MMA Fighting - Rankings Show: How High Does Paddy Pimblett Go After Spectacular Performance At UFC 314?

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Paddy Pimblett proved the doubters wrong again. UFC 314 was all about the featherweights, with Alexander Volkanovski beating Diego Lopes to claim a vacant title at the top of the card, and Yair Rodriguez, Jean Silva, and Dan Ige all picking up meaningful wins. But it’s Pimblett who arguably made the most headlines, defeating veteran contender Michael Chandler in dominant fashion and cementing himself as a top 10 fighter in the lightweight division. But just how high should he go? Pimblett’s standing led to a surprisingly heated debate among the MMA Fighting rankings panel of Alexander K. Lee, Mike Heck, Jed Meshew, and E. Casey Leydon and you can listen to it yourself in our latest episode of the Rankings Show. Did Pimblett beat a legitimate top 10 fighter or was he simply the beneficiary of facing the worst version of Chandler we’ve seen inside the octagon? Plus, we discuss the movers and shakers at 145 pounds, whether the Patricio Pitbull-UFC era came too late, and rank the most intriguing fights of the second quarter of the UFC schedule. Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow Mike Heck @MikeHeck Follow Jed Meshew @JedKMeshew Follow E. Casey Leydon @ekc Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi 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?

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But, you know, it used to be sort of a monthly feature. We do it after every paper view. But now it's like sometimes there's not as much movement. You guys saw the first three, first couple of events of 2025, didn't get any new champions, didn't really see a lot of shakeup. But things are starting to churn a little bit. We saw some fighters get some big wins this cycle. I'm your host, Alexander K. Lee, to talk about sort of latest updates in the rankings, talk to make some debate over, you know, where some fighters should be positioned after some

pretty important wins. And joining me on today's show are an illustrious cast to characters. First, I'll introduce, of course, my, my ought-no co-host and my best friend, Mike Heck. Hi, guys. How's it going? I waved before the camera got to me and then it became an awkward second wave but here we are and it's an honor

and a privilege to be here gentlemen. Amazing stuff. Amazing stuff. The man who invented the fart scale it's our very own Jed Mishu also on the show today. Well, one, thank you for that. Two, a co-inventor.

I don't want to take anything away from the abominable Sheen al-Shadi, the villain, was also my co-inventor of that, though I did invent the Mashulin Star Scale. And we just had a musuling card, AK. We never get Mushulen cards anymore. It was wonderfully exciting. And a lot of stuff happened so we can get into it.

What a brain trust we have here. Oh, how can I forget, of course, in case you Layden on the ones and twos. There he is. No sleeves. No sleeves. No sleeves. No mercy. I'm here to talk about Ankylaev and the pound for pound.

Yeah. Where's how Angolaev. We're going to talk about. I love that the Casey's sleeves are the Puxetani Phil of our content. Ah, no sleeves. It would be a good hour of content. Well, he's got sleeves on. Winter is still here.

Must be an apex card. Pull back the curtain a little bit here, guys. We had a little pre-game discussion sort of re and just like at the last second kind of restructured the show because 314 was all about the featherweights. You guys know that. We had the vacant title on the line. Alexander Volcanowski back on top. Patricio Pitbull debut, Eir-R-R-R-R-Reggis trying to hold him off.

We had Jean-Silva, Bryce Mitchell, one of the most talked about 145-pound fights of the year. So we had a lot of featherweight action, but, and I say this, knowing it'll make Bill angry. Arguably, the talk of the town on Saturday in Miami was one,

Mr. Patty Pimbleat. Patty, of course, picked up a dominant win over Jedman's favorite fighter, Michael Chandler, just completely handling him on the ground, looking really good on the feet, actually, not just having to, like, desperation shoot, you know? I mean, people watching those fights, the considerably larger Paddy Pimbleau was winning a lot of striking exchanges, which I think people didn't expect. So

looks like it's rounded as game. Third round, ground, ground and pound, TKO of Michael Chandler. The best performance of Paddy's career, I think we can all agree. But I don't know if we can agree on is where does Patty land in the rankings right now? Because let's go to the UFC.com rankings real quick. The sham rankings, yes, but rankings that exist and people acknowledge. one Mr. Pimblett rose from the number 12 spot all the way up to number eight. So in the UFC's IACA top 10 fighter, Michael Chandler dropping down five spots from seven to number 12. In our rankings, we had Patty unranked going into UFC 314, had a vote or two. I think maybe just one vote.

Maybe just our own Damon Martin had a vote for him. Damon had him at 15. And I'm 50. And I think a lot of us was on the cusp. I think we were all kind of like 16, 17, 18 in that range. of course, Patty undefeated in the UFC so far, some touch and go fights here and there. But again, wins or wins, undefeated. And knocks off someone who was number 14 in our rankings going in Mr. Michael Chandler.

So it's not as clear cut for us as the UFC rankings. Like I said, we had Chandler pretty low. We didn't have Pamlin on the list yet. So I am very curious where you gentlemen landed with possible future lightweight title Chandler. Title Challenger, excuse me, Patty Imblent. Title Chandler. Oh, gosh, I hope Michael. I hope Michael Chandler doesn't hear this because he just got a new, he just got a new hashtag.

Number one, title Chandler. See you at the title Chandler. See you at the title Chandler. It's growing on me. Like, the more I say it, the better it gets. Mike, I'll go to you first. I'll go to you first. Where did you, where in your estimation would you have had Patty before?

Let's say you extended your rankings to a top 20. Would you have been in there? And where does he land now, theoretically? I would have had him at 7. heading into UFC 314. I would add Joel Alvarez at 16 and him at 17. Because Paul Hughes jumped to 15 after his performance against Usen Ramaga made off. I will probably have Patty.

I will say number nine. I will put him one spot above Dan Hooker and one spot behind Rafael Fazeve. That's where I'm going to have him. Chandler will be out of the rankings altogether. and yeah, that's what I'm going to have. I'm going to have it number nine. I'm not saying that Patty is a better, I don't know if he's a better fighter than Dan Hooker.

I don't know if he would beat Dan Hooker. I think that would be a really interesting fight. I actually think Patty is ahead of Dan right now, so I don't even think Patty, even though other people are suggesting it. I don't think Patty should even entertain that idea. I think he should go after some of the bigger names that are ahead of him right now in the ranking.

So, yeah, number. Number nine, but in the biggest reason why is Patty is actually fighting people. Dan just is fighting people who's getting good wins. The Gamrod one was really fun. The Jalen Turner win was really fun. He's just so inactive right now that I have to put Patty above him at the moment. So yeah, Patty will be number nine. Okay, respectable.

A little bit of MMA math going on there, too. Let's not forget Michael Chandler beat Hooker. Patty Pamela just beat Chandler. So technically, if you guys, you know, if you're working that on your brains, It can be that simple. It should also note we had a weird moment with our rankings because Chandler had to kind of be removed. He passed our 18-month threshold for inactivity.

So he was removed before the Charles Olivera fight last year while he was waiting for the interminable Connor McGregor matchup, which didn't occur. And then after he lost to Olivera, I think we were a bit divided on whether to put him back in. I didn't. He has not won a fight in a very, very, very long time. Some of us, I think a couple of us did. And after 314, it sounds like he might be out entirely.

But again, we haven't done like a full update yet. Jed, where are you standing on Mr. Pimbley right now? When we do our update, he will be number eight in the likely rankings for me. He will be. And that's like, that's a number eight that's going to be higher because Dustin Porier is going to fight before the end of the year and then retire. And so he'll leave Max Holloway. Justin Gaci, like those are names who probably don't have that much longer.

And I also just don't really know when, like, what they are doing. But I have him slotted in behind Usman and Armagamettev. One spot above, Pinald Darayush. Derriush is pretty close to falling out of our rankings as well. He hasn't fought since December of 2023. So what, we're in, what, April? Two more months and he's out. I know he was supposed to fight, obviously, in January.

But when that fight fell through because Moikano got rebooked, Dare you still haven't fought. So I don't really know what the hell he's doing, but it's not fist-fighting people. And so I'm comfortable slotting Patty in front of him because Patty is fighting people and beating the tar out of them. And so, frankly, I would like to see that matchup, though I don't think that would make sense for Patty right now.

But I could absolutely see Patty winning it. I left Saturday very, very impressed by Patty Pimblet, and I have been impressed over the past few, you know, a couple of years. He has continued to get better and better. But even though I don't think very highly of Michael Chandler and especially not Michael Chandler at this stage of his career, that performance from Patty was so consummate that I left thinking, okay, this guy's got a real chance to fight for a belt. And depending how lightweight shakes out, maybe win it. A couple of years ago, I would have said Patty Pimlet versus Ilya to Slaughter.

Right now? I don't know, man. Like I'd pick Tupuria, but I'm still interested. I'd pick Charles Olavera. I still kind of want to see it now. So Patty Pimble is my number eight lightweight. Yeah, number eight, and you're saying, again, could be number seven, assuming Porreier. This is maybe the last year of Porreux competes.

