MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Carlos Prates, Other Big Winners At UFC Perth?

Episode Date: May 3, 2026

Carlos Prates delivered the performance of a lifetime in the main event of UFC Perth on Saturday at RAC Arena, obliterating former champion Jack Della Maddalena before unleashing a vicious finish in the third round. "The Nightmare" wants a title fight, and appears willing to wait for it, but is that what the UFC will want? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss where Prates goes after the biggest win of his career, and second straight finish of a former champ. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Quillan Salkilld after stopping Beneil Dariush in the co-main event, Steve Erceg following his decision win over Tim Elliott in the flyweight featured bout, along with fellow main card winners Marwan Rahiki, Brando Pericic, Louie Sutherland, and more. 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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Well, hello there, everybody. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. The matchmaking crowns are back following some really early day MMA. UFC was in Perth, Western Australia at the beautiful scenic RAC arena. The beer snake cups

were flowing all through that arena and in the end their hometown guy just got battered and beaten and finished by Carlos Pratchez who is making a very strong case to fight for the UFC Walterway title

next. We'll see if that's the direction we go. We'll talk about that in much more here on today's program i am mike heck and joining me as always the co-host the co-matchmaker the prince of positivity and gosh darn i'm my best friend fellow NBA fan fellow seltics fan just kidding alexander kaley different so i dare how are you there how do raptors listen as we record this raptors game seven today uh people some people might be listening to this on monday hopefully all my raptors fans are celebrating if not my condolences guys been a great year uh congrats on your on your Celtics as well.

Mike, I know it's super disappointing, and that game was tough to watch, boy, game seven. But again, you guys were not expected to be at the beginning of the season. I don't think anyone said Raptors,

I'm sorry, Raptors, excuse me, Boston Celtics, you know, NBA finalists, conference finalists, supposed to be an off year for you guys. You're pretty damn good. So, you know,

I'm not going to hate. I'm going to keep my Celtics, NICs, Philadelphia 76ers hate to a minute. I'm just congratulate my best friend right now. But, boy, Mike, Saturday was a long day of combat sports, wasn't it?

Man. Yeah, just to let people know. So, like, I'm very happy of doing this show with Mike because we didn't really get to work together on Saturdays. We normally, you know, the whole team's working on weekends together. Very disjointed. Mike and Damon were kind of covering UFC Perth early in the morning, plus the in-of-way fight.

And then Jed and I hopped on the evening for PFL Sioux Falls and David Benavides to putting on a great performance. So, you know, good, and karate combat was also happening. And somewhat eventful. I mean, some cool stuff and some dumb stuff happened. So, yeah, it's been, it was a long day. But we're back. We're on the same page.

I wish we could have recorded on Saturday, like after Perth, but no way that timing worked out. I mean, you guys were up so you guys need to just immediately get arrested and after. And Jed and I didn't hop on until later. And I sat through Game Bread before that. You did. So you all were married and fight to like almost 1 a.m. That's crazy. So he went out there and like did his job.

He knew the assignment. Like, let's just get out of here and be done with this entire situation. And he did. He got one tackle through one punch, broke a man's jaw, and the fight was over. So I was happy. Got a few hours sleep and then rolled right into, God, DeZone was awful yesterday with their production was atrocious. I've never seen anything with such magnitude being produced so poorly in my life. I could not believe it.

But in a way's great. Card wasn't bad. The NUA fight was fun. Like it got good down the stretch a little bit. but to me, I thought in UA won 10 of the rounds. The judge did not agree with me, but even with the 10-2 score that I gave it, I would say like six or seven of those rounds

were like really close and really competitive because not a lot happened. But yeah, boxing happened, M.M.A. happened. PFL happened. UFC happened. All the things happened. So we are here to talk about the UFC. We're here to talk about Perth.

And we're here to talk about Carlos Pratchez, AK. This guy, he is just so fun to watch. We never realized like how high his ceiling actually was. We were just like, is he just kind of a super fun Walter weight that we like? Maybe he fights for a belt, but just one of those guys like almost like a Derek Lewis

to some respects. And I know people are like, oh, my Derek Lewis again? But Derek Lewis, like rankings don't matter. People just want to see him fight because he's got a good personality. He's fun and he knocks fools out. And man, he beat the soul out of Jack Della Madalena.

Just whooped on this guy. I did not see this coming for a mile away. I picked Prochus to win. I picked Prochus to get a finish, but I did not expect that performance, a pillar to post ass whoopin AK. But that's what we got. Carl's Prachis told me before the fight,

I win, I go out there and finish this, dude. I'm fighting for the belt. I'm not doing anything else. I will wait. If I'll eat Tepori jumps be cool, I'll watch the fight, and then I'll fight for the belt after. So, Walter Waite is super interesting, A.K.

Very, very interesting. We assume Ian Matron Scott O'Garry is getting the title shot against Islamakachshap sometime this summer. We have Michael Morales. We have Carlos Prochus. We have Kamara Usman. We have Sean Brady and Joachim Buckley getting ready to fight. There's so many contenders right now.

So Carlos Prochis versus Phil in the Blank, AK. Man, first, let me say I could not be of more and more wrong with the G&M pick. I picked him to win by knockout. It's not even close. I was saying my whole prediction was based on like, I'm just. going to assume he got better after the Makachov fight. We'll see a better version of JDM. Why wouldn't we?

Nope. Nope. We may have seen a worse version somehow, which seems shocking to me, given the circumstances that's in a proper time off. I think a favorable opponent on paper, as dangerous as Pratchez is, fighting in Australia.

Fighting in Australia. You know, what a great advantage for him. But yeah, congrats to Pratchez, man. I mean, whatever was going on, I don't want to say, it's like, oh, JDM was just bad and Pratt just, no, I mean, Pratchez looks, listen, he's looked fantastic in previous fights.

And this might have been his best yet. This is just absolutely incredible stuff, being a guy who was U.C. champion less than a year ago. I feel like there's only two logical ways for process it going. Mike, I don't know. I don't know if you saw more possibilities for him. I'm going kind of, I guess I think, what I'd like to see, because I don't think he is actually going to weigh.

I know he's willing to, but it could be a really long wait. I mean, I know he said, like you said, if he Tabori wants to jump on, but this could be like a year, right? Because the Makachev-Garie doesn't even booked yet. if Makatov wins he doesn't fight very often ilia frankly doesn't fight very often these days that fight might not happen until like March of 2027

and process is going to sit on the shelf the whole time I just don't think he can do that I think he enjoys fighting it's very profitable for him especially with the 100k bonuses now I mean they all this man some back pay they should give him an extra 50 for all those other bonuses he got so I think he has to fight again

and I don't know if this young man has a fight book he keeps saying he does but I'm not sure what it is So I'm just going to say, rip that up and have Carl's Parchus and Michael Morales. That's what I've watched. So I get it. I get it. I understand why that is a fight everybody wants to see. Morales should have gotten Islam, but that's not happening.

No, I 100% agree. 100% agree with you. He was the guy. I'm going to quote a guy that I used to work with before I went to this great website called M.A. fighting. It's terrific. I enjoy it. Kenny Florian

retweet or quote tweeted Ariel Hawani's tweet of Islam Gary August Pratis Morales No more contender fight in the fall That's your welterate division Kenny Florian goes

Islam Gary check Prachis Morales X And his reasoning is I don't want to see Batman beat Superman And I don't want to see Superman beat Batman We need them both right now And I love this I love this so much

And to me This is what I'm going to do because the problem with not giving Morales the title shot is that he falls down this list, unfortunately, by not competing. And what the UFC is basing stuff off of is not just recency bias, but if you go in there and just obliterate somebody and have an impressive showing, like, whatever is the thing you tasted most recently, that's the thing that's going to be on top of people's minds. So I actually think Proch is going to chill, man. like I think he's going to chill out I think he's going to wait and I think he'll fight for the belt in

27 because if Islam beats Gary and I fully expect him to do so and Ilya beats Gaichi they're going to do this fight before the end of the year like Islam Ilya is going to happen before the end of the year it's too big of a fight Islam will will make sure he's there I'll make sure he's there

because I also don't think we have a lot of time left with either of these two guys and then Pratchis can go in there and fight after that. And I think Pratchez is fine with this. I think he's totally okay sitting and waiting. He even said like, hey, $100,000 bonus in Brazil. Like, that's a lot of money for us.

