MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Israel Adesanya After Third Straight Loss At UFC Saudi Arabia

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

While Nassourdine Imavov picked up the biggest win of his fighting career in the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia, his opponent, and former two-time champion Israel Adesanya suffered his third straight loss. What's next for "The Last Stylebender" after falling short in his first non-title fight in over five years? 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 Imavov following his impressive second-round knockout victory in the headliner, along with Adesanya. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for co-main even winner Michael Page after his lopsided decision victory over Shara Bullet in his UFC middleweight debut, Sergei Pavlovich following his decision win against Jairzinho Rozenstruik, along with fellow main card winners Vinicius Oliveira and Fares Ziam, 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

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Wi-Fi available to AeroPem members on equip flights sponsored by Bell Conditions Apply, see Air Canada.com to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the next one. The matchmaking crowns are back following some early day MMA. The UFC was in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh for an early event, ended nice and early, so we could enjoy some boxing, some BKFC, Parker Porter, becoming the number one contender

in the BKFC heavyweight division, the Royal Rumble, Jay U.S., Uso wins the men's Royal Rumble. Just no one saw that coming. No one saw an NBA trade coming. It was just a wild Saturday. But here on the Sunday morning, it's all about the matchmaking following UFC Saudi Arabia. I am Mike Heck and joining me as always,

the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. Damony is my best friend too. He is the great Alexander Cately, aka how are we doing on this Sunday? So much sports coming at you, news and action. Thank God for Parker Porter for bringing some stability. to our lives because it was a wild Saturday, man.

I mean, we were looking forward to early morning MMA. And it was a pretty good card overall, I think. But it felt like it was drifting towards, like, forgettable, like a card of like, yeah, like they put on a good show in Saudi Arabia, but we won't remember this. We won't remember this by the end of U.S. 312, you know, next weekend. And then IMAVob really just puts it on, Izzy. I mean, you know, people complain about the stoppage.

That's fine. It was early. I agree early stoppage. But I always say, you know, early stoppage does not mean bad stoppage it was early it was early but i also feel like it wasn't going great for izzie i think think he's just taking more damage there there was a point during that like sequence where he was like he looked really out of it obviously he came back obviously i think like he would you know could have taken a few more punches does it benefit any of us if he takes a few more punches i don't know

so i was fine with that but yeah that and then the joe is the thing i was watched the rumble i'm sure you were too my best friend that was wild and yes then capping it off with like a 1 30 in the morning NBA trade. One of the weirdest trades ever. So I'm happy to just get back to matchmaking here and just try to settle everything down because I got so many thoughts running to my head that are MMA related and not MMA related. Yeah. So let's just get right into it because we could veer off onto many different roads right now.

But let's take the road less traveled, I guess, in the sports world, which happens to be UFC Saudi Arabia, despite an insane ending in the main event, as you mentioned, Nastyanee move off, knocks out Israel out of Sonia, 30 seconds into round two. Very strange in a number of ways, not just because, you know, I didn't think there's any controversy

with the stoppage, especially after that uppercut landed after the knockdown. I was like, all right, this thing is cooked? And the referee stopped it. And even watching Izzy watching it back, he even said,

all right, fair play, fair play in the end. He did say, like, I'm still alive after John, he heard John Gooden say he was upset about the stoppage. But it seemed like Izzy thought it was a much more

fair stoppage than say the Alex Pereira one in their first MMA fight. Got it again. Madison Square Guard. It was got it again. I'm surprised. Am I crazy? Are fighters not? Maybe I'm missing,

I'm misremembering this. I thought fighters are allowed to, they can ask the commission, like they can protest a referee, right? Didn't Izzy do one of those like, I'll never let this guy referee or, or, I know he wasn't a fan of Goddard after that stoppage. I'm surprised.

I'm surprised. I was surprised he would go down like that. Yeah, I don't know. I actually, if you're listening to this now, my interview with Eric Nixick is, is live on our YouTube channel. And we talked about the Mark Smith situation with the Chris Curtis fight.

And I was like, do you know who's refereeing the, the Strickland fight? And he's like, no, I don't know. I'm like, well, what if it's Mark Smith that he's like, well, I'm definitely going to say something. Like, I don't know, I don't know what they can do. But after what Eric said about Mark, there's no way Mark is going to go into that, like not somewhat upset and somewhat feeling some kind of way about Eric.

So I would, I guess I understand it. But I don't know if Izzy was really in a position to protest or make any, any waves. because, I mean, the UFC kind of commissions themselves on those cards in a lot of respects. But anyways, big win for Nasdaini Moveoff. He is 4-0 in the last 12 months, including two big stoppages, a bunch of big wins. And now Israel had a Sonia on top of the resume. This, we were talking a little bit off here.

Some of this was a little difficult, but this is the easiest pick for me by far for for Nasorini Move Off. I assume you agree. The band is here. I don't know if we need to queue them up, but I assume. we're on the same page here. I hope so, but I'm scared now. I'm going to feel like a fool when you say your pick.

You want to like one, two, three it? No, no, I'm scared. I know I'm not confident. We have the same pick. Then I have to hear yours because I feel like there's only one answer to this. Okay, so I thought Robert Whitaker. Oh, no, we're so far off. Oh, because, wait, he's not getting the winner of the 312, right?

No, but there's another guy who's on a nice. run too. Oh, you wanted, what, Cayo Bahio. Yeah. That's like a legit number one contender fight. Yeah, I don't, I guess I'm going to go against what I always say all the time, multiple times this show, by the way, guys. So get your tomatoes ready, get ready to throw it. Because, like, I don't know what.

I think that's one of the reason I had so much difficult to this episode was I was going out of my way to avoid, oh, I'd be a dork about it, Mike. I'm like, oh, I don't want to put two guys who potentially could get a title shot against one another. And anyone who's watched previous episodes knows I'm normally like, yeah, just do it. Like, you have to guys have to fight at some point, a lot.

Yeah, it's going to like knock one contender out temporarily. But if they're good and they're young, they'll come back eventually. I don't know why. I was being so precious. I was being so precious with my picks. So now I'm like, I'm like, oh, he should fight Izzy's new BFF, Robert Whitaker. But I mean, yes, I do think Kyle makes a lot of sense. I don't know.

I'm trying to protect them. Why am I trying to protect them? Like, how did I become this? I don't know. I feel like one of them has to go in this, in this conversation. I feel like Hamzat's going to be next for the winner. And then these two guys can fight for the winner of Hamza versus whoever wins the 312. Yeah, it's got to be in front of the UFC. Yeah, the very least. Don't Apex this.

Please don't Apex this UFC. At the very least, give Nasrudeen and Kio an audience somewhere, please. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a card being rumored in Brazil. That wouldn't be a bad one. It might be like a little quick turnaround because I think they're looking at maybe May for that. Or you could just wait until September. If they go back to Paris, that's a perfect made event for Paris right there. Do Himovov-Vos versus Bahlio, high stakes? Love it. So, yeah, go that route. Wittaker's fine too, but I feel like, I don't know. I just kind of feel like after Imovop knocks out, Izzy, it's either the belt or a title eliminator.

