MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Islam Makhachev, Merab Dvalishvili After UFC 311?

Episode Date: January 19, 2025

Islam Makahchev made short work of Renato Moicano in the main event of UFC 311 to retain the lightweight title, while Merab Dvalishvili silenced the doubters and handed Umar Nurmagomedov his first loss to keep the 135-pound world title. After the first pay-per-view card of the year, where do both champions go? 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 Dvalishvili after their impressive performances, along with Moicano and Nurmagomedov after coming up short in their first championship bouts. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Jiri Prochazka after knocking out Jamahal Hill in the third round of their featured bout, Jailton Almeida following his quick finish of Serghei Spivac, Reinier de Ridder after tapping Kevin Holland in the main card opener, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @m_heckjr Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. We are back following a very fun UFC 311 events that took place last night at the Intuit Dome in Englewood, California. Inglewood, usually up to no good. Preetims weren't all that good, but the main card was up to very good, and we'll talk about that. That will react to some of the things that transpired last night on the UFC's first pay-per-view of 2025, and we'll discuss what is next for some of the tastemakers involved in this event. I am Ikech, and as you can see, to my right, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity,

and my best friend, the man who still has an MMA fighting t-shirt, and I don't have one, Mr. Alexander Cayley. A.K., how are you on this fine Sunday morning following the first pay-per-view of the year? My best friend, I hate to sound like a broken record for anyone who tuned into last week's episode of On To the Next One. But I feel great again. Man, I'm feeling good vibes with the first two UFC cards of the year. They have delivered about as much as can be, given the circumstances. Like last, you know, we talked about the Duran Heba's card. And it's not like we won't remember, you know, the ins and outs of that card, you know, six months or now.

I understand. But that's just the nature of the modern UFC. Like, for what it was, it was a fun card. And we said a great appetizer for U.S. 311. I think that fit perfectly. And UFC 311 was structured like exactly how I think a pay-per-view should be. Now, that might not be the case with 312. That'll be another discussion we'll have in a few weeks, I'm sure.

But like the first three fights of 3-11, I thought were really good. I know I think people were kind of like winging a little bit online. Like, oh, no, decision after decision after decision. But like those were good entertaining decisions up until like the women's vantamweight fight. But like, listen, as, you know, Joe Roken said, It's a super stacked division, women's 135. I mean, so, you know, sometimes it can't, it doesn't always deliver. These are actual words spoken.

People watching our shows think, you know, think I'm doing a bit at this point. This, this, Joe Rogan said it on air. That means it has to be true. He said this is, he said this division is loaded with talent right now. Women's 135. Tough night for Rogan last night. Wasn't his best. I mean, are you sure it wasn't?

Because I don't know what his best is anymore. This might have been his best. This might have been better than the average Rogan broadcaster, for being honest. but and then you know and then you have the middle prelims the next four which had some storylines had some upsets had some like prospects like not prospects but newer guys delivering just maybe not the ones we expected and then the main card is just flat out awesome so top marks all around not like a 10 out of 10 paper view like I don't know if it's a 10 out of 10 on paper I should I especially since you know we Mike I know you've been reminded about this nine million times over the last two days we lost the main event we lost like what was one of the five most anticipated fights of the year regardless of what else gets booked. But, you know, again, we got an amazing co-made event. I love the co-main event. The Prasca Hill fight was fantastic.

And I even think it's great. Just, you know, it's not the fight we wanted Islam. It's not a performance that we're going to be like, oh, this is a legacy defining one. But sometimes you just want to see the best bright in the world cook. And that's what he did. Took care of business. He was supposed to. No controversy.

No, like, oh, Moikano took him decision. What is it? No, just went in there as a huge monster favorite, as he should have been and acted like it. So very strong card all around and the UFC is just rolling in 2025 so far. Yeah. Another gate, $10 million gate, 18,000 people. And they, I'll give the UFC a lot of credit for not just saving the main event, having Islam compete.

I mean, Islam is just going to say yes. I think everybody involved deserves credit for this. But they had some fun last night. They used that arena and had some fun with it. And I would love to see them do more of this. Like you're under the TKO umbrella. You are doing all these different things. Like use that to your advantage.

Like it just makes things look cooler. And they did that. It's just the vibe in that arena seemed like a ton of fun. The energy was up. The main card delivered. And we're going to talk about it throughout the program. What we'll do is we'll run through each fight. Their main and co-main event,

we'll talk about what's next for both those fighters who competed in title fights. Then we'll talk about the rest of the main card winners. We'll give our wild. card picks, which is we'll matchmake for somebody we have not match made for yet. And then probably the last 10 or 15 minutes, we'll go to the super chats. We'll go to the peeps and we'll run down your picks. And Mike, before we bury the lead, the highlight of the night, two highlights, really. Craig, Craig, Greg, Billzerian.

I might get messing the name up. Mike help me. Craig, who's it just got inducted to the Hall of Fame? The OG of Tough. I should know this. Yes, inducted. The man who gave us the greatest show in television. in history. I don't think anyone would dispute. And then we get the devil treat of them letting us know

Ultimate Fighter 33 now has coaches and they're doing the right thing. Even if you, you know, you don't think Sonan and Korme were the best choice, which I think they were fine. The idea of having guys who are personalities, who are actually interested in coaching, who are not trying to like manufacture a fight. They should have been doing this forever. This is the way to go about, look at, look at some really good seasons have already kind of done this. Like, Faber and McGregor. They were active, like they were active fighters, but they weren't going to fight each other.

But there's some very memorable moments and characters from that season. I mean, you ask any tough, even non-tuff fans. There's a lot of memes from that season that came out because, I mean, it's Frickin' Connor. And then the Black Zillions versus American Top Team season was really, really, really good. And again, that obviously did not have, just the coaches of those gyms, did not build up to a coach's fight. You don't need it. Like the show has just been delaying fights for years.

It's so annoying. half the time the coaches do not want to be there. Now you have two guys who are paid to talk, paid two personalities, and I think they're going to have a great time with it. So the ultimate fighter is back, Mike. I mean, it's never gone, but it's like, oh, wait, it's just back again. It's back again. That's how great this show is.

I'm so happy. Yeah, I like it. It's obviously, we know why they're doing this. This is a promotional tool for their show more than anything else, but everybody wins here. You get two good personalities, two guys who are going to want to win. They'll have fun, talk, a little shit, but like in a fun, respectful, hey, bro kind of way. And the fighters who are

selected for the show are going to want to do their best for these two guys because they will demand it and they will not take anything less. So yeah, I think it's a good choice. How it's going to translate into television? I don't really know since nobody watched when Connor Freakke and McGregor was on it. So we shall see. But I was for the first time, in a long time with tough, it wasn't like, okay. I get why they're doing this. Like Conner's here or it wasn't, oh, who gives a shit. This is like, okay, this is smart.

This was, this is pretty smart move. So let's get into this thing. Let us discuss what happened last night. And more so, let's discuss what is in the future for these guys and gals. Islam Makachev on a day's notice gets Henata Moikano. He is supposed to fight Armand Sarukian in a rematch. I'm still so sad that this fight did not take place last night. but Islam being the champion he is being the fighter he is says I don't give a shit just give me somebody

I'm not going to let the fans down give me somebody to fight and I will go in there and prove that I'm the best fighter in the world and he did exactly that he did not even break a sweat against anato moikano there was no banana peel to slip on anywhere the second moikano made a mistake this fight was over and islam taps him immediately knew moikano's game very very well took him down he let moikano kind of kick and scrambling and once he figured out, all right, he's going to get reckless. Darstchok, fight over, Islam Makachev, still the lightweight champion, still the best fighter in the world. And even to the point where Dana White himself went up to the press conference and admitted,

yep, this guy's the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. I have nothing more to say. So very interesting show this week, AK, there's a lot of tough choices here, and there's a lot of ways this could all go. Otno points might be hard to come by. So Islam Makachev versus who, AKA, where does Islamakachev go from this victory? Okay, I still think despite what Dana, well, no, I think Dana is right. Not that I agree with his reasoning, but I mean, I think he's right as in like he's probably not going to book that rematch right away.

I mean, they could if there are no other options and if Islam does decide to fight, you know, a little more frequently than he has. So, I mean, did he only fight? He only fought the once in 2024, right? I'm not crazy. It was just a for a fight, right? Just a poor-y fight. Just a poor-A-fight. If he wants to squeeze in two fights, maybe they find someone else a lightweight.

It's just, like you said, there's no very obvious option right now. I was thinking like, you know, they just book Gae Gae Hucker, but he's, he's beaten Hucker already definitively. Gachie, maybe, maybe, Gagee, I don't know. So that's an option. But I think we are going to end up back at Surukia. think Islam is as usual maybe going to take more time off than people like his champion but i think dana and the ufc are going to make armand earn that title shot again which is i don't love it like i wish we just built to this but we don't know this is already of armand's back injury he might

need he might need some time off too right so i kind of love i kind of love the michael chandler talk that has been happening um it i don't know if it can since obviously michael chanler's going to fight patty at some point but you know i haven't worked out that web yet but i i like i like uh you look disgusted i like chanler angling for it i he has a way of just getting these fights that he probably does not deserve i also like arman to beat him so it doesn't i feel like it doesn't interfere with our getting the the uh makachap fight that i want so that's really the that's really my motivation behind this matchmaking but um if they make armand fight again yes that that's the way i'd like to go either way i need to see Armand and Islam fight again.

And I don't know how long it's going to take. I don't know how we get there. But I have a feeling some way it will still be next for the pound for pound king. But yeah, I don't know. I say this with very little confidence. Okay. The face was made because I thought you were for a second there. And then it all came clear that you were angling from Michael Chandler to fight Islam

Makachev. And I was like, don't you friggin dare say that. Having said that, my, like, I didn't really know where to go. and I ended up ultimately landing on the Charles Oliveri rematch for Islam Makachev because the man's won multiple fights. He beat Michael Chandler. They called it a number one contender fight. They said the winner was going to get a title shot. Now we know Dana has done this many times and has said, oh, the winner of this guy, like Hamzat Shamiyev has had at least two number one contender fights at 185.

