MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Dricus Du Plessis, Zhang Weili After UFC 312?

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

Dricus du Plessis made it a clean sweep in his middleweight championship rivalry with Sean Strickland, and strawweight queen Zhang Weili showed Tatiana Suarez there are levels to this at UFC 312 on Saturday in Sydney. Is it time for both champions to chase superfights in other divisions? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what's next for du Plessis and Zhang as they continue their dominant title reigns, along with where Strickland and Suarez go after their disappointing losses. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for main card standouts Tallison Teixeira and Jake Matthews, plus a glance at two intriguing winners from the prelims, 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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We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hey, hello there, everybody. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. Not really awake right now. Hence the bad production by me, but that's okay. We're here to matchmake following a, I don't know even what word to describe you of C312. Memorables, probably not the word. I don't know.

We'll figure it out. Maybe we'll figure it out throughout the show. But 312 happened. Fights happened. Fighters won. Some fighters lost and we'll matchmake for some of the winners. And a couple of the fighters who do not get their hand raised on today's show. I am Mike Haken.

As you can see, the gentleman to my right, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, and my best friend, Alexander Cayley, aka how are we doing on this Sunday morning post UFC 312? I mean, my best friend, we're okay, we're okay. It was a card. It was a card. You know, we say this often about somewhat forgettable UFC events these days.

It's rare that we say it about a pay-per-view. I think that's the real shame here. Like, we've probably said this about one in every, like, six apex events. Oh, that was a card. And we mean it like, you look at, you know, you look at the cards ahead on paper and it doesn't, they don't look particularly exciting. We were certainly very critical of the USC 3-10 main event. Again, it's never a disrespect to the fighters. It's just a fact that you are getting, you know, you are getting guys and gals with a lot less experience these days on a lot less high-level experience these days, more importantly, making their U.S. debuts and we got a lot of that.

And there were some of these performers, don't get me wrong. I think some of these newcomers really impressed. we could absolutely be talking about some of these names as top 15 fighters down the road in their respective divisions. But if you spent $80 USD or $70 Canadian or whatever it is that you have to pay in your respective area, country, region to watch this. And you watched from beginning to end. You probably weren't like super satisfied. And if you only watched the main card, you probably weren't earned all that satisfied. So as you said, Mike, we'll remember some of these things.

Zhang Willie's performance I thought was outstanding. ending. And there was some good finishes. But outside of that, I don't even know if by UFC, Vegas, whatever, which one's coming up this weekend, if we'll still be talking about 312 all that much. Yeah. It was just kind of. And look, I actually, Jan and I talked about this on the post-fight show and during the

watch party. I think all in all, this very, I mean, very slightly exceeded expectations. Because the bar was very low. but we got like an outstanding performance of DDP we got an incredible performance from Zhang Wei Li we got to see Toporia make his debut because he sort of built himself up to be kind of a guy we had to pay attention to

we had a nasty knocker from Tashara the main car wasn't bad like there wasn't a lot of star power outside of the top two fights but Jake Matthews Francisco Prado is a fun fight Jimmy Kruidolfo Bellado ended up being way more fun than people probably thought it was going to be ended in a draw, which makes our lives a little bit easier on this program. So all in all, I didn't think it was, this is what was to be expected, but I think the main

card was, even though the title fights weren't all that competitive, I was intrigued by both fights, and I think we sort of figured out, like, who the best of the best is. And the thing I keep seeing a lot of, mostly with Tatiana Suarez is like, oh, she should have never got a title of fights to begin with. She didn't deserve a title shot. All of that. It's absolute ridiculousness. And say what you will about Tatiana Suarez and the performance.

This is about how great Zhang Wei Li is at the end of the day. Like, Zhang took Tatiana's best shot in the first round. That best shot usually beats a lot of women in this division. Not Zhang Wei Li. She knew she was two steps ahead of Suarez all week long through all the conversations. And when you saw her walk to the cage, Jen and I both said on the watch party, uh-oh. Tatiana is in trouble

because you just saw her face and you were like yeah she's going to kill Tatiana right now like you just have that had that feeling so great performances from them that leads to other questions and so let's just get right into it so let's talk about the main event

and where these fighters go Drick's Duplice just absolutely beats the soul out of Sean Strickland and what made this fight intriguing to me on paper AK was what is Sean Strickland going to do differently in this fight because and I said it pretty much from the moment this fight was booked. If Sean Strickland does what he did at UFC 297, he is going to get

dummied in there by Drickus 2.C and that's exactly what happened. Sean had nothing for him. DDP was landing big shots, the volume, the stand switches. I loved the bodywork from DDP. And Sean just did what Sean Strickland does. There were no changes. He got no respect from DDP in any of the exchanges, DDP just walked Strickland down the entire fight, ate everything Strickland landed, and then threw back much harder. It was just a, it was a masterclass from Drickus Duplice.

This, we don't even need the band. The band can stay over there. This is Hamzaa Chamaif. I don't think, I mean, there are obviously very interesting fights the UFC can book right now, and a lot of them are either guys moving up or down divisions

or women moving up and down divisions, but in terms of like divisional championship fights, DDP versus homicide Shemayev, you can make a compelling case, maybe outside of Jones Aspinall, this is the most interesting divisional title fight you can make right now. Yeah, I am dying. I am dying for the Shemayev title fight. I know he's not the most reliable guy. I know this could get booked and then pushed back and then delayed and then duplously has to end up fighting someone else anyway, which is fine because luckily we have, you know, we have some other challenges waiting the wings. We've got Nassardini Mavov. You've got Kaya Bahlio. You suggested last time

that Imov and Bahiao fight. So certainly you set up that fight. But then you also, as soon as you can, set up, you know, Shamiya of Duplase, and then should fingers crossed, you know, something unfortunate happened to Shamaa, and he can't make it, you pull Bahia or you pull Imovov from their matchup, and boom, you've still got yourself a title fight. So middleweight, the top four is like in a really good place right now. We finally have sort of moved on.

And I'm not saying this was a bad area to live in, but I sort of just moved on from the Addisina, Robert Whitaker, a title talk for now. there's a long shot for either the eyes to get back in there. And if they ever do, it won't be for some time. So we're ready to move on. And Shemaya is absolutely the name we need to move on to. We have wanted to see this guy fight for a title since his first year in the UFC. We saw welterweight titles in his future.

We saw middleweight tells in his future. He's, he looked so, so good against Whitaker. He's really, again, good in almost every fight he's been in outside of maybe Samoves with Gilbert Burns and, you know, somewhat disappointed, I guess, performance against Kamar Usman, which again, two fights. I still feel Shamiya have won maybe not that convincingly, but I think we learned a lot about him facing two elite guys with quite a bit more experience than he has.

So I've been all in on the Shemayo train, and yeah, we need to see him in Duplica throw down. And I would favor Shemayev, but I got to give Duplice a ton of credit because he has just, he just finds a way to win, man. It ain't pretty. It ain't pretty, Mike, but it don't got to be. Do you get your hand raised at the end of the flight in Duplacy?

I wrote this in the article we have coming up the next couple days, but he's won as many big fights at middleweight as pretty much anyone in the UFC can say. So it's a great, great ride, regardless of what happens against Hamza. I think you can make, from like a technical standpoint, I think you make a very strong case

that this is the best performance of his career. Like obviously dusting up Whitaker and stopping him was an eye opener, finishing Israel out of Sanya is huge. But top to bottom, start to finish. This is the most complete performance of Drick's Duplacy's career. Sean just, he had nothing for him. It was just, you never see that from Sean Strickland. You just don't. And DDP completely shut him down. I was just stunned that Strickland

just went up and did the exact same thing. I don't know. I don't understand it. Eric Nixon is doing his best to try to like get Sean to do something else, like throw hard, get some respect. And Sean just couldn't do it. And there are moments like, When Sean pushed forward and started throwing hard, he was having success, but what did drink his two plus he do? Anytime Strickland got forward momentum, he tackled him. He tried to take him down. He shot a double, put him on his back, even if it was just for a second.

