MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | Matches To Make After Wild UFC 323 Event

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

Odds were presented as very unlikely for either Merab Dvalishvili or Alexandre Pantoja to leave UFC 323 without their world titles, but very, very few could've predicted both would lose their champion...ships on Saturday night. After their sizable reigns came to an end after losses to Petr Yan and Joshua Van, will they both come back to immediate rematches? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what's next for Yan and Dvalishvili after the eye-opening upset win for Yan to capture the bantamweight title for the second time. Additionally, they discuss where Van and Pantoja go after the unfortunate ending to their co-main event matchup where Van became the first UFC champ born in the 2000's, along with future matchups for fellow main card winners Tatsuro Taira following his stoppage win over Brandon Moreno, Payton Talbott after retiring Henry Cejudo, and more. Plus, the guys take listener matchmaking suggestions at the end of the show. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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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Starting point is 00:01:09 Bit Defender has got you covered. Visit bitdefender.com slash trusted to see why experts and renowned brands trust Bit Defender to stay protected. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. We are, oh, so live with the matchmaking crowns back on our heads following UFC 323, a very good card card I'm still kind of buzzing about a main event performance that I'm going to be buzzing about for the next week maybe more so much happened at UFC 323 a lot of good some great some kind of disgusting and nasty and unfortunate
Starting point is 00:02:12 it was an emotional roller coaster ride that UFC 323 the final UFC pay-per-view at least for the next seven years and time to do some matchmaking I am Mike and joining me to do exactly that and react to what we witnessed a team mobile arena in las vegas last night the co-hoached the co-matchmaker the prince of positivity my best friend the one and only alexander kaley aka how are we doing on this sunday this day after ufc 323 hello hello everyone hello my best friend we are just feeling good man that was what a fun card you know what a fun card good looking card on paper we said it i think we said the whole time uh since this one was finalized this is a a hardcore fans to light
Starting point is 00:02:55 And I think for the most part, even if you had some casual buddies over to watch, I think they would have been pretty thrilled with what they saw. I mean, it started off a little rocky on the prelims. Like, I was making a joke with, you know, I was telling you guys on Slack. I was like, I can't believe they just showed a highlight reel of like Marab Duol's failed takedown attempts in the first yon fight. I was like, that is crazy. And then imagine having friends over that who were like, oh, I've only seen a couple of UFC cards.
Starting point is 00:03:20 It's been a while. I want to see what's this like? And then that reel comes on, they would just be like, what the hell am I watching? what are we doing but it proved oddly prophetic for what turned out to be like an absolutely incredible main event because um you know feodor yon's take down defense was even better in this fight he was just better overall awesome to watch this this card was so close to a 10 at 10 i think we were almost there obviously you have to take some marks off for you know some really bad luck for uh alexandri pantosia really happy moment for josh van earned his spot um but yeah
Starting point is 00:03:50 you know i don't think we can look back on that and say it was it was the crowning moment for josh van when it could have been i think he had a chance to win anyway and the way pantosia came out in classic fashion looked like we were going to get another great uh pantosia fight just didn't work out that way otherwise top to bottom great storylines uh contenders coming up lightweight just on fire i mean as always but boy we had some some real up-and-coming contenders you know top 30 top 25 guys moving up closer to that top to a top 10 spot really exciting stuff um i don't think there was a bad fight on the card i'm trying to like i'm just looking up and down
Starting point is 00:04:24 now like the two the two like not great fights i mean outside the pantosia one but even then like the 29 seconds of action was incredible up until the injury uh marvatory bruno faheda was not one i'll probably go back and rewatch but it wasn't a bad fight it wasn't bad the third round was very fun uh the last two rounds were were kind of fun and then macy barbara carine sylva uh you know if we look at it like outside the emotional lens not a great not a terrific fight not one we're going to go back and rewatch but everything involved macy coming back after all that time everything she's gone through to go in there and and and get a win basically steal one from korene sylva who cheated her
Starting point is 00:05:07 absolute ass off that entire fight macy still came through it and won like very cool moment other than that like every fight dude yombovitch boggd and guskoff was like was fun yeah it really was fun it went 15 minutes if i told you a week ago that fight's going the and it's going to be fun, you would not have believed me. You probably wouldn't have believed that Peyton Talbot versus Henry Suhudo was going to be a whole lot of fun. That was very fun too. Really enjoyed that fight.
Starting point is 00:05:34 And then when Tetsu retired, did it, Brandon Moreno, was frigging sick. It was absolutely ridiculous. And then Piard Rion's performance is an all-timer in the main event. I think it's one of the best title championship performances I've ever seen. Awesome. It's top five. It worse, it's top five. It might even be higher.
Starting point is 00:05:52 I have to like kind of rank them out. still so blown away i cannot wait to to rewatch that again without like anything going on around me and just appreciate that even more for what it was but great event it exceeded the pretty high expectations that you i and jed and others put on it um i said like i don't think it'll be ufc 199 but there's you know outside of like major announcements and we got a bunch of announcements too we got the 325 announcements with dan hooker and ben wasantan today we got raphael pizum marissa ruffi obviously it's not connor mcgregor versus nate ds too and brock lesder coming back but still like it had ufc 199 vibes to it where anyone who purchased it and watched it was like yeah i think
Starting point is 00:06:38 i got my 85 bucks worth and for those who didn't watch it it was like i'm going to skip this one you're looking on twitter and social media fluffy versus strickland another one that got announced yesterday you're probably like shit probably should have watched that one you're your deal You're sitting with a little bit of regret on the Sunday morning, but you didn't get to partake in the action. So, yeah, good stuff, man. I love jumping on a Sunday morning and talking about a card being really good. Some real faux ma, faux, foe, foe, foe, ma, ma, ma, ma, mema, fear of missing.
Starting point is 00:07:12 It's got it. Just give me a second. I'm working. It'll catch on. Fomma, ma, ma. Yeah. Someone definitely was missing out. Because, yeah, it was a great job.
Starting point is 00:07:21 I honestly didn't even mind the Macy. I actually say I'm a big, like, Macy fan because I always say, like, she is over that line of like, you know, I say some people are fighters and some people are mixed martial artists. Some people are both, but some people don't have that fighter grind. Like, that's just who Macy Barber is. Like, because I think there's a lot of moments this fight where, because Kerey kind of put her in some bad positions and Macy sometimes just like brute forces her way out of stuff. So I thought that was exciting. Like I didn't mind that. Like, again, like you said, there was no, like, bad fight.
Starting point is 00:07:47 I don't think there was one bad fight in the card. And then she had the storyline as well. Yeah. The thing that killed the Macy fight was Mark Smith sucks. Like he sucks at his job. It was a glancing. It was a glancing blow, Mike. What's you complaining about?
Starting point is 00:08:00 No, no, no, no, no, he said. He said, no, no, no, no. You're not hurt. He said, you're not hurt. That's not even the worst part. That was the second worst thing that happened because what happened like 45 seconds later is the doctor and Mark Smith are asking her how she's doing. She's like, yeah, I'm still really dizzy.
Starting point is 00:08:14 Mark Smith's like, okay, get back into it. Fight. Like, what? She just said she was dizzy. She needs a second. Mark's like, no, shut up. get in there and fight stop being a wimp unbelievable and then she went and tackled her like seconds later uh it was kind of fun going back and thinking about but i don't know if this is going to be like
Starting point is 00:08:32 a super easy show to do or not oh it is yeah it's going to be interesting so let's let's get right to it let's get to the main event what capped off the show pierre yon as i mentioned this is an all-time championship performance he was the challenger he was a massive underdog this to me without question is the performance of the year in the UFC and probably in mixed martial arts. This is better than Islamocchev's win. This is better than Anthony Hernandez's win over Roman Delizze, which I thought was the performance of the year. The reason why this is so impressive and this is why it takes the top spot from Fluffy Hernandez
Starting point is 00:09:07 and Islamo Machachev is we expected Fluffy to go in there and just run over Roman Delizze. We didn't really expect like to the level in which he did it. And most people expected Islamachchev to tackle JDM and beat him rather convincingly. and he did it a little more with the expectations a little exceeding the loftiness of it. No one saw this coming, A.K. Nobody saw it.
