MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: What's Next For Arman Tsarukyan, Ian Machado Garry After UFC Qatar?

Episode Date: November 23, 2025

Arman Tsarukyan believes he has done enough to challenge Ilia Topuria for the UFC lightweight title following his incredible performance against Dan Hooker in the main event of UFC Qatar. Will the UFC reward Tsarukyan with a title shot, or will Tsarukyan have to wait and watch Paddy Pimblett get the shot at Topuria first? 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 Tsarukyan after submitting Dan Hooker in Saturday's main event. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Ian Machado Garry after defeating former welterweight champ Belal Muhammad in the co-main event, along with fellow main card winners Volkan Oezdemir, Myktybek Orolbai, Waldo Cortes-Acosta, Kyoji Horiguchi, and more. Plus, a slew of listener matchmaking suggestions to close out the show. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking crowns have returned following UFC Qatar, a fight night event in Doha. It was the UFC's first appearance in the area, and I have to say, it was a very good card. I enjoyed it. We had all different kinds of emotions, happiness, sadness, what the hell are we watchings? heavyweighty heavyweight m m i mean we had it all high stakes fights lots to talk about especially

from a matchmaking perspective and that is why we are here once again i am mike heck and joining me as always is the co-host the co-matchmaker the prince of positivity and my best friend alexander kaley aka how are we doing on this sunday morning we're doing you know sorry let me revisit my mic here guys i know i had it a weird angle what's up my best friend yeah we're doing great man we're doing great uh what a fun show what a nice way it was like you know early early day like 10 in the morning for us on the east coast sorry for you west coasters probably a little bit earlier um and i'm not exactly sure what time you know depends are people watching all over the world but i mean us on the over in north america we were very happy for like a little bit of an earlier show and

um we were pretty optimistic about this one on paper mike uh we were all saying this is what fight night cards would look like create matchups um meaningful contender stakes all that stuff uh promising undercard like I think we were a little, you know, there's some names on the prelims that I think a lot of us were like, okay, well, we're not sure. You know, some of these people had one, two, three fights in the UFC. But even then, there was some intrigue there and some entertaining fights. So I think UFC, the team, they should be really happy with how this card turned out. Well, we have some questions.

I mean, we've got some questions coming out of it. But I will say, I think the guys who had to step up for the most part, Mike did so in a meaningful way. But I think that us and the community are, you know, we're not in the same pace. as far as like how how much did these guys step up how far did they step forward in the contender line apparently up for debate very up for debate yeah and look this has been a good stretch and you know there are a couple weeks there we're just like oh this is so bad this is so brutal and people were like oh you guys just whine and cry and are so negative but now we're in like a good

stretch we had 322 which is really good i know the last two fights aren't weren't everyone's cup of tea But incredible wins for Valentina Shvchenko and Islam Makachev. And then we got to this one. And I think a lot of us were excited for this card. And then we have this week off for American Thanksgiving. And then next week, it's UFC 323, the final pay-per-view for the UFC. And that is a damn good card. And then we go to December 13th.

We're back at the world's most famous apex. So the life will be sucked out of us. But at least we get a little bit of a reprieve from UFC action. Because as I say, we can't miss you if you don't. leave and the UFC is going to be leaving for about a month. And by the time we get to 2026 in this new Paramount deal, we're going to be ready to go. We're going to be very excited.

I just don't know what we're going to be excited for, AK, because no one knows anything, really. And hopefully we get some answers in the next couple of weeks. But Mike, yes. Do we think they're going to slot in a fight night at some point in January? Because we know there's a pay-per-view, right? Is that official, 344? That's official, right?

Yes. Okay. In Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, it is January 24th, so we might get two fight night cards before that event. But right now, that is expected to be, quote, unquote, the first paramount show. We don't know for sure, but I mean, that is the only thing. The first, the first, quote, unquote, numbered event. Oh, okay.

So you're saying you think that they could, they can't, right? That's what type, what is it now? It's November 23rd as we record this, Mike, the day after Qatar. Could they really just announce? I mean, it is the, it's true. I guess that's the thing is when you. have the apex there's no logistics to be sorted out it is just send out the contracts can people show up hey are you are you in the are in the middle of a camp great because we need someone to fight

in or you know at least in training shape and we need someone to fight in two months can you hop this is true do you think they will do you think they will or do you think they'll wait um until the the 24th january 24th i mean i kind of hope they just they knock out a fight night first i hope it's out of the apex i don't think it will be unfortunately i can't see yeah i mean they they could end up a two because January 24th's a long time. I mean, they're literally taking a month and a half off. Yeah, that's like crazy. We haven't seen that in years. Yeah. They usually bounce back with like, I mean, if you remember how I believe was, was it 2023 started? We got Sean Strickland versus Nassardine Imovov and like a short notice light heavyweight fight,

uh, headlining the apex. So I, I, I'm guessing we get at least one, if not two, because whatever schedule they had with the ESPN, they're going to have the same. They're going to have the same one with Paramount, if they wait till the 24th, like, we're not going to have a week off for a long-ass time, like a really, really long time. Like, they're going to go, like, straight through for months, which means that's a lot of apex events that could happen. So we'll see what happens with the schedule. The only fight that is really on the books right now for January and at UFC 324 is the one our own David Martin reported, Modestis Foucas versus Nikita Krylov. That is the only fight on the books right now.

so it might stay that way it might that that that's it switch over to paramount nine ninety nine you get one fight light heavyweights the best division of the sport a little teaser a little teaser wet the appetite so to speak but let's get into the matchmaking following ufc guitar and you know what we can't miss you if you don't leave armin surruchin left for a long time a boy five five hundred and eighty eight days we had to wait for armin sarukin to make the walk to the hallowed octagon he was supposed to begin 2025 by becoming the light heavy by becoming the lightweight champion of the world by being the guy to defeat islam machochev and unfortunately that didn't happen he withdraws from the fight the day before with the back injury we had to wait

almost the entire year for serukin to get in there armand told me that dan hooker was the only guy that said yes to fighting him so he was very thankful to dan hooker for accepting the fight and he goes out there and probably at least in most people's eyes had the performance of his career just mowed down dan hooker dan really had no chance he pretty much admitted as much after the fact with our good friend oscar willis but just a beat down then a submission in round two nasty arm triangle and like a half-mounted position just nasty stuff from armor and sirruki and he wants iliot to pouria it seems like he has turned the fan base a lot of them in his favor they want to see this too that's what basically the majority of twitter has been saying in on the post fight show

in the comments like forget patty we're done with all this let's let's give it to armand so what what happens here what are we doing how are you like how do you match make here specifically for the show yeah i hate to do it because i've been you guys know every week we do we do this show i'm just like no it's patty it's patty i want patty ilia i want patty ilia but every week also we get further away from that in cage you know competition they had which which which Again, and which remember, let's never forget, Dana White frowned upon that confrontation when it happens. So the UFC, apparently, which has never been behind booking Patty for Aaliyos first child defense. It's just not a thing.

I'm sure it's been discussed like informally, but it sounds, I don't think they've reached any sort of like even close to negotiations for that fight. Maybe they casually threw around some numbers like his management, the UFC, but that's about it. So I've wanted to see it. I still want to see Aaliyan Patty fight someday. It's just such a genuine feud and I'm just so intrigued. And I just, I feel like Patty has done enough. I know people poke holes in his resume. I always tell people you can go through like so many title fights throughout U.C.

history and you can poke holes and everyone's like rise to the top. It's just there's no perfect challenger. There's no such thing. But Armand's Rukkian's pretty close, Mike. Armand who gets pretty close to a perfect challenge that we want right now. Yes, there was the inactivity, like you said. Yes, there was the UFC 311 embarrassment. But what can you do?

