MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat | UFC 238 fallout, Henry Cejudo, Tony Ferguson, Donald Cerrone, Bellator 222

Episode Date: June 12, 2019

On this episode of The A-Side Live Chat, José Youngs welcomes UFC bantamweight Brian Kelleher on the show to react to UFC 238, discuss what's next for Henry Cejudo, Valentina Shevchenko, Tony Ferguson and preview the upcoming Bellator 222 card. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What is Up Universe? Jose Young's from MMAFighting.com back in your life. the A-side live chat. Now, I know normally you're used to Sean and Mark and even Luke from years past, but as you know lately, we've been kind of changing things up where, and since I've taken over, we've been rotating a co-host. We had Alex K. Lee, my first show, we had Casey Lydon and my cameraman last week, but for this week, we decided to do something special. He's been hounding me to get on this show. U.S. Bantamweight, Brian Keller. her joins me. Brian, how are you? Boom. What's up guys? Excited to be on this, the A-side live chat

first time, but let's do it, man. Yeah, I'm real excited to have an actual UFC fighter. I know we get a lot of comments saying we wish we could get some more breakdowns from someone who's actually stepped into the octagon. So I've listened to your comments and I've, I hopefully, well, I know Brian's going to kill it. Hopefully I do well too. But without further ado, let's go to the questions. And as always, you can hit the head. Hashtag the A site on Twitter. If you want us to answer your questions, you can go to the actual post on the page and leave your question there. The questions in green will be prioritized, obviously.

So if you see a question you like or you want to answer, give it a thumbs up or whatever it is on the site, I can't honestly remember. And we'll get to it. But Brian, first question, Velator actually, two title fights and way more. And I'm going to read this verbatim from our friend LFMWA. Bro, this card is stacked, bro. Coker is not messing around. It's cocker season. The Goji Hoor Gucci is fighting Darying Caldwell on a rematch for a fight that happened in Risen.

This time, Kiyoji is leaving to come fight Darren on his turf. Oh, and by the way, this is a cross-promotional champ first champ as the main card opener. Dylan Danis is in the main main main. Nuff said, I don't know if that's true. Vyota and Hale Sondon, main event. That's also not true. Bro, three rounds of aging 205 legends. Chale's been building this fight since 2011.

Seriously, go back and look up all the stuff you said about Lyoto Magida. Two, five, it was weak. He led a karate champion, blah, blah, blah, blah. Aaron Pico's on the prelims. He'll be looking to bounce back, get a solid win. Same with Heather Hardy. Eduardo Dantis is fighting. A number one contenders fight.

He looks to get a win, a lineup with Caldwell. So there is literally no question in anything I just read. But Brian, I'll give you the floor for a minute. Obviously, you're not in Belletor, but this is a pretty stacked car. A lot of people say this is the biggest car. in Bellator history. Bantam White, title fight, champ versus champ, you are a Bantamweight. I don't know how much you pay attention. You are also a Bellator vet, so I want to, I don't know how much you pay attention nowadays, but thoughts on this massive Bellator 22 card in Madison Square

Gardner. Yeah, this is a really big card. Corker's doing the right things, you know, a lot of exciting matchups on the card with, you know, we got veterans of the game and we also got a lot of up-and-coming prospects, too, highlighted on this card. Caldwell versus Horaguchi is a rematch. They Ford and Risen. And, you know, Cobble was doing well in the beginning of that fight, but he ended up losing by Choke. So I think this is a big spot for him to get a rematch, get redemption. I think it's really cool that they're doing this cross-promotion stuff. You don't really see this much elsewhere. So Coker's doing things different and really excited to see how this car plays out. We got Chal Sondon, who likes to talk, obviously, and, you know, we got a really

exciting card coming ahead. Now, I want to ask you something specifically. A lot's been made on the first Ryzen fight between Caldwell and Horiguchi was in a ring. And this fight is going to be in a cage. I don't know how much you've trained in either one or if there is a big difference, but Caldwell said that it will play a factor. This is his home turf. Rising obviously used like former pride format with the ring as opposed to the cage. Is that going to play a factor now that Horoucci is A coming over to America, but this rematch is going to be in a cage? Yeah, there's multiple factors. I've, you know, sparred in a boxing ring before. It's definitely a bit different than the cage. The cage leaves you a little bit more room to move laterally side to side and kind of avoid stuff if you want. So for a guy that likes to move a lot more, that could benefit him. And for a guy that likes to pressure fight and cut the cage off or cut the ring off, you know, it could be a disadvantage. You know, I think obviously Caldwell mentioned a few things about traveling to Japan and the weight cut and how that played a factor and I think now Haraguchi might have to deal with similar things,

although he was a flyweight, so it's probably not as big of a cut for him. But yeah, we could see a different style going on in a cage, but Haraguchi has a lot of experience in a cage, so I don't think that that will be a big deal for him. And not mentioned anywhere in this comment is the actual main event between Roy McDonald and Neiman Grace for the Walterway Championship, and the winner will move on and face Lima in the finale of that Welterweight Grand Prix. I do want to ask you, what do you make of Grand Prix?

Are you a fan of these tournament files, these tournaments that the Bellator is running? And, well, as we're recording this, I read that John Fitch is actually on site, prepare it via potential standby. I know we fought to a draw. Roy McDonald, I guess, didn't work out over it in the open workouts. But what do you make of this main event and the Grand Prix as a whole? Yeah, I think it's a great idea to have Fitch, obviously, just in case something goes wrong. But the Grand Prix is great.

It's something different. Like, you know, I was saying about Cooker earlier, he does things a little different, spices things up. I think it keeps the MMA exciting and Belator as something different than the UFC and other promotions. And the Grand Prix is cool. Sometimes I don't like how they split it up too far away.

And you kind of have to deal with timing issues where if a guy has an injury or whatnot. But overall, it brings a little bit more light and interest to the game, in my opinion. Yeah, I 100% agree. with you that it definitely brings interest and luckily this belt this welterweight grand prix has basically worked out where it's essentially one year tournament where it started in the fall of like 2018 it's going to end in the fall of 2019 there were questions of roy macdonald having a quick turnaround i know we fought our fixture draw on those post-fight comments where he was like i don't know

if i have it in me to hurt a man it was pretty alarming and then he had to fight a few months later so that was that was a little interesting but i guess it's worked out to an extent the fingers crossed that everyone stays healthy and Ryan McDonald shows up to fight. But we're going to move on to the next question. Jumping over to the UFC, I'm sure we're going to get a lot of questions about this. Cowboy may have from our friend Rob Holland. Cowboy may have taken a beating, but he was not beaten. I had the fight one, one going into the third.

