MMA Fighting - UFC 254 Post-Fight Show: Khabib Nurmagomedov Retires

Episode Date: October 24, 2020

With UFC 254 in the books, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee and E. Casey Leydon break down the top storylines from Saturday’s event in Abu Dhabi, including Khabib Nurmagomedov’s second-round submission win over Justin Gaethje to retain his lightweight title in the main event and his subsequent retirement.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc 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. Welcome back, everybody. The second part of our UFC 254 post-fight coverage here on MAAFighting.com. It's the UFC-254 Habi v. Gachi Post-Fight Show. I am Mike Heck. I do not do this alone. I'm being joined once again by our producer extraordinaire, E. Casey Liden. And look who decided to join the party, the Prince of Positivity himself, Mr. Alex K.

K. Lee. Alex, how are you by man? UFC 254 in the books? first impressions. These people must be so tired of our faces. We did the live way-ins late Thursday. We did a live preview show, which we don't always do. We did a live preview show. And now the post-show. So people have seen our faces, Mike, for about eight hours in the last like three days, which is a lot. I think I would say it's a lot of time. But what an event, though, I think a lot of us fans as well are re-energized and definitely eager to kind of talk about everything that

went down tonight because this was, I would say, maybe the most eventful show of 2020. And I I can't imagine any upcoming shows topping it. All right. So let's just get right into the main event because a lot happened in the fight and then a lot happened after the fight. Habibn Madovadov goes in there, beats Justin Gachie, submits him in the second round. And I don't know about you guys, but I was just left thinking, kind of like what Dana White was saying at the post-fight press conference. It was just like, oh, my God. Like, that was just unbelievable.

That's ridiculous. This guy is just a machine. And then he gets on the microphone and announces his retirement at 29. He said he made a promise to his mother after the passing of his father. He said, I'm going to do one more and then I'm never going to fight again. And he has announced his retirement. We didn't hear anything else. He was a very eloquent, very beautiful post-retirement speech.

Thank you everybody saying in a couple of different languages. No post-fights-grim, no backstage interviews with ESPN or any of the media outlets. He said what he had to say. And he was out of there. So, AK, let's start with the performance itself. Abib Naragabh Abh Abh Abhavirah Mabh. gets a finish, does what he did to 28 others, submits Justin Gachie.

What were your thoughts on the performance? I loved it. It's silenced so much of what I had written in an article with our own Jen Mishu, kind of debating the greatness of, am I frozen? No, we can hear you. Okay, sorry, guys. Jen and I were debating the greatness.

Are you frozen? I'm like frozen on my screen. You'll need to see my gesticulating, okay? The voice isn't enough. You're back. You're back. You're back. Thank you. All right. Anyway, Jed and I were debating, you know, the greatness of Habib, whether he's the greatest fighter of all time.

I said he wasn't. One of the reasons was, you know, I think we like to see our grades show another dimension. I mean, look, his one dimension is so dominant. And if he never showed anything besides wrestling, it wouldn't matter. He'd still be in the running for the greatest fighter of all time. But when you see them kind of go out of their comfort zone, like a John Jones might, for example, tonight, he went out there that first round saying, I'm going to stand with Keachie. I'm going to stand. And he was throwing some unorthodox stuff. He was getting in Keachie's face. it was tense. It was really tense. But I don't think Gates' he expected it. I think that was such a big part of Gait, of Nirmangameh Meda's victory, was

he expected pressure, but not that kind of pressure, not that kind of stand-up pressure. Not this guy, winging shots at him, don't shovel punches, running knees. It was awesome. It looked a little sloppy at times. I'm not saying this is K1, Habib, we saw here, but this berserker version of KVib, it makes me a little sad that he,

one of the many reasons that I'm sad that he's retiring because clearly he's still showing so much growth as a fighter. And he really gave Gave Gave Gia a look that he couldn't prepare for. I don't think anyone could prepare for. And then, of course, he took it home with the wrestling. So it was just, again, if anyone wants to make an argument that he's the greatest of all time, you can make a strong one. He certainly showed it.

And tonight was really a great exclamation point. This truly is the end of his career. Yeah, I mean, I left it saying just, and I was kind of in agreement with everybody else. Like if Gachi is, like, Gachi just has enough crazy in him to possibly be the guy. If you watch the preview show, I didn't pick Gagy. I said, I pretty much predicted what would happen actually happened. But I thought Gachi, if anybody could do it was him. And if he couldn't do it, then nobody could.

So I left out thinking nobody's going to beat this man. It's just not possible unless he goes up to 170 or, you know, maybe goes up and fights GSP, which I think he'd still beat GSP anyways. And I've thought that for a while. But it is, I mean, just just an unbelievable performance. And then to find out, I mean, Dana White, we're talking about this before we went on air. Dana White did his post-fight press conference. Very rarely does his post-fight press conferences not go like under 20 minutes.

This one was like as long as Alexander Volkov's post-fight scrum. Like it was like just over seven minutes. He didn't say much. He praised Naraga Madov. He talked about wanting to see potentially a rematch between Adasani and Whitaker. But the other thing he said that stuck out to me was that Habib broke his foot. Like Habib fought that fight basically on one foot. That is just bananas, AK.

It's bananas, I tell you. Did he also say that they didn't know about that? They didn't know. He just found out today. Was that the implication from Dana that he didn't know? I don't. Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to remember. I think he said after the fight, Habib's cornerman told him.

So I guess, no, they can tell the secrets of, you know, the hardships of the training camp. So behind the scenes. Yeah. I'm skeptical. I think this is just my opinion. By the way, I'm not throwing out anything substantial. I feel like so. Anytime there's an injury like that, I feel like someone knew.

I'm throwing this in there with the way in conspiracy. I feel like there's a book to be written about the lead-up to this fight someday. The way in conspiracy, was he allowed to go in with partially injured foot? I don't know, we'll find out. But again, whatever controversies you want to believe in or even manufacture shouldn't overshadow his performance thing. Yeah, this is your takeaway from the fight that someone knew about the broken foot, okay? I gave my takeaway.

But look, I'm... Listen, I think Trevor Whitman might have known because in the corner, he's talking to Justin Gaichi, okay? And he's telling him to like calm the F down, like don't get effing lazy. But then right before they cut to the replays, Trevor Whitman says, keep going after the leg,

we know he can't walk right now. Oh. I was like, what did that mean? Like that stuck out to me. I was like, what does that even mean? Could me? Yeah. Maybe that's, maybe they knew.

Casey, what do you think it meant? Oh, I think it meant, I think it means nothing. I think it meant that they were, they were trying to stick to the game plan, which is what I said, the only way Gachie was going to win his fight and he was on his way to doing that before he lost.

But like, it was a lake kicks. He would have to destroy Habib's, Habib's the leg. And what he was trying to do, but he just didn't do it enough before he lost. You know what the advice he didn't it, he needed some Kamar-Uzman advice and some footstomps. The fight of the year, Kamar-Uzman, you know that, right? Oh, Casey. Foot-stops would have won the fight tonight. I wish I could see the world of combat sports through your gentle eyes and

ignore the possibility that this injury might have been more well known than we thought because again I know you're all just about the love of the game hashtag otter pops I know that's all you care about getting your sweet sweet tweets on on the broadcast yet yet another another pay-per-view another broadcast I did not make the I did not make the broadcast again what no not again I don't I put all the hashtags in hashtag in Abu Dhabi, hashtag W. Hotel. Hashtag the hospitality

is awesome. I mean, here. Like, that hashtag doesn't make it. That has liked a little long. That might be why you didn't get it off. I think that one actually heard your time. All right.

Focus, guys. By the way, for those watching right now, we want to hear from you. We want to get your thoughts, answer your question. So questions, comments, leave them in the chat. What I thought was kind of interesting,

AK, was that two of the judges, not one, not two, gave the first round to Justin Geichi. Are you surprised by this? Boo. I wouldn't have scored it for Justin Gathe myself. I don't think it's the worst card. I think it's bad.

I think it's bad. I'm not going to defend it. I'm not going to defend it. I'm just saying it's not the worst, but I don't see it. I didn't see Gachey land anything hard. It really looked like he was struggling to figure out, again, the Magamato's timing, the Magamato's game plan. All the aggression was, not even just the aggression. When we go beyond aggression, the effective striking was

had to be in favor of Magamato. Again, maybe I'll look at the numbers tomorrow and see something differently, but certainly upon first glance, I was thinking, man, no Magamato is really, he's really taking it to Justin Gathe. So in odd score, I do think Gatji got, like, slipped in some punches, some counters, which maybe, you know, his style is very crowd-pleasing. I guess judge-pleasing as well. So, again, I won't really vilify.

But there was some other shaky cards in the night as well. So not the best, not the best from the judges say. the problem with scorecards in my opinion was I agree with you like I I think Habib was landing I think he missed a lot of those shots and when Gagee landed it counted like those leg kicks are gnarly the fate the punches of the face or landing you could hear him but then Habib took him down and mounted him into the first round like that's I mean almost right and try to get an arm bar in before the horde and sign up like when you when you mount a guy in a close round like that like that should give you the round like I don't know

and you're mounting you're taking down and mounting Justin freaking Gae. And that's unreal. I mean, and this is still a Justin Gachi with still, no, still 80% still left in the gas tank. I don't know. I mean, he was still full of energy. And the fact that he was able to do that, it was like, like, how do you give him that round? That's ridiculous.

So Habib Naraga Madov retires, AKA.K., I feel like every time a fighter retires, we have to ask this question. Do you believe them? Do you really believe them? But I feel like, I feel like with this one, I feel like I believe it. Like, I feel like there's really nothing else he can do outside of, I mean, listen, I think he's still a competitive guy. I think he's done everything he needs to do in the UFC. Might they bring him back for, like, a GSP fight?