Like the guy came back. He fought a guy you wanted to fight. He fought a guy who's pretty well behind him in the rankings. Let's be honest. There wasn't a lot for Armand to get. game from this other than holding on to his number one spot. And he did so in extremely impressive fashion. He has a following. He definitely has a lot of haters, which I think in a good way. And as you said, some people kind of getting behind him now. It just makes sense. He

looks like he is the biggest challenge to Ilya. They do not like each other. We assume really is going to fight some time in the first three months of 2026. Let's just do it. Let's make it happen now. I'm off Patty. It's Ilya and Armin time. yeah and i i said on like many shows probably this one a couple times what i think is going to happen is they are going to the ufc once this fight was announced i was like the ufc is going to wait before they announced ilia's first fight it seems like patty's the frontrunner but they're going to wait to see what happens here because it seems like the ufc they're not huge fans of mr sir rukion i don't think the head butt at wayans did him any favors honestly

He's made some questionable choices, I guess, along the way. He did weigh in as the backup for the Tuporio Levera fight, which was good. He went out there and got a win against a guy who'd won three in a row and had a lot to gain from this fight. Probably would have got like a BMF title fight if he won. And what a feather in his cap it would have been if he was the guy to beat Armand Surukin and just knock him out of title contention. So this is massive.

And the reason I thought that was Ilya is a very smart guy. He understands this fight game. He understands the business of the fight game. He understands prize fighting. Understands how people are viewing a potential title defense against Patty Pimble. And I think the UFC and him might be on the same page to some extent. Because I felt if Armine went in there and beat Dan Hooker, I said it publicly many times on many shows. Hunter Campbell went backstage and said, hey, Armand, we're giving you the title shot, but you have to fight him in January.

even though you just fought. If you want it, you do it in January. If he says yes, you got yourself a title fight. Ilya gets Surukian in better circumstances than he would having it rather than and for the UFC, this was their opportunity to be like, take it or leave it. If you want it, do it in January. If not, we're going to bury you publicly by saying, hey, we offered it to him. He said no.

When we offer you opportunity, you answer the, the bell and you say yes. And then they would have went to Patty. I'm a little bummed. Like, I'd be a little bummed if they announced it for January just because, like, I kind of want to see them both of their best. But at this point, I don't care. If it happens in January fine, I think you have to do Armand at this point.

I think you do it. And then Patty can get the winner. Like, it's not like Patty can't get a title shot off of this. Like, Patty Armand is a big fight. Patty Illy is a big fight. I think yesterday was just a horror film. for Justin Gaichy so brutal any chance he had of getting a title fight even in 2026 gone all gone unless Ilya is just a pain in the ass and they can't get him to sign the dotted line

maybe he's like gets slotted in for an interim title fight somewhere this is a terrible day for justin gaichi I think it's like a somewhat bad day for patty but not terrible he just gets more time to prepare for either one of these guys so yeah pull the tree guard arm on it's way it's by far the most interesting fight Iliate's poor you can have right now at 155 I don't care about the islamakachov fight right now I want these guys to run their divisions a little bit before we get there this is the one man this is high level stuff these are the the two best lightweights in the world I think Armand is the number one lightweight in the world let's just do it okay what are we waiting for I I also just need Ilya to stop talking you and tweeting I just

eat in the fight I mean it's a UFC 3 uh when did you win the title 3 17 317 it wasn't even that long ago like end of june it's not that long ago it feels like it's been two years he talks so much he tweets so much uh he has his promotion in spain way of warrior and i guess he's like there he's i don't know if he's an owner or part owner or something he's like they're dana white so i guess he's always doing press conferences there like he's always doing interviews on spanish tv and and good for him like we we we always tell fighters like if they man if they had that kind of platform do everything you can of course stay the public eye and give yourself exposure that's your job and it raises your brand good for you

but my god this guy talks so much he fused with so many people at once i just need a fight book like and i i understand this was kind of out of his hands because the ufc is waiting for the we keep saying the paramount thing is putting everything on hold so ilia cannot go out and just say oh i'm definitely signing on to fight blah blah blah blah they probably you know it's it's not up to him at this point but man i need i love watching him fight i need to see him fight so no more no more talking to it he needs to do the the connor mcgregor uh zero dark 30 whatever shockingly connor is actually stuck to that as actually not tweeted or done any social media stuff he's got some other stupid crap going on you guys you guys can read about that and then may find dot com but social

media wise uh i'd like to see ilia follow suit who are you picking if dana white goes on instagram right now and announces ilia versus armin in january who you picking armin me too armin i mean i'm picking armin against anybody that's the gimmick anyways but i truly think armin surikin wins that fight i think ilia like ilia's of course can knock anyone out no question I mean, it wouldn't be, even if Armand ended up the favorite, which he might not be just because Ilya's name is so much bigger. Let's say the line moved in or was close and then moved in Armin's favor. He would never close as more than like a minus 150 favorite. And I'm fine with that.

That's where I would like, that's where I would place it. Neither guy should be viewed as like, oh, they're definitely going to kill the other guy. No, it's a great matchup. That's why we want it. I just give Armand the edge that I know I can wrestle. I think Armand's a better wrestler. I think he can get him down. Obviously, I think there's a size difference.

Like, I think Armand's definitely a bit bigger and stronger. and yeah, maybe I'm just being influenced about what we saw at 322, but I think that kind of stuff matters. And I would someday would like to see Ilya go back to 145. I know he hates it, and I know it's not his favorite thing to do,

but there's so many fights there you want to see there too. So, yeah, I would pick Armin, but neither result would surprise me. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu.

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pop like turning on the music. And if you're looking to set the mood, you should check out Sonos. With Sonos, movie nights feel bigger and more cinematic. While holiday parties come to life with music that flows from room to room, it's the kind of sound that makes a house feel warm and connected during the season. Want studio quality sound at home? Explore Sonos speakers, soundbars, and more at Sonos.com and discover how easy it is to build your own whole home audio system. we shall see what happens speaking of ufc 322 that was sort of the kickoff of this i've been calling it the who did it best welterweight ground pre who's the guy that is going to face islam

machochev for the welterweight title next and kebar oospin keeps doing interviews and saying i should be the guy these guys don't deserve it it's going to make me so freaking upset if they give it to him like i'm really going to be mad if this happens uh i as a man of my word even if it happens on friggin thanksgiving i will go live and do a reaction pod to this and i my head might actually explode it might actually explode if they go with kamar usman right now um again let me just lay this out i'm not disrespecting what the man is accomplished one win in four years and the win is against wakkeem buckley it is not enough to overtake what these guys have been doing over the time that Oussman was getting healthy and all that.

And I don't begrudge him for that whatsoever. He's just not the guy. He's just not the guy. And I know Islam's trying to be a prize fighter. He's going for the, quote, easier fight that seems to be the bigger fight. But look what's happening here. Michael Morales is a stud.

Carlos Prochus is back in play. And now we're waiting to see what was going to happen with this IMA Chado Gary versus Bilal Muhammad fight. And I think we're all on the same page. that Blal Muhammad could play goaltender here. He could block Ian Machado Gary from getting into that conversation,

but he was not in play to get a title fight from here. It just wasn't in the cards. And unfortunately for Bilal, he is so far away now because he lost via unanimous decision to Ian Machado Gary. It was a competitive fight.

