MMA Fighting - On To The Next One: Matches To Make After UFC Winnipeg

Episode Date: April 19, 2026

Mike Malott passed the test in his first-ever UFC main event. The Canadian contender scored the biggest win of his career Saturday at UFC Winnipeg, outworking one-time welterweight title challenger Gilbert Burns for two rounds before emphatically putting him away with a knockout combination in the third. With the win, Malott not only announced himself as a fighter worthy of a top 15 ranking, he also sent the esteemed Burns into retirement. Now, what is Malott’s path to a championship opportunity? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Alexander K. Lee and special guest Jay Anderson of Cageside Press discuss how much Malott’s headlining win raised his ceiling and whether he can lock in a another veteran opponent next in his quest for gold. Additionally, future matchups are made for Malott’s fellow Canadians Charles Jourdain and Jasmine Jasudavicius, who also picked up important wins, the resurgent Jai Herbert, intriguing featherweight prospect Gauge Young, and more. All that plus a healthy heaping of picks from the listeners. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jay Anderson: @Cagesidepress Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-DU for free at O-D-O-O-O-D-O-O-com. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-O-Fightings. On to the next one, M-A-Fightings, Post-U-FC event matchmaking show. This is the voice of your host for this week Alexander K. Lee, not the usual host, my best friend, Mike Heck. He's a traveling a little bit was just at Real American Freestyle. So instead, I'll be hosting, and I've got a special guest, one of my great Canadian

compatriots joining me today, the wonderful Jay Anderson of Cajside Press. Say what's up, Jay. Thanks very much for having me, and I think that's the first time I've ever been introduced as wonderful. So that's a, that is a great compliment. That is, that's not possible. I do not think that's possible. Very happy to have Jay here, guys. Jay was at UFC, Winnipeg. He is back home now and lovely, uh, where are you in, uh, where are you in the GTA? So I'm in Mississauga right now, just as at Toronto. That's the family home. I'll be heading back to Niagara tomorrow, but got to break up the travel a little, you know. How was it over in Winnipeg? I heard the, but I heard the weather was sunny and consistent, uh, all week. How is consistent, you say. I would say the weather was temperamental. Uh, right before I got there, I'm told, that was about 22, and then it dropped to about, I don't know, negative 7, then we had some snow, some freezing rain. So you got at least three seasons in a week, which was a great experience for some of the fighters who are not used to that Canadian weather.

Did any of them come to you with story? Like, what the hell's going on here? Marcio Barbosa, who made his debut with the card, had never seen snow before, so he actually enjoyed it. And then Gage Young had some comments that you probably caught on Winnipeg that maybe not so enjoyable. But that wasn't so much about the weather, I don't think. Okay. Yeah, I was told. We had one of Winnipeg's favorite sons on for the preview show. We had one Mr. Nick Baldwin there. So he was telling me, yeah, not great weather. But I thought the card turned out pretty good, I think, for what it was on paper. I mean, this, the UFC matchmakers were getting a lot of slack for this, or not getting a lot of slack. I mean, a lot of criticism for this lineup. And I'm not going to sell to you like this was an amazing card as in terms of star power. and like title implications. But I feel like anyone who tuned in got a pretty decent show. I think we had like some fights that went to a decision that were really good.

Not one of the, like, you know, the fight of the night. I wouldn't say it was one of the best fights of the year, but certainly a memorable contest with Charles O'Dane and Collier Phillips. We got some finishes. We kind of got, I think, what the UFC wanted with the main event as far as results go. But how was it? How was it in the arena, Jay? There was a lot of talk about, like, you know, maybe it's not selling out.

I'll say on TV, the crowd came off really well. They had some good chance. they're very respectful to Gila Burns in the end. But you were actually there. So what was the feel? So crowd absolutely live killed it. And if you watched Mike Mollots walkout to some 41, and I hope he keeps

using that, because that could easily become his Bispang with song, too. It could easily become his cowboy for Saroni. That walkout was wild. The whole place on its feet singing along. I don't think he didn't criticize of the crowd. And the announced attendance was like 14,500

or something. You got to remember, the Jets play in a smaller venue. That's actually not too bad. And that's a better attendance of the last time they were in Winnipeg by quite a wide margin. So overall, pretty good. I don't know how it played out to the people at home. I know there was a lot of criticism of the car just on paper. But one of those where expectations make everything, it punched up. It wound up being far more entertaining than I think a lot of us expected. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I don't know. Maybe it's because we set the bar somewhat low that we kind of came out like at least i did at the end of the night like oh you know it's turned out well i do give a lot of credit to the crowd though so i'm glad to hear

that like it was you know even better uh in person because i thought i i want them to go back to winnipeg again it was what nine years was it nine years since and uh it was robbie lawler right robbie luller and r d a rd yeah uh so you know i don't know if we're going to look back at mike vala and gilbert in the same way but um good i i do hope they come back i know dana after was kind of joking like, oh, it might be another nine years. Let's hope that's not the case. I hope it's just a matter of opportunity from the come. And I hope they get some Winnipeg fighters next time.

That was a little, right? You know, Brad Catona was brought up. He wasn't on the card. Dana White definitely took that of a grain of salt when he said, yeah, probably nine more years than that. He was having fun, so. Were you, how were you, how was your reaction to the Canadian results? So when I had Nick on the preview show, he was probably a little overly optimistic.

He said he could see eight out of nine. He said, we had nine Canadian fighters. He said, maybe eight. And I was like, okay, I was feeling positive. I said, yeah, seven or eight. I could see seven or eight. We got four out of five. Three on the main card, I think, which is a good sign.

But four out of five overall, anything surprising to you as far as who won and who didn't win? So Nick and I had that conversation before the event started. He actually asked me. He goes, how do you think Canada does tonight? He said eight. I said six or seven. We were both a little overly optimistic. Nick. I was pulling for Nalo, rat garbage, mango, there's a whole thing there. And obviously,

pulling for Canada. But again, as a journalist, too, you could try to stay impartial and throw all that at the door. But then as a Canadian, you're like, man, I hope some of the Canadians do really well. It got better as the night went on. There's, you know, Dana covered the Horth controversy such as it is and said, look, all three judges scored it the same. I had it for Horth. I think Nick had it for Horth. I don't know who you had it for. Arguably, she could have won that and the others were finishes. So what can you say? Yeah, I actually want to ask you more about the Horth thing. Because listen, your number of six wouldn't have been far off if that decision had gone Jame Lund Horth's way. And if Nalo, who had like Jair Herbert hurt pretty bad, had been able to finish as he often does. He also, you know, gets finished when he loses. The guy just does not go to the scorecards ever. It doesn't believe in it. So you technically, you're very, very close to being six and three. But yes, people were a little displeased with some of the judging in general. I know obviously that was the biggest one by far. J.J. Aldrich beating Jamie Lynn Horth by UNAM's decision.

I think there was some, I don't know, people, a very small minority. I think that Karene, I think people were saying Karene Silva. Oh, because she was doing good work from the bottom, but I think she took one round, which was fair. And then some people didn't agree with the comment event either. I didn't have issues with that. There was just kind of weird reactions from Kyler Phillips and Charles Rodin. They both looked surprised, even though Charles won, he looked like, oh, I did.

But yes, mainly it was, I think. it was the Aldrich Horth fight that had people scratching their heads. So I wasn't watching closely, I'll admit, and my understanding was, from what I could see, I thought sometimes Aldrich was landing like the cleaner strikes, but volume and an amount of significant strikes clearly in favor of Jemelin Horth. So you had a much closer view, and I always told people, like, it's a very different experience watching it live. And for you, it was pretty clearly Horth, you said.