It slowed down Sean Strickland's momentum. DDP had this read like a book. He saw everything Strickland through coming. And it's going to be kind of interesting to see where Strickland goes from here. I know Dana love Sean Strickland, spent a lot of time at the press conference putting Sean Strickland over as a professional and all this stuff and he's easy to work with. It is going to be a very tough sell to have Sean Strickland fight for a UFC title again. It is going to be a very tough sell, especially if Drick's Dupluses, he's the champion.

But even with Hamza, like, yeah, it's still kind of interesting because of Strickland can kind of outlast the early flurry of Hamzot. I still think that fight is somewhat interesting. But this division, remember where this division was when we started the show, AK? Like we're doing middle-80 middle-aid champions every single week. And now, like, this division is coming on strong. There are really good fighters on the come-up right now. And that kind of leads us to Schroclan because Robert Whitaker seems like the most popular pick right now. And I'm going to go with that just because there's a story there

and they probably should have fought to begin with before Strickland got this rematch. I don't want this fight. I don't want it. I want to see Whitaker and Strickland fight these up-and-comers. Like if Anthony Hernandez beats Brendan Allen and I expect him to do that, like I want to see Fluffy fight one of these two guys. That's what I want to see. But I don't think we're going to get it.

And unfortunately, middleweight is going to become lightweight all over again. And it's kind of tough with these guys coming. You had to say, you had to say, I was like, I was just about to follow that by saying, yeah, we don't want this to become lightweight, Mike, or even welterweight, maybe not recently. But there was that stretch with Walter Waite where it felt like. oh my gosh, these old guys are just not leaving their spots and not fighting guys below them. It happens. It happens.

I think that is, I think, unfortunately, that is a natural cycle of UFC divisions these days. You know, they get competitive, and you have a string of compelling challengers. Some people make it to a tell shot. Some people don't, but then once they reach a ranking, you know, anywhere from one to nines. And it's just they're not willing,

they want to fight everyone else in that one to nine range before possibly having to fight downward. And you can't blame them again, your time at the top is very low. You're trying to maximize pay. You're trying to make your name as big as possible for you eventually have to hang up those gloves. So I understand. I understand why Strickland wouldn't like be super thrilled about a Hernandez fight or whatever.

But prior to winning the title, he was gained pretty much for any one. So that is a distinct possibility. I went with a fight. So you mentioned Whitaker as a fight. People have always thought should happen with Strickland. I still need to see Strickland and Vitori. I still want it. It could get super ugly.

it could be one of the worst fights of the year, but I think win-loser draw in the very strange and pointless Roman Deleitze rematch, which goes down in March 15th. I still think I want Vittory to happen. And again, I don't think him beating Deleizze moves the needle that much for Marvin,

so it's not like, oh, well, now he cast a fight someone coming off a win. No, it doesn't really matter. I think Strickland still be ranked above them. I think you still make that happen. And I think it'll be a beautiful UFC Apex homecoming for Sean Strickland. do you want to add anything to that perhaps uh i don't are they are they training you

buddies are they best friends now or no what what i do i know marvin's got something going i just said he's fighting roman again oh i saw that okay yeah yeah yeah i said yeah he's and yeah he's fighting roman and like i said i know it's it's it's i don't blame you for for missing that i said that because it's such a pointless rematch i i almost i'm looking at it on my screen and And I'm like, this is happening? Can I just pretend it's not? But yeah, win-loser draw. When-Lose-Drawn.

Marvin in this room. Is Sean Stricka versus Marvin Vittory for the MMF title? The middle-weighty M-Fer championship? That might be the most middle-weight, like, middle-weighty, like, veteran fight you can make. Yeah. That's a tough. A new title. A new title just for these guys.

The MMF belt. Yeah, because RDR is the middle-weight, middle-weight champion forever. he's just he's just the best so yeah well i mean we'll see it's just god i want this division to move forward i want to see these guys get their shots like i want to see like bow nichols coming man i just i want to see what he could do against some of these guys like stop with the slow rolling let's get him in let's get bow in there with the top 15 guy and if he wins like he should be fighting one of these guys whether it be izzie or strickland or whittaker that's kind of where it should be right now i saw a lot of people saying strickland

versus Izzy rematch. I don't hate that because both guys are very much out of title contention right now. So, yeah, tough spot for Sean Strickland, getting thumped up in this fight, but we'll see what happens. I thought he handled himself with, I thought it was a really good post-fight interview with DC, even though it really wasn't, just kind of stole the mic from DC and just put DDP over and put the fans over. So, yeah, that was the middle-way title fight.

Now we move on to the co-main event. and John Wei Lee just heroic. I believed in her from day one. Go back to Paschos. I said I thought John Wiley would win this fight. And boy, did she. This was a terrific plus money bet for me. I am undefeated in my main card pay-per-view bets this year.

No losses yet. What a perfect 5-0 at UFC 3-11. I went 4-0 with my main card bets last night. Jimmy Crude, I had a bet on, but that's a draw, so we wash that right out. But I got Zhang Wei a plus money. And I bet my entire UFC 311 profit on Zhang Wei Lee against Tatyatta Swars.

That is how confident I was that she was going to win this fight. And she made it look super duper easy. What a performance. I think she is the greatest strawweight fighter of all time. And Jed and I talked about this in the buildup, and we put it in stone last night. John Wiley Lee is one of the top five women's MMA fighters of all time. She has surpassed Yuanian Jacek.

She is number five, in my opinion. But great win for her. What are we doing with John Wili? Is it at 115? Is she fighting Verna Gensuroba if Verna beats Janjohnan? Or do we see her final strawweight fight, A.K. Mike, what did you get Zhang? When did you put money down on Zhang?

I would, as soon as there was a plus number next to her. I pulled the trigger. I wish I waited. I wish I waited till yesterday because I would have got her like plus plus 130 and that would have been even sweeter. Yeah, that's the on screen. I think they're on screen,

the graphic, the UFC because they use draft king. Plus plus plus one 30. It's like plus one 30. I got her plus 130. I got her a plus 105. Man, that's wild.

I was so dumb. I, you know, I don't like to bet on MMA, but I was like, I'm with you. I've just been so confident in Jang since this matchup was announced.

And I think earlier in the week on Fanduel, she was still like minus. And I was like, oh, I'll wait. and I just totally forgot to check again by like Friday or Saturday because, yeah, I was all in on Zhang, man, and that would have been easy five bucks or whatever it is,

how little I bet when I haven't made. So, yeah, I'm a bit sad about it, but I would like to see her stay at 115, Mike. I want to see her fight Virna Janjaroba. It's weird because Verna has to fight Jan Shaunan now at UFC 314, I think. And if Jan Shaunan wins, you're not going to give her another shot at Zhang Wei right away. Like, it just wasn't that compelling about a title fight

the first time around. It was fine. Like, it was fine. But I don't think anyone after Zhang beat Jan was like, oh, I can't wait to see these two throwdown again. I mean, Jan needs at least two or three more wins over-ranked opponents. Like after she beats, if she beat Virna, I think she would need two more wins to get a rematch for Zhang. And by that time, Zhang, like we said, might have moved up to 125. So maybe Jan just keeps yourself fights for a vacant title at that point. Anyway, I'm sort of rooting for Virna here, nothing against Jan-chanan. So I said, yes, after Vyerna beats Jan-Janon at UFC 314, then we see her fight to Jean.

