MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat | Holloway vs. Edgar, Nate Diaz returns, UFC 237 aftermath, Ferguson vs. Cerrone, UFC Rochester, more

Episode Date: May 15, 2019

Shaun Al-Shatti welcomes Irish MMA legend Petesy Carroll to The A-Side Live Chat, where they answer your questions about Max Holloway vs. Frankie Edgar, UFC 237, Nate Diaz’s return, Tony Ferguson vs. Donald Cerrone, UFC Rochester, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hello, hello. Welcome back, friends. It is so good. to see you all. It is May 15th, 2019, and this is the Aiside Live Chat podcast. I hope all of you guys out there are having a spectacular start to your week. We appreciate you so much for joining us today. There is a lot to talk about today. It has been a busy week. Before we do that, let me bring in my co-host for this week joining me on today's program. He is Ireland's finest. The man behind the spectacular their Eurobash podcast, the master of the heel hook, the OG of the Erie. Thank you so much for

joining the program. Petey Carol, what is up? Ptzee, welcome to the A-side. Well, I'm honored. This is quite an introduction. I've been caught off guard with this. It's so, I feel like I've been over-hyped now. I'm going to have to deliver it, and I'm getting very sweaty immediately. I can feel pouring down my face. But I'm ready. Bring it. Bring all your questions. Let's dance. Yeah, that's the spirit. All right. Let's do this. I'm worried out course. I'm a course on this. Let's let's get that out away first. I'm allowed to swear, no. You can do whatever you want, sir. I will, I can not stop you. I can only hope to continue. They tend to slip out. It's part of my culture. I think it sounds better coming from your accent than from mine. So I think

people will allow it. It's like, it's like Gaelic, you know, all those courses. You took them off us. It's actually our language. Cool. So I think of you. So I think. So I think. I think a few things happen since we each spoke last week. UFC 237 and Bellator 221. Both brought plenty of violence, but also a little bit of controversy for each this past week. Plus Nate Diaz is back. Tony Ferguson is back.

Frank Yeager's fighting Max Holloway. UFC Rochester is ahead this weekend and a whole lot more. But as we always say, this is your show. So we will talk about whatever you want us to talk about. You can ask us a question on the MMA fighting page below. Any question that gets three recommendations. Those will turn green and get. priority or you can ask us a question on Twitter using the hashtags the A-side or chat rappers.

A quick reminder that all of the MMA fighting podcasts have been merged into one feed, which means subscribe to MMA fighting. You'll get the MMA hour on Mondays. This man's show, Eurobass on Tuesday, on Tuesdays and the MMA beat on Thursday. Subscribe on MMA fighting wherever you get your pods. And with that, Pete's Carroll, you ready to do this? Let's dance. Let's dance.

Hook it up to my veins. I want to do it now. Oh, I love the energy. Let's do this. Come on. Come on. First up, coming from the MMA fighting page is our good friend G. Reb 77, and he wants to know about John Jones on D.C., honest and respectful or selling a future fight.

He writes, you probably saw Dan Harty's interview with John Jones, where Jones seemed extremely honest and respectful talking about D.C. Looking at Jones in D.C.'s history, the gracious respect almost seemed a little suspicious. What did you make of it? Secondly, he said he won't fight DC at heavyweight because he feels he will have a disadvantage at the higher weight. What do you make of that statement? John being honest or is he selling a future heavyweight fight against DC? And let me throw this to you for your first A side question, Pizzi.

What do you make of John Jones talking about DC? Yeah, I was completely caught off guard with that, to be honest. I saw the interview with Dan Hardy. And I just started immediately thinking, like, I don't know if you saw he had a bit of a verbal altercation with Choi Lewis Perry on the first. Friday at a fitness expo in England. And when I was watching him being interviewed, I was like, is this guy seriously jet lagged or something? Does he just not have the energy to talk some smack about Carmier today? Because it just seems so out of character, you know?

Even Dan Hardy seemed a bit like, whoa, when he was saying it. So very strange. And the heavyweight fight is the one I want to see. I've seen it at 205 twice. You know, I think the heavyweight fight is the way to go, really. If you ask me, that would be the most interesting contest they can make between the two now. So that's something I would definitely like to see. But obviously, John threw a bit of water on that there.

But, you know, I don't, I don't believe him. You know what I mean? I don't necessarily take that at face value. You know, you saw the interaction between these two guys when they caught the cameras weren't running. You know, it is. There's some serious beef there. There's some serious hostility between them.

I would say his tune will change quite significantly the next time he talks about Daniel Carrier. That's what I expect anyway. I don't know. I kind of, I took this, I think I took this in a different way than a lot of people because it seems like these days when John talks about Daniel and has asked about Daniel, he's being, he's being nice and he's being respectful, but almost in a way where he's sort of grinning out of one side of his mouth. Because he just knows that I'm up in this series and that this man has never beaten me and maybe never will beat me. And like, I'm just always going to have the eternal big brother edge on this guy. And so I think his way, him being nice in the way that he was being,

feels to me like a way that he knows will bother Daniel more than just being, going, you know, balls of the wall insulting him. Just being nice and kind of complimenting him around and needling him just a tiny bit. That to me seems like a much more subtle way to really just mess with Daniel and get DC riled up than, then, I guess, the trash talk to me. Are you saying that, like, if he was to go full on heel, and start talking all types of stuff about Daniel, that would actually support the idea of a fight between them happening.

And what you're saying is he doesn't even want to entertain that. So being nice and humble about it and saying how great Daniel is, that isn't actually feeding the fire for that potential fight, the third fight between those two guys. I don't know if it's as much about a fight, because I think John would welcome a third fight because he's already beaten the man twice, I mean, once technically, but twice.

Are everybody you think you'd welcome it? No, I don't think. I think he's being honest with the heavyweight stuff, and I actually really appreciate the way he was able to articulate that, because you don't really hear... Yes. You don't hear potential goats, potential Alzheimer's talk like that often of like, hey, I'll be doing myself a disservice

if I fought this man under these conditions. So that's interesting to hear, but I do think really when John is talking about Daniel in this way, he is talking about it with a very sly smile out of one side of his mouth, knowing that being really nice in this way is just needling Daniel in the same exact way. probably even more so than like really lobbing a bunch of insults at him because they've done that. The niceties, like Daniel's not trying to share niceties with John.

And I think it's just a very one-sided. John knows it's a one-sided thing at that point. If that makes any sense. No, it does. It does make sense. I'll have to look at it with a new fresh pair of eyes now, Sean, after that beautiful analysis. All right. Flattery will get you nowhere on this program.

I love all those commenters. Keep the love coming, guys. Oh man, let's keep it moving. Let's go to Jay DeLuca, who was coming hot about this past weekend. He writes, Jessica Androz's merciless style of a slam. Hi, Shaheen and Pete. Oh, man, how many people call you Pete? I've never heard that.

My Ma calls me Pete. My dad calls me Pete and my brother sometimes call me Pete. Nobody else. But I'll let Jay into the family for one day. Don't worry about that, Jay. You can have that. I don't like that. I don't like you being called Pete.

That doesn't sound right to me. Well, then, strike it from the record, Jay. You're going to have to change that. Go back and edit that comment, please. Petey, thank you. So he writes, I'd like to hear your perspectives on Jessica And Raj's ruthless neck slam from Saturday night, echoed by many inside and outside of the MMA community. Referee, Mark Goddard showed how any throw with an art lift can be brought down in any fashion.

I don't know that quote. While out of the 11 slam knockouts in UFC history for finished title fights, Do you believe that UFC fighters should be automatically de-kewed for intentionally slamming their competitor, specifically on their neck head during a fight? Other forms of general slams, aside from the pile driver slash spike would stay legal. Ben Ascran's last fight with Lawler, along with Fador and Randleman, are defiant examples of fighters overcoming the calamitous setback. While interestingly, within one championship, all variations of suplex slams are illegal. And so, Pizzi, let's use this question as a broader jumping off point to talk about this past weekend. Jessica Androj comes into Rio de Janeiro.

I guess Rose Namibuos comes into Rio de Janeiro on enemy territory and is piecing up Jessica androge the Challenger for, I think, about six minutes. And then we get one of the more violent finishes we have seen in recent time. I think everyone was very scared for a moment that Rose could have been significantly hurt. Luckily, it seems like she's fine. But let's start at the beginning. What should we make and what do you make, I guess, of such a wild and violent finish to UFC 237? I just think it's a perfect example of what mixed martial arts is to a certain degree.

You know, it's someone who reacted to real-time problems and sorting them out. Like you saw in the first round the way Rose went for the Camura trap and beautifully defended that takedown, ended up in nearly an arm bar position at the end of it. I thought that was beautiful. And then you see the adoption then in the second round where, as Dominic Cruz pointed out afterwards, you know, Jessica switches the head to the outside and goes through a. different kind of takedown, which had disastrous effects, of course, for Osama Yunus. I thought it was a beautiful bit of technique. And I do admit that, you know, when it does happen,

when you see a finish like that, it does kind of take your breath away. But for me, what the most interesting thing about it was the reaction to it all day, even in Ireland, you'll know, they're very critical of MMA over here. This is the kind of stuff that the mainstream press pick up on. You know, they're saying this should be made illegal. This kind of, this kind of, this kind of thing can't be happening. How was this a sport? And, you know, we didn't see that conversation happened when it happened with Ben Ascran and Robbie Lawler. Everybody was nearly celebrating that situation a lot more. I felt there was a far more critical eye on what happened in this main event compared to what happened with Ascran and Lawler, which I thought was very interesting.

Why do you think that was? Because I noticed that too, and that stuck out to me where we just went through something like this. And maybe because the fight ended, but is it because people like Rose, perhaps more than Ben Asker, and there are less people wanting Rose to get their come up as to some degree. Is it because they're women? Is it like, why do you think was the bigger outcry? I don't know. I mean, I feel like in MMA, we've done a lot better than other sports in terms of pushing the women into the forefront, into those main event positions. But I feel as though when people who aren't accustomed to the sport see a, see a woman finished in such a way, it does have a bigger reaction for them.

