MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 96

Episode Date: August 25, 2024

Caio Borralho made a statement on Saturday night when he defeated Jared Cannonier in the main event of UFC Vegas 96, and did so without using his high-level grappling chops. After the win, Borralho called out middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis. Did he waste the callout, potentially taking another big fight off the table? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck discusses what could be next for the surging middleweight contender after winning his first UFC main event. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Tabatha Ricci after defeating Angela Hill in the co-main event, TUF 32 winners Ryan Loder and Mairon Santos following their stoppage victories, Michael Morales after his impressive first-round finish of Neil Magny, Gerald Meerschaert following his record-breaking win against Edmen Shahbazyan, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR 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. Yes, the matchmaking crowns return following UFC Vegas 96, which went down at the world's most famous apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Main event featured some middleweight contenders, one looking to make a big move, one looking to get back on track. And it was the former that. It ends up being the storyline. Kyle Baha'alio gets it done, defeats Jared Cannoneer via unanimous decision. Huge win for him.

16 wins in a row remains undefeated inside the Octagon. And he made quite the callout. And we'll discuss that and where he goes along with the other main card winners from UFC Vegas 96. A little bit more. We'll get some listener picks as well on today's program. I am Ikech. Thank you for joining us. And, well, really me, because there is no co-host this week.

The great Alexander Kay Lee still on vacation. He will be back for the fallout edition of UFC Vegas 97, kicking off September in a big way because it's going to be a pretty busy next couple of months. So a much-needed weekend off coming up for the UFC and for the UFC fans and the MMA community. But we're here to talk about the Fallout. of UFC Vegas 96 from a matchmaking perspective. This will be a little bit of a shorter show, obviously, because I'm doing it by myself.

Didn't get a ton of listener's suggestions because most of you guys send the submissions to AK, but like I said, he is not here this week. So I will read what I got and we'll move onwards with our day. So let's get right into it and discuss the main event. Kyle Bajalio, like I said, really good fight with Jared Kennedy. I enjoyed it.

a lot more fun than I think most people expected it to be. It was a battle of attrition on both sides. Kyle Bihalio, as we talked about on the preview show and other programs heading into the event, pretty clear advantage in this fight. He could take Jared Canaaner down. Canineer is a pretty decent offensive wrestler, maybe a little bit underrated in that department, but he's not a great defensive grappler, and he has a hard time defending takedowns, especially late in the fight, and figured with Kyle Baha'aliah having that pedigree and just being a very large individual for the weight class, I thought that was his best path to victory. Not to mention, Bhalia's typically been a guy who is all about the win.

It's not always about the style points or being in the headlines for his performance or having people go back and rewatch his fights because they were such barn burners. But he said, no, I'm going to take that criticism. I'm going to throw back at everybody. And I'm just going to stay on the feet with this man. and still win. And that's exactly what he did. A couple of moments where Baha'alio had cannonear hurt, especially in that fifth round, dropped him real bad. I'm actually stunned.

That fight was not stopped because that was a bad knockdown in round five. Canonaires, you could see the light switch just get turned off. But to Canaaner's credit, he battles through it, makes it to the final horn, and Bahalio wins the unanimous decision. I scored it 48, 47. I thought it was 2-2 heading into round 5. I don't dislike the 49-46 cards at all because that fourth round was really, really close.

But huge win for Kyle Bajlio. And then he gets on the microphone, has the chance to make a big call-out. I was thinking to myself, there's one name he has to call out. He has to call out this one name because it's a huge name and it's a realistic fight for him.

And what does he do? He goes back to the well. and calls out the middleweight champion, Drickus Duplice, who may not even know who Kyobahalio is. And to me, this is kind of a wasted opportunity. That's what I think of it. I thought Israel Adasani was right there for a callout, and I don't think it's a fight that is out of the realm of possibility for him.

Adasani's lost two straight and three or four. He needs somebody to fight. And I don't know how choosy, Israel-A-Sania can be right now. So I think that fight was was kind of there for him. And is there a world where he could still get that fight? Sure. But I believe that the call-out does matter to a certain degree.

