MMA Fighting - Rankings Show: Is Umar Nurmagomedov A Lock To Become UFC Champion? | Plus, A Look Ahead To Francis Ngannou, Jon Jones Returns

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Merab Dvalishvili could find out soon just how heavy is the head that wears the crown. Hot on the new bantamweight champion’s heels following his dominant win over Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 is Umar Nurmagomedov, an undefeated Dagestani nightmare who has all the makings of a future champion... perhaps near future. But Nurmagomedov isn’t the only one shaking up the rankings. Natalia Silva just knocked off two-division threat Jessica Andrade. Caio Borralho has crashed into the upper tier of the middleweight ranks after beating Jared Cannonier. And Diego Lopes dispatched of Brian Ortega to charge up the featherweight ladder. Could one of these contenders beat Nurmagomedov to championship glory? Host Alexander K. Lee is joined by fellow MMA Fighting rankings panelists Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as we do an impromptu power ranking of the fighters who could be next in line to top the charts. We also predict what the heavyweight and Pound-for-Pound rankings could look like with Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou set to fight in the coming months, plus plus we take a look back at the illustrious career of Demetrious Johnson. Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow Mike Heck @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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a loyal M.A. Fighting podcast, listeners, video watchers. Welcome to the M.A. Fighting Rankings Show. Yes, we are still doing these. I know it's been a while. It has been three months, actually. It was back at the beginning of June. We did our most recent ranking show episode, and there's been some changes around here, as you guys didn't know. We'll get to that in a moment. First, anyone listening, by the way, via podcast, is the voice of Alexander K. Lee. and I am joined by my wonderful co-host. First, my best friend. On to the next one.

Co-host, Michael Heck. Hello. Jed is upset, which makes that intro even better. So thank you, Ray God. Also joining us is, of course, the Between the Links legend himself, the Jed Bershear. The second fiddle. Just an also ran.

Just I see a clear pecking order has been established immediately. And I don't care for you weaponizing your friendship in this this fashion, just using like a cudgel against me, A.K., because you disagree with some of my rankings takes. I'm weaponizing that friendship like Colby Coventon, weaponized that cardio. I'm telling you, it's the best thing. Guys, let's get right into the show here. I do want to touch on, again, some of the changes that have kind of happened to the rankings and our panel. as people know earlier this year

who part of ways with the great Stephen Morocco who was one of our panelists and of course just a few weeks ago Shaheen al Shadi made the jump over to Yahoo Sports and uncrowned

so we're down to six we're down to six panelists now it was an eight person panel we started a few years ago down to six so it's changed the math up a little bit I'm sure people who saw the rankings

post today by the time they would listen to this will notice a lot of movement some for obvious reasons some for not so obvious reasons that's kind of what happens when someone's whole ballot just drops out. So I just want to do a quick check here. Jen, I'll go to you first.

Just how are you feeling about your own rankings right now and also the site's rankings? Just a division. Not talking pound for pound. Just talk about divisions. I'm glad you clarified because I actually don't even love my own pound for pound rankings. I'm being honest. No one does. No one does.

I will talk about it. I have some regrets. My divisional rankings I mostly feel really good about. there's some like weird ones out there which you know maybe we'll talk about maybe we won't just because of we've had some some drop-offs there are some very thin divisions but overall i think we're pretty good on on where we've hit like that the purpose of doing rankings is obviously these are my rankings i would believe they are the smartest best rankings of all but i am also at least cogent enough to recognize that i might not um be an unbiased of

observe for in these instances. And so when we get a big group of people like we have, you know, wisdom of the masses. I think we mostly got everything right here, guys. Just pack it up. We win. Yeah.

I want to agree. I feel like, again, anyone who sees our rankings, I'm sure they'll have little nitpicks here and there, especially when it comes to pound for pound. Like I said, I don't really want to dive into that too much this episode. Mike,

I'll go to you. I don't want to do a full airing of grievances, but I will say, are you mostly happy with your own? rankings did anything in our consensus rankings jump out of us odd or if you'd like to take a moment anyone else's personal rankings i didn't really dive too deep into everybody else's personal rankings just didn't really have the time we'll save that for the end of the year but i will say there's one concern that i had and i'm happy to say that the m-fighting crew as a unit we got

this right because the ufc rankings certainly didn't get a right I was concerned about where Diego Lopez would be ranked at featherweight. There is just no world. As great as that win was against Brian Ortega, there is just no world where he should be ranked higher than Mavzara Vloyav. Because they fought and Mavzara of Lov beat him. And I believe most of us got it right and ranked Vloyav higher than Lopez. And in our actual group rankings, if Lov is four and Diego Lopez is five.

