MMA Fighting - UFC 276 Post-Fight Show: Israel Adesanya Cruises In Snoozer, Alexander Volkanovski Shines | Reaction

Episode Date: July 3, 2022

Did UFC 276 live up to expectations? Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski left Las Vegas with belts still around their waists, but for one of them, the performance wasn't exactly inspired — and that seems to be becoming a pattern. MMA Fighting's Shaun Al-Shatti, Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and Jed K. Meshew react to a busy night in Sin City that saw Adesanya file in another snoozer of a title defense, Volkanovski cement his legacy as the greatest featherweight of his era, Alex Pereira do terrible things to Sean Strickland, and much more. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed K. Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What is up, my friends. This is the UFC 276 post-fight show here on Emory Fighting. What is going on? My name is Sean O'Shaunty. I am joined by my man who's been killing it all week in Las Vegas. You know him. He is Mike Heck.

Also, of course, my guys, A.K. Lee, Jed Michoud. We got the producer extraordinaire, E. Casey Layden, Man in the Boards. And so let's get to it. because, gentlemen, there was a lot of card of the year chatter, as far as the eye could see headed into this Saturday night. Ain't no more. In the end, I think there were, you know, some highlights, but it's probably fair to say that the event didn't live up to those expectations.

So, Mike, let's start with you because I know you're going to get kicked out of that media room press conference went in a very, very long time. Israel at Asenia defends his title, tonight's main event. It was a clear win. He was never in danger. but this is now three in a row since the yon fight and really four if you want to include the yon fight where we're walking away from an Israel-A sanya

fight title defense whatever using these type of words like tactical and technical words that are essentially MMA synonyms for boring and are just not we're not particularly blown away by what we see as in MMA world coming away from this fight the booze were out in full force by the end of this one just your instant takeaways from what you saw tonight I think I mean listen

I get where people are coming from. I understand why some people are booing and stuff like that. I also understand that it takes two to tango. And I felt pretty much throughout the week, starting from the media day on that Jared Kennanier was rattled by the moment. He was, I don't think he was ready for it mentally. I think he expected it to go one way. And by the time it arrived, I think he was just done with it.

He didn't, the extra media obligations, media day. He wasn't down to clown at all. And then you could see it at the press conference, sort of the same thing. I agree with Izzy a lot of what he was saying, that Jared mentally just wasn't the pressure guy that could carry that weight. And listen, Izzy's fights have not been all that excited. I get that. But everybody that broke this fight down and said that the key to Jared Cannonadeer winning this fight in any way was he had to make this a dog fight. He had to go after Izzy.

He had to make it dirty. and Izzy was probably expecting that type of game plan from Canineer. But he just never got there. Cannonair was not aggressive at all. I kind of questioned his gameplay. He turned a fight that should have been more of a brawl into a mid-range kickboxing match. A fight he will never win if they fought a thousand times. So if you're going to blame Adasani, at least in my opinion,

I think Cannesier at least deserves the same amount of blame, if not more, for why this fight went down the way it did. And for Adasanya, the key to the game, what it's all about is give damage, take less, cash those checks, and get your hand raise. And he did all of those things. May not have been the most exciting performance of all time, but the guy continues to be undefeated at middleweight. He's still the champion.

And now he's got a massive fight to get ready for with Alex Baheda. So he just needed to get the job done here, and he knew a big fight was awaiting him. And that's all it was. I get why people are critical, but I think people are, I don't know, of prisoners of the moment, if you will. So I know Jed has a lot of thoughts on this, AKA, as well, we're going to get to you guys in a little bit because I think I probably agree with some of you.

But I will say, I mean, prisoners of the moment maybe feels fair if this was an isolated incident, but this is now four times in a row, or three times at least, at minimum, two years, basically, of coming away from these fights where Izzy saying I had an off night and a lot of people are just complaining. And I understand it takes two to tango,

and so in what you said is completely fair, But when the peak of the night is essentially the walkout, which was admittedly awesome, the Undertaker walkout was sensational. I love that. The man is theatrical to an extreme degree and it's excellent. But when that's sort of the top moment of the night for your main event and it's all downhill from there, is something missing here in regards to Izzy's reign at this point, Mike, because it does start to feel like something is starting to be lacking in that people. are only going to be burned so many times. Casual fans are only going to be burned so many times before they maybe stop tuning in

or that sort of thing. Yeah, he's missing a dance partner is what he's missing. The Robert Whitaker fight is not, was not that bad of a fight. It was a close fight. It was a very competitive. It's high level martial arts.

Was it a barn burner? Was it Robbie Lawler, Brian Barbereda? No, but very few Izzy fights are like that. I think Izzy just went in there. He said a lot of things selling the fight that he was going to have a dominant performance. And it just wasn't that kind of fight. Like I said, it takes two to tango.

But he needs a guy that's going to go after him. He needs a guy. Adasanya is not just going to be like, you know what? People are bored. People think I'm boring. So I'm just going to change everything about my style and everything about myself just so I can make them happy. Who cares if I lose? I'm just, it's all about making them happy.

And that's how he fights. That's how he fights. He's a technical kickboxer. But if you go after him, he's a great counter. We thought Cannonair was going to turn this into a dog fight. I think Anasani was ready for this to turn into a dog fight. I don't think he's prepared for Canadaer to be as off as he was tonight and as under-aggressive as he was today.

And sometimes when things don't go your way, you have to try to deal with it. And Adasania was not in danger at all in this fight. He won the fight and now he's got a massive fight ahead of him. And he says there wasn't a lot of pressure. There's got to be some pressure. After that press conference with Strickland and everything, a massive fight. to wait at him. He needed to win tonight. Now, if he gets to this Alex

Bahadah fight with all the hype and build that's going to take place, if he fought Sean Strickland with all the hype and build that's going to take place and we get another sort of boring fight out of this, then I think we're kind of getting into that red territory. We're like, all right, maybe we,

maybe there's more to this that meets the eye. But I think he's missing just a dance part that's willing to go after him and turn this into the kind of fight where it's, it's more of, I'm here to actually take the title off of this guy, as opposed to, I'm just here to not get knocked out by this guy and become a poster or a highlight reel. And I think that's what happens to a lot of these guys.

They get into it with Adasania, the moment's huge, the walkout, everything, and then they kind of freeze up a little bit. So they just need someone, and I think Alex Beheada is so calm and cool under the pressure. None of this has rattled him. Fighting at MSG, fighting at Team Mobile Arena. None of that has rattled Alex Behanada at all. Plus, this guy is two wins in combat sports or Rearser Al-Aadisani. So if Alex Pahara can't get Israel-A-Sahania fired up for a fight,

I just don't know who else can at this point, Sean. Do you think, I mean, that's what was going to be my last question to you about this fight, is do you think that this is the fight now to get this all back, the fire back, the hype all of this? Like the excitement back in the Israel-A-Sanier, is this the one, the Alex-Perreira fight? I just don't see any other way, honestly. This is the one.

It's either that or Strickland. I think what was awaiting him, and I think a lot of people were looking ahead as well. They felt like Adasani was going to win. we're just moving on. Like, is he going to fight Perrera or is he going to fight Sean Strickland? That was the big question

heading into this fight. Goes out, gets the win. Now he gets the big fight with Alex Pereira. I think this will get it out of him because I think Alex is going to go after him. Alex is a tactical guy. He's a powerful striker.

Just ask Sean Strickland. But I think Pereer's got a point to prove. I think he wants to make his own statement and I think he's going to be the kind of stylistic foil that could bring that excitement out of Israel, out of Sanya. He just didn't have a cannon air.

I think the Whitaker fight doesn't get enough credit, if we're being honest, because you get the two best guys in the world fighting. Sometimes it's going to be super fun, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's going to be Yuri Perashka versus Glover Tachira, and sometimes it's going to be Israel-Azania versus Jared Canaanere. It's hard, man. It's hard to set that bar. It's hard to be a guy.

You say this all the time, man. The hardest thing to do in combat sports is to be a UFC champion and show up day in and day out and try to take these guys best days. You can have a horrible week. You can have a great week. And you have to deal with all the pressures that come with that. And I think, yeah, it ain't pretty sometimes, but Adasani is still the best middleweight in the world.

And I think Alex Bahraeta might be able to get something out of him. But I think he's missing a foil. I think he's missing a guy that actually wants to take the title off of him. It's not just, I just want to go five rounds of the champ. What a cool moment that would be. A guy who wants to go in there and is 100% going to be angry and livid. and upset if they are not the champion at the end of the night. And I think Alex Bahraer can be that guy.

Well, quickly, Mike, I want to hit the co-main with you before you go because I know you only have a few more minutes. And then everyone we're going to revisit back to circle back around to the main event. But I mean, that co-main event, man, Alexander Volcanowski coming in here. We were talking about it all week. The history at stake here, the stakes, just what this meant for legacy, all of it. And what we got was just five rounds of a masterclass. was brilliance at its finest. He shut Max Holloway out.

And at this point, this is just a legacy sealing performance in my mind by Alexander Volcanovsky. Mike, where you is blown away tonight as I was by the featherweight champ. Alexander Volcanowski, next week we submit our rankings will be my number one pound for pound fighter

on the planet. He will be the number one guy. He will take over Kamar Usman. Now Usman could, with a win over Lee and Edwards, maybe he sneaks back ahead. but right now, Alexander Volcanovokovsky is the best fighter on planet Earth. Pound for pound, he is the guy. He's so well-rounded.

No one does that to Max Holloway. He has pitched back-to-back perfect games. We talk about the performance that Valentina Shepchenko had against Jessica Androge, how she went out there and pitched a perfect game. And then you follow it up and like, yeah, you go out there and you beat Lauren Murphy and it's a good win, but, you know, we don't consider it.

