MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 83

Episode Date: December 10, 2023

Song Yadong and Khalil Rountree closed the final UFC Fight Night event of 2023 off with importan wins, and callouts for bigger fights, including the surging light heavyweight shooting his shot at Alex Pereira and a shot at the UFC light heavyweight title. Will either Song — with his callout of former bantamweight champ Petr Yan — or Rountree get what they want? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what could be next for Song following his main event decision win over Chris Gutierrez. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Rountree after stopping Anthony Smith in the co-main event. Nasrat Haqparast following his first-round finish of Jamie Mullarkey, Tim Elliott following his short notice opening-round submission win, Andre Muniz after putting an end to his two-fight skid in the main card opener, 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

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Available now, only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking crowns are back on for the second to last time in 2023, for the final time in 2020. 23 following a non-paper-view event. Yes, we're talking about UFC Vegas 83, and there should be an interesting one. The card was a roller coaster ride.

It's ups. It's had his downs. We saw Colleo Roundtree emerge as the show stealer of the event, and he did the thing with his call-out time with the microphone. We had a sweeping of the scorecards in the main event, but a performance in a fight, We probably will not watch a second time. And other matchups to be made as well following the UFC's return to the world's most famous Apex.

But I am I, Mike Hack, and joining me as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. Damn it, he's my best friend, Alexander K. Lee, AK, welcome back. Thank you, my best friend. Happy to be here. Happy to be doing this show with you in a very good mood. I'll tell everyone listening right away. They hear this for me a lot lately. I'll take a random fight night card off here and there,

just during the holiday season. I was at a lovely Christmas party in Uxbridge, Ontario the other night. And it was a good time. I don't regret it. I was keeping up with results, of course, watching the highlights. You know, I was somewhat invested in a few of the outcomes on this card. But judging by, again, highlights, M.AFlighton.com's excellent coverage and the usual running play-by-play in our Slack channel.

It was like, you know, like you said, there were some good moments, but I didn't miss. It doesn't sound like I missed up like a momentous occasion. No. I think you, now this holiday party you went to, what was the, what was the attire?

Was it, you know, dress up? Was it, was it sweater, like fun sweater style? What was this like? So this is interesting.

So it was like a normal, it's just normal. Just just, just dress, just whatever you want. No theme. But this Friday, I'm going to a,

like, wear pajamas, Christmas party. I got it. Wow. I was in Christmas. theme pajamas? Like wear like a onesy, I guess. I guess I meant to buy, I don't own one of those. So I guess just to go with the theme, I don't want to show up my actual pajamas, which seems,

which would just look, I don't know, bummy. I don't really have formal pajamas. I guess I'm just wearing, like, you know, I go to jogging pants and I don't know. I don't know if I actually own a formal pair of, like, dress pajamas or even Christmas themed pajamas. So yeah, so, no, the party I just went to normal wear adult clothes and then this Friday I did do a pajama thing. So I don't know. Interesting. Why do you ask? Good sir. I'm just curious. A little teaser. The watch party on Saturday, 6296 is going to be incredibly festive.

The cold open is incredible. I've already seen it, just to give you a little bit of a heads up. And I bought my holiday sweater for the watch party. It is freaking incredible. It is incredible. I'm so excited to unveil this on Saturday. It's so hideous, but it is the best. best, maybe the best holidays

what I've ever seen. And I found it, and I'm very excited to reveal it to all of you. It will be a happy, happy holiday, much like it will be for Song Yudong following his 50-45, 50-45, 50-44 unanimous decision win over Chris Gutierrez. A very weird fight, AK, it was a little

chess matchy at first. Chris Gutierrez started getting pretty heated at Herb Dean. he started to get heated at a random heckler in the crowd and inviting him into the octagon to fight him. He did the Eminari role in round five, knowing he was down four rounds. And while Chris Gutierrez had his moments on the feet

and started to kind of, I don't know if confused Song Yidong was the correct answer, but maybe frustrated a little bit. Song Yidong and Team Alpha Mille style just took Chris Gutier's down and put him on his back for about, I don't know, 12 minutes. Over the last three rounds to end the festivities, he sweeps the cards and then cuts the promo on Peodor Yan, who is aptly nicknamed Piotr Yon after his Yon emoji was on the

screen for like two minutes during Song Yon's post-fight interview. Pejor Yon's name has been thrown out quite a bit on this show over the last couple weeks, AK. It's a two-horse race right now coming out of UFC Austin and coming out of this event. So my question to you is, are you doing Song-Yadong versus Piotr Yon? Has, have you veered at all? I don't remember what you did for Figurato. And if not, where are we going?

No, I'm not, I went with Figgyon. I'm not veering away from that matchup. That's the matchup to make. It's excellent. And also, isn't, also, isn't Piota Jan fighting Connor McGregor? Didn't I hear about what was that? What was that? What was that?

What is some clip? He's like in Connors, where was this? I didn't actually see the clip itself. I have no idea, dude. If some show over in Russia, I assume, and Conn-Mregor is just like doing Connerner-Regov being hanging out. That was just like, like, we're- Why? 20-23 is the year of just random, just throw any two UFC fighters that are attending an event or someone, two people who have ever fought in the UFC and just face them off and get a moment. And it's not a bad idea.

It's not going to last forever, but right now stuff gets traction for some reason. We tell people to do the thing, you know, Mike, and we will, and certainly, well, as we get later in the show, there are people who. did the thing perfectly well. But also, if you're going to, like, sometimes the thing you do has to make some sort of sense. We can't just be doing things with no purpose, Mike. Am I, am I great? Like, I don't know, maybe that was a nice thrill for if you were there, if you were to see Peter Yon and Connor and Geregge face off, but why?

Just, I don't, I'm, why are you doing this? I have no idea. I was sticking with Yon and Figgie, so I had to find someone else for song. I'm going with, I. I thought I matched the name I picked before recently, but I don't think I have. I think I've been waiting for someone to sort of win these sweepstakes. If he's going to fight up, I think it has to be Marab. I think we have to go with him Marab.

I know it's, it's, song is, I get it, he's probably still not even quite in his prime yet. He's getting to his prime. He's already had a bunch of quality wins on his resume. People either forget or they don't want to acknowledge that he has that win over. over Chito Vera from a few years ago. It was a very close fight, and Cheeto is called the fight of robbery, and other Chito fans were called the fighter robbery.

I don't think it was that bad. I thought Song credibly won, but I get it. I get it, just why you'd probably want to run that back at some point. But other way, that's on his resume, and he's beaten other good fighters. He's, what, two losses in the UFC, I think?

So, yeah, there's a lot of names ahead of him, who either I don't think are going to get off the couch to fight him, and that, or already booked, or already have a very logical next opponent. So I think he has to land on Marab because Marab's going to want to fight soon and he's going to want to name. Oh, well, he doesn't care who he fights. Obviously, he wants Shauna Malley at some point, but that's not going to happen within the next three or four months. So he stays busy, May he books a fight with song.

It's tough. And, like, before you give me your song pick, the Gutierrez thing, him getting called up by some heckler. I still don't understand. So there is a limited amount of fans allowed in the Apex now? Like, are there tickets or is this someone from like songs team, do you think? songs or entourage, friends, family, team, et cetera, teammate, a teammate possibly that was, you know, S-talking. I don't know.

I don't know. Who's in there? Who's in there? Who is in there? Who is in the Apex watching these fights? So as I wrote on the live blog, the live blog for this fight, Joe Martinez got the dozens and dozens of people fired up inside the apex. So basically, I pull up Alex Bionin's tweet because he was in the building covering

the event. This is what he said. Chris Gutierrez just told someone in the crowd, F you, who whoever said that, someone replied, I said that. And Chris said, I bet you won't get in here and fight me. But Dan Igay has talked about having hecklers, like, heckle him when he fights at the apex too. So it wasn't surprised me.

I mean, but it's not random people. It's people from the other. It's like, it's friends and family and teammates of the other fighter. No, no. No, there's fans too. You can buy tickets to those. Oh, you can? They're super pricey, but you can buy tickets for that experience.

God, do people have too much money? What's going on? I feel so bad for Sond because this was, you know, UFC Shang Vegas was supposed to UFC Shanghai. And if he puts on the same before, again, I know it wasn't the liveliest win. I understand this. But if he puts on us, one, it wouldn't have been a five-rounder, I don't think, because he would have been the co-main probably, right?

I think we would have had a way. This is the main event from Jump Street. Yeah. I keep saying, I keep thinking, we'll never, what happened to Zhang and Jan? We just, we don't know why that fight couldn't happen. I don't know. Maybe they want it for pay-per-view instead. I don't know.

Okay, well, either way, if he puts on this performance in Shanghai, I think it goes down a little bit easier. I think you have that war of the crowd. They're probably still not thrilled with Gutierrez, like whatever's happening to Gutierrez in the last couple of rounds. But it just changes things so much. I think we'd look at it a little bit differently. I think you just have this moment with this a crowd there supporting their,

you know, clearly supporting one fighter. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it still gets, the performance still gets, you know, kind of pooped on. But, man, it sucks that it has to happen inside the apex. just terrible. Yeah. And it ain't going anywhere, guys. I'm sorry.

