MMA Fighting - UFC 270 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Francis Ngannou's Championship Heart, Dana White's Absence

Episode Date: January 23, 2022

While many were celebrating Francis Ngannou's successful title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270, Dana White was nowhere to be found.  Following the UFC's first PPV event of 2022, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, Jose Youngs and Alexander K. Lee react to Ngannou's future, whether or not Jon Jones could be in play, what White's post-fight absence might mean, Deiveson Figueiredo regaining the flyweight title against Brandon Moreno and if a fourth straight meeting could happen, and more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs 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. All right, everybody. Part two of our UFC 270 post-fight coverage. This is our live post-fight show. We just heard from the fighters, some of the tastemakers, and now we're going to hear from Good Old Us as we break down the top storylines from a very memorable UFC 270

in an event that the storylines continue to pile up, and I feel like the storylines are going to continue on for the next couple of weeks. But thank you for check out. us out at this at this hour i am mike heck we got jose youngs in anaheim just wrapped up the press conference today tremendous job hello sir it's a little blurry we have doing my best we have mr sean shawdy in the house good to have you back sir let's go excited let's talk about some fights mike what a night oh my god i got energy for days i know it's like 3 30 over there for you but it's only

1 30 here baby let's go you you seem like you drank 14 red bulls and I'm digging it. I'm just kind of trying to like surface this energy from you in some way. And then, of course, on the ones and twos, E. Casey Liden. So a lot happened tonight, gentlemen. A lot happened. Francis and Gano became Francis in Gano made off. Dude's land and takedowns.

He's doing all sorts of crazy stuff on the ground. I mean, this is the fight we predicted. I mean, go back and listen to our preview show. We predicted a five-round scramble fest, especially in the championship around, Sean. So what did you learn the most about this heavyweight title fight? Because something tells me you're probably blown away by all these extra things we didn't expect. I mean, man, where to start on this, right?

What did I learn? We learned who Francis Ngano is, just as a human being, as a champion, as an athlete. You look at this performance tonight, everything coming into it, all the factors that were stacked against him, all that this man was dealing with. I mean, we even learn now about this knee injury that he suffered about three weeks ago, MCL, ACL, obviously all the contract discussion, even, you know, if you want to put to the side, the MMA factory stuff, the Cyril Gaon teammates stuff, that whole thing. Like, let's put that to the side for a moment, just the contract issues and all of the problems he's had with the UFC.

Our good friend Ariel Hawani has said it several times this week, but you look back at the history of these sort of issues, these sort of problems within the sport, within the UFC, a fighter at the peak of their earning windows really trying to challenge the UFC in this way. It's not a list that is kind to the working class. The house always wins, as Ariel likes to say, in these type of scenarios

and it was all going against Francis Ingano tonight, and he ends up being down O2, coming to that third round, and dude, the way he was able to dig deep and really just put on a championship level performance in the way that no one actually suck. I mean, right? Nobody predicted a wrestling heavy way.

win by Francis de Saganu, but he did it. And what now is, it's funny because what turned into probably the least eventful and the least interesting win of Francis Saganu's actual, you know, career just in terms of the actual fight itself is also probably, in my eyes, the most important and really the most courageous win that this man has had in his UFC run and his MMA run overall. Because now the cards, he still, the cards are still in his hands, right? Like he still holds all the cards. The chips were all stacked against him. The house was against him everything. We saw it, man. He came through. He pulled through in the biggest possible moment of his life. And he still leaves the cage as the champion. And that's the most important thing, especially right now for this man.

He still leaves the cage with the belt wrapped around his waist, whether it was wrapped around there by Dana White or someone else. He is still the champion, man. And that is the single most important thing. And that's what I learned about Francis and Ghana from this night. It's just who he is. And again, how deep this man was able to dig to get this one out there. And we will certainly talk about who wrapped the belts around his waist and who didn't show up at the press conference in a little bit. But Jose, Casey and I were talking about this as the press conference was going on as we were waiting in between fighters, that although when you look at a Francis and Gano fight and the casual audience who was looking to buy this fight was expecting a Franciscan performance to go, they're expecting power. They're expecting ferocious knockouts. They're expecting the terrifying Francis Gano. Can you make the argument with what we saw over the final 15 minutes?

of this fight, that even though Francis wasn't that terrifying knockout artist, that maybe Francis Ngano, the heavyweight champion, the mixed martial artist, is a little more terrifying now that we see a little more tools in the tool belt? 100%. I mean, I said it for a long time.

Like, Francis might be really good at wrestling. We just don't know because he hasn't had to use it. So France and Gano, that can lose two rounds, catch a high kick out of the air, and then power slam another heavyweight human being onto the canvas and then win three straight rounds is on one knee because let's not forget his right knee is like shredded. So yeah, terrifying human being who can knock you dead

and has the toughness of an inhuman being. So yeah, heavyweights beware, whether it's MFA or boxing. And what about like, I know Francis wasn't like running marathons after Casey, but the man went five rounds and he wrestled throughout the tramp championship rounds. Like that's got to be another scary part of this game, right? He's the champion. Goes five rounds. Not a thing you're going to see very often, but Francis, but a lot of people are saying on

Twitter after the second round, oh, he's got his mouth open. He's gassed. He's tired. And then he's just picking dudes up in the sky and slamming him to the mat with relative ease. He's sweeping dudes. He's escaping submissions in the fifth round. Like this guy was all over the place. Like what did you think of the, the,

cardio conversations heading into the fight and what did you see at least especially over those final five minutes when things are getting a little dicey for them i think we just saw that we can finally just let's just kill that narrative that's all it's like we're living off where we're living that narrative from is that from the stepe fight basically the first stepey fight that's what we're living off of we know we keep saying francis is a new we hear rogan say it all the time this is a new fighter, it is a new fighter. It is a new fighter. It is a, each Francis Nagano that walks out there in a cage, as long as he's is with Eric Nixick and those coaches at Extrememacher, is getting better and better. And it's, it's a pleasure as a fan to watch us and as a media

member to see this. And we're just seeing, yeah, it wasn't the most exciting fight. I don't care. They're not all going to be like that. But like, like what she said, we just saw the heavyweight champion become better in there. We got to see it and he got to prove it in the cage and things weren't going to the way he wanted to go. He adjusted and he still won the freaking fight by out grappling and winning the later rounds. The rounds are here that he's supposed to lose. He's all, I'm tired, I'm tired. He still had the heart. He had the guts. He had the fight IQ to win that championship fight. And that's what he needed tonight. Tonight wasn't about him, get him getting a big knockout, him proving that he was the baddest man, the planet, and all that stuff.

