MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 72, BKFC 41

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

Song Yadong made a statement on Saturday, putting on a commanding performance to deny the surging Ricky Simon a jump up in the rankings. Where does Song go after UFC Vegas 72 as he looks to make his own moves in the loaded bantamweight division? Also, the BKFC may have stolen the show with their Mike Perry vs. Luke Rockhold main event, which included a post-fight appearance from the one and only Conor McGregor. On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Alexander K. Lee and special guest Jed Meshew discuss what should be next for Song and whether he may have earned the fight everyone else is afraid to take. Plus where does Mike Perry after BKFC 41 as he continues his unbeaten bare-knuckle run. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Caio Borralho, Rodolfo Vieira, Fernando Padilla, Marcos Rogerio de Lima, Trey Waters, and more following the promotion's latest card at the APEX. 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 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 reprise 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 Cudullian 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. And happy Sunday morning to all. This is the voice of Alexander K. Lee, your host for this episode of On to the Next One, My best friend, our good friend to everyone.

Michael Heck is on vacation. As you guys probably know, if you've been listening to M.A. Fighting Programming this week. I've been taking over for Heck of a Morning. And my esteemed guest host today helped take over between the links, of course, the man who has filled in many times for Mike on this show. I think you might have filled in for me once too on this matchmaking show. Jedman Shoe, say what's up. I sure have. I believe this is my third or fourth time in the matchmaking seat.

Yeah. I would like to say that I'm very excited, but if you hear my voice and think, that doesn't sound like the dulcet tones of our beloved Jedm's shoe. I'm in the throes of it right now. Ladies and gentlemen, I had a wedding last night, and I made mistakes.

I knew I was doing this this morning, and I did not react accordingly last night. So stick with me, but I'm excited to at least pretend to be excited about this matchmaking right now, A.K. Listen, you had a lot to celebrate. Like you said, you're at a wedding, a little victory lap for your Georgia Bulldogs. A lot of them heading off with Philadelphia, looking at it for good times, possibly winning a Super Bowl next year, going to Super Bowl favorite in Philly. I'm an Eagles fan now, apparently. You're an Eagles fan now, and maybe a little bit of love to the Rams.

May a little love to the L.A. Rams. We're giving a home to the youth, the youthful, the baby, the baby-faced Stetson Bennett. The hat. Yeah. Good for them at all. Just two Georgia Bulldog quarterbacks on one team. So much talent going on in L.A. right now. Plus, AK, I'm on a bigger victory lap because can we just take a brief recap of some things that happened yesterday?

The chat GPT bet? Nailed it. We're going to get to it. I didn't want to step on the toes of no best part, but I know you had a, I know you had a good night. I know you had a good night with a chat. GPT bet and nailed both heavyweight overs, flyweight unders and unfortunate setback. But four of five gimmicks hit last night. So feeling great.

Also, you've got BKFC. We're not going to talk much about this fight because it's on the prelons. But yeah, we knew Cody Durdon and Charles Johnson was a very doubtful. As far as flyweight unders go, very doubt. out full on paper. It had all the makings of exactly what it was. I'm not surprised. Sad, but not surprised. And I am celebrating as of this recording, my beloved Celtic FC with a big win in the semifinals of the Scottish Cup over Rangers. Listen, I'm a relatively new Celtic fan. I'm told this Rangers thing as like a rivalry. You can't see it, but he's rocking the

jersey. I'm rocking the jersey as I do every Sunday. And they seem to kick Rangers ass every time. So I don't know if I'm being cocky again. I'm a newbie. I'm a newbie to this whole Celtic thing, but I'm all in. And they're advancing to the final on June 3rd against Inverness, Caledonian thistle. Can you explain one thing to me about your beloved Celtic? Because I see a tweet. I see the tweets. I'm on these internet streets as well.

Yes, sir. What is the hashtag coy big? Oh, that's come on you boys in green. Come on you boys. I literally just learned that again a few months ago. Oh, okay. Boys is spelled B-H-O-Y-S. Okay.

Sure. Why not? I'm learning. I just didn't. I was like, because in my head I didn't think of it as an acronym. It was just like, is coy some sort of a thing for the team? And so it's like go big, but not the same. Listen, you are.

Come on you boys in green. You are welcome on this bandwagon. It's like your Georgia Bulldogs have been for the last few years, but like for like the last 30 years, apparently. It's just, it's a two-team league. Scottish premiership. It's a two-team league. It's either Celtic or Rangers, and apparently Celtic win.

Nine out of ten seasons. It's great. I follow other sports teams that have some... I've never got to root for Goliath, and I am so happy rooting for Goliath. It's unbelievable. It's very fun. It's very fun to be at the time of the time. Yeah, watching you celebrate George's frigging dominance last couple of seasons,

you seem super thrilled. No regrets. Yeah, there's no, like, there's not like, oh, I don't like rooting for the top guys. No, it's super fun. Yeah. Yeah, it's actually the best thing. Our great colleague, Shaheen Al-Shadi, told me once when we were having a conversation

because he's a Patriots fan. He doesn't, you know, he's born in Georgia, lives in Arizona. He has a reason, but I don't exactly remember. But one of the first times I met him, I was giving him some crap about it. I was like, how are you? Come on, you're Pat's fan. It's nonsense. And he was like, no, you don't, no.

The Patriots are one of the few sports teams. have given me any joy in my life. I don't regret this at all. And that's, it's fun to root for winners. It's fun to root for winners. And prayers up for Shaheen, who just saw his sons get railed in the first game of the second round by the Denver. That's one game. It's one game. Hold out hope, Shaheen. We've barely talked about the MMA, the combat sports that happened on Saturday. Jed, let's, how honest do you want to be with America here? How honest should you and I be with America? I'm, I don't know how honest you should be because that's a decision every man must make for himself. I'm always ruthlessly honest about my feelings.

At times, I have told you, Ted, please pretend that you did something and you just immediately blow that out of the water. Yeah, that's, that's just not who I am. So I will say that I have seen almost none of the fights at this from this UFC event. I saw a couple of the highlights, and I went back and I read the wonderful coverage atmaFighting.com. Great website. Some say the best. But I have not seen the main event at all because I didn't want to just watch the finish. I want to see the totality of the fight. But five rounds that fight went, and that's a lot of time for a man who's currently fighting off some demons this morning.

So I haven't seen much, but I'll also be honest, I kind of did some little pre-work, knowing I was coming into here. And I sort of had my plans regardless of how things went. That's good. That was very wise of you. Because, frankly, I made outside of the main event, a lot of the matchups are pretty open. I mean, listen, we had some nice performances. Oh, and I should tell people too.

I pulled people ahead of time on heck of morning. Like I was taking Saturday off. I was not expected to watch much of the card. I've seen the highlights. I've followed up with all the coverage on M.AFighting.com. It's a great website. So, listen, I have a pretty good idea of how things went. If somehow our matchmaking is off base because of our, you know, whatever, you and I

didn't exactly, you know, didn't have all hands on this event. Then I apologize to advance people. Call us out for the casuals that we are. And we also have talks in BKFC. I'm almost tempted. I almost think we have to talk BKFC first, or would you rather? You'll help me out here. Help me guide me here.

What do you think? I mean, BKFC was very clearly the biggest event of the weekend, so I think starting there would be fine. All right. Did you watch any of that? I saw zero of it. I saw the results, but I saw no part of it. And the post fight shenanigans.

Yeah. Well, you know, that's partly why it's the biggest event of the weekend. So what are your thoughts on that, man? A lot of people were asking both for the main and co-main. Like, man, where does Eddie Alvarez go? Where does Chad Mendes go? Where does Luke Rockhold go? Where does Mike Perry go?

We know with Chad Mendez now. Pierce has announced his retirement, his retirement for good. This is something I speculated on before the fight happened. I said it's one reason I'm picking Alvarez. I don't, I said, I think Alvarez is all in on this bare-knuckle venture. I think he still wants to fight for a long time. Chad Mendez, we already saw retire, came back for a very nice payday with BKFC, probably another nice paydown Saturday.

And I don't think that is reason enough for him to keep coming back. I heard this is a pretty brutal fight. I think he's good. He has his own company. I don't know if he needs the money that badly. Like I'm sure it's nice to make it. So Ted Mendes, we're not worrying about Eddie Alvarez. We can talk about it if you want.

But let's get to Michael Perry. Arguably, the biggest, not even arguably. The biggest winner of the night. Yeah. When's the main event? Not a question. wins the minute. It beats a former UFC and Steve.

Strike Force champion, a guy is much bigger than him, and then has a face-to-face with a notorious Connor McGregor. Holy crap, what a week, what a night for Mike Perry. Do you have thoughts on who he should fight next, if not, or are we just saying McGregor somehow? Well, no, that's just not going to happen, so I didn't even plan on it. Good for Mike Perry. He has really, I think Shaheen said it on the preview show yesterday. He has really found his niche, right?

