MMA Fighting - PFL World Championship Post Show | Reaction To Dakota Ditcheva's Destruction Of Taila Santos

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

Following Friday's PFL World Championship card, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to the new season champions, the nearly 10-hour fight card, Dakota Ditcheva's incredible performance, and much more. 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

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

Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last.

Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What's up, everybody? No victory horns today, but you got the victory drums, and they sound for six fighters, six millionaires, six world champions, Timor Hizriev, Dakota Dichiva,

Doblet, Yajiramadov, I know I got that one wrong, Shemil Musayef, Gazi, Robbenov, of Donoff and Dennis Goldsoff, your new million dollar PFL champions. There were also PFL mena champions crowned. There's a whole bunch of other fights that happened very early in the morning. And ladies and gentlemen, just shy of 10 hours, this PFL event from start to finish took.

It was started 7.15 a.m. Eastern, wrapped up about 4.45 p.m. So about nine and a half hours of PFL action to close the 2024 season. and here we are to react to it on our post-fight show, which I'm kind of surprised we're here to do, but a lot did happen, and I'm glad to be here. I am Mike Keck, and joining me, Mr. Jed Mishud, the Big Booper himself. How are you, Jed?

A lot of mixing of the martial arts today. There was so much mixing of the martial arts today. Excited we're doing a post show. I almost pitched this, and then I was like, there's no chance we'll do a post show. No one will want to do it. I was like, I don't know. Why not?

Like, I don't have anything else to talk about this week. weekend. I'm so used to doing post shows and just shows on the weekends that getting a weekend off now feels weird. It feels wrong. And even if it is a holiday weekend, it's honestly, especially. Because like, I'm in that weird post- Thanksgiving spot where because I didn't work yesterday. I was yesterday, yesterday doesn't feel like a Thursday. And so now I'm like confused and thinking that today is Saturday, especially because there are fights and there's, there's the NFL on. So I'm all like kinked up. And now we're here. You know, I'm sure there will be seven people who will tune into this program. But the nine of us will have a great time. And we can talk

about, you know, six new millionaires. I mean, look, everything you said was correct. I have asked people at least a dozen times what day it is. Because I still, it does not feel like Friday. I don't know what day it feels like. It feels like Shabbat-do day, which is a day that. doesn't exist. It's just been a very weird week and today might be the weirdest day of them all. It feels Saturday E to me, mainly because we have fights and there's the NFL on and like, or there's football, I guess, not just the NFL, the NFL is a Sunday thing, but like, uh, George is playing tonight. I just watched fights. Like this feels like this is a Saturday to me. And so being Friday, it's like daylight savings time gave me a whole extra day.

Just like instead of, Oh, I got an extra hour. It's like actually a whole day has appeared out of nowhere. So, you know. Look, there's a few. There's a few things to talk about. Obviously, this is a very long card. Pacing was not terrible once we got to the main card.

Pretty tough on the prelims, if we're being honest. But at the end of the day, the story of this card, none of that really matters. It was about the main card that needed to deliver. that's what the whole season on ESPN 2 and ESPN and ESPN Plus is all about getting to this event, getting to the to the million dollar championship fights. And we'll get to the one huge storyline in a moment. But before we get there, Jed, start to finish, at least what you watch.

Let's talk about the main card. I see the B plus on the whiteboard back there. Show your work. Explain your grade. Why was this a B plus? So and so we are very clear. The B Plus is restricted to the PFL championships because they did bifurcate this card out, right? There's the PFL MENA stuff.

That was the 7am to 1 p.m. That was the other, you know, the Mena tournament championships. I watched some of that. I will not pretend to have watched all of the Pillar to Post. But I did wake up, you know, I was already awake. I threw it on as I was going out the rest of my day doing other stuff. And so I saw certainly a couple of the highlights. you know, some of the things happening there.

That card seemed slowly paced, which is probably a little tougher. Maybe it just felt worse because also didn't know a lot of the fighters competing. But, you know, if I was factoring in the totality of it, 16 fights is too many, it would probably dock this score. But felt right to just judge it on the PFL championship card, the main card, the card that, you know,

was promoted as the PFL championships, not the men of stuff on ESPN. And for that, I think a B plus is right. All right. Like if you were just restricting it to that, we are talking specifically six fights. They didn't give us any preamble there. It was just the here of the tournament championships. Let's get busy.

As we talk about all the time, as I say a lot, I am always at least marginally interested in fights that have stakes. Even if they aren't fights that I am deeply invested in emotionally or, you know, like the best fighters in the world. A million dollars is stakes, man. Those people are in there fighting. for a life-changing amount of money. You cannot imagine the things that I would fist fight someone for if a million dollars was on the line. Like I would give my absolute A plus effort,

and I can't fight for shit. So I suspect that these professional fighters are going to bring their best when a million dollars is on the line. And usually we see that sometimes it manifests in the worst ways, but tonight it didn't. Tonight it manifested in a ton of early finishes. We didn't do a preview show, but like BTL kind of functioned as a preview show to some respects.

And we talked about how this, there's a world where this event could have lasted 12 hours because you have 10 championship fights on one total card. If you were just breaking down the PFL championship, 6, 25 minute fights is a long damn time. And frankly, on paper, a lot of the over-unders here were set pretty high because there was an anticipation that a lot of these fights would go long.

And in the end, a bunch of finishes, like a ton of finishes, a couple very early finishes as well. And so you're getting like, the expectations were pretty low as far as how the vibes would go. They delivered. You got a bunch of good performances. This was free on ESPN Plus. So if you had nothing else to do and you didn't want to watch this terrible Chiefs Raiders game that's on right there, you guys can't see it. You know, maybe you're flipping through and you see some fights and it's cool. but mostly the big thing is the thing that they most wanted to happen.

Dakota Dichiva arrived and she didn't just win. She put on one of the best performances of the year, frankly, when you're sort of totaling it all up. They placed a big bet on Dichiva and she came out looking like legitimately one of the five best fly weights in the world against her by far the most difficult opponent she faced. That could have been a spot where she falters.

And then it's like, okay, we did all this. And the horse we backed, you know, pulled up lame in the big race. And no, she delivered. So they got the biggest outcome they wanted. And so, you know, this would be an A. Frankly, it is only a B plus because of they, they did the PFL thing at the end. Because you, you know that they did. We all know that they're going to PFL because they are PFL and they couldn't help themselves.

