MMA Fighting - UFC 251 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: July 12, 2020

MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jose Youngs break down the top storylines following Saturday night’s memorable UFC 251 event on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, including Kamaru Usman's unanimous decision win over Jorge Masvidal in the welterweight championship headliner.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs 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. All right. Well, Fight Island was officially christened tonight for the UFC in Abu Dhabi. There was no baptism to be had in the main event of UFC 251. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the official UFC 251 post-fight show here on M.AFighting.com. I am Mike Heck on location this week from Boston, Massachusetts, visiting the parents this weekend. That is Jose Young's. Jose, main event, Kamara Usman, retains the wall.

out of way title against Jorge Mazadol. Challenger looked pretty darn good in that first round. I'm pretty surprised that two judges gave Usman that first round, but it was the much fresher champion that was able to sort of chip away at the always game Jorge Mazadol throughout the fire, right? You say fresher champion, but Kamar Usman was basically been in camp since beginning this year. This fight was like been booked and booked in books.

He was supposed to fight earlier. He was supposed to fight Gilbert Burns and all of a sudden, Jorge Mazel steps in. So yes, he's technically fresher because he's had the full camp. camp and everything. But I think Camaro Ousman wasn't 100% in that fight either, considering this long extended fight camp. He had a la, similar to Tony Ferguson,

with all these fights falling apart. But Camar Usman won, nonetheless, might not have been the most exciting fight. I saw a couple tweets complaining about the fight, and I really take that. I felt it was a lot of fans that were on this Hoi-Mazel, hype train. He's on the video game cover. He's on this baptism run, the resurrection, super necessary punches,

BMF title, this and that. And they were expecting violence. Even myself, I myself said, a fight between Usman and Mazel probably has a higher chance of ending in a violent way, but it did not. Kamar Usman won. I had him winning all five rounds. The first round, I guess, it didn't really matter

to me who won that. I still, Kamar Usman won at least four of the rounds comfortably. The people complain about the foot stomps, the wrestling, the headbutts, all that stuff, but Kamar Usman did what he had to do to win. That's exactly the type of fight. I thought he would take to Horry Mazel, because

for all the talk about Horamazel taking this fight on short notice. Camarro Usman also took this fire on a short notice. I mean, I guess, an completely different fighter between Gilbert Burns and Horace Mazzol. That's completely re-changed. Left his camp, had his new, Trevor Whitman in his corner for the first time, fighting the BMF

guy, all this bad blood is in the air, all the pressures on him to perform. Like we ourselves said, all the pressures on Usman, not a whole lot on Mazadol. But at the end of the day, Usman did what he had to do. I didn't have a problem with the way he fought. It might not have been the most exciting, but if I was going to

predict away Usman would pull this off, this is exactly how I thought he would do it. Yeah, when you get a fight like this and you have a guy as hot as Mazdaal, that brings in a lot of the casual fan base that doesn't watch, you know, as many events as we watch

and some of the hardcore fans that watch everything. So most people expected this fight to go exactly that way. I thought the first round was going to be the most interesting round, obviously, because of Mazadol was going to get it done.

He's probably going to have to do it in the first five minutes. And this is the fight we got. Like, Kumar Usman defends his title for the second time. It was another classic Uzman-like performance. And he gets a one-sided win in a highly anticipated main event. So in the end, we like to talk about the overall letter grade, but it felt like just kind of looking at the time slot when we're all set and done as we were getting ready to hit record here. We're just like, man, this is super late. Like I feel like the card kind of, and the whole night in a weird way went kind of slow, did it not?

I think it started off really, really quickly. it might have just been on my part. Like, I feel like the first few flew by. And all of a sudden, I had been watching fights for two and a half, three hours. I'm like, oh, wow, this fight is, this fight card is going quickly. I like this pace. And then we hit the main card, and Amanda Hebas comes in and just submits Pagevin's Ant immediately, which went exactly as I expect to do.

