MMA Fighting - UFC 285 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Jon Jones, Alexa Grasso's Title Wins

Episode Date: March 5, 2023

Jon Jones needed just over two minutes to add UFC heavyweight champion to his impressive list of career accomplishments as he submitted Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 285. Prior to that, Alexa Grasso came through with her own submission victory to end the dominant flyweight title reign of Valentina Shevchenko. Following a memorable pay-per-view event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, and Jed Meshew react to Jones' impressive return to the octagon for the first time in over three years, how a fight between the new heavyweight titleholder and former champ Stipe Miocic could go, Grasso's incredible performance to pull of the big upset, and where the loss takes Shevchenko. Additionally, topics include Shavkat Rakhmonov's third-round stoppage win over Geoff Neal and what could be next for him, Bo Nickal's successful octagon debut, Cody Garbrandt winning his fight with Trevin Jones, but still adding many more questions about his future, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Those are the sounds of victory horns for two new champions. Now, we're going to get one no matter what, whether it be Cyril Gahn or John Jones in the main event. ended up being John Jones. But starting this post-fight show saying there's two new UFC champions is something that honestly I didn't think I would say that Alexa Grasso proved me and a lot of other people wrong. She has ended the dominant reign of Valentina Shepchenko.

Alexa Grasso is the flyway champion of the world to welcome you to the UFC 285 live post-fight show here in MAAfighting.com. I am Mike Heck. Hope you guys all enjoyed this card. It was incredible. All the storylines, all the buzzed, everything about it. This thing delivered in spades. Thank you for joining us.

I got Shaheen Al Shadi with me, my bald brother. What's up, guys? Look at the legends Mike Heck and Jedm. Mishu helping us out here at like 3.30 a.m. their time. Credits of you guys. Thank you. Sheena. And I'm going to be honest with you, Shaheen.

Time is much, it's not really my primary problem. Yeah, I'm doing this. Not all that concerned about it being three in the morning, Shaheen. Hey, guys, happy to be here. Are you going to be able to pay your rent tomorrow? Never gamble with money you can't lose. You also shouldn't gamble with money that you would rather not lose,

but definitely never gamble with money you can't lose. And I at least adhered to that principle. So, yeah. Great night of fights though, guys. It was. Incredible night. New champions, plural. That's wonderful.

Yeah, I just want to bring up your heartbreak one quick point. It reminds me, like, there was an episode of the Simpsons where, like, Lisa Simpson's dumped Ralph Wiggum, and it was, like, on VHS tape, and Bart Simpson, like, slowed it down, and you could see, like, the exact moment that Ralph Wiggum's heart just broke. and that's what it was like watching that clip on Twitter of that moment. Oh, you can see it. Oh, yeah. You can see the exact moment.

To my thing, because you can, you can point it out. I've rewatched it many times because it's easier to look at your own tragedy through that lens than to look inward and really reckon with it. And you can see it right there. It's like, oh, yep, that's where the face drops. God. If you guys aren't having a great night, go to my Twitter,

cheer yourself up with a little bit of shot and frock. The blood gods tried to warn you last time, man. They tried to give you a heads up, a warning ahead of time. This is going to happen. You didn't listen. You defied the. Super didn't listen.

It's like unnecessary. Why would I do that? I can't be touched. I'm invincible. I survived this. Nothing can kill me. I was wrong. but you know

you live you learn well we will get into the moment that caused that heartbreak in a matter of moments but let us begin with the big story heading into this card we had a million questions about john jones what was putting all that weight gonna make him look like will he be the same john jones

was it a lack of motivation the last few title fights at two oh five how is he going to handle a very unique heavyweight in Cyril Ghan, who's big and moves around really well and can strike incredibly. Maybe his wrestling is a bit underrated because of the Francis fight. And John Jones just goes out there, Shaheen Al-Shadi, and wipes the floor with Cyril gone. Took him down immediately. Cyril tried to get up.

John just dragged him back to the mat. Try to Gilly, let it go, reattached it. And a little over two minutes after this thing started, it was over. and John Jones is the heavyweight champion of the world. Your reaction to the two minutes and change of John Jones's return to the Octagon after over three years away from it. I mean, man, what can you say, right? Like this, the king is back, return of the king, the king is back.

Like maybe all of that conversation we've been hearing for so long about motivation and lack thereof and just sort of what we've seen from John since 2018, really, 19, 20, and 21, we sort of saw the same thing from it. Maybe that wasn't lip service, right? Like maybe, I mean, not even maybe. Like, this is the greatest talent I have ever seen in mixed martial arts. He is the best fighter ever. I don't know if he's the goat in the greatest.

I kind of almost feel like he is at this point. I didn't expect to say that coming down here today because I've been, I've been so, for so long I have been on the GSP corner. And there are a lot of factors that go into that. But to me, I didn't, going into this fight, I didn't feel like there was something I could see from John. that would sway me in that way with one fight to be able to change that conversation for me. And I think I might have, if I'm being honest. I'm trying to not be reactionary in the moment.

But man, that's the greatest talent that MMA has ever seen. To see him come in here at heavyweight, we had so many questions about, you know, he hasn't looked good in five years. He hasn't looked like John Jones in so long. We've seen him before, try to bring an extra muscle against the OSP fights and those type of situations. And he didn't look particularly good. How would he handle the extra weight? All of it.

And the man, the man, how did it fall of his victory? Like, it was, it was as perfect as he could have drawn it up. I think it was easier than any of us could have ever really expected. And he came in here just looking to make a statement. And, I mean, man, he did it. He really did it. John Jones did it. Like, he did it so easily that it still is, like, I'm still trying to process how easily all of that was for him.

It bums me out tremendously that we can't see him fight the best heavyweight in the world. and see where he truly stands in this regard. Obviously talking about Francis, that matchup now is just like the matchup, the Habib, Tony of the heavyweight division now for me. That will be the one that we lost that I wish forever that we could have seen because it seems like the UFC,

and Dana White in particular, are just saying that's not ever going to happen and there's no going back on that. I would have loved to see it because seeing the John that we got tonight against the Francis that we know who he is, that would just tell us so much just in a historical context

and just all of it. But I mean, man, just coming away from this, John Jones, dude's the goat, I got to say it, he does the goat, he's the heavyweight king right now, at least in the UFC, and that was one of the most impressive performances I've seen from him over the course of a very impressive career. Like you go over so many different title wins

that this man has had, and that might be right up there at the very top. That was just supremely, supremely impressive. You cannot take anything away from it. Jed, I know you were tending to a broken heart, but John Jones made the walk, had to take some tape off his toes, and then he went in there and just ran over Cyril Gun. What was your reaction to it? I don't think John winning was a big surprise to you, but the way he did it and as quickly as he did it, was that surprising to you? So I think you have to say as quickly as he did it. Like nobody expected that. The way, a little of Columet, little to column B. My long and overarching problem with John Jones, the fighter, not speaking to the