I just don't understand it. And I was saying this, like, legitimately once the car dropped, how could you not headline with Dakota Ditchieva and Tila Santos? Because you're building a star. And then the other most recognizable name to a UFC fan is Tila Santos. Is the most recognizable name to a UFC fan. Brandon Lachname, yes, people know him because they promoted the crap out of him. Yes, people know who Impa Kassangana is because his story and he was on the receiving end of one of the five most.

ridiculous knockouts in UFC history. But Taya Santos fought Valentina Shavchenko. A lot of people thought she won that fight. Like this should have. If they closed the show with Dakota thumping her up and finishing her at the body shot, yeah, I'm with you. This is probably an A minus main card. I'm with you on the B plus main card.

We got five finishes. Ending it the way that they ended it was not good. This was, it was tough. It was one-way traffic. The fight was not competitive. And yes, Brennan, got his nose busted up real. bad but if it ended with Dakota doing that and then having her comments at the end i think we come out just full of piss and vinegar we're running through a wall right now and all other than that

it was great like even the even the the mena fights were really good like they were solid there were there were some wild fights they just took forever to get to them that was like the big knocked so i would say i watch from the second to last what are they the showcase featured fights before the mena and uh mansar barn we had a had a nice little performance like that was fun to watch and slim trebelsie comes out to the undertaker theme i thought he lost that fight uh to abraham babli but that's okay and then we got to the to the meta fights and the first fight goes to the cards and i'm just like oh boy here we go and then it was just knock out in the first round then we had an amateur fight knock on the second round.

Then it was knock out second round, knock out first round. The fights ended violently, pretty much all of them. But I mean, we were, I think it was a 45 minute break between the last mena fight and the first main card fight. And that's just they got to fix that. They absolutely have to fix that, figure out a way to do better. But all in all, I didn't think there was going to be much to talk about. And there weren't like a ton of storylines outside of the million.

and outside of Dakota Dichiva, but all and all, this is a pretty fun watch. And I guess that's the most you could really ask for if you're the PFL right now, because if this card started at like 4 p.m. Eastern and it went to like 3 a.m. That's tough.

But the fact that they started this so early and it ends at 4.45 p.m. Eastern, it's a pretty solid day for the PFL, is it not? Like I said, man, it should, this is a categorical win. No matter what, how it ended in the quibbles you can make, It was great the fact that this was free. We talked about it when he when Don Davis announced that that is a terrific move. There is a possibility that they garnered fans that they certainly got themselves out in a way that is meaningful towards their future prospects. I don't think it was wrong to not put Dichiva Santos as the main event just because if Dichiva doesn't win, then that fight probably looks. awful and then you don't want to end with that.

And so I get the calculated risk there. In the end, it would have worked out much, much better if Dichita Santos had closed the show. But I get, you know, that's a risk that maybe you don't want to take in that spot. It is just one of those things where the margin for error is much smaller and frankly, because this is absolutely nitpicking sort of things that the PFL did, but we have to. because the UFC can do things blatantly wrong. And they do all the time. We wring our hands and pull our hair out about it.

But in the end, that doesn't make any difference to how their business operates. PFL has got to get every bit of juice they can out of every little piece. And so these sort of things stand starkly. The fact that there's 16 fights on one day is just ludicrous. The pacing. And the fact that if you were a diehard MMA fan, you have been up since 7 a.m. Eastern time and you have been watching fights for 10 hours.

Like those little things do stand starkly, but even factoring in all of that, it was a huge win for them. They got good performances. We could debate the direction the promotion is going. And if that's good, I tend to think it's probably not. With regard to basically all their champions are just Russian now. And like, I don't know, that's pretty hard for a blatantly American company to promote these fighters.

And like, you know, there are other stuff. Dan Hardy should just not be near this at this point. He was a real tough hang. But at the end of the day, the thing that matters most is the fights and the fights were good. And most, most importantly, Dakota Dichiva is a star and she is here. Yeah. And I don't want to downgrade teamwork history of winning a million dollars because it's a great win. He beat the hell out of Brennan-Locknane. I thought he won all five rounds.

He swept one of the cards, 4946. There's a solid performance. I mean, what else could you say about it? But the story of this card and the way we'll remember this card is what Dakota Ditcheva did to Tyler Santos. So we talked about it on BTL. We wanted to know what the betting line was. And she was somewhere around Santos, that is, was somewhere around a plus 300. And we were like, oh, my God, that just seems.

silly. That seemed like that line is way too wide. And it turns out that line was not wide enough. Like it was value on Dakota Dichiba with hindsight being what it is. She went out there and beat the hell out of Tila Santos. Like that was an ass whooping. Tala Santos, about three minutes into the first round, the look on her face just said, I don't want to be in here anymore. And she kept trying to get takedowns. And at one point she got one. And then Dakota just got back up, kept kneeing her and elbowing her. and then once the blood was in the water in round two, she just thumped her on out of there and landed that body shot. And that was it.

Done deal. She gets it done. She is for real, man. Like she is real good. I wasn't fully sold on her like others were because of the level of competition. We knew what the PFL is trying to do with her picking her fights in the regular season. They could say all they want, oh, we don't choose the fights. The format chooses them for us.

Absolutely not true because of the way that. Just look at how Liz Karmouche was booked compared to how Dakota Ditchev was booked. But in the end, the PFL was absolutely right. They set her up to succeed. She gets the easy road to the final, the easier road to the final, if we're being fair. And she delivered in spades, man. She impressed the hell out of me. Were you, like, really sold on her heading into today?

Or was today like the breaking point for you? And you're just like, okay, I get it. Everyone else is right. And now I'm officially there. Today was a level up. I already had her ranked. I'm pretty sure in our last thing. I think I had her like around 10 or 11.

I got her fairly high up there because I was genuinely impressed by the shit. Let me look it up. Geno Bishop went. Not just that she, but the way she won the fight answered some questions. And I remember when she beat Jenna Bishop being like, okay, Jenna Bishop's not a world beat her. But the way she did this makes me think that she's,

does have a really good shot against Tyler Santos here and in this fight coming up we didn't do a picks I think I would have picked a ditch of a but like I was very I obviously I placed a bet on

Tyler Santos and I was very clear like this is an insane line not the ditch of a can't win but nobody has dummy Tyler Santos like nobody Valentina Shepchenko fodder and many people thought Valentina lost Aaron Blanchfield who we all know my feelings about Aaron Blanchfield really had to scrape out a win there.