Yeah, he's functionally number seven because Porreux doesn't need to be ranked. Like rankings ostensibly are for like your place in the division and the title chase. And Porier is specifically not chasing the belt. He is fighting once more and hanging them up. So like you, you know, he's he is eight. but like functional seven. Okay, so we've got, so Mike, you said nine or eight again?

He'll be nine for me. Nine, Jed eight, essentially seven. And Mike's again, same thing. I assume Porya will come out. So we've got about eight and seven here. I think I'm going to surprise people. I'll go real quick. Casey, I'm going to throw to you soon,

but I want to say, I actually have him behind Camrod and Hooker, so I didn't go MAMA math. Like, it feels weird. Yeah, I know. And I'm like Patty Pimbley guy number one. Like, I was so impressed by performance. I've been pushing him as sort of like underrated skill-wise from the moment he stepped into the UFC.

I was the one. So maybe I'm course correcting. I don't know. And now I'm being too hard on him now because, yeah, you could put him over Gamrod. You could put him over Gamel now, frankly, if you wanted to, as Jen, you mentioned. Because Benile just unfortunately, I mean, what a crappy way to lose your ranking. But yeah, I didn't get to fight in January because the UFC needed a new main event. So it's unfortunate.

So I have him nine in the UFC rankings. but if you count Holloway, sorry, which isn't in my list right now, and Usman Nirmagamatov, he's actually outside my top 10. He'll actually slot in at number 11, I think, when we do a full update. So I don't know. I had to process this now. I hadn't even thought about this before we started the show. He's kind of outside my top 10.

I think very few people would agree with that, even if you're only doing UFC rankings, even if you took Usman out. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about myself right now. Casey, where are you with Patty? I'm very interested because you have some Bellator guys in there. Sorry, PFL guys. I don't know what they're called anymore.

Pretty high. You've got Usman, Paul Hughes, and McKee all in your top 10. And Shabbity. Will Paddy? And not in your top. Not in your top. Sorry. Yeah.

Will Patty, with that performance, jump ahead of McKee and Hughes? No. Patty is not my top 15. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Not in your top 15.

I didn't have, I didn't have Chandler in my top. Chandler is like maybe number 20. Ooh. Intriguing. Patty Panaman, but hasn't beat anyone in top 15 yet. He beat, he beat a very, he beat the worst Chandler I've ever seen, honestly. Who is Shabby? Wait, who is Shably?

Who did Al Jinnahably be in the top 15? Shabbledee B, let me see, let me bring his page up. I'm going, well, the fact that you have to go look at it is a bit of a condemnation. He had, he had a very competitive, he had a very competitive fight with Usman. Yeah, he had extremely competitive fight against,

against Usman. I'm sorry, he was not, Umar. And I want to be clear, Usman. No, you mean Usman. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have an issue with you putting Shably, but if the argument is bad at his name,

and I, and it's also, when he beat Topique, I had Tofique as a top 15. fighting. We beat Tosique, and he Dvon's Tafiq. And actually, when he beat Brent Premis, I'm pretty sure Brent Premis was top 15 at that time too. So, yeah, that's why

I had Shobby that high. And his incredible competitive performance against Uzman. And, yeah, that's why I still have him. He hasn't been that active, but that's just life. Patty only fights once a year or two. Patty's not super active, too. And Chandler... And Chandler

is not top... Chander's top 20 to me. Chandler used to be top 10 used to be top 5 he's not anymore Chandler had a competitive fight with Charles Olivera Casey What come on What are you talking about? Oh the second one

Well the first one He almost won the second one I mean And I got I didn't I'm not I mean I just didn't I didn't buy that as far as like Joe Chandler has some cool photo He's had him on his back and he decided to do two

weird backflips He won the fifth pictures He almost finished Charles in the fifth room Almost one. He heard him on the feet. Almost one. It's better than Shabli did in that Ustman fight.

Really. I don't see, I don't think, I don't think so. So, so Chandler had one good round. Shabli had five decent rounds against a much better, not much better,

I'd take the back, sorry, two very good fighters. I, uh, and Chandler, and not much better. I hope our listeners.

So that's why. So, so, so, yeah, so, so, so, but,

but even whatever, I had Chandler, number 20, maybe, maybe, and he beat a top 20 guy and he's not my top 15 though He didn't just beat

shit out of him Let me say let me say That's my point My point is like that was the worst Chandler I have seen It's almost like to me I mean that was like Not as bad

This is a bit of extreme But like beating John Jones being steep That was not the steepe we know That was not the Michael Chandler We know Interesting So Michael Chang-Raville is known. Let me say, I want to say, I hope people, the listeners appreciate this,

because we're essentially doing a live deliberation of the rankings before they're done. Like, we usually debate the rankings after we've all had a chance to sort of look at them and prepare our flames at each other. But this is actually, again, we have not updated our late rankings officially yet. We'll probably do a full divisional after USC-350, so in about a month. So, yeah, they're getting to see a live deliberation. And I'm really getting to see the inner, like the inner monkey in your guy's heads. The gear is moving around.

It's quite scary, but also... Honestly, after hearing this, after hearing this, I might just put Patty at seven just to even out where the ranking should be. Because this is, I'm sorry. You can't do that. There is no... Why not? I can rank him above Dustin Porreier.

I could rank him above Dustin Porre and be in fine with it. We are not in the world right now. She's less egregious for me to rank him at seven than it is to not have him in the top 15. Oh, my goodness. Who is he beaten in time? I don't see him. He just, to me, am I, Rankin's, he hasn't beaten anyone in top 15.

But you're a guy who always relies on dominance and guys just going in there, regardless of strength of schedule. You have made that point on the show many, many times. Islam Makachev earned a title shot without beating a top 10 guy. And he was your number one. He was booked against top 10 guys. And Patty, Patty, he nuked Bobby Green and then he killed Michael Chandler, which Charles Oliverer didn't do,

which nobody else in the UFC is done. Nobody has done that camera. It's when they fight them. It's when they fight them. Not if they beat him. Ryan, dude, I love Ryan Hall. Ryan Hall demolish BJ Penn. Doesn't matter.

Didn't mean that he was a top 10 fighter. I mean, it's when they beat him. Chandler, by I'm looking at Ryan Hall anytime. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on a second. Mike, Mike, let me just say about Ryan Hall.

Ryan Hall. I know. I know. Casey, what you mean is he was a top 10 fighter already and beating BJ Penn. Did not. not like further cement that. Yeah, yeah.

He was already than out Rushmore. We couldn't add another face. I mean, Mike, go ahead. Go ahead. Right, but I mean, you can't always use that excuse because you can make a strong case

that we got the worst Alexander Volcanovs against Ilya and he got killed by Ilya what is the difference, honestly? Like, I understand Volk had the belt, but he was pulling off of a knockout loss. But you're saying we're docking him because he fought the worst fighter at the worst time. but Volkovsky was as bad as he's ever been in most people's mind when he fought

Ilya Tuporia and got nuked and we credited Iliate for that so what's what's the problem what do we I don't understand well I didn't I didn't bump I didn't bump you down what do you what do you mean I know we're crediting Ilya for that why aren't we crediting Patty for that when Ilya beat the worst version of Alexander Volkovsky in almost everybody's eyes but patty beats the worst version of Michael Chandler and he gets no credit for it I don't understand he doesn't get credit for Patty Paddy's moves ahead He's not, he's on my top 20 now. He wasn't my top 20 before.

Now he is in my top 20. That's credit. So he just takes your Chandler spot. He just doesn't, Mike, he just doesn't get as much credit as Alexander Shabbly for a spirited defeat. For getting 49. Like, it's whatever. This is like real hipster, but it's fine. Shabbly gets pregnant.

It's not, it's not. It's not. It's not. It's not what we're counting world rankings. That's, we're the global rankings. I was like, Paul Hughes loses and bumps up eight spots? What the fuck is that?

I don't, after a loss, he loses. It gets bumped up eight spots. Yeah, because we talk about the dominance of the fight. And that was an extremely close fight that could have gone to Paul Hughes. So Paul Hughes gets more credit for losing than Michael, the Patty Pimba does for winning and having maybe the best performance in 20, 25. Against Michael Chandler. Yeah, because Paul Hughes would have beat Michael Chandler. That's what he said.

And if he did, you can rank up nine. Let me say that. If you have Chandler versus, if you had Chandler versus, I'm sorry, not Chandler, Patty Pendlet versus Paul Hughes, you have Patty Pimlet ranked higher than Paul Hughes. So, but I'm like, okay, cool. If they fought, if they fought tomorrow or of a training camp, I would pick Paul Hughes decisively over Patty Pimlet. Let me, let me step in here as a, let me step in here. As a, let me step in here.

I feel like, hold on, Jen. Would you pick Shabler over Pimlet? Jed, before you go. I think Shabby's really good. I think Shabby's really good. I think Shably's so badly. Okay. So here's a thing.

