MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Alex Pereira, Khalil Rountree After UFC 307?

Episode Date: October 6, 2024

Alex Pereira's remarkable run in the UFC continued with a fourth-round knockout of Khalil Rountree in the main event of UFC 307 to retain the light heavyweight championship. "Poatan" has many options in front of him, and while he says he plans to remain at 205 to defend his belt, is that what ultimately happens for one of the UFC's biggest stars? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what could be next for Pereira and Rountree following their thrilling headliner on Saturday night in Salt Lake City. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for new women's bantamweight champ Julianna Peña and Raquel Pennington after their co-main event ended with a controversial split decision, Mario Bautista following his split decision victory against Jose Aldo, Roman Dolidze after his injury TKO win over Kevin Holland, along with fellow main card winner Kayla Harrison, 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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responsibly. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hello there, everybody. Happy Sunday morning. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking crowns are back following a weird, wacky, wild, somewhat controversial UFC 307 event that took place last night in Salt Lake City, Utah. Alex Pereira, still the light heavyweight champion.

insane fight against Kalil Roundtree, one of the most brutal stoppage you'll ever see, but one of the biggest displays of heart in defeat from Kalil Roundtree. Once again, the UFC Women's Bannamway champion, Juliana Pena, after a pretty controversial split decision win over Raquel Pennington. I have thoughts about that fight and a lot of other things, but we're here to matchmake,

and we'll get some thoughts and talk about the fallout of this fight from not only a matchmaking perspective, but from a news perspective as well, because I still feel like there's so much to talk about coming out of this event, but I am Mike Haken joining me as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, and my best friend, the great Alexander Cayley, AK, how are we doing?

That was a weird one, Mike. Not your introduction. Your introduction was fabulous, as always. This card was something from the prelims to the co-main event. I mean, the main, everything went great, like you said. Maybe one of the fights of the year. Certainly another classic Alex player, that he should be proud of,

as should be proud of, as should Kaleel Roundtree. But everything up to the co-main and the co-main itself, man, we will be talking about this show, I will say, I think, for some time. I don't think this is a show that we'll forget. I don't think, like, a year from now, we'll look back and be on like, and be like, oh, what happened on that Perra Round Tree, Pena painting show? We'll be like, oh, yeah, a lot of stuff happened.

A lot of stuff happens. Some of it good. A lot of it weird. Mostly weird. I don't even want to say bad. Some of it was definitely bad, but definitely weird. Judging, officiating certain people, their reactions in the the crowd.

I'm speaking of both the fans and some fighters, this was something else. Again, overall an enjoyable show. I don't even know where to rank it. Normally we have like a little, oh, where would this rank among the fair views this year? I have no idea.

I have no idea. All I would say is like if someone said, oh, how much of the show should I watch? This is like the rare peer review. I would say, if you could, watch it from top to bottom. And not necessarily because it's like an amazing killer show up to the bottom,

the oddities that have to be discussed. And it was a very MMA show, I guess, is the way to put it. Yeah. So we're also like putting out these, we started doing these post-fight reports answering just some different questions about the card. And so I've thought a lot about different things. And I don't want to regurgitate everything that's going to come out on that. So I'll save some of those thoughts for you guys to read tomorrow when that drops.

But let's get into the match week. We'll talk about specific fights as they happen and different things that came out of them. But this is how it's going to work. We'll talk about each fight. We'll discuss all four fighters from the main event and the co-main event. What could be next for them from a matchmaking perspective? If you guys have suggestions for those fights that we're talking about at the moment, throw them in the comments section. We'll throw a few up there.

We'll get through the rest of the main card winners. We'll do our wild card picks. And then at the very end, for about 10 or so minutes, we'll just, you know, kind of rip the bandaid off. We'll let you guys all loose. And we'll just have a big wild card where we throw. a bunch of your comments and suggestions up on the screen and we'll react to them as such. So let's talk about the UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. Down 2 to 1, 2928 on all three scorecards to Khalil Roundtree heading into round four,

AK. Pereira definitely stole some momentum in round three. He was starting to cook. Jab was landing, combinations were landing. The calf kick was absolutely brutal. And you could see it just adding up and adding up. and then Pereira really started to get loose in round four, busted up the eye of Cleo Roundtree,

and then put on a two-minute damage fest to the likes of which we have maybe never seen before in UFC title fight history. Like we've seen barrages, we've seen like 30-second barrages, but to see the type of punishment that Alex Pereer put on Khalil Roundtree and the type of damage that Cleo Roundtree would stood for so long, and then finally gets the win,

Pereira gets it done, hearing everything that happened in the builds of this fight with him being sick. And I think there were some passport issues and just a lot of adversity Pereira had to overcome just to get to this fight, which you don't always know what's happening behind the scenes. The fact that Pereira dealt with all that clearly did not have his fastball, it was far from his best outing that he could put out there. the man still in the championship rounds in Salt Lake City in altitude found a way to get the job done and is now 3 in 2024 with three finishes unbelievable stuff the story is unreal where do we go with Alex Pereira because I think we're both on the same page here the man needs to get out of the octagon for a hot minute like to see him take a break he's one of the rare few that I always say like we can't miss you

if you don't leave. I think Pereira is like the unicorn in this type of situation, but just for his overall health and well-being and I want to see more fights out of him, I want him to be healthy in doing so. If anybody deserves a break, AK, it is Poetan. Yeah, as weird as the card was, Mike, the UFC got kind of what they wanted with some of these wins. They got their Poetan win.

He does deserve some time off, as you said, which makes sense because in a dream world, right, we see him take time off. maybe move up to heavyweight even though he's kind of pushed that talk aside for now he does he he's still he he he mentioned the post fight like of course it's something i've always wanted to do and you know it's something we're thinking about for the future he wasn't very specific it's kind of still in that like well he won't he uh but obviously if they said hey we're giving you tom aspinall or hey we're giving you john jones should john jones beats d'pe i'm pretty sure that out of pedda would be like yeah i'm good i'm good moving to heavyweight let's do this so um we we had uh i had written a lot anyway

a pre-fight that like, oh, man, there's so much stuff that could dera, like, what if Prada loses? We're not even talking about those matchups. Like, I didn't even mention Drick's Duplicity possibility. What if something happens with Kayla Harrison and she loses and they lose that, you know, pushing her towards the world title or Amanda Nunes coming back, all this stuff, and a lot. So I think the weird thing, one of the weirdest things that happened on Saturday is that, like, nothing weird happened with the big fights, other than the split call with, um, Benyton.

We'll get more on that later. But yes, because we had a relatively normal set of outcomes, at least as far as just straight up who won the fights, I really hope, Mike, that we get Padena versus the Ancolaev and Rockich winner. They're, of course, fighting at U.C. 308. I know no one, I know people think Ancolaev, we all agree Ankelyev deserves it. And yet I will say, like, I feel like your average fan is not like clamoring. Maybe I'm wrong. Average fan respond in the comments if you're clamoring for Ankeliov versus Rounder.

I am. Padeta. I am, just because, again, he's, I think, arguably the second best or best light heavyweight in the world. I think Anka-Live is not good. So I want to see him fight Padetta. But stylistically, you can understand people might not want to see that matchup. Whether they're fans of Padena or just fans of, like, you know, back-and-forth fights,

maybe they don't think it'd be that way. I think it could be entertaining, but I understand why people don't feel the same way. And if Rockich beats Ankelaev, I don't know what they're going to do, because I just don't think they necessarily give Rock... Padetta right away, which is just really unfair. And again, Mike, as you said, Padetta, we don't know if he's planning to take just the rest of the year off,

maybe a little extra, you know, maybe going to the summer of 2025. No one would blame him. And by then, that doesn't guarantee that whoever wins at the Osi 308 is still against Padetta or if they have to take another fight in between. So it's a bit of a magic wand pick.

It's a bit of a crystal ball pick. It's kind of in between. But I think the right thing is Ankylai of Rackich winner, especially if Ankylaiav wins. there you so i will say that we always look for like the big winners outside of the fights when it comes to maritakshin what's next i actually think magamette ankylaif comes out as a big winner on saturday because prayer is not going to be the dude that's going to fight every like he's not coming back and fighting in december i it just be insane at this point if he comes back

in fights in three months so the timing i think actually works out great for ankelaif because because Ankleyev's not the most active guy either. So he's going to go and fight in three weeks. And then we may not see him for six or seven months, which could be perfect for Pereira. I don't think a win is enough here for Ankelaev. Although I will say outside of like championship stakes, this is not Bilal fighting for the Welterweight title. This is not Marab fighting for the Bannamweight title. Those are must wins for those guys because they were never getting another shot.

It was one and done for either. Leon Edwards, etc. For a non-title fight, it is about as must win as it gets for Magam at Ankelyev. And as I said on the post-fight show, I think he needs to actually obliterate Alexander Rackage

in order for Dana White to go to that press conference and say, yeah, man, he's next. Because they could just book Pereira in fun fights or they could throw them at heavyweight against Aspenol. Like, there's so many options you have with Pereira right now.

