MMA Fighting - Rankings Show: Jamahal Hill Is Upset | Alex Pereira's LHW Drama, Goodbye McGregor-Chandler, More

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

UFC 291 is in the books — and the rankings crew is getting called out! Mike Heck and Jed Meshew join co-hosts Shaun Al-Shatti and Alexander K. Lee this week to debate the state of the light heavyweight division following Alex Pereira's successful debut over Jan Blachowicz and respond to the fiery criticism of former UFC champ Jamahal Hill, who had plenty to say about the panel's new 205-pound list. Then, the gang unveil MMA Fighting's new No. 1 at women's bantamweight and discuss what the hell happened to a division that used to be one of the sport's marquee weight classes; they also pour one out for Michael Chandler and rank the most fun possible matchups available for Conor McGregor now that it’s becoming clear McGregor vs. Chandler probably just ain’t happening. (Sorry Michael.) 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible. Podcast Network. What is up, my friends? Welcome. What a time to be alive, as always. I hope you're just out there.

Really just having the most incredible day possible. This is the NBA Fighting Ranking. show we are back again second show of the month feeling a little spicy uh we appreciate y'all for joining us my name is shana shoddy once again we're in that post pay-per-view haze and it's frankly it's a great day today i am so happy my co-captain on this journey i miss this man so much he is back the prince of positivity the king of the north alexander k lee back from japan back from vacation and also a k we are joined by our two good pals friends of the program mike heck jed meshu the rock stars of this fine network. How we doing, fellas? What's the, what's the feeling today? I insisted, I insisted that we

do a ranking show after UFC 291 because while I was on a lovely, lovely vacation, the two things that I missed the most were obviously watching the ultimate fighter and doing tough hang. Of course. But second to that was that there was a ranking show without me. And I'm glad you guys did it. Fantastic work as always. But I felt big time fomo. And I was hoping to the detriment of maybe some of the fighters that competed on Saturday. I was hoping that certain results would shake out to really give us something to talk about. And we got plenty. We got plenty to work with, including, and I'll give a quick shout out also to the Super

Rise and 2 card. We're not going to talk about this too much in the show. But I have a feeling that some people that don't even know Patricio Pitbull fought over the weekend. He took a lightweight bout on like, what, a week notice, two week notice, something like that, fought Chihiro Suzuki, who I will admit I am not familiar with. And Chihiro Suzuki knocked him out in the first round. That's two straight loss now for Patricia Pitbull.

So UFC 291, a ton to talk about. I just want to shout out, though, the kind of weird situation that one of our top 20 pound for pound fighters is in right now. All right. And now that we've lost half our audience by already talking about Patricio Pitbull. Wow, it's like that. It's 35 seconds in the program. People are talking about it.

People were talking about it. Jed, Mike. Is that the bad pit bull, brother? Is that the one we're talking about? No, it's a good one. Oh. Well, I guess that tells you everything you need to know about the Pitbull Brothers then. Hey, there's no, it's all.

We've learned so much. We've learned that Justin Gaichi can change careers. We didn't know that Sergio Pettis could change careers, but apparently he did. So, yeah, I guess we're, I guess we're pouring one out a little bit for, for Patricia Pitbull. A tough, tough month stretch or so for that not really young man anymore. I'm so happy about it because I I don't I'm not I'm just kind of quick looking at our overall like pound for pound rankings. I haven't had people in my pound for pound rankings like ever. Shave.

It's like and I think I'm one of one of maybe the only person to do it. It's like I don't know. Beating Michael Chandler is that it? Like just beating a bunch of dudes. I'm not sure that puts you pound for pound for me. And then he gets iced on three days noticed by a perfect. fine fighter, not here to say it. A lot of extenuating circumstances,

but it makes me feel better about my pound for pound rankings and leave them off. What is happening right now? But poor Patricia Pitbull is on the plane ride back from Japan right now. Be like, ah, I'm going to pop on the ranking show. They're going to be talking about all the fun UFC stuff that happened. And he just gets drive-byed by AK. Hey, not by me. Listen, I'm one of, Shaheen, you and I and I,

and the esteemed Casey Leiden did not drop Pitbull off. He went from being, I think he was on everyone's, ballot except for Jeds and now he's only on three. So three of our panelists just you're ahead of the curve. You're ahead of the curve, Jed, and three of our panelists straight up just, well, also it was not on Mike. So three of our panelists dropped him. Now he's just down two. He was on six, six ballots, now just down to three. Still hanging in there because he's pretty high on Casey's ballot, but it has not been a good month for Patricio. I would say I suspect Casey submitted that ballot maybe before that result, but that's neither here and right there.

I don't think it'll convince him to drop him. Anyway, fellas, uh, Hell of a month. Really. Hell of a month. A lot of things. Event of the year with UFC 290, fighting of the year contender on that with the fly weights. You got the masterpiece from Volk. Greatest retirement of all time. And now new BNF champion, Justin Gaci, plenty of depression all around the Salt Lake City area with Tony Ferguson and even Michael Kiesa to like a lesser extent. This month, July, really just made us feel a lot.

It made us really run the gamut when it comes to emotions. But for me, I mean, moving forward, as we exit, sort of this UFC 291 phase and headed to July. The biggest takeaway from all of this to me is the biggest dangling thread that's sort of, I think at least the most impactful storyline as we move forward now, which is the co-main event from Saturday. And really what this light heavyweight division looks like today now following the entry of Alex Pereira.

I mean, we said it on the post-fite show. I said it in particular, I wrote it in my post-fight column as well. But I keep just coming back to the idea of, frankly, how ridiculous all of this is. the fact that this is even happening that less than two years ago this man is losing the first round to Andreas Michaelitis and he's just like this fun curio on this undercard

and now all of a sudden he's I think legitimately one win away from being like a sure fire UFC Hall of Famer if he isn't already like maybe some people would already put him there but he is actually one win away from like being inarguable just comes into Salt Lake City and quite literally outlast

Yombovitz shows off a new level of take down defense mission defense and just the second light heavyweight now to beat Jan Jones era. It's pulling off a rare feat for us, at least for our purposes, because I believe, AK, you correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he is the only fighter, male or female, Alex Perez, to currently be ranked in the top five in two different divisions now for us.

That has to be true. Oh, you guys still ranked him in middleweight? Yeah, he hasn't shut the door. He literally said he's planning to go back. Oh, yeah, I pulled him from my middleweight ranking. Well, you still have time to change that. We haven't, we haven't, I'm not going to change that. Well, you should.

But again, you know what? But a man was bigger than Jan Bolovich. He can say he's going to 185 all he wants. That's just saying happening. We're just trying to, we're just trying to. You can hold him all you want. He's still top five for us. Right now, he's, he's number three at middleweight and fellas.

But this is my other divisions where there aren't fighters you can put in the middle way rankings. There are plenty of them. We'll get to that reason. We'll get to that. To that reasoning later, Jed. I know why you're saying that. We'll get to that reasoning later.

Trust me. We're plenty of time to talk about everyone's favorite division later. Look, number three at middleweight. And now, as of this week, number five for us in these light heavyweight rankings, votes from an eight-person panel split. He gets votes all the way from number three to number six, aka at the U.S. U.S. U.S.

United States. Mike and I aligned at number five. So this is your new top seven now at light heavyweight for MMA fighting. Yuri Prahaska, Bedeem, M.K. Michael Bennett Kalayev, Jamal Hill, Alex Pereira, Corey Anderson, Yombo Kovitz. I love it. So fellas, I throw this to you, Alex Pereira, the number five light heavyweight in the world. Did we get this right?

Sure. Yeah. Because you know what happens? And I think all of you gentlemen can agree with this. When you fight the number five fighter and you beat the number five fighter, then you become the number five fighter. And there are certain fighters who I'm sure we're going to talk about later who don't know what that means.

they just feel like they win a rando vacant title and they're automatically going to be ranked number one. It's not how this works. But if you go out there and you beat the number five guy, whether it's your first light heavyweight fight or your 14th light heavyweight fight, you then, by proxy, become at worst the number five guy. So, yeah, he was my number five.