It's kind of a perfect game. But we look at the level of competition. that Alexander Volcanovsky continues to face. What do he do with that Brian Ortega performance? What he did against the Korean zombie? That was about as perfect of title defense as you can have. And then to do it even better against a guy like Max Holloway, a guy who's constantly debated is, is he the best featherweight of all time?

Is it Jose Aldo? And to just go out there and style, like he's styled on Max. Max styles on other guys. Max doesn't get styled on. He got styled on tonight by Alexander Volcanovokinovsky. 50, 45, swept the score, cards incredible performance and this man has tons of options right now he could fight josh emmint he could fight yaya ira Rodriguez if yair beats brian ortega or i'm i'm very intrigued about this potential

move to 155 if the ufc just said you know what islam's going to get his opportunity we're just going to do charles olivore versus alexander wokovsky right now islam will be upset about it habib will be upset about it the management team will be upset about it but would a lot of fans be upset about that? I don't think so. I think that's an intriguing fight, and I think Alexander Volcanovokovsky made a strong case to help propel his argument to the direction he wants to go.

Alexander Volkanovsky is a treasure. You need to respect him, and if you're out there bullying Alexander Volkanovsky, you need to stop because he's going to cut a promo about you, and he's just going to have to beat somebody else's ass in his next title defense. But what a performance from Volkinovsky. It was an A-plus.

Speaking of A-plus, there's Jose Youngs who just walked behind me, dressed like at A plus. I see you Jose. I see Jose trying to get some camera time. I feel you, man. Of course you. Mike.

I am right there with you, Mike. As soon as I mean, internally obviously we have our Slack. As soon as you wrote that on the Slack of on the rankings channel, he's going to be your number one pound pound. I instantly chimed in. I'm right there with you, man. I was one of the slowest comers to the Alexander Volcanovsky train.

It took me forever to get there. I was ranking max ahead of him when I shouldn't have. I'm with you. My next ranking cycle, Alex is my number one. At this point, this is just ridiculous how impressive this is. Like you said, He pitched two perfect games in a row. Quickly last thing, and then I'll let you go.

If you're Max Holloway, you're 30 years old, and all of a sudden you're looking at an O and three hole in your own division, you went up to lightweight once, didn't really work out. What do you do right now if you're Max Holloway? Because this is all of a sudden a very bleak and seemingly rough road ahead of him. Yeah, speaking of options, Max Holloway has a lot of options now as well. He could just choose to just play video games for the rest of his life. and do just fine.

I mean, what else can this man do at 145 pounds? There's nothing more he can do. To even get a Volkinovsky fight, to even get a fourth crack at him, it's going to take, I mean, it's going to take just a miracle at this point after the type of performance that Volkanowski had. But if that competitive drive is still there to compete,

he could go to 155, he could fight Gaichi or Chandler or guys like that, just things that challenge him, that things that interest him, he doesn't he he he doesn't need a title to be a star he doesn't need to fight to be a star he crosses over in so many different ways so if he wants to fight he can and if he doesn't he doesn't have to he can do whatever that whatever he wants so while it was a bad night for max holloway and i'm sure he's disappointed in his performance he could still do whatever he wants he's got a family he's not married living the dream playing video games but there's still really fun fights for him like i want max holloway versus just a gaitry at some point i think that fight is awesome I think that'll intrigue Max, and I think that'll be something that'll challenge him and just keep that hunger going a little bit in the fight sport. But if he chooses to do something else or go out, wow, we're going.

Yeah. All right. See, people, I mean, maybe my takes are so hot that they're just knocking my stuff all over, all the floor. But there's not a lot of space to be over. But, yeah, Max can do whatever he wants. I think this is going to be a bummer, but I think 24 hours from now he's going to be over it. It is what it is, baby.

and then we're on to the next thing. So I think he'll be fine. Whether he comes back at 155 or 145, it's up to him. If he needs that challenge, there'll be plenty of options for him. But, I mean, Max showed up, Volkadovsky. I just don't think anybody's beaten. No one was going to be Volcanovsky tonight and just an incredible performance. Yeah, man.

I mean, I have to say just selfishly, it's a very tough spot to look at it. Because, I mean, again, selfishly, I am uncomfortable with the idea of Max at 155 in a way. that he has taken so much damage over these last, like, couple of years. He's going to take a lot more damage in 155. Those guys are bigger. They hit a lot harder, and we saw it against Justin Porier, what can happen there. Either way, though, man, we are going to continue to talk about it. You have killed it all week.

We appreciate you, Mike. Heck, you are the man for Jose Youngs as well. A little golf clap for you guys this week. It was a crazy week, and we appreciate the work that you fellas did killing it for MMA fighting the best damn website in the entire world. Save travels back, my man. go get yourself some sleep I just want to say a couple things

thank you all for all of your help my wonderful colleagues at MMA fighting thank you for all who actually listened to my voice for like 12 hours this week I don't know how you do it I am so sick of my own voice right now it's insane and I don't know if I'm going to be able to talk at all tomorrow I don't know if I'm

going to be able to talk at all tomorrow so AK I'm going to give you all that I got on on to the next one and I just want to thank all the people who came out and people actually just wanted to actually take pictures with me. I just think that's so weird and I don't know why you didn't want to do that. But it's just such a cool week. First time ever in Vegas. It was amazing. So thank you all very much. And happy trails to Donald Seroni and Jessica I. Well done. Enjoy the rest of the show, guys. You're the best.

The man. You know, in fairness, a lot of those photographs after they were taken out, I heard a lot of people went like, thanks, Dana. So, I mean, there may have been some. There may have been some confusion there. Oh, that's cold-blooded. Mike was already out. You hit him when he was already gone. Yeah. Man can't defend himself. All right, guys.

Let's rewind now to this main event because I know each of you have thoughts on this. And Jed, I could see you off-camera just bursting as Mike was speaking that entire time. Israel-a-Sena. I'll go to you first, Jed. You heard what Mike said. I think part of it, too, is the expectations that Israel sets before these fights. He's talking always about this. This is going to be an iconic event.

I'm going to do something you've never seen before. And then lately we've been getting these type of things. What do you make of what we've seen from Izzy? Do you agree with Mike? Do you have your own thoughts? Like what's going on here when it comes to Izzy's reign over these last couple years in your mind? I'm going to preface this by saying something that I think should at least color everything. I already started working on my pound for pound rankings.

Izzy is going to have my top spot. So bear that in mind for everything else I'm going to say. because I'm sorry. I don't think we need to pretend that that fight was good or interesting or fun because it wasn't. Like you don't need to pee on my head and tell me it's raining because I'm not an idiot. That is not to say that Israel disney did not dominantly win that fight. And that is his primary goal and purpose. And so that's fine.

The parts I struggle with, I will also, I guess, let me say, Jared Canaaner is as much, if not more responsible for that. because everything Mike said in that regard, to some extent, is true. But the inverse is true as well. Yes, Izzy is winning, and so there is no real onus for him to try more if someone's not going to bring the fight to him. But again, we don't have to pretend like it's fun to watch him coast in in third gear and win fights. Like that's not, we don't have to do that. We don't have to defend Izzy from the criticisms that are justifiably being leveled at him for this. because you are right.

I am less bothered by the pre-fight buildup and say, I'm going to kill this dude and the not delivering. That bothers me a lot less than the sort of unrighteous indignation afterwards of, well, I just beat the hell out of the dude on my worst day. You can have a lot of bad days lately, is he? So I don't know if this is your worst one, because all of your performances lately afterwards, you're singing the same song and dance.

And again, he is getting the win. That is the most important thing. And so that's okay. But we also just don't have to pretend like that that winning clears all criticism because there's a lot to levy here. And it was just really frustrating. It's really annoying to hear him say that like literally repeat the same stuff he said before. I know this because I transcribes his interviews beforehand where he said,

you know, my performances against Robert Whitaker and Marvin Vittory, they were remit. matches so I wasn't that interested. I came out flat. You know, I didn't have a great performances. But Jared, Jared's new blood, feel like a vampire. I'm ready to go. And then literally says the exact same thing about fighting Bahia next. Like, you can't tell me the same thing over. Fool me once, you know, shame on you. Fool me seven times or whatever it is now. You're just selling wolf tickets, dude. And that's not, again, that's fine because you are winning and that is the primary purpose here. But I don't have to pretend like, like this is cool. I can be annoyed and frustrated by this. And so can fans, especially fans,

you know, dropping $75 with the expectation that something cool is going to happen. And so again, he's still going to be my top pound for pound fighter this upcoming month because his resume legitimately is the best of any fighter competing right now. Like I don't think it's an argument at this point, frankly. But the way he is going about it is in the moment really bad. Now, Now, time heals all wounds. You know, Anderson had bad fights. John Jones has had bad fights. George St. Pierre had bad fights.

