MMA Fighting - Rankings Show | Who Is The Real Strawweight Queen? | Plus Heavyweight's New Blood, Predicting Prospect Futures, More

Episode Date: June 1, 2022

The UFC's strawweight division is in disarray in this new post-Thug Rose world — who will be its savior? The gang returns after another violence-fueled month to debate the MVP of May, whether Chito Vera's long-awaited breakout will have an effect on the bantamweight title picture, and predict the biggest storyline to watch in monster month of June. Then, co-hosts Shaun Al-Shatti and Alexander K. Lee are joined by Damon Martin and Jed Meshew to try to make sense of the Pokemon-esque game of rock-paper-scissors taking place at the top of 115 pounds, go three rounds to take a hard look at some of 2022's most prospect-heavy divisions, make a few predictions, and much more. Catch new episodes of the MMA Fighting Rankings Show on the first Wednesday of every month. 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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This holiday, give more than a gift. Give AncestryDNA. Visit Ancestry.ca for more details. Terms apply. I'm a main fighting ranking show. I am Strong-Mashad and I'm joined by my man. you already know, he is the prince of positivity.

He's the king in the north. Alexander Kaylee, and we always appreciate you all for joining us. A.K., what's up, man? How are we doing today? Man, I'm in a great mood. It's super hot up here in Canada. I mean, well, this, you live in there. I do not want to hear heat. I know. You live in it. Listen, hot up here

is like, it's like 16 degrees. It's scorching. No, no, it is legitimately. Like, you, you, I think you would, no, you'd probably be very comfortable up here. For me, it's a little, a little bit of heat. get a little bit of the hot, hot heat. But it's good summer weather. It's good time for balling.

I'm out there. I'm out there on the streets. If anyone's up in the Markham-Scarborough area, come see me. If you want to get these buckets, come see me. So it is ball season, outdoor ball season, so I'm excited. But other than that, we had a, I don't know how you look at it. There was some things that happened in June, rankings-wise. It wasn't like, you know, we didn't see massive of key month.

Wasn't the busy month. I mean, depending how you view, I guess, one particular title fight. I just have to bring us backwards here for a second because I just Googled it. You guys in your Celsius, it's so difficult for us. Did you just complain about 16 degrees Celsius? There's no way you just complain about 16 degrees Celsius. Where are you looking? Are you looking in which province are you looking?

We have provinces up here, by the way. Which province? I don't know, but you just complained about 16 degrees Celsius. I'm in Ontario. It's 31 in Ontario. Okay, 31 is different. If you're complaining about 16, which is like. like 60 apparently according to Google.

Oh, 31 is 87, man. I'm not hearing it from you. That is hot. This is ridiculous. That's boiling. Dude, you could go outside right now in Arizona and your shoes would melt. Like, I can't even take my dog for a lot. I am about to pass out.

Don't get me excited. I can't get excited in this heat. I'm not going to make it through the show. Oh, man. I am jealous, though, of the ball aspect that you just mentioned because my knee is just too busted. I can't, I can't play basketball anymore. I had to retire. I wish I could get back to it.

Any day now, I'm so scared. Like I play with the youngans. I call you out of Youngens my area. Man, any minute now, I'm going to turn the wrong way. I'm going to jump the wrong way. And it's a wrap. I just, I'm so, whatever. Do it for it. You got to stay in the game as long as you can, man. No more jumping. No more jumping. No defense. That's it. It's best way. Hey, just stand in three point line, shoot threes. Everybody needs it. But you're right, man. I mean, it hasn't, it's been a light month. I will say, though, I hope everyone out there is having a wonderful, or I should to say had a wonderful May. You already know, but in case you don't,

is there a once a month look at the MA fighting global rankings. And looking back, what we just experienced since this last ranking show, three UFC events, two Bellator events, one PFL event. So not a lot there. That's a little bit of a lighter schedule than most, but it did have some big hitters, and I would say some standout performances. So when I say to you, MVP of May,

what stands out to you? Well, I want to say Carla Asparza, for setting the record for the longest, you know, time between a successful title wins. Two-time champion, two-time, the inaugural and now current 115-pound champion, Carla Sparza. She did it by beating the woman she beat the first time to become the champion, very definitive the first time they fought, this time anything but horrible, horrible title fight, much maligned by the, unanimously by the M. The M.A community doesn't agree on much. I did not see a single dissenting opinion, not even one person trying to go like, no, It was a real mental chess match.

Not one person. Even Carla and, oh, you know what, maybe Pat Berry. I don't know. Maybe Pat Barry thought that that was a good fight. I'm not sure that that didn't go their way. But either way. I think both fighters were kind of like, I mean, Rose certainly would have been it wasn't their best.

Carla did interviews after saying like, yeah, listen, I understand. It was, you know, it wasn't a fight of the year candidate. Was it the worst of all time? You have C time to fight? I've already said it was to me. Yeah, look, we've done a roundtable. M.A.fighting.com. I should have that round table.

and you certainly, you just doubled down on it. We gave you option. I said, Shaheen, is there anything about you like to compare to this fight? And you were like, no, I'm just, I want to talk about again how bad this is he. Listen, I had to go pre-modern era. I mean, I had to go the Dan Sever and Kent Shamark remand. That's how bad. That's how far, long we're talking.

And that's not even the same, that's barely even the same sport. Yeah, I kind of cheated to find that one. So, I mean, it may very well be the worst title fight of the modern era. But, but yeah, I wanted to celebrate her. I was so ready to make her the Navy people, but we can't really, can we? we can't and as we'll discuss later in the show we'll bring on our esteemed our esteemed pals family fighting pals uh i'm not going to spoil who they are you know you can wait to the end of the segment but uh to discuss uh what the hell we do why we can't quite give carlos bars of her flowers

and uh possibly who those flowers should go to so uh not really our MVP what a tease what a tease that was i'm but i am excited to say i think we can give it to alexander romanoff oh okay I'm here for this. Tell me. Tell me. Going from unranked, he was a farve before. He was a fighter also receiving votes. So he was on the radar.

Very highly ranked by one Jed Michoud. Jed, known for being one of the more progressive rankers. He'll throw... That's an interesting adjective to throw to it. He'll throw people without... who've never fought a ranked opponent into his top seven. He doesn't care. I can't remember how high...

Actually, I'll check very quickly right now. He had Romanov way higher than the rest of us. He already had him 11. So we're at it, we're as a consensus have him at 11 now. Jed last month had him at 11 and his bumped Romanov in his rankings all the way up to number eight. So he has a run out in his top 10. Most of us not quite ready to make that commitment yet. It does feel like he is not far off though.

And if he had landed there, I don't think any of us would have complained. We're very excited from what we've seen with him. He's changed his body. He looks. That's the thing. There you go. He is now Alexander Ubernov. He is dominant.

Listen, yes, he needs to step up in competition, but the competition he has fought outside of the very funky and bizarre Wannas Spino fight. And what's Monspinno is a good heavyweight, by the way. Outside of that fight, it's just, let's look spectacularly dominant as advertised. Really just feels like when you call someone the next big thing, really feels like the next big thing. And it feels like he's definitely worthy of a top 10 opponent, even though we don't have him there.

We don't have him in our top 10 yet. He is ready for someone to take him on and put their spot up against him. And boy, I don't know who's going to bet against him taking it. So I'll go with him, going from the unranked, going from also receiving votes to number 11 in our rankings. I should throw in the caveat. When we throw this around the MVP, we mean in terms of rankings. We don't mean an overall sense because Charles Oliver is the overall MVP. Like that dude is just unbelievable.

Even the missing weight, that whole thing. It's almost getting boring. How good he is, though, Shane. It's just so. I know you're the captain of the bandwagon and have been for a long time. Everyone in our style, oh, Dustin Porre is going to beat him. Justin Gates is going to beat him. I'm just like, I'm just like how quickly.

until Charles Olivera. How many seconds until he taps? Actually, I mean, I guess both those fights were pretty tough, you know. It's so comical the way this stuff works, though, because I actually kind of like the Romanov pick. I think that might actually be, that might be right. If I'm thinking about it and I'm really thinking about it. Dude beat Chase Sherman.

That's all that's all we're talking about. Correct. And that's enough to get you the MVP. But he kind of, he did. He looks like a different version of himself, right? He came in here. He used to be very much this guy. came in with a lot of baby fat.

Looks like a very heavyweight who enjoyed himself. And this looked like a 2.0 version. Like he looked like a monster out there. I was super impressed with the guy who we've seen for two years, three years. He looked like a different person. He looked like a cuddly bear before. Now he looks like like a cuddly cartoon bear before. Now he looks like a real life bear.

Like the kind of bear that will shred you limb from limb if you even attempt to get close. Like so, yes. I mean, that is the kind of transformation he's made. Yeah. He's now 5 and O in the UFC in the heavyweight division, and you know at that point, five and O in the heavyweight division, you're going to get somebody big. So wherever Romanov goes from here, I'm sure he's going to get a very big fight, and I'm actually really excited for that because this has been a dude who has been very low-key,

a very low-key contender or prospect, I should say, for a bit now. But he's finally graduated, it feels like, to that budding contender range. So Romanov, he was definitely one of the big winners for this month in terms of our rankings. As you said, he went from unranked to 11th. A couple of the other ones real quick. Cheeto Vera, the man, beaten the hell out of Rob Font. Just an unbelievable performance.

He moves from number 11 to number seven in our bantam weight ranking. So he is now a top seven fighter, and he is going to get a big one next. I like that as well. Also, Carlos Sparza, as you said, moving from three to one. And then Ketland Vieira, coming out of nowhere,

making the whole internet very upset. And why? I don't even tell about the scoring of the first. I'm like, are we not, even if you thought home won that fight, are you people not happy to see the reign of, the Holly Holmes reign of terror in the top three finally come to an end? It is, she has been, she has been holding on to that top three or top two spot. I mean, she was definitely ahead of Julianna Pena before Pena won the title. So she has been number two or number three. It feels like for like two years.

Are we not excited for like someone, not new blood per se? I mean, it is new blood in the top. Sure. To, to break into there. I know she had a recent, I know she missed weight. I know she had a recent loss to Yana Kunizkaya, so it's not like she's like this big fan favorite. But it was a, I thought, a pretty decent fight.

And again, I had no problem with the results. And I think people should be excited that you can, you can, most people, I think, unless you thought it was a sheer robbery, which I know that argument is out there. It's so funny. Is the number three, I think, nearly undisputed, number three, bantamweight in the world. That's kind of cool in a vision that has very little movement. Yeah, she moved from number seven and number three. And the whole thing was really just funny to me

because it's just like of all the fights to ignite such a massive fervor in the in the MMA community about judging and scoring and all this, which is discussions we need to have. It's, I feel like important discussions. But like that's the fight that's going to be the catalyst for this. That fight sucked.

