MMA Fighting - UFC 280 Post-Fight Show: Welcome To The Islam Makhachev Era | Aljamain Sterling, Sean O'Malley Score Big Wins

Episode Date: October 23, 2022

The Islam Makhachev era has arrived. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaheen Al-Shatti, and Jed Meshew react to Makhachev's second-round submission win over Charles Oliveira in the main event of Saturday's card at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, and his long-awaited coronation atop the lightweight ranks. The gang also reacts to Aljamain Sterling's second-round TKO win over T.J. Dillashaw, Sean O'Malley stunning upset of Petr Yan along with the controversy surrounding the decision, Beneil Dariush vs. Mateusz Gamrot, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaheen Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti 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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Yes, that is the sound of the victory parade taking laps for one Islam Makachev, now the undisputed, lightweight champion of the world. He stops Charles Olivera in the second round. He gets it done. The champion has a name, and his name is Islam Makachev. Damn right it is. Yes, we will get to you in your victory lap, Jedmishu. Don't you worry about that.

But welcome to the UFC 280 post-fight show here at M.Afighting.com. We've been with you pretty much all day long, and we appreciate you sticking around with us. We got a crew here. I am Mike Keck. We got Shaheen Al-Shadi back with us once again. Deputy Editor, M.A.fighting.com. Mr. Victory Lap himself throwing his own parade for himself, Jed Bishu, and we have Casey on the ones and twos as well, without much of a voice.

So he might have to write down on a piece of paper his thoughts and feelings and put him up to the camera for us to read out loud. I've got a lot of thoughts and feelings based on our off-mite conversations, Mike. Yeah, it's insane. They were getting a little heated before the show started. Hot Mike. Listen, yes, I was a little heated up. But let me just say, let me start here. I want to start with you, Sean.

And we'll get to you in your victory lap, Jed. Trust me, I'm going to give you as much time as you want to lap around. You could take two laps if you want. But, John, you joined. He's been taking a victory lap for like the next week. So there's no rush here. I know. Yes, I am.

Shad, you were on for the final two fights of this card on our inaugural watch party with myself and Connor Birx. You're on for both title fights. You watched them both unfold with us. They were dominant. 10 years from now when your child comes up to you and says, Dad, tell me about October 22nd, 2022. Tell me about UFC 280.

What's the first thing you're going to tell your child? Is it Islam Makachev? Is it Al-Jem-McStrellin? Is it Balam-Mahemahemad's coming out party? Is it Sean O'Malley, Piotr-Yon doing the damn thing? Like, what's the first thing you're going to say? I mean, in all likelihood, the tagline 10 years from now will probably be that. the start of the Islam Makachev era, right? I mean, this is something that we have sensed coming

for a long time, uh, the narrative around Islam for basically the entirety of his entire UFC career has been the guy. He is the era parent. He is the next Habib Numercomayanaf. He is the next Dagestani wrestling prodigy. He is going to be champion in division sooner rather than later. And it took us a while to get there, man. I mean, this road was not easy for him. There were a lot of canceled fights. A lot of fights turned down. A lot of doubts just in general, does Islam deserve to be here? He didn't earn his shot. He didn't fight. How much you beat a top five guy?

All of this. And he comes out here and he does exactly what Khabib did. He did exactly what Islam does every time we see him. He was dominant, right? Like it was utterly dominant. It was a fun fight to watch. It was very exciting in the moment. But looking back on it, it was not very competitive, if you're honest with ourselves here.

And you're right. I mean, Islam Makachev is the lightweight champion in the world now. He might be the lightweight champion in the world next year as well. and maybe the next year after this division has been one of chaos and parody since its existence. There's a reason that no lightweight champion has really been able to mount much of a sustained title defense. It's because there is so much damn talent at 155. And once you get that belt, it's only one or two before you have to pass it off to someone else. Habib Nirga-Madov looks like the guy who was going to break that streak, but then he did what he did.

And he left in the middle of his prime. It now feels like Islam is ready to take up that mantle and maybe become who we thought Habib would be. in general in terms of the history books and a long rain, maybe Islam's ready to take that. I would not be surprised if a few years from now, obviously it's very early. I'm not trying to predict this ahead of time. I'm not trying to be too much with it or too much too soon. But I would not be surprised if 10 years from now we look back. And this was the start of the longest lightweight rain in the history of this division.

Now, we might have some new viewers, Jed. So let's do like a little split screen on me and Jed. So we could lay this out, make sure we tell this story appropriately for Jed says what he has to say. So it was, I don't know, it was probably a year ago. We were having a conversation about the lightweight division, Jed, and, you know, something we talked about in MMA fighting all the time. And I tried to tell Jed that is on Makachev was the best lightweight in the world.

I tried to tell him this and he just didn't want to believe me. And then like a week ago, he changed it. I'm just kidding. Jed has been on this for a while. He's been on ranking shows. Since January. I want to be clear. I have had him as the number one lightweight since January.

And finally. I am proven correct. God, it's good. Do we spell vindication, JED? Or do you not feel, or do you not feel vindicated right now because you've been calling this all along, that he was the dude? He's just the uncrowned dude.

Yeah, this just feels great, especially because the rest of this card was catastrophically bad for my predictive abilities. So I thought going into the main event, I was like, man, I don't know what's happening, but I'm getting everything as wrong as possible. So I think Charles is just going to like guillotine him or instantaneously. And then that fight went exactly how I thought it would and wrote about and have talked about.

And that dude, that dude is the best lightweight in the world. He's one of the best pound fighters in the world. And that's, it just is. It's, you know, what Sean said. And I think I understand why people don't want to ascribe onto Habib or onto Islam. Islam Habib's achievements and you shouldn't, but in the same regard, like, it's not unreasonable to do so. He's, he's, he's just, he's, maybe he's 80% of Habib, he's still better than everybody

else in that weight class. And Habib told us for ever, literally as long he's in, like, Islam's the only dude who's ever given me, like, one rounds against me in training. Islam's the next guy. Islam is peaking. He's hitting his athletic peak, his mental peak. This is the dude. And there's no reason not to believe what Habib says because that man clearly knows what the hell he's talking about when it comes to fist fighting.

I don't want to take too big a victory lap in general because it's not like I was on some. Back in January, maybe I was on an island. As this fight got closer, I think a lot of people were with me. The one thing I do want to say here is one incredible post-fight work from them, Islam immediately big up and Abdulmanab, giving Habib the belt, Habib taking the mic. I'm sure we'll get into that. But for me, one of the first things and one of the most impactful and important things to me is Abdulman Abduem and Arammergamatov, man.

Like, he took two kids from the mountains of Dagestan and made them the best two fighters in the world, certainly in their weight class and very, very reasonable to argue, just full stop the best fighters in the world. That is an unbelievable thing to do. like nobody does that that's not a thing that happens and I Habeb's loss is obviously incomprehensible and that's not where we can but the sport of MMA lost a ton when he passed and the completion of father's plan was really touching and awesome and effective for me so I one of the first things I was thinking about was Abdulmanap and how this was all what he envisioned and it finally came came to pass even if he's not here with us

Yeah, there's a lot of talk about legacy in comparing different legacies where Habib stands and all of this. And one thing I always kept saying throughout all of this is that Islam's success only helps Habib's legacy overall. And especially him getting this title, a month from now, like we're sitting down eating Thanksgiving dinner. Habib Naragam Adov could be the coach, like the head coach of the two lightweight champions and a lot of people's eyes, the two biggest promotions. Seems really likely he's going to be. Very likely, yes. Yeah, I'm actually more confident. I've actually more confident Ushman or Maga Madoff's going to beat Petriki Pippel than you were with Islam Machinchev beating Charles Oliver.

That's how confident I am in this fight. I am equally as confident in that outcome, sir. So it's just, it's just amazing to see what this guy continues to do as a coach. And, Sean, I wanted to bring this up because Jed sort of painted the picture here. We watched it all live. We didn't really get to react to it because there was just all sorts of chaos. but what was more impressive? Was it the performance overall?

