MMA Fighting - Rankings Show: Who will be the best welterweight of this generation?

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Jack Della Maddalena is the new welterweight champion and is on his way to establishing an enduring legacy at 170 pounds. All he has to do now is get through the No. 1 Pound-for-Pound fighter in the world in Islam Makhachev and then a murderer’s row of contenders. Simple enough, right? Della Maddalena made a statement with a dramatic win over Belal Muhammad at UFC 315, but his run at the top could end before it begins as he’s set to face Islam Makhachev at some point in the second half of 2025. Should he get past Makhachev, Della Maddalena has a number of hungry challengers waiting in the wings, including Ian Machado Garry, Sean Brady, Joaquin Buckley, and undefeated fighters Shavkat Rakhmonov and Michael Morales. On this edition of the MMA Fighting Rankings Show, Alexander K. Lee, Mike Heck, and E. Casey Leydon review the most notable chart movement of the past two months and debate who will be remembered as the Georges St-Pierre of this stacked crop of welterweights. Plus, a look ahead to the most anticipated fights on the calendar. Follow Alexander K. Lee ⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠ Follow Mike Heck ⁠@MikeHeck⁠ Follow E. Casey Leydon ⁠@ekc⁠ Subscribe: ⁠http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠ Read More: ⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of MMA Fightings Divisional Rankings Show. We can talk about rankings too, but it's the rankings show, guys. This is May 2025.

It's been about a month since we did our last show. It's about two months since we actually did a full proper update of the rankings. And I think it works out better this way, guys, because we got plenty of movement. We've got a new champion finally. Technically, two titles changed hands, though, of course, the other belts talking about the featherway title is back with a former champion and was, you know, vacated. Like it wasn't like a changed hands.

But we did see one belt probably changed hands. Jack Delam Adelana shaking things up, shaking up the welterweight rankings, shaking up the pound rankings, beating Bilal Mohavah in a very competitive fight, but I would say fairly free of controversy. And so we've had some movement. This is a good thing as we head into sort of the midway point of 2025. Things had been a little bit stagnant. But let's talk about all that.

Let's talk about some of the new contenders we've got. Let's talk about some of the veterans that have maybe fallen out of favor. May not be long for the top 15. And to join me to talk about all the comings and goings and the hottest and the naughtest of the divisions, we have my best friend, Mike Heck. Hello, AK. How are we doing? Hello. Let's talk some rankings.

Agenda Shobly for life. Oh, don't. You know, that's for the algorithm. I like that. That's for the algorithm. Whoa. Thanks, Mike. What a problem.

Sorry, that was really loud, but I got very excited. Wow. My apologies. RIP headphones. On the horns today, as always, is the great E.K.C. Oh, man, I got really excited on the air horn button. We've got a couple of topics to discuss here, but let's just do a quick sort of update on the biggest moves we had. This is since March.

This is since March since our last division update. two months. So some of these fights, I know, guys, the M.A. News cycle moves so quickly. We have so many events. These feel like distance memories. But let's go real quick. Light heavyweight. Carlos Alberg, leaping into the top five, beating Jan Blakovitz in a forgettable fight at U.C. London, but a win is a win. Carlis now number four. Dominic Reyes, he's back. Guys, back on the top 10. He was already back in our rankings, but he jumps from the the fringes of the top of Dean all the way up to number 10 after beating Nikita Krillov. Ryan or Derritter, officially a top 10 in the Army fighting global rankings with a spectacular win over Bo Nicol.

I think some may think he should be ranked even higher. Natalia Silva, essentially swapping spots with Alexa Grasso. Natalia Silva up seven spots. I wrote this wrong in my notes. Seven spots to number two after beating Alexa Grasso. She is the number one contender. Will she get a title shot? That's another conversation.

And Yasmin Yasidavish has got a shout out my fellow Canadian up to number 11. She beats Jessica Andrash. Birona Janjarova, also number two in her division at Strawweight. She beat Jan Shaonan. And another great Canadian, Jillian Robertson, up five spots to number nine. She beat Marina Rodriguez, who then retired. We have Yuya Wakamatsu, making his rankings debut. He beat Adriana Morais.

That one probably flew into the radar. They fought their one in their series now, but Yuya's got the most recent win. We took out Elia Tuporia and Max Holloway guys. You will not see them in the featherweight rankings. Of course, Tuporia officially headlining EOC 317 for a vacant lightweight title fight with Charles Olivera. And Holloway was kind of on the border, but I think we're putting him in a lightweight now.

He has said he is not going back to featherweight. He's officially booked to fight Dustin Porreier in the main event of 318. So there we go. And happy trails to Jose Aldo, who is apparently, and we all like to believe has retired after a top, top, top controversial loss to Iman Zahavi. So there are guys. Those are the big moves. There's a little more.

Of course, we'll talk welterweight, but that's kind of going to lead into a bigger topic right now. Mike, I just want to ask you which of these moves and sort of which divisions are most, let's say outside of Welterweight. I think we can all agree, Walter Wade's on Fuego right now. Which of these moves was most exciting to you

and which division has you kind of most intrigued heading into the next six, seven months of the UFC? I mean, it's weird to say. Like, I feel like lightweight's always the answer, but light heavyweight, I guess. But like, it's so bad.

It's just so bad. And I say this because of Dominic Reyes. Dominic Reyes is just a great story if he can get back up there. He should just fight Carlos Holberg next. I think that's the fight to make. Winner gets a title shot because Carl Sleberg certainly isn't getting a title shot after that forgettable. Jan Blahovic victory. Obviously, Rinder-de-Ritter is an interesting tale.

If he beats Robert Whitaker, he might just, you know, weird his way into a title shot. Gasoline heavyweight, but it's mostly because. of Dominic Reyes and no other reason. And yeah, if we're not talking Walter Wade, I guess light heavyweight, but I am not happy about this answer. And I think that just kind of goes with just sort of the state of the UFC and its divisions right now. Like one division can get red hot and sort of take over the conversation.

And then when that happens, the rest of them sort of just fall behind. And we hope for the Dominic Reyes of the world to emerge in some. way, shape, or form. So I guess slight heavy weight, but that is default though, if there ever was one. See, I want to say like straw weight and women's flyweight because in my mind, I'm like, oh, we got

two fresh contenders in Bernard Gianjarova and Natalia Silva. But then I realize they're probably not getting their shot next if Dana White and really, let's be fair, the vast majority of fans have their way, they want to see that Val and Zhang Wiley's super fight, which is awesome. Like, I'm not complaining. What a great fight. I hope we get it.

