MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Alex Pereira, Jiri Prochazka After UFC 303?

Episode Date: June 30, 2024

Alex Pereira appears to have many options in front of him, and the path he ends up choosing could be a fascinating one. After brutally knocking out Jiri Prochazka in the main event of UFC 303 and putting his light heavyweight rival behind him for good, does "Poatan" remain as a 205-pounder, or does he go for a third title? 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 Pereira following another sensational performance in an event saving appearance. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Prochazka after falling to 0-2 vs. Pereira, Diego Lopes after his gutsy win over super short notice opponent Dan Ige in the co-main event, Roman Dolidze after shutting down Anthony Smith, Macy Chiasson following her doctor's stoppage TKO win over Mayra Bueno Silva, Ian Machado Garry after defeating Michael Page, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just... Speaking into the void. But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching. the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them, in fact. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title?

See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of Ones. to the next one. We are live following

a wild, wacky and weird UFC 303 event, which ended with a sensational knockout, another one, to the resume for one Alex Pereira. He remains the light heavyweight champion. Knocks out Yuri Parashka in the second

round. The co-main event, absolutely bananas, how we got to that fight. And the rest of the card kind of happened, and we'll discuss the futures of some of those fights. on today's program. And joining me, I'm Mike Heck, by the way, is the co-host, the co-matchmaker,

the Prince of Positivity. It's my best friend, gosh darn it. He's Mr. Alexander Cayley. A.K., how morning? Did you get any sleep? It's me. I got a little bit of sleep, my best friend. Thank you for asking.

This is why we're so close. But I didn't really need it. All I was doing was thinking about onto the next one the next day, thinking about the exciting Osprea highlight that we got yet another, the legend continues. And also what I actually thought was a pretty decent card.

I saw a lot of people dragging it online. And justifiably so, I think we had a few, at least a handful of fights that we were kind of like, either they weren't particularly entertaining or they felt just pointless. Like DeLie Smith, I think, you know, wasn't a fight anyone was asking for. And it played out in a pretty dull fashion. There was some, but we got some good early prelims. I think we got some great highlights. Like this wasn't one of the best.

pay-per-views of the year probably it's like mid-tier i guess right in the middle uh and i think if you spend five figures to see this card if you were there live probably wasn't the best time but again i think but i think for those of us chilling at home and just tuning in for what we got i thought i thought it was pretty good it's pretty good again not an amazing show but good i had a good time yeah it was it was fine like brock lesnar said it on the ultimate fighter the ufc made chicken salad out of chicken shit here I mean, they really did. They lost the biggest star in the history of the sport in his return fight.

They put together a fight that the build almost made us forget that Connem Regger was going to be fighting because of all the spiritual stuff that happened. It just made things like really, really interesting. And then the Diego Lopez, Brian Ortega saga, although wasn't a tremendous look for Brian Ortega, at least that's how we reacted to it. It created something to talk about on Friday. And then freaking Dan Igay stepping in on like three hours, notice to fight Diego Lopez and the whole build and what the production team was able to do to

pull that off and what both guys are able to do in that fight. Very, very cool, incredible stuff. We got a finish in the women's band-of-weight division, AK. I mean, not a lot of people saw that one coming, and that fight was actually a pretty entertaining main card fight. It was probably, maybe it wasn't the most entertaining, but it was up there. It was definitely more entertaining than the Bichato-Garry MVP in the role of the lead day Anthony Smith fight.

those two just beat the soul out of each other until the fight was over. I've seen more good women's bantamweight fights in the last two years than I've seen heavyweight fights. I'm just going to throw that out there. I'm just going to throw that out there. Yes, Andre Arlowski and Martin Moudai. Perfect example. That fight happened. According to Dana White, that was Andre Arloffsky's last fight.

We'll see. And yeah, a whole bunch of stuff happens. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to matchmake for the main eventors, all the main card winners. We'll select a wild card and then we'll do sort of a rapid fight. fan submission round. So leave them in the comments. We ask for it if we talk about a specific fight or a specific fighter.

You can leave your comments in there. Super Chatters get to the top. We'll throw comments up on the screen. We'll discuss. We'll get after it. And let's start with Alex Pereira, who, like we said, looked real good in this fight despite coming in on two weeks notice, despite coming in a little dinged up with the toe injuries.

And he looked better than ever last. night. He just kind of stifled Yuri Parashka throughout this. Lated a big knockdown in the final seconds of round one. When Parashka hit the ground, I thought the fight was over, but dude is an absolute demon and was able to at least get back to his stool. And then he got kicked into an oblivion, literally seconds into round two. Just, man, within a 10 second span of actual fighting action, those two knockdowns were absolutely brutal from Alex Pereira. And the last one was the end of the fight. Parash goes at big, big trouble. He, the way he reacted after the knockdown, just some scary stuff. We hope he's okay. But now, A.K., Alex Pereer is in a really interesting position because

the UFC owes him a lot of favors right now. He is in a great standing with the company. And I kind of feel like Alex Pereer can choose his own story here. He can remain at light, heavyweight. He could fight Maga bin al-Ainkelaif. He could fight somebody else in that division if he so chooses or he could say F that let's go for history I'm 36 years old I'm here for a good time not here for a long time going after that third belt what do you think happens here like it's a different thing I think for what we would like to see happen and what could actually happen what do you think actually happens here it should be maga and Goliath you know it should be and I think we've matched these two up several times on this show after Magamund's win

or after Alex Padera's wins. It just makes the most sense. But Magumet has been on the shelf for a bit now. I'm not entirely sure Dana White knows who Maguette is, other than the guy who he feels like he had a terrible fight with Jan Blakovitz, which was not terrible at all. So that hurts Magamund's chances. It wouldn't be the first time that Dana White has blanked on a fighter

and then just been like, you know, oh, and then the fight gets announced. We all know again. He's not the guy who makes all these decisions, right? He has a whole team to inform him. And, yeah, oh, by the way, Dana, this guy hasn't lost. whatever, wherever many years. He's a great style matchup for Perreira.

We think he could beat Perreta. We think he could be the world champion. And those are all selling points in Michael M's favor. And he should rightfully get the shot. And I had that immediately like penciled in as soon as the card ended. Then I said, what am I doing? Like, MMA is supposed to be fun. That's, I'm going to be fun.

That's screw it. Give him the Aspenol Blades winner. John Jones is not fighting either of these guys. As we know, I've given up on John Jones. John Jones is a coward. I don't need to go. I'm not going to go into Jedmishu rant. If you want a big elaboration on why John Jones is the chicken slash coward slash not goat,

you can't see any of Jed's appearances in between the links. But we can't wait around for John Jones. We don't know when the steep fight is happening. Presumably no later than the end of this year, we will finally see John Jones and Steve Bay's up in there. But that's still a bit of, I think that's, again, if you're Aspinall, he has said many times, would love to fight John. John Jones, if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. He's had, I think, the right attitude about it.

We in the media have asked Aspinall about this five million times. I almost feel bad for him. But, you know, it is a relevant question, and he's going to keep here. If God help, Aspinall wins at UFC 304, it'll be another six months or however long as wait for John Jones. Oh, are you going to fight John Jones? What will you're a legacy be if you don't fight John Jones? It sucks.

It sucks that. His legacy is very much tied to a guy who may never actually want to fight him. And then if Blades wins, I don't think John Jones is going to sit down bed for that either. So you know what? Put John Jones away in his own special division. Maybe he retires if he beats Stepe. Maybe he doesn't. Either way, we can't.

He's just not reliable. So you know who is reliable? Alex Padeta. Go right up to heavy. He goes up to heavyweight. No one of one fights. Get him on a towel shot. First of all, shout out left lane for his amazing picking ability.

Ooh. There's his matchups right there. Yuri Kreeloff. What is the year. Ege Murphy, Delizze Walker. He didn't say he didn't say. He said it on the post-fight show last six. I can't watch it.

Gary Colby, Piper, Curtis, Philly, Silva, Talbot Yanez, Locke-Mortez. All good picks there. I've made some money, my friend. I really do want to see the Ancolaia fight because I actually think Pereira could beat him. Like, I really think he beats him. I would pick Pereira right now to win because he's just so dangerous, man. He just needs to land one. He needs to land one.

