MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Erin Blanchfield After Shocking UFC Vegas 107 Main Event Cancellation?

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

Erin Blanchfield did not get to compete in the main event of UFC Vegas 107, and was getting ready to walk to the octagon for the pivotal bout with Maycee Barber before the fight was cancelled at the last minute. With the likelihood of the UFC rebooking Blanchfield vs. Barber being extremely low, where does "Cold-Blooded" go next? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what could be next for Blanchfield after the shocking ending to Saturday's Fight Night card at the UFC APEX. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Mateusz Gamrot following his co-main event win over Ludovit Klein, Ramiz Brahimaj after putting Billy Ray Goff to sleep with a nasty standing guillotine, along with fellow main card winners Dustin Jacoby, Zachary Reese, 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

Hi, I'm Sophia Loper Caro, host of the Before the Chorus podcast. We dive into the life experiences behind the music we love. Artists of all genres are welcome. And I've been joined by some pretty amazing folks, like Glass Animals. I guess that was the idea, was to try something personal and see what happened. And Japanese breakfast. I thought that the most surprising thing I could offer was an album about joy. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Oh, and remember, so much happens before the chorus. holiday prep means cleaning every corner, reach for Pine Sole original pine. Pine Sole is the only one you need for multiple surfaces, cleaning floors, counters, stoves, toilets, and showers, while killing 99.9% of germs. With long-lasting freshness and an iconic pine scent, it's sure to give you that fresh holiday feeling. Shop now and get your home holiday ready with Pine Soul. Use as directed. everybody and welcome to a brand new edition of on to the next one yes the matchmaking crowns return after a wacky apexy crazy wild ufc 317 event ufc Vegas 107 excuse me see i we've talked about ufc vgas 107 in the fallout so much already that i fast-forwarded myself four weeks to ufc 317

skipping over UFC 316, which we'll run down that card in a little bit. But one take Charlie here. We're not editing anything out at post. I am Mike Hack. Hope you're all having a wonderful Sunday as you hear this for the first time. Following Saturday's event,

the go home show for UFC 316, a main event that wasn't. But maybe Matush Gamrot actually won the main event. We'll discuss that and much more in today's program as to do some matchmaking following UFC Vegas 107. And joining me to do exactly that is the man who reacted to all this craziness immediately after the fallout of the main event for UFC Vegas 107 on the post-fight show. But he's here to matchmake with all of you, the co-host, co-matchmaker,

the Prince of Positivity, and my best friend Alexander Cayley, AK, how we doing? Are we feeling princy and positively positive today? My best friend, what I'm feeling is deja vu. I feel like you and I. But literally just spoke for a pretty sizable amount of time about UFC Vegas 107 and everything that went down Saturday night. So I'm excited in that sense. I always enjoy speaking to you and getting a chance to share our opinions with the people.

But we covered a lot of ground. I went to sleep on starting night thinking, oh, right. Mike and I have to do another show on Sunday. And I don't know what ground we can cover that we haven't already. So, I mean, obviously, I don't assume everyone listens to all our shows. but I will tell people like if you want a really comprehensive take on how we feel about everything that went down, check out the preview show. It's on YouTube.

Sorry, Post-Fight show, excuse me. It's on YouTube. It's on the podcast network. But yeah, just to summarize, you know, you guys might not have time to do that. We're pretty concerned for Macy Barber. What a strange moment that was. We've had some moments like that in the past. It was what, Jamal Emmer's and, oh, my gosh, what was his name?

Which fight was the Charles Scali? Yeah, I'm sorry. Jamal Emerson, Chas Skelly, which was even, you could argue it was even stranger because Chaz was, it was Chas that pulled out. As was in the octagon. Oh, Chas was in the octagon. And then, yes, Jamal Emmer's, we were told, oh, just not coming out. He's got some, he's got some injury issue.

So, you know, this isn't the first time suddenly this has happened. Sadly, it probably won't be the last time. It's just a little bit murkier with Macy, because we've had subtle answers about sort of her health issues that she's been dealing with. And again, I don't just mean Saturday. the health issues that have sort of put her on the shelf for a year. Also, we've never gotten a definitive answer on what the issue is. I don't know if it's because she and her team don't know what the issue is or they don't want to disclose that publicly,

which is perfectly within their rights, by the way. That is their business, not ours. Unfortunately, she is a public figure. She's an athlete working for a company that puts out a product. And people are going to have their questions. They're going to have their opinions. And they're going to want answers. So it's, you know, it's on Barbara and her team to decide if that's,

how honest, how forthcoming they want to be with her condition. Right now, we keep saying it. We just hope everything's okay with her. If she fights again, amazing. You know, maybe it's a great story someday. If she doesn't fight again, maybe that's a good thing too. Maybe it's because she's focusing on her mental health, physical health. Again, whatever the matter may be.

So strange night, man. Strange, strange night. I'm still kind of processing everything that went down. Yeah, nothing from anybody, really. I mean, we just have Aaron Blanchfield throwing out what she was told, and we have Aaron Blanchfield just ripping Macy Barber to shreds at the post-fight press conference. But Aaron Blanchfield is getting her win-in show money as her management team, her manager, Orrin Hodak, who has quietly become pound for pound,

one of the most elusive, intelligent managers in the game right now, just getting his fighters what they want. Just look at the roster of guys that he is assembled. and gals Blanchfield, Kevin Holland, look at the amount of money that man is making for fist fights now. Marob de Walsh Billy,

the UFC Bannamweight champion. I mean, Aljo, he works with them a little bit as well. I mean, he's just doing a great job right now. So tough for both fighters. And I think we should probably matchmaking for Aaron Blanchfield here on the program.

It's just, I don't think we need to dive really deep into it because there's not a ton of options. here, if we're being honest. It's just kind of... The question is, does Zhang Wei-Lee move up to 125 or not? And the other question is, does that matter? Because it matters to me, A.K., because if Zhang is moving up to 125, and I assume at this point,

especially with this might not happening, now, had Macy Barber gone out there, even with the weight miss, Macy Barber had gone out there and just obliterated Aaron Blanchfield, I think they would have went with her. Oh. I think they would have. just talking to her, seeing other interviews she did, she seemed very confident that she was getting a title fight if she went out there and won and did so impressively.

So I actually think that's true. UFC loves when contender series fighters make their way to a title shot, and if they can give them a title shot, they'll do it. They could say, oh, if you come on the contender series, you could be a world champion. Now you could add her potentially to the list, but obviously that's not happening here. So I think Zhang, by proxy, is going to get the opportunity that she just wanted for a while.

I mean, she was at UFC 306 last year sitting in the crowd because there were talks about her fighting the winner of that fight between Alexigrraso and Valentina Shepchenko. And then heading into the Tatiana Suarez fight, Zhang Wiley legit told me if it's my call, this fight with Swares is my last fight at straw weight. I'm moving up. I'm done here at 115. I'm ready for new challenges. So let's do Zhang versus Valentina. It's legitimately a fight that you can put on a poster is who is the best women's pound for pound fighter in the world.

In fact, you can make a compelling case with Amanda Nunez not fighting for a while. That is the fight for potentially the greatest women's fighter of all time. I mean, not everyone will agree with that, but you could certainly present it in that way. So I say they go with that. And then we just do a legit number one contender fight at 125 pounds. We do Aaron Blanchfield versus Natty Ice. Winner of that gets a title fight. And that's it.