I, MMA fighting's official scorecard was 3027 Ian Machado Gary. Two of the judges agreed with me. And this is a 3027 that, was not a i blew the doors off this guy he just did a little bit more in each round to solidify it to be so gary gets the win he gets on the mic and puts over belal and then gives him the backhanded compliment of he tried he wanted an excuse to get out of there he had it but man he's just tough he was just tough even though he wanted out which is the most

ridiculous thing I've ever heard. And then he cuts the promo on his Zamakachev. And I like the promo. I thought he hit all the points. He couldn't take me down. Islam, why don't you try to take me down? I should be the next guy. I just beat the former champion. I just beat the number one rank guy in the division. He hit all the points. I don't know what to do with Ian Gary, okay? This is the first time I'm actually like stumped. And I may need your help here. So lead me in the right direction. What did you do with Ian Machado, Gary? Did you give him the title fight? What are we doing? I did not, but I have two somewhat, not hot,

vaguely warm takes here. One, I think he did enough that if he earned the title shot, I don't think people should be that outraged. Okay, I'm okay. I am very okay with him getting the title shot. Not my number one choice. Not my number two choice. I'm not sure. Definitely not my number one. We talked about this last week. I think we'd all love to see Michael

Morales get a crack. It seems unlikely, but it's what we want. But I think if Gary jumped over him and got it first, I would be like, that's okay I that's okay didn't blow the doors off against but belaw's very tough I hope people like don't forget like ball is a super tough out I think even beating him is a huge achievement so good on good on Ian Machado Gary there my second thing is

I don't think he's that bad in the microphone if people could see like our work slack we have some people who are not well I don't even say our works like Jed is Jed is Mishu is very open about like he is not a fan of Ian Machado Gary just in general he's defended him before from like you know internet trolls harassing the guy about his personal life and he's kind of stood by him there but otherwise his whole like fighting aspect of his life how he fights his uh in contrast to how much he talks just in furious jem mishu cannot send him i understand that

and i do think gary could be more succinct he talks a lot like in his promos he could probably just kind of be a little bit punchier um promos and scrums but i actually think he's good i actually enjoy i feel like i think i'm crazy i enjoy listen to ian machado gary talk i enjoy his like social media uh posts the clips and stuff i think his team and his team do a great job I know his wife helps him out, his wife, Layla. I think they do a great job. I know a lot of people don't like them, but I think they get the right kind of attention for the most part.

Again, even if it's, I want to see this guy get his ass take attention. That's a good thing in fighting. So I don't know. I'm pretty pro, pretty pro Gary here. I think he just fights Camaro. That's what I'm surprised. You didn't immediately go to have him fight Kamar Usman. Because I want Usman to fight Shafka.

Like, I'm the fight I want. Yeah. But so I think where I led, if we if we are to believe that this was quote unquote moving day or moving weeks and this was a who did it better type of situation michael barrales clearly is the guy yes he is just far and away there's no one close gary's two i would give usbin the shot over prochis right now and then proxas is right there like that's that's how i would rank these guys it's Morales, Gary, Uspin, Pratchez.

You don't want, you don't think Shavka, I think we, you mentioned this for it. Oh, no, Shafka. Where am I forgetting Shafka? But, but you don't, but you would prefer he didn't step right back because he's, you know, I'm fine with it. Oh, you'd okay if we got. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, as long as it's not Oosman, it's not wrong. It's just not wrong.

Yeah. If they go shot, like, I think in sort of the modern, like, if we're talking meritocracy, like if we're really playing the merit game Shafcott is the guy because he beat Gary he beat him he has a win over Ian Gary so if you're saying that Ian Gary

from a meritocracy perspective should be the guy it's it's probably not because Shafcott beat him and I understand the circumstances weren't 100% ideal for Gary but again people people need to remember this it's not like Ian Gary got off the couch and fought Shafcott he was getting ready

to fight a week later against Buckley, right? And then Colby stepped in for that event. So it's not, again, he was preparing to fight somebody. He just switched in pretty short notice to fight Shofcott, but he was in fighting shape and preparing to fight. And it was an incredible performance from Gary. And he gained a ton from it. But he didn't win. He did not win that fight. So to me, I think it's still Morales. I think you should give it to him. I would like to see Uspin v. Shafcott. I like proches versus jdm but then again like gary already fought proches so like where does it put him i so i'm a little confused by this whole matter so i'm sticking with the if it's not oosman it's a win for everybody

involved usman needs one more win i think ozman should fight chafcott if he says no to that then morales gets the title shot schofcott's on deck and then gary fights usman for the i guess in the whole like the third in line kind of situation so it's just wonky and weird usman can ruin all this by getting the ufc could screw this up royally they can screw this up so royally if they give usman the title fight they could screw it up so badly especially if it's white house like you have to wait till june can you imagine can you imagine six and and it's probably going to be that way and he might not fight again Islam might just be like yeah that's my one fight of 2025 that's it yeah the rest of the division you're on hold you're on hold for a year you got to fight each other two or three

two or three times you guys are going to mix it up some other welterweights will come up um and then we're having almost the same conversation like 12 months from now should it be morales or fratiss or someone else but fracritina i don't know right like it could have we dealt we dealt with this thing while usman was the freaking champion of the world yeah we're seeing these we're seeing all these surging guys move up the ladder we're seeing the belals and the leons like get a bunch of wins but they have to sit there and watch colby get rematches for fights that he lost after beating horhe mazadol and getting title shots like Like being out for a year and coming back to a title shot because they were, they were backup fighters.

And they had to watch Mazadol get two title fights. And like, and Gilbert, like, I mean, Gilbert Burns earned his shot, but like, we're finally starting to move away from the old guard getting these big opportunities. And the newer guard is kind of like just pushing them all out of the way. We have a chance to like push this all forward. And if we give it to Usman, like, we're just, we're just delaying all this. And what if Usman beats Islam? You don't think they're going to run that one back? of course they are and that delays it even more kamarro please for the love of god in ufc match figures

please listen to me just have uspan fight again have him beat gary if he beat schofcott there's undeniable give him morales give him proxious i don't care i don't care just give him below give him below at this point and i'm okay with that let's settle that score and then he can have one he just cannot jump the line right now so So that's where I'm landing on. The UFC should do Usman Shafkot. If Usman's like, nah, I don't want to fight him. Then he's like, fine, then you fight Gary.

That's it. Because I don't know what to do with Ian. I really don't outside of that. It's going to be a long, it's going to be a long three months, Mike. I think it's going to be a while before we get, I think, official word on this probably. I bet we won't know until like February and what's they're going to do with Islam. Oh, no, that's bad because that could mean they're definitely doing like White House probably. No, no.

Let's hope not. Let's hope not. But it's going to be a long wait, man, before this gets settled. Yeah, I mean, I kind of feel like all these guys might have to fight again. Yes, at this point. Probably. So, I mean, that's, and like, if we want to do that again, fine. Morales is the, I would do like Morales, Ballal.

Like, if we're doing it like a tournament bracket, like Morales should be the top seed right now. So he should get the lowest rank guy in my opinion, which is ball. Wow, damn. Well, Leon, I think would be low. Oh, you're not even California. Oh, Leon's not even in. He's not even in this conversation. Oh, Jesus.

He's so out of this conversation. But yeah, if we want to do something else while we wait for Islam, I'm fine. But these guys all have to fight. These guys all have to be a part of it, including you, Kamaru. And this whole, I want to throw my laptop across the room when Henry Suhudo is like, Islabakachad versus Kamar Usman is the only fight to make. Golly, could you be any more obvious? Mike, stay away from the pound-for-pound podcast for the next couple months, Thompson.

Oh, so bad. I'll handle. I will handle it's so obvious what they're trying to do. It's so obvious. All the team, the team, the manager, everybody,

they're all trying to get on the same page to try to get the big payday. It is absolutely outrageous. They're going to do it. If Oosman gets the shot over all these guys, I know. I had to bet like if I had to, like if I had to make odds, it's like,

like two to one right now. I'd say two to one to minus 200. Oh, yeah, minus 200. Oh, sorry, plus 200 to get it.

And then I don't know. I actually think, Gary, still ahead of him. Gary, like, plus 300 and Morales would be closed, plus 350. But I think, I think. There are three guys ahead of him right now. Shafcott, Morales, Gary are all ahead of him. All of them.

Yeah. And if you want to tell me Pratchez is ahead of him, because he's been fighting, sure. I'll listen to you. I'll listen to you. His record in his last four fights is better than Kamar Usman's. Yeah. We just need to prepare ourselves, Mike, because I really feel strongly that they're going to book. Just if it has to happen, please not White House.

Please don't make us wait until White House. Get it out of the way and then let's let Islam move on and fight someone else. Please. The only way I will accept this is if the UFC is, if this is UFC 300 for January. And it's just like, we need something bad here. And it's like, Islam, will you fight in January? Yes, I will. Okay, Michael, can you do it?

No, I'm not available. Ian, can you do it? No, I'm not available. Shafcott. Nah, I'm not ready until February, March. Camaro, are you in? Yes. Then I'm like, if that's how it turns out, I will be less upset.

