MMA Fighting - PFL Dubai Post Show: Reaction to Usman Nurmagomedov and Paul Hughes Fight of the Year Contender

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

Did the PFL just have its coming out moment? On Saturday, Usman Nurmagomedov and Paul Hughes went to war for 25 minutes in the main event of PFL Road to Dubai Champion Series. Nurmagomedov eked out a majority decision win, but Hughes won the moral victory after giving the undefeated Dagestani all he could handle for 25 minutes, resulting in the current frontrunner for Fight of the Year In the immediate aftermath of such an incredible fight, MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and Casey Leydon hold an impromptu post-show, discussing the incredible main event, whether its the best fight in PFL history, if this is the sort of event that could get PFL to finally break through with the broader MMA fandom, and more. Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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

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Wi-Fi available to AeroPlan members on equip flights sponsored by Bell Conditions apply see Air Canada.com You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Yeah. The victory horns. Oh, my goodness. We never ever do this, ladies and gentlemen,

but the victory horns are sounding not for the UFC. They are sounding for the BFL. Specifically, they are sounding for Uswinder-Megro. Meadow, who just, I don't know, like 20 minutes ago, maybe. continued his undefeated streak, peeking out in majority of decision win over Paul Hughes in the main event of PFL, Road to Dubai Champions series.

And frankly, we got something to talk about. I am shocked we are here. For those of you who are following along very closely to me and find outcom, we love you for that. You may have noticed that this was not a planned post show when we did our preview show and our BTL this week and we've been talking about this weekend's events. The overarching theme was BKFC Knucklemania 5 is the dominant force of the weekend.

But there's also this one really good fight at PFL. That might have been wrong on our parts, ladies and gentlemen, because I got to tell you, that one fight was amazing. And just in general, this is all nonsense aside. This is the most successful PFL event of my career, that I have been doing this. working in this space. This is by far the thing that had the most people talking that got the most interest.

I don't know if it was Usman Nirmagamatov that did it. I don't know if it was Paul Hughes. I don't know if it was the build to this, the just blatant Ireland versus Dagestan thing like that. But people cared about this event in a very big way. And then the main event delivered in a very big way. And so yes, as that comment just pointed out, that fight was a friggin' banger. and I wanted to talk about it. So we didn't have a post-show plan.

There aren't that many people working. This is all a little bit slap dash, a little bit haphazard. But it was this or I was going to go live on my Instagram. I was like, let's just do it because I am certain that there are many of you out there who just saw that that fight want to chat about it. And so we can and we won't go for super long. But right out of the gate, top of the order, Usman Nurmaghamatov moves to 1901 now,

the one no contest not oh and one is a draw 48 46 48 46 47 47 are the scorecards in your main event and the first thing i want to say about this fight as you know you guys all get in and weigh in and the chat starts going this is the fight of the year i don't think it's close um last week we had a discussion about whether the yri hall yri versus jemal hill fight was a better fight than umar versus is Marab, there is no question. This is the frontrunner at this moment in time for fight of the year. If there's a world in which this fight doesn't end up being in the top five, that means 2025 was an incredible year for us.

Because as all these comments are pointing out, a battle like that, it deserves a post show. And that is literally what I was like, who's around? Can we do this? Let me come talk to the people and they can speak to me. because that is, Casey, you have yet to see this, and I'm not asking you to pop in, but this is more for your edification. I think very, to me, this is undeniably the best fight that PFL has ever put on. And frankly, it came in what is surprisingly the biggest moment of their promotion as far as I'm concerned,

because I can't stress this enough. we had no expectations as a website about PFL's doing well. Like the events are never a big traffic driver for us. People are broadly not that interested in these specifics of PFL. Even the championship card where there are $7 million on the line in all the championship fights. Even at the height of Kayla Harrison, the level of interest of people like genuinely just wanting to see what was going on here. And then what is the biggest platform they've ever had, you know, max all this level of interest, the best fight of the promotion comes through.

I have been critical of PFL and said, I don't really think that there are PFL fans. There might start to be some. And if there aren't PFL fans, they're damn sure Paul Hughes fans after this because that was an outrageous performance from the young Irishman. Also an incredibly great performance from Roosman, I'm not going to matter. of don't want to bury that. But the lead story here, the big takeaway we will, I think most people will leave is that Paul Hughes may have lost that fight on the scorecards and we will get to the scores in just a little bit.

He may have officially lost that fight. He won in every way that is not getting the Bellator belt. And considering the Bellator belt is kind of meaningless at this point anyway, that man leaves this event smelling like roses. There was a big to-do made in the build-up from, and God knows, we saw it over and over. They played that same promo package about a hundred times of Usman saying, I don't really know who Paul Hughes is. He beat one dude and gets a title fight. He's not very good.

I still haven't even looked into him, and I'm fighting him. There is somebody who is good at doing video editing and wants to do this thing has the most obvious, like, option right now of going that clip and then immediately after it you can do like oh here's Paul Hughes beating his ass for a minute

and then there's the end of the story the coda to it which is Usman Nermagamatov after he has eeked out this majority decision when heeping effusive praise on Paul Hughes in his post-fight speech paraphrasing a little bit

not exact quotes but I deeply underestimated him you were totally right Paul when you said it was a mistake to underestimate you. He was so strong, so good. He made me a better fighter today. I had to raise my game. I think he raised his game.