But it does kind of suck that, like, clearly Natia Seva, I think Shepchenko would be a great fight. Clearly, Vyerno Jandro Jankova and, well, some people may disagree, but I think Viron would be a really good challenge for Zhang Wei Li. But, you know, that's not how the UFC works these days. Getting it becoming the clear-cut number one contender does not guarantee you Jack Squad. Becoming an interim champion doesn't guarantee you Jack Squad, apparently. So my answer, I guess, actually, I'll say middleweight for now, like, because I owe you. And I think, I want to say it was when we were doing the show like last year or whenever Shaheen was still around. You guys were touting, you know, middleweight.

I didn't believe it. You guys were saying it was the top three division. I was like, I didn't see it. I don't know. I didn't see it. I think historically, I'd always looked at it as kind of a muddy division. But you guys are saying, look, this guy's coming up. This guy's coming up.

I think this was before RDR even signed with the UFC. So we didn't even know that gem was coming along. This division looks pretty sweet. Like that jerk is Hamzod fight is awesome. Nasr Dene's going to event and Kayo and Anthony Hernandez is booked Anthony Hernandez is fighting

Is Anthony Hernandez fighting? Is he booked? Is he not booked? We've got some movement because I remember so By the time this podcast comes out I think we'll have the division post up and when I was writing out all the upcoming fights

yeah okay maybe no Anthony Hernandez Oh no I see Oh Roman delete Yeah we don't remember if we confirmed this yet But supposedly fighting Roman to lead say. I think almost everyone in the top of Dean is booked for, even Paulo Costa has a fight.

He's fighting in 317, which he never fights. So Johnny Eblen, no one in PFL ever fights, and he has a fight. So I think, I don't know if it's everyone, except everyone outside of like Cayo and Nasredine and maybe Sean Strickland and Izzy. But that's great. That is what you love to see. You look over the next three months, we'll see even more movement in middleweight. It has been moving a lot in the past year.

Somehow, you guys nailed it. This division rules, and if RDR gets a title shot, Holy crap, what a fun. I don't care who it's against, Chomsat or Drickis or someone else. Man, that's a hell of a lot of fun. Casey, what are you? Oh, I was going to say,

welcome back to the rankings, Fabian Edwards. He's back, baby. He's back in there. We should, with respect to Fabian, with respect to Fabian, we should say Derek Brunson did drop out due to inactivity. He is not fond in 18 months. So someone had to take that spot.

And who better, who better than a man who appeared, I think, on three ballots. You, Guy and I, Casey, than Mr. Fabian Edwards. Doing great, doing great. PFL, doing great. Casey, which division, which move intrigued you

and which division is like kind of... I'm actually, as far as the most intriguing, I'm actually going to go with middle-weight rankings also. Mostly because of RDR, because I'm pretty sure that's where I had him ranked too,

but it's the weirdest ranking because he is a top 10 fighter, and yet he hasn't beaten anyone even in the top 15, right? Nope. That's what I mean. It's a very unique spot because like, I mean, most people are like, you got to beat someone to get there. And we're just putting a lot of potential on him, I guess.

And I'm, I mean, I'm on board too. I don't know if we've, I don't know if Jed has made us just fall in love with him too, like in the same way. But I just, I find his ranking very, very interesting. What do you got? I mean, I don't recall. I mean, I don't. I mean, former one champion on multiple divisions. He's got three top 30 wins in the UFC and is finished all three of them.

So I get it. And it's like, he's not really competitive fights. Like he's the Mershardt one, just how good is Gerald Mershardt is probably the question we should truly be asked. Because Gerald was the most competitive with RDR by a mile. It's, maybe Gerald Mershart should be ranked number 15 over Fabian Edwards.

Hey, hey, hey, it's a great. It's a weird. Slow it down, but I see what you're saying. It's a weird one. Yeah, and I will say, we're pretty conservative with our Derritor takes. What I want to say, I think when he was a two-division champion, one, he had snuck into the top ten already. I could be wrong. He might have never quite cracked the top ten.

I know Jed was very high in him. So based on Jed's ballot, of course, guys, we use like a weighted system for anyone who doesn't know. Like, you know, a number one vote is worth 15 points, and then you kind of go down from there, 14 points, 13 points. So one ballot can swing things like a lot. I think Jed had him high, but I don't know high enough to push him to the top 10 because he wasn't on like everyone's ballots. But now we're pretty much in agreement. Jed has him nine.

That's the highest. A couple of people have him 11, but he's anywhere nine to 11. And that's it. And I think we're right. I think we have him in the right spot. My guess is not two different Johnny Eblen. We have him as top 10 fighter yet because of, you know, being in the PFL now. Has, I guess, outside of Fabian Edwards, has he beaten anyone in the same?

top 15. Am I forgetting someone? I'm trying to think if someone used to be in the top 15. Um, like it's on his rise. Yeah, I don't think so. So I think like Eblen or Derritter were kind of still going just on their because they're their champs and other organizations or still are

and just some potential, I guess. Without looking, who is Johnny Eblen fighting at the next Costello. Constino. I knew you would know. I knew you would know. I made the graphic. I have to know.

You did, you did. That's in your brain. That's, yeah. But yeah, and unfortunately, I hate to say it, a win without losses. So, you know, people can see the graphic ahead of him. There's Anthony Hernandez, Whitaker, Baha'uio. Like, without one of them losing, like, a win for Eblen over Castell, even as like a first round just runs through him.

Man, I just don't know if he can go in the same spot. It's tough. It's tough. Honestly, even if Anthony Hernandez, Whitaker and Bahal, you lose, they still might not drop below Eblen. Like, it's just really tough with the PFL right now, finding reasonable opponents. on that same card the comane is Dakota Jifah fighting a fighter I think people like but most well

people who know about her like her she's fairly unrecognizable so um you know uh it's small her that fight is probably tough scenes oh she's gonna absolutely destroy semiko enaba she's gonna oh the uh Hawaiian battlechwar fighter yeah she's just oh my goodness that's a I saw I saw incredible jump up in competition for Samika wow I didn't know that I saw people rolling their eyes in the matchup and I will say at least Belter has like kind of like you know they've regularly they've kept Sumico busy for the last few years

like she is a she's not someone that Belter's brisk bring in like she is a known Belter fighter but obviously not a household name not a popular fighter and she'll be a plus $2,800 underdog if those odds aren't out already that would be incredibly

if that fight's even competitive Dakota's going to move back in the rankings oh getting the drop ready he's got He's getting the red arrow already. He's getting the red arrow already. I don't like saying that because, I mean, I want to explain that she's a good fighter. But, like, I enjoy watching a fight, but I didn't see her. It has, like, a top 10 flyweight.