And I don't think you could put Whitaker in a title eliminator right now. Yeah. Yeah, you would do that having to be like super confident that Nasrudeen was going to win. Otherwise, you're right. If Rob wins, and it's just like, now what do we do? It's true. Yeah. The more interesting question here, AK, is where do we go with Israel, Adasadya?

Israel, Adesania is in a weird place now. never thought I would come on the show and discuss Israel out of Sanya from a matchmaking perspective after losing three straight and four of his last five. But here we are, AK, this man is, I'm not going to be as harsh as Michael Bisbing, but I don't think he's fighting for a belt again. I think those days are over, but it's okay. Like, he could still do fun things. He could still make money.

He could still headline cards. And he could still be in, like, interesting fights that we can kind of have callbacks to. So I went a little weird with this one because I do think he's going to take a little time. And this guy is already booked. But I'm going to go ahead and say it anyways. It's a man who just fought like two weeks ago. He's already rebooked after losing. And he is going back down to 170 to fight another grappler who may just submit it again.

And let's just kind of throw these two dudes in with each other and just see what happens. because you know the trash talk's going to be good, both out of the octagon. And even in it, I'm going win or lose against Gunner Nelson. We do Israel Adasania versus Kevin Hollis. You're really trying to help Kevin hit that like eight fight mark order. What do you say he's going to fight eight times? It's here or something or six times, eight times. Seven times.

Well, you could do it. But he's going to take some time, you know? You know, maybe we do it summer, international fight week or sometime summer. That's a fun one. After Kevin fights Gunner and then fights someone else, then he fights Izzy. You say he's squeezed it. It's not Kevin's next fight, but I'm just saying it's going to be his next fight. So Kevin Holland, Win or Luce versus Gunner Nelson, plus the result of his next fight or two.

I love that. I mean, I love that. If Kevin is able to hang around for sure, like that, that's the way to go. Again, take a couple of fights at Welterweight. If you're going to go back to 25, you only do it for something like Izzy. I get no more random fighting random guys who are going to tackle you and so very easily dominate you on the ground. Yeah, I like that. I went with the more obvious one.

A lot of people were kind of mentioning this in my DM, stuff like that. I do like the Sharra bullet matchup. You know, you know he called for it before you've ruined his career, Mike, by making the Michael Page and Shara fight happen. That's your fault. You are to blame. You manufacture that in an interview with MVP. And but before that, Shara had called for Izzy.

And at the time, it's kind of made sense. Now it still makes sense. Right now they're both, you know, on, they're both coming off losses. Izzy on a bit of streak, of course, much. Shara, just his first one. And there's a lot of questions about Shara after the MVP fight, which some of them fair,

some of them not fair. We have said a thousand times nobody looks good against Michael Page. Even if Shara had won, it probably would have been like, like we would have been impressed, but I don't think he would have had like a crazy-ass highlight real thing,

but he didn't win. He didn't win. He was foiled by the mystic stylings of MVP, as many have before, even those who have beaten him, they've been dazzled by it. So I think he needs to be built. I think there's still money in the Izzy fight.

This falls almost, like, in your category of, like, I don't know if Izzy's going to be a contender again, but there are fun fights, and I think Sharra could be a fun one. And this is, if he loses to Sharra, I mean, that would really be, not that Sharra's bad. It's just like that would really be a sign, though, that, like, the game has passed him by. So, I mean, I'm curious of it in that sense. And if Sharra, if he doesn't have to beat Izzy, if he puts on a better, more exciting performance against Izzy, we can kind of restore our faith in him. If he drops another stink bomb, that's a whole other story. The one thing I don't want to do, Mike, is I don't like the light heavy weight talk. I don't love the light heavyweight talk.

I get it. Light heavyweight sucks ass. If he's, if the issue is that he's slowing down, I mean, listen, you go up to 205, you've got guys who are frigging slugs up there who may as well be heavy with it. So there's that issue. But they still hit pretty hard. I think we do have concerns about Izzy's chin. And more importantly, his boy Carlos Olberg is, you know, going for a title fight.

And if you're Izzy, you don't want to screw that up. Because Izzy has a star power where he goes up and beats like one top 10 guy. they would give him the title fight. Oldberg is like creeping, is working towards it the hard way. And I think that'd be pretty messed up if Izzy kind of like threw his name in there. And I don't think he wants to do that.

So I understand people saying go to 505. I had said it, I think, before. I think a few weeks ago on another show, like I'd be intrigued to see how he'd do it like heavyweight. But the timing just doesn't make sense right now. I saw people say you should do Izzy versus Yuri. I'm like, are you crazy? What is wrong with you?

What is wrong with you people? Like, first of all, Izzy can't hurt Yuri. And second of all, Yuri could really hurt Izzy. Yeah. And as interesting as that would be on a poster, I have no interest in a fight like that. So, yeah, let's just do fun fights and go from there. Let's go to MVP, AK. Michael Venom Page moves up to middleweight, beats the aforementioned Sharra bullet.

He wasn't in danger really at all in the fight. It was kind of one-way traffic. He was very MVP-like, threw Sharra bullet off almost immediately. Shara came out and made a statement and said that he was dealing with some sort of nightmarish health issue heading into the fight, and he wasn't very specific on what that was. So I assume we're not going to see Sharra bullet for quite some time. Maybe when the UFC heads back to Abu Dhabi for that pay-per-view in October. Maybe that's when we see him again, which is fine.

But a lot of people are saying maybe MVP just stays at 185. It doesn't seem like he has any interest in that right now. He wants to stick around at 170. So what do we do here, AK, did you keep him at 85 or did you drop him down to 170 for a fight? No, I want to keep him at 185. I think it makes a lot of sense for him, actually. Kind of, because he's not a guy, he doesn't have the Kevin Hollum problem

of having to worry about like, oh, there's big 185ers who's just going to tackle him. That's actually not really something that's happened to Michael Page a lot in his career, and he has fought some really good grapplers. There was that very, very gnarly Logan Storley fight, which frankly, I thought he won, even though, again,

it was a lot of him getting taken down, but Logan Storley literally did nothing. Now, again, against 185ers, it could be more of an issue. again, bigger guys could take some more damage in the ground. But his take-down defense is really good. His movement is really good. But anyway, so yes, I'd answer your question.

I did not keep him there. He doesn't sound like he wants to stay there. He says, he keeps saying he just wants fun fights. So I didn't, like, go too far up the welterweight ladder. I just found someone I think stylistically be a good matchup for him. And kind of sticking with age-appropriate-wise. Like, I mean, he's a bit older than this guy, but I think experience-wise, it's similar. I said Vicente-Luke.