rest of it, but to the fighter. And I said it, I think on BTL, I've said it on a number of things, certainly talked about it on No Bet's Bard this week. John gets a ton of credit for being a really smart fighter. And I'm not here to say that that's wrong. I stand on the corner that John has spent much of his career fighting in the worst way possible. It's hard to argue with the results, he is not a very good kickboxer. Like he's serviceable and he's very long and those two things have tricked him in some ways to do believing that. But John Jones is the best clinch fighter in the history of the sport as far as I'm

concerned and he's either one or two the best top position grappler in the sport. Like it's those are where he has been dominant. And when you look at the highlights from him, you see posted a highlight video, you know, earlier this week about his dominant run through light heavyweight it was spinning elbows out of the clinch basically and just him do just doing people dirty in those positions where he thrives not his jab fest against rachad evans and stuff like that like that's just not it he went to that almost immediately and he told us he was going to do it and i wasn't really sure that he was going to because he had said stuff like that before and like

he could have done it to Tiago Santos he just never did I didn't know if that was just not in him or whatever but if he's going to fight to his strengths then there's not a man alive who's going to beat that dude up like it's just not um and we we saw that if you told me no he's actually going to like do the do the thing like the good thing I'm like oh he's going to kill zero run because he would kill anybody except maybe Francis and possibly even Francis. So my takeaways are similar to Shaheen in that it's a real shame that we're not going to get that Francis fight. That sucks all the ass.

It's very weird that the two what if fights for John's career now will be very similar in the Rumble Johnson fight that never happened to light heavyweight and then heavier Rumble Johnson in Francis and Ghanu. Like those are the two fights that we just. just won't ever get. But I won't say that we won't ever get them because Sheehan said the UFC seems intent not to be doing that. Dana White had some very pointed statements after.

I will, for the sake of doing it, raise the point that, one, Dana White has said a number of things that are untrue constantly and almost always. The most salient one for this conversation being John Jones will never headline another event again. that was like seven years ago how the times have turned you know like he look at where we are now Dana could not have been more glowing post fight about john jones and you know for a lot of good reasons like a dude is at worst the second best heavyweight in the world and looks unbelievable and is all these things the greatest fighter of all time etc etc but i will say that i don't think

it's a sign sealed and delivered that we never get it. And so I am just holding on hope that somehow he goes and beat Stepe because John is going to mow down Stepe and then cooler heads prevail and the UFC figures out a way to make this happen in a one-off situation

and we get the fight finally that we've all been wanting. Yeah, I think they'll take a shot at him if he go, especially if John goes out and does what you say he will do to Steepay and I think a lot of people feel that. He's going to murder. He's definitely going to.

Yeah, I agree with that. But if John goes on the mic and says, you know, and calls Francis out in that moment, it doesn't just respond to something at a press conference. A big mussely pussy. Is that he's going to go out and call it? I mean, just do it when Joe Rogan has the mic in front of you and it'll have a little more, you know,

a little more oomph to it than it did before. But I would say, like, the one thing that kind of surprised me, Sheen, is that if you told me how that first round is going to play out. I thought John was going to play a very cautious game. And I know Michael Bisbing kind of broke down the fight. And I kind of agreed with him where John was going to kind of be on the outside. He wasn't going to be too aggressive. He was going to let Cyril kind of get a little frustrated and come to him. And then John would make his move. And John got in that octagon. And as soon as that fight started, he just marched Cyril gone down. And he did it nonstop. He pushed forward, had Cyril

on the back foot the entire time. And I was surprised by that. And then immediately, as soon as Cyril tried to do anything to get out of that position, that's when John landed that takedown. And it was a wrap. John was just on it. Like, just the walkout and everything, you saw it in his face. He was just on one tonight.

And I'm just, it was just so damn impressive, man. Like, it was just so damn impressive. And even Steepay, like, Steepay is not the most charismatic individual of all time. but even when John was calling Steepay out in the crowd, like Steepay is just sitting there and yeah, he understands he's about to get a big bag of money to go fight John Jones.

But there might have been a part of that man that was like, uh-oh, this was not the guy that I expected to show up tonight. So I just don't know if this fight goes very well for Stepe as you and Jed both said. No, I 100% agree with that take. I mean, I think John Jones is just going to run through Stepe. I always thought John,

Stebe was one of the better math. matchups for John at heavyweight just because size-wise, right? Like, he's just not this superimposing Brock Lesnar, Francis, and Gano type, who's just going to come at you with 270 pounds. He was more somebody closer to John's size, and John's just better at the things that Steepay more or less is good at. And now Stepe Miotr is just 40 years old. Like, this isn't even the Stepe who was fighting D.C. in the D.C. trilogy.

Like, this is probably the worst version of Stepe we will ever get in terms of his championship career, right? like, again, 40 years old, the bottom falls out for everybody at some point. So I agree. I think John Jones is going to run through that fight. And I do hope, like Jed said, that we can somehow cooler has prevail. We get the Francis fight because I think historically that is now a very important fight just in how we see a lot of these guys and can put them in context with each other.

But I agree with everything you said there, Mike, as well, in terms of just being surprised by the manner in which tonight played out, but also just the manner in which John approached it, right? because I would have thought just even coming in off of as long of a layoff of this man has had, which is the longest layoff of his whole entire career, three years. And it's just like you wouldn't expect that someone coming into that situation, three year layoff, new division, all this new weight that he's carrying into the cage. I thought that those first few minutes, that first round, I mean, a lot of us said it throughout the week that this fight could just be generally very boring if it played out in a certain way

that it felt like it could with the John style of victory. And you're right, man, he pressured from the moment that bell rang. Like he was on that forward pressure, just walking Cyril down from Jump Street. And he was just not giving Cyril an inch. And it was, again, masterful game planning, masterful approach to be able to put it into execution after so long away. That was masterful in and of itself. And you said, Mike, that, you know, it felt like something special was happening

to that. you could sort of feel it in the air when John was making his walk and all that. I would extend that out even further, right? Like I think just throughout this week, it is kind of felt you felt it from John a little bit. This was a different type of John than we saw in the last few years of his light, heavyweight rain. And again, you can go back to the motivation issue, just a brand new challenge, whatever you want to having such a long break, like whatever you want to attribute it to. In retrospect, it seemed very much like this was just John's week. And then the fight night played out exactly in the way that it sort of did.

It's just so ridiculously impressive, man. There's nothing you could take away from it. A flawless victory through and through. Man did it. Man did it in a way that I think a lot of people didn't expect he could. Yeah, and part of the whole fight week build to me was John just seemed kind of indifferent about it all. Maybe the hunger wasn't there.

