MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Islam Makhachev, Khamzat Chimaev After UFC 294?

Episode Date: October 22, 2023

What's next for Islam Makhachev following his incredibke knockout victory over Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 294 on Saturday? What about Khamzat Chimaev after gutting out a majoity decision win over former UFC welterweight champ Kamaru Usman? Following Saturday's return to Abu Dhabi for rhe UFC, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee attempt to answer those questions from a matchmaking perspective. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Volkanovski and Usman following their defeats, along with Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker after their bizarre no contest, Ikram Aliskerov following his brutal finish of Warlley Alves, Said Nurmagomedov, 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix Colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian

in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. Well, hello there, everybody. Happy Sunday, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. We are live this week following a memorable yet really watson.

and weird UFC 294 events, some early day MMA in Abu Dhabi, is Amakachev, still the lightweight champion of the world. Hamzat Shemayev returned, but perhaps we have more questions than we have answers. A lot to talk about from a matchmaking perspective. I am Mike Heck, and as you can see, the man to my right, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. Gosh darn, darn, he's my best friend, too. He is the great Alexander K.

Lee, AK, happy Sunday. How are you? Hello, my best friend. Hello, my fellow Celtic fan and all the other Celtic fans out there currently. Dominating Hearts, 3-0. I'm doing great. That was a very strange card. I thought pretty fun to watch. I saw some people dumping on it after.

And I understand why. It was a little disappointed. We didn't get like a great banger in there, but like the results were intriguing. We knew it was going to be a memorable card no matter what. I was saying this to our good pala, Jehina El Shadi before. about, you know, he always does the post-fight sort of, you know, biggest storylines articles, which is live now on namafighting.com, guys, go check that out. It's seven parts.

It's seven parts because normally he does the top five, but there was so much, no matter who won on Saturday, we knew there's going to be a lot of talk about whether Islam won as he did or if Alexander Bokonowski pulled out the upset, if Hamzaat beat Uzman or if Uzman shocked everyone and came on a short notice and beat Hamzaat in his middleweight debut, we thought we're going to have a light heavyweight number one contender. There's all kinds of things that could have potentially happened. And somehow in the end, we couldn't have predicted all of the bizarre comings and goings of Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

But it was an enjoyable card to watch, if only for the strangeness. It won't be remembered for like, oh, the brilliant in cage action. Some of the highlights are pretty good. But even those weren't like all-timers. I don't know if we have anything on here that's going to end up on our like year-end list. but with combat sports and with the UFC when you have this many shows

this many pay-per-views memorable is really the minimum that you're asking for and I think that the card certainly delivered in that regard I would agree the good was ruined the bad was really bad

oh Mike you might be muted I don't know if your mic is like your mic might be down I know I can't hear you I don't know people in the comments let me know can you guys hear Mike All right, so Mike is, yeah, okay, we see people. All right, no worries.

Mike, sort that out. I will continue to wax poetic about the card a little bit. Guys, you know, Mike is on the road. Of course, he's been doing the watch party every major show. Make sure you guys go watch and watch a replay of that. I only wish we could have had Jedmishu on the main, on the show for the main event. He was doing a live blog. He typically does live blogs on Saturday.

So he did. He was there for the co-main. So if you guys want to see Jed's thoughts, live reactions to Hamzaa versus Kumar Usman, definitely go back and watch the watch party. Watch the watch party. Always fun thing to say. And if you want to see Mike and G.C. how they reacted to a shocking. I'll say shocking because I don't know if anyone, anyone predicted that Islam would have won by headkick knockout. Then definitely tune into the watch party because you will get Mike and G.C. just absolutely losing it. It was a hell of a moment, guys. It was a hell of a moment. If you're me, I picked Islam to win for sure. Oh, by the way, guys, I see you guys sending in picks.

I think I see some people sending in picks. Wait till after we do sort of our rundown. I will leave a prompt in the YouTube. We can kind of go back and pick out comments, but it's easier if you just kind of wait until it's listener comment time, listener suggestion time, excuse me, and then we will get to all of that. So Mike is working out technical difficulties.

I don't want to get to the picks just yet. Mike and I's picks, but we will have that for. you in a moment. I'll just keep doing a little rundown here while Mike is getting that fixed up. In the co-main, and I guess we can talk about, well, Mike, I'll let Mike talk about the main more. In the co-main, very intriguing. We got Hamzat and a former dominant UFC welterweight champion, Kamar Usman. And I think a lot of people pick Hamzat, but I don't know if anyone picked him to win a decision, and I don't know if anyone who was picking Hamzat thought that

Usman would come pretty darn close to winning. The final scorecards were two 29-27s in Shemayo's favor. Two of the judges giving him a 10-8 and 128-28-draw score. If you look at the scorecards, it's interesting. They were actually all different. So it wasn't just the 229-27s weren't just 10-8 first for Shemayev, and then they agreed on 10-9 to the other rounds. the 10-9s were split on the two 2927 so it's kind of interesting there was no agreement either way but there's definitely an easy case to make that ozman took the last two rounds i had a 2927 for shemaiah

but oomond did the second round neither guy did a lot and i thought ozman did a little bit more and the third round if shemaiah hadn't gotten that takedown i mean i don't i think it would have been a pretty clear ozman round and shemmae didn't do a ton of damage on the ground but i didn't think ozman was dominating defeat so that's how that went. Mike, do we have you back? Do you hear me? Oh, yeah, we hear you. All right, we got to go through the headphones. Micrones being stupid.

You sound pretty good anyway. I think you're fine, yeah. Okay. Well, let's get into it. Like we said, the good was really good. The bad was really bad. But there was some great, and the greatness came from Islam Akchev, because he just obliterated Alexander Volkanowski. Incredible performance. Absolutely waxed out Volk. and Islam kind of,

you could see it in his body language before the fight. He kind of knew he was going to do that. It was just, those are the vibes that I got. Like, I even said on the watch party, as soon as I looked at Mach Jeff when he was getting introduced,

I'm like, man, this dude looks ready to go. And he delivered in a big way. In my opinion, he's the best fighter in the entire world right now. He's the number one pop-for-bound fighter on the planet. And he proved that for sure with this knockout win over Alexander Volkanowski.

So, A.K., I think, look, this is a weird, wacky division. This is a weird wacky sport. With Connor McGregor looming, we could always throw him in somewhere. And I'm not throwing him in here. I'm not throwing him in here. So this is a two horse race. It's Charles Olavera or it's Justin Gagey. And I really loved what Mockachev had to say after the fight.

He didn't immediately say, well, I'm going to go fight for the World Toewey title or anything like that. Now, if Colby wins the Waltoway title, maybe he changes. course. But to me, let's just kind of go back to normal. Let's do this right. Lightweights, fight light weights, feather weights, fight feather weights, Walter weights fight Walter weights. You go on Charles Olivera because he was originally supposed to be in this fight? Or are you going with the BMF champion Justin Gaetje here for Islamachev? I'm going, I'm going Gaetchi. This may just be the fickle MMA fan in me who was like, oh, I want fresh matchups, you know. Because let me say, I didn't love the Olivera reunion.

match, which is what we originally were supposed to get at UFC 294. Didn't love it, didn't love it. Happy as Olivera fan, I did want to see them fight again at some point, but it kind of felt like there just was no other lightweight contender that worked with the timing. So they gave Oliver his second shot. And Charles earned it. He beat Benalderi. He did beat another top five guy, so he did earn it.

