MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 62

Episode Date: October 16, 2022

Alexa Grasso's name is certainly in the flyweight title conversation following her unanimous decision win over Viviane Araujo in the main event of UFC Vegas 62, but is she at the top of the list? Or, does Grasso have more work to do to get to her first championship opportunity? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee put a bow on UFC Vegas 62 from a matchmaking perspective, and discuss what could be next for Grasso, and what needs to happen at UFC 280 between Manon Fiorot and Katlyn Chookagian for her to get the next crack at Valentina Shevchenko. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Jonathan Martinez following his finish of Cub Swanson in the co-main event, along with fellow victors Dusko Todorovic, Raphael Assuncao, Alonzo Menefield, 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. Yes, indeed, the matchmaking hats are back.

But I have to say, I'm always excited to do this show, following an event. always fired up and pumped. This one being UFC Vegas 62 matchmaking for this card. But I can't lie to you. I can't lie to America, as my co-host likes to say. I am ready to take this hat off of my

head and put it on the rack as quickly as possible because as soon as I do that, in this crazy chaotic mind of mine, it will be officially UFC 280 fight week. The card we have been waiting for for months is finally upon us.

But patience is a virtue, and as excited as I am, and as we are, all of us, as an MMA community, we must give UFC Vegas 62 its proper respect, its proper due. And then we can put the hat back on the rack, and it's all signs, all roads pointing to Abu Dhabi and UFC 280. I am Mike Heck, and joining me and doing just that, giving UFC Vegas 62 the proper respect, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. the best friend to us all, the birthday boy himself, the dancing machine at your wedding, Alexander Kay Lee. Hello, AK.

Yes, my best friend. What an introduction. And yes, we have to put a bow on this because, yes, we have finished our pre, all this lead. The last two cards have really just kind of felt like biting our time, you know, respect to all the fighters. There's some entertaining moments, certainly moments with contender implications, rankings implications. And by the way, everyone, just a reminder, the next decision of our rankings will come out after UFC 280. For those of you who had gotten used to sort of a monthly schedule, that worked fine, but we realized, you know, we changed schedule recently so that we can sort more quickly react to sort of the big changes that happened. And they happen on UFC pay-per-views, let's be honest.

So certainly after 280 next week, we expect a lot of. lot of movement or the big news could be that the movement, the rankings aren't shaking up that much. That would also be news, but we will see. We'll find out. So people will wait for that next week. And it makes me even more excited for UFC 280 from Mike as you said. Let us not, even though I was, I did miss Saturday's card.

I was in a, in a, in a, at a wedding in, in, uh, glamorous and exotic Paris, Ontario. And I am, so I did not have a chance to see the card. I, I, I traveled back. I made the long travel back on Saturday night from Paris, Ontario. And I was very tired. I just fell asleep, but I did have time to make picks. Seems like pretty logical to me. So guys, I saw highlights of read recaps.

I apologize that I don't have in-depth analysis of anything that happened on the card. But you guys know me. I do pay attention to trends and things like that and certainly potential matchups. So Mike, are we just, let's roll. Yes, I agree. Let's start at the main event. Let's start with Alexa Grasso, who is in a very interesting position right now because she might currently be in the driver seat for the next title shot after this win over Viviani Araujo.

Unfortunately, she's driving the car that Steve Urkel drove in Family Matters, the Volkswagen Iseta, because while she's in the driver seat, she cannot be comfortable driving this car. It's got to be just the knees up against the chest. just elbows tucked against the ribs. She's there right now. She's driving the vehicle. She's got the title nice and clean. And who knows?

Maybe card placement helps her in this conversation with having her name and her face on the marquee with this fight with Viviani Arr Ujo because the other fight that's really in the mix here is the man in Fioreau, Caitlin Chukagian fight next week at UFC 280. That's a biggie, no doubt about it. But because of the card that it's on, the spot that it's in and the four fights that will follow the Fioro Chukagian fight,

who knows how highly regarded that Fioro Chukagian fight might be. At the time, we might be like, if Manon wins or Chukagi wins, we'll have a debate. But just looking at the next four matchups, by the time the card's over, we might just completely forget about that fight. So having said that, is Alexa Grasso's spot in the driver's seat? Does it currently give you confidence that she has done enough? or is there another matchup that sticks out to you? I mean, it doesn't sound like she's confident that she's done enough.

Yeah. I do appreciate her maturity and saying at the post-fight press conference, look, I would welcome a fight with Valentina Shepchenko. Obviously, they send a title fight my way. I'm all in. That's a great attitude to have for any fighter. But she also was like, ideally, give me another top-ranked opponent. Give me another main event slot.

Let me get that experience. and I think for her exposure as well, I think like she's, she's a well-liked fighter, but I wouldn't say that Grasso is like super popular, super well-known fighter. It's not like she's not like she's crossed over to the mainstream. She's well-liked. I think you asked most M.A fans, I'll tell you, yeah, I like Alexa Grasso. She puts on entertaining fights. She's a legitimate contender.

And she's in her prime now. I think she's 29. I keep thinking of her again as that sort of 23, 24-year-old that came out of Invicta as this, like, super hot prospect, and obviously had some struggles with making 115 and some of the top competition at 115 but I think she's moved to fly weight it's which is such a smart thing for to do don't worry about the weight cut maybe sometime in the future who knows maybe she can change her change changes her diet body type regimen everything and can move down to 115 but 125 is where she belongs good to see her picking up doubles against very tough legitimate

competition VB Arugio one of the toughest outs at 125 she proved that again on Saturday it's it's kind of crazy because I think like I would love to see Grasso-Flecheng But Shepchenko has like this kind of weird set of options in front of her. Like we said, there's Grasso. Obviously, UFC 280, Firo and Chukagian winner. The UFC probably not super eager to book a Chukagian and Shepchenko rematch, just because of how lopsided the first fight was. But every Shepchenko title fight is lopsided.

Lauren Murphy's out there looking for a rematch. And then, of course, Tala Santos, who's dealing with surgery from their first fight. We don't know when she'll be back. But in a perfect world, she would have gotten her immediate rematch. So it's kind of cool that Shepchenko has options. even if none of them are like... And you're missing one big one. Who am I forgetting?

You can say metanononus? Yeah. It's another option. I just mean it flyweight. That of mananunus fight, I still think it'll happen someday. It just feels like neither of them have ever. There's always these stops and starts whether they say they're kind of interested in it and then they're kind of not.

And I'm the same way. Like I definitely want to see them fight a third time when there's moments like this where I feel like Shepchenko's all these options. So yeah, I wish the Talas Dantzance's fight could happen, but it's just not there at the moment because how Santos has to recover. So hopefully she does get that rematch. But for now, I'll go with Murphy. I'm leaning towards Lauren Murphy for Alexa Grasso.

It's the right test. It's the right test for Lexa Grasso. And I don't think Lauren Murphy is, is like that far away from a rematch. I thought the first fight was, again, Shepchenko, whatever, she's the best. She's going to dominate most fights. But I really do believe that Murphy is like a gritty challenge. Someone who Shepchenko wouldn't want to fight twice. I think a second fight would be even closer.

I think Murphy would do really well in the second fight. Can she beat Shepchenko? I don't know. I don't pick Shepchenko to lose to anyone. But I think Lauren Murphy's has good a chance as pulling off like a wild upset as anyone. And again, Alexa Grasso, listen, she picks up a convincing win against Lucky Lauren Murphy. Then she's really ready. I think then you really cannot deny her that title shot.

And I think she'd also be a good challenge for Shepchenko. So Grasso, Murphy, let's make it happen. So I have questions here. And we might have a friend's forever moment here. I'm not sure. I'm not sure how I land because the more I think about it, the more I recap her post-fight comments, the more I feel like she is in this driver's seat as like a driver who has her permit. Like her parent is sitting next to her teaching her how to drive, but eventually, but she's not,

it's not her car right the second. So I think the like best case scenario for the Alexa Grosso fights for the title hopefuls is that she is going to have to really hope that Caitlin Chukagan wins an extremely boring controversial decision. But even then, I still don't think it's going to be enough. So of all the questions I have, the biggest question I have is what is going on with Jessica Androge? Is she going to 115?

Is she going to fight at 125? Because like Shevchenko, Androge has lots of options too. And she's a win away from fighting for a title in either division. So what is her deal? Now, if she's got to fight at 125, this is really bad news for Alexa Grosso. and I'm not saying it because, oh, now she's got to fight just Goddrage. I'm saying it because if Androge is fighting at 125, then Androge will fight Lauren Murphy. That's the fight that the UFC will probably make.

And if not, Grasso fights Lord Murphy. So I'm torn here. I'm torn with what I want to do. It's all about Androge to me. So you know what? For the sake of the show and the sake for musical accompaniment, I will act as if Androge will be fighting Janjaunan next. So give me Grasso versus Lauren Murphy.

If Grasso wins, she gets a title shot and give me Friends Forever. Yes. That's a fight. That's a fight. They'll again. She was like we did every time. Yep. So Grasso has a lot of hope into the hands of people outside of her control.

Jessica Androge being won and Caitlin Jukagan being incredibly boring is something that's probably at the top of her to-do list right now. But let's move ahead. It's a good division. Yeah. Good division. It is. I think we've been saying this for like a year. I feel like we've said this for over a year now,

but I still feel like people don't, just because Shepchenko's at the top and it's so dominant, I still feel like people don't give this as due, but if you just look at, people look at like the top 15, top, it's not a deep division, neither the women's flight nor the men's flyweight division is like super deep, but it is, they're all just really competitive. Like there's a lot of good fighters in there.

And if you look like the top 15 at flyweight, there's just a lot of, one, intriguing match us, people who could contend, who are really like in line to contend within a year, within 18 months. It's a good division. And there's still some veterans hanging around who put on entertaining fights and are good challenges for those up-and-comers. It's a good division.

So hopefully we see a lot of movement there in 2023. And I'd love to see like three Shipschenko title defenses. But I don't know. We'll see. If I'm buying stock in any UFC division right now, I'm probably buying it in the women's flyweight division. It's good. Because of the up-and-comers that are good are that are coming up as well. Speaking of up and comers, speaking on somebody making the come-up, Jonathan Martinez did that on Saturday.