We already knew that. Tonight for him is to get that W and to really annoy a very rich bald man who sits outside the cage. Yes, and it is not I, who is the rich bald man. And I'm not saying outside the cage. We have a guest. We have a guest. I mean, where is he? Oh, geez.

Hello, AK. There we go. Hello. I can't hear you. I'm here. I'm here in the little box. Oh, I'm in the little box. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I'm sure you guys are already, sorry to be late. I'm sure you guys are already talking about the main event. So I don't want to tread too much of that ground. But, man, that's fascinating stuff. I mean, that was a fascinating fight. And I thought it was funny that some people were kind of pick up on what you were just saying. Some people were comparing Gons approach to George St. Pierre, sort of like how methodical he was and like, oh, he's kind of like dissecting him.

And, you know, how good he looked in the first two rounds. And, you know, GSP was so far. famous for neutralizing any opponent he fought, neutralizing their strengths, not always in the most exciting way. You know, we look back at him now. Of course, one of the biggest draws in UFC history. And also a great tactical fighter.

But, I mean, he got a lot of criticism at the time. A lot of fans just did not like watching GSP fights. So I think people said, oh, well, that's what con's doing now. He's going to beat Francis. And that's what's going to happen. And ironically, it's Francis who showed sort of that I'm willing to go to, I'm willing to break out my entire tool set to win a fight to beat a dangerous opponent. So it's kind of, the narrative just turned around like right in

the middle of the fight. And I think that's what made it so interesting in a fight that like, I get it, which not one you're going to load up on fight pass like, like, you know, Chandler, Gigi. But in the moment, it was really thrilling and really fast, really fascinating to watch. I was like, it was so tense. I was like breathing weirdly, like in the middle of the second round and onward. I'm like, this is weird. Like, this is a weird fight to watch. But I couldn't take my eyes off of it. And I think, I hope most fight fans appreciate sort of what, what they witness, because it's, I don't know if you'll ever see a heavyweight fight like that again, relative to the expectations that it had going in. It was really something else. So I get it.

Not a, not a barn burner. But, I mean, if you want to talk about what is MMA, I mean, that fight is it. No, I mean, if I could jump in really quickly, I mean, I agree 100% with what AK just said there in that I don't know that we'll ever see a heavyweight title fight like this again. part of that and really the main part of that is because of the narrative going into it right of what we knew was at stake here man because this really the stakes for tonight were so much bigger than just a title fight so much bigger than just this one man trying to you know preserve his legacy or continue his legacy or anything like that it's just there is so much on the line for francis and so much against him and as you're watching this play out in real time of him losing these first two rounds and you

see it slipping it's the same thing we've seen all these times before of a fighter trying to stand up against the UFC and then it all backfires against them. We're watching it happen in real time and to see him sort of turn the tide, but not in the way that we would ever have expected him to turn the tide in the complete opposite direction of how we would ever expect a Francis and Gondu victory to go.

It was incredible theater. It was absolutely incredible theater. You're right. We're not going to dial this back up on FightPass. We're not going to rewatch this on YouTube when the UFC uploads a free fight. But in the moment, it was absolutely incredible to watch. Were there moments in that second round

When you thought, oh no Not maybe oh no But surreal Gahn is going to Volkoff Nangano for 25 minutes Absolutely There was like oh we're going to see a new champion We're going to see Francis just chase around Gone for 25 minutes and

That's it And you're right in And you see Francis come in with the knee wraps You see him come in He's not moving as well as he normally does he's being a lot more patient than normal, but also like just sluggish. Like it just felt like it was building to that exact moment.

We're all afterward afterwards right now. We're all going to be talking about, well, you know, guess that's what it is for Francis. Maybe he's not the best heavyweight in the world. And we would just all move on and we would have all just dismissed it. And even if the knee thing came out afterwards,

it's just, you know, ah, that's just excuses. He would have lost to Cyril anyway. Cyril's such a technician. Absolutely. For 10 minutes,

it looks like we were headed towards an absolute night. mirror scenario for Francis. And man, again, to be able to pull it out in the way that he did, I thought was it just unbelievable. It was absolutely unbelievable to watch. And full credit, I mean, obviously to France and Ghana for digging deep and dealing with all that pressure and everything, because you have to feel the pressure. There's no doubt about it. But credit to Eric Nixick and Dewee Cooper in the corner who knew exactly what to say, hello, sir. How are you? But those guys just knew exactly what to say to him. And like Nixick, like almost like timed what he had to say in his head.

And then he was like, go ahead, coach. What do you got to say? And then do we had enough time to like say what he had to say? And you could see like the calmness come over Francis before you got off the stool, especially in rounds three, four and five. It was amazing. But Sean,

might as well talk about it. This is the big story. This is we can't bury the lead anymore. We talked about the rich bald man enough, but he didn't show up tonight when at the very end of the night. We didn't see him. The last time we saw him was when he wrapped the belt around Davis of Figurato's waist. Dana White did not wrap the well.

belt around Francis de Gano's waist. Not only that, he did not show up to the press conference. So I'm curious, Sean, what did his silence say to you? Not even silence, right? Just complete absence. Because you're right. He was there. It's very convenient that he was there for the co-made event.

He was there to wrap the belt around Devis and Figuerado's waist. He was nowhere to be seen to wrap the belt on Francis's waist. He did not show for the post-fight press conference, which is very unusual, in particular for our first pay-per-view of the year. And altogether, like, I know some people didn't like the main event again. I've sort of explained why I really enjoyed it in the moment. But outside of that, like, this card was way better than any, it had any right to be, right? Like, this was a really fun card all night.

Like, we had crazy finishes, crazy action for the most part. Like, this was a big success for the UFC on a show where, like, we spoke about it yesterday on the preview show. We were kind of crapping on it, and deservedly so, right? You had half the card seemingly making their UFC debuts on this. And it ended up being a really fun night with lots of great finishes. And it is one of those moments where you just knew Dana was going to come up there and say, that's why you don't say anything about the card until it happens. That hurt thing we've heard a thousand times.

