MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Jon Jones After UFC 309?

Episode Date: November 17, 2024

Jon Jones made it look easy against the greatest heavyweight in UFC history on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, and now there appears to be more questions about Jones' future coming out of UFC 309 than heading in. Does Jones face interim champion Tom Aspinall next in a unification bout, or does he get the fight he wants with Alex Pereira? 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 Jones following his one-sided third-round TKO victory over the now-retired Miocic in the main event. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler following Oliveira's decision win in the co-main event, Bo Nickal after his victory over Paul Craig in the middleweight featured bout, along with fellow main card winners Viviane Araujo and Mauricio Ruffy, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody. Welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. We are live on this Sunday, a day after UFC 309 is in the books, capping off a very weird weekend. An up and down weekend as AK just kind of showed on this camera. We were up. We were down.

We were all over the place. And at the end of the day, John Jones still the UFC heavyweight champion. Stepe Mietchich announced his retirement after a pretty brutal spinning backkick knockout to the body from Jones. Jones pillar to posted Steve Mietchich. This was no surprise to literally anybody. It shouldn't have been because this was exactly. what we thought would happen when this fight was announced a year ago or longer than a year ago.

And now that we had to wait an extra year for it, it just felt even sadder to watch. But John Jones gets it done. We'll talk about what is next for him because I have my thoughts. I have my takes. And not just about what John Jones did in his future, but the rest of the comings and goings and happenings when it comes to UFC 309. But I am Mike Kek and joining me as always, as you can see, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. And my best friend, Alexander Kaylee, aka, how we doing? Did you enjoy yourself watching UFC 309 last night?

It's been a long 48 hours. Yeah, I mean, it was fine. The card was fine. It was fine. I would say it turned out very much like we thought it would on paper. I don't think in the media we oversold this. I think we said, you know what? We understood the magnitude of the main events, like from historical standpoint.

I think we thought the Chandler-Oliva rematch came out of nowhere. you know, great matchup. We was going to complain about those guys ever being in the case together. And then the rest of the matchups, I think we appraised correctly as, like, fights that look like sort of litmus tests for some up-and-comers. And then kind of just a mishmash of other matchups. There's, you know, there's some name value on there, Jim Miller, Chris Wyman was supposed to fight.

But other than that, again, if I was still doing the gymnastics scores, which I'm not doing as much these days, this would have, like, probably hit it on the dot or, like, just under. and it wouldn't have been a particularly high pre-fight score to begin with. So well done, UFC, I guess. Another triumphant Madison Square Garden show. But I'm just, Mike, I'm just left feeling so cold by the main event, which is weird when we're talking about a very, very, very, very, very good performance

from probably the greatest fighter of all time. And yet I was just, you kind of hinted this the beginning. And you and Jed talked about this a lot on the post-fight show. Like, what was the point? So why? Why did we do all this? I don't know. And I feel, I don't know if vindicated is the right word. There was a, I guess I felt, and this is kind of a theme through all this, I felt a sigh of relief when it was all over. I pretty much said on every show we were on that when it came to this weekend and everything this is going to be,

I didn't care as much about Friday. I didn't care as much about Saturday. obviously we would be talking about and covering it this was what i was this was the day i was circled on the calendar this was it let's get to sunday that means it's over that means the john jones steppe miachitch saga the fight that nobody wanted except for john jones stepey peyitch and dana white nobody wanted this fight it was over nobody wanted jake pa versus mike tyson people were intrigued and watched it and they got a casual audience like you wouldn't believe but anybody that like is a combat sports fan and understood what was happening here. None of us wanted to see this.

None of us. It was crazy. And now that it's over, like I feel better. I feel 50 pounds lighter. Stepe got, got finished, didn't get badly hurt, gets to retire. He'll be a happy Steepay forever and ever. Mike Tyson is alive, I guess. And then especially knowing what he tweeted out yesterday in the fallout of the Jake Paul fight,

I guess it's okay but it was just tense in not good ways this is not steep A versus Francis one round one tense this was oh my God I hope everybody's okay tense and now that it's over

I'm very happy and unfortunately we have to talk about what this all means I mean I'm glad we get to do this from matchmaking perspective because we could talk about our takes we can talk about our thoughts

we could talk about everything that has to do with John Jones and his fighting future So let's just go there, okay. Let's just go there. Thank goodness. I best. Right into it.

Because I'll tell you right now, if you asked me to speak about, again, all the stories about that surrounded that fight, what I think of John Jones right now, his frankly, borderline like psychotic post-bite press conference. You know, that's a very, it's a very exaggerary of putting it. But let's just, I won't say how my thoughts on it. I shared it with you guys in the Slack. channel that are made between us. But to say the current gimmick or persona, whatever you want to call of John Jones is so off-putting. And again, we don't need to go too deep into it. Let's get to the

matchmaking or I'm going to go insane. Unfortunately, all that has to do with the matchmaking. Because, again, this fight should not have happened. We understand why they did it. Stebe, fighting for the heavyweight championship after a four-year layoff and not winning a fight in five years when you have an interim champion is absolutely insane it's really ridiculous nobody asked for this fight we continued to get it we continue to get a push that this is the biggest one of the biggest fights of all time and it absolutely was not we knew what this was this was john jones fighting a 42 year old man and it looked exactly like that john looked very good in this fight john is still one of the five best fighters in the world without question in my mind but he fought a guy

who was stuck in the mud. Steepay looked every bit of 42, and if you told me he was 45, and I didn't know who Steepa was, I would have believed it. I would have believed you. Man was in good physical condition. He was in shape,

but he was 42. He was slow. John saw everything coming that Steepa was going to do, and John just busted him up. This fight was not even in question for one second. It was exactly what we thought this would be. No one should be surprised at all.

And John gets it done. He wins the fight. And I am now convinced, A.K., I am in a reality. I've gotten there. John Jones and Tom Aspinall is never going to happen. This fight is never going to happen. And I have to be super clear about all of this. One, I believe John Jones is the greatest fighter of all time.

He's the greatest fighter of all time. 1,000%. I'm not here. to take anything away from him. Steppe looked absolutely horrendous in this fight. John is in a position where he can negotiate for whatever fight he wants. I don't think for a second John Jones is afraid of Tom Asynol.

I don't think for one second that John, like if the UFC offered John what he wants, John would fight Tom Aspinall. The problem is John Jones is going to ask for $50 million. to fight Tom Aspinall. And you probably hear me say this and you think I'm absolutely insane. I don't think I am. He's going to ask for $40 to $50 million to fight Tom Aspinall.

And I will also say this. He should. He should ask for $40 or $50 million to fight Tom Aspinall. He is at a point in his career where he is the greatest of all time. And if he's going to take this type of risk, I actually am with him on this, that he should be properly compensated for taking this. kind of a risk with his legacy intact. Having said that, the UFC is not going to do this. They are not going to pay John Jones $40 to $50 million to fight Tom Aspinall. They will probably offer him $20 million. He will say no. And then they will offer him the same

$20 to $25 million to fight Alex Pereira and he will say yes to that fight. John also doesn't need the heavyweight title to fight Alex Pereira. There does not need to be a belt on the line for that fight. So I'm just going to go ahead and make my pick. John Jones is going to fight Alex Pereira next. There will not be heavyweight championship on the line. John Jones will not be the heavyweight champion. He will vacate the belt. At least it will be presented in that way. Tom Aspinall is going to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the UFC. John Jones will fight Alex Pereira in a non-title main event, maybe international fight week. Tom will keep the division moving. He will defend his belt probably against the Cyril gone,

Alexander Volkov winner at UFC 310. And the division can go on. John can, can go and have the superfights that he wants, and everybody's fine. I don't, this is all good. I'm cool with it. I'm not calling John scared. Nothing. I would love to see John fight Tom Aspinall.

