MMA Fighting - UFC 300 Post Show: Reaction To Alex Pereira's KO, Max Holloway's Insanity, Epic Night Of Fights
Episode Date: April 14, 2024UFC 300 was everything we wanted it to be. MMA Fighting's Shaun Al-Shatti, Mike Heck, and Jed Meshew react to one of the most insane nights in UFC history, including Alex Pereira's knockout of Jamahal... Hill, Max Holloway's all-time finish of Justin Gaethje, Zhang Weili's win over Yan Xiaonan, and much, much more. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR 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
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To the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Is up, my friends.
Oh, my Lord.
Normally, I say I hope all y'all out there having a wonderful night and enjoying yourself,
but I feel like I don't even need to tonight because of course you are.
My goodness, what an unbelievable event.
History in the making.
Y'all, I'm going to be up for the next like 72 hours with all the adrenaline courses through my veins.
I am Sean O'Shti, and this is the UFC 300 Post-Fight Show here on MMA Fighting.
As always, we appreciate y'all for joining us.
and y'all sheesh oh my lord i'm still sweat we had so many expectations for ufc 300 so many
this is a card we have been talking about for more than a year this is a card that i think
all of us pretty unanimously called the greatest lineup in ufc history just this week and it is
rare and it's something with that much hype lives up to the moment especially in this sport
but good lord i think it's safe to say this looked up to the moment let's get the gang in here
to talk about it.
First up, you know him, the mouth from the South,
the legal eagle.
Jedmishu.
We did it.
We did it.
It delivered, boys.
It delivered.
UFC 300.
We set all week.
We said all year, frankly,
it's gonna be the best card you've ever seen.
I mean, maybe it wasn't the best card you've ever seen,
but it's the best card of the year by far.
It was a tremendous time.
It's so good that it's, you know,
almost 4 a.m. here.
And I don't even care.
Totally okay with it.
We're probably going to go.
go for like three hours on this show because there's so much shit to talk about.
This right.
I'm ready.
I'm ready to watch the sunrise through this window that y'all can't see as we talk about
the dopeness that we just saw.
It is awesome, boys.
Completely awesome.
We have Mike Heck.
He's going to be joining us here at about five-ish minutes.
He's still making his way back from the watch party.
That man talked for like seven or eight hours straight.
We'll give him a second here to recharge and he's going to hop in when he's ready.
And of course, rounding out the crew, the most dangerous.
the most dangerous producer in the damn business.
You know him the undefeated E. Casey Layden.
I love mixed martial arts.
All the good things happened.
They all happened.
All the good things happened.
Oh, man.
So let's dive in, fellas, because this, you're January,
this might be, this may as well just be a four-hour show
with how much we have to talk about.
Dude, I've seen us spend 90 on some trash apex cards.
Now, granted, I was at the helm of those.
And I'm bad at hosting things because I'll just let the inmates run the asylum.
But we're going to go long tonight, boys.
There's just no way around it.
There's no way around it.
So I'm going to start with you.
And this is going to be simple.
Did this live up to what you thought it could be?
Did this live up to your expectations?
If it didn't, you've lost your mind.
This was so good.
Here's how good this card is.
We're going to say a lot of things to frame it.
Here's how I was watching this, how good this card was.
Tonight was hard.
Like, this is real inside baseball and certainly not the same experience, but like,
tonight was very easily the most difficult fight card I have ever worked for us.
Live blogged the whole thing.
You're doing it.
Like, you've got to be on point for the whole seven hours of run.
That is just more difficult than you think it is to be that engaged.
And I didn't care.
There was no point where I was like, man, I wish this would be over.
I'm tired.
I was like, nope.
Oh, we got another one.
Well, that's okay because the next one we got is the Strawway title fight.
It's Alex Pereira.
This card was so good and all of the good outcomes happened.
Like all of the most fun things or things we didn't expect, starting with the opening fight of the evening.
Who the hell saw that coming?
And then it's, like all of the stuff that you could have ever said, Jed, like, what is your perfect iteration of this card?
And this is pretty close to what would have been, right?
Like, I didn't get all my picks, right?
But that's fun.
It's fun to have not known everything going in and be like, oh, yeah, this is just a formality.
But the things that I would have cared about the most happened correctly, the things we wanted the most delivered.
I came on this, on every program we have this week leading up and was like, yeah, Max Hollow or Justin Gates, you're going to be five of the year.
I don't like, it's going to be the five of the year.
people if you want to back check or maybe you know take your foot off the gas going to be
fight of the year well ladies gentlemen at this moment in time it's leader in the clubhouse for
fight of the year and uh it won knockout of the year i'm saying it won because it did there is no
knockout that could ever surpass what max holloway gave to us in that fight it was so good that jeanne
when we talked this week about other fights that i was likening it liking it to i invoked ufc 236
and Israel, Dissu, Kelvin Gaslam,
and how you and I were at that fight in Atlanta.
And afterwards, it was just an emotional dump.
And so when we watched Porreier fight Max Holloway,
I couldn't connect with it because I had nothing left.
Same shit happened.
Same exact thing happened.
And it happened not for me, not just for me and everybody watching.
Happened for Dana White,
because in his post-fight press scrum,
he's like, dude, here's how good that fight was.
Wiley Zhang Janjaun was a banger.
It was a damn good fight.