This was the moment to do it. And it feels obviously very telling the fact that he was not there. We're still in the speculation mode right now. It's still the speculation hour. really heard word of why he's not there. So you know, you hope it's not, uh, some crazy personal thing happened. It's something like that. Uh, but for the most part, it feels pretty likely. We know why he wasn't there. Uh, and that in and of itself is very telling. And I think that's going to sort of set the narrative that we're now going to follow and is probably going to

dominate a large part of 2022 because we've talked about it. Francis in Ghanu's knee is pretty ravaged right now. If he's going to get surgery, that might take him out for the majority of the year. And he even reiterated at his post-fight press conference, him and his team are under the belief that once this year expires, whether he fights or not, that is the end of the term of their contract. The five-year term that they had, it's over at the end of this year. And he's still the heavyweight champion. So if that happens and he's able to walk away with the belt, that'll be something we've never seen before. And this is going to get really interesting, really quickly and very messy, probably very quickly. And I'm sure this is not going to be the first nor the last time we're going to

talk about this, but Dana White's absence tonight was screaming volumes, I would say. Jose, I'm going to go back to you because you popped into my head with this whole situation because it was almost four years ago to the day that a very similar situation happened in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a little different. Stipe Meitchitch beats Francis and Ghanu. Dana White's about to wrap the title around Steepa's waist. Steve says, uh-uh, I'm giving it to my corner, to my coach. He's going to wrap it around my waist, not you, Dana White.

And then Dana White did not show up at that press conference either. So this is very similar. And by the way, the promotion for that fight was not around the champion. It was around the challenger, very much like this fight. So there's a lot of similarities here between the UFC 220 main event and this main event. So what did you think of the whole situation? Because you've been there the last time this happened, where the heavyweight champion, the way the fight ended. There was some drama with Dana White in the title.

Dana not showing up to the press conference. And then four years later, almost to the day, we're at this again. What was your thoughts about how this all played out? And the winner out wrestling the challenger. I guess I feel kind of jaded, so it doesn't surprise me. Like,

I was in Abu Dhabi when Dana walked out in the middle of fight between Michael Casey and Neil Magni. And that was the big controversy. And now, like, a year later, he's not wrapping the heavyweight title around the guy that he was like for as much as everyone like either loves or hates and wait he hasn't promoted a fight that well in the last few years like the last few i can think of were hamzat and him comparing france to a what like a

board escorts or something whatever it was and now he's not wrapping the bells around that man so um not surprised disappointed but I don't know. I don't know what to say because it just doesn't, nothing surprised me anymore than me. Nothing surprised me with Dana White. So the second that fight ended and we saw Dana wasn't there, everyone in the media was like,

he's not coming. We just all accepted it. There was no question. There was no, oh, maybe he's, maybe he'll show up early in least. Nope, it was just accepted. He's not showing up.

And that's exactly what happened. AK, I mean, again, it's all speculation. These are things we're going to talk about like on between the links and all these other shows, and we'll be talking about this for months. But, AK, we talked about Francis, we talked about Dana White. Let's talk about Cyril Gaon, because the guy, three years into his professional mixed martial arts career, is headlining a pay-per-view against Francis and Ghana for the undisputed UFC heavyweight title.

Just thinking about that, just saying those words out loud, is it's just remarkable what this guy has done in such a short amount of time. While losing stinks, and this one's going to sting for a little while, do you feel like tonight was a very important night for him? Like, it had been great in a memorable moment for him to win the title. But I think if we go back in the Cyril Gan 30 for 30 that comes out a decade from now, we're going to look back on this night as a very pivotal turning point in his career. Yeah, look, I think it's just as important as Francis Nagano losing to Stipi Mioch at UFC 220.

Now, can Sidil Gan show the same kind of improvements? Can he bounce back in the same way? And let's not forget, Francis didn't bounce back right away. He then had that horrible fight with Derek Lewis, which I know Shaheen and Mark Romani will remember very well. It's one of my favorite fights. And that fight really raised, I mean, the loss to Steepa was almost like understandable. People were like, okay, well, Stipe is the champion. He's the guy we kind of see, you know, the great, at the time, you know, on his way to becoming the greatest heavyweight champion of all time, more experienced.

then they, you know, and Francis went tested. There was a lot of hype. He was favorite going to the fight, but it was kind of understandable and that Derek Lewis might have like, holy crap, it might not happen over this one guy and he goes and this terror becomes champion and here we are now. So, God, I don't know, we'll see how God bounces back. Counting him out would be insane. Like you said, he hasn't been fighting for long.

This is his first loss. It's just his 11th professional fight. He seems to have a good team around him. I don't know, people, what they want, how they feel about Fernand Lopez, very vocal guy. But hey, he brought Francis to the UFC. He coached Gaon to an interim title. He's done a lot of good work. So whether Gaon is going to stick with

him or kind of like Francis maybe expand his training and who he works with remains to be seen. But he clearly has the potential to still be a world champion. He was winning the first two rounds. I know one of the judges did give round one to to Inganu, but

the general consensus seemed to be that Gaon was leading the action, was winning the fight until the takedowns and the wrestling sort of happening and then that changed everything so uh yeah let's let's not judge quickly again after 220 a lot of question marks around and ganu there should be the same question marks around gone now maybe he uh shores up that wrestling game and uh and and and when they fight again then he becomes a champion and the cycle kind of repeats itself but um yeah very very important fight win or lose uh and he was all class he was all class um at the post fight press conference saying like no no

obviously no question the judges i know i lost i hope francis sticks around i need to fight this guy again I thought he taught a master class on how to handle a loss. Him and Brandon Moreno both. I was going to say Brandon. Brandon. Brandon. Yeah. Coming into it,

I totally didn't realize, or I just realized, like, when Francis fought Steepie the first time, that was only his six UFC fight. And then tonight was gone's seventh UFC fight. You know, so like, eight, seven, eight,

oh, they were like one or two apart. It's just incredible. of the kind of similarities. And to count out, Gahn has a future, not only a title contender, where a future heavyweight great is ridiculous. You know,

I think we're, like, gone is, he's so in the title picture. Like, there's nothing like dismissive about Gons' performance tonight, too. It's just,

you know, he lost to a better fighter and that's it, you know. Real quick, before we move on to the co-main event. Sean, we knew John Jones was going to be watching the fight. We knew he was going to be

tweeting and social mediaing during the fight. Did he lose sleep here watching Francis do some wrestling? And do you feel any more confident than you felt yesterday when we talked about this that John Jones could be waiting in the wings? Because by the way, the UFC's got to get right with Francis and getting right with Francis and getting right with John Jones. That seems like a lot, my man.

That's a big ask right now. That is a huge. Huge. Big, big ask. I don't know. I mean, I said yesterday that I'm not confident at all that John Jones will fight this year, maybe even again, just in the UFC. the way that this whole situation has played out.

