calvin Kattar to a UFC featherweight title shot after his bounce back win over Giga Chikadze, and what fight could get him over that hump? That question is discussed on the first matchmaking edition of On To the Next One for 2022 following Saturday's UFC Vegas 46 event. In addition, future matchups are discussed for Chikadze, Jake Collier, Brandon Royval, Katlyn Chookagian, Viacheslav Borshchev, Bill Algeo, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. And welcome back to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Matchmaking is back. Return of the match. Making, return of the match. My God. My little Mark Morrison, impressive. Okay, UFC Vegas 46 is in the books.

I'm excited. UFC action is back in our lives. The featherweight division got itself a new title contender. And we'll see what needs to be done to possibly get him into a championship fight in the near future. to you back with the matchmaking hat on my friends. It is a Red Sox hat this week because I would not dare wear a Patriots hat after that performance on Saturday. But be that as a May, we will leave that in the past.

I am Mike Heck and joining me as always is the best friend, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the man with the real voice of an angel, Mr. Alex Klee. Hello, AK. No, Mike, my best friend, that was so beautiful. And we really should, again, you know, we've talked before. We should put together a trass. We should lay down a track today with Stephen. Stephen plays, I think, guitar and bass.

I think some other instruments, too. So we've got to lay down a track sometime. But I hope your son was also a subtle homage to a show of respect to young Mac Jones, who I know you said was one of the few Patriots to show up. The only Patriots to show up. And you'll be seeing a return of the Mac next year when they go back to kicking the Bill's asses as regularly scheduled. But let them have their year.

Let the freaks like Ariel Hawani have their year. If you root for Buffalo, you don't have a lot going on for you, so they need this. And I say this love to all our Buffalo listeners. And congratulations. If you're a listener and your fan of the Buffalo Bills, congratulations. And the Bengals, long time. Damon, our own David Martin. 31 years, Mike.

31 years. Sports is cruel. I'm a cool game. I'm 700 bazillion times happier for Damon and the Bengals fans than I am for the Bills fans because they handle themselves with some sort of, semblance of class. They act like they've been there before, unlike the Buffalo fans who feel like one playoff win was enough to negate the last 23 years of actual asswopens that the Patriots laid

upon them. Let them have it, Mike. No, I tried. I tried. These people are picking on me, AK. They're picking on me. I legitimately, they brought back an old tweet, and then we'll get to the matchmaking. They brought back this old tweet after the Patriots beat the bills when Mack Jones had two

passing attempts. too. And I said, I legitimately feel bad for the Bills. This, when what Bill Belichick did to the Bill's head coach will weigh on him for the rest of his career. But I meant that like legitimately. You can ask Halwani. I texted him the same thing. Like, I literally feel bad for you guys right now. Like that is about as bad of a loss as you can have. That makes it worse, Mike. The sincerity makes it worse. But your sincerity made it worse. And I watched that game. And that game was hilarious. But I literally feel bad. But good for you, Buffalo. Good for you. Speaking of coaches and people who may have, you know, learn from losses.

Yes, what a segue. What a sec. Normally you do the segways, Mike. That was good. You need to, see, this is why you're my best friend. We had to get out of there. I had to get out of there somewhere else. Speaking of my best friend.

And I normally don't get upset about these things, but here we are. But anyways, let's talk about the shining night for New England sports. Calvin Cater, because what a performance. This whole build to the fight was about Gigat, Chikaze and Giga Chikaze's title aspirations. Was he the guy? Could he beat Alexander Volkanowski? Should he have been next to replace Max Holloway? Was it too soon to put the Korean zombie into this title fight?

Calvin Cater, heard it all, said nothing, and just went out there and returned after this year layoff, this locks to Max Holloway, and he looked better than ever. He picks up a gigantic win in the main event of UFC 46, and now, AK, The storyline heading into the fight and the storyline heading out of the fight vastly different. Calvin Cater might be a win away from fighting for the title. And in all honesty, if he's not too banged up, maybe he becomes the backup fighter for the title fight at UFC 273. But all things considered, A.K., what a performance from the Boston finisher.

Now what? Where does he go from here? He went from being, if he had lost, the crazy thing is, if he had lost, that would have put him like three or four wins away probably. You know what I mean? We said there's a big difference. I was saying on some of the pre-fight shows that he'd never put together this like big run to make people look at him as a contender. The good news is obviously he's always in big fights. I mean, Ricardo Llamas was a big fight at the time. Giga-Jikaze, of course, on Saturday, Max Holloway last year. Jimmy Stevens was a pretty notable fight. He fought as a beat. So he's fought nothing but good names. And because of that has not put together, you know, a four-fight, five-fight win streak in the UFC. And that's usually what people look at, you know, when. when you're looking at, oh, is this person a title challenger? Which, again, I think people should gauge quality of competition more, but people like win streaks too.

So this loss would have made him, I think, six and four in the UFC instead of seven and three, which he is now. And I think we would have been like, man, he needs to bounce back win. Then he needs to beat another ranked guy. Then he needs to beat a top five guy again to have a chance at getting a title shot. Instead, like we said, one win away. Now, who should that be? There's two obvious options.

I am leaning towards Ortega. I just think that'd be a cool fight between two guys who are absolute zombies when they once things aren't going their way, they're entertaining to watch because of how much punishment they can take and because they have that element of being able to finish a fight pretty much at any time. So that's the direction I'm going in. And also because I thought you'd be going with the other obvious name, but I'm not sure. You would be correct because we do have the two choices.

I had a feeling you were going with the name that you said. I'm going with Yai'er. Just because how freaking fun will that fight be? And I feel like this fight has been talked about for years now. There's so many times where the Kater-Yai-R-Rodriguez fight should have happened. I believe, like, Calvin's even called out Yai-Ear Rodriguez at one point, which, by the way, Calvin Kater doesn't call out anybody. And at one point he was like, yeah, maybe I'll just fight this guy, yeah-e-eer,

because he's such a good fighter. I don't know why he became an Italian guy. but I'm from Boston, so like the accent kind of pops out when I get upset. But if Cater wins that fight, even if fights are taking, he fights for the title. But at the same time, the other thought I had was, let's just say, let's say Volcanovsky goes into April 9th, fights a Korean zombie, and just annihilates him, just runs through him, which is a very big if. He runs through and puts him away in like the first seven minutes of the fight. And Volkinovsky, it's on the microphone and says, hey, enough of this one fight a year, crap. I want to fight like four times this year.

So I want to come back this summer. Cater could get a title shot in his next fight if Max Holloway is not ready to go. And by all the cons, it doesn't seem like Holloway is going to be, it's going to be this huge rush to get Holloway back in there. So it kind of all depends on Volcanovsky, how this fight goes.

If it's an easy win, he finishes, doesn't take much damage and he wants to get back in there, there's a very good chance of Volcanovsky could be like, hey, Calvin, great performance, let's go. Fourth of July weekend. let's have a party. Let's create some real fireworks, bra.

So Calvin's in a good spot right now. And it's amazing the fortunes and how things change so quickly in this sport, AK. I had a horrible thought. This probably wouldn't happen now I think about it because it's a year who has been reportedly anyway had difficulties with negotiating with the UFC in the past. But if by some chance he and catered as far as we know, it's been a pretty good company man. But it would be, I had this horrible thought of a year jumping over Cater for the next tell of shot because, you know, Yayr had that close fight with Holloway.

So it would be like, oh, you know, well, Max couldn't get it. But his fight with the year was so exciting. One of the best fights of 2021. We're giving Hall. We're giving Yair year, you know, the title shot coming off a loss. That wouldn't surprise me. Again, I wouldn't like that. I was at think Cater not ahead of him in the rankings, but should be ahead of him in the title fight conversation, if that makes sense.

But I really could see the UFC either going with. If they do cater, especially if they do Cater Ortega, keep going with Yai'er off a loss. But I hope they don't go that way. Yeah, I mean, we'll see what happens. A lot can happen. But again, Volkovsky, if he goes out there and does his job, he's got a little more power.

He can, if he goes on the mic and says, hey, Calvin, let's fight. That's probably the fight they're going to make. If he calls out Yair, then Yair gets the fight. But that's Kater. Great night for him. On the flip side, as I said in the bill to this fight, whoever lost it, the road does not get much easier. And it will not get much easier for one giga Jkaze or anybody at 145.

This is tough. I'm going to make this quick because it's hard to gauge how long gig is going to be out after a beating like that. I mean, he took a vicious beating in this fight. His face looks in horrible shape. Hopefully he bounces back and gets back in soon. My guess would be like best case scenario, late summer, early, fall, but if Ilya beats Charles Jordane next weekend, that's my pick A-K. He's going to have to fight another young where, I mean, he's not, Chacazza's not young, but Teporia is a guy on the come

up. He's a young, hungry whippersnapper, and unfortunately, the loser of that fight, these are the types of fights that you're going to have to get. So, yeah, Ilya, if he beats Charles Jordane, that's the fight. That's the next fight for Giajikaze. Yeah, we said the window, to get that title shot at heavyweight is, is smell. Like we said, a loss feels like it would have sent, definitely would have sent Cater pretty far to the back of the line. Chikaze, not so much, but, I mean, you're right, if they want to keep giving him competitive fights,

there's only so many options, and a lot of the guys that are coming up into the bottom end of the top 15 or near or just, you know, hovering around the top 20, these are young up-and-coming guys. Like you said, Tuporia, Bryce Mitchell, guys like that. So there's just no easy, oh, get Chikaze right back on the wagon fight, unless you want to throw him some, someone totally outside the top 20,

which is what I'm doing. Because I'm killing two birds, one stone, two main card birds, one stone here, Mike. I like the Bill Algeo callout. I like the heat outside of the bizarre. He's a Biden voter thing, which we spent all night trying to figure out as a team, which said the NBA fighting team

was trading Slack messages. I think we understand what he's implying, but just very confusing when you're dealing with someone who isn't even from the United States. So Bill Algeo needs some work in the callout. though I actually don't think his mic skills are that bad. It's the content I might have some issue with,

but I actually think he's pretty comfortable on the mic. I think stylistically, it's a good matchup. As far as entertainment goes, as far as do you think it's a winnable fight for Jocadze, and you want him to, again, just sort of get back in the wind column. Algio is a great choice. Not to say that Algio couldn't upset him,

but that's another part of what makes the matchup so compelling. So I'll go with what Signor Perfecto has suggested. Maybe I'm cheating, save myself a little time here with the main card stuff, But I like it. I like Chikaze Al-Gio. And if I'm Chikaze, I'm going for that fight. You should definitely think it's winnable and look for that to bounce back.

