MMA Fighting - UFC 271 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Israel Adesanya's Title Defense, Tai Tuivasa's Vicious KO Win

Episode Date: February 13, 2022

Israel Adesanya got the job done against Robert Whittaker for the second time in the main event of UFC 271. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Jose Youngs, Shaun Al-Shatti, Alexander K. Lee, and Jed Meshew discuss the latest UFC title defense for Adesanya, Tai Tuivasa's incredible finish of Derrick Lewis, and more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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

Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is taking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation, here we come.

Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice. Air Canada.

Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPan members on equipped flights, Sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. So I know I was in the green room for a minute. It's good to be back in the club, everybody, because UFC 271 is in the books.

And we have a lot to discuss. As you can see, Hall of Fame panel here. We got Jose Young's in Houston. We got Jedmishu. We got Shaheen Al-Shadi. I am Mike Keck, Casey Liden on the ones and twos. Jose, we will begin with you, my man,

because you were in the building. You are inside the Toyota Center as Israel Adasana, successfully defended his title against Robert Whitaker, what was it like out there? Seeing that fight live, seeing Izzy out there doing his thing. And I'm curious how you scored the fight as well. Yes, strong story.

We're off. We're off to the races. Jose. That was my fault. That was my fault. I had it 5-0 for Israel. Sonia, but I don't know if that's because I'm just watching it live.

And his strikes were just significantly, like, louder than Robert Wittaker. Now, I'm not saying that's because Robert Wittaker didn't land anything. I just, it's hard, it's much different watching a fight live, especially when like, because where they have the media, there's like that pole in the middle and especially when they're on the opposite side. A lot of the offense that Israel and Robert Wittaker were putting out where it was on the other side of the Octagon.

So to me, to our friend Oscar Willis, to the man, the five time, five time, five time, five time, five time, Wynch, champion who was sitting right next to me. for the entire fight. Booker T. He had a 5-0 for Israel-A-Sahny 2. So anytime a Hall of Fame agrees with you, kudos to me. So I had a 5-0 for Izzy, but it was razor thin. I saw some people say it was 3-2 Izzy. Some people said it was 4-1 Izzy.

I didn't see many people say Robert Whitaker won, but I'm not going to say that wrong here. It was incredibly close fight. I just thought Israel-Ossanian won 5-10-9s. That's it. But pretty electric entrances. It was a weird mood. There was a lot of booze for Robert Witton.

Whitaker at the beginning. And then I want to say by around three or four, they were all channing Bobby. And then a lot of booze or Israel, Adasana. So it was a hard audience to gauge, I'll tell you that much. I don't know if that's because they were exhausted from the co-main event with Tide to Evas and Derek Lewis. But definitely a unique, it wasn't like the previous Houston cars and say that much. But still an electric crowd altogether.

Sean Adasagna wins 4847, 4847, 4946. Jacob Montalvo and Doug Crosby scored it 1, 2 and 3 for Outa Sanya, 4 and 5 for Whitaker Mike Beltran who like Jacob Montalvo was refereeing several fights on this card

before sitting in the judge's seat for the main event gave the second round to Robert Whitaker and scored the first round in 3 through 5 for Israel Adisandia so I'm curious how you scored the bout I think the judges got it right I think a lot of us will agree the judges got it right was this a 4946 was this a 404,000,

4847. How did you score it? Yeah, I would agree that the judge's got it right in this instance. And really quick, before we even go into it, I find it weird that Texas, like, I know a lot of commissions do this for smaller shows, things like that, making the officials work, both referee and judging. It's a little strange to have Texas do that on a big show like this. You have seen, like, there's already a lot of pressure on these guys to be referees. Let's not them make them judges as well. Like, come on, guys. But that's Texas being Texas. But I agree. I had it three to two for Izzy.

For me, it felt like round one was obviously a very definitive Izzy Radisena round. Round five felt like a very clear Robert Whitaker round for me. And then the in-between rounds were a lot closer than actually the commentary. It seemed like led to you to believe. Like Michael Bisbing was really on one tonight in favor of Israel, I felt like this was a much more competitive fight than I love Mike on the commentary, but I felt like this was much more competitive fight than he was letting on. But I did give Izzy round two and three.

those were very close and then I gave Robert round four for me. So ends up three, two. But ultimately, I think we got the right call. To me, it felt like Izzy won the fight. I know Robert feels like he won the fight and he certainly put up a better showing and better performance than he did a couple years ago. I mean, there's no doubt there. You saw the evolution of his game and how much he has worked to really close the gap

between these two. But ultimately, Izzy wins this fight and I think we got it right. Jed, there is some really an interesting body language coming from Robert Whitaker. after that first round, right? He was heading back to the stool, already looking, like, defeated, looking psychologically damaged by that first round against him. And then he came out, closed the gap in the second. I thought the third round was better.

And then clearly the final 10 minutes of the fight were much better for him. At the end of the day, when this is all sitting down, I thought we're going to see some tomfoolery here with the judging. I thought maybe we'd get a split decision. Ultimately, the judge got it right. But Adasani gave himself a 7 out of 10. You agree with that score or do you go a different way? Yeah, sure.

Seven out ten's fine. That's a C, and that's probably what Israel-Adisina deserves, you know. In the A-Fighting's official scorecard, by the way, it's 48-47 for Addisina. And I will be honest, that's closer to a 50-45 than it is to 48-47 for Whitaker. I think Whitaker probably won round four and five, but I am not married to those ideas. Like, if you told me, like, I have absolutely no problem with Jose's full corner for Izzy. He, I think he just pretty clearly won the fight. So this is also awesome for me because to me it was really obvious that Izzy won this fight by like a very clear margin.

and I thought I was being generous by giving Rob two rounds, but apparently that's other people feel things. I saw in our post while we were doing the presser, you and you and Casey were doing, I saw a bunch of people voting for Rob. So I was surprised, and I think that that's mostly a narrative thing. And to some extent,

that goes back to Izzy's performance, right? Like, I think Izzy came out strong and then sort of just kept it in third gear and won a pretty convincing in my eyes. decision because he didn't have but he didn't have to try he didn't get pushed in any real way he just had to be himself and then he got to carry the day so a C is a fine score for him yes and we thought maybe Dr. Joe Rogan was on to something with an injured right hand turns out that was not the case whatsoever and it is what it is so Jose hold on that because he kept throwing the right

hand so it was very strange just a mere mention of that whole thing. But Jose, Robert Whitaker took the loss in stride, handled himself like a champ. Yeah, he thinks he won the fight, but said Adasanya literally won the fight. So he's not going to take anything away from things like that. He feels like it's some, he said the words, it is inevitable that we will fight a third time. I don't know if we're going to see this fight for a third time. I feel, I still feel that these are the two best middleweights in the world. And maybe someday down the line, we might see it again. But where does Robert Whitaker go from here? Because there are some interesting matchups for him.

You could do the Brunson rematch. You could do Marvin Vittory. You could do Sean Strickland. Where does Robert Whitaker go from here? Because it doesn't seem like, it seems like he's happy with the performance. It's a bummer that he lost, and he's not the champion right now. But he seems happy with the performance and he wants to keep on trucking. I'm unmuted myself this time.

