MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Islam Makhachev, JDM After UFC 322?

Episode Date: November 16, 2025

UFC 322 is officially in the books, and in the main event, Islam Makhachev captured the welterweight championship with a one-sided performance against Jack Della Maddalena. Makhachev certainly has options, and while Kamaru Usman has continuously put his name in the hat, will the UFC go that direction, or allow the exciting, new blood of the division get their chance? 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 Makhachev and #JDM after their headliner at Madison Square Garden. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Valentina Shevchenko and Zhang Weili after the women's flyweight champ's successful title defense in the co-main event, Michael Morales following his first-round knockout of Sean Brady, Carlos Prates after stopping former champ Leon Edwards, along with fellow main card winner Benoit Saint Denis, and more, along with listener picks. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and discover how easy it is to build your own whole home audio system. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody. I mean, good morning. If you're watching live, it might not be morning where you're watching it for being honest, but happy Sunday. Happy day after UFC 322.

And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. The matchmaking crowns have returned following last. Last night's UFC 322 event at Madison Square Garden, the Mecca, the world's most famous arena in New York City. We had two championship fights with very high significance, and neither fight was competitive. Islam Makachev, one-way traffic, dominates Jack Della Madalena, is now a two-division champion.

He is now the UFC welterweight champion of the world. Conversations will be had on the show in regards to what is next for Islam Makachev. And in the co-main event, Valentina Shifchenko took on Zhang Wei Li in what a lot of people believed was the biggest women's MMA fight ever in the history of the sport. And much like what Islamakachev did,

one-way traffic for Valentina Shepchenko. This fight was not competitive for more than maybe eight seconds. A huge win for Valentina Shepchenko and a lot of other crazy things happened at this event. And we'll talk about it from a matchmaking perspective. But ladies and gentlemen, I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us once again. and joining me as always is the co-host,

the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. Gosh darn it, he's my best friend. Where is he? There he is, the one and only Alexander Cayley, AKA, how we doing? How's Canada? How he's feeling after UFC 322? Mike, my best friend.

Canada's great. UFC 322. We made it, man. We made it. It was a long road to get to this event. A lot of stuff had to fall into place, and it did, and we got these two great matchups. I hope people aren't too disappointed with how the action turned out

because I think you and I and a lot of people in the media had kind of warned ahead of time like these might not be the most exciting matchups from an in-cage like just from an action standpoint. Like no, I hope like people weren't expecting, you know, JDM, Makachev to look like, you know, JDM Balaw, which was a great fight, except, you know, it was one guy who was, you know, a wrestler who chose to stand a little bit more and we got a great fight out of it,

you know, talk about Balal. I don't hope people didn't think that's how Islam was going to go. I thought the co-main would be a little more, well, I know I had warned that the co-main, again, would have more lulls. I just didn't think it would be so one-sided, which I think made it even less compelling to watch for a lot of viewers. So, yeah, it kind of sucks that we ended with two championship fights that we will not really be talking about much from an action standpoint. We won't be watching them. We won't be putting those on at that parties, you know, when people come over and ask to put the UFC on the big screen. Probably won't be putting on Islam

and JDM or Valentina and Zhang Wei Lee but from a like historical standpoint of drama standpoint it kind of delivered it kind of was I will say those two last two fights kind of reflected the vibe of the night Mike where there was a lot of triumphant moments but on the other side there was quite a bit of sadness as well throughout the evening

if we could just go like very quickly kind of blow by blow here obviously seeing JDM just kind of go out like that was really disappointing seeing Zhang like kind of you know we all kind of got this realization like oh like she has to stay 115 she's not going to become a two-division champion like this just we're glad we're glad this fight happened but uh maybe it shouldn't have i don't know uh sean brady land edwards two guys who now we have to question will they ever get a title shop veneal darayush for other time catching up to him now finished three in his past four fights uh malcolm wellmaker you feel a little bit bad

for him we got his hype train quote unquote hype train derail he'll be fine he'll be back jailed mearshart his first post uh duke rufus fight you could tell how emotional he wasn't how badly he wanted it but also like gerald could not have been close to 100 percent mentally going into this fight and it was just it was it was sad to watch and again um angela hill you know sort of hitting having i think hitting a wall here losing to an upcoming prospect so um even some of the winners you know by uh sir sir kayev he won had a highlight real knockout but like up to that point there was some questions about like his attitude and like whether he took that fight seriously so for all the good and i think there was more good than bad

it's weird it's weird like i couldn't shake some of the sort of more depressing narratives of the evening like yeah it's it's it's it's an emotional ride all around and you know like even in that sort of like encapsulates the card like there's so good and so there was some good and some bad i guess and there was some happiness and some sadness and some eye-opening moments both good and bad and then he had bow nickel who gave us both who had like the best performance of his career, capped it off with an exclamation point, and then that damn microphone had a turn on, and he ruined everything. Like, he just ruined everything. I could not believe what this man was saying. Like, this, it was not as like, I would think he would have learned a

lesson after the Paul Craig stuff. And he was so good, like, all week. And I know he was getting booed. And I know, like, he had a chip on his shoulder. And if you want to flip off the crowd, that's fine. But when the mic comes on and you're just like, say your prayers, take your vitamins. drink your milk but I work harder in one day than you work in your whole life like what is wrong with you like you're such a dink it just drives me crazy that he has to do that you can't be humble and a prick at the exact same time like I even said this on the watch party if fighters could have managers like if paul haman could come in and just like talk for a fighter no one needs it more than bow nickel truly and utterly no one needs a mouthpiece more than bow nickel he should

really look into this because the UFC really likes him he should be like hey can i be the first fighter to have like a talking head like a talking manager uh an advocate so to speak because he needs one so badly he just needs to not talk and i think he'd be okay um but that was one thing uh bow nickel let's just get right into it okay let's let's not mess around uh this was a very interesting process for me but i think i'm happy with where i landed And to me, like, my, most of my picks, like, there are some that I just think are kind of obvious. And there are some that I'm just vibing and just trying to sort of put out into the ether because this is what we need and this is what should happen. And anything else is just truly and utterly wrong.

So let's start with Islam Makachev, AK. Islam Makachev makes history. He becomes a two-division champion. I think he's, what, the 12th fighter to accomplish his feat? 11th or 12th. I'm not really sure. I don't remember up the top of my head. 11th. Now, he would have been the 12th if Zhang Willie had also done it.

Oh, yeah, yeah. She was vying to become the 11th and then him the 12th, but only one person didn't. So he is number 11. He beat everybody he could in this division. It was time for him to move up. I would have loved to have seen the arm and fight. They tried to make it. It is not his fault that it didn't happen. So he did everything he could at 155 pounds, in my humble opinion. Moves up to welterweight, takes on Jack Delam, Adelana. I thought this fight would be a little more competitive. I didn't think we'd get JDM Ballal. I thought we'd get maybe a step below Islam Dustin Porreier to some degree

like I kind of thought we'd get something similar but that is not what happened at all in fact JDM now has a new is now the champion of one thing the goat of one thing the goat of the most frustrated fighter I've ever seen in a first fight. He looks sad

he was frustrated I can't remember last time I saw someone wearing their frustration and they're he looked like he might have hurt his leg too right but just the pain the frustration the humiliation he was wearing on his face it was just so so clear uh i feel so bad for jddm it was douglas lema for quite some for many many years uh douglas lema fighting yarasov amosov i was at that fight uh i was sitting right where i could basically sit right and see right next pretty much see

the corner of douglas lemma and the frustration on that man's face of i literally can't do anything to this guy uh i'm just getting run over and there's nothing i can do about it but survive that was the king moment for me as far as like a frustrated fighter until last night like the pain in his face from like the when the the horn sounded for the end of round three through the rest of the fight i was just like man i wish i could teleport him anywhere else right now like prince street pizza like let's get him the dana white pizza like let's just put a smile on his face somehow uh it was just a horrible place to be this wasn't like fluffy roman delizze where it's just like he completely shattered him Roman. But this is pretty damn close, man. Pretty damn close. Like, maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing performance.

But dominant and incredibly impressive from Islam Machachev. This is one way traffic. This is all Machachev from start to finish. And now, and they kept saying it on the broadcast, AK, this was this is moving day for the Walterweight division because there are so many big fights on this

card for the division. There were three of them on the main card. And you had the looming presence of Kamar Uspin sort of hanging over this fight. And all week long, it was Uspin doing interviews with literally everybody he could. I want next. Me and Islam is the biggest fight the UFC can make right now, all of the things. And I think everyone knows how I felt about the Uspin idea heading into this fight. I thought him getting a title shot could happen, but it was one of the more egregious title shots of all time.

I understand he has accomplished a lot. And when I say these things about Kamar Rusen, I'm not taking anything away from what he has accomplished. In my opinion, he is at worst, the third greatest welterweight of all time. I have number two. Saying he's the best is ridiculous. It's just pure and utter ridiculousness,

especially in a world where George St. Pierre existed. Having said that, after what happened last night, I think Kamar Usman getting a title shot is not just egregious. It is unbelievably ridiculous that this is even a thought. It's even a thought. And I left, I remember being on the watch party. I'm like, all right, well, we're getting Islam Usman. Usman's sitting in the crowd.

