MMA Fighting - Rankings Show: Israel Adesanya's Next Fight — Ranking The 5 Best Options | Plus Jorge Masvidal's Top Moments, More

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

With Israel Adesanya finally holding a win over Alex Pereira, what's next for the middleweight division? Mike Heck and Jed Meshew join co-hosts Shaun Al-Shatti and Alexander K. Lee following another wild weekend at UFC 287 to debate where Pereira falls in the new-look middleweight pecking order around (4:30) and rank the top 5 options for Adesanya's next fight around (18:07), as well as nail down the top 3 career highlights for Jorge Masvidal around (53:20). Then, the gang says hello to a few new faces around (1:09:15) and pours one out for the names we lost this rankings cycle around (1:15:20). Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti 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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just enjoying you a week. Having a terrific little April here, what a time to be alive. This is the MMA fighting ranking show. My name is Sean O'Shti, and we are back again. Now the dust has settled after just another insane pay-per-view.

We're here to take a bigger picture of look. It makes sense of everything. And as always, I'm joined by my co-pilot. He's the king in the north. He's either the Prince of Posit, or the Prince of Darkness, depending on the day. He is Alexander K. Lee and ran it out the panel today. The man who I called it the second biggest story of the week,

he caused a stir during fight week with the unleashing of the best hair on MMA fighting, maybe the best hair in MMA media, Jedmishu. And joining us for the first time in a long time. The new King of Miami, Mike Heck, what a special day this is. How we doing, fellas? Doing so great. I don't think best hair on M.A.fighting.com great website. It's like me and Jose are the only ones who really have more hair than keeping it high and tight and or bald.

Yeah, it's like the nicest guy in prison. I've been letting it flow lately. I don't know what you're talking. I've gotten my flow going. Is that letting it go? I'm doing a haircut, but I've been letting it flow, buddy. I mean, you keep a professional looking haircut. I would not say you let it flow.

I comb it. A.K., what's the longest you've ever let that go? this is getting up there it's weird though I don't know I guess I've gotten older my hair used to get really bushy like almost like if you guys have seen like Gilbert Browns? No not curly just like wild looking like

if you guys have seen like old boy did you guys ever say movie old boy I started looking like him after a while but not as long like quite as long it's more like outward puffing outward I think you need to bring that out I don't think can't anymore you're telling me you have the potential for Afro no no no no definitely not

definitely not it's not full it's not full It's like straggly looking. It's just like dirty. It just looks dirty. I think we need to see it. I'm still intrigued. It's bad. It's bad.

Meanwhile, Mike and I are just sitting here, bald brothers forever. So let's dive into it, fellas. Obviously, I mean, there's not really any setup even needed here, right? I think everyone listening to this show by now has probably watched Israel, to send his knockout of Alex Pereira at UFC 287. In slow motion, like at least 50 different times, it's really just a work of art.

to see that performance. And again, the highlight real nature of all of it. But it seems like it always kind of is when these two get together. I really can't remember a series where the through line for every fight after four fights is just like, hey, the guy who's winning, he just he's not going to win that fight. Like, it's just the strangest dynamic these two have one of the most cinematic things I think I've seen in MMA. And it's really, that's like not even mentioning all the little like snippets of lore and backstory that seemed to, just keep getting added to this series, like all the light trolling,

all the post theatrics from Izzy, him holding just like a secret grudge against a literal child for like six years and not really saying anything, but just like thinking about it for six years and then unleashing it in that type of moment. Like it's all just tremendous. So no surprise here, fellas.

Israel, Adisanya, once again, our unanimous number one middleweight this month on MMA fighting, pretty easy choice. I don't think a lot of us put too much thought into it. There wasn't, there's not even much to be said about it. I mean, he's back at number five pound for pound, pound for pound, I'm sorry, as well.

Righted a lot of wrongs with this one. But really, to me, the easy piece of this has already been dissected to death over the last few days. So I'm a lot more interested now, right now, at least in the other side, in the Alex Pereira part, how we think of this guy now and really what comes next. And fellas, I mean, this was fairly bizarre, I think, how all of it played out on the team. when you look at our balance this month for the ranking cycle, aka you had Alex Pereira the highest of us for here. You had him at number two. And then in descending order,

I had him number three behind Robert Whitaker. Mike, you had him at number four behind Whitaker and Bellator champ, Johnny Eblin. And Jed, you had him at number five between behind Eblin, Wittaker, and Marvin Vittori as well. So no uniformity at all, two, three, four, five for us. The rest of the team kind of wound up split right around. that same range. No one really agreed. And the way it all worked out in the end, Alex Pereira averages out to land at number three

at middleweight behind only Izzy and Robert Whitaker. So, Mike, I want to start with you. Since you were sort of right around the middle, you were in the median of this whole thing. A, did we get this right? And B, can you explain why you had Alex where you did? I think we did get this right. And it takes me back to right after UFC 276, which might have been actually the last time I was on the show.

And Alex Pereer had just knocked out Sean Strzsche. and we were having this internal discussion about how high should we rank Alex Pereira because we knew what was next for him. He was going to fight Israel Adasania for the title. And I think I, at that time, I think I had Pereira right where I have him right now, like number four, maybe at number three, which was higher than anybody on the staff at the time. And I think we landed in a place where at that time, it was quite, maybe I ranked him too high. And we got to the point where once Perra won the title like Jed and I would have this conversation all the time. Even though Pereira's the champion, he might not even be the fifth best middleweight in the world right now because if he

fought Robert Whitaker or fought a Johnny Eblen or even fought a Marvin Vittory, are we confident enough in his ability that he would actually win those fights and we weren't really sure? So I think with all this, I landed right in the middle of those two things where I think Ebelin would beat him. I would pick Whitaker comfortably to beat him. Adasani obviously just knocked him out, but I couldn't put, I was, I was torn whether or not to put them above or below Vitori, and I just kind of stuck him at number four. Prayer is a top five middleweight, and anywhere you put them outside of number one, I think you can make a compelling case for, but just kind of looking at it,

Whitaker would, I think Whitaker would beat him. I think Abilene would beat him. Vittori, I'm not so sure. So I'll just put prayer at number four, but I think anywhere outside of your top five, you're doing it wrong. Well, Jed, you had them at the lowest, right? you had to be number five, I think. Why?

Talk me through why you sort of stuff down. Because like I was pretty surprised when I saw everybody else just give putting him up highly. Like I can I can squint my eyes and I can understand right. The argument for having him is number two. He does have a win over, you know, the unanimous number one. Nobody else does. But like I know we all knew what was going on here, guys. Like we talked about it for months.

I thought everybody was aware that Alex Pereiro would. was not the best middleweight in the world. He just happened to have the UFC title, but we could, none of us could confidently say, I remember us being on this very program, being like, I don't know,

there might be like seven middle weights who could beat that dude. He just happens to be a tough matchup for the guy with the belt, and he got fast track to a title shot because of ancillary things going on. And so I sort of thought that, is he knocks him out?

We're going to come back to Earth on Pereira. little bit. Doesn't mean we just, we know, we bottom him out. He's still got two very relevant, impressive wins in middleweight, but that's it. That's all he has is those two. And I thought we'd see a lot more of a course correction because that feels natural. And that's what I did. Like I, I, I kept him above the middle class that I don't feel great about, you know, Gagard Musassi, who might be old and washed, I don't know, Paula Costa, who is going to fight at some point, but it's doing all sorts of things. And then, you know, just the rest of the group. But there's been a pretty clear stratification of the top of this weight class for a little stretch.

It's Izzy, it's Whitaker, it's Marvin Vittori, and then Johnny Eblen, a relatively recent addition to that. But I feel pretty comfortable saying that all three of them have accomplished more in totality than Pereira. The argument I can see would be made that Eblen hasn't. Of those three, I feel very confident that Adasanya, Whitaker, and Vittori should be ranked above him. Eblin, your mileage is going to vary because he's in Bellator, because he's not going to have that many of those fights available to him by the nature of the division. But I think we're all relatively high on him.

And so I kind of defaulted to if they fought tomorrow, I'd be extremely confident in Johnny Ebbled to beat Alex Pereira. And so that's just, again, I was pretty surprised the deference we gave to Pereira for functionally the one win. right i mean your sean strickland mileage is going to vary depending on how high people have him ranked it is still a relevant win but realistically it's just the one and so i thought we'd see much more drop off on him but people are are are given poet on his his credit i guess i mean it does feel it's slightly reductive i will say in the way that some people i'm not saying you're doing this

jett but even a tiny bit there a little bit of just the way the minimization of that one win right because sure, it's one win, but it is one win over the guy who has beaten everybody else and a lot of these dudes twice who are the rest of the people that we're talking about, right? Like, that is one win over the second greatest middleweight of all time. But there's a big problem with that win, and it's that he just lost to that dude. And rightly or wrongly, historically, we view a single win versus an opponent differently than I won the first one. But he, the more recent one carries the weight.

