MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat: UFC 248 fallout, Israel Adesanya’s win over Yoel Romero, Zhang Weili’s war with Joanna Jedrzejczyk, More

Episode Date: March 12, 2020

For this episode, UFC veteran turned Brave CF flyweight Jose Torres returns to join José Youngs and Peter Carroll break down Israel Adesanya’s successful title defense against Yoel Romero at UFC 248; Zhang Weili’s epic war against Joanna Jedrzejczyk; Sean O’Malley’s violent finish over Jose Quinonez; the upcoming UFC Brasilia card; Kevin Lee’s fight against Charles Oliveira; the coronavirus' impact on the MMA landscape, and more. Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Petesy Carroll: @PetesyCarroll Follow Jose Torres: @ShortyTorresMMA Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What is up, guys, Jose Jonas with MAPFiting.com, here with another episode of the A-Side Live chat. As you can see, I'm not in Phoenix. I'm technically on vacation. But there was a big fight last week, so I couldn't deprive any of our fantastic listeners of our crystals. As Pizzi holds up his crystals, we got Jose Shorty Torres rejoining us. We had a lot of positive feedback the last time he was on, people who have been asking. What are you holding up?

I was like, this is the only thing, naked, wild honey, American staff. All right. Hey, man, I'll take it. We got a lot of positive feedback. The last time, Shorty was on, he had a lot of excellent insight as a fighter who both fought in the UFC and left the UFC. So we thought it was only fitting that he rejoins us. He's trained with a couple of the guys that actually fought at USC 248. Even one that was in a little bit of a war.

One might even say one of the greatest fights of all times. So I'm sure he'll have some thoughts on the. the matter. Of course, Pizzi is with me. So Pizzi, I'll start with you. What's, what's been going on with you lately? You had a week off when we did the extra live A-A side last week. It wasn't a week off, it was two days off, right? Let's relax

there on that one, okay? Sure. Jesus. But, yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to come to terms with these coronavirus updates. I mean, if you haven't seen today, the European scene has pretty much been ravaged by this. The last two events standing

for March, major events anyway, are pretty much Cage Warriors and UFC London next week. They are the last two that have completely kind of kept their structure as an event. We've seen KSW fall off, Aries at the start of April has fallen off, AFL, a new promotion in Spain has fallen off. So really it's like how much more will go before this thing passes? And when will it pass? Shorty, what's what's going on to you since the last week?

I know you have a big fight coming up. So how's the body feeling right now? Well, hopefully my fight's still coming up. Again, this coronavirus is crazy. We actually just received an email sometime last week saying five days before you leave, you need the test of the coronavirus because we're not at all letting people inside the country with something that might be passed around. So Brazil is taking literally every single measure to make sure that no one is as contagious,

whatever the case may be. but, man, I'm good. Obviously, my eyes are a little better, but somehow I always get some type of ultra. I always get beat up. I'm that guy. You flick me. I start bleeding somehow, some way.

But, man, I'm feeling great. Two and a half weeks. We're talking off air. It's like, do I want the event to be canceled? Because I can eat now, or do I kind of hold two and a half more weeks? So I'm trying my best to not mentally break with the food and keep on pushing. Well, I'm sure we'll have more thoughts on the coronavirus.

We had a lot of questions. We had one question about it last time from, Mr. Ed. But without further ado, Casey, the man in the back, load up that first question from our beautiful listeners. Oh, and before I do that,

I will want to say if anyone wants to add their question as we go, you use hashtag the A site on Twitter, or you can go on MAPFighting.com and leave your question there, and we can get to it. But for now, Casey, what do we got? Okay, first question coming up.

From Milo of Croton or Croton, I know a longtime commenter I always never know if I pronounce. that correctly but worse for out of signing than people think hi guys I'm wondering if Israel's performance against Romero is worse for him than people think firstly we've now seen Izzy at two extremes all action fights against Gaslam and a snooze fest against Romero having two extremes and watching them back to back it starts to become easy to see his faints and setups is more is more of a blueprint out on

Izzy than people realize it seems a savvy coach slash fighter can help pick him apart easier secondly are there any are there any are there There are now some matchups which won't sell well. For example, a potential matchup for Izzy versus Till seems like it could be quite dull. I don't just, I disagree with that completely. Granted, you might consider it a high-level striking, but also it seems to involve a lot of stalemate between two primarily counter-strikers.

So their Amaro fight might hurt his future stock more than people are letting on thanks. So yes, gentlemen, I'm sure both of you watched, Israel Adasana successfully defended his middleweight championship against Joel Amaro in a fight that, I don't want to say it was, Dana White called it terrible. I want to say it didn't live up to the hype and the expectation and the excitement, especially Israel-Aisandah, he wants to finish Joel, Yomero. As we were talking off air, basically was giving people motivational speeches

every single chance he got leading up to that fight. We really thought he was going to come out and get it. That is not the case of what happened. I disagree with this commenter on the Darantil statement. I don't really think the blueprint is out there just yet. But again, people seem to think the gasoline fight. happens and then the Romero fight happens. They seem to forget that he basically just decapitated Robert Whitaker in the middle of those two fights. People seem to be forgetting that

fight. So, Shorty, I'll start with you. You're down, you trained down ATT, T, O'Marros, Jim. What did you make of the fight as was playing out? Were you, us knowing Yowell's style, were you surprised at how it played out? I was a little surprised because this was more lax days ago than what YOL usually does. He's still 40, still this. But when you're got a guy who's this funky is, you know, out of Sanya, you just never know what's going to happen. You do want to play it safe, but as a fighter who already has had two title shots

and it's lost both of them, this is possibly your last title shot. I'm what, 42 years old, you kind of have to go for broke and say, why not, especially with such your, your explosive power and you want, is he to kind of open up,

then yeah, you have to be a little active. But if you don't do anything, honestly, as a fighter is a champion, I talk to Tyra Woodley about this before he fall, Oh, Kumar Usma, he goes, I don't care if I'm exciting. I don't care if fans like me or not.

I have the belt and I'm making the money because of it. It's the same to Izzy. No matter how he performed, he won the fight, but as a fan and as a true fan of both fighters, that wasn't exciting whatsoever. You know, you look at it as even if you're not the educated fan, you're like, dude, this is boring. They're getting paid this much money to what, stand around and look like. What is that one meme?

It's kind of like learning the buttons on. Yeah, yeah, learning the controls of the video. They're just kind of like moving back and forth. And yeah, it looks boring, but as a fighter who's getting paid double if you win, who's getting paid more through sponsors if you win or has more opportunity in the future, a win's a win regardless, but you have to look at both styles. The O.L is so explosive and so awkward, you never know what's going to happen. And he's a wrestler knocking people out constantly.

But then you have Izzy who can literally hit you like a three-piece, and you never know what angle is coming from. So both of them playing it's safe makes a lot of sense, but fan-wise, it's really disappointed. Pete Cee, what did you make of this situation? I know you kind of shook your head when someone, when this commenter said the potential Darantil fight might be a snooze fest, but what did you make of what? As someone who's interviewed that camp, then you were right there when he fought Robert Whitaker.

