MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Belal Muhammad, Leon Edwards After UFC 304?

Episode Date: July 28, 2024

Belal Muhammad is the brand new UFC welterweight champion after pulling off the upset against Leon Edwards in the main event of Saturday's UFC 304 fight card in Manchester. With a slew of potential challengers, who will be next for "Remember the Name" for his first title defense? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss where Muhammad and Edwards go following their championship headliner. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Tom Aspinall after his incredible 60-second finish of Curtis Blaydes to retain the interim heavyweight title in the co-main event, Paddy Pimblett following his impressive submission victory over Bobby Green, Gregory Rodriguez after his decision win against Christian Leroy Duncan, along with fellow main card winner Arnold Allen, 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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You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody. Happy Sunday morning. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. There we are. We are live. The matchmaking crowns are back following. I don't know how to describe UFC 304.

Very strange. We're probably the best way to describe it if we think about the totality of the card. But we have a new welterweight champion. We will have to remember his name now. His name is Balal freaking Muhammad. He goes out there and dominates Leon Edwards and is the new welterweight champion. Silencing a lot of critics in the process. Tommy Asmanal continues to do Tommy Aspinall things.

What is in store for the heavyweight division? What is in store for the welterweight division? What is in store for the lightweight division after Patty the Batty Pimblet did the thing and put Bobby Green to sleep with a nasty triangle show featured about we'll discuss the what's next for those three fighters and more on today's program i am ikech and joining me as always the co-host the co-matchmaker the prince of positivity my best friend and a man who has told me before we went live here he's got some spicy takes he is the one of the alexander kaley aka how we doing on the sunday morning my friend my best friend my keck we're doing great we're doing great i got i don't know i got mostly good feelings after you see

3-04. This is one situation where I wonder if they should have gone interim title over welterweight title, over undisputed welterweight title. I feel like they've maybe done this before. That was very rare. And I'm glad, you know, I'm glad they gave Leon and Balal the respect you deserve. But, you know, often heavier weight classes when it comes to titles take priority over lower weight classes. So they could have done, they could have gone by that justification. they could have gone by the justification that they felt you know Tommy was very likely to get the win over Curtis Blaze more so than Leon over Bala. I don't know. Hard to predict the future. Could have gone the other way too. Who knows?

Maybe Leon would have beat Balaal and Blaze would beat Tommy with like five rounds of wrestling and then you would add a similar like negative reaction from the from the Manchester fan. Excuse me. And but I don't think because what we had the broadcast themselves were acknowledging that like people were leaving during it was that bad for the fans were leaving during the ballo Leon fight it wasn't going Leon's way so a lot of people just trying to beat traffic at that point it's like your your footy team being down you know four nothing uh at the 75th minute um but and i don't but i think that's less chance of that happening with esponal right because think as as long aspinall it's a heavyweight fight even if he was getting out wrestled for like two

and a half rounds i think fans would have stuck around for the chance of a knockout or some finish out of nowhere because you know it is the big boys and the end of any time. So I don't know. That's my one. That's my one take so far, Mike. We'll go through some more as we go through our matchmaking and go fight by fight. But yeah, what do you think? Do you think they could have should have predicted, tried to predict anyway, that Aspinol would have had a better night and gone with him last? That's why the interim title is dumb. We talked about this on the post-fight show. And look, I think all of us, when they booked this interim title fight, do we would be in this position. Like, this isn't a surprise to anybody that we are here right now.

So what I was saying and what I landed on eventually is that no more interim champion. Like call. And I also understand the value in having two champions in the heavyweight division. One's like the workhorse, the intercontinental heavyweight champion who just fights and fights and fights. The other guy just kind of fights the prize fight he fights, the special attraction fights, if you will. So just call them co-heavyweight champions. They're both in the same level, the same category. Both titles mean the same.

in the over in the thing and the reason why tom didn't is because of that freaking interim thing if you just if he's just the co heavyweight champion he's the main event fans go home happy he does it in a minute an electric ending and then it's all good but the ufc just has these unwritten rules that we have to do a title fight on every card unless connor regger fights and an interim if the interim championship fight is one of two title fights it cannot be the main event. Even if it's the better weight class or the higher weight class, even though we know one fight's going to end abruptly much quicker than the other, just call him the co-heavyweight champion. Like, who gives a shit? Who gives a shit? You know what I mean? It's, you're, I didn't even think

about that. We've complained a lot about Tom not being the just flat out heavyweight champion. Because if he was, we wouldn't be having this discussion. We wouldn't be having this discussion. They would put the heavyweight title over their welterweight title. They have traditionally done this. Again, you very, very, I'm sure there's a time I'm not remember. but you very rarely see in a situation where there's multiple undisputed title fights and one of those a heavyweight title the heavyweight being the co-main it just doesn't work that the bad the title of baddest man on the planet always has to close the show and we would have had that again i can't criticize the uc too much for um not being able to predict the future there's a there's all kinds

scenarios that could have gone again could have gone the other way maybe leon beats ball all maybe Blades finds a way to beat Aspinol, and then you're still having this kind of, you know, dreadful feeling for the hometown crowd. So it's not criticized the UFC, just a curiosity thing, like, oh, how different it could have been if we'd had a more, again, sort of more conventional lineup where the heavyweight fight goes last, but not the UC's fault.

They did the right thing by putting Edwards and Muhammad last, but, yeah, it did lead to an awkward scene. Again, you rarely hear the broadcast acknowledge that. The fans are leaving, but again, apparently it was happening so en masse, and I guess it was so obvious and probably pretty distracted, that they just had to address it. So overall, overall, I thought a good card, Mike. Yes.

So here's out today's program is going to work. We'll talk about each of the main card fights in order. We'll do some matchmaking for the fighters. When we talk about certain fights, if you guys have comments who want to chime in with on that specific fight we're talking about, we'll throw some up on the screen. And then at the very end, once we go through our wild card picks, then we'll do a little wild card free-for-all round where we pull up your comments.

your matchmaking suggestions, the super chatters get bumped up to the top of the line, and then we'll go to just before 11 a.m. Eastern because, well, I got to check out of this hotel and get ready to drive back to South Carolina. So we will begin, AK will be back in a moment. Yeah, Scott was asking, when was the last time an interim champion was elevated to the undisputed title? Robert Whitaker was the last one. He was the interim middleweight champion. champion. GSP beat Michael Bisbing to become the UFC middleweight champion. GSP called it a career. Henceforth, Robert Woodaker gets upgraded to the undisputed champion. So I think we have, oh, hello everyone. I'm sorry. He's back. He's back.

Movie magic for you guys. I may look more high-res now. Just got to use the proper camera. Spectacular. So look, yes, thank you, Goblinicus. I open the window. You get the nice brick wall behind me here in the hotel. All right, look, let's get into this thing. We don't need to spend a lot of time here. I mean, we can obviously, what is happening here?

Okay, there we go. We can obviously, like, talk about the performance and everything, but we, you know, we'll talk more about this. Leon Edwards no longer the Welterweight champion. Belal Mohammed is the welterweight champion. This is a good performance. This fight was a lot more. fun, I guess.

