MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 92

Episode Date: May 19, 2024

Lerone Murphy shined in his first UFC main event as he battered and dominated Edson Barboza at UFC Vegas 92 this past Saturday at the APEX. Following the biggest win of his career, what is next for Murphy — whether he gets his wish to fight at UFC 304 in Manchester, or not? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what is next for Murphy from a matchmaking perspective following his breakout performance. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Khaos Williams after knocking out Carlston Harris in the co-main event, Themba Gorimbo after his decision win against Ramiz Brahimaj, along with main card finishers Adrian Yanez, Angela Hill, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. There, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking crowns have returned following the second fiddle.

That was UFC Vegas 92. went down at the world's most famous apex. And let us say you're just the co-host, the co-matchmaker Prince Pust to be Alexander K. Leaks. I got to tell you, A.K., after the pageantry and the craziness of Tyson Fury versus Alexander Usoc in Saudi Arabia with a crowd that was on fire and ready to go,

and then to be magically morphed to the world's most famous apex, I got to tell you what an emotional ride it was, my best friend. Having my best friend, And having Fury and Ousek, seeing them come out at the same time as the final prelim of U.S. Vegas 92, featuring Tom, Nolan, and Victor Martinez. That was the timing, I think, right?

I'm not going to. I think that's how it played out. That was something else. Wow. I mean, just wow. And no disrespect to Tom, Nolan, Victor Martinez. They're, you know, quite a bit earlier in their combat sports careers. don't have the name of Ussick and Fury, and also they're in the Apex.

So it was an incredible contrast, even if it had not been the Apex. If you go to any UFC event, this could have been St. Louisville, this could be Atlantic City. There's just no pomp and circumstance with the U.S.C. And I get it. Mike, some people like that. For some people, that's a feature, not a bug, right? We know it's a cost-saving measure for the UFC. There was a time when the UFC had, you know, fancy entrances and pyro, never quite, obviously,

on the level of boxing or pride, but they try it. they definitely gussied up fighter entrances. And then one day they realized they don't need to. And they could cut off a lot of overhead by not doing it. And guess what? It has not hurt their standing with the fans for the most part. I think, as we can tell from the last 15 years of the UFC, it's been up and up and up and up.

And hey, hardcore fans can complain about the lack of pageantry and the dull entrances and blah, blah. It doesn't really matter to the UFC. But it is nice, Mike, for us when we get to cover a little boxing, cover a little KSW, a little fight circus, something else. you kind of see how fun and how lively combat sports can be, especially when you really go out of your way to make it a big deal. But this is the world of contrasts we live in in combat sports,

and I'm certainly not asking the UFC to start shooting off like sparklers at the apex or anything like that. No, it's just kind of a soulless experience watching fights take place in that warehouse with like 45 people. Nobody seems to care all that much. I will say the timing of the scheduling of it all was actually pretty good because by the time we wrapped up the post-fight show, like Chaos Williams was already getting ready to knock out poor Carlson Harris with one punch and then we got right to the main event.

And sort of in the background, I got to, I thought the main car is pretty fun. The prelims were pretty awful for the most part. We did have some weirdness happen with the DQ, which was absolutely unequivocally the correct call. we had the heart punch, so to speak, hashtag Kona Crush back in the character-driven WWF era and yeah, Tom Nolan, Victor Martinez,

and just not great prelims, but the main car was pretty solid, and that's what we're here to talk about from a matchmaking perspective, AK. So let's get right into this. I don't expect this to be a super long program, but obviously there's no UFC event coming up next weekend, so details.

at the end of the show about what we're going to do on this program for next week. So stay tuned for that. But let's talk about Lorone Murphy, A.K. He goes in there against Edson Barbosa, toughest test to date. A guy who gets momentum, does the good thing, wins these fights. And then just as the momentum comes, something seems to happen where we just don't see him for almost a year. It's almost like the consistency of just getting in that octagon and getting the reps and trying to get over more and more and more, just hasn't really happened. And we'll see what happens here. After a tremendous performance,

he beat the hell out of Edson Barbosa for 24 minutes and 58 seconds outside of a nasty upkick at the end of round one from Edson Barbosa. And for a second there, I thought the fight was over. I thought Barbosa knocked him out. But then Murphy got back to the corner and continued doing what he did. But huge win for The Miracle. I guess he now wants to be deemed the Ice Man, as was stated on the broadcast many times, but what do you want to see for Lorone Murphy, AK, after a big win that's probably going to propel him up a couple spots in the rankings? Has any fighter ever successfully co-opted in another fighter's nickname? I know he's not trying to steal Chuck Liddell's nickname, but that's a rough go.

When people say Iceman, they're thinking Chuck Lidell. You can't, I don't think you can just walk into that. I'm sure their comparisons in other combat sports, the only one that really comes to mind, obviously Sugar Ray Leonard, Sugar Ray Robinson, where you could say it's, it's, Sugar Ray is more famous probably to, you know, to newer fans than Sugar Ray Robinson. But it's almost equal. That's like the most equitable maybe combat sports nickname sharing I can think of. But in MMA, I don't think you can just take someone's name.

I don't think that's a good idea. The miracle is a good name. Like the miracle is a great name. It's alliterative. And it tells his story. It tells, it's like the immortal, like Matt the Immortal Brown. It tells a story. It sounds cool.

It tells a story. Why does he want to be the Iceman? Did you explain this? I don't know. It was just kind of a thing I heard in the background. Okay, let's hope that that doesn't catch on. Let's hope that that's about as relevant as Jim A1 Miller. Okay.

A1, A10? A10. A10. See? Guess what? You know, and people listening at home, they probably didn't even know I got that wrong. I'm happy I picked the winner of this one right. But though I thought Lorone would have to mix the martial arts a little more.

But man, that boxing looking sharp, very hard to strike Edson Barbosa. I don't care if Edson Barbosa is 50 years old someday. He's just a guy you're not going to want to stand with. But hey, Lorone Murphy, he's got the all-around game. Showed off a lot of that great striking on Saturday, so good for him. This was such a low-stakes card overall. I think that's probably our biggest criticism on some of these apex cards, especially this one where, like, I don't mind.

I didn't mind a lot of the matchups. It didn't feel like no matter who won whichever fight, like it was going to do a lot for them. Even Lorone, I think I might have bumped him up a couple spots of featherweight rankings after this. but it's not like this makes him a top 10 guy. He'll probably, I think he was already ranked by the UFC, so I don't know how much he moves at all. By the way, 6-0-1, good for him, undefeated in the UFC, 6 straight wins, 7 straight unbeaten.

I went with, where did I put this? I went with, Mike, I aimed big for this. And also this is because I don't think this is what he's going to get. It's just that there's a lot of names of featherweight that are either already booked or we have booked on this show. So I had to go with a name that's free. now because I think I booked him by someone else. Anyway, very convoluted answer.

I wish he had calling out Brian Ortega. I would love to see him Brian. He didn't call anybody out, if I recall correctly. He didn't do the thing. He did not. He did not do the thing. And that's fine. He's a nice British boy. I understand. He's very polite, young man. I would love seeing him call Brian Ortega.

I don't know if he gets that fight, but it's kind of like a shoot for the moon, land and the stars type thing where like maybe he doesn't get Ortega, but maybe he gets the number five guy, the number six guy, number seven guy. He can probably still get that. I just would have liked to see him call someone. I feel like now he's still very likely either to get, I think I know who you picked, but we'll see. I think he'll either get your name or like someone,

now someone behind him in the rankings. It just wasn't, it's just, you know, very good performance. Got to make a little bit more of an impact on the Mike Lerone. But otherwise, you know, no complaints. I just, I wish he'd gone big. And I would love to see him fight Brian Ortega. I don't think that happens. But I'm magic wanting it.

So I actually went with two here. Okay. because I don't think one of them is going to happen, and I'll explain why in a minute. He wants to fight in Manchester. That was the callout. And honestly, with the state of this division, I don't hate it, really, because there's just not a lot of guys available that makes sense and that are probably realistic to him right now, considering what's going on at the top. So if it's all about just fighting in Manchester, and I know some people are going to be like, well, you should on walking Buckley for not saying anything. and just calling for St. Louis.