So I was in the back for part of that fight. I've got to be blunt about that, too. So I caught the second two rounds outgaged side, missed the first round. I mean, I shouldn't say missed it. We have it on the TVs in the back of course. I had it two rounds to one for Horth. It's not one that we're going to go home and scream and pull our hair out over. But it still, I think most of us, and when I looked at like the MMA decisions results,

too, most of the media had it for Horth. I think most of the people that I've seen in terms of fans giving feedback had it for horse so is what it is um onto the next one happens to the title of the podcast yeah well well done thank you uh well uh you know let's okay let's get to that then because i've brought you on for matchmaking jay uh i've given you a little bit of preparation uh you're i'm sure you're aware of the rule i mean there's really not that many rules we're just trying to avoid doo-do trying not to mention fighters who have already booked uh otherwise i really all bets are off and i i kind of feel like that's the way it has to be with this episode because i think there's at least a couple of fighters on

You know, we only picked the main card. I think there's at least a couple of guys in the main card that could really go in so many directions. So I'm very curious where you landed with some of these. Now, Mike Malat, big win, biggest win of his career, one-time title Challenger. I think that's a little bit of echo. Sorry. My bad. Okay.

I'll have to figure that after. There's a little bit of echo people. I apologize. I apologize for that. This is what happens when Mike's not around and I'm left to my own devices. but Mike Malat, third round technical knockout, pretty one-sided. I think we've overlooked okay in the first round, started going downhill for the near 40-year-old veteran pretty quickly. Where do we go from here, Jay?

I'm struggling a little bit because he's going to have a U.S.C. ranking next to his name by Tuesday. Gilbert Burns was number 11. I don't know if they give Malat number 11, but certainly they'll take Gilbert Burns out because of their retirement, and Malat will land somewhere in the top of Dean. Does he have to be pushed up against a top nine, top 10 opponent? Or do you still think that they can put him against someone closer in ranking and figure out what they have with him? He is already 34 years old. Yeah, he is 34, but I don't think he give him the top nine, top 10, top eight, whatever you want to say.

I do think you do it a little slower. And I think we're going to see two people enter the rankings this week because, like you said, Gilbert Burns is going to retire. So that spot's going to open up. I think there's going to be a little bit of movement around the bottom. I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple names shuffle around. Mike said he wants a little bit of time off. He's definitely down to wait until the U.C. returns to Canada in the fall. It's something we talked about at the post-fight press conference.

And then there's where he's going to land in the rankings. And I think a lot of fans, even sometimes media members, we say things like, oh, he's going to get Burns number 11 spot because he beat Burns, and that's just not how it works with the rankings panel, right? This is just a bunch of people submitting their votes and then it being averaged out. So I suspect he's probably going to come in around maybe 13. I'm going to just go out on a limb there, considering Burns was 11,

and I don't think he's going to jump right up there. And I think, ideally, it makes sense to go to someone in that area. I don't think Mike necessarily needs to be put right into the deep end just yet, even though he's 34. He's been coming along nicely. We saw definite improvements. We saw an improvement from the Neil Magni fight to now, specifically in the cardio.

And that's something that he singled out after the fight. He said, you know what? one of the gains I made was I really worked on my cardio, got ready for that 25-minute fight, even though he didn't need it. So there's a couple of options. D-Rod just came back, and we say just came back. He just came back from prison in Mexico. Wild story there. Now, I don't know how long D-Rod's going to take to get ready, but he is still ranked in the top 15. He's ranked number 14 right now. So that is one option. It's okay. I think. that would depend more on the timing. I think D-Rod might want to get going a little bit sooner.

The one that I like, and I don't know why I like it so much, but I just kind of do, and I thought of it last night, is number 11 is MVP, Michael Vennam Page. Coming off a recent wind, took some heavy criticism for it, and I think that's a fun fight with the boxing and the uppercats that Mike Malott showed last night, getting the job done on the feet there. And Gilbert had been talking about his grappling and he wanted to test him there, and it wound up pretty much being a stand-up fight. So that could be a fun fight. And hey, seeing MVP in Canada, if he wants to do that, not a bad thing. If it happens sooner, so be it. Maybe we send Mike over to jolly old England. I don't know. Maybe we exports our, you know, our great Canadian hope here.

Are you a little worried that that fight could be terrible, Jay? Are you, there's any MVP fight in the UFC, really, but I don't know. No, I'm not. And I say that because I think Mike is more willing to engage. MVP comes down to who he's in there against and what route are they going to try and take to victory. And I think Mike will go in there and put on a better fight that we saw with MVP just not too long ago. Exporting Mike to England would be interesting, but they only seem to go to England once a year now. So we're probably not getting that until next March. So I think there's a better possibility that we see that in Canada. And if you put Milot versus MVP at the top of a card, that probably sells. Just show the MVP highlights and not below lights. Jay, what have you

heard? Are they going back to Moncton? What have you heard? Do you guys scoop down that? I don't know if they're ever going back to Moncton. I believe Moncton might have been the least attended fight night in modern history. Stop. I'm not kidding. I was at that card. You were, it was you could count how many people were there. Is that there? I mean, I could have had the time. I like that thing. I think of God, I think it might have been like 5,500 or something, 6,000. Yeah, I'm seeing a reported attendance, according to Wikipedia, setting, I'm a junkie, uh, 6,282. Wow. But I mean, this, again, I don't know that venue. I assume it's not a, it's a small, it's a huge, okay, less than 10,000.

It's a small town, right? I don't think they're ever going back there because the site fees are a lot more these days for the UFC and I doubt they're ponying up the coin. I don't think it would be good for the Moncton community if they, if they tried to, if they couch them on that. So, uh, okay. Yeah, I, I, I'm waving my magic wand here. I don't think this is going to happen, but I would really like to see, you know, see him get someone like Kumar Usman, right? I think that to me is the logical path for him to maybe fight for a title someday, getting like Kamar Usman or Bala Muhammad, you know, another former champion or, you know,

another former contender like they had with Gilbert Burns. I just can't imagine a world where Kamar was, like, interested in that. Like, I know most of these fighters, they always say, well, I don't say no to things that are offered to me. But obviously, they're managers to know how to work the game and to me. make sure those offers are never sent. So I don't know if Malat, whatever you can be put on the table for him. So this is strictly a magic wand thing.

I'm not predicting this will happen. This is if I was in control of the UFC and I could make people sign on the dotted line. I like to team fight Camaro. Do I think he could beat Camaro? I don't think he'd be favored. Mike Malon. I do not think Mike Malat be favored.

But I don't know. Maybe catch him at the right time. So, yeah. It's a matchup that will need to happen at some point if he's going to get to the upper echelon out of the vision. The question is, is it going to take one fight in between or is you going to kind of make that jump more immediately? And I think realistically it's probably going to be something in between.

And then if that goes well, you see the jump to the Camaro, the ball, the ball, something in that nature. Man, you know, that'd be great. If you got Shavkat. Shot got to fight somebody when he comes back, right? And I don't think he walks into a title shot. No, it's been too long. Obviously, I get just like three or four contenders that would make a lot of sense for him. But, you know, they may be tied up by then.

The timing might not work out. But Shopcott, I feel like it's not in any position to make demands. I don't know how they feel about him. But if there's one thing the UFC does not like, it's not being available. I mean, he's had perfectly good excuses for not being available. But he hasn't fought. The UFC doesn't like that. So, gosh, I wish, if that came up, I think Mike Malat would obviously sign on in a second.

So I'm kind of dreaming here. But I'll say O'SMont's a little more realistic. Okay. The co-main event, we had, I thought, was a very good performance from Charles O'Don. I know, again, he seemed a little disappointed. did he said in the mic after that wasn't my best. I mean, he was facing one of the toughest guys in the Bantamweight division, Kyle Phillips.

They mixed the martial arts. There was a lot of grappling, but there was a lot of striking too. I mean, this is to me, like the epitomey of just a very solid bantamweight fight where you have to be well-rounded or you're going to get eaten alive. And I think Charles has looked great since driving down to 135. 3 and 0 now. I want him to fight someone who's ahead of him, but there's a lot of bantamweight's ahead of him.