Yombehold which was number five prior. No brainer. He's the top five light heavyweight right now. Yeah, I don't have any issues. I will disagree. I don't think you necessarily, have to move to five. I think you can also just drop Blajovich. But in this instance, it's a little harder to do that as he's got some relevant wins. I started on six because I basically did just put

him in Yon's spot and bumped people down. But I also recognize that I have an abiding love for Anatoly Malikin that others don't. And so if you move him and perhaps my fanboy glasses off, then yeah, Prayer 5 is fine. Like he's, the problem is Alex Pereer has made a mockery of rankings and basically the entire sport of MMA. Yes,

he's burned them to the ground. He has basically turned the entire sport of MMA on its head and it comes to a really bad time when we're doing ranking stuff which just makes us look like idiots. It's like, I don't know. Here's this dude who's a kickboxer.

And oh, he's actually the best middle weight on earth. He's probably not, but he did beat the best middle way. Oh, now he lost to him. What the hell do we do? I don't have any idea.

He's the exception for everything. He got a very good win at light heavyweight. This is a dog shit division so we can probably beat a lot of other light heavy weights. This feels fine in placement for him. Yeah. Don't forget, he totally screwed up our pound for pound rankings too. When he beat Izzy the first time,

we were like, where the hell do we put this guy? I think he ended up in our top 10. I think Izzy beat him and he's still hanging in there. And now he's- He had such an incredible pound-for-pound resume. Yeah. So do you put him above for the one win?

But if you put, if you put Pereira in there with Paul Craig, I don't, like, it wouldn't at all shock me if Paul Craig tapped him. And Paul Craig is maybe a top 15, like, heavy weight, by the same token, and we're going to get to this. I'm going to pick Pereira to beat Erie Prasco when they fight for the vacant belt. He, he just bends, bends the sport to his will. And it really hurts all of us in the content community, because it makes it impossible. But it is possible to do this.

It is super fun to watch, thankfully. It's so fun. Shaheen, as you wrote in your takeaways, your post-U.C. 291 takeaways, he's speed running. He's speed running his way to like a Hall of Fame, all-time legacy. Like previously, you could have used that description for like Connemn McGregor, but even Cona McGregor, I was just looking at his resume now. He started fighting in 08. He made his UFC debut in 2013.

So he was like focused and pretty busy in MMA for like five years. I think Pareda took his first U.S. MMA fight like a while ago. then obviously went back to focus on kickboxing and then sort of just returned what 2018, 2019 and just started saying, yeah, I'm just going to focus on trying to, you know, do a me again and maybe get this fight with Izzy. And here we are. He becomes the UFC champion.

He's now, we all assume about to compete for a vacant light heavyweight title. It's, there's just no real comparison. He's going to compete for the real light heavyweight title. Because he's going to be fighting the true light heavyweight champion. Yes. And I do, like, if you think otherwise, you're just a barnacle man like i you're just an absolute morricle he's going to fight the dude who is the best light heavyweight on earth for the chance to claim the title that's it i'm not

calling a vacant he's fighting for the belt do we need to cut do it do we need to how we made it clear to do this we made it clear just have to do this my best friend my keck alluded to some controversy regarding our rankings uh shaheen should we just say it should we just say out loud who we're talking about here i was going to save this but it appears that we cannot not say this. So, gentlemen, the former champ, he has some thoughts. Paper champ. I said it. I said it. Let's try to keep this professional. He has some thoughts about our rankings. This was Jamal Hill on Monday morning after the new light heavyweight shakeup was posted. I believe he wrote this on our Instagram. This is casual fan girl rankings. Can there no real fight experience behind this

outlet with three exclamation points. You guys get it? Fang girl, because women don't have valuable opinions. We're women, so we're stupid. Fang girl. You guys, did you kid it? I don't know if you got it or not. Fucking ass.

Also, how dare you, how dare you be smirched the great name of E.K.C. Layden, who undefeated up and coming, one of the greatest prospects in the sport. I mean, I digress. I mean, this had some people split on social media. We had lots of comments in the, that under that post saying, these are casual rankings, how dare they include

Bellator fighters, which is a very funny sentence. Confusing. I don't understand that sentence, but it's funny. Also, we had some people coming to our defense. I mean,

we had our boy Paul DeMarco here on Twitter said, boys, he'll win in on you guys on the IG post. I give you guys some shit on nearly every new rankings you guys post out. However, I think you guys nailed it this time. And then he said,

Anatoly might be too low, which is a little jet standout. I love that. Here's the thing. if you want to have Jamal Hill hire, that's fine. Like, I'm not here to tell you you're wrong for that. It is just, they're just the most sensitive little babies on earth. Like, oh, my goodness, I'm number four.

And all of the comments defending it and sort of big up. Which, by the way, he was above Pereira. Yeah, he's above Pereira. All of the comments defending it are like, uh, specifically there were several, you have the champ, like the former champ number. And then same, same breath. people be like you got to beat the champ to be the champ like what champion did did jamaul hill be he didn't it's like jamaul hill could be the best light heavyweight on earth i have no idea we have

seen him deliver one performance that makes you think oh he could be that it was terrific his performance in glovered shara is a plus plus work it's literally the one thing we've ever seen him do that was even sort of like that i have no idea if he's good or not so like if you want to believe in him and rank him there, I won't be like, you're obviously an idiot. But it just seems very reasonable to be like, oh, yeah, I have one good win on my resume. So it's not unreasonable that I am not the consensus number one person, particularly when you look at my resume and like, not a lot of people still employed by the UFC, even fewer of those people who are on winning streaks right now.

So, like, Johnny Walker is sort of the best win of his career. Yeah, that's a, it's a perfectly fine win. I would not have given Tiago Santos as a good win. I didn't at the time because I didn't think too much to Tiago Santos, but if you want to, that's fine. Glover was a great performance. But then it's Jimmy Crute, OSP, and he lost to Paul Craig. Like, it's, these aren't things that demand me stand up and declare you the greatest.

And so it's okay. Like you, I'll give you a hug, but if what you need is a hug, because you need the validation from people on the internet, I will give you that hug. But otherwise, it's just okay. Because if you want to say that I'm the 5,000th best MMA personality, okay, that's fine. Mike, you're the, I think you're the only one who had him exactly at four, which ended up being the consensus ranking. Explain your apparently heinous ranking of the recent. recent light heavy weight champion so let me let me answer your question with another question remember when we had this conversation in january this exact effing conversation

yes we didn't know where to put him what has jamaal done since then who is he fought killies in a in a basketball game who is he fought in an mama fight since then nobody he has fought nobody and what did we say back in january when this was the same exact freaking conversation. We are going to learn everything we need to know about Jamal Hill and where he's going to be in these rankings when he fights Yuri Perhashka, the actual champion of the world. Because we can all agree that the UFC can present this in any way they would like. They can convince Yuri Perashka that, hey, we're going to strip you the belt, but we're

going to give you the Terry Francona getting fired from the Red Sox, but presented as an amicable split type of scenario where we make it seem like you and your. samurai spirit decided that what's best for this division and what's best for this division is for it to move forward and crown a new champion and I will come back heroically and fight the man who won the title. Well, guess what? He did that. Jamal Hill had an incredible performance. And guess what Jamal Hill has been doing since? Going out to every UFC card, who been every one, every single one, waiting for Yuri Perashka to come back and fight. do I know what sort of negotiations were going on?

I'm not sure. But literally nothing has changed since January. The only thing that I can remember that has been noticeable change in the light, heavyweight rankings is that Vadim Nemcoff beat the hell out of Corey Anderson and bumped up. And then Alex Pereira just beat Janbovich and bumped up. Jamal Hill, for me, has not moved at all. He's been number four since he won the title. He has not moved one ranking, not one.

