MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 76

Episode Date: July 2, 2023

Sean Strickland feels he deserves a title shot after putting Abus Magomedov away in the second round of the UFC Vegas 76 main event, but will he get the fight with Israel Adesanya next, or will he have to win a few more before that opportunity comes his way? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee put on the matchmaking hats following Saturday's event at the APEX and discuss where Strickland goes from his second straight victory. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Grant Dawson after his dominant decision victory over Damir Ismagulov, Michael Morales following his impressive victory over Max Griffin, along with fellow main card winners Ariane Lipski, Benoit Saint-Denis, Nursulton Ruziboev, 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 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. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. Welcome to July, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to International Fight Week. Welcome to UFC 290 Fight Week. but before we officially pull up at the T-Bobile Arena for the big pay-per-view event on Saturday, UFC had one more stop to make just a couple of miles down the road to the hallowed apex for UFC Vegas 76, a card that probably exceeded the pretty low expectations going in,

some interesting storylines coming out of it, future contenders making strong moves, and we'll discuss all of that and more from a matchmaking perspective. on today's show. I am Mike Hack and joining me as always the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. He's my best friend post-Canada Day joining the program. That is how loyal. That is how much of a hard worker that man is, Mr. Alexander Cayley, A.K., how are you, happy, belated Canada Day? Did you enjoy yourself? Oh, thank you. Yes. What is up?

My best friend. Yes, I spent a lovely day in Oakville. Shout out, shout out to my Oakvillans out there. Something fireworks, not out there on the way back. We kind of came home and saw some fireworks, but I went to a nice restaurant and just drove around a little bit. It was nice. It was a nice day. So, yes, my best friend, I just got caught up with the card to this morning, actually,

before we recorded the show. So I caught most of the highlights, got most of the, you know, watch the main event, watch the Bay of the Co-Mane, so like that. So, yeah, I don't know. Listen, again, I wasn't watching live in the moment. I didn't get a great feel for the overall card. I can't say whether it's surpassed expectations or not. I do think that's been the theme of some of these recent fight nights.

I think we've been, I feel like every preview show has been, has sounded the same, kind of like we're down on the card, but we're all also like cautiously optimistic, maybe me more so than everyone else. And the cards are fine, you know, the cards turn out fine. They're not like, they're not like amazing. They're probably, again, if you look at the cards in the time, we're not going to be talking about, you know, UFC on ABC 5 as one of the best events of the year, but then you're probably not. But I don't know if anyone like regrets, you know, spending their time watching some

these cards. As you said, we've kind of got some fresh name stepping up. And one thing about Saturday's card, this is like upset city, right? I'm not, I'm not crazy, right? I only say this because looking at our MMA fighting picks. Hold on, one second. Look at our MA fighting picks. I think I won, right? I had to have. Did you have? Did you have? We had some rough. I'll look right now. I think you did. But I don't. I don't. know if it's a number. You know what? Seven out of 12.

Actually, that's pretty standard. So I think most of us did bad on the prelims. I think you did okay. What, main card? You bounced back with the main card, Mike? Yeah, I think I was like even with everybody and then I want a nice little run in the main card. I think everyone got the first, the Bruto Ferreira fight wrong. And I think Ariadiy Lipski, like, won me the whole thing because I think I was the only

one to pick her. What was your perfecto? I see you got a per. Oh, that was a pretty sad. first round West Doran's and Brito first round knockout I get I think that's a pretty popular pick

I'm surprised you're the only wow are you the only one who said first round knockout I mean damn that was like a that was like a layup with the rest of us just kind of overthinking what was gonna have what did I say submission probably a lot of submissions clown show clown show

but yeah I'm just sorry I should run over I mentioned upsets okay who do we have here I think Luat let me let me let me look here quickly Lewana definitely an upset yeah plus money I'm just looking at topology so you know it's depending

where you look but just tabology plus 185 Brenner huge underdog yeah plus 475 I think

Calholt was probably a pick a favorite I'd say okay Facritina was favorite yes pretty strongly favored for sure

Ruzabeb Ruzab underdog They used a dog Benwasse Deney underdog plus two Lipsky underdog Wow Grand Dawson

Underdog Grand Dawson was the underdog Small He was like, it was like plus 100. Okay, depending where you look. Yeah. So, man, there was some big results there.

Obviously, the Brenner one is the one that jumps out the most. We can talk about him a bit later. But yeah, listen, don't bet on MMA. I always say because especially cars like these where they're so somewhat like haphazardly put together, you know, maybe the top three fights, I would say if you feel like confident about that, you can probably make some money or, you know, that's what you're, that's what you gamble for if you're not just gambling for fun. But man, if you're gambling, you're, you're gambling,

trying to make money on these cards, you've got to be real sharp because these were some, some, I'm a small bond theme, I thought was a pretty good, pretty good bet. But I don't know, we'll talk more about Bonasantini as well. Yeah, there's, there is value all over this card, like from an underdog perspective. And to me, if, if some, if the magic betting genie was like, I'm handing you $100, Mike, you have to make one bet. I would have bet on the first fight. I would have said, Alexander Romanov, Blagoi Ivanov, over one and a half at minus two was the steal of the card. That should have been minus 2,000 that that was going over one and a half,

especially with Ivanov involved and especially with Romanov. Look at a little Romanovie. That was the easiest pick on the entire card. And sure enough, that went easily over the one and a half. And as Jedmishu likes to say, the most electric bet in MMA strikes again and gives us another winner. So let's get into this thing. You said that was minus, just minus 205? minus 205 over one and a half that should have been minus a trillion

you got to take that one off the board I mean that's like that's too easy and no one even like really jumped on it like I don't think it really moved at all that was this the steel of the century and almost maybe I was like oh man I should have put like I should just put a couple of units down on that I don't even know what a unit is or what mine would be but I was like man that's just like easy money minus 205 with that fight but let's get after it let's talk about the main event Sean Strickland versus Aboos Magamadoff

the main event that nobody asked for came and went and I think this fight went exactly the way people thought it was going to go Aboos Maga Madoff had five minutes to get Sean Strickland out of there and if he couldn't do it this was not going to go well for him luckily Strickland had a little bit of mercy on him and maybe the viewers and was just like nope I'm getting this dude out of here. This will not be a 25-minute fight. And he just beat the hell out of a boost Maga-Mada.

This was a vicious beat down in round two. Maga-Madoff's strategy was just awful. Like anybody who watched, like, heading into that fight, I was like, well, Magamadoff is going to struggle after the first round. So he surely isn't going to just unload the kitchen sink in the first round. And boy, did he. And he was already gassing about three and a half minutes into that first round. And Strickland did the damn thing. Called for the title shot. in his own unique way. And to me, A.K., this man is in the driver's seat right now. Of course, we have a very big fight that is attached to Israel out of Sanya in that Sydney card

coming up at UFC 290. But very quick turnaround for one of these guys. And Sean Strickland got it done in less than 10 minutes. And he finds himself in a very good position. So, AK, I ask you, where does Sean Strickland go from his win over a boost Maga Madoff? Yeah, well, listen, I don't want to hate on Avis too much. Abis, fight your fight. It didn't go your way.

Go fight your fight your fight. Maybe that wasn't his only chance to unload the club within the first two minutes. I don't know. You know, maybe if he tries to prolong in any way or fight strategically, he has no chance. I think we were all picking Strickland to win anyway. So for Avis Megamadov, maybe he just thought, I got to do me. I got to do me. And he went out, he went out in his own way.

So, yeah, good for Sean Strickland. I had, I think I had Avis ranked something like somewhere 40 something in the rankings. He could have made a huge shakeup if he had won this fight. But after like, and I think when the match was first made, I thought like, oh, there's some like upset potential, like serious upset potential here. And then I went and actually looked some tape and I'm like, boy, this is a, this is not a great matchup for Avis Magum made of. Good opportunity, but on paper, just not a great matchup stylistically. So, yeah, listen, we are, we are now in this. And we've been talking about all week.

I think if people look at a lot of our pre-fight headlines, as far as I like features go, a lot of it was, is Sean Strickland about to fight his way into a UFC title shot? And I don't like the guy. I think his personality and his beliefs in higher express himself is just deplorable and grotesque. But if we're just basing this on merit,

he's done more than enough. I think he's done more than enough to earn a title shot. This is, of course, based on Izzy has cleared out most of the middleweight title challengers. So if you want to, listen, if you want to see Robert, Robert Whitaker, you know, if he beats DDP fight Israel-I-Dinia again, I totally understand it. But I could see the UFC saying, we want fresh challengers.

I could see Izzy campaigning to say, I want a fresh challenger. And he's mentioned Sean Strickland before. Sean Strickland, I think he likes Sean Strickland. Sean Strickland has some sort of following. You know, when you talk as much he does and you're as controversial as he is, you're going to have some people in them a fan base that like you and want to see you, you know, they want to see you fight. They want to watch you. or maybe they don't like you and they want to watch you lose. Either way,

there's people having conversations about Sean Strickland and there's people that want to see him possibly get a shot at title. He just needed to make a statement. And he had got to finish in a while, but he took care of business against a guy who he was expected to take care of business against. And for the UFC, just based on the timing of Israel,

at Disney, you know, we've seen him saying for a while, presumably wanting to defend his title at UFC 292. It's not locked in, but presumably, oh, not 292, 293? What I'm saying here, Mike? 293. The timing makes a lot of sense.

It should be Juggis duplacie in a perfect world if he beats Robert Whitaker, if he's healthy enough to make the turnaround. But it really looks like Strickland's in good position. Mike, we've thrown out some wild options as well. We did recently on BTL. I know I think you made a case for Bo Nickel. I've made a case for Izzy, you know, just going up and fighting for the light heavyweight title instead.

And I'm still going with that. So again, there's a bit of bias here. People know I don't like Sean Strickland. That said, I think I also, I'm not crazy about the Robert Whitaker Izzy trilogy. I know that's not fair to Robert Whitaker if he beats Strickis. He's done so much to earn another title shot. It's just hard to sell me on that. I'm not saying, I think, like, Izzy beats him, you know, 10 times out of 10.

But I'm like the same way as the matchmaker's the fan some ways. Sometimes I do want to see freshness. So can we at least prolong it? Can we have Robert Whitaker fight shot? John Strickland. And if Sean Strickland beats Robert Whitaker, it doesn't matter what me or anyone else thinks. That's as close as you can get to a guarantee tell of Sean the UFC.