And I have Dakota very ranked, very high. So I didn't know that. That's interesting. Casey, I don't get to ask you this stuff a lot. Will you be disappointed if we never see Silva versus Svchenko or we never see Genjiroba versus Zhang? But that means we get, like, if you had to choose, if there's a, world where we get either Zhang for Shetchenko or we get those two title fights and you can only pick one, which again, I hope that's not the case. I'd love to see all those fights.

But if you could only pick one, which scenario you're picking, the one super fight or the two number one contend fights? Oh, if Wei Lee is leaving the division permanently, then the super fight. If it's just to get the two belt thing and go back to straw weight, don't want to see it. If she's leaving division permanently, then that's the fight. Otherwise, I just, I've been a big general. I've been a big Gensaroba fan for a long time. And now, Wei is the best,

and I think she will lose to Waili, but she has earned her, she has earned that ass kicking. So that's, that's why I really want to see Jensuroba get that title fight, because she deserves it, you know. Yeah.

But, but if Waley's just going for the two belt thing, and you can go back to Starweight, nah, screw that. Yeah, that's a great way of putting it. I always hate the argument with that, like, oh, we know this person is going to win, why book it.

I'm like, well, that's why they're a champ. Yeah. And there's a lot of title fights you shouldn't book then. Then again, then that's where we're in the situation where guys fight once a year because there's like, oh, there's no worthy contenders. I'm not going to, I'm not going to fight this guy.

I'm just fight once a year. And I'm like, oh, that's great. That's great for the fans. Mike, I know you're all in. I think you're all in on Zhang, Shepchenko, right? You feel like that has to be done. You have to do it now. You have to do it now because I'll, let me just tell you folks in listening land something.

If Valentino Shifchenko fights Natty Ice Neck, she's losing the belt. Plain and simple. losing to Natalia Silla. She's not going to win that fight. So if you're going to do the super fight, if we're going to do Champ versus Champ, if we're going to do Shifchenko versus Zhang, you have to do it now. Because if you get too greedy with this, Natty Ice is going to go ahead and take that belt away from her. So do it now. I need to see it before both fighters move on to other things. I don't think Shepchenko and Zhang are going to be each fighting five more times apiece. So I think we're less than a handful of fights for both gals.

Let's just do it now. Like, what are we waiting for? Zhang has, Zhang told me when I last spoke with her. She is done at 115. She does not want to fight at Shrawad anymore. She wants to go up to 125. And it's,

sure, she'd love to fight for the belt. She just doesn't want to fight at Shraway anymore. So I don't know what we're doing here. We could still have multiple title fights out of this. We can get a new Shrawi champion crowned. It's, it's fine. It's fine. Janjarova could get her day in,

in court and fight for a belt just isn't going to be against Zhang and that's okay that is okay she can fight mackenzie durn in a rematch for the vacant title it's all good oh that's what the uccc would love that finally finally get that mackenzie during title fight finally get that i love that i love i love durn jangiroba is an awesome rematch and yeah and both of them yeah right i've right really earned it get um get get tautianna sores a fight let her who get her back into contention and yeah shawwe's back They just need to move on from Wei Lee. And like Mike said, book that freaking fight.

And Mike, you said, Jillian Robertson. Yeah, exactly. Like Jillian Robertson that fight. Perfect, perfect. You've done it again. Mike, this is not, no, settle down. This is not, you don't have to show off. I'm sorry.

You don't have to show off. We all know you're an amazing matchmaker. Like, you don't have to flex it in front of everyone. And you said, you know, John wants to move anyway. So you have the same copy on. Mike, you're assuming, like, this is the fight to make because Zhang is just going to bake the belt. And like, we're all, it's a clean move on.

I don't know what else she needs to say. She's like, I want to go to flyweight. Please, UFC. Let me go to flyweight. I don't understand while we're waiting. Listen, we got six months to go. We got what, how many pay-per-views that still need Title V? It's like at least three.

Because we're only booked up to 319. They might add something in 319. And then 3-19 is, oh, no, they're already talking about the 320, right? And we know it's 320 in September, which we hope will be in Guadalajara, but we're hearing some rumblings that some issues with the venue the venue is a little bit behind schedule but either way i think i try to think so by the end what's like what will the december that'll be 324 probably 323 24 something like that um so yeah a lot of cars left to go you could you could very well see that's your chenkozhang fight book by the end of the year if it isn't man i'm going to be

deeply annoyed considering some of the other fights we're only fighting once wayley only fighting once a year. What a shame. She's so good. She's so good. What a shame. Are you trust her on a throwaway card in Perth? Like, what are we doing? So yes, guys, we had a ton of movement. We had some fond farewells,

just in great fighters. I didn't mention Walter right before, guys, of course. Jack Delmedalena, your new number one. All of us voted him number one. There's been some moments of the past where that's not the case. I think when, I don't remember when it was who won, when Leon won, maybe even Balal won. I think, Jed was like, nope, Shopcott.

I'm going shot. I'm putting Shopcott. Oh, sorry, maybe it was you, Mike. Maybe it was you. But yeah, the Weltermate title picture has not been like incredibly clear. Even after Leon, like, rested the title away from Usma. I think at some point he was like consensus number one. But then like, like, Shavcott fought and he had a good performance.

So there's some nice movement there. But for now, there is peace in the land of 170, Jack Diamond, De La Madelena, number one. Brady and Machado Gary, both into the top five. I want to say, oh, well, yes, fresh. contenders. I was going to say fresh contenders. We saw Brady fight Ballol, but not fight for a title again. So, before I get into the big topic, I just want to ask when we were originally like,

updating the rankings, it was after 315, but then it kind of got pushed back to after Vegas 106, which was headlined by another pretty notable title, Walter Fight, excuse me, Michael Morales versus Gilbert Burns. Michael Morales just runs through the older fighter. Let's see where we are now. We have Morales going from unranked December 8. I would say jumped like technically if you had if you extended it past 20 I would say he jumped like 10 spots or something he's about like 18 17 um Gilbert burns plummeting outside of the top 10 I think for the first time since we did start doing these rankings a few years ago number six all the way to number 13 sorry dropping six spots to number 13 so I just want to ask quickly Mike Marales too high not high enough gilbert burns dropped too far didn't drop enough

which I see your rankings let's see Mike's right I think Morales is fine I think Morales is fine I'm trying to remember exactly where I had him. I think I have Morales, behind Pratchez. You have what's about ahead? You have Morales eight and you have Pratchez nine. And you have Burns, you drop Burr's 14.