I'm waiting for the face off. I'm waiting for Usman to climb in. And they have this moment with Ali standing right in between them because he has to be in the middle of everything. And then Joe Rogan asked him the question, what do you want next? And I was like, oh, he's going to do it. He's going to call Usman. We're getting the face off. You know what he says?

Open the White House. I'm coming. Doesn't call Usman out. And to me, that was so telling. Because, again, Islam can go do a thousand interviews now and say, I want to fight Kamar Usman. It means nothing now. It means nothing. That moment is gone.

And the look on Kamara Usman's face, when they showed him after Islam left the octagon, told me everything I needed to know. That's a guy who is no longer confident he's getting a title fight. Could he still get it? Yes. And if he does, I will be going live on this channel. And I'm going to, my head will literally explode live on YouTube. Having said that, this is a, this is a show we do where we want to be right.

Okay. What is next for Islam Makach, F, AK, are we going Kamar Usman? Are you trying to make me upset? Are you going for the quote unquote content? Or are we going a different direction? Mike, I would not do that to you. I would not do that to you. I have to ask the, hold on.

Wait, why can't, if they wanted to make the Kamar Usman fight? Why can't that, you don't think that's going to, they wouldn't do that at the White House? Why? That's not a White House. That's not, that's just not a White House fight. America-ish versus. No, even Dana said like, hey, we're not doing America versus the world. Well, no, and I actually believe him.

I believe he can't. Most of his best fighters are not American right now. It's really not an option. But I think he meant he's not, I think he meant he's not leaning into that. Like, I think there'll be some America. versus not American matchups on the card. Yeah, I think it's like almost impossible to avoid it. It just won't be like the majority of the card, I think is what he meant.

So I think, I think that to me didn't affect that. I think you're right, though, the fact that he didn't name Usma specifically was a bit suspicious. But I, and I'm just devil's advocating here, Mike, and I know you've gotten plenty of devil's advocates for this matchups. So I know you don't hear all of it. But I don't know. I probably just become too jaded. I think after Henry got the immediate tell shot at Aljo, I was like, you know what?

I just don't care about anything anymore. Because I still think that was worse. I still think that was worse. I know Henry went out on top, and I know it was a sellable fight. I know they didn't have a lot of options because it was still in the stage where Aljo was the champion and Mara obviously wasn't going to fight him.

So, yeah, they went with Henry. And from a, you know, from a selling standpoint, it was fine. I hated it. And Henry looked good in that fight. So retroactively, people are okay with it. I don't think the Ushman thing would be as bad because I know you've heard a lot,

we'll tell you this already, he at least came back and beat a top 10 guy, right? He came back and be a top 10 guy. So that's one. Two, matchup-wise, is it not intriguing? Is there not the thought that this is the one guy at 170 or one of the few guys in 170 who has the wrestling to not just be completely overwhelmed by Islam and give him a fight? And again, I don't want this. This is not my pick.

But I will tell you, Mike, I will not be, I don't think anyone could be remotely as outraced as you if this happens, which I still think is a better. than like 60% chance that it does. I'm at a devil's advocate, your devil's advocate. Okay, let's go. I hated the Henry's Hudo fight too. However, the UFC did not want Henry's Hudo in that fight. They wanted shot O'Malley in the fight and Sean was not ready to fight and they had nothing else.

They needed to fill that spot. Henry Suhudo was the other guy available. At least there was somebody there. Now, mind you, if this was a couple of years ago and we didn't have like a legit, shit guy like look jdm was not the number one contender and he got a title shot why because he was the only guy available he picked up the phone like he picked up the phone he picked up the phone shopcott was the guy and shopcott was injured they needed belal the fight jdm was the was the highest rank guy available so if that is the case if it comes out to we called this guy this guy this guy this

and they all couldn't fight so kamar usman's in okay i will not be thrilled about it but it's like all right, if we couldn't get anybody else, then fine. There's like, I mean, there's legit three options better than Usman right now. There are three of them. Guys who have put in the work. And I'm not, again, Kamar Usman is one win in four years. And it was against Buckley, who's a fine fighter. But that was not, what he did to Buckley was nowhere near as oppressive as what

Carlos Pratchez and Michael Morales did last night. And honestly, I was more impressed by Ian Gary and Carl's Pratchez and their fight. Like, this was just a good, it was a good matchup for Usman to come back to. Like, Buckley was good and was on a nice run. But look who Buckley beat along the way. He beat Wonderboy. He beat Colby coming off the couch. He beat, I mean, that, Kevin, those are his wins.

And then even before that, it was like, Nersaulted Rootsabayev, like a fine win. But, like, not, like, he just has not done the work. to me, he needs another win. He needs to fight Shafcott, plain and simple. Go fight Shafcott. Because Shafcott now, because he's been out for so long, and the division hasn't moved ahead. Like, I would even say it's,

even though Shafcott, like, was the guy who was offered a title fight, did the UFC a favor by still fighting in Gary. I would even say giving Shafcott a title fight is a little egregious right now. I think he needs another win before he gets back in there. Why? Because there are so many guys that have done the, that have been doing the work,

that have been putting in the time, that have made, moves in this division that have made this division fun and interesting. Kamar Usman is just like, okay, having him in the mixes, obviously, like, adds some flavor to it, but the whole taste of the delicious drink is not because of Usman, it's because of Morales and Praaches and what Brady was doing, and Gary, and even Bilal and Jadim. Like, these guys have been winning fights and beating good dudes along the way, like all the way up not just one time multiple times so again if usman just happens to be the available guy okay

i'm all right with that but that is the only way i'll be all right with it or if like they book somebody else let's say they book Islam versus whoever for the white house and then that whoever gets injured a month before and oosman's the only guy who says yes then you i'll be okay with that too i'm not saying it like would be a bad fight but come on man like you just can't do this because again And this is the point I made, like, it's like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in the Super Bowl, right? They went on a nice run. No one expected him to do it, but they're in the Super Bowl. And the NFL calls the Buccaneers head office and says, you know, you guys are good.

And I really respect what you guys did this year. But the New England Patriots won six Super Bowls in the 2000. So even though they're in the AFC, we're just going to move them to the NFC and they're going to play in the Super Bowl instead. Like that is the same thing. it's the same thing to me so no you can't do but listen if you pick it I'm not gonna go crazy

but if it happens I will I'm just gonna just gonna throw that out there Mike he's gonna be no worse than the second person they call I the gears are in motion I still feel like the gears are in motion okay if he's the second person they call

I will feel slightly better about it if he is the first person they call I'm gonna have a free connection. I'm going to lose it if he's the first person they call. Oh boy. This fight's going to happen. I'm so sorry, Mike. This fight's going to happen. So I'm not crystal bawling and thankfully because I'm with you. I think they're more compelling challenges. One of whom is my pick. I just, you know what? I'm throwing him right to the fire. I don't think he's the number

guy in the contender line. I don't think we have the same pick. You're nodding. Mike is nodding. I don't don't think we have. No, because I'm going with Michael Morales. So am I. Oh, you are. I have a hundred percent going to. I thought you're going to purchase. So you're going to prox just kind of like oh no no no no i got the i m g loss and just kind of move i i so anyone who's read to me during fight week or read my prediction was i was being very like there's no better like uh protective dad i was being because i i love michael morales and i think he's going no because i was and i think he's been a champion someday i was doing a lot of it's okay if michael morales loses this fight you know he's only 26 years old he'll be fine like sean brady's

more advanced sean brady's the wrestling he won't be able to handle sean brady's wrestling uh he'll he'll get a loss and he's going to learn from it right so i was i I was just, I was essentially picking him to lose while still, you know, waffling and being like, ah, but I still my guy, still my guy to become a champion someday. Well, I guess I'm done doubting him because, boy, he did not have an issue with Sean Brady's wrestling. He fought like a frigging velociraptor. He had the arms forward and his ass like 10 miles away, which you can do, I guess,

when you're tall and athletic and you can jab the other guy from across the freaking cage. He had the perfect strategy. Like, he gave Sean Brady no opening to even attempt a deep takedown and did great and look great. It looked great. When they did have to grapple, looked great. It wasn't a lot of it. And it just chaos them. Just, just, just, just you, that beautiful striking takes them out. 19 and 0. What is he now? 19 and 0, 18 and 0. Where are we at with Michael Marles? 19 and 0. 20 and O'd be a nice number. If you could win that well-to-way title in it. So I think, I just don't think the U.S. he's going to do this, but we're the matchmaker's here, Mike.

I got to stop babying this guy. I got to stop doubting him. Damn, like I said he's going to be the number one well-to-weight in the world someday. Maybe he is now, and maybe we should just give him that shot. So screw it. Let's do it. 100% with you. Kamar Rishman just tweeted 24 minutes ago. I think the sweet just kind of tells you everything. Oh.