And Dichita just ran her over. This fight was not really competitive for as long as it lasted. And so this was like, you know, I thought Dichita was a top Finnish fighter. This is, okay, Dichita is still getting better and could legitimately be the best flyweight in the world soon. I don't think she's there yet. And it'll be tough for her, frankly, to get there. We were having some internal conversations along this way. It'll be tougher to get there being not in the UFC, frankly,

because all the people above her are in the UFC. It will be hard for her to make much headway there. Honestly, there aren't that many other opponents for her to face outside of the UFC at this point in time. There are a couple, not many. And so eventually we're going to need to see her jump over to find sort of where her real level is. But if you told me the woman we saw, you know, fight an hour and a half ago,

went into the UFC and gave Menon Fior just the business and be like, I could believe that. I'm not sure I would pick it to happen, but she is extremely talented. I thought we didn't see a ton of it, but adding the elbows in was certainly helpful to her game as well. And she is getting better. You know,

she's with a great team and she is improving steadily. And this was by far her toughest opponent. And I would say, frankly, her best performance. Like this was a this was one way traffic for nine minutes or however it ended up lasting. So yeah, like I don't think that I think I was sold sold in the Ben in the Genob Bishop. By the like, okay, she's for real. This is no hype.

This isn't smoke of mirrors. She has got something real here. And this is the one where I'm just like, oh, yeah, okay. So give her a couple of years and let's get her in the UFC and let's start cooking. Is she the face of the company right now? Is she in the Kayla Harrison spot? Like I know Francis is there. and Francis is obviously a well-known,

a well-known commodity, but if you're PFL, are you just backing Dakota right now, or are you just backing up the brink truck and just throwing it all at her to try to get her over? I mean, they certainly did that heading into this card. Every advertisement they had, every promo video they had,

every social media post they had was about her. Nothing about Talas Santos. It's all about her. And again, turned out to be the right decision. But is she now the face of the PFL? No. but she's like one of the whatever the tier down from being like the lead the lead dog is like surely

there's a word in professional wrestling for the next tier of people there's not the Roman reigns is the champion or whatever and it's the face of the company but she's got to be a name for like the next group of people who are also doing the heavy lifting uh and she's in that group I think the face is like Charles Olivera like where olivera is yeah it's like I think the face is probably Francis though arguably it's Jake Paul. Like, which is just sad. I mean,

the face is actually dawn, which is real bad. You should fix that. But Francis, as far as fighters go, is, and he is the guy carrying the torch for the PFL,

even though he's fought one time. He just is. But, uh, see, I'm learning, I'm learning pro wrestling stuff here, Mike.

I'm learning for specific reasons. I'm working on this. You know, Francis is the, the, the Roman Reigns, the heavyweight champion of the world. Roman Reins isn't the heavyweight champion, but I don't know who. The head of the table.

He's the face. He's the heavyweight champion. Dakota Ditchiva is like the intercontinental champion. She's the one just out there grinding at the shows and putting in the work to get the dubs. And so like give her some time. The truth is I don't know like to what extent she has like that natural charisma star power that you really need to be the face of the promotion. I think we're going to find out because I'm going to push it to high heaven.

But there's the other truth is there's just not anybody else in PFL who is who is there to carry the standard. Like Pacheco, but Pacheco just lost. The Bellator fighters are still weirdly in Bellator-ish. And again, like I mentioned this earlier, legitimately, Team or Kizzeriav is one of the 15 best lightweights in the world. Frankly, probably one of like the 10 or 12 best lightweights in the world. He's a very, very good fighter. He can't be the face of your promotion. He can't be because he is a void of charisma.

Like, there's, he is where charisma goes to die. And he doesn't even have a fun hat. Like, there's nothing to draw him in. You know, like theoretically, I guess impikasangana, I could have been that. But he just got done up by Doflet. So nope, like Dovlett's got some panache to him, but he's not really the face of it. of a company. Shemil Musayev.

Like, that's a dude they call the quiet assassin or whatever. He's super good. Oh, he's super good. But they call him a quiet dude because he doesn't say shit. Like they fundamentally going into this card and honestly this whole year I've had this sort of thing where I'm just like this is, I think this might be the worst promotional

effort possible because what they have done, what the BFL has done, this seems. as we have four champions from Russia. And this is not to be like nationalist or whatever. This is strictly from a promotional standpoint. Like they have acquired a bunch of really good fighters who they can't sell for shit on this side of the globe. Because none of them, none of them will work. And so like that's that's like the exact opposite of what you want. What you would like is to have a very good fighter you can sell.

or even a good fighter or even a good sales point who's kind of a bad fighter and you can manufacture. Instead, they've got people who will win a lot and no one will ever care about, which is kind of the death of interest in a lot of ways. And so almost by process of elimination, Dichiva is like one of the top people as long as they keep bifurcating PFL and Bellator. 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. With Instacart, you get groceries that over-deliver, so you can over-share your preferences.

Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it. Want turnips that look light but feel heavy? Easy. Want honey-crisp apples that are firm, green, and definitely not Macintosh like last year when you lost the fall bake-off to perfect Penelope Johnson. Okay, a bit TMI.

We're here for it. So download the app today and get zero delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over deliver. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. I want to keep talking about her because she's obviously the biggest story here. If you are guiding her career, if you were, we benched, if you were her Paul Heyman, if you will, if you were the Paul Heyman to Dakota Ditchieva. I know that.

What do you do? Ladies and gentlemen, what are you telling her to do? are you telling her to go defend this million dollar crown and do this again? Because I feel that it would be just managerial malpractice to have her do this season again, right? She is a legitimate, if they're going to continue to go on pay-per-view, she needs to be on those cards. She needs to be fighting other people. She needs to be fighting Liz Carmouche for the Bellator Flyway title next. She does not need to be in another season.

and Aaron Braun said her very publicly was like disagree, just line them up. There are people in the chat right now who are all in agreement. She needs to be in the UFC. She is now the PFL champion, which means if you followed the Kayla Harrison story, she can't go to the UFC. Whatever contract she's under it, even if that was the last fight on her deal, at least with the Kayla thing, you win a title. You're pretty much locked in for another year with them, no matter what.

So whether you've, and you can choose to not fight in the season, that's fine. but you are with them at least for another year and I don't know how this how this works. So does she do the season again? Or is she a super fights type fighter now? Let's just get her the carmushes. Let's just load her up with top tier talent. Or if you're at PFL, are you pushing for the season

because you feel like she'll win and the more she wins, the longer you can keep her? How do we do this? What would you suggest if you were guiding Dakota? It is a very difficult question to answer. If I'm guiding Dakota, I'm not guiding the PFL. I would tell Dakota just to do the superfight thing.