No, it was just kind of the roundabout way that he did it. If Lorraine Murphy had called out whatever brewery brews beer in Manchester to make this call out, then that's a different story, because that's a walking Buckley did to try to do this and try to be cute and funny about that. But enough of that. If he fights in Manchester, it's Nate Landware. We just do something crazy and fun. But I just don't know if he's going to be able to turn around that quickly

because although he won that fight comfortably, and he pretty much tripled up, Edson Barbozon strikes, he got beat up in that fight. His face looked like hamburger meat. He was limping around. He wasn't feeling too hot after that one. So I just don't know if he's going to be able to turn around two months

and get in there and do it again. So I'm going with a more realistic option. I could certainly see this fight headlining at the world's most famous apex or who knows. Maybe they're just going to take the show in a row a little bit more. This could be a main event on the road. Calvin Cater. Lauren Murphy versus Calvin Cater, okay.

I think that thought makes a ton of sense. I thought you were going to go, uh, Cater or Emmett. I thought Josh Emmett was going to be in play there. I don't know if you've already matched up Josh Emmett on a previous show, if that matchup is still hanging out there. I still like Diego Lopez. Okay, yeah. I kind of thought I threw out like, uh, after Volk lost his last fight to, if he lost

until prior, I said, oh, like Josh Emmett would be a good bounce back. I should just like free up Josh Emmett because that fights almost definitely not going to happen. But, yeah, Calvin Cater makes a lot of sense. I saw a lot of people sending that one in. Cater is on a bit of a slump, three-fight losing streak, right? I think. Sterling,

Arnold Allen, that was a weird one. Yeah, injury. And Josh Emmett, which was, I thought Cater won. Close, yeah, and Philthawton,

that Cater won. Yeah. So, I mean, it's a quote-unquote slump. He's not really a slump. He's looked good. Plus,

he's still hanging on to a top 10 spot. So that's probably Laron's best way to break into the top 10 himself is to get Cater or Emmett, but I do see Cater as being a little more likely. I like that match up a lot, actually.

Let's go to the Co-main event. Is this the co-main event, okay? It's Cass Williams, clearly penultimate. People can read my predictions. I would feel going to see me drafting my predictions

because as I was writing up, I did say Comey to Event at first, and I was like, oh, that doesn't feel right. I like penultimate. But it was nice to see Chaos Williams back first time in about a year. He only fights in May, Mike.

Mike, he only fights in May. Like the legendary, like a legendary, like, like some sort of ancient mythological beast. He has an annual cycle where he emerges in May, smokes some fool, and then goes back into a dormant state. So I don't even know, like, if we should match him up or just say, we'll see you in May, chaos, because this is a very weird trend.

May 7th, 22, May 6, 2023, May 18th, 2024. Very strange. Very strange. Once a year. Gets his check, goes home. He's quite the mystery. And I don't know what's more mysterious Cass Williams is a, just a fighter in general and how often he fights or Carlson Harris's game plan in this fight because this is an

intriguing matchup and we're all thinking to ourselves there's no way Carlson Harris is going to go in there and slug it out with Chaos Williams and then he did exactly that and chaos just dusted him up with one big shot fight was over in exactly 90 seconds and chaos didn't have a call out or anything like that either but there is a fight coming up in Saudi Arabia on June 22nd and I like the winner of that fight for Chaos Williams, batch up between Calvin Gasolum and Daniel Rodriguez, a.k. that fight gets Chaos Williams.

Yeah, I had the same thought of matching him up with a veteran, just trying to, you know, kind of inch him up their rankings. And I was like, where's Santiago Ponziabia? Where is he? Where's Santiago? Yeah, we're kind of in the same sense. Give him an older guy, not a walkover, by the way, Gaslom, Daniel Rodriguez, San Diego Panzinichio.

None of these guys are walkovers. These are all guys who could easily halt Chas Williams' Lamentum, could easily beat him. Williams, but they're all a little bit up there in age. We need to see how good Kiosz Williams is. Clearly, he's a high level, a high level welterweight. I have him, I think, my top 20. Let me check.

Top. No, you know, I don't even have my top 25. He could be higher. If people had him in their top 20, I wouldn't blame them. But that middle section of welter rate is still really competitive, besides, you know, not considering all the squatters at the top. That middle section is really competitive. You've got guys like MVP, I think is in there, obviously, Kevin Holland,

Li Jing Liang, Dan, right of you guys, Calvin Gasolam. So these guys who are still like kind of holding on to spots, I hope he gets one of these veteran names. Let me put it that way. I'm not saying again, I don't want to say these are any guys an easy win just to build up Chaos Williams' resume. But I want to see what we have with Chaos. We know he's talented.

Let's get him a name because he's got a good resume. It's good. If you look at his resume, it's like a lot of veteran names, solid guys, other guys in that 15 to 30 range. Let's get him someone who was at least like once upon time in the top 10 and the top 15. So I think any of those guys makes sense. That's Cass Williams. Exciting fight. Exciting finish.

We'll stick with Walter Waite. And we're going to go on the complete opposite side of the spectrum because Temba Garimbo versus Ramiz Brahimaj was awful. It was one of the worst fights of 2024. It was not fun. It was not thrilling. And Timma Grimbo, to his credit, even went on the microphone and said as such, this fight was terrible. I apologize to all of you. And this guy, like, what a story he has.

It's pretty wild just to get here. The Blood Diamond story is pretty incredible. The whole thing with the Rock is pretty wild. Him coming out and saying, I'm going to be Walterway Champion by the end of 2024 is maybe the most insane thing I've ever heard somebody speak on a microphone and that includes what we heard a last week in St. Louis and what we've heard since. But Tema Grimbo wins.

There's just no chance he's going to be the Welterweight champion or even be close to in that conversation by the end of 2024 because let's be honest. I think Tema Grimbo has done good things. But we have to look at the strength of schedule here. We just have to take a look at this. Mike, what are you saying?

What are you trying to say about. Shasato, Pete Rodriguez, and Miz Brahima. Like, no disrespect to either of those individuals, but in my personal rankings, those are probably three of the five lowest rank guys in the UFC, like in my actual rankings right now. So pushing him up, especially after a performance like that, I just can't do it. I'll give him something that's just like a little bit of a notch of a step up. But I got to see him in there with somebody who's really.

really going to test them in some, you know, objective way. So I'm going Temba Garimbo versus the winner of the Carlos Prochis Charles Racky winner at UFC Louisville. Where that fight? They're going to get in that dude's face and they're going to make him fight. And I kind of think I'd pick either of those guys to beat Temba right now. I don't know. But if Temba goes out there and just dominates either one of those two individuals, then I'm I'm not going to say I'm sold on him, but I would say that, okay, we could start to do something with this man. So that's what I went with.

Carrie, see where you went. Yeah, Garimbo, great story. He probably has an undue amount of attention on him because of his association with the rock. We all know the rock sort of caught on to his, oh, you had $7 in your pocket. I had $7 too. I named my whole production company after it. Let's be friends.

And then I'm going to buy you a house. And kind of a very strange thing. Hey, hey, hey, good for the rock for looking out for one fighter while also having like a deal with the U.S. that benefits no one. But I don't mean to be too cynical. Good for him for helping out Thumbra Grimbo. And just to contextualize your comments a bit, Mike, before people go like, oh, well, he's three guys in the U.S.C.

You can't. Sato was two and four heading into the fight with Temba, had lost three straight fights. Pete Rodriguez was one in one. I think just four and one as a pro. I think that was pretty good. Four and one, five and one, five and one. Sorry, five and one when he fought Temba.

