MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 69

Episode Date: February 19, 2023

Erin Blanchfield, at just 23 years of age, could find herself in a world title fight this year — possibly against the best women's fighter on the planet. Is that the right fight to make for Blanchfield following a main event finish this past Saturday, or should she get one more before that happens? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what is next for Blanchfield following her second-round submission win over Jessica Andrade. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Zac Pauga after his decision victory over Jordan Wright in the co-main event, Jamal Pogues following his successful UFC debut against Josh Parisian, Marcin Prachnio after his bizarre fight and decision win with William Knight, Alexander Hernandez, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I like to shoot straight with you. And I'm going to shoot straight with you right now. UFC Vegas 69 was not a great card. There's not a ton of interesting storylines in the aftermath or from a matchmaking perspective Now there were some great moments The main event delivered

Some big finishes for some of the young up-and-comers In our sport A couple of fun slug fests But all in all this is not a spectacular card But we're still here And we're gonna talk about it I am Mike Hack and joining me as always For good or for bad

My best friend Alexander Cayley Hello AK Hello, my best friend. I'm the Prince of Positivity. There was some positives last night for sure. Main event delivered, I think, regardless of what you're looking for, unless you're a hardcore, you know, Jessica Andrage Stan, I thought the main event delivered. My pre-card rating was, you know, a degree of difficulty was an 8.0, which someone,

people on our staff has understood as saying, like, the quality of the lineup was an 8. No, like 8.0 is actually a super low rating for a card in the largest, you know, combat sports organization in the world. It's not a good rating. I don't know if they thought like I was overrating it. It's a bad rating. That means everything has to go perfectly for the card to be an eight. That's an insult. That is not a compliment to the lineup.

And as we saw, despite a promising start, everything did not go perfectly. So it did not come anywhere near an eight. This would be like, again, for people who understand the gymnastics scale, this is a pretty low, like, this is a pretty low difficulty maneuver, you know, which is to say a lackluster card on paper. And this would be like if the gymnast in question attempted the maneuver and started off really well. And then just as it went on, just completely started falling on their ass like two times, three times in a row. And the score, the potential score is eight and they probably ended up getting like a 5.2 or something or even less, you know. So that's what this card was, is if everything had gone perfectly, let's say we got a great main event, which I think we did, solid prelends, which we did, and then where it really fell on its ass is the rest of the main card. Oh, I should say, except for the main card opener. But several of the main card fights, completely aberrant, just terrible to watch, completely uninteresting. So that's how the rating scale works, is it did not come near its potential. Because if you're a UFC event, I'm starting you off at least close to an eight. So I was probably maybe a still a little too generous with a degree of difficulty,

but I stand by it. If Zach Pwaga had got a first round knockout, if William Knight or Martin Prachnardt had got a first round knockout, we would look at the main card very differently. Like we wouldn't be like, oh, this is the best card of the year, but we'd say, oh, at least we had a good time. As it stands, Mike, I don't think a lot of people are leaving Saturday night thinking I had a great time watching UFC Vegas 69.

Yes, that was just not. It was tough. I mean, especially after covering. knuckle mania the day before like this was i mean this was pretty bad this is this is a pretty tough watch and even like even the exciting moments before the main event and the i thought the hernandez miller fight was really good and i thought the elder fight was really good uh but other than that it was either just an awful fight or like it was just one-way traffic and the betting odds were actually where they were supposed to be when i thought maybe they weren't

It just wasn't great. And we'll see if UFC Vegas 70 can take us on a more positive road to UFC 285 because this one, I mean, I couldn't wait to get off the train. Just get me to the next stop so I could hop right off. But Aaron Blanchfield, what a performance for her. A very competitive first round on the feet. I don't think a lot of people saw Blanchfield being sort of the hammer because that's what she did. She got right in Jessica And Drod's face, just threw a bunch of punches at her. And I did think Jessica Androge squeaked it out to win the first round.

But it was very, very close. But if I were going to make a live wager after the first round, I don't care where the betting yards were. I would have put it on Aaron Blanchfield because I felt after that first round, the way that Justondrage's body language looked in the corner, after round one heading into round two, I felt Aaron Blanchfield was one takedown away from this fight being over. And that's exactly what happened.

Breakthrough routing for Blanchfield. There's no more doubting her. at this point. Your reaction to this performance, A.K., and will she get what she wants next, a shot at the flyway title? You're not alone, and you're scoring that first round for Andraj. I just did a quick check right now, Mike, as you were speaking, Judge Mike Bell, who I consider to be one of the better judges in M.A. actually, also had a 10-9 Androge.

It was not to say the other two judges, the often criticized Sal DiMato, and they also occasionally criticize Junichiro Camijo had it for Blanchefield. But I don't think that's crazy. crazy because I also had it for Blanchefield, but you're in good company. Mike, you're in good company with Mike, Mike Bell. So yeah, it was a great first round, but it was regardless of who you scored it for, it was, to me, surprising to see Aaron Blanchfield come out and just throw hands. And maybe that was part of their strategy. Maybe, you know, the best defense is a good offense. Maybe they thought this is not what Jessica Andrash and her team are expecting.

They've stepped in on short notice. They haven't had, maybe haven't had quite enough time to properly prepare, even if you study footage, you know, it still takes time, real time to prepare for an opponent like Aaron Blanchfield. And Aaron Blanchfield, we know she, yes, she's an elite grappler, but she has wanted to strike in her previous fights. Sometimes it's gone better than it has, sometimes it's gone poorly. We've seen good moments and bad moments, which is what you would expect from a fighter in her early 20s.

She got an awesome headkick knockout of Victoria Leonardo back in Invicta, which, is, you know, doesn't tell you a lot. I mean, Victoria Leonardo, super tough fighter, but she's almost like the Jordan Wright of the Women's Flyweight Division, and we'll talk up more about that, young man, shortly, in that she tends to be on the opposite end of highlights. And so that didn't inform us a lot about Aaron Blanchfield other than telling us, like, yeah, she's got power.

She's a really good athlete. This is something Jed and I harp on all the time that, like, athleticism takes you a long way. And we saw a lot of that on Saturday as well. And she knows it. She really knows how to use her physical tools. She was a much bigger fighter. This is something I addressed on the preview show.

I said when people, if they're not aware, when people see them step into the cage, you're really going to see how much bigger Aaron Blanchfield is. And she is. I think there was a bit of a reality check for Aaron Blanchfield. This was probably a bit of a reality check for Jessica Andrage that maybe 115 is where she belongs, which she said she wants to stay there anyway. So that's a whole other thing. But yeah, Aaron Blanchfield coming out with the striking was awesome.

Like just really, like standing in the pocket, not afraid to get hit, which is insane. because you're fighting with Jessica Androsh, what are you doing? One shot could have put you in. And you scored her for Andjrash because she did land a couple of super hard shots. That was like, whoa, I was like, Aaron Blatchel, get out of there. Like, I know you're young. You got a young woman's chin. You're tough, but holy crap.

Like, she ate a couple of shots that I'm telling you, 10 years from now, she won't be able to take. It's because she's young. She's a great athlete. 10 years from now, some of those shots, like you take those square in the chin, you're going down. But right now she's super tough. So, and the grappling, I mean, I don't even need to talk about it. The grappling is elite. and once she put it to work, the fight was over.

Mike, there's nothing left to do for her, man. I mean, I'd be fine with her fighting one time, two more times for getting a teloshot. I'm fine with it. But at this point, I say just throw her in there. You throw her in the sharks with Valentina Shukchenko, who I am predicting to beat Alexa Grasso. So this is not Aaron Blanchild versus whoever wins UFC 285 March 4th.