I would love to see that fight. There is nothing more I would want to see. But the type of money John is going to ask for in order for that fight to happen, the UFC is not going to pay him. They don't need to pay him. And guess what? The UFC does not need John Jones.

They don't need Connor McGregor. They don't need anybody. they just need Dana White and they just need those three letters and they will be a gigantic success. So the pick is John Jones versus Alex Pereira, non-title fight, five-round main event of a pay-per-view. It's not going to be Tom Haspinall. Magamacalyb is out there somewhere just clawing, clawing at relevance. Let me just add to this too. If Alex Pereira takes this fight, he should vacate the light heavyweight title.

without question. He should vacate. This needs to be fair. If John is to vacate, Alex needs to vacate as well. And if Alex wins and wants to stay at heavyweight, he could fight Tom Aspinall. There you go.

It's fine. John Jones is for Alex Pereira will sell the same amount of pay-per-views whether there's a title on the line or not. So that's where I'm going with. And if Pereira does accept this fight, and this is the fight they go forward with, Maga Magna and McElive should be fighting somebody else,

for the vacant light heavyweight title you said the F word Mike you said fair and that's where that's where this all because if anything was fair i mean ankle i'd be fighting alex pareda and tom aspirin fighting john jones but i know what you mean fair in this like this likely scenario that apparently uh john jones wants alks paredo wants dana's been kind of like i think saying the right things you know like oh i don't want to i don't necessarily want to make that happen right now i want Jones stuff in Aspinall, but there's a lot of politicking going on, probably behind the scenes and in public and through the media. So, yeah, I don't know.

Again, I'm not taking everything Dana says at face value. Part of it, again, is probably a negotiating tactic, right? It's like, because if you're Dana, obviously, and you're the UFC, you'd love to have both, right? You're like, oh, because very good chance if John Jones gets to a pedeta fight does not mean he's going to fight Tom Massel after. Like we've said this many times. There's just, maybe he's trolling, but there's very much, I think, a reality to it. I'm like, yeah, if you're him, excuse me, if you're him and you never fight Tom Aspenol,

I think he'll sleep fine at night. I think he actually really does, like the Alex put out of matchup. I think he just thinks it's a cool fight, and yes, it would have a lot of cashier behind it. So I get all the logic behind all that, but, like, I just can't, I can't give up into Aspenol matchup. So this is waving on magic wand. This is if I were, if I were Dana White, excuse me, guys, might throw him one second. If I were Dana White, if I were Dana White and I could offer, it's making emotional, I'm emotional talking about this, obviously.

If I were Dana White and I could offer John Jones a blank check and make this fight happen, that's what I would do. But it's true. We are dealing with reality here. John Jones deserves to get paid a crap ton of money. He's pretty like, he's been saying pretty much the right things about like, oh, I want to be a company man. Not I want to be a company man, but I want to talk to work this out with Uncle Dana. I want to work this out with Uncle Hunter. well, you know, he said the post-fight speech was like, we'll talk it over.

And by the time, you know, at some point, you guys will know soon enough what my move is. You know, he was crafty, right? He didn't name names. He didn't name prayers. He didn't name astronaut, but he didn't name Poetan either. So he's playing this pretty close to the chest, which is probably the right thing to do. Again, so I think you and I are, like, we're kind of agreeing, because I know you're doing more of a crystal ball pick. I'm doing more of a fantasy land pick.

And I will say either way, I don't think I would be that upset. Like if I had to choose, if we could only get one, of course, I choose a Tom Aspinall fight 10 times out of 10. But we don't get to choose. It's really not up to us. And if it's going to be Padetta and not Aspinall, that sucks. But it's not like the worst thing in the world. I'm like, okay, cool, great.

John Jones is my houseper. That's really fun. And he's ever, he would never fight Tom Aspenol. That sucks. There's a lot of fights we didn't get. Which actually, I'm sorry, that brings you to a point. I want to bring out was Mike, can you ever remember a time when there was two champions close enough in wait for a superfight who both had very, very obvious number one contenders,

and yet there was still a realistic chance that superfight would be made and said. It doesn't happen very often, so there's not that many examples. Everyone, you know, talks about course, GSP, Andrew Silva. And with them, one, I think that was one reason it was so intriguing was that there were times when, like, it felt like they were just so dominant in their division, they needed some other challenge. but I also think of people go back in their history more so on the GSP side

St. Pierre almost always had a relevant challenger there's maybe one or two gaps in there where it's like oh like he should I'm not that interested in this tile defense but that never that didn't necessarily line up with the times that Anderson didn't have I always felt the timing was never right for Anderson GSP and that's why that didn't happen but there was never a situation where like GSP had this great number one contender and then they were like oh we still want to fight each other

we're not going to fight these guys just didn't happen very different at very different time back then and that's what we're seeing here and it's so strange i just can't think of another time of history i'll go to the i'll check out the comments while you why you're answered mike see if anyone's smarter than me which isn't hard to do yeah here's oh i'm i'm this is one of the worst comments i've ever seen i think if tom has come to john and said you're the goat and i want to challenge you john would have probably said okay but tom come off very whiny and untitled terrible did you see terrible yeah that absolutely asshole Tom Aspinall.

You want to know what he said? Go back to what he said after he defended the belt against Curtis Blades. What did he say? Oh, boy. Let me, let me line this up because cover your ears, get the kids out of the room. Because this is, he is such an asshole for saying this. John, with all due respect, I just think I'm better than you. Let's do this.

Oh, my God. What a whiny piece of shit that man is. Oh my God. Burned them. Let me. Oh, my gosh. What a meanie. What a prick.

Here's the thing. With all seriousness. What John Jones said at the press conference last night, that whole thing of, I want this money to fight Tom Aspinall and I want this and all that. Totally okay. Sure. If he just said this from the fucking get-go, no one would have a problem with it.

This whole notion that Tom doesn't deserve this and Tom doesn't or has not earned the right to fight somebody of my caliber is bullshit. It's all horseshit. All Tom had to say, all John had to say was exactly this. Look, man, I fought dangerous dudes. I fought in my whole career. I made a living.

I made a legacy beating these guys. At this point in my career, I want fun fights. I want to make as much money as possible. I don't need the heavyweight championship of the world to do that. So Tom, you can have the belt. And if you get close to my record, maybe we'll revisit this. But right the second, it's not a fight that interests me. I would rather fight Alex Pereira because it's a big money fight. If he just said all of this from the beginning, he wouldn't have had one of the worst fight weeks I've ever seen. And because of that, John did Tom such a big favor this week.

Tom Aspinall is one of the most popular fighters of the roster right now because of what John did for him. It's crazy. And now Tom Aspinall is going to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. He's going to go fight somebody else. And he is going to look like a friggin megastar when he does it. And Tom is not whiny about this. He was not disrespectful to John.

He just wants what he is supposed to get for accepting an interim title fight, which means you are supposed to unify the freaking balance. Robert Whitaker was the interim middleweight champion waiting for his chance to fight Michael Bisbing. They had a face-off in the cage after Robert Whitaker beat Yoel Romero in a crazy fight. Wild fight. It got dinged up. He's on one leg. It's okay because I'm going to fight Michael Bisbing. What did Michael Bisbing do? He fought George St. Pierre while Robert Whitaker was the interim champion. GSP wins the belt. We knew that if he won the belt, he was going to retire. But he's like, no, man, he's going to fight Robert Whitaker.