I can't imagine you thought the fight would go this way, but what were your initial thoughts when it was actually playing out in front of you? I completely agree with what Shardy said. like it wasn't the most entertaining fight in the world. Absolutely. Look, we all can agree on that. But it's so indicative

of the MMA fan base to just completely start writing a guy off. You know, it's not even if he lost a fight. He just hasn't done a fucking spinning back kick to his face and nearly kill the guy to finish the fight. You know, like I feel like every time this happens. I mean, it's such a flip-flop fan base. Like, I mean, this guy is one of the brightest stars

in the whole organization. And next of all, we're going, oh, we know all his tricks. now, you know, he's done as far as we're concerned. You know, look, having seen what y'all has done to guys over the years, like, shardy, shardy mentioned it. Like, he's one, he's a one hit quitter. If he catches you at one of those, uh, with knees, any of his limbs that seem to be hurtling

through the sky at the time, you're going to sleep. So if you're Israel at a sanya, a guy who's got the world at his feet and you're fighting this guy that, that is apparently the worst matchup for you in the division, I can't really blame him for being a bit more conservative. of as far as the tail fight, as far as the coast of fight, if you're not interested in them you're not an MMA fan. They would be absolutely unbelievable fights. I would

shit the bed if either of those fucking fights were announced. I just don't understand how we're all, we've gone from, we were sitting around the table in Melbourne, myself Casey and Esther, and we were glowing after that fight against Whitaker. We were saying this guy has injected so much

energy into the sport again, a brand new star with a completely different vibe and he's representing different types of cultures like yourself, the comic book fans there, Jose. But I mean, he brings a lot to the table and for us to be already saying, look, he's on bought time now,

it's absolutely ridiculous. You know, like when any other sport, people are going to have bad games, but you still support the team. I don't understand why that doesn't cross over to MMA and supportive fighters. And you know, you know what this sounds like,

especially because they fought each other and it's silver back in the day. And Silver had amazing fights. And then there's fights, man, they were just so boring. You're like, that's it. People saw them. He's nothing. He's not impressive.

And then the next fight, he knocks someone out. The next fight, he knocks someone out. Then he has a boring fight. Then he knocks another person out. So again, it really depends how things play out. Shorty, I want to ask you this specifically. When you hear the question, who's to blame as a fighter, is, like, what do you think? Like, Dana White's like, I don't blame Israel or Maryland.

I don't blame Israel-A-Meral's fault. And the Apollo Costa comes out. And he goes, well, I don't blame Y'all-O-O-A-Mar-A-Lameral. it's clearly Israel out of signers' fault. So as a fighter, what do you make of these comments from fellow fighters and promoters trying to, quote unquote, place blame on a fight? For me, I think there's going to be blame on everyone. And me, I'm a very critical fighter on myself.

So if I lost the fight, it's because I lost the fight. Yeah, the opponent might be better than me. But in that fight, Yowell never tried anything to signify and really solidify his win. He's like, oh, I won, I think he said. He's like, I won rounds one, three, and five. Well, you didn't really prove it to us. I can maybe see you winning one because you threw a punch or two. I think you landed three strikes out of the whole round, and Izzy didn't really land any.

But after that, you just played it safe. So for him to come out and say, I won and put all these speeches up on Twitter and do this and do that, it's like, one, the fight's already over. Two, the only person you have to blame is yourself because there's nothing more you did. You should have went all out and go, hey, at least I lost a lot. my best compared to not really doing anything. This is the first time I ever saw you over, Marrow, stand up after the fight. Usually right after his fight, he's on his knees, he's bending over, he's exhausting because he's trying. This one, he's just like, I'm good, I'm dancing, I'm doing all these things. Then why don't you do that during the fight? And that's my

biggest thing. Again, I love him to death, and I think he's a phenomenal fighter, but putting blame on everyone else, I believe it's a fighter individually that should put the blame on. well said i don't i don't agree with my love crotins uh saying this will hurt israel ad sonya's stock i think more people would be intrigued to see him see what kind of performance he has when he comes back he might not maybe maybe this performance wasn't what would a lot of the narrative like oh israeli as son it could be the next superstar like crossover star that we see like a ronda or connor maybe this isn't the performance they needed uh but i as pizzi nailed it if no like palo costa or Darren Till, like those fights are going to be absolute bangers.

I can't imagine. Israel-Azana has many fights in his future like we saw on Saturday, unless he does get stuck with another wrestler who doesn't want to engage. But we can talk about this all episode, but there's a whole lot of fights on that card. So for now, Casey, what do we got for our next question? Question number two from Grin and another longtime commenter. Edson Barbosa, what are your thoughts on Edson Barbosa requesting his release from the UFC?

and if granted, what MMA promotion would you like to see him compete next? Well, short, I think this is an excellent question for you to answer. I believe Edson Barbosa has some time down at T2. I know he's been in Mark Henry, but apparently over the weekend, well, not even apparently, he did. Over the weekend, he requested his release from the UFC on Twitter. He's been a staple of the lightweight division for so long. I mean, you'd go down the list of people he's fought beaten and lost to. It's like a who's who.

Like he's lost to Cowboy and Gachie and Habibati. B, but then he has wins over Dan Hooker, and he's, he's, he's looks pretty, he's lost Tony Ferguson. I thought that was one of the more underrated fights on his resume in terms of an actual war, but beat Anthony, I believe he beat Anthony Pettis, I believe he's beaten Gilbert Burns. I'm not Gilbert Burns, Gilbert Melendez, this all's top of my head, but he's banned in the UFC for quite a long time. So, I'll start with you. What do you make of Edson Barbosa requesting his release from the UFC and which promotion

would you like to see him in? Promotion-wise, I think for him and what a lot of UFC fighters have been doing is, you know, bumping over the Bellator, and they've been getting paid so much better. I mean, look at Sergio Pettis, look at Cyborg, look at all these people. What's what's a baiter as well? Like, they're making so much more money, and they're happy at an older age, which is even better for them as well. But you look at St. Barbosa, who's been in this sport in that promotion for years, he has pretty much made a staple for himself. He's made his name. So no matter what promotion he fights for, whether it's about that America,

Brave, KSW, Bellator, RISE, whatever the KSAP, he's going to be a stockable market. Like, he has people to follow him all over the world. I can't tell you this. In person, I don't talk to him every single day, but I see him right now. It looks like he's dropping down to a different weight class. Like, when you look at him, he's already 155. He's already at lightweight. I'm just like, dude, are you fighting soon?

Like, is there something I don't know? Sometimes you always try to get it out of them. But he already, he's, dude, he's walking around like if he's 155. is skinny already. He is jacked. And I'm just like, are you dropping down the featherweight? Like, what are your plans? And he's telling no one. So I have no clue what he's doing. But he, like, again, I come back at, you know, from camp like 165, 160, 170 on if I'm living my best life. So for me to be in camp and like slowly start dropping down, it usually means I'm planning for something. Him, he's already at weight pretty much. They told him tomorrow or this weekend, the fight in Brazil,

would make weight at light weight, no problem. So I don't know what he has planned, but I can see him doing something big very, very soon. Pizzi, what are your thoughts on young, not even young? Mr. Edson Barbosa requesting his relief. And one promotion of the thing story says, PFL, a lot of U.S. fighters just, former UFC fighters just jumped over to that tournament. So if he is indeed dropping the featherweight, maybe Edson Barbosa thinks he could tear through that featherweight tournament and win that million dollar grand prize. So Pizzi, what do you make of Edson Barbosa's request to be released? look I can kind of understand it from Edson's position I think he is scaled to the top of the division

and always just fell at that hurdle that final hurdle I feel as though maybe he's thinking like what is the point of me taking another run at this as we talked about before with Shorty I think creating competition between the promotions is how you make your money in MMA as a fighter I think you've got to create some kind of you know this guy's offering me more money than this guy

but just from what Shorty said there what about one FC or one championship. They obviously have a lighter criteria. You have to be within a hydration level to compete at lightweight. Maybe that's what he's thinking about. There's a lot of good fights over there with Folly Yang, Alvarez,

guys like that would be great to see him over there, but I think any promotion will be happy to have a fighter of his caliber. He's absolutely tremendous. I mean, if he wants to stay it lightweight or even move up, I mean, there's a lot of fun fights at Bellator. There's a lot of fun fight. Throw him in Horizon.