That's just a fun, just a fun fight. Again, I don't know what MVP wants. I don't know if he wants. I don't know if he cares about fighting for a title. If he just wants a fun matchup, Lucas right there. Someone's getting C0ed or you're getting a three-round, like a really intriguing three-round, like striking about it. So the way I'm approaching MVP is I'm trying to put myself in Sean, Shelby,

and McManor's shoes right now. Like, what are they thinking? What are they going to offer him? Because MVP's not going to say no to it. Whatever it is, he's going to take it. And I don't think this is the right fight for MVP. And I don't think a lot of other people, people feel this is the right fight for MVP. I'm sure there's a couple people who feel that way.

It's not the Wonderboy fight because that's ridiculous. Even both those guys are telling the world that this fight's going to suck. So don't, don't stop calling for it. No one wants to see it. They have no interest in fighting each other because they like each other and they train together and their buds. Plus they both know it'll be a terrible fight. I'm going with Carlos Pratchez AK. I, it is a risky fight. Like if the UFC is looking at Carlos Pratchez being like,

Like, all right, our goal with this guy is to get him a title shot by end of the year, first quarter, 2026. The name value is here. No doubt about it. But of like all the matchups at 170 for him in the top 15, this might be the riskiest fight for him. However, I am curious to see how both guys would handle this one. How would Pratch just look against a guy like MVP? how would MVP approach just an absolute sniper like Carlos Brachis?

Like there's the more I thought about it, the more I'm thinking the UFC is going to try to make this fight. So I'm going with that. Not that I'm the biggest fan of this, but this is me going for the Otno point, trying to put myself in the matchmaker's shoes. That's what I'm going with. Yeah, I love it. I love that pick. Again, like I said, this week, people will see my picks are a little bit kind of almost too conservative. Like I don't think I got two adventures than any of these picks, a lot of safe stuff.

that would be really intriguing. It'd be a really great way to move the division along. If MVP wins, listen, now you can really talk about him like being maybe one fight away from actually fighting for a UFC title, which would be awesome. Like I think MVP is such a class guy. I think he has one of the, he's one of the few fighters.

I say this all the time. I don't consider that many combat sports athletes or athletes in general to be like genuinely charismatic. I actually think MVP is. I think he fits in that category. And not even beyond just the celebrations, just the way he can. carries himself. I think there is really something there. So I don't know if the UFC ever

signed him with the idea that he's going to fight for a title, but if he beats a guy like Pratchez, holy crap, that would be impressive. And again, the other way, Pratchis, what, what, 5 and O in the UFC? I mean, and a win over with a guy with a name like that. Now you've got a real title contender. So that makes a lot of sense, Mike. I'm totally into that. All right. It was the night before the gathering and all through the house. The host rapid cozy cashmere throw from Homense for their spouse. Kids Toys for $699. under the tree and crystal glasses for just 1499 for their brother Lee a baking dish made in

portugal for tom and sue and a nice 599 candle perfectly priced just for you happy holidays to all and to all a good price homesense endless presents perfectly priced now probably the weird oh god i have no clue for the next the next like three picks but i got nothing i got i don't know uh Sergey Pavlovich won a fight that happened, not one that anybody will ever go back and watch again. He wins a unanimous decision against Jarzini Rosenstrike in a tackle fest. It was just, I don't know, it was just not what I expected. Jose didn't seem all that surprise in the post-fight show, but it wasn't the most thrilling affair. Dana White sort of admitted as such, but Pavlige needed a win.

In my opinion, he needed to win more than anybody on this card and then included Israel Adasania. So a loss for him to, a loss to Jarazina would have been absolutely devastating for Sergei Pavlach. So he stays alive, at least in the top of the division conversation. The problem, AK, is that this dude has fought everybody that he could potentially fight right now. And the guys who are like in the neighborhood are probably fighting other people. So I think the best case scenario for him is that he can land Jailton Almeida. But I don't think that fight happens.

So this is what I went with, AK. Coming up in a little over a month's time, there is a fight happening between Marchine Tybora and Mick Parkin, and the winner of that fight will fight Sergey Pavlovich. The band was sleeping. The band was like, well, the band was like, we're not going to need it for this pick. Don't worry about it.

Nope, come back, guys. Come back. Three, two, one. Friends forever. I did the pick and I put a question mark next to it. I was like March and DeBerra Mick Parkin winner? Like I have no confidence in it. But yeah, you're looking for guys he hasn't fought March DeBurra, perennial top 10 guy.

Mick Parkin will be a top 10 guy if he legitimately in the UFC if he beats March and DeBora. So that's it. That's the way you got to go with it. Wow, this was Friends Forever I did not expect. Neither did I. Who knows where the rest of the show is going to go? go we might we might get all friends forever's for the last three picks where we've had no idea where to go highly doubted I highly doubt it well let's see let's see if the

trend continues venetius oliva gets a big win over said and romaga made off he came in dinged up and still got the job done side of maga made off I even posted on our slack channel the first 40 seconds of that fight was the first best 40 seconds of saidnaumaga made off's fighting career he was putting it on all there and then oliver just kind of outlasted him and and got the job done. So by the way, let me just say, I love the Umar call out. Absolutely love it. And there's a part, like, I don't think this fight happens, but boy, I would love to see it. Like, I would really love to see it. I think Venetius actually has a chance in that fight. I think he would be a huge underdog, but I actually think stylistically in his durability, in his ability to, like,

not get tired even when he's hurt and banged up. He's a problem, man. Like, he's really good and he's athletic and he's tough as shit. I like him, man. I didn't go that route. Where did you go? No, I liked it too. I didn't pick it either. But if Umar is serious about like, you know,

getting back in there sooner rather than later and making a statement that, listen, I, you know, beyond like, oh, I felt I won the fight, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like, you know, I feel like I at least I can win this fight if I get it again. I'm sure he very confidently feels he can beat Mara. He's going to have to fight his way back there. And yeah, there's some veteran names. I can't remember who I threw him in there. I honestly have already forgotten who I picked for him after three.

I'm trying to find it now. What was this January? When was 311, Mike? January 18th. 18th. What did I say? Oh, right. I had to make up a fight.

I had to make up a fight to figure out what you next to him are. I said, O'Malley and Peodor Yan rematch, which again, it was not booked. I don't even hear people talking about it, like a buzz about it. So I want to see that match made, and then Umark gets that loser of that fight. But that fight doesn't even exist. So Um, um, yeah,

and it's a real statement for Vincius who has a lot of experience. Like I know he's three and no in the UFC, but he's 25 pro flights in. Like he has, he is, he wants that a title shot. Like this is the guy who is not like just, you know,

flitting about. He's like, I, I'm of the age. I'm in my prime. Let me fight for it now. And you beat Umar. You're right in there.

I did a great job. He mixed the martial arts. I have to go way lower just because I don't know who in the top like seven, eight he can get like I considered maybe Cheeto. Um, But I went with like, I feel's bad now. I just off the come up with the Umar call. I went with like Kyler Phillips.