And the fight is over. Like it just doesn't matter who you are. He just needs one. So it is a fascinating match. And Alex's game just continues to evolve. We see his take down defense getting better and better and all of that. Having said that, I almost feel like Pereira is in,

he's not quite in Kevin Holland territory, but he's kind of close because we just never know when he's going to fight. He could headline in Manchester next month and we just don't know it. against some random dude, like something might happen with like Leon or Belal and something, and they just bump him up. Like he could just fight at any time at this point. But so here's what I, here's what I'm going to go with right now. It's almost a no answer.

But I'm going to say my pick is John Jones. My pick is John Jones because one of two things is going to happen. One, John Jones is going to fight Steepay. And if that fight actually takes place, John Jones is going to kill him. That fight is not going to. be competitive. John is going to run that dude over. And then what is John Jones going to do? I was going to retire, but instead I want to fight Alex Pereira because if Alex beats me, he's the goat, which if you ask Dana White, he will say that is absolutely ridiculous. The other option

is steep age just doesn't make it to Matt Nesson Square Garden. And a world happens where, let's say it's UFC 304 fight week, Dana White gets on Instagram, yells into his self, It's official John Jones, Steep A, main event, Madison Square Garden. It's happening. We tried to book it last year. This year is the year. John is healthy and ready to go. He's going to fight Steepa.

The greatest pound for palm fighter on planet Earth, the greatest pound for palm fighter of all time versus the greatest heavyweight of all time. Let's do this. Madison Square Garden. And then October, September rolls around, and we find out Steve A can't fight. Injury happens. But who comes in to save the damn day? Alex Poetan Pereira and a fight that is even bigger,

even more fascinating than this fight that Dana and the UFC continues to shove down our throats that nobody wants to see. Nobody cares about. And certainly doesn't need the heavyweight title on the line. So I'm going to say John Jones. I'm just going to say John Jones. I think he's going to do it. And if John wins, I think he's going to call for Pereira.

And if you're Pereira, how in the blue hell could you turn that down? And if Stepe can't make it to MSG, they're going to call Pereira because John's not going to fight Tom Aspinall. He's certainly not going to fight Curtis Blades. If Blades beats Aspidol, and Tom Aspital is going to have to sit there potentially as the interim champion with an interim championship title defense under his belt and watch the light heavyweight champion go up and fight John Jones.

It's crazy. But this is the UFC in 2024. But I do want to see the, I do want to see the ankle I fight. If they make that fight, I will not complain one bit. I am fascinated by it. So good win for Alex Pereira.

And I do want to see Ancolaev kind of get his day because I think it's a really interesting fight. Yeah, I don't think either of us are like officially picking Ancolaa just because it makes too much sense, but also gosh, Perra has options. And I think the like the scenario you laid out is also this has been a pretty chaotic year. Not like, oh, sorry, I will say, definitely one of the most chaotic years, not the not the most chaotic year we've seen an MA.

But it's up there. It is worth mentioning for sure. I've seen people asking, like, injury-wise, has this been one of the worst? Like, we've had worse before. I think people forget there was a time. And I think the UFC lost like 12 straight main events. It was, 12 straight main events and co-made events. It was crazy.

And, like, they weren't like, McGregor Chandler level. But it was, it was, and this is, I think this was before COVID. I want to say, like, 2019, 2018. There was a rough time when the UFC was, by that point, they had already expanded to doing something like, you know, 34, 40 shows a year. Like, they were already expanding. and with expansion came like some bumps. But, so it's up there. It's up there.

And certainly any time McFragher is involved and John Jones involved, and their fights are getting pushed back and delayed and all that, it adds to an element of chaos. But we've seen worse before. Yeah, I would love to see like Aspinall and Pade as well, apologies to Curtis Blades. I know we kind of keep cutting Curtis blades out of this equation, but frankly, win or lose, he's not,

I don't think there's any circumstance where he fights prayer or John Jones. Aspenall Jones is big. We all want to see it. I think Pereira and Jones is the biggest fight the UFC can make right now that doesn't involve McGregor, obviously. I think that fight might be bigger than

Conner, I just think on mainstream level, right? When we talk about mainstream and like pure buys, I don't think anything beats McGregor versus I think it's close. I think it's close. I don't know. Connor still, it's close. Connor's, it's still going to do better.

But like I'd say Connor Chandler is like 1.5. but I think John and Pereira with the proper build, if it's not like two weeks notice, I think it gets, I think it goes close to a million. Oh, it clears a million.

It clears a million. If they build it right, if they build it right, it clears a million. But yeah, just, just again, we always say McGregor's on another tier.

And I don't think, like, again, I have lost so much interest in McGregor Chandler. I'll be locked in when it happens, but it's one of those fights, like, if it doesn't happen,

I honestly don't care. Though I will say, I feel that way about McGregor in general now, If he never fights again, I will feel nothing has been lost. But that's from us who are so locked into the product, have had our fill of McGregor. From a mainstream standpoint, he's still the biggest star. I do think any fight with him is the biggest. But outside of McGregor, John Jones and Alex Padetta would just be insane.

And something the UFC could really hang its hat on as far as like, hey, we give the fans the fights that they want. They could point to that for the next 20 years saying, hey, we got you this one. Don't say we don't give you the big fights. We gave you the biggest fight we could make. And just don't mention Francis and got him. Shout to Joshua for commenting a lot on here. And I get to say, of all the comments that I've seen today, there is not one correct thing he said here.

Literally not one thing. Everything he said here is wrong. Because let me just lay this out for you. Alex doesn't need to do anything. Whatever he wants, he's going to get. He has in such a position right now. He does not need to chill. He does not need to.

fight Ankelyath. And Jones and Aspinall is never happening. That fight is never going to happen. All right, Joshua. I'm sorry. John does not see it. 99% it's not going to happen. I'll leave 1%.

Maybe Tom Aspinall just becomes a huge star. And then John's just like, okay, I can make a lot of money with this dude. But everything else about that same is just wrong. Alex does not need to do anything. All he needs to do is decide what he wants. The UFC just has to do it. So that's kind of the position that he's in. And we'll see.

Like I said, if Ankleif is booked against Pereira, I want to see it. Like, I want to see that fight. Is that one, the problem is where do you put it? Where do you put it? Is it the co-main event at MSG? Because it's the Salt Lake City main event in October? It seems like a weird one for Salt Lake City. But if you're doing Pennington Pena as the co-main, you could, I guess, throw that in there.

I don't know. is it December if Connor doesn't fight? Like, you have to find a spot. Right now you're looking at Pereira fighting in 2025 right now, just based on the schedule, unless he fights in October for that Salt Lake City card that's not been officially announced yet. So there you have it.

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That's B-E-T-E-R-M-E-N-T-com. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. The support for this show comes from the Audible Original, The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-by journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Let's move on to the other half of this made event. It is Yuri Pajshka, who gets knocked out badly. I mean, this is a really bad knockout.

to Yuri for taking this fight on short notice. Shout out to Yuri for building this fight in such a big way with spiritual talk. But it seems like Alex Perey cheated once again and tapped into the spirits. And maybe Yuri should do the same. Moving forward, Yuri went to social media and sort of had a reaction to the fight and basically said, like, my game needs to evolve or I'm just not going to fight anymore or I shouldn't fight anymore. But I just don't see a war where Yuri Perashka just doesn't fight again.

I do think he needs to take some time. I think he's the guy that does need to chill for a little bit. And it lines up perfectly for the bit. Because I was going to come on here and joke around and say there's only one fight you can make for Alex Pereira. And only it's not ankle life. It's not John Jones. You got to do the rematch with Jamal Hill. And I was going to be completely joking around.