I couldn't because it was all out.
He had the same experience because we all did.
That fight delivered.
And then after the fight of the year and the knockout of the year, we got two more bangers.
An absolute banger of a strawweight battle and a heavyweight, like a light heavyweight title fight that was kick ass and cool.
This car delivered on every single level you wanted.
If you were one of those people when they announced Pereira Jamal Hill and were disappointed in the outcome,
we're like, ah, 300 trass.
Don't you look like the fool right now?
This card was the best experience
I've had watching mixed martial arts
since the last fight circus,
and it's the best mixed martial arts experience
I've had watching the UFC
since, frankly, I do not know when.
Tonight was a 10 out of 10.
The three Michoulin stars it got beforehand
deserved every single one of them.
If I could give it 17 of them, a damn sure would.
Let's talk about the fights.
Good Lord, that's how you set us off, Jed.
I love it.
So actually, just to...
You're so good.
To bounce off of what you're saying, because you're right.
We had so many comparisons to 236 before this, right, about just how we felt during those, that event, those fights.
Five years ago to the day.
Five years ago, to the day, literally April 13th in 2019, we had that.
Now five years later, we have this.
I've been thinking about that.
I want to just real quick, big picture of this before we get to the nitty-gritty of this.
Because I don't want to be reactionary.
I try so hard not to come on to these shows and be a moment because I know a lot of people tend to do that.
And I've been around for a long time.
I've seen a lot of fights.
I've seen a lot of events.
I try to keep some perspective.
I have long maintained that UFC 189 is the greatest pay-per-view in UFC history, just like pure pay-per-view.
I still think that's true.
I think the seven-fight run that ended that card, in particular the five fights on that pay-per-view and everything that went into it, all the production, all of it.
probably still the best,
but I'm going to have to give it some real thought
as we get some distance from this
because tonight, I don't know
if this is the best pay-per-view of all time,
but I think there is a case to be made
that this is the greatest overall card
top-to-bottom and UFC history
in the way in which it played out.
Am I crazy or do you think there's something there?
No, I think you're right.
I believe this is the best top-to-bottom card.
Now, if you were just looking at the pay-per-view section,
there are going to be other ones that are a little bit better.
Nothing's going to like totally dunk this, you know, because it was very good.
But Bo and Echo Cody Brundage, we all knew what that was going in and that didn't deliver something spectacular to make us really bite down and cherish it forever.
And so I get if you're just looking at the $80 portion, but top to bottom, not every fight was amazing.
There were, you know, some things that you could have used off.
But like I said, this fight card delivered every, all of the promise we ever wanted for it.
All of these fights were meaningful and they all rocked just through the moon.
I think this maybe it's reactionary.
And I'm happy if someone can bring something up and I can go back and be like,
okay, maybe I should reevaluate this or at least consider it.
But off the top of my head, there is no fight card top to bottom that has ever been better than this.
Unless you are looking at like a total elimination of 03 or a couple of those like pride tournament cards.
but that's a different beast
and a different time
and a different way to view the fight
because you're also getting multiple fights
and same guys.
So it's pretty different.
But yeah,
I think this is the best
modern era MMA card
I have ever watched top to bottom.
God, I welcome to the show Mike Hack,
the man who's been talking
for like 10 hours straight at this point.
How's the voice doing like?
We're doing all right.
We're hanging in there.
It's one of those feelings where
like I feel like I'm gassed out
but I'm still so hyped from the card.
And then after hearing Jed's opening monologue, like, I'm ready to go.
So the voice will carry through.
And yeah, I think I agree with you.
I think I need a little bit of time to reflect on it.
But this car was just incredible.
Like there were some certain fights that weren't like all that thrilling.
Like even the Al Jemaine Sterling Calvin Cater fight was not all that fun.
But at least we got to see Al Jermaine Sterling deliver a professional wrestling finishing move.
to Calvin Cater, like legit, from, like underneath his legs,
hoisted Calvin Cater up in the air and power bombed him,
gave him a jackknife power bomb in the middle of the octagon.
So at least like, even though that fight wasn't that thrilling,
we at least got a moment from that fight.
And that's what every single one of these fights delivered,
at least some kind of moment,
some kind of talking point that we can carry through.
This thing ruled, man.
It lived up to the hype and then some,
and I'm sure we're going to talk about the pivotal moments
that put it over the top.
absolutely so let's let's jump into it let's start at the top and we're to try to hit as much as we possibly can before it gets way too late because lord knows there's a lot to talk about but no i think we gotta go long so then mike can go directly into onto the next one and speak for actual 18 hours in a row
well to to put a pin in that uh we're going to do on to next one like tomorrow evening instead of tomorrow morning we're just not going to be all right so we got to go really long then boys smart you're
It's going to go for like 36 hours straight.
I think we got that post show in us.
I believe in us.
I believe in us.
I believe in us.
That's that veteran savvy showing out right there.
Alex Pereira, you guys.
I don't know what more can be said about this man that hasn't already been said.
first round knockout of Jamal Hill,
another ex-champ to add to the resume,
defense his second UFC belt.
Jed, I'll start with you first.
Jamal Hill for months, four months,
told us he was going to stand and strike with Alex Pereira.
And the man did it.
What did you take?
He got booped.
This is the best,
this was the best way to end this card because, like,
I'll just be transparent.
