MMA Fighting - UFC 261 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: April 25, 2021

With UFC 261 in the books, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, Jed Meshew and E. Casey Leydon react to a memorable night of fights. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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

Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget online casino is live, bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting, signing up is fast and simple. And in just a few clicks, you can have access to our exclusive library of the best slots and top-tier table games. Make the most of your downtime with unbeatable promotions and jackpots that can turn any mundane moment

into a golden opportunity at Golden Nugget Online Casino. Take a spin on the slots, challenge yourself at the tables, or join a live dealer game to feel the thrill of real-time action, all from the comfort of your own devices. Why settle for less when you can go for the gold at Golden Nugget Online Casino. Gambling Problem Call connects Ontario 1866531-260. 19 and over, physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details.

responsibly. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right. We are back. The second part of our post-fight coverage for UFC 261. This is the post-fight show. Thank you for joining us. We want you to get involved as much as possible for a number of reasons.

One, because we do this for you. And two, I like when you guys lead things. And then we can talk about all the craziness. And this was a crazy night indeed. But welcome back. I am Mike Hacks. and we get a whole crew here. We get Alex K. Lee back in our lives, the Prince of Positivity.

Happy birthday, Alex. Happy birthday. It's past midnight. It's past midnight now. It's not our birthday. But I wish it was because where's, where's Diplo? Where's Diplo? Where's Soidi?

Is that all you got? You got Jake Paul. I can name him all, but we only have to. We definitely got a lot of Jake Paul. Yeah, we got a lot. We got way too much Jake Paul. Let's be honest. Like I said in between the links.

Like, listen, he did great. He got us talking. We need like a three-month break from Jake Paul before he started talking about him again. I think Mike just told me off there, we're not going to talk about Jake Paul. Hey, do it 30 seconds into the show. We're talking about it. Gotta do it. It's not our fault.

It's not our fault. You saw the show. We'll talk about that event. You saw the show. Yes, we'll talk about all of that. Casey is back. And joining us, the fourth man in, is, once again

the Between the Link's champion Jed Mishu. How are you, my friend? I'm doing really well. It's a great night of fights. I'm pleasantly surprised. Every time we do the three title fights thing never works out. It's almost always been really bad, but for like maybe one notable exception.

But tonight was, I mean, it was bad for some people in some very tangible reasons, but I mean, overall, the event was dope. Like, I had a great time. Yes. And Jed said before we hit record, I got takes. And that always means for excellent audio and video quality.

But A.K., let us discuss the way this night ended. If you told me that Kamar Usman was going to sleep Jorge Mazadol in the second round, I don't think I would have been like, there's no chance of that happening. But I probably would have been like, eh, I don't think it will happen. but that's what we saw. Usman knocks out Jorge Mazadol, puts him to sleep, and he is still the champion of the world.

So your thoughts on Usman's performance, and, you know, where this puts him, he wants to be, he said once those pound for pound ranking someone on Tuesday, he wants to be right at the top of that list. What did you think of the performance? And did he get himself to the top?

Usman, by, I think, convincing decision, you know, if you were picking Usman, was probably the most likely, the most likely, I think we all thought Usman could certainly put on a more impressive performance in this time around, even though I also thought that Mazvedal would look better than last time. I just thought it would be more competitive and interesting fight overall. It was, I think, well, no, it wasn't more competitive.

I certainly can't make that case. But it was certainly more interesting and more fun to watch, obviously, with the way it ended. And just sort of the added level of aggression and Mazuadel gained a fight in his home state. So, yeah, a knockout, like you said, not like unlikely. We just saw his, you know, Uzman's power. in that Burns fight, and it felt like it was something that was really coming around. Like it didn't just feel like, oh, it was the right match. That's why he could knock up Burns.

You saw there was like a lot of legitimate, like actual noticeable improvements in everything that Uzma was doing. And you're like, this might not be the last knockout this guy gets, you know. And so with a stand-up guy like Mazadol, yes, we thought Mazadol had the advantage, but the power of Usman was very, very real. What is his performance? Amazing. Let's just, let's just address the elephant in the room.

Yes, the GSP comparisons. is he now the greatest? Has he been the greatest? I'm in Canada, so I'm biased, and I see some Canadians in the chat. They're going to come after me if I go too heavy on this. But I will say he's in the conversation. If they fought, if you took the best version of GSP

and the best version of Usman, I would give Usman at least a 50-50 chance of winning that fight. I can't imagine why anyone would argue against that and say, oh, GSP and his prime would definitely kill. I mean, Uzman looks as good as any welter rate I've ever seen in their primes. Take prime, Matt Hughes, take prime, Robbie Lawler, whoever you want. I think Uzman's right up there with them. The resume, I mean, again, it's hard to beat the resume of GSP.

So many big names on there, but Uzman's, he's starting to, he's starting to, you know, really put something together here. So I'm not anointe him the greatest ever, but if anyone wants to make that argument, it's legitimate. It's legitimate. It's great. And in a hypothetical fight, I give him a good chance of beating GSP. I think Usman took a very big step towards the GSP stuff.

Like I said, I don't think he's there just yet. But I thought he took a good step. Like, it was, I felt like after the Burns win, he was probably right near Hughes, very close. I think he passed Hughes after this win tonight. I still don't think he's a GSP yet, but he's closer. I mean, when you get a win, you get closer to something. I think he's closer, but he's,

he's not there yet. Jed, what is your take on? One, let's just talk about the performance overall because there's two people in this very room. We just happen to be on the same side of that little cube. Let's get the cube back up there, a little Brady bunch looking thing.

The people on the left-hand side, we both picked Mazadol. You were very confident in the Mazadol pick. You made some excellent points on between the links on Thursday. And by the time, the fight rolled around. They were points. There were points.

I don't know about excellent. They were good points. I know it's late. I know it's late. We got people thinking. Look at the comments. We got people thinking. But I talked myself into picking Mazdaal.

And the reason, and after that first round, I felt even more confident because the first round went exactly the way I thought it was going to go. Usman was going to win the round. Mazadol was going to land leg kicks. He was going to start getting points. He was going to start building things up in route to the fight ending shot. I had it in the third round. So I was feeling pretty good about it.

And then Usman landed that right hand and you saw all the water just fly off Mazadal's body. It was just a wild knockout. So your thoughts on the way this fight ended and addressing the elephant in the room that AK brought into this discussion. There's so many thoughts right now. I guess I'll lead by saying,

Ousman is clearly the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world since Abee retired. he should have had that very obviously. Like, it's not a close conversation. There is nobody else in the rankings that should be anywhere near him, but for maybe Francis and Ghanu. Like, pound for pound should be essentially a gauge of what have you done for me lately in terms of your contemporaries.

Usman has beaten all of the top welterweights. Like, nobody else has even come close to doing that. It's very obviously he is the top pound for pound for. fighter in the sport. And I'll believe that until such time as somebody makes a case, like a good case, why, by beating their contemporaries one after the other. So I'm just going to throw that out there. Second, the next time we do, like an MMA fighting team meetup post-COVID, I'm going to have to fistfight all of y'all because this is absolutely ludicrous that we're pretending that Kar Usman is in the same realm as George St. Pierre. He's not. And it's not. And it's not.

a knock on Usman. Usman very well could be the second grade as well to wait of all time. Probably is. I do think it's kind of hilarious that, sorry my dog's in the background, and he's having a big dream. I think it's a little hilarious

that coming into this fight, everyone was just like, man, Mossrodot doesn't deserve this because he didn't. And this is a clear money grab and yada yada yada and then man winning spectacularly really cures all the ills that might face you because now suddenly he's he's better than george st pierre and it's just like it's just ridiculous

ozman probably almost certainly is the second greatest welterweight of all time but there's a gulf there between like the level of accomplishment and that's that's just undeniable like Usman needs to defend his title like four more times. Could he get there? Sure. Like that's well within the rubble possibility. But he's not there yet. And I only after now picking up, I think this is his fourth title defense.