So he's one. Sean Strickland's 100% in the driver's seat right now. He's the dude driving the train. That could change next week. Whitaker could just tune up DDP and get him out of there in the first round. Maybe DDP just chaotically knocks out Robert Whitaker in the first round. Then no worries about turnarounds or anything like that. ready to go. Either of those guys get that shot over Sean Strickland. I don't think that's going to happen, though. I think

Whitaker's going to win a lopsided decision, like a 30-26. Whitaker is going to probably need some time to recover. I just don't think Whitaker's going to want to turn around in two months. I think he'll just be like, fine, I'll just wait till next year then. I don't care. even though this could be the chance of him getting this fight again would kind of be slipping away. The whole thing here is this is not a Volcanovsky type situation where it's like, I need the number one contender to please stand up so I can fight them. This is just, I need somebody who's available and that makes any sense to fight me because let's be real, ladies and gentlemen,

if Israel-Azani fights Sean Strickland, he is going to annihilate Sean Strickland. and to do so in front of a crowd that is probably going to be chastised by Sean Strickland all fight week. That's a very good thing for Israel-A-Disania and for the UFC and for that moment. Having said that, if Drickus Duplice fights Israel-A-D-Sanya, it's actually going to be worse for Drichus Diplicee, in my opinion. That is just a horrific stylistic matchup for DDP. Whitaker, I, like, as a fan, I want to see the fight again. Do I think that this is the fight that should be made?

No. But do I want to, am I intrigued to see if Whitaker can make the adjustments to actually beat him? Yeah, I am kind of intrigued by that. So taking this journey, right now it's Strickland versus Adisania for me. But if next week the foundation is laid for one of those other options to get in there, let's do Sean Strickland. Let's do some, let's do maybe the ultimate. Let's do the Hall of Fame middleweight fight.

Sean Strickland versus Marvin Vittori, five rounds inside the apex. That might be just for the all-time middle-weighty, middleweight championship, and then that's it. We just never have the felt defended or anything like that. This would be for goat status as far as middle-weighty middleweights go. So that's where I'm at. Now I'm trying to remember when was the Vittori fight? When was this? His recent fight.

That was May? That was May? that was last month June it was last month it was a few weeks ago I'm trying to remember now Jared we didn't pick Vittory he lost he lost he lost he lost he lost okay he lost okay so we didn't pick Vittory yeah doesn't that fight with Strickland's going to have to happen sometime

but you're right though but boy we are really this we are really one I don't say unimpressive one you know fine but forgettable Robert Whitaker decision went away from the UFC almost having to book Sean Strickland versus Israel Addisonia if Izzy is firm on like yes

I want obviously I want to fend at 293 that's my show I just I just don't see where else they can go with it you know besides our outside of the box options Mike which I don't think the UFC feels like the urgency to do something like that and they like Sean Strickland this was his fifth UFC apex main event and I know we laugh all the time not laugh but we kind of like

mock you know what doesn't mean to main event in like an empty building and why are they even still doing Apex cards? These are events that are on TV. So there are people who, if they tune in casually just to watch the last two, three fights of a card, they've seen a lot of Sean Strickland. And the UFC knows that. They have put this guy out there. So my objections probably are strictly personal at this point.

Again, I said this before. I said this beginning, if we're just talking merit and we're talking timing, it's Sean Strickland easy all the way. And that's, I don't know, make it that what you will. Yep. Completely agree. They got plenty of footage from the press conference. before the International Fight Week card last year of those two guys going back and forth. There you go.

There's a very good chance this fight happens, ladies gentlemen. And just to clarify, I was not on the Bo-Nichl train. That is all New York, Rick. I just happened to be the host of these shows as he was throwing that take out there that just destroyed my mentions, which is good, because that's the only thing I can see right now on Twitter because Twitter absolutely sucks. So thank you, Elon. Let's go on to the co-made event.

Grant Dawson just showing people that have been high on him for a long, time that we've been right all along. He just destroys Demir's Magulov. This fight was not competitive really for more than 45 seconds total. Could have given Grant Dawson one 10-8 round, maybe two. This was just Grant takes you down. He takes you back and then once he does that, it's over. And whoever challenged me on heck of a morning, there was somebody in the comments section that was like Grant Dawson is not going to be able to hold Demir's Magulov down like Armand Sarucyan did. And I'm like, I think you're wrong. And we're going to definitely see it on Saturday because if Grant wins the fight,

like that's exactly how it's going to look. And boy, oh, boy, was I right? So Grant gets it done. He calls out either the big name or the big ranking. If it's the big name, give me Tony Ferguson, who is booked to fight Bobby Green. Didn't mention that. So Grant dropped a little bit of do-do in his post-fight interview. And then he said, if it's the rank, give me Beniel Derrish.

A.K., I don't think he's getting either of those guys. In fact, I don't think he's getting anything close to. to either of those guys as far as what he wants. And this is a big topic on the post-fight show. Grant just doesn't have the juice, man. Like, he is a great fighter. But just in lightweight, you have to be a great fighter. And you have to have buzz in it, in, you have to have the, the pizzazz, if you will.

So, like, people are just like, I have to see this guy fight again. And I just don't know if Grant has that as far as being a star goes. So I think his best chance right now, especially with the timing, to get a fight, with anybody ranked is to face the winner of Dan Hooker versus Jalen Turner coming up next Saturday. And honestly, I don't think, if it's not that, he's fighting backwards, probably a guy outside of the rankings. So best he can hope for is the winner of this fight, and I think both guys would take it. So if that's where I'm at. Sorry, I missed the post-fight comments.

You said, did he mention Tony Ferguson? Yes. He said, listen, what I want next is a big, I want the big name or the big ranking. If it's the big name, I want Tony Ferguson. If it's the big ranking, I want B'Neil Darius. I didn't love the post-fight interview. I actually, after this, your homework is to go watch that post-fight interview. And tell me, and then just give me your immediate reaction to it,

because there's more to it that I want you to hear. Okay. Okay. I mean, I don't mind if he could somehow get the B'Neal fight, that would be good, right? I don't think he is. But that would be a good one to get Tony Ferguson. Why? Grant off, don't do that.

Don't do that. Jack likes it. I hate it. I could not just like it more. Why would Jed want to see? That's such a grotesque matchup. Like, oh, I don't like Tony Ferguson. I've made some, this is coming from someone who's made some pretty wild Tony Ferguson matchups recently, I'm sure, over the last 18 months.

So I shouldn't be throwing stones. But not Grand Dawson, Tony Ferguson, Tony Furger. I just don't know. The name value thing, fine, there's other names. Am I crazy? Can he fight Fiziv? Is that a weird thing to do? Sure, who could do that?

I want to give him someone in the top 10. I want to give him someone in the top 10. Him and Armin is a dream fight, but, you know, they're both, those are two guys. You keep them away from each other for now. These are two guys who are legit, lightweight contenders, championship contenders. I always say I don't care protecting people. And that's fine. If they made the matchup, I wouldn't be upset about it.

If they made the matchup tomorrow, I'd be jumping for joy. I want to see Armin and Grand Dawson fight someday. It would be so freaking sick. but I'm also very fine with them not fighting because I want to see them. This is the one where I want to see the two contenders kept alive as long as you can until they have to fight each other, whether it's because it's for a number of contender shot or one of them as the champion or one of them's had a title shot.

I don't need to see it next. I would love to see it. I don't need to see it next. So I'm going to go with Fiziv. Not to say that Fizziv's not a contender, not to say like, you know, at this point anyone we throw Grant Dawson in with is you're probably hurting him or you're hurting his opponent's chances of, you know, getting to that title.

So we can't worry about that too much. Fazeeves coming off a loss. If he lost his second straight, it's not going to kill him. He's a super exciting guy. I would still have him in my top 10. Grant would just take his spot. So I think, I know Fiziv has been talking about Wined to Fight Gamrod. And Fizu's kind of been doing his own sort of social media campaigning.

So there's a good option for him out there. But I need to find someone for Dawson. I want to be in the top 10. And that's about as high as I think I can realistically go. Because I don't think he gets Daryush. I don't think he gets Michael Chandler, regardless of what's going on with, where's Grant Dawson train? Grandd Austin's American top team or?

ATT, yeah. ATT. Anyway, but yeah, so I don't think he's getting Michael Chandler, Daryush, Gates, Gipore, Olivera, McAcheb. That's like the top six. So I got to go just outside. Fiziv, I have somewhere in the 7-9 range. And I think that's one he can get.

So I will go with Fiziv for now. Boarding for Flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy.

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All right. Let's move on to the welterweight division. Michael Morales, what a performance against Max Griffin. Started a little slow. Max Griffin in a nice veteran savvy, like first round. And then you could just tell Michael Morales just started feeling himself getting off the stool in the second. He got aggressive.

He started getting after it. And once that snowball starts rolling down the hill, boy, is it hard to stop? great showing. This is better to me than him just going out and melting Max Griffin in the first round. We got to see an entire 15 minutes. You got to see how the cardio held up and the dude looked real good. I'm super impressed by Michael Morales. This is a guy who's going to be in play at 170 for years and years to come. Very young, very athletic. He's humongous for the division. Just 24 years of 8th. Just freshly turned 24 on June 24th. So he's a young buck with a lot of upside, A.K.

Where do we go from here? Max Griffin, a lot of people thought this is a pretty big step up in competition. Pass the test with flying colors. Where are we go now? Yeah, the one thing I got to add on is that Marla, Marales looks huge. I don't know if it's just my eyes. He looks enormous because I keep thinking he's a middleweight. I remember when we were doing the Rookie of the Year rankings last year, I think he made our top five.

I know he made my top five. For some reason, my mind, I come think he was a middleweight, but not. No, he's just a super athletic stacked welterweight. Maybe his future lies in middleweight, but right now, 24 years old, seems okay making the weight cut. And you're right, this was the perfect test. 14 UFC fights versus two. And Max Griffin is just kind of like a second tier gatekeeper, which sounds insulting, but you can have a lot of good fights and you can make a lot of money being a second tier gatekeeper in the UFC.

So I don't think that's a huge slight to Max Griffin at all. And yeah, he gave, this is great matchmaking. This is the test you want to give a guy like. Michael Morales, who you believe in, but you really want to gauge, okay, well, where is he at right now? Because Max Griffin, you know, is not a title contender, not a top 20 welterweight. But he's been around a long time. He's fought top 20 welter weights, and he's rarely embarrassed himself. So great for Michael Morales.

He has to be able to show he's not just a first round knockout guy can deal with a bit of adversity. I think, Mike, I'm going pretty high here. I think the right matchup for him is Randy Brown. I'm going top 25. I'm going top 25. Let's see if Michael Morales, let's speed him up. a little bit, a little bit. Because this is my 3-0 rule, right?

You go 3-0 in the UFC, and I need you to take a little bit of a significant, more significant step up. Randy Brown coming off a nice win. Rude boy, again, I don't consider him a gatekeeper. I think if he beats Michael Morales, that could be huge for him too. I think he will know Michael Morales is a big deal.

He's undefeated. I'm sure Randy Brown would love to take that zero. So I'm pretty beneficial for both sides. I'm going top 20. I'm going top 20 here. I think I'm going right around the same. area, if not slightly higher than

Randy Brown. I know Randy's coming off a win in the name I'm going to throw out there is coming off of a loss, but Daniel Rodriguez. I mean, this is kind of where we're at right now with D-Rod. And this is, there's like levels to lip-miss tests at Walter Waite, and I think

Max Griffin's a real good one. Max Griffin's like the gateway to the top 30. I think D-Rod is the nice gateway to the top 20, maybe the top 15, and Neil Magny is like the man with the throne

about getting into the top 15. You go out there and you beat a Neil Magni, like you're a rank guy and you're going to be there for a minute. So I think the trajectory is there. We go from Griffin to D-Rod, beats D-Rod, then we go to a Magny type, and then we just let the man fly.