What are we talking about? I mean, between those, all those names we just mentioned, though, obviously one's a champion. We just hit Roman off a little bit. Between the other two, Cheeto and Ketland. Who do you believe in more now than you, more so than you did? a month ago like where are you at with these two i don't know why i'm such a fan of the guy's a fighter

and i just don't know why i can never get all in on the cheeto bandwagon uh maybe this is the cynical part of me uh of the of the of the fight fan slash you know mma media member i think when some it sounds so silly to say when someone clearly goes out of their way to like and this guy loves putting on entertaining fights he loves winning he loves when he's in there to win. Don't even make no one's a guy. He's in there to win. He also loves entertaining. And I guess I'm having trouble separating Cheeto the entertainer from Cheeto the serious contender. This kind of what happened with Michelle Pareda, who, by the way, was on the cut. It's very close to being ranked. This is the closest he's come to being ranked in our rankings, DeMolador.

And would have been, if not for one, someone, we don't need to name names, but someone's really holding on to the past here. Don't do this to me. I love, I love Michelle Pareda. I just wasn't ready to rank him yet, and I don't know why I'm doing this to myself, because I'm such a fan. But he's an example of a guy who I feel like has transitioned from being just a pure entertainer and kind of a circus act to someone who people are starting to see as a contender, even if they're maybe not enjoying watching his fights as much as they used to. And again, it's silly. You could absolutely be an intender and a contender, everyone in the lightweight division. You know, boring does not equal, boring and methodical does not make you more,

you know, necessarily make you more likely to become champion. That's just, that's just not the way it is. but just for some reason with Cheeto Vera I'm having trouble making that separation so I think I don't know maybe I need to see him in fights that are less back and forth because Rob Font went clear win for him but also Rob Font I think put in a good effort you know he he quote unquote outstruck him he landed more significant strikes which we know if you watch the fight does not tell the story

so by almost by default I'm going with Kettlin Bayetta and it's just let's be honest it's a bit easier to get to the top of the women's 135 division there you go right I mean I mean, you know, but she is a good fighter. She is a good fighter. And I thought she put on a really good performance against Holly Holm. I think clearly a winning performance in my opinion. Disagree if you want people.

So by that, in that sense, she's closer. Does that mean I think pound for pound? She's a better fighter than Marlon Vera. I wouldn't, like, skill-wise, I wouldn't say that. But I do think she is, we are in a world where Kelman-Bara fighting for a YosD title is very, very, very real possibility. You hit the nail on the head when you just compare. the talent at the top of the divisions because it's not it's different universes right like the top of women's 35 and the top of men's 35 it's not even the same conversation if we're being real like

the names at the top of men's 35 you could go what 10 deep 12 deep with just like murderers and with women's 35 it's it's in a bit of a rut right now like the peña thing the penya newness thing shook it up a little bit but otherwise that division has been so stagnant for a bit so you're Right. I mean, Kevin Egger. Stephanie Egger is ranked. And this is no disrespect to Stephanie Egger. But when you consider she only has, she has nine pro bouts.

And she is the number 15 Bantuway in the world. This isn't just UFC rankings. We do, we do, this is the M.A fighting global rankings. We have her one, we have her number 15 in the world with only nine pro bouts. And I think she'd go higher because I'm a fan of Stephanie Eager. I think she's an entertaining fighter and a good fighter. But it just sounds crazy.

When you put it that way, someone with nine propouts who has fought for really good promotions. You know, she's fought a high level for a while. But it just sounds strange. Most people could not, most casual fans could not pick Stephanie here out of a lineup, much less would say she's a top 15 contender in a divisions. I will say, though, I feel a little betrayed, just a little bit. By, I mean, there's one person I know in my entire life who loves the ultimate fighter, who watches the ultimate fighter, who still braises at the altar of tough.

And it's you and you can't ride and dive for your tough alum right here. You can't ride for Cheeto Vera, the pride of the ultimate fighter Latin America. Come on, man. That's such a good season too. It actually was a decent season. That's the Verduen-Cain season, right? Yeah, it's the first Latin American season, I think. That was such a good season.

You're right. I don't know, and I've interviewed Marlon a couple times. I've always enjoyed interviewing him. He's a very fiery passion interview for anyone who's talking to him. It's a great interview. I don't know. Maybe it's the, you know, kind of the reverse jinx reverse bias where you're so familiar with someone or you like a fighter so much.

You're like, you're scared to kind of like say like, yeah, I think this is the guy. So listen, what I'm saying is I'm happy to you prove and wrong. If he fights for Houston, if he wins the UC Tellison Day, I'll be the first one like clapping and cheering. Like I just think he's a great story, a very fun fire to watch. Also, it is a bit of the Charles Oliver thing, right? Whereas just like we have so much history with him. And he, I mean, we've seen him lose a lot.

Like he's lost six times in the UFC. He's been in the O.C. For like, what, seven, eight years at this point? Like, you know who he is. Or actually, no, that's not fair. We knew who he was. And at a certain point, is hard to shake, even though he is no longer the fighter that he obviously was at one point.

One quick note on the Ultimate Fighter, because we mentioned it, that Latin America season. So my own, one of my only memories of watching that, because for some reason I had to watch it for something. I think I was covering that Mexico event where it was like the whole card was the, tough finale and then it was like a chidal fight at the top or something. I just remember that the coaches challenge on that season,

which was still the only good part of the ultimate fighter, is these coaches challenges. The only part I will ever watch every year was, if I'm not wrong, I think it was Kane and for Doom playing soccer. And Kane had very clearly not played soccer ever in his life, or at least not for a really, really long time, like since he had been in high school or like been a kid.

and it was hilarious to watch. He was a fish out of water in front of all these dudes who lived up and grew up with soccer. Of all the team sports, that's like the most shocking one when someone tells me they'd never played it. Like even some very, you've never felt like a volleyball in the field

and like kicked it around. Like it is just so, the barrier of entry is so low to play soccer. Like, and what you need to do. Like basketball will be up there too, but basketball, you still need a rim. I mean, you could like soccer is legit. There's people who say some,

one of the reasons why it's most pop was born. You can get two sacks of dough and place them on the side. I think you've got a net and you kick around some vaguely round shaped. That shocked me that he had never, somehow had never played soccer before. I'm sure he had at some point, but it's definitely been a bit. Can I go make one more note here? Can I do my little happy trails? Let's do it.

Two people, maybe not so happy trails, I have to say. I'm sorry, our welterweight division took a weird hit losing Ray Cooper and poor Michael Venom Page. Oh, my. We hardly knew Ye in the rankings. I think he only got ranked after he beat Douglas Lima, and it's just been hanging by a thread. A lot of our panel just did not want to rank him at all.

And as soon as he lost the Logan story, they could not be happier. Very close fight. You want to talk close fights. Forget home by Ed. That's a very close fight, Storley and MVP. I have both of them in my rank. I have Storley and MVP in my rankings.

So I've got some Bell to representation, but Michael Page does exit our rankings. I think Storley, does Storley even take his place, or did they both just kind of fall out? The weird thing about that fight and what was kind of funny about the way all that played out is that fight was so bad and I think so polarizing that for several of the panelists of our eight-person team neither of them got in offensive that's offensive uh thankfully logan's were at enough points tied for 13 with up-and-coming shopcott rachmanov and someone i've been hanging on to a little too long horan mazvadole so that's that they're tied at the bottom the rankings at 13 shopcott will be fighting no magnus soon and the other note was yeah a ray cooper boy missed weight by over five pounds Lost against a tough PFL newcomer in Carlos Laal.

And I don't know if you took him out of your rankings, Sheen, but I know a lot of us just dropped him straight out. It hurt me. It hurt me because I think I had him the highest of anybody on the team. We like Ray Kooop. How high. Let me say. You had him at 10.

10. I had him at 10. But it was a weird performance. He looked really bad. He missed weight. I feel like he was probably injured because that's like, I don't know how else to describe what we saw from him. But it's also just like,

shows you how much Welterweight continues to just be a shark take at the bottom of that division. Like with all the prospects coming up, all the talent all throughout the world, there's no remorse. Ray Cooper loses one and he was just out from everybody. I don't think anybody ranked him this month. He does not have his next fight schedule

but it is a PFL season. Fingers, he should get another chance to fight. It's going to be an uphill climb now to make the postseason, but yeah, hopefully everything's okay with Ray Cooper, whatever happened with this weight miss because it's a very, very big weight miss. It does not seem like just something that would just happen without without, you know, some reasoning behind it.

So hopefully we see him again this year and he bounces right back and maybe he's ranked again by the end of the year, Shaheen, we don't know. Yeah. Well, looking ahead really quickly before we get to our group discussion we have for you guys this month, June's looking kind of okay. June's looking pretty nice, if we're being honest. We have a pay-per-view here coming up in Singapore. Also, the way the timing works out.

UFC 276 is going to be in this ranking cycle as well. So we have a little two pay-per-view special for this next cycle. What are you looking at, AK? Like, what's the biggest storyline, biggest potential movement that you could see preview in June? Biggest movement, I don't know. I'm obviously super excited for the Glover-Dash-Kah. Because almost like Charles Oliva, there's just this disrespect about like, well, yeah, he's holding, he's just holding on to the belt for like the next real champion. Olavera, of course, it kind of silenced that talk with the wins over poor and Gaetchi.

DeSheran, O'Brien's first held offense, a guy against someone who already has first-place votes in our light heavyweight rankings, by the way, one of Mr. Yerri-Pra-Haw-Haw-Hawai. So I'm intrigued by that fight. Who could actually make a big move up? There's a lot of middleweight business going down because we like you said, we are counting July 2nd in there. Andre Muniz, who I think we'll hear about a bit more later on the show, has a fight with Uriah Hall. That's big.

That's a big one. Also happening at USC 276. I'll throw in one for you if you want. Go ahead, please. A woman we haven't heard from in quite a bit that we're going to actually talk about later on the show, but Yawanna and Jacek is about to make her return to this one 15-pound division. She's unranked for us because of inactivity. Yes.

I am fascinated to see where she still stands in this division. That's what, yeah, listen, Yawani, J-Cic, you want a champion if you still want her for her in that sense. I know a lot of people still love her and view her as the best in the world at 115 pounds. Yeah, she's coming back. And if she wins that rematch with Zhang Wei, it's going to complicate the already bizarre labyrinthine

arithmetic that we have at the top four or five of this division. So I'm really looking forward to how that fight turns out and really regardless of the result, I kind of still don't know what it's going to mean

for these fighters. But I guess we'll talk about that shortly. Yes, that's a great segue. Actually, this is why you're such a pro. That's a great seg to our first big topic. So let's go ahead, hit the break.

After that, we got the crew coming in, Damon Martin and Jed Mishu, and we'll get to it. Hack the holidays with the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Try this PC Porchetta. Crackling, craveworthy. You gonna eat that? Who are you?

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We got the crew. Damon Martin, Jed Michoud appreciate you, fellas. As always. So we're jumping right in, AK and I. We have two things for you guys today. But let's start here. The straw weights, gentlemen. and we have a new number one this month.