Maybe just wasn't respected zero enough. But the moment he walked out for ceremonial weigh-ins and he just stood there and put his arms out and just took it all in, I was like, all right, dude's present. Like, this is the John that we kind of remember. And what a win for him. Obviously, he's on to bigger and better things. But Jed, Cyril gone, tough loss for him, goes in there, just gets, I mean, he just gets

annihilated. This fight was not competitive at all. And classic Cyril gone shows up at the press conference, answers the questions, handled it like a pro, felt embarrassed about it, a bad moment, but took it on the no surprise there. Where does he go from here? I mean, it's just kind of a tough spot to be in, loses to Francis who wrestled him.

A lot of people look to the leg lock as a big mistake that maybe cost him the heavyweight title, goes out and has a tough fight with Tai Tui Vasa, gets the win and then finds his way into this fight with John Jones. Big moment in his career. It's like a dream come true for him. And then two minutes and four seconds later, the dream was just crushed by arguably the greatest fighter of all time.

So where does Cyril Gahn go from here? Oh, he's fine. He's got to hang around. It's heavyweight. Look, John Jones could stay at heavyweight and rain for a long time. He's not going to do that. Like, there's over, under on number of fights John Joan has remaining. If I set that line at two and a half, what are you taken?

Under. Under. Yeah. It's steep A and then potentially Francis to be. That's it. It's steep, exactly. It's steep A and maybe Francis. And if Francis doesn't happen, is he going to fight Curtis Blades?

He's not going to fight Sergey Paffaovich. Those aren't steepa outside of being an imminently winnable fight for him has cachet in a way that matters for legacy building. You know, Cyril Ghan didn't. But what Cyril Ghani was fighting for mattered. Francis would matter in that same way, him beating. who Tom Aspinall, like that just doesn't do anything for his career at this moment. And he, he's not in the market to play this game. He left Lay heavyweight because he didn't want to play this game anymore.

He's, he is at most fighting two more times. So Cyril Gahn is still 32 in a division that is astonishingly old for the most part. And he's got, he's got stuff to work on in his game. But, you know, if he could not fight. Jailton Almeida, he can continue to thrive and succeed here. So he's just going to have to wait it out. Because I would be stone cold flabbergasted if John Jones was still the heavyweight champion by August of next year. Like I just, that is just not going to happen.

He's going to be done and vacate. And maybe he'll come back in a couple of years if something opens up and appeals to him. But I think that's what we're looking at right now, right? with that GSP into his career of took some time off came back one another won a championship he's going to fight steep A probably leave and then maybe somebody comes along he gets the itch in a couple more years and comes out of retirement one more time but yeah I think zero gone's okay fight any of the random heavyweights uh I don't even remember who all he's beaten that off the top of my head but he maybe you do like a sergey spivak just because that's at least a grappler maybe we can

test that take down defense a little more, but he'll be fine. We'll talk more about the matchmaking tomorrow and on to the next one in about seven hours from right now. So very excited for that. 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.

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Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Shaheen, Alexa Grasso is the flyway champion of the world. and as bad as Jed felt about losing the money,

I felt a certain way myself because I was with Jed. I didn't see even a remote path to victory for Alexa Grasso. I thought this was just going to be the Valentina train. Certainly didn't see a submission. That wasn't in the books. I thought the Chevy train was just going to run Alexa Grasso over, but MMA in the 2020s, man. Anything can happen.

And it certainly did tonight. Alexa Grasso submits Valentina Shvchenko in the fourth round. Shevchenko is up 29, 28 on all three scorecards heading into the fourth. I felt like Chavchenko was on her way to winning round four, although it was competitive. And then Chavchenko throws the spinning kick to the body and Alexa Grasso just jumps all over it, takes the back, strangles her. Not using a strangle, it just almost ripped her jaw off with that grip, that picture that's all over the internet with Shetanko's face all red, except for like the white mark across her jaw is just insane to look at. But Alexa Grouseau, what a moment for her. She shut me up.

She shut a lot of other people up. And she is the damn flyway champion of the world, Chehene, Al Shaddy. Yeah, that picture looks like a PSA for sunscreen, like a PSA of the horrors of the UV rays that the sun will give. you like that looks like the nastiest stunburn you've ever seen your life that thing is insane to see it to look at yeah man that was we were talking about it off air but that was widenmanesque right like that was widened versus rock hold all over again uh that's one that valentina shavchenko is going to be replayed in the back of her mind of why did i throw that kick over and over again probably for the rest of her life um and that's just the way it this the cookie crumbles in m mhm a right like that is how

one of the greatest women's MMA eras like title reigns ever in the history of women's MMA, that's how it ends. It ends with a just situation that was very avoidable for Valentina but ultimately you have to give all the credit in the world to Alexa Grasso who capitalized

on the opportunity and not only capitalized on the opportunity, but like Alexa brought it all night. Like she was in that fight from the beginning. I scored the first round to her. She was beating Valentina in the stand up for large portions of that fight. She was forcing Valentina have to go to her wrestling. In a lot of ways, it was desperation wrestling in various points in that fight.

It was such an impressive and frankly surprising performance because I was like you, Mike, I didn't see many past victory here for Alexa Grasso. This felt like it would be the rebound from the Tila Santos fight. That felt like the Tila Santos thing, you almost put it aside because you could attribute it to, oh, Tila had the strength advantage and Tila had the wrestling. That's not something that we're going to see from Alexa. But there you go, man. Again, that's why they fight the fights. Like it was one of the, it's probably. going to be one of the biggest upsets of the year, if not the biggest upset of the year. I would say that it's not, it doesn't really compare to Giuliana Peña versus Amanda Nunes.

To me, that still feels like a bigger upset, if only because we had seen Shevchenko be mortal in her last fight and also just because Alexa Grasso, this wasn't a fluke, right? Like, I still feel like the Peña one, that's very fluke-ish. Like, of course, she capitalized on the situation, but that felt like if you run that back ten times, that's only happening once. I don't know, man. This fight felt very competitive all the way through. Like I wouldn't call this a fluke whatsoever.

And if they run back the rematch, it feels like they're going to, I'll probably pick Grasso to win that. And that just frankly comes back to something that we talked about on the preview show in a way that was, like we mentioned it and we brought it up. And we made the case almost, but then we just went the other way with it, right?

Of why this could be the time for Valentina Shepchenko, why this could finally be the end for her. And that's because it has been so sneaky, long that this woman has been doing this. Her career, frankly, is singular in that you do not understand how long she has been in this until you actually look at the numbers and see like, oh, no, she's on year 20. Like, she started so young. She started 2003. The list of women who had their MMA debuts after her, I'm going to read this off really quickly. All these women debuted after Valentina Shepchenko. And all of these women are women, we would all consider pioneers of

women's MMA, Roxanne Monteferey, Shana Basler, Julie Kedzie, Sarah Kaufman, Misha Tate, Chris Cyborg, Alexis Davis, Jessica Aguilar. Like, Valentina Shepchenko's been in this game longer than all of them. That is crazy, man. The fact that it took this long, that she has been dominant and so good for so long for two decades is frankly absurd. It doesn't make a lot of sense. And so you had to feel like the bottom of this was going to fall out at some point because

time comes for everyone. And Jed said it over and over. And this is always one of his best points that what's the hardest thing to do in MMA? It's not to become a two division champion. It's not to win titles in all these various different divisions. It's to defend the same belt over and over and over again. Even if you don't care about the challenger, even if you just get sick of what you're doing,

it's to be that person who is there every single time, making it work on your bad nights, making it work on your good nights, and being Demetrius Johnson and being Valentina Shepchenko, racking up this title defenses. Bouncea did it for a long time. She did it for a very long time, but eventually that end comes for everyone. And Alexa Grasso, man, she shined. She shined in her moment in a real way in Mexico now, man.

