MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Leon Edwards, Colby Covington After UFC 296?

Episode Date: December 17, 2023

The fallout of UFC 296 was always a part of what made Saturday's UFC pay-per-view event so intriguing. Following the final UFC card of 2023, where does Leon Edwards and Colby Covington go following Edwards' dominant win? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee attempt to answer that question from a matchmaking perspective on the final matchmaking edition of On To the Next One for the year. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja following his unanimous decision win in the co-main event against Brandon Royval, Shavkat Rakhmonov after submitting Stephen Thompson in the featured bout, Paddy Pimblett following his lopsided decision win over Tony Ferguson, Josh Emmett after his terrifying knockout of Bryce Mitchell, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. Well, hello there, everybody. And welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. Yes, we are back following the final pay-per-view event, the final

2020 event for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. UFC 296, which started off real strong, kind of ended in a whimper, but it ended with the two world champions that headed into the card as world champions and ended with both those fighters coming out as world champions. And we're here to discuss the fallout of UFC 296 from a matchmaking perspective. I am Mike Keck and joining me, as always on this Sunday morning, the Prince of Positivity, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, and my best friend, Mr. Kaley, AK, how are we doing?

We're doing good. Yes. We're doing great. That was overall a really good card. I think you nailed your assessment of how it played out my best friend. I think it did start. It looked like we were headed towards like an all-timer. I gave it a really high pre-event gymnastics score.

I said there's like a 9.8 on the degree of difficulty. The two title fights didn't really deliver. Well, the main event, obviously. I don't think we need to say anything about the actual action. If you're a Leon Edwards fan, you probably loved it, you're having a great time or you hate Colby. But objectively, the fight itself wasn't super great. It was light on action, I think it's fair to say. And the co-main, I think was really good from a competitive and technical standpoint.

It won't, you know, it's not going to go down as one of the fights of the year. But I really enjoyed the co-main event. But yeah, we didn't get one of those, like a classic moments in the Maine or Co-Main. And I think that might dim the event in some people's eyes. But I think when they look at it top to bottom, it actually looks like this. This was not a top three card of the year. You know, didn't quite live up to that billing. But it was, it was good.

It's in the upper half of the 12, UFC 12, 13 paper views. How many of the year? Do they do two in a month this year? They did 14. Did they not? 14. Because they did two in March and two in July. I think of the 14 paper views, it's in the top half.

I think it's in the top. I think I'd say it's top seven. I have to look back at the whole list again when we start doing our year-end recaps and that sort of business. But I think it's an upper half. It's a good card. Yeah. I mean, I think just, the expectations are almost impossible to reach for this card, if we're being honest. I mean, between the prelims, we had Arrini Aldana versus Carol Hosa, a fight of the year contender.

And then Jacoby and Menefield was fun, like two of the fights who didn't think were going to be super duper fun. End up delivering, we get one of the most frightening and terrifying knockouts in UFC history to kick off the main card. And then things just kind of went downhill a little bit. but we'll discuss all of that and more. We'll talk about what's next for the title contenders, the title participants, the main card winners, we'll have some wild card picks.

We'll go for like 45, 50 minutes here before I have to check out of the hotel here in New York City. But what we'll do is we'll go through each fight. If you guys have suggestions for who we're discussing, chuck them in the chat. We'll pull them up on the screen. And then at the very end, we'll take 10 or so minutes, maybe 15.

and we'll just take the leash off. You guys can run around virtually and submit your matchmaking suggestions and we'll get after it from that perspective. So let's get into it, AK, Leon Edwards, still the welterweight champion following UFC 296. As I said on the post-fight show, this sort of reminded me not exactly the same of the Israel-Assandia versus Jared Cannon Air Fight from UFC 276, where I think Leon was preparing for something, maybe Colby to sort of back up all the trash talk,

and then Colby just ended up handing him a win on a silver platter by just giving him the exact fight he needs to just easily win. And that's what happened here. Leon just took what he was given, cruised to a decision, kind of took round five off, but it didn't really matter. He knew Colby had nothing for him. And now things are real interesting here.

The build to this, a lot of people were saying, Belal Muhammad likely would not get a title shot coming out of this, especially if Colby won, and if Leon won still maybe 50-50. And then Leon goes to the press conference and just kind of no-sells everybody, had nothing in plan. And Jedd kind of joked about it on the post-fight show. The UFC's graphic of Leon Edwards with the belt was, let's see what's next.

It's the funniest thing of everything. Sinalating. So what is next? Is Malahama going to get his day in court, or do you think they're going to go a different direction? Yeah, yeah, Bilal Baham should be next. Come on. Belal should be next. It's not like my number one choice.

We will talk about our number one choice. And I think a lot of people's number one choice after Saturday night later in the show. But just based on sort of the longer history of some of these fighters, I have to lean towards Balal. I should have put them in the poll. I just threw up a little polar Rooney, Mike before we started talking. Who was the biggest winner of UC-296? Leon Edwards, Pantosia, Shabcott, or Patty Pimblit. I don't think I left anyone off.

I mean, Josh Emmett, we can talk about him later too, but I guess I should have mentioned Balal. Bilal could have been put on the list, arguably over Pentosia, who was great, but I don't know if gained a lot from that win. But I don't know how many votes Balaw would get. I would hope a lot, because I think this win, sorry, Leon's win should clear the, pretty clear path. I think Balal's done almost everything he can do other than be really good on the mic, not a

strength of either him or Leon Edwards. I really wish Leon had called for him. It would have made this pick so much neater. As it is, there is certainly doubt as to who could be next. Imagine if the Ian Machado Gary Lucke fight had gone through, and Gary had just first round, Coyote Vicente Lucke. He'd be in the mix.

He probably might have jumped ahead of Balal. So Blah actually is fortunate that that fight didn't take place. So I'm going with him. This was also an easy follow-up. I think after Bilal's last fight, I said, I want to see him face the winner of this matchup. I'm going to stick to that. people can say what they want about oh the first fight was like what we saw in the first fight the round in a bit was enough that we know leon's better i don't know it was a while ago i think ball's but better since then leon's probably better since then you're you might have to throw it on if you're the ufc and you're worrying about moving pay-per-view sales you might have to throw it on there with another fight i get it uh or just bite the bullet and have it headline a card that you know you don't necessarily expect it to uh to do blockbuster numbers and that's okay to either way

I think it's the way to go. I know fans aren't, you know, banging the doors to see this happen. But he'll all of a sudden, he's earned enough. He waited into the backup. That's a guarantee, Mike. Oh, yeah. I mean, just do the mathematics. It's 100%.