There aren't that many, frankly. Like, there's Liz Karmouche, but you got to feel really good about your chance to beating Liz Karmuch after what you just did to Tyler Santos. Like, you'll be a healthy favorite and deservedly so based on the performances recently. And that I'll give you a little bit of gumption. I don't know how many more there are after that.

And so it is, it is tough because I think you just got to sit her down and just be honest with what's happening. Like, hey, you did the only thing that can be done here functionally. And so now at best, realistically, we have got like two fights for you that could be qualified as super fights at best. I'm not even sure that two fights is correct. And so then the question is, would you rather fight four times next year and win a million dollars? would you rather fight twice and we'll get paid a lot of money, but not a million dollars. I don't know what her contract is or what they can negotiate at this point. It's probably some amount of cash.

And so, you know, if she is strictly just like, yeah, I'll do it. Screw it. A million dollars is I would rather be paid more than and fight a little bit more than be paid less than do that. Otherwise, if I am guiding her, I'm saying do the super fight thing and try to, you know, just to do it. maybe don't get a belt because realistically if I'm her, I am either trying to get paid an exorbitant amount of money from the PFL and then I'll kill whoever's in front of me or I'm just trying to get out of this to go fight in the UFC because that's where there are consistent opposition that I can face, that I can, you know, prove my

case as the best fighter in the world, maybe get the UFC title and make pay-per-view points, et cetera, et cetera. So if I'm telling her what to do, it's the path that gets her to the UFC the quickest, which I think is not getting in the PFL championship outs based on what you said. But if she said, I'd rather just get paid a million bucks. I'll do it again. And then maybe, you know, I'll take another year out. Because I do think there's a good argument if you are her and on her side to building

your star more here before transitioning over to the UFC. And if that means we do another season, I want another million dollars. I get to fight a bunch because we talked to him, Mike, the best way to build her star is not to have her do the super fight thing. Because she'll fight, honestly, maybe once a year based on how this year went for the Bellator Super Fight series or whatever. And that's just not a lot. You want to fight as often as possible. So if she fights four more times next year, wins another million bucks, gets another belt to take home.

Maybe that is the best way to kind of keep elevating herself, elevating her stardom and making yourself a more attractive property when the time does come to start negotiating with the UFC. Yeah. I mean, if they do PFL versus Bellator, yeah. she can fight on that card that's where you do the carmroche fight and then winning ganu ultimately fights again in october or september whatever she could fight on that card too and be in the co-main event so there's two she's meeting though well she yeah i don't know we'll see what i mean free agency could be very strange at that point but you throw her in the season yeah she gets well and retire yeah i feel like she did retire she wreck her yeah but i feel like she retired after

the car moose loss right yeah yeah I mean, there's, I mean, there's obviously, I mean, there's others too. But I mean, there's just that the roster's not deep. She's just going to destroy everybody, which is fine. Like you get her out there. But mostly you get over by fighting a lot. And she fought a lot this year. And now she's officially over.

So I honestly don't know what it looks like for her. But if I'm, if I'm her, I ain't doing the season again. That's crazy. I would give her the, give whatever they need to fight. She's already talked about. wanting to go to the UFC anyways. And if we discuss, like, where she actually ranks, if she wants to be the number one 25er,

she's got to do it in the UFC. That's same conversation for Patchy Mix. Same conversation for Johnny Eplin. Sure, we can get him there for a cup of coffee if we really thought about it and want to give them a little present for a good win. But that's not long-lasting. It just isn't with the level of competition that she just has in front of her. So I ask you, Jedmishu.

You mentioned top five And you mentioned our little Slack discussion that we were having because people were kind of all over the map on where we were going to rank Dakota Dichua A little more insane than other people But yeah, Oh, 100%.

And I pose this on social media as well. Where do you rank her? On the next ranking cycle, if our fearless rankings leader, AK went on the Slack channel right now and said, need a ranking shakeup update right now for Women's 125.

Where are you ranking her? I show me my number five when we do our next rankings update. That is currently where I have Tyler Santos. She will move into that spot. You know, if you want to move her higher, I think you make an argument for it. I think you could make an argument to place her in front of Planchfield. I'm not going to do that because while she absolutely had a far more impressive in Tiles, performance against Tilos Santos and Planchfield did, is what.

She's had one, like, good win. And Aaron Blanchfield and Alexa Grasso and Monofio, of course, Valentina Shibchenko. They have just all been putting in work longer and have a collection of better wins than this one wins, great win. She needs more. And so, like I said, wouldn't shock me if she could beat any one of those women in a fight after what we just saw. But based on what she has accomplished versus what they have accomplished, she slots in at number five for me. which I think is the highest I would have a PFL slash Belator person. I don't know.

Because Eblen got knocked down to six for me. Yeah, Patchy, I have to kind of see where he's at. She's either going to be five or six for me. Shevchenko Grasso Manon. That's five for me. So she can be five right there with Patchy. Okay. So Chifchenko, Grasso, Manon.

I'm going to keep Blanchfield there. The conversation now becomes is Natty Ice number five? is Dakota Ditch of a number five because now he's been putting in the work she's undefeated in the UFC she's got wins over jazz to jazz de vizzias Andrea lee vivia aruzzo which is aged very well and then she dominated jess gandrage like she looked real good in that fight um i don't know man like it's it's it's close i might sneak her in at five but there is a real world where natty ice gets the fifth spot and then she's number six which is a damn good place to be in this division because it is a very good division just look at the rest of the fighters that

are on there like macy barbara would be an interesting fight barbara would be an interesting fight karmouche is an interesting fight there's kateen chukagin sermonara rose hebas ara ujo would be an interesting fight maya karine sylva like i there's 25's a good division it's a very good division so by yeah i'd say five or six is good it's not even close 25 is that's I'm just going to ask you this because I just saw somebody tweet this online, very popular figure in the space. So I might as well ask you. Is Dakota Ditch of a top 10 women's pound for pound fighter right now? Let me look at my pound for pound rankings.

No is the actual answer. But let me see how insane that is. That has a pretty insane stance. No, not remotely. Okay. There's an argument. I do not have it. and I will not have her as that.

But it's actually not that insane of a stance. I will have her in my, I will have her ranked at pound for pound for sure. She will be in my top 20. She will not be in my top 10. She'll probably like 16. Yeah, I'm kind of looking right around that zone too. Yeah.