The silence behind the violence gets it done very impressively against Cub Swanson. And what made this so impressive is that Cub actually looked pretty damn good in this fight. This wasn't a complete runover. This wasn't Cub overmatch. This wasn't Cub just exhausted and wrecked from a weight cut to 135. It wasn't that at all. Cub had his moments. He actually, the game plan that I figured he might have worked.

He got Jonathan to jump into some close brawling-like exchange. I thought that was going to work out great for Cub, but Martinez was ready for all of that. Mark Montoya was ready for all of that. Martinez brings the A-plus game to the table. He looked fantastic. Gets the rare leg-kick finish. And I'm going to throw a name out,

and I think this fight will answer a lot of questions about both of these guys. And I know the UFC is very high on this individual, and this one in my mind makes a lot of sense right this moment. So let's do Jonathan Martinez. versus Adrianiananas by the end of the year. Look, I love the Dominic Cruz call out.

Shoot for the stars. He's just not going to get it. I just don't see a world where Dominic Cruz is like, oh, let me fight that dude, because the risk-reward factor is just not there in Cruz's favor. But maybe if he beats Adrianianas, maybe if Mr. Silence Behind the Violence beats Adrianiannaz and stops that hype train,

maybe Dominic Cruz will find himself interested. So that's what I like. What say you? Yeah, I don't know. I can't imagine Cruz ever being interested in that one. I don't know. You're right. You're right.

No, I mean, maybe you're right. Maybe Martinez just needs to build his resume. Maybe it went over Yanez is what gets him on Cruz's radar. But for some reason, I just see Cruz. I don't know how many fights he has left. Again, he could fight for another year. He could fight for another three or four years. We don't know.

Again, he always has that option to transition to commentary. So, yeah, but the call out, I love when people call out a big name. So I don't think Martinez should apologize at all. But yeah, that's not happening next. Yanez is more likely. I went with another veteran. I just kind of cheated. Like people, I told people, I did not get a chance to watch much of Saturday's cards.

So I'm throwing him in there with Essence and Sao. I'm killing two birds with one stone. Halfa, Sincow, picking up a very nice win over Victor Henry. I had picked Henry to beat him. Again, you know, I'm disrespecting a veteran. I'm like, oh, he's lost all these fights. He can't hang with the Victor Henry's of the world now. Well, he won a unanimous decision.

So I can't say anything. to the guy now. Yeah, and I think Martinez, I like the idea of him chasing veterans. Cruz just might not be the one he gets right now. I'd love to see how he does with us and Sao. I think Martinez has really great technical skills for his age, uses his size as well,

has speed well, seems to have gotten the weight cut figured out. It's probably one of the most important things we were concerned with. So if that is his lot in life for now, to go up the rankings by fighting veterans, it might be us and Sao, instead of the Cruz fight that he wants. And I'll say this now, again, after S&Sout beat Henry.

Now, I'm not so sure that Sincal would just be some walkover for Martinez, but I'd like to find out. You never call him by his nickname Dragon, right? You don't sound enchanted by Dragon. I mean, he's just, I don't know. He's not, like, dragons, I think, of, like, loud and spitting fire. And Jonathan does, like, what is the opposite of a dragon? Can we call him TSBTV? Can I just like abbreviate what you call him?

Is that too confused? rolls right off the tongue. Yeah. Okay. We'll figure it out. Like, listen, T-CB-Y was a very big thing. It was T-CB-I, right? The yogurt place that no longer exists. I don't think we have that in Canada. Oh, okay. Never mind, though. Never mind that. What does that sound for? The Y is for yogurt, I assume. I don't know. The Y is for yogurt, but I just remember it. It means something, but see, that's, that's the beauty of the shortening of the nickname is that nobody knows what T-C-B-Y means. TSB-T-S-B-TV. I mean, I like that has TV at the end. It sounds like that it has TV at the end. It

tune in. John Martin Martinez, the next fight, you got to tune in to TSB TV. You know what I'm saying? The sounds behind the violence. That's great. We're workshopping it. That's pretty good. That's pretty good.

I like it. I like it. At first I was like, huh. And then the more you say it and you add the tune in element to it. Yeah. I like it. Jonathan, we gave you some fire here. Okay.

I know you got some stuff going on at the gym factory X. You guys got videographers and stuff. Let's go, dude. Get it going. Let's get that over. I think you got something here. He should get it. start a YouTube channel, TSBTV.

Yeah. TSB TV, baby. Hot tip to my kek. See, I'm making you. I'm making you money, man. I'm sure you've got some sponsors as well. Let's move to the middleweight division. Disko Todorovich survived an early Jordan Wright onslaught to pick up a big win,

big finish in the second round. Look, as far as technical wizardry goes, not much to speak of here. But if you're a fan of two dudes just getting after it and scrapping, this one delivered in spades, fight of the night. bonus money to Doravage gets it done there's no real overthinking here okay honestly so just take that dart and chuck it what did you land on yeah first this this was a great fight to put on the main card my zero predictions i'm like why did they put this on i'm like all right because both these guys they just finish fights they finish fights they get finished it's what they do they're

there just precocious middleweights who like yeah they just want to go in there and get bonus money man and sometimes it works out for them uh sometimes it doesn't so good for duke go for being i i picked him to win and good for him for being on the positive side of the ledger this time. I think I did have a, oh yeah, yeah, for just go again. He's one of those guys. If he fights his way into contendership sometime and fights his way to a ranked opponent, good for him. Great, you know, we'll watch. But right now, you just want to give him a fun matchup.

So, yes, spun the wheel, made the deal. I think I landed on Abdul Razak al-Hassan. Oh, that's fine. Sorry, my voice went out there. Yeah, yeah. Just another guy who I, you know, he's had a couple of fights that are like maybe disappointing action-wise, but generally when Abdul Razak Ahasang goes out there, someone's probably getting knocked out or finished in some way. So I'd love to see Dusko just go after him. Who knows? Maybe Dusko is serious about being a contender and we see the more tactical side of him instead, but I hope not. I would just like to see him. Don't worry about, well, where is he ranked, top 30, top 20, top or whatever. Give him exciting fights. Give him another fight night main. card. Let's see if he builds up a reputation as an action fighter because he's not doing a bad job, but he's had some nice finishes and again, also been finished himself. So Al Hassan is my pick for Dushka. I am going to Canada for this one.

Ooh. Going to Canada. I'm going to Mark Andre Berriol, a man who also finished Jordan Wright. So the storyline is there. Let's just, I mean, just let these dudes hammer it out. We'll have some fun in there. I think it will deliver. I don't think you can really go wrong with this one. I saw some suggestions that are just like, why would you do this? But we don't need to talk about that on the show. There's a positive program. Maybe in Canada next year, UFC. Oh, there you go.

I know our vaccine restrictions have been lightened a bit. Again, I don't know exactly if they're allowing entertainment acts like the UFC back in without, you know, certain vaccination level. But I do know, obviously, there are plans to have the UFC back in Canada sooner or rather than later. So fingers crossed, 23. And I'd love to be there in person to watch. Judge Kudasdorovich and Mark Andre, Bahrio. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what?

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too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. You already threw out your suggestion for one Haffiel Sunsao, so let me just start up by saying this. This is, and very rarely A.K., you know, you follow me on Twitter.

I don't necessarily play the hey, you should have watched our show because if you did, this could have happened game. I don't do that. I know there's a lot of people out there who do do that, but I'm not that guy. But in this situation, I felt the old pat on the back was warranted because we tried to tell you, you betting enthusiasts, that the betting line between Victor Henry and Jafiel Al-Sunso was not only off. It was way off, way off, absurdly off.

Was it like almost 3 to 1? No, was it? Henry closes a minus 4-10. Minus 4-10. When I thought it was like minus 310. Minus 4.10. So so much money came out. Wow.

That much money came on Henry. So we try to tell you. Henry is a good fighter, like a very good fighter. And at Bannemweight, a very good fighter is like the 35th best Bannemweight. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I had questions. I had lots of questions about Victor Henry. One of them was, is Victor Henry a top 15 bannam weight in the world?

Which is, I mean, that's elite level Bannamweight. And was he getting way too much respect from a betting? perspective. I knew he was getting way too much respect from a betting perspective, but it wasn't sure about the other thing. And then, Jafel Sonsau, at the young age of 40, years young, turns back the clock, and not only did he prove that

theory correct, he went out there and swept the cards against Victor Henry, and he cashed that pretty little plus 550 prop for those who took a very brilliant shot at that, a Sonsu by decision, baby. That's what I said. If you're betting on this fight in any way, that's the only bet to make, because betting on a Sonsau plus three something,

or whatever it was. I mean, cool, you get plus money, but the only way of Sonsa was going to win that fight was winning by decision, so you might as well get that extra juice. And those who tailed, excellent job. And I, by the way, in our official picks, I did pick Victor Henry to win.

But from a betting perspective, betting on Victor is stupid, and it made absolutely no sense. So, a Sincel feels like you still got a little bit more gas left in the tank. And I'll tell you what. We mentioned this name earlier. It didn't make sense for one dude.

But it makes sense here. I actually think a fight with Dominic Cruz is perfect. Somehow, A.K., after all of these years, all this time, decade plus, these two have never been paired up. Not once. Not even pay. Nothing. Not even in the works, targeted.

Nothing that I could find. These two guys have not been mentioned in the same sentence before. But here we are. This makes sense. A Sunco coming off a great win. Might even be ranked come Tuesday. Who the hell? knows, but let's just do the damn thing.

Let's just throw these two dudes in there. Respect all over the place. I love it. I love it. This is the one. I wonder if that's even come up as an odd no suggestion. I mean, it's possible. We got like 100, you know, we got like 100 suggestions, but.

I don't think it has. I don't think it has. We probably get a bunch now, but I don't, but I don't think it's ever come up. I was like, wow, how have these two guys, like, and I looked on topology and all the pages, not one time have these guys been mentioned together to fight. I've certainly never thought about it. I will say, not because there's anything wrong with it. I've just, maybe I assume that they had been matched enough.

Yeah, me too. That's a funny one. Yeah, I'm not against that, for sure. See, that to me makes more sense in John Martinez. We keep saying we're not getting the Aldo fight ever now, obviously, and I'm not saying this is the Aldo fight. I'm saying these are the kind of fights that Dominic Cruz should be taking. just such a classy fight, two brilliant tactical fighters.

