MMA Fighting - UFC 297 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Dricus Du Plessis Winning Title vs. Sean Strickland

Episode Date: January 21, 2024

Dricus du Plessis is the new UFC middleweight champion after defeating Sean Strickland via split decision in the main event of UFC 297. While the fight was very close, did the judges get it right? Following Saturday's pay-per-view event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, and Jed Meshew react to the scorecards, du Plessis' championship win, and what will be next for the new champion. Additionally, they'll discuss Raquel Pennington's bantamweight title win against Mayra Bueno Silva, her likely first title defense against Julianna Pena, the overall grade for the promotion's first PPV event of 2024, Movsar Evloev's impressive win over Arnold Allen and where it puts him at 145 pounds, and 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 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 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. Why do you save and invest? Is it so you can spend hours every day glued to the stock ticker, worrying about every movement up or down? Or is it so that you can live a better, happier, more fulfilling life? Betterman wants to help people invest to live, not live to invest. With features like automated saving, global diversification, and tax-smart tools,

Betterment is full of ideas to help you reach your goals without having to babysit your investments. They help their customers invest so that they can go live their lives. Go to Betterment.com to learn more. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. a podcast network. The sweet, sweet sounds of the victory horns following the first UFC pay-per-view of 2024, and they sound for Drickus Dupless C, the new Middle A champion, and Raquel Rocky Pennington, the new women's Banimay champion, as we welcome you to the never-ending

UFC 297 coverage on this Saturday night, I guess, slash late, early Sunday morning. Welcome to the show, everybody. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us. And we got a crew here, of course, by Bald Brethren, the Wise Wardsman, himself. Shaheen Al-Shadi joins us. How are we doing, my friend? We're doing good, a little tired.

We're going to power through it. I don't know how you East Coasters are doing it, and especially you Europeans. I don't know how you guys do it all this time. but we're going to power it through. It's going to be a great time. Yes. And the man who rated this card, zero Michoulin stars on paper.

Do you spell vindication, J.E.D. Shed Bishu. South Africa. South Africa. That's right. That's Nelson Mandela, who I'm pretty sure, would actually hate DDP.

But who cares? Let's go South Africa. What a night, boys. What an evening. Two new champions. Yes. Two-do champions. I'm trying to bring the energy, guys.

I love it. I love it. Look, Scotia Bank Arena broke all sorts of records. They did record gates. We set the record for the longest watch party in the history of the watch parties with this card. But Shaheen actually brought up a really interesting question before we went live. So I want to start with you, Jed, because as you mentioned before,

Drickus Duplice is the new middleweight champion of the world. And we'll get into, I guess, the big storyline. and the big talking point and a little bit later on. But right now, DDP and Strickland, they have a very competitive fight. Both guys are battered.

Both guys are bloody. In the end, DDP gets an obvious split decision. What is your biggest takeaway from this fight? What is the biggest takeaway from DDP's win over Sean Strickland? It was a great question. We were talking about it before the show went live

and I jokingly said just punch real hard because that's the difference in the fight. I think if it would be a little more serious and try to like really think about it, I think the answer is just that both of these dudes are good at fighting, right? Like, and I know that that seems really simplistic and maybe to some extent it is. But the narrative coming in to both of these gentlemen's career last year was that they weren't very good at fighting or that they had like pretty defined ceilings. And then 2023 they did some big impressive things. Obviously, Sean Strickland becomes fighter of the year.

But I certainly had the question with Strickland more than DDP. The way DDB had kept kind of going through it, I felt that at the minimum he could compete like very long term. Maybe not long term, but like that this was less of a fluke. Whereas I was genuinely questioning whether Sean Strickland was going to be a Cody Garbrand-like figure. Like a guy who gets. to the title through, you know, some pretty fortunate circumstances, has the best performance of his career, absolutely runs up a much more accomplished dominant champion and then falls off.

I thought that maybe that was in play. I wanted to see how Strickland sort of responded. And he put on a great fight. Is that everyone's favorite fight? Is this going to be fight of the year? No. But I thought it was a captivating fight. I can't wait to watch it back.

I thought there were a lot of tactical decisions going on. And while some of the backlash certainly in the big brain MMA bubbles is these dudes suck at fighting, I get how you get there because they're not pretty with it. Like they are not brilliant technicians in all respects. But what they are doing works very well for their game and ended up leading to what I thought was a compelling and fun fight. I have no issue with the score. I wouldn't have had any issue if you scored it for Sean Strickland. And my biggest takeaway is that, yeah, these two dudes,

are two of the three best middleweights in the world. And I'm excited to sort of see this rivalry, which I got really pumped about last year and now feel somewhat vindicated that the fight was good and we'll get a rematch at some point. Gene, you're the one that brought this question. Hold on. That's interesting you say two of the three

because to me it feels like there's a clear four. So who you leaving out of the three? Who are you putting in your four, I guess, is the question. Hamzaad and Izzy is the other two. Yeah. So I'm somewhat intentionally leaving out Izzy. Both is a jab. And because I'm mostly just in putting Izzy and Hamzat at half.

Like I just, I'm not sure if either of them are there. Izzy obviously is extremely accomplished. But as somebody pointed out in our preview show, or not the preview show, the pre-fight Q&A, Izzy's lost two of his last three. And like, yes, he beat Alex Prayer. Alex prayer is sort of an anomaly, et cetera. I think Izzy's probably good and like still at that elevated tier. But it also wouldn't shock me given his long, like long fight career if he's past the prime now.

Like I'm very certain that Sean Strickland and Drickus Duplice are at the peak of their powers or still not yet to the peak of their powers. I think there's very much an argument that Izzy's passed it. And Hamzaat, I think, is also in that sort of bucket with DDP and Strickland. but I also just don't actually know how good he is at middleweight. So it's kind of weird to place them. It's an odd situation at 185 right now. It's an odd situation, but as I sit here, I've been thinking, I've been sitting around for the past couple hours trying to just process this right,

trying to think about what are my big takeaways from this fight as I'm writing my column right now? And ultimately, I think I land in sort of the same place as you, Jed, that like this fight alone tonight makes me more excited about where middleweight is and where middleweight is going. because I like you, I said on the preview show, my biggest question coming into this was, I didn't really know who was real

amongst the sort of the headliners we had here with DDP, Sean Strickland, both of them, just like you said, coming into their last fight before this, right? We had very different perceptions of both of these men. I said it, I said yesterday, DDP was like a meme fighter very much so. He was very sloppy out there, but like it was really fun always,

and it was intriguing in a way, but it was, there was like an element of like, this isn't going to work at the highest, highest levels. And then Sean, like, we knew who Sean was. He was the apex guy. And then all of a sudden, he has this incredible year, fight of the year. And we think of him completely different. So I really was curious, are both of these guys legitimate, right?

Are both of these guys really at this level where we can, like, very easily call them, like, two of the best metal weights in the world? And, dude, tonight was great. Like, I really enjoyed tonight. I was super excited to see how this clash of styles would go to two guys with very different kinds of forward pressure. but still very relentless forward pressure, suffocating pressure in and of itself, right? DDP, very much physicality,

just the heavy hooks, the big swings of power, and then Sean Strickland with the march of the jab, the one two, the Philly Shell defense, both these guys just don't like to give an inch, and that was always going to be very intriguing with me, and the way it played out was a very fun chess match, man. Like I really enjoyed it.

