MMA Fighting - UFC 294 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Islam Makhachev's Stunning KO, Khamzat Chimaev's Return

Episode Date: October 21, 2023

Islam Makhachev got his closure against Alexander Volkanovski, and he did it in incredibly brutal fashion as he knocked the featherweight champion out to cap off UFC 294 and retain his lightweight title. Following a wild UFC pay-per-view event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaheen Al-Shatti, and Jed Meshew react to Makhachev's incredible performance, his spot in the pound-for-pound discussion, if Justin Gaethje or Charles Oliveira should be next, where Volkanovski goes, and the 145-pound titleholder wanting to turn right around in January to fight Ilia Topuria despite getting finished the way that he did. Additionally, the panel discusses Khamzat Chimaev's majority decision win over Kamaru Usman in the co-main event, if there's more questions than answers following his first bout in 13 months, how a fight with middleweight champ Sean Strickland could go, the wild shenanigans from the referees, the cage side doctor, multiple fighters revealing staph infections, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter 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 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 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, those are the victory horns, which you hear after every big event, after every big pay-per-view. And today, they sound for Islam Macha-Tor. Still, the lightweight champion of the world, probably and should be on most people's list, the number one pound-for-pound fighter on planet Earth absolutely annihilates Alexander Volcanowski with a stunning headkick, a barrage of ground and pound, and Islam Makachchev needed less than five minutes to get the job done this time. How do you spell closure?

Isle-A-M? He got his closure. The rivalry is over. Islam Makachaf still the lightweight champion of the world following a chaotic and mayhem-filled UFC 294 event in Abu Dhabi as you welcome you to the UFC 294 post fight show here in MAFighting.com. I am Mike Heck being joined by my fellow Baldy, the wise word smith, diamondbacks fan,

and a man who will probably have a lot to say about what transpired today in Abu Dhabi. Mr. Shaheen al-Shadi. What's up, Shaheen? What's up, Mike Heck? Oh my gosh. What a weird, violent, delightfully bizarre night. And you know the best part. It's only like 3.3 p.m. baby.

It's the afternoon. The sun's still out. We got a whole night ahead of us. I love it. Yes. It is not 3 p.m. where Jed Michoud is at. He is in the ATL at 6.05 p.m.,

which is still way better than like 3 a.m. The sun is still out. Sheen is just all the way incorrect. It's okay. He's been wrong all week because the best thing is that Islamakov gasped that man up. We done. I don't ever have to do this nonsense again. And gosh, is it a relief? We're out. We are out from under the onus of the nonsense. And even in the post fight, he didn't really push for the welterweight thing. We're free, guys. We are free for people to fight. fight in their own weight classes. We should all be celebrating. What a glorious victory. There's the horns. I hope you're right about that, but you never know. Short notice things could happen and phone calls could be made and we might be having a different conversation not too long

from now. But Shaheen, I'll begin with you. There's a lot to talk about here. But let's start at the top. Let's talk about the performance from Islam Makachev. Yes, this fight came together very quickly. Yes, Alexander Volkanowski stepped up on less than two weeks notice. for Charles Olavera, their first fight, fight of the year contender, Islal Makachev made sure, and you could kind of see it in his face. We talked about it on the watch party.

This man just looked ready to go. He looked focused. Not that he was ever in bad shape, but he looked in impeccable shape, and you noticed it when Bruce Buffer was given the introductions. And then he just goes out and just ices Alexander Volcanovsky. Your reaction to what we saw

from the lightweight champion of the world in the main event. what else is there to say man islam makachev is that dude like he is he is that man that is the best pound for pound fighter on the entire planet and and the the the feeling that that man must be feeling right now inside of himself he's heard for eight months straight about how all this controversy in the first fight how volk beat him etc etc vogue ended the fight with the momentum on top if that fight goes longer vogue wins everything that that man has heard over the last eight months, all gone now, all silent. That man put it to rest. There is no controversy here. He is, again, he is the best fighter in the entire world in my eyes. And just what an all-around

package this guy has become, right? Because this wasn't a grapple fest. This wasn't a Habib Nirmirgo Madoff-esque, just stifling a domination on the ground. That man just knocked out Alexander Volkanowski. Like, you can repeat that sentence as many times you want as you want. Islam Mokachev just knocked out Alexander Volkanovsky with a head kick. That is crazy. That is not an outcome that I think many people saw coming. That is the first time Alexander Volkanowski's been knocked out since 2013. Like, this is just, if you were Islam-Maghachachaf, this was the perfect performance to be able to quell all of that and just become who you are.

I don't think this man lives under the shadow of Habib, Nirmigna Madov anymore. He is an Islam-Machachaf. He is one of the best lightweights we've ever seen, perhaps. And he is now one fight away. Get this, right? he's now one fight away from tying the UFC's all-time record for most consecutive title defenses for a lightweight champion. Obviously, he has done that against a featherweight back-to-back times, but he is still,

that record is three, he is at two. That next time out is going to be a historic opportunity for him, and he is in the prime of his career. We will not be able to say the same thing about Alexander Volcanovsky, right? We have talked about this age ad nauseum in the lead up to this fight. This man is getting up there. He is 35 years old at an age where that does. doesn't really keep it work, keep it going that very,

not a lot of people, I should say, can keep it going that long in the lighter way classes. Islam Makachev is in the prime of his career. He is still young and he is getting better every time we see him. He is the multifaceted nature of this man game continues to evolve and grow every time we see him. Just unbelievable performance from the lightweight champ, unbelievable. Jed, with every performance Makachev has, especially this one, you probably feel a little bit more vindicated because you've been screaming from the mountain for a while that is on Makachchev is the guy.

Goes out and just Ether's Volkadovsky. It's just an incredible finish to end the rivalry and answer all the questions and basically everything Shaheen just said. What is your reaction to this? And on top of that, we were kind of both on the same page in terms of how fans would react

to how Makachev does today. Like some people thought he was kind of in a lose-lose situation. If he loses, oh, I can't believe you just lost two dude on 12 days notice. And if he won, you just beat a guy coming out the couch on 12 days. days notice. This kind of performance, I think, takes a lot of those theories and a lot of those narratives out of play. So put Machachev right now compared to where he was heading into this

fight, especially on the 12 days notice and just your reaction to the performance and the finish. I think this was the only way he could win tonight because if he wins a decision, even if it's a dominant one, right? I think that that's true. The narrative. just becomes, well, you fought a smaller dude who had 12 days notice and you couldn't do it. The only way he could really silence any of the doubt that was going to be there was this. And straight up, I just didn't think you could do it. Like, that's why I didn't really give that much credence in the conversations we had this week. I was like, yeah, I thought he could win. I thought he would win. I picked him to win. But I thought that it might just look a little more dominant than the first one,

which, again, I thought was a very, very good performance from him. I scored four rounds for him in that first fight. I thought it could have looked the same, just maybe more clear, so that there's no personal live who can credibly argue that he lost. But I didn't think he was just going to blast him in the first round. And honestly, like, it was easy work. I just not saying that Alexander Volkovsky is not incredibly good and competed in the phases of that, but Volk was losing the first.

fight prior to getting his head kicked off. And he landed four strikes. Volcanovsky has four significant strikes landed and that kind of shows you what it was. He was able to compete against this man in a manner, but not really thrive against this man and not have success. He was able to stave off the problem. And a lot of that probably can be attributed to the 12 days notice. That was the thing I had the biggest question mark coming in was how good is he going to look because there had been reports that he had been training since the hand injury or since the hand surgery for this and seems pretty clear that if he had been it wasn't like hard nose training prep for this. Like some of it imagined that this really was a coming off the couch thing.