Congratulations to the new champ at Machachev, MMA, dominant performance. That's it. No call out. No see you soon. Just putting them over. Smart. I think that's a smart play from Kamarer Wiseman. I think it's a good way to do it.

Don't call for it. You're just going to piss people off. I think he's starting to understand. that when you keep saying, like, everybody wants to see this, and then the crowd goes mild every single time. Yes. I think you have to take a look inside and say, like, look, I know you want this goal of, like, getting back to the title.

And that's great. But it'll just mean more if he goes and beats somebody else and then does it. You know what I mean? So I think that tweet, I think the look on his face last night was incredible. I was obviously with you. I admittedly wasn't as high on Michael Morales as everybody else. Like I knew the talent was there. I just didn't think it was there to the degree it's at.

What he did last night to Sean Brady was un-effing believable. Like he was, when I look back at UFC 322 and there are big moments that happen on this card, when someone, when my grandchild comes to me 20 years from now and says, grandpa remember ufc 32 at mad square garden what's the first thing you think of i will say michael morales he was he stole the show he was the big winner of the night he's the MVP of ufc 32 he had the longest scrums mike the longest scrum i think he talked to the media for 14 hours this week they have something i mean and that just shows that they have something here they have something with him like it's not quite like toporia spain georgia

vibes, but it's big, man. Like, he is huge in Ecuador. He's more over than Cheeto is right now. Like, without question, he's more over than Cheeto is. They have, they have a bona fide star in Ecuador with Michael Morales. At the end of the day, Michael Morales is a monster. I could not, I don't believe the tail of the tape for one second. Sometimes, like, I'll look at it and be like, okay, maybe.

There's no way that Michael Morales is two inches taller than Tom Brady, than Sean Brady. They said Brady was 5'10 and Michael Morales was six feet. There's no way. If Brady's 510, Morales is 6'7. He looks like two of Sean, he looked like he had two Sean Brady's stacked on top of each other. He's so big for the division. He's so athletic and he's just so quick and good.

Like he is so much better beyond his years than even I thought. And I thought he would fight for the belt for sure. Here's what I'll say though, AK To me right this second And maybe this is reasoncy bias But I feel like even a month from now I will say it will be one of The most intriguing fight that UFC can make right now

For me personally is this on Makachev versus Michael Borales I am so fascinated by that fight So fascinated You want to know why Because out of all the potential options that Islammachachev currently has in front of him, Michael Morales, to me, is the one guy I think who can beat Islammachchev.

I think he can win. I would, I think he could beat him. I think he can beat him. I don't think Usman can beat him. I don't think Gary can beat him. I don't think Pratchez can beat him. I think Michael Morales can beat him. I think he can.

I think he's got the style, the size, the physicality. Like he's going to be, like Islam was as big, if not bigger than JDM last night. He ain't going to be bigger than Michael Morales. I don't care how much time it takes him. He's not going to be that big. Morales looks like a light heavyweight fighting at 170, and he moves like a flyweight. He's insane. I think he has a chance.

I think this is the most intriguing fight. I think he is the best shot of beating Islam in this division right now. I don't think anybody else can, but I think Morales is the best chance. So I want to see this fight. I want to see it. And you know what? We can be the protective dad here too. If he goes and fights Islam and loses a competitive decision, so what?

Guess what? He's 25, 26, goes back to the drawing board, wins a few more fights, and he's right back in there. He's going to win the belt at some point. Let's just throw him in there. Let's just throw him in there. What he did to Sean Brady was so damn impressive. It's the best win in this division in a long time.

Like, this was the standout performance in 2025 for the Walterweight Division. give him his day in court. I would love this. Look, and I would love to see him fight Carlos Prachis. I think that's a great fight too. But wouldn't it be better if Michael Morales is the champion and then he fights Carl's Prachis? Like, what a friggin steam roll of a fight that would be.

So, yeah, I wanted this on Morales. I want it so badly. I'm fascinated by it. And I hope that's what the UFC does. I hope you're listening to me, UFC. Do the thing. Do the thing. Mike, it's really going to sting when Usman gets a tell shot in June.

And then that's the one fight for Islam in 2026. And all these guys are waiting at 2027. I'll be so pissed off about it. But at the same time, like, the fallback plan is we're getting Morales pratches if they book that fight. Yeah. So. But I want Israel morale so bad, man. Let's just do it.

Let's just do it. And you know what? If Islam goes out and beats Michael Morales, I don't give a shit. Who is on fights? Like, you want to call it Usman? Fine. You want to go fight Hamzat? I don't give a shit.

Fine with me. Go be Michael Morales and you do whatever you want, man. Go do whatever you want. Let's go to the other side of things, a.k. This might be the actual more interesting question. Oh, yeah. Jack Del Madelena. Tough night at the office, man.

Tough night at the office for Jack Delah Madelana. We talked about how frustrated he was. This fight was not competitive. I was hoping it would be more competitive. I did pick his alum to win. But even Dana White himself was like, yeah, man. I thought I thought this fight would be more competitive

but JDM went out there and he tried the man tried even at the very end he tried to fight he just couldn't he just could not Islam was just way too much for this man I'm super curious where he goes and you know what perhaps this is still lazy booking I don't care

JDM versus Carlos Pratchis that's what I'm doing little striker versus striker action he doesn't have to worry about the grappling proches and him will just kind of slug it out a little bit i love that fight i think that if makes a ton of sense i don't know how long jd i don't know if jdm's one of these guys who just like man this loss is so devastating that i have to like take some time off or if this is like i got to get the stink off me and i just want to get back as soon as possible like sydney's coming up or

whatever i want to go fight in sydney him and prochis would be a would be a fun-ass fight so i'm going with that yeah nothing would surprise me if we saw him fight first quarter 2026 i'd be like yep make sense if we saw him not fight at all in 2026 i'd be like yep also makes sense uh this was tough man this was um this was this is a this is a career altering laws and yeah it could be in a good way could be in a good way right that's that's up to jack dadelette medalina and his team um how they react to this but uh mike that's a great matchup way better than mine i'm just booking the sadness olympics at this point oh no yeah yeah yeah i'm going i'm going i'm going there with leon i don't know man like just let's see let's see um

how much Leon has left, maybe nothing. I don't know. Like, it feels so, it feels so bad to rail on Leon for losing to, like, you know, three top 10 welter weights, but it's just kind of the way, the way he's lost. Boy, you really felt like he peaked, you know, at that, like, Colby Covington win. And it just, after when out with Balal, like, I'm, a lot of people jumped off the bandwagon after the Balaw lost. People were just like, oh, man, like, that's, you can't come back for that.

And I didn't. I was hanging on. Even after the Sean Brady lost, I was hanging on, Mike. I'm like, ah, you know, too bad outings. He's never lost two straight fights before. what do you want i there's no more equivocating anymore like this is he's he's way past his prime uh he's fought a lot he's been this game a long time and i don't know how many of these loss you can take before it's like they just start piling up and you hit that

am i going to say it you hit that tony ferguson zone gosh i don't want to say that's where leon is heading but let's keep giving him big fights get let's give him a guy you know hey two former world champions you can sell it um maybe it headlines uh card in australia uh maybe it's just a nice little piece you put in a paper view. I don't know. But yeah, I'm going with, not loser leaves town, but something happens to loser. I don't know what, though. Yeah, because even, you know, a lot of people, I kept saying, like, because the question

that kept coming up was who has the most to lose on this card. And so many people thought it was Leon. And to me, I was just like, yeah, I get it. Like, you don't want to lose three in a row. But we know how the UFC views Leon Edwards. They're not going to rush him back to a title fight. He's going to have to win, like, eight fights in a row before he's even sniffing. being in that discussion.

So to me, like, even if this was, even if the UFC sort of considered this like, yeah, if he goes and gets melted again and then we have to like cut him, like he's fine. He'll just go to PFL and like fight alongside his brother and PFL probably pay him a whole shitload of money just to have his name on the roster and like he'll get wins and he'll be fine.

