MMA Fighting - UFC 246 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: January 19, 2020

MMA Fighting’s Jose Youngs and Petesy Carroll react to the UFC 246 main event between Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone and the other storylines emerging from the pay-per-view event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and use promo code sports for 20% off. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Jose Youngst here with MMAFighting.com speaking with Pizzi Carroll here inside the UFC 246 post-fight press conference tent. The press conference just wrapped up behind us. A lot to unpack. We're going to start with Colin McGregor, of course. He was victorious. He knocked out Donald Cowboy Soroni in, I believe, 42nd, sub-minute.

I know both of us picked Connors to win. I don't think we picked him to win that emphatically. Cowboy Serroney actually landed zero strikes. He did throw a kick, so at least he threw something, but didn't land a single strike. So the first time that's ever happened to him, he holds every single record, and now Connor McGregor holds another record,

knocks out Cowboys throwing under a minute, and absorbs zero damage. I mean, we were talking turnaround, and we were like, well, it depends on how healthy he comes out, didn't cut away, so his bias is not depleted, and now he absorbed no damage. We'll get to that later, but what did you make of Connor's performance here in Las Vegas?

I felt it was pretty much exactly what the UFC and Connor would have wanted out of this kind of fight, And when it was set up, you know, kind of comes out as the favorite. You know, he had a litany of things that were being talked about outside the Octagon. And it was very important for him to come back in here, get a win and create a lot of new storylines, which he absolutely did in this press conference. And I feel like this has laid the foundation for him to start compelling people to come to these big events in Vegas again. You know, a lot of people in Ireland were on the fence about this, but I could feel it picking up.

I could see my WhatsApp blowing up. You know, as the fight was getting closer, there is something about Connemar Greger that Irish people need to watch. And I think he's done a great job all week of putting his best row forward and the result has really capped it all off. Well, interesting tidbit you dropped, you felt the momentum kind of pick up the closer we got to the fight. When you got here in Las Vegas, your remarks were like it's, it doesn't feel like a Conner

fight. The fans in Ireland don't seem that invested. You did that wonderful piece where you interviewed all the people on the street in Dublin. whether Connor saw it or not is up for debate. But now that the fight is over and we saw how he won and so dominantly, what was the reaction back home in Ireland? Yeah, I could see people cheering him on, getting behind him again. You know, he draped himself in the Troy color.

He went out of his way to call to action to the Irish people. And that's something that we were missing for a long time. As I said, after the Alvarez fight, he became a global commodity. But this one, it was a bit of a throwback in a sense that he was taught. talking about Ireland a lot. He was addressing the country. It happened very late in the week. I mean, it's only happened really tonight, but it was a lot of it tonight. He spoke to RTE, the national broadcaster just moments ago and he was asked, you know, what do you want to say to the people who've let you down? And he said, they motivate me to get back

in there. They need to keep me in check. So I feel like that's the type of thing that the Irish people want to hear, that they have been heard. They weren't happy with his previous behavior and this is the kind of stuff they want to see going forward, you know? So the Irish have their fighter is back. He wins in, I'll say, vintage Connor fashion. I mean, even he himself said leading up to that Habib fight, he wasn't focused, he wasn't as motivated, he was drinking. He didn't have structure in his life. Now he was, he has structure.

He didn't drink. I mean, someone asked him like, how does it feel it's drinking again now that you want it? He just kind of laughed it off and toasted his proper number 12. It was vintage Connor what we saw. The Irish were getting behind him. But what's next for him inside the Octagon? like we said, he took no damage. He was interested in fighting in March

if that Israel-At-Sahyola-Mayrero fight wasn't happening, but that fight is happening. I can't imagine they're going to put him above a middle-white title fight, especially Israel-Azania who they're trying to make a big star. So if you're in Connor McGregor's camp, what's the fight you are pushing for?

