MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Sean O'Malley After Losing To Merab Dvalishvili Again At UFC 316?

Episode Date: June 8, 2025

Merab Dvalishvili is still the UFC bantamweight champion after submitting Sean O'Malley in the third round of their rematch in the main event of UFC 316. While it appears Dvalishvili will defend his title against Cory Sandhagen next, where does O'Malley go after losing to Dvalishvili for the second straight time? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee as they discuss where Dvalishvili and O'Malley go following their UFC 316 championship headliner. Additionally, they discuss what's next for Kayla Harrison and Julianna Pena after Harrison stopped the now-former two-time champ in the second round, Joe Pyfer following his decision win over Kelvin Gastelum, Mario Bautista after his dominant decision win against former Bellator champ Patchy Mix, along with fellow main card winner Kevin Holland, 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody. Welcome to a very special live edition of On to the next one. Yes, the matchmaking crowns are back. Following UFC 316 in Brick City, Newark, New Jersey, the Prudential Center was rocking as Maraudo Alishwilly and Kayla Harrison. Got stoppage wins in the main and co-main events to leave Newark with Bannamweight Gold. We have a lot of other things to talk about storyline-wise,

but we are here to matchmake and sort of discuss the fallout of this event with all of you the day after UFC 316. I am Mike Heck, and joining me as always, the co-host, the co-matchmaker, the Prince of Positivity, my best friend, AK-316 means we're going to talk some fistfighting, Alexander Kay Lee, back in the hot seat. How are you, sir?

I'm great, my best friend, I'm great. Love me some 316, love me some Austin 316. Kind of love me some UFC 316. I didn't know, I wasn't on the pre-fight stuff, so didn't give a gymnastics score, and I'm not exactly sure what it would have been. But I think it lived, like, it would have been close to it. I think it would have hit, this card hit its potential. I think we were hoping for meaningful results in the top two fights, which we certainly got.

I think we were hoping for some prospects to step up on a highlights. We got that. I think we had some people write the ship for better, for worse. And I think, you know, we only had one major letdown. And we'll talk about it more a bit later. of course, I mean, you know, Patchy Mix's debut was a bit of a letdown. But on the other side, kind of redemption for Mario Batista without put on a great performance. So really pretty enjoyable card all the way through.

Again, yeah, there's what? There's three or four prelims that we won't be talking about for some time. But yeah, some of these up-and-coming fighters really put on strong performances on that portion of the card. And, you know, could be, we could look back on it as part of a bigger picture if some of these fighters end up being contenders or just long time, you know, fan favorites in the UFC. So really fine night at the office, I think, for the UFC, and obviously a spectacular night from Rod Walsh, really, and Kayla Harrison, who delivered as expected. There's pretty much like a checklist of things that tell me if a card was good, at least personally for me, because I'm not here to lie to the world. I am not a young man anymore. I am in my 40s and staying up till 3, 4, 5 in the morning.

not as easy as it once was, but when I can do it and still am feeling amped up, right as my head hits the pillow about what I watched, then I know it was an enjoyable card. I had a real good time watching this event. I have not said that about a lot of cards this year. There have been many watch parties thus far in 2025, where I felt sluggish.

It just seemed like I was watching fights for 100 hours straight, and the main event wasn't spectacular. I mean, 315, I think. ended in a great way. 316, all in all, from the last six fights, five of the last six fights gave us something to talk about for the next couple of days. Like Josh Van is so good at 23 years old. This dude is going to fight for a world title.

Kevin Holland was one of the low-key MVPs of not just UFC 316, but the entire day because of the social media presence and getting people all fired up by just tweeting out five words. That meant absolutely nothing. And then the bell rang and he just beat the shit out of essentially. De Luque. Mara Batista beating patchy mix gave us a lot to talk about. We'll be talking about patchy mix for weeks now, more than likely. Joe Pfeiffer is the one guy. We're not going to talk about a whole hell of a lot. I mean, he, and it's not like his fault. He had a nice, mature,

evolved performance against Calvin Gasolum. He won the fight. He knocked Kelvin down a few times, but it was just kind of a weird fight that Joe Piper, who is a prolific finisher, fighting a guy who can't be finished in a fight. And that's sort of what we saw. And then co-main event gave us something we're going to be talking about for several months with the man of Nunes coming back. It's one of the biggest fights the UFC can make right now. And then Marab stating his case to be the Banimate Goat and two of the biggest burning

questions we're going to attempt to answer on this show right now. So I was pretty excited for this. It's pretty excited to get an hour or so extra sleep. So I'm a little more refreshed doing the show at 1 p.m. Eastern as opposed to doing it. at like 10 or 11 a.m. Eastern. So let's get right into it, AK, because thankfully, just for the time allotment, both champions have made our lives very easy. And the UFC has sort of made our lives very easy as well. We will quickly begin with Marab Du Alish, really, who is still the UFC Bannamweight champion. He's won 13 fights in a row. His resume is absolutely ridiculous.

There is a growing debate on whether or not he is the greatest Bannamweight of all time. we as a website are going to discuss this a little more in depth with an article that is going to drop tomorrow, sort of a report card for UFC 316. So we'll kind of table the Banimoy go talk for a minute. But Marab goes out there. Sean was looking pretty good for the first two and a half, three minutes of this fight.

Love the movement. He was dialed in. And then he had some friction issues on the mat. He throws a kick. He trips and falls. Marab gets on top of him. is able to get back up and the very next moment, it seemed after he got back to his feet,

he slipped and fell again. And then from that point on, it was the Maraud de Walsh, really show. He just mauled Sean O'Malley. And then he was landing big strikes in round two. He looked real good. And then he finished him in round three.

Maybe Jed Mishu just blasting him on BTL and all subsequent programs was just the fire Maraud de Walsh really needed. But submission win, gets it done, put Sean O'Malley behind him for good and it appears we're going to get mara abduosch really versus cori san hagan and i got to tell you i'm genuinely excited for that fight it's what we all want that's what we all want it makes

sense um cori has earned this uh yes he's stumbled in contender opportunities before but he has not had a chance to fight for the undisputed title yet he had an interim opportunity against aljo uh once upon time oh sorry against peyote on excuse me once upon time uh and what was an awesome fight i love that one of my favorite fights of that year him him and him and Piotr Yon. And then who did Corey just beat again to, oh, Davis and Figaro? So I think when we did that onto the next one follow-up episode, we were saying he should get the winner of this fight.

Like I know there's a few people who still want to see him fight O'Malley at some point. I think there was some like sentiment of, well, oh, win or lose, he should fight O'Malley to like one more for the title shot. But it's hard to argue that he hasn't done enough. And two, it's also even harder to argue that O'Malley, you know, should be any sort of gatekeeper to a title shot at this point, at least not when it comes to Corey Sanhagan. Maybe for someone else when it comes to Corey Sanhagen. He's done enough.

What are his chances of beating Maraud Walsh-Fili? I don't know. I don't know what any 135 was chances are of beating Rob to Walshfili right now. His style is just so made for counteracting pretty much any one of the division for going a hard 25 minutes or however long needs to go. In this case, he got a finish. But it's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do. I don't want to hear any talk of like, well, this sell paper.

pay-per-views, who gives a crap? I mean, who really gives a crap? How much pay-per-view to this one probably sell? I don't, I know we've, we've, we have said a lot about O'Malley's popularity, but I don't think he's still transcended that point where it's like, oh, well, O'Malley brings in like, you know, 200K pay-view biased by himself. It's like, I don't think that's the case. More popular than Corey Sanhagen, probably. But at this point, it's just impossible to argue that Corey should not be the next man up. Yeah, 100%. I want to address something real quick, because just opposed to saying he got yelled at the watch party last night for defending women's man, and I just want to correct the record, you did not get yelled at because you were defending

women's band and weight. You got yelled at because you continuously forget that Macy Chesson lost to Ketland Vieira literally eight days ago. Because you kept like touting her as the next in line to fight for a belt. And I'm like, she just lost a non-competitive fight. So she's not fighting for a belt. She's not fighting for it. So I think that's that's why you got yelled at because you kept saying, Oh, well, Macy's next in line and Macy's waiting and she's right there. No, she's not. She lost. She lost bad.

I will say, I know what Joseph means. I think he's saying like she technically hasn't lost at phantom weight in so long, but it really, it doesn't matter. Yeah, it just doesn't matter. It's not fair to her. You know, it's not fair at her that she had to, that had to be at a different weight. But, I mean, that loss is going to linger in everyone's mind, regardless of whether it was a 145 or 135 catch weight.

