MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 89

Episode Date: March 24, 2024

Rose Namajunas earned her first octagon victory in the UFC's flyweight division with a hard-fought main event showing against Amanda Ribas at Saturday's UFC Vegas 89 fight card. Where does the victory put "Thug Rose" in the championship discussion at 125 pounds? 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 Namajunas after snapping her two-fight skid in her unanimous decision win over Ribas. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Karl Williams following his decision win over Justin Tafa in the co-main event, Edmen Shahbazyan after his first-round finish of A.J. Dobson, Payton Talbott after his impressive stoppage win over Cameron Saaiman, along with fellow main card winners Youssef Zalal, Fernando Padilla, 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-by 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. Why do you save and invest? Is it so you can spend hours every day glued to the stock ticker, worrying about every movement up or down? Or is it so that you can live a better, happier, more fulfilling life? Betterman wants to help people invest to live, not live to invest. With features like automated saving, global diversification, and tax-smart tools,

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UFC Vegas 89 went down where there were fights, there were bites, and so much more. Even former fighters calling out commentators on social media. I mean, this event just had it all. and joining me to discuss the futures of some of these fighters from a matchmaking perspective, none other than the co-hosts, the co-matchmaker,

the prince of positivity, and my best friend, Mr. Alexander Cayley, aka, how are we doing on the Sunday morning following such a legendary event at the world's most famous apex? My best friend, I watched every second

of this sumptuous UFC Apex card. I'm doing good. I'm doing good. The late start time wasn't great. For all your East Coasters out there, you know what I'm talking about. 7 p.m. start for the prelims. 10 p.m. start for a six-fight main card that featured Carl Williams and Justin Taffa and the penultimate.

Carl Williams and Justin Taffa walked out around like, I don't know, I guess 1230 at night. It's just ridiculous. Just straight off ridiculous. But the card was fine. I think a lot of the stuff we touched upon in the preview show, Mike. my mind is melting. We did the preview show together, right? We did.

This is how the last few days have been for me. Yes, we did the preview show. And you and I talked quite a bit about, you know, that there are storylines on this card. And we got some, like, interesting answers to some of them. So I was being, I was in full Prince of Positivity mode on the Post-Fite show. And I'm kind of sticking with that because we weren't expecting this to be a card of the year. but did we learn more about some of the fighters that are booked in this card

who could have futures, promising futures in the UFC? I think we did. I think we did. So we can talk a bit about that today because we're all about talking about the future here. Yes. That's what we're going to do. And maybe you just, at least according to some of the listener's suggestions I get, I got.

What a segue, you saying the future. Let's get right into it and let's discuss what happened with the main event. Rose Namuunis goes a full 25 with Amanda Hebas, an official flyweight bout to pretty much strawweight fighters fighting at flyweight, which I have no problem with. Rose gets the win. She wins four rounds to one on two of the cards, three rounds to two on the other. Rose had to kind of grind it out a little bit, but she gets it done. She gets her first official victory at 125 pounds. There is one very popular answer, and it is my answer as well.

and it may very well be your answer. So as far as queuing up the band, I think the band is taking a well-deserved weekend off. For the most part, we might, I mean, they're on standby in case something crazy happens, but I assume you went with the same thing I went with, which is Rosenomianas versus Macy Barber. Yeah, a apologies to the band for a second week in a row,

but this is the clear way to go. Rose talked, mentioned Macy as an opponent, talked about it a bit more, the post-fight press conference. She wants a contender fight. She, of course, if they were to hand her a title fight, obviously Rose would not say no. That seems unlikely given that we have other contenders of head of her, that we have Grasso and Chivchenko being forced to coach a season of the ultimate fighter for whatever reason. So it doesn't really make sense.

Like, I don't think Rose can wait, just wait and sit around. And she wants to fight. All right, she's coming off, again, her first flyweight victory. And Macy just makes a lot of sense because if you want a contender, one that shouldn't have to take another fight. because again, Aaron Blanchfield and Menophoro were also mentioned. And I don't think either of them makes sense for Navajunas right now. I think Macy's the only one ahead of her that's available. I think it's a winnable fight for Rose.

I would certainly favor Macy at this stage right now, but it's definitely a winnable fight for Rose. And it wouldn't surprise me if Rose was favored by the odds makers, if that fight was made in the initial odds making. So I think money would move towards Macy. But yes, the whole point is makes a lot of sense. I think the U.C. should be working on this by Tuesday, at their Tuesday meeting. Yeah, I think this fight is the one to make.

It should be a main event. It could be at the world's most famous apex. Seems like Rose is just fine fighting at the world's most famous apex. If there's like one fighter, I think the apex is like perfect for, it's probably Rose. It's probably Rose. Just for her sanity. would say. I get, yes, this is true. We talked, we said this on the post of my show, though, that her, her, I'm the best pre-fight, uh, mantra just came off more awkward in an empty gym,

though. Like, I liked it. I like it in an arena because I feel like she's focusing, she's centering herself. She's kind of almost saying it to block out the noise. And in an empty, mostly empty venue like the apex, it just comes off a little creepy, a little psycho. But maybe that is, you know what? Maybe that is a good thing for her, uh, at 125. So maybe she needs to be a little creepy. And a little psycho because, hey, she got the win. She got the win. You can't complain about that. So I would rather not see Rose in the apex again, but they got to fill fight cards, like you said, Mike.

And they need fight card main events. And Rose Nomunis versus Macy Barber certainly sounds like an apex main event, doesn't it? You think Rose would like to go to Rio? Because, boy, that card, that card, you could use a fight like this. It could. Let's just turn around. Macy would probably do it. It's a big opportunity.

And this works out great for Macy Barber. The timing is perfect. Those, Shevchenko Grasso hosting the, or coaching the ultimate fighter is perfect for her. Because if that wasn't the case, I don't think she's getting this fight. I really don't. So it works out really good for her. And I think especially if Rose wants to come back in the next three, four, five months, this really makes a lot of sense.

Let's go to the co-main event, another unanimous decision, one that, you know what, AK, I don't want to lie to America. I don't want to lie to the world. I watched not a single second of this card, not one second. And I know people might give me crap for it, but I don't give a shit. I don't care. I got a rare Saturday night off. I didn't even ask for it. It was just given to me.

I took it. Went out with the wife. It was wonderful. It was a wonderful day. I didn't even look at the phone more than like twice to see what was even going on on this card. It was beautiful. But I did go to M.A. fighting.com this morning and go through the stories and looked at some highlights and such

of that nature and boy, A.K., when we get to this penultimate fight, boy, am I glad. Mike, from all accounts. Mike, we did not write a lot about Carl Williams, which is just in top. Not on the website anyway. I think maybe on our slack, we may have discussed it. How do you think the fight played out, Mike? If you were, make yourself AI, chat GPT for a second here. And in your mind, how do you think the fight went?

