MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 95

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

Serghei Spivac made quick work of the durable veteran Marcin Tybura in the main event of UFC Vegas 95 this past Saturday night at the UFC APEX. After the win, Spivac didn't have a specific name in mind, but called for someone ranked higher, and then Jailton Almeida issued a callout of his own to Spivac. Is that the way to go for "Polar Bear" after a bounce back win? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what could be next for Spivac after becoming the first fighter to submit Tybura. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Chepe Mariscal after his dominant decision win over Damon Jackson in the co-main event, Danny Barlow after defeating Nikolay Veretennikov, along with fellow main card winners Chris Gutierrez, Yana Santos, Toshiomi Kazama, 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. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. It's good to be back with the matchmaking crown, back on the head. Shout out to, I believe it was Jed Michoud in last week on the program. But I was on vacation, but boy, did I come back at the right time for UFC Vegas 95, the perfect go-home show ahead of UFC 305? Sergei Spivak delivers the goods. Not all heroes wear capes.

Sometimes they are nicknamed the polar bear. We needed a quick finish in the main event. We needed this card to conclude. And Sergei Spivak said, you know what? I'm not even going to give you two minutes. I'm going to give you a minute 44. I'm going to put this thing to bed. And I'm going to let everybody carry on through their Saturday nights.

And boy, did he do that. We're going to talk about what's next for him. And other notable names from UFC Vegas 95. but I am Mike Hack and joining me as always. Reunited and it feels so good with the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. I hope he's positive this week. And he's my best friend too, Mr. Alexander K. Lee, aka,

happy Saturday night. Yes, we're going a little bit early today, peeling back to curtain. Yeah, this is actually second time doing this. Jed and I also did this last week. You know, we've had some conveniently timed UFC events. And also, you know, if you can kind of get these things done while they're hot and keep our Sundays a little bit more free, you know, we're going to do it.

We're going to do it that way. And this crowd certainly had people buzzing Mike, so I don't want to wait to discuss this. You just did the post-fight show. I mean, you've already, I don't know how much more you want to talk about this thing, but I'll say, Mike,

do you ever watch these cards and do you ever ask who, like, who asked for this? Who asked for 44 cards a year? Do you find yourself asking that? I feel like I don't. need to really ask that anymore because it's very clear the UFC just doesn't care. And that's okay. Like, they have to fulfill a contractual obligation.

Hopefully, when they negotiate this new TV deal, we have some less cards. I'm not saying we need to do like two a month. But I think three a month is fine. We do, I think Jed has laid it out perfectly. A pay-per-view, a road show, Apex card, week off in between. and then if you want to do like eight or nine straight Saturdays during the summer, a little summer rush, cool with that. But man, this is just, it was just tough all the way around.

Like early start time was cool with it. Only 10 fights was cool with it. But man, this seems like a 19 fight card. It was like a Bellator Dublin card. It was crazy. Mike, I bring this up because earlier today, I found out that they were doing a prequel to the live action Lion King film, Mufasa, based on, of course, the lion Simba's father.

And I asked myself, who asked for this? Why is this happening? Why are we doing this? And it made me think about this whole year of sitting. And then I remembered, and this is where I have to confess something is, Mike, I asked for this once upon time. When I was, I don't know if it was before the Fox deal, but there was a time when I was like, I think you have.

see will someday become a weekly program or at least as close to weekly as you can get. And I was like, and I was really excited about that idea, even knowing it wasn't like I, it wasn't like I had this idea and I thought, oh, every week we'll be getting pay-per-view level cards. I, in my mind projected it would be something like this. I always, I always imagine it would be something like this. We're like, okay, it's going to be slightly watered down, but you'll also be getting fight cards every week. It'll be great.

It'll be like watching football. It'll be like watching. I mean, I'm a junkie on sports in general. When I watch any sport, I get obsessed. I'll watch, I'll watch like 60 NBA games a year. And that's just like of my own team. And then I'll watch a bunch of other teams. You know, I'm obsessed with football right now.

I'll watch like two or three football matches a day. So I get obsessed. That's how I was with M-Man. I think at the time when they were only doing whatever, 20-some cards a year. And I thought this would be a great idea. And part of me still does. Part of me still loves that there is a UFC card almost every week

and that we have great Emmy action in other, you know, regional cards every week. week. But yes, if anyone is asking, why is it like this? Who asked for this? It was me. It was people like me. This is why we get these watered down cards. And I want to take some responsibility for that. I appreciate you doing that. I think we're all kind of there. The frustrating thing is we look at what this card looked like on paper. 305 is what it is. We have August 24th, Cannon Air versus Baraleo, which isn't bad. The rest of the card is not bad.

And then after that, it's like Gilbert Burns versus Sean Brady at the World's West Famous Apex. That's a great fight. That's a great main event. And then we're on the road for three weeks. And then we come back on October 12th. And we get Brandon Royval versus Tetsu Roiwal, probably a number one contender fight. Big fight.

Great main event. Week after that, back at the World's Most Famous. Apex. We get Michelle Pereira versus Anthony Hernandez. Great main event. The card is shaping up really nice. So I guess my biggest pet peeve of all of this is, we know the UFC can do better.