Again, if we're talking props, that's definitely a, well, I mean, decision will probably be like minus 2000 or something. But I would really like to see that fight before both guys retire. You're right, though, 40 years young. I was one of the doubters, Mike. I was one of the doubters. I even wrote in my prediction, maybe I'm being disrespectful. And guess what? I guess I was being very, very disrespectful because the man just keeps winning.

I spoke with his coach, Eric Nixick, for a few minutes yesterday after the win. And Eric is like, if you only knew what this guy has gone through to get to this moment, you'd be blown away. So maybe that'd be a, hopefully our colleague, our partner in crime, Ariel Hawani, will have Hafiel Sonsau on the MMR this week and we'll learn more about that road. But let's go to Alonzo Meadowfield, who just wrecked Misha Sarkinoff. This is the most easy pick probably on the entire card for us. I think almost all of us got perfects on our topology pages because circuit off is just not long for this UFC world at this point.

Manafield goes in there, big win. We got hokey pokey, Mark Smith, just not getting there fast enough and the damage just was way worse than it probably should have been. I know it's a positional thing. I'm not blaming Mark Smith too too much, but there's probably a punch two that probably shouldn't have gone through, especially that last hammer fist. But Alonzo is just a,

a very powerful dude, I think he felt really bad about the way that fight ended and there was no call out so it's kind of wide open season here okay, so what is your what is your selection? Of course I want to talk about this. I mentioned

that fight, the men of field, Sarkanoff fight as one of the fights I was looking forward to Nish Sarkanov is a Canadian fighter. He is I believe still based out of Toronto. So you know there's some there's some fondness and affection for Mish Sercanov and as a Canadian fan and may fan wanting to see him succeed but the middleweight run was just so uninspiring um it felt

like it wasn't even when it happened it felt like it was not the solution to his problems like he he made the cut uh i don't know if he had any issues with it but he definitely looked his body was hugely different at middle weight than it was a light heavy weight so at least going back up to weight is a healthy thing but what a nightmare matchup with alonzo minifield i mean a guy with knockout power a guy with a speed advantage a guy with pretty good to take down defense. And that's pretty much all that was like that's just all the crypton that you need to put a guy like Misha Sirconav away.

So yeah, as we said, pretty predictable. So for Alonzo next, I think he's looked really good. It's a bit hard to gauge how good he is. Like we said, ideal matching with Misha. He last time he beat up the International Man of Mystery, Mozarov, who as far as we know, might not even be a real fighter. I'm not sure that fight happened. So he's looked great.

Back to back, quick finishes. Let's give him a bit of a test next. I'm going to do some future predicting as well. I predict that Dominic Reyes will beat Ryan Span at UFC 281 on November 12th, and that will be the fight for Menna Field. Dominic Reyes? Wow. Dominic Reyes, yes.

I'm also, well, because I think Menonfield deserves a bump up. Light heavyweight is not a deep division. People know that. So he's kind of flirting with a top. What do I have him? He's flirting with the top of Dean Spot, actually, in my rankings. I haven't 17, it is UFC only. He's 17 in my UFC only rankings.

So he's just outside. And if we're going to give him a bump up, there's probably a few ways you'd go with it, but I like Dominic Reyes if he beats Ryan Span. I would have to spend, but I'm a little confused. Meadowfield still trains at Fortis, right? I just know Sayyaf Sayud was not with him on Saturday, I'm told. He didn't train at Fortis at all this camp.

He trained with them. He just didn't train with them at this. I don't know. He doesn't see it. Like, he didn't shut out Fortis at all. Okay. He shut it out Pat Barry and Rosenami Yunus. So he's trained it with them. Pat Barry was the only person, it was the only one in this corner.

At that fight were possible, then obviously I would also say that's the winner of the Reyes-SPAN fight in that case. But I'll, but I will stick with my original and say Reyes comes back, victorious, reminds us why he almost beat John Jones. And then we make the fire in the field. But I mean, Span would, if beats Reyes, would probably make a lot of sense as well. Man, I kind of like this. this Ryan Span idea either way against Lonson-Meneufield.

Let's build the storyline. Let's get him. Let's bait him. Let's get him baiting. Let's bait him so we can get some headline traffic. Stop baiting. Stop baiting. I'm going with a step up,

but not just for Benefield, but for this gentleman who he would be fighting. And we do it overseas. We do it on a paper view card. It's been a long time since UFC's him back to Perth, Western Australia.

We do Alonzo Menafield versus Tyson Pedro. That's the fight to make. That's the one. Let me see my rankings here. What do I got paid? This might be the, this might be the Gerald Mirr-Shart, Christoph Jocko, light-heavyweight fight. This might be for the light-heavy-weight-est light-heavy-weight fight.

The coveted number 16 spot. This might be the one to decide that. So, yeah, let's do that. Step up, big crowd, lots of energy, get men, field out of the apex. I like this one. I'm sure Pat Barry has, and bros would have no problem going to Perth.

That's a fun. That's a fun one. I like that a lot. Okay. Good things ahead for Alonzo Menefield. Again, he's fought who he's had to fight. Like, you know, again, the Mosorov, whatever that guy was. And then Mish Sarkanov, who sadly might be on his way out of the UFC.

He's taking care of business. You know, again, say what you want about his competition. He went up there. He finished him fast. We got to get another gauge of how good Menefield is. So, yeah, hopefully a step up against. Pedro or Span or Dominic Reyes next. Well, let's head to the wild card round.

We will select one fighter we have not match made for, and we will matchmate for them now. So it could have been someone who fell short. Could be Viviani Arrujo. We have not matched for her yet. Could be someone from the prelims. The world is your oyster, my best friend. How are we doing this?

It will not be Viviani Arrojo. With respect to Vivi, I do wonder if she is sort of a gatekeeper of sorts. I mean, that sounds a bit harsh. But that's kind of her lot. Listen, to get a UFC main event is, even with as many cars are these days, good for her, great achievement. She's always, her resume is pretty stacked. Like, I mean, she only fights top 15, top 10 people. And she will continue to do so, I think, in the UFC and picking up a couple wins here and there.

But I don't know if she quite needs to have the ought no touch, as it were, this week. So I'll go with Joe Anderson Brito. The guy is just super exciting. And I thought of a great matchup for him because the guy I'm about to name has had some performances that are methodical. He's certainly a contender at 145, but he doesn't always put on a show just by having the skills to do so. But when you're aggressive with him, this man goes for the kill. We saw that recently with poor Don Cheneas trying to shock the world. But Sadiq Youssef, obviously a little bit more seasoned experience, a better fighter, got the submission with.

And so I want to Sadiq to bounce off of that, fight Brito. I feel like this fight could happen soon. I think before we said we'd like to see Yusuf kind of step up for maybe one of these featherweight situations that has fallen out. Some bad luck, by the way, at featherweight right now, some of these great matchups that have been made. But that doesn't happen. Him and Brito, again, pretty quick work.

Let's have them. Let's just match them up before the end of the year. I think let's get these boys on the paycheck for the end of the year, Mike. There's a lot of chaos in that division right now. in terms of getting some of these fights put together because I've been told things that were like 100% accurate at the moment and then like 10 minutes later it changed. So I had been told that the UFC wanted Ilya Tuporia to fight another ranked featherweight in December, but now it looks like Ilya might be fighting Bryce Mitchell November 5th. By the way, we have not confirmed this just yet. I know they're on social media saying that it's happening, but to say that it's done, and that to report that at this moment,

it is Sunday at 10.49 a.m. Eastern as we, as I say this, nothing to report, nothing to report. Interest is there, apparently, but it's not done. But it's like a merry-go round. It's just a, it's just chaos with, with these guys. So anything is possible. Brito called out Danny Gay. Maybe they get that fight done.

I don't know. I, we'll see what happens. But I'm going with Tatsuro, Taira, AK, I just think this guy is great. a lovely, lovely individual outside of the octagon, a killer inside of it. That dude just real good. He's only 22.

He's only going to get better. And I'm ready to test him. I am ready to test him. And since we couldn't get this one fight that I've been clamoring and pushing for for so long, we're going to add another name into this. So Tyson Nam, come on down. Tatsuro Taira versus Tyson Nam.

Let's go. Let's see what you got, Tatsuro. I'm ready. I'm ready. Give it to me. That's a test. I love it. That is a test.

Yeah, man. He's like, what? Tice's name is probably like the 19th best flyway right now. 18th best. It's not too big of a step up. I mean, it's a step up, for sure. It's definitely probably the most experienced dude he's ever fought, but it's winnable. He's just, it's a winnable fight for both guys.

I like it. I say this respectfully. He could be Tyra's dad. I say this. I love Tyton. I'm a fan of Tyson. We've all spoken to Tyson. Tyson's a great interview. Super nice guy. Great. Great. That kind of gutty veteran. You'd love to have in your promotion and you'd love to see him do well. That would be great. He's so you said Tatsuro Tahr, excuse me, 22 years old. Tyson NAM turns, just turned 39. He's 16 years older than Tetsur. When he was starting, when he had his first MMA fight, Tyson NAM, 2006. Tyra was six years old but that's great that's great about sports right we see that in every sports

the generation's kind of getting to getting to one leading into another the passing of the tort I had not even thought about that I also want to say this about Tyra he's kind of had the I want to say the benefit I think the benefit

of flying under the radar almost because of Makayev it's like Makai up so I'm looking at when they had their fight so Makayev debuted March 2022 so early this year

in March excuse me and then a couple months later Tyra comes in with the win over Candelario and there's

some buzz there but people were kind of still even in this fast moving world of MMA I feel like people were still

kind of talk about Makaya we certainly were on our ranking shows a lot talking about this guy's going to be

a future champion two division champion and then his next fight Makaiv and now and now I'm sorry

Tyra fights Vigara and we've got Makaya fighting next week so when when we're talking about the flyweight, you know, up and coming guaranteed champion under 25 guy, it's Makaiv. It's Makaya, Makai, Mikhail, Makaa, Makaaib all the time.

Meanwhile, Tyra, putting on solid performances. Now, I'm not saying, by the way, none of this is me saying, oh, we should be talking about Tyra more. I'm saying this is a good thing. And there are reasons why Makayev is a more highly touted prospect. It's a ridiculous amount of amateur experience. You just kind of watch them fight. You kind of see the style how conducive it is to becoming a UFC champion.

And that's why Mekkaev gets like a big edge over Tyra. But, again, this is a good thing. Tair does not need to rush. Like I said, maybe we give him fights like Tyson Nam. You match him up with veterans who he can beat. You match him up with, again, later. Eventually, people closer to him and experience who can also beat. And who knows?