But I will say, Yuri Perashka versus Jamal Hill is probably the fight to make. So we don't know how long Jamal Hill is going to be out for. I would hope Yuri is going to take a pretty significant. amount of time off and Jamal Hill seems to have superhero like healing abilities for his injuries came back from an Achilles in nine months, which is just unheard of. So yeah, I'm going with Uri Pajasca versus Jamal Hill because after Jamal Hill won the belt against Goldvichasira, that was one of my more anticipated fights of the year, was doing Jamal Hill versus Uri Pajashka for the undisputed light heavyweight title. And then Jamal gets hurt and has to

vacate. So now we can just do it. We could just do it now. What do you think? No. Jamal doesn't deserve it. Jamal doesn't deserve it. This guy, he is, his, his persona is so aggravating. It's not even, there's people in Emma who I say, like, their personas are, like, deplorable. And, like, I think I'll criticize them from a moral standpoint. Now, you can certainly do that with Jamal as well. but just the way he's handled his his interactions with fans and stuff it's so embarrassing i saw him talking to uh james lynch and he was saying like wow people like fans really stopped like criticizing me

like after i sent out that 20,000 dollar like come to the gym and fight me challenge it's like if there was any drop in comments with you jamal is because people saw that and rolled their eyes and walked away and just don't that made people care less about you that was one of the words such a terrible idea it did not i know he thinks he's trolling the trolls like and that's like, oh, we're talking about it. And anytime people are talking about it, that's great. Well, according to him, like he said, he's been getting trolled less. I don't think that was his goal.

I think he was hoping get himself 50,000 more Twitter followers or something. It didn't work. It was stupid. He is very bad at this. So, no, he doesn't deserve the Yari Prahashka fight. It would be a great fight. He certainly could beat Yeri Prasca and vice versa. I mean, Yeri would be favored, but I think no more than minus 1.

I wouldn't think Yeri would be a two-to-one favor. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm underestimating Yeri and how much. faith people have in him, despite the two losses to Padera. But I think he'd be like, wouldn't be two to one. I think people would definitely be giving Jamal a chance. So no, he doesn't deserve it. I went with Kaleel Roundtree instead.

I know he's got this murky drug test situation. I know it doesn't have the punch of a Jamal Hill, Gary Pajshka matchup. The bill would not be nearly as loud. But like I said, Yeri's takes time off. Khalil's got to sort out this, whatever happened with this possibly tainted supplements. I don't know. Maybe I just like Khalil.

I do believe it's tamed supplements. thing. But I have no, I have no, that's just speculation. I have no whatever evidence on that. And yeah, great fight. Some is getting knocked out. And I've still, I still am very curious Khalil, is he a top five guys? He a top 10 guy. He certainly can be. He had a habit of sort of losing big fights before. But now he was on this great run. And it's unfortunate this thing happened. So I would love to see him get another chance and leapfrog Jamal Hill for this chance to be, to get to get one of the top two guys at 205. Let me just be perfectly clear here.

My first choice in the matter, if everybody was healthy and happy and they just, you know, all of this happened and Yuri could fight in two or three months, I would pick Leo Routree. But I just don't know if the timelines are going to line out. I feel like both those guys are going to be out for a minute. So that's like the main reason why I'm putting these two guys together more than merit because boy, oh boy, it's been a tough go for Jamal Hill. Him and Joaquin Buckley. it's just, I mean, I don't know. Someone, they need to take some classes, man.

They need to take some classes on how to just be better at this. How to do the thing. Because they're, I don't even know if they're trying to do the thing, but they're doing whatever the opposite of doing the thing is. But we'll see what happens with Yuri Perashka. Let's move on to the co-main event. Diego Lopez defeats not Brian Ortega, defeats Dan friggin' Ige. And let me just say this.

How in the blue hell? Did Dana White not give Diego Lopez and Danny Yeh a fight of the night bonus? This whole thing of we gave it to Cub Swanson and Andre Feely, but no other fight warranted a fight of the night bonus. Are you shitting me? How did these guys not get a fight of the night post? That was probably the best fight of the night. They did it on three hours notice. Danny Hague comes back and wins the third frigging round.

I mean, I'm sure they got paid a much more in the back end. Still, like you just got to get put these dudes over and give them a ball. bonus and put their pictures on Twitter and on the performance bonus banners. Like I kind of felt like they kind of felt like they deserved a bonus. But regardless, Diego Lopez looks good, wins first two rounds, loses the third. I think we saw, I mean, it's just a create, like a lot of people are saying like, eh, Diego's really good, but I think we see some chinks in his armor, if you will, some holes in his game, I guess.

But it's, it's really tough to say that when every, you had it, Diego had a deal with literally everything he had to deal with this whole week from the Ortega having to move the fight up. And Ortega, you know, him being on weight, basically had a weigh in three times this week. And then he takes a short notice fight literally within three hours and goes out there and wins the fight. So shout out to both guys. Danny Gay is going to move up in the rankings for me. Diego Lopez is certainly going to move up in the rankings for me. but where does Diego Lopez go, A.K., where does he go from here?

A few things about the fight. I don't want to put the pickoff for too long, but I think they covered it on the broadcast, but I wish the commentary team had pushed a little bit harder. Because they're kind of like, oh, wow, isn't it kind of surprising that Dan Ege is the one with the energy in the third and that Lopez, the one who was tiring. And I'm like, no, it wasn't surprising.

He got a call at 3.30 in the morning on Thursday that they're having a wake class change. So that must have been fun. Great for the sleep schedule. He had to put on weight after cutting down to, I heard something like 100. He was around at 146, 147. He was down at feather weight. He had cut the weight. It's a grueling cut. It's tough. So he had cut weight and then was told, oh, well, now, don't worry, you're not cutting weight. So you had to put on weight. Rehydrate, put on like 10 pounds for the scale. And then had to put on more, I guess, not put on, probably just whatever, recuperate. And probably cut down a little bit again. I wonder if I fight night. I know he, I know he thought he was fighting Ortega, but I do wonder where the weight

was. I don't know what he steps in the cage yet. Anyway, the whole thing is so screwed up. So yes, he was tired. His 48 hours before his fight were just completely insane. Of course, he was more tired. Dan Igey, yes, you know, not under the best circumstances, but has been training for a fight, did not have to cut weight, got to stroll in at 165 or 164, whatever was. So yes, I'm not surprised Zagelov was, was a little more tired. And it's the mental part of all of it. Oh, my God. It's like a hundred times the physical effect.

And then I also have people, I tweeted like, how is this legal? Sort of as a joke and sort of also like, how is this legal? It's like genuinely asking. And I know, I get it. And the NSAC provisions kind of pretty much say the first rule is there are no rules, like UFC or any, a lot of, any promotion in Las Vegas can do pretty much whatever they want. And then some of the, oh, Ege's medicals are still valid from the time he most recently fought. Okay, I understand all that.

And then people are thinking like, oh, why do you hate fun? I'm like, I love fun. I love stupid stuff happening. I'm glad the fight was made. I'm glad I'm glad both guys very likely got paid. But we do have to ask, what a weird precedent to set, guys? I don't think this is going to happen again anytime soon. It would surprise me.

But now that we know the UFC can do something like this, it opens a very bad door, guys. It opens a very bad door. This is not the sort of thing that should be happening regularly on UFC shows. And again, I don't think it will. It was a one-time thing, super fun, great for IGA and Lopez. but it was it's okay to question it guys you don't have to take everything the UFC gives you you don't have to just be like wow the UFC can do anything how amazing you should also question the mechanisms under which these things happen okay guys keep your product to a certain quality please but we got a

great fight and the last thing is Mike don't forget race arruya and carlos Hernandez who I thought yeah it's good fight that's one of my favorite fights of the year I know it kind of slowed down a little in the third that's one of my favorite fights of the year that should have if they were going to give he should have given three fight a night bonus is lopez and ike and i and then also Suria and Hernandez, but I'm 90% sure he did not see the Suria Hernandez fight and thus could not comment on it. So you know what, Dana, you didn't see it.

You can't comment on it. You didn't want to give it. It didn't get a bonus. Fair enough. But those boys, those boys grappled. That fight was fun as hell. I love that fight. I thought that should have gotten a fight than I thought that was better than Phileas Watson.

