MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After UFC Vegas 97

Episode Date: September 8, 2024

Sean Brady picked up the biggest win of his career on Saturday in the main event of UFC Vegas 97, defeating one-time title challenger Gilbert Burns via unanimous decision. After the victory, Brady called for a top-five opponent, putting Ian Machado Garry's name at the top of the list. Will he get his wish? 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 Brady after earning his second straight victory. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Natalia Silva following her massive win over Jessica Andrade in the co-main event, Steve Garcia after picking up his fifth straight win with a TKO of Kyle Nelson, Cody Durden following his submission win over Matt Schnell, along with fellow main card winner Yanal Ashmouz, 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

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Get your first year for $2.50 a month. Learn more at pceexpress.ca. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking crowns return after UFC Vegas 97. And on the first Sunday of the 2024-2020-25 NFL season, everybody get excited, get your fantasy rosters all set and ready to go. Hit that waiver wire if you need to.

But we are here today to discuss some matchmaking following Saturday's fight. night event at the world's most famous apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. I am Mike Eck and joining me as always and it's been a minute since we've done this together, I think. The co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, and my best friend, Alexander Kaylee, AK, how are you, my friend? I'm home. I am home. My goodness, it is so good to you back. I've gotten back and done some of the other shows. You know, it's been nice to get back to podcast and then vlogging and all of that jazz. We did a nice reaction show, Mike, but. Nothing feels quite like the comfy confines of onto the next one.

Especially after a lively car, I admit I was in and out of this one. You know, I was not covering this event, so I was in and out of this one. But I was invested for my own reasons, Mike. Not gambling. What are those reasons? You know, if anyone, if anyone still has not checked out the inaugural MMA fighting UFC fancy draft. We've done drafts before.

We've done like promotional drafts, you know, to try and like pick fighters for like if we were running a promotion and those are fun those were awesome but uh jed the great jed mishu finally proposed and put together a more traditional like fancy like football basketball style fancy draft where you know we go on fighters performances ufc only we go on fighters performances and they earn us a certain amount of points and you guys can find it on the youtube please watch the youtube or at least listen to the podcast i think you guys but watch the youtube uh the great case alighton has jazzed up with some amazing graphics that's great and uh and definitely check out the post if you want to see how the whole thing works and see a breakdown of our teams.

But yes, we all picked 12 fighters, one from each division, and a wild card. And, yes, they get points. This is for the next four months. This card, U.S. Vegas 97, was the first of this season, as it were, our season. And I had three fighters on there, and boy, they got me points, Mike. I don't need to – I'll get into it more later, I guess, but let me just say big thanks to Sean Brady, Natia Zelva, and Jacqueline Amarim. My MVP of the night.

So I'm off to a fast start, but there's plenty of fights to come. And we'll see how it goes. But so far, great returns. Shout us to Shaheen Al Shadi. He also got himself some points as well, Andre Petroski. Mike, you described as like a workman-like running back performance for Andre Petroski. So you didn't have anyone, I don't think. It was just Shaheen and I think, right, that had.

I was supposed to have somebody, but he got hurt. And the guy who was supposed to fight ended up getting finished by somebody else. I swear I wasn't. I swear I didn't do that. that on purpose. I will say, though, if Alessandro Costa had fought, he would have finished even faster than Cody Durn did. He would have just taken Chanel. Hat tip to match Chanel again. We can talk about them more later as well, but that would have been a first round finish for Alessandro Costa. Yeah, this is a fun card. And shout out to the UFC for pacing this one beautifully. This thing,

they didn't waste much time at all. Mike, why do you point that out specifically? Why would you Well, my best friend, as some people may know, because I wasn't on the post-fight show last night following this event, which I was supposed to be. But I thought the entire time, by the way, the promotion of this car was atrocious. No one knew it was happening. Even Casey Leiden, our own E. Casey Leiden did not know that Ust and Mugamaga Madoff was fighting Alexander Shobli and that there was a Bellator event in San Diego until we did BTL on Thursday and brought it up. He had no clue. So that's one problem right there that Casey Liden, one of the OGs of this space,

didn't know that there was an event on Saturday. That's a problem. I also thought that this event started at 6 p.m. Eastern. Like they were going to do the prelims at 6 p.m., main card at 8 p.m. And they were going to do like a 5-fight main card. Didn't realize it until like two hours into the UFC event that they were doing the entire card start to finish

starting at 8 p.m. Eastern. And I was like, oh, boy. There's no way I'm going on the post-fight show because there's 11 fights. And I was like, even if we get a smidge of PFL pacing here, this card ain't over till 12.30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday more. It's just, there's no chance. They had PFL pacing, if there ever was it. And it was insane how slow this card was. because there were some decent, some decent fights.

There were. I thought the first fight was fun. It was a squash. There were a lot of squash matches early, as Bellator typically does and always has done. Ashley Thiner was very fun to watch. She beat the hell out of her opponent who was $2 steak tough. Josh Hokit gets an arm bar submission, fun. Bryce Meredith fought a dude who hadn't fought in 12 years,

choke the man to sleep. We had a cool liver kick knockout in the third round of a football. fights were off to a good start. I thought Jordan Newman looked real good against Aliyev, who is one of the Habib fighters, gets a big win there. And then we got to the main card and the Jora Izavazian fight versus Yancey Medeiros was, boy, was this a tough one to watch. Shout to Simiko Inaba and McKenzie Stiller, though. They beat the shit out of each other. That was real fun. And Naba gets the win. Aaron Jeffrey, Douglas Lima. How do you think that fight went, okay?

If Aaron Jeffrey won, how do you think it went? I'm going to say very non-controversial submission victory for Aaron Jeffrey. That's what I'm going to say. That would have been way better. That's not what happened here. We had Aaron Jeffrey get takedowns and lay on top for 10 of the 15 minutes. Lorenzarka did Lorenzark and things, so that was fun. And then main event was fine.

It wasn't great. Everyone was billing this as, oh man, I can't believe this is flying under the radar. This is the best fight of the weekend. It was not the best fight of the weekend. This took forever. The amount of time they take, once the fight ends to when Michael C. Williams announces the official decision,

I feel like I could run to Dunkin' Donuts, order a coffee, bring it home, and then my wife can say, oh, you forgot my coffee. And I could go back and get another coffee and come back with her coffee. And we still won't have the decision read. There were multiple fights in the prelims, where a fight would end, and it would be a six or seven minute fight,

not including the, like the Ashley Thiner Alicia Cortez fight, eight minutes and 11 seconds of action, plus the walkouts and the intros and stuff. It took longer for the fight to happen than it took from when the fight ended to when Michael C. Williams announced the winner. That is unacceptable. That is unacceptable. I understand you got to, as old game show host,

used to say, pay the bills. You got to pay the bills. You do a couple commercials. Get it. But do you need to do six promos for the friggin pay-per-view before you do it, too? That's the whole thing. It drove me crazy. I'm like, what are we doing here? Like, this is the prelims. Old school Bellator. Fight ends? We don't even do a post-fight interview. They're already out of the cage. By the time the winner is walking back, we have the first fighter of the next fight walking down. That's what, like, I miss that pacing, but it just didn't happen here. It was just tough. It was just tough. They need help.

They need help badly. And they have no buzz right now, man. It's just so frustrating because they have a great roster. Jimmy, it's great to see Jimmy Smith back on a broadcast again. Like doing the thing. Him and Sean O'Connell did a nice job. I got to tell you this, because I know you weren't watching last night. You know what stood out in the main event more than anything else, AK?

What, my best friend? they had a Habib cam for the entire fight. Uh-huh. Box on the lower left-hand corner of your screen. They showed Habib cornering for the entire main event. The whole thing. This is not an exaggeration. This is not, oh, let's check in with Habib for 30 seconds.