Obviously, we see female main events an awful lot, so it's not as shocking to us, but I do think that factored into it definitely. And I think I saw some discussion online with our old colleague Dave Doyle and Kaposa and other people kind of hinting at that as well. Obviously, we won't ever know for sure what provoked the reaction, but I do think that factored into it, you know,

for people who aren't used to that kind of thing, that was a shock. Yeah, I think I agree with you. And I think it's twofold. The two things I just mentioned, where maybe less people are, I think there are very few people who are out there looking for Rose to get her comeuppance to some degree. Where on the other side, Ben Asker talks a lot of trash, I think there's definitely a contingent of people who were excited to see him slammed on his neck like that. But also, I do think, you know, there is some degree where these are 115 pound women. And I think for an audience who is not, who are probably more closer on the spectrum to normal people and not weirdos who are like us who just driving stuff.

it's a harder barrier to entry to see a 115 pound woman maybe slammed on her head like that and understand and not get up in arms about it, which I guess it was interesting to me. It was interesting to me sort of the widespread reaction because even from amongst many in the MMA community, we saw sort of this outrage and slams have been around forever, right? Like some of the most legendary moments of pride were rampage slamming erona and that sort of thing. like these in the randolplex with random men and fador which i still to this day do not understand how fadour is walking after that right and so it was strange to me but i guess let's to keep things moving i mean i think well just to wrap that a bow on that point i guess the this should slams be

outlawed that sort of conversation i'm firmly in the camp word no i mean they they should not at all be outlawed spikes are already outlawed if you if you like purposefully spike somebody on their head that is already outlawed, but Rose Namuus was holding on to a submission. She could have let go and gotten herself away from that. I feel like I'm okay with that setup of a sequence that we saw on Saturday. Are you? Yeah, yeah, I find it. I think it's very hard to police as well. In terms of the variations that we see in this sport, I think it'd be very hard to police that, you know, like, you know, you can't stop it until someone's knocked out cold, basically. You know what I mean? Like there's no, it's going to happen so quickly in the transition when you're wrestling.

I think it's very hard to police. And personally, I don't believe that it should be changed. Like, this is technique versus technique. There was nothing malicious going on there in terms of one person's trying to score a takedown, the other's trying to get a submission. These things happen. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And that was actually the second time in the fight that Rose attacked with that same way for a takedown defense more or less. So that was obviously part of the game plan. It just didn't work out. It is one of these crazy things that happens at MMA. When you look at how brilliant Rose was in the first round, like, I mean, that was just unbelievable. I think that's one of our best performances of the day.

And I do think if you look back at Joanna's performance against Andrade, And Raj, the jab played such a big part in that as well. And I wouldn't be surprised if Rose looked at that a lot. Because up until that point, you know, Rose's first round against Jessica, no one had been able to fight Jessica like Joanna did as far as I'm concerned. Yeah. Yeah, and that's a perfect segue to the question I want to ask you, which is, you know, also really quick, Pizzi, move your microphone a little bit more in front of it.

Oh, right, sorry. Geez, there we go. Oh, my God, he's like a dictator. The audience cut down a little bit for us. Is that good? I also think you have your microphone backwards, buddy. Oh, no. My microphone backwards.

What do you mean? The blue sign should be facing you. This is the front yoke. Look. Oh, what does it mean here? So we flip it around this way. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God.

Now you're coming in good. Everything. Look at this. Learning on the spot with Al Shadi. This is the wonders of a live show. Oh, my God. What a time to be alive. And lean it, lean it away from you, man.

Lean it away from you. What you mean? Lean it away from me. This is getting very complicated. Here? Lean it, lean it away. Other way. This way.

Yeah, yeah, there you go. Keep going. Keep going more. More, more. All right. Is that good? That's perfect. Well, look at this, huh?

Microphone lessons with Sean Alshaddy. It's not perfect, but we're going to settle with that. So I'm getting back to the question I need to ask you. So you had segd really nice where everyone was talking about, you know, Rose had the spectacular first round. Does that mean she should automatically get a rematch? because I'm seeing a lot of people call this a fluke. And that's a weird way to describe a second round knockout to me. What should be next for Jessica Andraj?

Should a rematch be next or should she be funneled in, keep the line moving, go down to somebody else? You know, I see a lot of talk about Tatiana Suarez and Nina Ansaroff. You know what I mean? Like that fight could be big. But I mean, after Rose getting knocked out, it's very hard to kind of plan for let's do the rematch. I mean, Rose doesn't seem to be decided on what's going to happen next with her either based on our comments after the fight. So it's very tough for the UFC to try and put that fight together, I'd say, immediately, you know? So I don't really know.

It's a tough one. I guess they're going to have to ask Rose. I wouldn't be against it. I mean, if Jessica wanted that time off and Rose was happy to come in, I wouldn't be against it. But, you know, the division can develop in the meantime, and we often see this. You know what I mean? the fights that happen all around this title fight could decide who's next. And I think a lot of people are hot on undercontenters in the division. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens.

Like, I don't know if we need to be, you know, immediately thinking about this right now, you know, the fights just happened, let some things play out and then maybe we'll see what's heck from there. What do you think? To me, I don't, so there's, it seems like there's three courses of action, right? Because it's either the rematch. It's either the winner of Suarez versus Ansterov or somehow it feels as though Michelle Waterson has also reached this conversation, which I think that last one maybe is the most surprising to me. I understand she's a marketable fighter, and yeah, she's been around for a long time. She's sort of paid her dues, but she's only won three in a row. And I don't know that any of those three have been particularly crazy impressive. I felt like she lost the Courtney Casey fight, for example.

To me, it feels like the obvious answer is the Suarez answer off winner, because both of those women have been on crazy tears. And that was sort of what we assumed was going to be next for a long time until Michelle Watersden entered this conversation. I also just, I guess don't, I understand, okay, I don't want to say I don't get it, because I do get it. But I don't agree with this conversation about an instant immediate rematch. Because at some point, we're lowering the bar for immediate rematches way too much.

Rose Namayunis has been a champion for a little while, and she's only had one title defense, and she's only really faced one woman, and that was Yawani and Jacek. why does she deserve an immediate rematch? Is it because of the way this fight went? Because she was dominating for five minutes and then lost? Because if that's the reason, there's a lot of different fights you can point to where people were winning and then lost in title fights.

I don't know that that is justification for an immediate rematch when there are actual contenders waiting in the wings and not even just one. There are multiple, as we've already mentioned. So to me, it feels like the Suarez versus Ansorov winner is the obvious go-to. And I'm actually surprised to see as much immediate rematch talk as we had. Yeah, and Nina's a good. I mean, if Nina managed to get through Tatiana, which is no main feet at all, I mean, it's a great story with her and Amanda.

You know what I mean? That's a fantastic story to have a couple with two championship belts, well, with three championship belts would be unbelievable. You know what I mean? I think her run has really gone under the radar, to be honest, Nina. She's been on fantastic fun. Yeah, absolutely. And also, to me, I tweeted this on Saturday.

but, I mean, Tatiana Suarez is a woman that at this point, I think a lot of people have earmarked as a potential champion for a long time. Yes. Jessica Androge versus Tatiana Suarez is maybe one of my most wanted fights for 2019 now. Because the way those two styles would clash, the tractor against the crazy wrestler, the Habib-like wrestler who could just suffocate you, that is fascinating to me. I need to see how that would play out. And I don't see that kind of finish happening to Tatiana Suarez. you know what I mean exactly yeah imagine the transitions she has from different wrestling

toy ups from different clinches it's just not going to happen against her like I mean she's going to be the jesska's going to be the one fending off the takedowns in that fight you'd imagine you know yeah yeah so if you're if you're UFC matchmakers what do you do what's your final call yeah probably wait for the winner of answer off and swarres I think that's probably the best option especially like you know

rose badly killed there you know like she got a big knock there I mean is that the right way to do this kind of wait to see when she's 100%? Because look, look, I only interviewed Stephen Wonderboy Thompson there a couple of days ago. Initially he was saying to Luke Thomas on the MMA or I'll be back by Greenville, you know, in June. When his when his knockout had just taken place in March. But after, you know, cooler heads prevail, he realizes, no, I need a lot more time off just to make sure that I'm 100%. And who's to say Rose won't have a kind of a revelation like that as well.

Yeah, that's a great point. And I'm sure. I don't even know if she's going to fight it. We don't know if she's going to fight again. So what's the point in putting your eggs in that basket, you know? That's a great point. And I think we actually are going to talk about that later on the show. So let's leave the table of this conversation for now.

We'll move on to the next question. And that's coming, another one from G-Reb-77. What's to know about one of the big announcements this past week? Max Holloway versus Frankie Edgar. He writes, featherweight title fight confirmed, do you think Alexander Volkanovsky had a better case than Frankie Edgar? how do you see Max versus Frankie play out? Do you think Max is lost? DePoree will affect him. And so Pizzi, this is an interesting conversation that's sort of arose seemingly out of nowhere.

We have this fight between Alexander Volcanovsky and Jose Alito that appears to be a set-up fight for Volkinovsky to launch into a title fight if he wins. And he does win. And he wins pretty convincingly. It's not the most exciting win, but it was a convincing win. And then maybe two days later, it comes out that Max Holloway is now fighting Frankie Edgar. So I want to ask you, was that the right call? I'll tell you, when I saw it first, I couldn't believe it. I was like, I didn't understand it. I had no idea where I'd come from.

You know, it felt like this conversation only really started on the night. Like, I mean, I didn't really have Frankie factored into that title conversation at all. But then I just started to see a lot of talk about it on Saturday. I was going, am I going crazy here? Like, did I miss something huge? You know, as far as, did Frankie have another couple of fights that I forget happened? But now with Alex, you know, with this infection that we still don't know how severe it is, with him just coming off this fight in Rio, you know, I do think that was enough to get him a title shot.

I do feel like if meritocracy was the bottom line here, he would be getting that title shot 100%. and if not him's a beast. So I don't really, I don't understand it. I do think it's worked out well for the UFC in a sense that not well having Volcanozky with an infection,

but we don't know how long he might be out for with this infection. It might be a very short period of time, but it is there. It's happened. It's been reported by all the news publications. This guy is dealing with an infection at the moment.

And for that time being, it looks okay because Holloway and Edgar can, can fight in July or is it it is July isn't it is July yeah yeah and then of course it opens up the possibility of a Holloway or Edgar depending on the winter fighting Volcanozky at home like I'm sure he'd prefer to fight in in Australia than he would um you know in America just in terms of travel and stuff like that but um just to the question as well I do feel like Frankie has a way better chance given Max's situation. He's just been at 55. It's not going to be easy to get back down to

45. It's very rare that we see a guy move up a division and then have absolutely no trouble dropping back into that lower weight category. We know that Max has had trouble with that in the past. I think it definitely will factor into the fight, I believe, whether that's a hell of the fight, just having to really deplete himself to get down. But I do feel like these things have a huge factor in fight. So I do think it's a good time for Frankie to fight him. But I don't, I didn't agree with it at all. You know, that's funny because I actually really love this. I know. Casey goes as well. He was, he was, he was all over me on Twitter. I love this fight. And I say that as someone who immediately following Alexander's win on Saturday tweeted out that he should absolutely be next in line for

a title shot. And I still stand by that. And here's why I stand by that. This fight is in July. as you mentioned that's not long from now that is only a few months from now and that is that would be a very short prep time to turn around for someone who like you said is already has an infection frankie edgar has put in the work frankie edgar is a legend i don't need to read frankie egger's resume but any title shot he gets at this point unless it's coming off of multiple losses it's hard to say he doesn't deserve it especially given sort of the history that he has with max and how he fought brian ortega on short notice and how he's been booked two different times to fight Max Holloway at this point. And he just, I think him being the company guy ended up getting in the way of his getting a title shot. So in a way, this is the company paying him back. And I can never be upset about that. The reason I like this so much, though, is because this fight is in July.