But again, I don't even know that that matters right now because John Jones could conceivably step in for some sort of interim title type of situation. But again, Francis Ngano is about to get surgery, like knee surgery. Like, I've blown out my knees before. It's not a quick recovery. Like, that dude could conceivably be out until the end of the year, just on the knee surgery alone, if not, you know, seven, eight months.

So that's a question for long down the line. That's not something that we would be able to probably look at for the summer for a big fight week, like the International Fight Week, they announced this tonight. So that is a good question. I would say, if Francis does fight again in the OFC,

it will probably be John Jones, I would imagine. They will figure out some way to get that done, and maybe by that point, bygones will be bygones. But just one more thing to add to all of this, I did like, again, it's just this whole confluence of events

that sort of led to this very strange night with this very strange narrative just around all of this. I was really appreciative that the UFC ended up booking this show in California. And why do I say that? Because in California is one of the last places in the U.S. that actually discloses salaries. So I spoke to California State Athletic Commission Director Andy Foster tonight.

He sent me over the salary list, and we were able to see how much everybody made tonight. And I believe you and Casey mentioned it during the Post-Fight Press Conference show where it's just the combined card tonight made like one. $1.8 million or something like that. It was just full of like tens and $12,000. And then you had Francis out here making $600K. It's like you can see, if you're that guy, you can see where he's coming from,

making $600K plus probably paper viewpoints for something like this where, you know, I forget the boxing match that happened tonight, but I think he made like $4 million or something like that. And it's a dude I've never really heard of. I'm not a big boxing guy, but like, you know, like that it's just, it's not comparable. So it's again, just all of it. influence of all tonight.

And I'm just so glad that they went to California. Because if this was in Nevada, we wouldn't have gotten these numbers in California. Andy Foster still fights the good fight on this. And I love it. Jake, just to put it in perspective, Jake Paul, the boxer, the boxer, not the YouTube guy. Jake Paul the boxer made disclosed $25 million in boxing in 2021. Jake Paul the boxer. It's insane.

It's insane. The new flyweight champion, do you even? Figueroa, who we were probably about to talk about, made 150K. And I saw someone tweet this. I think it was Robert Sargent, a good friend, Robert Sargent, tweeted something like Greg Hardy's last disclosed payout was like 180K. And it's just like, DeVis and Figuero's making less than Greg Hardy. Like, what's going on?

I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Just a couple months ago, I saw Donair, who's a really good Filipino boxer. He weighs, he fights at like 120 pounds, smaller than these guys, fight in front of maybe 2,000 people on Showtime, not a pay-per-view, and he made almost $400,000. I'm just like, in this, he's like top, you know, I don't know,

20, top 15, I don't know. It's just, it's, it's, the debate is over. Now it's just like, what's next? Yes. But anyway, there were tremendous fights, so let's talk about the tremendous fights. Yes.

Let me mention, guys, I've thrown up a poll. before we move on, because this is about the main event. I do have a poll in the YouTube comments, when will Francis defend his UFC title again? Four options in the next few months,

within the next six months before the end of the year. Never he gone, is also one of the options. Never he gone way ahead right now, 49%. 34% though before the end of the year. So there is still a chunk of fan,

at least our viewership, who thinks that they might work something out for the end of the year and he fights in a UFC championship fight, but no, right now, half saying, that's it. It's the last time you've seen it.

Okay, throw a quick poll up and just ask, how long were the UFC wait to create an interim belt? Two weeks? Two months? It'll be international play week.

Monday? Monday. Monday? Monday. Yep, July. We'll see it. But let's move ahead to the flyweight division.

Jose, I want to start with you. Davis and Figurato comes through, man. There's a lot of talk about the moving of camps, how good he looked. Maybe Moreno has his number. and it wasn't tonight because Davidson and Figuero looked great. It was a super close fight. It was a super fun fight, very compelling.

And in the end, Davis and Figuero gets the nod on all three scorecards. As a fan of high-level martial arts competition, I assume you were quite pleased with the co-main event. Were you not? Oh, that fight absolutely ruled. One fight of the night. And that was one of those, a second at end, you're like, well, good luck beating that.

It was the co-main event, but, like, this is still, like, nothing was topping that. I mean, I've been in some loud arenas in my life. I was at that Jacksonville card when Mazurl and Uzman fought and Mosvel got slept. I've been in a lot of international fight weeks. I've seen Connor fight a lot. I've seen Habit fight a lot. Brandon Moreno's entrance, and whenever Brandon Marino landed any sort of combination,

is on par with all of them. It's one of the top five loudest MMA arenas I have ever been in. And Figurato loved being. booed every second of that fight. Everything checked box. All of the drama was there. And then the fight lived up to all of my expectations. It was a high-level martial arts fight in front of a raucous Mexican crowd. There was no Brazilians. Even Davidson figured out after it was like, I'll fight in Mexico, but no problems I can get back because I'm probably going to die. Me and Henry Sidio. So 10 to 10 across the board, two best flyways on planet Earth. And I want to see

them fight 10 times. That chant, fight forever that you hear in, like, PWG and Ring of Honor, I wanted to chant that. I was being professional in the media room, so I didn't. But yeah, one of the best flyway fights I've ever seen. And I can't imagine the fourth fight will be any different. Yeah, Shaw, we've been a component of trying to see these guys fight as often as possible. And I remember speaking to Colby Covington after he lost to Kamar Usman.

And he was dead serious when he said, I want to pitch. a best of seven series with Kamara Usman because I feel like we're so evenly matched that this matchup in particular needs to play out over a global sports championship like series and I feel like we're on the cusp of actually seeing something similar.

We're definitely going to see the quadrology but if the UFC wants to do something crazy here and do a best of seven, are you going to complain about this? Because I sure the hell am not going to complain about it. Oh, are you kidding? Me, absolutely.

Well, first of all, it's a tetra, it's a tetra, apparently. We had people in the chat yesterday tell us this. I was looked it up afterwards, a series of four is a tetrology. So that's something that we're going to need to get used to saying because we're going to be saying it a lot. The vocabulary you learn following the sport, picograms, all of it. You got to love it. I never thought you'd know that. But man, all of this just me was so, it's just magic, man. Like if you remember just a few years ago, like I think it was the end of 2018 where we were with the flyways. And the writing was

on the wall, right? Like it was, we were seeing it already, the exodus. There was a gradual trickle of just names getting cut. DJ got shipped out to one championship in a trade, and it was just like we had never seen that before. And it looked like after the six years of trying to do this thing, the UFC kind of just threw their hands up. And they're like, all right, this didn't work. Fans don't care. Maybe, you know, maybe they were even right. And it was just like, all right, we were just going to cut this and cut bait and just keep on moving without the flyweights. And it's just crazy to look back on that now because it is such a different world. And you give Henry Hsuudo some credit for that as well.

