MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 73

Episode Date: May 21, 2023

Following her eye-opening performance against Angela Hill in the main event of UFC Vegas 73, Mackenzie Dern not only called out Rose Namajunas, but also added that fighting the former champion is "a priority" at this point in her career. Will that be the matchup she gets next after the best performance of her career? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee attempt to answer that question and give their thoughts on who Dern could face next from a matchmaking perspective. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Anthony Hernandez following his third-round stoppage win over Edmen Shahbazyan in the co-main event, Lupita Godinez after defeating Emily Ducote, along with Joaquin Buckley and Diego Ferreira following their highlight-reek knockout wins, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco 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 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 welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. Yes, friends, the matchmaking crowns have returned following the UFC's latest event at the hallowed

and majestic apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. UFC Vegas 73, a breakout night for one McKenzie Dern and all in all. The card will not have a lot of big storylines coming out of it,

maybe one or two, but it was a pretty fun watch. I will say that. It was not great on paper. Fights were competitive. We had some big moments. But it's just, it's a card that's just going to dissolve

and go away. And that's fine. That's okay on a Saturday. But it is Sunday. Here as we record, that means it's time to matchmake. So I am Mike Hack, and joining me as always, the man with the cinematic critical eye, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, and my best friend,

the Prince of Positivity, Alexander Kay Lee. Hello, A.K. What is it? What's the quote from the first Fast and the Furious movie? I think you're thinking of Tal-Dagan Nights, if you're not first or last. What was the other? What was that one after Paul Walker was like,

I almost had you. Oh, it doesn't matter whether you win by, by like a mile or an inch, winning is winning. Correct. Thank you. I think I didn't do that accurate. I'm good. Listen, my best friend, I want to apologize to the listeners of Saturday's Post-Fight show.

Jed Mishu, big Fast Furious fans, we may have got a little over-excited. We may have derailed the end of the show. Maybe last like 30 minutes of the show. He's talking about the latest Fast and Furious film. We threw a few spoilers in there. I want to apologize for those as well. There's just, I will never apologize to my love of the series, the Star Wars of our generation. But there's a time and a place.

There's a time of place. So I will keep the talk to a minimum. Unless I'm prompted. Listen, I don't know what's going to happen in the listener picks. That's not true. I did vet them pretty properly today. But I will keep it to a minimum. Jed and I may just have to do a random Twitter spaces this week and just let it rip.

I don't know. But this movie is online. It makes you think as all good art does. So I'm already doing it. Mike, stop me. Stop me. I'm already doing. Come on.

I just back to the UFC, Vegas 73. The last thing I'll say about this is I need Jose or New York Rick, our incredible social media team, to create a graphic just randomly. Quoting you saying the fast series is the Star Wars of our generation. It is the Star Wars of our generation. Absolutely incredible. And if I will take, let me tell me let me put it this. way. Last thing, I swear, this is the last thing I'll say about it for now. If I had to pick the nine Star Wars movies or the 10 Fast and Furious movies, like, I can only pick

one to watch for like on an island. I might go with the 10 Fast and Furious movies. And I love Star Wars, but I might go with the 10 Fast Furious movies. Could you rank all 10 movies? Of course. I have, I'm on top of your head. I'm going to cheat right now. I have, I actually literally just texted someone about this the other day. So I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was joking. No, I, uh, hold, oh, go ahead. Where did it go? Hold on. I, I, I had to do this. He lost it.

Edit out all this, edit out all this dead air, Mike. Edit out all this dead air. So we'll pretend I did this off the top of my head. Uh, five, obviously, five. So from best to least good. I won't say worst. Five, fast five, fast six, Tokyo drift. The original, the fast and the furious. Uh, fast furious seven. Two fast, two fast, two furious. Fast 10 or Fast X, however you want to go.

Fate of the Furious, Fast and Furious, and then Fast and Furious, 9. So there you go. And I'm sure, trust me, a lot of fans up there. You rank Tokyo Drift above the original? I'm a huge Tokyo Drift fan. And I will say, I miss the moment of the original. I actually did not watch the original. Like, I didn't watch the movies in order.

So I watched the original after watched some others. So I got like a different taste of the franchise. And I'm also not a big car guy, which is, I know it's ironic because I love the fast fear. I'm not a big car guy, so the whole, like, man, the first movie is so, like, kind of authentic and real. I'm like, I don't care about that. It's a very good movie, though. It's aged pretty well in some ways, in other ways, not so much.

Well, you know who else has apparently aged pretty well? Mackenzie Dernay, gay. Good God. What a performance she had in the main event of UFC Vegas 73. She looked sensational. She looked vicious, violent, aggressive, and let's just tell it like it is. She beat the hell out of Angela Hill last night. Angela Hill looked like a completely different human being when that fight was over.

She calls out Rosnami Eunice. I love the callout. I know you love the call out as well. But is this the fight we're going to get? Is that the fight you're going with here? Can I just say McKenzie Dern's performance wasn't just like... It's great that she won. She needed to win.

This was like, you know, she hasn't done super great against... She's been inconsistent, I just say, against ranked opponents. Sometimes some of them wins she's got. But Marina Rodriguez was a big fight. Again, headlining fight. She lost that one. Yon Shanan, her most reason's fight before this one. also headlining fight, ranked opponent.

She lost. And she hasn't looked terrible. I don't think she's ever looked terrible in any of her fights. I'm probably going on a limb here and saying that. Definitely on the feat, of course, always a work on progress. And she was leagues better on Saturday. You know, still, obviously, a lot of work to be done there. I'm sure there's a lot of striking kickboxing experts out there who are cringing with some of the things she was doing.

But this is M.A. It's not kickboxing. This is not boxing. This is M.A. You can get away with some dumb stuff. Yeah, it's a great callout, Mike. But you know me, I'm almost like against all these rose callouts just because while they have obvious value, Rose is a star, two-time UFC champion. I just don't know when she's coming back and you can't wait for her.

And I don't know if she's fighting at 125. So I'll go with the other suggestion that I saw people throwing out before the fight. Jessica Andj Raj does not seem to have it. Again, it looks like she's sticking at 115, even though she just lost to Jan Shanan. but still I think again top five top six straw weight and also I have a ranked of flyweight as well but regardless she's sticking around at 115 I think hard to tell with her and if so I think that's a great test for Dern and I think this version of Dern that we just saw really has a good chance to to crack the top five so I was super impressed I think it's a great matchup style of Stelis

for both of and could just be another really exciting fight yeah I don't even know if he could friends forever this because I mean look I love the call out I'm I'm with you I'm not fully confident she gets it because rose is just an enigma right now she's a mystery and it seems like rose like she told me last year when I spoke with her she is zoned in on two different things she wants to put on some size she wants to get in the weight room and lift some heavy weights and she wants to do some grappling in jiu jiu-jitsu competitions that's what she wants to do and then she'll think about coming back but I'm with you she throws you out the other idea. Let's do the

couple of ideas. Let's do the Janjan rematch. There's no way in hell that's happening because that fight just happened. We saw how it went and Jan should be fighting for the title next. But I loved the Jess Con Drage fight because for two reasons. She wants to fight an ex-champion. She hasn't done that

before. And I would be very curious to see how Dern approaches that fight. Will she just go hammer and tongs right out the gate against somebody like Jessica Drogge? I'd be fascinated to see if that's the case. Will she be that same aggressive fighter?

So give me it. Give me Dern Androge and let's have a party. But yeah, we can't friends forever with that because there's really, it's Rosa Androge. I don't think anything else really makes any sense. As far as Anthony Hernandez goes, A.K., he just sort of broke down and mauled poor Edmund Shabazi. He got him out there in the third with a bit of a mercy stoppage from referee Herb Dean. And this is tough, man, because. this division is kind of a mess.

Like there's a lot of fights booked, but the UFC just announced that they're going to Sydney in September and we don't know who is going to be available to fight Israel Adasania for the middleweight title. So will they mix things up?

Will they pull a fighter from a fight that's already booked in order to do that? Dana White kind of tease that at the post-fight press conference that an announcement was coming soon. So I mean, I guess I'm foregoing at Otno point.