So my one concern, I think we're okay. I think we got it right. And by the way, it's just a damn good division. And we did it, we did a damn good job. Can I put a devil's advocate for a moment? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, before you did, let me just say that. Before you do, just let me just say, yes,

UFC jumped up Diego, 10 spots from 13 to 3 leapfrogging Mossar, who was down at number six behind Brian Ortego and Jaya as well. Go ahead, Jeff. Again, I have in principle agree because I have Diego Lopez behind Moser. I don't think it's that egregious. I think obviously these two did fight and there is a definitive winner, but there is a little bit of what have you done for me recently, and since they fought, Diego is now four and oh with wins over all ranked dudes,

meaningful, significant wins, and Mavzar had a tough win over Arnold Allen in a fight that, you know, was kind of up in there. So I don't actually think it's egregious to have Diego Lopez, overmops are, especially when you factor in, you know, the situation surrounding their fight, very competitive. Lopez came in on like four days notice or whatever. I, again, I didn't choose to do that, but I've seen a lot of backlash to that just broadly in the MMA Twitter bubble. And I actually think it's defensible, even if it's not the choice I would have made.

Yeah, I'm not saying it's, it's bad. It's just wrong. And that's okay. You can be wrong. You can be wrong once in a while. A.K., can I say something that I am very proud of us for as a unit? I don't have the, I didn't go back and check this, but I'm fairly confident when I say, this is the first time in like, since the inception of the rankings, maybe, where only one weight division has multiple first place votes. Women's bantam weight is the only weight class with multiple first place votes. everybody else there is a unified champion amongst the panelists and that cannot be true of basically any other time in part because of me like i have been the big problem in that situation a lot is is this a good thing though chad and we should tell you well uh you were threatening you were threatening you were on the night up you were threatening to have umar as your number one phantom way you threatened it you teased it umar was my number one bandamweight coming into you of c3 oh sure i i already

had him number one. Right. But then I went back and I just sort of reconsidered the full resume that Marab has put. And though I will confidently pick Omar to beat Marab should they fight, I mean, you beat four straight former champions in a row at some point. It doesn't matter. In the same way that I ultimately acquiesce to Leon being the top welterweight despite believing Shavkat is the best welterweight, he had done enough the man deserved his

flowers. I feel the same with Mara. I will pick Umar, but just the proof is in the pudding of what he has accomplished thus far. And I kind of, I caved. I cave to public pressure is what happened. That's fine. I think you're going to have plenty of time to shake. I feel like there's results before the end of the year that's going to have us kind of like questioning some of the rankings and is the whoever holds the UFC title. Are they number one? Branson Godd is coming back at heavyweight. I don't know how we're going to handle that. John Jones.

Canaan Fahetta, incoming number one, anyway. He might be. John Jones is going to fight again. Again, I'll tease that. That's a topic of discussion for later. His fight with Steve A is officially rebooked for this year's Madiscaregorn card. That's supposed to happen last year at Madison Square Garden. So we'll have plenty of that to discuss.

We'll have plenty of that to discuss. But yes, Diego Lopez, it's not a travesty, I suppose, but I think I agree with my best friend. I put Mosaar's wins slightly over. though. He's a no, man. Like, he's a no in the UFC. And he'd be, head to head. He owns the win.

I guess the only regard would be. A lot of decisions, though. Jet's favorite fighter. Maybe those first round finishes, baby. Jed, your favorite fighter, Brian Ortega, you've often called all around the best fighter in all of MMA, I feel like the most well-rounded you. Literally the only reason I have him ranked is you forced me to.

Yeah. You almost. I had removed him from my featherweight rankings, and you were like, nope. And you didn't want to put him back. You were not allowed to do this. He cleanly beat Yairir and you did not want to put him back in. But technically.

So are clear. Yeah, year's ahead of Ortega in the UFC's rankings. What? Yer is ahead of Brian Ortega in the UFC featherweight rank. You're right. You're right. Yeah, year's number of, how does they, how does that? That's very more greages than Lopez being.

That makes no sense. And I just want to make a quick note because we never talked about this on the show. I don't think, I mean, it's not, this is not, this is going to of fall in depth ears because the people who listen to our show are smart it's really random commenters who we're like these rankings mean nothing they're not done by the ufc they're just done by random media people guys who do you think does the you know who do you know who does the ufc's rankings random media people and when i neither do i worse media people than us i'm not going to make a qualitative comment i mean i will make a qualitative a statement on it sadly i don't

media people than us. I don't think you can find the list of official panelists anymore, but I guarantee people have not heard of any of those outlets or at least the vast majority of them. So we are as I would say, or as Jed would say, more valid, more of an authority on these rankings than the official panel guys. There is no official like people inside the UFC. Guys, that's not a thing. Ring magazine is widely considered to be one of the real belts in boxing.

Who do you think Ring magazine is? It's a bunch of people. That's what we have. We are the definitive ranking system in MMA. Because these are UFC rankings, guys. These are MMA rankings. So we got two new champions, guys. Of course, which means two number one, well, one new number one.