Am I like, I think it's not unreasonable to start saying, ah, he could maybe do this as opposed to. Well, it's one A and one B with George St. Pierre. It's not. George St. Pierre is pretty clearly the best or like second best. fighter full stop of all time and ozman is still well in the middle of his career he's got a lot of room to go so um that's kind of all that and then the last thing i'll just fire off here is uh yeah man i felt great about moscow after the first round because ozman ended that round super poorly like swinging wildly and looking weird um maybe even got jawed a little bit from moscow like

I was like, oh, I was only kind of half serious when I was talking that Mosswell is going to win. But like, he's got a really good shot now. That route did really well for him all things considered. And then it super didn't. So probably smart. Because that's one of the, like, that's the CO of the year for me right now. Like, that's it. I mean, there's plenty of real estate left in this year for that to change.

It's CO of the year. That's one of the cleanest punches I've ever seen land in a year. UFC fight, much less a title fight. And shout out to who is this dude. Phil Ellsworth got like the most perfect photo of it. So I checked when it's around. Like that thing is, that is exceptional camera work. So yeah, it was dope.

And I'm not here to knock Omar Usman for doing the damn thing emphatically. But let's let's pull low respect on the goat's name, man. Jed, what do you think of the hypothetical head-to-head though? I mean, fantasy matches are kind of silly, especially in M. it's just like it's purely abstract but i assume usman beats him because things get better with time yeah yeah exactly exactly that's that that's my thinking i'm a little more like uh in the comparing like their skill sets things is like that's where i'm looking at like oh ozman could you make a strong arguing you're better i think i'm a little more in agreement with you as the rest as far as the resumes

go it's just hard to match the names on just i think i think it's crazy we're talking about we're talking about time we're not talking like will chamberlin versus as, you know, Shaq. I mean, like, I was at GSP's fight. I was there. I mean, like, I was there. You know, that's what wild. Everything just.

Yeah, I think there's been a quantum. Yeah, I think there has been a quantum leap from like 15 years ago. Yeah. And like one of the huge things that Usman will struggle to overcome in my estimation and in most estimations is like, I think he'd beat George St. Pierre in a fight. You picked the best one of them. Time is better. He's a better athlete.

they have incredibly similar games. But there's a reason for that, and it's because Camarouin doesn't exist without George St. Pierre. Very clearly, much of his game is modeled off of watching the greatest fighter of all time while he was learning this sport. And it's like, I'm not saying it's impossible for him to pass GSP, but what GSP have 9, 10 title defenses? And I think Ushman just did his fourth.

like he's got to keep doing this, which is possible, but like he's already talked about possibly retiring. And it's like that's just a huge thing to do. Like if he does it, that's tremendous. If he puts together eight title defenses and it's all against quality of competition, like that's great. But he's still got a long rate to go. And the thing we're not going to talk about,

because nobody ever wants to talk about it except for me, because I'm the asshole. he keeps beating lightweights man Gilbert Burns is a lightweight No Paul is a lightweight Like He pulled up with a great win

It's like that's a great win As much Oh come on, come on These are good wins These I'm not here to say these aren't good wins But Gilbert Burns got got by like the seventh ranked dude in the lightweight division So I'm just saying Like I'd like to see him instead of doing the run it

back with Colby and maybe run it back with Leon, like fight Stephen Thompson because he's at least a true welterweight and that'd be something new and different by Vicente Lucay. And like, that's the type of things that will happen as he continues to defend his belt because that's what happens when you defend your belt for like 10 years. You end up fighting all, like all sorts of dudes. I just need to see more of it. But if his next like two years are he wins rematches over very good guys but guys is already beaten that is that's not a path to becoming the goat to me like give me variety how much of the fact that we can't no one it feels weird calling ozman the goat just because he hasn't been the a side really i mean maybe we fought burns but like the two mazvado's fights i mean

clearly mazvado was selling the paper views um the woodley i mean it was kind of woodley's i feel selling paper views I mean, Usman doesn't get, Usman got booed. The goat doesn't get booed. How much of that comes into the fact? It's just weird. I don't know.

I don't think that I think of things in those terms, but that also feels like something that maybe I just couldn't recognize if I was viewing it that way. Like, it's, I don't know, I really like Kamar Usman. I think he's a super good fighter. I think he's the top pound fighter in the world. And I am now willing to say it is within the realm of possibility, and he catches George St. Pierre,

I think we're like three years off from that, and a lot can happen in three years, especially for a 33-year-old fighter, who admittedly looked tremendous tonight, but has bad knees and has already talked about maybe retiring. Like, it's not impossible for him to do it, but the odds are not in his favor, in my personal opinion. Yeah, and it's crazy.

Like, you know, we were just saying there's a quantum, leap in development, also quantum leap in how we view fighters, I guess, because Usman has only been in the UFC for about six years now. GSP, his championship run, took place over like, well, I mean, around the same, well, maybe a little bit longer on that,

seven, eight years. And then he came back and obviously for the Michael Bisman fight. So there was like a gap in there as well. So it is funny. Like, yeah, we maybe are a little too quick with these. And I'll say that's the other case for GSP is, you know, and these are things that are outside of Usman's control is that he just had the,

right collection of rivals right you got two all-timers matt hughes b jpen uh so two great rivalries there you had like john fish coming off like a 20 fight win streak uh what else do we have in there like again and there's some you know there's some title defenses people can't that whatever yeah dan hardy i mean people didn't love the down hardy title defense whatever but a jake shield's coming in jago alves jake shields like yeah jacke sheld's coming from strike force carls condit you want to see that for a long time nick dias who was considered to be the best welterweight outside of the UFC when like that was a dream matchup. I still think Nick Diaz is the best water weight.

This is true. Prove me. Prove otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. GSP's run was like what people think John Jones's run was. John Jones's room was awesome, but it was also against a bunch of dudes who were or at least a large number of them who were on the, yeah, on the downtime of their career.

Like GSP's run is close to untouchable, but I did just realize. the thing that I do think from this weekend that I hadn't realized before but I think Usman solidified the best of a category tonight and he is the best tough winner. I think that that's pretty clear now. I think Bisping

I don't know that better before. I think it was pretty obvious, yeah. Usman hasn't. Usman has it for real. You know what Usman doesn't have either that GSP does have? Usman doesn't have off nights. GSP had it off nights.

night when he fought Matt Serre. He had an off night when he fought Johnny Hendricks. Usman is, I mean, I know he won against Johnny Hendrix, but, and that's what, like, that's why I really, I've always loved about DJ. I loved about, um, Habib, they didn't have off nights. Even at their worst, they still won. And Usman, his, it's his dominance. Like, has he, like, seriously been even in danger? I mean, maybe they get when Gilbert Burns hit him once pretty hard, you know? that kind of reminds me of when Michael Johnson hit Habib once and it's just like, whoa, you know?