Like, it just doesn't matter. It is a loss. It is a loss to, again, someone who is in her division who is widely regarded as a gatekeeper for a telos shot and it was really disappointing for macy um but yeah we can't we can't say that we can't go like oh well she hasn't lost a bantamate not a single person cares not a single person as far as i'm sorry yeah it's she was fine she needed that one if you you can't there are certain things that like you just can't you can't really say at this point um one is like macy decide may may may see

a choice to take the fight. She lost. And it does, like, it dings her badly, mostly because she's not like it overstar. The other thing, and I've seen this a lot is, well, we get patchy makes an excuse because he took the fight on short notice. No, sorry. This man has literally said the entire time, I've been ready for a fight. I could have fought tomorrow. I've been in a training camp for literally a year, just waiting for my opportunity. And just the things this guy was saying all week. You can't, you have to just like ride that wave now. So hopefully when Patchy does say something and he quote unquote breaks his silence about the loss, it is not, oh, I took this fight on short notice. I dared to be great because I will lose my mind. That's what it happens. It's like, yo, you know,

I went in there. I felt great. And Mario was just the better guy. Hats off. I'll be back. Like, cool. That I'm in, man. Like I love that stuff. But I don't want to hear. any excuses when you say you're going to run through the dude and then you're going to you're going to get the attention of everybody in the division you're going to go fight marab and shan o'malley like you've got to go in there and back it up like you just it's just the nature of the business especially in the ufc so yeah um we'll talk about what happened with that fight and in the aftermath and everything in a moment but the most into one of the there's two very interesting topics right now okay and it has nothing to do with the champions on this particular program

it's the title fighters who did not leave Newark with gold. And one of them is Sean O'Malley, who is not lost two in a row. He was not overly competitive with Marab in either of these fights. And then he got tapped by Marab, which is not a great look. So, you know, Sean O'Malley to his credit, took it on the chin, no excuses.

This is the best he's looked. Even Dana White said, dude is 100% healthy. Like, what can you say? I don't know what it's going to take to beat this dude. and Sean O'Malley has been saying the right things where I'm taking this seriously

I'm not in my 20s anymore I'm 30 I'm more mature I've developed I'm a family man I'm looking at things in a whole new different light and it seems like he wants to get back in there and do something so the question is AK and this is something we talked about a lot on the watch party and on the post fight show

is Sean O'Malley's Bannonweight Days over because a lot of people are like Yeah, just go to 145. Maybe Sean O'Malley, like Chal Sondon said, is the rich Franklin of Bantamway right now, where because there's the boogeyman and Marab de Wallis really there, Sean should just move up and maybe try for a second belt and just leave the division. But there are still fights for him at Bantamweight. So what is next for Sean O'Malley after losing this fight?

For me, I think it makes a lot sense to just stay at 135. He shouldn't have gotten the immediate title shot in the first place. This is almost every time we see someone get one of these immediate tell shots unearned and too quickly. We go like, well, you're really putting this fighter behind the eight ball if they lose. And so many of these fighters have lost that immediate rematch. We saw it with this in this very division. Cody Garbrandt was an amazing example. Should not have gotten that immediate rematch with T.J. Dillashaw.

Does it change anything in the long run? I don't know. But I do think there's a world where Cody, you know, loses that first Dill Shal fight, comes back with a win or two to get their rematch. And we look at it differently and said, yes, you lose those two fights and you are so far from a title opportunity as long as that person is on top. And in Marab's case, it looks like he's going to be up there for a while. Like I don't think anyone's going to beat him for at least a year. I've touted an Umar-Norma-Madomato rematch for a long time. But again, that's going to be, I think, at least a year away.

And even then, I don't know if Umar is the guy to beat Marab because Maraub looks really good in that first fight and won a pretty clear-cut decision. So I'm struggling with Sean a bit. I don't want him to go to 1.45. He's certainly like rangy enough. But if he has problems with grappling, not problems with grappling, I'll say his take down defense actually looked okay against Marab. But there are other good wrestlers of 145 too. And that's just going to be worse for him.

He'll be average sized at featherweight and it's not going to look great. The power might translate. It might not. That's another issue. He should stay at 135. But that's only assuming he's aware it could be. a very, very, very long time before he fights for a U.C title again.

Again, because he'll need Marab to either be upset and lose or move on to another division or just retire, and I don't know if any of that's happening anytime soon. I went with Bantamweight for my pick for him. We just talked about this guy. I said, F it, I'm throwing in there with Patchy Mix. I'm throwing there with Pachy Mix.

Yeah. I said, let's just... Wow. Yeah, I actually get a few of this picks like this week where I'm just like, you know what, screw it. Let's just do it. I think that's how much fun I had with this card. both guys have a lot to prove man i mean i wouldn't call mallee's performance disappointing

but like we said he is far back at the line and mix is definitely back in the line the way he fought on a saturday the way he lost like that that was tough to watch that was tough to watch so if mix wants to you know stay in that title picture wants to say like hey i i swear i am a championship guy uh well prove it beat a guy who's fight a guy is a former champion for the guy who's just coming up to title title bouts let's see it happen um I just think it's a cool fight, too. I think it's a cool fight too. And then if Patchy loses that fight, it's not like he's done forever.

But then that's when we have a hard recalibration. And then instead of matching Patcha, patchy up with top seven, top eight guys, we look back to the 15 to 20 range and say, well, Patchy, sorry, man, you got to climb back up the hard way now. But let's give him one more big fight and see how it goes. So I have a different idea for Patchy Mix because I love you, AK. You're my best friend, but you're very wrong about this because you just can't do this. You just can't.

Patchy cannot fight John Malignette. I just did. You can't. It can't happen. You just did. This is a little tougher for me. Like there were thoughts I had. Like, Figy was one of the guys I thought about.

And we were kind of trying to iron this out on the post-fight show. And then there was just straight up. Rob Font was another guy I thought of. I see it there. The correct answer is Henry Suhudo. Like, you just go ahead and just pay that one off and get it done. Because two reasons why I like this fight. One, there's a little bit of heat.

there two shana malle will take it very seriously and three it'll likely be the final fight of henry suhudo's career so just wins all around if we're being honest so uh and it would be a big one for for henry and it would get built in the right way so yeah we'll just go ahead and do that and if shan o malley can't beat henry sehudo at this point in henry suhudo's career then we have to have a different conversation i think and maybe henry goes out on a win over shot o' mallee like that'd be kind of a cool moment so yeah just throw just tuck those two dudes in there two former champions fighting and that's that's that's my only i think my biggest fear suhudo wins and doesn't retire that's that would be horrifying to me so i i i think i like your pick but boy i just am worried he would

suddenly start calling for a towel if you'd be it omalley or something this is nothing for him like he's not going to fight for belt i don't know if he believes that mike i don't know if he believes that dude i mean with Henry Sehudo. But yeah, there's only two fights that make sense for Tehudo. It's either Brandon Moreno or Sean O'Malley, and it doesn't appear the Brandon Moreno fight's going to happen. So yeah, there you go. Just chuck them in there with Tehudo, two bigish names,

and we'll go from there. Kayla Harrison's very easy, AK. Who do you have for Kayla? Mike, who do you have for cue up the band? Cue up the band. Obviously, it's Juliana Pena, the rematch. I mean, come on. Like, we did, look,

Julianna Pena had a torn labrum. She wasn't herself. Exactly. She was, you know, on social media. No, obviously I'm joking, but I am so fired up for Harrison Nunes, man. I am so fired up for this fight.

And I didn't think I would be this fired up for it. I really didn't expect myself to get to where I'm at right now. Like, I was going to be excited for it. It's a big deal. And it's huge and all that. But after that, face off and like the they exchanged like very kind,

respectful words, but you could see a little heat in both their eyes. Then that face off, Nunes looks like she's been hitting the weights. She looks in like terrific. She looks jacked, man. I love this fight so much. I'm so ready for it.

And maybe this is a hot take. I don't care. This is one of the five biggest fights the UFC can make right now. Oh, I thought you're going to say it like ever. Is it like that would be a hot take? Right now? Like men's women's easily.

Right now. This is one of the five. Even if everybody is healthy and ready to go. This is one of the, the five biggest fights they can make. And you could do it. This could be like if they sign it with Netflix, like this could be the Netflix debut main event.

This could be the first women's championship fight in UFC history to headlight and Madison Square Garden. I mean, there's so many possibilities with how big you can make this fight. And at least for now, AK, Bannamweight is back. Oh, I'm sorry.

Bannam Wade is where we all expected it to be. Am I right, A.K. Never gone. Never gone. gone. Never gone, my friend. Never gone. Yeah, it's great. UFC got the outcome they wanted. I think a lot of fans got the outcome they wanted. Listen, and props Julianna Pena. I think she did a great job promoting this fight. She tried to cheat, which I thought was great as well. When she started just wildly throwing those up kicks and like cracked her with two clean ones, I'm like, yeah, Julianna, like, this is your only chance. This is your only chance. Respectfully, respectfully, I know you're the champion, but I do think Killarison is a better fighter. So how do you, win when you're in this kind of situation, you cheat your ass off. And were it not for an incredibly competent refereeing job by Vito Ribeiro.

Shout out to Shaolin. She probably wouldn't have lost a point with a lot of other refs. Right? Let's be she rocked her with a kick. I don't know if another referee would have like not taken the point and put them back into position. But there's a chance that she would have gotten away with it and also got the fights stood back up. Like you just don't know with some referees.

So I thought her throwing those kicks was like, I don't want to say, genius because it's nice i don't want to give her that much credit but she was a huge underdog in this fight and if that had worked and she that that hurt kail harrison like that damage just would not go away it doesn't matter with you deducted point or not that damage was not going away if that had somehow affected Kayla worse than it did there's a chance pinia could have won the fight and so she had to take every chance she got um so fair played her well unfair play to her but yes um i respected the i respected the cheating big time and in the end thankfully it didn't matter keel harrison took care of his got the submission so yeah this fight with amanda is so exciting and

It's organic, you know. It's really organic. It's not a fight like I always wanted, but it has built up so well over the years. And with Amanda being very smart, Amanda kind of always keeping that door open. She never, there was probably maybe one or two interviews who said, oh, I'm pretty sure I'm not coming back. I don't want to find one, blah, blah, but whenever Kayla's name came up, there was always that hint of, well, like, we'll see if Kayla makes it.

