MMA Fighting - UFC 293 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Sean Strickland Dominating Israel Adesanya To Win Title

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

Sean Strickland is the UFC middleweight champion, and he accomplished it with a dominant performance over 25 minutes to capture the title against Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 293. Following the chaos of Saturday's pay-per-view event in Sydney, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaheen Al-Shatti, and Jed Meshew react to Strickland's massive upset win, discuss the big takeaways from Strickland's performance and sticking to an incredible game plan, and where it ranks in the sport's most shocking results. Additionally, the panel discusses where Adesanya goes from here, Dana White saying a rematch should be next, Alexander Volkov's impressive submission win against Tai Tuivasa, other fighters who deserve shine from the fight card, 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm thinking to myself how I want to begin this live post-fight show following UFC.

The champion has a name. Say it, Mike Heck. Say it. Accept it. I'm laughing. I'm thinking there's so many emotions going on, but ladies and gentlemen, the victory horns are sounding.

The belt is not where it is on this photo. The belt actually belongs to the man to Israel Adisani is right because folks, mark this date. Sean effing Strickland is the middleweight champion of the world. And this was no flash knockdown.

This was no banana peer. This was no luck. This was no fluke. Sean Strickland dominates Israel Adasanya. 4946 on all three judges' scorecards. He thumps Israel Adasanya. He knocks him down. Almost finishes him. Loses the second round. It's one one heading into round three. And then Sean Strickland wins the next three rounds. He's yelling at Israel Adesania at the end of the fight. And we realized with like two minutes left in the fifth round, nothing Israel Adasania is going to do on this day, on this night,

in that building is going to be enough to stop the momentum, the train of one Sean Strickland, who is the middleweight champion of the world. Wow. Welcome to the program, everybody. I am Mike Heck. I knew something weird was going to happen. I felt it if you watched the watch party,

and now we are living in this world, time to react to it. And who better to join me in this reaction than my bald brother in the Wiseworth Wordsmith, Shaheen al-Shadi. Hello, Shaheen. I'm just sitting here cackling. I tried so hard to not step over your intro. Dude, we've entered idiocracy. Like, this is crazy.

This is beautiful. Like, MMA is the stupidest sport in the world, and I love it so much. I love it so very much. I have no idea what's going on. And the man that was, he's been wanting to live. in this world. He was hoping he was trying to will it into existence, almost even got around to saying and predicting and betting on Sean Strickland winning the title. You just couldn't do it. But sometimes gambling and winning bets, it just is not the same feeling as you get when you watch Sean Strickle

become the middle-weight champion. Is it Jedmishu? I mean, can you even put a price tag on how you're feeling right now? No. I want to be here. This is a joyous day. This is a joyous day. This is the funniest thing that's ever happened in the sport of mixed martial arts and where you said it coming in. I was like, you know, this has been, 2023 has been just a hilarious year. All of the funniest outcomes keep happening. I was like, what if, what if we'd really be living in the upside down if Sean Strickland won. But like, wouldn't it be, I think I wrote in a roundtable this week of wouldn't it be the

most MMA thing in the world for the UFC who finally got like a a true contender for Israel Adisina you had that Alex Pereira rivalry and that's now over and somehow you risk it all you put DDP in there against Robert Whitaker in about that everybody he said except for me was dumb and risky and then he wins and he's number one with the bullet and then they're like what if what if we just this safe it's so safe is he could never lose this And we can still have this wonderful matchup afterwards. And then it's the most MMA thing in the world for Izzy to just fall into an asswopin. Oh, guys.

It's just incredible. What is going on? I am torn. I'm torn between loving so much of this and knowing that when the high of this wears off, the new greatest regret in my life. It won't be something I said, a girlfriend I broke up with. the fact that I had a rat tail for way too much of my youth, the greatest regret I will have in my life

is that I did not choose to believe in Sean Strickland on this night because I would live forever if I had just picked Sean Strickland to win this right. And that's what my consolation prize is we still live here, guys. We still have this nonsense. It's the best. How long did you have a rat tail? A long time.

We don't did that's going to derail us and we need to keep our eyes focused on the new over under over under five years over over over whatever your number is going to say the answer is going to be over over under 10 years I had it into high school Sean wow this isn't even news I dropped this on more in combat the other week night of my life this is just hilarious what a year what a what a what a stretch for Sean O'Malley Sean Strickland my guy over here Sean O'Shaun it's just The balds, the shans, we're all crushing it. Do you have to change how you spell Sean now? Do you, there's one true Sean.

I mean, my name's not actually Sean, so I guess I can just like alter it. I think you can just do it. The SEA and I think I got the SDAA now. Yeah. It's out of respect for the guys. Shaheen, it is 2.21 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday morning. And we are living in a world. We're not only a Sean Strickland, the middleweight champion, he is barring something absolutely insane.

This man is going to be the consensus fighter of the year. Like, all of this just happened tonight. So I guess we saw the knockdown in the first round. We thought Izzy come back in round two. Holy shit. I didn't think of that. Oh, my God. I didn't even think of that.

He's the clear front runner. He, like, it's got to be the winner. He's it. He's it. There's nothing. There will be people. We make the case for John if John beats Depe, but no, he's it. You're absolutely right.

This is incredible. It's him and it's just a big gap. He's three and oh. Like this is, it's the world we're living in. I mean, he is three and O, but one of those three is Abis Magamatov. So like. Still, dude. It doesn't matter.

Oh, he did this tonight. Dude, he's the dude. I didn't even think of that. Oh my God. one of us is going to have to write about Sean Strickland the freaking 2023 fighter of the year. It'll probably be me. I usually do the fighter of the year ones.

It's the best. Oh, gosh. In the same year, the Izzy's going to win knockout of the year for the Pereira, like, uh, exercised his demons, all is right with the world. And frigging six months later, he gets freaking bagged up by Sean Strickland. The sport is not real. Shahid, when did you start to accept the fact that Sean Strickland was going to be the middleweight champion? Because Sean gets the big knockdown in a round one.

All three judges gave Izzy round two. And we're even heading into the third round. We're thinking, all right, this is when the tides are going to turn. Like, Izzy didn't really respect Sean's power. Now he respects it. Wins the second round. Didn't do a whole hell of a lot in that second round. And we're just wondering when he's going to wake up.

and then round three happens and then round four happens and at worst heading into round five even though it was pretty doubtful at worst it was two two but it was most likely three to one on most people's eyes

but when do you remember the moment when you thought to yourself dude this is happening like we Sean Strickland's gonna win the belt he's got it tonight when did you realize it I don't even when the fight ended it felt to me like there was

they were gonna mess up the decision or something right like it felt like we just weren't going to live in a world where this was the actual outcome. And then it would have just been the biggest robbery of all time. And we would have just been going on and on about that. And Izzy would have tried to move on the whole. Dude, what the what the hell is going on? This is crazy, man. This is crazy. Right. So let's try to put this into context. Because, I mean, we've talked a lot throughout this week. And I mean, we weren't the only ones who were very dismissive of an outcome like this. Right. Like, there's plenty of receipts right now on the internet

for us, for everyone else who works within the space, probably for every fan who, tweets about this or Instagrams about this or anything. Anybody who puts content into the world telling your thoughts about MMA, there's probably some receipts of you being wrong right now. It's just, it's a very bizarre scene. And earlier this week, we were at, we did a roundtable. And the question was essentially like, would this be the biggest upset of all time? And as I was sitting there thinking about it, I came around to the idea that, you know,

like it would be a big upset, maybe top 10 upsets in UFC history, but it wouldn't be top three. To me, top three at that moment in time. was Michael Bisbing over Rockhold, number three, Pena over noon is at number two, and then obviously Sarah GSP at number one. And all of those conversations, the context of the upset was like,

well, something like that almost happened at the end of round one, right? Like Sean Strickland goes out there, knocks out of Sanya with some crazy just shot, is just this big, almost like you can, something, the one-off thing that you could call a fluke, that people would be calling a fluke, a Matt Sarah-esque type of performance.

That's not what, this was, though, right? Like, that's not what this was whatsoever. And now as I sit here and I think about this all over again of like, how does this rank within the history of UFC upsets? Where's the how do we put this in context within the history of this sport? I feel like I'm really coming around to I was wrong initially because I just didn't fathom the actual reality in front of us of Sean Strickland going out there and dominating Israel to Sanya in a thorough, one-sided beatdown in a fight that featured zero wrestling whatsoever, zero takedown attempts, and was contested solely on the feet for 25 straight minutes, and Sean Strickland just straight up outstruck Israel, Adesania.