Again, like I said, I don't know that this is going to end on, some fight of the year list, but this was really intriguing for as long as it lasted. I had it ultimately three, two for DDP where Strickland could have bookended it with round one and round five and the DDP took all the sandwich rounds in between. But I mean, round two was incredibly close, right? So if you're out there saying. So those are round three.

The top of the hills. Round three was a little bit more clear to me, but I could give you either of those, right? Like there, I wouldn't complain if anybody. I think you and three are interchangeable to me. I wouldn't have any issue either side. And so if you're out there saying that Sean Strickland got robbed or Sean Strickland should have won this fight, like I'm not going to argue with you. Like there's a very clear and decisive way that you could have given it to Sean Strickland 3 to 2 as well. So this was just really fun, man.

And it made my expectations for what middleweight will be moving forward, at least in 2024, rise a little bit. Because one of my big predictions coming into the year. It was not going on a limb or anything like that. But just that this is going to be year of extreme volatility for 185 because that's just what tends to happen. when we have these dominant champions who suddenly lose grip of their titles, right? Almost every time throughout UFC history when you have a long-reigning champion

suddenly fade away, the clamor within the division, the struggle to sort of become that next guy, is always really fun to me because it's always just like you dropped a bomb in the middle of something, and then all of a sudden you see and everybody try to figure it out.

That's what we were sort of been left with since Alex Pereira injected his wizardry into all of this, right? Like this is four, now four middleweight title fights in a row where the way we end up is not the way we started. The title ends up changing hands. I think we could stretch that number to five or six by the end of this year.

Like this feels like this is not only the beginning of the story for the middleweight division of 2024 because hell man, like, DDP's talking about turnaround for UFC 300. He could fight, Izzy or Hamzot in that fight. I think he could lose either of those fights. And then whoever wins that could lose again at the end of the year. Like we could just have so many different title changes throughout this year. But all of it is interesting, right? Like all of the different permutations of these matchups feel really worthwhile and worth exploring. And that to me is a really cool place to get to with 185 because it wasn't too long ago where we were looking at this division.

And we kind of were side eye in it, kind of giving it that glance of like, man, I don't know what else is kind of good around here. And now this feels completely reinvented in a really fun way. Yeah. And there's a whole bunch of dudes coming too. The Icarap's who unfortunately is no longer fighting UFC 298, but even like guys like Roman Coppuloff is just full. Golden Foods, Brennan Allen, the Joe Pfeiffer's, the Bo Nichols, those guys are all coming. They're all coming. And I think we could be seeing that sort of thing happen over the next few years, let alone

just in 2024. And I guess like from a stylistic perspective, I guess I had two takeaways. One, just be a trier because that's what DDP did. He kept trying things and then he would just get closer to Sean. Like it seemed like he couldn't hit Sean at all in the first round. He tried and threw spinning stuff and just threw as hard as he could. And Sean was just peppered him and DDP couldn't touch him. Round two, he was still missing, but he was getting a little bit closer.

Then he started to land a little bit more. And then round three, he started to really land and he busted up Sean a little bit. And that's just kind of. And the other thing, and I think this is one of my biggest questions heading in, nose job DDP is for real. Like this is no longer a mythical creature. It's just an actual thing now. Because he seemed like the fresher guy.

Like heading out of round four, DDP looked like he could run a marathon. And I'm not saying Sean was like gassing or anything, but he certainly looked like he was slowing down. And then, of course, Sean comes out and just grits and bites down on the mouthpiece and does what you would expect a guy like Sean Strickland to do in round five. And he just threw ham,

started landing the overhand right. And it was just a really interesting, fight to watch. But yeah, the cards to me were I knew we were going to Splitty City. I had no doubt about that, but I felt pretty good that DDP won round two.

Round three to me, I thought was the closest round, at least doing the watch party with everything going on. But I still ultimately gave it to DDP. I thought DDP clearly the one round four and then round five was a strickland round. But yeah, 48, 47. Either way, I think is a fair card.

I don't think there's any robbery here, but it's a pretty good fight. I mean, again, like you guys said, it's not, it's no Yawanna-Lee Lee. It's not, but. Great fight though. Still a good fight. I enjoyed the hell of it. Yeah, same.

Edge of your seat kind of stuff, because I felt like we were all sitting there watching, like we felt like a big, huge moment was going to happen. And even though that it didn't, it was still really compelling to watch. So, DDP the new champ. After you. I was just going to also it's fun in these type of matchups to watch the adjustments being played out right because you were right in the first round it was such it was such a strong strickland round and that felt like it was going to set the tone of what was very much going to be another Sean Strickland domination and we would have we have a big different conversation right now if that was how it played out but DDP comes out makes the adjustments for the second and third and then it's just sort of that push and pull that back and forth like that was really fun and also like not for nothing I know the takedowns didn't really do much but but But they did open up the game a little bit more, it felt like for DDP. And that's something that Sean Strickland just hasn't really dealt with that much at middleweight.

Like he's been taken down once his entire career since moving back to middleweight in 2020 after that motorcycle accident. That was against Abis. And he was down for like 23 seconds or 13 seconds or something like that. Like it wasn't meaningful at all. But DDP really like kept mixing up, kept getting him down. He was never able to really hold him down, do much with it. But it was just throwing different wrinkles in there that mixed things up. where Sean, like Sean is Sean, right?

Like Sean, it seems like such a base level analysis to say that. But like Sean Strickland is going to do what Sean Strickland is going to do. And he doesn't really change up the game that much. He's going to, whether he's walking forward, staying holding his ground or going backwards, he's going to throw that one too. He's going to jab a ton. He's going to use that defense. And he's just going to be really awkward and evasive with it.

Check a lot of those low kicks. Like Sean Strickland's game plan is very effective, it seems like, against a lot of these guys at the highest level. the division, especially the way he sort of fine-tuned it over the past year or so. It's just that when you're fighting these power punchers like a DDP or even like a Jared cannoneer, right, you go back to the canineer fight that Sean lost. It's the optics of it that are really almost not working for him because it's like we said at the top.

Like if DDP is throwing these massive shots that maybe are not hitting all the way, but they have the optics of doing well, it's easier for a judge in real time to parse that than, you know, one or two jabs that are really quick and that land really nice that even ddp afterwards was saying like dude it felt like i was getting hit by a rock that type of thing like that's harder for a judge to see than these big massive hooks that seem to take everything that ddp's thrown out of yeah it was just it was just a compelling watch it really was and then just like i said ecology of the toronto crowd like strickland is the is mr canada all week and then by like round four we're getting DDP chants and then like 10 seconds later we're getting a Sean Strickland chant and they were

like turning the entire fight it was just wild to watch but great effort from both guys what could you say and DDP gets it done and it seems like he wants to turn around for UFC 300 he looked pretty banged up he even admitted as such I wonder if it is going to be easy I wonder if it is going to be Shamiah but Dana White was back to his well we're not going to announce fights the day of the fight kind of thing but he seems pretty confident by like next week we're going to get an announcement here so one to 10 jed confident scale is ddp in the main event of ufc 300 after this win

nine i think i think i think i was a bit ambitious when i said they'd announced it at the post fight uh particularly after a fight like that i think jiggis is going to take a couple of days maybe he has like a hand injury or something he wants to get an x-rayed but i think they'll take a couple of days and the reason dana said they'll announce next week is they will know next week whether it's ddp versus izzie or Izzy versus Pereira because I think that those are the two things that are overwhelmingly likely to happen. So I still think it's a nine. I think DDP appeared to largely just have flesh wounds.