How do you think? Well, the fight went out. The fight went the way I one million percent thought it would. I, like, in our official MMA fighting staff picks, I picked just atopha by first round KO. Sure. But not because I thought that was going to happen. That was me putting out positive juju into the universe so that the results that I thought

would happen would not happen. So I assume Carl Williams had like four takedowns and just did Carl Williams things in those takedowns for 15 minutes. Let me see the official tally. You might be spot on. It cannot have been more than like six. Seven. Yeah.

Oh, we had seven takedowns. You know, there's some takedowns get back, you know, Tafel quickly gets back up and like immediate takedown. So there's some padding of the takedown numbers in there. But yeah. At least 10 minutes of control time, I'm assuming. 10 minutes, 31 seconds. Well done, Mike.

Well done. Right on the money. Exactly. Right on the money. Yeah. Yeah, this is, I don't know how you, you know, again, the only reason you make this, the penulte to find the card is the reason you said, Mike, that you, that the matchmakers are trying to put that juju out there because the Tapa bros, when they win, they win by first round knockout. That is it. And you hope that maybe Taffa catches Carl Lange. And it almost kind of looked like he was because Carl Williams was standing with Justin Tapa a lot. And I know it's not that simple to take people down. I know it's not just, oh, dock down grabs it like tackle someone. That's not how MMA works. I am. understand but it really felt like carl Williams was playing around on the feet a bit early on really the beginning of every round it felt like he was playing around on the feet and uh it was a

harrowing experience for anyone that had uh the old heavyweight over jen mshoe uh but yes as you said car williams get those takedowns control jose and taffa for 15 minutes and get it get that extra paycheck so yeah that was it mike um i i cheated here not even cheat it's got lazy i it's uh nick parkin that's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's Yeah, I mean, that's it. Yeah, whatever. Again. Band stay over there.

Oh, I saw the band jump up. I saw the band leave to jump up. We're like, no. No. Do not plug in those instruments. Stay where you're at. If you want to practice some acoustics, go right ahead. But do not play the theme song.

Yeah. I mean, look, let's give heavyweight overs better, something to get excited about. This one would absolutely do it. And the card I did watch this weekend because I had to cover it was the Bellator card. I would assume that Carl Williams versus Justin Taffa was the U. F. F. To Corey Anderson versus Carl Moore, because that's pretty much what I thought it would be.

Like, Carl would have to either knock him out or he's just going to get up against the fence and take it down a bunch. But I digress. Listen, Carl Williams and Parkin, two of the hottest names in the Heavy Way Division, both on, Mick Parkin, obviously undefeated, and I think three and no in the UFC and Carl Williams also three and on the UFC. So there you go. Mick Parkin, by the way, Mike, I'm assuming you didn't watch this fight either. gets that decision against the a man who was also streaking

I think he had the longest win streak or something heading into this card Mohamed Usman and about that Mo Usman did not agree with the I think it was 29, 28 scorecards in a fight where as is typical with the talented but sometimes frustrating Mo Usman

he did nothing. He did nothing. Mick Parkin didn't do a lot either. It's not like Mick Parkin was styling on him neither. This was a the fight that opened card. It was very much a glorified sparring contest. At no point that I feel that either guy was going to knock the other guy out or wanted to. It was rough. We had two very poor heavyweight fights. Mike, what is the last good back and forth UFC heavyweight fight that you can remember?

Because I was going way back. I gave up after a while. I was trying to go as far back as like last summer. I found nothing. I cannot remember. We get, we get, we have some memorable knockouts for sure. memorable finishes, back and forth heavyweight contests, like fight of the year candidate. A fight of the year candidate? Fight of the night candidate. Let me lower, let me lower the criteria. We can come back to this question later because like I said, I had to dig deep and could not find it. People, if you remember, please, a DMA.

Wasn't there one like not that long ago? I don't know. Maybe I didn't. Maybe it's a card I missed. I don't. I can say for sure there. there's not been a fight of the night winner for, again, for a while, which does not mean there wasn't a great fight,

just there hasn't officially been a fight of the night winner. So heavyweight. I would say, I mean, it got, it got finished. Are we going all the way back to Tai Tui Vasa versus Derek Lewis? Is that the last one? Was that before or after the Cedalgan one? That was before. Oh, yeah, you're right.

But that was a long time ago. That was September 22. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So if you have to go that far back, we could be saying there was not a single good UFC heavyweight fight, like competitive U.S. Everyweight fight in 2023. People again, DM me, hit me up on Twitter if I'm missing an obvious one. But it's rough out there at heavyweight right now.

Let's go to the middleweight division, AK. It's fun. Edmund Shabazian was fun. Gets a finish in the first round against A.J. Dobson. It looked a, from what I understand, it looked a little hairy for a moment for Mr. Shabazian, but he comes through. He battles. lands the big left hook, gets some ground and pound, gets the victory.

He is back on track. I went with a guy that is just super fun. I saw some listener suggestions. I saw one in particular that I'm going to call out because it's just awful. Not from a merit perspective, but like, let's come on. Stop doing this to poor Edmund Chibosian. But I'm going with a little bit of a step up, a grinder, if you will, but in just a fun way. A getter get got all-star from the middleweight division.

Unfortunately, in his last fight, he got got. Edmichibazian versus McKill looks H. K.K. Let's just do it. Let's chuck those dudes in there and let's have him throw a fist at each other. That's really good. I think we're going to be saying a little bit about a similar thing for the next, like, four fight main card picks that we're doing because a lot of the guys who compete on Saturday after their impressive wins are kind of in between.

Should we move them up the rank? should they get a top 20, top 25 person, or should we keep them in the range they're at and even go slightly lower, just to keep them in fun fights. So I think you went the fun fight direction, which is probably the right way to go for Edmund, who's just had a up and down,

there's no other way to put it up and down UFC career. This was, yeah, this was an up and down fight, and he got rocked early, and then, again, he's a great offensive striker and showed it off and just pretty much won a firefight. I went up, I went up the rankings, way up, against someone who could be a tough style matchable for him, but I also feel he can get this guy.

Paul Craig, Mike, Paul Craig. I have him on the edge of my top 15s, not quite that he recently fell out. Again, it could turn to Paul Craig just using his grappling. He's a good grappler to take Edmund out, but I think Edmund has a chance to keep this one on the feed and beat him, and that would be a massive victory. But again, maybe I'm a fool and just throwing Edmund back into the shark tank too soon. Is that

Is that it? Or are you adding more to that? I hope you're adding more to that. That's it. Is Paul Craig booked? Yes. Is he fighting next week? No.

He's fighting May 4th. Who's he fighting? Kio Baraljo. Come on. Mr. Co-Mane events. I'll take my doo-do. I'll take my doo-do like a man. Hey, maybe he fights the winner.

Maybe, yeah. Yeah, maybe. I don't think he'd get kind of. If Kyle wins. If Paul Craig loses, he should definitely get Paul Craig. I really hope Kyle, I hope it's one of those situations where Kyle is like the featured ESPN prelim on that card. And if he wins, it's at like 10.01 p.m. Eastern time. And he doesn't get to do a post-fight interview. They just move right on to the main card and get out of there because boy, the callout he's going to have is going to be atrocious. And we don't need to see it. Oh, let's think of callouts.