So you're about in line. Yeah, I would say eight, nine or ten is a fine place from Michael Morales. And yeah, I'd say Burns from, and I mean this with all due respect to one Gilbert Doreno Burns. anywhere from 13 to unranked, I think is more than fair. This was not a competitive fight against Michael Morales. This was not at all competitive.

And I understand the strength of schedule and those losses are pretty tough. He lost a ballad. The fight was not close. He lost a JDM. He was winning. Got stopped. It is what it is. These are the types of things that happened in this sport.

And the Sean Brady fight was fun, a little more competitive. than most give it credit for, but it's a Brady win, there's no if to answer, or butts about it. This was the Wadden where it's just like, okay, we're way on the back nine now.

We are six Long Island Ice Tees deep on the 19th Green, if you will, with Gilbert Burns, and that's fine. Like, he's had a great career, and there's still fights for him if he wants to keep doing this.

I mentioned, like Austin Vanderford. There's, you know, Michael Kiesz is about to fight. I forget who he's fighting Cort McGee. You could throw them in there with a guy like that,

but the days of Gilbert Burns being like a top 10 Walter waiter just over. And that's fine with everything the span has accomplished. But yeah, if you wanted to take Burns completely out of the rankings, I would not bother me at all at this point because I think pretty much you can make a case for every single fighter probably in the top 20 to beat Gilbert Burns right now. And I would listen to all those arguments. And Father Time catches up with all of us.

It's undefeated, no matter how great a shape you get into or how skilled you've been in your career. And unfortunately, forgive what Burns is just where he's at right now. Kim being at 13 right now, you should be pretty happy about that if we're being fair and true to ourselves. Yeah, people are just looking at our list. I think there's a lot of people who would rank Pratchez above him. I think there's a lot of people who would rank Amosov above him. So, man, that's crazy. He does turn, I think, 39 either in June or July.

This is the nature of the game, man. This is the nature of the game. Casey, I'll go to you. I know, so I wanted to just stuff that people know, inside baseball here. You had Burns seven, two months ago. This is our last update. You had Burns 7, Morales unranked.

A lot of people had morale is unranked. Now you have Morales at 11, and you took, you just, Gilbert's out of there. So is that, Casey, you want to, yeah. Yeah, I think I'm the only one on the staff that I took Gilbert completely out of the rankings. I hate saying it, but it's one of, you know, when we have kind of these big fights,

we kind of always go, is this a good victory or just a bad performance by the loser? You know, we kind of like that. And unfortunately, I'm going to have to lean toward Gilbert looked really bad over, over morale is looking really good. I mean, my mask obviously looked great. He did exactly what he was supposed to do. But Gilbert is just, you can't have off nights like that in the main event at this level

in your career. It was just he's not, he's like a top 20. I'm being very positive. maybe top 20 guy right now. He's a guy the UFC should definitely use now to push up their prospects, like Morales. So, yeah, that's why I couldn't, I think I, yeah, so I moved Gilbert back to Farthest, and I did. And Morales, I had, I haven't ranked the lowest two of amongst everyone at number 11. But, yeah, so obviously Morales is, you know, potentially fight for a title when the title.

eventually, but right now, it's just more about Gilbert Burns just not being, you know, a top elite fighter anymore, unfortunately for him. Yeah, I should correct myself. Jed also dropped Burns out. So that's two, again, he went from being in the top 10 perpetually since we've ever started doing the rankings and now just not even on two people's ballots, but losing streak, some really tough losses in this streak. It's hard to keep him in there.

But again, for the fans, I hate to say it, so much respect for Gilbert. fans is actually really good for the division because casey you just said michael marlis maybe a future champion and i i've certainly felt that way for some time so i don't want to ask like we kind of did a question we do this few times like oh who's the most likely in this division blah blah to win a title i think we did it with the middleweights not too long ago um so i want to go beyond that let's let's extend further oh go ahead case yeah before we move on please reformed protest did he moved up right on a loss. Was he ranked last month?

He was, no, but I think someone fell out. I want to say someone fell out. I can't remember why. Oh, Wonderboy actually fell out. Wonderboy was in our Tud, I think in our 15. And I don't know. So basically, we moved up process because of the competitive nature of his size. Yes.

Even though. Yes. Okay. That's almost a check in. And I totally agree with that, by the way. Yes. I just, it's interesting. Sometimes they're like, well, he lost the fight, so why am I going to move him up?

It's like, no, it matters. It's not about wins and the losses. It's how you win, how you lose. And, yeah, Pratchez was a very competitive loss, so we still rewarded them in the rankings. I just think that should be noted. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one.

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Instacard, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. All right, guys, let's move into the meat of this episode. Why do I put it that way? I want to talk about welterweights more, more than we just did, because I don't want to just talk about who's likely to win the title. How long is JDM going to be on top? I want to project like five years ahead here, guys. Who do you think?

Who do you think? I provided you kind of preliminary list, but obviously you're free to, you know, mention whoever you want. Who do you think is going to go down as the best welterweight of this generation? Now, you know, evaluating generations can be a little tricky, but I think people can kind of agree. There was like, you know, there was obviously the pre-GSP era when like Walter weights were called like lightweight. So it was like the Pat Militage era. That's a whole other thing.

And then you had the very clear sort of Matt Hughes, GSP and all their contemporaries there. That was like a pretty solid era. I want to say, I think Camaro had his own era. I do think Camaro's reign counts like its own Camaro, Colby Covington. And then he had a... Will he had it? Willie was an era. I think it's part of the Usman era.

I think like if you compare them, you would say who was the best wealth rate of that era, I think you would put Usman. Like you can compare them directly enough. People could argue that Usman maybe when he beat Woodley, it was like, you know, Woodley was already starting to age out. I wouldn't agree. I think he beat a pretty good version of Woodley. But I understand.

I understand. You're right. You're right. Some people might make that distinction. I think that's part of the same generation. Again, Colby Gilbert. Gilbert in his prime is part of that generation. Horan Basvidal, a wonder boy.

So I think that's all one generation. And then I think now we're moving into this new generation sort of bridged by Leon and Ballal, who again are still relevant contenders. I think Malap Hill County, Leon, I understand. Nadia, picky is Balaw? What generation is Bilal part of it? Because Belaw is 37, 37 years old. Yeah, I know.