Yeah, Bill LGO's promo was like when you're on the golf course, you're teeing up, you see this beautiful par five. It's straight ahead. And you just wind up and you smack it. Like you hit an absolute bomb and the sound is nice. And you're like, everyone's watching you on the tee and they're like, ooh. And then you realize you hit a slice. Ah, like that's what Bill Algeos. That's what Bill Algeo's promo was like.

And one of the listeners had an excellent choice for Bill Algeo. And just going back to my Toporia pick, I know there's people going to be like, well, they're both from Georgia and maybe they won't fight each other. Listen, they're not in a position to say no. If the UFC says this is the fight, this is the fight. They're not teammates or anything like that. They just both happen to come from a country that is surging in MMA. And I know that they both have a ton of respect for each other. They all root for each other, but at the same time, this is what happens at this level and in this type of a division.

So it would not shock me at all to see this fight happen. Maybe when they're doing their return to global travel, international travel, that could be a main event or a co-main event on a card outside of the United States. Topori is also a man of many nations, isn't he? I think he's, I'm saying it's over now, born in Germany. Yep. And really lived a lot of his life in Spain. And yes, but I think, but his nationality is Georgian. is Georgian, excuse me.

So that's great. I love, man, I love people with those diverse backgrounds. That's so cool. But I think you're right. I don't think there'd be any sort of reluctance in either guy's part. Like, oh, no, we're both from Georgia. And I think they'd be fine with it. AK, where do we go with Mr. J. Collier after his submission win over Chase Sherman in the co-man event?

And why is the correct answer, Parker Porter? Holy, why was it so obvious to everyone, including myself? That was probably, you know, we'll get into the listener picks later. That was probably one of the five most popular listener picks this week. Pretty much anyone who mentioned Collier, it was Porter. I might have some other options here, but it was just unanimously Parker Porter. Everyone threw that in. So I'll go a little bit different.

I want to see him just jump in. And if they're trying to keep Sergei Spivak on the card next week, I mean, did Parker Porter get hit? Excuse me. Did Jake Collier get hit that much? I mean, if he's in good conditions. Yeah, if he's in good condition, no busted hands. I mean, sadly, usually we see a minimum suspension of one week. But, hey, if somehow he avoids that, we've also seen no suspensions.

If we've seen no medical suspension, send him in against Sergei. Send him in there. Keeps spitback on the card. It'd be a very tough fight for Collier. And I understand the Parker Porter talk, but I'm going with, see if we can slot him in two fights in a week. I mean, that would be a cool story, especially at heavyweight. From all accounts, and this is, I mean, this isn't done, obviously, and it's never done until Pennhead's paper. Initial thoughts, the plan is just to rebook Spivak versus Greg.

Hardy in the near future. But that's a lot as. But yes, the correct answer is Parker Porter, and it will be glorious and it needs to happen soon. And I hope there's some sort of like pose down ultimate warrior Rick Rood style before I actually throw a punch because you got to do stuff like that in the UFC. So let us go from the heavyweight division to the flyweight division where Brandon Royval began the year of the raw dog, AK, with a hard thought.

Michael. Michael, come on. I'm a little salty today, A.K. So the two-fight skid for Brandon Royval is not over, AK. Where does Mr. Royval go from here? What if Roy? What if this is, can you imagine, let's say Brandon Royval, I'll say right now, I'm giving him the Alex Perez match, Chanel winner, UFC 271, February 12. So I think the timing works out.

I for some reason I thought Roy Val and Perez had fought when I was like, have these guys not already fought? And the fact they haven't, I'm like, well, I mean, they're right next to each other in our rankings. I think most people's rankings, probably not more than one or two spots apart. So it makes a lot of sense. Obviously, by this talk, I'm sorry, I'm leaning towards Perez. My assumption would be Perez beat Schnell, and then you match him with Roy Val. But of course, if Chanel gets the upset, there you go. Roy Val-Schnell would be another good matchup.

So that seemed really easy to me. Can you imagine if Royval beats either of those guys, gets one more win in the summer, and then gets like a title shop by the end of the year and becomes the UFC flyaway champion? Literally, this will be known as the year of the raw dog forever. There will be no escaping it. I will never, at all MMA fans, he'll be like either our fighter of the year

or top three, probably if he pulled off something like that. And forever, people would look back, man, remember 2022 in MMA? Oh, the year of the raw dog?

Oh, man, that was great. That was a great year for everybody. We all, we all raw dogged it that year. And I'll just be like, oh, my, just face palming for the rest of my life.

Like, there's got, I'm Jason Bateman in the rest of the element. Just, there's got to be a better way to say that. Yeah. I feel. like if that happened,

year of the raw dog would be your new Happy Birthday, AK. It already is. So, yeah, I said it on the pre-fight show on Saturday. I'll say it again. Give me Brandon Roy Val versus Minnell Cap. That fight will be freaking wild. It makes perfect sense right now.

I know Roy Val wants the loser, the title fight. I just don't think that happens after a split decision win over Hajjuro Bontorin. Cap fight. That's the one. And it needs to happen now. Let's just do the damn thing. and just watch chaos unfold

because that fight rules and I can't wait to see it. Great matchup. Now on the other end of the flyway at Spectrum, A.K., we go to the ladies. Kailen Chukagin and Jennifer Mayer had themselves a pretty entertaining fight.

A fight much more entertaining than a lot of people thought it might be. Chukagin gets another win and that wasn't even the biggest story for Caitlin Chukagin on Saturday night because it was revealed that this victory couldn't have come at a better time

because it was the last fight on her UFC contract. So this is very interesting, AK. So I'm going for one and a half Otno points here because this is kind of a historic pick, if memory serves me correctly. So my pick is Caitlin Chakigan versus a Lima-McFarlane next in Bellator. Go for the title, Caitlin. Go get that strap because it's not happened in the UFC.

So that's my pick. This would be a good ad for Bellator, a big fight for McFarland to come back to. good number one contender fight. If Alimalae wins, you can do the rematch with Giuliano Velazquez. If Caitlin Chiquiangay wins, she gets the winner of Juliana of Alaska's versus Liz Karmouche. Boom.

We got ourselves, you're welcome, Bellator. Go out and sign Kailen Chikagan. Let's get this damn thing done. Chikagan versus Elimelae. Co-main event for any card, you could even headline an event with that fight. So there you go. That's my pick. That's not a bad, uh, top, uh, flyweight top four.

If Belator snags Chukagin, that would be in our rankings, M.A.flagging.com, global rankings. Caitlin Chigian, number three. Juliana Velasquez, number four. Liz Karmouche, number seven, and Alimalae McFarland hanging in there at number nine. So they would have four of the top ten flyways and a division that they've done a pretty good job promoting. So that would be really nice. I wouldn't mind seeing any of those fighters mix it up in some form or another. So there you go.

You've kind of booked the top of your division for the rest of this year and like next year if you bring in Chukagian. Yeah, obviously, I'm on the same wavelength. I think a lot of us were outside the box on this one. I mean, this doesn't even seem like the outside the box idea anymore. This seems like the inside the box. It is crazy that she said specifically. And again, keep in mind, we said she is a top five in our rankings and in the UFC's official rankings. And she said she was not offered an extension.

It is very common by the UFC, you know, good negotiating to even before a fighter wins the last fight to, you know, kind of kind of give them, get the chance to low ball them or give them an offer that's more in your comfort range. you know, if you're the UFC, because obviously her value will be higher after the win. So it is surprising. They did not even offer her an extension before, or excuse me, or a new contract. And that's a pretty good sign that she has, she has her, you know, one foot halfway out the door. And the UFC is completely fine with that. So that's the way to go. If she happens to stick around, I'd like to see her fight, Gillian Robertson.

Pretty big gap in the rankings. But, you know, it would be cool to have the two women, I think, with the most fly weight wins in the UFC, go at it. You know, again, a very high-risk fight for Chaguan. I think she'd be a pretty big favorite, but if she lost and it would really shake up her ranking. So I don't know if she'd want to take that fight. Certainly, Bellator and a fight with an Elima Leigh-McFarlane.

It seems like a much more, even than immediate title shot. It seems much more appealing. But Gillian Robertson did beat her at a submission underground event in August. In a, I didn't like submit her. It was like overtime, overtime, one of those weird escape time wins. But there's some, so there's some history there. So if she stays in the O. Julian Robertson,

otherwise I think we all think Belletor, now's the time. Yeah. And Dana White basically like basically drove her to the airport, basically bought her airport ticket because he was asked about this

to the press conference. And here's the classic Dana White. We're probably not going to see her again with us answer. I know that we went into this fight with her contract. It's expired now. She's a free agent right now.

I don't know. That's between her and Mick. He did that deal with her. We'll see what happens. So what Dana was probably trying to say is, Caitlin, thank you for your service to the company. Best, best of luck with your future endeavors, because they don't need her. And it's, it's disrespectful to say that from a UFC perspective, but the UFC doesn't need Caitlin Chukagin. Like, all she's going to do, she's actually, she's actually bad for them right now. She's bad for the division because she's,

all these up, we're excited about this upcoming wave of talents coming up 125. and they're all going to have to fight Caitlin Chukagan and there's a good chance Caitlin Chagin beats every single one of them. So we're not getting any new challenges because Caitlin's going to be there just siphoning off all this talent and getting these wins over these up-and-coming fighters.

Like it's a tough spot for both of them to be in right now. It's amazing how many fans were straight pooping on this rematch. You know, the Chukagin, like these are two top six, in our rankings top six, whatever you have right tip no lower than top 10 two top 10 fly weights they've been two of the best 10 fly weights for the last you know a couple of years

and so many fans were just like why is this rematch happening or I don't remember they fought the first time or like it's and you know you said whatever maybe saying what you said is disrespectful but it's crazy how much disrespect she gets Caitlin Chukigin gets from the general public she's won three straight fights

four of her last five six and two in her past eight her only losses to Valentina and Jessica Andrage. She is one of the best women fighters pound for pound in the world. And you're right. It's just for whatever reason, you know,

you just don't connect with the fans. She does not finish fights, which is a big one. And I don't think that should dictate your popularity, but I understand why it would. She's the first fighter with 10 UFC wins, all by decision. What a lovely and dubious honor to have.

It's, yeah, it's just not a marketable, I shouldn't say, I'm sorry, she is just not a marketable property for the O.C. At this stage and hasn't been, unfortunately. So, and yeah, the biggest thing, just someone who's going to knock off viable contenders. So I guess it's best for both parties that they part ways. But so that is the business, guys. That is the business of combat sports right there.