It wasn't the most thrilling affair, but it was, I think, a lot more fun than people thought it might be. I scored it four rounds to one for Bala Muhammad. I thought it was a pretty dominant performance. I think B'all brought his A-plus game to the table. I also don't think Leon Edwards brought his best either. I don't want to take anything away from Bala,

but Leon just didn't look good. And then once he got spiked on his head, that was kind of it. So, Blah is the chance. It seems so obvious where he goes from here. It just makes all the sense in the world that he fights Shafkat, Rockmanoff, AK, like this is the fight to make. The band is just, they haven't even plugged in the instruments. But I got to tell you, a lot of people reaching out to me talking about the

post-fight show on the UFC and that how Laura Sanko and Dean Thomas and others were clamoring, screaming, all fired up, that there is no other person who deserves, deserves this shot more than Kamaro Uspin. And I am just thinking to myself, why? The man has lost three in a row, and we're just going to give him a title fight because the man who beat him twice is no longer the champion. What the hell is going on here?

What is happening? Camaro Ousman, three losses in a row with Welterweight looking as good as it is right now with all these emerging contenders on these impressive streaks, we're going to give it to Kamaro Usman? What the hell is going on here? It's Shafkat Rakmanov. What the hell is going on?

Maybe they know something we don't, Mike. I don't know, because these are broadcasters that I respect. And maybe they're just showing respect to Kamaru. You know, Kamaro is not, Kamara is not retired. Camaro is, I know he took that one fight at middleweight, but he never indicated that was a permanent move. So as long as he's lingering at 170, he is. he is going to be in title talks.

He is only going to want to want big fights. So maybe this is their way of sort of talking it up, of preparing him, of giving Bilal a legacy fight. I hate even talking about that now. He just won the title. He should fight Shotcott. Shopcott is the number one contender. Again, maybe they know something we don't.

Is there some other matchup for Shopcott in the works that we're not aware of? I can't imagine. But to not even bring it up is strange. Again, I shouldn't say that they didn't necessarily bring it up. I did not see that saying. I did hear people talk about this. So I hope that Shavkaa was at least mentioned, and then they had some reason for pushing for Kamaro instead.

But Belal's why going to do it, too. To Bilal's credit, he mentioned a lot of challengers in his post-fired press conference with the media. He mentioned Shopcott. He mentioned Shafka. He mentioned J.D.M. He mentioned Ian Machado-Gar. I don't think he mentioned Kamar.

I'm very glad he did not go that route and suggest, like, oh, yes, I got to start building my name on the greats. He did say something about like, oh, I want to beat the older welter weights too. But he said that after saying, like, give me, give me like the fresh run of challenges that are coming up. So I don't like that, Mike. Don't like that Camaro talk. We shouldn't be surprised at all if it happens. The UFC does this all the time.

Let's not be crazy. They love pass. Balal knows this himself. Balal has been passed over for guys who probably shouldn't get title shots. Like, I know we had to the Colby Edwards, Leon Edwards fight. I get it. There was so much heat there. But Val should have gone that title shot in the first place.

It never should have been Colby. So this is how the business works. I'm sure Bilal will fight whoever they ask him to. And I'm sure he'll be happy if it's Camaro because Comorra has a bigger name than that Shopcott. But no, it shouldn't happen. You're going Shopcott, right? I'm going Shopcott. Yeah, we're not, yeah, we're not, we're not queuing up the band here.

I'm going Shopcott. I actually have a poll up. I got a pull up for the people. Okay. How many times will Balal successfully defend his UFC title? Right now, zero is leading Mike at 52%. presumably because I think a lot of people like you and I are going shopcott. I think we all see shop cut as dude who's just he's going to win the title sooner

rather than later and I'm thinking most likely sooner. Yes. Camaro who's been should fight Ian Gary. That is the fight. Just go ahead and do that. JDM can fight, I don't know, somebody else. Yeah. We'll get him there.

But yeah, it's just kind of what this division is right now. Like if Ian wants to get a title fight, throw him in there with Camaro. And honestly, to me, if they want to give him, if Kamara a title shot, I'm fine with it. Just get a win first. I don't care if they do Kamar versus Wonderboy and he beats Wonderboy. Like that to me is enough. Give him a win first, then do it.

If they announced Kamara Usman is fighting Belaw-Mohamed this year before Shafcott, I'm going to lose my mind. Mike, please. I'm going to lose it. It would be the only other thing that would anger me more is if they gave Michael Chandler the lightweight title shot over Arbor in Surukia. That would do. I, the reaction I will have will not be pleasant.

Mike, don't do this to yourself. Don't do this. This is what Laura Sanko and company are trying to do. No one's asking for this. No one's asking for it. They're just trying to prepare you. They're just trying to prepare you for the, what, a possibility. So you should be thanking Laura and the team because they're just, they don't want,

they don't want you to freak out, Mike. They're not the ones from making this fight happen. They're letting people know this fight is a distinct possibility. They are preparing. Just get one win. Just get one win. I don't care who it is. Get one win.

And then you can fight for the belt. I'm okay with that. Now, AK, let's go to Leon Rocky Edwards because he ain't getting a rematch here. Belal said he's going to have, he's going to have to wait three years to get a rematch. Dana didn't seem all that excited about it. Leon wants to come back by the end of the year. A lot of fun options for Leon Edwards. Maybe you do Ian Gary versus Leon Edwards. Maybe you do JDM versus Leon Edwards. Maybe you go elsewhere. Where did you go for Leon Edwards? Leon is the UFC's like worst nightmare right now because he is clearly good enough to beat anyone in the OC

I was going to say anyone outside the top but really literally anyone in the OC but he is not a champion that I think they loved again he fights he listen he goes to decisions a lot that doesn't make him a terrible champion but the UFC likes to highlight real they either wants you just straight up dominating for five rounds if it's going to be that way in an exciting way

or can you get a finish somewhere in the first three rounds? Give us something to work with. Or can you be a great trash talker? And Leon is none of these things. He's just an excellent fighter, which, you know, in a perfect world, that's all that would matter. This is prize fighting. This is MMA.

This is combat sports. We know that's not all that matters. So, yeah, what do you do with this guy? Because you don't want to knock off other contenders, right? You don't want to put him in there with Jack Delamadena. I certainly thought about that. But I'm like, he probably is a very good chance he beats Jack Delamadelan. And maybe you take that risk.

Maybe, you know, because if JDon beats him, boom, instant title contender. But if he loses, sets JDM back a little bit. And maybe that's a headache the UFC doesn't want to deal with. And there's other name. We said Ian Machado Gary. We said, again, Shotcastle, that makes sense. There's other guys that are streaking.

So I had to just keep going down the list, like guys, he hasn't fought already, guys, that makes sense. And I kind of landed on another veteran in a fight that might not be great. But also, I think if you're Leon, you take this fight for the name value, you take it if you want to get back in there as soon as possible. I'm going, I'm going Wonderboy. Mike, I'm pulling the Wonderboy card here. I think we could see that happen. I don't know the next time they're going back to England.

Obviously, it would be a great fight for that kind of situation. By the way, also the next time they go on the road. Certainly not something you're throwing the apex. Obviously, I think that would just be a horrible, a horrible thing to do. But I think you use this to bolster one of your upcoming pay-per-views, when you're upcoming, even fight nights that are on the road. Not a sexy matchup, but again, guys, there's a lot, a lot. they got to be very tricky with Leon because they don't want to derail another contenders.

So, yeah, there are better matchups on paper, just not necessarily matchups that I think are so beneficial to the UFC or the person that Leon ends up fighting. AK is a well thought out, well-researched, great pick right there. But it's wrong. It's wrong. I see all the suggestions in here. All wrong. You all the suggestions on Twitter.

All wrong. You're all wrong. you're all wrong because there has been a fight that has just been right there waiting for us for all these years. And the one thing that's really been holding it back is the fact that Leon Edwards had the belt when the timing could have been at its best point. And you just couldn't throw this guy into a title fight because it just didn't make sense. But now you can do it. It'd be a special little attraction. And if you don't do it now, you never, ever, ever will have the opportunity to do it again.