It just is how it always has been. And if they run it back a third time, which I know we'll get to in a little bit here, and Pereira knocks him out, he's going to bump right back to number two. Because I'll also, you know, to remember I had Johnny Eble to number one coming into this previous weekend. You did. You refuse to give, you have never had Alex Parra as you were number one. No, because he's being two dudes. Like, give me a little more and he's good.

I'm not here to say he's bad. he's a top five middleweight by virtue of those wins. But we don't know so much about his game. And the other parts of his game that we've seen don't breed a ton of confidence in his ability to have a long term successful middleweight career. If he even has a future middleweight career at all, Dana White is shoving him out the door to 205 in the post press. I do not get this.

Unclear why, but like there seems to be, is he is shoving it? everybody wants to be done with Pereira at 185 apparently except for the fans so i i felt like five was a pretty fair place to put him i don't know what i don't know what's happening with these ufc post-fight press conferences but they have just become a comedy of airs in ways of like hey what's the worst possible promotional way we could handle what just occurred in this arena let's go down that road rather than doing the thing that would make everyone else excited like the whole thing is very bizarre for me but okay i want to bring you in here because the way this all shakes out, as per usual, you and Jed end up on diametric opposite ends

of the spectrum on this. One of us is a man of science and science. One of us is a man. What was you said? I can't what you said last night. You were a man of corn nuts or something. Probably vibes. I knew with absolute certainty that AK would have Pereira as number two.

Other people who had him higher than I would have thought I was surprised by, I was a thousand percent certain because I know I know how AK ranks I understand him because we've we cleared this up so I knew it was coming from AK and I accept it I'm not here to tell him he's wrong I'm just here to say that I'm more right so AK when you see when you hear the argument Jed's argument here for per hour five how's it hits you well who else surprised you Jed that they ranked him high I think everyone there's a number two I'll say who was but I think everyone yeah I think they all none of them surprise me, though. One of them from our own Gearmei Cruz. No surprise. Big Pereira guy. I guess Guy is not as surprising if you really think on it. Yeah. Stephen, well, and

Stephen, remember, uses a pretty simple swap system. It's like you beat someone, you take their spot. So that's kind of how, you know, Pereira got's number one. I decided to beat him and they just swap spots. I didn't think about it long enough to be like, oh, Guy probably is going to keep him pretty, pretty tucked up there. Okay. And Stephen are, are. You wouldn't dare accuse Guy of being biased towards the fellow Brazilian. I sure would and I don't blame him because God knows I'm biased all the time.

He and Stephen are equally brilliant rankers so I'm glad they landed with him at number two as I did. I do, oh, Jed, one thing quickly. Vittori also, I think gets the bump like a head of Palletta because you would pick Vittori. Vittori was the one. I actually thought about that

fight for a while. That because I think he can't be knocked out. He can't be knocked out. Vitori, I just think, has a major stylistic advantage in that fight. But when I was considering the rankings, it was between four and five. Pereira was never going to get higher than four for me, but I did spend a lot of time. And he was also never going to get lower than five. I was never going to put Musassi or Costa or any of those above him.

So it was really finding between four and five. And I ultimately defaulted to, I'm pretty sure the unkillable Marvin Vittori would just hold him on the floor and it would be a bad time. I would love to see that fight, though. That would love so frustrating. I am, so I will say I'm not super consistent with this, but I am giving the benefit of the unknown, the benefit of the unknown, as in I, I, you know, doesn't he claims, for me, he claims the number one spot. He beats Israel Ad Destiny out in the first fight. And yes, that means he gets to leapfrog several UFC fighters who are more accomplished than him, have better records, really match up well with him. stylelessly again, but Torre there's other people we can name.

Even like a Derek Brunson. I don't know. Derek Brunson could out rust the heck out of Alex Pidda. I don't know. I think turn his lights out before that happened. Fair enough. But either way, there's so many people we think could beat him. But I'm giving the benefit of, let me wait to see that happen.

I'm giving him the spot that he, I feel he has earned. I don't think he drops below number two. It's not to be fair to Whitaker, because again, Whitaker has certainly done more than enough to be the number two. 185 in the world. He's the former champion. He's beaten a much stronger resume than Alex Pareda. What he doesn't have is that those wins over at Disney, which is unfortunate, which is unfortunate, because of course, the overall resume is deeper, it's stronger. If you apply anything more than the most basic MMA math, it does favor Whitaker. But again, I am giving Peretta the benefit

of the doubt here that I do think he probably isn't sticking around at 185. longer we will talk about, I know we'll talk more about them, that circumstances, those circumstances later in the show. But in my mind, I would, I would need to see him lose to another one of these guys. And like before I bump him down. So I don't know, problem could be solved soon if he does change weight classes, but I'm more than comfortable leaving him at number two. Yeah, I mean, we can talk, we'll talk about the weight class here in a second. But I just want to say, because I ended up with him at number three, which is sort of where I guess it averaged out for us as well as the team. And to me, this one.

I don't know that I struggled a lot with this one. I can't discount the Adesania win, and I definitely can't discount just sort of the rivalry that they've had. Like, I know we're not including kickboxing in this, but the man has beaten Izzy three times, however you want to frame it. He's at least beaten Izzy once in MMA. He's the only middleweight in the entire sport to have beaten Izzy, and that was a pretty, like, that was a real win.

That followed the same script as everything we've seen from these guys. So it's hard for me to discount that. And so, like, I can understand the Robert Whitaker argument because that's ultimately where I landed is. It's like Robert Whitaker, former champ, also someone who's beaten a lot of these guys that we're talking about. So he just has that resume of, you know, former champ, a lot of good wins in this division. But I can't, I can't put Vittori there. Someone who has never held the belt, someone who's best win in this division is what? Like, Paulo Costa, something like that.

Like, I just can't put him above a guy like Alex who has this just stunning, sensational win that is the best win of every. any of these other guys that are not easy guys. I don't blame you. Like Vittori, I was, I landed kind of where you were. I was like, oh,

should I do this? And I was like, no, I just can't. I can't put Votori above Pereira for the exact reasons that you said. So I think it would be an interesting fight. I think Pereira versus Vittori

is actually a much closer fight than the other ones, even though Vittori is unknockoutable in a lot of respects. But yeah, I just couldn't, I couldn't put Votori above Pereira. I couldn't do it. Yeah. Well, I mean, the big question now, it seems like for everybody is what's happening next.

And AK, you might be interested to know this. I know you have a certain affinity for polls. Well, we ran a poll today on MMA fighting. I'm very sorry you weren't consulted in this. I can see the rage in your face, and I'm sorry. I can't be on every poll. If it were up to me, my goodness, I'll tell you something. I would be on every poll that I could be on.

But unfortunately, I know that's just not possible. Well, so we wanted to throw it out there to our readers. A simple question. Who should be next for his Radisania after UFC 287? And the results, as we're recording this today, it's Tuesday afternoon. It's around 3 p.m. Eastern. Absolutely. New Pacific.

I didn't expect the world slands up. This is incredible. This is how this shakes up. 4% vote for other, which is really, that means Robert Whitaker. I don't know what else that could mean. 7% voting for Yombo Kovitz, who tweeted that he can suddenly make middleweight at age 40 and he wants to let Izzy try to get that win back, you know, shoot your shot. Not going to happen, but shoot your shot.

25% end up with Drickis DuPlices, who's the right choice. To have his carcass dragged across Africa, which I have to say carcass is a word too seldom used in fight promotion. That is a tremendous word to be used in any kind of fight promotion. I'm very much here for the increased use of carcass in any type of conversation we're having. But really, I don't think it's any surprise between the top two choices. Actually, I guess it is a little surprise that DDP is not in the top two. But top two choices for MMA fighting readers. It came down to this.

30%, I'm sorry, for the Alex Poria trilogy fight. And then 33% for Hamzat Shemayev. Oh, my goodness. Did not expect this, aka our readers, our listeners, they tend to be exemplary humans. Just the best people. We love you guys. So takeaways, I guess, for you, from the results of this poll, are you surprised? How's this hit you?

I've definitely surprised that Shemaya was so far ahead. Maybe I shouldn't be when Mike and I were doing on to the next one this weekend. I believe we didn't have too many listeners submissions because normally we do a live show. We don't read them out. So we tell people not to send in submissions. But those that did come in, the majority actually were for Adisina. and Shemayev, I'm not entirely sure why I get that there is still this intrigue around Hamza, as there should be, as there should be. I am fascinated by him the next time his fight,

whenever he gets a fight booked, whether it's 170 or 185, I'm going to be super jazzed up about it. So I understand the intrigue, but not actually the intrigue around him getting a title shot at 185 where he is not beaten a notable name. If we're talking about Alex Padena's resume, Shemayev has almost none above Walter Wade. So unless they want to cut 180 pound catchweight belt with Kevin Holland, which is, you know, whatever, that was a fun fight. But I don't think it should affect either man standing in whatever division it is that they're competing in now. So I'm surprised by Shemayev. Other than that, I'm not, I thought there might be a little more intrigue around the Blachovitz thing.