Like, would that entice him? I'm guessing no, but maybe, maybe goes into the boxing world. It does a Floyd fight, maybe. But, I mean, what else does the man need to do? So I tend to believe him that we're not going to see him fight again. This is my Floyd-Habee face. I hate it, too. I hate that I have to say this out loud.

I'm not, I'm like 50-50 was sort of predicting the, the veracity of MMA retirements. I was very good with GSP's career. I remember when he walked away after the Hendricks fight, I was always confident that he would come back and fight again. So I was right about that one. And I'm also just confident that he won't fight again. I don't even think he would have come back for a Habib fight, unless they made the money right, which is the UFC, I wasn't going to bank on that. So that one, I was fairly accurate.

I'm very wrong on Ronda Rousey, it seems like. I mean, I guess there's still a chance she could fight again, but that seems remote at this point. I was super confident after she kind of disappeared for the first time she would come back. Kostovson was easy to predict that he would come back. Stefan Struh, we knew he was going to fight again. Some of these are pretty predictable.

Those are off dramatic losses, yeah. Yeah, those are predictable. This one, yeah, coming off a win is strange. My gut is, it's not over. I realize, I know, I know, no, I know. And look, his speech was great. His personality is we know it. We know him to be a fairly authentic,

person. He says what he means and he's what he says. But I do feel like a challenge will arise someday. Keep on, this is a very emotional time. Like he said, it's his first fight since the passing of his father. He made a promise to his mother. This would be the last one. But he's only 32 years old. Money-wise, I know he doesn't have to worry about it. I don't think we're going to see him coming back because he needs a paycheck. But I do feel like a challenge could arise someday, whether it's a 155, presumably 155, maybe 170. I don't see that though. And if he's still young enough, He's like 34-35. I think he does the GSP thing

and maybe he steps back in and says, I need to test myself. So I am not shutting the door on the Nomega metta career. I would not be surprised if he does fight again. I'll phrase it that way. Casey, what do you think?

Do you think he's done or do you think he comes back? He is done. And happy trails, Mr. Nomega Madoff. Man, then he's done. He said it in their cage. He's like, next time you do your rankings, I am the pound for pound king.

I won this shit. This is mine. Thank you for the cheese. I'm out. I mean, that's it. Thanks, my, thanks, Mom. Made a promise to my mom. Do, AK is saying he just lied to his mom.

That's insane. Yeah. You just called Habibu, a liar. What have been two years? Mom says, his mom says, listen, get your ass off the couch and fight again. Well, guess what? Then he's got a fight.

I'm just saying. That's true. Get a job, Habib. I bet he's a great relationship with his mom, and I bet they talk about these things all the time. And I think that if he wanted to fight again, again, they could sort it out. And, you know.

You think he'll be misses this? He's going to miss this. He's going to miss, like, no, he's done. He's going to miss. Gibroni's like us talking about him on most of my shows. Oh, of course, he's, that's what he's going to miss the most. We're going to learn, man. We spent like 13 minutes playing his way in video and deciphering it on the preview

show yesterday. He's like, I don't need this. I don't need this anymore, but. He loves it. Of course. I'm just, no, he's not coming back. And, man, I'm, um, He's going to use all this money and just do good things for his people back home.

And, man, I'm just, he has to take a family and kids, right? He just, the guy's a dad. I mean, just like, yeah, we might see him in the, we might see him in some corners for some of his fighters. Like, when Markscha fights again, we might see him again as a cornerman. But as far as, like, fighting and being on the mic and dropping promos and, you know, I'll smash you and the number one bullshit, all this stuff. it's done Casey listen man he's gonna be training

these guys for these fights and he's gonna be handling them in practice like and he's just me thinking man I can still do this like it's like two years this is like when before Michael Jordan came back and he was playing like one on one

with like BJ Armstrong and he's like man he's like I'm killing these cats I gotta come back for real I like again I'm not predicting he's gonna fight again but if I had to bet if I had to bet my life

will he fight again I will lean towards yes I will lean towards yes I will lean towards yes I thought Jose's bet your paycheck bet was intense. That's like super intense. I was like, if I had to, if I had to. Very, very low value on your life.

Very low value you on your life. That's all I guess. My life is worth less than what I'm supposed to get up. I'll put it that one. That was so sad. Like, please move us along, Mike. You need to talk to the union rep. I'm a very happy.

I'm a very happy person. I'm a very happy person. This is what happens when it's an early post-bite show. I know. We're actually too awake right now. I know. We're Jones and we're going crazy. So obviously Habib Happy Trails and nothing left to prove.

So it creates a lot of intrigue and interest at 155 pounds because as of right this moment, we do not have a champion. There is no champion. So we have to figure that out, which A.K. and I will do on onto the next one, at least try to do the best we can. But we'd like to get your opinions on that. What do we do at 155 pounds if you guys want to talk? talk about Habib in the retirement.

Whatever you want to talk about. Robert Whitaker's big win. By the way, go through the bonuses before we start going to the questions, Habib obviously gets a bonus with his final victory or what seems to be his final victory. Magamad Ancolaev said, you know what? I want this rivalry to be done. We're not going to mess around anymore. That was a phenomenal performance.

This guy is not an under the radar 205 or anymore. Big win for him. And then the fight of the night, obviously Casey Kenney versus Nathaniel Wood. Just a joy to watch. Unbelievable. What a great fight that was. Speaking of bad cards, 3027 for Kenny, I thought Kenny won the fight. That's pretty shitty scorecard. Whoa, whoa.

It was already like half of me out. I'm like, I'm just going to come in to it. Do you have a question right away or can I go on? Do I have time for a little Whitaker rant? Oh, do it. Whitaker Rand. Listen, because I went 11 out of 11 with my non-draw picks tonight, I'm allowed to flex a little bit, I think. here's what I wrote about this is the first line

I wrote about Robert Whitaker versus Jared Kennear did I'm this is what I wrote did I miss the memo in which everyone decided that Robert Whitaker is no longer one of the top two middleweights in the world

the like it started with with Izzy of course again sitting oh I can't you know I'm looking forward to a fight with like Jared Cannyer or whatever like Jared Kenneyer is the next logical contender

which is a nice thing to say but was and I don't think he meant it this way but was a little disrespectful to the fact that he was booked to fight Whitaker and then all like so many predictions I see like saying, oh, like, even I think the video, I don't remember if they ran a video for Whitaker.

They probably didn't, I missed it. But I do remember them running a video for Cannier. And I'm just thinking like, man, this is really presumptuous. And I know you want to build, I applaud them for why to build up a contender ahead of time. But what is what was with people overlooking Robert Whitaker? I think I saw some people saying like, oh, he's he's past his prime or something. I'm like, how old is he now? He's 32, 29? He's not even 30, right? He's 29. Yeah, south of 30. Yeah. And it's like, he looks. looked great in the Daring Till fight. I think he looked great in both Romero fights. I know they were close fights, but those fights were friggin' amazing.

Like, those fights are not his, like, anyone who's saying like, oh, he looked, you know, he looks because he didn't dominate Romero. Like, who dominates Romero? Those fights were frigging incredible. So, again, to me, he's still the number one contender until someone takes it, which again, and I'm saying, I'm not saying

Ken and you couldn't do that. But there was just this weird air of disrespect surrounding the Reaper. And, and it And it upset me. It upset me because he's a, I think he's still a great, great fighter. He's nowhere near. He's in his prime.

He's nowhere past his prime. So I'm glad he showed out today and put in such a strong performance. Listening to Daniel Cormier's commentary, like if I wasn't watching the fight, but just listening to Cormier's commentary, I would have thought Cannoneer beat Whitaker 3025. D.C. had some moments tonight. He had some moments tonight where he may have neglected some of the work of one of the fighters. There's a few fights like that. And speaking of a wacky scorecard, and then I'll go to you, Casey.

Rob, how did you score that fight, A.K.? I scored a 3027 for Whitaker. How did you score? I scored a 327 for Whitaker. But again, it's one of those 3027s that I don't think reflects how well Kenanier did as well. Kenanier had some very, very good moments. He was battering Whitaker's leg. I mean, that leg, it's not his fault that Whitaker has made of friggin iron because a lot of fighters

with the amount of leg kicks that Kenner landed, it would have really changed their game plan. They would have really been feeling it. Somehow, Whitaker, you could see the color changing his leg, and it didn't seem to affect his mobility at all. So, again, that's a credit to Whitaker, not to take anything away from Canier. Canier fought a great fight. So 3027, but a couple of those rounds were certainly close.

But good fight overall, really good fight. Would you have given him, Canadiere any round outside of round one? I have. I don't know. Did you see the scorecard? I'm looking at it right now. It's a weird one.

Which I was surprised, yes. First round was the close round, okay? So if you gave it to Canaaner, I scored it for Whitaker still, even though Canadaer was lighting his leg up on fire. I still would have gave it to Whitaker. One judge gave Canaanier round one. Two judges gave Canaaner round two. Yeah.

Yeah. It's, again, the judging tonight. Bad, bad cards. A little strange. That's why they have three judges. That's, I guess, you know, so I don't know. That was. So if Canada ran that third round.

round, he would have won the fight, which is crazy. Well, it thankfully, again, thankfully it worked out. And look, at least in the end, it was a unanimous decision. Yeah. So, you know, the right, the right, the right call was made. But you're right. The way we got there was a little confusing. And what do you want to say about that fight, Casey?