And had he made the call-out of Adasania, I think the headlines would have been more about the call-out of Adasanya than the performance, but we still would have highlighted the performance as well. So I think he kind of missed an opportunity there because he ain't fighting DDP, there's just no way that happens, at least not right now. And now I think he may have to win two more fights before that opportunity arises. And if he got Izzy and thumped him up pretty proper, he might have got a title shot right from

that. So I think he's going to have to do a little bit more work. And so that he's going to have a tough fight ahead of him. There is a big fight coming up in Paris, co-main event, end of September, between Brennan and Nassardine Imovov. And to me, I think the winner of that fight will fight Kyle Bajalio. I think that's where this ends up going. Could we potentially see the loser of Robert Wartaker versus Hamsat Chamaa, possibly? Could we see the loser of DDP versus Sean Strickland?

So maybe he does get the DDP fight, but the only chance he gets that fight is if DDP loses the belt right now. I thought Adasani was right there for him. I think he dropped the ball a little bit, but at the end of the day, None of that really matters because Baha'alio got a huge win. And fighting either Brendan Allen or Nassardini move off will probably be a main event, whether it's at the world's most famous apex or outside of it. So great performance from Kyo. Wish the call-out was better.

But he's still in line for a big fight. And now, look at this man. Probably two wins away from a title shot. So good on him. As we move to the co-main event, another fun fight, Tabitha Ritchie, taking on Angela Hill, back and forth battle. really enjoyed this one. It was the quintessential

Angela Hill fight where she just battled through it, was down on the cards a little bit early. She made it a fight, and it went to the scorecards, and it was classic Angela Hill. We didn't know how this decision was going to go. I know a lot of people scored it for Angela Hill.

I don't dislike that card at all. I could see a 29-28 Angel Hill. That second round was very, very close. I thought round one was clearly tab at the reachies. I thought round through was clearly Angela Hills. One of the judges was completely opposite, I believe was Eric Cologne and scored round one for Hill and round three for Ricci, which is pretty wild.

But I scored her for Ricci. I gave her the first two rounds, gave Angela Hill round three, 29, 28, regardless of how the scores came together. I think the right fighter won. And now she's in a very, very interesting spot right now because a lot of the women in the strawweight division right now are either book or, we don't know what they're doing

or they're ranked a hell of a lot higher than Tabitha Ritchie. Now that's not to say the UFC couldn't give her the opportunity to fight one of those top fighters in the division. It could happen. The perfect fight would have been Lupi Godinez right now,

but they already fought. They fought less than a year ago and Lupy won that fight via split decision at UFC 295. It was a fun fight. And now we kind of have to wonder where she goes. Because looking up and down this division, there's Zhang Wei Li.

There's Tatiana Suarez who could very well be fighting for the belt next. Bearing to Jan Jaroba. If Tatiana Suarez isn't ready, she's fighting for the belt. Janja now, we haven't seen her since UFC 300. When she fought for the belt, Jessica Andrage is booked against Natty Ice at 125. Amanda Lemoche, that could happen. She's top five. That could happen.

She's coming off of a loss to Verna Gensuroba. There's Marina Hodriguez, who's about to fight. Amanda Hebas-Backenzie Derner about to run it back. There's LeWana Pinero. There's Julian Robertson, who she's already fought. Yasmin Lucindo is booked already against Marina Hodriguez. And then Caroline Nicole Kovic, which I don't really love that fight. This was tough for me.

So I think she's going to have to fight slightly back now, but now she's in the top 10. This is really tough. You know what? I'm actually changing my mind on the fly because my original pick was Lomah Bumi, but I wasn't really sure how the UFC had their ranking set up in this division. Because as much as I enjoy Angela Hill,

I didn't really consider her to be a top 10 strawweight, if we're being honest. So the Lik Bumi fight would have made more sense because I would have probably had Ritchie. just looking at my rankings, probably around 13. So if you looked Boone me fight, it would have made sense. But now seeing she's going to be number nine, let's give her Amanda Lemosch.

Why not? Let's see what she can do there. Changing the mind on the fly. Let's do Tabitha Ritchie versus a Mendolemish. That was a fun fight. Good performance. Tabith Ritchie standup is getting a lot better. And we'll see if she can go on a little bit of a run here at 115 pounds.