I know UFC President Dana-Way is adamant. He wants Connard to fight Habib next or Tony Ferguson, whoever, but if you're Conner's camp, what's the next move? You know, I think the thing about the Soroni fight is when it was made everybody automatically is saying,

oh, Connor's going to win this fight. Historically, Connor is the guy trying to climb the mountain, and he's calling these names, and people are saying, oh, I don't think he can do this one. I think that's what we need to see next. We need to see a challenge

where people are going, oh, I really don't know if he's going to be able to do this. I think Horee Mazvedal is one of those people. Of course, Habib is one of these people. Dana and Connor both particularly seem to want that Habeb fight next. In Moscow. Dana doesn't want a mosque, but Connor's like,

I want to fight him in Moscow. Absolutely. But that's what they want to see. They want to see him going on and taking on challenges where, you know, the odds might be stacked against him. Certainly in a Habib fight, the way the first fight went, of course Habib would be the favorite in that one. And I think that's what's really going to get people, get their skin back in the game and, you know, have people really compelled. A fight where we don't know what's going to happen, essentially, because, you know, this was the majority pick. The vast, vast majority pick was a Conner McGregor-K-O. So I think the next time we need to see him going forward, putting on a bit, like, you know, challenging someone very big.

Like, I mean, he's trying to Mayweather. Habib, Al-Lah, moving up to fight Alvarez. These were the type of fights that were energizing the whole nation. And I think that's what we need to see next. And I think he's compelled to do it out next as well. From what he's saying, it certainly seems that way to me. Well, the fight with Habib and Tony Ferguson is there because, like, one reporter pointed out, like there's all this talk of the immediate rematch.

Or not the immediate rematch, the rematch, the rematch with Habib. Habib has to be Tony Ferguson first. And Connor seemed very interesting in that fight as well. Like, he said the lightweight, the gold would interest him. more than the fake BMF belt that he said. Like the Horri Mazvedal fight, I think, would be the biggest fight the UFC could possibly make. Dana doesn't agree.

Dana does not agree. He thinks Connor Grego versus Habib, the rematch, could do more than 3 million buys. I mean, he said this fight was trending massively. He said that fight would be the biggest fight. But of course, Abeeb has to win. Maybe Tony Ferguson wins. Maybe they do a rematch with Habib and Tony Ferguson. Who knows?

I personally like the Harri Mazvedolf fight. Dana White wants Horri Mazvold versus Kamara Uzman. And Kamar Uzman was also Kate's side, yawning when they put the camera on him. But I think we're both in agreement like Justin Gage is kind of a loser in this whole situation. Not a loser in the sense that like, what do you do with him now? But he wasn't in the narrative. No, he really wasn't. He was very much in the narrative before it was announced that it was Soroni that he would be fighting.

Everybody was common for Gage. Unfortunately, he wasn't one of the people that was, you know, proposed to Conard tonight when he was on the stage, really. It was all about Masvedal. It was all about Usman. It was all about Habib. Unfortunately, it looks like he's got the short end of the sticker for Justin. But, you know, Masvedal is a huge fight. You know, like, it really is.

And it's a fight that takes place within McGregor's Wheelhouse. A lot of people are saying to me from back home that Masvidal didn't really stimulate interest in that fight tonight as much as he possibly could have. I haven't watched the broadcast, so I don't know. But, you know, when Dana was talking about that Habib fight today and breaking all these records, It does seem like a way bigger fight now that Connor has won a fight again. In this fashion. Yeah, like in theory, when they were just talking about that without this happening, without a win, when Connor was just talking about the rematch, it seemed crazy.

But now that we've seen him all this week with better behavior and he's gone in and done exactly what everyone expected them to do, now it seems like, you know, maybe it could be. Maybe they could, like that was a crazy, crazy fight. The storylines you could generate from that fight. It was insane. Like, I mean, no matter what we want to say, it was ugly. It was very dark, but everybody was really involved. The world stopped for that.

You know, so, you know, maybe he does have a point there, but just right now, Masvedal seems like the hot guy, or certainly did before this happened. I mean, the narrative that comes to mind is Connor himself said he wasn't focused in that camp leading up to Habib. I mean, you yourself said, like, the stories that could come out of that fight camp could probably fill a book.

Oh, crazy. Crazy. So, like, the narrative's going to be a focused Conrigger rematching Habib. Like, his foot's probably. not going to be blown up like a balloon and this and that. So I'm not quite sold because I think Habib will win that rematch. And I will first he has to get through Tony Ferguson. And Floyd Mayweather.