Like he has, bare knuckle is the kind of exact perfect nexus for what he can do well. Who he is as a fighter. He's not good enough to be a pro boxer. You can do the influencing thing. And I know that he's had some flirtations there. But bare knuckle seems really to just be where he is at, at his most ideal form. By all accounts, Luke Rockhold was competing, looked better than I think some people thought he would. Um, but, and I know you hate, I know you hate to hear this, okay.

He just, he just doesn't have that dog in it. And that's, that's what I said in the preview show. Stop it. And look, uh, teeth injuries. I, I'm, I'm actually not here to make fun of Luke Rockhold because he looked messed up. I would, I would not have been even sort of competing with half of what was going on there. So credit to him. Yeah.

The pictures of, of, uh, Rockholds post fight, mouth are out there. It's tough. I wish I'd not seen it. And I don't know if you saw David Feldman's comments afterwards. His teeth got messed up pretty good. Yeah. Was his medical assessment.

I don't really understand how that happens. Does, do they, is not wearing a mouth guard? Like, I just don't really get how it gets like the images that was shown. But, you know, man needs, needs the jumpers for, for the modeling career. You can't be going around modeling with, with, you know,

guys teeth like that, it's too tough. So for Mike Perry, I, look, guys, I'm going to take a lot of low-hanging fruit today. And this was the one I thought, even before.

I thought Chad Mendez was going to win. And we talked about it on the preview show of, part of the stuff I do like that BKFC is doing is, is presenting us with fights I never thought about before. And now can't kind of. to help but think about. And Mike Perry versus Eddie Alvarez just feels like a damn good fun time. So that would be the match I would choose to make for Mr. Mike Perry.

I mean, that's amazing. It just seems to make sense. Again, weight classes in, the great thing what BKFC is, they're just going to go like, okay, we'll find a weight that you guys are comfortable at. And if you guys want to do it, let's do it. You do it 170, 175, and I don't think there'd be any issue for either dude. Eddie's been competing at 170 and one championship, right? That's their quote-unquote lightweight division, so he's not super far off.

Mike Perry has to have to cut down a bit. But I've said 175. BKFC is in the position where they just want to make fights happen. That's the problem. I should say a problem. It might be a bit rude. But with like mains, you know, the highest levels of MMA is everything is about, oh, what does this mean for the rankings?

What does this mean for the title? We got to get people with the right weight. We got to. And it's like, so we get away from just like doing the main thing. which is just making fights happen. Like, that's what combat sports is supposed to be about. As much people love championships and all this stuff, I always say belts are props.

And they're great. They add a lot to the drama, add a lot to the story. They're important. You know, that's great. But I just want to see people fight. And whatever weight and whatever money it is that we have to get to, for Eddie Alvarez and Mike Perry to fight, I just think that's so awesome.

So, yeah, I'm totally into that. They've set it up right there by having both guys in the same card. BKFC, listen, they swing big, they miss big. it sounds to me like they swung and hit really big on Saturday this week with this whole event. So great job, I guess, to everyone involved. I don't know what else to say. Big Pat in the back. Right?

I mean, if people love BKFC or not, they're making moves, and they could not have handled this card better. Christine Frey, I think, also got a big win. Ben Rothwell just tuning up Josh Copeland. This was like your top four, I don't know if your top four fights could have gone better for you as a promotion. Like this is you you these are people you brought in and signed and developed in the case of Christine Freya and just trending upwards so yeah my boys are doing my boys are doing big things this is your this is your team this is

your promotion after our fantasy draft so come on you bare knuckle bastards you badducco boys and girls in blood Cobba C-O-Y-B-C-O-Y-B-C-C-O-Y-B-C-C-C-O-B-C-C-E It's catchy. It's catchy. I tried something there. It didn't work. We can move on. It's real catchy. Okay. We can move on to Loss. UFC. Listen, the people, the listeners come for at May talk, for UFC talk specifically. UFC Vegas 72.

We did a lot of poo-pooing of this card ahead of time. I heard the prelims were pretty dreadful. Main card, again, maybe in terms of name value, not much better, but at least we got some finishes. and as, I want to say one listener, Beans Extreme Memes titled Dispromote card, the successful step-up card. Some other people sent in some not-so-nice names for the card,

but I like that because it is true. You had people coming out on short notice. Marcus McGee and Trey Waters both picked up wins. Jamie Lynn Horth, Horthy Haleigh, were both making their debuts or either way you would have a debuting person. But Jamie Linn-Horth coming back from a long layoff, and congrats for Haley Cowan for even just getting to, getting to make her UFC debut after some so unfortunate.

Getting to finally fight. Yeah, she missed weight, but less than these things happen. I had to cut down three times in three months. I don't like to make excuse for weight misses, but I'm sure Haley will be fine in the future. Arena Alexeva, a brutal weight miss, but quite a bit of hype around her. She comes in, submits Stephanie Agar. That's not easy. I'm trying to think, well, okay, and we'll get to the exact results here.

One guy who didn't quite step up, Jed, and I don't want to say he was bad, But this was supposed to be Ricky Simone's finally getting a top 15 opponent He's streaking, you know, in our global rankings He's received votes. Oh, sorry, he's in there. He's number 14. He was number 14 in our rankings going to this fight.

Song Yadong number 12. But if Ricky had won, he not only would have leaped Song Yadong, he probably still wouldn't have cracked the top 10s, a very tough division, but you know, it would have been 12. He would have taken Song Yadong spot, maybe gone as high as 11. But Song Yadong, level of competition. experience definitely has the advantage there.

I mean, about the same amount of UFC fights, but Song Yadon's just been fighting the better guys. And, Jed, one thing, did you, we both picked Simone, right? That is correct. Well, yeah, correct. I think we like his ability to mix up the martial arts better, maybe throwing some wrestling. I picked him largely based on believing he would be able to get takedowns repeatedly.

Yes. And that was clearly not the case. He tried. We forgot, Jed. we forgot. Training with Team Mouthmail, one, and two, being as strong as, I don't want to swear, F. An ox. An ox, thank you.

As an F and ox are both very good bases for having wrestling defense. So I cut, and I, I'd see in Song Yodong, like, I'd see his take down defense before, but I thought Ricky Simone was sort of a step above wrestling-wise, some of the guys that Song-eadong had fought. And maybe he is. I think Rick Simone's a great wrestler. It's just that songs take down defense is pretty tight. It's pretty tight.

And this was a real test. And apparently he stuffed him many times, just had the boxing advantage. We knew he'd have a power advantage and gets a fifth down to peek out. So a huge win, great bounceback performance for him. Jedd, where does he go? Where does Song Yadong go now that he's held on to his spot? I tease this on the preview show as I was kind of working through it. And it's a tough out for him because, look, a good performance.

He, this is 25. He's only getting better. Like he, he's the future this weight class. But there's another man who is the future and maybe the present as soon as he, if they'll ever give him a chance, he might just be the present.

And nobody wants to fight him. They just refuse. I think they're going to make Songa Dong fight Umar and Murgamatov. So it's a tough out for him. But I think that's the prize he won. You think he won? He won slash lost the Umar sweepstakes?

Correct. Hey, if he beats Umar, I mean, he showcased a good takedown defense on Saturday night. That will be critical. Umar also got them hands, though, as we know. So it's, it's a very high level fight. It's a fight that I would be very, very interested in. Um, and it is to some extent a fight for the, the future of this weight class, right? They are the two young guys coming up.

You know, there are other guys, you know, developing Sean O'Malley's already a top five guy. Marlon Dair is still very young in general. But these are the two guys who we can feel like they're probably going to be around for the next eight years. So I think they're going to make him fight it up. Yeah, and it makes a lot of sense too, promotionally, because this is Song Yodong's second main event. He didn't win the Corey Sanhagen fight. But it wasn't like he looked bad in the San Hagan fight. San Hagen, I think, was clearly winning.

I believe one of the judges even had it, I think, 2-2 heading into the fifth round that never happened because Song had that nasty, nasty, nasty cut that he was fighting through the entire fight. But Song looked okay in that fight despite losing. And then, of course, a pretty lopsided win for him here on Saturday. I guess, again, a guy who I still looks very good in Ricky Simone. So if you were to put Song against Umar, he has, Song has the name value. He has the ranking. I'm not sure.

We already have Umar ahead of him. I don't know. Let's see the UFC.com official rankings. Song is number eight in the UFC's rankings. Umar. Wow, really. So they don't, they don't, they don't, but they don't use the sort of like, I don't think they buy into the who would Umar theoretically be.

No, they don't have anybody ranking Umar like number three. Right. I do it or whatever. I assume, and Umar's one spot behind Ricky Simone and the official rankings, I assume Simone will probably drop one spot, at least in Umar will just won't move up and take his spot. So it'll be like top 10. Yeah, number 10. You never know with the rankings panel behind the official rankings.

I may fight in global rankings. The only ones that matter yet. We already have Umar well ahead of both guys. Yeah, and he might have won that sweepstakes. So someone has to fight Umar. Someone has to do it. I don't. Theoretically, someone has to fight him.