Like I can't jump her. She'll at the lowest. She'll be 16. I think she will actually be 15 for me. I might put her in front of Janjan, John, on. It's pretty right there. So we'll see.

And we'll go to the peeps after this. One last question. You mentioned all the other winners. And Dakota's obviously got a very of our future in terms of where she could be as a star and all that. In terms of like talent and ability and upside from a merit perspective based on how good they are at fighting and how they would match up against their peers in the division globally. would you put all the money on Dakota

or is there somebody else who won a million dollars tonight that you think maybe sits in the CEO chair above her? Oh, no. I think if you're just looking at the winners tonight, it's for sure Dakota. Because I think that she could go and immediately be competitive with the top five in the UFC.

They probably would win some of them, would lose some of them. Maybe she'll lose all of them, and wins all. We'll never know until we see it. But I think she can absolutely, compete with the top five in the weight class in a meaningful way.

Like it would not stun me to see her just stuff Aaron Blanchfield's takedowns and box her ears the same way we saw men on did. Because like nobody really like they mentioned it a little bit. She's enormous. She is stunningly big. Tyler Santos is not a small women's flyweight.

She's not like the biggest woman's flyweight that's ever lived. But she ain't a small one. And Ditcha of a dwarf her in there. Like, she is huge. So it wouldn't shock me if Aaron Blanchfield was kind of a small flyweight, like just couldn't get her down and got tuned up on the feet. It could absolutely happen. You know, like, we'd see how these things go.

So I think that there are a couple of the winners tonight who would obviously be competitive in sort of the top 15 of their weight class in the UFC. But Dichita is the one who, certainly she's the youngest too. Like she has all of the things that you would say if I was picking one, to pluck from the pfl and drop in the uc would be ditch of it but no questions asked i think she would have like the easiest i mean it wouldn't be easy but she would have the the quicker road to like a title fight than any of the others like i i on like shemil musayev is that guy is so damn good i was blown away like if we're talking about like where i viewed a fighter

to where they are today dakota made a big leap musayev might have been like the star of the show for me as just somebody watching fights and being like damn this guy would be real fun in the ufc's welterweight division right now and i think he could beat several top 15 guys right now without question i would pick him against several guys in that division he's that good 20 no walterweight's also easier there's some there's some old guys hanging around the top 15 of welterweight that hadn't been put out the pasture yet so yes i agree And also, we don't need to talk about him, but MacGamadum, a lot off is a very good fighter as well, 17 and 0, good wins.

Like, he beat a good dude, a dude who also is like a top 25 welterweight would immediately be competitive with good guys. Like, yeah, Muzad's real, real damn good. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, good, good night at the office for PFL overall. Congratulations to Timor Hisreyev, Dakota Ditchieva, uh, Dovlet. Shemiel Musayef, Godzi Rabadanov and Dennis Goldsoff gets it done. Thought he's going to retire.

And then he somehow after Dan Hardy needed to learn the George Costanza thing to go out on a high note like all night long. It's friggin insane. Like Dakota, the UK thing, the fans went crazy. She said something. The fans go crazy. That's it. You say goodbye. You say good night.

It's like, oh, what do you want to say about your country? Tell me about your team. Shut the hell up. Get her out of there. That was it. End on a high note. Well, that's it for me, guys. See you later.

Man. Dan, Dan clearly, like, had in his head a pre- like, here are the notes I'm going to hit and I'm going to get to him. And they were ordered wrong and dumb anyway. And then he just committed. And that was the one that was most dark because I'm here to tell you, we can all respect fighters and their teams and the hard work that goes into that sort of things.

And I do. And I'm happy for fighters to take one of the very few opportunities. they have to address a big audience and to big up their people in the same way that they do with the Oscars and at every award show and this is your moment, you want to thank them. You don't, that's not the point of these things. That is a byproduct of it. It is a thing that can happen into it, but you really never want to end on that. And I just want to thank my teammate because one, everybody ever does it. And two, nobody cares. There's not, one new fan that has made but being like, oh, that guy just shout out his team. That's sick.

We're a great, humble guy. I'm really excited to watch him fighting the future because he loves his friends. No, like, that is part of it and you can add it, but it should not be the opener and it shouldn't be the close. And Dan was very committed to ending every one of his. And just tell me what winning the belt means to your team back home and how great all the support you've got from the fans. Like, no, nobody gives a shit about that, Dan. You should frankly be teeing them up to what you can just lie. There's nothing stopping you from lying. You'd be like, hey, Musayev.

So this is an unbelievable performance. And I don't know if you heard this, but Stephen Wonderboy Thompson called you a bitch. Do you, how do you respond? Like, it doesn't matter. You got to give people something other than like, oh, it's so great to have this belt. And I'm happy to go home to Mahashkala and celebrate like snooze fest, man. And he was so committed to it. And the most stark one was the Dichibu.

Because, like, clearly end on the Manchester thing. like that was good you're like we got to get them to go to manchester and she was lively and excited and the crowd was into it and then you just farted her on the end like it was such a dumb thing i do you got to not do that man yeah just stands it up leaving the high note walk right out of the room that's it for me go home just go home at that point so all right let's go to the peeps super chat is storytelling yeah you start with the hook you start with something to get people interested and you end on a banger and the middle can be anything. It doesn't really matter what you stuff in the sandwich, but the two in pieces, they got to be on point. And Dan was missing the mark. Sure was. But hey, as a shout out to those guys,

even Dan, even though I didn't love it. Those dudes talked for almost 10 straight hours. Oh, I mean, that is very tough. Also, shout out because nobody will think about it or care about it. I am legitimately going to put it into our best of the year, not because it was like particularly amazing. or anything like that, but because the totality of it is, like, legitimately this should be a story that the PFL can promote and use

because it, like this is drama. This is human drama. I'm talking about Dennis Goldsov finally winning. I genuinely think that this is, was his fourth one or his fifth PFL tournament.

It is four or five. And he has been on the doorstep repeatedly. He has made the playoffs basically every year and he has lost. lost in the semis or the finals. Last year he got to the doorstep and then lost to Hinen Faheda and lost the opportunity to fight Francis and Ghanu. And like this is a man who in any other sports movie, like we are doing that this is a

narrative of, he got, he got battled back and oh, look at Michael Jordan. He just can't get past the pistons and he just keeps losing. And then he triumphantly finally does it. And he does it with a freaking triangle, like an. old school triangle choke from guard against a dude who hasn't lost in like a decade. It is to like finally put like get the monkey off his back to earn a million dollars and probably more important to him at this point, the belt, the title. And for him, he was fighting for more than a million dollars kids because everybody was

fighting for a million dollars except for pop off and him because they were fighting for three million dollars because the winner of this is probably. the guy who gets to fight Francis and Gano and gets a guaranteed $2 billion paycheck. So this was of all the ones to win, this was the one to win. And he finally did it. And so shouts to him because like that's just a cool last story. And I like I think it was honestly the coolest part of the evening. And they somehow didn't like this was blown past because it was the opening of these.