Like, that can last me a really long time. So he can chill and wait. And if they want to come in and be a backup fighter and make some money making wait, cool, good on him. So I think Pratchez is going to fight for the belt next. I think he is the quintessential in the whole player right now. And who knows? Maybe Ily is a pain in the ass to deal with.

and the UFC's like, all right, nope, Pratchez, you're in there. Maybe he fights for the bell before the end of the year. Maybe they do an interim title fight. Who the hell knows? I have landed on, I want to see Michael Morales fight Kamara Usman. That is going to give me everything.

That's going to give me everything that I see. But I would also say this, and I said this on the post fight show, if I'm Kamar Uspin, I'm literally not tweeting anything else, but give me Carlos Pratchez. Give him to me. Because first of all, I would pick Pratchez to thump Usman.

but of all the matchups that are sort of in play for him right now, he's going to have to beat one of these guys to get a title fight because somehow beating Joaquin Buckley and then even any sort of fan favor of, oh, he's a former champion, he's the greatest of all time. Like all that's gone now. So much time has gone by that, like that is gone. So he's going to have to beat one of these dudes.

He beats Michael Morouse gets a title fight. And then that might actually screw Carl Sprauchess, but I don't think that's going to happen. But if I'm Usman, I am calling for Prochus. I'm going all in on this dude and cashing in all the Ali Abdel Aziz's favors that he has on making this fight because, again, I would pick Prochus to beat the soul

out of Kabar Usman, but if Usman gets some takedowns early, he might have a chance there. And I think of all the options, this is the most winnable fight for him. But I don't think he beats either of these guys. So that's kind of high. Prochis versus champion, unless U.S. Usman cashes in all the Ali favors, and maybe we get that. But I will only take the Otna point of Pratchez fights a world champion in his next fight.

I love that because, oh, okay. So you're not saying Uzman. You're saying, wait. I'm saying Prochis versus champion. But if I am Usman, my entire purpose in fighting life is trying to fight Carlos Pratchez. I love that. I love the suggestion. I know that's not your first suggestion.

But I love it because it fits into sort of the mold of what I feel like UFC and Paramount has been doing. which is, you know, I've told people, I'm sorry, I'm a broken record. Love all the squash matches. Love that they've also been doing age-appropriate matchmaking with some of these older guys. And I love that they have been, I feel like they have not been letting people sit on spots. So that might, you know, that might be the case with college parts as well, right? He might say he wants to wait, but you're right, Mike.

If the Usman fight comes along, if Usman pushes it hard enough, like I said, if Elie Abdelaziz managed to pull some strings, I don't think process has no to that. I think like six months from now, if that fights lined up, people like, yeah, I'd love to beat another former champion. Because he was talking about, like, oh, what if I beat like Balal or something? You know, that would be another former champion, right? Because it would be like that Leon, then GDM, then Balal. Usma would fit in that category too.

And I wonder if there's an outside shot. You didn't even mention that of, like, him fighting Bilal if Bilal beats Bonfim in June. It would be a long wait. I don't think they would want to do that. I'm just trying to think, like, if Carlos Proxas wants to fight sometime in the last six months of 2020, 2026 and against a former champion. Could be Usman, could be Balam Muhammad. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

I like the Usma's suggestion best. Are you also taking a point, Mike, if Prochus is one half of a vacant Walter Wade title fight? Same idea. You're saying he's going to fight for it. Because that could happen to. His next fight, yeah, his next fight is going to be for a title.

Okay. I think it should be. Do you think that's more likely that is vacated by 2020? That's Illia and Islam fight. No matter who wins, that Belch got vacated because of either, you know, the winner, just like you said, maybe just spontaneous retirement. I've done it all.

And it's proxas versus, you know, one of these other names we've kind of thrown out there. I mean, I'm not ruling it out, but like if you're Islam and you've won the lightweight belt, defended it a bunch of times and then won the welterweight belt and defended it twice, including against the guy, many believe, is like the co-pom for pound v fighter and the biggest rising star in the sports since Connor McGregor, what else is there for him? You know what? Like maybe he'll stick around to fight Usman just to like put. that on there. But again,

Usen needs to beat Morales or Pratchez or somebody before that could even happen. So, yeah, it's a, well, it's fun, man. Like, there's just a lot happening. And if Brady go, like, if Brady or Buckley go out there and just, like, dismantle one or the other, like, none of those guys are out of it, man.

Like, they have work to do. If Bonfeme goes out there and just obliterates the law, like, I think his road is super long, because he's just not that interesting of a personality to a lot of people. But, yeah, Walter Wade is cooking right now. It is cooking.

Hasn't always been that way, but we're cooking with fire right now. We're seeing guys break through, and they're going to get their chances, unlike other divisions. So, yeah, great win for Pratchez. What a performance, and we'll see where he goes from here. Let's go to the lightweight division. Killen, Sal Killed, AK, goes in there, and no surprise. Just goes out there and Dust Benny Darius. But Darius had a moment.

Clipped him a little bit. but Sal Kil, we got to see him overcome a little bit of adversity. And he just went in there and just clobbered. Poor Benile Darayush, who would kind of hope, has some conversations with those close to him about maybe moving on from the competition in the UFC's lightweight division. But who am I to say that? You know, I don't know really what to do with him,

because the problem, AK, is I don't know what we have here. I really don't, like clearly a talented, big, finisher I just I didn't learn a whole lot here I learned a little bit that he could take a shot and like come through

when he's really hurt but like what I do I look at him and just like Arm and Sarugi and I knew before he gave him to the UFC I was like this dude's fighting for a belt like I could see it now I don't see it with him just yet

and I don't know if it's there I just I just it's such a mystery to me so I think the fight that'll actually learn me something is the one he wants. Matush Gamrot. So I'm just going to give him what he wants.

I think it's perfect. I love that nobody calls Salabatatat. And I mean, I don't know if he's going to fight Fizh in Baku. Somebody's going to fight him in Baku. But if it's not Gamrod, then Gamrod should fight. Sal killed.

Yeah, it was simple. Again, we're not really friends forevering this one. This was essentially Sal Kil doing our job for us. Sometimes the fighters do it and it makes sense. Yeah, he just needs to kind of keep moving up the rankings. and none of the other names really make a ton of sense right now. Some of them are books. Some of them, I think, are a little too high.

No disrespect to Gamrod. I've had him firmly in my top 10 for a long time. But this is just a logical next step, because Benial, I think consensus top 15 guy. I know he was in the UFC's rankings. He was still hanging on to a spot in our rankings. Probably not after Saturday. I think maybe Benil will finally be out.

Big salute to Benny. I don't know how much longer he's going to keep fighting, but hopefully they give him maybe an age-appropriate matchup next time. you're right about Quillan. It is hard when someone gets off to a hot start like this. You'd almost want them to have like an early stumble in their career as opposed to this kind of just this super hot run because, yeah, there's really no choice but to keep escalating. It's kind of in a way what we saw with JDM because JDM just kept winning, right? He kept winning. And they weren't all like dominant performances. There was the Hapest fight. There was the Kevin Holland fight.

Really almost losing to Gilbert Burns. But he kept that zero intact in the lost column so you could only push him forward and no regrets made to the top became champion i just wonder like did we you know did are we going to have a severe course correction with jdm now and is that what cool cool and self-killed is headed towards um because like you said he got hurt against benny and it happens benny's a very dangerous fighter how will it go against gamrod does he dominate him does he win a close decision and if he wins again are we having to push self-kill towards like a number one contender fight just because of his records so i i know i'm everyone out there is like, you're overthinking it.

Let's just enjoy what this young man is. I totally understand. But the UFC and their matchmakers, they wait for nobody. So there is no slow burn here. Really, Gamrod is the slowest burn we can give them if we're going to keep pushing him upwards. Yeah, I like it a lot. I think that's where they're going to go. And I think Gamrod would welcome that fight.

And I also think it's good for Salkhild win or lose. He wins? Great. Kind of keep moving up. He loses? Sweet. We have a recalibration. We go back to someone in the 10 to.

10 to 18 range no problem works perfectly he fights the king greens of the world if you lose this great or or Jeremy Stevens or Jeremy Stevens depends depending absolutely yes I'll be matchmaking for them next week on on the program oh that's that's that's opening 28 that's the main card fight yes I just don't know why but it uh but it is and and power to those gentlemen let's go to vincenzo erseg vini siggs aka goes out gets a nice win over Wiley veteran Timothy Elliott. And I don't really know what to do with this guy, okay? I really don't know.

