MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Petr Yan After UFC Macau?

Episode Date: November 24, 2024

Where does Petr Yan go after his win in an instant classic over Deiveson Figueiredo to close the show at UFC Macau? Following Saturday's UFC Fight Night event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee discuss what's next for Yan, along with Yan Xiaonan, Muslim Salikhov, Gabriella Fernandes, Carlos Ulberg, Mingyang Zhang, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. 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. The Matchmaking Crowns have returned following UFC Macau. And if you woke up early and watched the festivities play out, I don't think you were disappointed. You might be a little tired, but I don't think you regret it because a lot of things happened. There were some vicious knockouts.

There were a lot of fun fights. the main event absolutely ruled. And we're here to discuss some of those storylines from a matchmaking perspective. But I am Mike Haken joining me, as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, and the man who kind of ran the show this morning for M.A.fighting.com. Just peeling back the curtain, we're doing this on Saturday today. And we'll explain why in a minute, a do-do free episode of On to the Next One with Alexander Cayley. A.K., how are you?

Like, I'm so tired. I have been up for a long time I was as you said just doing some coverage of USC Macau for everybody fighting.com I was on the post-flight show so I kind of want to see like a live glimpse of how tired it was

immediately after the card was over you'll see I was getting names wrong I was just very scrambled this may happen in this episode I'm glad I stayed up it was a great it was a great card I'm happy about it but I do apologize to anyone ahead of time and I know you've said duty free Mike

but still I don't feel like, don't feel like I should be left off the hook and make some bizarre out of left field. Fighters already booked. Fighters are literally best friends who live together thing, and I match them up. I should not be excused for that if that happens. But my goodness, fun card.

Fun card. That's really what's most important, I feel. Yeah, so I mean, just to be real with the world, I watched the last three fights. I watched Salikov get that incredible knockout with the spinning wheel kick after I finished up a workout at the gym I put it on and right when I put it on

he landed the kick like 20 seconds later so that was kind of a cool thing and then I watched Janjan on do her thing and then I watched the entire main event once I got home and the main event was so so good it was one of my favorite fights of the year and that's where we're going to start Peodor Yan versus Davis of Figurato

my bar was set so high for this fight, AK, almost impossibly high for what I expected from these two incredible fighters in such a deep division. This was better than I even expected. And if you did not watch this fight and you just judge it basically by just on the scorecards, you need to go watch this fight because it says 50, 45 across the board. I did not score it that way. I did score it 4946 for Piotr Yan. But this fight was so much closer than those scorecards will indicate it it was. This is one, and this isn't a prisoner of the moment thing, the more I thought about it. This was one of my favorite fights of 2024.

I don't know if it's going to make my top five, but it wouldn't shock me if it did. I enjoyed this fight that much. It was so high level. It was so good. And in the end, Pejoriean is back, AK. The man is back. Two straight wins. Recovered from a torn MCL, maybe it was an ACL, I don't know, torn ACL in a meniscus in less than a year.

and then puts on a performance like that against a guy like Davidson Figurato I could not be more impressed with the former UFC Bannonweight champion so AK this was a tough one because at least for me because Jan's fought everybody he's fought all of these guys

so I'm very curious to see where you ended up with here it was great to see listen it was great to see the man Jan back in action yeah I don't know how he performed this way after the injuries you described we call him a robot sometimes, but we might be right. I mean, this guy is not human. I didn't overthink this.

This was something that was essentially handed to my brain by social media and also by our discussion we had in the post-flight show. I didn't think of it right away. And then Jed was telling me there's an obvious choice and when I went to go look at sort of the rankings and just worked through it that way it popped out. I guess we're thinking Sean O'Malley too, right? Like that's, we've mentioned that before and on to the next one.

Listeners have picked it. I think we may have picked it at some point. First fight was awesome. I think, again, a lot of people thought Peodor won. Sean O'Malley is the one who walked out with a split decision, later became UFC champion. So it's the exact mix you want for like a rematch, right? And the fact that the first fight was so, so, so fun. You up the stakes, you make it a five-rounder.

I mean, does that fight necessarily determine who the next? You know, and yes, that fight probably does determine the next challenger because, I mean, Marab has already said he'll just rematch O'Malley anyway, or he would have if O'Malley hadn't. excuse me wasn't missing time for after getting surgery. So they'll have no problem. If he beats Peodor Yan, run it back with Marab, whoever has the title. And if Peodor Yan beats Amali, huge feather in his cap, avenges the loss, and then he gets whoever has the title. So I'll, you know, nothing too creative.

Let's see, let's see that sugar and Peter Jan rematch. So I would love to see that happen. I'm going for the straight Otno point here. And this is, this is a tough one. Because let's, let's be honest, AK, there is no. world where Sean O'Malley fights Peyreeryon again. The dude escaped with a win in Abu Dhabi.

