MMA Fighting - UFC 278 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Leon Edwards' Shocking Head Kick KO, Rockhold's Retirement

Episode Date: August 21, 2022

Leon Edwards is the new UFC welterweight champion after landing a stunning head kick in the final minute of the UFC 278 event against Kamaru Usman. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, José Youngs, and Jed Meshew react to one of the most shocking moments in UFC history after Usman was less than a minute away from winning a clear decision against Edwards. In addition, they discuss what the win means for Edwards and the welterweight division, and if it could open things up a bit more in the future, where Khamzat Chimaev, Jorge Masvidal, Colby Covington, Belal Muhammad, and others stand, the incredibly gritty co-main event that saw Paulo Costa get back in the win column against Luke Rockhold — who went on to announce his retirement — Merab Dvalishvili's big win against José Aldo, and much more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jose Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Jed K. Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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All right, everybody, we are back. Second part of our UFC 278 post-fight coverage. We have a brand new welterweight champion of the world. his name is Leon Edwards and what an end to a very interesting, sometimes bizarre card

and it ended in just the most insane, wacky way possible. New champ, big upset, fun fights, a lot to discuss here on our live UFC 278 post fight show. Thank you for joining us. I am Mike Heck. Jed Mishu is here. We will hear his fiery

hot takes in a matter of moment. But first, Let's head to Salt Lake City, Utah, and join Mr. Hosea Youngs, who is joining us right now. Jose, how are you, my man? Leon Edwards is the new Walterweight champion. He was down three rounds to run in the scorecards, on his way to losing the fifth round, and then boom, head kick with less than a minute left. We got a new champion.

Your reaction to what we saw in the main event tonight. I mean, it was obviously one of the more shocking. finishes I've seen. I wouldn't put it as the most shocking, or best comeback, as a lot of people say, especially in the title fight, I'd still kind of give that to Anderson submitting Shale Sunning, but it's clearly like if you, on the short list for most shocking knockouts, craziest comebacks, biggest upsets, whatever you want to call it. Like it's clearly this moment will live in time in MMA. Yeah. All right, we'll see you later.

I mean, leave one day alone here. That's okay. It's clearly on the shortlist for a lot of end-of-the-year awards, like historic moments of MMA. This is going to be one of those things where. Where were you watching when Leon Edwards head kicked Kamara Usman? It's obviously the first time Kamaruzman's lost in the UFC, first time he's been knocked out.

England's got its first UFC Walterweight champion, so a lot of first in the UFC. So it's a historic moment here. And not for nothing. everyone complained about why they come in Utah this crowd was better than a Vegas card this crowd was better than Jacksonville this crowd was better than Houston

this crowd was better than Dallas this crowd was better than almost everything outside of that first London car I went to this arena was unhinged for almost the entire night so very very fun night and all around for fights

if you were out here obviously yeah and just it's just one of those things that makes you appreciate the emotional roller coaster that is the sport because you have a man in Kamara who is winning the fight the way we expected him to win it and then boom it all happens and now some big things going on Jose now I mean I know Dana kind of walked it back at the press conference but they want to do the the rematch in London the trilogy fight Wembley was mentioned Leon Edwards is obviously very excited about that idea is there a chance like what would you

gauge the chances that this third fight this rematch for the belts between Leon Edwards and Kamar Uspen actually takes place at Wembley Stadium. Do you think Leon has enough power in this moment to be like, come on, man. Like, we got to do this. Do you think Dana can be convinced to make this happen in the stadium? I think, I mean, if Dana could guarantee it doesn't rain in London, England, then probably. But that's all order. That's like saying don't let the sun rise in Florida.

It just doesn't. It happens like twice a year. So it's just hard because it's an outdoor arena. You don't want it to rain in the UFC fight. So if you can guarantee that, then yeah, I'm sure I'll give it a 10 and 10 chance. But it's just, it's a weird. It's a weird scene holding stuff outside. But if they're going to hold in a stadium show, the UK is the place to do it

because they're used to watching sporting events in this big stadium same as Australia. So they're going to go anywhere in London. And they go to Wembley, so be it. Hope it doesn't rain in London. I know that's a whole Lord. Absolutely. Co-made event we saw just an insane fight between Paul Costa and Luke Rockhold. The stakes were very high for both guys.

It was just a crazy battle. Went back and forth. If you told me that this fight was going to go to a decision, I would have laughed in your face heading into that fight. But we got a 15-minute war. And from all indications, the final one of Luke Rockhold's career, what did you think of the fight? and Rockhold's decision to call it a career?

I mean, Rockholds retired before, so I guess it doesn't surprise me, but also wouldn't surprise them if you walked it back like you did before. I don't know what came off through the TV, but it was a weird fight man because, like, the crowd was booing. And the loudest pop of the night

besides Leon Edwards' head kicking Kamar Usman was when, I think, in the third round, when Costa was just controlling, Rockold on the canvas and there was like nothing really happening. And the crowd was getting real annoyed and booing. When Luke hit the transition and got on top, it was like watching a knockout. People were just excited that Luke Rockall did something and they started rubbing blood into his head. And the players just went nuts.

I was like, what am I missing here? It was just a basic transition to top control. But the crowd went nuts for it. So yeah, weird fight, exciting fight. Didn't expect Luke Rockle to literally turn his back at points, put his hands on his knees. Paulo Koso threw almost no punches to the head, which was very weird. It was a lot of like body shots and head cakes, but Luke's hands were literally on his, at his side.

And I'm like, Paulo, just punch him in the head. Like, that's all you have to do. And he just didn't do it. Weird, sloppy fight. And I was like, is this the best worst fight I've ever seen or the worst best fight I have ever seen? And I'm leaning towards the best worst fight I have ever seen in the UFC. So I had a good time. It was crazy to watch and people loved it.

I guess that's the most important. I mean, when you're pondering retirement and you head into the octagon, you think it might be your last fight. Like, you want to go out with a win, obviously. But for Luke Rockhold, even going on a loss, is this like the best way that he could potentially walk away from the sport right now? Like after a crazy fight like that, fans cheering for him. I mean, it's not a win, but this is about as good as it can get coming off of a loss. Is it not? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, he got the respect of everyone not named Jake Paul, but who cares about that? Um, yeah, I mean, walked out with his head held high, Dan McCormey called, like left the, I don't know if they showed him on the broadcast, whatever, but Dan McCormeer literally left the commentary booth to go hug Luke Rockhold and Luke Rockhold was holding back tears, hug Chito before he walked out and then his teammates and him walked to the back and Luke Rockall, this is indeed the last time we see Luke Rockle in the Octagon.

He's had 99% of the MMA world would kill to have his career. Obviously, he has a lot of opportunities outside of the sport. So I just hope whatever he does, he succeeds. And good on him for all week, not holding back on the fighter pay talk because he's definitely one of the louder voices and definitely puts the narrative that most fighters should push. Marab Duolz really defeats Jose Aldo. It wasn't the fight we expected, but Marab gets the biggest win of his career.

Boom. We'll get to you, Jed. Quiet down over there. What does this win do for him? Like where is he sort of in this Grand Prix of sorts at 135? I felt like Cheevera was the biggest winner tonight, but where does this put Marab after beating Joseo? I mean, it really depends on how the fight in Abu Dhabi plays out

because if T.J wins and they want to do Marab versus T.J. Because Marab wants to get revenge on T.J. So be it, but then Shooker Sean O'Malley beats Peter Yon. I don't know. You don't give him a title shot against either T.J. Jolishat or Peter Yon. Or if they give Marab the title fight, and then you do Cheeto versus Sean O'Malley for the No. one contender. That's if Sean O'Malley beats Peter Yan, which is also a tall task.

If Pierre Yon wins, he obviously has beef with Marab Davao's really too, because you saw what he was tweeting. So Marab rises, but there's a few other pins that have to fall down because we also have the San Hagan-Song-a-Dong fight that is awesome. It also has to play out. So ask me again in October, and I'll have a better answer. All right, last thing, outside of the top three fights, What's the most memorable moment of the night for you? What stood out to you the most? I only know this. Hmm.