It made sense. I just wasn't crazy about it. And even though I've joked many times that I want to see Olivera fight him again and Oliver beats Makachev and that which coaxes Khabib to come out of retirement and then and then oliver fights him beats him that's a fun pipe dream but i'm not you know i'm not married to it i think i have to let that go uh so yeah if charles if they rebook charles and islam too no problem again i'm just it's just not my favorite matchup and i'm also okay with charles fighting other people they might say that's unfair but there's just a lot of exciting fights for charles and i want to

see i have no problem him fighting someone else in the top ten i think we've been to venture So I'm down for that. But Gagee is a fresh matchup. I think the timing works out a little bit better. I know Olavera is not going to be out for a super long time. It's a cut, right? So there shouldn't be too many complications with that. But Gatji, let's make that BMF title mean something.

Let's make that fight with Porreux mean something. Both guys are saying they expect the number one to be a number one contender fight. I don't think that was ever like locked down by Dana White. But when are those kinds of things ever locked down by Dana White? So, but let's, let's lock it down for them. Let's do it for the matchmakers and say BMF champion versus undisputed, lightweight champion, possibly undisputed number one at pound for it in the world. I'll go with Gachachiav versus Macchep next.

I'm not even going to queue up the band here. That's the fight I want too. I'm also just like incredibly fascinated by that fight from a stylistic perspective. And like you said, if they end up doing Machachep versus Oliver two, then fine. I'll watch it and I'm not going to complain about it. but I really want to see the Gachi fight because not only is the stylistic aspect of it really interesting, but the fact that Justin Gachi, this is his last chance to win a title. Like, this is it.

If he doesn't beat Islam Mokachev, he's never going to be the UFC undisputed lightweight champion. Never going to happen. This is his last chance to be a world champion. So I'm interested from that perspective. I didn't think Matush camera could get the Charles Oliver fight, But after what I saw last night and how I feel right now, I kind of feel like he might, Gamron might get his wish.

They might just do the Gamron-Ollivera fight. And that might not be all the way fair for Charles Olivera, because it's not his fault that he got cut before this title fight. It might be. It might be his fault. Maybe. Well, why is he doing? They said this has happened hours before the flight, right?

Something like that, yeah. The whole thing's super weird. It's just all super weird. but i don't know yeah i i love i love charles but when i heard that it was like a few hours before the flight he got cut i'm like dude what like maybe i i shouldn't say i'm not a fighter i don't know the kind of preparation they need to do and when they need to do it so again i should be more sympathetic but it did sound weird to me and i guess kind of kind of irks me just as a fan just from a fan's perspective yeah don't watch the post fight show if you're into conspiracy theories because jed

threw one out there that olivera cut himself on purpose to avoid what happened no yeah i mean he's He was joking, but. Was he? Yeah, it is, it is Jed. So, on the flip side, we have Alexander Volkanowski. And I was a little bit concerned about some of the things he had to say. Not because he wants to keep going and accomplish great things, but the fact that he wants to turn right back around and fight after getting absolutely annihilated in brutal and violent fashion by Islam. Makachev is incredibly concerning to me.

So this, I mean, obviously this is the easy pick. The correct answer is Ilya to still, I'm actually more interested in Volcanovsky Toporia after what I, what happened yesterday. But this fight cannot happen in January. It just can't. Wait till February, wait till March, April, May, whatever. And I know Volk got super real and raw talking about how difficult it is. for him to be on layoffs,

how you sit back and wait months to fight, and it's like he kind of loses his mind. But it's clearly Tuporia, but I can't, I don't want to see the January, okay? I just can't. I just can't. Give the man a little bit of time.

Folks got to figure this thing out, but January is just way too soon. It is clearly Tuporia, except for the fact that Tuporia is going to end up fighting against in Barbosa next. So I don't know why. So unfortunately, unfortunately, Mike, I have to stick to my guns here. I can't have to stick with my ought-no

predictions. I said Volcanoxky's going to lose. I certainly didn't predict head kick knockout. I said Volcanoxie's going to lose. I'd say he's going to go back to Featherweight, but he can't go back right away. But because we know he's going back, that they won't make an interim title fight. And they also, they won't make it with Ilya and Holloway because if Holloway beats Toporia, then he has to fight Volcanowski again, right? So that's why, so now I think we're even further from, from Holloway getting an interim title shot. and much closer to my matchup of DePorea and Edson Barbosa.

Not for a title. I'm not sure what the stakes would be. It's really a kind of a key busy fight for Toporia and keep him in line. And also, if Barbosa pulls a shocking upset, then you give Barbosa a title a shot. By the way, thank you. Shout up to Simon Phoenix on Instagram who told me that on your boy, John Anick's podcast with Kenny Florian, they also suggested Edson Barbosa versus Ilya of Teporia. Great minds think alike, Mike.

Great minds think alike. John Anick would never say that. I don't know if it was. I don't know who it was. Simon Peterson said, I should have gone back and listened to the clip myself. You're irresponsible. I did it.

But he said, they match made the exact same fight. He said it was mentioned on the show. Maybe it was Kenny. Maybe it was Kenny. Whoever it was. Someone in the show mentioned this. And I'll tell you,

it's building up steam. It's building up steam. I think you got to do it. Especially if Teporea wants to fight sooner. It doesn't want to wait for Volk. And let me make one more note of Volk. I'll say real quick. He will go watch the interview with Volk.

It's a short one. He hung around for 10, 15 minutes. There's also the clip on our social. if you just want to see the clip. But yeah, he's talking about kind of getting into a difficult mindset in between fights. And he said everything short of, and by it, this is just my couch analysis of his interview, post-per interview. He said everything short of like that he gets depressed.

My understanding is he was saying he gets depressed. He gets depressed when he doesn't have a fight lined up, when he doesn't have anything, you know, to train for it, to repair for. And this is a lot of people and a lot of walks of life, but especially for cage fighters who I think have to be in a very specific mind. their goals are so singular on this very, very intense thing. It's kind of a scary thing. So I know Volk didn't say it.

And again, that's just, and maybe he wasn't. Maybe he's not depressed. But go watch his interview. That was my gauge on it. And I hope that he does take time off. I hope he gets some help. I hope he talks to people about it, gets some like professional help if that's what he needs because it's very serious.

And again, as you take head injuries, you know, that doesn't really help things either. And they were interviewing him right after, like he got head kicked, like an hour before his post-fights scrums so to him i hope he gets help all those athletes out there anyone out there anyone out there struggling with mental health please go talk to someone get some help uh it's not it's nothing to be ashamed of i don't think i hope wolkenovsky is not ashamed of it i know it's difficult for him to talk about um but it's nothing to be embarrassed about it happens to everybody uh i think the majority of people deal with mental health issues and uh i hope people see an interview like that and say well this guy can achieve everything he did while dealing with this stuff

then, you know, it's, it's, it's not, it's not, there's nothing wrong with, but talking about it. Completely agree. Who did you pick for Volk? Oh, did I say, oh, Barbosa Topori winner. Oh, Jesus Christ. Giz, Giz, Giz, Flck, plenty of time, Mike. Plenty of time to recover while those two, uh, scrap it out in January or February.

