MMA Fighting - UFC 258 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: February 14, 2021

With UFC 258 in the books, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee and E. Casey Leydon break down the top storylines from Saturday night's PPV event in Las Vegas. 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. Well, hello there, everybody. Welcome to the second half of our UFC 248 post-fight coverage here on MMAfighting.com. We are not done just yet. It is the time for you to join us in reacting to UFC 2508. We are who still the UFC Walterweight champions, the spectacular performance.

It's a fun night of fight. It delivered. Not a lot of hype going in, but it's a pretty damn fun pay-per-view. Pretty damn fun card from start to finish. Had some hiccups and speed bumps along the way, but I think we all came through it. Better people.

And thank you for joining us. I am Mike Eck. Alex Cayley, the Prince of Positivity is here. Back in our lives. There he is. I'm here. Duval! Shout us to Duval.

Shout out of Duval. And E. Casey Liden, back here on the other side. We just heard from Alexa Grasso, and Dana White and Mara Usman, even Gilbert Burns, even Bruce Buffer on the post-fight press conference stream. So hope you guys enjoyed that. It went for a while, but now we're here. And listen, we don't have much prepared.

You guys, this is your show. This is your post-fight show. Whatever you want to talk about for the next 30 or so minutes, we're going to get to all of that. But before we do, we'll have these questions come in. We got Casey's reaction to the main event. We got my reaction to the main event. We haven't gotten AK's reaction to the main event on these streams yet.

Kamar Usman, AK, overcame a little adversity. Gilbert Burns dropped him early in the fight, hurt him, had him in some big trouble. But he stayed composed, calm, cool, and collected. And then he just took over the fight as soon as the second round began. What did you think of the Nigerian nightmares title defense tonight? Look, we talked about what it would take for Uzma to kind of get to that next level of popularity. And this fight, I mean, I'm sure he wished it was a little bit easier. But as far from an entertainment and narrative standpoint, it couldn't have played out any better.

We got to see him face adversity. You know, that's something that made George St. Pierre's run so intriguing was that even though he was so dominant in those fights, there was always that sense of vulnerability. You know, there was always like, oh, Tiago Alves. Oh, Tiago Haivas has got that moit Thai explosive, you know, knockout power, great jiu-jitsu. Maybe he can catch George. Jake Shields. Jake Shields is a great grappler.

maybe he's the grapple that can outgraple, you know, GSP. So, Usma was missing that a little bit. You know, that dominance can be, can almost detract from, if you're not finishing, you know, if you're dominating but not finishing, then the dominance can almost detract from the interest in your fights. So the Colby-Colvent fight, that was obviously a great one. That was huge, that was huge for his reputation. And then this fight, early struggles, comes back, shows us toughness.

It takes a lot of hard shots and it gets a really exciting finish. And really, no controversy. You know, just clearly outlasts and out classes Gilbert Burns, you know? So I think it was a great main event, a great showcase for Usman. So this was kind of a one fight hard on paper for a lot of people, but at least that one fight did what it was supposed to do and showcase, not just Usman, but I think Burns also came out looking great as well. So it was a really, really, really nice welterweight championship fight.

There's just like an emotional set of circumstances, like all around. Like super intense at the beginning Like they didn't wait for like the referee instructions To get into each other's faces And then like after every round They were like in each other's faces And then the fight was over And it was just like heartbreak everywhere

It was just so raw It was crazy I just remembered Herb Dean When they faced off He's like excuse me Excuse me I gotta get I gotta get in It was wild It was great

I was like ooh They're gonna fight It was good A little bit of everything. So, yeah, leave your questions, your thoughts, your comments on the card. And we're going to start firing these things off and get right after it. Go to me, fix this side. Great card.

So that's not a question, but I do want to address that. You know, the whole time I was watching, I shouldn't care because, you know, we do this professionally. So it's different for us than how fans do it. But the whole time I was at wondering, it's a good, I was thinking it was a good card. Is the card worth $70? But then I was comparing it to other, like, really solid fight night cards. And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know how people measure the value.

Is it, again, in a quality main event, which they got, exciting finishes. They certainly got those today. There wasn't maybe, well, no, there was some really good. There were actually a few good back and forth fights, including the main event and even fights to end in the first round. There was some exciting one. And a potential submission of the year. of an end of submission of the year. Yeah, it's funny.

It's funny. For some reason, I'm still hesitant to call it a great card. I don't know. I'm not sure what else I could have asked for. But 70, yeah, I don't know. $70, was it worth people's harder and shekels? I mean, yeah, I think it delivered. I think it delivered.

I don't know if I would call it a great card, but yeah, I think it was worth your money. If you paid for this pay for you, I don't think you're disappointed. It's hard to say, great card when you say $70 because one pay per view from now in a couple weeks, that's also $70. Yes.

And you look at that card and you look at this card while, I mean, just the name value and what the next pay-per-view, what it means for everything as far so many divisions, and even the prelims or the fights matter as far as like

next, no top contenders. But if If 70 bucks ain't nothing to you, it is a great card. It was. Right. And that's kind of what I'm saying. It did feel, I saw a lot of kind of snarky comments, you know, and they're like, oh,

this is a really great fight night card. And like, I kind of rolled my eyes, but I'm like, you know what? This is a lot of this stuff is stuff that we've seen on fight night cards, which is a good thing, by the way. That kind of speaks to the high quality. That's some of the fight cards that we get these days. There's some really, really good ones that used to be pay-per-views, like, you know, 15 years ago. and it also speaks to, again, kind of how much, how many cars there are and how indistinguishable

they are from pay-per-view. So when a pay-view comes around, it does feel like a fight night, and you almost can't tell the difference. So pros and cons, pros and cons, it's really a glass-half full, glass-half-empty situation. It really, kind of like you said, it depends on how you felt about spending $70 and doing it again in a few weeks for a car that's more stacked. Yeah, it's going to be, it's three weeks between 257 and 258, three weeks or two weeks or 21 days from right now, we'll have 259,

and then three weeks after that, we'll have 260 with the heavyweight title on the line. So, yeah, it's got to be pretty wild. Let's see. Joseph Bosa didn't like some of Kamara scrum. I hate the call out of Jorge. Jorge had to kill himself to make 170, lost 20 pounds of four days.