Anyway. Yeah, year. Yeah, year. Very easy pick for me. Yeah, year at the sphere or ideally, if it can't take place the sphere, I still want to see it. But that was my trick for Diego last time he won a fight. I'm standing by that.

I like that more than the Ortega matchup. And I think they should go with that. If they book Yairair, sign me to hell up. I'm good for that. I went a little bit of a different direction. Because, I mean, I would guess they already have something sort of in mind for Yairair. I mean, I don't know what it is, but I would imagine that as we're getting closer to this and as they're putting this card together, they've probably already reached out to

Yair and like we would like you to fight this person. So I would guess he's got something going now. Now, could the UFC just swap him around and still do this fight? Sure. But they could have their cake and eat it too and put them in different fights and then set up a future matchup. So I went with Josh Emmett, Diego Lopez versus Josh Emmett, at the sphere in September, let Lopez have his moment. Josh Emmett's a great opponent. One of two things is going to happen.

Either we're going to learn some lessons about Diego Lopez and he's going to have to go back to the drawing board or Diego Lopez will have a moment like Iliot to poor you had in Jacksonville where he just beats the brakes off Josh Emmett and Josh's shoe leather tough to the point where he could take it and then it becomes just more of a 15 minute showcase for Diego Lopez. And Josh Emmett always has that ability to just dead you with one big shot. So I like that fight. But I mean, as Jed likes to say, there's no wrong way to eat this Reese's. Diego Lopez versus any top 10 featherweight will do. And if they want to do the Mobzar rematch, fine. There's just no way Mobbzars is going to. to the sphere to fight a guy he already beat, uh, not that long ago.

So there you go. Uh, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Give him a top 10 dude. If it's yeah, you're awesome. If it's Josh Schmidt, awesome. If it's anybody else, cool.

I'm in. Let's go to Roman DeLides A. A.K. This is an interesting one because this man come Tuesday is going to be a ranked fighter in two divisions. He's going to be ranked at middleweight and he's probably going to be ranked at light, heavyweight after beating Anthony Smith in a pretty forgettable three-round fight. But shout out to Roman DeLizze, takes a fight on short notice, gets after it, gets a win over a

one-time title challenger. And I believe he called on Hamzachimai. I don't know for sure. Yeah, I think that's. Did he call him such? There's zero chance he's getting that fight. I went with, I went Jared K. I won't Jared Kahneneer.

Back to middleweight. Back to middleweight. Yeah. There were reports that Cannonier was going to fight Kevin Holland in Denver. I'm here to tell you that that fight was never on the table. Cannoneer side was never being approached about that fight. Also,

because the big reason why is Canada just got knocked out. He just got stopped by Nastardini Mavov. And he's suspended. He is medically suspended. And that fight just happened. Like, it just happened not that long ago. So by the time, it's something I think to Leedsay can turn around relatively quickly.

We throw it somewhere in the summertime, maybe like August or, you know, September at some point. Stu Romina, versus Territ, Canada. Like, what the hell? Sure. I just want to shout out first. Left lane, he was saying, he said, no matchup for E.K. What do you mean? He's fighting in three weeks.

Isn't he fighting? He's, he's playing Chimpey Marisdol. Come on. He's playing Chepin. That fight was not officially canceled or postponed for the record guy. He's still fighting. He's fighting July 20. Get out of, come on.

He's fighting. I think if you go to UFC.com, the death fight is still on there. So I'm just saying, officially it's still on. Maybe they should update that. They kept Ehor Poteria on the lineup after he got absolutely destroyed by Michelle Pereira. That was really funny. And then he wasn't, but still. And he wasn't.

I assume Ege the same thing. They're going to update and that a bit. But I'm sure if you ask Ege, he's probably like, yeah, I'm ready to go. So we'll see what the commission says, but the commission just let him fight on five minutes notice. So I don't know. What are we talking about again, Mike? Oh, yes, Roman deleted. Big props to Roma, by the way, for his awareness of like saying, hey, I'm a two division threat now.

Like I'm like, yeah, he really is. Like he's not ranked in our MA fighting global rankings. He has been ranked in 185. He has previously been ranked at 205. UFC.com, the only, you know, this matters a lot to these fighters. they have Roman at 10 at middleweight going in, and he just beat the number 10 light heavyweight Anthony Smith. So technically, yes, this guy is going to be top 10 in two divisions,

according to the UFC's rankings. So amazing stuff. Like, what a weird opportunity for Roman to jump on. And kind of smart. Like, not that Anthony Smith's an easy opponent, but I think it was a really good matcher for him. And again, the circumstances of it being sort of short notice, that just throws everything up into the air.

And if you're Roman, you're just like, man, this is my opportunity. I can fight probably not as best Anthony Smith, and I'm not at my best, but I still think I'm good enough to beat him. And he did, really convincing victory. I want him to stay at light heavyweight. Mike, it's kind of weird. You know, he's 3 and 0 at 205. He started off his career in the UFC at light heavyweight beat a couple of, you know, non-ranked guys. But 2 and 0 made the wise choice.

I think dropped to 185. He's not a huge guy. I think he kind of looks ahead to guys like, I don't know, like an Angoleum somewhere down the road, which is like dwarf him. So obviously he's avoiding fights like that. That's smart. But now that he's in the top 10, forget the weight cut, Roman. It's not fun to cut weight. Stay at 205.

Jamal Hill deserves this fight, Mike. This is the fight we should have for Jamal Hill. And I'm doing this. I don't know if they would fight each other, though. They probably wouldn't. I don't like Jamal. Because I know Jamal does work at Extreme Coutre, which is where Roman DeLidez trains in the state. So I don't know.

I don't know what kind of relationship those two guys have. But, I mean, shit. Roman DeLinezai was going to fight. Michelle Pereira, so, and they both trained together. So, yeah, maybe it could happen. I apologize. No, no, no. And that's a good thing to note because, yeah, if they've worked together, there's a chance

to, but I think they would if the opportunity came along. I don't think Jamal Smith Hill would be that interested. But again, this is, we're trying to, he doesn't deserve it, but we're trying to help Jamal Hill because he just needs to get a win again. He needs to get a win again. And this is not just him. A lot of fighters, when they're just talking a lot and getting slagged on social media in the public, you win a fight.

All is forgiven. All is forgiven. All is forgiven. You got a knockout. Don't worry about it. Don't worry all this stupid stuff you said on social media. Double down on that stupid stuff on social media. You're a winner.

You can say whatever you want. This goofball needs to win a fight. I think getting him in there with Roman, it's a winnable fight for him. And if he loses to Roman, I just think that'd be hilarious. So either way, I'm laughing. But yes, let's, you know, Jamal, whenever this, his mutant healing factor kicks in again, if you're DeLice, see, you can get that fight. And then imagine DeLite beats him.

It's like a top five guy at a five. Just be weird. So my whole idea is I want Roman to stick around. to 205 and I think he deserves a rank guy next and I think Jamal's the one that makes sense in a very strange way. Interesting. Very, very interesting. Yeah, we'll see if he stays at 205.

Boy, I mean, we know that the division needs something. Maybe Roman Delizze is a guy that adds much needed depth to the 205 pound division. Speaking of divisions that need or may not need depth, A.K., let's go to the women's bantamweight division. Big win for Macy Chiasa. Fun fight for as long as it lasted. They get after it round two. Macy gets on top, lands the elbow from hell. A Marvin Eastman-like cut over the eyebrow of Myra Buenos Silva.

We knew as soon as we saw that that fight was going to get stopped. Macy Chesson wisely was like, all right, stand up. And as soon as she stood up, referee stops the fight. Dr. takes a look at it. Meyer Buena Silva, try as she may, try to keep the fight going, even jumped out of the cage and bled all over Dana White. It was just, it was scenes. But Macy gets a big winch, gets the stoppage over someone who many of us at M.A.

fighting felt was the best Bannamweight in the world not that long ago. And now Meyer Buena Silva has lost two fights in a row. And Macy Chieson on a nice little run. She's probably going to be the number three ranked women's bandamweight in the world come Tuesday. This is a pretty easy pick for me. It's Ketland Vieira. I mean, we've already tried to book this one. I mean, this is, I don't even know what you need to friends.

for the moment here. They didn't even mean it. No. It was, she's not fighting. Kayla Harris is not fighting Mace JSA. There's nobody else. There's nobody else for to fight. Mike,

the band is super rusty. I don't know. I think they haven't played in like three months ago. All right. All right. All right. One, two, three.