I am saying Valentino Xuchenko will beat Alexa Grasso, I know, bold prediction, and that she will still be the champion when Blanchfield gets her title shot, which should be next. Blanchfield wants it. Let's make it happen. Do I think she can beat Valentino Shepchenko? I do not think so at all. But I also didn't think she'd beat Jessica Andrage.

And I thought Molly McCann would be a tough test for her. She annihilated Molly McCann. She just annihilated Jessica Andrash. She's going to give Valentino Shepchenko a fight. Friends forever. I didn't think this would warrant it. but the way you explain it is exactly how I explain it. It is the belt.

There's nothing else that makes sense. I have no interest in any other fight right now for Aaron Blanchfield or Valentina Schochenko, if we're being honest, then this one. And I do think Schiuchenko will win at UFC 285. And this summer, maybe early fall, she will fight Aaron Blanchfield. And I'm here for it. And this might be a hot take. So get ready.

Get your air conditioner out. Right now, this fight is more. intriguing to me, then Valentina Shepchenko versus Amanda Nunes. Like, I will pump the brakes on that idea so quickly. Like, if it meant we would get two Aaron Blanchfield versus Valentina Shepchenko fights before we get one more, Valentina Shepchenko versus Amanda Nunes fight, amen, sign me the hell up for that. So, sorry.

I mean, the last two years on the onto the next one prediction show, we've been talking about Valentina moving up and challenging for the Bannamweight title and fighting Amanda and Nunes one last time, I don't care if I ever see it again anymore because I just want to see Aaron Blanchfield fight Valentina Shofchenko for this title. I am intrigued by this matchup. I would probably not favor Aaron to win this fight, but stylistically, this is about as interesting as it gets for Valentina Shofchenko, especially when you compare it to the title defenses she's had for the last three or four years. I'm all, I mean, I can't wait for it. I cannot wait for it. And there's a Part of me, and I don't want people to take this the wrong way.

Alex Grasso, you've earned your shot. I almost want them to just cancel this fight. Oh, Mike. No. I just don't want to risk it. I don't want to risk it at all because I think Alex is really good. And who knows? Stranger things have happened in this crazy sport of ours.

But, all right, I take that back. But Chichenko beats Grasso. And then we get Chivchenko versus Aaron Blanchfield. Easy pick. There you go. I love, Mike, what you just said. about comparing it to how much you would see how much you would want to see that third Shibchenko, Nunes fight.

Because I'm on that. I'm on that. If that fight was made, if that Trilogy Vos M out was made, I would of course, why I wouldn't complain? We've mentioned it as a possibility on this show many times, probably more than once after Nunes win, after Shifchenko win. And I think my phrasing anyway is usually like, it's time. It's time to throw these two back together because they don't, you know, they don't

have challenges. And this isn't the case with Shepchenko now. So that trilogy in my mind was always secondary. secondary, secondarity, was always secondary to proper title defenses for Valentina. For Amanda Nunes, it's a bit tougher. I think we'd all rather see her fight Valentina than almost anyone that's left at Bantamweight. But for Valentina, she has options. She has no reason to take that fight.

She wants it. I know she wants to beat Amanda Nunes finally, or at least conclusively do it because some people thought she won the second fight. Excuse me. But that to me is not high priority. And people just keep forgetting, that second fight was so bad. People always wonder, why don't they make that fight again? That fight left such a bad taste in people with mouths when it happened.

I don't know if people remember the reactions from social media, from other fighters, from Dana White. That fight was so bad. It was a horrible, horrible fight. It was like a notch above Asparza Namibnibus. And if people think I'm crazy, go back to Fight Pass and watch that fight. It is not a fun fight to watch. You can call it a technical chess match, whatever you want. It's really bad.

And I'm Mr. you know, rematches and trilogy bouts rarely all play out the same, and that's fine. I expect a third fight between them to be better, but I'm still don't, I think just stylistically, it's just really tough for them to get going against one another. And I think you would see that again in a third fight. So for sure, give me a proper Valentina Flyweight title shot. Mike, if Grasso, God forbid, were to, you know, something would happen, she couldn't make 285. If you're Blanchfield's team and she's healthy, do you just say, yeah, we're going in.

We're taking that short notice fight. Let's just do it. No. Too much, right? We're right as a record. We're 13 days away from that card. I don't even know if Aaron would be cleared to fight in 13 days because it's in the same state. It's not like they're going somewhere else.

So they would just pull that fight and probably put it on the May card or something like that, which I think's okay. You push it back a couple of months or maybe throw it on the April card. Who knows? just add a second title fight to it. All right. So we're pumping the brakes a little bit. We're pretty high on Aaron Blanchfield after their performance.

But you're right. I think maybe let's still stay in the realm of realism. But boy, that was spectacular. Look, if there was no medical suspension and she's like 100% fine after that fight, and that came to fruition, cool. But she got punched in the face a lot by Jessica Androge, someone who hits very hard. And she worked pretty hard in that fight.

And she had a long camp. And I don't even know if Aaron would take that fight on 13. days notice. I think, you know, 23 years of age, it'd be very high reward without a ton. I mean, there's risk, but the reward would be much higher than the risk because she'd be doing the UFC a solid. And if she loses, not the end of the world, like, she's a gangster for going in there and fighting Valentina on 13 days notice. But I would rather, I don't even want to see it. Like, I wouldn't even want to see it. Not that I wouldn't want to see it, but I, I want to see them both full camp, 100%, like that's what the fight I want to see.

Yeah, proper buildup, right? Give it his proper build. Yeah. She doesn't do it in 24 until May. So crazy. That's crazy, man. That's so crazy. I'm like 17 years older than her.

16 years older than her. And she's about to fight for a world title. It's insane. Look, AK, I'm happy to be lazy with this next pick because you talked about stylistic gold and chess matchery. And Zach, Pauga defeated Jordan Wright in just the chessiest chess match you'll ever, you'll ever will see.

It went to a decision. Nobody saw it coming. And I'm just going to chuck them right in there with Marcheem Prachio, who kicked William Knight a lot and took like eight strikes back in return. So let's just throw those two guys in there. What do you think? And do you want to add anything to what I just said? You could even just matchmake for Pratio now if you aren't following my lead.

wherever you want to say about these two fights in particular. I think we could knock them both off the board. So many things to say. I don't know who I'm more disappointed in. Pauga or Marcin Prakneum, because both these guys should have finished their opponents. Zach Praga, I'm no one pronounced this wrong. I apologize to Zach. I believe it's going by the broadcast.

It's it's Ponga, right? There's like an N sound in there, right? I think so. It's like a Thai, Tai, Tyvangoloa thing. Yeah, I'll be honest, the Royal Rumble was on. So I kind of had the volume of the Royal Rumble on a little higher. No disrespect to the broadcasters. Right.

But I was watching more of the UFC, but I wanted to know what was happening with the Rump, well, not the Rumble, Elimination Chamber. So I had more audio on for the elimination chamber. So I don't know. I apologize for the mispronunciation of this man's name and Ty's name and other names of that style. I will try to learn more about that. But I'll say Zach for now. Zach was being set up to get a highlight real finish.

That is the only reason this card was the penultimate fight. I'm not using the C-M word. This is a penultimate fight. Don't tell me that this was a co-headliner, anything like that. The only reason he was given the second to last spot, him and Jordan is because Jordan Wright, as I sort of alluded to before, is really good at getting finished. He also finishes people occasionally. But his fights, this was the first. Oh, I'm sorry.