Hey, Don Davis, release Shabley. Let's make the fight. Shabley used to get on social media. This isn't on me. This is my minus. This is true.

It's on Don't. It's a minus 400 favorite in that. This is what Don't. Cool, because no one's ever heard of Shabley. That's cool. I don't care. That's a betting line.

That's a betting line. That's a betting lines. This is what Don't. some popularity a lot. This is what Don Davis has done to us. I will say, I will say, I, obviously, I think I lean more towards, like with Mike and Jed. I don't agree with Casey's logic, but, but Casey, and I know you guys don't agree with this, I feel like Casey's logic is consistent with himself.

I do. I do feel like he has a consistent logic with the way he's done his rankings. I think so, I think so. It doesn't mean I agree with it, and I don't mean, it doesn't mean you guys agree with it. I feel, just from what I've heard, I do feel like he's not, he's not. contradicted himself. But I could be wrong. I could be wrong.

We'll let the listeners decide, guys. We'll let the listeners decide. But I am curious. So we don't have Damon and Guy on the show, of course, our other two rankers. I'm really curious to see what they'll do. I'll just say going into this. Can I concede real quick that if they gave Patty Pimlet, a title shot, I'll be like, yeah, whatever. Because that's what he used to work.

Because he is extremely popular. Oh, no one's debating that. Yeah. So I'm like, I'm talking about rankings. I'm not talking about who deserves what, because that's completely different. Rankings don't mean crap when it comes to who deserves, like, positions and on cards

and how close to the title shot, rankings are pointless. I'm actually really glad. So we did a featherweight ranking shake-up post this week, and we'll talk about featherweights in a moment. I'm actually really glad we didn't do the lightweight one now because we are now doing it live. We are now doing the lightweight shake-up. And, yeah, listen, I imagine it would be a fantastic discussion.

I think we are reflective of, again, even the entire band base. Like probably much more the majority now, of course, is leading towards Patty being top 10. Duh, I mean, Chandler was perceived by at least a few people still as being at top 10 or near the top 10. Like you, like Mike and Jed have argued, the dominance just looked like, you know, the eye test, right? If you just saw the eye test, you'd be like, oh, this is a top 10 lightweight. Look at this freaking guy. So he'll be, and like I said, he's top 10 to the UFC's rankings. The public perception now is top 10.

And based on this discussion, Mike, I don't even think. you need to do a counter-tariff, I mean, sorry, a counter-ranking. I think he'll end up in the top 10 no matter what. Damon had Chandler in the number eight. Pimbleau will at least jump ahead of him, unless Damon just plummets Chandler down and slightly bumps up Pimlet. Gee did not have Chandler. I'm really curious what Ghee's going to do with Pimble,

but I have a feeling you guys will see Pimbleau at at least the number 10 spot. It can't throw out a bit of an olive branch. I will say No, no, I don't want you to do that They don't deserve it Casey, they don't deserve it After the way they've come at you I don't say

I want to be clear I didn't come at him I think it's a bit ridiculous I think it's a bit ridiculous But it is on brand Yeah Yeah I came at him a little bit

He caught me on the day I just lumped jet in there Okay I will say Usually I am the one I am the biggest Bantamweight lover in the world But I will concede

Lightway is really kicking ass right now. One through 20. That's how good lightweight is. I mean, we can honestly rank it at one through 20. That's how good lightweight is. Like, even going to 15.

So anyone in the top 15, top 20 from like 20 to like number five, like all those guys can beat each other. I'm not even saying. I'm not saying Patty sucks. I'm just saying he hasn't proven to me yet. But what he's shown at,

that he is showing improvement. He is showing improvement. And he could easily beat those guys. I'm not shocked if he, I mean, him beating a top five guy. That's kind of to me maybe pushing it. But going through like 20 to number five, I can see

Patty winning or being very competitive in all those fights. Yeah, yeah. It was 1 to 30. I won't do 35. This division's insane. Wait, wait, why did I get a laugh? Isn't that a, isn't that, I'm saying. I laughed at Jed's laugh. Oh. Oh. Oh. I just laugh to, don't make me. I laugh to you, Casey.

It's like, because fundamentally, I'm actually not opposed. Like I said, if you want to rank Alexander Shevley, okay, I think it's a bit, like, it's a bit ridiculous. And it reads hipster. I'm going on a resume. I'm going on a resume. Casey, let me go. Casey, let me go. It reads hipster.

It reads, oh, here are four Bellator, sorry, PFL, whatever, fighters, because there's, yeah, like, yeah, I'm cool and PFL, they're just good. There's nothing cool about liking Bellator. A Piafell doesn't think cool about it. It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. It's

it. It's hit. It's hit. It reads hipster. But fundamentally, I am with you. Mr. Ui, PFL's, you love PFL gear and PFL merch you wear in that house. I sure do. But fundamentally it reads hipster, but I am, everybody in the top 25, like outside of the, like, eight that are locked in as the top eight or whatever of the weight class, this is relatively interchangeable. It was just deeply funny when you're like, he hasn't proven it to me. I was like, I don't know.

He's consistently won and gotten better and beating the shit out of people. and like, I like Alexander Shabli as much as I would say the next guy, but obviously you like him more than I do. Like, he barely beat Patrici Pitbull, who sucks? Like,

he hasn't had any barely beat. Jared Gordon, who has a great story. Jared Gordon fight was like four years ago. Pitball was his most recent win. Like, it's like,

those two years ago, what? I just laughed that the claim is, Shabbly has proven it and he has like he's proven it as much as thing and your choice is Shabbly over Pimbley and okay sure

but like Patty needs to prove it when Shabbly's putting in the work is just like that reads specious to me okay take out Shabbly take out okay take out Shabley Patty Pellips number 16 then I don't know I

I did not expect to think. By the way, thank you for joining Team Lightweight because that's why I, that's what I'm saying. That's how good lightweight. That's how good lightweight is right now. A great way class.

Guys, I'm pressing the button. We've mentioned Alexander Shably way too many times this episode. I've never, I never imagined this would happen. I never imagined what ever happened. And he's out of the tournament.

Put him in the head, Lord. God Lord. Could Patty Pimble? beat Alexander Shobbly. That's the headline. No, no podcast. The spirit and debate. No podcast has ever talked about I blame Don Davis or all this.

Don Davis. I blame Don Davis and I feel like Darren Owens involved somehow as well. I feel like they're tearing us apart a little bit. So come on. But it's so hard. But either way, you know what? Hey, this is great advertising for the next month's full division rankings. You guys want to know where

Patty Pimlet lands? Click on NMAFling.com our next rankings update. You will see. I don't think we'll have another debate over. The debate is done. The debate is done. People can submit their ballots. And now you guys have new information to work with. Mike said himself.

Maybe he will adjust his vote a little bit based on, you know, Kevin to kind of balance things out, as it were. But we can move on. We can move on. Congrats to Patty. What a win. Holy crap. I mean, one of the most talked about fighters already. And it's only getting crazy.

Every podcast, every prognosticator, Jell Sonan, Brendan Scha, Demetius Johnson, you name them. Michael Bisming is touting this guy as the next big thing. and it's hard not to picture it, hard not to picture it. He's at one fight away from a title shot and possibly a few injuries away from just getting it right away, which is wild. All right, feather weights.

I said there's a lot of featherweight business at 314. Hopefully not a lot to debate here, guys. I will say, Jed, before you say anything. So this ranking is up, guys, on UC.com. You can check it out. Now, we have, of course, a new man at number one or an old man back at number one in Alexander Volcanowski, and we had some movement with,

I don't know why don't have the ranking in front of me. John Silva making a big splash, jumping from not ranked. I mean, you can call that probably 16, 17, 18, but not ranked officially, outside 17, to the number eight spot after a complete shalacking of Bryce Mitchell. Lorone Murphy also quietly making a big jump. You know, I know no one's going to talk about that Josh Emmett fight by the end of the year. But Lorone Murphy, new to our top 10, jumping from 13 to number 10.

And I want to remind people, we include other promotions in here. So this is a really big move for him. Otherwise, Josh Emmett taking a slight bump down. Patricia Pitbull, big fall. Big fall after that loss to Yair year. Out of the top 10, the lowest he's been, I think, since we started doing these rankings all the way from 9 to number 13. Some may argue he should not be the top of it anymore,

but we can discuss that. But first thing I'll say is we do have Max Holloway still in there. Jed correctly pointed out to me on the night of USC 13, probably on three or four in the morning. If we're taking Toporia out, we should probably take Holloway out, which is true, which I think is true. Obviously, Holloway hasn't done as many interviews to Poria. I feel like Elia has done like 90 interviews in the last three months or something. And, you know, there's a lot of lightweight talk. So we're

very firm in him not going back down. I think Max has mentioned on social media. He's done with 145, which kind of makes sense. So yes, we probably should take him out. He will be gone by the next update. Just kind of an oversight on my part personally. So, that's right. That's right. Max shouldn't be there. Unless anyone disagrees, we'll probably take Max out soon, right? Chepé Mariscall, you should be ranked, buddy. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Chepe got, Chepe is robbed. Was Chepi our number one, Favre?