And yes, Tony Ferguson did the most damage in total. But immediately after the fight, people were riding off Cowboys saying that, saying this was his last run at a title. I beg to differ. dad saroni is a thing iMO your thoughts please so brian i'm sure you've watched i'm sure everybody watched don't cowboy saroni fought tony ferguson not on the main not on the main event and not on the co-main event that's a whole other story i found a loan card ufc 238 people calling this the people's main event which i if there's any fight in the world that can be called people's main

event it is that tony ferguson actually told me a media day that danaway called him the quote unquote save this card and Donald Sternerner is like yeah that sounds good to me of course two for two rounds this one is exactly as everyone thought one of the more the most exciting fights we've seen in a while

in especially a three round fight cowboy and Tony Ferguson went to war but then Donald Seroni made and I just called this sentence on the post fight show rookie move where he blew his nose to try and clear out the blood with a broken nose and his eyes swell up because he had this big air pocket in his eye.

Doctors declared he wasn't right. He couldn't go into the third and final round. So they gave Tony the TKO win. Second straight TKO wins to be waved off between rounds. Also because he also beat Anthony Pedersons last time with a broken hand. Thoughts when you're watching this. I know Dana White said there's no way Donald Sorone should have been allowed to go out there.

He agreed the doctors made the right move. Thoughts on it being 1-1 and just your thoughts on this fight as a whole and how it played out. Yeah, man, I think the first original thought for me was I wish this was a five-round fight. I think everyone could say that, you know. I don't know who that would have favored, to be honest, because I've always thought Cowboy Soroni was a slow starter. So I figured five rounds could benefit him because it takes him time to get into a rhythm. But in this fight, it was different.

Soroni seemed to come out sharp. You know, he did really well in the first round. I think he won that first round. And then maybe the second round was a little bit closer. And we give it to Ferguson, the momentum started to switch. and Ferguson started to take over. And then, you know, we saw Soroni blow his nose in between rounds and the eye blows up and the doctors call the fight. What an unfortunate circumstance.

We all wanted to see that fight finish and play out. But I don't think it's fair to write off Soroni now just because, you know, he loses by TKO due to Dr. Stoppage. I think the fight was very competitive. Who knows what would have happened in the third round? I thought, you know, the momentum was shifting, but I definitely saw a Soroni that had fired. him still to compete and still try to win that fight. 100%. And he was actually pretty upset that he was like trying to call like,

hey, don't stop the fight, don't stop the fight. I don't know how well he would have done with one eye. I know. But I said this octagon side, the same thing happened to Eddie Alvarez when he fought Gilbert Melendez in Mexico. And he was allowed to continue fighting. He ended up winning. It was a very slow kind of grinded out decision.

Cowboys throwing is not going to fight like that. No. Obviously a difference in styles between Tony Ferguson and Gilbert Melendez, Tony Ferguson. I think that there was a picture. There was like a collage of like this last, every opponent he's fought on this wind streak and every single one is just covered in blood at the end. So definitely in my opinion, in the interest for Donald Stroni. And has that ever happened to you? Have you ever blown your eye up like that after breaking your eye? Actually, recently, one of my fights, I didn't really have like a broken nose or anything

or anything too bad, didn't take much damage. But I guess I got hit in the nose and I went to blow my nose and I felt that exact thing happening. A little pocket right here started to swell. Luckily, I didn't blow my nose hard enough to like blow it up where my eyes shut, but it definitely caused like a big, you know, a big pocket and it started to swell up a little bit. So it's a really uncomfortable feeling and you just don't really know what you could do, ice it, whatever, but it takes time for it to go down. So I ultimately think it was the right call as far as safety goes. A hundred percent. And I have never experienced that. And I hope I never experienced that. and I hope I never do experience that.

I like what you said about how you wish this was a five-round fight. Donald Seroni was very adamant that he wished it was five rounds because he himself said before he fought Al-Iakinsa that he felt terrible making the walk to the Octagon. Like he just wasn't in it. And then you saw Allied King's have won that first round. And then Cowboys-Sorone did what Cowboys-Roney does, got better and better and better as the fight went on.

There's obviously less time to do that in a three-round fight. You can't feel bad in one round. and then you only have two rounds to make it up. So Donald Sorony was very adamant that he wanted this to be five rounds. Tony Ferguson obviously won five rounds. But Donald Serroney doesn't do that great against Southpaws. Would you, if you're Tony Ferguson said that he would be down and run it back. If you're Tony Ferguson, if you're in his shoes and you're upset of how it played out,

would you take that fight or are you just like, hey, I have the longest win streak in lightweight history? It gave me that title fight. Yeah, to me, it's like it can go both ways. It's like if Dana White's calling Tony and saying, hey, listen, we don't want to run it back. You know, you deserve the next shot. You've done enough. You have the most wins, you know, the biggest win streak in the division right now. Then I'm like, hey, I'm going to sit out and take that title fight next, you know.

But I don't know if that's going to be the case. I feel like Tony Ferguson definitely felt really upset with how that played out. Just as a true fighter, you know, he didn't want to win that way. He wants to win definitively. So I feel like that could lure him back into a rematch. if that's what the UFC wants to do. I really feel for Cowboy Seroni in this scenario, too, because, you know, coming back down to 155, he has his baby,

he has all this motivation now and he's looked better than ever, and he loses in that kind of fashion without actually really losing the fight, you know, altogether. It's a crazy situation. I'd like to see the rematch just for those reasons. Yeah, and I would like to see the rematch just because that's, like I'll watch those two spar. Like take the title, you know, take everything out,

take everything out like that's just an extremely high level martial arts fight but crazy fact the last time tony ferguson lost women weren't even in the ufc like ronda rousy hadn't even made her debut like so and then just engage i saw justin gaughey said that he wanted to fight him on on twitter and like i like i like that fight in terms of like diamond but like imagine a world where tony ferguson has to go through just engage you to get another title shop like that's crazy to me am i'm I'm crazy? No, not crazy at all. I mean, who isn't excited to see that fight? But still, it's like such an unfortunate timing circumstance for Ferguson in many different aspects, like tripping over the wire, you know, the situation with Khabib and not getting that

fight fulfilled. And now people call it about like Gaichi and having to have to go through that again to try to get a title. It's amazing to see a guy with such a rain not ever get his chance for the real title yet. Yeah, 100% I agree. I mean, I'll watch Tony Ferguson fight anyone. He needs a title fight, man. And he had that entrance. He was carrying the interim belts around all week.

He himself said, if Cowboy beat me, I'm handing him my title. So we could talk about Tony Ferguson for an hour, but we're going to move on. All right, sticking on that same car, we're actually going to jump up to the main event. Is Sohudo the new Woodley from our friend, Milo of Crotton, I hope I pronounced that right. Hey, guys. So hoon won me over with performance. this weekend. Immediately after he started calling up guys with quote-unquote names in the bantamweight division completely ignoring the guys in line for a title shot. When Tyne Woodley did this, he immediately

turned fans against him and struggled with his popularity. Question, so who do I have risk of turning fans against him by calling for money fights instead of establishing himself with multiple title defenses against deserving contenders? Thanks. Hashtag free pizza carol and that's a not to. My co-worker with Pizza Carol was actually in London for the 242 press conference. But shout out to Peezy. Shout out to Peezy. I'm sure he'll be on the comment section absolutely loves him.