Colby was a pretty good back and forth fight. I don't know if he was in danger, but yeah. The thing about it is you're 100% right. Well, like, he did almost lose the burns, but he hasn't had off nights. He has been a champion for two years. That's on the UFC. That is on the UFC.

Yeah, exactly. That's a tricky thing when discussing title defense. Yeah. Like, I don't feel like, how many wins the GSP needs for him to get his title shot? Oh, we woke up your dog. That's pretty standard. We woke up your dog.

Oh, that's fine. Okay. Yeah, he'll go. DSP got his first tel shop pretty quickly, but I mean, this was a different era. But it's like the Khabib thing, Chad. It's like, you know, we talk about Khabib. It's like talking about his amount of title defense is almost silly. Because what do Habib had?

Three? Two? Three. But that's silly because we know he could have been the champion. Yeah, but you have to do it. I'm the biggest Habe dude in the world. You all know this. It's going for this man hard.

That's why I brought it up. not actually in the conversation. It's fun to think he is. And he's in like a, if you want to view it in a very particular lens, but he exists sort of outside of that conversation in his own space as he's a beep. He did this very special and different thing. But in like the confines or the structures of a of a normal goat conversation, he can't. He, he reigned too short.

And even if he probably wouldn't rain, like, then that gets us into the argument that B.J. is actually the best because he was the best light. weight and welterweight on the planet for like seven years in the early 2000 but he just didn't have the belt like you just can't do that it has to be the official i mean you can because it's totally subjective but like according to the broader population it's just not going to work and like it's habib is his own thing usman is great he's the second best welterweight of all time he is on his way in the sense that like if I started walking right now, I'd be on my way to wherever I was going,

even if it was 10,000 miles away, but he's just not there. And like, he needs more than two years of a title reign. Because there is a fundamental difference. And like I genuinely believe this. There's a fundamental difference between being at the top and climbing your way to the top. And like fighters talk about it all the time.

But when we see these long-reaning champions lose, they lose. It is far more impressive what Demetrius Johnson did than anyone being like a double champ. Because not only to DJ continuously, like not have off nights to fend his belt, he did it for so many years that like literally fighters grew up knowing he was the champ and planning for him, like crafting their whole careers. Like Max Holloway had a custom built style to beat Jose Aldo because Aldo was the dude for half a decade. And like,

Usma just needs to put in the years. If he does that, I'll stop arguing, but he just has to do it. The last thing I'll say is that, I do think title shots, titles, reins are a factor, but I also, for me, it's not the determining factor just because of how it's handled

by the UFC. That's it. That's the last point I want to make it. I feel like there's a lot more to, a lot more to discuss. But it's, it obviously should matter, yeah. Yes. I, it's funny, Jed. You sit there and you make this statement that when we have an MMA fighting meetup, you're going to start throwing fists at everybody.

Remember on between the links when you said an answer and then Drake said an answer? And then everyone's like, oh, Drake, I love you, man. Like, that's a great answer. But you literally said the same thing right before that. That's literally what happened with us because I said exactly the same thing you did. He just passed Matt Hughes. He's now number two. I really meant I was going to fight AK.

Okay, fair enough. We have met, and let me tell us something, there was no, there was no, nothing in this man's eyes. That was a threat to me. I'll tell you that right now. So we have already, we have met in person. I'm just saying, we have met in person. This is the first time I'm hearing this.

That's because I was on your home turf, you know. And I bought you, and I bought you chicken. And I bought you chicken. I didn't know who's going to come out of the woodwork and, you know, start fighting. You got to be cautious. Yes. You were in, yeah, this is true. So that was the main event.

Great win for Kamar Usman. as far as matchmaking goes, AK and I will talk about that tomorrow and on to the next one. Before Usman had his great performance, Rosenama Yunus made some history. She became the first woman's fighter in the UFC to recapture a title in her weight class.

It's never happened before. We never had like a two-time divisional woman's champion in UFC history, and it happened. She knocks out Zhang Wei in the first round with a beautiful headkick, and not a lot of fun. people saw this one coming. A lot of people thought Rose could win, maybe win a close decision,

maybe get a late stoppage. I actually thought, like, if Rose was going to win, it was going to be in the first round. I didn't think she'd get it. I thought Zhang Wei would start to wear on her and get a late finish in her own right, but man, Rose looked good. She looked sharp. Got it done. Jed,

your thoughts on Thug Rose, getting done again. I mean, it was really good. Like, there's just honestly the fight was so short there's not a lot to take from it beyond I did not see that coming but that was just picture perfect like landed as clean as can be and that was the game like good for her I'm really excited because I often feel like at some point we're supposed to get these rock paper scissors for divisions like it feels like we talk about stuff

styles make fights all the time. But ultimately that kind of hasn't borne itself out, at least for the champions. Whoever wins the belt tends to be like the dude until there's another guy who beats him and that's it. And occasionally the titles might like change hands a lot like that period of light heavyweight. But that wasn't a rock paper scissors scenario. Whereas like right now it's strawweight. Like Navajo is just bolted Wiley Zhang and Wiley Zhang obliterated Jessica and Drodge. and Adraj worked Namahunas in their first fight and would have worked her in the second had it been a five-round fight, but instead it was a three-round fight.

And she still arguably could have gotten a draw for that. Like I would pick Androj, even after, and we'll talk about her later, like if Andrade drop back down, I would pick her in a three-match with Rose. So that's interesting. Like, it's a pretty weird dynamic going on at Straw. way right now. I would agree. What did you think, A.K., of Thug Rose getting it done? I thought the, it's funny when you have Rogan and Annick and D.C. down there during a Thug Rose fight and she gets a finish like that. Like the faces they make, the reactions they have, it's just something of legend. What did you make of Rosenami Yunus regaining her title tonight? Look, the book on Rosnamajun has

always been, on her best day, she can beat anybody. You know, I mean, I think we saw that with the, with the first win over Yowana when she finished Joanna, that was truly shocking. The second fight, you know, erase any thoughts that the first fight was a fluke. She looked like, again, sort of the best possible version of this super, super talented fighter

who has been, you know, pegged as this prospect since, Casey, I didn't even talk about it before the show, since her Invicta days. Like, you just knew there was something, excuse me, there was something special about this fighter, about Rose. She's a finisher at,

115, which is, you know, not the most common thing, which is another reason people sort of latched onto her. She's out of personality, a lot of people like. And obviously, I picked Zhang to win. I picked all the champions to defend, very, very conservative thinking of my part. But there was that part of my mind. I'm like, man, you know, Rose can really finish anybody. What I predicted headkick in under 90 seconds, not in my wildest dreams.

You could have mentioned it. And I would have said, I probably would have said there's no way that's going to happen. Zhang's too tough. her defense is too good, getting caught. There's no way, even in MMA, there's no way she has caught that early. But again, we know, we know this is why the game is the way it is. You know, these things happen. It was a picture perfect shot.

Zhang was so out of it. I know there was some consternation over the top of, well, I mean, specifically from Zhang and her team, but it really looked like she was out, even with Rose kind of on top of her, maybe holding her down in an awkward position. I do think the head kick took her out. And if anything, maybe a couple of Rose's follow-up shots might have brought her back. we'll see what Zhang thinks when she sees the footage. I'm sure she's a proud of fighter and doesn't want to admit that she got totally rocks.

But I think that was the case. So amazing win for her. Jed mentioned she had to fight Andraj again to get the rematch, which I think was a very worthy test for her. We see people demanding instant rematch all the time. So this time she got the rematch, but it wasn't for the title. So she had to beat Andrash just to get a shot at it, which is scary. Scary enough.