And we knew he wasn't going to fight Robert Whitaker. And then he retired. That he was done. And then Robert Whitaker just became the champion. This is going to be the exact same situation. John will fight Pereira. And that's okay. I'm okay with this.

I am accepting of all of this. As long as John Jones is not the heavyweight champion of the world. And honestly, I will add, just so it's all fair again, as long as Alex Pereira is not the light heavyweight champion of the world, make this fight. I don't care. I'll watch it. It'll be wild.

It'll do bonkers numbers. It'll break gate records. If Derek Lewis and Rodrigo Nassiminto can break North American fight night gate records, John Jones versus Alex Prayer is going to do ridiculous numbers, but it doesn't need any belts attached to it whatsoever. So go ahead, make your money, but give up the belt. Both of you, both of you give up the belt.

Yeah, and just a couple more asked, but all notes. As someone who has written like, I don't know, 40 in the last three months, I swear, I'm not even exaggerating, 40, 50 posts about Aspinall Jones beefing. I can tell you, I know almost more word for word, every word that's been said between these two guys and social media interviews and everything. Asphalt has like could not have been more respectful. Yeah, listen, he's ramped up sort of the poking fun at John, the whole duck thing, you know,

more so in recent months. So he's kind of changed his tact. But when it started, it really could not have been more respectful. So he's tried every angle. And trust me, him bowing down at the altar of Jones was not going to accelerate this fight at all. That's just not how these things work. And the other thing I always hate people saying is like, oh, well, you know what? What if you got what you want? And Jones gets Aspidol and then beats them up. But you'd be happy then. I'd be like, yeah, that'd be amazing. Yeah, if John Jones

feed Tom Asponol, that would be sick as hell. That'd be like, oh shit, this is the greatest fighter of all time, like just building and building and building and making unassailable and unassailable legacy. Because it's not unassailable now, guys. I don't know what your goat list is. That's a phrase, by the way, that we've got to stop throwing around after the, my like Tyson got called the goat like 500 times on Friday. It's like he's got to stop using this phrase. A lot of fighters that are called the goat these days that are just not. We got to, we got dumped that phrase.

But I don't have a horse in this phrase. I think, like, I think people know. I'm probably like team ass on all this point just because I find Jones' whole shit annoying and it just, you know, you always want, I personally want to see the new blood win. But again, a 37 or whatever if the fight ever happened, like 38-year-old Jones, just showing that he's still the best fighter to ever step in the cage. him like taking out Tom Aspinall, it would be cool.

It would be really, really, really cool. Tom Asperall beating him would be cool. This is why we want to see this fight, guys. Not because we're trying to make a point. Not because we're like, oh, we want to see Tom Arsenal, kick John Jones's ass. No, it's two really, really, really amazing fighters. That's why. Isn't that why we do this? Isn't it amazing supposed to be fun, Mike?

I thought it was supposed to be fun. Jermaine trying to save face here. So let me just go ahead and react to this. I also think prayer is a bigger name than Tom Aspinel and you've got to remember this of business. Again, you're not wrong. wrong. You're not wrong. Honestly, like all week I was saying,

Pereira is the bigger fight than Tom Aspinall. But right now, on this Sunday, I think it is a very close conversation, which fight would be bigger. Because Aspinall is so over now. John did Aspinall a gigantic favor with all of the terrible comments that he made about Tom and the not deserving this and all that.

He has turned Tom into one of the most sympathetic baby faces on the roster. So it is going to be a big deal. Tom Aspinall was one of the most popular fighters in New York all week long. Anytime Tom Aspinall showed his face anywhere, he got like standing ovations. So yeah, again, Pereira could be the bigger fight. And if he fights Pereira, fine. But give up the title.

Give up the belt. We interrupt this program actually has worse takes than I've seen anywhere else, honestly. Poetan would beat Aspinall. He'd eat Aspinall. Tom Aspinall will be a minus 300 favorite if they booked that fight. Tom Aspinall, by the way, is already the favorite against John Jones. He's the favorite. I think that betting line is perfect.

Minus 130 for Tom Aspinall is a perfect betting line. At the same time, John Jones could win that fight. He could win, and it would not surprise me if he did. But I just don't think we're ever going to see it. And that's okay. I'm not going to go all worked up about it. It's fine. Go fight Alex Perry.

go fight them make a bunch of money i great make break records but don't be the champion you don't need the heavyweight belt to do this fight let tom cook let him be the champion let him carry this division because guess what spoiler alert when the new updated mhm a fighting global rankings come out john jones will not be the number one heavyweight in my rankings nope guess what john jones will not be the number two heavyweight in my rankings. No, sir. So there you have it. There you have it.

We got it. We got to move on. Like I, you know what, great discourse. Thank you over for the comments. But to quote the great Clay Day. I'm going to add one more to this. Okay, go. One more to this.

Go. Dana said the Alex fight is not happening. Did you watch that whole press conference? Because I was getting into it with people in DMs about this. They were like, stop saying this fight's not going to happen. Dana White said there's zero chances fight happens. What did Dana White say in the last? five minutes of that.

Oscar Willis, shout out to him. I believe it was him. Goddana to kind of like stop talking for a second. Be like, yeah, that fight would make a lot of money. And then what a day to say? He goes, I'm not going to make this fight. He goes, actually, you know what? If those guys kept hounding me to make this fight, then I would do it.

This fight's going to happen, guys. It's all good. Guys, don't rule anything out. John Jones could fight Alex Panetta. John Jones could fight Tom Aspinnell. John Jones could neither fight materialize. John Jones walks away. Legitarily, everything is in player, guys. Yeah.

Don't, no one be self-rights by any. He could retire. Yeah, he can absolutely retire. Like, I'm telling you this going to have, I'm telling us, like, guys, we really, we really don't know. My bet, I think Mike and I both agree. He's going to fight one more time. He's, I think he will fight one more time. But you really don't know. You really don't know. There is a chance to negotiate and just fall through. He has notoriously

been tough to negotiate with. And I don't mean that as an insult to Jones. I mean, like, he's, I mean, him and his team are good. Him and his team are doing a good job of trying to get him the best fights, get him the most money and for the UFC like that's difficult that's difficult for them and you know if things don't work out i think they'd be fine with john retiring and john would be fine retiring because he's made a lot of money so i hope that doesn't happen i hope we get to see john fight once or twice at least more but um but we don't know so uh we've got to get off this talk of mike i was going to say to quote the great clay davis uh i've got to get up out of here before i lose

my damn mind so yeah please can we stop talking about jones aspinall because i have feeling there's still many more stories coming up the next few months i hope not i hope not but i just know i'll be about Aspinall and John Jones quotes in mid-January or something. So yeah. Yeah. And my message to Tom Aspinall, move on. You treat yourself like you are the actual heavyweight champion of the world. John, John does not exist in the heavyweight division.

And he is. He should have done this the whole time. Tom Aspinall is the number one heavyweight in the world. There is no- He will be my number one heavyweight. There is no point in history that John Jones was ever the number one heavyweight in the world. This is not a thing. I will never, as long as I'm alive, which God willing is for another,

hundred years. I will never, we must keep the record straight. There was no point in MMA history where John Jones was the undisputed number one heavyweight in the world. He wasn't when he beat Seidel Ghan. He was not better than, he did not do more than Francis. He wasn't number one over Francis. And then when I asked him when I want to put him over Francis, fine. I put him over John but John Jones beating Miochich and gone does not make him the number one heavyweight. It just doesn't. That's not how these things work. He doesn't take his successes from light heavyweight and go like, oh, you add those and now he's the best heavyweight. No, I got to get, I'm losing my damn mind. Mike, what did I just say?