Like the Mexican revival in MMA right now, the moment going on in Mexican MMA is really something special. And I really hope that the UFC cannot fumble the bag on this in the way that they did for UFC Africa, where we had this real moment in time with all these, African champions and we could have had a really special week with an event in Africa. We just completely missed the boat thinking things are going to last forever. And now none of those guys are champion anymore.

I do not want the same thing to happen to what's going on with Mexican MMA right now. Because if we could go take an event to Mexico City right now and have, you know, Alexa Grasso be part of it, Brandon Moreno be part of it, yeah, Aaron Riega's be part of it, and just have one of the most incredible and special weeks that you can ever possibly put together for that region. And every, all of those guys and women would come off looking like absolute stars. And I just hope the UFC could capitalize because what we saw tonight was absolute magic. And again, you just cannot take anything away from Alexa Grasso and what she put off, pulled off tonight.

Jen, Alex Grasso is physical tonight. I didn't, and that was the big X factor for me that I kind of, and I know the Tatianosaurus fight was like a weight class below and it was like five years ago. But that was the one that really stood out to me as like, oh, okay, if there is a path to victory, it's going to be nullified by the fact that Valentina could just out physical her. And Alexa Grasso, who really hasn't shown that real physical presence, like she's obviously in shape, she's very strong,

she looks like a really good athlete, but when she gets tested in the physical, it hasn't really gone well. Her technique, her fighting ability has gotten her very far, but when it comes to someone who can just outmatch her physically, she's had problems and that was not a problem tonight. How surprised were you that Alexa was just as physical as she was? And not only did she hang with Valentina,

she won a lot of those physical exchanges in this fight. I was very surprised. I think it goes back to what you said, right? Like putting a lot of credence in Tatiana Soros five years ago, she's 24. Like the leaps you can take when you move up a weight class so your body is carrying your weight. more naturally, you just develop because you're no longer 24.

You're now a fully grown human. You know, you're a full-time professional fighter as opposed to maybe just getting into full-time or developing in that way. Those are big strides. And absolutely it was there. That was one of the most impressive parts of Grasso's game. I do think, though, that part of it ties into what Shaheen said. Shaheen gave some numbers. I would like to add to that list of fighters, Shaheen,

because while it's all well and good to talk about some of the pioneers of women's MMA, I like to think of this in terms of we've talked a lot about pride veterans because pride was a very big important moment to us. Valentina Shibchenko could have easily been fighting in like real pride, not the couple of U.S. show prides. Like she could have been in that. Fado O'Millianco made his debut. like three years before her.

Not a lot of time. Not a lot of time that Fador made his professional debut. Maricio Shogun Huup made his debut five months before Valentina Shibchenko made her debut. So that kind of gives you the time frame here because Shogun's been washed for like 12 years and just retired. And Valentina is still out here. and I'm making light of it to some extent, but Casey and I were talking about this in the presser. I think we can say pretty definitively

that Shevchenko time is coming for her. Some of that is the division catching up. Some of it is just more physical people coming into this division over years and time. But she's losing her fastball. It's not all the way gone. She can still be very competitive. I'm not here to bury her totally.

But Casey and I were talking about it afterwards and I don't know who I'll pick in a rematch because Shivchenko was winning that fight but the two things Casey and I struck on were one that's a that's supposed to be a good fight for her like the analysis from most people going in was Grasso was one of the better matchups for Shvchenko stylistically and I think that that's still true like just looking at what her game is traditionally even what obviously we underestimated Grasso to some extent.

She exceeded expectations, but I still think the bulk of that is true of like, well, Grasso can compete on the feet, but she is not going to knock Shibchenko out. And largely Shipchanko is the better grappler. And for most of the fight that held true, but then obviously the finish happened. So if that's the good matchup for her and she's not really putting a stamp on it anymore, or she can't, that, that's no longer in the bag. What do the bad matchups look like for? And this is the second thing Casey and I talked about.

And maybe not the, oh, like the big takeaway, but the takeaway that I think is going to stick with me the longest here is, yeah, Aaron Blanchfield might have been right when she was just like, I'm better than all you people. I'm better than all of y'all. I just need the chance to prove it. Because God love Alexa Grasso, tremendous performance can never take that away from her. I would feel very confident picking Aaron Blanchfield to beat her. And at this stage right now, I can't the, me, the number one Shevchenko supporter, the driver of the bullet train, the leader of the Chevy truck, Aaron Blanchfield would take that woman down and choke her out. Because Alexa Grasso, that's not her game. And she did it with authority when the opportunity happened.

If that's Aaron Blanchfield on the back, it's not a face crank. She is finishing that with something serious. So full credit to Alexa Grasso. She exceeded all my expectations. But I also think that it's fair to say, Schenko is maybe on the downside. And good for her. She fought it off for 20 years.

For 20 years, she avoided it. Most fighters could only pull that off for like 10. So if this is the end of Peak Shivchenko, hell of a career. One of one is correct, Shaheen. 100%. So Sheehan, let me ask you this. If you were the matchmaker, if you had the book,

are you running this right back, or are you giving Aaron a shot first? And maybe Valentina, we do the rematch of Tila now. Like, why not? Or maybe Mennon Fioro? Give Shipschenko something else besides a title fight for the first time

in a million years, it feels like? Or do we just, I mean, look, either, I don't think there's a real wrong answer here. I think a lot of fans, from a reactionary perspective, are going to be like, oh, another immediate rematch. Oh, come on. Like, we've seen immediate rematches all the time.

But obviously, Valentina, seven title defenses. If anybody deserves an immediate rematch, it's her. But if you had the magic pencil, are you running that right back? Are you giving Aaron the shot first? No, I mean, it does, there is a wrong answer. Like, the wrong answer is not doing the immediate rematch. That's the only real option here, right?

Like, we can crap on immediate rematch is all we want. But they are deserved in certain instances, and this is one of those instances where you have someone, a champion who was so dominant for so long and who was winning that fight up until the exact moment where she lost that fight. Like, that is what an immediate rematch is for. Like, to do anything other than an immediate rematch

would be such an immense disrespect to the legacy and dominance that Valentina Shepchenko has displayed over the course of X number of years at this point, right? Like, how long has she been championed at this point? The Yuanify was in 2019, right? I believe 18, I think. So I think we're coming on five. So yeah, like, come on, man. December of 18.