Casey and I talked about it during the post-fight presser for as good as Makachev looked, Volk did not look like he was at his peak of physical conditioning. And so I think it's pretty fair to say that this was not the best Volkanovsky. And considering the best Volcanovsky lost to this dude, you can't fight as a Makachev if you're paying 100% and all the way. It just is going to be a really, really bad night for you because he's the best guy in the world. And he's getting better. He's 31. He's getting better.

Like you, I don't know what to do other than bring a bat with you to the cage because you ain't beating this man with just your hands. I thought the turning point in the fight was they started. started battling up against the fence, looked very similar to moments early in the first fight. And then when Mokachev got a little separation, he could have gone outside and turned into a striking battle. But no, he grabbed the tie clinch. It was almost like Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin-esque,

and he was kneeing Volcanovsky in the face. And Volk was trying to get free. And he couldn't until Mockachev actually let him free. And then that was the beginning of the end because the head kick came not too long after that. And he set it up immediately. Yeah. He was setting up the head kick.

immediately with body kicks and you see Volk on that he's blocking down he's not like all the way down but he is not high blocking he's about here and it just comes right in like that's a masterclass man and again i i think it is reasonable to take something away from makachev here because that clearly was not the best Volcanovsky but only the smallest amount to take away from him he can't help what happened i is now the time might can i now take my victory lap and saying hey Like when I said on Monday or whatever, the first time we talked about this on air and I was like, I mean, I know we all think that this is going to be super fun, but there may be the most likely scenario is on Saturday.

We're all like, well, okay, that wasn't the first fight because that's where we're are. Like terrific performance from Makachev awesome. But does anyone, anyone think that it might not have just been cooler to let these two dudes fight full camp and see what that looks like even though? I think Makachev wins it. I do feel like we lost a little something because of the short notice here. And we'll kind of get into that

from the Volcanovsky side in a few moments. But Jehain, let's talk about this because Jed, one of his victory lapses, hey, look, now the divisions are back to normal. Now lightweights can fight lightweights and featherweights can fight feather weights and welterweights can fight welter weights. So now the big question for Isle Mokachev,

if you were the matchmaker here, and AK and I will answer these questions tomorrow morning on onto an actual live on this year channel, what's next for his elmachachev do you give him justin gaecchi after the knockout of dustin porre do you go back to charles olivera either way i'm in and i'm down to watch both of those fights but do you favor one over the other here is there one fight you would rather see over the other oh jed my sweet sweet summer child that is just so naive to think that i hope you're right i desperately desperately hope you're right but we all know that that's not right and that

it's only going to be like two or three months before the next, hey, I want to be champ, champ, hey, I want to move up and take whatever. Oh, I mean, Shona Malley, Alexander Volcanovsky is coming. Like, we all know that's coming, but we got some time. There are, there are many permutations of this that could play out. Islam Mankachiev might try to go to Welterway. We have no idea. Either way, next up for Islam, for me, I would go Charles Oliver.

I know this is right now a debate between him and Justin Gaichi. I just don't see the sense in taking the shot away from Charles Oliver. just because he happened to get hurt before this fight. It's not like that ended up hurting the car. People still seem to enjoy the car regardless. He earned that shot, in my opinion. I mean, Benil Darius was on an incredible streak, and he managed to shut that down very easily.

That, to me, is the most definitive performance that anybody else has it lightweight. I think he earned that with both his resume and also, again, the Darius win. Justin Gachie, I'm not going to take anything away from knocking out Dustin Poirier, because that was certainly a hell of a feat. But Gaichi still, I mean, he's not some, undeniable

number one contender in my mind. I would still like to see the fight that we should have seen this past weekend, which was Olivera. Boo, boo this man. No, man.

You don't get your spot taken away because you got injured. That's dumb. But here's the thing. He got his spot because it was just sort of weird and they didn't totally have anybody because the way they'd lined up

the Gaichi Porre fight was kind of too close to do this or whatever. Like, I don't have a huge issue if you want it back, but just, I don't know, you got dummied round one, like beating Benny like that as an A plus win. He didn't know we take that away.

But like maybe get two, maybe get a second one under the belt before we run this right back. Also, now that we're past the Volk stuff and I can now say other things to infuriate people, I'm going to start pushing the conspiracy theory that Charles intentionally got cut so he wouldn't have to fight him in Abu Dhabi again. Because I think that that's very funny. That's crazy. Charles was like outright I don't want to fight Nobjabi and then they made him and so he gets cut

Suss pushing that conspiracy theory all the way boys Eminemay fighting does not endorse the comments coming from Jed Bishu right now I'm not sure I endorse me either Can we put a DeZone kind of graphic We apologize for the skin to yours in time Chendishu

Like we apologize for the salty language here So Jed let's let's I'm going to go back to you in a minute at Shaheen, but let's talk about Alexander Volcanovsky, Jed, because we were wondering during the watch party, what is Volcanovsky going to say? Is he going to say, look, I'm going to take some time off, we'll figure things out, or is he going to say, nope, I'm ready for January, I'll fight I'll eat I'm exactly what he said. I'm ready for January, let's fight Ilya at Toporia. I don't want to sit around too long,

which is the biggest reason why he took this fight because he just was tired of sitting around and waiting. What do you think of all this? Because I just have, just in my stomach and internally, I just feel like, I feel weird about it. I feel kind of gross about it. Like, Volk's a man and he's the featherweight champion,

and ultimately it's his decision. But after getting knocked out like that, Turning around three months later to fight a guy like Ilya to pour you. I don't love it, man. What are your thoughts on it? Deeply concerned. Deeply, deeply concerned. Look, like you said, ultimately, he's grown-ass man.

He'd do whatever he wants. It is his life. He's got to live with the consequences and he knows what he is doing. He said that coming into this. Like, I'm not taking anything away. I have accepted this fight knowing the circumstances and I'll live with the outcome. And that's, we have to afford him that luxury. I think it is an incredibly bad idea.

to do a January fight for this man coming off a loss, coming off a knockout loss, having to now cut weight and basically immediately get right back in it while also having a pretty nasty cut to mend. I think it's just about as bad of an idea as can be. There's no reason the UFC has to do this fight in January. Like they can say, we'll do it in March. Like there's nothing pulling. You don't have to put to purry of Vulcan Canada.

It's fine without it. You just do it in any other venue and give him some more time, particularly because, again, talked about it with Izzy, the frequency with which Izzy was fighting, and is that playing a factor? Volk wants to be very active, and I understand that sort of thing, but that has a double-edged sword, and we have seen how that affects fighters very, very frequently who fight three times a year and just keep getting after it every three or four months. It's just a very tough way to go in a sport that isn't forgiving. And the last kind of thing I'll say about this, because it's the part that is the most concerning.

Outside of the risk that he is taking with his featherweight title against a hammer like Ilya Taborio, which I think is like a very big risk to take that fight, not glibly, but very, very quickly here, I had, that was a concerning post-fight presser out of nowhere. Like the way he is talking and, you know, it's very clear I'm not the big as, Volkfan. I don't wish ill on him. And I hope that he is doing well and can work through whatever challenges he is dealing with. But hearing him say stuff, like, I get in my head and I need the structure of a fight camp to kind of not get into this way and be about this. I've got to stay at. One, that's concerning, like, just in general. Two, that's really concerning for a fighter who is

approaching the end of his prime. I would say he probably is outside of his prime at this point he's 35 but like that's not the mentality of a guy who if he is about to fall off and his age would suggest that that's right around the corner that's the sort of mentality that leads to a BJ pin like end of career where you just want to keep that this is too much for you and you are just going to keep getting in there and I don't want that for Volk and I'm certain that the fans of Volk don't want that and so I don't have to you know say that that is for sure about to happen but if you were asking me, if I was in his corner, I would strongly counsel him to take a little bit of time off to to heal from this before defending his belt and to seek help, like figure out how to work through this in a way that is frankly more healthy than just saying, I'm going to keep fist fighting dudes and that will solve these problems because at some point that part of it goes. And you need to have a better way to handle this than fight camp.

