MMA Fighting - UFC 274 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Charles Oliveira's Quick Finish, Michael Chandler's Scary KO

Episode Date: May 8, 2022

Charles Oliveira may no longer be the UFC lightweight champion, but he's made a clear statement that he is currently the best lightweight in the world. But now who should Oliveira face for the now vacant title? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, Alexander K. Lee, and Jed Meshew attempt to answer that question following Oliveira's submission win over Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC 274, along with Oliveira no longer being the champion following a historic weight miss on Friday. In addition, the crew talks Michael Chandler's incredible KO of Tony Ferguson, the bizarre co-main event that saw Carla Esparza capture the strawweight title from Rose Namajunas, and more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee 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

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so you can add value even faster. Workday, moving business forever forward. to the Vox Media Podcast Network. We're here. We're back. We told you we'd be back on the other side after two hours worth of post-fighted press conference interviews, but we are here. It's a live UFC 274 post-fight show. What an interesting evening it was, and we're here to break down all the top storylines from a very strange night in Phoenix, some ups and downs. We're on a roller coaster ride, if we're being honest, throughout the entire main card. But happy to have you with us.

still. You guys are all animals if you're still joining us at this time, especially if you're on the East Coast, and we appreciate you. We get a whole crew here. I am Mike Heck. We got Jed Mishu, and we have been, I have been promised he has takes. So he is here. We got A.K. Lee, and we have our man on site by fellow Balteraj member, Sean Al Shadi. Sean, we're going to kick things off with you, my man, because we just heard from the now former lightweight champion of the world, a guy who won the fight, by the way, got a submission win in the main event against Justin Gaci, the now former champion, now officially the number one contender for the title that he was probably in the arena as champion longer than he wasn't, which is crazy.

So your thoughts on Oliver's performance and what this means for him, because we don't really start post-fight shows quite like this with this kind of scenario. Yeah, man, I mean, this to me. was by far at this point the most impressive thing we have seen from this man and I'm starting to run out of superlatives to explain Charles Olivera

and what he has become and really the monster that he has become for this lightweight division but this tonight was to me his masterpiece just when you consider what this man has gone through over the last 36 hours

the absolute chaos he was having to deal with and having to deal with it all while having to deal with I'm sorry the distractions over here having to deal with it all while having to face a monster like Justin Gachie in the end, right? Like we had said this in the preview show, but if you go into a fight with this much on your mind,

if you were drafting lightweights that you would not want to face with this much on your mind, Justin Gagy in my mind would be the number one pick. And Charles Alivarro went out there once again, and once again he got hurt, he got dropped, and he showed everybody the perseverance that we have come to know from him as the champion. And at this point, his resume is just starting to become absolutely absurd. the names on it, the records on it, just in terms of the all-time records,

this man owns at age 36. His UFC career is so utterly unique and spectacular in just a really incredible way. And tonight was just, again, it felt like his masterpiece to go in there and mantle Justin Gichi and finish Justin Gagee in three minutes in a fight where, again, he got dropped multiple times. Once again, I mean, we said this in the preview show.

Justin Gage is someone who will finish the fights if he gets you hurt. And once again, Charles, this version of Charles Oliver just doesn't get finished. He's able to persevere through it all. So it really was just incredible. You were, you were Caged side for the fight, right? You were watching it in the arena? Yes, yeah.

Okay. So I remember when you guys were covering the Bellator card, when Corey Anderson beat Ryan Bader and the Phoenix crowd was, was none too pleased about the result and things did not go very well. and things were probably said that we cannot say here. I'm curious what the reaction was when this fight was over. When Charles Oliver won the title and he left the cage and he started run out and celebrating the way that he did,

what was the reaction in the arena? You could feel it some way on television, but you being out there as it's all happening. What was it like? I mean, I think, I don't know that the arena was against him, certainly. It felt like people were appreciative of what they had just seen, especially, I'm sure we'll get to it,

after the co-main event really led a lot of people down. So the arena certainly seemed appreciative of it and just the moment itself of Charles running out there, standing on the cage, grouching and talking to Dana White, all of it. This guy has handled this whole saga in a very, I would say, professional manner. And maybe some people will say that silly to say, hey, he missed weight, how are you going to call him a professional? But this isn't just an ordinary weight misright. I think we all can agree that there was just generally, everything about this was weird. Everything about what this guy was dealing with was unprecedented. And for him to, again,

come in against one of the toughest opponents he could possibly face, given the circumstances, and just shine in a real, again, we've seen him over and over, proved the star that he is. There is a champion of light, there is a lightweight champion of the world, and his name is Charles Oliver. I totally butcher that. There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on around me. I feel like we're all going to be saying that about ourselves for the next couple of weeks,

because that is like ingrained into my head right now. I know we don't have a lot of time with you, Shaheen. So what do we do with Charles Olivera? He's obviously in this number one contender fight whenever it happens. So I'm curious, Charles Oliverer versus blank. Who do you think fills that blank at this point? Because you got options. You got Michael Chandler who had a great performance.

He's got an argument. You got Islam Makachef. You get Benial Daryush. I know the UFC wants to put those two guys together. Maybe they call an audible and take one of those guys. Maybe Connor comes back sooner than we think and he gets the shot. How do you think this plays out? How do I think it plays out or how do I want it play out?

Because those to me are two different questions. How I would like it to play out would be Charles now fighting Islam-Makach. Because it feels like that would be the true test. I know we have Jed over here who thinks Islam's the best lightweight in the world. He said that for a long time. I'm sure there are other people who agree with him generally just within this sport. I mean, Islam is untouchable right now. It feels like he is that heir apparent to Habib Norgamayana.

That would be, to me, the true test that would really push this over. to the edge because we saw it tonight. I mean, Charles Olivera, I asked in point blank, do you think you're becoming one of the all-time great lightweights? And he said yes. And I think it's very fair of him to say yes. It's hard to argue against that fact at this point. And if he goes in there and beats someone like Islam, who again looks so unbeatable right now, it just has that somewhat of that aura around him. That to me would be incredibly, incredibly impressive and really push him into that next echelon when it comes to these all-time names when we're talking about lightweight.

But to answer your actual question of what do I think will happen, I mean, I think there's a very decent chance that Connor McGregor comes in here and completely gets an undeserved title shot against this guy. We heard a lot from Connor McGregor tonight. He was very vocal about a lot of things tonight, and we know that the UFC can't wait to slot him into a big spot like this against the fight that might be somewhat winnable for him, because, again, I mean, Charles Oliver gets hit a lot, and Connor McGregor can crack.

if nothing else. So there's a path to victory there for Connor, certainly. So, I mean, that's probably what I would expect to happen, but I hope that Islam does get that chance. We'll come back to the main event with the rest of the squad in a moment. But, Sean, if you could describe the co-main event between Carla Sparza and Rosamu Yunus, of course, Carla Rasparsa wins the title. She gets it back.

Two-time champion, weird fight. Scorecards are all over the place on Twitter. but if you could describe this fight in one word, how would you describe it? And then elaborate, of course. One word. Happened? Because it happened.

I watched it. I didn't enjoy it, but I watched it. At some point, I was kind of watching the wave that was going around at the footprint center because there was a pretty lengthy wave that the crowd was doing to entertain themselves. There was definitely more things the crowd was doing. What's that?

How many rotations around the center did the wave go? Oh, it lasted a couple minutes. Three or four? It lasted a good couple minutes. It was several rotations. It's one of the most baffling performances I've seen from a UFC champion, and I think I'm not alone in that, right? I mean, you look at the first two rounds.

Rose landed three strikes, or I'm sorry, seven strikes combined in the first two rounds, and it didn't pick up from there. And there was never a sense of urgency. see, we weren't able to hear in the arena what was going on in the corner. And I would be really interested to know what was going on in the corner because at a certain point, you have to, I would imagine. At certain point, you have to change what you're doing. What you're doing is not working.

And you're letting Carla steal this title away from you with the barest of efforts, really. I mean, Carla didn't even throw a takedown out there until the very end of the second round, basically. The whole thing was so incredibly strange. There was just never a sense of urgency, a sense of the moment. and a sense of what was going on, especially from someone like Rose, who I think we really, like her fight IQ and her fight awareness

is just one of her best strengths in there. And it was just totally absent today. It was completely baffling. And I think, you know, I spoke at length on the preview show about, this is a very winnable fight for Carla. Like a lot of people were sleeping on Carla coming into this fight.