I'm just going to go with the, I kind of laid it out like this. This is what I landed on. If things go exactly the way they are structured right now, two choices. One, the loser of Sean Strickland versus Abis Maka-Madoff. The loser that fight versus Fluffy. The other one, AK, and this is what I actually kind of want to see. And since the match was made and Dana flipped the script here, my art no suggestion kind of goes away. if Iqram Alaskaroff does not fight Paul Ocosta, do Fluffy versus Alaskaroff,

because I will watch the hell out of that fight, A.K. Yeah, that's great. I think I love that idea. And as you mentioned, Paul Ocasta has kind of gone on Twitter saying, I don't know what the hell's going on with this Alaskarov announcement. He's never going to fight Alaskarov. Yeah, I'm not into this. Why is this announced?

Yeah, I think if that frees up Alaskarov, it makes a lot of sense. Middleweight, I think, is, you said it's a bit of a mess right now. you're correct. I think it's headed to like towards another surge though. I think we're getting some really interesting. Because there was a great period there when Izzy was coming up and then he got sort of this very clear line of challenges. I'm not saying all the fights turned out to be exciting.

But it was, it wasn't murky. We were like, oh, okay, but he's going to fight Vittoria again. He's going to fight Jared Kennanier at some point. Paulo Costa, we knew he was going to get a tell a shot. It's why his reign for the most part, again, Yoel Romero was in there. The fights themselves weren't great, but the resume is very strong. That's why Izzy's like a top five pound for pound guy. And we, and like, and we were like, oh, this is great.

Like the top of middleweight is moving. The matches are, like these are sellable matches. And now, again, like I said, we hit, we hit a clump. But I think we're getting a second wave now with Anthony, like guys like Anthony Hernandez. Of course, Bonneckel coming up. Who am I looking at my list here. Who else? Joe Piper.

Yeah, Joe Piper. Brennan's showing signs of life. It's looking good. Kyle Barrio. I don't know how high people are on him, but he's up there. So we're getting a second wave. Whoever, I don't know how long is he sticking around at 205, but if he does, which I would love to see him do it.

I understand the need to chase like super fights, you know, test himself at 205 again, whatever. He could rattle off like three or four more, like, intriguing title defenses at 185. And again, I don't know if there's any world where he passes Anderson Silva's, you know, reign as middleweight champion, but he could at least make a nice, strong case for himself and just stand on his own. to the point where like maybe you wouldn't even compare their reigns or different eras maybe you wouldn't compare them and you know is he's the best middleweight of this generation obviously and just and the last generation but anyway so so uh like I said that's why I like that

uh Alaskara Eskirav yes thank you Anthony Hernandez match up because yeah let's let's start figuring out which these guys are real contenders and again a loss I don't think hurts hurts either by too much there's still for me in that second tier of middle weights and they're only again another streak away from winning and anthony hernandez is so exciting and this is a great matchup um i went with a little bit more boring safer pick i want to move fluffy up so jack hermanson coming off a loss again not as attractive a pick to anthonyers right now i guess though he does have a number next to his name in the uc rankings i think still in the m a fighting global rankings i have to double check but yeah something something safe and again cool matchup two guys who were

great grapplers but also love to mix it up on the feet love to you know love to love to love to show off their all-around game. This is a fight night headliner. And let me tell me. If you have to throw these two guys at the apex, this should be a true apex main event. Yeah, I mean, when I say the division is a mess, it's just jammed and none of it really makes sense right now

because of the whole Izzy fighting in September thing. It's just impossible for Drickis or, not impossible, but not favorable for Drickus Duplus C or Robert Woodick or whoever wins that fight to have to turn around in two months to fight Adasani for the title. And if you're Robert Whitaker, this could be your last chance at fighting for a middleweight title unless Adasani just straight up abandons the division. So I don't think going in there in two months notice is really going to work out. So I think they're going to shuffle some things around. They should just pull DDP and just throw him in there to let Izzy just beat the brakes off of him,

in my opinion. I mean, I could be wrong and I'm happy to be like I read that one totally wrong. but I kind of feel like you're going to Sydney Izzy's going to be doing the damn thing headlining, looking like a star let's just have him go out there and give him a favorable matchup where he could style and shine

and then you can do like Robert Whitaker versus Sean Strickland like who's going to complain about that like that's fun and then we can just mix up all these other fights so we'll see what ends up happening if I end up getting I'm so intrigued by Alaskara versus Costa but I just don't feel like it's going to happen. I just don't feel like

Polokos has got to take that fight. So we'll see. Middleweight's going to be fun. It's kind of where how I viewed women's flyweight like two years ago. Like these these fighters are coming and things are going to get really interesting over the next couple of years and I feel like middleweight if we're buying stock

in the division right now, for buying low I think middleweight's a good one. It's trending back up. It's trended back up. Yep. Speaking of straw weights, Lupi Godinez wins her second straight fight. This is a catchweight fight, but she has just, she just fights all the time. She's won four or five. She picks up a decision win over Emily Decode. This is one of the easier picks for me, AK. What say you?

Oh, it was easy for me, too, but I'll let you go first. And I'll, I've got a little rant to go on here. Okay. I usually don't love matching up fighters from the same card, but in this case, I think it makes total sense, and I want to see it. So give me Loopy versus Carolina Colvukovic. If they do September 16th. Seems like a fun date for a card. Let's make it happen. But yeah, Carolina versus Loopy, sign me up for that fight. I'm in. Mike, that was very logical. It's a great matchup. That's what they should do. I like Loopy. How can you not like Lupu Kudina's? I'm a fan. I believe Canada claims her. I think we have some some relation. Didn't she do some training in? She's training. I'm right, fighting out of

can of course. Mike, I want to ban her from the show. I want to ban her. I don't try. So everything you said was right. Listen, she called for a date, which I don't know if she's done that before. She said, I want September 16th. She didn't name an opponent, but like you said, Carolina would make a lot of sense.

One-time title challenger, someone who still, I think, has a name at 115. But I don't trust her to make that date. Lupi Godinez. She's going to want to fight. Before, I just, she cannot help herself, Mike. She cannot help herself. I'm just looking at, I was literally just looking ahead as you were talking about Lupy.

There's a women's flyweight fight next at, uh, oh, next week or not, sorry, in June, USC 289. Uh, it's in Vancouver. It's in Vancouver, Mike, and there's a women's flyweight fight there. There's a women's strawweight out there. If one of those fighters falls out, you're, you're telling me that Lupe's not like signing up. I want in.

I'm jumping in. I'll fight Karini Silva or Ketland Sizzar or, I'll fight Elise Reid or Jin Yu Fry. Keep me busy. Keep the paychecks coming in. I don't trust her. I don't trust her to make 13th. I could go ahead and look at more cards.

I'm sure there's more opportunities for her to jump. Oh, wait, we have Kar-France-Albazi next week. I would think she's not. Oh, sorry, I'm looking at the wrong. Sorry, I was looking at the wrong card. Next week's card is the one with... There's no card next week. All this stuff.

Not next week. Two weeks. Two weeks. June 3rd. Okay. So I'm sorry, but there are some strawweight fights and women's flyweight bouts there. And then 289 also has, sorry, Diana Bobita, Maria Olivaara, strawweight, Miranda Maverick, Jasmine, Jezibesias at Flyweight. Again, I don't trust Lupi to stay out of action.

I just, so I am, I'm not saying we have to agree on this. We don't have to do an official ban. I don't know if I'm picking fights for Luke. I'm banning here for now. I'm not making a pick. if she lands the September 16th date against whoever, if she sticks to it, I will then lift the band.

That's it. It's a very brief ban. It's a very brief ban. But there's way too many opportunities for her to jump in on short notice, especially in BC, Vancouver, British Columbia. So, Hoff's kept in a jump away for her. So, no. Lupi, love you.

I'm not making fights for you. You're too unpredictable. Wow. Yeah. I don't blame you. she's got to get announced for a fight in like four days. It's just going to happen. By the time September 16th rolls around,

she's going to have three more fights. So that date is still a possibility. Of course, of course. 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?

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Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence. while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress.

Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. So let's move to Joaquin Buckley, AK, lance a beautiful head kick, to blast out, Andre Fialio, some taunting after, some prime beverage poured overhead before cooler heads prevail, and Buckley calls out Logan Paul for a individual sponsorship with Prime, and then he calls out some of Fialho's Kilcliff FC teammates for a future fight. So I looked at it, I'm like, how possible is this?

Gilbert Burns, not happening. Vicente Luque booked. Shafka Rakhmanoff, kind of. Shafka ain't touching that with 10-foot pole. Ian Gary, not going to happen. Mickey Gall trains there, but he's kind of up in the air in terms of where he, he's going to fight next because I know he fought out his deal from what I've been told he's been dealing with some injuries.