And like you mentioned, I think Alexander Volcanowski challenging for that title in his home area of Oceana, alongside, you know, the Robert Whitaker, Israel, to send your fight, that to me is when I want to see Alexander Volcanozky challenge for the title. And that is all the way in August. I'm sorry, not August, October. That is all the way in October, October 5th at UFC 243. There's plenty of time between July and October to book another fight. This feels to me like the perfect setup for Volcanowski to get a very cool homecoming

while also taking care of Frankie Edgar and what I feel like he really did deserve and earn a title shot. Maybe not in this particular moment, but this is sort of, the legacy title shot and I don't mind it to be honest. You know, I have the height of respect for Frank Yeager. I think he's a great, an all-time great without a doubt. But I just don't understand the logic of the Brian Ortega argument because the reason why that fight was so captivating is because Frankie laid it on the line. He was laying out, he had all the momentum there.

He was meant to fight for the title. It didn't happen. Brian Ortega comes in and he steals that momentum. He stole that from him that night and then he went on to fight for the the belt. So, you know, I don't understand why, let's give it back to this guy who laid it all on the line and lost. But so, so here are the two alternatives, right? You're, you're looking at an alternative where either Max Holloway is going to defend against Alexander Volcanowski, uh, at some point, either really soon and it would be a very quick

turnaround. Maybe it would be the same, you know, July 27th date. And at that point, you're given Alexander Volcanowski no time to recover from this infection and also this fight. or you're putting Max Holloway on the shelf until October if you want to do the Australia show, right? Those are the two other options. I don't know that either of those two options are actually any good options, or at least better than this.

Yeah, I mean, like give me a better alternative. Give me a better alternative, and maybe I'll come to yourself. No, I don't have a better alternative, to be honest. I don't, but I don't think it would be the most terrible thing in the world for Max to sit out after that Holloway fight. you know, get his body properly prepared to go down to 45. I do. I'm looking forward to watch Holloway and Edward.

Don't get me wrong. I definitely am going to be excited for that fight as it approaches. But, you know, I honestly thought we would see Max taking a longer period off. But he was the one that said, you know, when he was going to lightweight, I'm going to defend that belt. I'm going to be back down. I'll move between the two of them. And I think he does like to stick by his word and he loves to, you know, prove his worth. and this is a fight that's definitely going to do it.

So, you know, I don't have another alternative. I wouldn't have been so disappointed if they were going to wait till the later stage of this year to put on Volcanovsky on Holloway. But I guess if the champion wants to defend his title and there's a willing partner there, a willing dance partner there, you know, they've got to make it happen. And I mean, I don't expect the beat to be upset with this. You know, he's a stable mate of Frankie's as well. And those guys love him. So you're not going to hear that. You're not going to hear as a beat complain about it.

So the only person that's really that's put out is Alexander Volkanowski, as you say. But I do agree with you. He will be launched into the stratosphere if he gets a win over Frankie in Australia, you know? Yeah, I mean, as long as Alexander doesn't have to fight, I'm fine with this. If the UFC tries to make him fight one more time between this is the next fight for the title. Yeah, as long as his next fight for the title, this is all gravy to me. I'm okay with this. This is perfect.

My one reservation would be what you just mentioned in that it is a very short turnaround for Max Holloway who just took a lot of damage against Dustin Portia. That was a hellish fight, man. Yeah, man. And that was what? Three, it'll be about three months between those fights. That's not a lot of time to recover from something like that. But if Max wants to fight, like you said, you got the champ fight, I guess. We'd be given out if he wasn't, you know? Everybody would be saying, where is Max? Yeah, yeah. Well, we have a ton of green questions today, so let's keep it moving.

Move my green lads for Ireland. Come on. There you go. Next one's coming from Jada Luca. And this is an interesting one. It's a very long one as Jada Luca likes to go. He likes to go to go his time. So I'm going to summarize this where I can, but he writes, Megan Olivie's idea of journalism,

Farse interview with Rhonda Rousey. This is already starting off great. Hi Shaheen and Pete. Again with this, Pete. I will not address any more questions to Pete if you guys keep adding Pete in this. Rhonda Rousey's interview that was released on Sunday with Megan O'Leese. exhibited the antithesis of intelligent, compelling, and challenging journalism. Coming out, how strong Jada Luca, Jesus.

O'Levy came across as a public relations employer for the UFC intentionally peddling softball. Overly friendly questions. Okay, I'm just going to. Lots of O'Levy didn't ask hard questions to Ronda. Most MMA fans have moved on from Ronda as the patience and care has evaporated, yet still sadly to this day Ronda's goal in policing speech by suppressing journalists. ability to be genuine journalists, allows us to wonder why continue to provide her with a platform to speak. Any remote sense of reasonable questioning that Rhonda doesn't like allow,

she'll see pitchfords, blah, blah, blah. As journalists, how farcical did you find this line of questioning in this interview to Megan's credit being employed by the UFC prevents any compelling and contentious lines of authentic journalism aside from rare moments? So that was, that's an interesting question, I guess. Jada Luca, not a big fan of Megan and Olivi. So I'm not going to lie, Pizzi. I did not watch this interview. I have no interest in hearing Ronda Rousey speak at this point. I'm not, if you put Ronda Rousey on an interview, I'm probably less likely to watch it than I would have been for most people. But so I will throw this to you and then I will come back to it. What is your take on this question?

I'm going to, you know, I didn't see it either, to be honest, didn't watch it. As far as, you know, Jay's comment on Ronda kind of, you know, not allowing herself to be put on the Microsoft by journalists, you know, I have heard that I've never interviewed Ronda myself, but an Irish colleague of mine actually flew to Canada once to interview Ronda before the EA sports game was released. Oh, I remember this. First question was, how are you dealing with that Holly home loss? Over. Interview over. He flew from Ireland to like Canada or something and the interview was over as soon as he asked that question. So I have heard of that before, all right, but I'm afraid I did not watch Megan's interview with Ronda Rousey.

And maybe that says something about the level of interest that there is in MMA with Ronda Rousey right now. You know, if me and you didn't watch this interview with a former, one of the biggest stars this sport has ever created, what does that say, you know? Yeah, I mean, I just personally have no interest in hearing the same stuff from Rhonda. I feel like if someone would have done a real, you know, hey, let's talk about these times type of interview. Like, I would be, I would watch that because that's interesting to me. That's new. This stuff, though, it's nothing to me. But I will say, I believe this question is a little misguided to some degree because Megan O'Levy is just, she's an employee of the UFC.

Like, she's not, she's not. She's not MMA fighting coming in doing this project with Ronda. She's an employee with the UFC. This is sort of how these things go. I don't know. I feel like you're coming at Megan maybe way too hard. And maybe your expectations are out of line with what her actual job is. Her job is to just have like a talk show type of interview with a nice interview with Ronda.

She's not trying to piss off Ronda. Oh, yeah. I wouldn't, I wouldn't have expected her to, you know, to have barbed lawyer all over those questions. definitely not you know if you're if if ronda rousy's going to do an interview with the ufc that's her promoter that was her old promoter they're going to promote her you know yeah the way it is the ufc's not in the in the business of burying ronda rousey if this was someone like a me or a you or a a ariel hawani or a luke thomas or someone who is doing this interview i would expect it to go differently uh and if it didn't then maybe that that criticism would be warranted but i don't

think that criticism is warranted at all it's it's a it's a show it's a piece of content produced by UFC for the UFC for the UFC audience. So I don't know that. I think you're just expectations, probably a little out of whack on that. But let's keep it going. Next one's coming from Matt the donk. And he wants to talk about Yawanna and Jacek. Oh, the biggest winner who didn't fight last weekend, question mark. He writes, am I right that Saturday night was huge for Yona? I feel like all of a sudden she might be one good win away from another title shot at 115. On the other hand, do you think the UFC will want to put Yona in a position where she could become champion again. I can see reasons why they might give JJ a tougher road as they try to push

a fresher face like Suarez or go with Michelle Waterson, who they really seem to think has huge star potential. Yonah has already been to the top and I think we all know what her star potential is. And so this is actually an interesting question that I had not considered much. But was Yonni and Jacek one of the biggest winners of Saturday Night Pizzi? I don't know because obviously our last fight was for the flyway title and um you know she was in a different division she had lost to rose twice i do think as i said i think she has fought jessica better than anyone has i thought it was an absolute masterclass when she fought and drudge but i think with nina and swarz already booked it's going to be very hard for joanna to fight and then jump that cue you know what i mean i think i think a lot of people

are on the swarez and answer off buzz here so i i don't think it would be possible for her to get herself in toilet contention, but hey, Frank Yeager got a total shot. Nice call back, sir. I actually kind of agree with the premise of this question. And this isn't something I've given a lot of thought to before this, but I think he's actually onto something because Yanni and Jacek right now, if you look at the rankings, I know the rankings don't mean anything, but for some reason, I feel like we have to look at them

to some degree because decisions are based off. of them. She's number three. She's still number three. In her last fight in this division, she beat Tisha Torres, who's a very good name in this division. Her only losses at 115 were to Rose Nama Yunus, who, like we talked about earlier, may not even fight again. I agree that Tatyana Swares and Nina Ansoroff should be next, but if Yoni and J-Chic comes out there and gets a win over somebody like a Welle-Jang who is calling her out quite a bit, that'll be a great fight. Oh, my God. At that point, how can you not throw her back into this conversation, right?

She has a definitive, definitive blowout win over Jessica Andraj, and she has mulled anybody else in this division who she has fought other than Rosnami Unis. Yeah, you know, you've sold it to me to a certain degree, especially with an opponent in Lig Zhang, that would be unbelievable. She looks incredible. So I think that would be a great fight. But it's just in terms of can they get that done before Ansarov Suarez and, And, you know, I do think that Jessica would be interested in fighting Joanna again, given the stock that Joanna has. You know, everybody knows who Joanna is. She's a huge celebrity.

So that could also kind of fortify Jessica's title reign as well, you know, to win over Joanna. Well, let me ask you, because it feels as though we look at both of these women far differently than we did the last time they fought. Like, Yowna and Jacek has lost three times over the last few years. And it feels like her aura of invincibility that she definitely once had has somewhat vanished to some degree. I mean, we have just seen her get knocked out. We've seen her get dominated in decisions. I don't know that people look at her the same way that they once did, whereas Jessica And Raj has really started cultivating an image for herself as this supernatural destroyer of worlds

just in terms of her strength and her power and the mauling that she can put on women in there. That slam was ridiculous, as we said. would you would if these two were facing each other say next month would you favor jessica because i think i would yeah um you know when you look at that first fight though man that was maybe that's just recency bias but i yeah and that happens but i always find it's very difficult for people to come back and avenge a loss when it's that one-sided and it was basically you know maybe not as much volume as we saw from rose in that first round but it was the same kind of idea i felt like jessica couldn't get near her you know so what changes she's going to come forward with that that pressure

style that she has where she's just grinding on you and grinding on you but if if joanna who has a fantastic job can keep on poking that in her face it's going to be a tough night you know um it's a definite fight that they could sell though isn't it you know i mean absolutely it makes perfect sense in that regard so maybe i spoke too soon jada luca who knows but look you saw if she got a win over wily zang absolutely that would open the floodgates man 100% i guess it's what does jessica want as well you know how does she feel about this um you've just won the belt now we're going to put you in and it's a former champion who handed you your last loss go for it you know i think she would welcome that she probably would yeah she seems like she's

down for anything man also i i feel like if uh i like the jang fight but also yowna versus is Michelle Watterson. To me, that could be a perfect next number one contender fight. Because Juana's already said that she wants to sort of sit out for a little bit and just recover and take some time off. Wait out the Suarez answer off fight. They can fight in the interim, the winner that gets the champion. And then you do a number one contender fight.