Let's move ahead to the Alps. Ultimate Fighter. And boy, it hurts my soul that the great Alexander Kay Lee, my best friend, is not here to recap these two fights, despite him being wrong about both of his predictions because I didn't watch a single second of the ultimate fighter that most people on the MA fighting staff did not watch a single second of the ultimate fighter. But the driver of the tough train is Alexander Kay Lee. He gave his picks, which I used on my predictions. He went with Robert Valentin and Khan Offley, and neither one of them won their fights last night. Ryan Loder is now the middleweight champion of tough 32. He survives an early scare in the first round. Robert Valentin had him in big trouble, but Loder to his credit, battles through the adversity, gets a big takedown in round two, crucifix, elbows over and over again,

and the referee stops the fight. And Ryan Loder, now 7 and 1 is a member of the UFC middleweight roster. after winning the ultimate fighter. So these ones are real tough to do. I did them anyways, because these are dart throws. It's going to be the bottom quarter of the rankings at 185 pounds and 145 pounds, respectively. So respectively, I went with Ryan Loder versus A.J. Dobson as the pick. I'm not sure what A.J. Dobson's contract status is.

He's had four fights in the UFC. He's one in three. So if he's in the UFC, still, I think that's the fight to make. If not, let's go with Ryan Loder versus Cody Brundage. Why not? Let's go with that. And then in the featherweight division for Tough 32, Myron Santos gets it done.

Brutal knockout. Brutal of Khan Offley gets it done. This guy's fun. He's got a little bit of swag to him. He is, he's fun to watch. He's fun to watch in the fight with the microphone. Guy seems to have it right now, and he's very, very young. Trains over at Extreme Couture.

He's just 24 years old. Just turned 24, so he's got a very, very bright future ahead of him at 145 pounds again. This is a dart throw. You just kind of throw it and see where it lands. I went with Jekka Sadagi. I think that's a fun fight. Jack Sargi is a tall man. So that's going to be kind of interesting from a size and stylistic perspective.

but both these guys are sort of get-or-get-got guys, especially Saturdays. So I think this could be a pretty good spotlight fight for Myron Santos. I think it's a fight he can look really good in. I think it's a fight he can get a big finish in. So I think the UFC has something in him. They're usually pretty smart about those things, especially when they're fighters coming off of their reality shows. So, yeah, Jacka Saragi seems like a fun one. And we'll go with that.

As we move ahead to the welterweight division, fight a lot of people had their eye on, was the same. second fight of the main card. Michael Morales enters the fight, 16-0, dude looked like a world beater, and they threw him in there with the welterweight litmus test. Neil Magny, who has had well just over 40 pro fights. I think that was his 41st pro fight. And Neil Magne is the guy who, if you beat Neil Magne, you know you have a top 15 talent on your hands. No doubt about it, he's that guy. And more oftentimes than not, Neil Magne, He wins those fights.

He stunts the growth, if you will. He halts the hype train. He has done that many times in his career. Did not do it Saturday night. Although it started that way, it looked like we were going to get a classic Neil Magny performance. He had Michael Morales up against the cage. He had the body lock.

He had his back. Just grinding away, doing what Neil Maggi does best. And then Michael Morales gets some separation, drops Neil, hurts him bad, and then the man just has that killer instinct, just pounces on Neil Magny, gets the finish, and picks up the biggest win of his career. He's going to have a number next to his name come Tuesday.

I would guess he's going to be ranked in the MMA fighting global rankings once we get through UFC 306, but Michael Morrell is 17 and 0. This guy is a big, big problem. I don't really know where you can go with him. him because there's so many fun fights here. He's not going to fight Leon. He's not going to fight Belal, especially now that he trains with Bilal. Him and Usman would be fun, and it would

make sense because Uson's last three in a row, but they're not going to do that. Shafcott should be fighting for the belt. There's no way Colby's taking that fight. J.D.M. I think he's too far ahead. Gilbert Burns about to fight Sean Brady next week. Ian Gary is not going to take that fight. Stephen Thompson's booked against Joachim Buckley. Jeff Neal is booked already. So there's not a lot of options here. Kevin Holland's booked already. I went with a man who's probably going to hate this callout and hate this pick because this man was supposed to fight Nick Diaz in Abu Dhabi

earlier this month. And now he's going to fight Mike Morales. The man's name is Vicente Lucke. Boy, is that a tough draw. That is a tough draw to go from Nick Diaz. Big name in the sport, a fight that would get a lot of attention, and now you're going to have to fight this dude. And who,

don't love Luke A's chances in that one, but who knows? We say these things all the time, and the Wiley Vett can come through, but I think at this point, that fight makes a lot of sense, and we'd love to see how it all plays out. So Morales versus Luque is my pick for that, for the welterweight juggernaut that is Michael Morales.

