MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 94

Episode Date: July 21, 2024

Virna Jandiroba may have punched her ticket to a UFC strawweight title fight against champion Zhang Weili with an incredibly impressive second-round submission victory over past title challenger Amanda Lemos in her first ever UFC headliner. Did Jandiroba's performance at UFC Vegas 94 jump her over Tatiana Suarez at 115 pounds? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what's next for Jandiroba following the biggest win of her career. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Steve Garcia after his 96-second finish of Seung Woo Choi in the co-main event, Kurt Holobaugh following his decision win over Kaynan Kruschewsky, Bruno Silva after his incredible comeback win over Cody Durden, along with fellow main card standouts Doo Ho Choi, Hyder Amil, 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hey, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition. On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking crowns are back following a magical night at the world's most famous Apex, UFC Vegas 94, a card that was trending towards probably the worst in UFC history, but then took a detour into Funsville. But unfortunately, not a lot of people watched it because of all the craziness going on in Tampa, Florida between Jake Paul and Mike Perry, but all and all is a great card.

And the Straw White Division potentially has its next title challenger. We'll discuss that and much more on today's show following UFC Vegas 94. I am Mike Heck. And joining me as always the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, my best friend and UFC Vegas 94 connoisseur. Alexander Kay Lee, AK, how are we doing? Did you get enough sleep after such a thrilling event at such a thrilling venue? Plenty, my best friend, plenty. Yes, and I certainly would consider myself a connoisseur of Saturday's Apex card. I watched this card more closely, I think, than I have most cards recently. I think we've told people, you know, sometimes we're juggling multiple things on any given night and we're not always watching the fights as close as we could. But this time, I don't know, I was really locked in. I think because I had not high expectations, Mike, but better expectations than some people had for this card. I loved a lot of the match.

up. I thought all the featherweight bouts looked like they could be fire and they were all great. I thought some of the fights that even like didn't have that much star power had some sort of sneaky rankings implications. There was definitely a few duds on there. I'm not trying to sell this as as a card. Like, oh, I can't believe people thought this card was was weak on paper. No, I mean, from a name value standpoint, it is pretty weak on paper. And it still is. The fact that it was entertaining and it was a good card doesn't change the fact that yes, your average combat sports fan has no idea who most of these people are. And that's fine. They don't have to, and they don't have to watch every card. But if you're hardcore, if you're someone who tuned in, you had a good time. Great finishes. Again, I do feel

like some of these names a year from now, we could be talking about even more, could have even more prominent roles on an episode of On to the Next one, Mike. But for now, I think this was a nice, modest card, great highlights, and just made me feel good at the end. Actually, really, a pretty great lead-in to Paul versus Perry. Yeah, I could see that. I didn't see the main event at all. I didn't see the co-main event at all. I think I saw a round and a half of Kurt Holobo's fight because we were doing the watch party. But I mean, Steve Garcia getting a first round knockout, not surprising,

Jen Giroba, just kind of hearing how her performance was against Amanda Lamo. She was very, very impressive. And there's just a wild, wild night in the combat sports world with Jake Paul, stopping Mike Perry, him looking like a freaking heavyweight compared to Mike Perry looking like a lightweight in there. And let me just say this real quick. And then we'll veer away from the Jake Paul Mike Perry talk. The amount of people in this MMA community, I don't know if they're just like newer fans

or whatever, but the amount of people who are just dogging Mike Perry right now annoys me to no end. It just really annoys me saying that he sucks and that he's terrible and all this stuff. Like there's two things I want to say. One, let's give. Oh, shout out to Mike Perry for getting this opportunity. He was in the UFC, left the UFC, improved he could be a success story. He's still the face of BKFC, even though Connor McGregor apparently fired him on Twitter,

which I think is just absolutely hilarious in a number of ways. But the other thing is, I just don't know what people expected from Mike Perry. Were you expecting Tommy Hearns or Muhammad Ali to start floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee and moving around against Jake Paul? Like Mike Perry fought like Mike Perry and got punched by a dude who was younger and faster and was 30 pounds heavier than him. And he went to the sixth round with him. Like, I don't know what you want to say. Like, and he had a month, less than a month to prepare for this fight. I just don't know why people are turning their backs on Mike Perry right now.

I know the hardcore fans aren't going to do that. But man, just seeing the chat and the post fight show and all this stuff. And even during the tail end of the watch party, people just, just ripping Mike Perry. Come on now. Like, be better than that. Be better. Be happy for the man.

He made a bag of money. It was very humble and defeat. Even gave Nate Diaz a shout out on Twitter for going the full 10 with Jake. I just, I hate that attitude, A.K., I can't lie. Yeah, I'm going to try not to read too much of those responses. That is just classic. Whoever loses sucks. You know, who, because they would, obviously they would have said the same about Jake

Paul or Jake Paul lost to Mike Perry. Oh, Jake Paul sucks. And listen, I don't think Jake Paul is a great boxer, but no matter what happened last night, it wouldn't have changed my mind. If he had lost Mike Perry, I wouldn't have been like, oh, Jake Paul was exposed. I would have been like, no, I know Jake Paul is not a good boxer. I learned nothing from this. And same with Mike Perry. Like, I know Mike Perry's become a star with BKFC, but do people watch his BKFC fights and go like, oh, this dude's elite?

Like, this dude's an elite striker. No, why would, that's not my takeaway from this BKFC run. He's tough as hell. he punches super hard but I didn't see watch him and Eddie Alvarez or him and Luke Rockhold and like man Mike Perry is just like leaps and bounds from his UFC career

I'm like no this is like the same guy he was in the UFC fundamentally maybe worse if we're being honest he's kind of like doing him now and just throwing caution to the wind so I don't know like even if you expected Perry to win on Saturday it wasn't because he thought like he's going to put

on this marvelous striking display and like and just box a polo around the cage is because you thought he was going to just walk through Paul's stuff and just like and land and take Paul out that way and at moments he did he was walking through a lot of Paul's stuff and having success so it was

really exactly what you would expect from from Mike Perry and a rare moment for me Mike I predicted to fight exactly I said six round knockout and that's how it occurred so again I think most people most people who were like looking at just like the

you know betting chalk worth expecting a late knockout for Mike Perry or a first round. Is that a first round, which we almost got, he did get the knockdown. Or it would, if you didn't get it there, it would have to come in the later round. So I think most people who aren't on social media all the time,

who aren't in our comments all the time, God bless you guys. Had a pretty conservative take on this. But yes, they all come out of the woodwork when the fight is over, when they want to slag on somebody. And again, I just try not to, I know it's a vocal, I tell myself it's a vocal minority. I know it's not a more.

or anymore. He'll get louder and louder and more, like, populace. But I'm going to focus on the positive here. And it was a fun fight. It was a fun fight. And hopefully we can move on from this and not onto Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson. Can we postpone that again or just cancel it out right, Mike? I don't know.