But then there was decision with Rose and Androge. And then even Jan Aldo ends in a finish, but it was in the fifth round. So they still basically fought for 25 minutes. And then we get 25 minutes of Volcanowski Holloway. Then we get 25 minutes of Usman and Mazda also. Of these, we've seen, we saw that graphic on the screen, like all of the UFC cards are three title fights. And like we had the UFC 214 had like Woodley and Maya and Jones and Cormier and Cyborg

Avenger and then 217, 205. Like those had some bangers. Like, like, 2017 had three epic fights, three like violent, like just three of the craziest finishes you'll see. and then of course 205, the Connor McGregor show and the 2017 had the DC Jones trilogy. So I think we were a little

maybe, well, spoiled on these three title fight cars where we're expecting something like that. And I loved all, like, all great fights, all spectacular fights, but I think a lot of fans that were tuning in to see Fight Island and the Mazved Alt's train and all these title fights might have been a little bit. I could

see why they might have been a little disappointed. I didn't have a problem with it, but probably wasn't the night Dana White wanted in terms of finishes. Yeah, the main event may have disappointed some people, but for meritocracy sake, this is like the best thing that could have happened for the welterweight division. Like, if you're Gilbert Burns, if you're Leon Edwards, these two guys are pretty happy right now, especially Gilbert Burns. 100%. I mean, we, we said it on, I can't remember if it was on what the heck or a post-fight show or a pre-show, whatever, they all kind of blend together at this point

in the summer. But we said, if Mazvedo wins, that's going to be a problem for the UFC's pockets, the welterweight division. I mean, he, he's, We were talking about him bringing the both belts to the Connor McGregor, the table and all this. But Kamar Uzman won, and it's a no-brain that Gilbert Burn

gets three matches. He should have been fighting tonight before COVID-19. He caught COVID-19 and had to pull out of the car. So, yeah, for the World War II Division and the martial art fans of the world that don't like, quote-unquote, skipping the line or holding out the divisions,

I think it's a good thing. But honestly, I love chaos. if Mazadol had won, I think it would have been a fun time in the world of MMA. And Mazadol, let's be clear, we all know this. He was the A side heading into this fight. He's the reason there was a lot of buzz and a lot of fanfare. When you had a guy like Game Bread in the streak that he's on, that's what happens. But a lot of people want to know where he goes from here because despite losing the fight tonight,

he still has a ton of options moving forward. Chaos can still rain in some way, Jose. Can you say that again? You cut off for a quick second. chaos can rain for Jorge Mazadol. No doubt about it because he's got so many options moving forward despite the loss tonight. Yeah, I mean, Jorge Mazurzadol, Camaruiz himself said it.

Like, he's going to lose. He's like, Uzman said it. He's like, he's going to lose and have all these like excuses built in, took the fight on six days of notice, flew across across the country, he doesn't have his coach in the gym, COVID-19, this and that. So like, I don't think, I think, of course, I think Mazurl obviously cooled. Anytime you lose, you cool a little bit.

Unless you're Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz and it's such an insane finish that they run it back and you have another epic fight like that. But for Mazurl, you're obviously going to cool a little bit. But he himself said, let me get a couple of wins and they'll run it back. I'm sure he would love to fight Uzman on a full camp. But the Colby Covington fight is there. I think that is going to drum up a whole lot of interest. I think people might even be more interested in that fight in the dynamic between those two fighters than Uzman and Mazur. I think that Colby Covington, Ohioie Mazel's fight, does not need a title on the line.

That's just two guys that hate each other that want to break brick on each other's faces. Usman can fight Gilbert Burns. Leon Edwards is, of course, out there. Wonderboy Thompson's working his way up. Santanao, Ponzovian, I think, has COVID too, so he's somewhere out there. So the Welterweight Division won't move. But for now, Mazudal, of course, cooled, but he's still, I think, still the hottest commodity at 170 pounds. Yeah, I think Covington's the fight to make.

But even the Leon Edwards fight, like, no one talks. Like, no one talks about Leon Edwards versus Jorge Mazadol, but there's so much history there. But I understand why Mazadol might be hesitant. It's not a huge money fight, but Colby would be massive. As we move ahead to the Coal Main event, saw Alexander Volcanovsky retained his featherweight title in a very, very close fight. Max Holloway made some adjustments, some really good ones heading into the fight. You saw it throughout. Volkovsky made his adjustments sort of in the middle of the fight, and in the end, gets a split decision victory.