But that's a lot of moving pieces. So I want to see a stable 115. I'm not quite ready for the Valentina fight yet. Like if it happened, amazing. I would just feel a bit bad for Vierna if she won. And a bit bad, of course, for Menon Firo, who is already done more than enough to earn a shot at Shochenko. How can I say this in the most respectful way?

I have no interest in Zhang Wili versus Bairdha. I think Zhang Li obliterates Verna. This is not a competitive fight in any way. This is an annihilation. And I know Verna has looked real good and it's going to be an interesting fight with Yan Jonan.

There's a part of me that's probably going to wait to see what the betting line looks like. And if Yan Jonan is like a good-sized underdog, I'm going to probably have a somewhat confident bet on Jan Janan in that fight. John Lee is going to wreck her. I don't really have an interest in seeing this. So, of course, like, maybe Zhang will wait to see.

But it seems like even when I talked to her this week, she just wants to go to 125. She wanted to go to 125. She didn't even want to fight Tatyana Swar. She didn't even want to defend this belt. The reason she was out was she was preparing to move up. The UFC wanted her to move up. That's why they sat her, where they sat her, at UFC 306,

watching the Valenzina Shepchenko Alexa Grasso trilogy fight. She was prepared to move up and challenge one of these women. They were hoping to maybe, it seemed like they were hoping to get something done before the end of the year. Didn't happen. The timing didn't work out.

And I think we saw her last fight at 115. I think that's it. I think that's it. Here's what I'll say, though. I did not like what I heard from Dana White last night. Did not like it one bit. Because I think, especially with the being a contract,

year. I think there's a real world and this would suck ass that Manon gets screwed here. And I would hate that. Like Manon Fioro, I know we don't like to use the word deserves in these types of discussions, but Manifior deserves a shot at the belt. 100%. So here's what I will say. Jean-Gle-Lie's next fight will be for the women's flyway title against the winner. The winner of Valentina Shiff Jacob versus Amanda Fior. You let Manon get her shot. I think Montreal would be a perfect place for that fight. Co-main event.

I don't know what the main event would be. Do Valentina Manon in Montreal. Winner of that fight, let Zhang bulk up a little bit more and hit the weights and just beef up a little bit more. Maybe MSG, November, one of two or three title fights, we do Jean-Wee Lee versus either Valentin

or Manon for the flyweight belt. That's what I think. Yeah. Zhang said right after, if the timing is right, that's the fight I want. And that timing, that timeline you just laid out makes perfect sense. Again, the best late plans in MMA often go awry, we understand. But if you're the UFC, I think you can pencil that in. I think that's your, there's a lot of cards left to fill in for the next 10 months.

I think that's a very rough plan that they should have. I think they should talk to Zhang Relese team. They should talk to Valentina's team, talk to Mendoza. Talk to all the parties involved and let them know, like, this is how this could work out. There's a lot of money we can make here, mostly the UFC making the money, but you guys know what I mean. So yeah, I would like to see that. Again, I'm just a stickler for like meritocracies sometimes. And also, you know, I still have that dream of fighters, you know, stringing together those five, six, seven tile defenses in a row.

Like days of your, Mike, like days of your. But I understand that that's probably not going to happen anymore. I think our equivalent now of, you know, that Mighty Mouse, GSP, John Jones, Andrews, Silver, run is like five. I think if you record like five title defenses now, it's like, oh, well, now. inflation, I guess reverse inflation. Five teladivances now are the equivalent of nine, ten, eleven teladences 15 years ago, but I don't know.

So I want to see more straway tail defenses, but no one would complain if the plan was for Zhang to move up. No one would complain, of course, if Valentina fought Mano first. And then I don't know what we do with Virna if she beats Jan Shaunan. Like, again, it feels like you have to give a tell shot at some point. So maybe it ain't. If Zhang moves up, she needs to vacate the title. Right.

Like without question. If that's what she's going to do, she needs to vacate. So if Verna wins, she threw them in, but the U.S. he doesn't do that shit. So maybe it's an interim belt, Verna versus, I don't know if you could throw Satyana in there, but maybe do Vrana McKenzie Dern too? Well, let's jump ahead here, Mike. Let's jump ahead here.

That's what I want for Suarez. I want for the fight. Same. That's not even a ban one. McKenzie, right? Yeah, that's the fight I've wanted ever since Swares came back. Like, you'll just do that. I think we had both, I feel like when, after Dern's last win, we had both, we were both down with Jillian Robertson, right?

Right. Didn't we both say Jillian, I don't remember. We were both down with Jillian Robertson. But she is reportedly, we have not confirmed yet. Reportedly, Gillian Robertson is fighting Marina Rodriguez at UFC Des Moines. UFC Des Moines, May 3rd. This is, again, we did not report this yet. This is what I've seen on topology. This is what I've seen out on the internet.

So it's possible that that's not locked in, but that is what we're hearing. for me, that frees up McKenzie Dern again, I think you go with her and Suarez. And yes, maybe they get, maybe this is how, again, Suarez gets her shot at a title again, again, vacant, we're talking about vacant, and maybe McKenzie Dern finally gets a title shot. Like, it would, it's not a perfect scenario.

Fans would probably not view whoever won, even if it was like vacated by Zhang. I know people would view whoever won Tatiana versus McKenzie as like, maybe not the real champion. But hey, that's what happens when you, have a champ as dominant as Zhang and she decides to move up. She's going to leave something in her in her wake, right? I mean, I think we still fail that way with like Amanda Nunes.

Amanda Nunes, straight up retired. No one viewed Raquel for Pennington. I am so sorry, Raquel Pennington or Julianne Pena now as like the, oh, wow, clear cut best woman of the world at 135 because Amanda Nunes is still alive, unfortunately. Unfortunately, very fortunately, Amanda Nunes still alive. I mean, unfortunately for her rivals that her presence is still felt. So I don't know. That'll probably have been Zhang too.

but hey gold is gold championship pay is championship pay tatyana swires and uh and if you're not at jondrova or mackenzie darence can get in on that the more the merrier the more the merrier so there's there's a path here like this isn't as messy as it sounds there's definitely a path for big fights ahead for a lot of these women in this picture here yeah i look it was a bad loss for tatiata like this this is bad i think people thought this is going to be much more competitive i thought it was like going to be a 49 46 but I even gave the first I gave the first round to Zhang too like I know I'm mostly it was a bias pick because I had the bet on Zhang but like Tatiana did nothing like she got

the takedown but she just laid on top and Zhang at least was like throwing elbows off the off of her back and then the end of the round she got she reversed position actually landed strikes like people need to understand that a takedown is just a position change if like that is it. Like if Tatian is just literally laying on top of her and no strikes are thrown, there's no reverse a position or nothing, sure, you give her that. But Zhang did stuff, which is why I gave her the first. And I know I'm not a, I think one judge.

No, no, no, no. Everyone gave Tatia out of the first round. But that's kind of where I was. But Suarez is tough as shit, man. She got drilled a lot in that fight. She got hurt real bad with the right hand from Zhang and was able to battle through it. She was taking some big, big, big shots in this fight and made it to the final horn. And there you go.

Swarer is, she'll be back. I think people underestimated the physical gap between the two. Zhang is an incredible athlete. She's in peak, peak physical condition for a woman competing 115 pounds. Like this is my, this is only one reason I would, I would not warrant go to 125. It's just like, like I said, she has to bulk up properly because it's not her ideal class, not just being smaller. But like, you know, sometimes fighting it a heavier class is just not that that's not, that's not. where you're at your best.