Like, don't commit to anything. Just we'll see if Kayla makes it. Sure enough, Kayla, 3 and O in the OC, great job so far. Great win. great promo, made sure to call Amanda into the cage. Security did their job, letting Amanda in. They probably be a little extra careful. The president was right there.

Like I understand that security was kind of like, wait, wait, we can't just let anyone jump in the crowd. They probably knew Amanda Nunes is too. But again, the president was right next to the cage and right there. So security probably a little tighter. But, yeah, it all worked out. The face office great. Like you said, like respectful, respectful. They weren't like trying to jaw jack and overly trash talk each other.

but that's because we all know that the tension is real the tension of you know they used to train together who who is people always talking about amanda's oh just just outmuscled her way you know to a title she's just for physical gifts well they're not going to make that argument with Kayla i mean Amanda looked huge in there don't be wrong but we always talk about Kayla's like a friggin specimen probably one of the most best probably one of best athletes in all of them may today so that that part is uh factors into it it's awesome man I hope we get it you know before the end of the year but I know I know Damon mentioned it on social media that six months, supposed to be six months mandatory.

You know, if you come back from retirement, unless they make an exception, unless they make an exception, Mike, and the UFC would never do that. I mean, they run their own drug testing program.

So yes, they could certainly make an exception for that. But I think Dunez is going to want to, like, take her time. And I mean, build this thing up, man.

There is no rush right now, especially with like the types of fights the UFC is making that is selling out arenas. So there is no rush. Build this thing up. Put on a big car. let it stand alone, do the thing.

All good. And Juliana Payne, what a great tryer. And I blame Waldo Cortez-A-Costa for the point-take because Waldo Cortez-A-Costa also cheated his ass off in the third round of the Sergei-Svvac fight because had Sergei-Svac-Vevac gotten the full take-down that Waldo Cortez-A-Costa literally grabbing the outside of the cage over the top pad.

Sergei-Svvvac was going to maybe win that fight. So, yeah, cheat your ass off. There's no point-take. in there and then he blatantly grabbed the fence again when Sergey tried to take him back down. Just brilliant cheating by Waldo Cortez-Acost and now he's a top 10 heavyweight. What a crazy ass world we are living in right now. But yeah, dude, Harrison Nunes has got to be bonkers.

Very excited for that. But now we go to Giuliana Pena, AK. We go to Juliana Pena. And this is, it's tough scenes for Giuliana Pena right now. Pretty tough scenes. she I will give her credit and I'm not a hill like I wasn't like a gigantic fan of her like trash talk and stuff but she made this fight what it was she built this thing up and like Harrison was like a very solid dance partner because of Pena just sort of setting her up and Pena was the villain

she was the heel in this fight and she got her comeuppance and it made the moment for Kayla even better because Kayla was the baby face and Pena was the girl everyone wanted to see lose and that's actually what happened here. So it made it bigger. Juliana Pena is also a UFC Hall of Famer now. She's a two-time champion. Even though her resume is very strange and her overall UFC record isn't the best and she only has one win over a current fighter on the UFC roster right now and Raquel Pennington,

which a lot of people feel like she didn't even win that fight, she is still a two-time champ. and she will have those accomplishments and she will be enshrined in the UFC Hall of Fame because she has won the bell twice. But now she is in such a weird position because unlike Sean O'Malley, who the UFC is going to push to the moon until the day that Dana White is no longer

in the chair that he is in, Julianna Pena is not like a massive star for them. She is just kind of there. And now Julianna Pena sort of gets put in a position where she has lost any chance of fighting Amanda Nunes the third time. she will never fight Kayla Harrison again. That feud is over because this fight was not competitive at all

outside of the illegal kick that got her a point taken away. So now she becomes like the Caitlin Chukagian slash Serminara of women's bantam weight potentially where she is going to have to fight off staving contenders looking to fight for a belt, which they won't be able to do for quite some time until this Harrison Nunes thing is settled. And that could take multiple fights in well over a year for that to happen.

what so i don't know what to do with juliana pain okay i landed on i lean perrez because she seems to like have some kind of buzz right now but i i truly do not know what to do with thadia and i don't know what kind of motivation she's going to have to continue doing this because like what else i mean maybe she has things to prove to the ma community in terms of like her overall resume but in terms of like accomplishments I don't know if she can accomplish anything more. You know what I mean? Like, do you do?

Is she excited to fight Norma Dumont or fight Macy Chesson or Ketland Vieira? No, I don't think so. Eileen Perez has some buzz and like she, Pena could win that fight potentially. I don't know, man. I don't know where the motivation comes from. But if I have to pick a name, I'll go with that one. Because at least I think the UFC can do something with Eileen Perez.

But I don't know, man. Weird spot. It's almost pointless to do this because I don't think we see Giuliana fight again for like a year. Like I think she's pretty happy. She's made like good money. I think she's pretty happy with her life. And she's not, she's not going to rush back in there. I mean, let's look at her schedule.

She's only fought five times since 2020. So she loses the GDR in 2020. Fights twice in 2021. Of course, the men, Nunez win was in there. Then loses to men in 2022. And then I think she has quite some injuries she had to deal with and doesn't return. until two years later. So, and then now this was seven, eight months between fights.

Again, she's in no rush. She's in no rush. She's doing well, I think, with her career. Good for her. I know she's got other pigs on the iron. You know, I know she does commentary and things like that. She's involved with other promotions. So that's good.

So that's good for her. I hope she does take time off if she wants to and that she can be healthy and happy. So again, so yes, maybe it's Aileen Prez, but it won't be Eileen Prez in like, you know, four months from now. It'll be Eileen Prez maybe next year, depending where Eileen Perez is. I pick Macy Chasson. Again, maybe not this year. me next year. So she could go in any number of directions, but it's really not worth, you know,

beating this dead horse because we just, we don't know when she'll be back. We don't know what she'll be back and we don't know what the women's band to wait division will look like, or even if there will be a women's band to wait division when she decides to come back. Let's go to Joe Piper, AK. We talked about him earlier. Look, this is a fight we're not going to go back and watch again, although Piper, like, Piper hurt Calvin Gassel. the most he's ever been hurt in a fight. Crazy. Multiple times in that first round.

But then Joe, even Joe said it afterwards to Joe Rogo. He was like, yeah, I realized that I can't finish this guy. So I just have to just win. He's a wily veteran. He's been in there. Yada, yada, yada. Kelvin just, I can't believe Kelvin's 30. He just looks like he's 45 in there.

Like, I look younger than Kelvin Gasolm. He's 55 in fight years. I mean, he is. And after that fight, he aged another. two years. That was rough the first round. That was rough. Yeah. And Piper just fought like a very mature fight. And I think Piper, you know, it was nice hearing Joe kind of break down the fight the way that he did. It wasn't the bow nickel style of, hey, this is, I know it wasn't, this wasn't boring. This is the best performance of my life. This was perfection. This is, this, I should get a bonus for

this. Like, it was none of that. It was just like, yeah, man, this dude's real tough and I couldn't finish him. So I had to kind of veer up the game plan and just try to win the fight. Then he apologized for some of the things he said afterwards. And yeah, I mean, just all on all, it was like a fine night for Joe Piper. Jed and I were talking about this on the watch party. There is zero chance this fight happens. But I'm going to go and just put it out into the universe because this would be, I could see the poster now.

It makes perfect sense. There's hashtags. It's Joe versus Bo. Like, we got to get there. We got to get there. Joe already planted the seeds, call him Bo Nickel. the definition of a fraud check.

They're never going to do this fight. I mean, they will at some point. We will see these two dudes fight each other. I would just like, just do it now. Just do it now. Just do Pfeer versus Nickel. Let's have some fun. And that's it.

But it's not going to happen next. So I'm basically foregoing an Otno point because they're going to get Bo Nickel the lowest ranked middleweight on planet Earth again, as they probably should. They definitely see more value in Boe Nickel than they do Joe Pfe. But eventually we're going to get to Joe versus Bo. This is going to be the middleweight version of Max Holler versus Justin Gachie,

where I'm just going to keep saying it after either these two guys fight until the end of time. That would be a nightmare for me because I keep getting Joe Piper and Bo Nicol confused for some reason. Like, they're not that similar. I think just they both kind of, you know, entered the UFC around the same time off contender series. Bo's story was very different. He had to do like multiple contender series appearances, as was planned, as was planned. I mean, they would have signed him off the first fight if it wasn't like his third pro fight or whatever it was. But yeah, I just get them mixed up.

I think like, I don't know, speechwise, they're kind of similar. I don't know. I'm not entirely sure what it is. It kind of look alike. Kind of, like not that, but not even that much. It must be like maybe one or two features that are getting like mixed up my head. It's the red hair, okay. It's the red hair.