Rose Nama Yunus is no more. Instead, it is Carla Esparza. Yes, Carla Esparza. Taking that number one spot after just a legendary, all-inspiring, spectacular. Throw all the adjectives you throw in there. Win over Thug Rose at UFC 274. Might be the worst championship fight in history. I don't know.

We don't need to litigate that. But either way, what a month for Carla, right? Like, wins her second title. Where's the belt down the aisle on her, wedding day, proclaimed the number one straw weight in the world by the only rankings that matter. And this is the kind of stuff you tell your grandkids about. But I have to say, when we did these, it was actually interesting because this wasn't unanimous. This wasn't a unanimous decision across the team. Somewhat surprising that there were actually two of us on this eight-person panel who

zigged when the rest zagged and Jed bringing you in, allow me to reveal that you were actually one of the two. I believe you had Carla at number two for your strawweight rankings are good buddy E. Casey Layden had her at number three, and both of you instead had Jessica and Drogh as your new number one. And you know what? I don't know that I hate it. Just explain this one to us. I mean, this is a weird division right now. Why was Jessica your number one? The explanation here is that this division is a cluster. And I don't think they're right or wrong answers, frankly. I fully expected kind of after what happened this past month that Carla is going to get the number one spot. And if, If you, listener, you have her as the top, that's fine.

You're not going to get any issues with me. But it was just really hard for me to decide that she is the number one fighter in the world in her weight class because she's not. And so it's just, I think that there are like four women that I would comfortably think would beat her if they fought her. Now, one of those women, Yon-Jich is not eligible to be ranked for us. But this was honestly one of the harder choices I've ever had to make as far as our divisional rankings have gone. Because I do want to validate, you know, good performances and or not even good performances, but results. Because as they say, they don't ask how they ask how many. And it does not matter what that fight with Rosamai Unis look like.

Carlos Sparser now has two victories over a woman that people were incorrectly saying is the greatest straw rate of all time. I'm coming into that bout. And that has to count for something. And I want to reward that. But it's really hard for me to do so when Asparza has many losses and would be an enormous underdog against Jessica and Raj, Wiley Zhang. I think in a rematch with Marina Rodriguez, I would favor Rodriguez to win that fight. I mean, hell, McKinsey Dern. Like, there are a lot of people that I think would have a really good chance at beating her.

And so couldn't quite do it. And for me, because there is this sort of rock paper scissors at a fourth one in there because everybody's losing to everybody at the top, it's this weird mishmash. I just rewarded the person who was kind of the conflation of all the best things of dominant performances and victories and who I would probably pick over most people, but not everybody, and that's Jessica Androj. I mean, she's coming off arguably the submission of the year at this point, the standing arm triangle of Amanda Limoshe. You know, before that she had taken a brief detour up to flyweight, but she has been one of the very best straw weights in the world for her entire career.

She beat Rosnami Hunis once definitively, and I know she lost that rematch. I still stand on the corner that that rematch should have been a draw, if not Pride rules on Drogh wins that fight. And so for me, Andraj, the losses on her career are really the big one that is a blocker at this point is the Wiley Zhang. And because Wiley Zhang has lost more recently than Androj, I just said it's fine. Everybody's got losses. Everybody's got problems with their cases. I'm going to take who I think is kind of the best fit for all of it. And right now that's Jessica Andraj.

And I would feel good about picking her in a fight with any woman on the planet at 115 pounds. And that's ultimately why she made the top spot for me. Be real with me for a second, because you were very strong in your belief that Rose was going to wash Carla before that fight. Oh, super strong. I lost a lot of money on that fight. You were adamant about it. Is this almost like a subtle way to, I wouldn't say punish the performance, but just punish the way that fight played out?

Like, is that a big part of this? I don't think it's any part of it because I have rose at three and I debated whether that should be the case because, you know, Casey's got Wiley at number two. And I think there's a pretty clear argument to do that. I mean, it depends on what your value and how you're doing it. I did not want to put Carlos Spars at number two, frankly, just because I won't pick her over whoever she fights next. whoever she fights next, I'm not going to pick all this spars it to meet. And so I don't really feel that that is deserved of two in that regard. But if you're just looking at what she's accomplished, and if you are crediting her with a win over Nama Yunus, which I'm doing, I think she has to be

above Rose at this point in the rankings. And similarly, I can't really put Zhang Wiley in front of Rose because Rose beat her twice pretty recently. And so it all just sort of flowed from there. in a weird way. And, you know, I, I don't, Rose shouldn't have lost that fight, but just because she shouldn't have lost that fight doesn't mean she didn't. And so I have to punish her for that, even though I would still pick her to win a third fight, but I'd feel way less confident because she might just, just not fight because it's a game plan or whatever nonsense is going on.

I mean, the game plan's great. Like that game plan works if it works and if it doesn't, it's the worst thing you've ever done in your career. And we're in the ladder camp now. And that means she's number three in my rankings. But like I said at the start, I don't have any idea. I usually feel really good about my rankings and where I'm at. I don't have any clue what to do with this mess of a division. I'm right there with you.

And Damon, I mean, I'll bring you in here. I admit I struggled with this one a bit even before, because I got mine in before I saw what Casey and Jed did. and I still even kind of considered doing the same. Like, I actually really wanted to get there with Jessica because I agree with a lot of the points Jez making about Carla. It's just so weird the rock, paper, scissors dynamic of 115 right now because ultimately I just couldn't put her Jessica over Zhang Wei Li. I just couldn't get there.

And then it's this tumbling effect where I can't put. And that's a totally reasonable thing too. Like it's all just so nonsense right now. Well, because it creates this weird effect where I can't put Weiley over Rose. I can't put. it rose over Carla. So I actually ended up with Jessica at four, even though she was almost my number one.

Like the whole thing is very bizarre right now. Way in on this force. Like what do you think about Jed's logic here? And did you struggle at all like I did. I did. I actually have Jessica Andrage ranked lower than anybody else on our panel. I have her fifth. I have her behind Marina Rodriguez.

And my reasoning for that was because Marina has looked really good lately and she's on a great streak at straw weight. And of course, Andrage was kind of toiling away a flyway for her. a little while before coming back and beating Amanda Limous. Very impressive win, but I struggled about where to put her because she has the loss to Zhang, which was a very definitive loss to Zhang. She had the loss to Namu Yunis again, close fight.

And then, you know, of course, she's coming back to division for the first time in a year and a half, whatever it was. So I was kind of torn. Like I ended up putting her at five because I just wasn't really sure where to put her. I couldn't, I could not justify putting her above Nami Yunus and Zhang because of their past fights. uh and then hodriguez is on a great streak so it was a weird one like i i weirdly like looking at like jett and case he's ranking like weirdly my my my issue would be bigger on drado

andrache over jang because she obviously got knocked out um for that i would have a bigger issue with that that i do with her being number one over spars if that makes any sense whatsoever as bizarre as that sounds like i have a bigger problem with her jumping over jane because she has the loss but yeah this whole division is a mess like i I don't disagree. Like, Carlos Barsa is far from being a dominant champion. And I don't think a lot of people are going to pick her to win her next fight. I would, I would actually favor her a little bit in the, in the Rodriguez rematch.

I think that's probably her one pass to a victory. But if Yowana beats, you know, Zhang Wei coming up at UFC 275, I still think Yowana runs rough shot over Carlos Baza. God, do you imagine if that happens twice, man? Oh, my God. Yeah. And then the same thing with the same thing. the same thing with uh with uh jang like i think that's an awful matchup for carless spars the jangway

which i know jang's a little further back in the pack right now and no one's going to be screaming for a third fight with nami unis but yeah like it's a weird one like i think she might have a shot against marina she did have a split decision went over her uh but like again i don't like her to win a lot of those matchups so yeah it's a weird one like i don't have a problem with and dros being number one it's just my only thing is again the jang thing like she lost the jang so definitively and i know Jane can't be number one right now. Like that's clear cut. She's had, you know, two loss, two pretty definitive losses to Roel.

One really definitive. And then the second one, you know, of course, was a decision. But I still thought Rose one. So, yeah, it's a weird one. Like, I don't think it's wrong to put on Trash number one, but also where else do you put her? I had her at five only because I didn't know where else to put her. Yeah. A.K., I mean, I grew up with Pokemon.

This feels to me like a very bulbosore beats Squirtle. squirtle beats Charmander, Charmander beats Barbosaur, like, oh, it's so weird. You had the same top four as me, Carlo, Rose, Waley, Jessica, in that order. You're the resident rules man here. I know, I know Jed Logic, hashtag, can sometimes make your head explode around this time of the month when we're doing these type of things. But what do you think? I mean, is this one of those times where did you have any consideration to do the same?

I mean, Yohanna, Damon mentioned Yonnas is going to be part of this conversation here tuned very soon. Like this whole division is all over the place. Juana makes it way weird or two when she gets involved. Super weird. Well, again, if she be Zhang, could you imagine she's number one? You could honestly. Oh, if she be Zhang, she's definitely number one.

I think that's hilarious because Zhang's like three for us or something. I know. It's just it. It's all just insane. This whole division, there's no wrong answers. There's no wrong way to eat this recess. I love rules. As you guys know,

I also love basic math. I do love math, as Shaheen knows, when we do our rankings. Are you bringing out the calculator? No, my God. Are we about to break out the calculator? No, no, no, no, no, no. I was expressed.

We don't have the budget for that. We don't have the budget. I was expressly, not because regular use we, as people know, full disclosure, when we use the MMA fighting MMA math calculator, it costs $82,000 every time you use it. And it's worth it every time. It has solved so many debates and so many discussions. Every time.

However, however, I was told because this equation was potentially so volatile. that if it caused the calculator to explode, this thing costs like high six figures to replace. So it was not worth the risk. And I agreed. I said, yeah, because I was trying to do the math on my head. And this is a situation why it's so important to look beyond rankings

and look beyond wins and losses. You really have to know not just the records of these fighters, like their head-to-head records, but how those fights went. Because just looking at all their Wikipedia entries, I mean, that's confusing enough as you guys have kind of gone over. Like, oh, this person be this person, this person, be this person, be this person, this person, this person.

And then you look how it happened. You look at the two Andraj Najajna Amazana's fights. You look at the two Zhang Namajunus fights. You look at Asparza and Yonai, check how that fight went. It's just a complete shalacking. You look how the first Asparza's fight went. That was a shalacking in Asparza's favor. And again, some of those fights happened so long ago, you know, and they wouldn't be the same.

But stylistically, most of these fires are kind of who they were and kind of who they have been for the past five, six years. And they might be improved versions. that might be a little more well-rounded. But they are who they are, and it does feel kind of easy to project how an Asparza JJ rematch would go, how even a third fight with Namibu J.Nuz and Zhang might go, and Raj versus anybody,

because she's just such a wild force of nature. You feel that she could finish any of these people. And I think if she got the shot against Asparza, she'd be, well, like, she'd open minus 200, right? Like, that's not a crazy thing to say. I think, like 400, maybe 400. That disrespectful? That's not disrespectful.