Did you see the Carl Williams post-fight interview? Before we got to hate to jump back in the problem. Did he call somebody out? Please tell me. Yes. But he went from what sounded like the worst callout ever to actually the best callout ever because first he said Steepay Miochich. And then he clarified Stepei like he said, oh, I've heard you do like a charity cookout

or something. So I want to do a dueling charity cookout. And I'm like, oh, that's an amazing callout. Good job, Perl. Okay. Now one of the listener picks makes sense. At first I was like, where? is he going with this? Because I'm like, this, if he was genuinely calling out Steep A, I'm like,

well, this is the worst call out of, like, not by far, by far. Like, there's no, it'd be Carl Williams calling out Stepe, and then whatever our second place just pushed like miles away. But Carl, no, he is a sensible man and he just said, a cookout challenge to Steve Miochich, which is something that could actually have him because Steve A, I don't know when he's fighting. So if you can get him to at least come out for a cookout, great job, Carl Williams. So, yes, excellent call up. Good for you, Carl Williams. Well done. Yeah. Yeah. Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat

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Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. Available now, only from Audible. Let's move to the Bannonweight Division. This was, and I said this in the preview show, outside of the main event, if I could only watch one fight on this

card, what would it be? It would be this one. Peyton Talbot versus Cameron Simon, because I had a lot of questions about both of these guys. This is the future of the division in a lot of respects. Was Peyton ready for a big step up like this against a guy like Cameron Simon, who's sort of been through the ringer a lot more on his resume than Peyton Talbot was? Boy, was I wrong? Payton Talbot goes in there and just thumps up Cameron Simon, gets a finish in round two, gets a huge win and proves to eight and oh. What do we? we doing with young Peyton Talbot here 25 years old kids get the world ahead of him and this is an eye-opening victory in a lot of people's brains after just icing out Cameron

Simon the way that he did hold on what's my pick here I want to tell me right now I did my I'm making excuse I better I read this out loud because I'm I've been an insane pick and you guys will never know what it is it's not even it's not even the right weight class so I think I oh I see Go ahead and go first? Yeah, you should definitely go first. I see what I did there. Okay. I apologize to my best friend, A.K.

Let me tell you how bad my pick was right now. Unofficial, by the way. I'm not going to say the name. I matched him up with a middleweight. That's how messed up my brain was. I was doing these picks at 3.30 in the morning. All right? Hold on.

Okay, please save me. Save my best friend. Go ahead. So I go ahead. I apologize to Canada, but I'm doing it. We're going to Canada. where he and you know what

I'm forcing Brad Cotona to put his two ultimate fighter titles on the line against Peyton Talbot let's just do it let's just do it I want to see it he passed this test with flying colors I think Brad Cotona was awaiting the winner no matter what the way I viewed this fight so let's do Peyton Tala versus Brad Cotona next

I think he's ready for it I think he's good enough to fight to probably beat Brac Cotone I would pick Peyton Tad to beat him so let's do that I was thinking maybe Garrett Armfield, but let's get to the Cotona test first, and then we can get to Peyton Talbot, Garrett Armfield, down the line. Man, this has been a bummer. I mean, I feel like Talbot at this point would be favored against Brad Catona.

For sure. Yeah, and this is a real bummer for this season, this last season of the ultimate fighter, because we won't talk about these fights much. We had Kurt Hollibon, the prelims, just get smothered by Tray Ogden, was not really in the fight at all. Almost the same story with Cody Gibson. I think he put a little bit better resistance. trying to stay on his feet, but it was a wrestling

that foiled him, Cody Gibson, the Ultimate Fighter runner up to Brad Katona. So, it's not going to... God, don't... I didn't want to bring that up. I mean, I was meant specifically Ultimate Fighter 31, but yes, Mo Usman, also an Ultimate Fighter winner, also with an uninspiring

performance. And then, yes, if Katona in a few months or later this year were to get taken out by Talbot, man, this whole ultimate fighter experience, it's... I'm sure if you'll already want to see it shut down, and gosh, now again, now they're taking up the cross-howship chanko time. All right. Anyway,

a great pick. Great pick. I saw other people that's running that out there. I'm just going to throw out kind of a random one. And we talked about, hey,

maybe Peyton makes a quick turnaround for 301. How about Willie Cat? Daniel Santos. Maybe Daniel Santos is a way to go. There's a lot of ways you can go. Again, I saw a post-fite show we had a lot of people asking,

oh, is it time? Can you get a ranked guy? And I'm like, let's slow down. Let's slow down. He looked at great against Cameron, he looked great against Cameron. He looked good in his debut. His UFC debut fought through some, you know,

some tough situations and came back. So we've seen both sides. We've seen him dominate. We've seen him show some maturity, some poise. And that's great. That's what you want to see from a young prospect. I think he's only 25 years old. But let's keep in mind that he is only 25 years old.

He is a prospect. This division is very, very, very, very, very deep. So I don't see the need to go like top 30, even. Let's give this guy time. Let's keep him busy. Let's keep him healthy. And I say, like, we're eyeing 20, 25 before we even talk about, like, a top 20 guy. Yeah. He's got, um, in a different way, but he's got, he's got O'Malley vibes to me. He does, he certainly has O'Malley vibes to some extent. So we'll see what you do. It's the accuracy. It's the accuracy, you know, I, I thought he was, like, looking a little wild in round one, but he settled himself down

quite for a young guy to settle himself down and then start picking his shots and just landing bombs and then to come out in the second round again composed get that finish within the first 30 seconds it's it's rare to see it's rare to see for a guy with this uh with only seven eight pro fights impressive stuff let's go to the featherweight division use of solal a successful return to the ufc he had you know a cup of coffee outside of it did the three fights a one night thing for Sparta FC was the king of Sparta for a little while

takes on Billy Coronillo takes a fight on short notice and Yusuf Salal gets his first UFC finish this time in his second stint gets a big win I heard a lot of people just not dump on

Yusuf Salal but giving this man no chance to beat Billy Q and I was just like why Yusuf's always been good just had some tough fights like this dude fought Ilya on like a week's notice overseas. This dude is good.

Just had a lot of tough fights. She couldn't get his legs under him. Maybe just the time away was a good thing to get him back. And you saw him as a good fighter, man. He's good. Congratulations to him. Billy Q. Responded, gave use of his props,

said he had a tough night, no excuses. So let's do Yusuf Salaw versus Daniel Paneda, AKA. I think that would be a lot of fun. That's good. I think I matched up Paneda with one of the featherweight winners last week. I didn't go that way. That makes a ton of sense. I went less veteran. I went with Muhammad Naimov. Again, a lot of ways who go Zalal right now, I hope he, I hope, I know that this is a short

notice opportunity for Zalal. I hope they gave him a multi-fight deal. Or if they did, actually, maybe it's better they didn't. If they didn't give him a multi-fight deal, I hope he gets a nice multi-fight deal now with the leverage of having a beaten Billy Quarantilla. But I assume it's, uh, when he got signed. It was for at least, at least two or three, four fights, something like that. I don't think the UFC is in the business of just saying, hey, one-off. Now you can renegotiate. It's not really, it doesn't really serve them well.