I also want them to fight people ahead of him. So, Jay, I landed on. on Loke Dog. I'm going with Loke Dog, Venetius Aldeira. I think he's coming off a loss, right? So I'm going with him. Tough test.

I still have my head of Jordane in the ranking, so there's still room for Jordan to move. And then after that, I think Jordan can maybe get a top 10 opponent. We'll see. Vantomweight's getting a little bit in the situation where some of the guys in the top 10 are a little bit older.

So it's, like, hard for them to, I think hard to jostle them out to fight younger guys. But I think give it six months, maybe by the end of the year, Zodain could be in position to fight one of those guys. I don't know. Did you jump further? their head. Did you go top 10? I stuck to the top 15. And I think the big question here is,

will Charles Jodin be ranked a couple days from now. He thinks he will be. There's a lot of people who are kind of suspecting he will be. I think there's a very good case for it because there's not just three wins. It's also three post-fight bonuses, two performance bonuses, one fight of the night now. And Charles was harsh on his performance and I asked him about that. He actually thought it was a split decision. He didn't even realize he'd won a unanimous decision until he got to the back. And myself and his coaches told him because he was asking about that. He was like, no, no, Charles, that was a unanimous decision. Overall, I think he probably lands in there.

Kyler Phillips was ranked. He had fallen out of the rankings prior to this fight, but I think with three straight wins at Bantamweight, and Charles has looked so good since moving down, he probably gets in there, probably around the 15 spot, and then you go, okay, who's in that 15 to 10 range who is suitable? And there's two names that I looked at, Montel Jackson, Fari Bachelet. They come to mind.

Now, Jackson has a fight next week. He's fighting how many Barsals. I know your rules are don't choose anyone for a fightbook. I would say if he comes up with the win, that's an option. And then there is Montel Jackson. He, uh, or sorry, Jackson has a fight book. Yeah, and that's okay. We have conditional picks.

We definitely have conditional picks. You could say like the winner of this fight or this fighter, whether they win or lose, or like you just said, this fighter, if he wins. So you wouldn't be interested in Barcellos if he won't? No. Maybe, maybe, maybe. But right now I'm looking at Jackson. But out of the two that I mentioned, I actually prefer the Fire Ad Bachelorette fight.

He's undefeated, 15 and 0. You know, his brother just got cut, cut off all, or maybe not re-signed. He's either cut or not re-signed off a win of all things. But for Ezzo in the UFC, 15 and O. And I think that's an interesting test for Charles Roden. do you put him in there and hey if he derails that prospect then all the more hype to his name and he pushes further Charles has been doing this for a while now he's 15 fights more than 15 fights into his UFC career and with this had esteem this is the time to make a run so give him

the undefeated guy let's see how he does yeah I definitely thought about freed as well um I think because the last time freed won I was like very intent on like let I need to he deserves a top 10 guy. I'm not sure I landed on. I might have said, like, Figgi, but now Figgis fighting Song Yadong. I thought about David Martinez. I think that would be such a fun test for both guys, for David Martinez and Jodin, but also, like, again, I think Martinez deserves to step up. So this is the tricky part for me. I think, like, Jardin really could be, I don't know. I kind of asked us to Nick before the show. Jay, do you think, what's your ceiling? What's your ceiling for Jad? What have you seen in these three fights? Two Finis

over very respectful veterans, now a really hard-fought decision over another veteran. Is the ceiling top 10, top 5? Could he challenge for the title? Ooh. See, this is the thing that I come to with Chardin is that if you take him at his word and how he's really only become a professional in his last couple of fights after cruising and getting by on talent for his first 15 UFC appearances, then the ceiling gets bumped a little higher and you go, hey, top five, I think that's doable at this point.

Challenging for a title? I don't know. I don't know if the timing works out. I don't know if by the time he gets to that level, he's kind of aged out, especially at bantam weight. I mean, we saw Alex Wilkinsky come back and win another title as the oldest featherweight to ever do it. But, you know, bantam weight, there's 10 pounds less and that speed is all the more important. but hey, Charles has looked fantastic. I would say at least top five is a possibility.

If you could only pick one of these fighters to end up competing for a title, one of these Canadian fighters, Mike Malat, Charles Rodin, or Melissa Croton, which one, which one? And I'm not saying, I'm not saying like they couldn't all do it. It's possible. There's a chance to, like, you know, they get the right opponents, they get the right luck, they all make it. What if you could only pick one?

Who actually gets to fight for a title? Jay, who do you think? Now, are we talking against the current champion in their division? No, anywhere. Somewhere in the next 10 years, if only one of them does, who do you think would fight for a title? I think Malat right now is the furthest ahead. Yeah. Just because where he's going to land in the rankings right now.

I mean, we know he's going into that top 15, Charles May. So just based on that alone, I would probably say a lot. In terms of the fight, I love Charles Jordan's fighting style. absolutely loved it. And that third round, when he's just shooting knees out there, just spamming them. I love that fight, but

who, that's tough. It is tough. Crodin, I think, is the dark horse in that one. We haven't seen enough of her. I think Jazz is further along in that quest, but that's a deeper division, too. So there's another concern there.

Yeah, I do Codin in there because of the, obviously, it's, you know, the women's 135 division. Not the deepest contender line. I just feel like, I like her style. think the UFC likes her. She's actually put on some pretty entertaining fights. So I feel like she's not, she could be closer than any of them just because of how few people she has to go through, assuming that that division has any movement within the next

like 18 months again. We have to wait for Kayla and Amanda. What's going to happen if Amanda wins? She's going to retire again, all this other stuff. But I do think she is a dark horse. But yeah, Jordane, very impressive. He has the skills, man. I mean, he's got the skills to be a top five guy.

I don't know if anyone can dispute that. But Bantaweight is so tough. And like one loss can just send you. so far back in the line. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other?

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Speaking of Canadians and ones that lost, unfortunately, we almost had 4-4-on-the-main- card, but Mandel Nalo, Bellator veteran, finally making his use to debut, rat garbage, not mango. I don't know this whole mango things about it. I know he said what it is. Did he say his teammates came about it? up with it and he's like oh i guess i'm mangled so so i interviewed him before the fight and he said that's what they call me in the gym okay but he doesn't know how it got changed on the various

officiating bodies like how it got changed in top top topology i mean Wikipedia anyone can edit but yeah he uh he was like hey he was cool for that garbage he still uses that as his instagram handle um but he did say i got friends who are like they don't want me associated with rats or garbage they're like you can't be that you can't be that so might have been a well-meaning friend who made that switch. Buffer said, not Buffer, I'm sorry. Joe Martinez said Mango, right? He did announce Mango, yeah.

Well, we think that janked it. That's, Mango does not lose that fight. Mango finishes that fight, okay? But no, instead, uh, poor Mandel Nalo gets caoed by Jai Herbert. Tough guy, man. I don't think, I hope not. I don't think any of us on paper said, oh, well, this is just a fight for Mandel Nala to run through this guy.

Jai Herbert is a veteran, man. Great job of the matchmakers, I thought. Age appropriate, both guys, you know, a little, little bit, I don't know I'm just to say over the hill. They're not over the hill, over the age of 35 at lightweight, which is a tough to go. But there's opponents there, and I think they found the right ones. Great comeback by Jai Herbert.

Big knockout, super exciting. I have no idea where to go. Jay, you know, normally if we do like, you know, a paper you show that's very obvious. It's like, oh, this spot in the rankings and they haven't fought these people yet. I can pick any of these names. Jai Herbert, I don't know. He's like a top 50 lightweight, so you could really go anywhere. I don't know if they're really invest, you know, and I don't think they're invested in him as like,

wow, where this is the beginning of the Jai Herbert title run. He's a fun fighter. He's a fun fighter who I hope stays on as long as he wants to and makes a lot of good money. So you can go anywhere with this, Jay. Who's Herbert fighting next? So I got to give some credit to the Black Country Banger here. Ten fights in his EOSC career, four, five, and one. So he's under a 500 record. But let's be fair to the guy.

two of those losses are due Hanato Moikano and Ilya those have aged extremely well now I spoke to him he's got some interest maybe in the Paris card assuming everybody's just kind of assuming they're going to go to Paris in September because that's what they do

every year he definitely said hey if they do I'm down for it now who do you put him again so well you love that UK versus France kind of rivalry but he's not getting BSD and he's already fought smile killer So that doesn't really leave any other French lightweights. You do have a fight coming up between Mattos Rebecca and Grant Dawson next month, which is an interesting one.