I think the Brunson fight might make a little more sense than the other ones, not because I want to see that rematch, but Derek Brunson has been pretty vocal all week that this his next fight is probably going to be his last fight of his fight career i think he even tweeted that like one more fight and i'm out and something like that so we always talk about how like the joe benavitas of the world and now the robert whittaker's the world where they're so clearly the second best fighter in the division that it's hard to feed them contenders because you don't want them just knocking them off so what other what better fight than to give someone that isn't going to have another fight than robert wittaker be derrick brunson

Derek Brunson gets a chance to ride out into the sunset avenging a loss. And Robert Whitaker gets to fight a guy that if he beats, he's not in danger of kind of halting his rise up the ranks. So I think that's the fight to make sense. But honestly, if you're going to give me Robert Whitaker versus Powell O'Coster, Marvin Torrey, Sean Strickland, I don't particularly care. I'll watch any of those fights because Robert Whitaker is the man when it comes to fist fighting human beings for money. Just happens to be the second best fighter to do it at 185 pounds in the UFC. Sean one thing I wanted to ask you about is there's all this talk about fighter pay and this whole france and ganus situation and it's interesting that israel kind of brought this up himself at the press conference that the contract sure it was about him but it's his hope that this is a trickle down effect for everybody involved and he even mentioned some of the debuting fighters and some of the first level contract fighters that yeah we're not going to make them rich or anything but we want to at least have them in a position where they can make a enough money to feed their families and have food and pay for their camps and not have to work

two or three jobs. Do you think that this deal for Adasani, like, do you believe him when he says that? Because Adasani hasn't really given us any reason to not believe him, but do you really think that after seeing him say that and looking into his eyes and feeling the emotion behind it, that there's some truth to this, that maybe Adasania is, he could be the voice for the voiceless, so to speak. you're asking me if I think Izzy's new contract is going to essentially be trickled down economics to the lower class of UFC fighters

not today no I know it's not it's not it's not going to do anything it's not going to change it is going to make a lot of money like trickle down economics it's a lie yeah exactly Izzy's going to make his money like that's no that's no

not at all not in any regard so anyway I want to go back to talking about what Jose was just talking about because I think that's an interesting conversation of just what happens with Robert Whitaker now because it is he is sort of the max holloway of this division right now in a really interesting way where I completely agree with Jose like Rob is obviously the second best guy at 185 and the gap between him and number three might be pretty vast like we've seen him beat these guys already the Jared canonineers of the world and such and Jared's going to get this next title shot I mean he's hearing Rob in the post

fight it was interesting hearing him speak the way he did because Mike you call him that quote out of saying, I have it right here. Honestly, a third fight between me and Izzy is inevitable. It's inevitable because I'm going to stop anybody who comes in front of me again. Stop anybody. Like, that's not really the language we hear Rob use this very often. Like, I am interested to see how this division plays out because it does feel like Rob's going to be this guy who's going to be cast now in this Max Holloway role, this Joseph

Benavita's role, where he's going to get thrown every possible just random contender. And he's going to put together a really nice streak to make it. back, but it seems very conceivable now that he could make it back. I mean, Izzy has talked about potentially doing the 205 thing again at some point. Maybe when Rob does get to that point, Izzy will be at 205 by then, but I mean, it wouldn't shock me if we end up seeing a third fight a couple years down the line between these two guys. Jed, what fight would happen first? Izzy versus Whitaker three or Izzy versus Hamzat Shamaif won? Oh, for sure. The second one. Izzy Whitaker three is not happening. I mean, I love

the optimism. You just got all that pluck about you, Sean, but it's just not. Like, he, Robert Woodaker may well challenge for the middleweight title again if Israel, Addisona loses and or leaves to go up to 205. But he now has two, in my eyes, very decisive losses. Apparently not everybody agrees, but this is not a Max Holloway situation where Max needed one, maybe two wins because so many people felt he won the second fight. even their first fight was very close. He's not, like, Rob is not getting back to a title shot with three wins,

even if he goes out and beats Vittori Costa and Strickland. He's just not getting Israel again. Like, there's, Israel's not going to do it because it's just, and he even said at the presser, he was not, you know, he said, yeah, sure, maybe, but it was a pat on the back to him or whatever. He's not into that fight and with good reason. Like, why would he be, even if they are the two best middleweights, not competing in the light heavyweight division in Bellator right now in the world,

they're not going to, they're just not going to run it back. He's going to have to get at least five wins. And in the time it takes Rob to get five wins, Israel's going to be gone. He's going to be at 205 by then. So they're just not fighting again, and that's okay. We got one pretty good fight out of it and one changing of the guard moment out of it. So, you know, that's better than many not trilogies. What are you, many pairs of fights?

So, yeah, that's not happening. But Chimae is very possible. Oh, man. I jump back in because I thoroughly, thoroughly disagree. I love you, Chad. But, man, if you look at this division right now and the way this division is set up, there just is not a lot of depth at middleweight right now.

There's not a lot of guys that you can really throw out there as potential challengers outside of the immediate few of, like, a Strickland, like you said, or a cannoneer. Like, at that point, it's diminishing returns pretty hard in this division. and Rob's already beaten several of those guys as well. I don't know. It feels like there's certainly a path. I know Izzy wouldn't be interested.

And again, maybe that's then when he goes to 205 and sort of takes on different challenges. But he does seem like a guy who is interested in doing the Kamarer Ustman thing. We're just racking up these title defenses and sort of putting his name amongst the Anderson, Silva, as the George St. Pierce, in UFC history. There could very, we could very quickly reach a point, depending on how much Rob wants to fight, where he's kind of just the only guy. Like he's the only guy left. There are a few youngsters coming up in this division,

the Andre Monezes or the Nasserdine Eminovs. I can't ever say that guy's name. There are a couple of them coming up that could be compelling. But for the most part, there is just not a lot there in terms of potential challenges for Izzy that we haven't seen outside of the Canaaners and, you know, the Strickland. Yeah, but that's the thing. It's where we've got guys coming up. And we talked about this on the pre-fight show.

I think Izzy's done. This is his last year at 185. I think he's at 205 next year. He wants to fight three times. He's got the one under Bob with Bob now. He's going to fight Jared Kennedy. Sorry, he's blank in there in June. He's going to try and run one back late fall in December over Sean Strickland or whoever.

But certainly he won't be fighting Robert Whitaker in December of this year. And then you brought him up. I think Kamar Usman is one of the big reasons why. I think Izzy gets his three fights that he wants and then he can move up to light heavyweight because he's friends with Kamar Ustman, who is going to want to move up and get a second belt to cement his legacy, do the same things GSP did,

really drill down on that. And so if Izzy moves up to 205, then Ustman can come up and fight for the middleweight belt. And it all works in symbiosis. I would be frankly really shocked if Israel is still defending his middleweight title in 2023. And so I just don't see a path for Rob to get another crack at him. Well, time will tell.

We'll see what happens. Maybe things, you know, this is MMA and weird things happen. So, Jose, I want to let you go in a moment, but I want to ask you one more question. I think it's a question that everybody sort of wants to know after this night. So make sure you're unmuted because this is a very important question, especially after what we've experienced over the last two hours. What is Booker T like in real person? Like being around him, what is he like? He might have stolen the entire show this weekend.

the dude wears more jewelry than any other human being I've ever met my entire life um it was fair like i sat down next to oscar for the main event and then i just looks on my left i'm like that's that's pretty and he just looks at me he's like he's like well joan man and then he's like fist bumping and i was like it's a lot of jewelry my guy like he was wearing like every hall of fame ring he's ever had on one hand uh and then i mean even if you like he has is Dustin Porre questions. I don't think Dustin Porre knew who he was

and I don't think Dana White knew who he was and Robert Whitaker maybe but obviously Israel Adasanya he knew he was but yeah, super interesting cat and is apparently

a really big fight fan you know I was also we got to interview Tray the Truth Houston Icon where technically I interviewed Tray the Truth and several other meeting members happened to be there

recording it at the same time no comment on that but yeah it was it was a very interesting night of fights for guest fighters and celebrity individuals individual see. Couldn't find Carl's Correa, though.

That clown. You did a fantastic job, my man. So, head on out, get some rest, safe travels back to Arizona, my man, and we appreciate you jumping on after a long day at the office. Much appreciated it, my man.