That's facts. I think that's his finger money. She would club Sparza. It's very respectful. It's unbelievably badly. It's very respectful to Jessica Andrash. Yeah, it's on paper. The fact that Asparza has the belt is the only reason like I think the odds would be closer.

If this match was just made as like a contender's bout, you're right. And Raj would clearly be, you know, there'd be no reason to pick a Sparza. It feels very good, I will say, to be kind of positive. It feels very good to have Asparza at the top. I agree. I totally agree. Had campaigned for the longest time for her to at least get the rematch. We didn't know she would beat Rose, but it's like, my goodness, if there's any meritocracy,

she has done more than enough to earn a rematch. And there was the built-in storyline of her having won the first fight so cleanly. And this was to be Rose Navajunis as like sort of redemption, if she could get that to Ben and win. We didn't get any of that. We didn't get any kind of satisfaction either way. We didn't get as far as proving that she is number one, definitively. We didn't get Navajunis, you know, racing that demon, as it were.

So yes, that's where now we're left in this weird spot. And I think it's a fun discussion. We've mentioned Casey having Navajunis is fourth, which is not crazy. It's just not. Nothing's crazy right now. It cannot be considered crazy. The top four and for for Damon's sake, because he is, I would say quizzically put Hodriguez in the top four above Andrudge, but I'm even willing, that's not that wrong.

But like, as long as that five is that five. it's throw dice figure it out out it just doesn't really there's no right or wrong answer I can't wait to see how you want to just throws the monkey wrench in this whole thing especially if she wins like obviously I think she's going to get ranked winner lose because she basically she's only not ranked right now because she's been out for two years the top six win or lose but if she goes out and beats jang weili which I think she has a great chance to do and I actually scored her winning the first fight she goes out to be jang weiley this time talking about chaos, man.

The chaos is going to be amazing. And we're just looking at 10 days, really. Like, that's happening. If she does that, though, who takes the belt from Carla? Because any of them do, but who gets to? Who gets the virtue? It's like when Bisping was champion. It was like, which guy is going to be the guy who gets to be the middleweight champion?

It is the exact same thing. It's like, well, will it be your well? It's going to be. Or George St. Pierre. If you want to be Zhang, I will almost guarantee you she's going to get a Sparza. They are going to run that back so fast because I guarantee the, because what happened the first fight, the UFC loves Yolana. And as much as I like Marina Rodriguez and as much as it would kind of suck for her, you know,

Yonana going out there, Yolana can, you know, co-headline pay-per-views. I don't think anyone's going to be running to the bank to pay to watch Rodriguez to Sparza too. I mean, I'm thinking more Jessica Androge because that woman is a violent, violent human being. And I would watch her. Give me Androja. Give me Androge and Zhang too. Give me that one first.

I like that match. I like that fight to happen not in China when the UFC is very clearly trying to get the belt not on Jessica and Josh. That's one of the strangest title changes because it happened like the middle of the night for most people. Yeah. It happened in the middle of the night in China. And it was the most transparently like, well, it's cool that you have this, but we'd rather this woman have this title. Can you Brazilian champion please fly to China and give your belt in front of the crowd? That'd be great.

In fairness, I don't hate it in retrospect because it did lead to the greatest women's fight I've ever seen in my life and one of the greatest period fights I've ever seen in my life. We not to digress too much, but we've got some vulnerable like champs, haven't we? like, Glover de Chira, I feel like Charles O'Lebaran, I think is still considered in there, just if it, only because Islam Machachev exists. And then Julianna Pena, again, a lot of people kind of lining up to try and get that fight. And as you said, as far as this, so that's like four UFC champions who are like, plus the heavyweight title might not be defended. You could have a lot of title change over in the next eight months.

But I wouldn't put in Ghanu, I mean, I just mean the people who actually are holding the totals around, like how vulnerable are they to actually lose it? Like we have like four, four really good candidates where like there's many opponents who would be considerably. Sterling is an interesting case. Sure. Dillishaw, right? Dillishaw might be a betting.

I mean, he's well, more well, it could be a betting favorite. I mean, Jose is going to take the bell from him. Let's go. That's the world I want to live in. Aldo the goat. Aldo the greatest fighter of all time. To put a bow on this and then we'll move on to our second thing here. Just one word answer.

Everybody go around the table. Who's holding the title? at the end of 2022 for this 115 pound division. Jed. At the end of 2022? Yeah. December 31st, who holds the title? That is a tough one.

I'm going to say Jessica and Drudge. Oh, okay. Damon. You want a young jacek. What do you think, okay? Can you imagine? Carlos Barza. She's hegging on.

So she is not fighting. She's not fighting for the. She is grinding her way to a win over one of these women we named. She is grinding her way to a win. I think she's sitting out. I think something's set up right now for you wanted to do this. And if she can win that fight, I think she's going to end up with it.

My big issue with that fight is we saw what they did to each other last time. You really think either woman's going to come out of that fight ready to turn around by the end of the year? Thankfully, it was only three rounds this time. So we don't get all five rounds of destruction. So, yeah. Oh, that does help. But they're going to go crazy in those three rounds, though, like G.

And Chandler did, though. Maybe, or maybe it would be a much more tactical fight. I forgot. We've seen it with all of the rematches with these women where, like, the first one is very definitive, the second one's not. Maybe this one's the flip of it. And I can't help the wonder. I'm adjusting my answer.

Yon is correct. There we go. And I can't, and I can't help but wonder, Zhang's going to be a little bit more gun shy after, you know, she's had a couple of rough outings here, you know, and she got knocked out. Like, I don't know. I'm always weary. Like, when someone has a,

war like that and then they've had some rough outings since then like I'm always kind of curious like how they're going to come back so uh yeah we'll find out soon we're gonna find out soon I will say if as spars that gets matched up if they do the the yana if they have you had jicic or that rematch that's like that's like my least favorite as far as like i just i just i can see them fighting like 20 times I think you're on a yanna jicicic that's barring injury features 20 at 20 out of 20 i think the ghosts of that fight are in carla's head forever like the deans you know and just the style I just don't think it's a horrible. Let's not forget.

I think the same thing about every one of those fights. I think if she fights Jessica and Drogh 20 times, a Drogh is like, I'm an athlete, you're dead. The same thing for Wiley. And let's not forget. I know we kind of lose track of it because of the rows, the two fights with Rose, but let's not forget you want to style on Androge when they fought.

Like that was just a five round lopsided. Like it was not even close. I think it would be closer now. Yeah, I think it would be a much different fight this time. I think it would add a lot more tools, especially in the footwork regard. That would help her. Oh, I don't disagree. I think it would be a better fight the second time.

But, yeah, like, I just can't forget. Like, I was there. I remember that fight. Like, you'll want to just styled under for five rounds. I ruled. I just low-key love this division right now because we don't have answers. And there's no real right or wrong answer, as we've said a thousand times. So let's move on.

Second thing we wanted to hit today, fellas. We're nearing the halfway point of the year. I don't know how that's true, but somehow it's true. You guys did an excellent little midterm check-in. Get a little awards action, get a little predictions action. So go check out that on the podcast network if you haven't already. But we wanted to take stock a bit with four of the more interesting divisions in the UFC and really how they've developed over these first five months of 2022.

So we're going to do a quick little game here, a quick three rounds. The way this is going to go, it's very loosely set up. But the way this is going to go, we're going to give you three names who have really done something over these first five months. And you're going to have to tell us who's the realest of the deals of those three? Who's the, and these names are still being workshopped, interimiest of deals of the three. We'll explain it. And who is the fugliest of deals between the three.

AK, can you explain this a little better than I did? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the real deal, I mean, pretty clear, of the names presented, who do we think will very likely at least challenge for an undisputed title? and quite possibly win it. The middle part, like the interim is kind of is, it kind of is what it says. One, I was trying to be hip and cool

and kind of make the MMA version of mid. I heard a lot of kids saying mid these days, guys, so I kind of want to get in on that. And I don't think I'm using it like even close to correctly, but this is our version of that. I just say when I think interim, when I say interim, think mid, but also think interim.

Also think interim, thank you, Jed, because it's catching on. Because we're really kind of saying like, we're really kind of saying that this person is certainly a good fighter, like their rankings legit, but they're probably interim champion or interim title challenger at best. And then Fulgézi, I mean, I think everyone was not, if anyone's familiar with the term, you know what we're saying.

If you're not familiar, we're kind of saying, like, look, this person might be, it might have flown up the rankings in recent months or over the past year. But for whatever reason, favorable matchmaking, a good old-fashioned luck, it's not, they're not really going to, we don't really think they're actually going to be a threat to whoever it is at the top, top, top of the division. So that's kind of loosely how we're categorizing these fighters. All right. And so we're going to do quick four rounds on this, just four of the more interesting divisions of how they've developed.

And let's start with the big boys. We've already sort of hinted at it a bit. This heavyweight title is all over the place right now. Who knows if it'll be defended. And so, A.K., I want to start with you. Three names on our docket right now. Tommy Aspinall. Tie to Ivasa.

You have to sing the song when you say Tommy Aspinall. You have to sing the song, Sean. You can't just, you can't just, you can't just. say Tommy Aspinall. It's Tommy Espino. Tommy Espinole. I was teeing you up. I was I knew he was coming. I knew it was coming. And then Alexander Romanov, who actually just debuted in our rankings, who has been like slept on this entire time. Dude's not new to the UFC. He's been slept on for so long. I think Jed was like the first guy to get on the train, the Romanoff train on this team. But he debuts this month at number 11 of those three

AK. How you categorize it? At a first glance, I was having a little chop but I put just the tiniest bit of thought into it. Actually pretty easy. First off, very happy for Mr. Romanov, as you mentioned, maker, ranking. We talked about a little bit in the first part of the show. But, you know, there was some debate over how high this guy could go. Yeah, he did settle in just outside the top 10, which feels right.

Jed, I think you had him a bit higher, I would imagine, in your rankings. Is that correct? I had him at eight. And the only reason he's that low is because I am a coward. No. Frankly. You are. You are respecting.

You're respecting the process. He doesn't have the win yet. He doesn't have the win. You can't. You guys would call on me to do this. And I didn't want to have to spend 15 minutes being like, yeah. So not to tip my hand a little. Yeah, Alexander Romanov would absolutely bundle tie to Evasa.

So I ranked him above him. This is so he's only eight because I'm a coward. Hold on. Hold on. This is your chance. Listen, we'll lead right into that because this is your chance to kind of make that case here. So for me, my real deal, I'm going against all you guys. bet. I love Taito Avasa.