The man is still under contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It is finally time to wrap up this three piece in a soda storyline. Let's get Jorge Mazidol back inside the Octagon and let's do this. Leon Edwards versus Jorge Mazadol. Because who gives a shit? Let's just do it. Leon's in sort of no man's land right now. He got dominated by Bilal.

There's going to be no rush for him to get a rematch. but if Leon and Mazadol do a nice little build on a nice main card fight, we get to settle this feud, Leon can put him behind forever. Let's just do that, man. Let's just do it and get it done. Like, people will care. Let's just do it. I don't think many people will believe Jorge and Mazdal will win that fight.

Well, just go ahead and do it. Like, this just makes sense. Like, let's just settle this. It'll bolster up a card. And if Leon wins and Shafkod wins, you know, Leon's back on his way. Let's just do it. I see I see left lane saying MVP. I thought about, I definitely strongly considered it.

But I think MVP, again, I just don't like that match it for him. I think he loses. I think they should keep trying to build up MVP. I know he's a bit in the latter stage of his career, but I think things are a lot out of him in the cage. And obviously, it looks like he's going to be ready to transition to broadcasting whenever he decides to hang it up. He was great all week, MVP, when they used him for fight week stuff.

So big shout out to MVP. But yeah, I don't want to see him and Leon just yet, maybe down the road. Masadol, Mike, I didn't dare to dream that big. I didn't dare to dream that big. Yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I actually that big anymore. I don't know. I think it still is. And I just feel like it makes so much sense.

And it's made so much sense in the past. Maybe I've just given up on them making it happen. But, yeah, no one would complain. I can't imagine anyone complaining if they said, Maswell Edwards next. Um, that's, that's the way to go. Let's move on to the interim heavyweight champion of the world. Tommy Asinol should be the co-heavyweight champion. of the world. It goes out and just beats Curtis Blades, who just did Curtis Blades things,

didn't try to shoot a take down. He landed a punch and then was like, yep, I'm the best striker in the UFC. And then he got knocked out seconds later by Tom Asidol. And now Tom's an interesting spot because I don't think he did the thing. I still think he should have tried to take John Jones's future food and called out Alex Pereira. He still kind of was like, John, I love you. You're a good dude. Great fighter. but I'm just better than you. And fine. I don't know if that fight happens.

I would like it to happen. I'd love to live in a world where that fight happens. I just don't know if it does. So I'm not going to live in that positive land because I do think John is going to beat up Stebe. He's either going to call it Alex Barrera or he's going to leave and retire or at least take a long break. So there's a fight coming up at Abu Dhabi in October, Cyril Gan versus Volkov 2. and I think Tom Asmodal will either defend the interim heavyweight title against one of those gentlemen, or if he gets bumped up to the actual heavyweight champion,

then that will be his first actual heavyweight championship title defense. But God, I don't think he's fighting John and it sucks ass. I am going to live in the land of positivity, Mike. Let's go. John Jones. John Jones beats Steve Bay, does not retire. Just, again, as much as we rag on Jones for, not taking the Aspenall fight so far, and more so for selling his reasons for not taking the fight in kind of a dishonest way.

The circumstance, it's not like the circumstance that had been perfect for it. John was supposed to fight Steepa, you know, last November. This was supposed to be over with already. If he hung around, I do believe he would have fought Tom Aspinall again. We've been poking a lot of fun. Jedds love to, you know, call him a chicken. Chickens can't be goats and all that. But John did get injured.

John did get injured. You know, he's not sitting on the sidelines. because, oh, he's just choosing not to fight. He's saying the signs because he got injured for a while, and clearly the Miochich fight has been waiting from this whole time. Miotich wants a day to white is obsessed with it. And I'm sure there is a portion of the fan base that is into it. Like, all you hardcore is out there in the comments, us in the media,

of course we want to see Aspinall Jones over that by far. But there's like a, you got to remember, there's a big casual crowd that isn't commenting on the internet all the time, isn't scrutinizing the news day by day. Might not even know who Tom Aspinall is. And yeah. They might not even know who Steepa is in. Of course,

Stepe is not some household name. Steve A is not Connor McGregor, but there was a stretch where, you know, he had some degree of fame. And probably at his peak is more well known, was more well known than Aspernel is now. Not like by a lot. Again, not saying Steepa is a household name,

but, you know, at his peak was probably more famous than Aspernel's now. Maybe not going for it. Maybe not for this win. Aspinel's star is rising so much. He's so great with the media. He's, his fights are incredibly exciting. he's everything that the UFC should want in a champion and a front-facing star.

But I get the whole meuch thing. I'm just kind of playing devil's eye over here. I don't need to see Steve A fight again. He's a great fighter. He has nothing more to prove. Good for him if he gets the Jones fight in a big payday. But yeah, I'm sticking with the path that we all want to see where Jones wins. We get Aspinall on him.

I don't know when it could happen. I honestly don't know. You're right. If Jones even bothers with this, especially with the Alex Padetta, now an option because I'm sure there's people who'd rather see that fight than Tom Aspinall versus John Jones as well. So John Jones will have a lot of excuses not to fight Asperall.

It sucks to say. It sucks to say. But I'm waving my magic wand. And John, you are going to get in there with Tommy Aspinall in 2025. But do I believe this is a likelihood? I say this with no confidence. This won't be one of the predictions I'm making

when we do that kind of thing at the end of the year, Mike. But if I could, if I was Dana White, if I was the matchmakers and I could make this happen, this is the way I would go. Let's move on to Patty the Batty, who really woke that crowd up at, I don't know, 4.30 in the morning by the time he made his walk, takes on King Green in a fight everybody was very intrigued by. And Patty Pimba just goes out there, leg kicks. Oh, wait, Mike, sorry to interrupt. We didn't say, we, we, you and I spoke about this, but we didn't explain. Normally, we do the losing first in the championship fight. I think we have to make a note of we did not do, we are not doing Curtis Blitz. Do you? me no it get me skipped. Yeah, some in the car.

It was not Curtis's day. Normally, again, championship fights in term or otherwise, we do do the loser. But it's just hard to book for him at this point because we, Curtis Plades is a great heavyweight. When we look back on this, on this generation of fighters, whatever, I don't know what, if we want to call this era, the, the, the, the, the SPN era, I don't know. He'll go down as one of the five best heavyweight. weights. Okay, he's great. He's a great fighter. But we know his ceiling. He's not just a

fighter who like, oh, if he was in a different time and a different era, he would have, he just couldn't get past Francis and he just couldn't get past Tom Aspinall. I was like, and that's not true, right? We saw him fight Sergey Pavlovich. He got cracked. We saw him fight Derek Lewis. He got cracked. Again, other guys are great heavyweights. No shame in losing to them. But losing to them does kind of put a cap on how high you can rank Curtis. And he sort of talks about, like, oh, is he one of the best heavyweights to never win a UFC title it's like well no because we saw him lucis sergey we saw him lisa derrick so they would i would already put them above him he's got a great resume Curtis blades does not have to explain to anyone if he never wins the title i don't

think it matters again he's a very very good fighter but we just don't have a lot to say about it because uh he's going to end of he might rematch someone he might fight just there's so many guys in the top 10 top deen you throw him in there with and um it was it was a pretty poor showing and I think disappointing for any Curtis Blades fans out there that he lost again by a first round knockout in a way that he has so many times before. So send us your picks in the comments. Guys, we'll read those out for sure. This, like, it was a minute, but that was the biggest fear of anybody who's back on Curtis Blades was the way he fought.