It would have been kind of a bummer
if Jamal Hill came out here and went.
would have impressive.
Like, absolutely would have been impressive.
I said that in the lead-up.
If Jamal Hill does all the things he says he's going to do,
I'll have no choice but to be impressed by it.
But obviously, the much funnier and better outcome is for Alex Perot of Boobum.
This is exactly what happened.
Because for some reason, people seem to really want to stand up
with one of the best strikers alive.
And I know he's one of the best strikers alive because he's a two-way champion in glory
and he knocked out Israel Disnihano, who is also one of the best strikers alive.
And if you're somebody like Israel Addisina, you can stand up with him.
And one out of four times, you will win the fight.
But if you're not, you're going to get booped.
You're going to get booped.
Because it's the only thing to me.
Because that's what he is.
He doesn't swing like a big haymaker punch.
He just boops you.
It's just a bitch and you're done.
The punch that he killed freaking Jamal Hill with that he sent him into like that
picture.
Shaheen, you posted in the slack and it's out there on Twitter.
I wish we could fire it up somewhere where Jamal Hill has just been booped
and he is looking up at the man who booped him and it's just like re-evaluating all the
decisions that led him to this point in time because he should,
but mostly he should reevaluate the decision that made him think,
I'm, I am levels above Alex Pereer as a striker.
Y'all don't even know I'm about to show you.
we all were like, that's insane, but okay, bro, like, let's see what happens.
And exactly the outcome you would expect happens.
I don't know why people continue to do this to him when you should at least try to not if you can't.
But instead, it was awesome and it was delightfully funny for me.
This is the second funniest knockout behind your booping Sean Strickland, which is still the funniest knockout in MMA history.
And the best part of it, man, he barely hits him.
Like, Alex Pereira legitimately think he's the strongest puncher pound for pound I've ever seen.
Because he, like they did a replay after.
I don't know how you guys watched the broadcast.
But like they started, you know, filling time afterwards.
And he's like, bring it up again.
You got to see.
Because if you do watch it, it is like a left shovel hook, right?
But he doesn't land it like full knuckles to chin.
He kind of gets him with like the back three knuckles just sort of glancing.
and it rolls Jamal's eyes into the back of his head.
Because when this dude hits, he doesn't have to, like, put his whole body into it.
He just boops you and you die.
And it's the best thing I've ever seen.
I love him so very much.
I loved his post fight.
I loved everything about what happened.
I love that he comes to the postpressure without a shirt and just fires in a shama right at the start.
This man is a treasure, and we're so lucky to have him.
And it was the perfect ending to a perfect evening.
God damn it, boys, this is so much fun.
I am so glad that you mentioned the actual replay of the punch.
It is the weirdest, most bizarre knockout punch.
You said it exactly.
There is like three knuckles, maybe, that hit Jamal Hill.
And it is instant.
It's instant.
His eyes rolled to the back of his head instantly.
And that photo, you mentioned that photo.
You're right.
I put that photo on our Slack.
I tweeted it out.
Jeff Batari, very, very successful U.S.
photographer.
Man's been doing this for a long time.
Way back in the day, I did a feature with him about, like him explaining how he gets some of his best shots.
He is incredible, and he did an incredible job tonight because that photo is one of the coldest MMA photos I have ever seen in my life.
And it will be the coldest MMA photo of 2024.
Like something crazy will have to happen to top that of Alex Pereira doing his meme celebration while Jamal Hill is on the ground, eyes bulging out of his skull,
trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
Mike, in great moments in history of keeping it real,
when keeping it real goes wrong,
what does Jamal Hill standing and trading
and choosing to approach this fight in this way?
Where does that rank?
Levels above.
I got to tell you, it was a pretty surprising game plan,
not just because he stood up and struck with Alex.
I think he was going to plan on doing that anyways,
but I thought Jamal was just going to go out there
and just get her get got.
I thought he was just going to go full on war mode.
And, you know, he let Alex kick him a couple of times.
He started kicking Alex with both legs a couple of times.
So I think he wanted to just go out and show like, hey, if this dude kicks me once,
I could still survive.
And if I kick him, I'll be okay.
And it turned into he was just going to sort of technically counter Alex Pereira the entire
time.
Like he was just waiting for Alex to leg kick him so he could throw big shots.
And Alex figured that out super quick.
and just sort of waited for his moment
to land the, as Jed says, the boop.
And I don't know where the Achilles is.
We don't truly know the answer to that question.
There's probably seven people on the planet that truly do.
I thought Jamal is going to get shot out of a cannon
the second this fight started.
And that didn't happen.
So I thought, all right, he's taking this a little bit slower.
Maybe he will shoot for a takedown.
And it didn't really happen.
And then the first literal shot,
like the first clean punch Alex Land,
the fight was over and he was done it was incredible scenes and it was just kind of a weird i just didn't
see that coming from jama i thought if he was going to stand with him he was just going to go bad out of
hell and get into a hockey fight with him and if he fell fine but if he landed a big shot and
dropped perera then great but that's not we saw here and he wanted to have a kickboxing match with
alex perera from range and i did not see that one coming so yeah you play you play
with fire you got he got burnt man and that's it what i'm curious about now is how jemal handles this uh he
went on instagram put out a quick statement you got caught he's gonna work and get back to it uh as long as
he keeps that same energy i think he'll carry through this okay but if it turns into like jed talked
about on the preview show where he talked to all the noise and then he kind of goes back on everything
that he said and comes up with like excuses and stuff it's not really good look so as long as he keeps
on the path that he's on right now at least in his quick reaction
to the loss, then I think he'll be all right.