But Brian, if you remember when Tyron Woodley knocked out Robbie Law to claim the World's Away Championship, he immediately called out Nick Diaz and George St. Pierre. Got a lot of flak for it, saying you just won. It was essentially he beat Kelvin Gasolum. I believe in January. That was the card of Anderson Silva versus Nick Diaz, I believe was that same card. Orich Horny, John Jones.

They were both in that same month. I can't quite remember. And then he waited a while, waited for the title fight. Yes, the Johnny Hendricks fight kind of fell off when they were supposed to fight that one time. But he waited, got the title fight, immediately called for big fights without ever defending his belt. Fans rapidly turned on him. And he did eventually, it was a slow build, but I think he got it back, especially, I feel like that win over Darren until he won a lot of fans back because then at the end, he was like, I'll just fight whoever.

I mean, like, I asked for the money fights that didn't get, I'll fight whoever. So, Brian, as a fellow fighter, if you're in the bantampton, division, which you are, and you see your, your champion, two-division-weight champion, now calling for your eye of favor, who hasn't fought in a few years. Cody Garberant, back-to-back knockout losses, and Dominant Cruz, who hasn't fought since he lost to Cody Garberant at UFC 207, which was also Ronorow's last fight car. So as a bansom weight, what do you make of these comments? Yeah, I mean, I don't hate on it too much because I understand the game, you know, being in the

game, what happens is you're taking a fight after fight against any opponent to just get to this position of power. And once these guys get to this position of power, they're like, okay, now I can start calling out money fights, calling out big names. And even if it doesn't happen, you get responses from these people, you get more notoriety, you get more opportunity. The UFC is going to do what they're going to do. They're going to pitch an offer on what they want, who it really affects the most right now, I feel is Al Jermaine Sterling, who won that fight in a beautiful way against Pedro Munoz, you know, for him not to get a title fight and have to hear these things, I think he's probably the most frustrated guy out there, never mind the fans.

I feel like the fans, they can hate you, they can love you, it's all good. You know, the King of Cringe is getting a lot of attention these days. So, you know, I think for Al Jemaine Sterling, though, that's a tough situation to hear him not say his name and might get, you know, passed up and get, you know, have Domina Cruz pass him up, potentially coming back from injury. So I understand it. It's not fair necessarily, but that's what champions do. They try to call out for the big names.

And what you didn't even mention is Joseph Benavides has a win over Henry Sehudo at Flyway. I mean, that was Henry Sehudo's last loss. If Joseph Benavita is obviously going to rematch Juicy A4Miga later this month. And if he wins, he's got to be the most annoyed. If Henry Sehudo A doesn't ever drop back down a flyway. And he's like, hey, I beat you once. Like, come avenge your loss. I mean, like, I consider George St. Fierre the greatest fighter ever, and he's avenged all of his losses, like to the Matt Sarras and the Matt Hughes of the world.

I would like to see that fight. I think Joseph B. or Alameda and Stirling, if Joseph Bannabedis wins, is those one A, A, 1B. Either one are the most deserving. But, again, I'm not a fighter. I like watching high-level martial arts. Urived Favor was the weirder one for me because he's been retired and he hasn't even had his return fight yet. He already has it.

both Ricky Simone in Sacramento, who knows, because Ricky Simone is not an easy fight. Especially for coming off a long layoff, Dominic Cruz has had every surgery in the book. Cody, I can get, but it's coming off two pretty violent knockouts, and then the guy that knocked him out, Osama and Sterling just beat. So if you're Henry Suhudo, does having two belts, and I don't know if you heard this, he also has a gold medal. I think he said that once or twice. Yeah, no, I wasn't too sure, but.

Triple C as he called him. Does having the two belts make, it obviously makes a big difference because now he can hold up two weight classes, but he's like, hey, pay me. Tyne Woodley only had one championship. Does that make a bigger? So the question is Henry Sehudo,

could he become the next Tyron Woodley, or does the two belts make the bigger difference? I honestly don't think. I think he's winning over Dana White. I think Dana White really likes the guy. He understands what he's doing with his stick and he's bringing a lot of attention. And also, yeah, having two titles in two different divisions, nobody wants two divisions held up and a lot of confusion going on. So he's going to have to defend whatever one the UFC

prefers. Obviously, Dana came out and said the fly weights are supposedly sticking around due to this now, which the division's not that deep anymore because they cut like half of them out. So I'm wondering what they're going to do there, maybe restructure it or whatnot. But Henry did mention that he enjoys fighting at 135 more and that he likes the fact that he doesn't have to cut that extra 10 pounds. So that might favor him to defend the 135 title before the flyway title. So yeah, Joseph Benavides, if he gets a win, he might be waiting even longer to try to get that shot. What do you make of Henry Sohudo's, as you said, stick, the Corinne Sohudo. As a bantam weight, you are, I mean, you're a U.S.

You're a prize fighter. You're going to want to fight the guy that. draws the most attention, maybe not, like the biggest, like, he's a little bit of anomaly where he is the champion and he's doing this. So it'd be different, like, if you're fighting, like, Chal Sondon, he's not the champion, but he's going to draw the biggest, the most eyes. What do you make of the cringe Sahudo gimmick? Yeah, I think it's smart, actually, you know. At first it was, like, kind of annoying. I'm like, I don't know, this guy's being a little fake. This isn't really Henry Sehudo, you know.

Then you hear, like, he took some advice from Chal Sondon and stuff like that. But he seems, to be comfortable doing it. And he seems to have fun and stuff like that. And I think now that I understand, like, it's just straight sarcasm and he's just having a fun time, I get it. You know, you're trying to get more fan base, more attention, more money. That's what we all want. You know, like you said, prize fighters. So I get that.

But coming up, it's different because you're going to get paid the same no matter what, you know, unless you start to fight a big superstar, you take that guy's name and you get all that notoriety. That's essentially what you're fighting for. It's not like because you fight a big name, you get paid. what he gets paid. It's never like that until you're a world champion and then you get paid different money. But yeah, I think Henry knows what he's doing. He's getting people to hate him. He's getting people to love him and just drawing all the attention. What do you make of like, yeah, he's doing this gimmick, but in media day, he's kind of pulling back to current where he's

like, this is me selling a fight. And if you talk to Chale's on or off camera, he's going to be the same way no matter what. He doesn't quote unquote for wrestling fan. He doesn't break K-fate. He doesn't take the he doesn't pull the curtain back so what do you what do you make of henry sohudo kind of saying like hey guys like this is just me selling a fight yeah uh that's just him being himself being honest i guess you know chel son who will keep like he'll keep that attitude the whole way through but uh so hudel's like in an interview he's kind of real you know he's just a normal guy humble or whatever he says you know funny things but i think he's just really confident i think he knows what he's done he deserves it he's Olympic world champion now nobody could deny the

He's won two titles in two different weight classes that beat, you know, some of the top guys in the world. So, you know, he knows what he's done and that he deserves what he's asking for. So he's just doing it in a funny way and being honest about it. And one final one on Suhuda before we move on, he declared himself the greatest combat athlete of all time. Two UFC championships, Olympic gold medal. Do you agree? Or are you on Dana White's side where he's like, I mean, there's a guy named John Jones, going around out there. There's boxers out there. There's, there's actual, like, amateur wresters

going for, because he has a gold medal, but there's guys going for multiple gold medals. What do you make of that comment? It's tough, man. I find it to be like a controversial subject because you don't know with different sports, like you said, how do you gauge the different sports on levels of, you know, what's superior to the other one? How do you gauge competition, you know, people fighting now versus people fighting back in the day. Obviously, the game has evolved, so you're probably seeing the best fighters ever now compete. But, you know, then you got John Jones, who's beat everybody in his way, essentially, and fought probably the top competition there is to fight and defended his title multiple times over and over.