That's part of it too. And again, I do think they just sort of came in around the same time with, you know, both with a bit of hype. I mean, both more than Joe, but Joe had the whole BJO Pfeiffer thing. So, yes, I get them, I get them mixed up a lot. They both like, oh, got fraud checked. They got fraud checked, whatever that. that is. I went with Bruno Feheda, win, lose, or draw. He's fighting Ikram. I think I'm Oskarov, EFC 318, July 19th. I don't want to give Pfeer Ikram. I think, so I didn't want to do

want to do the winner of the fight. I think him and Bruno would just be a lot of fun. I just want to see someone get knocked out. I think Piper would be the one. I do think he's a step above Bruno, but it would be a willing dance partner for sure, someone who's, you know, he couldn't get the finish against Gasselum. But if he fights, like he did nobody can nobody can create crazy some of the shots he's taken in his career it is absurd i don't know how he didn't get knocked out um but yeah if bruno takes any of those shots that uh calvin took on saturday bruno's going down so uh exciting stuff i'm not rushing piper to a top 10 you know ranking i'm not worried about that let's let's keep building this guy because he still has

a lot of developing to do right he's only what like oh yeah fights in his career or something like he has a lot of developing to do a lot of growing up to do inside and outside the cage so let's keep giving him fun opponents, guys can get highlights against, and, you know, again, revisit, you know, six to 12 months from now where, where we stand with that Joe Piper. Yeah. Joe, I mean, good win for Joe. Good win. Eating guy Calvin Castle is not an easy feat, even though Calvin's seasoned to be, to be nice about it.

But yeah, we were talking about this on the watch party. If Joe Piper fought on any other contender series card for his second fight, would he be in the same spot? you know what I mean? Like he just, Joe Piper just happened to have the performance he had on the worst contender series. Right.

Right. It was just all bad fights. And then Joe like destroyed a dude. And it was like, you want to be on the show, be Joe Piper. And Dana just put him over like Rover, man. It was just like perfect timing.

It was just lightning in a bottle for Piper. And let's see if he can continue to evolve, uh, in and out of the octagon. Let's go to even Jed. Jed gave this man his last name back. It's no longer Wario Watista. He actually called him

Wario Batista. He gave him the Bac back in the last name. Mara Batista, let's not mince words or make any bones about it. He beat the hell out of Patchy mix last night. That fight was not competitive for a second. He hit Patchy like real quick with some quickness, a lot of combinations,

and a lot of people like, oh, maybe Patchy was injured. The second Mara Batista started going, go back and rewatch like the first 90 seconds of that fight. Mario looked uncomfortable, I mean, Patchy looked uncomfortable, but that's because of what Mario did to him early on. He set the tone immediately. And Patchy was like, oh, no, this guy is like way faster and sharper than I expected him to be. And Mario just went in there and did it, man. Like, this was not a boring performance. He just, he beat his ass. I mean, just busted him up. There was a great performance, man. And he got booed out of the building.

didn't get a post-fight interview, which is frigging insane to me. Like, after that performance, it's just wild. But people just don't like this guy because they love Jose Aldo so much. And they hate how that last fight went. But man, this was an outstanding showing from Mario Batista. And he kind of proved, again, and I mentioned this at the beginning. I never thought Patchy was the best band of mate in the world. I don't think I had him ranked anywhere.

I don't think I had him above three. and I think I gave him the third spot because of like how impressive the Grand Prix run was. But I was just never that guy that was like, this guy is the best Bannemite in the world. And I'm not trying to like shit on a guy or pour salt in the wound. That's just how I've kind of always seen it. There are just, there is a just a big gap, especially in mixed martial arts, especially at 1.35 between very good and great.

And Patsy Mix is a very good Banimate. He is one of the 10 to 50s. 15 best bannam weights on planet earth. And that's great. If I was one of the 10 to 15 best golfers with fighters in the world, I'd be pretty damn happy with that. Like that's a good place to be. But yeah, good for Mario Batista ban.

What are we doing with Mario now? Because he's not like a big superstar. We didn't get the post-fight interview because that would have been like I was looking forward to the Mario Batista post-fight interview. How would the fans react to him? What would he say? Could he get himself over? would he talk shit to the fans after booing him?

Like I was looking forward to that. We didn't get it. Said some stuff at the Post-Fi press conference, but what do we do with Mario here, AK, after this incredible outing from him? Yeah, he was great. He was great. I'm sorry, well, comment on Pachy's performance just a little bit.

Like, I actually accept whatever excuses people want to make that, oh, it was short notice. Oh, maybe there's an injury we don't know about. But, but that stuff doesn't matter. I'm sorry to say it doesn't matter once he's stepping in that cage. And like Mike said before, all the confidence, all the bravado does not help. The optics of the loss and the performance are so bad, are so bad. So even if you want to say, look, you could talk to me into saying, if Patchy had three months to repair from Mario Batista, he would have done so much better.

You could actually talk me into that. I'll believe it. I'll support it. But guess what? He didn't have those three months. He had however much time he had any signed up for. And that's it. Those are the rules of the fight.

That is the reality we are dealing with. You can go at ifs and what would happen and blah, blah. the reality is, business circumstances, and he did not look good. He did not look good, and Mara Batista looked great. All the credit to Mara Batista. We in the M.A. Media, I don't want to say Mike necessarily, but certainly myself, Jed, a lot of us. Yeah, well, listen, we were a huge part of kind of turning public sentiment against him for that horrible, that horrible Josie Aldo win. But I like to think most of us maintained that was a problem with the judging and not with Mara Batista.

Mara Batista did what he had to do to win. He was facing arguably one of the greatest strikers in them in history and said, well, I'm not going to play that game. I'm not going to play that game when I can do this. Should the judges have given him the fight? Probably not. But they did. But they did. And he greatly increased his chance of winning by fighting the way he did.

And the way he fought this Saturday was really great. I just want to point out, man, the footwork was spectacular. We talked about why didn't Patchy go for takedowns? And he certainly could have pressed the issue. But look how, if you watch the fight again, look out. Batista's hips. Look, look where his hips are at all times. They were almost never, his lower body was almost never still. They were always back. He was almost never like straight, except when he was like striking,

when he was, you know, which he did with great success. But he was keeping his hips back at a good distance. So he didn't make it easy for Patchy to take him down. And later on, I think when Patchy did go for a few take down attempts, like Batista was right there. So we can't say enough about Batista's performance. It was great. Disappointing to see Patchy lose the way he did. But Batista beat him.

Straight up. Straight up. No excuses. No other reason. he just beat him. Mike, I'm going crazy here with it. Maybe I was so wow by Mario Batista. I am going with Umar, no maco meta for Mario.

Wow. Let's go. I want to see Umar fight Maraub again, but if he gets an immediate rematch, that would be patently absurd. Even if it's like Corey goes first and like Omar is just allowed to sit and get a rematch, that would be so stupid. I do think Umar is the guy to beat Marab someday, but not in an immediate rematch for him. That just makes no sense whatsoever.

He needs more experience. He needs to beat other opponents. It's he needs to, Umar needs to level up. So I want to see him fight Mario. And Mario, he's got eight straight wins now. He kind of already has the resume of a talent challenger. He's certainly behind Corey Sandhagan in the picking order. But if he beats Umar, Corey gets his shot first.

Umar Batista winner gets, um, gets a title fight. I'd be very happy to see it. And I don't think Umar is going to run through Batista either. Like you can't count Bautista out against anybody, man. You cannot count him against anybody. So I'm going for it. Swinging big. let's see let's see this happen i like that i would see and here's the thing this is why i wish he had a

post fight interview because that would have been the perfect call yes he would have been tremendous he may not have gotten it but that would have been a perfect callout right there so love that idea uh i didn't go in that direction uh for maria batista i'm trying like there's honestly for us watching the fight right we looked at maria batista like okay this guy's this guy's good And even when I talked to John Anick, who's like, look, I know this is the patchy mix story, but like maybe Mario is good at fighting. And we're just not giving him the credit because of how we feel about the Aldo one. And to John's credit, he definitely had a point there.

I think this goes one of two ways. The one I'm not going with, I can absolutely see a world where they, Mario Batista doesn't really move up in terms of like the rankings of competition. I could absolutely see it. UFC is going back to Canada, they could absolutely do Mara Batisa versus Amin Sahabi. Like that's super possible. Yeah. I'm just going to play it safe.

I'm going to go with the, I'm going to go with the favorable odds here. I'm going with the low hanging fruit. Just rebook the Cheeto fight and just do that. Like, that's fine. Go ahead and do that. Sure. And then, you know, we'll see what kind of Cheeto goes from there. It's just right there.

Cheetah's still kind of an over guy. And maybe that doesn't help. the curating of Mario Batista if he goes out there and just peppers Cheatera for 15 minutes. But yeah, I'd like to see Batista fight Umar. I just don't think they're going giving that big of a step up. I think they're going to make him earn a little bit more. Let's go to Kevin Holland. Another thing I mentioned on this watch party, okay, because we are wrapping up this fantasy season here in the first half of 2025, which Casey Leiden has just officially locked up Has he? I need to do some math.

I need to do my own math. I have not reviewed the numbers. I have not reviewed the numbers. He just got like max points out of Marab. That's going to be real tough to be. And two wins, two wins from Wang Tong in 2025. So he got a lot of points at her. I told him yesterday on Slack.

