MMA Fighting - On To the Next One | What's Next For Sean O'Malley, Dustin Poirier After UFC 299?

Episode Date: March 10, 2024

Following his one-sided unanimous decision win over Marlon Vera in the main event of UFC 299 to retain the bantamweight title, Sean O'Malley said his top choice would be a champ vs. champ bout with UFC featherweight champ Ilia Topuria in Spain. Will "Sugar" get his wish, or will he face No. 1 contender Merab Dvalishvili? On an all-new edition of On To the Next One, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and guest host Jed Meshew discuss where O'Malley goes from his impressive victory, and also give their thoughts on what could be next for Vera. Future matchups are also discussed for Dustin Poirier and Benoit Saint Denis after Poirier's show-stealing knockout victory, Michael Page following his victory over Kevin Holland in his octagon debut, Jack Della Maddalena after stopping Gilbert Burns in a dramatic comeback, former champ Petr Yan after getting back on track against Song Yadong, and more from the memorable event. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. My mic is muted. We're just all over the place here. But welcome to the show, everybody. Hope you're all doing well. I am Mike Keck. Jed Michoud joins us as well on this,

Sunday morning. Jed, how are you, my friend? It was a great start. It was fantastic start, Mike. Doing great, buddy. Look, a couple of important things. One, UFC 299 was awesome. And I'm always happy the morning after like a really great event. Because even though we were up until ungodly hours, it was worth it. It was worth it was sick. And two, this is a gift. You've given me a great gift, Mike. Because I don't have to listen to on to the next one this week. And I love to have one less podcast on my feed to have to work through because I don't listen to myself. Why would I ever do that? And we're going to talk this through and then I can forget about this ever happening.

It'll be great. Yeah. I mean, I didn't hear a lot of what you said because I'm trying to fix my audio issues, but I expect it was a tremendous bit of commentary. And now I think we're good to go. So if you are new to the program, normally we do this in podcast form. Normally AK is here, but Jed has valiantly stepped up in his absence. is taking a well-deserved vacation.

We're going to do some matchmaking here. We're going to do future matchups for Sean O'Malley, Vannaway Champion of the World, Marlon Vera, following his loss. We'll also talk about what's next for Dustin, following his incredible win over Benoit Santini. We'll talk about what's next for BSD as well. We'll talk about the rest of the main card winners. We will have a wild card round.

We'll select one fight where we have not match made for yet. And then at the very end, we're going to hear from you all. We're going to get your picks. If there is a fight that we're talking about and you have a suggestion within the fight we're discussing, throw it up there, we'll pull the comments, we'll pull it up on the old screen here. And you can see them. We'll react to them. And we'll go from there. So let us begin with the main event.

Let us begin with the Bannonweight champion, Sean O'Malley. sweeps the scorecards, two 50-45s and a 50-44 against Marlon Vera. It was a great performance, spectacular. And Sean O'Malley retains the belt, gets on the microphone. We were wondering who he's going to call out. Maraub was dressed all Miami-like sitting cage side. And Sean O'Malley just pretty much knows-sells him.

He does mention his name, but he pretty much knowsles him. He says, yo, Dana, I want to go to Spain. I'm going to go fight Ily at Tporia. and then was basically like, I mean, if I guess, if like you want me to fight Marab, I'll go knock him out. But Tupori is the fight that excites you the most. So are we doing a trip to Spain for Sean O'Malley? Because I think the UFC wouldn't entertain this, although Dana White kind of shot it down a little bit. I think mostly because they don't have a venue, they don't have a date,

and something that you say a lot. With holding up both of these divisions, especially right now, is a tough time to do it. So is it Marab, is it to Poria? Is the UFC going to do something crazy here? UFC's not going to do anything crazy. And Mike, we've been friends a long time. We've been doing this a hot minute.

It's not to pour you, at least not for me. I don't believe that that is what will happen. I believe what will happen is what I want to happen. So both Magic Wand and Crystal Ball here, it's Maraud Václavale. he's he's done the thing Mike he did the thing that we implore everyone to do i'm still not really sure how it worked other than that marab does have personality and has let it be shown but he's he's over he has gotten over with the fans following the sohudo thing i mean he had his 18 minute post-fight interview after the sahudo performance and no one cared because he is he is almost as over as you can get for a man in his

position and dana comes out and we don't know this Mike. Dana doesn't matchmake after fight nights. He didn't do it last night. He, in fact, explicitly told, uh, I think it was Oscar. It was like, yeah, I won't know anything until Tuesday because I don't matchmake on fight nights. But at 298, he did matchmake. He matchmate for Maraude Valsh, really and said he's got next. I think he's got next. It's the right call. And I got to tell you, I am more interested in that fight now than I was a couple of days ago because a couple of days ago, do you ask me in that fight? I say Marab's the best band I'm waiting in the world. I believe he just does Marob things to Sean O'Malley. After last night, I am very much questioning

that. I am much more interested in that matchup. So let's do it. Let's rock out, baby. Yeah, we don't even need to queue up the music here. It's just the right fight. Now, if again, and we talked about this a lot on the post fight show last night, you know my opinion on this. If Sean is like, yeah, and I'm fighting Tupori and nobody else. I'm okay. with it, but vacate the Bannamoy title. Go vacate. And if you want to become a 45 and fight for that belt, power to you. But Marab should be fighting somebody else for the vacant title if he wants to do that.