It's just weight that is not helping you. But at 115, I mean, we just said, Zhang is the best of all time. And when you think of, you know, it's too bad for Suarez. Again, she's missed a lot of her career with injuries. She was, she was, had, you know, she competed in wrestling before MMA.

Like, there's so much wear and tear on her body. She recently turned 34 years old. Just from a physical standpoint, she was already a deficit against Jane. And you guys saw that. Like, there was parts in the later, later in the fight, where Zhang was just grat like with an underhook, not like a takedown,

just like muscling Tatiana down. Like she is so, so, so powerful. And this is not like it has nothing to do with poor technique on Suarez's part. Sometimes you're just in there with an absolute hoss. And she got hossed a couple of times, which is crazy because she's often been the one doing the hossing in the past. So I don't know, I don't want to be too critical as Suarez. I think she's a really good fighter. But it is hard, I think, at the stage of your career.

And just with how much her body has gone through. to see her ever really putting on a competitive fighting against Shang. But again, that's not the issue she has to worry about the moment. She has to worry about what's next for her. And if she can get back to a title or a vacant title shot. Let's move on. Talasyn Teshera. We're wondering, this main car is kind of a weird fight upon the main car.

But now we understood why, because Talosin Desherr is a monster. And Justin Toffel was put on this main card for one reason and one reason only to get obliterated. And that is exactly what happened here. That nasty, there's a need of the body that really hurt Justin. Then the elbow just was so nasty. And 31 seconds later, the fight was over. Nice breath of fresh air, I guess, for the new middleweighty middleweight division, which is heavyweight.

It's just some tough scenes over there. I went with Thomas Peterson. Like, I know Thomas just got knocked up by Shemil Gadsiev, but, like, we need a, we can't just roll. There's like 27 heavyweights in the roster. We can't just throw him into a top 15 fight right now. Let's see what he can do with Thomas. Like, Thomas is not the easiest out of all time.

If he goes in there and just dusts up Thomas Peterson in a minute, then we can start talking top 15 fights, but we don't need to sprint with young Talasin right now. No, I went for it, Mike. I went for it. I gave him gaze. I gave him gaze. I get.

I understand. Gizzeef probably should be moving up. I don't think we matched him up. I don't remember if he was your wild card or not. No, I'm fine with throwing them in there together. Like it's not a deep roster. Oh, no. I just thought of what's really going to happen.

Oh, no. Salca boy? Salasso. No, no, no. What is your guess? Chris Barnett? The main event of UFC, the UFC. The main event of UFC Des Moines is Derek Lewis versus Talos of the Sherry.

Like, I wish I was joking when I say that. Don't say. But I think they're going to do this is this is exactly. what they do with Derek Lewis? They just throw them in there with these like, oh, Derek Lewis is fighting a six foot seven tank. And then Derek will beat him and it's just like, all right, cool. Great. We have a, we have a super chat, Mike, from Akilaz Jr. who has other plans for Derek Lewis, not immediate, that's for sure. Acquilis Jr. says Lewis versus Roars and Stryke in the GFL five years later. That's a hell of a pick, assuming GFL even exists five years from now.

Assuming that you've, they exist now. Oh, yeah. That's, they exist today. That's a question. That is a question. But I do like the thought that somehow, somewhere we will see Derek Lewis and a Jarrah's Jr. Broza's strike fight. It is heavyweight. Honestly, it could happen in five years somewhere. Oh, no.

Joseph. Oh, no, Joseph. Not the doo-doo. Boza. Come on, man. Too early for do-do, Joseph. Come on. Come on.

It's not even noon Eastern time yet. Yes, Mick Parkin is booked. Joseph Wilson, McParkin is booked. He's fighting the great Martin Tibura for his chance to be a ranked heavyweight. So unless he already is in the UFC rank. I know he's not in ours. My original pick for Tashir was going to be Kennedy and Succu, but he's booked. He's also a losing.

Lose, he's got a loose guy. Martin Boudai on April 5th. How can I forget? Oh, no, I'm sorry. Mick Parkin is in the UFC rankings. I apologize. Mick Parkin is number 13. So he's already top 15.

He's looking to go top 10, top 10 if he beats Martin Zabura. So, yeah. Yeah, but great. Parkin's going to fight Sergey Pavlovich. He wins this fight. I think he should. If you 5 and 0 in the UFC, what else can he do? But yeah, good for Talison.

He's got to, a gimmick, you know, he's his name, the name is memorable. He's literally a tall man. He is a giant. And all first round finishes, throw him, forget it, throw him in there. If he gets, if he gets, quote, quote, exposed, he gets exposed. He has a lot of fights slipped in him. I don't think he's like a rebellist to Spain type guy. I think he's a little more well-rounded. Shout-us to rebels and all the asses kicking in karate combat. And I don't think we've seen the last of him in the UFC, by the way. I know he's, I know he's a bit older and probably stick around in karate combat. It's probably the best thing to do. But maybe, maybe, maybe we get

Rebellis, a few more fights in the UFC somewhere down the line, but you mean GFL heavyweight rebellus is Oh Lord team Miami's own he is right? Oh gosh, he is on oh yeah yeah he got drafted the same night right that he like K-oed some fool and yes oh gfl how do we keep talking with the GFL I don't know he just keeps They've done a great job of they've done it yeah something done a great job of like like just generating buzz but no one believing there will actually put on an event right now. So let's move on to, well, we don't need to move on to Jimmy Crute and Rodolfo bollato because they fought to a draw. So shout out to those guys. They have shortened the show by a good four to five minutes here. But that's tough for a bet on Jimmy Crute.

Did you? A man fought for my money. He fought from my money and I was proud of him. Do you get, is that a, that's a loss, right? It's a push. It's a push. Oh, okay. But can't you, guys, it's just how little I gamble. You can't bet draw. Bet is not, you can't bet on a draw? You can bet draw. Oh, so you can bet on a draw. And if you've been a draw, obviously, it doesn't happen, then you lose that. It has to be a draw. It has to be a draw.

But if you've bet on any other outcome and it's a draw, you get a push. It's not a push. That's not fair. They should take your money. You should have to pick your money. You should have to pick a draw. It's a tie. It's a tie.

Like in Blackjack, if the dealer gets 20 and I get 20, they should take my money because I didn't win. Yeah. No, it's a tie. Yeah. These gambling websites don't make enough money, I say. I always say. It's not fair.

I say it's not fair to the house. I always say the house never wins. Have you heard that before? Yeah, I've heard that. It's a very famous saying, so I feel bad for the house. They beat Jed last night, I can tell you that. Oh, no. He had a tough night.

Oh, no. He had a tough night. So now we move on to Jake Matthews, who gets a victory over Francisco Prado. I like Francisco Prado a lot. He is just not a welterweight. He's certainly not a welterweight to Jake Matthews's size. But Prado is going to be fun. I kind of hope he just takes.

lightweight seriously, but he might just be one of those classic tweener guys that just doesn't have a home, which is kind of wild. What's the weight classes in GFL again? I'm so sorry to keep bringing this up. What's that? This is 165, right? Is it in GFL? So the way Darren explained it to me was the weight classes remain the same, but they're open

to like catch weight fights, so there's not significant weight cuts. So if like they draft a lightweight, so to speak. speak. Like Kevin Lee, let's just say Kevin Lee's a lightweight. And he's fighting Tony Ferguson, but both guys agree ahead of time. Like, hey, man, don't really need to make 155 like it's due to 165. They'll be like, all right, let's just do that. You know what I mean?

But again, is this really a thing? We don't know. Hopefully for Francisco Frotto it is. Maybe there's a world for him somewhere. Shout out Alexander. Appreciate you. Alexander, Hurst. Thank you.