And again, number one. As we just mentioned, Marab, yes. Number one, four now. We will see how long that last. Hot on his heels, Umar no Magermedov jumping six spots. People keep mind again. It has been three months since our last ranking show. and it has been, I think, six weeks since our last full divisional update.

So this includes, this is the win over Corey Zandigan. This is one reason why Umar has jumped up so much. And Sean O'Malley dropped down to number three. So a little bit of controversy, though I'm sure if you asked most M.A fans, you're getting 95% I would pick Umar to beat Shottomali, so maybe not that controversial. But we have a new champion of Bantamintu. We have, and again, found the Tina Shepchenko at 125 pounds. How long are these two minutes stay at the top?

I don't know. in fact a lot of the divisions have some pretty fast rise at contenders that's really the first topic i want to talk about this week guys uh let me see here i've already lost track of my notes this is a this is a great way to start as the um first show hosting myself all right we had several people jumping uh big spots and even if you move like two or three spots in the top 10 that's like huge right i think people will know once you reach the top 10 depending on the division it's pretty hard to move up so if you're jumping two or three spots of the top 10 uh then then you're jumping you're are definitely emerging as a dark horse contender.

So I'll just go here in order of weight. Kyleo, finally we gave him a ranking, and he goes all the way from unranked to number six. I think if you tallied the votes, he would have been like 16th or 17th, so it's not like he was completely off the board, but huge jump right to number six after his win over Jared Cannonier.

Sean Brady, jumped from 9 to number six after beating Gilbert Burns. Diego Lopez, we just mentioned jumping to number five after the win over Ortega. Umar, again, Corzanagan, 8 to 2. Norma Dumont, I can't believe it. She might actually be good. Jumping into the top five in the Shark Tank, that is the women's bandit weight division, jump going from number 12 to number five.

And Natalia Silva, Natty Ice, creeping up, but I think of the eyes of many, maybe closer to her title shot than some of the people I just named. She goes to number 10 to number eight after the biggest winner of her career against Jessica Andrash. So, gentlemen, what we're going to do here is, we are going to do a little power ranking. People love power rankings. Let's try and get an order here. Who we think is closest.

Maybe give me your top three. Let me give you your top of those three. And I want an order rank who is most likely to win to become U.S. champion. Not just to get a tell the shot, who is most likely to become U.S. champion? I wonder if I should exclude U.S. I feel like we're all going to pick Umar. Do you guys do you want to exclude Umar guys? No.

Mike, Jeff. be the he i'm fine for including him he is going to be a unanimous number one choice to lead these power rankings i think we all agree okay i would love to hear y'all's reasons okay so we can all agree umar we and listen this is not recent he bias we have been touting him as a future champion people will point to the resume not being as strong as the other contenders even some of the people we just named but dude i've had him as a top this is an eye and wait for like two years no I've been reluctant to push him up, but I mean, that's San Hagan win. I mean, I don't know.

I think I have him up at three, and I'm not sure. I want to see how low, the lowest he is. No one has him lower than three. Okay, so he is as high as high as two and no lower than three. Yeah, we're pretty high. We're pretty high on Omar around these parts. And O'Malley is like as low as like five under one ballot. So, again, we've got some stuff going on one.

Who is that? I respect that person. Actually, Erich, which one of you? you guys is ready. Which we I got to find out who's got a five. Because that's king shit. Let me

let me start with you Mike then while Jed goes trips out on this. No, he's six on someone else's valid. Oh! Jed, while you're tripping out of that, Mike, give me your rough. Give me your rough. Give me your rough power rankings, sir.

You could change it up by the end of the segment, but at a glance. Give me your, assuming Umar is number one, maybe then give me two, three and four. Umar's one, Natty Ice is two. I'll say Sean Brady is three. Even though I think he's got a hill to climb, I do think to win it. You think he can win it. I think out of these guys, I would rank him three.

I would rank him three. I think his strength, his bruntness. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Diego Lopez and I'll love it. I would put like Lopez and Dumont like 4A and 4B and then I got no respect to Bahlio but I got him at six. I just I don't like his chances.

I know the UFC is giving him a push and I think he'll probably fight for the belt before some of these names will but I don't like his chances against because basically he is the vice DDP and if DDP's champion, DDP's just getting out DDP, Kyle Maha'ihani Bhali. That's kind of where I'm at right now. I'm not married to any of these outside of Umar, Natty Ice as one and two.

Yeah, I put you on the spot. And I mean, like I said, so if by the, we'll talk it over, if by the end of the segment, you want to shift around a little bit by all means,

but that was Umar, Natty Ice, who you've been a huge advocate for, Sean Brady and then forth somewhere, either Kyto or Dubon. Brady was your third, right? Interesting. Yeah, Brady, Lopez, Dumas.

Brady's a weird one because I think we all think Brady has the skills. We all like we've seen Brady. He has a loss to the champ. There's no shame in that. I would like to see them rematch someday. So I don't know. I don't know. Jed, what's your take?