But yeah, don't stand in trade with that, man.
It's just not a good idea.
I don't understand how this is a lesson that we have to keep explaining over and over it.
It feels like you would be self-explanatory, but it is super not.
And now we've reached this place, gentlemen, where this is Alex Pereira's updated UFC
resume now.
Eight fights.
seven wins, five knockouts, five current or former champs that he's beaten, four title
fights, two belts, one title defense. All of this for a man who hadn't even begun training
in martial arts by UFC 100. Jed. We've talked about it ad nauseum over the past couple years,
but at this point, I don't eat like, it's undeniable. It is clear that we are looking at one of the
most unique and remarkable MMA careers we will ever see. But what even is this?
this at this point.
Dude, who knows?
And who cares?
I don't need to know.
I just enjoy it.
Just saddle up and ride along.
It's ridiculous.
And it's the best thing in the world.
We didn't even talk about like three of the funniest parts of this COO, by the way.
Number one,
Jamal Hill still trying to live that life and be like trying to stand outside the cage
while prayers walking out to send a message or whatever.
And 94 seconds later.
He gets blown up is an incredible bit of karmic justice.
And then two, the wave off.
They're like, oh, I got kicked in the cup.
I got this herb.
Don't you worry about it.
Boom.
It is the best.
This guy rocks.
Is he the best light heavyweight in the world?
I don't know.
It's a weird division.
And if he has this mystical ability to make everyone try to box him, then yeah,
he probably is, right?
Like, everyone, if everyone who talks shit to this man ends up coming in and having a Jamal Hill or a Sean Strickland game plan to just put their face in arms way, he's never going to lose.
But he probably isn't, but it doesn't matter.
I don't care.
Somebody asked in the pre-fight Q&A, if Pereira goes out and beats Hill and then defends against Magerman Ankaliev, does that make him an all-time great?
He probably is an all-time great, depending on your definition of that already, just because of his unique and weird career.
But he's also never going to be, he's never going to catch John Jones or stuff like that.
He defies description.
We can't put him in any of the other happy boxes we have because it just doesn't work for him.
He's in his own special little camp, and it's an awesome camp, and we can just celebrate him for the weird anomaly of violence that he is.
and I hope he never goes away, genuinely dope.
And I hope, I hope, I hope, good God, I hope the UFC does the right thing and lets him
blow up some hapless heavyweight at 301.
It doesn't have to be Tom Aspinall.
That's ridiculous.
Let's do the thing we used to do with Anderson was like, all right, whatever, take a light
heavyweight fight.
Screw it, Alex.
Why don't you go fight Derek Lewis in Rio in the next, in three weeks?
That would be game.
Like, that would be awesome.
we need to do all the fun things with this man because he's the most fun man.
I'm so glad you brought that up because that was exactly where I was going next.
Also, I just want to throw in here before we move on the, again, eight fights, eight UFC fights.
Do you know who has nine UFC fights?
Cody Brundage.
Like, it does not make sense what Alex Pereira has been able to do with eight UFC fights.
Like, this just does not happen.
But Mike, judges said it.
after this fight,
Alex Pere is in the cage.
All of a sudden, we're talking about heavyweight.
All of a sudden, we're talking about U.S.C. 301.
All of a sudden, we're talking about doing some weird shit in Brazil.
What do you make of this?
Is this a thing?
Is this nothing?
Is this something?
Should it be something?
Where do you go with this?
It should be something.
And there's two options here.
And I'm stunned that I am even saying this into a live bike for right now.
Maybe Joachian Buckley actually did the right thing at the press conference.
Maybe he,
with his ill-timed shenanigans at the press conference,
maybe he just got himself a main event.
Pull Derek Lewis from the Rodrigo Nassimento fight.
Just pull him from that and chuck him in there with Alex Pereira.
Just go ahead and do that.
Like, what are we doing here?
It's two-week difference.
Like, Derek don't care.
He's going to probably get more money to fight Alex Pereira.
So just pay him what he wants.
And the other option is you get Paco Porter on the phone
because he will go to Brazil and he will fight Alex Pereira.
And I'm here for that.
Okay, that's, yeah.
It doesn't matter.
Dude, boys, it don't matter who he fights.
It does not matter.
He needs to fight on that card.
If he wants to fight at heavyweight at UFC 301, at UFC 301,
I don't give a shit.
Who in the heavyweight division says yes?
The first man to raise his hand is the first man you send over to Brazil to fight Alex Pereira.
It does not matter.
He needs to be on that card.
He needs to put it over the top.
He needs to look like an even bigger superstar after what he did at Jamal Hill tonight.
night. And if that means going up to heavyweight and fighting the lowest rank guy or the midrange
guy or Derek Lewis, it does not matter. Just let him do it. And it's going to be great.
And it's going to be fun. And let this man cook at this point. Whatever he wants, just let him do it because
he is a one of one. This doesn't happen. This does not happen. And what he is doing is just an anomaly.