Yeah. And Leon's also a bit up there in age. But I count them because if Balaw were to come back and win back the title, he would absolutely be considered like the best welterweight. I don't know. We'll see what happens to the other guys. but could be back into consideration for best welterweighted this generation. I think, unfortunately, not being able to, you know, getting injured and missing the Shopcott fight,

losing in his first title defense to JDM, I don't think you'll hear a lot of people make that argument. But we don't know. Maybe JDM loses this for a title defense. Maybe no one defends the title successfully for the next three years. We don't know. So we're just projecting here. Could be guys who aren't even in the UFC yet. But let's say over the next five to seven years, we want to call that this generation of welterweights,

just based on how old these guys kind of are in the top of dean we're looking at and some of the guys in the edge of it. who do you think we could do a ranking if you want you could do a top three you could just give me your number one you give top two i'll leave i'll leave it open how many names you want to throw in there Mike who who is or who will be the best walter weights of this generation when we look back on it will there be a clear gsp where we guys to say this guy was the number one oh man i don't know i don't know if we're going to have like a clear gsp i don't know if like i don't even know if you get it anymore just like the woodley thing would they had four title defenses so i kind of like put him on his own tier and then Oussman had a bunch himself.

So like, especially when you look at it from today's perspective, if you have three title defenses, I feel like you earn your own sort of wing in that division. And who knows? Maybe it's Islam Makachev. Like maybe Islam Makachchev is the best welterweight. The problem is I don't think he's going to fight enough in order for him to get there. So just looking at this list, age, skill, higher ceiling, who can, improve the most.

I'm going to go with Ian Machado, Gary. I'm going with Gary on this one because I feel like he's really good now. And I look at his skill set and thinks he needs to improve upon and think to myself, he's like 55% of the fighter he's going to be. He's only going to get better. He's not going to get worse for like a decade. So I'll go with him that he's got the gift of gab. he's going to get more opportunities than a lot of these guys.

Balal if Belal wins the belt again, he changes things because Ballal's going to have to win like five fights. He's going to have to win like five more fights for he gets a title shot. And he's going to have to basically clean out the division a second time. So if he does that and then regains the belt,

obviously this changes the discussion. But I will go with Gary just because he's got, I mean, he's got a decade to go. And I think he's only going to. get better. I like it. I think the UFC would love that. The guy, yeah, and I don't think anyone in the Oss of these days we would put on that,

you know, McGregor, Rousey, Brock Lesnar tier as far as potential to get into the mainstream. But for sure, I think Machado Gary could reach, and I'm talking about, not talking about accomplishment. I'm talking about like the name value. I think he could reach like that John Jones. Who else do you put in that range? So like just that B plus, a high, high, you know, B plus tier. Try to think.

It's a bunch of names clustered together. But that's what I think of. I think he could be as famous John John. I can't imagine him ever becoming as famous as McGregor, Rousy, Lesnar, blah, blah, blah, blah. Even GSP, GSP, I consider it that A, that sort of A-A-A-Tier. I love it. I do think, yeah, IMG for sure has everything they want a champion, has shown he can fight some of the best of the best.

I mean, went to this very competitive decision with Shavkat. Yeah, the age fits perfectly. I just look at some of the matchups in the top 15. There's a lot where I'm like, yeah, he's probably either favored or pick him against a lot of these guys. So it's solid. Casey, I'll throw to you. Are you going outside the box here? Do you think Ramadan, Karl Mago Medov,

maybe jumps over to the UFC at some point and just run shop? Are you going recent? We just saw Michael Morales stay undefeated, run through Gilbert. What's tickling your fancy? Do you have more than one name? Do you have more than one name that you think could be the best. I slightly disagree. I think Belaw is not five fights away.

I think he's only two fights away. I think he fought, to me, that was one of the best title fights I've seen in a long while. And now the UFC has a strong. story to sell Bala to me. That's like this kind of comeback redemption story. Because remember, that fight was up for grabs into the fifth round. It was, if Bala wouldn't won't win that fifth round, he's the champ. I mean, so that was an incredibly competitive fight.

I think UFC can sell that. But regardless, I don't think, I think Bala's age is going to prevent him from making a true comeback at the highest levels. If one of the wins is Camaro, if one of the wins is Camaro, that would actually help a lot. If he ends up fighting Camaro, win or lose, whatever happens with Camaro and Buckley, you might build a bill for that. But I'm actually going to go as far as the next GSP, the champ, JDM.

Okay. He is getting better. He is getting better. He weighs 28, 29. He's about to hit his athletic prime. He's got an incredible coaching staff around him. And he's a guy that will, I think, will fight a lot. He's not going to, like I agree with Mike said.

As much as I believe Islam is the best Walter weight because of, I don't know, just the politics of the sport, the business of it, we're only going to see him once a year. We might see him more at Walterweight because I'm assuming the weight cut isn't as, isn't, won't be as big. So he won't need as long as as a training camp for it. But I think JDM is an incredible fighter. And I was just kind of blown away. because I thought Blot was going to win that fight, and I was blown away about how good JDM is and how much he's improving in all aspects of the game.

So I'm going to go JDM. Now, he won't get GSP levels in terms of, you know, popularity, price-flying-wise, but in terms of just straight-up statistics, you know, numbers, rubies in your belt, I'll go JDM right now. His takedown and grappling defense in that ballpark was insane.

was insane relative to what we had seen before because the whole thing was like, okay, well, he can't stop takedowns from Gilbert, which is fine, but he couldn't stop takedowns from Basel Hefez either. We were just like, it's a clear weakness. And Balal, he'd never gone past five rounds, Jadem. Never gone past five rounds for it.

It just was tailor-made fight for Balal to win. And people can criticize, pretty well-un-courn't criticize Bilal's game plan. Obviously, he put some emphasis in the striking, but there was wrestling in there, there was grappling in there, and J-DM was very prepared for it. And maybe Bilal knew that, Maybe because wrestling's tiring for Bullall too.

Maybe Ballol saw something early. He's like, okay, it's going to be a hard to go down. I don't know. You know, we can nitpick that a lot. We've done it. We've done it on other shows. I won't go back into it. But there's no questioning JDM's take down defense was night and day for some of his other fights.

And you're right. That is kind of scary. That does kind of tell you that this is a guy who could. Because we mentioned GSP. He was the same way. GSP, when he entered the UFC, was not the GSP that, you know, was not fully formed. A lot of striking. Yeah, he could grapple a bit, but he just leveled up all his skills so much that by the time he was in his prime,

it was almost unrecognizable from the GSP that debuted in the UFC. So maybe we see that for JDM. 18 straight wins, this guy has not lost his first two pro bouts, has not looked back. It has not lost since. Crazy. Just the topology page on JDM is just, to me, is incredible. I was actually talking about this to the gym the other day of some fighters. and I was like, dude, can you imagine us going to like just a regional card and seeing some guy get slaughtered, get finished in the first round?

