MMA Fighting - Rankings Show: Leon Edwards' Place Among The Eff-You All-Stars + MMA's Most Overqualified Bodyguard, Fond Farewells & More
Episode Date: March 22, 2023Leon Edwards was one of the most disrespected fighters in MMA. Now he's the man who not only did the impossible — he did it twice. The rankings show is BACK after another crazy MMA stretch to sort t...hrough Edwards' massive win in his UFC 286 trilogy with Kamaru Usman, and much more. Co-hosts Shaun Al-Shatti and Alexander K. Lee are joined by Jed Meshew and Damon Martin to debate where Edwards ranks among the greatest reversal-of-narratives UFC champions around (11:40), where the welterweight division stands after a slew of big fights, and much more. They also hit on whether Merab Dvalishvilli's standing as MMA's most overqualified bodyguard is good or bad for the bantamweight division around (33:57), whether Muhammad Mokaev's first year in the UFC deserves a reassessment of expectations around (43:54), and pour a few out for the homies with some bittersweet farewells around (55:58). Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow Damon Martin @DamonMartin 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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You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.
What is up, my friends?
Hope you're all out there.
Enjoying your week.
We're back again.
My name is Sean O'Shti, and this is the MMA Fighting.
making show another big paper view in the books.
So fellas, let's wait through some of this wreckage.
We got the whole crew here.
As always, my co-captain, the king in the north.
He is the Prince of Darkness.
He is Alexander K. Lee.
Oh.
Hey, you did it to yourself, my man.
Also, rest of the game.
Of light.
Also, the legal eagle himself, Jed Mishu, and your friend in mind.
The OG Damon Martin, how we doing, fellas?
I feel like we were just here.
It seems like we literally just.
just did this like last week.
You kind of did.
So yay for two
pay-per-views in a month,
EOC. You're really getting that
$75 for me.
Just nickel and dime,
baby, nickel and dime.
Not nickel and dime the way the paper views charge.
It's like $100 bills, $100 bills.
Inflation, though. You know,
it's happening, Damon. It's a real thing.
You and your lofty ivory tower
don't know about inflation.
Also, I'm a little disappointed
who we didn't use A.K.'s new nickname, you know, going off the whole enamored Christian Duncan
Lee or Christian Leory Duncan, I was hoping we would just go with AKL as his new nickname and everyone
can be freaking out about that. Oh, man. How did you come up with that? David, how'd you come up with
that? That's crazy. It was nights and nights spent creatively trying to come up with a nickname and I thought
AKL would just fit. I don't know something about it. Do we have to explain this joke? I feel
like this moment was missed. Do we have to explain this? Did you guys, do you guys? If you're
explain jokes they're never good i don't think we know explain this okay yeah i just say i know exactly what you're
talking about danil cormay commentary joke all right dan carmar commenter joke okay that's it that's all i'll say so
if you'll get a k l the prince of darkness i'm just here for this new persona aka can you just change
your middle name to zavier so you can just be axel that'll be kind of cool that's too many layers man
that's too many layers i'm down to call you axle from now on do you does he feel like an axle do you
yes oh
just edgy the prince of darkness
of course he's an axle
I used to be my idol when I was growing up
is that true
I feel so old now
there's so many listeners
in our like who the hell is Axel Rose
no you think so
you think so yeah
yeah
no I think appetite for
appetite for destruction
just everyone's really knows what that's about
still rotating on
on the Spotify's I'm sure
with a certain generation
an art generation, but
I got to think that 15-year-olds
still know what Guns and Roses is, right?
Like, that's not.
I would highly doubt it.
I would highly doubt it.
So you're still playing.
God.
Damn it.
Welcome to the jungle.
Welcome to the jungle is still the Bingles theme song,
so I hear it 16 times a year at least,
17 times a year at least.
This is why you're the Prince of Darkness, man.
You've got to start the show making it all feel bad.
I did bring that down pretty hard.
You just knew that.
I just haven't even, like, mentioned Axel Rose.
Like I said, I grew up, I wanted to be like that guy.
And now I feel like no one even knows who he is anymore.
Yeah.
Thanks, second.
Well, this is a good start to our ranking show, isn't it?
So, hey, let's jump into it.
Let's talk about it, fellas.
We said it.
UFC 285 and 286, back to back, two big pay-per-views in the books.
Finally get a chance to catch our breath here for a second.
So as we do, let's talk about the big division,
the welterweights.
So we've seen a lot of action over the past few weeks at 170.
And so now here's just current lay of the land where things stand.
Your new top eight after these last two paper views and a couple other events as well.
Leon Edwards, undisputed at the top.
All first place votes went to him, all eight of them, even Jeds.
And then it goes like this.
Usma, number two, Hamzashashemai of number three, Shavkat Rajmanov,
vaulting all the way to number four, Gilbert Burns five, Balamah,
Muhammad six, Colby Covington, seven, and then undefeated bellets or champ
Miarislav Amasov at eight.
Jed, how's that top eight sound to you?
I mean, I might quibble with some of the ordering in there, but pretty good.
It's pretty, pretty, I think we did well, you know.
I can't have everybody doing the same things I'm doing, but I support just about
everybody that's in the top eight here.
In fact, I'm going to go ahead and say, I believe that the.
these are the correct eight fighters to be ranked in this division.
Again, the order, maybe one or two spots here or there,
but I think that these are the top eight welterweights in the world.
David, anything standing out there?
Anything too low, too high?
How do you feel?
I still think, and listen, this is not a knock on the guy.
I still feel like Shavkat, Rekmanov's a bit high for what he's done.
I mean, he did, I mean, yes, he did be Jeff Neal.
That is an impressive win.
And, you know, but it wasn't an easy fight.
It wasn't like he just blew through Jeff Neal.
he had some moments in that fight.
And then obviously being Neil Magnus impressive,
but I feel like maybe we're jumping the gun a little bit early on him,
but I also feel like that's potential versus accomplishments.
And we all know I'm kind of like the accomplishment guys here,
but that's really the only one.
And it's not bad.
I don't think it's crazy.
Like I just think it's maybe a bit early to have him jumping over guys like Burns and Bilau.
But again, it's a minor quibble.
Fun fact, Damon, because I anticipated this coming up.
I've been working on something that I'm not ready to unveil yet,
But in the process of a different way to approach rankings, it'll...
What is this?
It's like your third or fourth iteration of this at this point?
What is this?
I've been working on it for a while, but it's not anywhere close to being good yet.
I did not.
I didn't know.
I didn't know for my ranking, so it's fine.
It's going to be used as soon as I get it.
This isn't off the books project.
This isn't off the books project.
Oh, no.
Are you sure we use the budget for this?
I don't know that we have the budget for this.
Inso doing this off the books project, I, uh,
compiled some data that I don't know that we had really considered.
When you say that Shavkot being above guys like Gilbert Burns is unacceptable, you know,
or like maybe it rubs you wrong way,
do you know how many top 10 wins Gilbert Burns has in the Walterweight Division?
The answer is one, the exact same number of Shavkat Rachmanov,
according to the MMA fighting global rankings.
Both of them have one top 10 win.
Do you know how many other wins they have in the Walterweight Division?
Gilbert Burns has three, Shavcott has four.
Actually, when you kind of get down to looking at our rankings,
a lot of the top welterweights have not fought other top welterweights.
So I'm totally okay with Shavkot being really high
because outside of really Ushman,
not many people have put up a bunch of wins over other people we have ranked.
Even Ball all only has a top 10 and a top 15 win for our last, like, top 15.
global rankings or whatever.
So it's sneaky how much the top welterweights have not fought each other.