Okay, I got to, I'm going. I'm going to shut up. I'm going to shut up. Yeah. I mean, Jabal Hill, when he beat Alex, when he beat Glover to Chera was not the best light heavyweight in the world. No. I think he's,

I think we had him like number seven in our rankings when he beat Culver Jr. I think, yeah, because of me. Anyway. Yeah. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa.

Is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservation. before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice.

Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to aeroplane members on equip flights sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See air Canada.com. But let's move on. We don't need a match break for Stepe. Happy Trails to Stepe, Hitch, Hall of Fame career.

He is going to be the happiest man on planet Earth. The relief when he finally got to utter the words, I'm done. Thank God. No more fighting was a breath of fresh air. And happy Steepa, like I said earlier, is a hashtag thank you steepa. You're right. Let's talk about the co-main event, Charles Olivera, pillar to post almost, Michael Chandler. That fight was not competitive for 20 plus minutes. Charles Oliver just had his way with Michael Chandler. It was kind of tough to watch for a minute. And then Chandler did Chandler things in round five, had Oliver badly hurt. It's shout out to Michael Chandler for listening to MMA fighting programming for the last four years.

But he took it to another level. Always cheat. The referees aren't going to do anything. Michael Chandler cheated that entire fight and nearly pulled off a miracle comeback because of said cheating and rule breaking. Fence grabs, multiple shots to the back of the head. And I don't blame Michael Chandler for this at all. This is what you're supposed to do in a fight of this magnitude if the referee is allowing you to do it. Because if he's allowing you to do it, technically it's not.

cheating. But Oliver survives due to not terrific fight IQ from Michael Chandler. Just laying in Charles Oliverer's guard when he had Oliver badly hurt. Oliver survives. Michael Chandler gets the Nate Diaz treatment where he just got run

the F over in that fight, but did enough in round five to steal a little bit of momentum and went over like crazy. He got to do a post-fight promo afterwards. He did the big slams. Everything about Michael Chandler rocked, even though got dominated in this fight.

Where does Charles Olivera go after this victory? Because this was put out there as a number one contender fight for the lightweight title. Will Charles Olivera's next fight be against the winner of Islam Makachef versus Armand Saruket? Man, I struggled with this one big time. I struggled. Charles is awesome. Michael Taylor, a great fighter. Charles is awesome.

What, again, for 20 minutes, just a master class. Honestly, a masterclass in fighting. He's just so damn good. I have no confidence in this pick whatsoever, because I didn't want to just assume they'll give him a title fight. It's a little bit tricky with Islam and Armin, because a fight that doesn't even book yet, by the way, we're just all assuming it will be somewhere first quarter of 2025. If Islam wins, sorry, let him start first. If Armin wins, that's a horribly mess to sell. We just saw him fight Charles.

It was a very competitive fight. It was a very competitive fight. So it's not like, you know, it's like, oh, Armand definitive, like just dominated Charles, and we don't want to stay anytime soon. There theoretically could be enough distance between. Like, it's only for Charles, it's only one fight. I think for Armin, it's no fights, right? He just fought Charles, right?

It'll look funny. It'll look funny on paper. I don't love it. I would want, if Armand won, I would want, well, they'd probably run it back with Islam. Let's be honest. They do a trilogy bout. And then in that case, even worse for Charles because then he has to wait if he thinks that he's the next guy in line for the Taloshan. So I don't want that.

I don't want that for him. I want him to keep fighting. And again, if Islam wins, Islam doesn't fight that frequently. So still Charles has to wait. Either guy winning, Charles would have to wait for a while, I think, for getting a child a shot. And that's just not tenable, even if he deserves it, even if people think he would do better in the Makachev rematch, which I'm skeptical of.

The first fight was just so one-sided. But, you know, that's why he won these back, right? So I went in a totally random direction, Mike. I don't think this is really going to happen, but I was just trying to find something that made sense. I think him and Dan Hooker would be really fun. Dan Hooker has a lot of, like, talk. I mean, Dana White kind of mentioned it.

They think he'd be a good matchup for Connor McGregor. I feel like I said a previous show. We shouldn't even make Conner-Regger matchups anymore. But I do think there's a possibility that Charles would get the winner of that fight if it's made sometime in, like, mid-2020. I don't even know what I'm saying is. Connor McGregor's never fighting again. But I honestly couldn't think of anything for Dobrox.

So I am very excited to hear what you have in storefront. Oh, this is the easiest pick. Oh, okay. This is the easiest pick. Oh, I think you might have set this up on a previous show. Oh, yeah. And I've been saying this forever. There's only one fight to be made here.

Yep. I will say this. If Islam Makachev, it doesn't matter. If Islam Makachev beats Arm and Sarukian, um, Isam probably won't fight till closer to the end of the year. So we could still get Dubrox in there for another fight. If Armid Sarukyan wins,

Islamakachev's going to get an immediate rematch without question. So that puts Charles kind of on ice in that regard. So there is only one fight to make, AK. There's only one fight to make. Charles Oliverick can still fight for a title at 155

and he can do so against the baddest mother effort champion, the newest member of the UFC's lightweight division. It's Max Holloway, a rematch. From a fight, a main event, fight night bout that the hardcore fan base was so excited about we could not wait for max holloway versus charles olivera and then the fight ended abruptly because charles suffered a neck and shoulder injury and we the fight never really got going and it was such a bummer so that's what we're

going to get charles olivera will fight for the bmf title against max holloway in the the fight we've always wanted and deserved from these two guys but this time it'll be a one 555 instead of 1.45. Yeah, that makes the most sense. I've been pushing some weird. I think Hanato Moicana won his last fight, and I do find, I need to find some for him. So I was like, oh, I think it'd be cool if he fought Max Holloway.

But it looks like, again, Hanato does not have a fight booked, but he's been talking about Patty Pimbley again. So that's a possibility. It does feel like Hanato is not really in the Max Holloway orbit right now. But I don't know. I still want to see that fight someday, but maybe it's not next. You're probably right, Holloway, Oliver, too, like a proper rock fight between them.

is probably much closer. So I love it. I would love to see it happen. And shout out to Saskatoon. They deserve this fight. They deserve it. They were, uh, Hollywood and Oliver was the main event at UFC fight named Saskatoon back of the day.

A good old days. Yep. Shout out to John Anik for reminding me of that when we had our conversation. But yeah, let's just go do it in Saskatoon. Uh, and for Michael Chandler, I'm going to say something, I.K. Yes. Do it. Michael Chan.

do it chandler michael chandler is actually closer to a connor mcgregor fight right now than he was even when they booked it he loses i guarantee you that connor regger watched that fight and thought to himself i will smoke this man and so that's what i'm going i'm going back to the well michael chanler versus connor mcgregor uh chandler's not going to be the most active guy he took it, he took a beating in this fight from Charles Olivera. Took a beating. The adrenaline kicked in. He got over.

He got to cut the promo. He got to hang out Donald Trump. Like all the things he wanted to do anyways. And like I said, he got the Nate Diaz treatment. But Charles O'Levare was a much more exciting version of Leon Edwards. But Chandler had that moment at the end and then cut the promo at the end and called O'Connor McGregor beautifully. He will not get the Max Holloway fight. I don't think anyone would complain. But Chandler is just in that territory right now where it doesn't matter. He doesn't need belts.

He doesn't eat anything. Just throw him in there with fun dudes and let him cook. He's a super fun fighter. I liked the Arturo Gotti comparison. You want to throw Mickey Ward comparison in there as well? I'd be totally fine with that. He's just a get-or-gig-got guy that is incredibly exciting. And let's just do Chandler v. McGregor.