This is true. We've been saying for a long time someone has to fight, you know, Hamzaa Shamaev too, and that somehow never happens. But Leon Edwards tried. They never was trying. I went with Rob Font. And this was easy for me just because on a previous. show after Rob Font beat Adrian Yanez.

I said, well, Rob Font versus the winner of Song Yadam, Ricky Simone. So easy work for me. Rob Font has beaten Ricky Simone before. Again, that win over Yonest keeps him in the top 10. Song should get a top 10 opponent. You say Umar. I say Rob Font. Either way, I do think Saan is facing a top 10 by next.

Ted, can we talk about Mr. Co-main event? I don't know if he, I think the next fight night card he's on, the next Apex cards on, he might have to be Mr. Main Event, depending on the matchup, depending who you pick for him. Probably, right? I feel like he's got a good gimmick going as Mr. Co-Main event, so we shouldn't ruin it, but they're going to.

Like, they're going to, at some point you have to give him the opportunity. He got a finish. He got a finish, Jed. He finished someone. Exactly. And I think that's why you give him the opportunity. He finally gets a finish in the UFC, submits Mikhail Olegsachic in the second round to R&C. I think you got to reward that.

You got to make him Mr. Main Event, see if he can be that dude. The UFC has given him a lot of prime placement. Not incorrect. He's kept winning. But now that he gets to finish, they're going to give him a main event. But if you're going to give him a main event,

it's got to be a top 15 guy. You can't have him go in against some. I'm trying to think who would be like the 20th ranked dude in the UFC right now. You can't do it. Let me pull up my run. rankings. You said don't put him up against? No, I'm saying they can't, yeah, they don't put him up against the guy who's not in the UFC's top 15. They got to get on top 15 opponent. And for me, this was pretty easy.

You could do others, but I just went Andre Muniz. We just saw Muniz, who is supposed to be a good grappler. I mean, this man tap Jacques, Ray, get kind of rinsed on the floor by Brendan Allen. Kyle Barrio, obviously a very talented grappler in his own right. André Monez took a loss, so we're going to make him fight back and defend his position against the upcoming prospect. So that's what I went with. Oh, that is good. I didn't even thought of that for some reason.

I had a choice that I thought was obvious. But Andre Monez is definitely solid. You're right. And I'm also picking someone who's coming off a loss. So I didn't even do the thing where it's like, well, let me find someone and match him off with the winner. But, yeah, listen, that was, I want to just want to talk about Pahlio's performance a bit. And again, I had, I was huge on Michael Olix Echuk.

I thought that actually he might knock Baha'allio out. So I don't know. By the way, I don't, did you, did you even do topology picks for this card? I did. How did you do? Did you look at the, I didn't. Oh, I can look at the group. Yeah, yeah, hit it.

I got this perfect. I had second round submission for Bariot on my top. Oh, you probably won the picks, I bet, as well. Well, only three of us did it, and I did in fact win. How many? I had 405 points. How many picks? How many correct picks?

Oh, only six, but I got the one perfect, and you and Casey also put in picks and did not do well. I got three out of 11. And my one main card, one fight right in the main card, and the only one I picked for as we've got a perfect on Hidalpha Veda and Cody Brundage, which we'll talk about in a moment. Casey, five of 11. Oh, that's not bad. He predicted zero correct decisions and zero perfect.

No perfect. One semi-perfect. So he got five wins and 15 extra points from technology. So technically, did I beat him with my one perfect? You did not, but it was close. Yeah. Three out of 11, guys. I was off on, I'm bad.

My predictions are bad, but I mean, this one I had, I guess I had no feel for. And again, the worst part is, Jed, my predictions are on M.AFighting.com. And, like, the explanation behind them. Amazon. I still stand by some of those rationales, but I mean, when you're wrong, you're wrong. And I, again, I haven't, I didn't watch the card in depth. So some of my predictions are probably so, so I know my Tray Waters, Josh Quinlan prediction was so inaccurate, which is hurtful because I studied both guys pretty. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. All right. Anyway, I went with Roman DeLise, Roman DeLite from Bahaio again. That's a big step up. Top 10. I want to see it. I want to see it. Yeah, you're giving him a top 10 guy.

Okay. Yeah. You know, Monez is like, I think he fell out of our rankings after the loss. He'd had to, yeah, because Brennan was unranked. He for sure did. Well, because he was unranked. So we wanted to give Brennan Allen a spot. And then Brennan's only like 14, 15.

So where does Monez land then outside the top of Dean, unfortunately. So, but yeah, let's see it. Dallit needs a fight. Yeah, maybe a bit of a step up. Any thought to the Bo Nico matchup after the trash talk, calling him out, Bo Hale, call them all hype? No, you think they just keep away? I just don't think you should do that with Bo Nicol right now.

I'm not saying he wouldn't win the fight. You don't need to fast, fast track him. And if you haven't beat a guy who's 4-0 in the UFC, Mr. Comain event, then that's really, then Bo Nichols' next fight is a top 15 guy, and I think he should just get some seasoning. Just let the man cook for a little bit before we start doing that. That matchup's not going away, particularly if Barrio can make his way into the top 15. That would be a good fight for Bo when Bo is ready for a top 15 guy if Barrio's in there.

I think that would be ideal. But for now, it's ease off. That's probably a good way of looking at it. All right. I'll tell you now. So we have four more main card picks to glow plus a wild card. I'll be honest to you. The next four, it's a bit of a dartboard.

It's a bit of a, when you have a card, again, with people who aren't super established, who aren't super high in the rankings, I don't think, like, you know, like, you know, Like the next four people, I don't think any, or maybe, uh, Hageret de Lima, because it's heavyweight. Other than that, I'm not, like, none of these people fought their way into like a top 15 fight. I don't think so anyway. So I'll just go right off the bat. Jedd, our next fight, Hodel for Beir, very impressive win over Cody Brundage. I don't know what the odds were, but I feel like Bayer or by submission must have been, or should have been like plus 2,000.

Oh, sorry, minus 2,000, excuse me. Like Cody Brundage, a gamer by all means, but his ground game, nowhere near Vered. And if it went to the ground, then you're going to get submitted. That's what happened. So for him, I just went with a tough test. Someone slightly ahead of him in my rankings, someone who had a win recently, Albert Dariah, Albert Dariah. People who are out there.

Don't ask me for specific reasons why this matchup should happen. I just think that's okay on paper. With fights like this, there's nothing to really be gained or won. I did something very similar. I just picked a guy who I just enjoy. because he has consistently outperformed my expectations for him. And he is not going to, he's a decent grappler, right? Like he's very defensively responsible and around.

And just a tough out. He is not going to go anywhere for 15 minutes. You're going to have to make him do it. I went with Jun Young Park, the Iron Turtle. Where is Jun Young Park? He's a very popular onto the next one pick by Mike and I. Mike and I and the listeners. I mean, he fought Dennis to Lulin.

I think that's how he pronounced that earlier this year. Okay, two appearances last year. He's a two fights a year guy. He's a two fights a year guy. We could maybe make that up to three, though. I mean, he fought in February. If we get this happening, you know, sometime in the late summer, maybe he could squeeze in a third.

But again, I'm with you. There's no wrong way to eat this, Reese. He's good, too. Three straight wins. six of seven Jayon Park is solid yeah that that loss was to Robocop who I think

as well and Robocop yeah no shame at losing a Robocop at all shame in that all right well like okay listen that's yeah that makes sense let's move to Fernando Padilla former Fury FC champion making his debut I was very surprised when I saw that he beat Julina Rosa I know there was some complaint

about the start Of course, if you're a Rosa, you're a veteran. You know, you've been in the wrong end of a lot of tough fights. You probably would want a little more time to recover. But listen, you end up in those positions. It sucks. He ends up with, I want to say back-to-back knockout losses for the first time in his career, his very, very long career.

This is pro fight number 39 for Juicy Jay. And I'm very impressed by Fernando, though, because on paper, I love the matchup. If anyone hadn't seen Fernando fight before, similar, tall guy. I think they're both 6'1, a lot of flare, lanky guy. So because they were so similar, I just thought I'd go with the more experienced guy. But Fernando Padilla surprised me. So again, it's a first UFC fight, a lot of options here. Jed, where do you go?

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Oh, I missed the episode, please. Because the chat, GPT bet this week, was Fernando Padilla, underdog Fernando Padilla, because the first underdog bet of Chad GPD this week happened. And, okay, I haven't seen this fight at all, so I can't speak to this yet. This will be the first full fight I watch because Chad GPD's prediction was for a second round KO,

and which Connor made mocked me because most of Padilla's victories have been by submission. And he was just like, I'm not sure that that's going to happen, but okay. Chad GPT should have had it right. Julian Oroz has been knocked out in the first round many times in his career, and this is just another one. So I don't know about the controversy. I don't know about that. What I do know, Chad GPD correctly predicted this one, very excited.