You know, like the face is marked up and that sucks, but that's not, you know, going to really prohibit him too much from training and prep. And he can take a couple of days and then get right back in the gym and get ready to fight Izzy. Are you at a nine, Shaheen? I don't know if I'm at a nine, but I think I'm probably at like a 7 and a half or 8 Yeah it feels like the middleweight division In some respect is going to be involved With this UFC 300

Top of the card I don't know if Would you Mike let me throw your Throw this in you because you're such a matchmaker right Like do you think DDP where he is right now versus Hamza if they can't get Izzy Is that a UFC 300 level main event

Um Yeah Because I don't know that I'm there for it fully. I don't know then if you just do the BMF fight as the main event, because obviously no one's going to complain about Justin Gaichi, Max Holloway. What the fuck is going on? Oh, okay. What is going on?

I don't mind having some issues, though it's not registering as it does. So sorry if I interrupted that. I thought I got frozen out again. It's all right. Yeah, I'm here. Like, I think that would suffice, but I kind of feel like Izzy's going to be the guy. I kind of feel like he's going to be the guy. Because I think if he wasn't the guy, I think Dana would have at least ruled him out.

I don't know if he wouldn't have matched it, but he would have been like, nah, he's he ain't come back to like July. But he's just kind of no selling everything at this point. So he just wanted to kind of get out of that press conference as quickly as possible. So last thing before we move on from this fight, because we kind of are on the same page with what goes on with DDP. I'll go to you because Jed and I were asked this during the people's pre-fight show, essentially like who needs this one more? Like who is more stung with a loss here?

Is it DDP or Sean Strickland? And I made a pretty good case that it was DDP who needed it more because I feel like the road would have been a little bit longer for him to get back. Not saying he could never get back to a title shot, but the road to get back there, especially with all the names that we mentioned and the guys coming up, could be a little more tumultuous while. Sean is, I don't think he needs a belt right now.

I just think he's so over. And I think in Sean's heart of hearts, he'll fight in Toronto. He'll fight at the TD Garden. He'll fight at Madison Square Garden. He'll fight at the apex. He'll fight in my backyard. It doesn't matter. Sean is just down to clown at this point.

And I think people will still want to see him. Where does Sean Strickland go from here? How much does this loss set him back, if anything at all? I think it barely sets him back. Maybe financially it does. just because at that point, you're not a champion, you're not getting paper viewpoints, right? Like, his salary will certainly diminish a little bit after this fight. But other than that, like, I don't know, man, Sean Strickland's pretty minted right now in the

MMA space. Like, that dude is a top five star in the sport. The reception he's gotten over these last two pay-per-views has been extraordinary, especially from, you know, very, like crowds that are not the American crowd, right? Like Australia, Canada, this is not exactly the place you would think Sean Strickland would thrive. But, like, he clearly has a real, real following. behind him, man. And I don't know that this was the type of performance that would dismay that at all. Like, this wasn't Kobe Covington going out there and just putting on the limpest performance you've

ever seen for 25 straight minutes. Like, this was a great fight. This is a great fight that Sean Strickland very easily could have won. And I think a lot of people feel like he did win. So I don't think this diminishes him at all. I think Sean Strickland right now, you throw him on any card. Like, he could be a pay-per-view headliner without even a title involved because he's that level of star in that level of over right now in the MA space. I would really challenge you to present to me five names that draw a bigger, I guess, swell of interest than a Sean Strickland fight right now,

at least within this fan base, because we saw it all week. Like, we've seen it in the metrics with everything we've been doing, all the content, like just in general, you get the pulse of the fan base on social media. Like, people love this guy, man. Yeah, I agree with that as well. I assume you agree with that as well, Jed.

like it's a setback, it sucks to lose. He loses out on a potential UFC 300 main event payday, which would have been pretty healthy. One would have been, but other than that, I think he's fine. Yeah, I mean, even losing this way too, like a controversial split decision, a ton of people are very upset with it.

People are insane. Just, it's okay. Like, close decisions aren't robberies, guys. Like, it's fine. Again, if Sean had won, also would have been A. Okay. There's just a difference here. But the reason people are upset is because they're Sean Strickland fans and they wanted him to win and, you know, they're looking at it through Sean Strickland glasses here. So yeah, I losing in this fashion, I think, you know me, I hate immediate rematches. I think the UFC probably would actually go for an immediate rematch in this instance, but for the fact that they have clearly have some other plans lined up for what they want to do here. And so, if Sean wants to take some time off, he's been super active. If he wants to say, hey, I'm going to take a few months off and simply wait for the

Izzy DDP fight to play out, wouldn't shock me if he could just get an immediate title shot against the winner of that. If he wants to turn back around and fight, you know, because he's Sean Strickland. I don't know if you could really headline a pay-per-view. He could maybe, he's clearly drawing interest in kind of the ways we follow it. I have absolutely no idea if that converts to being a pay-per-viewed draw. I guess the UFC will kind of tacitly let us know after this event, basically. But yeah, he's in as good a shape as you can be for having just lost a title fight.

I do wonder with a guy like Sean, if he's almost someone that like the belt kind of holds him back a little bit, right? Because he's a guy, we've seen him for years now. He gets itchy knuckles. He wants to fight often. He wants to take these late notice opportunities. he just wants to fight. He just wants to get paydays and keep marching forward and get out there in front of his fans. And I wonder if he is almost someone who like, there are certain individuals within the sport.

Like obviously being a champion is always good, but like that they can function really well without being a champion too, whether it's like a Nate Diaz or something like that. Sean Strickland feels like a guy in that mold to me now. Like Sean Strickland is now open to be able to take the random short notice fight, to be able to take, you know, the opportunity that maybe he wouldn't as a champion. And these are like, I don't know that they're less pressure spots, but they're spots to be more, I don't know, just more active, I guess, and keep his face sort of in the public lens and just keep this momentum going. Because obviously, like, tonight's not going to stop that momentum. We have a great sense of like how this is going. And like, people love this guy. And I think they're going to continue to love this guy, the more they see him, right?

So I don't know. I do wonder if he's almost become that mold of the person who's almost better served not being champion just because you get. certain allowances at that point. But obviously, you know, everybody wants to be champion. Yeah. We'll see where he goes from here. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine.

The Earth only has a few days left. Roscoe Cadulian 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.

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But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more. DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. Speaking of minted, gentlemen, the Women's Ban and Weight Division now minted. And it is now run the Queen of the Mountain at 135, at least for right now. Raquel Rocky Pennington, second time is the charm Jedmishu.