I think that could play a role. You know, Henry hasn't defended his titles yet. Yes, he won a gold medal. Very impressive, but he just won these titles. They always say it's hard to get there, but it's harder to stay there. And John Jones did that for a while. Well, to say I agree with you would be an understatement. You hit it on the head.

He hasn't defended his title yet. If he defends both titles, 125 and 135, I mean, it's going to be hard to argue that, especially if he avenges that loss to Joseph Bannabedus. But moving on, Valentina Shenzhenko's headkick from hell by our longtime friend, Jay DeLuca. This is a long one, so I'll kind of condensent. Hi, Jose and Brian. Valentina's masterful, oh my gosh, she used a word that I'm not even going to try and pronounce. Masterful headkick and overall performance not only showcases how immensely superior her skills are within the women's,

and within women's MMA, it is also conveyed an ugly reminder of how no competitors within her thin weight class of 125 will even come close to matching her skill level. It can be argued that she is certainly on par with how dominant Amanda Nunes is, with many believing that she did in fact defeat Nunes in their second outing. Luke Thomas said that Valentina is a cyborg from the year of 3,100, sent back in time to murder us. How would you both rate her flawless head kick in comparison to other famous headkick finishes in MMA? And do you believe that her only option is to chase Nunes for a third fight in order to actually challenge yourself? Dermaine Duran Duran also comes to mind as genuine competition.

So before I'll kick it to you, I actually asked Valentina, like, if she, what her goals were, like, because she won a third fight with Amanda Nunes at 135 because a lot of people, including herself, believe she won that second fight. Her goal is to defend her flyaway title as long as possible, as many times as possible, because she said the 125 pound division is the future of women's M.A. But, Brian, your thoughts on the head kick, was it the most violent you've seen? I mean, obviously looking into the past, there's been a whole lot of them. But when you're watching that fight and you see Valencien or Setschenko, basically,

wrap a baseball bat around Jessica I's head. And then it was a pretty terrifying. I don't know how it came off on camera, but octagon side, it was horrifying. So your thoughts. Well, yeah, I was horrified back home watching that.

I was like, man, Jessica, I was out for a pretty long time. And that was scary because usually, guys, people come back quicker than that. And I'm like,

you know, I hope she was okay. But that had kicked, man. That was loud. That was really impressive how she set it up too. She was going to the body.

And then Jessica, I was lowering the hand. a little bit trying to protect the body and then she goes up top with like barely any you know you couldn't see her show any of that there was like no sign of her going up high she throws kicks very fast very highly skilled with all those moitai fight she's had so yeah there's not many girls that i see challenging her in the division uh which i guess is smart on her her side to uh just stick to 125 and defend that title should probably go on a long reign as far as you know competition to face there but uh that was one of the most impressive

headkicks I've seen, especially from the women's side, from the men's side, as of recent, I would say Alexander Rackich against Jimmy Matherwa. That was Beast. Yeah, and all week, we were saying, like, Valentina Shishenko, this is among the media, is most likely going to have a long reign. She's obviously anything can happen, but what she's shown, she's been pretty dominant. She ran the three, Yonah and Jajik. She obviously put Jessica through a bussaw. But we she wasn't the star that we thought she she deserved to be in the eyes of in the eyes of fan. Maybe it's because she's fought on Colmate offense for so long. And she wasn't active for a while, not because of herself.

The whole Nica Montanio falling out. She took her a while to get back. And then she fell off the card like day, literally days before their fight. And then she had to wait a while. And then when she finally got the title, I feel like we fan really lost an opportunity to see her shine. And then a lot of people in the back compared this to when Anderson Silver front kick to Vitor Belfort, where if people don't remember, Andrew Silva was great, but he wasn't a megastar.

And then he front kicks Fythor Belfort, and he is all of a sudden the biggest star in the UFC. Is this the performance that Valentina Shoshchenko needed to cement herself as a legitimate superstar in the UFC? It's definitely going to help her case. I'll say that. I mean, you don't see knockouts like that much within the women's division. So that is a big shock to, I think,

people around the world watching in its own. And I think that's going to help her star power for sure. Sure. I think we need a little bit more from her. We need to see a little bit more of a challenge, and then we can gauge that more. And I think that's what the fans would want to see, more of a heroic challenge for her. Like people are saying, challenge Amanda Nunez again. And maybe if she could do that to someone like Nunez, now we're talking like superstar. 100%. And J. DeLuca also adds, on a side note, personal top three head kick KO finishes in MMA. Uriah Hall versus Adam Sella. That was on tough. That was the, I'm sorry, Adam. was a pretty scary scene.

Gabriel Gonzaga, Crowcock and Crowcock. And then, wow, Blasher in the past, Marius Zoromsky's versus Jason High. Man, I haven't thought about that knockout in a long time. I think that was in dream or pride. I'm not honestly 100%, but that was when Jason High got head kicked and then it was like a one, two on his way down,

and then hit his head on the rope on the way down. It'll be pretty horrifying. So, Brian, most memorable head kick knockout in your, that comes to mind. Maybe it's from one of your teammates or when you watched or most memorable one. I think I already kind of listed it, the woman Gonzaga Crow Cop.

The reason why is because he crocups, crow cop, no one expected that. And the way that Crow Cop landed with his leg like underneath himself with his ankle twisted, that was just nasty to watch, man. And that was a big shock to see. So I would say that one. But like I mentioned before,

as of recent rackets, the way he set up that head kick knockout and how Manoa slammed his head back on the canvas, that was brutal. And he set it up with a nice, uppercut and then the head kick came right behind that that's one that I can remember right now clear yeah that one is obviously fresh in fans of mine the uriah hall on was real scared especially because like in tough there's no crowd so you get drowned out so when he got knocked out it's just like a handful

of people in the gym you can hear at himself like breathing heavy and you can hear how quiet it is but that one was that one was horrifying to watch but i i'd say that one's up there the the Liotta-Machita crane front kick that knocks Randa Kattor into retirement, sent his tooth fly, which, funny enough, Chale Suttain has brought up multiple times on this, on this promo tour because him and Rana Kutur, obviously, teammates and former training partner. So, quote-un-quote, going for revenge. But moving on. Another one from Jada Luca, a promoter's ego catching up to him.