Anyone who backs up gets a title shot, right? Especially in 2023. It's the law. Obviously, we're being sarcastic. It's the law, Mike. It's on the rules and guidelines, the athlete protocol guidelines. The UFC adheres to so much. So we also talked about this to the place.

to the biggest winner of UFC 296 is actually winners and it's two guys who didn't even fight on the card actually they kind of did depending on how you look at it it's Sean Strickland Trichens 2 plus E they're the biggest winners of UFC 296 and it's crazy to say for a skirmish in the crowd where Sean Strickland had to politely asked Gilbert Burns his children to move out of the way as he jumped over a row of chairs to go start punching DDP in the crowd but that is the biggest story coming out of this event so those two guys are are obviously the biggest winners. I mean, probably Sean Strickland in particular

because he's going to make a whole bunch more money when he fights DDP in Toronto. That paper was going to do much better. Yeah, I think, I think Balaal's going to get his day in court. I think every domino that Boul needed to fall fell, all of them. Every single thing he needed to happen happened. And the other thing is Dana White talked about it. Leon talked about it at the post-fight press conference.

It seems like the UFC's going to be. going to go to Manchester, maybe the first half or early second half of 2024. You just throw Leon on that card. It does not matter who he fights at all. Just throw him in there. He's going to be treated like a star. Probably the only place is going to be treated like a star. You put Tommy Aspinall on the co-main event against whoever to defend the interim title.

There you go. So I do think Ballal is going to get his day in court because in that juncture, it doesn't matter. Now, the one thing that could hurt Ballal is if the UFC needs Leon to fight sooner. If they say all their UFC 300 plans fall apart and they're just like, man, Leon, we need you to fight. If the wall ain't ready, they're just got to go with the next guy. But I kind of feel like after this fight and just this performance overall, like it was a clear win for Leon. And Colby deserves much more of the blame, in my opinion, than Leon does. This wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing fight.

The second Kamar Usman fight was a good win, but not aesthetically pleasing. and let's be honest, the first Ushman fight was not good until the head kick heard around the world. So I think Ballal will get his shot and availability is going to be Bilal's best friend here. Now, probably the more interesting question, AK, is where does Colby Covington go? Because I want to be perfectly clear, this was a bad performance. This was one of the worst performances from a challenger I've seen in a long time that I can remember. This was really, really bad. and all week I kept saying

we are going to know in the first seven minutes what this fight is going to look like. Either we're going to feel like, ooh, Colby's going to be real competitive here. He might win or we're going to be like, nope, he's done. He has no chance of winning. And that is what happened here.

Colby just didn't do anything. I'm curious if he was hurt. I talked about that on the watch party if he was hiding some kind of an injury, but it doesn't matter. He was bad. He was very, very bad. But the one thing Colby did well,

in my opinion, AK, was what he did when he had a microphone in his face. I'm not talking about what he said in the octagon. The second he showed up to the press conference, he was asked a question and immediately called out Stephen Wonderboy Thompson, which one fits right in with the gimmick. Two, it gives him the biggest prize-fighty fight possible where he gets the bigger name with the lowest risk, in my opinion.

And he immediately, he did more in the first two minutes of his post-fight press conference than Leon Edwards did in 30 minutes of his. And that goes to show you, even after a terrible performance. I think he's going to get what he wants. I think he will get the Wonderboy fight. I think the UFC will give it to him. And I'm kind of intrigued by it, which also makes,

it's crazy to say, it makes me think that Wonder Boy is still in play as a freaking title contender because if he goes in there and rinses Colby, he's probably getting a title shot, which is crazy. So maybe Wonderboy was the biggest win in the state even though he lost because he's probably going to get Colby next.

It's crazy. I'm going with the Wonderboy fight. I would like to see Shafcott get his opportunity, but I don't think that fight's going to happen. So I do think they will go with Colby versus Wonder Boy that can headline and on the road fight night card. You could throw that anywhere on a paper-re main card, and it's going to get a lot of attention.

And Colby's going to try to say unkind things to Wonderboy, and Wonder Boy is just going to kind of shrug it off and disarm Colby. So, yeah, I think that's what's going to happen. Yeah, it was a great callout. It's one he's made before. again. He's, he's, he's, there's one thing Colby does is that he, he lays the seeds for a lot of feuds. He lays seeds for a lot of potential fights. Even Leon, even Leon, though there wasn't like the most amount of heat between them before Fight Week when it just ramped up to an insane level.

Um, he invented the stupid Leon Scott thing all those years ago, which, believe it or not, some people actually find funny and still repeat. And that was just a throwaway line from, well, long, long, long time ago. So he does, he's, unlike a lot of fighters, you'll see a lot a fighter say that they really don't keep up with the rankings they actually don't keep up with like they're focused on training they're focused in their own career they're not watching every car they're not like scrutinizing all their potential matchups then there's guys like colby uh ian machado gary uh melchiaza back when he was calling people out and doing a really good job of getting those fights like who who have a plan you know they have a plan win or lose they have a plan

so colby had a plan an exit strategy if you will and it was to call out wonder boy and it's logical that's a pretty easy crystal ball pick i would be surprised if the ufc wasn't immediately you know not not signing it this week but probably after the show talking to both guys and saying yeah this is you want to fight wonder boy we'll talk about it would you wonder boy we want to fight we'll talk about it it just it does make sense where they are at this stage in their careers and wonder boy will have to see that as a winnable fight because he he loses when he gets outgrappled for sure but colby's a little bit older he certainly didn't show off much of his wrestling on uh saturday against a guy who has much better take down events of Wonder Boy, but it just wasn't great.

And regarding an injury, I personally thought he must have had some injury going in, but that doesn't matter. Once you step into that cage. Oh, 100%. There's no excuses. There's no excuses. There's no excuses. Yeah, we're not making excuses. No, not at all. Not at all. He had, even I said on the watch party, and I know I wasn't alone in this. He had, he had the aesthetics and at least the look of somebody who's trying to disguise an injury, like a knee injury. Like he did. The stand switching, all of that, that is unlike Colby. It wasn't planting very well when he was throwing strikes.

And again, it doesn't matter. And honestly, even if Colby was 120% healthy, I still think that fight probably goes very similar to the way that it did yesterday. But he had the aesthetics of watching the fight. I was just like, man, Colby looks like he's trying to hide something and trying not to, he's trying to keep a poker face. But like, I'm completely with you. It doesn't matter.

No excuse for Colby. He went out there and got run over. He got Dominique, not run over. he got dominated. He's not headed at all. And he didn't even hinted anything, by the way. Post-fight injury, nothing. He may have, he was very arrogant. He definitely downplayed the Edwards performance. He was like, ah, you know, he said a lot of stupid things after the fight, but did not say anything like, oh, by the also I was injured. Not, I don't think at any point to he elude to an injury. So we got to take any face value. He was probably as close to

healthy, 100% healthy as you can get in the fight game, which is to say not that close. Everyone goes in. I feel like 80% health at best. But yeah, as far as we know, no notable injury, just Leon's the better fighter and Colby had nothing for him. So nothing I want to point out. Someone had a comment. Oh, it was good. Oh, what is Colby going to be ranked after that performance? I'll love you right now.

He's not in my overall MMA top 15. If I'm doing just UFC, I think he still cracks it. I think he still cracks it. You're not ranking him at all? He won't be because I think my number 15 is like Magelmed Karamov, I think, for PFL, right? PFL's Welterweight champion, I think. Wow.