So four. You dominate a division for half a decade. You get an immediate rematch. Like, that's just how this works. And it's funny because I agree with Jed and the respect that the biggest loser to me. me tonight was someone who didn't even fight and that was Aaron Blanchfield because you know I for the for our website I do a post fight takeaways column and my takeaway as I'm watching this fight I was writing this up was going to be uh you know like this was obviously when

valentina was winning was hey maybe Alex Grasso didn't win this fight but this fight proved to me that Aaron Blanchfield will be that person who will win and finally end this reign of Valentina Shvchenko that was sort of the theme that I was headed towards until all of this changed in a matter of seconds. If I'm Aaron Blanchfield, I can't help but think that I'm watching this fight tonight, just seeing what Alex Grasso did and knowing in your mind that you could have replicated that and you could have had that moment that will now live forever in MMA history of Alexa Grasso being the one to end this title rate. So no, I mean, I think you have to absolutely do the rematch. And unfortunately, for Aaron, I think she'll probably have to fight one more time now

to defend her spot as this number one contender while this whole saga plays out, because I don't know that this is one that's going to be run back in too much. right like this we don't know the timeline yet on this so i don't know that she'll be erin blanchfield's so young she's probably not going to just sit around for that whole entire time yeah and i think the timing thing is is is what really like takes a full circle for me jed because let's just say valentine is like look 20 years i've been doing this i've been championed for a long time like i want to take a year off like i don't want to come back to like a year from now are they just going to wait a year for valentine to come back or should they try to move the division

forward and when Valentin is ready to come back, she can just fight for the belt? They're not going to wait a year. I am a man of principle. You know my stance on this. I hate immediate rematches. The only time that I think that they should happen is when fighters have split two previous ones and it's a trilogy bout, okay, then run it. Let's get that solution.

But I don't care that you were dominant. Much respect to that. But you fight them. on the night and it has always felt cheap to make someone do it twice in these instances. So if I had my druthers, they wouldn't run this back.

Grasso would get to defend her belt against I mean, it would be Aaron Blanchefield. And I mean, I do actually think Chivchenko and Santos would make a ton of sense right now. So you do that or you know, anybody else just make her get one. That's not what's going to happen.

They are 95% going to run this back. I will throw in a minor caveat, because I don't think the timeline issue will be Shevchenko saying, I don't want to fight for a year. That's not how she's wired. She probably knows that there's not too much tread left on her tires one way or the other after you've been in the sport for 20 years. She's going to want to get back in there in general. The question for me will be, will Shevchenko want to get back in at whatever this upcoming Mexico City card is? The UFC is going to go to Mexico City at this point. And if you're going to, to Mexico City, you're going with Moreno Pantoja, and you're going with Grasso's first title defense. That's just it. If you're not doing that, that's promotional malpractice. And so at that point, the question is, is Chivchenko willing to compete on that timeline for the belt? And I'm assuming she will be, and that's what will happen. But if she's not, then Blanchold gets to go in. But if Blanchold doesn't and has to fight one, cool. She can go tune up Manon Fior real fast and still

hold serve right now. But the flyway division is more interesting right now than it was 12 hours ago, which is cool, because this has certainly not been a division that has been the most captivating for the last four years, basically. So we at least have that taking away from here. Yeah. So those are the two title fights. We'll obviously be breaking a lot more of that down throughout the week.

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Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Sean Al-Shadi, Shafqqam Rakhmanov is here. Let's do this. Let's do this. The band is here. I think Shafka's always been here, but I think he needed this fight. And while I was incredibly wrong about the Shevchenko Grasso fight,

I felt pretty good about a lot of the breakdowns I had with a lot of the other fights, including this one. Jeff was very competitive. Jeff Neal was very competitive in this fight. It was a banger. The fight absolutely ruled. It ruled so much that Dana White actually gave Jeff Neal a fight of the night bonus despite missing weight by four pounds. That's how competitive and fun this fight was.

But in the end, Shafkaa Rakhmanov is just a freaking bull. That choke was incredible. That was just pure grit. That was just pure, you know, bouncer choking out a drunk dude in the middle of the street who thinks he can beat him up. Like this was street justice. And Shafka Rakhmanov is the true. truth, Shaheen. That was something else. What a fight, what a performance. Exactly what this guy needed. He is a problem and a half. Is he not? Dude. Mike. God damn. Man, I needed to towel off

after that. Like, he Jones macheted him. He Jones macheted that man. Like, that is going to be the most cold-blooded finish we see in all of 2023. Just dropping him like a sack of potatoes like John Jones did the Leodomachita all those years ago. Like that, oh my God, Mike, that was, that was, I agree with your, your take on the fight going into it, and it actually ended up being very pressure. It ended up being very, I think, on the mark in the respect that this was almost, like, the way that this Walter Wade division has worked out has been interesting to watch because we had Hamzaa Shemayev come up, and he was sort of this guy.

But alongside him, always, there was sort of the Shavkat Rajmanov. If you're a more hardcore fan, you kind of knew this guy was sort of, He was on that maybe, you know, it feels like he's on that same level, but we didn't know it yet. But Hemsat was always the one getting the headlines. He was always the one getting the hype and the bigger fights. And so it weren't quite running parallel, but it was always that question of like, who's actually this boogeyman at 170? Who's actually the next guy coming up?

And this was very much felt like in the moment his Gilbert Burns moment, right? Like his moment moment moment to graduate into your fighting out the elite of the, like you're in the elite of this division. Things are no longer easy once you're fighting the elite of any division. Like you're just not walking through these guys in the same way that you were before. And this is the test, right? Like he gets thrown into this. Take it's taken to deep waters.

I mean, you could say whatever you want about his striking defense. We certainly learned tonight that that man has a hell of a chin on him to the point where it's almost scary, like how little those shots from Jeff Neal seemed to affect Schofcott. But ultimately, like, he passed all of this in my eyes with flying colors. And I said beforehand that I believe Shavkat Rahmanov is who we all have been saying Hamza Shamaev is. He is that reckoning for that older generation at 170. He is the guy who is going to come up and just demolish this old guard that we have at 170 that is flying around the top right now. I feel more confident of that than I ever have before.

Like I don't think Habsat Shamaev will, I don't think he's long for 170. I don't know if he'll even fight 170 again. So I don't even think that we're going to get a chance to see these two. you guys sort of face off at the top of the division. That would be so good and fun if we could. But either way, like Shavkat Rangmanov is no longer coming. Shabkat Rangmanov is here. Like he is unavoidable now.

And I feel sorry for the dudes who are about to have to fight him, whether that's a Colby Covington or someone else of Balal Mohammed, who has worked so hard to get to the spot where he is and then all of a sudden is going to have to fight a guy like this because this to me, it's inevitable at this point. Shavkat Raghmanov will be a UFC champion and it might be sooner. rather than later after a night like this.