Maybe everyone didn't see the tweet or maybe everyone's taking it as a troll, which it certainly could be. Mike, I think you talked about it on heck of a morning. You think maybe it's a bit of a troll job. Maybe it's like a very well-time tweet, you know, as the only other man. Hey, we're talking about him, right? We're talking about it. And again, it made me go back and check. I was like, did he ever fight lower than 205?

And I went to topology, checked as far back as I could. And I don't think he ever has. I'm not saying it's not possible. He's not a massive light heavy weight. But it does seem a bit of a funny thing. He has previously said that he can make it. from back in his kickboxing days. Sure.

I don't think he can make it. I'm just saying he's a thick boy. Like well over a year ago, he was talking about, I can do this if necessary. Yeah, I think he can for the one fight, but it would be like he's not going to stick around and defend it. So it's almost like why do it? It's a bit silly.

But I'm intrigued by it. Again, we can talk about that more than a bit. So not super surprised with the results other than what came number one. I thought trilogy would be a pretty firm number one, like 35, 40%. of the vote. So to see it edged out by Shemayev, man, there's just a mystique around Hamza that you can't, you can't replicate, I guess. So I hope that's not what's next, but if people have spoken, I don't know, if Dana White has an ear on this, maybe we see it.

I'm not sure. I feel like I'm the crazy one here. The Pereer Trilogy is maybe the one I want the least of all of them. I've heard you say this. I've heard you say this. Here's why. Well, give my argument because we wrote we did a roundtable i wrote up my position i'm firmly team ddp uh i think it's the funniest possible of of the fights i think of the uc going i love that you just keep using funny as the word why you enjoy why you want this so much like you said it's hilarious it's the funniest outcome for you and thus you want it look there are a lot of good reasons one it will be hilarious to watch ddp get cratered two the ufc's going to africa uh you do you have the baked in storyline real heat between these people if izzie had any failings at all this weekend it was

that he said i want him to win more and because he he asked to himself no he tried in the post fight to just be like go to 205 Pereira i don't want to do this again and so who else is he going to fight if perera goes off we're not doing bobby knuckles three i god damn hope we don't at least so he should have had the name. He knows the name. He should have been like, look, this, this dude's been talking all sorts of shit. It's insane what he's saying, and I'm going to humble him on the soil of Africa, and then we will establish it. That's the fight for all of those reasons. On top of the fact, we've forgotten it because of what happened with the Pereira stuff, but right up until Pereira, everybody was the narrative around Izzy was, he's boring his shit now. And trust me,

he will go right back to being that the moment he's not fighting Alex Pereira, who doesn't allow him to be that way, except for against Strickus DuPlessy, who is going to careen forward with his chin in the air, and Izzy is just going to light him up? It's going to be the funniest best fight. There's real heat. You got to do it.

Like, you got to do it. Yeah, listen, the fight itself is funny, but as New York, Rick pointed out on the May hour, or like this, this, the whole, the personal stuff between them, but who's a real African and things like that? I'm not, yeah, that's good. It's bad. Like, it's, listen, I'm not an expert on the history of apartheid in South Africa.

I won't pretend to be. But I guarantee you there's a lot of people who suddenly will become experts on that if this fight gets made. And I'm not saying this fight should never get made. But I think that that part of it is so unappealing. And I'm hoping that by the time the fight does get made. So I would like see DDP like get one more win that. both someone talks to them and just says let's let's uh lessen all this chatter about the real

africans got no no no please it's bad heat this is go away heat i do not want to deal with this look i'm you don't moderate the i'm not saying comment section you don't moderate the mfinding comments right you don't know what it is like it you have not seen the youtube community comments you do not know what it is like out there it is bad it is terrible it is objectively awful look for a white South African man to tell three black African-born champions that they are other. That's awful.

But the UFC has built a business model on selling awful, horrible shit. And do it. Not this. Do it. Dude. The MMA community will not be able to handle this one. Sometimes you got to drag us forward and then when he

gets flatlined it'll be the best. Can you guys aren't seeing the big picture. You say I want see Drickus 2 plus C get another win. He might lose because he's not good. So like he, any other fight he takes is an enormous risk that he will somehow just lose the fight. And what I want, what we deserve as a people, as a fan base, as men and women of the world,

frankly, is to see Israel Adisina standing over top of the desiccated corpse of Drickus 2 plus C doing whatever kind of. of celebratory arrow shooting or I don't know if there's some kind of gesture speaking to apartheid or whatever while DDP is just unconscious on the soil of Africa. That's a moment, ladies and gentlemen, and it's the fight that we should be getting next. Also, the original point I was trying to make here, outside of arguing my case for DDP, which I think is bulletproof and correct. The Pereira fight, look, I'll watch it.

I'll watch them fight 10 times. They're very evenly matched this great fight. doesn't it feel like it's extra at this point? Like it feels like it feels like the story had its conclusion. Is he's clearly trying to make the story out. That's insane to me. Izzy is clearly pushing the narrative that he's climbed the mountain and we're done. And then you're just going to run it back again.

And it's like, oh, I think Izzy, I think Izzy is incorrect. I think that's the issue. I don't think because he missed the mark this past weekend in one respect. And Chale Sonin illustrated this. eloquently in a way that I had not considered on the MMA hour on Monday when he was talking to our buddy Ariel Hawani where he says no one likes a complainer but people like a complainer if you throw out than a solution right so if Izzy comes out here and says I'm not fighting Alex Pereira screw that but doesn't offer anything else then we're left with this then we're left with debating

well why won't you fight Alex Pereira this is obviously one to one or three to one you didn't like this is not over yet we're at the two towers we're at Empire strikes back like you there's still something left. But if if he goes out there on Saturday night, does what he does, and at the post-fight press conference, he's like, I'm done with Alex, you know, I finish this, we finish this off, I want DDP, I need to make him pay for his words, all

this, and he like just goes in on DDP and offers that solution. I think a lot more people would be on your side right now, Jed, because then we would be overwhelming support for that fight. Izzy would be getting that fight. Like that would be the way you can manufacture this stuff and the way you can,

if you're the champion, you can sort of navigate these waters. Izzy would have been able to pick that fight if he wanted it. And I think that was maybe the one error. If he doesn't want Alex, that was what he should have done because you're right. That's a very winnable fight. And he just didn't do the Chal Sondent thing. He didn't offer the solution. He just left the question lingering out there.

I have nothing to add. I've said my piece. Yeah, no, it's no, no, it's totally true. Izzy, as great as, again, everything was that night, boy, he really left the door open for that trilogy to be made. because it's one thing to say, as you just kind of say, I'm just repeating you now, but like, that you don't want something,

but you have to say you want something. You have to say you want it. You have to have focus. Mike has, this is a bit of a broader comparison. Mike has sort of said this about Balam Muhammad. He was saying, I think, on the heck of the morning as we record the show today. You got to make up your mind. You got to make up your mind about something, especially if you're Israel or Disney.

And you have leverage. You have so much leverage. You have so much leverage. You know what loves you. He's a bigger star today. than he has been ever. Huge. Dana White loves you.

Dana White loves you. He will, listen, he's never going to take any fighter, like, a request, like 100%. I guess, and this your name is Colby Cumberton, perhaps. But other than that, like, he will, he is open to suggestion. He is open to suggestion. It makes their jobs easier. He's not a great promoter. Write your own story.

Tell your own story. Do some promotion for him. That's why he loves Conn and McGregor. He's never promoted Connemer Greger. Well, Conrugger is the greatest self-promoter of all time. And he just happens to work for Dana. white. So yeah, a little disappointing there. I do want to say while we're saying what we want the most, I said this on onto the next one. If I'm waving a magic wand, I do kind of want to see the

Blackovich fight. I don't know if it has any mainstream broad interest. I really don't. The first fight was intriguing its own way, not like super exciting fight, but I do think an 185-pound version of Jan could beat him because I think that. there's a myth around surrounding that first fight that, oh, Jan just wrestled him. Like, it's like he kind of did in the later rounds,

but for the first few rounds, I think he was up on two of the judges' scorecards, I want to say, mostly striking. Jan is a really good, actually good matchup against Izzy. Yeah, I'd love to see it one 85. It'd be a different fight, of course,

again, I don't know what a drained Jan Blakovich would look like. That's a huge cut down, 20 more pounds. But for me, this is a magic wand, if he can somehow cut in a mostly healthy way, and this fight can be booked within the next six months. I'm all for it.