No, no, no, no, no, no. The entire fight. Anytime the action started, there he was. and they had a camera on him, the whole main event, AK. It was so weird. I mean, I'm not hearing it's a bad thing. It's not bad, right? It was bad.

It was bad. Like, around, okay, still kind of weird, too. It's like, all right. Once you get to three, you're like, we know what you're doing. We know what you're doing. And then the cherry on top of the Sunday, AK, the cherry on top of the Sunday that proved that they knew what they were doing, As soon as the fight ends and Usu Narragamato gets his decision read,

who's the first person that gets a mic in this face? And I can assure you, it is not the lightweight champion. It's just so funny. Oh, my gosh. Who is this for? Mike, who is this for? Like, even the most diehard, even the most diehard Habe fan can't be like happily clapping along. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm tuning in to Bell Tour.

because I heard there's going to be, and I guess I'm assuming they didn't advertise a thing like that. I'm sure they made it very well known that Habib was going to be there. I mean, I think of course. Look at their social media. Yeah, exactly. Anytime he walked into a media day or a way in, it was the Habib show. It was unbelievable. Yeah, and like that's going to be enough to peak people's interest.

I feel, oh boy, I'm a fan of gimmicks. I love gimmicks. I love gimmicks. But a nonstop cam on a guy who's not on. your roster who's not going to fight ever. It's a, it's a choice. It's a choice. It's a choice. It's a choice, Mike. I don't know. You know what? I won't overly credit it. I wasn't watching it. Maybe it was riveting television, Mike, but also, I trust you. I know you watch. I know you watched every minute of it. So I have to, I have no choice really what to trust you. And Twitter,

Twitter was just flooded with like, oh no. What is this? Like what, the Shabid Kev is just like a little weird. We know what we're trying to do here. Like, we get this. But just we're rooting for you. Like they don't understand. Like we're rooting for you. We want you to do good. We need them. And then you bring us this.

We need you to be good. Yes. We need them to be good. The sport need you to be good. I don't, you think I like seeing on the people's pre-fight show over under 18 months before PFLOTor is out of business? I don't want to see that.

I don't think that's the case because I think they are a profitable entity. Just no interest in actually watching. their cards or events or fights. Everything is just, oh, we sold this sponsorship, but we have this TV deal. Like, that's how they're making their money, and that's great. They're not losing money.

They're not one championship, so that's great. But just no buzz in the product. It's really tough. But I digress. We're not here to matchmake for Bellator. We are here to matchmaking for the ultimate fighting championship. And we're here to matchmake for Sean Brady,

AK, because Sean Brady loses to Bilal Mahal. who is now obviously the welterweight champion of the world. And people have been calling, saying that Sean Brady was fraud checked, which is just ridiculous. You can't get fraud checked by the frigging champion of the world. But again, I digress. Comes back and just ravages Kelvin Gasolum, a couple 10, 8 rounds before a mercy finish in round three. And then from there, fights Gilbert Burns, one-time title challenger. Gilbert Burns getting up there in age, but still very very.

Very good guy who's beating Jack Delam Adelana was on his way to victory before J.DM had one of the craziest comebacks you'll ever see. Burns had his moments in this fight, but Ray just kind of hossed him around in there. Looked better on the feet. I thought it was striking his improved a ton. And Sean Brady is a player now. Biggest win of his career. I think there's going to be a little bit more respect on his name after this one.

Calls out Ian Gary, mentioned Colby Covington, said just wants top five guy. Are you giving it to him? Is Colby still in the UFC's top five? Please tell me, no. He's got to be. Come on. What are we doing it? I don't know why I'm looking this up.

I'm looking this up right now, guys, on live. Number five. This is crazy. This is absurd. What are we? How? I guess it's weird. In my mind, it's like, oh, it's been forever since Colby.

Technically, it has been less than a year, right? That was, what, December, the Leon title fight, which he never should have gotten. Okay. Whatever. All right. So he's five within the calendar year. He's nowhere near being removed from the rankings. I know where near being removed from the MA fighting global rankings. He is a, he is by definition a top five.

Welterweight and credit to Brady, I guess we're recognizing that. But I can't do it. We don't need America. We don't need to give Colby Cumberton like fights against relevant contenders. We just don't need to do that. And your definition of that may vary. you don't see Sean Brady as a relevant contender still, even though he just be Gilbert Burns. Maybe you think Sean Brady is still won away, which is fair.

He shouldn't get a title shot next. That's not where I went. I'm not super enthused about the direction I went in either, but also, but I definitely did not go Colby Cumberton. I thought the Ian Machado Gary callout was great, and I probably should have gone with that, Mike. I don't know if that's what you did. I chose to go a little bit outside the box. And also, this is kind of waving a match. Sorry, more of a crystal ball.

I just don't know if they give him Gary. So I had to go a little deeper here. Maybe the Wonderboy, Joaquin Buckley winner, Mike. USC307, October 5th. Buckley would make a lot of sense if he beats Wonderpoint for sure. Buckley would make a ton of sense. Stephen Thompson would feel like a step backward. I get it.

But he also has a bigger, he think he still has a bigger name than Buckley. So Thompson pulls off what I think is an upset. I haven't seen the odds for that fight. I think Buckley is favored. but if Wonderboy pulls that off, I think you give Brady another kind of marquee name, another big veteran to go through before getting still not a title shot, but probably then really getting one of the top three, top four guys.

And if Buckley, I mean, Buckley was talking so much smack after that, he'll probably call for a title shot. I would love to just not do that and make him fight Brady instead. So I'll go with that. Not the sexiest choice, but yeah, Wonderboy Buckley winner. By the way, Buckley minus 145 favor against Stephen Tom. And wrestling, wrestling. Rassel.

I went with a top five guy. I did not go with E. Machado Gary, who by the way, I just didn't even realize. Eamichado Gary is not even in the top five in the UFC's ranking, December seven. He's a little outside. He'll be behind. He'll be behind Brady. He'll probably be behind Brady, I think. Unless they just dropped Gilbert.

Maybe they'll drop Gilbert. Burns is six as of right now. So Brady will hop ahead of him. So, I mean, from a, from a meritocratic perspective, that's like probably the perfect fight to make. However, I just think, I think I'm a machado Gary is just so far ahead of him in terms of, it's not really all that fair. He's younger. He's got some really good wins. He's on the come-up. People react to Ian Machado-Gary. Ian Machado-Gary could headline a card. Like, if you threw Ian Machado Gary in December, like in that Tampa card is the main event, that draws attention. Because you either

like that guy or you don't. There's no gray area. There's no between. It's just the way that it is. I like the Gary callout. I don't think he gets that fight. My hunch, and I have no insight to this whatsoever, but this is how I would do it. UFC Tampa, final fight card of 2024, I would do Ian Machado Gary versus Kamar Ustman as the main event. That's what I would do. Five rounds. That's a huge fight. I want that. Ousman wins. He can get his title shot. You won't get any complaints from me at all. Gary wins. That's a huge one for him. He has a very good chance of getting a title shot from there.

Shavcott has to get the next one at this point. It just makes the most sense. So we look at this sort of this Walterweight puzzle, and there's another name left, a name that I already mentioned. A guy who coincidentally enough in his most recent win beat the same guy Sean Brady just beat in his most recent win. Let's do Sean Brady versus Jack Delam Adelaelaia. Love that fight.

I think it makes a lot of sense. J.D.M.'s got to fight somebody. I don't think he gets the U.S.man fight. The problem with winning and having such a member performance so early in the year is that so many other things have happened that you have to dig into the vault a little bit more to pull it out. And JDM has been hurt, he's been dealing with some injuries. And the thing with John Brady is, he's not the most active guy.