And Rameez, I think it's pretty solid. but 10 and 5 overall and had not had not fought in a while had a bit of a neck injury so you know great for Ramees to even get back in there I hope the UFC gives him another shot but yes not the strongest strength of schedule

if these three fights had happened in like LFA or Fury FC or like we wouldn't even be talking about Temba Grimbo like these are not and it's not only Temba I don't mean to single out Temba this is an issue with probably a lot of fires in the UFC now where you kind of look at their wind streak oh they're two or three fight win streak

and it's like yeah but this is like this is the new UFC. These are fights that normally in another age would have happened on the smaller regional scene. And it's fine. It doesn't mean they're bad fighters. It's just they get blown up a little bit. And a guy like Temba, again, gets put under the spotlight more than you should.

Because I think this kind of stuff is always bad for your development. And I hope you're right. The UFC does keep things moderate with this matchmaking. He doesn't try and throw them in there. We should just pair out with Buckley. I think that would have been hilarious. I thought that's where you're going with that. I thought you're like, you know what?

They deserve each other. They deserve each other. One of them fights for, I don't know, a Chuckie Cheese belt at the end of the year or something. Just like that would be hilarious. But similar thought for me, I just went with, I picked the name out. That's a few spots ahead of him in the rankings. I said Preston Parsons, Preston Parsons, solid UFC fighter, two and two so far. Again, a guy who's going to test them.

I just, I'm not ready to put Temba in any more danger than that, if that makes sense. He's been in the game for like 10 years. I get it. Like, if you'll look at his pro record, it's like, oh, he's debuted in 2013. 13. He should be fighting more experienced guys. But it's like it's how how much how much has he really had a chance to get the highest level of training? That's probably only happened within the last like five years. So we still don't know what we've got with temba talented guy. Super hardworking great mentality. Let's just keep bringing him along slowly. Maybe Mike, maybe after his

next fight we can start talking top 30 guy even then it feels too soon. But if he gets like a big finish, we'll see. Again, a very fun guy to watch his story anyway, not necessarily that fight on Saturday. And I'm interested in how they keep developing them because they like them. I mean, the UFC likes them. They're trying to put them in spas to succeed. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's nice when you have the people's champ, like, taking your back and who's also like part of TKO now in like an executive role. Yeah. So it's, it's not a bad sort of chip to have in your favor. Had really golf beaten Trey Waters, this would have been, unbelievably have been the fight

which would have been the rebooking. And hell, even if they did Timber Grimbo versus Billy Goff, I'd be fine with that. I thought about Trey Waters, but stylistically, I feel like that fight would not be great. So, I mean, they could still do golf, but Proches, Ratke,

either one of those guys, your picks is fine as well. That's kind of where we're at here. I don't know if, I don't know if Demba gets in there again before then. I mean, he should. But I assume that

dream is to have the Rock walk him out at like the December show or something like in Las Vegas at T-Mobile, something like that. That has to be the goal for Timba. I mean, that would mean, that would be a bit weird. But hey, again, maybe he picks him another way.

If he fights for the belt. He's not fighting for the belt. That's not how he's not fighting for him. He's not fighting for the belt. Just let the Rock walk about the end, the close out of 2024. There you go. At the apex? At the no. He can, he can,

depending how, I usually those those year end cards are pretty stacked. So MSG probably not going to happen. Maybe, maybe depending how his next fight goes, Mike. He can sneak on to the opening the December car. Or that's second, he wouldn't be the opener, maybe the second fight on the main card. If we know the Rock is walking him out.

They would put him on a main card for sure if the Rock was walking about just to have that moment. Doesn't even matter who he's fighting. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games

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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. Let's move on. Yeah. Bantamweight division.

Adrian Yanez, back in the wind column. He had a tough 20-23 campaign, got dusted up real bad by Rob Font, and then got leg kicked into an oblivion by Jonathan Martinez. He came on our Francis Ngano versus Anthony Joshua watch party, and was very open and honest about, I think I drank my own Kool-Aid a little bit too much. I got a little too big for my britches, so to speak, so I needed to kind of go back to just being realistic about where I'm at.

And boy, oh, boy, did the UFC do him a big favor? They gave him a perfect fight against a former flyweight who is get or get got, and they wanted to get Adrian Yannas back in the wind column. They wanted them to do it in this in spectacular fashion. And that was the goal, which 1,000% it was. They accomplished that because this was a tailor-made matchup for Adrian Yanis to do Adrian Janus things, goes out just obliterates Salvador with the nasty right hand, finishes him with strikes on the ground.

And Adrian Yanez back in the wind calm. Where are we going with him in this loaded Bannamweight Division, AK? I need to check our... Did we all have Yanez by knockout in some form? I have to imagine. Probably. round one or round two yeah we all had yanis knock out we all just disagreed out we just didn't we said one or round two yeah you said it this is this tailor made for yanja's win vina savador a really

exciting guy he's he needs somebody to tell him he's not anderson Silva he's not like this guy goes in like like like the cockiest like head movement my arms are down i'm like when i saw this matchup when i was previewing this matchup this week i'm like yanya's is going to smoke this guy He's going to catch him and he's going to knock him up Because he didn't even catch him with like the cleanest like it was like like Technically I just say like the cleanest setup it was just like he was just yeah And just went in there and started throwing and just caught him with a beautiful you know he's got that beautiful power And put him down I'm like that's probably not working against a lot of people

But against venetius yeah it's going to work So please go see keep venicea Salvador around forever This is a guy you put in there just to have some fun and probably get knocked out more often than not But let's go with I think I missed an eye obvious one based on the people's picks. Let's go with Mario Bautista. Let's go with Mario Bautista. I'm going up in the rankings.

And I, listen, there's a lot of fun matchup for Adrian Yanyas. There's a lot of ways you go. I'm going up. I'm going up a guy who I have, I think, three or four spots ahead of him in the rankings. I hope you're right, Mike. I hope he's right, I should say, that he's kind of centered himself. You know, like I said, maybe, maybe knows that he bought into his own hype a little bit. And this is a big jump from Vinici Salvador for sure.

But I think he's ready for it. I think he's ready to get back up there and try and approve he's a contender again. But maybe I'm off, Mike. I don't know. Perhaps this, considering what the UFC just did here, maybe this isn't the right choice, but I'm still going to do it anyways. This is the first thing I thought of as soon as that right hand landed.

It's got to be Cody Garbrad. Like it just has to be. There's nobody else. You just have to do Yannes versus Cody Garbrand. It's a main card fight. Like, I felt, I felt pretty confident Rob Font was going to beat Adrian Yannes. I felt pretty good about it just because of the everything. But at this point, I feel like, I feel like Yonnas could win that fight and look real good doing it.

And I just, and even if he doesn't, that fight's going to be fun as hell. So, yeah, let's just give him Cody Garbrand. Let's give him a forward champion, a winnable fight. a very good stylistic matchup for him. I like it. I say we just go ahead and do that, throw it on a pay-per-view main card. And who knows?

Maybe we do an international fight week, AK. Let's just get right in there. We just lost Khalil Roundtree versus Jamal Hill. Maybe we just add that to the Connor McGregor fun. And let's go ahead and do that. I mean, I don't care when that fight happens, but I just feel like that's the one to make. You know, uh, Yanja's going to put his ass in the dirt, right?

Oh, yeah. Why do you do this? You also, I think were, you were pretty all, you were all in on the Cody, uh, Figgy matchup way before that was, yeah, or reaction as much as Jed, but that was, that was one one. Why do people want to see Cody Garber and get creamed? What is the, why? Why do we do this too?

Because like at this point in his career, this is who he is now. Like he's, he's, and if he wins, people are like, oh, maybe the Cody Garber and comeback is here. So like, you could still buy in. to the story that maybe he can get back to a title fight, and it starts with a win against X fighter. But if he loses, like, you could still build something off of the name of Cody Garbrandt being a former champion and being a star at one point in the division. He's probably like the fourth or fifth, like, most known name in this division,

despite not winning a lot of fights as of late. So, yeah, I think there's something that they wanted to match Mario Batista against Cody Garbrand in Boston last year. Adrian Yonnas versus Cody Garber, I think we'll get over a little bit better, even though Batista's look real good. So we'll see what happens. But I'm curious to see what the peeps have to say about it. But how about Angela Hill, AK? Yes.