So, yeah, great to see Yusuf back. I forgot how young he was when he came to the O.C. I forgot. And I interviewed him a long time ago, a very nice young man. And I forgot that, like, yeah, when he started off, he was 3 in O and O'SU run. He was only like 23, 24 years old, very, very young guy and talented, clearly. Then you run to some tough opponents. Yeah, I think Alex Casares was in there.

He didn't even go in a loss. He went on a draw. That was sort of the last finest contract. just didn't bring him back. And then, yeah, it goes back to the regional scene, kind of shows how far he's come along, just decimates some overmatched competition. Now he's 27. He's kind of in his athletic prime.

And could be like a mainstay now. Could have a nice 10, 15 fight run in the UFC. Is he a contender? I don't know. But he's a guy who could hang around, win two, lose one, win two, lose one. Yeah, he could. He really could be. And he plays spoiler for some guys.

Yeah, so great story, perfect example of, you know, having a tough first UFC run, going back to the regional scene, and then coming back clearly improved, more mature, more physically mature and everything. So you'd like to see it. Yeah. Let's go, actually, we're sticking at 145 with Mr. Padillo. Mr. Padilla getting in there, Fernando Padilla, that is, getting a victory over Luis Paolo, gets the dars, just about halfway through the opening round.

I like this kid a lot. I know he's got the loss to Kyle Nelson. I thought he just didn't show up for that fight. I think Kyle had probably his best night at the office that he could at this point in his career. And it was just a vet sort of a vet setback. I actually rank him pretty high. I have him, I think he's got like top 30 talent in this division. I really do.

So I'm going to make this real quick. No-J UFC, September in the sphere. We give Mr. Padilla the winner of the upcoming Damon Jackson versus Alexander Hernandez. fight inside the sphere. Wow. I'm trying to look where I have these guys in my rankings. I think I have him above those guys anyway. I don't.

Where's my Alexander Hernandez? It's quite a, quite a talented division. Yes, that makes a lot of sense. The date, the location makes a lot of sense. I went with Nathaniel Wood. I have Nathaniel Wood slightly ahead of him. I already have Padilla in the top 25, frankly, just by MMA Math because he beat Juliana Rosa.

Julian Rosa has beaten guys beneath his. them, you could, I just, more, I don't need to share the whole chart of who be who to get this thing. But, yeah, just on the merit of beating erosa and then this impressive performance on Saturday, he kind of already creeps into my top 25. I could understand people have him, I'm lower. But I like him and Nathaniel Wood. I think that could, that to me would really show me he's maybe a top 20 talent. And, uh, and then we'd see where we go with that. So yeah, I like, I like, I like Padilla.

The other weight division is just, it's just on fire right now. I mean, it's right. Again, bantam weight, featherweight, lightweight, holy crap. If you're competing in one of these divisions, you got a long ways to go to the top. But also, there's a lot of chances to shine because there's great competition at top and bottom. Absolutely. Let's go to the wild card round, AK. We'll select one fighter who have not matched made for yet. We'll match make for them right now. Are you sticking in the featherweight division, AK? Or are you going elsewhere? I mean, we didn't both pick Andre Lima. We didn't both do. No?

I figured you were going to pick Andre Lima. I went a different direction. Okay, I'll go with, all right, I'll go with Andre Lima. I had to do it. The man got bitten, Mike. Yeah, you got to run it back. Igor, Igor, you're only, for Igor, you're only 20 years old. Get your stuff together. Stop biting people.

Don't let me, if I see this guy three months from now in misfit, headlining miss fist, Mike, misfis colon, fighter strikes, biting fighter strikes again in, like, Brazil, regional battle. I'll be so disappointed. So, Igor, you're only 20 years old. I don't know what happened. Fighting is tough. I don't know if he just had a moment, an episode, and decide to bite another man quite viciously.

But I hope this is, again, a freak thing and not indicative of him as a fighter or as a human being. But Andrelema, actually, I did say, again, I just want to give him a... Kind of keeping with the theme of... Listen, he got bit. So I think the next logical opponent is Bruno Bulldog Silva.

So there you go. That is very good. There we go. Very good. I'm sticking with featherweight. I'm sticking with Julian Orozah. Going with him. He is Juliana Rosa.

I mean, this guy is just, you never know what you're going to get. He's either going to get God or he's going to almost get God and then come back and get you, which is exactly what happened on Saturday. And I'm stunned this matchup has never been made. Like, I'm really stunned this matchup has never made. and I think we have to do it before time goes out.

And I also don't want to see this other guy really fight this next crop of hungry, up-and-coming 1-45ers. Let's do a little Julianne Rosa versus Darren Elkins, A.K., let's just have these two dudes. These wily vets just get in there and bite down on the mouthpieces and get after it until somebody can't do it anymore. There's a lot of veterans you could have gone on with there. So I thought you were going to be, and I saw some listeners throughout some veteran names, too. So I thought you were going to be friends forever with one of the listeners.

But I guess we'll get to that later. Yeah. Good win for Erosa. He had some, Mike, I don't know if you saw. He had quite a not great, I would say, media post-by interview. And I'll get to that later. A listener kind of addresses it kind of asked about it. So I do want to touch upon it.

We don't need to spend too much time on it. But it certainly deserves commentary. And I will have that in a moment. Fair. Do we have any check the tapes? Anyone claiming not no points? anything? We do. Shut up.

Okay. Shout out to Left Lane MMA for, I tell people, if you want points, just remind me, because again, I've, I've, I'm not always keeping track of listener picks now. It's just a bit hard to do. There's so many. And there's a lot of overlap. But Left Lane did remind me, and this is really a point for a shared point, guys. So you guys can thank Left Lane on Instagram for reminding me that y'all were on top of Anthony

Smith versus Vitor Petrito Trio. No? Looks like that's going down. U.S. 301. 4th. And Mike, I want to get your thoughts on this because I was told you weren't, you weren't thrilled about the prospect of Waldo Cortez Acosta versus Robellus to Spain, which sounds like it is happening May 11th at UFC St. Louis. So this was the 299 episode, I think Mike, where you

commented on this? Why? Why? Why no salsa boy versus Robela? Because I want Robelis to fight fun guys. And Waldo's not fun? So that's really it. I mean, look, if Rebellis touches Salsa Boy, then it ain't going to matter anyways because Salsa Boys going to sleep. But I have real Carl Williams Justin Tafa vibes here. And I just don't even want the chance for that to happen, which is why I was like, just throw Rabellas in there with freaking Austin Lane. Like those two, like I think Austin's now booked officially since 2009. But I mean, that's perfect.