Like this is the definition of a breakout night. And you have to love it. Like, right? Like our producer here, Casey made a great point that like this whole rise has not been predicated on the normal traditional ways that we see big prospects rise. It's not Twitter trash talk. It's not in cage, you know, interviews trash talking.

It's not just like some sort of promotional fire. It's just based on pure, unrestrained, unadulted, unadulterated, pure violence. That's all this is. This man is violence personified. We've seen it every step of the way through his ride. And now, like, dude, again, the way he finished Jeff tonight was, like, that is something you could just show somebody who doesn't know anything about MMA.

They're going to be so just mind-blown and eyes glued to the TV and wanting to see what this guy does next. That was an incredible finish, man. Incredible fight, incredible performance, incredible finish. finished you cannot say enough good things about shopcott and i am so ready and it just cannot wait and i'm excited to see him put up against now the big big dogs at 170 because he's here it's it's like that that's unavoidable at this point so whether it's a colby coming to or a bala mohammed or somebody else i'm looking forward to it and i think i know already how that's going to play out

yeah i don't think colby's coming back for that fight by any stretch of the imagination sit sit on the sidelines man don't do it don't do it don't do it. But to what Chaheen was just saying, Jed, my thought at the end of this was, if you're Belal Muhammad right now who watched that all unfold, you are the biggest

Kamara Usman fan on the planet right now. Because if Leon Edwards beats Kamara Usman again, that's your fate. You're fighting Shafka Rachmanoff next. Do you think so? Yeah, because if I think

if Mazadol beats, I mean, if Mazadol beats Gilbert Burns. We know Mazadol is fighting for the belt against Leon. Super not doing that, but yeah. Right. And I think if Gilbert wins, that might be enough. It's a fresh match of, et cetera. But if Usman wins, Usman's already fought everybody else. So Bilal would get the shot. And if that doesn't happen, then Bilal's probably going to have to fight Shafkat to get his title shot. So I was just like, oh, man. Like if Leon Edwards somehow beats Usman again,

and Balaal is going to have to fight this guy on this incredible wind streak he's on just a tough spot for him, man. Because I just don't know who, like, what else can happen? Shofcot is in such a weird spot right now and this division with Colby, who's probably not going to come back and take that fight. There's like nobody else.

And like him and Gilbert, I think, kind of trained together. And it's just a weird position to be in. I don't know who the hell is going to want to fight this guy, especially after this performance tonight. Yeah, I don't think. that there's a world where it's not Belal versus Shavkat next, just to be frank. Like I, you mean, you're the matchmaker. You are much better at this than I am.

So I will preface this with that. But I don't think that either outcome at 286 is neither dude is fighting Belal next. I don't think if I had to guess, I would say that there's maybe at least a little bit more heat for Belal Leon, because they did, you know, sort of almost fight. that one time before there were some eye pokes. So I just you're just not getting it off that. Like he's just going to need someone else. And as you said, who else?

Who else? Who else is there? There's none. And so I think if I'm B'L, I've been exceptionally bad at calling for fights, like just horrifically bad at using my post mic time. I would just get on, I would just bang the drum right now because the high Hamza callouts that were kind of made are good if we have no idea if Hamza actually is ever coming back to 170. And you just do it with Shabkat.

They're not the same fighter, but they represent the same things. You know Shavkat is at 170. And at this point, if you fight Shavkat and beat him, you get it. You can't be denied at that point in time. Because Shavkat, aside from you totally deserving it from a meritocratic standpoint, Shavkat is building a cult of personality, right? Like he's, I was talking again, talking with Casey and this on the pressure show. Like he's the spiritual successor to Habib.

He is welterweight Habib. And the way he fights is much more similar than Islam to Habib. The fact that, you know, Habib's early run, he didn't have great mic skills. He had a fun hat. And you know what Shavkat has? He has a fun hat. And he even gave that, gave a second fun hat. Joe Rogan and it was a hilarious image.

Like you can get by on that sort of gimmick and just producing an in cage violence that is captivating in the way Shafkat has and get really far with it. And I think he is generating that buzz now. Like he's building that. And so I think anyway you slice it, Bala has just got to fight him.

And so to steer into the skid, Bala, because if you win, then you can get your title shot and no one will take it away from you. at that point. And if you lose, well, you were never getting a title shot by sitting on the sidelines at this juncture. So I would suspect strongly that that's the next fight. I'll submit that for my ought no point now.

Thank you, Mike Heck. Advising this man to call out Shavcott is a hell of a, I'm not going to hire you to advise me on anything. Let's say that. Well, no one should. Have we not talked about the financial ruin that I suffered tonight enough? I'm obviously a moron Fair

Shafcott's just so funny Because like if In most UFC fights When a guy gets punched And they smile You think they're just trying to put on a front Because they got hurt I think Shafcott really enjoyed

Getting punched in the face tonight Like truly enjoyed it Like thought it was the best thing That ever happened to him He just had so much fun in there Every time Jeff cracked him And we reacted to it He just smiled at him

It was just, he's a terrifying individual. And I cannot wait to see where he is at like a year, 18 months from now because he is an absolute problem. So what a win for him. What a fight. And nice win for Batush Gamrod against Jalen Turner. I do want to talk about Bo Nichols, Shaheen. Went in there. Submits Jamie Picket it quick.

A lot of talk. Need him in the nuts. Need him in the nuts too, you know. I think there's a little knee there. And we were watching it during the watch party. It was a big night for cheating, guys. This is a big night for cheating. If you're not cheating, you're not trying.

Jamie Pickett seems going to appeal it. It appears. Probably not going to go anywhere, but it is what it is. Yeah. But Boehickle goes in there and gets quick submission win. How would you grade his Octagon debut, Shaheen? Yeah, I'll give you a spoiler warning on that Jamie Pickett appeal. That's definitely not going to go anywhere.

Like, that's failing. I'm sorry, guy. It's it's It's the only just thing to do It's an unjust world It's an unjust world And unfortunately That's just the way things fall

But yeah I mean you asked me to grade him On a scale I would say A minus B plus I think the I think the low blow That did sort of went unnoticed And or at least unnoticed by the referee

Looms a little bit large But I think a lot of people also have The sensibility to understand that this fight was only going to end one way and it was going to end with Bo Nicol winning. There's a reason he was a 20 to one favorite. He was the biggest favorite on the card for a reason. This fight was made for a reason.

I mean, he's one of the greatest prospects we've ever seen in MMA at least in the last 10 years. Jamie Pickens has a 500 record, right? Like, this is, Dana White likes to say there are no gimme fights in the UFC. This is as close to a game fight. Did you see the size of that man's the legs? It was a shame.

that was the best part of the whole post fight presser is dana having nothing to say about jamey picket other did you see the size of his legs as a real guy he fought in there yeah but i mean bone nickel bone nickel did what bone nickel leader to do he he and really the ultimate part of this that was going to matter was how do you acclimate yourself how do you acquit yourself to the big stage like this like he this is a man who has been in big spots before throughout his career. He is no use to, he's no stranger, I should say, to the lights. He's very much used to these type of moments.