So I didn't think like there's like a ton of overall pressure on him. I do think the UFC's going to give him another chance and we'll talk about that a little bit later on in the program. Let's go to Valentina Shifchenko. Again, Valentina just don't care what anybody thinks. She doesn't care

if people think her fights aren't like the most fun. I was so impressed with what she did to Zhang Wili last night and I already put the accountability hand up a whole bunch when it came to this because I got eaten alive last night. I said John Lili was going to go out there and clobber

Valentina and boy, was I wrong. That was one of the that was i'm gonna have to i'm gonna have to sit with that one for a while and i deserve every bit of criticism coming my way for that take uh happy happy to swallow it all it just is it is what it is when you put your opinions out like this the dms are flooded with i can't believe that was your take uh and it's it is what it is i'm happy to to accept it but yeah what a performance from valentina at worst this win puts her at the as the second greatest women's fighter of all time she could be number one if you want to say she's number one totally fine with that uh i think it's it's nunez valentina one and two anything else is wrong

at this point like she officially jumped chris cyborg in this conversation not saying that chris isn't great and hasn't accomplished a lot but valentina's resume is just so much more impressive just because like she's in an actual division with like highly ranked competition and chris isn't chris beat pacheco and that's a terrific win uh it's it kind of like even things out a little bit it kind of kept her in the number two spot longer her beating pacheco for being honest but after what valentina did just absolutely dominating the the pound for pound number one uh in a lot of people's opinions this is just so damn impressive so what do we do in a k because valentina was asked about a move up to 135 possibly a match with kela harrison and usually

valentina like sort of shuts that stuff down and it's just like yeah you know i have to go home and think about it but she said like that's on the table like a fight with with harrison or going up to 135 like that is an option for her right now so do you see that happening a possible move up try to be a try to get that 135 pound belt or do you think valentine is going to play the let's just rattle off she got nine title defenses now 125 pounds does she stay there and try to catch DJ and Anderson Silva and try to try to catch those records? What do you think? Yeah, and I think 10, she would tie

a men and Nunes, at least on the women's, for the most title fight wins by a woman. Not even the defense is just a winning championship fight, some of that, or maybe it's the most defenses. Anyway, first, my tone will be overly apologetic for your pick. I mean, I picked JDM to win the main event. So I probably had a pretty, a better read on the co-main, but I mean, I could not have been farther off by the main. I'm sure. And I also have, Mike, a little teaser for people to stick around before we get to the listener picks.

I have a little check the tapes for myself because I splattered doo-doo all over the place on the last episode of onto the next one. So we will get to that. But yes, for Valentina, I mean, Mike, I want to stay at 125, though I will say I'm way more interested in seeing Valentina fight Kayla than seeing Nunez Kayla, right? Is that a crazy thing to say? Like, I honestly, I think Amanda Nunes, Kayla is cool, but Amanda Nunes is retired. Like, she is retired. If it's, it just feels like there's less, there's really less in the line there. I don't buy into all that legacy stuff.

Like, oh, man, well, if Caleb beats Amanda, what does that mean for Kayla on the all-time list? It doesn't mean she beat Amanda. Like, she doesn't mean she surpasses Amanda on the list. Amanda's body of work is, like, enormous compared to Kayla. So huge friend than the cap to Caleb, she pulled that off. But if she did, it's like, well, she beat a fighter who's been retired for the past, what, two or three years. So cool from a marketing standpoint, cool from a name point, cool for Kayla. I'm sure she wants it.

I love to have that name. But I would love to see her fight Valentina. And yes, there'd be a huge size difference. I mean, look, it might be what Valentina just did to Zhang, but like, you know, with Kayla and the Valentina spot, right? Entirely possible. I find that more intriguing. But I want to stay 125.

And Mike, you know what number one contender has just been sitting on the sidelines and it's still not booked? Give her her shot. She does not need to fight again. She was at MSG, Natty Ice. Yeah, Talia Sola. Let's not play around. She doesn't need to fight again. Don't make her fight again.

Why? She's a number one contender. Stop messing around. They're not going to, and look, they're not going to throw Valenci and anything with Kayla, like for the White House car. It's not going to happen. They're going to do the Nunes fight first. So while that happens, and look, if there's a very real world where

Amanda Nunes fights Kayla Harrison beats her. And if that happens, what do you think is going to happen? They're going to do it again, more than likely. So why sit and wait? when you can keep piling up those title defenses and just, you know, close the gap on Nunez or just completely make it inarguable that you are the greatest women's fighter of all time. And she's right there. And I know she'll be heavily favored.

Well, she will be heavily favored, but let's be honest, she's been. She's not, though. The opening odds, I think they have are like minus 155. No, no, Val, for a Natty ice matchup? Yeah. It's, it's, it's close. The opening odds were pretty, we're pretty tight. And that's why I like where we're at the stage of Valentine's career because she's this older fighter.

It's like how many, how many up-and-coming young challenges can she continue to knock off, right? The division keeps getting younger and better. She theoretically keeps getting older and, you know, losing just a little bit off that fastball, right? Like, she's winning a lot of these fights with, you know, technique and guile, right? She's not going to out-athleticism, out-muscle, out-power anyone anymore. Though she did out-muscle jang, but, I mean, she was quite a bit bigger than her. A lot of it is, you know, just her years of experience, her, you know, the athletic gifts that she has left. So, Natty Ice.

I stole in Aaron Blanchfield, like a year from now. I'd love to see it. We're doing where Aaron Blanchfield. I'd love to see that matchup still. I still want to see Aaron Blanchfield fight Valentina Schochenko. So there are contenders at 125 who as the time goes by, you know, the question with Valentina fight will be, can she keep hanging on? Can she keep hanging on?

And if she does, amazing. We're talking 10, 11, 12 title defenses. And if she doesn't, you get new blood at 125. So just her staying there is so good for the division. And I think so good for the UFC. Yeah. And there's fight. Like, there's plenty of fights for her right now.

There is a lot. She hasn't cleaned it out at all. Like she's beat most of these fighters, but you got, she hasn't fought an accident. yet blanchefield like you mentioned and i think blanchefield's going to need a couple more wins honestly like she looked good and she did what she needed to do last night um but manon absolutely hossed her around and you just i just have a hard time just seeing her just get a title shot after beating tracy cortez and squeaking out a rose win while menon just absolutely destroyed jazz devisius uh so she got a little bit more work to do natty ices deserves it at this

point, she probably deserved it before the Alexa Grasso fight, that she went out there and just thumped her. I think this is like a pretty compelling matchup. I'm picking, I would pick Valentina. But Natty's quick and she's athletic and she's strong and she's underrated in a lot of the things that Valentina does really well from a defensive standpoint. So I do think that's like an intriguing matchup. Macy Barber goes out there and wins at UFC 323. Like you do Barber versus Blanchfield. Finally, we get that one. And then we can, you know, determine the next contender. so like there are fights for her like she could probably get two or three more pretty pretty easily and now we can start talking about the move up mackenzie durren's going to beat jang and then mackenzie darren's going to move up to 125 for another super fight i mean

oh my giving away or i mean i think it's pretty obvious where we're going with jang here um yeah i'd like see natie ice get her day in court against valentina um yeah wayley's not a flyweight it's official she's no there's no look she she ran through a division she like i if jean comes out on social media and says i dare to be great i'm not even mad at her because she did it in like such a respectful way see what the top yeah this is the complete opposite of jemal hill saying like alex perr is the easiest fight in the history of the ufc for me when i was at msg and perrera won i couldn't be happier i prayed to the gods above that alice perrero would win so i could fight him he's that easy of a fight and then he loses well

well i jumped in and took a chance folks like you didn't keep that same energy it was crazy but john like john jang is so well respected that everybody just said dare to be great for her dc said it everybody else that you know she doesn't even have to stay everybody else did and she took the loss in complete stride uh i thought she had a great fight week basically doing her entire media stuff in english i thought it was incredible um yeah but waley's got to go fight mackenzie durn and she's kind of beat the shit out of her. Uh, and she's going to regain that belt. And yeah, she's just, I don't know, I don't know what happens after that, honestly. I mean, does she just wait for Fatima Klein to win a whole bunch of fights? So like, because I mean,

she's just going to run over McKenzie Dern and then like, like, I don't know what she's going to do after that, but at least like, you know, she, she learned a valuable lesson last that, I guess is what I'll say. Can I say? I still think, I think, I think, Zhang's going to take some time off to chill. She's not the most frequent fighter anyway. But I guess she had to take more time off this time to sort of bulk up to 125. But I think she's got to take some time to bulk down too. I think she probably added quite a bit of muscle, you know.

So I think McKenzie Dern, you know, on a previous show, I wanted to, I said, I want to, I have a whole lot of hypotheticals for it on Mike. I think Gillian Robertson will beat Yasmin Lucindo in December and Julian Robertson will become the number one contender. And she will fight McKenzie Dern sometime early next year, sometime in the first four months of next year so i still think mackenzie durn will get to defend her title the chance to defend her title at least once uh before jang comes back so yes i'm saying jang will fight uh for the title next i just think that we'll have the durn um robertsin i think they're gonna let they're gonna try and get durn in there at least get at least one title fight that's not jang before jang just comes

back and takes back the belt she never lost yeah i mean look that like you could do you could do wayley darn on at the white house yeah like would be like the opening main card fight or like the featured prelim uh it's like waley is very popular um we'll see i think the ufc will probably wait honestly but you know they like mackenzie durn so maybe they'll try to feed her to maybe they'll try to give her julie robertson but like what if jillian robertson wins the belt then you do her and jang at the white house yeah give me some canadian up in there yeah that's a tough uh it's going to be a tough scene right it's going to be a tough scenes for pretty much everybody in this division uh until fatima klein like you know hits her athletic prime