I would pick him over Covington 90 times, nine times out of 10 right now. In the UFC, so I have Covington behind Neil Magny and Jack Delamadalena and I Machado-Garry, so I won't put him over. Just if he had put on a better performance, and I spoke to this with Jed before the show, before U.S. 296, I was very easily going to rank him probably above both those guys, Ian Machado-Geri, Jack Delamadelamadalena. Just because I think you can't erase those past. to accomplishments entirely.

And also, I still think he'd be a decent matchup for either of them. But that performance was so bad. I just can't in good conscience rank him. I don't know what you're playing to do. I think the UFC will put him back in the top of team. I'm going to, oh, I'm going to rank him. It won't be, he won't be, like, top. I think I looked at it last night a little bit.

I'm going to take my time today and go through the rankings, since I don't have to fly out of here for a while. But he's probably going to be in the top 10, but like the back half, he'll probably be like above, I would rank him above Wonderboy. Okay. Because I think like Colby should win that fight. It wouldn't surprise me if Wonder, if Wonder Boy, especially after what he showed in a lot of that fight against Shofcott, really good takedown defense.

And he, he hit Shofcott a bunch of times. So I'm not saying Wonderboy couldn't win, but you'd have to think Colby's like a minus 180 favor in that fight. You know what I mean? So it ain't going to be a, it ain't going to be a great ranking. but maybe he's number 10. He's probably in the top 10 at this point, but he's hanging on by a thread.

I'll tell you. I'll wait to see if he gets the Wonderboy fight. If he gets a Wonderboy fight and he wins, a happy throw Colby back in there. As it is, he's got to earn that ranking back. I've been pretty consistent with this. People know I didn't rank Henry Suhudo either, and he had a much, much better performance

against Alstermaine Sterling in their title fight. Some would argue he even won that fight, and I still didn't rank Henry. His inactivity was even longer than Colby's, and his resume and that weight class is he is not as frankly not as good as colby i know people knock colby's resume but he has a better list of wins at 135 so i'm sorry 170 then um henry soon has at 135 so i'm again if you come if you come back from a long layoff he's got a win you got a win and i'll put you in man or at least put on a better performance than

what colby did because yeah he could have he could have got a 10 top 10 ranking with a loss and i just can't i can't a good conscience do it i know if there's people in the comments i'm crazy I understand. Sorry, regarding matchmaking. I honestly don't care. I don't ever want to see this guy fight again. His personality does nothing for me. His post-fight press conference was just embarrassing.

And if they caught him, I honestly wouldn't shed it to you. I know there's still interesting fights ahead of them. I know Wonderboy makes a lot of sense. If you're Wonderboy, you should be campaigning to make that fight happen. 100%. But otherwise, throw him to Michael Morales. I don't care, Mike. That's my pick, all right?

I originally wanted Michael Morales to fight the Brown Salikov winner. That fight didn't happen on this car. So technically, I still want Michael to get someone who participated in the show. I may let me be Colby Covington. Let's see, let's just throw him to some blue chipper, see what happens. And Michael Morales smokes them, hilarious. If he beats Michael Morales, back in the top 10, back in, I guess, well, I guess Colby coming has still got something left.

So I'm happy to roll the dice there and see what happens too. Boy, I mean, if Colby, I'll tell you what, Wonder Boy is probably going to get that fight. and if Ian Gary could beat Jeff Neal, he's probably fighting one of those two guys next. So like Ian Gary versus Colby would be pretty interesting too. The build would probably be really, really awful. But we'll go from there. So yeah, Colby probably at the Wonder Boy fight.

Just no sell Shafcott, which I thought was even funnier. It's just everything about it was just a weird, a weird Saturday night for one Colby coming to, which is crazy to say. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy.

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Conditions apply. Let's move on to the easiest batch making of the card. Alexander Pantosia defeats Brandon Royval, unanimous decision. He looked real good in the fight. Was this the all-out sprint for 25 minutes that a lot of people were predicting or for less than 25 minutes? No, but he's still a very fun fight. Roy Vall made things interesting even in round five. But Pantosia, just a gritty, wily veteran.

The man looks like he gasses in round two, taking big deep breaths. And then just when you think, oh, man, he's getting tired. He lands a takedown and dominates a round. So this is super simple. There is a big fight coming up five rounds, Mexico City, Amir al-Bazi versus Brandon Moreno. Winner of that fight gets the next title shot. It's pretty simple. Yep, no friends forever here.

You could make an argument that Albazi, the run he's on, had already done enough to earn a title shot. Some of him said he's more worthy of a title shot than Brandon Royvals. So the fact that I've got to go to Moreno, I mean, it's a fair game. He needs to get one more fight. He doesn't have the kind of name where they could just throw him into a title shot waiting. If he beats Moreno, clear a number one contender. Moreno beats him. We got a rematch of what I think was the best fight of 2023.

So UFC, Mexico City, February 24th. Fingers crossed, I think happens to his fight. I think that's going to be a good one in its own right. And then either way, we can also match up next. So, yep, easy bit. What about Brandon Royval, I.K. Where does he go from here? Brandon, I was, Mike, can I say I was a little disappointed in his performance?

I'm not sure what more he could have done. Pantosia's grappling is so good. Pantosia is frigging nails. Like when Royval was just kind of finally putting it on him in round five and just like smacking him with clean shots, I get that it's round five. They probably weren't knockout blows. But like, we saw this in the Moreno fight too. We had that Pantoget has this weird kind of late round malaise to him.

But you know he's not like really, he's not actually gas. He's not actually, he just slows down. He slows down in rounds four and five. Now maybe he needs to stop that. I don't think it looks great with the judges, but it didn't matter on Saturday, 50, 45s across the board. So his grappling was more than enough to, to win on the scorecards. But for Roy Val, I hope he gets to fight his way to another title shot.

He's not old, you know, there's, there's always a chance he gets a chance another shot of Pantosia, or if Pantosia lose the belt, Roy Val can sneak into, you know, fight a different challenger. Sorry, different champion, excuse me. But he's only going to get tough fights. It's a, it's one of the, it's actually one of the toughest divisions in the UFC right now

because it's not deep. And anyone in the top 25 is like a killer. There's only, I think, maybe like 35 flyweight. So there's like 10 that you might say their new, quote unquote, easier wins. But Roy Val is going to have to. fight someone tough someone coming for a spot i think it's a guy who won on saturday i think maybe he ends up having to face uh tegir uh who had a great performance in cody durden and then uh we reevaluate

revalvarez uh contender prospects from there interesting selection and i love you but you're wrong it's it's incorrect there's only one answer to this question i've already seen a bunch of people comment on it i understand that this person already has a fight booked and that's totally okay it happens to be on the first fight card of 2024. Minel Cop is fighting Mateus Nicolao in a rematch, and I don't give a shit what the result is. The next fight that is going to be made following January 13th is Minel Cop versus Brandon Roybal.

