MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For New Champs Alex Pereira, Tom Aspinall After UFC 295?

Episode Date: November 12, 2023

A new light heavyweight champion and interim heavyweight champion were crowned at the UFC's return to Madison Square Garden in New York City. Alex Pereira capped off the wild night with a second-round knockout of Jiri Prochazka to capture the light heavyweight championship. What's next for Pereira and Prochazka following the UFC 295 main event? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee attempt to answer those questions on a brand new live edition of On To the Next One. Additionally, future matchups will be discussed for new interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall after his stoppage victory, along with his opponent Sergei Pavlovich, Jessica Andrade after her finish of Mackenzie Dern, Benoit Saint-Denis following his vicious knockout of Matt Frevola, fellow main card finisher Diego Lopes, and more following Saturday's pay-per-view event.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Hello there, everybody. My mic was muted. That's what happens when you get like three hours of sleep in the last 29 hours. But welcome to a brand new edition. I'm on to the next one. The matchmaking hats are back on following a, a pretty chaotic and memorable and in some cases history-making UFC 295 event last night at Madison Square Garden. We have two new champions. Their names are Alex Pareda and Tommy Aspinall, the new interim heavyweight champion. We'll talk about what's next for them, their opponents, and some of the other taste makers from the UFC's return to New York.

I am Mike Hack. And as you can see, tonight, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. and my best friend, the incomparable Alexander Cayley, AK, how are we doing? And look, I think your gymnastics scale prediction or threshold, if you will, was an 8.8,

I have a feeling this might have surpassed that. It can't technically. That's not how gymnastics works, Mike. It just means it was an 8.8 out of 8.8. It nailed it. It nailed it. Yeah, it was a really good card. It was a really good card. I don't, I should always remind people, I don't define, you know, the quality of a card.

by the number of finishes. You could possibly have, you know, multiple great, like, decisions and stuff like that. But this was a case where you had all these great finishes on the main card, and it was with quality matchmaking. It wasn't like we're getting first round, knockout's first round submissions just because someone's like a minus 800 favorite over whoever. These were good matchups. And you felt, you didn't feel robbed, you know, with one of these finishes.

It was like, ah, I wish I'd gotten, you know, five rounds of Aspinavlovich. I wish I'd gotten five rounds of Andrade Dern. I mean, those would have been interesting in their own way. But the fact that we got like a definitive winner in all those fights, well, there'll be some controversy with the main event, I think. We'll talk about that soon. But for the most part, a finish, a definitive winner in these fights is very appealing. So yeah, I understand people if they had this higher on paper

and if they think this is one of the best cards of the year. Definitely one of the easiest to watch, really brisk. It felt like we were done earlier than usual talking about work-wise, like I'm-fighting work-wise. I don't know if we actually were, right? Mike, I think they spaced the event apart, like, the fights apart that it still ended around the same time. But it just felt really easy to watch and really easy to process and everything. It was very, very enjoyable. Yeah, there was like 10 minutes of fights, like 10 minutes of actual fighting on the main card.

It was absolutely insane. So, yeah, I mean, because the press conference took forever because everyone got 5,000 questions, it didn't seem like the card ended as early because we still had away for the press conference. I don't think we started the post fight show. I don't think we started the post-fight show to like 3.15 a.m. Eastern time. So, yeah, it was a typical pay-per-view night. Like we said, we have two new champions. We will start with the main event. So basically how that's going to work, we're going to go through the five main card fights.

We will matchmake for all four of the title competitors, the main card winners outside of those fights, and then we'll have a wild card pick. And then at the very end, for about 10 or so minutes, we'll just go to the chat. We'll pull up your matchmaking suggestions. and we'll react to as many as we can until I have to check out of this hotel room and get ready to fly home to beautiful South Carolina. So, AK, Pereira does the damn thing,

becomes a two-division champion in the UFC, along with being a two-division champion in glory, so he's going to be a glory hall of famer. And just as 11th pro-MMA fight, just a seventh UFC fight. The man has broken the rankings. He's broken the sport as we know it. He's broken how you emerge to such a level.

has done this faster than anybody else has done it. A lot of people are kind of questioning the stoppage, but when Yuri Perashka himself doesn't question the stoppage, kind of takes some of the luster off of that idea. But second round finish for Pereira, gets the job done, calls out Israel out of Sanya, which I thought was absolutely friggin' genius on his part.

Does he get that fight? Dana White said, we're going to do Jamal Hill, but it's not like Jamal Hill suffered a sprained elbow. he ruptured his Achilles. He's going to be out for a while. I'll be shocked if he fights any time before, like, international fight week. And even that might be a little bit optimistic.

So with this new champion being crowned, do we wait for Jamal Hill? Do we do Izzy? Or do we do something else and just get Alex in there with somebody else and just keep this momentum going? Well, clearly, Padetta watches onto the next one. Or other fine M.A fighting programs, because we have talked about the possibility of him winning the title and fighting Izzy.

I think I brought up onto the next one. I don't know if I made it an official pick, but it's certainly a possibility I've mentioned. And I felt like it was something that made sense for both parties. There was a lot of talk of them maybe doing an immediate rematch after their second MMA fight, right? And then it got shot down pretty quickly because Padeta was like, well, I'm probably moving up. And Izzy, you know, was very much like, well, I won the most recent fight. I want it pretty definitively. I feel like this feud is over.

he carried that over on an unstarry night as well. People saw his tweets. He's just kind of like, eh, it doesn't sound like he's enthusiastic to fight. Alex Pettettan anytime soon. It doesn't sound like he's enthusiastic to find anyone soon. If he's being honest about wanting to take a break, he says 2027.

I somehow doubt that. I mean, he has other interests in his life. It's possible. And we've seen fighters take long breaks where, like, they're gone for two or three years. And then we're suddenly like, wow, this guy hasn't fought. Like, he's in big stars, right?

Like, this hasn't fought since whenever, whenever, whenever. So I strongly want to, to see him fight izzie but i'm also believing that izzie is going to stand by his uh i want to take a break if not not for three years i don't think but maybe at least a year it would surprise he didn't take at least a year off he deserves it he needs it just for physically mentally i think it'd be good for him to do that um and again a light heavy heavy title shot might be waiting for him anyway but padetta is the best storyline but if he comes back bulks up and he's like a real makes a real shot at 205 he'd get a light heavy heavy title shot anyway so and and and and and

F Bennett is still the champion, and you just lock that in. So I did go with Jamal Hill, even though Jamal could be gone just as long as Izzy, you know, assuming Izzy comes back sooner than 2027. I tried to look up like, you know, Achilles tendon rupture, you know, a little web-mdying, like I saw like four to six weeks and I'm like, four to six months, excuse, not four to six weeks, four to six months, got injured in July, theoretically by, you know, end of first quarter of 2024, he could be ready to compete again, but that's like best case scenario. That's assuming that he's, you know, got the best rehab possible, which is, which is,

excuse me, guys, which I imagine he does. He's also young. He's a great athlete, like, he's in great shape. So I do think he could come back sooner rather than later if he wants to. The question is, should he feel like he needs to push himself back to get that, to get a shot at that? And I don't think he should necessarily have to do that. Should I should rush back. So that is my pick.

That's a bit Magic Wandi. but I'm not married to either the Addisina or the Jamal Hill pick. I'm going with Jamal Hill just because I feel like this is the unique. I'd like to see him beat the last guy to hold the belt before him. I'm talking about Alex Pereira. But other than that, I'm not like, I'm not, I feel don't feel super strong about it. There's just not anyone else that has a strong case, though, that he can fight in the next like four months, I feel like, unless Rockich beats you on Blockhovis. I don't know.