Like Austin Lane's not going to try to wrestle this dude He's gonna go in there and try to punch him in the face Really really hard Which is the kind of fights we want to see rebellus in We don't want to see anybody try to take Rebellis down In any way, shape or form We want someone to be like Like Josh Perugian could have easily got in there

And took him down But you know what he did? He just got shot out of a cannon And ran right into Rebellis' fist Like that's what we want And there's a chance we don't get that with Salsa Boy I was a dogging the listeners I just think it's a

it's not great matchmaking potentially. And Rebella should be out there ice and fools in less than a minute. Anything less than that is promotional malpractice, A.K., in my opinion. Him and Austin Lane, which should happen someday, that fight would last negative eight seconds. Exactly. That's what we should be doing. Austin Lane would be chaos. And it's not an insult to Austin Lane. It's just how fast does Spain. Austin Lane would be knocked out as he was walking to the cage.

That's how quickly that fight would end. And then the other better idea was what happened after last Saturday show, we should have done Rebellis versus Taito Ivasa. Like that's, like it's just, Rebellis is 35. The window is not a big one, even at heavyweight for this young man. Let's check him in there with Ty. Maybe he brings the best out of Salced Boy. Maybe. Maybe.

Like most headway, Salced Boy was a finisher before coming to the UFC, right? I'm not making that up, right? I know he had a finish at the game bread, game bread fight show. Yeah, I guess he's not a particularly, I guess he has the average pre-UFC heavyweight resume where it's like first round knockouts of some random. I don't know.

Maybe I won't give up on Salta Boy. I think that fight could end in someone getting sparked. Probably, I don't know. I don't have a prediction yet. I'll reserve judgment. I will reserve judgment, but would not be my first choice, would not be my second choice, would not even be my eighth choice.

There are other names you could have thrown him in there with. This name is better than Jed's suggestion of throwing Rebellis in there with Chris Barnett, which is awful. But other than that, this was probably like, unless you threw him in there with Carl Williams, this would be like the third worst choice, in my opinion. But we'll see. Maybe Rebellis will just hit him once real quick and we don't even have to worry about it. Any other points being given, AK?

No, we can move on to listener picks, Mike. And I just want to say, there's a lot of Carl Williams picks, which is fine. He deserves it. He was in the penultimate fight of the night. But some of these, I feel like listeners are competing to make, like, the worst heavyweight fight of the year. And we'll get to, I'm sure you got some of these two. On the other hand, I don't know, maybe we should have, like, when we were doing our pick for Carl Williams, besides, you know, we both just punted and said McParkin.

Maybe we should have tried to find, like, what opponent? And this is, with all respect to Carl Williams, who, hey, buddy, keep winning, keep getting those checks. That's your job. But is there, who could get an exciting fight out of Carl Williams? I don't know. No, but I mean, it could get smothered, right? I don't know. Rebellis says he's very good on the ground, so, but I don't want to see that.

Everyone says that. Yes, Ian Gary has already said he's the best jujitsu player in the world. Yeah, pound. So we just haven't seen it yet. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo.

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your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. All right, let's get in the listener picks. Let's see what everyone picked for one, Carl Williams. Everything that I got, I didn't get a ton. A lot of punters, A.K., a lot of punters. Robbie Ryan, Thug Rose versus Ariani Lipski.

Not even going Macy Barber, going Ariani Lipski. Lipski is still on a win streak, right? Yeah, she's cooking. She's cooking, right? That's interesting. Real good. I like that. I like that.

I don't know why I hadn't. I guess I kept thinking of just only people above rows, but I kind of like Lipski. Yeah, it's kind of a step back from Amanda. It is honest. It is. It is. But Ariani has looked good. Robbie punted as well.

Carl Williams versus Mick Parkin. Why this wasn't stood up in the third round as a crime. I'll have to take your word for it because I didn't watch it. Talbot versus Daniel Santos. There you go. Oh, thank you. Yusuf Salal versus the Kyle Nelson, Bill Algeo winner, Wildcar, Trey Ogden versus Loy.

versus Loik Rodzaboff. This is the one for Edmund Shabazzian that I'm just not happy with. Robbie, come on now. Shabazian versus Hidalph of the era. Come on. Come on. Stop throwing him in there with grinding wrestlers.

Listen, Barry O'Reilly, the dear Barry O'Reilly sent this one in as well, and I was going to have the same reaction. Was there any explanation justification for the pick? No, just, that was just it. Here is Barry says, Edmund is young, but I don't see much upside to him unless he's just booked against stand-up guys. Even then, he was rocked by Dobson. Should have been to beat him, he gets a bit more respect.

While if Edmund is to beat the Jiu-Zitsu Great, then maybe he'll have some hope of pushing for a ranking game in the future. Can I say, and I'm sure Edmund is team would disagree. I don't care about Edmund having a ranking or fighting for a title in the future. That's so far off from the distance. I'm not interested in, oh, well, let's test him and see if he's a title. I don't care. I want to see him sparking guy, sparking A.J. Dobson. breaking brad to bar.

I just want to see him striking and smashing people and not getting taken down or maybe getting smashed himself as he almost sitting and stops. I want to see him in exciting fights. He's an exciting fighter on the feet. We do not need to test him. This should not be our priority. Yes, I hate this matchup so much. I don't see a world where he can keep Hadolfo from taking him down and just messing up

his whole day on the ground. So we're going the wrong way. This is Anthony Hernandez match baking. We're just like, why? Oh, man. Why? They freaking, like, horrible.

The UFC ruined him. Like, they absolutely ruined him. They pushed him way too quickly. They pushed him into matchups. He just was not ready for. Derek Brunson, like, you want to test him fine. And even then, I didn't love the matchup. Goes out and loses and that it is what it is.

And then to run him right back with Jack Hermanson, which is like, okay, well, why would you do this? And then they're like, okay, now we have to, like, just give him a big step back. And they throw him in there with Nassar, and I'm like, what are you doing? Are you just trying to make this guy lose? And then they bounce him back with Dulchilla Gambula, which is perfect. I mean, this is, that is like a plus matchmaking for him.

They should have done that after the Derek Brunson fight. And then what do they do after that? They throw him in there with Fluffy. I'm like, what are you doing? Are you just trying to ruin this kid's career altogether, just making sure he has no chance? I would like to see them do this correctly is what I'm looking for. Yeah. This would be like if after like Cameron Simon's back-to-back losses to Christian Rodriguez and Peyton Tal.

They're like, okay, now you're fighting Song Ya Dong. It's like, why? Like, why? What are we like, I know they won't do. God, I hope they don't do that. But I just feel like, yeah, they mishandle some prospects sometimes. And Edmund's like a prime example. There's a lot of fun fights for Edmund.