And look, there's no way you could call this. a robbery, Jose. Like, if Holloway got the nod, I wouldn't have been upset. Volcanofsky getting it, that doesn't upset me either. What did you think in the Featherway title fight and how the decision went? I had Max winning. I can't remember the exact scores I had, the exact rounds I had. But I had him winning.

I thought it was pretty obvious. Max won. It's not a robbery because at the end of it, I'm like, that was a really, really close fight. The problem is, in my mind, Max clearly won the first two. I think that's obvious. He won the first two. I had a bunch of knockdowns.

But then when the rounds that Volcanoxianowski won, which would be 3, 4, 5, I think on the judge's scorecards, I don't think he clearly won any of those. I think in the fourth round, I was looking at this. I'm like, Max could be up 4-0 or it could be 2-2. Like, that's how close this is right now. So Max is in the situation where he gets all these knockdowns, clearly wins the first two. And then Volkinovsky, I don't want to say skates by or steals or anything because they were just razor thin. Those were 10, 9 rounds. Either round could have gone to them.

He seemed to be going to the well lot with those leg kicks, and Holloway was making a lot of adjustments, as you said. I think in the first two rounds, he looked like a completely different fighter. Looks like the greatest featherweight of all time in there. And I thought after the first two rounds, I was like, Max is going to win this. Like, he looks unbelievable in there. So, but at the end, Volcanowski pulled it out. I was doing Twitter reacts for the site. I tell you, Alexander Volcanowski's fellow fighters are not happy about that decision.

And we could talk all we want about judges and scorecards and this. But if a fighter's watching it and the majority of. fighters are complaining about it. Maybe they're just the most vocal in the ones that disagree or aren't saying anything, but the majority of the fighters I saw react completely disagree. They thought Volcanowski won at least three of those rounds. And I don't disagree with them. But Volcanowski won and Max is now 0 and 2 against the champion.

It's a weird time to be a featherweight because you got a quote unquote, like this champion that's on the super long run, this looks super-long run, this looks super impressive, beats Holloway twice, beats Aldo, and now we can go out to these bigger fights. but you're always getting in the back of your mind. Like, you lost that second fight to Holloway. It's, I wish it didn't go that way. So what do we do now? I mean, if Holloway won matchmaking would be much easier

because you could just run Volcanovsky back for the third time. But, you know, this is a tough fight. Maybe you turn Volko around at the end of the year. But there's so many questions we still need to answer at 145 pounds. We got one coming up on Wednesday between Calvin Cater and Dan Igay. And then you got Korean zombie. You got Brian Ortega. You got Zabit Magamad Sharapai.

you got Yaya Rodriguez. There's so many questions that still need to be answered before you can even start talking about what's next for Volcanovsky, right? Yeah, I think even Alexander Volcanowski himself said, like Max deserves the title, but he was really hoping a lot of these 145ers would fight each other, and someone would really break away from the pack. Volcanowski was like that. Even Max Hollow was like that because remember when the 145-pound division was all tied up

between, it seems like Connor and Aldo and even Frankie Edgar fought Aldo for the interim title, and then Max was just like, I'm just going to keep fighting. and I'm going to keep winning. And that's what Volcanovinsky did. He just kept fighting and fighting and fighting until you couldn't deny him a title fight. And that's what Alexander Volcanowski won. Max Holloway just happened to be the next man up. And he goes, sure, he deserves it.

I'll run it back. I'm really interested in the Ortega Korean zombie fight. I think that would make sense for the next title shot. Depending on, like, of course, Cater E.gay, I think he could maybe fight the winner of Zabitia Rodriguez and all the stuff. But again, it's too soon to matchmate because, like, look what happened. Gilbert Burns is supposed to fight tonight. And that was what, six days ago, seven days ago. I think it was like a week ago we did a reaction show.

We were like, this is the worst case scenario. This is going to be awful for the wealth of aid division. What are we going to do? So a lot could make sense matchmaking wise down the road. But in 24 hours, a fight could fall out. I mean, I was talking Alex K. Lee, who was trying to, God bless him, he was trying to write great divide. It seemed like every time he had a, he finally wrote it, a fight would fall out. And then you say, all right, I'm going to replace it with this fight.

And then another, the fight is re-books. And he has to rewrite it. So who knows what they like. We can talk about what we want, all we want. But until the world is at least stable, it's an impossible task. Yeah, we may not have clarity, but it's still a pretty good problem to have it. 100%. You have so many contenders.