Wow. He said, coffee on me. There you go. And Mike is indulging right now. Yeah. It just landed right on my desk because of that super chat. Thank you so much. Wow, that was amazing.

But you know what, AK, normally we get upset when fighters try to matchmake for us. There was a time where we got upset about that. Now I welcome it with open arms, especially if it makes sense. And why don't you tell us what we're going here? Like, we're not even going to queue up the band. We're just both going the same direction. A veteran fighter calling out another veteran fighter on Twitter. you know that usually works out.

And I think this makes sense. So what are we going with? Yeah, Jake Matthews, I mean, he wants Neil Magni. Neil Magny responded, as he said, on the social medias. And it's good. It's a bit weird. Like, I'm looking at my own rankings. I have actually, Jake Matthews pretty low just because he's had a strange few years before

last night. He had alternated wins and losses in his past seven fights. One fight he'd look like a world beater, Andre Fialio, for example, Jen Rishu. And then the next fight, he's, like, dropping a listless decision to Matthew Semmel's burger. So it's hard to put Jake, like, in the top 30, even. You know he can compete with anyone in the top 30. He just hasn't given you top 30 results. But it, and honestly, from outside of the top 15 to where I would have Jake, which is somewhere in the 40s, like, it's, there's a lot.

Like, it's pretty close. It's a very deep roster that Welterweights. And it's a blobby at the moment. Like, I have Chidi and Jukwani, like, many spots ahead of Jake Matthews. Is he that much better than Jake Matthews? Probably not. It's just the results. The guys he's beaten, he's up in the top 30, and Jake Matthews isn't.

So Neil Magni, I have at 16 in my rankings, and it sounds crazy to give Jake that fight. But again, there's a lot of guys who would pick outside the top 30 to give Neil a competitive fight. Jake Matthews is certainly one of them. So let's not complicate this. He did us a favor. Happy to see Matthews and Magny next. Agreed. Agreed.

Let's move on to the wildcard round, AK. Let's select one fighter who have not matched for yet. and matchmake for them right now. Who did you go with? I went with Cody Steele. Cody Steele. I'm like, yeah. You did too?

No. Oh, finally. No, after the way, after his fight IQ yesterday, no way. With supportive reaction, my best friend anyway. Yeah,

I was really looking forward to Cody's debut. I didn't love the matchup with Rong Ju. I did think Cody would win. I didn't think Cody would win. I thought he, and this is foolish, consider if anyone who has watched Cody in MMA, I thought he would go to his grappling a bit. Just for his first UFC by, I thought he would go to his grappling. He's been a very, very competitive

grappler in the past. He had to think he won an EBI. He's been in there with some amazing names. Hasn't beaten some of the best names in grappling. But he's been in there. You know, the fact that he's matched up with him tells you kind of the level where he's at. And there was a lot of, like, expectation for Cody. And on the regional scene, he's been very good. But he's also like, if you didn't know about his grappling background, you would think, oh, this guy's like a striker or or maybe like a former wrestler with heavy hands because he loves to throw down. Cody still loves to throw down.

I just thought against Rongju, he might go back to his roots just to secure that first few of his winning, but nope. Nope, he went toe to toe with a fighter who is pretty much known for his striking. Rong Ju also gets submitted a lot. So if Cody had decided to go to that,

well, probably would have done okay. He didn't, but he's an exciting fighter. He did some Michael Chandler cosplay on Saturday. day and I somewhat respect it. I'm giving him this is probably a bad idea. I'm giving him Dennis Buzuchat. Again, it's a similar thing

where if it stays on the feet, it's probably a toss-up and Dennis could probably knock him out, though he showed an amazing chin, Cody Seal. But I want to give him another chance to grapple. Just mix some martial arts a little bit. Don't become the next George Gergel, Cody.

This is all like, Don't become like George. There's the comparison I'm Twitter. Everyone knows, all the old heads know what I'm talking about, like a guy who is highly vaunted. And he doesn't have the accolades of George, but highly vaunted grappler who you just, you feel like if they put all of their tools together

could rise up the ranks quickly. If he just wants to be a fight of the night winning guy, which he did on Saturday, good for him. You make a lot of money that way. But you also got to win fights here and there. So I'm giving him another chance. Show off that grappling little. Let's go with Bazook Chin's Steel.

I'm going with the third most important story to come out of UFC 312, in my opinion. Alexander Tuporia makes his debut. A lot of hype around this young man. And what an interesting guy. I was so blown away by how calm, cool, collected, and confident he was heading into this fight, but was still very respectful of Colby thickness. And, you know, there are certain things Colby said that he paid attention to that kind of rubbed him the wrong way. and there's one in particular thing that Colby said was like when we get to round three,

I'm going to drag him into the deep water. And Teporia, like just drowned him in round three, just tackled him and just made him work and made him suffer in that third round. And I was just like, man, this is, this is a guy who is figuring it out and he was very calm and relaxed in there. He didn't go for broke even at certain, at certain points. This guy is very reckless in there. going for the finish and he had fictus hurt bad and rather than going for the kill and get a little

too ahead of himself he stayed relaxed stay composed so i want to throw him in with another guy that is going to be weird and somewhat reckless against him and a guy who can be finished but he is still very very tough at the same time and a guy that you kind of just throw these if you're trying to build somebody up this is a perfect guy to throw him in there with so I'm going Alexander Tuporia versus Ricky Tersio, say, K, for our next fight. Pulling the Ricky card. I love it. I love it.

I think he absolutely can style on Ricky. And I'm a big Ricky guy. The man has heart for days. The man is truly a character. I wish he was just a little more skills so he could fulfill his Diego Sanchezian destiny. And I mean that in all the positive ways that you can when you talk about Diego. but you're right i think this is his lot in life right now is to uh you know be a guy with somewhat recognizable name to be fed to um up-and-coming bantan waits and that is alex

nancy tippori at the moment he looked he looked great he looked great i wish that should have been on the main card um with with respect to matthews imprado and crude and balato which were not bad fights at all i still feel like i was a missed opportunity to put um to put to parry on there and give him like a bit of a soft push you know give him a soft push yeah i just i just i see some people saying like let's throw them in there with loke dog and stuff i'm like no please no don't do that let's let's this man cook a little bit like look at what go back and watch ilia tippori's debut against us of salal like you saw things in that fight where you're just like all right this guy's solid because yusuf's like a decent fighter but yusuf is also kind of on the on the schneide and those

that win ages terrifically now seeing what yusel has become on the second go around but it wasn't until tuporia fought damon jackson in his second fight where we're like Damn, this guy, this guy's a problem. So it was almost like, this debut reminded me a lot of Ilias in a lot of ways. Whereas just, you see flashes of brilliance. You know there's something there, but he kind of was conservative about the approach. And then when Tuporia fought Damon Jackson, boy, that was not the same dude that fight uses all. He obliterated him.

So I think Tersios is actually like a really good opponent to kind of see like, if we'll get a not tepid tapiria but a conservative toporia or if he'll be a little more aggressive looking for the finish a little bit more that's mostly why I want to see this fight

but I don't want to see him in there with a rank guy yet this division is way too deep right now work your way up get a couple of wins and then we could we could talk about this but yeah I just don't want to see it like I don't want to see him in there with like Jonathan Martinez right now like I just think that's a little too soon let's relax and ricky rickie's a nice little step up if he wins that fight then you know

we could start thinking about some of these other names you can start talking about the hyoni barcellos of the world if we want to even then that might even be a little too much but yeah this is this is what a seventh pro fight yeah come on let's let's let's relax six and one let me see 10 and one let me see 10 and 1 or or 9 or 9 or even look he can even take a loss in there nine and two, but with, you know, a competitive loss in there and like a sort of a litmus test battle in there. Like he doesn't need to go on this undefeated run to the title. Like he's, he's young enough. He's young enough. He's the slightly older brother, right? Am I crazy or is he the slightly older brother? He's the slightly older brother by a year and seven days.