But this is by far the biggest sort of setup that he has been, that he's walked into in his athletic career. And he looks like he belonged, man. Maybe he was pressing it a little bit at the beginning and maybe he was trying to rush for a finish. But ultimately he looked like he belonged. And I'm very, very excited and interested to see, A, how quickly this whole thing gets expedited,

whether he gets an opportunity to really grow into himself as a martial artist before getting the rub and push up, propelled up that division, or if they're just going to Alex Pereira this and just try to figure out a quick way for him to get into contention, and then B, just how high he really can rise, because I think a lot of people, including myself, feel like this is someone who will be a UFC champion, but before all of this has said and done, he said his goal is to be the greatest fighter ever, number one pound for pounds. So let's see, man, if this was the first,

step. It was certainly a worthwhile first step. He did his best. He passed the test as best he could outside of the Nushat, of course. Are you grading this performance higher than Raoul Roses, Roses Jr.'s octagon debut, Jed? Probably not. I don't remember what I graded that. Like, he's getting an A-minus. He fell over when he threw the kick. I mean, you got to docking points for that, right like he didn't throw the head kick so you gotta just right out of the gate can't get an a plus from that and then uh you know he didn't have the cleanest technique when finishing that arm triangle it took him a little bit they talked about it in the commentary like he got there in the end um but you know it's i mean we're nitpicking at it like this dude is the best prospect we've ever seen the sport like just

maybe maybe henry sehudo like maybe henry sehudo like maybe henry sehudo was a a better prospect, but it's the same. Like we're talking about the same very like levels at this point. I would be very surprised if he never fought for UFC belt during his career. I would be at least somewhat surprised if he didn't win the title, frankly, whenever that time comes. I'm not saying that time comes next year or in two years. But there's just a different level of athlete that is competing right now.

like we do get you know the the Rochaltz or whatever the guys who are these decorated amateur wrestlers who can't quite convert but think about the history of wrestling prohers like of wrestling converts you know yes I'm he did not make a US Olympic team he happens to compete at probably

the best like weight range in American wrestling at the moment with David Taylor, Jaden Cox, in it. You're talking about two world champions, David Taylor, the current Olympic gold medalist. Like, those are the guys he's competing with. He said on the MMA hour, if I could have stuck with it,

I think I would have made an Olympic squad, probably won a gold medal. And that's not a ridiculous statement. You can't take it as a fact that it would have happened, but like, it was entirely within the range and perhaps even probable over the long term. He left because he had those. guys in front of him and that's that's a tough hill to climb when he wants to do this so we're talking

about that level of athlete i'm yole romero has had a pretty good m m mary couto doing all right for himself daniel cormier not too shabby like that's the kind of guy we're talking about with bo-nickel and i expect fully for that to be the kind of career we're talking about with him so he he he does he's beyond grades this is just sit back and watch and let's see what happens because it's going to be a show all right well that's the main card obviously we had some moments on the prelims as well drick his two plus see finishes derrick brunson very strange fight made quite possibly derrick's final fight he put out a tweet that seemed to imply that he might retire without actually saying the word retire so we'll stay tuned to that

cody garbrant got a win uh wasn't the most thrilling victory but uh a win nonetheless he has back on track. We got Amanda Hebas, getting a decision win over Viviani Arruzo, Marc Andre Barrio, gets a standing TKO against Julian Marquez, Ian Machado Gary. Little adversity, but comes back and finishes Kanan Song in the third.

Cameron Simon, just getting point after point after point, taken away from him. Cheating his ass off. Cheating his ass up, but still wins. Tavad Ricci, nice submission went over Jessica Penne, Freed Bacherat. Had to work. for it as a pretty sizable favorite against

him on Blackshare, but he gets it done. And then Lyke Radzaboff defeats Esteban Rivavich in a pretty fun fight to kick off the festivity. So Casey, there's a couple of really compelling questions. We can take them. Otherwise, I have a compelling

question. I would love to hear it. Is Cody Garbrand done? Is he cooked? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think so. But I just didn't know if like, if this is me I mean, one of my corners or if like, then I watched that fight, it was just like, oh, Cody's cooked, got it. No, I mean, we, I said during the Bo Nickel conversation that, you know, Dan always likes to say, oh, we don't give people give me fights in the UFC.

That was the Cody Garbrandt, Trevin Jones fight was as much of a gimmy fight as you could possibly, like that was a gift from the matchmakers to Cody Garbrand. You're giving, again, that's another person who is 24 fights deep in his, is MMA career, is pro-MMA career, and basically has a five. record and that was as like that's as the best possible option that could give Cody Garbrandt to hey here's a guy go put something on your highlight reel get some momentum back and so we can start you know just putting you back to where you who you used to be and man that was did anybody come away from this wanting to talk about Cody Garbrand like that was just not the type of performance and even in the third round we saw the old issues arise the chin issues the same things that we've been saying about this guy for for years I think this is just who he is

I think we're going to have, he's going to be a very bizarre person, 10, 15 years down the line for people to look back on who weren't around for it to be like, hey, what's up with this Cody Garberant fellow? Like, how did he have this incredible performance against Dominic Cruz and then just completely fall off the face of the earth? But, I mean, it just feels like this is who this guy is at this point. And you might be, it's too far past to be able to recapture it. Okay, just want to make sure. because, yeah. Well, like, it was a yes and no question, Sean.

Jeez. Yeah. I still go with Damon, though. I just want to make sure that I was right. I still go with Damon, though. I think Dominic Cruz Garbrandt too is the perfect fight for everybody involved. And by the way,

both those dudes have only won two fights each in the last like seven years since that first fight, which is insane to me. I guess what's the scale of done? What do you mean done? Do we mean, like, is he ever going to fight for a title?

Is he a top-ton fighter? Is he UFC caliber? What is... I think he is going to lose more fights than he wins from here on out. He still is athletic, which is... He's actually just fascinating. I'm going to love watching his career back, because his problem is not that his athleticism is gone,

and that's normally like, oh, Father Time caught up to you. That fight to me is just like, oh, he now knows that he has zero durability and can't take a shot. And so he is fighting petrified of ever getting hit. And that's not a way to be a professional fighter. Like you just physically cannot compete in the sport. If you have no durability and more to the point, have no confidence in your lack of durability.

Like that's just too big of a burden to overcome. I agree with you, but I want to throw out the name Andrei Aronovsky in the sense that we said that. You can't use him to, no, Andrei Alavsky is a unicorn who doesn't make sense. He's the only fighter to ever come back from like four different five-fight losing streaks. He is, he is the exception that proves the rule, Casey. He is out of out of it.