She goes in there. And look, was this the greatest fight of all time? No. Was it probably better than we expected slightly? But I don't think he can really. Yeah. And I don't think, I think Rocky went in there and tried to be fun. Now, were there some fight IQ questions with the striking and choosing to go against the fence a little bit longer?

It actually kind of worked out for her because she almost got a submission in round five. And I thought Meyer Boyne of Silver actually tapped at a certain point in round five. But Raquel Pangton went out there and just kind of beat that ass for the majority of this fight. Kind of a slow start. But once she sort of figured things out and was able to thwart a lot of MBS's offense, especially on the floor and against the fence. she's kind of rat she's kind of beat her up for this fight and this is a clear dominant 49 46 win for me one of you even even a judge gave her a 108 49 45 one of the cards how do you grade rquel pennington's championship winning performance here it was good um look

this fight is way better than i would have assumed if you told me rock out pennington won the fight i mean i would never be so bold as to say that she tried to make this exciting she willingly in some real ugly clinch fighting for a long time. But she got the W. That's what matters. And I do think she was at least more compelling than, and then she was against Catlin Vieira or whatever. So, and I was totally fine with her pretty clearly stalling in the fifth round.

And I say stalling because that's what it is, but like it's stalling that's allowable. She has that arm triangle and she is not trying to finish this. she is not doing the things to attack that like Daniel Cormier. And while he's commentating saying she should put a stamp on this, I am live blogging going, why in hell's name would she do that? My Buena Sova is not going to get out of this position.

And Rocky just has to sit here for two minutes and she gets a championship. If she gets off to a side to try and finish this, something could happen. Like she was just hanging on. And that's fine in that position. I would have loved for her to just try and punch her a lot instead of going into clenches. but, you know, whatever. Congratulations to her.

It is no small feat to win this, like to win a championship 10 years, I think, into her UFC career at this point. That's, there aren't a lot of people that have done that. She is one of the few people to have won a title fight over the age of 35, you know, under the weight class 170. So it's great. I do not want to shit on her, but that's about. the extent of the nice things I have to say about this fight. So I'll, I'll just pass it to

Shaheen. Yes, please, Shane. Add the positivity. Yeah, I don't even care to do that. I actually want to turn this back on y'all. Where's y'all's apology? Like, I've just been hearing about Myra Buena Sova from my entire staff on MMA fighting for like six months now. Why don't I apologize? All of y'all proclaiming this woman to be the savior of women's bantam weight and that she's the number or one Bantamway in the world because she choked out Holly home. I need some kind of recompense from this. I've just been hearing this for six months and it's been driving me insane. Let me tell you two things,

Shaheen, and one of them, neither of them will be an apology. The first one is that if you so badly wanted this to be a thing, you so badly wanted it. Well, exactly, but I said that in our programming this week. I was like,

I thought Reflex was like, I'd be a win. And then as I watch it was like, I kind of think Rocco Pinnini is going to win, but I'm going to ignore that because I want to manifest. best of good and happy world. And if MBS is a champion, at least there's a chance that a finish and something fun can happen.

That didn't work out. You know, all of my powers were used to get DDP a title. Sorry, I couldn't do it for women's ban away. The second thing is you come at us and are like, why are you guys saying this woman's best because she beat Holly Home? Well, because I'm going to tell you right now, Sheen, if they booked Rockell Pennington versus Holly Home tomorrow, you know who I'm picking? It's not the current champion of the world.

Like, one of these people at least beat Holly home confidently as opposed to losing tour. It's just 135 is going to be at a weird place for a real long time now. And that's why I sound the way I do. I'm just resigned to this being the light heavyweight of women's MMA. Sure, once upon a time, it was a good and meaningful weight class. Those days are gone. And now it's just kind of weird. Okay.

That's it? No response. No. Oh, you're talking to shit. I'll accept that. I told them I wasn't apologizing. I refuse to apologize. I'll accept that.

Do you, would you pick Rock Elkini to be Holly Holmes? No, absolutely not. Exactly. Exactly. So us believing that the woman who tapped out Holly home, we chose to believe, Shahid, we had childlike wonder inflate our souls to believe that maybe 135 won't be an abyss of fun and excitement. and we were wrong

and I will never apologize for that. You Jake Matthews turned. You Jake Matthews to her and I will not let you. I will apologize for Jake Matthews but you were on Jake Matthews with me. Hand up. I wasn't on this one though. No, you weren't on this one.

That's absolutely true. Really glad I didn't pick her in our draft. I'd be feeling tough right now. So I have two thoughts about this and I want to, I want to start with the good, right? Because I like Jed, I'm not, like, I don't like to be the person who's going to crap on someone's moment. Because I don't feel like that's my style.

Like I'm more of a good vibes type of guy than the bad vibes type of guy. So like that feels like the proper place to start because Raquel Pennington is someone who is basically one of the longest tenured women fighters in the UFC at this point, right? Like she is 11 years deep in this. She's been here since 2013. She has paid her dues, 17 fights, 12 wins. She's got wins over like real, real good. people, right? Misha Tate, Jessica and Drogh, and Rina Aldade, Roxanne Monafari, Ketlandvira, and now Myra Baner, like, this is someone who has put in the work. And she essentially outlasted

Amanda Nunes to be able to seize this window at age 35 in a way that like, you know, it was kind of like the game. It was like, who's going to outlast Amanda and who's going to be there to pick up the scraps once she's gone. It was Raquel Pennington, oldest female champion in UFC history. She is as deserving as anybody could be to hold what's left of this belt and and sort of rein over what's left in this division. And that's about all I have in terms of the good takeaways from this. Because I said on the preview show, we don't need bad, we're good.

But I said on the preview show, I kind of predicted exactly how this fight was going to go. And now I just wonder, and we don't need to doom too much. We don't need to get into the doom saying too much. But like, is anybody outside of the Pennington household excited about this? Like, what is this? Where are we going with Women's 135? Because aside from Giuliana Pena, because God bless her, she tries,

there isn't a single person alive in this division right now who could conceivably drum up interest for any of the matchups at the top of this division right now that could be made. And I know MBS was supposed to be that person. She was the fresh blood. She was the heir apparent. She was the newcomer who'd sort of inject some life into this, what seems to feel like a dying division.

Y'all, if I asked you right now, how many women in the UFC top 15 rankings, at Bantamweight are under the age of 30. What do you think the answer is? One. Yeah, one or two. Have you looked at this up because it is exactly one? I have not.

I was just say, I have not. It might be zero. I was between zero and one, but I was like pretty confident. Because my next point was about to be like, and here's the real problem, sheen, there are no reinforcements coming. There is no help.

Well, that's the thing. There is exactly one. It's Carol Hosa, who's 29. Other than that, there is nobody. And so it's just like, what's the future? I actually wouldn't have even gotten that right. I would have thought it was Macy Chesa. I just like, I don't see a future here.

