MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 81

Episode Date: October 15, 2023

For the second consecutive week, the wily veteran has defeated the promising up and comer in the main event, and this time, it was Edson Barboza that halted the divisional momentum of Sodiq Yusuff in the main event of UFC Vegas 81. Following the wild comeback victory, where does Barboza go next in one of the UFC's deepest divisions? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee attempt to answer that question from a matchmaking perspective following the UFC's latest event at the APEX in Las Vegas. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Viviane Araujo following her decision win over Jennifer Maia in the co-main event, Jonathan Martinez after his eye-opening stoppage of Adrian Yanez in the bantamweight featured contest, Michel Pereira following his 66 second finish in his middleweight debut, along with fellow main card winner Christian Rodriguez, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter 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. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one.

We are back. The matchmaking crowns have returned. Following, no, we're not matchmaking for the prime card. No, we're not matchmaking for Pat Militich. Mike the True Jackson, we are matchmaking following the palate cleanse of the weekend. UFC Vegas 81 and in the main event, for the second straight week, the Wiley veteran comes through against the young hungry whippersnapper. This time it is Edson Barbosa dealing with some pretty bad adversity in the first round

and then sweeps the cards the rest of the way in a sort of a blood and guts war, a gritty battle. and Edson Barbosa gets the damn thing done. So we'll talk about what's next for him and other notable names from the Go Home Show for UFC 294. And that is a sentence I'm so happy to say. I'm actually really excited for the show to be over only because that means that this past week is done. And then we can move fully on to UFC 294.

But thank you for joining us. It's still going to be a fun show. I don't want to sound like a negative hits. It's still going to be a lot of fun. But I am Mike Keck and joining me as always. The co-host, the co-matchmaker. The best friend, and normally the best friend is the most important part, but I think after yesterday, and after the 18 showers I had to take after watching multiple weird fights yesterday,

I think the most important role for this man today is the Prince of Positivity. He is Alexander Cayley, aka, hello. My best friend, I'm in the perfect mood to be positive because I chickened out and didn't watch any of this stuff yesterday. That's not true. I watched some UFC Vegas, 81. I had a couple days off for various personal families. All good things. All good things. Just prior obligations.

And I felt a tinge of FOMO. I'm not going to lie when I occasionally checked the Slack on Saturday and saw a flurry of hilarious messages from everyone on staff discussing the insane and chaotic goings on. Because I kind of went on like Twitter, tried to get a feel for it. But it was almost like too much noise on there. So I'm like, let me see what the crew is saying. I know they'll be breaking it down. And I wish I could share all the message. messages, but I think we, I think, again, this is our private slack, work slack. We say some

pretty unsavory things sometimes, and that's, that has to remain on the, you know, behind closed doors for now. But yeah, I feel like I missed out a little bit. I was curious to anyone, though, I was still thought that Dylan Dennis just wasn't even going to make it to the case. The fact they did and then made a complete ass to himself does not surprise me. It does frustrate me that we have not heard the last of him in some form or another. I feel like I saw, Mike, did you listen

to the post-fight show at all with Shaheen and Jedmishu and New York Creek? They did a great job breaking everything down, so I feel like I watched it, but did you listen to them all? I did not, because I was on UFC duty, so I was watching the UFC card. And other things, I watched the whole event. I watched everything.

And look, all in all, it wasn't bad, like overall. Like the Salt Poppy fight, even though the Great Salt Poppy lost, it was a fun fight. The Dean the Great fight was probably the best fight of the weekend. Like those two dudes just got after it. It was a lot of fun. It was just like, those fights were fine, but then we get to the last two fights is why everybody is buying the card.

And they're just, they're objectively two of the 10 worst fights of the year. Just so bad. And then following the Dillon Danis fight, I'm just thinking of myself, okay, Tommy Fury is at least going to box up KSI and like we can end this whole facade that KSI is this incredible boxer because some people actually believe that that to be true and I thought that was hilarious. And then that fight stunk because KSI was like, you know what? I'm going to do exactly what Anthony Taylor did against King Kenny and I'm just going to clinch and hug him a thousand times.

And the referee just let him do it. Didn't take any points. Tommy Fury actually got a point taken away from him for punches to the back of the head, which were, which I blame KSI for because he just kept clinching over and over again. And as he's punching, KSI is hugging him and the punches are going to the back of the head. In the end, the right guy won. I thought Tommy Fury won the last four rounds, no issue with the scores at all. And then just to hear KSI just kind of whine about it is just all that was bad.

It was just so bad. I was like, I can't believe that I watched this. I could have spent those two hours before. Like the first two hours were great. And then once we got to the last two fights, it was just so bad. Dylan Danis couldn't even deque himself in an entertaining way. Properly. He couldn't even get himself disqualified in an entertaining way.

So I will say this. I give props to Dylan Danis and Logan Paul, because for the first time this year, I had a profitable betting week because the way Jedmishu went all in on Valentina Shivchenko fighting Alexa Grasso, I went all in that this fight would actually start. And it did. You were sweating it. So happy. You were sweating it, though. I was sweating it pretty much all week. I mean, I got it at plus 140. I was like, look, I don't, because my my units are, like, my betting units are tiny. They're really, really small. It's like $2.00, depending on the

sometimes like, maybe I'll do a buck a unit or something like that. Like, I'm not a gambler. I don't bet on this stuff. Like, I just do it for the content. But when I saw that fight at Plus 140, I'm like, okay, I'm just, I'm blitzed it. I'm getting after it. And it was my biggest bet of the year and a cash. And no matter what happened the rest of the day, I was good.

It was going to be a profitable day. And the UFC card, like each individual prop bet I just got hosed on in so many different ways. Like, I had had some barboza by K.O. I thought I was going to get it. My best friend, I also, and I listened to No Betts Barth's part this week. And I think it was Jed who argued that there wasn't enough juice for Barbosa by Keo. But I was still like, it's still a pretty good bet, I think. I think on Draft Kings was like plus $2.15 or something.

So I said I put two or three bucks on it. And when he rocked him in the third round, I was like, yes. And then he goes for some half-ass. I can't believe it. Dars choke. I don't think Ed's from Barbosa, at least definitely not the UFC. I'm pretty sure. He's never submitted anyone.

Surely. If he has, I don't remember it. I'm going to say Wikipedia now. His third pro fight back in 2009, he defended the Renaissance MMA lightweight championship with an Anaconda joke of Lee King 14 years ago. And then he decides on a night where he's again, plus 200, depending where you looked, I guess, to win by K.O. I'm going to go with it for a choke.

Don't gamble. It's not fun. I always help you not to gamble and then stupid stuff like this happens. And I'm not, I'm not mad at Edson Barbo. I'm not mad at Edson barbos at all. Edson, you're in there. You're doing whatever you can to survive to win. If you thought you had the choke, you thought you had the choke.

I'm mad at myself for even gambling on this. I'm a fool. I'll run through the rest of them. I had the Emily Dakota, Chris Gutierrez, Lisboa Parlay, cash at plus what 18. Nice, nice. The Dixon Arena Alexiva going under two and a half. I could not believe that didn't go under two.

and a half. Both women got dropped. Both women were in big trouble, battered, and it was so close to being finished so many times, and it never got there. I even hit up Jed in the slack. I was like, I cannot believe this didn't cash. I can't believe it. Could not believe it. Adrian Yonaz by Keow was probably the worst bet of the card, considering how the fight played out. Jennifer Maya, by decision, if she just kept punching and didn't try to grapple in the third round, she probably would won that fight. Last leg of a parlay for me. I had that last like of a Parlay, whatever. I had five bucks on that. And yeah, I just blew it.

Cameron Simon had him. He lost. Christopher Rodriguez made his weight. Chris Gutierrez by K.O. T.O. I thought was going to cash after seeing the alien almost come out of Aletang Ailey's leg. That didn't cash. McKinney by K.O. Minus 105 cashed. And then the final leg of the parlay. I bet on King Kenny. He lost.

Dennis Paul to a draw because I couldn't find a DQ prop because I was like, This is the weirdest one. If I could have found a DQ prop, I would have done that in a heartbeat. But a thousand. And then Parlay number two cash as well. McKinney Marat under two and a half. Yoder DeKote over two and a half. Maya Arousa over two and a half.

Cash for a minus one. So not a bad, not a bad one. It sounds like you came out ahead. Oh, yeah. I was way ahead. Thank you. Well done. Yeah.

Dan is Paul happening. Dan is showing up. You're already had. That was gigantic. Don't gamble, though. It's not fun. I mean, you had fun. I didn't have fun.

And I have to get it'll next week too because it's the watch party and I'm not going to let GC get bet by himself. I can't do it. It's $294 and you've got to do this. I feel like there's so much easy money to be made here. But I thought that to that last night as well. So it didn't work out. I wanted to bring up, so I brought up the Postbyte show because I wanted to say one of the questions asked was, you know, did Dennis lose any of the goodwill that he sort of built up during the week? And, you know, mileage may vary on how much goodwill people even think he built up.