Starting point is 00:09:31 I'm not saying nobody expected, no one picked Yon to win because I saw people, you know, being crafty and picking Yon to win. But nobody said that Peirre Yon was going to go in there and beat the shit out of Marab de Walsh, really, and mark him up and hurt him. Not once, not twice, not three times,
Starting point is 00:09:46 but four times had this man reelin, had him hurt. Nobody saw this. coming. This was the performance of the year in MMA. In my opinion, this is one of the five best performances I've ever seen in the championship fight from anybody. This is a high regard performance. But now, AK, it's one and one. Marab thumbed up Jan in the first fight. While Marab was competitive and this is super fun, one of the 10 best fights of the year, Jan kind of dominated. I thought he won all five rounds. None of the judges agreed to me, but I thought he won 5045. It seems like we should
Starting point is 00:10:21 just go ahead and run this one back. But Pierre Rion is like, nah, bro, I had to go back and win three more fights before I could go fight for the belt. How about Marav fights Umar? And then whoever wins that fight can hop in the jacuzzi and then come fight me after. So thoughts on Jan's comments about not wanting to run this back.
Starting point is 00:10:38 Because I think he's insane for not saying, let's do this right away. Because this is one of the five most intriguing fights the UFC can make right now after how everything went down last night. Are we just immediately going trilogy? or could the UFC mix things up? If Umar goes out there, it just beats up Davis and Figurato at a bad way at UFC 24, 324, could the UFC call a little bit of an audible
Starting point is 00:10:59 and do a number one contender fight first, or are we going right to Jan Marab 3? First off, shoutouts to, I was, you mentioned, Mike, who thought Jan could win this? And I think we all, like, had a blueprint for how it could go. I don't know if we thought it would play out in such spectacular fashion, but I think we all thought he had a chance. Like we, most of if we were picking Marob, just logically. he beat him the first fight felt like he could he could copy that so there was some but yeah who who was really confident yon win is a very few people one young man who uh i will say i spoke to
Starting point is 00:11:29 shout out shout out shout us to the young man tovoy who was out there hopefully he gets a chance to watch this i spoke to some young man his peter yon his favorite fighter uh i spoke this kid earlier on saturday and he was telling me piotr yon's gonna win so if you're out there you showed me you showed us all well done uh i hope i mean like i have no problem with um making with yon and devalj really three not happening right away. I prefer it. Obviously, that is my pick. I'm just saying run it back.
Starting point is 00:11:52 That's my official ot-no pick. Because I imagine, I'm comfortable running back because I imagine both guys will probably want to take time off anyway. Like, I would like to see Marab not fight again in the next three months. I think burnout was a real thing. That was one of the storylines going in. It played out. I mean, he still looked good at times.
Starting point is 00:12:11 It didn't look like cardio was an issue. But if you're Marab and you want an excuse, yeah, listen, you're probably a little bit off if I weren't as sharp as you can. could have been you fought you fought uh four times in uh calendar year defended the title prepare for that many five round fights cut weight that many times people were saying they didn't love how he looked uh on the scale on um on friday like he didn't look you look kind of normal but it's just like it's it's always a hard cut for him so there you know there's that excuse so he may want to take him off and if i'm yon i would wait for him but if you're yon and you just
Starting point is 00:12:42 want to get paid and you want to defend in somewhere in the first uh first quarter first four months of 2026 I don't know I don't know if he takes stuff like because it still sounds like he wants to wait right if he's saying that Marvin and another should fight for their spots so I just say run it back it might not be first three months of
Starting point is 00:13:00 2026 but I think that's where they should go even if it turns out to be like a summer 2026 thing this all worked out like terrifically well for peyotryon because not only did this fight happen and not only did he win I mean they went through hell both of them, even though he just battered Marab
Starting point is 00:13:19 and Marab looks like a different human being when this fight was over. But neither of these two guys, even Marab, as freakish as he is, this dude ain't fight until the weather is like in the, consistently in the 80s. He's not fighting until the summer. And that gives John some like really interesting opportunities.
Starting point is 00:13:38 As Lazy Bed and others pointed out, if Sean O'Malley goes out there and just does Song-e-dong, like a wind is not enough. He can't just go out there when a 29, 28 or a 30-20. He needs to beat the brakes off Song-e-Dong and finish him and do a highlight reel and do the fade-away celebration. All these things need to happen. If that happens, he's getting the title shot. They're going to do Jan O'Malley 2 for the belt.
Starting point is 00:14:04 They're just going to do it. And then Marab will get the winner. And that's it. And I would pick Jan to beat Sean again. I thought he won the first fight. I don't think the second fight goes particularly well. for Sean O'Malley but because I think
Starting point is 00:14:18 Marab is going to take a break and I think everybody around Marab should like literally should basically tie him down feed him obviously and give him hydration stuff keep him bathed yes
Starting point is 00:14:30 yeah yeah let him work out and stuff like lock a bit of gym somewhere so he could train a little bit but this band should not be thinking about a fist fight for quite some time at least June July international fight week the White House card should be over
Starting point is 00:14:43 and done with that we should be like All right, Marab's about to make his 2026 debut. That's what we should be talking about. So I would love to see this one run back. I hope that's what we get next. But do not be surprised if Sean O'Malley sneaks in there. But it's got to be a spectacular performance against Sam.
Starting point is 00:15:00 Umar, if he beats Figgi? Figgi would be a weird one because we just saw him. We found fight Piotrion. Look, we just saw that maybe rematches don't always go the same way. But Figgie for sure would, I mean, if Figgie and O'Malley both won, obviously it's all the way if figgy and song both won probably still song they might throw him in there for a fresh challenger and but then if umar wins and song wins then i guess it's umar but if umar and omali win probably still o'malley or i guess depends how they get it done it's it's it's got to be
Starting point is 00:15:32 omali or marab that's what's got it's got it's got to be omali earlier than marab is like ready to come back or they're just going to hold off and and do yam marab i don't think umar again like unless umar's just like i mean he's got to do some spectacularly special uh to just jump can you imagine if he just jumps marab for a title shot after maraub beat him like at like 60% of his capability that would be rough dude maraub got a chill that's maraub's got a chill it's insane i don't see that happening so omali technically would be jumping marab too and and and and umal mara's beating him twice yeah but yab would actually like want that fight i don't He's going to call for it.
Starting point is 00:16:15 Of course. So. And I'd love to see that again. We've been calling for that rematch for a lot, you know, before Yon got the time. We've wanted to see them run that back because that first fight was so awesome. I hate that sometimes the narrative was like, oh, it was a robbery. It was a close fight. It was a close fight.
Starting point is 00:16:28 If you scored it for Yon, I have no problem. The most important thing was like, damn, that was an amazing fight. And win or lose, like, O'Malley definitely, I thought, leveled up there. Like, I think that was the fight. I still remember following social media that night and being like everyone's going. Most of it was positive for O'Malley. It was a lot of like, whoa, like, O'Malley's like, doing way better than we thought and he rocked yon like oh oh mali's legit and then he won a close
Starting point is 00:16:49 decision and the sonny was like oh oh it was a robbery i'm like how did this happen where did this come from like o'malley's legit and that fight helped him a lot so i do hope they run it back someday and for five rounds would be amazing for a guy who did for anybody who did not compete yesterday shot o'malley's the biggest winner of ufc 323 without question he's the biggest winner now he's got to come through in seven weeks time and beat zong yong if he's he just goes out and like wins a competitive decision, he's going to be fighting Umar next and, uh, bang, it'd be great for him. That's going to be a terrible night for him.
Starting point is 00:17:23 So that is, uh, Yama Rob 3 is my choice. It is your choice as well. Um, but don't be surprised if a pivot happens if shot in life does a, you know, an old school of Malley performance. Fox creative. This is advertiser content brought to you by CVS. I'm Dr. Ruth Gibartow Williams and I'm here to talk about the most underrated product in your skincare routine.