I didn't expect this. Like, this is how I expected Carla Sparza to be able to walk down her wedding with the belt and, hand. All of it is just incredibly baffling, man. It's a weird, it's going to be a weird stain on Rosamma Eunice's legacy. And it's funny because she almost identified this this week herself, right? She said something to the effect of, I mean, she went to the media day and spoke about legacy and wanting to be the goat and all of that. And then later on in the week,

she sort of walked it back and saying, you know, people who start talking about this, champions who start talking about this, that's when they slip up. And then it happened. But it's just, again, the way it happened is just so, so strange. I don't know, man. It's just maybe the worst UFC title fight of all time, or at least in the modern era. I think there's a couple other options out there, right? You could throw Izzy Romero out there.

You could throw Tim Sylvia, Andrea Lasky, trilogy fight out there. But at least like in either of those fights, there were instances where things happened and nothing really happened in this one other than Carla had a pretty cool suplex for like a half of a second in round four but other than that, that was about it

and that didn't really lead anywhere. Rose just popped back up. So all of it was just incredibly strange. Sean, would it surprise you to know that Rose's corner, in fact, did not spur urgency in turn? And it was like, you're doing great, you're winning. No. Sure is.

In the fifth round, Trevor Whitman was like, all right, now go do stuff. But for the four, they're like, you're doing great. Doing great. You've got it right where you want her. You figured out the range. This is incredible. I have immense respect for Trevor Whitman, and I'm not going to act like I know more than Trevor Whitman because that man knows more in his pinky than I will attain over the course of my entire lifetime when it comes to knowledge about mixed martial arts.

So I'm not going to question Trevor Whitman. I am. That is incredibly surprising to hear. Well, I'm sure we'll talk more about that fight. Jedda's promise takes specifically about that fight. And we can't wait to get into those. But, Sean, before we let you go, we started on a high note. We had the co-main event.

And I know you personally, this is a low note. But Michael Chandler, good Lord. I mean, we talk about performances. And Charles Oliver certainly had a good one. But Michael Chandler had an A plus plus plus plus night. Did he not? I mean, not only did he deliver the knockout of the year, not only did you deliver one of the all-time great chaos we will ever see in the UFC.

But then he cuts one of the greatest promos in the history of the UFC. Promo the year, knockout of the year. Within a matter of three minutes, Sean. Rate this man's night. The promo, everything. Waxed poetically about Michael Chandler. I know it hurts your feelings a little bit, but we've got to put those feelings aside for a moment.

A little bit is an understatement, Mike Heck. Are you kidding me? Come on, man. I have to say that we didn't get to hear the promo in the arena because the arena was so damn loud. Everything was drowned out. I didn't hear a word. That guy said. I think he said something about Connor.

at some point, but that was it. Otherwise, it definitely seemed like he was fired up. Yeah, man, that fight was rough for someone like me who has been the driver of the Tony Ferguson bandwagon for close to a decade, who was the last man standing on that bandwagon because I had five minutes there where I was kind of feeling pretty good about myself. And I was kind of feeling like, oh, man, pretty jazzed up right now. Like, I'm going to have a lot of stuff to push into people's faces at the end of this fight. Tony's out here.

He's looking great. Tony, that first round, Tony Ferguson looked like, if not vintage Tony Ferguson, he certainly looked like the best Tony Ferguson we have seen in quite a long time. He was slicing Chandler up. I mean, he was doing work from the bottom. He was really piecing him up on the feet. And then just it lasts 17 seconds into that second round. One of the most brutal knockouts I have ever seen in person, I have seen hundreds and

thousands of fights live at this point in my life. And that is one of the most, like the gnarliest, just most visceral moments I can remember. member of a knockout and it was scary cage side because tony ferguson was down on the canvas for a long long time i don't know what they were showing on the broadcast but tony was down and not moving very much for quite a long time uh and it took him a very long time to sort of get up to climb to his feet and even when he was walking out he did not look like he was still there i mean he walked past us and press row and he kind of stopped for a second after he passed me and he looked up at the at the monitor to try to watch the knockout and kind of understand what happened and

and he just did not look like Tony was there. It's rough. It's rough when it comes to Tony. I mean, this is a guy who's been in this lightweight division, have been a factor in this lightweight division for a long time. And this kind of did feel like the death knell on that, right? Like, I don't, that, it's hard to come back from a knockout like that.

It's even harder to come back from a knockout like that after you've already taken so much damage. And people were already questioning where you were in your career. So this does feel like the end for Tony Ferguson, at least when it comes to his career, as a contender in this division. But for Michael Chandler, man, I mean, good God. Like, you said it, Mike, A-plus performance.

That man went out there and did everything he needed to do. And he, we're four fights into this UFC journey at this point. He might have the most exciting four-fight run of any UFC newcomer to come in here and just unload like that. Like, it is just straight bangers every time we see Michael Chandler in the UFC. And he, again, has fashioned his whole. idea of Michael Chandler, UFC fighter as just, I'm your boss's favorite

fighter, I'm your favorite fighter's favorite fighter. And it's working for it. He just had the fight of the year last year. He probably's going to get knockout of the year or at least number two, depending on whether you like this or Molly McCann's knockout better. So, man, I mean, Michael Chandler just came in here, did work, and he's leaving with a bunch

of bonuses, even got the crypto bonus or second place on it, and he's got options galore now in this 155 pound division. 100%. Before I let you go, I see cords wrapping everywhere you're probably going to get the boot in a matter of moment so biggest takeaway outside of the three fights is shogun being booed do you want to cut a promo of people who are doing him what else stood out to you what's the thing you'll outside of the three fights it's the thing

that that sticks in your mind the most that you'll remember the most about tonight i'll tell you what if i was at my house i would cut a hell of a promo right now on the phoenix people but i can't really do that here it's uh it wouldn't be a professional setting uh to do that but my god what are you doing Phoenix, come on, man, Shogun, who is a legend? What do you do? This dude has given you so much entertainment and so much great stuff over the course of the last couple decades and you're going to boo this man. I don't care if that's the most boring fight in the world. I don't care if he's out there doing a cosplay of Carlos Barser versus Rosnamayunus too. You just cannot boo that, man. I'm going to come up to the stands and fight each and every one of you if you let me know

you were one of the people booing. That was ridiculous. You should all be ashamed of yourself. And if we lose to the Dallas Mavericks in this series, it's because of you. It's because of you guys. You guys did this. I love how Sean was like, I'm not going to cut a promo because that wouldn't be professional and then cuts one hell of a promo. Not just

cuts a promo, one hell of a promo. Well, thank you. You're going to be like George Costanza now. You go out on a high note. Well done. I'm the old head, man. I'm the pride guy. Like, you can't be doing this disrespect and shogun. Respect the legends, man. Ridiculous. Get out of here with

that. I mean, how can we top that? I don't think we can. I don't think we can. Sean, tremendous work all week. Appreciate everything you did. Killed it. Happy to have you back on site. You and Jose, of course. Jose is the monster behind the scenes. Stockton and the Malone. I dug it. You guys did a tremendous job. Thank you for your hard work. Get some rest, my man. You deserve it. I appreciate you guys. And now you're leaving me wondering who's the Stockton and the Malone in that conversation. But we can leave that for a different day. I would appreciate you fellows and thank you once again for joining us. There he is. The legend himself.

Shaheen Alshadi, tremendous job out in Phoenix, Arizona. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-havs 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.

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All right. So, I mean, where do we begin, gentlemen? We get Jed. We got AK. Jed, let's begin with you. Charles Olivera beat Justin Gagee, submitted him in the first round. I don't, I mean, I don't think you're like utterly shocked, but it doesn't seem like you saw this outcome coming.

What did you think? How surprised are you surprised? Are you surprised? What did you think of the main event, Oliver's performance, Gage's performance? I'm just going to let you go because you said you have take,

so take away. I am and I'm not surprised, right? So I am not surprised by the outcome because I think one of the, if not the most likely outcome, was that Chuckie Olive's tapped him Like that's that just seemed very obviously one of the most likely scenarios. I am very surprised basically how easy he did it.

And again, I could have been convinced that he could do it easily because if he just gets a bodylock, trips Justin down. And then he hustles him on the floor, cool. But that is not at all what occurred here. What happened is the very first punch of the fight that he threw hurt Justin Gaichi. And from that moment on, Gaichi did not fight a. composed Justin Gachee fight that we've seen that kind of has led to this great run from him post the Eddie Alvarez Dustin Poy. He got really wild. He was just chucking and Hayes, just throwing Mitz, seeing him what would stick, and almost worked from a couple of times. He dropped

Oliver twice, though I'll get to that more in a minute. It really was just that, you know, they talked all about, coming in, Oliver talked all about, I'm not going to be the one to take a step back, And he's damn sure right. Justin Gachie is the one he backed up the whole fight. And that was specifically a thing Gachi said that he didn't want to do because he learned that in the Habeeb fight. He fought to stay away from him. And that's not he wanted to create car crashes and engage.