Dawson's got 14 fights in the UFC. Herbert's got 10 now. Dawson's coming off a couple of losses. Rebecca's coming off a single loss. He was a champ over in Poland's F.E.N. organization. I don't mind the winner of that versus Jai Herbert at all. If they want to do it in Paris, if they want to do it somewhere else. Those guys are kind of, Rebecca has fear of fights in the UFC.

who's a champ outside it. And again, Dawson's got kind of a similar number of fights, similar profile. Hey, why not? Wow, you went quite a bit higher than I did. I mean, I love both those matchups,

either one. I think, I think a best key would be super fun. Dawson would be a very interesting test for Herbert. I went a little bit closer in the rankings than I think age-wise as well. I'm going with the fight that I'm surprised. I hope I'm not wrong about this.

Has not happened before. I'm calling up MJ. I'm calling up Michael Johnson. Again, don't particularly care about what this means for rankings or future title hopes or anything that. That's not, I feel like, where these guys are in their career. They're just happy to go out there and get paychecks and put on fun fights. And I think that would be a fun style matchup. So give me these veterans, these veteran lightweights.

And just keep on keeping on, fellas, is what I say. Not going to lie, I looked at Johnson as well. And he's coming out of that fight with Drew Dover, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that might have been the only reason I didn't go that way. I wanted to get someone, catch someone coming off a win.

But I don't know if the EFC is even beholden to that. Remember back in the day, it was always a winner gets a winner, a loser gets a loser, and they have kind of gotten away from that. So it's definitely not impossible, and that would be a fun fight as well. Yeah, I mean, they just can't do that anymore. They have so many cards that, like, they can't stick to any formula. Every time people see like some head scratching matchup and they're just like, oh, why are this this guy fighting this guy in this city?

I'm like, guys, they got to fill cards. They got to fill cards. This is the date that worked for these guys, the money that. worked up with these guys, this is what the fight's happening? This is the, this is the TKO here, guys. We're in full force. The machine does not, does not particularly, it's obsessed about wins and losses. I need, I'm going to let you go first again, because I need to know where you went with

Jasmine Yvesis. Good bounce back win. She did what she does. She just outpaces people, just grinds people out. You know, Crini Silva, very dangerous off her back. But, I mean, you can only be in your back for so long and almost catching offense. until like you know just kind of ran out of time and uh you know you're on bottom position jasmine's doing ground and pound jasmine's working to get better positions um so yeah solid solid workman work

ladyman like i totally messed that up win for uh for jasmine i just do it's not accurate at all uh jasmine's back at the wind column where are we going sticking it sticking with a uh sticking with a ranked opponent i'm assuming jay yeah no absolutely sticking with a ranked opponent you got to keep mind jazz is still ranked number seven in the way class So she just fought down against Karine Silva and came away with a win. Was it the prettiest win? No, and she was the first to admit that. And she admitted, hey, at times I was telling myself, I got to play it safe. The win means more on this one than the performance.

She had just come off that Fedroloss. That was a heartbreaking one for her. And she did something very unjazzed like. She took a whole lot of time off against her own kind of inner wish, inner desire to get back in there. get right back on the horse. And she said, hey, in the long run,

it was better. I short up my game and I show that I have patience when I'm in those tough positions. When Silva has me in a choke, I'm in that difficult spot. I don't panic. I show patience. I know she doesn't have it.

And I just, you know, slowly methodically work myself to a better spot and move on with my fight. She's also expecting to come back at a slower pace moving forward. We may not see that that jazz sketch strength of schedule that we saw before.

This is an interesting one. Because I don't think you can just drop her into the top five again right now, just coming off this loss over Karine-Silva. One, because Silva was ranked down a bit. Two, it wasn't a finish. It wasn't a barn burner of a fight. So really, I just go to the person who's right ahead of her, which happens to be Rose Namayunas.

The name value might seem a little off-kilter here, coming off the win that Jazz just had. but she has beaten a former champion before, in that case, a strawweight champ in Jessica Andrash, but she also challenged for the title at 125. I just put that fight together. And you know what? Thug Rose doesn't have a fight booked. Needs a win.

Let's see where Rose is right now. Jay, I don't know how familiar you are with this show, but when Mike and I have the same pick, we have a band. We actually have an in-studio band. They only play one song. They're saved by the bell, Zach Attack cover band. Which I know people laugh, like, oh, how much? Does we pay them a lot of money?

Vox Media is not happy with, but I said it's necessity for the show. Are you familiar with the song, Friends Forever? I probably don't want to hear it. Okay, I will. No, you know what? It's fine. I'll do it solo this week, but we are, join in if you can. We, it's just the chorus.

Normally we counted in. The band, okay, the band is ready. Okay, good. We go, one, two, three, four, Friends Forever. Thank you, Jay. There you go. Yes, Rose and Abidunas. I think that's the pick.

I've picked this before on Otno at least once before, maybe twice. Jasmine has mentioned before. It's the Battle of Lithuania. They both have Lithuanian heritage. It would be a fun little side angle. And as you said, it just makes sense with the ranking. I think stylistically it's fun. And it's another good test for Jasmine, who, like, you know, again, I left her out of

sort of that question earlier of whether she could be fighting for a title anytime soon. But she is there. She is firmly entrenched in the top 10. She lost to Manon. There's no shame in that. Manon is one of the pound for pound. I think one of the seven or eight, maybe best women's fighters in the world.

And, you know, I hoped Jasmine could overcome that hump. Didn't this time. Doesn't mean we can't stop giving her, you know, more experienced top talent like Rose and Eunice. And, you know, she beat Jessica Andrage. I think it just makes sense. I actually am struggling to think of who else it could be. I know Rose doesn't fight super often. But whenever she's ready to get back in there, she has a perfect opponent waiting for her in Jasmine.

And I think that works out too. If Jazz is going to take a slower pace moving forward, then Rose not fighting super frequently might actually work into her benefit. And realistically, Jazz is kind of a wild card in all this in terms of contendership. She is a little bit older. She also got a really late start at MMA. She doesn't have the miles on her. So she has that opportunity to come in and maybe surprise a few people.

And she's done it so far. I'm not sure if you went back and asked a lot of pun to, it's when Jazz first came into the EFC, if they ever expected her to move as high up as she has. No, she, listen, it's just, it's hard, a lot of hard work, man, a lot of hard work. I'll say it helps also that, you know, a flight weight is not the youngest division. It's not like an athleticism dependent division. Not the thought I'm saying jazz is a bad athlete, but compared to something like men's

bantam weight, featherweight, lightweight, etc. You know, I don't think you need to be super, like, look at the champion, Valandisdine Chandarchenko, great athlete, not someone I would call explosive, certainly up there in age as far as like mileage. She's been fighting in combat sports since she was like a teenager. And she's still crushing it. Zhang Wei is not super young either. So yeah, I think that that's to Jasmine's benefit.

I would not say that how old she is precludes her from, you know, being a contender now. Are we assuming Zhang is still going to be a flyweight? I think we're all waiting. I was sorry. I was looking at my own rankings here. I don't think anyone else has Zhang Wei in their rankings except me. I just have this rule that I rank you at the last place you fought at. But yes, terrible example.

Thank you, Jay. I was trying to slide that one under the fence. I hope she doesn't fight a flyweight again. Don't need to see it. And just book the damn McKenzie Dern fight. Jeez, Louise. Okay, one more main card winner. Very good performance, I thought, from Gage Young.