Your head will remain intact. We'll remain in one. Oh, yeah. We will have holiday season with head fully attached to neck. But it's got a, if Ouzman is the first phone call for a title fight, oh my God. Oh, my God. All right. So we'll see what happens at Welterweight.

Very fun division. Hopefully it remains fun. or we're going to have some problems. Let's go to the light heavyweight division, aka Vulcan Oostomere. No time indeed goes in there, dusts up Alonzo Menefield very, very quickly, hit him with the 100 piece in a soda. And there are some brutal knockouts on this card. This is one of them.

I kind of feel like Vulcan is the most like forgotten dude on this card with all the storylines and all the things that happened despite his big finish. This is a good win for him. he said look i want to get back to title contention i'm not calling for it now but i want to keep working my way up so ozumat mercicanoff i think that's where we're going i mean i kind of think that's where we have to go i mean jemal hill being out for a year kind of screws up everything for ozumat because i feel like that's the perfect fight so yeah let's do uh let's do vulcan getting the shot and mercicconoff can keep moving his way up and i think he just needs to fight as often as possible

and I think it should be a good test for him. Yeah, that was the most popular pick I saw. It makes a lot of sense for both guys, I think. I went a different direction, but I will say you're right. I think a lot of people forgot this happened. I forgot this fight was happening before they came out. I was like, I was after what was the, oh, Orrbite, Oralby, just annihilated Hermanson.

I was like, oh, co-main event next. And I forgot, oh, right, this light highway fight. But yeah, great job about Ouzdimir. No time, no respect, Mike, just walked. He looked like he did not think Menafield could touch him. And he was right. I mean, guys, watch that fight again. Like, that's one of the most dominant performances of the year.

Literally just walks the men to field down for what, how long this fight last two minutes, 90 seconds. And just pumbles them, just unloads on them. I completely had his timing down, walking forward. The cage was like one eighth of the size for Menefield. He had nowhere to go. Great performance by Ustamir. Can he fight? Can he get Roundtree?

Can Oosteemer get Roundtree? What do you think, Khalil? Yeah, I thought about that one. Okay. I like that. I like that. But I'm fully on the train of I don't want to see Kulululah Roundtree fight until like the end of 2026. Heal his face.

Heal your face for God's face. Heal everything. Heal everything. Yeah. Some of like late heavyweight's really bad, but there are some fun fights that are that are available to us. Any division that still is Yuri Prakashka in it is obviously not the worst division in the sport. So pretty good stuff. And going back to welterweight.

You mentioned Mick Debeck Oralby, trying to make his own little statement at 170 pounds, takes on Jack Hermanson, who moved down from 185, one last Hail Mary to try to keep his career going, try to make a move, because there's just really nothing for him at 185. So he said, you know what, let's try to go to 170. And it did not go well. He got brutally knocked out by Mick Debeck Oral Bai. Honestly, I think it's time for Jack to, I was hoping we would see him lay down the gloves. that did not happen.

Perhaps we will get a social media poster of some kind. But a big win for Mick Debeck Orly, moving up to 170 and getting it done. What do we want to see for Mick Tebeck Oralby, who, by the way, did not have a my bingo card that Mick Debeck Oralby would have the longest post-fight interview of the night. But that is what happened. And he did it by a pretty significant margin. Sorry, I went to go check Jack Hermanson's social media. as we speak

he just he just tweeted not tweeted sorry IGed four hours of sleep have a look at your ugly face in the mirror remember that you got knocked out again yesterday

it is easy to feel sorry for yourself but that will not make things better so I'm done with that it is time to man up and be grateful thank you to my family team fan sponsors

I still love this I do not think Jackramansen is retiring but please go back to 185 and Mick Tebec Oralbi do not go back to 155 enough of this nonsense I understand

he could probably make it like i don't think he's like enormous like height wise but like he's like thick he's kind of a thick guy and i'm like that's tough to make 155 man and and his last two fights were catch weights i think one of them was changed uh the week of and it was like they i believe reports were like oh they didn't know which side it was that i we know it was a oral fly come on so please say at one 170 this where you belong like i was trying to rank him after and i was like he was you know he was a wannabe lightweight he beats a top 20 middleweight that's why I would place Hermanson at Welterweight. And what does that make you?

I had a little bit trouble with the math. Then I remember, once upon a time, I think it was UC debut. He beat Medich. He beat Eurus Medich at Welterweight. So there is a welterweight win in there, right, before Hermanson. So I think that places him firmly, like in the top 30 at Welterweight. I'm comfortable saying McDebeck Oralby is a top 30 welterweight. And then I was like, okay, well, let's just make it easy here.

We had another welterweight fight in the card, also in the top 30, get back in the win column. This would be an amazing fight. Give me Oral Bye and Dolby. What's that? Oh. What is that? Oh, no. What is that?

What is that? I hear it. I hear it. I hear it. It's loud and clear. One, two, three. Friends forever. Yes.

The spoiler. He spoiled your, you were 13 and 14. I would add a perfect card at that damn nickels dolly. I thought the sniveling kids. I would have been perfect. Nicholas Dalby is just Dude is so damn tough man I kind of want to see it

Like we'll know what we have with Oral Bai If he could sit there and like out grit Nicholas Dalby Then like we can We can hit the ground running with him Most and like people forget Like they kept saying on the broadcast Like oh it's his debut at Welterweight It isn't like he's fought many many times at Walterweight

His last like five pro fights before signing with the UFC We're all at Walter Wade Then took the short notice debut at Walterweight like dude fights at welterweight a lot so yeah just stay there i think he can make 55 if he actually like really buckle down but i also understand like this is contract number two so he's not making like life altering money in order to put his body through that at this point so yeah stay at 170 he's going to beat a lot of dudes at 170 and you know hit the weights sticking up a little more get a little stronger damn nicholas dalby that is a sick ass fight

Love it. I love that idea. It's so good. And I honestly, I bet oral by again, you know, it'll all be two, three to one underdog. And that shit, man. I'm not touching those. I don't know this guy anymore. Honestly, because he was a big underdog. Wasn't he a big underdog to Bonfim too? Like when he, like smoked him? I have to look back. Um, he was, uh, I'm just this according to Sherlock. He was a plus 455. They forgot. They forgot that he was the Brazilian killer. Yes. Yes. And then he handed bump him as. Oh, because was undefeated and oh dollby's just dollby he's there to get run over by bonfem and see nobody runs this guy over you do not run this guy over maybe randy brown i don't know so all threw up my head the last i don't know 12 to 15 hours all i have is foo fighters playing in my

head just looking at highlight videos of waldo cortez acosta there goes my hero watch him as he goes Unbelievable. This guy has put me, I am so back in this fantasy competition because of Waldo Cortez-A-Costa. And he did exact, he just did the damn thing, A.K., first round, K.O., just destroys poor Shabil Gazeef, I'm not really short. It was all different pronunciations all week long. Gets off a plane, steps on the scale, then goes and knocks his dude out. That was his fifth fight of 2025.

he wants to fight again he's not even saying like put me on the paper he's saying I want on the December 13th card at the apex no one and I mean nobody

with a ranking or anyone anyone outside of like the top 50 is saying I want to fight at the apex Waldo Cortez Acosta is saying I will fight at the apex they should absolutely give him this

I don't give a shit who it is just give it to him find any heavy weight that is in Vegas or part of the Eridium Sports Agency team, put him in there with Waldo, sacrifice him to the altar,

put him in there, let Waldo get another first round finish, and then 2026, he gets Derek Lewis in a main event of a fight night card. That's how we do this before he fights for the belt, potentially. I just went to look. You actually had a bit of faith on Waldo.