But the aggregate, when you look back on it, it all just gets a little bit rosier. And I'm sure this will happen here. But this is really bad. And it's been, like, I would argue that these fights are much worse to watch than some of Anderson's bad moments. Or at least that Anderson gave us higher moments. And I have more, but I don't want to talk for like 30 minutes on me. interrupted. So, okay, because like, I can just keep going on this because, like, there's a lot to say about if, if you can fight one way, then that's, that's not a thing that we should celebrate

as much as everyone seems to be rushing to defend it. And it's like, yeah, Jared Canonnier deserves a lot of criticism. But it's also like, this, that's where I'll end. Jared Kennedy maybe deserves more blame for that fight because he was pined and thus should have tried harder. Jared Kennedy also lost a title shot and we're never going to talk about him in a title fight again. So there's a reason that criticism comes at the dude on the marquee, the guy who's trying to be one of the biggest stars in the sport and the guy who talked a bunch of trash

and it's still talking a bunch of trash. Like it all, there's a reason for all of this. And I think totally fine to levy criticism here. Also acknowledging a dominant win, but being like, hey man, that's Garbo. Because frankly, I don't know if fans are going to tune in again. Like if I'm just a cat. casual when I watch Izzy fight and that's what I get like the next time it comes around I don't know

if I'm going to be like yeah I got to check that you know who didn't have like Connor didn't have that problem year for Haska doesn't have that problem you can be fun like you can do it he's just not going to and that's okay for his career but I still think we can criticize that please someone else I'm really glad you actually just brought up the $75 fan conversation when it comes to that because, okay, get you in here. I mean, Israel, this title reign is now five defenses deep, right? And there's probably one, maybe two, depending on what you feel about the Whitaker rematch,

that are worth legitimately rewatching out of that whole five. And I wonder if we're starting to reach a point where there is a cumulative effect that could be happening here. And by that, I mean, what Jeff said, if you're a casual fan and someone keeps hyping this dude up to you and saying, oh, man, you got to watch this dude up to you, to watch this is he guys. He's going to be amazing. He's going to knock this guy out. It's going to be spectacular. And then you shell out the $75 to watch and you watch input on what has been now

two years of, if we can all speak frankly, two years of snoozers. At a certain point, are you going to stop paying money to see him? What do you think I get? Yeah, well, I think the most important distinction we want to make here is that we are really strictly criticizing entertainment value, entertainment value and whether he's worth spending $75 on. And in that sense, I think all the criticisms are more than fair. We do, of course, I always have to mention the opponent. Like again, in this case, Jared Canineer, of course, the Yuella Merrill fight was just straight up an abomination. I didn't think the Marvin Vittorri fight was particularly memorable.

The Whitaker fight was fine. I think that was fine. I don't know if we want to go all in on that one. But yeah, we just pick like three pretty strong examples of fights that if that's the headliner, and that's what people were primarily shangling out their money for, probably weren't too happy about it. So again, but we are only criticizing the entertainment value, which I think is fair.

If a fight is boring, it's okay to call a fight boring. It's fine. You can say that with that. This is like, I did a movie podcast recently. This is like you can call a movie, you know,

dull, uninteresting. You can not like a movie while still, you know, respecting the craft. Like, oh,

you respect that it's well made. You respect the acting in it. And you can still not enjoy it. It's kind of how I feel. felt about at e dissonia tonight i was like oh i his his ability to control range to diffuse a guy who i think is a pretty dangerous challenger in jared canineer um just to control the fight from from beginning to end super impressive uh super not fun to watch just not fun to watch at all and again if you're israelid sanya you don't have to care about that as long as you're making champion money

as long as the endorsements keep coming in uh again it would be nice as a as a champion if he had some emphasis on entertainment, but that for him is secondary to just keeping that belt around his waist, keeping himself healthy, not getting, you know, taking as minimal damage as possible, not taking the kind of risk that could cause a massive upset. That's okay. That's, that's okay. Again, not fun to watch. Fans do not have to accept it.

We in the media don't have to accept it. We in the media don't have to go like, oh, well, everything he does is great because it's not, it's true. It's not fun to watch. But even though my number one rule is M.A. Soles to be fun, that's for us. For the fighters, their number one rule is to win fights, hold on the titles, and make as much money as possible. So until they're guaranteed, like, you know, a much, much, much higher salary, regardless of whether they win or lose, whether they're entertaining or not, I think you're going to keep seeing performance like this. But at least I'm glad that Jed brought up like George St. Pierre, John Jones, and other champions who, you hold onto the belt long enough, you're going to have some stinkers in there, unfortunately.

And we just might be in that stinker phase with Israel at Dessina, and we kind of have to hope that whoever he fights, whoever defends his next, Alas Perreira and Andre Munez, maybe, Trichistuplecy, I don't know, a bunch of other names that could come up at 185, hopefully can help him redeem the back half of his title run because I understand people's frustrations right now. I think it's important to make the decision.

No, go for it, Chad. Go for it. I was just going to say, I mean, look, here's the real. real mid-not concern or whatever, I guess, but he's had what, for this is fifth title defense, right? Five, yeah. Arguably half of them have been snoozers. Like, yes, Anderson Silva had some bad ones. He also mostly turned in world-class highlights.

Izzy has given us some, but if the reality is if the book is just, if you don't try to fight Izzy, he won't try to fight you back. And there can be a run of contenders who are comfortable. losing 50-45s in light-touch kickbox point sparring, like, that is awful. Like, that's just not, I don't, I don't want to see. And Alex, but we'll set aside the beha box for now. But like, I don't want that to be the future here is, okay, well, I know how Izzy can't, won't kill me.

If I don't run headlong into his punches, so I'll just stay in this range and get picked slowly to death, that's going to be awful if that's our next two years of watching. every dude come up. And it's like he can do more. He doesn't need to, but again, if he's not going to, I'm going to keep firing the criticism at him. And he also doesn't have to give a shit what I think. I'm some dude on the internet.

Who cares what I think? But it's honestly, my biggest issue has been the like counter backlash to people being like, that fight sucked. Like, no, it was great. All he has to do is win. Like, cool.

You're technically true. But like, I don't know. I like to have. fun man and that was a really lame-ass ending to what was otherwise a really good card and i think it's important to make the distinction that you just pointed out which is that no one's saying is he sucks like that would just be an objectively stupid thing to say he's obviously the best middleweight in the world yeah he's obviously the best middleweight in the world he's probably the second

best middleweight of all time at this point and he's a top three pound for pound fighter in the sport like however you want to put it out there like izzie is obviously a very very talented fighter that does not mean he is above criticism. That's all we're saying. But I want to throw it to what's next, though, because obviously what's next is actually very exciting in my mind. All of this, regardless of what we're saying for the first 20 minutes of all of this,

I am stoked for what's next because to me, the idea of Alex Pereira versus Israel-A in MMA, after what we just saw Alex do tonight, is extremely exciting. It's something that could maybe change this entire dynamic that we're talking about, and it's maybe something that could bring that fire back out of Izzy, A.K., when you look at that fight, is that what you see?

Is this something that gets you excited, that you feel could end this little streak that we've had now for two years of maybe lackluster fights from this guy? Yeah, I am. I know the Prince's positivity, so people can say I'm being too optimistic. But stylistically, excuse me, I think it just makes a lot of sense that Alex Padena will definitely, it's one thing to say you're not intimidated and to not be afraid. Which again, I feel like Jared Kanier was kind of coming from that sense. I didn't get the sense he was intimidated. he just doesn't have the skill set to challenge Izzy on the feed.

He doesn't. He just doesn't. Yeah, Alex Petetta, there's no question. I mean, there's no question if it's primarily a striking battle, even though it's not kickboxing against Sam May, it's a little different. It's primarily a striking battle. He's going to have his moments. It's a very believable. It's totally believable that he could win this fight.

It's very believable. I know everyone's afraid now. Well, are we going to see Izzy GSP, Dissinia, should they fight? I don't know. that's possible. I mean, if he was able to suddenly become a wrestler for 25 minutes, that kind of would be fascinating in its own way. But I do think-

Michael Page, Paul Daly, all over again. Yeah, but I do think if it becomes a stand-up fight. If he does that, I've expected. If he does that, I respect it. Right. Totally respect it. I would just laugh. I would just laugh.

If he does it, I support it 100% because anarchy is funny. And it was an objectively correct thing. And I will never stop bitching about it. Yeah. Because, like, Literally the one middleweight fight you can sell me on that could be fun and I would be honest I have a lot less confidence that that trilogy fight's gonna be fun because I don't know, have you guys watched the first two? I assume you've seen the knockout or have you actually watch the fights.

It looked like they were mostly fun fights. I think Izzy won won the first one and I thought he was clearly winning the second one before he got killed. I would also say that demonstrably Israel Dissina is a substantial. less fun and much more risk-averse fighter than he was with big old kickboxing gloves and he don't have those and for as much as I you can't trust anything he says at this point because he's just straight up lied to us a bunch about how he was going to kill Jared Cannon here and I was going to come out and put him in a urn or whatever uh so you just so when he says you know well when Alex says I killed him in 16 ounce boxing gloves imagine what I'm going to do

with four ounces. And then Izzy's response is, imagine what I'm going to do in four ounces. My answer now is you're probably going to stay as far away from as possible. Kick the legs, work your jab, work angles, be a technically superior fighter, but no way put yourself in danger, not, oh, you're going to kill him with four ounce gloves. That's just not, he hasn't shown us that. So that would be ridiculous. And so I think that fight could suck is, I guess, my, my end point.

It could. There's a high probability. It could. But let me just say, we are in the thick. of, you know, a really bad stretch of fights for him. There's just no reason to assume he can't pull out of it because, again, Anderson Silva, people have erased from their memory

the Patrick Cote, Talas, Laitis, Damian Maya trilogy of title fights. They just don't talk about it. No, no. Those three are... No, no. Those three are... They've erased that at all.

They talk about them all the time. It's not the same thing. It's not the same thing. Why? It's not the same thing because in between those fights, there was one fight you excluded. There was a four... which happened to be one of the most ridiculous things we have ever seen in the history of the sport with the Forrest Riff's fight, which was not a title fight.

I'm going to murder your point in a minute. And it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity that Israel will never get. He'll never get a chance to go up and fight some like some token light heavyweight fight. That just won't happen today's UFC. So that's not fair to him. Like if Andrews Silva did not have that Forrest Griffin fight and that fight was incredible, one of the all-time great highlights. Then people would talk more about the Cote, Latis, Maya, three straight title fights.

Again, yes, interrupted by the Forrest Griffin fight. Those are all-time stinkers. So if his career ended up the Damian Maya fight and we're only looking at that, then we'd be like, oh, yeah, this guy's title reign sucked ass. So this could happen with Izzy. Again, maybe the Podetta fight turns out to be a snoozer. Maybe André Mniz, he fights him. That turns out to be a snoozer.