Oslo, I go, gents, have fun. Rapping on this post show. Only say positive things about Roxy. Of course. I'm not an animal. We'll certainly talk about Roxy. That number two spot is about to be filled, by the way, by a very special guest, a very positive presence, if you will. I don't know if that gives it away, but...

Is it Roxy? We shall see. How amazing would that be. This would be the greatest post-fight show in the history of M.M.A. if we get Roxy up in here. But congratulations to Roxy, by the way. We'll talk about her a little bit more. Hack the holidays with the PC Holiday Insiders Report.

Try this PC Porquetta. Crackling, craveworthy. You're going to eat that? you. I'm the voice for the next ad, car commercial, but I noticed that show-stopping roast and... Help yourself. Mmm, designed for indulgence. Precision crafted to navigate every corner of my mouth. All for just $18. Okay, okay. Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Please feast responsibly. To succeed in the future of work, forward thinkers use AI to deliver measurable results. Workday is the AI platform for HR and finance.

that frees you from the mundane so you can focus on more meaningful work. Workday, moving business forever forward. We got to talk about Tai Tui Vasa, Sean Al-Shadi, because I was, you know what? I'm just going to say this. You two both owe me an apology. You two both owe me an apology. Because first of all, I picked Robert Whitaker. You guys were like, wow.

But none of you really chastised me for it. When I picked Taitoie Vasa, you both chastised me. You both made me feel silly. You made me feel this big, but now I feel like I'm eight feet tall, Jedmishu. I feel like a giant after the way that fight ended. What a victory for Tai Tui Vasa. He gets it done. Dude just knocking out everybody.

That elbow from hell said Derek Lewis unconscious. Crazy moment, crazy fight. First your apology and then your reaction to the finish. And what Taito Ivasa has been able to put together these last few fights. I give you no apology. I stand by everything I said. I was just wrong. Like, sometimes I'm wrong.

But I was right in most of the process. I was just wrong in the outcome. Because I said, I was like, well, you know, there's a world where Ty can win this, but he's not great defensively. And at some point he's going to get hit by Derek Lewis. And he's going to fall over and die. And he did. He got hit by Derek Lewis a lot, but he just didn't fall over and die, which is not, I mean,

dude Greg Hardy buzzed him and Derek Lewis hits a lot harder than Greg Hardy like I did not at all see this coming and nothing but props and respect to Tai Tui Vasa like he came to to do exactly the thing he said he's going to come and swang and bang and he did

it and he won the swanging and the banging which let's be honest you want an apology for me Mike be honest if I told you what that fight was going to look like would you have been like yeah Ty Tui Voss is going to win he's going to go in the middle and brawl

and eat a bunch of lunch boxes from Derek Lewis would you've been like oh yeah that's a fight tie wins like no okay he's going to die so you would have told me that Derek Lewis would have landed a record setting two takedowns in one round and then landed those lunchboxes because that's what happened you would have predicted takedowns and ground and pound no I'm saying if I told you that that was what happened

would you have been like yeah tie's going to win this fight I still I don't know probably not I remember I remember what I said I thought he had on tie was dead like I was like oh

I can think of very few places I'd like to be less than underneath Derek Lewis swinging them hands like that's just not a place I want to live but Tai Tui Vasa and he didn't get up safe either

he's not like he'd protect he got up and just started chucking him back it was awesome Taituivas is the man but I just had no belief his chance can do that and it did so nothing but pops to that dude man hey my my my my my point was

99 times out of 100 I'm picking derrick lewis in that situation when asked but considered this time 100 the houston factor was a concern and I think tie two of us is being a little underbellied I said that plus 160 looked delicious and it was yummy and if you followed my lead if you piggybacked upon me you're eating prime rib tomorrow during the super bowl and you're welcome Sean your thoughts on Bam Bam's performance and what he was able to do tonight because that was amazing, just tremendous stuff.

I mean, I will say, man, I, you called this one and you almost called the Whitaker one and part of me actually wanted Rob to win that just so you could come on to this post-fight show and just go pure stone cold and just really put it in our faces, how absolutely wrong all of us were. And you were correct.

I would have really loved that and appreciated it. But no, man, I mean, how can you not love what's going on here? This is just crazy at this point, right? Like, this is a guy Taito Ivasa, who two years ago, He's at this time, literally two years ago, he is in the midst of a three-fight slump. He's losing, you know, all these fights now.

He was, it seemed like he was a guy who's pushed too hard, too fast, and it kind of derailed his career. And all of a sudden, you wake up and he's a winner of five straight now. He is the life of the party at heavyweight. Like, he is just the party at heavyweight. The post-fight, like, procession of shooys that he now does after a win, just walking backstage. Like, that's become an event unto itself. and it's just, it's incredible, man. Like, you absolutely have to absolutely love this.

I mean, this is just why this game is so much fun is these kind of guys who are able to sort of revive their careers out of nowhere, and all of a sudden now we wake up tomorrow, Taito Ivasa is a top five heavyweight. He's a top three heavyweight, maybe, depending on how you want to do your rankings. Like, that's crazy, man. That's crazy.

I doubt few of us would have called that as recent as a year ago. And so I agree 100% with what Jed was saying, too. I mean, the most impressive part of this to me tonight, was the shots that Ty was taken because Derek Lewis has made a career of just, like his career is lined with the bones of these fallen peripheral up-and-comer contenders who dared to swing and bang with this guy. And he, and Tai Duivasa went in there and did exactly that and somehow survived. And he ate some shots.

Like he ate some monster shots that would have just killed any normal human being and would have deaded a lot of different heavyweights in this division. And he just popped right back up and was just throwing him. in his face. Like that was absolutely crazy to watch. It was a ton of fun. And I am just so in love right now with where this heavyweight division is. It feels so much fun.

It feels like anything is possible in any given night right now. There's a lot of just interesting names, a lot of interesting storylines. And again, when Ty To Ivasa is all of a sudden in this conversation now because he's really, he is in this conversation. He's like one fight away from an actual title shot now. It's a ton of fun. I absolutely love how this is all gone. I think fun is.

I think fun's actually the perfect word to describe this division right now. It's just a lot of fun. And Tai Tuvasa is a very interesting piece of this mixing on the martial arts. As we welcome in, The Prince of Positivity himself, Alexander Cayley. I don't demand an apology from you, AK. You just didn't believe me when I said Tai Tuvaasa was going to win this fight. But he didn't chastise me before. What did I say that?

Did I even say that? Did I even say that? You didn't believe me. Who did you? You picked Derek Lewis. You didn't believe me. That doesn't mean. I just believed you.

That just means I thought that Derek Lewis would win. That doesn't mean I didn't think Ty 2Avas had a chance. That's not the same thing. No, you just didn't believe me. It's okay. It's all right. We're all good. Don't worry about that.

But I just want to talk to you. I want to get your thoughts on the performance. And also, this is a big topic during the pre-fight Q&A, the walkout music, the selection from Tai Tai Tai Chi Vasa. What did you think? Someone nailed it. I'm sorry, guys, I haven't been on the whole show. Did anyone in the comments, someone on the pre-fight Q&A when we were discussing what would tied to Avasa walk out to. A bunch of songs got thrown out. And I distinctly remember someone

saying, Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cindy Lopper. And I was going to comment on it. I wish I had now. So, a mystery person, if you're out there, please claim your, claim your prize. We'll give them an Otno point, maybe, Mike. I don't know if that's official. Again, that's worth, that's worth, on to the next one point is worth something like 6,000 Ethereum now, I think, on the current market. I don't know. It's way up there. It's crazy. So, but yeah, someone called. it. So great job there. There's a lot of other good suggestions. I can't remember what I said. I said, I keep saying Carly Ray Jepson. I don't know if that's ever going to happen. He's more of a 90s guy. So yeah, the walkout was on point. The post-fight shooey was good, except for the guy who did it with him, who was rightfully called out. I do believe it looked like a pre-planned thing, some sort of sponsorship maybe even.