Is this accounting for like where they were ranked when they fought them?
Or this is just like the current.
This is our current rankings or our previous, the most recent iteration landscape.
Yeah.
It's a weird division, man.
It's a real weird division.
But yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Like I thought reflexively like you just think in your mind like, oh, okay.
But I was like, okay, we all make the joke about Colts.
Bobby Coventon hasn't been anybody worse shit in a long time.
And that's totally fair.
But then when I got into it, I was like, actually,
most of the people have like one top 15-ish win or whatever reason.
This is underselling Gillard Burns the Conflictments a little bit.
I do feel like because Woodley and Maya, those wins,
I would say were probably pre-MA fighting global rankings.
And I would imagine they were ranked in the top 15,
maybe even the top 10 by most outlets by the time those fights were still happening.
so sure but that's i mean yes by that standard yes but also by that standard colby covington
who has those same wins gets full credence yeah but at different times we have to we have to always
take into account of when these fight had when these fights have when gilbert burns beat tyron
woodley we weren't completely sold at that point the woodley was done when colby beat tyrant
when colby beat tyrant we were like he's got one foot out the door and this is just going to end badly
And it did end badly.
And I think the same thing goes, when you look at Gilbert Burns' record, I mean,
beating Gunner Nelson at the time he beat him.
That was still a pretty good win, beating Damien Maya, TKOing him in the first round.
He taps out Neil Magnin the first round.
Again, I'm just saying like at the time, you can say they're not ranked now.
But as AK said, like Damien Maia and Tyre and Woodley wins at the time were both really good wins.
Stephen Thompson still ranked Neil Magny.
He beat Neil Magny quicker than Shafkat did.
So, you know, you want to play scoreboard on that one.
He beat him quicker than Shafkat did.
You know, just saying.
I just want the future Walterway champion to get his respect.
You know, you guys are out here being like, ah, it's not as good.
No, he's the future champion of this division and should be number two
because that's what he's about to be number one in like four years when he finally gets to fight for a belt.
There's a fight and you turn your back on him like you did poor Alexander Romanov.
That's all I'm saying.
That's all I was.
Hey, look.
I didn't entirely turn my back on him until he lost two.
The second one was a very, very damning loss, okay, and that's where we had to.
Also, now we all big turn our back on.
He needs you more than ever.
Hold on.
He needs you more than ever now.
He needs you.
He lost us, not with the loss, but with the body change.
Come on.
Like, we hopped on the train for the, for the ripped Ramon off.
We hopped on the train for the good looking good off the bus, Alexander Ramonoff.
I didn't sign up for this looking like a fridge, Alexander Ramonoff.
Like that's not.
I'm not here for that.
And just bad.
That was a good thing.
Just bad.
Just an awful performance.
You know, look, if sometimes you got a, you got to cut people to let them grow.
Andre Monez, we, we once loved you.
Oh, boy.
Remorse for.
Andre Mniz got cast out quick, man.
He got, you got dropped out of there in a hurry.
Seven, number seven going into March.
Unranked now.
Unranked.
Unranked.
I don't even think he.
He's, is even a far?
He's a far still, right?
I think he's still far.
I have, I have maybe at 14 or 15.
Wow, that's harsh.
Hanging in there.
I do want to bring this conversation back, though, to the man who should be getting
his flowers right now.
And I want to give him his flowers because Leon Edwards, at gentlemen, at this point,
this is no flu.
Like, we have now seen this twice.
There is no debate.
This is who Leon Edwards is.
Back to back wins over the second greatest welterweight of all time.
He is a locked in stone UFC champion forever.
There are no asterisk on it.
That's who he is.
And it got me thinking because I think lost in a lot of the noise on Saturday that sort of
followed this event was just how far this conversation has come for the man we now call champion.
Because it wasn't very long ago that he was getting scoffed at and just laughed off of shows like this
or any other shows that we did when his name was brought into the title conversation.
10 fights over six years was how long it took for Leon Edwards to get his shot at the belt.
And through that entire time, there was not a single second when he wasn't an afterthought or a punchline.
There wasn't a second where you wouldn't get laughed out at every comment section on the internet if you suggested anything about Leon being the guy who was going to end this whole Kamaro Usman reign.
And it was everybody.
It was fans.
It was media.
It was his fellow fighters.
Leon ate shit from every possible direction for so many years.
I remember doing shows with our boy Chuck Minuthorpe,
and he would consistently call him Leon Scott,
like not even purposefully.
Like just when we would talk about him,
he would call him Leon Scott.
And afterwards,
I'd be like, he did it again.
It's just, it was for everyone,
this man was an afterthought.
I just don't know that there are a lot of narrative turnarounds
like this that we have seen just happen overnight.
So, fellas, that got me thinking.
is Leon Edwards rank among the great, I told you so type of UFC champs who no one really saw
coming? I have a list here. But before I even give it out, I want to open the floor to you guys.
Like where do you, where would you just instinctively put him on that? You know what? You guys can
go, go, go F yourself, I told you so type of list. Well, as a long time, Leon Edwards Stan,
arguably the leader of the Leon Edwards thing. Get out of him with that. No one on the internet has said more
poor words about this man than you.
Like, it's you, Colby Covington,
and then everybody else.
I didn't say anything bad about him.
I just spoke the truth.
That is objectively false.
Objectively.
That's objectively true.
I never called them,
I never once called him a bad fighter.
I never once called a bad fighter.
If I do not just spend the rest of my night,
pulling receipts and just pull like a tape right now
on the edit of this of all the stuff.
I never once called him a bad fighter.
I said he was boring and nobody
cared about him and I stand by it.
That, my biggest complaint was that it was his fault because he sat there not being interesting
and being like, give me a title fight and good for him.
He finally got one and, and look at him now.
Dance your dance.
Look at him now.
Dance your dance.
Just dance on my grave.
We did take like, we did take like, we did like, we did like, take like 25 minutes into
the show to even mention him, which is probably.
That was your fault.
I was going to mention it first.
I was going to mention it first, but you guys took this.
a weird direction that I didn't expect.
All right.
I'm saying,
Chad might have a point.
I would,
I have all the points,
okay,
thank you.
You have many points,
yes,
this is true.
I would,
I would own,
and to a certain extent,
he still hasn't gotten his flowers,
but I would say Leon sits slightly behind,
number two,
number one being Al Jermaine Sterling,
after he got DQed with the whole Peter Yon thing,
that poor guy,
my God,
the amount of abuse he took after that fight,
and then to come back and actually beat Peter Yon
and get at least one 10-8 round,
which still bugs me to know into the state,
can get a 10-8 round, but he beat Peter Yan and actually, like, solidified himself as champion.
I think that one, to me, still tops it because no one has taken more abuse for a fight that he
technically won than poor Algeman Sterling did after the Peter Yan fight.
So I would say he's ranked number one.
I'd say Leon's probably number two.
And to that point, Algeman's still taking it because everyone's still throwing excuses
about the T.J. Dillashall thing, which is, by the way, not Algebra and Sterling's fault.
Again, he didn't throw the illegal knee.
And he certainly didn't go into a fight with his shoulder, completely.
effed up, and then say, oh, I could have won, I could have won.
And then when you lose, everyone's giving you an excuse, no.
So Algeman is still kind of fighting that narrative, but I think he's still number one.
Because if you remember back after that first John fight, no one is taking more abuse
to the sport as that poor guy ranked as the number two, Bantamweight behind Peter.
That poor guy, that poor guy took more abuse than anybody.
Also, if he beats Henry Suhudo, you 100% know that people are just going to like,
Henry hasn't fought in X number of years.
He was lost three years long.
are in drafts all across the country.