I have no idea. You know what? Chepe was my number 15 until you were like, hey, you need to put Max back in. I was like, that doesn't make any sense. I don't have you, and you were right. You know, I had just, yeah. Alvin Cater could have got back in the rankings. I mean, there's, there's a couple of guys that missed out here.

I think it would be Dan Ege. pretty sure Dan Ike would be number 15. Dan Ikeg crept back to my number 15 after Saturday. Yeah, yeah. He is our highest far, our highest fighter receiving votes. He's got three votes, which I assume would be more than the other two. Claibor Coikie showing up on a couple and Calvin Cater with one vote. But yes, so sorry, apologies, Dan Ige.

You should be back in the featherweight rankings. You've been there before. You should be back. And he got to win at USCT 14, too. Controversial or not. Great performance. Up two cards anyway, right? We had a bad stoppage, but up two cards anyway.

Maybe Sean Woodson does a crazy comeback, but either way. So that 15 spot would have been Danny Gay or Sean Woodson. But it is Danny Gaye. Yeah. He holds on. The good news is, the good news is going to lose again next Saturday, and then he's going to be out of the top 15 of everybody's rankings all of a sudden. And then the world will be a better place.

Yeah, he's not in mine and hasn't been for a while. Is he fought in like four years? He did. He fought Arnold Allen and lost. He got beat up by Arnold Allen. And now he's going to lose to an unranked guy next Saturday, more than likely. So if he doesn't, though, we'll open it up. He's in my 15 spot.

If he wins, if he wins, sorry, Giga's holding on to that 15 spot probably. Don't let's tell you. That's fine. It ain't go nowhere. Why do I? Why do I have Giga so high? Maybe that's a. I don't know.

Casey, you may why? I think that is a move. I didn't want to stir up another. No, no, that's all. That's fine. That's fine. I think I think I kind of just kind of. It happens.

Yeah. I think that's a bit of mistake. Yeah. I think I've... He hasn't lost anybody. I'm living like in 2021. Yeah. I guess that's it.

Giga. Yeah. He just hasn't lost anybody below him. So it's easy to just like... I do want to talk about one of the gentlemen who dropped. Of course, Patricia Pitbull, we're also happy to see him finally sign with the UFC. We wish this had happened, you know, two or three years ago. Because with respect to what he did in Bellator, we didn't get a lot of, like, we didn't

marquee matchups from the last couple years with Pitbull. I think that's fair to say. I know people go, oh, what about like, Chihiro Suzuki knocking him out and Verizon? Like, that was like this last minute

weirdo thing. Like a cool moment, a cool moment in retrospect at the time. If Pitbull had just beaten him, you would never be talking about that fight or Jihiro Suzuki ever again. I mean, it just wasn't a... And Chihiro's not a bad fighter.

I'm sorry, but I'm just saying, like, it's not been memorable past couple of years for Patricio in Beltor. Here he is in the UFC. John Davis. Okay, let me see here. Let's see how we, what we did.

Damn you, Darren Owen. Let's see what he we did here with Pitbull. Damon dropped him out completely. Mike, you've dropped him to the edge, number 15. Casey, you dropped him considerably too, number 13. It looks like we all dropped him out of the top 10 except for Guy, keeping him at number nine, support your Brazilian ghee, I respect it. But yes, he falls to number 13 in our rankings.

How do you guys feel about this? Are we giving him too much respect? Did we give him too much respect before? is the whole Pitbull ranked title contender thing is it over is it over

for reference before you guys go of course we kind of talked about this on fight night you had guys make good fighters make lukewarm debuts for Anthony Pettis

lost to who did you lose to Clay Guida right did I make that up Eddie Alvarez that ugly split decision with howboy Soroni

but very different circumstances and that both guys are not to win UC titles Brock Lesner lost his youth to be correct. Very different circumstance

for all these guys of course, Pettus was 24 years old, Eddie Alvers was 30 years old, Pitbull, 37 years old, and was 43 fights into his pro career going into the

Year Rodriguez fights. So very different, but if you want to... He fought the toughest guy to come into. Yes, he fought tough. Of all the competition. Soroni and, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Definitely. But that's what he wanted. That's what he wanted. And if you had won, the prize would have been fantastic. but we're not there.

So Jed, what are your thoughts on the whole pit bull thing? Was it too high before? Should we have dropped him earlier just from not fighting the best competition? I don't know. What's his future? Where do you land with him, Jed? Give me some pit bull talk. Probably should have dropped him earlier just because he hasn't fought it featherweight

a bunch lately. Like he did just the sort of one-off weirdness. But we're just giving him the respect of his long tenure. And I'll be honest, that's why he is still ranked. I strongly consider dropping him out. because there are young dudes on big win streaks. Cheppe Mariscales, Steve Garcia, some of those guys who mentioned,

who I think have a credible claim to be at the back end of this. But, you know, figured one last cycle, let Pippel hold on to a number. Let's give him one last chance to fight somebody in the UFC and get a win and hold, you know, maintained position. But I don't begrudge anybody dropping him out completely.

His past few years have not particularly, been inspiring. So I think probably like the back end of the rankings is right. So big picture, I'd say we're on point here. Yeah, I have him at 12, one spot ahead of Yusufzal at number 13, which just feels bad. It just feels wrong right now. Again, it's a recentcy bias. We just saw very poor performance from Pitbull. Yusuf has looked fantastic in his second run with the UFC. But it feels, it feels icky. It feels icky inside. Mike, you dropped him down to 15. How's he hanging on there? Was there any thoughts to just drop him out completely? Why'd you keep him on?

I wanted, I tried everything in my power to get him out of the rankings. I really did. And I could, I just, I couldn't. Like, I couldn't put Steve Garcia there. I couldn't put Chepe there. I just, I couldn't put cater there. I just, I just couldn't justify getting him completely out of there, but I could not have him any lower than 15.

Because he was, if you could actually screenshot and screen grab the process of this, he was in and out. probably at Baker's dozen times before I just left him in there and I was just tired to play it around with it. I did not like what I saw at all on Saturday. I think honestly, I think Yaiyir took it easy on him.

Really? I think he did because there were certain points in that fight where I think Yaiir could have melted him at any point. And you could kind of see it, and Yaiir was kind of cautious, almost got him out of there in round three. And I think Yaiir, even when he dropped him in round three,

instead of jumping into his guard, he could just stood Pitbull back up and just got him out of there. So I think Yair was, you know, looked at a man who we had a ton of respect for, didn't want to hurt the man, and had a still had a dominant performance, but unfortunately for him,

it just wasn't the performance that people were like, yeah, we got to give this guy a title shot, especially with Volcanovsky winning. He has no chance of getting a title fight right now, barring injuries or anything like that. There's just no interest in that fight. It was just real tough to watch Pitbull, man, because I didn't think he was going to win,

I didn't think he'd make it the full 15, but I at least hoped to come out of that fight being like, all right, this guy could get a couple of wins and at least put himself in position to fight some decent competition, some what-if matchups in the past that we wanted but may not have ever gotten otherwise. And now sort of looking up and down this list

of the guys I have ranked ahead of Pitbull right now, I can pretty confidently say I would not pick Patricia Pitbull to beat either of them. those fighters. I would not pick him to be Dan Ege. I would not pick him to be Yusuf Salal. Maybe Josh Emmett if he could score takedowns, but even then I don't love that either. Uh, Laurel Murphy no, Aaron Pico no, Sterling no, John Silva, no. And then kind of going up the list, like, it's not, the question for me is not, oh, can Pitbull be a title contender? Because that is, that ship has sailed. It's can he beat a single

top 15 fighter? And also, and I'm dead serious when I have ask this and it hurts my feelings that I have to ask this, can he beat a top 25 featherweight right now? Because there are guys on the come up. I would pick Steve Garcia to beat pit bull. I would pick Chip Emerescal to be pit bull right now. Calvin Cater would be an interesting fight. I was going to say he could beat Cater.

Yeah, maybe. He could be. He could be. But I wouldn't pick him though. I wouldn't pick him either. Josh, it would be fun. I could see that fight going his way

or the opposite. Could it be Chikaze. Edson Barbosa would be interesting because they're kind of like I thought Chikaze was good. So I'm a bad person to answer for that question. I always thought Chikaze.

I think I think Giga could, I think Giga would have a good chance of beating Pit bull because he's got decent take down in defense that he's way faster now. Like he's way quicker. And he just kick a bunch and Pitbull doesn't have to.

Yeah. He looked, he looked every bit of 36 on Saturday. And I was like, man, And I was hoping he wouldn't look every bit of 36 on Saturday. I didn't think he had a chance of beating he a year, but I was hoping to take some positives out of there.