And that's his style. But he ate that first shot, got put on skates, and was immediately on the back foot the whole time. And Gatji just never gave stepped off it. So not surprised by the outcome. Really surprised by how easy it was for Oliver. to hurt Gaichi. And here, first big take of the thing, Justin Gage needs to retire.

He said when he came into the UFC that he didn't know how many knockouts he had in him, but there was a limit and he was going to figure it out. And then that was going to be the end of his career. And I think that fight of the year with Michael Chandler, to me, maybe the second biggest takeaway outside of some thoughts on Charles Olivera is, oh, that fight with Chandler really took a, took a toll on Gaichi that I don't think we were registering because I went back and rewatched it because we had to wait three hours for Charles Oliver to decide to come speak to the press for

four minutes. So I didn't have anything else to do. So we watched the fight while I was waiting. And it's not like the world's cleanest punch that lands. It's just kind of a punch that lands and it immediately had Gaetje on skate. So to me, I think there are, like I have really, legitimate questions about his overall durability. He is still Justin Gagey, but his style is one that will not work if he does not have a

brick for a head. And I think that he should probably, I mean, he's not going to and be fine. I'll be happy. I will watch him fight anyone. As Jose says, I'll watch that man make a bowl of pudding. But I think there's a real chance that he is functionally done and we're about to find it out in a really, really harsh way. AK, welcome.

That haircut still looks magnificent. We're going to be seeing a lot of each other over the next eight hours or so. By the way, on to the next one live, seven hours from right now. So stay tuned for that. AK, you are a resident rules, man. Rules rule. That is tattooed on your 18-inch biceps. Rules rule, okay?

Charles Olivera, not the champion anymore. He's the number one contender, goes out there, finishes just finishes just to gauge you in the first round didn't convincing style your response to all of this and him just not being the champion after all of this uh listen as i told jett earlier of course uh rules uh rules but you know what else rules charles olivaire friggin rules and i you know i'm i'm very strict on missing weight i do i do really hate it when people miss weight uh i'm iffy on the whole scale controversy. Like I do feel like it's

based on, you know, the sort of testimonials we've heard and some people doing some sort of independent research and other sources. It does sound like there was a miscommunication, some kind of screw up with the scale at the, you know, the hotel and all that. But, but like if that's the case and only two people miss, and then I know a lot

people were saying, so and so many people, there was like a 0.5 difference. I don't think that that's that abnormal. I don't know why that kept getting brought up as a talking point. If you go to other fight nights, a lot of people come in, 0.5 over, and it doesn't raise, it doesn't seem to be an issue.

So I'm not saying that I don't believe that there is a problem with the scales because something was up, but I don't know if that's why Charles Olivera missed. He used a lot of time. Like, it's very weird to me that he missed by 0.5 the first time, that's fine. And then an hour later,

there's just no way to cut that extra half pound and what was he doing with that whole? Like, my point is, the weight miss is not excusable. Sorry, too long. I was rambling there. The weight miss is not. There has to be. But it is. No, I mean, but it's not, but why? Why? Why? I'm saying it is because you're about to make the case for exactly why. Oh, no, not at all. No, I'm saying, I don't care about belts are, here's the other more important thing. Belts are props. Guys, belts are props. We all know this. Belts are props. It's, it's, he has to play by the same rules as everybody else. I'm sure by the

time he got into the cage with Justin Gathe if he was bigger at all it was probably only by a pound or two like I bet their size is very very very similar I don't know for sure but you can eyeball it you can just figure out for the fact they normally weigh in around a similar weight so in that sense it's it's a fair fight right but but I get it we have weighings for a reason if you start making an exception for a half a pound then why not make an exception for a whole pound or or a pound and a half right so you have to draw the line there's a reason the line is where it is but again I just don't care I I almost wish, this is one instance where I wish Dana White had like abused his power and just been like, the belt stole on the line. Who cares?

Charles is going to pay Justin 30% of his purse and the belt's on the line because this is a silly situation where we vacated the title when we clearly know Charles Olivera is the best lightweight in the world. By any other name, but he just doesn't have a UFC belt around his waist now. Dana White even said at the post-fight press conference, I'm probably still going to give him paper viewpoints. He's like, I don't know that for sure, but he's like, someone asked all the peer viewpoints. I'm like, yeah, yeah, he's still going to get them. So literally the belt meant nothing in this situation. It's cool to have. It's much more preferable if we say this was an official UFC championship match.

I get it. I understand it. I prefer it that way. But I mean, guys, what are we doing here? Like, well, what is it? Are we really disputing that this guy's the best because of that half pound? I can't do it. I can't do it.

Am I Charles Olivermark? Sure. Sure. I don't know. I can't speak to another situation if this had happened to another weight class, maybe with other champions that I'm not as fond of or attached to. But in this case, I can say with confidence, like we just don't need to make this a bigger deal than it is. Belts are props, guys. The U.S.T can make up any rules for them that they want. This is one situation where they should just look the other way and said, yeah, until we figure out what the hell is going on with the scale of controversy,

we're just going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say whether he missed or not, he's still the champ. the title's on the line. I'm going to put the belt around his waist the end of the night. Who cares? Well, now that it leaves the question, and AK, you and I are going to talk about this in a matter of hours. But let me ask you, Jed. We have Charles O'Levara, not the champion.

In his next fight, he will have the chance to win that title back if he makes weight and does everything he is supposed to do and follows the rules that rule. Anyways, anyways. whether it be hilarious or not, whether he makes weight or not. So besides the point, he's going to have to be scheduled to fight another person for this vacant title. So who's it going to be? Because he's got options.

How are you doing this? Okay. Before I get that, I do want to say two very quick things. First, I disagree with AK. I think this is actually the perfect exact correct outcome because I also do not care at all about the missing of weight. but I think that you 100% cannot set the precedent of, well, champions can miss weight and that's fine. I think that's a horrible precedent to set for them like,

yeah, we're just giving the belt anyway. It's cool. No champion ever has to make weight again. We'll just take 30% of their purse and they cannot do it. I holistically won't care about that because, again, I don't really care about weight classes, but. More belts. I would imagine you don't care about belts either.

Who cares? What does the belt mean in the situation? Nothing. I mean, it's a cool thing to have. But I think if you're creating worlds, you just need to live in like where these rules exist. You kind of have to do it. And this is a fine outcome. Like, I think it is the correct one for what's happened because I now stand very firmly in the camp that Olivera simply could not make the weight because 28 other fighters did. He had an extra hour and shed it zero weight.

So he just couldn't do it. And that's okay. Sometimes it happens. second. I think the thing we're not talking about, and I don't know why, because it is easily the biggest, outside of like the top three fights, I think the biggest storyline is that Charles Olivera has game the system. He has figured out the Rubik's Cube. He has the Rosetta Stone, because if you are a champion in the UFC like, say, Francis and Ganu, and you're at your last fight. You know what you can do

to get out of that champion's clause? You can intentionally blow weight and you lose the belt. And then you can still go fight and win and you're just the number one contender, but there's no longer a champion's clause in effect for you so you can go do whatever

the hell you want to do. And we're not talking about how Charles Olivera has changed the UFC game. So everyone just give the man credit because in the future it's very important. There's a flaw in this logic and that's that, hold on. Let's not, okay, well,

there's right. No, don't applaud. Don't applaud. There's a flaw in this logic. If that were the case and as Dana White and everyone else knew that that's what was up, they would just say, oh, no, the belt's on the line. You're still the champion. It's a prop.

They can do everything. Again, you're acting like they have to acknowledge precedent. They don't care. They're going to do whatever's best for the company. I mean, sure, but then you've still lost nothing. You have not cut weight for actual almost no dissonance. advantage other than a slight fine. I think it's a great thing.

Anyway, we spent too much time on the weight thing, which we talked about beforehand, and I just don't care about. If I'm in charge, it's Lamachev gets a title shot because I think he's actually the best lightweight in the world. I will pick him to beat Charles over there when they fight, and that fight's awesome. So that's what I would do, but Conner is going to get it, and that's also fine. Like, get Chuck E. All of that payday, man.