Or was it just the complete wherewithal to promote between not just Islam Makachaf, but Habib, the UFC too, because they shouted it out, Islam, big smile. He knew it was going to happen. He's still humble about it. Hands the mic over to Habib. Habib calls out the number one pound for pound guy. Let's do it in your home turf. Let's get him in here for a face off.

And Volk jumps the rail and they get in. They have a very friendly face off. and it looks like this fight's going to happen. So was it more impressive, the incage product with Mokachev, or just the incredible wearerthal with everybody afterwards to plant the seeds and grow this beautiful flower that's going to be Islam Mokachev versus Alexander Volkovsky for the lightweight title, likely in February in Perth?

I mean, the incage performance was obviously impressive, but just like how much fun was that, man? They actually sold me on this, like going into tonight and generally throughout the patent, the lead up to this. says this is being kind of a full conversation and a discussion point. Jed and I have been aligned on this and that, like, I haven't really been excited or interested in seeing Alexander Volcanovsky

go up to 155 and do this thing that he wants to do. Right now, 145 is very wide open, right? There's a lot of young names coming up. There's a lot of young talent that he has not fought. People act as if he's cleared out the division and really all he's done in is beat Max a bunch of times. And then, you know, a couple other guys like Ortega and Korean Zombie. Like, there's still a lot of really, really good names.

at 145 who I want to see him defend against. And again, this is the person I have as the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. So I've been pretty cold and lukewarm on this whole idea in general. But they absolutely sold me on this, man. You're right. The way this was put together. How much fun is Habib in this sort of like pro wrestler manager role?

Because whatever he did tonight was absolutely sensational, just in terms of taking the mic, plotting the course, planting the seeds, and then Islam running with it. And it was all done. It seemed very organic. Nothing seemed forced. And then, you know, it's very rare in the UFC that we get these sort of cage side or in the cage, face off, stare downs of this is what's next. They basically willed it into existence, Habib and Islam did by calling Vulcan up and really just making this whole thing into a very real thing that we're about to see.

And they almost just forced the UFC's hand. I actually am very excited about this now. I didn't think I would get there, especially as quick as I got there. But just the way this was packaged, the way this was presented to us is very. very intriguing. And Volcanovsky really said to me the best tagline for this fight, which is, you know, hey, your lightweight belt on the line, my pound for pound number one status on the line. Like that is incredibly, incredibly compelling. And I know we're talking about, hey, this is the beginning of the Islam Makachev era. Volkanovsky to me presents the hardest challenge to Islam

Makachev at 145 over 155, just in general. Of the people that he could fight in the next couple of fights whoever it would be. Volkanowski presents to me by far the hardest stylistic challenge and just generally the hardest challenge to that belt. So if Islam's able to get past Volkanowski and doing it out there in enemy territory and Perth, like that's going to be an incredible scene, who boy, man, then we're on to something special at that point in this rain, I think. But I'm in. I'm in. I'm all in. I didn't, I fully did not expect to be here with you guys saying that, but I'm actually in on this. You know what's crazy about this, Jed? You know what's crazy about this, Jed? And I'll get back to you. We were literally,

on the watch party talking about Anil Darius is next. He's got to be next, right? And then 30 seconds later. Why are you talking about that? Who thought that? What man alive thought that? I actually thought the way this fight played out.

I'm like, I don't think he's going to get the title shot, but like he's more in play at this very second than he was at all this entire week. Just the way that fight played out, he won't have been. It was the most compelling. And then everything. that happened afterwards, you're just like, man, Benile at least got the win, so that's good.

You got to show up and fight and get a win. So he's out of the equation. But the question I want to ask you is, how did you react to the post-fight greatness of both guys? I love the pro-wrestling manager comparison. I think that's very apt. It makes all the sense of the world. But how do you compare

the feeling that you have right now, thinking about Islam Makachep versus Alexander Volkovsky compared to when you saw the fight poster, watch UFC, watch UFC, Long Island and found out that Islam Makachchev was fighting Charles Olivaire for the title. Is it the same? Is it different? Are you more excited for Volcanovsky?

What do you think? It's different. I don't know if I'm more excited, but I'm with Sean. I'm very much in on this now because of what they did. And this is the most perfect distillation of knowing your freaking job and knowing how to get the things you want and what you want. Because what Islam and Habib did at the end of that, Like Sean said, they willed this into existence.

And maybe there was traction. There was momentum that way, sure. But they made this a real thing by saying this, hey, bring Volk in. Volk has that great line of your lightweight belt, my number one pound for pound status. That's it. That's promotion. The exact opposite of this is Benile Daryush thanking Jesus and saying, I don't care. I'll fight 10 people.

Then you're going to fight 10 more times, dude. Say the things you want. Stand up for yourself and ask for the things. Because even if he had done the right thing and not sucked ass on the mic afterwards, he still isn't getting that shot because of what happened in the main event. But he hamstrung himself. And this is, again, I was the most anti-Volt doing this of probably anyone in media. Like I have hated this from Jump Street because I want to see Volk fight Honored Allen and Yari Rodriguez and Josh Emmett and all the dudes in his actual weight class. but the way they pitched it, this is fight promotion.

This is actually doing the thing. And it makes it compelling. It makes it interesting. It gives you a tease and you want more. And so this was awesome. I'm super in on it. The silver lining is once it beats Volk. Then Volt can pretend, you know, start pretending like he's disrespecting.

People don't believe in him. And there will least be some validity to it. And he'll go back to his weight class and actually fight his own freaking fighters. So I'm stoked on this fight in general. It's going to be awesome. I agree. you, I had to throw in that because I've now become a Volcanovsky hater because he's forcing me to be. I'm with Shaheen. I think he maybe is the most like interesting, difficult challenge

for Islam and for Islam to say, I'll go to that dude's backyard and tool him up. I don't care. That's like that's how you become the palom best fighter in the world. That's how you make people give a shit about you. Like it's so, so good. They handled this unbelievably well from pillar to post. And especially when you consider that if you look to him, at Wayans, he was obviously terrified of fighting Charles Olivera, and he didn't want any part of it because people are stupid and don't

understand who Islamakchev is. So this is awesome. I'm all the way in on it, and I'm really excited that the lightweight champion has a name and it's Islamakov. It's gangster. It was gangster. I just have to It was absolutely gangster as your first move. Literally seconds within your title

reign as a lightweight champion is, hey, the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the entire sport, I'm going to your backyard in front of whatever, 50,000 fans or whatever that's going to be in front of your countryman and I'm going to beat you. Like, that is so gangster to just invoked in your first few seconds as champion. Like, that's, I love it.

Can you imagine if Al Jermaine Sterling ever did one gangster thing in his life like that? Like a thing that made people like you, it would be unbelievable. Go. Maybe someday. Maybe someday we'll get that. But I do want to touch on Charles Oliverer, shot because, again,

A lot about legacy and, you know, if he beat Islam, is he up there with Habib and all that? And I think what ended up being the more important story of all this is that despite the loss and despite how this fight went, it was one-sided. Charles' real moments that he had in this fight were off of his back. And it was an elbow off his back. And then he landed a big upkick in the second round. Other than that, he was blanked in this fight by Islam Machchup. Islam did exactly what he wanted to do. but we forget things happen with recency bias of the sport more than any other sport

and we can't forget just how incredible this run was for charles olivera this guy was must see tv as a champion and i don't care what happened with the whole gaethe thing like we've talked about this a million times in the the weight miss and everything you want to strip them whatever and a lot of people's eyes this dude was still the champion heading into this fight with islam Mockachev, and in a lot of people's eyes, he lost the belt. What do we have to do to preserve this just incredible run from Charles Oliver, which I don't want to be forgotten because he lost a one-sided fight to a guy who was a horrible stylistic matchup for him?