37. And 37, excuse me, even worse. That makes you feel even sadder. Yeah, there's good, you know, I would like to see them give him a winnable fight. A fight he could win where he'd be favored. Give him one win before he throw him to the land of, let's build other people's names off of this guy,

because he is heading there and it stinks, man. I wish we got pit bull three years ago in the UFC. Yeah. Yeah, well, let's actually. Yamamoto run. Oh, don't say that. Oh, gosh. That was tough.

That was tough to watch. RIP, RIP kid. RIP kid. That's actually segue. It's nice into this, Mike, because so Casey and I have been pretty big pit bull supporters. I think so we, outside of Damon dropping him completely, Casey and I had the biggest jobs. I actually had the biggest one. I had him at six going to 314.

dropped him to 12. Casey, you dropped him five spots. So we both... From eight, yeah. Yeah, from eight. So we both had to... Our boy took a hit. You know, we're both a cool guy, Beltor fans.

You know, it's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. We're both cool guy, Beltor fans. And how much that... I mean, Casey, were we... Were we wrong? Were we wrong?

No. No. I'm not saying, were there signs he should have been dropped sooner. Like, the Chihiro fight was a weird one because it was at a catch weight. It was literally last second fight for... No. Two days notice or something? two days notice.

But, but... nothing. He was there, he was there, like, has a training partner. He wasn't even, I know. But I guarantee there are people there who saw that fight and said, I'm dropping him in whatever people who keep their rankings. I'm dropping him in the rankings. Like, it's just a loss, knockout loss, no less. But we kept him up there. We kind of just ignored it, like a side thing. And again, he's got other wins against, you know, maybe not top 20, top 25 guys. But he kept winning some other fights. But yeah, should we have dropped him sooner? Just just as other featherweights forget, I don't know. I'm doubting myself, basically.

I'm having ranking. So coming into that fight, I had Pitbull ranked at 8, and I had Yeir ranked at 9. I picked Pitbull to win that fight. Yeah, Year won that fight pretty decisively. That's just the, that's just, yeah, year looked good, decent. Pitbull looked, he didn't look as watched as Chandler, but he clearly is, no, this isn't the pit bull remember. This is, you know, golden years pit bull.

And I know, I just hope he gets a couple more fights, makes a couple of paychecks, and maybe gets one decent one. win before, you know, he just calls it a day. But I don't think we had him highly ranked. It's just, this is, he's been here a long time. It's just, this is how it goes. You guys go up the ranks and then slowly start moving down. He's hung on for a long time, though.

He's hung on was, he was in the pound for pound after he beat Chandler for the lightweight title. He was high. Like, we had, we had, uh, and deservedly so. Sure, of course. Absolutely. Absolutely. Time moves on.

It's, it's a precipitous fall now. he's already out of R. Pound for Pound. He's still getting some votes in Pound for Pound. I might be one of them. I'm not sure. Maybe it's key. I don't know. But yeah, he's out of our Pound for Pound.

He's been for a while, I think. Yeah, listen, nice to see Pitbull in the O.C. But it was, this might be the beginning of the end, right? Hey, maybe he proves us wrong. Much stranger things have happened, like I said. We just named a bunch of, you know, considerably younger stars. I'm not, I'm not putting him in a coffin like the gentleman. No, no.

No. No. Yeah. but I do see I do still think like pit bull can know beat a top 20 guy and be competitive against you know anyone in the top well outside the top 10 yeah top 10 at above you know that's going to be just bad news because those guys are really good and pit bull is just you know yeah not there right now and let me let me clarify I'm not saying people can't win those fights I'm not saying he cannot win I just would not pick him after what I saw and I agree with you case I

I don't look at him as just like this dude is, I don't look at him like Tony Ferguson. This is not a Tony Ferguson-esque dire situation for Pitbull. He can hang at least. I just, I don't know, man. Again, it's just one of those things like, I wish it was three years earlier. I really do would have been interesting.

And it just, he's such a weird what if too, because without Bellator, if Pitbull just came into the UFC a decade ago, Would he have the fanfare? Like, would it be the same kind of success? I don't know. Would he have the same push, the same promotional backing that he got from Bellator?

And I don't know. So he is one of the weirdest what-ifs in the sport when it comes to just, oh, if this guy was in the best organization in the sport, fighting the best dudes that we all hoped he could fight if we could have these fantasy matchups between promotion and promotion. Like, I don't even know what that would have looked like if he just skipped Bellator altogether. It's just weird.

There's almost no way he becomes a two-division champion in the UFC. Like, there's just zero chance, right? No way. But he is forever, you know, two-time Belator, three-time featherweight champion. Knocked out Michael Chandler. Zero. Maybe he knocks on Michael Chandler in the UFC. That's still very well have happened.

But all those title accolades, oh, chasing a third title, there's no way. No way that that happens to the UFC. So he's definitely a case of being like a big fish in a smaller pond. so beneficial to the legend of pit bull. And again, maybe he would have been feathering champion UFC. We don't know. But all that other stuff, like, I think there's just almost no chance. I don't know.

Jed, you're making a face. Oh, you just wouldn't have been. I think he's, it would have been cooler if he came a couple years ago. A decade ago, and I don't think anyone would talk about Patricio Pitbull. He would be a very good fighter who fights for a belt one day and never wins it because at no point was he ever going to beat Jose Aldo or Max Holloway. or Alexander Volcanovsky or Aalya Taboria. Like he just, he was never that, that good to beat those all-time great fighters.

And that's kind of what, like the peak of featherweight is just so unbelievably high that Pitbull being an exceptional featherweight in his own right is still just like, oh, nope, not as good as those dudes. It would have been cooler if he came a couple of years ago and we could have had a Michael Chandler run from him of, hey, look, he's still got enough juice to beat like top guys. he can come in, be immediately exciting. Maybe we shotgun him to a title fight for the legacy of it. And instead, the last couple of years,

especially because the last couple of years are just like not that significant to his overall Bellator arc, right? Like he got to fight Pettus and try to win a third belt, but he failed. Had he won it, maybe that's a little different. You know, it's just had he come over a couple of years, it would have been better. But this is what we got. And like I said, I think we're going to get a kid Yamamoto run here.

where it's just is way too late to the party and it's going to be more sad than it is fun. I'm glad I brought up this fun topic. Oh, my gosh. Casey, you have something positive to send us out on before I'm just kind of wondering. I mean, now we're kind of doing hindsight. But like, I'm wondering. Where eulogizing, where eulogizing pit bull. He's still fight.

He just fought. Is this a damn there were a good episode all of a sudden for pit bull? Oh. Does he get one? We just transition. Oh, he'll get one. If we ever do it. again he'll get one.

No, I'm just wondering, like, I mean, how different it would have been, you know, Michael Chandler, he comes in fights, fights Dan Hooker. You know, Dan Hooker's Dan Hooker. Like, I want, and like, I don't, someone coming into the UFC and finding someone like a top five, I don't know, what was the year ranked? Or he just came off to, Otega, lost. Yeah, top five, top six, yeah. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's an incredible jump up competition to come to the UFC and that's your

first guy you fight. I just wonder if you were. top 10 dude when Michael Chandler fought him. That's why Michael Chandler got a title fight. Yeah. Yeah. It would have been interesting. He just cared.

Yeah. Like if it was Josh Emmett or if it was like Calvin Cater, if it was maybe even Bryce Mitchell, you know, football versus Bryce Mitchell the first time. Sure. I don't know. Yeah. That's just how it is. Matchups.

That's how the sport is. You know, he came in. What ifs? He swung big and it missed and now we find out. MMA, what ifs guys? Let's go to the other side of things now. Again, talking about another big winner, U.S.C. 314, not another big winner, but a big winner at Featherweight and UFC 314. Excuse me. Jackson, Jean de Silva, or as we know him, Jean's Silva, having a magical run to the UFC so far. Just the personality is out there. His team is crushing it. He looks like he's a surefire future title challenger. Five and O in the UFC now. All finishes. Two performance of night bonuses, fight of the night with Drew Dober. Guy's a complete maniac. Took care of business. is against Bryce Mitchell.

We'll give him his flowers in this, I think, in this area. Because I don't know if he'll be number one for you guys, but I do want to sort of steal an idea I saw from Chale and NDC on their podcast. As far as ranking the Fighting Nerds team in order of who wins a title first. And I want to specify who wins a title. Who is the best chance of winning a title shot? Who do you guys think has the best chance of actually winning a belt? So, you know, divisional strength is going to play a large part in this discussion.

For those playing at home, I'm referring, of course, to Jean-Soul. Kyle Bahalia at middleweight, Maricio Rufi at light weight, Carlos Proaches at Welterweight. And I'm assuming we're not going to, neither of us are going to have Cranei Silva or Brno Brazil at the top. So I just want to mention them because they are both associated with fight nerds, fighting nerds now. I'm guessing it's not, neither of them are cracking the top four.

Like you're not putting out those names ahead of the others. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. But, yes, I sent you guys these names before. So you've had time. I'll ask, who wants to go first? Who wants to present their homework first? I go first.