He saved that division in the moment. He was sort of what that division needed in that moment. But right now, where the flyweight division is and how amazing it is right now is really just a credit to these two gentlemen we saw tonight. Divis and Figuero and Brandon Moreno are just two demons who were seemingly born to fight one another. Like every step of this trilogy has been absolutely thrilling. and Jose said tonight was one of the best flyweight fights he's ever seen. I think we could say that about two of the three fights we've seen so far now in this trilogy. Two of the greatest flyweight fights we've ever seen,

and the other one was also a very exciting fight as well. It's just so amazing now where these men have dragged this division that once nobody cared about. And Jose was absolutely right, because when Brandon Morano was out there tonight, when he walked out to that arena and every time he did anything, he felt like he mattered, right? Like he felt like a champion. He felt like a star in a way that we really haven't seen any flyweight feel like.

And just Devinson Figuero is the ultimate heel like to be able to pull up. I know this was for some people, they disagree with the decision. But even if you disagree with this decision, and for me, I scored it 3-2 Figgie. But even if you disagreed with the decision, you have to give so much respect to that man. Because in his moment of glory, he not only just called immediately for a fourth fight with this dude, he called for it in Mexico like of all places that man madman wants to go and just get drowned in booze

in Mexico like the first one was the second one was in Phoenix third one was in Anaheim like Mexico City would be obscene compared to the booze he got in Phoenix and Anaheim like it was just crazy man I love it I absolutely love it what's that Jose he changed his mind

watch the post-frey press conference he doesn't want to fight in Mexico anymore he wants to fight in Brazil or the United States because he doesn't think him and Henry will be able to escape Mexico after. But I asked him specifically, I said there's a rumored fight in May in Brazil. Why not fighting at home? And then he laughed. He goes, yeah, I probably won't make it back out of Mexico. And then later on, he said he wanted to move his family to the United States. So he either wants to fight in Brazil or the U.S. And he sort of walked his Mexico callout back, which is a little

disappointing. Yeah, I think he deserves. Either way. Yeah, he deserves a lot. Like, can you imagine just like a few years ago pitching someone on the idea of that, like, these flyways are going to fight four times in a row. Not only is it going to be totally makes sense and everyone's going to be totally deserved, but like fans are going to love it. They're going to support it. And we're all going to be genuinely excited for each fight. Like, it's just crazy. I can't think of any parallels to anything like this in MMA history. And I know we always go like the all-time thing, but like this is just nuts.

I know pay-per-view buyers are different. but Jose in the arena I mean a freaking flyweight Brandon Marino this guy that you could put two of them inside Francis and Gano and like he was the biggest star he was the biggest star by far way bigger than Francis right

they didn't need that heavyweight title this fight it could a headline yeah without a doubt there was no Francis no Cyril chance at all at the ceremonials or press conferences or anything it was all Brandon Moreno.

The fighter hotel is every Mexican in the world in the lobby, with Mardiasing music. So they didn't need the heavyweight type. This fight could have been next month in Houston, the main event, and all the seats still would have been filled for Brandon Moreno, Davis, and Figurado. Can Figurato Moreno 4, can that headline a pay-per-view in the right arena, in the right location? Yes, yeah. Yeah, I believe so, too.

I believe, I think you could have done that. I think the UFC didn't, I don't, I think the UFC underestimated. Seriously, how, what a draw those fly weights are, especially together. I really think they underestimated it. This is a classic, this is a classic have your cake and eat it too kind of card because you wanted to sell tickets for the arena and you knew Figuero, Marino Figuero could sell out that Honda Center easy because of the population. Moreno's gym is like a two hour drive from there.

So you knew the tickets would sell. But would that be enough to get 500,000 buys on pay-per-view might be a little bit of a different story. Let's pat it with the heavyweight championship fight because even the casual fan can understand the freaking weight of a heavyweight championship fight. So I understand what they were doing there. A.K., you're patiently waiting. You watched Davis and Figurato go out there and do the damn thing. And as much as you want to dump on Henry Suhudo for this awful build to the fight and how he made it about himself, the guy is probably the nominee. Even with what Francis did, a little bit of a hot take. Henry Sehudo right now is probably

the coach of the year in MMA, is he not? No, no, what? We can't attribute everything that happened. Just to him. Just to spot. Why is it just to Hudo, though, that gets the credit for this? I mean, for sure, he's a factor in it. But, I mean, Figaroid himself said the whole camp was great.

He said he thanked the U.S.P. Before, this before at their media day, talking about, like, he was grateful the PI helped him with, like, sorting out his diet. So many things went to him improving. Again, a big tip of the captain of Suhudo for sure. He's certainly the front face of all these improvements that Figurado made, but it can't just come down to him. I wouldn't just give all the credit to Eric Nixik for, like we said,

coaching Anganu to his win today. Give him a ton of credit for sure. But I don't know. I'm sure Suhudo will have a lot to say about it. I'm sure Coach Eric will break it down to all the stuff they did. And that's fine. But I don't know. I don't know if I want to give it all the credit to Suhudo.

Again, maybe I'm just resisting because I'm sure he's going to want to take a lot of it. I do want to ask, though, so we all want to see the fourth fight. It would be unprecedented to even have a, like we said, a tetralogy in the UFC. It's never happened before. Much less, if it happened again, this would be, like, people want to see it now. So we're talking about the same guys fight each other four straight times. Like, I don't know if the UFC would do that, but I also don't know what makes sense because Figy said he would want to fight Kai Kar, France. he mentioned him by name.

Kai Kar-France has a fight booked in March. He's fighting Ascarov. So that fight is still happening. Presumably, if Kai Kar-France won, then that would really make him a very good option for Figurado. And I guess it might line up with the timing with the rumored Brazil card, which is saying May, right? Sometime May.

That's the idea. We don't know for sure yet, right? May. What, Brazil? Anyone? Looking like that. Yeah, May. So it could work out.

If Kikar, France smoked Ascarov somehow and then stayed in shape and said, yeah, two months later, I'm ready, I'm not hurt, I'm ready to fight in May. That could make sense if Figuey wanted that home date. So I just wonder the timing of when you would do when you would do the Marino fight.