Gene, what do you think? No, I mean, I think Jed's spot on. I always hesitate in these situations to play armchair psychologist, right? A, I appreciate Volk for his candor. That is what we ask of our athletes. That's what we hope for from these athletes. That's what we appreciate about MMA is the level of candor that these athletes give us in these sort of very vulnerable situations.

But man, I mean, that was real, right? Like what he was saying felt very real. It felt very, it felt like something that had been weighing on him. And for an athlete who is 35 years old, and we talk about it all the time in the lower weight classes, that things start to end or at least turn right around now, for an athlete who probably is closer to the, not probably, but like he is closer to the end than the beginning, certainly.

I don't know, man. I mean, I'm concerned. I mean, Vogue doesn't need me to be concerned, right? But I am concerned about what retirement will be like for Alexander Volcanovsky, if this is sort of the way that he is facing what he's dealing with right now and sort of the way that his life has sort of been structured right now. Because that was certainly concerning, man. You don't want to hear that, you know?

I think I'm certainly someone who has suffered from depression in dark places at various points in my life, and I'm sure plenty of other people out there have as well who are watching that you can pick up the signs when you see it, right, when you see somebody talking in that way. So I don't know, man, I hope to God, I hope to everything that you can hope for that this does not lead to a BJ Penn style end of career, right? Like that is the worst case scenario, and we've seen that we're seeing it play out with other people, right? Tony Ferguson, the type of guys who this is everything to them and there is nothing else.

And if this is not going on in their lives, they don't know what to do with themselves. I hope that Volcanovsky is not facing that sort of fate whenever this does come to an end. Because who knows when that happens, but there's a very good chance that that will happen sooner rather than later. And it was certainly concerning to hear that from the featherweight champion. And again, he doesn't need our concern. He's not someone who cares what I think or what Jed thinks or what you think, Mike. And again, I appreciate his willingness to speak on these stuff. subjects, but yeah, man, that was tough to hear.

Yeah, and on top of that before you move on, he's on in his, like, he's probably rounding the corner, he's probably approaching the back nine, he's probably arguably on the back nine of his career. He is on the back nine. So he's on the back nine of his physical fighting prime, but he is smack dab in the middle of his prize fighting prime. And what I mean by that is he's at the point where he's making big money. He's doing big money fights now.

and it took him a long-ass time to get there, and now he's here, so he wants to take full advantage of this while he has it, because there is going to be a time where, you know, he loses two or three in a row, and then those big money fights, those big money opportunities go away, and Volk's talked about it openly and honestly for years. I want to take care of my family.

I don't want to be one of those fighters that leaves the sport with nothing. I want to cash in and then do cooking shows and do things I want to do and spend time with my family. So I think that's part of it as well. But hey, at the end of the day, like we said, he's a grown man. He's at worst, one of the three best fighters on planet Earth right now. And he can make the decision. And I just hope he's all right in the long run.

So let me add just real quick. All right, please. I do also agree with Jen and I believe Casey, we were talking about this as well. I do hope that the UFC doesn't book him for January, right? You just can't do it, man. That was a vicious knockout, man. That was really brutal. And for someone who age and also just hasn't had that,

suffered that type of fate in quite a long time, hasn't had that. Since the last time you fought a Walterweight? Yeah, like that is not something that you want to take lightly and just turn around and fight a demon like Iliad's Aporia three months later. Like that is how you speed run through the end of your career. Right? Like we saw Michael Bispink do this when he fought George St. Pierre.

He lost and then turned around real fast and got knocked out by Kelvin Gasol and then was over. Like that is the exact roadmap for an athlete of Volks status, age, everything to just speed run to the end of this for you. If you want to just start doing these quick turnarounds after pretty brutal results like that. I just, I hope the UFC doesn't do it if they can do it if they want because again, he's a grown man. He can make his own decisions. My opinion means nothing in the grand scheme of things. I just think that's very unwise. And if you're the UFC, give Canada, you know, Juliana Pena

versus Raquel Pennington and say, I'm sorry that that's your main event, but you're going to have to deal. Give him Sean Strickland DDP. Canada can, oh, I don't know, can Sean Strickland go to Canada? Wouldn't shock me if he, like, couldn't go to Canada for some reason. But you can do anything. Just don't do this fight in Canada, man. Like, there's simply no need.

It is just that way. We have a lot of examples of fighters doing things like this and very few examples. of it working out well. Yeah. And that's the other thing, too, because, like, you can learn the lesson, not even from history, from this weekend. Half of the narrative of this fight is 12 days short notice. And then the response is, well, how often has that really worked historically?

Not, it hasn't been very good historically for fighters to come in on short notice in situations like these. And we just saw it. Like, you don't have to buck a historical trend. You can just take your time. Get yourself better. And I understand that there is attention there because he is getting older. And I posited this last year.

I was like, Volk saying he wants to be active. Think a part of that is that he probably knows where the clock is on him and that it's running low. And so if he fights once a year, that that's really compressing his opportunity, as Mike said, to make this money. And so I get that he doesn't want to wait too long because then age becomes a factor. but dude turn around in two and a half months. That ain't, that is just not it. We will see what happens. What a performance from Izal Makachev,

and we'll see where both guys go. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo, great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy.

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our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Well, let's talk about Shaheen the fight that everybody had circled. again short notice Kamar Usman steps in to replace Paula Kasa to fight Hamza Tamaev who is not fought since the UFC 279 debacle

in September of last year when he beat Kevin Holland in the first round and the way this fight started off Shaheen it looked like Vincent Hamza Shemayev 10-8s Kamar Usman at least in my world has his back has control looks like he might finish him and then Kamar Usman DDTs himself

enough to the point that gets Hamzat Shemayev off of his back for a couple of seconds. And then the tides start to turn a little bit. And Kamar Usman gets cooking third round. One of the judges actually gives Kamar Usman the third round, which I don't hate. But in the end, Hamzat Shemayev wins a majority decision against the former well-to-weight champion of the world and one of the 20 best fighters of all time. So, Jeanne, let me ask you, with everything that happened, the layoff, the new weight class, everything he's had to go through over the last 13. months, getting the new opponent on 11, 12 days notice, and getting the win, how do you grade Hamza

Shemayev's performance? What a curious, curious result this one is, right? Like, I have spent more time in the past hour and a half, or however long it's been, thinking about this one than I have about anything else in trying to process how I feel about this one and what it means for me moving forward, because you're right, Mike. Heck, first five minutes of that fight, Hamzat shahmzsche. Shmaev looked more superhuman than that dude has ever looked in him in a very superhuman Oxagon career so far, right?

He looked like he's the next greatest fighter of all time. He looked like the goat against Kamara Usman for that first five minutes. And it was surreal to see someone manhandle Kamara Usman in the way that it's, Hamza Shmaev was manhandling that man because we have just, we have so much distance with Kamara, right? Like we've been on this journey with Kamara. We have seen him fight a lot of tough challenges. I've never seen him get manhandle like that first five minutes.