I don't know if anyone wants to fight Androge once, much less twice, but she did it and eeked out that split decision. So it's quite a journey. And will she be able to retain? I don't know. Like I said, every night, it depends which Rose. Namajuna shows up. But this version of Rose, the one that beat Yowana, indisputably, you know, the best

115 pound fighter out there today. I bet Valentina Shachenko won her fight on Drage twice. Yeah, probably. Okay. It's funny you say that. Casey, let me ask you this, because we saw the bonuses. We had a fight of the night. and the two performance monies is went to Usman and Rose.

Whose performance impressed you more? Rose Namibunis or Valentina Shepchenko. I would say Shepchenko just because I was picking Androge for the upset. So I was just super impressed. Because I thought, I was like, I thought Androge was like, okay, this is the weight classes she's made for now, 125. She's fine. Because originally she came in and has a bantan weight. She went down to 115 because there was no 125 at the time.

and then she went to 125. It's like, but that's a 1A, one A, one B thing. You know, there was just spectacular performances from each of those ladies. It was definitely a Chevy truck. Definitely Chevy truck. I'm doing this look great and that's a great K.O. I was also a K.O. in a minute. Like, it's not a fluke because she threw it.

She intended to throw it. well, like, if they fought that again, none of us would expect the same thing to happen. Like, that performance can be boiled down much, much more briefly to, yeah, a thing happened and it's over, but it may not be fully indicative moving forward.

We watched Valentina Shivchenko fight Jessica and Dragya a hundred times, and Adraja just getting at work every time, man. That was an ass-kicking par none. Yeah, I think we talked about this on our, privately, but with Jed, like, the gap between, sorry, we're moving on to flyweight already, but the gap between Shevchenko and the rest of the division, I can't think of another division where there's a bigger gap between the champion and everyone else. I can't think of a division where there's been a bigger gap ever unless you want to go back to like hoist Gracie. Yeah, yeah.

The UFC one crowd who didn't know what grappling was. Like she is so far beyond her contemporaries. It is honestly, like Laura Murphy, God bless her, absolutely deserves to get in there and have her day. She deserves her day in court. That is close to malpractice to book that because that's just like. But you have to. Chonko's just handing out ass weapons for as long as she wants is what's going on here. Yeah, do you believe Shavchenko is like much like maybe Uzman, how I feel?

like Chevchenko it seems like she is literally getting better each performance and that's why and that's why I think the the idea of a trilogy fight which I'm not sure why Dana Pooh-Poo is on that so much maybe just it didn't sell enough but I think it's just a money thing but um I think this Chevchenko is just so much better than the one that arguably beat Nunes in the second one their second fight at 35 in Edmonton. So I don't know. It just, gosh, Chufjingo, I was so impressed. I was just, I was, maybe, maybe I had, I overvalued on Drogh, but I really, I really don't think I did.

I think, I think, just Chichenko was just better than I imagined. Yeah, I don't think you did either. Like that, I thought Chowchenko was going to win convincingly. I didn't think it was going to be that convincingly. Like, she is, she is something else, man. Just something else. And credit to Rosam Hunus, because really just brilliant to be friends with Valentina Shibranco, and nobody talks about her going up to get that work because you shouldn't want it.

Like, it's just going to be a bad night for you. Yes, I would agree. And what's interesting about 25 is, yes, Valentina, there is a wide gap. But we actually have, like, some fights and some interesting contenders. Like we got Chukagin who probably, even if she beats Viviani Arujo, is not getting a title shot unless she does like a somersault drop kick, K.O., like something better than Joaquin Buckley. And even then she probably doesn't get a title shot. But you got Ara Ujo. She beats Chughey and she's right there.

And of course, you got Lauren Murphy fighting Joanne Calderwood. So she has options and she has some fresh faces that she could fight. Let's talk about what's next for Roge, Jed. What do we do here? because we got Carlos Sparsa getting ready to fight Jan Janan next month. But something tells me the UFC is going to try to get this rematch cooking. So what would you do? Oh, they're going to do the Janjanon and Carlis Spars a fight.

I think that's one, both of those women are on like four fight win streaks, five fight win streaks. Well, I mean, Jan Janon is on like a 23 fight one streak or whatever it is. Ostensibly Janjanon should win that fight. If she doesn't, maybe the UFC might try and finagle something because Carl Esparsa has won her last two fights and probably would win over Janjanjan in a similar, disputable fashion. But even so, I still think they run that back. There's a really good story to sell there of, hey, Asparza was the first champion. She beat Rose. Rose has grown so much.

and now she's a champion and gets the defender belt. It's a book-in thing. It's obviously will be Asparza's last fight for a title. So you give kind of a pioneer of this division in a lot of ways, a big send-off in that regard. Otherwise, Janjanjan, totally deserves it if she beats Esparza. I mean, that's the three and four or two and three in the rankings fighting each other. I think that just happens. Plus, I'm sure the UFC likes Wiley Zhang because she seems.

personable and that's good. But it were being honest, really their investment and interest in her is her nationality and using her as an en route into the Chinese market and they can get the same thing with the Anjanan and not have to like force feed a automatic rematch for somebody who just got gotten 80 seconds. So I think that's 100% of the fight that happens next. All right. Okay, we'll get your take on this tomorrow.

but Dana seems interested in the rematch, which is kind of fascinating. We'll see what happens. I mean, Jean was out for over a year. You know, you could throw in some intangibles. Who the hell knows? But great performances from everyone who walked out with Gold Raptor on their waist tonight.

I'm kind of hesitant to go to the fight before the title fight. No, let's do it. Let's do it. Can I just ask you? I was really quickly, are you interested? like outside of there's just not another fight are you actually interested in Chivchenko Nunes 3? Yes, yes, absolutely. Even, even though, I want to remind people,

that second fight was not super entertaining to be tough. Yeah, it was a terrible fight. And I... The Belknit was in September 1, B2Bs. I had Valentino winning that fight until the last minute when Valentina, I can't remember the Zach Ditos.

Valentina did like a really amateurish kind of one of those throws, you know, head and arm throws. Yeah, head and shoulder throw, head of arm throw. And Nunes wound up getting mount from it because it was such a bad throw. I was like, why did she do that? In my mind, I was like, oh, she won. And then she just gave it away in the last minute. So absolutely, I want to see that rematch.

I don't care if there was two bad fights. I don't care. Yeah, I think exactly. And I think it just has to be done at some point. But Valentina said tonight, even she said, we said Dana White Poo-Poot on the idea. Even Schochenko is kind of like, I'm not going to push for it. She feels it's going to happen someday. That could mean a year from now.

You know, that doesn't mean far far in the future. We don't know how much more Mena Nunez wants to fight. And I think that would be a great, you know, retirement fight for at least one of her last fights. So, yeah, I don't know. Absolutely, I want to see it. I still think it's a compelling matchup, even though the second fight was not, you know, a thriller. How was the first fight? I don't remember the first fight at all.

It was a much more convincing win for Nunez. Yeah. But that was doing it wasn't. It was not a more convincing wall. It absolutely was. Nunes won the first two rounds. Yes. Yeah.

Exactly. She clearly won the first round. No, it wasn't that. It was not bad. If the second fight, if the first fight was like pride rules, did Valentina win? Probably.