I don't know. I wasn't sure. So I'm going with Jamal Hill. I'm going Jamal Hill as well, but I'm not ruling out this Izzy thing. I'm not ruling it out. I think we're going to have to wait until January 20th to kind of figure this out because I know Izzy said he's going to take some time off. I think 27 was obviously a joke.

But let's just say UFC 3. Like if they do, if the UFC does the double bite of the Apple and they do UFC 300 without Connor so they could put Connor in another card and get like two big buy rates, Izzy versus Pereira 3 at 205 would be gigantic. However, if Drickus Duplice beat Sean Strickland at UFC 297, I feel like you have to do DDP Izzy. Like you've already had the chance to do it and you didn't do it. I feel like you kind of have to do it now.

And I think Izzy would take that fight and be all about it. But if Sean Strickland ends up winning, is there going to be any sort of appetite for Sean Strickland versus Israel Adisanya to? No, especially with Hamzat Shabayev out there. So I think it's I think they're just going to have to wait for Jamal Hill unless the UFC like headlines a show in Brazil or something or somewhere close to Danbury Connecticut and then need Pereira to headline then maybe just throw in Johnny Walker just for like a new opponent and have some fun just to keep him active. But yeah, Jamal Hill's one of the most intriguing fights of 2024 now with Alex Pereira. So I'm with you.

It's not a friend's forever moment. No. It's really a two horse race. Yeah. And, and this. by we we we said a lot of our lead up to this event the chatter was you know will this event help to bring some stability to divisions and we'll talk about heavy in you know in a minute and i and i think to the most like stable matchup we want is jamal hill versus alex it

feels like it brings some sort of balance back um just because again jamal did win the title from or win a title you know it wasn't like lineal or anything but won a title from glover he didn't get a chance to defend it it's a really interesting matchup with alex pidera so that's what we hope will happen but gosh it still feels like we have some chaos ahead of us like if izzie does come back if izzie beats pareda then sean strickland suddenly has to be thinking like hey maybe i go up to 205 go after and then suddenly we're just in chaos all over again so hopefully it is just Jamal hill and we get a winner in that fight and light heavyweight can actually just have normal title defenses and contenders but i'm not i don't know like i don't know if i can

guarantee that yeah i don't know what's going to happen this division remains very chaotic at least for the time being so we shall see how it plays out now for your per hashka tough fight for the comeback he'd been out for a while he was doing a lot of yury things it was in such an intense fight the stare down beforehand might have been the best i've ever seen without actual pushing and shoving and eating 18,000 security guards in the octagon but yury's just one of those dudes that you could just match him up with anybody and you're just going to watch. And with this division being so weird and with Jamal Hill sort of lingering, I kind of feel like Yuri will take not like a huge break, but I feel like they're going to

rebook the, I don't know, it's kind of like a three-man tournament, maybe a four-man, depending on what happens with Rakich and Beholvich. But we got Magamette Ankaaaf and Johnny Walker. I have a feeling they're just going to run that one back since the first one ended in such a weird way. I'm going to throw Yuri in there at the winner of that fight. I mean, but it really doesn't matter. Yuri versus anybody at 205 absolutely rules. But let's just kind of keep Yuri in an interesting spot because even if he fights Ankelyev or Johnny Walker and he wins, if they just rebook this Pereira fight again and just ran it back, like, who's going to complain about that?

Like with the stoppage and the questions about it, which I honestly didn't have a huge issue with the stoppage. A lot of people did. But at least you have something here. And this could be like the beginning of just a really fun. long-term rivalry between just two super interesting martial artists with personalities that don't involve a lot of trash talk. This would just be kind of crazy. So yeah, give me Yuri versus the Anka Live.

Johnny Walker two winner, Magic Wandening. That fight is not made, but I have a feeling they're going to remake it. And then we'll go from there. What do you think? Yeah, I like the first thing that came to mind was, will they do Padetta, Pajshka, too, like just run it back? Because there were so many people complaining about the stoppage, which fair, it's an early stoppage, as I always say, not all early stoppages are bad stoppages. It doesn't mean the same thing.

But I get why people are upset. They want to see it continue. I said it myself on Twitter. I would have liked to see it continue a little bit. But replays, I think, actually vindicated Mark Goddard a lot. I think you could see how out of it, Yidi was, even if just for a moment, even if just for a moment, I do think falling back kind of woke him up a little bit. It's so tough because so many of these knockdowns and near finishes, it kind of depends on where they happen. So this hadn't been against the fence. If Pareda catches him with that shot, like, close to the middle of the cage, middle of the octagon, and he's not, and he's able to sort of circle out.

That shot probably makes Yeri fall flat in his face. Like that sort of shot, like his, that wasn't really, like, it was kind of a takedown attempt, but he also kind of just fell into Alex Pettetta. If Alex Pareda, he just kind of falls in his face and it looks way worse. But because they're against the cage, he falls against the cage. He falls against the cage. and he gets a second to gather himself, and then he just kind of pushed back.

I'm okay with the stoppage. I just don't know if it was going in. And he ate a bunch of those elbows to the head while he was sort of holding on to Pereira. So I'm okay with the stoppage. I also understand people being upset. I understand people want to see them run it back. And that is such a logical option

because, as we kind of just said with the Panetta pick, what light heavyweights are ready to get up there. So, yeah, there's a few people in the mix, but also those fights have to shake out, walk, walk, ankle live when that gets rebooked. And I went with similar vein. Like I went with the Blakovitz-Rackage winner, the rematch winner. We just saw that announced for 297.

And I picked that one because that might feels like it has to have some stakes for the winner. And the winner's not getting a title shot, I don't think. So the next best thing I think is getting the guy who's somewhat still the number one contender. So I went with the Prakashko versus Blakovitz and Rockich 2 winner. Yeah, I mean, I think Rockage book could sneak in there because it's a fresh matchup. Yeah, he's fresh. But yeah, weird division. That's where we're at right now.

Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the power. backing of Amex.

Conditions apply. Speaking of weird divisions, heavyweight gets a little more interesting. Tommy Aspinall becomes the interim heavyweight champion needed just over a minute to knock out Sergei Pavlovich. That was absolutely insane. And Tom Aspinall gets a big moment, got the attention of John Jones,

at least got a tweet out of John congratulating him for the victory, which if Sergey Pavlovich got a knockout, I'm not really sure if he would have gotten that. but there's a lot of theories behind this. Who is he setting up another fight? No, I think this is John just being like, hey, you might have this quote-unquote interim title, but you know who the real big dog is here in this fight. It's me.

I'm freaking John Jones. So Aswan is in an interesting spot, A.K., because we have Cyril God, who's been sort of in this weird place since beating Sergey Spivak. A lot of people kind of wanted him to make a move and make a bold statement. and he was just like, nah, I ain't fighting anybody unless it's for the belt. Cyril obviously tweeted at Aspinall. You have Jelton Almeida. You have all these other guys.

You have John and Steepa potentially going to be fights. So it's going to be a mess for a little while. So what happens to Tom Aspinall? Is he going to defend this interim title before John Jones and Steepay do the damn thing? What's going to happen here? Who is Tom going to fight again if you had to guess? Yeah, I think he has to defend it. All the credit in the world to him for trying to speak the John Jones fight into existence.

and really only mostly doing it upon the insistence of the media. We know he wants it, but it was brought up a lot. If anyone watched the pre-fight, if anyone watched the post-fight, a lot of it's the media bringing up John Jones, bringing up John Jones over and over again, as we should, as, you know, that is our job. So, and Tom Aspinall played along beautifully saying, this is my dream fight.