I want the Ankelaia fight so bad. I have to see it. want to see it. I'm, I'm intrigued. And maybe I'm on an island here. This might be, of all the, like, the fights like I have to see, Ilya, Tuporia Max Holloway is number one. Islam Armand two is number two. This might be number three. I have to see it. Yeah. Because if you, and if you asked me this a year ago, I would not say that. I think Pereira, I would pick Pereira right now to win that fight. I would pick him to win. Sure. Sure. Like pretty, pretty quickly. I wouldn't have done that a year ago.

So, yeah, he probably ends up winning the fight. And this whole Ankylaev is so boring thing. I don't truly get it. If you go back and just watch Ankelyev fights, yes, the Tiago Santos fight, that was supposed to be his big, watch how ferocious this guy is, fight, and then he fought about as safe as you possibly could. And then the Behovich fight was what it was. At the same time, I don't think that fight was as Dana White made it,

because Yanboehovich just chewed up Ankleiv's leg and he basically beat Janbovich on one leg but it ended up being a draw. Go watch Ankleiv's knocko from earlier this year. That might be a top 10 knockout of the year. He killed Johnny Walker. Absolutely smoked him in brutal fashion. He's had some ferocious KOs in there.

Yeah, there's a couple of stinkers in there. But that's where at. Ankeloif is not as boring. this whole thing ankle i've ducked poton when tell me when that happened don't even i would love to know don't even yeah i'm not doing it i'm about doing it i'm not doing it i'm doing it did you hear dana whites did you hear dana whites think why did ankle i've ducked at the tell us up well we already had a fight which is so ridiculous but that's not here there yes it's the ankle i have rackage winner all right i think that's if ankle i've wins we get the fight that

meritocracy has warranted and if it's rackets rackets rick rickrish would be real fun too so would be would he would he would they do it though come that would be so he lost his last two now to year projska yam bloch one that one was an injury one was injury to beyond and then your prohashka no shame in that it might be a bit of a tough sell i know people thought uh roundtree was a tough sell but roundtree had five straight wins a bunch of knockouts the glory killer thing i think actually roundtree was a pretty easy sell i guess he just didn't have like a lot of mainstream cachet but who does in m m m m mackich would be a little more difficult because that would be his his only win And if you're Ankelyev, I mean, really, you'd feel real sour about it because whatever,

you're undefeating, however many of your past fights and then just losing it, just one loss, one kind of weird loss. That's a fight game, but I don't, I don't know if Rackage gets it, Mike, if he wins. I mean, if he goes on, I'm going to obliterates Maggaman Ankelaiaf. Who else is there right now? Chat, chat, let us know what you think. Let us know what you. I'll, I'm going to make a poll, actually.

I'm going to make a poll. I mean, again, I hope Pereira is out for like nine months to a year at this point. He needs a break. He needs to not be fighting for quite some time. So there you go. But what about Cleo Roundtree, okay? I mean, in a loss, especially the way things looked at the end, the absolute obliteration from Pereira to Roundtree,

Roundtree shows heart. The crowd, like the whole crowd stayed to listen to Cleo Roundtree speak. And it was an amazing moment. He's just covered head to toe in blood. His blood is on DC's phone and on Dana White's hand. Like, this man left it all in that octagon and fought his ass off. And it was incredible. And despite the damage this man took, he looked like he had the time of his life in there.

And then he delivered the most shocking moment of the night. He's talking to Joe Rogan being so poetic. And then the blood booger comes out of his nose. And as a, like a professional, just grabs a towel, covers it up and continues his post. fight interview like an absolute savage this man i don't know if he's a maid man but if he's not he is at the velvet rope of being a made man where it's like belts don't matter we just want to see this guy fight all the time he's one of those guys but what i mean just what an outing from roundtree what a performance dude unlike some other some other gentleman we're going to talk about the man

went to the press conference in the build of the fight made a promise to the fan there will be blood. I'm going to go after this guy and then delivered on that promise, unlike somebody else we're going to talk about. But what do we do with Collier Roundtree, A.K., what do we do with Collier Roundtree? I will say, I agree.

This is, if people think this is like the peak of Roundtree's career, I mean, it probably will be in a sense, but if you think like he's not getting big fights anymore after this or that he only has a few big fights left, I'll tell you, I think he's going to hang around. It reminds me a little bit of Anthony Smith. Now, his fight with John Jones was not good. But I saw a lot of people kind of writing Anthony Smith off after that fight and being like,

oh, well, I mean, he's he was such a veteran and that was his big moment. How long is he going to hang around? And he's had like 12 fights since then, several fight night main events, main card placements. And so Khalil put on a much better effort than Anthony Smith did in his title fight. Has a very exciting style. And the UFC likes him. He's got a great story, very humble guy. So I think you'll see a lot of Khalil.

roundtree going forward and maybe maybe somewhere down the road he fights for a title again i don't know i wouldn't rule that out either i wouldn't rule that out of there was i was so um so enchanted by his performance what a weird you were a weird word to use talking about mmaa uh i went in a weird direction too mike i'm going uvc 309 uh nikita krillov and azam up mizakhanov were fighting i want to see him get the winner of them i'm sure everyone of the comments saying jemal hall umal hill Jamal Hill is annoying. So I don't want to book him into a fight with Rotary. That's my logic.

If they rebook Khalil versus Jamal Hill, I would not be upset about that again. Because I don't know how long Khalil is going to be out for after that fight. He's probably going to need some time off. And who knows when Jamal Hill is ready to come back. And it wouldn't shock me if the UFC went and did that. I also feel like, I also feel like Jamal Hill versus Yuri Perashka is the fight to make. But Khalil Roundtree, again, he's no longer. he's not a prelim guy anymore.

This dude, if he fights on a fight night, he's probably headlining it, or he's on the main card of a pay-per-view, probably for the rest of his career at this point. That's what that performance did for him. I don't think the opponent matters all that much. So I'm going with the winner of an upcoming fight as well. Carlos Ulberg is fighting Volkan Ozedimir,

winner of that fight versus Cleo Roundtree. I actually think Olberg's going to win, and I think Cleo Roundtree versus Carlos We'll be booking mats because that was he was going to step in for Jamal Hill or he's going to fight Jamal Hill but now he fights Roundtree instead we go full circle that's a good one man that's a good one I'll go with that love it love it round roundtree again like you said roundtree is now the ace side in several matchups again obviously not not on Saturday night going up against poiton the biggest star on the OSC right now and the champion but going forward yeah roundtreak is is is the name now that you can put other guys up against and be like oh cool roundtree is fighting whoever I'm tuning in. So good for him. Good for him. Good for the UFC.

Okay. What? Damon Martin is dancing in the streets right now. Yeah. Dancing in the streets. Oh, man. No one is happier in this MMA community than Damon Martin because Juliana Pena is once again the UFC women's band and weight champion.

She wins a controversial split decision. Even if you scored it for Juliana, it is a controversial split decision. There are arguments to be made across the board. And I'll give my thoughts in the fall, because I don't think my mind has changed very much since last night. But Payne is a new champion. Beats Raquel Pennington, two-time champ. The UFC set up the Kayla thing beautifully for Giuliana Pena.

Perfect opportunity for her to plant some seeds and build this fight. Build this big-ass fight with Kayla Harrison. And what does she do, AK? She does the opposite of the thing. She calls out Amanda Nunes in a fight that a bandit. dude is is just absolutely not going to come back for after she beat the soul out of Giuliana Pena over 25 minutes in her the last time these two fought. Do we the band is the band's taking a walk right now.

It's Kayla. There's no other option. And that's it. This is the fight that Julianna Pena is going to have. She's going to have to say yes. And that's it. I think the band is still hung over from celebrating Pena's win last night. They were really excited.

They were like, yes. They're like, the queen is back. they were like really like jazzed up so yeah the band might not be in playing shape today uh so apologies to if we do manage to get a friend's forever moment you might might be a little off because again juliana jrana panya champion again did the damn thing boy this was uh i was sending damon quotes from juliana pania's post fight uh media scrum he loved it he really loved this one this was about um Amanda of course um i think i think i think she retired too early i think that she's looking for something to do, and that for me is the biggest fight in mixed martial arts history because we're one

and one. My fight against her the first time was so dominant, I made her tap. Our second fight, I ran out of time. I lost the decision handling, fine, no problem, but it was nice to put it to bed once and for all and get to trilogy fight that I feel that she ran away from. That's nothing new. She's kind of said that for a while. She's kind of been saying that, but boy, for her to still be beating that drum after the last time they were booked, they were booked for a trilogy, and unfortunately, Pena couldn't make it due to an injury. For her to still be beating that Amanda ran away drum is maniacal and almost impressive in a way. She is the champ again, though. Controversial. Mike, I know you guys talked about the scoring. I know you reacted live.

Of course, I'm on the watch party. I didn't hate giving Pena rounds one, two, and three. Two and three for sure. I didn't hate giving her round one. I think is what I meant to say. Where were you, where were you on that? I gave it to Pennington. Sure. And that's fine. But I think it was close. Like I don't think it's for me, it's not a Pennington lock.