I think Wonderboy should get the title shot. What are your thoughts on that, AK, because Casey and I were talking earlier, Kamar Usman, obviously, big winner tonight. But second on the big winner list was Jorge Mazadol. To have your name called out on the broadcast after he won that fight, that was a gift from the heavens for him, was it not? I just, who want, really honestly, who wants to see this?

Shout out on the comments if I'm crazy here, and you guys are really dying to see, you know, a proper Mazvedal, Uzman rematch. That first fight left a lot of unanswered questions. Look, Uzman framed it himself. If there are some fair points, Masadol did have to take the fight on short notice. Obviously, he wasn't as well prepared as he would have been. And I do think a fight between them, if they fought again, it would play out differently.

I don't think it's unfair to say that Mazadal is born to be better, be a little better getting off the cage, you know, dealing with the grappling and creating some more scramble situations, you know, something like that. It would be different. But so different that I need to see it again like next, no, maybe somewhere down the road. you know, we're at this point where I think we've talked about the welterweight division a lot as being a little bit stuck where guys just don't want to take fights

because they don't want to lose their positions but at some point someone has to fight their way back to the front of the line. I think Maz would play as one of those people. I don't think he's such a box office trial that he can just hold out for another shot of Usman or maybe one fight away. I think it depends on you, it's a guess,

but he hasn't maybe one or two fights away. So I don't know. Yeah, I agree with the judge, that I don't know if Usman did the right thing. thing. But at the same time, there's not that many names at 170 pounds immediately jump into my mind that need to get a shot. Yeah. So he didn't do it. He didn't do the best thing, but there wasn't really a better option either. Yeah. Well, I'm amazed. I'll say this. This is a bit of a spoiler. The reason I'm kind of dancing around this case, because it's a bit

of a spoiler for, I think, a call on a man up writing in the next couple of days. But he should have just jumped on the Habib bandwagon and done that callout. He should have said something like, oh, look, I know Dana and him are still talking. I know he hasn't said he wants to come back. But if he's looking for that, something special or that's something spectacular, you know, I gave him that something spectacular tonight. So maybe Habib comes back for me and gives me that chance to be the one in 29 and one. You know what I mean?

Look, again, it's an unrealistic callout. But for me, it would make just as much, it's a more exciting callout than I think than calling for Mazvedal, which is, which, again, it was a mystery. I think, I think it was when we get, we'd get, we'd get, crap too. It's like, oh, what, you caught out a retired 55er, you know, it's like, I think there's, I think there's a lot of lose. And I think, I don't know, I don't think there's a perfect callout, to be honest. And this is the UFC's fault, but not, not, because we talked about how the, how the, how the World Trade Division has been so, it's kind of stuck, I guess.

And we got some movement finally at the top, but still right underneath, it's still the same. We still, I don't, like, and the whole tough thing, like, oh, God, what do you think about that, huh? Okay. I mean, look, I've said it already. I hate, I hate taking fighters, like contenders and putting them as coaches on the show and putting them on the shelf for like nine months as they've got to film the show, they've waited for the show to air. It's, and I love the ultimate fighter.

But anyone who's campaigning for like, oh, I really want to see Usman and Mazadol, I want to be able to see two guys who should be active. Clearly, these people have not watched the show in like 10 seasons. Because it's honestly, no, and I get it. These guys are great personalities. You might get something better out of it. But the upside is just not that high. The ratings might be probably a bit better than average than the last few seasons.

You know, there'd be that buzz of like, oh, the old fighter's back. Absence makes a heart grow fonder. So you add that plus some stars. Obviously, look, the ratings would be better than they've been. But at the same time, it takes up so much of these guys' time. I just wish they had, they would call in, like, coaches who are better at TV, bring in Chelsonin, bring in a Matt Sarah, stuff like that. I get it.

You don't get as much chasel on interest, but the show would be. better. And again, the ratings at some point are just going to like fall back down anyway. I know that's kind of cynical thing to say. So no, I don't like it. I hate the idea of tying these guys up with the ultimate fighter. All right. Let me respond to this whole thing. One, from what I understand, the plan is to film the Ultimate Fighter in March. That's like the hope. They were supposed to do it in January. Things got pushed back, obviously, because of the pandemic. So I don't mind it. I also don't mind the call out. I actually think it's a pretty brilliant call out for a lot of of the reasons you guys mentioned, it forces these guys like the Covingtons, like these other guys

who aren't jumping on these opportunities to take fights. It forces them to have to do that now. Like if you're going to get a shot at the belt, like now you're forced to. Like you can't wait for a title shot. Usom just said, you know what? I'm going to make the most money I can with this opportunity with unanswered questions. I'm going to make the job easier. And now these guys can just fight it out and earn that that next shot. No one's done that right now. There are options, but no one's done that. So if I'm, if I'm Usman, and he's probably going to be a pretty,

he should be a pretty sizable favorite in that fight. Like, let's be honest, it's a very winnable fight for him and probably makes him the most money possible. And he seems pretty tapped into things. Like the Habib callout would have been cool, but I think he understands, like, it would be kind of a groaning thing and leave Habib alone.