Yeah, yeah. It's real close. Less than two years. Less than two years separate in them for sure. So yeah, there's time. I know featherweight is a one of a young man's division, But I wouldn't, you know, I think until you hit like 33 or 34 is when you start worrying about like, oh, this person is too old to be a prospect. Like, no, he's still in that prospect range. And again, he can take a loss early on. But let's not make that happen in the next couple of fights. You know, maybe you give him a step up after he's three and O in the O'C. And then if that goes his way, then we're, you know, four and O, then we're really talking about a big opponent.

But yeah, let me see 10 in 1 or 9 and 2 before we talk about top of 15 opponents. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game.

It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPan members on equipped flights sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. Ontario, the wait is over.

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Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. All right. Let's go to the peeps, A.K. Let's go. I'm shouting at them in the comments. I said, send the picks, I said.

Rapid fire. Tristan. Sal Kild versus Evan Elder, Tashara versus Marcus, Jerry Delima. I don't hate that. Are there any Anshal Jubilee picks out there? I feel so bad for my boy, Jubilee. You know, you guys, everyone knows.

I have married into a beautiful Indian family, and they don't care about MMA, but I've been trying to sell them on Anshul Jubilee as the man to usher India and to a golden age of MMA. And not great. his last two fights Mike. Great. TKO via barking and now a 19 second knockout.

So hopefully, hopefully Jubilee can get it together and stay in the UFC. But or he might need to go back to the regional scene or the international scene and then revisit this whole UFC thing. It's not looking good so far. I mean, I'm not going to throw up any DDP homicide ones because that's obvious. Wayley versus the winner of Werner versus John.

First of all, the Verna fight is an, it is a, it is a, it is a, it is a, absolute wreck. Like, Zhang absolutely destroys Vereda Ginger Robot. We already saw Jan Jonan. And that was less than a year ago, Jan Janon fighting Zhang. And I've zero interest in seeing that fight again.

So sure if she wants to stay there, but I think she's done, man. I think she's done with Strawade. Yeah, I just can't imagine anyone wants to see her fight Jan again within the next ever. I don't honestly ever. I'm trying to think of a timeline

where Jan could get that title fight again. And like we said, probably vacant. That's probably Yon's best shot at fight. for the belt. Double do-doo for Tashara. Mick Park and is booked, Joseph, come home. We just told you this. And Jimmy Co. Jimmy Crew versus Bolato 2.

Run back all, run back all drops. I don't mind that one. Yeah, run back all draws. Simamcali. Strickland versus Robocop if he wins against Cannoneer next week. Apex main event. Very possible. Seporia versus Jake Hadley. Jake Hadley's not in the UFC anymore.

Jake Hadley's not in the U.S. I think you're right. I think Jake Hadley was released. Well, I mean, a re-sign. And Jake's typically a flyweight. I know he has last couple of fights at Bannamweight, but Hadley's not in the UFC anymore. I don't know if he's under... Maybe he meant rebook...

Maybe he meant rebook Cody Haddon? Oh, maybe. I honestly kept getting... The Cody Hadden thing had me confused with. Cody Haddon, Cody Durden, and Jake Hadley. I was like, this is neither of those guys, right? This is not Cody Durden or... It was very confusing.

It's very confusing. Oh, my God. So funny. Let's see. Nolan versus Brong Ju. Jake Matthews is the winner, Chaos Williams versus Bonfee. He hasn't fucked?

No, he hasn't bought Chaos. Okay. Toporia versus Taylor Lappalus. That's a big experience gap, isn't it? That's a big experience gap. Right? Okay, that's a massive experience gap.

Okay, I don't love it. Is Taylor booked? Let me just, let me just look real quick. No, you'd just be Vince Morales in September. All right. All right. I mean, I think it's, no, it might be a little soon.

People are high. in Teporia, man, they're high on it. But it's weird, because people have to remember, he's also not in a rush to fight for the title because he's, you know, Marabs's boy. They've talked about like they would like to see obviously Marabs stay at 135 and then and then Tuporia will move up to 145 and then, sorry, we'll move up to 150. And then Alexandria can go after their battle. Like they have this whole, they have this whole buddy, buddy, buddy plan to, that they can all, you know, be champions in multiple divisions or whatever. But yeah, there's no rush. There's no rough.

Marab's his buddy. He does not want to fight Marab in the next year. So I don't see why he would rush. Gerard Stricklandianov, too, Swar's Durnies with both of us. To share a junior tuffa. Let's just run the brother gauntlet here. Matthews Dalby, Santos, Kyle Nelson, Nolan versus Joe Selecki, Tongue versus Morose.

She can't be. And Taborier versus Bernardo Supai. Moros has to have been released. Am I crazy? I think so. I don't know. I honestly don't know. There's so many fighters these days.

There's just so many fighters. I swear she got her release or I'm just assuming because she's been into slump. So don't quote me on that. She at least inactive on USC.com says active, which doesn't mean that she hasn't been released, but it's certainly possible. She says in five and a half a minute. Jake Matthews versus Randy Brown from Conan Zina. File that under.

like I would have thought that fight happened, but I think he's right. I don't think they fought, right? Maybe it's booked, but I don't think Jake Matthews. No. Conan and Zina, we're booking fighters who fought yesterday. Juliana Rosa versus Chepe, Chepa Maryscull. What? I'm heard, Chepe, I believe Chepe is booked.

I believe Juliana Rosa is booked as well. We haven't like 100% fully confirmed this, but I'll say this. the UFC is discussing Julina Rosa versus Darren Alkins for the Miami card. That's a lot of fights. That's a lot of fights combined for those two. So all I'll say is

this is this is not official report to be like, oh, Mike X says this. All I'll say is don't be surprised if that fight gets announced. I'll leave it at that. Did you see Neil Steele, Deporia versus that Irish guy who walked out with no music

and flicked off the crowd and was booed? Was that, no, was that Lockerin? That's not Lockerine. Kowlin Lockron, right? Okay. Yeah, was I, am I getting him confused? Is there more than one? I feel I'm getting confused or not, but I think that's who it was, right?

Yeah, I think that's who it was. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah, definitely was. Yeah. He is reportedly, reportedly fighting Nathan Fletcher. No, not before I'm sorry.

This is announced. This is the, that was announced. He is fighting. Nathan? Nathan. Yeah, I'm not in. So maybe, maybe the loser that fight? I don't know.

Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. that's a funny little show right there it's a funny little show uh jimmy crew versus johnny walker lunar new year lunar lunar lunar new year poop show uh that would be that would be a wild fight that that would be i again that's light heavyweight is kind of we've talked about this many times kind to become the new middleweight like because middleweight like we said got intriguing at the top at least and we got some contenders coming up light heavyweight is creating a lot of matchups where you're just

like have these guys fought before or i had never had any interest of these guys fighting before And yes, we get a highlight real knockup, but we could also get just three horrible, horrible rounds of action. And again, Crout and Palato was pretty good. But I don't know. You could have a lot of trouble with some of these matchups. Poetan gets past Ankylaif and DDP to beat Shemayef in October, let's say. Would DDP versus Poetton in December be on par with the biggest fight the UFC can make along with Aspinall versus Jones?