Yeah.
So I think,
I think,
I think,
I think,
I think,
I think Aljo gets a slight one up on,
on Leon,
you know what I mean?
I think,
just because,
man,
no one was on that poor guy's side
after that first Sean fight.
So,
so I went through,
like I said,
I,
just looking at the modern era,
I wanted to just
get a sense of the company
that Leon is keeping with this.
So Edwards included,
to me,
I found 17 names
that really stood out
throughout the modern era.
17.
I was trying to do it as loose as possible,
but also sort of keep it within the parameters, right?
So we're calling this the suck-it world,
sudden reversal of narratives all-stars.
Maybe not the catchiest title,
but I'm still working on it.
So here's,
I'm just going to list these super fast,
and then you tell me how it's hitting you
and where Leon falls maybe in that list.
UFC champs that just no one saw coming in the moment,
and in the moment is important,
because some of these names in retrospect,
we think highly of,
much more highly of than we did by the time they were in this opportunity.
So in descending order from divisions, here we go.
Forrest Griffin, Jan Polkovitz, Glover Tchaera, Jamal Hill,
lots of light heavyweights here, light heavyweight, very bizarre division.
Michael Bisbing, Matt Sarah, Leon Edwards, Haffield de Sanos, Charles Olivera, T.J. Dillishaw,
Al J. Stirling, like you said, Damon, post-Yon-DQ, Henry Sohudo for the DJ rematch,
Brandon Moreno, Holly Home,
Juliana Peña, Alexa Grasso,
and then Carla Sparza
for the second title ring.
So those are the 17.
Now that you've heard that,
where does it feel like Leon Fitz?
I don't know,
that's tough because like a lot of those
don't feel like second worlds,
you know,
like a lot of those were not.
As champs now, though.
Well, no, but like,
I don't, several of,
some of them were dismissed,
like people were openly dismissive,
but like,
was anyone not in gloat was anyone not pulling for glover to share to get it done like we were i feel
like everyone kind of was doing that for i don't know if it's rooting though i think it's about like people think
they had a chance i think it's more people than it to me it feels about openly scoffing at the idea of
this person winning the title see but that that's what then glover's an interesting one because
glover for sure i don't think anyone counted him out against yon boovitch like no but he was
counted on before that as getting ever getting a broader career arc of being
counted out.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Yeah.
When he got,
when he got handled by Corey Anderson
on short notice,
I don't think anyone was saying Glover's going to come back and become a champion at that point.
He's never becoming UFC chef, right?
Leon's pretty up there,
but that's the,
like, Glover is going to feel a little better than him.
Bispying is for sure going to feel a little higher than him in this list.
I'm trying to think who the other ones you said they sort of jumped out.
Carlos Sparza getting the second title run certainly is up,
is up there.
but he's in the top quarter of that grouping.
I'd say for me personally,
I'd go Alja because no one's ever received more hate than that poor guy.
This being number two,
Bisping number two,
because I've told Bisping personally to his face numerous times
that after he lost to Rockhold the first time,
I was like,
that's it because he lost so many number one contender fights.
They kept trying to put him in title fights
and he just lost every single time.
He'd lose to Chale.
He'd lose to whoever.
And I was like, dude, it's not going to happen.
Like, it's just never going to happen.
For him to pull that off on 10 days' dose and knock out rock hold the way he did,
that's probably number two.
And then I would probably put Leon number three or number four based on that list,
I would say, like, just in the narrative of how it happened.
Because, yeah, I'd say Bispre's got to be number two,
but then I would put probably Leon at three or four,
depending on how you want to rank it.
My only quote, yeah, number one.
My only cope with Aljo is I'm still waiting for the reversal, though.
I still feel like the narrative wasn't like.
Like, right?
Like, this is, I guess you could say the same deal with Leon, too, to be honest.
I don't know.
I can't speak for the broader fan base if they have, I would hope after Saturday,
after UFC 286 that there is like this acknowledgement, like, okay, this is,
this is clearly the best like Baltimore in the world.
This is that I'm one guy right now.
He has earned this.
But I don't know.
I don't know.
Again, I'm buried under the sea of brain dead cold response right now.
So I don't know, but.
What's funny is with Aljo, with Aljo, you can argue he lost it again with the Dillishal fight
because Dillishal was so injured, but I thought he gained it.
at least slightly with the second Yon fight,
because even if you thought that was a close fight,
you can't say Aljo just got, you know, manhandle,
which is what so many of us,
raising my hand here predicted.
So, yeah,
so the fact that he came back and actually beat Yon
in the second fight,
that's where he won it back for me,
and then he kind of lost it again,
through no fault of his own, by the way,
that T. J. Delosha went in there with two bummed shoulders
and whatever else was wrong with him.
But yeah, so I think he won it and then lost it again.
Yeah, for me, it's tough to put it.
I don't know if I can put up about Bisping.
Bist me is always number one because that's your reversal.
He has to be number one, right?
That's your reversal of narratives is like.
Him and Matt Sarah feel like the two.
Matt Sarah is the biggest upset,
but the problem is there wasn't much of any conversation at all around Matt Sarah.
It's not like people are like that Matt Sarah.
He's never going to win a FC title.
No, no.
If you were on the internet back then,
no, but at the time, that was hilarious.
Yes, at the time.
No, that he would even get a tie shot.
Of course, but, but here's a, listen, hold on,
wait, hold on.
I got to talk about this because this is,
This to me is I will always say we'll never be tough
as the biggest upset of all time.
But I'm saying before, it's not like
there was this huge discourse around Matt Serra's
career before the ultimate fight of redemption season
where the people were like, oh, that Matt Serra,
he's never going to, like there's just no conversation around it.
It's not a conversation until it gets on the show
and he earns the title shot.
But once that fight was booked and it's against
George St. Pierre, the conversations
in the MMA forums online could not have been more
in terms of how they viewed Madison.
But that's one fight. That's one fight. That's not a career
reversal of narrative that's one fight right i kind of i kind of agree with i kind of agree with a k on this
because the sarah thing like it because the way he earned the title shot was so bizarre like he
won an ultimate fighter season him and travis luter will go down in history as getting title like
that was just such a weird he didn't even win he should have lost to chris lydel in the finalis
nobody talks about it is the chris title deserve to win that fight but it's a weird one like i agree with
AK though because it's not like I mean no one
everyone counted him out because everyone's like how this guy
get a title shot he won the ultimate fighter
that was kind of the Sarah thing like at that point
like everyone going into that show all they talked about
was Shoney Carter's back fist knocking out Matt Sarah
and they were both on the show together like that's all anyone
cared about so I agree with AK on this it wasn't like a career
narrative that Matt Sarah was this like you know underdog
he was never supposed to be there in the first place
because he won a freaking reality show to get a title shot
You know what? That's fair. You sold me. Yeah, you sold me. That's fair.
This being the strongest case because for years, he was pushed as like,
oh, this is the one. He's the face of British MMA.
He was just overrated. Everyone, he was overrated.
And people saying he was overrated, like the OSC's protecting him.
Like they're giving them, they're giving him win all matches.
Every time he gets a big fight, he can't win the big one to even get a title shot.
He's getting H-bombed.
He loses that really tough fight with Chale Sonan.
That probably would have got him a title shot.
Which he should have won. And Chale will tell you that they could have won.
But either way, he's, he's, he would have won.
He just couldn't even get there.
And I was definitely one of people who was like, you know,
Biss being great career,
probably never even going to fight for the title.
And then he gets a second Rockhold fight.
And you're like, well,
Rockhold friggin demolished him the first time they fought.
What are we even doing here?