I think he knows what's going on. And then if he called out GSP, still kind of the same thing. Like, he sees, like when you ask, him about it, he's got an answer, but he's not going to sit there and be like, hey, GSP, you took everything I work for, MF, I'm the man, I'm the best Walterweight in the world. Like he saw what Tyre Wood, like what happened when Tyraudley tried to do that. And it didn't work.

It actually like dropped his stock a little bit. It made people sort of turn against him. And I think Uistman's playing the smart. I actually thought it was the right callout. Meritocracy rise, maybe not, but at least it gets the division moving forward. That's the biggest problem right now. There's just no movement. The Walterweight division has lost so much value since Uzman B.

Mazadol in July because no one's fighting. That, uh, there, I, I forgot that the first Usman Mazdaal fight. It was, it was a pretty successful pay-per-view. Very, uh, I believe I'm just looking here. Reported 1.3 million. Yeah. It was a, it was a stacked card. Volcanowski Holloway was also on there.

Uh, Peoria, Aldo, Rose and Jessica Entrach, uh, Pedro Zand was on there. So it was a loaded card, but I, I, yes, obviously, uh, the Mazvedal interest true a lot of that. I don't know. But now that people have seen it, I bet it would do less than 1.3, maybe still, probably still crack a million, probably still crack a million, which I guess makes it worth doing. It's not if you're Uzman and your banking and getting those paper viewpoints. But, man, I just don't like it. But you're right.

Can I think of someone who would also, like right now who he could fight at Walterway that would draw a million? Nate Diaz, maybe. Obviously, a Connor McGregor, but I mean, that doesn't count. So yeah, yeah, if you want to look at it from that way. I think what's also not talking about. I think it's very important. He, I think, Usman needs to face Masvedal again and finish him and beat him decisively.

And that will be the way he finally, people put respect in his name. Because right now he still was like, snooze man, snooze me. You fought that one boring fight one time, remember? Oh, I ignore the really exciting fights. But remember that one time you fought the boring fight? Snoozeman. It kind of sounds like Usman, but snooze and snooze me sleeping, you know. Oh, I get it.

Yeah, so in case you didn't get it, snoozeman, your rhymes, it's like a thing. That's good. I really think, because watching Camaro speak, like, he's one of those guys, like, and I think Dana likes this. Dana doesn't like how many pay per views he sells,

but I think Dana likes this in fighters. He definitely fights a chip on his shoulder. You could tell, like, I don't care about stats. I don't care about if I beat JSPB, but what I do care about is all these, I'm not in a pound for pound list. I'm not, or I'm not number one, or, you know, I'm not,

But, you know, people are still doubting, even though people aren't doubting him, he feels like they're doubting him. And I think, I still think that, that Usman, I mean, the Mazelot fight really bothers him because he really wanted to put a serious hurting on him. And, yeah, that's why actually I do like that fight. Although, it doesn't make sense, I get it, but yeah, whatever. The footstombs, though. Fighter of the year.

Fighter of the year. Byter of the year. My 2020, my 2020 fighter of the year. The footstones. Is he was the 21, 20, 20,

20, the year right now. I mean, clearly he's the frontrunner, and I don't see anyone passing him. Dust, yeah,

or Dust, pour, yeah. It doesn't worry. I'm very, I, I really want, I can't wait to see

what the report for tonight's card is. Any, any estimates? What do you guys think? Okay. Under, under 500,

000, unfortunately. Under 500. I'd be shocked if it's 500, that's what I was like, you should say, 1.7 million?

1.3 million. I'm sorry, 1.3 million and we're being very we're being very positive in saying 500,000 you know so yeah that's a lot oh oh no my my update updates came up box update it's going to be it's going to be tough it's yeah I mean especially like you guys said people are people are aware that there are bigger paper views coming up so you just logically would budget and you might see this card and on paper say well this is the one I this is the one I'm going to skip maybe maybe if you even thought that Usman was going to win another front decision.

You just kind of, okay, well, I'm going to skip this one. So I think maybe 250-ish range, 250,000, 250,000, 200,000. I'm, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, with the FBI out there after all the streamers and illegal cameras. Yeah, definitely, yeah. I got Joseph Boza, Joseph Boza saying 500, 600 at most.

Our good friend, M.M.A. our good friend MMA Vodgers saying 750K. If this hits 750K, Uzman is a star. If this somehow hits 750K, there's no more talk as Usman is definitely a star if it's hit 70K. That's a big, that's like John Jones, BJ Penn, Anderson Silva after the Chal Snowin Fight Range. Yeah, I don't know if you're making that.

John Jones versus Daniel Cormier, too, with all that heat did not sell a million pay-per-views. It was like $900,000. So $750 for this card, good, Lord. That'd be impressive. A lot of Alexa Grasso fans out there. It's just the timing of it. That's all.

Like, you just, it's not that it was a bad car. It's sandwiching between two mega cards. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's true. Who in the top 10 makes sense for Alexa Grasso? I have it. We're doing our show. We're doing our show now?

Come on. I'm giving Casey this one. By the way, and let me just say this. Casey will answer this question. I will just say that I will answer it. I already know who it is. This is too easy.

This might be the easiest pick out of all of them. I got to do a quick. Look at the rankings real quick. Me too. I'm doing that right now. I actually had not had not. I got a lot of suggestions. You know,

might get a lot of suggestions in her way. But yeah, go ahead. Well, she called her. It was a very polite call out. I saw it on the Twitter. um Caitlin Chikayang called out Grosso and um

suggested why don't we knuckle up so uh that's the interesting fight but um if she wants to fight someone coming out is okay and Caitlin's coming off a win I don't know if the UFC well UFC does weird matchmaking

I don't like that match because if Caitlin does beat Grosso it just stalls the division because Chikagan is not getting a title shot I think it has to be yeah yeah I think uh Grosso has to fight someone that could potentially still fight for a title.