We're like, dude, that guy's 0 and 2. And then you're going to tell me in like seven years later, he will be the best in the world at his division. That is just unreal to me. And he did it. And I can't imagine anyone after watching the Kevin Holland spit decision. The, I don't even know his, what was the guy he fought before? Huffez. Huffez?

Yeah. Yeah. The split decision. Like, how do you watch that and go, like, you know what? That guys, give him a couple, give him two years. He's going to be the best in the freaking world. And now I'm saying he might be the next GSP. That's just stupid.

And here we are. And I believe it. It's just, this sport has amazing stories sometimes. And JDM's one of them right now in terms of just how we got there. It's just wild. Wasn't even supposed to get the shot. Wasn't even supposed to get the shot? Yeah, yeah.

You're right. This was fight Leon in London. And but a shot of Congress. This was a stay busy fight in a sense for Muhammad. Yeah. Crazy. To clarify the Belal thing, obviously it's not going to take five fights. He is going to need three straight wins.

And the biggest reason why is that the second another welterweight fight happens, Balal is going to be completely forgotten. He's going to be completely forgotten. And that is what's happened to Kamar Usman. He is so far out of this title picture right now. It's not even funny. Like he thinks he's a win away. He's insane.

for thinking that. And Belal got beat the F up in this fight by Jack Del and Adelina. Like he got badly beaten up. His face mangled. Broken orbital, broken nose, hole in his lip. He's going to be out for a while.

And the amount of things that are going to happen in this division before Bilal fights again, he is going to be like 10th on the list by the time that happens. That's just the depth that Walter Waite has gotten right now, where every single fight that happens inside this top 10 right now

has significance and meaning and the more Balal has to sit on the sidelines and watch these fights happen, the more it hurts him. And it's not his fault. It's just the position of where he's at right now and the position of where this division is at right now. And plus Islam jumping in,

that automatically knocks you back one fight, just Islam being present in this division. So, yeah, It's going to be a long road, maybe not five fights, but at least three. Yeah. And his age, obviously, that's going to be a big factor too. Yeah, Makajev is such a weird wrench in this because if JDM beats him. That could change everything.

If JDM beats him, we're all good. You know, the JDM train rolls on, as Casey suggested, maybe this guy, you know, suddenly we start, we've got to start talking about him as the guy who could lead this generation of very, very competitive welterweight contenders into like the next again, into 2030, right? That's the hope. That's what we hope when you get a talent like this. Dude, but if Ilya wins a lightweight title and Islam beats Tadem. Oh, God.

Don't owe God me. Don't owe God me. This is a real thing. This is a very real thing that could happen. Is Ilya jumps up and fights Islam for a third film? It is very weird. And then that screws up everything. Then it's like more chaos than you can possibly dream of.

So again, these are the reasons why Bilal gets hurt in these situations because all this silliness and all of this chaos. It's ridiculous. I want to, if some ways, it would be cool if it happened in other ways, man, I just want divisions to be settled down. I want to feel to fight in their divisions. I want to have more conversations like this. Like, oh, who's going to be the best, you know, middleweight of this generation? Who's being the best, blah, who's going to be less light heavy? I don't know.

Like, I would love to have more of these conversations. But you're right, they're almost moot because guys jump between divisions so quickly, guys and gals now that it's kind of hard to pin down. I want to touch upon one forgotten man. We kind of said his name a few times, and we also mentioned Mike, he was once your number one welterweight despite not actually holding a UFC title, you know, Shavcott. Shavcott, no injury updates.

We don't know. We'll be out for this a year. Will he be booked within the next four months? We have literally no clue. But this guy was supposed to fight for the title in. December. He was obviously in toxic fight for the title in Montreal at your C-315, but couldn't make it.

Mike, would he be your second choice? Do you still feel strongly about him being the guy who could undefeated fight finisher, you know, whatever, didn't finish him, Machado Gary, it's fine? Is he still your guy? Is he still like, if he comes back and fights two or three times in the next 12-month period from here, you know, May 26?

You like Kim? You like Kim? You like him to maybe be the guy in this generation? Maybe. The inactivity is hurting him. He's just not fighting enough. And the fact that we know nothing about these injuries scares the hell out of me. If you're somebody that's backing Shafcott in this conversation. Now, if he gets back in there and JDM fights Islam and Islam wins the belt and he's like,

hey, I want to fight at Madison Square Garden or something. I want to turn right back around. Shofcott's ready to go and Shafkaat wins the belt. sure, he's right back in there as long as he's active. But I just, there's so many unknowns right now. He's fighting once a year if he's lucky. And I know he has said in the past, well, that's not my fault. I am being offered fights and I say yes to all of these fights.

But then the opponents aren't saying yes. Well, there's truth to that to some degree. But if you're fighting once a year, like how confident can we be in you being that guy? Like, GSP, sure, there were times of an activity. also like ripped his knees to shreds. He tore ACLs. Like he had bad, bad injuries, but then he would come back and, and be a little bit more active and fight two or three times a year.

So I will leave this as an incomplete right now. If I'm giving this a grade to how confident I am, because if Shafcott doesn't fight at all in 2025, then that's scary. This, again, this division will pass him by, even though he could be the best welterweight in the world right now. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa, is this economy?

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Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever, plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. People out there in podcast land and M-M-A land. Let us know. let us know. I had sort of a raw list here. You can see our rankings. You can see our rankings when I think, but again, by the time the show comes out, you'll see our list. I'm sure you guys have your own list. I threw it like, will it be one of the blue chippers? You know, Chavcott, Ian Machado, Gary, Michael Morales, one of these guys, one of these guys, Michael Morales, one of these guys, one of these guys, Michael Morales, one of these guys, can ball or Leon come back? Will it just be Jada? Will it be the obvious answer? Will it be the obvious answer? It's just going on a run and just, I don't know.

Carlos Parchus, I think, is still. I don't think we rule him out. Like, it's a competitive fight with Gary. I wrote down like Fakritina of Gabriel Bond Fon, Fian. I don't know, Oban Elliott. You guys like Oban Elliott? Mike Malit, Matt Malat, Canada's own. So if you guys are out there, hit us up on Twitter, hit me up, hit Mike.

Casey barely uses it. But you know what, hit him up to. Give him your welterweight hot takes. I would love to see him join the discourse again. Let's quickly touch him. I mean, look at how the UFC views Oban Elliott right now. Look at all the UFC views Oban Elliott right now. What's he doing again?