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Starting point is 00:19:36 Call main event, AK. Joshua Van is the new flyway champion of the world. it did not go the way he would have liked it did not go the way anybody would have liked it's an unfortunate way to go I'm going to reiterate something I said on the post fight show and I got a little bit of flack for it I woke up to a bunch of DMs
Starting point is 00:19:53 giving me a whole bunch of shit about this but I'm going to double down on this right here Joshua Van legitimately won the flyway title yesterday there's a legitimate win sure this is not if Pantosia if the fight started and Pantosia slipped and fell
Starting point is 00:20:07 and broke his elbow it's not a legitimate win Joshua Van created that chaos. He caught the head kick. Pantoja was off balance because he caught the head kick. It's unfortunate that he fell down in the way that he did. It's nasty. And F the UFC for showing us that angle, the replay in 700 different angles.
Starting point is 00:20:28 No one wanted to see that, you sickos. I don't know why you kept doing that. Again, it sucks ass. It went down like this. I would love to have seen this fight play out. And I cannot wait to see it again. I don't know how long Pantosia is going to be out for, okay? I just don't know.
Starting point is 00:20:46 So are we waiting to run this one back? Or did another individual in this division somehow sneak in to get the shot before Pantosia gets his run back? Mike, can I ask you? Please. Yes, he's uncontroversely the UFC champion. Is he the number one flyweight in the world? So we have not done. We will do our divisional.
Starting point is 00:21:12 So we will do our divisional rankings like a year-end one, probably sometime after the last UFC card of the year next weekend. I think for the sake, I'll go to people some a little behind the music here. I feel for the sake of like clarity or at least controversy maybe, I may have to put the hammer down and say, guys, we're all just putting band number one because he won. He's a U.C. champion. Maybe we shouldn't do that.
Starting point is 00:21:35 Oh, you're shaking your head, Mike. You think you think you will you rank, will you keep it? Pantosia ranks number one. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yes, I will. Interesting. And again, again, this is, there is a sprinkle of flukishness to this.
Starting point is 00:21:51 Yeah. But again, Josh Van created this. Him catching that kick and putting Pantosia off balance. That is why the injury occurred. That is why Pantosia fell the way he did. That's why he was off balance. It is because of what Joshua Van did in that moment that caused that to happen. So that is why I grant this as a legitimate title win.
Starting point is 00:22:09 it is not it is it's not a far win or a farce championship victory that banner deserves to go up in his man cave without question having said that that's the kind of backlash follow to all this is that when the pound for pound rankings come out josh van is going to be in our pound for pound rankings at least in mine uh but he is going to be several spots behind pantosia and when we do the divisional rankings he's going to not be i don't even know if i'm going to put him at number two A.K. I don't know. This is the tough.
Starting point is 00:22:44 This might be the toughest ranking individually that we've had since we started doing this. We've never had a situation. Like, I think even when Aljo won via disqualification, I actually, I can't remember. I don't think everyone put Aljo number one. If I had to look back, I appreciate he wasn't a unanimous number one. No, we had the most heated ranking show ever because of that. Because it was just like, dude, he cheated and broke the rules. He deserved to lose.
Starting point is 00:23:07 Right, right. He deserves to penalized. He has to lose something. thing, right, beyond just the title, maybe even as right. But then there was the other side of like, wow, Jan was, I mean, Jan was thumping Aljo. Like he was cruising. He was on his way to winning that fight. We left that night feeling that Peoria Jan was still the better fighter because a lot of that
Starting point is 00:23:23 fight played out and Jan was the snowball going downhill. And had that moment not happened, Jan would have won that fight pretty convincingly. But he didn't. He lost. And it was a clear loss because he cheated and broke the rules. This is so weird, A. because he did cause the injury, but I learned nothing from the fight. Like I took, I got nothing from it.
Starting point is 00:23:46 And it's a bummer. And obviously it's a great moment for Josh Van and his team and all of this. Like seeing him celebrate with his mom and everything, like, that was awesome. Seeing Daniel Panade is so happy after all the shit that guy's been through to like be able to hold a UFC title because his guy won it was awesome. But again, I learned absolutely nothing here. So. I want them to just go ahead and run this one right back, but we just don't know how long pants can be out for.
Starting point is 00:24:13 I had no issue with a celebration. I didn't either. I didn't think it was that bad. That was far less offensive than Bruno Faheda missing weight by three pounds. And then he was celebrating like he won a USC title when he won a fairly, like, nondescript decision over Martin Vittori. That was the most offensive celebration of night. God, goodness.
Starting point is 00:24:30 I don't even think he apologized for missing. I may have missed that part. I know Martin Santos did because, I mean, he's an ultimate fighter champion, all class all the way. I don't remember Brinofiata apologizing for him. He missed me by three pounds. He looked terrible. He looked terrible on the scale.
Starting point is 00:24:42 I mean, good for him for getting the win, but it's terrible. So yeah, I have no problem with that. I just, I just, we need to make really clear. And it's a bit confusing because if people look at our rankings right now, yes, obviously all the number one fighters are U.S. That's just kind of where we are right now. PFL has fallen out of relevance. Belator doesn't exist anymore.
Starting point is 00:25:00 So yeah, the guys, you know, the majority of the best fighters in the OC. It's just how it's been for a long time and now all the number one ranked fighters. But we will, we have to remind you, the whole point of reason we have independent rankings is that we don't want to be that, oh, well, the UFC champion is automatically the number one. And we just had that recently with Tom Aspinall and John Jones, right? We had Asperol every one for a long time, even when John Jones was undisputed number one. So this is another situation where Josh Van is the champion. Mike, as you said, many times he deserves it. He'll go down history as a as a champion.
Starting point is 00:25:32 One day he'll lose it. He'll be a former flyweight champion forever. But that does not mean he's a. is necessarily the best flyweight in the world. So I'm curious what people will land on that. I put up a little poll up, so we'll see what people think again. UFC champion, yes.
Starting point is 00:25:44 Number one. I don't know. This is not Jamal Hill winning the light heavyweight title. It's not that. I think we had Jamal Hill ranked ninth at light heavyweight. That was a lot because of me, by the way. I will say I will say I ranked him low. Yeah, it was, I mean, it was not like a paper championship,
Starting point is 00:26:04 but it was like pretty darn close just because of the. circumstances. It's not his fault. And that's a perfect example. That's the person. He earned a title. He earned a title. He was given an opportunity to fight for a title. He will go. John Hill is forever former UFC light heavyweight champion. No one can take that away from that is on his record officially forever. But does that mean he was ever the number one light heavyweight in the world? Guys, come on. Yeah. What are we doing?
Starting point is 00:26:27 I will, I will say this in terms of the matchmaking because I, I just, if I'm going on my gut here, Pantosia's not getting fan first. I think he's got to be. That was, that was, injury is so nasty man oh no no no i think he'd be out for a while pantosia's rest and recover i didn't do a match up for pentosa mike he's resting recover i think we agree yes it's tyra it's yeah it's yeah it's yeah it's when whenever he comes back that's it yes yes yes the as shot o'malley was the guy who didn't compete who was the biggest winner keoggi horaguchi is the guy who didn't compete who is the biggest loser ah gosh why'd you remind me uh because that fight makes him fighting for the belt makes absolutely no sense
Starting point is 00:27:07 and less Pantosius the guy. Like it just makes no, it makes no sense. You can't do it. You cannot jump over. He can't jump over Tetsu-Rotaira, and he certainly can't jump over a metal cop if he beats Brandon Roybalh next week. So I think they're going to go and do Tyra.
Starting point is 00:27:24 I don't know if it happens in Japan. I kind of hope they run that one, like, relatively quickly. Like, if they do something in April, Or like, dude, throw that, throw Van Tyra is the co-made event to Holloway and Olivera. Like, that's sick. That's so incredibly sick. I would love that.