I'm upset that he used the strategy of picking good fighters who win fights. I think that's just dirty. That's just dirty. fun. Oh, I'm going to pick great fighters for my fantasy team. Boring. Boring, Casey. I feel good feeling. I feel confident I will get the bronze medal. I will at least make it up to the podium because I still have I really to pouria. I feel pretty good about things. But no one picked Kevin Holland. I feel like Kevin Holland is going to be like a top three or four round draft pick in the next one because this dude just fights all the time. Like even if he loses like,

so what? He'll be back in six weeks and just do it. again. This guy could fight three more times in the back half of 2025, but he goes in there as I said earlier, he is the, he was the talk of the day because of just five words, just tweeting things out, getting people riled

up, then the bell rang, he just destroys Vicente Lucke, taps him in round two. And you know what, A.K, because of how well he played this, and because Kevin Holland has redefined what a prize fighter is in the modern UFC era,

he proved that you don't have to win belts to make money. He proved that you can have a fruitful career in the fight world without even being terrifically great. You just fight all the time and you're fun on the microphone and you help the UFC when it helps them and it helps you financially. Kevin Holland has mastered prize fighting in 2025. And now I'm going to reward him by giving this man the fight that he wants.

He doesn't want to, he doesn't want to fight. Carlos Prochis. He doesn't want to fight Ian Machado Gary. He doesn't want to fight these dudes. He doesn't want to fight for belts. He doesn't give a shit about any of that. He just wants to fight the old washed up kind of dudes, at least in his eyes.

He wants to fight the Lukeys. He wants to fight the Gilbert Burnses. He wants to fight the Colby Covington's. Let's give him Colby. Because I'm telling you, if Colby Covington can't beat Kevin Holland, like he's done. So let's just get this up. Like, this might be the most realistic, biggest fight Colby could get right now.

that's like possible for him because he's not fighting anybody else that like has any cachet and Holland is over man like people love Kevin Holland and people there's a a group of people who really like Colby so I think it's a fight that

would be kind of interesting and I love it so I'm going to give it to him it makes a lot of sense it was a great call up by Kevin Holland that's doing the damn thing that's perfect you got to plant that scene right you got to plant that scene the ufc's mind planting colby's mind like

said maybe colby's out there and social media sees the call out thinks about a little bit kind of helps to push the fight forward himself um i'll give i went a different way i'll give you my pick in a second i just wanted to calculate um how many points kevin holland would have won someone if they had picked him uh even though he lost in january he got the two wins over luke and gunner he got a finish on gunner i didn't remember he got a bonus for the gunner nelson uh sorry he got both He finished Lucay and then, no, it was a performance of the night, I think, for Gunner. Because there was no fight of the night. So I'm saying it was Sean Brady, Tinar, Shauna, Shauna, Shannon, and Kevin Holland.

Oh, yeah. Crazy. And I think we were like- It was a performance. It was, but I think we were like, why didn't it's like Chris Dunner? We thought it would be a fight of the night. And that's what we thought. We're like, oh, that was a good fight.

That's going to fight of the night. Instead, only it was one person got it. Very strange. Anyway, so anyway, he would have gotten someone like 300 fantasy points if they had picked him. He literally could have swung, depending who picked him. He could have swung this league, which is pretty crazy. He just fights so much. I'm being selfish, Mike.

I'm ignoring his callout. I'm ignoring his very sensible, his very sensible business strategy of, hey, just put me in there with names that I can beat and I can fight often and let me get paid. No, I want, I'm waving a magic wand. I want to see him fight Carlis Pratchez. I love that fight. That's to be so fun. That is the correct answer. He doesn't want that.

He is not hunting that fight. He would do it, though. He would do it. But he is not pursuing that fight, but he would do it. So this is more of a magic wand thing. I really love to see him fight projects. Yeah, that'd be wicked fun. Let's go to the wild card round, AK.

And then after this, we will turn it over to you guys. Super Chatters get to the top of the list. And we'll just kind of knock out a wild card round here, where you guys just get after it with your picks. Please leave it to, like, fighters who actually competed last night, not just willy-nilly throwing out John Jones versus Francis and Gano because that fight isn't going to happen. Now you've done it. leave that in fantasy land.

But we are going to select one fight ter that we have not match made for, and we will match make for them right now. So I'm curious where you went with this AK? Like, did you say, did you say Wildcard or did you say WaldoCard? Because I. Oh, God. That was so stupid. Oh, God.

I'm solo screening you because what is this time? You're giving him Tom Massimo, aren't you? No, no, no, no. We're not there yet. But I'm giving them a. I'm giving them a. Big name. Who did that?

Yes, I get a pretty big name. The guy won five straight fights. I don't think the Spirag fight was a robbery. The 3027 card definitely was. I have to watch the end closely. Maybe I wasn't watching the fight closely enough, but I swear you had to score that first round for Spivok.

But again, maybe I'm wrong. I wasn't watching that intently, and I have obviously not watched the fight again since Saturday night. So, but he won. Whatever. The judge gave him the fight. It's five straight wins for Salisaboy. straight wins in the heavyweight division than john jones more consecutive wins than tom aspinall all right

this guy is the hottest name at two 265 right now let's give him a contenders him a long time contender contender someone who he will probably be a like plus 400 underdog against mike i want him to fight alexander volkov i want salsa boy and alexander bolkov and if salsa boy wins you give this man his title shot in in 2026. Joshua, what just happened? We just vived in the chat, Joshua. We're queuing up the band. We're doing it cyber style, cueing at the band. Cortez-A-Costa versus Volkov. Joshua, you're right.

And you nailed it. You know, this is the way to go. So that's my that's my Waldo card thick, Mike. What's that? Do we make history, AK? Wait, what? Did we just make history? No. We just make history. No, we just made one. Do you think? No, we didn't. Of course we didn't. Why would you do that? Why would you do that to me? I'm not picking Waldo Cortez.

I was looking you. Why would you do that? I was looking you right in your face. And I'm like, I thought we were. He ruined rebellious to Spain. I will never forgive him for that. It's not his fault. But I'm going with Patchy Mix.

We're going to book. We're going to matchmake Patchy Mix the correct way. Patchy makes us to earn his stripes now. And that's just the end of it. He needs a tough ass fight against a guy that nobody really knows except for the hardcores. And I'm going to give this man his chance. I'm going to give this man his chance. I think he will gain a lot from this.

And hopefully, hopefully this man is very active in 2025. It is time for Patrick Mix versus Montel, Quick Jackson. That is the fight to make. I think Montel is ranked number 14 in the UFC rankings. Mix is probably going to be,

I'm actually kind of curious to see how the UFC rankings panel ranks patch you mix after this fight. You think will they put, will they put him in the top 15? He will be in the top 15. My question is, where will you rank him? I updated. I did a little update of my own rankings last night.

Just not for an article. Like, we won't do a full divisional update until the end of the month, but I do like on the side, just kind of keep my own rankings. I did put him at the top. I put him in the top 10. I put him in the top 10, Mike,

but I'm curious to see where you landed. I think there's a very easy spot to put him in the top 10. But after that performance last night, it wouldn't shock me if people just did not even put him in the UFC top of team. Would not shock me this latest. Like I get it.

especially anyone who's not watched so much in Bell Tour and just kind of like, we're like, okay, this is the first time I'm really going to focus on Apache Mixed fight. Didn't look like a top 15 guy, maybe didn't look like a top 20 guy. That was bad. How's real bad?

I will put him, he will be in the back, he will be in the lower third of the top 15 for me. Wow. So who's he, I don't know where I'm putting him. Who's he behind? Who's he behind, would you say,

what is the wrong to do you know? Rob Umar, San Haggit, Omali, Yon, Mick, Figgy, Verasong, font.

It's a hobby. Mario he might be like 13 or 14 damn he'll be I don't know for sure I have to like really break this down I think I'll have him at 14

ahead of Henry Suhudo but then somebody has to go I don't know maybe Sehudo's just out of the rankings and I put mix of 15 could you Mike he shouldn't even be there anymore come on take him out yeah I think that's I think that's kind of where I have to put him I mean, I had him at, I think I had him.

Me and Jed had, unless Jed updated his. Yeah. I've had mixed like lower than everybody. Yeah. For the most part, I had him at six setting into this fight, and I wasn't very confident about that. But yeah, he takes a big drop here, man. It takes a big drop.

I have Montel. I actually have Montel at 14 in my rankings. So I don't know. Maybe I'll put him in between, maybe I'll put him at like 13. I don't know. I'm probably being generous. I would have my top 10.

It's funny because I'm also forgetting, like, the second Megameteoff fight wasn't like a shining example of how good patchy mix is either. Like, this is kind of, and Megamagana. I thought he lost that fight. Yeah. I thought he lost. And that guy's really good. Like, you know, we're not trying to say, like, oh, the fact that he had a tough fight with Megamatov

and Beltor, like, is like, oh, that means that he's not good. Like, that guy is really good. But this is kind of back-to-back performances now against top 15 guys. who he didn't look amazing. So I shouldn't have him this high. I am going to have him in my top 10. I have him above Figgi and Zhabi, which maybe isn't fair.