But I don't think he's going to do that. I think he will fight Marab. I'm completely with you. If you asked me of that fight like six months ago, I kind of would have been like, I don't know if I would have laughed at you because I would have just basically thought Maraub would just ragd all Sean, it wouldn't be competitive. But I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel that way anymore.

I think Sean O'Malley would, I think he'd probably be the underdog by fight time. And if you're giving me Sean O'Malley, it plus money against anybody, maybe outside of I'm probably take a good look at it. So, yeah, I'm very interested to see what that fight looks like. So the pick is Maraud de Wallis-Willi. That's what we deserve. That's what the world deserves. That's what these divisions deserve.

And hopefully we get what we deserve and what we want. Now, on the flip side, we have Marlon Vera. Cheetah goes in there, had moments, did hurt Sean at the very end of the fight with a nasty body shot, but in the end, did not go very well from Marlon Vera. It's going to be a long road getting back to a title shot, I think, for him, especially considering how he got this title shot to begin with. It was just a rivalry that needed to be kind of settled. And in Sean's eyes, this thing settled.

He 50, 40, for him. There's nothing really more he needs to do. This was kind of difficult to actually land on somebody. at EJed, because it's just really a truly wrong answer here. You throw Marab in there with anybody and I'm going to watch it. So what ultimately landed on is kind of a cop on

and probably not getting it at no point unless this lands exact. I'm going to go with a fight that they tried to book in August. It didn't pan out. Marlon Vera earned a title shot, not by beating this man, but by beating Pedro Munoz instead. I'm going go Henry Sehudo. Henry Suhudo is the pick.

I think Sehudo Moreno is like the fight that I would rather see because it's just a rivalry fight. It doesn't hold up any divisions. It's just two guys who are kind of out of the title pitch are fighting each other. So that would be like my first choice,

but I just don't know if they're going to pull the trigger. So my answer is if they don't do Suhudo versus Moreno, Cheeto versus Sohudo is my pick. Where are you at? I can't do Suhudo, even though I think that there's a big real chance that that happens because I was on this program, not that long ago.

and I was at 4298 filling in for you that time. You had taken your well-earned vacation. And I had originally had a choice. And then AK and I talked it through and I said, oh, yeah, they just got to do, they got to do Suhudo Moreno. And honestly, they probably do it at the sphere. It's just part of that.

And so I got to stick with that. I settled on what I think is the right answer, Mike. I don't know that it's what will happen, but it's what should happen in a just and fair world. Peoria's out there calling for this fight. It makes some sense. No. We got a fight coming up, Mike.

And a man's going to lose that fight. And that man's name is Cody Garbrand. He's going to lose that fight to Davidson Figurato. And after he loses that fight to Davidson Figurato, we need to have him fight Cheeto Vera. Because, one, I'm going to continue to book Cody Garbrand against huge hitters because it will never stop being funny to me. and two, he actually can win this fight. Like, if it's a main event, Cheeto, I would certainly pick Cheeto. But if it's just three rounds, Cheeto is the slowest starter in history.

Cody's going to win one. Like, Cody can win by doing a lot of the good in-and-out boxing Sean just did. But he can also go night-night real fast, like real fast. So I'm deeply intrigued by this fight. And as I was kind of working through the podcast, Hospitals was like, oh yeah, it's pretty on brand for me to book Cody Garbrain against Cheeto after he gets knocked out by Dave's Cicureto. That is probably the least surprising answer you've ever given on any of these programs.

It's on brand. That was minus 800 on Cody Garbrand for your pick. I like to watch Cody Garbrand fight do to balk real hard. It's deeply fun to me. I have a feeling this fight is going, Cody's next fight is going to come up a little bit later on. So stay tuned. but how about the MVP of UFC 299? As good as Sean O'Malley was,

he was not the MVP of the card. That moniker belongs to Dustin the Diamond Porier. What a G goes out there as a tough first round, but still very competitive. Him and BSD was everything we hoped for and more. And then he just annihilates BSD. Knocks him dead. The fall-up shot was so vicious.

I watched it again this morning. Just absolutely brutal. And Dustin Poree just planted his flag. he sent a message to the rest of these lightweights trying to vie for Islam Makachev. Ali Abdel-Ziz takes to Twitter and says, Dustin, you took a big risk. You went back and you fought a dangerous guy. You knocked him out.

Islam's fighting in June. Let's do that. You said it on the post-fight show. You had a couple hours to sleep on it. Are you still with Dustin Pori and gets the title shot after this knockout win? Yep. I think he's getting it. It seems very clear to me that that is what is going.

going to happen here and I don't have an issue with it. It's not would not be my choice, right? My choice would be, and I said it, even though everyone is very excited about it, I want Justin Gates to get his day. He's fought for the title before, certainly, but I believe he deserves to fight for the title. And this max fight is a derivation from that for reasons that are best known to him. I assume they are monetary. But in the app, that's happening.

And so since that's not not happening anymore, Porre, It makes a ton of sense because I think the timeline is just right. It would astonish me if either Gaichi or Max Holloway came out of that fight ready to turn around in six, seven weeks, whatever it is to June when Islam will be fighting. And if Armand Sauru Kian beats Charles Oliva, he could, like, there's very much a world where he comes out of that clean and I guess could make the turnaround. But I don't mind letting that fight build a little more. it would still feel rushed either way. So Poyer is not rushed. Poir is a legend.

People love him. I don't think anyone will be that upset about it. And this is the type of performance that somewhat justifies it. So I'm in to where I'm going. I think Islam knows that he tweeted immediately after. This is where the momentum is. I believe this is Dustin Poyer's title fight to lose at this point. Yeah.