You take that fight to Manchester. You take that fight to London, you know, Wembley Stadium. You really got yourself a stew going. So I wanted to crystal ball that pick. Sorry, because of Michael's ball, excuse me. Magic won that picks so badly, Mike, but I just, it's not realistic. I think Jones and Steve Bate are so locked in to fighting each other. And unless the UFC, again, you know, writes a fat check in addition to what John's already

getting paid to take this fight, I don't think he's that interested. And it would have to be a lot because he's made a good amount of money in MMA. He's made a good amount of money in MMA. Money is not his main concern. It's every man has a price, but that price would have to be really high to tell him, hey, go to London or go to Manchester to fight Tom Asphenol. It's interesting to him, but it's nowhere near as interesting as this debate. He wants that fight in his resume.

He loves the idea of knocking off the heavyweight coat. So couldn't go there. Had to go with the guy that Aspinall kind of shot down. He wanted to fight him before. And then he's like, well, you know, I'm the champ now. This guy should come after me. So I think they have to book him in St. Delgan. It's really the only option left for Tom's nextel defense,

which I assume will be in England. Even if it's a big fight in Las Vegas, I think, Ciddle Gone makes a lot of sense. So, yeah, the boring answer, he should fight. I want to see the John Jones fight. I hope it happens down the road, but I can't imagine a world where it's next for Tom Aspinall. So gone, it is.

So Jed had a suggestion on the post-fight show. I don't know if you heard this, but Jed said, we all, as an MMA community, should all have the same narrative that John is scared of Tom Aspinall. Like everybody, fans, media, the fighters, everybody needs to come together and be like, John, you don't want to fight Tom Asper because you're scared. And then maybe, like, John's ego will take over if we all kind of throw that narrative at him and it's unanimous. I kid, but that's what Jed said. I thought that was, like, maybe the take of the year, right? If we ever needed a Dana, a Dana, I don't know, you know, I guess he doesn't want to fight.

Because he's scared. If we ever needed one of those, Dana, last night was the night. Last night was the night, to go. But no, he was so, he was so agreeable with Jones Beotich. Like, I think he very calmly answered a question about it. He was like, nope, that's the fight they want. That's the fight they're going to get. that's they both won it i'm like when has what the fighters want ever been this important to you uh dana but he also sees dollar signs in the matchups so whatever but i i wish he had called john scared that was just been hilarious would have been hilarious he's gonna fight tom as well is going to fight zero gone it's not going to happen in paris it's going to either london or manchester somewhere in the uk tom's going to be it's going to be a main event fight tom's going to look like a star

because if he's going to if he's going to peak john's interest at all that needs to happen and Tom needs to win and he's come out looking like an absolute superstar and you're not going to be able to do that anywhere else besides London or Manchester Manchester would be the better spot because that's closer to home. If you could do a stadium show or something in that area and have Tom in the main event and Leon or something like that, that'd be awesome for him. But yeah, it's him and gone and gone actually in a weird way played this well, which I haven't said at all.

him just kind of sitting out and be like, nah, I ain't doing anything. So that is Tom Aspinall. Can I throw out a question? Yes, please. Can I throw out a question? This is for a later show, guys. Oh, we can answer in the comments. How people can answer in the comments as well, since we're doing this live.

But I will read out any interesting answers. Caposa, the great Caposa, I think, phrased it best. He tweeted earlier, I'm dying to know who needs, needs capital letters, to see Jones steep at this point. I understand the legacy angle, but who are these people that are demanding it? it's not 2018 so guys if you are out there and you are looking you're you want jones dby for some reason please let me know uh hit me up on twitter at alexander k lee dm me or at me i don't care i am i am curious who this fight is for at this point and uh i will read some of the best answers on

on to the next one next uh next week i guess i mean it's pretty obvious it's for john it's for stepe a it's for dana white it's for the ufc because of the business that fight will do uh because you'll get a casual but that's really it like We're all of us that were in this room right now, we're watching this program live where we'll be listening after. Like what we got last night, that's what we demanded. That's what we wanted.

Last night was our card. Wasn't for the casuals. It was for us. And it delivered in spades. And now we have to go to Sergey Pavlovich, who had just this incredible run, six-fight win streak, all first round finishes, seemed like he just had this death touch and he couldn't lose.

And then Tom Aspinall just kind of melts him. and get some right out of there. So a lot of people wondering where Alexander Volkov fits in all of this. And I think Pavlovich Volkov would be a crazy-ass fight. I think that's a good one. I think that's a good one. Could headline at the apex if needed. If they do a little traveling internationally, you could do that there.

But yeah, that's kind of what I went with. I think Volkov sort of deserves a big fight, and this would be a big fight. Yeah, my best friend. I think that's one people had looked at when Provlovich was coming up as well. I don't mind it. I think that's good. Volkovs, again, somehow just keeps finding ways to take a big loss and come back, win two fights, three fights, and find himself against one of these top names.

I went a different direction. I kind of did what you did with the Ankylai of Walker Pick. I did a little crystal balling here. I hope that they just rebook Jeltsin Alameda, Curtis Blades. That's the fight we want to see after Almeida's divisive. win over Derek Lewis might be a nice way to put it. Some people would say just boring as hell win. I'll go with devices since I didn't think it was the worst thing ever. But that fight I think needs to happen. And soon, assuming if Curtis's injury isn't too severe, hopefully we see that again,

January, not January, but February, March, maybe, April, the latest fingers crossed. And then Pavlovich will have taken some time by then to recover from this devastating loss and take the we're in that fight because I think Jalton for sure needs one more test. Even if he beats blades, I don't know if that's against him a title shot right away, especially with the whole Jones' deep-aid situation, all this other blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, stuff. So, yeah, I could see him fighting one of those guys. Yeah, everyone wants him to get out of the apex.

I got news for you guys. They ain't getting out of the apex. They ain't getting out of it. We won't get an apex shows, like probably as much as we got this year, but we're still going to get him. Like, we're going to be in the apex at least once a month. I saw one of the MMA fighting comments. Like we should write a petition.

The fans should write a petition to take them out of the apex. I'm like, yeah, that'll stop. Yeah, that's, that's, yeah. A strongly worded letter is going to make the UFC leave the, stop holding shows the apex. Good, that's good. It's good stuff. Yeah, if we get 100 signatures, maybe that was going to us.

And it's really going to be like, oh, yeah, I don't think about that. Oh, man. Let's go to the y'all must have forgot moment of UFC 295. Jessica And Drogh, who started the year just drubbing up Lauren Murphy. and then three straight losses to very, very good opponents and gets his fight with Mackenzie Dern. And during the People's Pre-Fight Show yesterday, heading into the event, someone asked who on the main card had the most to lose? And obviously with the four title combatants, you can make a case for either of them. But I feel like a loss doesn't really knock Sergei Pavlovich out of title contention altogether, doesn't knock Yuri Prahashgar out of title contention altogether.

he never really technically, you know, technically lost the belt until last night. And I thought it was McKenzie Dern. I thought McKenzie Dern had the most to lose on this card because she was ever going to get a title shot or at least sniff it anytime soon. Like she needed to be Jessica Drog. She's in a really good spot to do it. This is probably her third chance to get to at least a number one contender fight. And she's falling through the other two times, falls through again last night.

Andrade snaps a three-fight skid. She's back on track. Dern's going to be interesting to go. but obviously this is about Just Gondrage after that dominant performance and finish. We know what JustGandrudge does, A.K. She gets offers. She says yes. She doesn't think about it.