He confused him. He out pressured him. He outlanded him. And he by far landed them before me more meaningful shots. And just frankly, one in every aspect you could win in the fight. That hadn't occurred to me as a possibility that could happen, Mike. So as we're sitting here, I don't know, man. It feels like it's certainly a top five upset of all time.

if I can't give me a few more days to think it over I might end up displacing something in that top three and putting in top three because this is just frankly ridiculous in only the way that MMA can be. We have now a couple of years stretch of just a continued amount of really crazy unexpected results that we have seen over and over and over again. And it should teach you that, you know, you should never be too sure about these type of things. But then we continually get surprised over and over like we are right now. And it's just, I mean, man, I don't know. For a long time, the two best middleweights in the world were Israel, Estonia and Robert Whitaker, and then a giant gap. And then you could tell whoever you wanted for three, four, five.

And right now I think there's a very legitimate case that the two best middleweights in the world, at least in terms of wins and resume currently are Sean Strickland and Drickis duplice, which is just a bizarre thing that came out of my mouth that is real. So, you know, take for that what you will. What a night, man. What a night. Jet, as, you know, as fun and as, I guess, funny as this all is. One of the things that especially led me to feeling so confident in Izzy was not just the

stylistic matchup, but it's the fact that, look, Sean's just one speed. He's going to push forward. He's going to throw a million punches. And that he's just, that's just who he is. This fight, the pressure was there. He was in Izzy's face the entire time. But he was very patient. Like I think Izzy was expecting him to be a lot more aggressive.

And the game plan they came up with was brilliant. And Sean actually like played it out to a tee. Like he was very patient. When 90 seconds left in each round went, you could hear Eric Nixick starts screaming. Like, all right, go, go, go, go. And that's why we saw the big knockdown in the first round. We saw him have the big moments of the end of the rounds. So that was like a huge thing for me.

like Sean's going to have, they're going to have a good game plan. Eric Nixick, especially with this win, is on the Mount Rushmore of head coaches in MMA in my opinion. There's no, there's no argument anymore after this.

But what was your biggest takeaway from Sean's performance overall? Because the pressure was there, but the patience, his ability to just let Izzy try to come to him somehow and then counter off of Izzy. It's pretty wild, man. It was super impressive.

Yeah. I mean, there's just so much to talk about in this fight. The biggest takeaway from the fight outside just how fucking funny it is, man. I look, we're going to have to, we're going to have, not now. We've got to circle back to this in a bit. I think this is a top three funniest fight I've ever watched in my life. But the biggest takeaway I had as I'm watching Sean Strickland teach Israel how to box.

And there are many takeaways. I think the biggest one will be positive. This is a positive takeaway because I got some negative ones here as well. The positive one is this. Sean Strickland fought to the game plan, which even heading in, you know, he and his coach were like, yeah, not necessarily always something Sean's going to do in there. And mostly that he was exceptional defensively. Like defense doesn't win, you know, championships in MMA, but it damn sure won this one. Like, you heard Izzy say it to his corner between the fourth and the fifth round.

Like, hey, I can't find my jab. I can't hit him. And that's, Izzy's game is a lot of, you know, getting low kicks going, getting the jabs going, setting those as rhythm-based weapons to get into the quote-unquote flow state or whatever. And he just couldn't do it. There was none of that working for him. And Strickland wasn't just launching himself onto counter shots like Whitaker did in their first fight. So he, I cannot be.

believe this, but going into this fight, I was like, I think a direct quote that I repeated in several programs was, I do not see how Sean Strickland can consistently generate offense. And in fact, the exact inverse is true. Izzy couldn't consistently generate offense. Strickland just never let him get going in any way. And then when Izzy would get frustrated because he wasn't getting things to happen or would try and swing a little harder find a counter shot strickland would counter the counters he was just miles ahead of him the whole way through i don't i don't know man um no one knows anything this is the best and uh we have a million other things to talk about in this fight so we don't need to talk about sean strickland's defense but it was really really damn good and i i don't know

what else to say, man. This is nuts. I just really quickly, I want to add on what you just said there, Mike. We need to give all the credit in the world to Eric Nixick. Because I know like, we don't talk about coaches a lot when it comes to these type of conversations. This man has been one of the best coaches in MMA for a while now. But this, like tonight, to be able to pull off what they pulled off, like this is his master master class, right? Like, this is a masterstroke.

Like this is, this is. This is Mona Lisa. Yeah. And like, this is incredible, man. To be able to pull this off. Like, you say he's on the Mountain Rushmore of M&A coaches. I wholeheartedly agree with you, man. Like, he is one of the best coaches in the entire space.

And to consistently be able to pull off the type of results he does, if this guy, like, you know, we're living in crazy land at this point. We're living in fairy tale land. Who knows what even happens? I'm pretty sure this is a simulation at this point. If Francis Sangano goes out there in the next month, Eric Nixon can just. I want to be clear, I'm picking it right now.

Eric Nick's Nick's yuck is just really Zeus. Like, that's all he is. He's just throwing up thunderbolts and doing whatever he wants. Like, he's the second coming to Zeus, and I'm never going to doubt him again. Because what the fuck? What are we even doing it anymore? Nothing makes sense. Dude, think about the difference in those two champions, right?

Like, I'm a moron. And I'm pretty confident that I could coach Francis and Ghanu to win the heavyweight title. Like, you just roll them. out there, you know? It's like John Wooden. You don't need to coach them. You just, hey, Kareem, just go score 100 points. We're going to be okay. Like, you could do that with

Francis. I don't, there are two people alive maybe who could have turned Sean Strickland into UFC champion. What the hell is going on? Shaheen, when you said at the way, you know, back, I don't,

you're getting talked into, this is the second biggest upset of all time. I know that there are going to be a lot of people in on Nunez Pena or whatever. No, it's Sarah GSP and it's this right here. Because this dude was a minus 220 favorite over Abus Magamatov. And now he is the champion of the world against probably the second greatest middle weight of all time. I just, I can't get there yet. I can't get there yet because, I mean, ultimately, and we'll talk about this soon because I'd imagine we're talking about

what comes next, but like Israel-A-Sanya, however you want to frame it. I agree, second greatest middle weight of all time. He's still someone who has lost two out of his last three, so I can't get there to the second biggest upset of all time, but it's, God damn, it's close, man. Again, I'm sorry, I gave him, I didn't give him enough credit, I guess. I want to be clear, when I say that he was a minus 250 favorite, he's actually a minus 150 favorite over Abis Magamadov and checking the watch, that was, six weeks ago

six weeks ago he was a minus 150 favorite over random body and he just beat his it's the biggest upset I've ever seen that's not St. Pierre and Sarah when I got a great deal on a great gift at winners I started wondering could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list

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on link on Cepora. On c. or in magazine. So, I'm going to frame this a little

differently, Sheehan, because the title of our preview show was is Sean Strickland upsetting Israel Adasania

the most chaotic result in UFC history. Now that you've seen it, and now we see what this division could look like, and we'll talk about the what's next and where this could all go. But with like the winners, the losers, the contenders that were coming up, the contenders that are still coming up,

is this the most chaotic result that you can remember in UFC history following a pay-per-view? That's a tough question. I would say no, just because people forget Matt Serra won a title shot against George St. appear off a reality show.

Like that was chaos. That's chaos incarnate, what Matt Serra did way back when. It's a different landscape, though, right? Like, you're certainly like, this is a much more mainstream version of it. This division felt like it was set up to actually start getting really crazy after this fight, right? Like on the previous show, I called this a bridge fight because it felt like all the best stuff was about to happen. We were about to get the DDP fight. We were about to get the Hamzat Shemaya fight.

When it comes to chaos, I mean, this is right up there. I think Bisbing also just randomly creating the greatest ending to a career of all time ever out of nowhere is probably up there as well. And then fighting Dan Henderson, it was like ranked number 14th or 11th or whatever afterwards. It's top three. It's top three for sure when it comes to chaos. I mean, what the hell are we just talking about? We said it all. I just, we said it a thousand times.

Sean Strickland is the UFC heavyweight middleweight champion. Like I don't. I'm confused how to speak about this. So Jed, Dana White shows up at the press conference and he reacts to it. says, Izzy looked really slow. He looked dryed up. Just didn't have it. And he, because of this, he wants the rematch.

I feel like the rematch isn't necessary here. Like, D.C. even said it, like, we shouldn't run it back. Like, I get it. Like, Izzy's second-grade's middleweight or whatever. But we got guys coming up. We got Hamzaa Chamaic getting ready to fight. We got Drickus Duplice, who's right there. Who, by the way, you can make a strong argument that outside of Israel, Sanya,

Drick's too-Pla-Ce might have been the biggest loser tonight. Out of all this, he still may get the Izzy fight, but it won't be for the belt. What, like, this, I, this is all just absolutely insane, but we can't do the rematch. I mean, you shouldn't do the rematch. The rematch, right, Jed? Like, the rematch is a bad idea. Mike, you know my feelings on this.