And then the next 10 happened, right? And then you get the next two rounds. And now I don't know, right? Because ultimately you look at the, just from a wide lens, a broader scope, I'm such from I've checked the most important box tonight. He absolutely did, right? He beat Kamar Usman. He is now the second man under the UFC banner to own a victory over Kamar Usman and not just that.

I mean, this is impressive to me, at least his four takedowns against Usman. That's four more times than any Usman had given up throughout like 17 UFC fights prior to this weekend, right? Like Usman was 36 of 37 on takedown defenses before this one, and then Hamzaa Shemayev comes in and gets four off him. That, to me, is a feather in his cap regardless of the circumstances that maybe surround this fight. But also, and that's the butt, it's difficult for me to overlook those circumstances in the grand scheme of things when we talk about Hamzat Shemayev

and who he could be at middleweight, right? Because I think that anyone out there right now watching this, who watch this fight that have concerns now about Hamzat Shemayev's potential gas tank, That feels probably pretty justified to me after what we just saw. I mean, we just saw him face ultimately. It's Kumar Usman still, but it is a 36-year-old Welterweight who was on a two-fight slump, who moved up on a division on less than two weeks' notice. And I would have been fascinated to see how this played out if Uswant had another two rounds to work

because it did feel like he had taken momentum. And he was emotional after the fight talking about that because it felt like he felt like that as well. The whole thing just gives me pause because we have been. talking about Hamzaa Shamaev as this eventual UFC champion forever for three years. His destiny has been foretold from the moment we saw him at Fight Island first to that quick turnaround, right? He was supposed to be the next great champion. And now you look at this middleweight division and the weird place it's in, I don't know,

man. What's Sean Strickland's like, if not number one? What's one of his top greatest strengths, right? Cardio. Man does not get tired. And you look at that matchup now. Sean Strickland, if he can survive whatever the hell, Hamzat Shemeyer gives him for that opening round in a potential matchup,

that feels like that's suddenly a much more competitive fight from round two onward than it did on Friday. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. That fight is extremely not competitive if Strickland gets out of the first round. He'll put a whoopin on Hamzaa if he can survive the first round. I'm saying it don't get competitive. It just switches the ass beating.

That is a full YouTube. turn of hands coming one way. And that is just, I don't know, man. It's a weird place right now. But ultimately, I'll end here because I know we're going to talk about this, but I don't think it should even matter. Because my hope is that we don't even have to worry about this any time soon. This is a great win.

It's an admirable win. It's a nice name for the resume. It is not a performance that warrants skipping what is already a crazy crowded queue at 185. What is more impressive to you? Triggis do pussy coming in, demolishing a full camp Robert Whitaker, inside two rounds leaving no doubt or Hamzat Shemai have kind of eking out a pretty close decision over No Camp Usman who was coming up a way class to save a cart like this is simple this is straightforward

yeah Hamzot is the biggest star and maybe ddp is not in the UFC's good graces right now for making the quickest turnaround ever but like some claims are undeniable and if if hamzat jumps ddp because of what we saw today that's just the wrong thing that's just UFC doing the wrong thing Jed, how do you grade the performance? And are you doing the DDP dance right now? I am. This is a great day. It's a great day, baby.

I kind of mentioned it on the watch party. When I was asked, I was like, is this, do we think this is the performance that's going to get you a title fight? Like, it wouldn't shock me if they still went to it. But it's not like Hamzot was really pushing that hard for it. And even Dana at the post fight, like, very noncommittal to where that goes. I think, you know, the biggest winner today is going to be a Zalmachiev. And I think the second biggest winner today is trick is duplice.

I think he now has life for a title fight, which a month ago, he was third in line at best. And now I would handicap him as the presumptive favorite to be the guy to fight Sean Strickland, particularly if they decide, hey, we'd need to get somebody in here to Toronto because actually Volcanoz can't do it. And Strickland will go and DDP should be getting and staying ready at this point in time. So look, I left that fight. I watched it with you on the watch party, Mike. I love that fight impressed by both dudes in different ways. Hamza, I have the same questions Shaheen mentioned.

I think, you know, once is kind of an anomaly, too, is starting to be a trend. We have now seen the two fights Hamzad has had where he didn't just absolutely run roughshot over the dude in the first round or did, but it got out of that. he struggled really, really hard down the stretch and now reports that he may have broken a hand and that could affect it. I also think pretty clearly his cardio was not there and Casey and I were talking about this. That's not the kind of fight that you anticipate your cardio suffering.

Like Hamzat was in dominant positions for four minutes of that fight and those are substantially easier to hold and by the end of that fight it really did kind of look that Usman on 12 days notice. Like Shane said, had a couple more rounds. Like it felt like he was fresher moving forward there. So in that respect, you know, I have some questions about Humzaup. At the same time, I saw a ton of things that were really impressive.

We've never seen anyone do that to Kamar Usman. The way he was wrestling stood out to me the most. I mean, we know that he can. But Kamar Usman is like statistically the greatest defensive wrestler in UFC history. And Hamsup had a pretty easy time once he got connected and getting his series. rolling his finishes on doubles his blast power that he hit a couple of times like we've never seen comor colby coven in an all-american wrestler and we have never seen kamer oosman get run through the chest like that so some impressive stuff i thought he looked better on the feet looked a little more confident

and comfortable than we've seen him there he's still getting better and that's all good and on the other side of it was really impressed by usman on 12 days notice not just kind of wilting after that first round and an experience he can't have had that often in his life, frankly, given that he's one of the best fighters ever, of being totally dominated, and putting the pieces together, creating, like, maybe not doing everything that, like, you would have hoped, maybe push more of a pace and effort at the end, but staying in there, continuing to fight

and working his way back into the fight to, you know, get a draw on one judge's scorecard, and a lot of people out there seem to think he deserved a draw. And if you score that fight a draw, I would not say you're wrong. It's not how I scored it, but I think there are good takeaways from both men. And that's kind of, to tie this all together, sort of my issue with this card coming in is that's kind of the best you can hope for from

fights like these is you can take away good things from people, but 12 days notice is not mixed martial arts. And it is, but it's not high level, world class, top of the food chain, mixed martial arts that we are paying money to watch and enjoy. But the reason we're in this sport is to watch the best in the world, be at their best and compete. And it's not really what we got, frankly, in either the main or co-main, but we still got good things that are at least enjoyable to kind of think about and parse afterwards. So something interesting in related to this conversation. Just email just hit my inbox.

Hamzad Shemayev, Sean Strick, betting lines. Opened after this fight. Habza Ashmaev minus 300 favorite over the champ that has now been bet all the way down already to minus 145 I would I wonder what those lines would have were like last week probably much higher

I would assume that pre this fight those lines are much higher but there's a clear path to victory for for Shickland like a very, very clear. I got to survive hell in the first round, and it'll be hell. But if I can, I'm just going to keep kicking him in the gut and keep putting the pressure on him

and see what happens. And yeah, I don't know who I'd pick in that fight right now. Maybe Chimaev. I'm in the same place. I'm in the same place, which is crazy, which is it's not a place I expected to get to today. I know who I would have picked in that fight two days ago. and it would not have been shot strickland

yeah i do i do want to add though because you mentioned it very briefly jed i didn't mention it but i mean hamzat shami if he did break his hand in that first round like that maybe explains a little bit more of this because that is that is a valid critic like that's a valid point to add to this like for proper context right like we're still uncertain whether that's actually what happened or not but if that is real that is a very important point to throw in this whole conversation It is. I'm always less like, I give a little less credence because weird things happens in fights. And so it's just, it's one of those sort of just is what it is. It explains it a little more.