And I didn't know what to do with him because he's, you know, debuting fighter, getting a win. Circumstances may be not ideal. I took just a full shot in the dark and said because it goes down as a finish, a first round finish, we're going to give him somebody to make at least maybe a statement or a name, and I went Maquan Amir Kani.

You're just trying to make some money. You just like fucking Maquan Amir Kani Flats. You love that live round two wager. It's going to be great. I'm so excited about the fight. You know what, I was going to say we don't have a lot of rules around here with onto the next one matchmaking. So if those are your motives, then by all means, I'm absolutely are.

You just want to see Fernando Padilla defending against takedowns in round one, and then just turning McWaneracani's lights out in the second round or submitting them. It would be the best. So Chad Chivete said second round knockout. Yeah, so very close. It's getting closer. It's getting closer. It's getting close.

It's yet to hit exact, right? I've yet to hit the exact. So, however, we are three and two on chat GPTs overall, and we're up a unit. So. And just, but I'm shocked that it went and said second round, because usually I feel like it almost always defaults to like back and forth battle. So-and-forth, so-and-a-thrd round, like dramatic knockout. So it's learning. It's learning.

It is learning. It's AI. You know, that is, I don't like, I don't know if I, it's too late to pull the plug on this experiment. I know you love it. I know you love it. That's my favorite thing that I'm having literal years. I just hope you're experimenting responsibly. I am not.

I'm playing with powers beyond my control. All the safety protocols shut off. They are not here. Connor leaves the lab and you go like, yep, don't worry. I'll close down for the night. We got this. Yep, simulators run and fine. Don't worry about it.

And you shut off all the safety protocols. You shut off all. Sometimes you got to push the envelope to take humanity to the next. level and I believe that this is that's exactly what I'm doing. All right. Let's move on to the second fight in the main card. Marcos Hager de Lima, Waldo Cortez Acosta, the fight of the many names. I'm shocked that this went to a decision.

I thought someone was going to finish. So am I. And that it went to a decision with a Delima win. If you had said decision, I'd say, okay, Cortez Acosta. But DeLima gets a decision win. We were talking about, I said, you know, outside of Songia Don, no one, and the but Bohlio, I'm not sure any of these other people are going to get a top 15 opponent, but is this heavyweight?

DeLama's look good. He's normally a finisher, which the UFC likes. I think he's earned a top 15 opponent. I'm going as high as, I should keep our rankings open. I don't keep closing. I'm going as high as March in Tabura, because they hadn't fought before. It's not some people send in some really good suggestions, so I feel like I whiffed on this one, but my pick was Tabora,

who is currently number 12 in our MA fighting global rankings. I guess Delema is not ranked. So he's coming for a spot. He did have a callout before the fight, though, so I don't know if that's the direction you went in, Jed. Oh, I didn't even at all. Okay. I know that this will not be a popular choice, and I'm okay with it.

But I, like you, was shocked that this went to decision. I had a heavyweight over bet, but that was really out of principle, not because I believed it. I believe, in fact, my exact words on No Betz Bard War, I encourage no one to follow me in this pursuit because I don't think it's good. And yet, there we go.

WCA just continues to be the heavyweight over king. Love him. Love him so much. But Regeria de Lima coming here and getting a wrestling heavy decision does not get rewarded for me. And so I went the easiest possible choice. I took the other guy who got a decision at heavyweight on this very, very fight card, and I picked Martin Badegh.

That had to be, I want to say, did I not pick a decision there? I know. I think that's the other. Oh, no, that one, that one I felt good about that heavyweight over. Yeah, I mean, you had to. I think did I somehow, I had to look at my topology picks, did I somehow, think that Budet was getting finished there because I know there's one other fight I picked

I had Budai late TKO round three. What am I doing? See, this is why I'm not a no best one. I had Budai decisions. Man, heavyweight overs. Two heavyweight overs. That is just outstanding.

It was a heck of a day. And that's a very logical matchmaking. Yeah, look, like I said, I thought, okay, maybe they give Pezau a top 15 guy. It could still have, it's heavyweight. You're right. He can really go in a, either direction.

The callout I alluded to, as he told our own Guillermo Cruz, he wants Derek Lewis. He says, you know, this will be, someone's getting to finish if this happens, which is probably true. Honestly, not a bad fight either. Not at all, not at all. And there you go. There's another apex made event for you if they make that happen. They got a lot of apex made events to fill out.

I think DeLima might have done them a favor with the Lewis callout. And if you're Derek Lewis, why wouldn't you take that fight? Certainly, certainly a winnable fight. All right, main card opener. Trey Waters, coming in on short notice for Anglosa against Josh Quinlan, who's had kind of a weird start to his, like, UFC career. He wins his contender series fight with a really impressive knockout. It gets pop for some band substances, unfortunately.

But then it gets a big knockout in his proper UFC debut. Looks like a guy in great shape, but inexperienced for sure. But gets outstruck, outstruck by the enormous. Trey Waters. I'm not sure how familiar are. Trey Waters is Trey Waters is 6 foot 5. He's a giant. Big man.

And in my study of him, I said, well, he doesn't deal well with pressure. And Josh Cullen's like, you know, he's not a berserker in there, but a pretty decent pressure fighter. It looked like maybe the short notice affected him, too. Maybe he just was not familiar with Trey Waters. Apparently, he had a lot of trouble getting past his jab. Tray Waters, if you fight a distance for him, he's going to kill you. He fights really well from distance.

So I thought Josh Kwan, I had to put the pressure on him, mix some wrestling in something, take him down. He just couldn't get that going. I wasn't in there. And fighting six foot five, welterweight cannot be easy. So congrats to Trey Waters on getting that UFC win on short notice. I don't know. I can't even begin to imagine where you went with this, Jed. Oh, I just threw a freaking dart.

Adam, Adam Fuget and Mike Milott are fighting, so the winner of that. Some dudes who are guys and around might as well. You could say almost anything here, and I would buy it. That's smart. I looked at both names, and I rolled them out because I was like, oh, they're booked against each other.

But yeah, that's sort of where... Timeline just lines up well enough for me that seems like to move. Timeline lines up, level of experience, and sort of where they are. I wonder if Trey Waters is going to become one of these sort of short-notice wonder guys where, like, there's no point in matchmaking for him because he's going to be, like, jumping on every opportunity he can. This fight came two weeks after he won the LFA title with a really cool sort of come

from behind knockout. He's a busy, eh, he's not a super busy guy, though. Just looking at his record now. Four times in 2021, a couple of times in 2022. Now two appearances in two weeks in 2023 already. So we'll see. We'll see if he becomes one of those. just throw me into action fighters.

I went with Phil Roe. She wanted to go with another guy who kind of matched his dimensions. Phil Roe maybe wouldn't like that matchup. He's streaking. He probably wants a bigger fight. So it might not be fair, but it's the UFC man.

The UFC ain't fair. I don't know, Jed, if you were able to put together a wild card pick off of this, again, we already said how tough it was picking fights for like four of the six main card fights. Again, you could have picked a loser from the main card.

If you have any wild card suggestions, you could have picked, again, anyone from the prelims, winner, or loser. You could pick Virgis Simone. You could pick Michael Exichuk. Wildcars really whoever you want. If you want, you could pick someone from BKFC. I'm all for it. Do you have a wildcar pick first, Jen? I do.

And again, I went the easiest possible thing I could look at here. I matched up the winner of two undercard fighters. both of the ostensibly, well, I guess catchweight, women's catchweight fights, both of them were supposed to be women's bandwights, Green Alexiva and Jamie Lynn Horth. Hey, look, we've got more people in women's bantamweight. Love to see that. So let's make them fight. Are they in women's bantamweight, Jed?

Jamie Lynn Horthis. Jamie Lothis. Yes. I am, I have become now notorious for being the, for being the, it's not even, it's not even, advocate, but for being the member of the MMA fighting staff who like initiates conversations about the women's 135 division, even though I know we're not supposed to because it's barely a division. You didn't, you were not around, I don't think, on Friday.

We had a little internal discussion on Slack and people did not agree with me. Our esteemed cohorts did not agree with me. But I'm like, for our rankings anyway, can we just start ranking 135 and up? and can the UFC just make a 135 and up division? I've firmly believe this has been my position for years. I bet it got this from you. Women's heavyweight is just what we should call it, and it would be fine. Whatever, like is it so, I think one of our, again, I don't want to name names, one of our coworkers is like, oh, you're comfortable putting like Kayla Harrison in the same division as Irene Al-Dana.

I'm like, yes, yes, I'm very comfortable with this. Yeah, because they would fight. They could fight. They could fight. Re-Nal data could go to PFL, fight 155, and she would for the right page. I'm not saying the size doesn't matter. Of course the size matters in these women's divisions as much of the vendors. Obviously, Kaila Harrison in there with a natural 135er.