So, yeah, I think D-Rod is stylistically a great fight. I think D-Rod's not going to be in by anything Michael Morales does. And it's just going to be a damn good fight. They're just going to beat the hell out of each other. So that's what I'm going with. But we're right around the same area, my best friend.

Yeah, I think we agree to. If he lost Doward Rieges, if he lost to Randy Brown, it's not a de-railing of the hype train. It's not like, oh, this guy is exposed. It's like, okay. Again, now we know he's not quite top 15 yet. He's not quite top 20, top 25, wherever you, you know, wherever you have these guys' place. So, yeah, this is why we're not just making this because, like, oh, we want Michael tomorrow's going to blast someone of these guys and take their spot it's like no there's a good

chance he doesn't and that's fine he's 24 years old he can take a loss of the stage his career and come back many great future stars have yeah if same thing like if ian garry had lost the daniel rodriguez i've been like all right maybe i and gary would take a little more crap because he talked a lot but he goes out there and had the best performance of his career now he's fighting jeff neal so let's just see what this kid can do he doesn't talk a lot of crap dude can fight his ass off i want want to see it. I want to, you beat Max Griffin, you can't go backwards. You just got to keep on rolling. So great win. Great win. It's kind of moving again. Well, it's kind of moving again, eh? A little bit. The gear, maybe at the top is still feels a little bit stuck, but you do feel

like the up-and-coming contenders are really on the cusp of breaking through. And we're going to get some fresh, like fresh names, fresh challengers within the next, I think next, next year and a bit after that, yeah. Yeah, we're about 24 months away from having the same conversation at welterweight they were having out lightweight right now. We're just like, oh, man, we want to see these guys get their shots and there's never going to get them. It's going to take forever. Oh, don't say that. I'll say that, my best friend.

I'm sorry. Don't say that my best friend. I mean, we're trending in that direction. Let's go to the women's flyweight division, the queen of violence. Ariani Lipski gets the win over Melissa Gato and look at Ariani Lipski. She's on a winning streak right now, AK. She's getting it done two in a row, three of four. Is this her first win streak in the UFC?

Second win streak in the UFC. Three, yeah, she's three and one in her last four. She got just bolted by Priscilla Cacuera. Comes back. J.J. Aldrich, that's a nice win under her belt. I thought she was a very value-heavy live dog on this card. Takes on Melissa Gatto is a pretty sizable dog. Goes out there and just takes a trip to Splitty City

and got a bunch of souvenirs and got her hand raised. So congratulations to Ariani Lipski, two in a row. this is probably the easiest pick for me in the entire card, okay, it's Miranda Maverick. It's Arnae Lipsi versus Miranda Maverick. This is the fight we have to make. This is where we're going. Because I just don't think we can go any higher than this.

And this is kind of the last stop on the Miranda Maverick train at this point. Like, not that we would, I think most people, I think a lot of people have jumped off the train already. But if Miranda Maverick loses to Ariani Lipski, it's kind of like, we're done. here, right? I think that's how people would sort of view this fight. So it'd be sort of a must win from Miranda Maverick. And if I were any lips, he can go out there and have a nice performance.

I think the UFC could do something with her as terms of marketability and trying to push her and get her over. So that's the fight I went with. And this was probably the easiest pick for me. Yeah, that's really good. I don't know. I struggle. I don't know why they didn't jump out at me. But now that you mentioned, probably I was too fixated on, oh, I want to match her up with someone else coming off a win. Again, not that that that, this isn't like the deepest division. so I guess I shouldn't be that picky. I love that. Miranda Maverick, great.

I think I ended up going backwards, actually. Yeah, I actually ended up going backwards. Just because I was looking at some veteran names ahead of her. A lot of the flyways ahead of her already booked. I think we said this on shows recently. Like they're keeping the flyweight division moving, and that's good. No complaints there. But it does limit some of our onto the next one option.

So I kind of had to go back. I might be going too far back. But I just like this matchup from an entertainment standpoint. It was booked once. upon a time many, many years ago. It didn't never happen. I'm okay with seeing her fight Veronica Hardy. I think Ariani Lipski, Veronica Hardy, again, this was me looking for someone else coming

off a win, so that makes sense in that way. But I get the Maverick pick, too. Even it would be Lipski's chance to, again, sort of crack a little bit closer into the top 20. Maybe that would put her in the top 20. Not sure how the UFC would see it. And like you said, for Maverick, such a talented fighter, hardworking fighter, likable. but the results just haven't always been there. And I do wonder, yeah, what a loss for Lipski would do for her in the eyes of the

in the eyes of the promotion. But yeah, I'll go backward a little bit and just go for an entertaining fight, no real rankings, applications with Veronica Hardy. Yep. And I think either fight, I think you do it in November. I think you do it on that Brazil card. Perfect. That Jelton-O-Made event card.

You do that against Twitter. Gets Curtis Blades. Put it on that one. I like it. Speaking of lightweight, boy. Benoit Santini is just crushing it at 155. I don't think anybody's going to be sleeping on this man anymore. And this fight with Israel Bonfim, A.K., I thought was so ironic because this is a

recency biased sport where you're only as good as your last fight, right? That's the cliche. And Israel Bonfim, I mean, he might be the most recency biased fighter on the roster because as soon as he was out there and booked against somebody, they're like, oh my god, remember what he did in Terrence McKinney? But when people think of Benoit Santini, they don't think about the three fights that he won. They think about him just getting worked at Welterweight

and the referee not stepping in to stop the fight and people still haven't gotten over that. So again, I thought ton of value on Benoit Santini coming into this fight. And he goes out there, puts Ishmael Bonfima away in round one. This was an impressive showing. Another player at 155, AK. Where do we go with BSD after this victory?

on Saturday. I was all in on the Bond theme brother's hype. I still am. I still think they're good. But we definitely have been overlooking Sandini, like you said, the loss to Zelaski

just so stuck and feels mine. That was a welterweight bout two, a short notice, I believe, as well. So that should have actually been indicator of, you know, we always talk about how, when you talk about how tough a fighter is, sometimes that's like a backhand accultment

because it usually means the type the fighter's taking a beating more often than not, just not getting put away. But his toughness is a legit trade for him because he got hit a bit in this spawn theme fight. It wasn't one-way traffic, but he's so, he just can go through it. He's got a chin on him. He's got a serious chin on him. I'm just looking at his resume here.

Yeah, he's never been knocked out, never been submitted, not surprising at all. And we do have to be looking at him as a serious guy to watch at 155. He's not a card filler. He is not a stepping stone, which again, it was what I thought. I thought, oh, that's why they're putting him against Bonfim. They want to build up Bonfeme. And maybe that's what they were thinking. He certainly wasn't.

He's only 27, three straight in this division. I'm not going huge. Again, this is the 3-0 or 3-1, I guess now. But 3-0 at lightweight. I'm not going a huge jump up. I just want to see a really, really, really, really fun fight with Tiago Moises. I think him and Tiago Moises would be friggin' awesome. Mike, you're reacting.

You're reacting positively. Hit the music. Hit the music. Count it in, count it It one, two, three Friends Forever Hit it, baby

Yeah, that's the fight. Damn, really? No freaking brainer. This was the fight. How did we do that? Like, this is perfect middle ground. You can't go backwards, but you can't give him a top 15 guy.

You just can't. Unless, like, we're having this problem with Grant Doss. We're having this problem with Armand, like Armand Sarucan's last fight was against an unranked guy. So it's going to be really tough And Sontini ran off a slew of names Gamrod, a whole bunch of others just fights he's never going to get right now

Moises is right there Like number 19, number 20 tough fight coming off of a Back to Back Submission wins Like that's a great fight. You want to be a top 15 guy You go out there and beat Tiago Moises You're knocking on the door

So this, we're good at this AK. We're good at this. my rankings? Are you looking at my rankings right now? This is it. I have him 19. I have him 19 in my personal U.C. How did you do that?

I think I have 18 or 19 on mine, so. I know we're best friends, but that is ir. This is getting scary. We're good at this. I think we're making a matchmaking show. We should have a matchmaking show.

We should have a, that's a good idea. We should do a matchmaking show. Speaking of guys who have been overlooked or who were overlooked heading into Saturday, there's Sultan Rudesaboff. I mean, was a massive underdog heading into this fight against Bruno Ferreira.

Again, we talk about recency bias. Bruno Ferreira goes out there and just annihilates Gregory Rodriguez in the first round. Was it the first round or the second round? I'm trying to remember. I remember him getting knocked out. It was the first round. UFC 283 in Brazil, one of the coolest knockouts of the year. What a great moment for a guy making his debut.

Giant favorite against a 45 fight veteran in Nersold. Rude Zaboff, who can do it all, kind of a well-rounded guy, but not really known for just going out there and viciously knocking people out. And boy, their sultan goes out there and just viciously knocks out Bruno Ferreira. 6'5, probably not a middle-weighty middle-weight anymore. I think he was in that conversation heading into this fight, but probably not anymore. Great performance, way to make you debut, and he's going to be flying up the ranks. and I'm telling you what, A.K.

I'm giving him the man who just fought on the main events for his next fight. I'm giving him A. Busmaga Madoff for a fight number two inside the Octagon after this victory. Interesting, interesting. I mean, he might be right. That's a fight kind of fighting back for him now, isn't it, this point? Isn't that kind of a step back for Ruzabov? I don't know. I mean, you're right.

I mean, he's fighting a guy who just main event did, so theoretically, how can it be? Roussabab's a weird case I certainly discounted him I thought he was a guy with it He's I just how can you have this many fights And have flown under the radar for so long His resume is a bit squishy Not like super padded

But there's definitely question of moments There's stretches of Like where he was already 20 Some odd fights in his career And there's stretches where he was fighting O and one guys 1 and 0 2 and 1

It's fishy right And you see guys I'm not saying it's the case of like Who's that guy who got fought one time and then got release and his record was so suspicious. Menafield beat him up. What's his name? I got to look it up right now. I'm not saying that this guy is Ascar Moserov or whatever name he's going by this weekend. I don't know. I'm not saying he's that guy, but it did look a little suspect. So I thought, and I'm very high on Bruno Faheda.

So I was like, okay, it seems like a pretty easy pick. But, hey, listen, 50, what's the guy have 40-something profile almost 50 like pro fights I guess they're legitimate I guess sure there's a few you know no names in there a few low lights but when you fight as often as he does as opposed that's going to happen so great win for him he's a fight finisher you if he likes that uh I went with Mike I'm going way way up I'm going way way way up against I'm going level of experience someone who's one of the only middleweights who has as many fights as him and a guy again who loves killing off hype or killing off newcomers who like building any kind of steam. We got, I'm going GM3.

No matter what happens against Petroski. No, whatever. Win, lose or draw. When lose your draw. So they're fighting UFC 2.92. And if he loses, then I think Roosevelt is a great bounceback opponent. If he wins, I'm sure I understand Gerald would want a much higher ranked opponent. And that's probably what he gets.