Similar to mics or you're going in a different direction here? Pretty different, actually. So I'm excited about this segment already. One. Interesting. I think most of them are, the gaps between them are not big. Umar is meldons ahead of everyone because I, I believe Umar will win the title.

And I would actually say of this group, I would say it is more likely than not that none of them win the belt, right? Like I just don't seem. I think all of them have a chance. I think most of them will even get an opportunity to fight for one. But it's hard to predict any of these going there. I understand Mike, you know, Mike's been a big believer in Natty Ice.

For me, she was not number two. I have her tentatively slotted in at number three. three then because I do think that just kind of where women's flyweight is right now is very very competitive and though Aaron Blanchfield lost I remain on the Aaron Blanchfield she's going to get better from having learned about being host and and improve and so Blanchefield feels like a blocker to me to Natty Ice along with Manant and whatever the hell Shevchenko's going to do and Grasso now apparently Wiley-Jang it's just a really congested spot right now now and so I I knocked her to three over my number two which I wouldn't have even

believed myself until I did the list was Kyle Barrio my number two is is Kyle Barrio one maybe I'm just a a prisoner of the fighting nerds moment but middle weight just feels much more wide open than any of the rest of these weight class talking about dude is never lost Mr. Comain event and just gets launched up the rankings because he got the Jared Canaanier fight and now maybe gets to fight Israel Dessinia next like he's not far off the title fight I thought he looked sensational against canineer and in a fight that I did not think he would win in the way that he did still getting better and yes you're talking to the world's biggest supporter of Drickus Duplessi as the world's

biggest supporter of Driggis duplice that dude can lose to anybody who put him in there against on any given night and so Kyle Baragio is like if he gets a title fight I think he's got a real chance I don't I wouldn't pick him so I won't pick anyone over ddp at this moment in time but I I don't know I'm just riding the momentum with him and a division that feels much more open than the rest of these and then as I go down the list basically that's sort of where I fall on all of this is my number four after Natty Ice, who is my number three, is Diego Lopez because the O.C.

loves him. I think he's going to get an opportunity, but I just won't pick him to beat Max Holloway, I'll hit Max Holloway, Ilya, the people above him. I don't even think I'd pick him in a rematch of Mavisar, so kind of stuck there. Norma Dumont, I am reserving the right to change

my mind because this felt like a star making performance from her in some ways, and women's Bannon Wade is just so trash that like it's almost a certainty she will get a title fight, but it is very, very difficult for me to imagine her beating Kayla Harrison. So she just kind of is a victim to that. And then Sean Brady is my last one. I like, I have a ton of respect for Sean Brady. Walter Wade is a shark tank. He already has the loss to the current champion, so it's tough to get him back there. And there's just a bunch of

young killers coming up in this weight class. And I think he is the worst of the crop of, of new potential in the Jack Della Chavcott, Ian Gary. I just, I don't see him. He might not even get a title fight because that's how hard it is to accomplish something like that at well to. And the UFC is not predisposed

to support him like they are with a Diego Lopez. So he was my clear cut worst of the group and Umar was my top one. And then the middle section was pretty interchangeable for me. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is taking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves

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You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. I love that your list are different. Mine is actually also going to be really different, I think. But first I want to add, Kaya Bahia is actually an interesting choice

because I'm just trying to, I was looking at middleweight, just the title picture. Since Izzy dropped the belt, it's been a hard belt to hold on to. I don't think that's a secret. It's been tough. Obviously, Padetta wins that first, play with Izzy, drops her right back to Addisonia.

Sean Strickland comes in with a with a huge upset. And then Drickus wins that very, very, very, very close fight with shot Striplin. So it's a hot potato belt. And I just don't like, I never thought Strickland was going to be a dominant champion. I never, I still am not sure about Jerkis. I know he keeps finding ways to win. But this is a slippery belt. And I think it's one reason why on a previous ranking show we said middleweight has become so intriguing,

has become arguably one of the three best divisions because the contender picture is like, is compelling. It's compelling in a weird way. It's compelling in a fun way. And now I don't even think we had Kyo in the picture when we had that discussion. And now here he is knocking on the door of a top five ranking. And very likely one win away from a title shot. And like, Mike, I think you're right.

Like, DDP is the superior version. But I don't know what that means in middleweight anymore. Like I don't know. Somehow I think middleweighty is that mean. Mike, at some point, I feel like the middleweighty middleweight title and the actual middleweight title. like got unified. Like I feel like we have a middleweighty middle blob of a man

of a of a powerful fighter. He's the exact opposite. Because I don't know. Heavyweight. It needs to shift to the heavyweighty heavyweight title. It needs to be heavyweighty heavyweight. Like the Andreelofsky's. You're right.