We've seen that. We saw her in there with 135. She looks enormous next to them. But 135 is really only promoted in the UFC as far as major promotions go, Belter. doesn't have it. I don't think one championship has it. I think technically their flyweight champion, I guess, is 135 because their weird weight cut rules, but they technically don't have a Bantamweight division.

It's called Flyweight. Verizon maybe has the occasional one, but just PFL doesn't have it. Like, women's band to weight for sure was like the marquee division once in a lot of time. We were probably not talking about women at all in the UFC if it's not for Ronda Rousey and Holly Holme and Misha Tate and Amanda Nunes doing their business of 135. Fantastic. I'm not questioning it. But it's clearly a weight class.

A lot of women have trouble making. You have a 140, you purport to have a 145 division. It has a belt in it. So can we encourage, let's retire the 145 title. Amanda Nunes, you are the UFC featherweight champion forever. And like you said, Jed, just make the bantamweight and up slash heavyweight title. And there we go. And then we can stop with the charade of, oh, will Amanda Nunes defend at two weight classes?

because what is there's no contender line at 1.45, what are we doing? Anyway, I think it when half the people that have fought for the, what, UFC featherweight title were just puffed up banim weights. Like, it's just, just let it be, let it be, guys. Josie Ann Nunes is going to be fighting for any time. She's a puffed up, like, flyweight. She's barely, she's funny at 145 because it's funny. Yeah, exactly.

She could make 125, I don't know to easily. I shouldn't say that, but based on her height, she's like five foot two. Pretty sure she could make fly. She can do it. You can pull it off, I suspect. I also went with Alexei, but we're almost friends forever on this one, Jed, but I did not go. That was, I should have just done her in my fellow Canadian, Jimmy. I knew that we wouldn't because you're a man of class and substance, and you would not do something so easy as that.

No, sometimes you do. Sometimes that's the way to go. But this wasn't a lot of other great, if you're going from winners from the prelims, again, Budai, Cody Durden, Marcus McGee are not exactly, you know, lighting my mind on fire with ideas. None of the, and then the losers even less so. So I went with Alexeiva as well, because she's intriguing in a way. She got the Russian Ronda thing going. She might be a decent heel. She was kind of like nonchalant about the weight miss.

And then she does the Billy Strut when she wins. Like, you miss weight by four pounds. You can't be doing the McGregor Billy slash Vince McMahon, Billy Strut after you win. Hey, look, Russian Ronda. She's Russian Ronda. She gets like one of, she does not have a lot of stoppage wins. And she was a major underdog. So let her cook.

She has one arm bar win before a U.S. debut. And she's Russian Ronda. It doesn't make sense. It is what it is. It is what it is. Also, what does it make sense?

Stephanie Eger, who is like a semi-accomplished judoka. I know. And who went to points with Gabby Garcia at ADCC. just keeps getting tapped out by people who probably shouldn't tap her out. Four pound weight difference. All right. Four pound weight difference. Stephanie, this wasn't your four pound weight difference.

Alexeiva, I messed her up because I chose chaos. I'm pretty sure. Oh, I got. Oh, my God. I just realized. Who I'm going to pick? Do you know who I'm going to pick? You're a hero.

Do it? No. Well, no. I mean, I don't think we're having the same person. But this woman, as far as I know, is still employed by the UFC. It took forever to make her debut. She was signed off Contender Series. I keep a featherweight rankings, a women's featherweight ranking, so she's on there and not booked.

Daniel Wolf, I think, is she's still active and she still has another fight in her contract. She was scheduled to fight on this card. There we go. Okay, so I'm not crazy. No, she was scheduled to fight, but she pulled out. I don't remember why. There you go. She was definitely scheduled to fight on this card against somebody else.

I don't remember who, though. I have to check now. Oh, Chelsea Chandler. And Chal's Chandler is now fighting at Norma Dumont. So, yes, that's right. Oh, that's why Danielle Wolfe's name came to mind. So there go. Danielle, you're still out there.

This is your fight. This is your fight. Alexeva. At feather weight. At feather weight. Alexeva, maybe she can make 135. I know she's fought at 135 and 125 in the past. It's talking about Alexeva.

But maybe those days are behind you, or again, at least for 135. Take it easy for your next fight. Don't worry about the weight cut. Take this Danielle Wolf fight. I don't know. Maybe you submit her too. And then you call on Amanda Nunes. Something, something.

But there's got to be something we can do with this phantom weight, featherweight, and up situation. It's just absurd. So we've made a mistake. I realize this after the fact. And I don't know how to fix it. But we also talked about this on No Bet's Bard, because this is now two wins in a row for and Alex Eva.

Fine. Over two Stephanies in a row. So there's not another Stephanie that comes. comes to mind. What's Stephanie McMahon doing? Do you think she wants to, the UFC and the WWE are merging? Can we have Arena Alexiva just continue to beat up Stephanie's? That would be fantastic. I'm trying if there's any Stephanie's out there that are in range of being signed. Let me hit up. I can't. I couldn't think. We can ever fight Stephen Thompson. I don't know if that's what's doing for you. It might be a bridge too far. It might be a bridge too far.

Listen, you type in Stephanie on typology. A lot of Stephanie's pop up. We've got Stephanie Luciano fighting in jungle fight. Just fought this past November. 23 years old. Her nickname, oh, I know who this is. Because her nickname is Rondinia. Oh, my God.

This is, why didn't we do this before? I'm going to edit everything out of this problem. Yeah, please. Because we've made. we should be this should have been a fake friends forever right here just doing it i'm sorry russian ronda versus rondinia brazilian ronda arena versus stephanie again do it this is it jumble fight the show with this sure she's a strawweight champion who cares just pack on the pasta get on up to 135 and let's make something happen oh she's a straw hold like she's

Josh. Maybe we shouldn't make this happen. No, no, no, we should. They have to fight for the right. That's just great. That's just great. There you go. Yeah, three Stephanie's in a row for Arena,

the Ronda versus Ronda. Okay, this is great. This is good. This is why this show exists to make these kind of matches. This is why this show and why BKFC exist is to make these kind of matchups happen. I think we've done great work today. My goodness. You're not off the hook yet, my friend.

I need your gauge on some of these listener matchups. I got a whole, I got a surprising amount. I won't be able to read them all. It's a lot of overlap anyway. But first I'll say, Mike Heck, again, on vacation, I think we have to send him a point. He says he called for Jasmine Hadeghie versus Denisi Gomez, U.C. Jacksonville, June 24th.

So Mike, young man, if you're out there, enjoy the point, and maybe share it with your mother. I think I said this being the show, if I didn't, and I forgot, happy birthday to Mama Heck. I'm sure, I don't know how old she is. I'm sure she's still young. Happy birthday, Mama Heck. You look great for 30.

There you go. Yeah, oh, fantastic. Not a day over 30. Happy birthday, Mama, heck. Mike, please share the point or use the point again or something nice. All right. Let me go to the listeners quick here. Guys, if you guys know out there, please don't send in doo-do picks.

You know, please keep yourself high quality. I will send out a point if you're somehow able to have, if someone would be the only person who has a pick, very hard to do these days. And please, guys, just pay attention if someone's been booked. If someone is close friends and teammates with someone, if it's a wrong way class, if they've notably been released, and we all know about it. They already fought for another promotion. Please keep track with this stuff. So I'll go to the Beans Extreme memes first, who, again, gave us our show title.

And Friends Forever on These Beans, Song vs. Font, Bahalia versus Delizze, Hadofaida versus Andre Petroski, which is something I thought about. but I kind of liked the idea of not when Petroski to match like that. Padilla versus Cardahamo, Salima versus Lewis, Waters versus Semmel's Burger. Budai versus Sakai, I wish we could. I think Sakai,

I know he's no longer contracted. That doesn't mean he won't come back, but he's not contracted. Alexavia versus Jessica Rose, Clark, win, lose, or draw in her next fight, McGee versus Ricky Tursio's, Horth, versus Shostlin Edwards. I'm getting a lot of song versus Robb.

fought. You didn't mind that, right, Jed? It's fine. It might be the fight that ends up happening. I intentionally was staying away from Rob Fon on this just because he already had fought Ricky Simone and had, I was, you know, I don't like if or if then fights. Like if they win, then I'll fight it, which is how that would have felt. So, but it's totally reasonable matchmaking. Marcus, I know usually sends in to me and Mike, and Mike usually reads it. Mike isn't here. So, Mike, we're friends forever on a couple of these. Love the Padilla Al-Gio pick.

Mike, what do you think about Hadovovada versus Hobocop Gregory Rodriguez? I mean, I'll always watch Robocop fight, so it's tough to go wrong there. I don't know. What are your thoughts? I think, the only I don't like it about it is I'm pretty sure. Robocop smokes him because Gricker Rodriguez again he hasn't shown it

too much of it in the UFC He's an incredibly good grappler But he's just he's fallen so much In love with his hands He loves knocking people out Boy he loves scrapping and knocked people He got a taste for it and you can just see it in his eyes Like I want to go out there and just

And he's had some great knockouts too That's the thing is you can kind of if you didn't know You were like oh this guy's a stand-up guy knockout artist But like he's an amazing grappler So I think I'm pretty sure he would just like kill Bayetta because I think you kind of a little bit of a stalemate with the grappling. So not against it, like you said, would love to see Gregory Rodriguez.