Oh, Robert Whitaker rules. That's all. Man, he's so good. Yeah. I mean, I agree with AK, but, you know, people were, you know, I guess you must have forgot type of stuff of Whitaker. I picked Whitaker coming into this fight. I think the people were sleeping on him because I think all the promos and Izzy were talking about Canoneer.

And Izzy doesn't seem to be maybe things are going to change now, but Izzy has never seemed to be very, it didn't seem like the idea of a rematch of Robert Wyrtaker right now. I mean, I think he wants new opponents, new guys. Rematches just don't, he does not into it right now. So I think that's why I think it has fans who won a Canaer to win. because we want to see Canaanier a fresh matchup. But, yeah, just, I, I, I didn't agree. I didn't like this fight taking place in the first place

because I thought Canineer had earned his title shot. And now we lose the number one contender, you know, so, yeah, UFC matchmakers, that's what they want. Makes tell her man, it's an even bigger. Yeah. For those keeping score at home, Crystal. I knew you. God dang it.

A point, that's a point for Crystal suck. Crystal suck and don't do anything, all right? I'm just saying. No, they clearly do something because he got two judges, gave him a round two. So he just didn't have enough crystals. He did, he did use a corruption crystal. Yeah, there was a corruption crystal, yeah. Which I think it's a little underhanded.

Yeah. But I just want to say, I'm a man of science, all right? I give credit with Chris do. When our man Brian Keller is racking up, you know, fight night bonuses and going on win streaks, all right? I'm saying, okay, maybe crystals do something. But when stuff like this happens, guess what? Crystles failed, all right? Those stupid crystals failed.

I'm just saying. Shout out in the YouTube comments if you hate crystals. All right, that's all I'm saying. Robert Whitaker says coffee, more powerful than crystals. So that looks like I had more coffee than he had crystals.

So someone said, I love it. And Whitaker, Whitaker himself said, Canada just needed more crystals maybe. And I think because of the pandemic and the visas and travel issues of, you know,

going into Al-Dabia, I'm sure there was a limit amount of crystals he could bring him from the States. So there's a... If this fight was at the apex, Canada wins that fight, easy, bro. Easy.

Oh, my gosh. We're going off the rails here. Let's bring in the peeps. We're ready for the peeps. What do they want to talk about? What did they want to talk about? I mean, geez, Louise. All right.

What a card. I mean, it was just a great card right off the bat. Started off with Joel Alvarez with a quick submission win. He looked very good. Miranda Maverick, what a debut for her. I knew that. Yeah. Do you think Justin won the first round?

No, I don't think you won the first. Nope. I think the round was close. Yeah, yeah, sorry. I missed it. I think the round was very close, but I think Habib taking him down and mounting him and going for submissions at the end of the round,

sealed it for him. I'll add that. I think some of the early success might have made up some of the judge's minds. The fact that, again, he did shrug off a couple of early takedowns. He was, quote, unquote, maybe it looked like he was forcing Habib to fight his fight. Though, again, I think if you watch it again, you'll see Habi was doing pretty much what he wanted.

But I think because it stayed standing, that probably influenced, one of the, is it, do we say two of the judges scored it for Justin? Two. They must have thought, well, this, you know, if it's a standing fight, that's how Gachi wants it. So Gachi must be, must be dictating the action. But that's, I don't really think that's what happened. I like your impression of a judge.

Well, see, this is our judge talks. This is a judge voice. Where's your monocle? I don't have it on me. But yes, they all wear monocle. They all wear monocle. So, I mean, It was a close round, but I think the end's the other for Hubby.

He got mount. He got mount, and he had an arm bar attempt. A couple of leg kicks and a couple of punches that didn't really seem to affect Habib. That doesn't outdo a, getting taken out and mounted. Our good friend Tristan Gorda, just getting right after this. Let's do it. We're not messing around. We're not mincing words.

What do you do in the lightweight division since Habib is just retired? Will you do, will they do McGregor versus Porre for the vacant title? Do you sit up Chandler versus Ferguson or Chandler versus Gaichy, AK? Do you have a thought on this initially? Of course, we're going to let it all out. All our lightweight divisional title implication chatter out on onto the next one, but your initial thought just hours after this pay-per-view ends. Yeah, obviously, I'm going to put a little more thought to it before we record our show,

but I'm not going to, I don't know why. You know what it is? It's the UFC slick promotional work that got to me. I'm not sure who I would necessarily want to face him. I want to see Michael Chandler in there. I don't know why. I think they have really thrown Michael Chandler in our faces. And Michael Chandler, by the way, is a guy who's just,

you want to ever see a guy who's super comfortable doing media. I'm not saying he's like the best at like, you know, producing crazy sound bites or like cutting like fiery promos, but a guy who's comfortable, like you want to put him in front of a camera for like 45 minutes and just talk, he'll do it. Maybe you won't want him to, but he'll do it. He's not, he's going to represent. He's very professional.

He's a controversial. He's going to represent your company very well. They gave him a lot of camera time today. They gave him a little promo, even though he doesn't have a technically doesn't have a fight booked. They had him with Anik and Cormeer just kind of chatting, chatting it up, filling some airtime.

They sold me. They sold me. I would not have a problem. And the fact that, again, they were willing to put him in there with Habib or Gatji tonight if something had happened to either fighter says what they think of him. So he can't be more than one fight away.

So I say, screw it. Now that we know Habibu's retired, we're going to go vacant. I want Chandler to be one of those people. Chandler Ferguson would probably be my ideal, you know, you take the last two guys who lost to the, sorry, who lost one of the fighters tonight, or Chandler Gathe, but I'm going to lean towards Chandler Ferguson. Chandler, literally one minute ago, as you were talking, A.K., goes on Twitter and said,

and I know Justin Gatchie won't want to wait. He said it tonight, I'll be ready tomorrow. But I got to say, I think Chandler's going to get that opportunity. One, because he made wait two because again the airtime and three like the more i thought about it heading into the retirement just what like the way they filmed habib leaving the hotel and going to the arena with the with the blues and reds all lit up they showed basically the whole ride to the arena like he's leaving the hotel he's arriving there was the whole ride it was like it was crazy to watch because they didn't do that for gaichi this is like the sandman and hardcore heaven when he commandeered the ambulance. They showed them the whole time in an overhead shot. Like it was,

it was crazy. So it kind of makes a little more sets up, but I have a hard time believing Chandler just doesn't get that opportunity at this point, the way that they're promoting him. Do you do Ferguson? Probably. Ferguson has not been a happy camper as of late. So if you say, hey, Tony, buddy, let's reconcile. Let's get back together here. You versus Chandler for the belt. What do you say? I think that's where they go. But either, I think it's going to be Chandler versus somebody. Casey, you have this look on your face. Like, I don't know. What do you think? The UFC likes to make money. It's going to be McGregor versus Poirier for the vacant title. And then as much as I love Chandler, he's a great fighter. But he wasn't the Bellator champ, guys.

You know, he was just a free agent. He was just a high-ranking Bellator fighter. He wasn't their champ. So it's not act like, you know, they didn't bring a champ over. So, no, I want to see Chandler Ferguson. And then Gaichi versus whoever, Hooker. I don't know. It could be anyone. But I like Chandler Ferguson and then McGregor, Poirier, for the title. That sells money. There's real storylines there. And I love Chandler, but I think Chandler, I do actually think he needs to be a top, top guy. And I think Ferguson is that guy. And if Ferguson beats Chandler, then awesome, too. You know, win-win. Oh, but real quick, real quick. I missed a comment, but we were talking about crystals and we don't have a believer. read this we literally watch that man come back to life mid fight don't tell me they don't help and there i i didn't get a chance to say that but the fact that jared canier did not get put

away in the third round maybe there is something to this crystal thing i accept your apology okay we're moving on i'm only letting i'm only letting jessica get away with this nonsense and taking this nonsense any further uh i did see a comment that i want to talk about uh i don't think we need to go a full question on it but it was could we see because khabi said i think today is well he says it's my last fight but i think he'll set this my last fight but i think he'll set this last UFC fight. So I got so wondering, oh, is there a loophole? Someone said, could we see GSP and, and Habib outside of the UFC? Hey, Chachry, Chachry, get on that, all right?

That's a perfect one. That's a perfect one fight. Two guys who represent the honor and integrity of MMA. So Chatsri, I'm just saying, make some phone calls, send some emails and see if you make that happen. Because I think they, they're like 29 million viewers, I think, their last show or something like that. So that's pretty crazy. For every, yeah, for the year.

That's on the low end, I think. That's like a bat. Like they get 29 million viewers like, oh, it's like disappointing. It's like they really prefer. They really want to hit that 100 million figure mark on average. Okay. So as you say all these things, there are literally odds. There are literally odds that have come out on this.

I don't know. It comes out. The odds are who will Justin Gagee fight next in the UFC after losing to Habib? Guess who the favorite is right now in the betting window? Do you fight Justin Gagee? Connor. Tony Ferguson. Plus 110.

A rematch? Dustin Porreya, plus 140. Habib and plus 200. Somebody unanswered questions? Like, why? Yeah. Habib is still in there plus 200. Conner's plus 350.

Chandler's plus 500. And even Donald Serroney getting the rubbed plus 800. Casuals. Casuals. Yeah. I just, no. No. I don't even worry why I brought that.

Where is this question? Where's this question that just put up, Casey? Where is this? How could you justify? How could you justify Connor? No one can justify it. I don't justify it. Casey doesn't justify it.

Okay. K doesn't justify you. I don't know what justifies it. I don't want it. Abe Lincoln justifies it. Benjamin Franklin justifies it. The big fat checks that will be written. Upside to head.