Jed. Keener. I mean, this should come as very little surprise to most people who follow my work. I have been, I believe, the biggest supporter of Jean Silva of anybody in the space, certainly as big as anybody has been of him. He has my number one choice. I will repeat a thing I wrote this week in the mailbag column, which I think is coming out like right now as we are speaking,

he is not the best of the fighting nerds. I do believe the best fighting nerd is Kyle Borallio. But middleweight is a bit of a tougher weight class, even though as high as he is, he is currently undergoing some issues to sort of get into the title fight. Imovov is refusing to fight him functionally, and that is the fight that makes the most sense in the world.

And so I don't really know how that breaks out, what with the middleweight title picture, Hamzaa Chamaev in consideration, imov, I guess technically in front of Brayo. They just might take a while. And even if he gets there, we all know Drickus Duplice is my boy, so I can't really be picking against him. John Silva is, I think, the second best of the fighting nerd. So you could really change that up.

Maricio Huffy is kind of really, really good as well. But if he fought Alexander Volcanovsky tomorrow, this is a hot take. I would pick John Silver to win that fight. I thought Alexander Volcanovsky delivered an exceptional performance against Diego Lopez. I've watched that fight a couple of times, and my main takeaway is Alexander Volcanovsky is an incredible all-time great fighter. Diego Lopez is who I thought he was, and my breakdown of that fight going in was

Diego Lopez is a dangerous guy who does not have a lot of ideas, and as long as Alexander Volcanovsky's chin doesn't just crumble to dust the first time he's hit, this is the exact sort of matchup he will thrive in because Volkanowski has nothing but ideas. He has so many ideas, so smart and tactical that he is going to mute all of Lopez's offense and then he's going to have nothing. That's pretty much Zach what happened. Lopez just had no idea how to get to him, did not have the technical capability of the footwork too. John Silva does. Sean Silva is fast. He is, I believe, faster than Volcanovsky. He has a depth of ideas and tools and he hits real hard. And I do think Volk's durability is not what it once was.

So if they fought tomorrow, I'd pick him. I don't think that's going to happen. But I do think he's won away because Featherweight is a bit in transition. You know, there's some names moving around, and he had so much hype around him for this event. I think they're going to give him a big opportunity. I like his chances to win whoever that big opportunity comes against. And if it's Movsler, I'm a little bit less for John Silva. If Volk still has the belt by the time he gets there, I like John Silva's chances.

So John Silva is my number one. Kyle Barley is my number two. Number three, I will go, Mauricio Ruffy. Oh. He didn't dazzle me coming off contender series in general, but like he has since, he's got a little spark to him. I'm not sure that he'll ever get there and lightweight is really, really hard. But he does bring just sort of this wet, like incredible offense to bear that can go real far. and particularly with the branding.

And then Carlos Prattis, who I love Carlos Prattis. I find he is deeply fun. I don't think there's a chance he wins the Wetherwhite Belt. I think that he was always destined to just be a super fun dude who people, who is beloved because of the way he fights, how he gets down, goes about his business. I'm pretty sure he and Machado Gary is going to beat him in that fight coming up next week. And so he will be my number four.

Jed, Mike and I discuss this briefly on to the next one. You're the no-bets bard, man. Opening line for Silva Volcanozky if it's announced tomorrow. Volk's a betting favorite, probably minus 220, 250. That's harder than I had it. I think most people look at that fight, because all I've heard is that Alexander Volknoffsky is the greatest fighter who's ever lived coming off that. Consensus, JET. Consensus.

That sounds really like me shitting on him. It's not because the performance is great. But there's not been a lot of nuanced. Well, actually, Diego Lopez was a really limited fighter, and we all said this beforehand. But no, everyone forgot it immediately because they just want to heap praise on this very noteworthy and incredible achievement

that Volcanovsky had there. So I think people will not remember that Lopez was a very flawed contender in general and just think, oh, he's back. He's all the way back, and I do not believe he's all the way back. You're jumping on Silva plus 200? 100%

Oh, day one, day one, 7 plus 200. I've thought about this a lot, and I know that I have a reputation and people will call me a hater. I would confidently pick John Silver to win that fight. I could be wrong. Could absolutely be wrong. I would confidently pick him to win that fight.

Is that a hipster pick? It's a hipster. It's almost certain. It's almost certainly a hipster pick. Okay, I don't know what hipster means anymore, so I'm going to go. All right. If you don't know what it means,

then it means you do know what it means. Oh, okay. I gotcha. Yeah. I'm actually more surprised that you had Prattis last. But so, Mike, I'm curious. Did you also have Prattis last? And I assume Silva number one.

But maybe not. What does your top four look like in what order, Mike? So my hot take is, I'm just going to throw this out there. Neither of these guys are going to be a UFC champion. Okay. Oh, I'll just put that out there. I think Bralio will fight for the belt first. Honestly, I think Nassadine Nemovov, if we are to believe that he truly turned down

that fight. This is terrific news for Kyle Bahalio. Honestly, I don't think it gets any better for him. It almost guarantees him a title fight in his next fight. Like if they do DDP versus Hamzat, Kyle is going to be next in line. They will look at him before they look at Nasrudeen, and they will give Nasrudeen a tough fight against someone who is not as known.

Like if I'm Alaskaroff wins his next fight, they're going to do like, all right, Nastine, now you get to fight Akramalyskarov. in just like a high risk, low reward situation, because Dana has publicly said this many times, don't turn down fights, especially big ones, or else you have to pay the consequences. And Nasradi Nehovovov, while he looked great,

while he just knocked out Israel out of Sanya, that's wonderful. The only fight that made any sense in everybody's eyes was him fighting Baha'alio, and now if he is truly to have turned that down, Bhalio, keep talking your shit, man, because all that's going to do is help you out in a big way. So I will say Bahaio gets there first.

I'll say Silva, too, because I don't know if he's one win away, but he could be. He could very well be one win away, depending on how this shakes out. Volk winning, I think, kind of hurts Silva a tad because if Loyaev's going to be next, and then we kind of have to wait. If Yair and Lopez have a big fight of UFC 320, I know Volk has beat both those guys, but if Yaya goes out there and just cooks up something special in Mexico, Mexico and looks like a superstar.

UFC will probably pivot to that rematch before they go to Silva. I'll go Pratchez 3 because Welterweight is welterweight. Because even if he loses to Gary, he can win three, his next three fights pretty, pretty easily and get right back in that position. Rufiol put it four mostly because it's lightweight. He might be the best dude of the four, but I just don't know because he's in the best division of all. That's what they say.

Creeney. Yeah. And then Criney Silvet 5, who, look, you just lost to Viviani Arujo, man. But if she went in there and won that fight, like she's fighting like a top five flyweight in her next fight. Like,

she's right there. So if you, and trust me, trust me, as a man who picked her in the fantasy draft last year, that won't hurt my soul. I was feeling real good about that pick. And if you would ask me this question in September of last year,

creating Silva might be like number two. on the list. But yeah, not a great fight against our Ruzzo. So yeah, I mean, when I say I don't think either of these fighters are going to win belts,

this is not be pooping on them. This is me praising them for being incredible and putting themselves in this position as a sensational team. Having a team full of like top five fighters in almost every weight class is ridiculous. And my hat goes off to all of them. And if one of these fighters gets UFC gold wrapped around their waist,

I will be happy to come on the show and say, hey, I was wrong. Congratulations. Well done. They're a great team, man. So good on them. Wow. So over under.

0.5, you're going under, Mike. You're going under. You don't think... Champions? Yeah. Yeah, I'll go under. But it's not a knock on them. Oh, I'll go over.

You'd go over. You'd assume, assuming John Silver can get that. I'd go under 1.5, but at one of these, you're just going to get a belt. One of these is, okay, interesting. Casey, where did you go with this? And again, do you think any of them will? because Mike, Mike is saying, it doesn't even think the fighting nerds

will bring a title home. So, Mike, Casey, where'd you go? How are you ranked? I'm disturbed by the lack of respect and erasure of Mikhail Olazechech. What's his name? Yes. Oh, yeah, wow, yes.

You really showed us, though. Michael Olexich, yes. Actually, you're right. You got it. Come on. Yeah. Jeez, come on, Mike. Also victorious U.S.C.

314. Yes. Honorary member, honorary member, I suppose. I guess he's with them full time. He had the glasses. He had the glasses. This is true? Yeah, that's, yeah, if you wear the glasses, you're by the team.

I would definitely think that pretty much what you guys said. I think Cal is actually the best fighter, but in terms of actually winning the title, I do, I do agree that Silva as the, with just his start making performance. He's, you know, he's easy to sell. And, you know, he can, he's definitely fight finisher. and I won't pick him to beat Volk, but it won't be surprised either. So, Cal is the best fighter, but Silva has got the best chance to win.