Why this wasn't your planned main event is beyond me. It was the heaviest fight. Like, I don't, I don't know, but no one's going to think about it. And it's going to be in my top five submissions of the year. It's a big moment. It's a big moment. Gets over the hump. He finally wins the big one, Jedmishu.

And we can all celebrate that victory. But you're right. That probably if this is the UFC, the heavyways would have absolutely been the main event. That's how they roll. And all right, let's go to the peeps now. I'm going to get ranked now, too. I don't think he was ranked in our heavyweight rankings. He is going to be right now.

Yeah, we might have to do. I mean, I had, I had Popov ranked and then I dropped him after RugG beat Maligan. So Goltov, he's going to get in there, man. He's going to get himself a number. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks.

Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPie members on equip flights sponsored by Bell.

Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. All right. Let's see what you got. Obviously, if the super chatters get to cut to the front of the line, let's throw this up there. Anyone else remember when Jed and Mike said Blanchefield can move up to 135 and dominate? Prove me well.

She still could. I'm sorry. You think the 24-year-old can't, like, doesn't have a future, okay. You can be right, like, baby, she can't. She also 24. Have you seen the Defense Bantamweight Division? Have you seen it?

I mean, Kaila is garbage. Stay away from Kayla. Yeah, but Kayla's got like three years. Max, she's not doing this that long. If in a year, would you confidently pick Juliana Pena to beat Aaron Blanchfield? In a year, I wouldn't pick her to do it now. Philadelphia is the Bantamway champion,

just so we are entirely clear. what's happening. Aaron Blanchfield is 25. If she's simply just hung around for 10 years, there is a good chance. Bannonweight's getting worse. Like all of the other weight classes are getting better. Women's Bannemweight is actively getting worse.

So like if she just hangs around, she might be able to win it by virtue of their not being people there. And if people actually remember us saying her going to 135, when there was like the Grasso-Shevchenko drama going on, and she was had probably had arguably earned a title shot we were just like just go to 35 win a fight and you probably get a title shot because there's nothing going on there that's what we're saying so just to make sure we're all on the same page that's what we were saying and that you would probably win the belt and uh i would probably would have is not good

uh jimmyk should ESPN do a better job promoting the pfl considering the operate off of their platform. I looked at the ESPN MMA page on Instagram, and the first mention of this event I saw was three days ago. Promotion. This is an interesting question because ESPN is not a promoter, but they also kind of are. It's one of those things that's just a really weird subject because ESPN is both ostensibly a journalistic entity, which is not, you know, is not ESPN the news portion to promote shit. that's not their job.

At the same time, they are also obviously a streaming service that has a broadcast rights deal with them. And so I don't believe, you know, in my perfect world, the ESPNMMA page is a news page and not a promotional outlet. And so I don't think that they necessarily should do that, but I don't know. I don't have, I'm not saying that that is the right answer. That's just kind of what I think is the answer there. I mean, I didn't watch Sports Under this morning. So I assume that somewhere on the ticker or in the bottom corner or in a lower third somewhere, that there were at least graphics for this card.

I would just assume that. And that's really all you can ask for them, right? Like ESPN going on about PFL. I'm sure there's like little promos and little 15 second sweepers for it. But I mean, what else do you expect from them? It's not up to them to do it. UFC doesn't need ESPN to tell the world they have cards. They do it.

Like, people just know. And it's not because they learned it on ESPNs because it's the UFC and they're good at what they do and they're good promoters. And they've gotten to the top of the ladder. Well, PFL is learning curve would be an understatement, but it just continues to get worse and worse for them. I really hope 2020. They ended 2024 in a high note, which is good. they did that what two years ago when Pacheco beat Kayla that was

a interesting year last year was a high no two because of the merger because we merged so I remember us talking about this is an unequivocal win like they're but their real championship of car was horrific it was probably their worst one ever but um you know they're they got to be able to find a way to capitalize on this momentum uh and not enough dovlett yagshirmerdof talk

not yeah he lamped up impa That kind of shocked a lot of people. I told AK this. I briefly considered putting Impa as my leg of the climb this week, because I thought he was going to win. And then I was like, I don't know. I haven't done enough to feel confident here. That would be me just gambling. And boy, my God, I didn't do that because that lasts about 53 seconds before Impa got killed.

Yeah. Jeez. That was wild. I was like, oh, he'd lit him up. Yeah. There's a pretty nasty knockouts, man. There are some dope things happening here. Costello von Stenis had the knockout of the night.

Like, I know Dakota is like the star, but I think so. Dude, head kicked a dude faceplant, chaos and knocked him into another planet. Brim Prime is getting face planted for, for a milly was pretty sick. He got knocked down a hundred times in that fight. Yeah, he got dropped like six times and wouldn't die. And then when he died, he died. He died real good. He died real good.

He sure did. How long until we see Dakota Ditchewan in the UFC, Jed? If you had to guess. 2027 would be my guess. That long, you think? I certainly not 2025. Maybe she likes signs in 2026 but doesn't debut until 2027. I would be pretty surprised, given the amount of resources that they have poured into

Dichiva if they let her walk in two years. Like, it seems really likely that they want to build around her insofar as they can. And so, you know, she, and the thing is she is not even, at least not to anything I've seen making the,

the overtures about it yet. Like, that'll come because it will certainly have to come. But she is playing the good soldier. Like, we'll talk to PFL, see what's next. You know,

well, I'm just have. happy to finally won the belt. And, you know, it took Kayla. Kayla was flirting with the UFC for a couple of years before she finally came over. I think the same thing is, is. She was going to sign with Bellator. She had penned a paper to sign with Bellator to fight Chris Seiborg.