There you go. And we'll see what happens to Justin Gachie. Again, we will talk about matchmaking in a little while on, on to the next one. Let us move on. Let us move on to the co-mate event. Jed's got takes about this one, too. Carlos Barza defeats Rosenaubutus and the strangest, one of the strangest title fights you'll ever see. Scorecards are literally everywhere, and nobody's really wrong, and no one can really be upset about being wrong.

It's just one of those weird fights where even the judges are like, we can't screw this up at all. Like no one's going to call my name out when the scorecards are read. No one's going to blast me on Twitter and call me out because the fight was awful. It was a awful fight. Both fighters basically admitted it was an awful fight. So I'm not saying anything that's going to hurt anybody's feelings or that they haven't said themselves. Carlo wins. She's the champion.

She gets to go get married next week with the title. She's got like no marks on her face. This is the best case of error for her. But Jed, your reaction to the fight, the judging, Aspars are getting the title, all of it. I couldn't care less about the judging. It's weird that someone gave Carla four rounds, but also, who cares? It's the worst fight I've seen in probably 10 years. And that's not being hyperbolic.

I cannot think of a fight that was less interesting to watch than that one. and if you can think of one, I'll be happy to try and remember if that was worse. But the two that I've seen immediately thrown out, Izzy and Yoel, I was oddly into that fight, even though I recognize it's objectively not that entertaining, but it also had moments that were fun. And in Ghanu Lewis, which was also just a horror show, don't get me wrong, but it was only three rounds. and there was at least the idea that at some point someone might die, whereas it was just like, oh, no, they're not going to come near each other for the next 25 minutes. Almost immediately, it was like, yeah, they're just not trying to fight each other.

This is a dance. Cool. So if I was terrible, good for, you know, Carlos Barza, that it worked out for her. It's one of those things where it was a good strategy because she, because the result, was good, but I'm not confident that that was a great strategy for what to do, simply because doing anything else could have made it a little clearer for her. But again, you can't knock what happened. She got the result she wanted. And the fight was so bad that she's not going to have to fight Rose again. They're just not going to book that again because you can't.

Like that is anathema to the eyeballs. So now she'll get to fight Marina Houdriguez, who she has a win over or whatever. So that's, it's great for Sparsia. All my takes are about Rose and the cornering. And Rose is like very weird post-fight interview where she said like stuff that's objectively wrong. And also just like got mad that she won the fight. But like how can you be? had that you won the fight because nobody won that fight and it wasn't even really a fight.

It's just like her whole post fight was really, really weird because it's, it is like the most salty we've ever seen her. And it's just, it's, it was an odd look to be salty about something that was entirely within your control. It was pretty evident after the second round that she could come and engage Carla and maybe she'd have given up some more takedowns, but Carla had so little success with the wrestling in those spots that really Rose should have immediately taken that as confidence to be like, oh, cool, I'm just going to come blow the doors off you now.

And instead, she just was like, nah, I'm going to keep not going near you. And so I said this. The official MMA fighting scorecard is that this was a draw, and I stand by it, by the way, we score fights or whatever. But if anyone, if you had to pick someone who won that fight, I would. would say Carla won it because Carla at least kind of looked like she wanted to be involved in a fight at points, whereas Rose really just looked like she didn't want to lose. And it's, she is such an interesting career that I'm going to spend a lot of time trying to delve into because it's really, really weird. Yeah, I think that's the journey of Rose nominee. This will be a really interesting tale. Like a 30 for 30 on Rose will be really fascinating when her career comes to an end. She's just been on sort of this weird ride of being. champion and the mentality of being a champion. We thought she was kind of over some of those hurdles and maybe she's not.

I don't know. I don't know what happened to her. And I know when we're on the People's Pre Fight Show, Casey basically said that no matter what happens here, if Carla wins, we're going to look at it more as a off night for Rose, more than a great night for Carla. And I feel like that's the case here. What's saying is an off night for both people? Yeah, it was an off night for everybody involved.

the coaches, the corners, everybody. It was an off night for everyone. Even Keith Peterson. Keith Peterson doesn't get off the hook here either. No, yeah, he was terrible. Keith Peterson's awful. The judges may get a pass. Keith Peterson is not.

He woke up and chose all the nonsense today. He woke up and chose it all. He chose not. He chose not. Yeah, all the nonsense. Every piece of, he went to the cabinet and got crumbs of nonsense and put it in his pocket and brought it to Phoenix with him today. He was horrendous in the,

this fight. I gave Jason Herzog a lot of shine last week. I give Keith Peterson no shine this week. You were really bad in this fight. You should be ashamed of yourself. AK, your thoughts, Carlos Spars is the champion. And you're the ultimate fighter guy. This must be a very significant thing for you. Well, I'll say this. I'll say this. So I was kind of half watching because I was, I was on Canello, a Canello Bivol duty. So I was mostly painish that. So I had, of course, the rose and carlified in another window and like i would kind of glancing back around that and i thought i was just missing stuff like i was kind of looked back and like oh i must be uh oh darn i must have missed like anything happening and i and i so i just i didn't assume it was that bad until like i

started checking the you know the twitter uh feed you know the social media feed and then it was like just everyone going like what is happening what is this this is the worst this is the worst thing i've ever seen this horrible and i was like damn like this must be it's supposed to be real bad um yeah listen uh so so i was going to say now i guess we know why we owe Dana White an apology for months we were like, why is Dana White not booking this rematch? Perhaps he foresaw this staring contest.

No, but how could it? The first fight was completely different when they fought, what is it, seven some years ago, something like that. You know, Carlo was obviously much more advanced at that point, both in skill set and even physically, even maturity-wise. Rose was still in her early 20s when that fight happened.

So it was like a younger woman facing like this fully grown prime adults who had way more experience and fought better competition. So, I mean, Carla dominated the first fight. I have to believe that that affects a fighter, that that has some effect on Rose's game plan. There is that mental hurdle you have to get over. Some people would see that challenge and, again, approach it a different way,

approach it more aggressively. Others would be like, man, I remember what happened the first time. I got taken down. I got dominated. I just, whatever happens, I can't have that happen again. And then your mind, it's like you're just going. And then your coaches, and then you add in the coaches saying, oh you're doing great you know you're you're you're winning the fight you're up three rounds

and then up until the end when they kind of told it to finally you know put the put the pal to the middle so all this this was a mental thing i mean this is clearly a mental thing i guess on both their parts like we said it's not like carlos sparsa was uh was you know was bum rushing her and like you know it was like a nate quarry uh Caleb star's thing um both women it takes two to tango it takes two to have a bad fight uh both women it wasn't their best night carlos barza obviously can look back on it a little more fondly. And I think we should be really high for her because she did fight her way back the hard way. I think anyone who saw her, number, she did have no title defenses.

Her first tell defense was against Yawanna-Jechic. I think anyone who saw that fight would have said, well, that's the last time we're seeing Carlos Barraza fight for the title again. Like she was just so outclass in that fight. And then there's sort of mixed results. She's got some weird losses in there. I think like our lost like Ronda Marcos is in there. A close win over Marina Rodriguez.

So it wasn't like this. She rocketed back to another title opportunity, but she certainly grinded and grinded and grinded. Came off that big win against Yan Shanon, huge statement win, the kind of win that Marina Rodriguez needs, to be honestly, if she's going to get that tell a shot.

And for her to be a two-time champion and the longest gap ever between title reigns for a separate title range for a U.S. champion, it's pretty crazy, seven years, something there. I don't think anyone's even close. So it's a great story. It's a great story. It's unfortunate it happened that it will,

will forever be tied to this atrocious fight. Hey, atrocious aside, Carlos Svarsa doesn't care what I say, you say, Jed says, or anybody else says she can wipe her tears with that gold title belt and a wedding veil. She's taking down the aisle. She's getting married. And she's getting married. Everything's coming up Millhouse for Carlos Sparza. That's great.

Well said, well said. Let's move on. again, matchmaking later on. I'm just plug it away at Ottenau here. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear-off about transferring your business when the time comes.

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Try this PC Porchetta. Crackling, craveworthy. You gonna eat that? Who are 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, okay. Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. Please feast responsibly. Michael Chandler, Jen Bishu, your favorite fighter of all time, Michael Chandler.

I know you are looking forward to this fight. You have immense respect and admiration for both of these guys heading in. Michael Chandler and Tony Ferguson. You have sang their praises on BTL since I started with them-May fighting, and I know you are so much looking forward to this matchup in the featured spot. and we're waiting to see what kind of Tony Ferguson we were going to get. We're at least going to get a competitive Tony Ferguson because this is a guy who hasn't not just lost these last three fights.