Everyone buying it. That's what justifies it. Bless your heart. You and Casey, just two pure, such pure innocent souls. But yes, if people are willing to pay for it, then it is justifiable. So I'm not, we're not saying, none of us are saying we want it. I don't think any of us are saying like, oh, he should get the, he's guaranteed to tell the shot.

But it's Conn McGregor. He fights for world titles. He normally fills arenas. when, you know, we're not in the pandemic era. And he sells frigging pay-per-views. So, yeah, it's not, it's not fair, but there's no fair in combat sports. Let's talk about fair then. Who fairly deserves the next title shot then?

Gathe G. Why? He just lost tonight. Why is he fairly deserve it? But he was so dominant in round one. I don't know. I mean, to me, there's no clear case for anyone, to be honest. There isn't.

So money is the case. Money is like the main factor. Yeah. I don't, am I forgetting? Who am I forgetting someone? I mean, I don't know. I'm just not like who has a clear case to fight for the title. Michael Chandler?

Because he hasn't fought for the title yet. Can Hamzat make 155? I mean, listen, there's one, listen, the one guy I think who has the longest winning streak in division right now currently outside of Habib is Charles Olivera. Yeah, it'd be a shame if he never fought for a UFC title. Yeah, he dominated Kevin Lee. It was Kevin Lee his last fight, right? Is that right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He won, right? Yeah. He finished.

He finished fights. He's super exciting. Like, he's a great stylistic matchup for, I was going to say for Kavit, but I guess it doesn't matter anymore, but he should fight for a title. Yeah, exactly. If they made it, if they made it like Gateschee versus Charles Oliver or something, or Ferguson versus Olivaara for a vacant title. I wouldn't object.

Ferguson just came off a loss. So we're going to see Charles Alvara versus Michael Chandler for the 155 title. His first loss in like, he just won like 12 straight fights. It's an L, it's an L, bro. It's one L. They never get fighters title shots off of losses.

Well, we're talking about who fair. We're talking about who fairly? I hate you, Candy. I hate you, Candy Lee. You don't mean that. Don't say that. Well, let's not forget. Gregor versus Poria,

apparently is going to be at one. which literally makes no sense. That literally makes no sense. They're going to fight at 170 for the 155 pound title. How about that? That makes sense, actually. I can see that. I can see that.

While I have people mad at me, I have another take that's just going to, hold on. I got to watch the comments because I want to see comments explode when I say this. And I tweeted this earlier. But I think people, smart people got it. And our viewers are smart. So, I mean, I expect them to explode in agreement. Shavkat Rachmanov. showed as much today as we've seen.

What he did tonight against Alex Olivaura was as impressive as anything that Kamsat Shemayev has done in the UFC so far. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, if we're going to go, if we were going nuts about the wins over Reese McKee and John Phillips, submitting a veteran like Alex Olivaara is insanely impressive.

I don't think people have that. Alex O'Illivera is, I would say, is a higher caliber fighter than Reese McKee, John Phillips, and Gerald Mercer. Jeremy Scho is very good, but I think Olavera, I would say, is like a close to a top of dean. He's been ranked before.

So I think it's a big win. It was on short notice for a cowboy for sure. So, but he missed weight, which normally supposedly gets people an advantage. And he lost. He lost a guy who's not 13 and no. So I want people. So I'm not saying get off the Shamiya train. I'm saying stay on the Shemaya train and also get on the Rachmanab train.

You can be on two trains at once, is what I'm saying. All right. I don't think that's that fiery. I mean, I think that's, okay, put it in more fire. First of all, first of all, you can't be on two trains at once. That's just, no, you can. that's that's that's that's gonna hurt you can't do that you can't so pick a train pick a train all right you can hop between the trains sometimes the trains meet the same station you transfer

well what else do we get does Lauren Murphy get a title shot of 125 pounds she I mean good Lord she wants one she's cutting some promos good Lord listen she has she has an argument she has an argument she has an If you want to talk about the Andrea Lee fight and say that you don't think she won that fight, that's fine. You can say that. And there's a lot of people who would probably agree with you at this point. Every media member on MMA decisions scored that Andrew Lee fight for Andrew Lee and not Lauren Murphy. But Lauren Murphy has won four fights in a row. She dropped Roxanne Montefari on her dome the last fight, her most recent fight.

She could have not fought on this card, fought Cynthia Calvio in three weeks or a month on one of these November, December, December. cards, solidified the title shot. No, she stayed on this card and fought a relatively unknown fighter who has a pretty unbelievable reputation from an international perspective. Olympic wrestler, very tough fight on like a week's notice, and you're risking it all. And she went out there, like Joanne Calderwood risk it all and got finished. Lauren Murphy goes in, risks it all, gets a finish of her own. Now, I know it's two totally different things.

We're talking about two totally different people, but still, not a lot of fighters, would have stayed on this card. Do I think Laura Murphy has an argument? Sure, she does. Jessica Androge is right now the number one ranked contender in that division because she beat Caitlin Chuggan. She got the number one spot. So if you want to give it to Androge, that's fine. If you want to do Murphy versus Calvio, that's fine. If you want to do Murphy versus Androge, that's fine too. I said on onto the next one last week. As long as Androge fights, either the winner of Schofchenko versus Maya, Lauren Murphy, or

Cynthia Calvio next, I have no issues. And I still stand by that. that. Casey, I know you tweeted shortly after that. You wanted to see Murphy and Andraj. You said that, you believe that's the way they should go right now, right? If, if, if, if they don't, if the UFC doesn't need someone for a quick turnaround for, I'm going to assume Shavchenko wins against Maya. We're, we're going to, we're going to put that out there.

If Maya somehow somehow just doesn't beat Shif Janko, and Shavchango retains the title. And the UFC needs a quick, they need a quick turnaround. then no, it should just be Chichenko versus Androge. If they think there's going to be a break, then it should be Androge versus Murphy. And put that on a very featured fight on a pay-per-view or I would like it to be a main event on a fight night. So getting to get a nice five-rounder there. And I think that will settle with me. But actually, but I think Murphy, honestly, I think Murphy, I keep forgetting about Cavillo.

I'm thinking Cavillo is going to be out for a while, but it sounds like she's only going to be out for a few more weeks. so I would just rather just run back Murphy versus Cavillo sometime this year and then yeah that I think is the most likely thing I do think they'll just run back Murphy and Calvio but I will say I'm in favor of Murphy like in a perfect world I wish Murphy and Andrage would both be guaranteed title shots

not because I'm not because I'm saying like oh either of them are necessarily like super likely to upset you know Valentina Shofchenko but just because I think it's it's These are good opponents for her to build up her championship resume. You know, I'm of the person that, like, I prefer the Anderson Silva, Georgia St. Pierre way of building up your resume with, like, eight, nine, ten title defenses. They're not all, like, amazing names, but there's like the majority of them are strong names.

And every now and then you have what's the equivalent of, you know, mandatory title challengers. So I think Shufchenko needs some of those. Not everyone has to be like, oh, my gosh, can she beat Valentina? It's like, no, I mean, you know, sometimes a champ, you just wants to the champ, go to work, right? So, but we know that's not going to happen. And we know you can't keep people waiting. It wouldn't be fair if Androge waited and Lauren Murphy waited because then where does that leave Calvillo, right? Then it's not fair to her.

People who've got to fight, right? The Divinians have got to move. But Lauren Murphy really just did like everything she could today, though. She got to finish. She fought again, like Mike said when she didn't have to. She cut a very good promo. People can say, oh, she prepared the promo. And I'm like, that's not a bad thing.

I'm a nerd. I'm a research guy. I'm like, you know, I believe in proper preparation. So people who were saying like, oh, it didn't sound organic. Like she had it written down. I'm like, good. Good. I hope she wrote it down and memorized the speech

because that's a good thing. She knew what she wanted. You know what I mean? She predicted that she would have a moment and then she used it, right? Fans were hating on Murphy for preparing? I saw that. Okay, that's ridiculous.

I saw that on our streams. Someone was hating on John Gooden because John Gooden said when he was doing a scrum in Abu he was saying, he said, I take a lot of notes. I take so many notes. And someone in our comments, and if they're there, they didn't watch me now, you should be ashamed, was saying, like, I can't believe this guy needs to do research.

You should know who all these fighters are. And I'm like, no. That's it. That's my response. I don't want to go to rant about it, but research is not a bad thing. If someone's doing research people, you should have plotted it. That means they're doing their jobs, all right? It's not everyone knows everything about everything.

I saw one of the comments during the Way and show that we got shamed for not knowing that Izzy, whatever his name was, was part of the list of fighters to be waiting. Like nobody on earth knew that except for the UFC and Izzy himself. He looked a little surprised when he went up. He looked a little surprised. He was like, oh, I, oh, I, I'm weighing in. Oh, yeah, I forgot. This is, don't give us. But yeah, listen, Lauren, I understand where Lauren's coming from.

I mean, and this is, like, this is a, this is like, this is, this is, this is two years ago and Lauren Murphy fought Lillia Shakaroba. Lauren Murphy would probably be a plus 330 underdog in that fight. Like, that's just, that's just how people viewed her. That's just how. her performances were. But this is a different fighter. This is a different fighter.

Like her finishing Mara Romero-Barrella, the way that she did, I mean, Borrella was a different fighter back then, too. Like, she was looking good. She was on a good little streak. She was ranked. Murphy put it to her and finished her. Then the Andrew Leef fight, yeah, again, again, it's a little bit controversial. But the Montefari fight, she dominated Roxanne Montefarie, and then she dominated tonight.