But first of three title fights, we had Piotr Yan finishing Joseoaldo in the fifth round. And I feel like, Jose, it's one of those fights where Jan is going to be praised for the way he performed today. night, especially down the stretch. But not as much as she should be because the focus goes to Leon Roberts for letting that fight go on for far too long. So first off, and I don't want to take the shine off of Yon because he looked phenomenal tonight, but that was way too late of a stoppage, like way too late. Yeah, I think we talk about giving like entitled fights. You want to give the fighter like we want you want to give them the benefit of the doubt when they're

down there. Like the, okay, like Dominic Cruz, of course. I can't remember the rest of the name, but he was all, he was complaining about the referee smelling like beer and cigarettes. And he did. This was Dominic Cruz, of course, UFC 249. Keith Peterson. Just complaining that he wasn't giving him the opportunity to step in there. But then also late like two fights later or like a fight later, we see the referee stop, the fight between Gigi and Ferguson. And we all like, that was a great move.

That was an unbelievable move. This and then we see this. And it's the exact opposite. it. Like, Joseo Aldo was in the fight for the first three rounds. I even was like, wow, Josiah, like, I think somewhere in the third round, it really looked like Jose, we talked about this on the A side, like, the difference between, like, experience and, like, youth. And it really looked like Aldo's experience was just, like, turning the corner. Like, in that second round, he went to the light kicks, and it was working. It was working so well. And then in the third round, it started to look like he was going on the body a lot more. And I was like, the Aldo just, he turned the corner now. And then Jan was just, like, he turned the corner now. And then Jan was just, like, he was just, like absolutely not. I'm just going to run through this guy. I'm going to make adjustment too. I'm going to switch stances. I'm going to do this and that. I'm going to start going to the body and then jump on top and use his head as a as a basketball. And I think I don't know how many it took, but that fight could have been stopped maybe 60 or 90 seconds sooner. And we

wouldn't be having this conversation. So yeah, awful. Rettling. Terrible like agreed. Aldo should it was a good stop. It was a good quote stop. It just came way too late. Unless you're Matt Brown, who thinks the referee was doing a good job, which I don't agree with. Yeah, it was like 35 shots too many. But it was, it's crazy because the fight, Yon almost got the fight stopped in the first round. Like, although it's tough as nails, but Peonre Yon looked great. Game plan seemed pretty apparent. Keep out of sort of guessing early.

And then just begin the process of wearing them down a bit and then turn up the volume. By the fourth round, this was all Peodor Yon. What did you think A of the fight itself? Because I thought it was probably the best of the three title fights. Definitely. And the performance of the new champion overall. 100% of the best performance of the three, Peoria Yan, like the first two, three rounds was, I was like, this fight absolutely rules. Like, this is just high level, moitized striking.

Like, both of them were really light on their front toes, and they were heavy on their back, and they were switching stances. Like, Aldo's going to the body and the legs. Peirion would switch stances and then, like, slap that jab down the middle. It was, I absolutely loved that fight. And then, but then Peirrean just pulled away. He just put his foot on the gas and just didn't allow Aldo to breathe. and finished it. I mean, I picked Yon to win. I didn't think Aldo, I said Aldo's not going to get destroyed in there. I thought it would be a lot closer than it was. It wasn't as close as I thought,

but I think Alito didn't look out. He looked like he belonged in there. I get he probably didn't deserve the title fight, but it was still a great fight. Of the three, like you said, of the three title fights, that was the best. And I still think he beat Marlon Marais. So I don't know what's next for Josie Aldo, but the UFC has a star. Peter Yan, especially if if Habib doesn't want to fight anymore after the passing of his dad, which is completely understanding, even Dana White said, they're going to leave him alone for a little bit. With Russia not being in the World Cup and Russia not being in the Olympics, they are dead. And of course, those things aren't happening right now anyway during the pandemic. But they weren't

going to be in those anyway because of an anti-doping violation. Russia is in desperate need of sports stars. And if the USC is the only sport in town going right now, and Habib is obviously the biggest star in the world over there. And if he hangs it up and they have another, champion, Peotreryon, who's right there ready to take the reins, who has an exciting style in a very stacked division, I think the UFC could have an absolute superstar on their hand, especially if he learns like that broken English like Khabi because he already has the humor of it. Like you can see it on Twitter, you can see it in his media days.