And of course Flynn Mayweather put out a graphic to rematch Connor. And then 30 minutes later he puts out a graphic to fight Habib. It's quite confusing. It is quite confusing. Many Paco is making fake graphics to fight Conn McGregor in Allegiance Stadium here in Las Vegas, the new Raiders Stadium. So if you're Connor McGregor, you pretty much have the pick of the litter who's going to make you the most money.

And like Dina White said, Connor versus this random reporter with a camera would be a big fight. And I tend to agree, who cares who Connor McGregor fights next? People are going to be interested. Exactly. As I said, he's laid the foundation to grow again now.

But this was necessary. This whole thing was a necessary step to take before he could go on and challenge these big names again. I really feel like that, you know? Seroni himself, like I see a lot of people saying, you know, he didn't put forward a good challenge. But, you know.

I mean, who, like, he didn't, put forth a good challenge, but who could have been prepared for those shoulder strikes that he threw, like, those literally just shattered his nose right away. Like, I mean, that is a positive that McGregor's camp are going to take from this. Like, he showed a lot of new wrinkles. Like, no, he's landed head kicks back in the day and cage warriors, all this kind of stuff. And, but like, you know, to damage Soroni the way he did with the shoulder strikes and the head kicks, like, you know, he spoke about himself.

Like he was saying, you know, I'm only known for the last hand. These are new wrinkles in his game. We haven't really seen those before. He hurt Soroni with the shoulder strikes. He hurt him with the head kick. So I feel like that's something they're going to take very positively from this. So one final one before he moved further down the card. You said you viewed this fight as potentially a factory reset.

Is that what you witnessed today? Absolutely. Look, nobody's talking about all the controversies. Everybody's just talking about, is it going to be Masvidal? It's going to be Habib. Is he going to do it in a stadium? He's created so many story lines today. And none of them are negative.

Really. It's just pondering its future. Like, that's exactly what the UFC and Connor McGregor would have wanted. from today. We've come away from this event talking about this guy who was so happy, he was so respectful all the way through the camp. You know, he's coming out here and he's setting up several fights. Is it going to be

Usman, it's going to be Habib, it's going to be Mazbara. I think that's pretty much perfect from McGregor's brand position. I think that's exactly what they would have wanted. So moving down one fight, we're going to talk about the co-main event. Holly Holmove moves to 2-0 against Raquel Pennington. Not the most thrilling fight. I don't want to put blame on any of the

fighters because Holly Holm was basically using a lot of offense work where she'd push the fight up against the fence, clinch up, and kind of work in the short range. Crowd hated. I was outside sitting octagon south. The crowd booed whenever they clinched up and just had a roar cheer whenever they separated. But Raquel didn't really seem to do anything to try and stop it. Like she would find yourself stuck against the fence and was basically like, I guess this is where

I'm here now. And Holly Holme was like, well, I'm just going to keep working then. Like if you're not going to do anything, I'm just going to keep working. Dana White was not the happiest person. We're standing back here during the press conference. Dana White is rinsing the referee for not separating the fighters, saying there was no action, saying like when there's not enough action supposed to separate them, this and that. Holly Holm is standing right here looking at Dana White, basically throwing this fight under the bus.

But what was your takeaways from this fight? Yeah, I mean, it wasn't the most thrilling fight in the world. But I mean, Holly came in here as a boxer and she's in there doing this to Raquel. She's out wrestling her. I mean, Raquel's not going to offer anything else. What do you want Holly to do? She's won the fight soundy. And look, you know, maybe some blame does be placed on the referee.

You know, it's hard to know. But I just think it's a tad, you know, disrespectful when Holly's there waiting for a turn to get up on the stage. And the press conference has gone on for an hour. And we later learned on, like, Holly got very emotional saying that her father, like, recently had a stroke. And her head, that really affected her. So I get... And her father's usually got these fights. Her father is very...

She's very close to their father. She plays a huge part in her comments. back career. So you have to feel for Holly. And she got the W at the end of the day. That's all the matter. She's back in the win column. She said she has no interest in retiring right now. She thinks she can get back to the championship fight yet again. But it's obviously going to have to take a few more. But is there anything you want to see from Holly in terms of who you'd like to see your fight next? No, nothing jumping out on me to be quite honest. What about you? Is there anyone you're like, I'm not jumping up. Maybe you're rematch with Jermaine.