But again, I'm less likely to believe that just because this is not the first time. We've seen him have a dominant round one and then be a little listless and not do too much in the following round. Gilbert Burns, the fight went very similar to this, honestly. Yeah. And at the same token, he was able to dig. deep and find a way to win despite the man the man is not a wilting lily he he's going to keep coming but i have real questions about his cardio and i am absolutely dead certain that he is not winning a if sean strickland i hate this phrase more than anything weaponizes his cardio uh homza chimajav cannot win that particular contest but ddp right now is live and his best friend right now is

availability. When that phone rings and they say, hey, we need you for this date this time. I don't care when it is. You say yes. You say yes and you go. Otherwise, you're getting, Hamzaa Chimai's getting a title shot. So he's going to get one shot. Fascinating. I need that. That's like legitimately one of my most anticipated fights now is DDP Strickland.

The dynamics of that fight are incredibly weird. And I'm so here for it. With MX 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. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats.

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Jed, you said two very important words, and I'm going to go back to you, Shaheen. Incredibly weird, because that's how you can describe a lot of the vibes. The rest of the car. That took place at Abu Dhabi, Shihin. Let's go through this a little bit. We had Maga Man Angalive, Johnny Walker, and in almost, a riot because a doctor just said, eh, this fight's over.

Johnny Walker didn't hear him. And when the referee even made a move and took his hands off him, Johnny Walker went back after Magabanaikalaif. And then the referee said, no, the fight's over. Johnny Walker puts his hands on a ref. Dana White has to get into the cage. A bunch of security gets in the cage

to keep these two dudes away from each other. And it looks like they want to keep fighting. Maybe they found themselves backstage had gotten to a scrap, not really sure, unanswered questions there. That doctor, that was not the first time he has been involved throughout this card because during the Javid Basharat, Victor Henry fight, Victor Henry gets kicked in the ding ding and he is hurting. He dude is screaming in agony to the point where I am in pain for him because of how painful his face looked. The guy who

never got finished at a fight is just screaming bloody murder and the doctor comes into the cage and says, hey man, you can get kicked in the balls. Inexcusable. And then Victor Hed is like, he got it all. He got the whole enchilada. And the fight ends in a no contest. We have two no contests. On top of that, Jehene, we have, at least to my knowledge,

because I didn't see any of the post-fights scrums or got any updates from the post-fight scrums once the watch party started. We had at least three fighters in this card who won fights go into the back, speak to the media, and said that they had pretty gnarly staff infections heading into the fight and still competed and were cleared to compete.

Shaheen, what the frig is going on here? What is going on? Because we got the top two storylines, but the rest of this, all of this stuff, this is bizarre. What the hell happened? I just cannot do it. Mike, heck.

Dude, it was like 10 a.m., where I am. and I had to just like straight up to a field sobriety test because I was feeling like these prelims had me drunk. Like these prelims were off the rails. They had way too many mimoses for how early it was. It was, what are we doing? What do we? I don't even know where to start.

So I want to start with that doctor because it's one thing if you like have one mess up on a car, but to be able to pull off what he did with Victor Henry, where the balls it must take on that man to come into a cage when a professional cage fighter is screaming in agony and you were just straight up being like, nah, dude, just sack up.

I don't know why you're going for an Oscar here. Like, clearly nothing happened. Just deal with it. To say that to a professional cage fighter who is writhing on the ground in terrible agony is just a ludicrous thing to me to even like think of doing. Like, how is that your decision making in that exact moment?

It's to try to call this out on his BS. That is crazy to me. Then we find out later that Henry is throwing up in the back and that his testicles have swelled to the size of a small, semi-seedless orange, according to Josh Barnett, which is just tremendous, like, just all around. Shouts to Josh Barnett. Yeah, shouts to Josh Barnett, because I had to really Google what that fruit was. I had not heard about it before.

It's just the best when you use an analogy that no one gets. It's just classy. I just, I can't fathom what was going through that man's head when he's sitting there trying to call BS on Victor Henry. Like, what are we actually talking about? And for that not to be your magnum opus of the night is like a real, crazy thing because that man followed it up with his real main event with the Johnny Walker situation where like what are we actually doing because if you look at the just the general

setup for that right you have a I assume this doctor from hearing him it sounded like he had an Arabic accent I'm Arabic like that just sounded like an Arabic accent um to have a man with an Arabic accent ask a Brazilian in English with a thick accent are you like do you know where you are and then to hear that man say back to him, I'm in the desert. I'm in the desert. And then not accept that as like a logical answer or like a reasonable answer or even like, hey, maybe that's not what the answer you wanted, but you're not going to pursue down the, the, you know, some follow up questions, like go down a path of like, hey, that's, that's funny. But like, where are you actually? Like, you're just going to accept that. Like, well, he clearly doesn't know where he is,

fights off and just wave it off from there is mind blowing. I have, I have watched a sport a long time. I've never seen anything like the way that was handled. That was utterly ridiculous on just a real crazy level. And if Dana White hadn't gotten in the cage afterwards, like we would have seen an actual brawl it felt like, and it would have kind of been deserved. Like, I don't actually, what are you doing? It was a weird ass brawl, too, which is the best part of.

What are you doing? What are we doing, Mike? Like, I'm actually, like, speechless. I don't actually understand who gave that man a medical license, who put that man in that position to make those kind of halls. Explain to me how any of this made sense. I can't. And guess what? This, this relationship is extended to 2028 now. So this guy might be sticking around for another five years at this point. Oh, no.

This dude should never be allowed. That guy's gone. If you are ever sick at Abu Dhabi, do not go to that man for help. Do not go to that man for help. He will not help you. That guy's gone. Yeah, for sure. But she is, there's very, But also, Jed, also, we had some pretty piss-poor officiating tonight, which is not new. Dude. But we had a fight. It's the same bad officiating we always have. Nathaniel Wood did not deserve.

Yeah. Nathaniel Wood did not deserve to win tonight. He did not deserve to win. But he certainly didn't deserve to lose because homeboy Naimov should have absolutely gotten a point taken away after. He did deserve to win. Countless kicks to the ding ding. we had glove grabs. We had multiple offenses,

four, five, six easy, and yet not a single point taken. And if you're vindicated by Islamo Machachev, I think we could tag team the vindication. People who had given us crap about for the last three years. We've been telling people, just cheat.

Just go ahead and grab the fence. Just start the fight with a field goal to the balls because it ain't going to get a point taken away. You're going to get a gigantic advantage from it. And at worst, you could probably do two or three You might even... Before a point even gets taken away. So between that...

You might even get the ringside doctor calling you a liar. Yes. The ringside doctor might come in and stop the fight. Didn't hit you, bro. You're good. Despite you taking the illegal shot. It's craziness. But your reaction to all of this nonsense and this ridiculousness.

So the low blow is really, really bad. Because like, I don't know, we're all dudes. I feel like I've got a pretty good bead. on when someone's faking that particular emotion. And I could see through the screen that he was not faking that. And I think any man in the audience probably also could understand that. It always kills me when like the first reaction of the commentary booth is to be like, did it hit him low?

And on this one, they were like, yeah, no, that's, I got him. We're good. So that was really, really bad. I think, though, I'm willing to give him some slack on the Maga Manicholive one. might be saying, Jed, why would you do that? He did, he rushed the ending and all these things. It's not his fault. Magna and Goliath is cursed. I don't know who, what gypsy woman he offended or whatever, like in holes, but he clearly did something wrong because he's got, he beat Paul Craig for 14 minutes and 59 seconds and gets tapped. He has the whole, you know, Kutalaba weirdness.