Maybe they should both be above Patchy Mix. I have him above Chito, above Rob Flant. We'll see. I don't know. Guys, you know what, shout at me in the comments. I know I know I'm too high. I understand. That was bad.

That was really bad on Saturday. That's really bad, Mike. All right, let's go to the peeps. Let's go. Let's talk to the chatters. A lot of her pretty offense. Let's go. Slito, Josh Van, ready for a big step up to fight Moreno and Noche.

No, you guys are out of your minds. Josh Van, am I crazy saying? He's kind of on a Max Holloway-esque career arc. Is that a weird thing to say? He reminds me a little bit of Max in some way. Like he's got a little bit. I can see some of that. Like I could see him taking another loss against someone, not Moreno yet, but, you know,

getting a bit of a step up in his next fight, taking another loss and that not ruining his chances of becoming a future champion, but him building off that. And then his run of like nine. 10, 11 straight victories is still to come. I don't think we should be aiming for that yet. Though he's in a very nice start, seven and one, seven and one to start his UFC career,

just the knockout to Charles Johnson, which, no shame in it, especially the run that Charles went on. I think I don't know if that started a win streak or was I part of a win streak. I can't remember, but Charles Johnson is a very good, very good flyweight.

Yeah, he's got a tough to book, man. Yeah. He's 23. He's going to bump up two spots in the rankings. Tim Elliott is booked to fight somebody. Um, I think Erseg just got booked two. Who's Erseg fighting? Is he fighting Amabayev?

Is that, is that the fight? He's fighting someone not ranked if I'm not mistaken. Really? I don't know. Let me see. Alex Perez. So sorry, so he does have someone ranked. Should be ranked.

I was fighting Alex Perez. Okay. Definitely the UFC rankings for sure. Man, like even the loser of that is tough. But like, I kind of like the loser that. Like, he's 23. just build him up slow. Please, yeah.

He will fight for, he's going to fight for a title within two years. He's going to, he may not win it in his first shot, but within the next 24 months, he's got to fight for the flyweight belt. Like, he's, dude's real good. But there's no need to rush him at all. Let's just build some experience. Harrison versus Nunes is a loser leave town fight, right? I mean, Nunes for sure.

If she loses, that's just, you know, one last payday. Nunes that she wins is probably also retiring. Who am I kidding? It's probably, Nunes, it's almost a winner. or lose her at least town. She's just getting one more payday. And then she beats Kayla retire again on top. Like I'm done.

I've done it all. You could sort of say the same for Kayla. Like I get it. But I think Kayla wants a few more paychecks, right? I think if she beat Nunes, hang around for at least two or three more fights and just fight again, whoever it is that manages to bubble up in the 135 pound division and get those championship checks. So I don't know, man. It depends on, I think it depends on how the fight goes.

Like, if it's a competitive fight in Harris, person wins a decision like i think new i think those are running right back like they might just go to a different way like if they're going to go to 45 like they just run it back like who gives a shit um so yeah that's that's actually a pretty interesting question painy can make 125 one win versus natty then title fight she's not put her body through that and if she won the bell twice when she like she's done enough and and pain you would really not feel good at 125 and you put in there with Natty Ice, that could end real bad. Like, you can get hurt in that fight.

I don't know, I don't know, I don't think you should write it out so plainly that, oh, she just beats Natty Ice and gets a title fight. I think Natty Ice is like a minus 400 favor in that fight. So I don't see that happening. Where in the world is Alessandro Costa? Mike, wouldn't you like to know? Wouldn't you like to know after he abandoned? I would have won fantasy if he didn't get hurt the first time we did it.

Rob's cut list, Gasselam, and Lipski. cutting Calvin, huh? Calvin is, well, I'll say this for Rob. Like, Calvin probably is a pretty big ticket item for the UFC right now. I imagine he's making either close to six figures or, you know, somewhere, at least over $80,000 for fight just to show. So if the UFC, if his contract were to run out, I don't know if he gets cut.

But if his contract were to run out, he's definitely getting like a pretty harsh renegotiation or they would just let him walk. And it sucks because Castle was pretty reliable, like, you know, reliable test for for anyone. But it's hard, it's just kind of hard to watch him at 185 because that is the division where he belongs just because he just can't make 170. But he's so tiny. He's so tiny.

There's that party that wonders like, man, is there no way he can cut down to, to welter weight in a healthy weight? Is there a lifestyle change he can make? And maybe he can't, maybe he can't, right? We don't know the ins and outs of Calvin Gossom's life and his biology. So maybe he can't, but he is in limbo. Lipski, possibly. Lipski's gone.

Yeah, you missed that weight, six pounds, boy. And I know there was a medical excuse for it, so I hope she's all right. But it just was a really, really bad look and not a particularly great performance on fight night. Yeah, she lost the queen of violence, Nick May. And she cost money. She cost money too. Yeah. RS 40, Holland Colby, price fight.

Prize. Myers, H.J. wins. He deserves the Omer fight. Sure, he does deserve it. That's damn right. Norton. Gussum versus were not would be a stick fight. Wow.

Is Farbert you not booked? while you look that out let me just say and just gues andreas gustafs and just gustavs is so much fun that fight got some booze like they're really quick to boo but i loved gustavsin's just berserer uh style yeah i led to some uh holding chaos the first five minutes that fight word tough yeah oh sure oh it wasn't pretty listen none of the by the end it wasn't a pretty fight either like there was nothing about the fight that was aesthetically pleasing but i do think gustavs is another one of those like guys who's like just has great cardio tough as hell and he's going to come at you for 15 minutes and if you're not ready he's going to upset a lot of people and he's going to probably probably going to finish some folks too so really nice win for him and i know there was some hyper on his debut even though like his results have even before the ufc he's been kind of inconsistent uh great win great win over chaos williams and uh rs also saying merzicana versus yon blakovitz

i mean let's pump the brakes a little bit come on now can we mike he's old yeah but dude like He's not a star. And it's like, yeah, undefeated. He beat Brensen-Robero. Like that was the, no, no disrespect to Brentsavira. Like, we knew what he was there for. He was there to get newt. Correct.

Like, it was the perfect, if you can't fight a rank guy like Johnny Walker, like, you chuck him in there with the guy against Scott real good. And Brentzer-Roberer gets got real good. So he probably just gets the Walker. Walker. Well, Walker's supposed to be fighting. Zhang. Zhang.

So he gets the winner of that. Yeah. I'm okay with that. winner that's fine pretty much uh the calil round tree jama'll hill loser is okay i think yeah i like that too yeah especially if calil loses that's too straight like that's okay and i don't think anyone can complain like i think vulcan ozdemier is like the right fight yep right there yes do that that's a lot of that that's the litmus test for for these guys like you beat vulcan then like okay then we could start talking about the yons and the you know the ureys and stuff like that um

That's kind of where we're out right now. Light heavy way. It just stinks, man. I kind of hope he goes on a run and does something, but it's so bad. Yeah, it's just, it's very, very bad. Renat, did you find out about Renat? Did you find out about Renat? Not booked.

He was booked against Gabriel Bonfim and then that fight fell out. Now, Gabriel Bonfine's fighting Wonderboy Thompson. It's amazing how things can change real quick. It's your name recognition. I'd watch Van versus Temroff. Yeah. That is going to be a UFC title fight at one point, I think. Is Temarov not booked?

Temarov is booked. I'm pretty sure he's booked. Maybe I'm wrong. No, I'm pretty sure he is. It's a big fight too for him. Is he fighting him, Baku or something? He's good, man. He's another guy I'm really excited about 28 in the prime.

He's fighting, he's fighting Albaif. Yes, big fight. Abu Dhabi. Yeah, big fight. Abu Dhabi. That's a good one. Okay. No.

Do, do, do. What else we got? What else we got? Um, due to his body type, do you guys think O'Ballie could cut to 125 for a fight against Royval? I think if he could, that would be fun. Well, Malley has a hard time cutting to 35. What does that mean due to his body type? I don't know.

Because he's long and lanky. He's not like, that's, like, that's really difficult. But I'm saying, like, that means that's like bone. You know what I mean? That's all bone and essential muscle. I can't imagine it. Like, could he do it? Yes.

Would he be able to compete in a meaningful one? on fight night? Probably not. No, man, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that on Mally, please.

Can we get their thoughts on UFC 320 being October 4th in Las Vegas? I have none. I'm not surprised. Yeah, what thoughts? No,

they move no change to a fight night in San Antonio, so that September's out for pay-per-views. Yep. So they'll probably, so now they're going to do two in October.

So they'll make out for it. There'll be two in June, two in October. So there you go. Back to Vegas. Cool. Where are they? I'm surprised it's not like a Salt Lake City card, though,

because usually that's where they go in October for the first of two is they go to Salt Lake. So perhaps maybe Salt Lake squeezes in somewhere else. I don't know. 318 in Vancouver, no. Vancouver's getting a fight night. Which is a fight night, yeah. Probably headlines.