When they want to do better, they can. Just do better. Just do better. Give us something to the equivalent of Gilbert Burns versus Sean Brady as a main event for every apex card. Now, once in a while is okay. but at least like if you're going to give us Taibora versus Spivak 2

like give us something else this just come on man and if you're going to do 10 fights fine well let's just rifle through these bitches like let's just get boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom I don't need to see Stephen Thompson and Kevin Holland doing a fake fight and then putting ice on their faces and then drinking shots of Jose Cuervo 8,000 times

I don't need to see that commercial 8,000 times Let's just get to the next fight. It's a good ad, though. It's a good ad. In fairness, we did lose Jabid Braschrat, Chris Gutierrez. I think it would have been a good fight. The Kwangli, shout to Kwongli, I think they did fine.

Yeah. We did lose Yoris Medich and Danny Borla, which I think would have been much more exciting than the fight we got with Danny Borla. We'll more on that later. And we also just out of nowhere lost a fight between Alan Nessimento and Jafel Filio, a flyweight bow, which I also think would have been good. So they did lose some. Not that these three fights would have saved the card.

I think a lot of people right now are hearing that those fights I just ran down and going like, uh-huh, yes, and. But they would have made it a little more palatable than what we got. Yeah. This lived up to expectation. I actually think for a hot minute it was lower than most people expected. And then co-made event was a scrap. It was turned into an asswhip, like a compelling one. And then the main event ended quickly and gave us a little something to talk about.

So all's well that ends well, I guess. So let's talk about the fallout of this card because we're not going to talk about this card again after this, probably ever again. So let's get into Sergei Spivak and what he did because it do look good, man. Came out after almost a year away, after getting thumped up real proper by Cyril Gone, 11-month layoff comes in, bell rings, just delivers a beautiful combination on Marching Tibora right away. stung him a little bit, then gets sort of a kind of a takedown, kind of a bull rush, takes the back. Tybura shakes him off, and Tybor is on top and Spivak's guard and he's landing little shots and I'm thinking of myself, oh boy, this is going to be the next 24 minutes of my life, isn't it?

Watching this exact thing happen. And then Sergei Spivak, that sly little dog just comes out of nowhere. delivers an arm bar, traps the other arm of Tibera. He can't even tap. He's got to yell. I'm done. Stop the fight. Verbal submission.

Spivak gets it done. Minute 44. Beautiful thing. Michael Bisbing does the post-fight interview. I'm not sure why with Paul Felder sitting there who is fantastic at this because Sergei Spivak, through a translator, says, I almost didn't make it to this fight because I was injured. Now, Paul Felder would ask follow-up questions to this.

Michael Bisbing is just like, yeah, whatever. You look great, man. Who do you want to fight next? And Sergei Spivak just said, I don't care, man. I know you don't really like me that much, Michael Bisbing. But somebody ranked above me. But the beautiful thing is, when you have a win like that and you're in the spotlight, at least for a few seconds, somebody just might be paying attention.

And that man happened to be Jailton Almeida gets on Twitter because we needed some Twitter reacts real bad. And Jailton Almeida comes through with a callout. and makes a lot of sense. Spivik apparently responded to said callout during his post-fight scrum. So I ask you, A.K., as one of the drivers of the Jailson-Lam made a train, do you like this fight? Is this what you're going with, or are you going a different direction? I do like it.

I didn't go with Jelton. I don't know if it's because, I can go check real quick. I don't know if I have already what I wanted for Jilton last time after you won. I wanted, what did I say for Jelton? I think I'm really trying to force the Cidal-Gon fight to happen, but I guess that's not happening. So, so yeah. So I, technically, Jelton is free, I guess, but I'm not going to go to that. I still think maybe there's another fight for Jelton besides that one. Very smart of him to do that callout. I'm more eager to see Sergei on Sergey. I know we've pushed us around quite a few

times on onto the next one. I think the timing works out now for Sergei Pavlovich and Sergey Spivok. So I'm going Sergei, Sergey, Sergei, but I mean, Jelton's right there. Would not surprise me if that is just a direction that they go. I am going with Jailton. I think it makes sense. The Jailton Romana fight, I don't even think it was a main card fight. So I don't even think we match made for Jilton after that fight. So, yeah, I like it.

The only other option I liked was Curtis Blades coming off the loss to Tom Aspinall. I think that makes a lot of sense. That would be interesting. He got thumped up. He got battered by Tom Aspinall. So he might be out for a little bit and maybe just sort of like the mental fallout of that fight of never fighting for a belt again might kind of wear him down a little bit. So yeah, I think Jelda makes sense.

I think it's something you can book pretty quickly because Spivak took no damage in this fight. Yes, he was a little bit injured heading in, but we'll see how long he has to be shelved for and we'll go from there. This was a really important win for Sergei. I kind of framed it that way when I was writing the predictions for the website. And I was saying like you said you were watching, once he sought to Burr, get on top, you were worried, oh, it's going to be replayed the first fight. But in my mind, I had to, I rewatch the first fight, of course, for this one, as I'm sure

everyone did. And I never felt like, oh, well, Sergey is just like is a guy who's never going to have the skill to overcome this. I just felt like he was a bit younger at the time. Tiburro was more experienced. I felt like he got sunned. I feel like Spibov got sunned. He got bullied by a bigger guy.