And then the Jan Belhovic draw that the UFC now hates him for into this. He's the best, like, heavyweight on earth, and he is clearly a cursed man. So, doctor can't be blamed. These are higher powers at work for him. So that just is what it is. But yeah, it was bad. The officiating on this card was horrendous. Shouts to Tim Elliott, my guy, huge amount of respect for you, Timmy, for one point saying,

I'm going to cheat and niss on the ref to stop me. And then being the one man in history to kind of be screwed by doing that because his blow, was legal. And then it came back to bite him, which is like very odd. Look, it was just weird. And Nathaniel Wood should have won because multiple points should have been taken from I'm off. But I don't know what to tell you.

If you're out here fighting the God's honest, you're screwing up, man. Like, there is an overwhelming amount of empirical evidence to suggest that you have at minimum two fouls free, as long as it's not. the same one. You can make a low blow and a fence grab or a fence grab in an eye poke or a low blow on an eye poke. Shuffle them around. You probably have like four free because half the time they don't even stop you from grabbing the fence. They'll just hit your hand after the advantage has already happened. So you're leaving free value on the table and for a group of athletes who are obsessive to the point of legitimately physically endangering their own short and long term health

to cut weight to get a pound of advantage and the percentages that come with that, why all of you aren't cheating, your absolute balls off is a shock to me because I don't know, I'm pretty comfortable saying Nymov won that fight because he cheated, just straight up because he was losing the fight when he wasn't cheating,

but he cheated a bunch. And so you should just be doing that. There's no reason not to. Yeah, man. I just can't get over it. I just can't get over all that. The one time someone cheating has ever been held against them, the one time is Piadrana. The only time anyone has ever suffered a true negative consequence outside of Javid Basharok got a no contest instead of maybe a win.

Like it is just cheat, man. Like, I don't know what else to tell you. I do not know what you need to see to believe that it is the correct course of action. Because it is just obvious. Somewhere out there. in the suburbs of Chicago, there was Keith Hagni sitting there watching this with a single tear rolling down his cheek

and the most nostalgic, wistful smirk on his face because these prelims were straight out of UFC one. Like, none of this made any sense. And Jed, exactly what you said is like the thing I can't get over, which is like, we're all guys here. That doctor is a guy. He's a man.

We have all been hitting the balls. We all know what it feels like when the kibbles and bits are maybe not all the way there. How are you going to call someone out on that? How are you going to be like, nah, man, it didn't actually happen. Like, Casey, I know you have trained with Victor Henry. I know he is more or less a teammate of yours. Can you come in here real quick?

Is Victor Henry like this amazing, I guess? Doesn't he specifically train getting hit in the nuts? Hold on. Is he the best actor slash actress that we have ever seen MMA produce? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we often, when I go to our grappling sessions, is really we just stand on a stage and we perform Shakespeare

and Victor Henry is just a master of Shakespeare. You know, the one with the the big fruity collars. Yeah. Yes, yes, that one. Dude, I was I was watching it with teammates

and we were just like, like we just Victor Henry is such a tough dude. and he's super talented and he was in a tough fight. And yeah, I don't know. It just, it was weird watching as a media member and watching my friend also in there, that happening to him.

I was just like, it took a couple of fights for me to get over it, honestly, before I just kind of, and this is all bringing back bad memories. So, but now I do know. I'm sorry about it. But next time when I do see Victor come back to the gym, I do know how to beat him. now.

Oh, God. Secrets out. Secrets out. Blueprint. You got the blueprint. I want to say too, because like all of this is kind of excusing like what may actually have been the worst thing, which is seemingly Victoria Dutakova and a couple other fighters having just like really gnarly staff infections.

Definitely the worst thing of the whole part. That like blew up apparently in the middle of these fights. Like some of the quotes from Dutakova were pretty insane. And like, you know, other. other than the fact that it's completely disgusting and dangerous and not to mention selfish to just kind of put all athletes on the card who basically every person involved with this card's health at risk by hiding something like this. The thing that I don't get,

which is actually something Dana White said as well, is like it also just incredibly bizarre to me to announce it in great deal after the fact. Like the fact, like once you manage to pull this over on the UFC and you got away with it, you got away with it. Why are you telling anybody? Get out of there. Get out of Abu Dhabi.

go back. The man who robs the bank does not return to tell the bank how he did it. Like that is crazy to me that you're going to be up there and just be like, oh yeah, no, I totally got one over on the UFC and I put everyone at risk, everyone's health at risk. Like, that's nuts, man. What are you doing? It's nuts. Crazyness. Absolutely craziness. The other thing I learned today, Shaheen, is something that you tweeted, and we'll go to the fan questions as well. First of all, Iqar Malas Scaref, Saddam, Madov. Easy nights at the office. but we also learned a valuable lesson

that if you ever get in a fist fight and it feel like you're losing, just be an absolute maniac, just act like you are possessed and be the craziest person you can be because you will psych out your opponent who is winning the fight and is a live favorite at like minus 1,200.

Because that's what Mike Breeden did. He missed weight, he was losing two rounds, and then he went psycho on poor Jubilee and got a crazy finish in the third round. So that's another valuable lesson. Always cheat and if you're losing, just go mental and you'll win.

There you go. Congratulations, Mike Breeden. Dude, that fight was insane. How good was that? How fucking close was that? That was unbelievable. That man went full rough riders in there and it totally worked. It did.

Totally worked. Awesome. Dude. You just got to retire for your Jubilee, man. Like, it's ain't for you. That's just it. And look, like, that's a good thing. talking to like I have a law degree. I went to school, us, but a lot of time, a lot of money to get

my jurist doctorate. And then I realized this ain't for me. And now I know not to do this. Antichael Jubilee, you now know this ain't for you because that man just, I don't, I don't know. I don't know what he did. He looked like he saw a go. He looked like. All of the things happening there are things like that if someone did that to me in public, I would have to fight them on principle. And he is supposed to be fighting this man's like, I'm good. I don't want it. I'm out. Like, you, you're just done.

We've now found that you're not this guy and that's okay. What's wild is that seemed like the sole factor that swung things. Yeah. It's like, that was the thing that was the catalyst that sort of changed the momentum was the just doing the DMX, like going full DMX. He literally looked like he saw a ghost in there. I don't, like that man took lessons from Nick Diaz because that is the Nick Diaz formula to a T, right? We saw him do this to tack an origami all the way back at Pride 33.

Like you just got to out crazy your opponent when you're left with no other options. And sometimes it works. And that actually worked. I can't believe it. That was, that was like, that is a lesson for us all in life, right? If you ever have problems. If life ever hands you situations that you cannot deal with and you're just really going through something, just start barking in people's faces.

Yep. It'll work out. It'll work out. It's a terrible cliche to say that like in combat sports or, in any team sport. They just wanted it more because everybody wants it. Not this time.

This is one of the very rare times that pretty clearly one dude wanted it more than the other dude and that was the determining factor in the outcome. Shocking. There's a bash going up about me.

I hear American boy by Estelle just crank it upstairs. So, yes, that whole thing reminded me of and then we'll move on. Do you ever see the movie I love you, man? Are they celebrating a movie? man. Yes.

So there's a scene in the movie where. Just scream at the dude after the dog poops on the sidewalk and the guy steps in it. And tell Jason to pick up the poop. And he just screams out of him. He goes, why don't you shut your hall? Blah! Blah! And the guy just like runs away.

That's exactly what that was. It was incredible because Breeden tried to talk to him. It was trying to do the Ricardo Lama's thing and it wasn't working. And then he realized, okay, I got to turn this up to like Christian Bale American Psycho levels. And you had like Huey Lewis and the. news playing in his head and just went bananas. So here's how you know it was good. Here's how you know it was good because I don't know that I've ever seen this before.