Like, he's not Alex Pereira. He's not a dude that's going to fight three times a year. He puts a lot into his camps. He puts a lot into his fights. And it usually is quite some times. before we see him again. What was it? Nine months? Because it was it, December of last year when you beat Calvin Gasselm? And then it's been nine months since we've seen them. So I don't think we're going to see Brady again until next year anyway. So even if JDM is still dinged up, it can't come back

to like February or March, timelines match up. So I went with Brady versus GDM for that reason. It's a great matchup. It's a great matchup. I was trying, I was probably trying to do that, oh, I don't want to put two contenders against each other thing. But I've rallied against that before. I've said that's like a boring thing to do. Sometimes you got to throw contenders and with each other. As many since neither guy, it's not like I look at JDM and Sean Brady's like, oh, both these guys could be like world champion. I think they're both great fighters. I don't think either there's a surefire bet to beat Malol or beat whoever has the title by the time their next fight rolls around. So yeah, listen, unfortunately, guys got to catch L's sometimes

and USC's were the best fight the best and you got to give the people what they want. I don't know why I went through so many cliches there. But yeah, Brady, JDM makes a lot of stuff. Like I said, I said, I've played it safe and just said like, oh, you know, just try to keep those guys away of each other, but I'd love to see them hype in it. I'd love to see them get within each other's, like, sphere of consciousness and start, like, shit-talking each other, but I don't think either guys really going to do that. I don't know.

Matchmakers, do your work. Let's see, uh, let's see how you shake out this. The Welterbury Division is so close, Mike, to being, like, amazing again. And I think we've been saying this for, like, five years. I know we've been saying this for a long time. It always seems like, oh, look at all these contenders. And there for some reason just hits a wall. I'm so ready to love Welter Reed again.

I think we're almost there. Yeah, I wouldn't hate Brady Usman. We got Leon Edwards still out there. People forget Leon Edwards is still a fighter. He's not a champion. Gary versus Leon is good. JDM versus Leon is good. There's just lots of options here.

So, yeah, you're right. Walter Reed is this close, this close to starting to really cook again. Speaking of cooking, Natty Ice is cooking right now. Good God, she is just so fun. I've sort of hitched to that wagon. Long time ago since the Jess and Jazz DeVizzias win. And she goes in there against Jessica Androge, toughest fight of her career. A lot of people thought the betting odds were a little too wacky.

I was one of those people, although I picked Natty Ice to win that fight, and boy, did she. That was fun. A lot of movement. Her striking is just really fun. Her wrestling and takedown defense is really impressive. She's just really good. I think this fight opened up a lot more eyes. I think some more people are with me on the Natty Ice train.

after this performance. And I have to be fair. I have to be fair. Because I would just love to say, you know what, just give her the title shot. Sorry, Mannan, you're out of here. Natty Ice just leaped over you, but we know that's not going to happen. And that would not be fair. So, I think Natty Ice has absolutely a case to be made for her next fight to be for the flyway title. I wouldn't hate if that happened. I just don't see how that does. So this is pretty simple. Rose Namibun is fighting Aaron Blanchfield in November, in Edmonton. Natty Ice Fight's the winner of that fight, beginning of 2025. That'll be an official number one contender fight because Manon Fioro is probably going to get the winner of the Grasso-Shifchenko trilogy fight, as she should.

So I just went with that, nice and easy. Don't even need the ban for this one. It just seems like it makes the most sense. I didn't go that way, Mike. I know where you're going. You know, there's one other very clear option. And we've kind of been avoiding, I think, matchmaking for her because her health situation is so murky. Like, it could be, she could book a fight for the end of the year or she could not fight again until next summer.

We don't know. We just don't know. She's had some very bad luck with health and been very, very honest about it. So, but Macy Barber is out there. Again, she was supposed to get one of these big fights. Unfortunately, she had to bow out. So I guess I'm being optimistic here. I hope everything is great with Macy.

I hope she gets healthy. She's won six straight. Natalia's still a six-known the UFC. I have them right next to each other in the rankings. I got Natalia just one spot ahead of her. And yeah, just two, again, two fighters in their primes right now. I just want to see the fight. I think the fight would be awesome.

And from there, yeah, you could get, I don't want to say unlikely because based on their records and their performances, like recently, like you wouldn't say it's unlikely. Natalia Silva. I said Brady and GDM are like two guys who I wouldn't necessarily pick to become champion to beat necessarily Palamaha. or Javcott or, I don't know, Michael Morales down the road. Like, those are guys, like, Michael Marales, the guy who's a future champion. I view Natty Ice as someone who, in a five-round fight, I give her a chance against

Alexe Grasso. I give her a chance against Valentina Shvchenko. I give her a chance against Menlo. I just think she has, she has all the skills to make it all the way to the top. Like you said, sometimes it's simple, Mike. Great striker, good athlete, good takedown defense. That's the formula. That's a formula for her.

I don't know if people want to see her with a little more finishing punch, but I mean at 1.25 and down in the women's divisions, you don't really see that a lot anyway. So it's not like she's like, oh, well, she should needs to be finished. Manon's not a finishing machine either, and she should get a telos shot too. So, yeah, give me Natalia and Macy. This division is so good. I love the flyweight division.

I think 125 and 115 are so good. And I just, and people know by now. I was going to say people don't give these divisions their credit. I think flyweight people know by now how good it is. one thing still i don't know people still don't seem to be sleeping so people still seem to be sleeping on it uh but yeah this is just good stuff so many great matchups so can't go wrong i think what's next for for nattie ice i don't hate it i saw like that being the most popular choice on twitter macy barbara i'm just like no disrespect to macy barbara like she's getting some wins but

like she really like are we putting her in like the top five conversation right now like i I know they booked her with Rose. Sixth straight. There's a little heat on that. There's a little heat there, so I get it. But I just don't know if she's there. I don't know. It's just her getting hurt is not her fault, but it also really sucks.

I thought she lost to Miranda Maverick. Yeah, she beat Montella Della Rose. She beat Jessica I. I thought she lost to Andrea Lee. She beat Amanda Hebas. I was there for that one. That was the best performance of her career. and then she didn't get Chukagian in there.

Chagin is not the most active fighter, and she's clearly on the back nine. Like, Natty Ice beating Jessica Androge is by far the best win on the resumes between the two of them. So I could see them doing that to headline a card or like a fight night card or something. But yeah, it's not awful. Number four.

I just don't know if Macy is there. right now. Number four in the UFC rankings, not including the champion. They don't rank the champions. So technically... Macy's number four? And the UFC rankings, yes. A head of Rose. Holy shit. I know. Didn't you have to beat her. She's ahead of Rose. And... I think it's fair. I think I'm pretty sure I have

heard of Rose in my own personal rankings. And, oh, and we have her... M.A. Fighting Global rankings. Macy Barber number seven, Rose, number eight. So we kind of have her up there. Which makes sense. Rose hasn't lived a world on fire at 125. But... And our... We should mention. Our rankings also include

Talicanto. and Liz Karmush ahead of her. So if we're going to just U.S. Fiders, she is number five of our just U.S. Yeah, she's in there, Mike. She's just in there. Kind of look at my rankings.

I'm like, yeah, maybe Barber is, does make the most sense. Yeah. Just get healthy. I mean, Barber can fight the loser of Blanchfield and Rose, too, and it's still like a big fight. Yep.

And both of those make sense. Because Blanchfield and, I don't know. I don't know. It's fun. There's lots of options. Lots of roads we can take and all of them make sense. So good win for Natty Ice.