I think I listen, I love Taito Vasa. I was like this post show after that big win over Derek Lewis. When everyone was saying like, oh, you know, it's Derek Lewis. Like, it's a cute win, but this is as far as he goes. We had a whole, I think a headline of one of our rankings post was, is he really

deserved to be in the top five or some to that respect? And I'm like, he just beat a two-time like the U.C. Title Challenger. Like, this is, let's show the man some respect. Yes, a lot of people, you know, occasionally, not a lot of people. I shouldn't say that. Some notable names have gotten the better of Derek Lewis and used his name to vault themselves towards title shots and maybe Tytoe Abbas is just one of those guys. Maybe he just, he got, he won the Derek Lewis sweepstakes. He won a, he won a slug fest. And, you know, he's not, he's only in the top five because he took Derek Lewis's spot. That's fine. I could see that argument. That's fine. Like, you don't actually realistically think he'd beat anyone in the top five or top six or top seven, however you want to extend it besides Derek Lewis. Fine. I disagree. this guy is just kind of maybe I'm going old school I just like these guys who are just scrappers like when you see them put in a fight I like I feel like you don't need to explain there's a million reasons why you think they won't win but somehow these guys just get the job done and and heavyweight especially when you have that kind of knockout power you have that kind of I think improved maturity on his part I really believe he will he could at least fight for the title when I pick him to beat nangano stepea Cidalgan I

I don't know. I don't know about that. But does he deserve, could he actually earn an undisputed title shot someday? I really do think he could. And I think he could win an interim title along the way to get that title shot. So I'm going with him as my real deal. And I'll just, do you want to skip around? No, yeah, just run through them real quick.

Okay, so I'll go real quick here. And then, Jed, don't hate me. So I, I, so this means obviously Aspl is my last because I have Romanov as my interim guy. I mean, as my mid. Wow. Aspiram is your Fugazi. Aspenas my Fugazi. This is easy, the more shocking thing that I think.

I was not prepared for this. Just wait till you hear the other. We've only just begun. So, because, I mean, Roman, I think he's going to hang around. I did think he's going to be a contender for a while. I do think he's going to be a guy that people have to beat to get to the top. I just,

I need to see more besides, obviously, just the insanely, like, powerful grappling and his fun wrestling, which there probably is, but I just need to see more. So that's just, you know, TBD. And Aspinol, the reason why I put him is, I don't think he beats Curtis Blades. Now, not beating Curtis Blaze does not immediately remove you

from title contention forever. And this matchup frankly had to make kind of just based on where the rankings are and then wanting to have a big fight for the next London cards. So I understand. But I just don't like it for him. And I think it's going to expose him as Blades has exposed many good, many really, really good fighters. So that's the thing is I think it's about to take an immediate hit. It is a bit harsh long term to call him Fugazi. But that's sort of my rationale now is I do think we'll see him take a loss.

And I think, Tivasa and Romanov, depending who they get matched up, are going to at least continue winning for the near future. So we're going to see a slight dent in the Aspinall armor. And I'm sorry, Chad, a little bit of a damper on the musical stylings. Okay, this is this is for you. You're insane, but that's okay. Look, it's you, you have the freedom to be an insane person. And that's, I thought honestly looking at the, I thought heavyweight was the easy. I was like, oh, this is the one what we'll all agree because it's very obvious.

Who's the Fugasey in this? group of people. No. But obviously I was wrong. Hit us with your list. Go for it. Well, the Foucazi is obviously tied to Ivasa. I don't disregard what AK says and that he's currently, you know, the highest in the UFC's

rankings. And he is. And in our refines. Is he? Well, I'm sure you guys, you guys all respect victories. I respect Curtis Blades. So I have him above. But yeah, you know, like I get it.

He is one fight away from a title fight, but he's not going to win that fight. And for like, it's, mind the exact opposite argument of AK. I agree with AK. I think Curtis Blades is probably going to beat Tommy Aspinall. Tommy Aspinall is also young and going to be around this division where you can just stay in this division for 30 years. Look at Andree Olovsky, the goat, just still doing things. You know, you can, being young here is a strength. and Tommy Aspinall has like a lot of varied and useful skills and also could upset Curtis Blades.

I don't know what I want to bet on this, but I can't see Tai Tuivasa beating literally anybody ranked above him that would get him to a title fight. And I certainly can't see him winning the title. I think we talked about it afterward. This is the peak of Tai Tui Vasa's career. I think Alexander Romanov would absolutely bundle him up if they fought. and so I think Romanov has a great style. He's young. The new cut, Romanov, you know, he was carrying some soft with him for a while,

but then he decided he was going to hit the Nikita Krellov. Let's get yoked school of heavyweight. And that's a scary man. Man with a strength and conditioning coach, got a get back coach. That dude's going to be problems in the division for some time. And Tai Tui Vasa is just going to be a fun. brawler who gets beat by people who are good

at fighting and he just, he happened to run. Derek Lewis is just this anomaly. No, Derek Lewis is this anomaly who's good at fighting by definition because he wins but he's like bad at all the component parts of fighting. He just but it all adds up

to being good and Ty Tuivasa just caught him on the night that it was good to catch him. Like I'm just saying what you're all thinking. No one here other than AK and I'm not even Ray K believes it. He might just be taking right now, thinks that Tai Tui Vos is going to win a title. If Tommy Aspinall wins the heavyweight title, I don't think anybody will be surprised. And if Alexander Romanov, you know, at least fights for the heavyweight title, I don't think anybody would be surprised.

So I've got Tommy Aspinall as the real deal, Holyfield. I have Alexander Romanov just right behind him in that. But since we're ranking them, I'll put him, you know, in the middle tier. And Tai Tui Vasa, you've made the difference. shooy vasa which is a garbage funnel uh you're you're doing great things this on this we agree this is just getting personal on the shui vasas garbo it's it's it's it's a it's a funnel it's not a shoe he's just a funnel shaped like a shoe the his his thing his his shooie boss itself not the not the coys no shooys are fantastic that's just not a shooey so um you're hell of fun though

and i can't wait to watch you scrap forever but you're just not going to win a belt and these other two dudes at least have real chances at it. All right, Damon. How do you rank in these guys, these three? So I've been waiting for my time to actually say this because I've been biting my time ever since we saw Fugazi, just so I could say Fugazi, Fugazi, it's a wazi, it's a woozy, it's fairy dust. Does anyone please tell me you know that quote?

Matthew McConaughey from the world. Thank you. Thank you. Been waiting on that one. I think, yeah, exactly, exactly. The Fugazi is clearly tied to Evasa. I mean, come on. I mean, he is the least likelyest guy to win another fight in the top five ever,

much less his next fight. If you fight Cyril gone in September, as we all expect, I think that's a, that's a terrible matchup for him. But, I mean, could you imagine Pai Tewy Vasa fighting Curtis Blades? He would be on his, he would be on his back within eight seconds of the first round, and it would be over within two minutes. Steve A's a bad matchup. I didn't get gone who's a bad matchup even though again.

and gone in my stand with him, but I just don't see Ty Tuvasa putting him down. So, yeah, I think Ty Tuvasa had his biggest win. It was Derek Lewis. I don't think it'll ever get bigger for him than that. And that was all. Let's also not forget, that was a huge jump up for him. He was like way down, like, you know, low, low in the rankings coming off a winner, Greg Hardy. I'm sad we ever have to mention that name again.

But to go from that to Derek. Augusto Sakai, excuse me. Yeah, to go from those kind of fights to Derek Lewis, that's a big jump. Most guys don't get. He did any one. Good for him. don't think it's ever going to get any better for him. For my interim, I'm putting Tommy Aspinall purely because, purely because I don't think

he beats Curtis Blades. And I think that's going to knock him back in the rankings. He's going to put him a little, it's going to put him further away at that point. I think Curtis Blades, in my opinion, is the third best heavyweight in the UFC behind Francis and Steepa. I don't know he'll be obviously, obviously, has two loss to Francis. He's never fought Stepe, but I think Curtis is that guy. I think if you if Curtis and Derek Lewis fought 10 more times I think he beats Derek

Louis 10 times he got caught that night good for Derek Lewis I won up you Damon I think Curtis beats steep I've said it for you he could I think so too I think so too I don't at this point at this point here's here's you want to hear my you want to hear my AK level of like disrespect right now I'm throwing out there I think Curtis Blades washes John Jones in a heavyweight fight I think he washes because John Jones has never fought a wrestler that caliber and heavyweight i think curtis takes him down and pounds on him that's how much confidence i have in curtis blaze i think he beats john jones and heavyweight uh that being said i just think he beats tom aspinall and that knocks tom aspinall and alexander romano are equal to me

they're both incredible prospects i think both guys can be contenders for years to come they're both under they're both how old is aspinall he's like 29 or so how old is he 30 30 is that younger i think i believe he is 27 29 I just looked it up. Yeah, so he has like 14 years left at heavy wage. So he's got plenty of time to develop into that. At least. He's got in Romano.

He's got Belvoir champions ahead of him. Yeah, he's got a long time. And I'm picking Roman off as my real deal only because I think until he runs into the Curtis Blades or, you know, one of those guys at the top, he'll continue to win because I think he beats his tight to Evas. I think he beats a Derek Lewis. A lot of those guys I think he beats.

So again, I'm all basing this on, I think Aspinall is going to lose to blades and that's just going to knock him back a little bit. Not much, but just a little bit. And so I think maybe Romanov jumps over him because he'll continue to win. But again, it's a toss-up between those two. But Tai Tui Vos is my clear Fugazi. I'm sorry, AK, but these guys are right. Taitoivasa is the Fugazi of this group, at least of this group. Because I do think, I honestly think Aspinall and Romanov might be the two best prospects in this entire division. If we're not counting Cyril Gahn as a prospect at this point, because he's already fought for the title. Those.

two guys, either of them feel like they have no ceiling right now. And the way that Tommy Aspinall ran through Alexander Volkov might be the most impressive win of any of these three total. Like that might be more impressive to me than what Ty did to Derek, if I'm being honest. So I actually side with Jed on this, I think. I'm putting Tommy Aspinall as my realist of deals. I'm putting Romanov as the interim and then I'm putting Ty as the end. I'm sorry, AK. I'm so glad everybody's come along on Romanov, you know? He's great. Or Ubernov, perhaps Ubernov now.

I mean, Uber now. Yeah. For sure. It's so hilarious how this stuff works, too, because, like, he beat Chase Sherman, you know? Like, that's not some crazy win, but it's just. Yeah, that's why. But look at the physique, Sean. That's what it was.

He came in looking ripped, and he didn't look like a baby fat, baby face guy anymore. Like, he looks like a monster all of a sudden. And he ran through Chase Sherman, like a monster. That's all it takes for a lot of people. Plus, I've been on the King Kong train for a long time. You have. MMA is really just a bodybuilding contest anyway. So, I mean, that's... At heavyweight it really is. It's one at the scale. We always say that. It's one of the scale.

I'm going to make a bet right now, unprompted. Oh. I'll make a wager. People know I'm a teetotaler. I don't drink at all. But I will drink. You guys, you guys pick the alcohol. If Taitu Vasa gets a title shot, if this man... Sorry, I actually say, if he... If the C.L. Gone flight happens, and he beats Cidalgone, even if it doesn't, like, guarantee him a telos shot. If he beats Cidelgan, I will do a... I will...

It's like a serving a bet, but I will do a shooey in his honor. And you guys name the alcohol, you pick the dirtiest alcohol you want, whatever. I can't tell the difference anyway. It all tastes like crap to me. This isn't even a bet. This isn't you just saying you'll do something. That's fine. Yes, I accept your bet.