Like, I don't see any excitement in the next couple of years here. I don't really know what the move is for Women's 135. And it's like, you don't want to just crap on a whole division like this. But it's bleak, man. It's real bleak. And like, I don't know. Are we just going? going to get a rotating series of Raquel Pennington and Julianna Pena title fights over the next

couple of years? Because like, that's what it feels like. If I'm every viable flyweight in the world right now who's not in the immediate pecking order of like you're going to get a title shot in your next one or two fights, I am moving up to 135 because the cue to fight for the title at 135 to fight for a UFC title at 135 is so much shorter than it would be at 125, where you have all these names lined up at 125 who are ready to get theirs. At one. 35, that just doesn't not exist. So if you're in that middle ground in those rankings at flyweight, dude, I would take a good hard look at moving up because you are one fight away from

challenging for this title and you might actually get it. Yeah. Yeah. Valentina Shvchenko should immediately stop trying to fight Alexa Grasso. I would just be like, yep, Alexa can have it. I don't even care anymore. Like, whatever. It's fine.

I'm just going to go pursue this now because shout out to Jose Youngs, who I think, think it was him and not AK. One of the two of them asked this, and I don't realize, I didn't realize this until they said it, but they asked at the post-fight presser, they asked Pinnington. After Pena, who are you going to fight? Like, because all of the people in the top 10 you've already fought, are you cool just doing rematches? And then that's when I realized that she's fought like seven of the women in the top 10, not including herself in this category.

Like, there's nothing. There's no hope. There's no health coming. Certainly if she gets past Pena, what are we doing? What are we doing? Flyway's got a favorite. Flyway's got a favorite.

That's why Holly Home is getting this title shot, baby. Shaheen, this is why we hoped for Mario Buena Silva and we failed. We did. So we'll get Raquel Pennington, Julianna Pena. The 13-year rivalry according to Pennington will finally be settled. and then we'll see where we go from there. We need the Melissa Dixon's of the world to move up the ranks. Let's go.

Let's go, Nora. Come on. Real, real quick to inject some light. But I do like the idea. Like, if Macy Barber goes out there, it just runs Caitlin Chukagian. Like, she should just immediately go to 135. Because Pena already is, like, meaming her and all that stuff. Like, she'd probably get a title shot, like, right away.

If she just made the decision to go to 135, she'd probably get a title shot if she beat Chichagian. So at least we have a champion. We'll see where it all goes. But Raquel Penning's done, congratulations to her. Neil Maggie, the Wiley Veteran with the last second. What about this, though? Oh, please. I just had an idea because this is the type of thing that I would kind of hate,

but feels very much in play, right? So I think we are all on team air in Blanchfield. She's about to dust up Manalfiro. That's just going to happen. But we still know what's going on with Grasler-Shipchenko. So if the UFC is like, hey, we're going to do this at the at the noche card and you two are just going to be on ice until September, which would be stupid, but hell, they might do it. If they do that, then Blanchfield will be like, I'm going to have to wait until next year for a title shot. F that.

Let me go to 1.35. Are we interested? I threw this out months ago. I threw this out months ago. Well, that's because I had hoped for a better future. but now we're in the bad timeline, Cheyne, so I'm looking for escape ropes. I mean, that is 4,000%

what Aaron Blanchfield should do. Because I actually do suspect that they're holding this title fight for NoJ. I can't be the worst idea if I've ever heard. Especially if Marano loses. Murano's not going to lose, but if he does, then it's a guarantee. That's true.

It's terrible. Let's start with Neil Macon. which is cool. Yeah. What a comeback win. Though this is the darkest timeline for Canada. Oh, man. Yeah, tough night for Canada.

For the most part. Canada took it on the teeth. For the most part. Yeah, great win for Neil Magni. He was about to lose. And then he got all crazy and finished Mike Balot. Tremendous performance in the last couple of minutes of that fight. Gets the finish with 15 seconds left in the entire bout and gets the job done.

Neil Magny just flip flop and wins and losses. and that street continues on. Chris Curtis, that, pooh, that fight was, uh, that was tough. That is why there is a middleweighty, middleweight title is because of that fight. Now, the last couple of minutes were fun. The rest of it was just looked like a friendly sparring session that was not all that thrilling. uh, bovzare of Loy of Arnold and that was pretty fun. And Mobsar of Loyaf gets a big win, beats Arnold and Allen.

And it's probably going to get a title shot now. So we can react to, I'll throw this to you, Sheen, you can react to any of those things I talked about. But outside of DDP, who is obviously the headline here, who's the low-key MVP of UFC 297? Is it any of the names I mentioned? Or is it someone like Jazz, Jazz DeVizius, who just beat the soul out of poor Priscilla Kachiawara today? Oh, you stole my thunder. I was going to go that route. But first, I want to go that route. But first, I just want to say, the Arnold Allen thing was kind of like, like, it's kind of a bummer to me that we're probably just going to be talking about the knees in the Allen of Loyal fight. Because, like, I know that Canada has different rules and, like, the fact that Canada has different rules than any other place is just inherently stupid.

And the way that these grounded knees rules work is just generally stupid. And, like, all of this is just built for stupidity because you're putting referees like Mark Goddard into, like, this spot where they're thrust into a split second decision where they kind of need to make a judgment call that at least in this case, like, might have significant, significant. ramifications considering a title shot might have been on the line and like dude can't do it with the use of re without replay right because it's in the moment felt like that was the momentum swing in that third round with those knees it's tough Arnold Allen's luckily young enough where i feel like he's going to get another shot at this and hopefully him and a boy have can fight it sometime again down the line but that that fight was awesome i just wish it had left a better taste in my mouth uh but yeah i mean if you're talking about MVP the MVP of all of this is priscilla catchererman because i say

this was with 100% sincerity. The UFC could last another 200 years and I don't know that we are going to ever see anybody put together a legacy as majestic as what this woman has done in six years.

Because like this is probably the end, right? I just like this is probably the end. I have to I would never fire her. Dude, I got to imagine that this is the end. I was going through it. I was just trying to rack up a list of like, what have we seen from Priscilla Catchware over six years?

And like it got to the point where it was so long that I had to just like there, it wasn't enough space. There wasn't enough space in the column to keep doing it. There's the eye gauges. There's her disrobing opponents. There's just omnipresent cheating in every possible fight in every kind of way that you could do it. There's positive drug tests.

There's wins that she were very controversial, she should have won. There's multiple weight misses. And then you kind of just look at the way it's bookended, right? first fight she comes in in the UFC 230 strikes to three in favor of Valentina Shepcheco historic beatdown, one of the worst beatdowns we'd ever seen last fight in the UFC probably

326 versus 26 just a masterpiece man masterpiece striking futility at its absolute worst minus 300 minus 300 a striking differential that is the largest in the history of the women's UFC divisions

she now has the largest and the third largest like reading all of this back it's incredible me that all of this has existed for one person. You could do this career over and over again, you would never get this same kind of result. Six months ago, I called her this generation's Hussimal Powell-Halice. But like, she's more than that, man.

Like this is a true one-of-one type of career that we are looking at. And I'm just so thankful for it because, like, sure, she's probably the owner of the belt, the Pal Harris belt right now, like the worst cheater in MMA and the worst cheater of this era. But she is something more than that to me, guys. she was able to ensure, guarantee, she was able to guarantee that every bad undercard that she was on, at least something interesting was going to be happening.