There was two custom shoey shoes. One of them said drink. One of them said West. So I don't know if that means something as a brand or something. and that guy might have been a friend of Tuva that looked like he sought that guy out specifically but you guys can see the clip that's out there Tuvasa of course guzzling his shoey like a champ the other guy doing it like I would because I don't drink alcohol just letting probably 95% of the alcohol just spill out of his mouth

people were not impressed to be impressed with that but Tytoevas himself was very impressive I kind of agree with what Jed was saying that if you had told me he was going to go in there and eat friggin bombs from Derek Lewis and somehow come out with a win I would have said you're crazy.

I know he's a young man. One of the few heavy weights contenders under the age of 30. So he does have a young chin, but still, he was eating clean, clean, clean shots. So he is tough as hell. Great defense, great, great poised, great ability to sort of recover from those shots. And when he got going, when he finally got that final flurry going, I mean, it was the elbow that put him away. He landed like maybe two or three bombs of his own before that. And then that finishing elbow was just right on the button.

And, you know, it's not like Lewis can't be knocked out. We have seen him lose by knockout before. But even taking that into account, that was stunning. An amazing performance by Tai Tuibasa, who is really going to shake up our rankings. I think number 14 in our rankings. And Derek Lewis really was number four, number five. So Tai Tai Tai Wivasa, he's a top five heavyweight looks like. How about that?

How much fun is this division right now? It's really fun. I enjoy it. Jed, what does this look? What does this look on your face? Tai Tai Tuivasa is a top five heavyweight. that is a true statement and speech volumes. God, you're such a hater, dude.

Geez, man. I don't have some fun with it. Come on. You are such a hater. Gosh. I don't think it's hating to be like, I really enjoy Tai Tui Vasa, but the fact that he is a top five heavyweight

speaks some things about that division. Maybe I'm wrong, and that dude's going to come out and he's going to be our new heavyweight champion. He has a chance now, but I suspect he's probably just going to get tackled by Curtis Blades or Steve Hedgich and sat on for 25 minutes and we're all going to not have fun anymore. That's how the world works. And see, this is the reason why this is the perfect co-main event, because while it hurt our feelings to see Derek Lewis lose, it doesn't really hurt them that much. because you're just going to throw him in another fight and we're going to be so excited about it.

Just don't do it in Houston, UFC. Yeah, no more. Let's give this guy a break from the Houston. Let's let him not have a home game for once. It seems like he doesn't enjoy it. Send him to London. Send them to London or some other country at this point and let him fight as far away from Houston as possible.

One, we should definitely do that because Derek Lewis and London is just a fun thing to visualize. But you got to give him one more fight in Houston. it just has to be against Jared Vandera or like some dude that he is going to clobber so you can get that big win energy. Like I want him to have that moment in H-town as opposed to just being sad and defeated because it's pretty tough. I agree with you.

So that was a great win for Tai Tui Vasa. Derek Brunson, tough, great star for Derek Brunson. Unfortunately, Jared Candidear just got cooking to that second round. That was a violent finish. earned him a $50,000 a bonus, earned him a future date with Israel Adasania, which if Adasandia has his druthers, this fight's going to happen early summertime, maybe as early as June. So great win for Canaanier. Hanata Moikano, tremendous win for him on the main card. I know a lot of people in Twitter land were very excited to see Alexander Hernandez lose.

You are, I mean, that's just how it is. And then Bobby Green, Nazaret Hackpressed, good way to start the night. Bobby Green looked fantastic. He continues to win. the other bonuses went to Douglas Silva DeAndraj versus Sergei Morozov they got the fight of the night

which I thought was a really good call I thought there was a very good chance that they'd give it to Roxanne Modifari versus Casey O'Neal but they did not do that and just a great night Taito Vasa got the other bonus as well much deserved so

Sean I'm going to go to you Roxanne Modifari we just saw the final 15 minutes of her fighting career We didn't get to see her walk out on television, which is absolute travesty, but it is what it is. She came out. She did her thing. She had a super fun fight with Casey O'Neill.

I cannot believe it was a split decision. No disrespect to Roxy, but we got ourselves a splitie. But what did you think of the fight? I thought the fight absolutely ruled. It was a really great fight. Her stock went up even in the loss. Casey O'Neill got tested in the right way. This is a perfect piece of matchmaking this went about as well as it could have.

Did it not? Yeah. I mean, we can talk about that split decision in a second because I definitely got thoughts on that. But yeah, I mean, man, this was the way you kind of, like if she wasn't going to win and this was a really hard match for her. I mean, everybody knew it coming in, sort of what the game was for this and what the matchmaking play, the UFC was trying to do here. But I mean, this was pure Roxy, man. This is why she was so beloved. The whole way through 15 minutes, she tested someone who is probably, if we're being honest, a future title contender, a future title challenger in this division.

and she tested her for 15 minutes. She didn't stop moving forward. She never quit. It was all hard all the way through. And it's just, again, that is who Roxy has been this whole time, 20 years of just taking on all comers, never complaining, never turning down a fight, always being willing to fight anybody at any time since the very, very beginning of women's MMA. I mean, that's who Roxanne Montefere is, and that's who she was in the beginning. And that's how she went out at the end. And you saw even in her post-fight interview, in her post-fight press conference, she was just proud of her performance.

She was happy to have gone in there and shown that she's improved and that she's, you know, the martial artist that she feels like she is. And she's not wrong, man. She has improved. Like the late evolution of Roxanne Monteferry is one of the coolest sport, like just little side stories that we've seen over the last couple of years. Because truly the last like five years of Roxanne Monteferey were the best she had ever looked. and it's rare UC fighters that at her age continue to evolve and continue to get better like that. So it was a great, in my opinion, it was a very fitting way for Roxanne to go out. But man, that scorecard.

Let's talk about Robert Alexander here for a second because good Lord, that man had an all-time stinker of a night. Like, that dude needs to take a bow because I know when we go to Texas, the judging and the officials are always just, it's a roller coaster. You're signing up for it when you're going to Texas. but that dude might have had one of the worst hours of judging I have ever seen in my life because in back-to-back fights, he gave Roxanne Monteferey the score over Casey O'Neill and then he gave Jared Vandera the score over Andrea O'Loski

and both of which were absolutely atrocious. I mean, you look on M.B. decisions, but I think both fights were pretty unanimous 30-27s or the Alasky one was maybe 29-28s. But regardless, there was no justification for any of that. And I just love how none of it really matters because we're not going to get a chance to have there's going to be no recourse for obvious ineptitude there's going to be no opportunity to get this guy to explain uh how he came to these decisions

it's all it's all just very silly uh and apparently this guy's a rocket scientist so that shows you that even a rocket scientist can't figure out how to how to judge mhm a fights if you can't crack that riddle if that guy can't crack it nobody's can uh it's just ridiculous that we have to deal with this every every time we go to texas and we know it and like we have to we call it ahead of time it's so silly Yeah, that's why I was extremely worried about the main events that something fishy was going to go on. But luckily, we didn't get anything crazy like that. What did you think of the scoring, Jed, for that fight? And just Roxy's performance overall.

I mean, Casey O'Neill, and I'm kind of, I kind of agree with her in a way that it was probably kind of annoying for her to be just the fighter that is fighting Roxanne Modifari and her final fight. Like, I could understand the annoyance and how she feels about that. like I mean just as a fighter as somebody on the come up I get it I think she understands it a little more now not that the retirement is actually here and she got to see it and she got to share the cage in that moment with her but your thoughts on the fight what Roxanne sort of left in Houston tonight and just the the scoring and all of it I'm not going to spend any time talking about Casey O'Neill and her predicament I'm disappointed I'm extremely disappointed in my colleague Sean O'SHoddy for believing that the problem here was Judge Robert Alexander.