So we did our draft, obviously, our mid-season, we did first half the season, mid-season draft. So back in July, you actually picked Waldo, fifth round fifth out of 11 rounds you did kind of like need a heavy you did you you kind of filled that heavyweight spot uh somewhat early i was trying to i was trying to make a joke because i was like oh my god mike must have picked like waldo in like the eighth or ninth round like no you saw something here and which is stunning to me which is stunning to me because after it took me a long time to get the robellis to spain fight out of my head uh because i was not kind to waldo you were not that time frame not at all uh but he is he's he's he's he's he's turning it around look the wakene buckley thing you could turn things around you can always find a way and

waldo this is the guy we've all wanted to see he's out there finishing dudes he's not trying to tackle and lay on people anymore like this is the guy so yes faith rewarded waldo's the man i hope he fights his separate yeah i'm actually speaking to him tomorrow we'll we'll we'll see what's up for him tell about your fancy team thank him i did i did uh but yeah i i didn't have really pick for waldo because he's essentially on the Kevin Holland band list, right? It's like we don't know when he's going to fight again, and it's just there's no point. So we just want to see him again.

He's great. Yes. He's the man. MVP of the Fantasy League right now, especially if you fight December 13th, it's a wrap. He is the best fighter in our fantasy league. We shouldn't even count it. We shouldn't count it.

It's just like not count. If I can get him and Atiba Godier to fight December 13th, this is just be unbelievable. And I could win this thing without like four of my fighters fighting. which is spectacular. I hope a Tiba gets booked against Torres Finney, my guy. And then you'll see, yeah, that's how excited you are about that. Oh, yeah, I'll be very excited.

We'll see. Let's, so if Waldo's the MVP, uh, the silver medalist, at least in my opinion, of UFC Qatar was not Armin Sarukin. It was not IMA Chatt O'Gari. It was Keoggi Horiguchi, okay? What a friggin hero. A plus plus on the, uh, in the performance. A plus.

plus on the microphone. The band is ready to play, but I don't feel like there should be ready to play here. Because we have to be on the same page here. Yeah. Yeah, this doesn't count. No, this doesn't count. Yeah. Everything about Kiljee's return was fantastic.

Oh, but in case, obviously we're saying he's going to fight the winner of the UFC 323 flyweight title fight, right? Oh, yeah. Yes. Okay. The performance was like so perfect because the fact that it didn't end in the first round was actually really good because if killj had just like taken to gear out early like that would have been great too obviously if he like knocked out to gear in like 30 seconds was amazing but we got to see

we kind of got a proper reintroduction like i think people got maybe who hadn't been keeping track of like his very spectacular things he was doing over in rising like if this is the first time you'd seen keoggi really fight a high level opponent in a while you were just like you were like holy crap like this guy's so good he's so much smaller than to gear he looked like two weight classes smaller i think he is almost technically two way classes smaller um but he showed off everything the wrestling defense, the wrestling offense, his amazing strength, his movement. God, he was circling Ula and Beck up like crazy. I was getting dizzy watching him circle. It was so awesome. And then, yeah, just to outlast him, the cardio, just like wear this bigger man down and finish him.

Like that is MMA. That is like the spirit of Japanese MMA, J.M.M. Right. Kioji is like one of our heroes, modern heroes of that subgenre. So it was so fantastic. And the call out after was just hilarious. I mean, it was so good. Pantosia you're my teammate i want to beat your ass you know it's like you're the man with the belt let's do it like people want to see it the two possibly the two best fly weights in the world let's go so obviously he's rooting for him bobby helping helping Pantioza to prepare for van and then set up his own title fight uh Mike who wasn't who wasn't that said he should call him out like from the corner was it you that said that on our slack uh that was so that was

jed who laid this out jeds oh yeah he said that he should corner him and then do the face off after he corners him. That would be the best moment. So I added it more. I was like he should be like the sensational sherry before the Summer Slam Sean Michael's Rick Martel match where she's just like, whose corner am I actually in? He just comes out with the, he just comes out with the trip.

He teases that like, oh, no, I'm going to be in Josh's corner actually. And then he's like, no, maybe I'll be in Pentosia's. And like, he just walks out in a trench coat before any of the fighters do. And then right before Buffer makes his intro, he takes the trench coat off. and he reveals that he's in Pantosia's corner. And then he goes over there and Van is shook. Pantosia's happy. Boy, that conversation on the post show really inspired people on social media, the East.

I got a lot of memes of, no, Jedds, you guys are real close, but this is it. And Steve Austin turning heel on the rock and hitting him with the chair at WrestleMania. Man, there's so much great that can happen here. And I'm talking to Pants tomorrow night and I cannot wait, cannot wait. to run this idea by him to see what he thinks of it's gonna be a shame when van just beats him though it kind of spoils this whole thing how dare you he could it's possible i don't think i don't think you will bands on my fantasy team and i think i'm mathematically limited anyway but i still maybe one of my guys who hasn't fought to take a short notice thing in the last couple of nights but yeah i don't

get me a great fight though van and pentosia and then yeah whatever happened listen what it happens with keogi we just know he has big fights ahead of him man great just great to see him back on the oc yeah it was a terrible night for brandon morano it was a terrible night for brandon morano it was a terrible night for Brandon Roy Vaugh. It was a terrible night from an al-Cop. It was a terrible night for Tetsu-Rotira, because they're just like, oh, we have big fights coming up that have meaning,

but now they don't mean as much, because Keoggi is getting 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. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal,

Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. Let's go to the wild card round, AK. We will select one fighter. we have not match made for and we'll match make for them right now. So, AK, who did you go with coming off of UFC Qatar?

Mike, you know I'm not always up to date on like contender series. So I don't, I don't keep track of a lot of these prospects necessarily. This a yak yaya fellow is quite fearsome. I was told, people told me. I just had not watched it myself. I was like, okay. He was a math. An insane favorite, minus 1600.

And I always go like, man, anyone like making the UFC date. you like minus six that's crazy like i were i betting man which i wasn't for this card i would just put like five dollars on um sekiata who i think was plus eight hundred plus nine hundred dollars like i would just done it because it's m mhmay anything can happen but uh boy the odds makers this might maybe should have been minus 16 000 because holy crap yakaya just straight up like you know old school shemayev him just rushed him down i mean i talked about uzdemir domini men afield that was like not even that was nothing nothing compared to this where he just had no respect for Sekeeda or whatever and just walked him as he was expected to so great

performance with him let's just keep it rolling i just wanted to find someone who's like you know kind of has some uc experience but is for the most part not a world beater so next up on the yakea of destruction tour march and prachneo come on down buddy come on down your next your next on the price is right wow okay yeah so i think aka throughout the year there are certain times where there are certain fighters and certain opportunities that arise where we're just like you know what it's time to pull the trigger we have found our guy and every so often a ban on weight comes along and we have to sort of figure out how to push him what to do with him all of these things alexandra tuporia has been one of those guys that

has been sort of a mystery we didn't know how good he was jed was not sure how good he was didn't even think he's really that good he thought he'd be sort of like the one outcast brother of the brother group with the toporia is that like one's really good and one's not so they gave him box at alma con who's a very good fighter who jawed umar namaga made off it's within seconds of his short notice fight and then annihilated brad katona which is not very is not easy to do and did it very very quickly and now that malcolm wellmaker lost to ethan ewing you need a ban and weight that you could kind of just give the old push to you got you got you got to you got to got to got to got to got to see what he's made of and i think he passed this test in a big way the colby uh the

colby coby thickness fight was impressive but i don't think it blew the doors off people plus thickness is not like a top 30ish kind of guy and i think bexat was i think backs out was i think a lot of people kind of looked at it as a top 30 top 35 guy like a very solid tough out and he looked good he looked really good in this fight uh i went and rewatched last night i was like Oh, okay. Like, this is solid. And by the way, Alexander, let me just let you know. I believe it was the only person of our MA fighting picks who picked you to win.