And I thought, like, there would be some of that in this fight. But I also thought that Spiebara had improved enough that he'd be able to work his way out of those situations. And sure enough, he did. So it was really good to see. It was really good to see Sergey developed that way because he is only 29, which is a baby in heavyweight years. He has a ton of high-level experience already. I know he's lost against the top, top, top, top.

But again, only 29. I feel like these are rematches that he can get back someday. So, Mike, I do want to ask you straight up, does Sergei Spivak fight for a UFC title someday, interim otherwise? Does he fight for a heavyweight title? Probably not. Really? I just don't know. I just don't know if he gets there, man.

He ain't fighting John. He ain't fighting Steepa. If Aspinall's champion, that fight is, I mean, it's going to take like a 10-fight win streak from him to get the Aspidal fight because Aspidal killed him. Pretty, pretty brutally. So I don't think there's going to be a lot of eager people ready to watch that one again. So I think this is huge. I think he gains something from this. But just the state of this division and the road Aspenol kind of took.

Like Aspedal finished both of these dudes. So getting either one of them getting to Aspinall is going to be a tough ask. And neither one of them have any chance of getting John Jones or Steve A as well. So I would say at best he's three wins away from getting to an Aspinall. But who knows if Aspinall loses to somebody and there's another champion, like Volkov's the champion or something, you can get there a little quicker. I'm done. I'm looking at 2026, 2026. I'm not even thinking quick.

I'm talking like this guy's, you know, this guy's timeline, like 31, 32. I feel like this way, if he's able to hang around long enough, because Derek Lewis, I mean, how long was he with the UFC before he finally got his shot? What do he fight for? He fought, Cormier, right? Cormier for the vacants. He was a lot of fights. No, it's Cormey's first title defense.

That was Cormey's first. Tile defense, okay. He was about four years, four years into his youths. Okay, Sergei is already, is already four years. Yeah, he's already beyond that. Oh, wow, he is, yeah. Wow. Uh, I still think there's a chance because I think Derek Lewis also was older, I would say,

when he, when he entered the UFC and all that. So I'm telling you, I got a feeling he's going to hang around long enough and get some sort of shot. Yeah, it's just going to be tough, man. Put a pin in this. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's going to be tough. Gone already finished him. Aspinel already finished him.

He's going to have to beat like everybody else and just be undeniable at this point. I think. But again, if Volkov beats gone and then Volkov fights Aspinall and somehow wins one of the belts, there's your opening right there. So yeah, he's 29. He's only going to get better. It just, he kind of fought the wrong dudes at the wrong time. Maybe, yeah. In order to get there as quickly as he would like to. So good win for Sergei Spivak. Way to bounce back. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine.

But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.combe home to life. 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. And AK, long-time listeners of the program know that we do not like to matchmake four fighters who miss weights. No. And Chepa Mariscall is one of those fighters who miss weight.

Yes, he had an impressive performance. He missed weight by a whole bunch. Three pounds. Even Jackson told us he was going to miss weight by a whole bunch, and that's exactly what happened. Cheppe is an absolute savage. I mean, he beat the hell out of Damon Jackson. It's like going to be real tough for Damon Jackson to fight anybody again. After sustaining an absolute whooping like that, you're probably not going to match me for him.

I'm not going to go in on a whole tangent as to why I'm picking this, but I'm going with a fight where he gains very little and it's a very tough fight. So I'm going to go with Sean Woodson for Chappi Mariscoe. Sure. Sure, Chavez really talented, you know. Yeah, Chavez really talented. He should be moving up in the rankings. I didn't move him up in my rank. I have a pretty firm rule.

If you miss weight, you just don't move in the rankings. I think I would have had him ahead of Damon Jackson anyway or maybe not. But yeah, Chippe, get it together. Get together. That's not good. Three pounds. It's not good. I'm not matching.

Are you matchmaking for Danny Barlow who won a fight was on the wrong end of the one of, maybe the most egregious scorecard of 2024, like real bad, 37 against him? Shout out, Sharon Valelle. Shout out, Jan Vall. So, so bad. but also miss weight misweight by a quarter pound oh yeah he gets the win

he was one of the biggest favorites on the card people just expected Danny Barrow to go in and just just kill this dude not a spirited performance especially that third round I assume you're not gonna match break for him I literally ee mini-miny moat this

and I landed on Trey Waters and that's it that's all I'd say about it we should also explain we had a little as the card was at drag during the darkest moments of this card Mike we were DMing each other and we did say that And we were talking about like, we were saying like, oh, why it makes sense to do the show on Saturday night and like, you know, hopefully be a shorter show than usual.

And like, you know, we can shorten the show a lot by just not matching up so these people. And we're like, what if we said the person who has sort of the least impressive win, which you could argue with someone else on the main card. But I think Barlow, who I think is a great prospect, it just very forgetful forms. I also think Beretino Kov is probably better than we're giving him credit for it. But yeah, it was not a great, did not think it was a great memorable win. You got to start delivering at some point. He's had some great performances. Don't you're wrong.