I hate to tell you, we're going to get a whole bunch. In fact, I think most of January and February is at the apex. This promotion used to go to Moncton. This motion went to Moncton once upon a time. And you're telling me this is never going to happen again

because it's so much more cost effective and logistically easier for them to just stay in the apex. That is a tragedy. I know. We had UFC Lincoln at one point. Lincoln. I mean, look, all these. All these small areas, like UFC Worc stuff could happen at some point.

They better go back to Sioux Falls. You're telling me they're never going back to Sioux Falls. Come on. They should. Yeah. This, look, winning is the most important thing. I get that. 100%.

We talked about it on the post fight show. This is a smart performance from Song Yirang. He did what he needed to do to get the win and he won. And he gets the second half of his paycheck. He gets to have a happier. holiday season for doing so. However, sometimes you just, it doesn't matter. You know what I mean? Like when you want the Peoriae fights and you want these big fights, whose performance is everyone remembering more? Figurados against Rob Font or Song Yodongs versus Chris Gutierrez,

even though Chris had an extra 10 minute or song had an extra 10 minutes. It's Davis a figurato. Like the buzz for Figgy versus Jan is still much higher than it was, than it is with this fight. I don't remember there being any buzz for Song versus John, even when someone misreported that fight as a thing, even though it wasn't a thing. There was like no, it was just like, okay, I get it. Like, sure, but no one was like clamoring for it.

And while Song did the thing, I just don't think it's enough. So Bannon Way is very weird right now. Rob was even on the post-fight show on the UFC. and said that he accepted a fight with Henry Sehudo. They're just waiting on the date. But again, you may not be wrong, AK. It is Henry Suhudo. You never know what's going to happen.

And maybe Marab just gets to the point where he's like, I don't care, I'll fight it, whoever. And maybe Song goes in there and takes the big opportunity. But I think he's going to have to fight backwards here. And I just think this would be fun, AK. I just think this would be fun. Let's go back in time a little bit to one of the more heated rivalries at 135. pounds. Dominic Cruz versus Team Alpha male versus Uriah Favor. I know Faber and Cruz have mended fences a little bit, but I mean, the build to

A Song Yidong versus Dominic Cruz fight would be a lot of fun. Like him, Cruz and Faber just kind of joking around with each other, somewhat serious, someone somewhat not serious. It would just be super compelling stuff. So I think the best song can hope for is this fight because it's the biggest name he can get. Cruz is coming off of a loss, but that doesn't matter. Rob Font would be fun, but Fon's lost two out of three. I don't know how much value that would hold for him right now and his rise up the ranks. So I just landed on Dominic Cruz.

I don't think he's going to get the on fight, okay? No, I don't think he is. I like the Cruz pick. If I were waving my magic wand, I'm going, I'm going to Cruz. I just, Cruz, where, oh yeah, we are over a year now since his last fight, August is 2022. Is he serious about competing or not? He's earned the right to pick his spots, okay?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not. Cruised doesn't have to fight anyone. It doesn't hurt his legacy if he doesn't fight again, any of these killers at 135, these up-in-combers. But if he's not going to retire and if he's going to keep, he's sort of keeping, you know, he's going to keep his name in the mix. If the U.S. he's going to keep his name in the mix, he's got to fight someone.

He's got to fight one of these guys. And if I'm him, I'm certainly viewing song as a winnable fight. It's not, he'll, he would be the underdog for sure, but I don't think it's crazy. I think songs may be in that matchup, uh, minus 150. I don't think, I don't think he'd be a super like favorite over Cruz. Maybe I'm on, maybe people have given up on Cruz, but, um, this makes a lot of sense for him. It's dangerous for sure.

It's a loss that if he took, it would, you know, get people talking about retirement again. It probably certainly get him thinking of whether he can keep up with this, you know, the newer, newer generation of, uh, 135ers. Um, but I really would like to see that. That would have been a nice call-out for song, but again, maybe they know better than to call out call for a fight with Domitruz because he fights on his own schedule and call out. It might be wasted if you try and call him out. So I hope this does happen, but I'm skeptical.

That fight in Miami would be good. Let's just load that Miami card up. If that's, UFC is not officially announced this, but that is, you know, what's been targeted. Just do a whole bunch of Bannamweight fights on that card. Just load it up with Bannamweight fights. Do a featherweight fight. Throw that in there. Like, just turn this event to like the lighter weight class. event. Fly weights, phantom weights, feather weights. Let's just do that. I would love that idea. And there's some good fights you can make for that card. But we'll see what happens for one song you dong. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new

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Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Let's go to the Colmate event. Kalee Roundtree. Talk about doing the thing, AK.

This guy did the thing. Competitive fight with Anthony Smith over the first 10 minutes. I thought the first round was really close. Second round, close. Competitive. Smith probably landed more, but Roundtree landed the more. impactful shots. And then we saw, I'm sure everybody has seen the knockout at this point,

lands the counter combination, Smith's on wobbly legs, collapses the ground. And Khalil Roundtree has the invisible Thor hammer ready to drop it on Anthony Smith, should he move in the wrong direction. And then the hammer just stayed up in the air as Mark Smith gingerly goes in and stops the fight. And Khalil Roundtree five in a row, AK, this guy just continues to impress. He picks up the biggest win of his career, then he gets the microphone, A.K. And he calls out Alex Pereira. He did the thing. He did the thing. And it makes sense. It makes sense because the biggest storyline heading into this card was, man, if Anthony Smith beats Khalil Roundtree, he might get a freaking title shot because of how timing could work out. Roundtree ain't wrong.

Fans would love to see it. This would not be a paper-re main event by any stretch of the imagination. but if this is like a co-main event on a pay-per-view, you think anyone's going to complain about that? I don't think so. The question is whether or not he gets it. And this is where things get weird. I feel like he needs a lot to go in his favor. He needs Magamemad Anka Laif to beat Johnny Walker

in the most boring fight of all time. Like that's what he needs to happen. If Johnny Walker wins. Or Walker. Oh, you think Walker will get it if he beats, if he knocks, if he chaos. I think if he chaos, Enkolaif he would get it. Yeah, they're going to make that fight for sure. Or you could just mix up the whole bunch and have some real fun.

We do Anklea versus Rackich, you know, two guys who like to do the takedowns and kind of do what song, you know, he did. Nothing wrong with that. And then you could do Khalil Roundtree versus Johnny Walker. Let's just mix up the whole damn bag. But I don't think they're going to do that. So I end up going with the Roundtree with Roundtree versus the Walker Ancolaif loser. That's what I'm going with. I feel like Angalive's going to win

and I don't think it's going to be all that thrilling and I still don't think he's going to get the title shot which means crystal ball wise I'm going Khalil Roundtree versus Johnny Walker and sign me up for that AK what do you got? Wait, so why aren't you pulling the trigger

on Roundtree and Padeta? I just don't think it's going to happen. I just don't think it's going to happen. I'm just trying to think how this works. Do you do it at UFC 300? Is that like the featured fight of UFC 300?

Doesn't seem like a UFC 300 fight. And if they, if Pereira doesn't fight till May or June, at that point, you might as well just wait for Jamal Hill to come back if you gotta wait another two months. You know what I mean? So like, for this to happen,

Pereira needs to fight like in the next three months. He needs to fight at the latest UFC 300. and the UFC has to make this fight, like already put it on the card, or Khalil Roundtree is like the first alternate. And if they book like Pereira versus somebody else and the opponent falls through,

maybe you slide Roundtree in there. I just don't know. Like Smith, I think there's more buzz potential, more headlining potential. Cleo Roundtree is, dude, just killing it. Great fighter, super fun to watch. The problem is nobody outside of the hardcore MMA space knows who this guy is.

This guy, he just fights at the apex. He fought in Nashville against Dustin Jacoby, and a lot of people thought Dustin Jacoby won that fight. So, but other than that, he just, he fights at the apex. He delivers the goods, but he's an interesting guy. He's got a great story, but nobody knows who he is. So, like, in a perfect world, you do Connor Chandler, UFC 300. You do, like, another big title fight in the Comain,

and then you do Pereira versus Roundtree as, like, the feature bout. And let's get Roundtree on people's radars. Like, let's get to know. him. But either way, Cleo Roundtree's next fight needs to be on pay-per-view and it needs to be on a main card and he needs to be at a press conference. He needs a promotional push. It's time. This win has solidified that it's time to give this guy a push and see what he could do. I just don't think he's going to get the title shot, man. I just don't think he's going that knockout should have been in front of people. It should be going super viral. I found the

OCI pushed that knockout as much as I can. We just did the damn. They were good on Mark Hunt, talk about walk-off chaos. This was like a walk-forward. It wasn't a walk-off. And very necessary. It wasn't like he was like styling on him. It wasn't he was like walking forward like bark. He's like barking to Anthony Smith. He's like he's, like he's got the Thoris hammer raised, the Mjolnar. And he's like, Mark, I'm going to hit him again, Mark. I'm going to hit him. Mark, I'm going to hit him. And Mark is all right, all right, all right, fine. Don't hit him. Don't hit him. I'll wave it off. It was, it was a walk forward. You just don't see that super often. We've seen the walk off by, you know, Mark Hunt, the best of it. Some other fighters pulled it off.

We've seen the, you knock the guy down, you dive in and probably throw, you know, unnecessary ground and pound. It's rare you just see the march forward. And it could have worked out. It could have, like, not worked out for, for Roundtree. Maybe Anthony Smith recovered. I don't think he was recovered from that shot anyway. Maybe he recovers and, you know, you pay for it because you didn't follow up.