And like for that, I thank her, because not a lot of people in this space can do that. Priscilla Catuaara, you were the best. Thank you for existing with New Space for six years. I would never fire her. Please explain why. I mean, I've been on this tip for years, Mike. You know it.

I feel like I'm the first person. to bring this idea to MMA of you need Priscilla Cashawares out there. Like if I were running an organization, I would sign her immediately because it is a skill to win fights and to be exciting, et cetera. It's also a skill to get your ass beat in a way that is compelling. And buddy, she has it. She is tough enough to withstand a sustained ass weapon, but bad enough to not be able to stop it whatsoever, to just be on the receiving end.

of getting that work. She is the Washington Generals of MMA. And you know what? Washington General's been employed for 50-some odd years, however the hell long the Globetrotter's been going on. And that relationship has worked quite fine. I would run Priscilla Cashware out there three times a year against somebody I'm trying to give Shine to.

Priscilla's job would be by definition, hey, we got somebody we still kind of like who's in a slump right now, needs a confidence boost. and can shoot a takedown because once you're on the floor, you are going to present zero resistance. I was trying to pull this together sort of haphazardly. She is giving like, so against Jasmine, 81% of Jasmine strikes landed. Something similar has happened in all of the fights she has lost, basically.

And if you look at the UFC's like stat leaderbook, the stat accuracy record is Alistair Overeem at 74%. fighting her makes you Alistair Overeem like keep this woman around forever why would you ever fire her there's no sense in it what a case

what a case indeed Jed well throw her against Raquel Pennington throw her against Raquel Pennington right now let Raverickle Penning to go out there if Cal's getting the stoppage I don't know if she's getting the stoppage though

maybe 25 minutes of an ass beating that's tough maybe her and Melissa Dixon at 135 you know something crazy and weird's going to happen to that fight there's a very real chance that she gets put in a similar position against someone like Melissa Dixon I'm just saying any time you've got a fighter coming off back-to-back losses

who like was a prospect like Casey O'Neill right now you know what Casey O'Neill needs she needs some Priscilla Cashuera in her life just get the mojo back stun on a girl and feel good and we just keep doing this forever you make a great case

plus I also I also think by this same measure she's like the perfect gatekeeper where if you lose to her you should just be cut it will just get rid of you you're done sorry Aaron Olibski that's a tough one that is true I will add to your case too

I almost like kind of I'm still kind of curious to see other ways she can figure out how to cheat she's like she's very good at gaming the system and just figuring out new ways that I've never really seen before for a fighter to cheat. So like, yeah, like if this is what it takes, like, we're going to just keep this going.

And maybe she could think of something really, really interesting that I just never thought about in terms of cheating methods. Yeah. I mean, the doors are opening wide for fun and excitement and absolute weirdness. And Priscilla Cachuaresonifies all of those things. So boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Oh, what? Sounds like Ocho time.

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Let's bring Casey in. Let's take a few questions. It is almost 4.30 in the morning here on the East Coast. So Casey, much respect to you for being here. Yeah. How you did? Casey's right in the earliest. It's like 1.30 there.

That sounds nice. Okay. Yes. I think Israel Adasania just tweeted as well The arc in my story was written long ago Our paths are destined to cross again Stay tuned for the next episode Thanks for watching

That is from Israel Adisinaa That sounds like you want to DDP Yeah I think that's what's going on There's a blurry picture from 2017 Of some dude rocking a high guard Which I would guess is DDP but I don't really know.

We shall find out. Which Canadian lost the most tonight? Yeah, tough day for the, for definitely the male Canadian fighters, the female fighters delivered. Jasmine with the record setting beat down. Jillian Robertson goes out there and gets a pretty brutal finish in round two.

But all the men come up on the wrong end of things here. Shaheed, I'll start with you. Which Canadian lost the most tonight? I do confirm that that is DDP in the videos that Izzy posted. Oh, those are the videos? I didn't click them. Yeah, it was a trio of videos of them. Which Canadian lost the most tonight?

That's a good question, considering the male Canadian fighters, went 0 and 7, I believe, which is real impressive. I don't, Jed, you're in the betting world. Did anybody jump on the anti-Canada parlay? Nope. It would have been very large. Several of them were several of the non-Canadians or underdogs, as you can imagine. Like Neil Magny was one of the biggest underdogs on the card. It would have been an enormous parlay to go the anti-Canadian men parley. So I'm one of the comments, please total up to me what a $10 bet on the anti-Canadian parlay would have done because I would have. I mean, that's just, I'm very curious. Who lost the most? I don't know if that anybody lost a significant amount, but just in terms of, of who lost the most in the short term, probably Mike Malad, right? Just in the sense of like, he was ready to get the rocket ship strapped to his back. Like, if he had won this fight impressively,

I think that dude is fighting like a Stephen Thompson or something next. He is just like starting to get talked about as a potential guy in the way that we talk about Ian Gary at 170. And now, you know, Neil Magny, I said it on Twitter, but like, this is why this dude is one of the goat gatekeepers, the goatkeeper, if you will. Credit to Susie Cozy for that. That was a tremendous. That's tremendous. But like, this is what those dudes are for, right? Like, the term gatekeeper gets like a really bad rap in combat sports, and I can understand, right? If that's sort of where your career is, you don't want to be called that. But like, it's a very important job. It's an honorable job. It's a very, very important job. And it's a job that you can

make a multi-decade career out of just like Neil Magne has because this was it. This was exactly it. The dudes that beat Neil Magne are the people we then have to care about and the people that don't are not quite ready yet. Shavkat Rakmanov, Ian Gary. They beat Neil Magni. Now they're real, like, players in this division. I'm sorry. Mike Malat didn't.

And so now he has to go back to the back of the line and he has to figure it out. And like, he still has plenty of time to do that. But like, that is what this is for. This was, to me, very akin to Gunner Nelson coming in against Damien Maya, UFC 1 at 94. And then Damien Maia just being, nah, no, so not yet.

Not quite yet. Like, you got to love the old guys who can just say, not today, young fella, and that was really cool to watch for me. I found that pretty awesome. Yeah, there's a lot to that too because Mike, like we talked about earlier, was winning. He won both rounds, was about to win the fight, and then he just kind of ran out of gas, and Neil just pounced on him and beat him up.

I've never seen the finish. He made a cliff that hard. Yeah. Did I miss something? Did I miss a big hit or something? I know we went for the guillotine, and he kind of slammed him out of the gate. Is the phone battery. Like, you know, your phone battery has no flex.

When you get to the end of it, you're done. And that's it. He had 14 minutes and then not a second more stuff. And that's the thing. That's why Neil Magnet is such a perfect person for this role. Because he is never going to let you take it. Like, he's not going to gift you the stepping stone that is like his name on your resume. You got to take it from him.

And Mike Mulan did that for 14 minutes, but he didn't finish the job. So there you go. You go back. Do you agree with that, Jed? Yeah, I will also add that gatekeepers a great job. Where would we be without gatekeepers? You know what happens you don't have gatekeepers? Fucking Rome falls.