Was like, if he lands a good punch, he's not even going to try to shoot his take down the entire fight. And that's exactly what happened. And even admitted to such, like he landed a good shot, felt it, team just screaming at him. And then he said, like, we had this perfectly crafted game plan that absolutely would have worked, but you guys didn't get a chance to see it. We got annihilated. So tough scenes. But yeah, Curtis is such a wild card. Insert any heavyweight.

And it makes sense. And there you go. But let's go to Patty, the batty pimblit puts Bobby Green to sleep. Speaking of not great fight IQ, Bobby Green might be at the top of that list following this because one, he didn't really throw anything. He talked a lot of trash, but didn't throw us, like, barely through any shot. strikes. And then he got leg kicked and then decided that his big move was going to be a takedown of Patty. And that led to a gilly attempt, which was transitioned quickly into a triangle, one that ended the fight, put Bobby Green unconscious. And Bobby may have been out for quite some

time before the fight was actually stopped. But big win for Patty silences some doubters. And on come Tuesday, AK, Patty Pimbled's going to have a ranking in the UFC. He might, he might actually have a ranking and the MMA fighting global rankings based on what I've seen so far. He will be my number 15 lightweight when it is all been done. Yeah. It's happening, man. It's happening. But a lot of interesting options for Patty the Baddy A.K.

Where are we going? Of course, let's give Patty a little bit of credit. I think he was saying OK on the feet. Yes. We can certainly. Oh, yeah. Dude. He was beaten Bobby's ass.

Yeah, yeah. We can certainly criticize. Bobby Green as well because literally before the fight starts, Mike, I'm in the slack and I'm asking you guys, how does Patty win this fight? Because in my fight prediction, I'm like, Bobby Green does not get dominated in the grappling, unless your name is Islam Makachad. Bobby Green doesn't get submitted. He hadn't been submitted twice in his entire career. And he's bought some great grapplers, great grapplers, great submission guys, and had not been submitted, hadn't been submitted since 2009. I was like, there's no way, like Patty just forces to the ground and just dominates him down there.

There's no way, and I don't think over three rounds that he can win a striking battle with Bobby. Like, I think if this had stayed on the feet, I think Bobby Green would have adjusted. I do think he would have still won a striking battle as well as Patty was doing. But going to the ground in that way was just, I couldn't have predicted that. I couldn't bring that. This is why I don't bet on any. Thank goodness I didn't bet on this fight because I would have bet on a green underdog plus money win. Green is a favorite.

I don't know. He was favored. Barbie Green. He sure was. It was a slight favorite. But I bet on Patty as an underdog. I felt real good about it. Congrats.

I would have had Bobby as a parley. Either way, Bobby, then I would have put out as in parley piece. Bobby Green would have cost me money. All right, Bobby, I would have very much liked to throw him Bobby Green apart. King Green, excuse me, King Green and a parlay. Yeah, but for anyway, this is the, this is the King Green story. Okay, this is the King Green story. King Green stuff just happens when King Green fights.

There's fights that it feels like he should have won for sure and he just loses. There's fights, he's like, oh, he can't beat this guy and he wins. I think he's not getting his Jorge. Miles would all mainstream boost anytime soon. I think that's finally done. I think this was the moment. Mike, if King had had starched Patty Pimlet, this would have been the, oh, here we go. Now he's getting that going from street legend to big box office draw.

This was it. This was it. It was still a lot of great fights for King Green, but he is who he is and God love him for it. Patty, I went with, Mike, a pick I've made before. I think I did this last December as after the total time. Now, I'm doing it again. You know what? Michael Chandler. Michael Chandler.

The Conner-Regger fight is not happening. And not any time soon anyway. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. I know all signs point... All signs point to December. Connor seems like it's healthy. Chandler has been waiting patiently.

There seems to be no further complications in the way of Chandler-Regger happening before the end of the year. Everyone's saying the right thing. Dana-Wa did not kind of agree with that talk. He didn't confirm that there was discussions about it. But that doesn't mean it's not happening. Dana White's going to not, you know, be fully transparent, right? Everything's a businessman.

Connor does say for the end of the year, Michael Chandler, obviously very hopeful. So if they don't fight December, I know people will be surprised, but I'm done, man. I'm done. I love the ultimate fighter. I would say ultimate fighter 31 has got to be resolved. You can't wait on this matchup. I still want to see Pimbled and Michael Chandler. And I see, I've seen people saying, well, don't do that because they want people to win.

Listen, they said that about Tony Ferguson at once in one time, too. They said, well, Tony could still beat Pimblent. I'm like, no, not this point his career. I thought King Green was going to be Patty. I was wrong there. So how do I feel like Michael, I don't know if there's a world where he doesn't be Michael Chandler now. I think Patty, and I've said this many times, is so much better than people think. Give him the Chandler fight.

If Chandler wins, guess what that McGregor fight is still out there as long as McGregor doesn't fight someone else, which is a regular chance. He doesn't fight at all. So, yes, I know it's crazy, but this is my, I'm sticking. This was crazy when I said it last year. I'm sticking with it now, Pimblit Chandler. I still want that. No. I love you.

Okay, just now. Fair. Because look, if Chandler doesn't fight Connor, he's fighting for the belt, which will make be so angry. I'd rather see him fight Patty. But that's just kind of where we're at at this point. I mean, we understand it at this point. I understand that everybody wants to see Patty Pimblev versus Hanata Moikato, and it would be

fun. But we also have to remember a couple of things. One, Hanata Moikano is already booked. He's going to be headlining a card in Paris. Yes. And that is a very big deal. They're not going to bump him from that. and Hanata Moikano, who wants to make money, is going to make more money.

Fighting Benoit at UFC Paris and a maid of Anthony will be fighting Patty Pimblit. It's just the reality of the situation. I'm going to say something I've never said on onto the next one. I said it for the first time on MMA fighting programming last night, and I'll reiterate it here. For the first time ever, I agree with Ali Abdel Aziz. He put out the matchup. He's absolutely spot on. The fight to make is Patty Pound.

Pimblit versus Faneal Darriush. That is the one. Go ahead and do that because I will say this about the UFC matchmakers. When they want to build a guy up, they do it perfectly. When they truly are thinking about, I want to get this guy from here to here, let's put them in the best possible positions to succeed. This isn't the same as the Sean O'Malley build, but it is very close. the way that they started off with Patty,

slowly building him up, giving him a guy like Tony Ferguson, who we knew would probably beat him, but he's still a very big name. Then we'd give him a rank guy, a very winnable fight for him. I thought this is a super winnable fight for Patty. All he had to do is just find a way

to just not getting to a boxing match with Bobby Green and he wins, and he went out there and won. I was pretty confident once I saw a plus 120 next to Patty's name a week and a half ago. I'm jumping all over that. That is just a steal. And the fight went,

Not exactly the way I thought it would, but Patty winning was no surprise to me. I thought this is anybody in the top 15, this was the best fight for him. No doubt about it. And they did it brilliantly. I also think at this point, I think he could be, I think Darius is, I think he can beat Darius, man. I think he can beat him. He's just so much bigger than him. And he's coming off a couple of losses.

He got brutally knocked out in his last fight. I don't hate it, man. Like, let's just throw him to the wolves. Let's just see what happens. Sink or swim time. Patty's still going to make money. He's still going to be over. He's still going to be an A-side fighter through most of his career.