I think if people watch that round, I think it was really, really close. I think you could have gone other way, right? And if that's the right, and that's the case, then you could give one, two, three, Pena, right? That's not absurd, is it? Well, I mean, like, I think the scoring of the foot, like, I think what I've come to realize is that. any result and I think I have to go back and rewatch

and I think I'm going to try to do that today but I think just kind of reflectively thinking back on it I kind of think the only result that doesn't work here is Pena winning straight up I actually liked the draw card I do thank you

because Pennington dropped Pena twice in the fourth round she thumped her with the head kick hurt her bad and then flattened her with the right hand Like how is what Pennington did in round five or what Pena did in rounds one, two, or three, how can you score that round the same as round four?

I don't get it. I don't understand it. Mike, do I need to send in a correction to MMAid Decisions.com? Because yes, people, it is I. I am the lone 47-47 Pena-Pennington score. I thought Jed was the guy. I'm so angry. I finally have...

Is that a typo? I don't know why they credited to him. He did build the live blog post, but my name is on it, and I am the one who did the live blog. I don't know if his name is... He tweeted it as well. He did tweet 40s. Oh, he did. That's what they're basing it on?

Oh, that's what they go. Okay, okay. I didn't know he tweeted it. I didn't see Jed's tweet. Okay, so he was with me. So we just agree? Jed and I disagree on this hot take. I, uh, people go.

in amendment decisions.com. You will see 20 media scores, 48, 47 Pennington, which, of course, completely justifiable, one, four, five, Pennington. I went, uh, I went draw for, and I wasn't, I didn't even get credited in MA decisions. This is frustrating. But I went draw, same reason as Jed probably. Yes, I think we both went 10-8, Pennington in the fourth, and gave round one to

Pena. Was it a textbook 10-8? No, I will say. No. No. But if we're doing, I kind of went, this Jed always makes this argument. Based on the context of a fight, when there's a round like that, that is easily by far the best round by either fighter, it sounds, it just feels wrong to score it the same as the other rounds. Now, again, you shouldn't be judging based on vibes. So I'm not criticizing the judges themselves. They are going by by the book. They're going by criteria. And by the criteria, the strictest definition of criteria,

probably not a 10-8, probably not a 10-8. But a draw definitely feels better than a Pennington loss. It feels, and like you said, Mike, definitely better than a Pena win. The Pena win just feels odd. But again, if you're only giving out 10-9s, you could give the first three to Juliana. Again, then the last two of Paineton, Paintington you can say just didn't do enough. But, man, pride rules.

Pride rules, it's like Pendington by a mile. Oh, 100%. I think there's no, like, question. It was not a conclusion. Congratulations to Julianna Pena. She is the champion. And again, by the card, she did enough to get it back. All the respect in the world for that.

I just don't, it just wasn't like a very powerful championship performance. I don't think that's a spicy thing to say. Let me also say this, because I think it's very fair to say this. Raquel Pennington did absolutely did not deserve to win. Even though I thought she won, she absolutely unequivocally did not deserve to win. and I think the more that I do actually reflect on it, I think Pena actually deserves to win more because Pennington's fight IQ might have been the worst I've seen all year.

It was so terrible. She has Pena badly hurt. She is killing her on the feet, just annihilating her. Pena had no answers when Pennington was actually moving forward and was aggressive and landing shots. Every time Pennington hit Pena, Pena reacted in not a negative, in not a positive way, which is why I gave Pennington round one. Because Pena, yeah, she was landing the jabs. She landed punches.

But every time Rocky landed on Pena, Pena went backwards, her face change, her expression change. It was just such a difference between the shots that were landing from Pennington, comparatively to the shots that Pena was landing. But Rakell Pennington, what the fuck were you? thinking. Just you were scoring. Your team is telling you between rounds, you have to go. You have to be aggressive. You have to do this. And Raquel Pennington would be aggressive for the first 30 seconds of every round. Comes out round four after getting yelled at by her coach. Kix Pena in the head. Harts her bad. And what does she do? She takes her foot off the gas.

Goes back to a range kickboxing match. She's staying way outside of Padia. swinging, missing her by a mile, because she's not getting inside. Then when she finally gets inside, drops Pena like a bad habit. But instead of letting Pena stand back up, she jumps on her. She jumps on her. What the hell are you doing? I could not believe it. And then in round five, again, you got to go.

And Pena, to her credit, she's like, okay, I feel like I'm winning. I'm just going to stay away from this girl. She's not attacking me. I'll just cruise. she did that penny pennington does not deserve to be the champion plain and simple even if you scored it for her she did not deserve to win because she gave it away she gave the fight away so i'm sorry rquel if you hear this and you think it's a bad take but i can assure you that you are going to go back and rewatch this fight and you are going to be like i let this one slip away

because you just weren't aggressive enough it was not it was just it was very frustrating to watch you know what I mean you could see you could see I could see I could see I could see Pena breathe a sigh of relief

when Pennington jumped on her after that knocked down to the fourth that big knock down the fourth the most dramatic moment of the fight and just grabbed on to Pendington it's like Pennington just went almost not into her guard

but went down to the mat with her and then Pennington Pena instincts wrestling instincts I'm grabbing on I'm grabbing on she can't do anything if I grab onto her sure enough seconds later

she's recovered she's caught her breath. She works her way back up to the feet. It was frustrating to watch. Again, these are decisions that fighters have to make in a split second. Maybe Penn didn't thought she had Pena so hurt that she could finish on the ground. I mean, that's how MMA works, right? You get a knockdown and you hopefully finish with ground and pound.

We've seen a million finishes like that. But knowing her opponents and I don't know, maybe she should have better read the situation. She should at least let it go back to the feet there and seeing how wobbly Pena was and then it went back to work. But again, these are split-second decisions. Hard to understand. Also hard to criticize. But at the end of the day, it might have,

I don't know. I don't want to say if it cost or a finish, but it certainly was the closest of the fight being finished on either side. So, yeah. We're just going to fight here, right, Mike? We're just going to be an opponent for Raquel Pennington. Is that a- Norman-Demont.

Is that right? Norman-Dumont. I mean, there's nothing else. Literally nothing else. Are you not worried that she will derail the Dumont hypertriott? Can we afford to do this money? No. No, I would pick Norman Dumont. After watching when I watched last night,

Norma Dumont, Norma Dumont will not allow that. She will not, she will go for the victory. She will deserve to win that fight. And she, after watching what she did to Arrini Aldana, that impressed the hell out of me. She, I mean, she rearranged Arrini Aldana's face.

Nobody thought she was going to get out there and outstrike Arrida Aldana. And she beat that. hell out of her. So I would actually, I would pick Norman Dumont right. I would pick Norman Dumont to be Rekalbengton. She'll be the favorite.

I think she'll be like minus 150. If that fight gets made, I think it'll be minus 150 tomorrow. And that's fine. She's on a hot streak. You're right. All people think about it is the absolute destruction of Eury and Aldana. I'm just scared.

I'm, because I just, I don't know. I feel like Pennington could win that. And the Dumont disciples, Mike, they need this. They need this.

The UFC needs this. They need her to get a phantomweight title fight. And I am more, I don't like to protect contenders. I say this all the time. I am worried Pennington would split decision her and just ruin that. Yeah. But at the same time, like if normal wins, so what? Because most people feel like Juliania and Penaena is going to lose to Kayla Harrison anyways.

And if no matter who wins that fight could just fight Kayla next. And even if Pena wins, you can do the rematch because this was controversial to a lot of people. Like go to M.A. decisions. Not one person scored for D. Eidipadia. There's the, the, should be two draws and everybody else scored it for Pennington. Every other person scored it for her, uh, which is crazy. But yeah, let's give her normal Dumont and because there's just nobody else for her to fight that makes any

sense. Oh, what about Jermaine Durandami too? Uh, uh, is that wetting your appetite, my best friend? Is that getting your, is that perking your ears up? No, come on. That's a good It's not. That's a good fight. Germain Durandami was out forever. Uh, and this. loses her comeback fight and then is booked again and got hurt and can't fight. Like get a win and then maybe we can have this discussion. Come on. Come on. That is just such a fall from grace.

No, Raquel needs that one back. And Raquel, I hate to say, is not getting a title fight anytime soon. She could beat Norma Dumont. She's not getting another shot at Pena. I don't think that's true at all. You think so? I don't think that's true at all. I think that fight is a, okay, this division is terrible.

This was awful. This was a low bar. This was a much better fight than the might have won a solo fight. For sure. And that's a much more positive taste in the matchmaker's mouths, especially in regards to Pennington's performance. I think you're right. I think they do, whether they feel like she won or not, they certainly feel like she did enough to possibly win, which is good. You're right.

She's in better standing. She won't need to win six straight, six straight, five straight again to get the vacant title shot and then six straight to get this pain in your fight. But I just, I don't think Dumont is going to get her right back in there. I guess it depends with Pena and Harrison, all that stuff. Okay. Maybe, maybe she's close, I think. But you know where it starts, Mike? GDR2.