By the end of 2023, maybe Makaiavs has already fought for a title by then. I don't know. We'll see how 280 goes. And then Tyro will be in good position, end of 2023, 2024, to kind of be in that same conversation. So I like where the flyweight division is. Like I said, not super deep. But, man, you just look at any name from 1 to 20. And there's just intriguing, really talented, super fun guys.

And I'm glad that Tara gets to keep showing out. Yeah, it's very rare that a fight falling out for whatever reason is of benefit to anybody. But I actually, like, agree with you because he was supposed to fight Candelario in April. But Candelario had a had to withdraw from the fight. I think, like, the day before it maybe, because he was sick. It wasn't a weight-cutting thing, but it was like, I think the day of Wayans, they pulled the fight. Or maybe the day of the fight. And it got pushed back two weeks.

So, like, all this hype was around Tyra. He was doing a bunch of interviews. We had, like, literally posted our interview with Taitzura Taira. And then we found out, like, 12 hours later, the fight wasn't happening anymore. So all the hype that he had generated, all the interviews he had done, it was almost like, it didn't matter because the fight was no longer happening. So I think that two weeks sort of reprieve because of how quickly the cycle moves on, we're still excited.

The hardcores are ready to see it, but it just wasn't getting the same buzz that it, it had, it would have had in April. And I love that matchmaking because Candelario is a friggin dog and he doesn't get finished. He's super durable. And that's the exact fight that Tetsuro Taira needed at that time. You bring him in there with Vergara, a killer, be killed sort of dude. And Tyra goes out, gets the finish. So, yeah, I think the UFC has done a great job matchmaking for him.

And yeah, after this Baha'i fight with Malcolm Gordon, who knows, probably a big step up for him. but as far as Taira goes, I think Tyson NAM is fine. And I want to see how good this kid is. And if he loses the Tyson NAM, so friggin what? He's 22. He'll bounce back. No big deal. No big deal.

That's when he set a trip for Tyson. He has to fight a 20. That has to be, again, I say this with respect with, I respect age and veteranists. I'm not saying being old is a bad thing because I'm old. So I certainly can't say anything to anyone. But it's me such a trip for him, I think. If he gets that fight and Steph's to do a cage with a guy. who's 16 years older than.

Man. This guy was not born. Sorry, was six years old when Tyson had his first fight. That's just wild. But that's a, that's sports. Hey,

maybe Tyson will want to fight at 135 and he'll have to fight Raoul Roses Jr. plea, oh, see, now you're talking. A 20 plus year age difference.

Matchmakers, come on, let's make this happen. All right. Do we have any extracurriculars? Anyone begging for out, no points? I know it's been,

we've had a gap between cards, but I did want to read, I think people will be interesting this, I did want to read, because I called out one of your, someone who sent picks in for you, Mike, I believe. I called out Robbie Ryan. This is after the McKenzie Dern card. And I can't remember who Robbie Ryan picked for McKenzie, but there's something like McKenzie gets like this one way, who's it, who would she fight? What's our rankings here, one thing?

Like she fights, I don't know, someone in the top five or something in the top four and and, like, fights for the title. And I've said, I'm just not convinced that there is a path for McKenzie Dern right now after that loss to Yon, like, to fight for a title in 2023. I think she fights, I absolutely could see her fighting for a title someday. And in the right circumstance, winning a title. Like, I have that much belief in her jih Tijuana, but she has to do major retooling. And after losing to Yon, like, I'm like, I don't see how she can win.

I'm sorry, get a title fight in 23, right of me, Ryan, not convinced. So I did ask him to send his math, and he did. So I said I would read this out. I'm going to read this entirely because I'm going to be light on my picks this week because I didn't really have time to sort through them. So Robbie Ryan says, in my assessment, McKenzie has improved her striking and leaps in bound since her U.S. debut in 2018. Mike, we're already off to a bad start. We were already talking about how she needs to mix the martial arts less. Anyway, better and more confident in each fight.

Boxing defense needs further improvement from Saturday. Her kicks look better, but she has the right guy in her corner. She fought well in an extremely close fight. Since her debut, she has fought an average of two and a half times a year. Okay, good, true. If she fights and wins within the first quarter of 2023, she has nine months to fight two more times. Robbie really did do his math here. A win over someone like Lupi or the Dakota Hill winner should earn her fight against Asparza Zhang loser or Rose and Drage Jan rematch.

This is where the math falls apart for me. I don't think a win over Lupi or Emily Dakota or Angela Hill guarantees her Asparza Zhang, Rose, Andrage, or a rematch with Jan. No, I agree. I think she might have to fight another sort of someone else outside the top five or, or I mean, even just someone in the top of 15. So that's where it falls apart, Robbie. And I'll just finish this thought here. Any of these fights could elevate her into a title fight.

Even if her striking or wrestling isn't elite, there's always a very highly likely chance that a clinch grapple will occur at some point in a fight, and that's all she needs. So, again, there was good math there. I like the point. She is very active. That is good. Being active goes a long way.

Just winning fights goes along. way. But again, Lupi, Dakota Hill, any of those fighters, does not get her a top five fight. She'll have to fight again. And again, I don't know if she's, and she has been active, but I don't know if we can guarantee she is going to fight three times in 2020. So I can see her winning twice.

And then by the end, 2020, we're having our Ken McKenzie Dern fight for a UFC title talk again. And it's fine. It's good to be in that conversation. It's just one we kind of have to keep having with her with all her ups and downs. Right. look, we all know how the UFC works.

We know how their business model works. His math, like his point, his math is not incorrect. Overall, in my opinion, like I don't know fighting Emily to Cody is the answer, but, you know, she fights in Amanda Lamos or something like that. Good. Like, she's there. She's probably in the mix. It's a weird thing to say, considering she just lost this woman, but I feel like her path, to the title right now is shorter than Janjan's,

if that makes any crazy logical sense at all. But the problem is, should you go for this path now, or should you try to become the best fighter that you can possibly be? And if the answer is B, then she shouldn't be fighting anybody for a year until she learns how to learn a simple takedown,

which, and listen, I'm not a fighter, so no takedowns are simple for me. But for her, work on a takedown and work on punching people in the face when you're on top of them. If she learns how to do both of those things in any sizable way, she could be the champion of the world. She needs to learn how to do that because what she's doing now, she's not beating anybody in the top five.

I mean, she could because that jiu-jitsu is so dangerous, but people are figuring it out. Janjon survived. Marina Rodriguez survived. While both are very, are good. with defensive jiu-jitsu, they're not great at it. And now if you want to throw her in there with Rose, there's someone who's great at it,

it's not going to go well for her. The way that she fights right now, I don't know who she beats. A lot of people thought Tisha Torres beat her. And it's no disrespect to Tishtore's. She's looked really good in her last several fights. But would I pick her against Verda Janda Janda Roba in a rematch? I don't know. I don't know.

Like, I just need, if you're going to go for the title, just you got time. You got time. Take the time to get better at those things that you need to get better at. And then you're good. So could the path be shorter? Sure. Should it be?

No. Because she's not going to beat any of these women the way she's fighting. I would not pick her to beat Angela Hill right now. The McKenzie Dern we saw against Jan. I just don't think she could take her down. It's way more competitive than it would have been in a lot of people's eyes from like a year and a half. Like a year and a half ago, a year and a half ago, if they line those two of men up, McKenzie Dern is like a minus 600 favor.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. But not anymore. Not anymore. There's a formula. Like, there is a blueprint to how to beat this version of McKenzie Dern right now. Yon played it to a T. And we always say, like, the comparison, and they're different in many ways. But we always say, we always bring up, like, Damien Maya.

Like, we go, like, he wasn't like, it doesn't like he developed, like, a blast double. It's not like he was, like, you know, like slamming people to the mat. He found a way to maneuver. And he's not the fastest guy either. He is freakishly strong. I will say, Damien Maia is freakishly strong. McKinzer and maybe not quite that strength. level, but she is also a plus athlete.

So she has other attributes, physical attributes that would help her. So, but yeah, Damia was like, get a body lock on you, get you against a cage, trip you down, go to work. I don't know what McKenzie Duren's path to a takedown is. Smarter people than us, Mike, I'm sure I can figure it out. And hopefully she gets coaches and wrestling coaches or judic coaches, judo coaches. I don't know what it is. That can help her round out that part of her game and get fights on the mat.

And as you said, just kind of mixing a little GNP, you know, doesn't have to always be going for arm bars and chokes? like learn soften up do some damage on the mat maybe win some decisions that way um i know she's more of a finisher than you know someone who looks to outpoint people so that's great we love that it's why she's a fan favorite it's why the ufc likes her but again we're talking about becoming a champion so one thing to be popular we're talking about becoming a champion i'd love it if she could take a year off so um mackenzie zern if you can do that great but um but yes i think i think i think we have debunked uh robbie ryan thank you for the for uh doing your math and sending you the

message, but I do think Mike and I are in agreement that we've kind of debunked the formula there. I think we found flaws in it. Yes. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes.

Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go.

Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Want to throw out the disclaimer. Oh, yes. Oh, I don't have it written down as usual. I'm sorry, guys. I'm a little under-repair today. But yes, please, we'd like to focus on

if you were the only person to get a pick. I don't think that happened. I had a lot of people messaging me saying, oh, I picked this fight, this fight, so I'll touch upon those. I see them. but I'm pretty sure most of the matchups that were made recently were like a lot of people pick them, consensus picks.

And guys, try to pay attention, just go to Topology, go to Sherdog, go to M-Afighting.com, and just Google, and try and avoid if people are already matched, have a fight coming up, this isn't hard to find. If people have fought already recently, and it sounds like you don't remember, we hate to see that. Teammates is a little bit trickier, like we said, training camps can be so fluid,

but sometimes people are pretty well-known, teammates, best friends, et cetera, like Mike and I. And don't match them up. Like, just stop doing that. And other than that, please, uh, don't send us do-do because we'll, well, I mean, I used to say we don't read it. We, we, we, there's a very good possibility. We will read it and shame you.

So people know, do-do picks. Um, go ahead. You know, I know everyone's looking forward to UFC 280. We only got like six. I only got like six people picking fights. This is an anomaly. Everyone's just like ready to move, move on and get ready to October 22nd. So Chris London kicks off his, his fight picks with 280 week is finally here.