So maybe Cynthia Cavilla? Wrong answer. Oh, man. If they book it, I'm fine, but that's not the right answer. Go ahead. Vivian, uh, Vivian, right? That's what I say.

I saw Fiorani Arrugio's an option. How did you say her name? I got a figure out of her name. Arrudo. Arrujo. Arrujo. Arrujo, sure. Close.

There's your. answer. I'm pointing to it. Okay. Oh, you think so? I'm into that. That is the fight. Is that, is that kind of who she is at this point? You have to beat her if you want to fight, Shibchenko. And it's, listen, just guy is a very wonderful fight.

Just guy is a fine fighter. She, uh, she is. She gets in there in fights. She is. But I will guarantee you if this is the fight that it's made, the second this fight is booked and we confirm it and we put on our website everyone is going to immediately be an Alexa Grasso fan. Immediately.

She will get buzzed right off the bat for this fight. And these are the kinds of matchups that she needs right now. Like you don't want to rush her. You don't want to throw her up there. Like I think eyes, what, like number eight right now? Something like that, seven or eight? I think that's perfect. Perfect next step.

I don't go by the U.S. I don't go by the real rankings, but yeah. Yeah, she gets the the rub from Jessica I mean look at Joanne Calderwood like Calderwood's a fun fighter people like her but she got a lot of fans punching Jessica in the face I mean it's just the way that it is it's whether it's fair or not that's just the way that it is so I think that's like a good sensible step for her you fight Jessica eye instant gratification for the fans and then it's onwards it upwards it upwards for there not saying she'll just go in there and win but the risk and reward I think in potential

star power or, you know, whatever you can get from that. I think that's probably like the best step for her in order to to get to where she wants to go. I like that without rushing her. Can we answer this? Who's next for Barber? Is that something you talk about on your podcast? We have a wild card option, but I don't know. I don't know if Barber, maybe I would.

Maybe I would. Just look and look at the rankings here. Do we find out? Oh, sorry, go on. Montana de la Rosa. I don't know. I think she's booked, though, maybe. Gian Kim, Molly McCann.

I kind of like the Molly McCann idea. Sure. I could see that. Yeah. That would be fun. That would just be a fun scrap. Yeah. It would be a fun scrap.

Again, and these are all, this is all learning period for Missy Barber. All right. They have to be very careful with how the developer, because I do think they could have done a better job with Sage Northcutt. I think they could have done a better job with Paige Van Zant. Chase Hooper, I think they could do a better job with. Though maybe he's, again, maybe shouldn't even be in the O.C. Whoa. Whoa.

Sean O'Malley, I think they did right. Sean O'Malley, I think they actually did a really good job, I will say, of the young prospects booking them with the right opponents. I think Sean and Malik did about as good a job as they could. But a lot of these young guys, the UFC is not a good place for young fighters to develop. It just isn't. That's just a proven fact. A lot of their sort of designated, you know, blue chippers, they don't really know how to handle them and they put them in bad situations that actually hurt their development instead of helping

them. So I would like to see her take a step back, yeah, and fight someone like Molly McCann, who is a very tough, very good fighter, but rankings-wise, you know, around, I think, where Macy should be right now. I think that's a fight Molly would like, too. Mm-hmm. I think her fighting style. I think that's a fun fight. But now that barber, I think we can kind of put, now kind of shelf the whole, is she going

to be the youngest UFC champ ever? I think we're now past that, you know. That was a nice little fun thing to talk about for a while. But yeah, but do you even start Barbara Macy, like her coaches in the UFC, do you even go even farther back and just like almost started like it's their first fighting UFC and like just whoever the UFC matchmakers think is the worst flyweight book her against her or do we like how much do you think the UFC and Dana are in the Macy Barber business?

Yes. or bring in a contender series person or something or bring in, bring in, you know, maybe someone from Invicta who's not a standout from Invicta but someone who has that kind of experience, right? They don't believe in Tune Up fights in the O'S either. They really do not like Tuna fights at all. And sometimes that strategy pays us,

sometimes it doesn't. But in a case of this kind of young prospect, I agree, there should be fighters that they should keep around just for kind of like to really help some of their chosen, their chosen ones kind of bounce back. But, yeah, I think actually that's a really good idea, but I don't see that happening. I think they are going to give her another tough test. I actually think she's going to get Andrea Lee.

Barber? Wow, that's tough. That would be Barbara coming off two losses going against someone coming off three losses, even though Andrea Lee is going to. Right. It just. Yeah, I actually like that fight. Man, I just really feel very bad for whoever loses that fight.

because that is just a massive losing streak in the UFC. So, um, all right. Yeah, I don't know. I just don't know if they tune her up. Jocelyn Edwards, go back down to 125. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I'm not sure. What did you think of the Miley Cyrus call out?

Love it. We talked about it on Slack a little bit. We did. Well, I'll say it's like, I think it's a great song choice, but Julian Marquez had, has been, All week he's been stupagast up that he was going to come out to the Heart of Glass cover, the Blondie Classic by Miley Cyrus, which is fine. It's a good, it's a solid cover, but I mean, it's nothing compared. I disagree. I disagree.

I'm, I don't even like it. I'm not, I don't like that cover because it sounded more like just a karaoke version of it. Right, right. It's not that different. It's not that different. A cover has to be, you have to reinvent the song, either different genre or different mood. It literally sounds like the same exact song as if it was Blondie playing. doing guest vocals.

So that's why I didn't love it too much. Yeah, I'm not, okay, so I'm not crazy then. Everyone's telling me like, oh, this, this hard glass covers sick. And I'm like, it's fine. It's good. But yeah, it's not. I would rather listen to the original. Debbie Harry is a frigging classic.