I've been extremely clear for my entire life. You just never do an immediate rematch because unless there are two exceptions to this, one, legitimate controversy, a robbery has occurred or like the premature stop it, like an actual premature stoppage or whatever, something like that. I accept an immediate rematches. And two, I accept, even though I'm still not like all the way, an immediate rematch in a trilogy battle. Like you guys split them, you run it right back.

Otherwise, don't lose because winning and losing fights matters. And if you are a guy like Sean Strickland and you just beat whether it's a new or a long reigning champion, you shouldn't have to do it twice. There's no reason the rest of the sport does not dictate or demand multiple attempts to do something to prove its worth. It won the fight. So you shouldn't do this back. I'm going to divert us because we got to talk about this guys.

It's part of this whole thing. And it's part of why I think it ties in here. It's part of why I would strongly say there's no need for a rematch. Casey and I were talking about this in the post presser while we were waiting for him to show up. He broke, Izzy. He didn't just beat him. Like, we're talking about what? you know, Atlanta when Izzy fought Kelvin Gaslam.

And Shaheen, you and I were both there, Casey was there, watched it. And there this difference between that fight and this is stark. Heading into that fifth round, Izzy is standing there saying, I'm willing to die to himself to go get into battle. And at the end of this fight, after losing three of the four rounds and most of the fifth round, with 30 seconds left, Sean Strickland, who he is apparently very mad at for things that were said about his dog or whatever is shouting at him and backing him on screaming obscenities in his face and Izzy is backing away.

Izzy didn't want no part of that business at the end of that fight. Like he wasn't, I got 30 seconds to keep my belt and this dude's hands are down. I should try. He's just backing up and looking like he just lost, which he did. I didn't see Kelvin Gasol to do that and somehow Sean Strickland did. If you break a motherfucker, you shouldn't have to fight him again. That dude needs to prove to me he deserves another fight because that's not how that goes, man.

Yeah, I have no interest in seeing it. I have no interest in seeing it at this point, man. I mean, I'll watch it. It's just Israel has lost two of his last three championship bouts, right? And this wasn't UFC 281. This wasn't some Hail Mary fifth round comeback. this isn't some long-running story between him and Alex and Alex

was this weird anomaly who hadn't really fought a lot in MMA. This is the farthest thing from that. Sean dominated. This is pillar to post. Even Sean Strickland in his wildest dreams and he even sort of admitted of how much he doubted himself.

He couldn't have dreamed up how thorough and just disgustingly convincing this was in terms of just being a one-sided fight. I have no interest in seeing this again. This middle-weight division is really good right now. Hamzat Shamaia. Palacost is about to happen. the winner of that's probably going to be up there.

DDP is up there. Like, I don't know, man. I'm sure they're going to run it back because Izzy's a popular champion. He's one of the big, he's one of the faces of the company. But to me, like, I would move on from this, right? Like, how many shots to the belt you give the guy who's, again, one and two in his last three? Here's the thing, Sheen, because I think you just said it. I won't say cooler heads are going to prevail.

But look, if Hamzaat runs through Paulo Costa, Dana is going to come in. to that post fight. Like, I know I don't book fights, but I think we just got to give him a title shot. And that's because Hamzad is also a dude that they can get behind in a major way. So I think if Hamzot beats Apollo, then he will certainly jump in front of Izzy. And sucks to be you, DDP. You might be the best middle weight in the world, but we're probably never going to find out at this rate. Dude, if Paulo beats Hamzot, he's getting a title shot.

Like, he's going to say the same thing. Because it's going to be absolutely insane. And you know what else is kind of crazy about the Shaheen? Because we are on the rankings panel. We talk about how things can happen. DDP might have suffered from this. But you know who didn't? You know who somehow just found himself in another win-win situation?

Alex Pereira because of all of this. Because if Alex Pereira goes and fights Yuri and loses at light heavyweight, he could still go back down to 1-85 and fight Sean Strickland because he already bolted him. So he still found a way to win tonight. They're homies now, buddy. Pereira taught him how to win. You don't think they would fight each other for the belt? They would fight each other.

I actually don't think Pereira would anymore. Really? I just don't know that he can make that weight anymore. No, uh, also I'm, I'm looking this up. I feel like he tweeted something about that. Um, let me confirm that I didn't just. And he said he would, then he said he wouldn't fight him. Seems like my plans to go down one more time to middleweight ran out.

Like that's right after thing. Because he's homies with, with dude now. Right. but if he goes out and loses to Yuri and they say, hey, Alex, Sean wants to fight you to try to avenge the loss. I don't think Sean wants to fight him to try and avenge the loss. I think Sean would definitely take that fight just to prove that he could stand and strike with him, because that's just the kind of guy Sean Strickland is. Here's the thing.

Sean Strickland is a little dumb, but he's not a moron. You know, like I think he remembers how that fight went, and I'm not confident that fight goes. and by not confident, I'm very confident that fight goes exactly the same in perpetuity. So they're never going to fight. Pereira, it's fine. Pereira doesn't need it. He's about to be the free and light, everyweight champion. Shane, I think we've learned something else as well tonight, something that newer fans need to kind of learn lessons from, something that long-time fans need to learn lessons from.

Because when we have these types of situations, we had it with Kamar Usman, now we have. with Israel out of Sanya. There's lessons that need to be learned. And Jed talks about this all the time when it comes to how impressive it is to continuously defend your title. So I'm going to back away and just let you do your thing right now. What is the biggest lesson that MMA fans can learn from what happened tonight when it comes to the history of the sport and the greats that have come before this generation of champions?

Look, Mike, I know what you're trying to do here. And so I will oblige you because I don't ask for much. much. I really don't. I love you guys out there. I love you guys who support us and watch us on this podcast network, this video network, who support MMA fighting, who have for so long. My baby boy just had his first birthday, like a few weeks ago. It was great. We celebrated. He got, he ate a bunch of cake. He was all shickered up. It was just a great time. None of you guys got me anything for it. And you don't need to. That's fine. I don't, I don't need anything for it. What you can get me. Call in an early Christmas gift.

Why would I get you something for your son's birthday? Hold on, Jed, let me get there. You didn't get him anything either, and he was very offended. He talked to me about it. You can get me for a late gift for him, early Christmas gift for me, whatever you want to do. Can this night, can just whatever we just saw, whatever the hell just happened tonight, I still am not quite sure what just happened today. Can this be the coffin nail forever and ever and ever on this stupid, stupid thing

that we have seemingly done over the last five years where every time a single champion, defense's belt twice or three times or four times or maybe even five times. There is this rush to anoint him as the greatest human being who has ever laced up four-ounce gloves and fought in that division. It happens every single time. I'm old enough to remember when Tyron Woodley was the Welterweight goat. You remember when Kamar Usman was the welterweight goat? That happened too.

Where's all that now? Like this is just something we tend to do in this space recently. I don't know why. It is only a symptom of the last like five years. it seems. And now it was happening with Israel-Aisana after the Alex Pereira win, where like he lost to this guy, then he came back and got revenge and great for him. That's awesome. And all of a sudden he was the greatest middleweight of all time. To call someone the goat in a division where Anderson Freakin Silva existed and went 16 and O to start his UFC career and carved out one of the

most incredible combat sports legacies we've ever seen, it's just disrespectful not only to history, but it's disrespectful to the athletes who are currently still doing things, because it puts weird, like undue tribute upon their laps that inevitably gets taken away very quickly when they do lose a fight like this, when they don't show up in the way that they need to, and we get a result like this. We seemingly do it every single time. All I ask is that maybe this is the moment where we can all look at each other and be like, hey, maybe this is a dumb thing that we keep doing and we should stop doing. We don't know how these stories are going to end when we're in the middle of them. And this is a great example of this. And Jed, I mean, we've talked

about this a lot on different dams of like there were moments in time during a lot of people's careers where if they have just walked away at that moment of time we would consider them far differently than how we do now Jose Aldo Fador whatever BJA. I don't need yeah again Izzy is great man is he is probably the second best middle weight he's at least the second most decorated middleweight to ever do it that's awesome he's like 13 and three in the UFC that's tremendous he's more accomplished than like 99.9% of of fighters who will ever lace up gloves to do this. That's cool.

That's great. That's awesome. We don't need to try to make it more than it is. That's all. That's all that I ask. Just again, early Christmas gift, late, late first birthday gift for my baby boy. Can we just take some time, put some stuff in context and wait for things to play out before we rush to judgment?