There is no world where he's like, yeah, I'll fight this guy again. I'll prove that it wasn't a fluke because most people didn't think he won that fight. So if I'm him, I'm staying so far away from Peyodorian, it is not even funny, especially if the champion is calling your name.

Having said that, I also have Josea. I want to see Josealdo fight Sean O'Malley. Sean O'Malley seems kind of interested in fighting Jose Aldo. So if Umar does the title shot and I think he probably does after Davidson lost, I think maybe they go, I would love to see that happen. I know people want to see Dominic Cruz fight Joe Zaldo. I just don't think the UFC wants to do that. So they might do the, for Dominic Cruz's last fight, they're probably just got to do the pro wrestling thing where they

put him in there with like a Marcus McGee or an up and comer who's on a nice run. And, you know, if Cruz wins, cool, he gets right off into the sunset with the tribute package. If he loses, someone gets to jump up the rankings, beating in a lot of people's eyes, the greatest band and weight of all time. So I went with the fight that I don't even think is going to be all that ultra competitive, but I do think it will get a few eyeballs on it, especially during fight week. I went with the matchup between former champions, Peter Yan versus Henry Sehudo. I don't even love it, but I just, it's just they haven't fought each other.

So I'm going there. I hate pretty much any matchup involving Henry Sehudo. I think the last time I matched them up in the show is probably the brand of Marino thing. I still think that's a cool matchup. But yeah, no, but it makes sense. It makes sense. Like you said, Yon is kind of making a whole tour

of this Champions versus Champions thing, right? Because, you know, this was also technically facing, you know, the former Flyweight champion. Look how that turned out. It was great. And I think it would be a competitive fight. That, to me, is a positive clash of styles. I don't know how long Henry Suudo plans to fight or if he even does plan to fight again.

Obviously, he seems to indicate that he will. for him, he should jump with that matchup. Of Peyodor and Peyote as well, even, just because of the name value, right? I mean, Henry Suudo, I, you know, again, I always say I'm a bit tired of him coming back and people still, like, ranking him or wanting to call him one of the best band-aweights

when he hasn't really won a fight, though I know the Algemane for Sterling fight was incredibly close. So it was really just like some, you know, scorecards away from him being right back at the top of the phantomweight division. But, sorry, my brain is, completely freezing right now. But yes,

Peodor Jan and what was it, what was your suggesting in Mike? Henry Suhudo. Henry Suhudo, thank you. I like it. Let's leave it to that before I pass out while I'm talking. Yes, that's good. No, put it on a paper view. Please don't. That doesn't have title applications, does it? I think if Yon wins, he should get there. If Yon wins, yes. I don't want Henry.

No, so Hudo, absolutely not. You know, he'll, that's how he'll sell it. Yeah, he got he got beat by Aljo and then he got kind of been humiliated by the current champion. Marab de Wallis, really. So it's not like Peter Yan was all that competitive with Marab either, but Maraub was like having conversations with Mark Zuckerberg while he was being the hell out of Henry Suu. It's never a great look. But yeah, terrific win for Peter Yan. He looks so good.

And he might be, he is a real case for being one of the five best made event fighters in the UFC. like he's just so good in those five rounders and anytime we get to see him fight is just uh it's just a great thing for us fans it's got to be five rounds right sehudo or or umale too or whoever ends up getting it's got to be five rounds if it's omali 100 percent oh yeah if they just run it back of three rounds that would be insane but i'd even so who do i'd like to see five rounds right i mean it kind of just depends on i don't know man you could do that it would have to be a co-main event on a pay-per-view and i don't know that's kind of what you're looking for here unless you're just like okay this is this is the marab umar paper view this can be the five-round co-main event it's more or less

the the backup fight if something weird happens on the scales or something like that but yeah either way five rounds of peyote ryan is is terrific doesn't matter who he fights speaking of yons let's go to Jan Jan Janan, who there are levels to this game, AK, and Janjan, improve that. Tabitha Ritchie is a good fighter. She's a solid straw weight. She's going to get a lot of wins in the UFC. But I knew immediately upon this booking that this was way too big of a step up for her, and Jan Jan Janan just kind of outvetted her, out experienced her in terms of level of competition.

And this is one-way traffic, 3027 across the board. Ritchie wasn't didn't get the doors blown off her but when the fight was over we're like yes pretty clear 30 27 yandra now won there's no doubt then she calls out jang wei lee which i don't love the call-out but sure she's sitting there let's let's do that she's not going to get that fight if they do it in china if they're going to china January February and March then sure go ahead and do that that's massive but i don't think that's going to happen they've had the chance to do it they just haven't tapped into that well. I believe Verna Gendarobo will get her title shot.

She will get her day in court next, which means Janjan, an is going to have to fight Tatyana Suarez. Damn. Sorry. She beats Santanasorra. She can go get a title fight. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. It feels like those two will fight someday. So yes, why not next? We just still know what's going up with her on with it. She never, she never, confirmed that there was some sort of injury. She never even confirmed that like she was out of the virenah fight, right? We were told it was health issues.