Oh, my God. Moving on. Do you want to do you have any comments, any thoughts about Kayla's performance? Because obviously we're not going to. Oh, yeah, right. We should do. Yeah. Kayla goes out there and beats Ketland Vieira.

and the fight went, if you go back to my predictions and you go back to my bets, I bet Kayla Harrison by decision of plus 100. Took a little bit of a beating for that. My DMs were blowing up, call me an idiot. Kayla's going to smash her. It's not even going to go three minutes,

let alone three rounds. Nailed it. Absolutely nailed it. But Vieira, I got to say, was it the cleanest performance? No. There's still some rawness to Kayla, especially on the feet.

but she got a chin on her man Ketland Vieira blasted her with elbows you never see like you've seen Kail Luselurissa Pacheco but you haven't seen Kayla lumped up and thumped up like that count was a real this was excellent matchmaking this is tremendous matchmaking we learned I learned I didn't think I'd learn a ton from Kayla in this fight I learned a lot about her in this fight and mostly positive

like the things that the things that people are criticized her performance for are not all that surprising to me. Like this is how I thought the fight was actually going to be. But her ability to take a shot, her ability to go 15 minutes in Salt Lake City after cutting to 136 for the second time, altitude, adversity, all of that to come through with the third round that she had was friggin' impressive, man. Yes. It was impressive.

I took a lot away from this more positive than negative. Yeah. How many times do we see a prospect come out strong in the first round? and then fade late, right? I think if you're going to be a champion someday, you have to show that you can get that surge in the third round or championship rounds, you know, if she ends up getting a title fight.

Like, it's like the opposite of like Hamzat and Usman. Think about the Hamzat-Uzman fight. Hamzat looked freaking awesome in the first fight with, in that fight with Usman, the first round, taking him down. It's like, holy crap, we never seen Usman take him down so easily and controlled on the ground. And then he faded as a fight went on and arguably lost.

Like I thought I would have a 29 to 28 Shimaia, but he didn't look great. in round three i'll tell you that much um and uh this was the opposite this was kela had some issues with a very tough veteran and then the hossing actually happened to the third round she finished so that that's what you'd like to see so as you said uh my best friend perfect matchmaking a name in the division someone who's going to make her better just by going 15 minutes with her this makes harrison a better fighter and i don't think people realize like what a step up in competition uh kettlin veeta and Holly Holm are to who Harrison was fighting in the Pfell.

With the accepted Pacheco, obviously the Pacheco, I would rank above both of them, pound for pound. I rank it above both them. And then surprisingly, Pacheco has a win over her. Outside of that, though, I think Vianna and Home are way better than Aspen Lad, Caitlin Young, Marina Moknetskina. I'm obviously reading these names off a list, guys. Taylor Gardado, tough women, obviously, nothing about respect for them. But Harrison was the gap and talent between her and them was pretty,

large. Anyone who watched your PFL run will tell you the same. So this was, this is, she's still learning, guys. These are big steps up, steps up for her with the weight cut, with the level of competition. And she's winning, you know, dominated Holly. And I wouldn't say dominated Veda, but a convincing win.

And that's what you like to see. So yeah, can't wait to see you get that title shot. Yes. Great matchmaking. But now we go to horrific matchmaking. Oh, boy. Horrific matchmaking. You love, you loved this fight. I hated it from moment one

go back and listen to any of the shows after they fought after they booked this fight obviously you're happy to see Jose Aldo on a card because he's Jose freaking Aldo but to go from to go from this impressive win streak he was on we know he's on the tail end of his career

the MMA community the diehards we don't ask for much because the UFC doesn't promote to us they don't give a shit about us they want the newbies they want the new generation a fan they want that this is what they want all we asked for the ufc was for one thing not fighter pay stuff all that stuff like we'd like to see that but the one thing we wanted was to for jos a aldo to get a title shot give him aljermain sterling give him the title fight instead

they book him with maraub de vallis willie in salt lake city in in my opinion the worst made fight in the history of the UFC Abandonweight Division. Why? Because that fight happened. Maraud Aldo and didn't take him down once. Landed zero takedowns. Zero on Joseo.

So the fight was against the fence the whole time. Then Aldo comes back and fights Jonathan Martinez, which don't mind it. In Brazil, last fight on his deal. Maybe he passes the torch to Jonathan Martinez. Maybe they build the new guy or whatever, what have you.

Aldo does Aldo things and wins. We're clamoring for a step up. Let's do Corey Sanhagen. Let's do maybe he gets a title shot. Like, let's just throw him in there. Let's just have some fun. Worst case scenario, let's do Dominic Cruz. What do they do?

They give him Mario Batista, who nobody knows, unless you're like a hardcore and watch every card, Apex and all. And as I said in predictions and on other shows, If Mario Batista is going to beat Josealdo, he's going to do exactly what he did last night. He's going to have to put him up against the fence and hold him there because he's not going to take him down, but he could hold all those back up against the fence. And that's exactly what he did.

And for Batista to go to that press conference and say, I'm going to hurt this man. He's past this time. I'm going to make him bleed his own blood. It's going to be violent and vicious and bruel and bloody. And then to do that, Mario Batista gains nothing from this. nothing. And it, it just goes, it defines why this matchmaking sucked.

So bad, because the only way Marri Batista was going to win this fight was fighting exactly that way. And now, he doesn't get Corey Sanhagen. He doesn't get anywhere near a title fight. Instead, he's going to have to fight

a young, hungry, talented whippersnapper in Song Yidong. That's what he gets. He gets Song Yidong. Maybe he wins that fight. Maybe. He wins that fight.

But he ain't getting the big names. He ain't getting Cheeto. He ain't getting any of these guys. Like, this is as good as it gets. He might end up fighting Marcus McGee if Marcus Piggye wins at Madison Square Garden. I'm not even saying that jokingly. I'm not even saying that jokingly. Come on, my best friend.

He gains nothing from this win. And it's tough. But, man, this, I don't even, I don't even blame Mario Batista. No. Because, like, I don't blame it. Because this is the only way he was going to win the fight was doing exactly that. Listen, Mario Batista, I say this wanting to puke, did nothing wrong. Comments, let me have it.

Let me have it. Mario Batista did nothing wrong. You're right. He did nothing wrong. He went into Salt Lake City, up against one of the greatest fires all time. He's taking his number now, whether you agree with it or not. When the rankings come out on Tuesday, the official rankings, our rankings are going to be a little more controversial. We had some internal discussion about whether we've been like, do you have to rank Aldo above Batista?

And then ours, you don't. Ours is like, if you feel like there was a genuine grievance with the scoring, we allow our panel to rank accordingly. Like we try to reign to blend and tell them not to be crazy, but also like, this was right was really close. If you want to rank Aldo above Batista as the kind of rankings are, I'm not going to come down on you. But the UFC rankings, the official ones, I expect we'll have about these to taking his number, leaving Salt Lake City with another paycheck. And now, Mike, joining this list, I tweeted this out moments after. These are the names of fighters to have beaten Josie Al or to have wins over Josie

Aldo in the UFC. Of course, Connemar Gregor, two-division champion. Max Holloway, Rutherway, legend. Alexander Volcanowski, the otherweight legend. Marlon Marais, again, another close fight, but a very good fighter. World Series of fighting champion. Piotr Yon, Phantomweight champion. Roddwell is really current banditweight champion.

And now you add Mario Dautista to that list. Sounds weird. It sounds weird. Batista did nothing wrong. I see a lot of people criticizing the game plan. Guys, you're right. The game plan sucked. But guess what?

He won. Guys, he won on the scorecards. Fair or not? I disagree. The game plan was perfect. No, the game plan was perfect. It was a perfect game plan. Yeah.

Was it entertainment? will anybody ever go back and rewatch that fight again hell no no one's going back and rewatching that fight not a single person i don't even know barra batista's going to rewatch that fight but this is how this was the only way he was going to win yeah this is he won he was so i i get it this is why i blame the match bakers because this this was the worst case scenario but a very possible scenario so now you have maria batista who gets the biggest win of his career This man just got a payday who's on a pay-per-view main card and the featured fight of a two-title fight card

fighting Jose Aldo and beats him and gains nothing from it. It's insane. I don't, I should also add, I don't want to call the fight a robbery. I don't think it's a robbery. But I do, but I do wish the judges had, I want to say, looked at the third round a little more closely because Aldo was pretty clearly winning early on.

And not for a long time. It wasn't like a sustained stretch where Aldo was like whooping him. But if you just look at the exchanges they had on the feet before a lot of the clenching against the wall happened, Aldo pretty clearly winning. And I think although also anytime they separated was just to step ahead and striking department. I'm not saying either guy was close to finishing the fight. I'm not saying Aldo would have put him away if they'd stay standing. But I just feel like they were too uncreative with their scoring.

And they just saw him being held against the fence and in their minds were just ready to mark down. a 10-9 for Batista. So not a robbery, although probably could have done a little more in the third. But man, based on what we saw, Batista just did almost nothing. Almost nothing. This comment section is ridiculous.

Oh, boy. What have got? I haven't been like it. It's not, it wasn't a perfect game plan. He stalled and avoided fighting although. Yeah, no shit. That's why he won.

That's why he won. That's why it was a perfect game plan. Because if he didn't do that, he would have lost 30, 27. I think people are mistaking like a enjoyable and respectable game plan with a winning game plan. This was a winning game plan. You know how we know that guys? It absolutely was the only path for him to win this fight.

