MMA Fighting - On To the Next One: What's Next For Paddy Pimblett After UFC 314?

Episode Date: April 13, 2025

Alexander Volkanovski is once again the UFC featherweight champion after earning a decisive decision against Diego Lopes in the main event of UFC 314. While Volkanovski was unbelievably impressive, the spotlight continues to shine on Paddy Pimblett following the best performance of his career. On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what's next for the two-time champ Volkanovski after his big victory, along with Lopes after falling short in his first championship opportunity. Additionally, future matchups are discussed for Pimblett after his destruction of past title challenger Michael Chandler in the co-main event, Yair Rodriguez after defeating Patricio Pitbull, Jean Silva after steamrolling Bryce Mitchell, along with fellow main card winner Dominick Reyes, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @m_heckjr Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss?

Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On to the Next One. Thank you for joining us on this Sunday morning, and it is great to be here because we're coming

off of a pretty fun, pretty damn good UFC 314 event that lived up to the hype and even better for shows like this and for the next several days ahead. We have a lot to talk about. storylines galore in the aftermath of the UFC's return to Miami. And, you know, there's nothing negative to say here, ladies and gentlemen. The UFC tried. They put forth an effort. And when they do that, we get results like this.

And that's all we ever ask for here at mafighting.com. It's a terrific website. But I am Mike Heck and joining me on very little sleep, because this is what we do on Sunday mornings after pay-view events. Live here on the YouTube channel is the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity. and my best friend, Alexander Cayley, AK, hope you're having a glorious Sunday. How are you? Hello, my best friend. I am having a glorious Sunday.

It's great, especially now that we're here, now that we're all together to talk about UFC 314. I know we had some people on the Post-Fight show. I'm sure many of those same viewers and listeners on the broadcast today, and that's great. We love you guys, love to see you guys around. Mike, I love to see you, of course. Vibes are great. Vibes are great all around.

Very good show. I don't know if there's, like, I don't know if there's a lot to say about it. I think that was sort of the energy from the post-fight show, too. It was like, you know, we're just glad that this, like you said, they put forth the effort. We got a mostly controversy-free card outside of some referee, you know, shenanigans. Though nothing that truly, I think, like, spoiled any of the fights. We can sort of very quickly, like, touch upon the Dan Yegay, Sean Woodson's stoppage, which was real bad. But Danny Gay was up on both score cards, so I guess it wasn't the worst thing.

Sean Woodson, maybe, you know, you rob him a comeback. you rob some people who won't be named of having a fight goes to a decision as the first like of their parlay you know i would i don't bet on mma mike so that couldn't be me but i'm just saying uh it's tough to watch stop to watch that stop it's it but yeah things are good i don't think uc 14 set like an impossibly high bar for the rest of the year i don't even think on paper we thought like oh this is the best card the ufc will put together but you know certainly a strong show for the first half of the year. We'll see how 315 and 316 turn out. I know

people aren't hyper-jazzed about 315, but it could be a good card. You don't know. But so far, 314, the front runner for at least the first half of the year. And we'll see. We'll see what kind of bangers UFC can unveil in, you know, the second half 2025. Some fights of which may have been formed

on this, you know, on the results of this card, but I guess we'll get to that, right? Very possible. I love this card on paper. It had a little bit of everything. Had some star power. It had story. It had everything.

Interesting aftermath discussion, which we're going to have here. Just really good stuff. I think 315 is a really good card, too. It lost obviously a fight. Gilbert Burns and Michael Morales, but that fight just gets moved to the main event of the world's most famous Apex Return on May 17th.

And the rest of that card is still really good. It just, this one doesn't have a lot of star power. It's just very competitive, solid fights. with high stakes, which is good. As long as we're trying and we're checking off some boxes, it all works out. And then 316, we'll see how that all plays out. Obviously, the Giuliana Pena, Kayla Harrison fight,

the stakes have upped immensely now that Amanda Nunes has essentially confirmed she is coming back to fight the winner of that fight. The new UFC Hall of Famer, or at least she will be in a couple of months. So that'll be interesting. She'll be the number one contender for the title she never lost in a fight. I mean, she did lose that Julianna Paine, but she left on her own, vacated the belt on her own, and she will enter another championship fight already a Hall of Famer in her own right.

So stakes have risen at 316, and we'll see what UFC 317 looks like. But let's get right into the matchmaking, AK. Let's discuss what is next for some of the tastemakers here. What we're going to do is we'll run down the main card, some of the winners. We'll talk about Diego Lopez as well. AK and I will reveal our wild card selection for UFC 314, which will be somebody else outside of the main card winners or people we have not mentioned.

We'll make a matchup outside of that. And then we're just going to let you guys take over, open the floodgates, let your matchmaking suggestions fly. Super Chatters will get to the front of the line. That's how it works. And let's get into the featherweight division. It was a very big night for it. Alexander Volcanovsky, A.K., broke all the curses, broke all the statistical things that were against him.

No fighter under 155 pounds over the age of 35 has ever won a title fight in the UFC. Alexander Volcanozky breaks the mold. No fighter has ever won a title coming off of back-to-back knockout losses. Alexander Volcanovsky breaks that mold as well, gets it done. All these stats that were against Volk, it did not matter. It goes out there. I thought he won four rounds to one pretty clearly. I thought four, I mean, you can make an argument if you lost the fourth round.

Jed scored at 50-45. I honestly don't hate that card. But I think if you score that fight for Diego Lopez, you need to absolutely get your head examined. Apparently Sean Shelby did. So I don't really understand what was going through his mind. At least that's what they said on the broadcast. But either way, Volcanowski did the thing, AK. He is the champion in the world.

He did it. Two-time champ. Is this obvious? This is a great night from Obsar of Lof? I hope it's obvious, man. Yeah, I hope it's obvious. A little tease for people. I guess by the time some people will listen to the show,

if they listen to it on Monday, they'll have already seen the morning report poll. But I put the poll I put together for Monday is who raised their stock the most at US 3-14? And of course, I'm talking about fighters that competed on the card, but I think if you're most are, your stock certainly nudged up a little bit. He was very much like the forgotten man somehow

in this division. I guess that's just the way it goes when, you know, Dana White has sort of labeled you as a boring fighter, which is very unfortunate because most are, like many of the current champions, has had some stinkers for sure, but also has had some pretty compelling fights. And I think is more than deserving of a tell shot. He could have fought for the title like last year. He's just a really good fighter. And it just felt like that would have been out of the question.

Of course, Diego Lopez had won because that immediately sets up the big fight with, the big grudge match with your year Rodriguez. Now it feels like Monsar has to be back in play. We'll talk about some of the dynamics of the other featherweight contenders coming up. This was a busy and meaningful night for the featherweight division. But yes, if common sense prevails, it has to be Mols. I know it's not a blockbuster fight. I know people don't are going to scoff.

Oh, Volkanahnski of life, that's going to sell like 50,000 pay reviews or whatever. Again, that doesn't matter anymore in the, well, soon to not be ESP and error, but whatever the broadcast plans are for EOC, they pretty much mastered not needing pay-per-view. Pay-view is almost gravy for them now. So, yeah, let's not worry about, oh, will this appeal to the casual fan and just do the right thing. Most Star deserves it. So there's that word deserves.

But I would like to see Employee of Bolknobski. Yeah, I think this was about as good of a night as it could have been from Obsar of Blas. If Diego won. And honestly, I think he probably felt great about things after the Ieer Rodriguez win over Patricio Pitbull. and we're going to get to that in a moment, but it was just one of those things. Like, I just felt like Yair in that fight

was just going to run over Pitbull. I thought it was, it was just one of those stylistic matchups. And I think if Yaiur really put the foot down, at certain points in that fight, he could have gotten the finish and really set himself up. I just don't see a world where Yair

gets a rematch with Volkanowski. I think if you could name 10 fights that would draw the least amount of fan interest amongst all UFC fans, that would probably be, in the list because we saw it before and Volt just beat the hell out of them. And that wasn't that

long ago. So I don't think there's a lot of interest in that. I think this is a great night from Bob Zard-Vloia. Absolutely fantastic. Can we ask? And great timing by Trista, our palis and Gordet in the comments. Here's a question. Is it crazy, Mike, for Gian Silva to get that tell a shot? Is it crazy? It's insane. Because I, obviously,

if you polled anyone coming out of that, you know, out of that Kasea Center in Miami, Jan Silva was like one of the biggest stars of the night. I mean, they probably would be dying to see him fight for the time. I agree. It seems crazy right now, but he is the hottest name, clearly the hottest name of Featherweight right now. So, okay, you, that answers my first question.