And she takes tough fights against tough dance. And she does it in multiple divisions. So is she going to stay at strawweight AK? The answer is no. She's going to go up to 125 and she's going to fight Macy Barber. Oh. Oh, yeah. I like it.

I like it. Macy, was she tied to a fight recently? I can't remember. Not like not a fight coming up, but what was her most recent? Did she get to bow out of something? What's up with Macy? What was her,

where's she been? She beat the hell out of Amanda Hebas. Yeah. I think that's it. That was, how long? It was June. June. Okay.

Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a surprise. In my mind, I was like, I thought she had booked another fight already. It's been quite some time since then. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. If you're Macy Barber, you should. Well, I should say you should want that.

Nobody should want that fight. nobody should ever want to fight Jessica Andraj coming off her performance like this. I think people smelled blood, you know, during her sort of recent slump, including McKenzie Duren. I'm sure McKenzie Duren was, you know, very cautious to want to take a matchup like this. But, you know, seeing her in a three fight losing streak, you could catch fight, you know, her team could be like, talk herself for this opportunity. And it's a big one. This is a former UFC heavyweight. UFC strawweight champion, flyweight title contender.

If McKenzie Dern had won, finally this would have been that moment. Finally, McKenzie Dern would have gotten over the hump. Now I find myself asking all these, will McKenzie Dern ever become a true contender questions again? Anyway, it's just exhausting. But I'm keeping Jessica Andraj at 115. Mike, I thought there was actually a couple of compelling matchups. And I'd like to see her fight Marina Rodriguez, just another top 10 person. And stay busy and keep those checks coming in.

We'll see if she can work her way to another Tyler shot somehow. I mean, we know I'm going with Macy Barber for one reason and one reason only because that is even, that's not the correct answer. What you said is not the correct answer. What the suggestions in the comments are putting out there, not the correct answer. There is only one correct answer. And I've been saying this anytime both of these women have fought for the last like two years. And now if I just say somebody else, maybe they'll actually make this fight because it is truly the only fight to make. It is just gone, Andraj versus Rosnaviyotis 3. That is the fight. You can do it at 15 and you can do it at 25. That's it. That's the fight.

It's the fight. But I'm trying to reverse the negative juju here. But yeah, good win for Androge. Back on track. It's been a tough year for her and tough year for Dern as well. Man, when you saw Dern couldn't get that, like she tried one take down early on, right? Yeah. And it wasn't good.

Yeah. And when you saw that that wasn't happening, you were like, oh, this ain't good. this is a oh boy any i had i had a friend who had turned as a last his last leg on a parlay and i was like i think i was like i think you're pretty good i was like marina jessica androj has had some issues with like bigger grapplers and i'm like durn kind of fits that profile very athletic bigger definitely bigger than jessica andrash strong grappler then you see that first take down and you're just like oh oh oh man i knew probably i knew with like 20 seconds left in the first round this is not going to go well.

Like Dermas moving around, throwing the jab. I'm like, oh, this is kind of good. And then Androge started laying on those leg kicks. And you could tell, like, Dern's leg was battered and she was super uncomfortable on the feed at that point. And then she shot for that, like, sort of last takedown and was, and Androge stuffed it. And you just saw her sort of, she just backpedaled until she got dropped at the end of the first round. And then Andrade just kind of poured it on. When she smells blood, man, she's super tough.

But great win for Andrade. and she's got a million options. She's actually very fun to matchmake on this show. Hall of Famer. Hall of Famer. She's so good. Let's go to the man that everybody wants to hear about right now. Benoit Santini with, I mean, I don't even know how, that knocko is insane against

Matt Travolta. It looked like we were going to get the chaos. And then he just kicked Matt Fravolta halfway across the Octagon. He landed one kick. Frivolta flew in the air halfway. across the octagon got cut immediately and benoit santiis remains undefeated in the ufc at 155 he does have the loss to eliza zaleski dos Santos it was on short notice i believe it was less than a week's notice at 170 but man lightweight benoit santini is going to be a ranked dude he's going to be a problem

calls out just a gagey calls out dustiporri calls out everybody at 155 planting some seeds I don't think he's going to get either of those options, AK, but there are a lot of good ones for Benoit Suntan E. I kind of feel like he's going to be a tough guy to match big four if you're Sean Shelby and Mick Maitard, because I don't know how many of these big name lightweights are going to be like, yeah, let's go fight that, dude. That sounds like a lot of fun.

So what are we doing for BSD here, okay? I'm going to borrow an idea from my aforementioned pal who got screwed by that McKenzie Duren leg on the parlay. I'll call him Stevie J for now. I let him keep his anonymity for the most price. Stevie J. That's not what we call him, but Stevie J will is what we will go with. He suggested Bobby Green down hook her winner. They're fighting UFC Austin, December 2nd, bangor of a fight. Now, San Deney has definitely left over both of them in the rankings. Don't get me wrong.

This is kind of a fight back, which is why I didn't love it. But I looked at the guys ahead of him, ahead of Sondini in the rankings, and man, a lot of these guys, he's just not going to get. Fiziv would be a dream fight, but he's injured. We just don't know when he's coming back. He's not getting the Serriqian Darius winner. Michael Chandler's going to wait for Conno McGregor until he's an old. He's either going to wait for Conno or he's just never going to fight again, apparently. So that fights like that happened. And I do love Hanata Moikano.

I think I just said I want to see Moikano fight Gamrod. And Gamrod is also a good option. But I guess the only reason I didn't go with them is I did pick them on a previous Otno to fight each other. So I'm going to let that pick survive for now, even though it seems like then Juan Santon is going to might slide in there and take on one of them. I'm not sure how you worked it out, Mike. Yeah, if I'm Money Moikano, I don't think fighting Binwasantini kind of goes into the whole Money Moikano persona.

This is, Money Moikano is a prize fighter, and this is not a prize fighty kind of a fight. So I think, you know, Moikano, that would be a sick fight, but I kind of feel like Moikano is like, maybe I'll wait and see what other options come my way. I'm not suggesting he's scared or anything like that. But for him, there's other options at 55. I think get him over.

So again, this is not, it's not about this pick right now for Otna. It's about the next one. And you're right. I don't think there's any other option right now. I think the Dan Hooker, Bobby Green winner is the perfect pick. Neither of those guys are going to say no. Both those guys are just like, I don't care who it is. Just put my name on the contract and I'll sign it.

I'm going to plant seeds for Benoit Sonsigny's next fight. His second, possibly third fight of 2024. A.K. Madison Square Garden, November of 2024, Ben-Wa-Santini is going to fight Raphael Piziv. It is going to happen at Madison Square Garden, November 2024.

It's not going to happen next, but both those guys, I think, I don't know if Fizib gets a fight in there beforehand after the injury he's sustained. I'm going to say Piz's return will be a Madison Square Garden, and he's going to fight Ben-Wan-Sant-Ni after what Ben-Wan-Ni begins his 2024 campaign doing. So there you go. Wow.

A year away. A year away. This is like Roxena, baby. We're building this up for a year. You're calling the card. You're calling the city. You're calling the matchup. So much can happen, my best.

You know what? You're on the books. There'll be a hell of an auto point if you get this one. And it'd be an amazing fight for Madison Square Garden. So certainly cannot complain about it. A lot of sensitivity, Gamrod's suggestions. I don't think Gamrod's got to take that fight, especially coming off a win over for Zeeve. If Charles Oliverer loses to Islam,

Makachev like I definitely feel like that's a fight the UFC could make for Batush Gamrott throw him in there with Charles Oliver so I mean there's there's lots of options right now we'll see what happens I think everybody wants to see Benoit Santanyia I think in terms of stock risers I think BSD is probably the winner of that contest from where he was heading into where he is now I think he made a lot of fencing potential believers into full on believers and that was just a violent, violent performance. Let's go to Diego Lopez, AK, possibly the rookie of the year in 2023. What a year this man has had.