I mean, if you're going to, I mean, if you're going to do a gimmick, just go all in on it. Yep. I guess is the way to go. Consistency. Consistency, Mike. Look, we're about to live in a world where we're going to get Machachev Volt 2, John Jones Steepa,

Edwards Covington, and then to kick off 2024 after those three events, we're about to live in a world where Julianna Pena and Raquel Pennington are going to be the first pay-per-view made of 24. Oh, my Lord. Bring it. Oh, my gosh. With MX Platinum, $400 in annual credits for

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So let's move on to the co-main event. Hamzaa Shemayev defeats Kamar Usman. I was trying to figure out my audio issues. I know you were talking about a little bit. I scored it 2927 for Hamzaa Shemayev. If you scored it a draw, I have no issue with that scorecard at all. because Kamar Usman, you can make a strong case. He won that third round.

But Shamiya, able to dig deep. There's some rumor in innuendo that a broken wrist or a broken hand may have happened to Hamzat during the fight. That's kind of why he performed the way that he did. At least that's what people are saying. But at the end of the day, Shamiyev gets it done. And the whole premise and storyline in regards to this fight was, well, when are this fight's getting a middleweight title shot?

And then Dana White goes to the press conference, and he doesn't really declare anybody the number one guy. This might have been a good night for Drickus 2.C., AK. It might have been. It might have been an okay night. I think DDP's best friend right now is availability. And if the UFC calls, they say, hey, we want Sean Strickland. Perhaps in January.

Maybe they call DDP and said, look, we lost Volk to Poria. we want you, DDP, to fight Sean Strickland for the middleweight title in January, Homeboy better say yes, or he is getting skipped over for Hamzaa Shamaev, and I think he will say yes. So is Hamza Shamiyev's next fight in your eyes for the middleweight title? And if not, who is he going to fight? I'm okay with it, if it is, because I'm all in on. I've been all in on the Hamzat train.

I think he has the skills to get it done, but after that performance on Saturday, which again, he may have won the fight. He certainly came the closest to finishing of the fight. That's indisputable. If we're going by who looked, you know, who had the best moments. And it was for a long time, right? He dominated that first round. It was five minutes of domination.

I certainly scored it at 10-8. All three judges did as well. Then he looked impressive in that sense. But there's clearly holes there. Maybe he broke his hand shirt, but he seems to always have excuses for these tough fights because he also said that Gilbert Burns fight. Oh, look, I could have taken him down, but I just wanted to sprawl. I want it. Well, it's like, that's fine. That's your choice. That's still something that's

happened. And if these kind of things keep happening to the same person, at some point, you have to ask, is there just fundamental flaws in their game? Now, again, I do think Hamza will be world champion, but I think some of the excuse making, whoever's making the excuses for him, needs to kind of be pushed aside a little bit, and he needs to really think about some of the flaws he has, because I think he can win, but there's some real legitimate questions there. I am not booking him for the world title next. I think it's fair to just rebook him with Paulo Costa. I said going into this fight, like, I was okay if he beats Usman, they skip over the Costa fight.

But like you said, I think DDP still makes a lot of sense. If he's willing to fight in January, that's the way to go. I still think there's a lot of heat to the Shemaya of Costa fight. It's not like this fight was just thrown together for no reason. There's quite a rivalry there. and it would feel like a shame to kind of waste all that build, both on the UFC side and both fighters' sides and Costa's girlfriend slash manager has put a lot of work into it as well.

And it would answer more questions. It would answer more questions for Shimaa of the middle of weight. He just needs to, his resume is good, his highlight real is amazing. He just needs a little bit more for me to see him as an unequivocal number one contender. And Mike, I will say, I don't know if we're just for Dana and his defense. against he yeah he didn't push ahamsat as the no more contender but now they did hamza after the fight the dan kormer interview right right immediately he was just kind of like oh i don't want to talk about title for now i just uh thank you to my family think of a lot of thank you was he was oddly

restrained he was oddly restrained normally you would expect hamza do that uh i'm stricling for me next i'm going to smash him nothing like that so if you're dana white you kind of understand i can kind of understand not wanting to immediately uh push this guy as a title contender so it could happen but they're leaving their options open. That's part of the smart thing to do. I'll tell you what, if I'm Sean Strickland, I am calling for Hamzat Shabayev. I am going all in on them.

Just go. After watching that, like, look, there's a very real world where Hamzat just runs over Sean Strickland in the first round. But if he doesn't, like if Sean Strickland gets to round two and beyond, that fight is incredibly fascinating.

It really is. Because Sean is so durable and his gas tank never empties. And Hamzaa clearly has some issues with going the distance. Now, he is able to dig deep and find another level in order to win. But Sean is at like full speed all the time. So that is actually a really interesting fight. In fact, the opening odds for that fight,

I think it was like Shriclin or Hamzat opened as like a minus 300. And then within minutes, it was Hamzat minus 200. there's money immediately flying in on Sean Strickland. Immediately, which is incredibly interesting. However, I think the injury, everything going on, I do think it will get Strickland DDP. And I'm with you, A.K., we're not queuing up the band because there's really only two choices here.

You either give Homs up the title shot or you give him Paul Costa. And to me, it's Paul Costa. I think we're going to queue up the band now, Mike, for this next year. I got a feeling. You got a feeling? I think we're where we're going to land on. I said we're doing Usman next, I assume. We are doing Usban right now.

I have feeling we land on the same name. And not necessarily like an easy choice. So I think we get to queue up the band. I don't know if we are. Because you're saying name. I don't have a name yet. Oh, okay. Hold on.

I'm telling the band to, nope, tell the band to put the instruments down. I tell the trumpet player he's very enthusiastic. Okay, Mike, what, where are you going with it for Usma? There's a fight coming up in December. Oh. Between a young. hungry, fiery, dangerous whippersnapper, and the wily multiple-time title challenger

who is looking to thwart the rise of a potential superstar. There's a fight between Shafka Rakhmanov and Wonderboy Thompson coming up at UFC 296. And I think Kamarhusman is going to fight the winner of that fight. I think he's going to fight the winner of that fight. Now, there's a very rare world where Colby Covington becomes the Walter Way champion. and I know some people when I say that are rolling their eyes right now.

But there is a very real world where Colby wins the once-to-way title and then calls out Kamar Uspin, especially after seeing him lose three straight fights in order for him to negate one of, or two of the losses of his career. And Colby's a smart enough guy to do that. I don't know if he beats Leanne Edwards, so I'm not going to, like, I can't magic ball it that much. But I do feel like Usen's going to say, 170 and I think he's going to have to fight the Shafkaa Wonderboy winner.

I mean, I think honestly that's as good as he can get for him right now, unless Colby just goes all in on him if he wins the Walthroyd title. But that's where I'm going. Where are you going? You seem very confident we're going to have been in a very, very different direction. But I like that. We've once to Usman and Wonderboy for some time. Stephen Thompson has constantly been trying to get his way to that Usman fight.