Is it crazy? Let's say that fight was made, Mike. What's, give me the lines. Give me the, give me the betting lines for Jean-Salva, Volcanovsky. Like, to open? Yeah. Volkanowski minus 185.

Okay, I thought you were going to go 200 or higher. And I was like, I doubt. I was like, I doubt it. I said, John Silva coming off of that win. And also, I think there's still some courses of Volcanovsky's chin. I mean, there was the one knockdown, which is not an indictment of Volcanowski at all. Like, you know, Lopez caught him, looping right hand over the top, caught him, knocks him up right at the end of around.

Volcanowski recovered pretty quickly. You know, it wasn't like what happened with Toporria and Makachov. I'm not going to compare it to that. but also Lopez isn't like viewed as the power puncher that DePorea is and certainly not the power that John Silva is or maybe I should say more maybe more technique necessarily the power he's he's got plenty of power so I I'm intrigued I agree almost a chance that happens but if you're John Silva stay in camp stay on weight stay on weight most importantly have some issues here at the scale stay healthy because if by some chance other people fall out you could get that Jack Della

Madalena call 100% he could get the Jack Della Madalena call and end up fighting Volks somewhere right Because he is right now the hottest name at 145 pounds. So I think there's definitely more work to be done. But very few fans would complain if that matchup were announced, I think, in the next couple of months. He has way more buzz than Lorone Murphy right now. Like so much more. How dare you? So much more.

Bold take. My best friend, bold take. That's a boy. Wow. Spicy. But, you know, maybe I'm setting a little tone for what is to come. when we get to the John Silva portion of the program. But let's talk about Diego Lopez.

Again, this is actually very, very easy to make. A lot of people talking about, oh, Yair, give them a title fight. Again, I just don't see a world where that happens. It's just way too soon. I don't think that fight goes any differently than the first time around. Maybe Yair gets to round three or something.

I'm not really sure. But we have to do Yair Rodriguez versus Diego Lopez. We have to do it at a UFC 320, and that is it. That is your five-round goal. main event for that card and anything else is absolutely silly. Yeah, it's right there. Don't play around with it guys. Don't mess with the MMA gods.

Don't get cute with it. Yeah, you're saying all the right things, man. You know, he took care of business. I guess we're doing the Diego and obviously your sections now. You know, he took care of business. Workman-like win over Patricia Pitbull was never really threatened during that fight and just really diffused a very dangerous UFC newcomer. It sounds weird to say like a newcomer.

He's a huge veteran of the sport. but yeah and they all saying after Diego the Diego fight can happen down the road I want that title shout Volkanowski I want the rematch in Guadalajara I yeah I'm not feeling it I don't think I mean I think that's even a I think that's an even harder fight to sell than Volcanozio Bloyev um like you said we've seen him fight yayr this is actually less than two years ago now I mean by the time the fight's

booked only more than two years but um it wasn't quite enough I mean here I'm not even sure what yager could have done even if he had knocked up pit bull I still don't know if that I've earned a rematch with Volcanowski if we're being really honest and anyway in some ways he's a victim of his own sort of promotion because him and Diego

really really made it happen at the press conference this week and that's the fight people want to see so the stars are lining up perfectly for it to happen at UFC 320 the next UFC Noche event so yeah just do it now just pull the trigger now it's a great matchup

apparently my audio is a little low are you getting that too? It was pretty clear to me, but I don't know. Maybe I'm getting a different sort of thing here. All right. I just want to make sure. I see a comment, Mike, quiet, for anyone else. Just want to make sure everybody can hear me out there. And if I need to make an adjustment, I'll make an adjustment. So I think those two fights are pretty easy to make. Let's talk about, in my opinion, the MVP. He's the guy that when we look back on this card, five days, five months, five years from now, it'll be Patty Pimble being talked about first, at least in my opinion. He's, he, beat the living hell out of Michael Chandler. I'm not surprised Patty won that fight. I'm not surprised Patty Pimble was dominant in that fight. I was surprised that he just beat the living shit out of Michael Chandler. Like that was an absolute ass whoopin.

Just didn't see that coming. But, man, Patty is in tremendous position right now. I'm very curious to see where you were going with this AK. Patty the batty, 7 and O in the UFC. Just picked up another big win, back-to-back stoppages of Bobby Green, another stoppage against Michael Chandler, the biggest win of his career, the best performance of his career. He wants that belt. It was just an annihilation in there. And even Charles Olivera had five rounds to do that to Michael Chandler.

Did not come close to doing that. He dominated Michael Chandler, but not like that. Where are we going with Patty the Batty here? That was great. loved that I made this matchup happen. It was the right way to go, and Pimblit more than showed up for the occasion. Really, matchmaking for him was almost like a process of elimination. You kind of had to go with something.

He rifled off like five or six names too that would theoretically make sense. If he's making that climb that he has been doing from unranked to top 15, now to top 10, to now he wants to be top five, wants to earn that title shot. You kind of rule out Islammachad right away. Again, not that it couldn't happen, but it's a JDM situation. I think two or three people would have. out the fallout ahead of Patty for it to be made. If Islam wants a specific date and for some reason Patty's the only guy available of the, you know, three or four people in line, sure, it could happen,

but it should not. I don't think it's anywhere near the front of the matchmaker docket right now. Armand, Sarukyan, I actually like that, but I mean, there's, but there's a part of me that's still pushing for the Makkhov-Marikov-Sirikian rematch, which I know Dana White said isn't going to happen. But again, so much is dependent on when Islam is available. And again, if Arman and Patty are both available. I think you have to go with Armand, but maybe the UFC wouldn't feel the same way. I think they like Patty a lot more now.

But I just don't. I don't want to hop him over there yet. Then you have Gaichi, you have Porier, you have some of these older fighters, and I just don't know if they're going to jump at the Patty fight. Porre, for sure, I think he wouldn't want to do it. Gachi, maybe.

But I also think Gaetchi thinks he's done enough to maybe earn his shot, right? And also, we want to see him fight Dan Hook again. I'd rather see him fight Dan Hook than Patty Pibbitt. So, where do we land with Miss Mr. The Batty. I guess, Mike, it has to be Charles Olivera. I guess that has to be Charles Oliver.

No, again, I admit, I did, this is not, if that's what you picked, this is not a offense for a moment. I did listen to some of the post-fight show. But I had already made this pick before I listened to you and Jed and Casey. So it's just, it's stylistically a really great matchup. Like we kind of, people can do some MMA math and go like, oh, Olivera couldn't finish Chandler the second time they fought. And Patty, you know, finished him in under, under four rounds, like, or under

three rounds. So that's that's the way to go with that. I know Charles that wants his rematch too, but there's not a lot of steam to that. Like there wasn't a lot of steam to it when it was booked the first time the rematch with Islam. So let's make them earn it. And then when Islam's ready, I mean, damn, maybe then people it is next if he beats Charles. I've said this a million times. I'll say it again. If I had the pencil, if I'm going into that meeting on Tuesday, I'm saying Patty's next fight is for the belt. I don't care who it is. I'm not saying he jumps the line, that he jumps over Ilya. Like, if Islam is saying 155, Islam's next fight is not against Patty, but Patty's next

fight is against the winner of whoever that is. And May 10th, when we come back on this program, if Jack Delam Adelana is the Welterweight champion, then Patty Pimba is fighting for the vacant title. You have to, you just have to do it. At this point, you have to do it. What I, I think it's going to be Olivera. I like the Dan Humbera. hooker idea. I think that fight makes a ton of sense. Dan Hooker is a top five guy. So from a

meritocratic perspective, sure. But if he beats Dan Hooker, I don't think that gets him a title fight in this division. I think he needs a name. So I think Oliver makes sense. I probably wouldn't, I would probably not do the Armand fight. Like, I would be real interested to see how that plays out. Because if Patty beats Armin Soruki, and I will come on every show in the world and be like, Patty's going to win the belt. He's going to be the lightweight champion, which honestly, If I said, someone told me that I would say that three years ago, I would just say you're lying. But the man just keeps, like, he's filling out his frame.

His striking's gotten a lot better. He's using his weapons a lot more. His top game is so good. It's not just all about submissions and thrown flashy strikes. I love him implementing those light kicks more and more. He's just getting better. And he's filling out. He's a humongous lightweight.