So that is like the fight itself was a crazy upset.
The fact that he even somehow hung around long enough to get a title fight.
And then defended it.
I mean,
probably didn't defend it against, you know,
one of the top contenders he shouldn't defend it against.
But does technically have a successful,
like does have a successful title offense on.
lost that fight.
Almost lost that.
Oh, that's a great.
And what a great point that was, too.
I mean, that would be, that'll be the same narrative.
That'll be the same narrative if Leon beats up on Dan Henderson,
Masvadol.
So, you know,
just throwing that out there.
Sure.
What does it say that the only two British champions in UFC history are both very much on this list?
They are.
I've been thinking about that.
It's weird.
I think after listening to your arguments,
I think it's Jan Blohovich is the answer for me.
He's up there too.
Because outside of like,
There was at least a period of Bispings' career where you were like, okay, he's going to fight for the belt.
And the UFC is clearly invested.
He might become the first British UFC champion or whatever.
Like that was for at least parts of it.
Up until the moment that he kicked Dominic Reyes in the body and Reyes fell over, I don't think more than six people on the planet that Jan Blahovic was ever winning a belt, much less fighting for one.
It's just moggling.
slight argument, and I agree with you,
my slight argument against that is, is he's
only there because John Jones left.
Yes, that's a factor. Like, he didn't get, he didn't,
he didn't get it because he was like the most
deserving guy.
And Daniel.
Maybe, yeah,
he did. Maybe John Jones didn't want that legendary
Polish power. That's why he left.
John could have stayed in my anyway.
He didn't want to be.
He ran.
He, like, Francis money from him. Yeah.
He, he chose to fight Dominic Graz when
John was like, fought that dude once, got a
robbery decision. Not going to do
that anymore please i'd like to take three years off yon boehovich i i i love yon i love yon bovich but yeah i mean
i can't i can't i can't not mention like how he got it like it like it's not like he got it because
you know he was just the number one guy he got it because john jones by being the best guy in the
division who actively competed that's how we go yeah but again again these are i'm just saying we're
we're it were and we're you know rankingly one through five like just the little things to tweak him
you know what i mean like i love it though i i just love you that like the air must
taste so much sweeter if you're in that position, right?
Because you're right.
I've heard these arguments now.
And to me, it feels like there's five people historically who sort of are on the same
level as Leon are in the same discussion.
And now beyond Bisbing, Aljo, because you're 100% right, Damon.
He was the laughing stock of the internet for like a year, unfairly.
Giuliana Peña, who none of us has mentioned.
Yes.
That's got to be in there, right?
Like, yeah.
Especially because she was talking crazy.
The problem is she was talking crazy before.
The problem is she then lost the rematch.
And so they take some of the way.
Yeah, but in the moment.
And then to me, another one we haven't mentioned, which is Carla,
because just for her entire career,
no one's believed in her.
And then it doesn't matter.
She won the worst seriously fight ever.
And we shouldn't have.
She still has two and no against Rose, baby.
That one's,
that one still,
even though the fight was awful,
no one was giving card.
No one,
no one gave her a chance to get back to the title,
much less actually win it again.
You know what I mean?
Like,
so Carla definitely deserves me that conversation.
Carla Spars is incredible because she's like,
if Dennis Hallman just happened to fight Matt Hughes for the belt instead of fighting him
for like nothing in a smoker in Illinois or whatever.
It's like, oh, I just randomly beat this person twice.
It's incredible.
I don't know.
I just love it.
It's such a cool, fun story with Leon.
One last thing about Welterweight, and we hit on it a tiny, tiny bit, so I don't want
to harp on it.
But it is worth noting this division is just so strange to me right now.
I was honestly surprised by this when we were doing the math,
aka you and I were talking about this for the website.
I mean, first of all, I'm not going to say I was ahead of the curve on this,
but I was.
But I've been banging the drum for a while now,
and it's nice to see everyone catch up.
But to see Colby Covings and drop from number four to number seven
over this ranking cycle for the whole team,
that was pretty surprising to me.
Obviously, there were two things that happened in there.
Yaroslav Amasov.
and Shavkat Ragmanah both got big wins,
and I think a lot of people bumped them up their list.
But also, A.K., explain this one to me.
Did he just, did Colby just need to get this absurd gift title shot for everyone to
finally come around to my side?
Like, what, what just happened here?
Wow.
This guy's the number one contender for the welterweight title, and we dropped him in our
welterweight rankings.
Way to go.
Lib soy boy, virgin media.
Virgin, Lib, Soy Boys.
Way to go.
You've done it.
you got triggered. You got triggered into dropping him in the rankings.
Classic. What buzzwords am I forgetting here, guys, when I'm forgetting. You're a virgin. Did I say you're a virgin? Snowflake. You're a snowflake. I'm sorry. You're a snowflake. You got you triggered. You got Trump derangement syndrome. TDS.
Somehow this is Joe Biden's fault.
Oh, yeah. Listen, Hunter Biden. Hey, guys, Google, Hunter Biden. Look into it.
His laptop has hacked the rankings.
Where's your Let's go brand?
Let's go.
I forgot the Let's go.
Listen, I tried to maintain as long as I could.
I am not a true diet in the will Colby coming in support.
I'm not on that level.
So I apologize to all the hardcore Colby fans out there.
I apologize to all the hardcore Colby fans out there.
If I let you down with that impression, I'll do better next time.
But yeah, I don't know.
Like we said, Chopcott went up.
We have to mention Yaroslav Amasov, Beltor champion.
Fantastic comeback.
fight. I think some people moved him above Colby. I'm a little surprised that that was enough to drop
him three spots in the consensus rankings, but that is some of it. But you're right, Gene. I think
some of it, I guess, is backlash. Because again, we updated these the night of and the day after
UFC 286. And I do think some of us sort of, I think in a bad way for Colby, it made us kind of
take a look at his resume and go like, oh, okay, why did I have him rank there? And then, is that what,
You think that just caused a re-examination?
We are not as spiteful people in the media, all right?
We are not as well, we are right down the middle.
You know, Shane, we call it right down the middle.
And I don't want to accuse any of my fellow panelists of moving him down the rankings
just because of their disdain for Dana White's bizarre declaration on Saturday.
I think a lot of with Colby.
I think a lot of it also comes down to like out of sight, out of mind.
Like he was already ranked high.
And then you just kind of left him there.
and then to disappeared in every capacity.
To credit the to credit our fearless leader here,
Sheen, you were the one who mentioned it.
And then I was like, oh, yeah, you're right.
And then I actually now have ranked lower than anybody else on our panel.
I have a number nine because I just continue to drop it because when I,
because when you mentioned it, you're like,
Colby Covington, when you really think about it and I was like,
all right, let me look at this record.
And I was like, you know what?
Like, it really isn't great.
And then his biggest, because his biggest,
biggest wins, quote unquote, are two losses to Kumar Usman.
Like, that's his biggest, that's his biggest claim to fame as he gave Kamar Usman two
tough fights.
That was like his biggest claim to fame at that point, other than beating a guy in,
you know, Tyron Woodley who had one foot out the door.
And, you know, I just, I just, when I started thinking about, I was like, you know what?
Like, guys who have been active in getting better wins.
And, yeah, so I dropped him.
And listen, if he comes back to wins the title, I'll gladly, you know, rank him higher.
I don't know who put him number one.
But, uh, yeah.
I have to rank of number one.
That seems crazy.
I'm joking.
I'm joking.
I'm joking.
But yeah.
I'm sorry to what Damon is saying.
I want on the record, again, for any Coventon fans out there, I had him number five.
I dropped him one spot for Shopcott.