I don't know. Maybe you're right. Maybe there's three more snoosers on the way. But it's just crazy to me to assume that, like, to assume that he just is never going to be exciting again. Because, again, if you had seen the Cote, Latis, and Maya fights, you could have, easily said the same thing about about arson sylva like those fights are so so bad uh i don't know if people haven't seen them or they're just so far away that people just feel like and again or because he redeemed himself with so many of his fights after those fights are terrible horrible horrible tele-defense

as bad as what you've seen with the romero fight as bad as what you saw with izzie and kennanier tonight the vatory fight whatever one you want to point to they're so so bad so recency bias is very much against uh izzie and again i i and i say it's more than fair to criticize what he's done but to criticize in advance and say, well, I think all his fights going forward are going to be boring too is absurd.

I agree with it. I totally agree in that respect. And I know Jed, you're just like on a bit of a down note right now. I disagree with you with that per rifer. I think that's going to be fireworks. I hope I'm wrong. Yeah.

I think you're maybe caught up in the moment a little too much. No, because this is how I felt after the yon fight because like, here are my two points and then we can go on to whatever you guys want to talk about. One, uh,

Izzy's at 13 fights in the UFC. There are, between five and seven of them are not fun, depending on your definition. Like, I know that the Anderson Silva fight won't fight of the night. I distinctly remember thinking that that fight was bad and that Izzy let an old man not die because he like either felt bad or just was too much of a counterstriker. And the more that goes on, it feels like, oh, he just really won't generate his own offense. If you're not going to give him something the key off of, he's just going to kick you in the leg and sit there. forever, which again, winning strategy, but like, nobody was defending Carlos Spars' title against Rosam Unis with an awful and boring winning strategy.

Just is where it is. So there's a, I'm saying there's a strong argument that literally half of his fights in the UFC have actually not been very entertaining, which is a condemnation that Anderson Silva certainly didn't have. He had three snoozers, not half his career. Up until that point, though, but up until that point, the Damien Maya, up until the Damien fight. All right. I do, I do feel like we're going in circles a little bit. Yeah. Is he's over? There's so much left. There's so much left on this card. I want to put a pin on this

and I want us to be able to move on. Two last quick things. I think Jed, you and I were sort of talking about this on Twitter, like the Pereira at a Senja fight to me has the potential to be, and it might already be the highest combined striking acumen between any two championship fighters in the history of the UFC. Just with what those two men have done and kickboxing and sort of the qualifications and the accolades they bring into there. I don't I can't think of a close second maybe there's one out there I'm not thinking of. I would love to in the UFC there is not, but yeah, to me that is the two most accomplished striking acumans we have ever seen collide in championship fight in the UFC, which is very,

very cool. I'm very excited for that. Also, guys, real quick, uh, how long ago do you think the Anderson Silva-Pratrick-Cote fight was just guess. Oh, I'm really, I don't want to be told how old I am tonight. Oh, you're, you're about to be. You're about to make. Uh, uh,

2009? 14 years old. That fight was 14 years ago. How old is that? 2008. You were almost right. Oh, it was close. Okay.

Say, because it was relatively early into his career. I think a lot of our audience probably hasn't seen that fight if we're being real. Good. And don't seek it out. Don't seek it up. Yeah. Let's move on.

Let's move on because we still have so much to hit. I need to go back to Alexander Volcanowski because good Lord Jed. The champ felt like a man who fought pissed off tonight. And I'm curious for your thoughts because that was utterly impressive. And I'm right there with Mike Heck that he is now my number one pound for pound guy in the world. I got no issues. You want named pound for pound. I have, I correctly had Volcanowski over Holloway the whole time.

I think he very clearly beat Max Holloway two times and maybe beat him the third, though on multiple rewatches. I give Holloway the second one. but he he did everything everything right tonight I mean there's not a lot to expound upon from what Mike said he pitched a really perfect game I it's one of those things that we're not going to know in the moment but hindsight will tell

I have a sneaking suspicion that for as good as Volcanovsky was tonight and there's I want to be extremely clear I thought that was as impressive performance fist fighting inside the UFC cage as I've ever seen think to some extent I maybe have questions that at least a little tiny portion of it is Max on the falloff. It could be wrong, and it could just be that Volcanovsky's use of cutting angles, his pivots off of exchanges were unbelievable.

His speed was clearly ahead, but it did feel like Max was flat from the jump. And I think that there's maybe, you know, maybe a bit of a question on, okay maybe Max finally is losing his fastball just a touch here but regardless Orgonovsky is the best featherweight in the world I I hate that we're going to do him at lightweight it bothers me so so much um I mean it's fine like sure whatever I'll watch him because the fights will be great because one of the three best fighters in the world if not the absolute best fighter in the world for you know based on weight and size but he hasn't clean they said it so many times and it's so many times and it's so

objectively false. He hasn't cleaned out his weight division. He'd be max hollowed three times. It's incredibly impressive. Beating one dude three times not cleaning out a weight division. Beating number seven guy, according to the UFC rankings, who's also 100 years old and really shouldn't be number seven in Chan Sung Jung. That's a solid win.

That's no way cleaning out the rankings. And Brian Ortega win is a great win. He's beaten three guys in their top 10, two in the top five. It's not cleaning out a division. I think he did say after the fight that he wants the winner of Ortego Rodriguez. if he can't go up for lightweight, so that's at least something. But it's going to be a recurring theme with kind of the various talking points moving off of this card. I want to see the best fighters in their weight classes, fight the other best dudes in their weight classes.

And right now, between the weights of 135 and 170, there are a bunch of hot shit prospects coming up. And I would like to see them get a chance to advance and fight some of the older guard instead of having Dustin Poy and Michael Chandler fight each other and squat on rankings. Instead of Alexander Volcanowski not fighting any of the four dozen dope-ass featherweights that are up and coming to go chase another belt because Connor McGregor broke MMA seven years ago or whatever the hell it is. Like I would rather see him clean out his division and then move up. I recognize why he wants to do it. And if he does, I'm still going to tune into that fight because it's awesome. But I want more of tonight where I can go, damn, Volkanovsky is just so much better than everybody. Look at him tune up the second best featherweight in the world

and really style on him from pillar to post. Like, it was an incredibly impressive performance. And I want more of those instead of this kind of fantasy ritual life chasing of, ooh, go get another belt, then another belt, another belt. Like that's, I don't need that in my life at this moment in time. Okay, get you in here. I mean, were you, I'm going to hit you with the three-party here. Were you surprised, A, by the level of dominance that we saw tonight from the champ.

B, do you think he's the number one? and pound for pine fighter in the world. Are you with me and Mike and see what do you think of Jedwood just said about the lightweight experiment? All of it. Do you want to see this? Do you want to see this? You want to see this go?

I was a little surprised just how dominant what's tonight. Even though I've been on the Volcanovsky is better than Holloway bandwagon like this whole time since their first fight after their second fight. Like I believe he's a superior fighter. I still thought like on paper it's like such a close matchup. And I said this would be a more convincing win for Volcanowski. I said he would hurt or rock Max in this fight. I don't know if he really rocked him,

but he definitely opened up a hellaciously disgusting cut over his eye that had me think this one could have been ended, like, you know, it could have been ended in between rounds at any moments. So in some ways I was right. So, but even with all the things that I, the little details that I predicted, I'm still surprised it was like as one-sided as it was. Like this was a real, if you had not seen the first two fights, you know, you wouldn't understand why this third fight was even happening.

Like that's how dominant it was, which is just crazy. I just never thought we'd reach that point. And I don't think it has anything to do with a little bit to do with Max Holloway having lost a step. I mean, just he's fought so many times. But it has way, way, way more to do with Volkinovsky just completely being on like another level. He was brilliant tonight. I couldn't have predicted, again, that level of dominance in my wildest dreams. But yeah, he is the best.

He's the best. Will he be number one of my pound for pound? again, I think as everyone knows by now, in general with my rankings, probably especially with my pound for pound, I'm pretty slow to move people up. I have him at four right now, but I don't see now why I would not put him above Francis Ngano

why I would not potentially put him above Israel at this and yeah. I might not. I got to think about it. But I'm keeping Kumar Uzman number one. I know Usman has been inactive. I know it's, you know, we wanted to see him fight more. There's all these good names. He should be fighting to hold on to his top pound for pound spot.

But he has a fight coming up. how things go with Leon Edwards. He just hasn't done anything to lose the spot for me. So Volcanowski has a very strong case, but I think two is about his high as he can go in my rankings. And that could change if he does go up to lightweight and like takes out Charles Olivera or takes out Islam Makachev. I wouldn't favor him in either of those matchups. But if by some chance he was able to do that, I mean, my goodness, it would it would definitely rethink my whole thing is where this guy stands, you know, across all the visions. He's just, he's just a brilliant fighter. So I'm, but I'm with Jed, though. It's like,

I'm interested in seeing that because it would be fun. Like if you say, hey, Volcanovs is going to fight Charles Olivaire or Volcanozschev for a vacant belt, I'd like, cool, cool fight. Yeah, sign me out. That's great. But it's definitely not a necessity because, yeah, the idea that he's cleaned out his division is crazy. Just look at these names that he could potentially fight. If Yairaird beats Brian Ortega, he's fighting Yair. That's a great fight.

That's a great fight. I'd heavily favor Volk, but that's a cool fight. Josh Emmett just had a huge win. He's on a five-fight win streak. You don't want to see him fight Josh Emmett? Mozart of Loyaev looks like an absolute killer. He looks like a future champion. We're saying the division is cleared out with him out of him fighting Mulsar,

Arnold Allen, 9 and no in the UFC, Bryce Mitchell, 6 and O in the UFC. These guys are not like next up for the world. Elias, yeah. Well, the thing is, I just, the only thing with him is I hope he comes to, he does stay at, does go back down to 1.45. It's a bit tougher for him to make 1.45 consistently, but he should be in there. So all those guys we just mentioned, those are all great matchups from Volcanowski over the next two years, guys who will fight their way into position for a title shot.