But I mean, I think trilogy is the most realistic. And that probably my second choice. I think I have no issue with it. What kind of backwards-ass world, guys. What kind of backwards-ass world do we live in? We're the champion of a weight class who's beaten every other dude in the top of it. Speaks about a potential opponent and says,

I will gladly drag his carcass across South Africa. And we're not like, that's the fight. I've never heard someone. He didn't say his name. He didn't say his name, Jen. But we all know. He didn't say his name. We all know.

But he also said he has work to do. He also said he has work to do. He knows sold him. I don't. He also knew Belah Muhammad. No, no, no, no. Hold on, Jed. We also knew Belah Muhammad.

Even though he, I mean, he had the bag and he had butter all over his hands and he wanted to drop that bag on the ground so fast. He didn't say Hamzaa Shamaev's name. And you had an issue with that because he didn't say the man's name. I think we can just say it for him. It's Drickas Dubeyme. plus C, fight for the fate of Africa. But he also said, keep winning because he doesn't think DDP

is ready for it, which I agree with, by the way. Well, so let's do this. So let's help the UFC out right now. In the spirit of the ranking show, we're going to try to do you a favor of UFC right now. Mike, I'm giving you the car keys to the UFC's matchmaking garage right now. You're Sean Shelby, you're McMaynor.

You have ultimate, you have God mode on right now. You do whatever you want. Rank in order of what you want. want to see next. Perera 3, DDP, Shemaya, Blackawicz, Whitaker. What's your order of those five? I think I'm going to get some flack for this, but I think we'll start off kind of hot and heavy. I think we'll start off the way most of us are going to start off, and then we'll go from there. It's Pereira 3, mostly because Jed said something on Saturday on the post-fight show. I agreed with a lot of what he said. At least could see an argument for it, but one thing he said,

I just cannot get on board with. This is not a back pocket fight. It just isn't. It's so not a back pocket fight. This is not McGregor Diaz 3, where you could do it any time. It, at 55 or 70, it doesn't matter. This is a whole different ballgame. This is not a back pocket fight. It has to be a main event. It has to be a title fight.

And the only way this doesn't happen at 185, like, it has to happen now. Because Pereira is not long for this world at 185. So he might have one cut left and you got to do it now. Otherwise, you have to hope Pereira goes up to 205, wins the belt, eliminate some of these contenders and Izzy just gets bored. And at that point, like, that's a lot of hope. That's a lot of things that need to happen in order to close out this trilogy inside the Octagon. So I think you just have to do it now just because it's not a back pocket fight.

Number two, I went with Hamzaa Chimaif just because, I mean, he's freaking Hamzaat Shamaif and I'm fascinated by Hamza fighting anybody. Number three is where things get a little dicey. it's Whitaker 3. It's Whitaker 3. I want to see it again. I want to see it again. I want to see it again.

The guy has earned his opportunity. I know we've seen it twice. I know Izzy has two wins. But if we're going to be living in a world where on this show, Colby Covington, Kamar Usman 3 was going to happen. And guess what? It was going to happen.

If O'Sman beat Leon Edwards at UFC 286, then I think Robert Whitaker has a fine case. for his DDP because I mean look as funny as it would be Jed and you made a great case for how hilarious it would be I don't bet on MMA I don't bet on the sport at all but if Israel out of sanya is minus 600 or less I'm betting on Israel at asana and betting a lot of money this fight is not close it's not competitive at all is he runs him over and as funny as that would be it's not a compelling fight to be unless you can do it That is insane to me that it's not compelling. It is at the minimum compelling.

It might not be a close fight, but that shit is compelling. It's compelling because I don't find it. I don't find it compelling. I don't find it compelling. Is he washes him? This is not a competitive fight. If they're going to Africa in August or September and you need a main event, sure, I'm in.

But I don't think they're going to get there as quickly and as people seem to think they're going to. I don't think they get there until like next year at the earliest. I agree with you. And then I'll be more on board. But until then, DDP, and I'm not saying DDP has to fight Whitaker. He can fight Marvin Vittory. He can fight Sean Strickland, DDP versus Sean Strickland. Win that fight, you get a title shot, just like Alex Perrier did.

You can make a much stronger case that Alex Pereira has done more to earn a title shot than Drick's duplice has because beating a watch Darren Till and beating a Derek Brunson with a leg and a half out the door, it's just not that all that impressive to me. It's a, they're good wins. He got the job done, but Brunson didn't want to be there.

Till was already half gone from the UFC anyways. Like, this is just star building wins and he didn't really do a whole hell of a lot with them. Number five is Jan Behoovich because I think he's full of shit. I think he's just trying to be putting, honestly. So that's why I have been number five. But I think our own Dan Martin's going to be talking to Yanni Blanco.

And if he is seen, serious. If he is dead serious about this, I might bump him up one spot. But even that, I still am not all that interested. So it's Pereira 3 and Shamaif, one, two. I like the Whitaker fight. I kind of want to see it one more time. DDP, this is for right now because DDP can go get another win, change my mind. But right the second, it's Whitaker 3, DDP, Yonbojovich. Jed, Jed, how sad are you going to be when DDP gets messed up with Sean Strickland and Sean Strickland, 29, 28th, some across the board? how much a bummer is that going to be for you? Now, that would be hilarious.

I would lose my mind at all of you people, all of you people for being like, we have this wonderful thing. We should throw it in the fire so we can watch Robert Whitaker get stunted on for a third time for someone. Stunned on. Yeah. The second fight was,

I have no interest in the Whitaker trilogy, but the second fight was pretty close. A.K., what's your top five? Yeah, so like I said, Magic Juan, I'm just intrigued by the Blockovich thing. I'm intrigued. Like I said,

I don't think he, I totally understand. That's your number one? That's my number one. I said that's my number one. That was my on to the next one pick, uh, officially.

I did say I was fine with, uh, number two, like really right behind is the trilogy. It just makes a lot of sense for all the reasons that have been listed. I'm, I, I enjoy watching the fight.

That's probably one of the, another great reason. Like you just know you're going to get a great fight. Like this one went, uh, you know, only around in a bit. But man,

it was super exciting. Like that's one of the most, the whole closing sequence, like one of the most exciting championship closing sequences we've seen in, I don't know, in a long time, it was just so thrilling and awesome.

I thought Izzy was done, that rib-roaster. I'm like, this guy's cooked. So anyway, that was awesome. I just like seeing them fight. That's the number one thing.

So, yeah, listen, Blakovich is a pipe dream, but I think he's a great style matchup. And it would just be so weird. It would be so weird. And we completely,

once again, break our already broken pound-for-pound rankings. I don't know what you do if, if Jan Blachovich goes down to, to 185 wins a second title, and I don't know, it would just be crazy. Can you imagine, Yomakov, it's two-division champion? That's how we have to remember him. This timeline has just gotten really bizarre. Third place, Jed, I like the DDP fight.

So I would put that third. I would put that third. I do think it's interesting. I just think it's won away. Hopefully he doesn't get 29-28ed by Sean Strickland, though now I kind of want to see that, knowing how he'll react. He's definitely going to get it 29-28ed by Sean Strickland. And then I'll go forth, Shemayev, which almost feels low.

Again, I know I'm going against the will of the MMAfighting.com readers. It feels low. Again, it's a fun. I definitely feel like I want to see someday. But he just has to earn it. He has to earn it. We keep saying earned. We keep saying deserved on the show.

I know a terrible thing to do. But in this case, I think it's fair. The entry could be there. He's arguably behind the trilogy, probably the would be the biggest draw. might people maybe even again based on that poll maybe even want to see a fresh matchup more than they want to see this third fight and obviously he's that he's that he's that dude who they think is just going to run through is he but i still i can't i can't play some higher than fourth and then fifth i'm kind of with uh with most of you guys i just have no interest in the um in the wittaker a third

whittaker fight a fight to it and he has looked great against everyone not named israeli disinia uh but i don't know if he gets it down the road i'll be happy with it but seeing it next would just be I don't know, would just leave me really, really cold. Jed, what's your top five looking like? You have the car keys now. DDP's number one, for sure. It's not close. Number two is going to be Hamzat, and it gets, again,

that's not a meritocratic one at all. It's just the matchup I'm the most interested in to see how that goes. Number three, I mean, I would say Jan Blahovic, because I don't think he can do it, but I got to be honest, the idea that there's a world where Jan Blahovic could somehow be a two-division champion is hilarious and compelling.

And I would like to see if I get the choice in this structure. I just love that a lot of your matchmaking decisions right now are for the lulls. That's what you're like philosophy. I'm sorry, I'm more interested in those things because they are more, Like, it's much more interesting to be contemplating a fight. Like, okay, well, what if Jan Blahovic is a two-division champion?