Friends for us. Yes. Zach attack is back, Jack. There you go. Yeah, that's the fight. I don't know what else to say. Yeah, it is. Yeah, rebook it.

There's also fight in January. Kentland had some sort of injury, but by the time, Macy, is ready to go again hopefully katelyn will be too uh i'm just i'm really happy for macy i just think like she's never been able to get over the hump she's had a lot of opportunities um i reliked her coming out of the ultimate fighter i really like a lot of fighters coming out of the fighter but she was like a 135 or with some finishing ability and she's had she showed some of that in her uh

ufc career proper so yeah good for her very unfortunate for my head of buenos de bernosa but she definitely would have fought if she was allowed to she does not care she would have bled all over the cage all over Dana White and Hunter Campbell at Caged side. She was bleeding all over the place. If she had a choice, I'm glad they didn't let her. So yeah, Macy and Ketland, because if Kayla Harris is going to fight someone before she gets a tell shot, I'd rather the Eileen Perez thing. I think there's some heat there.

I think that's really funny. But yeah, not, not Macy. I don't think it makes a lot of sense for Macy. Let Macy possibly earn a title shot or Ketland. Ketland could earn a title shot. She's done a lot of good work at 135. So there you. God, I kind of wish Macy, like, cut a fiery promo on Kaysie.

that would have been pretty good. I know it's not in her DNA to really do that. But it would have been pretty awesome if she did. Like that would have been a really good time to do it. And she might even like have a chance to get that fight, but it might be very wise to just go fight Kel and Vieira. Because I don't think a Kayla Harrison fight goes all that well for her. But I don't think Kayla Harris fight goes all that well for really anybody in this division right now.

Let's go to the other big storyline heading in and probably heading out of this card, A.K. is the main card opener, Welterweight fight, Ian Machado Gary, putting his undefeated record on the line against Michael Venom Page. And we tried to tell you, everybody, we try to tell you on all of our programs, that we need to prepare ourselves for a world where this fight is just not good. It's not thrilling. It's not entertaining. We just need to prepare ourselves for what this could be. I will tell you this,

I was still intrigued by it. And even as the fight played out, I was intrigued by watching it all because I wanted to see how it was going to go. Now, is it a fight we're going to go back and watch again? Absolutely not. Is this a fight Dana White put over big at the press conference? Absolutely not.

But knowing sort of the different styles these guys present to each other, I had serious questions. This fight was going to go one of two ways. It was going to go either the same way Michael Page versus Kevin Holland went, or is going to go very similar to the way Ian Gary versus Jeff Neal wet. Now, it was a little bit different because Ian Gary had that big first round and took the fight to the grounds, almost submitted Michael Page, clearly lost round two.

He had nothing on the feet for MVP at all. Nothing. And then round three, Ian Gary is opportunistic, took the back, just kind of sat there for two minutes, landed little shots, and it won him the fight. So Ian Gary remains undefeated. It is very, very, very difficult to look good against MVP. Yes, Douglas Lehman knocked him out viciously.

but even before that happened, MVP was looking damn good in that fight. And I thought MVP beat Logan Story that night. So technically to me, this is only the second time MVP has ever lost a fight. And he certainly didn't get run over in this one. But IMA Chado Gary, to me, gets the biggest win of his career. Very curious to see where you went with this one, AK. Yeah, I didn't mind the fight. It did turn out.

We did kind of warn people. It might not be a barn burner. But I think you gave it the best word, intriguing. It was intriguing. And it was not, like, entertaining in a different way. I thought we would get, like, some very tentative kickboxing, a lot of feints, ain't fest for 15 minutes, nobody really landing anything interesting, and someone walking out with a split-y-city win.

So we got a mixing of the martial arts, which I'm normally against. But, like, you said, intriguing. I was like, okay, we, Ian Machado-Gerry has talked a big game about his grappling. Pretty much any interview he's in, he's always like, I want to show off my grappling. I want to show, like, my grappling is, like, my grappling is, like, if not better. I'm like, I'm one of the best shits-you-guise you guys out there. And it just was pretty good. Like it wasn't, again, it wasn't super exciting.

I understand, but he did mix the martial as well. I thought he earned the decision. So that was okay. Like, I went nuts with this one. I don't know what happened. Keep in mind, I was probably, I did these picks last night and up this morning. So this was before sleep.

He has to go up in the rankings, I feel like. I know he found a guy behind him. He has to go up in the rankings. Do it, AK. Cue the bad. Come on. Come on, AK. I have, there's no,

almost no way we picked the same person because I know I know who you picked. I did not pick this person. I actually went technically even higher in the rankings. I'm still getting the band ready, okay, getting ready. A fight that no one is asking for, particularly the guy I'm picking. I think he gets, I think he finds, I want to see, I'm waving the magic wand. I want to see him fight Kamaru. Oh, no.

Put him away. Sorry, I had already told the band, I took away their sheet music. I don't know. Like I said, I just randomly I was like, I know you want Shopcott. I know you want to get killed by Shopcott. I know there's a chance to keep, I could not give him the Edwards and Muhammad winner,

not off that performance. No. Not that there's any perfect contender. We see fighters, we see fighters get title fights off of like, you know, sometimes weird, unsatisfying performances all the time. But I think the use in a position

where they don't have to do that, the Imachado Gary. It's not like, that's only when there's no other real choice and someone's done enough. I think he's done enough. but I think there are plenty of other compelling choices to get that title shot. So I couldn't go that far.

Gilbert Burns, I think is rumored for it. Also, they worked. I don't think he's going to fight Gilbert. He's fighting Sean Brady. He's fighting Sean Brady. Right, right. He's fighting Sean Brady. And again, I don't think he'd want to fight Gilbert anyway.

I know he's, I think he likes Gilbert a lot. So I had to go up the rankings. And I just land on Kamar again, when Kamar comes back, I don't think he's going to want to fight Yamachado Gary. That'd be a hell of a, like, maybe he's at the stage of his career where he's just going to be a hypebuster. and maybe he just washes Gary like 3026. I don't know. I don't know.

But I do think Imichita Gary, much like sort of Patty Pimblit, is kind of not getting enough credit for how good he is just because he runs his mouth so much. And for sure, his skill level is not at, I think, where he claims it is and where he both said it is. But that doesn't mean he's not good. He's just not like the frigging beast of a fighter that he claims this. But he is very, very good.

Is he a top five guy? I don't know. I would not pick him to beat Shavcott. I don't know if I hate him against Leon and Balal. And Kamar's just because he's been around for so long. And I mean, in his prime would annihilate I'm Machado Gary. I don't think Kamar's in his prime anymore. I'm curious to see what happened there.

And also just what Kamar is going to do in the future. So this is a big fight for Kamar if you wanted it. But I get it. It probably has other plans, just wants big super end up fights and all that stuff. Call me Jedmish, I'm a fire at a hot take right now. Roman DeLise has a better chance of fighting Kamaru who's been the knee and Gary does right now. I'll throw that out there. There's your answer.

Shafcott. Just do it, man. Like, Shafcott's in. Like, Shafcott could sit and wait and get the winner of Leon versus Ball. Like, he certainly could. But if he goes out there and just waxes up being Gary or something, like, that's huge for him. He will be like a fan favorite heading into this title fight. So he's got to stay busy.

I love when J.D.M called him out. It made a ton of sense. but man, sometimes you just got to be careful what you ask for. You just might get it. And boy, that's just some sensational matchmaking right there. It just is. I want to see it. I want to see it.

MVP is hard. It's impossible to look good against MVP. It's just one of those guys. You're never going to look good against them. Lima did knock him dead, but it was just a weird, kind of a weird circumstance and a weird setup and a weird combination. But other than that, like you just can't look good against them.

So there's a solid win. It's fine. And let's go. Let's go. Let's just do it. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S.