Forget meritocracy. There's so much more involved in it. Yeah. I wish Caitlin Chiquet would just go full on heel turn and be like, listen, I know I'm not going to fight for the title, but bring me you're up-encomers. Bring me this deep talent that you're talking about, Dana. I want Casey. Give me Aaron Blanchfield.

Give me Manny Fioro. I want them all. And I'm going to knock them all down and none of them are getting title shots. Valentina's going to have nobody to fight. She's going to have no one to fight. Just do that. The UFC might re-sign her.

But at this point, like, I don't see it happening. That's what she called out Aaron. Aaron Blanchfield is a child. And they train together, I believe, if I ever seriously correctly, I will fight my teammate. I am going to ruin my teammates' career. That would be hilarious. Amazing.

Please don't do that, Katelyn. Please. I want to see you go wild, but please don't call out these four 125ers, so I think I'm not quite ready for Katelynuching it. It was quite the debut for Mr. Bore Chef, AK. The Dancing Power Puncher gets a stoppage win with the body shot in his first ever UFC round against Dakota Bush, who you have to think, Dakota Bush is probably not long for this UFC world. after these two fights, but big win for Borchef. I mean, where do we go from here?

I think everyone just wants to see him fight. I don't think it really matters who he fights. People just want to see him again, and they want to see the potential of this dance coming back out. I think that's going to be a gift for the rest of time in M.A. But what did you sort of land on? Because this is this is a throw-a-dart territory, is it not? Yeah.

Yeah, that dance was incredible. Happy Trails, probably, yes, to Dakota redacted Bush. again we you know we we had some rough nicknames on this one again his couldn't even be read on the air undoubtedly an edict from ESPN people you can look it up or you can just use logic and figure out what Dakota Bush's nickname is if you are

unawares but we also had ugly man which I like Ugly Man Joe again which we said may have been a I would like to think it's a shout out to Ugly Kid Joe 90s one hit wonder ugly kid Joe but a problem either way great nickname and I hope not bad for Joseph Holmes self-esteem either way obviously the obvious matchup for for Borchyev

because of Argus you know as we were all thinking we were all thinking boy if if Borchiev wins this because no I have no idea like you said I threw a dart in my rankings I mean this is just a cluster of guys from like in the bottom 20 bottom 30 yeah I don't know there's a lot of guys want to know

one and one one and two two and one you throw them in there I think just signed signed another newcomer to fight him, someone else who's from the Contender Series like him. But other than that, yeah, really, what matchup makes, like, quote-unquote the most sense? I don't know. Throw him Kizulah. I don't know where Kuzula Vargas has been. Bring him back just to get starched by Borsha.

Yeah, it's tough to go wrong here, but, uh, I mean, Steve Garcia seems like a fun name. Dude's durable, tough, fun fighter, likes to finish dudes in his hands. I think it's a fine next step. So I'll go with that. Sure. That'll do. Borshiv's a story. He's a story.

It doesn't really matter right now who they throw them in there with. Unless, well, there is a name our listener suggested. I bet you got it too, which would be a hell of a story. And we'll get to that later. Oh, okay. Now I'm intrigued. I bet you got it too. I bet you got it too.

We go to Bill Algeo and you already gave your pick with Gingachkaze. I'm going to, I mean, I'm just curious based on the frame and the style and their finishing abilities as of potential finishing abilities, the chaos that could ensue. these guys are massive 145 ponderers they're giants Bill Algeo versus Sean Woodson I feel like this is way too easy you just throw those big long lanky 45ers at each other and magical likely ensue and yeah that's the fight I'm making I have no rhyme or reason yeah I like it let's go I'm sure the promos will be delightful

where's Woodson oh he fought no he fought in November boy this is so many cards I forgot the Colin Anglin wow I completely do not remember that Yeah, he went rough. Absolutely. We're in rough shot through him. First round finish. He's three and one in the UFC. Man, that's shot in Woodson for a guy who's so big is really creeping up on me.

He's good. Wow. He beats Zalalal. That's a good win. Damn. Yeah, LGO Woodson. Let's party. Let's have a good time.

Love it. So let's go to the first wild card pick, AKA of 2022, where we're going to choose a fighter we have not match made for yet, and we'll matchmake for him right now. So what you got? I'm going with our friend of the show. friend of M.A. Fighting's podcast, Brian Keller. This guy is willing to fight anybody, so it's a bit hard to match me for him.

He's almost like, you know, we almost use the Kevin Holland rule at some point where it's just like we just don't match me because he could accept a fight tomorrow to fight again next week or in the next card in February. You don't know with him. But I want to do him a favor and suggest something. Not that he ever takes anyone's career advice, but yes, we could, you know, you could just rebook the Hakhrmanov fight. but I like him I've you know we've wanted to see him fight Sean O'Malley for some time the timing for that does not work right now Sean O'Malley of course has a thumb injury we don't know he's coming back

when he's coming back he's going to call it all kinds of other names I feel like we're just so far apart from that fight getting made so there's a fight between one of O'Malley's teammates Kyler Phillips and Marcelo Rojo UFC 271 February 12th I would pick Phillips to win that fight I think Keller her should go after him do a little, you know, blood sport. I killed your teammate.

I killed your friend. Now you have to avenge him. So if he can get a fight with Collar Phillips, get a nice win there, and then call out O'Malley, I took out your boy. Maybe we get a chance there. I don't know if O'Malley Phillips is like close buds or anything, but, you know, there's at least a little bit. There's at least some connection there.

So, yeah, give me that. Give me, give me Kelleher Phillips if he beats Rojo. Yeah, I mean, we saw what happened with the last guy that defeated Kyler Phillips. he got the Shaanamalley fight in Haleon Piva. It did not go very well for him, but at least he got to that fight. So I'm going with Cort McGee, because I feel like he deserves it. He deserves the rub after that performance over Braheema. And I think we can tie in a couple of different storylines here,

a.k. with the selection. One is the, let's try to get one back for the Gipper type of storyline. And the other one is, how can I help my best friend get a fight that he's been calling for on the show for an awful long time. And I feel like we could get the answers to both of those questions with this choice. I'm going with Cort McGee versus Alex Marono, AK, because Alex Marrono has been on a nice little streak. And if you are going to be a top 15, top 20 welterweight in the UFC, you have to beat

Cort McGee. You have to beat the Cort McGee's of the world. And if you can't, it's just not going to happen for you. And Cort McGee is a sealing creator. He will build the ceiling. He will determine how low or how high the ceiling is. This would be a great test. And if Alex Marono could beat a court McGee,

we could start throwing, we could start very confidently throwing him into these top 15 type matchups. If you want to talk about Alex Marono versus Belal Mohammed over the next 18 months, let Alex Marroto fight Cort McGee. If he wins, gets one back for his teammate and his coach, there you go. Then we can start talking top.

I think this is probably the best fight Marano can get right now. And it's the like probably best litmus test that he could possibly get that would have some sort of impact on the actual rankings. Yeah, that's a look, that's a three round super active fight like stand up fight waiting to happen. You're not kidding about McGee being I don't even know if litmus test is accurate. But being this, I'm just looking at, okay, so so pretty much everyone he's beaten in the UFC. Oh, wait, he beat Robert Whitaker? What are we talking about this in the show for? He won a split decision over Robert.

I totally forgot that. I thought Whitaker beat him. Anyway, anyway, yeah, we talked about it in the show. So, correction for any one of those in the Post-Fite show. But everyone else he's beaten. And either way, that was a sign for Whitaker to go up to 185, if anything. So it did kind of change things for him. Chris McCray, Ryan Jensen, Dongye.

There's a lot of guys he's beaten are no longer in the UFC. Dominic Steele, Alex Garcia. Meanwhile, guys who have beaten him. are thriving for the most part. San Antonio, Ponsenibio, Sean Strickland, Sean Brady, Carlos. So, yeah, that is, man, that is a crazy,

that is a crazy run. And congrats on him, by the way, for getting, he's at 10 and 9 now, getting above the 500 mark, 19 U.S.C. fights for former ultimate fighter winner, Corp. That's crazy. But yeah, I got a good wild card pick, and I think we'll see him again

at least a couple more times in 2021, too. It's pretty wild, like looking at Court McGee, record because prior to the win over Silva, and this is a good, this is a really good performance over Bahima, he had lost three in a row. Yes. He had lost to Carlos Condit, who wasn't beating anybody at the time. Sean Brady, Diego Lima, I was at the Brady fight. I was like, oh boy, maybe Cort McGee just doesn't have much left in the tank.

He was one in five over his previous six fights. And now look at him. The guy is just the pillar of a fountain of youth. And 37 years of age, just turned 37. AK and he's fighting like he's 22. Unbelievable. Resilience. I mean, if you're, you know, it sounds, it sounds corny. But if he ever, one day when he writes a book about his life, which I'm sure he will, because it's been extraordinary, it'll be, you know, the title would be resilience.

You know, the story of a guy who's just, holy crap. I mean, it's such a cliche, but shouldn't even be here. You know what I mean? He's lucky to be alive. And now has scraped together a very respectable UFC career. Regardless of how many more fights he has, like I said, turn 37 in December, he has it's a very good career he said for sure so do we have any uh check the tapes oh lord so many well i'm sure there's so many check the tapes but let's keep it off for yes we've been

off for a bit so i'll just run them down real quick uh our listeners were on point with so many of these matchups i'll read them real quickly uh lewis versus toivasa uc 271 dosanos jas aphas josephazios fazev and uh jesus carc versus stephaniaguer those aren't both February 19th. Volcanovsky. Oh, sorry, I should have stricken them. Volcanoxia Holloway 3. Obviously, they were correct, even though that match lasted only for 24 hours.

Sterling versus Yon 2. Elliot versus Ulan Bekhov and Moroosch versus Agapov. Excuse me. So some of those are happening on 272. Sterling Yon 2 has got moved, right? Yes, that is on the April 9th card. That's 273 now. Okay.

Moraysh versus Song Yadong. Wait, is that a fight that's happening? March 12th. Nicolao versus David Devorak, March 26, and Gastilum versus Nassauldine Emavov, U.S.C. 273, April night. And I'll give out some solo points. Mike, we have our first solo points of the year.

I'm pretty sure these guys are the only ones who had these picks. Stephen Brighter, Jalen Turner versus Jamie Malarkey, UFC 272, and Barry O'Reilly. Certainly, sir. I don't know if anyone else had this, at least not in my selections. Larone Murphy and Nate Land were

March 26. So, oh, I did want to shout out also. Marcus, our boy, M. Ruffles 115, I'm sure you saw this, Mike, who sent in a bunch of check the tapes. He wanted 50 tapes checked, but whatever. Some of them were, again, listener picks, consensus picks. He had a bunch of weird ones, which I give him credit for. He had, like, oh, stamp, not UFC, Stamp Fair Tex, Angela Lee. It's a great fight coming up.