Because, again, May is kind of a lot is a bit of ways away. I don't know when Fiki would want to fight again if you would necessarily want to wait for Brazil. So a lot of things have to factor. And again, Kikar, France, Ascar, Ascarov. I don't think they can be ignored. And yes, does the UFC want,

to do four straight. They've never booked anyone four fights at all, much less in a row. So the timing is tricky here. The timing is tricky. That should be the next poll I put up is, do you want to see this right away? I'll put that up in a bit. Yeah, yeah, I do. And if they fight again, like, I want to see number five.

No matter who wins, I want to see number five. Like, unless somebody gets like a, 45s and not just the UFC, like an MMA to like legitimately do a series like that, like to just do a, yeah, this is a best of seven or best of five or best of seven series and uninterrupted. And I think it's a cool idea. We've talked about it before. We thought best of five is made more reasonable just because the amount of damage, like if the fights are this competitive, you have to imagine the amount of damage these guys

are doing to each other. Do you want to make them fight each other seven times? But with these two, again, it's such a unique pairing. As Shaheen said, two guys just born to share a cage together and brutalize each other, maybe seven's the way to go. But then maybe seven won't be enough. So I don't know. I don't know where we draw the line.

But see, here's the thing too, right? Because here's the weird thing about all of this is I don't know how I can, I'm not good of math, especially not on the fly. So I'm not going to be able to do the math on this on the fly. But like, I don't know how many minutes these two guys have fought each other at this point. It's got to be at least like 37, 38, something like that, right? 50, 50.

See, I said I was better. 57 or something. Nope. Over an hour. Over an hour they fought. It's over an hour. And yet do anybody, does anybody, does anybody, here on this panel, any four of us,

feel confident whatsoever that you know who the better fighter is right now. Not at all. I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea. And whenever this fourth fight happens, I have no clue who I'm going to pick. That's such a crazy place to get to

after three straight fights between these guys. And I, again, I can't think of a comparison like this in the history of the UFC. And for those who are like, I can't take any more of this. Like, what about these other contenders? Let me throw this at you. The UFC has booked interim title fights for way less.

This would be a great time to have an interim champion. Then you can have basically two flyway champions. The division can still kind of move forward. Let these two guys just battle it off for the undisputed title. And then whoever comes out of the best of seven, we fight the interim champion, we unify the titles. What a perfect time to introduce an interim title. It would work fine. And we could do the best of seven and everybody freaking wins.

Let's have some fun, UFC, for once. Dana, you don't want to show up at the press conference. I hope you've drawn up contracts for a best of seven series for the flyweight championship of the world. There you go. I mean, what happens if we go to this fourth fight? Let's say it ends in no contest. Then it's just one, one, one, one.

Like, come on, let's go. Let's keep it going. Let's keep it going. What's after a tetralogy? I want to know all theologies after trilogy. We're just making up words. Hex would be six. No, hex would be six.

Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah. So eventually, eventually, they will get to the octalogy. Octogon. Octology. That's what you want. That's the end game of this. That's the end game.

I do wish we could normalize, again, like having the best fight the best frequently. Again, that's not the common thing. MMA is all about creating fresh matchups traditionally. I mean, I get it. I mean, for fans. I mean, look, we've questioned a lot of. No, rivalry sell. We've questioned a lot.

Fresh matches or whatever. There were a lot of fresh matchups on this card, but it was the rematch. The trilogy was just the biggest fight in the card. I mean, we've questioned a lot of rematches in the past. We've questions a lot of rematches in the past, instant rematches. But that doesn't mean we're against the idea of instant rematches. We just don't want bad instant rematches. Like Cody, T.J. 2 was so like, why?

Why would you book this right away? Though in retrospect, maybe it never would have happened if they didn't book it right away now that we know sort of how Cody's career is gone. But yeah, in general, we don't want those. But for something like this, like, like Shane said, that's, we just don't have the answer yet. And again, we may never get the answer. Like I said, it could do a seven-fights-fights-fights. And by the end, it could be, what, three, two, three, three, imagine it's three-three and one.

And then we're just like, you've got to run it back again. It's time for the octology. It can happen. It could happen. But I don't know if you can, as much as we love seeing fresh matchups, man, how can you ever complain about seeing? Never. Like, as soon as this fight started, I was like, I can't,

I understand people want to see like Pantoja or Ascarov or someone else fight Moreno. But, man, but these guys are the two best. These is also, how can you not want to see that? also too, AK, like, we've seen them grow throughout this series just as fighters and his people, right? Like Brandon Moreno in there tonight looked so effing confident.

Like he looked like the dude who you think is the champion. That walkout, when he was walking out, like the music and that, his little, oh man, I was like, I got hype. I forgot that was the co-main event. I really did. When I was watching that fight,

I was like, oh, there's another fight after this. It felt like the main event. To me, at home, it felt like the main event. It did. Even his mannerisms in the cage, the way he was fighting, just everything exuded confidence from that guy. And that is not the same guy who fought Devis Figuero at the end of 2020. He has grown exponentially through this just as a person and as an athlete.

And you could say the same about Deveson and changing up his entire camp, going with this whole new team, going to a super scientific approach with the weight cut, looked fantastic, weight in, a pound under. Like, both these dudes have brought out the best in each other. And it's just magic, man. We go on for hours talking about this. Oh, yeah. Give me 15 of these bad boys.

Let's go. The year candidate already. I mean, I hope people don't, I know it's, we're early, but I hope people don't forget about this one, you know, 11 months from now. Keep this one in mind. This is, this might be in the top five is a great thing. We have a Slack channel just so we don't forget about this. We do. You books playing at home should also, you can make your own Slack channel and just get a pen and paper and keep a not pad.

Henry Staputo coach of the year January. January, January, January. Also, I was saying real quick. By the way, I'm not wrong about that. Go ahead. Before we move on, I'm just going to say, I threw out a little parlay on Friday's preview show of my picks. I wish, by the way, I was 2 and O, just saying. If you would have put that money on that parlay, that was like 5 to 1 odds of Francis and Deveson made some good money.

So I hope a few of you at least follow the Al-Shadi advice. Just saying. You should have, because if you're going to bet on Moreno Figurato, you had to bet Figy with that. It would be just too juicy. And like plus 160, you can't bet Moreno when Figgy's sitting there plus 160. Because even though he got stopped, like you had to. And then in Ghana, it was your underdog money. Like any gambler out there is like, thank you all so much for flipping this line because that's just no disrespect to Cyril gone.