But I guess, I guess people are saying, like, he got the better of Logan and some of the, I don't know, verbal exchanges. And I don't know, but apparently there was some rallying behind Dan is heading into the fight. I think people were just also giving him credit for showing up. And maybe he got, he got people some money, like yourself, Mike. So, yeah, that's people were somewhat behind him. But I'll say he didn't lose. I don't think he lost anything. He could not have embarrassed himself more.

Jed raised the great point. If he was going to get DQed, he should have gotten himself DQed at the beginning, and then he could at least play off like, oh, you guys didn't even see me boxed. I chose not to box. You don't know, I could be a great boxer. Apparently, I did not watch, but I'm just reading and seeing highlights. He did. He was in a boxing match, a quote-unquote boxing match for five, six or five rounds and then some.

Looks terrible. Did not throw any punches. And then, of course, and then did the DQ. So then, and then cost him stupid riot and da-da. But all for this, like, I think this only makes the Danes brand bigger. I don't think this hurts him because if you are a follower of Dylan Danes, if you are a Danis Stan, which I guess there are apparently many, the guy has however many Twitter followers and people who like support every movie he does,

this isn't going to change their minds, Mike. This isn't going to make some Danis fan go like, oh my God, I can't, I can't believe it. I was fooled all along. This is going to make your average Danish supporter be like, he got them again. He got the bag. He didn't lose the fight, but he didn't get knocked out. He did what he said. He was going to. He like, he messed her. He cloned them. He controlled them by getting decued. Nothing. If you're following him, this is not going to hurt him. And if you find his

antics amusing, you probably thought Saturday night was frigging hilarious. So I want to say, like, yes, the Dennis, you know, that this, this is a blight on Dennis's image. But it's not. This is so on brand for him. So I don't think he'd lost anything at all. He has no, he has no shame. He has no shame. If you have no shame, if you are not capable of shame, and I'm not even saying this to insult him. If you are not capable of shame, what was the embarrassment last night? Do you think he feels any embarrassed? I think he feels nothing. He's feeling, happen is over a fat paycheck he got. And probably the next paycheck he's going to get from the next sucker who books him. So he lost nothing.

I mean, look, is there some weird promotion out there that's going to invest in Dylan Danis? Probably. But no one with any sort of reputation is going to book Dylan Danis on a card. They're just not like, how can you after this? How can you? This was a bad, like, I'm sure business wise, when the pay-per-view buys come in and they, they, they, that, there, there was not an empty seat in that arena, which is crazy. But I think all in all, when we, when misfits looks at this and says, all, all, is this a great thing for us long term, this event? I don't think it is. I don't think it is.

They're just, who's going to drop $55 on another one of these? Yep. Like, if they do Tommy Fury KSI, too, is anyone going to care? If they bring Dylan Dennis back, like, I mean, they guess they could, but like, it's got to, like, who's he? going to fight. Who wants to see Dylan Dennis fight? Like Dylan Dennis should just start his own Harry. People would watch that. He would die. But people, and people would tune in to see it. That's what I'm saying. It's, is he still has this pull. Yeah. Dylan, I'm telling you right now, I don't care if the line's plus 14 million. I am not betting that that fight happens.

Dylan Dennis would never fight Mike Perry. And he'd be crazy to do so. The possibility of it, I think it would get people talking. But Mike, I am 100% with you on this. So while, while I don't think the Danis brand got hurt. I, so I did the predictions for, regrettably, I did a predictions for this event. And if anyone reads it, it's pretty much just me taking the piss out of the card for like 1,500 words. So it's, you know, and I don't know how else you can write about something. I couldn't break down the top two fights in any sort of analytical, strategic way. You just kind of have to talk about the stories around them and how silly it is and then flip a coin and pick someone. I picked Danis to beat Logan Paul and I don't know. I don't

regret it. I just, because who knows? Honestly, who knows what could happen? I'm like, I think Dennis is, isn't he not a professional fighter? And I've oh, no, he's not. He hasn't fought a professional fights since 2019. So, uh, whatever. I don't regret picking him. I don't regret being wrong. I'm wrong all the time. Um, but the very, but the first thing I wrote in that

this is, this prediction piece was, I think like this is, as they're hyping it up, probably the biggest event in, uh, influencer boxing history, but I also think it could be the beginning of the end. Now, not right away. It's not like this event and having two bad fights at the top is going to immediately make it go, oh, I'm never watching

influencer boxing again. But I just think that this is a peak and it's going to start declining. And also because the guys involved, I don't know how many more fights they want to do. Like, I know KSI said, of course, he wants to rematch Tommy Fury. I know Logan Paul is now like, oh,

I'm going to fight Connor and all this other stuff. It's fine. They're saying the right things after winning and but they have so many eggs and so many different baskets. And influencer boxing has been great for them. It's been great for their image. It seemed great for, you know, just promote. This was an advertised for Prime. This card wasn't advertised for Prime, primarily.

So it's, it, it, it, it, there's a synergy between all the things that are involved, and I understand that. But I also feel like, this is not going to become like their WrestleMania. I think one of the managers were saying before the show, we should do a Prime Card every year. And like, okay, maybe they'll do one next year. I don't think we'll match this one. And then after that, you're really going to have trouble, I think, filling out like a third prime, prime card three or whatever. So maybe this is wishful thinking. Maybe I'm just being the Prince of Positivity for all those combat sports fans out there who are so tired of Hilo, influencer boxing.

But I think there is a very good chance that this is as big as it gets. And again, I'm not saying the high is going to drop off right away, but we're at the top of the peak. It's plateaued. It's going to plateau, I think, for another few months. And then I think you are going to see a drop off as the names involved, move on to other things. Tommy Fury said he's probably pretty much done to do, done with. with influencer boxing unless he can keep fighting the Paul brothers over and over again. Like you said, Dylan Dennis, we don't know.

It could be another four years. We see him even suggest that he's going to fight again. And then again, KSai and Logan Paul, maybe they say they want to. But Logan Paul's got a good thing going to Doree. KSI has a million other things going on business-wise. And then unless someone else steps forward that can carry the influencer boxing banner, of course, there's Jake always hang around as well. I think, I'm saying this so people can be happy.

I think the fad is going to start. dying. It's not going to go away, but I mean, I think the amount of like high level buzz is going to at least die down, some to a degree. Yeah, Tommy Fierry needs to get the hell out of there. I don't even consider like Jake, at this point, like I don't even, I actually don't even really consider Jake Paul like an influencer boxer. I feel like he's an action, like he's a boxer. They're not, these aren't clown show events. He's just the main event in all of them. It's they're all, a lot of professional boxers on the car. Like the Nate Diaz fight, it was all pro boxers. for the most part. A couple of Diaz's teammates are making like pro debuts and stuff like that, but these are like actual real fights.

Like these weren't real fights. These weren't pro fights. These are gonna count on their professional record. These are all like exhibition clown fights. And heading in, and then we're gonna move on, I promise you we'll get to you, I'll see in a second,

but heading into this, to me, the one thing that stood out in my mind is this is their Jason Knight. This is their, no, this is their Artem Lobov Polymolingajy moment. There you go.

That's what it is. Like, it's all in, this is it. Either this works and this thing will be a thing forever, or it's going to not be good. And like you said, it's going to be the plummet of at least the slow downfall of all of this. And I don't think it goes away forever. But yeah, this is not, this is going to leave a bad taste in a lot of people's ballots. And there we go.

That's all I'll say about it. It was, it wasn't a bad. event. Like I getting to, before we got to Logan Paul Dylan Dan's fight, I was like, this is actually pretty good. Like, I'm having fun watching these fights. And then the last two fights happened and you're just like,

golly, this is so terrible. Cannot believe that this is, these were the, by far the worst two fights and two of the entire calendar year. And two are probably the 50 worst fights you've ever seen. I mean, it's just, they were that bad. They were that bad. But let's move on

the UFC. Let's move on to the pallet cleanse. I think we can, yeah. 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. Hey, I won! Boating will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1866-5-312 or visit Comexonterio.com.com.com.com. With Amex platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful

backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Professional fist fighting at its finest. Edson Barbosa versus Sudec Yusuf at the main event. Sudec Yusuf, an incredible start to this fight. Has Barbosa hurt. Think we might get him out of there. But credit to hokey pokey herb. This dude has been on another level the last six months. He's been great in there. And let's the fight go on. Edson Barbosa just battles through it. Clear 10-8 to everybody on planet Earth except for Chris Lee, who gave it a 10-9. I don't understand why. And then Edson-Barboza starts to get a little momentum. He's going to the body in the second round. He's starting to turn the tide. You can start to feel it. Yusuf's starting to take some big breaths.

And then the throwback Terry Edom-esque spinning wheel kick moment in round three. We think the fight's over. Herb Dean says, Edson, you got him. Go finish him. Doesn't let's the fight continue. Yusuf survives. No one gave Edson Barbosa 10-8 in that round, which is crazy to me. And then Barbosa just continues the onslaught in rounds four and five.