No, he had lost a decision before. Oh, no, no, this is it. This is the first time. This is the first time ever. Jordan Wright has ever gone in the scorecards. This guy is going in there to produce a highlight either way, either to be the one giving it or as has been his recent luck on the receiving end. Zach Pahliga is a very, has good striking. Now, listen, he did what he had to do.

Zach, you got the win. I can't criticize that. It was your second chance of the UFC after. again, sort of a disappointing outing in the ultimate fighter finale where he was favored to win. He got starched by Mo' Usman. No shame in that. Moizumann hits really hard. But Ponga's the better fighter.

He can finish fights. He has power in his hands, but he went with the smart strategy, which was something he knew Jordan Wright couldn't counter, really good grappling against the fence, doing damage to, throwing elbows. You know, I kind of said it was, I was amongst internally, I was like he was kind of wall and stalling. He wasn't stalling. He had him against, he had Jordan running against the wall, don't strikes, don't strikes the body, sneak it in elbows. Not the sexiest way to win a fight, but he won. So Zach, congratulations on that, but he should have gotten a finish. And we know March of Prachnao should have gotten a finish because William Knight is certainly a bit sturdier, but he also did literally nothing. And if you're March of Prachniel, for sure, you don't want to

get caught out of nowhere. I understand this probably his mentality is I have this guy in the ropes, but oh, what if I rush in and get caught by by a power shot for William Knight? And also, like Zach, Martin was winning. He's clearly winning all three rounds. So he's like, what is the benefit to me for rushing in and getting caught and possibly losing an extra one, losing another check losing my job? Who knows? Maybe I get released after this.

I don't know. I've released off a loss. So both Zach and Martin Brachneal, they fought to, they did the smart thing. But Mike, that's not the fun thing. that's not the fun thing for us. I think you've got to show a little more. Zach is fine. I mean, look, again, this is a second UFC fight.

I'm sure they still want to see what they have with him. Martin and William Knight, Mike, is there any chance that they both just get released? Yes. I think so. I think so. Do you still want a matchmaking for March of Prakneur? I don't think they will release Pachneau. but if you're asking if there's a chance that both guys get released,

yes, there's a chance both guys get released. Let me ask you this. Is there a better chance that both guys get released or that none of them get released? Oh, easily. William Knight. Listen, Dana White is kind of Vince McMahony in a lot of ways where if Dana White sees a big jacked-up dude with some personality, he likes to keep them around. put him in the spots. Like, I know William Knight's last three in a row, but let me just say this too.

I have a lot of respect for William Knight. He's got a pretty crazy story. The dude's been through a lot. And he is a human being. So maybe something was going on. But this dude went right to Instagram, like two hours after his fight and took it all in the chin. So it was my responsibility. This is my fault. I effed up. I froze out there. This is all on me. If you have, positive things to say about me, great. If you have negative things to say about me, I get it. If I cost you money in betting, I get it. Some people are threatening my life.

Cool, I understand it. This is basically what professional sports are. Like, you took it on the chin. I have a lot of respect for that, man, to even say anything. Most people would just stay off of social media for like the next month and just let a few cards go by. And then hop back in and show videos of yourself benching 500 pounds. Because Lord knows I would be showing those videos of myself benching 500 pounds. videos of myself, benching 500 pounds.

Back on my grind would be the caption. Back on my grind. Yes. No other. Yeah. I don't know, man. It's a weird situation. So I'll still match these two guys up.

Marchean would probably be in a must-win situation. I would say his leash is very short after this performance. It's a win. It's a dominant win. And kudos to Jed Michoud for his 30-24 score card on MMA decisions because that is the correct scorecard. Yeah. This is why the 10-point must system is so stupid.

in MMA because you're going to give William Knight the exact same like nine points for that round to anybody else as Jim Miller those those those those nines that even though you know Jim Miller lost his fight but those those those nines that Jim Miller got yes the same score as William Knight in his three rounds is marching practice so stupid they're both nine so dumb this is what a nine looks like this is what a nine looks like apparently right how crazy is that so stupid it makes no sense. They showed William Knight landed zero head strikes, which is almost impossible in the M.A.

Like, you would, you would, flailing around, defending yourself, you would accidentally smack your opponent in the face, and that'd be, there you go, one significant headstrike. But yeah, it's a good point you made, like, about William Knight, because listen, we were all having fun on social media. The UFC account

blasted William Knight. They posted a SpongeBob Giff making fun of William Knight. The official, you almost never see them do that. And it was funny. listen, we all had a, like, we said, we all had a laugh. We were all tweeted. People can go look at my Twitter line. I was, I was making cracks about William Knight.

But in the end, and I tweeted this, and it probably sounded sarcastic, but it was sincere. I said, I said, in all seriousness, I hope William Knight is okay. Because it's not like this fight was super uncharacteristic. I saw that, too, people are going like, oh, why isn't he doing anything? And it's like, this is kind of how William Knight fights. Like, the men, if people just go back like a couple of fights ago, the William Knight-Alonzo-Menefield fight, just atrocious. and not just his fault. Both guys were terrible.

He does kind of wait and he is kind of looking for that one big shot. And that's sort of how the commentary was trying to salvage the fight through the first half. And then eventually they realized something's up. He's just not going to throw anything. And yeah, listen, I don't want to make excuse for the man. I don't want to assume anything. I don't want to assume anything, you know, bad happen in his personal life or in training or he's injured. But I do feel like something was wrong.

Something was wrong with him. He just seemed off. So let's make fun, but let's also, you know, not kicked the man down and was probably the worst fight of his career, especially at this stage. So I do think he should be released. And I don't mean, again, I'm not taking spiling dirt on him. I'm saying maybe he's not at the stage in his life right now where he's ready to be a fighter at this level. So William Knight, you know, if you're out there and by some chance you hear this, again, all the respect of the world for you for getting to the UFC, going through that contender series grind,

developmental contract, fighting your way up. But, you know, listen, if this, if we don't see in the UFC in the near future or even MMA. If he's done with MMA, that's fine. There's no shame in that. The man has done his work. And I hope whatever he does next, he's okay. Because, yeah, it was funny, but it did become concerning after a while.

So just throw out a couple of matchups, Mike. Yeah, for Aponga, Tefan and Chukwe, I guess, and for March and Prachneau, I don't know if you'll like this. I thought, like, Modestis? Modestis. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure.

Because Edesses will, yeah, I'm looking at the stats right now. William and I landed eight total strikes in the entire fight. Yeah, I had to re-look it up the zero head strike thing. I'm like, no, that can't be true. It is true. Zero head strikes. But Archie Prachio landed nine. He landed nine head strikes with a target that stood right in front of him.

Incredible stuff. That's just awful. Just awful. And we hope the best for both guys. but, Jesus. Practing out, one three out of four.

Scots don't lie. Three and one. Give him a title shot. And he might be ranked. He might be ranked. I'm not going to, you know, I'm not kidding. When I got a great deal

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magazine. Jemal Pogues got his first FFC win, AK. Jamal Pogue's Fatt. He defeated

Josh Perugian not a fight we're going to go back and rewatch ever again. But the fight happened and two guys

entered, both guys left and Pogues did more, I guess. So what's next for Jamal Poges after this debut victory? First of all, good for Jamal of getting his first UFC win in his debut. He's a two-time good idea. Anytime anyone who goes to the Contender Series twice, I'm always, I mean, how can you not be happy when they finally get a point in the UFC board there?

So good for him, good for Jamal Pogs. He's almost somewhat lucky that I think the two fights around him were, I would say, even more deplorable because I don't think like, I don't think Pogues Prysian was atrocious. It was, like you said, not memorable. But I think it would, I think it would stand out more if it was like the only bad fight in the card. I think having Punga right after it and Prakneau and night before it will make people just sort of forget this fight, but in a good way. I almost forgot we were going to talk about it because we had sort of just, you know, put the second and fourth fight together.