He won. He won on two of the judges scorecards. We, the court of public opinion, us in the media, guess what? We could say everything we want. It doesn't matter. We don't actually judge the fights. We don't have any influence in the official result. The two judges scored the fight for Batista based on how Batista fought.

And that's all that matters at the end of the day. So congrats to Batista. I'm so disgusted by that fight. Not Batista, but like you said, the matchmaking, just the way it had to be fought. I'm going to be angry for a long. I haven't been this angry since the Aldo Morab fight. Like that was watching our boy Aldo forced into these bizarre matchups where he's going to lose only in this terrible, terrible way. It's not a good time.

It's not a good time. And it took me a lot to recover after that fight. I'll tell you. Thank God for that main event. So bad, man. So bad. I just don't. I don't understand.

how you could score that third round from Batista. I just don't see a world how you do it. But again, that's the only chance he had to win this fight. So, Al-Doh's thumping him up on the feet, too. Like, once all those started to flow a little bit, and it's so fun once he figures out his opponent. And Batista was doing okay on the feed.

Like, he was, it wasn't like he wasn't landing anything, but although had him figured out like four minutes into round one and then really started to play around in round two. but Daniel Cormier, please, please take notes at these seminars when it comes to the scoring criteria. That's all I ask of you. That's all I ask. It doesn't matter about control. Damage is the number one thing.

It's the number one thing in the scoring criteria, whether you are a scoring snob or not. Damage is priority one. And although delivered pretty much all the damage in round three, if we're being honest. By the way, sorry, to put a bow on this, I didn't even give my pick for Batista. Oh, yes, please. Run it back. Run it back. Like, UFC.

We match? You have seen, run it back until we get the result we want, all right? I am a child throwing a tantrum. I'm not happy with what I saw. I want to run it back. This doesn't count. UFC 310, Las Vegas. I think both guys will be ready.

Run it back, Mike. Batista all though, too. Can I just also say, Mara Batis is handling this perfect. by the way. Like everything about it is perfect. Him being kind of like shitty about it in the aftermath being like, Hey man, if you don't like it, get off the fence.

What do you want me to do? It's not my fault. He couldn't get off the fence. Like just being kind of a dink, but in like the best possible way, I, I oddly respect it. So like he's, he lost fans and he's not going to get a huge fight because of this. But like for me at this point, just go with it, man. Just go with it and be the heel. and get booed, man.

Just get booed. You were fighting Josialdi. You're going to get booed anyways. So just do the thing. He did nothing wrong. He did nothing wrong. Middleweights, AK. Weird one.

Roman Deleads A. Versus Kevin Holland. Roman Deleadze with an abdominal stretch on the ground. I don't know how we got to the abdominal stretch, the rest hold in 1980s professional wrestling, but he delivers it in a scramble. I thought Kevin Holland's shoulder ripped out of its socket watching it live. That looked real bad.

Turns out it's a rib injury. And Holland somehow survives that round. He's in full mount. He can't breathe. He can't move. Roman DeLizze is clubbing down on him. And Kevin Holland is still talking shit to the man as he's getting just absolutely annihilated in that one. To his team's credit, they stopped the fight.

didn't seem like Holland had, you know, they were still kind of jaw jacking, but I didn't love Roman celebration at the end. I think he kind of toned it down in the post-fight interview, which is okay. I mean, the Drell and runs, it's all that, but. Roman Deleads a very, he's in such a weird spot, right? Because he goes up and fights Anthony Smith. He's ranked in two divisions, I think. Now he's got a win over Kevin Holland.

Like, I don't, I landed on, I'll just go first. The winner of Bo Nickel versus Paul Craig. That's what I ultimately landed on. I don't love it. I thought of the winner of another fight, but I ended up going with this one. I need that to happen kind of because for whatever reason, I keep getting Roman DeLitsay and Paul Craig mixed up.

They're just big burly dudes with beards, I guess. That's really it. Otherwise, they have nothing in common. They do not really look alike, I don't think. So I would love to see that if it happened. Maybe that would help me, you know, finally sort that out in my brain. But yeah, strange matchup, a guy coming off a top 10, top 15 light heavyweight win, and then Kevin Holland just taking fights at 185 for Schitts and giggles.

He needs to stop going to 185, though, because other than Michael Alexeychuk, who's just not a grappler at all, is not interesting going to the mat. Like, any respectable 185 is going to tackle him to the mat and pummel him in some way, maybe just ground and pound, maybe slap on that old school abdominal stress, like you said. It just needs to stop happening. I know he takes pride of me a two-division guy, and there's certainly guys in 185 he can beat, but fighting a ranked guy like Delitzé,

who, yeah, he likes a stand-up, but he's pretty strong. He can tackle you to the mat, which is what we saw. We should be avoiding these situations, Kevin Holland. I know you're likely collecting those checks, but when you're injured, it's a bit harder to do that. So, Mike, I went with, you know, I didn't mind DeLise's gusto after.

I don't think he can, get the winner of Whitaker Shemaiah, he don't think he's quite there yet. But you know what he can do, Mike? He can get Whitaker when Shemaya bows out of the fight inevitably at U.S. 308. I think if you're a deletia, you are positioned to be the replacement for that fight.

Because I think they would like to keep Robert Wittaker on the card if possible. I am, for the sake of my fantasy team, Shemaya is my middleweight. And yes, perhaps I'm trying to reverse jinks here. Like, not that I believe in that sort of thing, but I think we all know that Shamiya, not the most reliable guy and they may need someone to step in for that 185 pound bout. Roma deletes is right there.

Give him, give him a couple of weeks. Just let him know he's on call and maybe we'll see him fight in Abu Dhabi instead. John Killis suggested Roman versus Canaaner. I thought about that one. That's not a bad one. Costa delizze, people like that one. I actually would rather see Kevin Holland fight Paula Costa. I think that's just.

Yes, that is really good. Like, that's silly. That's just ridiculous. There's just something fun about that. Please. The other one I was thinking was Deleidzei versus the winner of RDR versus Gerald Beershard. Oh. Because either, like, RDR is a name.

So that's like an interesting second fight for him if he beats Beershart. And if Mearsharth beat RDR, like, come on, man. Like, just give him, give him a chance. You gave him a chance with Shemai of before. Let's give him another one. Sure. Most fighters in his position would never be able to even come back from a 16 second drubbing. You know what I mean?

but I don't know. We'll see. He's fought a million times. So he has, that stuff is water off and ducks back to Joe, Mere Shardt. 100%. Yeah.

100%. Let's go to the wildcar round and then we'll open it up to the peeps. We're going to select one fighter we have not matched made for yet and we will match me for them right now, AK, who did you go with? Did we both pick Joaquin Buckley? We did. We did. We want to,

well, my answer is going to be kind of boring because if any, any attentive listeners know that I kind of picked someone else on a previous show to fight the winner of this fight. So I do not have a sexy pick. I think you and I both agree. We really like the Camaro Oussman call out that it makes sense. Camaro is theoretically free to fight whenever he wants. I know Buckley, people will say Buckley is kind of not near him in the rankings.

Like, you know, there's, he'll be top, like Buckley will be top 10 after beating Wonderboy, but there's a gap between, you know, six to 10 and the actual top five of the Walter Rate Division, like a pretty sizable gap. And I know Usman's inactive, but he would, you know, I think most people would say he's still top five at 170. So that's the right way to aim. That's at least moving you in the right direction. Buckley, very, very good call out. If he gets that fight, spectacular.

What a great opponent to get. I mean, literally, you win that fight. You should get a tellto shot. But I had previously said I wanted the winner of Tom's Wonderboy Buckley to fight Sean Brady. After Sean Brady's recent win. So I'm okay. I know to step back for Buckley. I know he did the right thing by calling out Usman.

so it seems like I'm punishing him. But I also think this fight puts him in good position for Talashad if he wins. Not at the top doesn't make him the number one contender, but it puts him on that short list where like, depending how scheduled, like what happened with Roundtree, depending how scheduling works out, they might just need a welterweight to fight, Balal or Shabkod, whomever sometime in early first quarter, 2040,

I'm sorry, late first quarter, 2025, or early second quarter, 2025. And Buckley, if you got to win over Sean Brady and I think six straight, it'll be like six and oh at 170. You'll be in there. You'll be in there with some other names like Ian Machado Gary, Jackdella, Madalena. So it's not like you're the guy at the front of the line. But you'll be in there.