I don't know. Oh, stop it. Stop it, Mike. No. Oh, the band is. I told them to rely. No, guys, come back. I'm so sorry.

I told it. Come back. Oh, my God. Three, two, one. Friends forever. Oh, my God. If we get it with friends I am, I'm going to lose it. This is weird.

You just have to stop the show. Like, it'll never get better. It's unbelievable. As soon as you said, as soon as you said, I can't find somebody in the top seven or eight. I thought about maybe Cheetah. I'm like, oh, we get a chance here. Why did we do this? Explain, explain our pick to me.

Why did we do this? Because I think he's, I think he should probably get a ranked guy. And Kyler's coming off of a loss. And he's on the back end of the top 15. So I think it makes sense. Okay. Where is he in the UFC? see he he actually he's 14 okay that makes sense and i don't think i don't think uh loch dog

is going to be ranked after this fight yeah 12 wow 12 yes so he's 12 so that's good so that's good yeah so right above him is aldo he's not going to get aldo or i don't even think he wants to fight aldo right now uh baptista who i think we assume is uh going to get someone ranked above him so he won't get that actually that that that's i wouldn't rule that one out but i can't remember who i booked for bartisa but i remember i tried to like i don't know i wasn't happy. I don't even want. He doesn't deserve a fight with Loke Dog. He doesn't deserve a look down. I kind of like Sondi Deng, but I know he's fighting Sukudo and like I didn't want to do like the loser of that by. I don't think that makes sense either. So yeah, you kind of have to go

just a little bit down for a guy with, you know, who has a little bit more of a name than, than Olivera has been there longer. So he does gain something. I did think he does gain something if he beats Kailer, right? Oh yeah, 100%. He gets a ranking and goes and goes from there. like college maybe he gets marie batista after that who knows maybe he gets umar after that but i think he's going to have to win at least one more fight before he gets the umar fight all right we're two for two here let's see if we can get the third one let's go to ferez zayem aka who beats mike davis this is a dude's real good i think mike davis wasn't his at his best i don't know if was ring russ or if he was hurt uh but i'm not taking anything away from ferez because i think you potentially even on

their best days. Ferez might have won that fight. He's really, really good. That was a gritty, bloody, grimy battle. And Fores gets it done. He's got the third longest winning streak in the division right now behind Patty Pimblet and Islam Machachev, which is a little bit of a trivia question for you. But Fores just continues to surge. And I, based on how you view things, AK, I don't know how, I don't know which direction you went here, but I'm throwing them to the wolves. Throw them to the wolves. Let's count it down. You know what?

I'm feeling confident, Mike. Let's now, you know what? Let's do it. Let's count it down. Do the count down? Oh, my God. The band is ready. The band is now, they're like, no, no, no.

We're not going anywhere now. No, no. Now we know these guys are. Oh, man. This is a roller coaster ride because I think there's only two choices here. There's a chance you may have got one and I got the other or we both got the same guy. All right. All right.

Three, two, one. Joel. Raphael Fazeveveveeveeveeve. Oh. Oh. The band is getting They're asking should they play the prices right? Dale horn.

No, no, no, no. Bump, but stop, stop, no. I like Fizzi. Listen, Fizziv's not a bad shout. Yeah. Yeah, Joel Alvarez was, I think, one of my choices for sure. I just feel like, again, it's so where we keep hearing all these fight rooms with Fizib. Someone has to get him at some point, and I think Ziam has earned it.

Like, one fight ago for Foress, I would have said, no, he's not quite in that Fisiv range. He's in there now. He's in there now. Five straight, great performance against Mike Davis. He's, he is legit. And he deserves, he just can't fight back now. He deserves someone ranked higher than him. I think that's why I didn't go with Joelle.

I don't know if Joelle is higher than him in the official rankings. I actually already have him over Joel now. So I think the only reason I didn't go in that direction. So neither guy's rank. So I don't know where Joe, but Joel has been ranked before. So I guess that- Joel was ranked three weeks ago. Grant Dawson beat CDF.

So theoretically, again, we don't know if the UFC keeps an internal like past the top 15 or the panel, whatever the hell the voting thing is now. But I guess they could theoretically have Joelle ahead of Foresz. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. So that's why I didn't pick him. But it is a great fight. And if Foress doesn't get a top 15 guy, he is going to have to fight someone like a

like a joel over as soon. Yeah. But I hopefully. Hopefully he can get Fisiv. Hopefully he can get Fisiv. I just feel like, I think he deserves it. And Fiziv needs a, that's a win-old fight for Fiziv too. If Fiziv wants to come back and, again, make his own statement that, hey, I'm still a top 10 guy.

I'm not a stepping stone. I still want a shot of that title. You beat a guy like Ziam, you get that, you get that thunder right back. You take a five-fight win streak from a guy. Guess what? You hold on to your spot and then your next fight is you deserve like a top six, top seven guys. So it makes sense for Fizib, too, I think. Oh, yeah, 100%.

Uh, okay. I mean, things are happening right now. I've been offered from BKFC the opportunity to talk to the goat. So I think we're going to make that happen. That's an offer you can't refuse, as they say. Absolutely. I mean, I was going to reach out to him anyways, but now that I don't have to even do the legwork,

that's a beautiful thing. Let's go to the wild card round, AK. Let's select one fighter we've not matched for, and we'll matchmake for them right now. I have a feeling we're matchmaking for the same fighter, but who knows? What do you got? I don't know.

I went with JJ. I went Jasmine, Justavision. Oh, you did? I would be shocked if we land on the same person, but I've been wrong before. I owe Jasmine an apology. I picked against her many times. People, if anyone keeps track of my picks, they'll see I pick against Canadians pretty often. I don't know if it's a self-loathing thing.

I don't know if it's a reverse jinx thing, not that I believe in that. I just tend to pick against Canadians. So I had picked against a Canadian again, but Jasmine looks great. Madre Buenos Aires-a-Selva looks completely lost in her return to 125. She might not be that good, I think. This was our number one. This was like a year ago. This was like our number one women's band to wait, whatever that means.

And now she's probably not ranked in either, I have to think, after that loss. Anyway, so yeah, I'm going with Jasmine. And it's hard because there's other names that I think makes sense for her that I've already kind of messed up. Like, I think Macy Barber's still out there, and I like that fight. But I think I matched up Macy with Natty Ice or something. I said, I was thinking like a Tracy Cortez rematch, but it doesn't make, I don't think it makes sense for Cortez right now. Like, Jasmine's pretty far removed from that fight, so it makes sense she'd probably want that back.

Tracy, I don't know. So career is so weird. Like, I just don't know if she would care to fight Jasmine again. That's only two fights away for her. And then I once upon a time, I said, like, Caitlin's summer an hour, but I think she's past that now. I think, like, Jasmine doesn't need that. So I landed on Thug Rose. Oh.