And number three, Karina Silva. Number three, wow, I was telling you guys not to count Karina Selva and Brunner, Brazil, but you've ignored me as usual and gone very high. But I think Mike explained as well that, yeah, flyweight's not super deep. I mean, you string together a couple of top 10 wins. You're fighting for a title.

And again, we don't know if that title is going to be vacated soon. That totally leaves us. the spot up for grabs and Corrinez Silva could within a year, I don't know, if you want half of that equation, I have no idea. I'll just say, I had a practice a lot higher than you guys.

I would have Jean Silva number one. But I would have purchase number two. And I'll only say that's because if he beats Gary, I think the sky is limited. I think if he beats Gary and does so an impressive fashion, I think it totally recalibrates

what we think of this guy. So maybe that's in my mind. That's our next main event around the corner a couple of weeks from now. And I guess I was thinking, yeah, wow, was that? I don't know. I could see him maybe giving Balal Muhammad to run for his money or Jack Delam Adelina

or I don't want to say Islam Makajab, but we don't know what's going on with him. Maybe he's going to come to 170. Should that happen? But I have Pratchez too. I would have Prudius too. Rufi, like you guys said, might be the best. I just couldn't put him higher than four just because it's lightweight. Lightweight is so deep. I have no idea how he gets to a teloshot. It's there. The guy is insanely exciting and insanely fun to watch. and Cayo I would put lower just because I'm just thinking him in DDP

I don't know I don't like him to beat DDP I don't like him to be Hamza I just can't see him winning the title so I would but I would go with Jed I'd probably take the over but not if it was one to half I think maybe what we get one belt out of these guys and there's no shame in that because we rarely talk about any team these days and going like oh how many titles could this team win unless you're talking one of those super camps which is like you know 25

30 fighters in the UFC so very impressive I'd be really surprised if none of them won a belt. Not because, like, individually, they're all just overwhelming, right? Like, you can pick holes. But just like whenever we see this, when is the last time we saw a camp come out of nowhere to sort of take over the imagination of the sport and not win a belt? Like, city kickboxing won multiple belts, you know? Like, this is the team, whatever Eagle fight team, Abdulmanop, whatever they call that,

team. I don't know, like came out and they have won multiple belts when you occasionally, I've mentioned this on a show recently. Like, one of the things I really do love about this sport is that just some random dudes in some location who nobody's ever heard of can figure out a new way to approach it and be a dominant. And that is what the fighting nerds have done. Like this is not a hallowed camp or whatever. Just like some dudes who worked it out. Like, oh, here's what we're going to do. They all focused on it. And every time, that happens at least one one dude gets a belt. So I'd be pretty shocked if they didn't,

if one of them didn't find a way to a title. SPG Ireland, two UFC titles, a guy that captured the lightweight and featherweight belt. What an illustrious roster we got from there. So all right. Yeah, fighting nerds,

hey, we're all talking about it. Oh, Casey, go ahead. If Bruchess beats Gary, that completely flips everything. Yeah, that's my thinking. Yeah, I mean, everything's like,

oh my God, yeah. And anyway, It can be, you said impressive. If he just gets a W and beats Gary over five rounds, I think, actually, I'll be actually more impressive if he can actually beat him over five rounds, honestly. But then as far as this long term. But then what happens? Like, you fight Sean Brady.

I guess that's tough. Yeah, yeah, it's going to be super tough. But that's why I put process at the bottom. I think he's going to lose anyway, but also like there's just a bunch of people right in the mix. and Islam is like quietly also right in the mix if Jack Della can pull off some miracle next month. So like it's just a harder road than I think anybody else has for them.

All right guys. We are for we are past through the first well I guess well past the first quarter of 2025. We now because we now only have two, no, we have three peer review events left. Three peer view events left coming up before the half of the year. 315, 316, 317, 317. So our last ranking of this episode, guys, will be what are your five? I should have made it three for time.

Let's go five so you can talk whatever you want. Five most anticipated fights coming up. We have several title fights. We have several compelling main events. But we have a lot of really, really intriguing undercard fights. I actually think the majority of my list is undercard fights, not main or co-mains. But I could be wrong. So I'm very excited to interest to hear what you guys have to say.

Casey, let me actually start with you. I'm curious. I'm curious what your list looks like. Yeah, yeah. We're throwing a Casey first. You guys didn't see that one. Delisci gave me, for personal reasons, Mara versus O'Malley, too.

So I get some more points on my fantasy team. Nice. Oh, my God. I should have made a disclaimer. I should have made a disclaimer. We are ignoring. And that's why I don't do this stuff because then it's just, everything's just thrown off.

My biases are just like, whatever. It's true. But I am. I love. Love that for you, Casey. You're ruining me, Jed. I'm so pure. Let me see.

Ping and Harrison, just because I want to see it. Should I come back to you so you can have a second to look at some of the other upcoming fights that are not like mains and co-mains and title fights? Because I said, to you know, I sent out like a list of just the quote-unquote big fights coming up. But there's so many like weird ones and fun ones. I'll tell you, my list is completely stupid. Who has their homework prepared? class who has raised your hands Mike I'm ready I'm going you know I decided just

you know just to be a low-hanging fruit guy if there is a quote-unquote hipster amongst you I don't mind it at all I am so I'm actually going with the most recent main event the one that's coming up next number one I Eamachado Gary versus Carlos Pratchez I am intrigued by the matchup let's see how Gary bounces back from a tough loss he's very confident and let's see if Carlos Pratchez is the dude. Because if he goes out there and just kicks to E.M. Machado, Gary, in the face and gets another knockout. I'm very interested to see how far he can go.

Love that fight. Number two, another non-title fight. It's the main event the following week in lovely Des Moines, Corey Sanhagen versus Davis and Figurado. Let's see what Figgie Smalls is up to after that sort of super fun fight with Piotr-Yon. Sanhagen is just the guy that can't get over the hump. Let's see if you can start getting back there.

Number three, Pena versus Harrison, because one, I think Julianna Pena has a much better chance than people are giving her credit for. I want to see if Kayla Harrison can cut that extra pound and get to 135. And Amanda Nunes is apparently going to be awaiting the winner. So women's band and weight is about to get a little more exciting. And that's good for everybody. Number four. I thought you were going to say, I thought you were going to say, explode. I thought you were going to say women's band to weight is about to explode.

And I'd be like, yes, my best. sell it. No. No, okay. It's not going to. Because after Nunes fights one of these women, then it's just the rest of the division. And that's a tough place for everybody.

Number four, again, because of the questions that it needs to answer, Balaamahma'am versus Jack Della and Madalana. Do I think this is the most exciting fight of all time? No. Do I think JDM is going to pull off the upset? No. But at least we can have, we have answers, right?

What's Islam Makhchev going to do? Is he get a fight elite Tuporia? or is it going to go up and fight and vacate the belt and go fight for the wealthorite belt? At least we'll know after that fight ends exactly what's going to happen. And then number five, the co-made event for UFC 315.

I'll go with Valentina Chufchenko versus Manon Fioro. Shevchenko looked great in her last fight against Alex de Grasso, but men in Fioros looked great against everybody. And as Jed Michoud likes to say, especially in women's MMA, especially in these women's divisions, the Haas is.

It's a great cheap. code and man and fioro is a hoss she's just bumping everybody through there just out muscleing everybody and if she could do that to valentina shivchenko be a great story for the french m macy and if manon fioro can become a ufc champ so definitely intrigued by that matchup whether these are going to be the most thrilling fights or different topics altogether but stakes questions answered i like all five of those fights all right mike you went with intriguing i think that that describes uh all the fights on your list. I'll go with that. I'll go with that. Very different from my list. I'll say that. Jed, Jed, did you go a little deeper? You're sticking with mains, co-mains, title fights?

What are you looking for to? I didn't know I could go deeper, so I stuck with the list you gave me. I told you guys. I left a, hold on. I left a note in Slack. It says, do you do not have to stick to this list. It specifically says that. I just want that to do not blame the teacher. All right. The students, the students, you know, chose to stick with the initial instruction. You left us a novel. And realistically, it's also like probably correct. Actually, I'm putting these show notes in the in the, in the, in the podcast. I'm going to see.

I'm going to audible one fight of my list. Okay. Because I actually don't think it would have changed that much in your head. I thought about it. Number one, San Diego figurato. That fight just slaps, which is a banger. So the Des Moines, the people of Des Moines, Iowa get a good. one. I'm just really, my list is entirely things I am the most interested to see, and that is

number one. Number two, I've inverted Mike's top two, the IMG Imichato-G versus Carlos Prattis main event, the next weekend, Kansas City. I think IMG is going to win that fight, but that's just a banger. And so I like Amichato Gary as a fighter. I know people don't feel the same way bottom. I very much enjoy him as a fighter and Carlos Prakos is obviously everybody's darling, so that's terrific. I then went Shevchenko Fiore just because Valentina Shvchenko is at worst, like the third greatest female fighter of all time. And, you know, she's in the illustrious goat room when there are the 10 goats gathered amongst men and women's division. She gets, she's got to pass into, you know, behind the velvet rope.