So what is the problem? Go beat Yuri. You're the number one guy. And guess what? When Yuri fights Alex Pereira, if Alex Pereira beats Yuri Perashka, guess where Alex Pereer is going to be ranked? Number one, if you come back and you beat Alex Perrier, Jamal Hill, if you do that, guess who you're going to be ranked?

Right now, I might rank you 12. I'll say, I'm going to rank him six. I have a new rule. If you come crying about how people are mean to you, I'm bumping you. I know you are immediately dropping one spot. Our next rankings, you're dropping them. be clear that is a Jedmishu rule that is not an enemy fighting rankings panel rule and i'm not saying

i don't support it i i yes i'm not but on top of that when we have discussions like this we have like if let's just take titles out of it let's take titles out of it that's a resume that's one of the important things of independent rankings here that's what i'm done here that's what i'm done here yary prashka to me is still the the champion of the world and the best light heavy weight in the world but dame nemcoff i would pick to comfortably be jamal hill in a fight comfortably. I'd feel very good about it. Could Jamal Hill win? Sure. But I would feel very confident coming on a show saying, Badim Nemcoff is going to put the wood to Jamal Hill. I agree with you. He's going. I agree with that. Yeah, I think my best friend, first of all,

fantastic, fantastically presented case. I think the one big misunderstanding, and we should say, so we have a shake-up post that goes out before the graphic goes on social media and all that. One thing I didn't take into account because I'm a logical human being is that I didn't under, I didn't think people would assume that Jamal Hill dropped. I do take some of the blame. You know, people don't necessarily, I guess, keep up with our rankings all the time. That's fine. So they go really, I think they're comparing it with the UFC rankings.

And they're thinking, oh, Jamal vacated the title during the span of time. And then he dropped to four. Mike, you're right. You're pointing out for most of us, the ranking didn't change at all. And he did not drop in our rankings. He was four after he won the title. We put him as hot because he went from, I think, like, ninth or tenth to four. So pretty big jump anyway.

and then he didn't fall. So that that is where a lot of this people being upset is, is that they think he dropped because of Alex Pereira's win or because he vacated the town. That's not the case. He never dropped at all. We, like, we were just, as you said, we're kind of just waiting to get that,

for him to get that opportunity to fight someone above him. Uri Perthka or Alex Pereira, if he was the title. Mike is like erupted. And then it'll be, I understand. I'm as upset as any of you. I'm just trying to maintain a cool head here. and again, just to make the case for you, for anyone not understanding why Yeri is number one and higher,

his resume is so much stronger than Jamal's. He hasn't lost a fight since December 2015. He's just like... Ante hasn't cried about his resume. Why would he? Why would he? So I just want to say just to... I'm not defending these opinions.

I'm saying I know where these opinions come from. They're just confused and they thought like, oh, we just follow the UFC rankings. And then we just... From a place of sadness, AK. Sadness and just not thinking. Just not like a second of critical thinking. Like, again, Mike is right.

If you think, Jamal Hill's... Critical thinking? What the hell are you talking about? 11 out of the 15 fighters on this list have a color and an arrow next to their names. And do you see a color or an arrow next to Jamal Hill's name? Are you shitting me with this? Like, this is common sense. Our graphics team are so...

social media superstars busted their ass and put out this beautifully easy to follow rankings graphic with colors and arrows next to their friggin' names. And Jamal Hill just has a gray line next to it. It's Jamal Hill and nothing,

which means nothing happened. Of course he didn't drop, because if he dropped, there'd be a red arrow next to his name. Just look at the graphic. Just look at the frigging graphic. Just like a laughing. Mike, please. Mike, please.

Why is this? It's just so stupid, dude. Come on. You are all better than this. I know we work in a sport where people have opinions and they like to say a bunch of things and they like to stir up the pot. There's nothing to stir up here. It's clean as dang.

There's so much to stir up, Mike. This is Boston, Mike. Because he was the UFC's champion. Because he was the UFC's champion. So he's obviously the best fighter in the world and we're just haters. Haters and Luzes, Mike. Boston Mike is back just inside. UFC 292 is just around the corner and Boston Mike is back.

He is back. I just want to restate this because I don't think it was said really at this. Just so we're clear, Jamal Hill by the UFC's own admission was their number four choice to fight for a light heavyweight title. They originally had a fight booked, fell through, Glover wouldn't fight on short notice. They picked two totally other dudes to step in and fight for a vacant.

That went to a decision. Dana got in his fields and was like, I will take number UFC rank number seven, Chumall Hill, and now he will fight Glover to share for it. There were four people in front of Jamal Hill to fight for this belt. He happened to get there. And that's why he ends up at number four in our rankings.

And if Magamara, if Magamah, If Magam and Aguilai have won the title that night, which most people thought he did, we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. Jamal Hill wouldn't be in the top five. Jamal Hill would have fought Anthony Smith in like March, probably would have won that. And now it'd be like, Jamal Hill is fighting Johnny Walker again or something. He'd be on the right side of the rankings, probably with the red arrow in a number one next to his name,

because Alex Pereira just went up and beat Jambahovic. So what, like, what are we talking about? air. Don't know. It's great, though. Great for the content lines. I just have to say, the criticism of the rankings of, you know, hey, who are these people doing these rankings?

They've never fought. Do people understand how the UFC rankings are done and the people who are doing them? Oh, they a thousand percent do not, Sheen. Like, look, these are the same people who. It's not Dana White and Sean Shelby sitting up in that room with McMaynor doing those rankings. No, these are the same people who, I'm going to toot our own horns here for just a very brief moment, have the mental disconnect to look at MMAfighting.com,

the actual best website in the world for covering this space, the most prolific and best website at this and be like, casual marks, those people whose profession it is to cover the sport and do it better than anyone. And win awards every year, don't know shit these people just they don't make the connect

I'm just gonna say I'm looking at the people who do the UFC rankings right now so this is the opinions that that is you know the non-casual Top Turtle podcast blood and sweat I don't know if that's a website

maybe it's a website I believe that's an expansion pack for one of the Witcher games Cherokee Scout which sounds like a racehorse name listen I interviewed the guy who works for the Cherokee Scout back in the day for a future on the he's a nice man I genuinely have never heard of this place he's a nice guy I don't know S-MU 93.3 I just genuinely have never heard of three of the four that have been named I could not reach she and you can

keep going but I could not reach I don't need to keep okay people can find it it is it is it is squirreled I didn't know they still showed it it is squirled at the bottom of the rankings the uc.com rankings page just in this little like one line how are rankings determined you to click it and it opens up this box and then these little the names are like it's just in this little extra box almost grayed out they're like hard to read um and when i was doing my feet just for a few years ago now when i was doing my feature i don't think the names have changed i think of course but but i'm pretty sure uh talking to other people since then that that these sites they don't use the same list of sites so no one's a hundred percent sure who the panel is made up of now but that's to

your point guys that the quote unquote official rankings that are apparently bible to uh many MMA fans are made just, I want to say just as, are made far more haphazardly than our rankings. Here's all I have to say, and I'm done. Jamal Hill, you're number four, and these are the only rankings that matter. So deal with it, homie. That's just it. Deal with it. Because we ain't changing.

You want to change it? Come back from the injury and fight somebody that's going to move you up. Until then, your number four, fan girl out. Last thing for me, because I agree, we don't need to dwell on this. I feel like we've already talked about it too much, if anything. I'm just curious, because this is the thing that doesn't make sense to me, and it's sort of what Mike was saying. What do you think is the one name on there that set this off?

Because like, to me, there's only three people above Jamal Hill. Obviously, Uri, I feel like anyone getting mad about Yeri would just be the worst kind of insane. Like we all, that's just not. They are. And I will say that most of the comments I saw were some variation of like, He should at least be number two, which I'm assuming is a year. So then you have either never watched Vadim Nemcoff and just don't pay attention to the world outside of the UFC if that's your opinion of Vadim Nemcoff. Because that's just like, that's obscene.