Because at this point, both women are going to have to fight again. And, yeah, we're just kind of in that position right now if Jean moves up. So, yeah, I think that's the way to go unless you have a different one. I love it. I love it. I think that makes a lot of sense. I think I was just, I don't know, I was just thinking about this overnight. And I was talking about this now.

I do wonder if for some chance to Shipchenko Zhang fight doesn't happen which it should which is should that's that's the way to go I mean I think last time I picked other fights just because I want to I want to see

you know over I want to see Virina fight Zhang I want to see Natty Ice fight Valentina but I don't know if the UFC feels the same way I'm sure if they can put together Zhang Valentina that's the route they want to go down for the reasons you have outlined I was just thinking like man

if somehow again that doesn't happen I wonder if Blanchfield could jump over Natty Ice in the contenders line. I say this because I think the UFC, obviously, I think they really like Aaron Blanchfield. They've invested a lot of time in her. They've invested a lot of time in it. Even before UFC, right, she was an Invicta fighter.

She's done the grappling competition as a UFC fight pass. She's very much a, and I say this respectfully, she's very much like a UFC product, almost born in bread. Like she is a UFC product. And again, that's a good thing. I think they have, I think they also want to do like a make, make right for sort of what happened here with macy like it's not her false i think they'd want to treat it

almost like a win and if valentina really really needed an opponent that wasn't shangway lee i wonder if they do blanchefield instead i think maybe she's a little more of a known commodity than nati ice and then you would have natty ice fight like mano or something like that like you know because aaron had to go through manor she didn't pass she didn't pass the manon test but like she had to fight mano ferro for a shot at the title um she did bounce back and get a win which was nice um and i I wonder if they just don't know if they don't have Natty Ice in the equation yet. But yes, that's the other way I went with it, and this is sort of with the Zhang Schochenko scenario.

RS40, remember on our show on Saturday Night, I like the recommendation of Jasmine Yasidavish's. I like it a lot. I know it feels like a step back for Aaron, but Jasmine deserves a big fight. I think that went over Jessica Anjajaj was very impressive. She's streaking. She's going in the right direction. And I do think the winner of this fight would also be worthy of title shot.

I don't know where, again, and this would be, I don't know if Nattrager. the ice fights, I know someone else. But I like Blanchefield and Jasmine. I'll go with that. I'll go with that as sort of like a more crystal ballie pick. I actually think that's, that's likely to happen. So I've thought about this since last night.

And then even one of the listeners kind of threw it out there and explained why, like a reason why this makes like a ton of sense. And I've thought about it. I'm like, this could work. One thing I will, I will slightly disagree with you on is I think they would would go with Natty Ice over Blanchfield. Okay. And the reason why is the UFC is hurting,

they're hurting for marketable fighters right now. And with all due respect to Aaron Blanchfield, and yes, we're seeing her talk a little trash and making headlines with some of the comments she has made in the build to this fight and the fallout of it. Natty Ice is just somebody who has, she has star written all over her.

She just does. Like her personality, everything about her, her fighting style isn't like the, most exciting, but she tries to at least make it exciting. And she has looked so good in all of these fights. She's trying to speak English. She's trying to get better at it.

And that is obviously very helpful. I think they could look at Natiaz and be like, yo, if she beats Valentina, like, we have a potential star at our hands. I don't know if you have that with Blanchfield. Blanchfield's a great fighter. Her specialty is, she's very good at. She's a host. She's a brute.

Personality-wise, I don't know if she just screams star. Natty Ice kind of has that So they might just go to that well quick And you kind of have to look at Natie Ice Like As popular as she's getting And as fun as she is and as bubbly as she is She's probably in that

Belal Marab territory And not in like the same exact way Where she's probably going to fight for the belt once And if she wins, great. If she doesn't, she's probably not get another shot. That's just kind of how I see it. Blanchefield I think is somebody who can just keep rattling off wins and probably work her way back.

But this is just the women's UFC divisions right now. It's just they're all in really strange places. So, but to kind of go to the Jasmine point, if the UFC goes to Blanchefield and, and says, listen, we need to beef up one of these pay-review cards. We need a beef-up international fight week. We need to beef up New Orleans. New Orleans needs some beef in right now.

Like, Porre's final fight, like, that's the whole story. But the rest of that card is not great in terms of name value. Jazzman will take that fight. It's a big opportunity for her. In Blanchfield, if she just wants to get in there and just keep working and just not kind of waste a training camp, if you can go fight Jasmine right away. Like, this is a fight. If they're going to make it, it needs to happen within the next two months.

Or I don't think it happens. So there is a, there is room for this fight to have. happen. I just think it has to happen fast. Yeah, as frustrating as this situation obviously is for Aaron Blanchefield, it's good to know, one, that she did apparently have compensated. And two, still has plenty of options on the table to keep herself in title contention. Could, could very well be fighting for a title by, you know, end of, end of 2025 or early 2026. It's still, it's, it would have been nice if it did a clean, you know, path by beating Macy Barber, but not an option now. We move on. Yeah. And she's in a decent spot too, because

yes, she did get her win money and show money. But if they come to her and say, hey, New Orleans is looking pretty rough, we need you. She could be like, sure, but let's renegotiate my contract. There you go. Even better. And she might get a couple extra bucks out of the deal.

And like I said, with Orne Hodeck, she might just get it. So that's for her in Blancheville. We'll see what happens to Macy Barber. And yeah, what a weird, wacky way. And just always remember, folks, we talk about the golden rule of them-a-fighting. We also talk about the Jose Young's rule. Until both fighters are in the octagon, the fight is not official.

And that is reared its ugly head once again. Let's go to the fight that actually turned out to be the main event. In the history books, this event will be called UFC Vegas 107, Gamrot versus Klein, AK, because Matush Gamrott returned for the first time in 2025. And boy, did he do Matush Gamrot things to Ludwig Klein. take downs, just a relentless grappling attack, control, just a quintessential Gamrod performance. Literally as he said he would do,

and when I spoke with him last week, this, nope, I'm just going to tackle this man. I'm going to grapple him, and I'm just going to beat him up. And that's exactly what he did, 30, 20, 70s, across the board. The problem, A.K., with Batush Gamrot is that lightweight is the best division in the sport, and it is filled with marketable star fighters. Even with Dustin Porre about to leave.

And again, this is MMA. So even if Dustin beats Max Holloway, is it really his last stance? Are we fully convinced that's the case with the state of this division right now? No one is really sure. So Gamron is kind of in a weird, wacky spot. I think there is a very obvious choice here,

but I'll let you kick off. I assume you're going with a rematch? No? No. You've got another. Okay. I'm going with a rematch. match.

Not Armand Syrukian, though that would be fun to see. I think we'd all love to see. Mike Heck's favorite fight of, was that 2022? Yeah, that'd be a great fight. One that's Syrukihan, I think, would be eager to get back. You know, very close fight. Someone argued to be won, but that is a W on Garmat's record. And as Surukian got that win, of course, I mean, you just give him the title shot again.

So that's an option. I'm going a little more conservative here, just because, like, Surukian is kind of all over the place. I know he just won that grappling fight over the weekend. And I feel like he can, Surrogiqian. I can get a slightly higher ranking name than Gamrod. So going from that, instead, I went with another rematch. Benile Darayush, win-l-Loser draw versus Moikano. They're fighting UFC 317, June 28th.