If he can at least get his English down, the UFC has a gold mine on the hand with Piotr Yan. Yeah, if you go back into the archives on the YouTube channel here, I interviewed Piotr Yon, and the first couple answers that he gave me were in English. He did a pretty good job. He's definitely learning and getting better, and that's great for his star power as well. But there's no need to discuss who's next, Jose.

It's Al Jermaine Sterling and anything else would be an absolute travesty. I don't even, we're not even going to come up with possible scenarios because that's not going to happen. I mean, Dana White said he's next. Even Josie Aldo in the media day, he's like, I'm obviously focused on Piotr-Yon, but I understand if I beat Piotr-Eon, Alzerman Sterling is next.

Like it's so clear. It's like of all these title fights that have happened, like if the UFC decides, no, we're going to do Usman versus Leon Edwards. I wouldn't be surprised. And I also wouldn't complain because I think Leon Edwards also deserves a rematch. He deserves his rematch against Kamar losing a long time ago. If the UFC gets, if they give anyone else to Peirion for whatever reason, it's just throw the rankings out the door. Throw everything out the door. because, like, yes, Cody Garberant called him out.

He has the beef with Sugar Sean. There's all these other bandings learned. It's Algebraan strong. We're not even going to pretend there's a possible scenario after that. What if Suhudo says? You know what? There's no. There's no.

There's no way. Never going to happen. I don't think Henry Zito wants to fight 135. I don't think he wants to fight Pejadre Yan. He already tweeted he wants to fight Alzaa and or Volkanowski. That would be the only one he would come back for. So I'm not even going to add Henry Suhudo to that name. It is Piorariari.

on Al Jemaine Sterling is next and I cannot wait. Yeah, that's the fight. I'm playing a little bit of a devil's advocate here, but going further down the main card, Rose Nabi Eunice, Jessica Androge, they had an incredible battle for 15 minutes. Androge took over in that third round, but Rose looked great tonight. And I'll be honest, I was a little nervous for Rose because she said some pretty alarming things over the last few months, you know, talking about her mental state, her career path, et cetera, said she wants to be the world's greatest farmer now as opposed to the

world's greatest fighter. But she looked pretty darn good tonight and got a nice win and was able to avenge a loss. I wish that fight was, I wish there were two scenarios that, two things that were added to that. I wish it was five rounds and I wish it was a small cage. If it's in a small cage and that's five rounds, I think that's a completely different fight from both women. I think the small cage would obviously help Jessica and Drodd. I think she was starting to pick it up a little especially with all the damage to Rose's face. If it's a smaller cage in five and she gets 10 more minutes after that, I think Jessica Androche could have pulled that out.

It was, it reminded me of the Valentina, Amanda Nunes, the first fight, where right at the end of that third round, like half through the third round, you see Androche started to pull the corner and do a lot of damage. Rose is starting to show signs of like blood and cuts on her face. I wish that. I wish they had run it back in five rounds and in the apex. but I get why they didn't.

They want to stack this card now. But again, they can do that down the road. If Rose Donovan Unis faces Zhang Wiley next and she somehow wins, I would not mind seeing Androge Rose in the apex for the title five rounds. But again, that's so far down the line. Austin fight from Rose, she got back in the win column. And we talk about all of the concerning things she said leading up to this fight. But she's a professional because remember, she was on that bus that Conradiger attacked.

She, of course, was not mentally the same. after that, but what'd she do? Like two days later, she went out there and had one of the best performances of her life. So she knows when to fight and how to fight. She was beating Androja the first time before she just got dropped on her skull and got knocked dead. So for all we know, she could be two-n-oh against Androja if that doesn't happen. But Rose is a professional, awesome win.