That's it.
And nothing to do against Colby, okay?
I mean, I'm not a fan of the guy.
I've made that pretty vocal.
But I'm in a partial ranker.
I dropped him one spot because of Shopcott.
That's it.
He's behind Shavkaat.
He's behind Shemayev, who could be exiting our wealthy weight rankings sooner rather than
later, depending on.
with that once he figures out what the hell weight class he's competing at and then
usmond edward's one and two so i think that's reasonable i i did not move him down for any
personal reasons uh it was just someone else jumped up above him i just need to send your your
your brilliant social media screeds to jedmishu damon marten chihin el shoddy and everybody else
all right i didn't do nothing you don't have to nobody did it nobody did it for personal reasons
everybody did it for the exact same reason yarsov amosov moved into a top five welterweight position
and Shafcott also did it, and Colby did not appear to be a person until Friday morning when he showed up in London.
And even Leon Edwards, like, I had no idea until my manager was like, look at this thing that's happening.
It's totally reasonable.
Shavcott has a better signature win.
Shavcott has a better signature win than Colby Covington.
Plain is that?
I don't know.
We already pre-litigated how wins matter based on at the time or whatever.
I don't know if we still does.
Does he?
Jeff Neal is a better win than anything Kobe has.
I don't think that's true.
Unless you go to 2018.
If you're going to 2018,
RDA,
okay.
If we are talking about like your wins matter based on what they were at the time,
I'm not talking about five years ago.
I'm talking about dudes who have been fighting.
Five years is the gap.
Three years ago,
we still got to leverage that out.
Five years is too much.
Okay.
Colby fans,
I just got to find the window when wins retire.
I'm not able to know it's at Sean Al Shadi on Twitter.
He's not, you can also just search for a Shaheen Al Shadi on Twitter.
I think that's going on.
What is going on?
What are you going on?
I'm just saying.
They found me, AK.
I have been hearing about it.
They have found me.
You wrote a brilliant column Sunday.
I'm glad they found you.
And I'm glad you guys are having a great conversation, I'm sure, online.
Well, let's move on, fellas, because we have a lot else to hit to today.
So I want to jump to the Bantam Wigs because we saw this in sort of our little paper
you break week.
Marab Du Alisvili.
Jumping up to number two now.
The two top bantam weights are training partners now, fellas, for us here at
MMA fighting.
He, of course, beats Peoria on.
Tremendous win.
Peotriyan drops to number four.
So Aljo number one, Marab number two.
My question to you, AK.
Does this even matter?
This feels to me like this doesn't even matter because this division is fundamentally
broken if these two dudes are the top two people and and that Henry Sehudo is coming back to
get a tal de shot that's also kind of throwing a whole wrench in this weirdness um it should
it should matter it does matter it does matter listen it sucks that these two guys will never fight each
other um this is how like we have the clearest view right now of who well i'm sure the other guys
will mention i actually didn't have marav is my uh number two in my rank just you wait buddy just you
I've kept O'Malley there.
I've kept O'Malley there, number two.
But on our consensus list.
Oh, no, AK, you're right.
I just, I just looked at this.
Listen, I thought that's what you were going to lead with, Shaheen.
I should have.
Because three of us did good things and one of us did bad things.
I changed my question.
AK, I changed my question.
You have Sean O'Malley number two,
Rob, number three, explain yourself.
I'm still mad about the Josie Aldo fight.
So that's, this is personal.
The Kobe company stuff wasn't personal.
Okay, I accept the answer now.
I kept it straight down the middle for Colby.
I was going to say you just went on a range about impartiality.
I was for Colby.
For Marab?
No, this is personal.
How dare you ruin Josie Aldo's final run towards a UFC title shot?
Listen, it's not Maraub's fault.
That fight shouldn't even been booked.
But boy, that was very unfortunate that he won a pretty dreadful fight to watch against
the legend and robbed us of Aldo and Aljo.
But Marab is doing his job.
Listen, Marab is right now the best bodyguard in MMA.
He's going to take a lot of these tough fights for Aljo.
And Aljo, again, has taken tough fights as well.
It's not like he's been getting the leftovers.
He's fought great guys.
But essentially, a lot of these guys are going to have to go with the Marab first.
And they're not going to be able to get there.
So, I don't know.
I think I was also a huge fan of the Omali-Yon fight as close as it was.
Like, that was one of my fights of the year last year.
I actually loved what I saw out of O'Malley in that fight.
again another fighter i don't care for personally but man for me even if he had lost that fight and i still
to this day think like if he had lost it would have you know people would have been so much more and they're
like wow am i looked amazing but because he won this controversial decision ban dan people who hated him
just like hate him like 10 times as much now so um i don't know i i if listen i'm picking marlborough
over almost anyone including if he if he fought aljo to be honest but right now i i i'm just giving him
his credit he's undefeated in the ufc oh he's not defeated sorry the marlin
Vera loss. He's undefeated outside of that fight. Wow, right into the Kool-Aid.
At least I corrected myself. At least I corrected myself. Yeah. Speaking of resumes,
I mean, again, not to like diminish Shauna Malley, but, you know, I mentioned this.
Bring this thunder, Damon. Yeah. Sean O'Malley does not outside of Peter Yon, which was a
slightly controversial one. Now, to be fair, I did score for Sean O'Malley close fight, but I'll
give him, I'll give him his flowers on that one. Sean O'Malley does not hold a win over a single
fighter who is still on the UFC roster, not ranked on the roster.
Not one win on the entire UFC roster.
That's bad, okay?
And Mareb, with his last two wins alone, he beat Jose Aldo, freaking legend,
greatest featherweight of all time.
No longer on the UFC roster.
And he dominated Peter Jan.
That wasn't close.
It was 50-45.
I mean, that was a one-sided fight.
Now, that to me is a big-
hearing is that both Marab and Sean Amali don't have wins over anyone not named
Piotrion who are still in the U.S.
u roster.
That's what I'm hearing from the way.
I just said,
I just said two wins like that.
I mean,
that doesn't count for anything else he's done.
But yeah,
I just,
again,
I mean,
is it unfortunate they're not going to fight?
Sure.
Do I really care?
Ultimately,
no.
Because ultimately,
just what we learned with Kobe Covington,
apparently getting a title shot,
rankings clearly don't matter the UFC.
So they'll just continue to change.
jump him around and have him fight everyone else,
because Henry Suda is coming back for three years away.
They're jumping him right into a title shot.
Yeah, but,
yeah,
so my point is like,
if,
let's say Aljo beats Henry,
right?
Because that seems very feasible.
Then are we just screwed?
Because then it just seems like we're just going to have Marab
kind of killing off interesting contenders in a very interesting
division.
And Aljo just getting the leftovers or vice versa.
Well,
that to me feels not great.
Well,
that's not,
that's super not ideal.
Let me knock that down a little.
little bit because before the Peyodor Yan fight, I know he brought this up, but I know this
actually did happen. Before they booked him against Peter Yan, he was supposed to fight
Ricky Simone in a rematch, and they'd offered him one other fight way down in the rankings, because
the UFC's already under the impression that he's not going to fight Aljo. So he was already
staring down fighting the number 10, number 9, number 11 kind of ranked guys. They got Peter
Yon because they needed a main event. And Peter Yon's also in a situation where he's not going to be
fighting for the title anytime relatively soon because he already lost O'Malley and he lost
the Sterling.
So I would imagine we're going to get Sanhagen and Vera this weekend.
The winner of that's going to obviously vault there.
I know Corey Sanhagan really wants the O'Malley fight.
O'Malley should run the other direction if that is the fight they offer him because
he does not want to get in there with Corey Sanhagan.