I actually thought, I mean, this is a much more enjoyable watch than from start to finish, at least the main card, than the Diaz Mazadol card. I have to say that. We had the knockout of the year. in my opinion from like things we cover from a Canadian AK. Shout us. Mr. Body getting it done.

Don't mess with Canada. Don't mess with Canada. Tell us people all the time. Don't do it. Yes. Amanda Serrano getting a quick squash getting us to the main event about 25 minutes faster

which is very un-Amanda Serrano like getting a quick finish. So shout out to her. I thought it was an overall fun show. Tampa was on fire. Crow was electric. They were into all of it. And now Jake Paul heads to

AT&T Stadium. Mike Perry, very busy man. Perhaps maybe I can get him out on the golf course again and we can get more of his thoughts on things and his new promotion and all of that. But let's move back across the US of A to the world's most famous apex.

UFC Vegas 94 went down and it closed with a dominant showing from Virna Janjuroba. She submits Amanda Lamosh via Armbar in round two. Incredible performance. from her. She's just an absolute pit bull on the ground. She gets you down. You are just in a world of trouble as Amanda Lemos found out. And she gets the biggest win of her career. She has absolutely earned a title shot, AK, but there is a wild card in this situation. The woman that

Shaheen Al Shadi will just never quit, and a lot of other people will never quit. There's Tatyana Suarez, who is sitting right there, hasn't fought in a hot minute. And what Van de Janja Robes just did to Amanda Lemoche, I'll ask you one, AK, is this more impressive than anything Tatiana's Wars has done since she has returned to the UFC after the long layoff? Two, should she leapfrog Tatiana in general with the streak that she's on and getting a main event finish like this? And three, is her next fight? Zhang Wei Li, is her next fight for the belt, or is she going to have to fight somebody

else? I think Tatiana's win over Andrage is still more impressive, just from a ranking standpoint. and, you know, just how tough Andraj is in general. So, and it's close. It's close now, though. I think this was when Androge was in a bit of a slump, right? Am I remembering correctly? This was, yes, his third straight loss.

So she was in a bit of a slump. She was taking fights very short notice, like, you know, poor preparation. But I would still rank her above Lamosh. And so Tatiana has the edge there. Like, in my mind, Tatiana has first dibs on a teloshot. We know she's had a lot of health problems. It's not her fault entirely that she hasn't had the title shot. shot yet. Shit happens. Tatiana is arguably the best straw in the world. Right now it is

Zhang Wei based on credentials and, you know, again, what we've actually been able to see. But Suarez is right up there. She has first dibs. But Jan Jaroba's next fight, no matter who it's against, has to be for a title. I know she's a gamer. I know if they offer her a good spot on another car, perfectly outside of the apex, or they say, oh, you know, we'll get you a spot on the pay-per-view. Even if it doesn't get her paid extra, I know fighters like that stuff. They want to, they want those, to be in those, put in those positions. She was very emotional and touched about being her first UFC main event in the frigging apex. So that meant something to her. I'm sure she'd be very happy to just, again,

have another big fight. But, but she, she wouldn't answer if she was at the post-fighting press conference, whether she was going to wait or not. I hope she does wait. I know it could be a long time again, especially with when we don't know when Zhang's going to offend again. We don't know when Suarez is going to be ready if she is the challenger. So it could be a long wait. But Janjoba has done so much in her career. I hope that she can afford to wait because she should, no matter what's next, it's a title shot, whether she gets it instead of Suarez or whether she gets the winner of Zhang versus

Suarez. I'm with you. Like her next fight needs to be for the bell. But for the purpose of this program, I'm going to say she gets the next shot. I think she is what Zhang Li's next opponent. only because this isn't a, the UFC weighs this win more than anything Tatiana Swar's did. Tatiana Swar's is such a wildcard at this point. And whether Zhang Wilii Fights Tatiana Suarez or fights Vyna Jandrova, it's not a made event.

It's going to be a co-main event or the first of three title fights, something to that extent. And as I have been saying for the last two years, and I'll say it again here, availability is your best friend. And I think Verna Jandaroba is going to be more available than Tatiana Suarez. That's just kind of my hunch right now. I have no insight to this whatsoever. It's just sort of the gut feeling that I have. So if Zhang Wei Lee calls the UFC and says,

hey, I want to fight a Madison Square Garden in November, and they call Tatiana Suarez, and she says, I don't know if I'm going to be ready. Beard is getting that call, and she ain't saying no. Even if she's banged up and heard and whatever's going on, she's going to say yes to that opportunity. So I think Vernagerino fights for the belt a four years end. Unfortunately, I don't think it goes very well for her

because Zhang Wei Li is an absolute animal. I would actually pick Zhang Wei Li to be Tatiana Suarez as well. I've been saying that for a while. I'm sticking with that. But tremendous performance from Verna. After the McKenzie Dern fight, did we see this coming, AK? I don't think a lot of people saw this coming.

No, it's hard. It's hard because, like I said, like I keep saying, sorry. She's a little bit up there in age, which for the smaller divisions, whether the men or the women, it's hard, man. It's hard once you get up there. And more importantly, has mileage,

has high-level fight mileage. Like she's been fighting for about 11 years, I think. And high-level competition. She's been fighting against high-level competition for a long time. I think I'm just looking at her resume now, and it's just all names, all people with Wikipedia entries, guys, if that's how you gauge notoriety. Yeah, so I did not think she could be able to go on a run like this.

Great Grappler, like somewhat one-dimensional, which, you know, can take you far into vision? Can it take you all the way? We might find out, Mike. We might find out if it takes her all the way to a title shot. The UFC can't lose here, I will say. She did them a favor. If Lamo should won, it would have put them in a weird spot.

Essentially would have guaranteed that they need Tatiana to be healthy to get a title shot. Now, hey, either option is great. Tatiana Suarez, title shot, amazing. I'd love to see it. We all want to see it. If you're in a title shot, maybe not everyone's first choice, but great performance on Saturday and, you know, she deserves it. Yep.

Co-main event, AK, wasn't meant to be the co-main event, but it became the co-made event after a health issue knocked the Iron Turtle out of the fight with Brad Tavares. Sad. Steve Garcia, man is just melting everybody. Four straight knockout wins, knocks out Sung Wu Choi in 96 seconds. And this was so easy for me, AK. This is just so easy. And I don't care if you want to out there in podcast land, I want to call this lazy.

I do not give a S. You can't say Nate Land where again? You can't do that. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Nate Lamar is already booked against John Silva. He's good to go. Steve Garcia versus Mr. looks tremendous getting off the bus,

34 years young, the MVP of UFC Vegas 94, in my humble opinion, Mr. Hyder Emile. Let's go. Chuck these two dudes in there. It can be a co-main event at the apex. It can be a main card opener for a pay-per-view. That is going to be one of the most electric fights outside of, with guys outside of top 15 that you can make in the entire organization right now, A.K. Moe Usman versus Thomas Peterson, this is the exact opposite of that fight. This is everything that that fight is not.