That left hand is magical, but couldn't land it tonight. Creditive Ratnikov, great job dealing with South Quad. His last point was a South Quad, too. But yeah, I actually forgot the wait-mints. I just didn't feel like matching up for Barlow. But I am looking forward to what's next for him. But you're adding in the quarter pound over. I'm again, happy to skip this one.

Trey Waters. Let's go to Chris Coo. Yeah, Trey Waters. is fine. Chris Gutierrez made weight. Yeah. And so did his opponent Quang Lee, who came in and gave Goodyear's tough fight. I think a lot of people who follow Quang Lee

sort of expected that. I think he was a pretty popular live underdog because he was such a big underdog. And I think people thought this fight was a little bit closer than the betting odds indicated. But Chris Gutierrez did Chris Gutierrez things. He kicked Quangley in the leg a whole bunch of times

and those leg kicks just added up. And he veterans savvied his way to a unanimous 2928 across the board. What do you want to see for El Guapo, aka one of the, I would say, 22 best bannam weights in the world. Yeah, absolutely. Let me just say first, Quang Lee was almost going to be my wildcar pick. He's not my wildcar pick. I thought he fought a great fight. He came out on less than a week's notice. And I think in another world, we had more preparation. He could have beaten Chris Gutier. Those leg kicks of Chris are so, such a

specific skill and he's so good at them, you need more than a week, I think, to repair. I know what they were saying on the broadcast, Quangley was supposed to fight a contender series, so he's in good shape. And I'm sure, and he looked like he was in great shape. But tactically, you need a little more time to prepare for Chris Gutierrez. And that's, you know, I think we saw that play out. So, but yes, congratulations Chris Gutierrez. Back in the wind column. For him, I'd like to see him get a chance to move up from somewhere in the low 20s,

Mike, as we said, to the top 17-ish. Pedro Munoz Pedro Munoz I think that'd be a great fight I want to see how much Pedro has left I think Pedro would actually probably be favorite still

but man how much long because this guy hang in there in such a deep division he's such a he's such a what's the word he's so unique and that he's able to compete at this level with again

a lot of speedy 135ers yeah I I thought about that then I realized I already booked Montel Jackson against Pedro Muno so I actually gave I actually gave

Chris, a pretty tough fight. A guy who's on the way up. Venetius Olivera, aka. Oh, Loak Dogg. Loak Dog beat Ricky Simone. That's a very impressive win in my eyes. Let's see these two guys get after it. I like that fight.

I got Venetius Olivera 21. I got Chris Gutierrez at 19. I like that. Yeah, okay. It makes sense. Yeah. They're right near each other. Let's go to Janice Santo.

She's kind of angry, okay? She should be. angry out there against one Chelsea Chandler who may not be long for this UFC world. One would think, like, they keep booking her in Bantamweight fights and it's just ridiculous that they keep doing this because she's not, this woman is never going to make 136. It's just not going to happen. I think she can. I think she has fought a Bantamate before the UFC, if I'm not mistaken.

Not right before she, I think her last few fights with Invicto were as a 145er, which looked like, as you're saying, that way classmate says for her. I think I have to, I'm looking back. Oh, no, no, she missed wait for it. Never mind. Hold on. She made 136 for a fight with Brittany Victoria and Victor Ficta FC35 June 2019. So she's done it one time, I think.

Otherwise, then she wisely moved up to 145. Catchweight belt with Julius Diderot on her UFC debut, featherweight belt with Norman Dumont and then two back-to-back, battenweight fights where she did not miss weight up, missed by five pounds ahead of this. Yanos Santos fight. It's rough, man. It's rough. And it's not like she has this super crowd-pleasing style.

So I do wonder if this is the end for Chelsea Chandler, if there's a loss fight in her contract. But Yana Santos, first win in like three years, man. I'm going, I think I've accepted they're never doing the Misha Tate-Hawley-Home rematch. So give me Yana and Misha-Tate. Give me Yana and Mish-Tate. That's interesting. but I think that makes sense because I think Yanna showed that like she she's a much more skilled fighter than Chelsea channel and I picked Chelsea because I thought the weight mess would give her

advantage. I thought just general youth and athleticism would give her advantage. I just forgot that she's just considerably less skilled in the standup than Yonna and that we saw that. So yeah, let's see where Yonah is. Let's see if Yana has one last charge up to the top 10 in the rankings. But let's let's put Mish Tate in her way. I think all of us at M.

fighting, we have like one fighter that we can never pick their fights correctly. I think Chelsea Chandler is mine. I think I don't think I've ever picked one of her fights correctly. I missed. I think I might have picked her to beat Stoli Ranko, but I honestly can't remember. Excuse me. I can't know. Yeah, I don't think I did. I wrote Julia Avila. I know Julia has been out for a minute. She had the Tate fight. She got banged up a little bit. I know she's working her way back. When was the Tate fight? It was that in December? I think so, yeah.