When Usman had the title, especially, he just couldn't quite string together the right amount of wins. He was knocking off like guys trying to take his spot but couldn't beat guys ahead of him. And there was a lot of weaknesses shown in the grappling and stuff. So this, this would be Thompson's best chance to ever fight Kamaro. It wouldn't be for the title. It's still a fight that he would want. And of course, a shot cut beat a Wonderboy. He would love to add Usman to his resume. He beats Usman. Yeah, gets a tell shot. Love it. I leaned toward, we're covering all our bases here, Mike. I leaned towards Usman's giving 185 another crack. He said, speaking to Megan Olivie, after

right away backstage that like oh why not be versus drickus duplicacy at you of three hundred and i'm like eh i don't know i don't have a problem then why would ddp ever yeah i don't i don't think that's a fight dvp is interested in so i'm not super into that uh but i do like him saying it middleweight if he says it middleweight i kind of think he could fight robert whittaker okay i like they're both listen both former welter weights i mean whittaker was a welter weight a lifetime ago now but there was a time he was a welterweight so there was a welterweight so they're both not like size wise it's not a big deal they're both kind of essentially just to um welter weights that wouldn't be cutting weight for an a 185 pound fight Whitaker does not have a very clear path to the

middleweight title uh if ever again and that's fine because i felt like he has plenty of fun fights left in them so i'm dropping this into the fun fight bin because ozumont as well ismont i'm not sure maybe he beats whittaker that gets him a title shot because i'm sure they want to give him a shot at the one one hundred eighty five pound title while you know he still has a name while he's still a good fighter, which he is. We saw on Saturday. Usma's still a good fighter. So I'd love a match. I would love to see a matchup with him and Whitaker. It's kind of a dream fight too.

Again, this falls more in the fun fights category than the, what could this mean for the middleweight title picture category? But it has some title implications as well. Okay. I'm about to say Rob Whitaker's name, so don't worry about it. Don't you worry? And it's not with Kamar Usman. So a little tease there. We have a rule on on an action that if a fight does not.

end in like some sort of a winner or a loser. We don't talk about it. But I think it's pretty clear. We run back Maga Manacalai of Johnny Walker. Yeah. Sometime in the future. And that's all we really need to say about that. That was strange.

Yeah, it was very, very weird. That doctor is a fucking idiot. He got his camera time, though. He got his camera time today, though. Yeah. We're talking about him. We're talking about it. He's showing his friends and family, the headlines say, going like,

that's me. That's me. That's me. The idiot doctor. Yeah, I'm the asshole. Like, they're talking about me. When you tap in the significant on their shoulder, we're like, yeah, I'm the asshole.

Everybody's talking about on YouTube right now. Look at this. I'm a meme. I'm a honey, I'm a me. What an absolute dang. To somewhat, not defend him, but I guess to play devil's out. I do think Johnny Walker was kind of out of it, but it's so hard to tell with him.

Because he's a wonky dude. He's a wonky dude. And also, we don't have the exact conversation. For anyone who missed it, it sounds like the doctor asked him where he was. And he didn't say like Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates specifically. And supposedly that's like why the doctor may have considered him unable to continue. But it's, even if he was out of it, it was communicated so poorly.

And then you added on to the doctor's interaction with Victor Henry earlier in the night. Oh my God. And it's hard not to, it's hard not to vilify this guy a little bit. So, you know me, I'm sympathetic with everyone. I don't want to throw anyone under the bus. But this doctor, I would love to see him interviewed. I do have some questions. I do have some questions.

I do have some. I'm getting the higher class driver's license to, like, drive the bus. I'm not going to run him over, but he is going to lay under that bus that I'm going to back up. He's going to lay back like a television show. And he's just, the bus is just going to be on top of him. He'll be okay. He'll be fine. But he'll be looking up at exhaust systems and things about.

Oh, okay. He might have a tire track on him. That guy, that guy just sucked. He, I mean, he sucked so bad yesterday. I mentioned Robert Whitaker. It's Icramal Scariff, okay? Icariff just obliterated Worley Alves. And we kind of figured that would happen.

I had like four parlayes, and I think Icramal Scarf was in all of them because I was so confident in what he could do. I am also very confident that Icramal Scarf right now, like I think if he fought Sean Strickland right now, I would pick Ikramalyscariff. Oh my gosh. Wow. I now and people who have followed my career, even pre-MA fighting, know how highly I regard

Ikram Alaskaroff as an as a fighter. He is so frigging good. And I think honestly, the fact that he fought on the contender series is a travesty. This dude did not have to fight on the contender series. He should have got brought into the UFC and fought a top 15 guy immediately with pomp and circumstance behind him. That's how talented this guy is. and I don't think people understand how good he actually is.

To even add to that, Hamzaa Chamaif, to this day, after fighting Kamar Usman and Gilbert Burns, if you ask Hamzaa Chimayev, who's the toughest opponent of your career? He will say, without hesitation, it's Ickram Alaskarov. The one loss on Alaskarf's career is Hamzot,

a long-ass time ago. So for me, I want to see what this guy could do. I really do. And he's 30 years old, and at this point, it's kind of like I don't think you're going to build this guy into a star I don't think you're going to build this dude into a superstar there's no slow burn here you just have to throw him to the wolves

and if he wins then you've got something just give him Whitaker give it to him right now if he beats Robert Whitaker then he's right there and you can build something here and if he loses then who gives a shit it's the end of the day like the guy's still fun he could still get wins but with a guy at 30 entering his athletic prime and as good as he is, just throw him to the wolves and see how he does. And I think he could beat Robert Whitaker.

I think he could beat him. So that's the fight I want to see. Icramal Scarab versus Robert Whitaker right now, right friggin now, A.K. What say you? It's a great fight. I think it's a part of me that it agrees with you so strongly that that's why I don't want to see it. I just, maybe I'm not ready to see Robert Whitaker being threatened. thrown into that gatekeeper sacrificial lamb roll.

Not that, not that like he doesn't have a chance himself, but I think all of us would be looking at that fight as, well, this is Alice Girov's to win and to vault himself into a top contender spot and get a tell shot. Because you're right, that it's, there's no time like the president of him. He's in his prime. He's in his prime. He's had good wins before the UFC. And all he needs is, all he needs really is two or three good wins in the UFC.

It's unfortunate. He was supposed to fight Naserdine Amabov at 29. before. Instead, he got thrown Worley-Elves. God bless Worley, but it's just not a middle weight anymore. Took the fight on less than two weeks notice, really was just a paycheck. I kept saying that before the fight. I know it sounds harsh, but that's kind of how it played out. You can't jump up a division on two weeks notice and fight a god like Alaskara and expect anything good to happen. But because, and this isn't Alaskara's fault, because it happened, then I can't throw him into a big fight right away, or I'm choosing not to. So I'm going,

I'm keeping at Imavov range, not rebooking that fight, but I'm going to see him and I would let him see him fight Chris Curtis after I'm predicting Chris Curtis beats Mark Anzoy, Bayo at UFC 297, and then that's sort of a test for Al-Sgarov. And then after that fight, maybe Al-Sgarov gets one of those top five guys, I think they'll just be a bit slower. I don't think, no, I don't say they should be. I'm saying based on how I think the UFC works,

I think they'll be a bit slower with Al-Sgarov. So I'm going Chris Curtis. It's not bad. That's not a sexy pick. It's not bad. They were going to give Icramal Scare Paul Costa for his second UFC fight. Don't forget that. National Dean Imova probably watched UFC 294 yesterday.

I was like, whew, good thing I'd have to fight that. That could have been a tough, that could have been a tough night at the ops for him. It's nasty. Let's go to the Bantamweight Division, AK. The main card kicks off with Syed Naraga Madoff, making just very short work of Mouin Gafferoff. Quick submission win, barely broke sweat. It's Chris Gutierrez, AK. That's the fight I'm going with.