He had one against Kamar Uspin, had one against Robert Whitaker. He has yet to get a title shot. and I kind of feel like Oliver is just kind of the dude at this point. I'm one billion percent in agreement with you. If I am, if I am Armand Sarukin and I saw that Michael Chandler tweeted about me for a fist fight, I was on the phone with him five seconds later and saying, please,

for the love of God, do anything in your power to give me this fight. One, because Michael Chandler is probably the realistic biggest name he can face right out. And number two, Armand Sarukian, if he is a minus 500 favorite or less, I am betting my entire house on him. Like that is about as stylistically, that might be as winnable of a fight as anything that is possible for him in the top 10 right now.

And because of Chandler's name value and his ability to sell fights, it's just so good. Like I could, I think this is a smart move on Chandler's part because he's angling his way to just jump the line in some way, but he is going to get wrecked by Charles Oliver, by Armin Sarugid. And I'm here for it. And I think Armin, the way he has handled all of this, is absolutely correct. Like handled just like Habib did. Habib was supposed to fight Tony Fergus for the belt, weight cutting injury, out of the fight the day before, Tara Masu, all that stuff. Habib didn't get right back into a title fight. Tells the UFC, hey, give me a tough fight,

give me anybody and i will show you that i'm the best fighter in this division and i deserve a title shot and what did he do goes in there and obliterates edson barboza just and just puts edson barboza in a nightmare scenario for 15 minutes just ragdalls and beats that ass and then he ends up getting the title fight and sure it was supposed to be tony ferguson then sure is supposed to be max holloway and then on a day's notice he fights ally quinta so it's kind of weird how this is all come full circle for Habib Mabh Mavagam Madov. But I think it's Olivera. You give Armin somebody else, whether it's, I love the Chandler idea.

Because there's just nobody else right now. There's just nobody else available for Islam Makachev. Now, things could obviously change if Islam doesn't fight again until October. That's a different story. But, yeah, if it's something that happens like International Fight Week and they need Islam to fight, it's Chuck Yellives. And that's it. Yeah, and I'm okay with that.

I'm okay with that. The fight with Armand was close. Like I don't think it was a robber or anything. But, you know, Chuckie, Chuckie Olives did enough in that fight for people to say, yeah, he's still worthy of a rematch with a second fight with Islam. People want to see. Michael Chandler and Dana White said,

this is a number one contest. The winner of this fight is getting a title shot. So we could see it. We could see it. And I'm down. I'm fine with that. I just don't see it going that differently. And this is coming from someone who, who,

if we all remember, had long picked Charles to beat Islam to push my, he beats Islam, uh, coaxes Kabib out of retirement. I'm pretty confident none of that is happening now, but I'm still fine with seeing him quite again. Yeah. Look, Oliver is fine. If they do, Armin called for a five round five with Oliver. And if that's what they do like okay, I'm okay with that. But dude, Michael Chandler just went all public on you. Like, make that fight happen. Like, this is not the best

option for Arm and Sarukyan, like, from a meritocratic perspective. And maybe even from a fans perspective. Like, I don't know how excited fans would be to see Arm and Sarukian just obliterate Michael Chandler for 15 to 25 minutes. I don't know how they will feel about this, but if you're Armin Sarukian and that opportunity has presented itself to you and you didn't even have to try for it, you got to do it. You got to go get it. So take it. Get after that. And if that's the fight, if you get the chance to fight Michael Chandler or Charles Olivera, if that's your choices to get a title fight, you take Michael Chandler every day and twice on Sunday. And that's just the way that it is. So that is what is next for, potentially is a Machchev,

and potentially, Armin Sarukian. But what about Hanata Moikano, AK? He does the UFC a solid here. He comes through, days notice. Yes, he made some money. And tried his hardest and didn't go well for him. Didn't go well for him. This is about, Jed and I talked about this a lot in the buildup.

This, to me, was about as good as he, could get for Islam Makachchev stylistically. This is about if he could choose maybe anybody in the top 10 to fight, that he could have like the best night at the office, it's a very good chance that Hanata Moikano was the guy to choose. And that's what happened, goes out there and wins. And that's that, man. So where does Hanata Moikano go?

Because this could go a million different ways based on where this division goes and how it shapes up over the next few months. Yeah, so much of Moecona, the persona he built and success he had over his years was both through his, you know, a lot of hard work, obviously. Great, you know, great Mike skills, cultivating a certain brand, you know, the Money Moycano brand, great stuff. And some careful matchmaking. Not to say he was dodging anyone, but I think him and his team and the UFC realized what they had with him. And they said, okay, we're going to give you names. But no one in the top 10.

I don't think anyone during this four-fight win streak was in the UFC's top 10, Drew Dover, Jalen Turner, Ben Walsandini. I think they were all maybe 11 or lower. I could be wrong. I'd have to go back and check where their rankings were. But either way, you know, he was keeping himself in the contender mix without having to jump into that G. Pori, Oliva, Macachev, Sorukian, Vortex, right? So now he was, like, the last time he fought an elite 155er

was that really, you know, awful, short-noticed fight he took with RDA, where like no one blames him for losing that fight, but he got annihilated that fight. That was just like that showed, that was almost like there's a levels to this fight. So if you watch that fight, it wasn't that long ago, it was a few years ago.

And then, you know, you saw the Islam matchup on paper, you're like, okay, well, this is another matchup that's going to remind us that there are levels.

And if Moncano is great. I think he's just like a next tier contender, just not one of the elite guys. And that's okay. There's a little shame in that. And I'm assuming he made pretty decent bank for this fight. So he has a lot of good options. Like,

technically he loses nothing. He really loses nothing. It sucks to lose a four-fight win streak. It sucks to lose, period, especially in such quick fashion. Like, I think he was genuinely heartbroken when he was doing his post-fight interview. Like, wow, I just, like, I don't think he thought it would be so fast. And I'm sure he never saw himself yet. Just getting submitted by, again, the greatest fighter in the world.

But these things happen. The Darius fight is still there. I just, I don't, like, I'm not interested in rebooking that right now, but that's still there. That's right there. You want to rebook that one for another show? How bad it? That can be done. I've been pushing a fight with him and, like, Max Holloway for so long,

but I just, after this, I don't think you can do that. I landed on, gosh, this is more of, like, a magic wand thing. I don't know if the timing works out. I would really like to see him fight Porier. I think him and Porriere would be so fun. I think it's, again, two guys who are veterans who are, who know what they want right now. They want intriguing flights. They want big names.

They want money. They want money, to put it, to put it, frankly. So just match it with just, like, stilistically. I think that's a fun way to go. But, yeah, I, I, uh, I'm not entirely sure what they do with him, which again was sort of a theme of this episode. I feel like I'll be saying this again in about

one pick. So what kind of Porre is that the pick? It is. Okay. I don't know if they'll fight each other. I know. I know they're chummy. But again, I feel like they're at the stage. I just feel like they're at the stage of the maybe. I just feel like they're at the stage of here where there's no last fight for Porier. Maybe they just

go in there and just have a good time. Yeah. I just feel like there's no reason to say no to say no to the sort of thing at this point. Like I'm not saying either guy campaigns for it. I just wonder if there are a talk with saying like, yeah, listen, we want, you know, we got a pay-per-view spot. People love you guys. We know you'll build up to this fight the right way and a fun way. Let's go out.

Let's get paid hugs and handshakes after, you know, beers and brought first or whatever, whatever real men do after they throw down in the cage. I honestly have no idea what to do with him. Yeah. I think we need like multiple fights to play out. Yeah. So here's what I would do if I'm Hinawaikano and his team right now. I'm calling the UFC and saying,

saying, I'm the backup fighter for Justin Gachie versus Dan Hooker. If anything happens with these two guys, I'm in. And the UFC will have no choice but to give it to him because he's kind of saved the day and they owe him a little bit. So yeah, let him do that. And then as far as right now goes, like, I know some people want the Patty Pimblit fight. I kind of think him taking this title opportunity and getting the pay bump

takes the Patty fight away from him, at least for right now. I actually think Patty Pimblit should fight Benile Daryush. That's the fight I've been asking for for a long time and now we can get it. So I wouldn't mind them going into that direction. But I mean, could you do Patty? Fine. I don't think anyone's going to be mad at it. But right now, just kind of looking at the division, we need a whole bunch of fights to happen before we can really match me for Boycano.

So I think at this point, he's the back of fighter. And then worst case scenario, unless they just rebooked Darius quickly, which they could do. because it's not like Moikano got hurt or he was in there for a 25-minute war, so you could go and do that. But maybe Moecona gets the loser of Gaecchi Hooker. It's fine. But again, I think it's in a weird way, it's almost too soon to matchmake for him because we don't know what's happening right now.

Yeah, Patty Pimlet is, I just realized we saw that we saw a London card announced, like formally announced last week. Patty Pimlet's not on it, right? He's not on it. He could still. Yeah, yeah. It's March 22nd. So much, so much time.

to me now on March 22nd. He could end up on there. What kind of? Maybe she started trying to talk about, like, getting on that spot. I don't know. I mean, it's going to be Michael Chandler, but I'm saying, you know, he should, should that, should that not happen? Should Michael Chandler now try to pivot to this Armand fight, then maybe Patty's dance card is, is open? So I don't know. Yeah, a lot has to unfold over the next two weeks. Not two weeks, several weeks. Yeah. Yeah, several weeks. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter.

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Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Let's go to Morad de Wallis, Willie, AK. First of all, I don't know this for a fact because I didn't really look at it. Am I the only one on the MMA fighting staff who picked Marab? I think you have to be. I think you have to be.