You almost have forgot, AKA Edsa Barboza is a dog, and he can go 25 minutes and just keep that thing going. So lots of different scenarios for Edson Barboza. I think there's really only two ways you can go. You can give him a young, hungry whippersnapper, another guy on the way up, or maybe you chuck him in there with another wily veteran. Where did you go with that's a barbozo? This was actually my most difficult, but also most fun, I think, matchup to pick for this week. because, yeah, I came up with a bunch of great names. Right off the bat, you know, Nate Land,

where a name that comes up a lot on this show, I think I've withheld from throwing it into every featherweight matchup that could possibly be made. But I didn't stop there. That's like, if that happens, amazing fight, I do. But I'm like, okay, let's move on a little. Then you go to a couple of veterans who have ranked, you know, Josh Emmett, Calvin Cater, both good options.

Cater, you know, going to come back from that injury soon. Hopefully, you think he would want a big name opponent. Edson Barbosa, you know, after Saturday, keeping that reputation for being one of the best strikers in all of MMA alive. So that would be an amazing fight. Emmett, same thing. Emmett. We keep talking about Emmett possibly retiring, but he probably wants a few big fights left,

see how much he has left in the tank, and him and Barbosa would be a lot of fun. But I went in a totally different direction, Mike. I went a totally different direction. There's a young man. and this is a selfishly motivated. It's a young man who I would like to still see fight in Toronto. And he was supposed to fight for the featherweight title, I think. I know it wasn't official, but all signs he pointed to him fighting for the featherweight title.

I think he has to stay busy, and I want to see him fight. And I think Barbosa would just be a very, very, very fun opponent for him. Give me Barbosa and Ilya in Toronto, USC 297. You're making a face. Mike's making a face. I want to see him fight. I don't think he sits in wait for Volk. He can't sit and wait for Volk.

A.K. You are my best friend. And I say this with love. And I hope you're okay with being saying this. This might be the worst pick of your entire Otno career. No. No. So it is,

look, after what we just had last week, I'm not going to say this is impossible. Because there is a real world where something weird happens and this goes down. there is no effing way this fight happens in Toronto. Why? Why? First of all, why would Ilyte d'Its-Pory even entertain this idea? He has to fight someone.

Yeah, he's going to fight Max Holloway if he doesn't fight Alexander Bokonovsky. He could, but I think, listen, we talk all the time about Max Holloway being this guy, like, how we're tired of him killing off contenders. There's a very good chance that Max Holloway just beats Ilya. Sure. Now, if that's a rippozovoli... Now, if Edson-Romboza beats a ex-barian, though. So they're going to do Iliate Tporia versus Edson Barbosa for the interim title? No, no, no interim title.

You're insane. No interim title. If this happens, this is beyond Patty Pimletone-Ferguson. I'm doing this expressly to avoid this interim title. We don't need an interim title. We don't need an interim title. I want to see these guys get paid. I get it.

I get it. What's going to headline this card then? I don't know. This is the main event? I don't. That I've heard. I have not figured out yet. That's not my problem.

That's not my problem. Oh, my God. No, I am going away from it. They'll find something. Where's my women's bantanway title fight? I don't know. Maybe. Give me Julianna Pena.

Maybe they've tapped into our Google Doc for the enemy fighting global rankings. Give me Julianna Pena and Maida Buenna Silva. Sorry, Mikhail Pennington, for the title. In Toronto for the main event. that's it that's that's that's that is that's going to put butts in seats Mike that's gonna put butts and seats we women's bad weight is heating up it is heating up we had two fights on Saturday yes I'm sure one will be your wildcard back one was yes one oh wow I was being totally facetious but no one really was I yeah the two band-of-weight fights one was really fun and one was not fun at all

so I want to see Ilya and that's inbargo was a fight all right I'm going outside the box Okay, I appreciate that. Yeah. I appreciate that. You have presented some very interesting conundrums as to why this would not happen, but I am standing by. This is the Vince Rousseau matchmaking right here. A little bit. Yeah, a little bit.

If you gave me 10 guesses on who you were going to pick for Retziborah, I would not have been one of the first 10 guesses. I just, I don't want an interim title fight. I love it. I appreciate it. Yeah. You've sold me a little bit more just because of the why. The why has sold me a little bit more. And I think more importantly is I'm looking to keep Ilya on the path to fighting Volcanovsky.

Now again, he could beat Max Holloway. He could also be upset by Edson Barbosa if they fly. I mean, that would be horrible. But then I'd be into Inson Barbosa getting a tell shot against Vol. Like for me, it's essentially a number one contenders thing. I just think there's a, and I'm trying to avoid Max Holloway being Illiator. That's really, I think the main logic here. I think Torpora has a much better chance of beating Ensign Barbosa while also still being a mostly entertaining fight.

I would favor him over Holloway for sure. Man, the thought of Holloway beating DePoria, then where do we go, right? Then does Holloway get his fourth shot at bulk? That's a scenario I'm trying to avoid. So maybe I'm going too many steps ahead here. I really don't want to see Max Holloway beat Duporia. Yeah.

The dream scenario, and I've mentioned this a lot on heck of a morning last week, was, and look, I'm not rooting for this to happen, but this would be the most ideal. If someone asks, like, what's the best case scenario? that comes out of next week. Best case scenario that comes on next week is that Alexander Volkanowski beats Zizl on Malkachev and then says, you know what,

the bigger fights for me at 55, I'm going to let this division move forward. We get Max Holloway versus Iliott-Teporia for the undisputed featherweight title. Then we're cooking with gas. So let me put a pin on this for now. I will say, if Volcanovsky beats Mokachev,

which I'm not picking, that's the other thing is I think I've done sort of that math as well. I'm picking Mokachev to win again. if Volcanozky beats him then you definitely have to do an interim title fight in Toronto but if he doesn't

I think Mokinowski has to go back I will go back and defend you know just to go back to being another way champion and doing all that and that's why I want to keep him and Depore on track I need to keep Max out of his equation for now as unfun as that sounds because Max Holloway rules I need to keep him out of this championship equation and the DePari matchup puts him directly into it

and I just don't want that right now So you named a name and like as you were taking your journey and that's the name I actually came up with. And it's funny from the listener picks like, I didn't get a ton of them, but I didn't see this match. It made it all. Q the music, okay. Just kidding. It's Josh Emmett. I went with Josh Emmett.

Edsa Barbosa, Josh Emmett. Let's do like a fun vet versus vet matchup. This could be the final fight of Josh Emmett's career. He's 38. Ed's a Barbosa 37. I would kind of feel like this would be sort of the fork in the road retirement or not retirement litmus test for Josh Emmett meets Edson Barbosa. Maybe he feels like he has another run.

But if Edson Beats him, I think he knows that his time is up. So let's just do that. I mean, Josh Hammond has fought Yaya Rodriguez and Ilya Teporia back to back. Not saying Edson Barbosa is a easier fight. But I just think at this point, 38 and 37, let's just, they were booked once before. They were. is one of the COVID casualties. Let's just do this.

This is an apexe main event if there ever was one. And it's far better than a lot of the apexe made events we've been getting. So that's what I went with. Not the sexiest pick. I didn't think the stakes are incredibly high for Edson Barbosa here. So, yeah, get some stuff for another apex main event for this time against Josh Emmett. This wasn't a sexy card, Mike. Let's be honest.

This wasn't a sexy card. Maybe that's the nicest way of putting it. It was not a sexy card on paper. It was not. It was intriguing. I thought it was an intriguing main card with no main event, with a really good co-main event, which is where I would label the Barbosa sneak Yusufite, but the actual co-main event. And this is a co-main event, right? We're calling this. Okay. These were our, in the M.A. fighting rankings, these were the only two ranked fighters in the card. If you go to the UFC.com rankings, I'm pretty sure Yusuf and Barbosa are both ranked. But M.A fighting, no. We have them outside the top of Dean because we have fighters from other promotions in there. But, I'm not. Maya and Arujo, top 15 fly weights. And it was won by Viviani Arrujo. Gritty performance, she gets it done. First round was super close.

VV clearly won round two. Round three was pretty close. Could have gone either way. I scored it 29, 28 for Jennifer Maya, but it wasn't like anywhere near like a robbery or anything like that. It all depends on how you scored it the first round. But big win for Arousa. She really needed this one, A.K.,

I thought this was going to be a nightmare matchup for her. Casey O'Neill I thought was like a really good stylistic matchup for her and for Casey. It's like a perfect fight at the perfect time. Arousa gets Jennifer May and said, I'm like, boy, talk about just bad luck. But credit to Vivi. She gets through. And now she's got to fight Lauren Murphy next, okay? That's my pick.

Viviani Arruzio versus Lauren Murphy, maybe January, February, 2024. That's what I got. Excuse me, guys. Couldn't hit that cough button fast enough. Arrujo has not had a lot of luck fighting top 15 people. So this was a pretty important win for her. Because I'm looking here, Amanda Heba, she lost, Alexa Grasso, she lost. Caitlin Chacon, she lost.

Andrew Lee, I think, was top 15 when she fought her. So I'm sorry, I should throw that one in there. But otherwise, it didn't seem like she hit a bit of a wall. Maya was number 10 in our rankings entering this. So Arrucho should take that spot. She could be top 10 ranked after Saturday. I went in a slightly different direction, Mike. This is probably unfair to VV, again, coming off what could be the biggest win of her career.