Starting point is 00:27:48 So I think Tyra gets it first and Pants gets the winner. I'm going to put you on the spot. Give me some lines here. Give me some lines here. Give me some lines here. Okay, let's say, let's say it's Tyra. Let's say it's Tyra. But what is the line for Tyra event, Tyra versus Van?
Starting point is 00:27:58 I think Tyra's the favorite. Tyra's the favorite. I think MMA math, I think Van will be favorite. There's the, you know, they both fought Roy Val. That's like, I think that they both fought Roy Val and that Marino win was damn impressive. Dude, he's the, he killed Moreno. Like, that was damn impressive. That was unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:28:19 I'll say, I would favor Tyra, slightly. Okay, that would be a slight one. I'd say like minus, I wonder if they actually have opening lines for this already. I would say, like, I'd do like minus 140 for Tyra. Okay. What do you think? Uh, I would say, uh, I, I am just playing the asker here, Mike.
Starting point is 00:28:36 I don't know. I don't really have. I'm good at setting lines. I don't play the lion's setting game. I disagree. I think, okay, if I have to, I think Van would be slightly favored, but it would be close by the day.
Starting point is 00:28:47 I think a lot of money would come in on Tyra, if that were the case. Because I think, yeah, I think Tyra might open like plus 125, plus 150. So a lot of money would come in and definitely move it. Maybe it ends up closer like both guys, either pick them or like minus 110 versus minus 135. So anyway.
Starting point is 00:29:04 Mike, what about? if it's cop what if let's say let's say cop roeval actually happens let's say cop it seems unlikely but just it just annihilates roebel you know we get we you know you know how cop is when he's on a great night like oh he just looks like the best flyweight in the world let's say we get that version of cop and he either wins just an awesome like five round decision just dominates or val or actually finishes him um where do where are you line that one van versus cop yeah van versus then man minus one 160. Oh, you think there'd be a lot of confidence in him still. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:39 Cop's just so inconsistent. He is. Oh, by the way, uh, there are opening odds. Oh, what do we got? Tyra minus 150. You're right. I was close. Yeah, you were right. Wow. It's a bad online.orgia. Uh, Tyra minus 150, Pantosia minus 185 against Van and the rematch. Okay. Piotr Yan minus 185 against Marab plus 160. Damn. Godly, man. Does these lines shift quick? Wait, so wait, what is Van then? Is he plus? What's Van?
Starting point is 00:30:08 Plus one 30 against Tyra. Again, man, I would take that. I would take that. I would take that. I really would. And I like Tyra a lot. Interesting. And last one, what if?
Starting point is 00:30:17 And I know we said it sucks because this isn't going to happen. It makes no sense to make this title fight. Kioji. Van minus 200. You think Van's heavily favorite against Kioji? I don't think it's like heavily, but. Oh, wow. I actually think.
Starting point is 00:30:30 It's just because he's young and Kioji as much as I love him. He's old. But you don't think he's viewed as better than cop and, uh, Tyra? I don't know because he beat Tagir who's like, who's good. Takeer's good, he's good, but not great. Damn. He's good, but not great. Like, it was a good win.
Starting point is 00:30:49 Like, it was a good win. He beat his ass. Yeah. He did what he needed to do. And the UFC kind of saw this one coming, right? Because, like, why bring him back to, like, feed him to Ula and Beka? They saw this coming for him to, like, make his mood. and maybe they i don't think i think they're plotting this beautifully now they got dana white
Starting point is 00:31:09 going to the press conference saying hey let's go to japan now like goch is part of this whole equation it's part of the situation to go there yeah this is a strategic move but you have to you have to make gucci fight again and give me horguchi versus brandon moreno just give it to me that fight absolutely slaps i want it despite what happened last night to moreno I, that's the fight I want. Give me Horaguchi versus Moreno, and if he wins, he fights through the belt. I would, it sounds like I'm down on Joshua Van, but I just feel like I don't, I wonder how confident people are on because I would take, uh, Gucci at like,
Starting point is 00:31:46 if he's like plus 150 plus 25 and if Gucci is like a two to one underdog to Van, I would bet that in a second. I wonder, I am very curious to see what the, uh, the public confidence is in, uh, in van, but I mean, you already said, uh, apparently if it's Tyra, it's like they're leaning a little bit towards Tyra. Yeah, I don't know, but he's a freak man. Congrats to Josh Van, man. What is, what an insane, what an insane story.
Starting point is 00:32:06 What insane, like, he debuted in 2021. Pantosia was almost 30 fights into his pro career when Josh Fann debuted. He wasn't even close to, like, being in the UFC. I think, I think, I think, I think, I think Pantosha was coming off and went over a cop or something. Like, it was, it was crazy. And people want to give Kamar Uspin a title shot. Josh Fand's, like, entire careers happened since, like, Usman got, like before Usman's last win prior to the Buckley win is like Van's entire
Starting point is 00:32:39 MMA career, including the title win. That's true. There's some people have contextualized it in so many crazy ways this week. Like, if you guys listen to No Bet's Bar, I know a Long Island. I think he had a running joke. I was like, this is what this person was up to. This is what happened during Bob Loss three last saw since Joshua Van debuted. So I don't know, man.
Starting point is 00:32:56 It sucks that it went down the way it did. But it's still a, it's still a nice story, you know. And I do hope they get to run it back if only for both guys, right? because Pantosha deserves a shot of redemption and band gets his chance to prove that, hey, maybe he is the number one flyweight in the world. We just don't know definitively for sure. We just, we can't, we cannot say that for sure yet. And yes, I want, I want Horaguchi versus Moreno because it's a, it's like a fantasy
Starting point is 00:33:18 matchup. It's a dream fight for me that I've won it for so long. And if we don't do it now, we're never going to get it. I have no problem with that. I think a Moreno loses another fight. He's, I think he's going to be done. So I want to just see him, see them cash that now. so just go ahead and do it just could could marano you don't think he could give off like
Starting point is 00:33:41 some piotr yon vibes you know remember piotr i feel like this is a similar arc here right piont had that tough three-fight losing streak um and i think and and ral's marino's not looming street sorry not on a losing streak sorry he just uh had a two-fight win streak snapped but you know sort of in a slump theoretically out of the title picture depending how their their next fight goes and of course Of course, Peter Yan won three straight, came back and beat Marab. Moreno, like, even the two, like the two fights in that streak were close. I still think he beat Pantosia in their trilogy fight. You can make an argument for the Reval fight as well.
Starting point is 00:34:14 So I just don't know if he's as out of it. And like, like Jan, just like a lot younger than people think, right? He just turned 32 today. Happy birthday, Brandon, right, as we record this. Yeah, a lot of years, a lot of years competing. But Jan was the same way. So do you think, is there the chance for that arc, Mike, where he gets a title shot, maybe not this year,
Starting point is 00:34:34 but fights his way back to 2027 and sells a chance of being end again? No. Really? No. I don't know. If we were going to do that, like it's Peter Janish,
Starting point is 00:34:47 he needed to beat Daira. I don't know. If he beats Gouche, let's say they do the Gouche dream fight. He beats Gouge. He's got to win. He's got to, like, be cop next. Like, he's got to beat. I have a chance to beat cop. He's got to beat some good dudes, man.
Starting point is 00:34:59 It's tough. It's a tough. Put a bit in this. guys put a pin in this i i i let's for i don't know because i never we never counted out pierre yon if you can go back and look on our shows we never counted up peyote mike i know you didn't die there i don't think i we always we always had a caveat for every loss you know we were like um i i there was you know one of them was marraub but he just got marrabs and you know that fight has aged in an interesting way because we just saw him win the rematch so he's one he looked
Starting point is 00:35:23 if you take all 10 rounds of those you could make a strong case that yon is just like looked like the better fighter overall certainly did a lot more damage um so So, you know, we made the case for him. I'm starting the case early for Moreno. I'm not filing. I haven't filed a case, Mike, but I'm doing some early, you know, research. I'm doing some discovery here. And let's put a pin in this if that Horoguchi fight happens, which would be amazing.