I landed on something eventually. It's just like, sure, fine. But Flyweight is very fun. Steve Ersig, good veteran solid performance yesterday. Where did you go with Vinnie Sigs? I'm going conditional here. I think we have to wait a little bit. I want to see him fight the Alex Perez and Sumo DiRG winner,

They're fighting in Macau on May 30th, another early morning card. Yeah, that's it. So just kind of keep Steve Ersig in the mix. Doesn't need to be fighting a top 10 guy right now. Still fight someone in the rankings. I think Summodyergy would essentially be ranked if he beats Alex Perez. I'm not sure. They both would just be firmly in the top 20.

And that's kind of a receiver, I guess. So, you know, a great story ever since he fought for the title. But now it's a long road back if he ever wants to do that. And there's plenty of competition and plenty of opportunities for him to prove himself. So, yeah, one of these guys, I think, just makes sure a great flyweight match. So I'm going a little higher only because I don't think people are real I think people are just looking at this fight

and being like this fight rules and the rematch like this is great and the flip side they're like oh it's happening at the apex so like it's real dumb and not happening in front of people but if Minnell Cop like whoever loses Cop versus Horaguchi

like I think they're done like I think their title aspirations are gone. The UFC seems to be in no rush to give Horaguchi anything he wants at all. They don't even put him in front of people to fight at this point.

He's fighting back-to-back fights at the apex. This is a huge fight. Men al-Cop, like, I thought he should have fought for the belt already. I thought he should have got it over Tyra for sure. But no, not happening. There's plus Pantosia's there.

like this is a must win for both of these guys. Like whoever wins moves on and like has a really good chance. Whoever loses like probably doesn't fight for the belt. So I'm giving Vinnie Sig the loser of Minalcop versus Kioji Horaguchi because, I mean, to me, this doesn't affect, this fight affects nothing in terms of the title conversations. Two dudes who are really good and will put on a really fun fight, but it does not affect any of the guys that are like a win away from fighting for the belt in my opinion. Yeah, that's fun.

I think I would prefer like Ursek. Well, obviously that means I'm ruining for Kioji, but I think Ercett would just be such a fun. Yeah. What a weird, what a weird matchup like that I hadn't even thought of doing. But yeah, and I'm sure Kopp would be a huge favorite in that. But man, Steve Seve Ersek is so tricky. He's so tricky.

He's such a tough opponent for almost anybody. So yeah, I love that. And him and Kiyoji would be a very, very classy matchup as well. But I'm hoping Kioji is on track for a title fight. We'll see. We got to see Marwan Rihiki fight. We did. We did.

We fought a dude that he had no right fighting. Like that, there were, like, there were literally people on social media defending this matchup. Who? I saw it everywhere.

I saw it like in the comments of our preview show. Like, uh, fights will be a little closer than you think. I'm like, are you, what is wrong with? Well,

I'll, I will say, even I, you know, Rahiki is defense is questionable. I guess that's all the best you could say. Rhees defense questionable. Schmidt was coming up a very wild,

like spinning back this knockout. So, you know, that's, you just, It's a very... Against a bad fighter. I know.

Listen, the best opponent he had fought yet, frankly, in his career. That's true. Sadly. So, you know, it's very easy to go from A to B. It's like, oh, I've seen Rehiki get hit before. This guy just scored a wild knockout. Maybe he gets a crazy upset. But, yeah, on paper, listen, this is a short-notice thing.

I think we all knew Rehiki was heavily favored and, you know, good for them for keeping him on the card. But, yeah, this fight probably should not have happened. And it barely happened, really, when it actually did. Yeah. I mean, this to me was... It was like unacceptable, honestly. And then I saw Larissa Pacheco fighting karate combat.

And I was like, oh, that is way more. That's way more. That's bad. What are we doing? That, like, there should be like a rest made for booking that fight. That is the Pacheco fight. That was so bad. Even the officiating was a little too slow.

I mean, she got, if you'll watch that clip, if you guys don't know where time, I mean, the close pretty viral. That might have actually been the most viral finish of Saturday. So probably everyone saw it. But yeah, she, even before, that's sort of this big elbow she hits her with, which is really like the, you know, the nice screen shot, nice clip.

She kind of just hits her with a combo. And immediately her opponent's already turned around. And from right there, the referee has to be stepping in. It happened very quickly. Like, I'm not killing the referee on this. It all happened very quickly. But he was just a step slow. Then she eats an elbow to the side of her head.

And then she eats wall and pound. I always say ground. I know it's karate comedy. The wall and pound. That was rough to watch. But great for Pacheco, I guess. Yeah. It's like they just were like, hey, you want to make $100?

Come with me. Like, oh, so bad. Laura, Loresa, go get on the home with the UFC. Like, do something else. It's time. It's definitely time. Like, I hope they paid you great, but I don't want to see you fighting moms. This is like random grocery store shopping moms.

Like, I don't want to see that. I don't want to see that. You beat Kayla Harrison. To be her. And when the distance was sidewalk in a very good fight. And this was their next. Oh, geez. Wow.

What is happening? I didn't think about that. I went Marwan Rahiiiii versus Yadir Davali. It's kind of fun. And for he, you probably win and perhaps I'll learn a little something. And Davali hits a little, hits kind of hard.

So we'll get a little bit of a test. But I mean, this, this to me does not scream, oh, let's throw them in there with Nate Landware. We're not quite there yet. No, we've got to take our time with Rahiki. I think he's talented. I think he's talented.

I've got to shore up that defense for sure. He was supposed to fight another ANZAC fighter, Jack Jenkins before Schmidt stepped in. So I'm going Anzac again. Let me test it as a little bit of a young veteran guy. Con awfully. I'm going con off. Okay.

I thought about that one. That's not too bad. I kind of want to, I'm very curious with the Jack Jenkins fight now. If they just rebook it. I don't think you just rebook it. I mean, I don't think you have to rebook it now,

but I kind of, like, I was actually really intrigued with that fight, just because Jack's a dog. And he's been there, he's been in some tough, tough-ass fight so was there a line for that fight at any point like jenkins must have been was rejik was favored no i'm sure jenkins is uh really i saw maybe i saw a lot of people saying

they would have bet jenkins if that fight happened let's see i don't know if there was ever time for a line to a substantial line to go up yeah i just i can't really find it but i would say oh let's see what this says uh do to do i think this was i think this turned out good for Rojiki, obviously just to get a win, but like it's kind of weird because it doesn't move him. It doesn't tell us a lot about him. It obviously doesn't move him anywhere in the rankings. You know, I think I just kept him in the same spot. Where do I have Rojiki?

I had him in the top 60 and he stayed in the top 60. So again, no offense to him. No offense to Schmidt. They got paid to do what they're supposed to do. But yeah, this was kind of an odd fight. I kind of would have bumped this off the main card after the opponent's switch. I'm not entirely sure why it had to be. I'm not sure what you had to replace it with.

I mean, the prelims weren't exactly filled with bangers. Maybe junior Tafah finally getting a win. I think that would have been put the, I was also a squash match though. Yeah, there's a lot going on there. So, yeah, I'm trying to find it. Don't worry about it. One of our fine listeners will.

Yeah, we'll probably fill us in at some point. So then we had some heavyweight fights. We did. Brando Perich, AK. Want to do like one, two, three and like on both of these? I don't know. I don't get a friend's right. I'd be surprised if we did on either of these.

Okay. Well, who did you go for Parrichish? Because very fun. I mean, they knew the assignment. They obviously sat there and watched the Louis Sutherland Thai Tuivasa slog, slog. This and, you know, this was fun. Parrich just went in there and threw a lot of leather and got after it a bit. And ended up getting fight of the night.

Like, no one saw that coming, especially. But again, position on the fight card means something because they got to follow the horrendous Sutherland Taito Evasa fight. So Parrich versus who, AK? Perich is fun, man. He's a little rhinoceros. Screw, I'm going to Walter Walker. Oh, okay. Yeah, let's do it.

Let's just do it. I went Ryan Span. Oh, okay. The big man, the big man, Ryan Span? The big man. The big man. The big man. Let's see how he.

We don't even have to wait. I know Span was like, ooh, I probably should have dropped a couple extra LBs, but I didn't even have to. Just chuck them in there. They both had quick fights. Quick turns around. Louis Sutherland, I'm not as, like, excited to see again. Why? Why?