Yeah. It needs to just shift divisions. That's all. There's always been a heavyweighty heavyweight title though. That's always been out there. yeah for a very very long time marcine tycoon uh all right heavy weight that ever have you heavy to wait so my rankings would go something like this guys uh i am going to go

of course umar number one and then oh sorry guys i lost my i'm going to umar number one i'm actually going to go Diego lopez number two i i do like him to beat uh this an older version of max holloway even though again max holloway looks like he has not lost a step at the gaitchee fight the second wokenoski fight the third valknowski fight i mean wokenlyt was just so damn good but that has nothing to do with max being bad max has been again clearly the number two guy at uh better wait for so long before aelia came along and beat bulk so i get i get how good max hollow he is i think dago lopez is peaking

in the right time i think he's got that mix of you know sort of being fresh as far as the ufc goes and also having a ton of high level experience so i'll go with him number two it's kind of a boring pick but I don't know something about him he's convincing me number three so I swear I'm not just I didn't know what you're going to say I swear I'm not doing this a bit Norman Dumont listen I don't think she is good I don't think she's good she might be after what she did to rain and Aldana she might be after what she did to her right al-dana but like we said she's of the of this group she's incredibly likely to get a tall-a-shot maybe if we were ranking like just like likelihood to get a travel shot she's maybe number one or number two it's going to happen they don't

have contenders this division Kayla harrison is great i'm still not convinced that californ is like this pound for pound like amazing fighter i'm not i'm just i'm just not convinced and uh i i don't know i'm not saying normie du ma's as good as the rest of pacheco but i'm not like totally it's not totally out of the question that she could do what pacheco did in the third harrison fight if that makes sense. Maybe I'm way out. Maybe I'm way out of line here. But I could see a world now where Nova Dumont becomes UFC Phantomweight champion. Because it's the women's band toweight division. All right? It's crazy. I consider her beating Raquel Pennington. I consider beating Julia to Penning. So I don't know, guys. I'll have her. I'll have her number three. I'm not doing a bit.

And then I would go, uh, I think I agree with Jed. I'll go Kyle a little bit higher than you, Mike. I'll go Kyle number four. And then, uh, no, no, I'm sorry. I'd go Natty Ice number four, Kayao number five and Sean Bray number six. So there you go, guys. Again, I don't want to dwell too much on mine because this next topic, we've talked about the ad nauseum on our shows, but it has to revisit it because it's official now. It is official. John Jones, Steve Miochich, U.S. 309, Madison Square Garden, we have removed, we shall be able,

this edition of the rankings. No John Jones is the pound per pound, no John Jones at heavyweight because he has not fought he has not fought in over 18 months that is our threshold for inactivity does not matter if you have been booked this happened with michael chandler recently we have people saying why are you taking michael chandler at the rankings he's going to fight conover gregar assuredly in a couple of months and oh how we laughed oh how we laughed when people criticized us oh how we laughed with that fight fell through uh guys you're not active until you actually get back in there and if you think john jones is a short bet to get back in the cage oh that is uh that is quite the joke so jen

is already dancing. He is ready. I'm so glad we're on video so we can get my happy dance. Okay, we can get Jed's happy dance on here because I'm just going to ask there's a number of things that could happen, okay? It's not a guaranteeing way for John Jones. He will be a heavy favorite. I haven't seen the latest odds. Jed, we'll start with you.

Where will you rank Jones at heavyweight if he beat Stephen Maritch and where will you rank him, pound for pound? I will not rank him at pound for pound 100%. Oh, like, whoa. Where was he in your rankings when, what last time he was there? Pound for pound. He has not been on my Pound for Pound rankings in my, oh, my God.

Actual months. It might even have been at the start of this year. It was the last time I did. Dana White, you're the, you're the guy he's talking about when Dana White's complaining. It's you. I do not believe there's a defensible reason to have him in your Pound for Pound rankings. Like, just outside of the now time limit thing, is one fight. in the last five years and yes it's a win over cyril gone is cyril gone in your pound for pound

rankings places like he's not really populating a lot of pound for pound rankings and so cool prior to that he beat dominic reyes who then lost five in a row or whatever like he beat anthony smith and diago santos like these are pound for pound is not all time and so you shouldn't have him so i didn't and him beating i tell you him beating a dude who has a won of fight since the Trump administration. Yeah, like there ain't there just ain't no reason that win puts him back like because it

there's just not a meaningful win. That is it. That is a meaningless win to to him maybe it's not you know like that's fine. To me that is meaningless he will not get ranked bound from bound. I am desperately hopeful that I won't even have to rank him in a heavyweight because he will just retire in the cage. the big, bark,

pork, mark, chicken that he is. And then, if you make me, he will, you know, get ranked one above Cyril gone,

wherever serial gone. Hold on. Jed, hold on. Hold on, Jed, we have to factor something in the air. So I should have said,

yes, preface with, let's assume he doesn't retire. Let's say he beats me, which just does not retire. And let's say, we have to remember, there is a fight before then

with some pretty serious occasions. The battle of the Giants, Francis and God who returned to him and made a fight Hanan Panetta. If Francis defeats Faheda, if John Jones defeats me out of just what does your top