Very excited to see her. What 2025 looks like for her. She obviously bought with a very heavy heart and respect to her for coming through. And just doing the damn thing. Facing that adversity, getting it done. And it was a huge win for her. Huge win for her. The amount of people who have reached out since last night being like,

all right, Mike, you're right. You're right. She's really good. She might win a belt. Respect. All right, we're back, everybody. Time for the featured bout. We have Steve Garcia, the mean machine, AK, this guy, just quietly putting together quite the run here at 145 pounds. He steps in on short notice to fight Kyle Nelson, who missed weight. Kyle Nelson was supposed to fight Calvin Cater on this card, which would have been a massive opportunity for him. And said, Steve Garcia says, look, Calvin's hurt, can't be there. I will take this opportunity. And much like he's done the prior four fights, Steve Garcia, Garcia goes in there and finishes your fellow Canadian Kyle Nelson in the first round. Five wins in a row, five finishes in a row for Steve Garcia.

Guys, making moves, AK, what do you have for Steve Garcia? First of all, we all whiffed on picking this guy for the fancy drafts. Maybe we were giving too much credit to Kyle Nelson, who, again, was on kind of a nice upset streak, but, boy, we should have known this one was going to end in a finish. That's just what Steve Garcia does. And I think most of us were picking Steve Garcia to win. So I don't know how he escaped our draft. For people who don't know, it's, our draft is the most important thing is to win. You get 100 points for a win.

And then you get 50, 50 points for a finish. That's like the second most important thing. And plus extra points first or second round. So Steve Garcia, this would have been second round, right? This first. First round. So this would have been 170 smackeroonies for Steve Garcia. What a steal that would have been.

Oh, sorry, I should say lightweight, featherweight featherweight out. someone should pick them I need more Steve Garcia and my life Mike he has a finishing streak as you said five not just five fight win streak five all by knockout

I think all by knockout no submissions in there I don't think right he is tied shout out to Mike Bonn and Michael Carroll for these stats tied now with

Carlos Ulberg five straight finishes and Joe Anderson Brito and they're both behind they're all three of those men are behind Shavcott to a six straight finishes. How do I make Garcia versus Brito happen, Mike?

I need this. I need this. I need Joe Anderson to beat William Gomy on September 28th in Paris, and I need Steve Garcia and Brito to fight. Put these finishing streaks up against one another. After that, one of these guys getting a top of the opponent, we start talking rankings, whatever, they'll have more than earned it, whoever wins that fight. But I need Steve Garcia and Joe Anderson Brito to get in there and F each other up.

Oh, that's so good. Yeah. God, that's so good. See, when you have a guy like Steve Garcia, you can really do no wrong. Like, you could do what you did and it absolutely rules. You could even go as far as to do what I'm about to do, A.K. And I think some people might be a little surprised by this,

but you know what? Opportunity knocks. And if you answer the door and you fly right through it, then you should be the one to get this big opportunity. so give him Calvin Cater Let's give him Calvin Cater Those two are just going to slug it out It's going to rule

And if Steve Garcia wins It'll be six wins in a row Calvin Cater is unkillable The man is unkillable If Max Holloway didn't kill this man I don't know if anybody can And if Steve Garcia can finish Calvin Cater Or any of the New England cartel guys

Like at the top, him or Rob Font The two most unkillable dudes Maybe in the UFC besides Max Holloway I don't know Like this would be a huge feather in his cap. So they were going to give him Kyle Nelson. So let's give him Steve Garcia. I like it.

Oh, right into the top 10. Boy, I mean, yeah, no, I see the logic behind it. I just, boy, I guess, yeah. At some point, you do have to reward this guy with the top 15 guy. Like I said, I'm just one fight away. I just want to see him in Brito, just brain each other. And then one of them maybe gets a cater or someone in the cater range.

But if you're Steve Garcia's team, again, I don't think they say no to any fight. But if you can sort of hint at the UFC like, hey, you know, we won five straight. It's a tough division and kind of want to contend sooner rather than later. Cater certainly name you would be a target. Yeah, Garcia Landware. I mean, there's just so many fun names that we can do here. But Steve Garcia just making a move right now. Guys on a tear right now.

Let's go to the fly flanterweight division because this is supposed to be a flyweight fight. It came a phantom weight fight because, uh, It hurts my soul. Alessandro Costa, my third round draft pick in the MNMBA fighting 2024 UFC draft, was fighting match now and just a huge opportunity for me to just snake like 200 points. You were counting the points. Right out of the gate. You had, these are not the same as Otno points.

These are MMA fighting fantasy points, but still quite valuable. You had put a down payment, I heard, on like a Humvee or something with your Alessandro of Costa points. And that was a tough break. It was a very tough break. But Cody Durdon steps in. He would have been a great sleeper pick of this draft too because he steps in and he gets to finish a match now in round two. So maybe this is a selfish pick for me, AK. Maybe I'm being a little selfish right now, but this also makes a lot of sense. Alessandro Costa from all accounts, his injury is not that bad. It just doesn't need to, doesn't need a lot of time to recover.

something he can bounce back from probably in the fall. And if we know one thing about one Cody Durdon is that this man just likes to get in there and scrap, and this Cody Durdon individual is going to be the 11th ranked flyweight in the world come Tuesday when the new rankings come out. Let's just give Alessandro Kosta Cody Durdin. Then he could still get his fight against the rank guy and he probably gets a finish in this fight too, so not all is bad. I could be wrong, but I'm just trying to put out positive juju into the universe.

Cody, I don't want you to hear this and be all mad at me. This is just a selfish fantasy draft pick. I was going to say. This is the fight to make. I could still get everything that I wanted from the Matt Schnell fight, but just with a different face. I think I need the listeners to chime in here. And guys, is Mike unfairly using his platform to try and influence real world events

to benefit his fantasy team. He was supposed to fight the number 11th guy anyways, and now he can. Could Cody Darden hear this and be like, oh, wait a minute, that's a good idea. I should get in there for the end of 2024. And of course, I'll sort of cost us like, yeah, that's right. You know, maybe I should fight the guy that replaced me. And then the match because are also out there, Mike, you're very influential. They're out there listening and being like, you know, you know, we're still going to fill

the December car and if both guys are ready to go, man, that Mike has got some ideas. It's a little shady. I thought we had agreed. We didn't say it on the show, but it was like unspoken agreement, Mike, to not use our... No, this show never came up in those conversations. Oh, okay. So we were openly. Just the MMA fighting global rankings came up on those discussions.

Wow. Okay. Oh, this is true. This also makes sense, too. Fine. It does. It does. I didn't go that way.

Yeah, that's a great job by Steve Garcia's, teams, great job by Cody Durnan's teams to jump on these opportunities because I, not to say Matchnell was easy pickings. I think that's really insulting. But we did see he does seem to be hinting at a retirement. He didn't officially retire, but he did leave the gloves in the cage. I don't think anyone would be surprised if Match Nell decided to hang it up. He's been fighting for a long time. He just is so susceptible to being finished. I think he's realized that durability was never his strong point, but when he's getting finished so consistently, um,

it, it's time to probably walk away. And if he does, then, you know, happy trails to match now. Very, I think a very exciting career.

Not, you know, not whatever, not a top five contender, but certainly in the ranking, certainly a guy who was, who was brought in by night. But yes,

I think if you're Cody Darden, you saw a guy who was closer to the end of his career than the beginning, a guy who was successful being finished. And you jumped in, less than a week's notice. And yeah. And Mike, him and his team, did the smart.

and got it changed to a bantamweight belt. Not the stupid thing we often see where a fighter steps in on like 48 hours notice. It's like, yeah, I can cut 25 pounds. It's like, no, just negotiate. Negotiate. Maybe some people are unreasonable. Matchnell is probably too much of a professional to say no. Maybe he got a little extra.

I would hope he got a little something on the side to change the bantam weight. Probably not. But, yes, Dern's team did fantastic here. And I think, Mike, for their machinations, they deserve a fight with Steve Ersig. I think Vinnie Six. I think Vinny Siggs would be a great matchup. Durdon, I don't know how good this guy is, but he's active.