This fight is bad. What do you mean? This fight is bad. Which has like, talk about not knowing the assignment. This is not what you brought in to do, Louis. You got in there to have a heater with Taito Vasa. But no, you just wanted to, you just made everybody sad. But it's not like it's not like this is a number one contender fight.

If this is no, you know, go tackle the band. But, you know, go in there and have some fun. This is what you brought in to do. He was Owen, too. So, but he's got to save his job. He did save his job by saying yes to this fight. And if he went out there and had a banger with Tide to Evasa and got knocked out, they probably would have given him a four-fight extension.

Now they might just boot him. This might have heard him more. You're actually right. This might have heard of more. And he cuts the promo after, which I was like, no, no, no. no, no. Vitor Petrino. Sure.

Vitor Petrino. Okay. After the Stephen Aspline fight, that was fair. He's on a three-fight win streak. Yeah, why not? Thomas Peterson. Okay. I don't know.

Sure. Mike, I have a question. Sure. What, would Ty have beaten Sean Chiraph? Oh, yeah. Are you sure? Yeah, he would have. I don't, I don't know, man.

Like, Sean would, see, the thing, here's why, Sean is a guy who will be on the roster for a long time because Sean knows ball he gets he knew the assignment he's not going to go in there and tackle tie he's going there and swang him i just don't know of tie but i think the mentality is gone like i know he i know he's been losing to grapplers i mean he's lost some striking battles too uh i don't know man i don't which which striker did he lose to uh uh oh uh jarzino oh yeah that's terrible that's terrible that's terrible which he which he won a card on Didn't he win a cart? Somehow, I want to, I mean, that was bad.

That was really bad. Should not have won a card. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Anyway, but it doesn't matter. Like, I just, I don't know if he knows how to win a fight anymore. I think it's totally in his head. I think he's been around for so long.

I think he's against in his head. I don't think he went to fight anymore. There are two things the UFC screwed up terribly with this bad. One, they didn't do, uh, rebel, Spain versus Tai Tuvasa. Yes. Did not do that fight. Rebels would have, I think, would have killed him, though, real bad. Probably.

Yeah. But, but again, we wouldn't have known because he'd like, Ty lost to Cyril gone. It was just like, all right, now he's out of the title picture. Like, we'll just do fun stuff with him. And now that's gone. Well, maybe not. Maybe the MVP, like, signs Ty and they booked that fight and we still get it.

And the other thing is they didn't give Ty any sort of a title fight after the Derek Lewis win. I know. It was such a bummer. Like, what a story that would have been. Like, he would have been the fan favorite of all fan favorites. Can you imagine the reception tie to Evas would have got heading into a UFC heavyweight title fight or interim heavyweight title fight? would have been incredible. And then he probably would have gotten nuked by Sergey Pavech,

but still would have been cool seeing him on a fight poster with the championship belt on there. But that is gone. Is that it? Like we're done here, right? Their UFC, as much as they love Ty and as much as the fans love Ty, like we have to,

we have to let him out of the cage at some point, do we not? I saw one great matchup. I don't know if this was on the lazy pad. Was Lazy Pat on the post fight show? He was. Did he mention? and on the show, Buccecha? No.

Obviously, Buccia's getting released, obviously. But I'm saying if by some chance, he's not. Okay. Let's say, let's say he has a four-fight deal. Let's assume Buccea has a four-fight deal. He's only 0-3 now. Oh, sorry, 1 and 2. Sorry, 1 and 2, excuse me.

1. Oh, sorry, 1, 0, 2 and 1. Sorry. Could he, could it be hilarious if he fought tie? He would win. Bucci-cha. You know what, though? I don't think either guy

knows how to win an M.A. So I actually have no clue. Taito Ivasa just needs to survive two and a half minutes. And I don't know if you could. I know. God, that, man, some promotion out there needs to sign both of these guys and do this fight. Lazy bad. I don't know.

I haven't looked on my listener picks. I'm wonder if some other people did it out there. I just want to give credit to lazy bad. I saw him reply to me on Twitter. And I was like, oh, man. Wow. Oh, my goodness. Don't do this, but also definitely do this.

I'll tell you what. If you're a promotion out there, if you make that fight happen. We will do, we here at M.A.Fighting.com terrific website. We will do a watch party for. I have to, have to. Like all of us, the whole entire staff. We'll all do it. This could be on like a Thursday afternoon, hype fighting in Brazil or whatever.

We will be there. That's it. Bare knuckle fight before all the grappling matches. Ooh. Now we're talking. You have to let Frere knuckle grap by MMA. You have to let for Chichickraffle, right? Oh, yeah, sure.

You're right. We've got a bad chance. Mike, I'm talking on my rope. I'm talking to my rope. I'm sorry. It's my fault. I sent this down this path. Wild card round, AK.

Oh, yeah, right. We have to select a fighter who have not matched made for you. We got a match big for them right now. So what are we doing as far as the rest of this card? I probably should have gone with like one of the losers or something because the main card. There are some storylines there. But, you know, I'm going to shout up my man Cody Steele, who shocked me by using his grappling

to win a fight. I had been saying for so long, this man is the spiritual, successor to George Grigel and we will never see him use his his aggressive submission game. Sure enough, hey man, gets a, get a heel hook submission. Pretty nice looking heel hook submission on a guy who is very vulnerable subs, Domar fan. So like that was the way to go, Cody. So again, I don't know if that was plan A, but certainly broke it out when he needed it and got himself a first round win, good for him.

I would have liked to get 100K. That would have a nice little bonus for Cody. but you know when you're the prelim opener you got to do something special I guess to be remembered by the end of the night. So let's see more Cody. Just want more fun fight for him right now. Let's go with Lucas Brennan.

Let's go with Lucas Brennan who just fought recently. Beltor vet. Yes, obviously I'm trying to push Cody here. I think he'd be a pretty sizable favorite against Lucas. But Lucas is a tough veteran test. So let's keep seeing what we'd have with Cody. I still think there's a lot of the wild man in him. I still think he's the kind of guy.

He's going in there just a brawl because it's fun. But he is actually someone I would like to see Mix the Martial Arts on Route, to becoming like, you know, like maybe a legitimate top 25 guy. We'll see. He's very young in his actual MMA career. I might just steal Tyoivasa Buccecha as my wildcarb. No.

I finally have an opponent from Mike Ballot coming out of this event. And it's Jack Del Madelena. That's what we're going to do. Oh, yeah. I love the Usman idea. That was one of things like Jed and I talked about. Usman would never take that fight because it does, it truly does nothing for him to take that fight, but if you're the UFC, like, I think you kind of look at a Usman fight, being like,

hey, we have to do something very fast with this Mike Moloch guy, if we're going to try to make him a thing. You can try to make him a thing with JDM and kind of right for the picking right now, is he not? Two bad losses, like, and former champion and all the accolades and all that stuff. Like, Mike Moloch goes out there and beats the soul out of JDM, like, kind of accomplishes everything they want to accomplish right now. So that's where I'm going. JDM, Mike Malap. I can't help but hear Gilbert's words.

J.D. I would be like, man, if I can't beat this effing guy, I'm out of here. Because, like, yeah, that would honestly, like, oh, Gilbert. I feel like he's damned Mike Malott forever because by saying that, like, oh, I mean, it's all due respect, all due respect. But yeah, I knew it was over when I couldn't beat friggin' Mike Malat. And Jadn might be facing that same thing because, yeah, if he lost to Mike Malot and then three losses in a row, boy, I don't know where you go with him.

He becomes so far from the title picture if you lose to Mike Malat. Gosh, and I mean this as a comment to Mike. I'm trying to be nice to Mike. That's a great, that's a great choice, my best friend, Mike Heck, because I tell you right now, Canadian ears all over the nation parked up when you said the possibility of Malat and Jad. I like that.

Yeah. Much like you have match made great Patty Pimblet, I'm the Mike Malat match bait. Gilairens, nailed that one. Like, they're going to push them, they're going to push them quick. So love that idea. The Gilbert Burns thing is maybe my favorite gimmick of the year.

We have to have an award for this. Gilbert Burns' promo on, I had this incredible retirement tour planned out. I was going to fight Colby, and I was going to fight Kevin Holland and Brazil, and I was going to have this magnificent ending to my career. And then I lost to that bum-ass Mike Mala. He didn't say it. He didn't say. He would never.