I think, again, the no-brainer fight for me, unless Tatana Suarez miraculously recovers and gets thrown into the tight of the contention. I think it's Rose, Zhang Wally. And I also think the UFC really wants that fight because those are two of their most marketable stars at 115 pounds. Well, here's the thing, back to Devil's Advocate, because Rose clearly banged up after that fight could be a broken orbital. We don't know the exact extent of everything, but she wasn't at the post-fight media scrum

or anything like that. And you could certainly make the argument that she could fight for the belts against Zhang Wei-Lee next, and I would not hate that at all. But she could be out for a little while after that fight. And like you said, we also don't know the health status of one Tatiana Suarez. So the question is, do we try to get Waley in there as soon as possible? Like, if she's ready to go in a couple months, like get her a fight, even if you rematch Yoanna or something, people aren't going to complain about that.

Or do you just hold Zhang Waley off until Rose is ready to fight and just book that one? Well, I think that's ultimately up to the champion. I mean, of course, you remember all the ordeal she had to go through just to fight Yonning and Jachic. I mean, this was right when the coronavirus was about to hit, was hitting China, like, worse than ever. So if she's spending time at home and doesn't want to want to travel, these countries that are being hit hard, I wouldn't blame her. So ultimately, it's up to her. I don't know who else. Like, again, she can run it back with Yawanna. I wouldn't hate it.

I think that's one of the best title fights I've ever seen. Rose makes sense. Tatiana makes sense. Nina Anserrao is having a baby, so she's out the window. And then who's next? Claudia, Carla. So I like, you want to give her Carla or Claudia next? Like, I mean, Carlos fight in Marina Rodriguez in like, what, a couple days, like a week or so. So she's, like, the, Claudia has a fight booked already. So who's next?

Like, who really knows at the end of the day? Like, even if you play process of elimination, you have to go really far down the rankings list to find Jane Wiley a title, an opponent for a next title defense. So I think it has to be Rose, unless Tatea Anaswares recovers. But even then, I'd give a retune of fight

before tossing her in there against a savage-like the champion. So I think it's got to be Rose. You just maybe hold Zhang Wiley until Rose 100% recovers. Yeah, I agree with that. Great win for Amanda Heba. Today kick it off the main card. Submits Paige Van Zan in the first round. She got a very bright future for herself at 115 pounds. Her personality is absolutely infectious as well. Page Van Zan seems to be getting ready to dance off to Bellator as, you know, even if she won this fight, we probably would have expected that anyways. But I mean, if you're ever having a bad day, Jose,

and I think you could attest to this. Just go back and watch the virtual media day scrum with Amanda Hebas, and it's just going to put a smile on all of our faces. Yeah, it was a very big clash of the emotions both fighters brought to their media days. Because, like, Paige wasn't even at the normal media day. She, like, did her own on her phone, like, separate. Like, she didn't have the normal backdrop and everything. And she just seemed like she wanted to get that over with and then just going to fight.

But Amanda Hebas was taking advantage of everything. Like the cameras were there, even on the, at the beginning, when they're doing like, they're playing the Who and everyone is all excited. They're getting hyped up and they show the fighters like hyping up the fight. Like Amanda is just laughing. She's just having a good time. She's taking advantage of the cameras on there.

So yeah, unbelievable performance, though. She is a dangerous woman. We're talking about people. This is a flyweight, obviously, but she wants to drop back down a strawway. She wins one, maybe two more against game opponents. I can't imagine the year if she's not going to want to give her a title fight too.

because, again, marketable star, affectionate personality, from Brazil speaks great English, checks all the boxes they want on a title challenger or champion. And, yeah, I would love that fight. But again, not close yet. Amazing performance. It went exactly as I thought it would.

So, yeah, the UFC has another bright star on their hands. Yeah, keep building her up slowly. No need to rush her into top five opponents or anything like that. I think, like, maybe the Angela Hill versus Michelle Waterson loser. I think that makes perfect sense for her. Unless, like, yeah, I'm like, Phileas Harrodig, comes back. I think she's sitting there at 1516.

Maybe the winner of Marina Rodriguez wins. You can give Amanda Hebaugh's that fight. And I know they kind of, Orteche Torres coming off that big win. There's a lot of important fights at Strawway. But again, yeah, Amanda Hebas isn't near the title picture yet. But maybe in 12 months, maybe. Some great performances on the prelims. But, man, Yuri Prahashka stole the show with just such a sick knockout of Volga on O's DeMere.