Now, if Darriyush loses, I know it'll look weird. I think he'll be on a two or three-fight losing streak at that point. But kind of similar to what we're saying with Sirkyan, someone will want to get their win back. Darius actually beat Gamrod in a pretty compelling fight. Yeah, UFC 28. So again, we don't know, like we keep saying, Gamrod's just kind of in this weird limbo. He's obviously a top 10 lightweight.

Is he going to get anyone in the top five or six? I just don't know. Benil will probably drop down if you lose to Moikano, but still in that range of like 8 to 10. He might fall behind Gamrod on the rankings. He might stay slightly ahead of him. I'm not sure. But it'll be within range.

So, yeah, let's run it back with these two, give Gamrod a chance to get that back. Or, man, maybe Darius surprises this, got a little more in the tank, and he beats Gamrodot and just stays relevant. I love watching Benile Daryush fights. So, yeah, I'll go with that. I remember that first fight. It was during the first ever MMA fighting watch party, a UFC 280. And that was the first bet that I had cashed on a watch party.

Wow. Was Benil Darius getting the slight upset win over Matush gamrod. So yes, shout out to the underdog selection. I like that fight. It's been Wasantity. There's just there's heat there, there both guys are kind of in the same position right now where they're just going to have to just fight

tough fights outside of the top 10 and like I said there's a little bit of meat on that bone so just go ahead and do that. I'm down for that fight. It'd be a lot of fun. I like it. It's week two of Canadian Tires early Black Friday sale. These prices won't go lower this year. So you're lying on the floor?

Save up the 50% November 13th to 20th. Conditions apply, details online. When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious wool throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner?

A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. Let's go to Ramiz Brahimage with the squeeze. Remise the squeeze.

Nice. Performance. Billy Ray Goff gets choked unconscious. Ramiz Brahimaj was one of the biggest underdogs. He might even actually been the biggest underdog on the card. And I did cash that. And gets it done. Just strangles this man.

Standing guillotine, it was pretty nasty. This is a, we're kind of in dart throw territory with some of these. This one in the main card opener for sure. But I went with Puna Soriano, AK, the man who has found a little bit of a resurgence in the welterweight division. Rahimash finding a little bit of resurgence as well. So we'll go with those two dudes. Two big finishers should be a fun one. Yeah, this is like a totally random pick for me.

I just went to the rankings, went to see who's kind of not booked, who's fought recently. I love the name Remiz the Squeeze, by the way. That's so good. He should better start marketing that. He better start marketing that. If he is, like, didn't you coin the silence behind the violence for Jonathan Martinez? Natty Ice in the silence behind the violence. Did you, did you, does he, Natty Ice, I think is live.

I think, right? That's, that's like people use that. Did, did sounds behind the balance? Does he pick that? Did he pick that up? Does he use that? No. John Martinez. I mean, if he did, nobody knows because he's silent.

He almost, Mike, he almost can't. I think. This is the tragedy of it, is he almost came. It's on his management, really, I think, to do it for him. Yeah, he can't embrace it. But yes, Rameez, if you're out there, please listen to Mike Hack. This is a freebie. This is a freebie.

Just you're now Rameez to squeeze, get that merchandise going. Get a cool, like, you know, Jordan-esque, Air Jordan-esque logo, the silhouette of him choking out at Billy Ray Gough. It's so good. Randomly, Carlos Lail. Carlisle style. I don't know. Contrast styles for sure. Conscious styles for sure. But I'm intrigued by Ramiz. I'm glad. Normally, I don't, you know, I don't enjoy the mixing of the martial arts. Mike, I like people to stay in it. Well, actually, but technically, technically that's what Ramiz did was he did not mix the martial arts, which I think is what people expected that he might mix it up a little with golf on the feet and then go to the grappling. He's like, no, no. Guys, I'm a grappling specialist. I knocked out Mickey Gall. Great. That was fun. That's not really my ideal. You know, I just he saw an opportunity. He took it. He took it. He took it. He took it. He saw an opportunity. He took. He took. He took it. He took it this is what he does remise the squeeze snatches necks cashes checks all that stuff so uh yeah i don't know carlos leal fun fight i've got a few i think how many other fights do we have here i've got a couple of

just like went to the rankings and and pulled a number um matchups coming who won our picks last night by the way i don't know you might have i had a rough stretch why i did i thought i did well and then i saw i looked at my picks i was like oh i had a rough stretch there where i just like biffed a few picks um there were only nine fights i got six of nine we all got yeah we all got six of nine but points wise go to topology topology's point system mike because i got brahimash submission i didn't get the round right but i did get the the method right you won by 15 points over let's go 15 points thanks to a semi yeah i think it was the brahimage the semi perfect pick uh what's the other finish you picked oh

Jacobi you also picked the Jacoby knockout. Let's see, why did Jed not get that? So I get Jed must have not seen the, did not, oh, he picked, he picked round two. He picked off. Wow, nice, well done. Oh, you did pick off, yep. Well done.

So yes, your pick of finishes was well executed. A lot of us had Brachimai finish in round two, but not, didn't quite nail the round one. That was impressive. Yes. Good win, man. He's on a roll. Speaking of Dustin Jacoby, the bonusless,

Dustin Kobe. What? Boy, did he just put it on Bruno Lopez. Like I said, it was a very school yardy kind of a fight, and he just kind of outbruted him and got the nasty knockout. The only striking finish of the entire card, and no bonus. Usually the UFC will not cater to the submissions all that much,

but both submissions to their credit, Jordan Levitt and Rames Brahimaz were nasty. Both fighters were put to sleep, which are nasty. but yeah, I kind of thought Dustin kind of got the hose job there. But Dustin Jacoby had a walk, so Haini Dos Santos and Alice Ardellion could run as they got a fight-in-night bonus. If you had told me going into the evening, Alice Adelaideleon would be getting a bonus and not Justin Jacoby, or it's more likely to get a bonus. I'd say you're effing crazy. I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't know. I wonder what circumstances Ardeliang would be more favored to get a bonus than Dustin Jacoby. But it happened. It happened. And good for Ardillon and DeL Santos because that was a really good fight. But still, they just needed one more finish on the card. And I think you would have gotten a bonus. Man, you would have gone fighting right there. They didn't have to pay. Obviously, I'm assuming they didn't pay Macy. They couldn't have given 50 Gs to freaking Dustin Jacoby. Oh, no, it's guys, the only earmarked a certain amount of bonus money every night. They can't give out five bonuses all the side. They could have given up five bonuses.

$50,000 is nothing to this company now. It's nothing. It probably means a lot to Justin Jacoby. Macy's probably making, yeah, Macy's probably making six figures just to show at this point. But, yeah, good win for Dustin Chicobe, man. He was in a tough spot and he's come back with back-to-back finishes. The man just won't go away, A.K., he just won't go away. What's next for a Hanjak? I know Dustin Chikobi, like it doesn't matter whether he fights for a Thailand. That's not why they keep Dustin Chikobi around.

They keep for stuff like this. Great mid-card fights, exciting performances. can go toe to toe with any striker in the 205 pound division. But let's give him a shot at a ranking. How fun would it be in 2025 if we can celebrate top 15 fighter, Dustin Jacoby? Let's give him a top 15 guy, Alexander Rockich. Oh, Alexander Rockich.