Let's go to the main card opener. Gerald Mearschart is the man. This guy is the man. Goes in there with Edmich Shabazi, and he's a pretty hefty underdog heading into that fight. And the fight, I'm not going to say it played out exactly the way I thought it was,

that it would, but to some extent it did because I thought Shabazzhi was going to come out in round one, guns blazing, firing away, putting Mierchart in big, big trouble, maybe even 10 to aiding Gerald Mearshard. But GM3 being $2 steak tough,

continues to battle through the adversity and then eventually gets a submission in round three. That's the way I saw that one sort of playing out. But Chavazin comes out in round one. I'm going to say he's tentative, but he's very patient. He's picking his shots. He's not as reckless, if you will, as he typically is early on in the fight.

Round two, he gets shot out of a cannon. He comes firing out, hurts Gerald, gets on top. landing big shots, there was about two or three sequences on the ground where Shabazzian is just landing heavy damage. And I thought Mark Smith might step in and stop it. But every time Mark Smith gave the instruction, you got to do something, you got to do something.

Mirchart would do something. He would move around. He would move a shoulder. He would try to get in full guard. He would make some sort of movement that led Mark Smith to say, all right, he's good. We can keep this fight going.

And then eventually Shabazzian gets out of the guard, stands back up. Mark Spitz like, what do you want to do? You want to go back down? You want to stand up? Stands them both up. Mierchard immediately gets a take down, slaps on the arm triangle, and gets the tap with less than a minute left in the second round. And now most finishes in UFC middleweight history, it is not Anderson Silva.

It is not Israel-A-Sahnya. It is Gerald Freakin Mierchard. 12 finishes in the division. Now 37 pro wins. And unlike Kyle Bajalio, at least in my opinion, Gerald Mearshardt with a tremendous callout. A plus stuff, realistic fight, something I can absolutely see happening and it makes a ton of sense. And it would be fun as hell. I just don't see a world where the UFC does not make this fight.

It's Gerald Mearsharr-V. I know Joe Pfeer called for that fight and did so in a less respectful way than Gerald Mearschart did. But give it to Jeremy. on mirror shark. Come on. After that, give it to him. In Tampa, even had the date, had the city, had the name, had it all. So that's what I'm going with. GM3 versus Paul Craig. Someone's getting got real quick. And I love that idea. Let's go to the wild card selection. Time to select one fighter that we have not, or that I have not matched me for. And I will match me for them right now. And there are a lot of options here. I almost went with Zach Reese. Slava

would be fun, but I think there's only one name you can go with. And that is the woman who almost stole the show early on, 62 seconds in to the first fight of the night, Wang Kong obliterates Victoria Leonardo. And by the way, never cut Victoria Leonardo. There is a ton of value to what she brings to the women's flyweight division. And it's for reasons just like this, because she will fight anybody. She has zero Fs to give, and she is not afraid to get gotten there. and she has helped propel a lot of careers at 125 pounds.

Names such as Natalia Silva, who's getting ready to fight Jessica Andrage. Names like Manon Fioro, who is about to be the backup for the title fight at UFC 306 between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shemchenko, has a case to get that title fight right now. And what do all those names have in common? They went in there and finished Victoria Leonardo in the first round, and that's exactly what Wang Kong did. She has got some swagger to her. Comes out to the way and dressed like the Joker,

saying some crazy stuff about her being crazy. She delivers the performance, gets the mic, immediately calls out the UFC for putting her on the first fight on the prelims, and then says, let's go to Macau, give me Casey O'Neill. I deserve to be on a main card, make it happen. I like the Macau idea. I don't know if that's, well, I actually think

this could happen. So I like the McCau idea. I like the main card idea. I believe this is November 23rd is when this card is going to happen. But we're not going to do Casey O'Neill. We're going to go to the next level nail in this division. You go from Victoria Leonardo, who is a terrific nail, a very valuable one, to the next level fighter in that, in a similar position, who is tough as hell. And she is very good at taking a beating. but she can be a little tricky yourself. There's just no other fight to make. It's Wang Kong versus Priscilla Kachua.

You have to do it. That's the fight to make. Let's let Wang Kong go in there in Macau, have a big performance against someone who can take an absolute whoopin. And it might be, it won't be 62 seconds, I don't think, but we'll get to see a little bit more of her game in the process. So, yeah, that's the fight I went with. then there's no way that that one doesn't end in a finish one way or another and is not fun as hell.

So there you go. Wang Kong. What a performance from her. What a debut inside the UFC. And I think she's going to be somebody to watch at 125 pounds. All right, real quick, let's go through some of these listener picks. If you're new to the show, you can submit your picks to myself. You could either hit me up on Instagram.

