MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Ilia Topuria, Khamzat Chimaev After UFC 308?

Episode Date: October 27, 2024

Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev both accomplished something that had never been done before at UFC 308 as the rising stars capped off a wild pay-per-view event in Abu Dhabi. Now that the dust has settled, what comes next for both guys? 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 Topuria after he became the first man ever to knock out Max Holloway in the main event to retain the UFC featherweight title. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Holloway, Chimaev — after being the first UFC fighter to submit Robert Whittaker in the co-main event — Magomed Ankalaev following his decision win over Aleksandar Rakic, Lerone Murphy after earning a hard-fought decision against Dan Ige, Shara Magomedov following his wild knockout win over Armen Petrosyan, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The matchmaking crowns have returned following a memorable UFC 308 event, which took place yesterday afternoon in Abu Dhabi, Eddie Hatt Arena, and the closing two fights, the closing results. Hamzaa Chimayev, man is back, baby. and Ilya Tuporia might be the best fight around planet Earth. But we'll discuss what is next for both of those individuals for Max Holloway and some of the other notable names coming out of UFC 308 on today's program. I am Mike Heck and joining me live, the co-host, the co-matchmaker,

the Prince of Positivity, and my best friend, Mr. Alexander Kay Lee, aka how we doing on the Sunday morning, a little bit more rusted than we typically are on the shows. Feeling refreshed, feeling so good. I mean, Mike, I feel like even if we were running on our usual, like, two hours of sleep or whatever it is we do, we'd still be pretty jazzed up after a card like that. I mean, that went really well for the UFC. I shouldn't start it from that perspective. I mean, I should say it went well for the fans. It went well for the big winners of the show.

But I think for the UFC, they're going to be really happy with what went down in Abu Dhabi on Saturday because they got a lot of results that I think are going to, one, may have elevated some fighters to another. their level. I think people obviously know what we're talking about. And also, I think, like, set the stage pretty cleanly for some big fights in 2025. Now, we know, you know, these things don't always work out perfectly. Availability is an issue. We have other fighters who had great performances this year who are still waiting to be booked. They may be, you know, they're jockeying in line as well. But Elliot Deporia comes out, some other guys made some really, really strong statements. And then some pretty good callouts, too. So if everyone here from this card, guess what they want. Man, 2024 has been a really good year for the UFC and it could be just as good in

2025. The company's rolling right now and this peer view was one of the three best of the year. Oh, 100%. It's UFC 300 and then Miles may vary whether number two is UFC 308 or UFC 299. It's just kind of a mix and match between those two. And I will listen to either, either argument, either side on whether this was or 299 was the second best card of 2024. But before we get into the matchmaking and we'll get to basically here's how this is going to work we're going to talk about each fighter that we're going to matchmake for if you guys have suggestions we'll throw them up on the screen so the peeps who are watching can see what you guys are suggesting we'll go through the main card winners max holloway we'll have a wild card pick and then at the very end we will turn it on

over to you guys and you guys can make your suggestions we'll just go kind of balls to the wall and we'll do that for 10 or 15 minutes and then we'll get the hell out of here and enjoy the rest of our Sunday. But before we get into the matchmaking suggestions, a.K. Iliate Soporia does what no man has ever done before. He has knocked out Max Holloway. He said he was going to do it, and he did it.

He said he was going to knock out Alexander Volcanofsky in the first two rounds, and he did it. Is he the fighter of the year? Is Eliyts-Porya the fighter of the year? Yep. Yep. Yeah, I agree. He is. I'm sorry. I don't know. I'm sorry to all the Alex Pereira fans out there,

but look, I just, I rate what Ilya Tuporia did with these two wins in higher regard than what Alex Pereira did, beating Jamal Hill, who in our rankings at the time, I think was like seven or eight, he was around there, maybe he was like six, I don't know, Yuri Pajshka, who he already knocked out, and then Khalil Roundtree, who was probably like 12 or 13. Great, it's fine. Three wins, help the UFC out on a couple of occasions, so that it has to factor in. But there is just nothing more impressive that happened in combat sports this year than Ilya, knocking out Alexander Volcanovsky and Max Holloway. It's just nothing more impressive than that. Yeah. No wrong answer here. No wrong answer here. If your if your calls,

Alex Pereira, there's very good reason to do that. No problem with it. And listen, the recency bias is the thing. We just saw one of the most incredible knockouts of the year. I think in my mind one of the most incredible knockouts of all time. I'm not saying like top 10, but this is a knockout I'll remember for the rest of my fandom because it just had never happened before. We'd never seen Holloway. We'd seen him outstruck before.

We'd never seen to like get cracked like that, get rocked, I think, and put in such danger. Like this wasn't a flash, K.O. This was, you could see the knockout coming, right? He hurts him a bit like maybe like 45 seconds earlier. And you're like, this wasn't one of those, you know, the commentary was like, oh, he's hurt and like kind of manufacturing this fake drama.

You could see Holloway was wobbled, hurt, survival mode, it's not something we've really ever seen from Max before and you could at that moment you were telling yourself holy crap, like Ilya's going to knock him out. Like this is actually going to happen. You didn't know what it's going to look like because you've never seen it before, but you knew it was going to happen.

So in that sense, yeah, it was, we are still riding off that high, but I think it will age very well. I don't think three months from now we're going to look back and be like, was it really that great? And we're probably be even more like enamored with that finish when we have a chance to sit and reflect on it was that good. So, yes, quality of competition, certainly, no disrespect to what Jamal Hill and Khalil Roundshire are capable of, but, you know, Ilya has the name value. Again, and you can't

go wrong out to put out of the activity, the story, the aura that he built around himself is absolutely amazing. Right now, I will lean towards Toporia. I also think just featherweight is a stronger division in general. And this man is the undisputed king of it by a mile right now. I don't know if anyone is picking anyone to to even come close to upsetting him at this point he's talking about aura this guy has the most aura in the UFC right now he has the most drip I've seen since Connor

McGregor he's so old right now he's so wild it's just like Sergio Ravis is like hey let me come with you to the fights like I want to come I want to go all right fine you can you can join me and be the second fiddle to what I'm trying to do which he probably hasn't heard in the last decade of his of his career.

But let's get into the matchmaking. Let's start with Ilya, who like we said, knocks out Max Holloway. It was almost like a slow motion thing because we knew the knockout was coming. We knew Max was not going to be long for this fight and try as he may. That left hook was nuts because Holloway was throwing. Teporia had him somewhat trapped after he had him hurt.

And the second he lulled Max into a false insecurity that he could escape that the clutches of Ilya and he tried to back away, that's when that left hook landed and Max barely even saw it coming. Down he goes, Ilya wins, and then afterwards, Volkadovsky comes into the octagon. They have a nice moment, very respectful between the two. And it appears that that is where we're going. Despite Diego Lopez being the backup fighter for the championship bout,

looks like Diego Lopez may have lost out the most in all of this, because it doesn't even appear like he'll even fight Volkanowski at this point. So is that what happens here? We're getting to Poria Volkanowski 2, AK. I don't mind it. As usual, Dana may have oversold it a little bit after saying like, oh, no one in this room could object to doing this fight again. And I'm like, yeah, from a name value standpoint, it's doable.

I think you guys were talking about in the post-fight show, you and Chad, that if they were going to go to, if they were somehow able to get the Bernadbeu, if they were able to go to Real Madrid Stadium. That's probably the fight to make. I mean, just the name recognition of Volcanovsky is still a big deal. Really, you could match up Ilya with anyone in that situation, but I think a rematch is kind of cool with, again, one of the guy before him who's viewed as one of, if not the greatest featherweights of all time.

So I don't mind it. I don't mind it. But yes, as Jed also mentioned, don't put it and make this random main event in Las Vegas. Like, it wouldn't be the worst thing, but it would not have that impact. So from a crystal ball standpoint, all signs seem to point to this rematch. Really, they've been talking about it since Volok lost the first time, and it's okay. I'm not super excited about it. I'll get more excited about it if it gets booked.