And if not, I don't give a shit. Chandler just against anybody as much watch TV, whether you like him or not. I hate that you're making so many good points. I can't believe I'm saying this as an old-o-fielder fan number one, but I just, I've moved on, man. I just, if that fight never happens, I will not give too crass about it. I understand, Tyler has like never had a boring fight in the UFC,

so, and you put him in there with McGregor, who also pretty much never had a boring fight in his entire career. And I get it. It makes sense. It could main event its own show, no title on the line. If you're the UFC, that make you very happy because, you know, we saw this year, they struggled a bit with the timing of title fights and we ended up some pretty awkward looking cards just because of their rule that like, oh my gosh,

pay-per-views must be headlined by a title fight, which, no, they don't. That's just a stupid rule you made. And other than that, you know, Connor Greger, of course, transcends that, and we had the Mazbadole-C-Cuburn-Refat. I said, Rematch, the Covington-Mazvigal fight. Was that two years ago or three years ago? And that headline to pay-per-per-view, and that wasn't for our title. So, but it's very rare. It's very rare. It's very rare. It's very, very rare. McGregor's the one guy who can always do it. So I, I hate that, I hate that that might happen. But hey, listen, like I said, I said he might fight Charles Olivera, and that would also have a line to pay for yourself. But my, anyway, all this is a roundabout way to say, I'm matching,

I'm once again matching Michael Chandler with Patty Pimbley, and we can move on. I, I've said this on multiple shows. I think at one point I pivoted to Pimbleau, but I'm pivoting back. I'm pivoting back. I just think this would make so much sense for Michael Chandler right now to get this guy who gets compared to McGregor a lot, even though there's not like a ton of similarities. It's actually kind of confusing why they get compared so much, I guess because they both talk a lot. He's not even Irish.

He's English. But I don't know. One, I think it would be a fun matchup stylistically, especially if he did those, you know, Pimbled takes his back. He's doing the back slams again. That'd be hilarious. Pimblit, obviously, with gaining a lot from him, Michael Town is a huge name,

three-time champion in Belator. Top 10, I think, in the UFC rankings. I'm kind of interested to see where he'll end up in our next full divisional update. And Chandler, again, gets to silence someone who has got quite a bit of buzz around them. I do think one of the more popular, if we're talking about mid-tier guys, one of the popular mid-tier guys in the UFC. And I think it'd be worth with Chandler's wild. But I don't know, he's been targeting him for so long. I don't know if he can settle for anything less.

I hate that pick so much less now. It's very feasible. Yeah, he lost. If he won, I mean, there's just no. It's a fight that can't happen. It's a fight that if they made, no one would be like, oh, that's, that's, that's a bridge too far. I think Patty would probably be favored in that fight, honestly, after seeing what, what Charles Oliver was able to do with take downs and once he got top control and Patty's, Patty's a big ass.

I know Chandler's like a big, well, a big lightweight for a guy his, for his heightened stature. Patty's a monster lightweight. So that'd be pretty interesting and we'll see what happens. Here's where I'm very, here's why I get very intrigued, A.K. Bo Nickel wins. Fights Paul Craig. He looked as human as he could possibly come out of this card looking like. I thought he beat Paul Craig.

I didn't think he won 30, 27. I thought Paul Craig won the first round. Bo did just enough to win round two and then just did enough to win round three because Paul Craig did nothing. And let's be honest. Paul's a big man. I don't know. I'm so confused about what I saw.

I don't know if Bo was just being very smart in this situation because this is probably his biggest step up in competition. I, this is also not, and I saw people tweeting this out. Guys, Bo Nickle just beat a dude who beat Jamal Hill and Magamette Ancolaev. And he's, it's only like his seventh or eighth pro fight. Like give the man credit. That's true. sure but paul craig is also lost like a whole bunch of fights recently uh and not in competitive

fashion so i don't know what to think here okay so start us off bow nickel coming off of this win against paul craig where he got booed out of madison square garden in front of donald trump and company and then put it over like it was an amazing performance which i don't think anybody truly believes. But a win is a win, A.K., where do we go with the Penn State Nittney Lion superstar? I mean, you need to have a little delusion, I think, to be an MMA fighter. We know, like any, any combat. Really, a lot of high-level athletes in any sport.

Look at the man who just won in the main events. I mean, maybe one of the worst delusional guys I've ever seen a step into an octagon. So Boonekel has that, for sure. I think he later joked that they were saying, Boe, not boo, which I think it was perfect. And regarding the Jamal Hill, like, look, the Paul Craig, like, really, I mean, people always bring up to the Ancolaev fight. I, that's becoming, like, the Adisania, like, Pereira fights where, like, people just talk about Pereira beating him, but they didn't actually watch those fights. It's the same thing. Watch the Paul Craig and Kalaya fight.

And listen, he won. He beat him. But it's not like, I mean, Paul Craig was very much on his way to losing a 30, 20, 70 against Angolaev before Ankelaev just effed up and got caught. the triangle with one second off in the clock so great feather in the cap of craig but it's not like oh Craig is so good that he could like beat ink alive any day and that that says a lot about nickel beating him and like not really but the Jamal hen hillwin was legit that's probably probably probably hill uh Craig's best performance Mike I I want to scale back here I like the match speaking actually I actually thought the match speaking was perfect I did not expect it to become such

jury a fair hard to slam nickel too much like I obviously disagree with it being like a showcase it was a not like it was a very flat performance but but he was rarely in danger throughout the fight i'm with you like i don't think 3027 but even the round he lost it's not like he was again i never felt like paul craig was was uh kind of finish him and if you're winning the fight which he was you know hit those little light kicks occasional like whatever pop in and and land like one shot um then there's no reason to risk anything else i guess his team had thought yes wrestling is his greatest strength but Paul Craig is pretty dangerous off his back. Also it looked like Paul Craig was kind of loading up a knee the whole time. I think I think that the plan was as soon as they

saw him even flinch to shoot down, they would throw up a knee. Now that shouldn't stop a great wrestler from figuring that out, but it's true. Bo Nicol has seven and now has seven MMA fights. You know, that's a hard thing I think to get used to. We've seen a lot of great wrestlers get kneeed into oblivion just shooting in and, you know, and losing fights. So and getting knocked out. So Bo did what he had to do. If I'm him, I'm not writing home about that performance. He definitely did not dominate Paul Craig, which I think is what he said after. He said he said he whooped him, you know, whoop him.

So we're skipping back a little bit. We're going again with another pick from a previous show. And I'll hat tip the guy who gave me this idea, left lane MMA. Jacob Malkoon. I'm going with Jacob Malkoon again. That's what this fight should have been. This should have been Jacob Alcun, not Paul Craig. So the last time I picked this, it turned out to be Paul Craig instead.

I just like as much as I liked the fight when I saw what the UFC did, now I realize now seeing it play out like, you know, hindsight is 2020. Maybe it was a little too much too soon. So let's just take a slight step back, a guy with a little bit more, less experience than Craig. But I still think it would be a tough test for Nicol. We do not need to push into the top of Dean, Mike. And I'm assuming that's not where you went with it. Oh, we went backwards, baby. We went backwards.

uh look this was um i'm glad they made this fight because i just i needed to see it uh i'm i'm with jed in the whole like you have to just kind of stand by what you say and just keep that energy going when you tell everyone you're going to absolutely annihilate this man and humiliate him in front of the president of the United States, the soon to be next president of the United States. You better back that up. And he certainly did not do that. And it's good to get a win.