Yeah, I think that's a really important point to note, Mike, is that it is important to look back and remember what we just saw, right? Because it is the turning of a page. It's a new era coming in. but you look back in sort of the history of the UFC or at least the modern history of the UFC. Robbie Lawler is the guy. Like Robbie Lawler has the most exciting title reign

in the history of this sport. It's not even close. Like every fight he was in was fight of the year. It was just ridiculous. Outside of that, Charles Olivera might actually have the second most exciting title reign in UFC history. And at the very least has the most exciting lightweight title reign we have ever seen.

Every single fight that guy was in it was an absolute banger and it was just consistency every time. time out in terms of you know you are going to want to be in your seat sitting there watching the TV when Charles Oliver is defending his title or just fighting for the title. Like that is that is something that cannot be overstated. It is important for us to remember because you look at the names that Charles went through over the course of this run. It's basically everyone in the top five outside of Islam. Like it was an incredibly impressive run at lightweight and I don't want to throw dirt on Charles's grave. He is very much not done. But it does feel like we have now reached sort of a new challenge.

in his career, right? Because he is 33 years old. That doesn't feel old. That doesn't sound old. But he is the same type of... That's the thing. He's the same type of 33 as like a Shogun 33 or like Joseo. Jose Aldo.

Yeah. Like the fight years matter a lot. And Charles has been in the UFC for a long, long time. And he's also just a guy who has taken a lot of damage in a lot of these fights. He has been dropped in every one of his fights, the last like five of them. It takes a lot of damage. And that's not a new thing. Like, he was taking damage 10 years ago.

in some of these fights, right? So the mileage is certainly adding up on him. I would be surprised if we ever regain the title again. I'm certainly not writing him off. And I think he's still a very viable contender in this division. I think he's going to still stick around and be an important big fights. But for the most part, sorry, my phone started. But for the most part, it is important to remember just what we saw with this guy

and how damn impressive this whole thing was. Because in my eyes, I'll repeat it again. This is the second most exciting title reign that we have seen in the O.C. And now he gets to probably fight B'Neil Derriush. and been healed probably. I'm not sure that's a good fight for him. Yeah. I think that's a really bad fight for him, actually.

We'll see what happens. But say, just kind of, do you want to add to that at all, Jed? Because I think this is an important thing. Yeah, just a little bit. Especially coming off of a loss here. Just a little bit. One, full respect, Charles Olivera. He handled it really well.

I thought he handled missing weight in his last fight, like, about as bad as you possibly can. But he took this out on the chin, said all the right things. and said all the right things, said, you know, I lost, that's on me. No disrespect. I'm coming back. This is, I'm not done. I'm here. Like, can't find any fault with how he treated this, how it all went down.

Great from him on that regard. I will also say, we, the part of the thing that made me frustrated with the is Oliver and the goat conversation is that it's contextualizing him in ways that I think aren't fair and are just like don't appreciate what he is. because I'm with Sean. I think there's a very, very good argument that he's the second most exciting champion in the history of this sport based on the performances he had while champion behind Robbie Lawler. We don't pretend that Robbie Lawler is the welterweight goat, and we don't even really say that he's like numbered the second greatest Walterweight of all time or the third. He was the most exciting dude who was a deserved champion, and this is awesome.

And you can appreciate and respect those guys without having to contextualize them in the pantheon of all timeness because by definition being one of the most exciting guys probably means you're not one of the greatest because you're only exciting if you're vulnerable and that was what Charles was at times and so I am glad that that conversation gets to be dead forever now and we can instead appreciate Charles for being this incredible exciting fighter who brought joy to our lives outside of arguing, well, is he better than Habib? Because that misses the mark and isn't nearly as important as that dude just rules and is incredibly fun to watch. Because even me, the biggest is-up guy the whole time, I never said a bad word about Charles Oliva.

Because you can't because that dude rules and is awesome to watch. And he's still going to rule in six months for now in two years. Even if he doesn't get back to another title shot or whatever, it's still going to be awesome to see. him do the things he's been doing because he is awesome to watch and that's the most important thing yeah there's so many fun fights for him even if he doesn't again i think charles put himself it yeah there's and he's put himself in a position where yeah he can go up to 170 and have fun fights max again that's that's awesome like he can just have fun fights here and just build the legacy that way and still make a bunch of money into max again actually that's funny that fight that fight

Max against a lot of these guys at 155, like this sort of older guard in the top five. Like Max against any of those guys is great. And hopefully this Volcanovsky thing is enough of a paradigm shift to this division where we start to look at some of these up-and-comers, take them a little bit more seriously, give the guys who haven't gotten their opportunity, the chance to get their opportunity. And I think Islam Makachchev, he goes out there, dominates Volkadovsky, even though Volkanovsky is a 45er, he's still the pound-for-pound vest. The UFC will do a great job building it as such. And maybe it'll create a nice little paradigm shift to move the division along a little bit. And hey, John Jones beat a lot of middleweights and everyone calls him the goat. So nothing wrong with beating up dudes who are smaller than you.

To add to what you just said, Mike, too, though, the paradigm shift. Like the lightweight division, I know this is something Jed and I have both spoken about this quite a bit, has been like for as good as this division is, and it is, in my opinion, the best division in sport. It has been incredibly frustrating over the last several years of just this weird, Oroboros-esque cycle of just these same few guys getting the same opportunities. And then when they lose their title fight, they go and they fight each other. And they just sort of, you know, really hog the top five and no new names can break through. Islam is like the first real new name that we have had in this whole mix in quite a while, right?

Because Charles was sort of still floating around in that top five before he became champion. I hope that this is exactly what you said, where this is sort of opens the floodgates to where we can start seeing a guy like a Physiiv or a Gamrod or a Serucan or whoever. Like there's so much talent, Jane Luternor, like there's just so much at 155.

And the guys are just not getting the opportunities because Dustin Poir and Michael Chandler are fighting and then the winner that's going to fight for the title. And it's just the same, you know exactly what I'm saying, just the same cycling and cycling out of these four or five guys. I hope that this sort of breaks through all of that. And we start seeing some of the new blood, some of the new talent come up and get in these opportunities because they very much are deserving

and this division is too good to not let that happen this episode is brought to you by peloton a new era of fitness is here introducing the new peloton cross-training tread plus powered by peloton iq built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans real-time insights and endless ways to move lift with confidence while peloton IQ counts reps corrects form and tracks your progress Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list?

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Defeat Sot Dillard. Look, I understand we all saw the shoulder stuff. It was very weird and strange, especially trying to watch it live and try to host a show and have conversations. We're trying to figure out what's going on. on. And even at certain points during the fight, even the commentators had no idea what was going on. But, Sean, I'm going to say something that I said off air that created a stir. And I want to get your

thoughts on this. To me, I felt that this fight was defined in the first 25 seconds. When Al J. Sterling came out and started landing shots, T.J. Dillishaw, the look in his eyes was like, uh-oh, didn't see this coming. And then the takedown happened, obviously the shoulder and everything. And it's unfortunate. It's unfortunate. We'll never really truly know. But just seeing the, and I'm not a psychologist or a body language expert, but after watching the first 20 seconds of Al J. landing punches cleanly to the face of T.J. Dillisha, I felt like I picked wrong. I backed the wrong horse and I backed it pretty early. Am I nuts for thinking that? Is this shoulder thing? Like, how much do you weigh the shoulder injury? How much do you weigh that in the overall landscape of this fight? Because to me, even though it was a short sample size,

the vibe I was feeling was I backed the wrong horse. Al Joe is going to dominate this man. One shoulder, two shoulders, even if he grew a third arm, I felt the size, the stature, the athleticism, the clear strength he had, even it was so small, but that was just the vibe I had. Am I nuts for feeling that way? No, I don't think you're nuts.

And I think that's probably the right way to feel. Like we all watched to the same fight. The shoulder ultimately plays a big part, right? Because we didn't see a T.J. Dillashaw with 100% of his abilities. I see you making faces over there, my guy. I'm body language. The shoulder plays a big part because we didn't... I'm just fascinated by these takes.