Both guys just fought recently. Gutierrez will look to avenge a somewhat controversial loss, depending on who you ask, from his teammate Jonathan Martinez. Or Jonathan Martinez beat, yeah, Jonathan Martinez beat Sadie Nirmagamagamatov, kind of controversial. Chris Gutierrez, trying to make sure, hey, factory actions is better, man. We're going to get multiple wins over the Saeed Narragamato Madov guy. Chris looked good against Al-Tanghael.

let's do that. I think that's a good fight just outside of the top 15 knocking on the door, so to speak. Bannon White's really good and really deep and really strong. I think it's a good fight. Where are you at? Yeah, I said before the fight that there's not a ton

there wasn't a ton for Saeed to gain in this fight because Mouin, a good fighter for sure, just a bit unproven in the UFC. And I feel like we know his, I feel like we knew his ceiling before he even signed with the UFC. So he didn't have a lot of it. This is really saying he was holding onto a spot and not losing it to Gaffrov.

but he looked great he looked great that guillotine choke is so sick uh it's a super deadly choke i think people say it was a ninja choke super deadly weapon of his uh chris cutieres great matchup i'm going similar range uh january simone maria bautista give him the winner of that fight it's hard it's hard to clout with this bantamway division i mean you can we can win three four straight Chris gutieres was like a six-fight win streak and i think he was like in our rankings he i don't know if he ever even made the top of theme because we included people from beltor and the ufcc i think he might have 13, 14, six straight fights wins in this division. Chris Gutierrez couldn't crack the top 10.

So, say, just keep cranking away. Same with, again, Ricky Simone and Mario Bautista. One of these guys are going to break through. It's just going to be really tough to do. That's a good fight. I like that one. So let's go to the wild card round, and then we will go to the peeps. So get your picks in.

Let's select one fighter we have not matched for yet. It will matchmake for them right now. I apologize, everybody. The allergies here in New York are just, I'm getting annihilated today. I woke up just feeling crusty, rough. So if I look like a little glazed over or sounds stuffed up, that's why. But AK, wild card pick, UFC 294.

Who are you going to have the Caged Side Physician fight? Let me do. Yeah, well, he definitely needs a match up. Well, he's fighting Casey. Come on. Let me do a few quick ones here. Makaya, I, needs to, a little more of a killer instinct. We kind of had a bit of a debate about this on our chat,

but I want to see him get a killer instinct. Yes, he finished the third round. Four of his five EOSC fight wins are finishes, but sometimes it feels like he's a bit of cruise control. And Mike, did you see the scorecards for the Elliott Mokai'a fight? I did not. He was down 20 to 18 on two of the cards heading in the third. Machia was?

Really? I didn't see it. Yeah. Let me double check that before, you know, I am a fake news peddler, as we all know. but he doubled Anthony Smith I think I saw tweeting about it and that's how I ended up seeing it Yes

Judges Dave Letha B and Darrell Ransom had Tim Elliott up 20 to 18 So if Makkaia If Makkaev had not finished And I don't think he was going to get a 108 He would have lost that fight by a split decision That's crazy Yes

And that's he's a great young fighter And he does finish fights in the third Again back to back now That's very impressive That's hard to do It's very hard to do It ain't wrong He shouldn't be, that's not a knock against him.

But he's got to be careful. He's playing with fire in some of these matches, man. He's got to start putting people away earlier, I feel. So that's a quick one. I want to see that. Also, Javid Basharat, get a social media manager. Because this dude, have you seen his back and forth with Josh Burnett? No.

He is. Oh, but check it out later. He is being real bad, real crusty about this no contest growing kick on Victor Henry. Very defensive. Very like, oh, it was a legal strike. Anyone questioning me? Like, you guys are, he's kind of having a laugh. You know who his manager is, so there's a very real world where he didn't.

Oh, that's not him? Oh, no. Josh Burnett's telling his coach, Dewey Cooper, he's like, hey, sort your guy. Yeah. Okay, so Javid, get a better social media manager. There you go. How about that? For my actual pick, Mike, you know I hate the phrase, so-and-so has that dog in them.

Oh, God. I hate it. I hate that. I don't know. It's a great. I just say, I hate the thing. Hold on a second. This can't be real.

Are you about to match for Mike Breeden? I am. The man missed weight by three and a half pounds? Who are you? This is true. This is true. Wow. I'm excited.

Terrible weight miss. I'm bummed because I was rooting for Ansel Jubilee. My girlfriend is Indian and her family's Indian. So I'm kind of invested in the Anshul Jubilee hype train. And he was winning the fight. It's a bit sad to see. But Mike Breeden did a great job, not including the wayans. And he's the only fighter, Mike, scientifically proven,

who has that dog in them. All right? I hate this phrase only because it's overused. But when it's used accurately, then I'm all for it. It is a good phrase. I'm just so tired of it just going to it constantly. People, we need to find new ways to say someone is tough.

Just say they're tough. We can go back to the old, just using, you know, basic words. But he has that dog in him. And he let that dog out in the third round. This is what we always ask. When we see someone just clearly go down, 2018 in the cards, listless performance, fans are always like

fans always like oh why doesn't why doesn't this person just come out swinging in the third round and I always say look easier said than done because you come out swinging the third round your opponent's probably going to knock your ass out and I think most fighters a lot of fighters to say most would rather lose the decision that go home

concussed and not remembering most of the fight not Mike Breeden my friends Mike Breedon said you know what I think I know I'm down I'm coming out I'm barking I'm shouting I think someone said he was chanting USA yes I won't point he was You know, whatever, not my favorite thing, but also kind of crazy and kind of hilarious.

So Mike Breeden, please, yes, you have to make weight. But he has that dog in him, man. It's the only time you're going to hear me say this stuff, Mike. I hate to say it on record. People clip it now because I hate saying it. He has that dog on him. And I think he can bring back the dog out of the guy that I matched him up with. Someone who we saw a kinder, gentler side of this guy.

Some people who got the win, but some people were disappointed to Trevor. Peake didn't come out like swang and banging on Mohamed Yahya. Hey, Trevor Peake got the win and you got a bonus check. You can't criticize the former much. But people want to see the crazy Trevor Peek. You put him in there with Mike Breeden. You're right again. You're either getting someone's getting caoed in the first minute or these two guys are

slugging it for three rounds and just giving you your money's worth. So Breeden Peak, let's go Kansas versus Tennessee. We got to make this happen somewhere in the good old US of A. shout out to gc for betting on mike breeden as a sizable underdog damn wonderful cash i think a lot of people did that line was minus 400 um jubilee at the beginning of the week and then by fight night he was like minus 270 and same with brein brein was like plus 350 and i think by fight night it was like plus two plus two it moved like a hundred points so a lot of people saw that underdog and are like you got that dog he got you know

he's got under that underdog in him he got that dog in and we got to pick him that's a good pick I picked that, I put a bet on that that fight would go to a decision. And of course, like, Brin had to go crazy and go full on Jason Segal. And I love you, man. And James and just goes bananas. So fun stuff, fun stuff. I was going to go Mohamedo Kayaf, because I think, like, they're just going to give him like an Alex Perez or somebody like that,

a guy who has fought for the title at some point. But I think it was kind of a boring pick. I'm just going to make this real easy, AK. I want to see Sharra Bullet fight. every week. That guy is so fun. He is incredibly fun. And that dude versus Robocop might be one of the fights I need to see more than anything in the world. I have to see those two guys fight. So that's what I'm going with. I want it right now. I'm not waiting on it. There is no, well, let's see how he does. Like give him a couple more fights. No, no, no, no. Book that shit now. I've got to see Sharra Bullitt

versus Greg Rodriguez at 185 pounds. Let's just do fun things. when they're right in front of you. And this could not be more fun and could not be more convenient. So let's just do that, okay? I want to see Sharra Bull fight. And Greg Rodriguez, I know you've been saying to the man, maybe not mix the martial arts or just wrestle, just grapple.