Send me a DM M underscore Heck J.R. Alexander K. is Alexander KK Lee, I believe, on Instagram. I believe that's what it is. I should probably know this by now, but AK on Twitter as well. I think the DMs are open. So those are the best ways to get in touch with us.

And again, if you're new to the program, this is how we do the listener submissions for the cards at the apex, the fight night cards. Paper views are a little bit different. We do them live, or at least we try to. And then however it works out, and then we just to get all the submissions during the live show. So, but this is not a pay-per-view.

So let's get into it. I think I got about four of them. Let me just, let me just double check to see if I haven't. If there's any that I've missed here. Yeah, got to make sure. You got to make sure. I think we got everybody. So not a ton.

We'll start with Harry DeWoskin. He likes Wang Kong versus Montana, Montana de la Rosa, Slava Claus versus Austin. Hubbard. Zach Rees versus Redrique Dumas, GM3 versus Hidalvo Vieira.

If he doesn't get Paul Craig, he likes Morales versus Jeff Neal. If Jeff Neal beats RDA in Abu Dhabi or Joaquin Buckle, if he loses the Wonderboy. By the way, Harry Dewaskin won't get an out no point for either of those picks.

You got to pick one and stick with it. He also likes Myron Santos versus Lucas Almeida. Wow. Okay. I mean, that's, that's going to be a fun one. Tabitha Ritchie versus Marina

Hadriguez, but Marina is booked. She is booked. Let me just, like 99% sure that she is booked. But I could be wrong because I'm wrong a lot. Let me just pull it up. Beauty of this. She's fighting Yasmin Lucindo October 5th at UFC 307.

So a little bit of do-do from my guy, Harry Daweskin. And he likes Kyle Bahalio versus, he's with me on this one, the winner of the Brennan-Nassardine Imov fight at UFC. Harris. Let's go to John Ray. He likes Wang Kong versus J.J. Aldrich. Cavalcanti versus Chelsea Chandler. Do you want to see? I kind of feel like Chelsea Chandler doesn't really have a big future with the UFC. And it's not because she's bad, but she can't make Bannamweight. She can't make it. So I don't know. She's going to keep taking fights and not making weight. I think she's going to be real interesting, but sure, if that's what happens, then that's what happens. He likes Boer Chef Slava Claus versus Michael Johnson.

Who? I assume this is Gerald Mearshar, Gerald Mearsharv versus Zach Reese. Neil Magny versus Randy Brown. We usually don't do the loser the fights. Morales versus MVP. Interesting. Interesting. I don't think it's hard to look good against MVP.

that's certainly a road you can go. Santos versus Jarno Arons, Ritchie versus Lemosh. I kind of think that might be the only option here. And then he likes Baha'alio versus also Baha'alio versus Emovoff Allen. But, quote, he should make a trip to Abu Dhabi and be ready for when Hamzaa Shamaia falls out of the fight of Rob Bordaker. So most of those are in quotes. Some I embellished a little bit, but sure. If I'm Kyle Bajalio, I'm already on the horn with the UFC saying,

and I'll go over there, but he took a lot of punishment. He took a lot of damage in this fight. It's not like he went out unscayed. Jared Candier kind of beat the hell out of him and cut him open pretty good. And it was a battle. I don't know if he's going to be ready to turn around that quickly, but if he is, it's not a bad idea to put yourself as the backup fighter for that one.

Four Corner Sports, he likes Kyle Bajillo versus Marvin Vittori, Ritchie versus the winner of Marina versus Yasminu Jasm Lucindo, Loder versus Dumas, Myron Santos versus Weston Wilson, Michael Morales versus the loser of Sean Brady versus Gilbert Burns coming up in 13 days. Mearsharov versus Boe Nickel.

I almost went with that, but the call was just so good from Gerald Mearsharth. That's been the one I've wanted the whole time. But if they make it, I'm cool. He says December pay-per-view or MSG. I think you've got to kind of let GM.

I mean, I'm sure GM3 wouldn't turn down a pay-per-view or Madison Square Garden. But come on, let the man cook. He wants to fight in Tampa. Give him Tampa. Slava Claus versus Terrence McKinney. That's insane. Not the pick, but the fight itself would be insane. And he also likes Zach Rees versus the winner of Josh Frem versus Abdul Razak al-Hasan.