But he had a great sense of the moment talking about Cleo Roundtree. Good for him. So hopefully that image of him, just that fist raised, menacingly in the air, hopefully that does get some play but you're right he's a bit far off from mainstream recognition I am going of course with the pedda fight because I think I went with Jamal Hill when Prera beat Uri it's just sort of hoping that whatever Hill can be healthy soon enough and that don't wait too long for that fight but Hill's stupid legal situation just everything with him in general it's a lot of it's up in the air that's a pretty serious injury he's suffered too

and he's a great athlete. I'm sure he can bounce back from him, but I don't know how long we're not to wait. So I'm going to throw my own pick out the window. I'm changed the roundtree in Padera. It's what I wanted. I remember when we said when Perre was going up, I really wanted to fight Roundtree instead of Yon.

I think it would have led him on the same path, honestly, if Padetta had beaten Roundtree. I still think they would have given him the Uri fight, but it didn't happen. Instead, you know, grinded out a tough win against Yon, but I don't want to lose out in that fight. I still want to see Khalil and Panetta. I still want to see it happen.

I'm happy to see it happen next. Khalil, you're the, you're the glory, you're the glory, kickboxing, slaying of all. So let's do it sooner rather than later. I've seen no reason to wait. Sorry, Ankleyev, sorry, Johnny Walker, sorry, Rockich, sorry, whoever fights rackage at 297, if that they're able to keep, keep them on there. But I think Roundtree can jump over both them, yes, as a co-made event title fight. I mean, I hope they do it. I hope they do it.

I love it. I love it. I just don't think they are. is what? He's 30. He's not super old. He's probably got a few, plenty of good years left in him. But I don't know. I don't know if he's ever going to be, yeah, one more win could make him hot. I was going to say, I don't know if he could ever be hotter or be right. It's not like he's white hot right now. He's just, he's gaining. He's only now gaining recognition for this run he's on and some of these knockouts he's had. So yeah, he's not like super hot right now. But I'd love to see it next. I say just do it. His next fight's going to be a big one. There's no doubt about it. It will be a big fight. He might be. Apex. Not at the apex. Please. Unless it's a main event.

Unless it's a main event, but even then, I think he needs to be on a paper, like on a stacked pay-per-view card. But, man, I really wanted to see that. I was about Merzikana fight, but now Merzacanov's kind of in the dust right now with what Kalil-Rondri just did. Everyone's talking about him coming out of this card. So great win for him. We'll see what happens.

Real quick, let me just say this. I don't care what happens at UFC 297. The next fight for Anthony Smith is Dominic Reyes. That's it. He's fighting Dominic Reyes. This fight needs to happen. What if Reyes gets annihilated? Shouldn't he just retire?

No, he should fight Anthony Smith. Come on. He should fight Anthony Smith. We could do a gimmick. We could do a career ending match. I'm cool with either, but I have to see that fight. At this point, they should have made it anyways. If I see Dominic Reyes get just smoked in two minutes by Carl Zolberg again, I don't want to see him fight again.

I'm good. I can't do it, Mike. I can't do it to the Dominic Rays anymore. Well, let's move on. we dive deeper into what an Anthony Smith-Dominee grace fight would look like. Nazarad Hackparas, A.K., look at this guy. All of a sudden, three-fight win streak for Nazrat. Dude is just on one right now, just quietly amassing a nice little windstreet.

Gets a finish of Jamie Malarkey in the first round after a fun fight in his most recent appearance against Christian Kinyonis. Nasrat Hachperas, just doing the damn thing right now, AKet. Landon Kiannones. Lindenonis. Chris, you know, I get that mixed up. Veteran, Glennick, you know. How dare you? Yes, my apologies.

A little bit of doo-doo. This will not be the last time you hear a doo-do on this program. But, uh, AK, what are we doing next for Nazaret Hackparas after his hockey fight, knocko, which I dug very much. Yeah, it's a good run. It's like, I did not predict him to knock out malarkey. I think I had, I actually had a malarkey upset, like, decision or something. But, boy, hackprass looked good.

I think I wasn't, like, sold on the last two wins. because, you know, John McDessie kind of on his way out of the UFC. Landon, it was a good win, but Landon looked, was pretty competitive in that fight. And Landon was also making his UC debut, I think on short notice. So I was like, has Nasrat really turned the corner? And, you know, Malarki's not like an incredible like top 20 win either. But it's good. He got to finish three straight.

Can't deny it. You know, he's getting in there. Talk about Nazrat getting the job done. So, okay, I throw this name out a lot. lot and I actually just did for, I wanted this guy to fight Drew Dober, but Dober just apparently won the Money Moikano

sweepstakes. So, you'll hear it again, I'm picking out Diego Faheda. He's got a fight again sometime soon, right? Sometime 2024, so I think him and Huckpressed a good fight. I still have Faheda ranked pretty highly, like top 20, top 25. I'm sure people have dropped him for an activity,

but I still consider him to be, I know he's up there in age too. I still consider him to be one of the tougher lightweights and that's for me as a logical test for Nazareth and a way for him to kind of creep up the rankings. While Nazarad is somewhat far away from a title shot, even though he's on a three-fight win streak, he may be closer to Dracar Close, which is what I'm going with. Dracar Close is coming off a nice knockout win of his own against Joe Selecki a week prior with the power bomb to the side of the face against Joe Selecki.

yeah, let's do Nazar v. Drakar close. I like that idea. I know Jachar called up B'Neal Daryush. I don't think he's going to get that fight. Although I'd love to see those two guys fight again because that fight is absolutely insane. Let's do Nazar v. Jekar. I like that one. I think it works out well. And two guys who have probably who are good and probably have somewhat underachieved based on what they could do, but still have time to hit that mark that people sort of had for them. So I kind of like this matchup. So I end up going with that.

Yeah. I close was my wildcard pick last week. So I had him getting Grant Dawson trying to move close up. But this makes a lot of sense. I would not be surprised if within the next two weeks, hack press management, closest management were, you know, contacted by the UFC and like this spell was proposed.

It's just the timing just works out and where they are in the rankings and even their styles and it could make for a fun fight. AK in the sport, there's a lot of intangibles, right? It's about fight style. It's about. Being business savvy, it's about doing the thing. But it's also about risk management.

I don't think they've talked about enough. And boy, oh boy, did Tim Elliott just jump in at the right time? Maybe the risk management wasn't great for Anthony Smith. I think the reward would have been great, so I don't blame him for taking that fight. But Tim Elliott, less than a week's notice, jumps in to fight Sumadherjee. And he just, he did Tim Elliott things. Just a, he just dusted him up, put him to sleep with an arm triangle. Tim Elliott just doing the damn thing.

The Wiley veteran, I think that was his 34th professional thought. 36 years of age. About to turn 37 on Christmas Eve. Nice win. He had a great performance against Muhammad Mikhail. I believe on two of the judges scorecards, he's up 20 to 18 on those cards. And Tim Elliott could be put in a different spot right now.

Dude is just a tough off for anybody. I think he's a very important piece to this flyweight puzzle, which is why I'm going to match up Tim Elliott with a youngster who also competed on this card and delivered the goods. It is time for a step up in competition for one Tatsuro Taira

and let's just throw him to the vet. Let's throw him to the grizzled vet and let's see what he could do. Tim Elliott versus Tetsuro Taira is my choice. I hear music. Do you? I hear a familiar tune. Oh, I hear.

I hear guitars. I hear a keyboard. I hear A.C. Slater on the drums. One, two, three. Friends. Friends forever. Boom. Yeah.

That's the way to go. I think it's Tim Elliott. There's always a ton of options. He's one of those guys. He fights up in commerce. He fights other veterans. He fights rank guys. But this is what it came down to.

I think we all see big things for Tessor or Tyra. We all want to see him get a main card fight. And him and Elliot is definitely a main card fight. That's on pay-per-view. That's a fight night. that's an apex card, whatever. It's a main card fight. I'd be very shocked if we saw that in the prelims.

And it's time. And if, again, Tyra loses Tim Elliott, no shame in it. Tim Elliott has been in this game much, much longer than Young Tyra. And if Tyra beats him, I think we already have him in the rankings. I'm pretty sure the UFC does too,

but I might push him. I don't think he's ranked in the UFC rankings. No, really? I don't think he is. Interesting. He's in our rankings. He's in our rankings. I think we actually have one spot ahead of Tim.

Oh, no, just one spot behind or something, but maybe not after we'll see we'll see after our next update but yeah it's a great matchup i also consider a bit of a ultimate fighter rematch with match shell i think that'd be fun i'm surprised that i'd love that was in 2018 20 or maybe further back 2017 2017 but yeah i would love to see chnell and elli to fight again i also thought uh uh oolumbeckov cody durton winter they're fighting at 296 but uh yeah i think tyra's more interesting in both those guys and hopefully they make that happen and you know tim elli is not afraid of anybody like i said he just fought macaa of. So he's thinking he's worried about a matchup with that star, Tyra. Yeah, let's do this.