Okay. Health issues. By the way, I cannot believe I just saw this. Cannot believe I just saw this. I'm very angry. This has to be a troll. Marab de Welles really calling out Pierre-Ean for March 8th, A UFC 313.

This is such a bad. look he's got to be doing it on purpose iK right let's ask jed jed has scrutinized marav's post title win behavior as much as anyone i think this is the worst first three months what is this september october december this is the first worst two months of a champion

maybe in the history of combat sports it's so bad it's so awful like nothing he has done is good nothing did having to wait so long break his brain do you think he just he's lost all all perspective of how you know how he came up what made people like him in the first place it is uh it's bad like it is really it's so bad it's so bad chito vera calling for peyardrian and i dig it but he should not be fighting peyodorian right now cheetah should be fighting an up-and-comer it just doesn't make sense like that is i like chito he is tough as hell

but that is just that's a step back is it not for pierrean that's like a pretty significant step back yeah good fight though but yeah i mean i'd watch it because chito would just get punched 500 times and not go down he would lose that fight badly like that i don't think that fight is at all competitive but he would just take a a terrific ass weapon in that fight i think so yeah it could be worse i've heard of worst matchups. Yeah, Janjanon versus filling the blank, I guess we got off topic after I saw moron. Oh, right. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. My phone. No, no problem. I'm an end of emotion. I don't know.

Amanda Lamuosh. Really, this is hoping that Jan gets to fight again in China sometime next year. I don't know if if they're planning to go to Macau or somewhere else, but if they go back, again, we don't know what John's schedule is. She's afforded the right to be a little more picky. Is she chasing a fight with Valentina Sturcchenko? Is she waiting for a Tatiana Suarez or Viena Jandroba? like for that fight still happen.

So she's biting her time. But I think if you're Yon, you want to stay with the, like Yon might be their go-to girl when it comes to go into some of these regions. So, yeah, I'd say Amanda Llebo, assuming, that Yon is the A side in China or something. Hack the holidays with the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Try this PC porquetta, crackling, craveworthy.

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Oh, yeah. Okay, I'm sure. Go on. The King of Kung Fu, AK. Wow. Boy, did he show it. 40 years of age. This guy just going in there and doing the damn thing.

He's fighting Kanan Song. There were not a lot of people picking Muslim Salikoff to win this fight. I did, but I'm not paging myself on the back. I wasn't very confident about it. Muslim Salafov did King of Kung Fu things, spinning wheel kick knockout to Kanan Song. This was impressive as hell. I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Just turning back the clock. Speaking of people who have fought everybody, AK. What do we do with this guy? And please react to what you watched. Yeah, I had picked song. Not for any great reason. Not like I thought, I do have a tendency, if anyone has seen my predictions, to kind of be a bit ageist. I don't think this is a nice way to put it.

I'm going to lean towards younger fighters. And I think most people know if you do that, you're actually going to probably hit on a pretty good rate in combat sports. But this is a case where I think, I don't know. Maybe I overestestimated the importance of the age gap. It's not like Song Kinan is some like spring. chicken and he's not like a late 20s a guy. He's, you know, he's, he's had some experience. He's a bit up there

in age himself. I think he's 34. So he's not like super young, so maybe I should have taken that no account. But yeah, all the credit to Mosom Salakal. I mean, the guy, the guy finds a way, he has a distinct style. He finds a way to implement it. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

On Saturday, it just worked in spectacular fashion. Mike, I don't know how you feel about this one. Again, this is something we discussed in a post-fight show. I was a little hesitant to endorse it just because I think the name I'm about to say is a little too picky to take a fight with Salikov

but I guess we're waving our magic wand here and making the King of Kung Fu versus Wonder Boy Stephen Thompson happened. Oh Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. A little strikers delight. So I went I went for the full

authentic point here. Like I went, I ain't splitting this with anybody. This is all mine if this happens Because I don't think anybody else is picking this I love the Wonderboy idea by the way And the fact that I didn't think of it It makes me upset But I kind of like the road I'm going here

Muslim Salikoff is going to fight a guy Who has not fought in the welterweight division I don't believe he has fought in the Walthorweight Division As a UFC fighter But he's one of the most exciting fighters In the company A guy that most of the staff in M.A. fighting Was very high on

A guy that most of the M.A. staff believed could be a future lightweight champion. But he's had a little bit of a tough run as of late. And I think part of it is because he's got to cut so much weight to go to 155. How about a nice welterweight debut fight for Jalen Turner at 170 AK? I like that a lot. I do not want to see Jay and Turner compete in 155 anymore. I think 170, he is just going to look fantastic.

classic at 170. How old is Jalen? How big an age gap is this matchup? This is at least a decade, right? Let's take a candor, shall we? I'll do it right now. I'm up on the, the tapsologies. The Tapsologies.