And the BFL match their offer. It takes well. Because again, like, this is her breakout performance, no doubt. But she is still kind of developing. She's 26. So 2027, I would say, is the earliest timeline. I could see it being later. I think if she is like, if she is talking to her team right now and she's like, yeah,

tonight was a great night, but I want to get to the UFC as fast as possible and nothing will change that. She will be in the UFC by 2026, I think. That could. If I am Peter, if I'm Peter Murray and Don Davis, I am taking her out for a freaking prime rib, her whole team, coaches, managers, everything. And then I am giving her a check with no dollar amount. and handing her a pen and saying fill it in whatever you want and i want you to stick around for

till for the next five years you write it down i don't care what the number is write 50 million write 100 million i don't care write it we'll pay you we got the saudi money coming in we can afford it we're fine they need to they need to do this now they cannot let her walk they're they're screwed if she walks when she walks she they're in big trouble that is a huge loss for them especially at 26 like we knew Kayla was on uh still very good but we never got like prime Kayla fighting in the ufc and we probably probably weren't and who knows where she'll be moving forward right now because of all the you know the weight cutting and all that stuff like how many more times can she get to 135 it's it's just gonna it's gonna continue to take a lot out of her so

Yeah, she's a very important piece to the puzzle, especially with how the PFL is trying to present success to the fans, which is not, hey, we have this many people watching our cards and this many people liking our social media posts. It's, oh, we sign this sponsorship and oh, Fight Matrix has this many fighters ranked. And this, that, and the other thing, we sold TV deals here. We have sponsorship deals here. They care about that more than the buzz that they have right now. And if you lose her, she is a great tool to show to potential investors and sponsors, hey, we have this rising star right now. You better get on board now before she becomes a superstar.

And you will reap the benefits of that. Losing her, like, it's tough, man. Plus, Dan Hardy is right. Go to England. She should basically never fight outside of England. I know you have to do the Riyadh stuff because they pay the bills. but like, you know, English fans are very popular and freaking Saudi too. That was seemed like it.

But like the English fans are dope. And so the more you can cultivate that fan base, you should mean into that. She should be fighting in the UK. And if she's going to fight in the United States, she should be fighting in like Miami near ATT with all her teammates behind her, them all pushing her, Kayla Harrison by her side. Like, that's this kind of the kind of thing you need. So hopefully they take care of that. we'll see what happens Jose Perez is robbed

the victory didn't watch that fight yeah so can't I can't say I have a can't say I have a lot of thoughts on that one I miss that one I think that was

yeah I missed the Braga win good for Gabriel Braga by the way that was that was pretty sweet is the backup fight here stepping in on like three hours notice or whatever get a dog Jeremy Kennedy that's a good win That's a very good win.

Thoughts of PFL finally making the no-brainer decision to allow elbows and how it impacted the event really came into play in the Ditchafakizh Kizreef and Mansar fights. It's MMA, baby. I understand not allowing elbows for the season because cuts are disproportionately effective for like how that works. I think it was obviously very stupid not to allow elbow for non-tournament fights or whatever because. they're fighting in close proximity, everything else at's MMA. There's no reason not to have them. I didn't notice this at 309.

Maybe it happened. And I don't even necessarily think it's a good thing, like that it is an effective tool. But what I noticed kids do you have doing it a bunch when he would get in guard. The elbows were allowed. And they adopted the new elbows, so the 12 to 6 is.

So he was just going for this guy, just like from the guard, which again, I don't actually think it's like a really effective weapon when somebody's got control of your hips to just try and like dice down. But it was really funny. And I was like, oh, look at him. Look at him try and go. So that was cool.

Yeah. It was, I mean, it looked just more MMA. It looked a little more legit, more professional, if that makes sense. Well,

Dakota want to leave the million dollar paydays for UFC. Again, that's what's going to come down to. It's going to come down to do you want to be rich? Because could she be rich in the UFC? If she wins a belt and defends a few times, sure. But she'd be a guaranteed multi-millionaire in the PFL. And I'm not even talking about she continues doing the seasons.

They're just going to pay her to treat her well and treat her like a star and keep her happy so they can keep her as long as possible. She is going to make a lot of money if she continues to fight for them. However, she will not be. her legacy will not grow. She will just continue beating people that we all know she's going to beat. And eventually, as much as people loved Kayla Harris in the first three or four seasons,

we kind of got, people got sick of it. They're just like, all right, like, bring in somebody else. We need Chris Cyborg. We need, like, fights against, like, legit competition more often than not. And people got tired of it. But money is money. And she will make a lot more money with the PFL over the next decade

then she probably will at the UFC. I don't think there's really an argument to that. So do you think legacy just kind of takes over at some point? And she's just like, nah, I'm good. I don't need the money. I'm just going to go to the UFC and challenge myself and make way less. At some point, that point isn't soon. I can't stress enough to people that most people aren't dumb.

Maybe dumb in various aspects, but like people broadly speaking, like understand direct incentives. And the choice for Dakota right now is very clearly, I can win at minimum a million dollars every year. Got to fight several times and that'll be tough and that's work. But I won a million dollars on top of the sponsorships I can get the growing of my startom and my brand. All of these things,

I can make a ton of money. Or I can make substantially less in a gamble to make more. Because if she gets the belt and gets pay-per-view points and becomes a star on the UFC, certainly she would make more. That's a much bigger gamble than it is to make a million dollars a year to fight in the BFL functionally. And so at some point, that will happen. You'll have enough money. She'll feel, you know, comfortable enough, said enough, and just decide, okay, I am comfortable enough that I will do this over there. I must do this. But the idea of, I just want to challenge myself, one in like a 10,000.

and fighters are really in it for that. Because everybody's in it for the money. Because this is a job. And like, you know where you can challenge yourself? You can challenge yourself in the fucking gym. You could just go train with somebody and be like, oh, I beat their ass in training. I'm better than them. I'm okay with it.

I would like, payment is respect and they want to make money. She is going to, I think, like I said, I think she is at least sticking around for a couple of years before we really start to talk there because that is where the money is. If the UFC swoops in and says, we'll pay you a million dollars to fight, she'll go there. But they're not going to do that. So no. She's going to stay there. She can continue to grow a brand, become bigger, become more famous, make millions and millions of dollars.