And then to kind of just treat it like it was the greatest performance of his career. Just the energy was very, very strange. It's never a good thing when I have truly never in my fandom have heard a crowd in unison shant overrated at a fighter. Never have ever heard that. And I saw some people kind of like downgrade the performance and be like, yo, he was a minus 1350 favorite, not good. David Onamo was also a minus 1350 favorite.

And he struggled against a newcomer. And it was a great fight. And I don't see David getting this sort of the same, I don't know, angst. But David Onama also put over his opponent. I was like, dude, this guy's really, really good. Having said that, we are going back. We're going back to a matchup that was booked once before. and did not come to fruition.

It was booked less than a year ago for UFC 290. International Fight Week. He did not fight this man. He ended up fighting promotional newcomer Val Woodburn instead. We're doing Bo Nickel versus Trayshon Gore, okay. We're going back there. Trayshon has two pretty ferocious finishes in a row, two of the nastiest chokes we've seen in this division.

Let's get him a freak athlete finisher in his face. And if he goes out there and just smushes Trashon Gore, cool. Then we could start talking other opponents. But this performance against Paul Craig, it's nothing but top 15 guys if you're just going to kind of promote him up the ladder. And I got to tell you, there aren't a lot of ranked middleweights. I would pick him to beat right now after that performance.

He's just not, he's just going to be so undersized to a lot of these guys. Like Kyle Bajalio will literally smush him. He will squash him like a grape because he's just going to be so he's going to look 40 pounds bigger than Bo. So yeah, let's go Trayshon Gore. Let's give him someone who's going to get or get got with him. He's going to go right after him. He's going to try to finish Bo Nicol.

And if Bo can go there and get him out of there, cool. Then we can start talking about maybe the Jack Hermansansans and stuff of that nature. I don't think you do Jack Hermanson right now. I think that what we saw on Saturday, Jack Hermanson, there's a chance he, there's a very good chance he wins that fight. So yeah, I'll go Trayshon Gore and let's go. That's way back. That is, yeah, that is, that is, you didn't know, that's back in the, that is back in the, that far. I do not have far on this.

I did not have Trachshon Gore higher in the ranking because, so, okay. So, so, I mean, for me, he takes, even though it wasn't a great performance, nickel takes Craig's number, right? He does take Craig's number. Was Craig ranked? Was Craig ranked? I, not in our rankings. I'll tell you that.

He's, he's been ranked before. Did he come into this one with the numbers next to his name? Let's check real quick. I don't know, actually. He was not. But you wouldn't rank, you wouldn't rank Paul Craig lower than like, 30, right? Yeah, I had him at 29 heading into this fight. Okay, perfect.

So you have a 29. I have Gore at 41. It's not that far. I have Gore. How did that last win? I don't know. Where do I have Gore? I have Gore like at 58, but that's because he has some.

Okay. Although he lost to Cody Brundage, right? He did. No. Am I making that up? Did that fight never happen? Trashon Gore? Yes, he had a weird loss again.

So there's like, I'm doing a bit of MMA math here. Like I'm, I should probably recalibrate with the time between Trashon's fight. Yeah. As of the time between Trashon's fights, like the guy who lost, you know, Cody Brunit is probably very, very different from the guy we just saw I get a win. But I just, I'm not a believe. I saw him in the ultimate fighter too. And he was so hyped up.

And I was like, yeah, he's okay. So maybe I'm being too hard on Trishon. So yeah, I guess it's not. It's not that far back. For me, that would be far back. I'm trying to keep Bo in this range. But after what we saw against Craig, I can understand people being a little skeptical

as to how quickly he can get to the top of the ladder. And by the way, I see someone say, like, don't give him a cupcake matchup. I don't think, I don't think Trayshon Gore's a cupcake matchup for Bo Nicol. I don't. I would pick Bo to win, but I don't think this is a cupcake matchup. I think Trayshon Gore gives him a tougher fight than Paul Craig did. if we're being honest, so no, no, no, no, no.

What did I just see? This can't be real. Oh, my God. Oh, what happened, Mike? Oh, my God. Are you effing kidding me? A.K., did you see this? Let me break some booze here.

Oh, no, no. January 18th, ladies and gentlemen. January 18th, Misfits boxing. Tommy Fury versus Darren Till. Mike, we have time for this. Mike, but I have time for this. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

All right, we got to move on. Okay. Jesus Christ. All right, let's continue on. Combat sports. Holy shit. Viviani Ara Ujo, not out of my fantasy, any chance I had to win our fantasy MMA competition,

taking out Karine Silva, who I needed her to get a, finish almost got one in round one uh but our ujo it's just a dog out there gets it done and for me viviani a rauoujo is every division has one a neil magny a dan e gay type where she's the litmus test of the division and if you beat her then it proves that you are someone who could make you could go up there and make some sort of a title run uh so i'm going to go ahead i was going my my pick was going to be Jasmine Jazz DeVizzias, but then it appears that Jasmine Jazz DeVizzius is going to fight Myra Buena Silva February 1st.

We haven't like fully fully confirmed that, but there's smoke to the fire from the reports from AG fight. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to give her Tracy Cortez, okay? We'll do Vivi Arujo versus Tracy Cortez. That could be a real stinky fight. I mean, it could be a real stinky fight. I mean, Araujo and Silva wasn't that.

bad except for the third round. It was starting to break down. It was starting to break down in the second. And then by the third, it was like, oh, this is real bad MMA. Like, you know, two pretty good fighters, I think. It was real bad MMA. I picked Aaron Blanchfield to get the winner of this fight after her win over Rose at U.C. Edmonton. Again, a performance that didn't leave everyone very inspired about Aaron. Like, I thought the score was fine that she got three rounds. But I remember live. she didn't look great and then when the result was red

a lot of people were left unsatisfied so Aaron Blancho just needs to keep getting tested just needs to keep getting good fights Viviana Rujo fits the bill put them in there like it's a weird kind of a reverse gatekeeper situation because Aaron's definitely ranked higher than Vibiani but again based on what we saw Rose

she's not getting that title fight next so give her another tough matchup if she puts away Arrujo that would be amazingly impressive and then you get the hype back otherwise actually I don't want to see how she deals with this um again with with this this fighter who is just a really tough matchup for everyone uh arruza versus casey o'neal i thought about that that's not a bad one i'd like to see casey get another win first before she gets that because she

she was on a tough run she's kind she's probably fighting it for her job in her last fight she did end up getting the win but i'd like to see her get one more win before she fights someone like aruzo because I don't know it wouldn't shock me if Casey O'Neill won that fight but that's a really tough matchup it is definitely a tough matchup so let's go to Maricio Ruffy AK yeah takes on Jamez's longtop fun fight really good one enjoyed it very much Maricio Ruffy looked fantastic and Lontop might be the toughest dude in the lightweight dude he cannot kill this man that was crazy is impossible to do so And just a really fun fight. So everybody won is a good main card opener. Where did you go here, AK, Best Division in the Sport?

Maricio Ruffy versus fill in the blank. Yeah, yeah. Just for, I just for Yon Top. It was tough. You know, he took this on two weeks notice. I wish he had made weight. I've rarely seen a catchweight bout someone miss. And then it becomes a different kind of catchweight bout.

So that was kind of bad. But yeah, tough night. 20% of his purse, tough. Amazingly tough. Some of those shots, Hoofy Land. I was like, if you've seen any of, of Hoofie's previous. It's like those are the kind of shots that puts his opponents down. That's how he chaos people.

He has these amazingly like striking from these kind of weird angles and beautiful timing. Got that that kind of Connor style. I swear he landed at least three square shots on Gontop's chin that like would have finished almost anyone. So yeah, that was nice. A lot of directions can go with him. Mike, he called out Benoit Sondini after, which was a pretty good call out. I just don't. Yeah, I don't know.