Starting point is 00:35:46 If he beats Gouche, guys, all you guys, all you assassin baby fans, we'll talk about this. We'll gather and we'll start, like, putting the data together and saying, what does he have to do next to get on that Yon redemption arc? A lot. A lot. There's only 32. Go fight Kyoji, man. He should, he should. That's the one.
Starting point is 00:36:05 In Japan? Oh, man, I did it in Japan. Oh my God, the card you're so hype. Peyton Talbot, AK. Oh. We're jumping all over the place here. Yeah. Peyton Talbot beat Henry Suhudo, convincingly.
Starting point is 00:36:18 Very fun fight. So good. So good. So good win for Peyton. This was so easy to me. I'm just, I'm putting myself in the UFC shoes, and there's only one fight you can make right now. it's Cheater.
Starting point is 00:36:31 Yeah. It's Cheetah. I, my first instinct, we got kind of a legend killer thing going here. What's that? Got kind of a legend killer thing going here, I guess. It's a ranked guy too, top 15 guy. Like if you're, if they're trying to move him into the top 15, that that's the way to go. What's my first choice?
Starting point is 00:36:51 But I leaned away from it, Mike. I leaned away from it. Only because I just don't want to overdo the legend killer thing. Like I know it makes sense. He's the young gunner. you know we had him fight a veteran not a legend i'd say but a veteran or how many borsellus didn't go his way and now we're sort of back on track two straight wins Philippi lema win was also great um i'm going i want to erase a previous dude to pick for one thing
Starting point is 00:37:13 i had the stupid montel jackson day on marcos rematch which made no sense um i kind of want to see him fight montel jackson it would i get it huge huge drop off and hype and storyline from the sehudo thing i mean i know a lot of people would be like there'd be a lot of who's a who oh who's my who's montel jacks I still like Montel Jackson. I still think he's a tough test. I have him in my top of Dean. I think he's also, I want to say he's like 12 or 13 in the UFC's official rankings. Let me glance real quick.
Starting point is 00:37:41 No, I'm crazy. He's not ranked because he's Montel Jackson and he, he, uh, dropped a stink bomb in his last fight. They gave him, they gave him the chance. They gave him the fight. And he was just like, no, I'm just not going to do anything. Mike, we can't. We can't do this again.
Starting point is 00:37:55 We can't do this again. It was, guys, listen to our post fight show, are on to the next one shot that we were so, Well, I think we actually, you and I actually did the post-fight show after that card. And it was like, oh, God, we were so, so sad. Such disappointed parents of Montel Jackson. Yeah. Disappointed dads. I don't love the Montel fight because he could go, like, Montel could go out there and beat him.
Starting point is 00:38:14 Sure, he could. And that's just so bad. That's okay. Oh, no, it's not okay. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not invested. Listen, in the, oh, well, we have to build Peyton Talbot as a title as a tug. I still think he's in this phase where he could, he could stand to win, lose, learn from some fights. I don't need to vault him into the top of dean
Starting point is 00:38:33 after beating Henry Sehudo because Henry Suhudo sucks. I'm so I'm so sorry, guys. You know what? Wow. I'm sorry. I'm just keeping some of the same energy. Drop kicking this man on the way up the door. You and I have had this energy for many years since the comeback.
Starting point is 00:38:47 But no, if we're being honest, yeah, Suhudo looked great. Listen, he was just waiting a younger, faster, bigger guy, right? Because Sehudo was landing some shots that, I don't know, in his prime, in a different day, might have actually hurt Talbot more. Sudo, I think, has one of the all-time great chins. Like, I don't know if we talk about it enough. I mean, even his one knockout loss was the body shot, right?
Starting point is 00:39:07 The body shot to DJ. But as far as, like, taking just haymakers, Sudo's really, really tough to hurt. And I'm so happy for him that he got to go out the way he wanted to. A loss that he can look back on with pride. So really good for Sudo. We poke fun in him a lot. And, you know, it's a classic love and Bahadena situation.
Starting point is 00:39:26 You have to respect how he went out. But to me, that Winn doesn't. it doesn't merit, like, giving Peyton the hard push. I know that's a fight a lot of people saw. So a lot of people might have seen Peyton for the first time, be like, yeah, this guy's legit. Let's push him to the moon. Like, give me a couple more.
Starting point is 00:39:43 Give me a couple more 10 to 20 guys. And I know that includes Cheevera, so I'm fine with it. But, like, I'm just not ready to go wild on Talba yet. But he could be a future champion of future star. I saw some people suggest you should fight Corey Sannaghan. I'm like, are you the highest people I've ever seen. No way. how dare you he's not ready for that yet no he's not ready for
Starting point is 00:40:02 chito seems perfect because of like all the ranked dudes that he could fight right now this is probably the most winnable for him only because chito doesn't like to actually do anything in fights these days it's very strange watching this man compete um but does but still like does just enough to stay competitive at every fight it's very very very strange um there's two other names that i'm thinking about i think rob font would make sense but i could see rob going out there and just beating talbot like there is a world where that happens i will i will say if we're not going to ranked like super duper vet route
Starting point is 00:40:45 thoughts on these okay patent talbot versus bryce mitchell uh i as a rule just don't match make for bryce given his shenanigans which is probably really nice way of putting it uh but yes no that that makes a ton of sense that makes a ton of sense that makes a ton of sense It was on my radar, for sure, for sure. And here's the other one, okay. Peyton Talbot versus Patchy Bix. I was literally looking at that name. How dare you?
Starting point is 00:41:10 How dare you? You are on the older fighter sacrifice tour. You are a sick man. I mean, just ring, literally just ring whatever's left Apache Bix out on the altar of Peyton Talbot. No, we're turning Peyton into eccentric Patty Pimblet now. We're going to get those stupid ass graphics. Because if people were like, here's the record of Peyton Talbot's last three opponents.
Starting point is 00:41:31 Oh, we're not like we're past the building patchy mix to a contender. No, this is true. It's over. Like it's dead. It's dead in the water. Like, do you want to build? Do you want to ring out whatever's left by giving him to Farid Basharat, which is fine. Like, Fareed's good.
Starting point is 00:41:50 Or do you want to give it Peyton Talbot who can like gain something even more from this? And you could build up him into a star. in a lot of ways. I'm being patient. I'm being patient with Tapp. I like the guy a lot. So Patchy's a good, then Patchy's good.
Starting point is 00:42:05 I just don't know if that does anything for him, though. I don't know if that means anything anymore. He'll smoke Patchy. I know, but again, I'm telling you, you're going to start getting Patty talk that he's like,
Starting point is 00:42:13 oh, he's just being protected, and they're just giving him older guys who haven't won fights in X amount of years. And I don't agree with that because I don't agree with the Patty criticism either. I actually think Patty's resume is stronger than people, like, give him credit for.
Starting point is 00:42:23 But people who frankly, like, just don't watch the fights or just don't care, we'll point to these numbers and say, oh, they're only putting out against guys who can't win fights anymore and blah, blah, and that sucks because that's not, because I don't think that's true. Because like I said, Sehudo looks great on Saturday. But these are the narratives that you risk creating if you keep kind of putting, it with Cheeto Vera as well, right?