So why would people not want to see them, you know, again, build up that those defenses? So he could finally, Jed, truly be the consensus greatest featherweight in the world. I know your favorite. Look, I want to be really clear. I think he has a great, like a really good chance to take that title. I think it is categorically insane to give him that title at this moment in time. You're saying the goat. You're saying the goat, not the number one in the world right now.

Oh, no, no. Again, he's mine. know he's going to be my number two now when usman beats edwards usman will reclaim the two spot and volk will move down to three because i functionally have a scoring system and that's just how it works but he's my number two behind izzie and i am honestly considering docking izzie points for being boring as shit um because all right we're not we don't need it because because because dorke isn't boring let's be clear vulcan boring like he's not if that if that fight was that fight is maybe not rewatchable just because it was so

pillar to post, but I wasn't a boring fight in any stretch of the imagination. It's interesting because I sort of find myself in the same spot as you, AK, where I don't know that I necessarily need to see Volt go to Lightweight. I'm intrigued by the possibility, but the timing on it is a little weird, right? Like, lightweight is so unsettled right now. We don't really have a champion, obviously. Charles Oliveira wants to fight Connor. You have Islam sort of sitting out there who deserves that fight. Timing feels weird to me, so I would like to see Volk do was Jedsane and start racking through just these yayers and the Yayevs and all of the incredible talent that's bubbling up at

145 right now we did a ranking show on this just very shortly or not too long ago where we were talking about all this talent it's incredible how much is that 145 right now but I will say if anybody deserves it to go to the chance to do that to become sort of that guy in history where you had two belts Volk feels like that guy who deserves it because he's coming out here's incredibly active for a champion and he is just putting the he's taking people down to the woodshed at this point like it is a ridiculous how good he's looking out there uh but let's move on fellas because there's still so much left to

hit on this card we're already so deep into this show uh alice perera my god he uh almost murdered sean strickland he almost murdered sean strickland tonight that was absurd um i'll start on sean's end uh because we already talked a little bit about alex aka rate sean strickland's game plan out of 10. Gymnastics score. You know, listen, it's a solid one. It's a solid one. If only because, listen,

it's the last thing that Panetta's team might expect. They're like, there's no way. They'll never see this coming. Yeah, he's not going to try. We didn't even train, we didn't even train this because he's not going to stand at range with us and try and like, you know, just do a classic. With his hands down. With his hands down.

He won't see it coming. It's genius. I tweeted this earlier. Guys, you know, I'm all the way hashtag keep the martial arts apart. You know, I'm all about that. I know I'm fighting. I'm fighting a battle from the inside of the inside of the side out. I work for M.AFlying.com.

I know it sounds crazy. I'm trying to separate the martial arts a little more. But it's a great website. But Sean Strickland, maybe, just maybe. You should have just maybe mix the martial arts a little bit. Just considered mixing the martial arts or picked a different martial art. Just a tad. Just a tag.

Or if you weren't going to mix them, maybe pick wrestling, maybe pick Jiu-Jitsu, maybe I don't, a capoeira, I don't know, something else besides kickboxing. That was not the way to go tonight. Here's the thing. He didn't kickbox either. He stood there at target practice because he pumped a jab a couple of times, but there was not. I, uh, I, when he walked out, I thought he looked weird. Maybe that's just, you know, Monday morning quarterback or whatever. I'm such armchair psychologist. But when he walked to the cage and got in there, I immediately was like, oh, Pere is going to kill him.

And I was, I was texting with Connor and Rick. And I was like, I'm just going to smash Pereira by K.O. bet right now because Strickland looks like he's not about to do anything resembling a smart thing. And he sure didn't. That was a minus seven for a game plan, just all of the negatives. He just walked forward into shots with his hands down. I honestly can't remember a game plan I thought is worse. Like maybe,

maybe Rose's plan to try to retain her title by literally doing nothing for 25 minutes. But even that feels better than getting brain trauma. Like that was an awful plan. It was hilarious. It's bizarre to me because at this, time last year, Alex Pereira was still like a two division glory champion. Like this is not something that happened years ago, like Izzy where like Izzy was kickboxing years ago.

Alks Pereira was like a two division champion last year at this exact moment. That's certainly a choice if you're going to try to kickbox solely with that guy. Just the way that all of this has played out though, guys. Like we have had our eyes on Alex Pereer ever since he came into the UFC around November, came in with that monster flying knee knockout, then all of a sudden we were on Izzy. watch basically of just how quickly what's the quickest way the uxc can acceptably expedite this man into this very intriguing fight with is radisania and and credit to the matchmakers they did a phenomenal job of figuring out a way to get this guy a somewhat justified title shot in a division where he's really

only fought a couple times sport where he's really only fought a couple times and he probably doesn't actually deserve any of this but now there's enough to say at least hey like we gave him a shot like he It didn't just speed him up there. So I wonder, I mean, Alps-Pera is three fights into his UFC career. He's seven fights total into his MMA career. Is there a real chance that this man does something unprecedented in his next fight? It's an incredibly real chance. Like, I don't know if I'm going to go ahead and pick him just because there's a lot of time.

Who knows what will happen? But, like, I think there's a real opportunity. just because I look, before the, before Sean Strickland had the worst game plan, probably in the history of modern mixed martial arts, uh, for Aaron honestly just was like, and some of this is just that it was just target practice for him.

But like he came out with a lot of really, really good ideas. Like he was very, very active. He was moving very, very well. He wasn't letting Strickland get any sort of, like Strickland is walking forward.

I struggle to use the word pressure because of the way he was fighting. But he, he was not allowing himself to be moved back behind the inner lines of the cage. And then he just teed off. And I think Israel Dissna is a better, quote unquote, kickboxer than Alex Beyer. But if that is he fights, I don't want to talk about it too much. I will say this. There is a downside to fighting super cautiously that is rarely spoken about.

And while it seems like it is an effective way to minimize risk, there is a real risk to allowing someone like Alex Bahaya to fight you for 25 minutes instead of trying to knock them out in five minutes. Because giving that dude, look at that dude. His arms are infinitely long and his fists are the size of toasters. He is literally genetically designed to punch the ever-loving crap out of things. Leverage in mass, baby. And if you give that dude 25 minutes to just decide,

screw this, I'm just going to step forward behind a left hook and I'm going to kill you. There's like a real chance that happens. And I don't like, if Izzy fights the way he fought tonight, I think there's, it's a 50-50 shot, frankly, that the Pehara kills him. So it will be super weird when a guy that I am not confident can beat like seven middleweights. It could suddenly become our champion. But this is also the division where Michael Bisping was champion. And there were like five welterweights I would have. pick to kick Michael Bisping's ass at the time.

So, you know, middleweight's just sort of middleweight. It's how it goes. It's a weird division. A.K. Jets calling this 50-50. Do you, is that how you see this? Gosh, I mean, I would lean toward Izzy just because he's the champ. Again, this isn't exactly kickboxing. Again, there's, you know, the striking is just a little different.

But how different can it be? It's still two guys standing up, punching each other, kicking each other. It's, unless Israel at Disney really plans to sort of maybe like, I don't know, utilize the clinch more. or again, suddenly start shooting for single legs, it can't be like, D1 Izzy. So let me see D1 Izzy. It can't be like that different from their kickboxing.

I know it's not, I'm not saying it's the same, but it's also, it can't be that different. But again, Izzy did really well in both of those fights with Alex Podeta. So, you know, there's no reason to assume that Alex Padetta

has some like crazy striking advantage. So I don't know if I go 50-50, but I'm thinking Izzy 60-40, which sounds crazy when you consider Izzy has something like 20-something in May fights. and Alex Podeta has seven, seven, seven after tonight. Eight, I'm sorry, eight, I think. But yeah, listen, MMA is supposed to be fun.

And for anyone complaining, I see, my gosh. Fun, fun, fun fight. It's such a fun idea. It's a fun idea. Isn't this what combat sports or M.A is about the mixing of the martial arts? Oh, this guy's a great kickboxing fighter. He's one of the best kickboxes of the world. Let's see how he does against one of the UFC's best fighters.

That's cool. That's what MMA is supposed to be fun like that. People are saying, like, I want to see. him fight another one more contender first oh he needs to go through derrick brunson like he needs to go he needs to go through jack her mansson like really you want to see what who cares why do you want to do the question is this do you want to see him fight israeli do you want to see him fight israeli i imagine most people would say yes so why put another hurdle in the way of that just make it happen just make it happen it's fun it's fun he doesn't need to you now with this the strickland was it's

like you said john this was the perfect matchup sure yeah perfect It like, Padreo is going to be a top five middleweight in the UFC's rankings. And certainly I would suspect in our top 10 come this month, like, which again just adds to Izzy. So we're clear when I say that Izzy is like the one dude who is legitimately cleaned out his division. He has two wins over the number one guy. He just got a win over the number two. This is the UFC's rankings. But, you know, their organization, we can't knock him for not beating Gayguard Musassi in our rankings who won't be there anyway.

He's got a win over two wins over number three guy in Marvin Vittori Sean Strickland who's about to be replaced by Pereira And he's got a win over Derek Brunson I'll beat a long time ago That's number five number six is Paulo Costa who he has a win over Went over Kelvin Gasloon who's number 10 Like Izzy is legitimately cleaned out the middleweight division And Pereira is going to slot into a top five spot It's like a perfect fight makes all the sense of the world

And it's fun It's totally probably fun It's incredibly fun it's obviously the fights make. Anyone who's arguing otherwise is just stupid. Like that's it. Like you just hate fun. You just hate fun things.