I'm sorry, Mike, put that up again. I totally blanked out. Let me read that again. So if Pereira beats Ankylaif and DDP beats Shemaiah, would DDP versus Pereira be on par with the biggest fight the UFC can make along with Aspinall Jones? By the way, let me just say this before you answer. I don't think Aspinall versus Jones is the biggest fight the UFC can make right now. I don't even think it's the biggest fight you can make for John Jones right now.

Go ahead, Mike. I think Jones versus Pereira is bigger. Jones. Oh, yes, yes, yes. It's a bigger. I would rather see Aspenol, but there's no doubt about it that Pereira is bigger. whole time has much more mainstream cachet than espinal. And again, if I had to choose, I would rather see Aspinall and Jones.

But you can't, you can't argue with the drawing power of Perra and John Jones. I will say if DDP tries to fight Alex Padeta the way he fought Strickland in both those fights, DDP will die. DDP will die. He needs to tackle Alex Padetta. There can be some moments in the feat. Don't be wrong. Pareda can get hit.

Like he's not a flawless, like defensive fighter. But anyone who watched DDP, yes, he won very clearly on the Oc312, but like, there's so many awkward moments. And I actually was thinking like, what if this was Alex Fadetta instead of Sean Strickland? Instead of eating like a counter jab for making a mistake, it was like a Poetan right hand. It's like it would not end well. So I don't love that matchup. I just not curious, even though DDP has been, you know, saying he wants it down the road. And even said in an interview once, like, we can knock Alex Panetta out on the feet.

I'm like, that's just classic trash talk for me. I don't think he believes that. Teporia versus Felipe Lima, Jean versus Chavchenko-Fiora winner, Strickland versus Kayo, Swares versus retirement. Oh, come on. I wouldn't blame her if she retired, though.

I will say. If I'm Tatiana, again, even if Zhang is going to move up? I don't want to compare Suarez to Dom because the careers are completely different. Dom, Dominic Cruz, you know, who also just retired this week, we got like a pretty complete picture right there there is that latter stage of his career where we feel

and parts of his prime where we feel disappointed we just didn't get more dominant cruise fights right we just didn't get to see um like he fought almost everyone we want to see him fight except for aldo but we'll wonder oh what if he had fought this guy at this time instead would the result of indifferent and different um so there are questions around dominant cruz's career so obviously it's very different but again for tatiana all the reasons i outlined earlier like there's just so much wear and her and just so many accumulating injuries she must have felt so reliant leave to even just make it to the Oc-12 title fight and to go five rounds and to just put her whole heart into it. I don't know how she motivates herself to make that climb again,

except for the reasons you said, Mike Bear, there's a possibility of a vacant title to go for. Run Izzy versus Gasolm 2. Kelvin's still active. Calvin's fighting. He's booked on that Mexico City card. He's fighting Joe Pfeiffer. Oh, yeah, right. Good matchup. Good match up. Good match me. What else we got? Do you see us? Yeah. Shout out to Steve. Who headlines the next Aussie card. Boy. The lineups, the last couple go-arounds, have not been good.

The next Aussie card, are we assuming like, it could be like a Perth or something, right? And it won't be a, it doesn't have to be paper-view, right? Or they're all been pay-per-views. Most, yeah. They don't do, they don't do, we're going to do fight nights in, yeah. I mean, did you see, did you watch the broadcast last night?

They ain't paying for no fight nights. They're paying for the full pay-per-bue treatment, baby. Yeah, yeah. though they give us a fight night level lineup i'll tell you so you know i don't know how people feel but that who headlines the next aussie card wow i don't know man uh no one from 312 right i'm just trying to think so who competed on 312 there's a lot of australian fighters ddp's fought in australia two times in a row man um maybe ddp's the new face of australia i guess so uh who is a champion right now we're close to kai kara France and Pentosia?

I mean, are they going, they're not going to go back to Australia this year. Oh, I don't know. Okay. Then I definitely have next year. I cannot possibly answer the question then because I. It's tough. Yeah. If Kai's a good question.

Sure. If Volk's the champion, like if Volk beats Deporia, that's who you do the trilogy fight. So tough to say. If not just DDP versus whoever is there because DDP's Mr. Australia right now. Good question, though. Something to think about. Yeah. Du-do-do

To-Pory versus Talbot No, you can't do that Although you might like that, A-K I think it's fun I'd like to see it down the road I don't think it makes sense To do it next Well, the announces on to something

When they said Tatian's knee Is messing with their head But I didn't really hear the commentary Okay So I don't think that would have made any difference To give the question some Some extra weight

Her corner was telling her sort of like not to look at it in between rounds. And she said she, I think I can't remember if it was up to round three or round four. I said in our slack like, man, like Tatiana wants out. And not just from obviously the one side of the way the fight was going. She did look concerned about the knee. Not like, not like she wanted to quit. I don't think she wanted to quit, but she was saying things about, she did notice the cut.

And she was saying like, what was the, oh my gosh, I can't remember her exact way. She didn't say she wanted out. But people in the comments, if you remember, she definitely addressed the cut and was concerned about it. Did it matter for the rest of her performance? Probably not. Again, even if that knee is fine. I think Zhang's still dominant with a similar way, but it was gnarly to look at. It wasn't already to look at. And I wouldn't blame her at all if she was just like a little bit, you know, put off her game by seeing this very nasty looking gash in her knee. Again, especially considering all the, all the injuries she's had. Yeah. No, I mean, it doesn't make

I see this is not relative to this card necessarily, Crazy Pato asking which heavyweight did UFC sign to improve their division? Again, there's really not a guy. Miles Garrett. I was going to say, you have to develop a pipeline from like collegiate sports or pro sports to make it happen because we say this time and time again. If you're an athletic person above 220 pounds and you're a young person, your goal is not to fight in the UFC.

I'm sorry. That's a harsh thing to say. Your goal is to make it in football or basketball or some other professional sport and make tens of millions of dollars if you can pull it off. If that doesn't work out, then you consider a career in MMA. There's certainly exceptions to that. I'm sure there's guys who have been young fighters, young kickboxers, generally in other countries as well.

But that hedgeweight talent pool, it's not out there, man. It's not out there. And a lot of names you're looking at, like a Phil de Frees or, of course, like a Francis and Ganoo or some of the other guys from PFL, like maybe Hanan Fadeh, that makes the jump. These are older guys, man. I mean, these are guys who already has some mileage on them. So I don't think there's any sign that you can make to just juice up the heavyweight division. I don't like this phrase, but it is what it is. It is what this. Yeah. And, you know, this seems to be a big topic in the chat when it comes to the knee.

I'm sure she thought about it. Yeah. Again, I didn't hear the, I haven't, I can't judge it because I didn't hear it. Thank you. Slito in the chat reminder. So she said, how bad is it? She kept, She kept asking how bad is it. Which again, not the craziest thing to ask, but you have to kind of hear how she said it. To say that's why she got dominated is insane. It's absolutely insane. It's an excuse for her. You can't do that.

Yeah, yeah. I don't think anyone's, uh, I think there's no differently without the cut of, I. I agree. But I do think it certainly affected her just like in a negative way. But I don't think it makes a difference a lot. Yeah. And it's just one of those things. Like if they fight, if they fight a hundred times,

Zhang probably wins 99 of them. There's just levels. And that was my biggest thing about the whole thing. Like, Zhang has fought fighters as good as Tatiana Suarez. There was this whole narrative like, she's never fought anybody as good as Tatiana. I'm like, you're fucking crazy if you say that. But you cannot make a case that any case that Tatiana Suarez has fought anybody near as good as Zhang Wei.