Is that the Austin card? I think you're right, yeah. So we're what, in August, eight, nine months? Yeah, I think timelines could probably line up for that. So, and I think that's a good fight. Ducontas versus Giulia Avila when she's ready to come back. And yeah, let's see what the Raging Panda has. Keep this, keep this.

It's a winnable fight. Keep this white-hot women's bandit division rolling along, man. We had three of the 10 best bantam weights in the world competing on Saturday. And for the heavily people were crappy, we had, we had Yana Santos as well as Carol Hosa and Penny Kianzad. Three of our top 10, they may fight in global rankings. Yeah. And with the UFC rankings, Chelsea Chandler, who's never fought a Bannamway in the UFC, the 14th ranked Bannamite in the promotion. Speaking of Bannabweights, let's go to Toshioomi Kazama.

who probably fighting for his job, A.K., made his, I think he was like a short notice replacement on Road to UFC, just as like a fight that happened, ends up getting signed. He was finished in two straight fights. And he wasn't, he had a good first round against Taralompas, Gregorio, just wrestled, had his back, full control. And then Gregorio just a annihilated him with the shot, knocked him down, was just leveling him with brutal ground and pound and nasty elbows. Michael Bisbing was cringing with each elbow that landed, but the man survives. He rolls to his back, locks in a beautiful triangle, gets the tap, gets the big win. And now look at him, A.K. This man is employed. He's exciting. What a comeback. Some people are saying this is the comeback

of the year. It's probably ridiculous, but great, great win, much needed. There's just not really a whole lot you can do here. So again, you played any, me, me, me, miy, mo. Cowlin Lockren, AK. Oh, interesting. I, we almost, we could have had a friend for a moment there, because I think that's based on just my numbers. I have Kazama at 64. in the Bantamate rankings. Colin Lockren just ahead. 59, 59. So, I mean, you're not off.

Your calibration is pretty solid, my best friend. I went with Ricky Tursios. I'm glad we got to see the fun wild. I mean, we kind of knew because I'm as a bit of a wild man, but at least we got to see his wild style actually results in a win, because that fight was just all over the place. I think Gagorio just, like, passed out from his own ground and pound. I think I honestly, because he just stopped throwing after a while,

and I'm like, boy, he might just be gassed. And then the triangle, it was a nice triangle. It got put on a little too easily. I really feel like Goryu almost like passed out for the triangle is even on him. But hey, credit to Kazama got the win. Yeah, so let's throw him in there with Ricky. Two guys, it'll again, it'll be another wild, sloppy-ass fight. But I think maybe we can find a role for Kazama.

Maybe he belongs in that group of guys, just like wild, sloppy guys. You throw him in there. You get chaos. Hopefully you get a finish or at least a fun decision. So good for him. Yeah, because it's time for the. good old fashioned wildcard round it.

Is it? Select one fighter. We have a match rate for we'll matchmake for him right now. I have a feeling you pick the same fighter, but... I hope so. Did you pick a man

with the moniker of the Moroccan devil? Of course. He's been fantastic. Do we pick the same guy? I hope so. I think there's an obvious joke to make here. An obvious joke, not a joke, but like an obvious play on

words here. I don't know if we did. No? Maybe we didn't. Let's just say, though, that Yusuf, this is like the ideal career path this guy has taken. He came to the UFC super young. He was like 22, 23 years old. I remember interviewing him.

Nice start. Three and O to his UFC career. And then what we didn't realize in the time was a huge step-up in competition. He beats Peter Barrett and then goes from Peter Barrett to Ilya and just, you know, whatever. He doesn't get finished. Just didn't win. And then loses a bunch of fights. just can't get a win, gets released.

Right back to regional scene, racks up first round finishes against overmatched guys, comes back, beats a top 30 guy in Billy Corantillo, and then easily handles Jarna Arons. This is like the arc you wish a lot of young prospects could take. Maybe this is what we'll see from a young Muhammad Mikhailov someday. I don't know. But it's nice to see Zalal in there because after beating Quarantillo,

that kind of put him in my top, like, 25, Charter Arons. It didn't really move him much, but I feel like he has it. He deserves the opportunity to, to, Get near the top of Dean, Mike. I don't know if that's where you went. No. Okay. I didn't go to top of Dean.

Okay. I want to hear your pick first. It's time for a wily vet name. That's what I'm going with. I don't think the problem with Yusuf is I think they have something with him. And I think the UFC knows they have something with him. So I don't want to, I don't want to rush him too quickly. I don't want to just throw him into a top 15 fight.

If they did it, it wouldn't make me the saddest boy in the last boy in the way. the world, but I think we just got to build him a little bit slower. Give him like a top 30 guy, but somebody that everybody knows, hardcore fans, casual fans, everybody knows this man. Everyone knows him. He's fighting for a hot minute. Dude is a little bit older than Yusuf Salal. Somebody says he's a lot older than Yusuf Salal. He is 40, about to turn 41, his name, Kevin Luke Cub Swanson, okay, let's do Yusuf Salaw

versus good old cubby Swanson. I love that fight. Makes a lot of sense. It's a good test for Yusuf Salah. That's a legitimate fight night culminate

co-made him in. Oh, yeah. Hopefully with people there. I mean, actually, when I say fight, I didn't say Apex. I didn't say Apex. I'm feel to be clear. I didn't say Apex.