But I was feeling Gregor Rodriguez is not going to listen to you. No, he never does. He has an incredibly fun fight. That's what's so funny is the Blendado Silva fight on paper. You're saying, oh, this is going to be a stand-up war, someone's getting killed. Instead, Blendado tried to mix the martial arts and it didn't work out because he didn't really do much

once he mixed them. And then in a paper, Greg Rodriguez, an amazing jiu-jitsu guy, you would think, oh, maybe he'll use a grappling, except he never uses his grappling in M.M.A. He's become this straight-off as a knockout artist. He never grapples anybody. And that's the problem we get to your stand-up war with star.

M.M.A. is just dumb. It's dumb. It's really dumb. But in, like, the best possible way. But it could also be in the worst possible way. So. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time.

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All right. Let's go to the peeps. We got about 15 minutes before I have to pack up my shit and get out of this hotel and get ready to fly home. So first from the peeps, I just went up a poll. Who should Islam fight next? 49% Gaiti, 38% Olivera, 11% other. So Gaiji, pretty firmly ahead. All right, let's go.

Put your picks in. I'm going to put them on the screen. We will react. Scott McCrae. Gaichi is next. Final test versus Islam for the title. I love that fight. I really want to see that fight.

Justin versus Charles from Stony Soldier. Jarre. Justine versus... Wait, Gathees versus Charles? Two. two. Basically, never more contender fight, which I don't hate. You got to put a two in there, brother. I'm sure. All right. All right. That's fine. Oh, Jared Björgian.

Jared Bjaran. Umza versus Whitaker. Usman says in middleway versus Costa. Alaskara versus Vittorahe, Bahaia versus Nicolao. Charabullet versus who, dude, Charabot. I thought about that. I thought about that. Sorry, that's a great pick. I thought about that. It makes a lot of sense, too. Makes a lot of sense. Another Schauer versus Pereira. I, like, I'm actually pissed off at myself for not I'm actually really mad at myself. Tristan, rebook Syed and Armaghamagamato v. Kyla Phillips.

Need to see it. Trevor Peek versus Manuel Torres. That's fun as well. Dog the value hunter. Love that. Alice Scarab versus Hermanson. Saeed versus the winner of Simone Batista. Mahaya versus Nicola. I like the Mahia versus Nicolaola fight a lot as well.

Peak versus Manuel Torres, Naima versus Kyle Nelson. Peak versus Manuel Torres would be sick. That would be sick. That would be sick. That's a great matchup. Big Rock Johnson. Islam versus Gachy, Charles versus Gamrot as the co-main event and one of those lightweight showcase cards.

That would be nice. Yep. If it worked out that way, perfect thing to do. DDP versus Costa? I want to see it someday, but I'm not next. Not next. MVP versus Pereira? Yeah.

So what happened? Dana White said they have been talking to MVP. Is that right? Yeah, which I'm not surprised, though. No. They're talking to a lot of people. I'm sure if you ask a lot, a lot of free agents. There's a lot of people that they've been talking to.

But this would be at, the only thing is, I don't think Perez going back down to 170, and I don't think that has any interest in going up to 195. So I like the idea. I would love to see them fight someday, but I just, unfortunately, I think the ship is sailed for both guys, so probably not.

Do you think MVP ends up signing with the UFC? Yeah, and I think Dylan Dennis does too. I don't know why I brought that up. I apologize. This has been a Dylan Danis free podcast for two years, and then now I think the past two weeks we've mentioned them. We probably had to talk about him. I want to get ahead of it, though.

I do think he is, Dan is going to sign with you. Why would they sign him? I'd like. People are talking about him. We were talking about this on BTL and Damme made a great point. Put him on the ultimate fighter. I don't get that though. Like as a contestant?

Yes. He won't do it though. He won't do it. Why? They have to pay him. You got to compensate him. You got to compensate him. You really think the UFC is going to chuck millions of dollars

that Dylan Dennis. Not millions. Not millions. In the UFC? But he won't, if it's between him getting a deal with the UFC, which I think he can get and just getting like a normal, like decent size contract versus being, the ultimate fighter, I don't know. Other than Kimball Slice, I've never heard of anyone going the Ultimate Fighter and actually

getting paid like a good amount of money. I know Kimbo Slice, the one guy who, there were reports that he had said he only did the show because he got like a higher than average rate for being on the show. Other than that, I'm pretty sure everyone on the ultimate fighter gets paid the same amount and it's not a lot. It's like some sort of actor's fee. I don't know if that's worth Dan's time. 10 weeks.

He does like fame. He does like exposure. But how much fame and exposure is that show even have anymore, even though it is the greatest show of all time? And it's all everyone was talking about, you know, I was from Friday 31. But I don't,

I remember because I was watching you guys on BTL. I love the idea. He's perfect for the show. I just don't know if the money would be right because there any amount of time that it would take for him to have to be on the show. First of all, the UFC has all the money in the world.

I know. It's not going to work. I think that's like the only way it works. I think it's going to sign him to fight. There's not one wealth. I don't think there's one wealth away on the rock. Oh, no. Oh, he's fighting another.

He's fighting someone who's not in the UFC. He's fighting. He's fighting a three and O four and O guy. Mike Keck versus a bar of soap. He has a potty mouth today. Yeah. Sorry, man. I don't tell you.

No, don't apologize. My best friend. that's what this that's what this wacko jacko card deserves yes uh islam might struggle to take down gaichi if he's struggling to take down his recent opponents nowadays he had to beat them by sure maybe that's why i like the fight is he struggling to take down his recent opponents what's the stroke like vulcanowski's takedown defense is like elite so him not uh he kicked him in the face he didn't even need it i think i think he means the first i guess he means the first fight but he got takedowns when he really needed that he still got the takedowns

And again, it's a credit to Volcanowski that it, that, uh, Makachab had to work as hard as he did. I mean, look at the fights with what, Bobby Green and whatever, Dan Hooker, like he ran through them like nothing. And then even the fight with the Charles, the Charles, okay, like maybe he didn't take him down, but he knocked him on his ass. He didn't need to use takedowns. His, his wrestling is still top notch.

He's not struggling to take anybody down except for not struggling. Um, but he's not. He'll take anyone down if he has to. Holloway, Pory, three in the winter fights, Charles and Gachey versus Islam. All right. We just want to set up Holloway and Charles, right? Why are we doing the Porre thing? Let's just do Halloween Charles.

Yeah, just do that. I'm cool with that. Alice Scarra versus Hermanson from Dog, Saeed versus the Simone Batista winner, Makaya versus Nicola Peak versus Manoosaurs. We already read these. What am I doing this? It's all right.

You know what? It's a great name. It's a great name, Dog, the Value Hunter. MVP versus Jeff Neal. I think there's a newbie. Fayette versus Chris Gutierrez. We'll get there. We'll get there.

Mike, let me read a newbie. I like to do the first timers from, I got it, I got, and this is a great name. I got it, I got picks from Yit Skeet McGillicuddy on Twitter. I just want to say it all that.

Welcome to the party pal, their first picks. Makachov Keiki, Shemayev, Whitaker, no. Ankylaev, Walker,

yes, Walker, Walker 2, Uh, Sadid, Pedro Munoz? Does Pedro Munoz? No, he doesn't have a fight. He just fought in August.