It's a unicorn in MMA. And there's no real explanation to it. And there's no real map to like guide
him in any direction. Just let him control it. It's incredible. Like he, a referee can't even stop
him from fighting. Herd Dean was like, nah, man. And Alex Pereira just pushed him out of the way.
He pushed him out of the way. He said, no, dude, this ain't your fight. It's mine. And what her
team do? She said, okay. And just let him do it. He put his, he's just nudged him out of the way.
And then he knocked him all hell out five seconds later. Just let this man do whatever he wants,
because only great results will come from it.
Tonight I saw two things that I have.
No, please go ahead, Jed, because I'm going to move on.
I just want a fantasy match make heavyweight fights for this.
I know Tyoivasa just lost, but like, come on, that would be a banger.
What's the big Cuban, Robles to spawn doing?
Like, I'm sure.
Would that have been a Russian?
Oh, no, he's not.
He's fighting in Rio.
I don't care that he's had five fights.
freaking freaking Pereira's had 12 career fights.
Just run them in together and just it's awesome.
Let's just have fun.
Let's do all the fun things with this man.
It's all I want for him right now.
I love it so much.
I love everything about this so much.
I hope this lasts forever.
Like I don't want this to end.
However long it was last season.
Alex Pereira, I mean, so he's not the frontrunner
because of another human being we will talk about very soon.
But, like, he is right there in the conversation for leaders of the 2024 fighter of the year,
which is terrific given he was the 2022 fighter of the year and, like, runner up last year for us, I think.
Yeah.
I mean, he was also the victim of the knockout of the year last year, too.
Yeah.
And this man has levels.
It's unbelievable.
Levels to this man.
I saw two things tonight that I have never seen before in my life.
one was exactly what you mentioned, Mike, the waving off of the ball shot, and then immediately
cold in a dude right afterwards. I don't know that I've ever seen that. That was incredibly cool.
And then also what happened in this next fight we're going to talk about? Because obviously,
look, the co-main event happened. Jean Waley, incredible display of heart, taking out Jan Jownan,
defender's strawweight title. She basically finished Yon twice in the first two rounds,
choked her out in the first, slammed her with like seemingly a thousand punches in the second.
Somehow made his final horn. One-sided decision. The number of
unranked pound-p-pound woman in the sport.
But I'll tell you, it was a great fight.
Race the runners.
Raise the sails. Raise the sales.
Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching.
Over.
Roger.
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No one was able to process it like they should have
because exactly what Jed said at the top of the show
because right before that,
Max Holloway and Justin G.
gave us a gift.
I don't even know where to begin with this,
what to say about this.
Jed, I'm going to just throw it to you.
What the hell did we watch tonight from Max Holloway and Justin Geishie?
Maybe it wasn't like everything we could have wanted, right?
Like it was a way more measured fight than I anticipated, but it was no less taught.
Like the tension was just there the whole time.
You were watching Max kind of slowly pull away from Geichi and Geichi trying to figure his
way out through this after breaking his nose in the first round and just trying to piece together
something to work while obviously being there and and having some success as the fight went on
and then obviously it ends in the way that Max Holloway has put a stamp on it is on his way
to winning this fight and does the Max thing and a lot of people had said this kind of leading up
to the fight that you know when Max did the point at the ground to Ricardo Alamos you know
Lama's engaged, but it's not the same.
He wants to do that to Justin Gachie.
Justin Gachie will be there.
And Justin Gajee obliged him.
And Justin Gajie is not the same man he was at the start of this day as a result of it.
I have never seen Gaichi put out like that because no one has ever seen Gai Chi get put out like that.
Frankly, I've never seen Max put anyone out like that because that's not how Max gets down with his finishes.
is the the literal last second knockout of the year.
I mean, it's everything you want.
But I just don't want us to lose sight of the rest of that fight,
which is still the fight of the year at this point for me pretty easily because of the
engagements.
Maybe it wasn't full anarchy,
but there were moments of full anarchy interspersed with the drama of that fight
and the textures of it and the flows.
The fact that Max Holloway got sat on his ass.
for the first time I've ever seen Max Holloway get sat on his ass.
I'm pretty sure I've never seen him knock down before.
That the fight was what we wanted it to be.
It was the outcome that I think most people did want,
but I think more people are Max Holloway fans and Justin Gachie.
And more importantly, it was the out, like the manner it happened is just the coolest of the outcomes, right?
Like, I make no mistake.
I wanted Justin Gatjee to win.
I picked Max Holloway.
I wanted Gatj you to win because I wanted him to get to.
fight for the belt because I thought he deserved that.
That's not what happened.
And it's totally fine because what we get with Max the BMF champion now, the avenues
available to him where he can go from this.
And frankly, just a plus work on the mic afterwards, set everything up for the rest of
this year to be whatever he wants it to be.
And whatever Max wants it to be, he will get because he fucking deserves it.
And it's going to kick ass because when is something Max Holloway done not.
kicked ass. This was this was about as perfect as you could have for this fight coming in,
and it achieved the levels that we hoped it would. It was amazing.
I just want to note the knockdown that Justin Gichi got actually was accredited as a knockdown.
So Max Holloway still has not officially been knocked down.
In what world is that not a knockdown?
I don't make the stats. I don't make the stats.
But officially Max Hollowich is not stupid, though.