Let's go. Let's go. I don't know if he wins that fight. I really don't. Alexander Rockich, I think probably a little bit more well-rounded. On the feet, I mean, listen, you give Jacobi a chance against anyone, anyone in the division. So if he keeps it up there, I like his chance.

But let's, it's not, it's not a huge risk fight for Jacobi. If he loses, guess what? He just goes back to, he just goes back to doing Dustin Jacoby things in the UFC Apex or whatever random, whatever random fight night cars they throw him on. So, yeah, let's take a chance here. Let's give him a ranked opposition. I did, I was in the same boat. I thought we might have snuck in a, and out of nowhere friends forever.

But I went with Nikita Krylov, AK. Oh. Let's go with that. Let's give him a shot, man. He, he, he fought Reyes recently? Yeah, Reyes knocked out Jacoby And knocked out Kreloff Okay

So now it'll be the battle of guys who got knocked up by Dominic Reyes Yeah, yeah, you're in the loser's bracket now You're in the loser's bracket, you've got a fair way back in the winner's bracket All right, well, I mean Top 10, top chance Yes, the Reyes loser's bracket I'm sorry, Jacoby coming off a win now But yes, the Reyes loser's bracket

Yes Okay Let's go to Ketland Vieira Or actually, are we going to go to Ketland Vera, okay? This is debatable. This is debatable. Now,

Mike, we've never seen this before, for example, someone like, someone like, I'm picking a random name here, Mike, Jose Aldo, would never do what Ketland Baera did. And at the very last,

you know, day before Wayans, contact their opponent and ask, hey, could you please, you know, could you please move the fight up a weight class? We're having trouble making weight. I mean, I think that's a pretty ridiculous thing

to do, Ketland, you know, And credit to Macy Chaston for taking the fight anyway, getting 25% of Bay out his purse. I feel like, so we had discussed this off the show. I do feel like she's technically disqualified, even though it's not a weight miss. Now, also she used to bring up the Aldo UFC 315 situation. But here's the thing, though, AK. Oh. The Jose Aldo situation was technically not a weight miss either.

There was a contract renegotiation. Correct. And there was no penalty. No penalty in that fight at all. That we know. There was a penalty here. Hold on. Hold on.

I will say this. I will say this because this goes with, I think, with Joseph Boza was asking us on the postbyte show, right? It was like, have you ever seen, or maybe this was on the preview show? I don't know. But Joseph Boza asked us in one of our shows, have you ever seen someone do this, the renegotiation, and then get fined like they had missed weight? And I was like, technically no. But I think we both know when these day before renegotiated. negotiations happen.

Clearly there's some exchanging of money, right? From the offending fighter to the... There was no exchange of money for the Jose Alta situation. None. We know this is a fact. No, this is a fact. Why would... I mean, it's a hobby, not...

I guess he wanted to fight that badly. Well, yeah. It was basically like, hey, man, it's not a Bannonweight fight anymore, so there's no purse penalty. Yeah. It's either take the fight or not. And he was like, yeah, I'll renegotiate my contract. in order to take it.

And they came up with a number that everybody agreed with. And he was like, okay, I'll fight him at featherweight. It's fine. So this was different. This one was a public 25% fine for Kevin Vieira. Commission recognized. This was a commission recognized 25% fine. So technically, this was a penalized weight shift.

And Jose Aldo was not penalized at all. So let's just make that clear. So this is a different situation than the Aldo one. Wow. But do you think in the past, I mean, I'm not crazy. In the past, certainly we've seen, you know, catchweight about negotiations. Probably. Yeah.

Okay. You're saying specifically the Aldo. Yeah. Yeah. But the Aldo is like, yo, this is a featherweight fight now. Damn. Like, take it or leave it. And guess what it paid up?

Take it with more money in your pocket, but just not Jose Albers. It paid off because then Zahubon dominated him, like, dominated him. I don't want to. Gosh, the last three fights of Joseo, the last three fights of Josio's career, just so frustrating. But yes. So, okay, we kind of ruled, you know, we normally, say if you miss weight, clearly if you are fined for weight cutting issues, that should disqualify you, right?

However you, however you guys want to phrase the Vietta, what happened with Vyeda and Macy and the weight class being changed. She was fined for the late weight class change. So, yes, I think she should be disqualified. I'll throw out a name. Like, I'll throw out a name. I think I was just looking at it. Her and what the hell?

I just had it. I didn't write down, obviously, because we're not, this is not an official Otno pick. But she will fight next. Oh, Norman Dumont. There you go. She'll fight Norma Dumont. But, which by the way, it's just asking for more weight-cutting nonsense to happen. We're going to, we're going to, normally Dumont could, like, get a title shot right now.

She's got to fight somebody. She's got to fight somebody. She's got to pass the Ketland test. She's got to pass the Ketland test. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't come up with the name. I didn't want to. But some of the listeners did, and we'll, I'll read those.

Sure. If you told me Zach Reese was going to go to the score cards against Stoscozodorvich, I would have called you insane, AK. but I knew we were in for a weird night when that happened. But Zach Rees wins a decision. Doesn't happen very often. Again, another dart throw, but I think Mr. Gautier,

when he beats Robert Valentin at UFC Nashville, I think that would be an appropriate step up for Mr. Gautier. So that's what I'm going with. Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. I actually went surprisingly high for Zachary Reese. I don't know if he can get this fight, Because this guy's got like a little bit of a name. He certainly has tenure with UFC.

He's got a little, he's coming off a good win. He certainly got a bit of buzz about him because of his new team association. Maybe Zachary Reese, Michael Olegsager. Maybe. Oh, okay. I don't know. Again, if either of us gets this right, I'll be completely stunned. If you, if us or any one of the listeners can correctly pick Zachary Reese's next fight,

you are a star because, yeah, it's hard. He's just kind of in that middleweight cluster. him and disco, they're really only the main card opener because of what you kind of just said, Mike. We assumed this would go the under, like under two rounds. Like someone's getting someone's getting killed. This guy's kind of have a reputation

for not going to the scorecards. But instead, you know, we got a competitive sort of three-rounder and Zach gets a W. So good for him. And man, that's it. I can't believe that's it for the main card. A six-fight main card. Mike just, well, I recently a six-fight main card as well as I should say.

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We've got thousands of gift ideas and festive decorations to help you turn your home into a winter wonderland with green boxes piled under the tree. So slip on a cozy pair of Christmas pajamas and hang up some new ornaments. The most wonderful time of the year starts at Simons. Let's go to the wild card round, AK. Who did you go with here for the wild card pick? I mean, Mike, there was no other option than Alice O'Dillon. We have we got to give her flowers because First of all I put one bet on this fight

It was right a Hayani dos Santos Who was pretty heavily favorite almost like minus two 50 But I was very confident I'm just like Alice of Delian was nine and six as a pro going to this fight Admittedly like did not look horrible in her first two fights Like I get it there was a very competitive fight against Sean Abannon who

You know pretty inexperienced to the fighters So make of that what you will And then you know mele Martinez pretty clear win for for a superman really. But I was like, okay, but she's like, looks capable. Still, perhaps I'm remembering when like Hayani came into the UFC, there was a, not like hype, I would say, but people thought she'd be a decent, you know, decent addition to the strawweight roster. Hasn't turned out that way. She's 0 and 3 now. Alice Adelaidellian's 1 and 2, both ladies in the extra 50 cheese in their pockets. So I think the only logical fight to make for Alice Adelaan is Puget Tomar. Pugia, of course, the India's first

women fighter has quite a bit of a social media following, certainly much like Ardellion, disproportionate to their in cage achievements, at least referred in the U.S.C. Ardalen, a huge deal on TikTok with some of her kind of funny reaction videos. So she has almost 4 million TikTok followers. Fuzha, not near that, but I mean, considering if you look at, again, Pugia's record and for her to have almost 500,000 Instagram followers, again, clearly these are two-farer that would draw some casual interest, at least internationally speaking. I think we should make this fight happen.