More of a celebration. A.K., if the moon crashes into the earth tomorrow, I will cut off my foot. That's a similar bet because it's never going to happen. Paitwee Voss is never going to beat Cyril Gahn. So you're never going to have to do it. Let's not discourage this because I'm very much here for whatever kind of chaos could happen. You never know. And AK, this is just a one side of bed.

I'm here. I'm here for AK just doing shooey. I don't want people to think that I've made such an outlandish claim to celebrate that a, sorry, celebration boasts because I think it won't happen. I do think it will happen. So I am looking forward to drinking out of the stinky boot. I'm just remembering Ty to me of also losing the Blago even off and Sergei Spivak and back to back fights right now.

Like I'm just still trying to wrap my head around that and then getting the biggest of wins over Harry Hunt. Sucker and Greg Hardy and Augusta Sakai before eating, I'm just saying like I'm just throwing out there. We're like in a heavyweight goat on Jara Lowski. Come on now. Let's not gloss over it. I still refuse to believe Harry Hunsucker is a real person. That's not a that's not a real thing.

I just also for the people for context, AK is like the most anti-shoe person I've ever met in my life. So the fact that this is a thing is fantastic. Not only do I not drink. I think shooies are so dumb. I like that that I loved everything about Taito Vasa and I love that he has like he kind of is riding the shooey-a thing. to, you know, as Jed put, unfortunately, a fake product, a misrepresentation of shooies. But I do like that about him.

I like it for him, but I want no part of it. I think drinking already is disgusting. I think drinking out of a shoe is insane. But if by some chance he pulls this off, I will celebrate in that way for him. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at home essential. all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait.

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Sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See air Canada. com. All right, fellas. Well, let's pivot now from the Big Voice to the 125ers. A very interesting sort of mix that has bubbled up here at Women's Flyweight. Because we've been talking about this for a while, just these three prospects that have

really blown up in this division. I mean, maybe not blown up is maybe not the right word just yet, but it feels like we're on the precipice of it. Aaron Blanchfield, Casey O'Neill, and AK, can you please say this last name for me? I can never get it. Menlo feel-ho. Perfect. I love it.

Damon, how you ranking these? So, man, I will say I like most of these as pretty good prospects, but I'm going to go, my Fugazi, I always got to give out the Fugazi Award. first i'm gonna go fugazi to man o uh how do we pronounce the last name feel feel i'm going hers of fugazi here's why she's gonna probably end up if she beats caitland chukagian which is a very winnable fight for her if she does that she's going to get matched up most likely with valentina chocinco and then she's going to get absolutely washed by valentina chowchenko she got out struck on the feet at moments by jennifer maya okay she got struck on the feet in moments by jennifer maya okay she got it struck on the feet

moments by Jennifer Maya. Valentina Chowcchino is going to toy with her like a dog at dinner. It is not going to be fun to watch. So she's my Fugazi because I think she has no chance whatsoever to beat Valentina and Chubchenko. Will she maybe get a title shot? It's possible. But she's no.

She's she got rushed so quickly to the top of this division by beating Jennifer for Maya, which again, to me is not that big of a win that I just think she's going to get. I mean, I don't even know she beats Chukagan, to be honest. He's like Chukagan is a weird ability to win really close split decisions and she may lose to Chukagin to be honest. Death tax is the Holly home of that division like it's just very very difficult to pass her. Chukagin will throw like 800 strikes. She'll land like 70 of them and she might win a split decision.

It's all I'm saying. But she key us, Damon. She key out so well. For my interim, I'm going to go with Casey O'Neill because I think Casey is super talented. Of course, unfortunately, she's out for a year with ACL surgery and she did have a couple of you know a couple of bad moments in that fight with roxan modafarian fight that i thought she should have won you know in a pretty lopsided fashion ended up being a closer decision than i think a lot of people imagine but i'm still really high on casey o'neill and then my uh my you know

the real the realist of real is going to be aaron blanchfield she fights this weekend i think she's a monster i'm a big big fan erin blanchville i think she's only developing and she's so young i think she's going to continue to develop she's got a real good ground game too which I think is really stated well for going up, you know, getting through some of the other top contenders in this division. I'm a big, big, Aaron Blanchville believer. So I'm going to put her as my realist of real as a fighter, I believe will. And also, just again, playing the odds here. There's a good chance Valentina goes up and becomes Bantamweight champion.

And I don't know how much she's going to be, you know, toiling away a flywood, although Bantamweight is a, you know, freaking barren wasteland right now. So there's not many options for her at Bantamate either. but Blanchfield may end up fighting long enough to where Valentina's just gone or has, you know, given up the title or something and not going to Valentina gives her a better chance to actually becoming champion. Blanchefield, of note, the curtain jerker for this terrible UFC card we're about to get this week. It's a ridiculous. It's an interesting choice. Ridiculous.

Jed, what are you thinking? Well, this is a really interesting division. I think I largely agree with Damon on the broad strokes here. first, all of them are Fugazis, depending on how we're determining this, because not a one of them is ever beating the bullet train. The Chevy truck is just running right to retirement undefeated in this division. So if that's where we're drawing the top of the order here, none of them are even given a real run.

That being said, I think Manalfuro is probably going to get a title fight because I think she'll be Chukagian. I'm not confident in that because death tax is Chukagian by decision is a meme. for a reason. But at some point, Chukagin, Chukagin really didn't look great in that last about whatever two weeks ago. And I think Fioro has at least a decent chance. And so she'll get a title fight.

But I would still name her my Fugazi if we're ordering for the same reasons, as Damon says, she's had some struggles, you know. It's not great when Jennifer Maya is competing with you on the feet. But I think she's going to at least get a fight for a title. But I'm with Damon in that. Once she fights for that belt, that's it. She's never going to do it. Whereas Aaron Blanchfield, I think she's so young, has such an opportunity to just outlast the rest of the division until we can wait for the clarity of Shivchenko to retire and open things up.

So for me, I am going to go lockstep with Damon in that I think Aaron Blancho is better than Casey O'Neill as a prospect. So I'll take her as number one. I'll take Casey O'Neill as my midi. just because she is also so young, and I'll take Manon Fioro as the Fugazi, because she's older, has a much more limited skill set, and doesn't have the time to kind of wait out Valentina Shvchenko. But I think if we're just going on who is going to be quickest to a title fight, I think Fioro is going to get the title fight.

She's just going to lose it. To me, this is one of the tougher divisions to do this with. Did you guys find the same? Well, I mean, it's tougher because Shavchon, because Shokinko is going to run rough shot over whoever she faces. So it's hard to say anyone's like a legit contender because I actually, I really do. I really like Aaron Blancho. I think she's an incredible prospect.

But she's also, if she ever runs into Valentina Shucho, unless Shokinko just gives up or, you know, she's just a shell of what she once was when she gets older somehow, which is not going to happen. Have you ever heard her talk? Have you ever heard of speak? That is not what that woman's going to do. Yeah. Chonko is, she's not going to lose. I mean, it's just not going to happen.

So it's hard to rank them because nobody's beating Valentina Shuchino. If Valentinio's fighting at 125 pounds, she's winning at 125 pounds. And that's the tough thing, too, is because I think, and I agree with both of you that, like, Valentin is not long for this division in a sense in that I think she will fight for the Bantamoy title by the end of next year. And she probably will win that title at that point. But she doesn't cut weight to get at all. So, like, she could probably just go back and do both if we're being real.

Like I don't know, I don't see a reason why she wouldn't be able to unless she just doesn't want to. So it's- You're forgetting she also has to go up and get the 145 belt. So three divisions is a lot to work in, Sean. I'm not saying she could do it. I think she could play Queen of the Hill every other weekend and just knock off contenders and be fine. But factor that in. I think I echo everything, though, that you guys said about Aaron Blanchfield.

The fact that she is buried as the curtain jerker of this card that starts extremely early for us West Coasters, which I love, hey, do the early start times. I'm all about it. But if you're putting Aaron Blanchfield, who might be the best prospect in this division at a 10 a.m. start time on a random Saturday, like that's, again, that's a choice. That's an interesting choice. But I agree. I mean, she's so young. She's 23 and she does feel like she has the ceiling and the skill set to be able to kind of mature into someone who can just be a real demon in this division. Where I dissent with you guys, though, is the other two. Because I would put at I was higher on Casey O'Neill until the Roxy fight. Maybe the Roxy fight is one of those

fights where everybody gets, you know, that every prospect reaches some level usually where they struggle with a opponent they shouldn't have. And maybe they use it as a launching pad. So like, okay, I'm not the shit right now. Like I'm, I need to now really up my game and focus in a different way. Maybe that's what that's going to turn into her for her. But for me, for now, I would put her as the Fugézi. I would put Mano as as the middle because I have been impressed with Menon, I know we keep crapping on Jennifer Maya, but Jennifer Maya is like a pretty legitimate contender in this 125 pound division,

and I was actually pretty impressed with the way Menon handled that fight. Chukagian is a different beast because, as we said, death taxes, Chukagin by decision, everybody knows it at this point. I don't know if she's going to be able to pass it, but it wouldn't surprise me if she gets past it. And I think that alone says something,

because Caitlin is just such a monster gatekeeper in this division, sending back every single prospect that comes up against her. So for me, that's my order, Aaron, Manon, K, What about you? I'm with Damon and Jed for the most part. So I won't repeat all the things that said.

I think all the things are on point. I'll play a little devil's advocate here. So the one reason that one person, and you kind of just touched upon it, Gene, that like, that you would want, you could put a Firo at, uh, in the real deal spot is she is like legitimately one fight away. She is one fight away, one impressive win. If she beats, all she has to do is she beats Caitlin Schiggen, uh, even, even if a Valentina Shurchenko decides to go up to 135 and fight, you know, the winner of the pain

and noonness fight. Even if that happens, I think Firo would just wait until next year and see if Schochenko. And Schochenko would come back and defend. I think she'd love to defend in two divisions like Amanda Nunes did. And she would love to fight Menon. Menon is quite a bit older than Aaron Blanchfield and Casey O'Neill. That's kind of why she's been rushed up a little bit faster, I think. So even that physical maturity, I think, is important as well.

And look, stranger things of having title fights. Yeah, I mean, again, she fights Shevchenko 100 times, 9-9 out of 100 to Shepchenko win. maybe Shochenko stubs her toe, suffer some weird injury. Maybe we get like a Vitor Belfort. I'm just saying, all you do is get in there with the champ to have the chance, right? We've seen,

we've seen weird. Maybe she has this Rose Navajunus like brain fart, and we get in as far as that, you know what I mean? It's just like this weird, super tactical fight that's like impossible to score. And somehow, you know, Manon wins two out of three cards there.

Like, like, just getting there is, is so important. The fact that she's one fight away is why you might, you know, say she's the real deal. Because as much as I love Aaron Blanchfield as a prospect. And actually like, And like Casey O'Neill is a prospect, too, both 25 and under. They're so young that for me, it's like the opposite.