From now on, when I say fight night, I mean like a road fight night. If I say Apex, I mean Apex. That fight would deserve to have people there. Cubs Wonson should never be fighting in the Apex. I'm sure he's fine with it. He's a constant professional. He gets paid either way,

but the guys needs to have crowds, man. Cups wants some rules. Yeah, great. I love that. Great matchup. I'm going higher, Mike. I'm going not quite tough of Dean just outside for me. I think I need Yusef on Yusuf.

I think I need Yusuf Zalao and Sadiq Yusuf. Oh, yeah. Yusuf, Soudique, now I've messed up my ability to have concisely discuss their names. So D. I'll say Sadiq, I think Sadiq, you know, a bit of a slump, bit of a slump. I think clearly still a very good fighter. But we also may have seen a ceiling for kind of the way he fights. I think a lot of us have been a little bit frustrated with his inability to finish,

and which always leaves the door for an upset, frankly, and or getting out technique. And I think Zalal has that potential to do so. If he can, I'd be really impressed. Give me Yusuf on Yusuf. I like it. I like it a lot. I think it makes a lot of sense. With Instacard, you get great.

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Let's go to the peeps. we told you to submit your picks. We did. We tried to warn people. Like tonight? Yeah. And hopefully you listened. Two of you did, at least in mine.

I know you get the majority of these. And for good reason. So I'll read my two that I got. We'll start with Micah. Picks for this amazing card. Spivak Tybora 3 for the interim interim belt. All right. I was at New York and I were talking on the preview show,

A.K. we haven't mentioned the middleweight title in a long time. We think that fight, that title, it's vacant, there is no middleweight champion. Perhaps this fight between Spivak and Tibora was for the heavyweight heavyweight championship, the equator line of the heavyweight division where you're like eight, nine, you're kind of like, there's the 10 to 15 and below

where it's just kind of like sloggy, heavyweight. hitters that could be fun or could be just real boring. And then you get to like the Spivak-Tibora level where it's like, okay, you have to get through these guys to get to the top seven. And then from there, you can kind of work your way up. We have to add a new belt to this. Is heavyweight the belt? Is Sergei-Spivak the heavy-weighty heavyweight champion right now?

See, for me, I guess I'm probably getting ahead of myself. I'm a little too excited by this next generation of guys who I consider to be heavy, heavy, heavy weights, including one guy who, I don't know if this hurt or helped or hurt his case today, one Mr. Carl Williams, who fought a mystifying fight against glory, glory kickboxer, Janata Denise, and lost a pretty clear unanimous decision, just bizarre. But like him and McParkin, Jamal Poggs, if you want a lump salsa boy in there, you can, Walter Cortez. Acosta. Like those, those right now are my heavyweighty heavy weights,

but I see your definition. I see what you're saying. Waldo Cortezza is the correct. Nope, never mind. You said it. Waldo Cortezza is the heavyweight champion.

Yeah, sure. That's it. Okay. Discussion over. Discussion over. Discussion over. Mike also likes Barrascoll versus Edson Barbosa,

Barlow versus Salachov, Gutierrez versus Basharette rebooked. Sure. John Ray, Luciano versus Knudson. Didn't think we'd get a Luciano matchmaking selection, but boy howdy.

Zalalal versus JSP, Denise versus Beast Boy. Chris Barnett? I love that. That's Beast Boy, right? Yeah, Beast Boy, yeah, Chris Burnett. I would love to see that. I, I think I smell something. Oh, but I'm not, not a hundred percent sure. I know, no, I know what you're going to go. I know. I know. Yeah. Let me just make sure. I guess I don't. I guess I don't. There was a rumor. I thought I saw Chris Barnett was book. There was a rumor.

There was a rumor. But I don't know if anyone substantiated it. I know what you're talking about. That's why I thought. That's why I also smelled a faint odor. But. Oh, you know. He is rumored, A.K.

Why would he fight Janada Denise when he can have the opportunity, AK? Oh. Because apparently October 12th, he is challenging. for the heavyweighty heavyweight title against Waldo Cortez-A-Costa. I do. This does sound familiar. This sounds really familiar. All right.

I'm not calling you to do on this. No, no, we won't call that too-D-D-D-D. It's on topology. No, no. All right. But again, a horrific matchmaking. How dare you throw Chris Barnett in there with Waldo Cortez-A-Cost. Why do we keep doing this?