What's his next? I like him. They're burying him on the prelims of an apex card. Like, that's how they're viewing him right now. That's what it's. It's tough scenes. It's, it's tough scenes because I like Oban. I thought his last performance was great.

The fact that he's fighting at like 6.45 p.m. Eastern time on a rando Saturday in front of 11 people just goes to show you, man. Like, and he's had opportunities to fight in front of crowds, but they're just, people are excited to see him back up to that last performance. And they're like, you know what? Boy, do we have a place for you to fight Oban? We're going to let you enjoy the entire Saturday night in Las Vegas because we're going to have you fight so early on this card. You'll be able to enjoy all the sights and sounds. You'll be able to check out the M&M store,

everything that you want to see in Las Vegas on the strip. We got your cover, my man. You will make your dinner reservations. Yeah, just. I will, yeah, we will book you dinner reservation. You will get there on time. Early bird special. You'll be there right in time.

You'll get 10% discount. We'll make it happen. What a deal. What do you do? Guys, let's close out with a little looking, some more looking ahead, but a little more recent, not looking five years in the future. We've got a pretty full slate of summer. Summers finally established, you know, UFC 317, huge fight news dump, you know, once 315 was finally behind us. We have 216.

That is the next paper view coming up. And then we've got a crap load of shows coming up in the future again. So we're booked to, UFC has fights booked up to like August, August, end of August, something like that. What is tickling or fancy, guys? could say a specific fight if you want or one or two specific fights, or is there an event? Is there a particular event that you're really jazzed up for this summer and and beyond? Mike, what's jumping out at you? I think I know my answer, at least as far as fight goes, but there's a lot of good option.

I think DDP Hamzad is like the best fight on the books. And that's it. That's the one. Shut it down. That's the answer. Yeah, but I, I'm, when you're dealing with Humzat, Chayyaf, you're, you just can't be confident. What do you mean?

You know what I mean? Why do you know exactly what I mean? I don't know exactly what I mean. The whole world knows exactly what I mean. Because, you know, how many times he's been booked in fights that he somehow, some way, did not end up fighting at or he missed weight and fought a different person the day before. Like, it's, I'm, I hope it happens.

I'm putting out positive vibes. and we're just so it's just so far away we're three months away from that and a lot can happen in three months so i will say just because i think we need some clarification we need the best division in all of mma the best division in all of sports to have a direction and move forward i will go with three 17 and i know the excitement levels aren't exactly where international fight week typically is i know people are like, oh, great, sure. But let me tell you something. By the time we get to that event,

when we get to that fight week and Iliate Tuporius talking a bunch of crap and Charles Olivaire is being cheered like he's the biggest hero in the UFC, we're going to get excited for that fight. We are all going to get very, very pumped for that fight. And I think the UFC will try. They will absolutely try that week

to make this fight card as big as it possibly can be to try to put one of these guys over. and I'm honestly just super fascinated by the fight. I'm super fascinated to see how Ilya looks against a lightweight like Charles Olavera, who's a pretty big dude. Is he outsized? Is he outmatched? Is he telling the truth?

Has he, is he a lightweight the entire time that just kept cutting too much to featherweight? Is he the most powerful lightweight we've ever seen? We're going to find out answers to these questions because I'm here to tell you, Ilya, It's just going to be insane. It is going to be insane. The types of fights we can get.

And then Patrick Pimblit is going to fight for a UFC title before 20, 25 is over. So holy shit, AK. Unranked. My unranked, Patty. How are you going to feel when Alexander Shobly has to watch Patrick Pimlet fight for a championship, Casey? How is Shobly going to feel? Damn you, Don Davis. Are you doing this Shabli?

Release him. Release him. Yeah, I'll go with I, and Charles. I just, I don't know what's going to happen. I think I know, but I'm not 100% sure.

So, yeah, that fight's gonna, it's super interesting. It's a great fight, and it's kind of trippy. Like, I'm looking at the graphic now, and I'm thinking,

I think as soon as that fight is over and we do our next update, we just take Islam out and then Islam's in limbo. I have a question about this, ranking. Yeah. Actually,

why is Islam ranked? Why are we allowing him in the rankings when we took out, so we took out Max Holloway, even though he has a, you know, so Ilya, well, we're giving him the same courtesy we gave him.

We did not take out until, the UFC 314 main event, until the night of UFC 314. We had him number one even after we knew he was vacating. Because technically, the UFC also said, oh, he's not vacant until,

like as soon as the bell rings for Diego Lopez and Nogsv-Volkonoski, then the featherweight title is vacant. And again, we shouldn't bank, we do not. mean to bank our ranking strictly on who has UFC belts like we've said it from the start that's the whole point of these rankings it shouldn't be based on that but it's just a bit cleaner i think for readers like it yeah it's just and it looks weird to see like they know ilia's the best going up to that point and then

okay once we see a new champion we can kind of let go i think there's people who would still probably just want to rank ilia even after islam fights like welter rate they probably want to keep them in lightweight like our original ruling was like our original ruling was like if you fought in a division Yeah, in a division within the last 18 months, you should be considered. But guys are being so firm now about like, oh, I'm probably moving up and I think they're not coming back. It's really screwed up. Again, division and pound for pound are such a mess over the last probably two years by all this random movement. So, yeah, the way we'll do it is Islam probably out.

And to Porea, win or lose, I assume will be ranked somewhere 155, I think. It's going to be very awkward. It's awkward to rank someone who, when they're only 155 win is technically Jai Herbert, right? So real quick, real quick. Just this is a little hypothetical. So Islam's out of the rankings because he's a watch right now. Yeah. Charles Oliverer, Charles Oliver wins a close decision over an unranked lightweight.

Is Armin the number one lightweight? You are free. He sure is, Casey. He won a close decision against Charles. I don't know if you're kidding me. But you're right. It's again, no, I'm being kind of, I mean, we're not. No.

We're only, yeah, I'm just saying. Like I, and you're, even if Charles beats, you know, matter, Charles beats Elia, if he does, yeah, I mean, Armand, to me is the top. I'm going to beat him. Armand beat him. Armand is the best, best lightweight in the world, ranking wise. Again, this is why it's important to have independent rankings because, yes, they should not be based on who the U.S. chooses to award title fights to. you're right. Armand

absolutely has a argument. It's a good argument. It's a very good argument. And that's the whole point. Like, rankings should be up for debate. It should not just be, well, this guy's U.C. champion. He's number one. blah, blah, blah, blah. I hate that. Yeah. I hate that. Yeah. Casey, did you give, sorry. So what's your choice? What's your choice for?