You don't think the shoulder played any part at all in that fight. No, I think the shoulder played a big part is very understanding what that was. Yeah, the shoulder played a massive part in this fight. Of course it did. Because he didn't come in 100%. That being said, I do think Al Jemain probably beats TJ more times than not if they fight 10 times. Just the way we saw, at least right now, this version of TJ, 36 years old. Again, we talked about it quite a bit.

It would have been the oldest UFC champion under 170 by far if he would have won this fight. Best T.J. Dillishaw is just not around anymore. What I'm more upset about is that this is like, I hate to bring it back here. I hate to bring it back here. Because we've talked about it so damn much, but just I'm going to bring it back here because this was the fight that UFC wanted. This was the fight the UFC pushed forward against everyone else's wishes. All of the fans, like a lot of the hardcore fans wanted Jose Algo to get this shot because he deserved it.

He earned it, et cetera. He had a long winning streak. He was the last ride for Jose Aldo. He was coming in. It would have been a really fascinating, stylistic fight for Al J. Stirling. And instead, the UFC forces down our throat because that's what they do. They want the big name, et cetera.

And I know T.J. Dillishaw has got the brand of a former champion in this division, whatever. And so we get a T.J. Dillishaw who has been injured since April seemingly. At that point, I would imagine a lot of people in the UFC know that DJ Dillashah is injured. And he's talking trash in the media to try to get Aljo to fight a certain different fight and et cetera, et cetera. And we lose Jose Aldo throwing him against a grappler who has no actual clear path to the title because his teammate is a training partner in elevation in a fight that no one actually wanted. Really, we could have just done Jose Aldo versus Al Jol Jemite Sterling this whole damn time. And it would have been infinitely better in every respect to them,

whatever the hell, this version of this that we got was. because this was a very silly fight to make from the get-go, and now that we know TJ has been hurt this entire time, it looks even sillier in retrospect. I just can't believe the UFC messed this up so bad when it comes to this particular one, because it was sitting right there. It was the easiest thing in the world,

and they just completely ignored it and went the opposite way. Yeah, that was our collective, that was our collective vindication because we've all been preaching this. We've all been preaching this. Even when TJ was up there at UFC 273 in Jacksonville, he came in as the guest fighter. We're all like, everyone thinks Josiahologist should get a title shot and he's like well I would love to fight him next but that was it like he just put himself

over and turns out we're all right the entire time it was a much more compelling fight much more competitive fight as we found out yes Jed go ahead and and crap on my take if you want but again the sample says about obviously the shoulder played a factor I'm not saying your take is wrong on on the merits I'm saying that it's wrong in the in the being like we we learned nothing thing. It is entirely possible that you are absolutely correct and that TJ has passed it. That fight was as close to invalid as a learning tool as anything I have ever seen. The wind totally counts. Man, got in there and fought like an idiot. God has come up and as a result of it. But the only thing I learned is a thing that I do beforehand, which is that a one-armed

fighter cannot fist fight another professional fighter, particularly when that guy is one of the very best fighters in the world. Like it is, I am not willing to make a determinative statement about what could or would have been based on 30 seconds of action with the guy who actively knew he was compromised. Like it is, that could have been anything had he been like a right, like full blown. But it wasn't. And so I'm not taken away from Aljo's win. That's a win.

He moves up in my pound for pound rankings because of the quality, like the quality of opposition, even given the circumstances. But I am not willing to say that Aljo wins that fight more times and loses because I just learned nothing. Like there is, it is impossible. If the shoulder had come out in a, you know, trying to think, what are some of the injury stuff that had happened earlier this year or whatever? Try to think of some of those off the top of my head. And I'm drawing blanks right now. If it was a Tommy Aspenol sort of injury, like truly caused in totality by the effect of Aljo, I'd have a little bit better feeling. But this being like, I've said it on our while we were doing the conference stuff.

Like I blew out my shoulder playing rugby at UGA and I spent my whole senior season with it. And it just, it never, I get touched and it would fall out. You can't do this. There was no opportunity for TG to have success. And so I'm not going to gain anything or project on what would have happened. The only things I will say are, F that dude, because fighting in that circumstance and denying Josealdo is super shitty. The other side of it is that if a miracle had happened and T.J. lamps him or whatever, then he's still on the shelf for a year, which is still being shitty to the rest of that division, knowing where the position you're at. It's all trash, but most importantly, guys, the most important thought I had after this was,

isn't it interesting that this is the week right before a prominent professional fighter who hasn't fought in a long time and has a longstanding injury from apparently April that clearly a lot of people knew about? Very fun that this is the week the UFC decides that fighters are not allowed to bet on fights, huh? Huh? With inside information being available. Huh.

Funny how that goes. Funny how that goes, all I'm saying. That's interesting. Very interesting. The timing of that with such a prominent injury that clearly anyone who knew it would, there is a zero percent chance T.J's camp was betting on T.J. to win this fight.

Not a soul in that room. She'd be like, yeah, TJ is going to do the thing. If they were smart, they were a bet money on Aljo because had I known I'd have backed up the brink's truck in that bet so just saying

just throwing it out there guys that's a very interesting conspiracy Jed but the Aldo thing the Aldo thing is honestly the biggest takeaway of all of this is they screwed the push UFC is

UFC has done matchmaking and building like look what they do with Alex Pereira to get us to Israel Adasania I mean this is it was brilliant it was perfect all laid out beautifully

it all worked out and then this was just everybody wants it we just ain't going to give it to them like it's so ridiculous it's absolutely insane and it's a vindication that doesn't even make me feel good at the end of the day because jos a alders retired coming off of a loss to barraub de wallish willie and rob gained nothing from that it's just so silly and now we're in this position we're in right now and now aljabane sterling i don't know what we're going to do here because now dana i cannot believe i mean here's how dana white feels about this division right now. He actually said the two words. He dropped the name. He said

Henry Sandovo into a live microphone. I could not believe it. And I want to throw up Sean Scha what are they doing? What are they doing? I could not believe it. Why? Like what are we doing here? We have you again, you have built this really fun Grand Prix that we're in the midst of. It's just one dude trying to like inch over the next. And instead of rewarding the hard work of guys like you know, Cheeto Vera, who's just out there, Bolton guys, Corey Sandhagen coming off a big win, you know, and other guys as well, Piotr, Sean O'Malley at this point, Sean O'Malley? We will get to that in a minute. Like, you can feel how you want about the judge's scorecards,

but two things happen to that fight. Shotta Malley proved he belonged. And Sean O'Malley, when we look at the record books, beat Piotr Yon at UFC 280, whether we like it or not. So with all of this said, Sean, he says, A reporter's asking what do you think of the Bannamweight division? He goes, but what about Henry Suhudo? That sounds like a good time.

I couldn't believe this. What are we doing here? What are we doing here with this division? It's so good. They're just throwing it in the garbage. All this hard work you've done all year. You're just throwing it away for this guy who turned his back on you. Two years ago and said, screw you.

Give me more money. And then you gave Peonorraudan title shot that same night. He turned his. is back and you didn't care. And now you want them back? What are we doing, Sean? What are we doing here? Also, why?

Mike Hay is turning Dana White Shades of Red right now. I'm here for it. It's so free. Why is totally correct, though. No, no, absolutely preach. And what made this even more surprising to me? Then O'Malley won? Yes, that's the thing.

Just makes sense. What are we doing? If you would have, if you would have given me odds after O'Malley versus Yon of, of hey, what do you think the chances of Dana White just unprompted bringing up Henry Sohudo is the next challenger in this division? I would have given you my life savings and been like, no, that's not going to happen.

That's obviously ridiculous. Why would he do that right now? Because right now, they have been trying to figure out ways for years at this point to get Sean O'Malley to a place where they can logically give him a title fight. So that the popular guy that everyone likes will fight for the title and they'll make a lot of money. And it just fell into their laps.