The Tapsol. 29, yeah, so it will be over 10 years. I love it. Yeah, I like it. And again, it's, you know, you go over the age thing, you would say, oh, well, Jalen's going to, you know, Julian's going to handle this older guy, but it's not like Jalen, it doesn't go, obviously, it doesn't have an experience.

It's not like Jane's the most consistent performer either, though he's been in some tough fights. So I can't blame him for some losses of those situations. So I like that. But that's a good turn. I like that. I think I would love it if he went either again, another Walter Reed veteran Stephen Thompson or, as you said, welcoming, welcoming a potentially promising contender in jail and Turner. Yeah, I think that would be fun. And again, I want that whole lot, no point all to myself.

No one else can have it. Let's go to Gabriella Fernandez, AK. What a, no one saw this coming. she is the spoiler she's just the absolute spoiler of this women's flyweight division because what they have done after her first two losses

they tried to feed her to two fighters that they truly like one is Carly Judice who is just absolute wrecking ball in there just moves forward probably is not a very is not a great fighter

maybe not even a very good fighter but Carly Judy's is one of those fighters that's just going to be incredibly fun to watch and they try to feed her her to Carly to no avail. And then they tried to feed her to Wang Kong, who they tried to Alex Pereira

this whole situation. So maybe we can get her to fight Valentina Shufchenko at some point. And that didn't happen. She plays spoiler as a massive underdog, gets a submission win, stuns everybody in round two. And I don't know what to do with her, okay?

So we did the old dart throw in the dart landed on, Julia Stoliorenko, AK. I just didn't know really what else to do. That actually, we almost had a friend's forever moment. The only thing is, I wasn't sure, is she still signed to the promotion as far as we know? That's a great question. I don't think she's any fights book for any other promotion.

That's usually like, I'm probably slower on removing, like, people from my rankings than others. But like, usually if I, I need to see them either, I know, either I know they've retired or that they're booked for another event. So I think she hasn't. No, she's no release. All right. She's on the roster. It's a good thing. She just bumped up Molly McCann proper, not that long.

Yeah. I'm going higher. I'm going higher, Mike, because, you know, some people had Wang Tong pretty high. And she take, I guess, Gabriella Fernandez takes her spot now. I thought that, I thought that Wang was a little, a little, you know, people were making too much of her after the Victoria Leonardo knockout because it's Victoria Leonardo and getting like finished and highlight real fashions. what she does. But there was a history with Valentin Shcherchenko, too, so the hype was justified.

I get it. So I'll get a little higher for Gabriella. We have a fight with Luana, Carolina, and Montana de la Rosa March 1st, reportedly. Let's give her the loser of that. Give her the loser of that fight. Maybe she's the ultimate spoiler. Maybe she's just going to be knocking off because I think she'd be a pretty considerable underdog in that. Maybe she's a spoiler, Mike. So Gabriella, you surprised us. And good for you. That was a great upset. Nicely done. Yeah. Let's go to Carlos Oldberg, light heavyweights rounding out this main card.

Good, solid win against a past title challenger, Volkan Ozedimir. I think people expected a more thrilling affair overall, maybe a quick finish. But this is kind of what happens when you move up the ranks. You can't, you're not going to be able to knock these guys out in 12 seconds like Carlos Elberg did to Alonzo Menafield. and, you know, workman-like performance, I guess, from Carlos Elberg. This fight wasn't, like, all that close, but he gets a job done, and it's the biggest win of his career.

And he called out a specific name on the post-fight show, from what I understand. And I, it's what I would have picked anyways. Carlos Elberg versus Kalil Roundtree is the next fight. Yeah, I think it makes so much sense. They were kind of tied together, right? It was roundtree that was supposed to fight Jamal, right? and then Elberg stepped in for Roundtree, or did Roundtree come into that equation later?

It was Khalil first, then Elberg, then Hill was out, and then it became Anthony Smith, and then Carlos Ulberg became Roman Delizze. Okay. Oh, simple stuff. It's going to be hard to place a black jag right now because so he beats Volcan Usdemir. I have Uzdemer.

I have Uzdaer in my top 10. Like you said, not like a highlight real performance, but he took his number. that if there's one thing he wanted to do uh he wants to leave mikhil with it is with with uh us demure's number so uh all i have round tree number seven so yes if we're going wrong by wrong you that would be the next step for oldberg uh i went higher only because again as part of that sort of cluster you know jama hill so i think i'd like to see him by jamaal hill that we did just see a weird rumor didn't we we did just see um well dan helly did the dan hellie thing

um where he's just like yeah he's fighting jama Hill's fighting Yuri Perashka next. So maybe this all makes sense. We don't know. We don't have a date. Obviously, we've reached out. And by the time this drops and you hear this, then that fight will already be out there. But it just kind of seemed like those two were fighting because Jamal said he had signed. And then Yuri said he had signed. And that fight just makes so much sense to happen. Because there's really nothing else for either guy. But, you know, if they do Oldberg versus Jamal Hill or something like that, I would I would love to watch that fight. But yeah. All right. I'm jumping on, you know, then I'm just going to jump on your Cleal bandwagon then, you know. That's fine. No point. No point need for me.