Before we get to this pick, can I ask you a question, Jay, I don't know why I can't stop asking people this. Is Tiago Moises good? Oh, yeah. No, Tiago Moises is good. Is he? Yeah.

I have this thing. I mean, what are we considering good here? I don't know. I don't know. I had a little debate with Keith from Shirdog last night, just on Twitter where he's saying, Canada hasn't really had that many elite fighters. I said, well, what's your definition of elite? Because he wasn't counting OAM or Laterno or Carlos Newton.

And I'm like, come on, Carlos Newton had a UFC title. I mean, I know it wasn't the deepest era. But, you know, if you judge these things by their own time, I mean, Tiago Moises has been in the UFC for what is. eight years now, you don't stick around eight years if you're not good. Yeah, I know. Is he like, is he a bad, good fighter, though? Like, he's clearly good.

Every time I watch him, I say, this is a man who knows how to fight. Great grappler, great everything. Good, good striker. I was, I was, I said it, I think on my, I was talking to when I was in the Slack the other day, I was like, he's a great fighter. And then every time I see him, and then every time I see him going there, he's coming out the wrong end of like a 29, 28 decision. Sure enough, he loses a split decision, 29, 28.

I don't know, and I just like him. I just want him. Like, I feel like he has a skill, so he'd be better than his record says. He's like eight and eight now, I think, in the OFC after Saturday night. Yeah, and I wonder if it's like a Jordan situation where maybe there's something he's not doing. Maybe he's not taking things seriously enough because he has all the skills and there seems to be something else missing. That said, I don't want to take anything away from Gage young. I know he's public enemy number one in Winnipeg.

Because he did call Winnipeg a dump very publicly. And we did kind of call him on it backstage. And you know what? He took it well and we had some fun with it. But yeah, this one is really easy for me. I'm going to be honest. Because he made a call out backstage and it actually makes sense. Because there's a thing where the UFC likes when fighters call people out.

But if everybody calls out Connor, it really doesn't matter, right? You're not booking that fight. You're not getting that fight. Gage Young called out Nicholas Mota. He made that in the post fight with, the media, and it's a pretty smart one. Moda might be coming off a loss, but it was a fight of the night loss. They do have a shared opponent, I believe, in Mahishate.

We see bizarre callouts all the time. Let's actually reward one that makes sense. Okay, I like that. I have them, I have a separate rankings I keep. This is only, UFC only. I have Gage now at 48. He jumped ahead of Teago Moises, obviously, and I have Moda at 54. So this is pretty much essentially the same.

And once you get to that range, it's just very great. granular. I like that. Wow, the perfect match. I was not pre-me. I guess I did not, I did not watch or did not hear that call-out. Yeah, I like it. It makes a ton of sense. I'm assuming Moda's not booked. So Gage Young Moda. I went with, you know, he was fighting in Winnipeg. He didn't get the chance to fight a Canadian, though, Jay. And I believe this young man was in the building, if I'm not mistaken. So I would like to see Gage fight Lance Gibson Jr. I think he fought the reputation of the good people of Winnipeg, but he did not actually fight a Canadian. So I think that makes sense.

Is there something like that? You made a face. Oh, no, I like that, though. Lance was in Winnipeg. He did do an appearance during the week. Nice. I was in the building for that. And I really like Lance Gibson, Jr.

He's, you know, outside of the cage, super respectful dude. Inside the cage, he's got that pedigree, right? He's got the second generation and then his stepmom was Julia. who, of course, was a Belator champion. Lots of skill there, lots of talent, still young enough to make a few waves. Don't know what his ceiling is. I don't know that he ever goes too high,

but he's going to have some fun fights, and he's going to do great for Canada. So, yeah, I do like that one. And there we go. So that is our main card. We'll get to our Wog car in a second. But I think we did okay. Like I said, my real worries were,

I need a bit of time for Jai Herbert. I need a bit of time for Gage Young, just because I feel like the range is so wide. But, man, Jay, you were locked in. You had no, no, uh, No hesitation with some of those picks. Now I'm really excited. So who was your wild, before you say who you picked for them,

who was your wild card person you're matching up for? So wild card can be, I should have clarified this with you. Okay. Wild card, first of all, the only wild card that matters is Charlie Kelly. But anyways, if you don't watch it's all of a sudden, you're not getting. Wild card, B words, yeah, okay. Wild card can be anyone on the card. It doesn't have to be a main card.

It doesn't have to be main card. It could be anybody. Could be a loser. It could be a loser on the card. Could be a winner. just someone preferably who fought on the card. If you have some explanation, someone in the building, if you want to make a matchup for Nick Baldwin,

or I don't know who else. Maybe Nick Baldwin, Gage Young, because Nick is for Winnipeg. Geez, you might have to. However, I was very heavily leaning towards doing it for Nalo. And I did briefly speak with him this morning, and he basically said he needs to be more patient next time. But that was a heck of a fight while it lasted.

We don't want that, man. No, Rat Garbers, we don't want you to be more patient. keep being you man I'm not going to do now though I am going to do a winner I'm going to go with Melissa Croton Oh okay both of us both of us Oh there we go do we're to sing again

We will have to And Mike and I almost never get wild card Friends Forever moments So this would be like he's really super mad Like he's going to be super mad if we get this Because I don't think him and I ever managed to pull this off So Croton's 2 and 1 in the UFC 2 and 0 on home soil

Like 10 more seconds in that fight and that's a finish. She's never lost in Canada? In the UFC. In the UFC? Okay, in the UFC. 10 more seconds. She even said, like, the ref was saying, like,

if you don't keep moving, three seconds, I'm stopping this, and then it was too late the horn sounded. There's another fighter who won recently, and that is Alice Pereira, youngest female in the roster, one-on-one, has some hype, had that big knee finish. Croton had to finish in her first fight,

came close to finishing this second win, that's an action fight, I say book it. Damn. I wish I thought of that. We will not be having friends for every moment. I still don't know if Alice Pereira is good. I don't know. It's kind of weird because I think maybe some of us were too down on her for her first UFC fight.

And then I don't know now if I'm too high on her because of her second UFC fight. So yeah, maybe Croton is the right way to go is the right way to land. Again, not a super deep division. It's like even if you like Croden, she can't be more than like seven or eight spots higher. There's just not that many women's 135 in the UFC in the world. really. No, I went higher. I want to, maybe too high. I'm moving crowding up. Macy Chiasen?

Too soon? She's not a losing streak. She's not losing. She's trending downwards. You don't like that from us? It's too soon? I would say it's a little too soon, but I am a guy who likes it when new fighters kind of take their time and don't rush in. I mean, that's the word. Like, we've got Gable Stevenson coming in and people are like, hey, is he going to fight for the title and his second fight? Like, come on.

Like, have you watched his first three fights? He's good, but he's got a lot of room to grow. Melissa is a much more polished fighter in terms of where she is in her weight class. So I don't think it's, you know, out of the ballpark that you match her up with a Macy Chesson. And I think it's very possible that she wins that fight. I do think it might be a little too soon. But I guess it depends on how quickly she wants to climb.

I hope fast. Again, I don't know how fast, again, division can move when it's kind of stuck up the top, but I hope they don't keep fighters like Melissa Croton waiting too long, or Alspirra, or any of these other, like, Bia Mosquitoes in there. Like, I'm not, I'm not going to tell you, like, oh, the women's band-in division is on fire. But I do think there's a little bit more movement in the lower half than there has been in recent years. Michelle Montague, I like her as well. I kind of hope they give these women opportunities and not just have them like,

oh, once they hit a certain level, they can't fight like Juliana Pena and Raquel Pennington and Kettl Bietta and all these, like, this division can have some life. It's never going to be a top division, but we can give it some life. And I hope Melissa Cohen is a part of that. Jay, can I keep you on for like another 10 minutes? Can I keep you on for another 10 minutes? Yeah, for sure. Okay, I got some, I'm going to run some listener picks by you.