He now 135. They both lost Amanda Nunes. So you could rematch there. There's a lot of, there's a lot of fighters at 135 that Holly could fight, but it's like Holly seems to be one of those fighters that's always going to be right there for a championship contenders. So who do you want to, who do you want to fight and knock off the title pass? So maybe, I would say maybe rematch germane at 135. That's what I'm about you. That's a 145. There's controversial with the two late punches at the end.

So that's the one that immediately comes to mind. Yeah, I completely agree. That's a great show one. Anything else interest you off this card? We'll say the main card because we have a lot to talk about on the preland two, but Team Crystal member, Brian Keller, his last few, last like 24 hours, gets a crystal from us backstage at the official Wayans.

Like an hour later, gets bumped up to the main car of pay-per-view, submits his opponent O'Day Oswald in the first round, and gets a performance on the main bonus. Now, I don't want to say we played a factor in that, but we definitely played a factor in that, right? Well, I don't know. Was us or the power of pyroids, but it certainly was something came over, Brian Keller today,

and he admitted as much in his post-fight interview. And look, you know, we're getting some people hate on the crystal movement. But the proof's in the putting, guys, we got out there tonight, you know? I mean, it was a major win for Mr. Kelly, her former co-host of the A side, maybe future co-host of the A-Side, too. But anything else to jump out of you on the main card. Alexio Linnick picks up, like, his 57th or 47th. I can't remember the number off the time he had his win.

Fabricio Over Doom calls him out. Diego Fahed at submits Anthony Pettis. I believe it's the first time Anthony Pettis ever submitted, if I'm not mistaken. But that's a huge win for Diego. Like, Toys him off on Pettus now. Like, you know, I know he was the favorite coming into this, but for the casual fans watching, like, they know Anthony Pettus. He was on the Wheaties' Box.

And as Casey was saying, actually, during the fight, a cameraman, he was saying, you know, Pettus always uses the same kind of escape from that rear naked choke. You know, he always tries to get out the same way. But Diego was all over him, man. He did his homework. He's so good. He's so strong in those positions.

And I'm certain something really big from him next. Like, as was said to him afterwards, the last person, Anthony Pettus, went into one of the biggest fights of the year against Jorge Maspal for the BMF title. Now, not that I'm saying, I think Diego's going to be a BMF anytime soon, but certainly, certainly a very impressive guy

who's probably floating on the radar a bit too much. I think he deserves a top 10 ranking right now. Like, he obviously, I believe Anthony Pettus was like 9 or 10 in the Lightwood division now. So even if he doesn't go into the top 10, maybe he's right there at 11 and 12, but a top 10 opponent is massively deserved. Anything else really jump out of you from this?

Just something you said to me actually, and it's a good shout. We're talking about Pettus suffering defeat. We're talking about surrounding suffering defeat. Is it a time for that rematch? Yeah, that's a fantastic. You brought it up. We were sitting in the back trying to wonder what was going on.

They both fight at 170. They both lost to Nate Diaz. They fight a 155. So I like that rematch. It was teased at earlier this year by Duke Rufus. So whether this is at 170, whether it's at 155, I don't know, but I actually do really like that rematch. Yeah.

The first one happened, I think, years ago. three-round fighting Chicago was like a body kick. So it's a good fight night main event. Yeah, and I mean, I think that fight was actually meant to happen here, Pettus v. Soroni. I think that's what Anthony told us at the media day the other day. As far as he was concerned, that that was going down here on this card. And next of all, Soroni was taken out of play.

And we have Connum Regeroy, Donald Seroni. And moving on to the preliminary card, I definitely want to get your thoughts on the as our cameraman has dubbed it the People's Main Event, Roxanne Mottafari, He earns a bloody, dominant decision over Macy Barbara, who some of our fellow journalists have called. She basically big sistered her the entire fight. Casey and I were on the A side when you were having your playing difficulties,

and we looked up the line, and that Wednesday, Macy Barra was minus 1,000 favorite to win. And not only did she come up short, her first defeat ever, I don't remember her record off the top of my head. She got just cut open, her knee buckled. She got full, like Roxanne got full amount twice. Everything Macy Barber threw up at her. Roxanne not only got out, but got into extremely dominant position.