three heavyweight look like come the end of the year It's going to be Tom Aspinall Just because and I got nothing but respect for Francis But he's been out of the cage for two years at this point And I even like Hinaam Fahedah and have him ranked That will not be a meaningful enough win to overcome Tom Aspinall is just Deleading the best heavyweight

weights in the world on a consistent basis and is my number one and will remain so until i have good reason not to uh my number two probably will be francis just out of respect and the fact that the rest of the weight class hasn't developed up and then uh i don't know who i let me pull up my rankings right now where what are my heavier rankings at the moment uh yeah honestly there's a really good chance alexander volkov is my number two or is my number three because he's currently my number two because again if you lose the serial gone again if you lose the serial gone then it probably will be john jones because john will stay in front of gone and cyril will get bumped up but like again this is who is doing the work of beating other top heavyweights consistently and for now

alexer volkov is that dude if you lose the cyril gone again obviously that changes um if he beats zero gone a hundred percent he will be number three then like i i would not put john above him for beating Steve. And if if Hennon-Fededa beats Ngano, I guess he would not, you wouldn't make him know. He'll light and heavy weights on fire. No, he'll get up though.

Like he'll be a top five guy if he beats Inganu. But like, that'll just be one of those outcomes that really throws everything into chaos for a little bit because we'll just have no idea of where he is. Like, because he won't consistently fight top guys.

And so we'll just be kind of guessing the whole time. Which frankly is a little bit true of Inganu at this stage of his in May career, but we do at least have the foundation of him having, like Inganu had the Aspenol career where I'm just obliterating all the best dudes and I'm not getting my title shot. And then he got the type of shot he won, defended. And now he's taking this detour.

And so you got to dock points for that. But I am hopeful John will just retire in the cage so we can be done with this farce. And we won't have to rank him. We'll just give him a special shout out for completing the vanity project. Way to go. Let's move on to new and appropriate business. Happy trails. Yes, our top three right now is Tom Aspinall, Volkov, and Cidilagan.

Mike, what does your top three look like with a Francis victory and with a John Jones victory by the end of the year? I mean, Jed's going to hate it, but it's going to be Aspinall. Asiminal will be one, for sure. Jones will be two and then Francis will be three. I mean, that's that's just we're at. Pound for pound. Why? Why is Francis's last fight was a scenario?

Well, I mean, Francis's last fight was a spirited, but lackluster decision win. And yes, there was an injury, but man signed a contract. John. So don't fight. Like, what do you want me to do? That's just the result. With John for a dude who didn't have knees, he barely almost lost to Tiago Santos. It's the same thing.

Same thing. So there you have it. Both guys won. So that evens out. That's a complete slash. It's Henan Ferreira, like, I don't know. I mean this with my whole chest. And there are going to be so many people when they see this that lose their mind.

Beating Henan Faheta is a more significant and meaningful win today than beating steep ame-hich is. Clip it. I believe that. Casey and the Chuck. Clip it. Clip it for social. Put it up and I'll stand by it. I cannot, I cannot stress this enough.

Steve Mietich is 41 years old. He has not competed in three full years. He has not won a fight in four. The last time he competed, he got stretched. He is not relevant to current heavyweight MMA. That is not to say he is not in all time. great it's not to say that he couldn't be relevant if he fought but he hasn't he has sat on his ass waiting for this fight or for whatever else he was waiting and oh by the way he has no wins

over people currently employed by the ufc not just ranked employed by the ufc he is of a separate era it is as meaningful as if freaking below went and put the boots to matt hughes it does not matter. And so beating Hanan Fahedo should put freaking Francis over John. You can't. I don't think I can do it, but we'll see. I mean,

as in front of Blahman. Where is that in your, where's that in your record? Where do you have top six? I don't get, dude, I don't care. Look, when you're, I don't care how it played out. John Jones is the UFC heavyweight champion.

And I'm not like to me that just deserves a higher record. He's not going to be above Tom Aspedal on that discussion. But I'm going to put John up there. Like his resume has to matter somewhat. And to me, I'm not going to play the, oh, you look, John in a room with somebody else. You could rank however you want. That's just how I'm going to do it. But again, I don't think John's going to fight again.

I think he's going to retire. So none of this matters. He's not going to fight again. He's going to beat Steepay and then he's going to ride off into the sunset. And this conversation means nothing. Francis will be higher in both rankings because John won't be there. And that's just kind of the way I view it. That was going to be my quick question for both of you.

Where is Francis? Where's France going to land at the end of October if he beats, assuming he beats Henan Obeda? He'll get in there, but it'll be pretty low. It's the weird situation where like he took so long off and he does not have recent relevant wins. And he's not going to get more relevant wins. And so, he will probably be right at the back end of my,

my pound for pound. If he gets ranked, honestly, he may not be 20 in mine. He'll be 20 in mine. Somehow I have an open spot. So he'll be 20. He actually might not get ranked at mine.