So I don't think he's going to get his wish. So I landed on something else. I landed on another guy who moved down from middleweight to welterweight and just recently had a nasty knockout. And hopefully he can make weight this time. Joaquin Buckley versus Brian Battley. Okay. That's the fight I'm going with.

Wow, that is good. That is good. And rankings wise, it makes sense. because I don't know where to place walking Buckley after that win. Andre Fialio, he was like, you know, he got to have such a cool start in the UFC last year fighting, fighting five times, won two of his first three fights. And I was like, oh, okay, I'll, I kind of bumped him up like somewhere in the top 30. And that's where he ended up.

And then, you know, and then he lost a couple of fights. So it didn't fall too far. And then Buckley beats him in his Walterweight debut. And now I place Buckley around a similar spot. Like I, even at middleweight, Buckley was what, maybe top 30, right? So I love the drop down. He's just a little too, like length and heightwise, which is just a little too small for middleweight for my liking.

He could compete up there, sure. But if you can make 170, I love him down there. So that's great. A lot of exciting matchups. You mentioned I went away from the whole Killcliff angle. I'll go with Jeremiah Wells. Jeremiah Wells. I mentioned him on the show before.

I wanted him to fight Muslim Salikov. Salikov apparently is fighting Nicholas Dalby, June 17th. So he's free. Jeremiah Wells is free now. So I'll go back to the, Mike, I'll go back to the Wells, and I will use him as my pick for Joaquin Buckley. Incredible. I hope they make this fight just because of that pun you used. Oh, horrible. A lot of people were doubting Diego Ferreira heading into his fight with Michael Johnson.

And I, you know what? Hand in the air. I picked Michael Johnson to win this fight. I picked him to win by third round knockout. I thought Johnson looked very good early. But this is just a... We talk about middle-weighty middle-wates. This is a Michael Johnson-y-Michael Johnson fight. Look good early until he didn't. And Diego Faheda declared, hey,

stop doubting me. Don't forget about me. Have you seen who has beaten me? Have you seen the guys I've lost to? The Crem de la Crem. I'm still a big problem at 155. And holy cow, what a freaking right hand. He landed on Michael Johnson.

He put him completely out. Hope MJ is okay. lands a nasty hammer fist after the fact. What a return, AK. I missed CDF. I didn't realize how much I missed him until I saw him back in that octagon. What is next at 155 for the great CDF? Mike, like you, I doubted him.

Our beloved Gierme Cruz, happy birthday, by that. Happy birthday weekend. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. The Brazilian beast. Glory to Botafogo. He busted my chops after because I had messed him earlier this week. I would say, is there a chance that Diego Faheda retires if he loses?

He entered on a three-fight losing streak, recently turned 38. I think he's even older in fight years, well over a decade of competition. Most of that in the UFC. So like some pretty hardcore mileage on CDF. And then he was like, oh, what were you saying? And I'm like, listen, nothing I said was wrong. I said if he loses, would he retire? So Mike, I feel like I have checked the tapes.

I am fine. I said nothing wrong. I said nothing wrong. I said if he loses, I'd be curious, but he didn't lose. He won. Big knockout. I need to see this fight happen. This has been teased a couple of times.

I think actually just straight up booked. Judeober. Judeober coming off a loss. I love that matchup when it was made previously. I want to see it now. I think you're just getting a banger. I get either 15 minutes of absolute destruction or someone getting their clock cleaned out.

within the first half of a maybe a round and a half tops. So give it to me Diego Faheda Drew Dober. Let's get Drew Dober

back in there as soon as possible. Diego, I shouldn't have doubted you. I hope you fight as many more times as health and your mentality allows. Well said.

There will not be a friend's for a moment but we were very close because the correct answer is steam rolla. The winner. That's the one. The winner of the delft of the dogfight. Matt Fervola wants the Patty Pimble fight.

I understand that. I think he can get it, but he certainly ain't getting it now because Patty's banged up. Mafra Vola is not going to wait until the end of the year or early next year to fight this man. So in the meantime,

let's just do Steam Rollo versus CDF because that fight would just freaking rule. Let's just have these two guys slug it out. But Drew Dover's a great pick as well. Can't go wrong either way. So one of those two guys, maybe we could, if they book it against,

one of these two guys, we should just take the Otno point and chop it in half and you can have half and I can have half. Yeah, we're on the right track. We're on the right track. I feel like. I agree. Let's go to the wild card round, AK. We will select one fighter. We have not matched for yet and we will matchmake for them right now. I think everyone knows where I'm going with this. Where are you going with this, AKK? Well, I'm going to go with Karolina Kovacovic. You already matched her up. So a very solid matchup, another problem with it. And I think I have to give a hat tip to, I think it was Jose. I think I have to give a hat tip to Jose for throwing this one out there, post-fight. Loma, Look-Bun-me. Give me one of these sweet, illiterative matchups.

Carolina Colvo Kavich versus Loma Luke-Bun-me. It's the right time. Stylistically, you're just going to get a great MMA-flavored kickboxing match. Maybe we get more D1 Loma. I don't know, ADCCC Loma. That would be interesting. Not that Carolina's like easy to submit. I think, you know, one reason she's had such longevity is like she has pretty good take down defense pretty solid so um not easy at all i think she'd have a bit of size on loma as well which would be interesting to see loma navigate but um yeah and the time is where i think there's kind of just passing i think i would have carolina probably still ranked above loma just level of competition wise i know um i know carolina wasn't that bad stretch before this miraculous three-fight win streak uh but yeah so loma i think

on the way up carolina kind of holding steady let's see if Loma can take that spot. That'd be a great name for her. I like it. I'm going with Natty Ice. Got to go with Natty Ice, Natalia Silva. Just doing what she's supposed to do out there, A.K., not making parlay betters or anybody who bet on Natalia Silva

or Natalia Silva inside the desk and sweat it all. She just poured it on poor Victoria Leonardo, who just didn't have a chance in this fight. and she treated her accordingly. Went out there and just beat her up and I hope Victoria's okay. It looked like she might have broke her jaw, broke something in Victoria's face.

That was just, it was a damage bar fight. Every shot Silva landed, you just saw the damage bar wither and with her and it got a little more uncomfortable as the fight went on, but she is a freaking problem.

I want to see her fight as much as possible. I originally was going to go Natalia Silva versus Andrew Lee. I looked at that fight. Andrea Lee was a training partner of Victoria Lee and I were heading into the fight. Makes a lot of sense. But I said, no, I'm not going to do that. Maybe later.

Maybe with one more win. And then I was like, we got to give her the litmus test. We got to give her the flyway litmus test. It's Montana de la Rosa. 100%. That is the fight. Tester, Montana will not give two Fs who Natalia Silva is. She'd be like, Natty Ice, who?

I don't really care. I'm going to go in there and punch, Natty Ice right in her grill. I don't care. And maybe that doesn't go well for her. But maybe it will. She's going to go in there and scrap. She's going to test Natalia Silva. And I would pick Natalia Silva to win this fight. But I could be wrong. It wouldn't shock me if Montana pulled off an upset. She has played spoiler many times before. So I want to give her a step up. I saw some people just throwing out some egregious stuff in terms of like throwing her right into like a top 10 matchup. Like she's 26 dudes. Like relax. Let's give her a nice test just outside of the top

15 with a game fighter and I want to see how she does against sort of a gritty veteran inside the octagon like montana de la rosa so yeah that's what i'm going with but just natty ice versus anybody is is right what i'm looking for she is just so fun to watch yeah let her enjoy her minus 1,000 days as i'll call it because i think anyone outside of the top 15 i'm looking at some of the names she could possibly be matched up with she's gonna she was like minus 1,000 around there depending where you looked for leonardo and i think that's going to be the same for some of the opponents. By the way, perfect matchmaking, Mike. I don't know if I'm underrating Natalia Silva, but I don't have her in the top 25 just yet. Again, level of competition.

Bleda, I think, was the fight before this. And then Jasmine, Jazz DeVizius, I, listen, obviously I like her a lot, but, you know, not a top 30 fighter yet, right? And she sells a lot to show, too. So the competition has just not quite been there for Entelina Silva. And it shouldn't be. This is great matchmaking. You give her, again, fighters around her area. for the first three fights. And yes, now we can give her somewhat of a step up. I'm hesitant to go top 15 as well. But yes, I have Silva at 26 in my rankings and Montana de la Rosa at 27.