He has a real shot at it. And then how do we contextualize him historically? Like, this is very interesting as opposed to, all right, well, we're going to run back Alex Pereira. And this is, look, if you are going from a, just looking at the fight itself as what fight will be the most entertaining and dynamic piece and nothing else around it, Pereira Adasania because they are incredibly evenly matched. My issue is that watching Pereira and Adasania, like if they fight again, I don't think I'm learning anything new. I don't think that if Izzy goes out and knocks him out,

that will not tell me that Izzy is the much better fighter. It will be like, well, he high-rolled two times in MMA and he didn't do that in kickboxing. Like, if they fought a hundred times, I think they'd both win 50. Like, I just think that's sort of where it's at. So I'm comfortable setting it aside now and moving on to new different things that I've never seen before as opposed to just watching the same thing over and over again. And God forbid, Pereira wins and then shit, maybe we do a fourth fight and a fifth fight. And then we're just doing this forever.

I don't need it. I'm not there. The only reason it's four is because I have almost zero interest in a third fight for Robert Whitaker. I am sorry for you, Robert Whitaker. It sucks to be rich Franklin. but maybe don't lose the fights and then you won't get Rich Franklin. I didn't like it when Max Holloway got a third crack at Volk.

I am just simply never going to support a third fight when you're down O2. I win the other fights or figure out something else to do or you got to win like six in a row. And God love Robert Whitaker, him beating Marvin Vittori and that's it is not enough. He needs at least two more wins and nothing else can be good. going on in this weight class before I'm like, all right, it's fired up one more time. Yeah, you talk about a back pocket fight. That's, that's honestly the middleweight back pocket fight.

Like, that's the last resort is doing the Robert Whitaker trilogy. He was realistically the biggest loser in this whole entire setup. God love him for shooting his shot, though, afterwards. I mean, if Pereira wins, Robert would have probably been next, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah, 100%. He goes from being the next up to, sorry, bro, you probably just don't have a shot. Yeah, and from like a meritocracy standpoint, he's probably number two behind Pereira

and certainly from what the actual fight will look like. He's also probably the second most compelling if you're strictly looking at a fight. But the context of everything else, like I just, I don't care all about the Whitaker three match. And I'm, I know I'm on an island. The Pereira third fight is just like, okay, I mean, if it happens, I'll watch it, but I would love new business. Do you think the only way they sell? that went like a third Whitaker fight is like,

hey, remember when Izzy lost to Alex Panetta three times and then won the fourth fight? Maybe Robert Whitaker could do the same thing. Is that like the only? I honestly have no idea how they sell it. It just makes, like, I mean, he's got benefitas. He's got Franklin.

Like, it's exactly what it is. It's not even like he gets to be the Colby and come in and say something shitty because that's, that's DDP's corner. DDP's hanging on the say inflammatory things corner to earn a title shot outrageously. They're just like, well, we're doing this again because they're the two best guys. And Whitaker's going to lose again because that's how this goes.

Yeah. I mean, I'll just run down my top five quickly. There's no surprise. I've been incredibly vocal over the last 72, you know, whatever, I don't know what four days would be hours wise. I'm not very good at math. But over the last three, four days, I've been incredibly vocal. That it has to be Pereira for me. And like if I was doing a ranking, like a tiers, it would be him in the top tier.

And then there would be like two empty tiers before I get to anybody. else. Like, this feels like such an obvious pick to me. This feels very bizarre to me that more people aren't into it. I guess I understand the idea of wanting to see something new, but this is so singular and so special and so magic when these dudes do what they do. And again, the lore at this point, the backstory, like all of these little snippets of just instances you could point to and moments in these fights and the lead-ups and all of it. Like, this is a documentary at this point. This is a 30 for 30 series. Like, this is a multi-episode documentary.

And it just feels bizarre to me to not want to see the conclusion. Like, we just saw the guy who had lost all of them finally get one. That doesn't put them at square. That just doesn't put them at square in my eyes. Like, this needs to be resolved. And it would be a historical failure. Like, it will be a failure. We will look back in history as just a very bizarre situation.

If it does not get resolved, this is so deeply unresolved in my eyes. See, I think that's just a disconnect. this feels fine. Like if they never fought again, I'm okay with it. It is. And I, that's very,

I don't, if they fight again, it won't resolve anything for me. That's what I was, like it won't, I will not know who the better MMA fighter is. If they go out and it's a replay of their first MMA fight and Izzy's winning and then gets knocked out,

I won't have learned anything new. That feels definitive to me. I don't know. That feels definitive. That feels no more definitive than if they go out and Pereira's ahead and Izzy knocks him out again, like, okay, well, if these dudes just keep going at it, the chips are going to fall on one side of the other, the gods will flip a coin and determine. It feels like we're covered.

And therein lies the one mistake is he made, which is again, the chill thing of if he had gone hard on DDP, this is not a conversation we're having, but the door was left open and now that's what everybody's debating. I have DDP as my number two. I just really think the lead up to that could get really gross really quickly. And I don't think MMA and his fan base and just everybody in the sport is ready to deal with how gross that could get. As you said, Jed, the optics of a white man from South Africa telling three African-born black men, this type of thing is a very, very uncomfortable road where suddenly a lot of people

are going to feel like they're experts. If there's one thing I don't need and never need it, it is MMA fans' opinion on like the history of apartheid. It will be. I do not. It would be awful. But the outcome, it will be a triumphant and happy outcome. Look, I wouldn't be arguing for this if I thought DDP had a chance to win it

because then it would be horrible shit and the bad outcome. Instead, the horrible shit will then get its comeuppance in a righteous and happy way. Let's see. That to me is another reason why I'm not interested in this as much because it's going to be the grossest lead up, but it also is the least competitive fight. So it's just, it feels like, like Izzy doesn't seem like a guy we have a lot of these left with him. He was sort of alluding to that and his post-fight press are about sort of kind of almost

being done or at least on that road. I don't really want to waste one. Is it a waste? Do you remember when, you remember, do you remember when Anderson Silver just fought Stefan Bonner? This is that fight only with a patina of a horrific nationalism attached to it. It would be great. Izzy would get a highlight reel for the ages in Africa over the worst person.

It would be incredible. We'll see. There lies the other problem is I don't think they're going to Africa this year. I agree with Mike. I think that's a 2024 thing. I will say that this fight only works in Africa. I'm much, I care a lot less about it.

In Vegas? In Vegas? For sure. If this is in Las Vegas or Denver or wherever, I'm even less interested in it. Just to round out my list. Let me just say, but I also question whether that fight's a guaranteed highlight, because I think he would treat him with like the same respect. He treats like Canineer and Vitori.

DDP would just say, you like, get it done. Yeah, I think he might try to polo cost of this. I think that seems like a deeply personal one. Hamzaa Shamiyev is my number three. I get it. I'm just not, I don't know that it's the time for it. It feels less deserved than Kobe Covington's title shot.

And we just raged for two weeks about Kobe Coving's title shot. So it feels like it would be silly to, flip-flop when it comes to that. And then running out, I have Yombovitz. I will admit, I'm morbidly curious, even though there's no way anything happens here. And then Robert Whitaker for me is the one I just have no interest. That's my fifth.

Tough times for Bobby Knuckles on this podcast. It really is because he was that next guy. If Alex just closes that out in that second round on the way that it sort of was trending, he was that next guy and now all of a sudden he's not. It's tough scenes, but he can go to the therapy group with Joseph Benavitas and Rich Franklin and they can talk him through.

how to handle this because it's just it's a difficult situation for everybody when it comes to that type of setup. We're going to take a quick break and then we're to come back on the other side finish out the show. Man, poor Joey B. At least it's frankly got to have the belt at some point. Marshall's buyers travel

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Vite, please. For sure cipher.mereau. Regrouped for a better quality of price. On link, Sifora.com or in magazine. All right, y'all, we are back. Closing out the conversation for UFC 287, obviously the other big storyline head not a Saturday. Jorge Mazvidol. This man has now called it a career.

it is the end of the game bread era for however long the game bread era lasted. And to me, this was such, I don't know, it was not unexpected, right? But it's one of those things where a guy walks away after so long. And it forces you to sort of look back on everything he's done and try to put it in perspective and sort of do the thing that we do. And really, when you look back at Jorge Mazidol, he has such a singular and unique career that I don't know there's a lot of comparisons to, right? because this is a guy who was around 20 years,

and really the first 16 of which, just kind of another guy? Like, he really seemed to just be destined to be one of those random veterans, the dependable veteran that you can throw in a card, fill out a card two, three times a year, have some good fights, have some bad fights, have some forgettable fights, and then at the end of his run,

we'll be like, oh, man, Horacell, really fun fighter. You know, it was good to have him around, that type of thing. And he was also like just, AK, you pointed this out. really frustrating, too, for a long time. Like, the rebranding of Masmedol as this vicious knockout artist was a really late development in this whole thing. Because if you had tweeted this screenshot.