Can I ask you a question? Yeah. Right now. And I'm not talking. Ranking doesn't matter. Merit doesn't matter. Just amongst like the community and how they would actually feel about this without looking at it on paper and we take all that stuff out of it.

What is a more meaningful win right now, Burlberg? Roundtree or Jamal Hill? See, I'm sitting like this guy. I know, but you can't ask me. You know I can't stand Jamal Hill. I'm a biased person. I can't be trusted. But what's a bigger win?

Like if it's just like, hey, you would, if you fight the right guy next and get a win, you get a title shot. But if you choose wrong and get a win, you may still have to fight again. So what's the choice? Do we go door number one, Khalil Roundtree?

Do you go door number two, Jamal Hill? I'm still going to lean towards Jamal. I've still lean towards Jamal. I know Khalil as as he can be coming off that padata fight. But Jamal has, just again, because of the matchinations of their organization, Jamal is a former UFC world champion

that carries a lot of luster with it. And he has this following, this following who seems to hang on his every dumbass word, but he does? I don't know. You've seen his Twitter account? And like YouTube's got his YouTube channel. He's got pretty good views. He's got some social media

traction. I don't think we interact with these kinds of people regularly, Mike. That's a problem. So I think in our minds, people don't exist. But he's got views on views, on views. He's got followers. So yes, I'm no fan of Jamal Hill from a personal standpoint. We know if you rehash why. But I do think him and Ulberg, sorry, him and Ulberg would be interesting if that were to happen.

But I don't mind seeing Jamal Hill and Yuri as well. I don't know exactly what the plan is there. So, yeah, I'm not entirely sure to do with Ulberg, but yeah, Khal will be great. So I, but I think the Hill win slightly bigger right now still. What do you pick for Mingyang Zhang, who is just, this guy is so fun to watch, man. Like I don't care about rankings and belts or anything with this guy. I just want to see him in there getting in barn burners. So would you pick for him after this knockout win over Ozzy Diaz?

I worry that I picked the name that we just threw out there a lot for exactly these kinds of situations. I think you actually picked this fighter for a light heavyweight recently. I'm going Modestis. It's going down the Modestiscus-Bukovskis Road. I think that's a good way to go. I still have no clue how good Zhang Minyang is. Look great against, in his last fight, it looked great on Saturday.

And again, they're doing what they, I'm not criticizing his level of competition. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing with him. I think they see something in him. He's got that boisterous, larger than life personality. Finisherability is nice. He's not a run of first round finishes.

First round, just knockouts, things like that. So kind of, kind of, you know, just pulling around, excuse me, pulling a name out of a hat. And we're going to say, Bukasas. So I had a name.

written down and then i i just completely flipped it because when you started like laying out we throw this name out a lot for these types of situations i was like oh yeah this is this is the episode one and then you went a different direction it's it's iwan kuchelava right we have to we have to do that oh man perfect yeah yeah break break glass in case of urgency pull you on out yep that's yeah i'm into it yeah hid offal balato was the name i was going to go with dude oh my lord what a friggin Firework display, that would be. But again, two guys on the come-up. It's light heavyweight.

You can't afford to eliminate a contender right now. So we need to keep these two dudes away from each other. We have to carefully cultivate the heavyweight division right now. It's like a bonsai tree that's in bad shape. You know what I mean? Like it could be, it can be strong again. But right now it's very fragile. You need to snip those branches just right.

The whole thing is collapsed. And then you're never getting it back. Yes, bantamweight and lightweight, this division is not. That is the understatement of this. century. 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. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation, here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land.

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See Air Canada.com. Let's go to the wild car around AK. We'll select one fighter we have not matched made four, and we will matchmake for them. Now, who did you go with here? I pick this person, not because I feel like I have a great matchup for them, but we just need to talk about sheming. I mean, what a story that a great, hats off to the broadcast team telling her story that she's a doctor and her family doesn't even, she says her parents don't even know that she's an MMA fighter. Here she is about to make her, I guess not her UFC debut technically. Road to UFC fights are, for whatever reason, not counted as official UFC votes, whatever.

On a UFC show, she made her debut. And it wasn't going great for her at first. Her opponent, excuse me, I need to, Fong Shelfan. like much larger much taller girl much longer reach it was like a six inch reach advantage and she wasn't like dominating she but she was uh she was giving her some problems for sure so uh so i did not expect that head kick to happen uh i don't even know if she was like so far down the cards that she like needed to finish she needed to go leon edwards but she did anyway and it was spectacular and it was scary and nothing but the best for uh fang chal khan hopefully she'll uh she will

fight again if that's what's healthy for her. At the very least, hopefully she'll just be recovered. Great job by John Gooden on the broadcast, for a lot of updates for Fong during the show. But yeah, Sheming, the big winner, the first ever straw weight to win Road to UFC. So, kind of picked him out of a hat. It's probably a tough matchup, but that's okay. I'm not just, you know, making fights to push Sheming. I want to see what she's got.