He's frigging huge. Chandler's not a small dude. He's kind of short. short, but he looks like he's built like a fridge and Patty looked two weight classes bigger than him. He looked big against Bobby Green too. Bobby Green's on a small lightweight. So I'm very intrigued to see Patty. I would just give him the title.

I would just give him a title shot. But I'll go with Olivera. I think that's the fight they end up making. If I'm Armand Sarukian, I am shouting from the rooftops to try to fight Patty right now. I think that's a smart move on his part because that's probably. the biggest fight armand can get that is not for the belt and i don't think they're going to do that right now there's some heat there you get plenty of stuff tweets and things patty said in the post-fight interviews and post-fight press conference all that stuff so i think just putting myself in the ufc's lens

and plus you have not been wrong about patty pimple matchmaking for like four years so i'm just going to say whatever you say and share a point with you i don't feel confident of this this is this is probably the least, I felt, shockingly, I felt like amazingly confident on Tony Ferguson's fight. Like, it kind of started as like a gag. And then, like, the more I thought about it, I'm like, holy crap, he's going to fight Tony Ferguson. And then it happened. Chandler, I felt very, very confident about it. And, you know, Mike, you always give me credit for innovating that matchup. Maybe I did, but I know it wasn't long before a lot of other people were like, yeah, yeah, like, that makes a ton of sense. It's just, just given his career arc where these other guys are kind of, you know,

heading in the other direction in the rankings, the timing has just worked out so well. for him. Is that going to be the same situation here? It feels like it. It does be like Charles is in that range now. He's in like the perfect range. And it feels like the timing is right. But I feel less confident about this than the Ferguson and Chandler pick. So I'm not like calling my shot here. Also, again, I think this is a pretty obvious pick. If we're if we're looking to move Patty into a title shot, it's going to be Charles or probably Armand and more likely Charles. Yeah. I think Charles will be the UFC's first choice. They've, they have matched me for him. brilliantly they've waited for him to like to peek to get into his prime and then they started giving him

steps up in the right direction like they've done a great job with him like no doubt about it and patty his improvements his evolution as an mhm a fighter i mean it just matched up so succinctly with what the ufc is trying to do with him it's just it's been lightning in a bottle especially for the last couple of years so great performance for patty pimblit uh very interested to see where he goes when he comes back. He says Abu Dhabi against Oliver would be his ideal situation and I don't hate that idea at all and again, what

a turnaround for Patty Pimble, a guy who everyone's like, this guy stinks, he lost to Jared Gordon, he'll never be a ranked fighter. I'll hand up, man. I said Patty will have a successful UFC career. He will not be a top 15 fighter

and that's okay. He'll still be very popular. He's over-exceeded expectations. in my mind. So I was wrong. I'm happy to say I was I was wrong. A.K., you've been probably higher on Patty the most in the media space, I think. And yeah, man, he is, he has become a problem. He's become a very, very big problem and good on him. Yes. I've taken some, some insults from the NBA fighting crew, some jibes, some teasing for my support of Paddy Pimble. But yeah, I just remember, But it's not like I was all in.

I think the strongest take I had when he was like, you know, won his first couple of USC fights was like, crazier things have happened than Patty Pimbleau being ranked. I think that was it. I think at some point, I may have also said there's a weird world against Teletal Shot, but I definitely wasn't touting it. I was like, oh, I'm sure Patty Pimlet's going to beat this guy and this guy

and earn a teloshot. Like I essentially took A, anything can happen in an M.A. St. So, you know, I'm not going to take a lot of credit for it. You can say that about literally anything. But yeah, yeah, I was always higher on Patty. I did feel like his persona. I might have brought people the wrong way.

And I think, like, we've just seen too many fighters who talk such a big game. And then that kind of colors how we view their skills. And he got better. He got better, too, right? It's not like, I think the Patty that you're talking about from years ago, they were like, oh, that guy is not going to be top of Dean or that guy is not going to be a champion. I think you were right. I think that version of Patty we saw when he, you know, early in the O.C.

He has made very substantial improvements in so many areas. Like I said, physically, just his already great grappling. It just feels like it's gotten just a bit sharper, just leveled up, like, to where it needs to be to be a top 10, possibly top five guy. And the striking is so much better. I honestly don't think he was an awful striker coming in, but the gap between his grappling and striking was clearly huge. Now it's like, now it's, it's a bit closer.

And like you could see him stand with guy like Chandler. I don't think anyone has expected him to stand with Chandler as long as he did and did well and won many of those exchanges. So yeah, he's made substantial improvements. And boy, the OSC has a real like, really has something on their hands here if they can get him into a title fight. Yeah. Turn around. He's never looked back one time.

Let me clarify. I don't mean like turnaround as if like he was on a three fight losing streak or anything like that. The court of public opinion have turned their opinions on him in a huge way. After the Jared Gordon fight, I mean, people were like this guy. Oh yeah, people couldn't stand him.

Even, like heading into the Tony Ferguson way, people could not stand Patty Pimbled. Even after he won, even after he won, that didn't, like it did a lot for like, I think like I said, like, oh, it's great to have that name. But there was so many people who were saying, oh, this wind means nothing. You know, Tony's wash, this means nothing.

People were kind of saying that to the Bobby Green fight, too. But really, I remember after the Jared Gordon fight, because it was so controversial and you could easily score that fight for Jared Gordon, there was a lot of people saying, like, there's just no way this guy's going to make it. Like, they thought he just looked so bad in that fight. And it was a competitive fight, but the stock was real low once upon time. So you're not wrong to say, like, there has been a turnaround for sure as far as fan reception. Yeah. And just how good he could be.

And again, like when I said Patty wouldn't be a top 15 fighter, I never said Patty socks. The lightweight division is the hardest division in all of sports. The UFC's lightweight division is the most difficult division in all of sports, in my opinion. John Anick agrees with me on that. And it is very difficult to be a top 15 fighter in that division. Joel Alvarez, who is just nuking everybody and has fought pretty good competition along the way, is not ranked at 155 right now.

that just goes to show you how deep this division is right now it is very very interesting it is very loaded it's very very very deep and it's hard to even move up the ranks because of how stacked it is and because of the names that are at the top of the division so patty getting a win like this is very good for the division shakes things up in a good way and i'm really really interested to see if they throw him in there with armin if he just gets a title fight again if i'm the ufc i'm just giving him a title fight sink or swim if he loses who gives a shit it's not a a big deal. He will be fine. He will still be a co-main eventer. He'll headline some fight night cards. It's totally okay if he fights for the belt and doesn't win it. It's fine. So there you go.

Let's move to the co- MVP in a lot of people's minds. John Silva, who just beat the shit out of Bryce Mitchell. I mean, that fight was not, that fight was competitive for about six total seconds. John Silva knew what he was doing the moment he called out Bryce Mitchell following the UFC Seattle win over Melzick-Bagdzarian saw this coming, talked a whole bunch of shit along the way and I thought this man had so much pressure on him heading into this fight he had to win

it would have been really really bad if he went out there talked all that shit and lost to Bryce Mitchell and holy shit man did not happen And John made him very uncomfortable, very, very quickly in that fight. He started landing kicks to the body, the leg kicks. Anytime he touched Bryce, Bryce did not even want to be in that octagon anymore. I think he realized pretty quickly. And after the first take-down attempt from Bryce Mitchell, again, this was just one of those moments where he was just like, oh shit.

This is not going to go well for me. And boy, it didn't. John Silver puts Bryce Mitchell to sleep. and huge win for for Lord Silva, okay. So I teased it earlier. I'm doing the Lorone Murphy fight for multiple reasons. One,

rankings-wise, makes a lot of sense. Two, Lorone Murphy ain't going to get a top five guy. And three, Jed and I talked about this on the post-fight show. If there's anybody who can make Lorone Murphy, at least in the overall spectrum of the fan base, quote unquote fun it is john sylva so i like that fight and i think it makes a lot of sense you could throw that fight anywhere and it's fine it could headline a fight night card it could be a co-main event on a pay-per-view uh or at least a main card fight on a pay per view and yeah it's a good one

i liked the use of zalalal fight earlier but now i just don't think uselahs a lot deserves that fight so i'll go with lorone murphy yeah like i think we kind of did our homework last time with after lorone murphy's you know workman like went over josh jem it we said win of the fight makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense. And even though it was an incredible performance, like Lucas had probably raised stock even higher than I expected it to, I still think Lorone is the way to go.