Five years. Five years without a knockout. Five years without a knockout. Come on. The ultimate hate that. There's five years and like seven, I think it was like five years and 17 straight fights or something without a knockout. You cannot be a knockout artist under those circumstances.

I'm sorry, you can't. You lose it. You lose the, you're not a knockout artist. April 2010 to July 2016. So six years basically, Jorge Mazel all went to decision 16 times over 18 fights and six of those were

split decisions. Just a whole way through, he was losing to most of the bigger names he faced. He was always beloved by MMA hardcores. But then this thing happens in 2019 and a little bit earlier to and the way this all ends up, I said this on Saturday, he won. He won the race.

Like most of his peers from that era that he started and ended up, either broke, broken, or both. And Mazinol's out here leaving MMA on his own terms, surrounded by his people in Miami, going home to that ridiculous mansion that we saw on embedded with millions in his bank account. Like titles are nice,

but the name of the game is prize fighting at the end. And he really did win. I'm always reminded in this type of situation of when Nate Diaz coined the phrase, reimbursement after the first Conner fight. Like the money he had made from that fight in that series was reimbursement for everything he should have gotten from MMA before.

prior to that and he hadn't. And I always love that. And that stuck with me. And Masvidol, he's one of those true OGs that actually got that reimbursement. So keeping with this rankings theme, let's go back for a second. Let's just look quickly at Jorge Mazvedol. Mike, your top three moments of this 20-year career ranked. And let's obviously, let's not include Ben Ascred because that's going to be number one for everyone.

I think we're all going to have the same top three moments. that's the honorary number one it obviously is but mike when you look back on horary masbattle outside of that what stands out to you man i mean i want to be different but i might just take the little hanging fruit i mean the daren till knockout and then what happened after the fact that that whole trip to london is is got to be number one because that changed his life forever a lot of people dana said that flying knee changed his life forever sure there's obviously that was a great follow up to what happened in london but everything that happened in London put him on the map,

just colds Darren Till with a brutal knockout. He'd been out of action for, you know, well over a year, comes back with the long flowing locks, looks like a totally different person, and just deads Darren Till and then punches Leon Edwards in the face backstage. And that started the whole thing, the flying knee obviously, whatever.

Cuts the line, the line of his career, really. Yep, 100%. Three piece of a soda. Three piece with the soda. Number two, what is what happens after. Ben Asker. And it's a freaking pay-per-view of Madison Square Garden. This man, after everything he had gone through,

journeyman George, all the things people said about him, headlines Madison Square Garden for a fake title, which that the UFC just created for this man, fights Nate Diaz. He beat the hell out of Nate Diaz. That fight was not your typical Nate Diaz fight where he could have a moment. No. George Jorge Mazda runs over Nate Diaz and Madison Square Garden.

and I had no issue with the doctor stoppage because that wasn't going to get any better. That was probably the best performance ever of Jorge Mazadal's career. That was the best he ever looked in my opinion. Number three, I'm going with what happened before all that happened. January 2017, UFC on Fox 23. He was an underdog against Donald Cowboy Soroni, and he beat the hell out of Donald Cowboy Soroni.

Another tremendous performance where not a lot of people were giving him a chance and Mazel just dumped him, just ran him over, gave him a lesson. And not a lot of people saw that coming, but that was one of those things that I remember watching it. And I was like, I don't know if the stylist is a great matcher for George. And George is saying a lot. He was talking a little bit in the build to that fight. He was feeling it respected. He was feeling all the years of disrespect. He was pissed about it. And then he just goes out and runs over Donald Seroni. That fight was not competitive. So yeah, those are the things. I mean, there's so, if we do a Dan, they're good, and I'm sure we will on, on George,

there'll be so many different layers we can go with this, but just for the sake of this conversation and him retiring from the sport, it's till the aftermath of that, Diaz, MSG, and then the other performance that really stands out as a Donald Seroni performance, because he, he was pissed and he shut a lot of people up with that one. Yeah, we almost should have made this like a non-2019. Like, you can't pick any moment from 2019. because I feel like in your top three it has to have, like as Mike said, the Darren Till, everything that happened in London

and then the BMA, the ascendance to BMF champion. But like I want to say, how crazy is it? He pretty much stole the BMF thing from, like Nate. Nate is the one who invented it and named him. He said, I want to fight Jorge for this specific title. And he did all that. He did all the promotional work to create this belt to pull Maspedal into that matchup to create this Madison Square Garden matchup,

and it's Mazbidal who has reaped all the benefits from it. Like, how weird is that? Nate's promotional genius, man. He really is. Okay, that's why I don't have that one in my list of three. Okay. I also did not have that, yeah. I intentionally left it out because I still think of all of that as Nate's moment,

even if he lost and even if the rock, you know, put the belt on Jorge or whatever. Oh, God, I forgot about that, yeah. I agree. And I will, for some reason, when I think of it, of that weekend. The first thing I always think of was just the rock up there talking to like UFC fans at the press conference talking about oh we're doing a Mark Kerr documentary and no one having any idea of who the hell Mark Kerr was that entire arena. That is my first memory from that FY week always. It's so great. I was there for that announcement too. It was in

the building. I was like it's the freaking rock he's got this huge announcement about MMA. He's like I got this announcement that's going to knock your socks off. We're making a smashing machine movie and it was just like three people were like whoa and then the other eight ads were like who the fuck is that guy like it was unbelievable it was unbelievable but continue oh you got mma fans loving loving the history of the sport um like that was a i think the seroni one was a great call that was my number three um and i think one thing to point out on that too was that was in denver right so that was kind of in enemy territory and because saroni denver guy um And his grandma was there.

And there was a great quote from this that I found. This was Jorge after the fight. I think talking to Megan Olivi, talking about Donald Soroni's grandma, apparently went up and talked to Jorge after watching Soroni getting viciously knocked out because that was a bad knockout. He says,

she killed me, man. That was like a heart blow. She just came up to me and said, that's my grandson and you're a great fighter. And nobody has taken my grandson out like that. I might be a bad guy, but things like that, they get me. I don't want to beat nobody in front.

of their mom and grandma, I have kids. I couldn't imagine seeing my kids go in there. That hurt a little bit. I love it. That's such an underrated fight. I had that number two for me. I don't know if maybe Jed, maybe you'll go here too.

I had Eve Edwards. Oh, yeah. No, just missed. I went with a very different list, but please talk about that because it's a great performance. I'm with you on that one, Shaheen. I'm with you on me, AK, the Eve Edwards hit K-O. Bo-Dog fights.

Shout out to Pod Dog fights. You love the range. don't you really can. Oh, I mean, I'm with him on that. Ring all the way. But that was Jorge's signature moment before all this late career turnaround. Was that head kick K.O. over Eve Edwards, who was very highly thought of at that point,

one of the top lightweights in the world. I mean, even Jorge, the way he talks about Eve Edwards today, like he reveres the guy. A lot of the guys from that era revere even that way. That was a brutal, brutal finish. And you've got to show some respect for Bodog fights. And you have to talk about where they were at their careers. Like, Eve Edwards, that's just, I'm looking at this now.

45th career fight. 45th. He had been in the UFC. This is before his last run with the UFC, but he had been in the UFC. He had fought for every promotion under the sun by that point before he fought, Royne of Mazvedo.

And this was Masvedal's 13th pro fight. He was 22 years old. It was a 22-year-old Horamette Mazvedal going against the suspected better and just wipe him out. He looked at Miami Streets, baby. He's a little baby. He looks like a little baby.

So, yeah, incredible moment. And you're right, that was the moment. that was the moment before he became the well, well, well before the Jorge Mazvedal superstar version that we now see today. Yeah. And then I've rounded out my list. I had number one, Darren Till, for all the reasons Mike said, I mean, that's when it really started happening for him, right?

The three piece with the soda line is the signature line for Jorge Mazadol. Maybe super necessary is it, but for me, it's three piece with the soda. And that whole weekend was just a master class of how to self-promote. and that was really what started the turnaround for him. So, AK, where'd you go? Yeah, so again, I would have the same list because I would put the E. Redwards on. And then I have the three pieces of soda, you know, with the Dary and Till. And then also I still give him credit for the BMF thing.

You know, he won, he won. He didn't manufacture the moment. He capitalized on it. Still a big deal. He's the BMF forever. Again, it's not a real belt. So it's not something he can technically lose. I do hope they do something with the belt going forward because I do think it's a neat gimmick.