So glad. I am so glad you mentioned that. Okay, for multiple reasons. Multiple reasons. We actually saw a lot of this night, what I'm about to talk about. First of all, great pick. Not where I went because I did, I did, I did a meal and doho Choi. I'll say spoil that now. Obviously, of the three, of the three featherweight fights on the main card, it makes a lot of sense to match up two of the winners. just depends. You could go, again, you go Steve Garcia, Hyder, you go Steve Garcia, do a joy. This is just, all those matchups are fire. They kind of make sense from a ranking standpoint,

so I love them all. But I'm glad you mentioned the Steve Garcia, that forsaken Thomas Peterson, Moog was not fight. Oh, by the way, when you just said Jean Silva versus Nate Landowners booked, I don't want to get people excited. You mean booked in the ought-no books. It is booked

in the ought-no. Yes, that's what I booked. That's what I booked. Last week. So I don't feel to get too excited. Oh my gosh. Because, yes, that might be amazing. But it is not booked, booked. It is booked by us.

Yes, not booked for us. That Moeusman fight, I should talk to Thomas Peters and fight. Thomas Peterson actually won. I like Mo Usman. I've interviewed him, I think, a couple of times. Super nice guy. Very hardworking guy. And like, really, not a bad martial artist.

But, boy, he is, I said this in the slack. If this guy ever had the inclination to hurt somebody, he could actually be like a good heavyweight. But he does not want to hurt anyone or he does not want to pull the trigger. I don't know what it is. I'm not in the cage. But you look at Mo' Usman, the guy looks like an absolute beast. He gets in there and it is just 15 minutes of light sparring.

It is so strange. And again, I don't know what it means to be a fighter. I understand it's just different for everyone. I bet in the gym he is just crushing people. But under the bright lights at Moisman, the product is less than appealing. And he loses a listless decision. I don't know where Moe's going to go from here. But that, when you watch guys like Steve Garcia, another guy I'm going to talk about Kurt Hollabaw,

doho Choi. Really, so many guys in the main card. The difference between a fighter and a martial artist. Mozman, really good martial artist. Is he a fighter? I don't know. Steve Garcia does not give an F if you are bigger than him, more skill, technically than him. At some point, he is going to come forward in the fight and just throw his hands and just let them go.

If he gets knocked out, he gets knocked out. he gets knocked out. If he gets hurt, he gets hurt. He doesn't care. He has to get his shit in. And that's what happened with Sanguichua. Because Sunguich is a larger guy, very good technical striker. Doesn't have the finishing instinct? Steve Garcia does. And you saw that. And again, a lot of other guys who will talk about this main card had as well. And I'm so glad you brought that up because I was going to say, boy, there's Steve Garcia's and there's Moosman's. And both are great. But when it comes to the fight game, you need to be a little bit more Steve Garcia. We could do either Steve Garcia or Hyder Emile versus Jake Paul next and we're good.

We're all set. Those guys are going to get after it. I didn't even say I want Steve Garcia to be able to fight up. So I said Edson Barbosa. Oh, that's fun too. He called for Dan Igay, which would be okay. But I think Dan Igay also at this point deserves someone in the top 15, which is not Steve Garcia yet.

So let's see Barbosa is like a top 15 top 20-th top 20-ish guy. And then just a great fight. And like I said, I would have done Emil or Choi. but I want Emil and do Ho Choate to fight each other. Yeah, Steve Garcia is only 32. Here's the thing about Steve Garcia, though, because I saw a lot of this on, I think it was our good friend Joseph Bose on the post-fight show.

That was like, yeah, should Steve Garcia get a top 15 guy next? And I'm just like, we got to like saw a roll a little bit. Because we have, first of all, we have to understand the depth and how good featherweight is. And on top of that, like, you got a look at the wins. We got to look at the wins. Chase Hooper in 2022, Shilin'Nerdin'Bekha. Melchaseel Costa and Sungwu Choi.

Like, these aren't world beaters. No. That he's beating. He's doing it impressively, and he's getting, like, highlight real finishes, which is tremendous. But it's not like he beat Nate Landware last night. You know what I mean? You beat Nate Landwehr. It's not like he beat Hakim Dawadu.

It's not like he beat Sidik Yusuf. He does that to one of those guys. Sure, we give him a top 15 guy next. But Sung Wu, Choi, you know, solid fighter. But he's like, the. 40th best featherweight in the world. So, yeah, Hyder, him and Hyder Amiel Rule.

You want to do Edson Barbosa? I don't hate that idea. But just immediately coming out of this and just, like, Barbosa is at that perfect point where if the UFC sees Steve Garcia as something, like it's a good fight. It's a good matchup. And maybe Edson can do what he did for Lorone Murphy in some respects.

And maybe they look at Steve Garcia the same. So we'll see. Dude's killing it. He's so fun. And for straight knockouts. He's very fun to watch. Yeah. More straight knockouts.

It's like, it just gets it done. Get her get God, All-Star. He got knocked out in the first round in his fight before that against Mahashata. Dude, that's all he does is just getting quick fights. It's tremendous. Let's go to the aforementioned Kurt Hollabo, A.K., the contender series contract winner, the ultimate fighter contract winner. This guy has been through the UFC reality show Ringer and gets a unanimous decision win on Saturday's

card. I went with Kurt Holabo versus the winner of Slava Claus versus James Launtop on August 24th. Winner that fight versus Kurt Holobo next. That is a deep cut.

Shout out to Kurt Holobo. Did he get to bring his entire family to every fight? That feels like a cheat code. I think he has to. He was not going to tap out or let K.N. Treshefsky do anything

that would jeopardize his chance. of winning that. Like he was, you would have had to literally kill him in front of, he would rather have died in front of his family than like lost by tapping out or letting the rough save him. Like, that was crazy. He had all of his kids. I think Jaden, Braden, Radin, shout out to everyone who watched Ultimate Fighter 31. You guys know what I'm talking about. He named all his children on the show. I went with another, I need my tough battles, Mike. I need Gabrielle Benitez, tough Latin America Numero uno semi-finalist once upon time. Just a good veteran battle.

There's a lot of ways for Hollibaut to go. Getting a, man, getting a second UFC win. Just what a great story. What a great story this is. And I'll talk about this. There's another angle I want to tackle. We'll talk on it more in a second. All right.

Let's go to the flyweight division, a.k. Bruno Silva. Bruno Silva was looking, like he was having a tough night at the office. Cody Darden looked like one of the five best fly weights in the world for a lot of that fight until he just didn't. And Bruno Silva got him with that nasty uppercut, knocks his mouthpiece out, ground and pound fight is over.

Bruno Silva is a dude is a dog, man. And he goes out there and gets a big finish and just continues to rattle off victories, AK. So what is next for Bruno Silva? Again, Steve Garcia, Hollabaw, Bruno Silva, Bulldog Silva, I guess we should be more clear. Like, these guys are just, they're fighters, man. They're fighters. Four straight finishes for Bruno Silva as well.