That is the next fight. Minell is not getting a title shot because he's going to have to wait anyways because they're going to do the Albazzi Moreto winner more likely than unlikely. And now you give us Brand Royval versus Minel Cop. I want this fight so bad. I want this fight so bad, and I think we're going to get it. Either way, no matter what happens, Roybal versus Cop next. Five rounds, UFC Apex, give it to me.

That was my first instinct, was to give him Cop win, loser, draw. I think I didn't want to risk derailing Cop if he beats Nicola, if he gets the revenge against Nicola. I think I didn't want to risk Cobb losing a shot, but you're right. That's a senseless way to think in this division. you really can't protect anybody. You can't wait for people. You really can't wait or pick it fights in the UFC's Flywood Division.

You really just have to go. So I think you're right. I do hope I need to see Roy Val and Cop fight at some point, whether there's a title shot on the line or not. So I went with like a safe, like conservative choice. But yeah, I do hope we see Royval on Cop sometime in 2024. Flyweight's so fun. Like I'd love to see Royval versus Moreno again.

I would love to see Cop versus Moreno. I mean, God, man. Cop versus Kai Kar, France. This is just so much. At some point, Tyra is going to have to step up and get one of these guys, right? Tara is going to be the next. I know. I love how they're building them up.

If they want to give them, again, you know, lower half of the division guys for the next couple of fights, I wouldn't cry about it. But by the end of 2024, I'd love to see Tyra fighting someone with a number of extra name. No rush, no rush, but I can't. Give him Tim Elliott. Give him Tim Elliott. We were talking about this. That's great. That's the fight.

Sure. So, yeah, Royval, the fun will continue on. Let's go to Shafcott Rockmanoff, aka beats Wonderboy Thompson, just did what he usually does. 18 and 0, 18 finishes. Dude's just got a presence to him. He's got an oar to him. Dude just gets it done. A lot of people fail like he could get a title shot at it works.

Colby No sold him. Leon pretty much no sold him. I think he might have to fight again. Again, where are we going here? This is probably the toughest one for me, because you could go a number of different ways with this. Where did you ultimately land on here for Shafcott? First of all, I think when our rankings come out,

our fully updated division rankings, global rankings, I should say come out this week, later this week. I have feeling Shavcott is going to be Jedmishu's number one, welterweight. I don't know. I'm sorry, I didn't watch the post-fight show. I don't know if he said it. That's why I asked that question.

I knew he was going to do that. I knew he was going to rank Shopcott as the best fighter and the best one. And this is not a surprise. I think, did he have him number one? He had him as high as number two, I think. I think number two. He's had Shopcott's high as number two. He might be number two right now.

But by the time he updates, probably number one. He had warned us of this before the card because he was, I think either he expected neither guy to necessarily have a runaway victory. Certainly he wasn't going to put Colby number one unless Colby flat out just dominated Leon. I think that's the only way he might have put Kobe number one. But he's kind of like me. You've got an inactivity has to mean something.

Right. So Shavcott will be number one on one of our esteemed panel's ballots. And I don't blame them because I think personally, I think he might be the best Welterian in the world. I'll pick him over everyone who I have ahead of him. Leon Edwards, I have number one, of course. Kamaro, I still have at Welterway. I just don't know if he's coming back at middleweight again. So whether you have Kamara there, he's ahead of him.

Otherwise, Kamara's not in the division. So it doesn't matter. and then I would have Shavcott over below. So that's it. That's all the guys who I have ahead of him, and I'd pick Shafcott to be any of them. I think he's that good. I think he's the real deal.

I know people are like, well, he had moments in the Jeff Neal fight where he was in trouble. He won that fight with this vicious choke of Jeff Neal. I think that Jeff Neal fight is going to become like his Habib, Michael Johnson, Hamzak Gilbert fight, where people were like,

oh, they didn't dominate like I expected to, so they were exposed. It's like, well, they still got the win. They still got the win. Habee was probably the most dominant of that. I mean, he was in trouble for like half a second and then just obliterated Michael Johnson. But either way, there's always these fights

and hype guys runs where it's like, oh, they hit a wall. Like maybe they're not as good as we thought. And I'm like, sometimes they just face good fighters. Jeff Neal's a good fighter. And I think shop cuts there. He's overcome adversity. He didn't fall for the trap

of trying to really outstrike Wonderboy. You know, he did his thing, close the distance, took him down, got the choke. It was fantastic domination. So if I could wave a magic wand, I probably would give him the time fight over Balal, but I think Bilal deserves it. So I landed Mike on Sean Brady.

And I want to hear your pick first before I kind of break down why this happened. This was just math. This was just who's available. And like, I didn't really have any other better options. I'm not sure where you're going with it. Like, if I had my druthers, I would give him Usman. That would be the one. Yeah.

Because it appears like Whitaker's going to fight Paul Costa. Right. We lost our, we lost our dream Usma and Whitaker match. So. But I also don't know if like that's a fight Usman wants right now. You know what I mean? Because even if he wins,

I don't know if it gets of a title. I mean, maybe he gets a title play if Balal wins the belt. But I don't know. I just, it'd be good. I think if Shafkat's smart, he just does nothing.

It just waits because I think honestly, as soon as as Belal, as soon as Leon Belal ends, he's just next. So he could just change. chill out and wait, or he could just take another stay busy fight. So I, maybe he's the backup fighter and just gets the winner. I don't know.

Do you just take another fight just to stay busy? I guess. I thought about Brady one that's not a bad one. I don't know. Maybe the, maybe you do like the Kevin Holland MVP winner just for name value. Try to get one of those guys over. I don't know, although I think Shopcutt runs over both of those dudes. So, yeah, I mean, I'll go friends for.

forever with you, but he's the guy, like he's already, he's there. He doesn't have to do anything else. He shouldn't. He shouldn't have to. Yeah, he, he doesn't have to do anything else. But I don't know. This is, this was the toughest one. So maybe he wants to stay busy, give him Sean Brady. Maybe that's the main event of the Atlantic City card. That's not a bad one. It's like right outside of Philly. So do that. Why don't we just do Sean Brady versus Shavcott? That could be the main event. Go do that, I guess. I don't know. This is, this is one of the why I always say belts are props. And often, unfortunately, once you get to this level, props that actually get in the way

of making fights. Because in a world without belts, where they just paid fighters properly regardless of whether they're champions or not, again, the compensation was just, and frankly, it was way higher than, you know, whatever, we won't harp on this. We wouldn't be saying, like, oh, well, he has to wait for this. People would just be fighting. Like, we would just have guys fighting. You'd just be fighting the best.

You're getting paid a crap ton of money, and you wouldn't care if you, you'd want to be, I mean, at some point you want to be ranked number one. I get it. Fighters care about belts. It's a sense of validation. I understand. But the fact that, like, Shabkat knows the next logical thing for him is a belt means, like, you're right. He might just have to wait.