I mean, again, we don't need to queue up the band. I think this is where they're going to go. there is one caveat to all of this. Is Islam Makachev, in fact, fighting in June? That we don't know, because Islam has put out many dates over the last years, and only one of them has come to fruition. We knew he was going to fight in Abu Dhabi. But he laid out sort of a timeline of, like,

how this year was going to look, and none of it has happened yet. Absolutely none of it. So if he is fighting in June, there you go. But when in June? Because if they're, I know you're on the... You think they're on the... You think they're going to do inside? Yeah, the Riyadh card, yeah.

I would be truly astonished. Well, that's a, that's an ABC event. So it's not a pay-per-view, but it is, it is the broadest free, quote-unquote, distribution. They, it's, I would genuinely be shocked if Saudi does not get Islam because it makes all the sense in the world. There's the inherent rivalry with Saudi and UAE and Islam has made a home there with Abu Dhabi. I think that they won it, regardless of what Dana says, it is obviously true that Saudi was like, hey, this card you're trying to feed us on March 2nd or whatever,

whatever week that was. It's like, this is garbage. We're not taking it. They want something big. They want something mega. There are a few things more mega than Islam. I would be genuinely shocked if he is not on that card. Yeah, Dana talking about this card,

but I mean, these things always change on a whim, on a dime, was asked like multiple times like is the Saudi car going to have a title fight and you said no but that again that could all change if his excellency wants

a freaking title fight and they're going to pay for a title fight and they're getting a freaking title fight so yeah you think Dana's telling Turkey no come on yes particularly when the alternative is like Islam needs to fight

sometime in this timeline is he going to headline jersey what no yeah he won't be fighting international fight week do you hold until July I think the longer you wait, you might as just, again, he'll run to the same issue

we ran into last year. Beats Volk. We wait until October for Abu Dhabi. Like at that point, you're just going to wait for Abu Dhabi for Islam at that point. So, yeah, I think Pori's got the fast track right now. If Islam is fighting in June, it's Dustin Pori.

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But we knew, even as brutish, if you will, as Benoit Sonsigny is, we've seen him fight. He's raw. He's a bit green. He's an animal. But he has defensive deficiencies, especially with his striking. So we knew this is going to happen. Like, we knew there was a potential that this fight could end the way that it ended and it did but he will be back and he's going to be more dangerous so i am going to be real

specific about this matchmaking here november 2024 madison square garden new york city opening fight of the main card ben wasantini versus the returning raffaille fizziv is going to be the opening fight of UFC 312 or whatever the frigate's going to be. We start off strong. We open up the main card with BSD versus Raphael Fiziv. That's what I'm going with. I don't know if it's going to happen, but that's what I'm going with because that fight rules. It would be 308, by the way.

308 because 306 is the sphere pay-per-view in September, so November is 3-08. I like that. I didn't even consider that in my head. Fiziv's just like gone because he has been gone, injury or whatever. It's a really fun matchup. It is not the direction I went. I kind of knew when you started that we weren't going to be the same thing. And I got to,

I am going to guess that there are a fair number of folk who reached out to you or going to reach out to you in the ensuing bit of time here with this. Because I did not dig too deep into the well. BSD just lost. He got a big opportunity to move up the ranks, but I would like him to defend backwards a little bit. And he's a chaos merchant. and I want him to fight somebody else who's a chaos merchant.

And wouldn't you know it, there's one of those guys hanging around without a fight. His name's Drew Dober. Put these two dudes in there and let him get grimy. Be fun as hell, baby. Yeah. I think that could look very similar. I mean, it would definitely be grimeier, but actually,

the six-foot stand-up exchange will be fun. Drew Dover's got short that takedown defense real quick. There's going to be a rough, rough night for him. But I like it. If that's the way to go. I'm fine with it. It's just a real fun fight, man. All like, for this one, I was like, I don't need to worry about rankings.

It's like, who's the most fun dude I can have who's not like currently booked right now for being still? Like, yeah, this works. This works. Yeah, absolutely. I want to pull this up. What if Armin or Alvara get done quick and are fit to turn around for June, then Porier doesn't get the title shot? And in Abu Dhabi, it would be Gachie or Holloway, who just dust and fight. I don't know that's kind of tough to answer

because you don't know what the divisions are going to look like then in so I believe that there's a very real chance that the UFC just announces a lightweight title fight prior to 300 because again it is it's seven weeks I think from maybe it's full eight I'd have to like pull up the calendar account it is a short turnaround and there is a world where one of the four men of the two lightweight fights on UFC 300 come out clean and can make that turnaround. But it's so quick and like in general fighters prefer to have 10 to 12 week fight camp.

So you're not getting that. You're getting less time for the bill than specifically for Islam. Even if they come to him like, hey, you're fighting this week. But we don't know exactly who it's going to be yet. Yeah, you can do it. There's no need there. Any of the dudes there don't need to turn around and fight in June. They can just be the guy who gets to weigh in as the backup fighter in there.

And Porier, no one's going to be upset about Poirier getting. So I think he has the inside track. But that is open. Like there is still a certainly a window where someone can jump in. Would you like BSD versus Gamron? It'd be fun. I don't know what to do with Matush Gamrot. I love him so much.

But he is so weird because it's pretty clear to me, the UFC doesn't want him fighting for a title, despite letting him weigh in his backup fighter. And I get it. I don't agree, but I understand. And so BSD would be kind of good in that regard, because I think he's got a good chance there, but also would it astonish you if Gamrod just Gamrodot at all over BSD?