Starting point is 00:42:40 It would be with Cheeto Vera as well. It just hasn't looked, has not looked amazing, right? So I get it. I get giving him names because you're right. You could totally build Tobit into a star really quick with like within the next 18 months. Like we're talking a guy who could be in the top, like top seven, eight, if you give him the right names. But I just don't, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:42:55 I don't feel the rush. I don't feel the rush to do that yet. But he looks real good, though. Yeah, the Lima win was great because that was like a tough fight, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see people saying in the, yeah, Lima. I'm not, I'm not counting Lima on this. Obviously, I'm not counting Lima on this. I'm just saying I don't want to start this trend now with, like,
Starting point is 00:43:11 Sehudo and then Cheeto and then, you know, grab some other old patchy mix. I don't know. Like, I don't want to start that trend. Yeah. And just to be fair, just to be fair to like kind of devil's advocate this thing. Payton was offered like a lot of dudes for the MSG car. like a lot of like up and coming ranked guys said yes to all of them and everybody else said no everybody else so like after saying yes to multiple rank contenders some of which don't have high volume name
Starting point is 00:43:39 value uh they were like all right go fight henry and he's like bet i'll take that sweet and this worked out perfectly this was beautiful match this was beautiful matchmaking it really was even even if sehudo had won it would have been a really nice moment right like i and i hopefully sehudo would have stuck to his retirement even if you want because then you know who who you know so few people get to go out in a win so that would have been really nice but uh i think it worked out for the best for the uc's future obviously having payton deliver the way he did and again look it was not a sad performance by sehudo he didn't beat some whipped mule here and like just send him away now man sehudo made him earn that shit that was uh that was impressive stuff so uh mike uh i guess we're
Starting point is 00:44:14 not going to the last fight so now's the time to say older fighters winless on the main card winless on the main card man like uh even even the main event marab's a couple years older than peyoteur yon so 04 and 1 obviously you know we're not matching for blockovitz and uh guskov so uh blockovitch 42 years young but they're about to be 43 in february couldn't get the win i was so proud of him last night so much i had so much fun watching that because jeds like literally jeds entire fantasy hopes was riding on boggut that was so funny jane like dropping him at the end of round three was like the best j ed i had so much fun immediately said in our slack how did i get no points out of this somehow like he was like how did this happen but uh yeah merino is what uh seven years older than
Starting point is 00:44:59 tyra pentosia is like 10 11 years older than uh roy vile so damn man the young guys showed out and it was a rough night for the older fighters you know it was a rough night for the older fighters so yeah that's how it goes man's not a young man's game especially the lighter weight classes right this this card was kind of a showcase for the lighter weight classes and it tends to tilt towards youth saw a lot of that it's a lot of that Saturday Right now is the AI Gold Rush. And that means everybody who builds an app, a platform, a piece of software, a gizmo, that's somebody, anything. Everybody is trying to put AI everywhere.
Starting point is 00:45:36 And for two weeks in a series on the Vergecast, we are talking through what that looks like. We're talking to developers about what they're building and how they're building it. And whether AI actually does make sense everywhere or is just going to ruin everything in the process. That's the AI miniseries on the Vergecast, wherever you get podcast. This series is presented by MongoDB. Having a smart home is a cool idea, but kind of a daunting prospect. You have to figure out which devices to buy, how to connect them all together. It's all just a lot.
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Starting point is 00:46:33 Let's go to the Wild Card Round, A.K. One fighter has not matched made for yet. And let's matchmate for him right now. So who'd you go with? Mike, I feel like we should have done a separate segment just on the lightweights. I mean, these guys showed out. You know, Manuel Torres, Chris Duncan,
Starting point is 00:46:51 uh for s ziam the returning jalen turner somehow still fighting 155 i'd love to see him move up but i'm feeling he's sticking out for at least one more fight after that performance you know he'd be a veteran right talk about again one other older fighter who went down hard um i've i picked uh fres zm out of this mix i think he's my favorite to be a lightweight like actual title challenger in the somewhat near future i would go if i'd do a power ranking zium torres duncan no you know yeah ziam torres duncan turner you could definitely sneak duncan turner up a few spots higher uh i just i really want to see more of him in his out of retirement state whatever that means he was gone for like a normal a normal fight length um break so uh i'm going on ziam i would love to see ziam get the winner of the uh just
Starting point is 00:47:38 announced physique hoofy that's going down at uh 325 i i would love to see him fight that and if he beats one of those guys man ziam's top 10 this guy's so legit he's so well-rounded he's he's a finisher um he can grind out decisions like he's just i think he has all the makings of a guy who could be top five and fight for a title someday but um i don't know mike i don't know if you went with one of the other wimpy fibrous because they they were those fights were spectacular if if if zeev like beats hoofy and then has to fight zm like that's just ridiculous guy steps in fights gaichi gives him a competitive fight then he has to fight baha mondays yeah rufe and ferez back to back to back that's wild
Starting point is 00:48:18 absolutely insane uh i'd watch the shit out of it but wouldn't be my uh my go-to but yeah lightweight rules it's the best division in the sport it's one of the toughest divisions in all of sports i just went with like kind of the low-hanging fruit here and i don't just suppose to just threw this out so i'm just going to go ahead and say the same thing um you have to do macy barber versus erin blanchfield but you have to do it uh erin as good as she is She is not super interesting. There are very few times where everyone's like, oh, I have to cancel my Saturday plans to watch Aaron Blanchfield fight.
Starting point is 00:49:00 And I'm not saying this to like that she's a bad fighter. There's just, she's just not over. She's just like the hardcore fans know her and appreciate her. She has no casual appeal whatsoever. And there's no real other fight that like interests the fan. base that Aaron could be involved in more than Macy because of the history. And for Macy, it's really two options here if you're the UFC. You give her Blanchfield, which is a rivalry fight and a competitive fight in an interesting
Starting point is 00:49:35 fight. I would pick Aaron Blanchfield to win, but I would like to see it. Or you give her Mennon and Mennon is going to literally eat Macy Barber. That fight is not close. menon absolutely mollywaps macy barber in a fist fight like that if minon is not minus 300 i am betting everything on her um it's just such a one-way traffic fight uh after what i said i know she went she's coming off the long layoff and everything but like karine just like kind of out-hossing her at certain points of that fight like minon is just got a killer so i don't
Starting point is 00:50:14 want to really see that fight uh like kind of looking at the macy perspective now mason goes out there beats blanchefield and like does it impressively sure then i'm then i'm a little more into the minon fight but if you just throw her anything with manon it's got to go real bad man it's going to go real bad and i know i'm going to tell you right now exactly what macy's going to do she's going to call for rose who's already booked or she got a call for alexa grasso who is hurt and we don't know when she's coming back that's who she's got a call for she should have jumped on that microphone and said erin blanchefield i'm coming bitch and then like boom even if that fight like doesn't happen even if erin's like no i'm not fighting you after everything you did
Starting point is 00:50:57 the perception is erin is avoiding macy that's the perception that's everything has changed and just one call out you dodged the bullet plansfield does the bullet last time plansfield yeah yeah sure yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah After all that. Lazy Betts saying, I do not want to see Barbara versus Blanchefield 2. Not one IOT.
Starting point is 00:51:18 You didn't see Barbara versus Blanchfield 1. It got, we didn't see. It didn't happen. You got booked. It didn't happen. We're hours away from it happening.
Starting point is 00:51:27 Yeah. So, yeah, let's go ahead and do that and that's a lot of fun. All right. For the next, I don't know, 12 minutes or so.
Starting point is 00:51:33 Yeah. Mike, let me, let me read, actually, let me read a listener. I owe this person a message. Let me also,
Starting point is 00:51:41 and let me put the prompt out here and tell people, send us your picks guys send us your picks send us your picks so let's get let's let that populate a little bit here I know I know some people party already sent some in keep it coming guys I just want to say our pal is Zach Schultes he wants to ought no points which normally I have points yeah well normally I wouldn't care this was actually he sent me this last week but um this man had time stamps
Starting point is 00:52:03 timestamps and quotes so I'll read this real quick Zach said I'm sure a lot of people have requested ought no points for the booking of Biggie was Umar how many are coming with quotes and timestamps excuse me guys uh after the real card i booked figgy versus umar when loser draw after rotee symbols people are booking either loser the fight booking the matchup 321 my direct response mike apparently was uh zach i hate this even more i'll be honest i just don't like it apparently was very against umar versus figgy i don't know maybe it's the timing wasn't right for me but you know what zach you were right take your point uh i i i was uh i i that's that's
Starting point is 00:52:39 pulling a receipt right there that's checking the tapes this man literally checked tapes and thus i will definitely deserve nice uh jimmy lloyd wants a point for the people's made event of the year at ufc 325 uh jimmy says and i quote i can't tune into otno lie but i demand in bold letters i demand my points now now that the curtain jerker of all jerkers finney versus malcoon is official stop it this man did you did you go back and check the tapes did you look back and did he like quote tweet himself or quote his own message or something on instagram and this man predicted finney versus mal coon apparently that is who's this person again uh jimmy lloyd you're a twisted sort my friend i'll just say that you're
Starting point is 00:53:23 a twisted story and and on his on his debut stop a k his debut the welcome to the party pal april 6th 2025 otno picks first time ought noer but long time listener be gentle Lorone Murphy versus Volk Lopez loser, Sabatini versus Woodson Ege loser, Lee versus Hione Barcellos, Tavares versus Joe Pfeiffer, O'Day Osberg versus Sue Medergy, Finney versus Jacob Malcoun. That is unbelievable. Incredible. And that might end up being the worst fight of 2026.