So I like him and Chandrae. So that's what I think ends up happening. But I didn't go that route. I'm going more of a magic wand here. And I just want to say the biggest reason why I'm picking Joaquin Buckley is to send a message to Jamal Hill. Jamal, there is hope for you yet because I didn't think there was any hope for Joaquin Buckley. After what he did earlier this year with two horrific callouts back to back, the Connor callout being legitimately the worst call in UFC history. And then not only not recognizing that at the time, but then doubling and tripling down and then calling out Daniel Cormier and calling out everybody else for a greeting.

with the rest of the fucking universe that it was the worst call-out of all time. I have hope for Jamal Hill yet, and it's only because of what Joaquin Buckley did last night. Because here's the thing. He goes out there, and he immediately shoots a double-leg on Wonderboy. And to Wonderboy's credit, and this is why I bet on Wonderboy, I had a feeling that this is what we were going to see. And then it got to the point for Joaquin Buckley where he's just like, you know what? I'm just going to scrap with this dude. Like I might chew a take down or two

But I'm gonna throw as hard as I can in the entries And I'm gonna try to clip this man on the way in And in my opinion, I thought he was down two rounds I thought Wonderboy won both rounds I think two of the judges may have had at 1919 doesn't really matter And then Buckley deads him in round three with the craziest Leaping in right hand That you will that you will see

And Wonder Boy is a very durable guy And just deads him with one shot Wonderboy goes head down in the map and Buckley gets the win. And then I was like, great. This is a good start because that fight was way more fun than people thought it was going to be. And Joaquin finished him in a way nobody really expected him to. And I even asked Jed because we were in the middle of the beginning of the watch party.

Are they even going to give this man an opportunity to speak? Because it was like $9.59 at the time. And Jed's like, well, he got a knock out. He's probably going to do it. So Rogan asks him, how do you feel about it? Buckley says the nice thing. and then Diroga says, what do you want next?

And I'm horrified as this is going on. What does Joaquin Buckley do, okay? Because I thought for sure he was calling for Balal. And I was just going to throw something through the wall. Not only does he not call for Bilal, he puts Balal over as the champion. He puts Shafkat over as the rightful challenger, says I need one more,

and then calls him, come up. R Usman. This was an A plus night for Joaquin Buckley. A plus, there is hope for everybody. No matter what you have done in the past, you can find a way through it for the most part. But this is what Joaquin Buckley did because if anybody had predicted that I would come on a show in October after what I've had to say about this man this year and put this man over, no one would have believed it. It would have been plus 12 million that this moment would happen. But I'm here to do it. I'm an honest man. I call it as I see it.

Shout out to Joaquin Buckley. You did the thing. You're not fighting Kamar Usman, but I love the gusto. I think he ends up fighting Sean Brady. If I were the matchmaker, I would book him against Jack Della Madalena. That's the fight I would make. I like it. And that's what I want.

Love it. Love it. Love that whole. I love their healing. We're healing as a community, Mike. I feel like we're healing. I mean, a lot of damage was also done as Serena, I will say. There's some fighters who definitely came out in their reputations.

They're worse for wear. But with Buckley, yes, you didn't even mention the Cubs Swanson nonsense. Oh, yeah. That's bad, too. It was like three horrible callouts, as it were. But I'm glad we both landed on. Buckley is a talented fighter. He deserves a big fight next, whether it's someone ranked above him or someone just

slightly behind him, which I think is where Brady would be. And I want to say, I am on record before, way before. Before the Conn of McGregor call it happened, I am on record. You guys can find old post-fight shows where I said, I believe in Buckley as a title contender. I said, I think he was coming off either a loss or sort of uninspired. Which one was it? And this might have been at middleweight. Maybe it was the lost EMAVov or the split call over.

It was like not, it was not a great night for him. And I was just saying, I still, from what I've seen from him, I believe my caveat was if he drops to 170, which he did. I feel like he could fight for a UFC title someday. There's still a ways to go, but the talent was never in question. And I'm glad. I'm glad he seems to have gotten his call out straight. And we look forward to his next fight, Mike.

We look forward to seeing Joaquin Buckley again. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Jamal Hill. You know Joaquin Buckley. You've trained with him. Do what he's doing. Do what he's doing.

You can find your way back. You can do it. I believe in you. I would love to see that. just stop doing that humble up a little bit it's all good court McGee

good submission win for him Tisha Pennington ends Carlos Sparses career with a decision that not a lot of people agreed with Ryan Span we got we never know what we're going to get with good old Superman

but he comes in and gets a bonus earning submission Cesar Almeida I don't even want to talk about this fight I don't even want to talk about this fight that referee go do something else seriously Like literally anything else. That was funny for us.

My low-key biggest takeaway of this card is the fact that we live in a society, we live in a world AK, where we watched a UFC pay-per-view event. I am putting over Joaquin Buckley in a glowing way. Also, two fighters on this card who have not gotten standing ovations maybe ever in their careers,

got them. Carlos Barza and usually even like retired fighters don't get this type of like they do out of like respect but Carlos Sparza doesn't get that type of but Alexander Hernandez Alexander Hernandez

got a standing ovation last night and you know what? It put a smile on my face because the amount of hate that this young man has gotten over his six year UFC run for taking an opportunity to sign with the organization steps in on short notice and the toughest division in the sport he knocks up Neil Darius is immediately a top 15 guy

doesn't get a chance to grow with the promotion doesn't get a chance to build his way up through the UFC ranks like most lightweights would do the Saroni stuff people turn on him forever since the Saroni stuff and then he just

you know there's a way of speaking his confidence his aura kind of rubs people the wrong way and then you add the Saroni stuff on top of that it just hasn't been good for Hernandez it was nice to see this man get applause It was nice to see Carla Sparza get her flowers to AK. So while there's a lot of bad with this card and a lot of negative stuff,

kind of warm my heart a little bit to see Buckley get the turnaround, see Hernandez get a standing O, and Carlos Sparza be like the most popular fighter on the card outside of Alex Pereira. Mike, you didn't mention court McGee finished someone. Court McGee finished a fight. I mean, he hadn't finished a fight in 14 years. guys 14 years and he's fought a lot this isn't the guy who's been like oh wait did he miss a couple of years in there and injuries and no this guy fights like two or three times a year uh he's been finished he's been some good fights where you like you know exciting not there's exciting fights but he's had to have been the other end of some exciting finishes he finished he finished the card with a submission of tim means he finished for 14 years uh that's crazy dude the carless stuff was great it's a shame that uh it had to be balanced out by like their appreciation for her they were that it made them boo tisha and what was like i think a pretty solid win for Tisha.

Like I guess we'll didn't like the 30-27. I don't think the scores were that controversial. And I will give it the most generous reading that like, Mike, maybe they couldn't hear her exactly what she was saying and they were just going to boo her as soon as she started talking. Because on the broadcast, it really sounded like as soon as she started talking about like, I'm dedicated this fight to breast cancer awareness and my grandmother, my grandmother recently passed away from breast cancer.

And then they started booing. I was like, Utah. I love you. One of my favorite American states, love Utah. That was such a bad look for those fans in that building. Again, I did see people tweeting, oh, they couldn't hear. They couldn't hear. Like, they were just booing because she was talking and they didn't like the decision.

And they liked Carla. Carla had suddenly become their hero overnight. But it came off as really bad, real bad in the broadcast. So I want to believe they weren't booing what she was saying. But boy, that sounded awful. That was bad. But yeah, weird night. This car was weird, Mike.

UFC 307. UFC 307, colon, weird. Like if they still did the subtitles for fight, fight cards, that's what it would be. I mean, look, it's a tough spot for Tisha to be in, too. You know, she finally gets a win over somebody that she's wanted to beat. And it was the final fight of Carl's career. Tisha was out for a long time. I thought she kind of got hosed in her comeback fight.

Gets a decision to go in her favor, which doesn't happen all that often for her. And gets the win. She has friends and family there. her wife's about to defend her title for the first time in the co-main event like there's a lot going on there i kind of wish that she just stepped aside for carla you know i mean like i feel good about the win but look this isn't about me this is about her she's a legend former champion it was an honor to be her final opponent etc i think that would have gone over a little bit better but still who am i to say anything and i think i think the booze would have been less

She might even got cheered if she did that. But it doesn't matter. She got the win. Huge. What do we got? Oh, I should tell people, I should be telling people, send your picks.

Yes. Let's open things up. Let's go. If you have questions like non-matchmaker related, we can super chat them and go. Dave, what's wrong with booing cancer? Are you pro cancer?

I think you know. Sorry, I'm going to close this poll. I head up too. Does Rockich get Pereira if he beats Ancolaev U.C. You see through it. 65% yes, Mike. 65% yes. It's a, it's a straight up number one contenders fight apparently. Rockich just takes Ancolaev's win streak and he comes to the number contendent. Damn. 65%. You guys are merciless. It's like, what are you done for me lately? Hey, geez Louise. What have you done for me really? Holy cow. That's tough.

All right. We got some, we got some coming in. Let's see. Throw him up. Throw him up, Mike. Tristan Hernandez versus Kutatalate. I think that's, there might be a little too much if we're being honest, especially if we're going to try to do something here. I think we got a tough ass fight, man. I think we got Dudo. Maya Batista versus the winner of Rob Font versus Kyler Phillips happening on October 19th. U.S.

Fight Night Fluffy versus Pereira. Kyler and Mario are both MMA guys. Am I crazy? You are correct. Yes. Tristan, that ain't going to happen if Kyler beats Rob Font. That ain't going to happen, buddy. I don't think.

Sorry, I would hope not. I got a side of the AK. I got a side. He was talking about Kyler and Sean O'Malley at the post-wife press conference. His buddies is like, I mean, I don't think. Unlike me, guys. Unlike me. Gerard.