And then it's like, no, okay, well, our fun exciting dudes has now lost two in a row. This sucks. Like, it's just hard to match me for BSD. right now. I did not pick him for or not for BSD, sorry for Gamron. I did not pick him for my wildcard

in case you were wondering. I also didn't. I think, honestly, that would make sense for Fiziv because the first fight's the knee injury or whatever. So they could have like a real clean,

like settle this up, do it. U.S. he's been doing a couple of those injury weird rematches. It would have Peter Curtis plays might get the same thing again. That fight would make sense for me. Well, let's move ahead to Michael Venham Page, makes his UFC debut, beats Kevin Holland pretty clean. Landed's a big shot.

Kevin Holland is so tough, but, well, it's always not the prettiest when Michael Page delivers a winning performance. Boy, did he, Kevin Holland's body language at the end of that fight was, I mean, it told, it wrote a book. It wrote a freaking novel. Man, it was completely frustrated. never seen Holland like that in a fight. Even when he's fighting wrestlers at 185 and getting taken down over and over again,

he was never as frustrated as he was last night. And Paige comes through. Successful win. We're wondering if he could come through with a huge performance. Maybe he jumps the line because you know the UFC doesn't want Blahmahad fighting for the Welterweight title for one reason or another. But MVP didn't call for it, didn't call for anything big. He said, look, I still got work to do.

I'm here. We're going to make things happen. but I ain't ready yet. So what do you like next for Michael Venom page after this win? I just first just want to say, Mike, the most animated I was on last night's post show was talking about MVP because the amount of backlash

that came at this man, I've spent on, I slept on it. I still don't understand it. Not like there are certainly there were people who were impressed by the performance. There were, if you go watch the pros react.

Also a number of dudes who were like embarrassing. That's not fighting. he's running like I don't know what you were watching that that to me even even members of our own staff were like I was a trash fight trash fight is direct quote which is an insane thing to say about what happened because guys we've all seen Kevin Holland fist fight before have you ever seen Kevin Holland fist fight while shutting the hell up because I have it until last night then he was he was shutting the hell up because he's getting his ass beat like it it was objectively impressive performance from a dude in his UFC debut.

The only reason that he did not get a finish in that fight is Kevin Holland's real tough. Kevin Holland's been knocked out one time in his career. It was the TKO against Wonder Boy after four rounds of a similar-looking ass whoopin. If that had four rounds, wouldn't shock me at all if Kevin Holland's corner was like, dude, we're not sending you out for a fifth of that. He beat him pillar to post, but for the one time where he tripped doing something real dumb, and Kevin Holland ended up on top for a minute. And people are going to hate this.

It's going to be a lot of backlash to this one, Mike. And I got to tell you, I don't care. This doesn't deserve to happen. But I think there's a very real chance that this does happen. And if it does, I'm here for it because it will make some people's heads explode. And I think that that will be funny. I've gone ahead and booked him against Leon Edwards for the Walter. Oh, my God.

I've done it. I've committed to it. I feel great about it, Mike. I don't have any issues at all with it. They're going to go back to England this summer, England on England violence. Just have it headline. It'll be terrific.

It'll be so funny because it might be the worst fist fight you've ever seen. It would just be great. Think of the visuals of MVP standing with his hands down by his ankles, 18 feet away from Leon, and Leon just staring at him. It's like, I'm totally okay, not punching and not stepping forward. But if you are, bro, I'll do this for 25. I ain't got no issues.

It'd be great. I've gone this way for a number of reasons. One, I do think that there is legitimate build now and a legitimate shot that Shafcott ends up fighting Jack Delamette, but we'll talk about that in a moment, not how I'm picking. But mostly I think that the UFC doesn't know what they want to do at Walterweight for whatever reasons. And MVP presents a easy and simple fun sort of choice. for them that they may just take the low-hanging fruit instead of having to make the choice

that they are currently facing. So I'm torn. I'm torn on this one. I didn't do it. I didn't, I didn't do Leon. I couldn't. I just couldn't. If MVP had come out and like fired up a promo or something, I might lean towards it, but this was a, hey man, I got work to do. I ain't there. So I ultimately landed with Jeff Neal for MVP because I just think that's a fun fight. I honestly don't. I think they might do something a little different here. My other option was I do think Vicente Lucay is going to be Joaquin Buckley.

And MVP versus Vicente Lucke could be pretty damn fun. So I think it's going to be like one of those two guys. But I'm going to go with Jeff Neal. If Jeff can turn around relatively quickly, I do expect MVP to fight when they go to Manchester in July. It's not going to be a favorite. It's going to be a fight night. He might even headline that event.

So, yeah, it's going to be one of those guys. Here's my question, because I spent some time thinking about this before I was like, Yolo, whatever. Do you think those fights get MVP a title shot? Because I do think that they want to accelerate the timeline here for MVP. I think that would make sense for them to be like, it totally get it if they don't give them a title fight right now. If they don't give them a title fight, I feel like they're just going to give him one that a win, they can get him over as a title contender. He's 36, and they kind of want Michael Chandler. I think you would have to fight Colby.

So that's my backup. That was the other answer I had written down. You obviously have much more experience with Colby. In my head, Colby might take that fight, but I don't know if that's true or not. Colby should pivot to this 100%. I certainly should pivot to this. Yeah. And like, I think that he would do that. It's like, okay, all I have to do is tackle him.