Waldo has to fight somebody, Mike. Have we not? Also, Waldo's a higher- Learned our lesson. He should fight March in Taibora. Yeah, he's higher-ranked than him. I don't even know. why that's like that's not even a good fight for waldo if he beats chris brunette he doesn't really

gain anything from that anyway oh you guys be better uh carolosa versus mbs don't hate that tzama versus jake hadley if hadley decides to say 135 santos versus lisboa uh gutieres versus ferri bacharad barlow versus alice marascaul versus nate the train spivak versus tibore three another call for the trilogy. But this will be the main event, AK, of UFC Apex 100. And the co-main event is Holly Holie Homes versus Misha Tate 2. Let's see things. And then a bonus pick from last week, Tony Ferguson versus Diego Sanchez in Gamebred Bear Knuckle. It's sad, but I think it'll happen. I regret out telling people to send us picks tonight. Is that it, Mike? You're up, please. Okay. All right. I'll run through something as quick. Yeah, please. First off,

my boy, Stevie. Shout out. Shout out to our softball team that won a championship once. A lot of championship once upon time. He likes Sergei on Sergei, Spirback Pavlovich. This Twitter name made me laugh. I have to read it. It's also a first timer, so I got to get him some extra love. Twitter handle, at Big Fan

of my wife. Hello. I have some picks for this lovely car. Welcome to the party, pal, by the way. Spigback versus Curtis Blades. Pavlovich, a Blaze is out for extended period. Chepe versus Nate Landwer, machine gun versus train. Danny Barlow, Matt Semmelzberger, Chris Gutierrez, Montel Jackson.

Appreciate the hours of Otno, Mike. Great way to put a bow on the card. We appreciate you, a big fan of my wife. And I'm glad you appreciate your wife as well, apparently. Where do we also got? Casey Carpenter, calling for that trilogy. Braden O'Neill, Mariscal Chikaze. I don't think I want to read all these.

Gutierrez, Daniel Marcos, would be sick. I'm down for that. Kazama versus Changoli, sure. What else? Anything new here? You know what? Let's do another Luciano pick. Luciano versus Sean Abannon, okay.

Tabura Lewis 2. I have no interest. It's not wrong with it. I just have no interest. Are you seeing some of the rumor and innuendo out there about Derek Lewis? I'm not. So apparently, what is being rumored at this moment, at least some outlets are putting this out there. And if this is true, God, I don't even know what to say.

Apparently, the UFC is heading to Edmonton, possibly in November. Beautiful. And I don't know if it's the November 2nd card and the November 9th card. But the rumor in innuenda is that Derek Liss going to main event that card against Alexander Romanov. Wow. I hope so. Because I'll go. I'll go.

September. November. I'll go. November. Oh, maybe on my birthday. It's Remember everybody It's not on MMA fighting.com

But this is just what is being circulated out there right now And it wouldn't surprise me If this is the fight the UFC made Um Brayden, I'll continue Bradenios here Carl Williams versus Jamal Poges

A heavyweighty heavyweight We're matchmaking for Carl Williams Heavyweighty heavyweight number one contenders match Mike that's how I said You know Carl Williams is right back on there You know he just I just don't know what he was doing on Saturday Why he's not even a heavyweight

heavyweight anymore apparently he's a prolific striker now oh boy prolific is that that's so generous of you that's so we all pick we all picked carloyames to win that fight did we all picked no I picked Chanata Denise I thought Janata was going to knock his ass out I did I'm the only one I did not win the picks night though

shout out to A Casey line 8 out of 10 for Casey Jay Donagie you know a very cheap joke here but Maris Galle and Barlow have a date with Jenny Craig no crack at Chelsea Chandler so that was nice of you. Yana Santos, Penny Kianzad. Have they fought before?

You know, I'm not even going to look it up. Kazama and Kwang Lee. Yeah, I thought about that. I thought just like, yeah, I just throw them in there together. Zalal and Alex Kassarist. Gerard Biagin. He's fine with Spivak Almeida. Tibura versus Pavlovich.

What's the interesting? Chris Gutierrez versus Fareed Basharat, I guess. I don't know why you wouldn't just rebook the job. If you're going that way. Janata Denise, Mike. versus Tui Vasa Rosenstrike loser. Are you ready for Janatv to get a top 15 spot? Should he beat one of those gentlemen?

I guess why not? He's older, right? Like, he's kind of, like, he's not like a young buck, right? We can't, like, take our time with this guy, right? At some point, we got to throw him in. Yeah, I think that's a little too crazy. He's no rebellious to Spain. Like, he's, dude can punch and he's powerful being no rebellious.

Sure. Give him the rebellious Austin Lane winner. There you go. I like that. Yeah. And then the winner of that fight can get tired of Jarzine you. Sure. Tino Alvarez, Zalal and David O'Nama, sure.

Mike friends. I think they train together. Okay. I think they train together. Maybe. I believe O'Nama is a factory X guy now. Oh, yes, because Zalalal is definitely a factory X guy. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. Friends Forever with Tino Alvarez, Mike. Danny Barlow and Trey Waters. Let's go. Well done. And I'll end with Marcus McGahey. Marcus McGahey.

Sorry, Marcus. He calls it the second helpings edition. He explained the joke. I mean, some of it's pretty obvious. Main event rematch, obviously. I assume he was also talking about the Luciano and Alancar rematch. And also because the weight misses. So they all go, again, some more fat jokes because we're not above that here.

Denise versus Peterson. Who's got Thomas Peterson, right? Thomas Peterson, okay. Luciano versus So Yul Kim. Carol Hosa versus Tate, sure. Another Kazama Chang-ho-Lee recommendation. I thought of this as well. Yana Santos and the GDR Nura-Kornol winner.