He is a company man. Frankly, I don't know how, no, no, I shouldn't say. I know Steve Versaic is very good. The Pentosh fight was great. I know he's a top 10 guy. Durdon might be two. He's got some very suspect losses on there, and it's almost unfair. I feel like he would leapfrog some of the people that beat him if he, by getting a fight with

Dversick. But the division, it's not the deepest division. You got to have these guys in there. I'm not sure how you guys matched Ers Seig up with after 305. Or even if you didn't. It wasn't a title fight. The Carra France loss. So I'm not sure where your head was at that mic where he should go.

But I think the, and we didn't even know Cody Dernan was going to fight then. So we didn't know he was in the cards. But now that the picture has laid itself out as it has, maybe Derrton get that ursac quite wouldn't be a bad one not as good as all the Sunder Costa but still good good picketka selfish bike here

oh my god this is stubborn this is my this is my new do you guys hear about John Jones dude's real good he's gonna fight somebody I think Costa I don't mean the jinx of you I would be surprised if he doesn't get in there before the years old

oh he'll get in there I just need it to be against a ranked fighter I just need this too Oh, that Chanel was so many points. That was going to be so many points. And I stole him from Shaheen, that turncoat that just made it feel even better. Let's go to Janal Ashboos. He fights Trevor Peek, that fight versus bananas as we expected it to be.

And Ashboos gets it done. And now he has somebody else to fight. This is the dart throw pick of Vicarque. Absolutely. What if we did it, though? What if we got a friends forever moment here? Friends Forevered this? Do you want me to go first?

No, we got to count. I mean, we got to count a three here. All right, you count. But we said before the show, we had like a weird Friends Forever moment. I can't remember what it was, but we both said some fighter's name at the same time for some reason. I don't remember why. It was this one. It was this one.

It was you know, L. Ashwood. Oh, oh, we were like. We were like, yeah, some of these were obvious. And then there's just the dart throw. It was like, you and Lachshu, she almost said a jinks-by-a-coke moment. Yeah. So it's in the cards. I feel like we're going to say his opponent, too.

This would be incredible. All right. You count it down. Oh, wait. Three, two, one, and then go. Yeah, three, two, one. Here we go. Three, two, one.

Chase Cooper. Ah. So close. So close. Same, almost the same. Almost the same. Plug in the instrument, I guess. Give us something.

Plug them in. Why chase super? why not chase hoopery, okay, is the question. Why not? Chase looks so good in the, in the Borchever fight, man. And just, he seems to thrive in this chaos.

So I think it would be a fun fight. Ashboos showed a lot of grappling chops in this one. So there could be some really fun scrambles between these two guys. Chase's striking has gotten a lot better. I just think it's, yeah, I think it's a good fight. It makes sense.

I just went older veteran, probably a little bit further down in the rankings than where Chase is right now. Dry Herbert. Dry Herbert. Sure. We threw darts. We threw darts.

Back, we were so close. We were so close. So close. Let's go to the wildcar around. This is where things are. Oh, yeah. We'll select one fighter. We have not match made for it.

It will match me for them right now. I have a feeling, AK. Can you guess? Yeah. Are we trying to boost the fantasy stats, AK? Are we trying to do what you just accused me of doing? I am just giving credit where credit is due with Jacalini. Abmarim,

robbed of a performance bonus, frankly. Like, she cheated? I don't, what, excuse me? That was blatant. All I saw was arm bar, submission, beautiful jiu-jitsu, textbook jiu-jitsu. Some might say like almost gie-esque, almost as if she was fighting with a ghee, which we will say is the real jiu-jitsu. But obviously they're not.

I mean, there's no way she could do that. This is, I mean, by the gentleman. Yes. Jacqueline Amarim, who, yes, got me several points. Again, not being a ranked opponent, but big win, first round finished. And then, so that's what, 175 points for me, Jacqueline. So she's streaking, she got a finish streak going, three straight finishes. I had to match her up.

I'm going not too high. It's weird. She's in this weird cluster of fighters who, like, have all kind of fight each other and beat each other. So I'm giving her a chance, I think, to jump ahead of the woman. who was ahead of all these names, like in the middle of the strawweight division. I'm going with Deniseie Gomez.

I'm going Jacqueline Amarim and Denisei Gomez. And I think if she wins that, it bumps her almost into the top of Dean. But yeah, I don't want to explain to everyone why it's like why there's this cluster. But yes, always like this person be this person, this person, this person, this person. Somehow the totem pole right now is Nisi Gomez. And I think that's where Amarim needs to go next. After that, top 15, top 10 of Bonn.

I didn't know where to go here. So I threw another dart and the dart landing on Isaac Dolgarian. Yeah. Because we got to give him some kind of a test. Please. But like no district of Brenna Marat, but like he was the, right? Isaac Dolgarian is a trivia question now.

Who is the biggest favorite in UFC history? Isaac Dolgarian is the answer? That's what happened. And the fight went the way a lot of people expected it to go. Brennan Ra is a fun stand-up fighter. he should not be fighting any grapplers, especially to the level of Isaac Dolgarian. That's not what he's there for. I didn't want to give him like too big of a bump, but somebody who's going to fight him,

like somebody who's going to give this man a fight, someone I would pick Isaac Delgarian to beat, but someone who's going to give him a scrap. A guy who just fought gave us a scrap, even though it was a losing effort at UFC 305, not that long ago. Let's throw Isaac Delgarian in there with good old. Joshua Koolibow AK.

I think that's just a fun little scrap right there. Mike True or false, Isaac Delgarian fights for a

UC title someday. False. False. It's tough when you're in a division like this when you do like feathering.

It's very tough. He has, he's got something. He's got something. It's true. I do, I do need to see him against it,

but like a slightly more may versatile hardened veteran. Um, I guess Kulbao kind of fits that bill. I don't, I'm intrigued. He is one to watch in 2025. That's for sure. When 2025 rolls around, I think

D'Garian could have a big year. He could have a three and a year. And we can be talking about- He's a monster, man. Like, he's definitely a monster. He's so physical. It's weird to say like he's, obviously all these guys are physical. All the people who have said him in October under physical. But there's a, there's a scary physicality to him. It's hard. It's hard to explain. Like, some people just go in there and they're so brutish. And he's like, yeah, he's like a hulking. I would describe his style at one Friday about as hulking, which is not how. I would describe a lot of featherweights, but man, he's physical. He's a scary guy to get in there with it.

I want to see him in a scrap and come on the other side. Yeah, yeah. The Christian Rodriguez fight wasn't the greatest fight. I didn't, Gilgarin probably won that fight, if we're being honest, but I didn't hate the decision there. And the reason Christian Rodriguez won is because he just outscrapped him. Like, he just survived the onslaught and was able to just dig deep in battle. And I need to see Delgarian win a fight like that.

Like, Kulbao will give him a fight like that. Yeah. Nate Landware would give him a fight like that. Like, I need to see him come on the other side of a fight like that before I start to think, this guy's a top 10 or a top five or, you know, could fight for the bell. I think the skills are there. Like, if he ends up fighting for a belt, it wouldn't be the most shocking thing in the world. But just there are certain things that I've seen early on where dudes got all the talent in the world.

but if you don't, if you can't, if you can't get out of the quicksand with confidence and with ease, it's going to be tough sailings when you're, when you're getting up to the top of that division, especially at 145. And he's, I think he's probably capable of it,

but just haven't seen it just yet. So I'm just waiting to see that. I think that's the one thing I'm missing when it comes to him. But I think him going to Factory X is a good move, uh, train with all those absolute monsters over there. So yeah, good win for him. He's a problem. Dude is a hoss. And yeah, him and cool, that would be a lot of fun.

All right, we're back, everybody on onto the next one. Time to go to the peeps. To all of you, the listener's suggestions for UFC Vegas 97, AK, I don't know how many you got, but I think people rely on you more than they do me, as they probably should. I apologize for everyone who sent picks while I was on a little two-week vacay. I should have just passed them along. But I, guys, I saw the picks. I looked at them. Some people, I think one or two people I might have replied to, but it was a hectic. It was a lovely two weeks.