How about Angela Hill? First finish in four years. First submission win of her career against Luana Pinero? That's insane. A mounted gilly. Getting it done. What an impressive performance. Luana Pinero had never been submitted before.

Angela Hill had never submitted. admitted anyone. And then she mixed the martial arts. She jumped the gilly and gets a submission. I would, did that be, AK? Could it be a sign of things to come? Did we look up the odds on that? That has to be like plus 1,200 or something, maybe high, plus 2,000.

I would look it up right now. Angel Hill by Submission? Plus 2,000. All right. Has to be. Has to be. Yeah. So this was another, as you're looking at up, Mike, this was another pick that I,

I got right. I got right to Angela Hill and win, but much like the Lauren Murphy thing, was wrong about how it happened. I specifically wrote to conclude my prediction for this fight. Luena Pinero is tough enough that she will not be the one. She will not be the one to break Angela Hill's streak of decision wins. I thought it would just be an Angela Hill decision win. And of course, guys, you know when you read AK's predictions, immediately go the opposite. So anyone who should have picked an Angela Hill inside the distance or something, not submission because I'm crazy. I don't know who predicted that.

I would love to see on Monday of someone, when G.C. is doing his gambling recap on the MA hour, if someone sent in a friggin' Angela Hill to submission prop, because it's crazy. It's crazy. I just can't believe it. But so happy for Angela Hill. Sorry, Mike.

Where are we? Have we found that prop yet? I have not. It's probably off the table. It's probably wasn't even offered. It was like, what are the chances. I'm trying to see it. Yeah, keep going.

Luana Pinero to win by submission was plus 900. Oh, really? That's all surprising. But I mean, that would have been a more like, if I was going to take a long shot bet on this fight, yeah, I would have gone Pinero by submission. That's a long shot. Again, Hill, if that's plus 900, Hill's got to be like plus 2,000. I went with, Mike, I think, I don't mean to speak for you. I have a feeling we might be queuing up the band.

The band is looking a little antsy. Because this seems like the logical pick. I do see a lot of, I got a lot of people sending this one into. It's Angela Hill versus Marina Rodriguez. Oh, no. We're not queuing up. Mike, your face just dropped. We're not queuing up the band.

Where'd you go with this? Tab of the Reiki. Okay, yeah. That's the other, yes. Just laughed on last week. Although I will say, I loved Angela Hill's callout. I mean, this is how you do the thing. It makes sense.

And even though Jessica And Raj is ranked very highly and she's fought for belts a bunch and like maybe from like a ranking standpoint doesn't make a ton of sense, at the point of where both women are right now, that is a UFC apex main event for sure. Angela Hill versus Jessica Andrade. I would watch the hell out of that. I think it's fun as hell, but yeah, I think Tab of the Reach is a good one. We'll just go ahead and do that. I mean, but your pick's fine as well. Yeah, that makes sense.

It's one of those two, both of whom I think, I think, the only reason is I believe I have Angela Hill one spot ahead of Ritchie in my rankings. Yeah, I have Ritchie behind Hill, so I'm trying to move Hill up, but they're both top 15. Angel Hill is not saying no to that fight. Tabithridges is not saying no to that fight. It just makes it. Timing probably works out very well for both of them, especially if they're both looking to make a quick turnaround.

So, yeah, it's a veteran fight for Angela Hill. For sure. All right, let's go to the wild card round. We will select one fighter if not match debate for yet, and we will match debate for them right now, aka who's your wild card selection from UFC Vegas 92? Mike, I messaged you immediately after the main card opener. sorry, not the main card, excuse me, the card opener, the preliminary card opener.

I, uh, I'm a fan of Vanessa Domopoulos. I, I like her personality. I think she's, I don't even say it's like she's like super entertaining in the cage. I don't think that's true. But there is something about her go getterness, her stick-to-itiveness. Like, she's a fighter. She's got a pretty, she got kind of a late start to the game, certainly a late start to her UFC career. And I think she's done just way better than, that I think if you had seen her,

if you had seen Vanessa fight before, before the UFC, uh, she was fine. She was talented. But she definitely, like, you would not have thought, okay, well, this is someone who's going to, going to, you know, be particularly successful inside the octagon. But she finds a way, man. The, the decision on Saturday could have gone either way. I understand this wasn't like some referendum on how great Minestomopoulos is. But I asked you, like, could she, like, just scrap her way to a title show, to a top 10 ranking someday? I think I said title shot later.

I think I at first, I said, is there a road to her to get into the top 10, which, again, for Minestimopoulos sounds a little crazy? But I can't, she just finds a way, man. Eventually, these splits stop going your way. That's certainly the case with a lot of fighters. But I just want to see the good times keep rolling. So, Mike, I actually went. with Tabitha Ritchie for Vanessa Domopoulos.

Oh. Big step up. Big, big, big, big step up. But I, like I said, I just see something in demo. Also, we get the Demo Shark, Demo-Shark matchup. I don't know. It's not quite baby Shark, unfortunately. It's not quite an absolute.

Shark NATO. We'll never have that. We'll never have that magic happen again. But Demo Shark is, that sounds like it could be a spinoff of the Shark Nato series, a much less successful spinoff. So Vanessa of Demopoulos, I don't know how good she is. But I don't think it's too early at all. to start really testing her.

She has lost to, most of her losses are to quality, top 15, top 20 fighters. So let's give her a top 15 fighter right now in top of the re-cheat. And see what we got here. So yeah, shout us to demo. I think Vanessa Demopoulos might be

someone high on Jen Michoud's list of fighters because, as Jed says, sometimes the punt, all you have to do is just go out and punch as hard as you can. Just throw as hard as you can, even if you miss. might just be enough for you to win. And I think that's kind of what happened here, because I didn't think Vanessa won that fight. I don't think it was like a robbery or anything,

but I don't think she really won that fight. And as I said on the post-fight show, I made one bet this entire weekend. And I saw Vanessa DiMopolis at plus 300. And I was like, I don't really think she's a plus 300 against anybody outside of the top 15. I think because of the way she fights, she has a chance to at least win a card. So it was worth the squeeze to take a shot. and I'll take it. Like, I will certainly take it. So congratulations to Vanessa DiMopoulos for doing that. Being tough as hell and winging punches is actually a very good way to have a long successful

MMA career. And again, I don't, if Vanessa DeMophis gets the right matchups, I'm telling you, she could gut her way into a top 10th spot. God help us a title shot someday. It's probably a bridge too far because I think straw weight is a good division. It's not like this isn't frigging heavyweight or light heavy weight. But I don't know. I'm always interested in who she.

fights. And again, I think she has beaten fighters who technically are far superior to her. Like, they're just, they're on the ground, on stand-up are better than her. But like, again, to bring up Chad, like we have sometimes, man, it's just about getting in there and being are you a fighter? Are you going to in there and, are you in there to hurt someone? Can you shrug off getting smack? Can you shrug off like getting out or out technique? Yeah, some people can. I think demo's in there. So, yeah, I think a lot of good options for her next. I bet they're not going to give her top 15, but I'd like to see that. So I went with a losing fighter, AKA.

I went with the man who lost the main event. I went with Edson Barbosa. Sure. Because there are certain times in our fight watching lives, AK, when we're just like, this is getting sort of uncomfortable to watch. And last night was a perfect example. Because Edson Barbosa, even in the Sadiq Yusuf fight, which he won,

even in like the Shane Burgos fight, which he won, this man is just taking so much damage in his fights. It's getting uncomfortable to watch at this point. And even some of the commentators were saying the same thing. And it's not often that I agree with like Dominic cruises of the world when they're doing broadcast. But he said some things that I completely agreed with. And I don't think Edsa Barboza is going to go anywhere. I don't think he's going to say he's done.

I don't think he's going to retire or go away or anything like that. So at this point, there are only certain matches. that I want to see for Edson Barbosa. Casey brought up a great one. Edson Barbosa versus Alex Casares. I love that idea. Two guys who just made their 30th Octagon appearances fighting each other.