And that means Leon fights Ballal first. And then who knows what happens? Hopefully it's healthy enough that he can defend again in late summer or third quarter. But it's, I just want to see Shafkat fight as much as possible. I find him so entertaining. I love watching Shopkaud fight. But business-wise, because we care about belts so much. the UFC puts so much financial weight on having a belt, oh, now, well, now Shafcock can't

fight. He can't fight because it's just not worth it for him. And that is so infuriating. This guy should be getting paid whatever, $2 million to fight Joe blow off the street. I don't care. But that's the nature of combat sports. This isn't just the UFC, by the way. This is combat sports in general. It's just a real, real problem in the UFC because they're obviously number one in MA. But yeah. And so anyone who's just like, why Sean Brady, why kill off another guy who's, you know, very likely one or two fights three from a title shot. There's just really no choice. We said already some of the other guys ahead of him in the rankings, ahead of Shopcott, who are just, they have their own things going on.

They might not fight him. Gilbert Burns. We know, people not mind saying the announcements late last night. Gilbert Burns is going to fight JDM. That rumored fight is happening. Ian Machado Gary got rebooked. He's getting the Jeff Neal fight that he was supposed to get a while ago. That's it.

I mean, Luke A is an option, I guess, but I don't know. Did we think about Luque? for shopcott for shopcott no no i don't want to see that i don't think they're gonna do it so big rocker johnson i think actually nailed it i think they're maybe they'll i think they're gonna do brady luke is the main event of there yeah could be because they're doing they're not doing gary versus luke anymore now they're doing it they shifted gary back to jeff neal for miami so yeah so you're probably right my best friend it's probably wait it's it's uh we probably just don't see shopcott fight again for like eight months which sucks but uh that probably is it

If I have to pick a name, I'll say they throw Sean Brady at them. I'll usually if Sean Brady wants to stay busy as well. But it's probably awaiting. Sorry, guys, if I'm not see Shotcock for a while. Dude, he just waited nine months after Bulldog choking, standing bulldog choking Jeff Neal in March. So I don't think there's going to be a lot of guys lying up to fight him, honestly. So, yeah, I think he's going to end up waiting and getting the winner of Edwards v. Ballal. Let's go to Patty Pimblit defeats Tony Ferguson.

I don't even know what to really think about this because. Because, like, Tony, outside of round one, he didn't take a ton of damage in this fight. Patty gets a win, gets the return fight, wins the bout. Tony didn't get clobbered, but lost. But it's also one of those things where he had moments. And now he's like, yeah, man, now I'm really going to get it. Like, now I'm due, everybody. Let's do one more.

And you kind of didn't want that. So it was a pretty bad scenario here. all things around for people who don't want to see Tony Ferguson fight again. But Patty Pimblit, undefeated in the UFC is seven wins in a row. It's definitely the biggest green mark on the Wiki page. UFC is going to give him a step up. They're going to give him a rank guy. They're going to give him a known guy.

And they're going to give him a guy that he will, at worst, be competitive with, yet a guy he could possibly beat, but he could also possibly lose. And it's not the worst thing in the world. So you have to be very meticulous how you matchmake Patty. They ain't throwing Patty Pimbleau in there with Benoit Sonsidy. I can tell you that right now. They're not going to throw Patty Pimbleed in there with Jalen Turner because he's going to get absolutely run in both of those fights.

So here's what they're going to do. We're going to get Patty Pimble versus Dan Hooker next. That's my fight. They could do Benal Darius, possibly. Try to build upon that. But I think Patty versus Dan Hooker, when Dan's ready to come back, maybe they do at UFC 300, who knows. That's what I think they're going to end up doing.

Give them a name, a possible winnable fight, testing Patty's dog and grit, because Dan Hooker does that with everybody. So, yeah, I'll go with Dan Hooker versus Patty. So Dan was my first choice. I rolled it out because he did, whatever, he's got these arm injuries that persist. He said the first time he didn't let it heal properly. I think this time he has to. So I think he said he maybe would want to be ready for 300,

but I have a feeling if he's smart and responsible, again, talking about an M. M.M.A fighter here. He might not fight till the summer, but who knows? Which could be fine if they go to Manchester. He'll do that fight. Probably he probably would want to be on 300. Patty, Patty himself said he probably won't fight at 300. His wife is expecting to deliver around that time.

So he's like, ah, it's just, it's unlikely. So he's not going to, he's going to kind of focus, obviously, on the birth of his first child and taking care, you know, just being a dad, being a dad for a bit. And then, yes, Manchester, I think makes a lot more sense. So I like it. I think there's a chance Patty fights sooner. I don't know. I know the Manchester card makes more sense. But I think he wants to keep the good times rolling.

He did miss a lot of time since the Jared Gordon fight. Mike, I don't know if you know about this. I kind of predicted the Tony Ferguson, Patty Pimbled fight. Did you hear about this? It's because of you. People in the comments. Did you hear about this? I wanted this fight before.

I don't think I've mentioned it before. I really want to see that fight happen. And it did. And it's it. And father time undefeated. I'll say this thing. By the way, we didn't say this enough for Colby, too. Colby is 35 years old. Thank you, Jayne in the comments for reminding us that over, however, what, five, six years. Fighters 35 and under competing in welterweight and lower title fights, two and 31 now. Two and 31. Those two wins were Tyrone Woodley. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough when to get to those later weight classes. And I think 33-year-old Colby does a much better job. against, I guess it would have been 30-year-old Leon if this happened if I'd have him a couple years ago. I really do. I really do. Take style match up what you want. At some point, you're losing the ability to pull that trigger. And I think we saw a little bit of that with Colby, again, not making excuses. He gets in there. It's, he's responsible for everything

that happens in there. I think we're seeing that with Tony Ferguson. There's no question. These are fights and moments that he could have he could have worked his way out of when he was younger. But I'm not a doctor, guys. When you get 30, when you're 39, you're almost 40, you're less explosive. You know, you might still have Carter. You might still be tough. You might still have skill. You might, you know, you know what you want to do.

Guess what the body doesn't respond. So good win for Patty. Tony, he's going to come back. And I think whatever his next fight is, it's going to look similar. I think all his fight's going to be similar until he decides to hang on, until the UFC lets him go flashes of his former brilliance and an inevitable loss. So I know that's a bummer. Mike, I've got another bold Patty Pimler prediction.

There's a young man out there who's been waiting for a big fight, and he deserves it because he's a company man. He's an exciting fighter. He's got a number next to his name. He's got all kinds of accolades in the career. He's just chasing big money fights at this point. And the one that he's been chasing, the one that he should get, but it's just been so long. And the fight that he's chasing is, the opponent that's chasing is so unreliable. I think he may have to give it up.

this man I'm talking about Mike you may have heard him he coached a little show called the ultimate fighter recently oh my god and and this man should be fighting connor regregor he's done everything the UFC has asked of him to get this Connor and gregar fight and it's still in play we think Connor will be back sometime after UFC 300 we don't think that he'll be apparently it's very likely he's not fighting on that card and I know I know the man I'm talking about Michael Chandler is willing to wait for Connor Greger. But if he wants a guy who's got like a fraction of that McGregor popularity

but kind of produces some of the same polarizing opinions and who he has a very good chance of knocking his blocks straight off, Mike, I think they're going to give Michael Chandler, a little McGregor consolation prize here. And they're going to give him Patty the Batty. How is this a consolation prize? Because again, Patty is not McGregor,

but he is a guy who has been compared to him rigor a lot just because they're both from Europe and they both talk a lot and they both, I don't know, starred in Cage Warriors. I mean, Patty, yeah, I think Patty had a more notable run there, but Washington's the two-division champion. We never forget.