Yeah, I know he's supposed to fight David Devorak. I think a lot of people want to see that rebooked, but now after that performance, just folding Carlos Hernandez with punches, like, let's go. I want to see what he could do. And like you said, he's young enough, is skilled enough that if he loses Tim Elliott, there's no shame in that. A lot of people lost to Tim Elliott. It happens. Like I said, I'm high. I've had a tough time with Tim Elliott. If he didn't get that finish in the third round, he probably loses that fight. So I love it. We'll see what happens.

Let's move on to the main card opener, AK. Who would have thought that a year and a half ago, Andre Muniz, a guy that we were saying, I mean, we ranked him incredibly high in our rankings, even after the Uriah Hall fight. This guy has just slid under the radar in terms of potential middleweighty middleweights. So many comments on the post-vite show asked, if Andre Monez is a middleweighty middleweight. The performance last night, he's definitely in play at worst.

But he more importantly than anything, A.K. Andre Monez snaps a two-fight losing streak. I thought it should be three fights if we're being honest. The Iron Turtle won that fight. But Andre Monez back in the wind column, maybe vying for that middle-weighty, middle-weight title. What are we to go with Andre Monez right now? This is what happens when specialists start rounding out their skill set. This is what happens when jiu-jitsu specialists become mixed martial artists, especially at middle-weight. They become middle-weighty middle-weighted.

I don't want Andromy's to be a well-rounded mixed martial artist. I'd want him to just grapple people to death. And if win or lose, just to have that beer. This is like what happened to Talas Laitis once upon a time. Talos Latees was also a grappling specialist. And then he kind of was, I shouldn't say. He never really rounded out of this game. But you could see him trying to mix the martial arts more, you know, and he eventually got an unlikely world title shot.

And Talas Lacey's is one of the all-time middle-winning middlewates. You go back and watch his Anson Silva fight and then everything after that. So good for Monez, gets the win, gets back in the wind column, very important. Yeah, I don't know, probably not the most definitive victory. I think he's just, he just gets, what had you? Oh, Roman Deleisei Nasserini Ema, Mavov, a winner. They're fighting on February 3rd. I know people might view them as a little more intriguing as prospect at 185.

But neither guy, they're both coming off losses. So it's not like either guy gets that win. Is it going to shoot up the rankings? They're just trying to write the ship in their own ways. So Moonez just did that. I think he gets one of them. And we get even deeper into one of these guys, getting into the middleweighty, middleweight division.

It's not a pretty picture, but I don't know if people want from us for picking a fight for the main card opener in the situation. I went similar direction, but maybe like a step back from that. Chris Curtis is fighting Mark Andrejadry Barial at UFC 297 give him the winner of that Sure Give him the winner of that

That's fine with me Especially if MAB wins Like MUNYs versus MAB Could be the actual middleweight Middleweight title fight Even though MAB's been pretty fun lately He still He still oozes that middle weighty middleweightness

That we admire him for And I don't know We'll say Congratulations Chandri Munez Let's go to the wild card round AK let's select a matcher for a fighter you have not match made for yet and do so right now. My original pick was going to be Anthony Smith versus Dominic Reyes.

I didn't ultimately decide to go with that. But, AK, what did you land on for your UFC Vegas 83 wildcard selection? I actually did go with Anthony Smith here. I like him in OSP. There's other veterans you could pick out. I like him in OSP, just one of those. Wow, these guys have both been in MMA forever and have somehow not fought each other. So that's interesting to me.

I also throw out, Mike, is there a chance? Probably he's lost this opportunity. Is there a chance they would pick he sits and waits and is the welcome back fight for Jamal Hill? Who? Anthony Smith? Anthony Smith. No. No, we can't do that. We all remember they were booked to fight before the Glover de Shera fight happened for Jamal.

I do think at this point, obviously, Jamal would just smash Anthony Smith. but I don't know. I feel like Anthony Smith has earned this with the U.S. He did them a favor by taking the fight on short notice. Oh, no, he took a fight in short notice or, yeah, he did. He did, yes. Well, they both technically did, but yeah, he did. Right, technically, that's true.

He did them a favor by taking the fight of short notice. I don't think he's in any rush to get back in there. As much as he enjoys fighting and is as consistent as he has been. I wonder if he can hold out and still get that Jamal fight. Unlikely, unlikely. Again, it's not my pick. This is just for people to think on. Because Jamal Hill, again, has some reputation fixing to be done.

There's some damage control to be done here. Whatever happens with the situation with him and his brother, either way, it's a bad look. The look is very bad for him, even if he gets out of the situation with any real legal repercussions, it's well as soon. Unfortunately, it's, you know, further tarnishes his, Jamal Hill's name. So I don't know if the UFC is that eager to, you know, just throw Jamal into another big fight or to immediately get that title fight. He should, but I don't know if they want to give him that now.

So they'll give him someone. I wonder Anthony Smith could be the name they pick out of that hat. I don't see it happening, but boy, Khalil Roundtree versus Jamal Hill, it'll be super fun too. Yes. That'd be super fun as well. Sure. Look, Jamal's going to get a title shot, especially if Pereira's the champion.

So we'll see what ends up happening. I went with a guy who probably should have got a bonus last night and didn't. Steve Garcia didn't get a bonus. That was a terrifying knockout of, Ocay-Z-Costa. And no bonus for him. No bonus for Tetsu retire either, which I thought was kind of weird,

but here we are. At this point, like, I just want to see, Steve Garcia is super fun. Featherweight is just a joy. I think featherweight is going to be one of those divisions.

Like, I think featherweight starting to get a little more love, but I think 2024 is the year where featherweight kind of gets into that, not exactly where Bannamweight is, but kind of where Bannamweight was three years ago where people were like, well, maybe Featherweight's the best division

in the sport, even though lightweight is the correct answer all the time. Steve Garcia versus David Onama, AK, give it to me. Give it to me. Anywhere in the world, from the apex to the garden, doesn't matter. Just give me Steve Garcia versus David Onama. That fight is going to deliver in space. Do we know what Onama's injury was? I know he was supposed to fight recently, a few weeks ago, I think.

Lucas Alexander, but I don't know if... Yeah, I don't think it was anything like super bad. Hopefully not. I'd love to see that fight. I would love to see Annaman Garcia. I think that would be fantastic. Yeah. He doesn't, when he announced that he was out of the fight, that was October 26th.

He just said like the health comes first. Hope to be back next year. Okay. All right. Well, I don't know what that means. Hopefully it's not a bad thing. But either way, either way, I do want to see that fight in 2024. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

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I think I told you this after the show last week. Yes, yes, I forgot. We all, listen, we all saw on air I made an ass of myself by booking Neil Magnet to fight Sean Brady. when Neil Magny is literally fighting next month at a card. I will be there, possibly Caged side, looking at Neil Magny, excuse me, fight Mike Malott. And I forgot this by it was happening,

or I just didn't think about it when I was imagining. Either way, super doo-do pick already. And then it wasn't until afterwards, right after when I realized, wait a minute, Jalen Turner, the pick I made from him, Matt Favola, was also a doo-do pick. They fought at UFC 236 four years ago. So, and I think Favola won. So Favola 1 or Jalen Turner won?

Jalen Turner must have won. Sorry, guys, we have some click on any clacking here while I try to avoid further do-doing myself. Matt Favola one. So if anything, it's a really great choice for a rematch. I still stand by it, but that is not what I was thinking at all when I made the match up. So I'll stand by the pick, but the way I presented it was absolutely doo-do.

I think only one listener called me out on it afterwards, so I appreciate that. Thank you for letting me know. I had already remembered by then, but thanks for letting me know. And everyone else who caught that but didn't message me. Thank you as well. I'm already embarrassed. So double do-do for myself last week.

I don't think I did anything too egregiously dumb this time. But if I did, people, of course, feel free to nudge me in the DMs. There's so many cards and so many fights. We forgive me. It's hard. It happens. I've dropped doo-doo this year. There's going to be doo-doo coming up.

I have to say, I don't know how many submissions you got, but I didn't get a whole bunch. I think I only got two people submitting. because, and I know why. Everyone is just like, look, let's just make this quick show. Then it's like officially UFC 296 fight week. That's what everybody cares about at this point. But you want to give the disclaimer?

And then we can get right into this. This might be the shortest listener submission segment of all time. It's, I don't have that many. Yeah, just people watch out for mistakes like I made. Someone's already booked. They've already fought. Again, two mistakes I made last week. Wrong weight class.

This is a bit tricky these days. I see a handful of fighters jump in between. but wrong weight class notable injuries fighters who have been released again kind of hard to keep track of and people who are teammates close friends it's a little bit easier to look up you know trying to avoid matching those people up it's happened to a lot of the same names your pictures might be do-do and we don't want to read it

and the last disclaimer I have is tell people it is round tree no D no D I imagine some things are just auto-correcting I understand round tree in our brain that's what we see when we look at Khalil's name but please his name is Roundtree. R-O-U-N-T-R-E. There's no D in there. There should be one, but there isn't.

So please, be respectful of the man's name. Yes, and I think we all need to be respectful of the man's name. John Anick, as you record, 56 minutes ago, tweeted exactly this. Like many Floridians, I go to bed wicked early. So just now watching the fight from last night, Khalil Roundtree Jr. If you like when good things happen to good people, you are happy for him.

He made it happen, incredible rise to contention. Just don't call him Khalil. Hashtag Lil. Kalil Roundtree. Oh. According to John Anick. And if John Anick says it, it's freaking gospel to me. Yeah.