I was like, oh, right, Jamal Pogues, we have to talk about his fight. So congrats to him. Again, I'm going sort of the same dartboard matchmaking I did with the other two gentlemen, just because they're nowhere near a ranking. It's almost impossible to, like, say, what'll be next? It could be anyone. So I'm going with Alir Latifi, sort of where I landed here. It could be an interesting fight style matchup, Alir.

I haven't seen him in a while. So, yeah, Jamal Poges, go get him. Good for Jamal. You know, having his parents there, his mom there, especially at the, That was a pretty cool moment. Obviously, she's going through chemo right now, and it's probably weighing on his mind. So, yeah, we kind of joke about the fight not being good, and boy, it wasn't. But still a big moment for that young man, and congratulations to him.

And now he's going to have to fight the recent tough heavyweight champion, Mohammed Usman, because I just think that makes sense. Usman needs a fight to come back to. I think stylistically, it's a fight that Usman can look very good in. So, yeah, we'll go with that one. Why not? He's got to fight somebody, and Jamal Polk's coming off of a win and two contender series victories. Sure.

Let's do that, A.K., what do you think? I got no issue with that. I was just thinking about Mo'Uzman, because I was thinking, how did Zach Ponga get in there, back in there before him? And again, get a cherry penultimate belt spot while we're still waiting for Moeusman to take his second fight. But, yeah, I know that makes a lot of sense to me. Sure, Pogs, Usman, let's go. I'm into it. a nice win for Alexander Hernandez

he's off the schnide after defeating Jim Miller I have lots of thoughts about this fight mostly because people just hate Alexander Hernandez and they're just never going to score a fight for him and people love Jim Miller and if you love one guy and you really don't like the other I don't care what happens they're going to call it a rot like people are literally calling this fight a robbery

I saw it on social media definitely the first round people were going like oh I probably the first round was clear for Jim Miller And I'm like, I mean, it's, I could, you could give the round to Jim Miller, but to say it was like a clear. People. A lot of, I just say, I don't want to say a lot, but there's a vocal group of fans who, who I guess don't believe a fight around can be close. It's like, there's just no just thing as a close round. It's like, I firmly believe someone won.

And because of that, this, this round, if anyone scores the other way, they're crazy. That first round was Jim Miller, I would say, dominated the first half. And Alex-Land Hernandez picked it up in the second half. land in some really big shots. So, yeah, whether you're, I think scoring for Miller is fine, but scoring for Hernandez is also fine. Those 30 to 27 scorecards for Hernandez were more than fine, in my opinion. Yeah.

I even went on our Slack channel after seeing Twitter give the response to that first round. Am I, am I crazy for thinking Hernandez won that first round? Because to me, it seemed pretty not clear, but all things even, Hernandez was landing the bigger shots. So you could definitely see Jim Miller was getting affected by them. It seemed not clear, but I was pretty confident that Hernandez won that first round. And two of the judges agreed because they gave 3027s.

The third round was interesting because Miller had one moment where he caught Hernandez doing the Hernandez and almost just handing him the fight. But Hernandez was able to get out of it, composed himself back up, finished the round strong, got on top, landed some big shots. 3027 is not a bad scorecard. Not at all. Just isn't. Yeah, it's not.

It doesn't reflect how close the fight was. That's, uh, Damon mentioned this. He's like, that's one thing he hates about the must system is like, you look at 3027 and and then people who didn't watch the fight will just go back and be like, oh, well, Alexander Hernandez handled Jim Miller and anyone who watched it knows that's not true. But again, that's, that's why it's, it's, it's, and that's, the scoring system sucks, yes, but, um, that's not on the judges in that case. And that's not on the scoring system.

People need to, if you, listen, if you missed a fight, then, you know, then don't rely the scores to tell you how, you know, how it turned out. Go back and watch it. Go back. We have so many ways to go back and watch fights now. So I don't blame the scoring system or the judges on this one. People should not be outraged. If you watched it, then you know it was close. Who cares who the scores were? You know it was a close fight. You don't need the scores to tell you, oh, well, this is a travesty that because people, you know, it didn't, it should be 29, 28 Miller at worst. It's like, it doesn't matter, man. That's just a number. You got to watch the fight to know. And if you watched it, then you should be fine with the scoring. If you didn't, then you shouldn't comment.

That's it. And in the grand scheme of this card, this was the first or second best fight of the entire card. Did they get robbed a fight of the night, do you think? I'm happy for the winners, Nazim Sadacov and Evan Elder, but. All things in the story, no, I don't think they got robbed. It was a great fight. Don't get me wrong. It was great fight.

But Evan Elder, you know, was up two rounds. I had him up two rounds in this fight. His opponent basically going to the post-fight press conference and admitting that he headbutted him to open up that cut. So, which if that's the case, because even watching the replay, I thought that might have been the case. It was like, they got real tight.

I wonder if it was his head that cut open his eye. And if that was what was found, that's a tech decision. And Evan Elder wins that fight. So Evan Elder comes out with the few extra bucks. The fight was cool. Give those two young men the bonus. I got no issue with it.

But Hernandez says he wants to go back to 141. after all this. Why? Which, yeah, I was, I think that's what he's going to, dude, I know, I know this man, I've talked to him a million times. He is just stubborn enough like me

to just be like, well, no one thinks should go to 145, I'll go to Banamweight then. See how you like the taste of that. But I really think he's going to go to 145 again. So my pick AK is Darren Elkins. I'm just putting myself in the matchmaker's shoes. This is not a fight that I would personally,

put together. This is what I think. This is a, this is an educated guess. I think this is the kind of fight they're going to put together. But I would like to see Hernandez stay at 155 and stay active and just get cool fights like the Jim Miller fight, like good stylistic matchups for him that are just fun. And I just want to see him continue to mature as a fighter and get over those weird moments where, where I'm literally about to tweet out, wow, that was the most mature, complete performance of Alexander Hernandez's entire run. And then Jim Miller almost steals the fight from him. And I was like, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete.

So I think he will go to 45 and I'm picking Darren Elkins. And I don't feel great about it. I do think he grew up a lot, though. I did. No, 100%. 100%. Yeah. Win or lose.

That's going to make, that's a, you fight Jim Miller. He's going to make you a man. For, you know, for lack of a better phrase. He's going to make you a man. And, yeah, really, really. great fight for both guys. You're right. Good for Evan Elder and Sattakov. So I like, I don't know how I feel about the Darren Elkins matchup. Just because the whole featherweight thing is making me feel icky. But I guess if he's going to go down there, that's the way to go. I didn't have like a much better option at lightweight. Obviously,

I'm sticking with, I'm waving my magic wand here. And one, he's staying in 155. And I'm also magically healing Dan Hooker's broken hand within the next three or four months and, or, or magically making it so Alexander Hernandez can afford to wait five, six months, however long it takes for Hooker to get back in there. I think that'd be an interesting matchup, him and Dan Hooker. Dan Hooker possibly on his way down, Alex and Hernandez, we never know with him. He's up. He's down.