Four straight performance bonuses, Mike. Four straight performance bonuses. This guy should have a top 10 number next to his name. Warrant off of the fact that this was just his fourth fight in the last three years, has had some really bad luck with injuries. He needs to get a ranked guy. He needs to get a shot to be in the top 10. Mike, he needs to fight Alex Perez.

Oh, I like that. Yeah. I'm again, putting two guys who have a little bit of trouble getting to the octagon together. I get it. So I'm just asking for trouble. I'm asking for a long delay. But hopefully their injury woes and other health problems are behind them. We can just get them in there and give Bulldog Silva a chance.

Because I think this guy could be fighting for a title in 2025. All right. Well, I'm actually going a little bit higher than that, I guess. I'm going a little bit higher than that. There is a fight coming up on Saturday. A big one between Menel Kopp and Mohamed Makhayev. The loser of that fight versus Bruno Silva next is where I'm going. Wow.

Can you imagine? Him and L. Kopp is crazy. Him and Maka'am Kayaev is crazy. I'm intrigued by both of those fights. And this performance, this comeback, the way he did it, let's see what he's got. Let's get him. I mean, it's tough to get him in the octagon,

but it's also tough to get Kopp and Makayev into the octagon sometimes. So I think they're intertwined in a certain way where it makes sense. So the loser of that fight gets Bruno Silva next. that's what happens. Either you get a title shot or you have to fight this friggin animal and those are the stakes. The stakes just got a little bit higher.

We had a little scare in the broadcasts, because they showed the main card, the OC304 main card, and Copp and Macav aren't on it. As far as we know, it sounds like they just cut it might, because I think it was originally billed as being on the main card.

I'm guessing it's just been bumped down to the prelims. We have not heard anything about the fight being put off for whatever reason. Again, with cop, you never know. but as of last night, I think Copp was tweeting like eight days, eight days until I get my chance to fight this guy. So so far everything's all good. Again, just remember guys, the UFC hates fly weights.

I think they just bumped it down probably to the prelim headliner or something. Which is smart. I don't hate that. Yeah, I don't hate it. I get it. Again, they hate fly weights. It's fine. But yeah, I don't think that, as far as you know, the fight has not been canceled.

But keep an eye on this space. It is Manel Cop fight week. And until he steps into the cage, is Makayev, certainly nothing is guaranteed there. According to the UFC broadcast partner ESPN and the ESPN fight center, Moham-Makai of Minal Kopp listed as the featured prelim. So there you go. Yeah, so people don't have a lot of people tweeting. A lot of people tweeting, oh my God, is the fight off?

Is the fight off? It's like, guys, just calm down. Calm down. I reached out to a member of Manal Kopp's team while we were doing the watch party after I saw the graphic on Twitter and I was like, is the cop fight still happening? and his response was, I effing hope so. What do you know, Mike?

What do you know? And I was like, all I know is that I saw a graphic on the screen that did not have those two guys on there. So I don't know if the fight's off or it just got bumped down. Everyone's freaking out about it on Twitter. I just want to make sure that I can ease the tension a little bit by giving them some good news. So it looks like we got some good news. So there you have it. Molly McCann is also on that ESPN prelim.

Nathaniel Wood, Daniel Paneda. Looking at the betting lines for that fight, AK, they have Nathaniel Wood is a minus 550 favorite against Daniel Panetta. You don't like that? That's crazy. You don't like that? No, I don't. Danana is an absolute nut job.

He's old. But he's a nut. He isn't. Well, that's the thing I guess is. I'm probably betting on Daniel Panetta at plus 375. Just take the under. I don't disagree with Wood being the favorite. Yeah, I'll take the under.

We'll chop it up. I know you have your Du Ho Choi pick. We should talk about what he did because that was impressive as hell. Oh, man. Just Korean Superman, Superboy No More. And just knocks out Bill Algeo, great stuff from him. It's good to see him back. Says in the post-fight interview, he's going to be more active.

Very excited to hear that. So, for the Korean Superman, let's get him in there with Bruce Leroy, A.K., a little Du Ho-Choi, Alex Cesaris action, a little vet on vet battling and that's what I like, that's what I would like to see next. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm a fan of it. I'm waiting for your, uh, your Hydera meal pick. I'm interested in your Hyder and Mill pick as well. I already picked Hyder Amel.

Steve Garcia. Oh, you did Hyder Amel, Steve Garcia. That's right. So we have, okay, right, so we've taken care of our featherweight boys. Um, I wanted to say that, you know, I was, I'm joking about Daniel Paneda being old. He's, he's dangerous man. Um, age appropriate matchmaking is so important. And I think that's an aspect I overlooked with how good this card could be.

I saw someone, I don't know if it was on Twitter in our YouTube comments or something or on MAPF.com, someone saying like, man, this card is like old AF, you know. And I'm like, yeah, you know, it is. It is. Vyerna and Amanda are our veterans. They're up there in a, certainly they're up there in their 30s. Bruno and Code, Bruno and Code, I don't know how many fighters there are on the main card that were under 30.

And even Hyder Amil is an older prospect, right? He's 10 and 0, he's a more guy. He's 34, 34 years young. And this is like a good thing. This is a good thing. This is why we got a quality card guys. They're so as excited. We love seeing young prospects.

We love seeing, oh, this person is 12 and 0. They're only 24 years old. That's great. That stuff is great. 17 year old Royal Roses Jr. forever. Okay, he'll never be 18, 19 year old. 17 year old forever. And stuff is great.

There's something to be said about getting veterans on there, about getting professionals in the cage. It doesn't look sexy all the time. I get it. It's not, oh, it doesn't jump off the card. We made a lot of, a lot of people were hating on this card. But when you pick people who are in there who have a reputation for finishing, who are a reputation for exciting fights, who have experience,

who have high-level experience, you get good cards. I know I'm making a very bold statement here, but I wish the UFC would do this a little more often, which is, again, age-appropriate matchmaking. We've seen it in some recent cards, and again, the results have usually been pretty good, pretty entertaining. So this was a very professional high-level product I feel that the UFC put out on Saturday. So kudos to the matchmakers, by the way, generally in 2024,

the UFC matchmaker has been pretty outstanding. Other than a few big fights that are just out of their control, like John Jones getting in there, Conner McGregor, all that stuff, that's not their fault. Like, it's not their fault. Those fights aren't happening. If you just look at just undercard matchmaking, it's been really good.

You just cannot say enough about the people who put these fights together in the UFC, the managers who get the stuff done, the fighters themselves. Like, it's been a really, it's been, for the most part, a strong year in Cades and much as we complain about the oversaturation. I mean, there's definitely some cars that overall have been for, forgettable, but I think your average UFC fight is still, like, pretty decent these days. Just, you know, UFC, you know, again, keep these veterans around, keep these veterans around, match them up appropriately, and we'll continue to have a good time.

And we'll continue to have a good time here with our wild card selection, A.K., we'll select one fighter we've not match made for. We'll matchmake for them now. I got to say, some slim pickings here, AK, where are we at? Thomas Peterson? You didn't immediately jump to, that wasn't like a, you didn't like a, you didn't like after that incredible fight, you didn't immediately jump to your keyboard and go like, it's my wild card pick.