The problem was judges Ivan Guzman and Carrie Hatley, who also did double duty and refs some fight in there, I'm pretty sure, at least one, maybe not more, because you nailed it, Sean. You were dead right. There is no recourse. No one's going to have to explain their scorecards. Nothing will happen. and if either Guzman or Hatley had any sense of pride or fun or whimsy or respect for what Roxanne Monteferry is done for this sport, they would have given her a garbage decision to walk out on. Because why not?

What is lost by giving Roxanne Motifery a bad split decision win? Like, as far as I'm concerned, Alexander is the only person who looked at that correctly and was like, like, I know that this is bad, but I'm just going to do it. And let's see what happened. Maybe one of these other two people will also do it. And then we've had some fun here, haven't we? This is kind of a feel-good story. And who really cares if Casey O'Neill gets an L on her record?

Sure, she'll care because she'll only get, you know, half the money she's expecting, and that'll be unfortunate for her. But in the long term, that's not going to set back her career. That's just going to set back her bills for a few months, whereas the rest of us can feel warm and happy inside because Roxanne Monteferry, who by the way has come up on the wrong end of some tough decisions over her career

finally gets a bad decision in her favor in a moment where it means a lot. Like come on. This is why no one will ever let me judge because I would have 100% may have scored that 3024 for Roxanne and shamelessly

done it. Yeah. Yeah. Listen. And listen. You know, Judge, you're right. And clearly they don't care about Casey O'Neill's career either, because we always say that fighters, you know, learn more from their losses than their victories. This could have been a huge, this could have been a huge for a career

if she had lost to her a veteran like Roxanne Modifery. I mean, that's just going to put her down the championship path. Plus, she wouldn't have gotten booed after. That's really the judge's fault, not, not Casey O'Neill's fault. You know, she put on a great effort. And she would have instead been cheered. And fans would be like, man, how did Casey O'Neill lose this? Like, she got screwed.

to applause for Casey O'Neill instead. So, Jen, you're on the right track, really. And Casey O'Neill would have learned an even more valuable lesson that we try and tell people all the time. You can't leave it in the hands of the judges. So we may have just derailed Casey O'Neill from being a future dominant finishing champion because we instilled in her that she can leave it

to the hands of the judges, because even the judges in Texas won't do the right thing and give that fight to Roxanne Motifair. A bad thing happened tonight. and I'm ashamed that Sean Al-Shadi does not recognize that. This was a travesty. This was a travesty. That was a tremendous speech.

That was a tremendous speech. Sean, your response to what just happened here because... I mean, I'm just jealous of that energy. That dude is on like 3.15 a.m. time right now. And I can't have to be able to pull something out like that at 3.15. And that's impressive. Give me whatever you're having right now. Jesus.

Yeah, we got to get an energy drink sponsorship over here at m.mating.com. So pretty solid night of fights. Your B.T.L. Champ, Jedd Michoud. There you go, even though he doesn't. That's how you hold that title down, baby. Absolutely. Let's go to the peeps. Let's take a few questions from the peeps before we get on out of here. Some different stuff, some fun stuff. All right. Let's do the peeps, two of the peeps.

Who got here? Shout out Andre Olfsky. The man just keeps winning fights. Kylea Phillips' tremendous performance. Dude. He looked outstanding. Andre Alaski, man, has, I didn't even realize this dude has won five of his last six. And it's literally 22 years since he was UFC debut, like 22 years.

When he started an MMA, like, I think the Gore Bush thing was still going on. He started 99. Yeah, like the 99. He's like, Y2K was getting talked about when this dude was like, starting his, his MMA career and he is still winning five of six fights at age 43. Like, I don't, this is crazy. We made a huge deal about Roxy being a legend and a pioneer because she is. He was fighting for four years before she ever stepped in cage and he's still going and

probably is going to be going for another 12. This dude's the man. He is the greatest heavyweight of all time and I actually am starting to believe that that is the case based purely on longevity. All right. So he has, this was his 37th, his 37th UFC appearance, which is the most, obviously, heavyweight record. 22 and 14 now, won no contest, second most U.S. he's all behind Seroni and Jim Miller.

He still, he hasn't had a finish since May 2015 and is somehow still tied for the fourth most UFC heavyweight knockouts. What a bizarre character. And now he's now 12 and 10. And this is his second run with the OEC. He's now 12 and 10 with the one no contest. So what a bizarre. People with more fights. None of them are like,

they've all got to be like feather weights too. Like he's the only person above like 170 that's fought 30 times. Like he's he's. Oh, in the UFC? No, it's just with Saroni and Miller. Yeah, it's Saroni and Miller. No, like even the other people call like the below him on the list. The next few people, they can't be heavy weights or even light heavy weights.

Nobody's doing it. It's just like lightweights. Frank Mir might have been up there Probably not 30 though I don't think he's 30 But yeah I see your Yes I see your point Alofsky's the main

The question is Could he get a top Could he get a top 10 next When we probably get him Derek Lewis next Oh No please no don't do this Yes

Let's not do that They gave him to freaking Francis When Francis was coming up Like they're gonna give him Derek Lewis I mean he's kind of earned A top 10 fight at this point, which is very bizarre and crazy to

say. And while Derek Lewis will probably knock him out in a horrifying fashion, it's not inconceivable that Andre could do his weird like stick and move on the outside and just kind of kick Derek's legs for a while

and win a really awkward decision. Like that's in play, even if it's not likely. Unfortunately, I'm I, we're not going to get the chance to match me for him on onto the next one. I'm not going to pick it as a wild card. I'm going with the same matchup.

I've been trying, I've been saying for the last year, Romanov, you got to give him Romanoff. That's the fight. It's a sucky fight. It hurts my feelings to say it out loud, but that's the fight. That's the matchup. I mean, that's all he gets thrown into is sucky fights. Like, he's not, he's not getting gimmies.

That's not a fight. But he's not getting gimmies at any point. in this. They're like, they're just kind of just throwing him to whoever wants to fight Andre Alaski at this point. Like, and that's what it's been going on for the past like several years. It's, it's utterly crazy for a guy who was getting told to retire like a decade ago. I'm putting him in my ranking this, this month, by the way, guys. He's sure. Do it. We do it. We almost had Fador in there. And like, are people going to tell me that Fador's recent success is better than, no, and I think that was deserved, but it's like, is his, is it better

than what Arlavski has done in the EOC? I don't know. No, like, I think it's comparable. I think if you're going to vote for Fado, I think you could certainly make a vote for O'Loski. Mike, we had someone tagged both of us on Twitter, our pal Renaud, a friend of the On the Next One Show. And he said, Ander Alasky versus Walt Harris. This would be a rematch, of course. The first fight, I mean, it wasn't like the greatest fight, split decision, close fight. And it was later overturned actually became a no contest.

And it was quite a while ago. It was like three or four years ago now. So that's actually not a bad. We're always trying to find the right matchup for Walt Harris, too. Maybe that's the one. Maybe you give him the Arlowski rematch. Wouldn't hate it. I don't hate it.

Obviously, you didn't watch the first one. That fight was not something you need to see the second time. I mean, is Annie Arlowski fight at this point? What are we doing? Was it any of you know? Look, the Vandorov fight was honestly way more entertaining than I expected it to be. I'm not saying it was good, but it was much better than I thought it was good. It was fine.

It wasn't good, but it was better than I thought it was going to be. I had to low... Andre Arlowski. What else we got? Joseph Beaux, what are the panel's thoughts of Douglas Siludan-Dradge versus Sergei Morozov

getting fight of the night? That was on the early fight-pass prelims. Normally early prelims on fight-pass don't get bonuses. So, yeah, that was an interesting choice. There's, I mean, you could have gone Lewis to Ivasa.