If you're Lorone, you should want that too, right? Because I think when we were presenting the theoretical, Lauren Murphy gets the winner of the UFC 314 fight, but we were like, okay, like Lorone is higher ranked than him now. But as far as name value goes, if Jean Silva puts it on Bryce Mitchell, he's going to be one of the top five most talked about names in the featherweight division.

So I still have a Lorone, like, ranked above him after Saturday, but it's like, I think one or two spots, I have to look at my rankings again. And as far as cachet, I mean, it's John Silva all the way up here, Lorone Murphy, like, you know, somewhere down here. He's just like, he's just such a, talking about Lauren, he's just such a nice, good professional fighter, doesn't, doesn't rock the boat. And, you know, frankly, just doesn't have that hook that's going to attract a casual fan.

That's what John Silva absolutely brings to every event. he's on. I thought he was like goofing around a little too much in first. I mean, that's what he does. This was nothing new. And, but then, yes, like you said, like after maybe a couple minutes, you're just like, wow, like Mitchell really has no path to victory here. And it started to get a little scary. I think I actually mentioned our slack. I was like, this is, I was like, John Silver is a scary, scary man. Like imagine, not just being one of us, imagine being a trained fighter, like a high level trained fighter. That's what Bryce Mitchell is. And realizing after two or two minutes, two and a half minutes like, I can't do anything to this guy.

I'm about to get like seriously hurt. He got dinged up on the feet, got put to sleep. It was, it was real scary. And the aura of John Silva is just, it's just so incredible. So, yeah, he deserves a fight that's going to get him closer to a title shot. And it looks like it's going to be Lorone Murphy, man. And if Lorone Murphy beats him, he's got a pretty strong case for himself too. He's got a pretty strong case.

So yeah, let's roll with it. I don't hate John Silva versus Yai. Rodriguez either. They're not going to do that, but I think that's a great idea. Do you throw Aaron Pico in there with John Silva for the debut? I don't think you do that. I mean, it's the amazing. John is fun and yeah, man, there's so many ways to go and so many different interesting matchups. You also have to be kind of careful with with Silva. He could win all of these fights. I see someone saying Silva versus Aljo, sure, but Aljo could win that fight. He could win it. He's a, his game is a little more like well rounded than Bryce's is.

And I don't know, man. I think you got to be, you got to be pretty smart. I think John can be, John Silva could beat Lorone Murphy. But that's an interesting matchup. Like that'll answer some questions. So yeah,

Silva's shaking shit up, man. And I, and I'm here for it. I see some people saying Silva versus Raphael Fiziv, uh, not realistic. True. It is not realistic.

But who knows? Viziva, Silva did take a short notice lightweight fight against, Drew Dober and did very, very well. So yeah, great performance from John, did the thing, talked his shit, backed it up in a big way. And that's all you can ask for for a brash, confident guy like that. He was a big talking point coming out of this card. And that's the kind of position you want to be in right now.

So good win for Lord Silva. And let's go to the sort of feel good story of honestly, maybe the last year. What about Dominic? Reyes, AK, this man, everybody had their shovels with dirt on it. We're just pouring it over the fighting grave of Dominic Reyes after losing the John Jones fight. Everyone felt like he won that fight outside of a very, very, very small percentage of people. Then he gets knocked up by Jan Bojovich. Tough knockout, tough night for Reyes.

We're like, eh, he could bounce back. Maybe Yambovich is just really, really good. Then he gets obliterated by Yuri Perashka. In a fight that was one of the most insane fights you'll ever watch. That was my fight of the year pick that year. That was also my knockout of the year picked that year. Yuri doing the spinning back elbow, I thought for sure Dominic Reyes was badly hurt

and maybe like worse than hurt in that moment. And Reyes had moments hurt Yuri in that fight as well. And then he comes back and fights Ryan Span. And we're like, oh, it's at MSG, it's Ryan Span. This is a perfect bounceback type. a fight for Dominic Reyes, and he gets knocked out in scary fashion again, and we're just, we're getting the vibes of like, I can't watch this anymore. We're getting Ferguson vibes.

We're getting BJ Penn vibes, where it's like, not only is this guy losing, he's losing so bad, none of his fights are competitive. And then he takes some time off, and he comes back and he fights Dustin Jacoby. A fight on this program that I kept telling the world when people are suggesting it, please don't do this to Dominic Reyes please don't do this to him just give him someone who's not going to kill him and boy they went and had made the fight

and I was nervous watching it and he goes out and knocks up Dustin Jacoby great win then he fights Dustin Jacoby's teammate Anthony Smith beats up Anthony Smith sad to watch more so because Anthony was dealing with the personal tragedy

you could tell he didn't want to be in there it was just something he was trying to get his mind up the situation. And we didn't really get a ton of questions answered, but we're still happy for Dominic Reyes. Man is on a wind streak for the first time in a really long time. Then they throw him in there against Nikita Krilylov, UFC 314, put him in a position to kick off this main card

against a guy who's in a three-fight win streak, one of the quiet under the radar guys, who's really, really good. And shout out to Nikita Krilov, who decided, you know what? I'm just going to run as fast as I can. at Dominic Reyes and winged shots, even after he was getting countered in such big ways. Every time.

He laughs like, look, man, I'm just going to keep doing it. I'm just going to keep running full speed at this man and throwing a punch and leaving my shit in the air. And then late in round one, Reyes catches him, just drops him bad, fight is over shortly thereafter. And A.K. Dominic Reyes, now on a three-fight win streak, climbing that ladder.

A lot of people very happy, this man aka are we doing the thing right now are we on the same page here i think so i think we have to be right i just don't think there's a lot of logical options for dom right now should we should we count it down should we count it down yeah i think can count it down one two three carliel roundtree junior winner at uc buck who june 21st ah so close it's carles olberg no more contender fight that's it we were so close nope give him olberg we almost if dominic graer We could not be further apart. We almost said the exact same way.

It sounded exactly the same. Alberg, number one, if, give him Ulberg, because Alberg's not getting a title fight. There's just no way after that fight against, against, there's just no way. Jim Mulberg, if Reyes wins, his next fight is for the belt. You just do it. Cash it in and see if you can get that feel good moment. I don't know if we ever get, if we get that feel good moment, but at least we tried. and it's nice to have a feel-good story in the UFC

because we don't get those very often. Is this a follow-up pick? Had you said you wanted Elberg to fight the winner of this fight? Because I thought we hit, like, we liked the Uri match. I was going to give Oldberg, I was going to give Oldberg Uri, but let's just give him Dom, man. Oh, damn. Let's just do it.

I think. Yurik can fight Roundtree. Like, that's just fun as hell. After Saturday, I do think Dominic is closer to Ullberg than Oh, Berg is too Uri. That's so, yeah, you're probably right. Like, again, I'm just, I stick with, I feel like I'd stick with picks I made, but it's very possible that the matchmaker saw that and said,

like, like, they did that they probably hadn't made their mind up about what to do with Ulberg yet. And after that, they're like, yeah, let's go, let's go with Dominic Reyes. It just makes more sense. But yeah, such a great story. Three straight wins, man, he's back. He took a long break for competition. It doesn't always work out, man.

We've seen people take break, same division, Alexander Gustafson. I think he took a break, came back, lost, probably took another break. He's taking, like, several breaks, Gus. then like it just didn't work out sometimes that's how it is um but it does feel like reis needed it i love the narrative of and i know it's overdone now but i love the narrative of um that the john jones decision that didn't go his way was such a burden on him because i i do believe it was i really do i'm not saying that that changes what happened against yon or yri or ryan span like maybe he lose those fights anyway but maybe he gets different matchups instead maybe he doesn't chase um get so

hungry to chase for the gold uh because that's all those matchups were like he once he got to that tier he just like well he has to fight nothing but top three top four guys i ryan spam was out of that but i mean that was later um because he felt like i have to prove i'm the best guy i am the guy who could beat john jones and now i feel like he's kind of over that i think everyone's over that that's really don't have a choice and he's back to just being let's see what i can do with light heavyweight again put me back in the mix put me back in the in the cluster with just jacobb with nancy smith now with the kida krillov and let's see how it goes because light heavyweight isn't the deepest division.

It's not like it's not like he needs to be in a hurry to like get back into that top five top six. Like that that top five top six is waiting for Dominic Raids. It's there. It's probably going to be the same names. Six months ago, six months from now as it was six months ago. It moves very slowly. And even though he's been in the game for a little bit and he's 35.