That's okay. I will stick with a previous suggestion I had made. I've said over and over again, I want to see him fight Mosar. I said this before the Al Jemaine Sterling of a Mosear fight was booked. I just think Mosaar deserves it. I don't care how Dana White feels about him. I don't care that he clearly didn't see the – he didn't watch the Arnold Allen fight. because he has weirdly smashed it as a great fight.

Mosar is the number one contender. I am confident he will beat Al Jemaine Sterling. And after he beats Al Jemaine Sterling, if I'm waving my magic wand, he should get the shot of Tuporia. What I would like to see the UFC get done is do Volk versus Lopez. Do that in February. Do it in Sydney.

Can be throw a bullshit interim title. Who cares? Pay the guys championship money. Volk said he would do it for an interim title because the biggest thing in all of this, and you mentioned it, Tuporia's next fight has to be in Spain. And if we have to wait till July or August for that to happen, if we have to wait 10 months,

Tupori should not be fighting until it's in Spain, 100%. So if we have to wait for them to find an arena or find a venue in order to host this fight, in the meantime, if you want to do Volcanowski versus Diego Lopez for an interim belt, aka a number one contender fight with extra money and flash involved, I got no problem with that. I actually would prefer them to do that because it mixes things up a little bit

and kind of makes the Toporia fight bigger. But I kind of feel like they're going to drop the ball like they've typically done in this situation. And we'll get Toporia versus Volk maybe in like May in some rando place that is in Spain. And we're just like, what are we doing here? But Toporia deserves his own card, deserves it in Spain. Dude is an absolute superstar and He might be the best fighter in the world I don't know I think he's number two

I he's is Islam in Tuporia right now and Pereira is right there too So fun time to be one of those three guys and what a win for Ilya To Poria now we go to Max Holloway aka Max Holloway is the effing man because Not only does he lose not only does his featherweight championship dream regaining that belt come to an end. Not only did he have to watch himself get knocked out in a replay a bunch of times. The man showed up at the press conference.

The worst press conference in the history of the UFC, by the way. That was brutal. But still showed up. No excuses. Look great in the fight. I thought he looked fantastic until he didn't. And I'm just like, okay, guess I'm going to lightweight now. but you don't see fighters do that.

They don't show up and answer the questions. Once in a while you get it. Connor was always, for the most part, pretty good at that. Dominic Cruz was maybe the best of all time at it. But Max didn't have to show up. He still did. And took it all in the chin and I respect the hell out of that. There is really no wrong way to go here, A.K.

He goes to lightweight. I don't give a shit who he fights. It could be Dan Hooker. It could be Dustin Porier. It could be Gaetian. Is anyone going to complain if we get Holloway H.E.2. No. There's a million names. Holloway, Raphael Fazeve, Holloway, Charles Olivera, Holloway, Michael Chandler. All of those things are fine. What I ultimately landed on

is no matter what happens at UFC 309, I want Max Holloway versus Charles Olivera. We never got to see those guys actually have a real fight. I want to see them have a real fight. So Max Holloway, Charles Olivera, no matter what happens at UFC 309. I wouldn't mind seeing him fight, seeing him fight, either, right? I think that you could go to the winner of that fight as well. But yeah,

I think people have been calling for Charles and Max to fight again. You know, the timing, I think never quite worked out for that rematch to happen. But, yeah, I think we'd be down for it. Sorry, I would say. I went a different way,

only because loyal listeners of the show will know I already set up an opponent for Max Holloway. And I think from a name value standpoint, this might be a little disappointing. Let's say Max doesn't come back until next summer. Let's say this is his big international fight week return. They'll probably want to see an Oliver or a Chandler or a hooker or, I don't know, fight cage again.

I don't know. There's probably a lot of better options. But I still think if you want a fresh matchup, not that we need that for Max, again, because him going up to 155 just kind of is fresh on its own right. He doesn't need a fresh opponent, but I love the idea of him fighting Money Moikano. Money Moikano is not near a title shot yet. I think he's not, obviously not that level of star power of some of the other guys I just mentioned, but he's built up this really, really, really good following.

His promos, his podcast work. He's doing the work outside of the cage to build his profile. His fights are exciting as hell. I mean, I think Moikano in a division full of killers is one of the most exciting guys. That's saying a lot. He would sell this fight in a spectacular way. Max doesn't care. Max will fight anyone.

I don't know how many fights Max has left, and I know we want to save those four. I get it, marquee names, whatever that means. I'm sure people are still hoping for a Connor a rematch somewhere down the road. That's fine. But if you want someone who's, there'll be no difficulty setting this fight up,

no politics, nothing like that. And again, someone who, if he didn't fight this guy, I'd be a little sad. I feel like I want to see these guys fight before their careers are said and done. I'm going Holloway, Money Moikano, almost like crystal ball pick. I almost feel like this is just going to,

the circumstances, it's going to land this way. So put a pin in this one, you guys. Interesting. We'll see if it plays out. It'll be huge for Money Moikano to get a big win over Benoit, Guillaise, people think you're going to fight Patty Pimblep, but instead you get back freaking Holloway.

That's kind of an embarrassment of riches, considering where he's at right now. As we go to the middleweight division, 185 pounds, Hamzaa Chimayef returns, fights Robert Whitaker, and just malls Robert Whitaker. Absolutely malls.

does Hamzaa Chimaif things and did it in such a quiet assassin-like way throughout the fight week. This is a different kind of Hamza Chimayev. He said he had a lot of respect for Rob Wittaker. Robert Wittaker is obviously very respectable to him. Malzum breaks his friggin face with the crank, just kind of shattered his teeth. And, you know, apparently he didn't like break his job, but he definitely did some damage to the job. But the teeth was like the basically just crush this band's teeth with a crank. matter of seconds. Just freakish power. The man is such a, it's such a savage. And I got to say,

okay, I know there's a lot of people out there who might be a little upset about this. Sometimes it's just the nature of the business. One of the big losers yesterday when it came to all of this was Diego Lopez. In my opinion, the biggest loser at UFC 308 was Sean Strickland, because Hamza Chimae F should be fighting for the belt. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know there's going to be a lot of Sean Strickland fans who think I'm an idiot. Hamzaat Shamaez should be fighting for the belt. Sean Strickland did not do that to Paulo Costa. He beat Paul Ocosta in a fight that was fine,

but many people aren't going to go back and rewatch. He didn't do that. He didn't do that, and he didn't do it to Robert Whitaker. So the biggest fight the UFC can make in this division right now is Drigis Duplice v. Hamzaat Shemayev. I understand there's some travel things that potentially could get in the way, and we don't know for sure what the friggin story is with all of that. But it's DDP versus Hamzaa Chamaif.

That is the fight. Sean Strickland can either be the backup fighter and fight the winner, which is for him a bigger fight than he would have right now because if DDP beats Hamzaat Shamaif, Strickland DDP 2 becomes a way bigger fight. And if Hamzat Shamaif wins the middle eight title, Sean Strickland versus Hamzaa Chimayf is a gigantic fight. So while he lost in the short term,

maybe Sean Strickland wins in the long term. But if the UFC does not go to Hamzaa Shama if in some way, shape, or form, they blew this one, in my opinion. I agree with a lot of what you said. Anyone, by the way, who jumped off the Shemaya bandwagon, hop back on, guys. This is the perfect time. I'm not telling that. I'm not doing like, oh, I told you so. This guy is so great.

You know, you never should have given up. Because I'm sure there were moments where I was like, oh, is this going to happen for Kamsat? But I've maintained firmly on the bandwagon. I have never picked against him in a fight. I thought Whitaker would be a bit tougher, but I still was confident that Humzat would finish him. I think I said round two instead of round one. But yes, anyone there who was like burned by the Shemaya experience,

you know, how it's been over the last couple of years, come back on. There's plenty of space. This is a huge bandwagon. There's a huge bandwagon. There's a huge bandwagon. There's plenty of space. This guy is, in my opinion, the best,

I shouldn't say. I obviously didn't make him number one pound for pound out of that performance. But using, using Dana White's, if you put anyone in a room with this guy rule, I would have him very near the top of if you put anyone in a room with Hamzat, Hamzat's the guy coming out. Okay, this guy is just his skill set and his power and his athleticism and just violence potential is nearly unmatched, pound for pound.