So there you go. Grasso versus the Fioro Chook winner. So just line them up. R Ujo versus Murphy. Jmart versus Janice, Swanson versus Faber, Tatorovich versus Joe Piper. I thought about that one. I don't mind that one at all. Right versus.

Joe Piper, hold on. Joe Piper. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought he had a match up. No, I had matched him up. I want to say, I would like Dennis Toulouloulan. But yeah, Piper's. range you can whatever they're going to put him with whoever yeah well he likes toulin

versus jordan right a sounsel versus bosharat i think they actually train together now i know this is not a doo-do pick by the way because the sunsau the story from what i understand is the sunsail basically just got in his car and jerove to extreme cout is like okay i want to come train with you and they're like all right come on in and then he goes on and beats victor henry but i know basherat is also at extreme cout so i don't know if that fight can happen not a do-doo pick at all because this is a new development. So I don't know if that fight's possible, but if they,

if it was, I'd watch the crap out of that fight. Victor Henry versus Mario Batista, don't dislike that at all. Metafield, Tyson Pedro, circuit off Kuchelaba, Mana Martinez versus Daniel Santos, Malcun versus Anders. Andrews is booked December 3rd.

So, I mean, it's not out of the wrong possibility. Maximoff versus Duran Win. Duran Win, also booked. Brno versus Onama Taira versus Tyson Nam. All right. I love it.

What? Yes. This isn't just you putting this out of the universe? I love it. This is the first time I'm looking at these, but this is spectacular. Well done.

We're on the same page on a lot of these. John Ray, by the time you read this, maybe the Marriages game is over. So before I get too drunk, here are my picks. Taira versus Sumadherji, Brito versus Dawadu. I actually like that idea a lot,

but I'm concerned about Dawadu in his future at 145 pounds after a bad weight miss for the Juliana Rosa fight but if you can get that together I'd love to watch that fight. Balcun versus Soriano.

Mana Martinez versus Dona Batskaree Metafield versus Jimmy Croutes. I actually don't mind that. That's one you could do on that card as well. When he's healthy, if he's healthy, that's a good way to go. Yeah, that's one you could do on that Perth card. A Sunsau versus Dominic Cruz

Tadouravich versus Mark Andre Barrio. Look at this. I mean, two things in, we're just flowing here. I'm friends forever with so many people. Arujo versus Casey O'Neill, which could, timelines at this point, that could actually line up. Grasso versus Tilos Santos, not a bad idea. One I don't really particularly love is Jonathan Martinez versus John Castaneda,

because Jonathan Martinez is coming off the best performance of his career against Cub Swanson, and John Cassaneda just got finished in his last fight. So don't know if we get that one. That's the one pick that I I kind of shrug my shoulders at, but thank you for your submissions. Let's go to Toby. Toby's picks Grasso versus Santos,

Aroozio versus Macy Barber, A.K. What do you think about that? If she resigns. If she resigns, what was Macy's last fight? Just guy. This is Arrojo versus Macy Barber? Aroujo versus Macy Barber. It makes a lot of sense.

Yeah, you're right. If she resigns, it makes a lot of sense. I'm just looking like some of the shared opponents they've had both lost to Grasso both, oh, Arrucho lost to I, Macy Barrett beat I Yes, I approve this matchup.

Okay. What about Jonathan Martinez versus Rob Font? Wow, that's a big jump up. I've, like I said, I want to see Jonathan Martinez going to jump up, but I'm also I mean, Rob Font is a top 10 phantom weight. Martinez certainly has that

potential. Is it time for TSB? TV TV to I'm just trying to get it I'm trying to get it going So good To get it. We'll see Listen, I'll put it up hashtag TSB TV

Is it time for it? I think that's too soon But I could see it being made I'm Rob Fon's on the losing streak Mortana's a win streak Maybe the matchmakers would view it that way But I'm not not the biggest fan Yeah I don't love that one either

I don't think he's there just yet Like if you did Adrian Yada's Rob Font I still think that's a little too soon but I mean, come on. The boxing displayed by both of those gentlemen would be amazing. But again, it all depends. Jonathan Martinez want to wait six, seven, eight months to fight again. That's the issue because that's the earliest Rob Font is going to fight is March, by all indications.

But even that might be a little too soon. Swanson versus Faber. I think that's going to be a popular one. Disco versus S.D. Dumas. I like that fight. Dumas coming off the contender series. Asunzel versus Yaya. Henry versus Kyeong-Hokang, another men to field Pedro, another Martinez-Bakari,

Davis versus Farid Basharat, the younger one. I actually don't mind that one for Brandon Davis. Malkoon versus Fluffy, Maximoff versus Tallulian, Brito versus Barbosa in Rio. That's actually, but Barbosa had surgery, so I don't know how long he's going to be out for. Yeah, again, it's almost as it's unclear. It's a tough guy to matchmaking for it right now. Alexander versus Sean Woodson Nah, it's way too soon

Poor Alexander, good God You have to fight Jonas and Brito And then you have to fight A welterweight at featherweight? No, I don't think so. Yeah, wait, what did he do to deserve this? Jeez, Louise, that's a murderer's row. Rodriguez versus 14o

Don't mind that one. 14o's just a huge mystery right now. Hughes versus Monster Rats, Conejo Ruiz. Tyra versus Bulldog Silva. Vergara versus Simon Olivera at 135, Rodriguez versus Leonace. How close was the Martinez-David-Fa-Davis fight? I did not see a minute of it.

It was split. Yeah, it was a close fight. Like a legit split? Yeah, man, I could have, man, I just couldn't let loose. And when he did let loose, he hurt Brandon. But once they're out, like, it was close. It all came down to like the first, maybe the second round. because Davis is winning most of that round,

but Martinez dropped him at the end of the second round. And to be fair, Davis is probably saved by the bell. And that fight could have been stopped. Had there been like 30 more seconds off to the round. But it was way more competitive than I thought it was going to be. Brandon Davis has had one of the stranger UFC careers, I would say. Very tough competition. See, my thing was when you mentioned his name,

I was like, first of all, I was just like, took me a second to register with time with Brandon Davis, because again I didn't see last night's card so I was like who's and he's oh and two in his second fight uh sorry his second round excuse me with the UFC that's why I asked how close the fight was because I do wonder if they want to give him another chance he's the kind of guy he's very willing to jump in on short notice which they like but like I said oh and two second run overall UFC record two and seven across two runs with the promotion now look at some these losses though Enrique Barzola's tough

Zabit, one of the men who fought Zabit. So no shame in losing there. Kyeongho Kang, tough veteran, split decision. Giki Jakkaze, split decision. And that's what led to his first release. And he goes four and O on the regional scene before I'm coming back to the UFC. So, yeah, it's weird. He's the kind of guy.

I think his record doesn't reflect like how good he is. He's 14 and 10 as a pro overall. And again, listen, at some point you have to win fights. You know, we can talk about a guy's grit and his competitiveness all day long. Everyone who steps in that cage, you know, deserves respect. but I do wonder if that split decision loss is going to cost him in this run. But if they give him another opportunity, that's fine. People are throwing out matchups for him.

But wow, that's some tough. Randy Costa, that's some tough, tough opponent. Danat, Danap, Macquarie, his first fight back with motion. Anyway, okay, sorry, my little Brandon Davis tangent. Gerard, Grasso versus Lauren Murphy, Fierro will likely get a title shout at the win. Arous, another Arousa, Macy, Barber. Jonathan Martinez versus Kyler Phillips can be on short notice as Matrix needs an opponent. Swanson versus Faber for the WEC Emeritus Belt.

Tadoravit versus Brudo Silva. Asunsa versus the Saeed Narmaga Madov, Saeed Hakramanov winner. Menefield versus Mersakhanov. What? Am I confused? No, okay. What happened, Mike?

I thought Merzikov for a second, my brain's a mush right now. Did you, were you thinking Moserov? Yes, I was. I was for a second. What an idiot. I was like, I had a look at it. a couple of times. So yeah, that's a fight. Yeah, I like that fight. Not, yeah, that one.

Manor-Martine versus Tony Gravely. Run it back with Mozaroff. Read it back. Bring him back. Yeah, why not? Malkoon versus the nickel picket winner on December 10th. I actually don't mind that one at all. I think that's- is Jacob Malkoon good? I think so. I think so. I picked him from a bet. I was on no-bets barred before UFC 275 and I picked Malcund to beat Brendan Allen. And he almost did. He almost did.

He could be a future middleweighty middleweight champion. I think so. I think so. He's coming for that number 15. I'm sorry, he's coming for that number 16. I'm sorry, he's coming for that number 16 spot. He is. He could be that spot right now. He could be that guy right now. Well, settle down. Hold on. This is a, well, if he beat Brendan Allen, he would have got the

jocco fight and then he could be the dude. This is true. If he had beaten Brennan Allen, he would have fought. Oh, wow. Who know how big the stakes actually were? for that fight. We didn't know. We didn't know. What do you know?

Hold on. He's like three and two, three and one? What does he know? Three and two? Because he fought Phil Haas on like a day's notice and got destroyed. Yeah, yeah, I can't give him too much crap for that. So three out of his last four. That's best way.

He's won three out of his last four. He's, yeah, he might actually be good. Okay. He's pretty good. I've already graduated. He's, I graduated him after the Brennan Allen fight. He's no longer Robert Whitaker's teammate.

He has a name. and his name is Jacob Malcud. Oh, wow. Pete Rodriguez, this is the first Pete Rodriguez suggestion, versus Blood Diamond. I actually like this idea as well. This actually might be the correct fight.

That's perfect. I have, what a weird little cluster of names at, wait, sorry, Blood Diamond. This is what, middleweight? What is this? Welterweight. Welterweight. Wait, Pete Rodriguez fought at Welterweight.

He sure did. Is Blood Diamond not? a middleweight? No, he's a Walterweight. No. He fought Jeremiah Wells. He fought Jeremiah Wells. Did he debut at middleweight?

Oh, this is Walterweight. No, this is Walterweight. Yeah, he's Walterweight. Okay, I see it. I haven't at the very bottom of my Walter rate. I was like, we're blood diamond? Like, I guess I was looking at 185. And look, he's not there.

He's a Walter Redmond. Yes, that is the right way to go. Yeah, I have blood diamond at 72 out of 72. Pete Rodriguez, five spots ahead of 67. It's a dead heat down there. And I love this pick. I actually love this pick for Joannis and Brito that I'm seeing. Joannis and Brito versus Charles Jordane.