If he beats Binald-Darouche, then we can seriously look at him as a title threat. If he loses, oh, what? It doesn't hurt him at all. He can still be in featured fights on UK pay-per-views or on UK fight night cards. Place will go bananas. It's huge. But if you're going to do a fight like this, you're going to build them up against a guy who has cachet in this division as a good.

solid fighter, do a Benny D, man. Do it with Benny D. And the Mocono fight, it's a back pocket fight. You can go to that any time you want. Anytime. You can do that three years from now. It'll still be as cool as it is now. So let's go.

Let's do Benny D. And let's see what he's got. I love it because, you know, the other thing, you mentioned his size that he would be much bigger than menial. this is lightweight where it's the youths routinely the young excuse me routinely eat the old that's just how it is this is not heavyweight this is not a division where when you get to your you know 35 and over you're still like the same guy you know you can still fight approximate what you were like five years ago this is tough man this is division this featherweight bantam obviously the smaller you go the more size and athleticism and speed matter patty's got quite a bit of that i don't know if he's the fastest guy but he is or the most athletic guy but he's got enough of both very strong very strong guy and yes he's he's big he's big for the for the weight class and um he i'm just looking so the tony ferguson fight he's about 10 years younger than tony uh king green about nine years younger than king green and benille surprisingly the youngest actually of that bunch

benille's 35 patty's 29 right now so he's gonna have like this is like really good matchmaking this is sort of uh both what is uh like why i praise the matchmakers for what they've given me big name guys who are just a little bit older where maybe he's not as skilled as these guys in some departments, but at 155, youth, size, and athleticism can go a long way, really in any division, but especially in 155 as there's a, if there's a big age gap. So, yeah, I like the idea, and it's someone else who, like you said, Mike, he beats him. Oh, my gosh, he doesn't just have a number next to his name, Mike. We're talking about top 10, separate what we've got.

We're talking about top 10 lightweight Patty Pimblett, something that I always said was a possibility. People said I was crazy. And then, I mean, where do you go from there? And then having helped us, we could be having title contender, title challenger, Patty Pibblebitt someday. So, U.S. he's being a really good job of this again. I thought the King Green fight was a bit of a trap, but he couldn't have won that fight in more impressive fashion. I'll tell you. Yeah.

It was probably the MVP of the card after that. Like he woke that place up. As well, is great too, obviously, but let's move on. Lots of options for Patty Pimble. Couldn't be in a better position right now.

Still undefeated in the UFC. Man's doing work. Got to give him credit where it's due. Let's go to Gregory Rodriguez. Gets a Cashed Underdog ticket on that fight as well. Defeats Christian Leroy Duncan, bloody battle, a fun fight.

And he gets the win. Where are we, you know, I'll go first. Robocop versus B. Joe Piper. That's where I'm going. Oh, we went in very different directions.

I want my man Robocop in the top 10, Mike. Oh. Mike, I want my man Robocop in the top five of the UFC. All right? This is where I'm going with Robocop. Kamara Usman.

Yeah, that regard. Yeah, we're going to wait. I didn't even think that fight was that bad. I know Dana was harping, and I guess some people, I got fans as well, we're kind of harping like, oh, no, seven straight decisions. But like some of those decisions were good fights. This fight was super fun. I really liked this. Okay, I'm not crazy.

Okay, I'm not crazy. I enjoyed this fight. I know it was a clear Rodriguez win, but he's one of the few guys who I want to see Mix the martial arts just because he does it. Like early on, he wasn't doing it as much when he started his year-secure. He's doing it more now. His last three fights, he's mixed the martial arts. more because he's a super elite grappler, but also he does have that natural knockup power.

You can see how much he enjoys, like slung it out on the feet, right? He's just, some guys just hit hard, man. Some guys just hit hard. This dude hits hard. But he's got to mix in the grappling too, which he did against CLD, which makes sense. He'llD is a great striker. So, yeah, I like Gregor Rodriguez. I just feel like, I know he's 32.

He just looks like he's 42. And I feel like he's got some combat sports mileage on it as well. I want to, like, just let's see what we have. Is he a guy who could fight for a dozen? I don't think so. I think he has a ceiling. But I'm curious. I'm curious.

I know he's not far off from the loss like Bruno Verena. But Mike, what do you think of? Gregory Rodriguez and Jared Cannoneer. Oh, okay. What do you think of that? I don't hate it.

I don't think it's like, Kenner would be favored, but I don't think it's like, oh, Canninger is going to like annihilate this guy. Or maybe I'm wrong. And then that'd be great for Canaanier, you know, just show people like,

hey, I am a legit top five guy. I'm not a guy whose spot is here to get taken. But I think that's a competitive fight. And I think it's a fight that Robocop can win. So I'm curious, man. And if he wins, again, like I said, instant top five. I'm getting a little loopy with my picks here, by the way. You'll see that with Arnold Allen as too, probably.

I wouldn't hate him versus like Marvin Vittori either. Like, if they want to take that shot, like, I wouldn't hate it. I thought about it. Middle Age is crazy right now. There's just a lot happening. So good pick. I like it a lot. Just like I liked the performance, especially in the last,

two rounds from AAA himself, Arnold Allen, with maybe the most weights per capita in the corner I have ever seen, just bodybuilders everywhere in the corner of AAA. Holy moly. Dude look real good. Tough start. Gia came up firing. Great first round.

And then Arnold's starting to get real aggressive, getting real frosty with it. And then just started thumping Giga up a little bit, had Giga moving backwards and gets the win back on track, snaps the two-fight skid, much-needed win for Arnold Allen, in a super fun featherweight division, AK. Where are we going with AAA? I think it's time to give him Yair.

I feel like we've done this matchup before, maybe, or at least fans have. I think it's what they've been in the same orbit, right? It's never felt like the right time. It's never felt like, oh, it's a lock, like Allen and Yai Yir got a fight. I think they're in the right orbit now. They also have other options.

Yai Yer is not at the sphere, right? Not funny of the sphere, right? No, he's not strange. I don't know where you... I have to put this up because it's just an absolutely insane take. Oh, let me say. Just an absolutely insane thing. You go one, rounds one and two.

You can't get to do. Absolutely insane take. No. What fight were you watching? Come on. Easy one. But come on. That's the insane take.

Yeah, a competitive fight though, my. Competitive fight, competitive fight, competitive fight. I'm not, I won't be as critical, but a competitive fight. But yeah, good win for Arnold Allen. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what year's plan is with his career now. He might be a guy who fights like once a year. He's going to pick his spots because it's tough.

He's been in these contender fights. He's lost in a fight. It's a hard road for a year for a year to get back to the, to get back to the featherweight title or featherweight title opportunity, I should say. And Arnold Allen would be a big win. I mean, it would certainly keep him on track. Arnold is behind him in the rankings, but is a top 10 opponent. It's a good style matcher, too.

I think it would be a really great fight. So just a fan, I want to see that. And for both guys, yes, definitely. title implications. But whoever loses, it's a high-risk fight, too. You're definitely not exiting the conversation permanently, but boy, it's a long road back to the top of 145. So after the matchup was announced by one Dana White, one man that I had previously

rebooked for another featherweight is now back on the table because I said Diego Lopez versus the span after he defeated Dan Igay on just hours notice. and now Josh Emmett back on the table. So let's do Arnold Allen versus Josh Emmett. I'm cool with that. If they do Yair, I ain't going to complain. I see a lot of people, and I saw this a lot on social media. Let's do Arnold Allen versus Volcanovsky.

Folks never taking that fight. He shouldn't touch that fight with 10-foot pole. Dude's either going to get a big fight at 55 against a big name or he's going to fight for the belt. So I risk it against Arnold Allen. But, yeah, Josh Shammett's good. Yaya is good. Diego Lopez, Brian,

And Ortega winner is good. All good. All good options. Let's go to the wild card round, okay? This is one of the weirdest ones. We're just going to matchmake for one fighter. We have not match made for yet. We'll just do it now.