It's kind of been teased before. She, like, tweeted about it as a joke, like, respectfully, like Battle of Lithuania. you know they both have the lithuanian heritage so that'd be kind of neat thing to do and again i don't know what rose is going to do now um she's kind of in limbo she might return to one 15 like i think that's been suggested by by fans saying like yeah let's go back to that 115 um but she's she she i don't think has given any indication that she wants to give up on 125 i think she likes it not cutting that 10 pounds is like very very enjoyable and she hasn't looked like horrible in any of her fights i don't think maybe the men all fight no even the man off

she didn't like horrible she got outclass um so yeah let's let's let's give j jay a chance to crack the top And let's see if we can make her and Rose happen. Yeah. We were very, very close to a Friends Forever Wildcard. Very close. Because that could headline the rumor of Montreal fight night card. That'd be great.

Absolutely. I'd love that. But I'm sticking with what I had after Jasmine's last fight. Jessica Andrage. Let's just do that. Yeah. Kind of the same ilk. I've given up on the Adjcacacres,

uh, Rosnami Eunice trilogy, much like I've given up officially on Derek Lewis versus Jarst. Zia Rosenstrike. I'm just not going to... Don't say that. Why would you say that? I've given up.

No. It's never going to happen. It's still possible right now coming off of this result. No, they're going to book Derek Lewis against Waldo Cortez-A-Costa next. Like, that's just the type of BS they like to do and not give us, oh, we give you the fight so the fans want to see. Everyone's been clamoring for this one for like five years. We still haven't gotten it.

That is so weird that that's never even been rumored or like said like, how is this not like a thing? No apology to Jasmine from me. Not only is she on my fantasy team. That's how much confidence I had in her. She got my first points of the season. Got me some ranked points on top of that, which good for her. And I didn't even realize until like two hours after the event that I had Shemiel Gadziyev on my team.

I was going to get convinced him in our picks. So we have obviously a Slack channel for our fantasy. You had no reaction to like what was essentially a walk off knockout. I was like, okay, well, I saw you're busy or something. I thought like, oh, okay, Mike must be working on something right now. I totally forgot he's on my team. And frankly, he probably should have gotten a bonus, right? He should have.

Well, Bogdan Grod. Okay, well, we knew, you know what? We knew Nostrad was going to, and I guess Bogdan Grod was a comeback. That's kind of cool. But I thought Shamil for the style points. Yeah. It's weird that it was declared. No, it's not weird.

I get why it was called a TKO. But that's a K.O in like anything but name. That's a knockout. I understand the referee. It's, you know, literally like, you know, technical chaos or technical knockout, technically had to step in and kind of like assess the situation. So it wasn't like a click.

I don't know. That's a knockout to me. Maybe the commission will re-categorize that because that's just, that's a knockout. I don't know. Anyway, you got robbed. You got robbed of another 50 points. I mean, that's just pretty much how the fantasy run has gone. I've continuously get robbed over and over and over and over and over and over.

So there you have it. Let's go to the peeps. Let's do it. Do you do. Hold on. Someone who's actually reached out. Oh. Someone who's asking if the show is going to happen today.

And I responded, yes. I don't know if they're going to make picks. Because I didn't get a ton of them, so I'll go through them real quick. Okay. We'll go to left lane. Excuse me. Left lane kicks us off. Imovov versus the Drickish Sean winner.

Okay. He's going right for the title fight. Beating Izzy, Alan Deleez, Zane, Canaan, and the time that Hamzot took off and only beat Whitaker is more deserving of a shot. I won't get it, though, because money is the only thing that matters. Fair point. No, fair point. Very fair point.

Adasani versus Fluffy when he beats Alan. Boy, you're just throwing poor Izzy into the meat grinder. Jesus. I mean, I thought we respected Izzy. That's a tough night of the office for that guy. If Izzy's plans to take a break, I can't see him coming back for that one. I can't see him like, oh, yeah, I'd love to for Anthony Hernandez instead of like going on a vacation for the next eight months. Yeah, he's going to have to knock him out in the first 30 seconds, or he's toast.

And I say that about most guys in this division, except for maybe drink his two plus see. MVP versus Jeff Neal, Scharer versus Roman Coppola, Pavvich versus the Tibura Parkin winner. Olivera versus Font after the cruise fight. We'll see. Ziam versus Gamrott. I don't mind that. I think that he has actually a chance of getting that one. Yep, yep.

And Gadsiav versus the Taibura Parkin loser. and also taking one 10,000th of a point for Jim Miller versus Chase Hooper, which I will also share a sliver of the point as well. Robbie Rye. Otno people made that happen. Good job, guys. I'm going to sit this to the collective Otno listening group. You made this happen.

Yes. Good day, fellas. Let's get Adno. Emovot versus Shemayev, true number one contender fight. There's no chance that happens. It makes sense, but there's zero chance that happens. I think there's a slim chance. I don't, I'm with you, but like, I'm going, like, I'll go like as high as like a 5% chance.

Who's this? Who's, who sent this in? I just want to make sure I don't read. This is Robbie Rod. Rob Ryan. Oh, Rob Ryan. What's up, Robbie? He likes MVP versus Robert Whitaker.

I mean, that's interesting. I, wow, that's good. Again, two guys who are essentially, I guess we just stopped calling Rob a welterweight at this point, but I just always remember that he came up from 170. But, yeah, two smaller guys at, you know, who just competed at 185. Yeah. Pavage versus gone, only fight that makes. any sense.

Jelton is going to get gone. That's why I didn't make that. That's why I didn't pick that for a second. I still think Jelton has to. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think Gons get a title shot or anything. Venetia Zolvara versus Marcus Bagee.

I don't mind that. That's fun. There's a cluster of streaking bantam weights that Lop Dog is part of, and it's very possible that they just have to match these guys up at some point. And Ziam versus Klein, wildcard.

I'm not sure if the weight cut killed MBS or if Jasmine fought that well, but give her a small step up. in Viviani Araujo. Yeah, Viviani says she's a gatekeeper. She's a gatekeeper at 125. Yeah. Let's go to Chris London,

Imovov versus the loser of Strickland v. DDP, Izzy versus Balio, MVP versus Costa or Michael Morales. It's trending towards Michael Morales versus Gilbert Burns right now. I don't think that's, like, I don't know if we've like fully confirmed that. But that fight's being rumored for the Miami card. At this point, I'd be surprised if that does not happen. But MVP versus Costa, it would be something.

Shara versus Cannoneer. That's the nicest way you could put it, Mike. Something. It would be something. It would be something. Shara versus the cannoneer. Gregory is loser. Pavich versus Almeida.

Rosenstrike versus Lewis. Oh, no. You janked it. And Ziam versus Joel Alvarez. Okay. You turned it around. And then we close out with John Ray Naima versus Siddique Yusuf, Zion versus Grant Dawson. I thought about that as well.