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Are you going with the, are you going with Ray here? Are you going Ray? No, I should have, no, I'm not going with Ray. I'm not going with Andrei-Alosky. I should have gone with Ander-Loski. Because I see a lot of people asking, is Andre if he retired? We don't know. My guess is, Mike, do we know his contract situation?

Could this have been the last fight on his current deal? Maybe. I don't know. Because if it is. I probably should have reached out last night, but Dana said it was his last fight. But I don't know. If it's the last fight on his contract, I could very much. understand Dana just straight up saying like yeah as far as we know this is last we're not especially

because as Jed has said and said it on Twitter last night, Andreelofsky might actually be the best best best the actual best prize fighter in MMA history because that dude's making bank every time he fights and he like just sits there and slogs his way through a 15 minute decision against guys who for the most part aren't tremendous fighters and he's just making a bag doing it. I would love to know his last disclosed payday because we know he's one of those guys who came over from other promotions and because of that they had to like pay him a lot of money

Overim had to say that over and like it was on a contract he was making like $800,000 or something I don't know if Arlobski is quite on that level I'm just looking way about for example this is from March 2018 supposedly he got $275,000 flat to fight Stefan Strupp 275 grand for a fight which I guarantee

almost none of you remember Mike sorry you have a point yes May 14th, 2020. Oh. There was a time. This is when the UFC was doing their residence in Jacksonville, Florida. COVID's happening. And the date is important because there was a time, my friends.

And a lot of you knew our fans may not be aware of this. But there was a time where Florida disclosed fighter pay. And in May of 2020, Andrei Arlowski fought Felipe Linz in a matchup, and he made $325,000. Good Lord. That is one of the most lucrative heavyweight fights in history, because let's not, it's not, Philippe was a million-dollar winner from the PFL. So this was a recent millionaire facing one of the greatest prize fighters in.

This was like the McGregor and like Nate Diaz. of heavyweight. This is crazy. Yeah, wow, 225 grand. And again, either of that was, how many fights ago was that? He probably signed another contract since then. So I guarantee. It might even be more. He's probably made at least $350,000.

Oh my God. He might be the best prize fighter of all time. He definitely is. So if the U.C. does not want to resign him and finally can get out of the yoke of the, out from under the yoke of the Arlowski contract, maybe now is the time. was the time to get out of there. So yeah, I wish I'd matched up for him. No, I went with Peyton Talbot.

Did you go with young Peyton? I did. Okay, I'm curious. Yeah, I hoped you did. I actually, normally if I guess who you're going to pick, you know, I'll go another way. I think you do the same thing. But actually, I think we need a range of options here because I'm not sure what to do with this guy wickedly talented, unique personality, very, seems very mature for his age.

And again, we say this with O'Malley all the time and not to compare him to O'Malley. again, I know he hates that, but just not that he has a same personality, but could appeal to a similar demographic. And if you do UFC, you'll love that. So Talbot, super impressive. 19 second knockout of Yannis Gamori. Mike, I did a lot of talking and you're saying like, man, I can't believe he's such a big favorite. Like, maybe you have $5, though $5 in Yonis.

I apologize to anyone who took that dumbass advice because you just burned $5, $5, that could have been spent on a nice fast food meal or something. You just burned $5. So I hope you didn't do that. but the odds were still crazy but hey maybe they weren't high enough like maybe Peyton should have been a minus 4,000 favorite based on how that fight played out that was absolutely insane I went really high I want to test him now I'm going up the rankings I want to see if he's a top 25 guy top 25 the Chris Gutierrez Javid basherat loser August 3rd UFC

Abu Dhabi, whoever falls out of the flight. Not the winner. I don't think you quite give them the winner. I am very high in the Basharab pros, both Jabbit and Farid. So I don't want to quite throw them in there if they win. But if Javid loses or if Chris Gutierrez loses, let's see. Let's see. I normally hate throwing process of there too quickly.

I'm probably overcompensating because I have doubted just how great this prospect supposedly is. But, boy, off the high of a 19 second knockout, I went top 20. Give one of those two. There are very few fighters that I will sit there and be like, all right, This is the dude. Usually I'm a little bit more patient on this. Like obviously the Arm and Sarukans of the world, the Icramal scarfs of the world. There are certain fighters that I watch and I'm just like, damn, this guy is super good.

And Peyton Talbot, while fun on the contender series, I was just like, okay, he's like really green. There's something there, but it's going to take some time to develop. So he has his first fight, gets a win, and then he gets Cameron Simon. and I was just like, man, I think this is too quick, man. Like Cameron's a little more battle tested. I just don't love this fight. And then he just blew the doors off Cameron, Simon. I was like, all right, I was dead wrong.

Like, he's not as green as I thought. This dude's incredibly talented. And then he did what he did yesterday. And I think I expected that to happen. I didn't think it would happen in 19 seconds. But I think he would, I thought he was going to just 10-8, poor Januskamori, and then just mercy kill him in round two. But you just came back.

out and just wrecked shop and did what a minus 1,600 favorite is supposed to do. So at this point, I think Peyton Talbot's in a great spot with the UFC. And I'm going to give him what he wants, AK. I'm going to give him exactly what he wants. He wants Adrian Yanez. I'm going to give him Adrianiananas. Let's go. That fight's got to be super fun.

It's a fight Adrian could certainly win. Adrian's very talented. Dude is vicious as hell. He's very well-rounded. he had a tough 2023 but he also you know had a huge jump up in competition fighting guy like rob font which is not easy to do rob faunt's just going to beat guys like that and then he goes in there and fights who's who did he fight

oh jonathan martinez just destroyed his legs man and jonathan martinez obviously went on to fight jos aaldo and i mean that that that's just what happened so yeah let's give it to him let's see what he does because even if he like goes out and has a competitive fight and loses to adrianas he's fine he's fine he's still relatively new to this sport uh some i'm very there would actually be kind of interesting to see how he bound would bounce back from a loss uh especially a competitive ones against a guy as as good as adrianianas is so yeah let's just let's throw him to the wolves let's see what he wants to adrianas let's see what he can do i love that fight man uh bantamway is crazy

Ben, we've got, like, we got, we had Talbot, loke dog, fantastic, great performances. Daniel Marcos is out there, the bash rows. I'm sure there's people forgetting, like there's just so much talentless.

There's just so much talentless division. Brady Heaston's looking pretty good. I'm not saying he's going to be like a crazy guy. Rina Nakamura. God, what a division. And again, this is just a prospect.

I'm talking about the guys who are already like top 15 guys who still have plenty of years in them. This is, this is a division. It is impossible to climb to the top. This is interesting. I thought about this one for a, for a second.

What do you think of Peyton Tau versus Cody Garbrandt? No. We mean no. I just don't want to, I don't like it for Cody. I'm not a sickle of all the guys. I didn't want to see Cody fight figurato and it happened. I don't want to see. Who do you want Cody Garbrand to fight?

No one. No one. He's done. Aletang High Lee. I don't know. I know. He has so much of a name. You, it feels like you cannot put Cody in random fights.

It's just like he has a name. But boy, that name, winning that title is a curse for him in this stage in his career because he should get a chance to sort of reset his reset himself, but he never will. He'll never get that chance to reset. It's always going to be going to be go hunting for him because of his name. And it's going to be killers like Peyton Talbot. And I just, I don't need to see that for Cody. But I get it.

I understand. Yeah. And listen, by the way, no one in this space has been driving the Yannes versus Garbrand train for longer than I have. But I have officially left the wheel. I've been trying to get Yonnas versus Garbrand for like two years now. And it's just, I just don't think it's going to happen right now. I don't know what's going on with Cody, but yeah, let's go.

All right. So I have, we have like 10 minutes because I got to get out of here. All right. I'm going to get booted out of this spot. Well, so quick, I do, oh, Mike, I do want to do a quick, happy trails to Michelle Waters and Gomez. We don't, we don't need to wax point in a career. UFC did a great job having a video prepared.