But the call out itself, the Chilean market, everything that Chene Marquez's post-flight was hilarious. He was campaigning. He was doing some campaign to, you know, oh, visit. You know, so your city can be the one that hosts some event or something. That was great. And then he prefaced the Miley Cyrus comment with, like, I've been waiting 30.

He really had been winning 31 months. You know, he hadn't fought in 30 months. Hadn't won and longer than that. And he's like, I'm waiting this lawn to do this fallout. And so here we go. Miley Cyrus, will you be my Valentine? I thought it's hilarious. Gosh, in a perfect world, he gets some sort of response from her.

I'm not sure her if she handles social media or someone else does. But please, someone acknowledged within markets because I thought it was great. And I was a little upset because I was like, why are you not walking out to Wrecking Ball? But then he informed us in his post-fight scrum. He actually already walked out the wrecking ball when he knocked out Phil Haas. So I was like, oh, I didn't realize that.

That changes everything. He did? They had Waco songs for Contender Series? Maybe for the Darren Stewart fight. Maybe he said he's walked out to it before. So I just didn't. Sure. I can believe that.

I was like, all right. He likes to change. He likes a different. walk out song each time. So I was like, all right, all right. He hasn't, he hasn't walked a party in the USA yet, has he? He's waiting for a title fight. Yeah. As soon as there's people back, you have to walk out to that in Strike Force. Derek Brunson. That was the, uh, tremendous. Yeah, so. I don't care who you are. I don't care who you are. If that song plays anywhere, you're dancing to it. You are. I don't care who you are. You can, you can make fun of it right now, but if you go to a wedding and that song plays,

you're getting up there and you're probably going to sing every word to it. Don't lie to yourself. What else we got? So don't hide Miley. Don't hide from Marquez. Don't duck Marquez. A lot of matchup questions, guys. Why is it so easy to match me for

everyone except Leon? He's not going to get the title shot and frankly I don't want him to wait for Wonderboy. All right. So here's what I said on the, I don't know if you were watching the post-fight stream, aka the press conference. If I am Leon Edwards, I'm literally spending every waking moment

on social media calling on Nate Diaz and nobody else. That's the guy. If you want a guy, he says he wants to come back in March or April, wants to fight a guy on a long winning streak that's winning, wants to do it 170 pounds. If I'm Leon Edwards, I am screaming from the rooftops. And then after I scream from that rooftop and up, I'm going to the next rooftop and I'm saying Nate Diaz's name again,

that's what you got to do. You fight, you scramble for that fight. Because I don't think Colby Covington's going to take it. And Wonderboy can't fight till May. and Leon wants to stay on the March 13th card. He has fought in forever. You call for Nate and you just keep calling for him over and over again. You poke at the bear and hopefully he signs.

What do you think? No, I agree with that. But I also agree with the question. Like, I just want to like to answer to the question, why it's so easy to match for everyone except him? I mean, okay, well, look. So Mike is saying call for Diaz fight because Diaz is almost sort of beyond the rankings at this point. He fights so sporadically.

And I don't think Diaz cares whether he's fighting someone on a losing, one fight, losing streak, six-fight win streak, two. Diaz doesn't care. He would just want a name or something that's intriguing. It's going to generate fan interest and put money in his pocket. And Mike, with the right effort, Edwards could be that opponent. He could be that opponent. I'm still furious with the UFC that they completely dropped the ball after the Mazvedal's couple. That is one of their biggest mistake. We'll never know how they didn't put that fight together.

Maybe it was out of the control. Maybe Mazvedal didn't want it. maybe Edwards didn't want. I don't know why they wouldn't, but that was money right there. So a Diaz fight would have that kind of intrigues as well, I suppose. They did it to build up a little bit of trash talk. But why it's so hard to book him, he's on an eight-fight win streak. Nobody wants to risk losing their spot to him. And also, he's the kind of guy, he makes people look bad.

He makes his opponent look bad. He's not going to get into brawls. He doesn't get into fights where it's like, ah, competitive fights. Now, he's very technical, very enjoyable to watch from that sense. But from a casual standpoint, he's, not bringing a lot of eyeballs to the fight, and he's probably just going to make, you're probably just catching an L.

So, I mean, again, that's one reason. And it doesn't help. He himself has been a little bit picky with his opponents as well. So add all that together, and you have a guy who, again, hasn't fought in well over a year, despite being on a eight-fight win streak. The problem is there's just no movement at all. There's none.

Covington Woodley, outside of Camarooson versus Gilber, versus Porhey Mazda last year, that was the biggest fight at Welterweight. And that was just kind of like that's a fight that didn't need to happen. It didn't need to happen. Like it was just like one of those fights.

It's kind of like the way I view the Dillusha Uriah Fabor idea. Like it doesn't need to happen. But if you're going to do it, like you have to do it now or it doesn't make sense. And by the way, if you've been following social media and following ESPN shows, people in the know,

the UFC is talking about T.J. Dillashaw versus Uriah Faber. And if they booked that, that is like the check the tapes championship of the world right there. You're going to be in all the countdown shows. It's going to be like this, you know, like, Mike Heck, you know, but like a really weird filter on you, you know. Yeah, yeah. You know, you're familiar with this, okay, you know, when they take your audio and just put a scary photo of you. We should just replace my, like, we don't need a live feed of me. Like, I should make my, just a frozen image of the one they used in the Dana White video.

I see one a comment from the guy named Mockt, who says, LOL, people were commenting Duval. on Luke Thomas's chat the other day, he was so confused. Guys, I love Luke Thomas, but if you do watch the streams, hit him up with some, keep that Duval coming. Keep that,

keep in it with those Duval coming. Luke Thomas, every live chat with Duval. Luke Thomas, I know he doesn't want this out there, but dude, guy loves Nabiscuit. He talks about,

oh, I love death metal, I love cannibal corpse. Yeah. He just wants that. But secretly? Yeah, secretly.