Hi, Jose and Brian. Anthony Josh was major upset of a loss showcased how one of the top three heavyweight boxers in the world can not only fall from grace but also collapse his chances of earning those lucrative fights of his lifetime with either the dionte wilder or tyson furor the three kingpins of heavyweight although either of these fights still certainly exists the appeal in a lure of them has taken and wow jada lucas vocabulary is on another level i'm not man oh man he's using like every long syllable word in the dictionary anyway he's well read yeah love to hear your take man this guy is killing me with these words

basically look at all those books behind you i know man these are all comic books no one want no one's yeah granted two dissimilar combat sports however i'm sure we can all agree the most emma fans do not think twice about how luck of they are that we got to see the best truly fight the best, especially in the prime of that careers with a single promotion. Few exceptions with DJ Roaring Musasi. Love to hear your takes on the bind against boxing the MMA. So I assume he's asking, like, how fortunate are MMA fans that we actually get to see the best fight the best as opposed to boxing?

We're like, how long did it take us to finally see Manny Pachiel versus Flaymanor? I mean, if that fight happened in 2009, I think that's, it obviously is the most bought pay for you ever. But in 2009, that's a high level boxing match. Manny Pachial is still running through the division. Floyd Mero's office is still undefeated. But 2009, I feel like it's a bigger deal in in terms of competition rather than making money. So as MMA fans, how fortunate are we that we get to see the best fight the best on a frequent basis? Oh yeah. It's very important, you know, especially from the hardcore fans and from fighters themselves, they want to see the best fight the best. And And we want to fight the best.

That's why we get into this sport. You know, obviously we want to make money, but deep down aside, we want to know that we can be the best. So we want to fight the best possible guy out there. Who's the champion? Who's on the top? Who has the most wins? But in boxing, it seems to be corrupted.

Promoters can't come to an agreement where, you know, their top guy is not going to fight this top guy. And it's unfortunate because people are only in their prime for so long. And we want to see in guys' primes that we want to see them fight. And that's not always the case. Sometimes these promoters wait too late to make the matchups, and then it's no longer the same scenario and no longer has the same heat behind it. But, yeah, I wish boxing would step up in that aspect,

and we would see the Joshua's, the Tyson Furies, the Wilders, all kind of mix it up and everyone fight while they're in the top of their game. So, yeah, we're lucky as MMA fans and fighters to have that as part of the game right now. I agree with you 100%. the only i will play dillard advocate though and we never got to see and the silo fight george st pierre which was a to me is the big is one of the biggest missed opportunities in in ufc history where there was a time when they had both cleaned out the division i welter away the middle way and if they had just met in the middle or if george had jumped up to 185 like he did against michael bisman later

later on proven that he could be a high-quality fighter but that to that just stands out of my mind is like Don't do the box of thing. Just fight each other. You guys are clear. I mean, it still happens in MMA. It just happens less and, you know, not as obvious, not as more frequent. But it still does happen. I feel like as far as promotion goes in general, there's fighters that are being protected

due to potential star power in the future. They want to give them the right matchups. I think they do this with Sean O'Malley a little bit. And now we're seeing him fight Cheeto Vera. I believe this is his first real test against the. guy who can potentially beat him well we that's a perfect segue we actually have a comment about that that fight so if you want to expand on that like sugar shan obviously he he dealt with the usada tainted supplement thing now he's being able to fight i believe his last fight was ufc i want to say

222 which i which was max versus no it was supposed to be max and frankie and then i'm being cyborg prune of sky and frankie ended up getting knocked out by brian ortega but uh sugar shan big test in front of them, internet. But again, international fight week and other big card. Your thoughts on this matchup in your division, correct? Bantamway? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's not a feather way.

So thoughts on the Sugar Show and his chances against Cheeto Vera. It's an intriguing fight. I like to see that they're giving him a test finally. Not to say anyone he's fought isn't a good fighter. It's just, you know, certain styles and stuff like that. Guys who can't really match up to a striking, guys who don't have the wrestling. jujitsu to just take him out. You know, he's shown a little bit of weakness in his wrestling and jujitsu game.

I know he seems to be working on that a lot, though, trying to improve. And Cheeto Vera's, man, he's on a hot streak right now. He's looked better than ever as of late. And he looks more aggressive. And Sugar Sean's been out for a while. So you never know how that plays a role. But he's still really young. So I see Cheeto Vera being able to try to utilize takedowns and catch a submission

because that's probably where he's going to have the biggest advantage. As a Bansomway, when you see Sugar Sean doing, like, he's getting this big promotional push. He's not doing the cringy Sohudo thing, but he is a unique figure to just, you see him walking down the street. He immediately catches your attention with his giant hair, his big sunglasses. Do you like when you see that, like bringing eyeballs to your division? Yeah, I think it's good for all the fighters. You know, I think he's definitely someone being targeted. You see a lot of guys calling him out for a reason, you know, because they know too.

okay this is someone who the UFC's backing this is someone who they want to see win they want to see grow and become a star for them so for us the rest of the division we're like let I want to fight that guy because if I beat that guy now I say listen UFC I'm the guy I just took your guy out I'm the guy now get behind me and let's start building me now so I think that's what fighters are looking for I think it only brings more attention more eyes to the division yeah I agree with you obviously I'm not a UFC fighter but I don't mind I don't have hey, anyone getting the big push. I mean, Sage Northcut got that big push.

I remember the Kevin Lees of the world were calling for a chance to fight him. And any interview he got, and obviously the UFC did not want Kevin Lee to fight Sage Northcutt that early in the Southcutt's career. And then Sage Northcutt used that big push to get a huge payday in one championship. Obviously, the first fight was a little rough for him,

but he got paid. He said he got that money. So I'll never fault a guy for that. But moving on. Michelle Waterson from Rob Holland. Androd's next challenger is announced. And even though it's a fine fight, do you think that was the main reason Dana dismissed Waterson as the next contender or is there something else since he was so firm in rejecting her claim? Wiley Zhang is going to fight Jessica Androads. It's been reported that she'll fight her on an ESPN Plus card in China.

Obviously, nothing is 100% official, but supposedly that's what the UFC is targeting. I believe Wiley Jane is ranked one above Michelle Watterson. Michelle Warrison has been calling for that tough fight ever since her last win over Carolyn Colvacavich. What do you make of this booking? I know Tatea Suarez just won people consider her the uncrowns champion at Strawway. But she had a pretty bad neck injury flare up in that first round. She's not upset that she got passed over because it lets her get healthy.