So I just bumped her ahead. Look at that. Even when we're not friends forevering, we kind of are. We kind of are. And before people ask, like, how that seems low, like that she's not in the top 25. There's only about 40-something fly weights. So, yeah, I still have her in the bottom half, but I just have a lot of veteran names ahead of her. I wouldn't, I'll read these names and I'll say I wouldn't blame anyone if people

after her recent performances ranked Natalia Silva higher than some of these names. I have Molly McCann ahead of her, JJ Aldridge, Ariana Lipski. If you hear these names, she was just like, okay, experience. I'm giving credit for experience. Priscilla Kachua, Antonina Shepchenko. So that's just like the five names ahead of her. If you put Natalia Silva ahead of them, I totally understand, especially if you're going by the Jedmishu, like, who would I pick to win these fights?

Probably leading Silva against all those fighters. And I think at worst, she's like minus 300 against any of those names. But again, I let's give me one more fight. If she, if she beats a Montana de la Rosa, four and no, I'm probably launching Silva into the top 20.

And then we're talking about, of course, an actual top 20 matchup for her. Yeah. I mean, that's what they gave to Tatiana Torres in the way yet. And she gave Tatiana a pretty,

a pretty good fight. So I want to see the same thing with Vitalia here. J.G Alders is a good one too. We need the Montana de la Rosas and the Victoria Leonardo's and the Andre Fialios of the world. UFC

sign these people to eight fight deals, keep them around, and they only need to win one or two times out of like four fights. You need these, if you're trying to, it happens in boxing all the time. I know MMA fans bristle, like, why do we want to do anything like boxing?

Because this is how you create stars. This is how you create stars. Sometimes you've got to line up other fighters who are, yes, going to go in as plus 800, 900, 200, underdogs.

This is how stars are made. It's a cruel, it's a meat grinder business. And I would love any of these fires to prove me wrong and just go on their own. Victoria Leonard, I hope she goes in a five-fight win streak and just starts taking people all left and right. But if that never happens, I don't care. I hope she sticks around the UFC and keeps getting chances to show tough she is and unfortunately often be on the wrong end of a highlight. Yes.

Well, I just hope Victoria is okay. Yes. She's a vicious meeting she took. She's tough. She has been through some hard times in the UFC. Yeah. Every fight that she loses, she leaves a piece of herself inside that octagon and respect, respect Victoria Leonardo.

Do you have any extracurriculars? Are we ready to go right into the, to the listener picks? Let me give some points. Marcus McGehy calling this the gosh darn edition. I'll allow it. I'll allow it. I don't love it. I'll love it.

Barry O'Reilly, I think I will give a point for this. Tatiana Suarez, rumored, we have not confirmed this, rumored to be fighting the, Vyerno Gensiroba, right? Is that the rumor you've seen? Yes. Tatiana Swares Gensaroba, yeah. Yes, on a UFC Nashville card, August 5th. Again, not confirmed.

We have not locked this one in. Bear Riley predicted he won a Tatiana versus the winner of Janjarova. Marina Rodriguez, Janjarova won. So, Bear, I'll give you a point for. I'll give you a point. Again, we are not confirmed. So the point can be taken away. The point can be taken away.

But it's not your, again, it's not your fault. This isn't like a fake, I don't think it's a fake rumor. This is out there. is out there. German, our pal German. I'll give you a point for Duryyev versus Jun Yonge Park, July 15th. And then a few points to sprinkle around, like, for everyone, a few, like, little mini points, because we had a bunch of fights announced a lot of popular fights that

people have picked. People wanted to see, thought Amanda Lamos deserved a shot against Zhang Wei. There we go. UFC 292. Tony Ferguson, Bobby Green. I feel like people have been wanting to see these two lock up forever. UFC 291. Derek Lewis was a very popular pick for Pazow.

Joseira de Lima after his recent win. That's UFC 291 as well. People want to see Menafield Krupey run back. That looks like that's going to happen. UFC 290. And another rumored fight for Nashville, Kendi Enzuchu versus Dustin Jacoby as of another popular pick. So good work, good work by the loyal ought-noe listeners.

Quality matchmaking, you guys are way ahead, way ahead of the UFC. And how could others get points like those people you just mentioned? Yes. Well, again, I feel like it's. doesn't happen very often, that we give Otno points to just one person, a lot of shared points. But if you are somehow the only person to get a pick. And people, I say, I encourage you to kick me on Twitter and social media, Instagram, remind me, because sometimes I don't keep track of all the picks.

I do my best there. So, yeah, get that solo point. Watch these mistakes, guys, with wrong weight classes, people who have fought already injured, released, fighters already booked, like locked in and booked. Teammates is a tough one. I saw a lot of Carolina Kovalkovich versus Wartison Gomez without a two guys. They fought in 2019. This would be a rematch.

I'm not accepting this technicality that Warterson was not, you know, she wasn't using the Gomez hyphen Gomez at the time. That does not run. I think people just forgot they fought. It was a very long time ago. Warterson Gomez won. There's during Carolina's kind of tough stretch there. So if you didn't mention it was a rematch, guys, and you suggest the pick, that's DUDU. and I think Mike do we need to add a pregnancy clause

I have to see some of these picks yes yes I think we do our own Jed Mishu totally forgot he mentioned the post-fight show like oh Carla Sparza and McKenzie Darren and we're like Carla recently announced a pregnancy congrats to her and I saw Cheyenne Velismith suggestions I'm sure I'm sure

that might be what you're referring to for some of the fighters in this card oh oh no okay anyway Shane Valismithmas also just recently announced it. I get. And listen, with respect to the listeners, we don't cover every pregnancy. We've definitely done pregnancy stories before. Usually if it's like people who are ranked sort of contenders. So if the Chey and Velasmas News flew under the radar, I understand. But I maybe just need to mention it. So people keep it in mind and check because, yeah, listen, these fighters have lives

outside of fighting. And good for them. Good for them for prioritizing family over, you know, necessarily having to jump into and fight as much as possible. And of course, always, guys, your pictures might be do-do. So watch off for that. All right. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time.

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close to you, call 1866-53310 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Let's go. Seamus Lottin kicks us off. Mackenzie Dern wants a rematch, not with John John On, with Marina Rodriguez.

Dern Haudriguez, too. recent was how recent was it's pretty far pretty far off now right two years 2021 right 2021 so almost 18 months 18 months ish yeah that's not bad anthony hernandez versus john young park john young park is booked albert jariah july july july july july yes way yeah lubey godinez versus michel watson harris dico ferrara versus joe Silecki, that's fun. Borshav versus Sam Patterson. Kolokavich versus Kongkak, Supishara. That's Loma Likbunmi.

Yes. No, people, hold on. No. Use their UFC given name. All right. Oh, wait, no, that's not. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not?

It's not. It is. Yeah. Okay, you're cool. Oh, you're cool. Oh, okay, you're cool. You know there, you know there. Listen.

And I'm not just saying this because, Loma Lulukbunmi is easier to pronounce than Super Sara at Conclac, all right? Which, again, I did it there, but I'm pretty sure I did not actually pronounce it correctly. Loma Luke Boomy. All right. Easy now. Gilbert Urbina, Josh Quinlan. Rodrigo Nassimento versus Alexander Romanov, Chase Hooper, Gabriel Benitez,

Temba, Garimba versus Cort McGee. Natalia Silva, AK, versus Misha Tate. Oh. Misha, I'm pretty sure, is going to. it's going to stick at 135 from now on. It's not unfair. Her most recent fight was at

125, so that's fine. She actually is not... He was booked against Meyer-Berina Silva before getting injured. But it didn't happen. So not a doo-do-pick, not a dude-to-pick. I do think she's done with 125. I don't think she's going back to 125.

And not to fight in a ties. And he is trying to claim an auto point with the UFC announcing Michael Kiesa versus Kevin Holland. So I'm sure we'll give you a little sliver of that. I'm sure you're far from the only one to suggest that matchup. Harry Duoskin, Garimbo versus

Trey Waters, Silva versus Antonina Chofchenko, Chase Hooper, Gabriel Miranda, Nassimenta Boudet, Urbina Badoia. That's fun. Carolina versus Lomeluk Boonee. How about that? You mean Slava versus... You mean Super Sara conclack.