Prayer versus Enka, Rackage winner. Roundtree Walker, too. I love that idea, by the way. I thought about that. Almost went that direction. I think that is spectacular. Oh, that was a long time ago. We're pretty far away from that first fight, aren't we?

We're very far away. This is the jumping knee. This is the jumping knee, I think. This is the elbow. Elbow. Who did Walker jumping knee? Oh, oh, elbow. Oh, God, yeah.

2018. Wow, that is a lifetime ago. Run it back. Run it back. I'm totally down for that. Yeah, I like that. I like that. Pennington Dumont,

Batiste de Verra, Delizé Hernandez-Perera winner. Maybe. Yeah, I don't mind. That's fine. That makes a lot of sense. Buckley versus Leon Edwards. I'm glad he didn't do that call-out.

If he had done that call-out, I would have been like, I would have been like, oh, that's a little suss. I wouldn't have hated it. I would not have hated it. I like it was been better, but it would have been fine. It would have been better as well. Thompson versus the Brown Prochis winner. Boy. To go, poor Wonderboy.

To go from Buckley to possibly Carlos Prochis to kick off 20-25. by youser that's tough laceda versus lemo she begui ponsonibio two are you surprised court didn't retire he would have retired with a loss right i don't know no first finished in 14 year 12 year 14 years yeah in your home state in you're like at home i thought for sure that was gonna be his final got a lot of fights left in a man listen he still likes to do it good for him good for him court as long as you're healthy keep getting in there sg rocky versus macy rematch, but at 35, not 45. It's pretty dependent at the first time.

I don't know if I need to see that again. That whole situation was very strange. Beer versus Norma Dumont, Lucindo versus the winner of Hebas versus Dern in December. I don't like that one. I don't like Ketland and Norma Dumont. I don't feel like that's a, that's a weirder fight for Norma Dumont to take.

Like, what's the game there? Yeah. There's nothing again there. Let's go to a super chat. Shout out to JM 25. Should Wonder Boy retire? I don't see any good masters for him in the top 15, maybe go out of the top 15,

fight someone like Euros Medich. I don't think he should retire, but I understand the concern. I mean, the age, obviously, and he's got a lot of combat sports my eyes in general, right? He had a martial arts career before the UFC.

I obviously, he's still competitive. Obviously, the competitive fighter, don't get wrong. But I understand why people would be saying, is he reaching that point, though, where just by human nature, he doesn't have that extra gear anymore, Mike, where, again, when a guy like Buckley just starts going,

crazy and throw in a wild ass bunches like that, he can't get out of the way of them anymore. He can't counter them anymore. He can't absorb them like he used to because he's got a pretty good chin historically. But he also has some pretty nasty knockouts on there, right? We've seen him when he gets caught. You can go down pretty hard. I guess I'm just thinking about the, was it Mosvidal?

I think of Mosbyt all am getting people mixed up. My memory is so bad. What was the one in where he like got his face just like, yeah, not Mosbytall, I'm sorry. Anthony Pattis. I'm sorry, Anthony Pattis. But yes, my point is Is he just gradually Like the defense?

It's the defense that goes, right? And he's a guy who's like done a pretty good job Protecting himself to the most part Is he losing that ability? Like I think that's the reasoning behind their time. I don't think he will. I don't think he should. But I think it's fair to ask.

No. No. He's still, he's clearly one of the 15 best wealth rates in the world. Yeah. Without question. Sure. He was winning that.

I thought he won the first two rounds. I thought he won the first two rounds. I thought he was winning the third until he got knocked out. And like you said, it's only the second time he's been stopped via strikes in the UFC. It's in a long time. On top of that, Wonderboy doesn't need to do this. This is not his like full on career. This is a hobby for him.

He does it because he wants to do it. He's got a very popular karate studio. Like they have like a million people. training at his gyms. He's got a popular YouTube channel. He does a whole bunch of other stuff business-wise. If the man retired tomorrow, he would be just fine. He would do just fine.

He fights because he likes to. So in this situation, no issue with him continuing on. But it's going to be a tough road for him. He's got to be fighting some heavy hitters. Mike, I want to read a comment from J. Ray B.02. Although versus Jay Ellis, after Ellis loses Tony Ferguson, in one-night tournament in Rio. UFC J-Ls is right there.

Give the man his UFC shot and give Tony or Aldo or really any fighter that is just struggling to get a win. Colin J-Ls, that's his job. That's what he is there for. Bring him in. Please, we can end. We can end fighters' careers on good vibes if we want.

Just bring in J-Lis. Cluel versus Yuri, sure. Call me crazy. I want Alameda versus Torres-Finney. By the way, I spoke to Torres-Fiddy on Friday. What one electric individual that guy is? He's one of a kind, that's for sure. I mean, it's going to be crazy to actually see him officially on a UFC card at some point.

It's just really weird now. Mike, is Cesarro made up good? I don't know. I can't tell. I don't know. I would not, like, I knew he was going to lose to Roman, right? Like, I knew he was going to lose that fight. Uh-huh.

So, I think he's fine. This is, he's, he's, he's going to be fine. He's not going to be a ranked middleweight. And that's okay. That's okay. He did not need to cheat to win that fight, but that's not for some people saying, like, oh, he cheat, like, oh, he with the eye poke. I'm like, he was probably kind of winning anyway.

It didn't hurt him, though. I'll tell you, it doesn't hurt when you're allowed to. Every fighter should be taking notes. I'm telling you, I've been saying this for years. Every fighter should be cheating if you're losing. He was a, I'm assuming he was favorite. Let me take a quick look at the odds here. He was a heavy.

huge favorite. This is according topology. Mine is 485 and he still decided you know what, just in case, like poke a few eyeballs

here and kick a few balls. And it worked out unanimous decision 3027s across the board. So maybe he is good. It was only four, it was only four eyepokes. That's all was.

The fifth one, we would have got the first warning. So I bet he feels bad about it. And that's what's important. Go, go. If you could find it anywhere, go listen to the Jose Young's scrum

would say is all made a it's hilarious it's outstanding buckley versus gary or colby he this he's not getting gary he's i wouldn't have hated the colby call it either uh as long as he did it exactly the way he did it with the usman call out i think would have been fine oh i don't mind it i would have been fine with it i would have been fine with it i feel like i don't think colby's going to like do that but again maybe ozman doesn't either So I don't know. I think Kayla and Ketlin would both be Julianne and Raquel. Perhaps.

And Ketland would both be, I mean, didn't Raquel beat Ketland? I was close though, right? It was a close one. Yeah. It wasn't like a dominant. Wonderboy versus MVP, Magni or Nick Diaz. Wow, we're still trying to make Nick Diaz happen. I know Nick is, I guess, fighting Vicente Leuke.

Can we stop with Wonderboy versus MVP, though? Seriously. Both guys have both said the same thing. We don't want to fight each other. It would be boring as hell. and they're both not wrong. It would be awful to watch. It would be.

It would be an awful fight to watch. I'm sorry. It would not be fun. Why? Because I laugh at these things. Because you know why? That is the canker sore fight of the UFC that you could make. You're just like, it hurts and you shouldn't touch it, but you just keep playing with it.

And you're like, why do I keep doing this? And then, because I know what it's going to feel like. I know what it's going to look like. Why do I keep doing this to myself? That's what this fight is. They've been telling you, they're bull. I've both been telling you, please, for the love of God, stop asking for this fight because it will be terrible.

Mike, you and I both work in MMA. I don't know if people were aware of this. We are both professional MMA people. So with that fight be booked, we have to watch it. We have no choice. We, assuming we are covering that night, it would probably be on a pay-per-view or at least a paper preliminary card. I imagine we both on, having to watch that fight.

So I just want people to taste our pain because if you and I have to go through it, you know what? I want everyone else to go through it as well. So I want it to happen. I think it'll be hilarious. And at least it'll get people to shut the app up about it. So yes, but I agree on paper. It just seems like a terrible matchup because neither guy is going to like go in there brawling.

But maybe maybe the surprise. At least our standards are calibrated pretty low. Dave Beck, rate the Asparza retirement package. That was awesome. 10 out of 10. I mean, what can you say? UFC does the production team is superb. Super.

And it was especially on display, not to, sorry, a package was great. and I think I'm glad to write about this, but they completely understand the mystique of Alex Pereira, because the way they film his entrance, let him take his time, the way they cut the music off when he gets in the cage, they let him stand. Clearly, they tell, like, you know, the team,

guys don't do any, like Bruce Buffer, don't do anything elsements yet. Let him stand across from his opponent, Alex Perreta, or, I'm sorry, a Cleo Roundtree or your Barajka, let them soak in the moment. The presentation of his entrance is so beautiful. So that and the, as far as the package, just top-notch stuff.

I don't know. A sphere, we call them bend on sphere, right? Like, whatever people thought was fear of graphics. We thought the way

they handled that show was like the best, the best that they could do with it. So, man, just props to everyone in the truck and just behind the scenes, the UFC,

because they are phenomenal. Like, they're number one for a reason, man. Yeah, I, A plus. They nail those things.