We only have, I mean, how many people do we have picking five people? What's our picking? Six, six, six people. Yeah, I think everybody picked two more. I think everybody picked two more. Shout to Maraub de Wallis, really, who cashes a plus 285 ticket for me, which, I mean, it was just the easiest bet I ever made. Not because I was like that confident, but if you're going to give me Marab at plus

285, it gets literally anybody on planet Earth, I'm going to take it. And he goes out there. and has the fight I expected this fight to be. I said if Umar was going to win, he was going to obliterate Marab. That was, if that, if it was going to be an Umar win, he was going to run him over. This would not be a competitive fight. And the fight went exact. I thought Marab won four of the five rounds.

I thought Marab won round one. It was very, very close. If you want to make the case, because two of the judges didn't, so did a lot of other people, that Umar run the first two rounds. Don't hate it. Don't have an issue with it. But it is clear as a bell. that Marab won rounds three, four, and five.

Without question, there's no controversy. There is no nothing. Mara de Welsh really goes in there, hands Omar and Amaga made off, the first loss of his career. I don't think he humbled them up much, and we're going to get to that at a moment, because that was Marab's goal.

I'm going to humble this man. I'm a hand this man in his first loss. It doesn't seem like he humbled him at all. But like I said, we'll get there. We don't even need to queue up the band, AK. We know where this is going, but unless you have a more hipster take here, we're heading to rematch.

At least for me, it's going to be Marab versus Sean O'Malley, too. I just don't see this going any other way. And I don't like it. Oh, I don't love it. I do not love this. I went another way with it, sir. I went another way with it, sir. Firstly, I haven't given up on the O'Malley-O-Malrymatch.

Now, it's going to be a hard one to work. Yes, O'Malley and Peoria-Yon rematch. It's be a hard one to work out. I think both guys feel like they've already done enough to, well, Yon feels like he's done enough to earn a rematch. O'Malley just feels like he's had a rematch since the door closed. at UFC 306. I think he's just felt like he has a rematch in his pocket. Marav has said as much. I mean, Marav has said many. I think he's named, when they've asked him, who do you want one for your first health defense and also who do you want like next, like after Saturday's show?

I think he said Sean O'Malley's name more than anyone. And I get it. I totally get it. Popular name. Let's sell some pay for you. Let's put some butts in seats. Let's win another 50, 45 decision or he just completely ragdolls, Sean O'Malley. There's, there's a, there's enough intrigue around that rematch. I had people like message to me still going like, man, like O'Malley's still so dangerous and like he did hurt Morave at some point in the fifth. And I'm like, yes, true. It's not like, it's not that Chon O'Malley got ran over. It's just you really feel like if they run this fight nine out of ten times, it's just going to go the same way. Just stylistically, that's who they are. But, you know, you run back the rematch and the hope

that is the one out of ten times where O'Malley like really takes it to Marab and either beats him or gives us a more competitive fight. So I, the rematch makes a lot of sense but I went in another direction Mike because I don't want to see that match I want to see the O'Malley Yon rematch I want fresh blood I want oh no

yes I want one of my I want one of my my buy cell predictions to move closer to being a buy Mike because I bought on this that's some Beltor champions will get some title shots oh my God

bring in patchy mix throw them in there with Mara de Vals really this is this is what I want I am waving my magic wand and a little bit the crystal ball is a little fuzzy but I feel like it's a possibility I feel like it's a possibility

I know there's so many easier options if you'll Malley first Peoria on is right there and then again if they could get patchy mix he would be a strong third but I just want new things I think

and I'll write up people will see this we do our U.S. 311 sort of post event report articles that we've been doing for peer reviews As awesome as it was to see Makajv dominate, as awesome as was see Murab put on chest in a human performance and hold on to his title. So good. I think there's a little bit of disappointment. It's definitely the wrong word. But, you know, wondering how different the year could have started if we had at least one new champion, right? If we had Umar as a new champion at 135 because Marab has beaten every other name in the division already. And of course, if Surukia had beaten Islam, what that would mean for the lightweight division and the pound for pound rankings. And it would just set up. a whole bunch of things.

We probably would have gotten arm on Islam three, but I don't know if Marab would have gotten an immediate rematch. Anyway, but the point is, like, I still want fresh things in 2025. I still feel like there's room to do create. Just because we got two end stills doesn't mean, you know, the train just has to keep kind of churning along as it always does. I think we could throw a wrench in there,

and I think patchy mix could be that wrench. So I wanted to get creative with this one just because, yeah, matchmaking for these top four fighters was not easy. So I said, let's just forget easy, let's have fun, and let's cross our fingers and hope something like this happens. Maybe he's not next, but I do hope we see patchy fight and Robb sometime in 2025. Yeah, I can guarantee you that even if the UFC does sign patchy, he can't get the title fight. Why? Because nobody knows who patchy mixes. At least for the fan base that they are trying to cater to, most of the people here know who patchy mixes,

but most of the fans that they are promoting to have no clue who this guy is. And the second that they announced this fight, they're going to be like, why is he fighting this guy? I don't know. Who is he? Who the F is this guy is all we will see in the comment sections of all of this. So there's no chance that happens. They're going to throw patchy mix in there with like Jose Aldo or like they're going to give him like as tough of a fight as he could possibly get. And he's probably going to have to win two fights before he gets a title fight just to introduce himself.

And he's going to have to maybe get an obliteration in there somewhere. Yeah, I just think he's going to get the All Malifide, man. I'm surprised you didn't get the face off. Mo Malli was sitting front row. He talked about it. I think they're just going to run that one back. Again, I don't love it. I would like to see O'Malley fight a San Hagan

or run it back with Piotrion. But at the same time, like, if I'm Sean O'Malley, why would you ever fight Pieter Yan again? You got to escape Abu Dhabi with the win that you probably didn't deserve. There is no world you ever want to fight that guy again, unless there's a title on the line. So I wouldn't do that. I think it's going to be O'Malley.

I think Jan ends up being. a backup or fight somebody else but yeah kind of a weird position for barob to be in but credit to barab man he needed this fight maybe more than any fighter in the history of the ufc needed to win because he was never getting another title fight he was never getting close to another title fight he was about to become the kaitland chukagin of the men's band and white division if he lost this fight to umar and maga made off and he went in there and beat him man he humbled him up. He just kind of cruised. He was talking shit. He was embarrassing him a little bit in there. Like Marab just barraubed all over that man. And he is still the Bannonway champion of the world.

So credit to Marab, that Marab did the thing. I was the only one who picked him. I was the only one who believed in you, Marab de Wallis really on this entire staff. I'm the only one who believed in you. So way to go, my man. Let's go to Umar Namagamayov. Suffers the first defeat of his career. And I got to tell you, A.K., just to tease the folks about what is to come on M.A.fying.com. You mentioned the review and things of that nature. There's constant questions that we do every time. How will you? A quick blurb.

What was the best part? What was the worst part? Biggest takeaway or whatever. The worst part for me, without question, was Umar Tamaga Madoff. And not because of the fight. What he did after the fight. The post-fight interview was awful. he wasn't humbled at all it was brutal it made me cringe it may be upset this whole oh i broke my hand

in the first round oh i won this fight and i'll give him credit the one thing that saved this from being jemal hill wakene buckley level cringe was the fact that he said i have to go back and rewatch it that was the one thing he said that made me not explode during the watch party and then what do we see after that literally three minutes later everybody from the friend's side of the dominance MMA world

submitting and putting out the photo of Umar's broken hand like come on man that shit is ridiculous first of all you don't tell anybody that you have a broken hand until a month later give it a day let people

sleep a little bit go on Instagram make a long post about how good of a fight of Marab is. Perhaps I underestimated this man. Full respect. I will see you in a year and a half. It will run this thing back.

And then, you know, you want to post a photo of the broken hand? Fine. But to make that the story as to why you lost this fight, annoyed the shit out of me. And you're better than that, Umar Namaga Madov. It surprised me because Habib would never do that. Is the Makhachev would never do that. Nobody on that team would ever do that.

But Umar and Amaga made off after getting gassed out and getting a, just getting kind of it. Rob was was toying with this man down the stretch. He was toying with him. He was talking to the crowd while he was beating this guy up. You talked so much shit in the entire build to this fight. You said this man was afraid of you. You said he was avoiding a fight with you. He was scared of you that you were better than him, that he was an old man.

Keep that energy, man. You lost. You went in there. you lost. Get it done. Go back to the drawing board and say, hey, man, you were really good. You surprised me a little bit. I wasn't ready. I'm going to go back. I'm going to win a few fights and then we're going to do this again. So what? Everybody breaks their hands. Everybody's injured. Do you hear what Marab had to say? Dude, like, had a broken back. He had a fucking broken back. And he went in there and fought. Spinal thing. Spinal. Spinal injuries. He had a staff

infection that was like absolutely ridiculous. Like, he went in there and fought. And you can tell he was forced to take this fight he had to and he still won he still did it and he didn't want to but he still didn't went in there and did it like come on man stop doing that shit stop doing it it's not why you lost it didn't hurt it didn't help but so what so what it's fist fighting hands break ankles break toes break injuries happen in fistfights but making that the first thing you say in response to the loss he just looks like way more arrogant than i than I even thought heading into this fight. Like, be a little mellow, be humble,

give him rob his props. And that's it, man. Come on. So I, you know, I didn't have a chance to watch the post-fight show because, as if anyone knows, once that final bell rings, we are scrambling left and right to get things done and writing 50 million different things.