So, yeah, it's fine job. Don't be up in your feelings. You're the gatekeeper. If you don't want to be a gatekeeper, don't do gatekeeper shit, like win titles. And then no one has ever called any champion a gatekeeper. So that's a you issue. I think I'll just be different. I'll go with another one because while Mike Mott,

certainly lost a lot. His opportunity cost is the biggest, I think, of the things he lost. Johann Linette lost his job tonight. I think that man's gone. So I'm going to say he lost the most because I think all of the other Canadian men will probably stick around, either because it was a split decision or Mike Mollett, you know, he has some popularity in Canada, obviously. They can keep going there.

Johan Lennes is not good. He did not look good. and he has lost like three of four fights in the UFC. I think he's getting walking papers. He looks so bad. The UFC did even reward Patterson, anything, because that should have got 50K, but he just looked so bad.

He was like, that was too easy. I'm not going to give it to you. Yeah, no. Right. It's like when we don't give the coolest shit, like, K or submission of the year, because it happened in like a barnyard in the mountains.

We're like, I mean, yes, that is an absolutely. sick flying Omopata, but it also happened to get someone who's terrible, so whatever. Same thing. Yeah. Great choices. I'll go a little different as well. The Derek Zoolander of the UFC, it is Charles Jordane, the man who went up and accepted

his model of the year award only to find out that somebody asked me to the acceptance. It's Charles Jornay. The man like emotionally thought he won when Bruce Buffer, I don't think he said. said Sean Woodson. I don't think he said Charles would say. I think he said Sean the sniper Woodson. And he was up there like celebrating and I'm watching him just celebrate. And I'm like, it's pretty clear he didn't win. And then poor Daniel Corby had to break the news that Charles lost. And now he's like a meme forever. It's a tough night for Charles Dorda. He clearly lost that fight. Actually, it was a splitie, which I was really surprised at. And then to have that

all happen and then to find out in the post-fight interview with the guy who actually won that you didn't win man what an emotional roller coaster ride it was for charles jorda and so he might have lost the most tonight because i think this moment's got to be one we remember for for a little while wait and for the record buffer and the ref didn't mess up right it was just he just wanted to hear his name and he heard it yeah okay i think that's what confused everyone weird and loud that's so funny uh Hearing AK and Jose talk about it, they said that it was really loud in there and that it was like hard to hear things

because of the crowd that he elongated the Sean to so maybe it sounded like Charles. Yeah. Also just real quick, main card minute over there in the comments crushing it, helping us out. The bet against all male Canadians

plus 45,000. Oh my God. That's what I. 25 to 85. That is a lot of money. I hope somebody did that. That there it is. Plus 45 285.

Jeez. Jed, you run a gambling program. Why didn't you advise me to do this? Because I think Connor and I were more interested in doing a gimmick bet on all the Canadian fighters. Connor actually may have ended up doing it. I had a Mike Malott parlay that I tagged on with Connor and that didn't work out. But yeah, no, I would never have gone. the anti-Canadian parlay.

What was your big? You just, what? What was your biggest shocker than like, like, you're like, I just didn't see that coming at all. None? Because, like, I was pretty prepared for any outcome. I didn't feel like deeply confident in any of any of my stuff this week. It was just like, oh, something can happen. I get like, not even a betting thing.

I'm pretty surprised Jick has won a decision. I guess probably the most surprising thing. I thought if he was going to win, it would be a finish. But not how that ended up going. Oh, like I said earlier, when the press conference, when they started saying to the death, all this stuff, I was like, oh, this fight's going to the decision. I've had it out.

Good half. I just took that away as I was like when Sean said it. I was like, yeah, okay, you do this every time and then you don't. It's the same way Izzy is like, I'm a vampire. I'm going to eat you. And by eat you, I mean tepidly kick at your legs while staying at least five feet away from you at all points in time. It's like, okay.

That's what's happening. Is he taking strays? Am I wrong? Am I wrong? Vampire, I'm going to eat you. Jared Kennedy, I would like to not stand anywhere close to you for 25 minutes. Dana said that the of Loia v. Allen fight sucked the air out of the arena.

That was one of the better fights. Did he really say that? Yeah, I was going to be listening. Oh, you weren't listening to the Dana? Okay, I thought he was miss speaking. I thought Dana was miss speaking and confused it with the Curtis fight for some reason. Yeah, that was my takeaway too. Because that was, a boy of Allen was fun, man.

I know, because I was like, that might roared. I loved it. The scrambles. So just awesome. Very quickly shout out Chris Curtis. And to an extent, Rock Al Pittington, I love when it's obvious to me that fighters don't watch fighting in their free time. When Chris Curtis is like, I don't know what y'all wanted. That was very hard.

We tried. There's a difference between you physically trying really hard, which I get it is difficult and people enjoying watching it. Clinch fighting is tough as shit. It's miserable to train pummeling against the wall. It's also deeply uninteresting to a vast majority of viewers. And you got to accept that and not get kind of like angry that the fans aren't stoked about it. This is part of the game, guys. Chris Curtis was with his real passive aggressive was admittedly funny, but also like,

I think we understand why that wasn't the most exciting fight ever. Eric Nixick was the MVP of that fight. His cornering work during that fight was tremendous. Tremendous. Dude, Nixik. Nixik is a really good coach. His corner work was quite good in the main event as well. Yep.

Completely agree. Do you worry out? Did you see the comments from Sean about the headbut? Sean's trick? Yes, I did. Yeah, I didn't really understand that. Yeah, I don't know if you want. It would be true.

Speak about that. I didn't really understand it. It seemed like the, it wouldn't shock me if it was true. It was a punch, though. Like, I didn't. They showed the replay of like a jab doing that, like a straight or a straight right hand I'm trying to remember.

It was like a right hand that split them up. Yeah, they did like the little box in the corner and they showed the slowmo. and they said, oh, that's what it was, but they certainly didn't show a headbut or, I don't, I mean, at least I don't get to hear the broadcast full on it because we just have it in the air piece, so we faintly hear it. I don't remember them mentioning anything about a headbut. And you would think because- They didn't mention anything about headbut and we didn't see anything.

Again, it wouldn't totally shock me if one did occur. Because certainly in like, once we got into rounds four and five, a lot of hirky-jurkey weirdness was happening in exchanges. And so maybe one of those, like maybe there was a clash of heads that, open something up, but. Sure. But also like round five was Sean's more or less best round, right? Like either one or five, but he was really good in round five.

Like he was coming on strong. So I don't know. I will say with the DDP like thing, the DDP like thing like, Sean Strickland checked a lot of that man's kicks. That's going to make you win. He checked a lot of those kicks, man. Sean Strickland's ability to check these low kicks is pretty nuts. I'm not going to lie.

Yeah, I'm always impressed by Sean's vision, how he just, you just, you just, you know, just scan up and they have such an upright stance just scan up and down and be very successful in leg checks so we're like they i like i physically like oh every time you get every time like ddp got checked like that thud it makes yeah like that's for a second he became ddp i was just i just gonna say for a second he became somewhat of a meme fighter just because of the way he got so badly knocked out by alex right but like sean strickland low key is like really one of the toughest defensive fighters in the UFC right now. Like he's very interesting to watch just play defense the whole time.