He hasn't won around in these three fights. He has just been run over. And then Tony Ferguson comes out and he drops Michael Chandler and he gets on him and then Chandler gets him down. Once he gets back to his feet, gets a takedown, he's trying to land ground and pound. Tony's on his back, slicing him with elbows. And we're all thinking to ourselves. Tony's up around here.

All three judges scored the first round for Tony Ferguson. And then the second round starts. And Michael Chandler's foot goes flying into the jaw of Tony Ferguson. And he is out like a light. This was unbelievable. Michael Chandler gets a massive victory. His two-fight losing streak is over. His streak of exciting fights continue on inside the Octagon.

Are you backing away? from the Chandler take it all, or what do you think here? Are we moving forward with this? Are you and Chandler going to break bread someday after this performance? So, first things first, this was what I thought Tony was going to look like. I thought that he was going to come out and do a lot better than people expected. And I think if this was four years ago, Tony probably wins that fight. Because once he hurts Chandler, he goes about finishing him in a much more effective.

way than he did. Second, I'm going to do something I've never done before, and that's back off a take because Michael Chandler does not suck. It would be folly to continue to espouse that when I will say that our great colleague, the legend, Shaheen Al-Shadi, who erroneously claimed that Michael Chandler may have the greatest entry to the UFC, you know, first four fights. That's a wrong take. And I want to be super clear that that's a wrong take. But he maybe have the second because, look, again, I'm no longer, Michael Chandler doesn't suck. He doesn't suck.

I'm no longer saying Michael Chandler sucks. But give due respect to the man who got killed in the main event. Justin Gaichi came into the UFC and his first four fights were Michael Chandler. Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Dustin Porre, and James Vic. In case you forgot, the Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Porier fights were the two fights of the year, and the Michael Johnson fight was the second best fight of 2017 behind the Eddie Alvarez fight, and the James Vic was one of the best chaos of that year. So that's the best entry, but Chandler's got number two, and because of that,

he officially doesn't suck anymore. I don't know when he stopped sucking sometime between getting his doors blown off by a Bannamweight and Patricio Pitbull and coming to the UFC somewhere in there. I don't know. It's hard to pinpoint exactly, but I have been wrong

certainly for at least the last fight and a half about him sucking because he does not suck. Wow. I mean, I've been humbled by the sheer brutality that man has brought in his UFC tenure. AK, let me ask you a simple question here.

I'm going to paint a picture because we just watched Molly McCann land a spinning elbow from hell at UFC London. And the crowd erupted, and we were all saying, this is going to be a knockout of the year. This is it. Nothing's going to top this. Here we are.

Less than two months later, and Michael Chandler said, hold my beer, Molly. I'm going to throw this kick to the face, Tony Ferguson. Is this to not go to the year? Is Molly in second place now? Well, it should be because I think if we take into account quality of competition, Luana Carolina, great fighter. I think Tony Ferguson is known even during his, you know, in this slump. I think as someone we would rank a bit higher than Luana Carolina. We, you know, we'd rate him higher. So by that. And also,

the benefit of what happened in the first round, it was kind of a comeback, right? I mean, Ferguson was, you know, had people hanged Chandler up in that first round, right? So the The comeback element adds to it. It's just a better, it's just a kind of a better story overall. And again, Tony Ferguson, Loana Carolina, we're going to remember that Tony Ferguson, that part of the equation matters. I would be surprised if most of you ask them about the Molly McCann Keough, if they could immediately remember who it was she caoed. I'll be honest, I just looked it up. But Tony Ferguson, sadly, gosh, we're going to remember.

And the picture, once again, the front kick duck face that happened to Frankie Edgar. against Cheatera Vera, yes, I acknowledge this existence. So that's my one thing against it, though, Mike, is we got to ban, we got to ban these, right? I think we have to ban front kicks to the face. This is a, listen, these front kicks were meant to, you know, you kick the body, you create some space, you're back the other person up, you kind of send a message, the range finder. When did we start kicking people in the face like that? This is horrible. Why?

Why are we doing this? So we're clear. you want us to have more OSP, less Michael Chandler in our lives. Yeah, more, yeah, yeah, thank you. More OSP, less Michael Chandler, less Cheeto Vera, certainly less Anderson-Silva, Leona Machita. We got to ban the front kick to the face. Have you seen what it's doing to people's heads?

It's changing their head shape. Even if it's changing their head shape for literally like a flash of a second, like a quarter of a second, I'm not a doctor. But I think you are not supposed to have your head shape forcibly changed ever. I don't think it's good for your brain. I don't think it's good for any part of your body. I get it.

We see head kicks happen all the time too, but there's something about that front kick when it lands right on the chin or right in the face. It just seems so much more brutal. The way Tony fell and made it look worse to, listen, this is the knockout of the year. I say this regressingly just because, again, it's such a horrifying technique.

People are worried about calf kicks. People are like, oh, they should ban the calf kick. Let's get rid of these. I don't want to see who'll kick in the face anymore and the horrible freeze frame. Technology has gone too far. We shouldn't even be able to capture these moments. Horrifying. Well, the good news is Tony Ferguson, if there's silver lining, he went to the hospital.

We did not see him, obviously. Speak to the media at all. CT scans negative, released from the hospital. So I guess if we're going to find the silver lining and all of this, he's okay. So that's good. And he also won his first round in three years. Not a lot, but silver linings are thin on the ground for T-Ferg these days. That's right.

Michael Chandler has some options here. I loved the promo after. He planted a lot of seeds even throughout the week. Wait, you didn't like the promo, Jen? Not a fan? That was fine, but also he should have just done the Connor McGregor thing. like he's not getting a title fight so that is just him yelling

kind of wastefully like he'd just be all in on the Connor thing because that's that's the fight that they should make frankly I don't think like I said I don't think it is I think Connor is going to get a lightweight title shot but he has a much better shot of that than getting a rematch against Charles Oliver or Justin Gaichi had Gaichie won that fight

so I mean otherwise a plus people love yelling Big fans of yelling, and he yelled so very hard. So, yeah. Last thing on this. I'm going to save this. A.K., I'll be to save this question for you for tomorrow or for later on this morning.

What's X. Forgeison, Jed? Besides time off, obviously. And, wow, when has happened? I got very small. Yeah, you're a Twitter. You can still see me. He's a Twitter profile.

Oh, my God. Oh, God. Wow. Amazing. became an actual Twitter, like living, breathing Twitter profile. What was that like? I just got Mike TVed. That was very different.

Wow. Well, that. So to go back, you said you felt just a gauge you should retire. You felt he should retire. Tony Ferguson needs to leave. He needs to be done now. Because coming into this fight, the thing that I was saying is, you know, for all his foibles and problems in the last few fights, Tony Ferguson has not actually been like getting

rocked all that much. He went five rounds with Gichi and it was just a totality of the damage that finally got him out in the fifth. But, you know, it's not like he was getting blown up, blown up. But he just got blown up and probably will be the K-O of the year, though I still think I give it to Molly McCann, but I'm starting to rethink that maybe I'm just wrong on that position as well. But, you know, he got blown up, blown up and was, if they had shown the whole time he was on the floor, I'm sure that would have been one of the scariest chaos we've ever seen because he was down for like three minutes based on my quick math from when they were like, oh, he finally got up now, good. So, yeah, he needs to, he's, he wouldn't getting back to a title anyway, but he's really not now. He's 38, just got his doors blown up. Just hang it up, man.

He's unhappy with the UFC, so go do other things. Preferably those things that will not jeopardize your mental and physical health moving forward. Rest the main card, Ovin St. Prue and Shogun Hoa. Robbery. That fight was a thing. Randy Brown, Kass Williams, fun fight. Randy Brown gets split decision win. Wolfpack cash is the bet.

Nice job, Jed, and runner. Wolfpack Wager hit. We didn't do great. rest of the card, but way to go. Randy Brown, do the damn thing. Yes, that was on the main card because Donald Seroni, out of the card, felt ill. Dana White said at the Post-Five Park Conference that Soroni went out and ate some tacos somewhere in Phoenix and got some little bit of food poisoning, it sounds like. So they're hoping to rebook that fight with Joe Loz on.

Dana White was saying that he talked to Joe, and Joe's not sure it happens because he doesn't know if Saroni will cut back down to 155, so maybe Joe will want to do it to 170. Who knows? Francisco Trinaldo, the ageless Francisco Trinaldo gets it done. Macy Chieson, she won. Brando Royval, bonus earning submission win. Blagoi Ivanov, he won. Andre Fialo, credible knockout. Tracy Cortez, good win. No offense, Tris Cortez. This is a Melissa Gatto giving a fight away kind of a performance. Tracy, tough as hell. Great job. defensive stuff because Melissa was trying for things, but I felt like this is a fight that Melissa could have won pretty clearly and good on Tracy Cortez taking advantage of that.