You can't put him in there. He doesn't make sense. Also, though, Andreelowski is not. He never became like a real contender again, though, either, right? Like, maybe he had a moment there. Oh, he did. He had a moment for having to him. But that more speaks to the heavyweight division and the state it was in during that time.

Like he's, he was just still a guy who was, middle and around at the end, bottom end of the top 15. Well, yeah, he never regained that same status. But I guess, I guess, I guess, you guys are, you guys are misremembering Ochoelovsky. When he fought Steepay, it was like a title. Yeah, he was, I mean, he was like, he was one fight away from fighting for another, another title.

Because he was doing the backhand. He still couldn't throw it. throw his left hand when he could use his right hand to back fist. It's hilarious. I love And Jarlavsky so much. He's one of my favorite fighters ever. Cody, even with a victory tonight did look washed, but I'm going to give him one more fight. I'm going to give him one more fight before we, because I feel like the whole chin thing, because Laffet's mental. Like he's just scared he doesn't have a chin. When you still do have a chin, it's just a mental thing. Like if I get touched, I will pass out.

So I'm going to give them a little bit of leeway. But the fight had to be very disappointing for the UFC in the sense that that was the main event prelim, which is an important fight. That's a fight that's probably watched by the most people live at least. So, yeah. So UFC definitely had to be bummed out about that performance. As far as any other questions? Particularly because they landed a combined 46 strikes, geez. I knew it was bad.

It was bad. I knew it was bad. I didn't realize it was that, no. That's tough. And you can't put him on Cody either. Because Trevin didn't show up. Trevor had the biggest opportunity. Trevin was not trying to fight.

Yeah. I mean, this couldn't get any bigger for him. My thing, too, is just like where do you even, like, you, Casey, you say you want to see one more fight? Like, I understand that. But, like, if you don't go to. You want to, you can't release him. No, I know. No, no, I know that.

I'm just saying, like, if you don't go the cruise route, what else really can you do? Like, I don't know. I don't see anything out there that's a winnable fight for Cody Garbrand in the top 20. Oh, you're looking for winnable. Oh, got it. Oh, yeah.

I'm not doing winnable. Honey, Yaya would have beaten that Cody Garbrand tonight. I just want to see Davidson Figurato versus Cody Garbrant. We've been promised it for years. We get to see Figgy move up to 135. Cody thought he could win that fight

once upon a time. Let's go. Let's see what happens. I kind of, I just stepped down for, for Figurato, who is just, no, it's not. It's not. He's moving up. He's going to get his feet wet in the way. That is a, that is a giant name with a, for former champion he gets to put on a slab.

Yeah, he's still, yeah, Cody's still. It's the only fight I want. It's the only fight I want for that man. I want him fighting people who matter at 135 rather than someone who we've all openly stated doesn't actually matter in the grand scheme of things at 135. Biggie? Yeah, but he is, that division is just so loaded right now.

We got to give him an introduction and that's about as good as you can get. And if he goes out there and does what he is probably going to be heavily favored to do, then he can get some of those bigger, but like Cody Garbrand's still a bigger name than a lot of the rank guys he could fight right now and it would go over more.

Also, Shaheen, just to throw this out there, used calling for the cruise rematch. While it's honestly not a terrible idea either, so we're clear. is still like a ranked guy so Cody by definition would matter with that one like it's just kind of how weird

they exist in that way class because like I'm the opposite I have no interest in seeing figurato fight like Adrian Yanez and Janice was kill him it's not interested in seeing him get murdered but that feels like a fun fight at least I just

I want Dom would get a chance at that one again and I know we don't have many Don fights left I like that's something Cody's still a name he has to win I think

there's one more one more cool fight you see it you just want Dom to get that one back okay I'm with you now I'm just curious I'm curious what that looks

like seven years later when both these guys are kind of at the end of it what if it looks to the exact same wouldn't that be hilarious if that's just funny awesome

that'd be so cool if he's just like the Dennis Hallman only he actually got to fight Cruz when Cruz had the belt instead of Hallman tapping for Matt

for no reason. Like, yes, it would rule. Come on. We don't have questions about DDP. Yeah. Yeah. DDP. Oh, man.

That was the most DDP fight. Like, that was the most DDP. That was the most, that was the most, that was the most perfect for both of those guys, man. That fight was beautiful. That fight was the best worst fight I've ever seen. Not best, well, yeah, of this year at least.

That was like the Rockold Costa. this year. You know, just like, just, just, this fight's horrible. I'm sorry. Rockal-Cos. You mean my number three fight of 2022, Rockold Casa? Yeah. I hope DDP just sloppies his way into like a five-fight title reign somehow.

Like, I'm just so here for whatever this is. This is so fun. I've never seen the man get so tired, so fast, and yet somehow might better. I, I, my great hope for him is that he doesn't have. to fight someone who will end this run in a way that's not compelling. Like, I don't need to see him do this and then lose, like, a decision to Marvin Vittori who simply just out-cardios him. I need to see him do this against Alex Bejada and just get clobbered, just diving in recklessly

and just get annihilated. That's how this needs to end, not in the sadder way. is ddp versus strickland an awesome fight or is that i'm pretty sure sean strickland is opposed to having awesome fights so i do i really like the costa one the costa ones because one makes lots too yeah yeah i don't know if i don't know if costa takes that fight or gets paid i think costa just takes any fight i think costa just wants to get out of this contract he's got one left hey man is jareg canonineer fighting somebody because that was my other pick i had thrown that out i'm I am in.

That fight would also be very fun and very stupid. Yeah, stupid. That's the key word. I mean, look, I will watch any DDP fight. All of them will be fun except maybe Sean Strickland because he's opposed to fun. But the rest of them will all be enjoyable. Just give him Izzy. Give him the loser of Beheada Izzy rematch.

Whoever loses that one, that goes to DDP. That's my pick. Okay. We're good, Mr. Heck. We're good. Oh, we're good. Oh, we're good. I am officially been awake for 25 and a half straight hours. So I think we're good.

All right. You can hit the music. Hope you guys enjoyed the night. This is this damn good one. Shout to Jalen Turner. I still believe in you. We were still looking forward to that fight. We need to talk about it.

We were like, that was the fight. I still got season tickets to that fight. There's a guy. There'll be plenty of time to talk about. about that fight. Good win from Routchamot. Jalen Turner showed that he can compete at this level and he'll be back. He'll be back. It's just a little bit of a setback for the tarantula, but it's a good fight. So thank you for watching. Hope you guys enjoyed all the content. Big shout to Jose Young's doing the damn thing in Las Vegas, boots on the ground did a fantastic job. So for

Shaheen, Casey, for Jed, I am Mike Hack. Thank you for watching. We'll see you tomorrow. Well, actually, you'll see you this morning. 11 a.8 at M Eastern. On to the next one. Good night, everybody. Love y'all. 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.