He just fought in August. So it could happen. So it could happen. And Makayev versus Amir al-Bazi. Boy, if you're Amir-A-A-A-A-Labazi, that's not a lot to gain from that fight. I shouldn't say that you would be knocking up

and defeated, but Al-Bazz is pretty close to a title shot, I feel like. I mean, he's a win-away. I don't know, maybe Mikhail's that win. You know what? I didn't like it as soon as I saw it, but thank you. Thank you, Yitzke.

All right, what else we got, Mike? Machia for Sauss-Perez. Javid-Basharav-R-Sat-Montel-Jackson. Saeed versus Chris Gutierrez. Yeah, I like it. Trevor Peake versus Yanal Ashmoos, so. Sure. Yeah, like it.

Good. What else we got? Usman versus Bilal. Mike, we've talked to. Now, is this? Yeah, yeah. Was this a good week for Bilal Mohammed? Is it ever a good week for Bilal Mohammed?

Is he in a better spot now than he was a month ago? That's a hell of a... Honestly, I can't even... Okay, what's Bilal's last win? He beat... What was Belmont? And how long ago was that now? That was May.

and the stupidest fight in the history of the UFC. That was... I'm still so angry that that fight was on that card. Because it makes no sense. It made no sense. I hated it from Jump Street because of this exact scenario we are in right now. These two guys are going to get pregnant.

I was like, Dan is going to put both those dudes over and like Belaw, he's actually going to say, like, I like Belaw Muhammad. He's the dude and Mike get a title shot. And that is going to last one day. because once this division starts to play out and we finally get Colby back in there, like no one's going to remember that Belal Muhammad be killed birds.

You just asked me, you just literally asked me, five months after the biggest win of Belal Muhammad's career, who he just fought. That's why this fat fight was frigging stupid. It was dumb. I love the matchup. The matchmaking was perfect, but why rush it and put it on that card?

That fight didn't add one paper. review by. Not one person was like, you know what? I have to buy this Sohudo Sterling card because they just put Balaamah and Gilbert Burns for five rounds on a two weeks notice. They're so stupid. No, then I'll say. Five months ago, and five months ago, and there's been no rumblings of what could be next four, Balao. That's a bad sign. That's like, you getting a title shot. Will he, if Leon Edwards beats Colby Covington, is he getting a title? so he should fight leon but but nothing is guaranteed to this man he's undefeated since january 2019 you can talk about the leon edrich fight yeah whatever maybe he lost the first round but it ended

an ipoke it was a five round fight we'll never know how could it gone i think edwards are to beat them but we'll never know you can't count that as a loss so no losses since 2019 and it feels like he is just always two fights away from a title shot it never feels like he's the next man up that's so crazy and so unfair to him. I don't think he's getting Usman. It's just not, Usma just has other options and the UFC will be more than happy to offer him besides

Balal, so, man, that sucks. That Wonderboy, dude, if Wonderboy beats Shafka Rokmanov, he's probably getting a title of shot. Because everybody, like, he'll be 41 by the time he fights for the belt. The UFC

loves him. Everybody seems to, it's man, it sucks to be Balaw, man. It really does. And I like the law a lot. I just wish he would say the right thing. Like this whole notion of like, hey, if I fight Leon Edwards and win, I'm the, I'm the greatest welterweight of all time is absolutely insane. I didn't even see that.

Why would he say that? He basically said like, my resume is better than GSP's if I beat Leon Edwards. And I was like, this is, this is the thing, man. Don't do that. Don't do that. The man with the worst call-up. game I've ever seen. You have to get to a certain level before you can make in St.

Carlos like that. Like if Connor said something like that, I mean, his followers would eat it up. But if you're below, you just can't. You got to know where you are in the sort of pop culture, social media, MMA sphere hierarchy. And again, he's a great fighter. He should have fought for a title probably two fights ago. That's just not how the game works, though.

Usman versus the Kelvin Gasolm, Sean Brady winner, perhaps. again, I just think Usman wants names now. You know, he wants names, and I don't know if either of those. He might have three fights left. That might be it. Shavkov is the real deal with the way. Don't take it for granted. No, trust me.

We all think he's a future champion, yeah. We all think that way. Hamza v. Belaw, that fight you have already happened. Yeah. If Belal just, like, if Belal just called him out after, like, any of his previous wins, Like he would have got that fight. He would have got it. And he might have won.

And he'd be in a much better place. But he just wasted callouts on fights he could never, ever realistically get. I see some people disputing whether Hamza is a middleweight or a welterweight right now. I believe he could make 170 if he really wanted to. But what is the point now? What is the point? It's not good for him. He's a huge guy.

It's not good for him. he clearly has difficulty making it he looks more than comfortable at middleweight I know again that fight with Usman wasn't dominant but that's Usman still very good there's nothing against Hamzaa Usman still very good Hamza has other things he needs to work out

and I think staying in one division is going to be huge for him because I think the bouncing between cannot be good for his health it cannot be good for his focus and concentration you are a middleweight Hamzat stay there stop trying to jump around and screw this two division champ stuff I'm with you.

That dude, I honestly don't know how he made 170 ever. I really don't. I've told, like, I was in Jacksonville and I covered the fight where he fought Gilbert Burns. He, he's not a wealth weight. He's not. He's a freaking monster. If you told me that, like, if that was his UFC debut and someone told me he's a 205er, I would have believed you.

That's how big he is. He is a friggin monster. So he's not a wealth word. not. We just, we can't do this anymore. No more cutting. No more cutting. Just to do 185, like, bulk up. Do 185 and 205. Like, Hamzaa could be like the Anderson Silva type because I know there's a damn they're good in Anderson Silva where like Hamza could just like, if he was active, he can go fight for the middleweight title, maybe be the middleweight champion. But just for shits and gigs, he could just go up to 205 and fight Janbovich. Sure. Hey, we need somebody to fill in and fight Jan Belhovic in the main event of this fight night card in Boise, Idaho.

And I'm just like, okay, smash and just goes up and fights them. Like, that's, I, just picking off random light heavyweights for no reason just sounds so fun to me. It's just really fun. I see a few people, Mike, talking about, I just want to touch one of this quick. Islam having hammer fist to the back of Volk's head or something in the, Guys, let's not do this. Let's not just, I don't know why we need to nitpick these Makachev-Okonovic fights. You kicked him in the face.

The first fight was, the first fight was awesome. And if you want to make a small case for Volonowski, I could see it, but it'd be narrow. I think it's much easier to score the fight for Makachev is a great fight. And the second fight, he knocked him out of the head kick, guys. The follow-ups, yeah, the follow-ups, I don't know where he hit him. It was over. Guys, it was over. Let's not overthink this.

Sometimes you just watch something for what it is and appreciate it. Maka-J is a better fighter, and now he's done it twice. And also, let me, let me add to that. If he did do that, that was very smart. Because as we've been saying, as I've been saying for three years now on this here channel, just cheat. Every fighter in the UFC should cheat. All of that. We saw that Saturday.

We saw that Saturday. Yeah. Just cheat. Honestly, the first thing, like, if I was debuting in the UFC, if the UFC called me and said, hey, we need you to fight, we'll pay you a bunch of money. The first thing I would do is I would go and kick a dude in the balls as, hard as I could. I would sprint across the octagon and kick the guy in the nuts because the guy's going to be hurt and no penalty is going to happen. Hard warning, Mike. Hard warning though. No,

it wouldn't even be a hard warning. I would be like, hey, just watch your foot, man. Watch your foot. And you know what I'd probably do once the fight restarted? I'd throw three jabs and I'd kick him in the balls again. You don't know why? Because I'm still not going to get a point taken away. Muhammad Naimov is a very good fighter, but you cannot tell me that those growing kicks he landed on Nathaniel Wood did not affect Nathaniel Wood. Of course.