So it's a sellable fight. It's a, excuse me, Pimbleau Ferguson was one of the most talked-about fights in this card. And we're talking about a guy Pimbley who's not even, I still think don't even, I haven't ranked 22. I haven't ranked 22 after beating Tony Ferguson. And that's where he was before. He didn't move up, by the way.

I had him 22 going into Saturday, and he's still just 22. And he's on a six-fight win streak. Sorry, five-fight win streak in the UFC, seven-fight win streak overall. I was him. I honestly would have called for the Chandler fight. But he's also smart, and probably knows Chandler will beat his ass. So maybe that was good not to do that. But I think the UFC might consider it.

I got a feeling. I got that same feeling I had when I suggested Fergie and Patty. You don't seem as, you don't seem, as nauseous about this suggestion. I'm not mad. I'm just, I'm disappointed. Okay. What, like, this does nothing for Michael Chandler. I mean absolutely nothing. Hey, imagine, like, you just, you're at the mall and you fill

out a piece of paper, like, win this Lamborghini over here. And then they call you and say, hey, AK, you won this Lamborghini. We're going to drop the car off of your house. And then you get like an 89 Ford escort drop. in your driveway. Like that's what this is. You're expecting a Lamborghini and then you get a car. It'll get you from one, it'll take you from one place to the next. But it's not a Lamborghini. Why would he get? No, A.K., no. I know the man has made a good amount of money. I think Michael Chandler has made enough money that he never needs to fight again. He seems like out he's pretty secure, has made good financial decisions and like, but it's still nice to have money. It's still nice to get paid. And right now just sitting the sign. Like not getting, not getting tight money. I know he's doing fine. He owns like 18 businesses. He could be doing more fine. And let me tell you something.

You know what? Let me sweeten the pot for you. You know, Mike. You know, Mike, I don't know if you heard. There's another season of the ultimate fighter coming up. Oh, Jesus. The coaches have not been announced yet. So Michael Chandler, come back.

Become the first fighter to coach back-to-back seasons with the ultimate fighter. Get Patty in there. Just run it back. We all watched the tough 31. I think it had averaged, what, like 45 million viewers a week, I think, just in U.S. alone. I'm not crazy. The numbers were massive. Everyone in the comments watched, watch every episode.

You guys know what I'm talking about. You love the Ultimate Fighter. So we know, and I think it was all because of Chandler, if you have to be honest. McGregor, yeah, maybe John and drawn a few eyeballs. I think Chandler was a real ratings draw there. Get Chandler back in there. Make him like the Jeff Probes of the ultimate fighter.

Let's keep it going and put Patty in there. Does that make it a little more palatable for you, my best friend? If you, if the UFC came to Michael Chandler and said, look, man, Conner's retiring. I'll let you write down 10 names, and I guarantee you we'll give you one of it. him he's not writing patty's name down guarantee it that's i think he would i think he would no he wouldn't he would get they would they would give him a title shot they would give him a title shot i love this

colby running down leon's resume called rickie waters yeah col do do chandler versus rickie waters i mean i would rather see chanelher versus rick waters and chandler versus patty right now i'd say patty couldn't get that fight but boy that's not a consolation prize that's a punishment in some respects for for Chandler. I need a, we need to replay your first reaction to my Tony Patty suggestion all those, all those months ago, Mike, I think it's very similar. I think it's a very similar word. No, you could just like, it was, it was heartless on your part to suggest that and put

this out into the universe. And that is the reason this fight happened. It is. But at least you could make a case to justify it in some way. This does, this is not justifiable at all. Listen, people in the comments, I see people in the comments blasting it too. Y'all were like that when I first suggested Patty and Tony. Let's just remember this moment.

It might take a while. It might take. I don't know how long it's going to take with this fight to happen. But I'm just saying. I'm going to be fucking livid if they make this fight. You might have to leave the show. I think you might leave the show for like a couple of episodes. Oh, my God.

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One of the scariest knockouts I've ever seen from Josh Emmett just obliterates Bryce Mitchell. It was just really scary. And Emmett's still got that thunder man, 38 years old. I'm just going to, I'm not trying to like breeze through this, but we do have a, we do have a hard out at around 11 a.m. here, Eastern time. Josh Emmett versus Edson Barbosa. Give it to me.

I'm ready. Just, that's the fight. Give it to me. Do you have time for the song? Do you have time for the song? We're back on the same age. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Didn't you have, didn't you have like a out of left field suggestion for Edson Barbosa? One that you can't go back from, really?

That was a good one. I stand by it. Didn't you say Iliate Teporia? Yeah. I stand by it. That's a great. That's a great matchup. Yeah, you can't. You kind of have to give it up. So is Edson the bar, is Edson the backup fighter now? Well, that fight's not that fight. Remember, that that batch up got booked, Ilya and Volkovsky. So, Tiberius is out the table now. Barbosa is free. He's a free man for auto-picking purposes. So this is the way to go.

One, two, three. Friends! Yeah, dude. They were booked a fight a while ago. And, yeah, let's just, let's fix the timeline. Let's get Probosa and Eminen there. Boy, that was a nasty knockout. Yeah, glad Bryce is okay.

He seems to be okay. Yes. Good spirits, as always. Yeah. Why Bryce is walking, is walking out of the cage after that is beyond me. Just the whole handling of all that was just terrible. but it is what it is. Time for the wild card round.

These chairs. Here I go. Slowly sinking down. Yep. Wild card suggestion. We're going to match for somebody we've not match made for and we'll do so right now.

Lots to choose from, I think there's a low, there's low hanging fruit here. It's super easy. I'm not going with this. I think the low hanging fruit is Cody Garberin versus Davis and Figurato, especially after finding out

that Song Yodong is fighting Peter Jan. That's the low hanging fruit. I did not go there, AK, did you go there? I didn't. I don't know what I would have done with Cody, because I think after Figgy won has been to my debut, I'm really into the Figgy-Pi-O-Dion matchup,

but I have no problem with Figgi, Cody, either. As Cody said on the mic, when he did the call-out, supposed to happen on pay-per-view some time ago. I know we're all kind of fearing for Cody's life with every fight. We all think that Davis and Figueroa will just starch him, but hey, Cody looked good against Brian Keller. I looked okay against Trevin Jones, you know? So whatever. If he loses, he loses.