All right. Close. Nunes didn't do anything and like she won convincingly but like also yeah that was forever ago and Amanda Nunes is a much different and much better. I'm just saying I'm just saying that I think that before she was champ right that was before Nunez was champ right? Yeah. Oh yeah yeah yeah it was a three rounder. Yeah, that was a four Nunez like I mean I think that was a more convincing win for Nunez and I and I know your trumpeting Shepchenko won the second fight for your rest of your life jet but I did a robbery review on that. Let me tell something there really wasn't enough to make a compelling case either way.

There's not. There's not. People can watch that. No, no. Watch the fight again. I don't know when the last time is you watched the fight. I'll tell anyone here in the comments, anyone watching.

Watch the fight again. If you can make a super strong argument that Shepchenko won that fight, I'll be amazed. Did it come down to the fifth round? I'm going to not watch that fight ever again because I value it. I know. I know you won't. I know, exactly.

I have. I've endured. I think I actually watched it twice for the robbery review. And it was horrible. And after two viewings, I honestly could not tell you like that either will. woman convincingly won that fight. I still, I think, I do think I might have scored it like for Schochenko barely, but I was just like, I didn't feel strongly about it. There you go, there

you go. He, he, he omits it. He omits it. I mean, a lot of, moving on, Mr. Heck, thank you. Oh, no, don't clip that. Don't clip that. He omit. He admitted. That comment needs context. He admitted. Mike, can we talk about what you were? I think we're all in, listen, we'll move on, but I think we're all in agreement that fight needs to have. but there's an absolutely no rush in making that fight happen like we don't need to see that right now we just don't we don't we don't need to we don't need to and if it if it never happened I wouldn't be like I wouldn't be like damn that's the one that got away I'd be kind of like oh okay it's unfortunate they didn't fight again but it's yeah I'm definitely not of the I need to see it happen but it is like the most compelling I would be bummed about it now and really a few months ago I wasn't because I thought like Nunez was just I think Nunez would win and I still think she would win the trilogy and probably more convincing. I have serious questions about that now. Now, Shevchenko is much more willing to use her grappling, and that is, like, it is, that's

a very competitive fight in the feat. But if Shevchenko starts taking Nunes down, Nunes off her back is not a threat. I think that adds a whole different layer. I actually really would like to see that fight. I agree, we don't need to see it now, but give it a year or two. If we don't ever get it again, I'll be a little bummed. But let's move on to talk about the harsh, horrible thing. We've been avoiding this.

All right. I have to rush. I have to rush shortly, but I do want to. Mike, go ahead. Mike, lay it out. Go ahead, Mike. Okay, everyone knows what we're going to talk about right now. We're talking about the former UFC middleweight champion, Chris Widman, who was in a great

place mentally, moved to South Carolina, no more snow. hanging out a wonder boy getting ready to fight eurya hall he was super confident he was going to get a second win and he throws a leg kick the first strike of the fight 17 seconds in your eye haul checks it and Chris Wyman's leg pretty much snaps in half it was nasty and it was one of those things like you saw it right away like you heard it and you saw it and you didn't want to believe it, but you just couldn't help it. This was too real. But it was just a crazy thing.

Obviously, you feel for Chris Wyman. Hopefully he's getting better. Dana White said at the press conference, he's going to have surgery in the morning. He's in the hospital. But you also got to feel for your eye hall, too, because he really wanted this fight. Wyman was his first pro loss on the regional scene. He lost his middleweight title in ring of combat to Chris Wyman. Chris Wyman went on to the UFC to become a world champion.

in just a wild scene, man. AK, I know you're going to get it going, but your thoughts on that fight, the leg break, and everything that happened in that 17 seconds. I was, you know, I tweeted after I was like,

I don't want to watch fighting anymore. After I saw that, and I actually have not tweeted since. I've retweeted a bunch of people. I actually have not tweeted since I have it. I'm a Chris Wyden fan. So that was rough. I mean,

that was hard to watch, man. And it's crazy that, you know, this was the first. events with fans, what almost like, I think over 15,000 people. I felt like for a second, everything froze. I felt like everything froze. Chris Wyman went down. Uriah Hall, obviously he felt it.

He knew right away was Ron. The referee. Thank God, recognized. Everyone knew. I felt somehow it wasn't like one of those chaotic moments. I'm just trying to remember watching it live. It wasn't like one of those chaotic moments where like, you know, sometimes the crowd's like, oh, what happened?

It somehow everyone knew that what, maybe because it was Wyman, maybe they immediately were reminded of course. course the Wyman Anderson Silva rematch. It was so disgusting. It was disgusting. It was a disturbing scene. I see people in the comments. I do want to address people asking like, man, do you feel a little bit bad for Uriah Hall? I mean, of course, in a sense, it's crazy that, you know, he beats his idol in his last white Anderson Silva, and he's just so emotional. He can't really enjoy it. This one, he just, as soon as it happened, he goes over to his own corner and just kind of closes his eyes and drops to his knees. And you can tell he's just trying to kind of process what's

going on and uriah hall is one of the most we've said this many times one of the most thoughtful emotional fighters so so for this to happen to this guy uh you know two consecutive fights these sort of really kind of stressful wins if that makes sense these stressful victories it and again it couldn't happen to a more thoughtful guy so i i feel for him a little bit but yeah crazy scene uh you know they cart wide man off he's just an agony the whole time obviously understandably there's a brutal moment when the crowd starts chanting f jake all during it, which was,

that was like slightly amusing, maybe the first time it happened, and I don't know why it kept coming up during the night. That's a whole other thing. You guys can talk about that more after I'm gone. Thanks. But yeah, yeah, I'll leave that to you, fellas. But, yeah, the Chris Wiedman thing,

look, I get it. This could be the last time we see Chris Wyman fight in the UFC. I'll say a clean break is usually better than, you know, some of the knee, like tearing a ligament or something like that. But at age 36, I don't know. You know, people are saying, Andrew Silva, he kind of came back from it relatively quickly, perhaps with some assistance.

But whatever it takes for Chris Wyden to just, I'm not even talking about fighting. Get that leg back into good conditions so he can function and live his life comfortably. That should be the focus right now. Whether he fights again, I don't know. Who knows? I think we'd all want to see it.

But this is the end. What a grim finale to what was what's been a very good career. Yeah. I mean, I don't have much to that, Jed. We can add Dana White's wonderful tweet after it. Oh, what did you tweet?

Oh, my. Dana has some blocks so I don't see his tweets. No, you see, you see one of the best middleweights ever to find the UFC have a horrible leg break. And you, first thing you tweet is, like, first victory.

by a UFC fighter about ever throwing a strike. That's. It was tacky. It was so. It was, it was tacky to put it nicely. Also, that's not a bad.

They didn't Maya have fought for like 20 years. He definitely won fights without throwing a strike. Oh, did that. Nice. I'm not, that's not even a joke like. I'm extremely confident.

At one point, he took some dude down, never threw a punch and joked him out. Um, Look, I get that this is a, it was a shocking thing. This is gonna like, dude, this is wild. And I don't understand, like, I'm maybe a bad person, totally willing to admit this. Like, I do not wish ill on Chris Wyden and I hope he recovers well because that has to be awful.

I don't feel like that's a career ending injury. I'm not a doctor either, so I could way be wrong. But all the surrounding things there are just absolutely insane. And this is easily like the most fascinating thing that happened on the night. To me, like when we look back at this, like, we're going to remember that Usman bolted Horamospital? Probably. But the first thing we're going to remember is this.