Saeed, Salma, Dave. We all knew that was happening, though. Come on. Listen, why didn't anyone else pick it? Why didn't anyone else pick it? Because it was obvious because she won a Grand Prix to fight a. Angel Lee. Okay, well, let's, listen, he's still, he's still, thank you for reminding us,

M. Ruffles and sending us a, sending me a spreadsheet, as always. No point. No point. You can have one of my points from my personal collection for all, all, collectively for all these. Yu-Yo-Wakamatsu, Adjana Maris, again, maybe an obvious one, but fine. No, but I like when people just point out stuff that happened outside, you know, non-UFC fix. So, that's coming from my collection, not, I know, this is not an official point recognized by the committee, but you can have, you will have my point.

No, not for the Fair Text-Leafite. No, absolutely not. And Ruffles 115. This is an under the table point, hush-hush. It's between you and me. That's insane, AK. We're setting a bad precedent for 2022. That someone who, someone wins an actual tournament to fight said fighter for the title.

And now we're giving away a point because someone actually wrote this out. What we knew was already happening? For that, plus the Yu-Yo Matsu pick, plus Saeed Salma and Davion Franklin. Okay. Selma Franklin won, yes, that is a point. It's collective. It's, I like the non-UFC picks. Everyone out there picking Corey Anderson and, uh, and, uh, Yeah, if you picked Corey Anderson of a deem, um, cough, you get a point.

Good for you. Yeah, non-sarcastic clapping for me. Good for you. Peter, yeah, and Al Jemaine Sterling 2, point. Everyone gets a point. Listen, we switched roles this week for the card for USC Vegas, uh, 46. You were, you were the prince of positivity. I was kind of down on it.

We're back. All right, we're back now. All right. I'm back. Things are back to them. All right, let's go to the peeps. You want to give the first disclaimer of the year? Yeah, very quickly.

Just again, guys, if you want a solo point, it's really got to go category style. You have to kind of be the only one who has it, at least in my picks. Please, guys, pay attention to weight class. Have these two names interesting fought already? Or recently, is someone have a notable injury that we know is going to keep up for a long time?

Is this person even with the UFC anymore? Are they released, retired? Could this person be booked already? And you just didn't keep track, et cetera. And of course, most importantly, is your pick do-do because if it is, probably not going to read it. There you go.

Let's fire these babies off. Poppy, I'm sorry, I'm saying, Mark, I should read these at the beginning for now. Marcus McGay, he has christened this, the K-K-1 edition, 1-W-O-N, C-K-1. I like it. Stylistas out there.

Yes, a very esoteric reference. C-K-1. The clone for men and women, right? There it is. Is that what it was? I'm trying to remember. I don't remember the brands of all these things. I just remember.

CK1's a big deal apparently. I wouldn't know. I smell like crap. All right. Poppy underscore Brian. Back to Otno for 2022. Couldn't be happier. Love making picks.

It's a highlight of my Saturday night. One of my Otno New Year's resolutions was to not be so lengthy with my picks. Only one explanation. Well, we're starting it off here. I picked Ty versus the Black Beast way before Ariel. Again, thanks so much for the show, guys. Algeo versus Charles Rosa. I think Algeo is way ahead of Rosa at this point.

Props to Rosa. for taking that fight, but I just know. Algeo versus Charles Rosa coming. Oh, yeah, I guess, okay, you wouldn't ding Rosa too much for taking the final on short notice, but yeah, and I'm with you. They're just, I can see it happening someday, but they're not on, they're on slightly different pass right now. Agreed.

Borshap versus Rodrigo Vargas, AK, how about that? What? Chikin versus... Who's this? This is Poppy underscore Bryant. Poppy underscore Bryant. I don't know. I don't know how we connected on that one.

Unbelievable. Chukagin, he's saying give Chiqui in the title shot. Nunes versus Pena 2 kind of holds up any big fight for the bullet. I like this with Santos versus Androge. Lauren Murphy on the same card seems perfect for me. Lauren Murphy's fighting Misha Tate in May, so I don't think they'll all be on the same card. Roy Vaugh v. the winner, Matchnell versus Alex Perez, which is taking place February 12th, hopefully this time.

Collier versus Cawyer versus Justin Taffa, both good callouts, but Arlovsky also handled Philippe pretty well, who Collier, of course, lost two. Of course, Andrei Arlowski is now fighting Jared Vandera. Cater versus Josh Emmett. Sorry, didn't stick to the New Year's resolution very well. Thank you, Poppy, underscore, Brian. John Ray always keeps it just all business. Kelleher versus the Phillips Rojo loser.

McGee versus Zawada, Pickett versus Duplice. Pickett versus Duplice? You just got to throw this man right to the lines, huh? Hey, he's what, two-fight Winstreet? Yeah. Chickens on fire. Yeah, let's throw him in there with Duplice.

Jukage versus Santos, Royval versus Perez-Schnell. Winner, yep, and Cater versus Rodriguez. There you go. Owen Carroll. T.J. Brown versus Melzick Baggeserian. Brian Kelleher versus Nate Manus. Cort McGee versus Matthew Semmelzberger. Bill Algeo, Herbert Burns, Boer Chef, David Onama.

I don't think that will happen because Onama's going to fight back at 145. He did fight at 55 for his debut, but that was on like two days notice. Yeah, I saw a couple of lightweight suggestions for Onama, and I'm like, I think he is dropping to 145. Okay. I mean, there'd be a great fight for O'Nob would probably jump all over that fight because he'd probably win it

or at least he'd have a really good chance to win it. Bonsorine versus Schnell Perez, Collier versus Taffa, and he likes Jamie Pickett versus Duran win. I think that's I think that's the right place for Jamie Pickett. More sensible, yeah. Brandon Nunez, got one for Check the Taps,

Lewis versus Tuovasa. Everyone's getting that point for that one. Callagher versus Davey Grant. AK. Just a good old fun brawl. That's a popular one, yeah. Chikagi versus Andrew Lee, Royval versus the winner of Nicolaa versus Devorak. Chikaze versus the winner of Kisaris versus Sodeek Yusuf.

And another for Cater versus Emin. M. Ruffles, where are you at, son? Chikaze versus Arnold Allen. Collier versus Dantale Mays. Royvob and L. Cap, well done. Chagy and Androge 2. Boerchev Garcia, Algeo Venata, Pickett Eric Anders.

Don't hate that. I think that one's okay. McGee Samelsberger. How do you feel about the Chicagian Andraj 2? Obviously, I saw the same message. I, like, for some reason, that fight is more recent in my mind. Though I guess October 2020 is not that long ago. But for both fighters, it's a what, at least three or four fights in the past, right?

Since then, Andrage, oh, two fights, you're right? She fought Chubchenko, then fought Calvio, and Chukagan has fought three times since then. I don't hate it. I think it's the only problem to me is I think Andrage has her number. I picked Andrash to win that fight. I was pretty confident about it, and she did win it by first round finish. So I don't know. I don't think it's like the worst matchup to make.

If Andraj is sticking around 125 pounds, it does feel a little too soon for me. Would you care? What would you think if they booked that rematch? I'd probably feel the same way I did about the Baja fight, if we're being honest. I need at least like two years, I think. I think maybe the end of this year, depending what both fighters do, you could talk me into it. But like we said, Chukagan, ideally not in the U.S.

anymore. Brian Kelleher, Chris Gutierrez. T.J. Brown versus David Onama. Okay. So right weight class for sure. And this fight would never, ever happen. But I'm going to play devil's advocate, Mr. M. Ruffles 115. Okay?

Because wouldn't it be awesome to see James Krauss corner two fighters at the same time? Oh, it's one of these situations. And then he said, how about them, Pat's? Yeah, I know, I know. I'm not taking a shot, but I'm literally just saying the wizardry of James Krause to be able to, like, go to two different people in like two different sides. There's a corner and James Cross standing in the middle of two corners. Yeah, yeah.

I was like that I hope you didn't mean running between, like, like running around the side of the octagon. No, no, no, no, no. He's just in the- There's a coin flip, whoever. No, no, no, no. He's just in, yeah, he's on the side. Like camera, like camera center, you know, like frame so the camera can see him.

And it's just, yeah, is in the middle of, outside the cage, but in the middle of the, you know, of the area. And shouting at both guys. It would be amazing. He probably, again, he probably does that in training. I'm sure he'd be very familiar scenario for him. Yes. I'm not taking a shot of you, M. Ruffles. Even though you took a shot of the Patriots, but we'll, we'll let that slide because I don't want to go down this path right now.

but I'm just saying, I know it's hard to keep track of who James Krause trains with now because he was cornering like 17 fighters on Saturday night. Dylan, Mike, what a fight. Cater versus Ortega, not even a question at this point. Cater's the fourth best featherweight in the world, in my opinion. Can he beat the third best?

Good promotion right there. Giga versus Rodriguez. Can you imagine the kicking in that fight? Royval versus Cody Garbrand, AK. Cater, I saw a lot of that. And some people just said it as almost as like a troll. but I will say is he

he said Cater is the fourth best welterweight okay so the only question would be Cater is the fourth best welterweight in the world

Featherweight Wokanovsky Hall of what did I say Welthory rate Cater's the fourth best featherweight in the world Volcanovsky

Holloway Ortega I don't know if I would I that's a big that's a big claim the fourth best featherweight in the world A.J. McKee.

Going outside of the UFC. A.J. McKee. She's probably looking at. He's probably thinking UFC. Zombie? I mean, does this win make him better than zombie? Does this win make him better than Yair? That's a, wow, that's quite, that's bold. We really need to see these fights happen now because, yeah, he has now earned the right, certainly, to have a chance to earn that to prove that.

But I, I don't know. We'll see how our rankings look in February, but that's a heck of a claim. Roy Valant Garbrandt, yeah, I think you said you don't think Garbrand's around at 125, right? You think he'll probably go back to 135? Probably.

I don't know. We'll see what happens. Morval would be a very, very... Again, you know, we don't want to get in this whole discussion every time. I wish they could give him a lighter fight. But you're right, knowing the UFC,

they probably would throw him in there with that with Roy Val. And I think Roy Val might chew him up, if we're honest. Yeah. If he does stay there, the fight is Garbrandt cap. But if he doesn't stay there,

then the fight is Roy Bell cap. So there you go. Borshep versus Terrence McKinney was his other selection. What a banger that would be. I don't think he's quite ready for that, but we'll see. We'll see. Anthony Lopez, you get a first time, Ray K, first time submitting my matchups.