He wants big fights in his career. That's about the biggest one he can get right now. So no problem with that call-up. But no, I went with Ariani Lipski, three-fight win streak, all in 2023. I think she might be a sleeper to crack the top five, a fighter of the year voting. A lot of people had great years, but a lot of people had great years in the UFC at the highest levels that I made this year. But Lipski kind of sneaking into the radar, picking up a very good win over a woman who was once entrenched in our top of dean at 125 pounds, Casey O'Neill. So the Queen of Violence in great form give her Tracy Cortez, whenever Tracy Cortez is ready to compete.

I think it's a great matchup. Both women, again, are on win streaks. And you're getting a sneaky contender out of that one. I thought about Tracy Cortez for your Ariani-Lipski. And I also went with Ariane O'Lipski versus Michael Chandler, because he's going to need to fight somebody after Connor McGregor. That's the way to go. No, I'm just kidding. Right, but he's behind Patty in the picking order.

Just for a record. On your list of 10 people, Patty's ahead of Ariani Lipski. AK, we have just made history. We have just made history. For the first time in the history of this program, a Friends Forever moment in the wild card suggestion. I picked the same exact fight. Cue it up again. I think the same exact fight.

We need like the Saturday Night Live band to play behind us, the Friends Forever. This has never happened. It took three years, but for the first time ever, we have a synced wildcard selection. It is Ariani Lipski versus Tracy Cortez. To me, the low-key MVP of UFC 296 is Ariane. Lipski. She looked incredible. She, she, she, Casey O'Neill, Casey O'Neill. She beat the hell out of her. That was very, very impressive. So yeah, give her Tracy Cortez, big fight. Lipsky's getting it all together. And she just looked so much bigger and stronger in there with Casey, too. Great performance.

I hope she gets some shine in the fall out of all this. I feel like with all the other storylines, she's going to be kind of under the radar, perhaps a little bit buried on top of the chaos. But, yeah, bad. I love that fight. Maybe due to Mexico City. She's ready to turn around quick. Throw it on the Mexico City card February 23rd. I like it. Yep. So way to go. Matchmakers. I'm sure the matchmakers are on top of this. They know what they're doing. Mike, before I move on, I'll just say I'll end this poll. Who is the biggest winner? Almost a near tie between Leon and Edwards and Edwards 42% Shavkat, 424%. So both welterweight, both talk welterweights had a big night. Just rock mano with a slight edge, maybe the slight stock bump higher than than anyone else in the card.

Yes. All right. We are going to let our hair down. Everybody but me, I guess. Get after it. Time to just chuck in your mastermaking suggestions. We're going to pull them up as many as we can. We got about 10 minutes. And that's what we're going to do. So throw them in. What do we got? We can. But keep it to this card. I know some people when we do this, they just throw out rando fights that have nothing to do with the card we're talking about. So. Here we go. Casey O'Neill, Marina Morose, rebook Carol Hosa versus Julia Avila, Shamil Gatsiav versus Giuliav versus Billy Q. I like the Andre Fili versus Billy Q. Man, we didn't talk about Shamil Gassiav at all. Stopping the, the hellacious, undefeated run of Martin Boudai. God. I saw a lot of this. Colby versus Kevin Gasselm. You had any interest in this? I kind of. I had a friend suggest that to me. Like, again, I'm more of the I don't need to see Colby fight ever again. But if he must, it doesn't make some sense. Diego Lopez versus Andre Feely.

Andrew Feely, another guy would be good for him. So happy for Andre Feely. They really made a good point on the broadcast, credit to Rogan and Korme and them and John Anick, that like we have watched Andre Feely grow up in front of our eyes. He was like 23, 24 years old. We debuted 10 years ago in the UFC. So he's been facing tough guys nonstop.

It was nice to see him get a finish, first finish in a while. Yeah. I mean, look, both those Diego Lopez suggestions, very easy to book because all those people are all managed by the same guy, so it'll be easy. Patty versus Elvis Brenner, you like that idea? I don't think they'll do it, but... I mean, Elvis does not have a rumored fight or anything?

I'm not crazy, right? I don't think so. We've been doing some matchmaking for him. He's such a... He is not such a. He is the wild card in the lightweight division, because on any given night, this guy can apparently beat anybody. So I could see it.

I could see it, because he has enough. for reputation, but name-wise, to step back from Tony, competition-wise, it's a step-up. So I don't have a problem with it. Tony Ferguson versus Terrence McKinney? Why, Michael Harris? Why would you do this, Tony Ferguson? Don't like it. Don't like it.

What's the fight that's going to convince Tony to retire, right? Does it have to be a three-round beatdown where he makes the score cards? Dude, give me what I've been asking for for, like, the last three Tony fights. UFC 300, double retirement fight, Tony Ferguson versus Joe Lowe's. on. That's the one. Yeah. That's it. Feels like we should get it. Yeah. Either Tony's going to go out with a win or Joe is going to cream him in 45 seconds because that's how Joe fights. He just gets in and gets out of there. So that's what we're going to get.

That's the one. If Tony wins though, he won't retire. Then what do you, do you just lay him to slaughter then at this point? I don't know. Give him Benwantini, AK. I don't know. I like Tony, man. It's funny. I think because people think I made the paddy. Tony matchup they like I hate Tony I love Tony Tony's one of my favorite fighters of this generation and it's just I honestly can't figure out how to convince him to get him out the door and maybe no one should me I get it's up to him it's his life to his decision but what's good matchup for garbrand I like the figurato fight now that pia not not not a piotr yon is fighting song

yodong do figgy versus Cody I like that one uh if they went figgy on garbant cruz too would have been my pick I still want to see what I think Cruz just got kicked out of our MA fighting global ranking. So Cruz, if you're out there, you want that sweet, sweet global ranking spot back. Please get a fight. Patty versus Moikano if he fights Dober. If he beats Dober.

Yeah, I don't mind. Patty, yeah, that's good. Good logical matchup. Winnable fight for Patty. Winneable fight for McCona. Tony versus Clay Guida. Has it never been booked? But that's a fight Tony can win.

You know what I mean? Like, that's a fight Clayquita can win. Yes, no, I know. I know. It's so hard to book him, man. It really is. I'm going to they were never booked eh that's so that's so random menofield versus anthony smith

yeah i didn't think that makes sense great win great win for menofield by the way uh very tough very very tough matchup with dustin jacobi and if they fought you know if you ran it back ten times maybe they split at five five but on this day man that power of mena field it's a difference maker you can be getting outstruck for four out of five minutes and around but you land one of those bombs which you did routes two and three it's a great performance yeah it should i should have some idea of man metafield versus roundtree of cleo's next fight

Cody versus barcelos patty versus bobby green i saw a lot of patty versus bobby green i don't mind if they make that fight uh... Metafield versus span Emmett versus Barboh Menafield Span is actually kind of interesting because Metafel was a Fortis a Fortis M-May guy and now he's a Pat Barry guy

little uh we could build something up there Emmett versus Barbosophili versus Bruce Leroy and that's never happened There's a lot of guys There's a lot of veteran guys in this card who if you told me like, if you told me Tony Bergson had fought Clay Guido

or Antofiliate had fought Alcassas, I would have reached down into my false memory bank and been like, yeah, I remember that fight. Boy, there's a lot of great matchups on there. Could do Patty versus Frivolo. That was probably my first choice before I said, before I had my stroke of genius and pulled out Chandler instead.