Elvis Brenner is going to have something to say about it come award season, but makes quick work a Pat Sabatini gets him out of there in the first round. The man with the hair, getting over like Rover. I thought this is, I even said on the watch party heading in, I'm like, I think this is a brilliant piece of matchmaking right now. I think the UFC matchmakers know something. They know Pat's a tough guy, but they feel. like Diego Lopez.

They got something with him. That's why he's in that spot. They're seeing he's getting over. Let's try to build him up a little bit. And boy, they nailed it with this one. Lopez goes in there and gets a big finish. I saw a lot of suggestions for just give him a top 15 guy. And I'm not really opposed to that.

I think he called up Bryce Mitchell. And that would be something to behold. But I don't think Bryce Mitchell takes that fight right now. So I landed with a guy who is a vet. He's a tough fighter. is a tough out for pretty much anybody, but at least he's a name that at least feels like a step up that some mid-level fans in terms of casual and hardcore appeal,

I think everybody in that spot sort of knows this guy is. I would Diego Lopez versus Alexander Hernandez, aka 145 pounds, a guy who's probably like a top 30, 45er. It's a nice just name-building sort of step. You know what I mean? and then if he goes and beats a guy like Hernandez who has a win over guys like Darius, so forth and so on, then we can try to get him into there to the top 15. So I don't think we need to rush him too quickly, but I think Hernandez is like,

in terms of name value, is a step up from Sabatini, maybe not from a skill set perspective, but I think at least from name value, that's a good next step for him. Yeah, they need to move Lopez, handle Lopez the right way because they have a guy who's legitimate, like, could be a name, could be a name for them. It reminds you a little bit of the path around with Diego Lopez. And he's had a great rookie year. We've talked about it a lot. The path we've talked about rookie year in the UFC.

His path is similar to Armand Sarukion in a way and that he came in a short notice, took this super tough fight, really impressed in that fight, didn't win. But then, you know, you see something that you can sort of bounce back and give them good matchups to showcase them. They're very different as far as experience goes. Diego Lopez has a ton, had a ton of experience to come to the UFC. Sir Kian had some, but was still generally considered a prospect, like an actual MMA prospect. Again, while Lopez might be a UFC prospect, but is in the thick of his career,

he's in the prime of his career. You are seeing the sort of the best version of Diego Lopez right now. He's going to incrementally better, but this is what you get. So that matcher makes a lot of sense, Mike. Because I'm not shooting him up the rankings. He's not in my top 25 of featherweights right now. It's just such a deep division. there's some name if people want to throw them in there i get it but i have him behind guys like

jack shore uh what was up there some veteran guys daniel pinata damon jackson hakeem dowadu you can make a case to put him above all those guys go ahead i'm not there yet uh so my pick is really boring but i want to give him someone who is ahead of him just because he's beaten some guys with bigger names or yeah with bigger names i'd say so i've gone with mohammed naimov he scored a win recently he's 2 and oh i think now in the ufc so ufc experience is similar uh again give me one more win from lopez before i start going really crazy and looking at like top 20 guys but i think after saturday's performance ufc great job putting him as the main card opener i know people want to see big things right away wouldn't surprise me if he gets it i'm not i'm not quite there

yet yeah as as jett like says no wronged way to eat these rices but give him hernandez then i like you know, we go to the Dan Igay, Sudik Yusuf level, and then we go to like Edso Varboza level, and then we just kind of go from there. But let's get one more in there before we start talking about some of those big names, because I really do feel like they have something with this guy, and let's just keep the fire burning. Just like the show, A.K., let's go to the wild card round.

We will select one fighter. We have not match made for yet. We will matchmake for them right now. So go ahead and make your wildcar pick. I'll make mine. And then I will claim a not no point. Oh, my goodness. I'm wondering if we pick the same fighter, though maybe not,

because I have previously said on multiple shows that this fighter is banned, but I was so enthused about Lupi Godin's win over Tabitha Ricci. She looked really good. It wasn't like a blowout, but I thought it was a very convincing win, and we don't need to go in on Brian Miner's 3027 Ricci scorecard anymore than we all did on social media and probably on post show. I haven't listened to this post show yet. I assume it was mentioned.

Brian Miner had himself a night. 3027 Ritchie, 10-8, round two for Sadakov and Borchyev, just badness. And what was the other one? Oh, he had Mackenzie Dern after. That might have been the most egregious part of all. He doesn't know who these women are. That's my, honestly, that's my only, and I think he didn't know that Sadokov and Borchchev either.

That's my only explanation is that he thought, he thought, Ritchie was Godinez Ritchie. He thought Dern and Andrajaj, he got them mixed up. He got Borschev and Sattakov mixed up. Well, no, the Borschev and Sattakov one, sorry, that doesn't explain that. That's just he just doesn't want to do 10-8s ever, I guess. 10-8s don't exist in his mind. I don't know.

But the two women's rights, I'm convinced he doesn't know who's who. It is, the, the Ritchie one actually seems less egregious now than the 10-9 Dern. I have no idea. I don't know. I honestly don't know. So, Lup, again, let's not dwell on Prime Miner. He had a really rough night. I don't want to see him judging a MMA card anywhere anytime soon.

Lupi Godinez, we previously banned her because it's like impossible to predict when she's going to fight. But I want to see her in Toronto. This is selfish. I will be in Toronto. I'll be covering that event. UFC 2097. Lupi, if you're not injured, make another quick turnaround for us and fight the winner of next week's Luana Pinero, Amanda Hewis. So the other one I considered was could she fight Jessica?

I don't know, Mike, if you thought about that at all? I did think about that. Okay. I ultimately went a different direction. As a matter of fact, I don't have one wild card pick. I have two. And they just happen to be in the same, from the same fight card. They're going to fight against one another.

It is Lupi Godinez. No, she is not going to fight Jessica Androge, but she's going to fight the woman Jessica Androge finished. We're going to do Lopi Godinez versus Mackenzie Dernay-K. That's what we're going to do. That's what we're going to do. Whoa. That's not happening in Toronto.

No, I don't know. Take a break. You should not come back in too much. Look, here's what you need to do. When Alexa Grasso comes back and you do Grasso Shepchenko 3, and I feel like that's what they're going to do, you put Lupy on the same card, and you put Diego Lopez on the card as well.

Like you just have to, this is the time. There's rumors about possibly going to Mexico City first quarter, for 2024. I don't know what the deal is at this point, but, um, yeah, Lupi and Grasso should be on the same card. That's what we need. Loopi's, Louie's got to be a little more picky now, you know? She's going to be a, she's going to be a top 10 fighter. So the stakes have changed a little bit for Lupi Godin. As I'm not saying, take a year off, but I think McKenzie would be back one of those first quarter pay per views. I think we could see that happening. So yeah, let's get loopie McKenzie Dern and let's see if she can

get, see if she can get there. She's earning a shot. at somebody like that. Damn. Yeah, it's possible. It's possible. And you're right. I think as McKenzie Dernan, we always talk about is a really high level athlete.

Like we always talk about athleticism being a cheat code. I think she's kind of underrated as I don't know. Maybe it's not underrated. People know, right? People know McKenzie Dern's a plus athlete. Anyway, so yeah, if anyone can recover from something like that quickly and turn around,

she can. I kind of just hope she doesn't. I want to see her take some time off. I want to see her. I know she lost, you know, her gym. She talked about Ruka Gym a lot.