He might as well have. It was worse. It was almost worse. He was so dancing around it that the problem is, you're reading it like as a fan you're kind of filling in what he means and it's like worse if i lose to this friggin guy i have no business being in this sport oh my god so unbelievable all right let's go to the peeps how made you get i got like five yeah i got quite a few uh we have a newcomer too jackson decker welcome to party pal welcome to the party uh no picks proches waits waits for

his shot save morales for a possible meeting for the belt that's where i'm at jackson i'm in the same same position what's marales going to do then ralus got to do something or or you're maybe it's him and usman maybe that's that's where he's going he's going marales uspan which i would be totally fine with but you don't need to go pratchezerals right now we save that one for when one of those dudes has the belt and i think i think we could both be pretty confident in the state of this division and where we're going that one of those two dudes is going to hold the belt at some point it's one of those dudes is going to hold the belt uh killin versus Moikano. I like Gamrod, but

let's slow roll killing a bit. So what are you saying? What are you saying? Are you saying, the killing? If you loses to Moikano, should just leave the sport? Is that what? No, I'm just kidding. I mean, I don't think it's much slower, is it? Like, going Moikano? Is it a much slower role than going Gamrott?

It's about the same range. Yeah, it's on the same range. Vinnie Sigs, Amir al-Bazi, Parachitzh versus Ante Delia. Delhi's booked, by the way. Yes, he is. Don't tell me. He's fighting.

Nope, tell me. Johnny Walker. Oh, yeah. That's right. I was just talking about this with Jed. What am I doing? Okay. Johnny Walker, moving up to heavyweight,

and that's where we're going. So maybe you're saying that Johnny won't make it, and Parrich just can step in. The rest of the card can pound sand. Wow. That's what he said. I did get a lot. I did get a lot.

I did get very few. people who match made for like the entire card this week i got a lot of just like which is fine but you got to understand especially for the newcomers if you want to get those sweet sweet odd no points like you have to do what no one else is willing to do dig deep i want your john i want your west shultz picks who's west shultz fighting mike oh god i have no idea uh robbie rye what's up gentlemen's difference to be on the opposite end of the time zone for this one right that's right uh he's going the opposite end of our of our pal jackson proches michael barraubes Let's just go right to it.

JDM Leon Edwards, Sal Killed versus Gamrod. Erzeg versus Charles Johnson. Charles is, oh, no, no, no. Charles is not booked. I just, I think I wanted Charles to fight like Brandon Marino. That was my first thought, actually. I just think I've already booked him in my mind. Cam Rousson versus the Rootsabayev-Pulyev winner.

Junior Tafa versus the Walker Yakyaev loser. Walker, Yukyaev. have Julian Walker. Oh, the loser. Okay. Yeah, that was my sweet sweet. I know point right there. Jacob Malcun versus Roman Coppulov.

Roman softbooked, is he? Not that I know. Thickness versus John Janus. Maybe we have to be a little more careful with John Janus. Perhaps we disrespect. Dangerous, man. Michael F versus Charles Ratke and Parrich versus an elephant. Rhinow versus an elephant.

I love it. Mike, JDM Leon. who wins and how sad is that fight? JDM wins that fight. Damn, you think Leon's like super washed? Yeah. Okay. Oof.

Yikes. Yeah. I just think the dude, he won the belt. He's happy with that. And that's it, man. Like, it's all good. J.D.M. probably the same way.

J.D.M. probably the same way. I just think he's prime. Come on, J.D.M. Come on. There's still time. There's still time. I think J.D.M is. Boy, he looks weathered, though, doesn't he?

Yes. Like, he looks like a dude who's been in 700 fights. Just his face and like he's just dude like there's no mistaking what that man does for a living. Like you look at Al Jermaine Sterling and he's like and you have a conversation with him and then you're like, oh, what do you do for a living? He's like, I'm a professional fighter and I've won a world championship. You might be a little puzzled by that.

But Jackdell and Madelana if he said anything but being a mixed martial arts fighter, you would not believe him for a second. Dude looks like a fighter. Unbelievable. Wildcard. My other hometown guy fighting. on the card, Ben Johnston, reward him for taking the call and give him another shot versus Torres Fiddy. Oh, get well soon, Torres, because that's the fight. I would love to see that fight. That's such a good pick.

By the way, Ben Johnson, sorry about your luck. And sorry for everyone who is stupid like me and put Ben Johnson in a parlay. I guess including a leg that's a 35-year-old guy making his U.C. debut. not a smart gambling move apparently not a smart move who won our picks yesterday I think I did even though I'd whiffed badly on the main event I actually think I know I got nine out of 13 so I was like I think I got a perfecto on the main event

did I not you might have gotten a perfecto on the main event um where's our how do I look this up I want to say I won but I actually did not look at your other you guys's picks closely so that is um oh no you're both ahead of me you and jed Jed's slightly one on points. He had four perfectos. Four perfectos. I think that includes,

does that include decisions? No, anyway, four perfectos, but it was close. You both got 10 out of 13, so well done, guys. I was nine for me, nine for Damon, and Guy,

thank you for playing. That's awesome. There's no need to shame the man. There's no need to shame the man. He loves jumping in our chats. Like, when he does well, he'll just drop his fight picks and just go invisible

when he goes like 11 of 13. I have nothing to say. John, Cody Steele versus gifted Gabe Green, Michael Lov versus Carlos Lial, that's fun. Schultz versus Valentin, thickness versus Sirhi Sadai, Malcun versus the Iron Turtle, Tafa versus Bruno Lopez, Rousden versus Trayshon Gore. Ooh, that's interesting.

I don't know what to make of Roustin. I mean, I have Rousin ranked way ahead of him, though, but also I just don't know what to make it. He's 3 and O. That's pretty good in the UFC. I know he's not it's not a bunch of killers so I think bright check's like a pretty good win I know his has looked like amazing in the Occ I think project's a pretty good win yeah I mean I could see it I think I think I think Trashon is trending upwards but I have Brouson quite a few spots ahead of him so I don't know maybe not yet uh Sutherland versus Nchichuuuuva versus Bucccella let's get somebody to win I think I hope we got a lot of these yeah let's make it a thing parritchitz versus petrino not just for the alliteration Rahiki versus the Levitts

Joe Anderson Brito winner I actually don't mind that I don't think he's ready for either of those guys don't you think either those guys might like smoke him I don't know I don't know man he's he's talented man these are like top 47ish

dudes yeah I don't have Verhiki in my top 40 yeah I'm like 53 so he's like not that far just based on talent if you want to test them I'd like to see what you know people know I have my three UFC fights rule Give me three UFC wins and then I'll

Yeah, I think I think we're kind of on the right ship here Erseg versus Temeroff Selkilde versus Moikano JDM versus the Buckley Brady winner Oh wow okay Proches versus whichever of Gary and Morales Doesn't get the title shot

So probably Morales Okay Knuckles here's my picks after UFC Perth Normally I wouldn't continue to read these But this is a great debate in my brain Pratchez versus Morales is where Knuckles is going. JDM versus Shafcott

sometime early next year when Shafcott comes back. Jack needs a break. Or if Jack comes back quicker, JDM versus Milot because Malott sucks and I'm tired of the false narrative being pushed and he's good. JDM will end that narrative.

Wow. Who is this? Gilbert Burns wrote this? Gilbert sending in his face? Knuckles? That sounds like a Gilbert Burns burner. Wow. You could tell

I did not pre-read any of these. That was a live reaction from my text. That was crazy. What was the JDM thing, I guess? JDM and, Jadim Shavkat, sometime early next year when Shafcott comes back because Jack needs a break.

If he doesn't take one, he should fight Malakka's quote unquote sucks. Jack needs a break and then he comes back and fights Shopkat. I'm sorry. I know Chidecott's injured. I know he's taking a lot of time off. Shopcott murders whatever version of Jack

he's seen in his last few fights. Just murders him. Sorry, yes. I know JDM is down. Like, I don't mean to kick guy when he's down. I have so much respect for him. But he just has not looked good his last two fights. And you're putting him against the guy who might be the best welterweight in the world.

I don't care how compromised Shotcott is, however he fights. If he's healthy, he will run through Jada. Would you entertain Malat versus Shafkat? Of course. Because my Blat is good. I'll tell you what, man. I'll tell you what. If you don't do, I mean, this thing inspired me,

if it's not JDM a lot, then it's Shafcott Malat. I would love to see Mike Malai get his shot at Shafcott. All right, that would be the ultimate. Listen, that's the test. That's it. Throw him in there, man. Listen, Ian Machado Gary had to do it. And he wasn't as put down as Mike Malab.