But I can still see the Roosevelt fight happening. So I'll go with Gerald. And this may be also me saying, I think Petroski beats him. So maybe I might be tipping my hat. a little bit there. I'll tip my hand, I just say, I'm sorry. But I'll say, keep it safe, say, win, loser draw. So I'm not going to predict, make a strong prediction.

I just think that Rezaabobbaud Mirshirt will happen soon enough. Just the total level of experience. I know Mirashirt, a lot more UFC experience, but combined, it'd be like 100 fights between them or something. Well, the way the UFC is booking this division right now, Rizabov's probably going to end up fighting like Marvin Vittori next. Because they're just giving, you go out and you have one impressive win. You either get a main event or you get Paulo Costa or you get a big name.

That's just kind of how. it's been going. So we'll see what happens. I'm excited to see what is next for him. This was an eye-opening performance. I knew he was good and well-rounded, just kind of good at everything. But I haven't really seen him just go out there and just run a dude over on the feet like that. And that's what he did. So super impressive. Let's go to the wild card round, A.K., a lot to kind of touch on here. There's a lot of directions we can go. We'll match make for a fighter. We have not matched for yet. And we'll put a matchup out into the universe. So, A.K. Who's the wild card pick?

UFC Vegas 76. I mean, this man is a wild card by any definition. Elvis Brenner, I don't know what this guy is. I'm so, I'm scared, Mike. I'm scared. He is right now the, the under, do we do underdog fighter of the year? Because he's leading, he's leading by a friggin mile right now. The two-cogov fight, you can, you know, you can agree with the decision or not. I know M.A decisions. I had to go check.

I remember, I was like, I couldn't remember the fight exactly. I remember there being some controversy. If you go at M.M.A. Decisions.com, it's all unanimously Tukukukov won that fight. But still, in the books, split decision win for Elvis Brenner. So, you know, you got to read it and weep there. And then Kututlase, I think almost the same odds for both fights hovering around somewhere between plus 450, plus 500 underdog, depending where you go. And then he just outlast Kutte Latsay in a truly,

just down and dirty fight. I'm glad they got a fight in the night. I don't know how. So I watched this after. If I didn't know that Brenner won, I was like, I couldn't, I was shot. I was watching the fight. I'm like, there's half a single, I'm like,

Brenner wins this? What? Like how? And you do see Koothe Lazzi kind of gassing out as a fight goes on, so I guess it makes sense. But yeah, this dude is crazy. This dude's pulling off obsessed left and right. And I wish I want, so my whole theme here was like,

well, I'm going to pick something crazy. But I couldn't really find a lot. Like, go too high without at some point punishing the fighter pick because I was like I was like who's some of the names I thought of? I was like Moikano. Like Moikano would be a great match?

But I'm like, why would Moikano do that? Like what would Ongo have to gain from fighting this? Again, like we said, this absolute wild card. So I had to go a little more boring. I do think someone that he'll be like a two to one underdog against. So now I don't know. I guess I think maybe the odds will shift given Brenner's shocking performances so far, shocking results.

So I'll go with Joe Selecki. Not a super sexy pick. I just want to see how much Brenner magic there really is. Because I do think he'll be the underdog there. I think two to one, two to one underdog. And if he pulls that off, then maybe there's something real with this guy, 25 years old and just completely unpredictable. So there was only one way we could go from here. There's really only one name that I could choose.

And it is maybe one of the biggest mysteries in the history of the sport. A man who parted ways. at the UFC, went and fought Diego Sanchez. Two years later, he's back in the UFC, and he fights. Renat Fakh Ratinov and just gets melted by Fokr Tinov. And because of who Kevin Lee is and the mystery surrounding him, I don't know what to make of it. Is this Fokritinoff just being like the future of this division at 170? Or is this kid? Or is this Kevin Lee having a really bad night in his return or like which one because I think there's arguments to be made for both of those things, but which one in the scale of justice, which

side of the of the golden weight scale, if you will, is down more. And the Kevin Lee story is just so fascinating. This guy has it all. He's got personality. He's got athleticism. The dude can fight. We've seen it. We've seen what he can do.

but on fight night the man more oftentimes than not just something is he's in quicksand it's so weird to think about the 30 for 30 on this man is going to be a fascinating watch and we don't know why he's in this position we don't know what's going on and i feel like the ufc did him and his management team like a big solid bringing kevin lee back like goes to kill cliff fc and he's working with ushman and Gilbert Burns and all these guys and we're just wondering, this is the most intriguing thing on the entire card. Like, what's Kevin Lee going to do? And then 55 seconds later, he's asleep because Herb Dean made a great stoppage.

I'm not, I'm not giving up on this. I don't think the UFC is going to give up on him either. I think they understand the buzz that Kevin Lee brought to this card. Because to me, if I wasn't working it, if I was only going to watch one fight, I would have pick that one because I just wanted to see what was going to happen. So I think Kevin Lee will get another chance, but we have to be very smart about the matchmaking. We have to put him in a position where it's a fight. He could win, where like it couldn't, it wouldn't be shocking if he won, but it also needs

to be against somebody who can gain something from beating Kevin Lee. And if he does, this person does beat Kevin Lee, not only will they gain something from it, but they will get buzz from it because he's, probably going to go out there and finish him. So my selection, Kevin Lee gets another chance and he faces Canada's own Mike Malat. And if Mike Malat goes out there and finishes Kevin Lee in the first round, does so in an area that Canadian fans can celebrate it, it's a big moment for Mike Malott and moves him one step closer to being a big face in the Canadian an MMA scene and people getting behind him.

So that's what I'm going with, AK Kevin Lee versus Mike Millott. It's a fight Kevin Lee could win. Kevin Lee, I don't know if he'd be favored, but I think the lie would be close. And I don't think the result would surprise anybody. And honestly, either way, it's kind of a good result for the UFC.

It's that's going to get people talking. So that's what I'm going with. That's good. I love it for Mike Malant. I love from, that's a name. Listen, this is how you build your, this is how you build your own name. You got to go against.

recognizeable people, former interim lightweight title challenger. I think Mike Mollat would be favored. I think he'd close around like minus 150, some of that. I don't think any higher than that, but I do think he'd be favored. I think people would respect his recent results. I think people are pretty discouraged by what they saw from Kevin Lee's first fight back in the UFC. Like I said, maybe it just wasn't his night.

Maybe Renat is the truth. Maybe he's just going to the next welterweight town. He's going to be part of that welterweight. contender cluster that we've been talking about, entirely possible. But I like where your head's out with that. It'd be cool if it could happen in Canada somewhere, but I don't know if that's happening anytime soon. Mike Malat, Kevin Lee.

Man, there's something of matchup I wouldn't have thought was even, I wouldn't have thought it was possible six months ago. That's not even my realm of possibility. But there we are. Yeah, I'm not slamming the door on Kevin Lee just yet. Let's give him another one. If Mike goes out there and does the same, thing, then we kind of know what we got with Kevin Lee and does not really much more juice

you can get out of the juice box there. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food. alcohol and other everyday essentials.

Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus,

powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form,

and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton cross-training tread plus at one peloton.ca. Anything else, A.K., from, is there any, uh, did you get any check the tapes or anything like that? Or should we go right into the listener picks? I did, but I'll read them out as we go through the picks. I'll, I will distribute the points as the, uh, because as the people are mentioned. Okay.

Do you want to give the disclaimer? I feel like the, yes. One piece of the disclaimer is going to come to. fruition a lot here. So please explain. Oh, no. That sounds terrible. Okay. Guys, category's rule for out no points. We reward a cherished single out of no point to you if you are somehow the only person who had a pick. I've gotten pretty bad to keeping track of this. I'll be honest. So I might be keeping them out a little more liberally. But you know, in this economy, I don't feel bad about it. These are common mistakes. Wrong weight class guys. People who fought

already. We've been seeing this. I swear we see this like once a week now, people doing a matchup between people who already fought. It's not hard to check guys. It's not hard to check up these people have already fought. So just added two or out of three, however many times they fought before. So we know that at least you know that it's not a fresh matchup. People who have notable injuries, people who have been released. It's a little bit trickier, but, you know, at least make an effort. Fighters could already booked.

This is also the other thing that's super easy to check. And people who are notable teammates, best friends, etc., who are almost like definitely not going to fight each other. I'd say try and keep track of that as well. Most importantly, a pick might just be doo-doo and we don't want to read it. Yes. We call the teammate rule the Brennan. and Alan Gerald Mirchart rule.

They are not going to fight each other. And I'm feeling that's going to come up a bunch here. It's going to come up a bunch here with one certain fighter. So let's get into it. First timer right off the bat, AK, Paxton Rembis, says, I like longtime listener, but was late to the game submitting my picks last week, which he was. The show has already wrapped and packed in on the network. So please take the below suggestions as my first official Otno submissions.

He likes Morales versus Alesschi Dosanti. another test against a tough veteran. Good start. Vakrotinov versus Chaos Williams should be violent. Romanov versus Mo Usman. Fight has to take place at altitude. Oh, that's great. Stop it. Stop it.

He's with you, AKA Dawson v. Fizzib. Give Dawson a popular opponent plus fun contrasting styles. And Strickland versus the loser of Whitaker versus DDP next Saturday. Not a bad slate, not a doo-do pick to be found. Drew Hilty. Don't understand why anyone thought a boost had a shot. If his name was Alvin Morris Strickland, would have been a minus 600 favorite.

Listen, where's the lie? That's a fact. Facts. That of at the end, I'll tell you something. Or even if you have a full Megamatov in your name somewhere, or your name is Megamatov, I mean, you're getting a media boost in the books. That's funny. Strickland versus Izzy, just book it.

The buildup will be silly, and it doesn't pressure. or Whitaker winner to fight before he is ready. Dawson versus Gamrot sounds good. You have she, should find anyone in the top 1550K for calling out Tony Ferguson at this point. So I'm not going, so this is the team, this is the big teammate one.

Doss and Gamrod are teammates. So these two guys, this is the lightweight version of Brandon Allen and Gerald Beershardt. So these two guys are not fighting each other. But I do love the UFC. Should find anyone in the top 1550K for calling out Tony Ferguson.

Love that a lot. Morales versus, and by the way, just to clarify what I said about Jed earlier, Jed said he liked Grant Dawson for just calling out the name, but morally he hates the fight. So I just wanted to clear that up. Morales versus the Jake Matthews Miguel Baezza winner. Let's keep Morales fighting in that top 30-ish range for now. Let him keep developing, no need to rush.

And he likes Benoit Santini versus Drew Dober, Wildcar Fackertinov versus Randy Brown, Brenner versus T-Rex. win or lose versus Sadikov. What do you think about that, right? Drew Dober is not booked, right? No, and what's the last matcher you mentioned? Elvis Brenner versus Terrence McKinney, who in Brenner,

yeah, what do you think about that? Brenner versus T-Rex, win or lose versus Sadikoff. Brenner versus T-Rex, win or lose versus Sadikov. No, because I think if McKinney beats Sadikov, I feel, I worry a bit for McKinney because I do feel like every time. he gets a win that the UFC how do I phrase this

we kind of talked about earlier about how we loved how they're handling like Michael Morales I think we feel like they've handled Michael Morales really well so far Terrence is so almost the curse of being so exciting like he just

he hit the ground running even before the UFC like his last few fights for the UFC and then he lives up to his reputation as this insanely fast finisher he's good with the media a great social media presence. He's out there building up his presence there.