You could have gone, you could have gone a number of different ways of this, Sean. But did the UFC get, did the UFC get this one right? Because I have no issue with this. selection for fight of the night. The only other way I would have gone was just just out of pure joy

and positivity. We'd give it to Roxy and Casey because that was a fun fight. But other than that, this was probably the best fight of the night, was it not? Yeah, I mean, if you're not going to give it to Ty and Derek, this is certainly the second best thing you could do. I mean, this was the most complete fight of the card, right? Like, it was a crazy comeback. There was different elements in it, whereas Ty Two of us and Derek was just more of a brawl. I certainly don't mind. And also, I mean, if you watch Douglas Silva Day and Drogh's post-fight interview with the media, his scrum, seemed like a bonus was really, really important to him and his life and sort of where he is at right now. He's talking about needed to get his mom a new wheelchair and all sorts of things.

And he was actually very emotionally who was crying during a part of it. So, I mean, if they're going to give it to that guy, I'm not going to complain about it. That guy, again, he definitely felt like he needed the money. So it's good money to get to him. Yeah, great fight. Jed? Sure. I have no issues with it. I think the actual best fight on the card was to Yvasa Lewis.

I think that had the most swings. It was back and forth, whereas the Silladand Raj Morosgov was a one and then a two. One guy was winning and then the other guy won. It was just a comeback. It was still fun and entertaining. I would probably put it because it was such a binary, I would actually probably put it behind Motifery O'Neill, because that they got after it, you know, for 15 minutes.

And I think that that was, I think that's probably a more entertaining fight on the whole to me. But I think Lewis Tuivasa was pretty clearly the best fight, but they already are making a lot more money and they're getting, you know, Tuivasa is getting that extra bonus. So I got no problems with giving a man who could use 50K, 50K. AKA Bantam weights, right? I was just say, listen, I'm never going to complain about bantam weights getting more money, getting their due. We had three bantam weight fights today, and they all delivered in different ways.

I mean, the Ronnie Lawrence one was obviously more of a dominant performance for Ronnie Lawrence. Oh, actually, that's not true. Manna came back in the third round. Yeah, yeah, we almost, that's actually, that was a great round. And then, sorry, Collar Phillips, I was just say, sorry, it's more one-sided. I'm a solo, a rojo very tough. I mean, that was Carla Phillips all the way. And then he just finished with an amazing triangle arm bar.

And, yeah, and DeAndi, look, I'm so high on Morozov. I was a little bit sad to see him lose. He looked great in the first round. I thought he was kind of living up to all this pre-fight hype I had. But Douglas Silva, DeAndro, just so tough. He's what, not, like, 23 and 4 or something like that? Like, the guy is just really freaking good. And I keep saying Morozov's face nothing but killers.

So this doesn't, this doesn't like take. I still, for me, I still think Morozov has a run ahead of him. He's one and two now. So we'll see how much, you know, rope the UFC gives him. I hope a little more. I think he gave him the right matchups. I really do think he's a top guy. But for me, it would have been the co-mate event.

I just thought it was just so much dumb fun. And again, it lasted much longer than you'd expect with someone taking that kind of damage from Derek Lewis. But yeah, for me, the most fun fight, I would love to get a fight in the night. Yes, they already are up there in the tax bracket. But if I'm just being, if I'm ignoring that aspect, what was the fight I enjoyed the most,

to Ivasa and Derek Lewis. Thank you, Joseph. They mixed the martial arts, too. there was wrestling. They mix the martial arts. Some people don't like when they mix the martial arts, J. but we're fans that around here. We like when the martial arts are mixed.

That's how they should be. Takiroman 91. Where does this fight rank amongst Adasania title defenses and what is Adasani's best win? I mean, Apollo Costa whitewash. I don't know how you taught that one. I mean, that's one of the all-time, that's one of the all-time grades right there.

Whitaker and Costa. For sure, Whitaker won. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a, well, this says defense. This says defense, right? This is, oh, no, yeah, this is specifically defense. Best win.

Best win. No. Oh, that's true. Low Key. For sure, the Whitaker. Also, if you're, apparently, if you're Israel or this and you, he believes that his first fight with Robert Whitaker was the title defense. He is stone wrong, but he got very upset at the post-fight press conference because he

doesn't know what the word interim means. But, yeah, that's for sure his best win. You want to go best defense here, Costa. It's kind of weird, actually, when you look at Izzy's title defenses on a whole, because, like, I feel like we look at Izzy and we think of Izzy as, you know, this really fun fighter who's going to constantly put on really fun fights. But if you actually look at his four title defenses, only one of them is like a really, like a performance you would want to go back and rewatch.

The rest are kind of just, you know, hit or miss. Like, you had the Yoel Romero one. Marvin Vittoria was okay. I mean, I don't think anybody's rewatching that. And then tonight, Robert Whitaker, like, it was. was fine. I'm not complaining about it. But like outside of the cost of one, there's not like this standout title defense. It's a very, uh, I, I don't think you would think that just naturally. It's interesting. You mean in terms of dominance? You mean like dominance? Like as far as like,

well, I mean he, he's certainly dominant in all of these fights. But I just mean like in terms of the highlight, the highlight real. Like a lot of the highlight real stuff was pre-title rain. Honestly, though, if you go back and look like, is he's just tricky like that? Because his pre-title rain highlights are pick and choose. Like that first fight with Vitori, is not a bad fight, but it's split decision. It's not great. Brad Tavares was a fine fight, but it's not like you're super stoked on that. You know, the Brunson-K-O's great.

Anderson Silva, I know that fight won five of the night. I remember that card sucking and that fight not being good, but people just thought it was good because it was cool and Izzy did the Matrix's sway that one time. It was fancy. There was some posing, yeah. Yeah, that fight mostly just sucked, but it was fight of the night because the rest of that card was garbage.

So, like, he kind of just does this. Izzy's, like Anderson Silva, Izzy is really, his level of excitement he can generate is very largely dependent on what his opponent is doing. Because, like, we saw that today. Like, Robert Whitaker, I'm not trying to bag on Bobby Knuckles

because I respect the hell out of him. I think he's his second best middleweight in the UFC. He fought close to a perfect fight, and in so doing, and he didn't even come close to winning him, my account, And what that means for him to fight a perfect fight is to absolutely not engage with Israel Dissian at any point in time because doing so is playing with fire. And so that's why this fight wasn't that exciting.

And that's just sort of how easy works. If you want to play that game, he will stone you to death like he did with Bobby Knuckles the first time. But if you're going to not do that, he is content to sit in third gear and coast to a win. because that's what he did. He didn't really try and get Robert out of there tonight. He didn't turn up the volume. He had a comfortable lead and he wrote it. And that's just kind of what you get.

I think we're going to see some bad title defenses out of him depending on how people approach fighting him. I still think there's a case you made that this is, I agree obviously the Apollo Costa one. I mean, the build up to it, his actual performance, his shenanigans after, Marliths May Very. So that was obviously great. And it makes for a great highlight real clip, for sure.

We're just talking about his tele defenses. But I do think you can make an argument qualitatively that this one was better because, because Whitaker obviously is a, I would think we would all rank him higher than Polo Costa. So we all think he'd probably beat Paul O'Costa in a fight. He is the second best middleweight in the world. And I think this was, if not the best version of Whitaker we've ever seen, it's up there. I mean, like we said, he, like said, Jeff, like he said, Jeff. Like you said, Jed,

this is, this is, he fought the way he had to to have a chance against Adisina. It was not exciting at times, I understand it, but it was, again, the most effective strategy you could have. He, at least on two of the judges' scorecards, took two of the three rounds.