But that just seems like way too good to be true. So yeah. Just just put one out for all the poor betters who put their money on Francis winning by a knockout because that's a tough beat. That's a real tough beat. there was one person who was bitter about his brand of Moreno ticket

not cashing because he thought Moreno won and thought there was some sort of robbery but I guess when you have your own money into it you might feel that way so he decided to put some money

on Francis winning by decision and he showed me the ticket plus 1,400 Francis by decision got it done. Wow. 14 to 1 odds? 14 to 1 odds

on Francis by decision. Kudos to that guy. Goodness. Air, prior to everybody. Yeah, that's a great bitter bet right there. That's just that's a bitter bet that paid off. Normally, that does not pay off for you.

And I don't recommend that to anybody, but good on you. So those are the two title fights. They're so damn good. We know what's next for all of those guys more than likely going to get after it again. And I'll see it to hold up. Before we get off this fight and talk about the rest of the card, when is the whole storyline that fly weights don't sell? When is that going to die?

Or is that ever? is that never going to die? I mean, it dies when they sell. It dies when they sell. Because as much as we're given this, all the plot, it's that it deserves. It wasn't the main event and it's not, you know, when a flyweight, it's sold tickets.

It's sold tickets. Sure. It sold tickets. Sure. But that's not the metric upon which we sort of measure all this, right? Like, that'll go away. Yeah. If Moreno DeFiguero 4 headlines the next card that it's on,

and then that sells like 500K, like that meritives goes way, right? Because that's a successful paper bill. So that's when it'll go away. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it was like feather weights don't sell and then Conn McGregor showed up and obviously the other way to do so. So I'm just kind of curious when that, when we're going to kind of kill that narrative because I don't think we say that anymore that fly weights don't sell anymore. I mean, sorry, feather weights don't sell because yeah, we're over that. Cool. Yeah, we're taking, we're taking baby steps though. We're in a much better spot than we were

a few years back. Even though we had probably, arguably the best fighter on planet Earth as the champion of that division. It still wasn't, there's no sizzle to the stake. It was just like, wow, this DJ, just Dimitio Johnson guy is really, really good. And then Sohudo came along and sizzled things up. And then Figurato came over and just started brutalizing people. And you're like, damn, this 125 pound guy is doing that to these guys. And then Moreno comes in with his Lego collecting self and just bring in positivity like

you've never seen to this division. He's becoming a star. So it's like the, Sehudo laid out the planted the seeds. but these guys have taken over. They've watered the seeds hard. Yeah. Yeah. Like there's no need for Henry,

so who would have fight again? Like at 25 or 35, like these divisions have moved on, especially 25, which is fascinating and remarkable. And it shows a lot to what Figurato has done for himself as a star, because Figuerre is probably the most interesting guy on Earth. Just go back and read anything Guillermo Cruz has written about Davis and Figurato

and his development as a fighter. The guy's had 400 jobs, and they're all one, each more interesting. than the previous one. And then Moreno is just such a happy go lucky guy. I want to see these guys fight forever. So great co-main event.

Main event was super interesting. The storylines following that are going to be super interesting. But, Sean, what else stood out to you? What was your, if we're doing like high school superlatives, what was like that superlative that most likely to succeed performance tonight that needs a little shine? Oh, man. That's tough because there was a lot. We mentioned it earlier on the show.

But like, again, this card got a lot of grief and rightfully so when you have, half the card making their UFC debut and charging $75 for it. Like, that's a rough get. But it was a really fun night. There was a lot of really crazy insanity, especially early on. The early prelims were nuts. And I'm sure we'll get into that a tiny bit. But I just have to mention the one man who had probably the most infamous surname

on the whole entire card, Mr. Nirmiger-Madolph, because the way that that dude went in there and just blew through Cody Stamen and not just like any Cody Stamen, right, but like a desperate Cody Stamen. As Cody Stamon who told you, Mike, made several metaphors and allusions to the way that he was backwards against the wall. I believe he said his nuts were against the Bansaw, which is, that's just poetic. He coming in, losing two in a row, and he knew kind of like his job might be on the line. And this is a guy who's been in there with Aljo. He's been in there with Marab.

Like, he's been in there with Song Yadong. No one's beaten Cody Stamen in the way Nirmugaminov beat him tonight. What was that? Like 47 seconds? That was like a flawless victory. That was a flawless victory, man. He ran through him like a steamroller. And that's now a guy who all of a sudden that's a time.

He ran through like a panther. And that's the type of performance that really can open eyes really quickly, right? Because this is a guy who's been out of action for like 15 months, something like that. And now all of a sudden, the Dagestan knuckle game cartel, as our good friend Jed likes to call it, he was looking like one of the most intriguing members of this whole gang now. for Marlon Vera next and that probably doesn't sound that appetizing to Cheeto but I don't hate that idea I actually kind of really love it so I I a hell of a performance from Normica made off absolutely okay awesome submission I just like this card overall I just want to say like if I

hadn't given it a gymnastics you know pre-fight gymnastics rating but I I I was definitely one of the biggest critics of the card I mean that's that's for sure but you know if I was to be optimistic about I would have said well hopefully this is a card where uh The prelims have the kind of mismatches that fans like, which results in either exciting fights or fast finishes. And we didn't quite get that, but we did get the kind of compelling fights part. I was a little surprised to still see some people, and maybe I'm just looking at the wrong comments. But some people on social media, some people in the NBAfighting.com comments section going like, oh, this cards, been a snoozer, can't wait for the, you know, can't wait for the main card to start. Because I'm like, we had a lot of good action.

Like I thought, Jasmine, Jez Dez, might count me with this. Jazz Devious. Jazz Devisius. Double Jaze. Thank you. No, no, no, I got to get this. Jasmine, yeah, Jazz DeVizietz. I thought she looked really strong on her debut.

The Demopolis comeback was, we've forgotten this now. The Demopolis comeback was stunning. Juarez looked like a killer for about 30 seconds, and then unfortunately succumbed to Jujitsu. Matt Favola, Genaro Valdez was exciting as hell. I enjoyed the Tony Gravely fight, but I know it's a bit of a grind for people. But again, I think the band to my division is just so. deep. Jack Dalamadalena took care of business as he was expected to. Victor Henry, Casey,

your guy, all you and you're rising, you rising fan boys. Oh, it's incredible. Great fight for me. Yeah, yeah. Of course. Of course. Great fight. Malcolm Morales lived up to the hype. I wasn't a believer. 22-year-old kid looks spectacular, taking out a vet in Trevon Giles. And then as Shaheen mentioned, the Saeed performance. And then Michelle Pahara, Fiala was also a great fight. I love that Michelle Pahada, and Jfiello fight. So it was a very, very strong card, maybe sold on two fights, but I think this is one you could watch again and be like, man, this was pretty decent. So, congrats, of course, to the fighters to everyone who fought.