Let's see. Jard. Covington Money Fight versus Porte at 300. Royval Perez, Mikhail Fierner, Schofcott and winner of Edwards, Mohammed 2, Patty versus Bobby Green, Emmett versus Alan Evloyff,

winner or loser? I don't know. Garberman versus Adrian Yanez. I don't think they're going to be of Adrian in that fight. Did Covington even mention Porreux? No. He was lobbying a lot of attacks out there this week. I don't recall him mentioning Porier, which is he has before. I mean, there's a history between them.

I mean, he could just get that Wonderboy fight real quick, too, because Colby didn't take it. I mean, unless he really did have an injury coming in. Wonderboy lost, but didn't take a ton of damage in that fight. So usually Wonderboy, if he has a great performance, usually bust his hands up and he's out for a hot minute. But I don't think he's going to have to worry about it this time. Do you think they would ask them to wait for UFC 300?

Do you think that's maybe something? Because we really don't know what they're going to be able to pump that card up with. It feels like Colby and Wonderboy could fit on the main card there somewhere. Again, even though I said, I don't want to see him fight again. I know there's an audience for that. Tony versus Lewis on double retirement fight. A lot of Tony versus McKinney. I don't like that.

I don't really like that at all. Patty versus Chase Hooper. Tony versus Chase Hooper would actually be kind of interesting. That seems like the next logical step down for Tony. Young Chase Hooper, certainly looking like a good fighter, but hasn't really beaten a great name yet. I think that could be what's next for Tony Ferguson. I think it's very logical.

Yeah. Aldania versus, I mean, this is, this is a lot of crystal ball in here. Aldania versus the Pennington-Paino winner. Already just counting M-Benzheny. Pennsylvania winner. Wow. How do I, I got to block that. How dare you?

How dare you assume that Brenno Silva is not going to win on in January? I mean, if you just want to lock up fight of the year for 2024, look no further. Oh, please. Then Paco Porter versus Chris Bardett. I mean, come on now. Come on now. what else we got what else we got aldana versus vera two patty versus emmett but emmett come up to 155 there there's a story there there there is it's not great most

aladdin versus pania tony versus suda uh blue raider said i forgot pennington was fighting silver how dare you that's worse blue raider that's worse you should just let us think that you were doing like a prediction a after a prediction of a prediction that is that is the real main event of USC 297. How dare you? Women's band. You didn't watch a seasonal press conference with Raquel Pennington and my, oh yeah, that's right. They, they, they weren't there, which is super weird. You know why? Because the fight sells itself, Mike. You didn't need them there. Everyone's talking about it. Everywhere I go. I go, I go visit my parents. They're like, oh my God, is it true? My mom's like, is it true? Myr-Bernosel was fighting Raquel Pennington in Toronto. Are you going to be there? Can I get, can you get,

can you get tickets? And I'm like, Ma, leave me alone. Everybody wants tickets to fight. He passes the mom test. Yeah. Leave me alone. Metafield, Ozedimir, All the Way versus Emmett. I see a lot of people doing BKFC, Tony Ferguson, matchmaking. I don't even want to put that on into the universe. It's going to happen.

It's going to happen. Mitchell versus Giga. How has no one mentioned, I can't believe. I'm about, I should have been grateful. I like this fight. Alonzo versus Asmott Mirzikanov. I like it. How has no one mentioned like Colby versus Dylan Dennis or some bullshit like that?

Because again, we're trying to... Oh, because people are smart. Okay. We're trying to be positive here. They're not dumb like me. Okay, good. Michael Venom Page. He's booked to fight Kevin Holland in Miami and March.

I like it. I like it. It's perfect. Matchmakers, you nailed it. Perfect. You friggin nailed it. Win or lose? Win or lose for him?

It's, because Kevin Holland, Kevin Holland, I feel like is someone they're still invested into you. I don't know if they see him as like a world title challenger, but I feel like he's one of those guys who could, like, just randomly fall fast backwards into a title fight. with the right matchups, you know, so. Kevin Holland is, Kevin Holland is the welterweight division's Derek Lewis. Rankings don't matter.

None of it matters. People just want to see him fight. And he could fall, ask backers to do a title fight and no one would be mad at it. Like, that's just who Kevin is. So, uh, all right. We're done. I got to get out of here. I got to pack up the rest of my stuff and,

and check out of here. So matchmaking has been super fun this year with the AK. So here's what things are going to look like moving forward. I don't know how we're going to do this, but we will probably do some sort of like top five fights you need to see in 2024 show at some point. And then we'll have our predictions extravaganza two-parter. The first half will be an audio-only program where we recap.

We'll go back and listen to the 2023 show and we recap how we did. We compare and contrast. Just feel like how wrong we were with the chaos of 2023 in some of those selections. and then part two will be a live show. We'll probably do what we did last year on the YouTube channel where we just take your buy sell questions, the best 20 or so, 20 to 25 buyer sell questions. We put them on the screen.

We give our predictions and then we try to predict who will be champion at the end of the next year. So that's one of my favorite shows that we do. So if you guys have suggestions, the same way you submit your matchmaking suggestions, your buy or sell questions. send them the same way you submit your matchmaking. And if it's good enough, we'll throw it up on the program.

We'll discuss it'll be part of the 2024 predictions show. But make them good. Let's think outside of the box a little bit. Let's have some fun. Hit us up, guys. Hit us up on the social medias. I'm at Alexander K. Lee on Twitter, at Alexander KK. K.K. Lee on Instagram and alex.

com. On email, Mike, how can they get you on IG again? Mike M underscore HECJR. There you go. M underscore Hector. Yeah, guys. reply to us on Twitter or slide to the DMs, whatever method you need

to contact us, send those buy sell questions, those championship predictions. Mike, I was so close. It was almost the other raw dog. Oh, that would have been incredible. We all believed. We all believed. That would have been incredible.

But you guys are the best. Love doing this show. It's going to be weird not matchmaking for the next month. But that's where we're at right now. We will matchmake again January 14th following UFC Vegas 84. or headlined by Magelman Ankelaiah versus Johnny Walker

at the world's most famous Apex. And if 2023 was any indication of what 2024 could look like, I feel like 2024 is going to be an absolute shit show. And I am here for it. So thank you all very much for AK. I am Mike Heck. Even with this week, I think it's always important to note the golden rue of the show. And just of M.AFighting.com in general,

don't take this stuff too seriously. MMA is supposed to be fun. So thank you all very much. Have a wonderful holiday season, and match weekend crowns get put to the side until January of 2024. Have a great rest of your weekend, everybody. Thanks for watching.

Good night, everybody. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.