So he's everything the UFC wants. And I don't know if they are maybe being too eager to want to push him up. That's not what the Satikov matchup says. Don't get me wrong. Sadakoff matchup is probably about right right now. That's tough fight. And then if he, let's say he, this is a win-l loser. Let's see he beats Sadacov and fights Brenner.

I don't know. Maybe that maybe that is fine then. Maybe they have to have in the right range. Yeah. I don't mind. I do feel like if he wins, I think they'll push him a little bit higher. I like the suggestion. I just don't know if he's going to go for it.

If he loses, tough matchup, but very likely that it happens then. John Ray. Romana v. Rosenstrike. Carolina versus Gatto. Brenner versus Madsen. Hosa versus Macy Chesson. Brito versus Nate the Train. Vakritina versus Phil Rowe.

Roodsbob versus Mark Andre Barrio. Santini versus Brad Radell. Don't mind that one. Lipsky versus Maverick, Morales versus Chaos Williams. Dawson versus Moikano, another teammate matchup. I don't know how tight they are, but I would assume they're not going to be fighting each other anytime soon. Strickland versus Izzy, probably,

but my official pick is Paul Costa, no matter what happens. Okay. We need to see that at some point, too, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Jason Colburn. Hey, Michael Bowes, well. Happy fourth. Here is my picks for on to the next one.

Brenner versus Clay Gwida, Vakertinov versus Michael Morales. What do you think about that? matching these two guys up again i'm in no rush to do it but i would like they do it that i would applaud the uc i would applaud the uc for again not just trying to protect people and saying these these guys are ranked around the same place it's a great fight let's make it happen i know law people would hate it though i guarantee that you get a lot of people not wanting to see the match stuff yet sanzanee versus fazeve uh rudesobbub versus the winner of paul craig versus andre muniz

whoa london car that's a that's a step up given the guy has 40s something pro fights. I'd watch it. Yeah. He's a guy going for it. We're not going to be able to just go like, oh, he's only fought in the UFC one time, two times. He has like 40-something pro fights. And I think he's not super young, right?

He must be in his early 30. I think he's 29. No way. Oh, right. Oh, oh, yes. Yes. This is one of those guys, like, he has way more fights than his age. And I'm like, how is this?

Holy crap. How long is going to be fighting for? Yeah. Yeah. Anything in November. Yeah. Anything's in play for him. Yeah.

Harry DeWoskin. Nersalta versus Jacob Malcun. Romanov versus Rodrigo Nassimto, Elvis Brenner versus Nurul Aliyev, Brito versus Mohamed Naimov, Vakritinov versus Neil Magni, Benwastantini versus Mike Davis. I'm not sure what's going on with Mike Davis. Not really sure. So I have to look into that.

Ariene Lipski versus Lauren Murphy, AK. Huge step up. Yeah, that's gigantic. If you feel like you want to, we should say, by the way, we mentioned the one lost to catch her, that was actually an abatimates. Bar, right? So technically, I think it was ban to weight just because I think both women, short notice.

It was a kind of put together or something like that. I think that's what happened, right? Yeah. Something like that. But either way, technically not a flyaway bout, even though they're both flyweight, technically not up. So she is undefeated. Sorry, 3 and O, 3 and O in her last fights contested at 125 pounds.

So it's not like insane to say throw in there with the top 10 person, but I'm not really for it right now. Wow. Harry going Strickland versus Joe Pfeiffer, like getting him out of the rankings altogether. No title shot, just getting him out of the rankings and in with the guy with a ton of buzz. And he also likes Grant Dawson versus Armin Sarukian. I want to make Moikano or Gamrod, but both of them are way more entrenched at ATT than Armin is. So well done. Marcus, Maga Maga Madov versus.

Hold on. I have to mention something. What was it? What was it? Who was it, was it Ruzabov, Melkoon? Yes. Jacob Malkoon has to be... I'm so sorry.

Jacob Malkin, if you're out there, I have nothing against you. He has to be one of the most random names. I feel like pops up every week on this show. Is there a big Malkoon following out there that I'm not aware of? Is he... He's on a win streak, right? Oh, no, he's not a win streak. He's won three out of his past four.

Yeah. I just don't... Like, we don't get him enough middle waiting. A lot of people thought he'd be Brennan Allen. I honestly, I don't remember the fight at all. I don't remember. He is not talking about it enough as a middleweighty middleweight because his fights are such a blob in my brain. They are a blob.

I'm so sorry. Jacob Malcun, I hope you become the UFC middleweight champion someday and stuff this this bull crap in my face because I just can't remember. And every time people put him in a matchup, I have no reaction. I feel nothing. I feel nothing. It's terrible thing. He's 27? No way.

Yep. No. No, he's not. It's true story. He's not 27. He's not 27. He's super 27. I'm sorry, right.

Go on. I'm sorry. Marcus, Magamata versus Imovov, Santini versus Selecki, Rootsibov versus Shabazzian. Jeez, Louise. Renot versus... Let me ask you this, okay. Mark is throwing out a very popular thing. I believe, Balaamah put this out as well.

Jack Della Madelana needs opponent for UFC 290 next Saturday. Could Renat Vakritinoff after only fighting for 55 seconds? Is this something he might want to consider if possible? I know he's going to get like a seven-day suspension, but it would come up by the time UFC 290 rolls around. He only threw a few punches and then submitted Kevin Lee real quick. Could that be something he could consider after getting this win? Something he should strongly consider.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Rock Ratanav, get on that. Try and take that JDM shine. If you're able to do it, I love the idea. I saw that thrown up by a few people as well. Great creative matchmaking on the part of the listeners. and I'm all for it. Forget, again, this is, I don't care about derailing either guy's momentum.

It's just an awesome fight. And whoever wins, boy, is taking a big, big leap in recognition. I'll say this. Falkertinoff should be doing everything in his power to try to get this fight. And if I'm JDM and his team, I want nothing to do with this idea at all. On a week's notice to fight that frigging guy, like, where is the upside? Like, there's literally none. So if I'm JDM, I'm just like, look, dude, I appreciate you.

But my heart was set on fighting Sean Brady and my heart's a little broken right now. So I'm going to go fight in Sydney instead and fight Joaquin Buckley. Like, go do that. But yeah, that's tough. If JDM took that fight on a week's notice, that would be just gangster stuff from both of those guys. So we'll see. Toby Morales versus Dolby, Santini versus Diego Faheda in Paris. I love that idea.

Great. Great. Ruzabob versus Hedolfo Vietta Hennat versus Magni In parentheses, sorry, but this is Magny's job Joannison Brito versus Edson Barbosa Brenner versus Redell and Sydney Don't hate that idea

Kevin Lee versus Gunner Nelson for his next fight Dad Jackson, Romano versus Dantale Mays I think Romano versus Paco Porter is the fight to make Like they have to do this UFC Apex Headliner, please.

Yes. You got a lot of apex cards to fill. Let's do it. Elvis Brenner versus Claudio Pueyes, Guhram versus Alexander Hernandez. I think Hernandez is possibly going back down to 145, but we'll see. Brito versus Sotomayor versus Sondini versus Alessan Hernandez. Or Brenner versus Alexander Hernandez. And I was like, I do think he's going to try featherweight one more time.

Yeah. Fokritinov versus Joachian Buckley. Michael Morales, Brian Battle I don't mind that one. Grant Dawson versus Benoit Santini. I don't mind that one either. And hopefully Kevin Lee goes back to 155. I'd like him and Jim Miller.

You could do that fight at 170 as well. Yeah, yeah. Why make them cut weight? Why? Matt Rovelli. Been a while, but I really enjoyed this fight car and wanted to throw in some suggestions. Grant Dawson versus Armand Syracian,

high-level fight anywhere it goes. Morales versus Nicholas Dalby think would be a great fight. While it lasted, Geronish and Brito versus the winner of Cub Swanson versus Hakeem Dawadu. Sure. Chris London.

Howdy? A lot of different ways to go here. Magamadov versus Bruno Silva. Dawson versus CDF. I don't mind that one either. Grant Dawson versus Diego Faheda is a... That's a good pick right there. I really like that one.

Morales versus Kevin Lee. Ooh. I don't think it's a good fight for Kevin Lee right now. Yeah, but I could see them making it. Yeah, we talked about this last night in the post show. They could absolutely make that fight. You know what? Go ahead.

Kevin Lee's next fight can't be worse than this one. That's probably faint, the faintest optimism I can provide, but it can't go worse than Saturday. So onward and upward, Kevin Lee. Sure. Vakritina versus Ponziob, Griffin versus Salikov, Sontini versus Mathivola, Bonfim versus Jordan Levitt, Romano versus Mo Uzman. A couple more. And then we got a question that one of the listeners wants us to answer. Alexander Romanov.

Oh, AK, this is going to just... Well, I'm going to save that one because this is going to make you so happy. Luana Carolina versus Veronica Hardy, UFC London from Tino, right there with you. Benoit Sonsigni versus Nazareth-Hakparas. He said Lerana-Karolina.

I want Lipski. Oh, no, I'm sorry. You wanted Lipski versus Veronica Hardy. Sure. Okay, sorry. Oh, I forgot. Oh, right. Yes, right.

And Lorana Carolina fought. Oh, I got it. We didn't even talk about this fight. She won. Okay, anyway. Yeah, she won. Upset City. Sonsony versus Hackbrose.

Ariani Lipski versus the winner of Karine Silva versus Marino Morose at UFC 292 Grant Dosser versus the winner of Dan Hooker versus Jalen Turner AK you're going to love this. Alexander Romanov this has to be an apex fight

against he will now be the returning Augusto Sakai. Yes. Yes. Listen, I love pandering and I will take it. If you said that

just to make me happy and just to give you props. I give you all the props. Can I give a not no point ahead of time, Mike? Am I allowed to give an auto point just for no reason? I've done it. I've done it a few times. I'll stop short, but it is on. That point has been set aside.

If by some chance that might happens, I don't care if someone else makes this pick now in between for whatever reason. This is your, this is, who is this? This is, uh, Tino Alvarez, yes. Tino Alvarez, the pick is, let's make this happen. Let's put this point aside and I want to send it to you. I want to send to you so badly. Love it. Where are we at here? Okay, Gerard. Sean Strickland versus Adesani and

Sydney because it will be a war between DDP and Rob. Grant Dawson-Srucian main event, five rounds. Michael Morales versus Alex Marono, AK. Do you like that one or is that like a tinge too much? No, I like that a lot. I like that a lot. I think the only reason I didn't go in that direction is that I think I had a pick for Murano in a previous show that I felt pretty strongly about. I know I went back to look at this. What did I want for Murano after his most recent fight? Or I picked someone to fight him.