Thoman, like sign him with Belator. have those cross emotions with Risen. I would answer Robos is one of the most exciting lightweights in the world. Yes, he's lost to the elite of the, like I was looking at his, while he was talking, I was trying to look up his resume just so I could confirm. Like the only, like he's one and four in his last five fights, but he's only lost to Felder, Gaichi, Kevin Leav and Habib, and then he basically decimated Dan Hooker. Like that was the culmination of a beat down on that card in Milwaukee.

So, uh, quote, he's not losing to like the, he's losing to the top five at like, way. He's not losing to like Joe Schmoz. He's losing to the champion or people who are former champions and other promotions are people who just main evented cards. So I think Edzimbarbois is going to be a valuable asset for whoever he signs with. And it's a smart thing for him to be like, you know what? Honestly, I've lost the best guys and there's multiple of the best guys that I've lost to. I'm not going to make another run at it. Either let's drop another weight class or go to a different promotion and possibly be more successful that way. I think that's really, really smart by him. and even easier for the UFC to be like, you know what?

We respect you. You've been here for long enough. Have a good life. Maybe he just doesn't want to sit around for a while and wait for his... Maybe he doesn't have a contract anymore. He's waiting for that period of time where he can go sign somewhere else. Or maybe the UFC just doesn't have anything for him because, like, looking at his resume, the only people he's lost to are Jamie Varner at 146. That was that famous one where Jamie Varner took it on short notice and handed Edson by Bobo's his first L.

But after that, he's only lost to the Soroni, Michael Johnson, Tony Furge, in Habib, Kevin Lee, Gachian Felder. So he's clearly at that point where he's not going to be, he probably won't be champion, but he can basically beat anyone five through 15. And maybe the U.S.C. just doesn't want someone not fighting for the title, knocking off all of these contenders. But for now, I'll see him about it, be honest.

I'll see him. I'll watch Ezumarboza fight anyway. But for now, Casey, what do we got for our next question? Thank you, Grin' End for the question, by the way. I forgot that happened after all the chaos of last week. what happened was the question oh belator 241 i think uh this is a specific question for pizzi considering all the work he's done but learin ben niriah first time comment i don't recognize this name what is going to be the surprise fight of the night you guys are not allowed to pick

the main or co-main because they're both guaranteed to be insane so yes belator 241 is coming up at that that that gasp of that exasperated gas is pizzi uh say because i know we everyone that that knows, Pizzi knows he's going to pick the main event between Patricio, Pitbull and Pedro Carvalio, who he's done a number of, a lot of legwork on. I hear him and Ghee have this excellent piece coming out with Pitbull and Carvallio, which I've read a little bit of, and I'm very excited for everyone else to read. But Pizzi, I'll start with you. Outside of the Maine and Co-Main, which fighter you most excited for? I'm looking forward to seeing Nick Newell again and stuff. How can you say it? How can you ask me this question and ask me to go anywhere about the main

event there? This is huge. This is big for us. We don't get many Europeans fighting for world titles for Christ's sake. This is a huge fight for us. Look, Paul Daly's fighting. He's unbelievable too. He's one of my favorites to watch. But look, this is really challenging. I'm not going to lie.

You've really heard my feelings by putting me in a box of this question. I'm looking through the card now. I love watching Mike Kimball too. I think he's built up a lot of beef as well with James Geller and stuff like that. He doesn't quite have the experience yet to probably get that fight. but I'm very interested to watch him. He scored some beautiful knockouts earlier in his career. But yeah, I'm sorry.

I know I'm picking individuals here rather than fights, but you've caught me off guard, right? You've stumped me. I'm sorry. Whoever asked the question, congratulations. Damn it. Shorty, I don't know how much you're paying attention to this card, but what do you got?

I'm a little, I just pull it up and it's crazy because there's one of the guys that trained here, which is Sabahamasi. And he's been, you know, he had his Bellator debut. He had a successful Belletor debut. And he's doing his thing, but he is a banger. And when you see he fights, whether he's winning or losing, he's either knocking someone or getting knocked out.

So when you face Paul Daly, like, that's pretty much the same exact thing. Paul Daly, even when he fought MVP, like he was trying to go. But you got a guy just like Yowell versus Izzy, you just never know what's going to happen. So you kind of pick your shots a little more appropriately. I think these guys, there's going to be no respect whatsoever. They're like, yeah, they're going to be like, okay, you can crack. But let's see who's going to crack harder. And I think that's easily going to be a knock on it.

It's not going past the first round. I was about to say that. Just before Shorty there, that was my pick. I swear to God. It's not, it's not. And I'm watching him spar and, like, do these practices and even do it at work. Like, it's literally nothing but haymakers. That's exactly what I'm expecting from Paul Daly as well.

Is he a cell par or orthodox, Shorty? That one, I don't know because of how he strikes. I'm pretty sure they're just going to go out of it from whatever stance they land it. Oh, wow. I'm excited. I'm going to say Leslie Smith returns on this card, too. Former UFC fighter, one of these fighters that's really more of the outspoken, not male or female about starting this union. So it seems like whenever she fights, it's we, everyone tunes in to see how she performed.

She obviously had that split with the UFC that was not, what's the word, a little, there was a lot of negativity. And not an amicable split. She's on the preliminary car. Leandro Higo returns, as you said, Nguel fights. How have they not done the rematch with Leslie Smith and Schneide Kavana yet? That was an absolute war. That was an unbelievable fight.

Like, I mean, and it was a close fight, and it got everyone on both sides of the border. You had the Americans saying, we won the fight. The Europeans going, Shnade won the fight. It was an unbelievable fight to watch. How are they not doing that again? It's hurting my feelings. Do it in Ireland. Come on.

It was in huge. They do have that. They have that card in Dublin in October, right? so maybe she wins this one. They run it back in Ireland, or loses. They run it back in Ireland. Maybe she just wanted to keep fighting. Matt Maitreone fights, Honey Marks.