I threw her to one of the Silvas. Last time when Silvamania played out, I did not match up Natalia or Karine, so I have both of them free in my Otno pool, as it were. And I'm giving, rather than give Viviana Arrujo a contender fight, I'm actually looking to bump Natalia, sorry, I should say necessarily guarantee it, but give Natia Silva the opportunity to bump up into a top 10 spot. So Natty Ice versus Vibiani Arrujo. Big test for Natty Ice,

but I think we're all really high in her and she wins. She probably climbs even higher than 10. I think we'd vault her above some of the names that are even ahead of Arujo right now. I like it. Yeah. I like it. Let's move on to, in my opinion,

the MVP of UFC Vegas 81. The silence behind the violence, aka Jonathan Martinez, comes into the fight, five wins in a row, a somewhat contentious decision win against a Nirmaga madeoff in his most recent outing.

If you go to M.A. decisions, most of the media members actually thought Sanya Nirmaga made up won that fight. And then Adrian Yondis comes in. After his first UFC lost, Rob Font, top seven Bannamweight in the world, learns a lot of lessons.

We get the correct pronunciation of his name. I kind of feel like this is a by-low spot on Adrian Yanis from a betting perspective or Adrian Yanyes, I should say. And when you fight Jonathan Martinez, you kind of know what you're getting into. You're going to get leg kicked a whole bunch. And if you figure that part out,

he's got punching in the face. Like Jonathan Martina, this is a coming out party for Jonathan Martinez. I think people understood that he's a very solid hand, but this was the eye-opening performance of his UFC run where people are like, damn, this guy is pretty damn good. and we need to actually really start to pay attention to this guy.

And he just leg kicked the crap out of Adrian Yonnas. It was just so odd to see Adrian just have no answers at all. Like at least against Rob Fonn, he was punching Rob Fon. He was landing the jab. He had Rob busted open. Rob had a great game plan with kind of turning it into a hockey fight during the boxing exchanges. But Jonathan Martinez just battered Adrian Yannias. And it made me cringe a few times.

Finally, after about the 4,387 leg kick, Adrian just collapsed to the ground. He's like, I can't do this anymore. And Jonathan Martinez, six wins in a row, AK. He's ranked number 13th in the UFC's Bannamweight rankings. I got to tell you, he's probably going to get a spot in my Bannamweight rankings after this performance. TSPTV, AK, where does he go in your favorite division? Man, this guy's so good. I've had Yanyes as like the best, I've considered him the one of, if not the best boxer in MMA.

I really think he's that good. Unfortunately, MMA is more than boxing, isn't it? And maybe he needs to round out his kickboxing, but he's high skills a bit because, yeah, you run to a guy like John Martinez. You're going to have a big, big Bantamweight, John Martinez, you're going to face some problems. You're going to have some issues that boxing this man up. So, as you said, six wins in a row now for the sounds behind the violence. Five at Bantamweight. There was like a random featherweight fight in there.

He's 10 and 3. He's 10 and 3. Does that surprise you, Mike? I mean, it shouldn't because he's been here. I think it's five years, five years with the company. But 10 and 3, that is freaking impressive. You know what his most well-known moment in his UFC run was up until this point? Besides missing weight?

Besides missing weight. Besides missing weight? Was he lost to Andre Ewell and everybody thought Jonathan Martinez got screwed in Houston. Remember that? Even Joe Rogan on his podcast is like, That was one of the worst stages of all time. Like that was, honestly, that was Jonathan's claim to fame, really, was losing that fight, starting the trend of like really awful judging in Houston, beginning with that fight.

Right. So what a turnaround for him. And yeah, 13 fights, crazy to think about. Man, 29 years old. He's in his prime. He looks fantastic. Looks like he's got the weight figured out. He has entered Jedman Shoe, possibly throwing this guy into the top five for no reason territory.

That's what that. kind of wind does. You know, we'll be looking at the rankings next week. He's like, whoa, he has Jonathan Martinez ahead of Peodor Yan.

What the hell? And then we'll have to talk to Jed about on the podcast. So that's, that's the range. Jonathan Martinez is in now. He's, he's, he's on that fine run of form.

I went with a fight, which I think makes so much sense. We might have a friend's forever a moment. I went, this guy one spot ahead, Jonathan Martinez after Saturday. Give me Jonathan Martinez and song Yadong. I didn't go with that one.

I get it. I felt it. I thought I heard this. Chimes. I just don't know because it's tough to book Song Yudong right now. Excuse me because they're talking about December 9th and there was this rumored bout that had really no legs to it between Song Yung and Piotr Yon to possibly headline that card.

And you have to think if they don't somehow pull out Zhang Wei Li and Yan John to fight on that card, which at this point, less than two months away, I would be absolutely shocked if that fight actually happens on that card. You have to believe they're going to try to keep song on that card. Do they want to throw Jonathan Martinez in there as like the second half of that fight? Maybe it'd be a huge opportunity for Jonathan Martinez. And I don't think the UFC really cares about that because it's all about it's the Song Yudong show at the end of the day.

So if they did that and Martinez turned around, gets a main event spot against Song Yadong, that'd be pretty damn cool. Huge. But I don't think that's the direction we're going to go. I'm going a different direction. A Wiley veteran, former champion, and a guy who just happened to be doing commentary last night for this performance. Let's give Jonathan Martinez Dominic Cruz. That's it.

That's the fight. I know Dominic Cruz for a hotman was tied to Davis and Figurado, maybe for Figgy's Banimate and debut. Figgy is now booked against Rob Font December 2nd. Let's do Jonathan Martinez versus Dominic Cruz. I think this performance opened so many eyes. It's great to fight Song Yidong. And he beats Song Yudong, awesome. But I want to give this guy the opportunity to fight a well-known name.

And I think kind of the same, in the same way that it put Marlon Vera over, I think a Dominic Cruz fight, especially if Jonathan Martinez has a similar performance, I think it could do wonders for TSB TV's career. A lot more than the Song-I-Dong win could. So, yeah, Dominic Cruz got to fight somebody. If he's going to stick around, this is the fight. This is it. We talk about this all the time.

It's crazy that Cruz didn't settle into this legend, Legends division thing. Like, we could have had him in Frankie Edgar. We could have him in Jose Aldo. Oh, we don't know. I shouldn't say we could have. Who knows? Maybe Frankie Edgar wasn't interested.

Maybe I feel like they talked about it. Maybe Josie Aldo had no interest. So I'm not going to blame just a lot of it. Dominic Cruz. It could just be, you know, these are big names with big paychecks. There could be reasons why these fights didn't happen. It's fine. Because, yes, now he has no choice. He has to fight guys like Casey Kenney.

You know, when the Casey Kenney fight happened. I still feel like he would try to angle away from this, but it isn't like he's avoided younger fighters. Like I said, I just brought up, you know, Kenny, Cheeto Vera. That's a super tough fight. He agreed to take that one. So I guess he had more to gain there. So, like, do you think he, if this was brought up to Dominic Cruz, like, with the next

couple weeks, he'd be pretty forward? Are you waving your magic wand here? your magic matchmaker wand. I kind of think he had, like, unless he's just like, I'm not fighting for a long time. I'm just not going to fight. I'm not even going to think about it.

Other than that, like, what's he going to say? Like, at this point, he's got to, if he's going to fight, he's got to fight somebody. And as good as Jonathan Martinez has looked, and he's looked damn good,

I still think I might pick Cruz in that fight because of the movement and Cruz's and his fight IQ and all that. Jonathan cracks, man, but I don't know if he has that. I mean, Dominic looked great against Marlon. He was looking real good against Varre until he got blasted at the end of the fight. So I think it's a fight Cruz can win. So I think it's possible.

I think it could happen. I think it's the fight the UFC should try to push, honestly. I like it. I'd love to see that fight. Let's go to a first ballot, missed fits. Hall of Famer, Michelle Pereira, okay. Michelle Pereira.

Not at 185. Probably where he belongs. Yes. To 185. 66 seconds is all it took to take on Andreo Petroski. And there's a part of me that was like, this fight might actually be more fun than the Mark Andre Barrio fight. And the more I thought about,

the more I realized, kind of wish we got the MAB fight because I think we'd have learned a lot more. But what a performance from Michelle Pereira. And this was a... This was a bad fight for Petroski to take on short notice. Because I think Petrosky is legitimately someone who could be a top 15 guy. And not by taking these random fights with a guy who's a veteran. Michelle Perra has a ton of fights.

Stylistically, is actually a difficult match for Petrosky. I don't know if he thought he would just be able to take Michelle Podetta down at will. But Padetta's like, take down offense isn't bad. I know everyone will look at the Tristan Conley fight, but that was such a weird fight where, and I'll make – I know I'm making excuse for Prudetta now, but – He missed Wade. He just wasn't taking it seriously. He gassed himself out in the first two and a half minutes doing all this stuff. And it was the last time he did that. He's not like a guy that's super easy to take down control that way. And Petroski definitely does not want to stand and throw hands with him. So the knockout result was not that surprising to me at all. I still think Petroski can bounce back. Man, it was just such a bad. I did not like Petroski taking this fight. Yeah, Petroski is one of those guys that gets better as the fight goes on. So I think he probably just thought, all right, I just got to weather an early storm and then get through it.