We like should, dude. It is, I tweeted this. And I'm sure I'm not the only person to have this thought. Like, this is something that you could not. make up because any editor, producer, et cetera, would be like, yeah, that's ridiculous. Like, this has to be based in reality, not in fantasy land. Like, Chris Wyden just, like, beat Anderson Silva, the Anderson Silva.

And then the rematch, leg kick, shattered, horrifying. Now Chris Wyman is making his comeback. There are all these parallels between Wyden and Uriah Hall that were made a big deal. of time. Y'Rah Hall is the dude who was pre-at-one-Waite called the next Anderson-Silva, and then that happens to him against the next Anderson-Silva. Like, that is some, it's cartoonish. Like, it is absurd that this is real life.

It's like the Lincoln Kennedy conspiracy theory of connections going on here. The Illuminati is at work, and they were in Jacksonville tonight. See? And Gerald Mearshardt had that. the audacity to say that I'm the Alex Jones of M.A. because I said weird things are going to happen tonight. I had a feeling that weird things

are going to happen today. Text him. Text him. I've gone around. I'm sorry. I know I'm going to miss the questions. But it's been a pleasure, as always. I've got to help do some writing. Thank you, everyone who's been watching. Stick with the, stick with the boys. Stick with the stream. I will see you guys soon.

Bye, AK. Happy birthday. Everyone say happy birthday. No, don't say happy birthday. It is not my birthday. Okay. Happy birthday. Okay, I got a question.

Oh, whatever. He's gone. All right. Speaking of questions, let's, uh, we ready? Let's go to some questions. We ready. All right. You know what we thought about the other leg injury?

The card of leg injury. Oh, God. I forgot. It was three fights in a row. It was three fights in a row of leg violence. Like, within the first. Randy Brown and Olivera was between the, was that a lot.

Oh, okay. Yeah, because the Brinandling Island thing was No, no, no, I thought the first fight of the paper view was Anthony Smith, Crute, and then it was Wydeman? Was it a six-fight paper view or five-five pay-per-view? Rose, but what's the third fight you're thinking of? Because I assumed you were talking about, well, Lake Cake Violence being Rose. Oh, no, no, there was just, sorry, there was, there was a fight in between that.

Yeah, I forgot. Yeah, I forgot they put Valentina before Rose. All right, all right. Okay. Question. do do do do and Randy Brown's Twitch is going to be on fire this week

because everyone wants everyone wants to know what what the beef was all about between those two guys and do we Randy Brown's like watch my Twitch I want to know it's a it's a thing

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get a twitching out for that someone just tell me I'm not I mean I'm not gonna watch it but I'm sure I want to know I'm sure somebody will watch it and then go on Twitter and tell me what it was, and that's perfect. I like this question.

Oops, let me fix that. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver, so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it. Want turnips that look light but feel heavy? Easy. Want honey-crisp apples that are firm green

and definitely not Macintosh like last year when you lost the fall bake-off to perfect Penelope Johnson. Okay, a bit Tiam. am I, but we're here for it. So download the app today and get zero delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacard, groceries that over deliver. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Whether it's a pair of running shoes or a new car, you check how well something performs before you buy it. Why should investing be any different? At Fidelity, we get that performance matters most. With sound financial advice and quality investment products, we're here to help with accelerating your

dreams. Chat with your advisor or visit Fidelity.ca.ca. performance to learn more. Commissions fees and expenses may apply. Read the funds or ETFs prospectus before investing. Funds and ETFs are not guaranteed. Their values change and past performance may not be repeated. I mentioned how I felt Valentina is a much better fighter since the second time her Nunes fought.

What do we think about Nunes? Is she a better fighter? Or is she kind of, she is what she is now when they fought? No, she's 100% better. You think so? Yeah. I don't know if she's as much better as I think Shibchenko is, but some of that's just like she spent a lot of time fighting at 145,

so it's hard to judge how much she's improved. We don't learn how good Manitouez is because she walked through a clearly terrified Megan Anderson. But I think, yeah, I think she's probably improved pretty well. I feel Nunes is kind of where she is. pretty much since the Tate fight. But I've just been, I've been, I know Nuna since, like, I know Nuna since, like, the Invicta era when she was just a two-round fighter. And get her past two rounds and she'll just gas out and you can beat her up.

So obviously she's not that fighter anymore. But, yeah, maybe you guys think so. I'm just wondering. This guy's facial hair is tremendous. Oh, it is. It's quite a mustache. Thanks, math. That is awesome.

Not really a question, but I felt, you know, the positive energy. So I can get somebody who isn't standing for Drake Riggs. Why does Dana want Rose versus Zhang 2? Rose needed 78 sex to go to me? Because is Dana White? Because here's, yes, exactly. You want to know why? Because he wants to see Jan Janon fight John.

fight Zhang Wei Li in China because that would be a humongous deal for the title. That's what he wants. That's what the UFC wants. It would be a massive, massive thing for the UFC and the sport and for the country. So that's why I think they want the rematch. I would also say Zhang was out for over a year

because of COVID and everything. And, you know, that kind of sucks for a young fighter. But I love Joseph. Boza. I love his questions. But the whole war, if you beat someone at 78 seconds, that means you're going to beat him every time in 78 seconds. That's BS. I mean, we saw that with DC and Stebe.

You know, DC won the first one. He lost the next two. I post, bro. I thought, I thought DC, Steba, 3 should have been in no contest, but um, uh, hilarious. Yeah, I know.

An absolute chaos. I know. But yeah, but obviously, yeah, the China market. Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what. We all be excited about the China market so they could pick some not culturally great song to put over their advertisement about the first Chinese versus Chinese title fight in history. You see that finger on the pulse. They do. A chance of Nick Diaz versus Jorge Mazadol comeback fight.

I'm just going to put it out there. That's exactly the fight that should happen. It's a 0% chance. Why? Nick Diaz isn't fighting. Nick Diaz has been coming back to M.MA for the last seven years. I will not believe it until after the fight is done. Literally until the moment the final horn sounds for whatever.

Knockout judge's decision, I will not believe that Nick Diaz is fighting until such time. because historically that's the stance you should have. So if he fights a five-round, like, main event or co-main event, you won't believe it until the 25th minute and the final horn. Okay, so the 20- So even like, as each round ends, you're still like, this isn't really happening. No, no, not real, not real. That is correct.

Anything could happen. He could just, like, walk out of the cage. Like, you know what, I'll be here and leave. We're doing a watch along. We're doing a watch along when Nick Diaz comes back with Jed, because I have to watch this happen. Yeah, like it's when he comes, okay, I'll say yes because he's never coming back. It doesn't matter what I'm doing.

I'll say yes because I never have to cash in on this. I feel like Nick Diaz coming back is like saying John Jones is going to fight a heavyweight. It's just something I feel like we've just been talking about for like decades now, but. Dude, I'm telling you, I'm telling you right now. listen to this okay and then we're going to go back and we're going to clip this out and we're going to remember what happened on this day

August pay per view we're going to see that fight you heard it here first I have no yes like in a newnes nunez painia will be the co-main event

and they will do the stupid BMF title those two guys I'm like and it'll do Why Nick Diaz would want to do that for whatever pennies he'd get from the UFC when he could just go fight Jake Paul in August and make all the money. Under contract.

Is he? He can't still be under contract. He hasn't fought in eight years. Dude, Ben Ascrum was still under contract. He had to get permission. Nick Diaz literally has fought in eight years. There's no way that contract is still holding. There's just no way.