So we're going with Sheming versus Stephanie Luciana. all right there we go uh i went with uh mr cavana who everybody is very excited about loney contender series gets it gets it gets a ud gets a ud loney i want jimmy flick for him because i think that's just you know he's either going to look incredible in that fight and just just kind of shine all over poor jimmy flick or jimmy flick just taps him in round one. And then we're just like, all right, we could, we could slow it down a little bit on this guy. But I think they have something with him. I think he's really good. And I kind of want to know right now.

Not throwing him into a top 15 matchup, but Jimmy's, Jimmy's like a really good litmus test at the top 25. So yeah, that's what I went with and do it at London. UFC London when they go to March. I think it's a good spot for it. Get Jimmy, good old Jimmy the brick back in there and Kavanaugh can fight in that. region of the world and all good yeah good test good test nothing too crazy but good good solid test for learner so we are we are literally recording this just like two hours after yeah yeah i didn't so i i got one submission so i'll just go ahead and read it uh from alex shout out to alex shay very very fun card for some prime time mma here in australia here are my picks yon o'malley two yon versus swarez vernegutz way lee salakar versus mike milotte i thought about that but we

We had already matched me from a lot. Fernandez versus Veronica Hardy, Ulberg versus Roundtree, Zhang versus Aslin, which I like, but I don't want to step on your toes. No. Can't do that.

And also a bit late, but I'd like to try and claim an Otno point for Ulberg versus Ozedemir, as I had called for that in my first ever submission. But where were you before, where were you? Like when this belt was announced? Where were you, sir?

were you, Alex Shea? It's a doo-do-free zone, but I'm going to give you... No, there's nothing wrong with it. You don't get doo-doo for that. No, but I'm going to give you... There's no way you're the only person to submit that fight. So I'll give you a piece. You get a piece of the pie. Like, if an ought no point is a whole pie, you get a slice. Just a little, a little, you know, a sliver, as they say in, in Massachusetts.

You get a, just a little sliver. A little sliver. That's what you get. Congratulations. Did you get any listener picks? Yeah, I got a good. quite a few people i don't know if people sense that we were uh going to do the show early today uh or they're just smart and like us said let's get this over so we enjoy the rest of our weekends uh yeah i got quite a few let's start with you know i'll start with instagram i'm looking at it right now gerard bioggan jan o'mali two figgy corey sanhagen okay yon shananan versus texan as swear i'll vienna goes for the belt yep well there you go mike muslim salikov

nico price that's not a two how these two never fought like i'm not crazy right No? He's never fought Nico. Oh, he was, okay, this was, they were books. I think they were booked, but it never happened. Okay. As I said, they must have at least been mentioned, each other's orbit at some point.

Gabriela Fernandez versus Marina Moroshe. I don't hate it. Again, a little high, but I don't hate it. Gabriella was probably our most, like, wild, I don't know if any, like, unless they, other than they throw in this number of the top five for no reason, I could just see them booking her against almost anyone in that division right now. It's not the deepest division anyway.

Alberg Roundtree, there go, and Sydney, Zhang Min young. Mo Usman. Do Moe dropped down to 205A? No, he did. I don't think so. Did he? I don't know. I'm trying to save this for, I'm trying to save Gerard here from so embarrassment.

I don't think so. Maybe I don't. I honestly don't know, but Moe Usman should not be. be in the UFC. I'm sorry. He just should not be the UFC. I thought I was the one. He's not good. Like, come on. Moe, if you're out there, keep catching those checks, buddy. They keep, if the UFC's calling, then you know what? You belong in the UFC. I mean, he needs to be at heavyweight. The late heavyweight division is bad enough. Okay. And heavyweight is equally, if not more bad. And Usman just belongs cashing heavyweight

overs. All right. That's where we're at. This is, you know, we need, we need, this is Dutch for him. This for all of us. Uh, and Lonnie Kavana. and Kevin Borjas. Sure. It's not a bad, not a bad shot. That'd be fun. Casey Carpenter from via email. First, mad respect to you, waking up a three for the prelims.

I only got up for the main car. There's nothing to respect, Casey. I regret it. I regret it so much. Still, we were waking up six in the weekend. Zhang versus Span would be a fun one-round fight. It would be. Is span too high for him right now?

I don't think so. I mean, if they did it, I wouldn't be too upset about it. Might be like a shade high, but like Span, like, Span, what did he? What he lost like three in a row before getting the, the quick finish. So, yeah, I mean, with that with the roller coaster ride that Ryan Span has been on throughout his UFC career, that's just fun, man. I'd watch it. All right. Not a bad pick then.