From UFC Paris, I assume. Sure. I don't mind it. And again, that's about all the new ones. And Marcus adds, for what it's worth, the polar bears revenge was as cold as last night's pizza. He's going to be snacking on that arm later. So lovely imagery, I think, to close out our listeners. Okay. Thank you all very much for coming through here.

40 minutes. This might be the shortest episode we ever had. But next week we'll be matchmaking after UFC 305. Now, I don't know how we're going to pull this off. You're not going to be here, are you? I will not be here for the next couple of weeks. So I will not be live with you for post-J305. and I will not be with you to cover.

I just realize this right now. My heart is breaking. August 24th, what I assume will be the event where the Ultimate Fighter finale fights take place. It logically would because the last episode of Ultimate Fighter should be, I think, August 20th, something like that. And I don't see why they would put it off. If they have an event, which if anyone was paying attention, did not even have a headliner until, like, a few days ago, until we called for it on a heck of a morning, Mike. And obviously, the guys of the U.S.C.

were listening. It's like, oh, shit, we better. We better. Oh, yeah, we forgot to announce this. Oh, my gosh. We forgot announce any fights for this card really. It's all, like, reported fights. I don't think they announced, like, anything until, like, literally hours after you

and I did that show. Or even hours, like minutes, I think after the, I, I kind of finished my call. And it's still a pretty, like, the card still needs some spots filled. I assume the ultimate fighter fights will land here. Though I will say a source who will go unnamed, I will say, said they may, they might be doing something funny with the taping of the ultimate fighter fights. I don't know, but I'm hoping it's just a normal thing where they have them at the apex on August 24th. But we don't know.

We do not know when the ultra fighter finale fights are. But I will be so sad if I am not. I may, I may call in. I may call in just to match up the ultimate fighter winners if that happens. So I don't know how we're going to do the show next week. We're going to figure this out. I explained on post-fight show what my weekend is going to look like. So we might have to actually do the show like on Monday, which is kind of crazy.

That could work. Because the plan is as of right now because not only is A.K. There's going to be a lot of people out of action next weekend. So the plan as of right now for your friend Mike is watch party in Atlanta at the Michue Mansion. Then the card is going to end. And then from there, I would probably like host the post-fight show very quickly. and then I have to go to the airport in Atlanta and fly to New York, flying right to New York City, A.K., first thing in the morning.

And then I'm ahead over to Madison Square Garden to the theater for Fanatics Fest. And at Fanatics Fest, AK, starting at 2 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, there will be a press conference featuring one Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, and even Peyton Manning will be in attendance. Oh, yes, the Peyton Manning. The Payne Manning, the second greatest quarterback of the generation behind Tom Brady. Wow, respect, respect. Yes, so I will be there for that and hopefully checking out some Fanatics Fest festivities.

Apparently, there's going to be some UFC fighters there, including Michael Chandler, is expected to attend the big fest. So we'll see if we can get some extra content out there. And then from there, go back to the airport and I'm going to fly back home. I'm flying back to Atlanta that night. And I'm getting the car and I'm going to drive from Atlanta back home and get home like early Monday morning. So yeah, it's going to be a long weekend. So we'll figure out how we're going to pull this off.

So if we have to do Otno on Monday, gosh darn it, that's what we're going to have to do. That'd be fun. I think you should try that. Yeah, if you could try that, I think a Monday after. A little live Otno on a Monday late morning. A little lunchtime Otno, Monday morning. Could be fun. But we'll keep you posting.

We'll let you know what's going on. Of course, UFC 305. Headlined by Drichus Duplice versus Israel Adesania for the middleweight title. Kikar, France versus Vinny Siggs, Stevie Erseg, Matush Gamrott versus Dan Hooker, Taitu I Vasa versus Jarzina Rosenstrike. Lee Jing Liang is back versus Carlos Proches. I believe that is what the main card is. According to the UFC website, nothing is really finalized just yet.

Junior Tafa versus Walter Walker, little brother versus brother kind of situation, which is super interesting. Josh Kulobo, Ricardo Hamos, Casey O'Neill versus Luana Santos, Jack Jenkins, Herbert Burns, Tom Nolan versus Alex Reyes, Kenan Song, Greedy Glenn, and Stuart Nicol versus Jesus Aguilar. Not a spectacular pay-per-view lineup, if we're being honest, but not awful. main card's pretty fun and the main event that main event rules that's fire I mean that is that is fingers crossed guys fingers crossed nothing bad happens between now and that card because that that is a definition of a grudge match

that is a sink like that sells pay-per-views on its own I'm look forward to that hopefully I'll have a chance to watch it either live or or catch replay well the good news is we're officially on the road to UFC 305 and I am excited so stick with us at mayflying.com Jose Young's will be boots on the ground in Perth, Western Australia. So so much coverage coming your way at all hours of the day throughout the week. AK, happy to vacation.

We'll see you in a couple weeks. And we'll see you all next week following you. I'll see you of C.305 right here on onto the next one. The podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.