We're on to the next one. Hi, Anthony. Hi, Anthony. Welcome to the party, pal. Cater versus either Ortega or Josh Shemitt, no matter the matchup, either won't be an amazing fight. Chagin versus the winner of Tate Murphy. I'm sure if Misha wins, she'll get the title shot, but I feel like she proves herself a little more at Flyweight before getting a title shot if she wins. He likes Roy Val Cap, Borshep v.

versus Euros Medich, Collier versus Chris Barnett, AK. No, I like them both so much. I don't want to say that. But I thought that made a lot. I suppose not one person recommended that in my DMs. And Anthony Lopez may have suggested the best matchup for Bill Algeo. And I think you'll appreciate this. Bill Algeo versus Billy Corantillo, the Battle of the Billies.

Oh, geez. Someone said that me, I didn't even make that connection. They didn't say hashtag Billy on Billy. I don't know why. Both have a win over one of my, one of his best friends, Spike Carlisle, and he would love to know how that matcha plays out. So it's a little personal too for him. I thought you're going to say Algeo of Ryan Hall, which I will get to later. But Bill on Bill on Bill or Bill on the loser has to take on the other person.

Like if Corantillo loses, then he's Bill Quarantillo from now on. And if Al Jiu loses, then he is now Billy Elgio. There we go. That's how it should be. I love it. Well done, well done, Anthony. Thank you.

And your suggestions are welcome every week on this program. Hussein Habab, I believe, is another new first time. Yes, it is. Hey, Mike, first time send in for Otno and a huge fan of the show. He likes Giga versus Dan Igay. I like it. Chagin versus whoever the hell they want her to beat to get a rematch with Valentina.

We've seen Stranger Things happen. Koff Pena. Oh, sorry, back to the Giga thing for saying. I mean, there's a shared management there, right? But, I mean, not in such a way that they would... I don't think so. No? I think Ege...

Yeah, Ege... Ege works some sort of PR with Giga's team. But is not his... But is not managed by the same. No. That's so confusing to me. Ege is managed by... I believe Ege is managed by a sucker punch,

but I could be... Maybe things have changed over the last year. I'm not really sure. Right. Okay. Yeah, so no issue there. Collier versus Barnett. Royval versus Pantosia 2.

McGee... Too soon. It's too soon. I saw a lot of people recommended that. Is that not, that's way too soon. It's one fight later. And that was, that was in August. And Pantosia could very well, had Pantosia not been injured, he might, he'd be fighting for,

he's a chance he'd be fighting for the title next week against Brandon Royvo. I mean, Brandon Moreno. I had people who sent it to me who I think clearly forgot that they just fought like five months ago. But that person specifically said two. You said that person specifically put two at the end. So they're aware it would be a rematch. Yeah.

That's way too soon. That's a definitive victory for Fantasia. Why should you have to fight Roy Valigan? No, I hate, no. Mike, I hate it. Wow. I hate that pick. Hussein, keep sending in picks.

You've actually, this is the first, we've made history on the program. You've made A.K. a little upset. Thank you for the picks. McGee versus Nico Price was the other option. Nico Price versus anybody, really. I mean, turd Ferguson says Calvin Cater

should have to go back to the pecking order and fight Arnold Allen. I mean, if you're Arnold, if you're Arnold, Alan, you should be calling for that fight.

They try to make that fight for several months, probably from like September to January. They try to make that fight. It just, Arnold, Alan was still dealing with,

with a hand injury. I'm not sure when he's cleared. So, but Calvin Cater beating Giga Chikaze, who was 7-0 in the UFC at the time. and maybe it went away from fighting for the title.

That puts him ahead of Arnold out right now. It just does. That fight's not happening next. It's just not. What else we got here? Borshav. versus Jordan Levitts. Kind of interesting.

That's actually pretty interesting. Be a good test. Levitt's chin against Borchews' ground game, because Jordan Levit, he gets him down. Could be over very quickly right after that. So I like that. And he likes Michael Trezano. the winner of Trisano

Duwado versus Brian Kelleher They're saying Keep Kelleher at 145 Oh, I don't like that I don't like that either I like that I know he's probably He's like fought as much at featherweight

As he has at Bantamate Over the last couple of years Because of COVID and stuff You know he just needs to take fights But no he is a 135er Uh harryor Harry Dwaskin Cort McGee versus Francisco Trinaldo

For some old man grinding kind of violence. Yeah. Yeah. That was another one I'd had to check up the date. I mean, obviously they hadn't fought before because Chernobyl was in a different weight class for the most part. But for some reason, my mind, I thought they had fought. Tjee-J. Brown versus Billy Q. Kelleher, Vince Morales, Pickett, Tadouravich.

Dusko's still pretty young and Pickett can help build him back up after losing streak. Algeo Venada. That's fun. Slava Claus versus Demir Hadzovich. Chikagan is going to sign with Bellator and fight Alejandro Lara. I like it. Collier versus Rodrigo Nassimento.

and he likes Calvin Cater versus Josh Emmett. Yeah, you're an Artega affair, but I think they end up becoming way bigger wars and cater needs. Let him box up Emmett in a main event. Wow, that's a lot of confidence right there. That's a lot of confidence. No respect. No respect.

Good. You know what? You New England boys thrive on that. Well, no respect for Emmett. They feel like he'll just go in there and just outbox Emmett and just piece them on. I thought it was the other way around. I was like, wow. Yeah, they said,

seemed to me like he was making that fight as a favor. Let me just go back and read this. Yeah. I think Yair and Ortega become way bigger wars and cater needs. Let him box up Emmett in a main event. So he's just getting, he's suggesting in a way, not that he means it in a disrespectful way, but pairing cater up with Emmett would be kind of a favor to Calvin Cater.

Okay. That's not a favor for anybody. No, absolutely not. Gerard Biaghan fights to make. I got a lot. I'm surprised how many of these I got. He likes Chikaze versus Shane Burgos, A.K. Your thoughts on that?

I like it. I think that's the right range. I think one, Shane's a very likable fighter. I think he deserves a step up in competition, as it were. Again, there are a lot of high-risk, medium-reward fights ahead for Giga-Chiccadze right now. After you take a loss like that, he's in no position to campaign. to fight a top 10 guy right now. I'm not saying the UFC won't give him that.

But at this point, you just have to go back to facing tough guys in, again, one of the deepest divisions in all of MMA. So I have no problem with the Burgos match up. Again, if you're Chikaze, you should look at that as a winnable fight, one that gets you, keeps your spot in the rankings. And Burgos, of course, you jump on in a second because you win that one. There you go. You finally get your, you know, you get your own rankings. So, yeah, I love it. And he likes Cort McGee versus Danny Roberts, the rest of we've already talked about.

Our man, Francesco from Italy. Let's see if we got Collier versus Wanaspino, AK. Wanaspino is very active on Twitter. He is. And it's confusing sometimes. Yeah, very much so. He likes Chikagan versus Fioro if Fioro beat Jessica I. What else do we get?

Algeo versus Darren Elkins, AK. I saw a lot of that. Yeah, look, Darren Elkins is, he has so much experience. So it's hard to say, oh, well, you know, don't go them in there with someone who only has, whatever, three or four UFC fights because he has more experience than everybody. So, yeah, I like the idea. Again, yeah, a good chance for Algio to keep this, you know,

keep this good run going against the guy who I would have pretty far ahead of him in my personal rankings. So, yeah, and again, you know, there's always that fun chance for late Elkins' magic. So that one probably goes the distance and you probably get a wild third round. Tino Alvarez, first timer, did my research, hope you guys enjoy. All right, put you to the test. Kayland Chacon, sign outside of the UFC. It works off for everybody.

Okay. Bill Algeo versus Camuella Kirk. And Brian Kelleherr versus Casey Kenney. I like it. T.J. Brown versus Damon Jackson. I like that as well. I was amazed I hadn't thought of Kelleher, Kenny. I do think that is the right fight to make for both guys.

Max underscore Block wants a otno point for Dustin Jacoby versus Michelle Olegzecheck. And sure, you can have a point. hopefully I'm not too late to make my one pick for the week and he's picking Brian Royval versus Cody Garbrandt. I think it's got a couple more here. Three more. Robbie Ryan, hard to get too excited after this one. Jukagin versus I, Fioro winner.

Not ready for another title shot. I had Collier versus Hardy, cut Sherman again, but Justin Taffa just changed my mind. F. Greg Hardy. Okay. Good. Bring on the heavyweight carnage next week. Let's see Giga versus,

Let's see Giga versus Ortega. Yeah. Most people I saw were doing some sort of mix of Cater Ortega, Cater Alleyer, and then Chikaze Ortega. Actually, I didn't saw any Chikaze Ortega. I don't think you threw that out there, right? I didn't see Chikaze Ortega, did you? No, that was the first time I've seen that one, I believe. Yeah, I don't know who I've seen that.

I've seen, yeah, a lot of Chikaze Ayer's, but that was the first Chikaze Ortega that I saw. Matt Rovelli. Ready for another year of fights. Only two fights I'm really looking for right now. Jamie Pickett versus Eric Gander's, Borchep v. Luigi Vendramini and oh I got to go to the email on this one excuse me forgot Tristan Gordette going to the magic going to the magic he wasn't gonna miss he wasn't gonna miss the first show of 2022 he he did ask me he said is it okay if I email you

because he emailed six predictions for the prediction is extravaganza and he said he emailed them to me I said no you didn't and then I looked at my spam and there they were so I said just remind me just remind me well that's really what Tristan's comments belong half the time so wow I mean Holy moly. I'm trying to see I'm trying to see if there's anything new and exciting here.

I'll read, I'll read his Calvin Cater, Brian Ortega description, because everything else has already been said. This fight would definitely have to be on a pay-per-view card with a crowd. This fight rules so much because you're getting regular

and spinning elbows from both guys. Elbow, hashtag, elbow on elbow. I like it. And let's see what this comment is. That sounds painful. painful. And Mr. Heck, I leave you these words in regards to your boy, Calvin Cater. From the character, Michael Corleona, the godfather, don't ever take sides with anyone against

the family again, ever. Well said, Tristan. That is accurate. Yes. I mean, I laid out the blueprint. I just didn't have the, as Mick Foley would say, the testicular fortitude to pick Calvin Cater in that spot. Maybe a little reverse jinksing going on there? Did you do a little reverse jinksing? I'll go with that, AK. How about that? Not that I believe in that sort of thing, but I know you, New Englanders, are very superstitious. Superstitious. When it comes to your sports. Yes.