So she is in the conversation. Do I think she will get a title shut out 125 next? No, I don't. I think she's going to have to get another win, unfortunately, because Valentina Schiffchenko, let's remember. She's not the most active fighter on the planet. It's not like she fights every three, four months. If you get her twice a year, that's a bonus the way her schedule normally works.

So if she's, if her mentality is my next fight is fighting for the title, she might be waiting a long time. So I think she's going to have to get another fight in and make another impression. If she gets another one in this year and fights Calveo and wins, she might jump the line. She might jump the line. Man, and I've ever, Murphy, Lorraine, hates Jennifer Maya.

Good Lord. Yeah, I forgot. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. I was like, do they have a beef? Like, there was something going on? Like, did Maya, like, back up her car and, like, scratch her door or something? Like, what had happened? She was like, rip that title fight, like, scratch, pull that contract out.

I was like, dang, woman. Like, Maya did submit and finish Jojo Codwood in a rounds. I was like, no, Maya earned that title shot. She was the Invicted champ. She's fine. It's a good title fight. Good luck to Maya. You know, have fun of Shepchenko, but...

Yeesh. Take her ass out of there. Yeah, I know. I mean, but listen, but that's those are the things you have to say. Yes, yes. Exactly. Like, I thought Laura Murphy today was an A plus. Yeah.

A plus. She did the most she could do tonight, without a doubt. Yes. There's nothing more she could have done. Except, like, I'm flying to Valentina Shepchenko's house and slapping her across the face. It's literally nothing more she could have done. So, yes, she deserves one, but she probably won't get one. Let's just, I think, I think that's, that's a fair statement.

What else we got? All right, hold on. Sure, there's a lot. Yeah, we could go for like six hours. Thank you. Thank you, Joseph Posa. Very, long time comments. Are always, always getting questions in.

Hold on, make sure it is, all right, all right. This is going to cause lots of controversy, but we're going to go and answer it. Clickbait. Habib has had the most dominant run, but is his place in the goat list overrated? Never fight of the year, never fighter of the year, never cleaned out the division,

never rematch, never moved up, only three title defenses. I mean, he's 29 and 0. 29 and 0. He's lost one round in his entire career. Is he the most active guy? No. Did he get injured a lot?

Yes. But he's he beat and dominated? high level, high level guys. And the tougher the challenge, the better he's performed. I don't think he's that his place in the goat list is overrated. In fact, I think we can make an argument that it was underrated, that it was underrated. AK even said it himself. I didn't think he was.

I didn't think he was in that. I think you had him in the top five somewhere. But after today, I think you probably bumped him up a little bit. So it's fair to say he might be underrated, not overrated. Am I crazy? No, not crazy. I already had him as the greatest lightweight ever, ever, all promotions tonight. And with his performance tonight, he is, I don't have a problem.

If you want to say he's the greatest M.MA fighter ever, yeah, yeah. He's as good as anyone we've ever seen. Yeah. It's not his fault that the Tony Ferguson fight fell through 100 times, okay? Because that would have been a, you know, right, that's a career defining. That's, we always talk about moments, right? That's, that's one of, you know, you only get so many opportunities for moments in your career. You only get, like, maybe five or six for, like, real, real moments career.

That should have been one of them for him. That Ferguson fight was going to be one of his moments. It just didn't work out. He has no control over that. It's not his fault that some of the other grates that we think of, like BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar. Their career, their career just didn't line up. You know what I mean? Frankie Edgar, when Kobe was coming up was moving down to, was moving down to featherweight.

So he wasn't going to fight Frank Yeager. B.J. Penn was already sort of, easing out of his prime. We were kind of already entering the sad BJ phase, unfortunately. So that fight wasn't going to happen. So those are two of the other names we would think of his all-time greats. Benson Henderson went to Bell-Tor. So if we're just talking about former champions and guys like that,

he didn't have the chance to fight a lot of them, unfortunately. It's unfortunately it just didn't cross past them. And for the record, if we're just projecting, I would take a prime, no Mago Medov over a prime BJ Penn, a prime Frank Edgar or prime Benson, strictly speculative. If people want to argue otherwise, because in PJ Penn, one of the most talented fighters I've ever seen in my entire life to this day.

I just think he'd be a little too small, and I think I think we saw kind of what happened with GSP. I think Numerangameta might be even a more dominant version of how those fights went, though the first fight with BJ and GSP was close, of course. But that to me is why career-wise, I still don't think he's had the best career. Even, I know undefeated record looks fantastic, but I'm just saying quality of opponents,

it just I don't think it matches it up to some of the other people. Again, and it's not his fault, but he is as good as anyone I've ever seen. Like if you want to say is he, you know, is he a great fighter and maybe the greatest, you can argue that. He's not number one on my list. But I don't think he's overrated.

To answer the question specifically, no, it's not overrated at all. What I've seen people throw this out, oh, we only have three tower defenses. I don't care about that stat because having the title only means, especially the UFC, just means that he didn't get a title shot until the UFC felt that they can make. make money off him, like serious money. He went 9 and 0 in the UFC before he fought for a title, which was the interim title.

Was interim title? Wait, when he fought against Ia Kenta, I equinta. It was the real belt. That was the real belt. Okay, sorry, that was a real belt. Okay, sorry, that was a real belt. So he had to fight nine times. So, but, like, how many times did John Jones have to fight before he got a title fight?

Like, not nine times. People, I think, like, four times, maybe? Five or six, I think. Five or six or something. Yeah. So, I mean, like, John Jones was, they just figured out how to, they, We can sell this guy. We can make lots of money.

Habib, it took a while for the UFC to understand, like, okay, this is a big prize fighter. We can make a lot of money from. So, but on this, so you can't take that. You can't hold that against, Habib. He was dominating everyone up to that point. It was, like, I put these timelines together, you know, to talk, when we have upcoming, upcoming title fights. And so many times, like, he would win fights.

And I realized, like, we had almost nothing on him pre-fight because the UFC, he, he was one of those guys they didn't even bring for pre-fight media because he was so just there was just no oh we don't need to talk him he doesn't speak english there's no interest in him it wasn't until probably four or five wins into the ufc that okay we'll start we'll start bringing him you guys can interview him early you know so like yeah i just don't buy this whole he didn't get enough title defenses because that's strictly a promotional thing yeah oh it's their fault i'm not i'm not blaming that's what i'm saying people but people use it as it has a deterrent how can you be the best if you only won three titles you know i know it's not it's not i'm not it's not

That's not forget, Conn-Rigger ran off with the lightweight title for a long period. That's not Habib's fault. Yeah, it was frozen. Yeah. That's, yeah, a lot of stuff was out of his control. Yeah, he should, he could easily have had five or six or seven title defenses easily if there was any sort of reasonable hierarchy in the, in the OSE. So, yes, you definitely have to really look at that with a little more scrutiny than just,

oh, three title defenses. It's like, nah, it doesn't really tell the whole story. They told Habib Namaamaedov that he was going to fight Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 for the lightweight title. they used him as a pawn. Yep. So McGregor could slide right in there and take the fight and take the title. Like, it was crazy.

Like, Habib should have got that shot. So they had Habib fight Michael Johnson instead, and he beat the brakes off of him, was talking to Dana the whole time as he's punching Michael Johnson in the face and then cuts the promo of, I want to fight your chicken. And that was like when everything kind of changed. Like, he was getting just the reaction from the crowd at MSG when Habee was cutting that promo was unbelievable. That's when, like, the UFC realized they were like,

all right. That was it. Yeah. We got something. I think that's when you broke out number one bullshit, too. Yes. It was that week, I think. Let's dissect the question before we move on.

Let's just say, never fight of the year. I don't think that matters. I think a lot of great fighters were never in the fight of the year. John Jones had definitely had him with Gustafson. No, that's a good thing. That's just talking about his dominance. You have to get beat up to. Yeah.

Like, that's crazy. Come on, man. GSP, I don't think, was ever in a fight of the year. Off the top of that I can't. Mighty. house I wouldn't say was ever in the fight of the year. So I don't think that matters. Never cleaned out the division again. Like we said, a lot of that was out of his control. And again, I would ask also to never clean out.

Ferguson? Well, that's what I'm saying. Other than Ferguson, who else are we like, oh man, Charles Olivaara maybe? But I don't feel like it's like we're dying to see him fight Charles Olivera. No way that fight could have happened. Like anytime soon either. Never rematch. What rematch did we want to see Kavib do? Connor, no thanks. It's good. I think we know who the better fighter is there. never moved up. That to me is like the thing that matters, like the least when gauging someone's great.

If you only fight in one division, it's fine. I don't care. And we said we talked about the title defense in depth. But we do appreciate the question, though, John and Randis. Oh, yeah. Thank you for the question. Thank you for the question, Mr. Graham. Yeah, no, I know.

It's a fair question. Yeah, it is a fair question. It's like, these are like between the links kind of questions. Yeah. Or differing opinions. Never fight. I don't know if it's fight of the year or fighter of the year. A fighter of the year.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But even fought. But even then, he just wasn't active enough. And if he did, like, it's just, there aren't a lot of people, like, unless there's a title attached with, there's not a lot of people 155. We're like, you know what? Oh, I get to fight Habib.

Woo-hoo. Let's do it. Like, even on the way up, nobody wanted to take that fight. Like, why would they? Because you know it's going to happen. You're just going to get taken down and you get smushed until it fights over. So I don't, yeah, I don't think, I think overrated is unfair. The only thing that may be, that may be holding him.

back is the fact that Habib's done of the sport. Yeah, that's just, like, that's it. That's, yeah, he's just over it. Yeah, he's going out on top and I guess, I don't know, so people I feel like he's leaving something on the table. But again, there's really not that many unanswered questions, Ferguson, and that's about it. What's next for Miranda Maverick?