Incredibly effusive in his praise for Paul Hughes at the end of that fight. Because Paul Hughes was a freaking madman in there, y'all. Like the first round was not the most exciting. And we see that in a lot of great fights anyway, 25 minutes allows you to have sort of rounds where both fighters are feeling things out. And I think pretty unanimously, Usman Win probably won that first round on most scorecards. He was just busier with a lot of kicks,

chewing up the lead leg of Paul Hughes. Paul Hughes was just kind of in there. He was waiting for his opportunity. Both men were getting reads. Things really started to kick off in the second round, though, as Usman started to try and wrestle a lot more and was having absolutely no success. I mean, none whatsoever.

Shooting takedowns, Hughes was so, His hips were so quick. He was so scrambling when Usman would even get a hold of something. And he was punishing Usman every time. Like he was starting to chop away at the legs himself, ripping heaters to the body. They would clinch and Usman would be looking for the Thai plum and knees. And Paul Hughes would just start firing rockets into the ribs.

Like he was scrapping his ass off. And at the end of that second round, you heard the commentary team sort of notice. Usman's looking a little tired there and then the thought creeps in Hey man We just saw Umar vaunted undefeated

Umar and Armagamatov get a little bit tired Around this point in time too Is the same thing about to happen Credit to Usman He picked he does not He did not You know maybe it's just

He's not fighting Marab Who has unbelievable cardio obviously Third round is when things get wild though Because we get a point deduction in that round Usman and Mugamatov lands repeated low blows. Both men had landed low blows, but Usman lands like two in very quick succession. The last one of which the bout actually stops for a minute.

It comes off a takedown. Paul Hughes just sort of spins and runs away. Usman lands throws a kick, goes low. This one actually hurts Hughes. There's a break in the action of points deducted. But that point deduction in a fight that is, at that point in time, I had it scored 1-1, and there's a point deduction. That is critical, especially as it looked like Usman was fading.

Usman, you know, things get hairy there. I think Paul, I thought Usman sort of eeked out the third round even after that, but the momentum seems to be shifting to Paul Hughes. And then round four, it goes even more insane. An unintentional clash of heads as basically Usman ducks in for a takedown. Hughes kind of meets him in the middle. Opens a not like a nasty gash or whatever, but opens a cut on Paul Hughes's forehead.

And so there's just a river of blood pouring down his face. Usman gets the worst of it, though, because he catches it in the temple. He looks dazed, like legitimately is blinking a lot. The Irish fans at this point are in a fervor. They are chanting. Mike Beltran, the referee, has stopped the action. And Paul Hughes becomes a made man in this moment. There are times in this sport when somebody gets over,

or when people who had no idea about a dude can just be like, that is the moment. I am thinking specifically, Robbie Lawler versus Rory McDonald 2, the iconic stare down at the completion of the round where Robbie's faces busted open and he just meets Rory and it was like, okay. Like there are moments when somebody just elevates in the fandom.

This was one of those. Paul Hughes, blood pouring down, his face in his corner the irish fans are chanting you can hear his coach screaming he doesn't want to be here he does not want this anymore and paul hughes looks like a wolf with a lamb to slaughter in front of him while oosman is there he is he is blinking a bunch trying to get his wits about him ultimately fight does restart it it gets a little hazy there for a minute like maybe this will just end up being a tough way out because if the fight ends at that moment, if Usman says, man, I can't continue, it ends up being a no contest.

I think I'm not sure what time period, so maybe it would have gone on the scorecards. I think it ends up just being a no contest. But everyone is leaving saying Usman quit. Paul Hughes is the dude. Instead, Usman does answer the bell. They fight. He immediately gets a takedown round ends. And then the fifth round, Usman comes out with a new fervor, gets an early takedown,

lens a bunch of knees. Paul Hughes just battles his ass right back. Paul Hughes was so friggin scrappy in there, y'all. Like whenever Usman would get takedowns, it would not matter. Hughes was constantly working, constantly punishing him, hitting him as much as he could, and just turning it into a dog fight. And the last 10 seconds, there is a grappling exchange. Paul Hughes hits a switch.

And then these two dudes just swing until the final bell. Legitimately, this is the best PFL fight. that has ever happened. It came in the biggest moment. And Paul Hughes did not win, but there are a whole host of new people who are pumped about Paul, Paul Hughes. Because I was thinking, honestly, I was thinking to our preview show when I said, these odds are a little long.

I think Paul Hughes is a live dog. And AK was like, maybe, but like, I don't know, why are you so invested in this fight of Paul Hughes? You know, he's got the great win over AJ McKee. And I said, man, that win over AJ McKee told me so much. This loss against Usman told me so much about who Paul Hughes is what the business he is about. And I think a ton of other people have kind of just got clued into this. Paul Hughes is a friggin star.

And this was an incredible coup for PFL for them to get him for how this all unfolded. And if they don't immediately run back a rematch, it would be insane. Let's go to the scorecards before we open up to some peep conversation for a little bit here and just say, Officially, I live blogged this, the official MMA fighting scorecard for this bout is 47-47 draw. I scored rounds 1, 3 and 5 for Norma Mettov with round 3 also including the point deduction. I scored rounds 2 and 4 for Hughes. If you want to swap any of those rounds, scores, I don't have an issue with it, basically. The only round I feel really confident in is that Usman absolutely won the first round.