I think, yeah, I think I've heard that before and I just never registered me. Kalil. Kalil. I got to work on that. I got to work on that. Okay. Yes. Thank you, John Anick.

You're the man. By the way, coming up this week, interview with John Anick and myself. It must be a pay-per-view fight week if a John Anick interview is coming out on the a fighting family of networks. So here we go. John Ray. Tyler O'Neill trade. No, who did you guys get?

Who did the Red Sox get? What's his name? Yeah. I don't want to talk about this. I just pulled that. I honestly may just pull that up my butt. I don't remember. I think that's who it was.

But yeah, watching the Yankees signed Soto and Otani sign with the Dodgers that we trade for a freaking middle, a mid outfielder, the middleweighty middleweights of outfielders. Just unbelievable. John says, let's just rebook. Tetsura Tira versus David Dvorak. Santos versus Julia Avila. Steve Garcia versus Jamie Malarkey. Kind of doo-do.

Kind of do-do. By the way, let me just say this. Let me just say this. I understand that Steve Garcia and Malkasio Costa fought at 155 last night. I get it. These are feather weights. This is a quick rebooking rather than put them through like a weight cut. They just did at 155.

So I'm not going to call this doo-doo. Garcia is a featherweight now. Okay, he's a featherweight. So just for future reference. This is just a fight up a weight class. This is just like Tim Elliott fighting at Bannamweight yesterday. You know what I mean? Same kind of situation.

Kevin Jusette versus Johnny Parsons, Boudiz, versus the Roman DeLidze, Nasrudin Imovov, loser. A loser, huh? Tim Elliott versus the Mateus Nicolao-Minell Cop two loser. Man, Tim Elliott versus Minnell Cop would be friggin insane. The only thing is, I feel like Manel, I know, yeah, he won't get a shot after Nicolao win. And also was he the winner or loser that fight?

The loser. The loser. I don't know if I want to see. Yeah, oh, that makes more sense. Nikolao and Elliot already fought. Cop and Elliot, if Cop loses. Yeah, if Cop loses, okay. Yeah, that's not terrible. Yeah, Cop's not getting a title shot

if he wins. As much as I want to see it, I've been tuning that man's horn ever since he got the UFC. I said, just give this man a title shot before he even has a UFC fight. give it to him. And he almost got it as the backup fighter before he first entered the Octagon. But yeah, Minal Cops not getting a title shot. That's going to go to either Brandon Moreno or Amir Albaazi. He also likes Hackparas versus Christosciagos. Anthony Smith versus Dominic Reyes, win or lose? Just speak in my language.

Roundtree versus Rackich next month. So we talked about this on the post-fight show as well. Why not just keep Alexander Rackage on the Toronto card and just have Clio Roundtree turn around, fight him. UFC 297. That'd be amazing. Although Rackage might get Yuri, so I think he'd rather fight Yuri, but that can't happen. If Yuri's timeline is like, you know what? Nah, let's do UFC 300 instead.

Nah, 3-01 sounds better. And Yuri has the right to do that. Maybe Roundtree gets that fight. I don't mind that. Khalil, please come to Toronto. Please. I'm just being selfish here, Mike. I just want some good fights on this card.

I would love to see him in Rockich. Chris Gutieres versus Montel Jackson. Rebook that. Yes, please. God, Montel Jackson, please, please get back in the fold, please. And Song Yadong versus the Cheeto Vera, Sean O'Malley, two loser. Oh, I thought about that as well, of course, because I do want to see him and Cheeto run it back at some point. If O'Malley loses, there is pretty much zero chance he would fight Song Yudong.

I hate to say, he just would have no interest in it. What is the appeal in rebooking? Because I saw some of these two on my end. What is the appeal on the rebooking David Devorak and Titsurvira? I'm pretty sure that ship is sales. Just because it's a ranked dude and they were matched up. Is she still ranked? He's 14.

He lost three straight. A.K. Al-Tang-Haley is number 11. Or hold on a second. Hold on. No, that's a band-in-weight, right? So hold on a second. I'm so confused. I am also confused.

Sumedherjee. I'm sorry. Sumedherjee is number 11. Which is shocking to me. I didn't think. Why? He's number 11. He's the 11 right now, yeah.

I don't even think he's a Favre in our rankings. Could it be that our rankings are so much better than the UFCs? That can't be possible. He's tied for 11 with Steve Urseg. Okay, sure. He went back off as 13, Devorik is 14. Cody Darden is 15. Wait, what's Schnell?

Like 9 or 10? Schnell's 8. Jesus. And I like my Chanel, but that seems so high. I don't too. But yeah. Amis Perez is 70. He hasn't fought in like three years.

That's not his fault. The MMA gods hate him. David Devorax on a three-fight losing streak. I just don't see the appeal in that matchup anymore. I think we can do better than that. Tim Elliott. Even Steve Versaig. Yeah.

Yeah. He's just got to be a ranked dude. It's got to be a ranked dude next. Yeah. Don't rebook that. Let's go to Four-corner sports. Four corners got a little bit of doo-doo, and he's got a pick that I just don't like it all. But let's get into this. Four-quarter sports.

Song-e-Dong-Dong versus Dominic Cruz. I like this. I feel like Figy's going to get the on-fight, especially with the on-no-selling song. Roundtree versus racket. Sure. Tim Elliott versus the loser of the Albazzi Moreno main event. Sure. Hackbras versus Tiago Moises.

Sure. This matchup is not the doo-do pick. I'm saving that for last. The do-do, this matchup, I looked at it and I was like, this can't be right. Tetsura-Taira versus Victor Altamorano? If he loses to Felipe Dos Santos, what are we doing here? We're not going to give Tetsu-R-Aryra-Ryra. a step up in competition, you want to throw him in there with a guy if he loses his next

fight? What are we doing here? This is not the doo-do pick? This is not the doo-do pick. Are you sure? Oh, wait till you hear what the doo-do pick is. Wait to hear what the doo-do pick is. Come on, man. Tutsu-it's not good. No, this is not good. This is not good. Here's the do-do pick, AK. This is a tough hang. Anthony Smith versus Anthony Fluffy Hernandez after he loses to Icram Alaskaroff. What?

That's true. I'm reading it. I'm reading a verbator. Is there a note that Anthony Smith will suddenly hate his own life and decide to drop down to 185? He's kind of got off one of his legs, I guess. Oh, I love cutting down the middleweight so much.

I need to go back there to fight the winner of Anthony Hernandez versus Icaron. Oh, four corner sports. Come on corner sports what happened what even if even if Anthony Smith were to do that like I don't know come on I'm not even mad I'm just are you okay yeah that's what I want to know are you okay when you made that pick that is it's a tough one that's a weird one yeah I honestly if if so if you gave me a thousand guesses of what the do do pick would be in my selections I would have never guessed Anthony Smith versus Anthony Hernandez in the thousand guesses but it's okay did he say the winner of that fight or Anthony Hernandez after he beats Icrimel's no he specifically specifically specific He said Anthony Smith versus Anthony Hernandez in parentheses after he loses to Iqram. After he loses to Icarum? Does he know something we don't? Has Anthony Hernandez said he's moving up to 205?

No. Why would he move up to 205? I don't know. I'm trying to help four-corner sports here. Is this not? I'm checking. This is a one. This isn't one of those random, like, neither guys wanted to cut weight.

It's a 205-pound fight or something. Like, this is so weird. I've never seen. Okay. Yeah. Anthony, Anthony Smith would look like he weighs 50 pounds more than Anthony Hernandez is.

He'd be considerably bigger, yeah. So this is do-do. Wow. This is do-do. Four corner sports, I love you. You're a part of the network. You comment on the live shows. You're on heck of a morning all the time.

You submit picture of the show repeatedly. But this is not good. No. And I did it last week. I did it last week. Twice. Dad Jackson was banned for it. on the show for like three weeks.

But hey listen, we learn and we grow and we evolve and we get better. Hopefully we learned a lesson here. Okay, that's all I got. What do you have? I don't have too many. It's just some of the more popular picks. Yeah, for song, it feels like it's got to be Cruz or Peerot or Jan. I know I said Mara, but I think other people are right.

It'll probably be one of those two names instead. But man, I love Jan and Figgie so much more. If I had to choose, it's Yon, you by a mile. Like, I just, and Song deserves a big fight, but, I don't know. Roundtree versus Krilov, I saw a lot, Nikita Krilov. I kind of hate that matchup. I feel like that's a really high risk, low reward fight for Roundtree, unless he knows

it's like a key busy thing. And he's almost definitely, like, in line to fight Panetta somewhere down the road. But he's not, he needs another, I feel like, notable win. I don't know if Krilov gets him there. And I was very happy to see a lot of people recommend Elliot and Chanel to remat. And make the note that it was a rematch from their scene. season of the old wood fighter.

So big fat on. Tristan Gordett, our pal Tristan Gordet, he was on the Smith Krillov train and also, I like this matchable a lot. Honsung Park

versus Joshua Vann. So I'm all in on that. Oh, sorry, did I say, I'm sorry, he was the only person to recommend Anthony Smith Krillov.

I was thinking of Confucius Brown Tree Krillov, which, so Anthony Smith Krillov. Now? I guess.

It's not terrible. I'm kind of okay with it. I get, I mean, it makes sense. I just don't know if that's the kind of matchup Anthony Smith is fishing for at the stage after taking a loss like that. Kreloff has won three in a row. Mm-hmm. I don't know, man.