Like she wins like Jessica Andraj, a good win. But this is not 2017 Jessica And Raj. She fought 2024. Jessica Andrage, who fought a billion times over the last two years and got finished in most of those fights. Like, that's a good win. She's solid. There's just, again, another cliche, there are levels to this game. And Zhang is the best straw weight of all time.

Like, there's no shame in losing to her. And this whole notion that I keep seeing that annoys the shit out of me that Tatiana Torres did not deserve a title shot because she lost the way that she lost is ridiculous. It is ridiculous. Yeah. That was the more compelling fight for this division by far. Like Verna, I think you can make a case that she, quote unquote, deserved it more because she was active in winning big fights. But no one wanted to see that fight.

Tatiana was the one. That's the one we wanted. And I don't think any of us can say with any confidence that Virna would have put on a much better performance. And again, we don't know. You know, you don't know. Maybe Virna, you know, totally different fire, totally different style. Maybe she does better. But she would have been a much bigger underdog.

I mean, Tatiana. wasn't even an underdog. Vyrna going into a fight with Zhang would have been at least plus 400, maybe even higher. So, again, I'm with you guys. I understand, yes, Vyerna deserved the shot more, I guess, based on recent performances. But I also really want to see Zhang and Swarra. I really need to see Suarez fight for a title at least once in her career. I just think that her storyline and, again, really some of her past performances, she's

looked great in some of her past performances. Outside of the Nina Nuna, Nina Ansorov, now Nina Nuna's fight, She dominated her opponents, guys. She was completely dominant, and we just didn't get to see her fight enough. I really think it would have been a shame. One, if she never fought for a title, and two, if she never fought Zhang in particular. I did want to see her test herself against Zhang. And Zhang is just great.

Sometimes you're just in the era of an all-time great fighter, and they're going to make you look bad. I mean, she made Yan Shan Shanan look bad. She made Amanda Lamosh look bad. I don't think those are bad fighters at all. That's just how the game goes. She straight up K-Oed Yohana in their second fight. It's just how the game goes sometimes, man. And again, Tatiana deserved this shot.

Again, it was up between her and Vyernah. No shame either than getting it. And Zhang, I mean, all the praise just go to Zhang. Yeah, she got cracked too. And that, I mean, that alone was like, okay, this is done. Because she's never been, I mean, she's been hit in fights, but she's never been cleanly hit in a fight. Yep.

She got cleanly hit, and she, that hurt. She was like, oh, man, this is, this is different. This is just different. And Jake C pointing out in the comments that in the fourth round, there was an arm triangle. If she wanted out, she could have let, she could have let Zhang pass that half guard into side control over. Yeah. Right. I don't think any of us can imagine how much willpower it takes to, at that point, again, after so much damage she had taken and just knowing the fight's not going her way.

Knowing the fights not going away, knowing she probably has no realistic way of coming back to continue to, to, to, to, fight Zhang's legs. And you continue to fight for position to not just say, you know what? She's giving me a way out. Zhang has got this arm triangle, like, set up. If she passes my half guard, I'm done. I'm just going to let her do it. I'm out. And she didn't. So credit Suarez for that. Like it is, it was really impressive. I think, I think her toughness. But just not as impressive as Zhang absolutely putting it on her for fire rounds. Absolutely. Without question. Without question. So she'll be back. I think she does, because of how I see Jean, career going and I think she does move up at this point.

Tatiana just needs one win and she's getting a title fight. Like, Straway is not a good division. It's not what it once was. That is for sure. So we'll see what ends up happening and we'll go from there. So I think we're done here. I think we've exercised everything we can really exercise from this card that happened. We are ready to move on.

Ready to move on. We're ready to move on. Fire card. Fire card. It was, oh yeah. And let me pull up this fire card because, boy,

how do you follow UFC 312 and Citi? If you had asked me, this actually is not a awful card. It's okay. But Mike, if you had asked me to name, I opened it as well. If you had asked me to name right now

three fights that are happening this next weekend, I don't think I could have done it. I would have remembered the top two. Like, I know these fights are happening. I know these fights are happening. I just don't know if I remember that they were happening next week. I remember, you know, Vietas Petroski, Angela Hill's fighting again.

I remembered that these fights are happening. I just don't know if I could have put it on February 15th. I remember the main, the co-main. Julia Avila versus Jacqueline Cavalcante, only because I'm interviewing Julia on Monday. It's her first fight since the Misha Tate fight. I oddly remembered the Walter Walker, Dantale Mays fight, because I almost spit up my coffee when I saw that one like a month ago

and then of course the Chaos Williams Gabriel Bonfeme fight because this is Chaos not fighting in May horrible what a great gimmick what a great gimmick once a year fought in May every single year chaos Williams but here is UFC Vegas 102 I believe this is back at the apex

Jared Kennedy versus Gregory Roder Rodriguez. Love it. Main event. Calvin Cater, Yusuf Zalal. Love it. A co-main event. Great call-made event.

So good. So good. Ismail Bonfim versus Nizim Sattikoff. That is going to be a fun-ass fight. That's good. Connor Matthews, New England's own, against Jose Delgado, Edmund Chabazi and his back, AK. Against Dylan Boudka. I hate this match up.

Doesn't Boodka wrestle a bit? That's his reason. swear the last time I saw him that he I don't think he won but he tried to I don't like I think this is we're trying to do we're trying to do we're trying to get this man to win I think but it could be tough could be tough sailings I think Adolfo Vieira versus Andre Petroski yeah oh that's that could get that's gonna get real weird ugly that is going to get ugly and I am here for it Abilah Cabalcante Vince Morales versus Elijah Smith Elijah Smith oh the son of Walker he's the son of Gilbert Smith that's right

Gilbert Smith. Walker Mays, Raphael Esteban versus Jesus Aguilar, Jared Gordon is back. I did not know that. Against Kaui Fernandez, Angela Hill versus Ketland-Suzza, and Gabriel Bonfine versus Chaos Williams.

That is the card. And wait a minute. 4 p.m. start time, Eastern? Yes. Terrific. Terrific. This is excellent news. This is excellent news.

Did they rebook Rob Font? is the question. As of now, no. As of now, no. Rob is hoping to stay on the card. They're trying to figure something out, but who was he supposed to fly? Domina Cruz. Oh, that guy. Wait, that was going to be on this card? No. No. Oh, oh, I'm sorry. They were asking. Okay, I was going to say, okay, why are they? You heard Calvin Cater. You mentioned Rob. You know, it's kind of goes handed on. Sure, sure. They know to go to you for the inside scoop on the New England area.

So, yeah. So when I went to Punta Kana, I actually, like, attended, like, festivities with their members of Calvin Kater's family there, which is pretty fun. So that was cool. Cater's got some cool family members. It was a good time. So, yeah, U.C. Vegas 102 is tough scenes. but then it's off to Seattle. And then after Seattle,

it is back to the world's most famous apex for March 1st. That is the Minel Kopp Asu Almabayev card. And then it is still in Las Vegas after that. We're back to T-Mobile Arena for UFC 313, Alex Pereira versus Maga Menank Goliath and Dan Hooker versus Justin Freaking Gachi coming up in a month's time.

But today it is about a friend. and family and food and football, Super Bowl Sunday. We get to watch the Chiefs win another friggin' Super Bowl, and it's going to make me sad because it's going to be bad officiating and it's going to drive me insane.

But, you know, just enjoy it, everybody. Enjoy the game. Enjoy the commercials. Enjoy it all. And then we'll be back next week to discuss the follow from UFC Vegas 102. Back to the world's most famous apex. And we will see you then.

for A.k. I. I. Mike Eck, always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. Even the dumb shit that I say. It's all for fun, everybody. See you next week. Love you guys. Peace out. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com.