Yeah. Again, this is, like I said, Brito is the kind of guy who I think is really going to bring out the best in his opponents. Win or lose. Win or lose. It's either Brito is going to put on a highlight reel, get a highlight reel, or something. Or I think he's going to get caught by some of the really talented guys at 145. So, yes, throw him in there with some of the more technical guys and bring out. I want to see him bring out the beast in some of these technical guys and really get some exciting fights going.

So Brito, he's like the, he's like the Andre Fialio, I feel like, of 145. Let's go to Marcus, Grasso Murphy, Martinez, Menefield, Kuchelaba, Tadorovich, Pfeer, Brito Igay, Taira, David Devorak. Harry DeWoskin, Cub Swanson versus Stephen Peterson. I assume he wants Cub to move back up. Tyra versus Tyson Nam. There we go. Add it to the list, baby. This is really a thing?

It's a thing. Let's go. Let's get that hashtag going. Tyra Tyson, I guess, would be the punchiest way to do it. Or Tyra with Tyre. You're hurting my head right now. Tyson. Okay.

Mike, it's too early. You're hurting my head right now. Pete Rodriguez versus Cedric Dumebe if he's still signed. That might actually be better than what time is. Wait a minute. Isn't Cedric Dume? I know he's a kickboxer. isn't he actually like a really

doesn't he have a super high MMA ceiling like I don't know he's not a super he's not a young guy right he's like he's a very experienced he's one of those guys who people keep telling me

his skills will translate like beautifully into MMA yeah it's it's more it's more Alex Pereira right and less blood diamond right right he's fought a couple of times that's right yeah

I knew he had already fought in MMA okay but you know what right fine experience wise I get it. He's only had a couple of five. I don't know. I'm just wondering, is that like just setting up Pete Rodriguez for like a head kicking up or something? But, you know, people know better than I do, I guess. Mana, Daniel Santos, Menafiel versus Tyson Pedro, because at some point, they're going to have stopped giving Pedro bums. Malkoon versus Jotko is kind of interesting as Malkoon is somehow getting close to being a top five middleweight.

Let's go. Top 25, 25, 25, 25, top 25 middleweight. We're not talking about the middleweight champion. We're talking with a middleweighty middleweight champion here, people. get confused. But there go. That answers my question, I guess. People know he's good. Sunsela versus Douglas de Silva Day Androge.

There's two that I really like here. Joynes and Brito versus Nate Landware is ridiculous. I mean, that's just chaos. Pure chaos. And I actually like that fight because the one, I think Jonas and Brito is great. I think he has a super high ceiling. But the biggest question I have about him, Nate Landre would be able to answer.

Because what happens if he gets out of the first round? What happens if the fight gets extended? Nate ain't, if you get Nate out of there, it's super impressive. But if you can beat Nate in a fight that goes past the second round, like, that's pretty cool too because Nate just doesn't go away. He's a freak. So I like that matchup. How do we get Nate Landwerf fighting five times a year?

Is it medically possible to make this happen? Do you ever see multiplicity with Michael Keaton? I did. With Michael Keaton. And Andy McDowell. There you go. Five Nate Landwheres. Let's do it.

At least two. Can we at least do two? He's just so exciting. And I just, you know he would. You know he would if he could. But again, his style is so brutal. It's like, also you also watch a Nate Landwera fight and you also go like, this guy should not fight more than one time a year.

Like it's, I'm torn. I'm torn as an MMA fan and as a decent human being between thinking this guy should fight one time a year. She could pay $1 million, $2 million to fight one time a year and just do what he does. and also again just wanting to see him fight as much as possible. So I feel like him and Brito have to fight someday. It would be very disappointing if they didn't. And we will close off my picks with Harry Dawkins leading the charge.

This might be the pick of the entire card. This might be the pick of the year, AK. Jordan Wright versus Spike Carlisle in an openweight Risen fight. I just love that so much. Risen, make this happen. Again, we just talked about the Nate Land where there being no, if there was a world without laws, the kind of things we would see, Spike Carlisle and Jordan Wright would certainly be one of those matchups. And yes, it would have to happen in Japan.

Yes. A.K., you're out. Stomps. You're out. Stomps. Oh, yeah, I got to do stumps in that one. Again, so I'm just going to run through, I see a lot of, that's a lot of repeats just from what I glanced over. Tristan Gordead, our pal, regular listener, regular contributor.

Grasso Murphy. I think this is just a really super logical matchup. Tyra Victor Altamir Marano, Pete Rodriguez, Blood Diamond, Brito, Josh Kulabal. Our pal, Casey, Carpenter. Great programming, as always, by all of you. Complementing my BTL performance. Thank you, Casey.

I'm just doing what I can before Jed's inevitable return. I think if you get a matchup with G.C., the great, well, I'm forgetting names all of a sudden, the great Connor Burke. Conner Burke. Berks. Conner Berks. There you go.

We work together. We got it. You got it. I swear I'm not big time in Connor. I literally just had a brain fart there and just forgot his name. I always think of him as Will Arnett. We always say he sounds exactly like a great Canadian actor, Willarnet. And I'm so jealous.

I wish I had Connor's voice. If I beat him, it would force Jed out of retirement, like next, sort of like next week when Dobranks wins Saturday and forces go to be back. Thank you, Casey. That's right. That is what's going to happen. Yes, there will be symmetry there. Tatsuro, Tyra, O'Day, Osborne, Mal Coon, Assyrano, there's another one. Again, Menafield versus Crout.

Yeah, again, we like that if Crout's, if Crude comes back from his last injury, healthy. Two women in the main event, I'll have to wait until next week to book them, but again, Fioro versus Arugio and Fero loses, and honestly, if that happens, give Grasso the title fight. Because if Feroero wins, then Duke Grasso

versus Jukegan. Okay, sorry, I got it. I've read that badly. Sorry, Casey, that made sense. I read that badly. That's on me. Go to Instagram real quick here. Let's see, we got.

First timer. Brody Bulger. Brody Bulger wants to. Hey, guys, love Otno. Thought I would finally make some picks. Hopefully no do-do. All right, Mike, we got to read this one. Okay.

Jonathan Martinez versus Howany Barcellos. Okay. Duskoz-Dorovich versus Power Bar. There we go. Halfel Assen Sal versus Ronnie Yaya. I know he's injured, but when he comes back, make the fight. Brody's really minding his peas and cues. He does not want to step and do, do-do.

I love it. Manifield versus Zhuan Kutalaba, Malcun, versus Chris Widman comeback fight. Oh. Wow. That's actually really good. Like grappler. Get some grappler.

Yeah, give Chris a grappler. That'd be interesting. Oh, Mike, how do you like Manna Martinez versus Roe Rosas Jr? Hmm. Hmm. I mean, I actually would prefer, like, I'd actually rather do Brandon Davis if we're being on it. Okay.

Because I want, and even that's a really tough fight. It is. Let me say, Brandon has a lot. I actually, I have not watched Roe, I watched his Contender Series fight other than that.

I've not watched Roel as closely as others. Brandon Davis would be a really, really tough. Like I said, we talked about his record 14 and 10, two and seven the UFC, but again, he's lost to some really,

he's been in there with Zabit. He's been, you know, he's been in there with some really good names. It's the right, I think it's a good test, but man, I don't know if Brandon Davis,

like, couldn't upset him, but maybe I haven't been watching Raul enough. I think Raul would probably finish Brandon Davis. Oh. But just because he's so opportunistic on the ground, and that's not really Brandon's strong suit. Brandon is more of a sort of Jeremy Stevens type fighter,

where it's just, let's just go, baby. Let's just throw those hands. And Raul is happy to do that, but eventually Raul's going to get him to the ground and he's going to make things very uncomfortable for him. So, I mean, if they do it, fine, but I think that might be just, that's a little too much.

much for me. Yeah. Right off the bat for him. There's no Aaron Pico, Zach Freeman potential there, right? Necessarily. Yeah, I don't,

don't love it. Man, man is good, man. Like, man has got a really, really good upside. I just don't know if, I don't know if that's too much too soon for,

for Roses. It's, I mean, we're going to be talking about rural Roses Jr. a lot, I think over the next 12 months. He's going to be a very tricky kid to book because he's 17 years old. Yeah.

He's 17. I know he has pro to me. I get it. It's not, it's not, it won't be. to be right. He's has fights under his belt, but 17 years old, like, I don't even know. People know me on all our shows. I'm always talking about anyone under 25, like how much variance there could be.

I say this about Aaron Blanchfield. I say this about Makayev. But, God, they're just getting younger and younger. Maybe I need to start warming me up to the fact that, like, we are able to gauge how good these kids are at a young age. I still don't think so, but maybe I'm, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people are just smarter than me. Brito versus Land. We're Pierre Rodriguez, Ariani, Carnalosi, Tatsuro, Taira, Oday, Osborne. Pete Rodriguez, Johann Linus. Also, Grasso versus Chagin. If Caitlin loses next week. But if Caitlin wins, Grasso versus Jokchenko and Arrojo versus Macy Barber, very popular pick, R.

R.R. Joe and Barber. Love the show. Have a good day. Thank you, Brody, Bulger. Let's see what else from Instagram. Brandon Haley likes T-S-B-T-V-T-V-V-V versus song-ya-dong. Wow, I don't know. Yeah?

No, I like it. No, you think so? I don't know. I can. Maybe I'm not giving Jonathan Martinez. It's weird. I have to shake off the Martinez the troubles he had with making Bantam weight. Again, they were very real, but it has not been an issue for his last few fights.

So I should probably stop, stop shaking that off and stop, like, penalizing him in my mind for some of those weight misses. Yeah. I mean, I get, I would, I get the trepidation because you got two dudes on the rise. One's going to take a pretty good, like if Songy Nong, loses. that's a big step back he has to take. But again, he's really young. So I don't know. You can make arguments for all of them, but I would not be opposed to that at all.

All right. Okay. You're more understanding. I like that one more than rough on. I'll say that. From James Sherwood, Alexa Grasso, Tilos Santos, Jonathan Martinez, Pedro Munoz. I thought about this one as well. Dusko versus your boy, not Eric Anders.