Correct. Slava versus Nazim Sadikoff. Seems like it would be an absolute brutal war. you're probably not going to get out on no point for that but stay tuned cdf versus marco madson buckley versus ponzi what do you think about that idea buckley versus ponzi i saw a lot makes so much sense i think though it could be one of those disappointing buckley performances uh i just think um ponses a little too season a little too technical for him but hey this is

why i want i don't know that for sure and i would love to see if again at this if the welter rate version of Buckley is a contender. Because I thought he was like a sneaky. He had a chance at $1.85. And I really like his chance to $170. So, yeah, very strong. A lot of people mention that. And I'm totally down with it.

Lupi versus Corey McKenna, Fluffy versus Petroski, Dern versus Luana Pinheiro. I don't think McKenzie Dern is even going to like look at that contract before being like, nah, dude. Tino Alvarez, Greenbo versus Brahimage, Natalia Silva versus Joanne Wood. Boy. Yeah, I saw that. If I'm Joanne, yeah, I saw it.

If you're trying. I don't hate that one. I don't hate it. It's a dangerous fight, but I don't think it's a fight where if, like, Woods team gets sent that contract, they're going to pretend they didn't see it.

I think she... Oh, no, she has to take that fight. She would have to take it. Chase Hooper versus Demir Hadsovich, Nassimento versus Jarsigno Rosenstrike. I don't know if I want to see roses strike in there with Nassimeto. That's...

That can be a tough one. It can be a tough watch. That could be a tough watch. Urbina versus Preston Parsons. Koval Kavich versus Angela Hill. AK. It's so funny. That was like the most popular pick for her.

I kept thinking that that was a rematch. I'm like, they had to have fought before. Yeah. How can they not have fought? And no. And I was like, that had to have been booked.

I'm like, I'm not crazy. That's been booked, right? I don't think that's ever been booked. I don't remember it. I don't remember it. That's wild. Yeah.

It has to happen at some point. Slava Claus Benitez, CDF versus Alexander Hernandez. I think Hernandez wants to go back to 45, but that was one of the ones I was thinking about because they've been booked a couple times that never came to fruition. Buckley versus Li Jing Liang.

Leaging Liang, excuse me. Lupi versus Watersden. Hernandez versus Hermanson with you. Dern versus Rose. Marcus, do we have anything new? Dern Suarez, but Swares is being looked at to fight. Varan agenda, Roba.

Hernandez versus Barallio for the co-main eventee, co-main event title. Godinez, Pinero, Buckley Semblesberger. That's fun. That's good. Yeah. like that one. CDF versus Favola, Slava Claus,

Eros Medici, Toby, Dern Andraj, Hill Piniero. Do you anything? Edmund Shabazian versus Phil Haas. I kind of like that one. I'm going to anger some people,

but like that is such a like good like two guys with high ceilings fight that have not come close to their ceiling. I'm going to make some people mad. so I feel mad by saying that. I know it's insulting to say that, but it would be an exciting matchup. Someone will get knocked out and someone will probably maybe get their walking papers. Buckley Wells, CDF Moises, Slava versus Braddell in September,

on that card in Sydney. Carolina versus Vianna, Urbina versus Brahimage again. Do you have anything new? Hooper versus Unshul Jubilee, Temba versus. versus Monier Lazzez, another Silva versus Jojo. John Ray, Silva versus the McCann Stolier-Ranko winner. When is that happening? That's on the London car in July 22nd.

Why did I even ask? Of course. Nassum, what the hell? What is this? I can't tell what's happening here. Yeah, because I can't, I don't understand what this means. I'm moving on. Colokievich versus the Elise Reed, Genu-Fry, winner, Borchep versus Medich,

Ferreira versus Hernandez Buckley Battle. Anything new here? Hill versus the Reitchie Robertson winner. Sure. Dad Jackson. Nassimento versus Paco Porta. That's how you're going to treat Nassimento

coming off this big win. You're going to truck them in there with the future heavyweight champion of the world. Boy, oh boy. God bless you. Urbina versus Miguel Baezza. I don't know if Baezzi is still in the UFC, is he?

I think I'm not doo-doing I thought he was He might have been roster watched So I don't know if that means He was officially released or he's just like you know a free agent It's hard to say I don't think he's been booked for another promotion yet He was

He was supposed to fight at 279 He was going to fight Johann Linus That's right Okay So I would assume he's still on the roster Okay. I hope so. I like Miguel Baezzo. Slava Claus versus Hackbarass. I like that fight.

Diego Faheda versus Terrence McKinney. McKinney has been teasing a fight. I know what it is. I can't say it, unfortunately, because I'm told Terrence is going to announce this matchup himself on his only fans sooner rather than later. So if you follow Terrence McKinney on social media, there's little clips and teases that an announcement is coming. and if you know Terrence McKinney, it's probably going to be fun. I will say this is probably a matchup you were not expecting.

I don't think they're going to get a ton of Otno points for this one. So, but I know what it is, but I'm told I cannot announce this. So stay tuned for another announcement at 155. Joaquin Buckley, Jeremiah Wells, loopie versus Marina Rodriguez, AK. Do you like this idea? I do, I do. I think that, like I said, I think they're going in the right direction.

I'd say loopie kind of trending upwards. Marina, I don't want to say trending down, but quickly becoming one of those what-if stories because it felt like there was windows that could have given her a title shot, and then she just had to keep getting in there and fighting top competition. And unfortunately, when you keep fighting top 10 people,

you're going to stumble here and there, and that's kind of what's happened to her last couple of times. So I think that's the right fight again. I just don't know if a Luby can wait for that fight to happen because if you're Marina, you're probably taking a little bit of time off just to retool and rejuvenate yourself. And Lupi's just itching to get back in there tomorrow probably. So it makes sense on paper. I just think there's zero chance that that happens anytime soon.

Also likes Fluffy Hernandez versus Joe Piper. Let's go to Robbie Ryan. And I think I mixed up Robbie Ryan and Dad Jackson on last week's show. I already apologized to both of them individually. So I'll apologize publicly as well Because I read it out And I was just like, it's forced a habit And Robbie, one of them messaged me

It was like, hmm, those weren't my picks. And then the other one's like, those also weren't my picks. And I was like, oh, damn it. Sorry. So sorry, gentlemen. This for sure is Robbie Ryan. Good day, you bloke's. Let's get Otno.

McKenzie Durr versus Carla Sparza. It's happening, AK. Hold on. Don't say anything yet. Fluffy versus Chris Curtis, Win or lose versus Emovoff. Buckley versus Wellington Termin Randy Brown winner. CDF versus Boises,

wildcard, Angel Hill, Michelle Waterson, 2 for the Strawadius Strawway title. And then he responded with, I was not aware Carla was pregnant, L.O.L. Why is she still listed in the rankings? Goes to Dern versus Androge. And after that sentence, right, in question, I was not aware Carlo was pregnant.

I look up at another pick. Loopy Godinez versus. versus Tisha Torres, who is also pregnant. And she is, like, the most pregnant of all the pregnant fighters right now. How do we react to this, AK? Well, in that sense, when is Tisha's expecting? She's almost, I mean, she's about to give birth. Well, you know, in that case, you can hear me typing.

I'm trying to remember we wrote about this. And they said a, I believe they said an expected date. You said she's about right. Okay. Next month. June. T.C. Torres is a fitness freak. I suppose there's a chance.

I'm trying to remember, like, how long did it take for Yanakuna Kuna Kha? I'd get back in there. And this kind of answers the question that, like, why is Carlos Sparta still in the rankings? It's like, she's in our rankings. I think she's still in the UFC rankings. It's not impossible. So we have an 18-month cutoff, Mike, I have to keep reminding people.

We have an 18-month cut off. After 18 months, if you don't have a fight booked, or you're not, sorry, or you don't fight, you're out. You're just automatic removal. So we've kept in Tisha Torres, we've kept in Carlos Barsa, because it's not, Yana Kuntzai was never removed because she actually did have her child and then fought within that 18-1 window. So obviously extraordinarily difficult, not guaranteed, but these women are on another level when it comes to determination and wanting to like get back into fighting shape. So, so that's why. So, and so the Tisha-Torres pick, Mike, it's not super crazy.

I am so ignorant when it comes to these things, but it's like, isn't it possible that she fights at the end of the year? Do you think she, I think she would do that. Talk about Tisha Torres, not Carlos Bars or her. It's, I mean, that's a, that's a tough ask, man. That's tough ask. I feel like she would. I mean, it could happen.