That would be fun. I would have no issue with that. I think it's a great one. Not where I went, though. Because it's time, A.K. It is time. It is almost nine years in the making. We're going back to December of 2015.

the Ultimate Fighter 22 finale, which I'm sure you remember quite well, and we got ourselves one hell of a fight at the Ultimate Fighter 22 finale. In fact, it was the fight of the night. And in fact, it was a night where I think people's eyes opened more than ever when it came to the ceiling of this man that I'm going to match him up with.

And a man who, when his name is mentioned on this program over the last couple of years, it didn't lead to cheers. It didn't lead to, ooh, I definitely want to see that. It led to, ooh, I don't know if I want to see that. In fact, one of your best predictions, one of your best fight matchmaking ideas, one that took me a long time to get in on,

but I finally got on board once it was announced. I think it's time for the rematch. Edsa Barboza versus Tony Ferguson, too. Let's just go ahead and do that. It could be a lightweight, AK, I don't care if it's at Walterweight. Don't do it at featherweight. We do it at 55.

We do it at 70. Edson Barbosa versus Tony Ferguson two. The first fight was incredible. Tony Ferguson got the Darst choke submission in round number two in just a bloody, bloody fight. Let's just have these two guys run it back one more time. Let's settle the score. Let's settle the rivalry. Let's see if Tony Ferguson can go up 2-0 or Vetsan Barbosa can exact a little bit of revenge on Al-Ka-Ku.

There are so many good fights. Not just so many. I'm sorry. Let me rewind that. Let me rewind that. There are good, there's several good options going forward for Tony Ferguson if he insists on continuing to fight and fighting out his contract, which by all indications he is. He has shrugged off all retirement talk when it's brought up quite aggressively too. You don't want to bring up the retirement word with Tony Ferguson. He does not like that. Edson Roboza is definitely one of them. Please, UFC, do the right thing. I don't know how many fights Tony has left in his contract. One, two, three. I don't know how many. probably signed a pretty sizable contract his last one. Because he probably, I bet he did like an eight-year one. Do the right thing and just put him in fun fights. Just don't, you know, the Patty Pimba thing, that served a purpose.

Like I said, I was behind that all the way. It did not lead to particularly fun fight. There were some moments, I guess. Not particularly a fun fight. It just gave Patty a name in the resume. Congrats to Patty. Now that's over with. Let's use the time we have left with Tony Ferguson, a very special fighter.

And the time we have left, Gossack Edson Barbosa, a very special fighter. And let's just have fun. Let's have fun. Let's give these guys what they want. Let's not use them as stepping stones, please. And that's not what I consider this Murphy fight at all, by the way. I think that was the right matchup, a great matchup for Edson. If he had won that, it would have said a lot about how much he had left in the tank.

He didn't. The way the fight played out, now we still have a good idea of how much he has left in the tank. And it's getting closer to eat. So, Mike, that's a great matchmaking. I would love it if we saw them run that back. I can't wait for, like, Tuesday to come around and Dana does an IG live. And he's just like, hey, we're going here in August, and it's going to be incredible. Here are some of the fights announced.

And he announced at the main event. He goes, in the co-made event, Tony Ferguson, he's back, the former interim champion. He's going to take on Benoit Santanese. I'm like, no, don't you dare do that. Please. But, yes, let's just do that stuff. Now you've done it. Veteran fights, some rematches, some fun ones that we can go back and revisit.

it. Let's go ahead and do that. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats.

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Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. A.K.K.A. any extracurriculars before we go to the Pee's. Yeah, real quick. Our old pal, Tote, Gerting Jensen, one of our first listeners and contributors to you on to the next one, he says, he sent me a message saying, that the Bill Algeo Du Ho Choi fight

which is reported for July 20th he said this was his he thinks this was his first suggestion that he ever made to our show so he finally got his wish so congrats it happens sometimes

I mean no point but still no no no this is just a personal point he can take because I'm sure that must have felt good because we've all done that we've all had fights that we've called for early on in the show we've called for multiple times

Justin Gatesy Max Holloway I don't know how many times you called for it Mike I called for it. Listeners called for it. So, yes, anytime you can celebrate these little victories, I say go for it. Also a big one. Someone reminded me, it looks like we're getting Rose and Macy Barber at U.C. Denver,

July 13th. A lot of people wanted this one. So a little Barry Horowitz pat in the back to everyone out there for a shit and share that point for that matchup, which made a lot of sense. We have an actual, I don't know point. I haven't looked this up and verified it, but I just have a hard time believing it's not true. Sure. UFC 304,

Kylean Lockren versus Ramon Tavares. Who called for this? Harry Daweskin called for it. He reminded me today. So that's how you get solo points these days. Mike, literally, when that matchup, when I saw that come along with the social media feed,

I said, who asked for this fight? And now I know. I know that you've found the guy. You found the guy. Harry, take your point. Sir, full point to you. Unreal. Full point.

All right. Let's go to the peeps. You guys know the rules. Matt Revelli kicks us off. My man, Mike, decent night of fights. I feel like this is a hard card to matchmaking for. I think my last pick still applies. I want to see Chaos fight Brian Battle. That thought I would be so violent. Do you know what I'm saying? Adrianianianez had a nice little bounceback win. So I would love for him to face Chris Gutierrez next. I think it's a winnable fight for both guys. I don't mind that. I think if we're going to do that, it's got to be July 13th in Denver. And there's a little bit of a story there because Chris Gutierrez and Jonathan Martinez are teammates,

so Adrian maybe you have a chance to get one back, but yeah, I don't hate that one. Chris Gutierrez wants, who's he coming for? Amon Zahabi for that card, which I would get a little piece of it on at no point, if that's the fight they may, but we'll see what happens. Let's go to Alex, another Alex. Oh, an apology right out the gate, okay.

Alex says, quote, first of all, I'd like to extend my apologies from one Alex to another for forgetting about the iconic WCA versus MRDL1 matchup in my prior matchmaking. Okay. It won't happen again. His picks. Lorone Murphy versus Calvin Cater. K.S. Williams versus the loser of Zoleski and Brown at UFC 302.

Williams versus Brown would need a two. See, he's getting better, AK. So, Temba Grimbo versus Chris Juset, another Aegeanianas versus Chris Gutierrez. And finally, Angela Hill versus Yazzo. Jasmine Lucindo are my eye no Lucindo. Okay, yes, yes, that makes sense. I don't mind that one.

No. Robbie Ryan. Yasmin Lucindo, she's the one who just, she's the 22 year old, right? She's the one who just thumped up Carolina. Man, uh, legend killer. Is she, is she going to be the new legend killer? Maybe your whole take on Angela?

I don't know. I kind of want to keep her away from Angela Hill. I think, I think Angela Hill beats her right now. I just, I like Yasmin Lucindo a lot. I don't, I just don't think she's ready for that matchup. That's fair. Yeah. Robbie Ryan.

Good day, Cobbers. Let's get odd. Now, Lorone Murphy versus Diego Lopez. I saw a lot of this on Twitter. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. I just, I know, and look, some people are giving me shit like, oh, stop calling Lorone Murphy and up and comer. Look, we haven't seen him that much.

And I'm not saying he's a prospect. I think there's a difference between prospect and up and comers. Up and comers are faces that don't compete all that often that are making steps up up the division. That is the definition of an up and comer. Lauren Murphy obviously is 32, so he's out of the prospect's house, if you will. But you have two emerging contenders. Do we want to match them up now?

Do you feel like that's the time to do a fight like this? Or should we just wait it out and see both these guys are top fivers and we throw them in there on a cart in Brazil or Mexico or the UK down the line? Yeah, it's an awesome fight. I say just let it simmer a little. Let both guys simmer a little. It is a really good fight, though, and one that I hope to see someday, for sure, before it's awesome. He likes Barbosa versus Sean Woodson. I don't love that one.