So whether he vacates it or whether he decides to fight again, you know, and cuts his retirement short. I hope that's an option. I will throw in. This isn't his moment, but he is, he is, he is inseparable from the Toby Amata inverted triangle choke. So, you know, this, listen. Thank you for bringing that up. It's not all my moments, but it's one of the first things I think of what I think of him. You have, if we're doing a proper dam, we would, you know, when we do the four fights,

the Mount Rushmore fights, we sometimes include fighters losses. I would have to throw this one on there. because he was he was tuning toby amata up like if people can go back and watch that fight he was going to win a decision and it gets caught by the most insane submission i think i had seen up into that point again people know i'm sort of a uh a newer emma fan and i've gone back to watch stuff i think it's the first inverted triangle i've ever seen in it was it absolutely was for me this this was a certainly the first one that like jumps off the page this was a huge moment for it also this is a huge moment for bell atore this is the kind of highlight that they needed at that time to get people talking about them going, oh, cool, like, oh, there's another promotion that's not UFC. I'm not saying it rocketed them to like this. It went like super viral or anything, but for people who were, you know, sort of paying attention to it may at the time and wondering what's up with, you know, options outside the UFC with some of the other promotions that unfortunately, like, disappeared. That submission was really, really, really, really talked about at the time.

And so a very cool moment for everyone involved. Maybe not for, uh, almost all though. Called by John Annick. Oh, geez. Wild. That's wild. I didn't realize that that's a fun. That's a fun fact. He was the Bellator announcer for that season one. Yeah. O-G. He's an OG.

So, yeah, so I would have the Amada thing, like kind of like an honorable mention, even though it's not really a particularly great Hore Mazavidol moments. But otherwise, yeah, listen, I do the, I'm going BMF, winning the BMF, three pieces in the soda, and then Yvette was head kick. What about you, Jed? I'm so disappointed in you all right now. I can't. Look, I knew.

where we'd all go. And so I made some efforts to avoid it. Look, Darantel has to be number one. Not even, I mean, the CO is a great KEO to comeback, KEO, and then the three piece in the Saudi ad all that has to be number one. But removing that, I've got three more I want to talk about. The first one will go down as my number two. And it'll be Michael Kiyasa fight, which I think doesn't give the same love. Good one too. Kea was 9 and 0 at the time.

Like Case is undefeated, a tough winner. Dude, dude can grapple his ass off. And that's frankly one of Jorge Masfidal's best wins in retrospect. Like that has aged well, whereas many of, if not most of Jorge's wins,

have aged poorly. Like, Michael Keesa is submitted Benil Darius. He submitted Benny Darius. And Jorge Mastral hits him with the Bravo choke. Like, a damn good win over an undefeated dude at the time. And in sort of a tweener stage,

he at Mosswell had just come in from Strike Force, had lost the Strike Force lightweight title or lost a fight for the lightweight title against Gilbert Melendez. But, you know, we're seeing where he settled out and he's fighting a tough winner and taps him with a Bravo joke, which is sick. So that'll come in my number two.

Here's why I'm disappointed in y'all. Well, I guess first I'll throw an honor, my honorable mention, I'm not disappointed in this. Do we remember when he and Michael Bisping had beef? Because that was funny as hell. Yes. That was always just my favorite. At the time, I remember being like,

Cory Moss would all could beat Michael Bissing in a fist fight if they squared off. That's definitely good happen. So I just wanted to shout that out because I didn't know if anyone else would. But you all left up. You all left up. It's arguably the biggest rivalry of his career. And I can't believe you. you guys left it off.

It's Hori Masadol versus Ray in Kimbo's boatyard. Come on, guys. It's started at all. The originator of the whole fighting, and you guys aren't even going to give the man credit. He's out there in jean shorts, just tuning this dude up with the top knot waving all around. You said he came back with the long hair totally different. Look, no, he went back to the long hair. After years of getting away from his roots,

I cannot believe I'm the only one to have brought up Ray. It's a great thing. This has been, this has been, this has been your, you're damned they were good for Jorge Bassett. I'll preview, we will do,

we'll get a proper episode. He sure will. And there will be a lot of talking about Ray, I'm sure. Oh, love the Ray fights. That's a great, great pick. I'm astonished.

Does Ray have a last name? Does Ray have a last name? He's like, share. he's just right he's like share it's a mononym a lot of those dudes like i remember afro puff was one of the kimbo guys like i just love that yeah like i just remember i just all that's burdened my brain of watching all that in high school can you rip kimbo always can you imagine if kimbo hadn't died and bare knuckle is on the rise we would have oh my kimbo slice fight bear knuckle league and it would be the best i would be i would watch that every year

day. I think about what if Kimbo hadn't died at least like two to three times a week. RIP man. In various circumstances, like could he have been involved in this? What if he had been involved in this? Oh, what if he had fought this person? What if he had... He would have been the best elder statesman for this sport. Oh, I'm doing the best. For him to miss the celebrity boxing era is a tragedy. The social, the influencer boxing era. My God. My God. There was a lot of money for him to be made over this. Sorry to bring such a devil. I mean, honor guys i'm sorry i'll bring it back up because him versus dada was is still the i've been a lot i've been to a lot of mma events over the course of my career that is still the

most fun i have ever had an mma event by far by far it is the perera three on the tier list of this where it's there and then there's like two tiers below before anything else like that is the i remember luke thomas i recovered that with luke and i remember him just heckling those dudes mid-fight from press row because of how ridiculous everything was like booker t He was like 10 feet away from us cackling the entire time. I've said for years entirely serious, it's one of my five favorite fights of all time. It's like Carlos Kond at Robbie Lawler, Kimbo Dada, there. It's just unimpeachably great entertainment.

It's one of the few times I've gotten home from a fight week and on that Sunday, immediately dialed back up the fight and watched it like 10 different times and made my wife watch it, made all my, these people, like my friends watch it. It's the best fight. It's just amazing. It's so fun. It's so good. If you haven't, if you're listening and you've never seen it, now's the time. So happy trails to Jorge Mosvital, as we were talking about, of course.

Happy retirement, hopefully. We went down, guys, we went down a well there. I'm just saying, you are the host. You are the host. You are supposed to keep, we are co-hosts, but I trust you to keep things on track. To try back the curtain before we started this. It was, let's try and keep this tidy. We don't need to go on too many rants. And now we're talking Kimbo Dada.

Look, every time I can get a chance to talk about Kimbo Dada. I'm going to take that opportunity. But no, I mean, you're right. Let's keep it moving. We have one last thing to get to today. And that's some hellos, some welcomes, and some sad goodbyes as well, as we do now. We're going to pour some out at the end of this episode. But first, let's bring in some new blood, welcome in the fresh blood, making their debut.

in the rankings this month on the ranking cycle. And fellas, this month there were three names, three new names, entering our rankings, and I'll go through them quickly, and then we could talk about it. First, Luana Pinheiro, debuting number of 14 straw weight. She is 4-0 in the under UFC properties now, 3 and O and UFC proper, beats Michelle Waterson-Gomez, split decision. I think, you know, mildly controversial decision, but I thought it went that way. Also, as wins over Sam Hughes and Randam Marcos, she is now in the strawweight ranks,

straw weight continues to a to be a very compelling division in my eyes for the UFC. Also, Movlid Kabulaev, number 15 featherweight. We've had him in the rankings before. That's a welcome back. This is a welcome back. This is a welcome back. We missed you. That was his first fight since October in 2021.

Of course, in 2021, PFL champ. 22 fights now without an official loss from this guy. He's pretty good. Probably underranked, frankly. Jed, I think you put him back above Brendan. am i correct brendanen lachnain am i correct did you put him back above uh in your ranking no if i ever put him below brenden did i don't know i have him above locheney as well and he has a win over him a lot of people on the team do not have it that way i've had i've had mowgli uh firmly in the same

spot for like ever yeah he listen we we know if if mowgli had not gotten injured last season there's a very good chance he spoils the beautiful brennan locknayne fairytale uh so i i i'm I am still giving Brendan his, I did not rank Mobley this month, but, like I said, I'm going to let that one play out. You know what?

Brendan got his spot in his absence. Absence, they're probably definitely going to fight at some point this year, whether it's regular season or in the tournament. And then it'll, you know, they'll go, they'll decide for us.

I do think he's probably the favorite. He has to be in my eyes, the favorite. Yeah, Mobley, for sure. Mobley, but yeah,

we're good to see him back. And then finally, keeping with the PFL theme, wouldn't you know it? It's funny talking about this man. on a day where we're talking about Israel-Asana so much in a weekend where we're talking about Izzy so much. Rob Wilkinson, who last fought in the UFC against Israel-A-Sahian and got washed in Izzy's debut,

number 15 light heavyweight in the world now for us. Number 15, he makes it. He is now seven light heavyweight, six finishes during that run, 20-22 PFL champ. He takes a unanimous decision over Tiago Santos. Welcome, Rob Wilkinson. Of those three fellows, which is the most intriguing and who do you think has the most Staying power.