Like I enjoy fun things. So I want to see this. It's a fun fight. But also I will say the lead up to it has the potential to be incredibly fun, right? Because we saw. I don't know, man. I can't deal with another else to rerun. Hold on.

Hold on, though. Hold on though. Because he's going to be frozen, Jed. Think about how long is he's been getting questions about this guy. like he is so sick of answering questions about Alex Pereira in these two fights and we saw it come out twice this week throughout the fight weeks that he did it at the media day and he also did it at the press conference where he almost just got like frustrated with like asking have you guys watched the fight have you actually watched those two fights and just getting like actually kind of mad about continually being asked about this dude Alex doesn't know English as far as I can tell like he doesn't seem like he's very versed English but I think still regardless of that that the lead up to this could be incredibly fun because he has the one thing that no one else has

in this entire division, right? He has bragging rights over this dude. And like an incredible highlight over this guy. And he can just keep calling scoreboard and a certain point you know that's going to get on Izzy's nerves and I'm so excited to see

what like an Izzy fired up, like fired up mad, pissed off Volcanovsky type tonight pissed off Izzy could do because I think that's going to just make this be incredibly fun. I hope you're right. It really, really could be.

It's going to be super. super weird to see Izzy just raged silently against as far as I can tell Perra just simply does not care. He's ice cold, man. He is ice cold. He's very cool in that he just

doesn't care at all, which rules. I don't know if it's the best to sell a fight, but it's going to be weird to watch Izzy rage at him. And he's just like, dude, whatever, I already knocked you out. I need Izzy to commit more to this Disney cartoon trash talk thing

Because the Elsa Frozen Line, obviously, hot fire. Hot fire the first time, yeah. And then straight up Brigadon Airhorns the second time. I need him to start going like, oh, I'm going to beat him so badly that nobody's going to be talking about Alex after this fight. So we don't talk about Alex after this fight is over. It's going to be incredible how badly I'm going to turn him. I'm going to turn him inside out. You guys know what I'm saying?

I'm going to go cars. I'm going to go Cars 3 on his ass. Like that's it. Like just really commit to it. Is there a third cars movie? There is a third cars movie. I have no idea. I would also be okay with him committing to just saying the ELSA line over and over again.

Yeah, yeah. It's going to land eventually. It's going to land eventually. You just got to find the window. I feel like the more you say, there's one thing I know about comedy, Jed. It's the more you say a joke, it's the funny here it gets. Oh, yeah. Comedy.

Try it true. The principle rule. The principal rules is comedy is less fun the newer it is. Exactly. That's right. That's right. Real quick. Happy birthday,

AK. Oh, happy birthday. Happy birthday. Oh, wait, is it Sunday already? It's still not my birthday. It's still not my birthday. It's still not my birthday.

Well done, Casey. A plus work on the mic. And on that note, Casey, I'd like to get you in here. It's, we've already like an hour deep. I know it's like 4.30 for you two gentlemen. So let's start to answer to fan questions. And let's talk a little bit about the rest of this card,

because I want to actually go, oh, we lost Jed. I'm still here. Where did my video go? Yeah, you'll get there. So real, real quick, there was so much on this card. We were talking about it in the pre-post, all of this, the pre-lead-up to this, about how every fight had something that you could like. Every fight had a little nibble for you.

I'm going to go rapid fire real quick, and then we're going to answer some fair questions. What's the one fight outside of these main three that stood out to you, gentlemen, Jed? I mean, oh, from... Just performance. Whose performance comes away from it for you? I mean, honestly, the rest of this card ruled, but it is exactly the performance I thought it was. I thought Jalen Turner was going to stomp over Brad Radell. That's the right answer.

Let's go. I believe is very good. We talked about it in the People's Pre-Fight show where I was like, I think Jalen Turner is a legit top five future title challenger. This dude rules. And I think Brad Riddell is very good. I'm writing currently no longer after this. And I think Jailen Turner is going to beat the brakes off him. and it was

I was that was a murder like there that was unreal shit and Jalen Turner rules I'm really excited to watch this dude go and lightweight forever the best division in the sport still just keeps getting better man

Jalen Turner Armid Sarukin Matush Gamrott who else we got rolling around there in the top of that division I can't remember off the top of my head right now there's one other hot shit pro oh Raphael Fiziv those dudes all rule

and that's I want to see them fighting the top dudes I don't want to see the top dudes fighting that same like old ass five fighters just going at each other let the new blood come in because I think they're going to stomp all over the old guard preach if I had control over Casey's Airhorn

right now I would have been bashing it that whole entire answer the answer for me was Jalen Turner too I've been on this train with you for a long time now Jed we are being proven right in real time and it's really spectacular to see because that was ridiculous. Doing that to Brad Riddell in 45 seconds,

that's the type of thing that opens people's eyes. Like Jalen Turner has sort of been on this Vicente Lucgate run a little bit where he was doing all of this very quietly, somehow exacting tremendous violence from all of these fights, but somehow staying under the radar. I think that ends after tonight. That was the type of fight that. Ain't no radar.

He is all on board right now. A.K., what was your standout performance? Hart against Jalen Turner. but I was you know what I was super impressed by a lot of people I want to say I want to say one you get one okay okay I want to say I'm cheating now I want to say Andreemnese but the fight wasn't super exciting so I'll go with I'll go with someone who we had a lot of doubts about before young young Ian Gary still 24 years old one of two the futures on the card his hands look damn good and Gabe Green's a good fighter like

Gabe Green's a good fighter but Gabe Green have like kind of done more again so you know mix of martial arts, try and, you know, try the things. He was landing shots too, though. I mean, Gabe Green's got good power in his hand, so he was landing the occasional shot. He just wasn't stringing together combinations like Ian Gary was. You know, again, does Ian Gary still need to be tested? Yeah, but they've, I love, I love how the EOC has built him up. We said this before, I think, like we said, Gabe Green's the perfect matchup form.

It absolutely was the perfect matchup form. Tested him just enough, not someone who's like, obviously not out of his realm of, of challenge. And this kid's got a bright future. I hope they keep building them with the right way. I hope they're not like me who went, you know, once the guy goes 3 and O in the UFC, you start going like, oh, can we throw him in the top 20, top 15? Walter Wade is still pretty deep.

And I hope they keep him again in that, you know, 30 to 40 range of opponents. You give him a couple more of those. He's, again, only 24 years old. And by the way, shout us to him on the name change. Shout us to him the name change. I saw a lot of people cracking jokes. Listen, he added them. So people saw, I don't know they saw on the show.

He is now Ian. Machado Gary, as is his wife, Leila. She's also Leila Machado Gary. And she has a child from previous marriage, who has that name as well. And Ian and Leila have a child coming along now, and he's also going to have that name. So they just did this so it's easier for the kids. And, you know, down with the patriarchy. You know what I'm saying, guys?

I know all the Amma fans are with me on this one. You know, down with the patriarchy, right? Who cares? I think that's a very manly thing for Ian Gary to do. And most importantly, though, he's a heck of a fighter and a heck of a prospect. So good job for him and good job UFC matchmaker so far. Keep it going with this with this guy. I'll see.

I will say real quick, you're right, A.K., good job by him by doing that. But it's not as if he was adapting a poor middle or last name, right? Like, Machado's a pretty legendary name in martial arts. It's like me adding all-le-le- It does work for his career. Yeah, like it'd be like me adding Ollie. Lee or Foreman or Frazier or something to my name. Like, yeah, sure, I did it.

But also, that's just a cool thing to have in my name. Just saying. And especially when, like, no offense, Gary, that's not like the most interesting or exciting last name. He should have dropped the Gary. He should have dropped the Gary. I mean, honestly, not the worst idea. Be Ian Machado.

No, no, it's good. It's got a good. I will say, I'll say Ian Gary is probably the fighter who rose the most in my estimation on this card because I was already super high on Jalen Turner. I haven't been like super high on Gary, but he's developing really nicely. I think he's got problems that are going to cause him issues

when he finally fight someone who he's not six inches taller than. But he, I mean, he's got a lot of skills and he's developing well. He added some new stuff. He's working on things. Yeah, I think he rose the most in my book. Casey, what was your one standout? Jalen Turner.

Yeah, just because I was so high in Ronell. And not that I was super high on Jalen Turner. Not that I'm not super low in Jaden and Turner. I just didn't think. I didn't like him as much as you guys did. And like I said, I always say I love being wrong. I love being like, whoo. He's awesome.

He is coming into his own. And yeah, he's awesome. And And Andre Monez is a close second though. But as far as a jump where I saw, where kind of how I perceived in the beginning of the fight until it ended, yeah, Jadent Turner. Andre Monez might have been the second best middleweight on that damn card.

We don't know. I think so. It might have been. I think definitely was. All right, Casey, we have a few more minutes here. Let's hit some fan questions before we get out of here. I pulled up some earlier. Some questions about some fights we haven't talked about because we went too.

Oh, please tell me this one about the main card opener. Please, because I got some stuff. Oh, I see them already. You got gas. Oh, I see them. Oh, all right. Let's wine. A.K.'s wound up.

Let them let him let him go. We didn't talk about this at all. The main card opener? No, right, yeah. This question's coming from our good friend Joseph Boza, who says, what are the thoughts of fighters and Twitter trolls claiming Pedro Munoz is scared of the Sugar Show? A.K., has it? The sugar show hasn't left Vegas, A.K., please.

What the hellful talk? I accidentally kicked the beehive earlier today with, I was, I said something like, you know, very snarky, like log off if you think Pedro Munoz quit. Pretty annoying tweet, I agree. But I don't know, it got a lot of, it got, it got, you know, arguments against, arguments for. But I think, and it's fine, people can debate the severity of the eye poke, whatever. My question is, how the hell are people saying, like, questioning whether Pedro Munoz

would stay in a fight? Like, Joe Rogan was. Because Joe Rogan, that's, now you know it's wrong. Okay, for one thing, he won the first round. Okay, the official scorecard, two of the three judges gave it. Oh, did they? Okay, I didn't look at the scorecard. So he probably feels like he won the first round.