Actually, you had a surprising amount. I mean, you see Winnipeg on Fuego, I guess. So thank you everyone who sent in. I wish I had a chance to vet these before I went on the air. But let's see if I can find. Sorry, guys, I've got to start through my DMs here. All right. I'm going to read some of these, and then Jay, I'm going to throw to you

and get some of your thoughts on these. So Callum, what's up, Callum? Malat versus Colby is my magic wand pick. Oh, Canada versus USA seems sellable at present. I think there's something fun there. I'm going to throw to you right now. If he could get that fight, is that what you would want for Malat right now? So I'm not going to lie.

I actually looked at Covington when I was doing my scout and report for these matchups. And the only thing, you know, the only reason I wasn't going to book is because I just didn't think it was like. to happen. I don't know when Colby is going to fight again. I imagine he's probably only got a fight or two left in him at this point. And I just don't know if they do it. But that Canada, U.S. angle, especially coming off the Olympics, it is sellable. So it is a smart matchup. If you can make it, by all means, go right ahead and make that. Yeah, we had a little bit of that with, what's his name, Radkey, with Chuck Buffalo. But it wasn't like, I mean, Chuck Bluff. A Radkey is nowhere near the name of Colby Coventon, so it kind of flew under the radar, I guess.

So we had a little bit of it. Maybe this would definitely be the next level of that. Callum also likes Font and Jordania. I thought about that. Jai Herbert, Chark, close. They were actually booked to fight once in a lot of time. So maybe we closed that loop. Yasadavis and Barber.

Jasmine and Barber. Did you think about that at all? Macy? I did. And Macy is just a little bit up, so I went with Rose. Okay. And Gage Young, Terrence McKinney. Any Terrence McKinney matchup, absolutely fire.

Thank you, Cal. Sorry, I should have gone to Hezzi first. Hezzi, what is up? I should give you a Welcome to the party pal Hezzi says Longtime listener First time sending in picks

Keep up the great work No, Hezzi, you keep up the great work Malat versus Joel Alvarez After he chaos Amasov Wow, what a prediction Herbert Zell Huber Okay Okay

Okay Okay Yeah Oh, here's one from Marcia Barbosa The man who got a performance bonus Barbosa and Nate Landwer Oh, that's fire Jay, you just mentioned

Gable Stephenson How about Saracom as his debut opponent Go Khan Saracom. That's real interesting. I don't think it happens. Dana was asked about Gable last night in terms of like,

who are you going to get for an opponent? And it sounds like they want to get someone with a similar amount of MMA experience. And note that I said MMA there, because Gable has the wrestling. He's got better wrestling than anyone in the heavyweight division. That is undeniable. He's got the goal to show it.

But I think they do want to get someone who's probably four and one, five and one, and some of that major. You're probably not getting another three-fight guy, but someone a little bit lower. And Gokon, if you followed him in Bellator. He had some good fights in Bellator. He had the fight with Mallory.

He almost fought in the PFL. That fell through. And then he went back to the regionals and jumped into the UFC. I think he might be a little too experienced for a first fight. I think if Gable does well, it's a second fight for sure. Yeah. Because, guys, I think if people look at the current U.C. roster, they actually have a ton of people that just fit your description. You said there, Jay, guys like six and one, four and two heavyweight.

who would be perfect for cable teams. Let's just say, let's call a spade to spade. Heavyweight is not the deepest division. No, it is not. Josh Hawkins just broke into the top ten. And Josh Hawkins is a good heavyweight. I'm just saying, like, that's how quickly you can do it, though. He just fought, like, he hasn't even been in the UFC for a year.

He's barely, and he's been in the MMA for like six years or something. Four Corner Sports. What's that Four Corner Sports? Mike Malot and Euros Medich. I thought about this. I thought about this. I think I just want to give him a lot, someone with a little bit more of a name, but I get it. Carla Phillips, Cheeto Vera, the Battle of Fighter, Who Starts Really Slow.

Okay. Jay Harbert and Elvis Brenner, Jasmine Justestablishes Casey O'Neill. I'm not the one King Casey O'Neill. I kind of looked at that and went, eh. I still like the Rose Fight. And I think like you mentioned, the Battle of Lithuania, I think kind of sells that as a subplot. Picks by F-Rod Mike Mollat versus

Loser of Bilal-Bahn-Fon-Fame Yeah, I could see that I could see that What do you think of this one, Jay? Charles Jardin Raoul Roses Jr. That's what I was looking at too And again, it's one of those that like

Yeah, that's a fun fight 100%. Do they make that fight? I don't know that they do. I think they've got a probably a different plan for Raoul at this point. This next pick

I also from picks by F-Rod this kind of speaks to your point of like, you know, if you would ask someone a few years ago, would Jazz be a contender? You know, you'd be like, oh, there's probably not. Could she run it back with Tracy Cortez? Probably could. The UFC seems to be a little more open to rematches these days. They've done a few recently that I don't think they would have booked a few years ago.

Even that, the fight's fallen through now, but like, Jan and Bogdan, too, I was almost kind of surprised they even bothered booking that. I don't know what that was. The M.A. God said, why are you doing this and called that one off? Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu, it's the only business software you'll ever need.

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transparency, governance, and trust. If you're curious about what responsible AI actually looks like, visit sass.com to learn more. That's sas.com. Okay. We also had a Marshall Bobosa, Yadja del Valet. I like that. J.G. Aldrich, Carly, Judis. Thank you, Frod.

Paul Ceponelli. So I don't want to read too many repeats. Jordan versus Daniel Marcos. Sucks for Jordan, but kind of a log jam near the Bantamink rankings. Yes, correct. Gajung, Axel Sola, Barbosa, Bagdasarian, Vologden, Angel Pacheco, let's get this man to win. Love Vologden. What are your thoughts on Mark Vologden, Jay?

That was, if you discount the low blows, a heck of a fun fight. I am curious to see where they go of him. Dana was asked about him after. Everybody backstage seems pretty high on him. I don't know how far he'll go, but it seems like a good good. kid seems like some fun fights are going to be coming from him. Yeah, there's a couple of people on that card, and he's one, and Barbosa is another, who I am definitely going to tune in for their next fight.

So, and then that draw on the low blows were, and I believe he was transported. We had, I think we had four people off the prelims transported. Yeah, these cards are getting, these cards are getting brutal, man. Hawket and Blaze last week, obviously, thank goodness. They both were taking to the hospital immediately. All right. Attack MMA. Phillips versus Ricky Simone. Herbert versus Zell Huber.

Okay, wow. Okay. Thank you, talk about me. Barry O'Reilly. What's up, Barry? Barry does a lot of picks. I'm not going to... Sorry, Barry, you know, I can't read all of these.

Melissa Crodden versus Josiah Nunez. Sorry, A.K. for putting her against your favorite 135er. You know, hey, Melissa Croydon might be my new favorite 135. All right. Canada's got to represent. Barbosa versus Morgan Cherrier. Oh, well, yeah.

Barbosa's got a lot of experience. So that's not crazy. Another Jasmine versus Roe suggestion. Jaya, Terrence McKinney, Shore, Charles Jardin, Venetioz Alvara, Barry, Friends Forever, well done. And also another Malotte mid-each pick. Okay. All right, all right. Let me go to my Instagrams.

Got a couple here. Maybe none. No one sent me any picks on Instagram? I'm disappointing, but disappointing. Where are we? Oh, hold on. I apologize. Wait.

Harry Newhouse. Harry Newhouse. We didn't mention this name for some reason. Mike Malott. Edwards, Jay? Yeah, that was actually one that I think was mentioned backstage last night as a possible one. I don't know. I don't know if that's too much too soon.

I think it probably is. I do think Milat is going to have kind of an intermediate step before he jumps into the Leon, the Belal, and so on, and the Camaro, obviously. but I mean if he passes, let's say his next test, then sky's the limit and you definitely book one of those guys. Yeah, he's in such an interesting place because he did exactly what he was supposed to do Saturday, right? We all thought he should get a finish. Like he should at least get a finish and that's all the U.S. he can ask of him. But the path is like forward is not really obvious.