I think at this point you're looking at, you know, Marab fighting guys like, you know,
Sonia Dong and maybe he gets Dominic Cruz, which please God don't do that to Dominic Cruz.
or, you know, guys like that, like, I don't think they're going to give,
I don't think they're going to continue to give him the top guys
because they know he's not going to fight for the title.
So I don't think that's going to be an issue.
I don't think it's going to be as big of an issue because of that because he's just
going to, they're going to keep, they're going to give him the lower end guys as like,
quote, unquote, punishment.
Oh, no, this is fine.
I also just, just to put a bow on the thing, based on me looking at it right now,
I think the actual, funnily enough, the only win Marab has over, uh,
currently employed UFC fighter
that isn't Peotryon
appears to be Cody Stamen.
Casey Kennedy's still around.
Casey Kennedy's still around.
He just hasn't fought.
Yeah, he hasn't fought like 14 months or something.
Yeah, he's been, I don't know what he's saying.
And he lost like, he hasn't fought since forever ago.
And he's lost his last two.
Okay.
And technically Brad Katona,
technically Brad Katona is back on the roster
because he's on the ultimate fire list.
He's not.
That's, hold on.
No, technical.
He is.
You are technically not, you are not a rostered member.
of the UFC if you were on the ultimate fighter technically.
I'm just saying.
I'm just saying.
The old fighter rule book here at all times, as you guys know,
being on the ultimate fighter does not mean you're on the UFC.
I'm sorry that I brought this up.
I'm sorry that I brought this up.
We don't need to get into this.
We've passed this out way too long.
The point that I was originally getting to
was this is fine, Sheen,
because it's not going to last for very long.
It's not going to last for very long.
My guess is,
it will be pinned to some,
extent, I think Rob Fawn is the most likely next opponent for him, specifically if
Rob Fon does beat Adrian Yonaz, because he will, Marab will fit this nice role of not killing
off young contenders, but killing off problematic squatters in the division, like Dominic Cruz,
perhaps.
Guys who, guys, you don't really want to get up there anyway, and they're just a little
too long, and he can face those guys, because he's holding pattern for the next, he's going
to fight one more time, and he's going to fight either for the true belt when Aljo
vacates, if Aljo is still a champion.
or he's going to fight for an interim belt when Henry wins the belt and is refusing to
fight anybody that isn't named Alexander Volcanovsky.
So I think we're fine here.
We've had this situation historically, and it's okay.
I don't care that they won't fight each other.
It's cool that two guys who trained together are the best guys in the world.
We could have had this more often.
I think that there was, had the fights broken out, we could have had this with Islam and Habib,
had Habib not, you know, retired early.
and I don't think that it's a negative for the thing
and it can create really cool situations
where theoretically at the end of this year,
Sterling is like, I'm vacating the belt,
here's my training partner, my brother Marab,
he's going to be fighting for this belt
defending us, you know, our legacy together.
Yeah, yeah, so it's fine because we're not here for very long.
See, now you're speaking my love language, Jedmishu.
You know my anti-squatter, that's how you get me.
That's how you bring me in.
So if Rob Font beats Adrian Yanez, he's getting Marab.
He's about to get Maraubed real hard.
Counterpoint.
And then Fonter point is no longer in the conversation.
What if Adrian Yanez wins that fight?
Then he would, he's the one getting marabed.
No, because they're the fun fighters.
Adrian Yonaz gets to fight the winner of Corey Santagin and Chito Vera.
It'll be very exciting.
And instead, Marab will get Dominic Cruz or just the problem guys.
The guys you don't want hanging around.
just clear out the chaff.
That's going to be his job until he gets to fight for the belt.
And that's cool.
It's a good job to have.
Jed, I'm amazed.
I thought you were just going to say this won't be a problem because there's a young man,
your number three band to mate,
Umar and Romangometov,
who's going to clear out either of these MFers in the next year or so.
It's going to take him seven years to get to the belt because merit doesn't matter.
Merritt doesn't matter anymore.
And Belal Mohammed can't get a title shot.
You think Umar's going to get one.
It's going to take a lifetime.
You've sold me on this.
though. I will say you've made me feel a lot better about this and for that I appreciate you, Jed.
Let's move on. I want to hit Muhammad Mojave real fast because I am really still having nightmares
about that knee bar. And this is someone who our team has been quite high on over the past year.
There have been some wild predictions flying around the team, two division champion,
three division champion, et cetera, et cetera, from certain members of the team, this podcast.
We're not going to name names. But now here we are. I think Sunday marked one,
year in exactly to this man's UFC career, and we are looking at this. Four and O, three submissions,
Cody Durdon, Charles Johnson, Malcolm Gordon, Jafield, Philo, oh, on Saturday, I'm sure I've
butchered that name. And here, currently sitting at number 12 on the global flyweight rankings
for our website. Four fights in, Jed. Where are we at with Muhammad Mahayev? Have we changed our
projections at all for this man? We have. He is not a future two division champion.
he's still pretty likely a future flyweight champion.
At the minimum, he's going to fight for the belt.
And I still feel some level of confidence that he has a very good shot at getting there.
But just realistically, I think you got to, honestly, it's less about, I mean, it is about the fight.
It's also about what he said on the MMA hour with Ariel Hawani, where he, we all saw him not tap, unbelievably tough person.
Like, I can't describe how...
Does not make sense to me.
But then, you know, sometimes people have like gumbie legs or whatever.
They've just got a little bit extra flexion.
And but that does not appear to be the case.
It appears that he hurt himself but simply didn't tap.
And then he goes on Arrow Show and tells him, I am fundamentally opposed to tapping.
That is adverse to my principles.
And that is enough for me to be like, cool, you're going to have really short career
because that's just not how professional fist fighting works.
It's simply not.
It really isn't.
For whatever reason he has that,
like that can serve him well in a limited capacity.
It certainly served him well Saturday to get that win.
But if you are, he's 21 or almost 22, I'm not 100% sure.
And he is so clearly focused on becoming the youngest champion in UFC history,
which may not happen.
I mean, it still could happen.
But if you, hearing him talk like,
got a it separated AC joint and I still fought this fight.
Like I don't, that is the kind of thing that just doesn't lead to a long-term
successful career.
Like it,
he is going to need to speed run this because his body is not going to settle for that.
Maybe you can get away with it when you're 21,
but you get to 28 and you've been in this game eight years.
It's,
I have a lot more questions about his long-term ability.
And that's a lot of the projection of his greatness is that he's so young.
And if he develops and builds correctly, he should be with us for a decade.
And over a decade, when you're this talented, that's a lot of opportunities, a lot of bites of the apple.
I don't have any idea how long he's going to be around if he's just like letting his knee get flamingoed or whatever.
It's just a tough ass.
So I still think he's going to fight for a belt.
I still think he has a decent shot of winning the flyweight title.
But I think we can walk back the ideas of this is a future.
all-time, all-time grade.
Damon, you've been known to hand out a grade or two.
How would you grade the first year from Muhammad and Mahiab?
Have you had to readjust some expectations here?
Yeah, so I'll mention right now, and this is not a knock on Muhammad
Makaya, by the way, because I like him very much.
I do think he's incredibly talented, but I'm the only guy on the entire ranking
span that doesn't have him ranked.
I don't have him in the top 15.
Oh.
Because I just don't think, and it's, yeah, and it's not because he's not good,
going by the Jed Mishu ranking system,
I probably haven't been in the top, you know,
10 or 12 because I think he is that talented.
He just hasn't, you know, put together a resume.