We criticize the matchmaking sometimes, but the fighters, you know, it's always on them to perform. I thought a lot of them just did an amazing job tonight. So big round of applause for the fighters. And just a weird, so irony of MMA that of the crappy card, where the one good fight, we know it's going to rule the main event of all the fights on the card, that's probably the one fight We're going to go back. Yeah, the worst, and the least entertaining fight. The one fight that sold the card was the least entertaining fight. That's just, that's a memory.

That is mixed martial arts, yeah. It's wild. Before I go to you, Casey, so you can talk about Victor Henry and how great he was. I'm going to award the inaugural Chris Barnett, get yourself over award to Vanessa Demopoulos. Yes. Yes. A plus night for her. A plus night, a beast boy sort of showing.

And after losing your first UFC fight, a la Chris Barnett, she comes back, gets drilled with one of the most ferocious strawweight punches you will ever see in your life. How she survived that in general would have gotten her over. Then she turns it into a finish. Then she's dropping splits in the middle of the octagon. Then she's hopping into the hulking arms of Joe Rogan. And then she goes back and just cuts a killer post-fight scrum with the media and gets really open and honest about some stuff that may have been out there for like the hardcore fan to know.

but a lot of the casual UFC fans probably know nothing about her, but they know of her right now. So A plus night for Vanessa Demopoulos, looking forward to talking to her this coming week on We Got Next. It's already set up and looking forward to diving in depth into that story. So Casey, Victor Henry, yada, yada, yada, yeah, yeah. And $50,000. Oh, you got the bonus.

And 50 G's. I tweeted this. You mentioned Chris Burnett. I tweeted this. I hopefully he sees this. I don't know how active is in social media, but I tweeted at Chris Burnett. Please, Chris Burnett, jump into Joe Rogan's arms.

next time you get a win. Please do this. Please do the do the Domopolis and jump into the room. I'm sorry. Hopefully it's Joe Rogan. Maybe it'll be Michael Fisping. I don't know. Beast Boy.

It's a great way to celebrate. Yeah. Normalized jumping into Joe Rogan's arm. Normalized jump. It's a dirty dancing style. Just jump and let Logan just hoist you up into the sky. Oh, Rogan. Got all the on it on you and whatever.

Yeah. It's good, man. All right. Casey, Victor Henry. Told you. No. Oh, man. It was just...

You did? I did. Okay. I picked Victor Henry, but it was one of those... I was like, I picked Victor Henry, but I was like, in my back, kind of back in my mind, I'm like, damn, this is a tough fight. This is a really tough fight. I thought his opponent was pretty much the most underrated, uh, band to waiting division. He was super exciting, whether it's a three, uh, three performance bonuses and it's five fights or something.

But man, he just, I'm just excited. Like, people would just... I think because, you know, you see a lot of silly pictures of him. You know, I think when initially the fight got bugged, there was a photo of him making a funny face, and that got all the posters. So people just didn't take you seriously. Oh, he's this guy that fights in Japan. No, he was a serious fighter. He was on his way to fighting for the Rise and Bantamake Championship, which at that time, maybe I think Kyosaka or even Horouchi was a champion at that time.

And, of course, COVID screwed up that. So his kind of career kind of just stalled. And, man, just. his style and when he won it's just a super exciting fight the biggest underdog on the card and then when he gets the mic in front of his home basically his hometown crowd he dedicates the fight to like his friends who have recently lost his mom and then he talks about just the honor of being a martial artist i freaking loved it i'm just i was so i was so happy for him because i know him i did a video on him uh i visited his home i i i like he's from i mean not to put it

bluntly a pretty shitty part of L.A., very dangerous part of L.A., called Southgate. It's a part of L.A. where there's a freeway that just cuts through, and you just drive through, and you go, I've never seen this area of town. You just keep going. That's where he's from. And just a true martial artist, Josh Burnett, protege, proud of his catch wrestling heritage. And just this is what martial arts, mixed martial arts is all about. And it was just a, great. It was great seeing him and just even just more, more, more just freaking talented 135ers in the UFC. Good Lord, that division is freaking stacked. So just super excited for him. And I hope the feeling came across to everyone else. Like, you know, just, that's the guy.

You're just going to be excited. It's just a good dude and you're just going to be happy to see him fight again. Yes. And of course, the most important of the martial arts that you didn't mention was the taste in music, which obviously would be. It's over the top in the UFC and in the Bannonweight Division. So, listen, all things considered, the ravaging this card took, this is a pretty damn good night of fights. This is a pretty killer pay-per-view. The storylines coming out of it are so interesting. And that always means that it's one of those memorable cards.

And we'll be talking about it throughout the week. No UFC next week, by the way. Actually, AK and I are going to talk about it more tomorrow. So take a little nap, everybody. Like six and a half hours from right now live on this very day. age. You mean Monday, right, Mike? No, okay. Sunday. Yeah, get some Zs, bruh, because we're waking up and we're going to look good.

We're not going to wear pajamas like we normally do when we record on to the next one. We're going to be looking dapper and our Sunday best talking about some matchmaking. 11 a.m. tomorrow morning, or actually 11 a.m. this morning, about 6 and a half hours from right now. Join us for On to the next one, a special live edition coming out of UFC 270. No UFC next week. They're back on February 5th, Jackermanza versus Sean Strickland. However, Bellator.

back next week. Oh yeah, big fight. And they're coming to the arena of the best damn team in the NBA. Let's go. Number one, baby. Another big win today. Another big win today. Oh, that's all we do.

I quickly threw up. I should have thrown this up earlier. Should Davidson Figaro, Brandon Reno 4 be next? And it's pretty close. Yes, book it right away, 56%. No, let's see a fresh challenger, 44%. And again, I threw it up a little late, so it doesn't have quite the sample size the last poll.

But they're the split. Not everyone want to see it. Again, so soon. That just means 44% of people were wrong. I'll stop that. Exactly. I'll stop, but she ain't. 100%.

Yes. And speaking of stars on the rise, that Bellator card will feature the return of one Ben Big Tuna Parish. So you know you guts to watch. So thank you for watching, everybody. For Sean, for Casey, for AK. I am Mike Heck. Good night, everybody. Happy birthday, AK.

It's not my birthday. Why do you keep telling me it is? Weird. You're listening to. to the Vox Media Podcast Network.