But Chuck Pereer is a monster, he could probably fight a light heavyweight with how big he was. And even when they faced off on Friday, I was like, holy smokes, man. Pereira is still so much bigger than him. This, aka, this might be one of my favorite picks of the year. And I don't even know. I know what you're picking. I know I went a different direction here once upon a time, but everything changed. Everything changed since this man last fought.

And just an Otno legend. Do it. The sixth man award of On to the next one in the middleweight division. It's time for the world to see, Michelle Pereira versus Roman Coppiloff. I knew it. Let's go. 185 pounds. Make it a seven-round main event.

It ain't going to go that long. It doesn't matter. Let's make some history here. That fight is going to rule, and it's going to be the best. And it is unequivocally one of my favorite picks of the year, and it's unequivocally the fight that should happen. So there you go. That was one of the most – I think that was the number one most popular pick I saw this week from listeners. It was that or – I'm a second quick look here.

It was that or I saw a lot of Jonathan Martinez versus Pedro Munoz and Barbosa versus Cater. But I think even Michelle Perra Coppola was more popular than that. I saw a lot of it. And I actually didn't think of it. I don't know why I didn't think of it. We could have a very easy friends forever a moment. Once I saw the listener suggest it, I was like, oh, wow. Like, duh.

Like, that is an awesome matchup. That's the kind of the right spot for both guys. I went a little crazy with him. I went a little crazy because, as you said, Mr. Miss, Miss, Miss, Daniel Miss Fitz boxing for making it hard for me to say this now. Mist fists, a missed fist legend, Michelle Padetta. I'm high on him. And I'm glad he's back at 185.

He probably shouldn't be pushed too quickly. You probably should still use him again as like a fun fights guy. We don't go in there with a copulov. That could be a fight night main event or even a co-main event, depending what other, what else you can get as a headline of one of these cards. But I went up, man. I went up the rankings. And I went with a guy who doesn't have a fight now.

Maybe I'm just really curious to see how good Michelle Padetta is. And maybe I really want to see that takedown events tested. I'm going with Vitori. Wow. I want to see if he can get Votori. I don't think Votori's even thinking about fighting Michelle Pareda. I kind of want to see that this is probably more of a magical wand pick. I'd love to see these two fight.

I don't know. I don't know if Panetta could beat him. Like I said, he has good, very good take down defense. Is it so good that he can stop Vitoria from just grabbing him for five rounds? I don't know. I don't know. But I'm curious to find out. And so that's why I would, uh, I'm just throwing that one out there.

That is interesting. Hmm. God, I like Michelle Perra at 185. We're eventually, we're eventually, we're eventually going to get. get Michelle Pereira versus Joe Pfeiffer. We're going to get this Michelle Pereira versus Coppola fight. We're going to get Michelle Pereira versus Bo Nicol at some point. Like that is insane to think about all of those fights. We're going to get some middleweighty middleweight fights probably. I actually thought that Michelle Pereer, me and Jed both thought on No Bet Spire, Michelle

Pereer could be like immediate number one contender for the middleweight middleweight title. But no, not at all. He took that out the window. He was doing that at 170. Some of his 170 fights when he changed when he became safer, kinder, gentler. Michelle Padetta. They were a little middleweighty. Some of those wins were a little middle lady. Let's be honest. Oh, if he went up two years ago when this whole thing started, he'd probably be the champion

right now. But maybe timing was everything. Apparently, timing was not everything this past week for Christian Rodriguez when it came to his weight cuts, missing weight again. It's his second miss in the UFC. Second miss in a row. Yep. And he also has a miss on Dana White's contend.

series. That's right. Tough road for one, Christian Rodriguez. He, and it's a shame because he's really good at fighting. He's good. He is a very solid hand. But I truly believe that those three pounds made a huge difference in this fight. Made a big difference in this fight. I think, I'm not saying Christian wouldn't have beat Cameron Simon last night as this

fight took place, but I think this fight looks a little bit different. And Cameron Simon, despite all of that against him, looked really good too. I was super impressed by the fight. It was a really fun fight. It was a game of inches, and I think Rodriguez, by, like, just mill of inches, squeaked out every round.

So I didn't mind the 3rd, 27s. But it was clear that not being, not cutting those last three to four pounds was the difference in this fight. That's the way I view it. But Christian Rodriguez, Rao Rowe Roses Jr., and Cameron, back to back, despite the weight misses. Pretty, pretty nice-looking resume, AK, as a man who

let me just say, does not revere fighters who miss weight, especially consistently. Did you even make a matchup for Christian Rodriguez? Because the AK I know would decline this option altogether. See, Rod.

You banned. You banned from onto the next one, sir. You banned. It was ridiculous. He didn't just miss like two times the contender series and now two in a row, and not just two pounds. He missed worse.

than last time. What's going on? What's going on? You can't... I don't know what's going on. I'm not going to go in on them. We've had stories that were people miss weight, and then we find out later that there's some pretty harrowing, like, personal circumstances behind the miss. So I'm not going to go in on Christian Rodriguez like that. But at the end of the day, there is... You sign on. You have to make the weight. And when you start missing this badly and start missing so consistently, essentially, you really just have to change divisions. We just talked about Michelle Padetta. He's missed weight before. He's had trouble making weight. He just lost a Wonderboy fight because he couldn't make weight.

And now he's back at 105 where he belongs. So for Christian Rodriguez, very talented fighter, like you said. Maybe if they had agreed on a 140-pound catchweight fight ahead of time, it wouldn't have made a difference, and he would have beaten Cameron Simon anyway. But that's not the case. It was a bantamweight fight. He missed by a lot. I don't know how much close he came to trying to cut the weight,

but I imagine they probably made the decision pretty early to just start rehydrating and recuperating. I don't like that. I don't like that kind of gains are shipped. I approve of cheating in almost all aspects of combat sports, my best friend, but not when it comes to weight cutting. Unless we're talking about grabbing towels, which I find hilarious. So that I approve of. But if the cheating works, then I approve.

But if you're just going up there and making a fool of yourself on the scale, that you ban, you ban, Christian Rodriguez, your band. But, I mean, you could make a case that it did work here. He won. And he did get him. He gets an extra check. He's leaving Vegas an extra check. Okay. And it's not like he.

he's making like 80 and 80 here. He's probably making 12 and 12. So he's just like, okay, I'll forfeit 25% of my show money. And then I'll just win. And then I still get the extra check. And like I lose 25% of very little. So he did the math. He did the math.

It's not, I mean, it's, it's bad, but it's kind of smart too. And I was talking to somebody about this last night. It's time to change the penalties. It should be 25% of, It should be 25% of the entirety of your purse. If you win, like, if you miss weight and win, 25% of that win of the combined total should go to your opponent. Then this shit ain't going to happen anymore.

It's just not. And I also love the idea of just an automatic point being deducted. I love that concept. And if it leads to more draws, I don't care. There should be more draws. How about this? How about this, Mike? Listen to this.

No purse penalty. But guess what? No win bonus. Oh. God. And hey, UFC, I'm trying to, UFC should like this idea. I'm trying to save you money. So there you go.

Wow. That's good. Corporate. UFC corporate, if you're out there. No, I mean, I don't know. I hate taking money away from fighters. It's such a gross thing to do. So that's not the best solution.

But yeah, I think you're right. There has to be some sort of change. Make way. Just make weight. Just make way. I ban Christian Rodriguez as well from banning him fights. I'm not banning him all together. And this is out of love, by the other. I'm not banning him.

Yeah, no, I get it. I get it. Yeah, we're doing this. This is a tough love for a really talented fighter. Am I saying Christian Rodriguez is going to be a forever featherweight? No, but his next fight absolutely has to be at 145. So, we're going to have young Christian Rodriguez take a little trip out of the country. He's going to turn around relatively quickly.

He's going to go up to Canada, okay? He's going to go up to Toronto. He's going to fight a Canadian. A man who needs to win badly. his name is Gavin Tucker. So we're going to do Christian Rodriguez versus Gavin Tucker at UFC 297. That's what we're going to do. That's your featherweight debut.

You make weight. You win this fight. You look good. We'll give you another shot at 135. But this is what you got to do first. What do you think? I like that. I would love, yes.

I agree should go up to 1405 at least once. Gavin Tucker, Towns guy, but a little up there in age, very winnable fight for young. Christian Rodriguez. Yeah, this is the right kind of slap on the wrist. Just like a slap on the wrist, but also, again, could be beneficial for him. He could get a highlight real win. He could be really tested again against a solid veteran. I like it.

Like, you're kinder than I am. You've given him, I want to throw him right into jail. You are giving him, you know, parole. He's on probation. He's on probation. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you from festive and cozy fashion to luxe beauty and fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point.