He's beating, you know, a debuting guy,
debuting guy, you know, a guy who's not nearly top 15
and then another guy who's like not, you know,
he may be the consensus best flyweight in Canada,
according to the broadcast,
but I don't know the beating Malcolm Gordon
is quite really the accomplishment you want on your record.
So, yeah, I mean, I would say grade-wise,
I mean, I would say, you know,
through four fights, has he passed the test?
Yeah.
but for the expectations we all had for him outside of that first fight where he just,
you know, laid ways to Cody Durdin in a minute, you know, he's been a C, B-minus level
fighter.
I mean, because when you look at the level of talent he's facing, not to say Charles Johnson's
a bad fighter, but he got him in his debut.
Yeah, he beat him.
Okay, yeah, he did.
You know, it wasn't the greatest performance though.
Malcolm Gordon took him deep.
Malcolm Gordon had him in trouble at moments.
And then he won, credit to him.
He got, I mean, Jepel Felo, or however he pronounced his name, that dude,
has a kneebar victory on his resume.
He should.
By every account and measure of the universe,
he should have a kneebar submission winner
for Muhammad Makayev,
and credit to Muhammad he didn't tap out.
But again, these situations keep coming up
where it's like, well, yeah, but he won,
but, you know, yeah, he won, but I'm just,
again, I'm still sold that he's going to be a great fighter
and he could be a champion,
but I'm definitely not sold.
It's just going to be this rapid rise
like we had with Chimaev or Shavkat Rakhmanov,
where we're all very high on them early.
And we're all like,
even going all the way back to my Rokmanov
diet try from earlier,
like I may not have him rank highly,
but do I think that dude can be champion?
100%.
There's no doubt in my mind.
If he gets the opportunity,
that guy can be championed.
Same thing with Hamzaa Chimaya,
that guy,
if he would have stayed at Welterweight
and even now a middleweight,
I would say that about him.
I can't, I believe it,
but I'm not 100% sold anymore
because can I just sit here and say
he's going to roll through Brandon Marino?
he's going to roll through Pantosia.
He's going to roll through some of these guys at the top of the division.
I'm not quite there yet.
So, yeah, my opinion has changed.
No, I mean, I think I agree with you guys that I wrote this on Sunday or Saturday, I guess.
I feel like there's been an interesting sort of readjustment in the way we've talked about this man.
And I think that speaks to like the way he entered the UFC with such fervor.
I think a lot of us got sold really quickly of like, oh, this is just the next guy.
He's going to speed run to the title, that sort of thing.
But I do really enjoy the way that McManard has UFC matchmaker,
Mick Maynard has plotted this out.
I think this shows, you know, sometimes the fast road isn't always the best road.
Because we've seen it.
I mean, he hasn't, it's not like he's been Hamzat Shamaian.
Shemayivine, that's an interesting point.
Hamzotting.
Hamzotting is probably the better way.
That seems dirty.
It's not like he's been Hamzotting these guys, though.
Like he's not winning in minutes.
He's not getting untouched, right?
Like he's winning competitive fights against these lower level fly weights.
I think this is a good lesson, this first year is a good lesson to all of us of like,
hey, man, not everything needs to be fast, right?
Like, it's okay to be patient.
It's okay to take the slow road, especially with, like, fighters this young.
Dude's 21, dude's 22.
We were talking about comparing him to Shavkat or Hamzot, both of whom are like late 20s,
30s, right?
Like this is just, it's not the same type of story.
I think you can very easily ruin somebody by pushing them up the ladder too quickly.
So I actually don't mind it.
If I gave up a grade for this first year, I'd give it a minus.
To me, I'm still sold that he is a future champion,
but I do hope that the UFC continues this sort of slow road.
And we don't need to see him fighting like elite fly weights anytime soon.
If anyone wants to be.
Well, you're lucky because he's not going to be fighting for like a year after Saturday.
I'll never tap.
If anyone wants to be my best friend, any of you be loyal listeners out there,
let's go back to like whatever, the earliest episodes we discussed,
Makayev, I guarantee you I was telling everyone else
to pump their breaks.
The guy is like 21 years old,
Irvin made his debut.
I've always some people that's pump the brakes.
Sometimes they turn out like Aaron Blanchfield.
It's great.
They're one fight away from,
excuse me,
winning a UFC title.
They're number one ranked by Jedmishu
before they even won a UFC title.
But sometimes you have cases like Makayev
where it's a young,
it's a young person.
You don't know what they're going to be.
You don't know what they want to do.
I mean, he still sounds like he's about that life.
It's not a mentality issue.
That's for sure.
But he's calling to fight in the summer.
Like on Monday.
He's calling to fight in the summer.
He would,
fight next week. If a spot opened up on San Antonio and he was legally allowed to fight,
he would 100% do it. The man does not give a crap. But I think, again, when we see so little
of someone, especially their other skills outside of like their wrestling, which the best skill to
have in MMA, we've seen many people with A plus wrestling go all the way to the top five, win titles
is fine, with a with a modicum of striking, it happens, it's fine. But flyweight, I think,
is a little more well-rounded. I think the lower you go, I think most of us agree, you just need to
be more well-rounded. And flyweight's right in there as far as like how,
diversified your skill set has to be.
And we just hadn't seen any of that.
And he was just so young.
And it's fun.
Listen,
it's fun to say this person is definitely going to be a champion.
This doesn't be a two division champion.
But I hate fun,
as people know.
You are the fun police.
It's a darkness, baby.
I love positivity,
but I hate fun.
All right?
I'm not a fun guy.
Okay,
this is just,
that's not how I love my life.
That's not how I love my life.
So while you guys were all like,
you saw the shiny new prospect and they're like,
oh, this is so cool.
This guy became the youngest UFC champion history.
And then became a two division champion.
before he's even 25 years old, I was just like,
settle down.
Everyone's settled down.
Let's watch him fight.
Let's watch him fight.
And listen.
I think there's,
you just need to listen to AK.
I think there's a,
there's also,
you know,
when there's certain prospects of people outside the UFC,
and I mean like outside of Bellator,
like the major organizations,
that when they start building up some buzz,
we all,
we're all guilty of getting a little enamored with them.
And there's not a lot of examples,
but like there's certain ones.
Like, again,
I had talked to and interviewed Mohamed McKayah
I think after his first pro fights,
I had been told about this guy for a while,
like how talented he was.
He was from Dagestan,
raised in England,
all these different things.
And so I talked to him very early on his screen.
And then I watched him fight,
and he was super talented and really good.
And fighting guys in Brave,
and Braves not a bad organization.
Like,
they're not like some C level,
they have good fighters over there.
And he beat some good fights.
Yeah,
and especially for what is,
you know,
quote unquote regional promotion.
Like they're not as big as, you know,
even like KSW,
let's say,
like they're on that,
you know,
that second tier of regional promotions.
And he was meeting good guys and looking great doing it.
So I'll be the first to admit,
I got a little enamored with him.
And again,
that's my own,
like,
it sounds terrible.
Like whenever I see a champion come in from Cage Warriors,
I immediately just expect them to be hype,
type,
type,
and then come crashing down to Earth in a really hard way.
I have a real, like,
bias,
I admit,
because Cage Warriors guys always come in.
Everyone's like,
my God, dude, wait till you see this guy.
Wait till you see him.
and then, you know, I've rarely been impressed.
And this is like the reverse of that, where I'd seen him fight since day one.
And I was like, this guy's going to be the guy.
And now, like I said, he may still be one day.
But I'm just, I got to slow down a little bit on that.
I fully admit I'm a little bit guilty on him because the body of work just wasn't there.
And he was like 5 and 0 coming to the UFC.
Give the guy some experience.