Fight or event. Or event, if you can sort of remember which fights have landed where. It's a bit of a jumble in my mind. So I don't think I can do that. I'm going to go with my favorite division. and particularly because of that number six, Hatching Mix, who is now a UFC fighter. If he defeats Mario Batista handily, I don't know. I just think it's another just, I just, I still love this division.

It's got a little stagnant with the rematches a bit, of the Marab O'Malley rematch with Santa Hagan's great win. I'm assuming Mix is going to defeat Batista. Peter Yon's still looking great. Man, I don't know. I still love, I just want to give some love to the 35ers because I know lightweights get lots of love. There's no shortage of love to the lightweight division. So I'm just putting some back some more love to the 135ers.

So we've had. It's great fight. It's a terrific fight. It's good. The timing's perfect. Time is perfect. We are going to know everything like literally the story Apache mix is going to be written on June 7th. That's it.

The UFC story Apache mix will be written. It's either this guy is fighting for a belt and his next two. or he will never fight for a UFC title. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I can see, like Anthony Pettis. Like an Anthony Pettis thing. He loses his first fight.

No, no, no, no, no. That kind of cachet. He doesn't have that kind of cachet. No. Dude, was Patchy mix on a Wheaties box? Give me a freaking break. Yeah, he didn't do the showtime kick. He didn't have the showtime kick.

Patchy is, patchy is very good. He is one of the best band of weights in the world. I think his last performance humanized him a little bit against Manga Manga Mada. But it also, Manga Manga Madaf's a good fighter. Very good. And I don't think he's a little bit underrated as well. Patchy Mix has the greatest opportunity in the world right now. He is fighting the guy in this division that is ranked that the fan base cannot stand.

And if he goes out and loses a tepid decision to Mario Batista, he's not getting a title shot anytime soon. Like his road to a title is going to be so long if he loses this fight. But if he goes out there and obliterates Mario Batista. He might just get a title fight immediately. He might just fight the winner of Marab and Sean right away. He might leapfrog Corey Sandhagen. But he is at least in a number one contender fight if he wins this fight. But if he loses, it's such a bad place for him right now with how talented this division is.

And well, like the fact that Montel Jackson is not on this top 15 is redonculus to me. It's just ridiculous. And he's good. Like, he's super good. He's a guy that if he actually fought. could fight for a belt. Like he, I believe in his talent that much. But I love when a guy comes over and this isn't Kayla getting a set up fight with Holly Holm.

There is not a person on planet Earth that thought Holly Holm had a single solitary chance to be Kayla Harrison. I picked him. This is a, this is the test. Like, this is straight up litmus test for Patchy. The stakes could not be higher for him outside of a title fight. They could not be high. So I love everything about this. Yeah.

And it's, it's a great, just a great matchup too for patchy timing wise. Just how Patisa seemed, Patisa is to me got a very inflated ranking right now, which is great for great for mix. So, uh, this is good. That's why, yeah, that was kind of my, what, what event is that again? Sorry. When is Patrick? When is that? Two weeks?

Two and a half weeks? Yeah, yeah. Super soon. Yeah. I was like, yeah. So I was like, is it a month away? Close done to that. Wow.

I, the other reason I hope he wins is when we post the pound for pound, like he's on our men's pound for pound. I think he's somewhere in the 12, like 14 to 18 range something. He's been a hell of a run. When we post every time we post that graphic on social, on Twitter and on YouTube, wherever we post these things, there's always at least a handful of comments like, what's Apache Mix? Who's patchy mix? Who's patchy mix? It's not in the U.S. So I would love it.

No, it's like specifically him. It's like people just don't know who he is. And it's like, if he puts on a good performance against Batista, you know, one that'll help. I would also love it if you finish Batista and then and then shouted, I love you, Jose, and then called out Zahavi for our number one contender bike. That would be, that's really going to endear him to me in my eyes. Like that's really good. Yeah, the, all the revenge store. Yeah, sorry, I forgot mixes on the same main card as O'Malley Marab.

Like, it's just lines up so perfectly for Apache Mix. Yeah, Mike Sunderb is incorrect if, man, if he wins big and wins dominantly and the right things are said. Who knows? Who knows? If he does the thing, who knows? Who knows? Amazing.

Obviously, the fight I'm looking forward to the most. Just weeks away, June 21st, UFC Baku, Hamdi O'Do Hab and Moosban. I mean, my God, I cannot be... Luke Thomas the other day, you know, tweeted something about, like, some old graphic of the UFC rankings for like 10 years ago, the heavyweight rankings.

Like, wow, this was really like maybe a golden era. And I'm like, excuse me? We have, literally weeks away, we have Hamdi of Del Wahab and Moosma coming up. So I am just so, my heart will break if for some reason this fight doesn't happen. I think it's already been pushed back. I think it was actually supposed to already, like, we would have seen it this weekend or something. But there was the venue change, so like that.

So that's obviously, you know, heavyweight, hottest division in the game right now. We need this score needs to be settled. I think this is a number one contender fight, right? I think whoever wins Moe and Hamdi is going to fight for the title next, Tom Ospinall. They're going to jump in front of Aspinall. Yeah. No, they're going to fight a Jones. Jones is out.

Listen, Jones is out. Tom Aswell needs an opponent. It's going to be Mo Osmond or Hamdi. Wait, but John said what he wouldn't, he would not, he would not qualify it as retirement. I'm not sure what it is. I wouldn't call it retirement. God. You know, he's waiting.

Just keep doing this, by the way. I'm so annoyed by it, but he just needs to do this every single day because the UFC's not going to do anything about it. So just keep doing it. I'm just going to embrace everything he tweets now. He's waiting until the UFC does something. He's waiting for the winner of Mo. and Hamdi. Yeah, he is, that's right.

And then, yeah, he's way. He's like, why? Like, that's my normal contender fight right there. What am I? What are I? He's on that squat rack every day. Just thinking like, all right. Oh, my gosh. All right, Mo. Oh, Hamdi.

I got you. Anyway, thank you, everyone for joining us for this ranking show. Thank you, Casey, for the amazing graphics. Mike, fantastic job as a co-host, as a commentator, as an analyst, as always. And remember everyone, remember one out there in the rankings land, No matter where you... What's my line usually? Whoa!

How's it? Oh, the special effects. No matter what you think of the MMA fighting global and pound for pound rankings, you guys out there are always number one in our hearts. Take care. Yeah, I don't know how I'm doing this. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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