I turned 35 in December, that's like pretty young and like heavyweight still. Like there there is a world where he beats Carl's Oberg or he beats Jamal Hill or he beats Kloor Roundt, he beats one of these names. And fights. for the title again. It is completely within the realm of possibility we see Dominic Reyes fight for the title again. And what a story that would be. Win or lose, what a story that would be.

Yeah. That's why I'm saying, like, don't wait till Dom's 37 or 38. Let's just do it now. Like, he can't do it, like, right now. But give him, give him one more. Give him one more. If he makes it four and a four straight finishes, like, just do it. Just do it.

It'd be really fun. I'm in the position where it's like, this is a car. This is a very sink or swim type card for a lot of the winners where it's just the cool, the really wild thing can happen, but we don't want to risk it because all these things would be really interesting. Like Patty, just give him a title shot. Don't throwing him in there with Armin is so risky because if he loses, then it's just like, oh, man, we, like, it was right there.

It was right there. But we shall see how the matchmaker's approach this. But Dominic Reyes, congratulations to him. Let's go to the wild card round, AK. Let's select one fighter. We have not match made for yet. We'll match made for them right now. And then we will turn it over to our wonderful live studio audience here,

AK, who's the wild card selection for UFC 314? I chose Chase Hooper. Did you choose Chase Cooper? I did not choose Chase. Okay. I wish I hadn't because it actually turned out to be extraordinarily difficult to figure out what to do with Chase next. He had a few names in mind.

I thought Freszyum was a great callout. I like what he was saying where I just beat Clayquita. I just beat Jim Miller. You know, I beat two of the older fan favorite guys. Maybe give me one of the younger fighters now. And I like that. I like that. Because I wanted to go with Jarkar Close, which is that would have been fun.

But I was like, you know, Jarkar Close is still like kind of an older fighter, even though he feels like he's not, you know, I don't think he feels like he's near the end of his career. But he's still considerably older than Chase Cooper. So I like Jercar Close. I went away from it. I had to kind of weird here and go with a hypothetical, the winner of a hypothetical matchup I had set up recently. because I want to see him fight Manuel Torres. But I had also, when Manuel Torres's win against Judeober coming off of that,

I wanted Manuel Torres to fight Ludovic Klein. So, again, I hate going back on my picks. Let's say that that fight does happen. I am picking Manuel Torres to win. So I'm going double prediction here. Manuel Torres, this matchup isn't even made yet. Manuel Torres beats Ludovic Klein and then Chase Hooper goes on to fight him. Because Jay Super is legit, man.

You were talking earlier about how hard it is to move of a lightweight. 5 and 0 since coming up in the featherweight division is young Chase Hooper. Yeah, not beating like top 40 guys. I get it. But hey, wins or wins. Clay Goet, I think solid win. Jim Miller, solid win. Jordan Levitt, very solid win.

And he's still only, I would put him outside the top 25. So you can go on a five-fight win streak at 105 pounds. And it doesn't put you like near the top 20. But a fight with like Manuel Torres, I think would be interesting. Again, two of the younger guys, someone's got to lose. That's fine. you rebuild from there. And we see, you know, we see which one of these young gunners can get that much closer

to a top 20, top 15 spot. This was, I don't think I've ever back and forth and flip-flopped wild card picks more than I did with this one. Because I was all over the place and it kept switching at different points throughout the night. Like Danny Gay beat Sean Woodson and I'm like, Danny Gia versus Aaron Pico. Like, let's just do that. It's just fun. But then that could change.

if yair knocks out pit bull and lopez wins the bell like then we do it's going to be mobsar i think then you do mobsar versus pico and it's like we go back to that idea so it just kept kind of flip-flopping for me i was here for a moment i was here for a moment chase hooper versus michael chanler i saw i was here when i went to when i laid my head on the pillow at like 5 30 in the morning this was going to be my pick. And then I woke up and I said, you know what? I'm not doing it.

I'm not doing it. Let's give Mike something because they're not, I see some people like, oh, just send him to BKFC and sure Chandler would make a shit done of money and I think he would do very, he'd be very successful for VKFC.

But Dana, he ain't going nowhere. Chandler loves being in the UFC. Dana loves having him. The UFC loves having him. I actually I actually really like the comparison that Dana gives about Michael Chandler he's our Arturo Gotti

just goes in there and just goes to war does not care and a lot of people like I talk to who know Chandler did not like this matchup for Mike like they just didn't so what we're going to do is we're going to have a battle between the last two guys

who were finished by Patty the Baddy Pimblet Little vet versus vet Michael Chandler versus Bobby Green Let's have some fun Let's just so fun Vet on vet action

That's so fun And I hope Chandler be open to that Because like you said I don't think he wants to go anywhere I think he wants to stay in the UFC But I think we have hit our And we said this a lot pre-fight We have hit our

Limit of Chandler getting like You know big name fights Despite not winning Right I think we said If he beats Patty Sure he can go back to calling out whatever. I want a trilogy about with Charles. I want to get you again, whatever. He could go back to that.

Connor, you know, call out Connor. Fine. You can do all that if he beats Patty. He lost to Patty. He kind of has to accept what the UFC gives him now. And Bobby Green's not a bad fight. Again, not the name value of some of the previous guys he's fought in the UFC, but kind of in the Dan Hooker range, maybe slightly below Dan Hooker, but I think it's in that same range. You know, that was his UFC debut. So yeah, we got to go back to there. Chandler wants to sign a new eight-fight deal with the UFC or whatever it is that's in his future. Yeah, that Bobby green should be one of those fights i think that'd be awesome and um yeah it could be next sure let's do the damn thing and uh let's have a little fun i'm sure channel's got to take a little bit

of a break obviously but let's uh let's see how this all plays out it's gonna be interesting and you know what's great about all this okay there's we're not just rushing into uh an apex card next week we get a week off and we can play around with all this stuff like it's it's great now we're getting obviously we get russomania weekend and that's awesome too And we get a little bit of a, just a little bit of a break. It's okay. It's okay. Take a little week off and then Kansas City's good.

Like, not the most stacked card, but I have the way I look at UFC Kansas City the way I looked at UFC Mexico. Like, this is going to be fun. It's going to be a very fun watch. There's a lot of, like, weird fights on there. But all of them have, especially the main card, have the ability to be like really insane. So love that. And then it's Des Moines where we get Corey Sanhagen versus Davis. Vigorado. Awesome. Then we get 315. Then we get a quick visit back to the apex on May 17th.

And then we get to get after it with some big events. June, no visits to the apex at all in June, which is awesome. Yeah, we get two-day reviews in June. What happens to the apex when it doesn't have a UFC event within 30 days? Does it just like implode? What happens to the apex? We'll find out, I guess. There's some grappling, some grappling events. Maybe there's a power slap. at the apex? Right, of course. Yes. All right.

Let's get into this. Of course, if you super chats, you get to skip everybody. There we go. Lazy bad. How about Chandler versus Dober? For the biggest blockhead table?

I'm not going to say, for anyone who ends up who is not looking at the screen. Maybe this is the podcast form later. Yeah, Chandler versus Dober for the biggest blockhead title. I feel like there was a nicer way to put that, but I understand the meaning behind it. Yes, again, very doable, very doable.

This is the range Chandler is in now. When he, you know, we briefly removed him from the rankings because he had been inactive for, I think, like 20 months or something, waiting for the Connor fight that never happened. I didn't put him back in after the Charles fight. I think some of us on the panel did. So he still ended up being number like 14 ranked on our rankings heading into USC 314.

But I didn't feel like putting him back in. So that means, yeah, he's sitting firmly outside the top of D. Maybe even in the top 20 for me. I should tell people, actually. I have him, literally, literally, number 16. which might be too high. Honestly, it might be too high. And talking about UFC-only rankings, I have number 16,

so that's not including, like, you know, Usumanda, and Meadow Meadow, stuff like that. I might be too high. But I like the idea of him and Dober. Yes, these are the fights that should be doing for Michael Chandler now. It's just fun stuff, guaranteed bonus. Either fight of the night or someone's getting any performance. You know, just put, put, put, get that $50,000 check ready.

Get $100,000 check ready for these guys because they're going to bash the hell out of each other. So, yeah, good. I like it. Yeah. Good stuff. Good fight. I see a lot of just feed channel to Mauritio Ruffi. Don't love that idea.

No. We're not at that stage. I mean, we're not at that stage yet. Yeah. I mean, Chase Hooper, I can see. I think that's like a good idea. Because Chase is kind of over. And Ruffie's like getting there.