I just want to contextual
him and Max left both of his feet
I'm not sure that's not
it's whatever
we can we don't need to dwell on it
I just want to contextualize
what happened tonight
because like we just do not see things like this
like what other person in the sport
is going to be up in that situation right
moving up a weight class
fighting one of the most dangerous
lightweights in the history of the sport right
one of the most fearsome just like feared people
at 155 ever.
Max Hollow moving up, and he is up three to one on two different scorecards,
about to be four to one on two different scorecards,
and about to be three to two on the other.
He's about to win that fight.
And then he just says, screw it, I'm going to do the Ricardo Lama,
I'm going to give Justin Gaichie this opportunity that I very much do not need to give
him to pull something off crazy the last second
and completely change the arc and trajectory of my career
if something bad happens here in these final 10 seconds,
and then to be able to pull off exactly what he pulled off.
I have never seen a finish like that ever in my life.
I have watched so many different flights over the course of the past 10, 15, 20 years.
I have never seen something like that ever.
Mike, am I crazy?
And that's one of the wildest finishes in MMA history.
Oh, God, yeah.
We were trying to put it all in perspective moments after it happened
because there's just so out of nowhere.
And Justin just, I mean, he just went out.
You just don't see that happen with Justin.
And just the entire performance with Max is unbelievable.
I even like, because obviously you're doing the watch party.
So I don't get to see like every Slack message.
But it was I think it was during the Jean-Wea-Lee title defense where I think it was in the fifth round.
And Casey, I think in our private Slack was like I could see Justin Gage's like blood face stain on the mat.
Like where he fell face down.
You could see like the imprint of the bloody face on the mat, which is just cold, man.
It was just so wild.
And I don't know what this past year has done to Max Holloway,
but it's made him one of the most violent men on the planet
because that knockout of the Korean zombie was just brutal.
And then this one just takes it on a whole other level.
Like this is a Baba O'Reilly knockout, if there ever was one,
this is going to stick with us forever.
That knockout is going to be seen millions of times over the next 25 years.
That is one of the 10-pull knockouts in UFC history.
and the UFC will present it as such.
Because we talked about it after Sean Amalley beat Al Jermaine Sterling.
It's very rare that the UFC not only just puts out a knockout immediately after it happens,
but they were posting different angles of it.
Dana White was posted on all the socials.
Like this is a big deal and the UFC is going to treat it as such.
This was unbelievable stuff.
And like Jed said, the mic work after was impeccable.
It was incredible.
155 pound Max Holloway knew he had something to prove.
Max isn't a huge.
like fight fan unless he's ready to fight.
When it's about him, he pays attention to what everybody has to say about him.
And the reaction to this fight on MMA fighting was we put it over.
We thought it was going to be electric.
It was a dream fight for us.
But the amount of people, even media members in this space that poo-pooed this fight,
that actually said Max Hollow is going to get thumped up.
This is not a good matchup for Max.
Oh, I feel so bad for him.
Why are they doing this to pour Max Holloway?
And then Max Holloway goes out and does this.
the dude it's unbelievable
I don't know what happened when he turned 31
but he's a some switch flipped on this man
and he is just he's taken just the BMF style
just the fun scrapper into violent finisher
on top of that that spinning kick
that he landed on Justin Gagy at the end of the first round
that broke his face
like I can't even explain that
when he first landed I thought he hit him in the chest
I thought he hit him in the chest
and then they showed the replay and I could not believe
believe, like, watching Justin Gachie's face explode in slow motion.
What a performance from Max Holly.
This is a knocko we'll be talking about forever.
I mean, circle of trust time.
Like, let's just put it out there.
I'll be honest.
I was one of those guys.
When this fight was first booked, I loved it.
I thought it was going to be a banger.
I thought it was going to be a fight of the year candidate.
But I was also in the back of my mind somewhat scared of the outcome of this because we've said it over the years.
Justin Gachie changes people's lives.
for the worst.
Like you fight Justin Gachie for the most part.
Unless you're like a very, very special person,
like a Habib or something like that,
you do not come out of that fight the same.
I am the number one Tony Ferguson Mark.
And like this man ruined Tony Ferguson.
Like I was scared for Max in a way of which of like,
dude, Jed, we were there in Atlanta when Max fought Dustin at 155.
He didn't look great.
He got thumped up really hard.
He took a ton of damage in that fight.
And this is a Max that's now five years older.
who's been through war after war after war,
especially some of these featherweight wars,
whether it's a Yair Rodriguez or any of the Volk fights or whatever.
Max has taken a lot of damage over the course of his career.
He's young, but he's young in the way that Jose Aldo was young.
He has so many fight miles on him.
And so when this was booked, I was scared for him, man.
I was scared that this might be the turning point for Max as a contender.
Max is a person who's able to win these type of fights.
And I cannot overstate how,
ridiculously impressed Diane with what I was watching tonight.
And especially like the end is what it is.
The end is one of the coolest finishes to a fight I've ever seen.
But just the overall performance like throughout blew me away.
Utterly blew me away.
I could not believe what I was watching from Max Holloway.
And I at this point like, this is a man who has a litany of legendary moments in his career, right?
Like he is one of the more decorated athletes that we have.
I think this is potentially the most.
moment of the entire career.
Like beating Jose Aldo is cool and doing all of the different championships things he did at
145 is cool.
To me, this tops all of it.
Like this pushes Max historically to a place that I was not prepared for him to reach,
at least in my mind.