Maybe with Michelle Watterson, that to me also feels like a viable path. Yeah, absolutely. And that would be a great fight for the fans as well. Very, you know, two very different stand-up styles going at it. I think that would be great. Yeah. Well, hey, let's keep it moving. And let's talk to the goat, one, two, four, who asks about UFC versus Bellator.

Who had the better weekend, UFC or Bellator, with Chandler versus Pitbull and MVP versus Lima? I say Bellator at the bigger weekend, he writes, but what do you guys think? Thank you and keep up the hard work. And so Saturday night, it was a fun night, man. I don't love the two event nights. It's a lot of work. And also, I feel like it's hard to pay as much attention to when they're really good fights. it's hard to give them the attention they deserve

because you're basically doing two screens at once. And at one point, Aldo Volcanovsky was starting off at the exact same time as Chandler Pitbull. And it's like, all right, this is like two of the most the fights I wanted to see the most. Why are we doing this? But it was a fun night. Controversy for both events.

Big stuff happened at both events. Violent finishes at both events. Who do you think won the night? You know, I feel like, I got to comment this from a European point of view, okay? because MVP was fighting on that Bellator card and he's a big deal and the fact that Bellator is now available

to be watched live in the UK and Ireland it feels like it has a massive imprint now a far bigger imprint I noticed that all the traction online was about MVP the next morning in my neck of the woods whereas in the US the conversation was more based around and Raj's finish of Rose

but I felt like the big thing everybody was talking about in the UK and Ireland was the CAO finish of MVP You know, it was obviously the controversial finish with Chandler and Patricio was being discussed as well. I would agree, I'd say certainly in my neck of the woods, the Bellator event was probably that bit bigger. But, you know, I think I'm just thinking about this in terms of Rose versus MVP in terms of their finished, getting finished. You know, when you think about the UFC card, I had Aldo as well, you know, Anderson Silva. but there was a lot of conversation around those kind of things as well. So hard to say, but I do think MVP, the finish of MVP was the most talked about thing

in the UK and Ireland the next day. I mean, I don't put a lot of stock. I don't like putting a lot of stock in metrics in terms of video views and page counts and things like that when it comes to this sort of conversation. But I do feel like there is merit to some degree in talking about that. And if you look at all of the videos that we, because we had people on the ground for both events, you look at all the videos that came out that night from our website, what by far has the most views?

By far, it's MVP's post-fight press conference. By far, it's doubling Rose, basically. Like, he is so far away in terms of video views for that press conference than every other person's post-fights scrum or press conference. That actually blew me away. And so to some degree, I want to say Bellator won the night, but I don't know that that's actually true, though. Because if you look and actually the person who responded to this to

the person who asked this question. Eduardo Bueno had a really interesting point, which is Bellator's two biggest people that night were Michael Chandler and MVP. That's the two guys that they, if they could engineer some level of agency for themselves to say, hey, these guys are going to come out on top. I think they would say that those two guys would come out on top

because they draw the most eyes. Both of them got lost, both of them got knocked out to some degree, depending on what you think of the Chandler finish. Whereas the UFC, I mean, it was just a regular night for the UFC. for Bellator, it could almost be viewed as a bad night for Bellator. And I don't think, I don't personally view that. But I think some people could. And it goes to one thing that I noticed throughout the night.

And I guess it's something, a larger prevailing narrative that I've sort of noticed just in general. And perhaps it speaks to a larger point about Bellator itself. But as an MMA world, why does it seem like the MMA world and the fan base doesn't care about the Pitbull Brothers as much as they should. Because that's something that I've noticed, and it doesn't, I don't understand it. And it's interesting to me because as fighters, they check all of the boxes, right? The Pitbull Brothers are probably two of the most successful fighters in Beltor history. They're both known for very violent knockouts.

They talk trash. They create drama pretty regularly. They have incredible backstories of just overcoming really difficult circumstances. But yet we were just talking about MVP's videos and how, how high they were compared to everybody else. Pitbull's post-fight interview didn't even break 10,000 views. Like, it was, it was obscenely low. And so why is that?

Is that, why, because it seems like even if you write an article about either of the Pitbull brothers, it very rarely will do well, what is it about, I mean, is it, is it something about them, maybe not speak in English? I don't, I don't, I mean, they do speak English to some degree. So I don't really know. And the only thing I can come up with is it, is it just the Pitbull name? Like is that it? Is it just like because that's a very generic MMA nickname. Like if we got in our fill of that nickname, like if they're named the grenade brothers,

are we looking at them differently? Like I genuinely confused about this because they're amazing fighters. What Patricio Pitfall has been able to do in Bellator is wild. And being the now the champ champ, champ beating Michael Chandler, that is incredible accomplishment. So it doesn't make sense to me. I mean, is there anything to be said for the fact? that MVP has been pushed massively by Bellator. Michael Chandler has been the face of Bellator for so long.

Like, have you seen the same promotional push put behind the Pit Bull Brothers? For me, Bellator has only become really prevalent over here since that deal has been struck. You know, we're a lot more aware of promos. They're probably more directed towards us. But I haven't seen a hell of a lot about the Pit Bull Brothers. I mean, that's fair. But to combine, I feel like they've headlined 4,000 different Belator events. Like seriously

That has to account for something Yeah Yeah and that is That is putting promotional weight Behind someone right And maybe I write about the Pitbull thing I can't think of anything off the top in my head Like I mean it's not because they're Brazilian

We've had loads of Brazilian stars in the sport I don't really know They talk tons of trash I mean Patricio Pitbull's post-fight promo Where he's in the cage being like I'm the champ champ, you like that was that was a great promo i was i was enjoying that man i i really wonder if it's just we got we have our fill of the pit bull name between all of the tago alvis and and randre alaskis

and bachela's and there's just so many pit bulls that maybe like i said like if these dudes are named the jackhammer brothers like are we just talking about them differently yeah i love all of these names they're giving them the grenade brothers top of the list though that was that was amazing but um yeah maybe that is the case like i felt like I don't know if U.S. viewers picked up on this or people who are follow our site, but there was a little thing popping off between SBG and the Pitbull Brothers. Yeah. So there was all these different, and that felt like they were very prevalent over here for a while.

Nearly every interview, any of the SPG guys are doing, they were nearly trying to work themselves into a fight with either Petriki and Patricio. So that was, that kind of made them a kind of a bigger thing in this neck of the woods. But maybe that's what to do with them. You know, bring them over here, bring them to different places and kind of show them off. If it hasn't been a hit in the US, maybe it's hit somewhere else. Yeah, I have no idea. It's puzzling to me, but I guess, and it's also just unfortunate to me,

because they're very entertaining guys and very talented guys. But, I mean, can I just ask you one thing about the videos you said about MVP? Did you say that was his post-fight press conference rather than the finish itself? Like people were watching him just speaking at the press comments. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the finish itself has something like, almost a million views at this point. But yeah, his post-fi press conference was by far the most watched post-fite press

conference of the day. Wow. That's incredible. Yeah. It surprised me, considering all that happened Saturday night. But hey, the people like what the people like, you know. I think a lot of people were waiting for MVP to, we were talking about people getting their comeuppance.

I think a lot of people were waiting for MVP to maybe get his comeuppance to some degree. I don't know what that actually means. the people definitely seem to revel in that knockout to a degree. Yeah, there was lots of talk over here as well. Everybody was asking me, now, now he's going to change.

He won't be like that. I was like, he would be crazy to change the way he has carried himself. Look at what it's done from. It would be like, same with James Galler when he got his first loss. Everyone's like, that's going to shut him up.

He's still the guy everybody's asking for. Like, you know, we had Bellet Hall Birmingham, Dominic Wooding, like a great young prospect. He was asking for him straight away. You had Chris Lentzioni, isn't it? Over at the last Bellator event, Colin from him as well.

You know, he is still very much the guy with the target on his back. There's no way MVP comes back to this and everyone's like, oh, he's old news. I don't want to fight that guy. Everybody's going to want to fight him. He's a proven product now. Everybody knows who this guy is. People are going to still want to fight him and he's still going to draw a crowd

the next time he fights. I really believe that. Also, man, credit to him. He didn't have to do that post-fight interview. He had just gotten knocked out pretty bad. he came to the, he came and talked to the media, and he was very gracious.

I mean, he accepted the defeat in a way that I think surprised a lot of people and more power to him, man. He handled that loss as well as he possibly could have. Yeah, and people don't even understand, like a guy from a sport karate background like that.

He's probably, he's probably fought matches over 350 matches in his life. You know what I mean? He has faced defeat before. Yeah. This is not a new thing for him. Yeah. To even fight in the manner

that he does. There must be so much failing along the way there until you get comfortable in that kind of stance and that stile. And, you know, he's, he's absolutely been defeated before. And that's the experience that you saw there, him carrying himself in such a positive manner. I definitely believe that. Yeah. That's a great point that I had not considered. Let's keep moving. Let's get this next one from Lucian, who now we're returning to Rosamai Unis. And let's have this retirement conversation. Greetings on this fairest of days. I love your intros, Lucian. before anything else, hopefully this May Wednesday finds you both, but finds both of you esteemed journalists in good spirits.

My good. What a good gentleman and a scholar. I appreciate you. As stunning as the finish for the strawweight title fight was, for me, the most surprising element was Rose's comments after the fight, not only stating that she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders with losing the title,

but verbalizing the actual retirement thoughts at the press conference. As people who follow this sport closely, do you think a top level fighter can come back with the same fire after expressing such thoughts? I just personally couldn't come up with any examples of it and feel that that was a moment I personally no longer felt she would be able to come back to the top. And so now let's have this conversation, Pizzi, because I think Rose surprised a lot of people in multiple interviews after that fight saying maybe I'm done. Maybe I, this is sort of, she's thinking about that even before the fight, that maybe this is my last one.

immediately after losing in such a stunning fashion. She even says, as this gentleman noted, took a weight off my shoulders to no longer have this title, a comment which sort of mystified and baffled Daniel Cormier, who could not understand where Rose was coming from. What do you make of everything we saw from Rose after that fight on Saturday? When I hear somebody talk about things like that,

and if their heart's not in, this is the wrong sport to be in, if your heart isn't in it. It's the wrong sport. This is the hirp business, as we all know. There's no point in showing up to fight if your heart's not in it. You know, this is something she's really going to have to think about before we see our next. Like a lot of people, just for example, 25-year-old Tom Dukenwa was one of the most highly touted prospects in all of Europe and all the world before he signed for the UFC. He said his heart wasn't in it the other day and he retired. I completely went, that's fine.