I think it could be fun and sloppy. And again, maybe this is what we do with, honestly, maybe it's what we do with Alice Delia. Maybe this is what she's there for, man. Just go in there and brawl and have a good time. And again, hopefully draw on some of those 4 million TikTok followers. And for Pugia, try on some of those 500,000 Instagram followers. I just sensed this happening.

This is like almost a crystal ball and a magic blonde pick. So, Alice Adelian, Pugia Tamar in 2025, please. Did Ardillon fight Sean Abannon yet? She did. That was her UFC debut, yeah. And she actually took a scorecard from her, which was just scary. I don't remember if that, I don't know if it would have been a robbery if like Ardileon had won that fight, but it certainly didn't feel like, it felt like Sean Aban had won that fight. But it wasn't like Sean Abandon killed her.

It wasn't like Sean Abandon destroyed her. It was shockingly competitive given Ardileon's record. I went with the return, the successful return of one. Jordan Levitt. Hey. What a performance, very emotional up there, was out for well over a year, and he was coming off of a loss. It was just, you know, good for him, man.

Like, I like Jordan Levitt a lot. One of the guys I've been interviewing since well before he was in the UFC. He was an early pro, a guy on the regional scene who was having a really hard time finding fights and then eventually makes his way, gets into the UFC and has had a crazy run, jumped off to a great start, and then the Patty Pimbleau fight happened and everything that went down there. But I think with the guy like Jordan, it goes to what I say all the time, especially when you're sort of a character like that.

We can't miss you if you don't leave. And I think Jordan Levitt taking a break and then coming back and reminding people just how nasty he is with his submission grappling game. It's just terrific medicine. So we're going to get real weird here, AK. I thought about doing Levitt versus Miller. I'm not going to do it. What I'm going to do is Jordan Levitt versus Mike Davis at 155 pounds.

Hmm. I love it. I love it. First of Levitt and Herla Halibah should have let off the main card. Again, it's hard for me to blame the UFC again. Tudorovich and Reese have a pretty strong finishing history. But I think with Levin Halibah, again, you would have either gotten what we got a cool finish or a really enjoyable three-rounder.

But fair is fair. Yeah, Leavitt is just so intriguing as a fighter. Like, he's an entertaining guy. Loved the worm. I thought that was so hilarious. He knows how to hype up a fight. Again, I think he comes off as kind of like a quirky, funny dude, which, as we know in M.A. is not like, you know, that doesn't make you, Connor McGregor in numbers, right?

People in the MA generally don't like funny and quirky, which is unfortunate. But that's what he is. Yeah, and he's had some set facts against some fighters who have like a little more of a name than him. But there's still a lot here with Jordan. So, yeah, I would love to see him get a shot at Mike Davis. And again, for me, that would move him up the rankings. I have Davis quite a few spots ahead of him. And if he beats him, man, yeah, we're really talking about him,

vetting someone maybe in the top 25. And then from there, who knows? So like it for Jordan Levitt. And we'd love to see the Monkey King. jump up there and really get some recognition. Not an old guy at all. Not an old man at all. Not a lot of mileage.

Some mileage, like he's a veteran, but not an excessive amount of mileage. I think his best days are ahead. Yeah. So let's go do that. Lightweight, Best Division in the sport. And another example of this. So, all right, let's go to the peeps. We are not going to spend a, well, actually,

probably are going to spend a little bit of time here because that's where everything kind of went down. Let's go to Micah Phelan, who kicks us off. Blanchefield versus Natalia Silva. Jamrock BSD, Jacoby versus the Walker Minyang Zhang loser, assuming that fight actually happens. Brahimaz versus Renat Fokritinov. Nassameh versus Temerov. Temerov booked?

I want to see. I think he is. I want to make sure we confirmed it. I'm pretty sure he is booked. He's fighting Asu Amabayev. Yes, yes, yes, yes. What card is that? Is that the Shanghai card?

that is the Oh, that's Abu Dhabi Yeah, that's a Whitaker DDP card. Okay, so that happened, not DDP, RDR card.

So yes, he is booked, so a little touch of doo-doo right there. He also, Ludwig Klein versus Fiziv, if Fiziv loses to Ignacio Baja Mondays

Michael Aswell versus Grod 2, winner loss in Baku, of course, Aswell and Grod fought on Dana White's Contender series, one of the probably five best fights ever on the contender series. And Michael Aswell is just super fun.

Bogingrad is fighting in Baku. So I don't hate that at all. Interesting one here, A.K., Zach Reese versus Bo Nickel. And the reason is give Nichols some layups, please. Sure. It's a tougher fight for Bo than people think it is. Anything. I'm trying to think what is a layup for Bo Nicol at this point.

Michael O'Ceach. And that's not even a layup, but I think it's a fight. he wins. I know what you mean like stylistically sure. Yeah. The thing is, Bo is really tricky to book right now. He's really tricky to book because people want to put him in there with credibility and a name still. Hang on it. Listen to RDR, there's no shame in that. That actually gave us a pretty good idea of how much farther he has to go. But, man, there's some tough, like to some of these guys are just tough, scrappy event. This is really, this is the problem with middleweight in general.

It's like there's fighters in there who are like not great but not bad. And you want to find the one that's not bad enough that bone nickel can actually have like a good night. And maybe that's Zacharias. I don't know. I don't mind it. It's just a super solid thing. Just give him forgetting him in Shabazzian. I mean, you just book them against scrappler.

You shouldn't anyway. Oh, boy. Let's just go all with this. Anyways. Honestly. Here's Robbie Brian. Jesus Christ. Hey, Mike.

I bet on this card. I won and I don't care who any of them fight next. Tell AK to send me my ought no points. Robbie out. And then he wasn't out because he said wildcard, John Jones versus Connor McGreyer. It was that kind of night for one Robbie Ryan. Yeah.

Perfect. He demands his out no points and I don't know what the hell he's talking about. Okay. John Ray, Jordan Levitt versus Jim Miller. Okay. Nassimento versus Estevum. Reese versus Petroski, win or lose. Caitlin Vierre versus Giuliana Pena, if she loses.

This actually makes a lot of sense. Dustin Jacoby versus Modestis Bukascus. Yeah. Easy fight to book. Both guys managed by the same management team. Brahimage versus Charles Radke. That's interesting. Gamrod versus the Darius Moikano winner.

And then John says Blanchfield versus Jazz DeVizius ASAP. Winner gets Natty Ice still if they make Chevy versus Wayley. John John's really given Blanchefield really making Blanchefield work for this one Didn't avoid the doo-do like I did though Because Moikano and Gamron would be unlikely to fight right I'd say it can't happen it'd be unlikely They're both they both train America

Yeah yeah they do unlike but I don't know So many people train there so many people train there Yeah we've had ATT for C2 That's why I said dare you should not Oikano But I don't know it's not like impossible I don't think Jimmy Lloyd This is the most 8000 Apexie card that ever apexed.