Well said. Very well said. Real quick before we kind of transition to the rest of this card, because other things did happen to this card. I mean, we can just go to the beeps too. Where does Izzy go from here, Jed? Like, where does he go from here? Like, I feel like the UFC's going to try to push this rematch, but like, where does he go from here?

Like, can he come back from this? Like, he came back from the Pereira loss, right? But can he come back from this two losses in 10 months? Like, dude's had a lot of mileage on him. He's had a lot of fights. And he's still very good. Like, he could, if they ran it back, like, Izzy could beat Sean Strickland.

Like, it's, there's, it's definitely there. We all are so confident about it the first time. So where does he go from here? If you were advising Israel out of Sanya, what would you tell him? 205. That's what I would tell him. He's going to come back and fight for a title and maybe he wins it. I think the single biggest thing I missed coming into this fight.

And again, a lot of speculation I'm about to make here. But feel okay about it, at least on that watch. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. I think I really just did not pay any amount of respect to the mileage on Izzy. Because he's not that old, like 34 or whatever, but he's got 15 years of fight years on him. And I've talked with AK Lee about this, like this last couple of months for a reason. If you start to get to 12 years, like that's when you start to see mileage accrue on fighters. If they've fought 12 years and Izzy's got 15 combined with kickboxing and a hard year,

Like he's got a lot of fights under his belt across multiple disciplines and all that training. And it just adds up. And Casey and I were talking about this on the on the post presser. Again, too early to say definitively. But the big telltale sign for me whenever you see it like, oh, I can tell a fighter is starting to get old. It's happened with all the grades is they can't pull the trigger. You know, they still have the skills and the ability and the power, but they can't pull the trigger as much. I mean, I would quantify the single biggest issue that Izzy had tonight was pulling the trigger on offense.

And granted, a lot of that is Sean Strickland taking those opportunities away. But when Father Time is beating you, it's because things are going down just a little bit, and your split-second reactions are a little bit lesser. And so you see the opening and you can't find the jab to steal a quote directly from Izzy in that fight. So I would say that there is an extremely high likelihood that Israel, Odyssinia is now over the hill and that for the remainder of his career will not be the best. He could still win this fight. They rematch it.

In the post fight, Eugene Barham was like, I'd fight him next week and we think we could win it. Maybe that's true. Maybe it's not. But he can't ever, he's never going to put together like a sustained run. And the biggest thing about this fight, the biggest takeaway, I think, in a week or two weeks or a year when we look back on this fight. Speaking a bit to Shaheen's point about sort of this premature, you know, inauguration, I guess, of these fighters as the goats or whatever is. Izzy can't overcome this. This is a forever black spot on his resume. You can tell yourself a story about Alex Pereiro.

Well, Guy already had two wins over him in kickboxing. He's just sort of his nemesis. But Izzy won the rematch and so were there. Losing to Sean Strickland, And a guy who you were a massive favorite over and genuinely nobody thought could possibly beat you and losing in that manner and getting broken by him. That one doesn't come off the resume forever. And so at the end of it, it will historically stick with him. And so for me, he can't ever be the greatest middleweight of all time. Can't do it. Like that's gone.

There's no window of opportunity for that. Go up to light heavyweight. See if you can etch your name in history in a different way. If you can win another belt, you know, you do have a knockout win over a dude who's about to fight for a title. Maybe you can make that happen and add a second chapter to where your career's at. So if I were telling him that, I'd be like, dude, you fought everybody of middleweight. Just going up. I'm surprised.

I'm surprised to hear you say 205 because he's just, I mean, this is just historically someone who doesn't, is not even like coming in heavy for middleweight, right? Like he's always coming in like 184. We saw when he waited 205, he was like 203 maybe, something like that. Like he's a tall guy. I don't mean he makes 170. Sure, but he's like, he's a tall guy, but he's also just so lanky and skinny with his frame. He doesn't have the frame that Alex Pereira has where we saw Alex go up. And it made sense immediately when you saw it of like, oh yeah, this dude clearly is like a 205 pounder who miraculously could make 185.

Is he doesn't have that vibe to me. And even when he fought up there, he just didn't seem to be nearly as comfortable. up there with the size that those guys had. Like you see, you put Izzy up against like a super size Europe or Hoska. I don't think that goes well for Izzy. Yeah, but that's the thing is he always said when he was like, you know, after the, after the Yon fight, it was like, well, you know, I'm going to do a couple more things here and then I'm going to take the time, build up, put on weight and go up.

Do that. Like actually go up instead of just take a vacation up there and not cut weight. Like go, go up, make the move forever and see what happens. I don't think he wins the belt, but like, I just, just if he goes back and reclaims the middleweight title why for what like what's well to what do you mean I mean I mean there's well to get vengeance to be become a champion again to get the big paydays again like there's a lot more nuance in this and just like us sort of wanting to see something new right like play that string out for him as a fighter he gets vengeance and I'm with you

on that cool um then he's going to fight DDP and if he loses that then is you're going to try do a rematch. Like you do another rematch there. Um, because straight up he, the Israel Disney who is fighting tonight gets wamped by DDP. Like gets womped by him. So like what like what you're,

but I mean you can't if you're box that you've done most of the things in. He's 90% of the level. I guess he can stick around and try and, you know, full hundred percent it. But there's a whole new level he can go to. He doesn't need to get all the coins. He can go try this new.

while he still has time to do it and while there's still some energy because he gets womped up by DDP at middleweight, then there ain't nothing for him to go to like every weight over. I disagree. I think you're playing this out too far in the future because ultimately if you're Izzy and you're,

like the way the question was framed, right, was if you're his manager or his coach, what would you advise him to do? You advise him to take the clearest path back to the belt, back to the giant paydays, which would be fighting Sean Strickland again, right? Like, I don't want to see it. But does anyone think that if they fought 10 times

is he's losing all 10? Like, obviously, that is the cleanest path back to the belt for him. We're having a good time here. Here's the thing. Let's be realistic, right? I would say he wins. He got freaking just gunned up for 25. I get it.

And this goes back to why we all, you in particular, you and I always say the hardest thing to do in this sport is not to become a two division champion. It's to defend this belt over and over and over again because sometimes you're going to have bad nights. And if you're able to win on the bad nights, That's the mark of a true all-time great. I don't know. It seemed like Izzy probably had a bad night.

It also seemed like Sean Strickland had the night of his life and came in with a killer game plan and had a style that genuinely frustrated and confused Izzy. All of those things can be true. That doesn't mean if they fight again that all those things will be true all over again, right? Like, if you're Izzy, and I'm advising you, or I'm sorry, if I'm advising Izzy, like I'd much rather have him go fight

Sean Strickland for the belt than go fight a giant like Yeri Prohasker for the belt. I just think one is more likely chance for success than the other. But again, I don't know. I mean, I do think there is something to be said that is he's probably in the tail end of all of this, right? He's probably in the tail end of the prime earning years window-wise for all of this. So to maximize that. If you're able to beat Sean and get the belt back, I'm sure the UFC will do the Pereira thing and just move on. And be like, ah, one, one guy we wanted one.

Let's move on. And then he can, you know, lose the DDP or hums out of whoever. And then we figure it out from there. But to me, I don't know. I just don't see 205 being like a really good place for him in the way that it is seemingly for Pereira. Yeah, I don't, again, I don't think that he would the title. But one, if I was actually advising him, I'd tell him retire. Just you made money.

Yeah, but that's dumb too. Your long term health. That's dumb too. He's making, no one's going to do that. That's really dumb because he's the second highest earner in the UFC right now behind Connor McGregor who doesn't fight. I don't think that's dumb at all. You can't put a price in your long term physical health. Yeah, but it is not. He's set.

It's the prize fighting game, and he's certainly made money, but he could make a lot more money. And you work your entire career to get to this point where you are making this much money that he is making. Like, that's not realistic to ask him to retire. Oh, I do it's not realistic. I'm just saying the fewer actually giving, if I was actually advising him, that would 100% be you don't advise. I do feel like a break is needed, though. Like, the dude has fought like every three months for like a long-ass time. DC, like, laid out a graphic of like all.

the events he's headlined over the last like four years and it's a long list you actually have to click on the image to see all of them and here's it like what's crazy about it is like sometimes in this sport and it's like this in pro wrestling too and we look even we saw this with colby right colby fights mazadol everything happens in miami and then colby just disappears for a year and then he comes back and it's like oh colby's back woohoo and maybe that didn't didn't last long for everybody. But still, we can't miss you if you don't leave. So if Izzy just, like, takes nine months off and just kind of does his own thing and,

like, gets his mind right, and then returns for, like, international fight week in July or August or, like, next September or something. And then, like, fights whoever the champion is or fight Sean Strickland in some fight, whether Sean's the champion or not. Like, maybe that's what he needs. I think just getting up, like, the thing that concerned me the most from what Eugene said was, and I get where he's coming from. You're the coach.