I saw a lot of people saying, oh, what a waste, what a waste. If your heart's not in it, you shouldn't be in a cage. You shouldn't be in a cage fighting some of four arms gloves. It's too dangerous. Look at the finish the other night. Like, there's no, there's no doubt about it. That's a dangerous situation to be in. And if your heart's not in it, you shouldn't be doing it. Like, I honestly feel that way. She'd be a huge loss of the sport. But I think she's putting herself in danger by going in there and fighting if her heart's not in it and she, and if she half-arced it, honestly. I have to say I wasn't as surprised as I think I maybe should have been. And, Yeah, and you're not the only one, right?

Like, it felt like half the people were surprised and half the people were kind of, I don't want to say expected this, but it wasn't surprising to hear because Rose has always been a very unusual, in a good way, unusual person. Like, she's a very different type of character than we get in this fight game very often. She's open, she's honest, she is extremely articulate with just, I guess articulating those thoughts and those nerves and the worries and everything, all of the darkness that sort of comes with this game inherently. Because this is a very dark game.

We talk lightheartedly about these people getting knocked out and all of the, what are the stakes to this fight and the pressure for this, but it is very real human emotion backed by very real human consequences. That could be very far-reaching consequences. And Rose seems like someone who understands that. better than anyone out there. She has for a long time. I think that's part of the reason why people connect to her so much is because she really lets people in in a way that very few public figures do, especially professional athletes, especially combat sports athletes, where being that big,

strong, tough person is sort of the ideal that that person that nothing bothers me. A lot of things bother her, and she tells us about it. And I think people relate to that on some level, and maybe That's why they feel so connected to this journey that she has been on. So I wasn't surprised to hear that. And I don't know that I would be surprised. I would be a little surprised if we never see her again. But at this point, I don't think we'll get a lot that many more fights out of her. Like if we got three more fights out of her and that was it and that was sort of the end of the road,

I wouldn't be shocked. Would you be shocked? Oh, not at all. And this, like, roses is so unique. as you said, this could be it. Like, I don't feel like she throws out words lightly. I don't feel like she said that, oh, let's let's let the media have a feel day with this one.

You know, that's not the attitude she has. She doesn't say things lightly. She means what she says. She speaks from the heart, as you said. So I think that's a very serious situation that she's looking at. It deserves to be serious. And to speak to that, our own Garemey Cruz even asked her on Saturday night. Do you almost regret being this honest with the media?

because now we're just going to be basically forced to ask you this question over and over again about retirement and that sort of thing. And even to that, she was just, no, I want to speak from the heart. I want to let you guys know how I'm feeling. I don't regret ever being this honest. And like even to that degree, like that's a very interesting and compelling thing to hear from someone who we sort of look at in this space as being, you know, this master combat sports athlete, this champion. And it's been a wild ride with her, man. She's only 26. She's only 26, but it feels like she's been in our lives for a long time because of how young she was when she started.

And she also feels to me, and this isn't anything new, but like somebody who would be very happy just disappearing off the map, going off the grid, buying, you know, tons of acreage in the middle of maybe the Midwest or the Northwest or something. and just living life, living with Pat, with, you know, Pat Berry and her dogs and her friends and her family and just sort of existing without having all of these weird

MMA sort of pressures on her every day. Yeah, it does feel like it was a significant weight on her shoulders. You know, that was, as you said, such a huge line for it to say, like, you know, it's near relief.

You know, that's a crazy situation when you consider, you know, you've got 600 people on that roster are vying for one of those belts. And then as soon as she gets it, she just feels this enormous pressure from it, you know. And she isn't reveling in it like we've seen others.

Like Henry Sehudo, for example. Like, you know, he loves being a champion. He loves rubbing it in people's faces. That's the complete opposite of what Rose was, you know. It was very reminiscent of George St. Pierre in a few ways. Whereas just that, that's sort of introspective person, that introspective athlete, where they feel that to a degree that it almost feels suffocating or seems suffocating.

Like, that's why George left is it was because he just couldn't handle it anymore. Or he didn't want to handle it anymore. I don't know. What's that? Is Drain said for the, you know, the fact that she had been knocked out and now she's talking? You know, like, it's not a, it's not a perfect situation to be talking, you know, like straight after a situation, like you've been separated from your senses and now you're pushing from the immediate.

Well, I'm sure she wanted to do that interview. But, you know, can we? I think that's fair. think that's definitely fair because she had just been very brutally knocked out and is giving this interview in the octagon but she did reiterate all of this stuff sort of throughout the rest of the night so i don't know i mean the damage i've been done you know you know that it's still a very close proximity from you being completely concussed you know like so i'm just saying like i mean i'm not i'm not um forecasting that she's going to do a complete 180 on this but i just think that

needs to be factored into it as well like you know we don't need to go back to the whole steep tapped situation there with Alastorovrim, you know. But it is, it is a real thing. You know, this is real life stuff there, you know. Yeah. Well, she will, she is a forever compelling character in the sport. And to close this topic, if I put an over under to you of 2.5 fights left in the UFC for her, meaning if she had, do you take the under, you think she just has two or less, take the over, you think she has three or more? What would you put your money on? based on just her age i'd say over over but but like i'm forecasting that off over the next you know six seven years i think she could fight three times easier so you think she definitely

slows down then it seems like yeah yeah i don't think she enjoys the whole process i don't think she enjoys the spotlight you know even though she's actually great in the spotlight i don't think she's she loves it you know and i think you have on the opposite end of that spectrum you have someone like McGregor when he first emerged, she was loving every second of it, you know, who was relishing that moment in the light. And I just don't think she is that person.

And that's probably what makes her so attractive to fans and media, you know? Yeah. Well, hey, let's keep things moving. We have so many questions today. So we're going to keep things moving. The people want to hear from you, Pete. This next one's coming from Hardy, Har, Har, who wants to know about Brazilian crowd

and Jared Karnaner's response. Fellas, fellas, what a wonderful day to discuss this bizarre world of MMA. That is a great first line. I love that. So what is the deal with the Brazilian crowd? If anybody could appreciate a good fight, I think it would be the good folks from the MMA home world, home of the graces. But it turns out, if any non-Brazilian wins, it's either silence or booze.

Speaking of Brazilian booze, what's the best fighter response to this jeering? Jared Kannonair seems to have set a new standard. just standing silent like a grade school teacher waiting for the children to shut up. So I loved everything about this. I'm not going to lie. I mean, it was very, I'll caveat all of this and preface all this by saying it was very scary. What happened to Anderson Silva, I think when that happened, the same thought that ran through my head, ran through everybody's head where it's just like Jesus Christ. This is the same leg with this guy.

Maybe this happened again. It seems now that maybe it's not as serious as we thought initially. That is good. But Jared Cannon here's response to sort of the five minutes after he defeats Anderson Silva was amazing to me. Him standing there in the middle of this arena, drowning in the booze and just silently watching, soaking up this environment, I am so here for that. That was an amazing, incredible moment to watch.

I just loved everything about that. That was pro wrestling 101, and I know people will hate that, but that was just that was a masterclass of working a crowd like that uh what were what were you thinking watching that i thought it felt like time froze you know he's like oh my god is he gonna say something say something but actually i was looking at what it was happening but i was still like this is awkward say something to them and i thought it was incredibly disrespectful to be honest um you know um you got the crowd reaction was disrespectful oh yeah oh yeah sorry i should have should have been more clear about that but um you know more yeah co-host in europe i should

Noel McGrath, he made a good point about this. He was like, if anyone should be booed in this situation, it's Anderson Silva, who says in the interview afterwards, my knee went three times in the lead up to this point. Why are you fighting? Your fighting with this injury has resulted in this situation. You can't blame the guy for, you know, executing some beautiful leg kicks. You know, that's what he did. He caused that situation to happen.

You know, should Anderson be the one getting the booze from the crowd, given that he has come into this fight, not fully fit. And I know fighters usually aren't 100% fit when they get in there. The nature of this game, you're going to get injuries. But, you know, for the leg to not hold up for five minutes when he knew he had an injury there, I mean, shouldn't he be the guy that's receiving the criticism rather than can of near? Yeah. I mean, I think I can understand to some degree the Brazilian crowd's reaction, right?

Because this is just this, this was on a, it was sort of a slow build throughout the night. Brazilians were losing. Jose Aldo had just lost. And then Anderson Sovo gets injured like that. And I think maybe it was partly also because Jared Kennedy is sort of doing this and playing it up in the initial, like the initial 30 seconds after he beat Anderson Sova. I don't think people in the crowd liked that because of the way it went down. But this is just country pride at work, right?

Like we would see this in Ireland. Oh, yeah. Yeah. If someone beat Connor McGregor that way, like, do you think the Irish crowd's going to applaud them? like this is their own legend this is their own guy like they're not gonna just be like yeah great jerry canineer great job really like all you have to do is look at the the disgraceful behavior when they brought the world tour here to dublin you know that was a joke oh it's a shame i was like this is a this is a fucking joke man like you know that's a legend of the sport up

there and you're asking them you know just the stuff they were saying like about his mother and stuff like oh man that was that's embarrassing like i don't like i don't like i don't like it. I've talked about it a lot. I think it makes us, do you know what piss me off about that? I know I'm going off on a segue here. No, I like it. I like it. Please go. It pissed me off because we lived up to every stereotype the Irish people have around the world that day. Everyone was shit-faced drunk in the crowd and they were just talking other bollocks. And I was like, this isn't right. I'm glad Neil Sirie got on the microphone later on that night and said, you know, that don't think we're all like that. There's some real MMA fans here

who want to hear what Jose has to say. It's just. the drunk animals making a joke out of us. So yeah, I don't like that kind of stuff. I think I think Cannoneer played it very well and it worked out in his favor because he was very composed in that situation. Like, can you imagine how bad?

Like, if I was in that situation, I had like, oh, 10,000 odd people booing at me. I'd shit my pants. You know what I mean? He just dealt with it so well, man. Like water off the duck's back. Yeah, I don't think I would handle that situation well.

But I'm not, I'm not, that's why I'm not in there. I guess my last thing I want to talk to add to this. I am really impressed by Jared Cannonier, man. That is a really interesting man who has really done this late in his sort of athletic life. Like he is in his mid to late 30s and he's a guy who started at heavyweight. He's come down now to middleweight and he's finding real success. It seems like his marriage with the MMA lab here in Arizona is a really good marriage.