But yeah, I think Chase can gains a lot more from that than Ruffy could. But yeah. Who do I want Arnold Allen to fight? 145 is stacked. Silva versus Allen will be fun. But that's a fun fight. Can John Silva versus Arnold Allen? Can Arnold Allen kit Pico?

Sure. Yeah. It wouldn't be my ideal matchup. But again, we don't know what's going on with the supposed, with the supposed Movisar, you know, Pico rumor that happened. But, yeah, and that bout could still be made. We don't think so. We're kind of thinking Moversar should just get that title.

I would imagine. I'm pure speculation. One of the reasons that Bell, I think, fell through is because both of Sarah was like, you know what? Let me wait to see what happens to 314 because I think I can get a title shot here. And so in my mind, that dance car still needs to punch for Pico. And I don't know, Aaron and Allen, that might be the way to go. That's kind of like what we just saw with Pitbull, whereas like if Pitbull had won,

probably a strong case for a title shot. If Pico beats Alan in his first fight, I think he probably started to fight again. but to think that he's he's two fights away, two good matchups away from a title flight, it's pretty crazy because he never even fought for the Beltor title. That's kicking you that in mind, and he could be two good wins away. If one of them's Arnold Allen and then whoever after,

it could happen. Yeah. What do we got? What do we got? Chase Hooper versus Alexander Hernandez, Julian Orozah versus Hyder Amiel. Let me think about the Alexander Hernandez thing. I just think like Hooper is,

yeah no that makes Hernandez beat Jim Miller too he this is yeah the who beat Jim Miller yeah I have Hernandez a bit lower I think because he has some losses some weird losses to people that it can't put him that high but theoretically he shouldn't be that far apart from Chase Hooper in the rankings I don't mind it I don't mind it and I could see it being made I had not thought about that only because I have I have Hernandez so low right now

but again once you get outside the top 20 of like the lightweight division top of top 25 everything from like 26 to like 45 is pretty close it's not like you're it's hard to separate them what was the other erosa and um hide her meal man we didn't even talk about

erosa god that um that um that's that much beltrane we got this guy out of here man I don't know how many times I got to mention on a post fight show or onto the next one or whatever just on Twitter like how bad this guy is at his job it's come to light very prominently

in like the last couple of years but in my mind he was almost never good I think people liked him he had a funny mustache. And also he also he promoted action. I think he's one of those referees that people and people liked him because he's always like, oh, let's, you know, a ton of guys. Oh, okay, like if they're stalling, let's see some action, let's see some action. I always hated that.

That's not a referee's job. And I know a lot of referees do it, but he did it a lot. And I'm like, it is not your job to make a fight exciting. I'm sorry, you are interjecting yourself into a flight. And now we're just kidding bad stoppages on top of all that nonsense. So get Mike Belchran out of here. Guy's bad. I think he's always been bad.

I've never, never, never a fan of his officiating. I know there was a lot of good vibes when he like first started because he officially, I think I saw him like Strike Force first or one of those other promotions. And then we made the UFC like his popularity like exploded. And I'm like, no, man, this guy's not good. And he does a lot. This is happening way too often. Just happened with Drew Dober.

I know Elkins was moving a lot more than Drew Dober was. But also you could see the way he was standing. He wasn't there anymore. Like I don't know what you need to see to think like, yeah, this fight is over. This fight could have been over a minute before. like Elkins was done. Let him complain. I'm sorry, if you have a referee, that's your job to take crap from a fight.

He doesn't complain about stoppage being early. That's fine. I'm sorry. It happens. But you got to protect guys like Darren Elkins from themselves who literally is named the damage and seemingly goes in there to take as much damage as possible. So hated that whole scene. But good for Juicy Jay.

Sorry, guys. I'll go to the positive. Good for Juicy Jay. If we could get a fight with Hyder Emil, if you can get a fight with Hyder Emil who has like a ton of steam behind him, damn, it'd be a big, big opportunity for Rosa. was that three in a row for erosa three finishes in a row or is it four four finishes are four finishes you might be right it's either three or four three finishes elkins christian rodriguez ricardo ramos all in the first round three first round finishes he's on he's on a run right now 42

joshua likes pimbleat versus gaichie yier versus lopez that's obvious we're probably not going to throw a bunch of those on the screen because that's just the obvious matchup pit bull versus josh emitt you can do Pitbull versus Aaron Pico. I think Pitbull versus Calvin Cater makes a lot of sense. I actually think Aaron Pico versus Calvin Cater makes a lot of sense. Like, it's just a good debut fight. Who brought that? Did Casey bring that up on the post-fight show?

I thought someone mentioned that in the post-fight show. Or people were saying it before on the preview show, like that would be a good, the winner of that fight or something. But yeah, yeah, I would, I think Pico, this is why we keep guys like Cater on the roster. Let's test the Picos. Let's give the Picos a chance for an exciting fight or highlight real KEO.

So, yeah, very logical, I think. Patty versus Armin, if the law wins, as long versus Lally will be announced, more than likely. Silver versus Z, what is going on? They're not going to make, like, silver's a featherweight. I know he has a lightweight bite. Did Fiziv say something about dropping down? I don't think so, right? I don't know if you might have no memory.

So, so there's, there are reports that already out there that Rafiqv is fighting Ignacio Baja Mondays on that. Baku Azerbaijan card on June 21st I mean look you know the golden rule it's on m a fighting.com it's not a real thing and that is not a real thing now I'm not saying that

can't happen has there been sort of discussions about the possibility of Raphael Viziv fighting June 21st yes would I expect Raphael Fizziv to fight June 21st in Azerbaijan yeah because that would be absolutely ridiculous

if he doesn't since you know he's from there. Is it Ignacio Baja Baja Mondays right now? No, it's not. Is Ignacio Baja Baja Mondays a name that Fiziv and his team said, sure, I'll fight him on that card. Yes. Did the UFC seem somewhat interested in that concept? Yes. Has there been an actual fight offer? No. Has there been a contract sent over? No. So up in the air, if Fiziv does not fight June 21st, outside of injury, it is promotional malpractice. I had to double check. It did look familiar.

He had mentioned on Arrow Hawani Show that he would maybe move down to 145. And I think we'll talk to it before. I think, yeah, he's one of those guys like the eye test. You do look at him. You go like, oh, he looks kind of small for lightweight. And that doesn't, we've seen guys that are for it. That doesn't mean they can make an easy cut to 145. But I think he was saying, like, the cut to 150 is pretty good.

It's not like super stressful. So he's willing to push that extra 10 pounds. So it's in play. It's in play. I guess that's where these silver matchups are coming from. Evloy of is too boring. UFC is going to give him a killer in the title. I'll take his style of shut away.

We've got to stop with this employee of his boring thing. Come on. Just because Dana doesn't know who he is and shook him for Chris Curtis and Mark Andre Barrio does not mean that he is boring. Go back and watch Bob Zara of Loy of versus Ireland. That was not a boring fight. And then go watch Bob Zara of Loyal versus Alchiband Sterling. That fight was awesome.

Yeah. Very compelling. It was an awesome fight. Like it was an awesome, awesome fight. So I don't understand. understand this if loyev is boring thing he is the guy right now like it would be a weird situation just based on how the ufc is sort of laid out how especially dana in particular has laid out the possibility of the champions because he dana has said not so kind things about magam and

akalayaf kind of painted him with that boring brush he's painted marab with the boring and he's absolutely insane brush and you throw movzar in there that'd be another one like there's just a lot of there just be a lot of that right now and it'd be kind of funny if we're being if we're being honest but i'm honestly bum we're not going to ever see bobsar versus ilia's aporia because i actually think that's bobzar i know stylistically gave alia the biggest biggest threat yeah we had we had it we had it but it's kind of slipped from our fingers unfortunately uh pipple versus aldo for john ray no matter what raise versus hill round tree winner sure i'm with that i'm with that Dom versus Rackich, I don't think that's going to happen.

They're just going in two different directions right now. Could do Yeri. You could do, I don't know. You could do Oldberg versus Rackage, maybe. I don't know. Rackett's the odd man out right now. Yeah, he's in a weird spot. And he's coming off of consecutive losses.

Is he not? He hasn't won in a long time. Because there was the injury, but yes, he has not won in sometime. Silver's Aljo. I don't think they do that fight. but I would be intrigued by that. Can I, can I just say? I don't think, like, you know,

we all said Mitchell's way to win this fight was obviously going to be a grapple. And, but I was, as I was watching, like the past John's on Silva fights, I'm like, this guy's like, take down defense is pretty good. Now, he had not fought a wrestler as good as Bryce Mitchell, obviously.