She is a problem. Yes, she is. Yes, she is. That was, that was a violent performance. Brutal. Great, great win over a, in early on, like, Jujuo, was looking pretty good. She was moving well.

She was landing jab. She was landing combinations. And then once Miranda touched her, that was it. Everything just changed. But she looked really good. If you wanted to throw her performance bonus tonight, I wouldn't have been mad at you because she made a big impact on those prelims. But Casey, I mean, you've been following Miranda for a while now to see her finally get

in there at 20. And finally, she's 23 years old. Make her UFC debut, have a performance like that. What did you think of watching it? She looked great. Has advertised. Yeah, I was, I'm bummed out about the stoppage because I think that was one of the, just the perfect, what I like to call it, girl stoppages, you know, when the fact that it's like,

oh, there was a little blood. She had to cut her nose and need some stitches. We've seen so many, we've seen so much worse and stuff. So I was bummed that sheet, that was even a controversy because it kind of took away from it. But she looked perfect in it. Look great. Yeah. I don't want to see a rush.

She's only 23. Um, give her, yeah, whoever some bottom tier, 25ers right now, get maybe two more of those before we, they really push her, push her. I, I, I, I, I hope they don't do with the, the Macy, give her the Macy Barber type of treatment. No, you know, just, you know, I don't think she's that type of personality either that that Dana wants, you know, I'm the best ever, you know, but just, you know, build her up. And, yeah, obviously, when she hits, when she's in a couple years, I, I completely expect her to be a top five, even better fighter.

So, yeah. I think the worst part about the cut controversy, I think a lot of people might have missed what caused the cut. They did a good job on the broadcasts showing the replay of what the strike. It was like a step in like elbow. It was beautiful elbow. Yeah, I was like, yeah. 23 year old fighters, prospects are not regularly landing step in elbows with that kind of accuracy

and that kind of, they might throw it out there. Yeah. But to land it with that kind of accuracy and that kind of damage, that's crazy. It's a hard strike to land. That's like when Chris Wydenman landed that step in elbow on Mark Muno. We were all so excited. Like, this is a future champion. I'm like, I'm not saying, I'm not guaranteeing Maverick's a future champion.

But this is the kind of strike that you see the strike. And it'll be on her highlight reel again for the next whatever, however many years she decides to fight. I'm going to be like, whole, man. Like, this is this is why she's such a big deal. So, yeah, the cut probably shouldn't stop the fight, but the strike that caused the cut, whole. Yeah. Beautiful. What's next for her, though, is stay in school, keep working on that Ph.D.

Because she seems like a smart cookie. Keep working on that Ph.D. And then as she said herself, man, once she's done getting school, little out of the way. Who knows, man. Who knows when she can focus fully on fighting, how danger she's going to be. She's tough to match up right now because either, like, you don't want to push her too far or you don't want to, like, throw up against another prospect that you know that she'll do really well against. So it's like, it's tough to match her up at this point because, like, Justin Kish, that's the fight to make, something like that. I think that's perfect.

Yeah. That's perfect. Like, Sean Adopston kind of got in my mind, but I don't want to see that just because I think Sean is better than advertised and she showed it. And she's a gritty, tough fighter. And then again, I don't know. You have that story of like prospect killer, what Sean Adopson and the spoiler. Like, I don't want to see, like, Anthony Shepchenko would have been a good one.

But I think the UFC, like, see so much value in her. Like, that's where, like, these are the fights in Antonina Shepchenko should be getting. Not, you know, not the Roxanne Mata Farias of the world. And those guys, and the Caitlin Chaghan. She shouldn't be fighting anybody in the top 15. But that's where we're at right now. She is in the top 15. But, yeah, build her slowly.

There's no need to rush her. She wants to be active. So let her be active and let her start inching her way up. Just start taking these contenders out. But she is a very legit prospect to keep your eye on 125 pounds. I like the four M's, Javon, and the question. The four Mams for Miranda, Marvrick, Max Marshall. Yes.

Who deserves a title shot against Adasagna? Well, Robert Whitaker deserves the title shot. I think we're all pretty much in agreement here. but I think the problem is he probably won't get the next title shop because Robert Whitaker's going to do what Robert Woodaker wants to do. He wants to have Christmas, wants to wait for the newborn, doesn't want to fight until probably April at this point. I don't think out of science is going to wait that long.

It's Robert Whitaker one of those people that puts up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. Like he was talking about putting Christmas. He does it after Halloween. He's got lights up and like inflatable stances in his yard in like early September. He does live in Australia, right? So everything's backwards over there, Casey. So they got to remember, everything's a little different there.

So you know what I mean? The decorations might go up at a different time, right? It's different worlds over there. They're upside down. You're right, you're right. You know when they flush the toilet, the water goes the other way? I've heard that. Yeah, it's wild.

I heard that. Yeah, he himself has said, he was saying in the interviews earlier this week, that he doesn't want to fight. He's like, look, he was asked like several times, like in different ways. And he kind of kept insisting, I don't care about the title shot next. I'm not fighting in December. I want to take the rest of the year off. I want to spend time with my family.

I want to get fat. I want to enjoy Christmas. Only at the end did he say, like, if it was a title shot that was proposed for like December 12th or December 19th, that he'd be like, my team would have to work really hard to convince me to take that fight.

And I imagine his team's kind of on the same page as him and would probably, you know, they might try to convince him. I don't think they would work that hard to convince them. I think they'll be happy letting either Till or Hermanson step in there for a title shot or, of course, all the other Izzy possibilities, which I don't want to, it's a whole other discussion, but

I guess that's what this person is asking. But as far as just the middleweight title picture, I think it's Till or Hermanson next because Whitaker is going to take time off. Is this like, because of the drawing power and all that stuff, is this like, okay, if Till wins, we have a middleweight title fight, but if Hermanson wins, I think we get to bump him at this point. Like, I just, I don't know, it's tough sell, man. And I like Jack Armance. He's like, one of the friendliest fighters on the planet. I could talk to that guy for an hour, but not a big draw. He lost the cannonier.

And he lost to Jared. Pretty convincingly, yeah. I don't know. That fight just got a lot bigger, though. I'll tell you that right now. So if Hermanson wins, we already said Whitaker won, and then if Hermanson wins, then the door's open for, I guess,

then John Jones immediately in the minds of the matchmakers jumps the fort. Like, they just try to make a fight to happen somehow, right? I don't know. I don't know, like, I don't know if you have to, if he has to beat, because I see a lot of people saying it's got to, he's got to beat Beulovich and win that title before he fights John Jones. I don't agree with that at all. Like, I think you just make that,

you could just make the Jones fight if you want. I think it's weird. I forgot a Lojovice, right? They could make that. Oh, yeah, you forgot about the champ? I just don't want to be a nube. Noob. Jeez.

Now that, yeah, that's, that's going to fill the conversation. Yeah, he's, yeah. Oh, no. But you know what? Yeah. I think there is. Oh. I think there is a chance for Izzy Whitaker,

but only if regulations change in New Zealand or Australia, where they could actually have, because I know New Zealand, as far as like COVID, they're on the forefront. Like they're probably of all the countries in the world right now. They're doing one of the best. Yeah, that's true. So if I could see them doing Izzy Whitaker in New Zealand,

I know this is a stretch because the UFC is so focused on Vegas and Fight Island. But I could see that. Because I know they're having crowds there. So early, like, first quarter of 2021, if they have a full arena in New Zealand, there's a lot of hoops to jump through with international travel and everything. But if they load half that card up with Aussie and New Zealand fighters, and then just have to bring in a few Americans, you know, off the two-week,

two-week quarantine and everything, I can see that as a possibility. So I just want to put that out there. And you know what makes things easier, Casey, if they didn't say, oh, well, we got to have fell up with like, we got to have a 12 fight card. For that, for an event like that, if you could actually get people back in the arena, you could do like a six-fight card, an eight-fight card. Again, of just New Zealand and Australia fighters. Again, whatever makes it easier. Because you mentioned the full crowds, those were for games, like soccer games where football, where it was teams from the area, right? So, you know, you're not dealing with travel.

So if that's what they have to do, then they don't. You know, they probably could find 24 fighters from New Zealand and show them. Is he Whitaker main event, co-main event, Volcanowski versus, I don't know, who's the number one contender right now, 45. Bald Brian. There you go. Bald Brian. Bob Brian, you got, yeah. There you go.

Shade Brian. He's not bald. One or two. One or two international names, right? Yeah. You have two title fights. You don't need a full 12-fight card. Do an eight-fight card.

Five-fights, six fights. Three, three. You got plenty. Two pre-limbs, two good prelims on E. SPN to get people revved up to pay their money for the pay-per-view. And there you go. That's it. That's it.

Dana, watch our show, Dana. Think outside the box. We are trying to help you, UFC. Clearly, this multi-billion dollar company needs our help. That's what I'm saying. They need our ideas. You put Tai Tuivasa on the card. You put Brad Riddell on the card.