They work together really well and they've gotten the best out of him. and he is a fascinating cat. Like if you listen to Garemet Cruz, our own Garemet Cruz's interview with Jared on Media Day last week, he's a really interesting guy who has gone through some wild experiences in his life. Like I'm sort of here to see where Jared Cananier can go and what his ceiling is in this 185 pound division. How about the fact that he was on the verge of being caught at 205?

He was two losses in a row at 205. If he had taken another loss before dropping down to 185, actually if he had a lost in his 185 debut he could be he could have been looking at his marching orders and now he's got two very much talked about finishes in that division and suddenly a lot of things are happening from talk about a resurgence talk about a 180 in terms of his career trajectory it's a brilliant story you know yeah i mean what back-to-back first round finishes over david branch and anderson silver like that's that's legit yeah uh well hey let's keep things moving next question is coming from, let's see,

it seems like K-Tweeks had a question, but then it was answered by Eduardo Bueno. So we'll let that one sit. Thank you, Eduardo, for getting that. This next one is your specialty, Pizzi. K-Lev-21 wants to know about Connor McGregor. With Tony Ferguson and Donald Seroni lined up, Habib and Dustin seemingly lined up,

and Nate being matched with Anthony Pettis. Who is left for Connor to fight? Have we seen the last of him in the cage? P.S. I know Justin Gage is available, but that doesn't seem like a fight Connor would take. So, Pizzi, you actually just came from a media day at SBG in Ireland. So I feel like you are the best man to answer this question. Yeah. What is next for Connor?

What do you expect? Do you expect anything? You know, I think it's very tough for Connor. I think he's in a most win situation now. given, you know, it's 2016, that fight against Alvarez, the last time we saw him, you know, being victorious in there. I was speaking to one of his chief sparring partners, Peter Quedi today. I'm sure a lot of people who follow Connor are aware of Peter. He's a Bellator fighter.

And he has been sparring with Connor in the lead up to his fight with Terry Brazier on June 22nd. I was also speaking to John Kavana. Both of those guys believe that Conner. Connor will fight before the end of 2019. Now, when they say the end of 2019, that makes me believe it will be towards the end of the year. It's not going to be mixing up any of these dates with Kabib and Porre, anything like that. I believe that these things can play out and then Connor's going to get involved. That's how I see it at the moment.

You know, usually you hear a lot of things, being in Ireland, being so close to the camp over there, you hear a lot of stuff, you know. If something's going down is about to go down, you use. usually can feel it, you usually get that kind of feeling. I'm not getting that kind of feeling at the moment. You know, I do think that he will want to put his awe in, get in the mix with that conversation, whatever happens with Khabib in September. But I do, I do think we could be looking towards the end of this year or maybe early next year for a fight, to be honest. Because, I mean, you're right. There is no readily available options. To be honest, when the Pettis and Diaz fight

was announced. I don't know if Diaz, how full on Diaz is with that. I was kind of thinking, Connor has done this before where he kind of nearly gets into Nate's head and he's kind of like, why don't we, why don't you wait for us to fight? And then suddenly everything is off. I don't know. I felt like Diaz was the option for Connor at this stage because they both had time off. I felt that he got a one-sided loss against Khabib. He didn't look anything like his former self in that So I did expect Nate to be the good option. But now he's off the table. So I do think we're going to see, if we see him back, it will be towards the end of this

year, early next year, probably. Well, I want to ask you about that. Follow up one you just said, because is he off the table? Because if this is the timetable that we're looking at now and you think it's going to be probably the end of the year or the beginning and next, which I agree with you, it feels like, I mean, Dustin is fighting him beep. So that fight, you can lock that in. but it feels like Connor would have a couple really interesting options with the next few fights they're going to play out because if Nate Diaz defeats Anthony Pettis, suddenly Nate Diaz is back. He is back in the conversation. He's back just in this whole aura of MMA, this discussion that we have every week. And that to me makes that fight bigger. That to me makes the trilogy fight with Connor much, much bigger. And there would certainly be time for it. I mean, that fight is that fight against Anthony Pettis is in a month or two.

And also, Tony Ferguson versus Donald Serroney, both of those men have been linked to Connor in various ways over the years. Would the winner of that fight also be very much lined up timeline-wise, but also just within the division to fight Connor? So then you have because either of those, Tony Ferguson or Donald Serroney, they have a history with Connor, both you could sell either of those fights. So to me, it feels like one of those three guys, Nate Diaz or the Tony and Donald winner, if you're, if Connor can't, come back and fight for a title one of those three guys would seem like the obvious next step and they would all sort of be lined up for him just timeline wise i guess yeah yeah absolutely and i think that is depending on how much momentum uh seroni could potentially pick up or ferguson because he definitely wasn't interested in those fights i feel like because we heard obviously he had that back

and fort with seroni and everybody was talking about that fight that fight was on the table if he wanted it you'd imagine you know everybody was was this fight can happen dana was talking about it but around that time when i was speaking to people close to that camp all they were saying is all he's talking about is nath and kabb and i really feel like that's what he's going to be looking at regardless of the situation unless something crazy happens unless someone goes into the stratosphere either ferguson or seroni um i feel like mcgregor is focused on either diaz or kabb and something would have to change significantly for them to take us focus off those two guys. All right.

Well, hey, that is good information. Let's keep it moving. Now I'm catching myself. Y'all always make fun of me for saying, well, hey, a bunch. And now I'm like super aware of it. And like, that's definitely my transition between questions. So I'm going to try to stop that because I just literally caught myself doing it again. This is why you shouldn't read the comments.

But I just can't help myself. I always read the comments. So let's see. That's my new one. Let's see. Next one's coming from Marty from Nebraska. I don't know that any of these are questions. Seems like he just kind of wants me to read his thoughts.

Do it. I don't know that I want to entertain this. I don't want to encourage you this. All right, I'll do it once, but we're not going to deal with these type of questions later. Can we stop pretending, and it's a point-by-point list, that MVP was close to being considered a legit contender, and we don't see Scott Coker's GPs are even worse than B. Jorns, that Frank Yeager is not a legit contender for the belt and everybody wanted to see Max versus Volcanovsky, that Jake Hager is not a dummy, and finally that nobody cares

about Betchkoia and she manages to be worse than Hager and Catua combined. Those are not questions. Next time, ask us questions, Marty from Nebraska, or write a blog post yourself. I am going to continue moving on. This next one's coming from Combat Chief. to know about Nate Diaz versus Anthony Pettus, as we were just talking about. I am really pumped for this fight, he writes. Nate is the better boxer.

Pettis has trouble with pressure fighters, and Nate has insane endurance. Sean, Peter, oh, now we're getting Peter, bring down this fight and talk about where a win puts each guys. Thanks. So I was surprised when this one was announced. It seemed to come out of nowhere. Having heard from Duke Rufus now, the coach of won Anthony Pettus. it feels as though this was something that was sort of negotiated behind the scenes with Nate Diaz's team pinpointing Anthony D or Anthony Pettis and sort of just reaching out to them and then working it out and then bringing that to the UFC which is a very interesting it's a very interesting way for a fight to come together and to me that's reminiscent of how Nate and Connor sort of got their rematch put together where they were sort of standing side by side against the UFC and saying this is what we want to happen and this is what is going to happen and the UFC eventually just had to go along with it. I like that to some degree. I think that's

Nate Diaz flexing a little bit. That's quite cool. But on a matchup level, this is actually a really fun matchup to me. I like that it said well to wait. It kind of, it's, it's an interesting factor for two long time lightweights. Also, just the style mashups. I mean, who has Anthony Pettis historically struggled against the most wrestlers? Nate Diaz isn't going to be wrestling. There is a bunch of history between these two men that's been bad blood for years. I like everything about this fight. I have a Nate Diaz picture right there, so maybe I'm a little biased, but Pizzi. What did you think when you heard of Nate Diaz's return and the opponent that he was getting? I was skeptical that it would happen, and I still am. I really wanted to happen. I think it's fantastic.

And to be honest, I really didn't consider the ramifications of this fight until you were just talking about it in terms of Connor. The fact that you just said that Nate Diaz, it looks like Nate Diaz targeted Pettis and said, I want to fight him. do you think he did that with the McGregor trilogy fight in mind? Is Pettis, in his opinion, a good match-up for him, a guy he can strike against, a guy you can put on an exciting fight against, and get a win against to put him in the driving seat when it comes back to that trilogy fight with McGregor? Do you reckon that's what he was kind of thinking about

when he pinpointed Pettus? Absolutely. I think that's definitely in the thought process of it. Because Nate, same type of situation as Anthony, who has he struggled most against throughout his career? It's pressure wrestlers. and that's not Anthony Pettis. I think he saw someone who had a lot of momentum after the Stephen Thompson knockout

who could fight at 155 or 170, so it's kind of some leeway there. He won't have to cut weight as much for 170 and just pinpointed that and said, you know, this is the one I can sort of reenter me into this and then I can make a ton of money later on once I'm back in this conversation. I absolutely think that played a part in it. Yeah, it literally just as you said that when we were talking about the situation, situation, it made a lot of sense to me too. I feel it is risky, though. I feel it's very risky when you're, you're coming back after such a long layoff and you're coming back against

a guy who pretty much shocked the whole community with that knockout of Wonderboy. You know, like this guy obviously, we know he has a fantastic strike in Arsenal. He obviously, his power translates very well at 170. And you have Diaz, who is going to be coming off the shelf to a certain extent well he definitely is it's i mean it's is it three years so yeah i feel like i feel like it makes a lot more sense after you saying that but i'm still skeptical man i can't help it i just i think that's fair i think that's definitely fair right like we've been burned by natea's at this point uh i think a lot of people were disappointed the poixier fight didn't come to pass in msg uh so i think that's fair but it does i mean he is it's a man who has wanted to fight for a long time and it's just him and the

UFC do not see eye to eye on a lot of different things. He doesn't like the way the UFC does business and he tries to do business a different way. And they don't like him doing business that way. And so I mean, I think that still is possible that that comes into this at some point, but I really hope it doesn't because this, this sport is a better place when Nate Diaz is involved. Yeah, absolutely. Like I can remember his, when he came back to fight Johnson before he kind to put himself in line from McGregor, it felt like fight weeks had suddenly changed immediately because Nate was involved and he's talking and he's just so different, so unique. I mean, he's a guy who reverberates hugely with the Irish fan base as well. You know, when him and, when him and

Connor are fighting, obviously you're going to see all the fanboys going over to support him, but among the hardcore MMA fans in Ireland, that was split right down the middle. That really was, you know, he was, he's a guy that just captivates everyone. And I think he's a huge star and certainly either at welterweight or 155, he's adding a lot to either. there are those divisions, to be honest with you. But it's just, will it happen? And I can't help but think that there's going to be a few more shakes left in this tale before it happens, you know? Yeah, and that's totally deserved, I think, to some degree.