So I'm not, I'm not saying, like, you know, in hindsight, it's 20-20. But yeah, his takedown defense is real good. I think, Mike, you meant, you pointed out that it's more of the fact that, you know, Aljo's just a bit more well-rounded and could probably give him some problems in the feet that Bryce Mitchell couldn't.

That's what makes that so compelling. But like if also goes in there just looking to grapple's way to win, I'm not sure that's the way to beat John Silva, unless you're, unless you're, unless you're, I don't know, Molfsar or something like that. Joshua trolling. I saw this comment. Josh was defending Beltrane is one of the best. I don't know.

But if you are a Mike Beltran fan, guys, slide on my DMs on Twitter. I would love to hear by what measure Mike Beltran is a good referee because I don't know. Other than constantly interjecting himself into the conversation, I have no idea why people think he's good. And by the way, there are a lot of bad. There are several bad referees. I'm not saying like he's the only bad M. May referee.

There are several. Chris Ione. Herb Dean. Really bad. God bless him. Peterson 50% of the time. Poki, he's had some rough go.

Man, he's had some rough goes. We're lucky. I can't remember the name of the gentleman who, and again, I'm only going out this one incident, but the EGate stoppage. Is that Carrie Hatley? No, this is referee. Not a guy we see a lot.

Referee Andrew Glenn, I assume a Florida-based referee. A Florida native. Yeah, but I'm not going to, I mean, I'm not going to call him out and say like he's a, I'm not familiar with Andrew Glenn's work. He did have the worst call of the night, unfortunately. I think that was, well, for me, the Belchran thing was worse. I hate late stoppages, like they'd drive me insane. But as far as early stoppages go, that was rough.

That's probably one of the worst of the year, maybe the worst of the year. Chandler Moikano, Paddy, Seporia, Interim Belt, Reyes Oldberg from Lem Ellis. Right. We haven't talked about like interim possibility or vacant possibilities for... It should be vacant, man. If he, if Islam says, and that, like, I hate the champ champ

shit. I'm so sick of it. But Ilya did it right. He vacated the belt and said, I'm going to go fight for the second belt, but I'm not going to hold up this division. I'm just going to give this title back and move up and try to accomplish something. I think it's just so much cooler that way.

Just do that. And I think any fighter who wants to move up and gets the opportunity to challenge for a second belt should do the same thing now if if if it's all about hey let's make them quote unquote champ champ that's fine you could still book you could book the scenario in such a way where islam like vacates the belt the second his fight starts or like the second the lightweight title fight starts like you could have islam fight for the welterweight belt and then do the vacant lightweight belt title fight after the welterweight fight. And then Islam could still be a two-division champion because he still technically wouldn't

be stripped of the belt or vacate the title until the next title fight at his division begins. So you can still do it. But I just don't, it drives me nuts when they're just like, yeah, man, I'll go move up. But if I lose, who cares? Because I can just come back down and defend my belt. Like, they're not risking anything. They're just like, and then you just have the, you know, well, I, I dare to be

great and I moved up the division but now I could just go back down like no I think you should have to like if Zhang Wei Lee same thing like if she moves up to 125 cool like verna should fight for a vacant belt whether it's against mackenzie durn or somebody else like whatever doesn't tatyana swore is fine it's all good so that's how I feel about that whole situation should be vacant shouldn't shouldn't be interim and if something happens and Islam wants to move back down He gets the first title flight Like that's fine

We already did that one Come on guys Send us your picks I thought I saw some more But this is your chance guys This is your chance I will say Tom versus Yuri too

Someday Can't take it someday someday I can't take it I will say I think This was a pretty easy card To match me before That's what We usually get more wild suggestions

You know off of You know cars that were A little more unclear As far as like what the stakes were where some people's fighter stocks went after wins or losses. So I think maybe that's why I'm not seeing a ton of picks. I think we all know like the right thing that the U.S. you should do in a lot of these situations,

even if we're not confident that they will. What else we got? What else we got? A lot of people saying where all the patty haters at. That's really just one person. It's spamming over and over again. Yeah, Jesus Christ. Guys, the point is received.

Hooker Chandler, too. Hooker's just, so much of a better place right now i know yeah like in this division i don't think you can can do that um yeah chandler's just kind of like so far out of it at this point one in five in his last six like it's pretty it's pretty wild and didn't even get a bonus this time this is uh has chandler not gotten is this the first time chandler has not gotten a bonus in a ufc fight i believe so yeah i believe so They were all fight of the night's losses, right? Oh, no.

Apparently the Charles Olivavera fight. He did not get a bonus. But Charles Oliva got a bonus. Tony did. Not Tony. Michael Chandler didn't. It wasn't a fight of the night. So that's it.

So this is only the second time. Pretty good. How did you feel when Izzy moved up to fight for the light heavyweight title? That was also, what, four years ago? And when it wasn't so, it wasn't to the point where like literally every champion, even before they defend the belt is like, I want to move up to 205 and fight for the light heavyweight title. I'll move up two divisions and fight for this belt.

Like, it just, I mean, it doesn't be, and at least Izzy defended the belt a whole bunch of times against the number one guy in his division outside of the Yule Romero fight, which is absolutely stupid. But end up being just a weird, wacky fight. But Israel fought like all the dudes. He fought everybody and beat them all. So in that sense, like that's fine.

Islam has title defenses, and again, let me just stress this, it is not his fault. Islam Makachev, outside of beating Charles Olivera, and even at that point, Olivera wasn't officially the champion, but was the number one guy. Islam Makachev has not fought the number one contender once as champion. Not once. Like, he hasn't run through the division. There are guys he has not fought yet. There's a lot of guys he has not fought yet.

So if he wants to take this risk, I'm cool with it. And I think he is the best lightweight in the world. I think he's one of the three best lightweights of all time without question, despite the weirdness of his schedule, which again is not his fault. But at least Izzy ran off like six title defenses before he went up and fought for the light heavyweight belt. And Janbovich was the champion. So like, Izzy was the A side of that scenario. So it's just a whole bunch of things that fell into effect.

but it's just so common now. Like, it, guys win the belt in the media. Like, Blalahama wins the bell. He's like, yeah, man, I'm just going to fight for the middleweight belt.

One title defense and I'm going to middleweight. Like, come on, man. It's also how it should be. It's also the U.S. fault for making some of those people wait so long. Because when we look at someone like Balala, it's like,

yeah, he's won like 11 straight fights at Welterweight. So it's the timing for him in his mind makes sense. Like the timing of his mind is like, yes, I just won the belt. But I have been beating, you know, high level of competition for X amount of years. So it sucks.

You're right. I think fighters are being quite unreasonable sometimes, but they're also wanting to maximize their prime, knowing that the more title fights they get, the more money they make. And then again, it's the UFC's fault for, you know,

putting some of these challengers off for so long and having them have already fought much of their division before they even get to a championship to the point where, like, their defenses that are, a lot of the defense is going to be rematches and things. It's a whole, so many issues are related to each other, and it's why we're in this gross scene,

Mike, that you mentioned that, like, just people just immediately want to jump up and not string together two, three, four, a tell defense is very annoying. Very annoying. It's so much more impressive. It's so much more honestly. And I actually didn't even,

Tommy T. Are you like, are you paying attention? Are you listening? What if every single one of his own, it pulls up was the last video? You could say he would never fight for the second bill because the Ponsky pulling out.

That's delusional. I literally said it's not his fault. I don't know. Yeah. Tommy, I don't know where that comment's coming from. Literally said it's not his fault. Mike,

but at the same time, yeah, but at the same time, Like, if you're going to go up, if you're going to go up 15 pounds to fight for the wealth of weight title, if you're going to abandon a division that you have multiple guys that you have not fought yet that have legitimate and compelling arguments to fight for the belt, Charles Olivera, Armin Sarukian, Patty Pimblit, Justin Gachie, the list goes Dan He beat Hooker a while back, but Dan's on a nice run right now.

Like, there are guys that are in position that he could fight right now. He's got four dudes right now that I just mentioned that he could legitimately fight and defend that belt against. And rather than do that, you're going to go and fight at 170. Like, let's keep this division moving because we have guys who can fight for the belt. It's a great division. Like, let's move along and then go fight for the belt. Like, he's not going to defend both belts. He's got like two or three fights left in his career probably.

So, yeah. So silly. My best friend, that actually kind of segues into one of these comments I want to see from Conan's Zina. Virna versus Tatiana Suarez. I hate this, a suggestion. Vierna's. What?