You put Jake Matthews on the card. Dan Hooker. Malaki. Jamie Malaki. Him on the card. Before we move on from this question, I did want to one and say one. more thing about waiting, though. Waiting for an opportunity, Whitaker's a different situation,

but I was thinking about this when the Lauren Murphy question was asked. I just don't want fighters to, and I think this is, I don't want to make this a thing now, but I don't want fighters to Leon Edwards themselves is kind of the new phrase I'm using now because I think everyone has seen the before, I guess, the last couple days, Leon Edwards sort of being removed from the rankings and then immediately being booked now officially, I guess, against Shemaya. Are we talking about this? Yeah, I'm just saying, I'm just saying like, fighters. apparently have to be careful because it's waiting unless there's only certain fighters that can wait

forever, like the McGregors of the world and had that kind of leverage, John Jones. Leon Edwards is, unfortunately, is not in that range despite being a legitimate top 10 guy. That means nothing to the UFC. It means literally nothing. They have all the leverage in this situation. And now he's ending up an extraordinarily difficult fight, which I think he can win. I mean, I'm waiting to see what the line is on this fight with Shemaya, but it's still a really dangerous opponent. It's just so little to gain. I don't know. I don't know.

I think I saw Edwards is minus 175. That's reasonable. He should be favored. He should be favored. He should. Yeah. Minus 175 is like exactly. Actually, it's a.

So I, some have it a, some have Shamiyaf is minus 140. They're all over the place. So I asked on Twitter, because I didn't actually know, the answer is like when was the last time a top five fighter on a wind streak mind you fought someone outside of the top 20 not not short notice not short notice not a short notice not a short notice not a short notice the best one someone came up with i was like oh yeah cub swanson who was on a win streak he just fought he just beat um super boy and the fight of the year he fought in a main event in a fight night against the goat artem loboff which was a ridiculous fight at the time

Why was that fight booked going back in time real quick? Why was... Well, because Lobov is the number one. Even though he's not ranked officially, he's like the number one on the... It's like he's like beyond ranking. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? It's like a side rankings that we can't access,

but like he's just assumed to be number one at the top of that ranking is no matter all the time. Kind of like the champions by default number one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, oh, yeah. So, yeah.

So, yeah, so Shami of is the new arm Lobov. Wow. Wow, that's lofty prey. And now the hype train is chugging all over again. Yeah, I mean, it's tough for Leon Edwards. Because you felt bad for him for a little while. Like once the Woodley fight ended and then you saw what Gilbert Burns did to get to where he's at. And, you know, then getting the title shot, but he couldn't make it.

And then it just, because see, someone asked me this on Twitter. Like, didn't Leon Edwards turn down a bunch of fights? I don't know. Like, only a few select people actually know the answer to that question. because Leon said that other people turned him down and then vice versa. So nobody really knows. There's like three or four people on this planet

that actually know the answer to that question. But then it's just, eventually you just, then you're just calling your shots on stuff that just isn't going to happen. Like you know you're not getting a title shot. You know you're not fighting Mazadol. You know you're not fighting Colby Covington.

It's just not going to happen. Like it's take the Wonderboy fight. Like I cannot believe that never happened. Like whether it was offered or not offered. Like what is. happening here. But now, like, since you're, you're ready to go and you know, like, I just have to get in there and fight and you're kind of backed up against a corner. Shamiyev's the best option available right now. Either way, it's a win-win for both. It's a win-win either way, because if Leon Edwards beats Hamsat Shamaev, he gets all the mojo back. Like, whatever mojo we had is back and probably even more. When if Shamaev goes out there and beats Leon Edwards in his fourth UFC fight, that is ridiculous. That's human. That's human.

among us and he's the real deal, and you could probably give him a title shot right after that. Whatever the reports and rumors are of how this Edward situation was handled, one thing we can know for sure now, now that the dust of someone settled, he did not get what he wanted. Okay, I don't know. There is no way whatever was offered, whoever, whoever didn't want to fight him, whoever he didn't want to fight, this is not the conclusion that he was looking for. So I'm just saying fighters and people in life in general, just be careful. Know what you have in your hand, okay? Just, I'm saying. And what is, and what is. worth. I also want to say, I feel bad for

Neil Magni because Dana White's all like, who wants to fight this killer? And Neil Magnet is like, I'll fight him. And Dana's like, who wants to fight this guy? Anyone. Anyone out there? Okay, I guess

no one wants to fight him. He's so scary. Nobody wants to fight him. So poor Neil Magny. Poor Neil Magny. We see you. We see you. It is in the records. We know you want to fight Shemaya. Okay, everyone know. The people to know. He wanted to question. Yeah, I just want to put that out there in the universe. I like this question. I agree.

I like this question, actually. After watching this fight, do you change how you think Habib versus Ferguson would go? What was your... I still think, I still think Habib would beat him from the get-go. Me too. So no. I think he'd beat some, I think, honestly, and I like Tony Ferguson, like, we've had some good conversations over the years. I can't, like, talk to him now because he's under new management. so it's a lot more difficult than it was like three or four years ago. But I just don't think, I think Habib would have beat him worse now than it would have, like if they fought at UFC 209 back in the day or whatever.

Or, yeah. I was definitely flying the Ferguson flag for a long time. Like, honestly, if you'd ask me this two years ago, I probably would have still would have said. I think that Ferguson is like the, you know, the best possible guy who could match up with him. Just because I think he's unpredictable. I think his scrambling ability. I think it's top notch.

He is a good wrestler. Tony Ferguson is a good wrestler. And I thought I would have said his striking is better than Norma Meadows. I don't know if it is, but that's what I would have said. Now, again, as I say we're just talking about age,

I think Tony is 37 now, 37 years old. That's a lot of mine, a lot of mileage, a lot of hard fights, a lot of mileage. And based on what we've seen, the improvements in the Habib's game and maybe some of the limitations of Ferguson's game were kind of exposed in the case you fight.

I don't know if you want to call it that, but I'll say, I am now fully, I know you guys were already on it, So I'm the one who's late here, but after seeing tonight, I'm like, I can't imagine picking Ferguson to beat Habib Mregum in a fight. So I think Brantoneo raises a good question here. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. With the skill set that Habib has now versus say when it was originally booked 20 years ago or something like that.

Oh, so young. Yeah. So young. Yeah. I think maybe when Abid Ferguson won was booked, you know, possible Ferguson won to won that, you know. But I think the Habib that retired tonight, I mean, how long we want to talk for? Let's do it like two more questions.

We actually have a Saturday night. I know, I know. And this is how I want to spend it. AK's going to stay on here for the next eight hours. We're going to keep this rolling. Just to just, yeah, just. Just carry your laptop around your home. Okay, do you want to, while we put up the next question,

do you want to talk about what Phil Haas did tonight? Oh. All right. Everyone's busts. Everyone's, no, we're good of questions. Let's talk about some other fights on the heart. It's just, what are we want to talk about? It's, um, Phil Haas, yeah.

All right, listen. Everyone in our staff is busting my chops about Phil Haas. Oh, you give me the single camera. Oh, geez. Okay. Everyone's busted my chops Phil Haas because there's multiple reasons. One, I thought it was weird that they did a six-fight main card and insisted on on throwing two UFC debutants on it, Phil Haas and Jacob Malcun.

So, see, Jacob Malcun, his fifth, like pro-MMA, it just didn't make sense to me. And again, I am the person who does the predictions for the site. So it just meant it like another like three paragraphs I had to write. So yes, there was some bias on my part, some, some laziness, which is why I may not have wanted to see another fight in the main card. The other thing is, Phil Haas, I think most hardcore anime fans know is, has been on the kind of the hardcore prospect list for years. I mean, he had a appearance on ultimate fighter. He ended up that.

He's a former training partner John Jones. I mean, you just look at the, when you look at the guy fight, you just see glimpses of, of, of, of greatness. You certainly saw it's night. But I was also kind of like joking, like, man, is this guy ever going to make the UFC? He did the ultimate fighter. He did the contender series twice the first time he didn't make it. He's fought for Bellator. He's fought for World Series of Fighting. He's fought for Brave Combat for iteration. And it's like, he's 31, and still young in fight years. But, you know, when you see any athletes, they get over 30, you start thinking like, man, they were going to get that call. So part of me was like, man, I can't believe they're

still trying to make Phil Haas happen. You know, ha, ha, ha, ha, funny me. Sure enough, they did keep trying to make Phil Haas happen. happened. Phil did happen, and he happened all over Jacob and Alcoun tonight. So you will hear no more Phil Haas slander from me. Okay, you'll hear no more Phil Haas slander. Phil Haas's performance was amazing. 18-second knockout. Let's give him the Chimaya push. All right. Whatever if you want to say, you want to fight Jan Blockovich tomorrow, go for it. Whatever you guys want to say, I'm just nodding my head and shutting my mouth. Good job. Okay. Yeah. Listen, the guy, the guy paid his dues and I can honestly, in no respect to Jacob Al-Kuh. And I think, honestly, in no respect to Jacob Al-Kun, I have. I think I said this on Twitter. Maybe one day, Jacob Malcolm will be the light heavyweight champion of the world or the middleweight champion of the world. Nobody really knows. But on this very night, considering, like, if you just look at their record, like, go to Ebo to their topology pages. Okay.

Jacob Malcun is fighting Phil Haas, who's a tough guy at four now, okay? Phil Haas fought Luis Taylor at four and now. Then he fought Julian Marquez on the contender series at four and one. Like, this guy was brought up, like, to be a prospect. and then they threw him to the wolves. And then rather than give up, like, and get not, you got, got beat badly in two consecutive fights, this dude could have just stopped.

He could have stopped. But he went back, he paid his dues, fought for World Series of Fighting, went over and fought for Brave and, you know, fought some international guys and took those long fights. Like, the guy has officially paid his dues. So this is all good for him. Like, that's why I felt like he had a, I didn't think he was going to win in 18 seconds,

but I knew this fight wasn't getting out of it. at two minutes. Like, Phil Haas is a legit guy, and he's got the experience, and he's got the fact that now he's paid his dues and gone through the ups and the downs of this, of this sport at such a young age. She's only 31 years old. Like, he's going to be someone to watch. Absolutely.