I'm not going to lie, Jose. I thought this was too much for Yeri to kick off his UFC career. But man, that crazy monster proved me wrong in a big way tonight. And I'm proud to admit that. I knew someone was going to bed in that fight. I just didn't know who. It wasn't because Jericho Hasker was going to be overpowered by Volcanozum. But he's a wild man.

He's just an insane guy. Like he wants to go out there. He himself doesn't like to hurt people. He likes to fight and he wants to get to the title. He doesn't like to hurt people. So I was expecting this to fight to end, like, because people forget. Like people talk about like Vulcan, like his ratchet fight and his, uh, all those other fights that like the Anthony Smith fight that. Like they were all these like quote unquote like squeak wins or something like that.

But that dude dropped like what, who'd he be? Like Misha Sarkinoff, Jimmy Manoa, like OSP. Like he's, he has dynamite in his hand. So someone was going to bed in that fight. Drew Pohasca just decided that get after the first round, he just didn't want to fight anymore and just, punched in eight Volcanoosumere's soul. He just wanted it over with. But yeah, talk about one of the great UFC debuts.

That's got to be up there for like, Gachie had an unbelievable debut, Anderson Silva had an unbelievable debut. I'm just, these are all just random ones I'm thinking off the top of my head. Alistair, Overeign, of course. You're a Phrasca. I mean, can't really have a much better performance than that against a former title challenger. Did he miss the mark with the callout, though? Johnny Walker?

I don't know, man. I thought he was going to aim a little higher. I mean, it's a fun fight. I'm not going to not watch that fight. sure. I mean, I'm all, again, I'm all watch it. But again, he wants a quick way to the title. When's John Jones even going to fight? Like, that's a question we need answered if he's going to fight. I know Glover's going to fight Tiago Santos soon. If John doesn't want to fight and Dominic Reyes fights Jan Polovovich. Man, I'm, Corey Anderson maybe would have been a better call out. So, but yeah, I'm sure. I'll watch it.

But I don't think that's a step towards the title like he thinks. Yeah, he could fight anybody right now. He's kind of at that he could fight a door status and we're going to watch it anyways after a performance like that. Nice finish for Davy Grant's with a broken jaw. That was impressive. Makwana Mirkani had a great submission as well. Put his opponent Danny Henry to sleep. But I want to shout you out, Jose, because I think, in my opinion, you had the best tweet of the night during the Marcyne Tyborough fight. You said, what is the opposite of a slug vest?

A chair? This fight is a chair. Want to explain yourself? Because that was brilliant. Man. Heavyweight MMA is so weird. You're going to have just violence. Like every now and then you get like this epic, like high level martial arts fight.

And you get those at the top. Like you get the steepays and the Cormiers or like the JDSs and the Kane Velasquez. But somewhere on like that five to 15 range, one of two things is going to happen. Someone's going to bed or is going to be 15 minutes of just holding or like heavy grappling, breathing heavy. Not a bad. I don't like calling fights bad fights because of winning. is a win. And if you win, you get the rest of your paycheck. And that should be the most important thing. So I'm not even going to remotely start to criticize Marcin Tebrber for fighting for the rest of his

check during a pandemic. But probably wasn't the fight that people wanted from heavyweights, especially go. That was the featured early prelim, right? Like, that was going into the ESPN car. Like, come on. I know Danaway was probably upset. Then he calls out Alexiolanic. And I was like, nah, not what I want. So yeah. But again, yeah, what's the opposite? But what's the opposite of like a barn burner? What's the opposite of like a war? And I was like, I don't know. And I just look around. I'm like, that chair is just kind of sitting there. So yeah, the opposite of the fight I'm watching right now is this wooden chair standing next to me because it's not doing anything. Ah, it was a brilliant tweet. It was a brilliant tweet. And a pretty interesting night at

UFC 251. The debut of Fight Island, I thought everything looked pretty cool. Bruce Buffer looked A plus dapper tonight, which was great. Annex Mustache was an A plus plus. And, uh, you know, Michael Bisping, he did okay. We did okay tonight. Michael Bisping was really missing, Paul Felder. I'll say that much. I'll say that much. But I don't know how he had time of tweeted,

Dan Henderson and call fights. Very okay. Very okay. I'll give C-minus to Michael Bisping, basically openly rooting for Max Holloway during the fight. So very odd. But I think, like, looking back to like the last few pay-per-views, was this better?