I want him to fight like Li Jing Liang or something like that. And that fight is still, you know, they're both still out there. So I'm going to stand by that. I won't retract that pick just to make a matchup based on this one. But that's totally in play. I would have done that if I hadn't already oughtnode Morales recently. not Morales, I'm sorry, Marano. All right.

And last pick, Robbie Ryan wanted to reach out and get our thoughts on something that, you know, has become quite the topic over the last few days and something I talked about on Friday. And I kind of wanted to like readdress because I someone screenshot in me a comment that like pissed me off and I wanted to address it. So we'll, we'll address it in a minute. But Robbie Ryan says, did you hear Luke Thomas's comments about the necessity? of sports media and more specifically MMA media, if so, what are your thoughts? So there's a lot of discussion going on, and we've talked about this before,

about the UFC and their media structure, at least in terms of who they're giving access to, it's about some partnerships they have. It's more influencer-based than journalism-based, then reporter-based. They're going more towards the social media side than, you know, the big websites who have been coming room for years.

And as I've said many times in the show, in other programs, I think it's a brilliant move for the UFC to do this because at this point, they have won the game. The people who are listening to the show were watching UFC Vegas 76 last night, more than likely. They're going to watch UFC Vegas 77. They're going to watch everything the UFC puts out. So there's no need for them to take their marketing structure and give it to us

because we're going to watch everything anyways. They're trying to get new eyeballs on the product. And when you team up with, you know, the full send guys and Nina Marie Danielle, I believe it's her name, I'll look it up and some of the other, you know, people that bar stool, Robbie Fox, et cetera. This is how you get new eyeballs. And this is how you introduce people to the sport one way or the other. So it could be, as I've said, how this works is the new eyeballs start there. And then the more they get into the sport, they're like, okay, I'm in. now let's graduate and get content from the other sites

who really break things down in a different way. And that's how it works. And it's just like a cycle that continues on. And there is a lot of talk about Nina's interviews with Sean Strickland, Gordon Ryan, people kind of took offense to it and thought, well, this is where we're going and all that stuff. I was asked about this on Friday's edition of heck of a morning. I put Nina over.

And the comment that I got was that I saw that someone screenshot it was Nina sort of put out a Twitter post saying, you know, I'm not going to read it what it was, but it was basically like a clapback. Like, look, you know, I'm not for everybody. And if you support me, great, if not, whatever. And someone said, you know, how do you feel about Luke Thomas and people from MMA fighting?

like degrading you, so to speak. And I'm just like, the hell are you talking about? Like, where is this coming from? Like, who from M.A. fighting publicly threw her under the bus? Because I think I'm the only one who actually publicly talked about this. And I put her over. Like, there is enough room in this media space for all of us.

And there is something to be said about being different and unique in putting out different kinds of content. because that's how you get noticed is you do something different. And she is certainly doing that. She has the UFC access, which is great. And she works really hard. Like from anyone of that talked to that has known her, she works very, very hard. This is not just like a, well, I only do like one thing a week and blah, blah, blah.

She is busting her ass. And I have all the respect in the world for anybody who does that. So, and again, as she's posted as well, she's not a reporter. She's not a journalist. she is just making fun social media content. And guess what? People are into it. And I will say this about what she does as well.

She gets a little bit more out of the fighters. Like Marvin Vittory is a miserable prick. That dude is miserable. She got Marvin Vittory smiling and laughing. Like, what was the last time you've seen Marvin Vittory smile and anything? Besides, like, after he lands a punch, she does a good job. For what she does, she does a really good job. Now, is this my cup of tea?

No. Is this something that I'm going to watch all the time? No, it's not what I watch. But at the same token, I also have a million things going on. I don't watch a lot of stuff. But what I've seen of what she does, she does a good job. And she gets the fighters loose and relaxed. And it's not easy to do that, especially in this sport.

So I commend her. Good for her. Anyone who works your ass off and gets to a place that you're at, awesome. So I wanted to just kind of throw that out there. I want to get your thoughts on this AK, mostly because, of where the sport is going, the UFC going more influencer based.

And this is just the UFC. It's not like all this is going with Bellator and PFL, all that stuff. It's more so for the UFC, which again, I think is very smart. But what are your thoughts on this conversation that has come up over the last few days and kind of where the content creation

in the space is going in some respects? Yeah, I'm not entirely sure which exact criticisms. she was responding to. I've seen it. I'm not saying that I haven't seen the criticisms. There's been plenty of discourse about it. I think it was Caged Potato

who did kind of like a cheeky like screenshoting some of her tweets and saying there was like a very, there was a very repetitive tone to kind of the interview she's been doing this week and kind of poking fun at that. And it wasn't like directly like critical or insulting, but I think some people took it as a criticism

and some people took it as maybe a diss, a diff of what I have work. And more than fair, I think the tone of it was, a little bit like condescending, and that's fine. So, yeah, I don't know exactly what criticism she's responding to. Speaking personally, like you said, I don't know her. You seem to know a little bit more about her.

I'm sure she's hardworking. Anyone who's like trying to get into this space, it's a lot of hard work. Yes, maybe she's gotten the good grace to the UFC. Maybe she has connections with people in the UFC, whatever connections he had. But that's how the industry works. You have to use your connections to kind of get out there and get where you're going. I got to M.A. Fighting because I had a connection via sort of via Bellator.

I'll say via Belator. Someone in Belator, I had a good relationship with them interviewing their fighters and just working with their PR team with another when I was working with a score. And then through them, I got hooked up with M.A. fighting. And then just, you know, the rest of history, I'm working with M.A. fighting now. So I don't begrudge whatever connection she had to use. I don't begrudge her, the hustle that she's putting in. I don't love the coverage. I will say, if you guys, again, couldn't tell by now, I'm not the biggest Sean Strickland guy.

I don't like Gordon Ryan either. I think, I think just because I've seen a lot of that in my feed this week of her talking to Gordon Ryan, her talking to Sean Strickland, who are two of the most deplorable human beings in all of combat sports. And that's saying something. I know, I know these people out there are going like, you cover combat sports. You can't fixate so much on, like, personalities and their beliefs in politics. I'm like, I agree. I agree.

I'm sure those fighters I like whose politics would trouble me if I knew the depths of them. But these guys are very publicly, like, aggressive with their terrible, terrible, heinous, hurtful, offensive opinions, which I don't find funny in the slightest. So it's who she's interviewing. That's definitely hurt my view of some of that work this week. But overall, again, how she approaches things, she does not present herself as a journalist. She's not saying she's a, this is a big key. She's not saying she's a journalist. Robbie Barstool doesn't say he's a journalist.

The Schmo, I think, straddles the line a little bit. but his personality is so clearly over the top, I think if you're viewing the Schmo as like a serious journalist and you're like lumping him in there with who we would, like I would say like, no, the Air Hawanis, the Luke Thomas is, us, a lot of us inmate fighting. Not myself. I'm a joker.

But I think you would, you can draw the line between the Schmo and some other, again, more traditional members of the media. I think that's fair to say. So this is why, again, whether I like the work these people do or not, whether I don't know any of them personally, so none of this is personal. it's hard for me to come down on them too hard because they are presenting themselves as almost an alternative to traditional media. And people like that. People like that.

I'm not saying it's better. I'm not saying it's worse. But to say that this, that Nina Marine Danielle, I think, is getting a reaction is, it's not the worst thing. It's not the worst thing. Now, could this gimmick, could this interview style, you know, start to go down the wrong path and just become completely aggravating? and completely detrimental to sort of what we're trying to do as a media collective, whatever that means, if there even is an MMA media collective. It could, it could.

But this can happen to anyone. So, Mike, you're right. You said you're not your cup of tea. Not my cup of tea either, but I'm certainly not going to come down on her. I think she benefits. She was a former Playboy model model of the year. I think Jed was mentioned that to me. She was a pretty popular model, right?

I'm not really sure. model. Yeah, I think she might be. I believe she's a model. And listen, there's advantages to that and disadvantage. Advantage is, like you said, she's going to get, she's going to get, maybe be able to loosen up some of the fighters, you know, listen, those fighters are guys. They like that.

At the same time, there's also the deck is stacked against her because there also, a lot of people are always going to look at her as a model, trying to break into the media. And it's kind of like a double-edged sword for her, right? It's like, it's going to get her attention, but it's also getting a lot of negative attention. people are just never might never take her seriously and you know that's that that's that's that's kind of the the way that how she's I think she's approaching and I think she's understanding right now this is people going to see me as a sort of bubbly model trying to just do interviews and she's she's owning that right now can she become more does she want to become more does she have to I don't know I honestly

don't know but yeah not my favorite thing but I understand I think the criticism is fair some of the criticism I've seen again don't know exactly what she's responding to but It's a fair question. It's a fair question. And I'll tell you, I don't think it's the last time that we talk about, talk about Ms. Daniel. I think she's going to be on the spot for a bit. She does seem to have earned the favor of the UFC.

Yeah. Her stuff is all over my feed because I'm subscribed to FightPass and they've, they've been putting out her videos. So she's working with them. But listen, and the last thing I want to mention is people sort of comparing her to Laura Sanko, Megan Olivie. Obviously, it's very different. They serve a very, well, just say, they're saying like,

Oh, they're setting it back. Like, you're setting back the work she did. And I get that criticism. I told, I understand that criticism. But like I said, she's not, I feel like she's not putting herself in the same lane as them. And listen, all of the women have had their own struggle, their own story, their own way of coming up. And again, let's be real. Laura Sanko said it for, and they work for the UFC too, right?

So if you're going to criticize, you know, Nina Marie Danielle for, you know, sort of just being this UFC personality right now. I think Megan Levy and Laura Sanko are certainly a little more journalistic than that. I do think they did put in a lot of work to sort of dig a little deeper, but they also work for the O.C. They also work for the UFC. So technically they're part of the same media family right now. But yeah, all the criticism out there, it's worth discussing. I don't think this will be the end of it, Mike. And that's okay. That's okay. I think for the most part from what I've seen from Ms. Daniel is harmless. And again, if she's, you know, make it in there and not hurting anybody.

I don't know. I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's the worst thing. Yeah. And I guess like the last couple things I'll say about this. One, don't be a dick. Like no need to be an asshole to this woman. Like, again, she's partnering up with the UFC.

Maybe this is what they asked her to do. Maybe it doesn't matter. Who cares? She's doing something different and she's getting the job done. So just don't be an asshole about it. She's doing the, she's getting her name out there. It is what it is. isn't good for her.

And the other thing is, like, when did the MMA Twitter space become, like, the pro wrestling world in 1980s? Like, telephone, telegraph, tell a wrestler, like, telephone, telegraph, tell MMA Twitter. What the frig is wrong with you, people? Stop taking things out of context. Just because someone, like, just because someone brought something up does not necessarily mean that it was an automatic, oh, well, because of M. Fighting talked about this person.