Like, could it happen? Sure. Julie Avala, she's coming back, right? When did she? I guess it's been a while. I think her, she's trying, but the process has been very slow if you follow her on social media. She's getting, she wants to be back, but things are not going as quickly and as smoothly as she had hope.

If there's any, any female listeners or any, really just anyone who knows more about pregnancy than me, which is a lot of people, probably everyone listening, please, DM me and tell me what idiot I'm being by suggesting teacher Torres could, could deliver next month and come back by Christmas. Yeah, I mean, look, it's as someone, I believe we have one child, it was a decade ago. My wife got back after like real quick. She was back to work quick. She got like in shape quick. Like it happened. But we're talking about fist fighting and training in cage fighting and the emotions that come with this sport on top of the emotions that come with being a new parent. you're asking a lot. So I'm going to say,

I'm going to say we should probably ban Tisha Torres until she says, all right, I'm clear, I'm ready to come back. Until she announces that she is ready to compete again or at least prepared to compete again,

I don't think we can matchmake for her. And I think any Tisha T. Chatora's matchmaking moving forward until said announcement should be classified as DUDU. We don't have to do-do it here, but consider this a warning until announcement is made. This is probably a better safe than sorry thing.

You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I won't come down super hard on people for it, but yeah, I guess, sure. I guess it's too hard for it. I'm just looking at Yana Kuniskaya now. I'm trying to remember when, I'm trying to back up my case here to show I'm not completely insane.

She delivered, oh, it was a long time. April of last year and then didn't fight until nine months later. So this past March. Yeah. But that's still very fast. That's still insanely fast. So I stand. I am an expert on medicine and the human body.

I think I'm correct that so that these things could happen. But maybe six months after gaming for it might be even more absurdly fast. Yeah. But I mean, look, for every Yanukunitskaya, there's a Julia Avila who hasn't fought since June of 2021. So we're approaching two years for her. Or a, uh, Brianna Fortino who's like, I'm just getting back in out for a long time. Well, she had another, she had another child, right?

Or it is pregnant again. So. I think so. Listen, but she's tweeting up like with the eye emojis. I know. She's always like, eyeing fights. And it's like, okay, well, you know, we, we can't, I can't wait to see Brianna 14th again.

But yeah, she's just have, like I said, she's having a family. That's congratulations on that. You know, she's plenty of time. Yeah, she's playing at a time. She's young. She'll fight again. Women are amazing and crazy. Let me just put it that way.

If you're like, these, these mom fighters are just extraordinary and crazy human beings. Yeah. I mean, for Tisha, too. Like, Raquel Pennington is about, is like a win away from fighting for the title. She's the backup for the freaking world title fight on June 10th. So a lot going on in their lives. Congratulations to everybody who is about to welcome a new member to their family. Love that stuff.

It's a game changer. and I'm excited to talk about all of them when they announced they're ready to return to combat sports competition. Last one from me, Gerard just literally breaking news, tweeting or texting me these picks on the old IG. He likes Joaquin Buckley versus D-Rod, Ferreira versus the Jim Miller Jared Gordon winner. Slava Claus versus Ludovic Klein,

who's supposed to fight Jim Miller, is no longer fighting Jim Miller. I'm told it's not like an injury. that has forced him out of the fight. It's something that he can probably come back from sooner rather than later. So I could see this fight being put together. It would not surprise me. And he likes Chase Hooper versus the winner of Manuel Torres versus Nicholas Motta.

A.K., on to you, my friend. Deep cuts there. Yeah, all right, let me go to the Instagram machine first. James Sherwood's breaking news. James Sherwood literally just sneaking in as we're recording the show. Mostly we've read already. But also Slava versus Hafa Garcia. Yeah, there's one.

There's one I don't think we mentioned. I don't mind that. Mawani, saying it's been a long time. What's up, Wani? What did I, what did I log here for this gentleman? I actually did take notes here. Dern versus the, you know, the Suarez, Janjerobal loser, sure. Matt Bradbury, Grimba versus Anglusa.

Okay. I'm just reading out ones that haven't been read before. I should have mentioned some of the more popular picks we've had. Pretty split on Dern, Jessica. Andrash and Dern Namajunas, I think it was about even the amount of people predicting those. Godinez, I got a lot of Robertson Ritchie winner from USC Jacksonville coming up. A lot of Buckley-Ponsonibio, as I mentioned before. A lot of Diego Faheda, Dracard Close.

I think this one was previously booked. Strangely, the most popular pick. Is there some heat here? I'm not aware of Mike. Slava Borchchev versus Euros Medici. I saw so much of this. Am I just not? Yeah, I don't know if there's like actual beef there.

I think it just makes sense. Where we're at. Yeah, people just keep their own rankings, I think. And then a lot of Natalia Silva, Andrea, people want to see that one. Sorry, so, yes, Instagram. CV, I think this is the same CV who regularly calls into a heck of a morning.

Dern, Kovulkevich, Anthony Hernandez-Pyfer, Buckley, Gastolam, Borschev, McKinney. Mike, what do you think of Buckley and Gastellum? That's actually not a bad idea. Assuming Gasselam is making a proper drop back down to 170. And I think you will.

And I hope, like, there is, I hope there is, like, zero fight announcements for Gasolam until, like, they are a hundred. I mean, you can never be 100% confident about a weight make, but, like, 97% confident that Gasolam can do it. Like, announcing him for a welterweight fight, like, over the next couple of weeks would just be, I will roll my eyes. I will roll my eyes. Like, really? like on it like already the dude just announced a move to one seven he just fought like two months like less than a month ago like a month and a half ago and we're already booking his first fight that's insane i know he can do it can he do it two or three times a year it or he's probably fighting

twice a year i don't think he's fighting three times here can he do it twice a year can he do it can he make championship wait when called upon uh should he fight his way to that after he i i'm so nervous about this. I want to believe, because I've always said it's not, it's never been a talent issue with him. He's looked, he can compete at 185 and maybe, maybe be a world champion at 170. Well, we might never know. We might never know. Yeah. Going to email, Jay Donaggie, Anthony Hernandez versus Brunson. I like that. Buckley Chaos Williams. He laid out a path for Dern, look quick path here for Dern. He says, Dern versus Rose, October, November-ish. And then we have Zhang and Lomotion.

August, then Zhang and Jan, Jan Shaon, in winter 2020, 2020, of 2020, 2023, 2024, okay, and then can, is there possibly we see if the, if everyone keeps winning their fights, Dern and Zhang one year from now, May 24, I guess. Hey man, we are, we are just laying out. Yeah, it's too much. Yeah, it's too much. Tristan, again, some pictures we already said, Natalia Silva versus Yasmin Lucindo. Thanks, Tristan.

Tristan, Tristan, Tristan, Driscoord, out, pal. And then let's close out with a lot of Twitter stuff. Again, I'm going to try to skip over stuff we've already read. Ani Gulapali, another heck of a morning regular. Buckley versus Tim Means, Diego Faheda, versus the Ferguson Bobby Green winner. Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Barry O'Reilly is with me, Buckley versus Wells.

Thank you, Barry. Marcus McGehy Anthony Hernandez versus Anjimunez Paul Craig winner I think that's rude I don't know if we confirm that one Mike that's rumored for

UFC London I think Which one Anthony Hernandez versus on Jimonese Paul Craig winner I feel confident that one's going to happen

I do as well 100% confirm that but I feel very good about it This is Craig dropping down to 185 right? Yep

yep thing. Mike, how do you? This is minus 1,500, Attaya Silva. Natia Silva versus Antonina Shevchenko. I saw a bunch of those, sure. Silva minus

800. I want to read what Four Corner Sports had to say about Dern versus Watterson Gomez. Dern has no reason to fight up. There was a lot of flaws in her game. If I'm her, I'd fly to drive to Brazil, train with Charles Oliver and the crew at

Chutebux to improve in the striking department. To be honest, it wouldn't be a bad idea to mirror the fighting style as Charles Olivera. Look how he ended up. Do you think that's a logical path for McKinsey Turn? Obviously, I don't know if she'll ever be as good at striking as Charles Olivera, but the grappling on par, if not superior, if we're just basing it on, you know, jih Tjitsu accomplishments. And she has power, right?