I saw Logan Storley hang on to his ankles for 25 minutes and win a garbage decision. I can do better than that. surely. And so like kind of feel like that actually is the line that they would take. I just didn't know if Colby would accept it, even though I think he should. I see a lot of people suggesting this one fight. And I saw it on Twitter. People are DMing me, MVP versus Wonderboy. And while I get it, these two, they're buds. They're not going to fight each other unless it's for a belt. If MVP, like, wins the Welterway title and Wonderboy wins a couple in a row.

That's the only, I think that's honestly, knowing both guys, especially Wonderboy the way that I do, I don't, I don't think that fight happens. Unless it's first of us. Yeah.

I agree. I don't think that fight ever happens. Also, just want to be so clear, guys, you don't want that fight to happen. That fight would be awful to watch. Like,

they would just be karateing each other, which means they would never contact each other. Because every time MVP leaps in, Stephen would leap away and vice versa. They would just be hopping around, not hitting each other. Yeah. But options of plenty for Michael Venom page. And we'll see how it all plays out. Are you going JDM Shafcott?

Because I feel like we're on the same page here. I'm not going JDM Shavcott. You're not. I love the call, by the way. It was a spectacular callout. I think it's a great callout. I think it immediately got people interested, which is the sign of a good callout. I did not very specifically because though I have said for a long time now,

I think this is all going to break cleanly. Blal is going to get his title shot, the title shot he deserves. It's tough for me to say that if I'm going to put, I'm going to put MVP into a title fight. So what we've done instead, they're going to make Bilal fight again. At this point,

it seems like they just kind of are because they hate him. And if they're going to make him fight again, Bilal will fight a lot of folk and Bilal will fight Shavkat and if Bilal beat Shavkat it cannot be denied a title fight. The winner of that is the most

dyed in the wool title contender. So I am choosing to live in this world where Balal and Shavkot fight because they are, the UFC is just going to make that happen. And so where I've gone for JDM is actually the fight that I think makes the most

sense for him, even despite like, despite the good callout. And it's Sean Brady. I think that is a fight I'm deeply interested in. Yeah, I don't know if you need to explain too much. Sean Brady's open right now. Like, I keep wanting to say JDM and MVP mix up.

We have seen Jadim have saw, like Basil Haffa's came in on short notice, so it's different, but it was very, very difficult for him. Gilbert Burns had a lot of success against Jadium with the grappling. Sean Brady, he's going to be hell on wheels for Jadiam in there. It's a sort of developmental step up. I'd like to see, and I think I want to see Sean Brady stay in the mix. I think it's a good way to do it. Man, can you imagine if we get a poster and it's Bilal and Shafkat?

Golly, that would be, that would be frigging wild. I genuinely think there's a real chance that this happens. Oh, man. I think Jadam might have done Bilal a favor, too, in some regard. But with that callout. So I love it. It just depends. Like, are they going to do?

Because I can see them doing Leon Belal in Newark in June. Like, I could see that if I being the main event of that card. I can see it. So, yeah. I think that's kind of like what Bilal should be hoping for right now. Just the most forgettable pay-per-view of all time. It makes sense. Hey, the last pay-per-view in Newark was also forgettable.

UFC 288, not good, not good at all. So let's go out here on. As does God and the rest of it. of the world so it's okay good airport though i want to say let's go to pierre yan bounces back avoids a four fight losing streak fun ass fight with song yong song is proven he can hang with all these guys he's just missing a little something it's a little something to get him over the hump but he's coming but pierre yan just grits down tremendous third round you could see the weight lifted off his shoulders when bruce buffer announced him the winner when that third round ended.

I am going with, and we mentioned this earlier, there is a fight coming up of UFC 300 that I know is near and dear to your heart, Jen Bichu. It is Davis and Figurato versus Cody Garbrand. I'm going with the winner. I do think it's going to be Davis and Figurato. Give me Piotrion versus Davis and Figurato. That scratches me right where I hitch. How does it work if you've picked the winner of the fight, and I've just preemptively picked

Davis and Figurato because I believe he's going to win the fight. Because we're in lockstep here. I don't know if we need to cue the band for this one. I don't know if I can stay. It feels a little obvious to me, but this is the call. I know Peoria is called out Cheeto, and I think there's a really good chance that that does happen.

But Cheeto should take some time off. He got the just tar whooped out of him. And Dave's is a figurator Peoria. That sounds real fun. Sounds real fun, man. Yeah. Who first saw of Miami being so fired up for you? Florida loves Peotrean, man.

They freaking love him. I was talking about this in the watch party. When Jan fought Sterling in the rematch in Jacksonville, outside of Hamzaa Chimayef, Piara Jan was the most over guy on the card. Like, it wasn't even close. They friggin loved him in Jacksonville. Absolutely loved him.

People loved, like, loved Peoteraan. Like, there was a reason I said this on No Beck Bart this week. It was like three years ago or whatever, whenever Henry's suit, I guess 2019. when Henry should have retired. Dana didn't even pretend to care. Like that evening, literally within minutes of Henry being like, I'm retired unless they give me a great reason to stay.

Dana goes with the post-fight pressure. He's like, so Henry's out of here. This was like not that long after the whole Habib situation or whatever. Henry's just gone. We don't care about him. And in two months or whatever, Peoria is going to fight somebody for the belt. because Biotr-Ga-On was super popular and super good,

and we thought he was going to be the dude to reign over this division for a long time. He has lost a bunch. It's been kind of weird for him, but that popularity and the belief that he is exceptional have not faded. He's still very much over. Yeah, great fight, great performance. Men's back. He's ready to go. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

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Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ,

built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. All right, let's go to the wildcar round, and then we're going to go to you guys for another wildcar round. We will select one fighter. We have not match made for it yet. And we'll match bait for him now.