You guys are working on post-fight show stuff. So I did not know you were so fired up about this, my best friend. I was not aware. I was not so, you were so. I was disappointed, man. I was so disappointed. That's worse than being upset. I had honestly I felt nothing I did not react in real time to his

post-spice speech one I was surprised I interviewed him I would I will say I wouldn't have I wouldn't have even interviewed him not not again not because he was like particularly injured or like just he's not a super great interview and again I'm not sure what you expect him to say in that moment yeah maybe you get a boiler plate like Maraub's a great fighter we'll run it back against the time which would have been good which would have been better than what he did for sure but I guess I'm just so numb to to certain talk at this point. Like, again, pre-fight stuff.

Like, you know, he's building the fight with, oh, Marab is old. Maraba's afraid of me, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, it's silly talk, but it's just pre-flight build stuff. Like, I don't know. That didn't impact me in a way where I'm like, well, Omar has to kill him now. I'm like, no, Omar just to win the fight.

Maybe he loses, he loses. And, you know, like, oh, I thought I won the fight and I broke my hand and all that. Like, this is just, for me, this is just post-fight chatter. The adrenaline's coming down. He's never lost before. Again, not great on the mic.

I honestly was not fired up about it at all. Sending out the picture after, yeah, that's him and his management. I mean, obviously, that's an Ali thing. And that's, I think that's poor sportsmanship. Like, I just think you should leave that stuff alone. But I don't know. It doesn't reflect that poorly on Umar for me. Like, his persona outside of the cage lost nothing in my estimation.

I have no, it just did not affect me the way that, I don't know, it affected. It's Jamal-Hilly, man. I just totally disagree. Not even close. Not even close. Oh, come on, dude. Jamal did the same exact thing. This is one hyperbole.

And this is one hyperbole. to I think you're a little caught up in the moment. This is not. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? This is, this is, okay, he didn't say I dared to be great, but he did offer up. I lost this fight, but here is why I lost this fight. And it had nothing to do with his opponent being great at fighting.

He didn't say, he didn't say, he didn't completely, he didn't say anything about Mara. You said, you said he had to, I have to watch the fight back. He just sounded disappointed. Like, he didn't, he wasn't like, he didn't get the mic fiery like, oh, yeah, oh, I totally won that fight. If it was with this injury, I would have kicked his ass. He would just look sad. Bro, he was just sad. He was down. I don't know how composed you wanted him to be. This is nothing like Jamal Hill. I think that's like a terrible. Keep up the same energy, man. That's it. Just be you, be you, man. Like you lost. This was lost. You lost.

You got you got no, you didn't want him to be him. You want him to be super professional like, oh, golly gee Willikers. I lost the fight. That is him. Look at the camp he's in. Look who is surrounded by him. We had never seen him deal with the loss before. He just, he had just lost a very disappointing fight. That was, he fought a great. I thought he was more mature than that. I thought he was wiser beyond his years. He's just,

he's just not. It's fine. It's okay. You are judging a man on a 90 second moment right now. I just want you know this. You're judging him on a 90 second moment plus the releasing whatever the stuff. I expect better from a guy like that considering who is around him.

I'm sorry. I think this is so unfair. I think this is so unfair. I don't. He could have handled it better. I'm not saying it was an amazing post-fight moment. But we are judging him on a 90-second like, he's just coming down from this. insanely brutal, amazingly beautiful fight. And he lost. And it sucks. It sucks. It sucks to lose

that situation. And then you're asking him to like, okay, get it, get it together right in the moment and say the perfect thing or say a better thing than he said. Okay. I'm not saying, I'm not saying he couldn't have done better. He could have done so much better with with the mic time. But it is it just in no way what I think was like this huge indictment of him as like as an athlete or as a fighter. Like I just didn't, I don't understand. I don't get that. I know when in that home, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't. This is nothing to do with how I feel about him as a like, skillful fighter. But like there's, I truly,

here's what I have to say. And it came to me as I was going through this. The second that fight ended, I said to myself, I can't wait for these two guys to fight again. Can't wait. Want to see Umargo back to the drawing board and I want to see these two guys fight again. And after hearing that,

I was just like, man, I kind of, I kind of don't care anymore. See, but so you are letting it affect your, see, so you did let it affect your opinion of him as a fighter. Because you know the fight was amazing. You know he's worthy of.

another shot. It was a very good fight. It was the second best fight on the card. So you know he's a great fighter. So you should want to still see the rematch. Just because that little bit of mic time, 90 seconds of mic time, you have no interest to seeing the rematch. I think that's wild. I think Marab, honestly, until I see an attitude change, I think Maraub beats him nine times out of ten, which is honestly what it is. I don't know if that's true. I would like to see. This fight was very close. I would like to see him get humbled up a little bit. That's all. I would have liked him a little bit. Like I would even, even Jamal Hill with Alex was like, yeah, man, he's good. But like, this happened. Like, we didn't even get that from Umar. Now, look,

I agree with you. There's emotions that just come out of a fight. And I understand that. I'm sure Habib is not, I'm sure Habib is not thrilled about this. I will say that. Now, could Umar come back on Instagram later on today and say, look, man, apologies. Marab was great. hats off to him and change my opinion on this whole matter? Absolutely. 100%. Right now, not a good look. At least in my opinion. I didn't think we'd get this heated up about this, but all this is to say, Umar is very good. He is a good fighter. Um, he is going to wear that title someday, without question. But he's going to have to earn it. I think his road back is probably a fight longer than I thought it was going to be. And he's about to fight Davis and figurations. next. That's where I'm going. Yeah, that's about where I landed, too. I think he could get the O'Malley,

Peoriae loser. I mean, that fight doesn't exist yet. This is a theoretical fight. I would like to see that, but you're right. He may even have to sort of build back to that point. So Figgie is probably the way to go. Fun matchup. Theoretically winnable for both guys. I thought Umar, again, was fantastic on Saturday, but you never know how someone's going to react to their first loss, right?

Like he could come back 10 million times stronger and just destroy Figgi, or that loss could have, like, exposed certain, you know, to other fighters. I mean, not that anyone can emulate Marab's game plan because, I mean, two big parts of his game plan are, one being tough as hell, and two, having infinite cardio, which, again, just no one can match. But I think there was 10 to a lot of things in there, too, that Marab did really well, that, you know, that other people could kind of see if they could follow that blueprint. So I think, I think Figgie makes a lot of sense. and, you know, keeps Piggy alive.

If he pulls off, I think what would be an upset if he beats Umar, you know, keeps him alive in the title mix. So I could see that probably ends up on a fight night somewhere on the road or something. I think that's probably the way they would go with it. I would hope that's not the apex. It just wouldn't make a ton of sense. But yeah, it's going to, it's going to be a climb back. It's going to climb back to Ruma for sure.

But I do hope they fight again. Now, if I, now if, if Umar and his management team want to like kind of turn this around in some way if we're if we're looking at this from like where do we go from here this is exactly the fight you ask for i don't know if it happens but this is what you ask for you asked cheetah vera very winnable fight it's a showcase matchup but it is also a guy that you can learn a lot from we saw him we he ain't his cardio is not there it's just like we learn that and it doesn't matter if you break your hand or whatnot i think he did better though in the fifth round that people think up until the end i do think marab pulled away in the end but the striking was actually really

No, I know that. I also think I also agree with Dana White when I think Marab just like stopped fighting and got like way more cautious. It was very weird. He did that with O'Malley too, right? That was the problem with O'Malley. Yeah. Like he didn't keep up the same pressure.

Otherwise you probably would have cruz instead of getting like kicked in the stomach and like having probably have you. Yeah. It was it was a super weird fifth round. And then Marab was like, oh shit, I should probably do something. Probably Ray Longo was yelling at. Come on, Mara. Come on, Mara. Great corner man.

It's terrific. Ray Longo is. is fantastic. I mean, this guy, he's not just a personality like that. All those theatrics, I think, are really key to a lot of successes fighters have had. Like, I do think, like, he's the perfect guy for Marab. Because Marab is so talented and such a hard-headed fighter,

I do think he needs that really, really, really, really strong voice to cut through every now and then and just kind of get him a little bit back on track. And he did, and he finished really strong. So, yeah, I think he won the fifth round, obviously. But I saw, I saw someone mess to me saying, one, two, five, Umar. And I'm like, I can't quite get there. I can't quite get there.

That's crazy. You could have given two, you could have given two to Marab as well. So I like, that's why I had an issue with the 49, 46 either. I saw some people. Yeah, I think, I think, it's okay. Yeah. I didn't love it, but it's okay. I scored the first round from Marab.

I probably have to go back and rewatch it, but it just seemed like not a lot happened in that, like, not a lot happened. And during the striking exchanges, when those two guys are actually, you know, hitting each other. I thought Marab was getting the better of most of them. Now, I will say this. Umar landed the best. punch of the fight in the first round. Sure. He landed his best shot in the first round towards the end.

Now Marab laughed it off and the way the perception of it looked like it was totally fine. But he absolutely landed the best shot until Marab cracked him in round four. That ended up being the best shot of the fight. And then Marab kind of cruised in round five until he realized he had a turn on the gas. So look, Umar's great. I don't like the post fight shit. It's fine.

He's still learning. It's pretty quick to get to that spotlight to go from unranked. fighter to unranked fighter to unranked fighter to main event in abudabi to co-main event on a paper view in los angeles i totally get that and the more i talk about maybe i give him a little bit more of a of a pass but i just come on i just it pissed it disappointed me like you're gonna put a mic in his this man's face i just wished he said something better and like gave marab his props in some way shape or form but it is what it is that i g post is coming mike that i g post is coming you'll feel that you'll feel it would be smart but what but see what but

seeing the management reaction to it and just sending that photo to everybody to have them post and everybody posted it was just like, oh, come on, man. Like that just rub me the right way. It rubbed me the wrong way. So enough about that. Umar will be back. Let's see him fight Figgy. Let's see him fight.