I think that's my thoughts, too. Yeah. Look, the, if there are grappling exchanges, they will be chef's kiss. But I still have concerns about Vietta after the seven minute mark. And Robocop slows down, but he does not, he doesn't slow down. He becomes less effective, but he doesn't. doesn't stop. Whereas Vieira really, it really throttles back. So I think that I'm, I think I wouldn't be for it just because I think there's a high likelihood that everything you said is what

happens. Yeah. Let's, let's keep an eye on that one ever happening. Because if by some chance, Gregor Rodriguez was like plus money on that one, I'm going like Gregorne. There's zero chance he's plus. Zero chance. You think people know? You think people know how good he is? I think they would, I'm very, very surprised if he was plus money. All right. And Marcus, I'll give you points because I, I, pretty sure I didn't hear anyone pick these. I can't imagine if they would. He wants points for Loik Radzabov versus Mateus Rebecca, sure, and Mara Batista versus Cody Garbrandt. I'm trying to think if people picked that. But I'll tell you what, Marcus. I'll definitely send you a point. One full point for you, Marcus. Let me look into the Batista Garbrandt thing. I got to go back through my notes.

I feel like other people might have mentioned it, but I also remember when the fight was announced, I was a little surprised. What were your thoughts on that one, Jett, when you saw it? Garbrand and Batista. I don't know what to think about Cody Garbrand because this feels like he, what are we doing with him? Are we just trying to squeeze whatever juice we can out of him? I have no idea. Maybe it's an awful, but I feel like we either need to be more honest about what his role

is as a, we need to get him nuked and build. people by off of his unconscious efforts. And Mario Batiste is fun, but like, I just, I feel like, like, no disrespect to Chris Gutierrez who I think Chris Gutierrez is a fun fighter, but him fighting Frankie Edgar was dumb. He was like, that's not, we need to be rocket-chipping somebody up with this, this victory. And I just don't feel like Mario Batista has that kind of juice. Be okay, fight, though.

I mean, it's not the fight I want. I want Figgie versus Garbrand. That's the fight. I like the fight, but I'm kind of with you because I think like Mara Routis is probably going to win that fight, but I don't know what that does for him at this point. Cody Garbrant is always going to have name value, but like how much name value does he have anymore? Like, I don't know, that's a weird.

It's a weird fight. It's a weird fight. It kind of makes sense. When they can promote it as former champion, there's always. Sure. That's always enough. Sure. It's always a lot of name value.

It just, it feels weird. Matt Bradbury likes Budaibers-Rlofs Arlofsky, pound the over on that one. I don't care if the over. Oh, for sure. That's if the over is like, you know, minus. It's going to be like minus 220. I think if I was going to say minus like a thousand. I'm still probably just, you know, finding way to make money off that because I would be

blown away if somehow either guy finished. Odie Osborne, Cody Durdon, Hedelfavad at Gerald Mirschart. That's such a Gerald Mirsharty fight. I mean, he just, he should be trying to get that fight right now. Kyle Baha'i, oh, I thought about this as well. Kyle Bahaio versus Brendan Allen, because Brennan just, I believe he was supposed to fight Hermanson. That fight fell through. Do you like that?

Oh, I didn't realize that fight fell through. I was, I intentionally did not choose Brendan Allen because I bought him to he was booked. Let me double chat. I'm pretty sure because he was supposed to fight Hermanson. And I believe Hermanson is out. Is this a comit? Was this supposed to be a co-man event fight? Because if it was.

I think he got a slot. And I think it was actually going to the main event. And this was going to be the main event of this. Maybe didn't have a main event yet, June 3rd card. So I don't know if there was a main event, but it should be a co-main, though. If you get bohayo in there, that's a common event fight. It's such a co-main. And I don't make that matchup.

If Brennan Allen's available, share. German on Twitter Friends Forever with Jed Mishu Song versus Umar because he says he says he's already made picks for every other fight in the top 10 so thank you German Let's move on

Seamus Loughton I know I've heard from you before Shamis but I guess you must keep having to make multiple accounts I'm sure what's up with that Song versus Dominic Cruz the alpha male rivalry again Oh Jed he thinks Ricky Simone won the

Umar sweepstakes by losing I don't think I think that they are not going to give umar guy coming off a loss unless he's a big name and rickie simone ate that so uh i do not agree with that particular assessment yeah if you're ricky you actually put probably really into that fight you just kind of like a nothing to lose fight right i mean if you if you lose okay you lost two fights in a row back in saddle if you may you just maybe that mean he'll take the fight which would help them but you're bumping him like one spot in the ufc's rankings

if at all because again ricky could drop down beneath him in the ufc's rankings So that's really not getting Umar much. So I don't, I don't think Umar would be that interested in that fight. And I just don't think the Ose would be either. Yeah, Umar's been hunting. I can be wrong. Yeah. Umar's been hunting bigger fish publicly too. So.

Yeah. He's not going to get many of the ones that he's trying to, but I think he can get songadong and that fight rules. Uh, Hedulfoveda, Julian Marquez, Martin Boudai, Alexander Romana. Man, what happened to Ramanov? We were talking about him fighting top five guys a year ago and now people were matching him with Martin Boudai

just making me sad. Seamus says they also love the idea of merging women's band and way and featherweight. Of course you do, because it makes sense. Of course you love it. Yeah. At Mr. Guy, right? At Mr. Guy MMA.

Whoa, here's a... Durdin welcomes Asu Amabayev to the UFC. Let me do a quick. Sometimes these listeners are so hip to the game. game so much more than I am. Asu Ambao, I'm 17 and 2, 29 years old out of Kazakhstan, the hotbed now that is Kazakhstan. So many killers coming out of there.

He's won 13 fights in a row, has been competing for Brave, has previous compete as well for AC, the former ACB, I want to say. M1 challenge. Wow, this is a little embarrassed. I haven't heard of this guy. This guy sounds pretty good. I have no idea who this is off the top of my head. And I have to read this out because Mr. Gaiame says this is his favorite of his selections.

Marcus McGee versus recent road to the O.C. winner, Jed Rinyan Nakamura. This guy's debut was neat. Good for him. TD Defense Abysmal. This would be a fantastic fight to continue to showcase the Japanese super prospect. I mean, he is. I'm a big fan of that dude. I have no thoughts on Marcus McGee.

So, then haven't watched this fight. So I will tentatively say, just give me more Rania. More of him, please. Liam Perry. Liam, I'm sorry, I can't read all this. Liam's always sends to these great thoughts. He's with you, Alexeva versus Jamie Lynn Horth. You know, just throw them in together.

It makes a lot of sense. Padilla versus Sean Woodson. Budai versus Sakai. Man, I hope Sakai has been released. This is what the people want. This is a money matchup they have. Sorry, I got to move at four corners. sports again another year song font i saw some of this too simone versus the silence behind the violence

jonathan martine bohalio versus nasor dine imov versus chris curtis loser okay interesting interesting another pedia shon watson matchup okay maybe that's the one to make maybe that's the one to make waldo cortez acta wait what oh waldo cortez acosta versus jay collier electrifying that's an electrifying matchup right there. Wait, who did Jay Collier actually fight? He fought? Oh, Martin Budai. Fantastic stuff.

Hayes Bethard. Hayes Bethard is with us. Song. I was quite impressed. He looks to have leveled up. I'm excited for his future. Unfortunately, I might made quite a few picks for guys above him. I guess I'm going to discard.

Jed Cheeto Vera rematch is the time. Oh, okay. Um, controversial decision the first way. Controversial win for Song you don't. Let me think. I don't, maybe. I mean, it's, look, it's not bad. I mean, the fight is awesome.

Um, my issue there is, I think Song you Dong actually wins that rematch. Um, I know it was a controversial decision. I think he's just getting better. And Marlon Vera, uh, certainly improving, but I think, I don't think Marlon Vera's going to one-shot song in the way he's kind of been making a career out of lately and i think song probably can just sort of outwork him um and well that's not bad i think you really want to keep marlin around the top because i believe very seriously that marlin vera versus sean o'malley is like the fourth biggest fight the ufc can put on if you ever look at any of our

engagement, Marlon Vera is a star. People love Cheeto. And obviously, Sean O'Malley is a star. I think that's about as big a fight as, I think it's the biggest fight in this weight class, unquestionably. I don't think, I don't think, Sean, I think Cheeto versus O'Malley will do better traffic and numbers, even not for a belt than O'Malley versus Henry Suhudo or whatever. Like that, I don't think that that's even that controversial. It would obviously be, be optimal if you could do that fight for the title. But that's probably not going to happen given Cheeto just took an L. I don't like Sean O'Malley's chances against either Sterling or Sehudo.