And I'm not hating on Thomas Peterson, by the way. Again, he got the win. Thomas did what he needs to do. It's not his fault. And it's not, I don't even want to say it's my Osmond's fault that it was a terrible fight. It's just like these things happen. These style of matchups happen. Heavyweight is not a good division.

It's, I would probably say comfortably the worst division in all of MMA. I know we love the highlights. I know we love some names of the top. John Jones at the top, Tom Aspinall, Jelman, whatever, all these guys, Curtis Blades, you know, K. capable of putting on great highlights. But boy, the amount of stinkers you get in this. I cannot remember, we talked about this in a podcast,

like the last time there was a heavyweight fight in the night. I don't think it was recent. If it was recent, that was like the first one in, I don't know how many UFC events. It's just been a long time. It's just we don't get a lot of great heavyweight fights. So, sorry, I keep ragging on Thomas Pearson and Mo's mind. No, Mike, I went Miranda Maverick.

This was a card, like I said, where there was ranking the implications, just a lot of fighters who could potentially extend meaningful winning streaks. You know, Viena Gentiroba, four straight, Bruno Silva, four straight, Steve Garcia, four straight. Random Maverick now, three straight, looking good, such a talented fighter, some we've always seen as a championship contender. She's getting there. She's getting there.

She needs to get a top of the opponent. She really, really wants one. I'm going, Mike. Amanda Hebas. I thought about that. Okay. I thought about that. And I said to myself, self, you're picking my ousman right now.

This is what we're doing. We're picking Moosman. You're trolling right now. I'm not trolling. This is never going to happen, by the way. But let's try to do something fun here because I thought about this a lot. And I was going this direction regardless of the result of that fight based on what happened on the People's Street Fight show. And what happened on the People's Three Fight Show is someone who is clearly a newer fan of the sport had chatted in and said that the contender series is a great tool for the UFC.

because it helps, like, it introduces the sport in a different way to a newer audience. And I was like, okay. And then you know how I feel about the contender series, AK, this was, this is like my baby. This is the baby that always was excited when you walked through the door or ran. Didn't care of people around. They'd give you a big hug. I love you, daddy. I love you, daddy.

And then all of a sudden, the contender series grew up to a side hug. And now it just like doesn't even acknowledge your existence. anymore because everybody gets a contract. It's ridiculous. It's real cats cradle situation. Yes. You love that. You love that show so much.

People listen to any like podcasts from back in when Contender first started, listened to any of Mike's shows. It was like your favorite MMA program. You loved the Contender series so much. It was the best thing the UFC, to me, in my opinion, that was the best thing the UFC ever did.

I just thought it was so smart and brilliant. And they were so picky with who got contracts. Like it was just so good. And Casey and I would, we ran through the history of the first two seasons of guys who had like real quick finishes and great performances but didn't get contracts. Like so many names. Chris Curtis. Dan E. Hey.

I mean, the list goes on and on. Danny Ege got a finish. Didn't get a contract. And look what Dan Ege has become. Just so many fighters. Casey Kenney was on it twice in the first season and didn't get a contract. Like so many fighters did not get contracts. So how do we save the contenders?

series, AK, how do we make things interesting? So this is what I, this is what I would like to pitch to the ultimate fighting championship. The contender series wraps up on October 15th, this new season, the 2024 season, a 10-week season where we will probably see 48 to 50 contracts because we know what the UFC's business model is. But what if we did something really fun and interesting, week 10, main event. Mo Uspin puts his UFC contract on the line. in the main event of the contender series against Paca Porter. We give Parker Porter a second chance

against Mo Oussman. If Parker Porter wins, he gets the contract that Mo Oussman has. He gets his opportunity to get back into the hallowed octagon for the chance to build back to the highly anticipated rematch with Jonathan Bones-Jones

and a shot at the heavyweight title. The world's, wants Parker Porter back of the UFC. This is a thing. They are demanding it. So let's not just give them a short notice fight against Alexander Romanov on three days notice. No, no, no, no, no. Let's give both these guys the opportunity to get ready, get into a hard training camp where the stakes could not be any higher. This would be the most watched contender series episode of all time, even more than the second Bo-Nickel contender series fight. This would be awesome. This is stakes personified.

And AK, if they do this once, they will do it a thousand more times where guys who are on the cusp of getting cut can have the opportunity to either get a new deal or they're out. They don't just get unceremoniously cut. They don't just get a roster bot update on Twitter letting the people know that their UFC career is over. No, no, no, no. They get the opportunity in front of the world to hold on to that spot. the roster. And then they have to hold on to it against someone who wants to take it from them,

a former UFC fighter. The contender series just improved tenfold. I feel like it's season two again. I'm giddy about this, but I know it's not going to happen, but please UFC. Let's amp the stakes. Not every episode, but just the last one, the last fight of this season. We make the stakes as high as they possibly can be. Sorry, my mic was malfunctioning. You son of a gun. I walked right into it. I don't know why. As soon as you started going down this path, I should have said, this is a park reporter. I'm going to say joke, but I don't even tell if you're joking or not. It's not a joke. Gosh, are you sure?

It's not a joke. I couldn't be more serious. It's a very cool idea. We always say the UFC should do more cool, uh, cool thing. I'm not going to say fine, because it wouldn't be very fun for Moosman, I think, to know that his contract was on the line. I do wonder how many fights he even has left. So he won the ultimate fighter. And I think that's, I mean, it used to be ultimate fighter used to be. It was supposed to be like a tentative nine-fight contract. I have to imagine it's not the same anymore. It's probably, I guess you get a standard four-fight deal.

Don't quote me on this. It could be the same. It was supposed to be like three fights and then the next three fights are a raise and then the next three fights are another raise. So theoretically, if you fought out all nine fights, it would be worth $1 million or whatever the contract, whatever they touted the contracts. It's about 250,000 or something. Anyway, there was a whole thing to try and sell the adult fighter contracts back in the day

as being like this amazing, life-changing prize. and it actually ended up screwing over a lot of people. Yeah, Mike, it's a cool idea. We all want to see Parker quarterback. And as someone who has fallen in love with association football, footy, as the rest of the world knows it, Mike, I love the idea of relegation. We don't have that really in North American sports.

There's no such thing as relegation. This would essentially be because some leagues overseas that have like the bottom team plays the one of the top team, not the bottom team. One of the bottom teams plays plays one of the top teams in the second tier. Whoever wins gets to either one team moves up or one team stays. Imagine that in MMA. That's brutal.

I mean, that is emotion. It would be heartbreaking to see some people lose their deals. I mean, it's not like they can never fight their way back, but for someone like Mo's mind, again, a little bit up there in age, it's like, that might be it. Someone takes his contract and we just never see him fight in the UFC again. Brutal, Mike, brutal, but for the sake of entertainment and for the sake of on to the next one, you've done a hell of a thing. I do have to give you credit for that.