These are If we are to believe They sign anything If we are to believe Dana White Because Nick Diaz was in the building He said he's going

In the back So there you go I think it's going to happen I think that's If we're to believe Dana White Yeah You know as soon as you said that

I tuned out Mike I'm sorry Yeah Okay so this doesn't mean anything Got it Listen he's not true Listen When does he come out

and say Nick Diaz wants to fight. He always says, no, stop asking me about Nick Diaz. You guys always ask me about effing Nick Diaz. He ain't fighting. It's not coming back. She's never talked to us. Now he's saying, I'm about to go back and talk to this man about a fight. It's because you're not, you got to think this through, right?

So when does he say that people don't want to fight when they're asking for too much money? But when they want to fight is when they're not asking for any money at all because then he can set the price and you try to get Nick Diaz back by putting public pressure on him. to do it. He's playing chess, man. Low level chess. This will be the fight and this will be the last fight for like another eight years and people are still going to want to see Nick Diaz fight after that. I mean, that's what makes it wonderful. If we're living in this fantasy world or Nick Diaz is going to fight, this is the fight to make.

But I just refuse to believe it until the BMF belt has changed hands. Also, it totally should have changed hands. Usman took that shit tonight. Dude, I don't... Dude, okay, you know my biggest bum out the whole night? I thought when Usma knocked Mazurah out and he started climbing the cage, I thought he was climbing the cage to grab the BMF belt. I thought he was going to hold that, but I was like, ugh.

And that's why... And that's why Usman can't be considered the goat because he misses those freaking opportunity, those magical opportunities like that. If you wouldn't have done that and just held up BMF belt, the baddest motherfucker in the game belt, and showed all those 15,000 Florida fans, what's up? Yeah. Or just said it on the mic afterwards and been like, you know, respect to George, he pushed me, but, and like totally fair, I didn't deserve the BMF belt after I footstomp my way to a decision last year, but I'm going to need that 12 pounds of steel right on over here because you got got, son.

like what's possible I'm going to say no I just got colded I'm still being enough hand over the belt he'd be like hoary can you grab the bell

over there just it's over there can you just grab it for me thanks thanks bro what do you think Colby would have done Colby would have jumped

out of the cage and lit it on fire because he doesn't do anything Goby confronted Dana White and then at the blackjack table

and when Dana was like Colby Shut the hell up. Colby turned off his camera. And deleted the video, yeah. Colby will not do anything. He would have tried. Okay.

We talked about this earlier, but let's give a definitive answer on this. We're talking about to become the goat. Okay, so for me, this would be... Name the fighters, too. Okay, so they're going to do the Colby. fight. I don't care what Usen says. That is the biggest fight he can have right now.

I don't know Sonia, but he wouldn't do it. Yeah, he's not going to fight out of Sonia. I don't want to say. I would say Colby. He doesn't want to do that either. Colby, if Wonderboy beats Burns, he would be

yeah, and then if you still got Leon Edwards and Nate, so I mean, I feel, especially if Nate wins, Oussman would be crazy, to go all in on that fight because Usomu would win that one and just get that money. Yeah, Wonderboy would have to be won. Maybe Luke A. Kiesa is another guy.

Wonderboy is interesting. That's what I want to say. That fight is super interesting. And nobody talks about it because nobody wants Wonderboy to have the belt. But, like, he is definitely the hardest fight for Usumann, in my opinion. Usman, I believe it said the win. Same. Yeah, to me, I feel like.

For Usmont, it's Wonderboy, Edwards, and then probably one other fighter. It could be, oh yeah, Colby too. Yeah, Kobe, Colby again, beat Wonderboy, be Edwards, and that's the division. I mean, yeah, you may throw Nate in there if Nate looks great against Leon Edwards. I mean, we're assuming that's not going to happen. But either Leon Edwards, Nate did. The winner of that Wonderboy, Colby, and then, I don't know, to me, like, Usman's got it.

I don't know. I need at least four from him. I just do. Like he needs maybe three gets it done, but probably not. Probably four fights gets him really in the conversation. Wanda boy absolutely has to be won. And the other one's like, okay, Colby, fine, another rematch. I guess Leon Edwards is probably going to get there.

Like the other ones is somebody that we don't even know yet, right? Like it's going to be something who comes out of the woodwork because Maybe Shemaya is that good, you know, something like that. Yeah, it's going to be, yeah, some each of my or some do because that's how this always works. Like, again, my, like, I think one of the most underrated aspects to goat conversations is not just number of defenses, but like time, like duration. Because putting together like six defenses in a year is hell impressive. But also, we've seen tons of fighters like have a good year. year and then drop off after it. It's it's being that a game year after year after year at the

top of the mountain when people are gunning for you like that is so difficult because new fighters rise, new fighters fall, new styles come up. The game innovates so quickly like the meta game. I mean, we didn't even talk about it, but like tonight might have been the end of the calf kick because there is a very real reason you shouldn't calf kick somebody and it's your Raya Hall just snapped Chris Wyden's leg into. So like the game shifts so quickly that I think years do matter as well. And so like I need three or four defenses, Wonderboy, assuming he wins one more fight needs to be amongst them and, you know, whoever else comes up in the next couple of years.

I'm with you on that one. That sounds about right. for and just for our listeners out there who may or may not train moitai or m m m m a getting getting checked off a leg kick is so freaking painful it's way worse than actually getting kicked to me when you get checked properly good god you never want to you never want to throw a kick again yeah it's so weird it's like i was about to break this leg this guy's leg but nope now my leg is just sucks for a week at least well unless you don't break it i mean i've never broken it but oh god when i see like when i see hard checks and fights i'm just like oh he's just kind of tense a little bit yeah nasty man i thought one of the most interesting things of the press conference was actually valentina throwing kind of accidentally throwing shade at chris wideman but throwing that cap kick kind of but basically saying

you got to be careful throwing those. And that's why she doesn't throw that many leg kicks because there was a high chance risk that you can really F up your leg. And I thought that was something I never really noticed from Valentina. I mean, she's not a big leg kicker, is she? Not huge. Not huge. She'll pick up spots, but. He does the inside one consistently, but that seems.

I mean, it's safer. And that seems to me, at least to my eye, to be more because, well, she's a Southie anyway. and it feels more like it's a rhythm break and not like an attack. Like she's just trying to take the front leg out from under him. Maybe we'll take like one or two more questions, but, you know, Anthony Smith gets a win. He actually looked pretty good tonight. It was kind of an unfortunate ending. Randy Brown with a nice one-arm, rear-naked choke submission over Alex Olivera.

Dwight Grant with a very questionable split decision in my eyes. I thought it should have been a draw. I thought it was a draw. I actually scored a 3027 for Seculage. Didn't watch the fight. Also, just Anthony Smith and Jimmy Kruh, before the weirdness and even after the weirdness, that was fun as hell.

Yeah. Hell yeah. Like, they were just trading grabs for low kicks. Even exchange, which one of us will fall first? That was good. That was a good scrap for five minutes for sure. Brennan Allen, good submission. Pat Sabatini gets his first UFC win.

Danab Bat Gareil, nasty knockout of Kevin Natibud. Rodrigo Vargas beats Rongzhu, Jeff Molina, Aori Kilang. Good God, what a fight that was. I feel vindicated. That was my low-key banger and it delivered. And then, of course, Ariani, Carnalosi, and Liangna was a great fight as well. Dude, feel bad for Bacarell. Because, like, great knockout had to be feeling pretty good.

especially like on paper it was very possible that the top three fights were not super exciting or deliver super high-like chaos and then nope like just didn't have a chance yeah didn't have a chance uh what is what is left for mazadol after this has he ever headline of paper view again yes against nick nick dyes and all August for the BMF title. I thought that was going to be on the same pay-per-view as Nunes versus Pena.