And then we'll close out with left-lane MM. He likes Kyle Bahalio versus Robert Whitaker with a loss to Hamzad. So he's making a prediction that Hamzaa Chamaif will beat Robert Whitaker. How about that? Morales versus the Burns Brady loser. Mirchard versus Craig. Santos versus Francis Marshall,

who bounced back, moved up a weight class. Got himself a victory. That was a fun fight. Loder versus Shabazian. Sari Edmund, Borchep versus the Peak Ashmoose winner. Sure. Wang Kong versus Kachiaweira in Macau. Love that.

And he also likes Neil Magni versus Carlos Prochus and then says life's cruel. Yeah, life is pretty cool. I think Prochus is probably beyond where Neal Magni is right now. But yeah, let's get back in a little bit of a break from these absolute killers on the way up. So there you go. Those are the picks on a little bit of a shortened show here.

And for the most part, pretty good picks. But there you have it. AK will be back for UFC Vegas 97 in two weeks. And this UFC Vegas 97 card is pretty damn good. For a couple of reasons. One, the start time is magnifique. 4 p.m. pre-them 7 p.m. main card, which should be the absolute latest these fight cards start in those slots. The absolute latest.

Last night's card, having a 10 p.m. main card is ridiculous. That just should not happen. It should not happen ever. But this one, beautiful time slot and pretty damn good card. Main event, big one at 170. We have Gilbert Burns, a man who was this close to becoming the Welterweight champion when he fought Kamar Usman takes on Sean Brady, who looked incredible in his last fight. Big step here.

This is the people's main event for me. Jessica Androge versus Natty Ice, Natalia Silva. That's the Komeny Macchinelle versus Alejandro Costa. That's going to be absolutely bananas. as will be Trevor Pek, Yanow Ashmoos. Kyle Nelson was supposed to fight Calvin Cater on this card. He will fight Steve Garcia. Instead, Andre Lima is back.

He will fight Felipe Dos Santos, Jacqueline Amarim versus Vanessa Demopoulos. That should be a scrap. Isaac Dolgarian versus Brendan Marat, Andre Petroski, Dylan Boudka, Gabriel Santos versus Yiza, Rongzou versus Chris Taco Padilla. Ovin St. Prue versus Ryan Span.

And then the Zygimontas, Ramasca, Nathan Fletcher fight that was supposed to take place on Saturday at UFC Vegas 96, but a medical issue for Fletcher forced that fight to be scrapped just as the fight car was starting. That fight will now take place September 7th at UFC Vegas 97. Damn, this is a good one. You're not going to get a lot of complaints from me or a lot of people on staff with this one. That's a pretty darn good fight night car right there. And I think a lot of these are just going to get pretty good. Right after that, we're off to the sphere.

We're off for the big one. UFC 306, Sean O'Malley versus Marab de Wallis-Willisvili. UFC very wisely taking another week off after that one. And then we head to Paris for the card headline by Hanata Moikano and Benoit Santini, as we mentioned a few times on the show, Brandon Allen versus Nastradine, Emovop on that card as well. And then right after that, it's off to Salt Lake City for UFC 307. Alex Pereira versus Collillo Roundtree.

Then it's back to the apex for two straight, but October 12th, it's official. The main event, Brennan Royval versus Tatsuro Taira. Great fight. October 19th, back of the apex. We got Michelle Pereira versus Anthony Fluffy Hernandez. Then UFC 308 and the fight that everyone's looking forward to in the main event, Abu Dhabi,

Ilya versus Max Holloway for the featherweight title. Then it's back up to Canada. Rose Domi Unis versus Aaron Blanchfield. And then the rest of the year is we're trying to figure that all out. Back to the apex November 9th. MSG on the 16th, Macau on the 23rd. And then there's, I believe, two more cards after that. And that's it.

UFC 310, December 7th. And Tampa, Florida, Amley Arena, will host the final fight card of the year. And the only one that I believe has been announced for that one is Amanda Hebas versus McKenzie Dern 2. So there you have it. That's the rest of the schedule, and I believe some of those slots will be filled in

sooner rather than later. And that'll put a bow on this episode of the program. So thank you all very much. AK back in a couple of weeks. Very much looking forward to that as we discuss the fallout from a matchmaking perspective of a pretty darn good. UFC Vegas 97 event,

and then buckle up because we're off to the spear and just a whole bunch of crazy ass car. to close out 2024. I am Mike Keck, everybody. Thank you again for listening to the show. And always remember the Golden Rule, don't take this stuff too seriously.

MMA is supposed to be fun, and we will have more fun in two weeks following UFC Vegas 97 right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.