Cheeto. If you want to do Umar versus Jan, I kind of, if I'm Umar, I'm kind of not fighting Peererrean right now because that is a, that's a tough scene for him. Um, that is a fight he could lose. But we shall see.

let's go to Yuri Perhashka who knocks out Jamal Hill Best fight of the night I thought the co-main event was good I thought this was way better Just in a different kind of a way Like my emotions were way higher for this fight Than it was for the co-main event It was just a different kind of feeling

The pressure on both guys was off the charts Because Yuri Perashka If he ever wanted to fight for a belt again Needed this one But I didn't think the pressure was as much as Jamal Hill carried in this fight because Yuri Prahashka, to me, is more of the Derek Lewis ilk, where it's just like, sure, we'd love to see a world where Yuri

Pajasca wins a title, but at the end of the day, we don't care. We just want to see him be Yuri and fight people because he's that exciting. We just love the guy. He's an absolute animal. For Jamal Hill, this was like everything to him. And I felt like Jamal had, outside of Marabda Welsh, really, I felt like Jamal Hill had more to lose on this card by far than anybody else. But let me just say this, AK.

And this is a message kind of that Umar, Nomaga Madoff could take away from all of this. It is never too late to turn it around. Because Jamal Hill, to me, had a terrific fight week. I thought he changed sort of the build and his approach to the fight, showed Uri a lot of respect, said nice things about him,

was confident he was going to win. And then what happened was he got in there, he got Uried, but Jamal Hill was tough as hell. He fought his ass off. and I will say this for the first time and we talked about this in the watch party

for the first time since Jamal Hill has been in the UFC and this includes when he won the belt I can confidently say Jamal Hill is one of the five best light heavyweights in the UFC I will say this after this fight that man belongs at the top of this division he is very very good at this he is tough he is fun he is intelligent out there

but he just got Uried man he fought an absolute demon who actually learned how to defend himself a little bit sure the hands came down at the end of the day it's fine but yury's ducking and diving he was jukeing and jiving i was like what is going on here year he's an incredible shape and jamal hill was so effing tough in this fight and i could tell you this if jama'll hill goes on social media and makes the hey man shout out to yri he's the man, all this. I will be so, this will be an A week for Jamal Hill.

Not an A plus because he didn't win. But I have, this could have been a turnaround week for Jamal Hill, is all I'm trying to say. It's so good of a fight. Jamal is so tough. That second round was bananas. And he overcame that first knockdown,

still fought back. I took a ton away from both guys. I think both guys stock rose tremendously, even Jamal Hills. Having said that, where do you go with Yuri? Because, I mean, Pereira's the champion. They fought twice. Pereer booped him both times. Pereira's about to fight Ancolaev.

But Yuri's probably like, he has a case to fight for the belt right now. Like, he truly has a very good case to fight for the belt because of this division sucks, honestly. Like, what do we do here? Just one thing, quick thing about Jamal Hill. He was great in the cage, no question. I'm not a fan of the man personally. I don't think I'm alone in this. He's one fan tweeting at him away from going on a razor again.

So I am glad you have all this. I am glad you have all these nice things to say about him and you're putting him in this light because you may not get this chance again, Mike. You may not have this chance again. Right now the vibes are okay around Jamal Hill, but I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop or his podcast episode to release this week or whatever. So, but none of that, again, that's not important.

He did fight really well. This was, as I was watching, and again, now there's me being caught up in the moment. I was almost like, this version, I think, is better than the one that beat Glover. That's not insane, right? Like, I know he lost, and his performance against Glover was really great, but it was a Tashira who I think we feel like had one foot out the door. He was three, he was like almost, he had one pinky toe left in the door. Right, right.

But I don't want to take away with what Jamal Hill that did, you know, say, oh, he just beat a retired guy because he wasn't he wasn't retired right he was the chlover was the champion when they fought hill one-sided win it was a great night but i think this version of hill would he would and i'm sure he'd agree would beat that version i think he was technically he was great the toughness was insane there are very very few two o-fivers who could take some of the shots that he took from yury and make it all the way to the third round middle of the third round i was shocked i was shocked so again i don't like the man personally credit to the man for his toughness fighting ability you're right his stock did not take a drop for me he was already uh in my

UFC only rankings. He was already number five. So he kind of just stays put. But yes, he is cemented in that five spot. It's not like, like, I'll go as far as say like, it's not so for me that, you know, you have your top three clearly up Perrera and Goli of Parachka. I still put Jan Blockavits in there. People might disagree. I still put him in there. And now I come from with him all in there as well. So it's not a big four. I do think it's a big five at the top of, to a five pound division right now. And after that's, it's a bit of a drop off. It's that's then you get the Krillov-Roundtree Ulberg range, right? Again, good fighters, but I think a tier below.

So Jamal is now in that first tier of light heavyweights. It's like the nicest thing I can say about him. So, yeah, it was a great fight. And yeah, maybe the best by the night. I prefer the Kulmaine. But both those fights, I think we'll be talking about the end of the year. They were that good and where it's only January. For Yeri, speaking of two guys that his names,

maybe Mike the Blakowitz-Ollberg winner. They're fighting in UFC London, Colmain, March 22nd. Again, not a great fight for Yeri just because he has one. way more to lose there than he has to gain. But him and Yon would be, like, I'd like to see it. So, and I'm not assuming he beats Ulberg. I'm just saying if that's the fight we get, awesome. It's weird that they have, like, it'd be a shame if we never saw Yon and Parasca fight.

And Oldberg, what an opportunity for him. Like, I think if he beats Yon Blakobos, obviously he doesn't get a tell shot right away. But all our talk after Lennon will be like, Allberg's one win away, Elberg's one win away. and that one win would be Ira Prakashka. And U.S.C. I think we'd be very happy to have a fresh challenger in there.

But that's a long climb for Oberg. So let's just say, whoever wins that fight gets big URI. And I'd really look forward to that. I think that's probably the way this goes. I think Uri should be the backup for the main event in March. Just be ready.

Alex Pereira did talk to Megan Alibe after UFC 311, and he was asked to because Jamal, Yuri Perashka, being Yuri, as Alex Pereira is talking to Megan Olivi, Yuri Paraschka is standing 10 feet away from him watching him, standing behind the camera watching him. And Megan Olivi, in her infinite wisdom,

she is tremendous, by the way. Looks over, he goes, you see, Jama, what do you think about Yuri Paraschki? Standing right there, like 10 feet away from us. What did you think about that? He called for a third fight with you. And what did Alex Pereer say? Look, here's the deal.

I have to fight Ankelai first. But then I'll get, I will fight this, man. this is what he wants i'm going to give it to him and i don't know if that necessarily happens but alex perr is carried such great favor with ufc that if he wants to do this it's totally fine uh having said that i'm with you it's i'm really a friend for a moment in my opinion it's the olberg versus john winner i think that's how you go and as far as jamal hill goes let's do jamaal hill versus clio roundtree that's the fight oh that'd be amazing yeah that's that's you guys are they are not that they trained together but they're buddies right and they

They don't train together, obviously, so they would fight. But like, they are, I think they're friends. No. Am I making that up? Jamal and Kahliel. I thought, you know what? They probably just take. I think Jamal has said like he would kill Kaleel or like,

Khalil wasn't that impressed. I don't remember. Let me just, let me just make sure. I feel like they've taken a picture together, but Jamal's taking the picture with everyone because he's at like every UFC event. So they were booked. They were supposed to fight each other. Oh, I don't remember this.

Oh, this was part of the. that this was part of the Oldberg shuffle. What was that shuffle? That one, it was originally. Roundtree, so Roundtree was the original opponent for Jamal Hill. Yes, for Jolla 303. Correct. Then Khalil Roundtree.

Out. Then Cleo Roundtree had to withdraw because of the drug test. And Carl's Holberg came in. And then Jamal Hill got injured and then Anthony Smith came in. And then Ulberg got injured and Roman DeLise came in. Oh, that's it. How can they forget the ultimate mutant matchup? Like, yeah.

So we somehow got there for like this light heavy fight out of nowhere only like they should have just canceled the fight at that point instead of making uh anthony smith and delete say like do this weird shirt notice fight god msma is funny it is very right that was the most mutant matchup of all time wow uh let me i got to read this holy crap uh can i read this out loud all i'll say that is this when this show is over go to hana moikano's twitter uh i'll just read you the i'll just read you the first sentence uh i wish i had one yesterday, grabbed the microphone and told you to read. And I'll leave it from there. There is like two paragraphs. And it ends with yesterday. I lost and stayed silent. But I'll

return to say what needs to be said. Last year, I fought for money. From now on, I fight for freedom. There's a sandwich with some meat in there that you just need to consume right there. It's very, it's what you expect. If he had actually gone on the microphone and gone on a long screen about what book to read and about the problems with the economy and the government, like, He kind of has done it a little bit before, but if he had done it on like pay-per-view time and just like really dug in, that would have been hilarious and amazing.

But you know what? Money next time. Money, this is not the last time money will have a microphone in his hands. And again, I'm sure he'll record a show up soon enough as well. Yeah. If he won the bell, Joe Rogan just needed to hand him the mic and leave the octagon.

Yeah. Let him cook until he had like the CM Punk pipe bomb moment and they just shut the microphone off. So yeah, there you go. your boy, AK, Jailton Almeida, makes easy work of Sergey Spivak. And then for the third time, he calls out Cyril God. Is this the fight we're doing? Yeah, I think I've matched up Cheryl with someone else previously, but let's just do this.

What is going? And again, we can't even say, well, why isn't we? We know why Cyril isn't taking this fight because he could very legitimately get destroyed by Jelton. But I think it's, what do you think, Mike, you know what? What's the opening lines for this fight? What do you think? For Almeda versus Gahn? Yeah.

Almeda minus 185. Oh, minus 1.8. Because gone is the bigger name. He is certainly the more well-known fight, not like a super famous. But he's a terrible grappler. This is true. And people know this. Like a terrible grappler.