A.K.A. I turn it over to you, my friend. Yeah. All right. So we mentioned a bunch of these already. For Kater, yeah. Emmett was, I think, as popular, if it actually not more popular than year. I saw a lot of Kater versus Emmett. So those are the top two with Emmett, maybe with a slight edge.

So while I just said, you know, I'd like to see the mix of Kater, Chikaze, or take a year, Emmett clearly is a name that could factor in there. So that's actually interesting. And for Cater versus Ortega, I just want to read a comment from Marcus McGehy. He says this would be East Coast versus West Coast, Stryker versus Grappler, chin from hell versus, well, chin from hell. Both chins having been fully submerged in the river sticks. So I like that, I like the Cater's stocked just so high. Chikato, like I said, you mentioned Chikaze Burgos.

I love it. A lot of listeners were in on that, and Chikaze I was the other one. Collier versus Porter, Denny Capp's calling this thing this week. would be for the J.M.F. Belt, the jiggliest MFer. Let me just say, first of all, J. Collier and Park Reporter, gentlemen, you are both beautiful, and any cracks, people are making fun of your bi-types are definitely in good fun.

You're both a couple of beautiful bastards, and don't let anyone tell you different. Collier versus Taffa, also a very popular pick. The Roy Val versus Garbrand thing, Dad Jackson, he suggests that and just put LMAO after mentioning it, so I don't know. Again, like I said, I don't know if people are serious or they just think that would be really funny and that Garbrandt would get harmed again. Roy Val, yep, cop and the Preds-Chinell winner.

Those are the two big ones. Chukagin versus Andrea Lee, the one I saw the most. But again, we did see the McFarlane talk. Terence Leverett saying, Caitlin goes to Bell Tor, where she's appreciated more. And her versus Alima for a number one contender fight. That makes a lot of sense. And the other popular offer, Tilos Santos. So some people I know last time wanted to just see Tala Santos get the next title shot.

others if Chaghan sticks around keep being that gatekeeper I guess and possibly it costs possibly knock off another contender in Talas Santos but I think that's a winnable fight for Talas so. Borschev versus yes Jordan Levitt our pal Michael Conifrey of the

Otno and M.M.A. Fighting memes page says no matter who wins we're going to see some sexy dance booze at the end so that to me is the best reason to make any fight Mike. Tusha. Pick it Eric Anders and Disco Sodorovich the most popular picks for him. Did you say McGee versus Ian Gary at all?

I did not. I don't think so. So I got a couple of those. Ireland's on Barry O'Reilly saying, Big Test for Gary, who would gain a ton of respect. He spelled ton the English way, by the way, T-O-N-N-N-E, if he beat someone so experienced, and we just saw what court did to an up-and-comer.

So, again, I think that'd be a little bit too soon for Ian Gary. Obviously, only one fight in the UFC. But for Ian Gary, you get that win. that's a huge really really fast jump up the rankings that puts you again top 35 top 30 if you if you starch court McGee maybe higher depending on who you talk to and then uh and court McGee like he said hey he's got a reputation for knocking off off in commerce um keller heard there was a bunch a lot of people are saying be book hook fromanov uh but yes i also saw david grant chuteutier as rhani yaya couple people want to see that little that would and i think frank keller would love that

jump at that would be so much such a fun fight and tj brown a lot the most i saw it just rebooked the mowgli Mowgli Pinitos fight. So going to emails, I got a few here. Jay Donagy, big shout-outes to Calvin, and then says Algeo versus Danny Chavez and Borchever versus Mark Chikisi. And also this was saying, for the best post-fight dance champ. So a lot of people just want to see Borshep dance some more and find a literal dance partner. Casey Carpenter bringing the compliments to start off 2022.

And then also one good one here, Algeo versus Herbert Burns. Sure. And then back to Denny Kaps. Sorry, so some of us did say Chikaze Ortega and Caps, Denny was one of them. Mori Val versus Summa Deergy. Borchav versus, I need your thoughts on this one, Mike. I'll read this one out too. I'll read the whole thing first.

Borchav versus this is tough. Only other lightweight fighters who are one and own the OFC are like Gorham Kutadlatsi, who I think is way too much for him. Or Patty Pimbled, who is, of course, rumored to be matched up with Jared Gordon. However, since Gordon is 6 and 3, I think the Patty matchup would be. be the best, but UFC seems to really want to push him, so I doubt it happens. Screw it. Official Otno pick.

Wow. Borshev versus Paddy the Badi. I mean, hashtag I'd watch. I mean, I'd definitely watch it. Man, I'm torn because, I mean, I'm getting myself more excited the more I think about it. But Borechev is a guy. I think that could become a star for them. Like, not a giant star.

Like, not to the Pimbleau level, but a guy that you can build upon and make funny videos and gifts about and put them over in a fun way. And throwing him in there with Patty, especially like in London, probably not the best way to do that. Because you've got to imagine Patty's going to fight on that London card. Sure. So that's a, I bring up this cliche a lot, but that's Mr. Ripe and not Mr. Right now, if that makes sense. Four steps take down defense looks legit though I don't know I mean that Patty would probably be the best

Grappler who's face yet but Man I don't know I don't know I don't know uh yeah I agree too early but that's a cool matchup though I do hope we see that that's so many that's a cool fight it's a good top 15 kind of storyline

2024 Wow I can't wait that long You can't wait two years I'm an MMA fan I can't wait that long Mid 2023 End of 2022 let's go Wow Bill Algeo, Andre Feeley,

Joe Anderson, Brito, Derek Minner, Brian Keller, there's a, there's Kelloggher, Casey Ken. Oh, you like which one, Brito Minner? Yeah, that's ridiculous. That piqued your interest? Brito's good, man, and that's the kind of, those are the kind of fights he needs.

He needs those fights with guys that aren't going to go away easily. And Minner is exactly that. Yes. You see, I mean, you watched it. Brito, Brito is a powerhouse. He is jacked. He's huge for this division. Like, Algio is the taller fighter, but Brito is monstrous.

Yeah, yeah. But you could tell, like, you saw it. He fades down the stretch quite a bit, and Minner's the kind of test that he would need. So, yeah, I like that fight a lot. Thank you, email, people. This is about now on to IG. We have a newcomer Thedor's sweater on Instagram with a sneaky. This is a sneaky pick if this one comes out.

Borchav versus the Miller Motta winner. That's going down February 19th. Now, I know people will say Miller has a million UFC fights. Borshev has won. But this wouldn't be the front. Jim Miller has fought people from anyone, people have 20 UFC fights. Just fought Eric Gonzalez who had won. Right.

It was zero, zero. Which I think was the biggest, I think people said it was the biggest discrepancy ever in UFC experience. So, yeah, absolutely. If Miller beats Mota, maybe Miller loses to Mota, you can see that fight happen. But I like the thinking there. It's a nice sneaky pick. I didn't see anyone else recommend the winner of that fight, winner or loser of that fight. Back to our boy, Michael Conifrey, the memes page.

T. T.J. Brown versus T. T. Laramie. On TJ. He said, let's start off some TJ on TJ violence. T.G. Laramese. Loser changes their name to BJ?

Okay. I don't. Is that sure? Wow. Whatever. Cool. Thank you. I like the idea.

I think you went a little too far. I think it took like two steps too far. But I like the concept. Conceptually, it's wonderful. Yeah, yeah. Very nice concept. Dad Jackson. Chase Sherman cut to 205?

He's about six foot four. with pretty good range. It's hard for us to say with the eye test if someone could cut to 205. Probably he could. Would he be effective there? He's pretty like in shape at heavyweight. I don't know.

I saw a lot of, I saw people suggest that Collier should try to drop the 205. I mean, he came up from 260 something. He came up from 185, didn't he? Yeah. So, right, he used to be a middleweight. So it's definitely not impossible for him. But he looks like he's loving life at heavyweight.

Chase, here's the thing about Chase Sherman. He has a lot of good people. around him. He has a lot of options in front of him. Should he decide, should the UFC decide to cut ties, which is, I don't know, I'd say 50-50. It's probably looking at it with a glass half full for Mr. Sherman. He can go to BKFC. He can go to GameBred FC. Come on. PFL. He's got to do a PFL heavy wave run. Has to do. He could go to PFL. He could fight for Jorge Mazadol's icon FC promotion like he knows all of those people so finding fights and finding opportunities will not be difficult for chase sherman so he's got plenty of options he'll be able to fight if

he if he wants to and he'd be could do it at heavyweight so yeah good on him if he stays in the UFC great if not he's going to be fine for him wondering he weighed in at a svelte 250 so not near the head no pretty far away from the heavyweight limit yeah i'm just saying maybe no but i agree I think there's a lot of options of heavyweight. There's no reason to starve and kill himself down in 205. Algeo versus T.J. Brown. Borchyev versus Leonardo Santos. Again, Borchav's take down defense keeps getting so much better.

But, man, I don't think he's ready for Leonardo Santos yet. But I don't know. There's the age gap, too. Maybe people think Santos on his way down, Borchever. I don't love it. There's no need to, like, what is the need to rush him and Jamie Pick? it right now. Why can't we just slowly build them up? Like, Jamie

Pickett to Ron win. Yeah, Jamie Pickett Durant win is a fine fight. Like, beating a guy who apparently legally changed his name to Ugly Man Joe, because that's what Bruce Buffer called him. There was no Joseph Holmes, they said weighing in a 105 pounds, ugly man Joe. Oh, he didn't even say the Holmes?

No, he said, Ugly Man Joe. That's why I posted on our private channel. I'm like, so he's just ugly man Joe now, like that's his name. He wants to be, even Brentford's Joe's like, well, you can't do the fighting, fighter meeting. He said, all he wants to only be known as ugly man joe moving forward did he come out to i hate everything about you by ugly kid joe he didn't i don't think we don't get to see the the walkouts i have to look this out if he hasn't he should bring that one back ugly man joe he is also probably how old is

he's how old he's i imagine he's he's he's he's he probably seven he's 27 he has no idea what ugly kid joe is never mind there's there's zero chance that he's familiar with yeah it's wild and then boreshuff could just fight anybody people just want to see fight. You literally can put them in there with anybody and it's fine. And yeah, yeah, I got a lot of, a lot of random ones here. Where was, oh gosh, I lost my what was I talking about?