And then when she has made all the money and, you know, the only thing left when there are no other options, then she can go to the UFC. because the PFL will realize they can't keep paying her $10 billion because they're not getting enough out of it. And she can go there and do this. Kayla Harrison, Michael Chandler, and Will Brooks and Eddie Alvarez. And the list of people who have done this exact thing is Ben Ascran is just enormous. And so she is going to be here for a while because the money is better outside of the UFC in a lot of instances. And specifically the one she has found herself in. Yeah.

if you get to the top of the ladder and PFL notices you could become a star, they will pay you. They will pay, they will just pay you. Seattle, Ryan, if you believe that Dakota Dichita is going to get a quarter million dollars a fight right out of the gate right now, you're an optimist. I'll put it that way. Yeah, zero chance that happens. Zero chance. Three fights a year. that's you're you're very optimistic if they're paying her 250 she ain't getting three fights a year

asked eric lewis what life is like now that he's making more money he told me go back and watch that interview uh who do you got mike dakota versus natty ice honestly if they if we find out tomorrow the ufc was signing dakota dichiva if we add it on to the next one i would this would be the exact fight i would pick without question this would be the fight because I think it would be incredibly fun and interesting. And they're very similar to each other. Dakota is bigger. She's definitely a bigger fighter,

more of a brute. Natty is very strong and athletic. They both can strike their asses off. Both have underrated taked down defense. Natty Ice has a better ground game overall than Dakota. So I think I would lean Natty Ice just barely. If this is like a page, paper view fight and we were doing a watch party if natty ice is like a plus 175 or more i would probably

better i would pick did you over natty ice at this point in time after this performance um i think i would make i think i would go blanchefield i think that would be the fight i would make um because screw it let's just see let's just see if blanchefield is just needs to start cutting because she's small um or if she can ever learn to do anything on the feet uh plus like blanfield's even the no man's land right now. We're like ostensibly she's pretty close to the title fight, but she's also kind of really far away from the title fight. So I think that I would go Blanchfield.

Dan, I'm going to make her go to contender series as Dave. Dude. Yeah, like, so somebody posted this. So I'm sorry for stepping on your corner, but you said it and it reminded me and I looked it up.

And I believe that this is actually true. Patty Pimble made like 12 and 12. Yes. I like Dakota Dichita. And he was way more over than Dakota is right now. Patty Pimbleau was a legitimate, bona fide star. Dichiva is not.

Dichita was a better fighter than Patty Pimbleau was, like relative to the division. Patty Pimbleau was a star, is a star. And he made 12 and 12. If you think Dakota Dichita, who was not a star, but who was very good,

is making anything, anything frankly close to three figures, guaranteed prize. who you you are optimistic my friend no there's no chance there's no chance the ufc would pay her more they'd pay her a live a decent enough wage like when she becomes a star when it gets to the point where it's just like okay if we sign her this will set the mma world on fire like Kayla signing with the ufc was out of nowhere that was like oh shit how about that cool i bet they offer her 40 and 40 right

now. Yeah, it's probably right. Like, you know, reasonable money. And if she fights several times and wins them all, then she'll make, you know, a good, you know, good, good chunk of change. Or she can fight four times and win a million dollars. Yeah. And also, on the O.C.

Fingers of fight. Frankly, it is far more likely she loses in the U.C. Making 40 and 40 than it does fighting for a million dollars, plus whatever her base is in PFL, which at this point is, going to be, I would guess, at least 40 and 40. So, uh, look, the economics say stick with the PFL for a few years. Yeah. If it's about money, unless she comes from a family that has a lot of money,

then go challenge yourself. But if you're about just setting yourself up for the rest of your life as a professional fighter, you stay. Seattle, Ryan, I don't mean to pick on you. Um, I am not saying that it never happens. the idea of undisclosed pay is not a reality. It has happened before. Yeah, but you know who gets undisclosed pay?

Champions and main eventers. That's who gets undisclosed pay. And even then, like, seriously, if you just talk to people who follow the USC and like, yeah, like, John Fitch did a whole thing as part of the law, sort of like, here is a financial, listing of all the money I made. And here's all the undisclosed pay I made. It's not like if you hear undisclosed pay and think six figures, no. It's like a bump. You know, it's a tip. It, like the,

the U.C does not pay well. This is not us hating on the U.C. This is an objective fact. They do not pay well unless you get to the very top. That's it. And even then they don't pay well. They just pay better than anybody else does. Yeah. Like look at the money in the purses Connor McGregor has made. Like nowhere near where he should have been making. Like it's a lot more than most fighters got than every fighter got. But considering like the gates and the pay-per-view buys and all that stuff, like it should have been way more. And you saw a lot of those numbers when they were digging through all the trash essentially during the antitrust lawsuit filings and our unfilings, if you will. We saw a lot of crazy stuff. And that was like the biggest bummer about like the antitrust thing just dying and taking a settlement. was that there was a whole lot more the fans are about to see. That was just insane. So there we are. Do you have anything else?

I think we're good. Yeah, I think we're good. Well, you guys rule. I'm glad we got to come on and do a post-fight show and do some sort of programming after the professional fighters league event. But Jed, get some rest because next week, it's another UFC. pay-per-view fight week.

Oh, they did. They did? The Raiders. The Raiders are young with two minutes and 17 seconds and they missed the field goal to go ahead. There, it is. Holy cow. That's too bad.

That's a shame. Well, sorry, Raiders Nation. But the good thing for Raiders Nation, the UFC is coming back next week. And UFC 310, It's kind of a slapper

This is a hardcore fan's delight This is a freaking good card Pants and Asakura Shafcott Ian Gary Three stars Between two and three We don't know Okay

Zero God out Alexander Bullkoff Bryce Mitchell, Crone Gracie It's still the weirdest fight I've ever heard Nate Landward Doho Choi is going to be incredible Anthony Smith,

Dominic Reyes Vicente Lucé Temik Rimbow Interesting fight Mavsoor of Loya versus Algebade Sterling A prelim fight Randy Brown, Brian Battle, that's a banger. I've come all the way around that.

I think it's the best bit in the world to have Al Jo Mavsar fight. Like, a presumptive number one contender bout on the prelims. And just the flat earther bowl on the main card is just an unbelievable bit. I'm a huge. There's literally, there's literally 10 other fights on this card that could take that slot. No, no issues whatsoever. Chris Wyman Erickanders is one of them. Cody Dern, Josh fan, Michael Kiesa, Max Griffin,

fighting early, Clay Gwita, Chase Hooper, Kennedy, and Chichukov, versus Lucas Brechke. You have seen your chance, a good one, which means we have your pay-per-view coverage and watch party, final watch party of the year next Saturday. So get excited for that. For Jedi and Mike Eck, get ready. We'll see you next week.

Have a good weekend. Love y'all. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Unwrap Holiday Magic at Holt Renfrew with Gifts That Say I Know You. cozy fashion to Lux beauty and fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holt's holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com.