That's how he started this up. Blanchefield versus Grasso. It might be a squash match given how bad Grasso's take down defense is, but she can't fight Natty. That fight would kill off a viable contender. Do you agree with that? In this situation, yes. I don't like to protect contenders I normally say,

but again, flyweight is not a very deep division. So you kind of, if you can, if you can, I would like to protect the compelling contenders that we have. But I also wouldn't be against the, fight being matched up because I want to see great fighters fight each other. I don't necessarily want people's careers to be dictated by, oh, what does this mean for their title chances? What does this mean for their title chances? Even though, unfortunately, the way the UFC pay structure works, you are incentivized to like make fighting for the title like your goal. Again, not just from a competitive

standpoint. Like, I want to be the best in the world. If you want to maximize how much money you can make in this career, yeah, you want to get that title as soon as possible and start making those championship checks. So, but I don't mind it. I would love to see them fight. whether it's for the title or for a more of a tender. This card, even from like a matchmaking perspective, you can just see where people are at, right? They gave their effort until they couldn't give the effort anymore. And case and point for Jimmy Lloyd here with these last two picks,

just effort and then the next pick, not as much effort. Effort shown here, Dustin Jacoby versus Iwan Kuchalaba with the description. It's been four years could be a fun rematch. So he lays it out beautifully. And then he says, Vieira versus Rocky and does not invoke the rematch clause for that one, because that would be a rematch. And I do do you, Jimmy. And that was more recent. That was very, yeah, much more recent.

It was a splity city and one that could have gone the other way. But here we are. In fairness, in fairness, probably quite a few people who remember the Jacoby Coochalaba fight more than the Vienna Pennington fight, even though that fight had like. title implications of painting vada but yeah so unfortunately yes officially you're right mike has to be due to especially you're right given that he's clearly aware of you know rematches and you know for the you know what they mean when you book them in the show um so a little bit of do you a little bit but it's all love uh last one kyle thornton blanchefield versus the Chevy waley winner as a reward so Kyle green with you blanchefield jumps over natty ice you might

but gets the winner of Shevchenko versus Sean Wei Lee. She might. If they make that fight and Weiley wins, do they just run right back with Shev? Yeah. Or no. Yeah, probably do. They probably do. Or Shev, just go up to 135 and win that title for God's sakes.

It's right there. I'm saying this even if Kayla runs through Juliana Bay. If you ask me, if you ask me to pick Shev versus Keel Harrison, I'll pick Shev any day to me. She'll be considerably smaller. Don't get wrong. it'll look very funny in the cage. I mean, she was quite a bit smaller than men of Nunez. So that, but maybe even more,

I still think Valentina is just way too skilled to lose to anyone at 135 pounds. That is my theory. Maybe it's a couple years too late. Maybe you could say she's lost a step athletically, and that's what would cost her in the Harrison fight. But I am picking Shepchenko to become a two-division champion anytime she wants to, she goes to bantamate. Kyle also likes Gamrod v. Sarukian 2.

We need it. I would love to see it. Great. It's just not going to happen. It's just, I mean, it wouldn't shock me if the UFC was like, yeah, you got to fight Gamron and he had no choice of the matter.

I would also like to see Fiziv get his shot at Gamron as well, depending on the result of the Baku fight, because we never really, we got to see one round of it, and it was an electric round, and then until Paziv got hurt. So I'd love to see that run back and fought to its conclusion. Brahimaz versus the Rock's favorite fighter,

Temba Gorimbo. Oh, okay. Wait a minute. Is that, is that not a, who am I thinking of? Didn't sound from this card already fight? Oh, my goodness. Is that a two? Is that a two?

Is it? No, did they say put it two? Oh, is it a rematch. Of course it is. It is. No, two. Who is this? Who is this?

Kyle. Kyle, we were doing so well. Oh, no. We were doing so well. Again, but watch this, A.K., watch what happens here. Oh, what? Two picks later, Viehr versus Rocky, two. Guys, this, oh, so there we go.

So he did, if we had combined, I feel like if these guys had shared notes, they would have had like perfect picks. They would have been able to double check each other, peer review. Ouch. Oh, man. Jacoby versus Felipe Linz. That is like so out of nowhere. Is he still in the UFC?

Is he not a GFL superstar at this point? Oh, you're right. But maybe, maybe he's predicting that he comes back home after the GFL fallout. Oh, I think. I can say after he becomes GFL champion. So like a year from now. Dude, can you imagine this would be a terrific odd no pick? If Dustin Jacoby's book to fight Nikita Krilov and like something happens along the way

and Philippe Lynn steps in short notice to fill in, resigns, that'd be what a pick that would be. Mike, what are we talking about right now? What are we doing? We're off the friggin rails. Rees versus Cesar Almeda to become middleweight contenders, Nassimento versus Brad Katona at Bantamweight. Oh, nice, nice.

That's like that. Clever. Oakey versus Trevor Peek. God, that's fun. Jordan Levitt versus Foreszium. Damn. Like that is, I mean, Mike Davis is a step up. Ferez is like, he might get ranked if he wins that fight kind of a step up.

That might be a little much, but maybe not. I don't know. Yeah, and Fresz won five. straight i don't i think he gets he does i don't think he has to fight back at this point for us got i don't think he gets somebody ahead of that would be with all due respect to jordan levitt that is way back because he jordan levitt just got a fight before he just won he was trounced by chase hooper so i don't know man but i mean if you're just like all right let's throw this man of the wolves and see if we got something here i don't hate it on that end but if you're fores i am and his team

and you probably would hate seeing a contract with Jordan Levitt's name on it because that doesn't make it none of the sense. So to you, AK, what are the peeps saying to you? All right. I got on my emails first. I got to decipher something here. Casey Carpenter, I love you to death. You sent me five separate emails. Oh, no, Casey.

Some of them, I think because he needed to correct himself or something. I'm, okay, anyway. First of all, he says, Mike, love swing rounds. He says most of his fat brothers, most of his frat brothers were from Kingwood. and he says the club is beautiful. So there you go. Gamrod versus Sandini. There you go, Mike.

It's a money matchup. He's with me on Vienna and Norma Dumont, Kuchelab and Jacobi 2. I need help deciphering this pick. He says, Elliot versus Koo Winner versus Ramiz. Who is he talking about, Mike? Wait, what? Elliot versus, oh, Oban Elliott. Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. My first thought was. am Elliot and I'm like different weight class. Yeah, me too. It is, Casey, it is Keo, isn't it co? We got to get this right.

It is not Ku. It is, yes, because he got, that's right. They got sort of rearranged, different opponents got mixed up. It is Sokyon Koh. So, okay, it's one letter. Now we're on. It's one letter, Casey, but that was very confusing. Versus Rameez.

Yeah, I think I'm picking, I would pick Oban to win that fight. I think him and Ramiz could work. I think him or not bad. Oh, this is because picking for other stuff. Diego versus a year for the UFC. No-J-ya, of course. Mara versus Pants, if both win.