You're right, 100%. Sean O'Malley deserved he belong to. night. Whatever you think about that decision, I scored it for Peodor Gion 29, 28. Regardless, it's not a robbery. It was a very close fight. The UFC would be absolutely justified right now in giving Sean Romilly that title shot. And they said the whole time in the lead-up of, hey, Sean-a-Mal is going to get a title shot if he beats Peoriae. And within an hour, that win a way, that seemingly disappeared for Henry Suhudo, for the guy who, when you are somebody who are two-division champion and you retire early in an effort to get more money,

And not only does the promotion not give you that money, but they're just kind of like, ah, you know, see you? If you, yeah, you know, it's no big deal. If you want to go, we're not going to stop it. That's even putting it generously. They kind of shoved them out the door. And then everyone. Come on over, bud.

And then every one of your 20 fake false alarm comeback attempts are met by a gigantic thud and a meh from the MMA, the collective MMA audience. Like, it's clear you're not the guy that maybe you thought you were when it comes to your popularity and such. How is that the one? How is now the time to bring him back into this whole fold? It's just baffling to me because this is the clearest layup ever

for like a big money fight in the Bantamweight Division to do Sean O'Malley. Like they have been trying to get this to this point for so long. Now, you know, what are we going to do? We're going to bring Henry in. I got nothing for you, Mike. I have no idea. This is baffling to me. It's baffling.

No one clamoring for this. Nobody. Nobody at all is clamoring for this. except for maybe Henry Sohudo. And apparently Dana White, who has not had one kind thing to say about this man in two years, Jedbushu. It's just incredible.

No, one more. One more thing. One more thing. Because you just brought it up and it just came to my mind. Henry Sehudo is like an Arizona guy. I've talked to him quite a bit. I feel like I have a good relationship with him to a certain degree.

I'm super not about and appreciative of this weird thing that he's trying to do of like, hey, let's get America a champion again type of thing of whatever that tweet was he sent about Aljo. Like that is so incredibly disrespectful and like borderline racist in a way

that's just like not cool at all. I'm not sure it's on borderline. I'm trying to be nice here. I think it's just overt. Yeah, I'm trying to be nice here, but that is so just not okay in like just as a general human to human thing. Yeah, man.

Born and raised in New York. I get what Henry's trying to do but that missed the mark so damn hard in a way that's just not cool. Like that's just not a cool thing to throw out. Yeah. Henry's lame. This is,

I don't get it. man, this is the stupidest thing. Like, this was, Sean's right, this was a layup. Like, I'll give Sean Amalia a pass for not,

like, staking his claim immediately afterwards because he was concussed because Peoria Jan rattled his head around a bunch in that fight. So, like, I mean,

he should have said it. He should have come and call this shot, but he didn't. Cool. But I don't. Honestly, and this is going to sound

maybe a little dumb, Dana just doesn't care about fighting anymore. And like, it's so obvious. that he just doesn't, he was chippy at the post-fight. Like, he just doesn't want to do this. This is not in him the fighting part of it.

Maybe he still likes being in charge of a billion-dollar company or whatever. Like, I don't know the man, I can't speak to that. But, like, this, I don't know, five years ago, 10 years ago, Dana would have been like, he would have been selling us, O'Malley. This kid, you know, he's one of the most popular fighters. You all counted him out. All of you disrespect him. we can take all the BS disrespect that Volk thinks he has and actually give it to O'Malley,

because everybody did disrespect that dude. Honestly, they probably still should have, but he comes out and does this. He beats Pioriana, man who I think beat the current champion in their rematch last earlier this year. He's definitely getting the title fight. Book it.

We're going to do that next year sometime. I'm not exactly sure timelines, but we're going to make that happen. And it would have been full core press. And it says like, I don't know. Henry, who cares? Like he just is so checked out and it sucks ass.

Give me somebody who's excited about fights if they're going to be the mouthpiece. And if he can presidents don't have to do the stuff he does. You can just have a PR guy do it. And that's fine. He can just be the president and do all the things that deals and stuff that he cares about and let somebody else be stoked about shit, man. Because I don't agree. I thought the Jan won 30, 27, very competitive fight,

a fight that Sean O'Malley gets respect in and a valiant loss. But the one good aspect to it is you've got this guy now. This is the dude. You've got the outcome you want. You get a title fight with him. Push this to the moon. And they fumble the bag again. Like they just suck at things now.

It's so lame. So lame. Just sub in Habib and Yohani and Jacek. Like 50-50. Dude, Eagle FCC is going to be the greatest promotion in the world. Because Habib knows how to promote, apparently, shit. and I doubted him, but after what he did tonight, I'm,

my promotion from our little draft we did earlier, we're making strides, baby. We're making big strides. I'm way more excited about our future that I was, like even 48 hours ago. But I do want to, I do want to get some peep's questions, but we got to talk about the Sean Maliburion fight

because it was fantastic. And I know it's, it was weird just not, I'll start with you on this, Jed, because it was weird just being in the situation. We're trying to talk and just hang out and watch the fight and try to take it all. I scored the first round for Sean O'Malley. I think everybody else who tried to score the rounds both scored that for Yon.

And I have no argument with you if you want to score that for Yon. I thought O'Malley landed the better shots at the cleaner strikes. So I gave him the first. I gave Yon two for sure. That was the clearest round of the fight. Three, I just don't see how O'Malley won the third. I just don't see it. He had moments.

And I came out of that fight being like, you know what? This was the best thing that could have happened. Because Piotr Yan kept his spot. Sean O'Malley proved he belonged. And we could put him in these fights and they make sense. Sean was very humble. And it seemed like he was humble in defeat. It seemed like he was humble and defeat because the look on his face

when they scored it for him was just, I don't know if I ever forget it. It was just this look of stunned. It was just shock. Just shock on this man's face. And to your point, the way he's handled it all is much better than the way he handled the Pedro Amunio fight, is it not? This kid's growing up a little bit. I think he saw the backlash from that whole thing.

And yeah, he said some things. He even humbled up with Peodor Yan's comebacks at certain points during the fight week. This kid's growing up. And I think whether or not, no matter what this fight was scored, Sean O'Malley was a big winner today, even if you didn't score the fight for him. Yeah, I was going to move him up. Oh, yeah, sorry. I was going to move him up in the rankings even if he lost.

Yeah, for 100%. You have to. And it's, that's, I don't feel like wildly confident my scorecard because I was live blogging and it does not give you a great sense of the fight. Like, I want to rewatch it and see. But I think this fight was very, to me watching it and scoring it, I did not think there was a world for controversy. When there was like, when the commentary team was saying like, this could be deciding

in throws like, how? Piotr's up two rounds and he's winning this third round. Like it felt like a fight where we all gain respect for Sean, but he loses and there's no shame in the way he even loses putting Piotrion in danger in a way that's never been before. Like that's that's real and that matters. And then him getting the scorecard, I don't agree. I want to rewatch it. It feels closer to robbery than bad decision. I know that that is a very hot button topic right now on the Twitter sphere, certainly.

Certainly, if people be like, it's not a robbery at all, every single MMA media person scoring it for Piora Yan really trends towards robbery as opposed to bad decision. But that's not definitive. Like, it's not the thing, but that's, it felt like that. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. What matters is he officially won. And so why in God's green earth, are we not pushing this kid to the moon? that's the point of having him, of putting him in this position, of making Sean Shelby look like a genius for doing this.

Like it is to take him and build him and cut a promo for him if he is too concussed or tired to make that afterwards to say, yes, this is it. So in four months when they're fighting, when he's fighting Aljo for the belt, you can have that on the promo reel. I just don't know what we're doing here. Like I really, really don't. And I want to go to Sean to know he has thoughts. I want you to come back to me

because I have some thoughts on Piorea Jan and I'm really fascinated by where he's at right now but I would like to talk to Sean first. I was just going to say I push back on it being a robbery just because I think that first round is really close right? That's ultimately when it's going to come down to is that first round. It feels even round three

is relatively close to like it doesn't take a lot for somebody to score those round one and three for Sean O'Malley. So that to me doesn't it feels like a bit of a stretch to call it robbery but it's certainly important. Here's my question though. And this is like a very serious question because I don't know in real time. It feels to me like Sean won the narrative battle and didn't actually win those rounds.