Starting point is 00:53:58 Not heavyweight division, not heavyweight division. That would be maybe the worst. And I love Torres Spini, but boy, they keep fighting just the funkiest matches for him. this is this is a plus word i don't know who was i don't know was sean chelby or mcmaynard or dana white himself who came down on high and and put this one together but uh sterling stuff i i cannot wait for 6th he put this out into the universe april 6th april 6th his first ever ought no submission he predicted torres fiddy versus jacobel kuhn un friggin believable standing ovation you get the point jesus the point uh left lane wants a partial point to um not going to be able to make
Starting point is 00:54:39 show for time reasons but claiming my small portion of a not no point for hooker versus b sd and probably a slightly bigger portion for alex bres versus charles johnson sure sure yeah i think we saw hooker versus bcdhsie was a very popular pick that's true so everyone out there who picked that we see we see you shout out to you well done yes all right let's party here Uh, Tristan, Nizem Satikov versus Chase Hooper, Manuel Torres, Ignacio Bahamundas two, Chris Duncan versus Eileen Turner, Vresium versus Hanato Moikato. Uh, forrest, okay, yes. Uh, sorry, I was just saying, I want to see how far was the, the big Bahamundo's fight? Um, last year, yeah, yeah, first noche. Yeah, it's still a little too soon for me, especially since I think both guys have a lot of interesting matches. I'd love to see it again, goals guys are great fighters. I mean, super exciting. matchup but I think you can kind of keep them away from each other for for now so yeah i don't know what's on a nice run bahamundas is lost yeah great fight great fight yeah he lost of his
Starting point is 00:55:37 eve um yeah let's let's get bahamundas may not be long for lightweight to begin with mike can you can you see this caught well sorry uh we'll read this one next uh david mccaslin dominant cruise versus any good m mama takes can we can we talk about this and i know I know this is what he, hold on, let me put it this way. I know this is what Dominic Cruz wants. He wants us on our podcast talking about his takes, talking about his show. He has his own podcast now, which, by the way, his podcast is actually pretty excellent. I mean, he's had some home run guests.
Starting point is 00:56:11 I mean, seeing him in Faber, seeing him in T.J. And Aljo, obviously, it's, like, just really cool to see him with one, two of his rivals. And then, you know, a guy like Aljo, who's always a pretty, I think, like, I don't know, doesn't have the best takes, but has a lot to say in a podcast for sure. But the T. But the T. And a favorite podcast are both awesome. So congrats to Dom. I actually think his podcast is really good so far.
Starting point is 00:56:29 We'll see when like the rivalry guest well runs out if it maintains it. But I think he's very good job. He does not need to do these kind of takes to get attention to himself or his podcast. If anyone didn't see, he essentially said Pantosia should have been able to continue or at least given the option to continue. It was very weird. I did not understand what did he not watch the fight or something? Like it was Pantosia himself who clearly looked at the referee and was like, oh no. I'm definitely hurt.
Starting point is 00:56:57 I'm clearly hurt. That was a, that, that, it's December. And we somehow got like the worst on May take of the year, right? That was crazy. I couldn't, once that was brought to our attention on the watch party, I couldn't avoid it. That was crazy.
Starting point is 00:57:13 The best part, and Jed said it, I'll, I'll credit him for this. The best part about that tweet was the spelling of a loud. Oh, is it? He did A-L-O-U-D? Oh, yeah. Reckless of Band. Reckles abandonment, Dom. Dom, you are a great, like,
Starting point is 00:57:30 you are a great mind when it comes to MMA. Don't do this. Don't become one of these take guys. Please do not. You don't need to do this. His show is so brilliant because, like, everybody hates them. So, like, he'll always find, like,
Starting point is 00:57:40 rivals to be on with. It's really, really a great gimmick. But then they grow to respect him. You have a conversation with the man, and then you grow to respect him. But this is, this was just, this wasn't even, like, a bad take. It's just, it's so, it's hilarious.
Starting point is 00:57:54 It's really hilarious. And just seeing everyone just rip them to shreds. And I respect the shit out of it because... We're talking about it, Mike. He still hasn't deleted it. And he won't. He won't delete it. He's going to triple down on this.
Starting point is 00:58:08 It's the best. Got tuned into his podcast to get his reaction to our reaction. There you go. Yeah. It worked. It worked. He's setting this up. He's setting this up beautifully.
Starting point is 00:58:18 Anikinsky wants Klein versus Duncan. Good fight. Yep. Bozis is Peodor Yan versus Amin's a hobby. You know what? Joseph, there's one, you are now the third, you're one of three people in the world who want to see this fight. And I'm talking about, it's you, Amen, and Faraz.
Starting point is 00:58:34 No one else wants this. I think, I think our pal Aaron Bronsteader is also kind of interested in it. I think he's, I think he got, he got a, he talked to. And he talked to Amy. I mean, what have I said? Like, like, even if I didn't agree with it, I'd still be like, yeah, because that's just who you're supposed to be as a, as a colleague and a teammate. But come on.
Starting point is 00:58:53 Come on. We're not doing this right now. I didn't want to see him in a hobby fight Peyton Talbot at this point. Because he might just go in there and just beat him. One more win for a minute. I think he's there. Jared, Jan Marabh three, Van Taira, Moreno Kioji, my man, Talbot, Vera, Torres Boycano, Duncan Turner, Zem Baham, Baja Mondays, Iwo, Ion, again?
Starting point is 00:59:20 We're just running it back. Iwo-Ew-O-I-O-O-Lava. Kuchilava. See how confusing it is with Iwo and Iwan and Yvonne and I don't know what they're doing But everybody is barboza Jim Miller by the way Jalen Turner versus Terrence McKinney is my everything now I have to see it this fight I think that's actually perfect I think it's actually perfect I don't know who I saw last I think it's probably some random tweet or reply or something but it was like oh Terence McKinney is the kind of guy like he's never going to be a contender of blah you know I don't give up they should say there it's one they should sign
Starting point is 00:59:53 Terrence McKinney to a 10 year contract a 10 year no cut no cut no cut contract to they just signed 20 more Terrence McKinney's because the dude is so just you know exactly what you're going to get he is the we call a lot of people get or get got guys Mike he is the get or get got guy number one in the last like two years like he I think it's last seven fights all in the first round you know exactly where it's going people I think Jed was calling Chris Duncan crazy because he just like kind of stood with Terrence McKin's like yeah like bring it and I'm like Whoa, what the hell is Chris Duncan doing? And he almost paid for it.
Starting point is 01:00:24 He got hurt, like real bad. But again, Terrence is never going to fight safe. He's always going to, if he sees a chance for a finish, he's just going, man. And we love that about Terrence. So I hope health permitting, one, I don't want this guy to have long-term health issues. So health permitting, I hope Terrence gets to keep doing what he's doing. He's just so fun to watch. I love every time this guy's in the cart.
Starting point is 01:00:42 Yeah, Terrence beat Ferrez. He did. It's such a great win. Great win. That win is aged spectacularly. Man. Yeah. i love dude i got to see give me give me turner versus mckinney it's it's incredible uh
Starting point is 01:00:58 torres versus boycana or benille van versus tyra in houston i wonder where you're from brandon no but i mean i i uh i wonder where you're from he just garrs he's sure he wants a title fight he what he found out they're going to I know. I mean, they book Sean Strickland Fluffy Hernandez, but, you know, Van versus Tire would obviously jump that as the main event. I get where you're coming from. I would love, I would love Van. Because, you know, Van, fans out of there as well, right?