I don't think that was particularly competitive. Not that it wasn't competitive, not that he dominated, but Paul Hughes just didn't. very, very little in the first round, whereas Usman was constantly working, chipping away with low kicks. Anything else, any other score you want to throw out there, I am fine with. It is a little, again, this is not a robbery in my estimation,

though I would love to have A.K. Lee kind of review this fight. I know he's not watching live. Probably will end up doing a robbery review because I think it warrants it and get his take on it. I think it's not a robbery because the rounds are so close. There's like a little bit of a bad taste in your mouth, certainly in part because win fights like this happened when somebody overachieves when the underdog has such a terrific performance and certainly is winning the optics of that fight whether he

won the fight or not much like frankly alexander vokanovsky finished round five in such a way that people wanted him to win there's some of that going on here I think considering that it leaves a little bit bad taste in your mouth to think that oosman won four rounds on two judges scorecards because that is a little harsh but i think it's explicable and mostly the only thing that really matters to me is that they run this back pfl uh i've been critical about them many times this is the most no-brainer obvious immediate rematch paul hughes afterwards called for the rematch for a rematch he didn't call for immediate he said i know we're going to see it i know we're going to see him again we're going to fight again and when we do i want to fight in belfast

we did this in Dubai, let's do it in Belfast. I got to tell you, Don Davis should be on the phone right now. This is the most obvious thing in the world to set up and do. This was a sensational effort, outcome for both men, fight for the PFL, and doing a rematch in Belfast would be gangbusters, especially considering how big of an event this was for them. So I certainly hope they kind of strike while the iron is hot with regard to that. honestly other than that there's not too much more for me to sort of say at you i will do a brief rundown just for posterity sake though frankly nobody cares that much about the rest of the results but vene nimcov runs right over uh timson in the co-main event first round submission

johnson you know credit to him showed up tried to be game had nothing for redim nimcov i hope we get to see vene nimcov in meaningful fights or frankly i hope he just leaves ufc or leaves to go to the UFC where there are many meaningful fights for him. Ahmed Magamatov beats Nathan Kelly with a choke. Kelly had a strong opening round. Akhmad came out and sort of did the thing after that. Ibrahim Ibrahimov is a dude I knew almost nothing about, and I'm now certainly a little bit more interested after his win over Kinney Moka O'Nohanna.

I'm sure I butcher that. I'm sorry, Kenny. But undefeated dude seems like all class, too, great post-fight speech. A little more interested in him. Kavlov beats Cleaver Fernandez, Ahmed Sami beats Tarek Suliman, Mirafzal Akhtamov, beats Mike Thompson with an arm triangle choke.

That was pretty nice little finish. Also kind of interested in him. He's a little older, but looked really good, and the guy didn't really know much about before them. Hadi Omar al-Husani beats Raul Panales. That is another team Habib dude. Seems okay. Nothing that Stone impressed me.

John Mitchell picked up a UD. over Suhul Tairi, and then the other thing that is probably the most notable outside of the main event is just because it was wicked is Hyder Khan broke Mustafa Nata's arm with a front kick, Nara down blocked, and his arm just flopped like cooked spaghetti, and then he turns away. It doesn't like cry and pain just goes, oh, and like puts it back in, and everybody recognizes what happened in the ballots over. You can check the highlight. There's a highlight in M.A.fighting.com, But that is all the big things that happened in PFL, but mostly the story is Usma and Mergamenev, Paul Hughes, and everything about that.

So because this is an impromptu post show and there's not somebody for me to really banter about the banter comes with y'all. I'm going to open the floor. If you guys have any comments, questions, things you want to hop in here. We'll chat for just a little bit and then we'll get out of here because there is a BKFC Knucklemania starting in a few hours. You can go grab some dinner, do whatever. but this was such a incredible fight.

And honestly, this is the sort of fight that maybe gets PFL traction. So it felt necessary to hop on and do a reaction show because that fight was so incredible. So Casey, any big questions, comments, et cetera, in the chat, we can go for a little bit and then get the hell out of here. Yeah, hi. Yeah, I got some questions for you. Here we go. Am I on? Yeah, here we go.

Did you? Sorry, just came back from training. I'm all still kind of. no, riled up. And then I came back and oh my god, I got to go see this fight now. So I'm excited. It legitimately like this is, as this fight was unfolding, I was like, I mean, it's, I stand of the belief that no one will ever be a co-leader to the UFC, right?

That's a ridiculous assumption. I was like, this sort of is like the fight where this is their hope to be a Bonner Griffin. Like, oh, this fight is so good and so many people are tuning in for this. So many people are interested in this. This is how you can start to build momentum. They got to capitalize, but that this was an undeniably good weekend for P. And they looked like they looked like, I mean, I saw some of the prelims and they looked like they had a really lively real crowd. Crowd was great.

The Dubai, this was the first major event that took place in Dubai. They should go back all the time. Crowd was super into it, super lively. And I thought this as the show was happening. Production was better. The pacing was much better than PFL events. Usually they've been getting better about that, but that was critical. I would quibble with the fact that the show was like almost the Habib PFL show.

They said his name so many times. Be it like, this fighter is trained by Habib. That was literally a thing that would be said during the announcements where it'd be like, this guy is the former UFC heavyweight champion. This guy one time had a cup of coffee with Habib to Megamatov. It was a bit ridiculous, but I don't know if that's what got it over, but whatever, because the rest of it was great. The production was solid. Dan Hardy's not to everybody's taste.

I thought he did a fine job. And they did a really good job of making this feel important, of bringing PFL fighters of note and who matter in, and not like flooding it with it. But okay, here, Brennan, we'll get in in the booth for a fight and a half. and we'll have Dakota Dichibah around and just here are the stars of PFL congregating around this event because this is a big fight and it's important. I thought all of it worked really, really well. And I'd have never given PFL an A. This is an A for them. Like, undeniably, this was as good as could be for them.