Besides Dana saying that the Raiders almost got Tom Brady and Grank. Well, I don't get a crap about that. I'm a sports fan, so I don't like the Patriots. I'd probably say, I mean, anytime you put fat, heavy weights fighting in altitude, that's always fun. Jared Gordon fight was, the Jared Gordon fight was intriguing and his post-fight interview, I think stood out because he called out Patty Pimlet, not because he doesn't like him wants to rub, but because he wants to increase awareness towards mental health. And then he made a lot of other jokes about his past drug issues and stuff.

So at least he's making light of it. So probably those two, Amaral Bazi obviously looked absolutely incredible. And he said modern day jiu-jitsu is watered down. And I was like, damn, I really want to see him fight someone in the top five at flyweight ASAP. So, yeah, a lot of fun fights. Tyson Pedro, obviously, front kicked Harry Huntsucker. and then says he wants to run it back with Shogun

and he won't tell me why outside if he wants to he wants to get the wind back but he also promised someone that he would get it and he'd tell me after he fights himself all those. A lot of a lot of nuggets of interest after this after this fight card. There you go Jose, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

I know it's chaos over there in Salt Lake City but well done my man. Safe travels back to Phoenix and we'll see you on the next one man and say goodbye to that guy Mark Remundi over there who just wants to get on camera so bad. And yeah, shouts to Ramundi. He just wants to be on camera so badly.

Thank you, Jose. I appreciate it. Can you give Romani a good chop a good chop against across his chest right now? Oh, yeah. Just. On the podcast network, you're not going to be able to see the chop that Jose just lay on on Mark. But Mark sold it absolutely perfectly. So, all right.

Jose, enjoyed the rest of your evening. And awesome. A great job. Great, great work. Let's bring up Jed Mishu because he's just been sitting back waiting for his opportunity to wax poetically

about what we saw tonight in Utah it was a crazy card there it is there's Jed Mishu Jedd Leon Edwards is the freaking champion of the world and I don't think like the results in a vacuum is all that surprising because I even tweeted out right for the fight last chance

who's picking Leon Edwards I couldn't believe the amount of response of people saying Leon Edwards is going to win this fight. But after round four, I don't think anybody expected Leon Edwards to win this fight. And he comes up, like Jose said, I don't think this is the most shocking moment in UFC history. But as you like to do on damn, they were good. This is a Mount Rushmore shocking moment in UFC history, is it not? Oh, yeah, for sure.

Like this is, again, because it's exactly what you said, right? Like, it is not, if you told me at the beginning of the night, that Leon Edwards is going to win by head kick K.O. I'd have been like, that's actually very plausible. Because I even wrote that that was a possibility of my breakdown on this fight. Like, Kamau Weisman mostly blocks

head kicks. He doesn't. And so like, you should do that a lot, just because it's a good thing. And that's a great way for you to knock somebody out if you've ever played UFC like four or whatever. But I would never have said it would have come after Leon looked defeated because like he really

just did. Like, I know some Twitter people are getting like really upset with the commentary team for saying it. But like he he actively did look defeated at points in time. And at one point in time he looked up to Herb Dean while he's getting smothered and like does the does the classic, I don't have any answers here. So I'm going to look to Herb Dean about what the hell's going on. But it's a credit to Leon Edwards because even though he was defeated in the fifth round, he pulled himself together and did what he needed to do. so in you know at the beginning of the night if you told me not shocking like not super shocking surprising with all the context there i think there's a good argument that this is the greatest

chaos in ufc history like given the context of the moment yeah it was it was absolutely unbelievable and it's just it's just the roller coaster of the sport can provide jed kemar who's been you know had a tough first round leon edwards capitalized on a very rare mistake from Camaro and maybe at that point people were like, oh, maybe Camaro isn't taking this as seriously. But Trevor Whitman, great job in the corner saying, look, you made a mistake, it's okay, it happens,

just don't make any more. And Camarro's like, okay. And he came out and had a great second round, great third round, great fourth round, and a great fifth round until the head kick lands. But there is no other option here. We're running this one back at third time. Like, you weren't really, a lot of people really weren't sure

how this could go, especially with Hamzaa Chamaa, getting ready to fight Nate Diaz, not that this is real title implications, but it's a huge fight. Shemayef is a rising star in the promotion. And now, obviously, Jorge Mazadol has tweeted out that, oh, maybe we're going back to the UK. That's a big fight for Leon. That's one that he wants. It's a big fight for the UFC because Mazadol is a star. It would be a big fight for Leon as well, not just from the personal level, but for his bank account as well. But there's no other option here. We're going to London. We're going to do it either at the O2 or Wembley,

and we're going to do Edwards Ousman 3. Are we not? We are. I dislike that because I've been on the record time and time again. I hate immediate rematches. Like in any circumstance except for like an outright robbery or like a very narrow window that I'm okay with an immediate rematch. Like there's just nothing else going on because it feels unfair to me to Leon Edwards. Like he he did the thing.

He won the fight. He did the thing. Now he has to do it twice. And that has always felt very unfair to me when you could just demand Usman gets one more win. And then Leon can defend against somebody else. But that's not the reality that we live in. They're for sure going to run this back. And it'll probably be a really big fight.

And if they can do it in England, that would be great. And I hope that they can do it. But like, I don't. If I was in charge, I probably would give. it to Jorge Mosvdol, even though that's like the worst kind of fight. It's big business. It's a reward for Leon for doing the thing. He did the thing. Let's reward him with a fight he very clearly wants a fight. He will win. You could do it in England. And then you can do Usman next. And it's it's okay. And you're getting at least one more squeeze out of Mossvedal because otherwise

you're just not going to get one out of Mosvital. But yeah, that's it's fine. I mean, we'll run back Guzman Edwards 3. And I mean, it was a, I won't say it was an entertaining fight, but it was very good mixed martial arts. So I got no issues in, in the aggregate. Yeah. And another name that kind of slides back into the title conversation outside, once this trilogy is wrapped and packed, Colby Covington now is back in the title picture.

And I know that kind of rubs people the wrong way. But now you have a potential fresh match. But if Colby gets a win, he's probably right back in there. I have to say this where we move on. besides Kabbaru Usman, true or false, the biggest loser in this situation is Belal Muhammad. It has to be because he was, I mean, he was probably still like two or three wins away from getting to Usman anyways because of his, he's not a huge star. Like he's likable.

He's on a good streak. And eventually he's probably going to get the Leon treatment. Like you'd probably need eight or nine wins in a row and eventually get a title shot. But now that Leon's here, you got a trilogy fight coming up. Shamiya beats Diaz, he's in the conversation. Osadol's in the conversation. Colby's in the conversation. Bilal, even if he puts the boots to Sean Brady,

is probably taking a step back here, right? I would disagree that he's the biggest loser because I think Hamzad is the biggest loser because Hamzot was going to get the next Walter Watt title fight, and now he's on ice and he'll either fight Balal, which is probably if Bilal wins, and I don't think he will,

because I think Sean Brady's really damn good. But if Bilal does win, he is probably in a situation where he has to try and call it, Hamzat and Hamzat has to decide if he's ready to fight. If he wants to continue fighting, then he'll get to, but otherwise he'll just have to wait for the winner of this bout, which is a shame because I've been pretty open about it. I think Hamzat would beat either of these men up if they got into a fist fight. I think he's probably the best way to wait in the world, and he's going to do horrible things to Nate Diaz, and then he's going to have to wait until next year to get a title fight.

So I think he's the biggest loser. Also, it's hard for me to call Ballal the biggest loser because I don't think he's beating Sean Brady. So it kind of doesn't affect him in any regard. But if we're living in a world where he does beat Sean Brady, like I said, I'm still not even sure it sets him back because he was beating. I don't care if he tornado kick chaos Sean Brady in six seconds. He's not getting a title fight. He's still at least one, probably two wins away. So he's, because you're right, he's the new Leon Edwards.

Like, that's where it is. So I just don't think it sets him that back. It's, I mean, he would have preferred it not happen. But I think ultimately it's not a huge difference for him. Fair enough. Let's go to the co-main event. Oh, no. First, I want to say one very important thing about the main event.