318 is in New Orleans. Who does Piper Fight next? We discussed that already. I went with Bo Nicol, even though that fight's not going to happen. I went with Bruno Faheda. When those are dropped. on his next week. Mike is the habit of always touching his earpiece. I think he's a former pilot back in the LOL. I have like weirdly shaped like inside ear holes. Me too. So like I cannot there is not a

there is not a airbud in in the world that fits perfectly in my ears. And I got to do with my right ear. It's just like an old radio trick. I got the cans but like you got to get the big cans. To me it's like a distraction. People love the big cans. I don't know what I tell you man. People love I mean, I have great, like, I have the, I have great cans. I mean, you do have great headphones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. To the best in the business. But I never really were. I never really were. I also have like messed, like weird ears from, um, I, I did MMA for like two months. The only time I ever trained in me, like two months. And I never forget, I was doing some grappling. Someone, like, rolled over on my head.

And I, I, I got to experience a very light cauliflower ear. moments. And then I actually did have to get it drained. And I said, I'm good. I'm never going to grapple again. My ears are too beautiful. But unfortunately, they are, that one ear is like permanently sort of slightly misshapen. And yes, I cannot really effectively jam, uh, earbuds in there. Mario versus Song you dong. Um, there we go, fixing it again. I, I don't mind that. Uh, I would assume Song you don't know, song is going to fight on that. Uh, Shanghai card. I know there are rumors fighting Rob Font from all I'll say about that is it's not anything fighting com.

So we'll just leave it at that. But I assume song will just fight somebody on that card, because that would make a lot of sense. Batista versus Verra just supposed to be with me. Yeah. Alamara versus Song. Jou Azama versus John. Guys, do you not have like Wong Tong matchups?

Do you not have quill and cell killed matchups? Come on, chat. Batista versus the hobby, battle the Aldo losers. Or the guys that lost to Jose Aldo, I think he's what he's trying to say, which I, I, respect that day for the shanghai card my what's that uh july 22nd or is that august i don't i barely remember this card was happening i think until someone mentioned it on onto the next one like last week so yeah and the ufc still hasn't even announced the main event yet for that

one which is august 23rd is uh the shanghai card a lot of people ask him about van and ursac did we talk about van and ursig already i love that fight yeah i don't mind i don't mind So we have to wait, but that's fun. We did talk about those, right? Especially if any of things like loses like a fun fight, because the Marino fight was fun. He lost, but it was fun. Gussim versus D-Rod, damn.

Michael Spark says, Kong versus the doctor. Yeah, where is, was it she-ming? Who was that? She-ming? I followed out from getting her name wrong. We only saw her. We've only seen her fight in the UFC one, man.

Where is she? Where is she? Yes, the doctor. Where is she? She, like, Man, she had that knockout last November. You know what? Maybe she's just in the lab training.

You know what? Maybe she is just working on her game. That's the case. And also, again, she is like a real life doctor. So probably busy. Maybe fighting not her full-time profession. But yeah, I would love to see her get it back in there. Who's next for you?

Yes. Definitely, if we were ending the year right now, I don't know if he has the knockout of the year, like in terms of like how most people would award it. But he's in, he's on the list, for show. Jekka Saragi, I mean, listen, Jacka Saragi went in saying, hey, knock me out, brother.

Perfect matchmaking. Perfect natural. Chin, chin forward, arms flying every which way. It is like, bring it. Bring it. I dare you to knock me out. And sure enough, and listen, this is why you keep the Jekka Sargis on the roster. This is what they are for.

Thank you, Jekka. You did the job. And Jusang, you just looking great in his debut. Where do you go? This guy. He's not, like, incredibly young. I think he's 30, right? I want to say he's young in

MMA years. Like he's maybe just a late start. 31. I've been fighting since 2021 pro. Okay, so like not a ton of Majan. I see some amateur fights too.

So he is young in fight years, which is great. I have him like, you know, in like the 50, 60 range of my rankings. A lot of names in there. Austin Lingo. I don't know who's booked here,

by the way, guys. I'm just reading off random names. Melsig Bogdazarian. Uh, shit. It actually gets pretty tough, the higher you go. So that might be, that might be the range you want to stay at. I don't know if we're going on too great. Weston Wilson, West and Wilson's out there, I think, still.

This is such a good division. You know, you do, you do Christian Rodriguez. You give him the undefeated. You give Christian Rodriguez the undefeated. How dare you. Give him another undefeated guy. See what happens. I think you give him like Connor Matthews.

Sure. Sure. Like, just do that. You know what I mean? Like Connor's a scrapper. fight him and he'll probably get stopped but like let's just let's trot him out there and get another nasty finish and then we can the billy cue thing's a little too no soon way too soon one more win one more win and i will and i will be okay with that fight but like when i was thinking about

fights i want to see for him in the next like 18 months billy cue is right at the top of the list that's like that's perfect it's just not perfect right now is dawson versus alvarez official Is it on MMAfighting.com? Is it on MMAfighting.com? Of course we saw the report. It's not that. Could it happen? Sure.

I don't even think from like the conversations we had. I wouldn't even say it's like fully in the works from the conversations that we've had. I see Rock Kids saying you versus Losein Keita. He's the Octagon champion at UFC Paris. I want to see Keita in the UFC for sure. Again, but that's again, that's too much. much for you. People, we had someone on this very card who was like kind of overhyped after her first performance. Wang Tong, she knocked out Victoria Leonardo in brutal fashion. I was like,

oh my gosh. And she had that previous kickbox. Another perfect like, another perfect like debut fighter. You have, yes, you have to gauge who they are being put up. And again, I'm not criticizing the winner. I'm just saying people like Jekka and Victoria Leonardo, God bless them. Priscilla Gachera, Priscilla Katjura are paid money to go in there and get knocked out. But that is they are super tough human beings who are just well trained enough to protect themselves, not well trained enough to avoid like getting Catoed and had that real fashion. So pump the brakes on you. Like I said, in MMA years, he's very young.

Let's keep him in that lower range. He does not need to be fighting like really, really good veterans. I actually think Cato would be a huge favorite over him. I do not want to see that right now. So he'll fight a contender series guy next probably, if we'll be honest. I've seen a lot of this van versus Asakura. I mean, am I going to complain if they booked that fight? No.

That would be awesome. It would be awesome. But we're going to get there. All these fights are throwing out. We're going to get him. Josh is going to fight all these guys at some point. We just don't need to see it right now. Let's build some stuff up.

I saw you run on the concession line last night. Sick. I see. I think Joseph's saying song's going to be ranked for sure. I don't know. rank for sure. I think Ariana Silva is definitely a drop out. But she

just lost to Gabriel Fernandez. That's that's tough. Yeah, Wong just, unless you're going to rank them both, I can't imagine Wong jumping over. Gabriel, like why?

Why? It's fine. She beat a very, very poor shapes. Okay, look at this fight. Look at this fight. Look at this fight.

This is Apex C. Oh my God. This might be the one. If they do, You know what? Ice both these guys till UFC Vegas 200. That's your main event. By the way, we have like two future Apex headliners.

Waldo Cortez-A-Costa is definitely going to headline a main event, Apex main event. And Friggen, where's Akonov with his, oh, I don't care who I fight next. Just give me a fight that's going to put me in the contender. Guess what? You just got a top 15, a top 10 opponent, Asimat, and it's going to be headlining the UFC Apex card. So thank you guys for doing the UFC's job.

for them. They have a lot more ethics cards to fill up for the rest of the year, and you are now the headliners of those cards. If Aspin last fight, Gone, Bone should be required to relinquish the bell. How dare you? If I book Aspedal versus Gone, Jones is not the champion anymore. Like, that's it. Dana, Danny pretty much said it last night. Like, Dana keeps trying to fight for this fight. He does. He's even, it went from 100% guaranteed to, no, no, I talked to John. He agreed to, oh, John said that. That's effed up. I'm going to do everything I can to make this fight. Like, the tone has changed 100%. The fight, like, dude, just get it done.

Like, it doesn't kill the fight forever. Maybe, like, Tom fights somebody else. And John's like, you know what? F it, I'll fight this dude. But he just doesn't have to be the champion anymore. Like, John has said on social media, I will relinquish the belt. Just tell me how to do it and I'll do it. He's done it before.

Just take the belt off of him. Tom Aspinall Serogon is terrible. I have no interest in that fight whatsoever right now. there's only two options for Tom Aspinall, and both are electric. One, if Derek Lewis beats Talish and DeShera, just do that. It's fun and wacky and weird and Tom's going to look great. And maybe Derek Lewis is a highlight real moment. Heavyweight stinks.

Zero gun does not deserve a title shot. Just give it to Derek Lewis. But the correct answer is what Jed Mishu has been saying. It's Alex Pereira versus Tom Aspinall or the undisputed heavyweight belt. And that's that, man. Like, just do that. That's a big fight. Who cares?

I'm not talking about John Jones. I refuse. I refuse to talk about John Jones. I have refused to put anything John Jones related on my social media. I'll write about it. I'm sure you guys, namely fine.com. I'm sure I've written a handful of John Jones,

Tom Atholk, articles, but I am done. I'm not talking about it. Custom versus battles, real interesting. Now, battle should be, like, you know, further ahead, but he lost so many points with that weight miss last time, and then a kind of a shaky win. And then tripling down on it.