You must have shat on her. No, that's not what happened. Why don't you actually, like, listen to it. the shows and get proper context before you go out there and you start throwing things because you can just tell it'll be like well you can just go on social media and just tag her and be like well i'm made fighting just talking shit about this woman no we didn't say anything disparaging about her at all it just drives me crazy okay so i thought with this question i would mention that i was going to leave it alone but um stop kicking people while when they're having success and trying to

find things like let's let's let's root people on you know let's root people on you want to throw out constructive criticism, cool. But if you want to be a complete asshole about it, frown upon you, forget that. So keep doing you, Nina. Keep doing you. I like to positivity. Yes. Would you like to read some listener picks?

Yeah, let me run through some of these. Mike, did you read Blake Elliott? He says he sent picks to you as well. I don't know if I missed you reading Blake Elliott. I don't think I got Blake Elliott. Are you like T. Payne? You don't check your request. Do you think you have like 900 requests and your DMs that you've missed?

an IG Unless it just On Instagram I don't think I have one I never got one from that Okay I don't know if like Megan D. Stalian's been hitting you up To do like a hip hop collaboration And you've missed it

Because you don't check your requests Okay Blake says he sent to you as well But I don't know if you missed it Longtime listener first time send there All right Blake that means I'll read them all Romanov Rosenstroy could mention that before Wait you

Okay no there's somebody else Wait a second wait a second Hold on Hold on Brenner Hapha Garcia No Okay. Brenner, Hafa Garcia.

Hoffa Garcia, I keep mixing up Hafa Garza. Which one got released? Raphael Alves, we think, might have gotten released, right? Alvesz got released. Garcia's on like a three-fight win streak, I think. Whoa, Brito versus Giga Chikaze. Dude, I like that. I like that.

It should be Dan Iggya Chacadezai, but. Sure. What did you think of Brito? Is Brito who did the call out of Dan Ige, right? He did the big swear word and then, like, threw up the double. birds for some reason. It was Dubrito, right? Yeah. I dig the call out, but Dan should not, Danny you guys should not have to fight Jonas and Brito. After his last two fights, he had to fight Damon Jackson and then he had to fight Nate Landware. The dude deserves his opportunity to fight a guy

ranked above him at this point. Like you go and you take two fights, two dangerous fights. Yeah, Brito probably ain't getting that one. I'm seeing another Renat. Magni Lipski, Montana Dolorosa, too. Sure. I guess that's first fight was a while ago, right? Montana Elorosa a couple of years ago, yeah. I mean, she finished her with strikes, Montana. That was a, that was a breakout performance from Montana. Ruzabov, Avizak al-Hassan. I mean, he replaced it as a Razakalasana.

I get that. San Antonio-Mahara. Michael Morales, Santiago Ponsinebio. I like that. Dawson-Fiziv, another one. If no teloshop of Strickland, have him fight Dolitzee. Bonus is Kevin Lee, Brian Battle. And bonus to my bonus, because his name deserves airtime every show.

Blagoi and Parker Porter. Wait, why not Romanov? Why even off? How dare you? How dare you? Pair him up with someone coming up a loss. The great park reporter. How dare you?

Dale Brooks, Romanov, Nassimento. Sure. Jack Della, Fakertinov, U.S.i, 203. Yusuf versus Brito, Santanyak, Prasse, Dawson, Armand Strzrukin. Boy, people want to see this fight now. Mike, they're like me. They're hungry for it. There's no patience.

They want to see Dawson and Surkin, no. Look, if they gave it to me, I would be super happy about it. But I'm with you. would rather see these guys fight in like number one contender for the title something like that i feel like we could wait on that one yeah chase collage just wants to know uh should abas have gotten a point taken from him right at the start of the fight for that ipoc i'm 100 yes yes that was ridiculous that's that was it was full cheating it was full cheating it wasn't it wasn't an accident like the fingers were like it is in the rules you cannot have your finger straight out they have to be pointed to

the sky those fingers were like ding ding ding ding ding like that's That should have been a point. And if Sean Strickland couldn't continue, it should have 1,000% been in its qualification. He saw Sean Strickland coming out of him and said, I know how to stop him. Stick my finger right in his eyeball. That'll slow him down. Mark Smith, hard warning, though. Hard warning, Mike.

He said, hey, this is a hard warning, hard warning. So good for you, Mark Smith. Take that point. Please, goodness me. German, anything new here? Boy, another frack or teen out GDM, people want to see this fight happening. Quick question for you and Mike. If you have time, we might not.

Name two fighters who are going to be fighting in the next men's bantamweight title bout, just a prediction. Two fighters can be fighting the next men's... Wait, what does that mean? Like, after... After 292, whatever happens. If Sterling wins in vacates or something? Yeah.

Or if you're just, if you're picking Sean Mallet to win, Sean a Malley to win. I will say... Umarmermer McOmetto. I will say Maraub de Walsh-Willy versus the winner of that fight. the winner of Umar and um Corey, right?

Corey Sanagan. Yeah, that's probably the way you go. But yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, listen, I love talking about

baton mates. Uh, Barry O'Reilly. I'll read out, I'll just want to read some of his thoughts. Carolos over his jason, 145. Let's keep this division alone.

So our gal and the true goat names, uh, Nunes. Oh, I think even keep the vision going, I think so that we can have, uh, uh,

Chosia Nuneas become the champ and something like that. Okay, interesting. God, another fucker Tina of, uh, JDM. Lipsky Miranda Maverick, there you go.

Great pick, great pick. Grant Dawson, Armin Srucchion. Dawson looks so good. Dominant against a former Armand opponent. Logical matchup to make, as many people aren't lining up to fight either guy. Sean Strickland, Izzy. I do not think Strickland deserves it.

Right place, right time to get this fight. Build excitement with the smack talk. Yes, this is true. Braden O'Neill. I don't think I can read all these. Vakertina of Morano. Carolina Shepchenko. Did not happen?

Romanov versus Martin Boudai. Sure. Sure. Why not? Why not? Oh, John Ray, I'm going to get a point. John Ray, I will give you a point. It looks like we will have...

I don't know. Mike, have we confirmed this? Yasemian Yasadofichus and Tracy Cortez? Yes, we need to confirm it. We did. John Ray, I don't know if you're the only one. But you're the only one who reminded me. Sir, take your point.

There's our little check the tapes. Well done, John Ray. Dax. BSD, Ben Walsentany. Quite the win streak full of great finishes. Whatever Claudio Pueis is up to, that would be a great fight. Vault up the rankings. Elvis Brenner versus Drew Dober. Boy, people want that.

That'd be so sick. Four Corner Sports, NY. Something, anything original here. Sean Strickland, Paul O'Costa. Michael Morales, Tim Means. Michael Morales, Tim Means, Mike. So we were talking on the Post-Fite show about who Kevin Lee could fight that you, sort of like, where's the limit is of like, all right,

Kevin Lee's definitely beating this guy. and I brought up some different names like who would you pick would you pick Kevin Lee to beat Tim Means right now and I feel like that's like that's the line sort of right now that's not but terrible that's not bad no I it's super low line but yeah sure Tim means why not Elvis Brenner versus winner of Cub Swanson Hakim Dawid is Elvis Brenner normally a featherweight has he just been jumping up to did I miss something here Wait, Brenner versus who? The winner of Cubs Swanson, Dawadip?

I'm confused. He's giving me pause. Has he fought at featherweight before? Has he just been moonlighting? Is this a straight-up dude? He's fought at featherweight before. He has fought a featherweight in the past, but... I don't think either of...

I don't know. Both is... Both is the other weight. I won't call... You know what? No, I'll give four-corner sports points for being created. Maybe he knows more about Brenner than we do and that Brenner he thinks Brenner will drop down. So no, not Dutu, not Dutu.

He has only 155 in the UFC so far, but that's not Dutu. That's actually pretty creative. I actually like that. Ramanov versus Latifi. Hmm. Mm. Sure. Dude, that is, that would be super heavy weighty.

Oh my gosh. We would have to create another title if that fight is. Ramanov matchmaking this week has been completely uninspiring other than anyone suggesting Parker Porter. Sondini, the rebuild his career has had after the Zaleski, sorry, it's Hayes-Berthirth, excuse me, Hayes-Bethird's picks. The rebuild from the Zleski fight has been so impressive. I think he's earned his chance at a ranked guy after taking out a major prospect.

I don't know if it can happen so easily if he wants to fight in Paris, but I'll go with the ranked guy. I think it would be most willing to do it. Money, Moikano. I could say, well, again, I still think Moikano is not going to want to fight back, but you know, listen, give him that paycheck. Ruzabov, excited to see Faheda after the Robo Cup, but now there's a new and more intriguing prospects.

He's only 29. I could see the UFC throwing him in with a ranked guy right now, but I'll say to hold off on it for one more fight. Let's go with Bruno Silva next. Ruzabov Blendado. Ooh, that could be fun. That could be fun. It could be.

I mean, Bruno just got run over by Brennan Allen, so I don't know. but sure why not that'd be fun I think you talked about this recently already Mike this from Thomas Collins Strickland Brendan Allen too might be time for the rematch Alan's been calling for as I cannot see him getting a fight with a higher ranked opponent I don't know if he's talking about Strickland and Allen but

why would Sean Strickland take that fight What's the point? Him and his teammate both knocked out Brandon Allen like and Sean Strickland doesn't knock out anybody so I mean it's not what he does he did last night but he's just

as Laura Sanko put it, death by a thousand paper cuts. Like he's the paper cut style. So I just don't think the only way that fight happens again is if Sean Strickland fights Israel Adesania and wins the title and is a long-reigning champion. Otherwise, like, what, why would Sean Strickland

ever take that fight? Makes no sense. Again, going on with Thomas Collins. Grant Dawson versus Downhiker Channel Turner winner. We got some straight-up doo-doo here, Mike. Oh, no. Doggy bag. Do you got your doggy bag, Mike.

Shiloh, come here. Romanov versus Chris Dachas-Kaliel Roundtree winner? What? Are you trying to get one of these men eaten? What are you talking about? I think Thomas thinks Khalil is coming up to heavy weight, not that Chris Dawkins is dropping down. Thomas, that is a light, heavy.

Chris Dawkins is going down to light heavy weight to fight to fight Kalil Roundtree. Calil Roundtree is not coming up. That is not a heavyweight fight. Yeah. It's a light, I love your, but there. Love you, buddy.

But it's due to. It's due to. It's true. I last one in turn, Alex McAdams. Oh, Ramanov Sakai. Please, people,

please, we have to stop. Elvis Brenner, Rabetski. I only didn't pick this because I think I made a pick for Rabetski last week. I think it's very likely

Brenner fights Mateos Scherbeski next. The timing just makes so much sense. Kevin Lee, Matt Brown. Sure. Don't love it. I don't love it.

Let me go to Instagram. We got another newcomer. Welcome to the party, pal. Tom Harris wants to say, listener on the next one, not sure how submissions work. Well, you figure it out. Kevin Lee versus Brian Barbarina.

Great fight to book after Barbarina fights that 185 thing he's doing. Thanks. Yeah, right? That's not like crazy, right? I don't mind that one. Yeah, I don't mind it. And he adds Avis Macamatta versus a treadmill. Ouch, harsh.