I mean, I have a lot of thoughts about it, but we can get to questions and share a ton of them. That first round, buddy, I just want to talk about it because we were in our, our work Slack. And we're talking about how weird this card was and the altitude and funny, odd shit was happening. And so I went on draftkings.com and I looked at the prop bets. And I was like, Leon Edwards by submission is an astronomical plus 24 and change 100. That would be the silliest and stupidest possible outcome here. I'm going to bet on it. Just do a little bit down.

and in the first round, when he gets to back and he is fishing an arm under, I was losing my mind. I was trying to live blog and not be like, do it, do it, choke him, choke him. I felt so good for such a brief moment in time, and that's why gambling is great. There you go. Just for him to share that. Don't listen, AKs says never gamble on MA. Jets is absolutely gamble on M.R.

This fight would have been great anyway, but I had so much fun in that first round when like it really looked like that was going to happen. Oh, man, that would have been absolutely insane. You would have been taking a victory lap right now of epic proportions. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals on amazing gifts. So you don't have to. They've bagged this season's Italian leather handbags. Designer. Handpicked the finest sweaters from the rest.

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You gift the good stuff. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Cadocephora that I've been to denishy who energize all the time? It's the form of standard and mini regrouped. And the abel-in-pallage, too beau, who is practically pre-a-doned.

And I know that I'd ever have them offriar. but I guard the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm just the most ensemble, the Cado of the Feds is CIFRA desktes, Rare Beauty, Way, Cifora Collection, and other part of the Vite.

Procurre you see form of standard and mini, regrouped for a better quality of price, online on cifera.a or in magazine. Let's go to the co-main event because we're talking about weird and crazy this one and I was talking to Casey about this on the press conference show

that had that head kick not landed, we'd be spending the majority of the time on this post-fight show talking about this co-made event between paula costa and luke rockold and i think hose sort of set the table perfectly here it was either the best worst fight or the worst best fight but it was a damn lot of fun watching it i'm sure you enjoyed it this is a much different fight than a lot of us expected and i think that was sort of the theme throughout the night but the co-main event what did you think so i ruled um i mean i i am not i haven't done a a decided list But off the top of my head, it's the second best fight of the year.

Obviously behind Eri Breschry, over Tashara, like nothing's beating that fight. One of the three best fights of all time, if not just outright, the best fight of all time. But, I mean, I come down on the side that I think Jose ultimately settled on that this was the worst best fight. There were a lot of bad tactical decisions and some real sloppiness, but it just enhanced the quality. and so it was great. And I tweeted it. If this is the last we see Luke Rockhold, it's a hell of a way to go out, man.

Really good fight, really fun. In no way a fight I expected. I thought this was two true outcomes. Rockhold gets a take down and wins, or Rockwell gets punched in the face and falls over. Somehow neither both of those things happened, but neither of them happened. It was very, very compelling watch.

and if you bought this pay-per-view, the first two fights, not worth your money. We talked about it in the pre-show, but the main event outcome and that fight more than delivered for your purchase price

this time around. True or false, we have seen Luke Rockhold's last UFC fight. I'm going to go false, but I'm not, I don't have a ton of confidence behind that. I mean, he has left

the sport before it's hard for me. It makes sense. Him leaving at this point oddly makes sense and doesn't, right? Because we all talked about beforehand. We all thought that if he lost, he would leave. But I think, certainly for me, and I can't speak for you, but my belief was that if he lost, it was going to be brutally violent and in the same way he's been losing. It was going to be a left hook that punches him unconscious.

And he didn't. And I have a lot of questions on if Paulo Costa's, good at fighting. I think he is, but I'm not. He is a very, very weird fighter for me to judge, because he's obviously extremely durable. And I think his game is smartly built. But I sometimes he fights really, really not smart. And he also, Luke Rockhold is his best win. And I'm not sure not knocking out Luke Rockhold, who's old and hadn't fought in three years, is actually a good win. If that seems disparaging, it probably is. But I just have a lot of questions about Paula Costa, but he is one of the top ten middleweights in the world.

And he didn't, like, totally style on Luke. He won convincingly. But Luke had a ton of moments in that fight. And it is possible that that fight could look very different, not at altitude, which seemed to play havoc with everybody tonight. So it was very odd that this Luke lost the fight, but if he, I don't feel he needs to retire, which is not a thing I would have thought coming into this. But if he had, if he's choosing to, it's really hard to walk out of MMA in a good place. That's about as good of retirement as you can really hope for. But I think Luke is, I think he's going to come back because he's done this before.

And he's going to go back and he's a little heartbroken. really sad about what happened, but then he's going to realize I haven't fought in three years. And I just took a former title challenger, you know, one of the top ten guys in the world, we went hammering tongs. And I maybe I tried really hard, but I wasn't there. But I have, I have things to do. Like, I still have more to give. And I just think his, for lack of a better word, I think his ego is going to catch him up and he's

going to come back in at some point. I'll talk more about how I feel about the situation tomorrow on onto the next one because I think it's like 95% that he's done, but the 5% that I'm feeling could actually happen. 95% in MMA retirement, you're going to say 95%. I feel pretty strongly unless this 5% comes through. And this number could probably be higher for me, but I actually think that this 5%, you can make a compelling case that this 5% growth. rose. But more on that, 11 a.m. Eastern onto the next one tomorrow. We just discussed, yes, we discussed matchmaking and what could be for both guys. And I thought we're going to talk a little bit more about Paul Koss's future, but

apparently he doesn't even understand his future at this point because coming into the fight, we thought that was the last fight on his deal. Post-fight press conference he said, I'm not really sure if it's the last fight on my deal. But if it is, maybe I'll go box Jake Paul, but it might not be. So we'll sit down and figure it out. So we're a little unsure of Holocaust's future at this moment. Paulo leave. If it's the last final deal, leave. Go to the PFL, my guy.

Just do it. And you happen to be wearing a PFL shirt, so perfect. Sure. You sure are. You did boo when I mentioned the featured boat. Rob DeWallishvilly. Rob Defeats Jose Aldo. You are not a fan of this decision.

I'm not a fan of the decision. it's not bad. I am in no way crying robbery. Officially MMAFighting.com scored that fight for Josaldo because I scored the fight for Josaldo. I'm not a fan of everything that happened, right? Like, if you believe Marab Dawes really won that fight, I don't have any issues with it.

Certainly if that was a five-round fight, Marab would have convincingly won that fight. But the entire premise of this fight was objectively stupid to start with. Josie Aldo had a good three-fight winning streak over, I don't know, you guys ever heard of Cheeto Vera? He's doing pretty hot shit stuff right now. And Aldo, Aldo stunting on him. Like, he beat a lot of very good guys in this division, deserve to have a title fight against Al J. Stirling. And they gave it to T.J. Dillashaw, because reasons. I don't know. Instead, he had to fight Marab. And I am not saying that Marab Valsh really

is a bad fighter, because he's very, very clearly not. I'm very highly ranked in my personal rankings. I am saying he did not fight that fight to win that fight. He fought that fight to take judges' scorecards. And I am also not saying that Jose Aldo fought the best fight of his life. But at various points in time, he was at least trying to hurt Marab. And I never, at any point, got the opinion that Marab was trying to hurt Jose. I thought, the first round. The judge who scored at 3027. Terrible. He should be put up against the posting shot.

That's awful. You just shouldn't score the first round. The judging was horrific tonight. Just really bad in a lot of spots. That was a really bad scorecard. I expected Marab to win to get to the second and third round. I'll have to rewatch and maybe I'm wrong. I thought this, I gave the second round of Jose because,

because he actually punched Marab some and kicked him a few times. And my issue with the fight is you could see when it happened. Like you could see after round one Marab realized I can just spam takedowns. And I won't get any of them because I ain't that dude and Jose is. But I can just wall install him. And that's fine because I'm going to win the cards. And I would love to look at the stats. I know Casey hates stats.