I'm sure that's just read ones we haven't already seen. Fernandez versus Veronica Hardy Yes, okay, Veronica Hardy who just lost her preliminary opener championship Figgi versus Sangia Dong. Yeah, maybe, I mean, at Peerderion just fought him, so yeah, you may just keep that carousel going.

Yon versus O'Malley, two, thanks for all the great work. Finally, we need more Otno. I can't even read this. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the States. Sorry, Casey, I couldn't read that. I think it might have been a typo or an auto correct or something. All right.

And then my best room, we will stop here on Twitter. First off, let me give a, I don't think this is the only person call for this. Mike, you probably called for this. Grant Dawson and Diego Fahara. This has come up multiple times, right? I know I have called for in the past. I don't know if that's what I went with here. Well, John Ray, you're the only one who reminded me.

So guess what, John Ray? I'm getting you a point. Marcus McGehy. anything new here. They're with you on Jan Shanan, Suarez, Salakov, Chidi, and Jukwani. That's fun.

Gabriel Fernandez, Jiji Aldrich. Zhang versus the crude Prachnia winner on February 8. Yeah, I think that makes lost. I think that's actually, I was thinking of Prachna before,

and I just didn't think him because he was already booked, but I should have said that winner of that. Sue Young-Yu, Colin Lockren, Dong-Hun-Choi, Philippe de Santos, Ming-Shi, excuse me,

and Rayon Amanda. Okay. All right, let's move on. Poor Corner Sports, Mike, brace yourself. Four Corner, please don't, don't. You know what? Doodoo Free Zone. You have a doo-do Free Zone.

So this is the time. No, nothing crazy here anyway. Jan O'Malley Sue, Figgi, Jose Aldo, Jan and Vierna, sure. Interim Belt, Interim Belt. Tabith of Ritchie, Marina Rodriguez, Carl's Oliver, Khalil Roundtree, and Gabby Fernandez, and Stoli Renco. There you go. Barry O'Reilly

Nicholas Motta versus Jordan Vucinich Wow deep cut No one talked about Moda this this morning I had a pretty performance Yeah Lonnie Kavana Mitch Raposo

I like that Sheeming and Shana Bannon Yes that's actually the right range I agree Oh What the Okay no

Oh no I'm sorry No no this is fine This is fine A bit of a step up Zhang Meng Yang and Alonzo Menafield Oh, that's definitely in the range. You like that?

Yeah, I'm fine with that. I only got confused in my mind. I was like, did he just fight? And I'm like, I know, like, I was getting just Carl's over. Okay, all right, I don't know. I feel, I'm not, no way. That's a day, so that's doable. I'm just thinking highly.

And maybe I just think Alonzo's, maybe I think Alonzo is higher than he actually is. And maybe I think Zhang is lower than he actually is. I don't know. Muslim Salakov, Daniel Rodriguez. I feel like we've made this on the show many times. Figgi, Jose Aldo, Peter, yeah, a lot of Jan O'Malley, too, understandable. Tech M.MA.

Ulberg and Rokic. So my only issue with this is I feel like he jumps over Rokkish with the win against Ouzdemear. But also it's not like he's guaranteed a fight with anyone in front of him. What do you think of Alberg and Rockett, Mike? Sure. I mean, if that's what he gets, that's what he gets. Um, rackage has lost two in a row and oldberg's won, what, seven in a row, eight in a row right now. So kind of of a tough sell, but he's got a good, like rackage is a decent enough name where it's not like the worst thing in the world.

It's, it's a step above Vulcan, I would say. It's above Vulcan. Okay. Yeah. I would agree. I would say that. I would say that. Sure.

So it's, it's, if we're going like rung by rung, I think that's perfect. but I think roundtree is I think there's more to the roundtree fight but we'll see the guys he won this fight pretty easily but there's still work that needs to be done if he wants to beat in Alex Pereira so yeah I don't think he'd say no to it tack on may's other suggestion Jan Chow Nan versus Amanda Lamoche for the strawweight BMF title UFC would never do it and with respect to I don't know if anyone would ever consider her a B.MF. What are you talking? What?

With Jessica Andrage still in the promotion, you're going to put Janjohnan in a BMF title fight? I mean, she already fought Lamuch. I guess that's the only really, there's very few BMSs at Wufth D and, uh, there's, it's, it's on D. It's, it's, if they're ever going to do it, that's the fight. That'd be nice. Uh, and I got one more. Sorry, well, I computer just update in my face.

Toby Kinsella. What's up toby? I hope everything's going well. Jan O'Malley 2, Figgy, and Songyeodong. Yeah, we saw that. Okay, Jan, Jan, Jan Chanon, Vyernna, Alberg, Khalil. Yeah, most, again, mostly stuff we've seen.

Salakov, Gunnar Nelson. This is another fight that has to have been booked before. This sounds so familiar. Were they not booked a fight? Wow, that's a good pick. Probably were, but Gunnar was out for like a decade. And is again. I mean, really where it's going to.