So he's going to head on that over Nunez and Pena? Yeah. Are you kidding me? That'd be interesting. That's 100% what they would do. I feel like they just put it on a different card. I think it's a different card.

I don't know. I feel like you know that. We're already booked through September with title fights because now we got Bolozsche and Glover in September. I mean, you could do it later, but I think you'd it's convenient. You probably want to get Nick in there. So this could If Nick gets in there and Nick really wants

to fight, he's probably going to want to get back in there sooner rather than later. And this is a lucrative fight for Mazadol, and it's a lucrative fight for Nick. You know, if the girls pay for many points as well. If that happens, it's definitely headlining pay-per-view. And Mossfarl is headlining a pay-per-view anyway. Mosswood-Covington is going to headline their shit out of a pay-per-view.

And frankly, Moskroll, Leon Edwards is probably going to do the same at some point, too. Even Leon Edwards, who no one likes, will still get a headliner because of Horry Moscow. Does that's what's wild to me about winning and losing in the, in MMA with fans and, you know, what sells? Because I'm not wrong when I think Maseldaal Colby

sells way more than Usman Colby too. Yeah, easily. I mean, that's what I mean. Like a title by against the goat, you know, you know, well, the future goat, you know, Ouzman. Like, it's just, that's, I always find that weird. Like, we're just, the general fan base just isn't interested in seeing the best. They just want to see, they want to see rivalries. That's just, I just, I just, I was thinking it's just a very interesting part of the sport.

But, um, one quick last question. We didn't really talk about this, but I thought, I thought this was interesting. Can you say something about Mazelal being too confident? which would have he said that in his post fight in his post fight in the cage he said oh I just didn't think

his mom could hit that hard you know he just I mean he fought the guy for 25 minutes so he would know I don't think that's a matter of being too confident I mean when you get knocked out like that like what are you supposed to say

yeah the my thing here is it's never good to I am of the opinion that you should never do that Oh, I just got hit. Let me put my hands down and invite a brawl. Some fighters that make sense, especially for strategic purposes, if that's your best chance to win,

it's just getting into a rough and rugged. In general, I don't. But it's not like Mossadol was sticking around in there and had his hands down and got clocked. Like, he just, Oussman stepped in with the right hand, and it landed flush. Like, I don't think he was overconfident anyway, because like Mike said, he's been 25 minutes.

You should have a pretty good understanding. I would imagine of who another human being is and what they're physically capable of, if you fight him for half an hour. And that just happened. Like, he's not as good as Kamar Ushman. But we saw the first fight. I don't think, I wasn't, did any of us think that

Kamar Uzman could one-shot kill Mazvedal? I mean, I mean. That's what I mean. So that's what I mean. So I can totally understand what Mazorai's like, you can't knock me out. Yeah, he can hit me and it can suck, but knock me out. I mean, that was just wild.

And such a, such a technique. And I totally agree with Jets said early about K-O-the-year because of the level competition. Such like just technically perfect. Just back to basics punch. Just bake the left hook, pull the hand down. Boom. It was just awesome.

I was like, just just basics. The basics. I love the basics. All right. Yeah, I mean, it was good. It was good. But, I mean, it's kind of hard to find a happy medium because, like, you want to sell the fight. You want to talk trash.

Get a couple more pay-per-view buys. But at the same time, there's, like, the old additive of, like, the pro wrestling world where you, like, you want to talk trash, but you still want to put over your opponent. So if you say, like, oh, this guy hits like a, like a. bitch or he's got pillow hands and then you get knocked out by him it just makes you look really bad that's why like in those worlds you're like yeah but i mean i get it it's just kind of finding that happy medium which no one's been able to find and it's really hard to find so i don't think he was like too confident i just think he spent 25 minutes with him nobody thought that was possible if anyone was getting to finish if who's going to get a finish is he going to be like

a late submission or like uh i think like a tk oh yeah yeah exactly More of a ground and pound TKO. Yeah, one of those. Like in the guard, lands a couple elbows and then just like finishes the fight, like late in the fifth, but I don't think anybody saw that come back. Pop, Corsi fix. Yes.

Did a little Chevy. Did a little Chevy finish. What's a little Chevy trucking? I have two things that I just thought of now. As we need to play it out, we can just chat while we play out here. One, this is just for me to say to whoever happens to be listening. We should not give Jorge Moshadol credit for his post-flight speech. You're out of all.

It's all the credit in the world for handling. Hell yeah. Like, that is the best answer he could have possibly given if he gives him a week and a script. Full credit to that, man. But you probably have a bunch of shit and then get smoked. Like, you can't stand up and be like, he's still a pawn. You just sort of have to.

There's no other outcome but to take that out. but I'm not willing to join the throngs of people saying, what sportsmanship, bra. But on that note, what the hell is with him interviewing the guys who got killed? Rogan, like, made a whole thing that he didn't want to do interview concussed fighters. And he rolled up the Wiley Zhang and is like,

hey, I know you don't speak this language. All three of them. All three. Yeah. I mean, it was a little better with Androge, because at least she didn't really get, like, TKO, yeah, it was a mercy stoppage. Like, like, Wiley was like unconscious,

clearly still concussed, very upset about what was going on. A footprint still on her face. Why are you mad? Can you please just admit that you were out? Like, what the hell are we doing? I didn't want to complain. I didn't want to complain about Rogan tonight. His NKG interviews are so bad.

Jimmy. He interviewed, Jimmy Crude couldn't even stand on. on his leg and they made him stand and do a post-fight interview after the lost Anthony's. Yeah. Shelt's to do me cool though because that interview was dope. It's just like, yeah, I was going to pull guard because I can't stand

up. Awesome, buddy. You're the man. Dude, he won the rest of that round once he lost his foot. Like, he won the rest of it. It reminded me you have Chandler. When Chandler, he lost his foot and he wound up winning the rest of the round against premise.

But then the ref stopped it because, he goes like, well, your foot's backwards. you don't need a foot to win fights that's where i learned tonight we'll have this discussion later i i i'm still kind of upset with that i haven't found a rule that actually okay we're not going to talk about let me play the outro music one more time yes sorry in the sort of sort of and and other shoutouts i will give uh big shout out to the jacksonville crowd tonight because man what a difference just hearing them and i mean they're on fire from the first fight.

They, oh, by the second fight, they were wooing already, man, come on. Listen, you can't, be positive.

All right, I can take, I could take a couple of woos. It was just, it was just cool. Like, Ariani, Coroner Luzzi was just like, I'm coming out to fight.

Yeah, Cardinal is coming out, getting ready to fight, and like, everyone's cheering for us. She's like, me? For me?

Chris Wyman is screaming in agony, getting stretched out of the arena, and the crowd's like, uh, fuck Jake Paul. Fuck Jake Paul. Oh, MMA fans, you're the best. Yes, it's 15,000 drunk people watching fights. Like, it ain't going to be perfect, but it was still kind of cool in spot.

It's 15,000 drunk Jacksonville people watching fights. Can't stress that one part enough. Dude, we got, there wasn't one single Duval. Oh, man, okay, we got to go. All right, we're going to get out here. For Jed, for Casey, I'm Mike Heck. Good night, everybody. Love you guys.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.