I don't care what division you're talking about. The guy is that good. I am actually still the belief that they're going to aim for Strickland in whatever, February or March, you know, first quarter of, of 2025. Not just because that's what they want. It's just safer. It's more reliable. I, again, I think Shamiyev is great.

I think he'll, I would pick him to beat, again, anyone on 185 pounds. But there's still the health issues to worry about. We don't know for sure, but a lot of us, you know, we've speculated. He's still suffering some effects from long COVID, in addition to whatever other ailments he may have, wear and tear from fighting. Again, apparently being one of the most intense athletes when it comes to training, pushing his body to exhaustion.

So what we're saying here is we think he can be back in first quarter of 2025 and that he'll be able to fight in the U.S. Another murky situation, he and his team have said many times, no, we do not have a restriction. And yet, for whatever reason, we do not see him fighting in the United States. So there's so many things to navigate with Kamsat that I think if you're the UFC, you're still penciling in DDP Strickland 2 for, again, February, March, pay-per-view. If by some chance, I'm sure to be in contact with Kamsat's team, if by the end of November, all signs are pointed to ComZat being available during that time.

They can always pivot. So I don't think about this way. I don't expect them to announce DDP Strickland, uh, DDP's next title fight until, uh, Christmas, until December, until December. I think they're going to, I think you're right, Mike. I think as most people are suggesting, they're going to try and pivot to Kamsat, but they know they have DDP Strickland in the bag. Having Strickland be the backup would just make so much more sense.

You're right. Having Strickland fight the winner of that fight. makes so much more sense. You're right. I am just being cautiously optimistic with Shemaya. I'm as excited as I was to see in return. As amazing as that win was, this was his second fight since September 22. His first fight since last October. If he gets back in there in the next six months, no one will be more excited than me. I just cannot rely on it. So my magic wand pick, by far, Hams.DDP, I've been calling for this for a long time, but I'm not, I'm not sure that's what the UFC is guaranteed to do.

Jed and I were talking about this on the watch party and on the post-fight show. If I'm Turkey-Al-Sheikh, I'm just saying, hey, UFC, here's $50 million. I don't care if it's on a pay-per-view. I will give you the money you probably would have made for this pay-per-view. And we wanted in Saudi Arabia, DDP versus Hamzat, February, when you come back. That's what we're doing. That's what I want. And that's what my money is going towards.

And then you can still do the pay-per-view in Sydney. that's what they should offer. And if Hamzat can do it, cool. If not, then you go to Strickland and you do it elsewhere. But it should be when they go. The fact that Dana White did not say Sean Strickland is next yesterday tells me everything I need to know. Ask me Tuesday. We have our matchmaking meeting.

It's not a good thing. And when Sean Strickland had to tweet out what he tweeted yesterday, that's not a guy who is confident that he's getting a title fight. because if he was, he wouldn't tweet anything in my humble opinion. So we'll see what happens. It may end up being Sean, but they did need to do whatever they can to get Hamza in there as a frigging huge fight. And again, for Sean Strickland, he fights the winner, and it's a way bigger opportunity for him.

We will not matchmaking for Robert Whitaker right now, mostly out of respect because he got his face mushed and we don't know when he's coming back. so we will continue on to Macaem and Enkolaev, AKaegh He was kind of the low-key under the radar

big story of this card because of Alex Pereira can he do enough to get over that hump and get Dana White to show up at the press conference and say unequivocally

1,000% this man is fighting Alex Pereira for the UFC light heavyweight title he goes out there he has a very Ankoliev type performance

this didn't blow the door doors off anybody. He beat Alexander Rackich. It's a fine victory. Guy has not lost in a long time. Was this enough, AK? Was this enough? Because it should be. But looking at this through a UFC lens, is Magoen-Aggle-Live getting a title shot against Alex Pereira next? Well, I'll ask you the enough thing. Yes, it's enough. It was enough when he knocked out Johnny Walker. It was enough when he went, whatever, 10 fights unbeaten, 11 fights unbeaten. Like, this ridiculous. He should have gotten the title fight instead of Khalil. I'm glad we got the Khalil out, it's been out of a fight.

Turned out great. UFC, as it so often does, just falling bass backwards into a great fight and great moment. So everything worked out, you know, whatever. The UFC's, the UFC matchmakers and Dana White are geniuses, whatever. But Ankelyev should have gotten the title fight already. He's done more than enough. The Rockich fight was fine. It's what we know about Ankelyev.

He's a great striker. Very technical. He's got power. Okay, he couldn't put Rockets away. Rockets, I think, is a little bit tougher to put away than people think. I know we had the injury finish and he just got knocked up by Yidi, but not being able to finish Rocket is not like the biggest indictment of you as a contender. So please, can we just do Ankaliv and Alex Federa?

Mike, I told you, I messed you before the show. Like, this is probably the easiest episode we've had to do because either, you know, someone's an obvious contender or we've set this, we've laid the seeds in another episode of Otno where we've said, oh, well, this person is going to fight the winner of this fight. We had a lot of that today. A lot of these picks I've made so far are because I mentioned them on previous episodes

onto the next one as possible match-ups. So it's the easiest episode. It might be boring. My picks anyway, your picks are fantastic. My picks might be boring.

I know people, if people had their way, a lot of people, they wouldn't be heartbroken if Ancolaev never fought Padetta. I understand that. Ankelyev is not,

again, is not a level star. Some of his flights have been, again, good, but methodical and not memorable. But he is the number one contender.

by far he might be the best light heavyweight in the world. What are we doing as a society? Give him his towel shots. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver, so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it. Want turnips that look light but feel heavy?

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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 equip flights sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. This was by far the toughest thing because this is, you're right. They should just immediately go to Uncle I.F. versus Alex Pereira.

I want to see it. And I've been saying this for a while and especially after watching what I saw yesterday, I would confidently pick Alex Pereira to beat Machvite Ancalaif. without hesitation, not a ton of film study, I would confidently pick Alex Pereira to win because he will just mush up the legs of Ancolaev to a point where he's not going to be able to do anything. And I think Alex Pereira eventually, as Jed says,

boops him and knocks him out. I actually don't think the fight is that close on it either. But it's also not a fight where everyone is just going to go absolutely bananas for. here's here's what I'm going to do okay we're going on a journey we're going on a journey it's a weird journey can't wait but I'm trying to I'm trying to figure this all out so this is what I actually landed on John Jones is going to kill Steepay at UFC 309 it ain't going to be fun it ain't going to be close it's going to be one of the saddest things we've ever seen as a matter of fact we're going to have to live in a world we're in a 24 hour span we're going to have to

watch Jake Paul, nuke Mike Tyson, and then we're going to have to watch John Jones and nuke Steepa. And it's going to be a very sad weekend when we really think about stuff. John Jones is going to get on that microphone. He's going to call it Alex Pereira. There's no doubt of my mind that he's going to do that. He's not going to retire. He's not going to call out Tom Aspinall. He's going to call out Alex Pereira. He's going to say, I'm going to have one more fight, and I want it to be against that, dude. So what do we do in the meantime? Because if John Jones says those words, the UFC is going to make that happen. They are going to do everything in their power to set this fight up, and Alex Perr is not

going to say no to it. Magam and Akalaf will get a shot at a title. It will be, again, I hate doing the interim things, but for the right reasons and if you could spit it in the right way, I don't give a shit, because they're just essentially number one contender fights and the fighters get more money. What they're going to do, AK, Magam and Inkaaqaaf is going to fight for the interim light heavyweight title. title against Khalil Roundtree.

That's what they're going to do. It makes no sense. It almost made me throw up my mouth a touch, but I'm trying to look at this as to how the UFC is looking at this. They love Khalil Roundtree. Dana White thinks Kalil Roundtree should be like the second best light heavyweight in the world after getting knocked out by Alex Pereira. And if they could put Khalil in a position to maybe fight Pereira again,

they ain't going to do it. So I think this is what they're going to do. They're going to do something super weird out of left field because by all accounts, and I don't know this for sure, it seems like they're going to do Yuri Pajshka versus Chabal Hill. Kind of feels like the timelines will line up. Hank's got to fight somebody. They're not going to do Jan Belhovic. They're not going to do rackets.