and who knows if jean will still be fighting at that point so let's go to the lightweight division or uh the 157 point two pound division as we found out on friday ben was sauntity oh no what do we do oh yeah uh carlos proches one you put you pick your Carlos Prochus 1 knocked out Leon Edwards yeah sick knockout Leon had a pretty good first round and you could see like Prochus is kind of like talking shit to Leon the whole round he's just like talking and laughing at him like you can't do anything to me and then round two Prochers just just wrecked him it was pretty crazy uh who do you who do you like for Carlos Pratchis by yeah Edward's talking back was like that's just not your game brother yeah I don't

know if anyone's seen you know if guys anyone's on like you know streetball TikTok and all that you see all those videos where like, you know, some guys talk on this trash and they try and talk and they just get destroyed. It's like, no, it's just not your game. Don't do it. I went with Shopcott. Sort of a wild card pick here. I don't know what, again, we like we keep saying, we don't know what they're going to do with Shopcott when he comes back. In a perfect world, in a just world, he would fight Usman, right? Usman would have to go through him to earn that title shot. We've delivered over this already. I don't know if the UFC has any plan to do that, like make Usman fight once more before whatever they want to do with him. So yeah, I just think it'd be

interesting. Probably it's just in a weird spot because the Ian Machado Gary loss. Which, again, should not rule him out of title shot anytime soon, but it does feel like just by the nature, especially if Machado Gary wins next week, you feel really weird to leapfrog on Prochers over him. So he's got to fight someone, Schauchcott, I hope we'll be back sometime in the first six months of 20206. Because if he's not, I don't think Pratch is going to wait for him. Pratchez will just fight another fight. He likes to, he likes to fight and knock people out. But yeah, but we'll love to see that match him. Yeah.

Shafcott could have been Shafka could have done the thing multiple times this week and I'm not blaming him because I don't know I don't know what's going on with them but even Jed said like can you imagine if he just like showed up on Friday to Wayans as the backup fighter nobody knew

he just did the Colby at UFC 286 and just walked on the scale here's your backup fighter Shafkat Rukmanoff and he made like 169 and a half that'd have been like oh shit that'd have been awesome and then like the pro wrestling fan of me is like imagine if Islam was like talking to Joe Rogan

and the lights went out and then like the lights go back on Schofcott was in the cage. Like, how sick would that have been? It was so sick. You are booking an entirely other fighter. He's not going to do any of this thing. He just doesn't even have to say anything. It just stands there and just like does what he does.

Just stands there looking like an absolute menace, looking like a scary man. But I hope Schofcott comes back soon. The division is just way cooler with him in it. And sure, if they do process, like I'm into it, I want Shafcott, who's been. That's the one. man that is the one so yeah 170's fun it's great to talk about 170 like this because a couple years ago we were not talking about 170 like this and we're like man colby's getting title shots uh without actually fighting anybody like he's was out for a year almost two years and got a title shot

and now look how look where this division has come it's so great it's one of the the better divisions in the sport again i love this it's it's so damn good uh let's talk about about ben wasantini a guy that, you know, not a lot of people were, like, pouring dirt on his grave, but after the Hanata Moikano lost, they were like, all right, he's just going to be kind of like a fun dude. He's going to be a Drew Dober type at 155 pounds, and there's nothing wrong with that, but

yeah, it goes out and beats Kyle Prepeleck, and we're just like, okay, cool. Then he beats Borisio Huffi, and we're like, okay, Rufi doesn't have any grappling whatsoever. We learned that about him. People weren't giving him maybe the credit you deserve for that win. And then you just

wrecked Benial Derrius. Like, literally just the first punch he landed just killed him 16 seconds is all it took and dariush you know he can get got good but 16 seconds not a lot of people not a lot of people do that to banal deri so uh i'm going with raphael fazeve for yeah betty d that's it or uh bsd yeah order of elimination i just i think i'm sure you look at your rankings and you're like top five guys he's not getting any of those guys um some people we think that either are some of those that are either booked or we're pretty confident will get booked for certain matchups, you know, within the next like four or five months.

So yeah, that's the one. That's the one. He's just kind of got to creep his way at the top 10 rankings, unfortunately. But hopefully, hopefully, you know, fingers crossed, lightweight is in, you know, a year from now is in the spot where Welterweight is where some of the older fighters have at least kind of moved out of the way or at least give opportunities to some of these up and coming guys. So, yeah, that's the way to go. We're not even friends. Like, we've had a few friends forever moments this episode, Mike. We're not even doing it because I think some of them are just pretty obvious.

like yeah um so yeah it should be fuzzy next i just can't imagine where else he goes i like like with the leon with the leon loss i was like it's kind of sad but again like leon has options like he just go to pfl if like ufc release them or something uh and he's got another option which i'm going to talk about in a second um but man we're we're we're approaching i feel like we're out a bad road of banal der euse i have a feeling i feel like we're about to hit some real sad territory with him missing weight getting nuked in 16 seconds by a guy a lot of people thought was like a pretty live underdog honestly i mean he's in a he's in the wrong division man to be to be kind of making this downturn in his career because it's not like they're going to give

him like jim miller next they're just going to throw him to the absolute wolves like all the up-and-comers who like nobody wants to fight, that's who BSD is going to be fighting from now on. And I don't even want to see it. I didn't have no interest to it. Benile, you mean? Oh, Benile, excuse me. Yeah, sorry.

That's kind of where he's at right now. And it's a bummer because he's just going to keep getting knocked out, I think. Yeah, he's a, this is his 16th year of MMA competition. So he'll be entering year 17, I should say. And three first round knockouts in his past four fights. And again, against really good fighters. But still, like you said, that's kind of the, they're not giving him like a someone outside the top 30 he's going to be fighting you're right these

you know 20 like range 16 to 20 guys that are coming up and are probably very dangerous and I might see more first round finishes uh in the future for dar you on the on the wrong end i'll tell you what man he is so lucky he is so lucky that joel alvarez moved up to 170 because they would have fed his ass to joel alvarez and that would have been horrible i don't want to it uh but dude now he's gonna fight like killing sal killed next oh no god i mean that's that's what it is that like that's who he's gonna have to fight he's got to like manuel torres like these are the dudes and he's gonna have to fight oh it's just so sad bah mondays like oh no take it easy benil take it easy man i was kind of hoping he would he would lay him down last night i didn't think he

would i know but i wish he did i really wish he did uh let's go to the wild card round a k Oh, I love this. This is where things can get a little interesting. Mike, I got a good one. You teased me. You teased it last night. You said, obviously, we're doing the watch party. We're doing a million things.

Maybe this was during the post-bite show. And you hit me up, DM me on Slack and said, I have like an incredible wild card pick. So I, I'm solo screening you, AK. So for those of you are newer to the show, wild card round is we select one fighter from who competed last night that we have not matched made for yet. And we'll match make for him right now. So it could be a winner from the prelims. could be somebody who lost of the main card. It could be anybody.

Could even be a boat, AK. So who is your wildcar pick? Mike, don't sell it screen me. I need you for this. This is, I need some audience and interaction here. I need some audience and investment interaction. First off, you know what? I want to go into the listener picks on a high note.

So let me do my do-do check on myself. Mike, and you know what? There's a little bit of do-do on you too, sir, because you didn't stop. I can't let this go uncheck. You didn't stop me when it happened. Dale Marcos last week won a fight, and he was my wildcar pick.

Or was in the main card? Either way, I had to pick a fight for Dale Mark. And I said Montel Jackson, because I was like, oh, Montel Jackson is on his way down and Dona Marcus on his way up. You know, like, Dan, Marcos has one loss in his record. And it was to bring in Montel Jackson six months ago. I don't know what I was doing. To our defense. Huh?

To our defense. There's no defense. There's no defense. I'm going to go ahead and, you know, the accountability hand was up for the, for the Zhang pick. And there's no defense for that. It was coming off of like just a shit apex card and we're just ready to get over this. No, that's no excuse. at UFC 32. So forgiven.

No, it's not forgiving. Forgiven. You get, it's like, it's like a free bed at a casino. No, you lost it, but like it was a free one. That's what I'm giving you here. Free doo-do pick. No, I, I, I, you're so gracious. I do not accept it. This was, I put do-do all over the, horrible pick. Uh, shout out to Danny Florenzo. You were the first. Shout out to you sooner. Thank you for the, up with a correction. Will not, will never, ever happen again. Uh, so I want to make up for it. Because my wild card pick this week, like, I don't know if you went with this guy too. Jimmy Suss. Oh, no.

No, no. By Sanger Sousayayev. Okay, Mike, this is where I need you. Now, Mike, who was? You're going to do it, aren't you? I'm going to do it. Mike, who was? Who did Souser Kaya beat in his first UFC fight?

Give me their full name. Oh, Jesus. You look it up. You can look it up. We'll take time. People in the comments can probably already know where I'm going with this. They've already know where I'm going with this. Who did he beat in a contender series and he debuted?