You want to put your guy over. But him saying, oh, we'll fight him next weekend. We're ready. No. I know. That's the wrong thing to say. We're going to go home. We're going to chill out.

We're going to get our mind right. We're going to rewatch the fight. We're going to figure everything out. We're going to take a break from MMA for a little while. And then we're going to come back in 2024. And then we're going to be a snowball that just goes downhill. You thought Izzy was great three years ago. You thought Izzy was great at UFC 287.

Wait to see this guy when he has nine months of rest when he just disappears from the sport for a little while. And then he comes back and like some of the bad juju's worn off. And like people just genuinely kind of miss them. You know what I mean? Like we just we haven't really gotten that chance with Izzy like we've had with a lot of other fighters in the sport. So that would be my suggestion.

And then like if he wants to do 205 on that break, if you want to do go back and do 185 on that break, cool. But in the meantime, there's fun things to happen to this division. DDP can get a title shot. Hamzot Arcosta can get their title shot. Sean Strickland winning is chaotic because it opens the door for so many different things. And it's insane. Robert Whitaker is suddenly back in the picture.

Robert Whitaker is now back in the title picture because of- I will say from an observer's standpoint, from our standpoint, just what is the most interesting to me, Shaheen Al-Shadi? That what you laid out is the most interesting scenario of everything, which is he taking nine months off, taken a year off, and letting this figure itself out, right? Because I think there's a world that doesn't feel too far-fetched where Sean Strickland moves forward. He fights DDP. DDP seems very good.

Yeah, hitting his peak right now. DDP wins. And then maybe Izzy comes back, and we have Izzy DDP for the title in a way that we never actually thought it would come together, right? And the dynamic has completely shifted. And Izzy is the hunter,

the hunted in Africa. And you could do a whole different setup with similar sort of storyline, vibes, narrative, all of it. But it is different. entirely. So like that, that to me feels so much more interesting than just trying to wash away this stink, just like we did with Nunes and Pena, right? Where it's just like, ah, did that really happen? Didn't really happen, did it? And we're just going to move on. Like, I always hate the, hey, you got to beat this champion twice to be able to move on with your career type of thing. The same

thing we're doing with Alexa Grasso right now. Like, Alex Grasso beat Valentina very decisively. She submitted her. She made Valentina choose to exit that fight. She shouldn't have to do it twice just to because, you know, we think of Valentina in some way. Like, that division shouldn't move on. And then we can, if that fight comes up again, we'll have some time to let it marinate rather than like, if Valentina just wins next week, then like what? Does any of it matter? Did it matter that Alexa won? Like that whole thing is so dumb to me always. So that, I agree with you, Mike. I think that's the, at least in my opinion, as an observer, that is by far, the most interesting outcome.

Shaheen, I'm going to do something I rarely do on air. You're going to admit you're wrong? Yeah. End up. Yeah. I disagreed with a lot, and I still think that a lot of what I said was true, but ultimately, you laid out the correct and only good path,

which is a world where DDP wins the belt, and he defends his belt against Izzy in Africa. Like, next fall. Like, how fun is that, right? That's the new funniest outcome that could. We just had the funniest outcome. That is the new funniest outcome. And now that's the new funniest outcome is we get UFC Africa.

It's DDP who makes it happen and defends against Dizzy. And the DDP tries to talk. And then DDP is like, nah, I'm not going to fight him. He talks his way out of fighting Izzy instead of Izzy like no selling DDP. I mean, just the world we could be living in 10 months from now. If DDP wins the belt, it's just fascinating stuff. But golly, man, Sean Strickland's a middleweight, Jamie. Go ahead, Sheen.

But potential outcome that we also haven't even considered. Paolo Costa is one of the most entertaining men in the entire sport right now. If he just goes out there in cold, Hamzaa Shamaev, and like a round and just knocks out this dude that we've been proclaiming as a two-division champion, and then Palo Costa goes in there and beat Sean Strickland, and suddenly Palo Costa is the UFC middleweight champion. New York Rick's personal barber, Palo Costa, is out here with the belt. That's a great.

Like, that's super fun. There are so many opportunities now for this division to have so much fun. And I'm just here for it. We can't miss you if you don't leave. Hit the refresh button. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm sure there's a million questions and a million talking points from the people.

I have a million questions. Let me, let's slightly pivot. And then we'll go to the piece. I'm sure we're going to talk about all. the other lingering things. I'll add the NHL, Jen, Michelle. I'll start with you. Clearly, Sean Strickland is the top guy here.

Like, if we do the three star scale, like the end of the, of a hockey game, bring out the top three stars. Sean Strickland's number one. Who's two and three from this card for you? I guess you got to go Volkov, just because being the second man to ever pull off in a CQ. That's right.

I said second. Don't bring me your Rimco, Cardo. No, Brimcoe isn't a ghee. It's not, it takes away the, the fun of calling it an Ezekiel choke. If there's a gea there, it's easy. Like, I can choke anyone with the ghee. It's not hard. He's doing it just with, with the feeling and, and the strength of his arms. Like, that's, so second man ever behind Alexelaidec to score in Ezekiel. Uh, so I'll give him that one. And then, I mean, I feel like the answer probably has to be Justin Taffa, even though no one cares. No, it doesn't. No, because I don't give a shit about the rest of the things that happened on this card. But Justin Tava landed some of the meanest freaking coffin nails of all time. So I'm not doing the one you want.

I refuse because I don't care about any of the rest of these people. So give me Justin Tapa because those coffin nails were nasty. Shane, who's two and three? I mean, I agree with two. It's obviously Volkov, right? like that's the most meaningful result on this card outside of the main event. But give me Tyson Pedro. That knockout and then that celebration was cold, man.

That was super. I like, that was sick. I've rewatched that thing like four or five times. The knockout was just nice and of self. But then the celebration was just, wow. Like that was perfection. I don't know if he practiced that or whatever, but I dug that a lot. Give me that.

You would do that to AK? You would disrespect. A.K. by picking the man who beat his boy. Look, I know that this is a great moment of sadness for all of us and that we so badly wanted the pleasure man to be a good fighter so that every three or four months, we could just unload all of the pleasure man innuendos and double entendres that we have stacked up here just on Twitter and Instagram and have a great time and it would be the whole thing. But yeah, I'm sorry that's just not the world we live in.

And that man got deaded in a real crazy way. I think he probably think the combination of names you both threw out there are probably the correct answer. But shout to Carlos Oldberg, too, like a complete performance. Gets a rare, oh, we think we're getting a unanimous decision. But then we get a replay submission win with like less than 10 seconds left in the parade. Shouts to Herb and Mark. That's the those are you. That was great.

That was great. Honestown. It's incredibly well done. It's perfect. Dude. We are so quick. We have no bad refereeing. I'm so glad you mentioned that, Mike, because we are so quick.

All of us, everyone, everyone watching this, all three of us, Casey as well. We're so quick to jump on these people, these officials, when they mess up because it's just fun for us. Right? How could this incompetent person mess up so well? We don't do this enough when actually good officiating happens to give credit and kudos to it. So that's a great call. Kudos to Mark Otter and Her team. Because that was perfect.

Like the way they handled that was excellent. That was a great example to now moving forward that you can show people of like how replay review can be used in a moment, like in a flash, in a very correct way. Also, honorable mention, she probably deserves to be on this list too. Lor Sanko, tremendous job tonight. Tremendous job. Even certain points like schooling DC on scoring, which I thought was great. I thought the trio was really good tonight.

Anak, D.C. and Sanko did a great job. Did a great job. So good. D.C. was the best he's been in a long time. Completely agree. He didn't have a person. He wasn't getting sidetracked. Yeah, to do not fighting stuff.

Just get down a rabbit hole of bad. So yeah, good work all around. Yep. Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget Online Casino is live, bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting, signing up is fast and simple.

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19 and over, physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Casey, come on in because boy, oh boy. Casey, before we get to the questions, I got at least one that I need to fire out here. I've been sitting on this for a hot minute boys. Yes or no, if World gets crazy, Sean Strickland defends his UFC middleweight title against Islam Makachev.

Who are you taking to win that fight? What? I know where you go on this because we had this debate with Habib and Izzy. Do you think Islam Makach could. win the middleweight title from Sean Strickland. Because I would confidently say Leon Edwards can. I would pick Sean Strickland in that fight

because size matters at elite levels. I think he's a little too much size. I think he's a little too much size. It'll be competitive. How about that? Prime Habib. I would probably pick him to be Chuck Trickland. Yeah, I mean, I would pick Habib to be Israel, though.