I thought that was too high though. I'm not ready to have Sonsonis still on the top what top 50? top 15 top 12 top 12 maybe even um so yeah i don't know if we need to push hovey that quickly right so i went in a totally different direction kind of a dart board throw and i've also had people know i kind of have a rule i want to see you fight like three get three wins within a certain range and then we can sort of jump you up so he's still in this range from me he doesn't he doesn't escape that middle like 20 to 40 range from me personally personally so i went to kind of through a dart maybe him in Nazim Sadikov if we can get Maricio back in there soon.

I think it's a favorable matchup for Maricio. And again, he wins that. Then I'm suddenly like, oh, let's try top 20. Let's try top of team. But yeah, very, very deep division. So hard to push him too fast. Dude. Like him and Rebetschki would be absolutely ridiculous.

Yeah. It would be absolutely ridiculous. I'm not going there because I think Rebetschke's probably going to be out for a minute after that war that he had with the Orrubai. So let me just, I just want to look at the UFC rankings. So we'll see if he's in there. This is a guy who's not ranked in the UFC rankings right now. But I'm going right around that top 20 range, AK.

I'm just going to go ahead and do it. Let's see what this man has. Mauritio Ruffy versus Grant Dawson. That's where I'm going. I didn't hear he said, but I assume you said, I'm so impressed. That's the best pick you've ever. had in the history show that's a high that's a high ranking guy mike i'm okay with it i think

that's a guy with 12 ufc fights 22 2 and 1 carlos pratchez is 4 and 0 and was offered a chance to fight shop cut rock bottom in december after winning a fight welterweight is not is not as is that's so crazy but the welter way it's not as deep as lightweight though yeah let's go let's see what also i got also i get also i think there's a big difference between 4 and o all by knockout and and two and oh that there's a different there's a gap for me between the two guys right now as far as not even saying who's a better fighter but just like in their respective divisions how much like how much room they have for upward mobility um but yeah i i have no problem like said he called out sondini so if he doesn't get santanin and gets an opponent a little bit lower it's

entirely possible yeah i like the sanzanee call i don't think gets that fight but i like that one uh if we could do ruffy versus rievovich like in january or february that would rock but i don't think we're going to get that so uh let's go to the wildcar round then we'll do a quick wildcar route with you guys, a.k. One fighter that competed last night that we did not match me for yet. Who did you go with? God, dude. We got to Jim Miller, right? My best friend?

It's got to be Jim Miller. I knew you would do Jim Miller. Yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah, and I don't have like a crazy pick for him. It's just, we know his goal is to get to 50 fights. He wants to be the first ever UFC fire to get to 50 fights. That was like Donald Serroney's. Oh, Donald Soroni couldn't get the 50 UFC fights. He wanted the 50 combined WC UFC fights. And we think he might be coming back to do that. But I don't know.

Either way, it's still a hard way. to get hard way to get there i think jim miller can get there i would hope he fights past 50 fights as long as he's getting paid well and his health permits but i also totally respect he wants to do if he wants to retire at 40 if he wanted to retire tomorrow i'd be happy for jimler and i respect them so how do we get him there again guys we keep giving like age appropriate ish uh mid-tier competition if you want to get wacky when you start getting to like closer like fights like 48 48 409-50, assuming he's still winning and, like, test him against top, like, 25 guys. Again, I have no interest to do that right now.

Then go for it. But I reached into my little roller, and I pulled out the name of Hafa Garcia. Hafa Garcia. So it's been in the O.C for a bit. He's a good fighter. Unspictacular uneven results so far, I think it would be nice to say. I'm not picking this fight because I think Miller would run through him, and vice versa. I'm not picking this fight to, like, build up Hafa Garcia or anything.

just think that's kind of the range of guys jimellish be fighting right i don't need to see him fight top 30 top 25 guys we'll we'll see unless he strings together three four wins before fight number 50 then we can talk about it then we can talk about it but let's just keep him moving along getting them paychecks yeah i mean that that'll be fun uh raff carcier never been finished before until he fought one grant dawson so uh let's see what happens there i went with the uh the Welsh gangster or as I spell check, bestook called him the Welsh gangster on Twitter after a pretty sensational knockout or knockouts, I guess,

depending on who you ask, because he kind of knocked out Baselof has like three times in one flurry and got a big win and got a $50,000 bonus. What a year he has had. Three and O in the UFC, all three on pay-per-view cards. Now he gets a big finish. And let's do some fun stuff here. I don't know when.

I don't know where. I don't know how. But let's do Oban the Welsh gangster Elliot versus Charles Chuck Buffalo Radkey, AK. Let's have some good old fashioned slobber knocker fun. That could lead to some serious trash talk. Some of it probably very not PG. Probably not PG-13, but you could definitely get some, you'd have to get some quotes out of there. It's where that it's, yeah.

There'll be some talking happening. Yeah. So I like that. All right, real quick, let's go to you guys. Give me a, let's go wild card here. We'll go for like five, ten minutes. Just throwing your picks on the screen. We'll react.

Of course, the super chatters get to jump in. Like right here, PJXU 98, Oliverer versus Holloway, Chandler versus BSD. What do you think about that? Yeah, I mean, again, you throw Chandler in there with anyone in the top 15, top 20. You're going to get an entertaining fight. him and Bistee would be crazy for as long as it lasts.

Again, that's either a first round finish or kind of what we got with Charles. It's just people. But I also think Chandler should always be in five-round fights. I think that's fun. I think that's a fun idea. I know they wouldn't do that. It would depend on card placement, depend on the opponent. I think Mother Chandler should always, always, always be a five-round fighter.

And frankly, that actually gives him a really good chance against certain people because the guy has an endless gas tank. Mike Eki did you think Mickey Gall would cut again. So just to just clarify, Mickey Gall wasn't cut the first time. He fought out his deal and he was very, very injured. It was talked about on the broadcast last night. It's been talked about on the broadcast for the last year or so. Really bad back and spinal type surgeries he had to deal with in order to return to the octagon. But regardless of that, do you think that was Mickey Gall's final fight in the UFC?

based on what you just said it might be his final fight period um i'm glad he was able to you know get healthy enough with those back and neck issues to be able to come back to the uc and fight again but i one i think it's probably i'm not a doctor guys probably did just not make it easy for him to train and to fight and to compete at the highest level and again we've seen the results he's lost four straight fights now um i don't recall him looking particularly great in any of these fights and that's a that's a brutal chaos i mean that was a that was a real tough and he's only he's seven and seven the ufc seven as a pro i think six and seven in the ufc actually has a losing record now he's 32 years old he's about turned 33 he's not like an old

guy but he did start pretty young right i mean remember when he came to the uc pretty pretty fresh-faced guy and it'll be it'll be like year 10 um if he competes in 2025 so again i'm not saying i don't want to see making a golf fight again it's his decision but for his i think for his health and and and just well be future well-being it might just be the last time we seen here regardless of what regardless of how the UFC feels about it so wishing him the best hope he's healthy hope he can if you choose to retire he can do so comfortably it's in a tough spot i mean it's kind of tough to it's kind of tough to keep him right four in row uh Alex morono obviously he's a tough out for a lot of people uh he looked okay against Mike mulat

until he got got in that fight and then he was out for two over two years fought Basel Hafez in June. I thought he won that fight. I thought that was a banger. I thought he beat Basel Afez. Did not go in that direction. And then this Brahimash fight, first knockout win ever. Since Brighamash's first amateur fight,

over a decade ago, that was his first knockout win. And Mickey got got real bad. That was a brutal knockout. So, yeah, I would say that was probably the end of the line. But I don't know, man. Like, he either gets got real good or he's in fun fights, at least this year. So there is some sort of value to that. Kind of probably just depends on the dollars in the sense.