A lot of people didn't respect Gary. And then he went to that fight and took him a hard three rounds. Suddenly everyone was like, oh, even though he lost, they're like, yo, Gary's kind of like legit. So maybe Malat can, he's a lot older, but maybe he can some of that shine. I don't like, it's so funny seeing him a lot getting wrecked on. Why? For doing nothing. He's like the nicest dude and a fun fighter.

Yes, he lost to Neil Magdie. Like in his like eighth pro fight. Like that's where I mean, he did kind of kick Kevin Holland and the ding ding really hard a couple of times. But like, this is, I will not stand for this Michael Lott slander. My fellow Canadian, I cannot stand to see it. The guy didn't fight because he was trying to help other. be better at fighting. Mm-hmm.

I mean, that's just an unselfish guy right there. Salkil Moikato, Erseg versus the cop-core Gucci loser. All right, Knuckles. We're starting to come back here. Wow. Wow. I'll save that for the end. Parrich versus Delijah again.

I'm not going to give Doodoo because that fight just got confirmed by us. Delia fighting Johnny Walker, August 1st. Sutherland versus Gable Steven. He wanted to grapple so badly against Ty. Let's go ahead and book them for the International Fight Week card against Gable. Let's see how much he actually wants to grapple. This is a great pick. That is such a good.

That is such a good choice. That's the right range. That is perfect. A guy who, again, coming off a win over a UFC veteran. So I want a almost UFC title contender. A guy who will be very happy to have that opportunity. Like, oh, wow. Like I'm fighting on UFC Fight Week, like at Las Vegas.

Like huge, what a huge opportunity. Southern this team would be through the roof. And yeah, if you're Stevenson's team, like this is the kind of range you want to be fighting it. You want a guy who, if he wants to grapple, you'll be more than happy. And frankly, just from an athleticism standpoint, Gia doesn't have a huge advantage.

So that is, yeah, I like that. Very smart. Yeah. How about that? I don't even know what this means. Apparently there's still stuff about the Cardi Combat brawl. Like, I'm so over this. Okay.

The second brawl seemed like very WWE-ish to me. The whole thing does. Even with the Wing C thing. That was crazy. Like, I hope it's weird because I... It's doing so well. It's weird because if it wasn't planned, obviously it's awful because wing C is an idiot. If it was planned, that's also awful because you're asking two like serious fighters who, I get it.

You're paying them. Hopefully you're paying them a good sum and everyone's like on the same page. But what a horrible thing to ask guys to be a part of it. It was like, oh, yeah, we're going to do this little skit in the middle of your fight. Like, that's crazy. That's crazy. This is karate combat where people get like brutally chaot. I don't know if you guys keep up with karate combat.

There's some nasty, nasty finishes and it can happen at any moment. So I don't know. That'd be very fishy. Also, I think illegal. I also think that might be in trouble if you tried to arrange a stuff like that. I'm not sure. Yeah. So yeah, mixed results with Cardi Combat.

But hey, we're talking about it, which is pretty impressive considering all the other events that were on Saturday. Boy, they were like doing so well at a point two. Oh, man. There's so much happening. Like, here's my advice to the up-and-coming fight promotions out there. And this goes to dirty boxing, this goes to game bread, et cetera. It's something that I try to tell my son all the time.

And I think it's an important lesson for all of these promotions. Just be yourself. You don't need to be anybody else. If you guys got over because you were yourselves. Dirty boxing got over because, you were like Mike Perry's like drunken idea. And that's beautiful.

Like that's what you should be. And you don't need any of the other fluffy bullshit. You don't need it. You don't need the tape showing up your card and promoting it. Like you don't need any of that stuff. No one,

you lost viewers because of this. Okay? Just put on fights. And then for Game Bread, same thing. Like stop trying to be dirty boxing. That was my biggest takeaway watching the card on Friday. I was so disappointed.

I was like, you're just trying to copy dirty boxing now with like how you put out your product. Like you're doing some of the things right. Like you're booking the cards and like you have the the arena. That was perfect. The unrivaled arena was like perfect for your event. And then it was just like, oh, which celebrity just showed up? Ooh, let's interview them. And we have our guy doing the interviews forgetting you all Romero's name. Like stop trying to be other people. Be you. Be who you want to be. And you will succeed. And karate combat like,

go back to what you were doing like two years ago. Like President Awesome should be out there like still being President Awesome, but like you don't have to fabricate things. You just don't. Just have rebellious to Spain, fight everybody. That's what got you to the dance. Keep doing that. That's all.

Just be who you are and everything else will fall into place. Anyways, uh, Rahiki versus Andre Feely too soon. Oh my God, yes. That is very much too soon. Yeah. Uh, and may God have mercy on your soul for even suggesting that.

Not I'm just kidding. No, the Southern Gable Steven fight was awesome. Jamal Smith, Prochus Morales if Islam beats Gary. Gary versus Proch's 2 if Gary wins. I mean, if you're Gary, he's going to call for Prochis. They're pals now. I believe they're trained together to some extent now.

Sure. Sal Kild versus Dan Hooker. Ooh. Interesting. Interesting. I'm going to go back to that one. Ercig versus Elbazi. JDM versus Malat. Shitter get off the pot fight for Malat and a great matchup for JDM to regain his confidence.

In my opinion. Just keep going, like, I got, I don't, I got nothing to say. Oh, my God. It's crazy. Rahiki versus Terseos. Perich versus Spivak. Tied to Ivasa versus Parker Porter in BKFC. Yeah. This is, I mean, that's it.

Thank you. That's the one. Thank you. That's the one. I saw some people being like, oh, do Ty versus Andreelofsky? No. Ty versus Ben Rothwood, no. This is, this is it.

This is the fight. Or it signed Parker Porter and resign him and do it in the UFC. Rousson versus the Iron Turtle. Tafa versus Romagna made off. Schultz versus Ataba. Win-luser draw versus Ozzie Diaz. So we're doing Shultz. adults, a tape of Gotea, no matter what.

Well, Mike, you know, we've wanted to run that gauntlet, right? We want him to do the, uh, Abdul Malik, Pinyas, uh, Goteer gauntlet. Like, he'd be the first guy to do it. And maybe the last, I don't know, because that is a tough, that is a tough three. Like, those are our three, like, super middleweight prospects. I think we're all kind of jazzed about in recent years. And, again, he's already fought two of them.

So maybe it's time to complete the list with, with Gotei. Uh, Mikhailette versus Radke, Steele versus Claudio Pueis. Benny D. versus Armand 2 in RAF win-luser draw against Mugsy and Tony Ferguson I actually like this idea

a lot. I used to a great idea. My head hurts. Those were words that you put together into a sentence and names that I recognized, but like I took my, I just didn't register what was going on. I keep forgetting. He just signed on. Yeah, R.F is doing a card July 18th in Milwaukee.

So there you go. We could do Benny D. versus Armadu. By the way, Armands, as of right now, and I confirm this as well, Armand Sarukian

is the first match of RIF 10. Okay. Is the opening match, not the opening, like, main card match or the, no, he is the first,

him versus Mugsy is the first match of R.A.F. 10 on May 30th. Okay. Okay. Don't know why, but. Yeah,

you got to explain that, Mike. You can't just throw that out there for the listeners. No, that's it. I, because I looked at the poster.

I was like, is he really, the first match. He goes, as of now, he's the first match. So it's just like, we want to get people in early and keep him locked in the rest of the event. Because, like, the rest of the event is really good. Some really good matchups. But plus you get the Gable debut and people will be fired up for that. But, yeah, Armand's just opening the card against Mugsy and then Mugsy's going to throw

t-shirts out in the crowd, like a, like the man that he is. How about this, AK? I did not think we would have this, but it is a thing that has happened today. We have matchmaking for Ollie Schmidt. We have matchmaking for Alex. What are we doing? What's happening right now? It's been a long weekend.