And I said it at the time. Um, yeah, okay. I just wanted to gauge if I was getting too excited about the people who can beat Sean Strickland because I'm starting to make a list. And it's, here's why middleweight's a great weight class. Casey, you were,

you were, you were slacking us about how it's like the worst weight class, like historically and whatever, maybe. It's the best weight class because there have been several different champions where the list of people who could beat them is extensive. I remember I used to have a lot of fun of race. one the middleweight belt with no

MMA experience. Bispby won the belt with one eye and old. I remember. Dan Henderson almost won the belt from BISBing with even more old. Exactly. I remember when Bisping was champion. I was like, I think I can put together a list of 25 fighters,

middleweight to welterweight, who I would pick pretty comfortably to beat. Michael Bispie. And I'm going to have a lot of fun doing something similar to Rishon Strickland in the coming months. Oh, my. God. What a weight class.

Wow. What a world. I got a question. Okay, go ahead. Right here, right here. Since we're talking about who's going to beat Sean Strickman. Really quick. Oh, oh, no, no.

I like this. Go forward. And then I'll go ahead. If Bo Nickel, where to fight Sean Strickland next, what would the odds be, Jed? Minus 3.50. I think coming off this win. For Beau, I assume. Yeah, for Bo.

Yeah. I think coming off. this, there's going to be a lot more trepidation about setting Sean as this big and underdog, even in fights. Like, Pereiro might be a massive favorite, but I don't think anyone's going to be a huge one against him moving forward. My question is, Mike. Yes.

As the creator and purveyor and really overlord of the middle-weightiest middle-weight, Gambit, title, whatever you want to call it, does this result tonight change what it means to be a middleweighty middleweight. Sheesh. This is a platonic ideal. Right? Like I feel like this is fully full circling moment type of thing for whatever this is. But Sean did knock Izzy down and like beat him up.

Didn't finish him though. That's typically not middleweighty middleweights. Typically it's like we go up against the fence and we just kind of knee each other in the body for 15 minutes. That's middleweighty middleweight. Brennan Allen has graduated from that. Christophe Jocko is the goat middleweighty middleweight. I don't know. We have to really deep in the time.

Sean has six decisions in his last eight wins, though, you know? Sean, look, Sean was reppping middleweightiness for a long time. I feel like Marvin Vittory just might be the middleweightest middleweight. Martin Votory has been the middleweightest middleweight forever. I think he might just be the end boss. But now Sean might be the end boss. I don't know. It's a great conversation.

station right now. Sean Strickland might just, he might be, he might have won a second title tonight. He might be a two division champ or a, a double division champ. Incredible. Can you guys imagine Sean Strickland versus Yuri Prohashka? No. No, I cannot. I cannot imagine. Chip versus champ, maybe let's go. Oh my gosh. Sorry, my head. I love, look. I love it, man. I love knights like this so much. I love it so much.

This is the dumbest, greatest sport in the world. Exactly. We all spend so many hours a year talking and writing and thinking and watching this stupid, stupid sport. And it amounts to nothing because all of us know nothing. It's tremendous. No, it amounts to everything, though, Shaheen, because this is the night when it all comes together and makes sense. Like the other end of it, you could have like a really great night, like $2.90 or whatever. I'm like, yeah, this is why I follow the sport.

this is the other half of it when I'm like deep in the weeds of actually this call was a perfect example we got two homophobic slurs for literally no reason just out out and into the ether it's like oh this second one I've chosen to do with my life so unnecessary it was so close it was like oh man cop did it yeah just at the end just as a little turd bomb at the end to be like what have I ruined all of this like right here on this wall there's a law degree and I sometimes look at it it and I'm like, I could be doing that with my life instead of covering people dropping the F-baw, whatever. But then this happens.

I'm like, I wouldn't trade this for the fucking world. This is, I can't get this anywhere else. I fucking love this sport, man. There's no equipment to it. We could end the year, ladies and gentlemen. We could end the year. It is a possibility where Sean O'Malley, Sean Strickland, and Colby Covington are undisputed UFC champions.

That could very well happen before the end of 2023. It's just, there's no parallel, man. There's no, they don't play the entire NBA season. And then, you know, we're going into Nuggets Heat. And then randomly they're like, yeah, you know what? Actually, Denver's not going to be in this one. Minnesota.

Come on, Minnesota. You're in the finals now. I don't know why, but Minnesota, come on. And then all of a sudden, Carl Anthony Towns is holding the trophy loft as the champion. Like, there's just, there's no parallel. I love it so much. We play one game for all the marbles, yolo. It's the best.

Oh, God. I'm so excited to keep thinking about this fight. Dude. I almost want to have a second post-fight show like four days from now where for no reason. It's called between the links. You can come on this week. Yeah, I think we might have to have just do that and do a whole show about like the digestible version of all this because

I would assume that a lot of the parties involved are going to be on the MMA are so we'll get to react to like their reactions to all of this and yeah it's going to be fun it's going to be fun I can't wait to have questions I love that we're just sitting here trying to bask in it it's so good yeah I'm just dude this is some of the most this is maybe the most fun I've had all year

and this was like objectively the worst pay-per-view on paper all year. It's making a smile like this, like, you know. I feel like I'm going to have like the most it's going to be the most peaceful sleep

I've had post-paper view maybe all year. And it's just like a weird feeling. I didn't think I would feel this way, but it's just going to be like, okay, this is just the world we live in. It's the funny. Good night.

If that fight gets stopped in the first round, just say one more shot, like a legitimate stoppage. Not nearly as fun. Not nearly as fun. Yeah, the conversation is totally different. Oh, no, it's still really fun. It's not as fun, but it's still really fun.

It's like, but then we're having though, Izzy got caught, he got lazy, but we're not saying that now because he lost for 25 minutes or whatever. And to your point, Jed and Casey, I don't look broken at the end of it. Dude. Like, that's a real thing that we watched. That's what gets me.

That one kind of shook me a bit. The way Izzy just said, nah, I lost. I'm not going to just I'm just Those last things like I'm not just going to swing my arms around Do anything crazy He didn't he just I

He was done Didn't want it That is such a stark contrast Because I have never seen a man Look more confident Than him walking to the cage Does the most confident I've ever seen a human being look

And on the other sudden That Sean did not look confident Right like maybe he did not Projection But I was watching his walk out like Oh dude like it looks like Dude did you read him in my live blog for it i i made paraphrasing slightly because i don't have in front i was like

yeah i've had that look before it was when i was walking to get my ass beat um and you're you're resolved to do it but yeah you don't know why you this is where your life is that's why i was like yeah he knows about to get his ass beat but here it goes so and then twenty what nine minutes later and new yeah there was a little Look in Sean's eyes too when he walked out there. I was like, this is not the Sean Strickland that walked out to fight Nassardine, Abuse, or even Pereira. This is a focus, like, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulder, Sean Strickland,

turning pressure into diamonds. There's just a different look. Made the vibes even stronger. I have a really important question for you, Jed, something that just occurred to me. And it might be the most important question I ask all year, frankly. Oh, hell yeah. So lately we've been hearing a lot of talk about the critically acclaimed Michulin Star System. I feel like it's been received very well.

I think everyone's really enjoying it. It's really well put together. You know, I'm looking forward to seeing how this evolves moving forward. You gave this card, deservedly so. Zero Muschulen stars ahead of this fight. And you said if you weren't in Sydney, you would not even go to this fight. That is essentially what zero stars means. Correct.

Is it possible to amend that retrochulence? proactively, or is that not how this works? No, no, yeah, you have to. I mean, look, the Micholin star system, obviously based on the Michelin Guide system, you know, they go to a restaurant a couple of times and they give it a grade. And, you know, stars get added and get taken away. Is that improved? With the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn't say three stars.

I wouldn't catch a flight to be there for this funny, funny outcome. but certainly at least one star with the benefit of hindsight of being like, because look, the rest of this, I simply couldn't care less about. And I think it speaks to the fact

that we've barely talked about it is not just the fact that the main event was monumental. It's that none of the rest of this matters. Maybe Alexander Fulcoff beating Tai Tui Vasa matters, like to some extent and Minot Cop beat a dude he's supposed to do beat. And hey, Felipe de Santos looks like a legit prospect,

cool. The rest of this is whatever. And so that was the thought going, going in. It's still the thought going out. I would have had to spend the whole evening watching a lot of stuff that is meaningless. Um, but the main event really, really would make it at least worth one star just to have physically been there because this is a top five funniest fight I've ever watched. I'm going to watch this fight so many times. Like, look, the undisputed funniest fight of all time as far as I'm concerned. And maybe this is macabre. I don't care. It's Kimbo.

versus Dada. I have genuinely, I genuinely never had more fun watching a fight. It is an actual like top five fight for enjoyment that I've ever had. I have never had more fun watching a fight. I have had the same level of fun, never more. Fonniest fight I've ever seen. Number two, I think also unequivocally is Rhonda Hawley because if for nothing else, the Mike Goldberg takes a lot of energy being a rock star is an A plus quote in MMA history. Those are the A and B for funniest fights of all time. This is right up there. I'm live blogging this thing.