That's, well, that's high praise. It's high praise. Don Davis clip this. You can use this. You did well. Keep doing this. Don Davis, what's your favorite fight? Now you have one.

This is your favorite fight. You got it, Don. You got it. This is your favorite fight. That's the answer. All right. Super chat coming in. Here we go.

Oh, super chat. Enigma Crunch was the point deduction BS are valid? I have long been on the corner of all point deduction. It should happen all the time. And I will basically never have an issue. If a point deduction is granted, I will never say, is wrong just because like they should happen more often in the world in which point you are just allowed to foul freely it probably was a bad point deduction because like everybody just gets to do

it all the time and this one insofar as an is an explicable low kick was really explicable it came as paul hughes was literally spinning out of a takedown and oosman threw a kick at what should have been his retreating legs, but he's spinning, and so it hits him low. But no, it's totally valid because he, that was the third low blow from Usman and the second in quick succession. Ultimately, it didn't matter in the fight, particularly with four judges or two judges giving four rounds to it. But I could, a number of people would have been pretty upset if that, if the bout hinged

on that, right? Like, if that ends up being scored a majority draw, people probably wouldn't have been that upset because I think the overarching feeling is that, well, Paul Hughes should have won. But if somehow that ended up playing a role negatively, people would have been pretty upset. But not me. I thought it was totally valid. All right. Thank you much. But thank you, thank you, much.

Tanvir Hussein, will this do for Usman what the Porre fight did for Islam as far as leveling up? So he says that in his post-fight speech, he incredibly complimentary. Like the first thing he said after shout out Dubai, thanks for being here, was Paul Hughes is awesome. He is so good. That was such a hard fight. He said that that's the most hurt he has ever been in a fight. And he almost specifically said, I think I leveled up in this fight as he made me level up. He made me be better.

And I think I made him be better too. I would say, yes. I think that this is absolutely a learning experience for Usman. It's one of those good ones where maybe he doesn't deserve to win. Again, I don't think it was a robbery. But it is one of those where he can leave this fight and say, all right, I was super arrogant coming into this fight as he acknowledged in his post fight. I just thought this guy had nothing for me.

And I need to keep improving. I need to keep working because people are maybe figuring out my game, specifically our game, a little bit more, ways to combat it. and I need to have more tools in the toolbox because, like, I'm still 26. More people are going to get better and better and better. I'm not near the end of my career. I got to keep adding. So I think that this will.

I think he knows it and acknowledged it. And frankly, I think the same from Paul Hughes. Like, you heard Paul Hughes in his post-fight speech said, man, I really thought I won that fight. He did post-fight speech as well. Take a note, Umar. I thought I won that fight, but you know what? I could have done more.

I had more to give. I regret leaving as much in the tanks I did. Next time we meet again, I will make sure to leave it all out there. This is one of those. There are no losers in this fight. Somebody technically won. Nobody lost and both dudes are young.

They're both sub 30. They will both be so much better as a result of this. This has the makings of a really, really good rivalry. Awesome, awesome. Thank you, Tabir. from follow up from tanvir to beer temvir um tanvir habib was very classy in his post fight speech it's about uniting this is what separates him and connor so uh kisi you will not have seen this obviously in his post fight speech because there had been so much tension boiling between the irish and daghistan

that is what this was billed as ireland versus dagestan uh frankly from both sides and then certain comments from Habib Usman about Ireland's not like a not a great fight nation in regards to producing top MMA talent things that started to boil up we saw a brawl occur at the ceremonial way ends yesterday from fans there was definitely sort of a feeling that that could happen again in the arena though ultimately didn't but during the post-fight speech Habib gets on the mic after Usman says his first little salvo and is like hey I just want to to remind everybody, Ireland, mainly I think, obviously speaking to his supporters, the team Eagle supporters and the fans of, hey, just remember, we respect Ireland. Ireland

is, are the biggest supporters of Palestine. There's nothing but love here. Way to go, Ireland. And everybody, it was really a love fest from all parties in the post fight. There was no, and that's kind of what you get after a fight of that level where you're competing that hard against each other. There is no animosity either way. But Habib did sort of, Habib immediately killed any idea that there would be a riot in the stands from the Irish fans or whatever. It was like, oh, we're all friends here. And yes, it was very classy. He also absolutely played a role in things getting a little bit tense in the buildup. But, you know, it is where it is. It's a fight game. They're not going to be batting a thousand when it comes to being great in these instances. But that

was a really nice moment and it was a really like charming post-fight thing for everybody to just be like man that fight was hard and great and we're all we're all wonderful i respect all of you yeah i'm i'm really looking forward actually watching the whole fight the walkouts the post-fight speech everything sounds like a really grand slam for pfl walkouts walkouts are great too kasy they're not quite like peak peak of what could be but they felt they FFL does them better anyway. They let them marinate for a little bit longer. They give you multiple layers to it.

It was there. I felt tension heading into that fight and then the fight delivered unbelievably. So you're going to enjoy the hell out of it. Cool. And I appreciate what you said about Habib and just all the fighters in their post-fight speeches. I think we're little to blame. I think we're little too overly critical sometimes on word for word what these guys are saying after just going through hell, you know, to win.

And we're like, now what are they going to say? You know, I think we've got to give them more a little bit of leeway and stuff. So I'm glad everyone just kind of said the right things. And everyone kind of, man, I don't know, it's just a, it's a good feeling we see fights like that. And then everything kind of ends properly. It was awesome. Like, it was legitimately awesome because truly the first words out of Uson's mouth were, thank you, Dubai, this is so great.