It's a little sad because I do feel like maybe they thought the writing was on the wall and either they thought she was going to lose or they just had the video loaded up. for whenever she did lose but uh yes a true pioneer of uh this modern generation of women's fighters and i i'm sure there'll be haters out there's like oh sometimes you know whatever she she she slumped in the late stage of her career she's 38 years old guys um and uh some listen some people have forgetable she's had a few forgettable fights here and there i understand but uh overall boy her body of work is so strong and her impact on uh the women's side of the business is so strong and uh she's a gamer man she fought everyone and uh i'm happy that she's retiring so that's that's that

Sad to see her go. Happy that she's retiring and seems to have, you know, seems to have a lot of, a lot of good health and good things in her future. So peace out, Michelle Waterson, Gomez. And important to know, as we talked about on the post-fight show, she did it up a weight class. She's an Adam White. She's not an astronaut, right? Yeah. She's an Adam White. And she still had a very successful long career with the UFC. So happy trails to Michelle Waterson. Potentially happy trails to Andrea Lovsky as well. Don't you dare. Don't you dare. At least from UFC competition, according to Danae White. Maybe you have to comey Swanson? We don't know. Four or more years.

You know? I don't know. I don't know, Andre. So there we go. All right. Fire your matchmaking suggestions. We're going to rapid fire them. Let's go.

Get him in. Left lane we got out already. So let's go. The clock is ticking. Let's see what you got. J.N. says Michelle Waterson versus Page and Power Slap. Oh, Tristan was ready. Tristan, look at Tristan.

Tristan jumped. Yeah. go, Tristan. He was waiting. He was waiting for the call. Mike. He waited for the call. All right. There's Tristan. I just want to check something real quick. See if Tristan got a little bit of doo-do on them. I'll read these out while you check. No do-do. So you're good. Okay. Joan Robertson, Jacqueline Amarim, Peyton Talbot, Victor Henry.

I thought about that too. I wonder, do you go a, like an older veteran guy with less, who's not, who doesn't have a lot of U.S. experience. Like, Victor would fit that bill perfectly. not that it matters the UFC experience. I'm not saying Victor's like a rookie or something. I'm saying like this would be a tough fight. Tristan says, didn't mind his call it if Yanez,

Henry is a tougher test, tough to finish. Yeah, in some ways, victory would be the tougher test, but I think Yon-Nes is the way to go. Why in the world would Jillian Robertson fight Jacqueline Amram? Why?

Ranked fighter. Just beat the soul out of Michelle Watterson. Why would she take such a step back? in the rankings. Fun match. To fight a relatively unknown fighter. Fun matchup. Yeah, it's fun, like,

no. It's, no. Being Corey McKenna is not enough to get her a ranked opponent, in my opinion. Crazy Patto says it's a shame where a loss he didn't get a good bribe promo for the UFC. He's been fighting more than some people

work on a nine to five. You don't give a good vibe promo to people who aren't retiring, guys. So, you know, why would you get a good vibe promo? promo he's going to fight 50 more times jesse wans anthony smith versus johnny walker two why you want to see that again that was not a good fight you i'm gonna pass on the first time i'm gonna pass on that one rayos versus yerry two god i don't know if i want to see that either that was one of the more freight that was the oh that was nasty that was one of the top five

most scary knockouts in the history of the ufc i thought yury killed dominic grayis that night I was concerned that he killed him. I think that had long-lasting effects on Dominic Grace. Yeah. Big time. I don't know if I want to see that. Maybe we slow it down. Domina-Grae's got his first win in forever.

We slowed down a little bit. Let's see, Bleasy. Olivera versus Munoz. Sure. Robertson versus Ritchie. We're missing a two there. Bleasy. We just saw this fight a year ago.

Yeah, I don't, and I think this is just an accident. I don't think that was two, what, two fights ago, right? That was two fights ago. I was in Jacksonville. It was in June of last year. It was literally a year ago. Yeah, no, that might happen. That makes no sense for Tabitha of the reach year right now.

Silver versus Onama, sure. Talbot versus Garbrandt. Piper versus Chris Curtis. Piper calling out, uh, Paul Craigsey doesn't like his face. That's a great reason to call someone out. I approve. Joe Piper, just getting after it. Gary versus Garp got MVP versus Luke A.

Lucas booked against Michael Kiesa. Macy versus Holm? It's not a bad shout, actually. Not a bad shout at all. It's actually not a bad shout. No. Lopez versus Yairi or rebook Ortega. I don't think Ortega is a featherweight anymore.

Poeton versus Volkov and heavyweight. I would love to see them just throw Alex Pereira. I throw out Alex Pereira versus Derek Lewis. Just get him in there and have some fun. Belt or bust. Give me a title fight. But yeah, whatever. He fights anyway to heavyweight.

It's a hilarious time. I want to say that Oliver Munoz thing is very indicative of what you're talking about, Mike. Like, there's a lot of young, like, older guys still at the top and these young guys are coming for them. Like, they are just coming for them. So Ray is versus Erie is good. One of them needs a win. Dominic Grace just won. He just won.

He needs another win, Mike. He needs another win. That's a fair comment. He needs another win. That's a fair comment. So people asking what's next for Jean Silva. He missed weight. So we're not going to talk about John Silva.

We'll take your suggestions, but we're not. Touche. Touche. He beat the shit. out of Charles Charles Jordan last night. That was impressive, but you got to make weight. He's great. He's great. You got to make weight. Lopez versus EGay 2 in the sphere.

Run it back. I mean, I'd watch. hashtag would watch. Yuri versus DeKita Krilov. Machado versus Covington. I, God, I have no interest in this anymore. I don't want to see it. Zero interest in that fight.

I'm still into it. You're still into it? Yeah, I'm still into it. And I think, I think, you know, Machado, Gary beats it. Reyes just needs to see a shaman. Yeah, big time. Well, he did because he knocked out Dustin Jacoby. Come on.

Well, yeah, whatever magic you're working, Dominic Reyes, keep that up. Pipe versus Robocop beats Duncan. Ege versus Yair, Lopez versus Emmett at the sphere. Ege versus Yair is fun as hell. I'd watch that fight. I think he should get, I was going to say Ortega, but I don't know. I don't know what's going on with Ortega now. Very strange week for this.

I guess y'all missed the post-fight press conference, Danes Seraloff season. No, we saw it. We saw it. We just been saying the same thing. What are you talking about? We forgot, Mike, we forgot. Dana said. Yeah. Oh, I forgot.

Dana said and every, Dana, one always tells the truth. It's always accurate when he's talking about fighters' careers. It's never wrong. Guys, it wouldn't surprise. Obviously, he was probably a year when he retired. The last fight in his contract and he's not getting resigned. Of course, he's probably going to retire. I mean, I don't know one of the other brochure that's going to give him near like $350,000.

We talked about. We saw Dana's comments. That's why we're even mentioning that he's joking about him being retired. But our lasting himself did not indicate that he's retired, did not even come close to looking like he was leaving the gloves in the cage. Maybe we'll find, maybe we'll see a statement by the time the show is done recording. Maybe we'll see a statement later this week. Maybe he is really done.

Again, and maybe at the very least, his USC contract is up. We don't know. But Dana says a fighter is retired is not indicative of the reality. We just don't know. We don't know. So wait to hear from Andre first, guys. Before you're like, oh, Dana started us. Wait, wait to hear from Andre.

Why are we so impatient? I understand. He said he's talked to, he said people should have returned. He said Tony Ferguson should be retired for like three and a half years now. And he still book a Tony Ferguson fight. Bogden versus Delisei winner gets Hill. Don't mind that. Love Piper versus Robocop.

I would love Seapyfer and Gregor Rodriguez. I figured this is, we're going to get a whole bunch of these. Yeah. What's, do you hit this? I don't want to see it. It's we kind of just saw a version of it. In a way? In a way.

But I mean, it's literally going to be two dudes just doing. the same thing and there's going to be like 11 strikes thrown in the entire fight. Can he do the- guys have said it. Like this is- Yeah. They're like, guys, I don't know why you want this so much. This is going to be a very boring fight.