Your boy, my hex boy, Roman Coppola. Oh, there you go. Asson, Sama Bashra, and another Metafield page, you know. So there we go. And I'll run to Twitter real quick here. Clearest values want to see Mike Jackson versus Hasbullah, regardless. He said this before, before actually the fight, apparently. This Hasbola thing, Mike, I admit, guys, I'm pretty, like, not down with this

Hasbola meme, I don't know. I get it. I get the appeal. I just haven't kept up with it. So I know, supposedly, he signed some sort of deal with the UFC. I think some people are thinking he's actually, like, I assume it's a very small percentage of fans who think he's actually going to fight. Like, you know, just a few random dummies.

Like probably one out of every 10 MMA fans thinks like they decide him to fight, right? I honestly think cancorsors are more interesting than the story. Because these cancorsorsors, even though they're painful, you still feel like you need to play with it a little bit. I want nothing to do with this whole thing. I hate it. Like, I honestly could not care any. I understand that there's some people who think it's like humorous or whatever and they think it's cool.

And look, Hasbullah smashing a burger in Volkinaw's face. Did it make me laugh? You damn right, it did. I'm a human being. I'm a human being after all. But I could, I just don't care. I just don't care. If he wants to sit, cage that at UFC 280 and watch Islam Makachaf fight Charles Oliver, awesome.

But if this dude, if they book him in a UFC. F. I don't know, man. I'm going to lose my damn mind if that actually happens. No, no. That's not going to. That's not going to happen. They'll do some sort of maybe some metaverse thing.

Maybe some metaverse. Maybe it's going to tie with that. The metaverse stuff they've been doing something like kind of cool. Like I don't know, weird fantasy matchup or something. Maybe just use him an ad. But I don't know. But I'm with you. It does.

I'm always weird about like these internet celebrities that pop up and in his case. maybe get exploited. I don't know. He's only, he's 18 years old or something, right? Or 20, 20, I think. Something like that, yeah. Yeah, he's a young guy.

Like, I know he's not, obviously, as young as he looks. That's sort of the whole, you know, I guess what got people's attention is, you know, he has this condition that he looks, he looks, he's small, he looks like a child. But I believe even then,

he's only 20 years old. And I hope, look, he's making a lot of money. He's very popular, good for him. I hope he's not being exploited. But then again, this is the fight business. This is sports entertainment. And that's sort of, what we do in this business, isn't it?

So, but yeah, very weird thing. I thought I just mentioned, Clear's values shouting out, Hasbola. Chris at Dragon Slayer, hey Alex, he always sends in one pick. Chris says,

Ellen's a man of Phil Tyson-Pa-Gel, Tyson-Pa-Gel, there you go, another vote for that. Nice. This person does not have a name. They always, their name is an emoji.

At someone's online. Okay, that's the yawning emoji. Anything interesting here. Jonathan Martinez, Casey Kenny. I mentioned that in the post-fight show. I'm fine with that as well

Was he like Was he one of the top three stars of this card? I got he was in the co-mate event So that's not the surprising but So I'd say was he did he arguably make a bigger Yeah The most out of this card than anyone else 100%

He's the he If there if this is like the NHL And they were doing three stars Jonathan Martinez is number one One like without hesitation Because like we said Grasso I think so much of it depends on what happens With so many other

Again next week's matchup And also with the plans of other It's a plan as the champion herself. When Cantalas Santos come back, all these things. It feels like no matter what she did, unless she scored like a 30-second head kick knockout or something, it wasn't going to change her stock that much. And again, she even said as much after the show, I need another fight. So great win for her.

It kind of kept her in neutral. But now I'm seeing Jonathan Martinez everywhere. So good for him. And that's a great name to have in your resume to get Cubs Swanson on there. So, wow, could not have gone better. Marcus McGaie. He calls us the Dragon Grass Edition. I think that's a, what is that?

thing what's dragon grass this isn't like a I don't know but I think I mean at the end of the day he's paying homage to Jonathan Martinez's old nickname oh this is true we don't even acknowledge this we don't even know us B tv TSP TV the sound the silence behind the violence that's a great name did you actually make that up yes I've been calling him that for I've been calling him that for like three years

yeah he doesn't use this every time I interview him I call him the silence behind the violence it's like it's the perfect nickname for him we should have given that to but it's too late. Lukey the boat, the ship is sailed. Oh, God. Lucke has said 400 million times more words than Jonathan Martinez says. He's Connor McGregor compared to Jonathan Martinez.

Oh, yeah. He's Roddy Piper. He's a great, that's a great nickname. You should, gosh. You know, I'm against media generated nicknames a lot of the time. You know me? I'm not like, I'm like, I always say when people say Bobby Knuckles, I just go like, oh, you mean the Reaper?

But the silence behind the violence is so much better than Dragon. It's way better. It's so much more marketable and it fits. I think he'd be more comfortable with it because he's just, he's not dragon. You're not just, if someone else has, when we say dragon, we think Leo da Machita. It's a taken nickname. There's just no upside to keeping dragon. And I blame the UFC for this.

I blame the UFC production team for a moment because look, I am over the tweets being on the broadcast. Like I'm so over that. I'm so, because it changed. You could, you could tell. whose personalities on social media, it changes because their personality is like, everything that they've ever believed about MMA goes away for those six hours because their tweets need to be on the broadcast. But my silence behind the violence tweet, not making the broadcast, was a gigantic disservice

to Jonathan Martinez. And I would have said that if Jonathan Martinez was fighting at LFA 105, and I would have said the exact same thing. So nothing, no personality change for this guy. But not putting that tweet on the broadcast is horrendous. That you just lost a major opportunity for this young man. You're trying to help people. That's what I'm trying to do.

You're not trying to go viral. You're trying to help Jonathan Martinez go viral. Yeah, I'm trying to just be a little quirky. I don't care about being on the broadcast. But that one in particular, as soon as like Brennan Fitz, come on, re-sign with the UFC. He's about Brennan Fitz would have put that thing over in a major way. He would have been like, that's a great nickname. Can you talk next time you talk to your boy, Anick.

Can you? I'm trying. I'm trying. When Jonathan Martinez makes his pay-per-view debut, that's the time. That's it. I think your boy, Annick would totally, I think he, I don't know if you mentioned it. I'm sure he would love that more than Dragon. Yep, I'm going to say that to him.

But yeah, like, people like changing their sort of how they tweet just to get a, I've done it. I've been a shade. Like, I said like, Gregor Rodriguez is a beast, like, all that. Like, just to get up. And like, I see it go up there. Like, I can't remember. There's no way. this fight is it awesome.

Oh, this fight's a banger. Hashtag, whatever the show is. And then you see it go up there and I look at it. I just feel empty now. Like I see, if I see it go out, I'm like, I feel ashamed.

Why did I do that? I don't do it as much, but I'd certainly, I've done it before. I'm not judging any of our fellow media members who do it. It's just a little bit. A little bit. It's hilarious.

And we know what you're doing. And I don't judge you for it. It's just funny. Anyway, Marcus McGahey, so he's Dragon Grass Edition. I was going to read what Dragon Grass is. It's just a real boring thing.

He also likes Martinez, Kenny. What else got? Menafel versus Mazakanov. There you go. So he also did not make that mistake. And again, oh, wow. Pete Rodriguez, Blood Diamond or Cedric Dumbay. What the freak?

Okay, great. All right. I'm the one who I guess doesn't think that was right. Four Corner Sports. Arrucho versus Casey O'Neill, yes, which is healthy for sure. Another Martinez, Casey Kenney. Pete Rodriguez, Mike Malott. Oh, how do you think of this for Cubs Swanson?

Pete Rodriguez versus Mike. Mike Malott. No, you can't do that. No, I think Mike Malat would. Mike's real good. I'm actually, I'm wondering when he's getting back in there because he impressed the crap out of me. Canada. Cubs Swanson versus Montel Jackson, Julio Arce, loser. Are they fighting?

I don't know. They're fighting? Wow. I have to look this up. How did I not know about this? I'm checking topology right now. UFC 281. Damn.

So thank you Four Corner Sports for reminding us slash breaking it to us that fight is happening. I had no idea that was happening. There's a lot of fights, guys. There's a lot of fights,

okay. We don't memorize every fight. But thank you. So Four Corner Sports, hap tip, good pick there then. Holy smokes. Our man in Italy,

while Mike recovers from breaking news, our man in Italy, Francesco. Grasso, just go get that title. Sure. Martinez,

yes. Todorovich, versus Al Hassan, thank you. You are, I have a lot of friends forever moments with Francesco. Brito versus Sean Woodson. I don't mind that. Hayes with third, Hayes, thank you. You always write a lot.

I wish I could read everything. To Jorovich, I said Joe Pfeiffer for the winner of this fight before. I'll stick with it. No need to push Pfefer too quickly. I agree. Asun Sao, I was pleasantly surprised here for sure. Good fight to go out on, but I guess he keeps fighting. Let's let him get a sort of money fight or at least a fight that'll have some

press, retire, and would it would likely be a fun fight. I'll go with O'Malley if he loses to Yon, which I expect him to. Coos would be a good pick as well, of course. What do you think about that? A bounce back fight for O'Malley, Mike, let's say O'Malley fights Peyodor Jan and either

gets finished in the first second round or loses a lopside decision. Do you think Haferilis and Sao and Sugar Sean is like a good, would be a good bounce back? Maybe I was leaning yes And then I'm just like

I keep veering back to Cheeto Vera Like I feel like if O'Malley loses He's got to fight Cheeto If Cheeto doesn't get the title shot You have to do that fight I feel like Okay I feel like that just makes too much sense

At this point Bad blood Yeah You know what You know what? Henry Sehudo, why don't you fight Hafiela Sunsoe? Oh my gosh, why did you bring him out?

I'm just going to say it. Like, I don't care. Like, if Henry Sehudo fights Hafeelah Sonsau and beats him, give him a title shot. I'm fine with that. Go fight Jafiola Sonsau. It's not even a top five guy. I'm doing you so many favors right now, dude.

Just get in there and fight. I just want him to fight so bad. Like, I want him to fight. You're really trying to meet Henry halfway here. I really am. Go fight Jafel Sonsau. I'm fine. I'm fine.

with that. Hazithird. So again, you said Maximum, unfortunately, was dealing with an injury. So could they have stopped the fight? Hayesvthir's wondering, why did his corner not stop that for a Maximoff? Yeah, so we talked about this on the post-fight show a little bit. So you didn't get to watch it. But basically what happened was Maximoff cracked Malcun early.