C.J. Vergara, good win, first UFC win. Lupi Godinez, phenomenal performance tonight. She's not even going to get really talked about in the aftermath of this card, but she really should be because that was a dominant performance against Ariani Cardalosi and then Journey Newson, nice patient performance for a guy that's usually really, I don't know if reckless is the word, but a guy just comes out, like Jedd likes to say, he's either got or get God. Get or get God. Get or get God.

Get or get God. Journey Newsom is not that today, and he gets a victory. His first official UFC victory, because his first actual win, the technical actual win was taken away for a little bit of the gong. So this hopefully is, if all the tests are passed, this will go down as a, is the first official UFC win for Journey News.

So there you go. Let's go to the peeps. Let's go to the peeps. Can I just say I am heartened by some of the comments. Some people I see some people saying ban uppercuts and knees. I'm in full agreement with that very, very dangerous techniques. Someone said that overhand rights. I tell you see those overhand rights sometimes.

They're talking with real malice. I don't like that. Someone said boxing, just like just ban punching. Again, I was covering the boxing today and that was something that crossed my mind. I was like, this is really cool, like a little too much punching. On this note, A.K., I do have a question for you because going back to an earlier conversation, rules rule, but Charles O'Levara rules more. Correct. Why? Because if there's a man who mixes the martial arts more than Charles O'Olavera, I'm not sure I know them.

I don't want to hear this. I don't want to hear this. And as we all know, you would like to keep the martial arts apart. Yeah. Hold on. Nix has banned all significant strikes. I agree. I'm really more of an insignificant strike fan. Oh, did I have a strawweight title fight for you, my good sir? I heard there was no strikes in that. That sounds distressing. Oh, no, there were a lot of strikes.

They both threw over 100 and landed 30 apiece. Someone just said banned Charles Oliva. That's probably actually good for the rest of the lightweight division. That's actually probably good. No, see, you know what? No, Jed, this fight was won by Jujitsu. All right? Yeah, listen, he landed some bombs.

you might call it as a classic clubbing and subbing. I don't know. But at the end of the day, Jed, it was Jiujitsu that got the win here. All right, he didn't need to punch him. I mean, good for him. He makes him in there. He showed up his stand-up. It's good for Charles.

He likes to show that stuff out he wanted to. Charles was getting a lot of take-downs before he knocked Justin Gage's head through the back. Yeah, that's for the fans, all right? The mixing of the bars, but it. So in that, him and I disagree, Philis-Dilisle. But I'm still a fan. You are somewhat right. I do wish she would mix some martial arts a little bit less.

You got all that jujitsu. Just use it. Oh, real quick. You did mention boxing in the sweet science. You were on Canello duty. I was. Talk about the fight real quick before you go to the beeps. Great performance by Dimitri Bivel.

For sure, man, for sure. The story, he was always, he was being viewed as a live dog. Canello, pretty big favorite, plus 500 around there on most betting sites. So, I mean, a big favorite, but not like, not like a double digit. and it didn't in like plus 1,000. There was a lot of people, excuse me, minus 1,000. There was a lot of people who said size for sure. I mean, this is light heavyweight.

This is as big as Canelo gets. He's had difficulties against, like, guys who are with clear physical advantages. Like Golofkin he had so difficulty with. Was it Serge Kovalev? He won that fight by knocking him out, but he had trouble. He had trouble. He's a bit of a slow starter. So all these things were kind of like working against him.

But, you know, because he's Connello, obviously he's still. be a massive favorite and most of the predictions were for Canello but I didn't see anyone like ruling out Bivel that I saw very few people saying like oh yeah he's going to run through this guy like this is a this is a real challenge for him like he has to be at his like he has to be at his his best to beat this guy this isn't like just a walkthrough and sure enough um he had his difficulties Bivel's jab was awesome his whole game plan his whole strategy was perfect and perfectly executed uh his deep his defense was fantastic he had a beautiful guard which was just which was covering most of his body because he knew Canello was going to try and kind of just get around that get around

getting close and bang up his body. That's all the success Canelo had, but it wasn't enough. And eventually when Canello would even get a body shot in, Bimba was right there countering with like combination. He would respond with combinations, which looked great to the judges, which did legitimate damage, frustrated Conello. You can see him getting pissed. He just really couldn't figure out how to get anything going against this guy. So great performance by Bibble. I don't want to, I don't know if people want to say like, oh, Conello is. I mean, I think he's still in his prime. So I just think it was a tough opponent.

I think all the credit goes to Bivel. I don't think this says anything about Canello being on a downslider, something like that. Again, he just, this is as big as he should go. Bivel was way, way bigger than him. And also, in this case, I would say, the more skilled fighter. So it wasn't just a size thing. I think he looked great.

And just the second last Canella's career. So, you know, these things happen in boxing. Maybe he shouldn't. Maybe this was not a great opponent for Connell to take. But they said he likes challenges. and you're going to take a loss sometimes we do these things. So good for Bival. And Connell will be back.

So I didn't see any of it. And I do have one question for you, AK. Was Canello's performance, do you think it was in any way impacted by thinking about Kamar Ustman and wanting to box him? Absolutely. Oh, 100%. I mean, look. Ousman was in his head, right?

Listen, he was, I think the problem is I think he's downgraded his training in preparation for an Uzman fight. I think you're right. I think he was like, this is as good as I need to be, like to beat Kamar Usman. And really, he needs to be up here to beat Bivel. And he clearly wasn't there. And again, this is a credit to Bival. This is, I think, how good Bivel is.

And at least, again, facing someone who had quite a bit of size on, quite a bit of weight on. But yeah, I don't know. Let's hope that this is the end of the Usman talk for now. Usman Bivel. Hey, listen, that's the fight to make, right? Yeah, I really never got into that talk. I'd be happy if Usman got one of those fights, obviously getting itself a payday. But I think for any fans who are tired of hearing that crossover talk with him and a Canello or anybody, you'll be okay for the next little while.

I don't think it's going to come up. Maybe. I mean, listen, he's just going to keep doing it. No. Oh, no. Listen, it was Usman's tweet about getting locked into a room and who's the one man who would come out of the locked room. That was the dumbest tweet of all time. I know.

And now he's going to swivel to bivol. There you go. By the way, before we get to the peeps, Sean Al Shadi, the great Sean Lashati, just put it on a tweet about a minute ago. Carlos Spars and Rose Dame Yunis landed a combined 68 strikes in 25 minutes tonight. Charles Oliver and Justin Gatchi nearly matched that total

in a little over three minutes. There you go. It's a little statistical stuff for you. Let's go to the peeps. And how great is it that the fight of the night was what, like two and a half minutes long or something? Or less than two and a half minutes long? Good. I love that.

That's right. And I wish they would give more. Who won that fight? Who won that fight? Oh, wow. It is not the year of the raw dog. It might be. It's not.

Sir. You're wrong. I made a tactical mistake thinking that there would be four performance of the nights instead of a fight of the night because I was halfway right, whereas there was no, like, there shouldn't have been a fight at the night. There just weren't four people to give performance bonuses to. So they gave Matt Schnell one instead. Actually, the person that should have. I'm happy Matt Schnell got a fight, all right?

And a $50,000 bonus. So good for him. Yeah. That guy just cannot get in the cage. Oh, I also realized this. Mike, remember when we were doing it? Actually, maybe you weren't there, AK, it was, I think it was a romew. ranking show when we did

over under champions who new champions was it a ranking show or maybe it was just something else we were doing I don't remember it was part of the ranking show yeah was I picked over the two and a half and that's probably wrong but it actually might push

because Olivera is not the lightweight champion and the Sparza 1 so that's only one though it's one and a halfish because all that's there's There's no new champion, but there's also not the same champion. So that feels like a half.

So if Yere beats Glover, that's right on the two and a half line. I don't think it's a half. I understand. I understand. I feel like that counts as a half in this scenario. Yeah, I'm looking at draft kings right now. Yeah, it's definitely. They're saying it's best thing.

It's right here. Draft Kings for all your betting needs. There you go. All right. Real quick, because we're not going to talk about it, but I just have to talk about it because I was so impressed by our performance tonight. He should have got.

Her man with the car, what's her ceiling? She was flowing tonight, AK probably hated it, but she mixed the martial arts. She didn't actually... The biggest troll. She didn't do a lot of that. Mixing the martial arts? She mixed them a little bit.