Visit our Holt's holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. 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. Well, let's go to the wildcard round, AK. We will matchmake for a fighter we have not matched made for, and we will matchmake for them right now.

So, AK, I assume you do not choose a women's bantam weight competitor. I thought about it. But I did not. Okay. Good. So still the non-Friends free. Wildcard Street continues up. There was no way. There was no way we were going to be friends forever in this one because I went outside the box again, Mike.

Wow. Yes. Because I'll tell you a fight that we need to see. Edgar Chiris, Daniel Lacerda. We don't know. They said it was a non-weight cut related medical issue on Daniel Lacerda's side, which is why the fight was canceled. Both guys made weight. It was a catch weight bout. They agreed to a catch weight because there was such a quick turnaround.

from their last fight, which ended with the, you know, a jump referee, as Chris Tione, I think, jumping the gun on a guillotine choke. And so they said, you know what, no contest, run it back, like two weeks later. Don't worry about the weight cut. Both guys coming in, 1.30, around 1.30-ish. They both weighed in, both made it. And then we found out after the belt was canceled anyway.

So I'm going for the, I think, I don't think you give up on this one yet. I don't think, give it one more shot. Give it one more shot. Edgar Chires needs a chance to have a fight that isn't, weird. Daniel Listerner needs a chance to get a win or, as I keep saying, possibly become the first fighter to go 0 and 6 in the UFC with all finishes, which is just so exciting. Or 1 in 6 or 0 and 5.

Either way, the only person who goes all is five or more UFC fights all by getting finished. And I know we've kind of beaten this narrative to death ever since this fight was first booked. But until it's resolved, I'm going to keep kicking this horse because I really want to see it. I want to see it done and finish with. I just feel so bad for Edgar Chiris because I was reading. I forget who tweeted this. I don't want to like ignore it.

Maybe it was Rarigo del Campo. I think it was Ruego, yeah. Who says that it takes him like, it takes Edgar Chavez like eight weeks to get to that point. He's had to do it. He's had to make that weight cut twice. One was one to fly away. One was catch way to one 30, but still a lot of work for this guy to get down there. So it's got to be a tough sell for him.

So I kind of get it from that perspective. but yeah, it's the rematch. It's the only rematch the world was clamoring for coming out of Nochay UFC. So I hope you're right. I did not go that direction. Melissa Dixon, who may just find herself as a consensus ranked bantam weight in the MA fighting goal rank. It kind of just kind of has to be after this performance.

I don't know how you're going to feel about this one. I don't know how you're going to feel about this one. Don't you dare. Don't you dare. I want to see it so bad. I have to see the swipe. Very fun fighters getting after it, probably in the same place. Both will probably be ranked in the UFC Bannonweight rankings come Tuesday.

A woman who you felt was robbed of an opportunity to fight for a world championship. It's Melissa Dixon versus Josiani Nudas, AK. That's the fight to make. You have to do it. And it's going to be a banger. Whatever gets Josiani back in there, I guess I'm happy because I have a feeling that they don't have a lot of plans for the Bacon's featherweight title, which is just ridiculous.

She's right there. You go from Nunes to Nunes. It's not hard, guys. How about her and Dixon for the Bacon? You know what? There you go. Bacon for the Bacon featherweight title. Screw it.

What are we doing? There's a belt that's right there. Let's go for the grabbing. That fight would be more fun than almost any other option you could put out there right now. That's a real. We're cutting weight. Most Dixon's like, is going to complain. I mean like, oh, that's weird.

You're putting a featherweight title fight. I make extra money and I don't have to cut an extra 10 pounds. She's like, yeah, let's do it. They're not going to do it. But they should. I'm not against, it's a good matchup. Like, it's a good matchup. Yes.

Did anyone scream that they wanted auto points this week? Yeah. And I'm going to go. I'm going to get a shout out. Yeah. I sincerely doubt this to the only person. But again, I haven't, I've been keeping a little American records. It's been a little sketchy.

So I'll go, Liam Perry, because I tell people, if you want a point these days, just remind me. Just remind me. And I will double check. to see by a record of other people calling for it, but I couldn't find this. Liam Perry a while ago, after Alonzo Menafield won his last fight said he wanted him to fight the Dustin Jacoby, Kennedy and Zuchuku winner. Jacobi beat Enzachuco, and Menofield v. Jacoby has been booked. I didn't write down for when I forgot for that fight is upcoming.

So there you go. Liam Perry, I'm giving you a point, sir. Nice. Do you want to give the disclosure for the list of picks? Yes. As we just mentioned, guys, you know, you can get a point. point if you're the only one who has a pick very hard to do these days please avoid these very common mistakes wrong weight class people who have fought already significant and recent and

significant injury uh fighter who's been released fighter already booked easiest one to check so if you're reading guys please look up if someone has a fightbook and uh people who are notable close friends or teammates etc and also your pick just might be do-do and we don't want to read okay we're going to play a game within the game okay we're going to do listener picks pretty good pretty good there is one, there is some do-do. Just one, one do-do pick. And normally we would let this slide, but there's no way I can let this slide.

So as I read off said listener, you have to say yes or no whether this listener delivered the do-do pick, all right? A game within the game. You open answer after every pick? No. When I say, all right, let's go to this person who submitted picks. You'd be like, this person did you do. submitted the doo-do pick or this person or not.

Okay. No hints. No hints. Okay. Thick be. Haven't heard from him in a hot minute. Is this the one who delivered doo-do? Oh, you want me to guess before I hear what the picks are?

Yep. You'll know as soon as you hear it that it's different. You'll know as soon as you hear. Okay. No, no, I don't think so. You are correct. Edson Barbosa versus Lorone Murphy. Sadeek versus Danny Gay.

Martinez-Munoz, very popular pick. Pereira versus Jackermanson. Searod versus Farid Basharat, if he can make weight. Elkins versus Gabriel Miranda. McKinney versus Malarkey. Gutierrez versus Lappalus. Vee v.V. versus Creonez-Silva. Robbie Ryan, is Robbie Ryan the man with the doo-doo this week?

Hold on. Those picks you res, red, sounded very familiar me. I just want to make sure I don't reread. I think they hit me up on Twitter under a different account. Anyway, I'll figure that. Who's what? Robbie Ryan? Robbie Ryan. Do I think Robbie Ryan would do such a thing?

I'm going to say, no, not Robby Ryan. Let's find out. Viviani Arrugio versus Macy Barber. Jonathan Martinez versus Dominic Cruz. Vichel Pereira versus the Aboos Manga Madoff, Kyo Baralia winner. Wildcard Chris Gutierrez versus the Ricky Simone, Mario Batista winner.

No doo-doo. We are do-do-do for. free. All right. Four Corner Sports, okay. Is Four Corner Sports the delivery, the deliverer of DoDoo? Oh, okay.

This is tricky because he sent to me as well. And I'm trying to remember if there was do-do and I just deleted it. I don't think so. No. No, right? No, Four Corner Sports and why I think is okay, right? Let's find out.

Christian Rodriguez versus Jack Shore. I'm moving up to, moving up to featherweight because Rodriguez is missing weight multiple times. Ridiguez looks like he was so huge compared to Simon, got to be professional, make weight. So Rodriguez versus Sherwood 145. Darren Alkins.

To Canada versus Kyle Nelson. Yep. You have C-297. Good fight. Chris Gutierrez versus Montel Jackson. Rebook it. Emily Dakota versus Elise Reed. Terrence McKinney versus Mike Davis.

Oh, my God. You, please book that fight. Please book that fight. Can I argue against it? Against McKinney versus Davis? I'm going to guess. Sure. I don't, I,

Teres McKinney, I think he's good. I think he's very good. I have said before, I think I, I'm sure I've said some show. I think he'd be top ten. But I get so much joy over just watching him annihilate overmatched, late notice opponents.

I know we won't be talking about him beating up Brendan Marat and Mike Redden, whatever, a year from now. We might be watching the highlights, but I think a lot of people will struggle to pull the names of Brendan Morat and Mike Breeden. out of their, and both guys, I believe, were short-nosed. Or was Mike Breed and Terrence McKinney jumped in a short-nosed to fight him?

I don't know. Either way, they were not adversely, yeah, they were not adversely scheduled matchups. It's just Terence McKinney, you know, ending up with a fight out of nowhere. And he's lost these fights, too. I'm looking at his last five fights, and they were all against people with either, like, one or two UFC fives or making the U.S. to debut. I don't know, like, I don't know if I care about booking him with notable, like, meaningful names, which is to say any, I wanted, there's no, no, I wanted to keep fighting people without

Wikipedia entries. There you. I think that's the nicest way I can say it. Because it's just, it's so, he's so clearly, like, a step above, you know, this, the, the cannon fodder, uh, he'll knock, like, none of these guys that are just debuting or the bottom, like, tier of the light of lightweight can last, like, more than 90 seconds with him. But I don't know if he's good enough to really threaten for a top 15 spot anymore.

I've recalibrated him in expectations. He looked very good in that Drew Dober fight for a minute. So I think we're hanging our hat on that and also, again, his super exciting wins. But that is my only thing is I don't know if I care to put him in a like competitive matchup. I think I just want to see him keep squashing people. I understand. Fair. Kevin has two picks that are different.