Ask him to show his back tattoo. Right at the very bottom of his back. It says Fred Dirt for life. It's crazy. Wow. Casey, you can't tell people that. You can't tell people that. It's late night.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah, who's blue's watching? Oh, man. Unbelievable. Everyone's going to start tagging him. He's never going to come on between the lengths. Good God. By the way, Dana White kind of shouted out Duval tonight because he was saying what, like,

oh, I want, you know, he was doing his thing where I only want to host, you know, sellout shows. And he's like, hopefully this year we can have sellout shows in either Las Vegas or Florida. And obviously by Florida, he meant Jacksonville. Shout us to Duval. What else we got? We'll take a couple more. He didn't quite say it, but obviously that was implied. I lost the question.

I saw someone asking, while you're looking for this one, was the stoppage late, sorry, early in the main event? No. No. It was either right on time or if you want to, like, maybe even a lot of late, if you want to be honest. But actually thought Erb Dean did a good job, by the way. I'm not going to, I'm not going to, uh,

yeah, it was a proper stoppage. It was, he gave the, he gave, uh, burns the respect he deserved. Um,

if that's like an amateur fight or a prelim, he probably takes, it probably gets stopped at earlier, but, um, Erb Dean recognized the significance of the fight and recognized the, the years of, you know,

uh, the fights and, no, whatever for training and everything for Burns to get that situation. And he had earned that ass kicking. So, uh, shoes have been. I also see a comment

about Hadolfo Vaira and I just want to say quickly guys go back to our preview show. I'm sorry, we go back to our preview show and watch that we all said man, we think that DeVera could lose this fight if he's a really muscular explosive guy and we've seen grapples in him in the past who get tired and then get finished late or lose decisions.

We all said it. We all said it. We all agreed like yeah, that could definitely happen. And then guys just our picks, we do picks internally. None of us picked Hernandez. Even though we clearly outlined how we thought he could win. None of us had the guts to pick him. So very, very embarrassing on our part. But amazing performance by Hernandez. Sorry, what was that question case? Yeah, it was a great performance. It was awesome. That was so good. During that fight,

okay, obviously when the, when the tide was turning, you know, like, and, you know, and once, once Rogan, like, calmed down, I was just screaming, head kick, head kicks. I was like, get the 50K knockout. And then I think, why is he going to the ground? of him. Why is he going on the ground? But obviously, Mr. Fluffy Hernandez felt something in there, saw something in there that we did not see. And he was like, no, no, no, I am going to submit this man. Because, oh, anyway, anyone got knocked. Multiple time, multiple time Abu Dhabi Combat Club world champion who has been tapping out people in like 90 seconds in MMA, getting submitted in the second round by Fluffy Hernandez. And it felt like he was about to get a 90 second submission victory again.

Yes. I thought it was open. It was over. I was like, all right, cool. Amazing. Go on and then I'll just look over and like, what? Fight's still going. Amazing. Great fight.

Fluffy landed that, he landed that Holly Holme head kick too. As soon as she like got up, he had a hand landed it. And he just ate it. He pushed VR off to give him distance and do that head kick and it landed. Yeah. The contact. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, but what do you think about Vieira? I think, I don't think it's a big deal. I think it's a learning experience and he's clearly a tough, tough dude but I don't know if he can stay at 85. I mean, yeah, I mean. He might be the new shoe face. He might be the new shoe face.

That's all I'm going to say. It was just first L time for him. I mean, it just happens. He's going to learn a ton that he's just not going to be able to just submit everybody in 90 seconds. It's just not going to work that way. Muhammad Lima fight.

John and Joe said the fighters are not supposed to wear contacts. Is that true? I would say yes. I would say it's not true. You can wear contact? No, it has to be. There's no way. Because, you know, how can you take a punch wearing a contact?

Do people do it all the time? People wear them? Yeah. People wear them getting punched in a fight wearing contact? That doesn't seem smart. Yeah. Yeah, you just, yeah. But if your contact pops out during a fight,

you can't like put a new one you got to fight with whatever what if your contact pops in to your eyeball when you get punched no byter's talking of contacts all the time I don't think they're supposed to yeah it's the question is the question is are they supposed to I don't think they're supposed to I'll have to look this up but I'll look it up right now I'll look it up right now but let's we have the power of the internet let's look this up

yeah doesn't seem like the best idea as you want but I really don't think you're allowed to that would mean that yeah A lot of firefighters write up context. I know this, but... Oh, no, I have unreliable sources verifying this. This is from...

Oh, I shouldn't even... I'm not even named the website because I don't even know if it's... I think they said it depends on the... This person, this is a blog post, this depends on the commission. And I think they said most commissions do allow this. So there's a lot of...

You know, I should credit this person. Sorry, this is a... MMA for the Workingman.com has a vote a... You can guys, look, if you Google MMA contact lessons, this is one of the first things that'll come up. It's a very thorough. I won't bore you guys by reading it now, but it's a very thorough look, apparently. And I just, just skimming it does appear to say most, it does have been in commissions. Most commissions do allow this.

So Casey is not a liar. Not about this particular topic. Yeah, not, yeah. Don't, don't pay me if rod strokes. I'm against it. Not in my fight league. Not in a no. I mean, I'll allow growing kicks and eye gauges, but not putting little shards of,

of the last man. No, no, no. Well, that would mean anyone about 2020 vision, essentially, like, what it can't fight. Oh, you could, you can't blur. You just see the blur. The Roxanne Modifari, when she's like, I think that's my opponent across the cage. I was like, I'll find out soon enough. This is true.