They're not going to do Krilov. They're not going to do Ozymere. Maybe Carl Solberg gets in there if he wins. But Kulil Rountry could get in there. That's what I think. Because I think John's going to call for Pereira, and I think Pereira's going to end up playing John. So we have to do something. So at the end of this journey, a wonderful journey is always my best friend.

We've arrived at Khalil and Anka-Live. For the interim light heavyweight title. Interesting. Interesting. Let's go to the people. Let's go to the people. I don't like it. It makes me sad.

But Jamal Hill got, Yuri can't fight for a bell right now. I'm sorry. You got knocked out twice. And Jamal Hill, I don't know if anybody wants to see him fight for a belt right now, especially after getting posterized by Alex Pereira and just a bad way. And he has not looked, he has not handled that loss very well. I kind of feel like Ankleye, they're going to do him somewhat of a solid. Here's your chance to fight for a quote unquote belt.

And then they're going to put him in there with the guy they like more. who got a lot of buzz, even though he lost in Cleo Roundtree. So I could see that happening. I don't know how I feel about this. I don't like it either. Listen, we have both made some picks that we feel like are going to come out of the matchmaking blender and are not necessarily what the fans have been craving. But just the way the schedule works out, sometimes these things happen.

So as much I enjoyed the journey and I didn't love the destination, Mike. Um, you're not crazy. You're not crazy for just suggesting something like this could happen because, I mean, it's just such a weird. Someone's asking, lads. It's, it's, this shouldn't make sense. Someone said, that's the problem. Wasn't Khalil already beaten by Ankely?

I don't think they've fought. That's reverse doo-do. They've never fought. They've never fought. Uh, you know, like, you can look at the comments if you want. Some of them, it's, I see it. Well, I think some of them. Some of them are talking about you and some of them were talking about the also the possibility of Jones Perreta.

So it's all over the place. But thank you guys for the input. John's not calling out Tom, guys. He's either retiring or he's calling up Herrera. I think we should probably understand that by now. Don't say that, my best friend. Don't say that. It's going to happen.

I'm sorry. I know we all want to see Jones versus Aspinall. Let us believe in meritocracy. Evloy of Toporia, Ankylai of Pradesh. data Tom Aspinel Jones we're getting all these in 2025 all right Mike we're getting all these in 2025 because that's how that's how combat sports works the most deserving people always get their title shot and what will Aspinall do oh give him rebellus to Spain who cares doesn't matter I would say just get him in there I'd say Jelton but I don't want Jelton

to beat him and then spoil the John Jones Aspinall fight forever so look if Cyril gone and Volkoff are fighting in December And give Tom the winner of that fight. Especially if Sierra Gahn wins, and I think Sierra Gond will win. There you go. We could do Sierra Gond versus Tom Aspinall. Like, it is what it is. We just got to get John out of there, and then we can kind of move forward with our lives.

And a Tom Aspinall reigned division, which is where we should be. Let's go to Lerone Murphy, AK. I feel like we should just give him what he wants. At least that's how I feel. He goes out there, has a tough fight with Dan Ege. I thought Danny Gay was going to get him out of there in round one. That was a sneaky-ass punch that he landed that dropped Lorone. But Lorone battles back, digs deep.

I have to say, I thought Danny Gay won that fight, but I have to go back and rewatch it. But Lorone gets it done. Remains unbeaten in the UFC. Guys on a nice run. Called out Josh Emmett. Love the callout. I'll make it easy. I'm going to give him what he wants.

Mike, I had already picked an opponent for Lorone Murphy on a previous show. You did not enjoy this call out if you remember. You just said it was highly, highly, highly unlikely. And you're not wrong. You're not wrong. But I'm ready for more, as Don Davis puts it, I'm ready for more tomatoes to be thrown at me. I do not think I've been getting a good reception with some of my picks on this show. I think Lorone Murphy is like a top five guy.

I really do. I think he's that damn good. I know Danny Gates gave him a run for his money. Hey, Danny Gates everyone a run for their money. He's tough as hell, right? The guy never gets finished. The guy is super well-rounded. So for Lorone Murphy to sort of work out a win against him, to me, was very, very impressive.

I know Lorone is also missing kind of a signature moment. He's got a couple of finishes that know, like, I don't know how much they resonate. Some of them were a while ago, obviously, and it's been a lot of decisions lately. Good decisions. Like, I thought the Edso Verboza performance was incredibly impressive. Is he shaking up the matchmakers? Is he, like, on Dana White's radar in a major way? Probably not.

So I don't think this fight happens. but I guess again I have to follow up on what I picked on a previous show I think we're going to end up with Lerone and Diego Lopez for a number one contender fight there's a lot of ways than go to Diego Lopez really theoretically he could go get the title shot he was the backup and they've been okay at rewarding backhous with title shots it hasn't always happened I think um though I think only one fighter hasn't right I think Matias Gammon is the only guy who weighed in as a backup and didn't somewhere down the road eventually get a title shot like not necessarily next

but almost everyone who weighs in as a backup gets a title of shot or interim title of shot. So Diego should get that. But like I said, I think that might be down the road. I would like to see him fight again. I know you hated the idea of Diego fighting back. This would clearly be fighting back for Lorone Murphy after that win over Brian Ortega. But I think Lorone is better than Brian Ortega right now. So I think he deserves a big fight.

I would love to see him and Diego fight. Maybe it's not going to happen next. But again, I'm just following up on something I suggested. for. I mean, you're a man of principal. I'll give you that. Um, just maybe wear a helmet with the tomatoes coming at. Where the tomato emojis at? Tomato emojis in the chat, if you hate that, uh, pick. Hit me up to the tomato emojis. That's, that's, that's tough scenes, especially when Mozar and Sterling are about to fight each other. And I don't know. I'm saying, one of them. If they make it, if they make it, I'm not going to be mad at it. But I think this goes

with all my stuff, right? Because I think Movesar is getting the next shot. So then what's Diego going to do, right? I think Diego's got to wait. I mean, I guess we said, Diego what did we suggest Diego we used to something else Diego what was your suggestion for Diego Mike didn't you say something earlier I think Diego should fight the I've loyal to play of Sterling winner I think that oh no so I can't yeah see it now I can't do that or they do well actually what I what I think should happen is they should do Diego versus Volk for the for the for the for the for an interim bell right at the Sydney card while Tuporia sits and waits for a while the UFC figures out

how to get to Spain because again if Ilya's next fight is not in Spain than the UFC drop the ball. Real bad. Real, real, real bad. But I thought it was a good callout. I liked the Josh Mek call out. It was really, really good. But I'll tell you who had a great performance

and then a bad call out, at least in my opinion, was Shara Bullitt. Calling out Izzy, F Izzy, all that stuff. He ain't fighting Izzy. It's not happening. Hold on. He beat Armin Petrosian.

Then we first say, can we first say, uh, welcome back, Shara, from his one show band. It sounds like Mike wants to ban him again, but he was banned the last time he won a fight because he called out Nick Diaz, which was terrible. So this is so bad. This is leagues better, Mike, than the Nick Diaz call it. Let's, let's, uh, he's getting better.

He's getting better. You have to respect the pirate gimmick. Like, I love all the weird pirate puns. Him and his translator are always trying to fit into the problem. Like, they don't land at all. Like they're just like, you don't hear the crowd react to them. Maybe, again, maybe it's because the English is a little shaky. So, you know, there's something is.

clearly getting lost in translation, but they're always trying to be like, I'm coming for this land. I'm coming for this gold. And it's like, okay, your commitment is cool. But read the room, read the room. So, but he is back, right? Mike, you are not banning him again for the Izzy callout. No, because he, he looked good in the fight. Like, this is the shower bullet that when the UFC signed him, I was like, all right, this is,

this is the dude. This is what we've been excited about. And I never viewed him as a guy who's going to, win a belt or anything like that. But I always viewed him as like, all right, this is going to be must watch TV kind of a guy, a guy who could maybe get into the top 10, maybe in the top five, maybe gets to a title fight, but he's probably not going to win. But he looked good.