I don't know. Yeah, I want to see him get an Edwards or a Usman or again if Bilal loses to Bonfay. Or Bilal beats Bonfie, maybe he gets Balal. But I just don't know if any of those guys are going to. like allow that to happen. A lot of backstage politicing guys. Harry also says Valentin versus

mantas contratavisius. Well done. Go Khan and Mick Parkin, wow, Val, the Titans there. Most Crodin, Nora Cordonol. Thank you, Harry. Left lane. Oh, what do you think? Oh, that piqued your interest. The Crodin, I like Nora.

Yeah. Yeah, that'd be a fun one. Left Lane, calling this the Dart Throw Edition. We didn't talk a little about Burns a lot, Burns says can you do a UFC B JJ match against Mike's or something. He deserves a break. Yeah, I guess I want to ask you straight up, Jay. Is this the last we see of Burns?

Do you think he's going to kind of go to grappling route for a few more years? Do you think this is a chance he unretires from M.A. So it's M.A. There is always a chance somebody unretires. Other than maybe, I think Cubs Swanson is actually serious and is going to stay retired. But there's always a chance. That said, I think Gilbert Burns, more likely than not is done in MMA. I think he could definitely see him doing something.

grappling. He loves grappling. It's something he was talking about before this fight. He was talking about Malat's grappling. So I think he could see him doing UFC BJJ a bit. And I think probably he should. I mean, stay active, stay involved with the sport. But I do think he's done. I do think he's done. And just the amount of emotion he was overcome with last night, you could tell. And I wonder, I have a feeling this probably was weighing on him. And he was probably telling himself, like, you know, if I get the win here, maybe I keep going, it didn't work out. And, And I think that might be the last time we see Gilbert Burns in the Octagon more likely than not.

I hope so, because I think it was a fine farewell, other than, of course, going on to win, which everybody wants. But I think he, like he said, he wasn't planning to retire, so he wouldn't have retired if he had won. So I think he was only going to go out if he knew he was done, done. And, you know, he went out the honorable way. And Malat did the, he was supposed to do. So, yes, I hope we don't see.

I don't mind the grappling. If he wants to do some grappling, have bad at Gilbert. But you've done your duty. you've served the fans well. Leflane also recommends Castaneda versus Luna. I'd love to see that fight. Luna is actually booked. Adrian Luna Martineti.

I think he's fighting next week. So, Leflin, unless you mean his brother, but I don't know if his brother... Is his brother in the UFC? No, he's not yet. Okay, so a little bit of doo-doo, Leflane. Jay, I'm sorry you had to see that. I was hoping you wouldn't see any doo-do this week on the show.

Leflin also said, I'm naming Friders. he should be moving on to the next thing that isn't being in the UFC because they'll be getting cut. And he said, Bazookja, I could see that, his 50 UFC fight. And then he says LeBlanc and Saraj, Jay. I think they'll get another chance. I know LeBlanc looked really bad.

Saraj was a little disappointing, considering kind of the nice story we had going into Saturday. I think they get another chance. I think there's been sometimes in the last couple of years for sure where they have cut people off just like straight up, you come in and lose. I don't think they would do that here. I don't know.

A lot of those one and dones have come in. situations where a guy has missed weight or has kind of been a problem backstage or, you know, just really, really explicitly like bad performance. And, you know, Saraj was out there and was competing until he wasn't. LeBlanc, I actually missed part of that fight backstage because we were speaking with one of the fighters. But from what I saw, it was pretty quick and he was submitted, but is what it is. And, you know, Valentin came in very motivated. The loss of his mom, the losing streak, just kind of weighing on him, knowing that this is probably his last chance. I mean, it is what it is.

I think both of those guys we do see back. Bazooka, I'm not too sure. You know what me? I always campaigned to keep guys like Basuchi around because it sounds disrespectful, but you need people who kind of can lose in a dramatic way. I used to say this about Victoria Leonardo all the time. That's just like my favorite example. People who get got really well and are just willing to fight anyone.

Again, it might not be great for their health, but I hope they're compensated as they should be. So, yeah, if they keep Dennis around, I would approve, but I understand. He's one in five now or one and four. I get it. I get it if that might have been in for him. I just hope he's okay. That was a really, really devastating looking knockout.

Robbie Ryan, oh, sorry, go ahead, Jay. Oh, no, as you say, he was tweeting last night, so I think he's doing all right. Yeah, yeah, I heard he had a sense of humor about it. So that's great, but again, some people are too tough for their own good, man. You've got to protect some of these guys from themselves. Robbie Ryan, I'm just one of these jumped out at me. uh go con thomas peterson uh carlo phillips jonathan martina

also likes jordan raoulrosis and um milot and eurostmitty sure and micah phelan oh this is what i wanted to ask you about micha feelan asks uh jay there's a young man out there he's he's taking people zeros um in the bantamweight division now charles jordaan is not undefeated but he is undefeated as a bantamweight

what about him and ethan ewing oh i like that I, Ethan Ewing, I mean, yeah. If Charles is not going to get someone above him, should he land in the rankings, I have no problem with that matchup just because of the hype that Ewing has right now. I think it would be fun. Yeah. I hadn't even thought of that because I was just looking up.

I'm going to be honest. Yeah. And I have them very far apart in my rankings. But again, now that I think the hype around Ewing is really high. And I think he's more skilled than like where. I have him ranked, he just hasn't beaten that name yet. Maybe it's Jardin. And Jardin wouldn't say no.

I think Jardin, especially after that performance, which he wasn't 100% happy with, maybe again, he didn't realize it was unanimous at first. He probably would be willing to fight anyone to stay in the, you know, the good grace of the UFC. And he's just that kind of guy, too. I just don't see him saying, like, oh, no, no, I only want this, I only want that.

And he probably sees Ewing as a very winnable fight too. Damn, that's pretty. See, CJ, these, man, the listeners, man, they're locked in. Like, they have so many better picks that I do every week. Last one's here. Let me go to my email real quick. I got a lot of regulars here.

Tristan Gordette, what is that, my friend? Crodin, Claudia Seguula, Marcia Barbosa, Luke Riley. I love that matchup. John Yannis. Shout out to John Yannis. Sorry, guys. Some people sent in Janus picks. I didn't read them all.

John Janus and Rafael Estabal. I don't mind that. Eli Hitala, solid fight night. It certainly was. It was solid. Mike Mollat versus Balaal Mohammed's straight up. He just says, Mohammed's going to beat Bonfim, and we'll find a way to shoot Malat up the rankings.

Yeah, it could be. Jai Herman. Matt Favola. There's no idea. I was looking at that one, too. They haven't fought before? I guess, I guess, Jay Herbert, he's not as active as I'm thinking. He really doesn't fight that often, does he?

Well, that's the thing. Ten fights, but he's been here. It seems like he should have. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Because when I did the Michael Johnson pick, I was like, oh, no, no. He probably fought Michael Johnson before.

And I'm like, oh, no. Yeah. So this was his lone appearance. He only fought once in 2025, once in 2024. Man, I don't know. Jay, pick your fights, man. Pick your fights. this is your career.

Gaye Jung and Chase Hooper. Oh, young man battle. Okay. Okay. And Marshall Obosa and Juliana Rosa. Tough bet test for Barbosa. I like that. And I think I keep forgetting,

Bobosa himself is also a vet in a sense. He just hasn't, he only fought the UFC once. Lucas Cortez, I only watched the last six fights. There were attempts at a Scottish twister, a buggy choke, and a reverse triangle,

use of the Delareva and crackhead control to win around. Awesome comeback. Judges got a right with Rodin. I call it a set. successful night. I would too, Lucas. I didn't think it was bad. Lucas says Jodin and Basharat, Farid. Of course, we assume. Malat versus Brady Buckley winner. Jay, does that make sense?