I can't imagine a bunch of significant strikes for landed either way. But the third round, like the third round is a round that I is like told, like that is a Marab round. But that's how you're supposed to do that. If you watch the difference between rounds two and three, Worab does nothing substantively offensive in round two. He just grabs a leg, pushes Aldo to the fence, and holds on until Aldo can break it off. And in the third round, he actually starts putting punches together. He he hits him a lot like he's he is effectuating actual offense instead of wall installing and

So if he he could have done that earlier. He just didn't and so that's why I scored their own for aldo And again a lot of it is I just a hand up just being butt hurt that Aldo's in this position to Lose this stupid fight in this very stupid unappealing way Like if if you're gonna beat Jose Max Holloway it like do something dope don't don't do that like That was just super damn lame. So, I mean, it is what it is. Jose Alda's greatest featherweight of all time, top five fighter of all time. I will, though, get on my soapbox and say, we gave Jose a title fight after he, quote, unquote, lost to Marlon Marais.

Do it again. Shit, if I care. Do it again. Run it back. So the official stats, overall Marab outlands. Jose Aldo's significant strikes, 5, 57 to 38. overall strikes 1 35 to 59 0 for 16 for takedowns round one uh Aldo landed 15 of 25 significant strikes yep Marab landed 16 of 49 but I definitely thought Aldo landed them way more

impactful shots way way better and the same in the second round I'm looking at it right now they both land to 11 11 and then Maraq clearly won the third and a bunch of control time like I and I guess that's the crux of this year. It is less an issue with the scoring, though I still think by the rules stated, Aldo should have won the second round. I don't give a shit about control time and no one should.

I know that that is officially a third layer of scoring or whatever, but we shouldn't. I have a fundamentally huge issue with the way we score fights and a lot and like, who gives a shit? Like, genuinely who cares who is controlling a fight?

If you're not damaging or effectuating real offense none of it matters I think we should be way more comfortable with being like yeah that round's a draw because neither of you hurt the other dude or tried to hurt the other dude like I'm cool with that it's never going to happen but like

it's a hard pill to swallow that Marab won that round by holding a leg and holding a dude up against defense and credit to him he could do it and Jose couldn't stop it but I don't think that I don't believe that that should be valued in the way it is valued at this stage.

Yeah, 3027 is a terrible sure. It's a terrible scorecard. Terrible scorecard. Good win for Lucy Pudolova. Wasn't the worst of the evening, though. No, we're going to get to that. Good win for Lucy Pudalova, Tyson, Pudelova. Great win for Lov.

Huh? Yeah, Greywood. She looked really, really good. The worst scorecards are the, that I came in the feature prelim between Martin Tibora and Alexander Robanoff. Jed, no, I don't think anybody in MA Media has been higher on Alexander Romanoff than the two of us. I ain't no more. I have him, I had him, yeah, I had him ranked higher than anybody in our MMA fighting goal rankings. It's really.

Great rankings. I did. I had him eight, and I think you had him nine. I had him one spot above him. And I even wrote my predictions this morning that released this morning that this morning. that. Yeah, that Romanov was just going to truck Marcheintyibora. He was going to win a 10-8 first round and then he was going to sub him in the second.

And that in the next 18-12 months, he did. And then in the next 18-24 months, he's going to fight for the title. Don't think that's going to happen right now. However, only one judge scored that first round 10-8 for Alexander Romanov. And to me, even though I thought 3027 Marab was a horrific scorecard, not giving Romanoff a 10-8 in that first round is pure. It's just absolutely, absolutely egregious. What else do you have to do to get a 10-8? Besides, I mean, he got trucked in that round and didn't land one strike. Not one strike did he land in that first round. He basically got perfect gameed and that's a 10-9. I just don't understand it.

I mean, but I will say this, and I'm sure you agree with me on this. Romana deserved to lose the fight. Like, he definitely deserved to lose. You've been reading my tweets because, yeah, I tweeted that right after where I was just like, officially this is a horrific decision. It very obviously should be a draw. Spirit of Romanov, you know, spirit of the law, Romanov deserves to lose.

Not because, just to be clear, not because Marcin Tibera beat his ass or whatever, because he really didn't, but just because you, you should be punished if you're awful. And boy, howdy, I don't, I,

very disparaging to fighters all the time. Everyone watching this should be aware of this by now. Some of it's tongue and cheek. Most of it's just me talking because it's stuff I believe. But I mostly try not to like be really, I know, try not to do exactly what I'm about to do, which is it is entirely inexcusable to have five minutes of cardio when you are winning. And not like barely winning. Like he just sat on him.

I know he did two big lifts. Boom, that's tough. I have thrown bags over my shoulder. It's very difficult. But I can throw two of them and then sit on top of a bag for five minutes, and I won't be gassed. You were a professional athlete and a fighter, ostensibly a pretty good one. And he was gassed after five minutes, all of which he was in controlling position,

and just mostly leaning on Tibera. that is, I won't say it's the most inexcusable part of the night, but maybe it is. But I mean, a lot of people did some really, it was bad night in a lot of ways. Like some of the refereeing was terrible, some of the judging was terrible. Among the worst fight IQ I've ever seen occurred on this fight card. But Romano, of being unable to get the fight he wanted and just be like, I'm done. I had good four minutes in me. As it, I got nothing else.

Like, that is inexcusable. And so strictly because of that, he kind of like, he deserves to lose spiritually because you can't do that as a professional fistfighter. It's not real. Yeah, not a great showing, but Taibor gets the win. Jared Gordon got a win. Luis Saladanya, speaking of not quite IQ and making mistakes. Also, I just so we're clear,

want to make sure I've got this right. Somebody scored, this is the worst scorecard of the evening because somebody scored the first round for Woodson, 10-8. I'm almost certain that that is true. Let me pull of MMA decisions, but I am almost certain that somebody scored the first round of that because of the point deduction. No, no, no, okay. I thought I saw that somewhere.

Yeah, that would have been really, really terrible. That's what I thought we had going. I still don't love these scores I got it right now yeah 999-99 yeah I thought I saw on someone someone said he because it was like

because it was a split draw and seemed very odd to me but yeah I scored it horrific I yeah I scored it almost the same that Richmond Montana's did

I thought I mean I thought I thought Soldanya went all three rounds for sure he shouldn't have lost two of them. Yeah, that's for I'm sure. So that's a bad.

Also, Derek Cleary, shame on you. I'd like to be extremely clear. He should have, should have won the first round 9-8, like pretty obvious. Yeah, I agree. I agree with you. I agree with you.

I think 2926 is how I scored it for Saldon. Absolutely shameful that he didn't win the first round 9-8. Like, that is. Because I can see, I can't. Okay, I fundamentally disagree with not giving Roman Al, and I think the rules agree

you're supposed to give Romanov a 108 but you can at least if you're being a real dipshit judge you can read the rules in such a way that Romanov did not do enough damage despite holding the position that because the way it's worded

if they do X like X amount of damage you are compelled you must award a 108 is the way the language is but if they just have dominance in control and duration you may award so if you're being just the worst kind of human being that's judging a fight.

I can, there's at least a justification to not give Ramano of a 10-8. But there's like, by the letter of the law, there's no world in which Zaldana doesn't get a 10, like a 9-8 in that fight. Like, he very clearly did X amount of damage that compels you to give him a score of 9-8. So I think that's a, I think that is the worst card of the evening. Bad judging. Also some bad refereeing in my.

Because I think Saltoni should have lost two points for that knee because that was like a near concussive like fight changing illegal shot. Like I would have no issue of two points or taking away on that one. And I would have been actually okay with that. I would have applauded that. But that didn't happen. And here we are. I agree. Also spiritually, we should just allow you to need people in the head because we're stupid that we don't.

Yeah. I agree. The rules are the rules. He should have been deducted two points. poke him in the eye, kick him in the ding-ding, grab the fence, grab the gloves. No one's going to stop you. It is such a good move.

Angelosa, good win, Amir al-Bazi. Man's going to be a problem at 125. Goodwin for Ricci Lang. It was a fun fight with Jay Perrin. And Victor Alta Marano kicks the night off with violence and gets himself 50 Gs along with Leon Edwards and Paula Costa and Luke Rockhold for the fight of the night. One last thing I want to say before we go to the peeps.