So what did you make of this performance by Roxanne Montefarro? Who, as she told me, has been training martial arts long than Macy's been alive. So looking at this, was this, was the writing on the wall for this type of performance to happen? I think it's a huge win. She looked brilliant at the way. Unbelievable. She looks so ripped, you know. And I remember when I saw her facing off with Macy at the ceremonial way ins,

and you're kind of seeing them looking at each other, like, I sound huge, you know? And it's just experience, you know? Like, we haven't really seen her go that dark before. Sure. You know, she was pretty sinister in there as she was fighting. She's the nicest person in the world when she isn't fighting. We should point out.

But she looked absolutely unbelievable. You could argue it's nearly one of the biggest wins of her career. Because we're all talking about, Macy's going to be the youngest champion. And Macy, oh, she, you know, she hits like a mule. And then Roxanne goes in there and, you know, has her way with it, really. Like, she completely dominated. Like, Macy had no answers for anything. She looked genuinely shocked with the situation.

Remember the doctor came up to try to check her eye and she's pushing her away? It was, she completely overwhelmed. She never been. I felt she was cracked. She cracked after that first round and her knee was buckled. Weird situation where the referee like checked or the doctor checked the knee between rounds. And we're like, well, what if Roxanne didn't know her knee was hurt? Now she clearly knows her knee is hurt.

But she said she didn't know. She didn't know. didn't want to target the knee. She's like, I wanted to punch her in the face, not the knee. So I was like, what a nice, nice woman. Just punch you in the face. Not your, not your injured knee. But beautiful performance.

I mean, we were talking on the A side. Like, if Macy wins this by another stoppage, why wouldn't you give her a title shot just based on her the hype alone? She's the one trying to calm us down. We were at the media day going, oh, it's not going to be too long to your point for the toilet. She's like maybe two or three more. You know what I mean? So that's a situation she came into there.

Like, we were all pushing this as the next big star of this, vision and Roxanne comes in and takes all that momentum. I'm very interested to see what they do with Roxanne. And there's a lot of 125 fights going. Malin de Kahn has a big fight. She has a brilliant win streak too. So maybe she wins. That's a fun fight. That's a great for you. Roxanne, I don't want to see Roxanne. Modified fights any more prospects. You see what happens there with this. She debuted in 2003. That was a pro debut and Macy was five. So I mean, no one else, but anything else on this prelim card that really jumped out of you. Sidique Yusef was a big win. Your man, Ask her Ask her off, had a brilliant performance. Joseph Benavides. He even gave

the title contender, gave him a big shout-up. But anything else? Strike you. I know another one, the one that you were very, the Drew Dober knocked out. His name was. Exactly. A lot of great performances on this.

Drew Dover was unbelievable, man. Nazrat's a really, really hyped guy. You know, he's born to Afghani parents. He fights out of Germany. And I can remember the first time I went to a Hamburg card, you know, it's very obvious what he means to the people over there. He's a huge deal and really Drew again steals all the his momentum. You know, he left himself open for that point.

That's going to hunt him. Weird performance from Nazarek half where he came out. He seems like anxious to just get it over with. Like he came in like just looking for a haymaker right away. And Drew Dober was like, whoa, what's happening? Like he seems anxious. I don't know if it was overwhelmed by the card, by maybe something happened. Like you said like maybe something happened before.

But he threw a kick without any sort of setup. Andrew Dober was like, there's your face. Bam, knockout. So it was just a weird, weird performance for an individual with all this hype. Yeah, and look, you never want to see a prospect getting, you know, starch like that. Let's be honest, you know, he had a few digs on the ground there. Yeah. You know.

One too many. I think one too many. I felt like, you know, they could have stepped in earlier. But, yeah, look, they're going to have to do a big rebuild job with Nazrat Nail. Like, as I said, before this, Farazade is a hobby. He has this guy pit it as a future world champion. Yeah. Like, that is not, um, that's not the kind of results he wants.