That's my favorite part of our Roxy fights, though. As soon as she starts, she's like, who is that? Yeah. Fair enough. And she just comes flying at you. Clearly, I'm not a contact lens where I've never worn a contact so you can tell. I have no grasp for how inconvenient they are. All right.

Do you do more questions? Let's find like the best one. Oh, this is, okay, this is the best one. It's A1. I said Mike Perry complimenting Ballal. I don't know. Maybe it's possibility, but no. No.

No. to blow on the opponent. Hashtag Sorry. No. Okay, what was this about? I didn't,

I didn't see the post-fight interview with Usman, but is this something I heard? Was crying? Was he crying? I didn't see it. I don't know. Yeah, I didn't see.

I watched, I don't think he was crying. He might have been emotional. Or he's just, I don't know, being, maybe he was just exhausted. There were tears of,

fatigue. I don't know. Honestly, I didn't see, did not notice the crying. Sorry, sorry, it's Coral.

Yeah, we cannot comment on something we didn't see. I see someone mentioned, Benson used to fight with a toothpick. Yeah, that wasn't good either. I don't know.

No, that was definitely banned. Yeah, that was definitely banned. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that still might be the craziest thing ever.

I just saw that. You guys, of course we do. Of course. Yeah, the rule. Go to MMAfighting.com and just putting our search part, BKFC. There's a lot of BKFC coverage. Dude, did you not see the interview with the biggest star of that card last weekend?

Are you kidding me? We interviewed Britain Heart. I felt it. What was the headline? What was the headline of the last Britain Heart story, Mike? Oh, God. I thought she was just about Jenny Savage. I thought it was some random ass prostitute.

Oh, yeah. I thought it was some random ass prostitute. BKFC. Oh, so good. That was a fun card. Sorry, I'm a, sorry, I'm a, I'm a concert in this card. Because now I want to talk about Barrenuckle, but we just talk about. I know, right?

That's a whole other hour if we want to start talking about Barron Uncle. All right, let's get one more. One more, one more. Okay. One more after this. I mean, fine. Okay. Yeah, I don't you.

Wait, I just, I didn't you understand this. Go ahead. Do I not read it right? Barber looked technically. class by Grasso. Can they make her fight Valentina so that us haters can see us destroyed properly? Okay, sorry. I shouldn't put that one out there.

I don't know what that one means. I don't know if he's talking about Grasso or Barber. That's the, yeah, that's what's going to be in. But thank you for the question. But, yeah, I think this is someone that wanted to see Barber, like, kind of sacrificed for his enjoyment. I could be wrong. Why?

Rude. By the way. Is this guy suggesting that Barbers should fight for the title next? I don't know. That's what I'm confusing. But while you bring up the last question, I'll just say, guys,

people don't keep up on Barber yet. She's 22 years old, like I said, if they give her the right opponents. And let's keep in, Grasso came in as like a 23, 24-year-old. And she also struggled early. Can you imagine people have counted out Grasso

after some of her early losses? Like, I don't understand how people so quickly are just like, oh, well, she's not. Oh, yeah, that's really bothered me. Yeah. Right. And now Grasso clearly is matured.

is entering her athletic prime has rounded out her game why can't Barbara do the same thing why are people so quick to say now Barbara can't I get it Barbara created kind of these elevated expectations for herself but put that aside she's very much in the same place where Grasso was five years ago so

I don't know I don't understand why people dude and Barbara like she won that third round she did everything she was supposed to do and she did everything she was supposed to do for fire when they know they're losing a fight you know you go out on your shield you know like we know kill or be killed

and she knew she was down two rounds and she was just throwing bombs in that third round and I was watching I was like I was like dude like Barbara's going for it and I was also going there's no way she can keep up that energy for five minutes though and obviously you know you kind of saw

Barber's energy kind of go up and down in that third round but she clearly she still won the round and Grasso was still mature enough and kept her poised and was able to you know just be smart and not get no got not get clock of any of those brawling looping hooks.

But we had a lot of... Barbara's still awesome. She's like, yeah, I don't get it. Like, people aren't... People are stupid. That's just, I'm going to say it. We had a lot of, we had a lot of good third round kind of before. Julian Marquez, Krause telling him in not so kind words,

kind of get your ass in there and get that finish because you're going to lose. And yeah, he just went for it. So we saw a lot of that today, a lot of good third round for him. And maybe like the best set of middleweight fights I've ever seen. I know that sounds strange, but we'll don't know. know, there's kind of a running joke in the M. May community that middleweight's kind of a tends to be a bit of a middling division. Doesn't always put on the best fights, but all three middleweight fights today. Excellent. Excellent. Great time. Good stuff. But yeah, but just kind of

wrapping on the barber thing, like I picked Alexigraso in this fight because of the experiences she had in fights like this in the past. So like two years from now, when Barber's fighting like an up-becoming contender and she's kind of rolling a little bit, we're going to look back on that fight as a reason why we pick Macy Barber to beat the next prospect. Sometimes you need fights like that. Yeah, we're looking at a few years now. We're looking at Barber's record and we're going to like, oh, she's only lost to Roxanne

Montefari, who was an elite 25er at the time, and Alexei Grasso, who bought for the title. I don't know. Something, you know, so yeah, yeah, it's ridiculous. For sure. What do we got, what are you got? What are you got? What's the closer? What's the wrap up?

Let's the wrap up. Give me a good one, kids. All right, I don't want to talk about that. All right, here we go. That's one. I've seen this a couple of times. Anyone want to see Usman come up to challenge? Is he?

I mean, yeah, sure. Sure. Do I think that's a realistic option and it's going to happen any time in the next year? Highly doubtful. Highly doubtful. Of course, obviously, you know, Disney is going up for a 205, so he's got his own business up there. He's probably going to, should he beat Blakovich, he'll try to angle that into a John Jones fight.