We mentioned Bala Muhammad or Hamza might have been the biggest losers when it comes to the main event and how it played out. I think the biggest winner of the night outside of that with one of these three big fights was Cheeto Vera. I think Cheeto Vera is now driving the truck right now in this little Bannamweight Grand Prix. He's definitely ahead of Marab in this conversation. Like Marab is out of it. It's not out of it, but he's, Cheetos way ahead of him right now. and then it all depends on, like if Peyoteurion beat Sean O'Malley,

Cheetos probably getting, and Sterling wins, Cheetos's probably getting the title shot. But that's at least the way I see it. Maybe. There's a world where if Sterling wins, he does, because he's talked about vacating and moving up,

he does that, and then they do Marab versus Peotter Jan, and Cheeto has to fight. I don't know. Maybe you do the Aldo rematch, so they probably do Aldo Cruz at this juncture. He certainly gained. I don't know how much a lot of it will depend on 280 and what goes down there because it will all be entirely moot if Sean O'Malley wins. If Sean O'Malley finds a way to beat Peelioran, nothing matters.

He's fighting for the belt. Yep. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land.

And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPline members on equip flights sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See AyrCanada.com.

All right. Let's go to the piece. Let's take a few questions. Let's do it. There's Casey back in our lives. Hi. I look at the two greatest judges right here, you and me, Jay. I know.

We nailed it. And I will, because I'm sure somebody in the comments is calling me a homer. Yep, damn sure. Don't care. Stand by it. The fight reminded me of the Marab fight, round two especially, of Ketland Vieira versus Holly home. I scored that fight by Holly home.

I scored that fight by Holly home because I thought... I might have to. And I thought the moment is like, well, she's holding against the cage and she kept kneeing her in the legs. That's what Mara was doing. But then everyone was like, no, no, significant strikes were for damaging strikes were for Biera. I was like, okay, I'm wrong. Then I see this fight and I'm going, oh, okay, this is the same fight. It's auto that's doing the damage.

But I don't know. I was kind of shocked myself, the media scores. I thought it would be a lot. I was kind of shocked that we're the only ones that had Aldo winning round too, but... Yeah, I'm pretty surprised by that as well. Yeah, here we are. Yeah, yeah, I know. Here we are.

But, all right. Do you. Oh, interesting. More of a comment, but a little bad streak for Trevor Whitman. It's tough. Yep, especially because Allen was looking like it was good for him. Yeah. So Rose, Justin, and who's on?

Yeah. So, yeah, you just, yeah, coaches, camps, they have their ups and downs, you know? Just, that's just how support goes. Yep. That's why MMA rules. Yeah, it does. Oh, we didn't get to mention this. And I'm just going to get on my soapbox right now.

Mike, what do I say all the time about the hardest thing to do in MMA? Successfully defend your titles over and over again. Yeah, it's really, really damn difficult because you can't ever slip up. You get everybody's best shot every time. And you get a guy like Leon Edwards who's a hard-ass mother effort who has spent his entire life climbing it out of the ditch. And he has been looked over and bypassed and run down. I've done a lot of it and I don't forget a single bit of it that I did. Most of them are clear.

Yeah. Yeah, and I don't remember a single thing I said, but you get a dude like that who is very good and very talented and it takes one slip up, one second. And he is going to do everything he can because this is his entire life. And so it doesn't matter if you're fighting, you know, if you're George St. Pierre and you're fighting Dan friggin' Hardy, it just happens. And so please, I am begging you all. I know that the UFC has one way to promote two ways. Either it's bad blood or he's the greatest fighter that's ever lived. But six is not as many as nine.

I'm sorry, five because he didn't successfully defend this one. And that is not a knock on Kamar Usman. It is impossible to have five title defenses. It is unbelievable that he did that. But please, he wasn't close to George St. Pierre in the Goat Tar. He was the second best welterweight of all time and a top 10 all time fighter. And that is an unbelievable accomplishment. But we don't have to pretend that he has surpassed GSP because we want to be part of,

we want to be part of history. And that's what it is. It is a compulsion on us to be this thing now in front of us. This is ours and it's the greatest it's ever been. Because if Ustman had gone out here and won that and he was damn very close to it, He's still not GSP, but if he goes out and continues winning, then he can be. And then it's justified and it's real. And it's not a fabrication.

So please, I am begging everyone. Respect the fighters who have put in the work time and again. Because if Leon gets two title defenses, he's not better than Kamar Usman. I don't give a shit that he just knocked Kumar Usman out. He is historically not better than him. even if he wins the rematch and defends against Jorge and Covington, he's just not better than what Usman did. It is okay.

Max Holloway is not better than Jose Otto. He beat him out. I was going to use that as a shot at the end. Exactly. It's it. And there's nothing wrong with you being the second greatest person all time in the history of a thing. That's in fact, incredible. And we should all be like, holy shit.

That's unbelievable. but instead was just like he might be the greatest i don't know he just wasn't i mean this is why because you're off nights or not even an off night ozman was very much on and it's just is really is off second and that's all it takes second because this sport is insane and chaos reigns forever and i just want people to stop and think about that a lot more because people get way too excited about that and about winning multiple belts and that's cool but like Like, nobody appreciates Demetius Johnson enough. I genuinely don't.

I genuinely do not believe we will see a person do what Demetrius Johnson did. And I know people want to run that down like Flyweight sucked. Actually, no, all of those wins are mostly really damn good wins. And I think there's a very real chance that in my lifetime of following the sport, we never see someone put that together because it was impossible. What he did was impossible. What George St. Pierre did was impossible. what Camor Usman did wasn't possible,

but it just wasn't as impossible as what George did. He wasn't there yet. So I'm off my soapbox now, but... No, no, that's... That's awesome. There's only one fighter in the sport who has any chance of beating that record and it's Valentina Shofchenko.

I don't think anybody else... I think she's the only one of the chance, and I don't even think that that will happen because we just saw how difficult this is. Yeah, 100%. 100%. I think outside of Valentina, the current active leader is now Israel Adasanya, who is five, and he's got a tough task with Alex Pereira coming up.

So we'll see. We'll see what happens. Let's go to the peeps. We'll take a couple questions. Oh, but before we go to Peeps, real quick to Jed, before the fight, you were mentioning a lot. And I agreed a bit, you know, you were like, Leon Edwards has to have the perfect fight to win. Usman doesn't have to have the perfect fight. Genuinely thought he did.

I was super wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I mean, that's just the sport. And like, he was, I mean, clearly Edwards did not have the perfect. Actually, Edwards had probably a kind of a crappy fight. And yet he somehow won't. I thought he fought really badly, actually. Yeah. Not that he fought badly.

I thought he fought. I am not, yeah. I am not an MMA coach or whatever, but like, and maybe this is way too simplistic. And that's totally fair. And if it is hand up, like, I'm a dude talking out of his ass on camera, whatever. But like, to me, and I wrote about that. this and the thing, like, the most important thing, Usman had to do a couple of things, like, he needed to not get wrestled. He needed to have a plan to work the jab. The most important

thing he needed to do was he needed to win the footwork battle. He needed to be the one coming forward because he's not that good fighting. He's fine, but he's not a great fighter off the back foot. And nobody in MMA is good at fighting off their back foot. Like, there are three, maybe four fighters who are legitimately talented people working backwards. everybody is just worse at it. Kumar Usman especially. And if you go and watch the Colby Covington fight, he wins that fight in the first three rounds.

He is always coming forward. He starts backing up in the latter two rounds. And Colby starts winning the fight. Like that's just he is not as good working the counter and working off the back foot. And every second that Leon did take the center and did push the action, he had way more success. Ultimately, kicking Usman in the face. it's just I thought he should have been doing that the whole time

his corner was begging him to do it but he he really really struggled with it and I Mike you said at the start of this that starting round or at the end of round four nobody thought Leon was winning I thought Leon was screwed at the end of round two because the takedown started coming and he he was just immediately getting his back to the fence

like instantaneously just conceding I was like he can't win here He doesn't have the shot to do it off the back foot, but then he didn't. So I thought he fought really poorly, actually, and it didn't matter. I was super wrong on that because I thought he had to be perfect. He fought poorly, but he took advantage of the moment. And I like to point out just the similarities, kind of the funny similarities to this fight and Leon Edwards versus Nate Diaz. It was very funny.