And again, this is the guy who also said Bo Nicol could beat Israel to Sonia right now.
So, you know, take that with a grain of sol.
I'm still with you on that one.
I am all in on Bo Nickel.
Yeah.
I'm with you on that one.
I'm with you with you with that one, Damon.
I'm walking it back.
Shahid, all this negativity, F it.
Still coming.
Still,
right until the wheels fall off.
You say an experience,
I see he's like 30 and two or something as an amateur.
This man's a future champion.
haters.
Ada's one and all.
Look at the toughness he showed Saturday.
Locked into it.
And AK, just to make sure you back me up on that,
just say, I'm not backing off my Boe-Nichol prediction.
I'm just saying like,
also, you know, have said he's going to be the future with, you know, now, what, three fights?
So, bum.
I'm all in on Bo Nickel.
We're at the just saying stuff portion of this program.
Let me tell me tell you something about women's band to wait.
Let me tell you something.
Is that the best women's division in the sport?
I'll tell you something.
All right.
Well, last thing, and we could just end this quickly.
But, AK, I know you wanted to do this.
There were some unceremonious drops from our rankings this cycle.
which made me very sad, all of them.
We're going to call this our poor one-out segment.
I pass this over to you, A.K.
Listen, this game is, Jed has said many times during this episode.
This game, man, it's the margins, man.
This gets fickle.
And we've had some people that probably a year ago,
we were big it up as like, oh,
these guys definitely going to fight for a title in 2023.
And now, as of March, 2023, they're out of our rankings.
So Alexander Romanov, number 13 last month, unranked now.
We pour one out for you, my friend.
And Andre Mniz, big one.
It was, I think, tied for number seven, and it's now also unranked.
There's still, I'll get to one more big, important name.
There's still plenty of time, by the way, for both those guys to write the ship and get back into that title picture.
I am not counting out Ramana.
I am not counting out on your own munis.
But guys, you've got to win fights and you mess out some of these big opportunities,
or you get upset in fights for your major favorite.
It's going to hurt you a fighting global ranking, yeah.
And then.
Real tough day for me and Jen.
We were really on those trains.
No, no, no, because this next train, I was the one trying to kick this track off.
I was like, go, crash into the sea.
You finally got it.
And I think a lot of people will just be more surprised that this young man was even still ranked.
Former interim UFC lightweight champion, Tony Bergson.
One of the greatest lightweights of all time.
The greatest ever hanging on to that number 14 spot in the middle of a five-fight losing streak.
And he is finally out of here.
There was some recalibrating of the rankings on my part, and he lost just no points that he is no longer ranked.
So Romanov, Monez, and Tony Ferguson, we salute you guys.
A little disappointed.
Can you know what?
I was like, I was just, I was 100% of me like, where's the sad, somber, like, Lenny Krabbitz singing from like Day of Memorial?
Like, where's this is that?
We don't have to budget for that.
And we've got to monetize.
And we just got demotized.
A.K., weep not for the memories.
I got to say, as the biggest opponent of having Tony Ferguson ranked, maybe on this show's history,
I'm a little sad to see this day, not because I think that there's any, I think this is the just and true outcome,
but with the rumors that Kevin Lee may be fighting Tony Ferguson sometime, I was really excited to see the mental gymnastics,
AK would have to go through when Tony Ferguson lost to Kevin Lee.
and so Kevin Lee would somehow become a top 15 lightweight
because he beat the guy.
He beat the guy.
Obviously, they're going to fight at welterweight.
So if he beat him again, I would just, if he beat him again,
I would just be like, oh, it didn't happen at lightweight.
It doesn't affect it.
That was easy.
You're putting a whole lot of faith in Kevin Lee.
You're putting a whole lot of faith in Kevin Lee.
I'm just saying.
That's you.
No, no.
I'm putting a lot of faith in how watched Tony Ferguson is.
The one that stings the most.
I'm guilty as to his under immunities, man.
I was super high on him.
The entire MMA fighting team took an L on that one.
He could still be good.
He dropped to number 15.
I didn't drop him completely out,
but I didn't drop all the way to 15.
I think he's done.
Oh, stop.
He's done.
He's young and his career.
What do you think it was about that loss that caused?
Because like usually somebody's at seven.
They lose, still drop to like 10, 11.
What do you think it was about that loss that like every one of us,
without speaking to each other,
kind of did the same thing.
Brendan Allen got ranked and deservedly so
because he's looked good recently,
but I think it was,
it's not that Brendan Allen is bad.
It's that Brandon Allen dominated him.
Like,
it wasn't even a close fight.
Like, it was,
and then he was supposed to be good.
And he's submitting him on the ground.
Like,
the one thing that he was supposed to be the best at,
he got dominated and finished on the ground.
Like,
yeah,
it's just,
yeah,
it was like everything that could get,
everything that could get exposed in a fighter
and one fight got exposed.
than that one fight.
And then,
and then you have to recalibrate
because you go back and look
and are like,
uh,
tough scenes on that resume.
You're out of Hall.
Chakra.
Angander.
It's like,
maybe we were just,
uh,
feeling ourselves for a minute there.
And for me,
I don't have Brendan Allen ranked still.
So if I don't have Brennan ranked,
I can't have when he's ranked.
That's it.
That's just because you want to keep him in the conversation
for middle weightiest middleweight.
That's a bit from you and Mike.
It's very selfish.
It's where he belongs.
It's just sad days.
Mike does have him ranked now.
It's about to be like, this is entirely a bit from y'all.
But no.
I'm a little disappointed, though, that this is like we're just now doing this,
we're just now doing this category with the whole In Memorium thing
because there's so many ones I'd like to take a victory dance on
for guys that I didn't have ranked or have fallen out.
You're not supposed to set up these things.
Damon, this is a sad day.
I'm just saying like it should be a recurring theme.
Like this should be like recurring every episode of who are the new people in.
We can give them happy,
happy music and then we can pour one out for the fall.
Like I was,
I was,
I'm just saying we didn't get to mention the Darren Till got bounced out of the rankings.
I had him dropped out for like six months and he finally got bounced a while back.
And then, uh,
yeah,
so that was one,
Michael Vinn and Page,
we remember that famous episode where I kind of went ham on him.
He's no longer in the rankings.
I'm just saying,
like we,
Oh, man, if we had been doing this, the episode we finally got rid of Stepe, I'd have been dancing.
I think he did anyway.
I'm pretty sure you did it.
I think we did it.
Damn straight.
Damn straight.
Oh, wow.
Well, that was fun, fellas.
I guess we got to do that more.
Anyway, thanks for joining us, everyone.
That's been another episode of the M.MA fighting ranking show.
It's a fun one.
We got two this month.
Now we get a little break.
I think, what is it?
Two weeks now before.
Big break.
Alex.
Oh, wow.
April 8th.
What do we call it?
Are we call it?
Are we call it?
I call it two or four.
I call it two.
It's two.
Yeah, right?
It's a different sport.
They're not the same sport.
Do we count like if they competed in obstacle court challenge,
obstacle course challenge, we wouldn't like count that in the rivalry.
Or should we?
Because that would be much more fun.
I mean, I pitched this a long time ago as that would be a lot more fun for a lot of things.
Like, give me Yoel Romero just doing obstacle courses left and right.
The old Romero would dummy at most fighters in random feats of athletic prowess.
But thank you, everyone, for listening, keep it locked to the M.A. Fighting Podcast Network.
We've got a lot of good stuff coming for y'all in the coming weeks.
That man is Damon Martin. That man is Jedmishu for Alessana K Lee.
I'm Sean Ashati.
See you, next time.
Love you all.
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