Oh, Eric Nolan. Eric Nolan. Who did he beat on Saturday, Mike? Eric Baconico Oh let me tell you something I love a good gimmick Oh no

This man This man might be the Eric killer And there just happens to be another Why are you covering your face? This is so great Another prominent Eric Who has been in a mainstay In the Middleweight Division for years

Sounds like he has a retirement fight Who better to send off Eric Anders off into the sunset than the Eric slash Eric with a K killer by Sanger Souser Kyev. You are welcome, everyone. That is it. That is the matchup that will happen. Okay, I got to be honest with you. Not only am I taking away the Marcos Montel Jackson doo-doo, but I'm removing the last five

doo-do picks that you've had because this is so good. This is so good. I did not see this coming. honestly i thought you're just going to give him bow nickel um my my heart hurts a little bit because i just don't want to see eric just get killed in his retirement fight because that's what will probably happen here um jed was saying like just give him bow nickel like let's just do it maybe bow can humble him up a little bit or the other way around i guess uh but this is actually like really like this is the kind of matchmaking you do

for eric anders right if it's a retirement fight like you have to you have to put over the new the new breed you have to you have to take the l and this is just a brilliant wildcard from you i i went with like a super obvious one um i'm just going to keep saying it this is the last time i'm going to suggest this because if you can't if you don't do this now then you're just in i just don't know what we're doing here the fact that it hasn't happened yet is absolutely insane but now like the time is just no more is just is now it's just so perfect that you just there's no other fight that can be made um we're doing leon aditoria mazadol now now like now it is like it actually makes more sense that it did like doing it now or doing it before but like do it at the

freaking white house man i don't give a shit like just do it there like let's just settle this like edwards final fight in the ufc you can let him go afterwards mazadol seems like he just wants to do this one and be done, which is okay. Mazadol said, like, the UFC is pissed him for something. Dana White refuted that at the press conference last night. So, dude, just do that. Like, how is that? Like, that's a fine White House fight.

It's a fine one. So go ahead and do that. That's what I'm picking. Let's give Leon his opportunity to get one back. Like, the man was a champion. He did do a lot for your promotion. You didn't want him to be champion. That's for damn sure.

But he did it. He helped draw a gate for you. at UFC 286, which is a very good pay per view for them financially, and Leon was a big part of that, being the UK champ. And yeah, this could be his like goodbye present. Give him Mazadol, give Mazadol, give Mazadol the fight he wants. Let's just go ahead and do that. So more, a less creative wildcard pick than you had.

No. But very good. It's great, though. It has to happen. I mean, the whole three pieces in the soda incident was like, is like some of the most money the the UFC has ever, like, lost on what should have been promotional, you know, home run. Like, that was a, that was a fastball right down the middle. They could have knocked that out of the park.

I can't remember there were reasons the fight didn't materialize at the time it did, but it just felt like there were moments where they easily could have, like, put a little effort to putting this one together. And I don't know, maybe it's the Mazurbaugh side, Edward's side, the UFC matchmakers, I don't know. They got a fight before it's over. I don't know. We need to see these two fight.

There's still so much money to you made there. And I think you're right. I think White House honestly would be perfect. I think that's such a great, like, fight that would draw, you know, some more casual interest to watching a White House card. Though it's not going to have any trouble with that anyway. But yeah, that's good stuff. Yeah.

So I will say just kind of looking at women's straw way right now, because I know Lazy Bed is very excited about Fatim Kline. I'm not going to say we're back, but we're in a good spot right now. We have Julian Robertson on the way up. We have Denise Gomes. I'm very excited about Alexia Tynara. Yeah. I really like her.

That's she's gonna fight Jung at some point. At some point. She could be like a Michael Morales type in this division, I think. Like she's just so good and so fun to watch. And now you got Klein moving up too. Like we got some fun like we get if Zhang Lili like fights for the next. If she's around in, because when she fights because she's done, she's going to absolutely destroy her and she'll be championed for quite some time for as long as she wants to.

But eventually she's going to have to fight like Tyner. and Klein like those are two like awesome fights to look forward to like two or three years down the road it's just really really fun so uh all right time to hear from you guys uh if you got super chats you guys guaranteed uh to get on the show uh we'll run through these for the next i don't know 10 or 15 minutes or so and then uh we'll get on out of here so uh jerome says if usen doesn't get the shot who should he fight next does he risk a proches or morales match up that's a really good question I mean, it's shot, he's,

Usman's fighting shot. Like, Usman needs to fight Shafka. He should. That is the fight. That's the fight. Oh, who should he? Okay, okay, this is asking who should.

I thought it said, well, who will he end up fight? Because who will he end up fighting? Man, I don't know. I think he's going to, I think he's going to, Mike, like you said, he played, he's playing it cool now.

I think once the calendar turns, he's going to be stumping pretty damn hard for that, that Islam fight. But he's got a lot of podcast time to fill up. But even after, but it is about it's about because Islam didn't say his name when it mattered. But, Honestly, like after, and I know Shafkot was reportedly injured heading into that fight.

But even after, like, Usman watched Ian Machado Gary, like, almost finished Shafkat Rachmanoff, you would think that Ustman probably looked at that fight and was like, you know what, I might be able to beat that guy. And like, that is, like, that is the win. For, like, anybody in this conversation who doesn't get the next title shot, like, if you go out there and beat Shafkot, like, you're in. It doesn't matter, like, where you're at in this division. you go out there and you beat shopcott you're getting a title shot so if if usman doesn't get it like he should be all in on the shopcott fight without question so i that's what i want to see like i want to see if he's i want to see if usman's like really back because if he goes out there

beat shopcott like all right give me give me Islam like i'm i'm super intrigued by that fight i'm not intrigued by it now i think Islam beats him convincingly i think he wins like a four to one decision i'm not saying oosman doesn't have a moment and there's not like some good grappling exchanges but i think islam wins that fight um i'd feel pretty confident in that but if he goes out there just like dummy shopcott boy we got a whole different conversation here i'd probably still pick islam but at least i'd be more intrigued by the fight so that's what i would do so yeah this won't happen but i would love to see him uh other than the picks we made like obviously i said um whatever i said earlier on the show i would love to see him fight the winner of the catar uh

the Bala Muhammad and Ima Chado Gary fight it's not going to it's not going to happen I because again we sort of talked with the Mazhid Ali on beef I think there's that I really think that beef with him and Balaali to resolve at some point but that can always happen later I guess I guess that doesn't need to happen anytime soon while it was on his like last title hunt and Ina Machado Gary a lot of people are saying if he wins sort of like uh you know not super convincing decision over Bala that he shouldn't leapfrog you know uh Michael morales or more people want to see college process the guy that I'm I'm in Machado Gary B they want to see him fight for the title more

So I wonder if Imichato Gary would be interested in fighting Kamaru and earning it, you know, like walking down his shot that way. Again, I don't think this is what I would like to see. But I'm not sure. I don't sure if they go that way. Yeah. I mean, if they do that, I'm fine with that too. I'm good with that as well. Let's go to Sima Edwards versus Amosov in Amosov's debut.

Yes, he has signed with, he hasn't like officially signed with the UFC, but, yeah. it's basically like we just need to put a pen on a piece of paper essentially and it's done the plan is from what I what I understand is they want to get him out there before the end of the year there's some rumor and innuendo out there about who he could possibly face I think some people have probably seen it or tried to guess it but again not like fully confirmed but Amosop will be in the UFC Emmett edwards is actually pretty interesting JDM versus brady Jimmy Suss versus Dusko Tdorovich Pratchis versus Buckley, I think he's ahead of Mr. Buckley, unfortunately. Blanchefield, Fioro 2, BSD versus the Dawson Torres winner. Yeah, I don't hate that. Bo Nickel versus the winner of Ferreira Vittori. What's that one going down? Is that this year?

Oh, I haven't asked me this year because there's no fights book for it. Is that 323 that fights happening? 323, yes, the last preview. Wow, I was not aware. Bo Nicol versus the winner Boy, that's, I don't know, man. I said before Saturday, I want them to keep Bonickle in this range.

Because I think Hadolfo Verra was actually like a really smart matchup for him. I guess Bruno Fanada would fall into that range. And maybe even Marvin too, because Marvin, like, I know he's been ranked for a long time, but like he's had not the greatest success actually winning fights in the past couple years. So maybe he is, maybe Marvin is closer to that sort of like 16 to 25 range. But that's where I want to keep Bo. I have no interest in throwing Bo with ranked people.

It just doesn't need to right now. He doesn't need to right now. The Paul Craig fight was fine. Like that was them so they get a number next to his name. And then I think the RDR fight was much more revealing as to where his current skill set is. So Bo is, I still think could be a future champion. But there's so much work that needs to be done guys. Like I don't even think he'll be ready until honestly, like realistic shot of winning the championship, 2028.

That's how far ahead I'm looking for Bo Neckle. I know he's not a super young guy, but he is very young in MMA years. I just don't think he's anywhere close to actually competing for a title and beating a top five, top six, seven, eight guy. He's not close. You know who I'd give Bo Nicol to? Audrey Petroski. It's time.

There you go. Perfect. It's time. Now it makes sense. Now it makes sense to do that. Or you could always just throw him in there with Michael, Alexechuk. That's always fun. He knows how to get and get got very, very well.