Like, she has power in the striking. So it's not unreasonable that she could start making that a real method of like finishing fights. I remember she rocked Amanda Cooper, like her first UFC fight. She missed weight by almost like 10 frigging pounds. But her first win in the UFC was a club and sub. So she showed that like she, there's there is power in those hands. But do you think she ever becomes like a like a, you know, a Charles Oliver type, Mike, which is dual threat, like a legitimate dual threat? Maybe.

that I mean that version of McKenzie Duren she could that was just super fun caution to the win Charles Oliver didn't win fights with like tremendous technique he won championship fights because he was an absolute maniac

Not afraid to get hurt As we saw in his championship run Getting cracked a lot He was get or get God Against Justin Gagee Dustin Porre Michael Chandler All of these guys

He went in there with like No no F's to just went in there and just won with chaos. His title reign, I've said this exact quote many times, it makes no sense. It literally makes no sense how he was able to win these fights. But he did.

So, sure. I mean, if at least a Dern winning a title at some point and defending with some chaotic defenses and then eventually losing to the future long-reigning champion of the division, sure, side me up. But I don't know if we're going to see that. That's why I love the Justcon Drodge fight. We'll see.

If she's going to be that Olivera-esque type of fighter, then she will show that against Jeskandraj, and she will take a few to give a few, and things will get chaotic. Imagine if you went in there and just went hammering Thomas and Jess Gondrage and knocked her out. That'd be insane. That would be frigging insane.

We just saw Yon Shahnun do it. And I get it, Yon Shon has a much better striker's reputation, of course, than Mackenzie Dern. But it's not like Yon shonanon as like a non. knockout machine. Jessica Andrash, she does leave herself open. You're talking about, listen, she's really the female Charles Oliver. I mean, she just goes in and just like she's going to choke you out or she's going to

knock you out with one punch. But she gets finished a lot. You know, Jessica Andres is nuts. When she loses, it's usually by finish. She's not super durable. So there is a world where, like, there's a wild scrap and McKenzie Duren just catches it or something and actually puts her down, which would just be hilarious. So I really want to see that play now.

By the way, as I was going through like old messages, Paul Craig Andremeny is confirmed. Oh, sweet. There you go. Okay. So listen, you guys, people saw that. You guys probably saw that already and now has the Mike Heck, M.A.

Fighting seal of approval. Four Corner Sports also suggests Buckley versus Jake Matthews in Sydney, Mike, UFC 293. Is that the right way to go? Not just for Buckley, but for young Jacob. You mean former Fav of the NBA Fighting Global Rankings, Jake Matthew? Did you listen to No Bet Spard at all this week because both Jet and G.C. I did listen.

Both Jet and G.C. had to sort of go like, had to like recap their Jake Matthews mania after the André Fialio win. And like, I think GC was saying like, that's one of the, like, his win over Fialio in the moment. I was like, that was one of the five greatest striking performances in UFC history or something like that. And then they're just like, we don't know, like, we don't know what was in the end of that night, why they went so crazy. Jed had him ranked like top 10 at Welton. It was something else. I remember that post-fight show very, very well. It was Jed and Shaheen.

And they both, I mean, they both spent like 10 minutes waxing poetically on Jake Matthews. And I was very impressed with that performance as well. Of course. Like I know, I know Andre Fialio beat like the two worst fighters in that division over the past five years. But he did it like in a fun way and he's a fun fighter. and he's like we said, he's get her get got and he's,

there needs to be room for somebody like that on this UFC roster forever and ever. To me, the thing that stood out was Jake Matthews like, we always looked at him

as like a, as a young man, like a growing boy turning into a young man. And then that dude who fought Andre Fialio was like a friggin man man. Like,

he put it all together. Like, just growing all up and like just looked humongous. Like he looked like a, like a man man. Just gigantic. He looked huge.

But the skill, perhaps the skill wasn't, perhaps we didn't get a great gauge, but I think people were just really excited. People were just waiting for Jake Matthews to have that breakout moment, and he looked like he kind of had it. And I think everybody got excited about that performance. But not to the point where he got ranked in our rankings.

That was pretty, pretty hilarious. I will say, if you had never seen Jake Matthews fight before, you're just like the first time you sound yeah you would have thought holy crap this dude has to be a top 10 guy but again we have seen jake matthews fight before many times so i was i remember being enthused as well and and and hoping that he had finally put it all together but people went nuts there uh one more from four corner sports um mike what do you think about Diego fajeta and someone with far less ufc experience but up and coming um this male bunfim too early Yeah, that's a little too early.

I'll go to at Mr. Guy MMA, Natalia Silva versus Maria Agapova minus 2,500, Entalia Silva. So I don't know if we're sorry. With respect to Agapov was really young too, don't around. And once upon a time, she had quite a bit of steam behind her. But I think at this stage of their careers, Natalia Silva is so white-hot. And I'm not saying it can't happen. Like, that's probably actually a fight I could see being made. just not my

choice. So not a terrible on-no pick Mr. Guy M. May. I would just be a huge monster favorite.

Matt Canada Fahetta versus Jared Gordon after he beats Jim Miller calling a shot June 3rd after he beats Jim Miller and Buckley

versus Alex Marano sure makes a lot of sense. Hayesby 3rd let's see what are you got here Rodrigo Nassimento Alexander Romanov

Yeah I got one of those as well That could be so ugly just do it on July 29th in Salt Lake City for the love of God just do it like if we're gonna like Jed says that I I if you're gonna be a bear be a grizzly just throw those two just throw those two big nasty heavyweights in altitude and just let it go let's just see what happens in altitude oh my we just saw them on up at altitude like let's see if we could get over that and throw

them in there with Massimento like if we're gonna do it just do it there who cares I would love to see what the odds are on this being a heavyweight over because I know Romanov hasn't gone to a decision a lot but I have a feeling if you match him up with Nassimento that has... It's one and a half. It'll be one and a half. Sure.

But I wonder like that's got to be plus money, right? There's got to be people thinking that Ramano's going to like run through him and I somehow just don't think he will. I got to look at that. If it's in Salt Lake City, I bet it's like, I bet it's plus money for over but it's probably not like a, probably like plus 180 or something like that. All right, all right.

People are getting on to heavyweight overs, I think, unfortunately. Just like they started to catch on with the flyweight unders. Liam Perry, Buckley versus Worley, Elvis, sure. Hooper versus Trey Ogden. I really like that. That's really smart. Let me close out with German. I mentioned we gave German a point before.

Boris Chab versus Michael Johnson. Sure. Again, you know, match up a winner with a higher ranked loser from the card. I don't mind it. Hooper versus Clay Gwita. Chase Hooper did submit, I think he submitted him. Clay Guida at a grappling competition, if I'm not mistaken. I know he beat him.

I believe he submitted him, right? Do you remember? Do you have any recollection of this, Mike? Which one? I'm sorry. Chase Hooper and Clay Guida. Yes, calf slicer. Calf slicer this past December at a Fury grappling event.

So, yeah, maybe see what happens when you mix the martial arts. If young Chase Hooper can have the same success, I don't mind that. So I'll end with a question from Garman. Bring this full circle, Mike, because you mentioned this beginning of the show. who do you think mike that israel edisona is going to end up fighting in sydney he says i feel like the ufc only has two options hamzat and or um jemal hill at 205 because of that stupid booking between uh rob whittaker and that trick is duplessi so mike you're going to do a little bit obviously like it's a mess a little bit of kind of predicting winners possibly as well uh this is september right so september ufc 293 what do we see adasania versus

DDP. You think DDP can pull off the upset against Whitaker? No, I think they're going to pull DDP from the Whitaker. Oh, yes, right, right, right. Okay, okay, right, right, right. And then Wittaker will fight like Sean Strickland and then maybe they'll do like Alaskara versus Magamadoff or something. Or they should just do Alaskara versus Anthony Hernandez.

When is... When is... When is the DDP fight supposed to happen? That is... July 8th. 290. 290. Okay, okay.

So if they pull D2.2.C. from that fight, you think Whitaker will still fight in between? Or do you think that they just say, oh, yeah. Do Whitaker, do Whitaker versus Strickland? Or do Whitaker versus Costa? Like. But can you save that for the Sydney card or is too far ahead? What? No, no, no. Whitaker. No, keep, yeah, either do Whitaker Strickland in the main event July 1st or just pull Strickland from that main event and do Strickland versus Whitaker on July 8th. Okay. And then if the winner of that fight gets the winner of the title fight between DDP and Adasania, which... Oh, that's not bad.