So he probably feels he won the first round. Now, was the worm turning in round two? I think so. I do think O'Malley was starting to do better, and I think there's a case that, yeah, maybe he was going to go on and win the fight. Do you think Munoz is thinking about that? Do you think he's really like, oh, I took a couple of hard jabs there?

Oh, no, I'm done. I'm not going to come back from this. I'm definitely. This guy, here's who he's fought recently, people. My voice is cracking. I'm sorry. Here's what he's fought recently. Dominic Cruz, Jose Aldo went the distance with both of them.

Jim Rivera went the distance with him, beat him. Frankie Edgar. five rounds with Frankie Edgar. We're all bummed. Three rounds with Al Jermaine Sterling. Knocked out, Cody Garbrand. And this guy, this is the guy you're saying he has, he has like, oh, maybe like a one, like a couple of bad minutes against Sean O'Malley. And he's quitting.

He doesn't want to. What the, I'm not even going to swear because it's not worth it. It's not worth it. I think anyone who's, anyone who's, anyone who's questioning that, like, Pedro Munoz saying he would quit is, you're insane. You're insane. You're insane. There's, there's, there's why, just why. haven't seen, I got literally, I think I have like 200 replies to this tweet. Not

one gave a justifiable reason why Pedro Munoz would not continue the fight. It makes zero. People say he was he was chasing a DQ and I'm like, he is no, there's no fuck with that. You know how little control fighters have over that? Why would he risk that?

Guess what? He just costs us a half a paycheck instead because there's no content. As you're saying that comments are rolling in, he was chasing a DQ. Like, would you think? Like, use logic. Like, use your brain. Like, why, he, again, he, Dominic Cruz, Josie Aldo,

Frankie Edgar, Al Jemaine Sterling. He fought all these guys. Oh, but no. They're all bums. No, it's Sean O'Malley. Sugar, Sean's a truth. Sean O'Malley is the guy who felt like I got to go for a DQ win against this guy. Not Dominic Cruz, not Joseo Aldo, not Frank Yeager, not Algebra, not Algebra.

No, he decides today, I'm going to quit. It's too much for me. What are we doing? Frigant even Rogan didn't believe you guys. he got a kick in the dick. And then when he got poked in the eye, he's like, that's barely an eye poke. And then they showed a replay again from never angle.

And then the whole crowd goes, oh, yeah, that was a pretty good eye. Like, what are we doing? Also, the kick in the dick was a very clear kicking the dick. I didn't understand that either. Like, you got kicking a dick. But like, all three of the commentators are men.

Like, we're all men. We all stand that getting kicked in the dick sucks and getting kind of kicked in the dick is actually a lot worse in a lot of cases. Like, when it grays, like, what are we doing? I'd rather be kicking the dick and watch that main event. The last thing I'll say is I know there's a lot of smart fans who are not questioning Pedro Munoz, so I apologize in advance for anyone to just listen to me go on about that.

Because there's so many good fans, smart fans who know that saying he quit is absurd. But I just do have to address that bulk of minority who are, I don't know, have this dumbass theory that he quit. Like, no, no. If you just operate under the assumption that professional fighters are, one, not scared of other professional fighters. and not trying. With the lone exception being the time

Diego Sanchez legitimately took a DQ, which savvy veteran move, just assume that fighters aren't afraid of other fighters and aren't looking for ways out of fights. You're going to be right far more often than you're going to be wrong. Especially a big fight like that. Like, what is, even if, let's say,

that Pedro Munoz gets a DQ win over Sean O'Malley, how does that help him at all? That doesn't do anything for him at all. He is Pedro Munoz. He's been fighting chance. He's getting a title shot now. Yeah. Like, what are we talking?

Like, he wants, to go out there and knock out Sean O'Malley and then tell everyone, I told you he sucked and I'm better. Like, that's all he was. He did not want this. He definitely did not want this. I'm not confident he wanted to knock him out because he was not engaging with him in any capacity. But he did want to win.

Neither were in the first round. Neither were. It was, what was it, like six minutes into the fight? Like, come on, man. Yeah, six minutes in. Maybe seven minutes in, yeah. I like that fight because I now can just be like, yeah, Sean, amount, he's actually not very good, which is good because I've been wondering.

And I think I feel comfortable saying that he has a lot of offensive talent and does not have the component parts of a functioning high level in the main game. He had no way to, he had no way to stop Pedro Munoz from just being like, I don't want to get punched by you. I'm going to stay here and kick you. And you can't do anything about it. And he couldn't. So it was good I still feel that fight was instructive One word answer

One word answer real quick Because I threw out on Twitter I want this to be remashed It feels like this was the perfect matchmaking And we didn't figure out what we should have figured out From it And I got like a sea of 95% of people telling me Well no they don't deserve a rematch

Pedro doesn't deserve a rematch Sean Was clearly going to win that fight Which is insane to me But again whatever it's the internet I want an immediate rematch yes no immediate rematch yet sure I don't care yes case I'm in I'm actually indifferent actually I'm actually I'm gonna change I'm gonna change I'm not I yeah I'm gonna know why mainly because like I don't I want a fun fight and that fight won't be fun I

thought that fight was gonna be awesome I said I thought we thought tonight Pedro's yeah I thought we talked about it I think Pedro is too smart to engage in a fight that would be fun and it's like do just do like Sean versus on them song y dong they'll probably just throw hammers at each other it'll be awesome like you don't you don't feel like song deserves a bigger I mean song has a I mean right so who's I don't know who's fighting I was just picking a name off the top of my head because I don't want to do here give give Sean a veteran aging veteran that he can maybe look good on so we can try and build him I just want that dude to like a dude's really exciting when he gets

the fight he wants page is not going to give him that let's just give him somebody who will give him fight you once. Let's, let's have fun. I want to have fun. I spent a lot of tonight thinking about how not fun I had for the last 25 minutes of it. So now I want to maximize my fun levels. Yeah. Song has Sanhagen, which is spectacular. Oh, that's a, I don't want to break that. Yeah, I don't want to break that. Yeah, don't break that. Don't break that fight up for that. Hold on. I see, I see, I'm sorry, I had to just one thing. People, a lot of people saying, why he didn't take the five minutes? Why didn't page omens? You don't get five minutes for an eye poke. Thank you. That's not a thing. That's not a rule, you stupid asses. It's also. It's a whole.

You get five minutes for a groin kick. You do not get five. Now, if people want to say he didn't take as much time as he could have gotten, okay, fine. But there's no five-minute rule. That's not a thing. But that's not on him. He knows the rule. Please God know the right for you troll me.

The doctor makes time. The doctor makes a decision. He doesn't get to take time. He doesn't get to choose any of this. They ask him questions. He answers the questions and then they decide what goes on from there. Pedro Monios was completely out of his hands this whole time. Real quick.

One of the benefits I've really enjoyed from training the mixed martial arts is getting eye poked myself a couple of times. It's impossible. It's fucking sucks. It's awful. And like in that capacity and arena full of fans, like, yeah, it's like we've all taken a good shot in the dick. But I don't think we've all got good eye poke. So all the fans out there, take a good eye poke from your friends and get back to us. You're trying to fist fight.

Yeah, they can try to get a fist fight. A monster in a cage. Yeah, it sounds awful. Yeah. All right, Casey, what's next? Um, I'm trying. People, give me questions outside of the top two fights, please. I'm just getting a lot of, um, bad, izzy stuff.

Um, I mean, those are going to be the dominance. Because we all, we all hate city kickboxing and we oppress them and we bully them. And we, all of us rooting against them, despite them being massive. betting favorites everyone was against them Casey Carpenter says who would you favor in Volks versus the Bronx Olivero I don't know man that's a good question I've stopped I'm I'm not doubting Volcanozky anymore like like that's just not something I'm doing the body the difference I'm going voc I'm going vote yeah I don't know man the difference in body type between them is

going to be jarring if that actually is a fight that gets made I don't know Can Charles get any respect ever? Can Charles get, he's the end-gown? I know, Jed, you're with me now. But, like, no, Charles is, no, I'm going to Bronx all the way. It wouldn't, like, shock me if Volk could win that fight because he's one of the smartest fighters and he has a deep and diverse toolkit.

But weight, it's big, that's a big weight. It's a big weight class. It's a big difference. Max Holloway got beat by Dustin Porier. Charles Olivera hits real hard, big, big dude. Former 45er. Two former 45ers fighting for the lightweight belt. He would get the submission.

He would finish the submission that are taking it. You're trolling Casey, because that is not at all. It would not shock me of Vulcan win. I do think that is honestly one of the better opportunities for Vulcan Lightweight. I really don't like his chances against Machiav. Exactly. When you were talking earlier about hating Volk going up, but like I get, this is an opportunity for folk. I think Charles Alvara is the guy if he wants that belt.

You don't go against Mokachev. You don't go against the future chain. Jalen Turner. Holy, can you imagine the freaking optics of 6-3 Jalen Turner versus what's full Voxics? Oh, no, I really want this. That's what I'm saying. The body optics, that lightweight are going to be wild if this actually happens because a lot of those dudes are just huge. Let's hit two more, Casey, and then we'll get out of here.

It's getting late. These dudes are at like 5 a.m. at this point. Yeah, I totally understand. I'm honestly wide awake right now. And by the end, thank you to everyone who's watching and commenting. We have a lot of viewers right now. And again, I don't know what. It's probably in some other times those scenes even later.