I didn't, honestly, I had no idea where to go with this. Really? Yeah. I literally, I put all the extra names in a random generator. And whenever name was at the top of the list, that's who I chose. And I chose like the winners of the other fights and the losers of the fights we didn't matchmake for. Okay. And I got a random generator and I picked it and I just went with whoever I got. I just there's nothing that like spoke to me. Wait, so it could end up with. It could be like

Preston Parsons you're telling me like you went that you threw out all the losers as well. I sure did. Okay. That'd be great. I hope you got pressing portions because I can't imagine where you, okay. I went. I had some some tangents I wanted to go on at first. I was like, oh, I was going to like Mick Parkin. I thought like I was going to make a joke that he should fight like he should he should, he should be the one to welcome Alexa Pereira to the to the heavyweight division. Almost serving as like Marab to Tom Aspinall's Al Germain. Like he's like his bodyguard, you know what I mean? Because Mick Perkin is now 10 and O guys in the heavyweight and four and O in the UFC.

Now, could your average person name three out of those four UFC wins? God, no, no. He's beating the guys around his tier outside of the top of team. But four and O is four and O. $100,000 bonus after a very impressive knockout of Lucas possessed. He's a great night for Tom Ashton, all his buddies, we'll say that much. I think McParkin certainly deserves matchmaking recognition, but again, I don't think he's getting any extravagant fight at heavy right now.

They're just going to keep him churning along. Maybe he gets, he should get a top 15 guy, or maybe one more fight away from top 15. But either way, whatever they're doing with Nick Parkin, it's working, don't mess with that. But it would be funny if he did have to, Fettetta had to go through him first to fight Tommy. And he probably would.

Or McParker would just be a hoss somehow and completely ruin everything. And then I also thought Alice Ardellian, I thought would have been funny because I'm sure this lady's going to take a lot of flack for getting signed because of a social media following, 3 million TikTok followers, not having a great record. But let's be honest, people. Let's be honest.

Your average person could not tell the difference between that fight and the average contender series reject Apex slop that we have been getting for week after week. Okay, let's be honest. And I know you guys can. You guys watching in the comments can. You're smart because you are smart viewers. You know this.

I mean good MMA, bad MMA. But this, to most people, it looks like perfectly acceptable opening card MMA fight. And I don't, and she won on one of the cards, justifiable or not. Alice Ardalion can say she won a UFC score card. She deserves another opportunity, but I'm not going to make a matchup for her.

I just hope she, this wasn't a one and done thing. stepped on a short notice, did the UFC a solid, and I think we will see her again. Is she any good? I don't know, guys. Probably not, but she deserves another fight. So, Mike, I did land on the obvious. I went with the obvious. We got to talk about Makayev.

I know you guys did have launched the post-fight show. We got to talk about Makayev. Now, I just said straight up, I still want to see the Pantosha fight. I know he's technically not resigned yet. I shouldn't say technically. We know he's not resigned yet. I know he didn't blow the doors off with that performance. we had a very lengthy discussion in the slack among among the staff with a lot of us saying boy

no matter who wins this if you had never seen either these guys fight before this is the first time you saw cop and uh makaya fight you would not be like wow these are two of the top five flyweights in the world i need to see one of these guys fight pantosia you would not think that you would not think that it's a technical fight i'm not blaming either guy for not going in there and just like slinging it out going balls to the wall fight of the night effort that's not what they do there never been like that so i don't know why people were expecting that it was a highly tactical fight not a crowd pleaser and not a fight where either guy left with like oh i just definitively beating the other guy yeah you could have gone either way with this card i wouldn't have

been mad at it but i do want to see him fight still fight pentosur so keeping a simple mike keeping a basic macaev has earned this and based on his comments admitting post-fight so many things one claiming the uc asked him not to wrestle and two saying i'm not even looking at any other organization he might be the first person to get a title shot and make less than six figures for it because they apparently can pay him whatever they want and he'll come back. So give him the title fight on a 45 and 45

deal or something. I don't think he's coming back, man. He's not now. I think this is going to be a, like, he's still going to fight somewhere else, but I don't, I think this is going to be a we can't miss you if you don't go away type

situation. I just think this is crazy. Look, man. Seven, You sometimes, this is crazy. Yeah, but sometimes you have to weigh the risk versus reward. This guy is a giant pain in the ass. Yes.

But is he worth the hassle overall being a giant pain in the ass? Because you're a great gassist on the post-fight show. What's the difference between Mahiaf being an asshole and the assholes who have come beforehand that the UFC did not let go? And the correct answer is, because those other assholes drew money. Muhammad Makhine Makhine doesn't draw a dime for the UFC. He just doesn't.

His fighting style is not fan friendly. He just ain't worth the hassle right now. Now, do I think he will never step foot in the octagon again? No, I do think he will step foot in the octagon again. But he will be 27 and more mature, and it'll be a little bit of a while. And who knows? Maybe he becomes the flyweight field to freeze and finds success outside of the UFC. maybe he goes to Risen and has some fun and fights Kioji Horaguchi and guys like that.

Like that's fun. Maybe he goes to PFL ator and fights patchy mix or they introduce a flyweight division. He just ain't worth it, man. Like I actually don't, I don't, don't hate this take from Dana. He didn't cut him. Let's just make this perfectly clear because I saw all the people saying, didn't he get released. No, he didn't get released. There's no cut.

There's no release. Last fight. Last fight on his contract. Last fight. That was the last finest contract. If he had like three fights left in his deal and Dana went up to the press conference and said, I'm cutting him, that's a different story. That's a different conversation altogether.

Maybe probably a little bit unfair. This is the last fight in his deal. He's free to do whatever they want. The UFC is free to do whatever they want. 7 and 0, number one contender, whatnot. It don't matter. They gave this band a chance to get re-signed and be an undeniable title challenger. And that's the fight we got.

that's the performance we got. There was more action in the off-site brawls. There was more action when Mahayev stepped foot in the octagon and 50 security guards jumped into the cage than there was any actual fight. Plus he cheated and tried to pants, Manal cop and didn't get a point taken. That's in his favor.

Come on, we want to see. I think Dana White would, I think we should all applaud that. That was hilarious. Yeah, that's what I just knew like, like honestly, there should be 15 minutes in every gym of cheating, like cheating class,

because they're just not going to call it. Because 30 seconds later, 30 seconds later, Mike Beltran literally staring at Muhammad, Mahayev poking metal cop in the eye. He watched it happen. And he didn't even stop it. He didn't even stop the fight.

It was insane. Kicked him in the balls multiple times. Like, there was literally. And he won. And his wording, his wording as he's yelling and screaming, being the disappointed dad was,

don't make me enforce the rules. what? What is happening here? This is classic Mike Beltran getting as much camera time as possible while not doing anything effectively in the cage. Sorry,

sorry for all you, Mike Beltran fans out there. Bad referee. He was bad. Terrible. He let Leon Edwards grab the fence 18 times against Belaw. Like, he's just so bad, man.

He lets me on camera. He likes me on camera. Really bad night. Terrible. I do. But look, at the same token, just because Dana says something in a press conference doesn't mean it's true. So like if they resigned him, it wouldn't shock me.

But I honestly think they're going to let him go. Like let him go to wherever. PFL is not who Don Davis believes they are. PFL is in the UFC's eyes. PFL is a developmental organization. So they like, that's why they didn't sign Paul Hughes. Let PFL throw six figures at Paul Hughes. They're not going to do it.