But either way, yeah, they can make it happen. That's a great fight. And that's a really good trace. Jean Kutalaba, there you go. Kavanaugh, Jesus Aguilar. And, oh, I like this matchup a lot. I know, I know Matt's kind of, Matt Foley's got kind of a high ranking these days because the Drew Dover thing, just rocked him up.

But him and Nicholas. The last fight he had. What was that? What was the last fight? He got obliterated in Paris. That's okay. That's all right. Well, anyway, that keeps him in range end of Nicholas Malta.

I think Nicholas Motta, Matt Fola would be a great fight. So thank you, Toby. Great pick. Great picks, everybody. Thank you. And much needed, because as you guys can tell, Mike, I'm a little rattled from lack of sleep. But you guys are not.

You guys are the best. And Mike, I think we don't have a card next week. No. Well, I mean, MMA fans, you get a card. Yes. Boy, this card is going to be so long. It's going to be like three cards. The PFL championship is next week.

And I believe there's 10, five round fights on the card because they're doing the PFL Mena title fights into the PFL title fights. This is going to be the longest fight card of all time. There's no doubt about it. But PFL doing the right thing, they were like, yeah, this is, this is a slog. So we're just going to bump it back a little bit. So they're going to start it way earlier because of the Mena fights.

But then there's some showcase fights are going to be like 6 a.m. Jeremy Kennedy and Jesus Paneda is going to friggin slap. So that'd be a good one. And yeah, so that's going to happen. But as far as this program goes, we're going to take a week off. We're going to take a week off. Please. No doubt about it.

And then we will be back live because the next time the UFC has an event is UFC 310, the final pay-per-view of the year, Alexander Pantosha versus Kaya Sakura, Shafcott, Rockmanoff versus Ian Machado, Gary, Cyril Gan, Alexander Volkov, Nate Landware versus Duho Choi, Bryce Mitchell versus Kroen Gracie in the weirdest booking in the history of MMA. I still cannot believe this fight is happening. It is the most nonsensical fight I've ever seen. Cron Gracie should not be fighting in the UFC, let alone fighting a ranked fighter.

It is absolutely ridiculous, but it should be weird and fun and who knows. Anthony Smith, Dominic Reyes, Clay Guida, Chase Hooper, Michael Kiesa, versus Max Griffin. And then all the way down, we got Movisar of Loyah versus Al Jermaine Sterling and probably a number one contender fight. Good job. Cody Dirton versus Josh Van, Randy Brown versus Brian Battle. That's a solid fight. Vicente Lucke, not fighting Nick Diaz anymore, taking on Temba Garimbo.

Chris Wyden, Eric Anders, rebooked. And then Kennedy Enzachuku versus Lucas Brechke, now happening on this card. So, 14 big fights. We were supposed to get Tantyada Suarez versus Van de Jensirov. on this car we're supposed to get bala mahomet versus shop car rockmanoff on this card and uh not bad this is actually not bad it's not loaded with star power but i think in terms of like actual fights and names i don't think it's bad i don't think it's too shabby this might actually top to bottom be a better card than 309 a k yeah more i look at it the ufc i mean this year

there are definitely exceptions there's been some clunkers but when you're telling you're talent pools is deep. I mean, you're, you're going to be able to churn out cards. I mean, this is the thing with being number one, like, as much to we sometimes criticize the UFC for, like, oversaturating. It's like they, and, and, you know, fans for maybe, you know, ignoring talents and some of the promotions and saying, like, oh, UFC's the only promotion that matters. Well, there's a reason they say that is because UFC has like 80% of the elite fighters. I shouldn't say that's probably too big a number, but a large majority of the elite players in the world. And when you have that thing, then you can put together great cards, even if it's,

Some of it's like, it feels like haphazardly thrown together. Like, I'm intrigued by the Bryce Mitchell-Krone Gracie fight. I didn't expect that it was ever going to happen. But there it is. And you've put that in the UFC and, yeah, you've got my, you got it on the paperview. You got my purchase. I mean, I'm working. So I mean, metaphorically speaking.

So, yeah, good looking card. UFC's going to end. I don't want to end the year with the bang. We still have Tampa coming up. But overall, it looks like it's going to be a strong finish to an incredibly strong year for the promotion. Like, again, maybe not necessarily entertainment-wise. Your mileage may vary.

but as far as profits go, I think UFC is doing pretty great. Yeah. And look, any card that has Michael Kiesa, probably on the UFC Fight Pass prelims, that's not a bad card. And we'll see how that all plays out. But we'll be back in two weeks,

live on the MA fighting YouTube channel, reacting to UFC 310, and then one more matchmaking show. And then it's on to the end of year slash beginning of the year stuff here on this program, which I know you're all looking forward to. But back in two weeks here, on on to the next one, the podcast. Into the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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