So dating back to UFC, I'll say USC 240 was Holloway Edgar. Between then and now, was this better than any of those pay-per-views? So 241 was DC-Stepe 2. 242 was Habib Pori. 243 was Whitaker out of Sonia. 44 was BMF. 245 was Colby Cougain-Uzman with all those titles. Then we had the McGregor Cowboys Show.

and then we had Yowah, and then we had the Valentina Jones, Reyes, the fight in Houston. And then we had Izzy Romero, but then we also had Yawanna and Zhang Wiley in the co-main event. And then we had 249, which was bananas in Jacksonville. And then 250, which we all agreed was one of the better fight cards at the APEC. From between 240 and now, I don't know if 251 in terms of action was better than any of those fights. It was a great card, but I think you have to go all the way back to 240 to really compare something that was on that level, which was, again, a great card. That was Chris Cyborx's last fight in the UFC, but what was the most stacked card?

I would agree with you. But, again, devil's advocate seems to be the theme here. Those other cards, I mean, McGregor come back was huge, fighting cowboy, but we kind of expected it to be a showcase fight for Connor and it delivered in that way. But most of these other cards, like, we're like, yeah, these are pretty cool, but we're in such strange times that the expectations weren't quite as high as this one was, at least in my view. But 249 had what, just as many title fights, was stacked. It was like the first, it was really the first card during the, like, yes, we had that

Brazilian card, but that was still in Brazilia. This was really the first, I really used 249 as like the first pandemic card. And that had like insane finishes, insane fights, like top to bottom. It was like uncharted territory. And then the apex card was awesome too. So again, great card. I'm not saying this is a bad car whatsoever. Right.

But I think even 240 was good. I think they were on that level. And even 239 and 238 and 237, 236, like you could go back all the way to January 28, like the first ESPN card. You compare it to that too. So, but good card, but I wouldn't say it was one enough. Dana White,

I'll put in this perspective. Dana White called UFC 240 on a home run in terms of like everything that happened. I think it was great that this card happened on a fight island and it happened. And we got all the title fights that we were promised. outside of the Burns one. But again, I think fans are more happy to see Mazwell fight to begin with. But in terms of what happened inside the Octagon, I bet Dana White wished a lot. I bet he wished on some of these fights were maybe had a little bit more to it in the actual fight. Yeah.

I mean, the main event, it was like we knew it was going to happen. We hoped it wouldn't, I guess. But the other two title fights are great. I just think like the length of the night kind of factored into things as well. But it was a really good card. And, you know, they're fighting it six, seven o'clock in the morning local time, too. It's also, what, like 98 degrees or two in the morning? Yeah. So there so. A lot more wild circumstances than the Vegas cards and the Jacksonville cards.

But we get to do this all again on Wednesday night with a great main event. Awesome. Calvin Cater versus Dan Igay, big featherweight bow. We got Jimmy Rivera versus Cody Stamen on that card as well, which will be a lot of fun. I did talk to Cody Stamen late last week. So you could check that out on YouTube pretty soon as we head into that fight. But, Jose, before we wrap this thing up, any final thoughts? on UFC 251 or in the look ahead to Wednesday night.

Man, I just got to give a shout out to Guillermo over in Abu Dhabi. He's really putting in like, yeah, he gave us that that tour of like the octagon on the beach. And I'm like, I'm sweaty watching this. Like he's sitting in, he's been quarantined for like 56 hours. He's getting a food delivered to him because he can't leave. It's a thousand degrees. It's basically walking on the sun if the sun was underwater where it's basically like you're swimming through 90 degree air. So shout out to Guillemay for putting.

in the work. The Wi-Fi and the internet might be terrible over there, but he's working his way through everything. So shout out to Guillermo. Stay safe over there. Absolutely. The Brazilian beast making it happen. He's going to be there throughout the rest of these cards. So look forward to his coverage and all the different and unique perspectives that he will give in different videos he will produce as well. But that's it. I got to get ready to put my golf shirt on. I'm getting ready to leave the house to go play golf with my dad in like two hours and change right now. probably going to shoot like a 125. But for Jose Youngs, I am Mike Heck. UFC 251 is in the books. The bow is officially placed on. Have a good rest of the weekend, everybody.

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