Are any of those two picks do do? I don't think so. Christian Rodriguez versus Kyler Phillips. Michelle Pereira versus Gregory Rodriguez. That's fun. I saw that, yeah. How about Dad Jackson, is Dad Jackson the deliverer of doo-doo? He's been doing really well.

He's been called out, almost banned on the program. He's been doodoo-less for a hot minute. It has to be. He sends me the picks too, but I did not look at them. I've gone out of my... Dad Jackson, I'm sure you're a fine fellow. I do not look at your picks. I'm just like you know now, but I think he is the doo-do deliverer.

Terence McKinney versus Michael Johnson. Darren versus Hakeem Dawdo. Michelle Pereira versus Joe Pfeiffer. Edson Barbosa versus Nate Landware. I like the Marab call-up by Jonathan Martinez, but I don't know if that happens. Wouldn't mind seeing him versus Chris Gutierrez. Do-doo.

So much do-do. Those two are like the best of friends. They both had the same guys in their corner. They both leg kick all the time. It's basically the same guy. And we have issued this warning multiple times. on the show. How could you...

They talked about it on the broadcast like 500 times last night. This is doo-doo. Personify. Yeah. We tell people... We double... It is hard sometimes to keep track of like who trains together

and whose friends and stuff. Because you and I have made a mistake like that before on the show, I'm sure. But we've also made the rule like, if... Look at the corners. What was the really bad one? What was?

It was like Grant Dawson and... Was it Grant Dawson? Like, he had someone in his corner and they like matched up. Like, someone was like... Oh, yeah. Shoot. Shoot.

Tiago Moises. That's it was. And they're like, he was in his corner. Like, we were like bashing them up. The Gerald Mearshar sharp Brennan Allen fight. So like that, we're pretty lenient because, again, we make the mistake too. But if you are watching the fight and you see a shared corner or them, one fighter, literally in the other fighter's corner, please don't match these individuals up together. That just seems like a small ask.

Yeah. Like, Gerald Mearsharth does interviews with, like, with Brennan's. Reebok jersey hanging in the background. So he's clearly not going to fight Brendan Allen. This is, at this point, Gutierrez, Martitas is absolute unequivocal doo-doo. And that's it. It's too, it's too much. But that's the only doo-do.

It's not terrible doo-do. We've had way worse. We've had way worse to do. Chris London closes out. Barbosa versus Brian Ortega, Yusuf versus Lorne Murphy, Aroujo versus Lauren Murphy. Maybe we do this on the same card. Lorne, Lauren. There you go.

Martinez versus Song Yudong. Chris is with you there. McKinney versus the Elvis Brenner Rebovich winner. That's good one. I like that. I like that. Yes, that's the tier I want. Gutierrez, Montel Jackson rebook, and T.G.

Golly. I've already gotten that. T.J. Brown versus Free Agency, worst IQ ever. There you go. Those are the picks. Tough dive for T.J. Brown. I do hope we see that Gutierrez Jackson fight, fight rebooked. I really want to definitely. I think that's the best option. Have that it, my best friend.

All right. Again, some of these, I think, some people send to both of us so I can skip over those. I'll go, let's go to Instagram first. We got a first timer. I think it was Instagram. Twitter? It doesn't matter. Darian, welcome to the show, sir. Welcome to the party pod. Excuse me. I should give more my formal greeting. And they only had one pick. They want to see Dillon Dennis fight Shavkat Rockmanoff. But Mike, do you see what I'm saying? People, they're still talking about him. They're still, whether they want to see him get absolutely wrecked or they want to see him or God help us.

Actually, people, again, think he's good and can win fights. They want to see weird stuff happen. And I don't know where he fights Shafcott, Rachmanov, even in grappling.

I don't even think, uh, I don't even think Danis wants that anymore. Why would he show up to fight him? Like what? Like, why would he show up to that fight? I didn't think,

I didn't think he'd show up to fight Logan Paul. So I guess, you know, we don't know anymore. Maybe, maybe this, this is a new era. I'm like of Dylan Danis fighting like two times a year in boxing and jujitsu and

MMA. Perhaps we are at the beginning of the Dylan Danesans, Denisissons. I hope not because I can't stand the guy, but I'm bracing myself for the worst. Oh, boy. At Mr. At Mr. Guy M. This is interesting. I don't know where this lands on my McKinney opponent's appropriateness scale.

McKinney versus Kurt Holliba. Yes. I like it. It's not a new guy, but he's kind of new back to the UFC. It's not a top, like, 40, it's not a top 30 guy, but it's not like a bottom 30 guy. It's a weird spot. It's someone who honestly could beat, I think could beat Terrence McKinney. I think maybe that's why I'm hesitating.

If Kurt Hollable gets out of the first round, he wins. Yeah, yeah, maybe, yeah, yeah. Mr. Guy M.A., Michael suggests, what do you think about Barbosa versus Dober at 155? Sure. I love it, but I just don't know if Barbosa ever wants to go back there. I love that fight. That's fun. Because I want to say McGeci still.

I haven't given up on that. They didn't fight it 155 ever? Bobosa and Geci? No, Barbosa and Dober. I don't. Oh, no. No, you're right. They had to be at some point, though.

Perhaps, yeah, I got a lot of that. The substance dutu there. Gelato Halepeno, Michel Pineda, versus Nassardine Imavov. Yeah, I think that's realistic. Dax, he says, if Paul Felder's coming back, he would love to see the Barbosa-Felder trilogy. I agree, I agree. Damn, that's great. I don't know if he comes back.

I don't know, but I don't know if that's what Felder wants to come back for. I feel like he'd want to come back for a fresh opponent. I don't know. I don't think so. You don't think so? It's a great matchup. Yeah, that's fun. UFC 300?

Both fights were good. Yeah. I like that pick a lot. Both fights are good. Both were super close. So well done there, Dax. And this name came up a lot. I don't know if I missed it, Mike.

Did people bring up Paul Hughes to you, Cage Warriors champion Paul Hughes? No, but he should get an opportunity. Yeah, I got a lot of filmmaking match for him. So this is the first one I'll read out. And he competes at 155 and 145. He won in a lightweight bout over the weekend. But he has won there. I think he held their interim or won their interim featherweight title recently.

So he competes both. So Dak suggests him versus Gavin Tucker. Paul Hughes, Gavin Tucker. It'd be a nice intro for him. Four Cornerswords and YU Red. Mitchell Robinson Stan, you read as someone else on Instagram, I believe. Don't need to read those again. Barry O'Reilly, what is up, my friend.

Ducote versus Harrogi, Melissa Dixon versus Jacqueline Copacante. I like this one, McKinney versus Manuel Torres. That's take the under. It's a take the under matchup I've ever seen one. Alkins versus Casares. This has never been booked? Does it never happen? Is there a reason?

Are they friends? No, I don't think so. Wait, were they both at? One's alf male, one's MMA lab. Was Casares never? Oh, Caceres was never at Alph-Mil? No, I don't think so.

He's an MA-A-lap guy. Okay. I like it. I can't believe they never fought. And Christian Regas up to 145 foot Morgan Chirier. Morgan-Sherrier. That would be a huge experience, like, gap. That'd be almost like a punishment.

But I don't know. Not that he couldn't beat Morgan Chirier, but that's interesting. And Barry also has a recommendation. Paul Hughes versus Eric Silva. So there you go. And Toby Kinsella, John and Martinez. and Sung-Yatong. McKinney versus Paul Hughes.

I love it. I don't know if it's the right fight for both guys right now. I don't mind it. Look, I think Paul Hughes is, I think Paul Hughes should be in the UFC. Yes. Of course, he should be in the UFC.

If they book him for the next year season, they've already screwed that up with one of the other guys. I was Chris Duncan? No, it was Chris, no, Chris Duncan? No. Um, shit. There's so many fights, man.

I don't remember, but they brought in a cage warrior. George Hardwick, that's what it was. George Hardwick. Yes, thank you. Yes. They bring him on the contender series and he just gets, he just gets run. And now he's not going to be in the UFC. Just bring him in. You go to London like twice a year.

Just do it there. Just do it there. What are we doing here? Paul Hughes they should bring in. Now, I have tampered my expectations with the Cage Warriors guys. Sure. I'm not saying they're bad. No.

But I think oftentimes, the talent gets overblown a little bit. I think that's pretty fair. In fact, I did like a little bit of a study that if you bet against Cage Warrior debuting fighters, you'd be feeling pretty damn good in the bank account right now. So I'd like,

like, it's just very, Paul's got something and a lot of these guys have something. It's just they get booked into like bad matchups right away. And no one else sees that, but like a couple of people. So, but look,

Paul has done enough to get his shot. Like, there's nothing more he can do in cageware. Like, I love Modestis Bacoscus. Love the guy. He's one of my favorite people in the sport. He's the nicest frigging guy. I'm so happy for him that he's back in the UFC. This guy's gotten two shots of the UFC before Paul Hughes has got one.