That's a terrible opinion if you think Vadim Nemcov has a worse resume than Jamal Hill. Right? Like that's just objectively, not true. The whole crapping on Nemcov, Corey Anderson, Phil Davis thing is so weird to me because I see a lot of the comments like, oh, these guys wouldn't cut it in the UFC. I'm like, Corey Anderson and Phil Davis were top 10 U.S. Light Heavyweights. They came over to Bell Tor. It was in the top five when he left.

Corey Anderson has a more definitive, well, maybe not more definitive, an equally definitive win over Glover Tosherra. Like a much younger Glover Tashire. It's so dumb. And I'm fine with people arguing that overall Bell Tour has lesser competition. That's fine. But Light Heavy is definitely one of their better divisions. A lot of their losses are to each other.

Like we're saying like, oh, well, they lost them fights in Belter. Yeah, they lost to each other. They lost to other UFC guys who were ranked in UFC. So I don't mind people not wanting to rank you about our guys as highly, but to say they shouldn't be on the list is so dumb. It just makes no sense. It's a casual list. It's a casual list.

It's a casual list. It's a casual list. So it shouldn't be on me. Also, I misspoke. I was, uh, Corey Anderson's, uh, dominant win is over Jan Bolovich. So before they come from my throat. Well, didn't he also beat Glover? No, he lost a Glover.

No, they fought twice. Didn't they also? I'm not crazy, right? I swear he beat Glover. How to look this up. Now, now you've got me. We know he fought Yon twice,

and Yon won the most recent fight by knockout, but he did, he does that. Yeah, Corey also beat Glover. He's beaten Glover and he's beaten Yon. So I don't know if people want. Like,

I know it was a while ago now, but these wins did, you can't erase them. They happened. And Glover didn't beat him. No, Glover does not have a win over. Yeah.

Corey Anderson. No. Corey Anderson also melted Johnny Walker, too. Mm-hmm. Like real fast. Corey Anderson's really good. He's really good. I'm not willing to say Corey Anderson's very good.

That's a bridge too far. He'd be a top 10 light heavyweight in the UFC, right? The only knock against him. Well, yeah, but maybe top 10 light heavyweight doesn't make you good. Oh, it doesn't make you good. Light heavyweight is light heavyweight. It's strictly rankings talk, Jed, strictly ranks. Real quick, just give me your answer, Jed.

If you, who would you bet on if the lines are even? Jamal Hill or Corey Anderson? Corey Anderson. Okay, fair enough. I mean, I wouldn't feel super confident because, again, it's the thing. was that performance just, here's Jamal Hill, he has arrived, or was it, hey, you guys remember the Cody Garbrandt moment when we were like, oh shit, this dude's never going to lose again.

Look what he's doing to Dominic Cruz. Oh, wait, actually, he's going to get got a many, many times over. Could be either. We have no idea until we see what happens moving forward. That's all we said in January. We'll know everything in his next fight. He goes out there and beat Jerry's the dude. That's it.

Yeah. There's no way you're implying a win over a 43-year-old Glover to share. who just took an immense amount of damage in the fight of the year, like a few months before that would be. The same as a win over a dominant cruise who doesn't have functioning knees and was also just like physically real old at the time. Could be the same.

We'll find out. Maybe it's not. It might be totally different. We'll find out. We'll find out. Last thing on heavy way. And then we can move on because we've done enough. Yeah, close this out.

I just want to go back to where we started, which is Yuri versus Alex to me is now my mom. most anticipated fight of 2023. I believe that will happen in 2020, probably towards the end of the year. I can't wait for this fight.

That fight is fucking magical to me, just in the way that we can like speculate and think about like how things are going to look. Those two dudes are just absolutely insane in like the best way possible when it comes to this type of thing

of like action fighters who are just very unpredictable, but also like just really will death touch you at any moment from any of the eight limbs. Do you guys share my enthusiasm for this? Because to me, I said this on the post show and Jed, you laughed at me,

but like this to me, this fight to me now being here in front of us makes it feel like 205 is back in a way that's like actually real for the first time in a long time. I have to see it. And that's how you know that they're just going to book Yuri versus Megamanankalive instead. So I'm really looking forward to that as well. So that's going to great. I love this.

I love it. That's all I can say. I'm fascinated by it. I'm fascinated by it. Right now I'm kind of with Jed. I kind of feel like Pereira is going to win. But only because just this weird, it's just the Pereira story right now. and it's just, it's like written in the stars that this is going to happen.

I just had just that weird feeling. It just feels like the blood gods are hurtling us towards the Izzy thing to come back. Like, whatever this weird thing is, it feels to me like it's in the air. I mean, I don't think that's going to happen because Izzy's going to lose to DDP, but that's a different conversation. Yeah, I don't know. I'm pretty excited about it. It'll just be really fun to watch, but I think Pereira is going to boop him. And then we're going to be left right back here being.

like, is Alex Perr really the best light heavyweight in the world? Like probably not, but I guess he is technically. But Fadim Nimkov will probably run him. And so would a number of other dudes, really what the hell do we do with this anomaly that is Poetan? Which is really fun. So I'm into it. I'm definitely into it even if it makes me ask some existential questions about this sport as a whole. I just laughed out loud because of your prediction comes true.

Jamal Hill is going to have a number and a call. color next to his name and it's going to be red and he's going to get dropped to number five and it's going to be a reaction to that is going to be incredible it's going to be dope and all the while magerman and coliyev is probably actually the best light heavyweight in the world that's the thing he probably is probably actually the dude but we're never going to know this is this is very weird division should have been yon he should have been yon he had a shot he had a shot he didn't lose to yon They didn't lose. They didn't win.

But for reasons I still haven't figured out, uh, in rage Dana White, despite probably winning and at least not losing in a perfectly fine fight. Totally fine fight. Enraged him. Showed a lot of heart. Showed a lot of heart in that fight.

It's good fight. It's good fight. No. Awful. Unbelievable that these, these two men would go to a draw that they have actual no control over the draw part of it. Which is weird times

Weird times, fun times I'm really excited for it We're gonna take a quick break And then AK's gonna be very happy Once we come back Great times When I got a great deal On a great gift at winners

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we are back and I'm just so bad I'm so glad you're back for this one A.K. Because I

really couldn't imagine doing this episode without you I couldn't imagine doing this segment without you this is a dream

segment for you there's finally a reason to actually talk about 5. Realistically, there actually is. Yeah, seriously. In the void left behind a man in Nune's weight. I feel like no one had any idea what to do with women's bantam weight. Last time we were here, there were three different women who drew number one votes from her panel,

Julianna Pena, Pennington, and Holly Holme. But now, fellas, now those votes have been consolidated. And I honestly can't believe I'm about to say this, but we actually have a new number one bantamweight on MMA fighting. Let's go. I don't know what world we're living in, but five first place votes, Myra Buenos Silva. The new number one, Bantamuit on MMA fighting by like a wide margin rockets from number 10 to number one

because of reasons, I guess. She's getting Ws and finishes, baby. I'm beaten at 135. I guess she hasn't lost on 135. She's unbeaten. So Jed and AK, both of you guys had her at number one. Mike and I, we respect the process. We have her at number four behind Peña, Pennington,

and Vieira. But like, we're basically alone on this on the website. I'm going to throw it to y'all. I have no idea how to handle this news. What should we handle this news? What even just happened here? It was easy. I was saying this coming into the fight with Holly home.

The UFC should have put a stupid vacant title fight on it because why not? Like, I know we're going to a Pennington Pena thing, but like who really cares? They were so quick to do it with the much more prestigious like heavyweight belt for no reason at all. Just do it for this one. Let Holly home get one more shot at it. Fireboy and Silva is the top. 10 fighter. It's no honestly it is would have been exactly the same as having glory to share a fight Jamal Hill for a hip and belt like exactly the same when you're looking at the rankings.