I would say my only qualm with this one is the same qualm I had with the Dustin Poirier fight. Why is this three rounds? Why this needs to be a five-round fight? What's that? Ferguson and Seroni's three rounds as well, isn't it? That's exact same conversation I want to have with them. What are these fights three rounds? These fights deserve to be five rounds and eight years

is one of the biggest stars in this sport, even still today. No matter what the UFC thinks about that, that's an absolute fact. He deserves a bigger spotlight than just a three-round fight on it, on some level, like the third fighter, the co-main event of some card. This should be a five-round fight with the spotlight and the eyes on it. to then elevate the winner into a very cool place afterwards. And that just doesn't feel like that's, it doesn't feel like it's,

that can happen with sort of a three round placement on just a random pay-per-view as we, as we're getting. I don't know what the fix is. I don't know if there's ways to make, I mean, obviously there is. The UFC can do whatever they want. But I don't know if it's that you just make special stipulations where certain contendorship fights are five rounds no matter what.

I don't know if it's just, you try to target these type of fights for ESPN. shows rather than paper views but how are we not getting five rounds out of this this needs to be a five round fight especially all the history between these two men both of them especially in a idea is just being a snowball rolling down a hill type of guy he gets better with with each passing round this needs to be five rounds yeah and i feel like both of those fights where we mentioned pettis nath seroni and tony those are the kind of fights that people are that could absolutely go three rounds could go the 15 minutes and people are going to have that feeling

I can imagine Twitter that night. Why isn't this a five-round fight? And I do feel like, I feel like, it might have been you, you who kind of said this maybe before I listened to you on a podcast talking about it. Like maybe once you're in the top 10, you know, and you're fighting for those positions right before the title, maybe then it should be a five-round fight.

Maybe we need to put some stipulation in there because I feel like both of these fights should be fives, you know? They're main events every day at a week on Anycard. So why not do it? And I do feel like people are going to be pissed if one of these goes to distance because I feel like there's so much more to see in these kind of contests, especially as you said, Nate grows as the fight goes on. And so if he say if Pettis has a great first two rounds and Nate has a brilliant third round,

what is everybody going to say at the end of that fight? Yeah. If it goes, you know, and I can see that happening. And Soroni's another guy who does that. Yeah. You know, he doesn't to grow as a fight goes on. Same with Tony Ferguson. same with Tony first.

These are the ideal candidates to go four rounds. You know what I mean, really? So that's what gets me just because it's so arbitrary, right? Because this weekend we're going to get Kevin Lee and Javier Dosanos, they're going to go five rounds. Both those guys are great fighters. No disrespect to either of them. But I think if we were given a choice in front of us of,

hey, here's three fights, the two we were just talking about, and then this weekend's fight, you can pick two of them to be five rounds. I think every person who's an MMA fan on the planet would pick the two that are not five rounds to be five rounds. And so it's really just arbitrary of where you're getting thrown under the schedule if you're headlining some show in Montana,

somewhere you're going to fight in five rounds, whether that fight deserves it or whether that fight deserves it or not. It just, it's a little too arbitrary from my days. Like, should they bring in a stipulation where you're ranked a certain amount once one of those fighters is involved, it needs to be five rounds? Like that could lead to some horror shows as well,

believe me. But if it's a it's definitely, I think there's definitely a way to do case by case. I mean, some people will say it's not fair, but nothing in this game is fair. Frank Yecker, toilet shot. With that, let's keep things

moving. This one's coming from Lodovic, and this is the last one on the MMA fighting page. Tony Ferguson, we just talked about this a little bit, but let's get a little more into it. Hi, guys, but especially Sean, my fellow Tony Ferguson groupie. Wow. Well, I'm in I'm insulted, frankly. Let's keep this moving. Hey, Lodovic is a saint. I will not stand for Lodovic hatred on this show.

Could you guys share your excitement for his return? How do you see the matchup with Cowboy? Are you surprised slash disappointed? The fight is not a five-round main event, as we were just talking about. Will Cowboys trademark activity be a huge factor, especially considering Tony hasn't had an MMA as his main focus recently? Is it good or bad it was made just only a few weeks away? is there anything else that came to your mind when the fight was announced?

El Cuckooie is back, guys! Exclamation point, exclamation point. Uh, exclamation point. Thanks a lot. So, this is the last big fight announcement that we have had over this past week, and it was a good one. I was also a very, very short notice. I mean, this fight is going on next month, uh, within a span of weeks.

Uh, so it came together very, very quickly. Tony Ferguson changed management and he wanted back in, and he got back in, Tony and Donald Serroney is getting a very quick turnaround here and a chance to really put himself at the peak of the title conversation very quickly. I love everything about this fight. I think that is no surprise to anybody who watches this show. I am the biggest Tony Ferguson mark on the planet. I'm glad he is back in this.

I hope he is well mentally and just everything going on in his personal life. But I am psyched, or I'm stoked, I should say, for the return of Elkakuwe. Yeah, no, I definitely am as well. I admit that I am late to the Ferguson party. I wasn't in full adoration of him for a long time, but I've grown to love his wacky ways, and he's a fantastic fighter. That was never in doubt.

I do worry a little bit about, you know, the situations outside of the cage that we had with Tony, and I do hope he's all there, all together, and he's in his full faculties. That kind of stuff just worries me all the time when I see that. And maybe that's maybe the only reason. reason why I'm kind of like this is very short notice but by all accounts and under new management this is what Tony Ferguson wants so I mean if Tony Ferguson wants it I'm guessing he feels as if he's in

full he's in good health and he and he's ready to go so it's a fantastic fight and I feel like the grappling exchanges are going to be quite interesting here I do give obviously Tony is a big wrestling advantage but seroni's got one of the most underestimated guards in mixed martial arts in mixed martial arts. It's so quick the way he latches up submissions and stuff like that. I'd be very interested to see him underneath Tony, see how he got on there. He loves scrambles both the guys love scrambles as well.

So I think it's very nice. I think a lot of people be... I think I might give the more conventional approach to strike in Soroni style the advantage on the feet, but Tony gets the edge on the ground. But I'm very interested to see it all play out. You know, I'm really interested to see these guys exchanging with each other, really interested to see them kind of trying to go at it on the ground. It's a very interesting

fight no matter what way you look at it really. Even the personalities, it's just very good. Yeah, the dynamics that play in this fight, both stylistically and like you said, personality-wise, are very, they're wonderful, to be honest. Like, both of these guys are of the same mind of line them up. I don't care who they are. Just keep it going. Old school fighter in that way. and also stylistically, like they are both madman, they're psychopaths. Like anytime you can see two psychopaths just really go at it, like that's one,

that often provides some of the coolest form of entertainment in the sport. It's another example of how this lightweight division is just ridiculous where like any permutation you throw with these guys, all these different guys, people are going to get excited about it. So that should be fun. We're going to have that coming up soon.

I'm sure we'll talk about it more. But in the meantime, we are running low on time and we got a ton of quitter questions. so we'll try to get it as many as we can. Let's do rapid four-round. A rapid-fire round. B'bau-Bow-Bow-Bow. Rapper-Fire-Round.

First one's coming up from Strike MX on Twitter. Who wants to know with Aldo, out of the title picture, who do you want to see him fight for his last fight in Brazil? Conor McGregor, Lloydway, four rounds. Not happening. If you ask me who I wanted to, I'm not saying it's possible. What would be a realistic one for you that you would want? like do you do would you just want some fun matchup at lightweight or do you do you continue this sort of

thing that he's just been doing of just hey you you you want these featherweight contenders want to come let him come that type of thing throws a beat at him yeah that would be tasty that would be tasty i like using tasty as a adjective yeah let's say he's a beat then because uh i think i would have liked to see the mcgregore rematch but that's that's just me but uh yeah the beat would be tasty. Yeah. I like some kind of featherweight.

Maybe like a Chan Sung Jung if he can get through a rematch with Chan Sung Jung if you can get through at Moecona, something like that. I don't know. Let's keep things going. Let's see. This is a good one.

This one's coming from Chris Murphy who wants to know there are a ton of great fights at lightweight being made right now. Does this signal that the division is now okay without Connor McGregor in it? Yeah, I think so, to be honest. I do. I feel like it's ticking on nicely.

And to be honest, that's the kind of thing that will rush Connor back to action. You know, I feel like if he felt as though he wasn't needed, that would make him want to stamp his foot all over that division and try to put his R in. And to be honest, that's what I feel like he has been doing, this social media stuff. I feel like he's just trying to keep himself in the conversation. And that's pretty much the only way you can do it at the moment. God, you're not wrong about that. The social media stuff, after every single fight,

trying to inject himself in that conversation, it gets a little tiresome. I've said that before. It does, man. Especially the last one's like he's deleting stuff and all you're like, come on, man. But yeah, I think, I mean, the lightweight division is never needed Connor McGregor. I think as a whole, maybe the UFC, to some degree,

needs Connor McGregor just because obviously he's the biggest star they've ever seen. The lightweight division for a long time has been just fine. I mean, that's the best division in the entire sport. And I'm not breaking any news by saying that. So if any division can survive the loss of a fighter, it's definitely lightweight. But I will say that Khabib, no Magna Madoadov is not anywhere near the name he is without that McGregor fight. Like he's taking, when you fight Connor McGregor, you become a superstar. And I feel like that's what Kabe did. Yeah, that's fair. That's absolutely fair. And I think that's maybe, if If the division needs him to any degree now with whatever he has left, because I don't feel

like he has a lot left, it would be that. It would be to put people over and sort of make them more popular so then moving forward they can be popular without him. Yeah, I agree. That's a good point. So this next one's coming from, let's see, Denny Rance from Sean Denny, who wants to know was Rose Nama Eunice's first round performance against Jessica Androge, the highest quality round we have seen at 155.

or I'm 115. I'm sorry, 115. Look, you know, look at even Yowanna against Jessica Penne. Remember that in UFC Berlin or whatever it was? That was what I was going to say, yeah. Prasty, man. Any of those rounds. I was going to point to Carla Sparza, but yeah, that's either of those fights.

That would be to me the highest quality that we have seen at 115. Rose is right up there, but the way that Yona just crushed Carla Sparza and Jessica Pena with just overwhelming them. That was like watching a big brother beat up a little brother and the little brother know that this is what's going to happen by the end of this. But there's no way for him to stop it. Like it was, you almost were terrified for those women in there. And this was, you know, you have to remember this was when Yowana was just introducing

herself and we had got to know these other women through the Tuff series. So to see that there's this gulf between Yohanna and Jessica Pena at that time, was absolutely incredible. And as you said, Aspiresler who had won the belt, you know? Yeah. Let's see. What is next?

The early numbers, this one's coming from Mays Flare Sword. He says the early numbers for UFC 236 are the early numbers for UFC 236 true under the 100,000 K. I heard that, I think we talked about this maybe last week too, but that's right around 100,000K. It's probably a little,

it's either a little under or a little over but it's right around there and i wonder man how if if the numbers for 237 are just as bad at what point we if you're a fighter do you start really really looking at your contract especially if you're a champion and be and looking at those paper viewpoints and wondering if everything has to change yeah and i really do feel like that's a big factor when it comes to mcgregor too you know like the amount of money he was taking in from these boys and because it's behind the aspn wall now will that affect how Conner does business? I really feel like the slightest thing can change how Connor does business with the UFC.