And it looked like Malcun was like on kind of on wobbly legs a little bit. But you could see as the round went on that every time that Maximoff moved, he was grimacing. You could tell something was bothering him. So he goes and sits in the corner and he tells his team that his knee popped out. But he leaves clear as day on the broadcast. Yeah, because my knees aft up, I popped like my knees popped. And they're like, okay, dude, best of luck of the second round.

And here's the thing. I understood why there's conversations about this. But at the same token, it's the cliche answer, but it's absolutely true. These guys know Nick Maximoff way better than any. of us. And at the same token, they probably know Jacob Malcoun at that moment better than anybody else because they've watched tape. They've watched all of his fights. They didn't see any threat of leg kicks or anything like that. And if you watch the post fight interview, Paul Feltter was like, because even during the fight, Paul's like, yeah, he hasn't thrown,

he's throwing like one leg kick. He's not throwing any leg kicks. He goes, if I was him, I'd be smashing his leg right now, like literally said those words. So he, and Feldar asked him about and he goes, what people don't realize is it wasn't his front leg that was bothering him. It was the back leg. And I've seen guys try to kick him in the back leg. And I got cracked to the left hook in that first round. So I don't want to leave myself open for something crazy. So that's why I didn't target the leg, which is very smart.

And maybe his team realized like, you know what? Winging a prayer. He's not going to kick his leg. I think we're good. And in the end, he maxed him off loss, but it's not like, It didn't, I don't think the injury got any worse. Like it wasn't bad. It wasn't like he was fighting Jonathan Martinez,

like a middleweighty Jonathan Martinez. She's just going to bomb that leg over and over again. He fought Jacob Malcun who was just going to box and wrestle. And I didn't have a, I didn't have a humongous issue with it. And the referee let him back out and the doctor let him back out. So you questioned it a little bit for these guys, but Nick probably wanted to go.

So yeah, I'm okay with it. We just stopped Pico, and pop his own shoulder back into a fight. That was wild. This is not that. I can tell you that right now. These guys, if I'm conscious, I want to keep fighting. Right.

I don't care. Yeah, if my arms, if my, like, if I can stand up, if I'm conscious, I want to you guys are nuts. But I like that Malcolm saying that breaking it down like that. What a middle-weighty middle-weight he is. I'm becoming a fan now. Anyway, so Hayesber Third says, surprise to him rattling off wins. Go with the Boralio Moradov loser.

Yeah, that's a very middle-weighty matchup. I like it. And for Tyra, I'm down for Tyra. versus Makaya being the hipster version of Khamsat versus Shelfcott. But that'll happen later on. I'll go with Tyson NAM for Tatsu-O-Tairo.

Yeah! Welcome aboard, baby. True, true. I hadn't even thought of that. That might be like the most popular pick of the week. I love it. Apparently Pete Rodriguez and Dumbay.

Just a few more here. Brandon O'Neill, Tyra versus... Are you, did you tweet? Did we do it again? Do we have another one? Do you tweet it? No, I didn't.

Did you put this out there and it was his follow? What the hell is going? I've never seen a pick this properly before. We've got to talk to Tyson and just say Tyson. We've trained. We've trained our listeners very well. This is, I mean, this is brilliant.

Brilliant job. So thank you, Brayden for that one. Also, Todorovich versus Gore Framed winner. Okay. Metafield versus Ulberg. Nagamariano winner. I actually really like that. I just need no one that fights happening because if it's too far off.

Did you know, I feel like I bring this up every time. Nico Negomiriano is on like a four-fight win streak in the UFC? He's won four in a row. Four in a row. And I would pick him to beat Oldberg, too. He might be fought out of five. He is on a four. Wow.

Now, he has fought, I mean, it's not like the best competition. He's fought Kamer, Villanueva. The Oweba. And Chichiku was kind of a sketch. Kind of suss. Kind of suss in the judging. There's two splits. And Potaria was, Poteria was a great win because not a lot of people expected that to happen.

They thought Poteria was coming in to just get over fast. and Nikolai is just not that dude. If he beats Elberg, yeah, you know what? Meta Him and Meadowfield, that might be the matchup to me. Here's just a spoiler. Here's a spoiler. He's going to beat Carlos Alberg. Thomas Collins-Mennifil versus Heza Pager, another one.

Pira versus Lomo Luke Boonmi. Mike Jackson's a bare-knuckle boxing. I am, that is so what he's going to do at some point. I don't want to see that. Go to glory, baby. Go to glory. Yeah, okay. Go kickboxing.

Yeah, go kiss box. I think Thomas is right, though. I do think BKB is more likely. Toke, our pal, Tote, Gertin Jensen, I have one matchup for this fight card. This has to, did this come up on the post-fight show? Or I feel like it might be his come up on another post-fight show. Mike Jackson versus E.K.C.

I like, yeah. I think we've talked about this before. But I will say this. Casey put over Mike Jackson a big way. Yeah, he likes him. On the pre-fight show. But, I mean, it's all respect. It's all respect.

It'd be like the, the 2022-2. 23 version of DC versus Anderson Silva. Just so much respect. So much respect going all around. That's what I think of when I think of Mike Jackson versus Casey is Dan Cormey versus Anderson Silva. Yeah. Casey opens a minus 350 favor in that fight. And by MMA math, if Casey were to beat Mike Jackson, he would also have beaten CM Punk.

Which is not something I would ever. I mean, it was no contest, whatever. But we all know who won that fight. That's not a thought I ever thought. I'd be thinking here for lower 2023. Last one here, Barry O'Reilly. Barry, thank you always for sending great picks and a very thoughtful comments. Tesoro, Tira versus Sumererji.

Oh, whoa, pump your bricks. Big step up for Tyra who's looked good so far. Mururji also looks very good and even looked good in defeat. Winner makes a big move up in the rankings. You know what? I don't like it. I don't like it, but I see the logic behind it. Barry, you're not crazy.

Brito versus Jordane. Oh, here we go. I'm glad this was last. Jacob Malcoun Bo Nicol Yeah I'm fine I'm after pick it

I'm fine with it I'm fine with it Or I mean whoever wins that fight That's fine That's a tough fight Like Jacob's a tough fight Even for Bo

I think Bo would win But Just because of that pure athleticism But Jacob's super tough man He's just He's a grinder Yeah I'm fine with that I'd be fine with that

I think that is like the logical way to go after if nickel runs to pick at his expect. That's not bad. Barry Riley, good thinking ahead there. I didn't really thought about that. Dusco's Dervis versus Johnny Parsons is a contender series guy. Is that right, Mike? Yes. Contender series last year.

Okay. So he said, okay. Oh, he was supposed to debut this year. Okay. With Drew for some reason. His nickname is apparently the sluggernaut. That can't be real. Oh, it is.

That's an excellent nickname. And he's a mullet? No. Does he have a mullet? His profile picture has a mullet. I don't know how old this picture is, though. I assume he's no longer rocking the mullet, but if he is and his nickname is a slug or not,

then he can fight whoever he wants. But yeah, Dursko makes a lot of sense. And very last one, I'll read, Alexa Grasso versus Tala Santos. Schochenko, hopefully going to fight Nunez, Chikin and Firo, basically number one contender fight. And while Grasso looked really good, I still don't want to throw her in with Svchenko yet

so she could take on the person not named Nunez that gave Shinchiko her toughest. test yet. Okay, right, okay. Thank you for all the great content. Looking forward to the podcast. Well, Barry, you're on the podcast, so thank you. Thank you everyone else who sent in picks.

I apologize if we missed anyone. You guys are absolute monsters. Reach out to me on Twitter. My DMs are open at Alexander K. Lee. My DMs are also open on Instagram at Alexander KK. Lee. Or email me, Alex. dot Lee at SBNation.com. But

next week's obviously a different beast. I mean, you can send in your picks the normal way if you'd like. Oh, yes, that's right. Yeah, yeah. The plan is, if all works out, we will go live, trying to figure out how we're going to do this, and you will understand why probably around the middle of this week. So stay tuned for a big announcement.

I believe Wednesday's MMA hour is when all will be revealed, all will be told. And I can't wait for you all to find out about this. This is very exciting stuff. Very exciting stuff in terms of UFC 280. But the plan will be for AK and I to go live on Sunday after UFC 280. Brand new episode will go on to the next one. So very excited about the possibility of that going down.

Hopefully the logistics will make it work out. And of course, UFC 280 absolutely friggin rules is the card of the year on paper. The big one, the main event, lightweight title, Charles Oliva, is on Machachev. A new champion will be crowned. Al J. D.J. Dillishaw, Banimay title fight. No one talking about this one, but it could be the best fight on the entire card. Peirion, Sean O'Malley, Benil Darius, Matush-Garajum, Kailash, Gamelin, Manon Fioro, that's your main card.

Prelimbs, Balaamahmah, Sean Brady, big one at 170, Makmoud Murdof, Kyle Boralio, Fulkin Ozdemir, Nikita Krilov. That's either like an exciting, crazy fight or the worst fight of the year. There's no in-between. That's true. We don't know what we're doing. Zubaira Tugugov, Lucas Almeida, Yamato Nishikawa

versus Magamad Moushtaf, Abu Nurmaghameda versus Ghazi Omar Gajyev. Armand Petrosian, A.J. Dobson. Mohamed Mahaif, the future two-division UFC champion takes on Canadian Malcolm Gordon, Lena Landsberg versus Carol Hosa.

That is your UFC 280 card. What a, what a read. You crushed it. I was looking at some of those names. And I was like, some of these are a little tricky. You crushed it. I didn't doubt you at all. I mean, I didn't doubt you at all.

I mean, we'll go back to those reads. And we'll listen to John Anick at the Wayans. Oh, I'm sure. And I'm sure I'm completely wrong about a bunch. We don't, I'm sure we don't nail all these exactly. But I think that was a very, I think as someone who consider herself pretty good of pronunciations, Mike, I think that was very respectable. Thank you very much.

And I appreciate that. And I appreciate all of you for listening. We'll be back live. Hopefully next week. And if not, we're not live. We'll be back here anyways. on to the next one, UFC 280, and I can't wait for this entire week,

our man Jose Young's, as we record this on his way to Abu Dhabi, a lot of travel for that, man, so safe travels to my man, Jose. And always remember, ladies and gentlemen, don't take this stuff too seriously. M.A. is supposed to be fun, and we're going to have a ton of fun next week

after UFC 280 right here, and on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? Ah!

There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.