Dave, I enjoyed all made a politely apologize and told Ehor he'd close his fist after the four. the iPhone. Those folks were so egregious. Like they were so bad. Any time they were in clothes. He was just like, I'm just going to slide my hand up here. And look, that's a legitimate thing in kickboxing. I understand like range finding. He comes in the world of kickboxing. So sure, he's probably used to having gloves on where he

can't poke people's eyeballs out. But he's also a grown man. He knows he's not in kickboxing anymore. He is mixing the martial arts now. And like, you know you can feel when your fingers are going into someone's eyeballs. So that was just wow. But he never got really even a stern warning. So why would he stop? But it was bad times, man. That was real bad. Yeah.

Lisa Batisha versus Fatima Klein, Tiny Tijuana versus the Archangel. Tough test for Fatima. I know everyone likes her. I know she has the makings of a contender. But it's a lot of work to do, a lot of work for her. And that's a very tough, tough opponent. But if she did beat Tisha Pennington, would put up the rankings pretty high.

For sure. Let's see. Guys, get them in. Get them in now. This is your time. We got four minutes. See, I'll go to social real quick. I know if you'll send me, but I don't have anything jumped out at me.

Thank you guys for all the DMs. But again, we do like to stick mostly with the live picks if we can. I just want to see if there's anything. No mention of Randy Brown in the conversation with Buckley. Randy Brown's fighting somebody, so no. He is, right? He's fighting Carlos Pratchez. Yes, yes, yes.

But that was just sort of reported this week. It's, okay. Yeah, that's right. I mean, Randy Brown, they're fighting each other. The only, they're fighting each other. The only issue is they're conflicting dates. It's either UFC 309 or UFC. The initial report was UFC 309.

Randy Brown and others that we have spoken to behind the scene said it was going to be at 310. And then Randy Brown also put on social media that's going to be at 310. So it seems like that fight is going to happen. It's just a matter of does it happen at MSD or does it happen in Vegas? Sure, sure. Yeah. So there you go.

Beast Man wants to know, Mike. Who should Ryan Span fight next? Do you have any thoughts on that? Let me do a quick. Bogdan Goosekopf. Wait a minute, Mike. Wait a minute, Mike. He just lost a Bogdan goose cough.

Two. I forgot, honestly. I deserve to. do-do first of all i'm on like 32 minutes of sleep this was my fault i put you on the spot i this is my fault uh i think that i forgot i forgot that fight happened it happens so my fault i deserve i deserve it i deserve it hey i put you on the spot that's that's on me my best friend i would never i did not mean to put you in those positions uh but maybe maybe it's a good time to wrap the show i don't let me who should ryan span fight i will say it was sick that he called ming yang jang

dude. Ming Yang's fighting, right? He's booked. Is he not? Let me just make sure. Ming, yes. Yes. Is it a Zhang?

Zhang? Ming Yang Zhang versus freaking Koleo Roundtree would be electric too. He's fighting Ozzy Diaz, November 23rd. I will just say Span calling his

guillotine the supermanatee and was pretty sick. It sounded like he said super manatee, unfortunately. I think, which I think a lot of people thought, I saw that in social people, super manatee. Like he's this is that his new nickname because that would be sick if it was. But no, he was saying like superman guillotine super manateen.

But it works. It works. Yeah. Ryan Span's interesting cat. Like when Span walked out, I was like, he's kind of kind of differed or about him. Even Jose was telling us that during, even during his post fight scrum, like a new sort of charisma has kind of gone to Ryan, which I thought is pretty cool. pretty cool. Ryan doesn't do a ton of media. So I think if he gets out there and kind of talks a little more and shows that personality, I think that'd be pretty darn good for him. But I liked what I saw

man, but I need to see it more because there are certain points. Remember when Ryan Span knocked out Dominic Reyes and it was brutal and we're like, shit, man, like I don't want to see Dominic Reyes fight ever again. And then Ryan Span gets on the mic and he's like, look, man, I'm going to be honest with the world. I never took this seriously, didn't take training seriously. I actually tried for this fight and now this is what's going to happen moving forward and then he just gets creamed in his next fight or whatever and we're like oh guess is and he loses to anthony smith like all sorts of craziness is happening and then we see this and we're like okay this is what he can be and even joe rogan to his credit was like yeah man when you're focused and

you're on you're very talented but we just don't see that all the time consistency is the key so we'll see what do you want what do you would you like to see for alexander hernandez next. Oh, damn. Good question. Uh, I need my, okay, hold on. I have two. So I think I actually have the perfect fight. Like, let's be clear here. It's not like this was a very encouraging and lovely performance from Alexander Hernandez. The 3027 Hubbard was, uh, pretty shitty. That was insane. I'm not entirely sure what happened there. Was that Chris Lee who did that and, but also like kind of got the right Aldo score card? Probably. Let me check. I swear it was It was not my brother, Chris Lee, who did that.

Yes, he was way off the mark with 3027 Hubbard, and yet I think the, like, got, he was the 29, 28, although. So I don't know how to feel. I guess it evened out. Keep doing your thing, Chris Lee. Yes, Alexander Hernandez. I don't know, man. He's like, he's kind of just in the thick of the middle,

the creamy middle of the lightweight division. So I don't have like a big, like, I didn't hate the Kutlazzi matchup. That was suggested earlier. Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Ishmael Bonf theme No He's booked No just the wrong

No You have Geez that's a heart Okay This is also Not bad But it's also Just wrong

It's the wrong answer Trey Ogden Go God no What That was such a There's one answer to this What is the answer

Only What is the answer I'll give you One more shot at it Faras is them. No. I'll give you a hint.

It starts to the T ends in Erins McKinney. Oh, boy. Two first round get or get a God all stars just going and then if like neither get a finish, it's just going to be menacing the rest of the way. I think that's like terrific matchmaking. It's so good. It's so good. That's the fight. That's the one.

Okay. I have them ranked very close to each other. So, uh, yeah. Yeah. I love that idea. All right. I dig it. Mike. Let's go. Um, trying to think, I'm trying to think like who else. Like I wouldn't do Mike Davis. Actually, Mike Davis isn't bad. I don't like that. Daniel Zell-Huber would be kind of interesting. I like, coming off the lost to Riebovich. Yes. But I think, I think McKenny's, I think McKenny's the right one. Zeme Satikoff would be fun. but I think Sadacoff probably deserves a little bit higher at this point. So, oh, interesting. Who would you pick Tony Ferguson versus Alexander Hernandez?

I would pick Alexander Hernandez. I'm never picking Tony Ferguson would have fight again. You can't. Nice try. Crazy Potto. Nice try. You are not giving me a bite on that. I just think this is it for Tony.

You only have so many fights in you. And he's way past E. Guys, he's way past E on the, on the dial. I would agree. All right. I think we have done our part today. We did. Thank you, everyone, for watching, man. And the great, great fight suggestions, great comments. I'm glad we're all together because this was a strange ass card, man. I've already told family members, like literally have told them this. Do not call me today. Text me. I do not want to speak. I don't want to utter another syllable for the rest of the day. I don't know. I just, I don't even know how I'm speaking at this point. But latest, gentlemen we'll be live back here on the youtube channel in 20 days because we'll be reacting to ufc 308 iliont to pori versus max holloway and i couldn't be more excited however we'll be back on

the podcast network next week for is this was this 98 this is vegas 98 this will be 98 yes ufc vegas 98 uh back at the world's most famous apex damn good main event Brandon Royval versus Tatsuro Tyra. Outstanding. Very much looking forward to this one. Co-main event. Get excited at M.A. Fighting Community. Is the Iron Turtle in the co-main event taking on Brad Tavares?

We're back, baby. Grant Dawson versus Rafa Garcia. Corey McKenna versus Julia Pallastry. Daniel Rodriguez versus Alex Barono. I actually really like that fight. Josh Fremt, looking to get a little revenge, a little redemption. for his pal Cody Brundage against Abdul Razaka Hassan

Cheating Joaquini versus Jared Gooden C.J. Vergara versus Ramba Zonbeck, Temeroff, Jonathan Pierce, Pat 70th. How many fucking fights are on this card? Niko Price versus Temba Garimbo. I'm going to skip that one. Save it for

the end because you always save the best for the last. Dan Argetta versus Cody Haddon, Clayton Carpenter versus Lucas Rocha, and then the real main event, A.K, which will actually be the third fight of the card. the return of Chris Barnett and not against Waldo Cortez Acosta. Oh, no. Fighting Jr. Taffa.

So much better. So much better. So much better. The M.MA gods have shown upon us. Waldo Cortez-A Costa will move on to other things, which, you know, probably should. And Chris Barnett gets to fight Jr. Taffa in a fight that we all deserve. We all deserve this. We do.

So that's UFC Vegas 98. And then it's UFC Vegas 99. That's the card headline by Michelle Pereira versus Fluffy Hernandez, which I'm very much looking forward to as well. And then it's 308, baby. It's 308, one of the best cards of the year. And a card that I really need good things to happen for me from the fantasy MMA perspective.

So thank you all very much. We appreciate all the coverage. Shout out to the great Jose Youngs for all his great work, boots on the ground. We'll be back next week in the podcast network for AKI. I am Mike Heck. Appreciate all of you. We'll see you then.

Good day to all of you.