It could be someone from the prelims who picked up a big win. It could be someone from the main card who suffered a tough loss. What do we think, Jed? What's the wild card selection for UFC 299? I'd like to tell you that I have a criticism of you, Mike Heck. And I want this to be the time that we brought this up because I am disappointed. 299 was such a stacked card. It feels wrong to just do one wild card here.

Maybe you don't do, maybe you don't matchmake for every fight on the card, but it was so stacked. Like for 300, you and AK got to do, you got to matchmake for the whole card. There's just, there's no way around it.

I mean, every one of these fights is at the minimum an Apex headliner. And call me crazy, right? But if you guys are going to match it, matchmake for the winner of Yarzegio Rosenstrike versus Gasev, I feel like we should be matchmaking for Kyler Phillips and Felipe Linz, I don't really care about honestly. We should be matchmaking for all of these dudes, right?

So it's my one criticism about this, though I do appreciate you not making me matchmaking for all of them. I have three news. One, I'm just going to say, we do not need to talk about it. It would be the lowest on my totem pole. Shout out to Curtis Blades. Great win over Jailton Almeda. I think the callout was spot on.

And you know what Kings and Heroes do? Tommy Aspinall was like, I'm game. Send me location, baby. Because he's not a coward, unlike some other people, masking, raiding around with a heavyweight championship over their shoulder. It's a great callout. That's a great one. I spent a lot of time trying to find the matchup for my grown adult son, Michelle Paheta.

I couldn't find one because the matchup I want for him, outside of any belt situation, I would very much like to see this man fight trick as two plus C. At some point in time, I need that to happen. It obviously can't because DDP is a champion, but that's a matchup between my two children. And while many people would hate to see their children fight, I would absolutely love to see my middleweight children fight.

And so I had to go to another one that I think is just a deeply funny fight. This is, if I'm only allowed one, this is the one I'm picking my. There's a man Who did some impressive things on the undercard It's a big man Big man did some impressive things Sure, Josh Prezian ran at him With his chin in the air, his hands down

Like a total idiot who has no concept of fighting But Doesn't change the fact The Roblese de Spagna Just killed the man And it was awesome And we can't rush him into anything What we can do

Or have comically fun fights with this man And you know what's comically fun To pair six, six, seven Olympic bronze medalist. Oh my God, don't do it. Robley versus your favorite, my favorite.

Chris Hockey Bear Barnett. Let's go, baby. Yeah. Wow. It would be so funny, Mike. 5-9 Chris Barnett versus six,

seven Robles is spying. Come on. The visuals. Chris Barnett is also a circle like my new favorite glory kickboxer and he'll do some wild spinning shit. and Roblese'll just be chucking him. It's the best fight.

I was so happy when I found it. I was like, oh, my God, this is my best sort. So I also went with rebellus to Spain. I went the total opposite, though. I went with a big man who rebellious has just got a death touch in seconds, who is also a giant man, not as big as rebellus, but a giant man. Look, we don't throw rebellus in there with wrestlers. We don't throw them in there with seasoned vets.

We throw them in there with like-minded, experienced, fighters who, let's just be honest, not very good. Get Moss and Lane, man. Just get Moss and Lane. Just let those two guys get in there and just chuck them until Rebellis hits him once in eight seconds and knocks him out. Like, let's just do that fight. I'm down.

Let's just go. I have to. He was so good. He was so good. My fight is so much funnier than yours. Oh, yeah. Oh, but in execution, I think my fight's got to be pretty funny. I mean, anytime Ravel's,

fights is going to be funny. I think he's he is a dude who is not going to make you take your time. Like it's going to be over quickly one way or another. And I respect the hell out of him for that. Yeah. All right. Let's go to the peeps here. Of course, as you guys know, we do have the super chat feature. You get to hop the line. I don't care if I got to be honest with you, ladies gentlemen, I got to check out of this hotel very soon. I don't care if we've 800,000 super chats. We ain't getting all of them if it gets past that time point. but we'll do the best we can and let's go. So shout out to Miguel, Super Chatter. Jed Michoud AI versus ChatGBT's AI.

He goes with Song versus Jonathan Martinez. Despain versus Romanov. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Now we're. That's the worst idea of literally ever heard. Macy Barber versus Manon Fioro after she loses to Aaron Blanchfield. Despain versus Romanov is like a crime. I don't.

do that. Like, dictatorships are better ideas than that. I don't know how, what you are thinking other than you just want to get him to lose awfully. Yeah. Avoid no, no Romanoff. There's a rule for to say no Romanoff, no marching Taibora ever. Yeah, dude, you can have him fight Jarzini Rosenstrike if you want him to fight like a rank dude. Like that would be a huge step up for no reason. But like that fight at least makes some sense. Romanov is awful. yeah all he has to do is just survive seven minutes and he could win the fight uh lazy bit likes to spain versus jemal pogues sure she'll forever smart was for you yeah be beatbs a butthead with a little bit of doo-do right here um AK is very good at giving the disclaimer it's basically like we try

to focus on the winners if you wanted to do the losers is fine um you get ought no points solo if you are like super duper originally you're the only one who comes up with it and if it's a rematch or a third fight, make sure you put the number on it. And if somebody's booked and you don't mention it, then you get a doo-do. And this is kind of what's happened right here. Michelle Perey versus Marm Vittory. Marvottori is booked to main event April 27th. No, April 6th.