Oliver versus Jonathan Martinez. That's a good one. Another Pavvich versus Gahn. And wildcard, Rosenstrike versus Lewis, or we oil Dana up. There you go. Those are my picks. That's what I got. All right.

I got quite a few, my guy, quite a few. Let's start with our palat Tristan Gordet. Terrence McKinney, Michael Johnson. I can't imagine Terrence putting Michael away in the first round. I mean, that's probably like, it's probably the right fight. And Tristan's still riding the Mike Davis train. Tristan's a big Mike Davis. We're all big, big Davis guys, right?

It's just, you know, whatever. It's just an activity. Mike Davis and Dracar close. Yeah, they're both coming off losses now. I would have said, like, Dracar, I would have had, like, well ahead of quite a bit ahead of Mike in the rankings. But after both coming off losses, yeah, they're certainly closer. It's a fight that would work for both guys.

But yeah, tough for Mike Davis, man. Just fights like once a year and then gets a really, really tough opponent in Fresium. And Fress, you know, doesn't Fress look great, well-rounded. Lightweight and Bantamate, like those first two fights, God, those divisions are crazy. Like you watch those fights and you're like any four of those guys I would put up against like, you know, could have competitive fights against like the top of being their division. But it's just so hard to even get those fights. Let me go to J. Donagie.

Imavov, Sean Strickland rematch. after he loses next week ddp. That'd be interesting. Sean Strickland pretty clearly won the first fight, but everyone always says, you know, fighting Strickland the first time is so difficult. Everyone is, like, his, where he will have sparred with him, saying, like, fighting him the first time is a nightmare.

We feel like that's what happened with Izzy. He's like, you know, he just could not deal with what Sean Strickland brings. He's just so unorthodox. And if you fight him again, theoretically, you do better. I don't know. Or Sean Strickland would just, like, dominate him of off again. So it's possible. I don't know if either guy is starving for that much.

Michael Page, Michelle Pereira at middleweight, or Colby Cummington at Welterrate Boring fight. No, it's not going to have it. What else we got here? They're with us with Oliver, Carla Phillips. Ziam, Matish Rebetsky. Like, Ziam is ranked considerably higher than him, in my mind,

but that's a fun as hell. Dude, I don't think, I don't think Matush Rebeski should be fighting for, like, another year after that battle with Oralby. I mean, I don't know when those do you guys Are we fight again? Logan, at Logan Schoffer, MVP versus Izzy, yeah, a lot of people,

listen, a lot of people are, that's you're going to say a lot of people? Sorry, I think about, I was thinking about Izzy and Shar. MVP and Izzy at 185. They're fuds. That's okay, so our MVP. Dude, the reason MVP called out Sharra was because Shara called out Izzy.

He was like, I intercepted it. No, they were in like the WWE. experience together. Like, they're like super, they're like good friends. You know, once you've done the WWE experience together, you are blood.

You are blood bound. DGB, welcome to the party pal. DGB at DGB MMMA. It's on Twitter. Imov, Hamza, Adisina versus Alan Hernandez winner. There's, again, MVP and Pratchez. Mike, you got on to something.

Olivera and Cody Garbret. Oh, I don't know about that. That might, that might end in a very, very ugly knockout for Cody. I mean, I was going to throw Peyton Talbot in there with Cody after if he, if he was a fight at UFC 311. But that's kind of where Cody's at right now. He's in that.

Even if the loss of it, please. Even with the loss of them in there with Cody, that'd just be funny. Fresi and Joel Alvarez, McKinney, and Michael Johnson again. So there we go. Guys are on the same page. If we're on the same page. Barry O'Reilly, always coming over with the great picks. Okay, I cannot read all of these.

But I haven't seen any of a lot of Hamdi Abd al-Havdabh picks. Hamdi Abdelahabah. Kennedy and Zichuku, take the over. Bogdan, Grod, Lucas, Almeida, okay. Jasmine and Jessica Andrage, there you go. Let me skip ahead here a bit. Brescia Marebetschi, that's another good one. Venetius Olivar, Kyla Phillips.

You know what? We have spoken into existence. We will make this happen. Nassardine, Strickland, DDP, loser. Wow, a lot of people are pushing for Nasrudeen to fight one of the 312 headliners. Yeah, okay. Okay, I get it. He deserves a top five guy.

I'm sorry, he is a top. five guy now probably after beating Izzy. So maybe he deserves a top three guy. If Strickland wins and it's like another close fight, are they going to do the trilogy immediately? Immediately. Oh, yeah, yes, yes, yes.

Because they did the right thing before by not doing the immediate fight. And then they gave us DDP Izzy, which we wanted. Sean Strickland had to earn his talismat, wins a quote unquote split decision over Paul O'Costa, which I think was pretty clearly unanimous. And then they got their,

They earned their trilogy fight one year later, perfectly built. But I don't think you can make them go through that again. I don't think you can do, okay, well, let's make them earn the trilogy. You probably just run it back if it's close again. So fingers crossed, it's not close again. I do not need to see these guys fight a third time. Toby Kinsella, Imovob, just as Imov title shot. So again, same thing.

Give him the winner. Boy, that win did a lot. Dude, Paul, did you see Paul Felder after the car was over? What is that? He was like, shouting it from the rooftops that Imov should get the title shot out. And then Lars Niko's like, well, I think Hamza Chamaif has something to say by that. And he's like, who cares? And like Left Lane said, technically, Imov has done more to earn it.

But, you know, but again, earn, deserved. Sorry, I know we shouldn't use these words in Eminem. A lot of the same picks we've had. We've got. So thank you, Toby. We are in agreement with a lot of these picks. I'm seeing a lot of Jasmine and Rose. So people are talking about it.

Mya Buenos Aires from Finn Hamilton. My ad Buenos Aires, Misha, Tate. Misha would have zero interest in that fight. I just don't see what that does. does for her at all. Mike Davis, Diego Fajeda, yes. Two guys who can never get in the cage, but hey, maybe we can make it happen. I don't know.

Shara and Roman copy log. Shara and Role. Sure. Yeah, I like that. That's smart. That's going to get some back on track. Yeah, I like that. ASE should retire if he doesn't.

Brendan Allen with a fluffy win. Brendan Allen instead of fluffy. I do like it more. I still think it's tough. for Izzy. If Brandon Allen wins. I do like it more, but it's still a tough. Both those guys are not a good,

fun matchup for Izzy right now. Yeah, the problem with Brendan is like, I like Brennan a lot. Like, he's a nice guy. I've known him for years and like, he's funny and he's got a good personality, but for some reason, it just doesn't resonate on camera.