I was watched I've watched a clip of Usma getting knocked out many times but actually was more important than the clip of him getting knocked out there was nothing happening for about 20 seconds before that they were both kind of just standing there

looking at each other for about 20 seconds nothing happens and then boop knock out and that's a lot I mean it's not exactly the same thing but that's how Nate we kind of we were kind of beginning going into this fight

we're like ah Leon just has these lapses it was Uzman that had a lapse We just went to have the lapse. It was just... It elaps early and a lapse late. Yeah. And the laps early, it was like, okay, he would... I'm not even sure.

I, yeah, I think that was less of a, like, laps than he just genuinely did not expect it. Well, I don't think he was, like, brain farting. It was just like, that... Why, you would try and take me down? What? And then suddenly he was mounted. It was awesome.

It was awesome. Yeah. It was just, it's wild. I'm really, I'm really glad Leon got to do that in the first, because I think it substantively changes the narrative of this fight. Like, we're still going to get some lucky shot stuff coming out of this anyway. But because Leon won the first round and did that, I think that narrative is really diminished,

which always makes me happy because I think Lucky Shot is a stupid narrative. I don't want to have it. All right. You can pull up a question, but let me ask you this real quick, Jed. Who are you picking in the rematch right now? One, Leon. Okay. I picked Leon in this one, and granted the fight did not look really anything like I thought it would.

But I don't have the stats in front of me. I am going to assume that the statistics for younger fighters who win the rematch going into the trilogy is because the fighters who win the rematch going into the trilogy is already vastly weighted towards that. We've seen a couple notable exceptions to that recently. Amanda Nunes, Davis Figuero, but I'm just going to assume that when you also factor in the younger guy, that that number still moves really heavily

towards the guy who won the rematch. But I say, I'm really interested because how does Usman react to getting knocked out like that? Leon will come into that knowing I didn't do enough. Like, I got the win, but I was really close to not.

So he'll be super, super geared up for it. And it's a really fascinating trilogy fight. It really, we have to assume the fight will be at sea level-ish, too, and that's going to be in the UK. It's got 100% be in the UK.

You have to do it there. I mean, sure hope you do. Yeah, it's promotional malpractice if it's not in London. I love this question, because it's one of two. Yeah, it's that or

Anderson versus Chale, right? I guess that's okay, one of three. I, for whatever reason, blanked on that one. It's that Anderson Chale, which is still probably the number one. Yeah, I hear that.

That's probably number one, actually. And then this or the Misha Tate fight. Amisha and Holly. Yeah, that's good on. Misha getting the belt was... That fight was over, and then she got to take down, took the back, choked her.

Actually, very similar in the way the fight played out versus Leon, but for how the ending was. Yeah. It was tied heading into the fifth round, wasn't it? I don't remember it being tied. I remember Misha won one round because she got a take down and I thought Holly was beating the hell. It was a 10-8. It was a 10-8, though, wasn't it?

It could have been a-t. I don't know if they had really scorecards, but like the, I remember Misha had to the end of the round. But even before- My recollection is that Misha won one round. And Holly was winning that fifth round until she won. Holly was winning the fifth round until she got taken down. Just like tonight's fight. It wasn't like Leon was dominating the fifth round.

and finished it. Leon was about to lose that fifth round again. Biggest comeback, UF's history, high stakes. At least for K.O. finishes in the fifth round, yeah, I would say without it out. I mean, you obviously have like the Pat Barry's Czech Congo type, but the stakes weren't as high, obviously.

And this was just, yeah. Yeah, all three judges gave Misha Teta 10-8 in the second. She did get a 10-8. She lost the other three and Holly was winning the fifth until she got taken down and choked out. But had she not gotten the finish probably still would have been a,

I mean, it would have been a draw. Yeah. Yeah. But I guess maybe they give her another 10-8 and then that would have been wild shit. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that'd be crazy. I can't believe they never, they never rematched, right? No. No, but they should. Yeah. It makes sense, yeah. You know who else never?

matched Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman. I'd love to watch them fight again. I thought I would actually, I think the timing of that could work. I think that that fight just makes a lot of sense and would be fine. Luke acquitted himself well.

Yeah. And just, yeah. And just two old guys. This is a loop. Yeah, two old guys. Yeah. Yeah, just I just saw lots of compliments for Luke

actually in the comments on Twitter and everything. I think that fifth round really kind of saved, the fifth round and his post-fight interview, almost kind of saved Rockhold's legacy, you know. Unbelievable post-fight interview. Yeah. A couple of really good ones.

Leon's was some moving shit. Great stuff. Good job UFC, getting those, doing those interviews. Oh. Does this shocking win make the welterweight division more fun now? I mean, if he gets another one, then I don't know. It makes it more interesting for sure. Well, it does make it more interesting.

I mean, the division's always been fun. There's an argument that Leon Edwards being your champion, by definition, makes the division less fun. Because I know we just authored one of the greatest chaos in the history of the sport. But, like, again, I don't think we can stress enough that that's so out of character. Leon Edwards says, I think, two KOs in the UFC and one was his debut. It's just so, so, yeah, Seth Pichinsky. It wasn't his debut because he lost his debut.

Seth Pichensky in 2015. Oh, I guess he T-KOed Peter Sabata, but I guess it's just not a thing he does. Also, it's Peter Sabata. It's not. It's so unbelievable that this happened. but like he also went to a not that interesting decision with Nate friggin Diaz. Like it's, but we're getting this fight first and that fight's going to be awesome. So it probably makes it more exciting.

But the real cynical view is that it makes it lamer. Yeah. The build to this fight like aged really well. It just got more interesting the closer we got to the actual fight. Four rounds into it, it got a lot less interesting. and then it ended the way that it did. But now the rematch is going to be super interesting because Leon clearly wasn't at his best.

I believe him when he says that the altitude, like did make him tired, but it like kind of made his body feel a little funny. And Usman's going to learn a lot from this loss too. So a Justin's will he made, it will not be the same fight this time around. And I can't wait. I can't wait to see it.

I really get that. like Leon said, I wasn't tired. I just couldn't do things. Because, like, there's literally less oxygen getting to your brain. It's like, it's just like, and Oostin was good to go. Yeah.

Doesn't he train in Denver? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. It was just higher elevation. Yeah. I, again, not a rocket doctor or whatever. And I'm sure that's sleeping in an elevate,

like sleeping in a hyperbarric, whatever. Like, I'm sure that that helps. But they always say that, like, that's like that's the thing he is like okay cool he's not training in one so unless i was punching you while you're sleeping yeah maybe it has always baffled me because i know that it's expensive but like replicate fight conditions just because sure you sleeping in the tent or whatever it's better than you not sleeping in the tent but you know what's better than that like training the way you're going to fight in the conditions you're going to

fight. That's why Fabrice Overdum went to Mexico City like two months beforehand and beat the hell out of Cana Blasquez almost exclusively because he just did the smart thing. Like just do the smart thing, man. Do the smart thing. I remember basically Kane just kind of roundabout said at the time, I just didn't want to spend the money. Yeah. To send bring my, and it was just impossible too because at that time, A.K.A. was very successful, and he just, you just couldn't afford to bring every coach's coach down in Mexico City. It just, it was just no way for him to do it, or pay these coaches enough, but, um, yeah, it's really difficult. It's very inconvenient, but like, if you're Leon Edwards and you know for a fact that Kamar Ustman is training at elevation, you're getting a

tent that lowers your oxygen intake just ain't doing shit, man. Like, you got to. You're just sleeping badly. Yeah, this is your one shot at the title. And it worked out for him. I'm glad it did because great. It's really fun that he won the belt. But yeah, it just they always say that like that's, oh, he's good. He's sleeping. He's sleeping in it.

Cool. Is he running in it? Is he fist fighting people in it? Because those are very different things. I'm not spending a lot of energy when I sleep. I don't know. He just takes a nap and some random sparring party just comes to takes him down. Like, oh, shit.

I lost the question. I don't know where it was on here, but I'll just ask what they said. Who's pound for pound number one now? The same guy who's pound for one. I mean, I know Jed, you have a different guy than I have.