This is a good fight. He made Armertrussian look really fun. And shout out to Petrojan, who has been a nominee for the middleweighty, middleweight weight title many, many times. Petrojan looked good in the fight too. It was fun. Then the knockout happens and it's great. and the call it happens and I'm just like, oh, not so fast.

The fight to make is going to be Sharra Bullitt versus Michelle Pereira. That's it. Sorry. I mean, there's just, win that, then we can, we can move on up. We can maybe get to Izzy, but we're like 18, we're like two years minimum away from that fight happening. So it's because he can't, he can't be cleared. Like he can't, it's like you could fight in Vegas or anything like that. So let's go give him Pereira, man.

Let's do like a fight night Abu Dhabi main event, five rounds. Let's go. I would watch shit out of that. I went with Brendan Allen. How do you feel about that? I don't hate it. Stylistically not as fun as DeMolador, obviously. That's both a great sort of, you know, continue to push Shara fight,

but also a great bounceback fight for Michelle Padeta. Like I don't think that's, I think Shara would be favored, especially we just saw, you know, Michelle Padeta get frigging malls. and, you know, completely different opponent, completely different style. But I think a lot of people that might have lost some confidence in Ferreira as a contender, Shara is entering that fight. I would think as a minus 200, maybe, opening is minus 200. There's just still a lot of buzzer on him.

He's got that undefeated mystique that always gives you a few extra points. So I love that match-up. I think from a crystal ball standpoint, you're pretty on. I think you're pretty on. I would think that is where if your Pereira's team, usually putting out sort of suggestions to the UFC, whoever you know in the UFC, to go like, yeah, hey, great performance. by Shara. How about us next? So I brought out of a hat. I almost went like, I just won a solid top 15 guy because they have something with Shara. I think they've booked him

correctly so far. The Petrogean booking. Perfect. I didn't know he would be able to knock him out. That was just gravy. I thought he'd win a nice, like, you know, good striking competition. Great knockout. One of the best knockouts of the year. So I'm going Brennan. That's just because I have him higher ranked than Michel Perreta. But style-wise, Mike your pick makes a lot more sense. Yeah, plus I want to see Brennan Al and fight Marvon Burtory. I just say like those two have to fight each other at this point. But yeah, I mean, if they make it, cool. But share a bullet.

I mean, stop calling it, Izzy. Win a couple more fights than maybe we can get there. I didn't hate the call out though because I am for someone for the most part who supports shooting for the moon and landing in the stars. You know, I know it's a very corny thing to say. So I feel like you're right. He's probably not going to get Izzy. but, you know, maybe he gets someone three or four or five spots lower.

We'll see. We'll see. And I liked him going over the history of them before in his post-to-the-press conference, you know, almost trying to sell like Alex Padetto way. Like, yeah, we were, oh, we had a rivalry before, though not really. It was like he was trying to get, he said he was trying to get a fight with Izzy and never materialized when they were both kickboxing and they're both in China. So he's trying to establish some sort of history there.

So at least that made sense. Like I like the effort. I like the effort there, even if, as you said, Like it's a bit of a long shot for him to get that one next. But down the road, it's never too early to start setting something like that up. I think it's a little too early, but that's okay. Let's go to the wild card around AK, and you've had me intrigued for about 12 hours here. We'll select one fighter we've not matched for yet.

We'll match big for them right now. You told me, AK, last night that your wild card pick was something else. So the floor is yours. Who is your wild card selection for UFC 308? Mike, let me take you back. you like to go on a journey. Let me take you back. Not just in a journey.

Let me take, can you get the, let's hop in the time machine with me. Hop on the time machine with me, Mike. Are you an Oscar's viewer? You guy who watches the Academy Awards? No, but I see the clips on social and stuff.

Okay. You never, you never watched the, the 90s, you run in the 90s, you run a big Oscars guy? Not really. All right. Well, people out there who are old like me,

let me take you back to 1995, the 1995 Academy Awards. David Letterman hosted, Mike, you ever heard about that? I know who David Letterman is, yes. Okay, this is going great. This whole setup is going great. So David Letterman hosted the Oscars one time.

Did not do a great job. I don't know what was his fault. People know David Letterman. He's got, you know, pretty like esoteric sense of humor, especially back in the 90s. It's probably more normal now. But like back then, he was pretty like very dry kind of humor. And it didn't really translate to the glitz and glamour of the Academy Awards.

And one of his big jokes was, I want to make Oprah meet Uma, Oprah, Oprah, Winfrey and Umma Thurman. It made no sense at the time. It makes no sense me explaining it now. You guys can find it on YouTube. He just found their names funny or something. Anyway, it completely bombed and it's becoming a, it would have been a meme if we had memes back in 1995. Mike, I want to make, I'm going to get these names wrong. I want to make Ebo meets Ivan. Mike, are you still there? I'm listening to. I'm still there. I want to make Ebo meet Ivan.

Give me 51 second knockout deliverer. Ebo Aslan versus Ivan Erslan. I need Ebo Aslan versus Ivan Erslan. People in the chat, you know what I'm talking about. This is unbelievable. The chat is on fire. They are super excited about this. I hope people are only listed this in podcast form.

I cannot see the comments because just trust me when I say, people are excited about Oslan hashtag Aslan versus Ursulaan Okay, this is during the same division They're both one fight into the UFC careers Oh, Ebo's two now, sorry, I think Evo's two and out now Excuse

Is Ebo or is this his debut? What's his debut? Ebo is his debut Ebo's second fight Ebo, Oslan, Ivan, Ercelon. There you go. You're welcome. You're welcome, America. Wow.

Yeah. Outstanding. Did that live up to the hype? It was very good. It was very good. I like, there were so many ways like I wanted to go with this, but I truly didn't know where to go in the end of it. I, so what I ultimately ended up with because I just want to, I want to shout this man out because I was so wrong about him. Mattosuribetschki, I, you're not a human being.

It's official. You're not human. I don't think Mick Tebeck Oralby is a human being either. Those two dudes beat the shit out of each other. Like, it was, it was wild to watch these two guys fight each other. And Mattos Rubechki proved something that we've talked about at MA fighting a lot. One, if you can't be killed, you're going to win a lot of fights. And two, if you have that intangible, but also can add the fact that no matter how tired you are,

you will still throw everything with as much power as you possibly can while still landing. That is another cheat code in the sport. And Mattoch Rabetsky has it. Big upset against Big Tebek Oral Bai. I still think Oralby is a guy who could be a top 10 guy at lightweight without question. And now Matos Trabetsky, especially if you got dinged up real bad by CDF in his prior fight, this is real impressive. This is a really impressive performance from him. So what we're going to do, AK, we're going to do.

We're going to do Macha Trabeschi versus Ben Wausantini next. Whoa. I just felt that's what we're going to do. That's got chills. That was almost Aslan Ursuland good. That's what's about to happen here. Chills just thinking about it. Oh my God.

That was incredible. Yeah. We got some meatheads and lightweight. You know, we totally talk about the meatheads at middleweight and they are our champion. Our middleweight champion is a meat head. God bless them. We got some underrated meathead action going on at lightweight. And that is, that would be, oh, my God.

I mean, Ribeski, that was just in a car crash with Oral Bai. So I don't know if we want to put up through that again. Oh, jeez. Yeah, look, BSD probably needs a little time off. You got beat up real bad by Desemporier. Just got beat up real bad by Hanato Moikano. Betzky's going to need a little time to heal it from this one. Maybe go like April, May, June.

Throw these two dudes in there. It could be like a featured prelim on a paper. or main card fight somewhere in a paper it's just the sky's the limit for these two guys but there's no way that that fight does not deliver it's going to be incredible so that's what i end up going with and love it yeah i started thinking about this because oral by is just such a freak because we were talking about this on the watch party like what would happen if if right now illi tupori just said like i'm not featherway anymore i'm just going to be a lightweight and we'll up to lightweight and I'm going to fight for the lightweight title and I'm going to do all this stuff.