Actually, I have a question for you, Sean. I want to ask you. Coming into this, actually, we both had this kind of, this kind of, we're wondering this. Is this going to legitimize Strickland or DDP? Did this fight do that for you? You remember 100%? Coming into this fight we talked about?

Yeah, did it fulfill that expectation for both of them? 100%. No, 100%. That goes back to what I was saying at the top of. just like that was the biggest question for me is like it was both of this for real what we saw last year and I think that's very clear now that it is that these two dudes are just this good and this division is it's sort of this good and everybody can beat anybody on a given night and that's really fun to me like I love that I love that sort of dynamic within a weight class

like this after a long rainy champion so absolutely 100%. Agreed. Anything else or? I'm talking myself into the idea that trick is two plus C could maybe hold this belt for a minute. I just think he loses the homicide. He's a really interesting fighter, and I think he is a fighter that is doomed to never get credit because his issues are so glaring, but what he's bringing to bear in this fight,

because, like, that was the thing to me about this fight that was impressive, is he came out and he lost the first round around that he, I thought he would be better prepared for, because that is one thing he's been very good about, and then he sort of immediately adjusted. and you're right. He was checking the kick. Sean was checking the kicks. Strickland started fainting kicks to then set up combinations because then that pulls Sean's leg up. And so he's standing on one base. He started throwing just in combination a lot more, which is really good for getting past Sean's defense, which is all a hand parries and then pivoting back. Like he just made a bunch of really good adjustments that paid dividends. And when you pair the fact that he is capable of like he's very good at scouting ahead of time, because he's,

he totally nailed the strategy on this fight, which was just pressed forward. Like that was the broad strategy of the fight, nailed it, did it. In-game tactics, clear physicality. Like, that's a hard combination to beat. And it, like, it won't shock me if Israel Dissuja just, you know, Tori adores him around for five rounds and can do it. But DDP's got a lot of Yo-O Romero in him. And I think that's why I love the shit out of him, like, as a fighter. Because Yo-O Romero is one of my favorite fighters of the past.

10 years. The way he thought was so weird, but it all worked. DDP has got a lot of Yowell in him, and that can be really damn tricky to deal with. He's got a lot of Yowel in him, just in that regard, but also the physicality, right? Just because he's so overwhelmingly physical in a way that a few middleweights are. But he also is just like much more aggressive than Yowel ever was. Like third round, Yowel was the thing because that was when he would sort of turn it on. Like DDP goes from Go.

Exactly. He's the next one. And like even when he gets tired, because that was the one of the questions I had was if he could do it over five rounds. Not because I didn't think he could, but because what we saw him do in his career is he would get tired and then just fight while tired. I was like, can he do that for 25 minutes? And then he actually got less tired than normal. So yes, he could do that. He's, he is not as athletic as Gerald O'Mara, who's one of the three most athletic people that's ever competed in the sport.

But he is athletic. He's super physical. He has the same sort of mind and, like, tactical acumen. and he is also bringing a different better layer. Like that's just going to be really fucking hard to deal with over 25 minutes anytime you fight him. It's going to be really tough. I agree with you.

Yeah. Him and Hamzat is interesting. Him and Hamzot is going to be so damn fun because that's just two, that's two rhinos just hitting each other until one of them stops. Exactly. I'll pick DDP to beat Izzy today. Like if that matchup gets made tomorrow, I think so.

probably wins that fight. It's still like, I don't know where Izzy is sort of in his career, but just stylistically, like it feels like he's really uncomfortable with a fighter like DDP. I think I'm picking him like anybody. I don't know if the DDP, I'm gonna run at you like a rhino works against Homsa, because I just don't feel like you're gonna be able to out wrestle that guy and out and like really frighten that guy in the pressure situations like that, like,

but I love to see that's the thing. Like I want to see that. I watched Gilwai. Gilbert Burns compete physically with Hamzaa Chmaiv, and granted the circumstances are a little different, but I have to imagine that DDP is bringing more physicality to bear than Gilbert Burns is at that time. Like, I am deeply fascinated by that fight as well.

Like, again, I wouldn't install DDP as a big favorite over just about anybody, but I think I'm putting them as a favorite over anyone. Like, I'm really, really, really, really curious to know what the betting line is. I would be very curious to know the betting line of the homie. Homsat line because he's just, because like also there's like a public sentiment. Min is 250, right? I bet. Oh, so you don't think DDP would be favorite of him?

I think Hamsat would be the favorite. Homsat is a deeply fan favorite fighter. And the way he has fought has been so spectacular. I think probably. Let me see if they actually. Also, though, you would consider you probably say after tonight, you'd probably say after tonight, DDP clearly, clearly. has the gas take advantage over.

But considering how close this fight was and how it could have gone to Strickland, what would you pick with Strickland versus Hamzat right now based on Strickland's performance tonight? I was thinking about that after this. I would still pick Hamzad. I do not have a ton of confidence in it. I am still of the belief that Hamzad is such a predatory grappler that he could get you down and have more success.

To the same extent, I also believe. DDP when he says that he was not really focused on positional control. I don't think he was. I think those takedowns were largely a way to mix things up and try to mitigate the teeth, which were a huge issue for him. And they did that. Like that was a very effective tactical attack. I think if you wanted to keep Sean Strickland down, I don't know if he could, but I think

he could put forth a better effort. I think Hamzaa will want to keep you down. And until I see someone say no, I'm just going to believe Hamzaq can do that. maybe that's what we see we'll find out after the match that would that would be sick if they did strickland versus homzot for a title eliminator yeah that was cool that's what i was thinking and then and then ddp versus izzie and then the winner faces the winners and everything's awesome keep just keep a four man tournament right man tournament right we already did get a four man tournament with Rob, Izzy, Strickland, and DDP,

and to every, as we all predicted, DDP ended up winning that four-man tournament. So now let's do another one. I like it. I love it. I like it. We good? It's fun, guys.

It is. Let's keep Marvin Vittori out of this conversation. See, this is what we need to do to enhance the division. We need to create fake titles that kind of like frown upon the division, but then make them special. And then that in turn will make the rest of the division want to fight even harder. I mean, middle-weighty, middle-weight title. Look at what it's done for Brennan Allen and his career.

And look at what is done for this entire division. So maybe we need to do a women's bannam-weighty bantam-weight title to pick that division back up. I think that's just the bannam-weight title. I think that's the whole division. Fair. Well, UFC 2997 is in the books. Next time we do a post-paper-view show will be February 17th or the early hours of February 18th. UFC 298, which looks like a lot of fun on paper,

and then we get to 299, then we get to 300, and things are going to ramp up. I have a feeling the overall flow. Yeah, I've had feeling the overall flow of these next few paviors are going to be much different than UFC 297 was. Are you guys excited about three back-to-back middleweight headliners? Because our next two apexes are led by middleweights. You're darn right there.

You're darn right. That's how we, We cemented division. It's a fun division. They say variety is a spice of life. Let's not have any of that. Thank you very much. So is a good night's sleep.

Good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. Oh!