He's up. He's down. But I guess currently trending upwards after that win. So I'm going veteran. It's weird. He's in such a weird spot because, like, we keep talking about like, oh, matching him up with veterans like Jim Miller and things like that. And he and like, Alison Hernandez is a veteran. Like, he is a veteran. He's a baby-faced guy. He's only 30 years old. He's been fighting since

2012. Like, he's a veteran. He himself is a veteran. It feels like we, 20 fights in 10 years, I guess, doesn't feel like a lot to people. And, uh, and it isn't. It isn't. You have guys who have been fighting for, you know, eight years who have fought like 34, 30, 35 times. So he's had the luxury of, you know, getting to have, um, a logical amount of time between his matchmaking. But it is weird to, I was going to say, like, he should go on like a Legends Killer tour because he's not like a super young guy in MMA years. He's actually quite aged.

And still a work in progress, I feel, but also, you know, I think a lot of people think they have a good sense of his ceiling. So he's a weird guy to match up with. But yeah, I don't know. I settled on Dan Hooker. That's just sort of how I've been with this card. I don't feel fully committed to any of these matchups outside of Aaron Blanchfield, Schifchenko. Yeah.

Interesting spot. And Mike Jim Miller, I mean, even though if you're not on a fight in the night bonus, he should be making like a million dollars per fight, right? Just a flat millie. Because this is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. I think it was, I want to say it's Eric McGrachan, the great Eric McGregan, who tweeted that, like if someone has fought for your company like 40 times and they are somehow not set for the rest of their lives, then something is wrong.

Something is wrong with the system. I had to go back to try to find the last disclosed payday for, Jim Miller. So this isn't very helpful because this would have been the one that I could find. UFC 213, which is July 2017. That's a lifetime ago. He lost to Anthony Pettis. He made 71,000 show. So he would have been on 71,000 show, 71,000 to win. Again, this is a long time ago. He could be at 100K right now. I don't know. He could be at, let's be super generous here. Let's say he's like 125K to show. And still with some sort of win bonus. I don't know if they'd go 125, 125 with him. But that's still not enough. If by some chance he's getting a lot. If by some chance he's

getting 125 to show, $1.25 to win, that's still not enough. I don't care that he's not the A-side draw. I don't care that he's not, you know, a paper-view headliner. This guy has put in so much work to build your brand, to build the integrity of your brand, to give your organization credibility, to just put on entertainment, even if you don't want to look past all that stuff, just to put on entertaining fights, fight of the nights, performance bonuses, stepping in on short notice, he should be making a million dollars per fight. I don't know if that makes sense financially, and I don't care.

Because if Jim Miller can't make, again, a living where he never has to fight again, whenever he choose to hang up the gloves, after UFC 400, if he ever has to work again, then that's something, I'm with Eric. Something has gone wrong. This guy has put in so much blood and sweat equity into your company

and should be taken care of for the rest of his life. So I love watching Jim Miller fight And goodness me I hope this man is getting paid I love it And the UFC can afford it So let's go Get it done

Get your pen Get your checkbook out Millie per fight For Jim Miller These are hard fights Mike That's fight on Saturday That takes That's taking time off your life man

These are hard He does not go in there And you get your money's worth Every time with Jim Miller That's not an easy fight at all Nope Absolutely isn't So let's go to the wild card round AK

Lots to choose from here. What did you settle on for UFC Vega-S-69? Man, star studded. We had a former PFL champion. I should say former, just, you know, you're a PFL champion for life, Mike. 2018 PFL champion for Leapult-Lins looked fantastic. We had Jamal Amers upsetting the undefeated Hussein Ashkov, who as far as we know, may have been beating up taxi drivers over in Russia.

I don't know. No, I don't know. He might just had an off night. And Jamal Amers looked great. Let's forget the trashing Kusain Ashgabov and, you know, coming in undefeated and whatever, disappointing. Credit, Jamal Ambrose looked fantastic. And I loved him, like, I loved him bringing up his coaches one by one. And like naming them one by one, bringing them up one by one.

Come up. I was watching. And then the security guy was who was holding the door was the background. And I was like, is he going to bring him in too? He should have been like thinking everyone like, oh, thanks for my jihitsu coach with the grappling. Thanks for the tightening up my boxing coach, turning out my strike. You know, security guy. Like, come up here.

I couldn't have gotten in it. I literally could not have gotten into the. case without this guy. He opened the door for me. So thank you security. You got like, that would great. It was so, it was such a touching moment. So I was very happy for Jamal Emmer's. But I settled on, Mike. I don't know how what's going to look like in our rankings, but possibly.

Top 10. Bantamweight contender. Maida, Bueno Silva. That's right. That's right. Barried on the freelance. We had a women's bantam, an important women's bandamweight fight between Maeda, Buenos Selva, and Lena Landsberg. Brenno Silva taking care of business, as she should, sending the struggling Lena Landsberg to another loss. I want to see what's next for her.

You had to translate the post-fight speech. It was a bit all over the place. And by the way, anyone who didn't want it. It wasn't English. I didn't call upon Mike to translate a Portuguese speech. It wasn't English. It's just she kind of went on an adventure. But Mike was able to translate for me that she called out Raquel Pennington at some point in there.

Even Paul Felder was struggling. But you could see Paul Felder was like, okay, I'm trying to follow this narrative. And bless Braselva, she's just, you know, always enthusiastic. But I wish she could be a little bit succinct, a little bit tighter with her call-outs. But I'm not giving her Raquel Pennington. I will give her a fight of Raquel just beat. I kind of want to see how she'll do against Ketland Valletta. So Pennington, sure.

Pennington, I just feel like has done enough to earn another shot at Amanda Nunes, or at least a number one contenders fight against a higher-ranked opponent than my med of Bruno Silva. So Silva still has a little bit of work to do. I'll throw in there with Veda and keep both of them sort of in the, in the, the, the, the, that, that, that shark tank mix of women's 135, Mike. I think she's going to end up fighting Misha Tate. Oh. They both, they both kind of want it.

So I think they'll go in that direction. Because Misha was mentioned during that call out as well. She said, I wanted to fight Misha, but I don't know when she's going to be able to come back. So, uh, and then, yeah, it was Raquel Pan. All the way, which I respect to call it. I thought it was great. You know, Raquel Pannington's a great fighter. But why does she deserve a title shot?

Tell me, Paul. Why does Raquel Pennington deserve a title shot? He's like, why are you asking me? I don't even know who you're talking about right now. So it was great. I enjoyed it very much. And here's a plea to Ariel Hawani. Get Myra Buenos Silva on the MAA after.

Yes. Because I want to hear more of it. I want to hear more. I'm going with the fly weights. Clayton Carpenter, Cash is another fly. weight under for the gamblers out there. And you know who else just recently cashed a flyweight under using his

dairy air? Clayton Rodriguez, aka. So let's do some Clayton Carpenter versus Clitzen Rodriguez, actually. Because who's going to say no to that fight? That fight rules. So let's just go with that. That's what I landed on. And there's not a whole lot to choose from here.

But I like that fight. You're just trying to make Jed and GC money because that is, there's no way that's going over. No chance. No chance. That's an under. Absolutely no chance. Do we have any check the,

tapes. I think so. I'll admit, I'll admit, let me honest, let me honest with America. Like, I won't lie to America. I did not vet the listener picks as usual. I, as soon the show was over, I did the usual, we sort of hang around, you know, see if there's any stories to pick up on after a few hours after the show. And then as soon as I thought we were all covered for Saturday night, Sunday morning, Monday, I said, I am closing my laptop and I am not thinking about this card for another 12 hours until I have to do on to the next one. So I don't know. I'll try to read it out live if anyone called out for no points.

I think I saw a few people mention matchups, but I'm pretty sure they were shared. But whatever, I'll name names. I'll give people some shine today, Mike, as we do the picks. All right. So 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-tebril. 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-draining tread plus at OnePeloton.ca. You could do the disclosure if you want, or can we just skip the disclosure? Let's just go. People just don't give us do-do, please. Don't give us do-do like that Saturday card, okay? So I'm only reading, for the most part, this is my goal. just main card fights.