The only reason I didn't go with something like that is that it doesn't that fight doesn't do really anything for Brian Barberina it does something for Kevin Lee and I don't know I just feel like it's so hard to match make Kevin Lee right now like do we just

do like full on vet knocking on the door of doing something else with their lives or is it we got to give him prospects that are exciting that can get the rub off of beating a guy like Kevin Lee Like, it's really tough to figure out.

Kevin Lee's only 30. It's nuts, dude. That's crazy, right? That shows you how relative age is in combat sports, right? Because you can have a guy who's 30 years old, and we're kind of looking at, like, man, it's his career, like, his career is over? Or is it just like our, you know, is he only going to fight for him or three or three years? And then you can have, like, a light heavyweight or a heavyweight debut at, like, age 32. And we're like, ah, it's got four and O.

It's because a hot prospect is 32 years old. But it's kind of how it is. It's really, we always try to tell people, you know, fight years is more important. than like actual age years when it comes to combat sports. Because what's Kevin Lee now? I mean, he's been fighting since 2012. So he's 11 years into his career into pro-fighting. He is very old by fighting years.

And he's fought high-level competition. Nothing but high-level competition. So he's even older. Like that 11 years doesn't even tell the whole story. But it's just so weird. You're right. It seems if I'm assuming he's not retiring, I don't know what to do with him next. So, yeah, very tricky.

Martin Grisham, Sondini, Dracard Close. I love it. He wants Grant Dawson. Darius. Again, I just don't think, if Darius takes that fight, he is a fucking hero because I just don't it's not a good fight for him. Sean's, I mean, I'm not saying he can't, I shouldn't say, by the way, that Benile absolutely has a chance. I just don't know how much he gains from, from stopping, you know, the momentum of Grand Dawson. But I could be wrong. I just don't think it's a smart fight right now. I think Grand Dawson has way more to gain in that fight.

Sean's drinking for the title, DDP and Whitaker aren't able to turn around, but let him be the backup. Oh, well, Mike, let me just quickly then. Who do you think if they go, um, if they do have a backup for 293, let's say Whitakerow, DDP, get that shot instead. Should it be Strickland or, well, I should be Cannoneer, right? Because Canada beat Strickland. Who should be the backup? Yeah, Strickland just crap out of luck if that scenario plays out, right? No, Strickland's going to be the backup.

And Jared Canaaner is going to have to fight Hamza Lachamia. So, yeah. Ross. That's happening. Sorry. Nicklinville just wants to say a little behind the card, but. But Sanko's good on the mic. Great knowledge, insight, and banter.

I would love to hear your guys' opinions and commentators. I don't want to give a whole thing. And again, I didn't watch the entire show, but Sanco is excellent. And I think she's, like, it's weird to say, because I don't want to say, I thought she did a great job in her first time. I just thought she got even better this time around, which makes sense, which makes sense. I think she's just, listen, she's done a lot of contender series, but that's different than doing, like, the big show.

And I thought she was solid, as we all knew she would be in her when she did her first fight night card and I thought like just from when I didn't watch the whole card when I was into just she's really she's great she we're always asking for more professionalism and analysis a better analysis and knowledge of the rules and everything and right now she's one of the best out there so yeah I thought she did a great job I got enough you want to add to that she is she might already be the best color commentator in the company right now wow like she might she might be the best color commentator in the company right now she knows the rule set better than anybody else on the broadcasts.

Like her and John Anick and Brendan Fitzgerald, those three know more about the rules and judging criteria and what judges look for than any of the fighters who call the fights. It's insane. She is so good at this and she explains it in a way where you don't want to rip your ears and eyes out because she's not like most people in the, I know about judging more than anybody else world,

where they just stand on the chair and puff their chest and be like, I know more about this than you, minions. Laura Sanko puts it in a way that everybody can understand. She's not taking shots of people. She's just so good. And to me, when the UFC has another international pay-per-view and Joe Rogan is not a part of it, when they go to Sydney, Laura Sanko needs to be in the booth with John Anick. 1,000%.

If it's D.C. Sanco and Anik, that needs to be what happens. I want to see her and John Anick on the same card together. It has to happen. She might be, like I said, and I'll just reiterate and end it with this, she might be the best color commentator they have on the roster right now. And she's only done it like three or four times. The man didn't stutter.

My best friend, he didn't stutter. He didn't stutter. Beans Extreme memes. I was Brenner Brad Riddell. I think Brad Riddell, again, we almost want to remove it. He said he was taking a break. retiring but I know Bradfordale said he's taking a break it's going to be it could be a while but I think maybe he wants to come back in Sydney right didn't Tim Simpson on the Amer say like Brad's gonna

probably fight on that card he he wants to get back I told I totally missed that and you know what Brenner would make a lot of sense but I I would like to see Redell take a longer break frankly just taking a lot damage taking some tough losses like it's been a while I get it since his last fight maybe that's all the break he needs but it just feels like a normal I don't know that feels like a normal fighter break I don't feel like he took a super significant amount of time off. Anyway, Bradford Del, live your life. You want a fight in 293. Hey, call up Elvis Brenner. Michael Morales versus Joaquin Buckley, Mike.

Sure. Sure. Yeah. CV, happy candidate. Thank you. Here's some monopics. I don't want to read all these. Benoit Santany, Matt Favola. I like it. Strickland versus Shemayev. Why not? Again, if you're Strickland, you just feel like you don't have to take that fight right now, right? Like I said, let Canada. Let Canada air take that.

But he would. Of course he would. he would. And that would actually like, you know, be a co-main event on a non-Apex card that could actually like happen in front of people, which would be nice. Wishing Mike in advance, happy 4th of July. And, oh, yes, they made a dude to pick but fixed it and they changed to Grant Dawson and Armin because, listen, everyone wants to see that frigging fight. M. Mayheads and Matt send a lot of great picks, guys. I can't read all these out, but

they are noted. Thank you, Matt Bradbury. Thank you, M. Mayheads. And I will end with our e-mails. Because I had to because last weekend, Gmail was messed up. So if you guys sent me an email, I didn't read it. I apologize ahead of time. People are trolling me at this point. Jay Donaghi, Ruzabob, Jacob Malkoon, hashtag Black Mamba. The hell's.

Oh, because Ruzabov is called Black. Nicknames Black, right? And, yeah, Nerseltin Ruzab's nickname is Black. Is Malkun the Mamba? Jacob Mamba Malkun. hashtag black mamba guys don't try to make this fight no like no

stop trying to make fetch happen for God's sake stop trying to make this Jacob Malcun interesting all right let him if he's winning fights good for him stop trying to make this make this sound more interesting than it is there's another Michael Mariles

Santiago Ponzenibio Dawson Hooker Dawson Dan Hooker after he beats jail so Jay Donnie calling the shot there not winner of he's saying Dawson and Dan Hooker is going to happen Strickland Robert Whitaker. Yeah, so this is kind of wrong I'm thinking too.

Might be the only one who thinks Drickens wins next week. However, Rob takes time between fights. Sean does not. So maybe it'll be... Oh, he said also maybe Strickland-Allen rematch. Like you said, Mike, why would he do that? And wildcard, Fratinov, D. Rod. Casey Carpenter, great work by you all this week. Thank you, Casey.

I'd like to see Romanov Rosenstrike. Boy, get that actually happened? Going from the prelims to a top 10 guy. I mean, it's so weird. Hack Peras Brenner. Brito won't get Ege. He will get Ege's last opponent. Oh, my God.

Nate the Train. That would be... Can Nate the Train fight six times a year? Is that medically help possible? Sure. Probably not, right? Sure, not. Oh, Mike Malott and Mike Morales?

No, leave my M&Ms. Stop that. Keep my M&Ms away from each other. Don't mix up these M&Ms. I don't like that, Casey. I don't like that. Strickland of DDP and Whitaker beat each other down. Could fall on the title fight.

If not, probably fights Marvell or something. And then end with Tristan. Poor Tristan, who I know was trying. He sent me. email. I asked him to send me the email like multiple times. It never got through it. So Tristan, I'll let you have the closes show. Elvis Brenner, Drew Dober, Renat Fakhra Tinov, Nicholas Dalby, Nersultz, Nersulton, versus Josh Frammed Jamie Pickett winner, August 12. Wow, very specific. Sure, okay. And Beaumont-Mont-Ni versus Joe Selecki. I like it. I know I went with Brenner, but just

rebooked this fight for Yose-Paris. Oh, right, this previously. These two were supposed to fight back in February, Sonteney had to withdraw due to an ankle injury, and Alexander Romanov versus Rodrigo, Nassimento. Tristan, going for us, I can tell you, he's strategically making picks to try and get out no points, trying to acknowledge this category as role. Remember, Tristan, if any of these happen, you got to remind me. Feel free to DM me and remind me

and I'll send a point your way. But, yes, everyone else, email, Alex. .com. Alexander K.K. Lee, I think I'm two Kays, right? Alexander K. Lee, excuse me, on Twitter, Alexander KK.K. Lee, on Instagram, Mike. Where can they reach you?

Instagram is easy as way. M underscore, heck, J.R. Yeah, so that is UFCV. Vegas 76. Now it's international flight week time. UFC 290 this Saturday. Back to matchmake for that card next week. It's going to be a long show probably.

Not super long. Wow. Wow. Jesus Christ. You know, we brought up trending topics. Didn't really see that coming. So we got... Got to get the feel of what they want. Alexander Volcanowski versus Jaya Rodriguez.

Brandon Moreno, Alexander Pantosia for the flyway title, Bo, Nickel, Trayshon, Gore. Whitaker Drickus Duplase, Dan Hooker, Jalen Turner, Robbie Lawler, potentially his final fight against Nico Price, Jack Delamette Alana may or may not fight, Shannon Ross versus Jesus Aguilar, Yasun Yurgai versus Denise A Gomez. Great matchmaking there.

Kamala Kirk, Esteban, Rebovich, Victor Petrino, or Vito Petrino, excuse me, it's Marching Prachneo. We get Jimmy Crute, Alonzo Menafield 2. Who will get the win? We shall find out. Cameron Simon versus Terrence Mitchell, Edgar Shirez, making his UFC debut, taking on Tetsuro Tira. Of course, Edgar Shirez, we did a big feature on a fight involving him and Gianni Vasquez, the Fury FC fight.

That will take place, I believe, at 1.30. That will be a catchweight fight for UFC 290. So Tetsuro Tira, getting back in there. 290 should be a lot of fun. We will do some kind of show next week. maybe we'll go live, but if we do, it's going to have to be, like, kind of early, because my flight patterns are the same way as last time. So if we do it, we'd have to go, like, 9 a.m. Eastern if we're going to do the live show,

A.K. Let's do it. Let's do it. I dig it. All right. So we'll go live, 9 a.m. Eastern. That's what we're going to do. So all the disclosure about how to send the picks, just disregard all of those because we're going to do them on the show live next week. Yeah, but you guys are the best. Back next week to match week for UFC 290 for A.K. Lee. I am Mike Heck. Always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. Just don't take anything in MMA too seriously, all right?

Because this is supposed to be fun. Ever. Ever. Don't get mad and so upset. Just seriously, MMA is supposed to be fun. Let's have some freaking fun. We'll have more fun right here. Next week on, on to the next one. The podcast.