I thought she did a great job, actually, of mixing the martial arts. That's why I wanted to talk about because she did such a good... job of her striking and controlling her wrestling and her grappling. I thought it was like one of the best mixes of the martial arts of the night, honestly. I would, I mean, of the night, sure, but I, she really struck for like, I mean, she, she rocked Carnalosa or whatever in the second round, for sure.

But other than that, she just tackled her and hustled her on the floor. Yeah, well, I mean, I just thought it was a great, just a performance from using control, submissions, with ground and bound and unbelievable performance yeah and everything she and when she was on her feet she just knelt her

who's her opponent Ariani Ariani Carna Lucey yeah just I thought she deserves a performance bonus take away from Matt Schnell give it to Lupy and that's enough for her

don't you take anything away from matchnell the guy can barely fights Casey he needs this all right I know we kind of went on talked about this, but I think he deserves his comment up here. Jen, we're going to say about Chandler now. He's not going to be champion, but he doesn't suck.

I agreed. He doesn't suck. He's not going to be champion, and that's okay. Most people in the world aren't champion. Charles Oliver is not a champion. We're being honest. Technically, the world is not the champion.

So, but like, real talk, Chandler's, really fun. This is going to end very quickly because he just can't. You can't fight like this and have long-term success, especially at like 35 or whatever he is. He keeps getting hit very hard in fights, and that is not repeatable. Can I tell people where you have Chandler and your rankings, Jed? Can I go to inside baseball here? Sure, I don't remember. I think I have him fairly high. You have him pretty highly. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So, you know, I think you have a beef with Michael Chandler, but when it comes to professionally

doing your rankings, you're pretty respectful. You have him. I think where he belongs, fifth. You have him a fifth. People don't understand that you can, people just don't get that. You can suck and be really good, but you can still suck. I got you. It's just, it's a feeling, not so much outcome.

It's not qualitative. It's not qualitative. is what you're saying. No, yeah. Like, he obviously, he is one of the 10 best or better 155-pound fighters in the world. And he doesn't suck, but previously he did. And that's all I was saying. I don't think he can move up in your rankings, right?

He's not, this doesn't put him over like Justin Fourier or, no, right? My lightweight rankings are going to move by exactly one spot where Oliver is going to move in front of Justin Gage. Oh, I was wondering if you're going to penalize him for the weight miss. No, because I don't care. I don't care about the weight miss. And I said on either the pre-fight show or something else this week, I don't remember. It's really stupid because it doesn't matter because lightweight is actually 156 pounds because a vast majority of fights take place 156 pounds. So I'm not penalizing for this at all.

I truly do not care about this weight miss. It does not mean anything to me. Why do they do the no pound allowance per? Because it's a- It just sounds better. We like to say it. The pound allowance? Why do they not do the pound allowance for the championship fights?

Like why? Because then it's actually supposed to be at the weight that they're at the limit of the division. The one pound allowance, as far as I am aware, is just a holdover from like wrestling where they do that. Yes, but it's also, the one pound allowance is also. Yeah, no, the one pound allowance is also. also in, it's actually exactly for situations like this where there might be issues with the scale. That's actually, but there were not issues with the scale, first of all.

But if there were, well, exactly. Sorry, we don't know. But let's say there were. I'm not playing into that. Well, okay, but, but I'm saying, and let's say there is a situation where that happened. That's actually what the one pound allowance is for. So it's really silly not to have it for title flights. Like it just doesn't make sense.

I get it. It just sounds neither. We like to say 155 on the dot. Like that's true champions can, can make. sure to really hit that mark but it's like why why i would i would disagree and say that it's actually very silly that we allow it ever but sure like it's just i just don't care because i wouldn't care if you missed by five pounds like he's a lightweight it's fine and i feel like if charles oliver had anybody else donning the scale this wouldn't even be a conversation right now and he'd still be

the champion because there are fighters there are fighters for sure and i've talked to people who've literally told me that they've seen championship fighters not be at championship weight and then the scale guy is just like all right cool you're close the guy but i like but like the guy we're criticizing the arizona commission for doing their job i yeah i'm not i'm not doing that at all no no no but by by the other because that yeah fighters are used to a lot of people fighters are used to commission guys just yeah i just got to get if you're 155 and a half you're just like, all right, cool, 155, let's go. The fight island guy was just like, step of the scale.

Like when Habib stepped through the scale, right now, Habib just literally put two feet on the scale and he slammed it home saying 155. We knew he wasn't 155. It's official. Play the music. And this is exactly why in boxing, the other corners are always there. And for some

reason, MMA, they don't do that. So, can I just call out Cam Cam in the comments? It says, that's a bad take. It's a 1505 pound belt, not 156 belt. So you're okay with someone like doing like weighing in at 156 for all their fights up until the championship fight. Let's say they go like a 10 fight win streak all at 156 and then they oh, then they have to drop down to 155 for that one fight. Like that's so dumb.

Stupid. But that's what they do it. Yeah. It's just stupid. I mean, if you're going to do that, if you're going to do that, just do it every time. Yeah, exactly. It should be the same. Either no allowance or the allowance for title fights too.

It doesn't. It's just stupid. And use a goddamn digital scale. It's not the 1930s. No, that's worse because you can't fudge it. Oh, yeah, you're right. Our boy, Mark Romandi, we're always like beam scale. Rules.

Because you can lie. The beam scale lies. I feel like AK is just abandoning all of his core principles. Rules no longer rule. Yeah, what's going on? Martial arts can be mixed. It's anarchy out here. I respect the beam scale.

At the beam scale says the guy made weight, he made weight. That's the rule. I respect it. I do want to get this. Oh, go ahead, Jed. I just want to get this off my chest. I really don't like how Charles Oliver has handled all of this, basically. I love the lightweight division as a champion and his name is Charles.

I think that's a great line. But his absolute disdain for any responsibility for this is just annoying the hell out of me. Like, nah, wait at the hotel was good. I made weight on Thursday. You don't have to make weight Thursday. you didn't do the right thing. How are you a UFC champion? It was not a good weekend for people who are ostensibly supposed to be the best in their divisions.

Rose Namahunis vehemently yelled that like, oh, I stuffed all her takedowns. I don't get credit for my great defense. Actually, no, Rose, you do not. That is in the rules that that's not scoring criteria. You're a champion and should know that. What are we doing? And it's just everything else about Chuckie Olives is great. Undeniable performance.

But it is really rubbing me the wrong way that he's just like, you guys are assholes for questioning me. I made weight Thursday. And I made weight and then, but did it. And then I just didn't feel like losing the half pound. Like the truth feels really obvious to me. You just couldn't. You had nothing left to give.

And that's just say that. Just say it. And then say what we're saying. saying that a half-pound doesn't make a difference. He would have a much, much stronger case if he had not missed weight like three times as a featherweight. I get a different weight class. But I always tell people, like, weight class is one thing. But I also feel like it's a mentality thing, right?

So he has miss weight many, many times before. At a different weight class, this was the first time he ever missed in 155. So let's be clear. But he had missed many, many times of 145. The fact that he took almost the entire two hours, he did show up right. Like, if you were on weight, why were you not one of the first people to show up? I was on wait Thursday. And if people watch the way in the replay of the way in chat that we did, the live chat, we did, I was like, I was like, I'm sure Charles is fine.

He's just taking his time. I know he made. And really, that was just me being like super positive. That was not me thinking critically because it really made, like, it really made no sense. And then to take almost the entire extra hour and not lose like an ounce of weight is. Very, very, very strange. So I want to believe the skills story. Yeah, I want to believe all this other stuff around it.

But it just really doesn't, it doesn't hold up. It just doesn't, the story just doesn't hold up that well. I've never, all the way as we've watched, I've never seen someone come back after that hour or whatever and come back the same way. Can you imagine if Norman Dumont left for an hour and came back and still, like, it just doesn't happen. Yeah, it just doesn't. Exactly.

Especially when it's a half pound. It's not like he just went about it's like, you know what? I don't want to cut five pounds. I'll just eat the L. It's just like, nah, can't do a half pound. Just say that's fine. Last thing on this. Yes.

Just for pride purposes. If Charles Olivera made weight on Thursday, was my pick that he would be the first one to weigh in? Correct? Absolutely. It was not. Vindication, baby. Vindication.

All right. Let's take one more. No, because he made weight at the hotel scale, which is apparently the devil or something. Which is not the commission's fault, by the way. I just want to throw that out there. It's not. To Trevor Phil Rose is a coach today.