I'm just going at the main card fights so we can go through this. Robbie Ryan, Blanchefield versus Tila Santos. Wow, for the next Tyler shot to cite. Despite just beating a former champ, an elite flyweight Blanchfield still doesn't look like

she would give Valentina any problems in my opinion. Whoa. I think you're dead wrong about that, that is harsh. That is so wrong. What more could she have done? He also wrote Anthony Hernandez versus Dercar close,

but I think we know what he means. I almost think we have to give it. Okay, fine. No, fine. Moving on, bro. You're all for two, Robbie. Jeez, Louise. Prachio versus Carlos Ulberg.

There you go. I feel nothing. I know. Dad Jackson. Thank you, Robbie. Alex Hernandez versus Sean Woodson, if he goes to 145, he stays at 155, give him Mark your Casey. Prachio versus Paul Craig.

Jamal Pogues versus Moeusman. There you go. Zach Pauga, versus Kennedy Enzichu. Okay? John Ray, Buenos Silla versus Macy Chiesan. Hernandez versus Malarkey. Androge versus Nami Unis 3.

Blanchfield versus the Chevy truck, if she wins. Uh, what? Knight versus Hardy in power slap. Okay. Gross. Uh, Andraz now, uh, Andraz now as Eunice 3. Um, I'm thinking now. I still want that fight, by the way.

Sure, but we still think, especially after last night, Rose can just walk into a third fight with Zhang Wili, right? It's very possible. So there's no reason she would want to fight Andrage again. Yeah, but I mean, again, if she wants to, if she wants to take one more, if that's what the O.C. wants to do. Again, if she wants to try 125, then she can fight Androge. And I know Androge is like, well, I want to go to 115, but that fight would actually make sense.

Yeah. Even at 125. It's just neither than have to cut weight. It's like, oh, we're essentially just, we're fighting again. It's essentially the continuation of our straw weight rival reach us. Guess what? We don't have to cut weight. Let's just have some fun and go in there and fight each other again.

But Androge is completely out of the, just not completely out of the title picture, but she is not in the conversation right now for the strawweight title, right, right, the second. Not at the second, no. But Rose definitely is. And Amanda Lemo, it's between those two. Okay. I just want to see Zhang fight again, but it's weird. Now they've kind of muddied up the, that,

the rankings, the top of the rankings right now. Anyway. Harry Daweskin. Hernandez versus Euros Medich. Jim Miller versus Trey Ogden. Let Jim go back on his fringe UFC Legend Tour. Prachio versus Modestis Pekoskas, A.K. There we go.

Harry's with you. Pogues versus Usman. Pauga versus Daunjung. Gerard, Androj to 115 to fight Janjohnan. Okay. I like that one. Paglius to 115 to fight Janjan. Yeah.

That's a great fight. That's a good fight. That's a great. That's the first, with respect to everyone who's, all the picks that have been read out so far, that's the first fight that made me feel anything inside after the last night. Okay. Zach Pauga versus Tyson Pedro.

I like that one. Rachio versus Carlos Oldberg. I don't love that one. Oldberg's just, I feel like he's just so far ahead. In that conversation, like light heavy weights, a pretty awful division,

but I feel like Oldberg is much further ahead. Hernandez versus Michael Johnson, AK, at 155. That's never been booked. That feels so familiar. I guess they've just been around for, they've both been around for a while. Yeah, of course.

It's a great matchup. And Gerard's final pick, Jim Miller, moving to 170 to fight Tony Ferguson. I feel like it'll happen someday. I don't know if it's next for both guys. It does feel logical, though, doesn't it? Yeah, I would, I mean, they want to. 300.

That could be 300. Keep Tony around. Keep Tony around for 300. Come on. Marcus, close this out. Blanchefield versus the Shep. Jeffchenko Grasso winner. Hernandez versus Mike Davis.

I think Hernandez is, I like Mike Davis a lot. Hernandez, Davis got to get another winner too for he gets that fight. It's Haddockov versus Joachim Silva, Clayton Carpenter versus Jun Sung Park. And there you go. That's literally how I got. Ken Sung Park just won the road to the O.C. That's that guy? Yes.

Okay. That's a fun fight. All right, to you, my best friend. Yeah, while speaking of Clayton Carpenter, I don't know if you mentioned this, because I saw a few people send me this one. Clayton Carpenter and Jimmy Flick. Hmm. People want to see the grappling.

They want to see some crazy flyweight grappling. That's why. That'd be fun. Yeah, I'm into that. Braden O'Neill. Let's see if there's anything interesting here. Satica versus Borch. Is it still at the UFC?

I think so. I feel I'm getting mixed up with someone. What else we got here? I'm dipping into the prelims. I think a lot of the main card picks you can have already read Mike. Emers versus Akeem Dawadu. Well, that's a big step up. Okay, I'm into that.

Lens versus Nico Nagomiriano. Okay, thank you, Braden. Marcus McGehy, both him and Chris Martin calling this, obviously, the cold-blooded edition of On to the Next One, in tribute to the fantastic performance by Aaron Blanchfield and the main event. Marcus is also saying he wants the Androge versus Rose 3, so totally into that. Did you read Marcus already? Did he send it to you too, Mike?

Some of these are so familiar. He also has her end as close. No. Marcus McGahey. Oh, okay. No, this is different Marcus. Right, right. I'm just on the same page. Prach Niel Olberg, Hernandez, Close. Yeah, okay, he's just on the same page.

This is good stuff. Thomas Collins, Aaron Blanchfield versus winner or Valentina Shepchenko Grasso, the way Aaron won against Andrage eclipses Menon-Firo's win against Caitlin, Chukagian. I agree. I agree with that wholeheartedly. Timeline for Aaron is great, so Book her in the title fight.

Yeah, he really makes a lot of sense. Alexander Hernandez versus Nasrad-Hak Pras, once he returns from injury. Jamal Poges versus Dontail May's win-l-lose-draw against Akusto Sakai. And if Sakai wins, he probably is on for bigger things. Is that fight booked? Yeah, next week.

How embarrassing for me. That's the featured bout of next week's cause. That's happening after Topeka on this warrens fights. Stop it. I swear I made this exact same mistake last week. At least last week's episode. Alex McAdam, Ovenson-Proux-Rouf versus Alexander Gustavson both retire afterwards.

Wait, did that fight not happen? I know it was booked like twice. It didn't happen? It didn't happen. The OSP-Gust fight? No, it didn't happen. It didn't happen. Nope. It's so weird.

It's saved the Linz fight. I thought the Linz fight had already happened before. Okay, so. No, that was supposed to happen after the last Gustafson book in. Okay. So we're just trying to close these OSP loops. Okay. And then Alex Pisc says both guys retire afterwards.

I don't think OSP is retiring yet. Maybe he should, but Jim Miller, Mike, at 170 versus Robbie Lawler? I'm in. I like that one. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Why not?

Martin Prachnil versus Ior Potaria. That was also one of my picks. Mike how do you feel with this? Jamal Poges versus Paca Pora. Paca Porder minus 16,000. Okay. Sure. I mean, that's fine.

Zach Panga versus Dominic Reyes. That's interesting. No. Come on. I want to know how much Dominic Reyes has left. And if he cannot beat Zach Ponga, it's time to change promotions or walk away. I'd rather see William Knight fight Dominic Reyes right now.

One more chance. I mean, it's just not there. Now, if he'd gone out and blown the doors off, then maybe that's a different conversation. But it just, it was a fine win, but it's not one that's like, oh, we have to chuck them in there it's somebody with any kind of name value.