It's like it's almost impossible for me to project like, oh, for sure, they're on this path to get a title fight. Because you just don't know this early on. You don't know how a fighter takes their first UFC loss. You don't know how a fighter takes their first sort of lackluster decision win. Like you kind of mentioned the Motta Ferry fight. Does Casey Neal learn from that and come back as this beast? Or did we kind of see her, did we see parts of her game that are like legitimate flaws that need to be corrected? So the fact that they're not close is why, again, is why I would understand why people would be hesitant to put them above Menon-Ferro in these particular rankings the way we're doing them.

But again, I do think Blanchefield will win a title someday after Schifchenko retires. Again, the ages just don't line up. She's literally like three years away. If you were like talking about having a chance to straight up be Shevchenko in a fight, we're talking like three years away. But I think Shachenko is, you know, at some point we'll retire. And I think Blanchfield will slot into one of those spots someday for a vacant title shot or something. And yeah, yeah, she's an amazingly talented young young, 25 and under. It's sorry for me just to guarantee anything with them.

So I am with Damon and Jed, but I wouldn't blame people. They said, men off your row, one fight away, you know, from actually fighting for the undisputed title. It's so funny because, like, I love Val. Valentina's amazing. She's one of the most amazing fighters I've ever seen in my life. Fulta just one of the most interesting people I've ever spoken to in my entire life. But if in some world where Val doesn't exist, we look at this division so differently, and this division is so fascinating all of a sudden because I don't know at that point

what happens. Like I don't really know who would just come out of that heap. That would be a very light, heavyweight-esque situation to me where maybe we get some really weird stuff at that point. And like Lauren Murphy's champion or something like that we didn't even know. That's literally what I say. Lauren Murphy could be a UFC champion in this world. Nico Montagnia was.

So it would be like straw weight only instead of all the fighters being good They'd all just be Fighters or Jessica and Drogh would just be this dominant champion Actually Jessica and Drogh would have just won the title and be dope as hell Because she's always dope as hell yeah Well fellas let's move on now to round number three last one of the day and for this we actually had to throw a little curve ball in there Because there's just too many names we couldn't narrow it down to three we couldn't figure out how to do it. We're doing 1.45, the feather weights. Big grouping here between Arnold

Allen, Bryce Mitchell, Ilya, I'm Mosevar, Evoliv. I'm sure I just ruined that last name. But Jed, let's start with you. How are you lining up these four? Because this one was the toughest one by far for me. Pick two Fagasies, by the way. Pick two Fagasies, please. Yeah, I don't I don't like that. I don't appreciate that's not a rule I want to do because I don't think any of these dudes are free gays. I think all of these guys legitimately dope prospects. Picking two of them is close to impossible. Also, we're doing this like a couple of days before

Maw's Rive has the biggest fight of his career against Danny Ege, which could fundamentally change how I feel about any of these things. So it's just like, this is a really, really difficult one for me. I'm going to functionally default to my featherweight rankings, more or less. and for me I have been super high on Arnold Allen for a really long time. I think the only knock against Arnold Allen is that he does not fight as much as he would say that he wants to. You know, he's putting in one fight a year. He has frequent hand injuries.

But every time he fights, he looks like the like a TriStar next TriStar guy. He looks like featherweight Roy McDonald. And I, you know, his life. last fight out was the best performance of his career. I have him number four in the featherweight rankings because I just, I think really highly the dude. I think he'd beat most guys. I love his game.

I think he's, he's cresting. So he is going to be my number one. So he's real deal. If we're picking two Fugazis, a. K. Do we just,

we have one midi, two Fugazes and one real deal? How's it work? It's your world, Jed. You can do whatever you want. Yeah. I'd rather do two middies because that feels.

was a little easier for me. But it's still really hard. For my second one, I have Eilwev. I'm probably butchering that, but I'm sorry. We're all going to butcher it today. It's okay. I've got him ranked at number 11

in the featherweight division. And I think that that's going to be, I'm not looking at other people's rankings right now, but I feel like after this fight with Dan Ege, which I suspect will be very one-sided, a lot more people are going to come on the model. Mopsar bandwagon. I mean, this dude's undefeated for a reason, and he has showed out.

I think he's looked really impressive, even if he's mostly getting decisions. And I think he's going to do the same against Dan Ege. So give me Mopsar. I love number two as a midi. And then I will take as another midi, Ilya Tuporio, who I have 13 in my rankings. I actually have all these dudes ranked. So feel good about that, at least. the Jai Herbert fight gives me a lot of questions, man,

because I know that that's up at lightweight. I know Jai Herbert is an interesting physical body because he's so much bigger, but man, Tupuria was having a rough go of things before he turned the lights out on Jai Herbert. So that gives me a little bit of caution with him. His future at featherweight gives me some questions. So he'll be my, if I had to pick two Fugazis,

he would be my my first two gasey and the last one is arguably the guy who this will be the most controversial it's bryce mitchell um brys mitchell looked incredible against edson barbosa he has basically looked incredible in all of his fights he's really good at fighting but i think the his style of fighting i feel is not going to succeed at the top of this division um he you know he's a grappler he really needs to be able to score take downs and work a ground game on you and there's some other guys he can do that against does he have a fight booked no bryce no yeah no like yeah you know like i think he could have success against you know a gigacizade or something but i think any of the three guys i just spoke of would would probably rents him and you know guys like calvin cater um brian ortega i just feel like

Like those guys are all just a bridge too far for particularly what he's doing. Plus, he's a weirdo. And so if I have to pick out of these four people, the guy I'm the least interested in, yeah, give me the guy who I don't think much of his personal opinions to be the Fugasey. Well, I'm going to stick with the rules set out by AK since, you know, rules, rules, so I'm going to go to two Fagasies, a MIDI, and a realist or real. And for my, I'll go in realist to real order here. I think real is the real.

You know, these are all, honestly, these are all pretty solid prospects. I got to be honest. Like, this is not an easy category to just say this guy is, you know, Fugazi and this guy is the real is the real. But I guess right now I'm going to go realist to real for Ilya to Porese, slightly over Moseph, only because I think Tepore has that knockout power. And yes, I did have some questions after that Jai Herbert fight. But again, legitimately, that was up a division.

and Jai Herbert's a bit of a banger and Tuporia still put his lights out in the second round so I'll give him a little bit of a pass on that one I'm a big big fan of Mosuar Evil of his wrestling of course his brother won a medal at the last Olympics his incredible wrestler very very strong guy I like him to beat Danny again this weekend and I think he's going to give a lot of people problems

because his wrestling and my two Fugase so I put him in my midi and then my two Fugazes are Arnold Allen and Bryce Mitchell for two reasons one Arnold Allen listen I like Arnold Allen and everyone was raving about what he did to Dan Hooker incredible performance performance of the night first round Tio great but I mean is that really that big of a statement when Dan Hooker's been on a bit of a downturn lately Michael Chandler got a lightweight title fight off doing the same thing to day so he also he also did that one fight after he went five rounds with you know just a porre so it's a little bit where Dan Hooker was then versus Dan Hooker now and also Dan Hooker going to featherweight was probably not the best idea in the world. Yeah. But,

but, Michael Chandler also sucks. You have to take that into account. Doesn't, the other thing is, Dan Hooker at 145 is not that good. Like, if you look at his writing 45 resume,

he's not like his, there's a reason he moved up to lightweight. Are you a ranked at lightweight? Lightweight's not that good either. I mean, but let's look at, I mean, Saddik Youssef is a decent win.

I like the Suddique Youssef win. That's probably good. Nick Lynn, I mean, his last four wins, two of the guys don't even, anymore gilver melinda and nick lince they're retired they're gone those are two of his biggest high profile wins and they're not even the sport anymore the use of fight and the mads brinell fight are

probably two of the best wins any of these guys have though yeah but i just i'm not an r-rowing believer i think he had a flare up with the hooker fight i don't and also again i'm playing the odds the guy who fights one time a year and he gets injured he's out for 18 months at a time i just can't have faith that they're going to put him into a high profile fight and believed he's actually i mean he beat dan hooker and now he's been out again and we still have no idea when he's going to fight again uh and that that's why we're getting like josh himitt fighting calvin cater and the winner of that fight could be right near a title shot because they haven't they can't depend on arnold allen to actually show up um so that's why i have him as one of my

fugasi's i don't think arnold allen beats yeah i don't think he beats max holloway don't think he beats wolkenovsky and that's not you know i don't think i don't know if any of these guys beat those two but i don't know that he beats calvin cater i don't know that he beats josh himit um you know those are closer fights and again it might be a year and a half where we see him again uh and then bryce mitchell i actually you know even though much like uh shan strickland i'm not a huge fan of brys mitchell in terms of some of the crazy things he says but in terms of the style yeah he's a real dangerous grappler he really schooled edson barbosa i mean he beat him on the feet and beat him on the ground was really impressive performance that being said like

if he gets matched up with someone like mosa or eve he's not going to take him down i just don't see him doing that. Josh Emmett, a lot of people know Josh Schmidt for having knockout power. I think people forget he was a real good college wrestler. I don't think, you know, Bryce Mitchell's going to take him down.

You know, he may get another high profile when near the top of that division, but I just don't see him beating the absolute best of the best of 145. So that's why I have Bryce Mitchell and, and Aram Allen is my Fugazis. And like I said, I'll put Toporian number one surely based on his finishing power because he actually can go out there,

put people away, more known for his grappling and decisions, but I'll put him in number two. And then, yeah, I feel confident in Arnold Allen. Again, we may not see him until 2024 at this point. Man, this one is so hard. Though we keep mentioning, I will say, we keep mentioning this Iliate to Poria fight against Jai Herbert. Herbert had like six inches of hiding, like 10 inches of reach on him. Like that has a completely different division. I don't know that I put as much stock into that one. I don't know. What do you think, AK? So I've got Mitchell and Arnold Allen as my Fugazis.

Mitchell, because I think in a perfect world, if, sorry, I should say, if he is able to become like the bantamweight version of Colby Covington, like we know he's a great grappler, great wrestler, the striking definitely needs work. But if he can, if he can, but he also has this insane motor. So if he combines the motor with the grappling and then can get some, like some really, he's not a terrible strikeer either, but, you know, it's not kind of at that level at featherweight where you need to be compared to some of the best feather weights. So if he can become the Bantingwood version of Colby Comington, then that's another story.

But I think that's a long way to go. I think, you know, I don't like Kobe Compton's the person either. But I do think he's a really, really, really good fighter. And I think that's the best version that that's what Bryce Mitchell should aspire to. And now he can become like a top five guy and a world title contender. I just think he's far from that. I don't think there's any guarantee he gets there. He's going to win a lot of fights just with his again, his motor, his grappling.

He just needs a little bit striking pressure to really take him all the way. So I have Meso Fugazi. Arnold Allen as well. It sounds so crappy to say that because he's what? What is the thing? What is he in the U see? 9 and 0? 8, no, 9 and 0? 9 and 0.