It was a super competitive fight. And I think Adisania also had to be at his best to deal with this version of Whitaker. It just happens to be that his best is so effective that it can make other people, like, look not as good. But as far as like, like, the toughest opponent he's faced and like the best he's had to be i think you can make a case for tonight i don't know

how many people want to go back and rewatch this fight but there's definitely moments of it that can be like studied and that show um i think the greatness of both fighters yeah strength of schedule wise this probably was number one if we're being honest if we're looking for his best defense it's for sure this fight like i i honestly think that this is one of those fights where the people who go back and watch it are going to be like oh that wasn't close at all like it's i think rob i think roe Robert Whitaker did a really great job of almost smoke and mirrorsing his way to effectiveness. But he had enough.

When I was watching it, maybe this is blinders. Like I'm willing to admit hand up, but I thought the first three rounds, it was very obvious that Israel was ahead. And when he figured out that he could double jab his way inside, Whitaker had more success. But, man, I thought he was behind from Jump Street and he just looked awful to me mostly. I have this next. This is a comment, but I think it's an interesting comment. I want to know what you guys think. Oasis, man, Izzy won.

Granted, it was a John Jones-type win, barely getting by, but Rob never had Izzy in trouble at any time. A John Jones-type win. How about that? I mean, listen, some... Yeah. Sometimes that's what you got to do. I mean, yeah.

I think... Remember the reaction after the... Joel Romeroon, remember that reaction? He's a boring fighter. I mean, it was like, it was negativity bombs drop. Exactly. Negativity bombs dropping on Izzy. We don't really hear that that much coming out of these last two wins, do we?

I think people are just, they're okay with it because they're just, they like him. You know what I mean? It just seemed like we're in a different place because that Romero one was pretty bad. But these last couple, not really the most exciting win, Sean. So are people just, we just get Izzy more, like we're cool with it just because, you know, the build to the fight, the post fight, like comments, those are exciting. That's the star in him. And maybe we're starting to understand the chess match nature of what it takes to fight a guy like Adasanya. Well, if you're talking about the Romero one, I think, I feel like that was a special kind of weird and a special kind of bad, right?

because it was it was not it's not really comparable to tonight because i felt like tonight there was there was constantly something happening somebody was always trying to make something happen and it was it was a chess obviously it was a very technical fight but it wasn't two guys just kind of stand in there making faces at each other which is what the romero one was for very long stretches that one and maybe a leg kick thrown in here or there like that was just if you go back and rewatch that fight that's like a top 10 just very very weird fight to rewatch the vatory one was i think more similar to this tonight, where it's just, you know, Izzy's winning and Izzy's doing exactly what he needs to do to win, and it's maybe not the most exciting thing, but it is just effective and efficient

for the most part. And Robert was much more competitive tonight than Marvin ever was. But I think it is, there's an element of people sort of understand now what they're going to get with Izzy and also people just generally like and appreciate Izzy as a personality. And someone in this game was just very interesting and very compelling to watch regardless of what he's doing. but certainly I mean the Romero one is just a very very odd bookmark in history to go back and revisit always go ahead Jed just just go oh well I think I think we're wrong I think people don't appreciate this win and like Jose said it I wish we could talk to him again but he said to like apparently the crowd started getting pretty pro Robert Whitaker as a fight went on and booing is he has it in the later

rounds because of his effectiveness. I think, or lack of effectiveness. I think pretty clearly there's a difference between this and Romero and Sean was correct. The Romero fight was just awful for Mizzy. Like he, he threw 40, like, five strikes in that whole fight, which is by far his lowest, like, ever outside of fights where he got Kea wins, whereas in this one, he probably threw 100 or something like that.

Like, I'm not looking at the numbers, but he was up there. He was at least active. 170. 170. Yeah. The Romero fight was just, it was honestly one of the best game plans I've ever seen from Yole Romero. And nobody appreciates just how amazing that that was from him. But we don't need to go there.

But yeah, I don't think people liked this fight. And I think we may be in a little bit of a bubble as far as respecting it. Because everyone here really respects Robert Whitaker. But based on what Jose was saying, and some of the stuff I saw, I think a lot of people are not stoked on, is he doing what he did to win? Yeah. It's interesting some of the fighter perspectives on the fight because Gagey was just like Whitaker won, three, four, and five. And then our-

It's insane. That's categorically insane. Michael Chandler. Did you see Michael Chandler to say about it? Oh, God. Something about, it was some really dumb take about how champions don't have to do anything to win. He goes, quote, trust me, I love Izzy, but we have gotten to a point where a dominant champ just needs to stand there,

throw a few shots per round, and he will not lose unless he gets caught and will always get the nod. Izzy got paid on this last contract. Go fight. Don't you dare spar. That was Michael Chandler's reaction to the fight. And he also said, bring everything, didn't see it. So Michael Chandler taking shots at Asana. You know, I don't like Michael Chandler.

He has a point buried under a bunch of dumb stuff there. I agree. It would be a lot cooler if Israel-Adesnia decided he wanted to try really hard, because I think he would have won. The fight would have just been way cooler. And I think he could have potentially gotten Robert Whitaker out there. In my mind, he didn't do it because he knew he didn't need to. We used to see this with George St.

Pierre all the time. He would just assert dominance over somebody and sit there. And, you know, Dan Hardy went five rounds with GSP, which is still an insane thing to say, like, right now, that Dan Hardy, the GSP didn't just clubbed Dan Hardy to death with his own body part. So I think we see this with really dominant champions. John Jones was originally the one that's brought up. We saw that as well. To me, it is as much a structural problem that I have with it, because if you just do that and you maintain a level of control, that's great, it's dominant, you get the 50 whitewashing that Eugene Barerman wanted. You also are giving Robert Whitaker the second best way to wait in the world 25 full minutes to try and figure something out. Like, it's just better

to try and finish fights than it is to dominantly win decisions. I think Izzy could have done that. If he tried to put the hammer down, I think he probably could have gotten Whitaker out of there, but he didn't. And so he never was in trouble at all. But it is kind of like you would rather him be justing gaugie and not just come forward like a madman that's very true all right do you have anything else one more question oh go ahead a one more okay that was me okay you're muted but he's trying to speak and no one's hearing him not one in the whole yeah sorry the uh the the youtube comments are very uh supportive of chandler's comments they're all saying chanler's right they agree great take by chandler and in fairness

the guy has a pass to say that kind of thing for the rest of his life after the Justin Gatty fight, which I think even he acknowledged, he was like, yeah, I could have fought that fight smarter, but no, no, I knew I knew I was in there with Justin Gatesy. It wasn't a championship fight though. No, but just in general, I think he's just saying, like, you know, I think more in regard to the pay thing, look, like we get paid a certain amount of money. That means I should go in there and fight a certain way. And I don't know if I agree with that.

But again, apparently a lot of the fans do. And I don't know if it is an absurd take given, again, given how he performed in his own. He didn't win the fight, unfortunately. If he had won it, maybe it would give it a little more credence. I think there's a kernel of truth there, but the idea, like, what he dressed it up and is dumb, because Izzy outlanded Rob by, like, 30 strikes and got a knockdown. So it's not like he just stood there and retained his title.