Okay. Okay. So, well, we have to assume he's improved, right, since the John Jones debacle. He must have dedicated all his time to, didn't he mix some martial arts against Volkov? And everyone thought he lost that fight. This is true. It was terrible.

Did you not write a robbery review about this fight? Did I? Based on how everybody disliked it and felt the decision was one of the worst robberies of all time. Gosh, did I? Yeah. Did I, I don't even remember because I've had so little time to do them recently. I will very quickly check. I remember I wanted to.

I did. I did do it. What was my verdict? I'm scared to look. I'm going to guess you said. I always said no robbery. I said no. I don't remember why.

I do remember in the moment. moment being very upset with the call. And then on a review, I was like, okay, fine, I'll back off. I hate calling fights robberies. But that was one where a lot of, the popular opinion was that that fight was a robbery. So regardless of what I thought about it, a lot of people are looking back on that fight as a win for Volkov. Yeah. So he, you know what?

He should fight. He should fight. And if he tries to mix the martial arts against Almeida, sorry, Sigurga should fight Almeida. If he tries to mix some martial arts in that fight, it will go very poorly for him. He should not do that. Yeah, I have not gone. I have gone back and rewatched it, like, since it happened. Because watching it on the Watch Party Live, I actually, like, didn't think it was that bad.

Rewatching, I was like, okay, I get why people are upset. But I don't know. It is what it is. Rineer Derriter, AK, this guy is so fun. He's just a, he's just a maniac. He is the forever, he has redefined what the middleweighty, middleweight championship is, and he will never, ever lose it. even if he retires, even becomes like a professional cornhole player,

he would still be the middleweighty middleweight champion. Goes out there, just tackles Kevin Holland right away, beats him up, submits him, easy. I mean, just no sweat on his forehead at all. Just one of the easiest fights of his career. And Kevin Holland's pretty damn good fighter. So where we going with RDR, AK? Because I'm not sure, like, how good he is.

And he looked like he was 50 pounds heavier than Kevin Holland in there. and just was very smart. Like he did not fight Kevin Hall like he fought Gerald Mirchard at all. He did exactly what he said he was going to do and just beat his ass. So what do we do with RDR? That was the most predictable outcome of the night, right?

It had to be. I've gotten back into the swing, well, my bank role, my gambling bank role is renewed because the calendar year has turned. So I bet very, very small amounts. I wish I had been smart enough to put so much more money on RDR because the odds were close.

It was like a, he was, I think he was like minus 125 or something. Like, it was not, it was nearer to a pick-om. And I should have put $500 on Rinerdura. I put like $2 on him instead. But, yes, he was always going to just tackle Kevin Hall and submit him. Like, Kevin Holland should not fight 185 grapplers. This is insane. I'm going with, there's a lot of middleweight fights coming up.

That's the tricky part. So he's going to have, I think he is going to have to wait for one of these guys to shake out. Like they're fine guys in his range. You can just make more for more fun fights. But he's not your average like UFC newcomer. We know his history with one. We know he has the potential to be a top 10 guys. So right away, let's just push him into there.

Jared Canineer, Gregory Rodriguez, fighting on the 15th. Whoever comes out of that, I think you give my man RDR that matchup. And how that will go like him versus either of those guys, I have no clue. But I'm curious to find out. everybody's wrong everybody i'm seeing here is wrong vittori wrong jackramansen wrong you're all wrong okay you're wrong i love you but you're wrong uh it's michel perera and literally nobody else come on now like that is the fight come on let's just get this right and just throw those two absolute demons in there at each other there's no way that is not just the most fun fight ever at 185

let's just do that not in the apex get out of the way like i feel like if you're the ucc you think that's like a classic apex main event but no please put that in front of human beings human beings need to witness this one live because that is yeah that would be comical yeah all right let's go to the wild card around a k let's uh match make for one fighter we have not match made four and let's do it right now so who you got a k uh prelims interesting names to choose from could be a winner can be a loser what do you think i mean this was easy i didn't want to overthink this i was so happy like with this man's call out with with with friend of the site friend of between the lengths grant d'norsen he nailed it i thought he nailed it with the benile

dariyush callout again i don't know if they just rebooked um deriuch moikano i can very easily see them moving on from that one but it just makes so much sense for grant where he is where he's at in his career it's it's a winnable fight yury is uh yeary excuse me benille um is uh not like as bad as some other people but he's kind of been roosting in that top eight for a while um you know something in activity not his fault but he has been you know He's probably angling for certain matchups. He's going to have to defend that spot. He was going to defend against Moycano.

So clearly he doesn't mind fighting someone who's a few spots lower. Grant Dawson, I think, you know, a bit further back to Moikano, but Darrius is also coming off two losses now. So I think Grant can get that fight. I thought the timing of the call was so good, especially since, you know, maybe Darius wants to get rebooked quickly. Dawson had a convincing win, but certainly a win he had to work for, right? I mean, that's some hard grapple.

That's 50 minutes, a hard, a hard grappling. And, you know, he might not be in tip top shape, maybe not ready to turn around in like two weeks. But if Bineal wants to fight in a month or something like that, I think Grant Dawson can get it. So that was for me, it was just so smart. And I think we need to reward doing the thing. And I thought he did the thing in fine fashion. I think that was, I think that was the correct call out. It was absolutely the correct call out.

He's not going to get it. He's got, I think he has like 1% chance of getting this fight. And I just, the unfortunate thing is, people are going to remember the smart callout more than the win. It just was, like, it was a great performance. Like, he dominated CDF, and it's not easy to do that. It's very hard to look good against Diego Fahara. But Grant Doss was getting booed for 15 minutes.

Like, that usually doesn't age all that well. And they have given Grant opportunities. He got to headline a card against Bobby Green. He got knocked out in 30 seconds. And I know some people slip on the banana peel. it could happen. I just feel like he's going to need to do more work before he fights a guy like that.

I kind of feel like he's going to have to fight like Joel Alvarez or somebody like that. Like I kind of feel like that's, or Matush Rebekchi, someone of that nature to like eliminate one or the other. Kind of feel like that's where they're at. But I didn't go with Grant Dawson. Again, solid performance.

I thought the call was perfect. Any other call wouldn't have made sense to me. I just don't think he gets it. I'm going with Eileen Perez, AK. I'm going with Eileen Perez. What? Of the white hot women's bantamweight division? You know, we got to get this division moving here.

Yeah, okay. I can't. Shout out to Casey Liden, who might have the steal of the draft with Eileen Perez, getting the big win over Carol Hosa. Look, there are some folks who are just going to listen to what I have to say and shit on me. I've been seeing it all show, and that's totally okay. That's your opinion, and I have mine. A.K., I'm going to go back to a show we did maybe two years ago.

And I suggested this like immediately. And you were like, oh, that's kind of interesting. Because Eileen Perez is a fine fighter, but women's ban on weight is so incredibly weird. And getting up the ranks is not going to be easy. And beating Carol Hosa as impressive a win as that is to a hardcore fan. No one cares. Just they just don't. So now we have to make them care about her.

We have to give her not just a ranked name. or somebody like in the top five, we need to give her somebody recognizable, somebody who has a legacy, somebody who has made an impact on the sport. And more importantly, A.K., someone who's ready to fight and someone who's coming off arguably,

despite having a historic career, which included winning a UFC world championship, is coming off arguably the best performance she has ever had in a fist fight in her entire fighting career. So I suggest to you, I throw to you, Eileen Perez versus the former UFC women's Bannonweight champion, Misha Tate,

who beat the soul out of Julia Avila in just ways I did not see coming. I mean, I had, well, before that fight, I had Eileen Perez and Misha Tate right next to each other in the rankings, 15 and 14. Misha, one spot ahead. Now, of course, Eileen will jump into the top 10, what they win over Carol Hosa. It's a sellable fight. It's a sellable fight. I mean, Eileen Press has a bit of a cult following. All right, the twerking is hilarious.

Okay, we all enjoy. It's great. It's a great gimmick to have. Misha wants to fight, man. She's ready to go. So I think that makes so much sense, man. Like, I see Ketland, Ketland Vier is booked, by the way, Puck. So we can't do that.

She's fighting Macy Chesson. And if Macy Chesson wins the fight, like you could do Ketland Vier, but no one is, no one's going to care. No one's going to care. They will care about her fighting Misha Tate. even the casual audience knows who Misha Tate is. They don't know who Carol Hosa is. They don't know who even Ketland Vieira is.

But they all know who Misha Tate is. So that's that's kind of how I view it right now. And I think she gains more beating Misha than she does beating Ketland Viera right now, just because of the perception of who Misha Tate is historically. And Misha needs to fight somebody. I kind of feel like Eileen will talk a little shit about her and get Michelle riled up and it could be fun. It could be a rousy 2.0 here.

Man, if you're, if you were challenging yourself to create a compelling women's phantomweight fight, non-title fight, Mike, you may have, you may have just done it, my best friend. Dude, you may have just done it.

This could be, God, I'm willing this into existence. It's going to happen like sometime in April. Oh, he's calling the date. Eileen Perez versus Misha Tate, main event,

UFC, Vegas 106. Oh, wow. Kicking off, kicking off the second. quarter kicking off the second quarter of 2025 after a scorching first three months i lean prez today let's go it's it's gonna happen oh lord all right uh let's go to the peeps fire in your suggestions we do have a super chat want to get to we'll go for like 10 minutes here uh i ran a poll

oh please oh mike uh who was the biggest winner of uc 311 marav de valis really 61 percent the other was other at 1%, but Islam 26%, Yuri 12%, Mirab, 61%, the big winner, huge win, look fantastic, will be moving up in our pound for pound rankings. Probably was too low.