If you're going vet. like super vet I would go like Brad Tavares and no higher and even that is like he's a little squirrelly but I think Brad's just kind of like so far in the back end at this point

like it'd be a good little kind of a challenge but yeah there's just no need to there's just no need to rush him like I wouldn't even give him like Kyle Dawkes right now like that's that's just a really tough fight like Bo Eric Anders I wouldn't hate I know it ruins your

your plans of the eric killers but uh i don't hate that shabazzian maybe even then is like i don't know even that's like a little risky but he could kind of just grapple shabazzian a little bit i don't know i don't know bo's interesting to match up right now it's hard glad he wasn't on the main card so we didn't have to like figure this one out but yeah but i think i think petroski's kind of like the right fight right now uh hey man i'm giving leon a step to down with him fighting jeff neil okay that's that's not too bad i i just remembered last i mean mazadol's a pretty significant step down for being honest right i just remembered last that would be significant step down yes i just remembered last week that i i uh so i kind of screwed

on my pick already i remember i said i wanted bomb feme him to get uh gabbert bonfrey win win when loser draw when loser draw um i think i was expecting a win that thing but so maybe i'm cooler on it now how low so i'm like let me look up let me look up some rankings here how low would you go for leon so I have Bonfema on like, you know, the 11 to 15 range. So I think that's low. Stephen Thompson's around there. You can always kind of dust off that kind of matchup. I have Neil 15.

Okay. So still in the top of Dean for me. What about Daniel Rodriguez? Too low? I mean, if you believe what you read on the interwebs, I don't know if D.ROT's fighting anybody. Right. Yeah, I still not caught up on that drama. Michael Lott?

Mike Lott? Mike, wow, so Michael Lai, I have outside the top 20. So that's super low for me. Kevin Holland. Yeah, that's, again, outside the top. So you're happy, you'd be fine with going outside the top 20 for Leon's next matchup. I would give him muzzad all. Like, I honestly think there's like, unranked, unranked.

Because I don't know, like, I just don't know what like, I'm trying to think like who could get the rub here where like means. something it might be i think milots like the only guy you know but like even the the holland win like didn't do a whole lot for him but he's kind of in a position now where like you have to kind of run with him and just give him give him the push now and just kind of see because you don't have like you need a face of canada in this sport like you just have to have it and they don't have one right now it's me and that's just you're the face you're the face of canadian we have reached a that's not it's not good yeah and you know jillian roberts is a great fighter but she doesn't have the gifted gab mike blot does so i mean if they're not going to do mazadol i would do

i would do mike i would do mott and just see what happens if he loses like who gives a shit but if he wins like you know you can put him in the mix try to push him so but he's like the only guy i think they can really gain a whole lot from this like like if we're not not really it would be like a good win but like I just don't know I just don't know Bonfie maybe but I don't even know like

if he would gain a whole lot from this you know it's tough Mike real quick extra and one is asking we just got another super champ extra one is asking us who would you match a wellmaker with now and I I drew it I'm going

Ricky Terseos oh God I'll get there a sec Terrence Rose is getting a fight can we get rose versus grass oh sure yeah very logical very it's actually the right fight is rose on drudge three i won 25 that's what we should be doing uh because rose is not in the title picture right now so let's just do fun fights with her uh mike brown i still have ilia's pound for pounds he went up and won by k o in the first islam couldn't get the finish i mean look i respect the

take it is super spicy in my opinion i had islam i still had islam number one even after ilia beat charles As much as I loved the Ilya win and I was blown away by it, I just think Islam just deserves that spot with what he's accomplished. So I didn't have to really change a whole lot in my pound for pound rankings. What's weird about doing the pound for pound rankings is I had JDM in a spot where like I didn't drop him. I didn't drop him a single spot. No. Like that never happens. I didn't have that high.

So that's thing. Yeah. I think I had him like nine. And I think he's just going to stay at nine. So yeah. I mean, look, if you have Elliott Pound for Pondley, that's great. Like, it's cool. I don't agree with it, but it doesn't mean like you're a bad person or anything.

It's fine. Oh, so Malcolm Wellmaker. Before you get to that, Mike, let me just say, uh, shout us to New York Knicks coach, Mike Brown for taking the time to go in our show. Thank you, Mike Brown. Oh, that was an ATT head coach, Mike Brown. Oh, maybe. Sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made the M.A reference. Uh, uh, I don't have, I don't, uh, subscribe to the thought that just because Islam couldn't get the finish. Islam beat the guy that Ilya beat to win the vacant title, right? So it's not like, I don't know. You're right, Mike.

There's no problem with Ilya being number one. But I just don't think you can rule out Islam number one just because Ilya came up and finished a guy that Islam Akrachev also finished. Like, he beat Charles Oliver. Like, it's not like Ilya did anything a lightweight that Islam hasn't done. So, you know, it might never be resolved until they see them fight each other. But yeah, you can't go wrong. You can't go wrong. That's just my defense for Islam number one.

Wellmaker, Mike. I don't know. I kind of like to see A.J. Cunningham kind of take a, take a, take a, take a, take a hell like that for being honest. So he's there for. Nathan Fletcher? Sure. Vince Morales? Like, I think our point is, um, I don't know.

I, I don't want to criticize Wellmaker for what happened because I think I want to praise, you know, Ethan Ewing more. I think Ethan Ewing is just really good, like, coming on on a week's notice. Winning a title, by the way, winning any title, even on the regional scene, is nothing to shake a stick at. And that's what Ethan Ewing did last Friday for your Favors fight promotion. So,

he's already kind of like a guy who was, like, we would keep an eye on. I think with a plan would have been to get him on like contender series next year. I don't think they were going to sign him to the U.S. any time soon. So good for him for jumping opportunity. So good for Ewing. Well, make, welcome, maybe fine, man. Like, he's not a, I think the misconception

is that like he's a super young bantam weight which he is not um he is 31 which is an old but in this division you get old fast let me put it that way so i i get the need to sort of want to may push him a little bit faster but i hope you're right mike i hope we get someone sort of in the range you mentioned or like a rickie chairs feels like i said like let's give him another year of seasoning let's look at let's look at him at age 32 and let's see where he is there because he has a ton of talent i think i think malcolm walmaker's me just fine look jett and i I had been on record with Malcolm Wellmaker, like pretty much consistently. I saw Malcolm fight live multiple times when Mazadol had like a legit MMA promotion.

They did two cards in Savannah and Malcolm Wellmaker opened the main card on both of them and got first round knockouts and had like jumped over the cage and him and Mazadol had moments. And it was like pretty cool. It was pretty cool. And you could see like this dude just really fun and he's got like a great personality, lights up a room. and like he makes the UFC better honestly like he just does just who he is as a human being what i i i the the the the surhey sadai fight i still think like malcolm would have like nuked him um because there's just not a lot of dudes in this division that can really like take that shot and unless you're like a super high level like defensive fighter and sir hay sadai is

not that so when they booked the cody had in the fight i was like All right, this is really good matchmaking for me because we are going to learn everything we need to know about Malcolm Wellmaker. Either if he goes in there, because I even said like if he went out there, like knocked out Cody had in the first round, my I would have come on this show.

My wildcar pick would have been Malcolm Wellmaker versus Cheevera. Like I would have went that high with him. Because he's not a young man, AK. Like you have to push him. Like they tried, but you like if you're going to do the Crispitino thing, and he goes out and beats like a super good prospect in Cody like you just got to push him to the moon and just just just step on the gas full throttle

until it's over and if he lost it's just like okay cool like he could just be like an eco price or uh jed said terence mckinney at bannamweight like terence mcini's not going to be the lightweight champion and that's okay and no one is mad when terence mcini fights it's the same thing with malcolm wellmaker like no one's like i still see people say it like he's fraud check like what the fuck are you talking about like he's not we know who he is he's just going to be a dude who's going to get in there and get into like really fun scraps and he's probably going to get a whole bunch of finishes that are going to win fight of the night bonuses and it's somebody that the UFC can build and tell his story and he could be like a great

advocate for the company like you could send him to like literally every event to be like the representative in the face of your organization in a lot of respects like he is a going to be a pivotal piece of the puzzle so the full fraud check thing is kind of nuts because if you really looked at what was happening here like Malcolm Wellmaker losing a fight like shouldn't be a shock to anybody like he's older and he's green still green is grass in a lot of respects but he's fun and he's like he's good for the promotion in a lot of in a lot of ways like it's fine that he lost like it's in great what a great story it was for Ethan Ewing like good for Ethan Ewing man that's like a moment he'll never forget and it was a good fight with malcolm walmaker so so i mean

he's going to be fine he's still going to be like an overdue in the company he's going to be a fan favorite forever and i can assure you and i don't know if he's made a statement or anything yet but it'll probably like the classiest friggin statement you've ever seen so i i like malcolm walmaker a lot yeah he's not going to be a a champion or anything but who cares like it's okay You know how hard it is to be a UFC champion? It's very difficult. Very difficult. But Malcolm Wellmaker is one of those guys where, you know, you put him, I think he can be in like a Derek Lewis type situation or, you know, where like there are certain fighters who like don't need belts.