Smith is still ranked. Well, he won't be ranked above him after this fight. I don't know. This loss. Where is he ranked? Let me see. Anthony Smith is, man, he's eight. Uh-huh.

Creilf six. Smith's going to be. Six. The archie is going to be. So Anthony Smith's probably. be like number 11, 10 or 11. Why don't she's 11 right now? So he'll move up to 8.

I'm going to look at our own rankings here. Where do we have Krilov? We have Krilov 9, Smith. Okay, so, okay, we have the same. The Lov's ahead of him. I mean, I don't know. I'd rather, I don't know. It's not, it's not actually terrible.

I didn't, I did not remember Krilov being ranked so highly. That's all. Like, if Alonzo Menafield beats Dustin Shikobi next week, like, Menafield versus Smith makes sense, right? That makes more sense. You know, plus there's the teammate aspect to it, because Zusser Jacoby trains at Factory X, Anthony Smith, Factory X guy himself. Nice little storyline, try to get one back for the Gipper. Love that idea.

I mean, you could do Crailoff, but I think Creelop probably deserves a higher-ranked guy, but I don't know. I'm sure he wouldn't say no to it. Going to Twitter, Scott McCraight wants to see Rayan, Amanda, and Toledo Allen Card 2. was to run it back. He's not happy with the decision. I think he stopped sort of calling it a robbery, but Scott, I did not get a chance to see that fight.

Hopefully I will get a chance. I will review it at some point. Not like to a formal review. I mean, hopefully I will watch it and just kind of, I'll do a pre-review review, judge of whether it's even worthy of a robbery review. I don't think I've ran that.

Mike, yeah, give me your thoughts on that. It's not a robbery, but it's so funny when Joe Martinez is reading the card. because he does that like Bruce Buffer like and Michael C. Williams and like others like they drag it out a little bit like

this guy scores it for this guy this guy. This guy scores it for this guy. And this guy, Joe Martinez like Judge Jones goes to 2928. Judge Murphy scores at 2928 for Allen Carr and then as soon as I heard him say Judge Montauble I'm like they're giving it to Alan Carr. Like they're giving it to her because

it was just one of those, as soon as I'm Montauvel, I'm like well Alancar just won this fight. I knew it immediately. It was just one of those fights where, like, Al-Qar had, like, top control, but wasn't really doing anything with it. And it's not like Amanda was, like, blowing the doors off her on the feet in round three.

Yeah. But she probably did enough to win, like, win the round, because she actually, like, inflicted some sort of damage. But it was, like, one of those fights where Paul Felder even said, like, look, I don't necessarily agree with the decision, but I think Hay and Amanda's going to go back and watch this fight

and be like, damn, like, I just felt, off a cliff here because she had a great first round and then you know she looked real good for most of the second and then alan car got to take down and like got top position then third round was like Amanda was landing Alan car wasn't like a fish out of water but yeah Amanda kind of let it slip away but I do think she won the fight it's not a robbery and do yourself a favorite it's not a great fight so you don't need to do it probably won't review it in a perfect world they would have read the first two cards and giving people a chance and then giving people like two two or three minutes to log into live betting,

see who the third judge was. Mike, you would have seen Jacob Mantalvo and you would have put $5,000 on the Lailantar to win decision. And it would have been great. It would have been hilarious, but we don't live in that world, unfortunately. You're not allowed to take advantage of your knowledge of judges in the heat of the moment.

Tech MMA. Okay, so TACMMA says, Andre Munez versus Alexander Hernandez, Ellis Grov, loser. Maybe, Mike, maybe this is what four-quarters Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, say that again? Andre Monez versus the Fluffy Hernandez-Elzgerald-Hur loser. Oh, okay.

I thought you said Alexander Hernandez. I think I did say, I think I did say Alexander Hernandez. Okay, so I make sure. Yes, I think I did say it. Anthony Hernandez-Ikimo Ler Luzer. Maybe this is what four-corner or loser? Loser. But maybe this is what Four Corner Sports meant.

Maybe he just meant to say Andre Mniz and just wrote Anthony, like, brain fart, wrote Anthony Smith. Is that, or did he also have a matchup for Muniz? He does not have a matchup. for Muniz. So maybe, you know what, Four Corner Sports if you're out there, I bet you meant Andre Muniz and you, you just, you know, whatever, you put the run. I can only go by what I'm reading here. It's not your, Mike, I'm not, no, it's not your friends at all. If you call them Andre Smith, I'd feel a little better. I yeah, yeah, yeah, it'd be a lot. It's clear for. I have to imagine that's what four corner sports make. All right. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. It's the holidays, but

other, well, I mean, the doo-do stands. Yeah, it's, it's definitely a doo-do big. Barry O'Reilly, Alan Carr versus Conejo, Luana Santos versus Alexeva, Irene Alexeva, both have wins and weight misses over Eger, and he also loves the nickname Russian Ronda. Yeah, you know what? That's the, they better not cut Stephanie Eager, by the way. She better not be cut off of two back-to-back loss to her to opponents who missed weight one by four pounds and one by three pounds. I feel, and I'm not blaming Eager, I don't know their situation. You know, girls got to eat. But I wish that she had the option to not take either of these fights because this is

I'm just going to say it because you know how I feel missing weight this badly. Like this bullshit. This is bullshit that she had to take back to back fights against opponents to miss weight and loses both of them. So she's only getting half her paycheck. It's frigging ridiculous. Plus whatever 20%. She only took 20% for a three pound weight miss.

I think it was probably a situation. It was like take 20% or don't take the fight. And she was like, well, I guess I got to take 20%. I mean, that's what happens. Because there's no penalty to it. There's no penalty. It's a forfeiture of 20. Like, what?

Of your show purse. What is Launa Santos making right now? 12 and 12? Like, if that, she's probably making 12 and 12. What's 20%? It's nothing. It's worth, it was way worth more for Luana Santos to miss weight by three pounds. And she missed it early too, right?

Yeah. I know she took the foot on somewhat short notice, but. Yeah, just go get the win. Like, it's worth. way more. There's just a stupit. It drives me insane. It tries to say, just cheat.

We've been telling people, just cheat. Just cheat in MMA and good things will happen. Unless you're Chris Goodyearys, apparently. But because you get caught, but nobody else does. It's freaking wild, man. It's freaking wild. And, okay, you, good thing you didn't watch that fight because as, as the flag bearer of the women's band and weight division, you would have had a tough to

fence on your hand because this was not a good fight. Oh, yeah, this is bad. This is bad. It wasn't great. Yeah, Amanda. Amanda versus Alan Carr was Jones Gustafson won compared to this fight.

It was not good. It was not good. I also got a title fight coming to Toronto. Steve Garcia versus Morgan, Cheyere, love it, great matchup. Junsung Park, Clayton Carbiter, solid, Jessette, Kevin Doucette, and Nico Price, Andre Muniz,

Shara Megamadov, I like that a lot, actually. That's a nice test for Shara Bullitt, I think. Yikes, yeah. Yeah, I like that. I don't want to see him. Oh, God, I don't know. Apparently, like, we just got Marvin Vittori's attention. So, I mean, if you can get Marvin, go get that, man.

Way better. Sheesh, man. I mean, I'd want, I'd be super intrigued by that fight. Because all Shara would have to do, essentially, just like survive five minutes, I think, and I think he is a shot. But I got to, Munez, Mnese's gas tank kind of held up against Jun Yon Pard. Not fully, but at least there's enough. I don't know.

I don't hate it. It's growing on me, AK, it's growing on me. Tim Elliott, Alan Nassimento. I think Alan Nessimito was supposed to fight. That's who Ellie replaced. So meteorology, right? Okay, so that kind of makes sense. Nazan Hackfrest and Joel Alvarez, so I like all that.

Toke, Gurding Jensen. What's up, Toke. He's down with me, Roundtree, Pratt. Down with me and down with the people. Roundtripetra, Hacch, Pras, Dawson, Monez, and Barberina. I said this last week, like, I don't like these Barbarana middleweight picks. I'm not convinced he's going. I think he's just, I assume he's going to drop back down to 170, but I have no proof of this.

I have no proof of this. Who knows? His next fight could be at 185. I assumed he was just kind of doing it to stay busy and not cut wait for that one fight. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the next stage of Brian Barbarina's career is a, uh, is as a 185. But he is so, so small for that division. I, I don't understand why he would do that.

But not due to picks. He, it is where he lost fought. So fine. Going to Instagram. Jared Bioggin. Chris Gutierrez, Say, Narangamato Medov. Uh, Nazan Hakk, Press, Elvis Brenner. I thought about that.

Elvis Brenner. So friggin dangerous. My God. Steve Garcia, Kyle Nelson, Shore. I think there's more fun matchups for Steve Garcia. Uh, MMA heads. I just want to try and find ones I haven't read before. Andre Mniz versus Jacob Malkoon.

Oh, we're going full middleweighty, middleweight. Okay. Wow. All right. Let's do it. Let's do it. He's a middleweighty middleweight now. It's the match what we want for him. Mike, what do you think of Steve Garcia?