He's got to be someone to watch. What do you do with him, Casey? What do you, what do we do with Phil Haas now? Wait, did he win 50K tonight? Did he not? No. He did not. Ankelaif.

18. Yeah. 18 second knockout, not enough, I guess. You know what? He only didn't get that because of his opponent, I think. I mean, I mean, if there was a top 10 guy, if it was Derek Brunson on the cage, he knocked him out in 18 seconds,

no way, I mean, of course he gets 50K. So, man, yeah, yeah, poor Jacob. Jacob, I'm Jacob. Yeah, you're like that. Yeah, you guys are like that. Also, I think they were definitely going to give Habib a bonus with a good performance, and then after they, you know, he retired.

I think they're like, yeah, we have to send him out with that performance bonus. Yeah, Bill Hawes, yeah, I mean, who do you fight? Somewhere, right outside the top 15, I would think, you know, I just can't think of a name right now. I actually liked, I feel like Eric Anders is like the guy I would throw all these, like,

prospects who. And I like Eric Anders. but I feel like that's where to go what about like a Zach Cummings I think he faces another newcomer these guys have so much you think so much UFC experience

and again like we said he's he's had more high level experience than most guys who are was he not 9 and 4 now or 8 and 4 whatever he is he's had a lot of that is against quality competition but still I think they'll try and find

at least since he wants to turn around quickly I think they're going to find someone to fight him in Vegas whatever in the next six weeks or so you just answer there you go he's going to Vegas you know what you do you put him against the

the middleweight gatekeeper Brad Tavares What are you That's what we got Let's find out where he's at That's fine Okay we know we know we can hurt people Let's go Brad's of ours

That's this You are not invited On to the next episode of hashtag On to the next one All right you are not invited I'm gonna give my answer Since they book Waki They didn't listen to the

Wachim Buckley idea that I had And they booked him against Jordan Wright Which I like that fight by the way I love that fight. Fluffy Hernandez versus Phil Haas is the fight to make. Oh, yeah, yeah, that makes more sense. Yeah. We'll see.

We'll definitely, we'll get it to more tomorrow. I think, tune in, tune in. Tune in. I think Phil's ready for bigger things, but whatever. Wow. Give him one more. Okay, okay. I'm not giving him the, I know, I said him random Maverick build up slow.

Phil Haas, boy's ready. He's ready. Casey's ready to give Shabaev a title shot after Fight Island, so. Lightweight. Do we have any more questions? No, just, um, you want to talk about Bokoff, Walt Harris? A little bit, we didn't even talk about that. If there's a question about it, certainly we can.

Yes. Well, the question is, man, why, why do you do this to Wall Harris? Oh, this is a question from the truck. Yeah, quote, uh, we were saying before the show, it is promotional malpractice that they did not, I should have to be dealt with this. Obviously, you know, the Anaya Blanchard story was, it dominated the narrative of Walt Harris' fight with Alist Orpenter as it should. This was a really, really tragic real-life story.

I think Walt did an amazing job of handling sort of the media that came along with it because I think he would have been very justified in saying, look, I don't want to talk about this story. I can give you some quotes, but I don't want to do an ESPN special on it. I don't want to build it into this promo video. But it's my understanding that all this all those you know weaving that sort of that personal tragedy into into the buildup for the fight I imagine him and his family sort of okayed that. So whether people agree with it or not, at least I think we know that that Walt was okay with it.

But the Alastor Overim fight was really tough. But that was rebooked, right? I mean, he was supposed to fight overreem. It was original booking and rebooked, yeah. Of course. And then the incident happened, of course. And so I think he wanted to get that fight back. That was for him for sure.

He looked up to Overim. So win or lose, I don't think it mattered. The Volkov booking was a little more confusing. I think we all want to see Walt Harris get a win. I'm not saying he's a good fighter. I'm not saying he's a guy and needs to have his handheld and like, oh, he doesn't need a charity case. But I think there's winnable, entertaining fights and good stylistic matches for him

that could really kind of give people that feel good moment they want to see with Walt Harris. And Alexander Volkov was not that matchup. So good for Volkov, again, that win, he looked great tonight. But I do wish that, I do hope that for Walt Harris's next fight, they're a little more careful with the matchmaking. truth be told I picked Walt Harris and our pickums

I didn't like the championship weight for Volkov that concerned me it really did because that was like 18 pounds heavier than the fight before muscle

like Curtis Blades that's still a lot of muscle that's a lot he's like 30 feet tall he's like 30 feet tall so like that's huge that's you know

that's just an extra five pounds on the dumbbells that's what builds up to extra 17 pounds though I got a little concerned and then I saw Walt

who would normally be around there. He was looking pretty trimmed up. I was like, all right, we got, we got an in-shape Walt Harris. Apparently we have a fat Volkov, like, who just got out of shape and missed, not the case. But like, it concerned me, which is why I kind of leaned Walt Harris. He had to do it early, which we knew kind of like after the first round. Like early on, like Walt looked pretty good. He was getting inside.

He was laying in some shots. And then once Volkov started getting his range and landing those leg kicks and you could tell. Yeah, he didn't want to get in a time. changed, yeah, you saw it like, oh boy. I was like, oh boy, this is not good. But hey, I think the fight to make now is Morris Green and Greg Hardy are fighting next week on the main card.

Give Walt Harris one of those guys, winner or loser. I think that makes sense. Like, in Mori Screen, Moore Screen's a guy that's like, he's prenaturally like a top 20, 25 guy. So if he goes out there and beats Greg Hardy, he's going to get a little bit of a little bit of buzz, you know, a little more fanfare because people, you know, how people view Greg Hardy.

Give them that fight. It's a winnable fight for Walt Harris. That would give them a nice little rub. What are they fighting again? What did they say? What day of they're fighting? Next week, Halloween. Really?

Yeah. That's an appropriate Halloween fight because that fight's going to be weird. There's a lot of weird fights on that card. They booked it right. They booked it right for Halloween. Ryan Hall was supposed to be on there, right? Nothing says Halloween, like, the master of the 50-50 position. So I know they didn't do it intentionally,

like to kind of theme it weird, weird, freaky fights for Halloween. but they almost like, they almost really had something there. Yes, yes, you're right. Yeah. That's a wrap.

Yeah, I'll give them, Mark. Next week will be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, give why here,

it's like, yeah, whoever Tom Aspinall just beat, someone like that. I'm not sure who, yeah. Yeah, right? I don't think we'll like that,

but who, oh, yeah, the contract to sign it. So, it's like, we, we see a lot of fighters lose,

and I just forget them about a week later. So, and who still have UFC contracts, so one of those fine gentlemen should, face while Harris next. I got things to do, gentlemen.

Yeah, we think we all kind of do. We actually have more. We actually do have more work to do. But I mean, I always like to say, thanks to everyone who tuned in. We had a, we still have a lot of a few thousand people watching, which is insane. But that's because our viewers are fantastic. Yeah. And we get to do it again next week.

And every week through December 19th. Looks like December 19th is the cutoff for the rest of the year. There's not going to do a post-Christmas card. And they'll do car on Christmas. We don't know. That's the way they could. Yeah, it's Friday. Get some good viewership.

So by next week, Anderson Silva, what looks to be the final fight of his career against Uriah Hall. We got Bryce Mitchell versus Andre Feely in the co-main event. That's a great fight. We have, I'm just going off the top of my head here, Morris Green versus Greg Hardy, Alexander Hernandez versus Chris Gritzmocker.

I have a feeling there's going to be some Halloween-ish stuff going on with that fight. just a it's a pretty good card it'll be fun it's perfect October 31st kind of a car

oh and next week the second the second most highest anticipated fight of the year Musasi versus Lima that's right that is true

oh yes on Thursday yes I'm very excited I'm very excited I hope it's I hope it's the most amazing draw

ever because I guess I love both those gentlemen and I don't want one to lose but I want them to punch each other and be awesome but

oh man I'm so excited for that. Please place your kicks appropriately. Oh, God. Got it towards them so bad. There's just too much, too much of that going on in the Bellator cage these days. But that fight's great. I did talk to Busasi on Friday, I think.

Thursday or Friday. So we'll probably pop that out in the next couple of days. It was good stuff. Musassi was just as friendly and funny as always. By the way, oh, shout-outs, by the way, to Jose Youngs, who unfortunately cannot be with us on the post show. But this is, I think he is now done with his Fight Island Tour of Duty as it were for now, this current tour of duty for final.

You guys might not see Jose around for a while, so I'm going to say, I will just shout out him out, and I will say he's also very thankful for all the viewership and all the guys. You guys tuning into our videos and tuning into our live streams. He can be a little cummergently, but I assure you loves you all very, very much,

and he loves to work hard for you guys. But yes, he hopefully will return back to the good old US of A sometime this week. We hope Monday, but we don't know. And given how the travel has been, And because, yeah, he's now, he's been on Fight Island for about, it feels like a year. So, so please, you guys, please send nice messages to Jose at Jose Young's on Twitter and just let him know how much you appreciate his efforts. The guy is, the guy is a maniac, and we love him for it.

Absolutely. So UFC 254, at least for now, put a bow on it. Habibna Magamagamato. The goat. It's his career. The undefeated, undisputed, lightweight champion of the world. so a lot will happen at 55. So congratulations.

Happy trails to Habib Naraga Madoff. And that's it. So thank you all for spending this crazy week with us. UFC-254 Fight Week has officially come to an end for Alex K. Lee for E.K.C. Lydden. I am Mike Eck. Good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.