I know it closed down. So hopefully she can settle in with another, another team that can really help her to show up some of these weaknesses. Not to hate on her current team, whoever does the preparator for this fight, but whatever happened, it just wasn't, she just isn't where she needs to be to fight that level of competition. Speaking of Jessica Andrash, so Lupi would be a great litmus test, and hopefully before that, like I said, we get the best version of McKenzie Dern because I just didn't feel like we necessarily got that on Saturday with respect to Jessica And Drash.

And shout out to Brian Miner for giving me hope that I might have cashed a plus one 40, Tabitha Ritchie ticket. Because I heard third 27 Ritchie. I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to steal this one. Like, it might happen. I might steal plus 140 ticket here. And then I was like, all right. Hold on.

Can I adjust our pal Garrett Clemens screaming in the comments? Yes, I'm saying, Richard, the second round wasn't a knockdown for Ritchie. You should know that, right? It was a clash of heads. It was not scored a knockdown. You can go check UFCStats.com. It's not a knockdown. If you think the round was close enough that Ritchie, I mean, I don't think you could.

I think Loopy pretty clearly won round two, except for that clash of heads at the end, that knocked her down. And the first round, if you want to talk about Ritchie's knockdown, Lupi knocked her down earlier. So if you want to cancel out the knockdowns, again, Lupi did more in round one, round two, round three maybe you give to Ritchie, but that's about it. So I don't know, I don't know.

Maybe watch the fight again. Maybe I need to watch the fight again. I don't know, but it seemed pretty clear. Loopi win to me. Yeah. I feel like Lupi won, even as somebody was holding a Ritchie ticket, who would have been happy if Ritchie got the decision.

Yeah, because I didn't feel like I deserve that one. But I had a really good betting night. I did really well. I think it was up like almost nine units overall. So I was pretty happy with how everything played out from that perspective. But it's nice that I don't have to place another. Look, my wagers are tiny. It's basically just for entertainment purposes.

But yeah, it feels good when you come out with a nice bit of victory from that perspective. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you from festive and cozy fashion to luxe beauty and fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holt's holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats.

But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly.

Product availability varies by region. See app for details. We're going to go to you guys in a minute, but I'm going to go ahead and claim an Otno point, as we saw last night. First thing I thought of during the watch party, we got some more bouts announced for UFC 297, and this is a fight that I suggested. And after I actually saw it with my own eyes, I was like, yes, I got an otno point. And then two seconds later, I was like, oh, no, why did I do this? Why did I put this out into the universe? Because this could go really, really bad.

Carlos Soltberg versus Dominic Reyes going down UFC 297. I'm on the board. I knew it sounded familiar. I knew it. I was like, because it raised my eyebrow when I saw it, but I was like, didn't someone didn't someone I know and love make this pick? And sure enough, yeah, that's, that's where I still think that's like. matchup-wise, obviously a terrible fight for Dominic Reyes versus anyone with like knockout power.

I get it. It's just people are just dreading it. It feels like the chin and the defensive instincts might just be gone. But if he beats Oldberg, and I feel like I've said this for the last two like Dominic Reyes fights, if he wins, it puts him right up there back in the rankings, back in the top 20. I don't know where people have him now. I'm not sure he's fell precipitously. Is he ranked in the UFC ranking?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That was shocked me. I'll check now. He's definitely not in our rankings. He's definitely not in our rankings. I have him, oh, God, right, light heavy weight sucks. I actually have him over certain people that he's beaten. I'm going to check EOC.com real quick.

I'm going to check it real quick. I think he might still be in there. I'm curious. Light heavy weight is not good. It's not good. It's very top heavy. He is 30. You know what?

I stand crying. He's 13. He is 13. I knew it. I freaking. And again, as crazy as that sounds to people, You just have to look at the other names. There's like, so Alonzo Menafield, he's above Alonzo Menefield and Dustin Jacoby.

And you could probably put those guys above him. But I think with Dominic is tough because he has wins over notable names. They just feel so long ago now. He's lost four straight. So I'm not like, I don't think top 15 is absurd based on who he's beaten, but based on recent form. I mean, he's barely top 25, right? So I don't know. I don't disagree with the UFC.

I, but yeah, it's, it's rough to say this guy's a top 15, light heavy right now. But if he beats Ulberg, no arguing with it there. It's good matchmaking. Like it could go really bad. There's a world we could see Dominic Reyes unconscious in the Octagon again. And that's just kind of a sad world to live in, considering most people thought he'd beat John Jones. And if he had won the title, what would his career look like right now? Like everything has just gone just horribly wrong for him since the Jones fight in so many ways career-wise.

so but I think at this point after where he was at if you can't be Carlos Holberg I don't know how much more he can he can do here honestly at least a competitive loss right like it would have like a fight of the night if he gives us like a fight at night and I'm like you know Dominic I mean he'll probably he'll probably still depending where he is contract wise like let's say it was the last fight of his contract I don't know what his contract status is they probably don't bring him back if he loses even if it's in the fight of the night performance but that doesn't mean, he can't have, you know, continue his inmate career elsewhere. So, yeah.

I mean, we're, we have dwindling options now. Seriously. Who knows what's going on with Bellator? They are just a friggin mess right now. Curious if the sale actually goes through. It's going to be, it's going to be an interesting couple of months for the PFL Bellator stuff. For sure. All right.

So for the next 12 to 15 minutes, it's all you guys. So throw your matchmaking suggestions. Please keep it to fighters who. competed last night and we'll put them up on the screen. Sometimes we just get random matchmaking suggestions. But let's not do that. Bring it out. They're coming in.

They're coming in Fast and Furious, Mike. Diego Lopez, Billy Q, Maffervola, Elvis Brenner, Rebetski versus Terrence, Vick. Jeez, I love the Rebetsky-Tarrants-McKin idea. Yuri versus Anthony Smith. What do you think about Uri versus Anthony Smith? What do you think about Pereira versus Anthony Smith? Now, trust me, because they-

I've been reading the article. I've been reading MAP fighting.com. I've seen the back and forth, yeah. And let me just say because everyone's going to be like, oh, you're an idiot. Why would you ever say that? This would just be a, listen, we need to keep Pereira going right now. We need to keep him busy. Like kind of a thing.

Like, he's got a fight on this pay-per-view. Like, we need something here. Anthony Smith, there's at least headlining things that they can go to with both guys saying things to one another. Look, we live in a world where Michael Bisbing defended the middleweight title against Dan Henderson. So this is not out of the wrong of possibility. It would be Anthony Smith last style shot. People like Anthony Smith. It would make no sense from meritocratic perspective, but the UFC makes plenty of fights of that nature. So could Anthony Smith be in the mix for either of these two guys? Hi. Oh, for Yeri. Yeah, for Yeri. I think Yeri makes a ton of sense.

I think Yerite makes a ton of sense. And Anthony Smith has been with the UFC long enough. He can talk his way into something off a win, right? So he can talk, he can, he can angle for one of those big fights. If you're Yeri, you know, Anthony Smith's a guy with a name. He's fought for the UFC title. He's not nobody. He's been in the top of Dean for some times. So Yeri, very likely actually liked that suggestion. I'm a little embarrassed.

I didn't even consider it. I like that suggestion. I don't love Alex Panetta and the chatter is great. I just don't love that. Yeah, it's a stay busy fight. That's literally what it would be. Sure. Like, if Jamah was not going to be out fighting until August, like you know, let prayer fight Anthony Smith.