And after the second round, when it's like, oh, Izzy's getting safe, this is the rest of this fight, he's going to have a boring kick you from real far away decision. And, you know, that sucks. But hey, you almost got finished. I respect it. And then suddenly in the third round after, you know, Eric Nixick was like, dude, what the fuck are you doing? Like, you can't just let him off the hook like this. You got to go out there and fight this guy, get after him.

And Sean's like yelling his corner, I know, I know, I got to go. And then goes and he just starts beating his ass. I am cackling laughing, watching Izzy just be befuddled by a dude who's not eating every jab and is double jabbing in his face. It's the fucking funny. This fight is so funny, man. It's so funny Oh man Alright let's take a few questions

This is the best night I'm still a shock at the fight Honestly it's what's like three hours ago And I'm still just kind of This is the best I still have a whole post fight call on the right And I'm just going to be sitting there with a smile on my face Riding it like three in the morning

I love my job To like 290 and this in the same year What a fucking year man Chivchenko Chavchinko losing a rematch next week Is that next week? Or that two weeks? That's next week, right?

Oh my goodness. That's next week. Oh, geez, okay. Steve Amioches just might be John Jones at this point. Like, that might just happen. Dude. God, can you imagine? I got bankrupted this year and I don't even care

because it's just been so funny. Interesting question here. What is Sean Strickland's legacy now? I mean, it's a legitimate, he's a legitimate, world, a champion, man. That's the Bisming thing. You can't take it away from him forever. That dude is a champion.

Michael Bisbing won the title in a very legitimate fashion against a very legitimate champion, and we forever look at him differently. That's Sean Strickland now, regardless of whether you like him or hate him, like that's the reality. Dude is a champ, and he beat the real champ in a very legitimate, like very decisive way.

Is he a future UFC Hall of Famer? if he can string together two title defenses I think yeah right you just do you have this probably gets him in I don't think this gets him in the Hall of Fame no this is the no we're not talking about like the Hall of Fame of Mixed martial arts we're talking about the Hall of Fame of the Ultimate Fighting Championship

I don't think he says yes to every opportunity and fights a million times I do not think the UFC is in a rush to I think he needs one defense I think you guys are I think he's he may not be there yet but he's he's in the he's already in the conversation if they run this back so here i'll paint this out for you if they run this back and then he beats izzie again in a very decisive way again and then say he loses

the ddp in whatever kind of fashion he would lose to ddp and then he for the rest of his career he's just the guy who that he was before where he's taking the short notice fights he's beaten who he should beat and he's losing to who he should lose then i think he will be a hall of famer he's got to win the rematch he has to win the rematch there There are three appropriate answers to this question. They're not different. They all tie into the same. The first one is,

Shaheen, you expertly laid this out, answering a different thing. Dude, he's 32. We don't have a fucking clue what his legacy is right now. He has so much of his career left. So, like, it's way too premature. The second one, as you pointed out, he's a champion.

Here's a list of just some of the middle weights who never got to be UFC champion. Yo-O. Romero, Jacaray-Suzza, Gaygard-Musasi, Hail Sonnen, Damian Maya. John Strickland is now, quote, unquote, better or more accomplished than those men. And all of them, I would pick to beat John Strickland on their best. On Sean Strickland's best day, I would still pick all those gentlemen, you just said.

Yeah, it's insane. I mean, like, that's the most important. I mean an opportunity, baby. And I will, the other thing is loosely tied to this, I guess, but, um, Sean Strickland. and this was brought up by somebody, the Post-Fi Presser, now that he's a champion, that man is never fighting at the apex again. Sean Strickland is strictly a pay-per-view

and roadshow fight night main event guy for here on after, which... Really, we got to think about the UFC because they're losing out on the dude. You think he's fighting at the apex again? I would bet so much money that he fights again at the apex and headlines an apex event before his career is over. Absolutely.

Oh, I don't know. I mean, maybe just because he always fights at the apex. Yeah, he's just going to accept some short notice stuff that just like he does. I don't know that this will change him in that respect. Not, I'm not at the champion. I'm talking about like a post-champaign. I'm talking about like a post-championship. I think he'd even do it now.

Sean Strickland of they're like, hey, man, somebody fell off of MSG. Can you turn around and defend your belt against random body? Like, you'd probably do it. It's Sean. I cannot wait. And I mean this in a bad way. I don't even know actually when I say this. When Sean Strickland goes on the press tour and just does what the morning shows,

is that going to happen or is UFC just going to hide him? Do you think? Yeah. I don't know that will happen. I mean, he's got to be putting down. I think they're going to pick a judge on American Idol, like all sorts of different fun things we could do with them. He'll be on celebrity family feud, all these different things we could throw him on. I mean, the sky's a limit.

I think there are certain places you can put him that will make sense. I think they'll pick and choose the spots they send him. Like they're not sending him to the Today Show or something. Yeah, because it's not very hard to find, to find his old tweets and old images, you know, and they're going to go. We'll give you some new one. How good gracious? He's not worried about it. Yeah.

I just, I'm really, I'm really, I'm really. I'm really curious. Dude, as long as he's not doing a 30-minute interview, he's going to be fine. If you give him five minutes, he's, I always thought that line was like that part of this was overblown. Like, if you give him time to get down into the well of dumb things, but it's just five minutes, he'll just say that he'll go to the old standbys of, I'm just a white dress piece of shit and like, look at me now. And, you know, that stuff plays. Yeah, but fine. Get on Jimmy Kimball.

U.S. C. Yeah. You again, Casey, you're saying you're saying you're a sea champion as if it's a level of a steam. This is true. This is true. This is true.

I do apologize for him. That being said, don't act like you wouldn't watch him on the view. Give him like 10 minutes. Oh, my God. I want to be clear. And him explaining how women should have vote to them? Oh, that's going to be awesome.

Wherever that interview goes. That's going to be. fun. Shaheen, I would watch millions of dollars to watch that. I would interview that. We're going to do it. Yeah, we would do a live react to that. We'll do a watch party for Sean Strickland's media rounds.

I would love it. Shaheen, I'm sure you didn't see this because we're doing this. Caposa tweeted at you and at MMA fighting, I believe with a question, but since we haven't really answered questions in the comments. Per Coposa, the wonderful Grabacca underscore Hitman on Twitter, follow him. And if honestly, if you're watching this, if you're watching this show and don't already follow him, I'm assuming you follow him. I don't understand how that happened. Shaheen, directly for you, answer me, how does Sean Strickland do against Robert Whitaker?

Sir Robert Knuckles versus Jonathan Strickland. I mean, I'd probably pick Robert Whitaker, right? I don't know. I'd probably be pretty confident picking Robb, but maybe Rob's wash, maybe Sean's better than I think. I don't, I'm picking Rob, but I don't think. I don't think any of us have given this credence

for obvious reasons. What if Sean Strickland is actually the best middle weight in the world? Like, what if he runs off 10? He actually just like runs off like three or four title defenses here. He's the guy. He's the new Anderson. So, but like, we, he ends up being better than Anderson by the end of it.

I mean, look, he's lost twice. He's lost twice in the way class, right? Do he lost twice in the past like 18 months? One of them, I think there's a very clear argument that you could make if you wanted to that he beat Jared Cannoneer as a close fight, whatever, you know. The other one was Alex Pereira, who will. You can't really argue anything about that. Most people.

I think it's how he lost. I don't know. Sean Strickland, new middleweight go, and I go against what I said. Dude, shouts to Sean Strickland. You just said Sean Strick and middleweight go after that whole dance. I love it. We do, Casey. We're back here.

We're back here already. We're decisive and make calls. Sean Strickland is now responsible for like two of the funniest ten things that have ever happened inside a cage. This fight and getting booped by Pereira. I still watch that clip just when I'm sad sometimes. I'm like, that would be funny. look at this man walk into a right

like a freaking left hook I will say I know we're laughing a bunch and we're making it we're having a good time tonight it takes like incredible humility for a human being to get colded

in such crazy like memorable way that Sean Strickland got colded by Alex Perre like the way that we will see that replay forever for the rest of our lives and then go to Alex Pere and be like hey bro like that was pretty bad Do you want to train together?