Let's see what happens with the patchy mix. I honestly don't hate that. Oh, I don't have a problem with it. I think a Pantz beats Skycar, friends. He should just move up. He should just do it. Seriously, he should just do it. it's really the only option he's fought at well no i still want to see that cop rematch though

i don't want to see him in cop again i would love to see at this point like the fact that they haven't made it means like they're so hesitant to make it and then we could just do look we could do a title fight in the main event of nocha ufc vacant flyway title we could do minel cop versus brandon more than merino if he wins and that's fun as hell too uh i'm gonna skip the rest of casey's emails uh if you send more than two emails this is my role you send more than two emails. I will not read the other three or four. And Casey, again, thank you for the emails. We love you. Do not send an email explaining yourself or apologizing for sending more emails. That's just not going to help the situation. I understand. Probably, again, you need to send multiple

emails because you had further thoughts. Let's try and keep it to. Really one email, but if you must do two, then two is a limit. Go on Instagram. Jason Dernai. Levitt versus McKinney, win-lose or draw against Slava Claus? Levin versus McKinney Yeah, that would be Okay, yeah guaranteed finish guaranteed finish

That's not making it past the three minutes of the first round Dustin Jacoby Johnny Walker We can call Oh no, we don't want to We're not going to call Dudo on this Because we have not

Confirmed it That Johnny Walker is fighting Zhang Ming Yang In the main event of U.C. Shanghai but we're pretty Fans can be pretty sure Yeah, like I said on the post-fight show If that fight isn't the main event

I'll be surprised but we have not like fully fully confirmed it. So I, no do-do there. Jason probably checked M-Afighting.com as his like, his number one source and didn't see it there. And you know what? We don't have an M-Afighting.com. So Jason, perfectly fair pick.

And who knows? Hey, maybe if you're Dustin, you know, you stay ready at 205. Maybe you step in. Maybe you step in for that fight. It wouldn't be the main event anymore, probably. I assume they won't have a Chinese fighter in the main event. But I don't know, great fight. I'd love to see Jacopi fight, Johnny Walker.

and gamrott versus Chandler oh this is going with that Chandler's what would a Chandler say January 21 24 26 or something Connor McGregor and he gets and he gets Matt McGrath and he gets Matt McGrath and he gets Matt Gamrod yeah when Gamera was talking about Patty in our interview he basically he ripped Patty but he really let Chandler have it like late he like Chandler hasn't been good in like seven years

so I'm not surprised he beat him because Chandler is an easy fight for everybody in this division. So that would actually be, honestly, that would be kind of an interesting fight. Yeah. I don't hate, I actually don't hate Gamrat versus Chandler. I will just laugh if that's like,

I assume whatever Chandler's recent tweets or threads, whatever it was, was not like a connected thought. I think he was, I can't imagine he was saying he thinks he's getting the Conner fight to open 2026. I would really. I'm telling you right now, man.

I'm looking at this from a TKO lens, right? It would not shock me at all if the UFC has reached out to Michael Chandler and says, yo, we're signing with Netflix. The first Netflix main event is going to be you versus Connor McGregor. Yeah, it's not shocking. That would not shock me at all. Well, let me put this way. Connor fighting at all at this point will shock me.

But yes, if it's anyone, Chandler is easily in that, like, if you're saying who are the top three most likely names to get the McGregor return fight? Chandler's firmly in there. I just think it would be deeply funny if he ended up having to fight Gamrod instead. Yeah, golly. There's nothing to gain from it. You can fight both.

You can do both. He can fight both. There's plenty of time. Also from Instagram, Harry Newhouse. What's up, Harry? Gamonot versus Fizipah Monde's winner. Sure. Brahim Raj Radke.

Yeah, I'm just trying to skip over some of these that we've had already. Zach Reese versus Jacob Malcun. My reaction to every Jacob Malcun matchup? You guys can't see. I'm just shrugging my shoulders. Jordan, oh, hold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

People. Oh, no. Mike, what's going on, man? With our usually reliable, what's going on with our usually reliable matchmakers here? Jordan Levitt, Claudio Poyas. Guys, that's a two. That's a two.

Jordan Levin fought Claudio Puez. He lost the Claudio Pueyes. A while ago, four years ago, you want to run it back. Fine. Guys, that is a rematch. It's not hard to look at these things out, guys. Like a lot, especially if you're a card like this, it's not like people on this car.

have like, oh, 15, 16 U.S.C. Fights. I can't remember. No, mostly people have like eight or nine U.S.C fights. It's very easy to just look up their, you know, who they fought. Oh, my goodness me. But, Harry, you've saved yourself by being with me on the Adelian, Fujitomar train. So well done. That's the fight to make. That's the number one fight to make

from this card. And we'll close out with Twitter, Mike. We got quite a few here. Let's see. DGB-1C. Beera and Eileen Perez. Pretty sure Eileen Perez is booked, but I should be wrong. I don't know. She talks a lot, so, no, I'm wrong. I'm wrong.

She's out there. She's out there. That's, that's I think she passed up on the show a lot too. So DGB, perfectly fine. Jacoby Jan Blakovitz. Oh, interesting. That's high. That is why we, Mike, you and I kind of dipped our toes in the water of the ranked light heavy weights.

DGB's going all in, man. He's saying, former UFC champion. Throw him in. throw them in. Yeah, that's kind of hadn't really thought about it. Kind of hadn't thought about it. If they booked that fight, I'd be like, damn, okay. I wouldn't be mad at it at all. Sure.

Brahimi and Mike Malotte, Gamrod, and Joel Alvarez. Oh, man. Sorry, Gamrod. Not saying he's going to lose, but again, another fight where he's kind of just holding on having to defend his spot. Finn Hamilton. I have but three selections, Vince says. Macy Barber, Macy Chasson winner is still named Macy.

Yeah, Macy goes up to 135 and fights Macy Chesson. Jukobi, Volkan, Ouzdemeir. Sure, again, we're talking about the top 15. Blanchfield and Natty Ice. Yeah, I don't know if we can avoid it at this point if they decide to, again, if Shepchenko fights, Chang. Or see if we can find Aaron a 135-ver to fight. Oh, to fight next week, considering this main event should have been on 316 anyway.

Oh, I see what they're saying. Okay, yeah. Or maybe Aaron's a backup to one of the, I don't know. Yeah. If I'm Aaron, I'm chilling for a week. Wow. But I'm chilling for a week of America. I don't think she needs to be in any rush to, but she's, she's, from New Jersey, right?

Yeah. Be the backup fighter. Make an extra paycheck. Why the hell not? This is true. She's slide into a bad and white title fight. She's very likely. No pressure.

She's very likely in town anyway. Right. Yeah. She's in New Jersey. Interesting. Okay, Finn. Okay. Your head's in the right place.

Paul Ceponelli. Um, weird and unfortunate, huge Blandfield fan, so that sucked. Yes, wants to see Blancheville, Natty Ice. Gamera's Ruky on two. We're seeing a lot of that. Brahimi-Sam-Patterson. I like it. Actually, weirdly, my first, like, thought I had is with me on Jacobian Rockich.

It was with me on Vera and Dumont. Zachary Shabazian, sure. Shabazian is not booked yet, right, Mike? Oh, no, he is, right? Oh, he is fighting, Andre. Petrosky. The Matroski. So stupid.