Oh, we were just saying this, we don't need these lightweight matches. Him and Terrence McKinney would be fun, but again, lightweight. I don't know. I just don't think he's going back there right now. Yeah. Steve's feathering. Steve's featherer. Teter Retire, there's a Dvorak rematch,

Alan Carr, Jacqueline Amorim, Tino Alvres, Steve Garcia, Josh Kulabal, anything else new here? Monez and versus the Curtis, the Curtis-A-O winner, USC 297. Oh, here's one I was thought about.

Now it sucks because Kai Kar-France's injury was from, I believe there's concussion, so you can't rush back from those, and it's also the timetable is so different for every fighter. It depends on how severe the concussion was and all this other stuff. But my first thought was him and Tim Elliott, if that fight is possible within the next six months. But it might not be.

How do you like Tim Elliott and Kai Kar-France? Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I'd watch it. Love it. If he wins, then we do the cop fight. I have to see a cop and Kai Kar-France fight at this point. Okay, I agree.

I agree. Yeah, there's heat there. All right. And last one over here from Blake Lua. What's up, Blake? Hi, AK, hope you aren't too upset about Otani going to the Dodgers. Let me just say quick, touch upon this. I'm in Toronto. I'm a Toronto sports guy.

I guess I got to weigh in. I've only tweeted like two things about it. It's just nothing worth saying. One, I had been saying he would go to the Dodgers very early on his free agency. It's not like, oh, not like I had some inside scoop. Everyone was saying he wanted to go to the Dodgers. That was like the early scuttle butt. And I was on that train.

I was with everybody else like, yeah, he's going to want to stay in L.A., just switch teams. So I never got my hopes up too high. even as every week there was more buzz about the Blue Jays being in the picture, I'm like, yeah, that's because they're negotiating. There's leverage. Like, they need to get leverage. And I'm pretty sure that's have the end, too. I think the Jays were in consideration.

And I think the Dodgers outbid their asses by like a lot. I would bet the Jays were not offering more than $600 million, which is the insane number to throw it already. So if they got an extra $100 million out of the Dodgers by negotiating with the Jays and the San Francisco Giants whoever else was in the mix, then guess what? You know what? Otani and your team, you did your job. I have no hard feelings.

You did your job. That's how it's supposed to be. The stuff, I don't know how much, Mike, were you keeping up with all the rumors on Tuesday, the flight plans and everything? It was the best. It was hilarious. And I saw people dying over it.

Again, maybe I'm just a unsympathetic Toronto sports fan. I'm not one of those Toronto sports fans with an inferiority complex. Like, why does this always happen to our city? And I'm like, we're like, we're pretty lucky as a sports fan. City. We have three major sports teams. We won a title with the, you know, the Raptors 2019. Our teams pretty consistently make the playoffs and then flame out very often. But otherwise, we're pretty lucky. So I'm not like torn up about, oh, we, we didn't get Otani. Like, we didn't have him. Guys, we didn't have him. I would have loved being the team that 10 years, 600,

$650 million, whatever, because it's fun, not because I think it guarantees a championship. So that's my two cents on that. Yeah, it sucks. I would have loved to Otani in Toronto, but I'm not like, I'm not crying about it. Guys, we didn't have, we didn't have them. We didn't lose him. We didn't have them. Mike, I don't know how you feel about, I don't know, I don't think he was going to Boston, but I don't know if you had any hopes that he was going to land there.

Not really. Honestly, I know he loves Boston and, but there's no way the Red Sox are going to pony up that kind of dough. There's no chance. That's crazy. They probably offered him like, they probably offered him like, we got something for you. Mr. Otati, three years, 35 million. And he's right.

Like, it's classic Red So I, I, I, I, I, I, Whoever is on his team deserves like not 10%. They deserve like 40% of this deal. This Toronto, this Toronto rumor to me was a plan from his team. It had to be. It had to be. That's what people are saying. John Morosi, the pretty respected MLB network reporter who said literally that he was on a flight to Toronto.

I believe he was a first. There was an LA Dodgersbee reporter who said he'd sign with Toronto. I think that was first of the day, first order of the day. And then Morosi coming saying he was actually flying to Toronto. but saying he had not signed yet but was flying to Toronto. I do believe it was an agent that or someone from Otani's team has to be. And guess what? It worked.

It sure did. It sure did. You got $700 million. Holy crap, dude. It's so ridiculous. So anyway, Blake, that's what I'd say about that. I'm not, I'm not hard about it. Blake's picks round tree, Jan Blockovich, Anthony Smith, Uzdemeur, too.

I'm like weirdly okay with that. I just think it's kind of random. They wouldn't do it. And I want to end on this because Blake asks, we just got the announcement, Mike, tough 32. It is back. The greatest reality television show, maybe the greatest television show, period,

in human history, is back. I think they said middle weights and feather weights this year, not that that matters as far as picking coaches. But that's what Blake wants to know, Mike, is who do you want to coach the new season of the Oldwood Fighter? And I know you have talked about this on heck of a morning, but for those who may have missed that segment, Mike, what do you got?

Where are you going with this? I would like to see John Jones and Tom Aspinall as the coaches. I think that would just be like, whoa, it'd be something. See, throw these two guys in the pan and let them cook a little bit

and maybe we can build something up. What I think is going to happen, my guess is we're going to get John Jones and Steve A because no fan on earth wants to see this fight. Nobody does. although Dana is Dana White is steadfast that we have to see it. We have to see the fight. It needs to happen.

It doesn't need to happen. I mean, it can happen, but it should not be for the UFC heavyweight title. Just put the belt on Tom Aspinall, do the fight, and then you have no problems from me. But I do think Dana is at least connected to some way to know how fans are reacting to all of this. And so that's why I think they're going to, he's going to just double down on it and be like, all right, well, we're just going to have these two cook and coach the ultimate fighter and we'll build the fight this way, even though the ultimate fighter is good for like two episodes and then everybody stops watching it anyways.

I mean, they couldn't get ratings with freaking Connor McGregor as the coach. I mean, it's tough, man, it's tough. He was barely on it. Actually, it's not true. I think they, no, I shouldn't say. He wasn't there always when they needed him. But he did, there was at least one or two Connor focused segments per episode. So, all right, I shouldn't say it.

Yeah. But my prediction, we're going to get John and C. day as the coaches. Gosh, I guess that's kind of the way you have to go as far as upcoming, like, big name fights and title fights. We were talking more than the show, and I had the sick idea of making the, like, people are not, do you get the sense people are not super invested in the Raquel Pennington versus Maida Buenos Silva, vacant women's baton weight title fight?

Have you gotten that feeling that maybe it's not like the highly anticipated fight? Yes. hurts people say that i don't know why i assume it's a minority i assume everyone else is like me and because like look this is a fight that has to happen it's important we have we have if we're going to keep this division rolling like we got to have a fight happen and this is the fight now it is important to note as you all know it is not the main event so what are we so upset about it should be it should be what are we so upset about like marmira and rquel pennington when she has the right dance partner can also be super fun.

Yes. And she deserves the title fight. She absolutely deserves the title fight. Raquel Payton, second shot at it. Yeah, just do it. It's a co-main event. So what? Mike, would we sweeten the deal if I told you it was the sweepstakes to become the coach of the next ultimate fighter opposite Julieta Pena?

Would that make you, would that make you 10 times more invested? 20 times? Like, how much more invested would that make you in this fight? I would. That's what was being dangled for the winner. I would boost my ESPN plus subscription. I don't know how I would do it somehow. Oh, you go plus plus plus.

I'd go plus plus. I'd go add free, like all that fun stuff. Like whatever we need to do, I would do it if we can get that. I mean, Julianna Pena on my screen for 12 straight weeks would just scratch me right where I itch. And her and my Buenos Aires is going back and forth, just screaming at each other. To be, look, no, I don't want to see that. But what else are we going to do? Like honestly, what else are we going to do?

I'm trying to think. Do you do like, I don't know, do you just do like GSP in there somehow? Just throwing like- I literally forgot. Well, you're on the right track. At first time, I was like, I literally forgot that Julianna Pena and a man in herness just did the ultimate fighter, the season, Elthman Fighter 30, the season before McGregor Chandler. Oh my God, you're right.

I remember Payne had been on the show, obviously as a contestant. And then I was like, did she coach or pop-ups as a coach? I'm like, oh, yeah, she coached the whole season, a not great season, talent-wise, nor entertainment-wise, frankly. So, you know what? Hey, but people want more pain yet. There you go. You can imagine her coaching two ultimate fighter seasons within the span of two years or three years.

Oh, money, baby, money. What if they did Misha Tate and Holly Holie home? I love it. So you're on the right track, Mike, with that and with the GSP suggestion, because my real answer, my real answer, women's band to weight jokes aside, my real answer is, I and I've said this forever, so I won't go all into it, is that they should get people who are actually coaches who would make for interest. interesting personalities, not necessarily even active fighters. So my dream is if you're going to

try and do something new at the old-led fighter, which they never do, but if you're going to try and do something new, get me Chil Sonan, get me Matt Serra, get me, like maybe GSP, get Holly Holmeichita. Get Holly Holmeichita actually fighting, so that'd be a different thing. But get people loved personalities, respected fighters, and make them the coaches, because I don't care about building up a fight. It's not worth it. We just saw McGregor and Chandler building up a fight. fight that, uh, like, it's probably never going to happen. The Pena and Nunes season, it was for a trilogy bout that we all like, we figure had to happen, but we didn't need to be built up. The season did not build that fight up more. It did nothing. It didn't do nothing for it. It just delayed it.