Yeah, or Amali, Usman, Armin Sarukian, I just can't rank him above any of those guys, beating Henan Ferreira. By the way, I know you asked earlier, John Jones is a minus 440 favorite against Steve.

That's pretty high. Jesus, hammer that. That is a gift. That's not high enough, yeah. Stayed high enough. Holy shit. I can't believe the line's out low. Your business doesn't move in a straight line.

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Canada Life. Insurance, investments, advice. Oh, Ed, very quickly, I forgot. And if John Jells loses, what are we doing with our rankings looking? He's just not going to get ranked. I will laugh. I will laugh the hardest I've ever laughed in my life. What about Stepe, guys?

What about Steepa? I will, I don't care if Steepay beats John and then retires, I will rank him number one at heavyweight because it makes me smile. I won't even believe it. I'll just do it because the man deserved it. I'm so I'm so unprepared for this. I'm so unprepared for the scenario. Like in my mind, there's just no way it happens. Like I don't know. I honestly don't know where I'd, like you have to. I think you have to put steep on the pound for pound list. Well, Jed, you don't have to because you wouldn't put John on. But Mike, you and I think the other

panelists, I think we have to put steep a on because technically John would be on there if we hadn't removed him for an activity. So, Stepe would be back on, right? Isn't that messed up? Yeah. Heavyweight. I don't think you have to. I think we should, I know that there is an actual belt, a meaningful belt attached to this fight. I thought we were all just agreeing that because we had prior to this, we had Tom as the number one ranked every weight.

So we all just were agreeing. This is a, this is a vanity fight. This is a legacy fight of super, you know, veteran division fight or whatever. And so we don't have to stick it. We don't have to pretend like it's real. Like it's its own thing and it's a spectacle and that's okay. Well, like we don't have to treat it like it matters because it doesn't. Yeah.

We shouldn't, but the UFC will. Dana will. They all will. Yeah, they can. Steepate guys. Steepate, picture this. Steepie gets in the mic after one sentence. Aspinall, I want your ass.

There we go. And then what? It would be unbelievable funny. Then what are you guys going to do? It would be ranking steepe somewhere, but not high. I want to talk. We said happy trails to John Jones temporarily for an activity. We are singing permanent farewell to our dear beloved Mighty Mouse.

I know you guys have probably talked about this on other shows, but I did want to say officially gone, of course, from the flyer ranking. It's officially gone from the Pound Rankings. First time, first time he's been the mainstay since we started doing this. Obviously, in every website's rankings you can find well before we started doing our own. He's simply one of the best. I mean, he's just in every possible way, a class guy, great fighter, incredible legacy, entertaining, so many classic moments.

So very quickly, or as quickly as you can, Jed, your favorite moment, your favorite Mighty Mouse moment, and where do you rank him right now on the all-time list? We're all going to have the same favorite moment because if it's not, you're high. It's the Mighty Mouse trap. And I don't care that he has specifically said that's not what it's called. that's dumb like yes that's what it's called because that's the perfect name for it understand branding uh that was sick as hell i watched him throw another professional fist fighter in the air and then armbar him on the way down which is still legitimately the coolest submission i've ever seen other than maybe uh reotronin scissor keel hooking freaking henderson

sylva like i it's right in there as the coolest thing i've ever seen in the submission attempt. So that's easily the like the when we do the dam on him and we're going for the single best greatest highlight, it is that for sure. As far as where as I have him on my all time pound for pound list

I have I believe that pound for pound there's a pantheon and it's basically a tiering structure of to me there are six dudes who are in are goaded. They are in the top level. If you have any of those six as your pound for pound best fighter ever, that's fine. There is no real definitive way to parse between them.

It's all choice. And there's only six of them. DJ is among those six. The six is DJ, GSP, Anders and Silva, Fador, Jose Aldo, and who else am I forgetting in this list? Oh, John Jones. Sorry. I was so blinded by my hatred of John Jones. I wonder why you forgot him.

I'm so blinded by my hatred of John Jones's final act. Yeah, like those six, they are goaded. They're in that tier. And you can mix and match that six however you want. But DJ is among the six greatest fighters to have ever competed in this sport. And of that group of six, he is one of the only ones without controversy. You know, John Jones has enormous controversies and outside. like outside of the cage and with the multiple drug testing failures Anderson Silva repeatedly failed drug tests you know like there are several fade or never fought in the UFC the whole pride thing like there are criticisms for everybody that is in the pantheon in general DJ doesn't have it and that's that is pretty remarkable the only knock on DJ which is completely wrong by the way but this is the one of people always bring up is oh he didn't fight in a strong division which is crazy because I actually I I I I I I I

I actually argue, and this is going to get me a lot of shit, I actually think he has one of the strongest champions, not from you guys, because you're smart, but your average fan. They always say, oh, fly away this week. I think he actually has one of the strongest resumes of any of the guys that we look at, like the dominant champions. Like, because don't measure by name power.