And the second one was Paul Hughes is really, really good. Like almost verbatim, as we said, that guy's really good. I definitely underestimate him. He looks right in Paul. He's eyes like, you were right. When you said it was a mistake to underestimate you, you were correct. Like, it was, I have never seen like that level of frank assessment of a man who pretty clearly in real time recognized this fight is way more difficult than I thought. But things are going poorly in here.

That dude has earned my respect. And yeah, it was pretty sick, man. That's super interesting because I know in our pre-fight preview show, we were kind of talking about that a lot. Like, you know, is this a mistake? You know, because he was publicly saying, I don't know why I'm fighting this fight. But I'll fight it.

So it's kind of fun, that that whole story kind of came full circle, too. I'm telling you, there's a legitimate, like, after you watch it, maybe you will feel compelled. You could do like a 60 second edit for social that is. Usman saying, this dude doesn't deserve to be here. Then a brief clip of getting punched in the face and then the image of Paul Hughes with blood streaking down his face looking like he is a lion ready to pounce on him. And then a third clip of Usman be like, that dude's really good. I fucked up.

Like it is, it was such a clear aim. ABC story like beginning middle end the rematch I well we'll see what happens but um and after after the buildup for this fight and then 25 minutes of them fighting each other and then how are they going to make adjustments man and the this is this is pfos chance it's as a promoter don david's like because now you have the fight you have the story now you just need to lay it out for it you know you just do it right you know everything this This is their big opportunity to have that because this one snuck up on us. The rematch shouldn't.

Out of nowhere, dude. Out of nowhere. Yeah, the rematch shouldn't. Yeah. 100%. This Paul Hughes had it right. Paul Hughes had a right when he said he wanted to fight Usman in Dubai. That was correct.

You run this back in Belfast. I don't even know what else you would consider doing given like where their talent pool is right now. And you make it a big deal. you give this, give this a full court media press, do a media world tour on this one. Like, because it will be awesome. These are, uh, Paul Hughes dropped none in my estimation. I have Usman in the top seven, I think, at lightweight right now in my rankings. Paul Hughes, I had, he's in my top 15.

He might be 12 or something like that. These are two of the 10 best lightweights on earth, very likely at this point in time, who are very evenly matched and have a compelling story to tell. give this all of the promotional weight you can, Don Davis. I am begging you to not screw this up. Yeah. Let me get to this last super chat before. I want to ask you a question after that.

Stephen, boys, Jed, haven't seen you this fired up since DDP winning the title. Is Javier correct in his assessment of Usman? Hey, Casey, do you train with Angie Hill? Last one, sorry, I was in my head I was reading that as Ladd Shave. it's lads have a lovely day parker porter lads shave makes a lot less sense than lads have I read lad shave too

yeah I was like what does this mean oh got it I'm an idiot got it got it got it Casey do you train with Angie Hill she was here last weekend we we grappled just a bit but she has she has a fight coming up in a couple weeks and I didn't want to you know I don't want to

squish her or anything was right you didn't want to hurt her you missed the 3024 himself Yeah. Can't be doing that. But I did move around for the new purple belt, Angie Hill. So she was like, she was trying to sneaky. She was like trying to get in there.

I was like, no, no, no, no. But yes, I did train just a bit. But hopefully train some more later on. Oh, but for you, did this give DDP winning the title feels for you? So, yeah, they're very different. DDP winning the title gave me feels because I am an unapologetic DDP stand. I am one of the earliest adopters of Dr. 2 plus the fighter and so seeing him like actually do the thing was electric and was incredibly

fun for me in a way that like personal fandom is i am not a fan of of either oosman or paul hughes i'm getting to be a paul hugh's guy after this one but paul hughes impressed me so much in the a j mckee fight because i thought that that fight would be easy easy game for a j mckee and i know it was a split decision i thought paul hugh cleanly won that fight in my opinion and that really like put me on notice, okay, this is a dude who is talented, good, and worth your time. And so this is just me fired up because this is the

best fight of the year. Like this is the best fight of the year by a lot in my estimation. I don't, because as we had the argument about Yeri Hill versus Marab Umar, and my contention was Maraubuam was very high level. It wasn't that interesting, honestly.

Like, that fight did not have ebbs and flows. It was Umar early and then Maraub took over and the fight was over. whereas Yerean Hill had ebbs and flows, it had excitement, it had multiple knockdowns, there was a narrative flow going on there. And so it was just a much more interesting fight. This was super high level with the narrative flow as well. This was the best of both worlds of here's this underdog doing this thing, big, big underdog,

overperforming. Usman's in trouble has to battle back. There's the drama of the low kick, the point deduction, the headbutt, the iconic moment now of Paul Hughes covered in his own blood and just staring daggers at the wobbly blinking Oosman. Like it was, I think this is,

this would be a fight of the year winner in other years, right, already. Like, so I'm fired up because it was awesome to watch this. And it's, it was four in the afternoon. I was like, I'm at peak mental faculty watching this fight. Sick.

Okay. Okay, a couple more. Okay. But thank you, Chad. Bobby Atkins. Even Don Davis watched that one. Wow.

Yes, Don. If you weren't watching, go watch it. This is your answer. Forevermore. What's your favorite fight? This one. It is so easy to do. I hope you're watching.

I don't know if he was. I can't imagine he's doing anything else. But regardless, somebody will tell you to watch this fight and then they will show you the post fight. And you'll be like, oh, Paul Hughes is a very smart young man. Let me call Belfast and see what venues we can have an event in for late summer when we do our next big show. All right. Thank you, Bobby. Spencer, Strikeforce was my favorite number two to the UFC.