And so I said going into that's going to be my number one. Whoever wins that. I don't care. I'm just declaring it. And then on top of it, Meyer Buena Silva wins it. She's won four in a row at Bannam weight since coming back up. Three of them are finishes. Nobody. I think I didn't look this up. Pennington is on by far the longest winning streak at the bandweight division at five mbs is four i assume is number two and three of hers are finishes and that's not something rocky's doing so that's my number one i feel great about it and again i want to reiterate mara bona selva has not lost at 135 pounds her two losses are uh at flyweight so she's an undefeated bantam weight she beats holly home something

that rquel pennington hasn't done i think rickle's had two tries at it hasn't done it julian painia hasn't had the chance to fight Hollyholm, so you can't really ding her for that. Kentland Veyra did beat Holly Home, but then lost to Pennington, so she suffers from some MMA math. So it's actually really easy, I think, to put Madre Buenos Silva at the top. And I was, as I went on vacation, I was still, of course, getting M.A. fighting notifications. You just need them.

And I was getting those fight night notifications. And after my initial, who the hell are some of these people that were fighting on this card, I then had a moment of, oh, wait, I was like, is that right? My honor Buenos Silva submitted Holly Home. And I felt this excitement. And I felt one, like, wow, this is going to be a moment. great vacation. And I can't wait to come back and talk about it.

The tone center. That's the tone center for the vacation. And the only thing, my only worry is that I'll be thinking about why to talk about women's band to make for the rest of the trip, which I was. Still a great trip. But crowning might of Buenos Silva is a great way to return to North America. I'll tell you that. I mean, Mike, what do you make of all this?

Because you were with me at number four. This kind of happened around us. I've still uncertain how this happened. I mean, Jamal Hill's going to be so bad. when he sees these rankings. It's, it's fine. Like, I'm just,

are we just bored? I think that's a part of it. I think this is, I think Meyer Buena Silva just going out and tap in Holly Holm. I think she did a lot of people, including a lot of people in this rankings panel of favor by doing that. I think she definitely did the UFC a favor by doing that. Holly just,

Jedd, you said it best. When Holly walked into the building, like normally we watched the walks, she looked like she was 54. Like she, I was like, wow, she actually looks older and doesn't look like

if she even really kind of wants to be there right now. So I just think sort of getting Holly home out of the title picture might be the momentum swing to get something out of this division. But to me, I just, I couldn't put her above,

Pennington or Pena. I didn't even put her above Kelmiera just yet. She doesn't have the resume. But I'm not blame it. Like, I don't blame either of you. Kellyira probably lost to Holly Holme and at least it was if she didn't, it was a really awful, awful fight. MBS saved us

25 minutes. Give the woman her respect for not making you watch Holly Holm do that thing for 25 minutes. And I think that's part of it too. Sure. Those who had to cover that event were very happy. Very realistically, If you look at anybody ranked in anybody's list right now, MBS's submission of Holly Home is the most impressive single victory aside from Pena's win over Nunez, who's retired and who Nunez emphatically responded to.

Yes. And depending on how when that Nunea, excuse me, Pena Pena Pena Pena Penteenthinectin fight happens, that Nunes win was December 2021. Like, it could be two years, you know, I'm assuming that Pena and Paineton will fight for the end of the year, but I'm not. sure, it's not booked. So it could be like two, we're approaching the two years away from the fight soon. Since that time, she fought a man in Nunez and lost, got crushed for five rounds. And in that time,

Mara Buenos Silva won four fights. So she's four and O since that time. Finisthenes three, um, Juliaina Pena's own one. She can ride that, that Nunes win forever. It's a great win.

It's why she's ranked as highly as she is. But mathematically speaking, realistically speaking, I have no problem putting my out of Buenoselva ahead of her. No, I have zero problem with it and happy to do it. I don't hate it. It's the Matt Serer situation. I don't hate it. I don't hate it. I feel like it's just representative of what the

fuck this division is. Yeah. You should actually go here. It's fun. Did you try it? Did you put the name there and like just try it? Like, see how it felt? See how it looked? For people who are listening to this, I'm going to give you a sampling of some names who are ranked within the top 15 of some of the panelists. Oh, how for women's fancy. I'm going to butcher some of these. Tunisia Tenet. Yeah. Olga Rubin. Yeah. Claire Guthrie, Daria Zelenecki. I'm going to say Zelzekova, but I have no idea if that's close to being correct. I believe Zalznikova is it, AK, I'm so proud of you for plumbing the Aries Mines.

Hades F.C. shout us to Aries F. This is what we're doing. Even though Darya lost to Melissa Dixon. But I have Melissa Dixon too. I have Melissa Dixon ahead of her. I have them both. Melissa Dixon's on there. I believe I introduced Melissa Dixon several months ago.

Yeah, I think it is trying to find someone to fill this out. It is so impossible to find 15 names to fill out these ballots at this point. It is ridiculous. This is what I truly believe this, this MBS just rocketing at number one for everyone is. It's just y'all are bored with this division. Yeah. That's fun. And that's fine, frankly.

For like, this is the one division where it feels to me like, whatever. If you want to have Pena at the top, I don't begrudge any of the people who put pain. Yeah. She's my number two. My number three, because I, she has one win that's notable. and Rocky Pennington has five in a row. I just have to say that for context purposes, because the listeners have no idea what our rankings,

like what our actual page looks like. I laugh every single time I look at this. It started with Jed in caps, burn this division to the ground, then there's a burn it down, another burn it down. And then you see Shaheen finally get on board. He goes, yep, burn it down.

And then one of our other fatalists trying to like play, sit on the fence, just goes burn this division down with a question mark. It's unbelievable. Watching them slowly materialize month by month my month above our names is really quite a delight to me.

It has been my favorite thing about the rankings, so I'm glad you guys enjoyed as much as like. And before anyone gets mad about this, they should know, there's just, there's not a lot of promotions that even have the 135 division. There's like three in the world. The UFC and Invicta.

And Invicta is. And Ares. And the UFC and Invicta, I mean, Invicta is a separate promotion, but there's a connection there, right? So there's a reason. I'm not saying count them as one, but to say it's like two promotions promoting 135 is a little strange because it's not really necessarily the case. Ares FC, but PFL doesn't, right? PFL's doing featherweight right now. Beltor doesn't.

Belator has featherweight and flyweight specifically. They're like, yeah, we're just not doing 135. Like they made an active choice to not promote 135. Belator, smarter than us for once. Yeah, apparently. It is a very strange division. And what makes the strange is we're always going to look back to the halcyon days of Ronda Rousey of Michate, of Hollyholm, whoever else in there, Petchahia.

Shout to Petchahia. When it was this booming marquee division. And then, but once it stopped, you know, once that stopped, boy, it stopped hard. Like this division fell off a cliff and has not even come close to climbing back on since. Yeah. But might have a way. Two of us coming back. Two of us coming back.

Let me just ask, because I know Mike has to get out of here. he has a heart out. So I want to ask this before he does. What for you, gentlemen, I mean, this is two different parts to this question, right? There's going to be a title fight

ostensibly at some point in this division unless the OFC just says, nah, we don't even need a champion. We're just going to let this figure itself out. What's the title fight you expect, but also like what's in your dream world if you're a matchmaker world? Like, what's the title fight this division deserves?