Like, I believe that was supposed to be Josh Barnett before Matt Maitrione stepped up. So that's always a fun fight. So, but as Piz said, it's not really fair because that main event is unbelievable. And then Dan Weichel fights on the Komen, right? Doesn't he have like 50-something fights, like 52, 51 fights in his career? I think it turned you to my toil points as well. problem i'm even i'm even looking at like paul daly paul daly is 42 17 and 2 like how do you even get that many fights he's more knockouts than anyone i think in europe

like his knockout record is absolutely ridiculous like it's crazy and he's been doing it he's been doing it for like 20 years or something like it's insane well what is uh what is pedro cavalio's record i think he's like 11 and 3 but it's his run in bellator that's it's got really exciting because he's put together four big wins and he's come out of nowhere, right? So nobody really knew much about Pedro and they signed about 70,000 SPG fighters and he's the guy

who's come out of nowhere and now he's fighting for this title. I think his story is unbelievable. He is an 18-month-year-old kid at home. He's barely spent any time with him because he's just been training to get to this belt. Unbelievable.

And definitely look out for that feature with Guillermo because we asked Patricio and Pedro to ask each other five questions and those boys, did not hold back. It is straight torture in those questions. It's unbelievable. I can't wait until it goes out.

Paul Daly has 31 knockouts. Two submissions, two submissions, which is hilarious to me. And only nine decisions. That's incredible. He's not appreciated. He's not appreciated over here

the way he should be. Like, I mean, the way people worship Till and stuff like this. Like, this guy's been doing it. Before most of these fans were born. and he's still doing it. And if you,

at the way you've, um, you've, you've sold that fight for me now. I'm nearly looking forward to as much as I'm looking forward to Capalio and Biple to be honest. Dude, he's 37 years old.

That's like three careers right there. It's incredible. It really is. It's insane. He's amazing. And I think he's a retail. He's a property developer as well. I want to something like that.

I was going to say like Carvalo, if he has 11 wins, which means, Patricio has 11 submission wins in his career and 10 knockouts, which basically means he has more stoppage wins than Carvalio has total fights. But then all of a sudden, you hear like, how many knockouts did you say Paul Daly had, Shorty? He has 31. 31, which means he has more knockouts than Patriceau pit bull has just wins in general. That's crazy. He's a psycho. That's unbelievable. He's the best left hook

in mixed match last, I think. His left hook is incredible. I don't know, man. We heard. I heard. I'm going Hardee talking about this and he was like people say oh yeah he's got a good left hook but he's like

he literally clean out a training room back in the roughhouse days in Nottingham said he cleaned the whole place out just like dropping lads like he's unbelievable power in the original

left hook Larry that's it oh well Leon I'm not starting any beef I'm not starting any beef oh he's left yellow yeah the original left hook Larry was Michael Bisman

make them fight come out of retirement Bissing sign for Bellator or Daily versus Bisping, that's what I want to see. I was like, well, they let him fight now technically since he's been shown that he only has one eye? Like, does that?

Yes, yes, they will. Is it the eye that left hook is going to be coming in on too? Oh, wow. Give him a soybar guy. Give him a soybar guy. Sure, sure. Yeah. That can happen.

Anyway, Pete, Casey, what do we got for our next question? Thanks for the first time comments or two. I always liked to hear from the beautiful song out of Canada. Casey there as well. A bit of do, do, do, do. Love it. Oh, my gosh. From Modelo. Who's this question from? I don't see a... Like, there's another one that doesn't have the full thing. Oh, yeah, from Curtis Street, at Curtis Street. He wrote this out and then screenshot it. Word document. Word document. Yeah, he wrote in a word document, screenshot it, and then pasted it in the photo in the tweet just so he could get the whole thing. And so Modelo curse. Modela has a

has been sponsoring UFC athletes over the past year. Every athlete that has been sponsored by Modelo has suffered a significant blow to their career right after being sponsored. Most recently, Emily Whitmire, U.C. 248, what do you think of the Modelo curse? And should athletes turn down sponsorships from them to protect their career and future earnings? And then he lists some of the, all the Modella sponsored athletes. So, Modella sponsored athletes, Stipe before you got K-O'd by D.C., wider, or U.C. 230, Coyote by Jacques-Rael-Raez-Haree,

Felice Harry before losing to Michelle Waterson, Nico Montanio before weight cut and title issues, Frank Yeager, before being Cajod by Brian Ortega, Yawanna and Jajic before a second fight with Rose, Tatana Suarez before a fight with Nina Ansrov and before neck injury kept her out of the octagon. So

gentlemen, it seems like, Pizzi, I don't have to tell you are the biggest American football fan on M.A. fighting. There's this thing we call the Madden curse that I know I know Shorty Torres has heard of it, where for a long stretch of time, every athlete that was on the cover of Madden, something would terrible would happen in their career. Like whether it was Sean Alexander or Dante Culpepper or like Mike Vic, Brett Farb, like everyone would like get hurt or they'd have the worst year of their life the next year.

It seems like Modello is now the Modelo curse of the UFC. story I'll start with you telling me is basically what you're telling me is don't play football don't be on the mat in cover don't don't hang on with Drake and don't share some

Odellas with them that's pretty much how it is I can't do those those three things automatically so let's just take those out of the bucket list completely it's horrible coincidence but I still think right now Modelo is doing a lot better than Corona

overall overall Dude, that sucks. I don't even know about the Madelo stuff. That's hot. Pete, you take it over. I don't even know. I have a feeling that short,

he's got a Modelo contract on his table there, and he's taking some serious consideration now. That's unbelievable. I don't know. All I know is, it tastes like pissed. I had a few bottles over in the U.S. I was not happy with it. It was not good.

So I would avoid that. sponsorships anyway. Just get a Guinness sponsorship, put on a few pounds and enjoy life. That's what I'd say. I wouldn't hate it, but that's pretty unbelievable. I didn't realize that was all. I keep like, some of these people I remember it happened to, but it's been stretched out for so long.

Now, now I just want to see proper, I just want to see proper 12 start, like, marketing to where they're sponsoring athletes and see if they have the same curse. They're sponsoring Toys and Fury, right? I think they just, I don't know, we're working on a Guinness sponsorship from a Eurobash co-host, Noel McGrath at the moment. So we're just trying to get him in a bit of shape so we can get them on the ads and stuff, get his six-pack back from when he was 14. Oh, you know, oh, you know, there's an ongoing beef here.

Every week on Eurobash, every week on the A-side, they're throwing darts at each other, lads. You need to calm down. We don't need an MMA fighting civil war. Increase the peace. As I said a million times, why would I have beef with one of my students? I'm not just going to I'm literally

I'm literally taking this I'm literally taking this man by his hand and leading him through the treacherous waters of life and being like Nile it's okay it's okay like they're not going to hurt you and then all of a sudden I have beef like I don't understand it that's on his part not me anyway

Casey what do we got okay yeah they need to get involved Guinness needs to start getting involved I'm sure they would have tried to get involved with Connor at some stage if he hadn't launched his own liquor or whatever. But unfortunately for him, he has earned lots of money off that. So I doubt that's going to ever happen.

I mean, the monster had the same type of curse, though. Like, you want to just lost. Soroni just lost. I'm trying to think who else is sponsored by Monster that, that, I mean, given, I know they're kind of like 50-50 there, but they sponsor a lot of high-level athletes. Body armor had that first. Yeah. Uh, Francis and Gunner didn't lose his father.

Bowno, Cody Garbrandt, Michelle, who's the third one? Or the fourth? Cynthia, Cynthia. Paige Van Zand, yeah. And since, well, Francis Ngano knocked out over him his very next fight and then lost Steve Bay. So he's the only one that won, but then he had his first out like right after in the UFC. So yeah, you're not wrong, Casey.