So God bless you guys for sticking around for you viewers. All right. You guys are fantastic. All right. This one's coming from Andrew Nash. He says, Sean Strickland's next move, question mark. Take down. Mix the martial.

Mix the martial arts. That's probably a good call He's about three hours too late For that take time Yeah, I got it I know what to do now I mean What do you guys think

He was number four In the UFC's rankings Seems like he could have It seems like he's probably Going to end up fighting down I could see like a Imovov or something like that maybe Was Imamov Buckley just

Was that official? Oh yeah Oh yeah Good call Good call But something of that ilk Where it's like a lower guy In the top

How much this is I don't know They'll let it. They might just do Canaan Air because they love doing that, even though it's awful matchmaking. It is awful matchmaking. You could do that, but you could do that. It's an option.

I know, but like the thing is match, like, I am not a matchmaker, but it has always been very obvious to me that the way you should do it is when fighters win and they put enough wins and they rank, they get to fight up. And when fighters lose and are ranked, they have to fight back. And not like one spot back.

You got to give somebody back behind you a chance to level up. And then if you win, then you can fight somebody in the like two spaces around you and you can try to recline. But like that's how you don't get Tony Ferguson like the number nine or whatever like we can have. Hey, hey, hey, let's not come at Tony Ferguson for no reason. I'm caught one. I've always come at Tony Ferguson. So I'm going to keep doing that.

Being the number non lightweight in literally any any rankings and I think he's pretty high in our still is it's just insane. Like it's just obviously insane. You call it insane. I'd call it justified. What can we do? How? Our own differences here. What can we do?

What can we do? This could get so ugly, but how do we feel about Strickland getting the Coast Rockhold loser? I'm sure. I mean, what about Andre Monez? I mean, I think that would be great, but I don't know that they'll do that. Strickland's going to fall to like. John Jerry Muni.

I was thinking Strickland. I mean, Strickland's going to fall to like seven or six. in the UFC's rankings. That's kind of where Moonez should be getting. I don't know. I kind of like that. I bump Moonez up pretty high in my rankings after tonight. I'll tell you right.

I've already changed my rank. Like he's jumped, he jumped way up. Monez is going to be like my four, I think. Either three or four. No matter who is strickena gets. Was Strickland ever get this close to a title?

Nope. No. Not a chance. I thought I said before. And that's what we said before the fight. Who had the most to lose on this card? And I always felt it was striccling because of this situation, he had the easiest round.

to get a title shot in a long time, basically beating one top 10 fighter with Jack or Manson, a borderline top 10 fighter. He would have got a title shot if he would meet this unranked kickboxer tonight. And he doesn't have that built-in. I mean, he did, again, he did some good work feuding with Izzy this week, but he doesn't have that built-in history

that Pareda has. So Pareda, like, again, probably could have lost tonight, especially if he was like a decision or something. He probably could have lost night and then got another highlight real knockout and still, you know, Strickland, it's a long climb back. It's a long climb back. And the guys he has to beat to get there, oh, boy, it's real tough.

So I was really optimistic about his chances, even if he lost before that fucked out like this. I don't think it happens. I do Strickland Drickland 2 plus C. That is actually the fight I would make. I think that's a very fun fight. I think he doesn't have that fun because I think Muniz would just kill him. And that's not a big enough jump up for Mnese in the rankings. So give me DDP, Strickland.

That's where I'd book him. I like that. I like that. Let's get one more Casey and then we are out of here. Random question while Casey's looking, how have Yariah Hall and Brad Tavarra's never fought? They used to train together, I guess. I think maybe they used to train together, but not anymore.

I was really surprised they've somehow never been matched up or anything. I feel like that's probably good that that fight's never happened because it would be a really horrific 15 minutes. Hey, Brad Tavares had a hell of tonight. That fight with Jickis is sick tonight. He made a very fun fight tonight. I think a lot of that was Jikis having zero regard for his He's fun to watch.

Boy, D.D. He's real fun to watch. I like how from this middle of the first round, he looked gas. But it's just like his demeanor, like his body language and like he leaves his mouth hanging open. I don't think he's actually tired. I think he just has this look. He looks. I think that some people are just like that.

But like, he looked maybe the most I've ever seen someone like be way. The moment was way too big for him. And then when he got a little tired, then he relaxed. because he was so, like, tightly wound in that first, when he was getting tuned up as a result, and then he got a little winded and then was a much easier, better fighter. But it's like, oh, man, Drikas, you, you're a little shook right now, I see. Okay.

And our last question, because we haven't talked about this fight. I don't want to do it. Oh, this is fine. I'm okay with this. I thought you were going to do the sad fight. You didn't do the sad fight. No one's sad that just guys leaving. Jesus.

This last one's coming from Rick G. I'll see the podcast. I watch Jerry to see Jessica I on J.R.E. Okay. Rick G. wants to know, do you guys think Macy Barber will hold gold? Nope. I do not, although she was definitely very loud tonight about thinking that Valentina Shepchenko has been exposed quite a bit.

So that's interesting. But what do you guys think? Technically true. The last thing she wants to do is fight Shepchenko. Chivchenko now. She's just no, I mean, maybe if... Be fair, she said that she was not ready. She said that I feel like in other interviews too.

Okay. I only said that like maybe she wasn't ready. Isn't there qualifier in front of the not ready? The maybe is enough. It might be too early for me. I feel like that's what she said. No. No, I don't think she will.

And it's only because I think I just, I have her behind prospects like Aaron Blanchfield and Casey O'Neill and Menon-Firo and so I, she's going to get there. And this is even if Valentina just leaves the division at some point. I just don't see repeating any of those names. But again, Macy Barber is a lot better than people, I think, give her credit for. And yeah, she was, we've said this many times. She's just a victim of, you know, I want to be the youngest U.S. champion ever stuff. Yeah, she set the bar super high for it.

Did it happen? Yeah. But I understand why people are hard on her. Like, my fans are like super critical. You put yourself out there. You put yourself out there. And it's worked out well for her. Guess what I got.

She's six and two in the UFC. I don't know that would surprise people. Like, that's not. surprising. That's a little surprising. And in division, then again, I always tell people, I think it's pretty, is kind of underrated. I think outside of course, Johnson and dominates everyone,

it's a good division. Can't get a decision versus Maverick, but whatever. Oh, that one too. Yeah, you could argue she's five and three. You could definitely against Rock Ayes. She's five and three, the Maverick. Yeah, yeah. But officially, she's six and two, three straight wins.

She blew her knee out against, against Roxy. So, you know, as she said, she won that. That one of those are going. But yeah, so she's not going to quite crack my overall rankings. She's in the top 15 of my UFC only rankings but I don't think she's going to make the, she's just outside, I think

if we include Bell at Sour fighters. She's in my top 15. She's never going to hold the belt. She's 24 and so maybe that's an aggressive statement, but one, O'Neill and Blanchfield are much better prospects. Two, I don't know that she

like, I don't think she has a good feel for fighting. She is athletic and willing. and those in many ways that looks like people have a good feel for fighting especially against some of the opposition she is faced but uh it really really struck like struck like struck me this way like and i said we obviously saw it against roxy but at the time it's like well roxy she's very young roxy is such an accomplished grappler she was like straight up bad uh when jessica i did get the takedown not like jessica's top game was great and she had phenomenal pressure like Barbara had an underhook and didn't know what to do. Like couldn't find her way to a hip to use the fence to get up. She didn't have, it looks to me like she has no real feel for grappling at like a combat elite level. You know, maybe she's an okay, you know, Jit's practitioner or whatever in the gym.

But like Jessica I controlled her with such ease. And it's not like we think of Jessica I as this like stalwart top position grappler or again was doing things that I was like, oh, Jessica's head pressure is really good. She's smashing the shoulder. It was just like, I don't know why Barber's not getting to the fence and standing up right now. She's just not doing it. So that's going to be a huge problem.

And I think that that's a real thing. So no, but she's 24 athletic and willing. And that's ahead of most people, frankly, in the sport and in her class. So she'll probably be a top 15 fighter for a while. By the way, look at some of these other names ahead of her, who are also still fairly young. Tyler Santos, Alexa Grasso, Viviani Arujo. So, I mean, and these are established people in the division now.

So she has to get past those names too. All of those people can grapple to you. It's a good division, which is really important. It's a sneaky good division. It's unlikely that she gets. It is very sneaky good division. We talked about all the time. All right, fellas.

Well, I think we're at like an hour and a half. So case music. We didn't talk once about the bad thing that happened. I don't know what you're talking about, Jed. I know. No bad things happen. Congratulations to Donald Seroni on an incredible career, Hall of Fame career. His retirement speech, if you haven't watched it, go up on our YouTube, watch the like 20-minute thing.

It is one of the most fascinating retirements I've ever seen in this sport. I've never seen a person happier about exiting and not in a very positive sort of a uplifting way. Like it was, I did not expect to be. like that feel that good about Soroni just being like, yeah, I'm done and I'm stoked about it. He was so excited. It's like, yes.

It's been, I mean, he's, it's been coming, man. Like, he's been trying to get this fight for months at this point. Went through so many false starts. I get it. But yeah, congratulations to Donald Seroni, future Hall of Famer. I'm sure that's going to happen sooner rather than later with how the UFC operates.

Also, big performances all around, Brian Barbarina, Jim Miller, the man. I don't know what you're talking about there. All time wins leader for the UFC. see. The historic store Loranco, I'm sure I'm butchering that, but opens the second fastest finish in women's bantamweight history. And breaking an arm, basically.

Like, that was ridiculous. And an ice cold quote afterwards. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not playing the game anymore. I'm just going to rip your arm off is awesome. But that is it for us. Thank you so much for tuning into the UFC 276 post-fight show on MMA fighting. We love you guys so much, you crazy people who stood up so late for us. In the meantime, keep it locked.

to MMA fight. We'll get all your post-fight needs. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.