If he's going to be chasing the own belts, but drew it over, it looked fantastic. And, you know, he has Dana Hoyt, big and all. Got a performance bonus. Yeah, it's great. Like, um, it's just the way the fight game goes, isn't it? Momentum. I mean, Sadie Kusk, you said, talked about momentum. He's one of the hottest fighters of the other way right now.

I mean, I remember talking with Andre Fili. I've been saying this for a long time. Like, he told me when he beat Miles Fierreierre, like, I'm going to be champion by the end of 2019. Didn't work out. First fight at 2020 comes up short to Saddik Yousep. seemed to be pretty split in terms of one on Twitter when I was reading through like who people thought won, but a win's a win. I don't think like the bad boy, Alice Kaley says, close fights aren't always controversial. It was a close fight.

I actually had Sadiq Yusuf winning. But if they had given the fights, Andre Fiel, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't call it a robbery. But what did you make a sit? You've been covering Sadiq for quite a while, haven't you? Yeah, well, he was on our radar. He fought an Irish prospect, Dylan Chuk there a while ago. And we knew all about him then. And that was maybe a year before he had signed for the UFC.

But today I was really impressed with how he handled the media, to be honest. I know the guy he can fight. I know he's a savage fighter. But he came out and he was brilliant with the media. He was telling us how he's trying to stop his mother from competing in MMA. He got her to train. She lost 20, 30 pounds. But, you know, he seemed like a really great person.

Just got a citizenship, correct? Yes. Like he had so much to say. And to be honest, he looked fresh as a daisy. You know, he didn't have a mark on his. I think his lips, he might have cut. He had a kind of blemish over his eye, but he looked fresh. I think he's a huge future.

He's 26 years of age. I mean, the sky is the limit for that guy. Another great prospect to watch out for a feather win. Coming into this card, I think one of the narratives outside of everything surrounding Connor was this card really had like a boxing field to where it was a main event, it drew so much interest. And then a lot of fights that might have been important or like we understood they were fun fights, but weren't bringing the eyeballs to this card after it's all said and done.

Like Sabina Amazo had a great performance. Asker-Assarov had a great performance. Drew Dover, Sadiq Yusuf, Roxanne Mada Fires. At the end of the day, pretty fun card when it's all set and done. Yeah, I think some of the Europeans were having issues with the Hollyholm, Raquel Pangton, you know, when you're waiting for that main event and you're anticipating it so much, you know,

a slow, long event to really take the wind out of your sales. But other than that, I think it was very good. I mean, we were very entertained watching the fights today. I had a blast, as they would say over here. But anything else you want to say, you want to wrap this up, really put a bow on the end of USC 246 and the return of Connor McGregor, to the win column, I'll say. Yeah, like, I mean, I just think it's a home run for them.

This is exactly what they wanted. You know, there's no doubt about it. He's a valuable, valuable commodity. I think Dana Hoy said afterwards there, that they think he's... It's over two billion. Well, he was like, I like that. Someone asked him, goes, he worth two billion dollars.

That'll do. That sounds good to me. Yeah, but, you know, this is a lot. is what they needed. Connor now has so many avenues he can go down. He's going to stimulate the interest of the crowd again. And, you know, it's all about what they're going to do next. And we're interested to hear what they're going to do next. It's not like we're going, oh, whatever. Like, I mean, there is many fights there and huge fights that they can make based off Connor getting back in the wind column. And Connor really kind of absolving himself of everything

that has happened. Well, in terms of everyone's interest now, this has just happened. recency bias will dictate that this is what they're going to talk about. Well, I can't think of a better way to end this. We're going to wrap this up here from the UFC 246 Post-Fight show. You can stick around on this YouTube page. You can watch all of our Post-Fights scrums with all the winners from the undercard. The main event, Connor McGregor and Holly Home at Press Commerces after Dana White had a press conference.

We're going to have coffee talk coming out soon, which I know you're very excited about. We're going to have another hipster hour while we drink coffee. But stay on this page. Casey Ladin's making funny faces behind. But for Jose, that's P.C. You can catch him on Eurobash. I'll be on the A-side. He won't be because he's going on vacation or something. But maybe we'll have Brian Keller her back. Who knows? Hold on your crystals. Stay on this page. We're out.