But Shorty, real quick, if you get sponsored by a drink, which one would you want? Oh, good question. If that was the curse, by the way, I'd be scared to approach Transnagono. That's why it took a whole fight later. But for me, I would personally, like, and it's funny because I saw him walk around, Hans, the guy who was, like, kicking all the drinks and food away from people. He's, like, the marketing director for Monson. I'm always just like.

Oh, yeah. What's up, buddy? How you doing? Hey, you want to kick me? I'll take a kick into the guy. I'll look through it. So that's one of my things. And plus, I'm one of those guys that I wake up.

I'm just, I'm like a constant college student where I wake up 10 minutes right before class, chuck down whatever coffee, Monster energy drink, and just go. So I need something to wake me up quick. And for me, I'm one of those sugar-free monster guys. I'm not even, I'm not even sponsored by them and I'm plugging them right now. Monster, I love you, please. Hello. Do it, Hans, make it happen.

Come on. Come on, Hans. Let's make it happen. We get some all kinds of like people watching the show. Let's get sure to your monster and sugar-free monster energy. Sugar-free monster, that's what I need. Oh, yes. He's the face of sugar-free monster.

That'd be brilliant. The A-Side makes dreams happen, though, so let's do it. Casey, what are we got for next question? That is the same question. Ah, come on, Casey. God damn it, Casey. That's absolutely my fault. That's absolutely my fault.

Even I can make mistakes. From Sean Denny, Denny Rants. Hashtag the A-side. How does this week rank for Euro-MMA after the blow of so many events being canceled or fights being rematched. I assume this is a shot aimed at Pizzi. So Pizzi, what do you make of all these events being canceled?

Yeah, I mean, it feels like it's getting worse and worse every day. Obviously, there's a big multiplier effect with the coronavirus. So things are getting... Okay, so... Okay, they're postponing the Six Nations rugby tournament, which is the biggest tournament in Europe. That's all been postponed. They've postponed Seria A, the Italian Soccer League, which is absolutely huge.

They have postponed a Premier League match in England tonight between Manchester City and Arsenal. Italy is completely shut down. They have 10,000 confirmed cases there, and I think around 700 deaths. Nobody is allowed in or out of the country. Paddy Pimlet's opponent for next weekend's Cage Warriors event has not been able to gain exit from the country to compete at that event. look, it seems to be getting very bad. The UK haven't really put a lot of these event bands in place like many of the other countries have. And to be honest, there is a bit of backlash there.

Like Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister from England came out yesterday and he said, look, we're probably all going to get it anyway. It's going to have to pass through the population. And a lot of people weren't very happy with that. Like, I mean, when you consider Cheltenham is on now, it's a big horse racing meet. It's an outdoor event and they expect a quarter of the whole. of a million people to go to that event over the four days it's on.

There's already 14 confirmed cases in Cheltenham, I believe. Like, it's just getting very, very dangerous. And look, this next weekend is meant to be one of the best weekends for European MMA in a long, long time. We had KSW 53. That's been cancelled.

As we said earlier, the Cage Warriors have lost Patty Pimlet's opponent. The biggest name for Cage Warriors is Patty Pimlet, and they've managed to draft in a replacement in a decade, Dalton so that's still staying together. But with the fact that everything is growing, the multitude, like I mean, the gravity of this situation is getting so much worse every day. I'm not fully confident that UFC London's going to happen next weekend or in the way it's meant to happen with 20,000 people at the O2 there. Like this is insane. It's nothing that I've ever seen before in my life.

It reminds me of like reading about things like the black death from centuries ago where it's just completely overwhelming everybody. You know, look, hopefully Cage Warriors goes ahead. UFC goes ahead, but we've already lost KSW 53 in Poland. We've lost Ares fighting championship, which a lot of UFC veterans are signing for. They were meant to have an event in Brussels in early April. That's gone. And AFL, a Spanish promotion, has also canceled their Volkrie's event, which is meant to happen on March 14th.

So it's not looking good. The UK's policy seems to be keeping this alive rather than when you compare it to other countries. So hopefully it stays together. Hopefully it goes well. Hopefully Leon Edwards, who has been waiting for this opportunity to fight a really top tier fighter, gets his opportunity to do that because that would be an absolute disaster. I'm crossing my fingers on my toes. I'm hoping for the best.

But it's not a good situation. And if it means people are going to be safer, maybe it's the best. thing to do i really don't know well anything you want to add shorty or is ptzey basically just well no i mean ptzey is 100% there and he he's experiencing this whole thing but as a fighter i think it sucks because of rankings making money like for me if brave gets canceled in march 28th in brazil that's three months down the drain in a sense whether they postpone it two more weeks a month or postpone it six months it messes up the whole flyway tournament messes up my event and me i I haven't fought as April. So I haven't been physically paid since April, almost a whole year.

So for other fighters who are, you know, enduring that type of struggle or get paid that much less to where they need to fight every two, three months, this is people who hide me hoods. You know, I know I know the stock market's crashing. I know people obviously, businesses are losing money. But as a fighter, we are our own business. And we don't know, hell, I don't even know what I'm doing tomorrow sometimes. You know, so for me to be able to go, cool, I'm fighting March 28th and have plans already set up for that, maybe a month. break of, you know, seeing my family doing this, doing whatever the case may be, the coronavirus and the event possibly being canceled would be just horrible and change up my whole year, really. And now it's less time to train, less time to spend the family, less time to do different business ventures, but more time with you guys.

So it doesn't really matter now. You know what? I take this. And next time I could be here with the burger. Forget fine for a championship. I hope he doesn't get this point. Next time, next time I could be here with a burger or pizza and a monster. There you go.

Yes. Oh, nice. Sugar free monster. They're going to. It's funny, though, because before we came on air, Casey was saying, like, he raised a concern about this last week. And people were like, what are you talking about, mate? The world is in, like, it's a pandemic now.

Like, I mean, it's shutting down nations. People in Italy can't leave their houses without permission, basically. You know, it's going crazy. So it's a real thing to be concerned about, guys. Like, I mean, I don't know what's going to happen next week. ready to go to UFC London. I love all the fights on the card. I can't wait for it. It will be devastating for the fan base if it doesn't go down as well as Cage Warriors. But, you know, it's completely out of our hands at this stage. The World Health Organization are saying that they

don't even know if the European soccer championships are going to happen in June. They're saying they don't believe it's going to be contained by June. This is one of the biggest tournament, sporting tournaments in the world. And they're like, we don't know in three months time if this is going to be okay. That is very serious, man. Huge. Yeah, well, today we got the confirmation that it was canceled. Yesterday, I was getting phone calls from, you know, people very close to the situation. And they, they were basically telling me it's definitely going to be off. Then I contacted KSW. And they were like, look, we're trying to make this happen. We're going to try and see if we can do it behind doors or something like that. But then, of course, today, they have confirmed that the event

has been canceled. And it was a great event. Like, Roberto Soled, one of the great. European prospects and Uber prospect from Croatia was set to defend his belt against Marius Saromskis. Some, Matthew Gamrot was meant to come back. One of the great European fighters, Michael Materla, so many great guys on this card. And obviously they were trying everything they could to put on this event in Lodz, Poland. But it's not going to happen. I feel like, I mean, even as far as Australia, right, we have that event coming up in Perth.