You guys can correct me if I'm off on that.
I don't think you're wrong in the legendary thing, right?
Like, I don't think this is his best performance or his best win.
You might, and I don't have a huge issue with that.
But I think this pretty clearly is the, when Max Hollisie,
the way eventually passes away in 150 years, knock on wood, the lead in his obituary will be
BMF champion because of how it happened in the manner of this fight. It is the number one with
the bullet. But I was less impressed, not because I wasn't impressed, just because I thought
this was going to happen. When this fight was announced, I got scared for Justin Gachie. It was like,
Gage's probably going to lose his fight and then he's going to lose the things that he earned. Because
think about this last year last july justin gaughey knocked out dust imporey and we said that man did it
he got himself another crack at the belt he got he's gonna get to do the thing and they can't take it away
from him now and then they damn sure did and now dustin pori is fighting for the belt and justin gaetje
is is laid out on a slab somewhere because this sport moves so damn fast and it is unforgiving as hell
i am impressed by this performance though because mike when you were talking it made me think
one of my, two really big things I want to talk about with this fight.
One is, I am now interested in Max Holloway fighting, Fokanovsky again, if that happens.
I'm not saying we need to book it, but if Max goes and beats Ilya to paria and then they're like,
all right, Volk has three wins over you, I am interested to see what this version of Max looks like
because Max Holloway's biggest issue is he doesn't hit people that hard because he just hits you a bunch
and eventually it's too much.
He started hitting people a lot harder the last couple of fights.
And buddy, that makes him a lot more dangerous, man.
Like, just ask Justin Gachey whenever the hell he wakes up.
It is, he continues to get better.
And at some point, the bill will come due.
There's just too many miles.
You can't track it forever.
But I think fighting it lightweight where he's not making that huge cut is going to help him prolong that.
He's going to go back and fight early at some point.
And that seems great.
but he can continue to do this at lightweight
and do these kind of fights and it will be awesome.
But fellas, I want to talk about this for a moment,
a big picture of you of this because I was struck by it at the end of this fight.
And I was sitting there and I was thinking,
God damn, that was good.
God damn, Max Holloway versus Dustin Porriere was good.
God damn, Dustin Porreys versus Justin Gaichie both times was so damn good.
And I did not get to live through the four kings of boxing.
That was, technically I was alive for parts of it, but that was not something that I could experience.
We are all living through the four, I don't know what we would call them, the kings of Max Holloway and Justin Gachie and Dustin Porre and Charles Bolivara, who are all fighting each other and all delivering the most incredible shit we've ever seen time and time again.
And I am, I legitimately just, I rarely feel this way, but I was like, holy shit, I'm really lucky to be experiencing this time, like this thing.
in real time.
I got to watch Max Holloway fight Justin Gachie
and him fight all these other people
and how this is shaken out.
And it's just, it kicks ass, man.
And I hope it lasts forever, frankly.
I hope this never, I hope we never die, boys.
I hope we never die.
You're 100% right.
You're 100%.
I mean, tonight was legitimately one of those nights
for me, at least, where you take a step back
and you're just sort of thinking about like, man,
this is really cool.
Like, A, the fact that we, this is what we do,
for a living, like we get to live and breathe
and die, live and die with this stuff.
Like, that's really cool.
But also just the fact that we are alive right now
and getting to watch this type of stuff,
an event like tonight, a fight like tonight.
Like, God damn, man.
It's just so cool, right?
Because Max was written off for dead, dude.
Like, you go back to 2022 after he loses DeVolk
for the third time.
How many eulogies were written?
It looked really bad.
How many eulogies were written and spoken about
for Max Holloway in 2022?
And now two years later, we're talking about him like this.
Like, this man has more options right now than anybody in the UFC more or less.
Like, he has, the world is his oyster right now.
He's, Tim Simpson said his manager, Tim Simpson earlier this week said,
if Max Hollow wins this fight, he'll be the number one contender in two divisions.
And God damn, that's pretty prophetic because that is pretty much what happens, right?
Like, he's obviously not going to get the next shot at Islam Makachiv.
But I bet you if he decided, like, hey, this lightweight thing looks pretty good right now.
It's pretty nice not cutting all this weight and having some of this extra power.
I want the winner of Dustin and Islam,
I bet you they would give it to him.
The UFC would jump to give him that fight.
And if he calls for Poria or Tuporia in Spain,
that's one of the biggest fights of 2024 at that point.
Like that is a monster fight now.
Mike, I know you do a matchmaking show.
It's a great matchmaking show.
Y'all should pay attention.
It's tomorrow night.
So I don't want you to give away your pick.
But if you're max, like this lightweight thing's going pretty well,
you just beat one of the best lightweights on Earth.
like why go back to featherweight?
If not, maybe he said unfinished business.
I understand that, but I don't know, man.
He looks so good tonight.
I don't know, man.
I honestly have no idea where I'm going to go with this.
I feel like he's got more passion for the Toporia fight.
I think even though Islam is a star,
I think Tupori is the bigger fight.
Tepore is the bigger fight.
No?
You got to.
No questions asked.
You got to go to Poreo.
Yeah, no, I'm with you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like right now,
that's one of the biggest fights of the year.
The moment it's booked.