Yeah, no, me. Borshev fighting for the title things like that. Yeah, sure, throw them right in there. M.M.A. heads coming up with Borchever versus Bahamundas Zhu Rong. Excuse me, Rangue winner, February 26th, sure. Aljo Ryan Hall, there we go, that's what I was looking for. Pickett versus, I like this, there, here's a sensile

picket. Pickett versus the Brian Battle Trayshon Gore winner February 5th. There we go. That is fine. That is fine. Yes. Thank you. Especially at Brian Battle wins because he's the actual Ultimate Fighter champion right now, right? Yes. And Gore was supposed to be the opponent.

This is the makeup Ultimate Fighter finale. Especially a battle wins that fight makes perfect sense. Yes. Matt Bradbury coming in. By the way, I think I'm making a resolution. I think I'm going to call people out a little bit more for like not knowing that I'm matching.

Normally I just skip over them. Tj. This is from Matt Bradbury. Becktich is retired. Come on, guys. And there was some other, Matt Bradbury, I'm sorry,

there's some other, I'm not going to bring up all the little mistakes. You got to keep track of this stuff, guys. Especially a wily veteran, like Mr. Bradbury. Oh, he's great. He's like one of the OGs of the program. Well, look, some of his other picks are excellent.

Cort McGee versus Abu Bakar and her Megamatov. I like that. He also recommended Bill on Billy. and this would be too much too soon, but this fight would be sick one day, and frankly, we just need to see this guy come back, Borchelle versus Mike Davis, who has not fought in a year now.

So again, probably Mike Davis is a bit ahead of him, but he also hasn't fought in a year. So this is the point where the USC matchbreakers, I think you kind of lose whatever he gained from that win over Mason Jones. I think he might have to climb back up. So maybe they give him Borchow. I'd love that fight.

That would be insane. Yeah, a little teammate on a little, Maybe revenge for the teammate. Mason Jones is a team AlphaMef fighter now. Oh, that's right. We got some smoke there. I got to say this, this Mike Davis, I would love to see a 30 for 30 on Mike Davis' his UFC career.

What's up? What's up? This dude, so I did this like 50-minute interview in Mike Davis after he beat Mason Jones last year. And for some reason, the interview never got released. Okay. The video interview never got released. The write-up never got released.

I don't know why. It might just got lost in the shuffle. I remember this. But oh my lord, like the injuries he was going through before the Mason Jones fight, the injuries he suffered in the Mason Jones fight, the injuries he suffered prior to booking the Mason Jones fight, dude got ran over by a car, like all sorts of craziness that this guy has gone through. And apparently Mike Jones is Mike Jones, Mike Davis is on his way back to fighting again. So I don't know when it happens.

Nothing's on the books yet, but he is training. He's trying to get back. I don't know if he's fully cleared yet, but the guy's done through a ton, like an incredible amount of adversity. That's insane. That fight with Mason Jones was a war. So thank goodness. Look, this is a blessing in disguise. If he's getting a chance to just heal up, rest his injuries, train at his own pace, not worry about cutting weight, just training and getting like one Calvin Cater did this past.

I saw some people saying like, oh, what a shame that Calvin Cater hasn't fought in a year. And I'm sure he would have liked to a fight again. but this can only be good for Calvin Cater's career. So hopefully the same is from Mike Davis. Rest, recover, only focus on improving, not a specific opponent. When we see Mike Davis again, he's going to be a lot better. But I still wouldn't mind seeing him play Porsche have at all. And then at Chukagian versus the Joanne Wood, Alexe Grasso winner, which has been moved to March 26.

So Matt Bradbury, some good picks. I call you on good fun. And I just want to remind people, because I think I've seen other people mention Beck Titch and some other shows. So I think I have to lay down the law here and remind people he is retired. Tune has a really good one. Collier versus Bozer and Borchav versus Moises. So great job, IG crew.

Let's go. Let's end with our Twitter. Let's end with our Twitter family who came in hot for the first year. Back to Mr. McGahey. McGahey saying McGee versus Lyman Good. Borchia versus Levy.

Nathan Levy and Algeo versus Omar Marales, T.J. Brown, Ludovic Klein. Braden O'Neill, Borchav versus Medici. Yes, I know that's mentioned. McGee versus Trinardo, Kenaheher, Kenny. Dax at Pike Putt, Roy Val versus Nicolao-Divorak winner, March 26th.

Yeah, I... Yeah, yeah. I'm very high on Matthias Nicolao, more so than most for some reason, and I think if he wins, that's definitely a very, very logical matchup to make. Barry O'Reilly, let me pick some good ones here.

Pickett versus Alba Dariyev, sure. And I wanted to read out what they had to say about Algeo. versus oh wait a hold on I got a cue I got to tee this one up I got to do this one up here is my mui caliente pick for the year it's the year just started Barry I love it oh my god UFC signs Brendan Lachnan at some stage I'm just I apologize by the way to our good friend Pizza Carol for butchering that he tried to teach me how to pronounce that name I'm never going to get it and we get a rematch for the contender series where Lachnan will get

the chance to either repeat history and go for a takedown late or finish the fight with a knockout. And he just, hey, listen, it's a movie Caliente pick for a reason. So perhaps the vindication of Brendan Locknain if the USC brings him back. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But Brennan, I believe as of four days ago as you record this, already inked his new 2022 deal with the Professional Fighters League. So I don't think we're going to be seeing Mr. Locknain anywhere else in 2022.

What happened to him? Oh, okay. I'm trying to remember. Okay, he lost him. He lost him of lead in the split decision. Okay. So yeah, he should make another run at the million. That's the logical, yeah, that's the logical thing to do. He is re-signed. Dana White,

you missed out, I'm sorry. Chikaze versus Vloyev, yeah, because of Loyaev needs a new opponent now. Man, another undefeated. I don't feel said to war. Boy. Scott McCrae does not have a fight suggestion. Just want this is for you, Mike. I want to see Benjamin Duffy, Sherdog's Own, Benjamin Duffy, battle Jedmishu and BTL, both are epic flamethowers of

of satire and chaos. Mike has unofficially said that he will try and book it I guess you exchange messages I don't know or you said it on Twitter I think Yes And but Scott says I will keep asking until it gets made So and thanks in advance

I will do my best Jed has a date with destiny Next week and then we'll go from there Listen when you're dealing like you said With volatile flamethrowers God only knows what's what happened When you try to put them in the same page Garrett Thompson just wants to say

Massachusetts stand up Other than the Patriots But otherwise a fellow New Englander, so Garrett Thompson, I think their support is appreciated. He says, did we say Song Yadong is booked? Okay, I guess I got a stick so he won at Keller-Her versus Song Yadong. Yeah, Yadong is booked. Okay, so I like that matchup still, but apparently that's not going to happen.

Seamus Law, Algeo versus Pierce Lingo winner. They're fighting February 19th. McGee versus Matt Brown Barbarina winner, March 26. Again, I've championed the Matt Brown fight a lot. I just like their shared story, and I'm sure it's something ESPN would, would dig into as well, just that overcoming that adversity before embarking and successful in May careers. T.J. Brown versus J. Herbert's. I like that one a lot.

Is Herbert? Herbert, Herbert's a 55er, isn't he? Oh, I guess he recommended this because T.J. Brand just, that fight was a 155 because it was a short notice. Yeah. Is he? Yes. Yeah. Brown's a 40. Brown's typically a 45ver. Okay. Hey, you know, hey. Hey, listen, if it happens, it happens. I like the matchup, by the way, on paper. also I feel like Herbert is he a big 155 or she do not I don't know again this is some I test stuff here Hayes with third I wanted to read his opening here he says he really enjoyed the shows we did in the interim thank you Hayes they were a lot of work and we're very fun to do love the ranking show as well and they say they agree

with me and not liking how Jed does his rankings he hasn't an understandable villain origin story and he agrees that you know with me from a meritocratic perspective it makes no sense to do things like rank Jan over Sterling, Yuri over Glover, Max over bulk, all that stuff. So thank you, I agree. This is something I'm going to have to deal with for a while. Hayes. We'll get to this together. Chikaze versus the Casares-Yusuf winner.

I know this is mentioned. I like the thinking here. They said it might be a good opportunity for Bryce Mitchell, if he beats Barbosa or Evloyev since his fight with Tupure isn't happening now. But I think Giga is still a very good prospect. I'd rather not pair those guys together. Yousav is a good prospect, too, just a bit below Mitchel of Lov and Maya is the moment.

And also I wouldn't want to throw Giga in there with a high level wrestler since he still needs to develop that side of his game. That's that's well reasoned. I think that's that's larger. Right. But can we consider Giga a prospect at 34 years of age? He is also what? Like this is like his 17th, 18th pro fight, I think? Like he's had some, he's experienced in M.A.

Yeah. Like Manifioro is on like the cusp is on that line because she's 30, but she's got a ton of combat career. Like combat experience. So I think like. Like she's on the cut off almost of being a prospect. I think we could still kind. She leans on the right side of the fence of prospect. But like if she beats just guy, I think that probably like eliminates the prospect's adjective altogether.

I'm with you. I think I think we might be out of there. Pickett versus Dalje Lungibula, Cody Brundage winner. I just need to remind that this fight was happening. That's going on March 12th. Again, this is the right range. I think that's, that's a good pick. I'll jump ahead here to Liam Perry.

Liam, thanks for the picks as always. Chikadee versus Tepore Chardine winner, UFC 270's that's happening next week. Collier versus Philippe Linz, who for some reason I thought had been released, he has not. So good pick there, Liam Perry. Borshev versus Alan Patrick. I don't even know where that guy is right now. He said T.J. Brown versus Choi. I assume he means Sung Wu and not Duhu.

But Duho is probably due to come back sometime soon. I think he started his military. I think he did military service, if I'm not mistaken. That's why we have not seen young Duhuho in the cage since December 2019. But that is usually two years mandatory. So that two years would have just passed. So he was booked. But Dujo Choi was booked a fight in July.

Oh, so is it against Danny Chavez. And there's an injury. Oh, okay. So it's not the military service. Yeah. I mean, it's, but I think that was his first fight after the military service. I'm pretty sure. Okay.

His like second go-around. Okay. So we're doing it. So, I mean, it's not out of the wrong possibility. So, Liam Perry, I have no choice. Either or. Liam Perry, I have no idea what Choi you're referring to. You will need to clarify that in the future.

Listeners, I apologize for reading that one out. That is, I should not have read it out. The Choi was not made clear. That point on the line. You might lose a point here. That'd be like, say, you know, if there's two, Norma McOmedeves in the same way class and just saying, oh, yeah, versus Norma McOmeadow.