I think it's pretty bad over there as well. Obviously, that's closer to China. things like that. Like, it's just very hard to predict what's going to happen here. And, um, yeah, I think,

I think people will look into the possibility of doing things behind closed doors, but, uh, I don't know if it's feasible, you know, um, I don't know, I don't know how that will work.

Um, obviously that would be a better situation for the fighters. Um, if they can do that. So hopefully some way, somehow these events do go down. But, um,

yeah, yeah, it's definitely something that was talked about, but they couldn't get it over the line. Well, Well, Shorty, what would you think of fighting in front of a – We've talked about this for pretty much all last week with like in the round of the media. Shorty, what would you think about fighting in an empty arena?

So I've actually done that a handful of times. Sadly, my first two or my only two UFC fights, I'm in the UFC fight past prelives before USAAM Plus. So there's practically no one there besides the judges. But I did fight at the first ever United States Mixed Martial Arts Federation National Tournament. and it was so poorly organized, it was literally just the cage and a bunch of empty chairs in Vegas. And that was it. So any time my coach said something, 100% I heard him. Is it motivated?

No. But it's still the same. And actually, again, Tyne Woodley told me the same thing. He goes, don't be fearful in a fight because think about it, whether there's a crowd, whether there's people, whatever the case may be, whatever situation outside the cage, there's still one person in front of you. And so that's all that matters. So for us as fighters, as long as we get paid and we get paid double to win or whatever the case, our paychecks are, you know, work out. I don't care, but obviously we want our friends or family there. We want to put on an entertaining show.

And especially for myself who wants to be the entertaining fighter, it does suck when, you know, something happens. And you're like, yeah, and then you hear nothing in the background. So, you know, for me, it would suck, but I'd still have to get it done if I needed to. And there's actually tournaments here locally in Florida that are posting, like, hey, we're still continuing the tournament. We're still continuing whatever event. We just have limited seating. I don't know what that means when it comes to that and how they pick individuals to come on in.

Is it the first come first served? Do you need medical tests to come on in or whatever the case may be? But some events are still trying to push through. Well, I feel like we can keep talking. We're going to have to have a whole episode on this because it's only going to get worse, especially when the Habib fight. Habib shot my question down real quick. I actually feel bad.

I can understand where he's going from. He's like, yeah. But I mean, it's, it's like this fight, like, it's not even going to be them this time if it gets taken away. You know, it's like, you can actually see the genuine concern his face when you ask him that question. And as he says to you, he's a big European soccer fan. He knows what's going down over here. It's pretty hectic. And if you consider the amount of money that's on the, that's, that's available through these big sporting events like European soccer and stuff like that.

I can't imagine these decisions are made. you know so it's um it is worrying man like i mean this seems to be a real thing that people are talking about this brooklyn event and is new york in a particularly bad way or what's going on they do have some confirmed cases in one hour before a dominance media day kicked off new york was put in a state of emergency which is why i i that's where i wasn't going to ask him about it being canceled i was like what if they moved it like what if they moved it to los vegas when you had told or adamant that you never want to find las Vegas also i just got a notification that the Nets Warriors games, NBA game,

will have no fans on my phone. I literally just got that notification. So it's already happening in the United States. Like, I don't know what was, I don't know the exact logistics, but the Arnold Classic was in Columbus, and they shut down the Expo, which is like the biggest part of the weekend.

And then they were going to do, like, the pose down and everything for bodybuilding, like, in a closed area. And it's like the same venue as UFC Columbus in a couple weeks. And now the governor is saying, like, recommending no one go to events. So this is going to, hit the UFC a lot harder than people are a lot harder than Dana White is laying on. Oh, well.

I'm just really glad that I didn't. Sorry, go ahead. Oh, well, yeah. That just came out, that news about the NBA, basically having game, yeah, because there were, it was rumors a couple of days ago, but now it's, it's official. So I see, if this is true, there's pretty much zero percent chance that UFC 249 Brooklyn is going to be happening the same way. still might happen but not in the way that we normally see it so ufc is going to have to come out some sort of statement very very very soon well it's only the only way that we were all it was a joke a couple months ago where i can't remember who said it it was like the only way tony ferguson

versus habib or habib or habi versus tony ferguson shemkid's top billing uh doesn't happen is if there's a pandemic and look what happened let's find that person and kill them there's this is obviously the person that's The coronavirus is sponsored by Madelo. The coronavirus is sponsored by Madello, apparently. Yeah, there you go. Geez. No, Madel's doing work.

They're trying to be the top game right now. Got any more questions? I know we're running up on time right now. Okay, next question. Come on, a Yawanna question. Damn. Well, you can use that as your promo for sure. Amy we at actually at actually Amy or Amy amy amy.

Do you think more fighters are going to fight outside the Octagon at UFC events are actually learned from Ortega and other previous incidents? So yes, I'm sure you guys heard. Brian O'Terry went and slapped Jay Park, musician, entertainer, translator, or as he called him, instigator, for supposedly mistranslating the Korean zombie or something. What did you make of this situation with Pete's, you'll start with you? The fallout from Ortega, he's now since depopold. apologized, but he was carried away.

That fight's going to happen. And people that have been listening to this show know how bad I want this fight. I've been tweeting about this fight for like five years. Fight fell apart. I got so many DMs being like Jose. I found out this fight fell apart through my DMs on Twitter because people were like, Jose, I'm sorry for your loss. And I was like, what are you talking about?

Like, who died? And then all of a sudden they're sending me articles of this fight being canceled. I'm like, I, there's no, what is happening in the world right now. I'll cut my arm off for this fight and it fell, it fell through. So, Pete, I'll start with you. What do you make in the situation that we saw at USC 248 in the crowd? Yeah, look, I think we kind of consume this stuff a lot different than you guys do, right? Because people understand what MMA there is in general.

It's a legitimate sport for the most part in America, the way people look at it. In Europe, we're still trying to get that footing to where it's appreciated. in the same regard as boxing or the same regard as as, you know, soccer, rugby, all of this stuff. And really, you know, I remember when the Habib situation happened with

Connor, it had detrimental effect on on MMA over here and how it's perceived. You know, everybody was kind of saying this is WWE, this is ridiculous. How could any self-respect and promoter sell a fight on the back of this kind of hostility? Obviously

a lot of the things like McGregor was saying, about Habib was very, very close to the skin, things about his family and stuff like that. And basically, when we came home, the mainstream media here used that as an example of, look, we told you this was bullshit. And look, look what happened over there. This is a disgrace.

We don't see this in other events, even though we do see other sporting events. They used it against the sport. They've used it to downgrade the sport. Look, over here, it has a big impact. Luckily for us, Brian Ortega isn't at the forefront of the sport in Europe and this wasn't really picked up on by mainstream news sites, etc.

like that. When McGregor does it, obviously, it's huge. You know, I think we kind of, we get a lot more impact from that stuff than you guys do, especially when a European fur is involved in it. Because so many people have been saying for so long that this sport is blood sport, it's violent, only negativity can come from this. That kind of stuff plays really badly when it goes down over here. So I don't really consume it the same way as you guys do, I don't think.