Yeah, and then a shame. man he took the fight that takes your excuse away and arguably didn't beat randy brown if we're being honest like that was that was a that was a i don't want to say robbery but that was close so it sucks because what russarne brown like seven one eight and won the ucc he should be well out of gustavsons range but yeah man i don't know i don't know if he can be making any sort of demands now so that's sick fight man that's interesting uh take a couple more we'll get out of here uh thinking of light heavy i do wonder what they're going to do with olberg because he's in a weird spot at the Dude, this is the ease.

Don't worry about a Master of Universal Classic. I got you. It's Carl Sahlberg versus Dominic Reyes. Winner gets a title shot. There you go. That's it. Done. That's it.

Alberg did not earn his title shot with the win over Yan. It was terrible. It was a bad fight. And no fan is clamoring for it. Let's give Reyes his feel good story. Let's give him his chance. Give him a number one contender fight. And if he goes out there and knocks Carlos Alberg out,

Donna Gras fights for the light heavyweight belt. And if he wins, it would be one of the greatest comeback stories of all time. Like a man who probably should have been champion after the John Jones fight. So that's how we book one Carlos Oldberg right now. Done and done. Masters of the universe, don't think about it anymore. That's one less thing for you to think about. Just my, my, just fix it.

This is so easy. Strip John or have, you can even present it. PR, paint the PR picture. It's the Terry Francona getting fired from the Red Sox. We have decided to amicably part ways because Terry won him a championship and was a big part of what the Red Sox did, winning titles when the curse was reversed. You don't say, like, we fired this dude

because he had a bad season. Oh, no, it's the Tom Conflin situation. Like, this is how you do it. We have agreed to have John let go of the belt. It's not a stripping. It's not a vacation. We're just like, okay, let's just do that. Pereira goes up and fights for the heavyweight belt.

Yuri fights for the light heavyweight belt. against Ankelyath, and then we do Ulberg versus Reyes winner gets the winner of the title fight. Perfect. We just nailed it. Done. I'm not talking about John Jones.

I'm not talking about John. How much longer until John is finally stripped? Dana was saying it will happen. I'm not talking about John Jones. I am Mark McGuire at the steroid trial. I'm not here to talk about the past Mike. I have never. Are you Mark McGuire or you Raphael Pullmer?

I'm Mark McGuire. I'm not here talking about the job. I have never, ever. Oh. Take it up before it's a drug. I'm fat. I'm staring at your drug. It's got everything in it.

I don't know, man. This is part, I think, I truly believe he hasn't stripped John because John is part of, John is part of the negotiation rights. Like, he's not in the room with them, but like when they do a slideshow presentation for Netflix or they, put a binder together. And it's like, here are our champions. John Jones as the heavyweight champion just sells better to the casual audience who is looking to spend a billion dollars on a product. Then, oh, here's Tom Aspinall who is on his way to being something great, but no one knows who he is,

really. He's getting more popular. So I think until once they announce a TV deal, once we know what that is, then I think John gets, John will no longer be champion shortly thereafter, would be my guess. So, okay, I think we're done at this point. So the UFC, no weeks off for a little bit, I think until after an international fight week. Let me pull up the UFC's return to Atlanta, Georgia next week, a fight night card. A lot of good fights coming up. Um, this card is a great main event. Great main event. The rest of this card is like, okay.

Honestly, like I'll run it down for you, aka a podcast form next week. Kamara Usen versus walking Buckley, terrific fight. Like this is, this is, I'm so fascinated by this fight. I have no idea what it's going to look like. Big opportunity for walking Buckley. We'll see what Kamara Usman can do. Rosamu Yunis versus Brandon Maverick is the co-main event. I would say mileage may vary on that fight.

I'm like okay with it. I'm not like jazzed about it. Edmund Shabazzian versus Andrea Petroski. I mean, what are we doing here? Why are we making this fight? We're about to win some money, Mike. Is what we're about to do? We're about to win some money.

Petroski by decision or over one and a half? I don't know what the odds. I want to see what the odds are because if he's anywhere just like minus, you know, lower than minus 200, I'm about straight up to better. And then we got back-to-back Cody's. Cody Garbrandt, the former Bannamway champion taking the Hione Barcellos. Before that, Cody Brundage versus Mansour, Abdul-Malik. Picture perfect matchmaking right there.

That's exactly how you book Manor. Alonzo Menafield against Umar Sai. Paul Craig Hidalphal Balato. I totally forgot Michael Kiesa, Court McGu's on this card until I just looked at it. That fight's happening. Finally. The people's main event, though. This should, they should just bump this right to the co-main event.

Malcolm Wellmaker versus Chris Boutinho. Chris Boutinho is back in our lives and people are fired up for that. Shout out to Chris Boutini. I'm hoping to talk to him sometime early next week. Cody Durdon versus Jose Ochoa. Ricky Simone versus Charles Jordan on that card, AK. It's a good card. Phil Roe-Angeloza, Vanessa Demopoulos versus Jamie Lynn Horth.

You know what? As I read it down, it's better than like I originally thought. it was when I said it's okay, but I still stand by that it's, the main event's great and the rest the card is like, fine, but not spectacular. Andre Petroski, Mike, is currently plus money. I just want to tell people right now, don't bet on M.M.A. Really? Listen, Mike.

I tell people, Mike, while you're making a bet on a Fandul, I tell people, Mike, while you're making a bet on a Fandul, I tell people don't bet on MMA. But if you're going to bet on MMA, one, use Fanduel. two, you bet on Andre Petrosky at Plus Money when he's fighting at Mitchibosia. That's just my where I'm at. I don't know what's going on. I'm sending a text. You've got a lot of text to send to people, Mike.

I do want to tell. I'm sending a text because I'm in South Carolina. So I have to make a move right now. I do want to tell people. Plus what I'm locking it. It's going to happen. When you said he was plus money, I thought he was to be like plus 120. he's plus 170 right now.

He's plus 168 on Van Duel. This is going to move. This line by Tuesday will be closer to a- This is crazy. He should not be an underdog. This is a terrible fight for Edmund Shabazzia. He should not be an underdog. I mean,

Edmund could win, but like this is the antithesis of like what he has beaten in the UFC. Every time they throw him in there with the guy who can grapple at all and can't get hurt, he loses. I don't,

I, this is, this is weird Slito Slito is asking why do we think Petrosky beats Edmund Ed Edmond

Can not Bechabazzian fight Cannot beat grapplers And Petrosky All he does is grind wins out And take people down And grind wins out So this

He has a hard Not only that Does he have a hard time Beating grapplers He has a hard time Beating grapplers Who don't get hurt By anything

And don't stop I mean just look at the resume Look at what he's done Darren Stewart this is early. Charles Bird, Jack Marshman, Brad Tavares. Brad Tavares, one was nasty. Derek Brunson grappled the shit out of him, finished him. Jacker Manson tackled him, beat him dominantly.

Nasser Diannavov. Mawed this man. Just tackled him, elbowed the crap out of him in Crucivix. It was nasty. Then he fights. Then the UFC is like, okay, we got to do something here. Who's the worst middleweight on the roster? Oh, I know. A guy who, and a guy who won't try to attack. him at all. Let's throw in with Dolchalung Gambula. Perfect matchmaking. Edby gets the win. And you know how they followed that up when he got momentum back? This was the best. This was the best. This is literally the best. I mean, this is what they do. They like, okay, we got it right now.

And they're like, okay, maybe he's ready for Anthony Hernandez. They throw him in there fluffy. What in the world? Who just merks him. What was that? And then they're like, okay, let's take a step back. AJ Dobson, perfect matchmaking. Terrific. A guy who's just going to stand there and strike. And you want to know what they did next? Gerald Mearschart.

Gerald Mearschart was the right play who got hurt in the first round, didn't die, and then submits Edmund Shabazzian in round two. And then they're like, okay, let's go back to Dylan Butka. I mean, terrific matchmaking. They're like, okay, let's go to Andre Petroski,

who's just going to tackle this dude a million times and is basically two, he's going to be like 235 pounds in this fight starts. That dude is a tank at middleweight. He's not the most fun guy. He doesn't get knocked out. He doesn't get hurt. I don't understand it.

I'm so sorry. I said this tangent. But I hope people, again, I say don't bet MMA, but I hope people make money off this if you are the gambling sort. Mike, let me just tell people real quick. We'll be back in podcast form next week. You can reach, send your picks to Mike M underscore, it's on the screen, guys.

M underscore Heck Jr., excuse me on IG i'm on twitter at alexander kately on instagram at alexdly at aspidation dot lee at espion.com on email my dms are open send us picks next week guys i think we'll have a lot of interesting uh probably on definitely send us picks help us figure out what the hell to do with all this yes do that uh by the way you know i'm just going to break it right here okay i'm just going to break it i'm gonna bring the closed music down i'm gonna break it uh programming alert uh no btl on thursday B.TL is going to be Tuesday. 2 p.m. Eastern.

Jedd Michoud is going to take on an old friend. Our old pal, he's back. The wise word smith, Shaheen Al-Shadi. What? What? Sheen al-Shadi is coming on BTL Tuesday. The reunion is on. I'm very excited for it.

this. So stick with us, M.A. Fighting.com. Jed will be at UFSI Atlanta next week, so go say hello, take some pictures, uh, say nice things. And, uh, yeah, it's going to be a pretty wild week here at M.A. fighting.com. Stick with us for A.kai, Mike Heck. We'll see you next week on to the next one.

Good day to you. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.