Now, if you want to do Lorone Murphy versus John Woodson in Manchester, I don't hate that idea. Oh. I don't mind that idea at all. Wow, what an opportunity, though, would be for Sean. Yeah. That'd be crazy. Wow. Temo Grimbo versus Johnny Parsons, Shore.

Adrian Yonnas versus Cody Garbrand. Yeah. Angela Hill versus Jillian Robertson after she beats Michelle Waterson, Wildcard, Demopoulos versus Meatball Molly, winner lose in her next fight and then a little bit of a closing comment. Excellent performance by Usoc in the back half of that fight to finish strong

and take the W however Prime Tyson, Holyfield and Lewis. I'll handle him in my opinion but you can only beat who's in front of you and he's beaten all of them and you're not wrong about that. I had to look up who Molly McCann was fighting. I totally forgot. So she's on the Manchester card. Looks like Bruna

Brazil. Alliteration battle. Yes. And I think we sort of know how the UFC kind of views that fight, if you will. But we never know. Let's go to Harry, who just got himself an Otno point. He's going to try to get another one. Al-Tangeli versus Jean Matsumoto, Abus Magamanov, who fought like we would see Abus Magamato

on paper, but not be a boost Magamatov who's actually competed inside the Octagon. Yeah. I actually like this matchmaking a lot versus Christian Leroy Duncan. We can get a boost to turn around quick and go to Manchester. That would be a pretty good addition. Very good. Gato versus Pani Kanzad. Umar Sai versus Modestis Bukascus.

Tom Nolan versus James Lontop. Hill versus Ritchie. Yanez versus Ritchie Lang. Garimbo versus Kevin Juset, Chaos versus Yoros Mettich. I like that fight too. Garboza versus Cater. I don't mind that one.

I don't love it, but I don't mind it. And Lerone versus Josh Emmett, but he probably gets Cater. I have, I just wanted to touch upon that Abis and CLD matchmaking. I have them right next to each other in my rankings. So that's, that is quality match ring. I have Abus at 45, CLD at 44. Yeah.

You know, it's good fight. Math checks out. Math checks out. That's good fight. John Ray, Demopolis versus Cardolosi, Aletangeli versus Hione Barcelos, Abuse versus, oh, God. Abuse versus Armin Petrosian, AK. This could be if it's the same Abus that showed up.

Saturday, this could be for the new, this could be for the middle-80, middle-weight title. Oh. Sorry. It's a good thing we're not, this isn't a pay-per-view video episode, Mike, because people would have seen my head just tilting as I nodded off at the thought of that match. God, that's terrible. It's so terrible, it's good, though. It's so terrible. Like, yeah, that's, that's the kind of matchmaking weekend in this division in the year of our Lord 2024. So, God, I hate that fight. But get ready for a non-point because that's probably going to have. Another Janice versus Goodyear is Angela Hill versus Marino-Hodriguez, Cass Williams versus Vicente Lucke, Nakey, NACA, Melissa Gatto versus Josiani-Nunes.

Oh, wow. People know I love me some Josie Nunes. So great matchup, Melissa Gatto. We didn't even talk about her. I'm sure you guys did on the Post-Bite show, but winning by, you, oh, no, sorry, you did mention her. Winning by Heart Punch, as you referred to it, sure. I saw a lot of boob punch was floating around. that was trending last night.

I think I think I had to do it right up on that. I think I went with the more diplomatic chest, chest punch. But yes, listen, we all saw it. It was a punch to the left boob of Tamarish Vidal. And Melissa Gatto has one to watch. Yeah, if she sticks around at 135, I mean, hey, a fun place to me. Don't put her and Josie would be really, I think, would be a super fun matchup. So we don't say that a lot about the 135 pound division.

Really, really Josie, if she can, should drop down to. a 125 because Melissa's probably Melissa said herself she's a 125 or this was kind of could have been a one-off but also if they don't want to cut weight you're right screw it 135 good stuff I I shouldn't I shouldn't complain I like it and we'll

end with left lane for your head over to AK Edsa Barboza versus the I don't I don't mind this one either Edson Barboza versus the Cub Swanson Andre Feeley winner As though as a Cub Swanson Oh yes yes I like that

I'm surprised no one, I hadn't heard of mention the possibility of Cubs Swanson, win-loser draw versus Fulie. I thought I'd see more of that. That I don't mind. I don't mind that one. What do you think of the chaos, Luke-Gay? Did you get a lot of Chaos-Lucy suggestions? That's the only one I got.

Okay. Is this where Luke-A- needs to, like, not fight for a while? I would hope so, but he likes to fight. He likes to fight. He likes to get paid. Is this where he is now, though? He is a gatekeeper? I think we, I think.

I think even before the string of losses, I will say. We had never thought of Vincent Petente Lucca as like a surefire title contender. And we didn't care. And we still don't care. He's an exciting fighter. He just rules. Vincent Leukee rules. But it is tough now that he's kind of very, very slowly.

He went from, I think, probably top eight, top nine. He's very slowly kind of getting bumped down, down, down. I think he's out of our rankings now. I think he's out of the UFC's rankings as well. That could be wrong. And it kind of sucks that, yeah, he's, that we have this up and coming one. Walter weights who need a name. They need a name that's ahead of them.

And it's just Luke Gay is the guy that keeps falling into range. So not an easy fight for anyone. It's just, man, this part of a fighter's career is always, it's always a little tough to watch. Yeah, he's dealing with like brainbleeds and things of that nature. Like it's just scary stuff. It's banged up. It's scary stuff.

Take a break. Cass Williams versus Michael Morales. Don't mind that. Actually, I don't hate that one. Yeah, I would be okay if they made that fight. I'd be okay with that. Michael Morouse's dude is a monster. So that would be an interesting test.

Temba Garimbo versus Gunner Nelson, AK. I like the thought behind it. I like the thought behind it. I give him a name. I think it's way too soon for a fight. I think so too. But Gunner is just so inactive. And that can't be good for his like career, like his fighting ability, right?

Like he, there has to be some drop off. There has to be some drop off with all this. He's held, you know, that's 35. Okay, so he's not super old. He hasn't fought since last March. Yeah, what's going on with Gunner? It has to be in Manchester. Like, you're going to have to be on the Manchester.

Sure. At least, yeah, at least please put it in England. I don't know. I don't hate it. I don't hate it. It did not come to my mind, but if you want to give him a name that I think is winnable, no, I don't know. Gunner might be a little bit.

Like you said, maybe a bridge way too far right now. That could be a tough fight to watch. That too, yeah. But, yeah. All right, Adrian Yonaz versus Daniel Santos. I could definitely see that happening. Tom Nolan versus Roosevelt Roberts, Umar Sai versus Marchine Prachnio, and Abus Magamatov versus Andrei Petroski. I wouldn't mind that one.

That'd be pretty good fight. I like that. All right. All right. I got two ones that were really popular. Yannias and Pedro Munoz. I saw a lot of that and Angela Hill and Marina Rodriguez. So I'm not going to read all those because, yeah, I just got a lot of

those from several listeners, and I think either of those makes a ton of sense. Our pal Tristan hit me up via email. Umar C versus OSP. That's a... Is Umar C good, Mike? I don't know. Because he fought a guy who probably shouldn't be in the UFC on short notice, so we'd learned, we really didn't learn anything.

Like, Tugo Togos is sort of, like, kind of fun. But, I mean, after he got melted on Road to UFC, his wins were not great against not good competition. So it's tough to gauge. I mean, he did what he needed to do. That's, you basically treated his short notice of opponent accordingly. But I don't know is the answer. I didn't learn anything in that fight. OSP seems like a big step up.

Again, I know he's up there in age. It's a tough one. That seems like from what Omar has been fighting. Vanessa Mopoulos and Yasmin Hadeke. He wants to set this fear. So, Tristan, that's not a bad suggestion. Instagram. Shout us to Michael Fieland.

First timer. Welcome to the party, pal. Lauren Murphy, Yanya Rodriguez, Barbosa, Emmett. Chaos Williams versus Jake Matthews, win-lose-dra. He's fighting Phil Roe at UC 302. Yannias versus Marcus McGee. I love this fight. I know McGee would be well below Janias in the rankings.