Our good friend Alexander K. Lee wrote the recap article for that fight. And I believe the headline was, I want to pull it up, Mike Breeden goes feral. Like that is when you win the headline for your win, when the headline for your win is your name, then the words goes feral right afterwards. Take a bow. you've done it. You've won the night. Well done, A.K., proud of you for that one. Good job, buddy.

Casey, come on back. Let's take a few questions from the peeps before we get out of here. This was a thing. This is a card. It was a card. It was a card, huh? It doesn't sound like we're all as glowing about this as people were a week ago. Who could have told you that? I don't know. It wasn't a bad card.

It was just a very weird. Weird, weird. I think the changes. The changes wouldn't have changed the fact that like the first four hours of this card were just on meth. Like that didn't make out. Nothing made any sense. I think this card would be really bad if it wasn't 7 p.m. And I'm just stoked about how cool that is.

Yes. If this was two in the morning or whatever, I'd be pretty unhappy, I think. Yeah. Breeden does have that dog in him. Yeah. All right. What else? What else we got?

All right. Was that an example of Usman's stock going up even in defeat? Yeah, I don't think so. I think his stock just sort of stayed the same, right? Kind of lateral move. I don't know that anybody thinks lesser or more of him right now. Maybe that's true. Yeah, I think how the UFC views him is going to improve a little bit.

I think he gets a little favor for this for taking the fight and then being competitive and overcoming the storm in the first round. but I don't think like that performance is just like, oh, let's take Colby out of the title fight and he fights Leon again. I don't think it did that. But his next fight will still be an important fight. And I guess here's the issue I have with Usman. I started thinking about this this week. It's not really fun to have him in middleweight because like do you care about watching him fight any middleweight that's like maybe Robert Whitaker would be fun.

but that also feels like that's like a big jump up. But like, do you care to watch Kamala Usman fight Brendan Allen? Or something like who, what middleweights are fun matchups for him? He's in an odd spot. He's in a really tough spot. I don't want to see him fight Bo Nicol. I think Bo Nichol probably beats him.

And I just, that's, I get the point of that. But what? What? What, that's, like, what are we even talking about? Commerer Usman's like the second greatest world's right of all time. who's just like a year removed from being champion. Why are we throwing up against Bo Nickel? I'm not saying right now,

but if you're asking me like what fight at middleweight, what fights at middleweight would intrigue me, that would be one of them. That would be okay. I think that that's one of the better ones, but it's just like, you look at these other ones. If Volk just bails on featherweight,

like every lightweight matchup is sick and I'm here for all of them. If Mokachev decided to come up to Walterweight, most of those are at least pretty compelling. Usman coming up is just like, Robert Whitaker is really the only one that I'm interested in, and that feels like a big jump. But like, I don't need to see Camaro fight Jack or Manson or whatever.

So it's, I didn't think about it until kind of in the immediate bill. It was like, I don't really know where he goes from here with the loss. I know where he goes. I know where he goes. Well, who do you need to see Usman fight? If you don't, if you don't have a middleweight, who do you need to see him? I don't need to see him fight. Well, that's, I just, I don't, the thing is, I don't even know who I want to see him fight.

There's a very obvious answer here of where he goes. Because in like two months... Light heavyweight? No. Jan Boehovic? Yes. Do we finally get the Jan Bilhovic fight? In two months, Colby Covington might be the Wells Royed champion.

And then suddenly, Kamar Usman might get a free ride back to a title shot. And you know that that's true. And you know that that's possible. So that's what it is. It's a happy day. Stop bringing your negativity here about that. I'm just telling you that you need to prepare for that scenario. Because if Colby Covington wins that title,

the first person he's going to call out is Kamara Usman. No, first person is going to be Connor. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean. Connor is number two. Or Dustin Borier. Colby knows what he's doing, man. Like, he knows what he's doing.

I think Usen probably fights the winner. I'm giving away an honor pick. I don't care. He's probably going to fight the Wonderboy Shafcott winner. That's probably what he gets from this. Oh, God. It's probably the fight. When Shofcott kills him, can we just make him champion?

Why do we keep delaying? the best guy in the weight class from having the belt. We did it with Shemaya like three years ago and look how that's worked out for us. There are clearly some dudes. There are some dudes who pretty clearly are the best guy or at least really have a compelling argument for it. Let him get the shot. We spent four years hiding Habib when he could have just been the champ that whole time.

Let's just do it with Shafkat, man. Were any questions answered for you guys in the co-main event? No. No. And that was my problem with the fight. It's so amazing. It's so amazing. The outcome, the hand injury, the circumstances, circumstances coming into the fight.

I actually have more questions. Exactly. Questions. No. Nothing was answered. Everything. I can't really think of a fight like that. That went 15 minutes.

And we are more confused about where both those gentlemen are in the grand sense. game of thinks it's wild let me ask let me ask you guys if you had over under for how many fights kamar usman has left in his career 2.5 over under over yeah i say over i'm always going to take the over because fighters don't know when to walk away i think he knows when to walk away i don't think that he wants to do this very much longer i think he'll do three more i think he gets paid quite well and it seems like he'll just keep doing if he loses two in a row i guess that would put him at what how many is he in all on so three fight losing streak right now yeah so if he loses two more and he's on five maybe i think that's it that's a two and a half's a good

line i think he gets two i think he has two left i think as soon as he starts making whatever he's making like under 750 i'll go that kind of as soon as like they start maybe bringing his his pace go down but i think until then he's going to be over my thought to him versus bobby knuckles just do that That's fine. Because neither dude is doing anything at the moment. Why? That's so pointless. Robert Whitaker.

He's fighting for a belt. Robert Whitaker could actually become champion again. Like he is now open in this middle. I don't know. I just watched him fight Drickus Duplessi and he's a ways out. Triggis beat him like he owed him money. That fight was not. Yes.

Yeah, we all saw it. But also Robert Whitaker versus Sean Strickland is a very different matchup. I don't know. I don't get why you just say it. Yeah, I just don't think he's getting random stuff. Because Robert Whitaker's not, like he's three fights away from fighting for a belt right now. In a middleweight title, in a middleweight picture that might be strictly versus Hamzad. It's like, I think he's well out of the picture.

So you just keep him busy. Because otherwise he's going to fight, which I'm not like super opposed, but do you need to watch him fight Jack or Manson? I'd way rather watch him fight tomorrow. That's at least like interesting in a different way. I'll tell you who I want to see him fight. And it may not be now, but Ikema Alaskaroff, man. I want to see that frigate fight. We all know who's fight Nicarum because I wouldn't sign off here.

Dude. Pass. Poor war. No, thanks. I don't think even Bo Nico ain't calling him calling him out. Everyone's avoiding that name. Set up your prayer circles for McManard because it is not going to be easy to manage make that guy moving forward.

No, U.S.C. middleweight is going to be accepted that phone call. He's on the Umar path of no one will. take me. No, no one's going to fight me, guys. Nasserdinia mob. Who can you force to fight me? Who can you make fight me? Because that you don't like them. That's it. Yeah. Oh, um, I know we already talked about this, but I just want to throw my two cents in. Yeah, this is complete bullshit by those fighters to do something like that because that means they've been training on those same mats all week, infecting the potentially infecting other fighters. And training partners and

And just staff, people like working around the event. The literal staff that works there. Yeah, that's, um, yeah, you don't do that. Disgusting, man. Yeah, you know, it's this freaking staff infection. Like, like, people. That's how stuff gets bad. That's just like, yeah, I don't understand that it happens.