Real momentum with the heavyweight tourney and stars with Diaz, D.C., etc. You agree this was the best number due to UFC since Pride? Can PFL ever get to that level? What was your favorite Strike Force event? I don't think it's, well, it depends if we're counting WEC as number two because it was owned by Zufa for like a lot of the big portions of it, though not under the umbrella. Strike force was the spiritual successor to pride in many ways of being the alternative to UFC. And I think undeniably was the best, arguably strike force better than pride, like the back end of pride. At the peak, pride was actually superior to UFC, so it's not really a contest.

But the latter end of pride is sort of starting to fall off and you can see the end is coming. Versus the peak of Strike Force when Strike Force had women's divisions, which the UFC didn't have at the time. So there was like a clear hook in that regard. Chris Cyborg was doing things. Luke Rockhold was there, Jacques, Jockey, Tim Kennedy. Like there's that whole group of middleweights. Jimber Millendez, Josh Thompson. had those sick fights like the peak of strike force with the heavyweight gp the heavyweight

gp was sort of like the the final good period right before they started to tailor off like the peak of strike force was great uh i don't know strike force event numbers as well though so i'd have to look up i have a very favorite strike force event my favorite strike force the nick daz brawl or the daz brawl one is the funniest strike force event was uh henderson bobble lube on December 4th, 2010. It was one of the most violent cards. Dan Henderson murdered Hanato Babalu. Paul Daly murdered Scott Smith and one of the nastiest.

Oh, that was sick. Robbie Lawler murdered Matt Linnon. Antonio Bigfoot Silver murdered Mike Kyle. I pulled this up. Ovincent Prue murdered Benji Rattick, the late Benjuratic. And yeah, the Inton. entire main card and a couple of the top prelims who are, it's just incredibly violent. So that would be my favorite strike force event.

I went to many, many, many strike force events. That's a really good one. But a single greatest fight. That would be Paul Daly versus Nick Diaz. I'd say Daily, D.S is probably just the right answer there, right? I'm trying to think of other ones. I don't remember who else was on the card. That was the first card that was strike force.

That's Caligiri, was that card, pretty sure. Yeah, that was awesome. We're going to just beat their shit out of Caligiri. Yeah, let me pull this up. You may have heard of the sex cult nexium and the famous actress who went to prison for her involvement, Allison Mack. But she's never told her side of the story, until now. People assume that I'm like, this pervert.

My name is Natalie Robamed, and in my new podcast, I talked to Allison to try to understand how she went from TV actor to cult member. How do you feel about having been involved in, bringing sexual trauma to other people. I don't even know how to answer that question. Allison After Nexium from CBC's Uncover is available now on Spotify. Yes, that was Gagod Musasi and Keith Jardine fought to a majority draw. And Shinyaoki neck cranked Lyle Beer Bomb.

I love Beer Bomb. So the rest of the card left a little bit, but the top two was good. The, trying to think what the other ones are like really. jump out to me from Strike Force where I was like, oh, well, so like the other obviously huge one is Fadour losing. Fadour getting tapped by Verduem

in San Jose because that was the most stunning thing that had ever happened in the sport at that point in time to me. It's easy. Being in the arena for that one and I was watching in the crowd taking photos because I kind of wanted a kind of a wide shot and when it happened

And I've never felt the most just air got sucked out of an entire arena. Like, it was wild. Pulling this up, that was actually a really good card too. Josh Thompson beat Pat Healy. Those are two top 15ish lightweights. Kung Lee had the spinning, that was the spinning back kick, K.O. on Scott Smith for Kung Lee. Cyborg killed Jan Finney, but that's whatever.

But the Fador Redoom thing was the most shocking, honestly, the most shocking thing. that it happened in my MMA fandom at that point in time, basically. Fador was the unkillable man, and I remember going into this being like, what's for doom going to do, tap him? That can't happen. This man willingly spent 25 minutes in Big Dog's Guard

just beat the shit out of him from it. What's for doom going to do, tap him? It was like, actually, yes, yes, he will. It's like, oh, well, fuck. So that one definitely stands out because it was such a like what hell just happened. Even how it happened is, it was amazing too because he drops her.

Weird. He drops her in the bedroom. Yeah, he dropped him. And voluntarily goes into his guard. And it's just, and it's the one tap too. He doesn't do like a tap. He just goes,

oh, I've been caught tap. Got me. And then that's it. And so weird. Like, just like, like it was any other day in the training room like, oh, he got me. Tap.

I'm out of here. It's like, what the end of an era, dude? What are you talking? Yeah, Bader just sits up like, hmm. He was like, Yeah, got me. Okay.

I guess I couldn't stay undefeated forever. I thought you could, dude. I really did. Thank you, Spencer. A couple more super chats. Thank you, Spencer. Shout out of Strikeforce. Oh, but actually, because you did ask, no,

PFL probably can't get to that level, right? Like the sport is just in a very different place. The UFC has so much control and ownership at this point in time. That it's unlikely. Today is the first day I've ever thought, maybe. Maybe they can. can get there. Like maybe they can get to a place that is tolerable. And the UFC should want them to

get to a place that is good. Competition is better for them, even when it's not real competition. Maybe they can because Usman and Morgamatov and Paul Hughes, I mean, they're eventually going to leave, but this can maybe be the start of something. They got to find a way to build momentum and have more than just this to what their thing. But it was a great day for them. Yeah, and credit to PFL, I don't know if it's just blind luck, the fact that they had this fight on one of the rare weekends, UFC is not having a card. I assume it was not blind luck.