He beat Rob's ass just in a much more demure way than he could have. Yeah, and it's a difference between a regular season NBA game and the game seven of the NBA finals. Game 7 in the NBA finals, if you're dribbling the basketball, more than likely, you're going to try to go for the layup rather than the reverse double Tomahawk jam, which you would do in the 10th game of the regular season. You go for the higher percentage shot, and that's what champions do. The object of the game is winning, and maybe it's not as aesthetically pleasing as it might be watching a non-title three-round main card opener between Justin Gage and Michael Chandler, but when you're fighting for gold and the amount of money that can come with

said gold, sometimes it changes strategies because the name of the game is winning fights and that's it. I mean, love it or hate it, and you can respect Chandler's opinion all you want, but the name of the game is win, and he won. And he won pretty easily, in my opinion. Close fight, competitive, but he won pretty easily. How in defense of Chandler and sort of myself, how, how, you know, he won. would we all feel if Texas went full Texas and Robert Whitaker won? How would we be judging

Israel-Adisina's disconnected performance if he got screwed by the judges? Would we be saying the same things or not? No, of course not. Absolutely not. Because ultimately this is a results-based business, right? Like everything changed. Like you even see it in the way some people do rankings and we don't need to do a reggae's discussion, but like if if judges decide that this person won, whereas everybody else sort of feels like, oh, that was a bad decision, people still go along with it because that is the result that was given to them. And then thus that is the result. And we all sort of work forward from that. Like, it's just a very, it's very much a results based industry. And I mean, if Izzy had lost this fight tonight where I think all of us on this panel feel

like he won the fight, some more so than others, that would be hell to pay in terms of of Texas. Like that would be, that would be incredible chaos. And, and I mean, I don't know that the UFC would be going back to Houston any time soon if that was what they were having to do.

Absolutely would. They would. Maybe. They have a deal with them. If a split decision for Robert Whitaker came out tonight, that probably business-wise would have been a way better thing to happen

than what happened actually happened tonight because people would have been talking about this card. They'd have been talking about that fight for two weeks. And probably until Mazadol and Covington's card. And then when they book this trilogy, it's just going to be absolutely gigantic. Yeah.

And is going to be all sorts of pissed off. The build to the fight will get ugly and uncomfortable at times. And Whitaker's will be tested again. I mean, it would have been, we would have been talking about it and people have been arguing about it. And things could have got a little nasty on social media. But if they went the other way, if they went the Mike Hack way and we got the Texas chaos that I predicted, oh, boy. We'd be have it, I mean, there'd be 15,000 people watching the stream right now at 3.42 in the morning. Mike Heck would be slugging beers, just ripping his shirt off, going full stone cold, telling us how writing was.

We really missed something there. We really missed a moment that we could have had. I know. We really did. See? I got to throw a quick question. We haven't had a finish in a UFC main event this year yet. We've had all decisions, some of them more entertaining than others.

Chikaze and Cater, obviously, it was really fun to watch. The others, I liked in Gano and Gone, and then Hermanson Strickland. But next week, Jamal... Not even just in a UFC main event, but even if you throw in Bellator, too, like a five-round main event, we have not had a finish yet in 2020. Next week, Jamal Hill, Johnny Walker. Eagle FC, we got one. Do you guys think Jamal Hill, Johnny Walker, we got a finish?

Yeah, Johnny Walker is not a man who goes to decisions. Jamal Hill is not a guy that goes to decisions either. Is that a Tiago Santos joke or is... No, I'm saying Johnny Walker is a man who lives and dies by the right hand. I mean, he's gone to like... Didn't Johnny Walker just go to a decision in his last... Just went to like a five-round, a boring decision. It is physically possible for him to do it, but I don't think it's going to continue to happen.

Like, it is happening. Two of his last three fights have been really bad decisions. I mean, man. Yeah, but look at the... He's over at SBG. You don't know what they're doing over there. Oh, I forgot he's at SVG. Shit, never mind.

Oh, yeah. And Jamal has also a finisher. And real quick. Next week, also, the main event in the same night is also Bellator's Neiman Gracie versus Logan Storley. And which I think is, is that their first non-title fight five-round main event? I've had it already. I believe that'll be the first one, yeah. Okay, there is.

And that could be a rough one. Why would that be a rough? And don't forget. And don't forget, Mike Perry versus Julian Lane, knucklemania. That fight's going down next weekend too. All right. It's definitely going to a decision. You're kidding me.

That's absolutely going to the decision. That's a yes and no answer, I think. Israel Adisanoe will beat Anderson Silva's record for title defenses. What was Anderson's record? 10? Yeah, no, he's not going to stick around that long. No, it's happening. Well, it depends on which numbers we're going by.

He's only a four. He's not even halfway. Like, it's not, it's not going to happen. People, people who were not around do not understand how incredible Anderson was. Like, it's different when you look at a Wikipedia page. No sense of history. No sense of history. When you look at a Wikipedia page and you see it, it's like, oh, yeah, that's great.

But, like, people do not get how ridiculous that was for a long time in the moment. Like, Izzy's great, man, but he's not going to be Anderson. Is he, Izzy is great. Izzy has also been astonishingly not injured in his career. And he's in his, he's 30 something now. Any 30? Is he 30 or 31? Like, that's just not going to continue to be the case.

Anders, it took Anderson five and a half, six years to get 10 title defenses. Izzy has done a lot very quickly. At some point, he's going to blow out an ACL or something. Knock on wood. I'm not wishing that upon him. But that this is the fight business that will happen. He also just can't have a bad night. like ever.

There is a world where he could have lost tonight, and that's not inconceivable that that could have happened. Same thing could happen if he comes in listless against Jared Cannonier. Like, it's just impossible to get 10 title defenses. Nobody recognizes just how incredible that is. And so, yeah, it's not going to happen. Get out of here. Okay, your thoughts.

Yes or no? Yeah, no, I agree. It's just not going to happen. I just don't think he's going to stick around long enough. I think Jed said it's impossible, and I would add. in today's UFC. There's just a different, like, schedule. There's just a different mindset fighters have now.

Like, they have all this kind of perspective of, again, wanting to go fight for other titles. He said he hasn't given up on going up to light heavyweight. So if you factor that in, that's another thing that get in the way. But like, if he does that, I think he really needs to commit to sort of changing his body and leaving the middleweight division. So will he record six title defenses before that happens? Very unlikely. Again, it was, you know, we had that golden age of him, of Anderson Silva and George

St. Pierre, where they were just. racking up tele defenses left and right. And they just don't keep that kind of schedule now. The UFC doesn't quite, it's not as urgent as that for them to line up defenses anymore. They're happy. I mean, they put out more cards, but they're also happy to put like Hermanson and Strickland in a main event, for example. I know that's a disrespectful thing to say, but that wouldn't happen a long time ago.

It is just different culture now. And I just guys are more aware of the other opportunities they have to. As soon as they reach four or five tele defenses, they're like, I'm the goat. Maybe I'll go do some boxing and go fight Jake Paul. I'm going to go fight another division. There's a lot more options than they used to have, and the focus isn't there. So, again, six more defenses is a lot.

I can say three more, seven. I can see him hitting seven, seven, maybe eight, ten is really, really, it takes a lot. Yeah, it's going to be a tough sell, tough sell, because if he really wants to go 205, which I think he really does, I think that's a really significant goal for him. The waters are going to be pretty damn deep at 205

once he gets there with the, the Pohashkas and the Cheshire's and those guys that could be waiting for him. Prahashka, Izzy is just. Oh. Oh, that's the fight. Yeah, give me that. Yes. What is he just vacate the middleweight title or fight candidate or you want to do that.

I don't care about that fight at all. You're probably going to beat the brakes often, but whatever. And then just vacate it and put on some weight and go fight Eerie Pohashka because that is everything I want in this world. God, that's the fight. You're going to get it, Jed. You're going to get it because Glover's going to beat Erie. Then he's going to beat Nass dinner, I love it. I'm with you.

Then to Cher is going to be Volkov, and then he's going to retire, and then the title's going to be vacant. And who's going to fight for the vacant title, Adasana, versus Prahashka? Let's do it. January 20, 23, your welcome world. And I think we've, I think we have done enough here. And about, what, seven hours from right? know yes AK and I are back right here in these very seats looking dapper fresh tons of sleep

and we're going to do some matchmaking on to the next one 11 a.m. Eastern 8 a.m. Pacific we'll see you here and thank you all for watching all the coverage throughout the day the night the last five hours but you're all the real MVP so for AK for Jed for Sean I am Mike Heck good night everybody Happy birthday, Mike Heck. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Mike. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.