You know what I mean? So he's never, like, gotten over. And when he says, like, cool things, it doesn't, it just doesn't have an impact. I don't, I don't get it. It's, it's, there's something about him that just hasn't gotten over with the people. So, I mean, I'd be fine with that. It'd be interesting, especially with Brendan's grappling pedigree and Brennan's a pretty

big middleweight. So that'd be interesting. But I don't know if like at this point in Izzy's career, he's like, ooh, you know what sounds really appealing fighting Brendan Allen. I don't know. Four corner sports. with me on imamov-wittaker see i like it i actually like this as a weird one izzie and paulo costa too like it makes no sense it's fine but it'd be super it'd be super fun right it makes no sense like for

either guy but it's just like it's a fun matchup the build of the first one i thought was great the fight turned out to give us a very memorable finish and moment and really paula has no direction right now that just might be the way to go so four-corner sports great job with that one again a lot of swans we've seen already because of mike davis elvis brenner sure i like that Jasmine and Casey O'Neill. Is Casey O'Neill injured again or something? I feel like, what's up with Casey?

It's a shame that our rookie of the year, I remember, of what, 2022? She fought in August. She fought Luana Santos and won. She did. Oh, okay. So again, Jasmine's probably a bit ahead of her right now,

but that makes some sense. I don't mind that. I don't love it. You don't love it? No, because prior to beating Luana Santo, she had lost her last two fights. And neither of them were all that competitive. She got outclassed by Jennifer May, and then she got dusted up by Ariani Elipski de Silva. True.

And tap. So I just think Jasmine's put in the work. And I think a year ago, maybe after the Santos win, like, I would have been okay with that. But Jazz has got two really good wins since then. So Speezy 32 likes Pavlovich versus Blades Cunyev winner, sure. I don't know. We just saw Pavlovich kill Curtis Blades not that long ago.

Yeah, you know, how long ago was that now? That must have been at least over a year. It's before the fight. Where close to two years now, Mike? Oh. Run it back. Run it back. April 2020.

We can't get Dergloos versus Jarzina Rosas. We want to see Sergey Pavich, Curtis Blades, too. We cannot get it. I thought about this one, too. Fred Zium and Benoit Santini. I think they're friends, not training partners early. I know they've trained together. I just don't know if they're like regular training partners to the point where they wouldn't

fight in France. Spezy specifies in France. Yeah, that would be cool, I guess. But more likely, you would just book them against other opponents. You would have two French lightweights fighting other guys. But I get. I actually weirdly thought about it. I think they prefer not to fight each other.

I do think they're friendly at the very least. Bogdn-Grad. Weston Wilson is still. the UFC? Yeah, he's coming off of a submission win in his last time. We were, Jed and I, when we were doing a No Betts Bar, we're trying to remember who was that fighter who Mike said has no chance of ever winning a

a fight for UFC. And it was Weston Wilson. I mean, you were very hard in Weston Wilson. And to my credit, I invited him on for an interview right after that and I confessed to him that I said that. Yes. And I apologize to him for it. And he was like, all right, man. Like, I get it.

I didn't go as far as to say like he called out like he he called it like two different websites. One said that they called him the worst signing in UFC history. I didn't go that far. And then he even, so I'll just say it, BJPen.com, he said in the interview. They actually said he got a bonus for that fight. They reported he got a bonus. I remember this. He's getting a bonus and he didn't get one.

That was bad. That was, I remember that. I felt so bad for him. That was such a mess up. That's so crazy. But like, let's say he fought Joe Anderson Brito and he fought Giann Silva. Yeah. So like that those are tough fights.

Like Giann Silva just perhaps like we, we didn't realize just how good Giann Silva was at the time. Because Weston just looked so out of place in that fight, which he admitted as well. But yeah, goes against Jack, Jacka Sadigee as a three to one dog and gets the triangle arm bar. So shout out Weston Wilson. Definitely. Listen, we're all in on West and Wilson now. I am rooting for him. He's our name. He's Parker Porter 2.0, baby. Let's go. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You've gone too far the other way now. Speezy also likes Hamdi and Thomas Peterson. Sure, let's keep this Hamdi, Thomas Peterson,

Jamal Poges, Dante Mays, like quartet, just rotating around fighting each other. Like, what a weird, like, incestuous quartet of heavy waste that we have. Let's get Mooseman in the mix. We'll have a money in the bag, batter match. Yeah, yeah. Just do it all. These are the new heavyweighty heavy weights. And I do not mean that as a column. My God, what the state of it.

I mean, Tom Aspinall was spot on. Like, this division is just in a rough shape right now. And I don't know if him fighting John Jones would change that, like move it along, you know, all the way down to the bottom rung of heavyweight. But I understand his point. Like this division used to have some luster. Like in three. Like, if Tom Aspinel fights John and wins and then like beats Cyril Gahn or something,

is there anybody in that division that you're going to be hankering to watch Tom Asmanal fight. Jelton. Well, yeah. I said what I said. And he tweeted. He tweeted at Tom Asmel. He's doing the thing.

Well done, Jelton. He tweeted in response to Aspinall criticizing the heavyweight division. Marcus McGehy calling this New England's own edition. He said, if you know, you know, oh, we know, Marcus. We know who you're referring to. Don't worry about that. Wow. It's just MVP Colby.

So some people like, I have no interest. MVP wants that fight. He wants, this is true. I can see Colby. I guess he could there's a lot of bad things he could say about the British this is true Naimov Sabatini yeah we haven't talked about naimov great performance by naimov wait he did right I wouldn't want to talk about oh yeah the con offly fight yeah oh con offly good luck my friend but tough tough matchups to start his year secret uh McKinney and torrent yeah okay

Grod and emmers Jamar's hamdi versus austin lane pinto winner on march first Sure, Marcus. Marcus is going for those Otno points. If that happens, Marcus, please remind me, I will give you a point because I guarantee you, I do not need to check if anyone else picked that because no one did. All right, quick hop over to Instagram. Gerard Biaghan, our old friend, Sharra Bullitt and Chris Curtis. Oh.

Sharra Bulletin and Chris Curtis? Yes. I like. So I actually thought, I actually liked the idea of MVP versus Chris Curtis. Oh, I like it too. At 170. Oh. Oh, is he going back?

He said it after, but I talked, but again, to bring up the interview with Eric Vicks, like, I asked him about that. I'm like, is he going to move to 170? He goes, dude, every day he says he's going to move to 170 and he hasn't done it yet. That's hard. That's 15 pounds. I mean, he must love not cutting that extra 15. That must be so fun for him.

He fought at 170 for a long time, guys. He fought it once in for a long time. And he did his best, made the cut, retired, came back. Whatever, Chris is the best. Sergei on Sergei, Sergey, Sergey Pavlovich, Sergey Speedback. I think we've called this before. It could happen.

I think it could happen. Naimov, Brito. Tough matchup, wow. McKinney, Joaquin Silva. Yes, I like this. What Kim Silva's tough, but that's another guy. I do think McKinney on a good day

can get another first round finish. This is how you book Terrace McKinie guys. This is good stuff. Shamil and Derek Lewis. Yeah, I mean, that's more likely than doing Jersey. Dude, that's going to be the main event for UFC Des Moines. Yeah, that's true. And guess what?