I have a different one than everybody else. Well, who's the UFC going to say the pound for bound? Who's the UFC going to say. They're going to say Volcanowski. It's going to be Volk for, I assume he's number two in their rankings. I could be wrong.

Pull it up. Oh, he is number two. Yeah, they're going to move into number one. It's Israel. It's Israel-A-Sanya. Sorry. I have, I still have Izzy. I had Izzy coming into this fight.

I still have Izzy. But I just... If Usman in one, I actually think he would have passed Izzy. But it's the same thing on my soapbox. Volkanovsky may be the best fighter in the world if you're just looking at skills, et cetera. But Izzy has beaten more people in his division that are very good than Volk has. Volk's beaten Max Holloway three times, which is great, super incredible accomplishment.

He beat Max Holloway and Brian Ortega. And Korean zombie and your mileage varies on how truly impressive that is. Israel's beaten literally everyone in the top five of his division, except for Alex Pahetta, who just moved into the top five of his division. I think he's clearly the number one pound-found fighter in the world. Before we head out, actually I want to ask Mike something. Coming into this fight, you mentioned, you said there was so much pressure. on Usman. If he loses this, he loses everything. You know, he loses going to 205. He just is all this, you know, all that stuff. Do you still believe that's true?

Yes. You know, you know what I'm trying to say? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but it's because and this is, this is the, this is the whole thing about it, which I agree with everything Jed said about the whole GSP thing. Like it was way too soon to be talking about that. But you can make a, you can have a tremendous Hall of Fame career being the number two welterweight of all time. And he still had a long way to know. Yeah. It's amazing.

It's incredible. It's incredibly. It's incredibly a top 10 all time fighter. Pound for pound all time. GSP is number one. He's number one. Like that's just it. That's the answer.

Yes. But I just, I don't know. It's just to me that there were certain narratives that were put on this man that it was probably too soon for it. and, you know, pressure mounts and stuff like that. You're talking about going to 205 and boxing Canello and all those things. And that's cool.

Like you have goals and you have aspirations. I don't think he was like overlooking Leon Edwards at all. I think so. But for the things he was saying that, you know, I want to be the best to ever do it. I want to be the greatest of all time. I want to do this. I want to do that. Like, I think a lot of that is gone right now.

Now, he could go out there and just. That's a question I wonder, actually. Yeah. Right. He could go out there and just wreck Leon Edwards. the next fight. Like one of the, like a Volkanovsky Korean zombie type of performance or a Volkinovsky Max Holloway. Or even, even GSP Sarah 2. How about GSP Sarah 2? You know, you almost forget the first one. I don't compare the two though. Which I think is like no disrespect

to Volkinovsky's absolute dismantling of Korean zombie. GSP Sarah 2 is I think the single biggest ass kicking I've ever seen a professional fits fight. Like that was an exorcism. coming off someone that just kicked your ass that's what i mean yeah exactly that was an exorcism so if he does that in this rematch who buddy that's right but i don't like i said i compared i didn't compare this fight to pania nunez i didn't compare this fight to sarah gske i compared this to wide man anderson silva that's how i how i compared it like i think that's a more apt comparison like this isn't this is an upset by betting line terminology and just where usman was and where leon was and how people viewed both

guys at the time. But this was not like, like I said all week, so many people thought Leon was going to win. Like it was amazing. I picked Leon. We didn't pick this way, but we did pick me and Jen did pick Leon. The results. Yeah, the results in how it all played out is stunning. But him leaving Salt Lake City with the World to Weight Champion is not that surprising. When Matt Serra beat GSP, no one saw that coming. When Julianna Pita, Chapania beat a mananino, only one person saw that coming. Nobody else did. Nobody else did.

So I don't think, like, why you can play the fluke card, which I don't like that card being played at all. But if you want to play the flu card with Julianna Pena and you want to play the flu card with Matt Serra, I don't think you can play it here. Like, there will be people who will play it, but not as many as those two fights. So I do think Ushman takes a hit.

This rematch, whenever it happens next year in the U.K., Usman doesn't just have to win he has to blow the doors off this man if he wants to get some of that juice back at least that's what I've done much like Nunes has to do the pinia in the rematch just blow the doors off her I think if he wins convincingly

it's okay because again I'm not going to knock him huge for the loss if he comes back and wins convincingly maybe doesn't get a stoppage but you know he wins a 4946 like he was on his way to doing I think that that's it doesn't get him all the way back

but it puts him back into top three-ish pound-for-pound fighter range. And again, Kamala Hussman could end up being the greatest welterweight of all time. I would not bet on it, but I wouldn't have bet on it for years. Like it's because it's just really hard to do. But this doesn't ruin his campaign. It is definitely a setback. I have a question for you guys, though. I don't think this is going to happen, but I just thought of it.

And it would be way, way better. I think the funniest and best outcome, is what if Usman's just like, you know what? No, I'm good. I've done the well-to-wait thing. I'm just going to go to 205 anyways. Yeah, Leon can have it. I'd like to go fight the winner of Yvari Abrahaasheglova Tashara

because that would be the best. I'm really rooting for that. I don't think it'll happen. If he comes out and does his first interview, which will probably be with like ESPN or something, if he comes out and that's like the first thing he says, that would be awesome. That would just be amazing.

And Jorge Mazol is getting a frigate title shot. Yeah. It's like I have a lot of respect for Leon. He really wants to fight Jorge. And that's cool. Like I understand why. Let him do it. Let Leon get the bag.

He earned it. He kicked my ass. Good for him. I still, all the stuff I said before, I want the respect. I still want that respect. So I'd like to go fistfight year,

Brashka. That would be awesome. Do that. I don't think he loses I don't think he's going to lose respect for this. I just think I think it's a giant step back for the all-time greats, like the Canello's talk, the 205.

Like maybe he just will say, screw it, I'm bored, I want to go to 205. But I don't think he's getting right into a title fight. Like if he had won this fight and he just said, nah, I'm not going to fight Hamza. I'm going to go fight for the light heavyweight title. I think the UFC would let him do it. Like Dana was hesitant and been like,

if I was his, I'm just his promoter. If I was his manager or whatever, I would tell him not to do it. but if he wants to do it, I'm going to let him do it. But I think that's off the table for now. Unless he just is like, I'm never fighting for the welterweight title. Yeah. And these are the things I'm talking about.

Like, I don't mean like his entire legacy is crushed. But him going up to 205 and fighting for a second title, all that stuff goes away. I think they were moving from Black Panther? No, no, no. Let's get Leon in here. We don't want you. He'll probably get more movie roles. He'll probably get more movie roles.

You know what I mean? Like, Camara's a very talented dude. He's a very well-spoken guy. Like, I think he's a great color commentator too. Really good. Yeah, we talked about a lot.

He's very good on the mic. Very good on the mic. He's got a brave few. He doesn't need to fight anymore if he doesn't want to. He's a competitive son of a gun, so he will. And he, I don't think it would be hilarious if that happened.

He just said, nah, I'll go to 205. I don't care what anybody says. I'm just going. It'd be hilarious. But there's no way who's been not like pissed off. and already thinking about fighting Leon Edwards again.

So, yeah. Could we see Leon Edwards being a great long-running champion? Or is this just a guy that wins? A guy that's, I don't know, I'm trying to say, but is, but. I don't know, man. He matches, it's, he's, he's a really good fighter. And I think he's a really good matchup for Usman in a lot of ways. And I think that's why a lot of people thought,

he had a chance to win. Like, the fight through four and a half rounds is exactly the way I thought it was going to go. I thought he was just going to wrestle him. Like, Leon would have his moments, but, like, we're going to see a 49-46 for Rusman. Like, read my prediction. That's exactly how I laid it out.

Yeah. The fight was going very much how you thought it was going to go, actually, until that asked. But stylistically, I think Shamiyev is a horrendous matchup for Leon. I think Colby's a horrendous matchup for Leon. I think he'll probably beat Mazadol, but even. Even with like the emotions there, like, I think he'll be Mazadol. Like, there's, there's just tough match. There's just a lot of like, really rough stylistic matchups for him.