Just no, no, no, no, no, no, not into it. Barry O'Reilly saying, so this is the first of two. That was a card. The first of this two card stretch of that was a cards. Yeah, I agree. We'll talk about UFC. We'll close up the show, talk about UFC Vegas, 70. Where are we here?

Alexander Hernandez, Michael Johnson, again. So I like this. We know Hernandez doesn't necessarily respect the vets after the cowboy pre-fight talk. I wouldn't go that far. Let's continue matching him up with well-tested and respective names, but by no means, easy fights. Polg versus Waldo Cortez Acosta.

He's with me with Ponga and Chukwe and, of course, Blanchfield versus the upcoming Flyway Title Fight winner. Waldo booked? No, he was. Well, he was, and didn't his opponent fall through, or he got a new opponent already? Let me look it up. Yeah, yeah. I'm so confused because I literally just wrote about this recently.

Yeah, he's booked against Marcus or Jerry to Lima, April 29. Yes, I just wrote that up. I don't know why I didn't remember that. But either way, I almost don't blame. I'm not going to give Barry a dude because that literally just kind of got happened. He lost the point and got a new one. Four Corner Sports, Mario Bruno Silva, Julia Avela. I think Julia Avela called for the fight on social media, right?

She's saying when I'm ready to come back, she wants that. So maybe that's where that's coming from. I don't know when she's coming back. I have to check in with her. Punga versus Tanner Bozer at heavyweight. that could be a really ugly fight. Posers got something in the works, I think,

but that actually reminded me to send a text message right now. Jordan Wright versus Sam Alvey. Come on, man. Sam Alvey's not in the UFC anymore. Finally, though, I assume that's a joke, so I'm not going to do-do that one. This is kind of random.

Alexander Hernandez versus winner of Omar Morales versus Chris Duncan. Interesting. Okay. Sure. I'm not familiar with Chris Duncan, my contender series guy? What's, what, what is that?

Chris Duncan is, um, Cage Warriors guy, isn't he? I, I, I honestly could not tell you. I'm going to do a quick topology check right now. You are correct. This, no, uh, he was, he was Bellator, Bellator and Contender Series. Wow.

He did two. Oh, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right, right, right. He was on the contender series. He did it twice. He got a quick knockout. Yeah, two. time contender series guy. Anyway, so he's fighting on the upcoming London

pay-per-view against Omar Mar-M-Riles. So that's a pretty cool pick. All right, you know what? For Corner Sports? That's a pretty cool pick. Like it. Hayes the third. What do we got here? Blancheville. Wow, that's an impressive showing. Got to be a title fight at this point. I think she matches it really well with Valentina. I could for sure

see her winning that fight. This ground swells building. This is what you want in a number one contenders. People just capturing their imagination and thinking it could be possible. Hernandez versus Brown Algeo winner. Yeah, he said, I'll go with a 145 fight since he said he plans to stay there. Brown Algeo winner.

So there you go, Mike. You're probably right. This young man is going to continue, you know, defying the haters and trying his hand to feather. Hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm the one who's wrong. Chris Martin, Blanchfield versus Jeffchenko. So not even giving Grasso a chance. Ponga versus Poteria.

Portoria is in a mix somewhere. He needs to pay for what happened with Shogun. Jamal Poges versus Wanaspino, if he's not retired. I don't think he's retired. He's just taking his sweet time coming back. That's what he does. He gets active, then he sits out for five years. Alexander Hernandez versus, oh, I like this.

Rafael Alves, Haphael Alves, win-lose-dra, versus Al-Ev coming up. So I would love to see Alexander Hernandez and Hafei Alves' fight. That's really good. Interesting. And last one on Twitter. I believe this is the first timer. Dr. Dars M.MA.

Welcome to the party pal. I'll read all these. Jamal Poz, Mo Usman. There you go. Perak Nia out, Medesasas Pukas. Oh, we're, like, we're vibing with the listeners today. Nazim Sadakov. No.

Nazim Sadacov is Alexander Hernandez. Too soon. Too soon. You send the vibing thing way too soon. Oh, I screwed up. No, we're back. Buenos Silva, Kettle Bayer, and another Clayton Carpenter, Jimmy Flick.

Going quickly to the emails, our boy, Tristan, Gordette. What do we got here? Alexander Hernandez versus Charles Jordan, because Hernandez said he's going back to Featherweight. Buenos Silva versus Chelsea Chandler, sure. That's it. That's most of the Clayton Carpenter versus JP Bays. J.P. Bays is still signed, right? Which one?

J.P. Bays? I don't think so. I think it's fun. Why, I just know what's because of it. J. Donagie. I thought of this one too. Alexander Hernandez, Vince Pichel. Again, still keep him fighting some older guys.

Pogas and Paca Porta. Paca, Pora. He specifically spelled at Parker Porter. And another Ponga Dominic Reyes suggestion. So I don't know, man. People are talking about it. Wildcard, Jim Miller, Michael Johnson. It's possible they fought before, but I don't think so. I don't think they fought, have they, Mike? No, I don't think so.

We need to touch it. Like, I like him and Ferguson, him and Michael Johnson. We need to cover all these bases. He needs to... Jim Miller really needs to fight everyone. If you've been a relevant name in the lightweight division over the last 10 years,

you should fight Jim Miller at some point. So we still got plenty of time with Jim. And quickly go on Instagram. Southpaw picks some super deep cuts. AJ Fletcher, Miguel Baezza, Clayton Carpenter, Jimmy Flick again,

Philip Lins, Yon Kuchelaba. Brody Bolger. What's up, Brody? It's a big cluster of text here. I want to see if there's anything original Zach Ponga Nico Nagumarayano

Wow if I had to tabulate it I would have led with Jamal Pogs Parker Porter Mike because people want to see this USC are you listening Poggs Porter hashtag Pogues Porter this is the fight to make

you got to give the people what they want and a lot of people are calling for this another Jim Miller versus Tony Ferguson a lot of people match up with some of our picks I think we're all vibing here and let's end with Matt Bradbury Matt Bradbury, what do you got for us, my friend?

Blanfield, Chichchenko Grasso winner, Andrage versus Carla Esparza. I think that's going to happen someday. I think a lot of people just don't want to see it because we all seem to agree that Jessica Andrage would smash Carla Sparza? Mike, is that fair? I kind of feel like that might be the fight. It might be. It could be what comes next.

Unless we rag on Carlislemo. Or it could be Amanda Lemos. Like if Lambish doesn't get the title fight, she gets the Espars a fight. That's the backup. Oh, right, right. Yeah, sure. Sure. Yeah, listen, Carla, if you're out there, prove us wrong because, again, we keep counting on you out against people.

And listen, you're a two-time UFC champion. No one can take that away from you. So, Jamal Poges won a Spino again. What else ago? Alexander Hernandez versus Benwals, San Dene. San Dene just lost a fight or withdrew from a fight? Anyway, he's out there. He's supposed to fight Joe Selecki, I think.

Yes. And. I think on this card. Like I think on this card. And now Selecki's fighting next week against Carl Deaton the third. Oh, I'm sorry. It was Selecki who was in. Yeah.

Because Selecki, actually, if you checked earlier this week on like ESPN, they had like Joe Selecki versus TBD still on like the on the menu. So it wasn't until like later in the week, this week that they were like, oh yeah, he's just getting moved. Jamal Emmer's, Charles Rodin, A.J. Fletcher, Munier, Lesez. Listen, I want to end on a bang here, Mike. But if any, I think that's a pretty fitting. and to the listener picks given the event that we just watched. Yeah, we want to end in a bang,

but we end in a whisper. That's just where we're out right now. Thank you everyone, who sent in picks. Thank you everyone as always. Yes, I'm stunned. We got so many picks. So kudos to the best listeners in the world.