We're just like, let's just get this third Pena Nunes, sorry, second Pena Nunes fight over with. And so he said the whole season, the ultimate fighter for no reason. So forget using it to build up fights. It worked in the past. It's pointless now. Give me coaches. I've still, I would love to Chelson to do it. He did it when he was an active fighter. I'd love to see him coaching again. Matt Sarah, it was so good as a coach, so good on this show redemption season. It's hilarious.

Bring him in. Give me personalities. I know they're going to, like you said, they're probably going to pray to then get John Jones to do the season again. He's coached before. He coached against Sonan, but that doesn't happen. UFC and Ultimate Fighter team, think outside the box here, please. I still feel like we can do something with the show. I haven't given up on it.

Tough never die. Could do Pereira and Jamal Hill. Give Jamal something to do. I don't know if he can. Can you have Jamal Hill on TV at this point? Yeah, I don't know. Great with his YouTube channel. I don't know if we want him on TV.

He's a loose canon. I'm just trying to think like who would be. I mean, if Shon, O'Malley and Cheeto would be good, but the fights in March. That's coming up. If Sean Strickland beats Chikas, Strictland beats, check his two-place scene. Oh, my God. Hey, listen, Sean Strickland's a loose canon as well, I would have no interest in watching him on TV, but I'm in the minority here.

There's a lot of people. who likes Sean Strickland, and God help us. And honestly, if you put him on a show like that, he'd be on his quote unquote best behavior, whatever that means. Or he wouldn't, and the UFC would love it. I don't know. He might be too potentially problematic for that to happen. But I got one.

I could really be the guy if he wins and you can tell someone else in there with him. I got one. If DDP wins the middleweight title, do DDP and Izzy. Please. Please. I would love it. That is a use of the format. And Izzy still gets to take his time off because he just films the show.

It's a long break between the, it films a show like whatever, six weeks, and then it takes a long break between the airing of the show and whatever his next fight would be. So he still gets a long break. The fight wouldn't happen until like late third quarter, early fourth quarter of 2024. So there you go. Maybe. We will see what happens. but that puts a pin on.

That was it, right? That was last. That is it. A.K., we only have one more matchmaking show of 2023. It's next week. It will be live. We'll be live doing it. My best friend, following just a star-studded, stacked up UFC 296 event for all the people

are like, oh, you're going to show negative about cards, all this stuff. Bullshit, we are all over this one. This is chef's kiss. This is what we, this is what. We tell people, tell our fans, this is what you should be expecting. This is what you should demand from the UFC on pay-per-view if you're going to spend $80 plus implicable taxes. A card like this, Leon Edwards versus Kobe Covington,

Alexander Pantoja versus Brandon Royval, AK, your prediction of the year of the raw dog could come true. Shavkat Rukhmana versus Wonderboy. Tony Ferguson versus Patty Pipplin. This is your card, AK. This is your card. I love it. Vicente Lucay versus Ian Machado Gary Josh Emmett now fighting Bryce Mitchell

which by the way I like this fight better than the giga fight I like this fight much more than the giga fight if we're being honest Arrini Aldana versus Carol Hosa Cody Garbrandt versus Brian Boone Kellaer Casey O'Neill Ariani Lipski Alonzo Menafield Dustin Jacoby Tari Ullumbeckoff versus Cody Durdin Andre Feely versus Lucas Almeida

Shameo Gazzia versus Martin Boudet The first fight of the card AK is Randy Brown versus Muslim Salikoff. That is the curtain jerker. That just tells you how good this card is. So I can't wait for UFC 296. It is going to be a fun week. Jose will be boots on the ground in Las Vegas.

Of course, we got the all of the fun stuff that happens heading into the final UFC event of the year, the MMA awards, karate combat's doing a fun card, headlined by Benson Henderson versus Anthony Pettis, which is freaking insane. Jake Paul's boxing this week. be out there for that. I mean, Jesus, there's so much happening right now. KSI and what speed or whatever his name is or doing a sparring session during the Jake Paul fight? What's his name? Speed. It's some YouTube or it's amazing. Okay.S.I's doing this, but yet him and Jake Paul never going to fight each other. It's just unbelievable. So sensible. It's just never ever going to happen. But so senseless.

Final on to the next one for matchmaking coming up next week will be live on the YouTube channel. This time next week, Coffey Coffey could be the undisputed U.S.E. well-to-a-champing in the world. I got to tell you, A.K., the closer we get to this fight, the more the vibes are telling me that Colby's going to win. The more the vibes are-you-been-s for a lot of time, though. This isn't new from, you've been saying this since, and before this match-up was even made, you were saying, like, he's a, you and a few, quite a few people, well, he's a dangerous

matchup for Leon. Here's the thing. Like, it's one of those fights where nothing would really surprise me. Yeah, yeah. This is a fight where Leon could just kick Colby right across the face. Early. To me, I don't think that's what's going to happen. I think this is going to be a, like, it's going to be a gritty battle. The difference is to me, how much does the long layoff affects Colby? And if Colby can start red hot, if he can come out and just win the first two rounds,

I think Leon's in trouble, man. I think this can be a real long night for him. It all just matters when Colby wakes up. If he gets cook it, look at the second Usman fight. If we get that Colby, who doesn't get going into like midway through the third round, Leon probably wins this fight. But if Colby can be that dude, because this is probably his last chance to fight for the belt. Like if he loses to Leon, as much as the UFC likes him,

it is almost impossible to justify giving him a title shot again. So the fallout of this fight, win or lose is going to be super interesting. Because if Colby wins, poor Belal Mohammed's never fighting for the Welterweight title ever. He might fight for like an interim belt, but he's never fighting for the actual title. And if Colby loses, does he retire?

Like, this is a question I've been getting a lot. A lot of people wondering, like, do you think he retires if he loses to Leon? Because he may not get another shot at the belt. And now that Mazadol's retired, like, there's the big prize fight he fights for Colby, there aren't a lot left that are actually available to him right now that would really interest him. So I'm super curious for this fight. the vibes of 2023, it would just be so on brand

if Colby won the belt and Tony Ferguson beat Patty Pimble. Like all the weird Wonderboy beat Shofcott. Like that, this could be like the 2023 of all pay-per-view events. If just all the weird shit happened. And it's all on the table here.

It's all possible. I'm excited. I'm dreading some of the things that might happen, not just on a fight night during fight week. Oh, boy, yeah. On this card. But I'm excited. But I'm way more excited than I am dreading.

What's what could happen? Just think of the press conference, okay. I'm trying not to. We're going to get Leon Colby. Poor Prentosian, Royval are not even going to like get a question. Shopcott's just going to sit there. Wonderboy is just going to laugh at everything. Ferguson and Pimbleet are going to do Ferguson and Pimbleet things.

And then Ian Machado Gary is just going to take it into the teeth from everybody on the stage. So has he, people, what's going to, I haven't heard anything about Ian Machado, Gary recently. What do you mean? My best. No one's talking about him or his personal. That's not. I'll tell you what, man. If I'm Patty Pimble, I'm Venmo and Ian Machado, Gary, like a couple G's.

She's saying it. There's like nobody talking about Patty right now, not one person. Now, that could change next week, but it's, it's the main event and it's Ian Machado, Gary. That's, that's it. Those are the headlines right now. It's like almost people have forgotten that Tony Ferguson versus Patty Bidlittlet is happening, which is insane. And you should probably be on the watch party for that fight, okay.

I will definitely will be. Yeah, I think we have to make that happen. So, yes, UFC 296, can't wait for it, can't wait to talk about the fallout from a matchmaking perspective. And then the fun stuff really starts with this program. I think we may take a week off and then we're going to start recording the prediction shows, which I'm freaking excited about. We'll do the recap of the 2023 predictions. It's going to be fun. We'll probably do what we did last year.

We did it live last year. The actual year of prediction show, we sent all the questions to K. And then Casey just surprised us with what came up. And it was super fun. So we'll probably do something very similar to that this year. So please start submitting your buy or sell questions for 2024 in the world of the UFC and mixed martial arts. I'm sure PFL and the co-leader, PFL, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of interest in what they do. So start submitting it.

However you submit your matchmaking suggestions, your buy sell questions, make them good. Make him good. Like, does Conne McGregor fight for, does Conner McGregor fight in 224? I'm sure we're going to get a similar question, but at least like make it good. Like last year, for you used an example, Conner McGregor and John Jones will have a combined three fights in 2023 or 2024, something like that. Let's have some fun with this. I like that.

Yeah. Yeah. You guys are good at this. You guys know what to do. I think the other Conner question was, will buy yourself, Connor McGregor fights on International Fight Week or Madison Square Garden. And I'm here to tell you. I picked both.

And I was so wrong. I don't think I did very well. You and I, there's some good ones. We had some healthy debate and we'll recount all of that. That will do our 2024 prediction show. And then what? I think January 13th, the UFC is back in action. We're at the hallowed apex leading right into UFC 297

and then back to the apex and then back to the apex and then back to the apex. and then to Anaheim, and I'm sure back to the Apex again. And then we go to Miami. It should be fun, everybody. It's good. Oh, then Saudi Arabia, then Miami. So we're ready to go. But we have to put a pin in 2023.

And we'll do that next week right here. And on to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast network.