People cannot, you will not convince me, and I think Naimov is a very talented 145er. You cannot convince me that that did not affect the fight. So you got to cheat. Yes. Yes, and Nathaniel would did not deserve to win that fight. I mean, he was bad. Really one of the worst,

that was one of the worst performances of his career. He didn't deserve to win. He certainly didn't deserve to lose, though. That should have been a draw. There was six or seven infractions. Six or seven clear fouls in that fight. And not one point was taken. Not one.

Not one. Ball kicks, fence grabs, glove grabs. Six infractions. Not one points. Not one point was taken. Always cheat. always cheat. Oh, it's, even, even Anklea, he should have been disqualified, frankly.

But I don't understand why that's a no contest. I don't understand why that's, why is Ankelyev not disqualified? Like, I don't agree with the stoppage, but if you're going to stop the fight, why, it's not accidental. The strike is not accidental. He threw an illegal lead to the head. And if you ruled that, incorrectly or correctly, if you ruled that Johnny Walker could not continue, should he not be, should Ankelyev not be disqualified?

So he cheated and suffered no consequence other than. then both guys didn't get their win bonus. We should say that. They did not get their win bonus, which sucks for both of them. But other than that, no, notice qualification for Ankelaia, and they'll probably just rebook it. So, and imagine if he just gotten away with it. If the fight had continued,

he just scored an illegal knee that clearly rocked Johnny Walker. So people cheat all you can because life is short and get that paper. Get that paper, get those double use. The 30 for 30, Almaga Man, Angolaos UFC run is really interesting. Or just really sad. That dude. That dude just has, he's that guy that's like, man, if I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. That's just, because he's probably the best 205 in the world.

He had to fight Coachelava twice. He had to fight Cuchelava twice for no reason. Like, what a waste of everyone's time like that if I was being booked two times. And just so bizarre. Did you see Scott McCrae question here about Hamzaa and Bonnacle? I did. I'll read it out while you look for it. Who would you pick if the U.S.

matched up Hamzaat versus Bo Nickle. And what do you think the line would be? That's an awesome question. I'd pick Hamzad. I would pick Hamzad. Right now, I would pick Hamzad. Man, I don't know. The line, I can give you a good guess.

I do think Hamzat would be favored. Just as much more experience, has fought better competition. But not like crazy. I think like minus 145 Hamza. I think it's higher. You think closer to 200? Yep.

I don't know. Dude, I, like, if this is two years, from now, it's a different conversation. But Bo, we have to understand that Bo Nichols' best win is Jamie Pickett. Correct. Like, by far, that is his best win. And most people,

if you ask, like, there's a lot of people, if you ask them about that fight, I think it's controversial because of the cheating. Like, there was illegal shots that weren't called and, like, and I don't necessarily like buy into that narrative, but like, Bo's never been punched in the face, like, really hard. And Humzaat would

would hit him. And Homson's going to get that. Homestown's going to get Bo down. Like he's going to take Bo Nickel down. How is Bo going to deal with adversity? We have never seen it inside of a fight. Exactly. And even Jackson's like,

nickel just has a bit tested. Like his best, his best win is Jamie Pickett. And God bless you, Jamie Pickett. But he's not very good at fighting. He's like the 70th best middleweight in the world. I just, I feel like,

I actually feel like it's kind of an easy pick for me right now. now. Like, Nichols really good, and he's probably going to win the belt at some point, but it's just, it's too soon, man. It's too soon. Homestat's just been in there with real hitters, and nickel just hasn't. I'm not picking Bow, but if I was getting like plus 200, plus 250 on Bo, I thought some checkles on there. If I was getting plus two, if I was getting plus 250 on Bo, I'd probably. I don't think it could be that high, but plus 200, maybe. I don't think so. I think maybe I'm saying it would close probably closer. Maybe it would open as like you said, like minus 200 minus 210 or something for Hamzat.

I think it would close both guys more of the minus 100 and plus 100-ish range. So, but yeah, if it opens, you know, plus 200 plus two something for nickel, I'd put some money on them. And that's not saying who I'd pick. If it's just picking no money involved, I'm with you, Mike, of course, the smart thing to do is pick Hamzot. But if we're doing like an episode of No Bet's Bard, I'd be looking for some value on nickel. I'd be looking at the decision prop. I'd be looking at, I don't know, like third round finished prop. And I'd be thinking about that.

I'd be thinking about that. So I like a suggestion. If I got Bo Nickel a plus 250 against literally anybody, I would take it. If Bo Nichols stepped in on short notice to fight John Jones at UFC 295 and I was getting plus 250 on them, I'd probably take a shot off. All right, everybody. This has been kind of a weird show. We had audio issues. We had some tech issues.

But I almost, my voice is pretty much cooked after a watch party yesterday. But we appreciate you all. and in, we're going to be back in three weeks, live on this year channel, following UFC 295, John Jones for Steepa and Meachers. Are we going to be able to matchmake for those guys? That's the question I have,

or are they both going to retire? Obviously, we'll have a new light heavy, I'm knocking on the wood here. We'll have a new light heavyweight champion in three weeks, but again, we don't know because that division is effed in so many ways because they can't get anything to clearly pass

and come to fruition in that division for the last two years. So we'll see what happens there. And $295 is going to be fun. 295 is going to be fun. Benoit Santini versus Matt Ravola. I love that fight. I love how Diego Lopez is getting him in his third UFC fight is getting a featured bout.

He has Madison's Borger Garden. I love it. Him and Pat 17 is the featured bout. Great fight. At UFC 295. We also got Jessica on Drash Baxter Dern on that card as well. So yeah, that's going to be super, fun and exciting. No UFC next weekend, but we'll be back on this. So we have no show next week,

which I'm totally okay with. Should we do and ask us anything? We won't promise it. We won't promise it now, but I think that you and I can. Yeah, we probably should. I feel like we haven't done one a while. We haven't, I feel like it's time. Yeah, maybe we'll do and ask us anything. We haven't really had reason to because there was that stretch of like 14 straight weeks or something and the UFC card. 17. And then we took and then we just took a straight up, took a weekend off. We're like, no, no show. Yeah. So it's been a, while it has been a while so no promises yet guys but i think we can we can talk about all right we'll do we will do a quick as i think so yeah uh and then it's ufc salpolo after that jelton almeda

versus not curtis blades he's now fighting derrick lewis i'm so sad we lost that fight i'm not gonna get over it god can you imagine if derrick lewis knocks out jiltz no i can't because it won't happen no probably won't jails umbaa is about to beat derrick lewis scared title shot against Sergey Pavlovich for the vacant heavyweight title. Crazy world we live in. A lot of other fights going down. We'll talk about it next week on the ASTICT anything, but we appreciate you all very much. If you are just getting into this and they're like, I'd rather listen to it.

It'll be up on the podcast network in a matter of seconds. So thank you all very much for A.K. I am Mike Heck. Back next week for an ASTECD-S anything. Always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. M.A. is going to be fun. We'll have more fun next week on the next one of the podcast.

Good day to you all. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.