And we're trying to figure out how I'll match up against a lot of these guys. And then after watching what I saw yesterday, I'm like, what would I lilia to pouria versus McDebec Oral by it look like? Because you can't kill him. You can't even hurt him. And he's a monster. It would just be such a weird fight to watch. But these are the types of things that I think about randomly after I watch violence on television.

So, like speaking about random. You know, it's better than the one. big thing? Two big things. Exactly. The new iPhone 17 Pro on TELUS's five-year rate plan price lock. Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever, plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. Can I touch upon something real quick that was brought up in the comments? And I got a lot of messages about the Lial Thakritinov fight. Please.

Now, I haven't done a robbery review in a while. People may have noticed. This is really just a matter of timing, guys. We just, as people know, we're a little bit, you know, we've seen some staff. We parted away with some staff recently. So all of us are taking out some other responsibilities. It's a bit difficult to always do all the features we want to do. So I haven't had time to do robbery reviews.

And also, I felt like the spirit of robbery review was getting lost. Like I didn't want it to become a regular thing because the whole point of it was to point out that robberies are not as common in MMA as people think. And after a while, when I was turning into like a monthly thing or whatever, almost like monthly or two times a month, it was suddenly feeding into that culture, especially since most of the time I was saying like it wasn't a robbery. I think 75%, I think three out of every four fights that were close and I reviewed, I would always say not a robbery. So at some point, people get tired of hearing that. I'm putting out the misconception that just because I'm reviewing it, that it is a robbery. The whole thing got muddied. I do want to do more in the future, hopefully when I have time.

And I think Leal and Fokritinov would be a good fight to review. But personally, I'll just tell people now. I don't think it was a robbery. For two reasons. One, watch it again with commentary off. Commentary definitely bought into a narrative of Laal coming in on short notice of putting on this valiant effort and fighting very well, doing a great job, not getting taken down. But Fokritinoff was landing his shots too.

I think you could find, I think you give him round three. frankly one of the first two rounds i think i think they're pretty close i think two i would definitely lean towards leyal but either way i haven't had a chance to rewatch the fight so that's the one reason is it's closer than people think yes layal fought very well in short notice so good for him the second reason mike is i feel like the scales were somewhat balanced by um i don't want to get sued and i don't want to slander anyone's good name but let's just say leyal was scheduled to fight for another promotion uh that was not the ufc you That's why he was in the area.

He was able to compete on this card on a week's notice. He was fighting for a promotion, and probably up to that point was not being, his routine, pre-fight prep routine was not being scrutinized. As much as it might be under, if we were fighting, say, in Las Vegas, for example. I might as say they also didn't have time, you know, when you're fighting a week's notice,

he may have been allowed to bypass certain checks. that you would check for a fighter before they could. I'm just saying. People, make of that what you will. You're an educated crowd. Make of that what you will. That guy came in there. He had more traps than M. Knight-Shamalan.

That's all I'm saying. I didn't say anything, Mike. You're here. Our lawyers at box media, I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. I'm just saying, maybe justice was served with that decision, given the circumstances. That's all I'm saying.

That's all I'm saying. We're not here to. No. To throw stones. No. So I did God's work and I rewatched the fight. Rewatched this morning. I said I would because people thought I was crazy when I said, don't hate, we're not winning.

But I do agree 3027 is one of the shittiest scorecards in a long time. We have had really, really terrible card. We have had many. I don't think we've had a lot of robberies this year, but I think this has been a standout year for at least one. caught like in these fights, some of these fights that are really close, like one card that just has you going like, what the? Like what is? And it's always a judge, like a new, like a newer judge, like a local judge. It's not one of the veteran judges. Very often, I just said that we have some of the usual suspects submitting some really bad cards. But everyone remembers in Australia,

there was that judge and, um, or and France had one to just some crazy, crazy, uh, one scores on on these cards that are just like, what, what's going on? Yeah. And here's the thing. One, I don't it's a robbery. I think 29 to 28 Renot is not how I scored it even on the rewatch, but it's not it's not egregious. It's not egregious. Now giving Renot round one

is pretty egregious. That's pretty bad. Two and three, you can make a case or not won those rounds. Maybe not the strongest case, but there have been I had people on Twitter telling me that that was the worst robbery they'd ever seen. And I was

like, okay. you probably should go watch more fights because this is probably not even the worst robbery of the year. In fact, I don't even know if this is the biggest robbery of this month. Have you ever heard of Jose Aldo? That dude should have beat Mario Bidista. Okay? That dude should be Mario Burtista.

That was pretty bad. This is not even the worst of the month. It's nowhere near the worst of the year. Not great, but not the worst. it's but the 3027 sucks it's an awful scorecard i watch it without the commentary it's a totally different fight when you watch it without the commentary because watching with the commentary is ridiculous daniel cormier i swear to god we need he needs to learn the rules of fist fighting at this point like he's still back to like what the rules were from a competition perspective he's not there

like the game has evolved the rule set has changed the scoring criteria is much different and he does not take the time to learn about it it drives me nuts and you got paul felder there who's like so good at this and like paul's whole thing was like 3027 it's fucking stupid it's a terrible card but come on man this whole thing like the way daniel cornea acted as this fight was happening was that carlos leal was just 10 aiding this guy this fight was not even competitive the way daniel cornea was talking about it. Oh, this is a whitewash. This ain't close. What are you talking about? This is way more competitive than the commentary team is making it out to be most notably Daniel Cormier. So that was like my whole thing was like, don't hate it. Commentary made it seem like

this is much more of a blowout. So I don't hate 29-28. I still scored a Fulial even on the rewatch, but I didn't come out of it being like, oh, he got screwed. No, I don't think so at all. And then two other things that I factored into this. One, who gives a shit? It's the first fight of UFC 308 when we have way better fights to come with way more stakes. The fact that this is, this was the thing that fans were most passionate about yesterday was hilarious to me. I mean, people were just dying on this hill that this is the worst decision they've ever seen. At the same token, the UFC, who is.

has no problem removing a judge or removing a referee or removing anybody if they feel a decision is not up to their standards that judge who scored a 3027 even though it's one of the worst score cards of the year the ufc did not remove him in fact they allowed him to continue to judge and they allowed him to continue to judge on the main card. The man stuck around. They let him judge a main card fight. Even the UFC didn't think this was that bad of a decision. And they didn't think even 3027 was that bad of a scorecard

because they let this man continue to judge when they have no problem pulling these people and having John Anick say the UFC has removed this man from his duties for the rest of the night. And people cheer for it. So there you go. That's where I'm out. Yes.

The last thing, anytime anyone tells you, this is the worst robbery ever, this is the worst robbery ever. It's not. The only thing you need to say is Diego Sanchez, Ross Pearson.

That's it. That is. Diego Sanchez Martin Campin. There's multiple Diego Sanchez ones. Yes. Robbie Lola, Carlos, Kondit. Like, there's so many worse ones

where the stakes are way higher. GSP, Johnny Hendrix. Oh my God, I'm sorry. We're not supposed to talk about that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is not even the 200th worst.

This was not even in the top 200 of worst robberies of all time. Like that's, I'm telling you. I'm telling you. It's okay. If you're a newer fan, go exercise. Have a really fun exercise. Just go back and watch 25 plus years of fighting that you missed. You're going to have a great time.

You've got to have a great time. All right, my best one. All right. Put the boss in the microwave. And look, Carl Seall, he's going to be all right. You know what? His stock rose a little bit.

Maybe he gets a little Diego Lopez out of this, you know? Maybe gets a little shine. People feel like he won. His stock rises even in a loss. People are still talking about him for good or for bad. So, there you go. What an effort. All right.

Let's open it up to you guys. Probably like 10 or so minutes. Wild card it up. Go. Make your picks. Go. Hurry up. Tennis your matchup picks.