It was a bit of a hectic two weeks. So I apologize to everyone who sent in picks and just kind of those picks are in the void. But listen, I'll acknowledge them. If you guys got out no points, which I will later, Mike, I will say. I did get a message. Someone reminding me that they had picked a few fights correctly, and I will get to that. But I'm eager to see what you got this movie first. Well, I only got two.

The usual suspects for me. Harry Daweskin, Nate Fletcher versus Colin Lachran, a little cage warrior on cage warrior crime. Petrosky versus Christian Leroy Duncan. Yep, that Andre Petrosky, yeah. I compared his fantasy performance to like a running back who just got like 87 yards rushing. Yeah, take the over on that one.

Take the over. Take the over. What do you think of this, AK? Jacqueline Amarim versus Angela Hill. Yes, I saw people suggesting that. That is a very logical top 15 opponent for her. Like I said, I'm not sold that I need to see her there yet. I'm also not, like, I think she loses that matchup if that happens tomorrow.

I'd like to see her get a little more experience first. She's exciting. I like Jacqueline Nemberum a lot. She's exciting, but relatively inexperienced, especially to it, Angela Hill. So I don't like it next. I think down the road, but not next. Gabe Santos versus Melchaisal Costa Lima versus Hacus Aguilar

Delgarian versus Ricardo Hamos Chris Taco Padilla versus him Taco versus Chase Hooper Ashmoos versus Abdul Karim al-Sawadi Durden versus Cop If you can get it No if you can get it again Great fight to get great fight to get

They they I forgot Darden also got the 50 Gs So I mean he did a lot for his career on Saturday Like it was a that was a sneakie like great move that could get him back into kind of close to the top 15 top 10 I don't say this a lot about Cody Curtin um he is actually like a very nice guy like him and I have had conversations before and um not even like interview style just like on social media and stuff yeah nice dude sometimes he has a live mic on him it's not great

but this is great this is great the other last night he had one very very bad you know slip up early in his career with after the fight with, was it Eriji Lang with Eichie Lang? See, I'm mixing people up here. Eriji Lang, yeah. And, you know, he said to go back to China stuff. And listen, I'm, I'm of Chinese heritage. I was very, like, bothered at the time. I guess to some degree I still am, but I actually genuinely believe.

And I'm not speaking for every person out there or anyone who is offended by this. If you think Durdens like a piece of crap because of that one comment, you're more than justified to feel that way. But I genuinely feel like he just got caught up in the moment, said something really stupid. I don't think he's like a racist. I agree. I've seen no other evidence that he is like that he's a xenophobic or it was just a very, very dumb thing to say in the moment.

And he can wear that first career. That's fine. But I kind of agree with you. The vibe like I get from Cody Dern is not like hateful racist guy who's like, you know, using this platform to try and like take people out like that. I don't get that vibe at all. Yeah, I thought what he said yesterday was last night was great. dedicating the

fight to the school near his house where they had the mass shooting the other day and all those students and stuff it just just sucks man trying to transition from that he likes Brady versus Gary. What about this one AK Steve Garcia versus Edson Barbosa? So good

so good. Steve Garcia is just featherweight is as much as I was praising like oh people don't you know people need to have a flyweight and straw weight more man featherweight is as good as flyo has like never been bad it's like always been it's always been great to amazing. And I think we're like in an amazing period right now.

It's so good. It's so freaking good. Yeah. Let's go to John and then we will go to you. Petroski versus Roman Coppulov. I got to tell you, I have zero interest in that fight. What do you do with Petroski, though? What do you do with this guy?

I don't know. I'm a Petrosky. I'm oddly at Petrosky Stan, even though if you took like his last three fights. It's not like, if you, including the weird, the bizarre like malcuin loss, like, you would not watch those last three fights and be like, wow, this guy's being a player, one of your five. You'd be like, okay, this is like a good, you know, journeyman middle way. And there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe that's what he is. But I don't know why. I feel like he can like grind his way to the top of Dean somehow, but maybe maybe I'm crazy.

So I don't hate that matchup, I guess is what I'm saying. You don't, I think we've learned our lesson with Roman Coppulov. Like, you don't throw him in. there with well maybe it would be maybe it's not that bad oh I'm not saying to be a fun fight I am not saying that at all I just think like I just think it's an intriguing

I'm like yeah no you're right I'm talking myself into it a little bit more but this fight could stink that fight could stink that's what you're saying it could stink it could be gross he's with you Ake Amram versus Denisi Gomes Nima versus Jafel

Filio Delgarium versus Arins Padilla versus Selecki Ashbush versus Kaui Fernandez, Durdin versus Tim Elliott. Steve Garcia, this is my original pick, and then I changed it to Calvin Cater. Garcia versus Chepa Mariscol, which is fun as hell. Love that one.

Garcia versus Chepa. I keep forgetting. Chepe is a featherweight light? What's Chpe? Is he not a little? He is a feather. He has a feather. Okay.

I don't know why I was thinking of as a, as a, as a, as a. Because he debuted at lightweight on short notice against Trevor Pete. Yeah. And I'll never shake those images out of my head. That was a crazy fight. So good. Okay, right. Oh, boy.

Man, I didn't even thought about that. That's a good one. That was my first choice. And I'm like, nah, just give him cater. He deserves. Chepe and Steve Garcia. Two long winning streaks, battling it out. We need to do, I don't know how to phrase this.

We need to do like a top, like most, like, I would love to do an article just the most exciting featherweights right now because it's like, you've got Chepe, you've got Steve Garcia, you've got Nate Landwer. And it's like, and I wish these guys could fight five or six times a year. But, you know, just the way they fight. I think Austin will fight more than twice is insane. I just need to see so many of these guys get back in there. And I'm sure there's other names I'm even mentioning right now.

Like, this is a division. Oh, that's a German-Britos got a fight coming out. Oh, yeah. Billy Q, Yusuf Salal. So good. There's just so many of them. JSP can be fun. Juliana Rose is a madman.

There's just, there's so many, Danny Silva. I mean, golly. There's so many of them. Andrade versus Namayunas 3 after she loses to Blanchfield. Some bold prediction there. And Natty Ice versus Macy Barbary, okay? That's for John Simpatico with you.

Now we turn it over to you, my best friend. Like I said, popular pick. I did see some tweets about that. It's supposedly the logic behind it. I got quite a few. I'll say some of the popular ones that have already kind of been mentioned, Brady, Jack Della Madalena, Natty Ice, Blanchfield, Namedus winner. Cody Durdon, I saw Tim Ellis.

at so Alan Nessimento. So some consensus picks there. Go to... Oh, I'm sorry. I should go... You know, I will go to Twitter first because I will go to a young man who...

There are some points, I feel. Like, I don't know how many points you want to give because I think one or two of these might have been picked by other people. But I am also going to assume that he's right and that he was the only one to make these selections of anything. He was the only one to nudge me. So we're going to go to Marcus McGahey.

who says he called Duren versus Hebas 2, Merzikana versus Kirlob, that's coming out, and Brad Katona and Gian Matsumoto. So I think combined, that's worth one, no point. That's one worth one. Again, some of those I feel like were mentioned by other people, but that's good matchmaking. That's solid.

What was the last one, Matsumoto versus who? Brad Katona. Yeah, he should get a point for that. Who the fuck? Who the frig comes up at that? I don't know. I didn't check. I didn't get it.