But he's so fun. I just think that would be such a fun, up, but I don't think that happens next. And Micah, it's your first time, so this is just a light slapping on the wrist. I like the suggestion, Mike, Angela Hill versus Jessica Andjaj for the female BMF belts. But this is a rematch. They had fought in, I think, 2017. So I know it was a while ago, Micah, we've got to get that two in there.

You've got to get that two. You've got to mention it's a rematch. Otherwise, you know, it'll be due to next time. But, yeah, if two people are going to fight for the BMF, female BMF title. You could do a lot worse than Angela and Judge. Jessica and Josh definitely has to be one half of the equation. And now that we have the finishing machine, Ansela the Hill, maybe she would be better half.

I have to be honest with America right now. I totally forgot those two fought each other. I kind of had to look it up, but I vaguely remember it. I was almost sure they had, but I wasn't 100% sure. That's why I'm not being harder on Micah, because I'm sure a lot of people listening are also like, oh, they fought before. Yeah, fight of the night, baby. Fight of the night.

By the way, just to put it in a context, that was 21 fights ago for Angela. Wow. Insane. Oh. That's crazy. That's insane. Yeah, she likes to fight. I don't want to go off on a tangent.

Is Angela Hill, there's a road for her finally getting a title shot someday, right? If she fights and beats Jessica Andrage, she's like maybe a win away. like she might even be there if she fights Androjan wins. She is her UFC record, even after last night, is still one below 500. She's now 12 and 13 in the UFC. And I know people slag her a lot for having whatever the 13 losses. But she fought out. She came into the UFC extremely inexperienced.

I believe when she got into the oldwood fighter, if I'm not mistaken, she had two amateur or two amateur fights and I think one pro bout. So she should, she barely got in the show. Like she, I think the qualifications

for the UFC are like four, so I have four fights. And I think it was, oh sorry, maybe three amateur one pro pro, some of that. She was thrown, her fourth pro fight

was against Rose. Her third pro fight was against Tisha Torres. She was not ready for these opponents yet. And then there's some other random losses in this shirt to a lot of good fighters.

There's some close losses too. So her record, she is the classic, she's the definition of fighter whose record does not define how good she actually is. I hope she gets a tell the shot someday. There's a path, Mike. There's a path. And it got,

I've got a little bit clearer with her finish of Luena Pinheiro on Saturday. I'm not predicting it happens. I just, 2025. Look at what she's done. Four and one on her last five. She's got a win over Lupi Godinez, which has aged very well. Emily DeCody, who at the time, I believe she was a, she was like a slight, she was an underdog in that fight to Emily to Cody. Yeah, she lots to McKenzie Dern because McKenzie Dern

was super pissed off and just kind of beat the hell out of her. Deniseie Gomes, she was an underdog in that fight. And then she was a slave favorite against Luana Pinero. I mean, these are good wins. There's a really good wins.

There's a path. That's what I'm saying. If you see Angela, I'm just saying, if people see Angela Hill fighting for a title in 2025, it's possible. It's possible.

Maybe Tatiana Suarez has won the title by then. Maybe Tatiana Suarez needs some fresh challengers. Zhang too. If Zhang Wiley beats Tatiana somewhere down the road, she's going to need a challenger. She's going to need some challenge with the name. Chris Carey Media, Chaos Williams versus the Dalby Fokritinov winner, the fighting in Saudi Arabia. Grembo versus Max Griffin. I don't think that's a big step up.

I don't think he win that one right now. To go from fighting like the 68th best welterweight to like the 27th best welterweight? It is, might be a bridge too far. It's tough. Nolan versus Michael Johnson, C versus Bukascus. Yes, that to me, I think it's actually a really good matchup for Umar. No one versus Michael Johnson? We're really going to do that?

That quickly? I don't know. I have no explanation for this. Hold on. I think... Seven and one. You would listen, you know. Okay, well, Chris Carey is Australian.

I think he's Australian. Chris, I apologize if I, uh, If I got this wrong. Yes, yes. It just seems, that just seems like, that's. So, listen, he's, I don't care what the betting line is. I'm betting Michael Johnson's sight unseen. I'm not saying that, like, he'll definitely win, but Michael Johnson's got to be like a prior

a plus 275 underdog in that fight for some, for reasons. And I would pick Michael Johnson to win that. He's looking out for his fellow Aussie, trying to kind of get him up there. Chris Carey, good job. I approve. I approve your matchmaking shenanigans, sir. It's insane. I'm wanting again,

me, Lauren Murphy and Josh Emmett, Kass Williams, Salakov, Grimbo versus Bonfim, Lusa, Loser. Even then, I think those two either one. Maybe Lusa. Maybe Lusa. I think Bonfam is really good. I don't think he's going to lose it. So I'm essentially saying I'm okay with Grimbo versus Lusa.

I just don't think Luce is going to beat Gabriel Bonfim, but I don't know. Gerard Biagin. Barbosa, Michael Johnson, 2 at Lightweight. Mike? See, that's what we're talking about here. That's fine with me. I'm okay with that.

That's fun. Rematch. Vet versus vet. Totally cool with that. Garimbo and Oban, Elliot. Someone's going to get this Karimbo pick, right? I'm telling you, I've seen all kinds of picks for Temba. One of us has this.

Someone's going to get it. Tino Alvrez. Abbas Megamette versus Gerald Mearschard. I think the third time that this fight has been booked. Let's make it. Mike, let's make it happen. It's still, the MMA gods can only keep this away for so long. Adrian Yannias versus Kyler Phillips.

Has this not been booked before or maybe we've matched made this before? It's probably a match made before. I kind of want it. I don't know. Oh, let me ask you this, A.K. Yes. What about Abuse Smaga Madoff versus Booneckle? I like that a lot.

Yes. This is what we should be doing to build Bo up. Yes. Okay. I think Bo smashes him. And, Tino, you and I, Friends Forever, two times, Garimbo versus Preston Parsons and Chaos Williams versus Santiago Ponziadio. So there you go.

Love it, Tino. Love what I'm seeing. Let's hop over real quick to the Twitter. I got quite a bit of messages here. Let's see if I can just sort of run through, not too many repeats. Chris is with me, Angela Hill, Mariner, Rodriguez. TAC MMA says Murphy versus Mitchell, obvious pick. Obvious pick?

I don't know. Mike. Janyes versus Garfran at the sphere. Let's go. Let's go. Demo versus Loma Loma, look-boe and me. It'll happen. I just think Loma is not the match-up.

That's not someone that I think Vanessa could just put her hard hat on and pull her way through, unfortunately. So I don't want that. Chris Martin, Barbosa, Alex Casares. Yep, it's got to happen. Temba versus Trevin Giles. Yanyas versus Cody. Sorry, Cody.

This is your new role in the division. Mike, do you see what you've done? You see what you've done? I mean, it's just the fight. Oh, Chris Martin, I just have to issue a correction. This is tough. This is tough. Chris says, Angela Hill versus Tisha Pennington 2.

It would actually be Angela versus Tisha Pennington 3. They have already fought twice before. Again, you can file this under. Angela Hill has fought so many times that it's impossible to remember who she has fought more than once, much less twice. But this would be a three. But Chris, that's not the worst mistake in the world. Don't worry about that. Umar versus Zach Pauga

Is Zach still on the roster? I mean, he should be. He's such an all-action fighter. Did he win his last fight? No, he did. No, did he? Is that the Moosman fight?

No, that was one after. Oh, no. That was... Got smoked by Bogdan. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If he's still on the roster, yeah, that's sure. That's who you give... He's lost of Modestis and Bogdan.

He's one and three in the UFC. Ooh, I don't know. That's four fights down. He might be done. He might be out. If he's still around, or you know what? Hey, UFC, re-sign him. Throw him in there with humor.

Melissa Gotto, Chawson, Edwards, Eileen Perez, winner, Shore. Abis versus Paul Craig. Because two guys who have lost to Kyle Barholio. Oh, I think Paul Craig is still. You know what? No, that's a winnable fight. I shouldn't say that. That's not like a death fight for Abis.