It doesn't matter with, I want this guy to have a long, healthy MMA career. I know they have every fighter has big dreams, wanting to be the main event. wanting to be a world champion, make those millions of dollars. But he's only 26. He has plenty of time to figure out who he is, which could just be a great action fighter, maybe picking up a lot of bonus checks. I don't know.

He didn't get one on Saturday, which is kind of rough. But he certainly could get plenty in the future. So, yeah, we don't need to do test his grappling. I don't care about testing his grappling. Let him do that privately. I don't need to see that national television. No, if he gets ranked again, then we can test his grappling again. Let's just go out there and let's try to see if the UFC can do it correctly.

Sure. Our friend left lane, Rose versus Barber, popular pick. Williams versus Steepay in the cookoff of the century. Now that makes a lot more sense. Talbot versus Alatang A. Lee, winner lose against Victor Hugo. Zalalal versus the Al-Gio Nelson winner, Padilla versus Charles Jordane. Arosa versus the Jackson Hernandez winner. Parkin versus Nassimento.

Errins versus Mel Costa. The most important pick of all, Lima versus Mike Tyson. What do you think of this for? Edmund Shabazzian, aka Edmund Shabazian versus Roman Coppulov. Oh, that's great. That's great. That's great. This is where, this is how we should go. Yeah, I got this from a shoutout, tack MMA as well. Yes, this is the right direction to moving in. Someone's getting got. Someone's getting a $50,000 bonus. Someone's probably getting hurt. So that's the forces side of it, but this is the hurt business. And this is the kind of matchmaking we should be doing for Edmund and Roman, frankly.

Yes. I don't mind that one. I'd like to see I didn't get one more win than do Roman. But if they booked that, I'm fine with it. Much better than the alternatives of throwing him in there with a multi-time ADDCC world champion. Don't want to see that. Last one, I got four-corner sports. Oh, boy, AK. You want to talk about heavyweight, knockdown, drag-out affairs.

Carl Williams versus Martin Boudai, AK. Start up the engines. instant contender for worst fight of the year. I'm sorry. The over two and a half is going to be minus 875 for that fight. Vegas may take that one off the board. They may take that one off the board. No bets.

No bets. You can't take the over. You cannot take the over. You know, still likes Fernando Padilla versus Charles Jordane. Yusuf Zalaw versus Nathaniel Wood. Peyton Talbot versus Taylor Lapilus, aka I'm about to doll it some doo-doo to our friend, Four Corners Sports. And normally we're a little bit more lenient about this.

But when there's two potential do-do things, one of which we've already discussed on this program multiple times, I have to deliver this. He goes with Edmund Chabazim versus Albert Dariah. There's two things to mention here. One, Albert D'Rive, not in the UFC anymore, which we've already discussed at the show, more than ones. And two, they're also teammates.

They have also trained together at Extreme Couture many, many times. So this is doo-do four-quarters stores. It is official. I'm gaveling it down. Stamped a doo-do. Can we call this a light do-doing? Because I do feel, oh, wow. This is a firm.

This is a stinky. It's a full doo-do. This is a stinky poo-poo. Yeah, if it was just one, it was just one or the other, I would lighten it down, but this is, yeah, this has to be. Damn, I was going to say, in fairness to four-corner sports, again, a regular contributor friend of the show.

he has you know, Derive has not fought since parting ways to the U.C. So it's kind of hard to keep track. Sometimes when you don't see that they fought, you know, in a approach sense, again,

I'm sure we report it on enmafighting.com, great website, so you should know. We also, I have also said, like, look, when it happens once, all right,

we're not going to award it. When it happens the second time, we're, okay, this is the last, I remember saying this. I'm like, look,

is the last time I'm going to say this. Albert Dariyev is not in the UFC right now. He could resign, but as of right now, take him off. the board. Yeah. And then we get not only that, but a teammate as well.

I didn't know they were teammates either. I didn't know they were teammates. I was unfamiliar with that. But you know what? You're right. The information is out there, Mike. I'm being maybe two prints of positivity today. Give them the sneaky.

It's okay. All right. That's all I got, A.K. I hate to end on the doo-doo, but maybe save us. Oh, we got a lot of positive vibes here, my friend. Because I didn't get too many either, but I did get three first timers, three, welcome. to the party pal gift recipients let's start with the money line mic money line mic first time in the program hopefully a few fights to book guy was supposed to test a young prospect in roll rosa

so how about rickie terseus versus patent talbot perfect level of weird yeah very popular pick this week people saying talbot and rick uh for nano pedia versus charles o'day another popular pick and uh fun test julina rosa versus mohammed naimov two awkward styles sure Enrique, Enrique, at Tornado Kick on Twitter. We've talked on Twitter before. I'll just read their first time sending in picks, though. They said, they had a stupid day at work, and I decided to engross myself in this very apexy card when I got home.

Here's some odd-no submissions. Rose versus Macy Barber. Don't want to rush Barber to a former champ fight, but she's do another step up. And I can see you're beating the slower, ouch, harsh, slower version of Rose. Decent pay-per-view main-code fight or fight-night main event. And by the way, Rose herself said she felt slower, so I don't think that's too much to a burn.

Oh, he's going for a step-up for Peyton. Julio Arsay Herbert Burns winner. Wow, that to me is a big step-up. Other stuff. Edmund versus Shara Bullet. I actually do like that. I know people think Shara would just straight up kill Edmund. But it's a stand-up fight.

As a stand-up fight, I give Edmund a chance against anyone outside of the top 10 at 185 in a stand-up fight. I give him him a chance. I give him a chance. I like that. Andre Lima versus antibiotics. Yeah, getting the tattoo after. I don't know. That was, I don't know.

And Enrique says F, Julian Neroza. They didn't say F. They used the F word. For anyone who missed it, and I don't want to draw too much attention to it. And again, it's a controversial topic. It's fine. Julian Norosa kind of went on a weird sort of anti-trans comment on his post-fight when he's speaking to the media after.

Addressing specifically, I think the swimmer Leah Thompson, who was a, a trans woman competing in swimming and has, you know, again, again, it has caused quite a bit of controversy. But it kind of came out of nowhere. And the way he phrased it was very weird. He's like, I'd like to see Leah come over to MMA. And then he said, then I will transition to being a woman so I can fight her. And I'm like, this is a weird way to go down. I very quickly, when it comes to the topic of trans athletes competing, you know, in sports, I understand the controversy. And I think there are questions to be asked. That's fine. If you're genuinely asking questions and you want to have a conversation, that's fair game. I haven't done enough research on the topic, to be honest.

So I'm generally pro, but I could certainly see why there's consternation about it. I don't think it's cut and dry. I don't think it's cut and dry. Oh, this should 100% be allowed. So if that's Julian's issue, that's fine. But I also think there's people, again, who just have a problem with trans people existing, which is insane and horrible. But in Julian's case, it was just such a weird thing to bring up.

and the way he brought, again, the hoops he jumped through in his mind to think that he was making it a compelling point. It just was not a great moment for Julian. So I didn't want to talk about Julian too much, but I do know there's a lot of people in the trans community who are obviously just like what the hell is guy talking about?