So I want to pull up this tweet from Eric Nixick from earlier today. I don't want to get your thoughts on this. Jedd I'll start with you. Eric Nixick tweeted out right after the fight, right before 1 a.m. Eastern time. Quote, I feel like Pat Berry cornered that fight like a spouse and not her coach. maybe that's where you allow Trevor to take over as essentially the lead guy

shouting out the instructions doing all this because the guy in the cage was Pat Barry. He was the guy. Now Trevor was gone to a couple different times but Eric feels like Pat didn't treat this as coach and fighter but as

girlfriend, fiance, husband, wife kind of thing and he should have allowed Trevor to just come in and handle things on his own. So your thoughts on the tweet and did the coaching staff just fail Rose Jed altogether? I have no idea on the Pat Berry thing, mainly because I can't delineate whether Pat Berry is just not a very good coach, which I think is entirely plausible, or if that played a part in it. Maybe it could be a mixture of both, but honestly, if you also just hear the way Rose talked about

afterwards, this was their plan and she felt that she was doing great. So take that for what it's worth. I think my guess is that Trevor Whitman feels he failed Rose. Now, I think this is a loaded question to some degree because coaches know their fighters and how what they will respond to a lot better than we do. And so that is where I really have my most questions about what would have been the best course of action because in my head, I would have told her after round one. all right, cool. You have established that this is what we're doing. Now, you should actually go try and fight her because this is not fighting. I don't know what it is, but it hurts my eyeballs to watch. Please go do something. And then I would have progressively doubled down on that statement as you are obviously better than her. Stop being afraid that she is going to grab you around the waist and just go bash her brains in. I suspect, well, it probably doesn't respond to me saying that to her in the corner. And so,

to some extent, I feel like the way Trevor Whitman was saying the things he was saying felt to me a lot like he was trying to urge more activity from her without being aggressive about it and in a way that she would respond to, especially in that kind of, because, you know, after that first round, it's like, yeah, you know, all right, you're doing, you've, you've set the range in here. Now we can open up a little bit more. It was more kind of coaxing her to do stuff than being like, hey, you got to go out and put it on her. And in the fifth round, you heard him say, all right, we're done, just go out, show the world who you are, let it flow. And to me, that was him saying, dude, go get her ass, but not saying that because I don't think Rose would probably respond all that well to being yelled at.

So I could be all the way wrong, but I feel like he probably thinks he failed her because at the end of the day, the coaches did fail her because they did not prepare her to adequately win this. fight. And she failed herself in that same regard, but I don't know how much it actually is. They failed it so much as that's just kind of the dynamics for their relationship and how it had to work out. Can I ask you this, Jen? If they fought again, if they fought again, would you pick Carla to win this time? Nope. I mean, she might because maybe the same thing would happen, but it was very evident to me after the second round that if Rose ever decided to start fighting, she was going to walk all over Carla. And things can change.

Carla could adjust a strategy or whatever, but it was just really obvious to me, at least watching that the times Carla was getting the engagement she wanted, she wasn't accomplishing anything with him. And so that should make Rose be like, oh, cool, I don't have to worry about you taking me down because I can mostly stop it just in its tracks. And I can create the scramble and get back to space

and just start teeing off on you. Maybe that changes, but I can't. I could not pick against the talent of Rosener rematch, though. I won't bet on Rosenom Yunus as a champion ever again, because she fights way worse when she is a champion than when she's competing for a belt. I think that that is unquestioned at this point. You know what's really sad?

Of the four people involved in the championship fight on Saturday, the one who had by far the most impressive performance is the one who's not going home with the belt. I mean, the street people are not going home with the belt, but one of them should be, and it's not. He should not be, but yeah. I'll stop it. Rules have to mean something. No, man, you're right.

And I don't care because the thing's a fucking prop anyways, though. Yeah, well, exactly. He's going home with something more important. He is going to be the number one lightweight in the only rankings that matter. I mean, sure, he's got a few hundred thousand dollars less in his bank account or maybe a million dollars less. Who knows? But, yeah, but he has number one ranked. So, yeah, good for him.

It didn't mean that much to him because he didn't, he made weight Thursday and didn't feel like doing it again. Someday, he'll be number one. We're still back to Charles missing weight. He will not, he will not be because Islam is going to kill him. He's going to beat Islam and that's going to bring Habib out of retirement and then he's going to beat Habib. I called this like a year ago. I'm standing by it. The gears are in motion.

That would be incredible. Let me tell you why it won't happen for a number of reasons, but specifically, hot take alert. Charles O'Levarez is a much more dangerous striker than he is a grappler. And I did not think about this at all coming into the fight, but he has a very stupid cheat code that when Justin Gates, he hit him, he just fell over.

And I was like, all right, come on in. This is like, um, Verdum used to do it. When Verdum, like, obviously, it would be Fador. Yeah, I was just saying. No, but even, after the Fador thing, because the Fador thing built this like, all right, you just can't get in his guard.

He would just kind of be like, yeah, come on down. And no one would ever do it so he could do whatever the hell he wanted to on the feet. And as soon as you got touched, you just fall over. And even though he's actually not like, Trullos O'Lavere has been submitted a lot. Paul Feldner got in his guard and just elbowed his freaking head in. Like, it's maybe not the best idea to grapple with him. But he is a much more dangerous grappler when he's. has hurt you on the feet or is in top position,

then you being in dominant position and bashing his brains in. But Gagey wasn't going to play with that fire. And so it just let Oliver get a little bit of a break, stand up and then bunch him in the face again. And he's turned into a really, really effective striker. And I think that's his best weapon. I didn't realize that until you said it. Yeah, Charles Odeverer is a lightweight.

Is for doom? Yeah, he's lightweight for doom. He's a lightweight for doom. You're right. His career is so. similar to the way that like obviously kind of built and just became yeah it was just two guys and they were

just kind of uneven performances and then all of a sudden holy crap are they the best in the world also they share really like the way that oliver had like I think the way he has manifested into this badass is he figured out

a really simple thing about MMA never walk backwards and you win nobody can fight moving backwards in the sport and he just doesn't walk backwards. And so he eats a bunch of shots, but like, Gachie immediately walked backwards and the fight was over. And that's just been how he's fought.

And Verdum used to do the same damn thing. He would run across the cage and throw a freaking side jump kick or whatever. And Steepay finally kind of broke that code when... Because Steepay figured out Steepa can, even though he sucks. Even though he sucks. Stepe can punch people while walking backwards and got him. But otherwise, Verdom just walks forward. And that's all Aver does.

walked forward and he wins. I think to sum all that up, it feels like you're saying he's really good at mixing the martial arts and now I feel attacked. So Mike, can we just get, can we get out of here? Mike, I feel attacked now. Hit the music. Get the music. I think that was a lot.

That was a lot of words to say that he mixes the martial arts. He's gotten really good at mixing the martial arts and that just depends me. I'm saying, what I'm saying is that Isamakachev has zero fear of Charles Oliver off his back, which is the exact correct way to fight him. He should be. He really shouldn't. He is going, he might knock him out on the feet because Chucky gets hit a lot. And then Islam will just follow him down and bash his brains in.

I hope this. I can't wait for this fight to happen. Real quick on this question before I hit the music, the answer is yes. Trevor did fell rose because as the coach, you tell your fighter, you are losing rounds. I don't know how these rounds are scored, but I cannot guarantee

you're winning them. And the fact that they did not tell Rose, you are losing this fight, you have to knock this woman out. That is a failure on the great coach, Trevor Whitman. That's all. And can I say,

can I say, Casey, I applaud you not once. Maybe you did it on the post-bite show. I'm not sure, the crash-vone show. Not once did you mention the words open scoring. I did on Twitter, but not here.

You did on Twitter, but not on here. God bless you, sir. God bless you. I appreciate that. I appreciate it. We're going to say, Jen.

We're really not going to talk about Shogun Huah getting robbed. Oh, dude, was that the saddest moment when he thought he won? I, in the way, fighting officially had him winning. Dude, did you actually see, like, when they announced a winner, Shogun thought it was him, and he raised his hand. He was like, oh, it was. Because he should have won.

It was robbed. Robbery review, AK? Are we going to do robbery review? Oh. That broke my heart. Look, he won that fight, and I don't care. I stand by it. Yeah, the Phoenix fan should be ashamed of themselves for booing Shogunua, by the way.

100%. Okay, we're out of here. A.K., I'll see you in six hours, buddy. But in the meantime, good night or good morning or good afternoon, depending on where the hell you're at in the world. Love you all. Good night. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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