And so I think you just want to keep Cheeto in the conversation. So when O'Malley does end up losing his title shot, then they can just run into that rematch because that's a better rematch. Yeah, yeah. You don't want the song rematch to possibly derail that one. It does have to happen someday. the first fight they're both young it'll happen

yeah of course it should maybe not right now something went wrong Hayes withard also likes where am I with this Budai and Mo Usman god that middle tier of heavyweight is just magical I love

I love Badi Mo Usman give me all Why what do you Give me all 15 minutes of that one Yeah Budai surely has a finish on his record somewhere. I think it's actually like a little bit more

surprising in that regard than you would imagine. Contender series. Contender series. I told him to forget this. There you go. He won't, he won't have the thrilling first run knockout.

And then it said three non-descript. The Chris Burnett fight was weird the way that one ended. Anyway, okay, bizarre. He probably sure got to finish. So you didn't hear No Betts Barred this week. I did not. My other gimmick bet this week was a parlay

because I'm going to mention it now, because you just said, oh, the Chris Barnett was weird. Do you remember what happened in that card that he, like, illegally need Chris Barnett? Yes. Maybe it was maybe an I don't know, something. Illegal. Oh, I think it was back, blow to the back of the head. Back of the head was it, yeah.

And so went to a tech decision. Do you know what else happened on that same card? That was the Bala Muhammad Vicente Lucke fight card. In the co-main event of that fight card, Mr. Cohn. main event himself also went to a technical decision, won a tech decision after an illegal knee. And so, one, I remember at the time when that happened, I was like, well, this is never going to happen again. Two double combing events. There are double tech decisions on the same card. So I made a parlay of those two gentlemen of Kyle Barrio and Martin Boudet. The cheaters always

win parlay because both of them cheated and won. the previous event that they were on together. And then guess what? I don't know that either of them cheated this time, but they both won. So I wanted to bring that up here. This event took you to a dark place. When you're parlaying Kyle Buhalio and Martin Boudai,

you've gone too far, I feel like, down the... I mean, I know it's your job. I know you're the no-bets. I will parlay them every time they're on a fight car together. Can Cameron Simon get in on that? Can Karen... I mean, if we put them all... I say, we put them all on a fight card together.

We can start cooking. Marcus McGee, he said, Marcus McGee, he just says, impress a debut, I like his nickname. It's Ronnie Lawrence from. Marcus the maniac McGee. If you have an alliterative name and your nickname does not go along with that alliteration,

you should be like, you should not be signed. Correct. Okay, okay. John Ray, what's up, John Ray? John Ray, anything new here? Vyatta versus Mahmoud Muradav. sure ricka simon another rick simone john martina songadong chito two mike perry versus darren till

oh right right right darin till's out there isn't he oh that's actually really good um i'm sure calls have been made honestly that's better than eddie alvarez yep that's that's that's the one way to go whoever that was i don't remember who you said said that but good work yeah john ray way to go uh i forgot that's it makes so much sense a lot a lot of history between those two guys friends friends friends frenemies i don't even know what they are at this point and or AK. You know who else is out there? Francis and Gano. Again, it's BKFC.

I almost chose my wild card to be Francis Ngano versus Ben Rothwell. I was going to say, Ben Rothwell, he might be fighting his way into that matchup. He might be fighting his way. He might be 300 pounds. Francis doesn't even have to cut. He just shows up and rocks him. I want to see 280 Francis and Gano

just swinging missiles. If Francis and God who signs with BKFC and they don't immediately announce the opponent, it's like minus 800. It's going to be Ben Rothwell. Here's the thing. I don't need him to sign. Don't sign. I don't. I wish.

I don't understand what he's doing because he's doing this thing where like he might sign with PFL or one or whoever. Don't. Just fight dudes. You are the attraction. You are the draw. You can just come to David Feldman and be like, all right, I'm too expensive. what would you be willing to pay for one fight? Not for a title because they're champions Alan Belcher.

I don't need to fight him. The biggest fight you guys have has been Rothwell. I'll do this one time. Give me X amount of dollars, put it on pay-per-view. I get to co-promote. I get a percentage. Bob's your uncle, boom. Just do that and do that.

Just become a mercenary. One-fight deals everywhere. It'll be awesome. I'm scared at some point. The BKFC is actually going to try and poach you for an NBA fighting. I hope he does not hear it. Feldman, if you're out there, back off.

Back off. Look, I can do both. You have too many good BKFC-related ideas. It's scary. I spent a lot of time thinking about this promotion as it's spiritual leader for the next calendar year. So I think we're going to make magic happen. I really believe in us.

Toby Kinsella coming in and saying, Cage, whereas Dublin was the best event of the weekend. I don't make the rule. I believe that's available to watch on UFC Fight Pass. So, hey, let's see what Toby's right. He throws out Hadoflaveta v. Chris Wydenman. Okay. I think Chris Wydenman probably just dummies him.

But it's not a bad get-back fight for Widman coming back off the injury. He shouldn't throw Wydenman in with the top 15 guy, though I think that is what the UFC will do. I would prefer a fight like this for Wydenman, though. It's not bad. I wouldn't have thought about it. It'll never happen is the problem. Okay.

So they will for sure give him a top 15 opponent. The UFC is never going to be like, why don't you just try and get one back or like, just reacclimate to fighting? Yeah. You know. Do you, do you off the top of your head remember who Anderson Silva fought when he came back from his busted ass leg? Uh, Nick Diaz? Sure did. Like.

That's it. He went Nick Diaz into Bisping who was surging at the time. It wasn't like, uh, and I know Nick Diaz is about as softball as it gets for them, but they weren't like, we're giving him a tune up. We're like, let's give him a guy. Let's give him a real fight. That's such a weird fight because people always just remember like the first round, which was so much fun and the rest of the fight, which was like wasn't.

It's awful. It's one of the worst fights ever. But they always just show the, people just remember it fondly. The lying down. Yeah, the lying down. Yeah. They were like, oh, that was so sick. And I'm like, it was literally for five minutes.

It was super fucking cool. And then people never think about that part of all of the fun image, almost all of them. There are a couple exceptions. But when you've got a photo of Nick or Nate doing something, it's perhaps the most out of context image ever every time. Because it's always like, oh, like there's the one of Nate shooting the double birds while he's got a homie locked up in a triangle. that speaks for what it is. That tells a story.

But all the Nick laying down is like, well, actually, Nick's laying down because he simply didn't have the tools to make Anderson Silva fight the way he wanted. And so he's just kind of throwing a tantrum. And that's like 80% of the fun antics of the Diaz brothers is throwing a tantrum because they can't make something happen that they want to and they're losing. And so it's very out of context. Completely accurate. I got a few more here. Thomas Collins

Song Yadong, Piota Yan. Let me think on this one. No, I can't get behind it. The fight, on the merits, the fight's very good, obviously, right? But I don't, I, Peoria Yon is a tough one to matchmake for at this moment in time because

a guy who looked like he was destined to bring some stability to this weight class. And now he's lost like eight in a row it feels like and maybe you shouldn't have i mean the marab fight there's no question he lost but like i i thought he beat john o'malley very close he did get the win over santa again but you know i thought he lost twice to sterling another loss here could really just be bad for him i do think peyote on has to fight back like he's got to defend his position

um but i just don't know who i think i i still just go Rob Font for Piotr. It's not awful for Song, but I don't think Song gets a step up from this one. I think he's still in right around where he's at range, you know? Yeah, I like the idea as far as name value and as far as like it, maybe pushing song up, but it just feels like they're really not in each other's orbit right now. And yeah, the whole Yon thing is just weird. That, man, that is who knew that that need is qualification would just,

completely change his career and the arc of the Benton Wing Division. That knee disqualification is, for my money, the stupidest thing that has ever happened in a high-level mixed martial arts. For years, for years, it was a dead heat between Chale Sun and spinning back fist against Anderson-Silvin, the revenge. But that was really just funny, stupid. He was losing that fight, so that was just kind of funny, stupid. And with the winner being Chris Widman's spinning wheel kick against Luke Rockhold,

that had been the champion for a long time. And this year, Valentina Shivchenko's spinning back kick, you know, it's entered the chat. It is not ahead, though, because the stupidest thing that's ever happened is, is pure Yan. If only Yon had done a spinning knee to a grounded Al Jemaine, then it would never be topped. Like, they would be. Yeah, I mean, it's just so, it's so dumb and had such a cataclysmic effect on his career. And he may never recover. The entire division.

The entire division. Yeah, because if he doesn't do it, he wins that fight. Al Jermaine Sterling's not the champion because he doesn't get to rematch after he got dummied in that fight. So then it's, we don't have to deal with bad Aljo, which would be sick. I would love not having deal with bad outro. Henry Suhudo probably is fighting Peoria on at this point, but he beat Corey Sandhagen for the belt. In a title defense, he would have beat.