What's the one you would do? Mike, go ahead. So my mind has changed. My mind has changed. changed a little bit. If I were the matchmaker, Meyer Boe and Silva is getting a title shot. Like, she is just getting one

because she is interesting and fun. And if Holly Holm went out there and did the same thing to Meyer Boyna Silva, Holly Holmah, Holm would be getting title shot right now. So I would like to see Meyer Boe and Silva get it. She's not going to. I'm kind of, I feel like Pena Pennington was like locked in Stoney

before that fight happened. So I think we're going to get that. And I think Meyer Boeoines Silva is going to get the winner. But I have to tell you, I'm very intrigued about a Juliana Pena-Macey-Barber fight. Like, I actually really want to see that fight right now. It's, I want to see it. I want to see it. So even if like, I'm not saying that should be the title fight,

would be the funniest thing in the history of the women's Vanuwait Division is if the UFC went with Meyer Buena-Silva versus Raquel Pennington for the vacant title and made Giuliana Pena fight Macy Barber in a non-title fight. It would just be one of the funniest things ever. at some point I do want to see that fight but if I have to put money on it so the MBS is going to be the backup fighter she'll weigh in she'll get the winner

and they'll do Penae Pennington because I think it's already done like I bet it's already like a done deal it just hasn't been announced yet probably happens in MSG they'll probably do like three title fights and that'll be the first of the three so yeah I think that's what we're going to get and MBS gets the winner I just have to explore this here

really quickly what do you think the lead up like what's the press conference for Giuliana Peña versus Macy Barber. Oh, no. It hurts. It hurts. I think it would be pretty good. I think Macy, like, I think Macy's got that in her, kind of, she's got that

that sort of gangsterish side to her that could piss Pena. Like, it ain't going to be pretty. It's not going to be pretty, but we would see Juliana Pena, Pena probably get somewhat flustered in there and Barbara would eat that shit up. So it would be kind of entertaining. in that respect, but it could also be really terrible too. Like, this could be, how does a bill become a law all over again? But in a different, different respect.

On the pantheum of phrases that just get repeated over and over again for some reason, how does a bill become a law and Frozen like Elsa? Like, what's the worst? Oh, how long does the bill become a law was so bad that it was good. No, that one's good. Yeah. It's so bad that I love it so much. Frozen Mike Lasson.

It was also like, how's it bill become a law? How's it bill become? Tell me, come on. I've seen school. Schoolyard rock. I know. I'm actually fully, pretty much fully on board with what Mike said. I said immediately after I think MBS and Rocky Pendleton are in a just world.

They just deserve it the most. They have just continued to beat people in this weight class, which is what you'd hope for for contenders. So that would be the one I'd make. We're going to get Pennington Pena. My guess is MSG or the New York card as the Comain. And that's fine. The winner of that, I will put number one.

Because if Pennington wins, I mean, that's six in a row. That's enough. And if Pena wins, I will even give her that credit. Like, that's, that means she has two extremely good wins. That's enough to probably pass MBS. What do you think, okay? I already happened. Peno Silver is home.

Listen, that was the title fight in my mind. I will, going forward, either intentionally or by accident, be referring to Maya Brno Silva as the UFC Phantomweight champion in the future. If she, next to she loses, I'll probably be calling her. She's the uncrown champion. They should have gotten a championship fight money.

Holly Holm and Mario Binocelva should have gotten paid, whatever it is that you get to, what, 500 grand or whatever, the automatic, like, pay boost for a championship fight. That, to me, it's already been done. Pena and Panyan, Pangton, they're fighting to be the number one contender to face, might have went on Silva in the future as far as I'm concerned, except for the fact that they'll actually have built and get that money.

But you guys know what I'm saying. I saw the fight I wanted to see. They should have made that for the baking title. I mean, I don't know. I guess. Like, obviously it's going to be Pena Pennington. I agree.

I think that's already like almost basically done for the most part. Can I throw a wrench into this, though? I feel like I'll have a lot of support with though, especially from one of you. Julianna Pena, Aaron Blanchfield. Tell me that's not a better fight than anything we're talking about. I hate this idea. Why?

I thought of all people you would be on this. Because Aaron Blanchfield needs first must descend to her rightful position as the flyweight champion of the world. I don't need to do. We just got to wait for all of that. If Valentino wins, you're going to do the trilogy. She's fine. I don't want to wait. It's also pretty unlikely to me the Valentina wins as the biggest Valentina fan.

History is against her getting the W on the comeback here. If she does, whatever, she's 23. it's fine. I want Blanchefield to be the champion in the weight class in which she is best in one, the best women's weight class in the sport, two, a real weight class, not an almost fake weight class,

which is what bad and weight is really on the verge of. Like, it's call me crazy. I just fight in your weight class, and if you've beaten every single person and there's truly nothing else, then we'll give you a chance of a second belt. I just, I don't need to see, look, I think Aaron Blancher will beat Julian Pena.

Feel real good that that would happen. Just don't need it. Let the women at 135 settle their affairs, let Aaron Blanchfield settle her business, and then she can go beat their asses later because she is the best female fighter on the planet. I just have a sneaking suspicion that Val is going to win this belt back

in a very methodical five-round decision. We're going to go to a third fight, and Aaron Blancher's been stuck sitting there for like a year. We're not going to. going to do that at all. Because if Valentina wins this belt, however she wins it, she's going to pull in Izzy and be like, I have settled this rivalry. I have won the most recent one.

So we need not fight again. I will now go to Bantamweight and fight for the Bantamweight belt against whoever the winner of the Pinnington Penae is. I think that's what happens if Val wins. So either way, I think Blancher has a clear route into the flyweight belt. And I'm just, I just want to do that. Just want to do that. don't need to do the Bannway thing.

I'd rather Val get the chance anyway because, you know, let her do the legacy thing at the end of her career. I just let Blancherliel be the best flyweight in the world because that's what she is. I mean, if you're Aaron Blanchfield, if I'm Aaron Blanchfield, I right now am campaigning so hard

to become the youngest two division UFC champion and making that like the Macy Barber. I'm going to be the John Jones type of thing. Like that's now my statement that I'm thrown out there to everybody. And then eventually calling out Norman Dumont, for a vacant featherweight title fight and then becoming the only three-division

UFC champion ever. Passed right there. It's right there. Do the right thing, UFC. It's very much in play. It should be. All right. We had women's band to make conversation.

It was necessary. That's good. It was planned. It makes me happy. Yeah, this time it was planned for once. Let's go. We have one last thing to get to today and then we'll get out of here.

As you guys know. We like to pour one out to end our shows. Wish some sad farewells. Sometimes they're not sad to people who leave their rankings on this ranking cycle. This ranking cycle in particular, there actually aren't that many departures because it was, A, a short cycle and also B, there were just very few fights of consequence. It's not a ton of movement, but there were two that I think are worth mentioning. First of all, let's pour one out. But this is more of like, let's pop a quirk for this man for Francis Ngano, because he is officially out.

He hits the 18-month cutoff that we have in our rankings. You don't fight for 18 months. You're out regardless of what's going on. So he's out. He's out of the pound for pound. I think he was number seven. He's out of that. He's also out of the number one heavyweight spot.

So John Jones ascends. He is now officially our number one heavyweight. Francis will be okay. He's winning life right now. Just so we're clear, John Jones is not my number one heavyweight, and I will not be changing this anytime soon. Now I have to ask who's your number one heavyweight.

I have not looked at this. Tommy Aspenna, Aspenna, Tommy has been a... That is irresponsible. This is irresponsible. Are you serious? I don't want to go down this well right now, Shane. I know.

This will be handled internally. Why is he responsible? I'm sorry, John Jones beating Cyril gone. That's, that's it. It's one win. Tommy Aspen all got plenty of them. They're real good. Yeah.

Very quality wins. This young man is the future, and I am buying stock. I am buying Aspenol stock. Take two. later, Jed. Take to you later, buddy. I'm not taking, I'm not. Topical. Taking the act. No one gets, that's a really inside joke. It's great. Do you want to tell the story now or not? No, it's not even worth it.

But anyway, Francis is killing it. He will be back whenever he fights Derek Lewis at the beginning of 24 and makes Derek Lewis a bunch of money and we have all just had a ton of fun with the whole situation. So, so long to Francis and Ghana, we don't even need to talk about it. He, again, crushing it. There is another one, though, that I want to pour one out for. And this isn't even really rankings relevant, but it feels necessary at this point in time because we're seeing a man, Jedmishu, we're seeing a man flounder. We're seeing a man drown in front of us.

And I want to throw him a life trap, but I just, I don't even know what to do with this. On his head. I'm sorry, we got to pull one out for Michael Chandler, who through no fault of his own, has completely seemingly lost the Connor McGregor fight. They did a whole season, the ultimate fighter that no one is watching. Every weekend we're seeing Mike try to get this back, try to claw it back, and it's just falling farther and farther out of his fingers. It's just slipping away from him.