It's offensive. It's offensive that a fighter would do that, you know. It's incredibly ever trained. It's like, if you've ever trained, it's like the first thing. Hey, are you good? don't come if you have no don't don't come to the gym dude

that infection has killed people like those people like limbs all the time chopped off yeah yeah just yes it's incredibly selfish it's and that's my thing like hey man if that's going to be what you're going to do you're going to make your choices

I'm not going to I obviously can't do anything to stop you why are you telling us about it telling why are you telling us about it if I'm if I'm someone who got away with shooting a person in the desert and no one saw me do it I'm certainly not telling that story the first like public pulpit I get. Like that's crazy to me. Yeah, dude.

What if instead you can write a book called How I Did It? Do it D.C. did. We all know. Deny, deny, deny, deny. And then when your career's over and you get inducted in the Hall of Fame, then tell the story. Then you could say it. Then everyone's like, oh, that DC, we forgive you. I, there's nothing to forgive.

That's still one of the funniest things to happen in the history. this sport. You definitely don't do it. And there are actual people still fighting on the same mats that you just walked off of. Do what, yeah, do what Shamiyaf did and just get the hell out of dodge

and just leave and don't say anything. That's what you do. What's next for Walker and Angolaive rematch? No? You gotta do it. Can we talk about how insane that post fight was, whereas like Johnny Walker shoves the referee, which like should should probably get him

in some real trouble and is not going to, obviously. and then it's just like tries to fight without the referee stopping him and then so ankle i have gets like mad and held back i don't that was it devolved very quickly yep have to earn a back light heavyweight is just eternally cursed ben i hope i hope so badly that this curse does not follow us to new york city because i'm so i'm so looking forward to that fight yeah that is my most anticipated fight of the year more than the main event more of the main event for sure same and just easily. Please don't ruin it. Please don't ruin it. Please.

No. That fight's insulated because it already has the weirdness of Alex Pereira's entire career and being just the most anomalous human being that's ever competed in this sport. So it's fine. That will be weird when he becomes a champ champ, champ, like a two-division champion in 10 fights. That will be the weird part. Is Volcanowski versus Toporia less exciting now? Nope.

I don't think so. Not unless it happens in January. Yeah, then it's not exciting. If anything, it's more interesting to me now. A healthy time. Yeah, I agree. I agree. It feels more interesting to me now.

Definitely. I mean, we just saw Alexander Volcanozky get knocked out. Like, you know, like this, we've seen it. It's a layer. Yeah, we've seen it now. There's proof in front of our eyes that this can happen. Yeah, I agree because, you know, the first time that fight, those kind of unstoppable fighters, I remember when Anderson got knocked out by Wydenman.

It kind of broke our brains for a bit because we couldn't visualize that, you know? And now we've seen Volcanowski get iced. So it definitely is, I mean, I think it's, but I think it's more interesting to us. I don't know if the UFC knows how to sell that, though. How are they going to sell? Or they just, it just never happened. You know, how are they going to, like, I think like Japanese promotions. They always sell, like, losses and, you know, this guy's coming back.

not over here. They kind of, you know, I don't know if the UFC is going to They're going to just sell a grudge. They're going to sell a grudge, yeah. Ely is going to say some mean things and they'll just focus on that for their promotion. Oh.

Can we can we really quickly? They should have more depth on this though because that fight's awesome. It is awesome, but I don't think the UFC would you know, they don't have the depth and promote. Yeah, the, you know what I'm saying. Real quick, real quick. Because I don't know how much longer we're going to go

I really want to mention this. Yeah, let's do this. Casey, can you throw back up the intro screen, the post-show intro screen? This photo, this photo from, I got a shout out. Chris Unger took this photo. This is maybe the coldest photo I have ever seen. Like, this is an iconic photo for people listening to the podcast. It's Islam Mankachev doing the quiet sign with Alexander Volcanovsky blurry in the back.

I am blown away by this photo. I have been staring at this photo for like an hour. This is an incredible. shot man. I love the little bit of blurry blood that you can see on bulk too. Just that a little bit of like cut right on his eye too. Like it's it is a good photo. There's so much you can break down from that photo.

Like Makachep just walking away in his own world, Volkanowski down blurred with multiple people surrounding him checking on his well-being. And Makachep is just telling everyone to quiet down and the referee's hand is just there like, okay, I'm just going to make sure you don't. go back and land another shot. It's just so great. It's just incredible. Unbelievable.

All done, Chris. Good. Kudos Chris Unger. That is, again, we're going to be seeing that photo for the rest of our lives. Indeed. It's up there. I'm also going to take this opportunity because I do it every time this man fights. RIP Abdulman up because you were a fucking unbelievable coach, man.

Yeah. Like, look at what he did, guys. He just took two dudes. Dude, so Dachstan is like, I'm going to make you the best fighters in the world. Dude. By the end of this. And Oosman's coming. And it's the problem.

I tweeted about it. I was like, if you are a dude weighing between 155 and 170 pounds and you have title aspirations, bounce. F on that. Get a new job. Put on some weight. Cut off a limb. Because Islam's holding it down for like two to three years.

And by then Ustman will be here. And guess what? He'll be 28 in two. two to three years. This is, the lightweight belt runs through Dagestan for like two decades. Just deal with it. It is unbelievable what Abdulmanop did over there.

By the end of this story, and we are not there yet, and this is just all potential, but by the end of this story, that man may have trained the three greatest lightweights in the history of this sport. That is ridiculous.

The best weight classed in the history of the sport, and he made the three best, like it is unreal what he did. It's freaking wild And, you know, also shouts to Javier Mendes Who certainly plays a role in this Oh yeah, absolutely Absolutely

But like Javier's always Always the first to give Abdulmanop credit And like I felt when Abdulmanop passed The story was entirely about what Habib lost And I understand that and that makes sense But like the MMA world legitimately lost Of somebody really meaningful that day And I don't think it gets mentioned enough

The plain agree New York, shut that out. Maybe the best coach in the sport. Maybe the best coach in sport. He changed the game. He changed the game. He absolutely did that.

My, Victor Henry's coach, my coach, Chad George, who wasn't there tonight. He recently, about six months ago, he was in Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe,

or a box of fighters over there. And he came back, and now all during our grappling sessions, he's just like, guys, they fight so much harder than we fight. Like,

these guys, like they eat glass these kids these daga sani wrestlers eat glass for breakfast like you do not understand how tough these wrestlers are and like so like it's it's really exciting watching these three lightweights well it could be retired but just just just change the game and that's just it's just a really exciting part about mixed martial arts i love it all right well said casey hit the music All right. Also, Shud's his active longest winning streak in the UFC. Oh, yeah.

Yes. In wins, I think he actually may have had it. Maybe he was just tied at 12. He had it. No, he had it. Definitely had, oh, so he definitely had it. He had it heading in. But that win streak continues on.

13 wins is impressive. 13 wins is impressive. You know, the record is 16, so pretty good. Yep. What a weird card. Exciting moments. Drama. Shitty doctors.

This thing had it all, everybody. Think about Adriano Martinez and getting to dine out on that story for the rest of your life, man. Hell yeah. Now we have John Jones coming back at UFC 295, which is just in three weeks. Three weeks from right now, the prelims will be going on at Madison Square Garden. Can we get Gianna Martins and Matt Hamill? together to just like have a beer as those dudes, you know. I'll get Matt Ham on the watch.

I'm already. How about that? Thank you all very much for Jed, for Casey, for Shaheen, A.K. And I will see you tomorrow for on to the next one. Until then, everybody, have a good night. Thanks for watching. Love y'all. Let's go, D-Backs.

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