I assume that this was intentional. And if that's the case, good on you. That's smart. Every weekend the UFC isn't putting something on, you should be on it. That is no questions asked to me. You should be doing it. And you should go back to Dubai.

That place was live. The arena was pumped. People were interested. Go back to Dubai. being on max is great. That is a real thing that people can gravitate to. A pluses. Spencer, for me, was it Diaz versus Cyborg?

Diaz flipped off the crowd when he won. A brawl started, got hit in the head with a throne beer bottle. It was epic. Yeah, if you weren't around for this, this gave birth to one of the longstanding and great MMA quotes that is probably not really used that much just because of the way the fan base cycles out. But there were a good like seven years after the infamous Strike Force brawl where you could just say the Gus quote of sometimes these things happen in MMA.

It was like it wasn't the first time MMA had been on network television, but it was one like the first five times it had been on CBS or whatever. And then Diaz, the Diaz brawl starts. And Gus Johnson's response is not like, oh, this is terrible and tragic and ah these are professionals like yeah sometimes this just happens in MMA which was the correct thing to say it's correct and it was

iconically funny but especially like because this also came in the period where the UFC was doing a level best to be like they're not just fighters these are teachers and good people and they went to college and guess it's like yeah sometimes they're just sociopathic lunatics

who throw beer bottles and Star brawls. It's incredible. Shout out Gus Johnson. Gus Johnson was actually ahead of the game. He knew. He was right. He was correct.

Even UFC gave up on that whole thing. They're like, whatever, these guys are idiots. They fight. We pay him money. Yeah. But for a long time, the forums would just be like,

yeah, anytime something would happen, that would be the default answer. Sometimes these things happen in the MMA. Oh, John, Jones got arrested again. Sometimes these things happen in the way. Awesome. Okay, thank you. Wow, for a quick little show, we've got 44 minutes. Yeah, we're going to wrap this up in a moment. I honestly, well, that was when we did. I was like, I don't know if people are going to be interested, but I got energy. Yeah. People are interesting. These things happen. Enigma,

watch karate combat this morning, PFL this afternoon, BKFC coming in the evening. Pretty awesome Saturday. It is. I watched that karate combat card. I will not lie to you. I didn't think it was all that great, but there were some cool things that happened in it. I spent most of last evening watching GFL, which is the worst thing that's ever happened, Casey, and I... Should we end it on a negative note? Should we end this on a negative note? Yes.

Yes, we can. I have a GFL column coming, I think tomorrow, maybe it runs Monday. It was terrible. It was the worst thing I've ever seen, Casey. and I was so upset with it because it only at the very end did it finally get so bad that it was just funny to me there was no draft no draft happened

what happened is they clearly broke up the teams into their six teams and then they lied and said they were having a draft and this was all a promotional tool to get people interested which I can't be that upset about in principle because, like, sure, it got people interested, I guess, that your gimmick worked. But you lied to me about the draft. That could have been like a really fun and interesting thing to do and you didn't do it.

But the sin, the fatal flaw is that they executed it poorly. The production was terrible. They have a good song. I will give them that. It's not as good as the IFL rap, but the GFL rap is like a good song. They had terrible AI artwork animation promo package that ran repeat. repeatedly, like this ran all the time, and it, which was super weird.

And then the draft itself was so obviously, like, not clear, immediately it was clear that this was not a real draft because Tyron Woodley went first overall. Tyrone Woodley is 42 years old and lost six fights in a row. Nobody drafting to win would draft Tyrone Woodley with their first overall pick. And then, like, every subsequent Sage Northcote was pick number two. Like, that's clearly Sage Northcutt is not. not the second best dude in the crop of fighters you have available to feed

Messiah the Demers Mukula for both there at his weight class. So all of that was insane. I don't want to be mean to people. So I will try and not say my true thoughts and feelings because it's not necessary to be mean. I would have strongly encouraged them to pick literally any three other people. for their commentary booth for this than Brendan Schaub, Robin Black, and Mike Goldberg. Literally, any three other living humans instead of that being the brain trust there.

Goldberg was the worst of them all. And just, who, buddy, he, oh, who. All he did was talk about the UFC in the good old days. It was so hard. Did he mention me a shirt? interview. What? Did you know, not?

No, but, you know, they do interviews and all of it's like former UST fires. It's like, oh, my good friend Tyrone Woodley, I haven't seen you since the good old days. How you doing, Tyron? It's like, how they just so, it was so cringing. And then Robin Black and Renner Schaubber deeply not to my taste. It was, yes, as Sledo points out, absolutely nightmare rotation of human beings. Certainly for my taste. If you enjoyed it, good for you.

Like, that would have been an acceptable group like a decade ago. I just get any, literally any other people, but certainly just pick new people. Like, I don't get get any newish names faces trying to get interest. Alex Wendling was trying to do that, but she was left with a really bad bag to hold of being the social media person for like the worst tweets you ever seen. And then it just goes off the rails, Casey, because it's supposed to be a 20-round draft. They did four rounds. That's all they did. They drafted, they did four rounds of draft picks.

And then they were just like, here are the teams, except for they spent another hour and a half to announce what the teams are. John Jones did a celebrity pick, but he picked after the draft had already been announced. So like in round three, I don't even remember who he was saying got picked. Maybe it was, it was Yole Romero actually. Yol Romero going to Miami. But instead they're like, they clearly screwed up the production of it. And so when Owens goes up to, here are the next three picks, he just doesn't say Miami's pick. He says the picks immediately after that.