Shonda, what were your thoughts on what went down in the crowd of UFC 248? I mean, I get it, Brian Ortega is from the hood. You know, I'm from Chicago, so I know how it is. You see Mazadol. Obviously, you get the wrong stare. You get the wrong smack talk. And I kind of get it, but you are in a professional setting. And for me, you're supposed to be a role model.

But the worst case scenario, best case scenario is somehow, some way, the UFC always banks off of it. They're like, oh, no, no, we're going to make a speech. I don't know if they made a statement about it. Well, Brian Ortega's slap in this guy, but it's like, usually with the whole Kabib thing, the Mazaro thing, the Kahnna McGregor and all this other stuff, they will belittle it. They'll talk smack and go, this is what you shouldn't do. Then I don't know where Kahn Mugre is fighting Khab. And it's like, oh, let's just show videos of him throwing the dolly.

Oh, my God. This is going to be such a crazy event. And then now you're going to blame Kabe for, you know, kind of finishing the job when somebody started it. Dude, you guys were in the middle instigating it to get more publicity and more fans and stuff like that. So is it good for the UFC? Possibly. He might not be the big, bankable guy like Connor and Kabeev and all this stuff. But as the outside fan looking in, it's childish.

You know, again, you are supposed to be this respectful guy. And again, from what I know, Brian Ortega is a nice guy. He seems like a very genuine person. But that hoodside came out of him as like, hey, man, you can't be saying certain things. Or if you're going to say it, say it to my face. Just like Mazurot, where he, you know, attacked the... Leon Edwards with a three-piece and a, you know, some soda. It's just one of those things that you shouldn't be doing,

but it's also the style of upbringing that they had. So it's like you can blame them, but you can't blame them. And I don't think it's, it should be what it is. But you look at Kobe, you look at Henry Suhudo, you look at all these guys doing the wrestler speeches. Okay, that's more of, um, that's more of like, you're writing it down and you're coming up to make more money that way. But now I actually trying to hurt people and trying to be the thug

inside a professional setting. I just don't think that's a good thing to do. You may make a good point there, O'Say, because the Leon Edwards thing, that happened at a self-regulated event for the UFC. So nobody could step in and find these guys. Obviously, there was a huge backlash from the Las Vegas, the Nevada State Commission,

with the McGregor and Habib thing. But it really underlined the fact that UFC aren't really too mad at this kind of stuff when they just basically allow Leon Edwards to be assaulted. and they just move on with their business. You know, like, it's unbelievable. But Conan McGregor gets assaulted and there's this whole fiasco. But he just threw a dolly and heard two people who are, I believe, are still suing them. But I know, we're going to have you main event.

No problem. Come on, man. And that's one of those things that's like in other jobs. If somebody complains, there's, you know, you're suspended or this or that. But they're like, oh, no, yeah, we're going to handle it. Go, go, go, you're main event. It's like, that's not how it's supposed to work, you know? So it depends on who you are right now.

don't believe the UFC's made a statement with the Brian Ortega and the whole situation, but it depends on who you are, what you do, and what you can do to make a profit out of it. And so far, it hasn't really done stuff for the UFC, but once that fight gets closer, you're probably going to hear some stuff from the UFC of promoting it that way. So it's just one of those things are, oh, there's behind the scenes stuff happening. But again, it's just, it's a professional setting. I think with the whole Leon Edwards thing, I thought he was going to do that. You know, Talks Mac or even James Gallagher.

Yeah, I get it. He grew up in the hood. He grew up some type of struggle, too, but he's almost fighting every single person before the fight even starts. I highly doubt, I highly doubt you're mad at everyone. There is no way you're mad at everyone before you fight them. You know, so it's one of those things that's like some of it to show, some of it could be real. But, you know, with the whole, sometimes you just talk smack to the wrong person, Mazadol, Brian Ortega, or even Kabib, there's going to be some type of retaliation there. well i think dana white's only statement was uh yeah they're gonna fight next they have to fight next i'm just like yes give it to me anything else we got and i just want to say there is a zero percent chance that when that little tmz video in the crowd would not be used to promote the actual fight so i'm a hundred percent of zero absolute um i mean j parks probably going to be on stage for like the way lanes and stuff anyway go ahead case and since we are running low on time, I'm taking a video question for me to you guys, that co-main event, Waley versus

Yawanna, was it awesome or was it totally fucking awesome? How fucking awesome was that fight? For those of you judges listening, Pizzi is literally vibrating and Shorty had to get up and walk away to like hype himself up. So yes, Shorty, I'll start with you or I'll start on Petey so Shorty can get the last word in. Oh, we're not going short as tallest. Okay, whatever. I'm sure. I think we're going to give you the last question because I don't think Pizzi wants to follow

up your comment, especially since you trade with Yawah. Yawai and J.Cic, or J. Yawah Leaver's Yawna and J.ich is one of, if not the greatest fights I've ever seen my entire life. I was Octagon for that. I was about 10 feet away from it. And after the first round, I turned to Sean Al Shadi and the Schmo, who was also since left me. I was like, I'm not scoring this. Like, this is going to be one of those fights. Like, I don't know who's going to win, but I'm not trying to score this. This is just,

this is going to be a wood chipper versus like a power drill in there. It's unbelievable. So, Pete, you'll start with you. What was going through your mind when you were seeing this absolutely epic war, this instant classic going on in front of you? So here's the moist setting for this is, it's 4.30 a.m. I'm out of an Irish wedding. I'm shit-faced. I'm watching it on my computer. My missus in bed asleep. And I'm trying to keep it down.

But after everything's happening, I'm like, oh my God. Jesus Christ. She's like, what's going on? Nothing. Relax. I'm just losing my mind watching it. And I think it's one of the greatest fights ever.

Without a doubt, it's very hard for me to rank where it is. But absolutely unbelievable fight. And my big takeaway from it, and I've been saying this for a long, long time. A lot of people wrote off Yawani and Jacek. A lot of people did. She's one of the greatest fighters to ever come from Europe ever.

A lot of people questioned her chin. Look at the damage she took in that fight and was still standing at the end. I think she'll forever be one of the greatest fighters in Europe. It doesn't mean anything to me that she didn't come away with her hand raised there. Wiley Zhang is absolutely incredible too. But I think it's one of the best fights ever. I can't remember being so involved with a fight as I was watching it. like just like freaking out basically watching what was taking place.

I can't wait for it to happen again, but it's definitely one of the greatest, greatest fights ever. And I think it was very bad timing for Islam Macchishout to put out that tweet when he did. I got to say it, man. It was like, what the hell? What the hell is going on here?

How can you be watching this and kind of saying, this is not a women's sport? I have no idea. If anything, it was all about the women's sport that night. Absolutely incredible. Yohanna is a legend. She's one of the greatest photos to ever come out with this continent and forever will be.