Who do you think Ollie Schmidt got matched up? Okay, let me have 30 seconds. Let me at least have 30 seconds to look at my own rankings. Okay, hold on. Yeah. I debuted Ollie at a white hot number 78

out of some 80 some odd feather weights. If you're wondering, how does he even rank above people? I mean, there's other people who are owned two. So I essentially just put him over. everyone who has lost more than once in the UFC and has no wins and then he's like at the bottom of the people who own one okay so I saw this and I was like okay this is this is no brainer this is exactly what I should have done

this should have been my wild card there's a logical like name that jumped to the how people didn't know who Ollie Schmidt was until like 10 days ago I'll give you a hint he please we're doing this because we can no longer use John Janus for the spot I said that's not helping this is a lot of guys in to um he against a guy who is going to be who says he's going to be the featherweight champion way before people realize he's going to be the featherweight champion shut up okay well now I know the answer now you can just say stop wire Tommy Big Billen right right right I forgot we had this whole discussion this is true actually I actually think this is exactly what they should what should happen that's oh that's too far well no yeah we said no it is Yeah, that's right. We said John Yannis last time.

Wow. Oh, it isn't. This is great. Perfect. This is actually perfect. He's going to say, like, I'm ready for the title shot now after he knocks out, if he knocks out Ollie Schmidt in round one. But this is what you should be doing with him.

Oh, man. That's how you build a highlight reel. I love this pick, by the way. It's so out of left field, but I love it. I'm so curious what we're going to be saying about Tommy McNeillan by the end of the year. I have no clue. I actually have no clue. Like where his career is arcing towards it.

All right, left lane. He's in a good mood, so I'm back to matchmaking every fighter. Okay. Oh, wow. Here we go. This brought people back. Maybe it's because it's an early day card. Pratchez versus Gary Islam winner, Crystal Balling JDM versus Euros Medich after a UFC

a UFC Serbia win, which could happen. Killing versus Moikano, Darius versus RDA at 170 in a mutual retirement fight. I don't mind that. Aren't they like best friends or something? Or maybe that's why they would do it. Maybe that's why they would do it? I don't know. Erseg versus Albazzi.

Elliot versus Ochoa. Rahiki versus Aswell, way too soon for that. Parrottich versus Lewis after the White House. Keep tie and make him fight Buccella, L.Osson versus Abuse. Abus is booked, isn't he? I don't know. It would be news to me. Tafa versus Fernandez.

Cut Malcun. Thickness versus Johns. Cut Malcun. Not Gerald, apparently. Coon gets the boot, according to Left Lane. He's on a 35-win streak. Thigness versus John, Schultz versus Valentin, Mika-F versus Brown, steel versus Rivola.

There you go. All you, all you, my best. Thank you, Left Lane, by the way, man. Wow, damn, my every fighter, right? Okay, yeah, I'll run through somebody. I've tried to avoid some repeats here. Let's go on emails first. Eli Hittala, what's up, Eli, says,

not the most impressive fight warning you had. Main event was awesome, and a few highlights thrown in as well. Cool. I'm glad. Eli, I'm glad you had a good time. Practice Morales for a vacant title. Okay, so this is kind of what we talked about earlier in the show. This division is a mess right now.

We define a responsibility, so this is my hope. Ilya beats Geh-G. Islam beats Gary. Both make hit their belts to fight at 160 for a vacant BMF belts. Oh, weird. Okay, I don't know with that. That's a lot happening, man. Yeah, Olaverancer can fight for lightweight strap later in the year.

Okay, interesting. So no Ilya versus Islam for the welter-rate title, but you still get Ilya versus Islam. and you get a well-to-a-aid title vacation. Okay, interesting. Self-Killed versus Hoofee, win or lose against Chandler. I actually don't think that's terrible. Because I think Gamrod's in the same range as Hoofie in my mind.

So, okay, that's not crazy. Erseg versus Charles Johnson after he loses to Amab. Oh, Charles Johnson is actually, he is booked? No. Oh, okay. Is that a rumored fight? Maybe. Oh, no, I see it on.

Okay. June 27th. Okay, cool. I guess that's where I really couldn't use Charles Johnson. Rahiki, Quarantillo, Perchich, Delicia. Again, I didn't know that he was booked. That's fine. Kam Raustin and Luque. That's what we're doing with Lucay now? I don't think we're there at that stage with Lukey yet.

Lucas Cortes. Hey, AK, I guess you didn't stay up with the fights. I did not. Okay, Cody Steele, Tiago Moises. Oh. Oh, man. I love it. a huge

gap in experience I think Moises definitely beats Cody right now but stylistically that's such a fun matchup oh

maybe we could maybe we could it's too soon it's almost too soon GM3 and Torres Finney banger alert this is the fight

everyone's been dying for it let's make it happen yeah you know what two guys who lost to Malkoon let's do it Toke Gertin Jensen what's up Toke

in Otno original I say this every time Tilke was with us when we started this show I think he was one of the first people to like send in picks. So Toc, we shout out to you. I'm sure you have a lot going on. Yeah, I think it's like the OG.

He's like the O.G of heck of a morning, like all the shows. Tote's been a big supporter, man. He's either about to be or is a dad. Oh, wow. Yeah. I hope that's a baby boy. So shout out to our guy, Toke. Oh, that is what he sent his email.

So congrats, Toke. Okay. I'll read it out. Hi, I have not picked in a while since I'm in a spot where my firstborn is due any day now, Mike. Let's go. Any day now. Uh, super congrats to Tocke, man. I figure I squeeze a pick in. Uh, Prosses versus Gary Markerchev winner. Jdeme versus Buckley Brady winner. Zellkilled versus Hooker versus Kiwi, Erseg, Moreno 2. Okay. Uh, that's it. Don't know when you'll hear from me again. I want to get this one in there for my own little warrior. Have a day. A.K. Tok, you have a day too, sir. Mike, any advice for Toke. I know you're, you're well, well. into your parenthood. But reach back about it. Reach back about a decade. What do you got?

What do you got for took? Don't listen to what anybody tells you. Whoa. Don't take any advice unless it's like specific stuff. But the one piece of advice I will give you on, I was talking to Sean Brady about this as well. I now have a 13 year old, which is insane. My piece of advice is just to enjoy it. Enjoy every second of it because it's going to be, it's going to go by so fast.

you're not even going to realize it. So that would be my advice. All the other stuff, like you just have to learn it yourself. Every situation is different. But that goes for everybody. Like, just enjoy it. Getting emotional here.

I'm like, 13 years old. Oh my gosh, really. Yeah, it's weird. It's weird. Because you know how it is sometimes when you,

like I think when we first started working together. I just, I just think of him as eight-year-old, your eight-year-old son forever. That's all I think of like, oh, Mike has an eight-year-old son. He was about to turn eight right when I started. I forgot time.

passes and your little man is like really actually a little man now that's like so crazy um okay sorry i'm moving to twitter before i start crying four corner sports uh self-killed jalen turner i keep thinking jalen's like a welterweight i just know as i forgot he's never actually gonna do that so yeah that's kind of interesting god he should i know erseg albazi uh whoa wait a minute whoa wait hold wait a minute oh no do we have i think we got some doo-do no i think wait no no I think the doo-do might be in my brain. Maybe that was a fight that was booked at one point, but never happened. Oh, I'm sorry.

I was reading this wrong. Okay, no, no, no, it's good, it's good, it's good. Tim Elliott versus Kai Kar, France. I was thinking, I thought he put Steve versus like Kai Car, Frank. Yeah, Tim Elliott, Kai, Kar, France, weird enough. Both guys have been the U.C. for years, never been messed up. That's right. And Tim could be the Kai killer.

Maybe this is the guy killer. We don't know. Rojiki, Nate Landwer, Perich, Sergei Spivak, Southern Linich, Janata, Denise, Tuivasa. Timbasa and Denzel Freeman, I would pick Denzel Freeman to beat Ty right now. I'm sorry, guys. Like I really would. Oh, Denzel also is like, I think got released, right?

Yeah, I don't think he said he got released. But even if they brought him back for this, I would pick Denzel to win. Cam Rousson and Vitori, gosh, is he in that range now? Maybe 3 and 0. At Summer Hall, I feel like a person picked before. Maybe they changed your profile name. Okay, anyway, welcome back. JDM, Buckley, Brady, Salkyield, Manuel Torres.

Yeah, because Benny was supposed to fight Manuel Torres, right? Okay, I'm going to, sorry, so I'm not going to read all these. Speezy 32. So I'll kill grandma. That was a great call out. Erseg, Brandon, Royval. Okay. Rahiki, Heidi, or Emil, Perichich, and Curtis Blades.

I thought about it, Mike. I thought about it, maybe this was a current guy. Right? Like, is this the Curtis Blades deal now? He's just the dude, getting fight of the years against these up-and-coming heavyweights. Yeah. That would be great, dude. We just threw down with parrachets.