Just do that. And then do other middle-weighty things and with the other guys. Alaskaroff, like, I just want to see that dude fight. It doesn't have to be against Paul Costa. No. And then you know, no, look, but see that, then the cost of fight can remain. We can do that. Or just get rid of that fight altogether and just do Alaskaroff against Anthony Hernandez.

or Alice Garef against literally anybody and just do Paula Costa versus Hamzot in Abu Dhabi. Like that's the fight everybody wants. Everybody wants that fight. Hamzat wants it. Costa wants it. The UFC wants it. What are we doing?

What are we doing? I don't get it. There are so many good things that could happen at 185 over the next six months. And the way you've laid it out would be wonderful. But I feel like there's also the potential for so much bad to happen to this division. But Prince of positivity, optimism, like we've done. said buy that stock by that stock on my 85 trending upward at i don't know if everything you said

is going to happen mike but i think at least a few of those things could uh could materialize so um yes i like the idea of excuse me izzie and ddp in Sydney however we get there so thank you for the question german people send in your questions oh i have one more i just got one more question that i want to get your your take on because they're not going to show next week so we might as well just get it yeah uh brent just just hit me up on i g Mike, love the shows. Can't wait to hear on to the next one with you and your best friend. I don't have a matchmaking suggestion, but more of a question.

How in God's name does Angela Hill get a fight of the night bonus, but she got 10 aided in three rounds? Nothing against Angela Hill. She showed her grit and her toughness. But I'm just curious why that fight got fight of the night when it was as one-sided as it was. Your thoughts on this, A.K., because I saw a little bit of this on Twitter.

I actually was like a little, look, to me, this is probably the right call for fight of the night, but I understand where the question is coming from, because this was, this is one-way traffic, and this was, this is the McKenzie Dern show, and Angela Hill just, you know, the grit and toughness was the big thing. It's the same reason why Max Holloway, Calvin Cater was the fight of the night. You know what I mean? Exactly what I was going to mention. I'm trying to think if there's like anything else on this card where it was like, All right, that's definitely a fight of the night over this one.

I saw people on social media. They liked the Loopy Decode fight, but I didn't think it was like that great. It wasn't that. It wasn't like a, it was fine. Loopy is always exciting. But I didn't think it was like a super like obvious fight of the night pick. Maybe Hooper Fiore? Like that would have been the other one I would.

Yeah, yeah. Great exchanges there. Yeah. But we're not going to remember that fight over Dern Hill. We're just not going to. Yeah. Okay. I'll say a couple of things on this.

Holloway and Cato was a perfect example Also I would also bring up people to remember Anderson Silva and Forrest Griffin when he knocked out, when he just completely embarrassed Forrest Griffin Forrest Griffin got a $50,000 check for Fight of the Night for that as well

So it kind of goes to our point It's so it's so great that's one of the weirdest Fight of the Night But again, I don't think anyone would feel bad about it because that doesn't happen if Forrest doesn't fight the way he fought. So for that incredible all-time great highlight to happen, it does take two. It does take two. And this is true of any highlight real knockout.

I get it. Like you could say Input Kasangana and Joaquin Bukkli. That knockout doesn't happen if Inpa doesn't catch his foot. Okay, it's fine. But it's a little different, like in this case, in that case, because it was, it was, whatever however long that fight was like three minutes. But it was three minutes of Forrest, just doing foresty, things to set up that finish.

I'm trying to justify it. It is bizarre for when these one-sided encounters where one fighter is so clearly beaten that they get the bonus. But again, as I mentioned with Demopoulos and Fialo and a lot of other fighters, I have nothing but love for people who lose in a spectacular way. So there's that aspect of it. I also think there's an element of the UFC. It's not a consolation prize, but,

like a toughness reward, right? It's almost as if they reward, Mike, it's almost as if they reward fighters for, I wish there was a phrase. Sand? For having sand? For having sand. There you go.

I was going to say, I wish there was an animal, an animal, a canine-related phrase that I could think of to, you know, explain, to describe someone being tough beyond, you know, measure. And that coyote in them? That coyote in them, yeah, something like that, yes. No, they have sand.

Let's use that. And it's almost like the UFC has to reward that person for doing that. Because there's a lot of fighters who would not have taken the damage, could not have taken the damage that Angela Hill took, could not have gotten out of some of the submission situations that Angela Hill got out of. And there's value in that. There's value in that. It did make for an exciting moment. Yes, more of a showcase for the brand new McKenzie Dern, but there's value in that. So I have no problem with people questioning why Fight of the Knights are giving.

in these kind of situations. But listen, Mike, you said it. What fight are we talking about the most? What fight was the most, had you kind of on the edge of your seat, was exciting. So, especially for 25 minutes. It was the main event. It was the main event. So that's a fight of the night to me, man.

They come in all shapes and sizes, but this is a, this fits. This one fits for me. Completely agree. All right. So that'll do it. Oh, let me, oh, sorry. I want to, yes. Hit us up, people.

Yes. Questions, comments, brilliant insights. You guys have plenty of those at Alexander K. on Twitter at Alexander KK Lee on Instagram, Alex dot Lee at SBNation.com. Mike, give me your DM address. M underscore, heck, J.R on the old IG. So no show next week, no UFC card.

Next weekend, you see back at the hallowed apex again, June 3rd. And we got fly weights in the main event, AK. Kikara France versus Amir al-Bazi, Alex Kassaris versus Daniel Paneda. Jim Miller, Jared Gordon, Tim Elliott, Victor Altamorano. If McKenzie Dern's performance was something, maybe Tim Elliott's will be as well,

because he's had a lot going on that he's put out there as well. René Silva versus Ketland Sousa. Guram Kutatalade versus Jamie Malarkey. Interesting matchup. If this lineup holds up, that's technically three flyweight fights on the main card. Two men's flyweight bouts and one women's flyweight bouts.

That has to be. Again, we should say this is two weeks away. The lineup could be shuffled. It could become a six-fight main card. It could be, we'll talk about the prelims in a sec. One of these fights gets moved around. But yeah, this is what we're seeing so far as the main card. I don't think there's ever been three flyweight fights on a main card before.

Yeah. Great. Elizu Zaleski versus Abu Bakkar, Nirmagamadev, John Castaneda, Mateo's Mandunka. Anderlovsky, AK, heavyweight over Central. That's going to end up on the main car. That's going to end up on the main car. card. I think it was a common event probably.

Yeah, this is, yeah. If people are looking at the card, again, wherever you look, what database you're probably seeing on the prelims, that has to be moved. I am so surprised that's a prelim. That's a prelim. And not even the featured prelim. It's just like in the middle of the prelims. Daniel Santos, Johnny Munois Jr., Junifri, Elise Re, Luan Lacerda, Daman Blackshear,

Maxime Grishin versus Philippe Lins. PFL. PFL, never die. That is your lineup for UFC Vegas 74. and then it is on to Vancouver for UFC 289 Amanda Nunes versus Arini Aldana for the women's Bannamway title. Lupi Godinez is licking her chops to step in on that card.

So if you're one of these fighters... She's probably already signed a contract. You haven't heard of yet. It's probably already happened. So thank you very much, everybody. Enjoy the rare weekend off because we're not going to have another one for a while, I don't think. I'm just looking at the schedule right now.

I'm trying to see if we get another weekend off anytime soon. What? It's like three months. It does not look like there is going to be one for a long time. September, the first week of Labor Day weekend will be the next weekend off for the UFC as it stands right now, which would be September 2nd. That car, there will not be a card September 2nd. But between now and September 2nd, there is going to be, between now and August. August 26, there is going to be a UFC event every single weekend.

13. Pretty much the whole summer. 13 straight weeks. Four pay-per-views. Yep. Two in July. Two in July. And then another one three weeks later in Boston.

This is going to be a pay-per-view every three weeks starting July 8th. I'm taking a vacation. Up, people. I'm taking a vacation. I'm just letting you know now. I'm letting people know now. There's a couple of weeks there. you're not going to see me.

That's just a heads up. Well, damn, we will miss you, AK, we'll miss you. And we will miss you all. We'll see you back here.

Right after UFC Vegas 74, we'll see how that plays up between Kikar, France, and Amir al-Bazi for AK, I am Mike Eck. Always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun and we'll have more fun

on this program. Two weeks from today, right here and on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.