Please have that fight falter and have Zach Rees step in instead. What are you doing? I don't know. terrible. Levit and Jordan Wuchinich. Yeah, that's the right range, I think. Marcus McGehy calling it the penultimate

fight edition, penultimate fight explaining, you know, Marcus, if you have to write a paragraph to explain your nickname for the card, I'm not going to, yeah, I'm good. I'm not going to, sorry, thank you. I always appreciate the effort. Gamrod Alvarez, yes, Brahima, Yoros Medici. Jacobi Bukascus, yeah, perfect.

Veda, Aldana, too. Sure. Yeah, I have no issue with it. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to, sorry. I just skip ahead here. Ardeli on Tomar. That's right, Marcus.

That's right, Marcus. This might definitely going to happen. Zach Schultes unlikely would love to do Blanchfield on 316 at a 135 fight. Yeah, this feels like it's going to happen now. I feel like we're all speaking to this into existence. So well done on no crew. Ramees versus Neil Magni

Maggie's book You clown Hold on hold on That was way too harsh I'm sorry That was fine Magny's my fault That came out way too harsh

This is my fault This is my fault He did he did Follow this up with Is Gunner Nelson really going to fight twice in the year So he's assuming Oh Then I'm the cloud

No I'm the cloud I'm gonna let you finish I got to let you finish That's on me I didn't have added the dramatic pause. So, Zach, yeah, that's so, this is a replacement for Gunner Nelson, just assuming he's not going to fight again, which harsh but fair. And Zach, you know what, you get, I'm almost going to give you like half an auto point here because guess what, Mike? He got Jacobi Kuchelaba.

He got Bayada Pennington and he put a two next to both of them. So there you go, Zach. Good job. Got that right. I'm so sorry. Wildcard, Ludovic Klein versus Chase Hooper. I feel like Chase is on a pretty good hot streak right now. You could argue Klein is ranked above him,

but I think they match Chase up with either a higher ranked name than Klein who's coming off a loss or someone else who's strung together so win. So it's possible. Would you do Chase Hooper versus Matush Gamron? I would, but I'm sick like that, though. Okay. I definitely won't. So sorry, Zach, for all the confusion.

I actually thought that was a great, great set of picks. And lastly, Speezy 32, Speezy 32. Morning, A.K. Hope you enjoyed your time up. Yeah, we had last weekend off. It was great. Maybe the worst card of the year. Weirdly, I don't think it was. No, it definitely wasn't. And it definitely helps that it was like a, you know, nine fights.

Really helped a lot. Otno Picks are Gamrod and Grant Dawth. Again, we've talked about this before. They train together, right? I'm the one who keeps bringing up Grant. Yeah, they're definitely not fighting. Yeah. So I bring the species again, I probably have to apologize.

This is my fault. I feel like I put this in people's heads that they are probably not going to fight. Rames and Nico Price. Okay. Again, a lot we've already seen. Jordan Levitt and Tom Nolan. I think Jordan go a bit higher than that. I like Tom Nolan.

I like Tom. Tom's on a nice little run. That'd be an interesting fight. Oki and Charlie Campbell. And this is. is I don't like this at all, but I understand the logic behind it. Ardellion and Pollyanna Viana. Now, I think that's like a ridiculous step up for Ardilion, but Polyana Viana is like in a really big slump right now.

She's lost three straight. Yeah, four or five has not one of fights since 2022. So were you to make that matchup? Not crazy. Not in the slightest bit crazy. She's just been around longer in the UFC, so I think that's like there might be some shock if that was announced. But when you look at the recent form, again, I would assume Viano would still be a pretty sizable favorite, like minus 300. But three straight losses, four or five.

Yeah, you can do it. Speezy, very creative. I'm glad. I'm just glad we went out on an Alisardellian pick before we get into whatever, whatever was going on at UFC 316, which now it appears will likely have Aaron Blanchfield on it somehow. Yeah. That's it. That's it. That's it. Guys, you can reach me at, why do I not? No. No, you can't. Oh, no. Don't reach out. That's right. We have UFC. We'll give you that information next week.

Yeah, really next week, next month is like a couple of times. We don't need, you don't need to send us picks. Yeah. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. So yeah, we get UFC 316 next week. Tastes certainly vary on this card. I'm actually getting, I'm actually more public for this card than I thought I would be. More on that to come. But we got Marab de Wallis versus Sean O'Malley 2 for the Bannamway title, the men's manamoy title.

Co-main event, Julianna Pena versus Kayla Harrison, the women's bandamoy title on the line. The co-main event, Kelvin Gasolm versus Joe Pfeiffer is the featured bout, I believe. I don't know why, but I guess it is. Vicente Lucay versus Kevin Holland, so that's going to be fun.

And then we get the UFC debut of patchy mix against Mario Batista, which the stakes are so high in that fight for patchy mix. It's unbelievable. And then we have Bruno Silva versus Josh Van. Absolutely love that fight. Terrific fight.

And then a la Looney tunes, you can hear the whistling going off the cliff just a touch. We get Ariana Ulippski De Silva versus Kong Wang. Could be fun. Sergei Spivak versus Waldo Cortez Acosta for the middleweight heavyweight championship of the world.

Rank him, Mike. Rank him. Why is, did you rank Salsa Boy last time? Is he, I got a look at you. I'm going to just check your ranking. How dare you?

He's one four straight. He's one of the hottest. That's right. I said hottest names. I'm the only one who's ranked him. I'm looking at our spreadsheet right now. I am the only one who's ranked Salca boy. Shame on all of you.

We're Speedback ranked in our rankings. he's like top 10 he's like solidly solidly the top 10 yeah no lower that he's a 10 to 10 to 9 to 11 that's his rage we'll 9 to 11 on our balance we will also see about such as ju sang you versus jekky sadaghi ozumat murzikana versus brenton robero yes killian selkilled versus yannal ashmosse markel madeeros versus Mark Chowinski. What's up with that? I'm reading, because Madero was supposed to fight

on Saturday. It was an illness, but not an illness. Some sort of illness, yeah. Okay, that's so weird, but that he's ready to fight by next week? Yeah.

And he's fighting a newcomer in Mark Chowinski. And Chaos Williams hopefully has an opponent that has stuck against Andreas Gustafson. Not quite May for Chaos Williams, but we're tailing into just the first week of June. So maybe that's close enough. Well, I'm just saying.

That's like that's a win. I don't know. I'm just saying, listen, he tried to, this is what he gets for booking a fight outside. Like we just saw him fight in February and did not go well. He should only fight in May.

And now he, I guess he did try this time and things got kind of screwed. Things got kind of screwed up. No, he was booked for 316. It's Gustafson who was supposed to fight on Saturday. Yep. Man, this is a guys,

whatever. anime fight.com you can see the whole saga of how this williams um gustafsson fight to came together it came together it is bizarre it is really awesome had three different opponents now k s williams is three different opponents for this card uh but that's gonna be a fun fight man and jose gustavs is very fun and k s williams as we all know is very fun so yeah that's ufc 13 a lot of coverage lot of talk throughout the week to get you ready for that card of course the great hose youngs uh will be boots on the ground and we'll have the watch party i might have an austin three 316 t-shirt.

I will have an awesome 316 t-shirt. And just lots of fun to be had. Check out swing rounds with Derek Lewis. It's a lot of fun. And we'll have more fun next week right here. And on to the next. We'll be live following UFC 360 for A.K.I. I am Mike Heck.

Have a great rest of your weekend, everybody. 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. special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line.

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