So helping with the near perfection. Okay. Having said that, Teporia is not a guy who's going to fight three, four times a year. I'm assuming he will not fight at all until after his brother defends his belt. So let us batch him up with a big name, a former world champion. And a guy who honestly doesn't fight that much himself. I think it's time we have found our next opponent

for Cody Garbrandt it is Alexander Taporia okay let's just do it let's just do it give it to him give him the rub and if he wins that fight friggin give him Cheeto Vera like let's just go

let's just strap the rockets to him but let's see if you get past the Cody Garbrand test let's give him the big name let's give him the rub I think it's time let's do it makes sense if you're Garbrand I think you'd be very intrigued by that matchup not not because I'm saying like oh Garbrandt is like it's like a necessarily a favorable matchup for him but obviously he understands this guy has a name you know if anything just based off his brother's success and um sorry not only based off his

process i mean just that's one aspect of it um yeah and i think he could get you know if you're cody you're like man what a big chance he i'm sure he's seen the fights he's seen how good alexandria's and just like yeah let me let me test myself let me see where i'm at this this uh very odd stage of my career so yeah i could really see that being booked uh soon all right let's go to the peeps let's do it let's go to the peeps we got i got a i got a lot i didn't get a lot i did get a first timer though okay the first timers i had several i had several this brought some people out of the probably the timing helps i think the time yeah everyone was awake sober well we don't know we don't know that like at least they were sober enough to submit picks

because usually people like pass out and forget so let's uh let's say hello to jamal smith hello jama welcome to party pal uh he says armand versus ilia in january this was interesting i thought about this A.K. Gary versus Shafcott 2. And here's his explanation. I know they just fought, but I think it makes sense considering it was short notice for Gary and Shafcott got hurt early. I think we can see a much

much better version of both fighters. For Shafcott, this sort of reminds me of Wittaker versus Romero 2 being back-to-back fights against the same guys. I don't, like, I don't mind that. I don't hate it at all. I don't either. I really don't. Don't hate it at all. Also think Morales is over them both at this

point. I agree with you, too. Jamal. Jamal my man is the first time is the first time you see like yeah my goodness might have been like a maybe it's like my brother just like to say i don't know uh volkan versus jamaal hill i know hill is going to be out for a while but vulcan hasn't exactly been the most active fighter either oh this this might honestly this might be the best first time we ever had like he's coming up he's coming up with things we he's cut he's he's listened to the show long enough to know that if he just went with vulcan versus jamal hill we both would been like yeah but he's gonna be out for a while he has reasoning and he's ready to go with

with receipts have you vetted the rest of this are we about to are you sure i'm not saying about stepping some do-do here i i feel your enthusiasm you're really excited about see or by versus fokritinov whoa wow i like that fight a lot too i know i think fokrtinov deserves to fight someone up though no i mean that's tough jamal i mean boy jama i mean you are first of all, I love what you're trying to do here, because this would be mega points for me. But poor Alexander Volkov, uh, WCA versus Volkov on the apex card he called for. You're, oh, as a fantasy owner, I love this idea. Uh, I just don't think it's going to happen. No.

Uh, Kiyogi versus, I think Tyra is over him if he beats Moreno. So I say give him Moreno if Tyra wins. But if Moreno wins, run Keoggi versus pants. Damn, this guy's doing some math, like some MMA maths. Jeez, Louise, I don't do this much thinking when I'm putting my picks together. Dan Hooker versus Benoit Santini, Luke Riley versus Nate Landware. Asaugh-O-Mabaya. Asu-Ombia versus Amir al-Bazi. Whoa, Teporea versus Shito.

Umar got Corey after beating Bexat. I know Umar had more wins before that, but I think it would make a lot of sense to push Alexander to do the lack of prospects at Badaway currently. Wow. I don't hate that idea, by the way. Teporia is such a weird one because like we've said many times. His career would be much further along if he wasn't so focused on, of course, you know, helping Ilya's career, right? He's just a very good brother because he has why.

He has like 10. How many fights is, uh, uh, to Alexandria have, uh, less than 10. Yeah, I think he's he would have like, if he was like, you know, doing his career focusing on it concurrently with Ilias, he'd be like, he'd have like 15 or 16 fights. He'd literally have like twice as many fights. But, um, you know, he doesn't. He wants to help his brother, and it's worked out very well for both of them. But, yeah, he definitely has a much more seasoned guy than your average seven-in-one fighter. I think it's fair to say.

Yeah, I mean, he took six years off from competing. Crazy. To help his brother. Crazy, right? Pretty wild stuff. But, yeah, we'll see what happens there. Denzel Freeman back to LFA. Dude, I didn't say, no one's anything.

He got a win, guys. All right, he got a win. What do you want? You know, Jed was joking about how, like, this was, oh, not joking. I mean, this was, I think, was this supposed to be a contenders, a contender series fight? No, right? It should have been. Oh, okay.

That's, okay. I thought people were saying, because we had that happened recently, right, with another heavyway fight that was actually was a contender series fight and got moved on to UFC card. Okay. So this felt like that, but these are actually two contracted UFC fighters. Was this the worst fight of the year in the UFC? I watched it last night. Yeah. I had a great time because it was just like, wow, this is like, even with everything I saw in social media, this is like,

way worse and way funnier than I even imagined it could be was this the was this worse than billy alacana versus ebo osloid uh that's tough that one was really bad that was stanky uh this is up there this is up there what a time heavyweight overs that was like the easiest pick of all time uh Trevor niren armand versus ilia it's the best fight to make it lightweight patty versus gaichi can be a fun co-main Gary versus islob he's done enough to earn a shot and if he doesn't get it can fight morales for it okay orle by and versus orruby versus bond theme can headline an apex card it probably could probably could salsa boy versus Derek lewis while he waits for his inevitable type shot four four corner sports

called that uh the main event of ufc sheboigan should do that which i like yeah yeah that's right john ray another freeman pick freeman versus sutherland all right aliev versus re That fight rules, by the way. Ali, I think it's really good. Nardia versus Mark Andre Berio, like that. Tuporia versus Garbrand, let's go. Let's even get chaos like his brother. Yakiya versus Bruno Lopez.

Alibi versus Albaozy, again. Dalby versus Luka. Riley versus Jack Jenkins. Horaguchi should get a title shot, but I'm predicting the UFC will do the wrong thing. So my pick is him versus Moreno if he wins. WCA versus Volkov, title eliminator on the Aspinol gone two card. Sorry, no fight in three weeks, Mike.

Well, if John says it means it's going to happen, so that's good. Oralby versus Phil Roe-Ozboe versus the Blahovic-Guskopf winner. If Goosekopf wins, then it's a two. John already preparing himself. Oh, well done. Okay, good. Because I want to say, I'll also shout out who else had this. I will shout out also.

Oh, you know, I'll say it later. There was a first-timer because we had a lot of people, Mike, who just did the winner of that fight and did not mention that it would be a two. Yeah. just got one gary versus jdm mohammed versus brady two i actually liked that fight if i was matchmaking for belal that's that's what i would do i would do that i'd run that one back hooker versus b sd if you could turn around somebody quick since bsd took no damage armin versus whoever has the title when he fights next let's go to joe coteke uh arman versus ilia patty winner regardless armin's next

fight should be for the belt keoggi for the belt uh vulcan versus kaliel luke ryley versus michael as well Toporia versus Sayy and Ramagamadha Madhah Shemrock versus Anshil Jubilee Alia versus Rebatsky Let's see what this guy's got And then we'll close out with left lane Armin versus Ilya Gary's next fight will be Islam

But I think Islam will fight somebody else first Bilal versus Buckley I don't hate that either That's kind of where he's at right now Yeah Oralby versus Kevin Holland I don't hate that Yeah I could see

Hey Kevin Holland Get back in there right back in there nightmare fight for kevin holland she's louise waldo versus anyone on the last card of the year that's right but if they can't get them on there blades make sense keoggi should get a title shot i think he'll get obazi though riley versus jack jenkins you already got that one dalby versus leal that is like grime city assu versus vittie stiggs in australia yaku yaku versus Ribeiro, Teporia versus Kyler Phillips, Nardia versus Zach Reese. There you go.

I like that everyone is in the same range with me as, as, uh, Yakeya, because I heard Bruno Lopez who also was like, what, one, what's, what's Bruno Lopez? One, oh, what, one and why would he come up a loss? And what was the one you just said? Uh, someone just said, Roberto. Ribeiro two and four in the U.S. People, you're, you're very, this is what you do. This is what you do.