Shout out to Super Semi Noob, shout out to us, MMA fighting, great coverage to be again as per usual. I know you guys are busy, but I want to ask if there is a plan to change the loyalty badges. I don't know what that means. Is that in the, I think in the chat, right? The MA fighting chat, we have, you get things next to your, is that what you're talking about? You get things next to your name. Oh, do you? I honestly, my guess. I don't know.

I don't know at all. We don't handle the end of it. Yeah. So that's, that's the issue is that's my guess. Um, but I do appreciate the comment super somebody. I appreciate definitely appreciate the super chat. I will, yeah, I will ask the appropriate authorities about this and bring this up and see what they say about it. But yeah, uh, the hashtag is terrific. Mike Puppet for president, Mike Puppet made his, made his debut on the UFC 311 watch party last day. Slito, Slito in the comments. If you look and look at Slito, he has a thing next to his name. I think that's what they're talking about.

He says that, yes, you can get like a one-year badge. If you've been a subscriber. Yes, yes, yes. So, yeah, that's not on our end. But yes, we'll definitely try and talk to who we can. Shout us to South Africa. I think that was the donation was in Rand. I did have to look this up.

So shout us South Africa. Perez versus Dumont. Everyone is like a win away from a title. shot man like she i mean so was aileen ferez maybe let's be honest i mean maybe but i mean the the beat like the the beating norma dumont gave to a rini aldana like she mangled her face and that was just so impressive like i i she deserves a big fight after that performance she really does true i can't believe it can't believe we're talking about norma dumont world title contender 2025 but here we are should jamal hill move to no imagine him versus derrick lewis no he's not a big two o five for guys he's

like he's a little, I think he'll look because like, okay, whatever. He's not like a, he's not like a bodybuilder. He's got like a little belly on him, but he's not like a big 205. That's just the way. That's just how his body is. And I'm sure there's heavy weights he could be, but he's not a huge guy. I don't see why he'd want to go up there and mess around at that way. Plus, it's probably just not optimal for him.

I think a lot of people think like, oh, it's just easy. You just don't cut weight. But I don't think it was like some people like him to like stay within a certain weight range. It's just good for their health and fitness. And then like you let yourself go up to heavy weight. It could just be real bad for you in so many ways. Let's go to Tristan Azamat.

Becky Off versus Dustin Solz for sure. Hymanian Barcellus versus Jonathan Martinez. Did they fight? They haven't fight yet, have they? I can't hear you. You're muted. Oh, sorry, I was just typing something. I'm just reminding people to.

Maybe they didn't send in matchups. Oh, no. Maybe it's like Kumar or something. Those are fine. I could not dislike the third choice more. Thank you. Thank you. I was about to say.

Okay, now we got, I did not love the Barcellus matchup when it was made because I understood it. Barcellus is like a top 30 guy and you're thinking is, well, we really think we have something special with Talbot. Some of the finishes have been fantastic. He beats Barcellus, boom. You've got a guy who's four, three fights in those years, it would have been three fights in the U.C. career and already top 30. We really got something with them. And it's also just a good test. It's a guy who is theoretically at an athletic deficit.

he's quite a bit older than Peyton Talbot. And even if there's a gap in experience and skill, that athletic difference, the athletic advantages of Peyton should make up for it. But now we've seen the fight. We've seen it didn't. We've seen that experience matters a lot. I think how many has like not three times many,

almost like twice as many fights and a lot of fights against high, high, high level competition. So I picked Peyton. I think a lot of us picked Peyton, but we also weren't surprised when the fight played out the way it did. That's what veterans do, man. They're going to take a young guy and they're going to test them and they're going to teach him something like Peyton Talbot is a better

fighter today a much much better fighter today than he was on Friday right I mean he's he's going to learn so much from what happened with how many Barcellos but um putting him in there with another veteran like Jordane I think is a mistake because now you because that's yeah 100% that's kind of like a similar I'm not saying stylistically but also pretty well-rounded guy to put in there because he can grapple too it's not like it's assuming a stand-up battle is Jordan can grapple too and that experience gap is still I think it's too much. So I think you've got dial it back. Let's go, again, two guys within the, you know, 11, 12, 13 fight range, maybe closer to, to, to Talbot an age.

He's only been fighting professionally since 2021, guys. So hugely talented kid, unique personality, very marketable. Now we've seen not quite ready for that better and challenge yet. No shame in that. No shame. He was not exposed. He was not exposed pain. No.

He's what we know he is. He's a young fighter and he fought a more experienced guy. And he lost. So please, no more. He needs a style on somebody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you, Mike. Yeah. Who's the, what's the? Who's the Priscilla Catua of the men's band and work division? That's what we need. I don't want to say it because he just had, I think, a really good performance. But I think he could create a highlight with them, Suppai. Yeah, I don't want to see that though.

No. It's too soon. Because I think, I think, is really good, man. I do too. I'm probably too hung up on the locke dog finish. Like he got smoked by local dog but i mean look dog's really good so that doesn't you know i actually think like i like i like this guy too and but i think he'd actually be like a really good foil for patin like calvin lock

like i know colin rock like i know colin rockwin's fighting but peat would beat him in a fight but i don't know if payton would get him out of there yeah you know what i mean like but pain could have like just a really good kind of a 15 minute showcase against him and colon will just talk shit the whole time so maybe something like that bannam wait but you got to give him a fight where like angel what's Angel Pacheco doing these days. Like, let's, let's give him that. Let's give him Angel Pacheco. He's out there.

Yeah. Or somebody, somebody of that, of that realm. We got to get this kid's confidence back. They have something with him. And, yeah, it's just, but if you're Angel Pacheco, like, you take that fight because you see a path to victory. Just tackle this man and lay on top of him. And you have a really good chance to beat him. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see where Peyton Talbot goes from here.

Islam versus Bronx. Mara versus Jan. And there you go. Do do do what does. Oh, it's an, it's an M. A.

hour badge. I did not know that. Okay. Yeah. I think, we'll absolutely get that. I think that's what they're saying. They just have not been updated, right?

So yeah, there again, you can see Scott McCray and the chat has one. So there you go. You guys are wondering what those badges are. It's an MA hour chat, which, uh, yeah, we don't really do that anymore.

Great show. Yeah. We don't do anymore. It's not here. Bleasy Mirabion 2, Umar vishishishish, Chito. I don't mind the Cheeto fight.

I think that's like a good bounce back and learning experience. Yuri versus Khalil. I think Yuri is probably above Killeel at the moment. Hill versus Dom Reyes. Do you want to see Hill versus? I don't, I don't mind that right now. No problem with it. Makes a lot of it.

At first I looked at it. I was like, no, no, no. But I mean, I remember not that long ago, we did a show. And it was right before UFC Tampa, we did a B, a BTL Q&A. And we spent like 30 minutes talking. about the road for Dominic Reyes to get back to a light heavyweight title shot. And we taught, like, it was the biggest thing we talked about that entire show. Like, do you just chucked Dominic Reyes in there with Yuri right now?

Like, could that be a thing? Just shut, like a rematch? I mean, Yuri. No, actually, no, what? Forget that. That was the one time I thought somebody died in the Octagon was when Yuri elbowed Dominic Reyes and knocked him, like, face first, unconscious, motionless on the canvas. But Chabal Hill?

Maybe. Maybe. Some Octobus with No Friends is asking where is Reyes ranked right now? Mike, could you guess where Reyes is ranked in the light heavyweight rank? He has a number. He has a number. UFC.com. UFC.com rankings.

What did your guess? So he beat, he is Jacoby and Anthony Smith, right? This is the two wins? Correct. I'm going to say nine. A little too high. 11. 11.

He is behind. He is behind. Walker at 10. and Oostomir and night. Okay. All right. Yeah. That's, that's, that's, that's for you, you, but the right range, yeah.

Yeah. Look, maybe we're talking about Dominic Grace fighting for, for a light heavyweight title. I mean, what a time to be alive. Can you imagine? What a time to be alive. Mike and AK, what are your thoughts on Clayton Carpenter's performance? Think it was more competitive than a few people thought. What did you think of the performance?

It was the fight I kind of expected it to be. But he was good. That's, that's, that's, guys, from now on, please. This is Clayton the Guida Carpenter. Okay. A living, a living homage to the, semi-retire, not retire, well, no longer with the UFC, I shouldn't say retire, not with the UFC, Clay Gwina.

Yeah, I don't, I didn't, I didn't see too many people dogging his performance. Again, I'm not always in those corners of social media where, you know, once, any time someone loses a five, they're like, oh, that just didn't look good. I thought that was really competitive. Tagir is just great. Togear is like a sleeper contender at 125. He's like two or three. He's making his way there.

Like, obviously, he's a guy whose performances probably haven't jumped out to Dana White in the matchmakers. but he's got a very shiny nice UFC record so far and he's he's creeping his way up there so no shame and losing to him and yeah i thought i thought carpenter looked good he lost his undefeated record whatever that's what happens when you step up and fight a guy like to hear um so yeah i hope there wasn't too much online backlash to that loss it was it was a good fight fun to watch and he was in there he was in there i thought clay i think clayton has a future for sure is a top team guy so i thought about this during the watch party

what are your thoughts on this RDR versus Bo Nickel I'm trying to read your face I want to know what your thoughts were were they good thoughts were they bad anger excitement I can't tell I they were more like huh like if they made this I would not be upset but to me this I don't think the UFC would give Bo Nichol this fight I don't I think this I think Boe can be a lot of guys at 85

right now. I'm not saying you can't beat RDR. I just don't know if the juice is worth the squeeze to book this fight. Because RDR is real good, man. Like the only guy he has lost to is Anatoly Malkin, who is, like, very good at this. So could Bo Nichael win? Sure, would he be favored to win?

Sure, would I pick him? Probably. But if, like, Bo Nichael's sitting at, like, a minus 400 against RDR, I'm betting on RDR without question. Like, I'm betting on him. So is this too risky of a fight? Would you do this? The risk is that this fight could suck ass.