I think a lot of our listeners are going to jive with this idea. I've done the thing here. You really do. Just like Jake Paul did the thing. I love the Alex Berger call out. It's tremendous because it's never going to happen. But I kind of want it to happen. And I hope Dana just like calls his bluff.

I think that would be so fascinating. And there's a lot of people who like misunderstand what I say about this because I was like, if I'm Dana, I let him do it because he just goes out and kills Jake Paul, I think. It would just be, it does nothing for the UFC. Like they could co-promote and make a bag. But like they have. a trillion bags.

Like them making and co-promoting a Jake Paul fight doesn't do a whole lot for them overall because they're the biggest combat sports organization of all time. But just being sitting Cade side and seeing Dana's reaction when Pereira hits Jake Paul at the left hand and knocks him dead would be an incredible thing. And Dana would kind of be a hero in all of this.

So I would love to just see Dana show up at the press conference next Saturday and just say, you know what? We weren't going to let Mazadol go. We weren't going to let Nate go. We weren't going to let these welter weights go. You want to fight the light heavyweight champion? Go fight him. Okay.

Alex, we give you permission. Go fight Jake Paul. It would be incredible. The whole MMA community would lose their minds. It would be awesome. And then the balls in Jake's court. And I don't know if he does it. I don't know if he takes it.

No, this is a check that Jake Paul's ass should not cash. Jake Paul has been very good at guiding his career along. Even the Tommy Fury fight, it just had to happen. There was just so much talk about it. We all know that Jake Paul could lose that fight. We all knew the fight was going to be absolute trash. But it just had to happen. Outside of that fight, again, which really it had to happen.

And I think it made a lot of money. If I don't remember, I think the gate for it was like incredible. I actually think they did amazingly well. Good business. Outside of that, man, the guy just does not make missteps. he keeps picking on smaller guys, however you want to criticize him. But he's just made his career seem like a big deal. And if he could get this Pereira fight, the fact that we're even talking about it,

that he got Pereira on FaceTime, the Pereira says, gave him the Shama, let's go. Crazy. What a weird world we're living. But Jake Paul, don't, don't do it. Don't follow through on this. You will die. You will die. You will die.

You will actually. That would be so incredible. Do the thing, Dan. And just do it. Just do it. Just say you'll let him go. because he's and then Jake won't fight him and then you get to bragging right see well we offer Jake a guy his size and he said no so UFC one Jake Paul nothing let's go to the

peeps let's see what the peeps have to say didn't get a ton but we'll rifle through these uh we'll start with Alex AK Vernigero versus Zhang Wei Lee that was a very popular choice so I'm not going to read all of those I got a lot of that here another popular one Steve Garcia versus Juliana Rosa Kurt Hollabo versus Trevor Peek Bruno Silva versus Matt Schnell. Why would you do that to Matt Schnell? Come on now. Dooh-Choi versus Billy Q, like that fight.

Hyder Amil versus Morgan Sherrye. Not bad. Although I think Hyder Amiel. I would pick Hyder Amel in the fight pretty quickly. Let's go to Greg, Steve Garcia versus Jack Shore, Kurt Hollabo versus Loik Rajaboff, Bruno Silla versus Alex Perez. He's with you. Du Ho-Choi versus Andre Feeley, like that.

Yeah. Hyder Amil versus another one for. Morgan Cherry, I guess it's a popular one. Ricky Tersios versus Cody Gibson, Miranda Maverick Viviani, Irouzzo, Ogden Selecki, Carolina, Amanda Hebas, and Thomas Peterson versus Rodrigo

Nassamento. That can be the main event of UFC Lincoln, Nebraska, okay, there you go. What? Why? Just why? If you send it a pick, Like Thomas Peterson versus Rodrigo Nassimento, you need to write at least two sentences justifying why you did this.

I'm so glad you said. That's my rule going forward. That's my rule going forward. Yes. Right after the selection of Thomas Peterson versus Rodrigo Nassavento. No. Our man, Greg, has something to say to you, A.K.

Please. I predicted Verna versus Amanda back on March 30th, but A.K. keeps trying to block my shine. So, maybe that's why. He picked Amanda and this main event, right? This main event, yes. I think Greg messaged me. I don't know if this was Greg.

I think Greg messaged me last week. And I'm like, you have to like tell me after the fight is book. You can't tell me. I think they wanted, he wanted like shouted it on last week's episode. And I'm like, the fight's happening, bro. Like it's, it's now, it's too late to claim points for this sort of thing. I'm trying to see this is Greg. I think it was Greg.

I was talking. If it wasn't him and if it was somebody else, either way. Just a general note for people then. Yeah, you got to call these things out. You got to call these things out earlier. And on top of that, there's no way you're the only one who picked this. Yeah, I wasn't sure, but that's my other thing,

as I'm pretty sure this was a multiple person pick. Yeah, this is probably the most popular pick after that card. John, went to a local card instead of watching this offering from the UFC, but I heard the main card ended up being fun. Silva versus Almibayev, Maverick versus Cortez. John Jarobo getting a title shot and, oh man, astray.

Mo Uspen versus someone not in the UFC and not on my TV. Except October 15th when he fights Parker Porter in the main event of the contender series. What venue? I was going to say what venue was showing this card, but I realize we're a lot, like I've never gone to watch a car,

a UFC card since the ESPN era started. I guess it is just on. I think what he's saying is he went to a local regional event. Instead of sitting home watching this card. I totally misheard. My apologies. Yeah, good for you. Good.

Support local MMA. Support regional M.A. Good for you, man. Yes, Cage Titans put on a huge event last night in Plumas, Massachusetts. Dude, there was a lot. We had the two good events. We also had KSW had a card going on. Cage Warriors had a card going on.

Cage Titans, like you said. There was a lot of good MMA going down on Saturday. Like, people were getting, like, guys, follow, you know, Grebacca Hitman on Twitter. Like, people were just getting smoked across the world. It was a rough night Yeah, Cage Seidens had a great job building that card up A year, I mean, rivalry in New England rivalry

Years and Years and Years of Build Finally culminated Last night at Plymouth Memorial Hall Former UFC fighter Peter Barrett Took on Ultimate Fighter Finalist Joe Gianetti in the main event It finally happened These two friggin hated each other

So much trashed trashduck on social media and in the end slippery Pete gets it done gets the decision it was a splitty but from what I understand it was one of those like huh how is that a splitie Peter clearly won this fight even Joe even Joe knew he won he lost that fight I still I know you said Peter one I'm still surprised you and he has not gotten a call back from the UFC he's not like he's been on some crazy winning streak in the regionals he does have it has like he wins two loses one wins three loses one like since parting ways I get it I get But he's very clearly like a UFC level fighter, not that whatever that means now.

And he's had enough like highlights on the regional scene that I feel like he should have gone to go. I don't know. I don't know what happened there. He's got a pretty active social media presence too. A little surprise, Joe Gianetti has not gone that call back to the octagon. Yeah, there's a lot of weight misses, like a lot of stuff going on. A couple tough losses along the way.