So I think without a doubt that will factor into his next contract negotiation. But, you know, I'm not as savvy when it comes to numbers and stuff like that. With you guys, obviously we have a different system over here. But that does, like that would be shockingly low numbers for a pay-per-view, right, if they were coming in like that. It would be one of the lowest ever. And I think there's a good chance that this past weekends will be the same. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't disagree with you.

I heard a lot of people forecast them what boys they had and a lot of people had it on the lower end. It's unfortunate. Do you think the fact that it's in Brazil factored into that would have a big kind of factor on that? No. I think it's just it wasn't the strongest card. And it's just harder to get people to go through two different paywalls. to buy these pay-per-views. You've trained people for 20 years that this is how you buy a pay-per-view, and then you've changed it very suddenly. I think they're going to be feeling this

for a while. And I think me and Alexander talked about it last week where if you go down, if you kind of look down the calendar and you point to July, I think the big event on per international fight week will be a big test because that is a really great card. John Jones, Amanda Nunes, Holly, home. Like, there's a lot of good stuff on that card. And if that struggles, then you might know you have an actual problem with here at the UFC. And maybe not even if you're this UFC because they're still getting their money more so the fighters if you're the fighters and that and that card struggles it's time to look at those contracts i really wish they'd put together that union i know we always say it but it's yeah it's not happening and then they complain

about everything you're like listen lads you know what you have to do you know it's it's it's very frustrating i feel yeah uh well we're running low on time so let's do one more and this one is uh You're not going to understand this one at all, Pizzi. So this one's maybe near and dear to me. But this one's coming from Mothra Stan, who says, Sean, would you fight Justin Gagy if it meant getting Zion? Yes. I know who Zion is. I know who Zion is.

Come on. Who's Zion? Who do you? What is your high school basketball player? He's a savage. He was going to be the number one draft pick. He's going to the Pelicans. What?

Oh. How do you like that? Huh? Look at you. Impressive. That's a lot more than I could say about any soccer guy. So I'm impressed by you. God, yeah, I would fight Justin Gaci for Zion.

But here's how I would fight Justin Gagey for Zion. The fight would start. Bruce Buffer would introduce this. And then I would kind of just sit Indian style on the floor and just tap out. And then, hey, the fight happened. Justin beat me by submission in three seconds. But it's just like, all right, that's fine. Give me Zion now.

I'm not going to go long on this because no one actually. cares but god damn it i was so effing heartbroken yesterday with that NBA draft lottery for people who don't understand the phoenix suns had the worst season in their history and that's the team that i like i have a weird Stockholm syndrome relationship with at this point it's like an abused household situation uh they had their worst record in franchise history they play 82 games they won 19 of them which is and i watched like all of those games because i'm an idiot like i don't know why but I did. And it was terrible.

It was obviously terrible. And the whole point is you're going to lose so that you get a chance to get this transcendent superstar Zion Williamson or maybe the number two pick, John Morant, his point guard. We need either of those positions. Those are the positions we need.

We had a 14% chance of getting one of these, one of the, like the top pick because of the way they changed these lottery odds. And not only did we not even get the top pick or the second pick or the third pick. We didn't even get a top five pick. We got the sixth pick.

And I like totally knew this was going to happen. I felt it very deep within my bones that we were going to get royally after this year. Last year we got the number one pick and I kind of felt that too. I felt really good about it. This one, I knew that this was going to happen. And as it played out, like I was in a dark place yesterday, Pizzi. I was in a dark place. I saw all the reaction to it.

I don't understand what the draft lottery is. I just thought you guys had a number based on if you're last, you're the first guy to get a pick. And if you're second. Yeah, that would be nice. That would be nice. that would make sense. You have a lot of people like just come and last to get Zion though,

wouldn't you? It'd be like a race to get last. Well, that's what, and that's the part of them, and again, I'm not going to go along on this. But that's the part that frustrates me is because like,

so they changed these lottery rules so that, hypothetically it was to help, to disincentivize tanking for teams that try to do bad on purpose like you just said and then get these top picks. But what ended up happening

is all of the top picks. picks went to teams that were already kind of like okay, like kind of not bad. And all of the really bad teams just ended up with very terrible picks that is not going to actually help their chances at all. So they're going to be bad again. And people, and I've forgotten a lot of this on Twitter of like, well, the sons were tanking. That's what they get for tanking. No, the sons were not tanking. The sons were just fucking terrible. Like we're just, we're just, we're just terrible. Like, we're not tanking. We were trying to win. We're just incompetent and we don't know how to win. And so we're just really, really bad at this.

And so now we're just going to stay bad at this. Meanwhile, the teams that actually did tank the Lakers who F the Lakers and F the Laker fans for being so entitled. And I'm going on a tangent at this point. But they tanked hard as hell. The Pelicans tanked hard as hell. And kudos to them. They should have tanked.

That's what you should have done in that situation. But the Grizzlies tanked like all these, the Grizzlies, maybe not. I'll backped on the Grizzlies. But the Knicks tanked, like all of these teams actually tanked. We didn't tank. We're just awful. And we're going to be awful forever at this point. Like, we're not going to get better. And it's just, I'm sad. I'm just. Remember that moment, though, there's that famous gift of you. Look how much joy your team has given you. You know, the Phoenix Suns, right?

Look how much joy. Yeah, this much joy. They've given me one waving the thing around. That's the best thing ever. They've given me one gift worth of joy. And that was it. But the gift is timeless. Sean. You know, it's forever, man. I'm not going to be that happy watching a basketball game for another like five years. I'm going to support the Pelicans to piss everyone off. I'll be like, man, I've been a Pelicans found my whole life.

I mean, I don't know. I'm not going to go into any more on basketball, but at least it wasn't the Lakers. When the Lakers came up and it was like they're going to move into the top four now, it's just like, I died inside. It was just. And he'd be with LeBron and everyone else there, right? So that would be like. so undeserved. It's just so undeserved. They've gotten more top three picks than almost anyone else for no reason at all. And it's just so undeserved. I'm so sick of them. And they're complaining fans. They're terrible fans. I don't care. All you guys who watch the show from L.A., you guys,

if you're like a fan, I don't, yeah. There. All right. We're going to move on. Yeah, so he isn't bothered about that at all, actually. He doesn't mind at all. Oh, my God. This is very, very, ruining my life this stupid team. Let me recollect myself. We go into a part of the show now called the promo where we talk about something important to us. I'm going to let you go so I can calm down. I'm like sweating over here now. Let me hear your promo PTC. What is on your mind? You see, you're all stuck in a vacuum over there in the US, right? All you do, I like how this is started. I like all these questions. Oh, what's going on in the UFC? What's going to? Do you know there's other promotions out there, do you understand that? Yeah, there's, there's,

promotions selling 60,000 Cedar stadiums in Europe. Yeah, that's happening. And guess what else is happening? The cup finals over here, you know how huge soccer is in Europe. They're huge, right? This promotion, KSW, they get more viewers than the cup final in Poland. That's how big the sport is there. And none of you even know about it because you're stuck in your UFC's and your Bellator. Saturday night, KSW. KSW. KSW. 49 when the greatest prospects in world MMA Roberto Saldich going up against the greatest prospect in Poland right now, Christian

Kajabowski. That's just the co-main event. The main event is Scott Ascombe, UFC veteran against Michael Materler who turned down a UFC contract so he could compete at those 60,000 filler stadium shows. He turned down the UFC so he could do that. He's already lost to ask him, right? That's the whole magic. He's like the Polish

boogey man. He's taken on Ask him again. Ask him finish him in just a minute the last time. This is going to be a crazy fight and they're going to decide the next heavyweight contender to the resurgent Phil de freeze. If you don't watch that fight on Saturday, you're not my friend. It's only going to cost you $10 or something, all right? I don't even want to hear about it. Spend your money and come back to me. If you're upset about it, you can cry, do all that stuff. But please give it a go and then thank me later. Sean, over to you. Oh, my God. That was that was. That was. That was amazing.

Well done, sir. That was the best promo we've had on this show in a bit. I didn't even, I had the card ready, but I couldn't find it there. So it was just going off the floor on my ass there. Well done, sir. I can't follow that, but I guess I'll have to try. Upstage of me on my own show. So ahead of us, this week is UFC Rochester, and we did not get any questions about it,

which I think is probably representative of how people feel about it. But I do think there is one, there are a few good fights on this card, and one in particular that I want to highlight is this Vicente Lucay fight. It was going to be versus Neil Magny, and that would have been a really interesting fight. That would have probably been the step up that Vicente Lucay has deserved for a long time. Now it's not. It's against Derek Krantz, UFC newcomer, Bellator veteran. Long time, long time legacy and LFA veteran. He's been in that promotion for a long, for a very, very high number of years at this point.

But he is supposed to be a very good prospect, and this should be a tough test. for him, but Vicente Lucke, man is a hard, hard man to get in your UFC debut. Lest I remind you that the last time we saw this guy, he was putting on one of the fights of the year with Brian Barbarina. I am here for any and all Vicente Lucke fight weeks. This is a man who is 8 and 1 over his last 9, and all eight of those are finishes. He is just stopping people left and right. It's unfortunate that he did not get a chance to get a step up here in this

Walterweight division that he has deserved for a long time. but credit to him for accepting this short notice replacement when it is really there is a very low chance like it's a low lose-lose situation i should say for him more less he's not gaining anything out of this so i am having my eyes squarely focused on vasente leu go this weekend it is a big spot for him i think if he wins they will give him the bump as if he beat nemoagny because at that point this man is nine and one with nine finishes or maybe even throw a decision in there whatever but he'll be nine and won't if he wins this weekend and he will deserve a step up as he was supposed to get so vicente luke versus

derrick crants that's my fight of the weekend i am looking straight at that and i am excited about it yeah yeah like just don't put him against europeans he struggles you know leon edwards did a job on him that's all i'm saying come on europe okay with that i think that's as good a way to get out of here as any uh this has been a very long episode of the a side live chat podcast but you guys just had a ton of questions. We had to answer them. And this has been a fun one. Thank you so much for joining me, Pizzi. Your energy is infectious. I appreciate you, my friend.

Are you sweating too? Oh, I'm still sweating like a stuck pig from the Phoenix Suns thing. Oh, it was a pleasure, man. Thanks so much for having me on. It was a great pleasure. I'm glad I could do it. Absolutely. We will have to have you back on again. In the meantime, replay of this show is going up on all the usual spots right after iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud, Stitcher on the MMA fighting feed, where you will find this man's podcast as well. Eurobash.

It is always good every week. He brings the goods for you people. In the meantime, this has been the Aiside LiveChay podcast. My name is Sean O'Shti. That man is Pizzi Carol. Thank you for joining us. Enjoy the fights. Enjoy your weekend.

We will see you. Same time, same place next week. A side.