And then he can go fight Jamaha. Speaking of Jamal, Joel Emers versus Jose Mariscall, Matush Gamrot, or excuse me, Matush Mabetschki versus the Dova Klein, like those. First time, long time. Welcome to the party, pal. Alex versus Hill, Aspedal versus Jones, Andrage versus Marina Rodriguez. That's right. BSD versus RDA, not going to happen.

He's not going to be a lot to wait. He's not funny at 55. I don't know why he's ranked at 55. It makes no sense to me. Lopez versus Casares. I feel like Lopez versus Casares is a popular pick. I saw a few people mention that. I saw that pop me up in the comments.

It's not bad. I think it makes sense. I think it makes a lot sense. Yeah. Let's see. Oh. What are you got? Emers versus, oh, you're the one you just put on the screen.

Emers versus Brendan Loch Nane. I guess the assumption that Locknane is going to come over to the UFC at some point. I don't know. Finally? What a storyline that would be. If he were to come over, that would... I don't even want to say that would be a great introductory fight. Though that is...

I guess that's how the UFC would treat him. You've got to prove yourself, kid. You got to prove yourself. You've got to fight Jammer's. Josh Van versus Tyson Nam. Just for the... It sounds nice. Rolls off the tongue really well.

It's a good hashtag right there. Yeah, hashtag Van Nam. I like this question, but we will do that at the end. Okay. The ranking of the MSG shows. Oh, yeah. I saw that. I didn't think about it.

Rematch the last two fights of the night. Rebetsky versus Jared Gordon. Don't know about that. Rebetsky versus Drew Dober is the fight. Don't waste Rebetsky's time with unranked guys. But no, the problem is like nobody... I think we need to build him up a little bit. He doesn't have a real impressive victory on the old resume right now.

Shots fired. And you're not wrong, but I'm saying you're firing shots. He has... Like, he feels like a guy that's going to be a player, but just not... I thought he was going to finish Nick Fiori in his debut. Did not manage to do it. Because Nick's not a human being. Yes, this is true.

Louis Bratsibov got to finish there. That was nice. That kind of got him back on track. And then he fights a Roosevelt Roberts who I feel like took this fight just to get his foot back into the UFC, again, less than a week's notice. Not, not Rebeske's fault. Not his fault at all. He fights who he's booked against.

He took care of, he did what he's supposed to do against falling like that. took him out inside of a round totally dominated up until that point um but those three wins to me don't say like okay we have a contender for sure nine uh 16 consecutive victories overall like including pre-y oc fights amazing amazing it looks glossy it looks great he's in his prime this guy's not prospect this is a guy who's in his prime right now but um i think he's not at the point yet where he's guaranteed to get a ranked guy unfortunately unfortunately so i like this suggestion but it's not it's not time yet i love the mckinney i That's a great idea.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Let's see. What else we got here? Roebetsky versus Turner, Taos versus the shortest lightweight. It's a little beast. I love that. A lot of Lopez Bruce Leroy's Sontini versus Money Moikano.

I think it's possible that. Santany, Money Moikano, Gamrod, they're out there in some form or fashion. This is a popular one I saw last night, Jalen Turner versus Benoit Santini, but I just don't know if Jailen Turner is going to be a lightweight anymore. right right i think last time i asked me for him at welterweight but if he can find a way to still make it i mean jalen turner still a player of 155 for sure why is no one saying alex could go up to heavyweight and fight tom oh please not now no we're trying like i want 2024 to be the year i want 2024 to be the year of stay in your own weight class and fight people in your division no and it's not he had trouble with uh young blockovitch taking you and young macho's good wrestler but imagine young blockovitch plus 30 pounds

Alts-Paneta would not have won that fight. He does not beat heavyweight Jan Blacovic, and there's a lot of guys at heavyweight who can wrestle and who can take him down. He'd be competitive, but even like, honestly, even like a Sergei spitback, I feel like would be a very tough matchup for Alps Panetta at heavyweight. It's a big size difference, guys.

It's a big saverns from 205 to 265. Andraj Hebaugh has to either 115 or 125. Yeah. I guess it's a magic wand pick. We're assuming. It's true. Hebus wins. Sure, sure.

Yeah. Thoughts on Benoit Sonsiddy versus Gregor Gilles Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages. I'm here to tell you. Greg Gillespie's not fighting Benwantini. That's not going to happen. The reason Gregor has not fought, at least from what he said, is he's not going to fight anybody that's ranked behind him. He wanted a Tony Ferguson fight after the last one. He was offered main events against Armand Sarukian before Syrucian fought Gamrod.

and he's happy just kind of like fishing and living the outdoorsman life until something comes his way that he wants to do. And I can assure you, I don't think Ben-Wa-Santini is that dude that's going to be like, oh, you know what, I'm ready to come back. I'm ready to make that money and fight this absolute killer. So I would love to see it. I'm just not hopeful that's what we see next.

Coming off the couch to fight Ben-Wassanini sounds insane to me. That is, stay on the lake. That's how you get hurt. Stay on the lake. Yeah, that's how you get hurt, dude. What's next for Jared Gordon, AK?

I'm super happy for him. I said on the pre-fight show, I told people watch for that fight. That was my low-key banger. Because I thought Jared Gordon was due his New York moments. You know, the storylines in MMA typically are not that tidy.

We see people get that hometown fight all the time and it just doesn't work out. But this felt right. It felt like the right matchup. Mark Madsen, all the props in the world to him for what he's done in his MA career so far, but he got off to a late start. You know, he's almost 40. I think it can be 40 next year.

Plus the wear and tear from years of amateur wrestling, years of international wrestling that due to the Olympics, if it came down to a war of attrition, that's just not a fight. He was going to win against Jared Gordon. It didn't really come down to that. But I just liked the advances that Jared Gordon had going on. So great for him. Where can he go now? I mean, he should get Patty after Patty

Tony Ferguson, get to run that one back. So there you go, guys. That's the next step for Patty. Gordon versus the Bobby Green, Dan Hooker, loser? Yeah. Yeah. Again, that win for Jared Gordon. I know Mark Mads is not like a top 30 guy or whatever, but it just, it sells him so well to the UFC. They gave him this platform. They said, you're from New York. We want you to show us what you can do.

We know you've been with the company for a while, but you've still been missing that signature moment, and, you know, there it was. so yeah, he can get that play. I mean, BSD for Grant, Dost, Dern going up to 125 to fight Lemosch, and then Aspinall versus Cody Garbrand. I didn't vet that one. Well played, sir.

Well play. What else we got? What else we got? What else we got? Ooh, how about this? UFC 300? Gordon versus Jim Miller. I like it, but I feel like for Jim Miller,

I mean, he just has to be on the card. I understand. It doesn't really matter who he fights. I still want him to fight like another, I don't know, like a bigger name, someone who's almost not, It sounds in nearly as 10 years to see it as nobody's close right now. But I feel like they should be a bigger name.

But if Jared Gordon wants that, he should start to calling for it. BSD versus the Benny Armand loser. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. They know they have something with BSD. Depends if they go to Paris. They'll probably want to give him a big fight. Yes.

Someone said the highlight of the watch party was Parker Porter. And you know what? I'm not here to argue with you because it was. The goat. Yeah, we had to get extra time with him. Actually, I think the high. highlight of honestly i think the highlight of watch party was me nailing the prediction of the autographed card so he gc had two box of chronicles he shook it for me i was like all right i have

a pick he shook it for me and i said arini aldana and i was like shake it again i said charles do ordain uh we did not get charles do ordain but arrene al dana got the auto out of all the names in the world i pick arini aldana and he gets an arini aldana autograph how did you do this How'd you do this? It's the second time I've done it. It's a second time I've done it. It's super weird. That's a little scary.