It just doesn't matter. Like he's just excited to see him. And I think he's one of those guys. So good for Malcolm. I think he's going to be in the UFC for as long as he continues fighting. I don't think he'll ever get cut. I think he's just a dude who is going to be. employed forever. So shout out Malcolm Wellmaker. He's going to learn from this. He's going to come

back. He's certainly going to get wins. He's got to get a bunch of bonuses. It's all good, man. It's all good. I like him a lot. So there you have it. All right. What else do we have? Amen reports says cutless smear shart. Yeah, it's tough, man. I love Gerald too, but yeah, not great. You're muted, okay? four straight losses four straight losses turns 38 in uh December 38 years young Mike it's tough man and that was a really tough outing to go on um and honestly I also let's not forget he's been around for a while so I guarantee he's probably a little bit up there when it comes to how much he's getting paid which uh you know this is a business they run

and when they look at who to release guys like Gerald are eventually going to go um it sucks because Gerald like we said it's exciting guy good good with the media um just a fun guy There's a good guy you want to have around, but that was a really tough outing and really, really, just really brutal to watch post Duke Rufus, obviously. It's been a month now since, you know, I meant on a previous onto the next one to sort of do a little eulogy for Duke. It's been a month now, so I know the timing's a bit off. But I think it's still fresh in people's minds, obviously with Gerald fighting with Joe Rogan, getting very choked up on air about it. And I think that said a lot about, you know, just got what an impact that Duke had. because listen, I did not know the guy personally.

I spoke to him on the phone maybe a handful of times because he was very, very open with wanting to talk about his fighters and, you know, if you needed a quick quote from him, Duke was very open about that. So just speaking from personal standpoint, I was really, really sad and really affected. And then you think about all the fighters' lives he touched,

all the friends and family of their lives that he touched. So, yeah, man. So, you know, we do happy trails in the show sometimes and happy trails to Duke. And maybe happy trails to Gerald. as far as the UFC career goes, but I would think that if this is the last time we see Gerald Mirshard fight in the UFC, it won't be the last time you see him in combat sports. He's going to be out there, man.

He's going to be out there, staying busy. So maybe it is for the best, actually, for GM3, too because maybe take a step back away from the octagon and see, see, see what late career combat sports options he has, you know? I think he's going to be a terrific coach. Yeah. Like, I think he's going to be a terrific coach. By the way, we'll take a couple more. What do you think of this? Bo Nickel versus Torres Finney.

Do we do we sacrifice Bo Nickel to the as I say why do you want to see Bo just get we're just getting us that are you people that upset with his post fight promo that you always want to see him get 20 you want to get majority decisions by Torres Finney because if that's what you want then you make that fight happen yeah uh Beau Joseph had a couple uh Fatima Klein versus Jessica Andrade didn't you I thought you mentioned you wanted to see that on a previous show or something like or like you you you If Fatima Klein, I don't know why, maybe it's just in my head. I thought that, maybe it was someone else you matched up with another young fighter. Rose. Rose. No. Oh, you want to see the road? Okay. Yeah.

Who was it then? Maybe it was one of our brilliant listeners slash viewers who, like, are trying to match, who matched up and Josh with a younger fighter. I'm not against it. I'm not against it. I totally underestimated Fatima Klein. Like, I know all the hype. I thought Angela Hill was a big step up.

I had to remind it that, listen, you know, in cage time is a thing. thing and i think they showed on the on the broadcast she's now something like top five angela hill with like seven plus hours of in cage time that's a lot of wear and tear on the body plus all the ufc yeah man and again i know she started like her career like with the ufc so um it's not like she's not a lengthy career before that but she's been the uccc for a long time she's fought many times so uh but credit all the credit to fatima cline no i'm not i'm not saying any of the stuff that like oh angela hill's just on the decline this win doesn't mean anything i think this win a lot man i think beating a veteran like and it's a great win yeah it's a great way she

look fitima cline looked fantastic in all uh in all regards so young fighter still a ways away um but i feel like you could you could you could give her andrash i think you could i don't think i'd learn anything from that fight though yeah i think you could you could do it though i would rather give her a man to he bus wow that's tough fight that's it you would you would learn a lot more from that fight that's for sure for sure For sure. I like the Hebas fight. He bus, I mean, Androge is higher ranked, but I think Hebus like we get a little more of a gauge. And I think I would pick, I would pick Klein to win that by the way, just, just throwing that out there. I think it's a more impactful

win right now than, you know, Jessica Androge at this point, who was just kind of getting run out there to get run over. And we just kind of have that same feeling. Joseph also is the Aaron Blanchfield versus Macy Barber rebooking. Of course, Macy's got a win at UFC 323. which if she does who she fights Creene Silva yeah she beats Creed A Silva I think that's

100% the fight you have to make at this point so and I know Aaron Blanchfield's going to be like well I'm not fighting her because she didn't fight and miss weight and all that stuff Aaron's really not in a position to say no honestly so I think that's the fight that will 100% happen

Klein versus Ritchie that's interesting that's a tough light man i think we're a little a little early on that rishi just like ritchie just had the best performance of her career against a man to he bus she beat the shit out of her like real bad so they got to be there just yet but close

they got to be thoughtful of how they but they where they go with client she's very young yeah she's very young i know we're excited three and o at her proper weight class her one loss was like you know she took short notice of fly weight like we knew that that that wasn't a good idea um but it was just sort of you know to get her foot in the door and i think she wanted to test herself yeah three you know yeah okay well you know what we'll we'll be talking a lot about fatima client in the future for sure no no no about it she's very impressive uh i was impressed with angela hill as well because uh she's a freak of nature how she survived that a lot of those big shots especially that like that that that combination where

like she landed a big shot and angela kind of like dropped to a knee and then like the second Angela stood up. She kicked her right in the frame face. That was so nasty. And Angela just ate it. She is just so damn tough. Shout out to Angela Hill. Great win for Fatima Klein.

UFC 322 is officially in the books. This episode is officially in the books. But before we get out of here, let me just give a rundown because, guys, we have another pretty fun fight next week and fight card next week. The UFC heads to Qatar. and it's it's a big event for a couple of different divisions here which i'm very excited about uh big huge opportunity for arm and sarukian uh to get into certainly the lightweight championship conversation he headlines against dan hooker uh obviously early day mima 10 a m eastern

love that 1 p.m main card uh co-main event bala moham versus ian machado gary wish this is a five rounder really wish this is five rounds but it isn't featured bout Vulcan O'Sdemier versus Alonzo Menafield so you know Fight of the Night potential is there Alonzo Menafield Mr. Fight of the Night

Jack Hermanson moving down to Welterweight to face Mick Tebeck Oralby what a fascinating, weird ass fight that was never on my bingo card ever happening on the main card next week.

We have Sergei Spivak versus Shamil Gadsiaf Boy, we could get Uber heavyweighty in Qatar when that fight happens. Main card opens in the flyweight division, aka, did you know that Alex Perez is fighting on Saturday? What? He's fighting Osu Amabayev. Well, we'll see. It is on the books.

Contact me a week. Let's see you just set next Saturday. Still. And then the prelims, we have Luke Riley versus Bogdan Grad. We have Abdul Rahman Yakkyev against Hafiel Cirqueira. how dare you how dare you put keoggi horaguchi in the prelim that's crazy i hope they changed this please yes this can we please can we please take the light heavyweight fight off and put in or the heavyweight fight off and put the best flat one of the best flyweights of

the world up there for christ's sake this cannot be the finalized card please do not finalize this like this uh horoguchi versus takir ulan beckoff uh i really love this this next fight i'm about to read up. Bexat Almacan versus Alexandra Tuporia. Great fight. Ryan Loder. Tough for life, baby. Taking on Ismail Nardiev, tough fight for Mr. Ryan Loder. This fight I really like, Nerulo Alia versus Shemrock making his UFC debut. We have Saigid Isa Gakmaya versus Nicholas Dalby. Not in Brazil, so Nicholas Dalby could be in some trouble. And opening things up, we have Marek Buleo versus Denzel Freeman in a heavyweight contest. So that is UFC Qatar.

Pretty decent fight night card. Like, there's a lot to like. Hopefully the bout order is fixed up in a nice way. And, yeah, a little something for everybody, AK. Something weird is going to happen. This card looks weird on paper. And I think. we're going to be back to using the word weird again.

There's that stretch where I think we used the word weird for like four straight cards or something. And then I think things sort of leveled out. No, that's not true. Things have not leveled out at all except for this card. And I think next week, oh boy. So we weird again, Mike. It's weird again. Yes.

So that's a Denzel Freeman. I didn't even know he signed with the UFC. The former LFA heavyweight champion getting this opportunity. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to this, which means we're going to have a 930 AM People's Free Fight show. scratches me right, right. So thank you guys very much. Obviously more UFC 322 talk throughout the week on BTL and other shows. For A.K. I am Mike Heck.

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