With prospects you like, who are a little green, a little green. Yeah, yeah. but there's something there with this guy there is something there with yakei my goodness um okay so let me let me get to these first timers first on twitter all right uh danny florenzo actually helped me uh he pointed out my doo-do last time but this is the first time reading his picks welcome to the party bell

Gary Michael Morales Horaguchi versus pentosia win loser draw when loser draw so he doesn't so if guch so if patoja loses he doesn't want to do guch van at least not yet interesting uh ozdemer jemalal we talked about this already uh oh sorry hold on did he do that I wrote down two picks here for Sorry, Danny, I might have screwed up your picks.

Ignore, ignore that one. Al-Mabayev, Mike Davis, Dalby, and Puna Soriano. Bangar. Bangar, bang, bang, bang. Hezzy. Hooker, Santini, Balal, and Usman. God, I wish they would just do this. Gary and Morales, Oroby versus Alvarez at Welterweight, or if he insists on dropping back down, Marisi Hoofee.

Wow. Do we really like what they saw? People really like. That's nice. I like that. I guess Oral Bai braining a dehydrated Hermanson has them like, oh, that was just sad to watch. But credit to Oral By, it was great.

Metafield, Zhang Ming Yang, and has he pointed out, the Usdemir Gooskov thing, if it would be a rematch. Cortez-Acost of Volkov. Jack Decker, welcome to the party pal, Sirukian, Toporia, Gary Morales, Oral Bai, and Bonfeme. Cortez Acosta versus any short-known to USC debut in December

for it to have that six-fight year. Yep. Horoguchi versus Pentoja, after he wins and another Riley versus Land. There's a lot of Riley versus Landware. Nate, get healthy and get back in there. We want to see you getting back to wars with people. And one more welcome to the party pal.

Adam Shame. Oh, I should have asked how to pronounce this. Adam Shameau. Shammu. Shamo. Shemau. Horaguchi Pantosia, when Pantosia retains by submission. So a little prediction in there. WCA versus Curtis Blades, Muhammad Brady, too.

He says, I'd like to see Gary get the tell a shot, but I'm convinced Usman will get it, as I said last week. He could wait for the winner of that, in my opinion, or welcome Amasov, Mike, if he wants to stay busy. Unlikely he'll do that very hard to predict the activity of all the fighters in the running. Gary apparently has not, I actually believe him. He said he has not heard of Amosov. Did you see that at the post-fight scrum? I did not see that.

Someone very randomly asked about Amosov, and he was like, did you say Bell? Because the person said, oh, Bell-Tor champion Amosov. And he was like, I don't think he was doing a big. bit, I think he actually is not familiar with Yassav. Amasov. I don't know if I believe that. Really? I mean, he seems like a student of the game.

I don't believe that. I will say, Gary definitely seems more tuned in than most M.A. fighters, because we always say, like, half the M.A. fighters, if you ask them, we're just like, I don't watch any other people's fights. I just, I just go and train. I don't know who is in my division. I don't know. So, you're right. I don't put Gary in that category.

He's certainly more read up. I think this is a chance he might not be familiar with Amazon or maybe the name didn't didn't click right away. I just didn't feel like he was doing a whole bit just to burn Amosov. It just didn't sound, it didn't sound right. That would be really funny. That would be so funny.

It won't happen. I would love it if his next fight was against Amosov. That's so crazy. But I think we, did we report, Mike, who his fight's going to be? I thought we did. No. We didn't lock that in yet. Amosov's UFC debut. We didn't lock it in, did we? We haven't like fully, fully confirmed it yet, but

I think people know the rumor. The rumor in you end. no, there's smoke to the fire. Okay. It's not Gary. It's not I'm a shadow Gary. Hooker Fiziv, Sarukyan versus the winner of upcoming title fight whenever it's spoke.

That's right, Adam. That's where it's going. All right. Let's go back to our regulars, our stars. Zach Schultes. Gary versus Edwards, boring versus boring. Why would you make this matchup then?

Zach, why would you do this yourself? Oostomir Ankaliev 2. Ooh, is Ankolive now in rematch territory? Gosh, you might have to be. fought a lot of guys in the top ten uh salsa boy i said it three weeks ago he has a loser of aspinall gone but screw it i'm sorry screw gone gives salsa boy the title shot let's go love that i don't hate that idea dollby versus magni how this never happened well zach lesb we sort of just kind of touched upon there might be a reason why that fight might not happen soon armand surukion stan

account big big day for you my friend big day for you uh wasn't really crowing about the win that much. Anyway, Mirzacana versus Roundtree. Oh, he says, I set up Merzikana versus Roundtree earlier, so the winner of that versus Oostomir. Okay, so hypothetical. Hypothetical. Hypothetical on top of hypothetical. And then Horikuchi versus Kai Kar, France. Well,

it sounds like Kikiav is taking time off, so I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe if you offered him Horikuchi? No, he shouldn't do that. If he's in the mindset where he's taking time off, might not be a good idea. DGB, Toporia versus Blackshear. I could see it. I just think he's a bit

higher up now. I think the U.S. he's going to view him as higher up. Horaguchi, Alambayab, Uzdemir Jacobi. Yes. Sure.

I like it. And Jen finally do Balal and Colby Cummington. It does. I don't know if the timing is right for it. I think it's,

I mean, I think he can do it now. You certainly can. I think he can. Interesting. I mean, Colby's calling for, I mean,

Colby's doing the right thing right now. He's calling for Wonderboy, Gilbert Burns I think Bilal is probably I think Bilal honestly makes sense I think that's I don't know if that's like the most

stylistically pleasing matchup but it makes sense like we got at least a rivalry to put it into to some degree Yeah it's sellable Yeah I don't know if John Anick should be allowed to call that one But there you go

Speezy 32 Oral by Frachotina Yeah I don't know I don't know if it's how high you want to push Earl by now, but it sounds like people are ready just throw them in there with killers. It's 170. Riley versus Hyder Emile, great fight. Dalby versus

McAuliffe, Yakayev, Kevin Christian, Toporia Jordane. I like that a lot. Sure. Toporio Jardine? I kind of think that's great. Nardia versus Ozzy Diaz, Denzel Freeman, and Luke Sutherland.

Why did I write it? We were a way to write that. Barry O'Reilly. Let me read some of these. He also likes to Poria versus Garbrand, Mike. Yakev Urslan. No, guys, we're not doing any matches for Ursulae besides Aslan.

Al-Mabaya versus Brandon Boreval, win-lose-or-drave versus cop. Yeah. Yeah, because Brandon's probably not getting a title shout-out for that. Maybe, though. You mentioned, I know someone else said Dalby versus Lucay earlier, Barry likes that too. He says, let's see if the Brazilian

killer can kill the career of Luque. Barry. Cope. Gary versus Jell, Madalena. Barry says I'm Irish but I just don't like Gary He's obviously very talented I know confidence is key But he is delusional with his comments

The callout was the most exciting thing he's done a while And I was even cringing at that Actually think he gives Islam a good fight But don't want to reward him And him and JDM have a bit of history Sure, yeah That's good thing Marcus McGahy

Nardiev Jordan Santos Alexandria Tuporia Santiago Luna He's way, that'd be amazingly fun fight He's just way ahead of Santiago Luna In the I think the eyes of the matchmakers right now Yakev Tukotokos, perfect.

Riley and Khan Offley, I love that. There's so many good Riley matchups. He really, I think he really impressed on Saturday. Octagon, just one we haven't seen, Oroby, D-Rod. Yeah, throw them in there. Four Corner Sports, Muhammad Buckley, Hooker and Moycano. I love that. I think that shit happens sometime in 2020.

So there are, yeah, Dan Hooker was talking to, He's like, yeah, I should fight Moikato. We both suck. Perfect. That's how you sell it. Boycano clap back. I was like, yeah, man, easy money. Let's go.

Yeah, I like it. Four Corner Sports says he met Jose at the fighter hotel during USC 222. He called it says, Salt of the Earth. That is Jose. Absolutely. That's Jose is that dude. F broad cut Freeman and Boullio. Damn.

He said for that BS sparring session and for Freeman dancing at the end as he won a boring decision. He probably, the dancing was a bit much. I always encourage dancing. I love dancing in any sport. Maybe kind of tone it down there, Denzel. Shemrock, Malarki, Loder versus Gore. Loser leaves town bout.