It's going to break the North American Gate record, Mike. Damn right, it is. Jason Dernay, I'mav, Bojillo. Yes, it makes a lot of sense. I get it. Izzy and RDR. Oh, man, RDR would love that. He would love to get a piece of that.

God, I would, that would be one of them. That would be hilarious to watch. Yeah, a lot of picks we've got already. I hope you enjoyed early day of May. I did, Jason. I hope you did too. CV, no picks. Give us your thoughts in Luca AD trade.

Completely insane. Makes no sense. Terrible for Dallas. I don't know what the fuck's going on. Tino Alv. Crazy. Tino Alvarez, McKinney and Tiago Moises. I love it, but I think Moises, I think that's a win for Moises.

I just don't know if McKinney and Terrence is. Moises just has to get through the first three minutes and he wins. Right? I mean, Moises just. But he has been got. He does get got. If Terrence, he finished him in the first round, I would be thrilled for Terrence, but that's, you know what?

Maybe that's why this fight has to happen. Tino, I think you've raised a good question. Now, now I'm intrigued. I think if we discuss a matchup for more than 30 seconds, then it validates it. Like, yeah, you know what? It's good stuff. Another MVP versus Jeff Neal, Mike.

I didn't comment before. I just don't want MVP to do like the Stephen Thompson like cover tour or something. You know what I mean? Like I don't want him just fighting guys who Wonderboy fought, even though I just, I know I just did Luque, so I completely contradicting. You know, when you're the end of the show, let me contradict myself. But I just think Lou Ge's more entry. If we're going to do Stephen, if we're going to do Wonderboy repeats, give me, give me a lookie over a Neil. Harry Newhouse, literally just sent this in seconds ago.

Harry, you made it. He said, sorry if it's too late. Harry, it's not too late. I'll read some of these. Inimov for the title. MVP, Carlos Pratchez, Shore, Sharmaegometov, Paul Craig. No, thanks. Naimov, Pat, Sabatini, Gazib, and Zuchuku,

another McKinney and Michael Johnson, I guess, with some gas to this. Jasmine, Vibi, Arujo, Bogdengra, Jekhasaergi, we just mentioned him. And, Mike, listen, you called for it. You and Harry Newhouse are on the same page. Hamdi and Mo Usman. Let's do it.

Let's do it. Thank you, guys. That was great. Great picks, guys. Great picks this week. I actually just got a submission as well. from Mark Gonzalez. First timer?

First, I think so. I don't know. Just in case, welcome to the party, pal. If it's not, I probably didn't give them one when they showed the first time. Mike, what are your thoughts on MVP welcoming back Jorge Mazadol? This is a good one to end on. I'm glad this got in. I like it a lot.

I think it makes sense. I think so much age-appropriate matchmaking, could be a fun style matchup, great build. I think both guys will know how. how to build the fight that's real good that that might actually be i like who is this again who michael michael gonzac car car car car car is mark and marconzott's apologize mark that is that is really good that is that is it that is it for capping off the show golly that's that's that's that is freaking interesting damn okay okay i don't know if you saw this but uh goodness the chaos william's streak of may fights is over i saw a rumor before yeah how official it was it is it announced

i saw a rumor before and i was disappointed i was like writing game Fighting Gabriel Bonfee on February 15th, short notice. He had, maybe he'll fall out. He had such a money gimmick with the I only fight in May. I really feel like there was, it's going to be May gimmick. And I guess not anymore. That whole narrative is dead before it even started. Well, I'll tell you what.

UFC 312 could use Gabriel Bonfeme versus Chaos Williams. That I can tell you. Yeah. We'll be live next week following UFC 312. and the top of the bill is very good. We got Drick's Duplice versus Sean Strickland, the rematch, very close fight the first time around. Very interested to see how both guys handle it.

Zhang Wei-Lee versus Tatiana Suarez. Finally going down, Colmain event. We're going to knock on some wood. Hope both fighters make it. And then, boy, do we just fall off a cliff? Talasin Tashara versus Justin Taffa, the featured bout. Jimmy Crute is back against Hadovado,

Jake Matthews versus Francisco Prado, which I think he's going to be like a fine fight, but it's like a fine fight night apex featured prelim perhaps, but opening up a main card, not sure. Jack Jenkins,

Gabriel Santos. Tom Nolan versus Slava Claus could be a lot of fun. Kong Wang is back against Bruno Brazil. And then I think I'll save that one for later. Heung-Sung Park versus Tumendembro. Cody Steele versus Rong Ju, Quillian Salkhild versus Anshul Jubilee, Jonathan Mikalev versus Kevin Juset. And I think the fight that's going to probably get the most intention outside of the top two fights is the UFC debuts of Alexander Tuporia,

the brother of current UFC featherweight champion, Ilya, and Colby Thickness, who is a big training partner of Alexander Taboria. Volcanowski and both Ilya and Alexander Volcanovsky will be in the corners of their teammates or family members maybe to set the tone, set the stage for the potential rematch, which seems to be heading towards Miami and April, although it's not like done done. That's kind of what the UFC wants. So we'll see what happens there. But that'll be an interesting little storyline throughout the week, AK.

Colby Thickness. I just love this name. It's terrific. I think his nickname is sickness. I've seen two different nicknames for him. It should be sickness, because obviously I think it's slickness. Slickness. Excuse me, slickness, not sickness.

I see on Sherdog, he's Golden Boy. No. No, dude. No. It's Colby, slickness, thickness. That is the name. That is the name. First of all, this fight should be on the main card.

Like, without question, it should be. It's not too late. It's not too late for the, they can shake things. I always say until like the Thursday, until I see like the ESPN, they always send out the PR that sent out the email for the official life. I think until then, really after that, they could change it too. But I think until then, I don't think it's locked in. Like, this should be on there instead of either, honestly, either the heavyweight or light heavyweight fight, if we're being honest.

I like Jimmy Crute. I understand they think heavy weights still ever finishes, but you would think from recent, like, recent fights they would learn their lesson. That one should. I mean, that one, I would be surprised because of the decision. So now it definitely will. Yeah, you should put, they should make a little change here during fight. We can put, you 100%. Yeah.

You walk out to Pori and Volk in the first fight of the paper. you like that's how you do it that's how you build stuff up or at least at least the featured prelim this is right like again i don't know if this is the line like i said they probably can't shift the lineup during this week but right now it looks like it's just like right in the middle of the prelims like yeah what are we doing very strange spot very very very strange spot to put it yeah what are we doing here they can move it they could move it yeah embedded should have ilia tippori and alexi and oligna volkinovolkinovsky all over it this week yes like it should be all over it but we'll see how the UFC handles the fight week festivities.

Our own Jose Young's is en route to 312 needs, and then I'll do it for us here. This week on the program, again, live next week. So for AKI, Mike Heck, thank you for joining us. Always remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun, and we'll have more fun after UFC 312,

right here on onto the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.