Obviously, as a fighter, you'd rather be 100%, especially when you're fighting for a championship against, as she's, She calls herself, Jessica Androch calls herself a tractor inside the officer. I'm just going to run you over for five rounds. You just knocked out Rose Namunas. So what do you make of the matchup? Does Michelle Waterson, was she, like, was she overlooked? Or do you, what do you make of this whole situation that played out?

Yeah, I like the matchup. I think Waili Zhang has a lot of potential right now. And she's an aggressive fighter. You know, I think a lot of times the UFC is looking at who's more impressive in their last performance to book title fights. You know, obviously you said Tatiana's dealing with the neck injury. She didn't have the most amazing performance in her last fight. She did win.

She's fairly dominant, but she's a wrestler, and she likes to take you down and kind of hold you down a little bit of ground and pound. Sometimes the UFC looks at stuff like that, and they say, well, we don't want to see that as much. We want to see some vicious striking going on here. We want to see knockouts. We want to see aggression. So, Waley Zhang has that, and I think they're trying to build the market.

in China as well. I think that's a factor. So I like the matchup. I'm excited to see how she fares against Andrage. Yeah, I would have liked any Tatiana, Michelle or Wiley Zhang, like throw a dart at a dartboard and whatever one hits, that's who she's playing. Like, I'll watch any of those guys. But Wiley Zhang is a very interesting matchup. I, in my, I obviously have never, I have no, I don't know this for sure, but she seems to be one of the few fighters that I would be able to match Androgg's like physical strength. Like she bullies got people inside that octagon. Like she did that against Tisha Torres,

who's one of the smaller fighters. Our cameraman Casey Leiden has been hammering that Michelle Waterson for title fight. Michelle Waterson for title fight for forever. Like he's like Tatiana is great. Michelle Watershan should fight first and then Tatia fight the winner. But I think you hit it right on the head when you said the UFC's trying to book, trying to break into that into that marketplace over in China.

But I will present you with this. If you're a champion and the UFC comes to you and they want you to fight your next contender in their backyard, similar to what Rose did with Andrage, do you take that? Or you being like, hey, man, like, why can't I fight? Like, yeah, I just fought in Brazil. But like, I'll fight. Why do I have to go to her enemy territory as the new champion? Yeah, I agree. I think it's definitely something to be said.

I think it's up to her manager, really. The manager has to step in and say, listen, you know, we're the champion, we want this, and that's where the negotiations start. As fighters, especially Brazilian fighters, I've noticed, they just do not care. They'll fight anybody anywhere. Lineker's another guy that's like that who I fought. He'll come to, you know, your backyard and fight you. He'll fight guys unranked that are way behind him.

He doesn't care to take those risks. So I think sometimes that's just the fighter's heart. And that's how maybe And Josh is looking at it. Like, listen, I'm the champion. I should be able to beat any challenger, right? I'm a real champion. So maybe she's looking at it like that. She's willing to take on all challenges,

including fighting in a different country in someone's backyard. Yeah, and I don't know, obviously, the time difference might be a big thing. It's on ESPN Plus and it streams. It looks for pretty early over here in America. So maybe that might play a factor. Like, hey, if I want the most eyeballs on me, maybe I shouldn't fight.

Like, all, like I don't doubt for a second that Jessica and Josh wouldn't take that fight, but maybe, like you said, her manager's like, hey, we want to build our body. brand like maybe we shouldn't fight at like four in the morning in america but yeah what i agree that's the manager though you know he's got to step up and say that you know negotiate those things yeah correct and well sticking in the in the strawweight division carolina colvaciev's sad sad statement dude from our friend ted bear one word dude i appreciate her sincerity but talk about a buzzkill has the game

really passed her by or can she change say by switching camps where could she best shore her weakness is ATT, Jackson's, the UFCPI, your thought. So obviously, I don't want to, I hate talking about fighters retirement and telling people to change camps because I'm not a fighter or a manager, so I hate doing that. But she did say like maybe she won't, is it the best? This was her on Instagram. Maybe she won't fight the top contenders anymore, but she still wants to keep fighting and she still wants to put on great shows. So Brian, as a fellow fighter, when you see a former contender fall a few times, like she lost Michelle Waterson, got knocked out badge by Androge and then comes up short to Alexa Grosso.

Like outside of the knockout to Androge, Michelle Waterford and Carolyn Colockevich, good fight. So she's not being blown away. What do you make of her situation and people as a fighter and someone's like, hey, man, you should change camps to help your stand up. What do you make a fan thing? Yeah. I mean, as a fan, it's different, you know, but for the fighter herself, that's really up to her, how she feels inside of her heart, you know, with fighting.

I've noticed, though, that she is a little bit less aggressive. She doesn't pull the trigger as much in her fights as of late. Maybe that could have something to do with the knockout loss. That sometimes is detrimental to your psyche. You know, when you go in there, you're worried about that happening again, and that plays a big role on how you fight and how you perform. But as far as moving camps goes, I think it could be a help, depending on the kind of attention she's getting, I guess she's training in Poland, right?

I believe so. That's for a very long time. Yeah, and loyalty is a big thing in this game to some fighters. They want to stay loyal to the person that brought them up in the first place and to leave someone's not easy. But as a coach, sometimes you've got to be the one to say, hey, listen, I think what's best for you is to get out there and see different training partners and see different aspects of coaches

and try to improve your game. Maybe going to a big gym with better training partners can help her. But overall, it could be something that's just internal, That's just inside her head where, you know, she took a bad knockout loss and has to get her mindset back in there and get a big win again. And one more for me. This wasn't asked, but I'm genuinely curious. How much of a factor when decided camps do the training partners play? I mean, we heard John Fitch forever when he was at, aka saying, like the fact that he would get to train with, like Prime Josh Koshchek, prime Mike Swick, like these guys that are his sides that are the most elite athletes in the world that he gets trained with side by side.

every day. So, yes, the head coach is important, but how important are finding those training partners to push you inside the gym? Oh, it's very important. And it's not just a preparation thing, too, for physical training, but for mental training, you go into a fight knowing I'm doing really well in the gym with this person. This person has done amazing it with his career. You know, I'm sparring with this person. This person's on top of his game. He's in his prime. I think those things carry into the fight with you. And it can be extremely important. Sometimes, you know, you find yourself, you know some guys had a fight recently and they're injured and they're out and now your main training partner is not with you alongside in your camp it's just the timing thing how it works and

now you're you're scrambling around for for you know good training partners to get you prepared for a fight so i think that having a lot of high level guys around you that are in your weight class is a big thing for preparation i mean worked out for daniel kane belaska's they were training partners forever and they're arguably but two of the greatest heavy weights of all time but one final question from the site before we jump to Twitter. And I would like to get your thoughts on this specifically, Brian. The next UFC card, I don't remember where it is, nor do I care. I literally don't give an F for any of the fights.