April 6 against Brendan Allen. So he's booked. I mean, I'm just throwing a win or lose. Win or lose or when he wins or something of that nature. that was what i did think about brittan allen because britton allen is a super fun fighter and so that would be fun for petta but i couldn't take my eyes off the ddp prize i just that fight has to happen before they're done yeah i need it uh kylel phillis versus rob font gamrott versus dan hooker oh man i hate that for rob font i don't think he gets kiler phillips

and just let rob fight like someone who sucks he's been getting just the tar wailed out of him for the last couple of years now fighting super hard dudes and getting the shit beat out of him yeah i like i did like the maria batista call out of rob i think that fight actually makes a lot of sense i don't know if i like tyler though god damn yeah there's just no easy fights at 35 for him just fight back for a minute just build the confidence uh be like skim repel for Zucker as well. Huggy Bear versus Cuban Bear.

You got people on board, Jed. Like, I knew that as soon as I said it, people would be like, yes, please. That sounds delightfully fun. Tristan likes Michelle Pereira versus Sharra Bullet. I think it's a little too soon for Sharra Bullet. I also just don't, I don't care about Sharper bullet. Super chat from LazyBid, but Jan versus Umar on the Saudi card in June. I don't.

If they book it, I'll watch it, but I don't think that's going to happen. Corey Sanhagen will be fighting anymore. Perhaps on the Saudi card. Absolutely possible for that. Yeah. Corey has said he will fight it. The fight was previously set. Corey's not getting a title fight.

So he needs one. And that's Corey, Corey gets the Dustin fight, right? Like here's a dude that people are super high on. Not a lot of people are going to want to fight who's rising. He's got a much bigger name than BSD just because he's sharing. There's the last name with the greatest lightweight of all time. Corey is making the correct mental calculation to take this fight, and he's going to get it.

Dog the Value Hunter, picture of 299, Cheeto versus Jan, Phillips versus Jonathan Martinez. I like that fight a lot. That's fun. Linz versus Merzikonoff, Alma Beahf versus Durdin, Pereira versus Fluffy Hernandez. That's fun. I think Fluffy deserves like a top 10 guy, though, at this point. That's the thing is, I think both. Both of them deserve, like, yeah, Flodz just pulled it up.

Fluffy is ranked in the UFC rankings, but Fluffy deserves to fight upwards. And Paheda deserves like a ranked dude, not just like, all right, you're just going to sneak in. And this guy who's on a great run is killing it. Like, let's let Middleweight get some transition going here. Yeah. Joe, Sean Versilian, Spain, Corey Marab could fight for the interim title. we don't watch the same sport if that's the shit you're looking for

dude they're not going to Spain until 2025 it's criminal but it's going to take him forever to go to Spain also the biggest part of the thing that does not feel like a single person is talking about because they're all just talking about like all right well it would be ridiculous it would be like a little ridiculous that Marab gets passed over but whatever

bro, there's a line of contenders who are viable and good and useful at 145. I love Ilya. I think he kills all of them. But he needs to do his own work and his own weight class. And we all know that Volk is fighting him next. Like that's just going to happen. Let's live in reality, guys. We'll take a few more.

Pereira versus DeLise from Blizi, Despain versus the Taffa Williams winner. No, Carl Williams is also on that list. guys you do not throw to Spain in there with. Wow. You're just, just writing off one of the taffa bros. I don't remember.

I'm just saying Carl Williams' name should not be mentioned in the same sentence as Rebellis to Spain because he's just going to try to wrestle the entire time. I don't mind Rebellis against either of the taffas. Agreed. Pick one doesn't matter. That's, that's fine. It's not as fun as Chris Barnett,

but it's fine. I mean, really what is? Kyler, Chito. Damn. I mean, you're Macy Barber

She's Jessica Androge Androge is fighting UFC 300 by the way Barber's in a tough spot right now She really is I don't know what they do with her Because like Somebody said this on one of the things we did this week Mike They were like

Is Barbara screwed now Because even if she beats Serminara She's not getting a title fight And that's true She was not getting a title fight with a win She wasn't getting one anyone anyway Because there's a woman named Aaron Blanchfield Who is just waiting

to kill everyone and then we'll finally get a title fight as they drag out the Chivchenko Grasso rivalry as long as humanly possible because of tough. But like, I don't know where she goes. I think I talked about this on one of the shows. I don't know if it was BTL or maybe it's the preview show. I think Macy Barber needs to be the biggest Rosamami Yunus fan on planet Earth. Rosnamuiz beats Amanda Hevas. us, I think that is the best fight she can get right now.

And she can kind of hoss around Rose a little bit because she's obviously going to be way bigger and stronger. My biggest takeaway from watching that Serminara fight is that Aaron Blanchfield is going to be rough and rugged against Macy Barber. Like that fight's probably not going well for her. Yeah, that's not going to be all that competitive. That's the thing. She is getting better. She probably gets the winner of Blancheville for all right. Who?

That, Barber. I think that would make a lot of sense timeline-wise, because Blanchfield, if you're going to fight and then wait forever, because we're doing, king tough. If I'm hearing Blanchfield,

I ain't fighting anybody. If she goes out there wins, I ain't fighting anybody. I think I would because it's Macy Barber. I wouldn't kill that one. Juliana Pena wins the Bannonway title. Just go fight Julianne instead. That's fair.