Starting point is 01:01:28 And I would love for him to get a title fight, but it's not a pay-per-view, right? Houston's not a favorite view, right? No, it's a fight-night. Man, they got to start putting title fights back on these fight-night cards, right? Because we said, you and I, we keep saying Aspinall, right? Aspinall is God, defendant London. It doesn't sound like it's going to happen because the eye, but if he were able to, it would have made so much sense. but God, they're so adamant.
Starting point is 01:01:48 But maybe the Paramount Arrow will be different, Mike, because it's just like, it's not really selling pay-per-views anymore. Yes, there's numbered events and then there's fight nights and everything else. But what? Do we need to keep such a hard line still? Like, I understand.
Starting point is 01:01:58 Why does the U.S. still need to keep such a hard line and say only numbered events get teloshots? Like, I don't like, I don't know. I don't get it. Because I think that'd be really cool. Yeah. Duke, Torres versus Gamrot
Starting point is 01:02:10 in the Mexico main event. Ooh. I like, yeah. Mr. Main Event. Matush Gamrott? How about that? Duncan versus Darius. Give me a line, Mike.
Starting point is 01:02:20 Give me a line for Duncan, Darius. Duncan minus 175. Damn. That's, it should be higher, though. It's it for, he's kind of, he's at the end, in the Derry or Mr. Eush. I mean, Duncan just has to touch him and that fights over. Oh, gosh. He has been knocked out a lot, at least lately on this.
Starting point is 01:02:40 I mean, Darius hit, I mean, BSD hit him with like 10% of his power and killed him. Oh. it was it was pretty wild that's a good matchup good match up uh du gos likes turn over spadia nizim versus rebechki god nzzee versus rebechki uh can we who's like can we do rebechki versus grant dawson can we give this man like a little bit of a breather from like getting hit in the face really like can we just do that pretty wild uh a lot of dom cruise love marvin vettori versus izzie too it actually be isy too it actually be isy three extra and oh how soon we forget how soon we forget extoran man but marvin's in a weird
Starting point is 01:03:23 place marvin's in a weird place like i just feel like he shouldn't even had to take this fight but that's no excuse i get it he he he's he agreed to fight he lost you know it's it's it's still counts but man uh boy four straight loss he should have taken it because that that's about as winnable of a yeah that's about as winnable of a fight as there could have been for him true and he just like he cheeto varied a lot of that fight yes where he he like when he did stuff he he was successful and then he was just like eh and all you can hear watching the fight like outside of the it got to a point where i didn't couldn't even hear the commentary anymore all i heard was the ATT coaches in marvin's corner just screaming at him to do stuff
Starting point is 01:04:00 like i felt bad for Marvin to some degree i'm just like these guys are just screaming at him how can he even focus at this point but yeah he's at a really weird spot but i don't think he's like super expensive and he's not in like hasn't been in like an awful fight in a while i mean the roman deletes a fight was pretty bad but he got fighting the night on a card headline by max holloway and dust and porre that's got to tell you something the apex in these main events mike the apex needs main events you know when when dna's sitting at his lavish home in las vegas not traveling on the road you know he loves to watch himself in marvin vittoria headlining the apex dc c cackling at a schoolboy during ewo versus ebo is hilarious i've been pretty clear i don't love
Starting point is 01:04:42 color anymore. Yeah. I just feel like he's so he is so distanced from like what the sport is now, but the reason why he sits in that chair is exactly this exactly. Yes. He was in, he was all of us watching Ewo versus Ebo. Like nothing to say, just laughing Bella. That's exactly what I was doing. Yeah. And it was awesome. I love that. And that's why like, every time, i get a little down on dc i remember moments like this and i'm like yes it was it was so good spectacular stuff what else we got marmatorre should be cut how dare you uh vittory versus cost to build up still one of my all-time baves yeah that was insane and the weight class was completely being changed man vittoris had to put up a lot of crap
Starting point is 01:05:34 i'll tell you with some of these opponents barboza versus drew dover oh it might be time god the uh the the older veterans edition right man it might be time that's someone's going to get hurt real bad that might be a loser leaves town or loser hangs up the clause i know i know neither guy would say that going into the fight but man i don't know how much more damage that these guys can take this is yeah they have been in wars absolute wars the jim miller idea i didn't mind either so all right i think uh i think we've done our thing here we did uh we will obviously have more discussion on this card but we will be back next week our final otno of 20 Oh, our final matchmaking on, no, because we're rolling into my favorite time of the year on this program.
Starting point is 01:06:20 The predictions extravaganza, which is a two-parter, my favorite part is going back and listening to the year's prior prediction show, going through all of our buyer sell takes, predicting who would be champions, et cetera, seeing who did the best. And then this is where you guys all come in. A lot of you've been doing this throughout the year. start compiling your very interesting buy or sell questions uh for prediction show heading into 2026 make them fun not just oh cona mcgregor will cona mcgregor fight buy or sell conan mcgregor file sell john jones john jones sell i've i've sold that stock for the last like three or four years and i'm i'm rich i'm rich and not no dollars all right selling every time the overrun during how many times will these guys fight yeah like let's let's
Starting point is 01:07:12 have some phone with it someone someone submitted a question earlier that like it's not going to make the cut because of the timing uh it was like someone wrote some of the ascent of um what number will be higher a game that's the amount of three step curry hits in a game like most or how many takedowns marab gets against peter yam like that's the kind of stuff like we're looking for uh so submit them you know how to do that you can do them on instagram hit up our emails things of that nature and then next week uh we're talking ufc is this one 12 Vegas 112 Vegas 112 back at the world's most famous apex 10 p.m main card by the way never again never again literally never again uh which is great brandon roi valman al cop
Starting point is 01:07:58 at least the slated main event uh co-main of a giga chicade versus kevin valetho's Cesar versus Caesari. Alameda versus Alexe-Zechuk. We got Morgan Chariere versus Melchie Costa. That's really good. That's a really good thing. Kennedy Njuchuku versus Marcus Buccce. Soon to be replaced by Waldo Cortez-A-Costa versus Marcus Buccecha
Starting point is 01:08:19 after Kennedy suffers a non, non, you know, seriously injurious like toes is toe or something. And then just fine, enjoy his holidays. That would be the funniest fight at all time. Amanda Lemosch facing Team Heck's own Jillian Robbins. who is playing with house body here this should end this should end up on the main card can we put this in the main card instead of it is on the main card okay i have to see they probably haven't finalized yet this better be on the main card because i think it is this fight actually has mean has stakes like meaningful stakes joannes and brittow versus melcdzarin oh wow another good fight okay speaking of a fight that should be on the main card how about the ufccily amos taking on neil magni that's next week that's next week sean sherah versus stephen aspline one of those guys get hurt waldo is just a phone phone call away baby luana santos versus melissa croden women's ban of wait is coming back folks alan fry versus giarmie pat don't know who either these two guys are but they're fighting sorry and teresa bleda versus jamie lynn horth a lot of canadian representation at the apex
Starting point is 01:09:22 a k guys if you like betting overs who these prelims oh my god it might be you might just if you want to parlay seven prelim overs you honestly like this is wow at least the first four the first four fights man i this is this boy and amosov and magnate god i jeez i mean unreal damn anyway that's you know what not bad kind of intriguing and it not bad i i think we said this earlier this week but like kind of the nice little this is the way you know to end the year just we're just we're just sitting back or let's kind of chill it you know yeah after what happened at 323 i don't give a shit with this card looks like it's so much fun last night uh but we'll we'll matchmake we'll get your suggestions one
Starting point is 01:10:05 last time for 2025, and then we'll roll into prediction season. So for A.K. I, Micah, thank you so much. Thank you for following along with our coverage. Shout out to the great Jose Youngs, who travels home from Las Vegas tomorrow for all his hard work. And we'll see you next week here. On to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Support for this show comes from Odu.
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