Congratulations to Woyle-Zang, and I can't wait to see it again. Over to you, Shorty. So, Shorty, I'm going to ask you specifically, you've posted photos with, Joanna. When you're watching someone that you've put in time with on the mat, and, like, you've seen the grind and the journey to get there, and then you see it not only a performance like that, to call it a good fight would be an understanding. People are saying it's one of the greatest fights in mixed martial arts,

history. Her head is ballooned up. It's very swollen. She's trying to cover it. But what is going through your mind when this is happening? And then when she comes up short, like basically just try to put all of this whole experience in the words. So I feel so bad for the memes because again, you put on such a great performance and you look like that after. The memes, the internet always wins, which always sucks. Funny as hell, but it sucks. It's one of those things, man, for me, I am biased because I train with her. I had to be zang for certain periods of the time in the training camp during certain situations her in the dorms here we get a roommate sometimes if it gets too packed my roommate was her physical therapist so i would ask every single day how is she doing whatever

the case ain't being he would add you know we would converse about her every single day when it came to her weight cut when it came to her training what she's doing fill how her body's feeling and um she even used my compression boots the week of Vegas i'm like i swear god if she wins i better get a shout out just anything like thank you so much shorter for the boots all right on to the more important people but when you train with somebody and they finally put in all this hard work when i say man you look at her strength conditioning stuff with phil darrow and all that like she her output was ridiculous but when you go again zang who is just forward forward forward and cracks the way she does especially for being a woman straw weight that's man she took some blows and she was wobbled a couple times in the fight

the way i scored it i know people are going to put in whatever and i love to hear the comments the way i scored it was one four or five now round one could have gone either way the reason why i say that is because that's the hard part i know joe rogan always talks about the judging and scoring system is how do you look at it there was no takedowns in the first round but what do you look at the more precise active fighter who's landing more or the person who's throwing less but landing more significant strikes you know so that was the part i looked at it as me i like the more aggressive the active person and i think you'll want to you know won the first round but that one could have gone either way and that's you know, went to a split decision. I would love to see that fight being ran back, but, man,

seeing how she pushed through through all those injuries, I'm pretty sure she broke her nose. I could be wrong. That hematoma just went across her whole face and her whole forehead. She completely looked like a different person. She looked like she got like staff or Mercer on her forehead and just blew up. Like it looked like she got hit by a train, but she got hit by Zhang. It's just, it's, you feel so bad, but after you hear, I think the coaches are telling me like two days later, She was already out of the hospital. You know, Zeng was in there longer, which is crazy for all those injuries. But, man, just looking at it respect-wise, as a fighter, I've broken my hand in a fight and I've

torn my MCL. I know the pain of pushing through, but these are ligaments. These are bones. When you got something that's here, one, you bank off your looks. Two, this is all brain damage, you know? So will she fight again? Will she fight her next fight as aggressive as she did that first time? Will she even be able to perform the way she does?

Is she cleared? Will she have CETE later on her life? The way she fought. And even for Zang, she took some crazy shots as well. Both those women, even though it was such an amazing fight, you have to look at long-term stuff of fan-wise. We definitely have to appreciate what they did because they put their lives in the line for that. You know, maybe even after the fight, how bad you want to look. She could have been in the hospital for weeks, if not months.

I mean, you hear, I think it was three boxers that died last year because of brain damage. how many shots did each other land in that fight? I know Zang landed more head strikes and you want to land in more body and late kicks, but overall, they both took excruciating damage and for Yonah, getting hit most of the time in the head. That's extremely worrisome.

I'm glad she's okay and I'm glad she's doing whatever she's doing out of vacation-wise. I can't wait to see her fight again, but as a practice partner for her and teammate, dude, that stuff gets serious. It was heart-wrenching for me because you're just like, oh, and I'm biased. I'm like, I'm thinking she's one.

and every single round, but it is a scary fight. I thought she won. I know Connor said he thought she won, and there was a bunch of other people, but again, Zang, Zang, you know, won. Either way, whoever came out with the belt,

they both had amazing performances. This is easily the best women's fight in history. And this is why I wanted Shorty to get the last word in. Because no one's going to follow that up. It's so crazy. Again, like the damage we take, hell, even when I got knocked out by Alex Perez,

is I took three months off because I didn't want to get hit in the head again. Like I was slurring my words after I was forgetting stuff. I even forget stuff now, you know? So I can just imagine, I did that for three minutes and 30 seconds. And I took, I think it was 107 shots total, 103 shots of the head. Just imagine she did that for five rounds. And her head looked like she did. You know, so how does her brain look?

So when it comes to all seriousness, at least, health-wise, it is a crazy, crazy situation. as she put on one hell of a damn performance. As much as I love that fight, I am worried that this will be a Lawler versus Condit type of fight in the sense that it was freaking amazing, but I think we can all agree that Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit weren't the same fighters after that fight. Never, never. I hope you're not right, but yeah, it's a good point to make,

and Shorty's can make it way better than all of us in terms of he's been in there. and absolutely agree with you, but just blown away by the two of them. And Zhang, like for me, I think Joanna, like she gives you a double test because the way she's so intimidating the lead up to the fight, you could tell that Wiley had never dealt with something like that.

Someone get in their face and, you know, really bringing that aggression. Remember when she told her to shut up? She still seemed a bit uneasy. She was like, shut up. And Yon is just like, you know, it's a completely different ball game. And Yohanna brings that to the table.

and people like get on her sometimes about those face-offs but don't lie to me you are 100% more interest in this fight after she does that she brings so much to the table man she's she's honestly a legend one of the greatest of all time and that fight just underlined it i've always felt that way but that fight underlined it for a lot of people and let's hope that casey isn't right about the lollering and condit situation but without a doubt you know i do feel as though fans don't recognize the toll that these athletes are putting on their bodies for us and for our enjoyment. It's absolutely, it flies under the radar with them completely. And that's why I get a bit pissed off on people are giving out about Israel and Yael. When you've seen what Yowel has done to the guys at one single shot, like, if I'm busy, I'm absolutely trying to stay away from that. Look at what happened when you got hit with one left hand.

It made perfect sense to fight like that, to be honest. And, you know, it's crazy. Because again, one, to lead up after that is horrible. And power one is on. No matter if I knocked the guy on the first round or the last round, it's not going to be that. It's so hard to get two fights exactly like that on a card. But I'm going to go to the conspiracy side.

I'm going to go the crazy side here. The UFC needed Zang to win. They 100% needed her to win. If you want to go to won, who she fight next? Does she get the automatic rematch? Does she fight Rose next? Does she fight the winner between rows of whoever she's fighting next? So it's the case of they needed Zang to win,

especially with everything happening in China right now. The UFC having a UFCPI in China. and when it comes to the marketing side, they were banking so much on Zang being the next big star, you know, and having a possible, you know, great fight against Rosamian.

And that's something that they're waiting on for. But everyone who belittled Yawanna, young Jacek, before this fight, they're definitely not doing it after. Idiots. Well, we're going to have to wrap it out because we went a little longer, but I wasn't going to try to cut either of you guys off on those epic promos.

I don't think we're going to do promos this week, considering Shorty had a phenomenal promo for his teammate, Yawangay and Jajik, and Pete, he gave us phenomenal insight on how the coronavirus is hitting the Europe scene and not just anime, but all of life. So you can find this video, the replay of this video on our YouTube channel, of course. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Play,

all that good stuff. Thanks so much for joining us again, Shorty. I know you're in the middle of camp. You're a match, everybody. Well, how do you want to get it after your fight? I don't have one of those. I need one of those. Just saying,

and monster guys make this happen. I love you. Let's get him some crystals. Let's get that monster crystals. Hey, Jessica, Crystal Queen, get this monster crystals for Christ's sake. Oh. There you have it.

But for Jose, that's Shorby, that's Pizzi. We're out. Louis M. Shorty, that was class.