That, oh, he's not dying and he's supposed to be dying. So we're scoring rounds for him. And that's why I want to watch and see if, but like that is because real time as I was live blogging, I thought it was pretty clearly Peoria Yon's fight three rounds to none. Competitive fights, competitive rounds. But I thought Yon clearly won two if not swept him. and I don't know how much that narrative played into it, certainly in your assessment. I don't know if that played in at all.

I mean, I also scored it for Yon ultimately, right? I had two to one, and I felt pretty confident about it going into the decision, like, even when it was starting to be announced as a split, because you can tell the little moment when they're announcing scores, like, okay, this is going to be a split. I self really felt confident that it was going to end up coming out for Pioter Yon. So ultimately, I don't know. I mean, that being said, Sean came in and impressed, man. like ultimately that dude belongs in this in the top 10 of this division and he belongs

fighting in these contender fights right and that in and of itself is a win even if he would have lost but you're right the fact that this that he did actually get the W we're not doing the thing when the USC has been trying to do the thing with this guy for so long and now they finally have a chance to do the thing and now we're not doing the thing it's just what can you say it's not the thing do the thing it's not hard do the thing just do the thing just do Put it on the wall. Put it in the war room. Do the thing.

That should be the motto, the mantra. Inside the UFC war room, do the thing. Can we briefly shout out Piotrion? Because like, no, I want you. Joe. Yeah, we'll get a tough. Paint the picture. Yeah, paint the word picture.

It's tough. Peleerian has a very, very good argument, or at least a very good argument to being undefeated in his entire career. And I believe that this is now his fourth loss. he took one back before he came in the UFC event. I think that was a sputty and they won the rematch like a year later. Everyone knows the Sterling first fight. I think that actually that was the correct choice of de-kewing him,

but most people, it seems, disagree and think that should have just been a no contest. That leads to the rematch, which I think that Aljo won, but Dana White included several people disagree and believe Peoria won. and then this fight, which 29 of 29 MMA media people scored for him, and he did not influence the two people who actively mattered in that regard. And now we're talking about a guy who did he did not dominate Sean Amel in any regard, but a guy who has a legitimate case or argument that he is the best Banimate on Earth. And he's at least two fights away from a title shot now if he ever gets back. because like, I don't know, things happen in this sport, man, and you start, the momentum starts going one way,

even if a lot of it feels icky and not like deserved. There's got nothing to do. And sometimes you could just find yourself screwed, like real, real fast. So I don't feel bad for him, but it is really, really weird to think about, like, his very fragile position in this sport right now, given what we thought he was two years ago, Two years ago, he was one of the best pound

fighters in the world. And now he's not going to be on our pound for pound rankings at all. I don't think. Like, it is. It's odd. It's super, super fascinating. Yeah, what a weird career. It's going to be. I can't wait to see how he bounces back,

what they're going to do. There's some interesting matches for him. And maybe they can't do the Cheeto fight now. I don't know. But we'll see what happens, especially with this. Cheetos fight's good. It's going to get me mad again. But that Cheeto fight makes sense.

But Cheeto fight makes sense. But Cheeto probably deserves. better at this point if we're being honest but we'll see what happens the division's still interesting even though the ufc's doing a terrible job promoting how he's going to kill o'malley by the way alger and sterling is he's going to have like a numerical argument to being the greatest band weight of all time and everyone's going to hate him and no one's going to believe in him at all his he won the belt by dq he he he beats yon again in a fight that several people don't think he won.

He beats De LaShawha in this fuster clock of an outcome that happened. He's going to go beat Sean O'Malley, who is an incredibly good style matchup and also was unranked prior to the yon, quote unquote, robbery. When like, what an unbelievably weird title reign in the second best division in the sport. Bannon White's crazy, baby. It's fun. It's the matcha or the three Ensemble Cicero

of Fats that I just Denichie that I'm energize all the same The form of small and mini regrouped, and the embellage

too beau, who is practically to give to give to them to offer you but I'm sorry and I'm sorry and you get the summer Fridays and

the best examples Cato of the Feds Cepora Cepora Collection and other parts of Vite, procurates for a better quality of

in line on C for C4A.com or in magazine. Great win for Benile Daryush. That fight was everything we hoped for and more. It was awesome. I underrated how good that dude is, man. I thought it was good, but I underrated how good that dude is. He's a real problem for up to and including his armachachev. He will give his alma fight.

I don't think he won it, but he'll give that man a fight. I just, I mostly just fear that he has now sort of taken the mantle as the Tony Ferguson in this division, where he's just that guy who's eternally going to be. It's just he's that guy where he's eternally going to be a very exciting fighter, someone on a very long win streak who just isn't getting the opportunities he deserves because of politics and just the way that the machinations within this sport. Because we all know he's not going to get the next shot.

And he's probably going to fight again. And it's probably going to be against a Charles Olivera or someone like that, someone who is very high up there. And all of a sudden this guy who was in a number one contender fight against Islam, rebooked multiple times in that fight, doesn't end up getting that. Lome gets the title and then now Boneal's probably going to have to fight twice since that against very, very good competition. It's tough, man.

Obviously, I was the biggest Tony Ferguson guy in the world when that whole thing was going on. And I felt deep pain and sympathy for Tony when that was happening. And now I feel he's just been transferred to Baneal. And he's going to be stuck in this place where he's not going to get what he deserves within this division because his division is just inherently weird. Yeah, but props to Tony Ferguson, who I never gave the respect he deserved. because I was a beep dude. And so I probably underrated Tony in some regards.

But you can't say Tony didn't try. Like that man spoke his truth into existence as best he could. And the MMA gods were cruel mother effers. But you know coming out and being like, Jesus has got me, I'll fight 10 more. I don't care. Like, F off with that shit, man. Act like you want it. Act like you want it.

And that's why you're going to get Charles next or whoever. He's probably not even going to get Charles. He's probably got to fight like Jalen Turney. or something next. Act like you want to be here and then you will be here. But if you don't, if you tell Sean Shelby, I'll fight 10 more times, cool. Because if the fans aren't asking for you to get the hot rocket up, he'll make you fight 10 more times, man.

Act like you want it, son. Act like you care. Because it matters. We just saw it. Take control of your destiny. Be Islam. Be Habib. Force will some shit into existence.

We saw it work to perfection tonight. I don't understand how. this is something we have to keep saying. You know who actually did a good job, but actually, you know who actually did a great job of that, but it started off real scary again, started off real scary again. I was about to explode once again.

Don't you say it because I disagree with you fundamentally right here, but go on. I know where you're going. I hated this one too. You didn't like the Blahmohamed one? You only hated it for a weird reason, though, Jed. I don't know. It started off horribly.

Say the man's name. We all know who he was talking about. We do. Yes, you and I know, but the average dude tuning into the biggest fight card of the year or whatever flipping channels midday on ESPN doesn't know what the hell. I'll fight the dude who weighs 179 pounds. They probably don't even know that's missing weight. What are we?

Yeah, the big bad wolf. Just say his name. It's not that hard. Why will he not say Hamza? His whole thing should have just been, I want to fight Hamzaa. F that dude, I will mess him up. I don't care if he makes weight. And instead he like half asses around it.

The best performance of his whole career. And he can't even put it to finish. It's not hard people. He said that these people suck at this so bad. Dude, when he said, when he said Leon Edwards's name, I was like, you have got to be kidding me right now. I was like, come on, Belaw. Are you kidding me?

Like you, this is it. This is your moment. you like even in Chicago you're not getting this reception you got a star reception they treated you like a star all week not only did you beat Sean Brady not only did you take that zero away from him but you finished him you finished his ass you put him away like some people complained as early stoppage that wasn't getting any better for Sean Brady he was done the law won that fight yeah that was a perfect fine were people are actually implaining that that was early.

I saw a couple people say it was stopped early. I was like, any stoppage that doesn't end with someone unconscious face down on the mat, will get complaints ultimately. Any, any stoppage on the feet, I guess. My damn,

that wasn't an early stoppage. It was not early stoppage. DC sets him up, who do you want to fight? And he said, Leon Edwards, where you're at? And I was ready to take my laptop and throw it through the wall.