And then Goldberg goes to booth. And don't forget, YOL Romero was drafted by Miami with pick 17. And five minutes later, they run a video of John Jones. reading out a pick from a car that you went to Miami. Like, what are we, what are we doing? Then, like I said, they stopped after round four and just announced like the teams, but in the middle of them doing team announcements, which took forever again, they also was like, here's Christian McCaffrey doing a guest announcement.

I don't even remember who it was, but it was pick number 68. So the 12th round pick, Christian McCaffrey randomly announces when they didn't do the rest of it. It was so shoddly run. We put together this post show in three minutes. That is how long it took us. And there's like more effort went into this than the GFO draft had going into it. And that's not even to mention if you just look at the teams, look at the people.

Some of the fighters, they, Robles to Spain was announced for Team Miami. Literally as he was being announced as a member of Team Miami, he was making his walk to the karate combat pit to fight somebody. Literally, like literally as that is happening, you could side by side screen it and that is going on. Multiple fighters are retired or were retired. Chris Wybin, who retired from the U.S. or retired ostensibly from all of competition a week ago or whatever was drafted and is on Team New York.

What? Buddy, it's insane. Uriah Faber was like a top six draft pick. Uriah Faber was 45 and has. hasn't fought in like seven years or something like that. The average age of fighters is like 36 or something insane. It was so out, like outrageous and not well produced. Like the minimal amount of effort went into this that honestly my predominant thought as it was going on was this.

This is all a joke that what they're not actually making a fight league. This is like, what they are making is an MMA game that they're going to sell you with these names in the game. Like a mobile MMA game because that's the only thing that would make sense. It was it was so bad. And like people were interested. People were ready to be interested. Drafts are fun. And then they took away even the fun part.

And I cannot imagine a worse launch of a product. I swear you. I do feel bad for you. I know you love drafts and for them to do this to the sanctity of the draft. Yeah, to what you love. That's just not cool. GFL, not cool. Darren.

It was deeply not cool. And then like you have Brendan Schaubb, Brennan Chub, unironically, called Kevin Lee a prospect. It was like, Kevin Lee and say, so you've got like veterans like your eye of favor. I was like he's not even a veteran. He's retired. And you've got prospects like Sage Northcott and Kevin Lee. It's like, St. George has been a professional fighter for over a decade.

He's not a prospect. Kevin Lee is not a prospect. What are we doing? It was so ludicrous to happen. And then that's not even to mention that there are numerous fighters who, oh, I forgot, Casey. They also spoiled it. They inadvertently put up a graphic of the draft order like five minutes into the show. Somebody immediately screen grabbed it when all were twosers like,

Oh, and then, you know, people like Ariel, Ariel Hawani shout out, was having a fun time playing like fake woe, be like, I'm seeing that Miami has Junior Dos Santos circled for their first overall draft pick because we knew the order that was coming out. I cannot imagine a worst product launch. I genuinely can't. Like, you could have given me 20 bucks to buy booze and get just hammered and do anything I wanted to, and it would have been better than what they offered.

I am so out on GFL as a result of that and I wanted to be in I wanted to like them can't do it I have a I have a review of it coming out tomorrow go to them if I notcom and read and yes that's the thing Drake shot at Jerry Griggs

that like I said that was my honest thought was like the only way that this makes any sense at all is if this isn't real this is a video game this is some sort of a con but not like a con and that they're going to hold fights and not pay fighters, they're not going to be fights.

This is all a marketing ploy for something. And I just don't know what it is. It is the only thing that makes sense. Because if that's not the case, Casey, what happens is they thought, I want to make an MMA League. And then they made a rap and we're like, I got it. Those are the only things I need for MMA League. I have a cool song and a name.

Good. It's nuts. The only thing is missing, they needed just sell some kind of GFL Bitcoin. honestly that might be the grift like maybe that's the griff dude they couldn't even get team names you have six teams and they were team dubai team los angeles you couldn't just be like i want mascots the miami speedboats and the new york jets or whatever like it was just so freaking bad like no effort was put into this let's go speedboats oh god i am again I promise you my services.

Look, Don Davis hired me as the Minister of Fun and the first event PFL holds is the best thing they've ever done. Coincidence? I don't think so. GFL, my phone line is open. I am here to help you. I don't know if I can save you after that. I'll be honest, but we can try.

Do you have anything else? Because this won't fall off at all. I did not intend this to go almost an hour. I was like, strike by the iron's hot. This is cool. People will be interested. suddenly here we are we're talking about GFL. Let's not talk about my day off.

I'm talking about GFL. How dare you. Great. Let's not talk about GFL again until there's reason to, unless you're going to read my article that comes out tomorrow. You should absolutely do that. But let's spend the next week talking about Paul Hughes and who's sprinting with a bed off because that fight is sick

and we will talk about it at the end of the year for fight of the year of that, I'm sure. Congratulations, PFL. You guys, that's the best fight you've ever put on, probably the best event or the biggest event you will have ever done. as a hell of a start to 2025 for you. Casey, thank you so much for hopping on on short notice. I literally could not have done this without you. So it's critical.

And thanks to all you tuned in for this. We got to have a little bit of fun. It is still early yet, especially if you were on the West Coast, on the East Coast. We'll have some dinner. Maybe settle in for Nucklemania. And then we're on Saudi Arabia. Thanks, y'all.

Love you. Bye. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast. podcast network.