Yeah. I mean, let this dude cook. Give him a shot. If you go into London in March, Paul Hughes needs to be on the card. 1,000%. He deserves an opportunity. Do I think he's going to be a guy that? fights for a UFC title.

I don't feel that way right now. Would it shock me if he did? No. But I don't know if he's one of the best 45s or 55ers on planet Earth. Probably, he's definitely is in Cage Warriors. Is he, like, is Paul Hughes beating Calvin Cater right now? No. No, he's not beating that guy.

Is he beating Lorone Murphy? No. But could he beat maybe a Nate Landware, someone like top 25, top 30? It's possible. but give me a shot. Give him a shot. From guys outside of the UFC that I'm interested in seeing in the UFC, Paul Hughes is like top three on the list.

I want to see what he could do. So enough is enough. I don't want to see this dude fighting Cage Warriors ever again. Again, I agree wholeheartedly. It's time for him to get a step up for sure. I'll go to Instagram now. We've got a few here. Gerard Biaghan, Arrojo versus Barber.

Yeah, I'm into it. Tristan Gordet. Elkins versus Cornillo. Love it. Simon versus Domexier, a very solid. CV, Barbosa versus Yeyir? That was the first one that popped in my mind.

Mm-hmm. But no. I mean, Yai'er just fought for the title. He was just the interim champion, just lost to Volkanowski for the undisputed title. I'm not saying Barbosa, again, this is not a disrespectfully. That is a giant step back for him. You know what I mean?

Give me Yair versus Kater, man. It is. That's the fight I've wanted since Cater knocked out Jeremy Stevens. Like, just give us that fight. It's a great matchup. But you're right. Barbosa is essentially higher ranks

Nate Landbrer, as in like, I just want to see him fight everyone in the top 10. And I know those aren't going to happen. I love to see him fight Emmett, loves to see him fight Cater, loves him fight Eir, let him fight all these names we mentioned, Tporia, wink, wink.

But again, he probably ends up fighting Of the four names, we just mentioned, probably before it's done, probably only ends up getting like one of them before being honest, just the way featherweight moves and which sucks, but I would love to all those fights.

Barboza Cater is probably the right answer. If we could throw Edson Barbosa in like a healing tank and you could come out just fine and be ready to fight in two months. Because I think Cater's targeting the end of the year. He wants to fight before the end of the year. I don't know if that's possible, but end of the year or January and after that fight,

do I see Edson Barbosa bouncing back that quickly? to fight Calvin Cater, not really sure. So that's the thing for me. It's why I didn't go with that one, but all things considered, there's no rest period to worry about. Cater said I'm not fighting until April or May.

Then that would be my first choice. You know what I mean? Yes, I feel you. Sorry, I'm just reacting to something, social media stuff. Dylan Dennis is tweeting if you guys didn't. No. We don't need to get to that.

Let's get out here for our talk about more Dan. Oh, one more from CV. McKinney versus I think the ship is sail McKinney versus Pimblit when loser or Javre versus Ferguson I don't think

that's happening anytime soon it would have it would have been the fight to make like a year ago 18 months ago it's not gonna happen now I don't agree with that

oh you think it could still happen if Patty loses the Tony you have to make that fight oh yeah if he loses the Tony he's gonna get rinsed by Tony it's not gonna be like a split decision he is going to get his ass beat

if he loses that fight we'll see the truth he's going to lose that fight, but if he does, he's going to get wrecked by Tony Ferguson. So do that, then do that fight. Yeah, yeah, I think it's, I think that's my argument. It's not win-luser draw. I think it has to be. It's lost.

If he wins, yeah, if he wins, he's not. Then it's gone. That fight is gone. Yeah, that fights is never going to happen. M. Mayheads, uh, something we didn't get mentioned before, Michelle Pereda, and Fluffy Hernandez, uh, Dixon versus Vidal, Dukote versus Maratha, Lisboa, versus Rendonk, man, women's band, when it's cooking. And Tino Alvarez,

Tino Alvarez, we'll give you the last spot here. Ducote versus Carolina Kovakovich. I think Carolina is quite a bit ahead of her in their rankings now, so it's not impossible. I don't think by much. And the roster's pretty thin. If we're being honest, the roster's

pretty thin. So you really can't rule out any matchups between fighters that are like, you know, trending in the same direction. But I don't think. So I think Carolina can get another veteran or even one of someone in the top 10. McKinney, Chris Duncan. Oh, sorry, re-book it.

I like it. UFC 206. And this is one bantamweight matchup. I'll end on this. That I don't mind for C-Rod. Again, I did say he's banned, at least from 135 matchmaking. But I like this one a lot because this is essentially a, we're not moving you up the rankings and we're giving you a tough opponent that's quite a bit, probably further back.

Brady Houston. And I don't know if people think that maybe that's like, oh, just a kind of a layup for Christian Rodriguez. I think it's a, I like Brady Houston. I actually think I would favor Christian Rodriguez quite a bit, I think like at least minus 200. But I do think that's sort of a nothing to gain and quite a bit to lose fight for Christian Rodriguez.

So, Tino, I like where your head is out with that one. And I hope Christian Rodriguez gets things sorted out. I'll say that. Yes. Is that it? We're done? That's it, guys. Hit me up on the Instagram at Alexander KK.

Lee. Hit me up on Twitter at Alzander Klee and hit me up on email, alex.com. I don't know. I'm going to give mine because you don't need it next week because we got paper Oh, that's right. I shouldn't know. We're getting to live.

Send us DMs. Yeah, no DMs. No DMs. No DMs. Sorry. Only the live stream picks. We'll go live for a little, around an hour on Saturday. And we'll be refreshed too because early day MMA for the now much different UFC

294 event. We have Islam Makachap versus Alexander Volkanowski for the lightweight title in the main event. We have Kamaro Usman stepping in to fight Hamzat Shemayev in the co-main event. We have Magamette Ancaliah versus Johnny Walker in a pivotal 205-pound matchup. We have Ikram Al-Scaroff versus Worley Alvesh. Holy cow. We have Saeed Naramagamatov versus Bwin Gafferov. Tim Elliott versus Mohamed Bahaif.

Love that fight. Muhammad Yaya versus Trevor Peek. That's going to be crazy. Javid Bashar. versus Victor Henry. Love that fight. Sedrique Dumas versus Abu Azitar. Anshil Jubilee versus Mike Breeden. I think we kind of know how that fight's going to go.

Nathaniel Wood versus Mohamed Naimov. Love that fight. Jin U.Fri versus Victoria Dutakova. And Bruno Silva versus Sharabutin Magamadoff. That is UFC. That is UFC 294, AK. I'm very excited for this. One more question following UFC Vegas 81

that I think a lot of people are going to ask you based on some of the things you said about this card. Did we witness the final UFC appearance of Ashley Yoder last night? Oh my. Oh, yes. And I'm sorry. I left people hanging. I threw out a trivia question. Ashley Yoder fell to three and eight.

She's tough as hell. Ashley Yoder's tough as hell. I don't think she's ever, maybe she was finished once. I'm going to check real quick here. And she's hanging on. You know what, for whatever reason, she's hanging on. Maybe they like your grit. They like her fighting style.

All decisions, all her fight. Three and eight, all fights went to a decision. Has not been finished. So good for her. That's not easy to do. She's faced some good names in there. But three and eight. And assuming, yes, to answer your question,

I do think this has to be the end of the line. This is now three straight losses, five of six. And again, three and eight record overall. And it's not like she's putting in like Fight of the Night, bangers every time, like the fights have been okay. But if she finishes a career three and eight, Mike, she will only be the second fighter in UFC history to finish with such a record.

Do you have a guess, Mike, as to who the other, who the first was? It's a male fighter. And he also finished with one no contest. So three and eight with one no contest. I'm just ignoring the no contest. I can start dropping hints soon. Because I did leave people hanging. And I have to, I should follow up in the tweet today. Yeah, I'm not sure.

I don't know. Okay. Former Bellator fighter, middleweight. Had a very bizarre. Hector Lombard? Hector Lombard. There you go. Three and eight, won no contest.

Well done. Wow. That's it. Him and asked Yoder, a lustreous company. This is assuming Lombard never comes back and fights again and assuming that Yoder

is probably now parts waste of time, which I don't know. Who knows? If she has another fight in her contract, I don't know what her contract said is. It's the last. Man. Yeah.

If it's the last fight, obviously, I don't think they bring her back. If she has one left, they probably just let her fight it out. I don't see why they wouldn't. So the trivia question might not matter soon. But yeah, Hector Lombard, Ashter, the 3-N-A club, very illustrious. Remember how fun Belator Hector Lombard was? Yes.

It was so fun. I wanted to see him fight the U.S. So badly. I'm like, this guy's going to do damage in there. And then from his very first flight, everything was just so weird. Everything was weird. What a glorious time it was. And what a glorious time it'll be this week, ladies and gentlemen.

and UFC 294 Fight Week is officially upon us. We thank you very much for joining us. We hope we will join us again next week for a special live edition of On To the Next One for AK. I am Mycac. Always remember the golden rule, everybody. Don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun, and we will have more fun live next week right here and on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.