But who knows? Maybe, maybe he catches, maybe this is like the beginning of him just, like, and it's hard to say when you have an 11 fight on Beaten Street that maybe now he'll catch lightning in a model. But who knows? Maybe he'll just go and blow the doors off Camaro. And like, his confidence is just at this all new level after the second fight. And who knows? I don't think he's going to get five to six.

six title defenses with Shemayef and some of those other guys. But I could see him beating Usman again and maybe getting... Braindy. Yeah, we have Shopcott coming up. Yeah, shoppertsman. Yeah. He's... He's...

He's... There's a lot of just tough matches for him. Yeah, he's going to be like, Benson Henderson. Champion had a couple of defenses. Most of them are robberies, but like, you know, very solid guys, undeniably a top five fighter in the division. And I'd call him a justified champion because Benson probably shouldn't have ever been one, but you know.

He had some gun wins. He will be a good, yeah, but he just didn't actually ever beat Frankie Edgar, so he shouldn't have ever won the belt. But, you know, he will have good wins and is a legitimate champion. But no, I would be very shocked if he put together like a five, six fight run as champ. Guys, Leon Edwards is a UFC champion. That's just incredibly funny. You know what?

It's unbelievable. and this is a guy who like straight up legit paid his dues and got there and got it done in the most improbable yet I don't know if hilarious, maybe hilarious is the word in context of it all and just the whole story of this entire card but there's just no with the way that the co-main event played out

and like the kind of letdown with the Mara Waldo fight and some of the weirdest that happened in the prelims. Like this, let me just let me ask you this, Jed, and I'll get your take on this case, because I know we kind of talked about this off air. But if that head kick doesn't land, and Usman just rides out the fifth round and wins the fight, and I don't want to be a negative Nancy at all, but is this the worst pay-per-view of the year? I'm really bad at answering this, because I don't remember paper. Like, I just don't remember

cards that well. I'd have to go back and look at what the pay-per-views were. I remember the first one, the Angano, like 71. 270. I remember that one being bad, but I don't know if it was worse or not than this one. This can't be the worst pay-per-view of the year just because the co-made event was dope. Was it?

Yeah, but all the Mara... The co-main event was really fun. Yeah. We got two-warnishes, but I mean, no one was really excited. Those could have been prelim fights, early pre-lim fights, yeah. They weren't also, they weren't even like that fun of finishes. Yeah, it was going to... But the co-made event was...

was one of the best fights of the year. So I struggled to think this would have been the worst pay-per-view of the year. And I like it's such a weird question. Also it's going to be moot. Because most of the pay-varies are frigging. Most of the pay-views is a bit awesome. Like, way over-delivering. Like really good stuff.

We got 280 coming up and then like 277 was good. 276 was. That's the other thing here, Mike. Ended poorly. This is a useless question because, 279 is an abomination. That's going to be the worst pay-per-view of the year. We got Todi Ferguson fighting Li Jingleong now.

Which I'm sure you guys caught onto the necks. I'm sure that was the fight after Shannon knocked him out. No, it was not. You're not excited about Daniel Wolps. UFC debut on a paper on a paper view card? I'm excited about literally zero fights on that card. Zero of them. come on. Let's go out on a better note, guys.

Leon Edwards' close-fight speech was one of the best things that happened this year. Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome. That dude was just, that was everything you would expect of a guy in that position who, like you said, Mike, paid his dues every step of the way, doubted. I'm going to touch back to a thing I said, I guess, two paper views ago. I know that I'm apparently on an island I absolutely hate that Alexander Volcanox he acts as if he's doubted

or people don't believe in him or respect him because he was a huge favorite I mean it was a minus 200-some-odd favorite over Max Holloway nobody in the world doubted him but he just like fabricates this thing and so after the fight he's like oh you all doubted me blah

no no one did and the reason I hate it is for nights like tonight because everyone did doubt Leon Edwards. Yes, a lot of people coming into this were predicted, like, said that he could win. But look at the betting line. Look at what has happened. Look at the shit I have talked about Leon for the last year and a half. And again, I stand by everything I said.

Because I never said he was a bad fighter. Say, super boring. And a lot of people did doubt that man. And so when Volga does something like that, it just rings hollow. It's, that is you making something. up because you're that like you have to do that or whatever and that's fine if you have to motivate yourself that way but don't project that out into the world as if it's true when it's obviously horseshit but when leon says you all doubted me look at me now champion of the world like

that hits here and you know mama i told you i said i was going to make i was going to change our lives forever look at me now like that was that was legitimately moving stuff and that's why i don't want people who aren't doubted to pretend like they were because people get doubted like actually people get doubted and overcome those circumstances all the damn time and for as great of an effort as Volcanovsky is given in his life and the fact that he is one of the best fighters ever etc etc that man didn't come from the same like Leon Edwards came from a tougher a tougher lot in life all the way down every step of the way and I we don't need to let's not co-opt his thing just do your own. Look, I'm a badass. Look at me. I just tuned up Max Holloway. Let Leon be the one.

You guys doubted me. Doubt me now. So I'm off my soapbox again. The Jade Mishu soapbox was stacked nice and high. There was two soap boxes. He kicked one over and then he stood back up on the other half. Also, flyweight unders, they never lose. And heavy weights are heavyweight overs? Heavyweight overs is getting in that discussion. It's getting in the discussion, but, you know, we're, like I said, we're not going to pre, we're not going to blow things up too early. We take our time. We let them prove themselves in here.

Heavyweight overs mostly win. Well, flyweight unders, they never lose, baby. All right. And I hate to burst your bubble. I don't know if you know this, but there's not a single flyweight on the 279 slate right now. I know. We, there's, yeah, I don't think that there's nothing at Paris either. Oh, geez.

And, and. Oh, so no fly right under for all. Cedric Dumbai is, he's off the car. We don't know what's happening. I don't believe UFC. is even happening. I don't, I don't,

some reason I don't. Do we kind of know? We kind of know what's happening with the, we know what's happening. We know what's happening. We've seen this before. Listen, here's what I'll say about this, because so many people have asked about it.

He is not under UFC contract, at least from the people that we have spoken to at MAAfighting.com, tremendous website, who does their homework. Great website. But I will say that I will say this. He is on, he is basically on a list where as soon as whatever he is dealing with is cleared and he can fight, the UFC will pick up the telephone and call him up and say, now you can come fight, you're clear. He just doesn't have a contract right now.

But once he gets cleared, he probably will. So I think one side is saying one thing, the other side saying another. and I think there's like just some losing of translation, but they're both kind of right and wrong at the same time. So I don't think we're living in a world, at least from what I know and what I've been told and what other people that I work with have been told, I don't think we're living in a world where you'd never see Cedric Dumeigh

fight in the UFC. So I'm positive we will see him fight for the promotion. It's just not happening in two weeks. And it may not happen this year, but it will happen and it'll happen sooner rather than later. Okay, there you go. There's your subject Dumbay update.

With that said, hit the music. This is a longer post-fight show than I thought was going to be, but it's okay because this is a night full of storyline. A big thing happened. And we have a lot to discuss tomorrow, Jed. So get a couple hours shut-eye. We still have some work to do, but a couple of hours,

I'm going to bed for a while. I have plenty of stuff. All right. We'll try to get like two to three hours. and at 11 a.m. Eastern, we'll be back and we're going to do some matchmaking. On to the next one. Myself, Jed Mishu filling in in the gigantic shoes

of the world traveler, Alexander A.K. Lee. And we'll have some fun. Matchmaking picks, save them for tomorrow. And we'll pull them up on the screen and we will address them. And Jed will probably not be kind to you if he thinks your picks suck. But who knows? I'm going to be probably a little grumpy.

I'm bad at that. I'm not a matchmaker. That's your purview. You and A.K. You can't do a great job. I'm just there to carry the water. And I'm probably going to be a grump and just, I'm going to have, I'm probably going to have takes tomorrow. But I'm going to have a time.

Let's go. Jed, for Casey, I am Mike Heck. Hope you guys enjoyed the card. We'll see you tomorrow. Good night, everybody. Love you guys. Happy birthday, AK. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.