And Fioro is a very interesting matchup. I don't think that fight will be that fun, but I am pretty interested to see how much Chfchenko still has left in the tank. So she'd beat Furoro, I guess she could just do this forever, and she'll just never lose other than the occasional Lexa Grasso fight that happened. So, yeah, that one. Then I have Pena versus Harrison. I think I know how this fight is going to go.

So mainly this is more like, I would like Harrison to win. I think that opens up more opportunities. And then that does lead to Harrison Nunes, which is obviously fantastic. And previously, I was going to go Jamal Hill-Kulow-Roundtree because that fights fun. But now that I know that I don't have to pick main events, and shout out to Baku for that one, probably like number two answer of this is a man very dear and near to my heart. Joel Alvarez versus Binwasandini is just absolute can an anarchie. in a cage and

like I that could main event a pay-per-view and I'd give you 80 bucks to watch that fight that fight is going to rock so 100% that's in my top five all right great pick that's easily the best thing that's happening at USC 315 by a country model

what Casey I'm gonna I'm gonna go to you and I'll tell you something now that I've given you a little bit of a chance to look into some of the other fights there's one fight that if it's not on there I'm very disappointed in you I'm really excited to see Aaron Blanchville versus Macy Barber. Sure.

I still think I'm still high on the Aaron. I'm still in the Aaron Blanchville hype train. Both women are under 26. Both women aren't even in their fighting prime yet. Barber's on a six-fight win streak. Now she's actually going to be, I think she just beat Caitlin. What's her name? Shamir.

Shamira now. Cermanara. Seminar, sorry, Seminar beat Ketan Seminar very decisively. So I just love, might not be the most exciting fight, but just two horses. I mean, well, not hosses. They're growing into their hossiness, I think. Lady hosses. Lady hosses, yes.

So I like that by a lot. Yeah, that's the main one. And yeah, everything is good. Pena Harrison. How? Buddy, come on. There's such an obviousness. This is such a KC.

This is like a Casey Fick. A young man returning to the UFC Oh, that wasn't even the one I was saying. I was about to say that. I was going to say my third one, Horgoochie coming back. Okay.

That was the one I thought you were going to say, Casey. What were you thinking? What are you thinking, Jed? What am I missing? Casey's guy, a fight that we were supposed to get earlier this year, and then Brandon Revol couldn't do it, and now it's rebooked.

Oh, it is rebooked? Oh, it is rebooked? That's why I didn't say it. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Running back. I think 317.

Oh, my boy, Manel, he's back, baby. National Fight Week, maybe. Oh, okay. I think 317. I didn't know, like, I was like,

I was like, this is the most case-coded fight of all times. I didn't know, I didn't know those rebugs. I didn't know those rebuked. So I went Horaguchi because I want to see Horoucci come back. And so, yeah. So a lot,

lot of fly weights. Yeah, actually, did I say all fly weights? Flyweight's in one lady's in one late- much fights. Yeah. Yeah. I think the only reason I didn't include the Menel fight is because I, and I say that's something, you guys know, I'm not a fan of Manel cop, but I kind of want to just see him get the title fight.

Because Pantosia is still technically not booked, right? And the Royval fight makes a lot of sense for Cop. Don't get me wrong. I get it. You got to resolve that. But I kind of thought Monell jumped over that fight. Like, I just want to see Manel fight. Just do it.

Yeah. I don't know. But, okay, but it's obviously an amazing matchup. I mean, I'm not complaining. We're about cops. So good. All right, guys. I'll give you my freak list before we get out of here.

I'm really disappointed. None of you had Reiner Derriter, Bo Nicol. That's like my number one. I'm sad to make that fight. This fight's going to be hilarious, I think. Or it could be total garbage. I think that's where maybe this could be like a really horrible fight. But if we're talking about intrigue, I don't really know where this is going to go.

Reiner has so much more like MMA experience, but and Boe looks so mediocre in that last fight. Not mediocre, but just, you know, not entertaining, obviously. I don't know. This could go anywhere. So honestly, sadly, that is my number one. I guess I shied away from title fights. Because the only one that made my list, number two, Pena Harrison. And really, it is the build, I think, has been really good.

The intrigue of Mananuna is coming back. So there's a lot of stuff around it that I think it makes intriguing. I don't think it'll be a bad fight either. Actually, that's going to be like a really entertaining fight. People might think I'm crazy, but it wouldn't be the first time people said that. Number three, I went Horoguchi-Ele-Lambekov. Very excited to see Kiyojiu back. Number four, yes, the Kansas City main event, Machado Gary and Pratchis.

Again, I just think it's a good matchup, and I'm excited to see where Prachis goes. And number five, last but certainly not least, the UFC Baku boat between Hamdi Abdel Wahab and Mohammed Usman. Thank you. I love you. My God, this might end up being the worst fight in a major promotion in 2025. The heavy weighty belt is up for grabs. Mo, if you're out there, I love you. I've interviewed Mo many times,

but his fights are not the most entertaining contests in MMA. And Hamdi is arguably not even a UFC level heavyweight, which is scary when you consider how low that bar is. And somehow the matchmaking gods have decided to bless us with Hamdi Adelahab and Mo Usman. The other reason I'm looking forward to is I may put $5,000 on the over. Like, I just don't know. This is just crazy-ass match.

should not be in the UFC. I'm so sorry. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Torres Finney just called. He said he can't wait for Usen versus Hamdi. Yeah, yeah. He knows. He knows excitement. He knows excitement. So that is, I cannot wait. How long? Tell you what, that's the Boston last time Torres Finney's getting his name dropped on a rankings pod. You think so. You think so. I didn't think we're going to be talking about Alexander Shobbly for 10 minutes. So don't you cannot make that claim. Just to bring it full circle. Just to bring it full circle.

And by the way, Mo and Hamdi, that is June 21st. So a long wait, guys, hang in there. It's a long wait, but hang in there. But thank you. Can I just, can I just say something real quick? Please. The Usman, the Usman Hamdi booking is much less egregious than Keoggi Horaguchi versus Tikir Oulah.

Well, that's, that's a shame. What the hell are we doing? What are we doing here? Kaya Sakura gets a title shot. And Kioji Horaguchi, comes back. We've been waiting for this. Fans have been asked for this for fucking forever. And he gets to, Tagir Ulan Becoff. Like, no disrespect to gear Ulan Beck. He's a fine fighter. It's a, it's very disrespectful. It's very disrespectful. We're like, yes,

Keogh is coming back. Who's he fighting? Oh, he's fighting. No, he's fighting. No, I meant you're being a little disrespectful to DeGir is what I meant. I have. No, it's a fine fighter, but it's Keoggi Horegui. man like patricio pit bull got yeah you rodriguez and keoggi who's fought for a belt before who's won multiple titles and other organizations against a fight a guy that nobody knows i can't like a hooker i don't love it when you have the opportunity to per keoggi horguci against tigir ulumbeckov in baku you got to do it i mean that fight that that that that fight makes all the sense in the world how can you

pass up such an opportunity. And right now, millions of Azerbaijani fans who are screaming to see Kioji Horaguchi beat Tagir Hul and Beck off. And right now that fight is going to come right after. Alex Perez would have been a good

one. Like, yeah. But we're going to see Horaguchi maybe just moments after we get to experience Usman versus Hamdi. So,

you might lose. Thank you, Casey. You might lose it to gear. That's June issue. That fight's going to come after the Curtis Blades, Cuneevv fight. Oh, man. June 21st. Hamibdel-Hab.

Ham-Dibdel-Hab. Mo Uzman, that's all you guys need to know. We're all in this together. I will do a countdown. We're sending Jose there. We're sending Jose. We're getting boots on the ground. And just for that fight.

And then he has to leave. Like, he watches that fight. And then he gets kicked out. And then he gets kicked out. Come on. Let him watch Curtis Blades. Cooneyiff. Yeah.

Come on. Let him double dip the heavies. I think we're going to put a ticker. I think we're going to put a ticker on MFAing.A.fling. We're going to bring back the yellow banner, but it's just a ticker of how many hours, days, minutes, et cetera, until Hamdi versus Moeusb. I'm so, I'm sorry. We have to do a watch party for that fight. We're not going to hear this.

We're sitting in a week. Mike and Jedge, please do your watch. This fight will be amazing. If this ends in a first round knockout, which seems nearly impossible, I'll be so disappointed. But stand up. Do it again. All right. Anyway, thank you guys. We've been talking long enough for rankings.

Always fun to do these shows. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Jed. Thank you, Casey. Incredible, incredible work as always. Again, we might be back after 315. Not sure. We'll see what happens.

I mean, if JDM wins, if Ben-on-Fero wins, we might have to do a ranking show because, I mean, shit's going to get turned upside down. But I'm your host, Alexander Kaylee. Thank you, everybody. And remember, no matter where you rank these fighters, You listeners are always ranked number one in our hearts. Take care.

Love y'all.