That's fair, I guess. I do think that Blanchfield is in, like, got a title fight absolutely wait if i'm shopcott i would not fight a soul because i can just wait for a fight and manned field is like maybe one of one fighters i'm like it doesn't matter you're gonna kill him so like just fight whoever it's okay yeah uh jdm shafcott main event in perth um there is rumors about them going back to perth i think in august and according to those reports uh it's gonna be a pay-per-view so that wouldn't

main jdm shop cut would not main event that card but that's so interesting to it it's very very interesting to me that the reports are for pay-per-view because for the last few years they have gone to perth consistently um and australia and it's always been pay-per-views but that also lined up with having several fighters in the region with belts and so they no longer have that and i kind of thought maybe now we'll just go back to australia for a fight night which would be okay but if there's still committed to it. I'm just sort of interested how that ends up working. Yeah. Well, look, I mean, at the same token, even though it's a month earlier than we would expect, if they ain't getting to Spain, you do Iliets, Alexandria, Alexander Volcanowski is the

main event there. I mean, you definitely can do that. The last four trips to Australia have all been pay-per-views. But again, they were headlined by Israel-Dissania, Robert Whitaker versus is Israel. This is a lot of Oskinezal-Machachev. And then Israel, Asanae, Sean Strickland. Like, that's just, you could,

I mean, you could absolutely do the Volk rematch there, but it does feel a little, I mean, it's fine. It's really a little disrespectful to Tuporia, but it's a little. But I think Tepore cares.

It's going to get pay-per-view points and. And you can knock them out again. I doubt he cares. And they're going to load that card up because Perth pays for it. That the Toursport pays for it. uh nathan andrews also likes gamrott versus hooker perrera versus paul costa i would be down for that fight i don't know if we get it but i'd watch the shit out of it that was actually the when i the name i have written down and then i was like sure and it's kind of fun but i i was much

more in love with my robles pick so i i shifted i think that that that fight makes sense and i think there's actually a decent chance that happened so and why doesn't barbara just move up to 135, Pena beef is there, division is trash. It's not a bad idea. I mean, the Pena beef is there, but Pena doesn't even have the belt yet. So it's like, it's fine. It's not a bad idea if Pena wins the belt,

but I'm not even sure they would give her the title fight. Because the guys, I don't know if you know this. There's a woman fighting at UFC 300, and assuming she can make the wait, yeah, she's going to beat Holly home, and she is for sure going to, get a title fight off of that. And so there's no need to put Barber in a fast track here.

Yeah. Terrence Leverett, thank you. Jan versus Cheeto, someone's first round, always got to go. Yeah, let's just do a one round fight between those two guys. God, that would be awful, just staring at each other. Let me see. Do we have anything else? Do we have anything else?

I saw somebody put this one up in the comments and I just like it because it's, it will never happen for reasons that I understand. Alexander Volcanov versus Dustin Porreier and it's like, yeah, what I said previously, Volks should just bail on 45. I said that like prior to the second room, it's like if you really wants to do the lightweight thing,

screw it, just move up to lightweight. You won't get an immediate title fight, but there are a ton of fun fights at lightweight. We've called for Max to make them move up for years because they're just sick fights at freaking lightweight. I would absolutely love to watch Volk fight some of the top dudes of lightweight. I think you couldn't certainly compete against him,

and that would be great. I don't need to see him fight for the title. It's going to do it, and that's totally okay. But, like, once he loses to I again, just come up to 155 and do the fun thing. I'd watch the hell out of Volk versus RDA. Why not? Let's do stuff like that.

Yeah. Well, there you have it, everybody. We're going to get ready to rock and roll and start packing the rest of my crap to check out of here. A.K., excuse me, I think A.K. is back next. week be the usual format on the podcast network. We'll obviously have a live on to the next one after UFC 300, April 13th. But next week, Jed, UFC back at the world's most famous apex with 13 can't miss

fights headlined by the heavyweights, Tiva versus marching Taibora, Brian Battle versus Anglosa, Kennedy and Chichu versus Ovin-S-Pru, Christian Rodriguez versus Isaac Dolgarian, Pani Kanzad versus Macy Chiason. we got a women's band-away fight. How about that? We get a couple. Gerald Mearshar, Brian Barbarina. Mike Davis-Nat-Lefi is going to be fun as hell.

Josian Nunes versus Chelsea Chandler. O'Day Osborne versus Jafel Filio. Tiago Moises versus Mitch Ramirez, Josh Kulabau, Danny Silva, Corey McKenna versus Jacqueline Amarim, and Chad and Ellinger versus Charoampos, Gregorio. That is UFC Vegas 88. I don't think the board is going to have three stars

written on it when we start talking about that card. It's sure not. It's, this is the most apexe apex card I've seen in some time. There are some things here that aren't bad. There are a lot of things here which are just like contractual obligations.

All right. And a heavyweight main event. Like this is, this is apex to a T. It sure is, Jed. It's terrific to put Tai Tui Vasa The different form of a crowd That's maximizing the shui

Yes, for sure We're done AK&I back next week Thank you for watching Thank you for bearing with the early technical difficulties Thank you for bearing with my boys But we're done Lots more to talk about regarding UFC 299

Coming up over the next few days For Jed, I am Mike Keck We'll see you next week on the program Always remember don't take this stuff too seriously MMA is supposed to be fun Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. 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.