But I would say, yeah, it's probably, could be tough scenes. Could be tough. Jace likes Marcia and Taibora versus Curtis Blades. Sure. Blasey, John versus Tom, Charles versus Max, Chandler Moikano, Boe versus Brad Tavares. I don't hate Borough, Bo, Bo, Bo, Bo, Bo, versus Brad Tavares. I don't mind that one.

Honestly, that is probably the highest I would go with him right now. He's Brad DeVars. Yeah, you might get a little bit of a similar vibe to Craig, though, I don't know, but we'll see. Yeah, but Brad will go after him. VV.V.V. versus Rose, Ruffie versus Saddow. Hey, best friends.

McGee versus Kyler Phillips. Shout out to McGee. Shout out to McGee. Four and O in the UFC. I like McGee versus Rob Fogg. It's hard. What's up with Jonathan Martinez? He lost.

Mm-hmm. I don't know. He did not look particularly good last day. He's got time. He's got time. Yeah, I think he got Jose Aldo and, yeah, tough scenes. That was a fight he could have won. It was a fight he could have won.

I think so, yeah. But it's okay. Jim Miller versus Hooper or Guida, too. Onama versus Kassaris, Tibera versus Lewis, too. I don't want to see that fight. It's a rematch we don't need to see. Bo versus Torres Finney, Chandler versus Ruffie, the closest he comes to a Connor fight.

That's not a... That's not a bad. It's fire funny. Yeah, I saw people call it in his number one. Jonathan Martinez versus Farid Basharad, Oban Elliott versus Sam Patterson, Rameses Bahamage versus Adam Fuget or Fuget. I can, I always forget.

I always forget to. I've got that one. Brandon, Rufi versus Baja Mondays. Damn, that's fun. I thought about that. That's the right range. That is the right range. That's actually a really good pick.

Yeah, that's a great pick. McGee versus Gutierrez. Is Gutierrez booked? I don't think so. I feel like we ask us in the show every time. I don't know. Every time he comes out wrong, is he books? I don't mind that one.

Gutierrez could try to get one back for his teammate. Bo versus the Iron Turtle. I think John Young Park would be a really, really, really, really difficult match for Bo. Yeah. I really do. Not again, not saying that Bo wouldn't win, but it might be another fight where you're kind of left like, oh, Bo won a decision. But you know what?

I almost feel like we're being a little too hard on Bo Nicol, probably because he was not hard enough on himself. So I don't know, maybe he'll come up better and learned a lot in this fight because he is, he is a really, really, really talented fighter. And I do think his finishing ability is going to, is not, did not like go away. It was surprising he couldn't find a way to finish Craig. But listen, he won the fight. Ruffy versus Rebeske.

Yeah. Nickel versus Iron Turtle. They want it. One I love the other I don't. By the way, can I get your reaction to, I think Bryce Mitchell versus Crone Gracie. is the most random fight booking maybe of you have maybe of all time in the you know what's weird i saw that graphic i was like yeah what the hell this makes no sense this this is the most nonsensical fight i have ever even seen on paper chrome gracy looked so bad

against uh charles jordan like to the point where it's like embarrassing to watch i felt horrible that he was in that situation and now you're putting him on a main card of a pay-per-view against bryce mitchell you have another featherweight main card fight at ufc3 10 with two unranked guys which is do ho choy and nate land where which is a slapper of a fight and probably should be the main card opener this fight is on the main card over aljamaid sterling and mobs are of loyaf yeah What? What is happening right now? That two things, two things.

That crazy name just apparently never loses its cachet. There was just such a mystique about it. If you are, if you are part of the Gracie family, you are getting some sort of priority. Sometimes it works out. Often it doesn't. I'm actually not surprised Sterling and Mostar got moved to the prelims because Dana White hates them. Danaway has never liked Aljo. It's not a secret.

It's not a secret. Al Joe has talked in many interviews about how his difficult dealings with the UFC and how they just don't see no one. to get behind him. And it's true, even when he was the champion, like, it wasn't like, I just felt like never pushed him properly. Again, your mileage may vary with how much you like Aljo and his personality, but he was the champion. He was a very good bantamweight. And, you know, it just never felt like they saw him and they invested in him. So they don't like him. And Dana also really doesn't like Mousar. Again, we bring this up all the time, but that fight at 297 with Arnold Allen. That fight was awesome. That was a great win for Mosaar. And I just think Dana didn't see it

or mistook him for someone else because he like panned that fight after it. And I'm almost certain he just didn't watch it or was confused because, but either way, he seems to have it in for Mosa. So that's a matchup of two guys that Dana just really does not care for. So then being on the prelims is completely unsurprising to me. And again, Kron having the name, Gracie, yeah, you just throw it up there and I guess it's supposed to draw eyeballs. His matchup with Bryce, I think, I'm pretty sure some of the cooks that send us picks

somewhere in their pick. If you are one of those cooks, you guys know, slide into my DMs and remind me and I'll get you, I'll get you a not, no point. Anyone who picked Kron versus Bryce Mitchell, let me know, send me a screenshot. Give him 20 odd no points because that is just, I would have never, like if someone said, write down five million fights that could feasibly happen in the UFC, that would not be one of my five million fights. I just didn't think there was a world that was even possible.

I didn't think there was a world of Crone Gracie would ever step foot in a UFC arena again unless he was in somebody's corner, let alone fighting again. So, yeah, pretty wild. And look, this has been a pretty wild weekend. I'm so glad that it's over. I'm so glad that Jake Paul Mike Tyson is over. I'm so glad John Jones versus Steve Amyichich is over. We can move on to UFC Macau, which goes down super early on Saturday morning and just a main event that no one could ever really have a problem with.

It is so good. and it is flying completely under the radar with everything that is going on. Piotr-Yan returning against Davis and Figurado and Figgey's looks so good at 135, makes a supremely strong case to actually fight for the Banimay title. And I agree with Jed,

Davis and Figurato, I believe, would actually have a stronger case than Umar and Amaga Madoff if he beats Piotr Yan to fight for the belt. So perhaps he could leapfrog Umar with the win over Piotrion. We got Janjohn versus 10. at the Ritchie, Ozzy Diaz versus Mingyang Zhang,

Kanon Song Muslim Salikoff. Kong Wang is back against Gabriela Fernandez. And then the main card opens up with one of your favorites, a.K., you just cannot quit Vulcan Ozedemir as he takes on the very handsome Carlos Ulberg. So that is UFC Macau starts very early to be a bunch of road to UFC tournament fights on this card as well. And it'll be super early in the morning.

to the point where we could probably record on to the next one on Saturday, which makes you very happy. If I'm still alive, because I think I've volunteered to cover that event. Should I do my own little watch party, Mike? Should I do like an Instagram live stream or something while I'm... Guys, if I decide to do this,

Alexander KK Lee on Instagram, come watch. Let's all watch you have Steve a cow together, guys. 3 a.m. early Saturday morning. Let's do it. This is a pretty fun. It'll be a good time. I don't know.

I should at least do something. Maybe I start a threat or something on Twitter's. to chat people who are watching USC Macau because that's be fun. See your time. Yes. But that is next week, everybody. So look, it's Sunday. Go watch some football.

Relax. Get out of the house. Enjoy the nice weather wherever you're at. And let's forget this weekend kind of happened in a lot of respects. But, no, honestly. Thank you guys for all tuning into our coverage all weekend long for A.K. Mike Eckack back next week following UFC Macau right here on onto the next one, the podcast.

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