And it's like, dude, he pumped the brakes and he took a turn and at least got somewhat on track. So it's better than calling out Colby. Oh, yeah, that was bad. Well, also, that's right there, right? Humzac's right there. That's the thing is he's in the crowd.

You could have got him in. It is so not difficult to do this. And it boggles my mind. I do, because he did everything else right. Like the constant callbacks to Habib was really good. That is working the crowd in that location. But then the finish is so wet farty, like just, It's not hard, man.

It's just somebody tell somebody to ask me before in. I'll tell you how to do it. It's not difficult. Do. Okay. Can I cut in? Hold on. Can I cut in?

Because I feel like there's a lot of negativity right now around Balam Muhammad on this show. It's a performance of his career. Hold on. Yeah. Maybe a tiny bit of it is deserved, but for the most part it's not because that man just came out and got the kind of win that he had not had before. Right. Like what has been the thing around Balah Muhammad this whole past year? He's a boring guy who.

who doesn't, you know, he's not a real contender. He's this guy who's sort of getting by on smoking mirrors and all of this stuff. Like, tonight in general was just a night of people who have generally had people doubt them. Most of their careers really flipping the script on it in a really interesting way. Like, I kind of enjoyed just the running theme throughout a lot of these fights. But Belamemad, more so than anyone, was just, he came out. He came out here and got the exact type of statement win that everyone told him he couldn't get, and once again getting doubted.

I sent out a tweet earlier of like if you had parlayed, just somehow hypothetically been able to do this parlay, Balal's last three fights where he's been the underdog and all of them, you just put $100 on them. You would have won like $1,800 or something like that. Like the level to which nobody has believed in this Bilal Muhammad run has been frankly stunning.

And the fact that he was able to come out here. And once again, underdog, lose, lose almost type of fight where he's fighting this big, strong, powerful up-and-comer who's just a very tough stylistic match for him. and I've seen a thousand previews and whatever picks this this past week and I don't know that I've seen anybody in the world

pick Bala Muhammad. And once again, he came out here and got it done an exact, and again, the exact type of win that was lacking on his resume. If I'm in the UFC, I'm absolutely thrown Balal Muhammad against Hamza Ashmaev in a number one consentor fight on that Perth card or wherever.

No, not the Perth card, but the Leon Edwards card, the London card. Like, that's the move. He is now the number one contender. If Colby's not going to sit out, if Colby's just going to sit out, and not accept fights and not fight real contenders in this division. I don't see why you need to reward him with a number one contender fight.

It feels like Balal versus Hamzat is the fight, and I hope that's what gets done. Let's see. He's in a better position than Benile Darius, though, right? Absolutely. Walter Wade is significantly less weird than lightweight. I think he's in, I don't think he's in much better. I think he's in a better position. Better.

But I think that Benile probably gets Olivera, and if he beats Oliver, he's just going to get a title fight. So they're both one fight away and they both have to beat a really, really tough guy. So they're kind of in the same position, I guess. As a great point, though, on this being a referendum on underdogs, because I hadn't thought about that at all. It really was outside of the main event, obviously, but everything else really was kind of the people who doubted really were like, F you guys, screw you guys were here.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good blog got a performance bonus. Good for him. Deserved. Performance bonus.

And O'Malley. One last thing to say on that fight. I'll keep it very brief because I know we want to do other things. Don't back up in fights, professional fighters. If you're watching this, you won't win ever. There are like three fighters in the world who can fight off their back foot and win a fight. And just don't do it because Sean Brady thought he could do it. And he had a lot of success right up until the minute he didn't.

Come forward. Come forward regardless of any of any. thing, be the one inflicting pressure. That is how you win fights in modern MMA. The mantra of the show, if we could take anything away from the show and this is not just for MMA, this is just for life. Life in general.

Do the thing. Do the thing. Do the thing. Always do the thing. Come forward and do the thing. They want you to do the thing. Just do it. Just do it. Do the thing. Casey, do we have any questions. I mean, this probably, I mean, just I think the heat has been brought on at a...

Shout out to Manoff Fero, who arguably became a title contender tonight, and no one's going to remember that at all. We shouted her out. Did we? And Mohamed Baha'iahia got a finish, but not. What's a, yeah. I'm stepping back on my takes on him. I'm still staying where I'm at.

Oh, this one cooled you on it a bit. It didn't cool me because I think he still has the bones to win a belt. he has got to learn to hate people. Like you have to be mean to be like a championship fighter. And I don't think he's mean. Like I think that that's it because he does he doesn't punch people. Like that is not on the feet. He was just doing flashy stuff because he, I don't know,

I wanted to do it. And he had a lot of dominant position and refused to hit him. And like, I don't know if that's purely meanness or if he just really values his own submission game. But you can't do that. You've got to hit people. Like, that's why Habib and Islam rule. They hit people when they're on top of them.

You got to do that. I need to see that from them now. All right. Let's take a couple of questions. Let's take a couple questions. Then we've got to get out of here. All right. All right.

This has been a day. This is good because I have no voice. Your voice really left so quickly. Yeah. I don't know what happened. It's shocking. I don't know what happened. It's done.

You sound 85 years old. I know. It's on your air for me. He was fine when we started the conference stuff, like the press conference stuff. He was totally fine. And just, wow. I don't know. All right.

If I talk like this, I can't get a voice. Oh, there we go. Neil Diamond desk right now. All right. Pull out your best Tom waits. Let's go. Yeah. Oh.

Roll quick. Oops. True or false. But Neil Darius should take nothing less than a title shot. He is one eight in a row. I think we've, I mean, yeah. I mean, if it's me, I'm saying true, but that's a bad call. That's like either one is a bad call, right?

Because if he sits out, the UFC's not going to let him sit out. I doubt, I highly, highly doubt that they would let him sit out and then actually get a title shot after that. But also, if he takes a very dangerous fight, there's a good chance he could lose it. And so then we're Tony Ferguson all over again. So he's screwed either way, kind of. I think it's true because it's always great to retire on top. not take head trauma anymore. And if he waits for a title shot, he will never fight again.

So yeah, retire. That's fine. He does have one sort of wild card in his back pocket. But it's just unfortunate that this guy is just so bad at his job. And we talked about it earlier at the Banimate Division. Dana White wants Darius to fight Islam Makachov. That's the fight he wants. If Dana White had his druthers, Islam would have not fought Charles Oliver on this card.

He would have fought Badiol Dari. So Dana wants this fight to happen, but now he knows, I mean, he's got to do a lot of convincing. And that's the best chance Darius has, honestly, is that Dana invokes the, I'm the president of his damn company clause. You're giving this dude a title shot. And that's not going to happen because he understands how big just Volcanovsky fight is after Habib set the table for it. So I feel bad for Benial, but sorry, man, it ain't happening. His entire post-fight press conference should have just been selling why he should have, fight Islam Makhadhip.

Like, I know he's not a trash talker. We don't want you to force you to be somebody that you're not, right? Like, you don't need to be somebody that you're not. You don't need a trash talk. Just sell yourself. Like, that's it. Just like sell yourself in the matchup. You don't need to be mean about it.

You can just state your credentials. What you've done, the accolades, the win streak, how we've, Dana wants this fight, et cetera, et cetera. There are so many angles to do this without being like, hey, Islam, you're a dick. Like, it's possible. I just can't believe we didn't get it. The pro wrestling model back in the 70s, and 80s for cutting promos and calling dudes out was actually putting them over to do it.

Like, this guy's great. I would love to, I would love to face him for the title. Like, it'd be great. The fans should come out and see it. Like, just say a name. Like, you don't have to be mean about it. Just be like, hey, Islam, I respect the hell out of you, man. But if you beat Charles Olivera, you've said you wanted to fight me before.

Habib's a man of his word. Are you a man of yours? If you are, I'll be here waiting. That's it. That's not mean. The story. The story is right there. The story is right there.

It's right there. Boom. Yeah. Your wins don't speak for shit. You have to speak for yourself. And that's it. Like, it just is what it is.

Biggest loser tonight. To me, who lost your most? T.J. Dilishaw. Well, he's losing in my rankings. That's for damn sure. I saw a little preview of that.

I had a little bit of a chuckle when I saw where you were putting him. T.J. Dillshaw, man. He's not going to get another shot, right? He's not going to get another shot. No, he's done. he's done.

The silver medalist is Caitlin Chukagian because she's, she's well, she's probably never getting a shot anyway. Yeah, but yeah. She's still, she had a chance. You know, like she kind of leaves me like still being Caitlin Chukagian in the exact same spot that Caitlin Chukagian was in.

I actually still think the answer is Charles Oliver. Boom. That's it. Because I don't know if you guys remember 12 hours ago when there was a conversation about whether he was the goat, but that conversation left. It's not here anymore,

and I don't think it's coming back. So that's a big loss, even if he's still like a winner and career-wise, etc. That's kind of evaporated. What would Oliver do to get a rematch? What would Oliver need to do to get a rematch of Islam?

He's got to get two good ones. Yeah, he's got to probably get two. You think at least two? I think it has to be two. Two good ones, I would say. But also, like, was there a real conversation about islam or about charles being the goat or was there in that channel no no but hold on but was it a real conversation was it a fake the fake kind of conversation we have once any champion has defended his

belt once and people just start being like hey this is the best part i've ever seen with no perspective if oliver triangle choked was definitely that in hindsight if oliver charles oliver triangle choked and actually won my submission in round one is he is oliver the goat it's not making put in my voice. I can't help them. I would have still said no, but I think at that point, then you more people would have really, yeah, I'm with Sean. More people would have definitely taken up that argument.

I would have disagreed, but it would have been a real one. Yeah. That's why I think he lost the most. Yeah, it's still a lot to lose opportunity cost-wise. Like, he does not get many things. He would have gotten had he won. I think Peter Yon's number two, though. Unfortunately.

I'm not, I see the argument. He's still really, all the way there. It will depend a lot on what his next fight looks like because there's very much a possibility where like, I don't know, the wheels just fall off the wagon. Because he didn't fight great tonight.

Like, let's also be real about that. We don't need to get into it, but it was not a great performance from him. No, I think he, I'm not going to say he overlooked O'Malley, but I don't know if that overlooked the word on you used. He forced a lot of stuff. He did. look like he was trying to send a message.

I didn't think he expected Sean to be as sharp as he was, because Sean was sharp tonight. Sean looked great. He was sharp. Yep. I love the stand switches. I liked everything that he did. It was,

it was fun. It was fun. He showed a lot of offense. Amali's post-fight interview? It felt like he had lost a fight. It was wild. Yeah. But that's good.

I'm going to stop talking because this is, these guys are all jerks. I didn't say anything. I can see your faces. I see all your faces. You sound like if I close my eyes, you're 80 and you're ordering a coffee and you're like, how many sugars? Like it's like, what, what's this kid in its crazy hair?

It's punching you and grabbing. Why are they doing? Just use your fists like you. Like, we didn't know what times. It's 6.30. You're too loud. Like, that's what you sound like right now. And I can't, I can't put you any other way right now.

what else we go let's take a couple more that we gotta go do you guys think that this fight tarnishes tj's legacy more yes or now legacy you can tarnish it more yeah i i don't know i i i push back on that a little bit because i think if tj comes out here and he's totally healthy no shoulder issues and he just looks bad he just gets washed by alger in the same way but there's no injury at all i think then people will start to would start have like oh you know look at him off the juice. He's not looking very good, even though the age thing is there as well.

So I think he could have definitely hurt himself much more than he did. That's a good argument. I'm willing to buy that. He got like a lot of love for being real tough or whatever, which I'm sure, I guess, I don't know. I don't know how to feel about that. But I just, I think TJ is a, is an interesting dividing line in MMA. Like you, the people who are going to not like him, that that's sold and that's not changing and the people who don't care about the PED thing, I don't think their opinion's changing either. I think it is, it's just that. That issue is the tarnishing thing that will define his entire career and probably why he's not the goat, even though he has a case to it. For Bantamweight Goat? Yeah, he's got a case. If he would want to think he is.

There was a strong argument for it. That feels baffling to me because the actual Bantamweight goat beat him in a fight. I do not agree with that decision. Oh, so just bad decision. That's where you're going from. Yeah, I thought TJ won that fight. I also have a lot of just, I think Dominic Cruz is a band-in-weight goat. His whole career is very difficult for me to kind of reckon with. It's hard to be a goat when you, like, don't fight a lot because you had to take like seven years off to injury.

Like, it's just really tough for me to reconcile that. Yeah. That's right. One more. We'll take one more. One more, one more. Casey, you can't speak anymore. Nobody wants to talk about Carol Hosa?

I mean, I was watching that fight just for the Sea of the Kastanza theory. God, I was truly real. That illegal knee ruled, though. It was awesome. I was so excited about that fire. Legalize it. Legalized cool stuff. Like, the rule of fun should exist.

If it's cool, it's legal. And I think our whole thing with like just cheat, just keep cheating, it still hasn't failed. It never seems to fail. Except for,

interestingly I agree in principle, the biggest argument against that is if Peoriaehan hadn't thrown the stupidest knee in the history of the sport, he probably still has his belt and hasn't even fought. Because if he doesn't throw that knee,

he's clearly beating Aljo at that point, they don't rematch off that. And then he's still the champion and he's not losing to Sean O'Malley. Yeah. There's levels of cheating though, right? Exactly. I think we're advocating of like the lower level of cheating where I could go and grabs.

Carol Rose's knee was very similar to period. I can go outside. Yeah. You go outside slap a dude. The same thing. Yeah. You go outside. Slappad dude, like you might get funny looks, but that's it.

But if you go out there and just take a baseball bat to the back of somebody's kneecap, like you're going to jail, bro. Like you're going to jail. But there's levels to this game, Jed. Yeah, there's levels of cheating. Ah, like the grappling game. Al Jermaine Sterling out here trying to tell Henry Suhudo, two division champion Olympic gold medalist that there's levels.

That man has got to be better. he has got to be better. Do the thing. Do the thing. Just do the thing. And by the way, let me just reiterate this. Also,

how is he not calling out Sean O'Malley? Like, I want to fight that guy. Every person everyone else is sucking at it. Every person involved in that whole equation failed.

It's a big bag of money. It's the closest thing Algo gets to fighting Connor and it should be a really good matchup for him. How is he not like, yes, I would like to fight the clown, please.

Thank you. what the he's doing tremendous my post-fight column is just going to be UFC 280 takeaways

colon do the thing why didn't you do the thing in parentheses that's it Habib and Islam did they know how to do the thing and that's why

they're the champion sometimes it ain't going to be perfect but you still got to do the thing and you just got to do it to the best your ability

I think we can all learn lesson I hope that's the title of Ariel show on Monday the M.A. Hour do the thing

with I'm sure at a tremendous lineup of guests and it's just going to be great. So I think we can hit the music, Casey. I mean. Also, shouts to Nikita Krillov. That was a good fight.

That was a good fight. Until some other things happened, that was fight of the night. And it was the only redeeming part of the undercard, frankly. Until Blah Mohamed didn't do that thing. That fight was fun for as long as a lesson. I don't think of that as the undercard because this was a six-fight main card in my head. It's just like those are the six. That's the ones.

Well, that was a good one. one. And I think the card on paper delivered for the most part. Now, there were some unfortunate things along the way, but storylines galore. We got what we anticipated for a post-fight show and beyond. These storylines are going to continue to trickle it. So thank you for sticking with us all day long. I had fun. We all had fun. So for Sean, for Jed, for Casey. I am Mike Heck. Thank you very much. Good night, everybody. The lightweight division has a champion, and his name is a... of Makachev. I love you guys.

Happy birthday, AK. Sound like Roz from Monsters, Inc. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.