That's what I'm saying. I feel. like he might be the only one. So you're definitely getting a point, Marcus. Well done. He brands this episode, the DJ Natty Ice edition of, onto the next one. Of course, big win for Natty Ice. Demetio Johnson's retired. I guess we should talk about at the end of the show, a happy trails kind of. I know it's not a UFC thing, but we should talk about a little bit. I'm sure we'll have some shows. You'll talk about it on heck of a morning. I believe I've, I've nudged Jed Michue into maybe

doing a dam, bringing dam back sometime soon and doing that one for DJ. So you'll be hear a lot of DJ love, but we can mention that at the end of the show. But yeah, so shout at also Mike Heck is a DJ. So I feel like there's a triple entendre. Well done, Marcus. And Marcus suggests Steve Garcia-Orosa. I don't want to read all these. Delgarian, Ricardo Hamos, I think you said that.

Gabriel Santos, Daniel Silva. Amarim and Carnalosi. I love it. Petroski, Icrum Alaskarov, Mike. Give me the odds for that fight. Give me the, what's your line for? I might be able to get Ikeram at a steal because of, like, how the Whitaker fight went. Icrum's, like, minus 400, right?

Oh, wow. He's got to be. Wow. He's got to be. I'm sorry. Like, I would take Petroski if he was, like, plus, like, 300 or something. I might, I might fight on that. Yeah.

It's Grindr, my head. It's grinder. Yeah, but this is Icrum, man. This is Icrum. He lost a Robbittaker. I know. People are not going to, you know, they're just going to kill him for it. That would be interesting.

Do you think this is a likely matchup? I think it makes a lot of sense. Likely, I'll say no. Okay. All right. Marcus, I'm with you. I like that one. And he'll say this is Nate Fletcher and Bogdan Grod.

Bogdan Grodd. Did he? Oh, he has not debuted yet. Okay, that's what I thought. I'm like, and the name sounds familiar, but I didn't know. I didn't think he'd actually got a fight yet. after contender series. Attack MMA, Brady, Leon Edwards, Short, Darden, Versaerzeg, Friends Forever, and Steve Garcia, Billy Q.

Four Corner Sports. I think this makes so much more sense. Isn't it time for Gillard Burns and Colby? Can we just do that? Sure. Excuse me. My coffee. Sure.

I mean, I just, there's like, there's no buzz on that fight. You know what I mean? No, there's none. Just none. There's no buzz. Is there any buzz with any Cuffington fight at this point? Can't we just throw him in there with other? Like, Wonder Boy, I think, would have made sense.

Yeah. Like, it's, it's dumb. It's great prize fighting from Colby. But, like, it'd be interesting just from a psychological perspective to watch Wonderboy just politely disarm Colby for the entire build of the fight. Oh, that was good one, Colby. That was, no, no, no, no, that was good. That was good. That was good.

just for an entire week, it'd be hilarious to watch. I'll give you that. I find nothing intriguing about this. This is to me, it's just age-appropriate, experience-appropriate matchmaking. And I've always wanted to see the fight. Maybe it's probably past its best before date. I still kind of want to see it. So I'm with Four Corners.

Colby should have fought Hamzot. Like, and from all accounts, I'm told that Colby said he would fight Hamzot. Um, like Shafcott would have been a good one. J.D.M. Ian Gary. Even Sean Brady at this point. Like all those being more sense than Gilbert Burns. Sure.

If this is just, let's get Colby a fight just to get Colby a fight. And he's got no title implications. Sure. Throw him in. They would Gilbert. That's fine. But other than that, this is not, what are we doing here? You know what I mean?

Like, what's he sitting at number five for if he's not fighting these guys? I don't know. Shouldn't be there. Shouldn't be there. Natty Ice, Aaron Blanchfield after, oh, no, I'm sorry. Nani Ice versus Namajunis after Namajunus wins a 48-47 split decision victory over Aaron Blanchfield. So there you go. There's a little prediction there.

Jessica Andraj, Crini Silva, Arujo winner, UFC 309. Steve Garcia and Sudec Yusuf, Andre Lima, and Jeff Molina. Can we bring Jeff Molina? I guess Jeff Malina is too tied into the ongoing Krause investigation, right? So we just don't know when we're going to see Jeff Malina. again? No clue. Man, that's tough. By the way, I say tied into, guys. I'm sorry.

I don't mean to implicate, like, to imply, excuse me, that Jeff Malina is some mastermind in there. We just know that we just know that he stepped away from Comptus for a bit while that investigation was happening. I've not heard from him since, which is a shame because his career was really on the uptick when that controversy broke out. And, again, I don't know if he's involved or he just got swept up in it. Either way, I do feel for the guy a little bit, again, unless he's some hardcore criminal, and I'm not aware. Gabriel Santos, Christian Rodriguez. I like it. Gabriel Santos, we didn't talk about him a lot,

but I feel like, again, another guy to watch in the other weight division. Barry O'Reilly, Fletcher versus Builder, sure. Petrosky. We've talked about this before, Mike. Do you still think this makes sense at all? Petrosky and Bo Nicol? No.

Zero. I think this fight. Look, Petrosky won, and that's really all that matters. But I think he... fighting a guy who was almost dying on the scale and then just delivering a performance like that. Again, you won, and that's all that matters, but you're not getting Bo Nicol after that performance. You just, you're not.

It's not happening. So, no. I think the, the bloom is off the rose on that one, at least for right now. That's a shame. Jacqueline Amber Manjell Hill. Yep, another against just before. It's a good one. Gabriel Santos and Marlon Santos, Santos on Santos.

What else we got in here? Delgarian versus Danny Silva. You mentioned Danny Silva earlier. Again, that's fire. Ashmoos and Herbert. Thank you, Barry O'Reilly. Garcia, Steve Garcia and Gian Silva. Oh, we didn't mention John Silva.

Holy crap. He might be the deadliest guy of all the, all the action featherways that we were talking about. He might be number one. Like, God, dude's crazy. But Giann's booked, we already, we already booked Giann versus Nate Landware already. I don't know. It's not official, but we were all in agreement. We've talked about this. We have to do this. Gilbert Burns, Michael Morales.

Do we throw? Is this Gilbert Burns lot in life now, Mike? Do we throw him? Yes, it is. Boy, he's got to keep holding on to that gate, huh? He's at that gate just taking beatings right now. I don't know. I mean, yeah, I get it.

And I think that's the way they could go. But, oh, man, I just feel, I like Gilbert Burns so much. I just feel so raw. Like, when I was thinking I pick, I picked Brady to beat. him obviously, but I don't know. I felt so bad about it, saying like, oh, he's, he's in the stage where he's just a stepping stone now for younger fighters. I know that's how combat sports works.

I get it, but God, that hurts. It almost hurts to say. I'm a fan. Brady and Kamar Guzman. One quick email, then one IG on email. Tristan Gordet Delgarian versus Jack Jenkins, Andre Lima versus Bulldog, Silva, Cody Durden versus Azat, Maxim. And on IG, Mike, I want to get your thoughts on one of these.

There's Brady Covington, Shore, Gilbert Verne's. Gilbert Burns. Gilbert Burns versus RDA, win, lose, or draw versus Jeff Neal. That's going down UFC 308. Mike, what do you think of Natty Ice getting the Grasso Schifchenko loser, both like your thoughts on and the odds of it happening? I don't mind that. I don't mind that. I just, it's, I don't know. I can't, it's kind of too early to see. Because if Schenko wins, I don't know what the hell is going to have. Like, do they go right back to Grasso again? Do they do Manon?

It would have Grasso wins. Does Chavchenko keep fighting? Does she retire? Like, I, there's too many unknowns there. But if, like, we're looking at this as, okay, win or lose, everything is normal, then I think that makes a lot of sense. You know, Mike, you, Jed and myself, we might have an article discussing that very thing. coming out on Monday, maybe by the time some people listen there.

So there's a little plug, guys. Look for a little USC306 preview talk on MAAfighting.com. The written word, guys, the ring word for you guys. You're always complaining about, like, oh, I don't want to listen to a podcast or watch a radio. We've got a nice little round table coming up. So we'll talk about that. Yeah, it's, and the other thing for me is if, if Schenko loses, I'm like, you know me, Mike, I'm going to be shouting to have her go up to 135.