I was like, no, you've got to be, come on, come on now. Four Corner Sports, Nye. I want to see Roy Val get Asgharov. If Asgrov lose to Kai Kar-Franz. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If Asgrov loses to Kai Kar-Franse, that is actually not a crazy fight. And frankly, again, Asgraf might not have a choice. He's going to have to fight someone in the top 10 still.

And Roy Val might be that name. Just a few more here. Nate Andrews just making it in. And they wanted to say, one of the good ones, Borchav versus Holstmann, Scott Holtzman. Yes, I think that's a, if you're trying to build up Borchav. If you're trying to build up Borchav, It's a good match. Win or lose, that's a good matcher for him.

That's either highlight real win or he learned something from fighting a tough veteran in Holtzman. Please tell Mike, it's time to circle the wagons. Hashtag Bill's Mafia, respectfully, of course, respectfully. All right, at least you're doing a respectful. I mean, well, I added the respectfully, but they did say please, and there's no other trash talk. It's just, you know, just throws them. Listen, thank. You know what?

Congratulations on the victory. I hope you beat the Chiefs. You're not going to, but I hope you do. Yeah. And, Nate, especially if you live in Buffalo, again, like, I know you need this. So congratulations on the way. win. That was a big one. People from Buffalo are going to hate me so much.

I'm just not a fan. Chris, I've said more bad things about Buffalo today than you have. Mike, you've been very respectful to Buffalo. I have been very disrespectful. Okay, last two here. Chris at Dragon Slayer 2, Mike, what do you think of this? Because this is, again, a puzzle, not a puzzle, but a situation we've been trying to solve for the longest time. Is Jake Collier the right name for Walt Harris?

Hmm. Is this the feel-good fight for Wallace Harris we've been looking for? I mean, after the, after the ground attack and the submission, I don't know. If Collier knocked him out, yeah? I don't know. I don't want to see, I want to see Walt in there with a guy who will stand and just bang with him the entire time. And we all think Ty Toe-Ivasa, right? We all want the Tie-Ti-Ivasa one.

Yeah, Tye's way too far ahead now. Now, yeah. That fight doesn't make sense. But at the time, it did because it's two dudes who just going to, to go in there and just absolutely sling at each other and someone would go down and if it's a fight wall could could win because of the stylistic variety behind it now while Harris chris barnett would be a very fun would actually be pretty fun I think yeah other than I think burnett cleans his clock but actually I have no idea I can't predict any Chris brunette fights the guy's

is wild so I like this one though so Chris uh dragon slayer two I'm going to give you a big on no point in that someone gets made. I really like that one. And let us end with a regular contributor, former New York Yankees GM, Brian Cashman, who I guess with this free time now, has nothing to do, but make fight picks. Let me read this one now. Calvin Cater should fight Dan Hooker. No other option works.

Also, A.K., I don't know if you're, I don't know if you've watched the main event, but I notice every time a strike worked for Cater on Giga, Giga would try and copy it or mirror what Cater was doing. Yeah, I don't know. That's a possibility. So I like that. But I'll go back to the beginning of that statement. If Dan Hooker has been saying return to 1.45, Mike, how do you feel?

Is Calvin Cater the guy to, I mean, Calvin Cater, again, ahead of him. I know, I know. Like, so far ahead of him. It's not even funny at this point. You don't think he'd take that fight, though? I mean, I don't know. How much Codzee Hooker? I think that's better.

Oh. But either way, I like the idea, Brian Cashman. Thank you for the picks for, of him getting one of those guys. I do think Hooker would be cool. I do think that's the right, yeah, that's the right range for him. Maybe Chikaze is the better way to go. I mean, Hooker is a great name for this division because of some of the guys, because of the Tporias and the of Loewaves and the names like that, the Lerone Murphys of the world, like

when they're on their way up, like if Lorone Murphy wins another fight, he's probably a top 15 guy looking for a big fight. Like, those are the guys who should be fighting Dan Hooker right now. Calvin Cater should not be fighting Dan Hooker right now. hook right now. Calvin Cater should be fighting Yaira Rodriguez, Josh Emmett at worst, just because of the streak that Emmett's on,

and I don't even like that that much. Brian Ortei, so it's Yair, Emmett, Ortega, or Volcanowski. That's it. Those are the fights. And I only say Volcanowski, like I said at the beginning, if you skipped ahead to this point,

that's if Volcanowski just rolls Korean zombie and he's like, dude, I want to fight in June. Give me Calvin Cater, let's go. That would make sense. Cater's the only guy. You could do Yair, but he's coming off a loss. Cater's coming off a win over a guy that would have been next in line. So, yeah, I just, to a guy who potentially has like a 15% chance of fighting for the title next,

yeah, no, you can't do that to him. Dan Hooker's not that guy, and I don't like it. So, so a brand catchment statement that no other option works, incorrect. There's three other options that work. There are apparently many other options. Maybe four. But thank you, Brian Cash, for closing out our picks this week. So happy to have the listeners sending in picks again.

I missed, guys, I miss you so much. Thank you, everyone, brother, who also sending questions and buy, sell, questions, and predictions for the shows in between. We could have done those shows without you. Keep that stuff coming. Guys, keep that stuff coming in 2022. 2020, it's going to be a fantastic year. The year of the tiger in the Chinese lunar calendar, not the year of the raw dog. It will never be the year of the raw dog.

I love, I think so highly, Brandon Royval. that raw dog thing is the only thing I don't like about them. But thank you guys. Keep sending those picks. Hit me up at Alexander K.K. Lee on Twitter. At Alislander KK Lee on Instagram. My DMs are open. You do not need to follow me.

If you want to, please do. And my email at, I'm sorry, how that Alex. Dot Lee at SB Nation.com. Mike, first show of the year, let them know. Please. Where can they get you? Mike underscore Heck, J.R. on Instagram. Best way to do it.

That is the best way to do it. Slide in those DMs. Yeah, slide into the DMs. and keep up the same energy. I really like it. Now, I'm going to address something because it has been brought up. People were very happy

about seeing our shining faces in this program on YouTube. And you're probably thinking to yourself, why aren't you on YouTube this week? So we have had an internal discussion here at MMA fighting, and we did say this on the predictions extravaganza show.

It's not something we're going to do every week. However, next week is a pay-per-view. next week is UFC 270 we're going to video on Sunday we're going to go live on Sunday probably in our pajamas maybe our bath robes

looking crusty and tired and we'll be in our Sunday best guys we'll be in our Sunday best probably around 10 a.m. Eastern time so a lot of you are going to be like ugh probably going to have to catch the replay which is fine are we going live

it's the easiest way to do it it's just the easiest way to do it we're trying to make it easy And for those early birds, if you got kids, if your kid woke you up early, you got something to do. Mike, I don't think we can, people don't know. We actually record like six hours of Otno and then you edit it down into like a 90 minute. We got to reveal the, Mike, we got to reveal the people now that movie magic that goes on at the Otno studio. We record for six, seven hours straight of us talking.

You edit, you use your magical skills. You edit it down to like an hour and 90 minutes. I don't know if we can do a live show. No, we can't do this. Well, that's what we're doing. We're going to make it easy. and then we're going to turn that into a podcast that we'll drop like maybe the next

30, 45 minutes after that. So if you've got suggestions, if you got last minute suggestions and you can't make it to the DMs, here's your chance. You come on in, you leave your comment in the show. What are you doing, Mike?

What do you tell? And we'll address it live. Live fight fix. Are you? This was, I want to tell you, none of this was ran by me. I knew we were doing video. I did not know we were live.

This is going to be insane. And I believe we'll probably be doing a live show, fingers crossed after every U.S.C. pay-per-view. Yes, that is the plan for video. Do a live show on video after the pay-per-view. Every Jake Paul fight will also do a live onto the next one.

So you'll be, at least. Every Eagle FC card. Every PFL card. You know, Bell-Tor is on Fridays. I don't know where you're doing Saturday mornings, Mike. But I really feel like we could do a Bell-Tor. Oh, God. Show me something, Bellator, and we'll get you

an Otno Part 2, okay? But UFC 270, going down next week. We will go to video. We will at least attempt to go to video. That is the plan. Next Sunday. Time TBD, but probably around 10 Eastern.

So wake up early. Francis Ngano versus Cyril Ghan. A lot of storylines here to unify the heavyweight title. Brandon Moreno versus Davis and Figurato for the flyway title. Interview with Brandon Moreno coming very soon to MMA fighting. It's so much fun. Iliotip Tuporia versus Charles Jordane. Hedolfo Vietta versus Wellington Termin.

Cody Stamen versus Saeed Naraga Madoff. Michael Morales versus Trevin Giles, Matt Pervola versus Gennaro Valdez, Tony Gravely versus Simon Olivera, Jasmine, Jazz DeVizius makes her UFC debut against Kay Hanson. Hione Barcelos versus Victor Henry, Michelle Bejara versus Andre Fialo, Vanessa Demopoulos, Savagna, Gomez-Hawrez, and Jack Della Madalina takes on newcomer Pete Rodriguez. is that is your 13 fight card as of right now this is a lot of newcomers for a you for a pay-per-view event we've lost some fights along the way we lost cannerre brunson that was supposed to originally be on this card right okay fair enough uh we lost gregg hardy alexio lennox

we lost jopin malkoon versus a j d'a d'aubiano aroosos yeah uh we lost delamadalena was supposed to fight war with the albaas not another newcomer okay fine yeah we lost Of Loya versus Teporia. Oh my God. That was so sad. And we lost Battaglio versus Gian Kim. Okay. Gian Kim moves on to a different card to fight Priscilla Kachewara.

Olenek Hardy. Okay. So there were supposed to be some veteran names on here. And they were kind of, again, we're kind of, this is, we're kind of dealing with, you know, hey, like the first couple of months of 2022, Omicron, you know, COVID or whatever else is going on. Yeah, we might see some cards to look a little thin at the bottom for a while, right? Which is fine. I mean, these two title fights are tremendous, and I'm looking forward to, I mean, you don't need much else.

Like, you got some good stuff. The Molador is fighting. I mean. On the prelims, I think. Who knows? Maybe that'll change. We don't know. That card's definitely TBD, the schedule, other than the two main fights, that stuff's TBD.

Yes. So I think the car, I think the entire card as a whole is being sorted out. We don't know what the main card is going to be outside of the two title fights and probably took four or Jordan. So that's 270. Yes, fingers crossed. What's left stays together. But until then, everybody, for AK, I am Mike Heck. Thank you for listening.

We'll see you next week. And always remember, don't take this stuff too seriously. Anime is supposed to be fun. We'll have fun for following the first UFC pay-per-view of the air right here next week. On onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.