It's super weird. Mike, I don't mess with witchcraft, bro. Yeah, I don't know what's going on here. You're from Massachusetts. You know of all that Salem shit. Come on, you can't be. You can't be messing around with that. Yeah, I don't want to do that.

That's not good stuff. Parkapoor is the friggin' man, though. That was super fun. Anytime there's a heavyweight, like, co-main event, he's going to be on. Yes. He was doing the show with his kids, like, who were watching the fights. He's on for Tom Aspinall

versus Sergei Pavlovich and the children fall asleep. They were asleep the whole time and he was going crazy. He was yelling. He was losing his mind and his kids sucked through all of it. That's impressive. That is super oppressive.

Thanks, Parker Porter. Well done. Well done. All right. I think we're done here. Let me just pull something up very, very quickly. And then we will discuss what is going to happen next week.

I am very excited because the next time the next time that I fly out here, and I made you this before, I'm going to go back and listen to the 20, 23 prediction show and start taking notes because we've got to prepare for the 2024 prediction show, which it's coming real quick. So basically what we're going to say is,

and I think I did this last year, and I already have submissions coming in for this show, we are going to do to kick off 2024 our prediction show. It's basically just buy sell questions, but like interesting questions. And then we do like sort of a champion's predictions at the end of the year. And then we have like a bold take that we have to make out. It's just like super bold and probably won't happen. But if you got like good buy sell questions that you want answered as far as heading into 2024,

send those submissions in like you would submit your matchmaking suggestions, we'll tally them up. I've already collected probably a dozen of them because people send them throughout the year. And there's some doozies already. but just however you submit your matchmaking picks, you can do that here. And we will take matchmaking picks next week. Normal podcast.

We won't be live next week. We'll be live again after UFC 296 on December 17th. Because, ladies and gentlemen, and I know you're excited about this based on all of the suggestions and comments, the UFC back at the apex. They're back at the hallowed apex. And perhaps, depending on who you ask, and if it's lineage,

and maybe I'll have to text Brennan Allen see what he thinks about this. Possibly the middleweight title on the line. A man who won the middle 80 middleweight title but may not actually qualify for it anymore. Brennan Allen taking on a guy who probably doesn't qualify for this title at all. Paul Craig, Captain Chaos himself.

Jake Matthews, Michael Morales on this card. Is this Vegas 82 or 83A kid? I believe it's 82. 82, okay. Jordan Levitt versus Chase Hooper. Peyton, Talbot versus Nick Aguoyer. Medelliz, Luana Pinero, Eros Medich versus

Johnny Parsons. Jesus Christ. That fight's going to be nuts. Cesar Almeida versus Christian Leroy-Duncan, Nicholas Motta versus Trey Ogden, Lucy Putalova, Eileen Perez, Mick Parkin versus Kio Machado. I like this Jonathan Pierce, Joe Anderson

Brito fight, Chadden Elliger versus Jose Johnson, Charles Johnson versus Hafiel Esteban and Lucas Alexander versus Jekka Saragi. That's UFC Vegas A2. It's a card. Mike, we forgot to answer the UFC. We do this real quick.

Oh, yeah, yeah. MSG cards. I'm not going to go the whole list. I'll just say the top three. It's hard to beat 205-217, 205, of course, McGregor Alvarez. Just the magic of the first trip back to the state of New York and the first card in New York City in Massacre Garden. But I'll go

217 over that. A little Canadian bias. You know, GSP, St. Pierre, GSP comes back, sorry, beats Michael Bisping, the Dillashog, Garbrandt. This was the first fight,

I believe. I won't say there's the first fight. And then, am I crazy? This was the first fight. Yes. And then Rose and Ioanna, just amazing stuff.

So that to me would be number one. I'll go 205 next. And then 268. This was a really good card. Usman, Covington, to Rose and Jane. gosh, I don't know why I bring this up. Frank, again, his face kicked off.

And Burgos, Quarantillo and Gavee Chianler, both bangers. Yeah, that is. No, no, Burgos Corrano kind of disappointed, I think, right? But, I don't know, Gajie Chandler was a bad. What? Are you kidding me? But Burgos Quintillo was the one with the grappling. No.

No. That thing was awesome. It just happened. It just, they bumped. It was unfortunate for those guys because they bumped Chandler and Gagey to the first fight of the night. Just Trevor Whitman had to coach, like, every fighter in the main card. and so Billy Q and Shane Burgess had to follow Gaichi Chandler

and at that point like we're all the adrenaline rush from Gaichi Chandler is like impossible to like keep up that pace but go back just go back and watch that fight and you're going to be like holy shit like that fight's ridiculous it was a great fight yeah yeah that's a good question I like that list this is right up there though oh yeah I wasn't even counting this yes I mean this has to be up there yeah yeah sorry I meant the previous events this probably has a crowd

Yeah, 205 is number one, though. 205 stuff. Oh, you go number one, yeah. The classic. Yeah. I mean, that was like the perfect event. Like everything that needed to happen happened. And we got the Habeed coming out party on the freaking prelims.

Connor pitches the perfect game. Like everything about that card just hit. The only other disappointing thing was the only real disappointing thing is Chris Widman's like fighting in MSG. He was like the face of all this in a lot of respects. And he's fighting you old Romero and it looks like he's up two rounds. And he gets flying knee. Oh, man.

It was just so, it's just such a crazy moment. Am I, am I underrating 281? Izzy Perra 2? Pere wins the title. Zhang just runs through Carla. Which, yeah, kind of, Kemporee takes out Chandler. Frank Edgar dying again.

I don't know why this kept happening. Dan, yeah, Dan Hooker, Claudio playoffs. That was hilarious. That was hilarious. That was just a weird card. Yeah, that was just a weird card. Yeah, that was a good card. Maybe we're underrating.

I don't think it's a lot of respects. Yeah, in a lot of respects, I think, 281 kind of planted seeds. for what 2023 was going to be caught yes yes true for better or worse 2 30 probably the worst one right oh yeah that was really good they cobble that thing together 244 was not bad um the co-main of it was terrible the gasill and darin til fight we got mazidal ds which was like i mean it was scenes they had the bmf title and the freaking rocks there and i mean that was wild Donald Trump was there as the sitting president at the time,

which was pretty insane. So, yeah, a lot of history at MSG. This card feels like 10 years ago. Kevin Lee knocked up Gillespie with a head kick. Corey Anderson was still in the UFC runs through Johnny Walker. Ed Mitchabizing was still in our, oh, man. Derek Lewis won a split decision on that card. Crazy, man.

Absolutely insane. And we got, that was sort of the beginning of the Machuan Americani. Let's live bet. if it gets out of the first round kind of a thing because Machuan had a good first round against Shane Burgos and then Shane just kind of annihilated him the rest of the fight. So that was the beginning of the Makwaan Amir Connie. Let's bet on them early.

But if the fight gets into round two, we bet against them in the live odds. But we're done, everybody. Thank you all very much. Back in normal form next week. So after UFC Vegas 82 comes to a close, go ahead and submit your picks. And not a lot of shows left here.

We'll do our recap and then we'll do our predictions for 2024 to wrap up just this wild chaotic 2023. So it is November already. So thank you all very much. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Have a great week for AKI and Mike Kack. Remember the golden rule. Don't take this stuff too seriously.

M.A. supposed to be fun. It will have more fun right here on odds to the next one, the podcast. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.