Because I'd really love to train with you. Like that takes an incredible level of humility to do that. Yeah. For sure. We just watched arguably the, like, the best kickboxer that's ever stepped foot in MMA get beat up by a dude who exclusively threw a jab in a right hand. He didn't throw like a bunch of hooks. There'd no uppercuts.

Do you throw a kick? A bunch of front kicks as like distance setters. Yeah, but. Guys. Not one level change, I don't think. Just. Oh my God. I see the comment.

You're excited about Shahi. Guys, guys. Let's go. Let's go. So this is coming from Kaz Marius over here in the comment section. I think we have a new front runner for funniest possible outcome that the guy can come out of this. All right. Let's see it.

Casey, can you pull this up or should I? Hold on this one. there it is there it is the actual funny next fight is if they let anderson silver come back and Anderson Silva somehow gets his belt back in a proper retirement fight who are you picking Sean Strickland and Anderson Silva I'm picking Sean Strickland yeah I mean I'm picking Sean too but you know weirder things have happened Mike heck I mean look nothing's out of the wrong possibility nothing's impossible anymore and I think that's like one of the big takeaways is that you know, when you're feeling down and you feel like maybe there's other people better than you out there,

just look to Sean Strickland. Just tap into Sean Strickland. Just figure it out because Sean can do it. You can do it too. And what I've learned is someone who tries to predict M.A. Is when it comes to pay-per-views and actually wagering on things, I'm taking the George Costanza approach and just doing the opposite of everything I thought was right. That's it.

For Mike, for a while, I tried to get a Cassanza gimmick back going and it did not work out well. So just be forewarned. You have to pick your spots. You have to pick your spots. Picking those spots is tough. I'm just saying be forewarned, I tried the Costanza gimmick. Didn't get very far. I'm taking a future shot on Steve Bay like tomorrow at this point.

I am, I'm going to a thousand percent bet Francis to be Tyson Fury. It won't happen. But like, what if? At this point, I think Eric Nixick is capable of anything. Like, I'm not putting anything past that man. He's going to beat Tyson Fury with just like a jab. Can you imagine? He doesn't even knock them out of complex game.

Yeah, he's just weirdly outboxism for like 10 or 12 rounds or however long this is. Nothing is impossible anymore. It's true. Nothing is impossible anymore. In a world where Sean Strickland, can you imagine, I mean, mean, it's ridiculous to say, because if you asked me this a month ago, I would have laughed to you. Can you imagine telling, like, going to yourself right after the Poetan loss and been like, that dude's going to be champ? Oh, the guy who just knocked out Sean Strickland?

Actually, yes, him too, but no, the guy he knocked out. That's going to be your undisputed middleweight champ within 18 months. Not only, not 14 months, 14 months later. That happened less like barely less than a year ago. Going into 2023, Sean Strickland had lost two in a row. And One of them was the Pereira lost. Like, that was what he was entering the year off of a two-fight losing street. Dude. If you see a mountain you've always wanted to climb, go climb it tomorrow. Like, just do it.

Go run a marathon. Mountain climbing is actually dangerous, and I don't want your death on my conscience. I mean, like, trail mountain climbing, not like cliffs. No cliffs, but just like, I don't want to walk up this hill for seven hours. Just go walk it. Hell, run it. You can do it. You can do it.

do anything you put your mind to. Kevin Garnett, anything is possible. Oh, this is a good question. Yeah, we'll end with this. Which Sean's reign is shorter? Sean O'Malley's or Sean Strickland's Shaheen? God. I mean, if, okay, so in this world,

I'm just assuming, because this is sort of what we've been fed, that Sean O'Malley's next opponent is Marlon Vera, and Sean Strickland's next opponent is Israel, Asana. In that world, I think, Sean Strickland has a better chance to beat Izzy again than Sean O'Malley does to beat Marlon Vera again because I think Marlon Vera is a really tough matchup for O'Malley, and we've already seen that. But I don't know, man, this is a tough question.

I'll go with Strickland, but I don't feel great about it. I'm saying, O'Malley. First, if Joseph O was still in charge, a thousand percent, these two Shons would be fighting on the next card together. They would do the double Sean pay-per-view event. Yep. They still may, but that's Joseph was in charge 100% that's happening. I will say O'Malley, because I think Strickland, based on that fight, Strictorke's got a really good chance of beating Izzy again because he just beat that ass for 20 of the 25 minutes they fought.

So I think you got to give him the credit of that win. I think O'Malley is going to get beat fairly badly by Chito Vera. I don't think Cheeto Verra is the best bandway in the world I think he is a uniquely poor matchup for Sean O'Malley and that's awkward for him I'm going to say Strickland solely because he's going to fight like six times before O'Malley fights twice

so there's just more I'm playing the law of averages the more Sean fights he's going to fight way more than Sean O'Malley is like if Sean beat Cheeto I won't see him for like another year okay that's fair because I do think there's a very real possibility

we see Sean in either December, January range. Yeah. Dude, you can't find December, man. John Strickle will headline. Oh, O'Malley. Okay. Yeah. Sean Strickland,

you got a fighter of the year locked up, dude. Don't fight. No, no, he's done. Yeah, Strickland's going to, like, headline back to back pay per views at some point because he's just like, all right, I'll fight. Sure, I'll do it. That's just the kind of guy he is. And Sean Amalley is just like, no, I need to find somebody

who's going to make me a trillion dollars. because they're just in two different worlds, two different businesses. If Sean Strickland does not fight again in 2023, is there any other fighter on the schedule with fights scheduled who could steal Fighter of the Year from him with any result? John Jones. Grasso? If Grasso wins?

I would still give it to Strickland. Strickland still getting my vote. What about Sean O'Malley? Twice? Beating the goat twice? Excuse me. I don't ever do, beat more than what? the same person. I hated the year we gave it to Max or DJ. Yeah. Because he beat Aldo twice.

Like, no, it's the same dude. It's not the same fight technically, but there's too much overlap. I think John Jones is the only person. I think even if John Jones goes out there and destroys a very old steepe, I'm still giving it to it to Strickland. Oh, no, it's Strickland. No, Matt, it's, it's. I agree. I will. But everyone immediately got on to the John Jones train as soon as he came back and beat Cyril Gahn who may or may not be good. So he beats Stepe and now he's, you know, cementing himself as the greatest fighter of all time. People,

there's a really good narrative there for John. I think O'Malley's got the best maybe, especially hearing you guys say like, you don't, you don't think he's going to be Cheeto. If he beats Aljo and Cheeto in a four-month span, wins the belt and defends it, I think he's on the list.

Yeah, I think that that's your three, your three-man list and if Grasso wins by default she probably will be in the weeks but well too beaten Charles twice would be so here's the thing uh Islam will actually be the one who deserves it um if he beats Volcanovsky and then Charles this year like that's he will actually deserve it that's true I forgot about the Volk those two wins are much better than any wins the other people have um but I don't just the way this thing works it's it's a lot of narrative and I don't think it'll be I would probably actually vote for Islam just for that.

Because again, Sean's 3 and O and one of the greatest substance of all time. All that's true. One of those wins is Abbas and the other is Nassardini Imov. It's like... At 205. Yeah. It's like, I mean, sure, but you can sell me that Cyril Ghan and Steepa are more meaningful wins, you know? And certainly Volkovsky and Olivaire.

But at this point, if I'm Islam, dude, be on notice because wonky shit's happening in 2023 man yep collie I got a lot of concerns about my belief that is Lamarchev should just beat the brakes off of Charles over there given everything that's happened the last like four months oh my gosh

are you good gentlemen yeah I mean I'm never going to be good again Casey realistically we could do this for another two hours then we would just sit here. Yeah. It's playing the same exact stuff. Listen, five, in about five hours and 20 minutes from right now, we're going to be, me and AK are going to be on this year network matchmaking after this crazy card.

So 9 a.m. Eastern, on to the next one. As we leave, I want to put this out there. Just think about this in the future. Sean Strickland and his infinite cardio versus nose job DDP. What will that fight look like in the third round? Golly. I hope we get to see it. I hope we get to see it too.

I hope we get to see it too. What a world. I think we've talked a lot of things out. I think we've, no, we haven't made sense of any. I had a lot more stuff to talk about. I'm confused, still. I'm confused. Yeah.

I think we need a few days to decipher all of this. And then we'll have an educated response to it. And maybe we never will. But just remember this day, people. This is not a dream. This is real. John Strickland is the middleweight champion of the world. And with that, for Jed, for Casey, for Shaheen, I am Mike Heck.

Good night, everybody. Get some sleep. I love you all so much. You're a child. The people at home and the people on this broadcast with me. Believe in yourself. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.