It feels like it's just not happening, especially after this past weekend of Connor just going off about Gaichi and Poria and all these people. Do we need to pour one out for Michael Chandler? I mean, no, because that would be a celebration of him. And I certainly do not want to do this. let me tell you the best thing that happened this past weekend was Connor saying saying the quiet part out loud. Connor finally just dropping the facade and being like, I don't care about Michael Chandler.

I want to fight you just. It's like, oh, good. We all knew that you didn't. We were all aware, but at least we all now we all know. Now even Mike knows. And here's the thing. He can't. There's nothing he can do about it.

And he didn't even try. you can do about it. Where was Michael Chandler's big response to Connor saying, I don't give a shit about fighting him? There was no like, nothing. Just he had to accept it. And he's going to have to fight Armant Sarukin.

And it's going to be delightful. Imagine going from doing everything in your power to get this fight. And then this fight is given to you. And then the UFC is like, you get it. Here's the golden ticket. It's yours. Do this tough thing.

And then just like, Like, nah, JK, Connor doesn't want to do it. So what if you have to fight this guy instead? It's the best. It rules. That's why you know that it's true to, because that's why Michael Chandler's response after 291 was, Justin Gagee needs to defend that BMF belt.

I know he just beat me like eight months ago or whatever. Gachie needs to fight me again because even he knows. He's pivoting. He's giving a. on it. It's never going to happen. And instead, he is going to be left holding the crappy end of the stick. He's going to have to fight Srucun or like Grant Dawson or somebody who is extremely good and

will do nothing for him and probably beat him. It is just, it warms your heart. It really does. This is the problem, one of the problems, one of the few problems with the ultimate fighter and otherwise flawless piece of reality television programming. for one thing they didn't have the fight book before the season started that was a huge red flag in the past they've been pretty good about establishing a date now if not for the finale like for the fighters but for you know when the two coaches were going to fight each other that hasn't always been

the case there have been plenty of other seasons where they just said at some point during the season we'll announce it or at the end of the season we'll announce when the coaches are fighting this one right away I think a lot of us were like oof they don't have a time for when this fight's going to happen. We all knew, even before it all, like, sort of blowing up. We all knew, like, we know Connor's not back in Yusada and all this other stuff going on. It's like, just in his general unreliableness as far as, like, being able to pin him down for a fight, like, so far ahead of time. And that was, that was a huge worry. The show is, I think, I want to say it's longer than usual. It's 12 episodes. Maybe that's normal, but it's a longer filming. I know

for a fact, it was a longer filming. And there's just so many, that's why I always, I've been saying for years, I don't, if you're going to make a big fight, if you want to make a big fight, do not tie it to the ultimate fighter do not make the two guys coached the ultimate fighter they've had some pretty good luck recently i don't like any of the fights have fallen through but this was one where i'm like if you're just going to make the fight just make the fight don't make them go through this whole song and dance and you're right it michael chanler has suffered for it because he's been putting in the work on the show he's been doing a post fight show uh bless him along with us you know we got tough hang people always tuned to that but i will say michael's

also doing his own post-ulted fighter show. He's doing everything he can. He's spoken into existence. So I still hope this fight that happens. I'm still optimistic. It will happen. But this is a blind optimism at this point. I can't give you a strong reason why I'm like, oh, this.

Well, Connor said this and Michael Chavez said this and this happened on the show. They're definitely still going to fight. I'm like, every sign has pointed to this fight not happening. Here's the thing that way, Kay, he's not doing everything that he can. And that's it. Like, I think that there's a real world. This was just never have happened under any circumstance. But how many fighters in history have gotten to fight Connor McGregor because they called him out and were very nice?

It's Dustin Poirier. The list is Dustin Poirier. And he at least had the past with him as well. He had a past fight that. Yeah, they had a past. He respects Dustin. And Connor was also in the middle of semi-futing with the UFC. And Dustin was like, hey, we should do this thing for charity.

and that sort of it got traction and took on. And that's it. And every other fighter who has called him out, be it with animosity or with kind words, they don't because Connor's going to fight the people who are specific for whatever reasons. Unless you need Diaz, who calls him out and talks a whole mess and people are interested in it.

Michael Chandler has not galvanized people into really caring about this fight. It's a fine fight. People would watch it, but there's nothing there that's like, we have to see it. and he has not taken any of the opportunities to when he is in a room with Connor to really make him care.

I said this on something. I don't remember what we were what show was on the clip of, of the incident. The show. The show. It's very obvious to anyone with eyeballs like that's just a fabricated thing Connor's doing because he doesn't actually feel any type of way about Chandler. You got to make him feel some way about you and whether that's coming out and saying, oh, you're, you're just afraid of me, and you're on the juice and all, like, you could,

you could say the things Justin Gachie did, and then Connor would come back at you. And instead, Michael Chandler's like, I'm just going to pivot to Justin Gagee because I can't get this, Connor. I like to the slow hands thing, or small hands thing. He was doing like a small hand thing. No, that's actually a good thing. Yeah, that was fun. You should just double down on it, though.

Every single day, you just be a relentless ass and hope that that works because whatever you're doing now is not. Like, he clearly doesn't care about fighting you, and there's nothing in it for fighting you. If he beats you, he is no closer to anything of substance. And that's, that's the other trick to all of his things. Michael Chandler's Photoshop guy. He has to have one. Putting pictures every day out of small hands.

Smaller and smaller every day. Like, that actually should be the bit is that every day, they just get a fraction of this percent smaller. You better agree to this fighter. These hands are going to keep getting smaller? I know you guys. are diligently watching Ultimate Fighter 31 every week. I haven't watched an episode.

But for the sake of this conversation, I'm just going to pretend you haven't. I know you guys watch. The immediate aftermath of the shove was nothing. Like every episode since they don't bring it up. Chandler and him are like in meetings being like buddy, buddy, being very professional. It is so stupid.

It is like how can there be like no tension between them? It's zero, zero tension. You remember when there was like a brief, man, your eye of favor is a big star and like he and Connor could fight. then there was like maybe a touch of it, but then they were just like nice to each other. And so immediately went away. Being nice to Connor and going to get you a fight with him ever. Worst tragedy.

Justin Porriy and who at the time was the consensus number one lightweight on earth. Then Connor was interested in fighting the number one guy on earth. Michael Chandler ain't that. Like you're going to have to do something. He's not doing it. And so it's on him. You got to do more, buddy. Just do more.

So in the spirit of that, you know, we like to rank things on this show. What's the most fun choice for you for a Connor eventual fight? Because who the hell knows of this dude? He might never fight again. I wouldn't be surprised if he never fights again. But say in the world that exists where he goes back into USADA and actually commits the drug testing and commits to training for like two months for something. What's the most fun version of that for you now?

Okay, I'll leave it to you. I have three answers that I get that I'll agree with. I also have three answers. I'm glad that you have. I, like I said, I haven't given up on the Michael Chandler fight, but I guess for the sake of this question, we're saying,

assuming the Michael Chandler fight doesn't happen. There's still, guys, there's still like three episodes of the fighter left. You don't know what could happen. It's the most unpredictable show on television. Something could happen that. People just go like,

oh my gosh, I really hope this fight happens. And, you know, Connor sees that. And it's like, oh, yeah, yeah, you know what? I forgot it would have. I forgot it.

But I'm glad I watched this episode because I forgot that this happened in the house and I really need to settle the score with Michael Chandler. So I'm not giving up on it. So we're clear. one of my three is actually still Michael Chandler. Okay, good.

I do think that that's a fun fight. Like, because Michael Chandler has been a chaos agent since coming to the UFC, I get that fight is fun. And so that's probably the most pure fun fight of my list. How do I get him in there with Charles Oliver? Oh. That's just never, I clearly that's never going to happen. I don't know how it would.