Even when he comes back to 185, there's actually a lot of good 195ers by then that'll probably be in position for Telethot. And he said he wants to build a legacy of 195. He would, I mean, he would not say no, you know, but it's just there's a lot of other dominoes that need to fall right now. So, yeah, I want to see it. Within the next year, I can't imagine it coming around. I'd love to see it I just there's just too much

going on right now like we said Walter weight just needs to move like to need a lot of movement this unanswered questions and I think for this to even like

be a realistic thing Lohovic has to win on March 6th if Izzy wins I don't think we're going to see it yeah definitely also regardless of the

is he going just say if Izzy was just normal just a champ just is he just who's my even whoever is whoever the 85 title holder happens to be um i just think uzman he won't do that jump until it is like basically official that ozman is the greatest um welterweight in the ufc history or even in the sure until that happens i don't there's no reason for him to go up and right now

now not not right at usman's in the discussion you know now like we're like we're saying gsp's name in the same breath as usman now like and pretty soon we're you know if ozman gets a couple more solid big wins. Who knows? Maybe we'll be like, oh, man, GSP was, you know, he was great, but then Uzman came and that he kind of changed the game. So I don't know. That jab, that jab you showed off in that fight today.

I'll tell you, it reminded me a little bit of us GSP cause check two. You know, kind of that, that quantum leap in striking that these champions are somehow able to make, even this far under their careers. It reminds, there were shades of GSP, a lot of GSP talk. And, you know what? It doesn't sound crazy. I got shades of Habib in the sense that Habib kind of when he came into the UFC originally

he was like kind of this grappling monster he would dominate you in the ground but you know you would lose a solid he would win 3026 every time pretty much but then he started finishing guys and like finishing him quick and finishing him bad and maybe Usman is kind of getting to that point too where you know he had all these solid decisions victories like dominant decision victories

but now he is who knows he can really turn that corner turn that other corner I don't know what you want to say but like where he's actually finishing a level welter weights man I think that's what that's what he's going to need for people to know go past those GSP comparisons because you know lots of solid wins obviously but you know if you actually go back and watch his fights as far as pure excitement take away all the drama you know and his you know I don't like your performance all that stuff you know you know GSP's fights were kind of you know workman like but um let's see what usman can do yeah but uh jvonne thank you

yeah usman is a freak like that guy is a freak if you haven't if you haven't like listened to it or watched it when he was on joe the joe rogan experience and he talked about like all the issues he has with his knees and his back and all this stuff like he said there's like most times in his life like where he can't even walk up this up or down the stairs like frontwards he has to do it backwards because his knees are that banged up like it's crazy to hear him tell the story just like oh my god like how do you even fight when your knees are like this like he's got to walk he he can only walk forward so he's like walking on his lawn every other time like when he's on like hard services he has to walk

backwards to like keep his knees in check it's crazy go back and watch that and watch that interview it's absolutely nuts did i ever tell you i i knew i knew kamarro before he actually fought m m m m ms like right when he was thinking about transitioning to for wrestling. When he was like, he was like an MMA training partner, but more for the wrestling. When he lives in Southern California,

and he used to train down at rain at Mark Miner's gym with Mahan Miller, Pat Cummins. Actually, when DC, he used to train down here for a little bit. And I got introduced to him, and he was like,

Esther took, like, photos of him right when he was maybe 0-1-1 or, not 1-1, but like, right when he just had, like, right before he's about to start his pro career. So I haven't talked to it. Camaro in a couple of years, like,

because it's just, you know, I haven't seen him, seen him, but, man, it was crazy because I was like, oh, cool,

you're, you're going to fight. Neat. You look pretty athletic. Yeah. That was, and like, man,

who knew? So in a way, you're responsible for everything that's happened to him since. I didn't say that, but yeah, that's what it sounds like.

Yeah, I know you don't want to say it, Casey, but I'll say it for you. Just based on the context of your story, I'm like, sounds like a pretty life-chchanging experience for Camaro.

No, Camaro's like, you know, that's my takeaway. I'm thinking about going to real estate, getting my real estate license, you know, some houses, you know, you can flip him and everything. I'm like, I don't know, bro. You got a good job. You look pretty tough. You look pretty tough, man. I started doing some pull-ups in the back, man. He looked strong.

Amazing. Origin story. I never knew. Never knew. Yeah, so it was like, but like when I met D.C., I met D.C. before he turned pro too. Oh, wow. I was like, I was like, oh, you're just some. I'll be dude on a treadmill.

And that's all I thought of him. And then everyone kept saying, oh, who's this Dan? They kept calling him Daniel, the Olympian. I'm like, who's Daniel? Where's this Olympic wrestler? And he's like literally right in front of me. And I got. You asked him.

You asked him. Excuse me, sir. I'm looking for Daniel Kormier, the Olympic wrestling. Casey, Casey, the forest gump of modern Emma there. Yes. But, yeah, listen, were you doing what Oosman's doing? You got options. and now we're starting to talk about these like,

you know, dual champ type situation. So that's a good thing. That's a good thing. We didn't get this after UFC 251. That's for damn sure. But we're getting it after this card. So good on him. And we will see what happens with him.

As we nod our way for the end of this close fight show, UFC 258 is in the books. AK and I are back tomorrow. So look for that on the podcast network for on to the next one. All the matchmaking stuff. that you want to know about. We got you covered. And you can leave your suggestions as well on social media. A.K. It's at Alexina Klee. I'm at Mike Kinek underscore J.R. Use the hashtag O-T-T-N-O.

And we'll get your suggestions on the show. BASC, A-K, I am Mike Tech. Thank you for watching. Good night, everybody.