Is this the worst UFC event in the history so far? Now, the next, I don't know which one he's talking about. Maybe he's talking about pay-per-views. That is baffling me because the next pay-per-view is the John Jones, Santos, Nunes Home, Askin, Masvidal, Sugar, Shans, on that. one like that card is insane but if you're probably not specifically the next card that's u.s. greenville the main event is the korean zombie versus hanato and my econo i don't know any fight that korean zombie's in that's not exciting and then the co-main event is actually a guy you brought

up uh you fought for john linnaker's rematching rob font in the co-meeting that fight a short notice so what do you make of of that card and this fan saying is this the worst card in ufc history I wouldn't go that far as to say it's the worst. I feel like fans are just looking for, you know, something to hate on these days. It's crazy. You know, I love fighting. I love watching fights and I don't care necessarily on what the name is or what the guy's ranking is. Sometimes you see the best fights in the world when they're, you know, the early prelims, you know, on the ESPN Plus or what that fight pass.

I got guys are just out there hating right now. I don't know what's going on. But I think Korean zombie, like you said, one of the first. of the most exciting fighters in the whole ufc uh he's fighting moikano who's another exciting fighter both probably going to strike the whole fight uh leniker he's a knockout artist who throws bombs another exciting fighter i don't know maybe they just look at the whole card and they want to see stacked fight after stacked fight but uh yeah man i i'm looking forward to this next card i that this card is like it doesn't have the biggest star names like big names on it but it's not a bad card i mean

Luis Paine is on the prelim card. He's fighting Matt Wyman, who hasn't fought in a long time. He's a longtime U.S.EV. Van. Dan Igay is on the prelims. Darren Winn and Henriano Lipski are both on the prelims, too. Like, there's a lot of important fights for, like, the future of the division, but not the biggest names on the card.

But even, I believe it was, like, you said it yourself, like some of the prelim fights steal the show. I want to say it was UFC 199. That was when Michael Bisman knocked out, Luke Rockhold, Dominic Cruz finished up the trilogy with Faber, Brian Oetegra knocked out Guida, Justin Porre knocked out Bobby Green, like Dan Anderson knocked out Hector Lombard. Like that's one of the most violent fight cards I've seen a long time. And the fight of the night was Marco, I believe it was Polo Reyes versus, oh man, I can't remember, Dongyang Ma maybe. And that was the first

fight of the night. And that one fight of the night. It was the most exciting fight on that on the same card. So I think you hit it right on the head that. Just because you're fighting first, doesn't mean you're in a bad spot. Yeah, you can't judge a book by its cover, man. Anything could happen in these fight cards. 100%. Now, we're going to hop over to Twitter. Obviously, you can use the hashtag at hashtag the A side if you want. I assume you're going to want Brian to answer your questions, but I'll try. All right. From Phil D 1984 on Twitter. While one's weight rules are somewhat praised to produce a healthier sport,

how come Eddie Alvers and Mighty Miles fight noticeably bigger opponents? Do one's fighters know something they don't, or is the system just screwed, which is indicated by lack of transparency? We've actually had some of the question like this. This comes up frequently. Like, yes, one championship has said, like, we've solved the issue with weight cutting and weighing in and fighting at your healthier weight.

But we don't get to see all the wayings throughout the week. We don't know the situation. I mean, Eddie Alvers' opponent, he got knocked out. Sage, Dorf cut, fought a guy that I don't think that he was that much bigger, but people were notice, visibly upset that he fought a guy that we didn't get to see Wayne. So as a fighter, when you hear one championship saying, hey, we saw the weight-cutting rules, Eddie Alvers has to fight at 170 to meet your sonson, has to fight at 135. What do you make of what one championship is doing over with their weight, over there with their wind cutting?

Yeah, I mean, from afar it seems like, oh, wow, they're solving the issue, you know, but then you hear through the great finds that, you know, I didn't see my opponent weigh in. I don't really even know what happened. And these are coming from the fighters at the fight card. So something skeptical is going on. And I find it weird that they're not showing it to the public, what's going on with the way-ins. And, yeah, I feel like for them, it just makes, you know, more room for skepticism. They should probably come out and, you know, expose what they're doing.

doing and show that they're actually, you know, helping weight cutting in the sport instead of hiding things and it being up, you know, for, you know, people to talk about and discuss and not know really what's going on. Yeah, it's a weird one for sure. I mean, for all we know, when Eddie Alvers goes up to 170 and fights a, quote unquote, like, lightweight as one championship falls them like, for all we know, that guy's cut from 190 to 170. I'm going to how UFC fighters doing so it'd be like Eddie Alvers jumping up away and fighting Tyron Woodley or Ben Asking he's obviously going to be a smaller guy um it's weird though it's it's it's real interesting Eddie Alvers obviously has his next opponent lined up did you think that do you

think that plays a factor and guys like going forward fight fighters might be less inclined to try one championship if there is something fishy with their their weight cutting system Yes and no money talks, right? If you're going to pay me whatever, you know, if you're going to pay me some big money, I don't really care who I fight. I'll fight someone bigger than me. It doesn't matter. That's how I'm looking at it. But, you know, as far as fair fights go, it could be something to talk about. I really don't like to see that. That's a potential thing going on. But yeah, if you're getting paid and you're going in there and you don't know, there's no way to prove it that they're doing something sketchy. It's really like, what can you do about it? But yeah, we'll see. what happens with that 100% and I'm gonna peruse one more time I'm sure we got a few a lot of the questions on Twitter we got on the post too so we're gonna a lot of questions on tony ferguson tony ferguson throughout the whole fight week hi guys it's just me or was this the most quote-unquote normal tony we've seen in a while throughout fight week he seemed to be doing very well and his post fight prentzcom has made much more sense than i expected i notice even other

people saying that this is the best interview so far. Could it be that he was having some issues longer than just these past months and then he has finally gotten the helping needs and now is doing much better? Also, do you agree he now deserves the next three title shots and what thoughts do you have about him? We kind of talked about that. P.S. Yes, I'm a huge Tony fan boy. P.S.

Tony Ferguson is the type of guy to make Henry Soodle who don't look like a silver medalist. That is funny. But I do want about like, yes, quote unquote, normal. I don't know what Tony's situation is. But all week, if I saw this from a lot, a lot. And some media members could take it. Some couldn't. Someone would go out and be like, Tony, how are you doing like mentally, physically and stuff?

Because you saw a lot of, like, Tony had a lot of family issues to become public. And he would be like, don't eff and worry about it. Like next question. Like he said fans would come up to him like and be like, how are you, how are you? Like, they seem like, how are you doing Tony? Like, are you okay? And he's like, don't eff and worry about it. So as a, and he said in the media day when we asked him, like, fans don't care.

They're just looking for drama. They're just looking for whatever. As a fighter, if you're going through something like that, would you, are you on Tony's where like fans don't care? They just want, they just want drama. They just want something to nitpick and point out. Or if a fan will come up to you, would you genuinely be like, oh, thanks, man. I'm doing great.