Now is the time. people let your voice be heard oh we got a bunch when is the war between condo luller considered robbery because carls condo won that fight so yes there's rewatch that fight for fun but i rewatch it yeah just rewatch it anyway it's it's the greatest fight in ufc history so it's incredible but carl's kind of won that fight let's let's be honest uh gerard to poria lopez holloway olivera chandler loser shimai fdddp murphy emitt shara canineer don't hate that Azzan Bukascus, Neil Morales, sure, Abuse Tavares, Rebetschke, Guram,

Oroby back to Walter Waite. I don't think Oroby is going back to Walterweight. Freed, Gutierrez, Rennat versus Bond Feme. Okay. Those are all good. Danny gave her Steve Garcia. Okay. Yeah, don't mind that. Rebeske versus S. Spahn Rievovich. Damn. Oralbi versus Drew Dober, like that.

Abus Bagamade off for Steve Garcia. Christian Leroyd Duncan. Sure. Max versus Hooker. Deep cuts. Yep. Murphy versus Yair. Yeah.

Yeah. Where is Yer at right now? He was at the fights. He was at the fights. He hasn't fought since the Ortega fight, right? That was his last fight. That was his last fight. Okay.

Yeah, I don't mind that. I don't mind that. I'm kind of surprised Murphy didn't call for that one. That would have been smart. DePriarri versus Jose Al to let him compete against the other way. trifecta wow I like I think I don't need to see Josie Ollough getting knocked out cold but I do want to see that fight though I do not Joseph is fun it won't happen but that's a good idea that's a cool idea I'm interested in the title shot I know people will say Strickland but honestly split decision over Costa versus finish of Robb I know who I like to see get the title show next I hate the split was that a split was that a split it was and it was a terrible one see you want to talk about bad scorecards scoring Sean Strickland versus Paula Costa 49 46 for Paulo Costa is real bad.

Was that the card for Costa? Yes. And I'll never forget it. That's worse than I had a point spread. I had a point spread bet on Sean Strickland on that fight minus five and a half. And because a judge scored 4946 for Costa, I lost that bet. If you scored a 48, 47 for Costa, I would have won it because there's 4946 is across the board. and then one judge scored a 49-46 for Costa, so I lost.

49. Dave Torelli. Yeah, that's bad. What are you? I was looking at it. I totally forgot about it. I, in my mind, Strickland handled that fight, not easily, but like pretty clearly. Wow, the other score is 49-46 Strickland, 50-45 Strickland.

And someone came out with 49-46 Costa. That has to be investigated. That is just. So I lost my half point because that judge was a. was a dink what a year what a year for uh for again splits like again not robberies but like splits blown splits god yeah or by versus el huber hallway versus mcgregor july 2025 see that's the fun of uh that's the fun it could happen nah bro luller took it that's the fight that turned me into a fan keep it up fellas i don't agree with you but it's fine it's a great

fight no one lot like fans all won but konda was up three one in my opinion in that fight so uh volk doesn't need a third straight TKO. If I'm Volk, I ain't fighting this dude. But go get it, guy. Chris Barnett versus Rebellis to Spain. Let Jen have this one. We didn't talk about B. Yeah. That was so tough to. I don't. I, uh, well, I like kind of shrugged that one off, but still like kind of wanted to see what Rebellis to Spain versus Chris Barnett would look like. I don't want to see that now. That was tough to watch. But appears that it was the spin kick that that got Barnett. Right. At least that's what he's saying.

Not the leaping. He didn't Ortega himself, as they say. But either way, it looks like he wasn't 100% going in. But he hasn't had a fight in like two years. He's had all these cancellations. A man's got to eat. A beast boy's got to eat. And, you know, and also I'm sure he just loves to fight.

I'm sure he saw an opportunity to finally get on a card. Yeah, it just didn't work out for him. But good for Ken Dianz Chiku, though. Good for him. Took care of business. Oralai versus Fiziv. I don't think he could do that. Fiziv's like a top 10 guy.

Yeah. Off a loss. Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. Great fight, though. Tuporia Volk, comes out DDP, Max, Charles, Shara, Michelle. We're not Sergey Pavlovich. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, Nate, he DMVed me that. I'm like, okay, yeah, it's the only way, right? It's the only way. A lot of Shemai FDDP. Triple A call, though, yeah, year. Arnold Allen versus Eyer? I like that. Recently, yeah, he did.

Yeah, he did. Yeah, I feel like that one has to happen. I like that. That's good one. I think we've called for that. I think us and fans have called for that show quite a few times. Rabetsky versus Drew Dober. I don't mind that.

I actually had like Drew Dober versus Grant Dawson as well. For some reason, I saw that. I was like Gamrod, guys, you can't, you can't, he does not own. I mean, you know, obviously I should have used context here. But when we have a Matush Gamrod and a Matush Rebecca, I think you have to say, Robertsky, you guys, come on. And I know people in chat. I know I'm pronouncing that wrong.

I will work on that for next time. Hi, Jens. How do you think a future fight a couple of years down the road between Hamzaa and Bo Nickel would look like thoughts? It's tough to say. I would pick Hamzaa pretty confidently right now. I don't, I say, I don't pick anybody against Hamzaat.

I think there's, she's, beyond, I'm babbling here. This is what happens when I see Hamzaa kill someone. He's only been fighting pro since 2018. I think, I'm sure,

of course, there's some sort of combat sports experience before that, but like his level of actual MMA competition experience is so low compared to his opponent. So he's as much of a prodigy as Bo Nicol, frankly, if not more so, because Bo Nickle, we have a well-documented, like, you know, history of incredible, you know, collegiate wrestling performances. We don't really have that of Hamza. And again, I don't want to downplay whatever Hamza did before I may.

I'm sure there was some sort of competition. I would balk at it being at the level of NCAA Division I wrestling, but maybe I'm wrong. So yes, I pick Hamza. I just think he has this gift for fighting, and I don't think anyone in his weight range can beat him. UFC Australia main event, Diego versus Alex for interim, Israel versus Sharas, co-main event, also winner of main event fights Iliad and Spain.

Shari ain't fighting Izzy, man. What if, though, Mike? They're not going to do that. Izzy gains nothing from beating him, like legitimately nothing. He needs a win. Yeah, but he could get a win over. Anybody else that's ranked way higher than him that it would mean so much more. Even if he beat, even if he fought like Nasredeen Imov and beat him,

that is a way more significant win right now than beating Sharra bullet. Char's not even a ranked fighter. But Imov is also tougher, I think. Exactly. Well, why risk it? What if you're easy, I think you've got to pick your spots here. Because if he beats Imovov, he at least gained something from that. We're like, all right, damn.

Evenvov's like an up-and-coming surgeon guy who's fought in main events, and he's ranked pretty highly in the division. He beat Shara Bullitt. What do you think the reaction is going to be? Oh, Sharr's an idiot. He went too fast. He wasn't as good, overrated. That's just how it's going to look from a perception basis.

And I, no. If that's going to be a big fight, then cool, bullets, build it up a little bit. You can't get Izzy after you beat Armin Petrosian. Even Bo Nickle didn't get Izzy. If Bo Niggle is way more highly touted than Shara Bullitt is right now. Come on. Stranger things have happened. happens. Have they?

And MMA, definitely. Okay. Sydney, Hamzot, DDP, co-made event, interim, Volk versus Lopez. Don't hate it. I just got a message from our dear, a live message from our dear, Jen, Michigan. Sorry, Mike, what was that request? What was that last suggestion again?

DDP, Hamzot, Volk Lopez for Sydney. Mazadol versus RDA. So yes, RDA, that was another really sad moment of the card. I don't think we were talking about this on the Post-Fitcher. Like, I don't think RDA is going to go out like that. But I feel like, I feel like if RDA does one more, it needs to be against a Mazadol or a Ferguson or a Saroni who wants to come back or a Lohzan or, you know, somebody like that. Like, that's where we're, that's the kind of shit that we need to be doing with RDA. RDA fighting Jeff Neal was a travesty at matchmaking.