But I don't think either guy would go 50 minutes in that one. Louis Sutherland Romanov. Okay, now this is complicated. So Ramano, for one thing, he's got a date with Gable, right? At REF, right? Romanov is wrestling in Gable, Steven, at REF 10. Yeah, so Ramanoff has also fought for PFL. Like, he got released by the UFC coming off a win.

But it's funny because I could imagine, like, bring him back at some point. So, like, this isn't crazy, like, I don't even think this is crazy doo-doo. But I think you should know, like, he is technically not. Ramano is not on the UFC roster right now. No. Oh, no. What are we doing, guys? Oh, no.

See, I really should have edited these because I think we got a little bit of doo-doo here. He says West Schultz of Mancera Abdul Malik. Speezy, we talked about this. He fought Abdul Malik on Contender Series. This will be a two if it happens. He needs to fight Gautier. He's done Abdul Malik. He's fought Pinas.

He has to fight Goteen. Jonathan Mikkelav versus San Patterson. Cody Steele and Marcus, Marcus, Marcus Maderos. Okay. Picks by F Rod. Hear me out for JDM and Colby. Colby is very selective when he fights.

Jadim might be on the downside. Is on a funk after two loss in a row. With a win over at JDM, Colby is immediately in title contention. Not anymore. Which is what he wants and he wants to be active. For J.D.M, it's a fight he can win. And even though Colby is a wrestler,

his wrestling defense will be tested and might bring his confidence up. Or Colby outrassels him for three rounds and destroys his confidence forever. I mean, all these things. are in play. All these things are in play. I did not expect him to look so bad against Brathe's point. That was a shock.

Steve Versag, Lonnie Kavanaugh. Yeah. Okay. Cam Rouse and Mark Andre Bacchio. Yeah, that's pretty good pick. I think that's actually what's next.

Rahiki and Losein, Kata. Wow. Interesting. I still think Kada can be a really good UFC featherweight. I still think this guy's good.

I know it's been a little disappointing to start. off. I still think he's good. I still think he's good. F. Rattle says, Junior Tafa versus Jackson McVeigh. Jackson McVeigh is a middleweight, I'm pretty sure. But yeah, just bring him up to get like,

K-Oed by a junior. Yeah, maybe. Screw it. Interesting. Ross, Gilchrist. Autopic, you're not going to like it. Sal killed versus Zell Huber or Bahamundas. Sal Kills on a better run, but the other two have fought better competition. It tells us which young guy might be ready for the next step.

I don't love it, but I don't hate it. I don't think it's terrible. I agree. After beating Benny, Salkild probably deserves another ranked person. But you guys can go back and listen to what we were saying. Like, we don't know how good Salkhild is yet. He might be closer to the Zell Hubert Bahamanda's range than like the actual top six, top seven of the lightweight division. So I don't hate that, Mike.

Him ever, yeah. Okay. I'm going to close out here with, I think, just a couple, one or two people on Instagram. We've got a couple on Instagram. Thomas Collins, Carlos, Carlos, first, Ross. Tuva versus Park Reporter, any fighting... Oh, did he send this to you already? Is this just great minds?

Two great minds, yeah. Okay, Tewa Vasa versus Parker Porter, any fighting organization, specifically said this one's for Mike. Darya Yus versus King Green, Jeremy Stevens winner. I agree, man, let's have some age-appropriate matchmaking, please. Sutherland, Tanner Bozer, Shore makes a lot of sense.

Malkoon and Delizze. Oh, God. Junior top of D. D.R. Norghazai. And John Mahaney, John Mahaney coming in. Welcome to the Party, pal. We've messaged before. I don't know if he's done a pick before, or maybe he has.

Anyway, John Mahaney said, definitely missed the time for this. No, you did it, John. You're right on time. You sent it as we were recording the show. Tye versus Eddie Hall versus three guys stacked on each other wearing a long jacket. Triple threat match, Mike. That's the only M. May fight I want for Ty. This is his first pick?

No, no. I think he, I'm trying to look back on our message. I think he made like one pick before for like Brandon Royval or something. I'm not sure. But either way, welcome to the party pal or welcome back John Mahoney. you made it just on time and that's a banger. That's a banger. That's a doozy.

That's exactly how you book it. So yeah, thank you, John. Thank you everyone who sent in picks. Don't worry about sending us picks next week, Mike. That's right. That's right. We will be live next week. Let me pull it up following.

Let me warn people. I should warn people. I will be on the show. I want to get ahead of this now. I have an immovable date on May 9, so I cannot, a family thing, wife thing. I will not be covering UFC 28 live. bring on

listen bring on the AKs afraid of Sean Strickland comments I'm ready for it has nothing to do with that I would love you watching Shamaa was Strickland live I won't be covering

I will be on the next one Mike I'm sorry to leave the team a little a little short I believe our great gear made cruise will also be on helping with stuff inside but I won't be covering

but I'm not afraid of of Sean Strickland okay he's not afraid of me we're not in the same orbit I look forward just please nobody all I ask is this of Sean Strycklin

when the shot Hobbson and everyone involved in that fight. Please nobody shoot anybody during fight week. Okay? Yeah. It's all fun in games where we're big stupid jokes about it. Please, nobody, nobody die before the fight. That's all I ask.

Nobody die. That'd be great. I think it's the low bar. Are you, like, are you getting Manal Cop, Mahamakaya vibes? Oh.

This fight? I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. Okay. So you think this fight's going to deliver no matter the BS that we're going to get all week. I do have worries.

Like, I was not one of the people who reacted to Shama. you know, the win over um, uh, uh, DeLam. DDP, excuse me. You know, everyone was like, oh, he's the most boring fighter ever. Like, I didn't erase the like, like,

eight fights he'd had previously, which were all like awesome. Maybe not the Usman one. Even that I fight, I found, like, super intriguing. But like the Burns fight was amazing. All the fights he won by fast finishes. It's so weird. He had one really grindy performance. And everyone sounded like, oh, this guy's boring.

I do fear that might be the way he has to go and Strickland. I think Strickland is so tricky on the feet. And if Sharmayev can, you know, secure a take down early and realize, like, I can take this guy down whenever I want. It could, honestly, could just be that for 25 minutes. And I think Strickland is also tough to finish. My expectation is he will grapple, uh, Shemayev will grapple his way to a knockout or submission win. But I do agree there's the chance. This is not the most exciting flight.

But I am optimistic it will be. I definitely don't think it'll be due to like inactivity or overhyping, like the rivalry, like Kappen, like Kappen. copped it i don't i don't these fights go into the cards either way like if it does then this is it's an awful fight i think what i think shemeyov is either just going to blow the doors off of him in like three minutes or strickland gets him out of there in like the third round it's just going to be like one of those two things so uh we'll see what happens this is a great fight card though like this is really good. I'm very much looking forward to this one. Let me pull

up the rest of it so we can all see it. Romicopioff is booked, by the way. Because he's fighting on this card. But let's put out of the Oc. 328 lineup. Lots of do-do this week. Hopefully we're better next week. Shabai of Strickland for the middleweight title. Flying so far under the radar, Joshua

Van versus Tetsu Retirea for the flyweight title. That's the co-main event. Alexander Volkov versus the surging Waldo Cortez Acosta. That's the featured bout. Sean Brady, Joaquin Buckley, big one

in this really interesting welterweight division King Green, Jeremy Stevens kicks off the main card. Ataba, Gotee, Ozzie Diaz,

the featured prelim, Joel Alvarez, Yarsov Amasov. Holy cow, what a fight that is. That's happening. Grant Dawson, Batush,

Robechke, Jim Miller, Jared Gordon. That's the middle of the pack, four fights, and then the early prelims. Roman Coppiloff,

Marco Tullio, Pat Sabatini, William Gomi, perhaps for the Aaron Pico Championship? I don't know. Jimmy Suss, Bisingor, Sersakia versus Jordan Santos, and Clayton Carpenter, Jose Ochoa.

That is UFC 328AK. Cool. I dig it. I dig it. Again, I will keep track of it as much as I can. Again, I'll just be out of, I'm just not going to be able to cover it. But I'll be around, guys. You know, you can yell at me on Twitter. If you yell at me on Twitter,

I will see your mean tweets. So by all means, yell at me during the show. I'll certainly see them during Fight Week. Bring it on. Yes. Well, you'll be able to yell at you AK next week after your, UFC 328 on a live edition of on to the next one.

Thank you so much. Have a great risk your weekend. It's UFC 328 Fight Week, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.