Yeah, you know, if someone comes up to me, takes the time to ask me, I'm just going to be open and honest. That's just who I am. I'm not going to be, uh, have an attitude with a stranger for no reason. But Tony's always had that. He's always had like a chip on his shoulder and he's had like a real like harsh attitude style with the media. I don't know where that came from or if that's just who he is. But yeah, to me, uh, he seemed happier than usual, uh, leading up to this whole fight week. I felt like in his interviews, he was like a little bit nicer, a little bit less on edge and stuff like that, but who knows if he was trying to be that way just to kind of say like, everything's okay with me.

We don't know, you know, what goes on behind closed doors, how he is in his personal life and how he is behind the cameras and stuff like that. But yeah, someone comes up to me and they seem genuine and they're asking me how things they're doing. That's nice and all. But, you know, it is also weird to get personal with strangers too, you know. I can't even imagine, especially when you're getting ready, like, because this is all fight week.

Like, he's getting ready to step into a cage and fight. Donald Seroni and people are bringing up his family situation. So I can't even imagine. But for Tony, I don't know if you remember, after he fought Anthony Pettis, he kind of broke down inside the octagon. Like he was crying, like loudly crying. So who knows what his situation is. But we're going to move on. I think we're coming up on time.

I don't see any questions. And as usual, the AISI live chat tradition, we're going to give both of us. But Brian obviously can take as much time as he wants. cut a little promo on any topic you want, fight related, life related, whatever. So, Brian, the floor is yours. For me, this is new to me. I've never done this promo stuff,

but I will say that I'm looking to make a transition at some point after fighting to start doing stuff like this. I'm very passionate about the sport, and I really don't see myself doing anything else, but being a part of fighting and MMA and I love what you guys do as media and I love the interviewing fighters and the and the journalism and the interviews breaking down fights and stuff like that. I would love to do that after fighting. So this is pretty much me trying to build my resume. So I just want to say thank you

for having me on the live chat and you know I did the MMA beat. And so I'm just trying to say where do I fill out a application with MMA fighting? If it was out to me, you'd be a regular. my man, but this was absolutely awesome. I think you killed it. Obviously, I enjoy having a fighter on to kind of pull the curtain back for like, yes, as media members, we are around fighters a lot, but I've never fought John Lineker inside of an octagon. I've never found out inside of an octagon.

So I very much enjoyed the insight. But for my promo, I'm going to say Tony Ferguson should not fight. Anybody not named Justin, Justin Poyer, Abeen Irma and Madoff, which I'm surprised we didn't get any questions on. Brian, if you want to talk about that press conference after we can, you kind of called it the, you didn't have many nice things to say about it on Twitter, but Tony Ferguson shouldn't fight anybody not named those two. Yes, Justin Gage is an awesome fight.

Yes, the cowboy rematch is awesome. There's a lot of fun fighters out there. But like I said, the last time 20% lost, women weren't even in the UFC. So, I can't, I don't even want to, I can't even think about if the UFC makes him versus just engaging, my head might explode. But Brian, thoughts on the press conference that, you said was, what did you call it, the most boring press conference? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to be like a hater out there, but I'm just calling it how I see it, man. I miss the, the McGregor Diaz days, you know, when those two were going at it.

I just get excited to see these press conferences. I want to see a little bit of something, dialogue, go back and forth. But I do want to give props to the fact that they're both two just very respectful fighters and humble guys. And I do appreciate that side of things before anyone gets it twisted. But yeah, it was just boring, you know, like there was nothing, no excitement, no exchange, nothing. Yeah, it was a little, it seemed like they hadn't woken up yet. Like Dustin, it just got off the plane. But me personally, like, I really enjoyed the lead up to Max versus Dustin where it was like, yo, I was drawn out rivalry with Connor.

but and even he himself what he said that he even had difficulty kind of motivating himself with this but outside of Dustin Porre is a bad dude oh yeah he definitely is someone to watch out for me I think he has a big chance in this fight you know we'll see how he deals with with kabib's wrestling but kabib has shown that he can get caught on the feet you know he's been he's been hit on the feet plenty of time so Porre has got nasty boxing he showed a lot of power I was so impressed with how he put Max Holloway away, how he won that fight. Yeah, it's interesting to hear Khabib say that he had trouble getting excited and getting up for this fight. I don't think that's a good sign, but I think ultimately when it comes to fight time, Khabib will be Khabib, you know.

And the last question I'll ask you before we wrap this, as I asked Casey Ladin our cameraman last week, and he was like, I'll make, he needed more time to think about it. If Duffin-Porriere becomes the one, in 27 and once the snap abid nervigna and made off win streak he will have beaten anthony pettis he fought eddie alvers to a no contest then avenged it finishes anthony pettis finishes eddie alvers finishes dunc justin gaecchi also fights jim miller to uh a no no con to a to a fight of the night beats max holloway in one of the best tiled fights ever if he dethrones abeating nerriga madoff is this the greatest stretch of victories in UFC history.

It could very well be, man. The guy has shown that he could beat the top guys in the division, especially like coming from losses and then bouncing back. That's a bigger story to me, losing to Eddie Alvarez and having a deal with that situation and then coming back and doing what he's done since then. It's nothing short of amazing. I mean, he's beating the top guys and he's beating them in good, exciting fashion, too.

He's getting better and better every time he gets out there. I feel like back, you know, maybe four or five fights ago, I'd be like, is this the guy to beat Khabib? No way. But now I'm, you know, slowly fading towards, I think, you know, this could be the guy. Yeah. But like Casey said, he has to do the hardest thing first, and that's actually beat Habib Nirmigamedameda. And if he does win, I think I'd have to, I would want to see how, if he finishes Sabib, I mean, it's hard to argue. But, like, John Joe's run in 2011 with, like, Bader, Shogun, Machita, Rampage, or,

shot like that stretch of fights that's way up there showguns uh groncrie run in 2005 where he won that light heavyweight gron frie that was uber impressive too but if if dustin pori just goes out there and melts habibnurmaid madoff like that i can argue it's kind of like the way that he beats him if he beats him that'll that'll make a statement but like you said john jones like the way he's beaten guys it's been very impressive what he's done in his career so hard to say yeah i just I just want to watch that fight. That's all I want to do. Yeah, I can't wait, man.

Can't September get here any sooner. But we're going to wrap up the A-side. This is Jose Youngs. That's Brian Boone-Kellehert, U.S.C. Bantamweight. I absolutely loved having you on, Brian. I am very confident you'll be back down the road. I know fans have been calling for P.C. Carroll, so maybe he'll be back next week.

But Brian, man, like, anytime you want to do A-Side, just hit me up, and we can set it up. It was great having you. We'd love to, man. Thanks a lot for having me. I really appreciate it. It was a lot of fun. Let's keep doing this.

Boom, baby. There you go. And on there. Stick around at M.A.fighting.com or the YouTube page. We got a whole squad out over in New York for the MSG show on Friday. And then we're going to bare-knuckle boxing the week after that. I'm surprised we didn't get any questions about that. Maybe we'll next week.

But stick around on M. Yeah, and we'll see you next week.