Like, no one, that, that flight was never going to go good for RDA. That was Action Bronson's pick for, like, Sleeper Fight of the Card. So how dare you? Shout us to Action Bronson, by the way. That BTL show was incorrect. Mike, you have been on, you're on fire every week, but this week with the town hall on Action Bronson. Don Davis and Action Bronson.

I mean, really, we need to get that. If we could get Don Davis and Action Bronson on BTL, now we're, now we're baking a cake. now we're baking a cake. Now we, I mean, that is maybe the greatest program in MMA media history. I just want to read this statement that our dear Guillermo Cruz translated from RDA on social media. I don't want to read the whole thing. He just said, throw my whole UFC career.

So on my second time being hospitalized at the fight, makes me realize how blessed I am. Very tough sport. Going to the hospital only twice in your whole career is a good number. Time to heal up. Enjoy the family. I'm not done yet. I'll be back soon. God bless you all.

And it was his 40th birthday on Saturday. Like I was already, I had like a tweet. I know, I had a tweet ready. I'm like, happy birthday, RDA, like when he won. And then even if, excuse me, even if he lost, I might have tweeted that, but not the way he lost. I'm like, well, because we can't say anything. As someone who is about to turn 40 soon myself, I will say RDA, you look fantastic. Thank you for everything.

Whatever is next. I do think we will see him fight again. But I hope they match him with him wisely, Mike. And I think my husband all would be good. Actually, I don't hate that at all. I don't mind that one at all. Yeah, I would love that. There's your birthday present, RDA.

Okay. Now, this is better. If we're going to go, if we're going to go with a ranked guy, Paul Koss is better. This works. I'm okay with this. Guy who's on the downside, lost a few fights,

but still fun. Still could, could, like, find a path to victory for him. I'm okay with this. Love it. Pereira got a fight with Sean Strickland after beating Bruno. We're not really doing this, right?

We're not comparing Sharra Bullitt to Alex freaking Pereira, are we? We can't, no. I'm not going to go out on this road. He's undefeated, Mike. He's chasing, is he from kickboxing? He's the same guy. They didn't sign Shara Bullet to be like, you know, we're going to sign this guy so we could get him to fight Israel out of time.

You don't know that. That's the main reason they signed Alex Pereira. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Shara signed. Shara was signed in 2023. Oh, wait, I think Periranda

is your already, you don't know that, Mike. I know. I kind of do. Super chat. How about Renat versus Jeff Deal, Oralby versus Gurum, Rebatchke versus Rebovich, Whitaker versus Fluffy.

Shout out RS40 for the super chat. Thank you. Whitaker versus, I mean, if you're Anthony Hernandez, you would love to get that fight. I mean, that's a huge opportunity for you. Again, I think Fluffy's kind of want to fight sooner,

then later. We're not seeing Rob back for, I hope, a year. I hope 18 months, frankly. I hope, I know Whitaker's, I can't afford to take that much time off. He is close to the end of his career. But he's not super old. He's got a lot of mileage. He's not a super old man. So if you're Rob Whitaker, please, please, please take time off. You deserve it. And so I just don't think that makes the Anthony Hernandez fight possible. Who does Basharat fight? Man. Basharad versus Peyton Talbot. How about Boschrat fighting a friend? again featherweight in there victor hugo we still don't know the details behind that but i mean we can all assume uh victor hugo wasn't close to making weight made the call to uh forid boshrott's team probably

no earlier than wednesday and said hey guys sorry i'm not going to make it um can we make this a feather weight fight instead it's probably it my guess would actually be thursday day judging by the fact that forreed came in at 137 pounds so free was probably well on pace to make uh 136 make the bantamweight limit probably not very happy very drained and then he suddenly gets a call from his opponent i'm not going to come close just to avoid the chance to fight getting canceled how about we give you 10% of our purse we make this a featherweight out and again if you're freed you don't want the fight get canceled you and against a fight you think you can win so anyway congrats to free for beating a friggin much considerably larger man and someone who didn't even blatantly failed to make the the contracted

weight limit but there we go i don't know great fight one of the biggest yeah one of the biggest bummers of 2024 is that we did not get to see Fareed Basra at flight Montel Jackson. I wanted that fight so badly. Could be in the future. Great fight. Maybe. Farid and his brother, I know Jabba had already suffered a loss, but I think they're both so good.

Freed, I guess it's slightly, maybe give the slight edge to Farreed. But they're going to be such a problem for that bantamweight division, like in a good way and a bad way. Like, a problem is in, I think they're going to be able to beat some top 10, top 15 guys and a problem for the UFC because they're not big finishers and, you know, the UFC he likes that. So might create some, like they might not become big draws

and instead be knocking off potentially more marketable fighters, but a great performance by Fried Boucher up. Yeah. I mean, he's like, I deserve to be ranked. Maybe we want to hold your horses.

Tough division. Deep division. Very tough division. You got, I mean, Taylor Lappos is a good win. Like, that is aged very well.

But that is his best win by, I'll buy a long shot right now, as far as his UFC run goes. So, yeah. Let's give him a step up. They tried to give him one. Montel Jackson was a huge step up for him. And then he unfortunately didn't make it to the fight.

So maybe they go back to that well. Maybe we do Farid versus Kyler Phillips. Don't hate that. There's definitely ways to go here. Nathan Andrews asking, what's up, Nathan? Are the Basharat's truly top level prospects, even though both men have low finishing ability? Oh, yeah, having low finishing ability never gets you to the U.S.

title. That's not a thing. I mean, I've never heard of Balal Muhammad. You know, that's not a guy who... Yeah, so you don't... Read... The current phantomweight champion? The current phantomweight champion?

That's true. Nathan, what do we do? Reed... Freed versus the Jordan Victor Henry winner. I don't hate that at all. That's fine. A lot of options. Okay.

All right. I think we've done the work today on the Sunday. I think everyone can kind of enjoy sort of the hangover effects of UFC 308. Of course, we will be talking lots of. Lots more about this card throughout the week on various programs with everything that is going going on. Hopefully I'll get to talk to some other folks about how this all transpired. Perhaps maybe a conversation with like a John Anick or a Lorisanko or something like that. I think it's time maybe to cash in one of those favors, perhaps, after just a newsworthy event.

But the road doesn't stop AK because it's now on to, you. Your neck of the woods. Canada. We're going to Canada. We're going to Edmonton. UFC Edmonton with Brandon Moreno versus Amir Albaughy, the main event. Co-main event, five rounds. Rosenama Yunus versus Aaron Blanchfield.

We got Derek Lewis versus Janada Denise. We have Kyle Machado versus Brenson Ribeiro, Mark Andre Barrio versus Dustin Stoltzvice, Mike Mulat versus Trevin Giles Amon Zahabi versus Pedro Munoz Ariani Lipski versus Jasmine Jazz DeVizius the aforementioned Charles Jordan versus Victor Henry fight

Alexander Romano versus Rodrigo Nassimento Sirhi Sadai versus Garrett Armfield Chad and Elliger versus Cody Gibson Jamie Lynn Horth versus Ivana Petrovich and Jack Shore versus Yusov Salal. That's UFC Edmontonake. I am counting eight Canadians in action

Sorry, I guess my count. I'm not, sorry, let's, you know, let's still Kyle Machado over there. He is fighting out of Canada. So nine, nine fighters, I think, representing Canada, as people remember when they came to,

really my neck of the woods, UFC 297, Toronto. Did not go well for the men. Did not go well for the Canadian men. Yasmin Yasadavishes and Jillian Robertson were both victorious. I think the men went 0 and 5, and that includes Surrey City and, well, he might have got screwed out of a decision,

but either way, Surrey City and Mike Malotte. Hopefully better luck this time. My best friend, hopefully better luck, because, listen, Canada, we produced some great fighters. It's made a bit of a trout. Don't know if you saw the contender series, Mike. Talk about O first. Tough scene.

Tough scene. But we'll be back, normal show next week, and then normal show the week after. And then we'll be live once again, following UFC 309. So lots going on. Stick with us, M.A.fighting.com. For all the fun. We'll have more fun next week after UFC Edmonton right here. On on to the next one, the podcast.

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 Fragrant Sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com.