Objectively like true. Oh, the name power. Look at how well a lot of his opponents did after he beat them. Like, these aren't guys he beat, and then you never heard from them again. Like, he beat these guys. And a lot of these guys went on to, like, continue to get quality wins, continue to contend. You cannot say that for a lot of champions.

He actually has one of the strongest resumes. It's just like, well, he didn't beat any other champions or whatever. It's the same thing with the Aldo. He didn't beat any other champions. Yeah, because he wouldn't let anyone else have it. That's why he beat a lot of high quality guys. So that's the only real argument, but I know what you mean. No blemishes as far as weird outside the cage stuff.

Mike, very quickly, I assume you have the same favorite moments. Do you have a number, a solid number? You can put next to DJ's name on the goat list? I mean, I don't have much to really add with, from, what Jed said. I think he's spot on with it. I guess, I mean,

the Mighty Whizbar is the correct answer, but him frigging ethering, Adriana Marias is, like, I love that moment so much because there were people on this actual rankings panel who were ready to put him as the best flyweight in the world,

which is absolutely ridiculous. I'm sorry. Like he beat DJ and all that, but to put him above like what random Moreno was doing at the time, And we had like heated debates about this. We did. And I was firmly on the corner of, eh,

he, like, that was a good win because he was also like a featherweight fighting a flyweight that night. But at the same time, or maybe a lightweight, if we're being honest,

but the same token, like, I was not going to rank him above Brandon Moreno after what Moreno had done. And I also thought that Brandon and Moreno beat Figgy in the fight that he actually lost the belt. So like, there's just no way I was going to do that.

And then I just felt so justified when DJ, landed that that big flying knee and just iced out Adriana Marias. Like I just felt so vindicated from that moment. So to me, that kind of helped as well. But I mean, yeah, the mighty mouse trap, the mighty whiz bar. I mean, that is the greatest submission of all time. Nothing's ever going to top it.

It's just, that's it, man. Like, DJ was the man. And we talked about this on our reaction show. The other thing I love so much about DJ, everyone kept asking him about moving up and wait. And he just said, no, unless you, give me a whole bunch of money. I'm not doing it.

I'm happy just defending against the next guy up. And that's why he is, he's Joe DiMaggio, man. Like he is Joe DiMaggio. What he did is never going to be topped. There's no other guy or gal ever for the rest of my time on this planet that is going to defend their title in the UFC 11 times in a row. It's never going to happen.

It's never going to happen again. So appreciate that. When you see all these guys who run off two title defense, I'm immediately saying, I want to go up and fight the next guy. I'm the goat. Don't beat that record. Get to eight. If you get to eight, you will be on that list.

Any future fighter gets to eight title defenses. You might just end up on that list that we're discussing right now, the goaded fighters. It's just not happening. It's not going to happen. So, yeah, that to me is probably the most impressive thing is the number 11, more than anything else. See, yeah.

I just want to add on very quickly to the flying knee, Arm bar, number one, of course, but the flying knee, the poetry of it, because he had lost flying knee to Adrian and Marais was amazing. Having a moment that, because, listen, we have this problem where sometimes people leave the UFC and fans just like ignore them. They're just like, oh, they're gone from the UFC. Like, they're essentially dead to me.

Like, I don't care what they're, this is way before Francis left and, you know, cause it's a big deal. Like when the DJ trade happened, yeah, it drew some more interest to one championship, but there's also an element of like, oh, well, I don't need to follow DJ anymore. And then when he lost, we're like, well, that's what he's done. That's it. So for him to have this moment outside of the UFC on his own terms in a rematch to the big guy, who he then later wound out to beat one more time just for good measure.

Just that there's so much poetry to this fan's career. It's great. It's great to see him go out again on his own terms, retiring, crying his eyes out, his voice squeaking to the high heavens. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it. So, guys, that's it for this week. Thank you, Jed. Thank you, Mike.

Thank you, producer Casey. hopefully we can do the ranking show more frequently it kind of depends on our schedules these days but we love to talk about this stuff with you guys send us your questions comments what have you on the website on social media let us know what you think of the rankings I'm sure it's all positive sure 100% agreement because we always nail it but yeah we got some big fights

coming up to pay-per-views guys in October I believe and we're definitely to have might have some rankings shakeups by the time we do a show we got Ilyto Porea Max Holloway we got Khalil Roundtree and Alta perrera I don't know why is it Killowardrie first. We got fights. Lord killer. We got...

307 is like exclusively ranked fighters competing all that card. We got some stuff. Oh, how could I forget the most important title fight? Raquel Pennington, Julianna Pena for the women's band-to-white titles.

So a lot of stuff going on, a lot of shake-ups next time you see us. We'll definitely have plenty to talk about it. Thank you, everyone for joining us today. Whether you're watching or listening or psychically tuning in somehow, would be pretty freaky. Thank you. Love you guys.

in particular.