They're hardcore, man. And we get to do this again next week. I totally forgot with everything going on. We have Bellator next week in Dublin, which is a great card. Very excited. for that. UFC Vegas 70,

which is in a, it's a card. There's some good things on there, obviously, and we'll talk about it. Jake Paul, Tommy Fury's next weekend, too.

Totally forgot about that. Is it though, Mike? But is it, though? I'm going to be, you're right. Jake Paul is going to box somebody next Sunday.

Yeah, it could be Mike Perry. Could be Mike Perry. Could be Mike Perry. It could be Mike Perry. But we won't be talking about that. We'll be talking about it. Oh,

we'll be talking about it. Well, not on this. show. We'll be talking about it. I'm not making that guarantee. I'm making that guarantee. Well, pretty close to it. A garrin. The T

is just kind of left off to the side and hopefully we get to squeeze that right back in the rest of the word. But UFC, UFC Vegas 70. Nikita Krilov versus Ryan Span, the main event. This is barely a main event. We talk about criticizing supposed co-main events.

This is barely Listen, at least Blanchfield and Santos or Blanchfield and Andrage, one half of either of those matchups was because Santos was number three going in before she had to bow out. Just Conj was number two. So you had the top five flyweight in the main event. And again, potentially a title shot on the line. This fight, the guys are ranked, okay, on our, the NBA fighting global rankings, Ryan Span, number 13, Nakrita Khrlov, 10.

So he's tough. Okay, listen, imagine. But this is a co-main. This is a great co-main. And this is the co-main. I wouldn't be saying nothing. This is barely a main event fight. But both guys have a tendency to throw out some pretty exciting finishes.

So, all right, I will back off. I just want people to know. I don't know. We'll discuss this more during the week, I'm sure. But calling this a main event is dubious. Right. I agree with you. This should not be the main event,

especially when there's a title on the line in the co-main event. The middleweightiest middleweight title is on the line. Brendan Allen makes his first title offense against Andre Muniz. That should be the main event. That should be the main event. So that's happening. We have the aforementioned Augusto Sakai versus Dantel May's fight in the featured spot. Tatiana Suarez is back against Montana de la Rosa.

Mike Malott versus Johann Lanesi. Eric Gonzalez versus Trevor Peek, which is the main card fight, A.K., apparently as of right now. I need to see that. Say it again. Who's what? What? Eric Gonzalez versus Trevor Peek. Okay, Trevor Peake is making his debut. Right? Yes. Oh, sorry, we kind of glad. I don't like this Mike Ballot.

Why are they doing the Canadian Canadian on crime? Canadian on Canadian crime. Why, Mike? We have so few in the UFC. Why are we doing this? I, yeah, I don't know. That's upsetting. But that's what it says on, well, maybe it's not. It looks like the entire card hasn't been finalized yet. No, no. I do see a lineup on ESPN.

I assume it's not necessarily finalized. But I mean, I think this is close enough. They might switch around like one or two fights. Yeah, I think the Malot-Ley-N-A's fight and up is going to be on the main card. And then the rest, we kind of just sort of go from there. It's a card subject to change. Card subject to chance we know in the world of combat sports. 13 fights.

What else? else do we have. Jasmine Jazz DeVizzias, who's been a very fun follow on social media recently. She's been a lot of fun. Her personality is really starting to come out. More Canadian content. Fernandez. Yes. More Canadian content. I love it. Jordan Levitt is back. Hey.

On Victor Martinez, O'Day Osborne versus Charles Johnson. That's going to be fun. Nerulo Alia versus Hapiel Alves. Haley Cowan versus Alyn Perez, Jose Johnson, Garrett Armfield, and Joe Sele, Vicki versus Carl Deaton the third. That is your UFC Vegas 70 card. And all things considered, storylines, fights that I'm intrigued in,

this card is not great, but it's five times better than yesterday's card. This is a better card. It does, like I say, I criticize the headliner, but this is just sort of, again,

this is the consequences of having 40, 45 cards a year. You're going to have headlining buzz. But at least, like I said, at least they're both ranked. They're in the UFC's rankings. They're in our rankings.

And then you've got Moniz, who's ranked. Tatiana Suarez is not ranked, but would be, obviously, if she had, you know, before she left was top five in her division. This is, yeah. And listen, I got a lot of Canadian content, so I'm happy. You got some under the radar barn burn burners in the prelims. This is definitely better on paper than, um, UFC Vegas 69. Definitely. Oh, my God.

It's not even close. Wow. Tatiana Suarez has come back alone is, is just as an intriguing. as Blanchfield versus Jessica Androge. And that's no disrespect to those fighters. That's just all about Tatiana Swaris. I think she's, if there's five biggest questions up for 2023 in MMA, Tatiana Swarres is one of those five questions, 100%.

So excited to see where she's back. And then after that, we are on to UFC 285 in the return of Johnny Bones-Jones-Jones, fighting Cyril God. Are we though? That card's really good. Are we though, Mike? Enkid you. Are we there?

You're telling me, Jake Paul and Thomas. Time Fury and John Jones has come back. We're both going to go off without a hitch in the next two weeks. Is this you telling me? Hey, listen. Connor McGregor's in Vegas doing the ultimate fire right now. And that is, I'm stunned by as well. I was waiting for the floor to fall out of that.

We were playing with so much fire right now. Like the next three or four months, we were playing with so much chaos magic. I'm a little worried about what this is going to do to the fabric of reality. I mean, like to me, and I agree with you, if I wish I could just write up. up right now that Jake Paul fight's not happening. Then we can, like, then we're good.

We'll let the other things happen, but if it's clear, if one of these things has to go within, I mean, within four seconds, it's Jake. Oh, easily. Yeah, goodbye. That whole car could just go away. I don't know. If I never see that fight, him and Tommy Ferry, I'll be okay. I'll be, I mean, like, there's been so much talked about it and we've written about

it so much that like that part of me is like, well, now I at least want to see it happen so this wasn't all for nothing. But honestly, in the grand scheme of things, if that fight never happens, I'll be fine. I'll be fine if Jake Paul never really I'll be okay I'll be I'll be disappointed for an hour and I'm like okay good Jake Paul move on to some other freak show fight Tommy Fury go back to doing whatever the hell it is you do and let's just stop trying to make this matchup happen if if it falls through again I'll be fine if Jones not coming back I mean listen people know how I feel about John Jones personally but as far as wanting to see his fighting career resume of course like I

think it's it's one of the most you know important storylines not just of this year but in all of MMA this guy has a lot of his his in cage story left to right. So I would be really, really obviously disappointed if we didn't get to see him fight Acetyl Gahn and somewhere down the road, Francis Nganu, which I still think is possible. But yeah, it's not even close. Forget the Jake Paul Tommy Fury fight. I mean, let's get Jones back in there for God's sakes.

I'm so much more interested in Logan Paul versus Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. Oh, yeah. Oh, you put that over there as well for sure. Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury fight. Again, if it wasn't for all the time we've dedicated to it, I have like no personal investment in it. I don't really care who is better. I don't care about this feud being settled.

It's just we have put so much time into it that like let's at least get something. Yes. Well, we will see what happens. And we appreciate all of you for listening to this episode of Onsen X-on back after UFC Vegas 70 next week. Always remember no matter how hard it is, no matter how bad a card can be. Always remember, don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA's supposed to be fun, and we will have more fun right here.

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