I'm okay with that. Mike, did you do four corner sports? No, you did. No. Laron, Calvin Cater, Shore. Cassaris, anything new here and trying to see Adrian Yannius, Cody. You know what, Mike?

You win again. You win again. They all want it. You got to give the people what they want. Sean Haywood. Yes, women's band-to-weight matchmaking. Thank you, sir. Gato versus Nora Cornol.

Janius, Pedro, Munoz, and then a lot of the same ones we've seen. Demo Sam Hughes. That would be a two, wouldn't it? Didn't they fight an LFA? Yes. She beat Sam Hughes to win, to become the L. Lafay strawweight champion once in my time.

So there you go. There's a little deep cut. That's a two for you. It would be the first time in the UFC. Enrique. Enrique just reminded me of the that people picked Rose and Macy. Here's some other picks, though. Murphy and Jaire Rodriguez. Okay.

Catas-Brilein is Brian Battleshore. Janja's Victor Henry. Angela Hill versus Carlos as far as they retired, but if not tough rematch? I just don't think Carlos was fighting for a while. I think she's, she's, she had a child and she's taking time off. And I think even when she's healthy enough to fight, she's just going to relax a bit.

She's going to relax a bit and take your time. Mr. Senior Man, Garimbo against Tom Nolan? What? Wait a minute. Isn't, uh, this is that's not even the same. That's not even the same weight class. What's what are we talking? What's happening now? Oh, he originally had Grimbo versus Matt Brown. So this is just do-do on do-do. Mr. Senior man, you know what? Mr. Senior man, uh, having a senior moment. that's okay. These things happen. These things happen.

Also suggesting Avis versus Arm and Petrosion. People stop this right now. And we'll close with my man, Barry Riley. Yes, we are celebrating Celtic winning their 54th Scottish Championship. What a great time to be alive. Vanessa Lomopoulos, Jacqueline Amarim. Abis and Boe-Nickel.

Mike, a step up from Brundage. The bus show tonight. The bus. No. What is this? Jerome Bettis? Come on. The bus show tonight that he can't be run over

we're on the ground. A win over Abis gets you a tell shot if the Strickland fight is then to go by. Good logic. It's just more than fair. Gato, Josiannunes. Okay, all right, what else are we got here? Janyes, Chris Gutierrez. Temba Temba and Chidi and Jokwani.

Hmm. Honestly, that was that was the first fight that I thought about. Man, Chigrimba wasn't happy the way the fight went, so against Chidi, he will get his chance to stand and bang bang and potentially rock him.

Good job, Barry. This is good stuff. All killer. Chaos Williams, Neil Magnet. Williams deserves a chance to fight the top 15 gatekeeper. Neal's at this point is like a top 20 gatekeeper, unfortunately. I think he's actually fallen a little bit, but I understand the logic. Would you pick Chaos Williams against Neil Magny?

Would you pick him? I would at this point. I'm big on Chaos Williams. I'm big on Chaos Williams. He just needs to be more active. I think he's a legitimate top 15 guy. Yeah, that'd be. That'd be a curious one.

Neil's very durable. He is. And again, specializing and taking out guys. Would I bet on Neil Magni? Probably would, depending. Like, if we're getting Neil Maggi at like plus 220 or something, I'd probably bet Neil Magna. Yeah, two to one.

Yeah. And lastly, Lorone Murphy, Yari Rodriguez. Murphy is turning 32 in July after that dominant win. I'm ready to give him a big push year to fight losing streak, where he has not looked great. Great. He should take a step back. It will be a great fight as well.

Yeah, Barry and I are kind of in the same sense. Like, can he get one of those big fights? Brian Otega, Yeah, you're Rodriguez. Again, I doubt it. I doubt it. But it would be nice given that the success he's had. And like, yeah, he's a little bit up there in age. And we kind of, like, we kind of know how good Lorraine Murphy is.

I don't think there's a lot of mysteries left. Like, I think he gives a hard fight to anyone in the top five. I'm not saying he beats them. But I think you could put him in there with like Ilya. And I think he's like, people are going to say I'm crazy. So I welcome people. I'm like, what hell are you talking about? I think Lauren Murphy is that.

good that he gives like a hard five-round fight to someone like, like Ilyta Poria to Alexander Volkanowski. Maybe I'm crazy, Mike, but that's why I'm going high with Ortega and I like the very suggestion of your year as well. Yeah, he's good. I mean, he's real good. So him fighting anybody and winning would not be surprising. He's, he's solid.

It's just getting him in the cage is, it's been the hardest part. Yep. Now, I want to tell people right now to how to reach out. Now, there's not a card next week, but it's important you know how to reach us. It's important people know how to reach us, Mike. Out Alexander K. Lee on Twitter. Out Alexander KK. Lee on Instagram. And Alex.

Dot Lee at Svination.com and email. Mike, how can they reach you? Just do it on IG. M underscore Heck.J.R. Because what we're going to do. We're back. Ask Mike and AK anything. We should have on to the next one.

So we like to do this a couple times a year. We don't do them on like every off week. But once in a while, we like to do it. do it. Long weekend coming up here in the United States. So we will go ahead and knock one out. This will not be a show that we record on Sunday morning. This will be a show we record earlier in the week. I would guess we're going to do it like Wednesday-ish would probably be my guess. So we're going to give you three and a half days by the time this drops on the pod network to submit your questions. And we'll take probably the best 12 or so, depending on how long it takes to

answer those questions, and we'll answer them on the program. And then we're going live the following week, because we're going right into UFC 302, which is the next UFC pay-per-view offering. It's a card, guys. I mean, look, there's some things happening, and there's some big things happening. Of course, at the top is Al-Machachat versus Dustin Poirier.

It's just a big fight. Can Dustin Poirier slay the dragon in his last chance? to become a UFC champion. Very intriguing stuff. It would be a game-changing, unbelievable moment if Dustin Porre could somehow beat his on Machiachev. I don't think it happens, but if it does, holy shit. Sean Strickland versus Paul Costa,

five-round co-made event, heavyweights. Jelton Al-Meda versus Alexander Romanov. This is, like, this is maybe the perfect heavyweight fight because I think at one point, people had said that these two are like the uncrowned champions at one point and now they're going to fight each other and it's going to be an electric like seven minutes of action potentially before things get real sloggy and fun.

It's a recalibration. Sometimes you've got to recalibrate. There's a recalibration for both guys. I love it. Love it. Randy Brown versus Elizu Zaleski. Kevin Holland back in middleweight against Mikhail Oaxeck. Perfect.

We're going to settle a big rivalry, AK. Jocelyn Edwards versus Eileen Perez. It's finally happening. Mickey Gaul is back, AK. Going to Jersey, fighting at home. I mean, at least his sort of... His old home,

because he's in Florida now, but Jersey guy fighting Basil Hafez, Grant Dawson, Joe Selecki, Phil Roe versus Jake Matthews. Roman Copuloth is back against Cesar Almeida, Nico Price, Alex Marono,

and Andre Leema will kick off the main card against Niam Jargo two men, Demberal. I don't even know if I got that, right?

I am so, I don't know if you pronounce that. I honestly don't know if you came close to pronouncing that right, but I'm just amazed you went for it. I took a shot. Because on topology, it just says end period

and then the last name. So I had actually click on it and see what it was. But two eight, no guys, somebody's always got to go, AK. You thought Fury versus Zusick had high stakes.

Wait till June 1st, New York, New Jersey, my friend. Great way to start. Great way to start. start the card. So yes, we'll be live on that show. So submit your ask us anything questions to the usual places you submit your math baking suggestions. Do so by Wednesday morning because that's probably when we're going to record the program. And you will hear that a week from today here on the MMA fighting podcast and network.

So for AKI, I am Mikeak. Thank you for listening once again. Always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. M.A. supposed to be fun. We'll have more fun next week answering your questions right here on onto the next one. the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to lux beauty and fragrance sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point.

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