It's not the worst idea. Interestingly enough, and to give some credit to the person picking that, Malat was specifically asked about Brady. So, yeah, definitely not the worst idea. Okay. Jai Herbert, Drew Dober, Scher, Phillips, and Jan. another fight that I swear has happened before, but somehow has... Are they teammates, though? They might... No, no, no.

Yanyas is from, oh, Yanyas from, like, Texas, right? Believe so, yeah. Okay, my bad. I don't know why I'm mixing up all these bantamates. Yeah, I don't mind that. I'm surprised we haven't seen it yet. And lastly, Jay Donnie, what is going up? Card beat expectations.

Yeah, it certainly did. Jay likes, couldn't decide between Dale Marcos and Farid for Jordan, going with Raul Roses Jr., Herbert, Lance Gibson Jr., another Canadian scalp. How dare you? How dare you, Jay J? Yes, Davishes, Rosenabunis, Gaijong, where has Claudio Pueyes been? Wildcard, Gokon, Saracom, Mario Pinto. Feel the excitement. Thank you, Jay Dany.

Thank you, everyone who sent in picks, guys. Please send in again to me next week on my Twitter. My DMs are open at Alexander K. Lee. My DMs are also open on Instagram at Alexander KK. Lee. and my email, Alex Dottley at espionation.com. Jay, are your DMs open? Do you want people to be messaging you indiscriminately? I, they are not.

I barely do social media. Hey, you can definitely hit up at Cajside Press, and that is basically me anyways. Like, I don't do my own social media. I have a little Twitter on the side is for me to complain about bad shopping experiences and occasionally promote my work, but if I have something to say,

I say it on the site social media. I want to ask a question, though, before we go. Yes, please. that Pinto matchup, and a lot of people were writing it about Gokon, has heavyweight redeemed itself in the past couple of weeks? Like, we dragged heavyweight for months and months and years. But the last couple of weeks, got to admit, heavyweight's kind of looking good. I, you know, they cut Hamdi, so I still haven't forgiven. They cut Hamdi, they cut Augustus to Kyle a while ago.

Martin Boudai. I have not forgiven, Jay. They have a lot. It's getting better. It's been better. But we do not forgive and forget so easily. So let's give a little more time. Let's give a little more time.

We'll see. Hey, listen, they could have a new champion in a couple months at the top, or a new interim champion, I'd say, but certainly an intriguing name, Entering the Division, Alex Bedetta. So we'll see, and hopefully we get Tom back in there. I'm being cautiously optimistic about the big boys. I'm still dragging it.

I'm still dragging it. I'm still dragging it. So Jay, yes, you said, they can reach you at the Cajside on Twitter. Cadesidepress.com is where they can find your work, of course. and next week, guys, next week, Jay, you're going to be tuned in to UFC Vegas 116 Al Jemaine Sterling versus Yusuf Zalal.

Will you be tuned in, sir? Absolutely. But I kind of have to be. I don't know. I was hoping you had some, you know, you didn't have to cover every card. I know I know some of us do, some of us don't. Yeah, I don't know. I'm hoping to get one of them.

They take a couple off a year, but not usually. Sure. Here is the lineup as I see it. I don't know if this is finalized. But as I said, we have Al Jermaine Sterling, Yuselal on the main event. Very, very good main event. Really excited to that.

matchup. Love that Zalawal is getting this opportunity. Hafa Garcia and Alexander Hernandez, I'm curious to find out what's going on there because last we saw, there was a little bit of an investigation going on, but I guess it's either ongoing and he's okay, or maybe it's resolved and he's okay, I don't know. The aforementioned, Davy Grant, Adrian Luna, Martinetti, this fight could be effing crazy. I'm super excited for that one. Montel Jackson, Howany Barcellos, Norman Dumont, and Jocelyn Edwards, and, oh, you tell me if heavyweight's back after this jay marcus buchetcha and ryan's fan now ryan span is not like a super boring fighter like he's kind of like i like that he's come off and at heavyweight

and just like screw it like let's just have fun in this division maybe maybe he brings out the excitement out of wuchetcha because it's been tough going if this fight ends inside of a round i think it could be fantastic i don't know and if it doesn't it does after that if it doesn't inside of around Jay. Could be a long 15 minutes. Heavy weight may not be back after that. That's what I said. You see why I'm hesitant.

I want to be, you know me, guys. I try to be optimistic, but damn, sometimes these cards come up and I'm like, I don't know, man. I don't know about this. Let me make sure I'll not read any fights that have been canceled. No, I think we're okay.

Sorry, guys. I interrupted myself. Talita Alan Carr, Julia Palastia. I believe this will close out the prelims. Hadofa Vietta, Eric McCannico. So, Veera, if you can't get a submission win in this fight, it might be over, man. Jafel, Filo, and Lucas Rocha.

Actually, I heard this fight might be in jeopardy. Mayera, Buenos Silva, Michelle Montague, Michelle Montague, another hopeful I have for the Women's Bantamweight Division. Jackson McVeigh and Sajiki Dumas. This fight's actually finally happening. Okay, cool. Don't need that much Dumas in my life, but there it is. And I think that is the card.

Sorry, guys. I'm looking at a few different. I see Max Griffin and Victor Valenzuela on topology. And I think that is all. It's a card, Jay. It's a card. Would you agree that this is one of the cards of 2026? It is absolutely one of the cards of 2026.

And this may be, because we saw it this week, maybe it exceeds expectations. If you keep your expectations measured, let's say. There are some good fights on there. It's a good main event. Alexander Hernandez, the situation, as I have understood it, is more that he may be had an injury and somebody in the gym might have spread word, not even intentionally. It's just one of those things that leaks out when you're going to gyms with, you've got public classes, you've got amateurs, and you've got professionals, and they're all kind of mingling.

All you're going to have is somebody seeing Alexander walking with a limp, for example. So obviously, safe enough that they've booked them back because I don't think they would if there was any real question. So that's all right. Davy Grant, you know, is he coming back from that, that Jordan loss? Is that a- I believe that was the last one. Yeah. And that was the last one. You know, and Norma, I love that. Norma Dumont, which anybody else in the Bantamweight division with a six-fight win streak has a title shot at this point. Like you said, it is not the deepest, but we are all waiting for Kayla and Amanda.

And Norma Dumont is just going to be in limbo for the next year. She'll just have to keep taking fights if she wants to stay active. And hopefully for her, she keeps winning. Yeah. And honestly, and Dawson Edwards actually kind of a nice run, too. Fingers crossed seems to have her weight cut issues figured out. a 135 and I think she'll be like four straight wins if she gets past Dumont and demands for our top five. So that actually has like major implications for that division.

Yeah. Listen, I always find the positivity in every card. And I'll say right now I feel like on paper this card is fine for a apex card. I think this is what an apex card should look like, frankly. I think I'd like a few more squash matches on there. I think they did try. Like I said, Vietta and Mekonico should be a submission win for Eyeda, but stranger things have happened. But anyway, we'll talk about that next week. I think Mike will be back. But thank you so much. We were so lucky guys to have Jay step in.

He flew out to Winnipeg. He came back today and still had time to hop on the show. And we really appreciated Jay. And any other things you want to plug before we hop off here. You know what? I will plug KSight Press because that is my home. But I appreciate you have me on. Appreciate you giving me the opportunity.

And best of luck next week without me dragging you down. Thanks, Jay. I'll see you on. So hopefully they come to Toronto again, and we can actually hang out in person again during work because, yeah, I don't know. I was thought about going to Winnipeg.

I wasn't quite able to make it work. But I do love Winnipeg. I got family there. And I'm a little jealous. I'm a little jealous that you went because I know the weather wasn't great, but I'm a huge, huge fan of Winnipeg, Man Tova. So there you go, guys. Thank you, everyone.

Oh, send us your matchmaking picks next week. Look forward to UFC Vegas 116. And this has been on to the next one, the podcast. Support for this show. comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu, it's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, Odu replaces multiple expensive platforms

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