How dare you? Those are, that's tough royalty there, guys. No, they're never leaving. Instagram, Harry Newhouse. Riley, Kastjaneda, Dalby, and Medici. Yeros Medici, great fight. Yakayev Kuchalaba, love it. Chaos.

Game of the chaos. Alexander DePore versus Surrey City. probably, I think they see Tabori at least as a top 30 guy right now. So I just think he's kind of moved past these fights. Whether he is a top 30 guy or not, I don't know. I just think they view him that way. Zenzel Freeman Alvin Hines. Let's just keep this heavy weighty, heavyness going.

Geri Biaugan. Gary weighs in his backup for the next Walter Wight title fight. He almost definitely will if it's not him, right? He should. Okay. Yeah, I think he's the guy they call right to be the backup. Muhammad Neal 2 Usdimir Rockich 2

I don't know why Usdimir want to do that fight again Riley versus Gavin Tucker boy that's a Riley would be a minus 1,200 favorite let's close up with some emails here like more of the Riley goodness guys Lucas Cortest he likes Riley and

Julian erosa juicy Jay man damn Striston says Riley and the Naimov Myron Santos winner they're fighting UC 323 damn here another big one Jay Donagie Oro Bivers Holland

I know someone said that before. I think that's great. Horaguchi, Al-Bazi. Sean, let's end it with Sean because Sean had some sort of commentary here. If we don't get Max versus Charles and Mac versus Hooker, we better get Max versus Charles.

Oral Bai versus Andreas Gustavson. That's a fun one. And then I know we've touched upon this mic, but we can sort of just like, well, we can cap this off with a little more welterweight talk. Sean just says the matchups should be Gary, Islam,

Morales, Pratchis, and Muhammad and Usman. He says those are the best fights, the ones that actually line up, logically, but the UFC will mess it up and push Usman to his top spot. This fight is going to happen next year, which takes out the pay-view model. So I'm assuming the focus

is on eyeballs, but I still don't understand the thinking. Can you explain to me? Is that really the reason? Is anyone choosing to watch a card because of Usman over the other guys? No. And that's like... Oh, God. I thought you were going to make a case for it. No, it's terrible. And that's

the thing, like the big quote-unquote reason that both guys are saying is, it's the biggest fight that can be made no it isn't it's it makes no difference it truly makes no difference you really think that islam versus usman does like 50 million views on paramount hell no it's going to do the same as literally everything else it's it's it's not usman is an accomplished fighter and there was a time where like you know when he was nuking when he nuked Mazadol

and he nuked Burns that like okay he's starting to get over a little bit right and then he lost and that he was on the wrong end of like the biggest highlight one of the biggest highlights in the history of the sport and guess what guys

for everyone saying like Usman deserves it he was the long reigning champion he deserves another chance to get the belt back he got a chance to get the belt back and he lost convincing clear cut decision to the guy who kicked him in the face he got a full camp was ready did it all got his run back and lost what else and you're saying oh because he fought hums not shemaiah well that was

great but he lost he still lost it's okay and then he fights buckley and wins and it's like a good okay it's a good win but let me tell you something back to the fallout of UFC Atlanta when Usman was saying like even in the build to the fight Usman kept laying out this thing like I want to fight Islam I'm next

this win got to go listen to the post fight show go on social media and look back in June of this year when Usman was like I'm next no one deserves it more than me there were very few people who agreed that take back then and now after UFC 322 in this event it's so egregious dude it's just so egregious if he gets this again just go win one more

just beat one of these guys and you get it that's it then there's no no one will complain ever again no one will say oh he doesn't deserve it blah blah blah blah if the whole notion is like we have to get Islam versus Usman okay but let him win one more give him anybody give him proches give him proches if he beats proxas sure give it to him but you guys are this this whole thing ridiculous. We are with, we are with the people. Mike, the people are with us. We are with the people.

It is a very small minority of people who actually won this fight. It's Henry Sehudo, Ali, Islam, Usman, and Moe Usman. That's it. It was the only people want this fight. Don't bring Mom into this. And maybe Dana White. I don't know. Honestly, I don't know.

Maybe President Trump. Maybe President Trump wants this fight. I don't know, man. Like, no. Even Trump knows Ball better. He's actually a pretty hardcore, like, fight fan. So he actually probably is like, what the whole? He's like, uh, it should be Michael Morales.

Alice. Wow. He was great. He was fantastic. It should be him. He might be the best fighter in the world, AK. He might be the best fighter in the world. The Trump impression.

I did not see it coming, Mike. I did not see it coming. Even he knows ball. He ain't giving it to us, but either. Mike, we don't have a card coming up next week. Like you said, we got that pay per view. Let's look ahead too. So I will tell people, I don't know if you and I will see.

Maybe we do, we haven't done it and ask us anything in a while, but I'm not making any promises. I'm not from making any problems. I'm just like people know for the future. For a possibility for that and for the future. guys reach out to me at alexander kaley on twitter alexander k kaly on instagram alex dot lee at espion.com via email guys all my stuff is open uh mike they can beat you on instagram yes m underscore heck jr we might maybe we'll do it maybe we'll see no we're not guarantee you guys watch our social watch our social we'll put the call out if we decide to your show yeah i will say

if we do this it'll be recorded on like tuesday or wednesday yes heads up so heads up yeah we'll let you know uh so the next time you will see us or hear from us from a matchmaking perspective. We will be live on the NBA Fighting YouTube channel following the final pay-per-view of the ESPN era, UFC 323. This is a damn good card. I really love it. The main event, Rob Welsh, really, looking to just put a stamp

on the fighter of the year conversation. He defends against former champion, Piotr Yan. For the flyweight championship, the co-made event, Alexander Pantosha defending against Josh Van, Henry Sehudo, in his final fight, taking on Peyton Talbot as long as Henry Sohudo doesn't shift into a matchmaking role.

I think he's going to be okay. Jan Belhovic versus Bogdan Guscoff. Brandon Moreno versus Tetsuro Taira. Great fight there. Macy Barber versus Karine Asilva. Mansour, Abdul Malik versus Antonio Tricoli, Farizayam versus Nazim Sadikoff.

God, that fight is going to be unfrigan believable. I can't wait for that one. Grant Dawson versus Manuel Torres. Really interesting matchup. A lot of lightweight fights on this card. Terrence McKinney versus Chris Duncan. Woo!

That's going to be wild. 45 seconds. 45 seconds. That might be maybe I'd be too high. Over under 45 seconds? I don't know. I might take the under. Yeah.

This might be the weirdest fight on the card. Yeah. Marvin Vittori versus Bruno Ferreira. I have no clue what's going to happen there. It's all middle lady. My God. Take the over. Take the over.

Please take you over. More lightweight action. We have Edson Barbosa. What? Fighting Jalen Turner. He is back. Jalen Turner ended his retirement after like five months. Welcome back, Jailen Turner.

Ebo Aslan is back following his fight of the year contender against Iwo Baranuski. That's okay, listen, Ebo, Ewo, that's very good. That is very, I will give the matchmaker's credit. It's not Aslan Erslan, Mike. It's not Aslan orslan, but that's pretty good. I can't hate on that. Ebo, Ewo is very nice. that just rolls right off the tongue it's so good okay that's good uh and then the the main

the opener of ufc 323 in the featherweight division mohammed naima versus myron santo's that's ultimate fighter champion marin santo's to you sir that's right okay uh what was my mohammed niue's um she's been a nice little run that should be actually a pretty good fight so very good ufc 323 card i like it a lot last watch party of the year. Actually, no, it won't be. More details on that later on, but it'll be the last UFC watch party of the year.

But, yeah, UFC guitar in the books. We'll talk more about it on shows this week. But, yeah, Thanksgiving coming up here in the United States. We're thankful for all of you guys who listen to the show every week and follow along with us and watch everything we do and jump on the feed and comment on these cards and just give your suggestions all that. We appreciate you.

You guys are the best. We will see you back from a matchmaking perspective following UFC 323 right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.