Why is he even bringing this up? So for anyone who's saying F. Julina Rosa today, that is why, and I certainly agree with you when it comes to this topic. I don't know if you want to say anything about that. But that's just my two cents there real quick. Yeah, I mean, I don't really have a whole lot to add to that. Kind of wish you didn't say that, but it is what it is.

It is what it is. He's a moment. Got a microphone in front of your face. Sometimes you just say a bunch of things and not tremendous. Not his best. Mr. Senior Man, our last first timer, welcome to the party pal. On the next one picks below. He wants Thug Rose and Blanchfield.

He's picking Aaron to beat Menon. Flyweight title more than likely be September 17th at the sphere. Is that right, Mike? I haven't been keeping up with the Ultimate Fighter taping. That sounds like that's the idea, right? They do the Ultimate Fighter, the season's over, and then they do the Sphere. Yeah, because I think it's airing the first episode air is June 4th. Yes.

For Tuft, so. Prime summer programming, Mike. Prime. Yeah. When summer rolls around, fight fans are looking forward to international Fight Week and the Ultimate Fighters. That is what everyone's talking about. The return of Cona McGregor and the next season of the ultimate fight.

I mean, they got the return of Conne McGregor on the last season of the Ultimate Fighter and still nobody watched it. So it's got to be tough. It's going to be tough. Tough hanging forever. I kind of like the reasoning here, though. And I think this is anyone who's thinking of Rose versus Aaron is thinking the same way that if Aaron Blanchfield wins and just decides to wait, it is a bit of a weight. And I think most people are confident she would beat this version of Rose Nambi Unis. so they don't mind making her this matchup,

Mr. Junior Man saying, I don't like the idea of the long layoff and may as well collect a paycheck and a big name. So I don't know, but could be a trap fight for Aaron. When Rose is at her best, man, she could beat anybody. Yeah, take your title flight if you win. She wins, take your title flight. Rebook Shabazian, Tadorovich,

and again, another Peyton Talbot, Ricky Terseos. We don't know if they're going to rebook Ricky and Raul, right? It was supposed to happen, and then obviously there was no actual agreement. and that's just in limbo now, right? I mean, if I'm Ricky, I'm not really turned on by that one anymore. Yeah, you know what I mean? I think I'm ready to move on from it.

Peyton be tough. Again, probably the right way to go with him at this time, but that's a tough fight. But Ricky would jump on that in a second because Ricky's Ricky's Ricky. They're up by the same. I think they're rep by the same team. So that would be easy fight to put together. Easy to make it happen. Beer cheese, 6,900.

What's up beer cheese? Talbot, Castaneda, some we've already said, Padilla and Sungwu Choy. And again, this was another proper pick. Zalal and Jordane. I think that makes a ton of sense. And we'll close out here with Barry O'Reilly. I didn't get any Instagram or email like this. Come on, guys.

I think, Mike, I'll have to read the contact information at the end of this week's episode. I think people might be forgetting. Or we have new listeners who don't know. Barry O'Reilly beat my Lima suggestion. He wants Lima versus Charlie Campbell because Charlie Campbell is, of course, known as the cannibal. So, well done. Charlie Campbell, I think, is reportedly fighting Trevor Peake on April 6th.

But again, the joke is too good. It's too good to pass up on. So, well done. Yeah. Maybe a win-lose or draw. You know, when lose or draw, Trevor Peak, we give him leave. Johns versus Davey Grant, Erosa versus Andre Feely. That's who I thought you were going to talk about before, Mike, when you were talking

about your wild card bill for Julian. I thought you'd go Andre Feely. Talbot and Vinicius Olavera. Man, it's one of the best. of the year so far. That's a banger. It's a banger. Hell, yeah, it is. And, oh, there you go, Pittsburgh. This is why I wanted to end with this. Mike, we had people asking about this on the post-fight show, and unfortunately, you were not,

again, you were not available. You're enjoying a lovely night off. But you are the Natty Ice, one of the bigger Natty Ice fans out there. I'm a big fan, too. Most people are, but you are a big fan. And people said, the phrasing last night, this is not how Barry puts it. This was the phrasing last night. Should we just feed Rose Namunis to Natalia Silva? So what do you think, Michael, Rose Namunist versus Natty Ice? I mean, if I'm Rose, I'm not taking that fight at all. That's way too risky. I mean, I wouldn't hate it. I would watch it. It makes no sense for Rose. She gains nothing from beating Natty Ice. Like literally nothing. Natty gains everything. Rose gains nothing. It's just a paycheck.

Macy's the bigger fight where she could gain something from someone who's on a really good streak who's beating the Caitlin Chukagians of the world, who has a stoppage win over Amanda Heba. So there's like something there. If you're Natty Ice and they offer you that fight, you friggin jump on it. You take it. Absolutely take it. So I think Natty Ice probably gets like a Lauren Murphy, somebody like that. I don't think she gets Rose because I think Rose is, the way that you,

FFC views Rose is something we talked about on the preview show. She's probably like the backup fighter for the title fight right now. Like I know Blanche Field and Fiore are about the fight, but I'll tell you right now, if they say on the first episode of the ultimate fighter on June 4th, these two ladies are going to fight September 16th, wherever it is at the Spear, you bet your ass Rose Namibus is going to be the backup fighter. If someone falls out, Rose is getting slotted right in there to be on that pay-per-view, especially at that event in that venue with how Dana views that card,

he's going to load it up with stars. So I like the concept for the Natty Ice rise, but if you're Rose, you look at that fight and you say way too risky. And she's literally in the same position she's in if she wins that fight. So I would say no. I also don't love it if only because like, and the guys do not agree with me, Jed, New York Rick and Casey's not agree. I think Natty is at this stage and in this weight class, I think she smokes Rose.

Not necessarily knocks her out, but like either finishes her or very convincing 30, 27 win. Like I just, I'm that high on Natia's. So I know the experience gap is huge. The level of competition gap is huge. So it's not, it shouldn't look like an easy win. But you could get me to bite on like Natia's about like minus 200. I would still go for it. And she probably wouldn't be minus 200 because Rose is such a bigger name.

Yeah. I don't think so. Yeah. I mean, if I got enough value on Natty Ice, I would bet on her. If they put that on a pay-per-view and, like, Rose is like a minus-19 or like a minus-200 and Natty was like a plus 140 or 150, I'd probably take a shot on Natty because she's got excellent takedown defense and she's very rangy. She's very tricky.

And I'd be concerned about the experience gap. I'd be concerned about her getting a little too wild and crazy out there because, because she does do that. And she did it against Andrew Lee. And, you know, she had moments where she, you know, got, got clipped a couple of times. And if she does that with Rose, it's probably not going to be good. But, yeah, I don't hate the matchup. It just makes no sense for Rose to take it.