Yeah. And, you know, maybe the highlights have been few and far between. But I like a lot of these wins of age well. Mads Brinaw, I think it's a really, really good win. Yeah, he has the best record of any of the dudes we're talking about. Like, it's not even really clear. I think it's not even a competition. But I also think he's also just had, he's had opportunities, right?

I mean, he's had, you know, Iliant, my top two, Iliu, and most are are still relatively new to the UFC. I would favor them to beat a lot of the guys that, that Arnold Allen beat. And again, listen, Arnold Allen's the one who did it. I don't get, I can't give these guys credit for fights that never happened. So I think Arnold Allen's really good.

I will say, I'm confident saying, I don't think he ever makes it to a title fight. I don't think he ever gets that signature when he needs. You are confident in that. To fight for, I'm confident about it. Yeah.

That is wild. Arnold is still only 28 years old, man. Sure. I know. He's 28 years old. He doesn't. understand how to lose he is I know that's a bad good thing that I would not a good thing that I would not be confident that he never makes it to a fight is it I'm going by the rules rule all right

he's in my Pagasy list he's in my I'm saying list I had to put him in the Fagasy list all right I feel like I feel like he's I feel like he sat out like four years of his UFC crew he's only 28 good Lord I know I just fights once a year basically but he's been fighting in the UFC since 2015 and he's been beating good good veteran opponents I'll give him that but none of the opponents that none of these people he's beaten has made me think like oh man this is the not once have I seen Arnold Allen fighting but like man this is the guy like this is the guy who's going to be I see a champion in him and like he's a great fighter I think he can be around for a long time I just haven't seen even the Dan hooker win and and Damon and kind of went over is like

Dan hooker is a great fighter he's not a great featherweight and I think that was a pretty favorable matchup for Arnold Allen I didn't expect a knockout that was that was that was a real statement right there but I'm not quite ready to put him above but not a for me to put him above a Vloya and Tuporio. So it comes down to the two of them and for me I am so insanely high on Aaliyat Tuporia. I love that I love seeing fighter struggle and then come back. I mean it was a lightweight fight so I don't know how much you want to factor it and he has a good discussion don't forget Tupori has a win over the goat AK. I was about my sound let's just call this one is the guy who beat Ryan Hall so you have to believe he's the greatest fighter of all time

Whoa. That's a really impressive win, though. Like, come on. I don't remember. I don't think they fought. I don't know what you guys have led. It is an impressive win. He bought Damon Jackson.

And that didn't even look competitive, though. Like, that's a really impressive way. I'm pretty sure that most Ryan Hall losses will look almost identical. That's right. Ryan Hall is going to win a lot of weird fights. And when he loses, it will always be. He is actually the spiritual successor to Denny's Maya, where he will just get obliterated by like Nate Marquart.

He's never lost, so I don't know where you're getting this from. Aleut Tuparia smoked, smoked Damon Jackson, December 2020, didn't fight again for like 18 months and then fight Jai Herbert. I don't know what this, why are you even bringing up Brian Hall in this discussion? There's nothing to do with this stuff. I never saw that. But I am a really big believer in Tuporia. My only fear is I think there's legitimate concerns about him being able to consistently make

one 45. I think this was an issue before the UFC, if I'm not mistaken. He challenged for a Bannonweight title not that long ago. And now he's just like, I think I'd rather be a lightweight. Okay. Anderson Silva once fought at Welterway, right? It's like, you know, your body changes pretty quickly. You know, I think, I know he's still young, to very, very young.

He's in that 25 and under range. But I, if he gets that on point, he's so easily my real deal pick. And I love, I love a lawyer. And I wish that fight had happened, that fight that was scheduled for earlier. I so badly wish we had seen that. I know. It would answer, it would answer a lot of questions. And again, I don't think it would have taken away from

either guy. I think you could say either guy is still like close to being the real deal no matter who won, but it would have just been really nice to have that great prospect versus prospect battle. So until that happens, and it probably will happen someday, I'm given to Puri of the slight edge. I just, yeah, I like the finishing power. That's the finishing power isn't everything, but I do like the finishing power. And yeah, I liked his ability to come back against Jai Herbert. And he's one of those guys who I think when he gets the proverbial lasers on someone, like like Anderson's, like the best of Anderson Silva, you know, the best strikers. They get those lasers going. Man, he's so, so powerful and so deadly and it's so fun to watch.

So I'm kind of going with my heart here. It would be nice to have a little more evidence to work from. Again, he's only fought twice in the UFC so far, or sorry, three times. Yusufuselal, Damon Jackson, a long break, Jai Herbert. And it does not have the resume of Arnold Allen, which is very strong, very strong resume. But I'm willing to Fogazi, Arnold Allen, and Bryce Mitchell and go with DePurter as my real deal guy. I stared at this for like 15 minutes. It's tough.

They're all great. They're all great. Let's be clear here. These are all great fighters. I think Featherweight's like a low-key underrated division when it comes to these guys. Because we get so wrapped up with the Max Holloway, Alexander Volcanovsky stuff for so long. And it's still going. This is still ongoing. Like we kind of don't look past that. Featherweight rules. Featherweight through Walterweight are all just bangers. Like the future of Featherweight. People love Bannamway too. All of these dudes are in their 20s. Like everyone we're talking about for this division is in their 20s.

It's ridiculous how good Featherweight is going to be for a while. This one again, I stared at it for like 15 minutes, and I don't even feel good about my order, but I did have Loya of last. I probably am going to feel stupid about that by Saturday. It's just like you have to put somebody last for me. He was last. I went Bryce Mitchell right after him,

even though his win over Esen Barboso might be either the best win, any of these guys have or the second best win. It was certainly, you know, I think very highly of Edson Barbosa, and that was just not a close fight. And then the Arnold Allen, disrespect on this podcast, is just frankly, like, ridiculous.

It's utterly ridiculous. The dude is like 9 and 0 in the UFC and hasn't been, like some of these fights have had moments of competitiveness for the most part. Like he's just washing a lot of these dudes. Like he is not given anybody any reason to doubt him

other than the fact that he has very bad luck and he kind of has like a plain personality like a very dry personality. And I just throws people off the scent. His personality is awesome. I dig it. I personally dig it. The Tesco meal deal thing?

He's the man. He's a lot. I can see how it maybe doesn't translate into the fight world, but like, Arloz of the man. Philistines. Philistines. So for me, he's the second, but I've written already before, I think in a couple of different columns and places. I think I think I'ma Tupori is a future champion in this division.

If he can continue to make weight in this division, I totally agree with you, AK, and Damon. He's my number one. I am so ridiculously impressed with this guy every time I see him. I don't count the Jai Herbert thing against him, because again, he was losing like six inches of height, almost 10 inches of reach on that guy, and he still sparked him out in like 67 seconds in the second round. To me, he's my number one, but all of these guys, mm-hmm, like if Alexander Volcanowski can get past Max Holloway, we're going to start reaching some

really interesting levels of his championship reign because he's going to start getting some of these up-and-comers, these prospects getting thrown at him, and I'm really interested to see how he can continue to evolve and deal with some of these guys. What's really crazy, though, is, and like, I mean this with the absolute utmost respect in the world to all four of these guys because I'm super high honestly it's a really really tough one to pick even though I did kind of take a dump on Arnold Allen if Alexander Volcanozky beats Max Holloway which I think he absolutely can't he's done it twice already at least one time very definitively if he does if he does I mean I have a hard time picking anyone to be Volkanowski like that's how good this guy is like

man I love the matchups but man Volcanozzi is going to be an incredibly tough champion to the throne and it's like crazy when you think about like how good this division is and then you look at the champion like yeah it's kind of like welterweight in a way like you know camaro uspun's the champ like colby covington is a legitimately really good fighter you know what i mean gilbert burr's legitimately really good fighter and camaro is you know he's just that much better than everybody else and wokonovsky could be that guy i think it's going to be it that's the way these divisions always go though right with with a very dominant champion is you feel like no one can beat him until all of a sudden somebody just explodes

and levels up out of nowhere overnight T.J. Dillishaw randomly against Barrow or something like that. Like all of a sudden somebody's there. And then this is just... Also, no. Also, Volko. Also. He's 33 or 34. Like, he's getting up there in years.

He just doesn't take a lot of damage. I mean, he doesn't. Let me just start an idea. I don't know about you, Sean. But it's harder to wake up when you're older. It's just way more difficult to be 34 and like, ah, my ankle just doesn't work anymore for whatever. Oh, I sneezed and now my back's out for two weeks. Am I wrong?

I'm really looking forward to Brian Ortega and Yaira Rodriguez. That's a really fun fight. But am I weird that I really want to see Brian Ortega and Bryce Mitchell? I think that's a really fun fight. I thought that was the fight to make. Like I love the Yair fight, but I totally agree with you. That is a hard fight for me to determine who I want to lose more. four.

Such a hated. I'll close it out with this. I personally guarantee if Alexander Volcanovsky beats Max Holloway that one of the four gentlemen we've just talked about in this division will be the person to beat him. Like it's just inevitable. Like one of these four guys is going to level up overnight in a way that we don't expect and it's going to be spectacular. And I'm super excited for it.

I like that. I like that positive notion. I can see that. I can never see that. It's fun. This is a. I mean, this division's insane when you really think about it. Like I said, we've kind of been defined by Volcanowski and Holloway, but then you look at, like, I love Josh I'm in Calvin Cater.

That is a really, really fun fight. And I know Calvin Cater has looked, you know, really, really good being Chikaze, but I'm super high on Josh Emmett, especially if we can go out there and land that one punch to put him away. That's a really fun one. And, again, Yaya Rodriguez and Brian Ortega should be feeling this is just a crazy good division. I don't think this division gets as much credit as it deserves. Yeah. That's because for a while it was in a weird spot, but I agree. It's really fun.

I'm with you, though, Sean. I actually, as I'm looking at it, I definitely think one of these dudes is going to be the guy to beat Volko because you know who Volko hasn't fought like really? I mean, he fought them back in the day. He hasn't fought anybody who's trying to take him down in forever. Yeah. Like, yeah, Chad Mendez and Darren Elkins once upon a time in a different universe. But like, yeah, I think there's a real opportunity for Eve to just Greco-Roman. the hell out of him.

Well, let's end it on that because we have a hell of a slate coming up here in June. The next like four and a half weeks, which is kind of our next ranking cycle, is just looking ridiculous, two pay-per-views, international fight week, the Adesania, Canaanir, and also Tashara, Prasca and just all of this. Like, I'm so, I call him Prashka. Uri Prasca. I know how to say his name. I'm bad with names, but I know that one at least.

But anyway, this slate coming up is spectacular. I can't wait to cover it with you, fellas. Appreciate you, as always, for joining us here on the monthly MMA Fighting Ranking Show. That man is Damon Martin. That man is Jedmishu for Alexander Kali. I am Sean O'Shti. Please keep it locked to MMA Fighting.

Appreciate all of you guys for joining us, and we'll see you next month. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola. for a pause that refreshes.