It just never really clicked for him. I just don't know if it's happening. And I think if they really wanted him, they would have gotten him. after the ultimate fighter when they got him for like nothing. So I don't know. I like Joe a lot. He's fun.

He's a good fighter. He builds fights great. And shout out to Cage Titans for putting that one together. And shout out to Peter Barrett, man. Dude might, he might find himself back in the UFC. He's on a nice little run right now.

And that's a huge win. Let's go to Harry. Tom the Train versus Hamdi. Suspension is up at the end of the month. Okay. Sure. We can do that. Trey Ogden versus

Matush Rebekchi, Gibson versus Chadden Ellinger. There you go, A.K., I'm going to Canada. Amil versus Sadiq. Yusuf. D.H.C. Du Ho-Choi versus Julian O'Rosa. Bruno Silva versus the Kopp. McLehyev winner? Wow. That's pretty wild.

I think we all assume whoever wins that fight is getting a title shot, no? I would assume so. Seems like that that is, uh, that's choice. Hollibor versus the Bedoya. Jay Herbert winner, Steve Garcia versus Nate Landware, please. And last but not least, we go to our buddy Robbie. Haider Emile versus Julio Arce, Doho Choi versus Jack Shore, Bruno Bulldog Silva

versus Charles Johnson. I like that fight. Charles Johnson is incredible. Love that. That's good one. Kurt Holbo versus Nicholas Motta. More Steve Garcia versus Julian Arosa violence. And the last message before you go to your picks, AK.

Can't wait for next week. I have a feeling. Balal just might pull off the upset, then lose the belt in his first defense, which would probably be to shotgun out of Romano. So there you go. Okay. I like it. I agree.

I think, but I don't know if, I don't know who I'm picking yet. I do think Bilal is an extremely live dog. I just don't see why he can't beat Leon Edwards. There's nothing I see in Leon. And Leon's a great fighter. I just think Balala is so much better than people give him credit for. Like, there's a reason he hasn't lost a fight in so many, so many years. He's one eight, nine, one to ten straight.

I don't care who you're fighting, guys. Winning 9, 10 straight fights is extremely difficult to do. I'm not kind of the no contest with Leon. It's extremely difficult to do. I don't care what level you're fighting at. And Ballal's at the highest level you can be at. So anyway, all right, going to my picks here. First of all, we mentioned Nate Landler a few times.

I think I'm going to skip it just because, like, like, Nate would have to fight, I think, like, eight times a year to accommodate the amount of, like, picks we have made for, we and the listeners have made for him in the show. We just want to see Nate Landauer fight all the time. time, but obviously he can. His impact is, his fight style is so high impact. If he gets in there three times a year, we are blessed.

I don't know if we could, like, survive. I don't know if Nate could survive. Excuse me, eight Nate Landworth style fights a year. So a lot of great matches out there for him. It's very sad. There's a lot of matches with, Frank, we're just never going to see. And I hope he has a long career and then I hope he's healthy when he gets out. But yeah, we love ourselves from Nate Landmark.

Yeah, Janjo Obazang, very popular pick. Not going to read a lot of those. Amil versus RSI, sophomore, people, but feel with me on Miranda Maverick and Amanda Hebas. And I saw some Luana Carolina versus Luana Santos, Battle of the Luannas. I don't know if they, I don't think they're training partners. I think they might be friends. Not that means that friends can't fight, but if anyone knows better than me, let me know.

I don't think they're training partners as far as I know. I think maybe just they get along. I know Luana Santos was rooting for Carolina last night on social media. I had to double check. But you know what I mean? Love a battle of same name people. so if Luana versus Loana can happen, let's do it. Chris, yeah, the Bulldog Silva versus Charles Johnson pick, fantastic.

TAC MMA, Miranda Maverick versus Ariani DeSilva. I like it. Again, just move Maverick up unless Maverick is already higher than her in the rankings. No, not as sorry. I think Ariane DeSilva, the former Lipski, is actually ranked on Yosec.com. So, yeah, that would be a step up for Miranda. Liam Perry Peterson versus Parkin

Brasheki winner You know if Mick Parkin wins I think I'll have won like four straight fights I think like four and O in the UFC I don't know if Peterson can get that fight Sorry I don't want to read all these Gibson versus Altanghai Lee

Shout out to Cody Gibson Great win for him Sorry to see Brian Keller Drop another Not sure where he's going to go Amil versus Danny Silva Dennis Pizuukja winner August 24th, sure.

Duo Troy versus Darren Elkins. I got a lot of Elkins suggestions here. Al Jow versus Charles Jodin. Cody Durden versus Azat Maxim. Yeah, that'd be interesting. That'd be interesting. Let me see. Oh, I like this one too. Amanda Lamoche and Jillian Robertson. Yes, give me two of the best finishes at 115.

Let's see how that goes. Sean Hayward's with me, Bulldogs Silver's Alex Press. Mike, what do you think is? Thomas Peterson and Alexander Romanov. Hmm. That is like, that's like, for the golfers out there, that's like going for it on a part. That's like going for it on two and a par five and there's water in front of the green. Like if you get there, the risk was worth it and it's electric.

But if you put that ball in the water, like you're fucked. Like you're screwed. And that's what this fight. That's what this fight is. Like you went from like an eagle put to like a triple bogey. And that's what that fight could be if Romanov doesn't finish Peterson in like the first six minutes of the fight. Yeah, it's a weird one because I said Peterson-Moh-Uzman was like the easiest over of the year. Like I wish I stopped gambling this year.

I have a $50 limit. I blew it in like the first two months because I suck. And then, but if I still had money in my Jack King's account, let me tell something. I would have put all of it on Peterson Usman going over. Peterson, Ramanov, as you kind of just suggested, is not a guarantee to go over. Like Peterson, he's, I don't see him as a big finisher in the O.C. but before he made it to the UFC, he was like cleaning up on the regional scene,

just nothing but like fast finishes on the regional scene. So I think that's why there's so much, a little bit of hype around him right now. Now he's 2 and 0 or 2 and 1. And Romanov, again, before this weird like slump where he just became this very mediocre looking heavyweight was kind of like smashing people. So it's a cool matchup.

Man, that might be one of my favorite matches the week, even though when I first saw it, I was like to shaking my head. Like, again, why would you do this? but Mike did you do four corner sports? No, right? No, I did not. Lamosh versus Hill Richie winner. They're fighting Oz 24th.

Hill would be a two. And that was a while ago and a very, very close fight, which a lot of people thought answer the Hill once. So certainly if Hill, yeah, if Hill beats Top of the Ritchie, that's a rematch worth visiting. I've been to that. I've been to that. I kind of like that.

Sung Wu Choi versus Darren Elkins. There's Darren Elkins again. Bulldog Silva versus the Kai Karfranz Erseg loser. This intrigues me. Now we're talking about really getting to the top 10 there. And frankly, Mike, I think Bulldog Silva, again, if he had not, whatever, if he had been able to stay active, I think he would have gotten that title fight well before Steve Bursig did. But that's just an alternate reality theory.