That's my concern. First of all, how dare you speak that way about the middle-weighty, middle-weight champion? My part of being a middle-y-middle-weight is you're going to drop the occasional stinker. That is the, if you didn't drop the occasional stinker, you'd be in another category, you'd be like, you know, middle-weight BMF category, which we will never have because by nature, if you're middle-weight, you pretty much cannot be the BMF because, again, it's $185.

it's just this junkie weird division with some great fighters in it but i mean the champion himself is a junkie weird guy and i mean that as a compliment uh i i'm definitely suffering from like you know just looking at that paul crack fight like uh that that i don't think is going to be like every bo-nickle fight going forward obviously that was like a you know a stylistic strategic decision that bow took for that fight didn't feel he needed to show his wrestling he was winning the stand-up not in a dynamic or exciting way at all but he was he was and he went on he got his extra check kept his undefeated record. I don't think RDR would necessarily allow that to happen to him.

He probably would press the action a little more. He probably would, you know, take some more risk, which is why we love him. But I just feel like Nickel is actually a pretty tough puzzle to solve in his own right, even at this young age, right? Young in fight years. And I hope we wouldn't get another stalemate. But I understand the thing behind it. I think we believe that RDR can bring kind of bring the dog out of anyone.

but I'm not I'm not totally convinced yet so I don't know if I want to see that one made as the next matchup for both guys take a couple more Samamkali I hope I got that right RDR versus Vittori Moikano versus Fiziv 2 it's not a bad one Dawson versus BSD I don't mind Darryush versus

I also don't mind Daryush versus Sviziv as the comeback fight for for Zeeve. I don't mind that either. I think it works. I'm just thinking about the BSD. I like DOS and BSD. I do like that.

So BSD pretty much never goes to a decision. The one time was the unfortunate, like, you know, short notice a welterweight bout he took in this USAD view where he got his just, like, murdered for three, which should, and that fight should not have gone this distance. That's what I should not have gone through rounds. The referee was doing his job or his team, or even his team, they would have called that fight off like after one of the rounds and then saved

so the one decision he went to was dubious at best. could he drag Dawson into a little bit of a dog fight? Or maybe Dawson is just, you know, is on another level and just takes him down and actually gets a finish with his wrestling, with his grappling with his submissions. That would be impressive, too. So that's good thinking there. There's good thinking. But they are streaking in ups direction. That's the only, I think, thing that hold them back.

And I think after the call out of Benile, I think if you're grant, you're kind of looking at Sandini as a step back from that, even though BSD is ranked higher than him. Anyway, it's weird. It's weird. A couple last ones. The Intuit Dome should be an annual stop. Now presentation and graphics are 10 out of 10. Very WBS impressive. It was awesome.

I'm rarely jealous of Jose Young's for any reason. But, and he'll tell you himself, like traveling to fights all the time is not always wine and roses. It is exhausting. He's our boots on the ground and he does this so much. It can be super exhausting. I think I'm speaking. I'm totally speaking for him here. I think he felt pretty excited and pretty.

privileged, even though he's working 95% of the night, but to have seen that first UFC event there. Because on TV, it looked awesome. It looked so cool on TV. I think even better than Sphere, I think it looks cool than Sphere. It looks so, so, so cool. And of course, it's a venue that's actually built for, like, you know, sports and fighting and stuff. So it's just going to make for a better watch overall. And I'm very jealous that Jose got to be there for that.

Because I'm sure he got quite a show when he was able to take in the arena. Yeah. We got a little bit of doo-doo here, okay. We have a very interesting selection and some do-do from one of our good buddies, lazy bed. Goosecott versus Zhang, no do-do. Terrific pick. That's just insanity. Olin Beck up versus Josh Van, do-doo.

Josh fans booked. Correct. UFC 313, Bruno Silva. It happens. It happens. I do it last week. I did do last week. I just messed up Porre and Moikano.

So, I mean, not long ago, I just had DUDU, so there you know. I had, who was it? Christian Rodriguez versus JSP. It would have been a rematch. Real? And I forgot to drop the two. That was in the U.S. Like 2019 or something.

In the UFC? It was in the UFC. 2021 maybe? I don't know. But JSP won, and I totally forgot that fight ever happened. Damn. But I take the DUDU with pride. We all make mistakes.

We're still warming up. You know, Mike, it's the second card of the year. We're all still kind of warming up. And everyone's at one scale got their matchmaking muscles, you know, not quite at 100%. Yeah, we'll get there. Get there. Slidam. Rob is the only bet I won last night.

Otherwise, I got reverse swept. I put this up because I want to brag about my betting. I went five for five last night of the main card. It was terrific. Under one and a half in the first two fights, both hits. Nice. Smart. Then I had Yuri underdog bet.

I had Marab, underdog bet. And I had Islam wins. in either rounds one, two, or three and hit that at minus 180. So it was a great night. Five for five. Well done. I went two for five.

I went two for two with two very small, very easy bets. It was just RDR straight and Shelton straight. That was it. Again, I had a terrible 2024 of gambling-wise. So I'm like, I'm just trying to get some doubles use right now. Maybe by, you know, come back to me in April and we'll see how much money I'm putting on Eileen Perez versus Misha Tate. And then we'll talk.

And I also want to just say to the, to the viewing public, I don't say this to brag. I say this because I maybe won a week's worth of, well, actually, I probably won like three weeks worth of Dunkin' Donuts ice coffees. Like, I'm putting down the money. You guys are probably putting down when we're talking about the fistfights and the fisticuffs. And this is why I don't bet. Like, I do it for entertainment purposes.

But I had some good reads last night. I was feeling pretty good. But that's going to do it for this week on the program. Next week, AK, you're going to need a co-host. Oh, no way, you don't. No, no, I don't. There is no. Yeah.

Yeah. I forgot all about that. But because UFC is off next week, and then they head to Saudi Arabia, to Riyadh for UFC, Riyadh, noon eastern start time. I believe the main card is at noon eastern,

isn't it? No, it'll be our noon, yes, because the prelims are set for 9 a.m. Eastern. Oh, just terrific.

Oh, that is fantastic. We could record Otnao, like Saturday afternoon. And I think we will. rules and we probably will oh like that day i won't sorry i can't lock into that i think there's something we'll see we'll see we'll play that one big oh i think uh there's a lot going on that they row rumbles that day yeah yes that's true yeah there you go exactly got to get those rumbull get those

rumble tools there are i shouldn't i'm just going to go ahead and say it and we'll see what we'll kind of gauge the uh the care levels there's there have been talks about doing a royal Rumble watch party. Just throwing that out there. I would do that in five seconds. Just saying. I would call in. It would be fucking awesome.

And I don't even regularly keep up with any pro wrestling company at the moment, but that's the beauty of the Royal Rumble. It's like you only need to vaguely, because you'll see guys who you haven't seen in a long time. You'll get to know, like if you're like me, you'll get to know probably some of the newer stars. And I would ask Mike, like, oh, who's this guy who's like, I think I know this guy.

That's what's so fun about it is you don't, it's such a, so many. which hits is such an endorphin rush of just oh look at this guy look at this guy look at this thing happening this is crazy uh rome rumbull i would do it for rumble and i would do it for mania that's yeah yeah i wouldn't do it for anything else yeah uh but that's february first but before any of that can all happen ufc saudi arabia israel ad asaniya mrs nashoret afi shahra bavr versus michael vennon phaidrexio vizier rosenberghssyrase i'magamah mouyeyeyev versus Emil Gadsia versus Thomas Peterson.

Terence Vickitty versus Demir Hadzovich, Fores Ziam versus Mike Davis. Great fight. Jasmine Jazz DeVizius versus Myra Blano Silva. How about that? 125. Let's go. Jasmine, I need you, Jasmine.

Our fantasy team needs you a little bit after what happened with Peyton Taleb. Bogdan Grod versus Lucas Alexander. Hamdi Abdelawab versus Jamal Poges and Al-Sawadi versus Balaji Oki. So there you have it. That is UFC Saudi Arabia and that that card. That card's better than 312. I think. I don't even think it's a hot take top to bottom.

Yeah. That's a better overall. Yeah. Like overall like ERA, this is better. Yeah, it's definitely better. Just the three, the top two fights at 312 are awesome. The rest of that card is bad. Like looking at those main card graphics, I was like,

Buf. Justin Taffa. fighting in a featured bout on pay-per-view. Tough scenes. Tough scenes. But we know that fight will be fun. But yeah, I mean, that's where we're at. And that will lead into 312.

And then we'll be back at the world's most famous apex for another middleweight main event between Jared Kinaneer and Gregory Rodriguez. So stick with us, MAAfighting.com. I will, as I was going to hit this button, I was going to be on vacation, starting right after I said goodbye. here. But that is not the case. The vacation has been delayed today because tomorrow, about 24 hours from right now, as a matter of fact, we're doing another town hall right here at the NBA Fighting YouTube channel. This time, it will not be with our good pal Don Davis.

It will be with the founder of the brand new global fight league, GFL, Darren Owen, will join all of us to answer your questions about the season, the doubts behind it, the fact that there aren't even a lot of people who expect them to put on one events, let alone two events. And there's just a lot of skepticism and a lot of questions. So Darren is going to come on here for an hour and answer all of your questions. So Brigham, get ready. I will build a link later on today.

And you can start getting your questions in, but that's going to happen at 1 p.m. Eastern. And then as soon as that is over, I am in the car and I'm out of here for about a week and a half. So appreciate all of you. you guys are the best. And as far as this show goes, we will see you in two weeks following UFC Saudi Arabia right here on onto the next one for AK, I am Mike Heck. Always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously.

MMA is supposed to be fun. And what fun we shall have right after UFC Saudi Arabia right here. And on to the next one, the podcast. Have a great rest of your weekend, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.