I mean, staying power has got to be Movalid, right? Just because he's actually good? I think I agree with you. Whereas Rona Piniero is like, maybe not terrible. And Rob Wilkinson is fine,

but he's propped up by competing in a just awful division, whereas Moving Cabo is, like, actually a good fighter. Well, the thing is, that's why Rob Wilkinson may have more staying power. Because I think he can rise higher

at one, that 205, competing in PFL than Mowgli can competing in the NFL right. I think like I think if Rob Wilkinson wins the rest of the season, I'd have no problem putting him above like Ryan's fan, maybe above Malikin over in one chat. I mean, I know we love Malikin, dude's a beast. But I don't know.

A lot of random stuff happens over it. I think it's much easier to move up to a five that is featherweight. That's the thing. I don't know like if Movlin wins the season, what's his ceiling? Are we putting him above? Oh, actually, he could go above like Bryce Mitchell. Zombies going to retire. I will be willing to move Movalid up much higher if he continues to be undefeated at a very good weight class fighting solid contemporaries.

So my guess is he has the most staying power. But I can at least see the argument you're making AK because it is easier to hang around a bad division. It's not good. But it's not good. It also took a lot for him to get ranked because I don't know we talked about this before. Like maybe we should have had him ranked before. but it's just, it's just awful. So it took a lot for him to get even where he is now.

I will say AK might have a point looking at this light heavyweight roster for this season, a PFL. You got Ty Flores in there. You got Will Flurry, the carcass of Christoph Jockdo, who already lost. A middleweight, former middleweightiest middleweight champion. Yeah, Creolee Heavyweight Christop Jock. It's not a murderous row. We'll just say that.

So I think Roboakinson might have a second mill in his. pocket by the end of this. We'll see. Oh, I think he's for sure going to have a second mill. I'm just not sure he's moving higher than 13 in our rankings. Which really, again, just goes back to the point of like, if you're, I don't know, Alexander Rackich, like, why are you not just going to the PFL and winning a million dollars, my man? Like, this is a real missed opportunity.

It's not as easy as it looks. You were talking about Jorge Mosbyn, all winning, fighting? No, Rob Wilkinson is winning fighting. right now. Him and Ante Delajia are winning fist fighting. There is no counter to that. And you know who else? I want to shout her out quickly. La Reza Pacheco is winning and fighting, by the way. I think she's going to easily win.

She hasn't actually beat people who could squeeze your eyes and say it. She's very good. She's good. We didn't have time for this in the show, but I will say she jumped five spots in the women's pound for pound rankings. She jumped from 16 to 11 on the cusp of the top 10. That's about as high as I think Kayla made it to number 10. I want to I don't think any higher.

Yeah. I think Karen Harrington made it high as 10. I don't, I hope Pacheco can rise higher because she's like she finishes fights too, which I think helps a lot. I think that helps the optics a lot. I'm really excited for her chances of like pound for pound relevancy like just increasing as the season progresses. So yeah, I just kind of give her quick, quick, some quick Pacheco love.

No, that's a good shout. And then obviously the opposite side of all these, these welcomes is the fawn farewell that we have to send these people out. And so we're going to have to pour one out for three names that I think, at least two of which have been in these rankings for a long time, if not since we started them. And one that is maybe surprising as well. First off, Michelle Waterson-Gomez tumbles out of straw weight after losing to Pinheiro. She's 37, one in five in her last six.

Probably is the, I don't know that we'll see here back in this rankings, but it's almost felt long overdue. but we'll see Tiago Santos as well making way for Rob Wilkinson he is finally a race from light heavyweight he was clinging on to that last 15 spot he loses the PFL debut he's 39

he's 1 and 6 in the last 7 so again I think this is a tough one and then you know I don't I didn't expect to be talking about this this time last week but Adrian Yanez loses his number 15 bantamweight spot with his first UFC loss to Rob Font in highlight real fashion one of the surprises of the card this past weekend to me

He was six and O in UFC properties prior to that five KOs. And, you know, I don't think this is the last time we'll see him ranked, but certainly right now he's not in it of that group who makes you the saddest. Waterson, because I still ever ranked. I still have Watterson ranked. She won that fight. Hold it on to it. Hold it on to the dream.

No, she won. She should have won. And there's just not a lot of great 15ers right now, right at the moment. So you can still make a case that Waterson is one of the 15 best 115 pounds in the sport right now. And she's been competitive with pretty much everybody she's fought. Like, you know what I mean? Like you can, she could be 0 and 6. She could be like 3 and 3.

You know, you know? You just, I thought she won the Pinheiro fight. I thought she was very competitive in the fight prior to that before she got stopped by Amanda Lameau. She thought she had like a really good first round. It was looking good in the second until she got caught in a sub. I think Waterson's fine. I didn't actually have Yanis or Tiago Santos in my ranking, so didn't do too much for me.

But I kind of feel like Waterson deserved to stick around a little bit longer with the way that Starweight Division looks right at this moment. So, yeah, it kind of stinks for her. Because I thought she won the fight first of all. And second, I still think she's one of the best 15 best 15ers. But that's not saying a ton. There's just not a ton of them right now. you guys want to know my favorite stat from this past weekend

uh Michelle waterson landed 18 of 114 head strike attempts wow I am not here to say she didn't win that fight I honestly didn't care that fight was awful but that's a stat I have no interest or care

I'm not going to be she I see the argument for her winning totally fine I just can't possibly be sad that a woman who lands 18 of 114 attempted head strikes is dropping out of the rankings. Just do more. Do better. Not more.

You're doing plenty, but do better. And then maybe you can make it back. I'll pour one out for Tiago Santos for my head. He's very likely not coming. Well, I shouldn't say that. The PFL, the way the PFL season goes, who knows? He ain't coming back. I'm sorry.

Stop holding on of the dream AK. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. This is the PFL light heavyweight division. Remember, if he scored a knockout, it's only two fights. He scores a knockout. A first row knockout, he makes the playoffs. He makes the playoffs. And then I don't know.

He comes back. He has a rematch. Rob Wilkinson wins it. There's a path for him to come back. I don't think he does. I don't think he does. But I do want to pour it out because he's of that same, that two-fight, you know, John Jones cluster with Dominic Reyes,

where both guys had a case for winning that fight and just precipitously fell afterwards. Tiago Santos hung on a little bit longer because he wasn't getting brained, you know, in the fights after that. But yeah, it is kind of weird to see him go because he was that close, that close to being UFC lead heavyweight champion. Reyes left the rankings a while ago,

and now we see Tiago go. I'm with AK to pour one out for Maheta. Not even for Maheta leaving the rankings, He says, pour one out for when he used to be fun and just a marauder. So much fun. And then you just stopped being a marauder and he's just losing. And so it's, you had a good run. You'll probably get a damn somewhere down the line.

So pour one out. Because you're not, Adrian Yonnas is coming back. So we don't have to pour one out. We just, he'll be back. Metta, happy trails, buddy. Man, that early, that late part of 2018 when Maranta made that light, heavyweight debut and went on that run of three fights, three bonuses, three KOs. Oh, man.

Some of those KOs. The Jimmy Manoa, KO in particular, was insane. Hell of a rewatch if you go back and rewatch that fight, just a crazy fight. When we do the damn, we were good episode for Tiago Santos, it's going to be a really fun one because I think that is one of those guys that almost like why that show was created, right? Exactly why the show was created. Like how many Tiago Santos conversations are we going to be having 15,

years from now, but like that dude gave us so many moments where it's just sad to see him go. Sad to see him go. I got to say, though, I'm pouring mine out for Adrian Yannis because I know that we'll probably see him back, but I'm bummed out that it's not happening yet. Like, I really was excited for his sort of elevation into this elite group at Bantamweight, and I thought it was going to happen, and I was stunned that it didn't. So I'm sure we'll see him back. It's not, it's goodbye for now, and we'll see you later.

But I don't know. That bummed me out. experience matters man that's the mantra of the car experience matters you said it leading in so yeah I mean look he'll be back

it's just now you're to figure out how we want to match make him I hope Adrian takes a little bit of time off I hope he doesn't just rush back in there but I think there's matchups at 135 doesn't have to fight a rank dude at this point just get him win they got some of this kid

people like them even in a loss Like people aren't ripping them except for Tony Kelly, but Tony Kelly is Tony Kelly. And he doesn't really have much of a leg to stand on it for being honest. But he'll be back. Just matchmaking good. Let's get him a highlight reel and get him back in the rankings. That's all.

Yeah. We'll see you later more than anything else. Yeah. Well, that's it for us today, fellas. Appreciate you. As always, this was a lot of fun. This has been another episode of the MMA Fighting Rankings show. Keep it locked to MMA fighting as we continue on down this.

path now to UFC 28, Aljo, Sohudo, lots of good stuff there. And also just a couple events in between. It's going to be a lot of fun. It always is. As always, I appreciate you, fellas. That man is Mike Heck. That man is Jedmishu. That man is Alexander K. Lee.

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