Miranda Maverick versus Vivriani Arrojo. Yeah, again, top 10 opponent, really good pick. I can't have been talking about, Mike, are we ever going to talk about Thomas Peterson this much again? Probably not. Probably not. Barry O'Reilly, Peterson versus Robelis to Spain. No. No?

No. Why are you so upset? I know. What? I don't like it. You think Thomas Pierce is going to tackle? Probably, yeah. Like, why would you not tackle them?

If you know how to tackle it all, why would you not tackle him? He outstruck Wausman. Yeah. You even said it yourself, Lohuson doesn't want to hurt people. Rebels is the opposite. Rebels does want to knock people out in like five seconds. So that is, eh? Rebell should be fighting Derek Lewis or Taito Ivasa.

That's who you should be fighting. Berri-Riles. Gibson versus Silva de Andraj 2. A rematch nine years in the making. Both recently lost to Mel's Johns probably around the same spot in the ring. I just like because I just had forgotten that fight happened. And yeah, why not? Nine years later, run it back.

Hyder Emile versus Darren Elkins. Hall of Boss Lecky. John Jiro- Mike, we never talked about this. I just think this makes no sense, but do you think the O.C. would do Jan Giroba and Suarez? No.

They can't. They would? If they book, like, Zhang for a fight or something and she gets hurt, then they would do, like, an interim title fight. Oh. Which I wouldn't love, especially because Jean-Weilly is just so good.

but she fought she found in March or February right she fought a 300 300 uh what was that April 13 April 13 April oh gosh I hope they don't do an interim thing I was supposed to be putting an interim title like again Tatiana Suarez herself would need an interim title probably after God forbid she got injured again it sounds so terrible I don't mean it's it's a terrible thing to right but I mean it's it's something that has to be considered in all this decision making yeah great fire Just a few more here And on Instagram

Jared Biagin Steve Garcia Corolla Atmanazitar Sure, both fun Do you know Alvarez Any one here Jum ya

Cody Gibson Davey Grant Man Davey Grant Where are you A lot of fun fights for you Waiting for you sir Hollababa versus Michael Johnson

I thought about this one a lot I don't know if Michael Johnson's rumored for any fights or anything But I just I do feel like Hollaba age and experience wise

Is the right guy For him right now And I can't This is a terrible pick Gen Jorobo versus Yan Shaan Um, what? No.

No, thanks. Hard pass. And one from the emails, our pal, Tristan Gordette. Of course, Steve Garcia versus Nate Landre. And I said, I wasn't going to be any land wear ones, but just, you know, let's put it out into the universe just in case. And Lamosh versus Hebas, Amanda versus Amanda. Yeah, yeah. Is Amanda, Hebas also coming off for loss?

She is, right? To Rose. Okay. So, yeah, there you go. Both in the Lose bracket. both people who are still clearly in the top 10, top 15. Sure, I dig it. But yeah, those are our picks for this week, Mike.

And I don't need to read out how to reach us because next week, it won't be necessary. Oh, we're so live next week. We are so live. We're so live. I will be live from Atlanta, Georgia, the site of the watch party as GC and I return to the world's most famous viewing party apex venue, Jedbushu's house. So very excited about that. That's right up there with UFC 306, Noce, UFC brought to you by Riyadh season. Rehead season, Nochay UFC brought to you by 1-800 collect, town fair tire, and yeah, and prime hydration, not the energy drink.

It's not an official energy sponsor, but I'm pretty fired up for UFC 304. I cannot lie to the world. Of course, we have Leon Edwards versus Bala Muhammad 2 for the Walterweight title. Tommy Aspinall versus Curtis Blades for the interim heavyweight title. To me, and if you've listened to this program over the last couple of years, this might be a surprising take, but I'm going to go ahead and say it. The feature bout is the most intriguing fight on this entire card. It is Patty Pimbleau versus King.

Don't call me Bobby Green. Patty Pimbleau last fight on his deal, at least that's what he's saying. Again, let me implore Mr. Patty Pimblit and his team. do not resign before this fight. Do not resign. You can win. Like, if you get this fight to the ground, you win. And then you can ride into the free agent world as a top 15 fighter in the toughest division in the sport, which is pretty good bargaining chip. Pretty good bargaining chip. Christian Ler, Duncan, Gregory, Rodriguez, Arnold Allen versus Giga Chikaze. I mean, that's just a solid, solid starting five right there. Coming off the bench, Bahamahua versus Medell Cop, come on.

Nathania Wood versus Daniel Paneda. Molly McCann, who looked incredible in her strawweight debut, back at 115 against Bruno, Brazil. Colin Lockren versus Jake Hadley stepping up to 135. How about that? Mick Parkin against Lukash Brechke. It would be fun to see Oban Elliott back because he faces Preston Parsons,

Sam Patterson versus Kiefer Crosby back inside the Octagon. Shottabannon versus Adelaide. versus Alice Ardalean, who a lot of controversy around this signing, apparently on the social media spheres. Check the numbers, guys. Check the record and then check the social media numbers. That's all I'll say. Check her social media following on TikTok. It's definitely interesting signing.

It is that indeed. And then opening the show, 205ers, Badesdiscuscus versus Marchine Prachne. That's a lot of fights. Is it 14? 14 fights, baby. 14 fights. But the main card is excellent. Feature bout is excellent.

Feature about high stakes right there. Probably a title shot on the line. So very excited for this card. And then this leads right into, we don't have to think about this and think to ourselves, oh, we're back at the apex next week or anything like that. No, no, no, no, no. It is Abu Dhabi next Saturday.

Corey Senehagan, Ubar de Magham Adolf. So it's going to be a nice little stretch. year for the UFC leading into UFC 305, the return of Israel out of Sanya. So it's going to be fun. Whoa. Mike, I feel like you, what about the week after next Saturday? If I'm going to talk about that? Headliner.

Oh, what I? How about that? Oh, yes. Heavy weights. Rematch. Yes. If you asked for an odd no point, you didn't put a two in the suggestion, you're not getting a point.

She's throwing that out there because I don't know. You probably, if you voted for this fight, then you probably, are the only one that voted for and you probably get a full otno point for a main event, which might be a first in the last three years of this program. Yes, Marching Taibora versus Sergei Spivak too. Somehow, Sergei Spivak ends up in three consecutive main events. Stop it. You're lying right now.

What? Derek Lewis, Cyril Gone, and now Marching Taibora. And one of these was in front of people? Yes. What? In Paris. That's... In front of the most raucous crowd of the year for the UFC.

Damn. Hey, Sergei's be back. Good for you, brother. Good for you. Make that money, son. Damn. Make that money. Well done.

Well, thank you all very much. Well, done for the submissions back live next Saturday following... Next Sunday, excuse me, following UFC 304 in Manchester for AKI. I am Mike Heck. Always remember the golden rule. Don't take the stuff too seriously. the MMA's supposed to be fun and we will have a lot more fun following the UFC's next pay-per-view event right here on onto the next one, the podcast.