Why would they? But if Paul Hughes gets over and becomes a star with PFL and his contract comes up, who do you think Paul Hughes's first phone calls to? It ain't not, it ain't resigned me, PFL. It's let's go to the UFC now that I'm a star and the UFC can extensuate that star power. So yeah, I think he's gone. And it's okay. You can find success outside of it.

He needs to grow up quite a bit. And then him going to the post-fight press conference and basically admitting that I needed to sucker punch Menlo Cop at the hotel was ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I didn't even mention that. That was, I can't remember. Like, he annihilated his brand this week. If his brand was already, like, not great, he destroyed it this week.

Everything was a miss. Everything with him was, other than winning, other than getting a win, getting a win, of course, most important thing. Other than that, everything was a miss. Yeah, the antics. Admitting he sucker punched another fighter, what are you doing? At least, guys, fighters, deny till you die. We like when people are honest. We like when people are real.

This is a situation where you do. do not just straight up saying like, yeah, yeah, I tricked him to taking a picture so I could punch him. Hilarious story for us, but I guarantee you the majority of the fan base is not going to look upon that favorably, especially when in the actual fight, you just don't do anything that impressive. And Cop did neither. This is neither guy was a world beater on this night, but Mikhail is the one who won,

Mikhail is the one who's going to have more scrutiny on his performance. Mikai is the one who's making the comments, Daniel Witz being comments on him. It was rough. Now, again, my main reason for thinking he's going to come back is, I think he's going to going to work for cheap. His whole, I'm not looking at any other organization thing, is just such self-sabotage. I think he comes back. You're right. Does he get the Pantosia fight after that? God, you know. Maybe not. Maybe not. But I still want to see that fight, honestly, because Pantosia, I think will bring out whatever excitement we can

out of Bahamukau's fighting style. But yeah, it would just be unprecedented. Like, we've just never seen someone with this much potential, this young, undefeated, just get, you know, just let's, they just let them walk. We've never seen that before. And again, we've never seen a lot of things we say this all time in the modern era of the ufc oh i've never seen that before i've never seen that before so this could just be the latest thing and uh you know when mhm may becomes big business but i still think he comes back bad night for moham makai if bad night from an al cop great night for tatura taira yes for a great night for those two guys so we'll see what happens and yeah i actually don't hate this take from dana i really don't and he didn't like kill him

I mean, he was like underhanded in a still poking prod kind of way, but he was like, yeah, PFL is going to get a really talented, undefeated fighter. Yeah, that's a compliment. I mean, great compliment when you think about it. Yeah, like old Dana Wode events, yeah, PFL's going to get an undefeated piece of shit asshole. But they didn't say that. Wow. He didn't say that.

He's gross. What growth are little bit of show now? So in my random generator, I landed on King Green. I landed on King Green. Sure. I don't, are you landed on Preston Parsons, you re-rolled it.

I didn't. No, I landed on King Green, and I didn't even want to pick them. And my first choice was like, I actually was like upset about it because I was hoping for something funnier, like Preston Parsons or even the TikTok lady

or even Sean Abannon or somebody like that. But I get King Green. And at first I'm like, okay, let's do Dakar Close. And then I realized it was a rematch in Dakar Close. I already beat him, so we don't need to do that. And then I dug a little deeper.

I saw a rumor in a new way. And then I jumped on the old topology pages and realized that there's no opponent for this man. So King Green, you seem like a nice fella. You're a wily veteran. I have a lot of respect for you. And boy, am I sorry that I have to do this. I'm very, very sorry. Then now you will have to step foot in the hallowed octagon with Mick Tebeck Oralby.

Sorry, bro. Wow. Sorry, dude. Wow. That'd be a nice win for Mikkelbeck, but I don't know. It sure would be. Again, King Green is so unpredictable. You never know.

He could just beat Mikkelbeck and put a little dent- He could. You could. I don't think he does, but he could. Eminem-M-A is supposed to be fun. That's a fun match-up. King Green will fight anybody. I don't think he says.

I don't think he cares. You send him that name. He can't, like most of us probably can't pronounce properly. He's still signing on the dotted line. So, yeah, it's good. Absolutely. All right. we get five minutes rapid fire let's go big rocker johnson wood versus ege that was a fun fight too

nathania wood versus daniel paneta dania paneda two dollar steak tough uh and see i was right i was right daniel panada at plus 310 was a travesty there was a travesty yeah i'm happy i made that bet because that was not a fight that played out like a guy who was a plus 310 no no it's competitive he won the third round you could have made a cake to you could have made a k-k that he won the first. I don't think so, but way more competitive. 3027 was kind of a bad card, though. Wood versus EGay, CDF versus Bobby Green.

Man movie. O'Bahn Elliott, Mike and AK? I don't think it matters. I was hoping that you got, again, that's another name I would have got. No, you listen, Oban just keep chugging along. Yeah, man. Doing good job with the media, 2 and O in the UFC. You know, I have him now in my top 40 at Welterweight, which I guess I know people are like, oh, top 40.

That sounds so low. Like, yeah, this is where he should be. I mean, he could easily jump into the top 30 with the next fight. We'll see. But, yeah, I don't think we need to make any big projections for Oban just yet. Yeah, let's just keep an eye on him, though. Yeah, just get him out there and let him fight. Wood versus Ege from Tristan, Sam Patterson, my lock of the night.

Boy, did he deliver? I mean, that was like the biggest no-brainer pick of the card against keeper Crosby, who may not be long for this UFC world. And Mick Parkin versus Martin Boudai. Headliner. That's a headliner, Mike. That's a headliner. That's an apex-the-Apex fight.

Ballel versus Shafcott, Edwards v. Jadimblit versus Daryuz, Robocop versus Coppulov. Is Romulov? He just had a fight. Oh, no, he was. He's out of his fight. He was out of his fight. Yeah, he had a fight.

Yeah, he's out of the fight. Alan versus Oirahia, Mahaia versus Brandon Morayorah. No chance that fight. I don't know what's serious. this Makaya thing was so hilarious. I don't want to say hilarious. It's somewhat depressing as well just because of,

God, to be so talented and just making so many wrong moves. It's frustrating to watch. It's very cool. Clostrum, I'm a fair man. I'm a fair man. I brought you up on screen, called you out for a bad take earlier, but I'm going to put you. I'm an even the playing field here.

The weights of justice are going to imbalance because this is fun as hell, man. that's good daniel wood versus hider amel that's good that's a good match come on love that one hider meal versus the world like just fight just brought him out there every three weeks uh the true welsh idiot bala shopcott jdm versus uspin i don't know why we're doing jdm versus usman uh we're just booking the entire welterate division okay uh jdm versus usman edwards versus gary shout out shout out to wales who's our wales fighters last night um We had, oh, Obon, Obon, sorry.

I was like, who is it? I know that we had some Wales representation. Yeah, shout out to Oban. Who else got a bonus last night? Patty Tom and Mick Parkin, right? Patty got two bonuses. That was it. Patty got the double.

People were saying instead of a fight of the night bonus, he just gave two performance bonuses to Patty. I really think that was a stick it to King Green, because King Green was the one who kind of coaxed him into doubling it. So I think he was kind of like, you know what? It'll be super funny if you did, if you made this happen, and your opponent got all the bonuses and you got done. That seems like something Dana and company would too.