The fighters themselves are telling you that it's going to be a boring fight. So that was MVP Wonderboy, right? MVP Wonderboy. Oh, so I meant to ask. Oh, Ian Gary Wonderboy. I'm sorry. I screwed that whole thing up. No, no, you showed both.

I think one of them was MVP Wonder Boy and one of them was Gary, a Wonderboy. What do you think of Gary Wonderboy? I think Gary smokes him. Could he do to him what he did to, do you think like, but even more? It would look, it would look like Bala Muhammad versus.

Right. Okay. I don't think people would. Yeah, he would just get taken down a whole bunch. He's certainly not going to win. The striking exchanges are going to look very similar to the MVP fight. Like he's not going to get the better of Wonderboy in the striking.

No chance. But he will just tackle Wonderboy. And I know Wonderboy's take down defense is better than a lot of people give it credit for. he stayed on his feet against chafcott a lot longer than people thought he would but garrie's just going to get him down and grind him out for 3026 or 327 or something like that so i don't love that fight uh give wonder boy buckley man like i'd be down for that that's that's probably the fight you do uh ankle eye per se prayer like i said sure i just don't know if it happens Mike did you see Terrence's comments uh we will get there okay I got to talk about this we have to talk about this thing

back here. I meant to mention earlier. I totally forgot. Uri 85 versus Strickland or Rob. Terrence Leverett is the biggest driver of the Uri to 185 move right now. People were talking about it last night. Apparently I don't know if I saw

someone say, at least in our comments, I think if people will scroll at the top of these comments. Someone said he said it to check media. I don't know if that's true. But either way, there were a lot of people fans. He said it after the the rackage fight. He said after the records, right?

As well. He, a lot of people are asking, just messaging and replying to him on Twitter, like, are you going to drive to 185? Can you drop to 185? I'm assuming he has in the past, right? I don't know. I couldn't find on Tapology any listed 185 fights. I mess if he has. It was a long, long, long, long, long time ago, if ever, maybe not as a pro.

I'm sure he could do it. He's a big 205er. I'm sure if he'd lost some. muscle mass. He could probably do it. I don't want to see him in 185. I just feel like it's not ideal for him. But this is a situation where he's lost twice to the champ.

And I get it. It's suddenly such a tall climb ahead. But light heavy weight, there's so much fluctuation. I feel like if he sticks around, eventually Alex will either leave or lose. And he could get another title fight against a different opponent in the future. So you're good.

Probably stay there. But I understand the middleweight chatter. I just, I don't trust that he could do it and be. at his best. Yeah. If he was in another division, I would look at it, but light heavyweight is just not good.

And if Pereira does go up to heavyweight, Yuri's probably getting a title shot. There you go. Like he's right there. Pipe versus Copulov. Copp is booked against Bruno Ferreira. Yeah, a lot of people are asking what should be next for MVP.

I like this fight. This is what I would go with. MVP versus Randy Brown. It's kind of in position these days. He's going to have to fight a surging dude is looking to breakthrough. That's really, where he's at right now.

We'll take a couple more. Yuri versus Hill from John Ray, Lopez, a Beloy, of two. Deleid Zei Cananeer, Chiason versus title fight loser. Wow. Okay. Like it.

Gary versus Burns, Brady winner. Just the thing about Lopez of Lov, too. I know we've said, of Lov probably doesn't take that. I will say, though, he does talk a lot of shit about Diego for a fight that he supposedly like doesn't care about anymore. Every time Diego fights, Moistar tweets like, oh, wow, they're really pushing this guy who, whose best moment is a loss to me or something.

He's done that more than one. He did it again last night. He's done it more than once. I agree. I don't see why he'd want to fight Diego again. but he does talk about Diego a lot. So I don't know if it's totally impossible that they do fight again.

A lot of Yuri can't make 185. He versus Ian five rounds MVP wins. I don't know if that's true. Maybe. I don't know. People saying Deerre in heavyweight. I'm like, yeah, again, light heavyweight is really just perfect for him. Like it sucks that he's lost the champion twice,

but really he's a 205er. He's not quite big enough for a heavyweight. way too big, I think, for middleweight to do that comfortably. He's just a 205. E.K. versus Murphy, sure. Yeah, good fight. Great fight. Cubs versus Caceres. Look, folks, this is it.

The time is now. The time is now you have to book the fight. You have to book Cub Swanson versus your eye of favor. You have to do it. Like, there's just nothing else. They both want it. Faber hasn't fought in forever, but they both want to fight each other. Let's just do it.

Hub would drop to 35 to fight favor. Do it at 45. Who cares? A throwback to WEC and just have these two dudes fight each other. It would be like double retirement fight. Be cool as hell. Like now's the time.

Now's the time you do something like this. You know, come. Uh, do, do, do, do, uh, who would you guys give all of error next? Top 15 ready?

No, I know he has a lot of experiences. Yeah, he's like 20-something pro fights. I get it. He's one of those guys like, oh, you see he's only two and O in the UFC. but he has a ton of pro experience and for some good promotions too.

So really he does have the resume of a top 15 guy. I just hasn't beaten a top 15 UFC guy. Where do you go with the loke dog? I have him just outside the top 20 now. If we can get Montel Jackson in the cage, yeah, great matchup. Montel Jackson. Man, it's a lot of good fights. Philly versus Barbosa?

Saeed or Mago Medov, maybe? Philly and Barbosa. Yeah, I like that. It's good a match. Love it. Jeff Neal versus MVP, sure. Simone's tough 15 until, yeah, but he's not. What's that three, it's three in a row for Ricky Simone.

Tough, tough scenes. All right. He did not look right. He does not look right right now. We, we know Ricky Simone. I don't know what was going on. Dude's been battling for a long time, man. It could just be that.

He's been doing this shit forever. He's been wrestling forever. Dude's been a competitive combat athlete for ever and ever and ever, man. So. Takes time off. like sort of the end of the line. Ricky, take a year off. I want us to take a year off.

A year off. Okay. Well, we're going to take the rest of today off. We are done. I have to drive back home. Hopefully the traffic is not as brutal as it was getting here. But I got to go. Shout out to all of you who checked out the watch party.

Shout out to Jed Mishu for hosting the UFC Apex version of the watch party. We had a great time. We appreciate that. Shout out to all the matchmakers. Obviously, no show next week. No, we're not doing it. and ask us anything because we're just not doing it. We did it the last time there was an off week.

Maybe we'll do it the next time. The next time you will hear from us will be two weeks from right now following UFC Denver, which right now has eight fights on the docket, which is crazy. Actually, nine technically, eight and a half is really the correct answer. Rose Domitunis versus Tracy Cortez. We first reported now officially the main event for that card after Macy Barber was forced to withdraw. Comaine, Santiago, Ponziobio versus Muslim Salikoff. We have Gabriel Bonfim versus Angeloza, Cody Brundage versus Abdulazak al-Hassan, Christian

Rodriguez versus Juliana-Ros Santos versus Maria Agapova, Viviani Araujo versus Jasmine Jazz DeVizius, Josh Fremd versus Andre Petroski. And ladies and gentlemen, Drew Dover versus the scariest fighter of all, TBD. Oh my gosh. official it was on the graphic it was on the graphic that they showed last night that fight is official tbdd versus drew dover shout out shout out lydia 84 for the big uh super chat thank you lydia just do the daze saddakoff fight like what are we doing here they're both in the same way class they both lost to poland just throw those frigid dudes in there makes so much sense mike mike you're making too much

sense stop talking sense by the way i'm going to throw this out there because i like this idea at joephyrish gom ruff day dash j dash good stuff uh john ray happy canaday everyone yes uh on July 1st and happy July 4th to all you guys in the U.S. But yeah, we got we got a candidate coming up on Monday. Yes, Independence Day coming up next week as well. What are we got here?

Ariel Hwani reporting last night was the final fight on Andre Alas. He will not be resigning with the promotion, I'm told, but he's still planning on fighting elsewhere. Of course he is. Of course he is. That was the case. But thank you for watching. Back in two weeks right here on on to the next

one, the podcast. You guys are the best. We love you so much. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports, you're always looking for ways to get closer to the action. And your Chase card can get you exactly that.

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