What? I'm sorry, hold. Please, I didn't mean to make you angry all over again. Vierna's next fight has to be for a title. Whether it's against Zhang Wei or a vacant, or if Jean-Weilly moves up to fight, you know, Valentina Menlo-Fero winner, it has to be for a title. It has to either for vacant belt or she has because of a challenge champion. This is, she shouldn't have fought Jan Shaanan.

And she did great. I'm glad she got another paycheck. Glad you got to raise your profile even more. but she didn't need it. She was the, she's the number one contender. She was the number one container going in. She's still the number one contender. All she was really risking her spot.

Like she should have, she should already be fighting for the title. That's the only reason I didn't like the matchup because I'd like, I want to see Vyrna and Jan Shonan on fight. Like I'm glad they made it, but that could have been a title defense for Vierna down the road

if she, you know, became champion somehow, right? I just didn't need to see. I was just going to say this. That's fine. But the belt. It's for the title. But not Tatiana. Why does Tatiana get the title shot,

though. I don't think Tatiana should be the other half of a vacant title fight. Why? So, so bad against Zhang Wilii, like, I honestly, I think they would throw Mackenzie Daron in there. Sure. That's a rematch. That's a rematch, right? McKenzie beat, uh, right? Some time ago, right? Yeah, yeah, long time. Almost, almost five years ago, uh, well over four years ago. I want, and I want to see them run that back. Um, Mike, hold on before you get to this, I see, I see you fuming. I see This dude is not listening to anything. It's so frustrating. They often don't, Mike.

They often don't. Shout out to all our great commenters, by the way. I mean, many of you guys are making very good salient points. But, yeah, sometimes these comments just jump out at us. So we apologize for giving them airtime. But yeah, I want to see Vierna fight for a vacant title, not Tatiana. I does think Tatiana has to earn her way back. And unrelated, the other pick that Conan Zina put forward is Arosa and Chepa, which I think is perfect.

I actually have them right next to each other in my rankings. Like I know Chepa is on the street. but he hasn't beaten any huge names in the division. And I'm not saying Erosa is that. Like I'd probably want to see Chipe get a shot at a top 30, top 25 guy. But I also just like a fun fights. And I think Erosa and Chepi would be awesome. So good job, Kona Zina overall.

Yeah. Let's see. Patty will end Gichi's career. Man, Thomas Yates is the biggest Patty Pimbleau fan and believer in the world. So good on you. Gage would be interesting, actually. That'd be a really interesting fight. But, yeah, we'll see.

Max versus Patty for the BMF belt. LOL, LOL. There's LOL at the end there. So I do think, I don't know, man. Patty, Patty is, Patty's kind of BMFing right now. He's being a, he's being a BN. I mean, that was a BMF. Putting the wood on people.

Yeah. That'd be a super fun fight. I just don't know if we, I don't know if we ever see it. But I would, I would, that would be a really fun fight. Hashtag lightweight is the best. I mean, it's just so good. Look at all these bad. Like Max Holloway versus Patty.

Actually, I don't like that play for Max at all. But like Gaiti would be interesting. Oliver would be interesting. There's just, there's just, there's just so much good at 155. So, oh, good. We got a super chat and then we're going to get on out of here. All right. Terrence.

Terrence. Jackie versus Chelsea. Wait. Jackie versus Chelsea? Chelsea Chandler? Are we talking Nora Cornoli? Is that what you're? I don't know.

Terrence, if you're still in the comments, can you clarify which fighters you're talking about? That's a little confusing. Battle of the scale. Yes, because the only fighter who missed weight was Nora Cornol, who came in at a pound and a half, and then one in the,

one in the preliminary opener. So what's that? Also, Chandler should wait for RDA. That's the fight to make. RDA is not going back down to lightweight, I don't think. But Chandler could go up to 170? He was going to for Connor, and RDA is pretty much the same thing, right, Mike?

I mean, double retirement about Chandler sucks with his toxic positivity. Oh, gosh, that is. That RDA, that RDA's last fight was like real sad to watch. Not great. Nobody engaged with the substance of my, hypothetical all you can say is what did I just say. Tommy, Tommy, if you didn't, like, let me jump in here for a second. If you, if you, if you know what is saying he shouldn't move up.

I got to get between you guys. No one is saying he should move up. Go move up. Just vacate the lightweight belt. And I'm not saying this for, for Islam. I'm saying this for everybody. Zhang Wei Li, if she moves up to 25, she should vacate too. Do what Ilya did.

Ilya set the gold standard of what you should do if you're going to fight for a second belt. That's all I'm saying. If Islam wants to go challenge him to fight for the wealthy title, awesome. Go do it. But just don't be the lightweight champion anymore. Risk something.

There you go. Yeah, yeah. I think we've given Tommy enough time. Yeah, he's done. And you've done your best to explain it. He's not. I can't say it any clear. No, if they don't get what you were saying now,

I'm not sure what else there is to say. I think you're pretty clear. So there we go. Yes. Mike is in support of Islam going up. That's the way. That's the issue. That's the issue.

Mike is 100% in support of Islam going up and fighting for a title, second title. Okay, let's just, all the other stuff that's bothering you. You can sort that out your own. But if yes, he wants to see it. All right. See, this is all retained. Yeah. Now we're buds.

I knew it was just a miss-up. Whoa. I knew it was just a misunderstanding. Thank you, Tommy. I knew it was just a misunderstanding. Yeah, we're good. Okay. See, we're all friends.

We can have conversation. We all come through the other side. We came in with good vibes. We came with good vibes. We're going to go out with good vibes, my best friend. Yes. I do hope someday we do get to see us on Machachia fight Arm and Sarukin, but I don't think that day is coming anytime soon.

So thank you all very much. We appreciate you. You all rule. I don't think we're going to do a show next week. You know, I think we're all just going to take a break. I think it's okay. We do a mania. We might do some WrestleMania stuff.

Who the hell knows? So easy to get worked up. Yeah, when I'm on 30 minutes of sleep, yes, I could get worked up a little bit. So apologies. But next time we'll be back, we'll be matchmaking following UFC Kansas City, A.K., Ian Machado Gary versus Carlos Pratchez, Anthony Smith's final UFC fight. So we will not be matchmaking for Anthony Smith. Because win or lose, he will not be fighting again.

And I don't think he's going to win. She's fighting Ming Yang-Jang. Michelle Pereira versus Abuse Maka Badoff, which is just going to be absolute insanity. Giga Chikaze v. David Onama, Ikram Alaskarraf, André Munez, and the main card kicks off with Randy Brown versus Nicholas Dalby.

And then we get Jacqueline Amram, Pollyanna, Viana, Cameron Simon, versus the debuting Malcolm Wellmaker. Really like that fight. Chelsea Chandler, Jocelyn Edwards, Matt Schnell, Jimmy Flick. Ahmad Hassan Zada, versus Evan Elder,

Timi Kualamba versus Roberto Romero, Chris Gutierrez, John Cassinada, Daman Blackshear versus Al-Tang-A-Lee. That is UFC-K-C. Should be a fun one. Should be a fun car. Disappointed. Daman is not fighting another Cody,

but, well, maybe Al-A-Tang-Hiley is the Cody of a country, you know, where he comes from. Maybe that translates. I think that I'm going to tell people that. I know I shouldn't. I think it's almost offensive for me to suggest it, but I'm going to be telling people like Al-A-Tang-Hiley translates to Cody. We'll see if I get canceled.

Yes. Went to one more. No, I'm not going to put it out. I was going to put up a comment and I'm just not going to do it. No, we love you guys. You guys, everyone who was in the chat today. It had nothing to do with like vacating belts and stuff. I was going to call it somebody who probably deserved to be called out. He's not in the chat. It's somebody who like annoyed the shit out of me this past week. I think there's to be called out, but I'm not even giving that to the attention that he's so craves.

No, we don't need that. So that is UFC KC, UFC 314 in the books. We are certainly not done talking about UFC Kansas. UFC 314. We'll have obviously BTL and other programs and things of that nature. But yeah, everybody enjoy your week off. Enjoy Master's Sunday last day. Will Roy McElroy become a Grand Slam champion?

Will Bryson de Chambot piss off the PGA tour and win the Masters? all sorts of fun stuff. One of the best weekends of the year. And happy anniversary to UFC 300, a year ago today. The greatest event in UFC history took place. So shout out to them. Shout out to all of you. Have a great rest of your weekend for A.K.I. Mike Heck.

We're out of here.