You know what I mean? So if Rose lost, I think that made all the sense in the world. Like if Hebus had won that fight and you want to do Natty versus Rose, that's perfect. But after a win, man, can't happen just yet. She's coming though, Rose. You better be ready. Natty Ice is coming. The reasons you mentioned, and again, for my own reasons, I don't love it.

It's not a terrible suggestion. It's not like the worst suggestion. It's just maybe not right now. I think that's just not going to happen next, I don't think. But that's it, Mike. That's it for me. Again, I did have someone asking last week, how do we send in picks? And I was like, oh, you know, we've taken for granted that people listen to every episode.

Because I think we actually gone a few episodes where we did not mention how to reach out to us. So guys, hit me up. My DMs are open on Twitter and Instagram. On Twitter at Alexander K. Lee, on Instagram at Alexander KK Lee. And hit me up on email, alexander. Dot Lee at SBNation.com. Mike, how can they get you? Easy as is Instagram.

Send the DMs. M underscore HeckJR. That's where I find them. I will dig into all the folders to find your submissions. So send them along. And, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I guess it just really depends on the event. It's just, the event's good.

We get a bunch of selections. If the event is not great, we get some, but not a lot. We appreciate anyone who sends suggestions. So a lot of stuff to look forward to this week on MMA fighting. At some point, I believe the debut episode of swing rounds with one Mike Perry is going to drop. I know we've been teasing that for a while. The great E. Casey Leiden sent over the latest draft to us last night. watched it this morning.

Even my wife watched it this morning and she had a good time watching it as well. She thought it was fun. So I think we're getting real close to everybody. I think we're getting really, really close to that dropping. I think you guys are going to dig it. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Eastern, UFC 100 rewatch party on the MMA fighting YouTube channel.

It's going to be super fun. And what I forgot all about until I went back, there's only four fights on the main card. So we're going to watch four fights and that's it. What? We're going to watch. Stop it. Yeah.

You are lying. You are lying to America right now. I would never lie to you. We're going to watch Sexyama versus Alan Belcher. We're going to watch Dan Henderson versus Michael Bisving. You're going to watch George Sapier versus Tiago Elvis. We're going to watch Brock Leicester versus Frank Beer. There is a rare post-lim on this card as well.

Post-lim, I remember. I think the only post-lim in UFC history or modern U.S. history, I could be wrong. John Fitch versus Polo Ti-Lum. but I don't even know if that thing ever saw the light of day because it was 2009. It aired somewhere because I remember watching that fight. Maybe it was on Facebook. Maybe. I remember I did watch that fight like that either that night or that week.

Yeah. We got to dig into this. Okay. We'll dig into this. We got to dig into this. So that's going to happen at EPM Eastern on Tuesday. And then the following week we'll do a UFC 200 watch party. That will have five fights.

That'll be a little bit longer of a time. But it'll be a lot of time to answer questions and stuff like that. And we'll make it super easy on you guys. Like we'll load up either ESPN Plus or FightPass, whatever's easier for everybody. We'll 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 go. We'll all watch it at the exact same time. It will be spectacular.

So don't miss it this Tuesday. And then we'll be back on the program next week here to discuss the fallout of UFC Atlantic City. Is it a 7 p.m. main card for this one, AK? Don't know yet. It better be. Or earlier would be even better. We got to answer these questions for the people.

All right, where are we at? Please tell me. Oh, God, A.K. I don't like this reaction. Yeah. 10 p.m. Come on. According to UFC.

Come on. Why? I mean, maybe the website's wrong, but UFC fight night, Saturday, March 30th, 10 p.m. Eastern time. What? What? What?

call Atlantic City, New Jersey. This is in New Jersey. This isn't like, why, why? Let me see. All right. I want to make sure we have this right, because people are going to want to know. I see it on ESPN.

I see it on ESPN. 7 o'clock, pre-lones, 10 o'clock. 7 p.m. Yep. But this is on YSp. Even on ticket master, if you want to buy tickets, first fight 7 p.m. Eastern.

So, youser, it's going to be a long one. 14 fights, another six-fight main card. And here it is, my friends. Here is the UFC's return outside of the world's most famous Apex to Atlantic City. Aaron Blanchfield, Menon, Fioro, Big Fight, 125 pounds. Fecente Leuke, Joaquin, Bucle, the co-main event. Is this a co-main event, AGO? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Cizente is always a main event or co-made event. Apex main event or co-meat. For sure. Bruno Silla versus Chris Wyden in what could potentially be the final. fight of Chris Wyman's career, depending on how this all goes. Nersaultin, Rootsab versus Sedrique Dumas. We got Bill Algeo versus Kyle Nelson.

Oh, I forgot Chidi and Jokwani versus Reese McKeigh. That's the main card for a please buy tickets to this event. Fight card. Why is Bernard Geremba versus Lupi Gaudinez? Not on the main card right now. Hopefully that changes. We also have Andre Petroski versus Jacob Alcun. Connor Matthews, New England's own,

taking on Dennis Bajuka Angel Pacheco. I believe he is making his UFC debut. Minnesota guy, but also part of the New England cartel. I think he was a fighter that Dana gave a contract to off the contender series on a loss. If memory serves me correctly, it could be wrong about that. He takes on the outspoken Cowlin Lockran,

who are, say Herbert Burr, Ebo Asayan versus the Pleasure Man, Anton Tercalge, Mosegato versus Victoria Dutakova, and Nate, the train landware versus Jamal Emmerz, all going down. That is USC Atlantic City, AK. Would, you know I love this guy more than anyone? Would the Pleasure Man still be in the O.C. right now if his nickname wasn't the Pleasure Man? I don't think so. He's riding this nickname, right?

I mean, he's had some okay fights, but he hasn't actually won. and I mean he's great Look, there's value in what he brings to the table which is he gets got really, really well.

True. But he's fought good dudes. Like, just look at the opponents he's fought. All good at all made up. All solid opponents. Victor Petrino who's got to be like a ranked

light heavyweight. Tyson Pedro. That one doesn't age well based on what we saw on Saturday. And now he's going to fight Ivo Asian. The. Last Ottoman, 27-year-old contender series guy.

By the way, this is a... This is a two, apparently. A two, what? They fought and brave. This is a rematch. They did? Yes, I did. I only know this,

I'm literally looking at Tercali's showdown right now. Just because I was trying to remember, did you get a win in the U.S. He's 0. and 3, very possibly 0.4. And I do think his nickname has taken him a long way, as it should, because the nickname is amazing. Well, folks, that's why you listed this program

because now the stakes could not be higher for that matchup at 205 pounds. And we'll talk all about it. Perhaps one of these two gentlemen will be the wild card selection following UFC Atlantic City and then we go one more trip to the world's most famous apex and then it is on the road to UFC 300,

ladies and gentlemen. We're getting closer and closer as the days and weeks go by. So join us next week to discuss the follow of UFC Atlantic City from a matchmaking perspective right here I'm on to the next one, the podcast. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.

You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 9-88, Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know, just in case.

Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada.