MMA Fighting - UFC 283 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Jamahal Hill, Brandon Moreno Title Wins; Teixeira Retires

Episode Date: January 22, 2023

Jamahal Hill and Brandon Moreno played spoiler in a big way at UFC 283, leaving Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with UFC gold wrapped around their waists after impressive performances against the hometown heroes. Following the UFC's first pay-per-view event of 2023, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, and Jed Meshew react to Hill's unbelievable performance in the main event against Glover Teixeira to win the light heavyweight title, and subsequently end the legendary career of Teixeira as he announced his retirement. Additionally, they discuss Moreno likely ending the rivalry with Devieson Figueiredo after earning a third-round TKO stoppage victory to win the undisputed flyweight title, Gilbert Burns' big win, Jessica Andrade's dominance, Jailton Almeida's incredibly high ceiling, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is it the matcha, or am I this energized from scoring three Sephora holiday gift sets? Definitely the sets. Full size and minis bundled together? What a steal. And that packaging? So cute. It practically wraps itself. And I know I should be giving them away, but I'm keeping the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I don't blame you. The best holiday beauty sets are only at Sephora. Gift sets from Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way, and more are going fast.

Get full-sized favorites and must-have minis bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In-store online at Sephora.com. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is taking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the UFC 283 live post-fight show here on MAAFighting.com. The first pay-perview of 2023 is in the books. And we end the night with two new champions. One of them, Jamal Hill, the light heavyweight champion, Brandon Moreno, now a two-time, undisputed UFC flyway champion. and capping off just a pretty crazy night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

But thank you for joining us. We have a lot to discuss. I am Mike Heck. Joining me, we have Shaheen Al-Shadi, the Wise Word Smith himself. How are you? I'm doing good, Mike. First cards in the book of books for 2023, and I don't think anybody saw this coming.

Quite a night. Quite a night, indeed. And someone I know is really excited to talk about it, especially in the main event, is Mr. No Gray area himself, the exhibition king. Our Woody Page, Mr. Jedmishu. Hello, Jed. I love this R. Woody Page thing.

I'm a big fan of this new moniker. So, guys, the horns. The horns have come because a post show is happening. The first pay-per-view of the year. And there's a lot to talk about, guys. There's a lot. Yes, there is a lot to talk about. So let's just get right into it because a lot of storylines

in the main event, probably a lot more than we expected heading in considering what the matchup was. We had Glover Toshera taking on Jamal Hill and most people, despite what the betting lines actually suggested, felt like this is probably going to be Glover's night.

It just seemed like he had more ways to win. He was eventually just going to get Jamal Hill to the ground. We looked back on the Paul Craig fight. We looked back on the Tiago Santos fight and we're like if Glover Toshera gets this man to the ground, we know, know what's about to happen.

Jamal Hill comes out here and does his best Cody Garbrand impression and sweeps the cards, 50-44 across the board. He is the new light heavyweight champion of the world, Glover to Chera tougher than a $2 stake, and subsequently retires after just a Glover to Shera-esque performance where even though he got dominated, even though he got swept in the cards, his stock still rose, which is so crazy to think about. I want to begin with you. I know you have a lot to say on this matter.

So Jamal Hill is the UFC light heavyweight champion in the year of our Lord 2023. Your reaction to the fight, your reaction to his performance. Were you surprised by the way it all went down tonight? I was definitely surprised. Certainly thought Glover was going to win. There are so many thoughts just rushing around my head. One, we talked about this a lot of. off air, if you had told me like six months ago that Jamal Hill was going to be the light

heavyweight champion within a year, I would have assumed something terrible happened to like every other good light heavyweight that created those circumstances because he's not very good, but he was super good tonight. So maybe he is good. Like this was undeniably the best performance. of his career. Like, he showed a bunch of shit he's never shown before. He looked sensational. He didn't get tired, even at points when it looked like he would. He didn't get over his skis, which is a thing that has certainly happened in his fights.

They haven't been punished for mostly, but he fought a supercomposed, really, really good fight and looked the best he's ever looked. He looked good, which is frankly not something I've ever really thought he's done before. So that's, you can't deny any of what his in cage performance was. It was sensational. And so there's all of that. But at the same time, it's just like, it's hard for me to reckon with like such a big change. We were talking about our rankings update. Rankings are going to come out in the next couple of days here.

Coming into this fight, I had Jamal Hill ranked 14 at light heavyweight. And that was fair. Maybe I was low. And certainly now it looks like I was low. but like there was a legitimate argument for everybody placed above him to exist there. Like I didn't have anybody he beat in front of him. It was it was just fair. And now he is, I'm going to have him in the top five, I think is where it rolls out.

And some people, I'm sure, going to give me huge amounts of shit for that. But like, it's just incredibly weird. And before I forget, I do just want to throw this out. We don't have to talk about it. but because no one's going to. 5044 is just an awful, awful, indefensibly bad scorecard. Like, there has never been a clearer case.

The way the actual rules dictate for 10-7 rounds than rounds three and four, like those are, four undeniably is a 10-7. Like there's no way you can read the rules and not see that as a 10-7. 10-7. There were like three different points when Mark Goddard is like hovering, fight back. I'm about to do it. It's not going to, it overall doesn't matter, but just horrific scorecards that I wanted

to mention to before we moved on. Yeah, those are pretty, pretty wild cards. Shaheen, your biggest takeaway from, from this main event because stunned. I was stunned at the performance. Like if Jamal's going to win, he was just going to run Glover over early in the first round and goes out there, he pitched a perfect game. This was like Shevchenko-esque out there in some regards. And I just did not see this complete of a performance over a 25-minute stretch like this coming.

Yeah, it kind of follows the pattern, right? It seems like none of us actually know how to judge Glover to share a fights beforehand, right? The Yuri prohaska fight, we all felt like it was going to go, oh, you know, Yuri's going to knock him out or Glover's going to submit him. And then obviously something crazy happens in the complete opposite of what we expect happens. And same way going into this. Either Jamal's going to knock him out early or Glover's going to drag him into deep waters and drown him. And that was very much not what happened. I mean, I joined Jed in that if you would have even told me two months ago that Jamal Hill is going to be

the UFC champion in January. If you would have just said Jamal Hill is going to be the UFC champion by 2024, I would have heard you and believed you, but I would have had some questions. But if you'd said, hey, by January, he's going to hold the belt, I wouldn't have actually understood what you were telling me. So like this is again, just another example. of just how utterly ridiculous and crazy and the wild swings that could happen in this sport just overnight. Because I agree with Jed.

I mean, I was not sold fully on Jamal Hill going into tonight. He certainly seems to have leveled up though, right? Like, that was a car... I can't remember whether you or him mentioned Cody Garbrand. That was a Cody Garbrand-esque, leveling up going into a big situation like this, or a T.J. Dillishaw-esque leveling up

going into the head and brow fight, right? Like, we have never seen Jamal Hill look remotely that good. or like not as good as he did tonight where that was frankly a thorough thorough ass kicking and there's no really pillor to post pillor to bust and there were countless times where that fight could have been stopped if not for the inhuman toughness of glover de chera so i'll just want to get all of that out of way out of the way right off the bat because you cannot take credit away from jemal hill from what he did tonight that was an incredibly impressive performance.

That being said, I want to talk about two things. I want to talk about Glover to share because this man is a living legend. And just frankly, I am in awe of him. I don't actually understand what I watched tonight, how a 43-year-old man who just came off of one of the, if not the greatest fight we have ever seen in a fight in which he took horrific amounts of damage and more or less just kept going until his body finally quit. Rory McDonnell, Robbie Lawler's style in the final round with like 30 seconds left, how he could come off of that at age 43 and then go into a fight like this and just take

obscene damage, utterly obscene damage, and not only survive to the scorecards, but actually kind of rally in that fifth round and, you know, get him down, get him out. He had an opportunity there for a half a second. Like, unbelievable credit to Glover Tashara, who was by far one of the toughest human beings that we have ever seen in a sport filled with tough human beings. Like, it is, there are not enough words to describe the inhuman toughness of this man. I'm going to look up the numbers just right now in front of me, so bear with me. Jamal Hill landed 232 significant strikes tonight on Glover-Teshirea.

232. In Jamal Hill's past fights, he needed four significant strikes to knock out Jimmy Crute, six to knock out Johnny Walker, 89 to knock out Tiago Santos, 68 to knock out OSP. He laid a 232, and Glover to Shera was still standing and still fighting back at the very end. That is, again, I have no actual words for this. It doesn't make any actual sense. It just, it blows me away. So again, Glover retiring, absolute legend.

I just want to get that out of the way right there. And then last thing I will say before, I'm sure we'll continue to talk about this. But the UFC light heavyweight division is this is not to take. away from Jamal Hill. Maybe the worst men's division right now that I can remember a division being, right? Because that's just kind of like the reality of this situation.

It's just a very, very bizarre division where no one really seems to be standing out. I think Mago Med and Kalayaev, we all thought was going to be that guy. Maybe he still is that guy. I actually still would favor him in a fight over Jamal Hill and Yuri Pajasca is the best and he's just sort of out of the equation right now.

But outside of that, like this division is in a really weird, rough shape. And it's just kind of hard to deny that, right? Like you can give Jamal Hill all the credit in the world while still acknowledging that this division right now is absolutely not what it used to be. And it's not, you know, something you'd write home about. If you would rank all the men's divisions right now,

I think it would probably be last. And it's just, it's a very weird place. It's a very weird, uncertain and shaky place. And the fact that we've gotten to this point where Jamal Hill, again, a man who two months ago, no one would have put in this position. and now is the champion, and with a thorough dominating performance, like nobody knows anything about anything in this sport,

and this is just a very bizarre set of circumstances that we have got, that we've reached. And 2023 is just a weird place. 2023 is just going to be all about weirdness, and if that's the case, I'm here for the weirdness. Let's just have a chaotic ass year. Yeah, this is still like the 15th most weird thing that has happened this year, is that this happened.

So great performance. I mean, it's just spectacular stuff from Jamal Hill. He looked outstanding from, start to finish. But, Jed, are you surprised that Glover retired tonight, like the way that he did? Like, I'm not surprised he retired. But normally, Glover is a man of reflection. He might think about it. We might be screaming and hollering him for him. Like, you know what? I think you've done enough. Take some time. And then he, like a few months later would announce it. But just going out there and doing it tonight, I was kind of surprised that he would just do without taking the

time to reflect upon it. But I guess what the hell do I know? Were you surprised? I think there was a really good chance he was going to retire anyway, like win or lose here. And I feel better about saying that, certainly the way he did hang him up there. I was just think Glover's really smart. And like, this is absolutely the right call. Look, you want to go out on top and this isn't on top on top. But look, he just, he fought for a title in his last ever fight showed some of truly the most remarkable toughness I've ever seen. like people forget glover was not like the most impossibly tough human being before

anthony rumble johnson obliterated him in like 10 seconds or something dumb alexander gustavsson tuned him up and like he was he was not a wilting lily by any means but he was not this and now at 43 his chin is somehow better he he was better and jamal hill just didn't let him do shit tonight so this is a great opportunity for him to walk away. He is absolutely correct in saying, I mean, he's coming off one of the best fights of all time and an ungodly amount of punishment and followed that up with tonight. Not a good fight because it was mostly one-way traffic, but an ungodly amount of punishment,

no better time to walk away from the sport than right now. And I think he did the right thing. His retirement, the reason I thought he was going to retire beforehand was for all the obvious reasons and the reason I think that this was probably going to be the way it went maybe if he won he might try and get it back with the Erie one time but with a loss because he was so quick to tee up Alex Pereira like he was like hey Alex Pereira he's I'm going to put all my energy into him middleweight champ he's going to come up and try and get a second belt and that's how you should do it like right there you you set him up when you're leaving a division of retiring you

set up the next guy in your squad so I think this is probably preplanned it's a great time for him to walk way. He's a Hall of famer. I don't think there's any question that that man's going to be in the Hall of Fame at this point. And 10 years ago when he couldn't make it into the UFC because of visa issues, like that was,

it was in no way certain that he would have been a Hall of Famer. And even after that, when he did make him, the UFC fell short against John Jones. He might not be a Hall of Famer. Like, he's just another guy who was a good dude. Fawferbell came up short. Now, look at what he did at the end of his career. Unbelievable run.

Great for him to walk away. And incredibly classy move because I don't want that to get lost in the shuffle either. The slight admonition to the Brazilian fans, hey, I saw what you guys did to Brandon Moreno. That's bullshit. Don't do that. Jamal Hill's a champion. Respect him. He's going to walk out with me.

Like, he's the best that this sport has to offer. It's a shame he goes out in an L, but, you know, a moral victory. And congrats. You had a great Hall of Fame career, man. it's it's yeah i mean the fact that we're having a hall of fame discussion about glover tashara i think is very that's like a legitimate the fact that that's a legitimate discussion is is very i would say surprising is to some for someone to hear that four years ago right three four years ago like not since michael bisming have we seen somebody really transform the story of their career in the final

few like the final chapter of it the very end of the career to transform it like Like this, like it's, it's. So that's, that's partly true, but also to your previous point about this being a rat shit division, Jan Bolhovic, it's done the exact same thing because both of them like five years ago when Corey Anderson is tuning Glover up and Jan is like losing middling fights to Alexander Gustafson, if you've been like, both of those dudes are going to be champions in Hall of Famers, I've been like, that is absolutely not accurate. but they have both kind of turned it on late in, like, significant ways.

And maybe it means the division's bad. Probably does in a lot of ways, but the division being bad doesn't mean the division isn't fun. And frankly, light heavyweight's way more fun than it was during the peak of John Jones, for being honest. This is awesome. A bunch of anarchy happening every other weekend. We might have, the belt might literally change hands three times this year. Maybe Jamal Hill defends it a bunch and like, and he's, he's leveled up. Or maybe he fights Magu an Ankylaev and loses.

And the Ankyov rematches Jan and loses. And the belt just keeps getting handed around. It would be awesome. So that's what I would ask you, Shaheen, is what do we do with Jamal now? Like, do we just wait and hope we get this Uri fight on the books? Hope that he just has super healing power and that the worst shoulder injury that anybody has ever seen in combat sports just magically heals in like eight months? Or do we do Anthony Smith? do we do Ankylaif?

Like, how do we handle this? Because it could be hot potato, but there's just so many different avenues we could take now that Jamal Hill is the champion. I mean, this is a guy who 18 months ago got his arm broken by Paul Craig, right? Like, he really hasn't fought a lot of these top guys at 2.05. It feels like the options are right there. In a meritocracy sense,

giving him Maga Man, Ancolaev next would feel like it would make the most sense. I think a lot of people would pick Mago Med to win that fight. I think a lot of people still believe Ankleyev is probably the number one in this division if this division does not have Yeri. So that would probably be my call. But also, I don't know that the UFC is rushing to the window to try to book Magomede in a fight of that magnitude. They don't seem to be very happy with them at this moment and really what they saw last

month in that title fight. So if they end up doing Magomed v. Jan 2 for a number one contender, I feel like that would work as well. Auxed Arach is kind of just existing out there in space too. going to be healed up. I don't know, not anytime soon, but within the year, he's going to be available again. And then you're right. Anthony Smith sort of just is the odd man out of all of this. He was the one that got screwed out of the Jamal Hill fight. So the options are there. I would go Ankaliv, but I wouldn't be surprised if they end up doing a Yon Ankelaev in the meantime

to figure it out. But it's anybody's best guess right now. To reiterate, Jed, like 205 may not be the most, you know, star-studded talent-rich division it's ever been right now. But it certainly is wild and a lot of fun in a way that you just can't it's unpredictable right like you just can't tell what's going to happen next what a capper what a way to end the night i desperately just i was singing this before uh when year was champion i just all i want in life is Alex Pahara versus iir Pajasca because that fight is my everything but honestly do dump Alex Pereira into this division and let's just let's just get wacky with it how fun Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill is a really fun fight. The prayer probably wins.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Can you imagine Ferreira? Was it two division champion all of a sudden? It would be incredible. But like that's like I don't want to see Perera fight Magam and Angolaev because Anglianov will just tackle him and that won't be interesting. But like,

Jamal Hill probably won't just tackle him. They'll probably just have like a really fun fight. Like that would be dope. Like let's just put Pereira in it. I don't care. Like I'll watch Pereira Izzy again like because it's, you know, whatever, but I don't need it. I don't need Pereira, is he?

I don't even need Pereira Whitaker, even though I think that's a very compelling fight. Pereira versus a bunch of dudes who are like, have pretty clearly defined weaknesses at light heavyweight, but he also has a very clearly fine weakness. It's just fun as hell, man. Let's do that. And the beauty about Glover to share is that he's still going to be around the sport

for years and years to come. He's going to be an incredible coach along the way. I've talked about this on the watch party. like I've ring announced many of MMA event in New England and Glover Tashara always brings like a just a core of fighter, seven, eight dudes, amateurs and pros. I've never seen Coach Glover Tashara lose a fight ever. He's like 48 no when I'm in the same building with him as a coach.

It's ridiculous. So he's going to be around for a long time. His positive presence will be felt by many of generation coming up in the sport. And I'm sure we'll be talking a lot more about the legacy. and story career of Glover Tashira over the next few days, no doubt about that. But that's just the beginning.

There's a million other storylines for this card, and Shaheen, I'll go to you. Boarding for Flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements.

What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Boarding will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close you, call 1-86653310 or visitcomex Ontario.ca. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Brandon Moreno, the undisputed UFC Flyway champion,

Goes out, finishes Davis and Figurato, Dr. Stoppage, gets it done in the third round. No controversy. It seemed like there might have been some eye poke, but it turns out wasn't good stoppage. I thought Moreno went all three rounds. The three judges did not agree with me, but Moreno is up two to one heading into what would have been in the fourth round,

and one judge gave Brandon Moreno 10-8-third. So great performance of Brandon Moreno. Is this it? Did he cap the rivalry off? did we close the book on the Brandon Moreno Davis of Figuero, incredible story that has been written over the last couple of years? I think so, right? It feels like it's played, it's played its course.

Like we have gotten where we needed to with it. Somebody finally has an advantage in it. 1-1-1 was a weird place to be after three. But now 2-1-1. Brandon, the two he won were fairly decisive. I would say that Brandon is definitely certainly the guy who comes out of this and it feels like we can move on. But just the fact that we have sort of entertained this over the course of the length that this series has gone since December 2020 is frankly just crazy, right?

We speak about how unpredictable MMA is, how quickly things can change. If you would have told us at the beginning of December 2020 that these two guys would go on to create one of the most memorable, one of the most fun rivalries that would stretch four fights basically in a row. For Devenson, it was four in a row. Brandon may have had one in between with the Kaikara France, but more or less, four in a row, like I don't think anybody would have understood what you were telling them. That is such a crazy way that this is all played out. And I heard you guys talk about this on the preview show. And I've been thinking about it ever since.

So is this the most fun rivalry in UFC history just in terms of in cage action alone, right? Just only pure incage action, not the outside circumstances, not the dramatics, not the characters, et cetera, et cetera, just the actual fights themselves that we saw. once these two guys were inside the cage. And I've been racking my brain. I kind of even threw it out on social media. I think it's either number one or number two, just with what we have seen over these four fights.

Almost all of them were so much fun. I think tonight was trending that way too. I was really enjoying this fight until it ended when it did. I think Frankie Edgar versus Gray Maynard is really the only series that you could really throw up against it. That was sort of rival, the in cage action. And that to me might still be the number one, if only because the last two fights of that

were just utterly bananas and two of the greatest fights we had ever seen in that division. I think that's probably still number one, but for this to reach number two even, just in terms of, again, greatest in-cage rivalries, that is a crazy, crazy, crazy place for us to get to

with Brandon Marino and Devis and Federato, two guys that, you know, sort of came out of nowhere, both of them and just took over this division. And flyweight now is more fun to me than it's ever been. Flyweight now is in a healthier place than it's ever been.

And it's really because of the, two gentlemen and the work that they have done over the last two years like these two guys have resuscitated this division and and left it in a place that is incredibly compelling we have you know the at the pantosia fight which i assume will be next for brandon morano is a banger i've been waiting for pantosia to get his opportunity that's going to be a lot of fun and then you just have a lot of up and comers coming up down the pipe right mohamma majave ameer al-bazi um the manal kopp like there is just a lot of really cool interesting unique talent at one 25 right now and it just feels so refreshing to have this division resuscitated and just in a really

healthy place because obviously it was not going to exist not too long ago. So yeah, I think this is probably the end of the Moreno Figuerado saga. Justifiably so. It seems like Devis who wants to go to 135, which there's tons of matchmaking options for him over there. But it was a lot of fun while we had it, man. This was a fun, fun ride these two guys took us on. Completely agree. Just in everything, just to do it back in Brazil and to have have the chapter closed there. It just made so much sense. But what did you think, Jed? You were pretty confident in Moreno. I was pretty confident in Moreno as well. I just felt like we talked about the numbers game and how Father Time just has an incredible win-win loss record,

especially in the lower divisions. And it's just a matter of time before it's just started to catch up with Figurato. Dude is still so talented. He had moments in the fight for certain. but I just feel like Moreno is younger. He's getting better. His game continues to evolve. And he went out there and looked pretty damn good tonight. So what was your biggest takeaway of the number one flyweight in the world right now? I thought it would.

Maybe not tactically. Moreno did some really interesting things in there that I thought really, really smart. I thought he was going to win comfortably just because I think Figurato has been a slightly on the athletic decline since their second fight. I know he says it on things about not really having a great camp and not being prepared for that one. But the third fight, Figuero 1, win is controversial, I think. A number of people scored it. That was very close. And he won that with preparation, almost entirely.

He brought new looks and Moreno was not prepared. It was not a huge in cage adjustment from Figuero in that to be like, oh, this is happening. He had a strategy, and that's, that's a credit. People think that that's talking shit. No, because that's part of being an elite fighter is knowing where you're limited, knowing where you need to do something different and addressing that problem effectively. My issue coming into this fight was you can only do that once.

Like you only have one bullet in that gun. And once that's done, then we're back to, okay, well, Moreno now knows about it. So you've got to either come up with a new wrinkle. It's really hard to do that when you're older and you're losing your foul. And I do think we saw pretty clearly to me that Figurato is still a plus athlete, still a very good athlete. He's a little bit slower. And that the margins are so important at this point. I think we're probably not getting a fifth one.

But I'm not 100% that we're not getting a fifth one because I know he doesn't like to make the weight cut. And frankly, it doesn't feel like he should even be able to make the weight cut. But he does. And credit to him, he pulls it off and looked good on the scale. scale. He looked awful earlier in the week, looked good on the scale. I think he's going to have a hard time at Bannamweight. I just, I do not think that that division is going to be very good for him. Now, if he gets to go up to Bannumway and he gets to fight Cody Garbrandt, that division could be pretty good for him. But if he's trying to actually make a run or if they're giving him the

bump and saying, hey, you're moving up, we're going to throw you right into a top five, you know, put you in line for a title fight here. That top five. That top five. is awful for him. Sean O'Malley, Peoria, Maraud Valshili, Malin-Barre, Corey Sandhagen. That's the EFC's top five, not counting champion, Adjimane Sterling.

Those are, all of them are horrifically bad matchups for Davidson. So I think we could see him go up, recognize very quickly that that's actually not where he's going to make his hay and come back down. And if he does, then we can get a fifth because, yes, Marina won this. I thought Marina was on his way to winning.

I thought the punch was legal. This is a clean win. But it still has that aura, you know, like it didn't feel all the way complete, even if that is a clean punch, etc. It lacks the stamp, the definitiveness. And, you know, we want to break Lemmaryno go fight, you know, Ali Pants. But if he beats Pantosia, maybe gets another one, Figurato takes one at Bannonway, says, uh, comes back down. We could get a fifth one, maybe next year. And I'd still watch the hell out of it because the fights have all been compelling.

but now we get Alex Pants. We get the fight we wanted. And I love what John Enix said, because Megan O'Leavy told a little story after the fight about how they had a little run in. And we've seen video on it as well. And Brandon Marino thought it was a little bit of quote unquote aggressive. And Pantosha was basically saying, I'm ready. We could do it in a month, do it in two months, whatever.

And Brandon Moreno's response was, hey, tomorrow you could start talking trash. but tonight just let me have this one. All right? I thought that's a phenomenal thing. But also, if you're going to talk shit, do it where a camera is, bro. You don't do this backstage where they just tell us about it at the presser.

That's Bush League fight promotion. I'm not like a huge fan of the move anyway. But if you're doing it to stake your title claim to build hype, et cetera, no your role, know your audience. Like, hop the cage and talk shit to him in the cage. or whatever or just do it at the presser like just don't just come on man this isn't hard that shouldn't be hard to figure that one out and then davis and figurata going up to 135

god man so many fun fights for him up there so lots of be excited about congratulation to brandon marino him versus marlin vera would be really really fun i'm in i'm in yeah that's a really fun one and cody garbrand would just make my soul sing so i'm also down on that fight. Like, I don't need to watch him fight Rob Vaunt or whatever. Like, that's just not a fight that I care about. So, but him versus Marlon

Bear is sick. You are the president of the Davis and Viguerreta versus Cody Garbrand fan club. You are president and a client, my friend. It was the best. When that fight was going to happen, God, I'm so excited. I don't think it'll ever happen anymore, but man, they should book it.

That would be fun. Yes. Gilbert Burns, great win, goes out, smushes, Neal Magny, does exactly what needs to do. He calls out Colby Covington. Good on him. Jessica Andrade, she's good, grief, man. And Jed, I know we talked about this a little bit earlier.

Lauren Murphy took a beating, and she is as tough as it gets. Tougher than shoe leather, tougher than a $2 steak, whatever cliche comparison you want to throw out there. But golly, man. You got to stop it. Like, that was bad. That was not going to get any better. Like, in hindsight, I kind of wish they stopped the Glover fight,

but he went out there and took him down and mounted him. And in hindsight, we're like, okay, sure. But this just was not going to get any better for Lauren Murphy. It just clearly was not her night. And Jessica just tuned her up. It's tough to watch, man. Great performance. I mean, I don't know if it's a bigger takeaway.

It might be is that Lauren just took weight. too much damage in this fight. And you can blame the corner. You could certainly blame the ref. This should not have gone a full 15 minutes. You should not have cashed it over two and a half ticket. Super shouldn't have. Super shouldn't have.

Absolutely. Yeah. We were talking about it all fair. Objectively, the Glover fight should have been stopped before the fifth round. Like any, if the idea is to protect fighters from themselves and to ensure a long and healthy life insofar as can be in this sport, Glover shouldn't have been allowed in the fifth. In hindsight, I am a very slightly more accepting of it

because it felt like they knew that this was the last round of his career and give him a chance to win the belt and he will take no more damage ever after this. It still not, it still shouldn't have happened, but I'm a little more willing to accept that. And there is at least even as ridiculous or as hopeful as it were have been there was a path forward. Glover could have maybe done something with a takedown.

Ultimately, got it, wasn't able to do it, but you could still see how he could turn a win out of this. That was not the case from the minute the first round started for Lauren Murphy. It was apparent very early. And at the end of the first round, at the point when Jessica and Drogh realized in that fight, I have nothing to fear from this woman. I do not have to give her an ounce of respect. I can just put myself in the line of fire, and I might take one or two, it will not matter.

And what I am returning with is so much more than she can bear. And that happened around like the three minute mark of the first. And that's when And Drod just got the engine moving and just really started putting it on her. And I hit our group slack and was like, they should stop this fight two minutes into the second round. If Lauren Murphy can't make something happen here, can't get a takedown, can't substantively. change it and instead they let it going. I pulled up the stats because I want this to be clear. I think that fight should have been stopped at the exact halfway.

The stats are bad. The fight should have been stopped at the halfway mark. Even if you want to really give Lauren Murphy the benefit of the doubt, Jessica Androge landed 95 significant strikes in the third round. That was after, by any reasonable measure, Androge was up 20 to 16. and Murphy, who is not a finisher, had zero path to actually win this fight. That is 95 shots. I'm not pulling on the exact head body, so let's try and figure this out. It's just a shitload of brain damage that she took pushing 40 for no discernible reason.

I don't actually think the referee should have stopped the fight. I have pretty clear lines on how I think this should work. The referee should protect the fighter in the immediacy. of hey this fighter cannot continue because they are not intelligently defending themselves Laura Murphy was tough and given what she could out there and still competing. I do not think it is on the referee. I don't remember who that was. Was that Osiris Maya maybe?

I don't think it was on him. I think that was that's on the corner. The corner is the one who should protect their fighter when it's not their day. And it was a tough night in that regard, man. Really, really, really tough. So let me, let me throw more on to the stat pile because I have a couple of more stats here. Our pal Aaron Bronsetter tweeted this one out.

Lauren Murphy absorbed 161 significant head strikes tonight. By comparison, you look at the gold standard for UFC female violence, which is Wiley Zhang versus Yvani and Jacek won. They absorbed a combined 192 head strikes over five rounds. 161 to 192 split amongst two people. Wow. Let's keep, let's let's go, let's go farther. Androge landed 231.

And just general significant strikes in 15 minutes. 231 tonight. That's an average of 15.4 per minute. That's, if you even go down more, that's basically four strikes per second or per minute, basically. Wait, no, I'm sorry. Every 3.8, nine seconds, she, Laura Murphy absorbed a significant strike. Sorry, I messed that one up. But every 3.8 seconds, she absorbed a significant strike.

She went 015 on takedowns. There was never at any point at a moment where it appeared any of this was in danger of changing. Like this is, if this was a boxing fight, this fight would have been stopped by somebody 100% of the time, whether it was the corner or the referee or somebody. And I agree with you, Jed. At no point did it feel like this was on the referee to stop it. This was a corner decision. And they really did, they didn't do right by Lauren Murphy tonight. She took way too much extra damage that she did not need to take.

78 head strikes in the final round. She ate 78 head strikes. And like, to your point about the JJ Zhang fight, I mean, why Zhang is a force. Yonge and Jachic hits hard, but she is not serving with the same power that 125 Jessica and Drogh is. Like, that is, that'll ruin your career, just straight up. Like, I don't know what Lauren Murphy's career was going to look like over the next couple of years. she's getting older anyway. But like I, it's done.

Whatever run she had, it's just not going to happen because fighters don't really come back from stuff like that. There's no reason for it. And it's, it's just shameful, man. There's no, this is not hard and you're not doing your job. You're just not. And credit to Jessica And Raj, too, because not, I mean, the performance is great, but the game plan.

and early of a sledge hammering her legs. Lauren was not prepared for that. And I think it threw, that caught a lot of people off guard, even like pundits who broke the fight down and thought about how it could go. I don't think a lot of people thought she would just be thundering leg kicks the way that she did. And like, 45 seconds into the fight, we were like, oh boy, Lauren's already compromised. That leg is a mess. And Jessica just took advantage of it.

So spectacular performance. She looked great and deserves a ton of credit. a great win for her. Real quick. Real quick. Before move on. Sure. Like, I feel like we underappreciate Jessica and Raj to like a pretty significant

degree. like, she is just generally throughout the MMA community underappreciated for what she gives us. Like this woman is the definition of why pound for pound rankings exist. She is the definition of pound for pound excellence. She's basically a top contender in two different divisions right now. And she just doesn't even care. Like you just give her anybody and she's going to come try to destroy that person.

Right. Like it is crazy. the wrecking ball that she brings into every fight. Like, it's, she's underappreciated and we're going to miss her when she's gone because she is maybe the most exciting fighter in the UFC right now outside of Justin Gagie. Like, it's a consistent thing at this point that we've seen it over years. It's just crazy. Dude, this was her first decision win in five years since Tisha Torres.

She landed 230 strikes in it. Like, that's, everything else has been finishes. is or she put a double century mark on Lauren Murphy. This woman is nuts. All I want, I, look, I, my heart mentioned earlier, my heart would sing if we got Pereira versus Yuri. I think that's my number one fight in my wish list. But one, B, number two, we have to have Androge Dang two. I agree.

There is nothing else that matters. I do not care that Rose has two wins over Zhang. Rose never gets to fight for the belt again after the Asparza monstrosity. Androge Zhang 2 in Brazil and then God willing Andrage wins it. And we can have a third fight between those two because that is just we're talking about the Moreno figgy fight being like maybe the best rivalry in cage rivalry. If we can be lucky enough to get three fights out of those women, who. that's just be the best. All right.

Is it time to turn this into the jailman, to sit on Meda hour? It feels like it's time to turn this into the jail to know how we're going to get there. I feel like we have a perfect segue. We get a perfect segue to that. Let's talk to bonuses. I thought for sure this is going to be a four performance

bonus kind of a night. Did not happen. We only got two of them. And fight of the night was the main event between Jamal Hill and Glover-Teshirea. But one of the bonuses goes to Jelton Almeida. How about that, Jehine Alshadis? What a transition. I mean, this guy, he's not, he's not bad, right? Like, I feel like, you know, give him a couple of years,

a little more seasoning. This guy might be a top 15 guy or something. This means a friggin terror, Sean Alshadhi. Go, wax poetically. Oh my God, how much fun is Jailton Almeida? I feel like us in M.M.A. fighting have sort of adopted him as our like, our project fighter for some reason. Like everyone in the staff just absolutely adores Jailton. I made a, this dude is such a force, man. Like, I was already all in before tonight. Like, I was already kind of on that bandwagon. I, I am somehow even more all in now. Like, I am, whatever stock is still available, like, I'm just buying up all your stock. Like, I'm buying up every ounce of Jailton. Now made a stock at this point. This man was hurling around a 260 pound man at 230 pounds tonight. Like, it was the

easiest thing in the world. Like, he was throwing Shamir, Shamil around. Like, I would throw, you know, my newborn baby are out or like carry him around. Like it's just, it was crazy the degree to which he was kind of just doing whatever he wanted in there. And that's just been a consistent pattern now that we have seen from this man over, you know, four UFC fights. And it feels like I just don't actually know what the ceiling is now for Jailton. I made it. Because I had, I had legitimate questions. And I feel like they're still out there of is the size going to be a problem at heavyweight, right? Because this is someone who came in as a light heavyweight and kind of just started doing these catch weights. And eventually now he's,

just seems to be a heavyweight, and we don't really know if he's really a heavyweight. He's 2.30. He's very small for heavyweight. He's basically Fador-Malienenko size. I don't know if that can work in today's high-level heavyweight MMA. There might be a ceiling on this when you reach someone like a Curtis Blades or a Ciorgan or just these absolute behemoths at the top of the division. I'm ready to see it, man. I'm ready to see it because Jailton Almeda, I feel so confident, is going to be a UFC champion at some point, whether it's at heavyweight. or 205, I still don't know in that regard.

If you put him up against Jamal Hill right now, I think a lot of people are going to be really split and torn on who they would actually pick in that fight. That's a competitive fight to me. Is the future at heavyweight? I'm not sure, but tonight sold me on the idea that that's actually a possibility now. Because I still felt like coming in tonight,

he was probably a light heavyweight. If you can just throw around a 260-pound guy like his easiest thing in the world, I don't actually know anymore than. Because I'm so in on jail today. It's going to be really fun to watch. however this plays out. But man,

tonight was fun. Tonight was fun, right? This is a big giant Damian Maya who's got wrestling and ground and pounded.

I'm very much here for it. It was fun for everybody except for G.C. who bet that that fight, Gilton Omade, it would finish the fight. It would go under a round and a half.

I tried to tell him. He didn't listen. The most electric bet in all of combat sports Mike heavyweight overs. And let me tell you, It was friggin electric. I am desperately begging, begging Shemiel to cheat and just survive all the bad positions.

And then at the end, when it's like he's giving up the back, but then for it, Jailton just like takes a breather, he just like holds him for a minute. I was like, yes, take all the time in the world. You can finish this 20 seconds later. But count down, baby. It was awesome. It was the most fun I had tonight. 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 Tread Plus 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?

Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious wool throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners?

Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners. Find Fabulous for Less. And then the other electric bet that you made that cashed was a parlay, the Bonfim Brothers Parlay, and the other performance award, they both, both brothers should have got, could have got one, but Ishmael gets one with one of the scariest knockouts I've ever seen. That was, that was so sad, brutal.

That was brutal. Terrence McKinney went down in a heap. I thought, I mean, I thought he was like seriously injured. the way he went down. It was scary. He wasn't moving. Everything about that was nasty. He looked fantastic, Ismail Bonfine.

And that double flying knee, whatever you want to call it, was just so sick, Jed. It was just so sick. What did you think watching that knockout, that those knees land and watch Terrence McKinney just not trying to be disrespectful, but like he just timber. He went timber. It was so scary. I've been watching this sport way too long stuff like that really scares me the Lauren Murphy stuff like makes me feel bad

like prolonged beatings whereas like I just have the vista relaction of oh shit he did that thing that was insane I love the Bonfeme brothers I set it on No Bet's Bar coming in the Bonfam parley is mostly a gimmick because I love a gimmick and it was a good one but it was also like they're both talented dudes like they are both legitimate prospects his brother

actually is i think the better one in part because welterweight is a worst division than bantam wire lightweight um but like and he's undefeated etc but they're both good but ishma looked so good i want to rewatch it because it was a little distracted but honestly one of my big thoughts was my biggest overarching takeaway is that lightweight and rules, man. I know that we have a back and forth with some members of the site who think it's Bannonway. I'm here to tell it. Look, Terrence McKinney was exceptionally close to knocking out Drew Dober in violent fashion. Drew Dober, who I think is probably going to be ranked or certainly a FAR in our rankings, undeniably a top 20-ish dude and Terrence McKinney was moments away from ethering that dude

and he just got slabbed by a guy making his debut. The lightweight, the top 75 dudes at this weight class can kill anybody on any given night. And if you're a top 15 dude at this weight class, it means you're just one of the very best fighters in the whole damn world. And that was my big takeaway. way and it's i can't wait to watch what these dudes do next because like that was not the fight or performance i was anticipating and so for him to so comprehensively beat terrence mcicki's ass who is a flawed but good fighter this kid really has has a lot going for him and so does

his brother man brother also munea lisez is no joke dudes a very very solid fighter that's the thing like both the dudes they they beat tonight are like very low legitimate, right? Like, Terrence McKinney and Monier-Laziz are both, like, talents that I'm immensely respectful of. We were talking in the chat, like, the siblings in there. And the Basharats feel like the closest thing because they were, they debuted last year, not on the same card.

These dudes are like, maybe Javid Basharat's going to have a higher ceiling overall. I think these dudes are far more impressive at this stage of their careers than the Basharats were when they came into the UFC, like far more. I'm much more interested in what they. they do moving forward. I mean, it might be, it probably is, right? Like the greatest single night for a debuting household in UFC history, right? It's hard to imagine.

What the hell did anything go to the king of Rio for the rest of the weekend? Like, I can't imagine what mom and dad are feeling watching this. Like, this is, that was unbelievable. We're going to be talking about that knee knockout at the end of 2023. Like, that is going to be on people's lockout of the year list. It's a thousand percent of a KO of the year nominee. Yep. Can I also shout out the biggest robbery of the evening, which I don't you're going to say.

Look, this isn't going to be a K-O-of-the-year nominee, but it was definitively the second best performance of the night. I don't care that Jailton Almeida ran over a dude who has lost three in a row before he lost to Jailton and was also a minus 900 favorite. That was a very anticipated performance. Good, but anticipated. Bruno Fahara just ethering Robocop. How does that not get a performance bonus? How somebody explained to me how that man did not get a performance bonus for that CO? I had no answer for you.

It was just such a sneaky left hand. It was just a little sneaky. Robocop just went out, eyes back of the head, dunzo. We've literally never seen that. We've seen Shmila Abdurakimov. get his ass beat. In fact, it's become a common occurrence. We have seen Robocop take

monstrous shots, but the replay looks like watching his neck just like move and that is an unbull, and it was a beautiful setup. Switch step gets the outside angle, left hand down the pipe. How is that not a bonus? That is such a robbery.

Such a robbery. Well, maybe they'll take care of them. Hopefully they do. We'll see what happened. I was pretty surprised we didn't get the, hey, we're back in Brazil. Everybody you've got to finish gets a bonus. But this is, it just feels wrong for him, is all I'm saying, man. Feels really wrong.

Because honestly, Gilbert Burns' submission is better than Jailton Almeida's performance. I don't think that's controversial at all to say that Gilbert Burns' performance better than Jalton's. No, that was a flawless victory. Like, that was, he did, literally zero strikes. Literally zero strikes. It was zero in that fight. Amazing.

And one more thing I want to say before you go to the piece. is, I don't know how you guys felt about this, but I felt it like doing the watch party at GC and talking over there, but as crazy as this year has been in the sport and even outside of it. Tonight felt normal. Like, I kind of, it just felt normal. Like, watch the pay-per-view, chaos is happening.

Yes, were there weird things that happened along the way, sure. But I don't know, like, this felt like the most normal day of watching MMA or like covering the sport of the year so far and I know that's weird to say on January 21st but considering how the first three

weeks of this year has been in the sport it was kind of cool to just forget about all the bullshit and just watch these fighters go out there and do what they do best. It just felt like a normal night watching fights we're not talking about anything else

we're not talking about all the other drama that we saw throughout the year. It just felt normal again. You know what I mean? And it was a refreshing feeling. And I don't know if you guys felt the same way. I mean, it was a really good night of fights. It was, is the most fun I've had in a really long time watching fights because, but I thought, I would have thought that coming in. Does this card look good on paper? Fifteen fights is a lot. But, I mean, our last two fight nights were very tough hangs, both on paper and in actuality. and then the last pay-per-view was also a super tough hang particularly given we had a draw in the whole

the most interesting part of the last pay-per-view was them making this main event like that night of it so it's been like a full I'm trying to think the last time I was like geared up for a fight night and and it was good and 2801 maybe that was a decent one I think it probably had to be that So, I mean, I had a great time, and I enjoyed that, you know, nitpicks here and there everywhere. But this was the best card the UFC's put on in at least a month. Yep.

Yeah. All right. All right. Let's take a couple questions. I'm telling you, I don't know how much longer my voice is going to be able to keep talking. But we're going to try to barrel through this. We'll take a few questions if we could. One fallout from this that we haven't mentioned.

Yeah. Terrence McKinney versus Patty Pimble, it suddenly makes it a little bit more sense, doesn't it not. I'm just saying, throwing it out there into the world. It feels like it's a little more possible. Oh, there we go. There we go. Patty Pimble versus Tiago Moises doesn't make any sense at all, so I guess this one is the better choice. No.

It's a terrible idea. Dude, also just shouts to Tiagra Moises who's like a top 25 lightweight. And just will never get flowers because of how good the stupid division is. He's so good. So fun to watch. Just dominated. Not fine, but not a gray fighter. This dude rules.

Yeah. I don't think he, like, his defensive savvy on the feet is equally as impressive as impressive as his opportunistic offense on the ground. It's just so fun to watch him strike. Like, you can't hit him. It looks like he's being hit. But then if you actually, like, watch the fights, they don't touch him. Nobody touches this man.

It's insane. It's crazy. Takerow Man, 91. Who most likely to maintain their title? Hill or Moreno. Jed, your face says it all. Come on. Come on, man.

Like, maybe Hill is leveled up in a way and he's about to go on a run. I will not write that possibility off because he looked so good tonight. Brandon Moreno has at worst beaten the second best flyweight in the world comprehensively twice and very possibly did it three out of four times while also beating Kai Kara France's ass in the between times. So look, I think Pantosia is that fight is going to rule. I know Pantosia has a couple wins over Moreno. That was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. I'll feel very confident picking Moreno that he was my beginning of the year.

pick to retain his title. Shaheen, just so we're clear in our things, this is my number one draft pick looking okay at the moment. So I'm taking Moreno. I think it is as simple as I think he's the best flyweight in the world. I don't know how long that will last, but I think we've got at least a year or two of him still improving, still moving up. And I like his chances against anybody in the world of this weight class.

Yeah. I mean, the answer is Moreno, if only because. once yri comes back, I think we're all picking yri to take that title back at night, heavyweight. Yeah, the Pantosia fight's gonna be a tough one. No doubt about it.

But if he beats, if Moreno beats Pantosia, he's gonna, he's gonna be the champion for a long time. And I know there's good fighters like, Nicolao, we got Manel Kopp coming up and we got Bahaif coming up,

but I feel like by the time Ma Chaif gets to a title fight, it's gonna be like 20, like mid-2020-four, because they're just going to slowly build him up and he'll get there and he'll get there and probably win the belt. He's got work to do.

But yeah, he's got worked. And, you know, if for no other reason Moreno doesn't have to fight Jailton Almeida at some point. So that seems likely that he gets to retain a belt and just have to fight Jelton Almeida. It's true. Here we go. Sity question, but I think it's fun to talk about.

Would Jamal Hill versus John Jones even be competitive? I'd be interested. I actually think that that can be. I mean, today, right now, if John was 205 and able to make it, I think it would be competitive. I have real, but I also have had real questions about where John's at in his career for a while now, so that's not anything new from me. I mean, we just haven't seen John Jones look like John Jones for several years. My hottest take in the entire history of my MMA taking is that John Jones is,

that John Jones is pretty heavily overrated, that he should be as good as everyone thinks he is, but he never took MMA series to any degree. And so his performances are viewed in a very rose-colored light. I think he probably beats Jamal Hill, but there are absolutely avenues where Jamal Hill gives him problems. Yep. John Jones is not very good at striking.

He's very good if he did good things. He wants to fight in the ways that are the least effective for him. And it makes people, it is why people like Dominic Reyes, and as we talked offline, that win is aged extremely poorly. Anthony Smith, Tiago Santos with no knees, were able to be competitive because John doesn't want to do the things. he's best at for whatever reason that is. So I think that fights competitive. I would ultimately favor John Jones because his ceiling is the highest of anyone

that's ever competed in the sport. I know we've been kind of avoiding the topic a little bit because there were so many storylines, but we need to mention him. Set up some theoretical. I didn't want to do this, but we're here. This is easy. This is easy and I'm super in on there.

I'm talking about. I didn't see that. No, I feel like AK, when you, He's talking about Ryan Hall when talking about this right now. Set up some theoretical Shogun retirement opponents. Why do we always have to see our heroes beaten to a pulp in their final matchups? I actually didn't hate this one. I thought this is about as good as you could.

What? Why didn't you hate this one? I didn't hate it. I hated it. I hated it. I hated the ending in the fallout. But on paper, this was about as good as it could get for him. him. This is a winnable fight against a guy that a decent, even like a 70% Shogun should have beaten.

He just, it just wasn't there, man. No. Jail. What else would you have done? Look, there are two, there only, I would have brought, I would have brought someone, hold on, I would have brought someone Shogun's age. I would have brought Leodum and Cheetah back in for one more fight or something. Someone's Shogun's age.

Like, I don't need Shogun fighting a. 22-year-old or a 28-year-old or a 31-year-old or whatever, however old this gentleman was. I don't know off-hand. You bring in a legend. You bring in a fellow legend. Yeah, you bring in a fellow legend, and then one of them gets the good moment. Look, Shaheen is correct. That's what you should do.

There are two ways to handle this. And my issue with this, it's the exact same thing I have of Frankie Edgar. And this is probably really inside baseball. Most people won't care, and that's fine. I at least understand the concept. of sending him out on his back. All right, let's get whatever juice we can. Trying to book him against a winnable mid-tier fight

creates the worst possible outcome, which is him losing to somebody who doesn't matter and will get nothing from it. Now, if he does win, okay, but you're just gambling something stupidly. You either book him against some dude who's going to beat the shit out of him, like Frankie Edgar should have fought Adrian Yannes

or like some dude who's going to get some kind of a bump out of it and be helpful and not, a guy because Ihor Portieri is just a dude like this is going to matter nothing to his career because he's never going to be like elite and good so it's a waste or the actual reasonable thing is you

you should have shot signed Leo to Machita it's a free agent you sign him for one fight they both fight in Brazil there's a trilogy they do it in Brazil it can be a walk away for both of them but it's you just do that and then as she said one guy gets the win it's the moment

honestly those are more competitive and fun fights. We saw, shit, we saw Shogun fight like little nog, three times, two times in the UFC when they were both pretty washed

and those fights were fun and interesting. This was never going to be fun even if we got the good outcome from it. It was not, like it's just such a narrow line to walk. And I don't, I really don't know why the UFC can't figure that out

or if they know and just don't care and this is how it broke. But that seems very weird to me. Like, all right, we'll just do this. I don't get this one. I never have. No, I get it.

If I had my druthers and we lived in this wonderful world that you speak of that doesn't exist, I would have done the exact same thing. But we don't live in that world. We live in the UFC's world where they're not going to bring Leo back for a fight. And give him Kalil Rauntree or somebody. Yeah, this was a tree. Yeah, he would kill him. But that's fine. At least you're getting something out of it.

You got killed anyway. Let's kill him with a name. Yeah. It's a half measure. That's exactly right. If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. If you're going to send this dude out in a bad way, send him out in a freaking cannon shot to the moon.

Jailton, Al-Meda. Not just so much. That's fine. Jailton, fine. For as bad as the Hamzot-Nade-Diaz fight is, that at least made sense, even if it felt dirty. Because this doesn't even make sense for the promotion. She just doesn't make sense.

Yeah. Yeah. Like the way watching this felt, watching this felt so flaccid, right, in a weird way where it's just like, what are we even watching? Like, we're watching some contender series guy, who I agree is probably not going to end up mattering in a real title conversation ever.

Dance and taunt over show, like a fallen, really weird ending showgun retirement fight, and then have no sense of the room or reading the room or anything. Read the room, bro. I think that's going to age well, frankly. I think that's going to be incredibly stupidly funny. Like in the moment it's like, dude, just be smarter. I can totally see me being like, it's hilarious how dumb he was.

He did at the press conference too, apparently. Just incredibly dumb. Like, credit to your, you're right, Uriah Hall when he kicked out Anderson's himself on the U.S. He didn't like do a backflip after he, whatever one. He was like in tears, basically. Yeah, Chris Gutierrez. As soon as he knocked out for him, he was like, my fault.

you know. Dude, Jamal Hill tonight. Oh, Jamal Hill. I have many bad things to say about Jamal Hill, but it's not, but his,

you know, his thing to go over to share. That dude's a legend. That dude's tough as shit. I can't believe the shots he was taking. You know, give him his props. Like,

that's how you handle it. E. E. E.O. Portiere is awesome in the fact that he just couldn't see it at all. Like, didn't even sort of register that he was the bad guy or that he was like, no,

I'm the future. I'm so good. Look at me. I love M. M. Dudes from Peeb in a war-torn country

and this is like the best moment of his life and yeah, it's just weird in tone-deff and I think, I get where you're all

I get where you're coming from. I'm wrong. Like I admit that I'm wrong about this. Stovered Mike is admitting that he's wrong. And it's only because I thought for sure Shogh, I was like,

okay, this is a winnable fight for Shogun. And I actually felt good about it on Pays. I was like, he's going to go in there. Like, he might lose his, like, squeaky decision or something. But, like, at least he's not going to get trucked. And then it turned out he got trucked.

And I was like, oh, man. I don't know if Shogun was beating anybody tonight, unfortunately. Oh, probably not. No, no. But again, I don't know. What's Jared Vandarod doing? We kept rolling him out there forever. Why not?

Like, I think Shogun could have a shot against Jared. Who is that heavyweight who dropped down a light heavyweight? Harry Hunt Sucker. Is that the guy? Oh, yeah. Bring back. Yeah. There we go.

Come on. Jonathan Gouye. Chase Sherman is still in the UFC of like 30 losses in a row. Why isn't Harry Huntsucker? Justin Liddette? Bring back Justin Liddette. Perfect. I think maybe for our last question,

I don't believe we even mentioned him on this show, and I think it deserves some mentioning. Who has more wacky endings to their fights than Johnny Walker? The violent nonsense both ways most of the time. Hey, listen, perfect opponent, right? That was like my biggest takeaway, but what did you think of Johnny Walker's performance, Sean? Like, it was disciplined, patience, but in the end, we got kind of the Johnny Walker we were hoping to see tonight. Yeah, I'm way here on Chaos Johnny Walker.

Like, Chaos Johnny Walker is so much more fun than Composure Johnny Walker. Like, no one wants to see that. And that's not even like increasing your stock any if you're fighting fights like that. Like everyone was hating Johnny Walker when he was fighting like that. And he was also losing fights. Like that's the worst of both outcomes. Like your fun when you're just bringing the chaos. And he brought some chaos tonight.

And I am very happy that these last two fights we have gotten this version of Johnny Walker back. Because for a long time, or not for a long time, but for a while, it was looking like he was gone forever. And John Cavill and I just kind of ruined this guy. And that was a really big bummer. Right. He does. Because like he even brought the worm back out tonight. Like the balls on the guy.

You noticed he slowed it down. Johnny's like, okay. Oh, yeah. He didn't just jump into it. He's a mature Johnny Walker. And you talked about, you know, I don't want to see just composed Johnny Walker, but we actually did see a composed Johnny Walker. Remember, like, the first 90 seconds of that fight was just kind of fainting.

You know, it was just like, oh, we can get this 15 minutes. But then Paul Craig got. And he let go. And then that Johnny Walker that we love kind of came out. But this was, it's hard to say because, you know, the fight ended is so crazy. but this looked like the Johnny Walker that we had the championship, no expectations from, you know? I mean, I'm not saying he beats Jamar Hill next week, but this is the guy we go, ooh, I want to see him fight on high up on the card, not, you know, oh, God, they gave him another main event.

So I don't know, I was excited. And the way he just chilled on top of the cage, the guy just gets it. It's so good. He's such a showman. He's so good at him. He is definitely a showman at him. us just us as people and fans because look he is definitely a showman

you can't take that way and this is incredibly fun but like look the truth is pretty obvious in front of us Johnny Walker didn't change or get Johnny Walker looks really fun and good against people aren't very good I mean the guy that's the guy that broke the arm

of the champion Like 18 months ago. Paul Craig, okay, maybe I should rephrase that against people who are not good defensively and sometimes do dumb shit. Because like, look at the run. The run he was on, I've got it pulled up

that we were like, this dude's a thing. Clear Ranch Jr., that's aged pretty well and that chaos was savage. The aforementioned Justin Liddette who sheen just threw out as a possible can for Shogun to crush. in his retirement fight. Misha Sarkinov,

God love Misha Sarkinov, but he's lost like 12 in a row or something. And then he fought Corey Anderson and lost because Corey Anderson's good. He then fought Nikita Kralov and lost because Nikita Kralov is at least decent. He beat Ryan Spann, who as we were talking about off air, doesn't train MMA until six months ago,

also defensively porous. And then he fought loss to Tiago Santos, one of the worst fights of all time. and Jamal Hill, who is apparently good, as we learned tonight. And then his two good wins now, Ion Kutalaba, who is a chaos merchant in his own right, and then Paul Craig, who's Paul Craig? So, like, I think it's pretty clear. If Johnny Walker goes in and his next fight is against, like, Anthony Smith, he's probably going to lose.

But if his next fight is against Jimmy Kroot, he's got a pretty good shot. And it'll be fun. he's incredibly fun. He is, to answer Efrin Gonzalez's question, he's like a high-end Nico price. He's like a good Nico price. Or maybe he's just the exact same fighter

as Nico price, but like heavy weight is a much worse division than Walter weight. And that's cool. And he's a showman, so it's cool. Like, I'm not here to talk shit on Johnny Walker. I just, it's, ah, maybe the old Johnny Walker's back. Like, I don't know.

I think if you fights Corey Anderson again, he's going to get thumps. He can't. He can't handle those Bellator 2-O-Fiver's. We know that. Might be the best 20-5ers in the world. Who knows at this juncture? That's very, very...

That's very, very possible. Real quick, before we get out of here, because I know we're about to get out of here, we very, very briefly mentioned Gilbert Burns and moved on. How would you guys matchmake well-to-wait right now? Because he called out Colby tonight. And to me, like, I appreciate the call-out, but that, to me, is not the fight.

I would rather do Colby and Hamzat, and then Gilbert Belal makes sense. to me. He should have called a Mazadol or Bilal. Those are the two names he should have called out. Mazadal, like, the story's there. He beats Mazadol, like, it's, I mean, it's prize fighting. It's a prize fighting fight for him

and the stories there and they're both been talking crap about each other. But Bilal was the choice. I mean, you spent your whole, the best thing you said at Media Day was talking about Balal jumping you in the rankings and then it's like, it's like they just become each other.

They have these, like him and Belal just have these shining moments and breakout moments. And then they get a microphone in front of them. And they just whiff. It's so bad. Like, everybody wants to fight Colby. Colby's not fighting Gilbert Burns. He's certainly not fighting Blow Muhammad.

Like, I just don't, I heard the call out. And I just was like, hmm, not good. Not great. I'm with you, though. I'm definitely with you. I love disappointed dad, Mike Heck. That might be my favorite Mike Hacker. I mean, it's so, like, it's, you have the prize fighting fight,

and then you have the, let's shut this dude up that I've been talking about all week, fight. And it makes sense. Like, if they offered Bilal, Gilbert Burns, he has to take that fight. He has to take it. He's not getting a title shot. He's got to beat one more guy. And Gilbert is the dude.

And Gilbert beats him and Leon wins. Gilbert's the guy. but I just don't think Colby's going to come back and fight Gaila Burns I don't I actually think it matters I don't think there's a great call-out for him so like it was fine I don't think he can get the fight but I don't know who Colby's going to fight

if he's going to fight if he's going to fight I also don't think that if he calls out Balala and wins he gets a title fight because I am still of the belief that Hamzat will be fighting the winner of Llam Leon Edwards and Kamala Usman. I know that the UFC has ideas of Hamzaat fighting again, but March is coming up quickly, and once that's done,

I don't know that they're going to insist. Maybe they do. I don't know, but it just seems like once that fight is close, Hamzat, maybe you make Hamzaat weigh in as the backup fighter just to prove that he can make the weight and then he fights the winner.

That feels like where we're going. I think the most obvious answer is that Gilbert has a shit draw in life, and he is going to have to fight, Chavcott after Chavcott just greases Jeff Neal. And that's a tough out for him to have to fight Hamzot and Chavkot. But he'll do it because that man ain't scared of no man walking on two feet. Oh, do they?

They train together too. I mean, not like full time. But like when Chavcott comes to the States, he trains a Kilcliffe. Yeah, Jed's probably correct. I just didn't want to put it out there because I feel bad for Gilbert. That's the thing. I think that's the fight that happens, but you can't call for, I mean, I guess you could. I want the winner of Shafka v. Jeff Neal.

Like, it makes sense to go, I'm going to call up instead of this fight that's two months away and both of them are behind me. But it feels really likely that that's just Gilbert Burns' lot in life. That being said, Burns versus Shafcott. The fight rules. I mean, Shafcott's going to kill him. Yeah, Shafat got to kill everybody, but that fight rules. Yeah. Poor Jeff Niel is just sitting at home going, oh.

And Hamzad. Haven't been lost yet. I mean, he has an official But he did sign the contract, which feels like an L. Yeah. Hamzaa looks like he's chasing Jelton Almeida up to like middle of, like in between light heavyweight and heavyweight right now. Look, I agree.

I do want to bring it since Hamzat was broached, I want to say that last year after the Burns fight because I hand up have never given Gilbert Burns his due and probably never will, because I can't, I have a mental block about him for whatever reason it is. I said after that fight, you know, I don't think Hamzat's going to be a three division champion. And before I was really gassed up and was like he's going to win three belts, it's going to be the first guy to do it. Looking at the state of 205, I would pick Jamal Hill if they fought tomorrow. But if you just told me Hamzat got to fight Jamal Hill in three months,

I wouldn't feel confident in picking Jamal Hill. would any of you? Like, no, I don't know. I don't know. I wouldn't pick against him probably, but like,

I would pick confidently, Hamzot to beat Alex Pereira, like feel really good about picking him to beat that. And 50-50 that he could beat Jamal Hill, which is insane, truly insane. Jamal Hill's only got two inches on him. That's it.

Dude, he's so big. Very similar. He's so sneak. Like, I don't understand how he ever made welterweight. He's ginormous. Like, I've stood next to the man. It's enormous. It's, like, you're stunned.

You can't believe this man. Like, I wouldn't believe he was a middleweight. That's how big he is. He's that bit. It's insane. He's just a giant. Where are you going to put on your two or five rankings, Jed? He hasn't actually fought up there yet,

even though, I mean, You know, the Kevin Holland fight was pushing it. But he doesn't actually fought there. I think we should do the rankings where we just think fighters should be. That's what most of my... No, literally what's bad's rankings are. You just described his rankings. I have very limited rules about it.

Mostly it's that. They talked me out of my... You weren't around for it. They are not allowing me to put my new number one band-maint in the world because they're haters. It's been said. Man, guys, you're making me laugh so much. I got to be careful. I don't want to rip my stitches open.

I'm trying to, like, not smile. Because I don't like, every time I smell, my face starts creaking. We don't need to get into this, but since it just hasn't been mentioned, shouts to Nicholas Alby. The man, I think, is 5-0 against Brazilian fighters now. Two of them in Brazil. This man has just no fear. No fear of the Brazilians.

Goes into their home country. Just does the damn thing again. Yeah, he flies like 18 hours from wherever he lives, like Holland or something. I don't know where he lives. In one, maybe? Denmark. Oh, it's definitely Denmark. Yeah, it's definitely Denmark.

What a man. What a man. Yeah, good win. And Daniel Santos, too. Daniel Santos, too. What a performance to kick things off. And Josian Nunes. That was the funniest fight on the card.

That fact, it ruled. Amazing. I won't say that by rule, but it was funny. It rolled, man. Yes. And of course, congratulations to Jose Aldo, UFC Hall of Famer to be. Was that the most predictable thing of all time?

Yes. Oh, and then as soon as they announced it, then they bring the little graphic, oh, you can watch Jose Auto's boxing match on UFC FightPass. I was like, oh, okay. Dude, FightPass getting the ADCCs is pretty sick, though. That is cool. Yeah, I agree.

As a man who owns Fight Pass and don't really know why a lot of the time, that's pretty dope. that's a story of fight good move all right well you can hit the music I think we've done it there'll be a lot more I'm sure 283 talk

throughout the week on the MMA hour on BTL heck of a morning all of our shows but yeah I don't know how I'm going to do on to the next one tomorrow but I might have to like write things down

and just hold up a sign with my matchmaking suggestions but find out What I'm going to do, 11 a.m. tomorrow, myself and AK, will match me following the U.S. 283. And it was a good time tonight. So for Casey, Jed, Shahim, I am Mike Heck. Thank you for watching. Hope you enjoyed the first paper view of the year. Good night, everybody. Love you guys. Happy trails, Shogun. Happy trails. Deborah to share it. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.