Maraub would have the belt right now is what would happen. Yes, yes. Maraub would have fought himself to a title shot. Maraub would be the champion. Yeah, that's what we learned. What a tough out for a man. What a done decision. Last one from Turner, Barry O'Reilly.

Fingers crossed, Celtic win the old firm Derby today. Barry, by the time you'll lose this, you'll know they did. Of course, they did. They're Celtic. Martin Boudai versus Walt Harris, Josh Peresian winner, Parisian Boudai fights, two, that Walt Harris should win would help rejuvenate his career. I don't know if Walt Harris, honestly, has more than one fight left in him. I feel like he wants to get a win. I say this, by the way, not knowing anything about the man personally, just kind of based on, of course, some of the, you know, the tragic events of his life recently, and I assume just, you know, difficult to getting in. It's may be maybe some injuries here and there.

he probably if he could get a win would want to go out in a win maybe i'm wrong may walter it's it's heavy wait may walterris goes on a freaking run over the next two years but i don't know if we need to matchmake beyond his next fight um for uh fernano pedia laron murphy good matchup he wants hadolfo vienna boe will beat gore easily this would be a very interesting fight as vera is similar to bow really a high level grappler trying his hand in m m m vr has a loss but has shown improvements to stand-up bow as knockout or two still's not shown much in the stand-up fair he can take better down at ease

but might not have his way with him easily and will need to be alert for submissions from any position yes but I think nickel is the kind of wrestling that's going to like just neutralize any any jiu-jitsu like threat I really like that fight actually really I think Barry there you go

again I feel weird because I like that fight for Bo Nicol I don't like that fight for I mean it's an opportunity for Fierre. Don't get me wrong, because he could make something happen. But I just, of my choice, I would not. I don't, I don't, didn't want to pick a fight for him that I think is going to lose. Because that feels not in the spirit of Otno.

But if the next time Bo Nicol wins and we're like, who should he fight? I think Godolfo Villar is actually a really very good choice because he's, I mean, look, Bo Nicol has grappling experience. outside of wrestling. He's done a couple of fight pass invitations and he grappled Gordon Ryan and you know Gordon Ryan's Gordon Ryan so that's what it is but I agree I think Bo Nicol wins

but it's a good look. Does Bo Nicol is that the fight where he decides I'm going to use my wrestling to keep this standing or does he still just go for takedowns and invite a risk of danger that he doesn't otherwise have so I really like that pick.

And Barry just says The draft was great listening. Jake Paul being the pick of the draft. You're damn right it was, Barry. Way to go. Your damn right it was. Thank you. And a couple of emails here. One that mentions you specifically, Jed, so that's why I want to close out with this.

First one, our good pal, Tristan, Tristan, Gordet, regular M. M. A. May, fighting, listener, slash contributor, Simone, Adrian Yanez, Bahalio, Monez. There you go. What else are you going here? Trey Waters, Carlson, Harris, Marcus, McGee, Brady, Heaston, Cody Durdon, C.J. Vergara. And then Jay Donagie, Waters, RDA.

I think RDA just got a matchup. Unfortunately, RDA is going to fight Luke A, but he says he just wants to see a six-foot-five guy, fight a five-foot-eight guy. That's funny. You're talking me into it. Yeah, Jay Donagie, you're talking me into this. Bahia, Brennan, Allen, Song and Davidson, Figurato. Figgy, again, was supposed to fight Minel Ka, back at flyweight. I feel like we should just remove Davidson from, like, the pool of picking fights.

I have no idea what this guy's plan to do next. Yeah, I think once that happened, once that fight, like, was teased or whatever, that is when we should just stop considering. You guys should just not factor him in because who the hell knows what he's doing? He said he's moving out to Bantamay. He said that before. I'll look, say Chuck Armand Petrosian. Okay. And he wants to give a shout out to Jed.

I will try to incorporate poop soup into my daily vernacular. Entertainment. That's what we're about here, Greg. That's what we are. What we are as a product. The word of the week is poop soup, courtesy of JET. So people, you want to start using that? Hashtag poop soup, throw it out there.

You're going to have a lot of opportunities to use it based on how UFC cards look these days. Well, listen, we got a pay-per-view at least coming up next weekend. I have my, yes, next weekend in New Jersey Prudential Center. We do. Let me remind people. It's a real Jersey pay-per-view, too. It's super Jersey. Thank you for the picks.

You can reach me on Instagram. Alexander KK Lee on Twitter at Alexander Klee, just 1K, and email Alex dot Lee at espionation.com. And Mike will be back next week, I'm pretty sure. And you can find him on Instagram M underscore Heck JR. Send your picks in. But I will say maybe hold off for this pay-per-view. As people know, Mike and I will be doing a live show next Sunday.

And we usually give priority to the YouTube comments. I know it sucks. Everyone can't join live because we do it like Sunday morning, like 10 o'clock 1030 so it's very difficult especially for people in other time zone so i do apologize you still send in your picks to me i just won't be able to read them uh we're probably just going to read what's on the air but tune in if you can of course we always wait for it because we'll be talking about al jermaine sterling and henry saudo that's right henry sudo coming back from a three-year layoff allegedly allegedly immediately into a title shot uh the new comaine kind of popped up out of

nowhere they had to add it because they lost Benia Darius versus Charles Olivera. We got Balal-Mohamed and Gilbert Burns. Great fight. Jessica Andrage fights Jan Shaan. Jessica Anjaj back at 1-15. Probably trying to angle to get that title shot because Zhang needs an opponent. No one stepped

up. Rosenovic, where are you? Featherweight, Mosar of Lov, fighting Bryce Mitchell. Bryce Mitchell slipping on unsure, I noticed there. And the return and the main card opener, the return of Crohn Gracie as he fights Canada's. Charles Jardin.

So we'll see where a Crona is because people love seeing him a fight. Reality check from Cubs Swanson, but otherwise, listen. It's a crazy. Preliminary card, Drew Dober, Matt Favola, banger, light heavyweight, that Keny and Zuchuku, Devin Clark, Chaos Williams versus Rolando Abedoia, Women's Stri, Marina Rodriguez, Snakebitten contender. Fernandez, Jiroba. Vierna, Janjarova, the Island Girl herself, great matchup.

Braxton Smith, debuting against the I. inimitable, paca porre. That was from Mike. Phil Haas. Whoops, I didn't know if Phil Haas already mashed up. Oh, well, still. I'll throw them out there. Phil Haas versus Ikram Alisgarov.

Oh, I said Phil Roe before. Anyway. You said Phil Roe, not Phil Haas. We'll take that in post. I've made that mistake many times. Phil Haas versus Ikram Alaskirov, Rafael Estev, versus Zalgis Zumulov. A.K. This Ikram guy might be good, by the way.

I'm unfamiliar. I haven't done my tape. Well, I'm just going to start you with. as I've started my tape. He's a world champion combat Sambao player. So that's a good start. If you look at the history, he has one loss in his career to Hamzaa Chamaif. He fought Nashan Brahev.

Nation Braille, I feel like, has been fighting for 100 years. Yeah. No, it hasn't been that long. He's got a win over Nashan Burrell. It's great. Sorry, two more fights. And Dennis Tallulun. Dennis Tallulam.

Joseph Holmes, Claudio Ribeiro, and then, opening of the card, Bantam weights, Daniel Willey Cat Santos, and Johnny Munoz, Jr. I got that from Wikipedia, guys. So if the card has changed all, I apologize, and just hasn't been updated. You always go to Tapology for updates. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, everyone's healthy, makes weight, and we get ourselves a nice full card. Particularly for that main event, because I am not trying to put this out there.

What are you saying? If something happens to that main event, this is no longer a pay-per-view. they're going to have to move this to ESPN. Well, Mohammed Gilbert Burns is a pay-per-view headliner. It's going to sell five pay-per-views. The tickets have been sold. The tickets have been sold. ESPN plus contracts have been signed. Sure. But no, they're not going to get shit from a paper view that's outlined by Blahma'amah, Gilbert Burns. I know. But it's such a, it's such a, look, it's such a tertiary concern for them at this point that, like, I just don't know if that they, if that would even make them blink, because I can sell it. I hope we don't find out. I hope we don't find out. That's right.

So Van TWAway title online. But, Jed, thank you so much. Thank you again for filling in. Anytime, buddy. You just bring an energy and a perspective that I love my best friend, Mike. You know, I think our show is fantastic. We have you on, you know, it just gives a different twist. I think when people listen to this show, they'll be like, wow, this went in some directions that it would not have gone in.

And maybe shouldn't have gone in if it was just Mike and AK. We went some places. Well, I'm glad you figured out Russian Ronda versus. is Rondinia at, I don't know, 135. We have no idea yet. Now in my top 10 fights I most need to see. That's the one. And what a weekend for your BKFC as well.

But thank you, everyone. That's Jen Mishu. I'm Alexander K. Lee. And this has been another wonderful episode of on to the next one, the podcast. The podcast.