But I feel like if Charles loses to Islam again, which is pretty likely. If Charles beats Islam and then. and Connor gets a relevant lightweight win, then you could get him in. I don't even think he needs to get it. I feel like you don't think they would just throw them in there with the Charles would. I think Charles would jump at the opportunity. I think Charles would accept it.

I'm not sure the UFC would do it. I think they would just go, all right, Vol, we have a new champ. Fight this champ instead. But that's a long row because, again, I'm probably picking as long to beat him again. You imagine a world where Connor just jumps some line and like beat Charles for the title, and then all of a sudden the UFC is a game with this maniac as their lightweight champion? I don't think they really want to do that. Yeah, I don't think they want to do that for that exact reason.

Anything can happen. Charles Alvair beats him 99 out of 100 times. I would not say 99 out of 100 times. I will happily say it. 7 out of 10. Charles gets hit a lot. This is M.A. But I would.

7 out of 10. Charles gets hit a lot. Connor is a really, really good finisher. I don't know what Connor is anymore, for me honestly. I honestly don't. That's fair. So Charles is your pick. And if I could wave my magic wand, I would make him fight Charles Oliver.

So my, like I said, I still, I think Chandler is the most fun one. I am dogmatically sticking to the fight I have called for for five or six years at this point. If I got a magic wand and I got to make it, it would just be versus Justin Gachie because we're talking two of the five most exciting fighters to have ever lived in a stylistic matchup that I think at one point in time I would have described as perfect because the things Connor sucks at Justin's really good at and the things Justin sucks at Conner's really good at. And so watching those two dudes meet in the middle and figure it out has always been sort of my my nirvana of what a fist fight could be in the UFC.

Coming off this weekend and really just the last few years in general, that fight has less allure. I'm still holding on to the memory of the dream, but I'm pretty kind of. confident that Justin Gachie would just thrash that dude. Yeah, that doesn't feel competitive at all anymore. I mean, Justin's like, go fun way, right?

Hit early. So like the first three minutes, maybe Connor can do something, but he's so much more defensively responsible now. And he's just going to bash his face in, which is a different kind of enjoyment, frankly. But I'm still holding that is my number one.

It's leading to that enjoyment, I will say. So that's still holding that as my number one. But the actual one that if I were the UFC and in charge of making things happen, the fight that I would move towards, assuming the Chandler fight is dead. I just do Patty Pimbleau.

It's like one of the biggest fights they could possibly make. I actually think that fight, the older Conner gets and the less, the more his life, I don't say unravels outside of the cage, but continues to be this carnival side show of awful things, one after the other, the more likely it is that Patty,

simply by being a professional who is committed night and day for the focus of his life on this and has a clear set of skills that can take advantage of something Connor does and is really damn tough too like he's real durable Connor might not just blow his doors off on the feet I think that that's the passing of the torch fight

and it's the fight you make if I could make any fight with Connor I think that's the one I would make I like it I like that I like that infinitely more than throwing Tony against Patty just to get like sacrificed I think that the Tony Patty fight was okay prior to Bobby Green.

It probably was maybe even one further back than Bobby Green was the time to do it. Still could have done it. After the Bobby Green fight, I just really don't think you could do that. And it's like, I just think Patty. I don't think Patty gains anything from that at that point. Yeah, exactly.

People think of Tony Ferguson in that way anyway. Certainly not after that. So what are we doing with Patty? I think that that's the fight. I mean, if you put him in with basically anybody, it's going to be super fun. I think most of the people who are elevated enough to warrant that fight, just thump him, though, like, cause Connor's Connor,

but Patty can be a competitive fight. It would do it in England. It would be unbelievable. I like it. I like it. I didn't think of that, but I like it. So I went three ways with this as well. The question posed as it was is what's the most fun choice for a Connor fight?

And so my fake answer is Shavkat Raghmanov, because I'm sick of Connor McGregor, and I don't care about any of this anymore. And I'm sick of talking about Connor McGregor. and I'm sick of this person injecting himself. Why not just go Homs up, buddy? Well, because that's probably at 185, right? Like, Shaft Cat's a 170 here. He'll be there.

And I just am ready for this to be done because it's just kind of annoying at this point that we have to consistently talk about this, man. That's all. So that's my fake choice. My real choice, I still really would like to see RDA get that opportunity. Wow, that would be surreal. To see them actually fight,

to actually step into a case together would be surreal at this point. I have no idea where RDA is at this point in his career. I don't know where Connor is at this point in his career. I think that's actually competitive right now. Oh, I don't think that's competitive. What it fixed? Shaheen,

your story is in the way that RDA is Johnson? I think RDA, I thought RDA would have beat the hell out of him back when it was set. I still believe very confidently that that would happen. I also think RDA is going to be fighting Dustin Poyer. That's a good match. Chaheen, you're a story teller.

I don't see Dustin accepting that. that fight, that doesn't make sense for Dustin. Shaheen, you're a storyteller. Tell me, would, if this fight finally happened, would it correct the timeline? Would it fix the, what it, something happened in 2016 when that fight fell through. Did the whole world win a riot? There was a schism, man. There was something happen.

Because Jed's right. If RDA beats Connor, if RDA beats Connor, Connor still goes on and win stuff, still becomes super famous. Nothing's going to stop that. He just is actually the featherweight champion. Yeah, I mean, does he Does he still get the Mayweather fight May?

100% no. No, you think 100% no? Maybe later, maybe he goes back to featherweight commits to featherweight can put together a run. I would doubt it, frankly, but maybe he could have done that and then, but no, like if RDA is something. He just probably defends that featherweight title for like several times.

He still is a massive global superstar. Maybe fights for the lightweight belt down the line when RDA loses it later and something happens. But he's, I think, I do think the timeline ends up being Connor versus Habib, but it's Connor as featherweight champion versus Habib as lightweight champion. Superfire. If Connor has defended his belt a couple of times because Habib gets to be champion much earlier because the whole Connor thing doesn't happen. He just gets to step in. Probably rolls out like that.

We can fix the timeline. Sheen, I'm glad you brought that up. I still have hopes that we can fix this wild ride that we've been on for the last seven years. That's a great answer. I still want to see it. I still want to. It's the fight we need just to make things whole again. I agree.

And then my last pick. Oh, I know what you're going to say. I know what you're going to say. Do you? Is it Max? No. Oh,

wow. I assumed it'd be Max. Okay. No, it's the one that you could convince me if you get me in a room and you talk to me for like 10 minutes about it. It's Tony Ferguson. And I love the faces that I just saw back to me when I said that.

I said, Tony and Connor, similarly with the Tony and Patty, I said it like a couple fights ago, I think that that made sense. I'm still okay with it, but it's, uh, I think it's the easiest way to get Connor a win if that's what you're interested in doing. And I think it's, for me, I'd like to see Tony get that payday.

So that would be the two, like, aspects of it. Imagine Tony beat him. What a moment that would be. If Tony Lollary-esque, if Tony would beat Connor. Like that. Way bigger, though. in like a way bigger moment. Yeah.

I would cry actual tears. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with a max rematch. I'm okay with plenty of things for Connor. Just if he is going to fight. I would just rather have clarity. And that would be it. That's all I ask.

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Do it or don't. In the words of, in the words of Marlo Stainfield, do it or don't, but I got somewhere to be. This is the most pleasant Connor and Gregor conversation

we've had in a podcast in years maybe. Like, we're all just kind of at peace with some of the decisions we've made here. and we feel like this discussion was productive in a way. Well, there you go. Let's end on that. Thanks, everyone for joining us.

This has been another episode of the MMA Fighting Ranking Show. We appreciate all you so much. As always, we've got another big week ahead of us. I mean, we're going from one pay-per-view to another. We got Nate Diaz this week. Of course, the Jake Paul fight as well as UFC Nashville. PFL is back. So there's all sorts of things going on this week.

Keep it locked to the MMA Fighting Podcast Network. Great network. And in the meantime, We love you guys. For Mike Heck, who had to leave us, that's Jedmishu. That is Al-Anselli. I'm Sean Oshaddy. We'll see you next book.

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