I know she can still beat 90% of the fly weights. I know that. But just like, you know, you get. older, you stop work, you cut up, you get rid of that weight cut. And I also feel like she beats 95% of the women's bantam weights. So, yeah, I don't know. But, yeah, I want to get your thoughts on that. Because I think it's possible.

I think if, if assuming both, um, assuming Shepchenko sticks around and assuming Grasso does not get immediate rematch, which she very well could, I would love to see them just fast track Natty ice to a title shot and give her one of like, yeah, give her one of those. But I don't know that happens. So anyway, guys, thanks. It would be incredibly fun. Yeah.

Balanina Shepchenko won and then was like never fighting her again. It would be she should. She should. She should. She wouldn't.

I would put her over so much if she did that. 4847 split decision win. 248. 47's, I just be like, that's it. I beat her twice in a row.

I'm done. I beat it. Yeah, exactly. I won the second fight. I won the second fight. Exactly. Honestly, that's how she should spin it.

That is how she should spin it. 100%. Just for the fans. Because both fights have been fantastic. Love seeing Grassofchenko fight. I won't complain if they fought a fourth time, but it's the same way I felt about, like, Brandon Moreno and Davis and Figurato.

Like, I didn't complain when the fourth matchup was made. There was a part of me that was, and I think they had less people in line, if I'm not mistaken. Like, I feel like flyweight needs to move on from this feud. I think with Moreno and Vigui, we were like, okay, it's not like the contender line wasn't that thick that we need to avoid this fourth fight.

I think we need to avoid this fourth fight with Schochenko and Grasso for now. Mano is out there, Natalia Silva, Blanchville and Amajunas winner. There's challengers. So anyway, I hope that doesn't happen. But anyway, guys, there's normally the part where, you know, I'm back and I'm happy to, like, here's how you send picks. But we won't need that next week, Mike.

We won't need that next week. No. Because we'd be live. We'd be live. We'd be very live next week. Because a historic card, UFC 306 at the sphere, this card with three different names, re-ed season, Noce, UFC 2, UFC 306. I think this is going to be awesome. I know, I've already seen it.

Look, I know the ticket prices are redonculus, and they probably shot themselves in the quit a little bit. I think this will end up being a sellout, because it's just, I do not think they're going to do this again. And a lot of people are complaining about the card. Oh, this card is bad, blah, blah, blah. This should have been better. Let me tell you something.

Let me tell you something. This is beautiful. This is all beautifully done. Ten fights, which is magnificent, by the way. Ten fights is brilliant. This is what every apex and fight night card should be. Ten, ten fights. If you want to do 12 on a pay-per-view, no issue with it.

Besides Iliot-Tupoi versus Max Holloway, Sean O'Malley versus Marabbaugh-Wallish really is my most anticipated fight of 2024. I don't, I, the closer we get, The more confident I feel on one side than the other, but I'm very intrigued by that matchup as a whole. Grasso Shipschenko, I've seen people, I've had people reach out to me, but like, why is Grasovchenko on this card?

It's boring. You're an idiot. What? You're an idiot. Who says this? The first fight was unbelievable. The second fight was actually better than the first fight. And this, like, there's so much in the long.

line here. It's so good. And then Brian Ortega, Diego Lopez, a great fight. Daniel Zellihuber versus Esteban Rebovich. Love it. It's insane. This fight is insane. The other complaint I keep getting, oh, Ronaldo Rodriguez O'Day Osborne's on

the main card. You want to know why it's on the main card? You want to know why it's the first fight on pay-per-view? Because someone's going night-night and fast. And it's got to be brutal. Because that's how these two guys get down.

So there's a reason that this fight is there. Rini Aldana Norma Dumont, Manuel Torres, Ignacio Baha Mondays. That is a banger right there. Yasmin Hadeghi versus Ketland Souza. Edgar Chiraz versus Josh Van. Edgar Chiraz versus Josh Van is going to be awesome. Great.

That is going to be awesome. These two guys just get after it. Chiraz never goes to the cards. And then 19-year-old Raura Rwurst Jr. He's going to do 19-year-old Raul Roses Jr. things to a Richie Lane more than likely. So look, it's not the sexiest names. The main event is incredible. What is on the line for both of those guys is massive, especially for Sean O'Malley.

If he wins this fight and does so in spectacular fashion, he's on a rocket ship. I've seen Sean O'Malley in so many commercials recently. I'm just like, oh, my God, what is happening right now? The top three fights are all great. Top four fights are spectacular. Rodriguez Osborne is there and we know why. I think this is going to be really good, A.K., like I think I'm ready for this. I'm excited for it.

Are you a little worried about, not that the UFC ever has a problem with this, the pacing? They've got those movies they're going to do, right? I know they're like a 90 seconds long, I know. But they've got the movies going on in the main car. I guess, you want to know why I'm not worried, though? Why you're not worried? Hold on. Let me see.

Okay, first of all, they're doing one early prelim. Yeah. One. Now, if this early prelim started at 6 p.m. Eastern, I'd be like, ah, shit. It's at 7.30 p.m. Eastern time. Then there's the 4-Pite ESPN card at 8 p.m. Eastern. And then the main card's at 10 p.m. I'm not all that worried. I don't like and here's the other thing

the UFC has told us they're doing this they're preparing us true for extra material you guys are going to dig it it's cool and again we don't even know if it's going to be for the televised audience I'm sure some of it will be

but some of it might be for the people in the arena or in the sphere that doesn't get shown on TV I hope we get to see it I'd like to see some of them we don't need to see it all but at least they're telling us this isn't like Bellator being like

Hey guys, watch this. We're going to have a card. We're going to go fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. And then it's like 18 hours of promos, the same promo over and over again. We already know the top two fights on your October pay-per-view. How about you announce some other fights? Maybe get some buzz going. Wouldn't be a bad idea. But no, you didn't do that. They have told us what they're going to do. And I think them being upfront about it is good. I think it's just going to create a unique experience. And as a little spoiler to the article, and I've said this a few times, the one drawback to all of this is, that I think it's going to be so awesome that we're going to be comparing the next several months to remember what they did at UFC 306? Like that was awesome. And now we're back to just the normal business as usual stuff. But you know, at least we'll have a little break after. And then Paris, trip to Paris.

No one can complain about a trip to Paris. Hell yeah. And then another preview. Yeah, then another pay of you. So we don't go back to the apex for a month. And that's probably good. And those two apex cards are good. We get Tyra versus Royval.

We get Michelle Prer. Pereira versus Anthony Hernandez. Those are both good. I don't think there'll be too much of a hangover. Fortunately, fortunately. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic. And we get a week off to digest it. Yeah, yeah, to bask in the spheriness of it all.

Spiriness. I'm getting it going. It's going to catch on. It's going to catch on. I love it. Before the end of the week, yeah. Are you excited for it, okay? I am.

But again, I will save my comments where people can read the article and then also like sort of my take on what to expect from the spheres, you know, production and how it's going to look and everything. Again, I'm not going to, sorry, I don't listeners. Check out the article on Monday and stay tuned to programming this week because we're going to be talking about it a lot. And yeah, but I've got a pretty like mild take on it. But I think I'm, but I also think I'm right. I think my take is, I'm going to have a lot of people nodding their heads. But yeah, you know, AK is making a lot of sense. As they always do, AK, as they always do when they listen to the melodious sound every voice.

But like I said, we'll be live next week on the YouTube. channel following UFC 306 watch party next week as well jed meshew joining me in the shotgun chair which i'm very excited about uh all your coverage coming up this week's going to be a busy week and then we'll recap it all right here on to the next one the podcast enjoy your weekend everybody you're listening to the vox media podcast network