That's a theory. My theory is this is Dana repaying Patty for giving them a discount for resigning. Sure. Because I had said the entire time, which people misinterpreted, and I still had an answer to this yesterday. I don't know how many times I have to say this. I never said Patty is leaving the UFC. I never said Patty should leave the UFC. What I did say was Patty, because of this matchup, and I felt very positive that Patty was going to win this fight, that he should wait.

he should wait to resign until after the fight. You know, maybe take an offer, maybe take a phone call, meeting with somebody, maybe get an offer from PFL and just be like, yo, you know, PFL offer me this.

I ain't going there, but this is what they offer me. And then the UFC's like, yeah, cool, don't go there. We're not going to give you this, but we'll bump you up to this. All right, cool,

we're back in business. I think he got a discount from the UFC to resign. One is because of the management. And I think, honestly, them resigning Patty before the fight saved the UFC a bunch of money. Yep. So maybe this is them saying like, here, man, thank you, appreciate that. Here's an extra 100K for saving us a ton of extra money in the long run.

So yeah, a lot of people were like, oh, Mike was saying that that Patty's going to leave and that he should go somewhere else and make more money. I never said that. I said maximize your value, man. Like, this is a fight you can win. Go in there. Go into free agency with the ranking next to your name. Do you know how much more money you would have made?

Like he probably made a, like he's probably getting more than he would have fighting King Green without resigning. But maximize that value, man. This might be the biggest contract you ever get. You know what I mean? The negotiations on Monday morning or whenever they would have started making negotiations would be very different than they were last week. Can you imagine what the storyline would be today if Patty didn't resign? We would expect him to, but we'd expect it. Like, I didn't, I didn't, I knew he wasn't going to leave.

But, you know, I just wanted to see him make a bag. You know, fuck me, right? And I'm sure he's doing, I'm sure he got a good amount of money. But I'm sure he did. There's no question he could have gotten a much better amount of money. We'll never know. We won't get the full sale. Unless he fights somewhere where, again, that does disclose, which is fewer and farther

between these days. But yeah, it's, it does kind of suck. And, hey, good for him getting the extra 200 grand. Let's hope that he didn't make a mistake with the amount of money you're signed for. But hey, maybe he fights for a title, day and we don't even talk about this. I see a lot of people still give him Patty shit that he's not getting better. I think he is getting better.

He's clearly getting better. Yeah. And I think he was like, I turned on him being a ranked fighter. And I even felt that way heading into this fight. And even that like a lot of people giving him shit for not finishing Tony Ferguson, who is like the toughest dude in terms of durability and being unfinishedable, unless Michael Chandler just kicks him in the face really hard out of nowhere.

But dude is just shoe leather tough. But I saw growth in that fight, like very smart, mature performance from Patty Pimble. That showed me a lot. The physical condition he was in heading into this fight, his attitude, the entire build, he just seems like a more mature, serious athlete. He's growing on me a little bit. I got to say. I got to say.

So good on him. And let's see what happens. Let's rifle through a few of these because I got to get out of here. Wood versus Jerome Murphy, sure. Edwards versus Gary, your MVP. I don't want to say I don't like the MVP fight I don't mind it I don't mind I don't think it I lost dude he lost okay so did Leon fight Joaquin buckley like do that come on man like come on what else we got a lot of Colby talk um

Robocob versus Vittory here we go Hadley versus Peyton Talbot do you think uh well that's that's what I was going to ask is there a chance Hadley does stay at 135 he's He's not a small guy. Like, he wouldn't be on the bigger end of the bantam weights, but he's had issues with 125 before he did on the contender series. This one, obviously he only went up to 135 because he was helping out the Oc on short notice. He did miss weight here too.

So there's some weight cut issues. I feel like he should consider 135. He didn't look. Keelan Lockburn could not just like out muscle him. I think Keelan Locker thought like, oh, I'm fighting a smaller guy. I'll just muscle him. He could not do that. I wonder, I wonder if Hadley stays in 135.

You look good, man. Yeah, you look good. It looked fine. Also, I don't think Colin Lockwood is very good. Oh. Either. I'm sorry. I just don't think he's very good.

We need to wrap the show. This is where we're doing. We're picking on poor. Next, you're going to tell me you don't think Keeper Crosby's that good. And then we're really going to have it. I mean, I called Sam Patterson the lock of the week. You did. With so much confidence.

Check Mike Hex topology. Check Mike's X topology. He did pick Sam Patterson, first round submission. So there you go. Yes. You put your money where your mouth is, Mike. We might have to end the show with this, AK. All right.

Let me see if we have anything. Let me scroll down. There is one that, I mean, boy, okay, let's do it, A.K. Because if there's anything I know about you, AK, there's two things you love more than anything. One, rematches and two heavyweight rematches. Jeffrey Rogers just may have won onto the next one. Percy has Oban Elliott versus Evan Elder, which I like.

But AK, look at what leads the dance here. Jeffrey. Mick Parkin versus Bo Usman. Well, part two. The rematch, the world has been waiting for. It's been a great show, everyone. Thanks for coming out. Thank you, everyone.

We'll see you next week. That's really nowhere to go. Really know where to go from there. We can't. We can't. We can't move on the program. So many unanswered questions, Mike. So many unanswered questions from that first fight,

happened four months ago. So money and answered questions. Yeah, let's make it happen. Mo is on the coldest of cold streaks right now. I take back my contender series saving idea of Mo Usman versus Parker Porter for the contract. Yeah, it was been parking too. That's the way to go.

I love all of you. You guys are absolute animals waking up with us. I don't know what else to say. I'm exhausted. I got to pack up and get the hell out of here and drive back to South Carolina. And then I'm on vacation for nine days. So I'm pretty excited.

I'm pretty excited taking a little breather. Cousins getting married next weekend. So I get to go home to Massachusetts and see some fam and playing a golf tournament. It's just going to be a good time. So we will lead you right into, let me pull up this card, UFC Abu Dhabi. Coming up on Saturday, some afternoon, MMA, early day. MMA just the way we like it. Let me pull up this card.

Tremendous main event, spectacular main event. This is going to air on ABC, by the way, in the U.S., the main card. Corey Sandhagan versus Umar and Amaga Madoff. Shara Madoff versus Mikhail Olegzechek, someone getting got real good in that one. We have Marlon Vera versus Davis and Figurato.

Tony Ferguson is back against Michael Kiesa. McKenzie Dern versus Lupi Godinez. Joel Alvarez versus Elvis Brenner, holy shit. That fight's going to be bananas. Alonzo Menefield versus Azamat, Mirzacanov. Excited to see Mursa Kanaova back in there. Mohamayaa Jaya versus Kaoui Fernandez.

Shemil Gadsiev, fresh off his first UFC main event against Dantel Mays. Guram Kutataladehese versus Jordan Vucenic baking his UFC debut. Victoria Dutakova versus Sam Hughes. Jai Herbert, getting another opportunity taking on Rolando Badoia. and kicking things off, Sedrique Dumas versus Dennis Tallulin. That's UFC Abu Dhabi.

That's a nice card. That's a nice card. I forgot that Vucinich was stepping. I short notice replacement, but this is a guy who's clearly a UFC level guy. It was funny. Excuse me, guys. It was funny for Cage Warriors.

Yeah, good to see him. He should be getting like a normal opportunity, but hey, whatever gets him in there, very tough matchup for his first fight. Yes. Guram is no joke, but that's it. And stick with us, MAAfighting.com.

We have MMA hour tomorrow, MAA on Wednesday. And shout out to Ariel, doing some great work in Paris for the Olympics. So thank you very much for AK, I am Ikech, always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun, more fun to be had after UFC. Abu Dhabi right here.

And on to the next one, the podcast. Good night, everybody. The Vox Media Podcast Network.