I don't think they're going to go to Spain this year,
but if Max is like cool with just fighting him not in Spain
and just fighting Tupori in general,
that's a massive fight.
And I think if you're Alexander Bokanowski,
I think in the back of your mind,
I think you're thinking to yourself,
I might have to wait after this.
Because even Tuporio went and spoke to media afterwards and said,
all right,
get some fight Max Holloway next.
Like this is what's happening.
And Max really seems passionate about that.
But Max is also handling this so well.
He's planted seats for all of these different options.
He could fight Connor or Chandler or he could fight.
He could fight Islam.
If Dustin somehow wins, he could fight Dustin.
That's a huge fight.
There's just so many things he can do right now and none of them are really wrong.
And he knows it.
He's in the best position he's ever been in his career.
And to me, he's coming off the best performance of his career.
I know a lot of people talk about the Calvin Cater fight because he put up just ridiculous numbers.
And I think the world.
knows how I feel about Calvin Cater as a person.
But Calvin Cater is not Justin Gachie.
He just isn't. And he did that to
Justin Gachie. Justic Gachie
never questions himself.
He questioned himself
a few times tonight. Round four, Gachie
was what Jed talked about
so many different times.
Trevor Whitman will say some things to him
that clicks
so he'll start throwing jabs.
He remembers a jab.
And he started throwing jabs. And he was having a little bit
more success. And he started
He started doing well the moment he remembered to jab.
Yes.
The fact that you can't ever do it until the fourth round of a fight is absurd.
Yeah.
I mean, it's just, I think Tupori is the way to go.
I think if you're the UFC, whatever this man wants, kind of like with Pereira,
whatever this man wants to do, just let him do it.
Max, just, Max is a huge star as it was.
He isn't even, he's a 10 times bigger star after this performance tonight.
Just let the man cook at this point.
If you want Ziliate Tuporia, you freaking throw them in there with Iliate Tuporia.
And let Islamakachev, Islamakchev fights Dustin Porey.
And then we all get what we want, guys.
We get Max Holley versus Ilya to Porea, the fight we want,
the second Iliot to Porea won the belt.
And then I get what I want because if Islamakachev goes out and beats Dustin Poree June 1st,
October, Islamakachev versus Armin Sauru Kine too.
Like, this is just a tremendous year for everybody.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Probably lining up that way.
Yes.
That's what it seems like is happening here.
Plus, Mike, you forgot the sneaky best one.
Maybe not the best one, but you guys know what this means now, right?
Shout out.
What's the name?
My boy, the violence idiot that is Justin Gae.
We're going to get Gachie BSD now.
So that's going to rock.
Yeah.
I think they might be trying to do Dan Hooker BSD.
Yeah, that's fine. Gage's going to need to take some time.
He's still not awake yet.
But when he rises from his slumber at the back end of the year, we could just do that.
Or Gachie can just wait to fight Connor McGregor after the McGregor-Channler fight.
Either of those, super down for.
Or Gaci Olivera, too.
That's on the table as well.
No, no.
Charles Olivares got to fight Max.
We just got to make that happen after the Tupuri.
Oh, that's not a thing.
Dupori is going to beat Max,
and so then Max can't fight for a lightweight belt.
So he just comes back up and fights Charles.
You wouldn't pick Max in that fight?
That's surprising to me after what we just watched.
I would definitely pick Ily DePry to beat Max Holloway.
Like, I wouldn't bet my life on it,
but I think Iliu Bari got the goods.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I'm as big of an Ilya fan as anybody,
but I think I'd pick Max in that fight.
but maybe that's recency bias,
having just watched him score the knockout of the century.
All right, fellas.
Let's move on.
Let's move on.
We have so many other results to hit, right?
Armand Suruki and edging out Charles Olivera,
split decision there.
You mentioned that.
Bo Nickel getting it done against Cody Brundage.
Yuri Prakashka, proven that he is the real samurai against Alexander Rackage.
Aljo.
Just the best beef of the year.
We can talk about it if you guys want to.
to talk about it, but Samurai Gate is maybe my favorite storyline of 2024 so far.
Like, just fight week storyline is so good.
It's so pure.
It's so good.
Al Jemaine Sterling also getting it done at Featherweight, his featherweight debut.
Kayla Harrison going in there just demolishing Holly home and seemingly getting a man at Noonan's
attention.
Diego Lopez emerges as a potential star.
You got an Adam like Conno, Jessica Andraj, Bobby Green, Deviso Figuerreido.
There were so many big winners tonight.
Jed, who was your standout winner aside from the big two that we've done?
talked about.
Oh, man, that's,
so the true answer, I think, is Kayla Harrison, right?
Like, that's the one.
And honestly, straight up, I got a lot of things wrong on this card.
Sorry, Aljo.
I'm not sorry if I was garbage.
I don't care about discounting you at all if I was trash.
But I nailed this when I was like, I think after the big two things of the weekend,
Kayla Harrison is going to be number three because she's going to
run over Holly home and she did.
So that's the big one.
But I'm not going to choose to talk about
Kayla Harrison because I'd like to talk
about the large violence idiot.
If Justin Gachy is the mid-sized violent idiot
who sometimes just like forgets to do things
like jab because he's
doing cooler, more fun stuff,
I'm a largest adult son
and I love him so much
because he came in and was fighting
Alexander Rackich and he was getting
worked. Like he was just getting
worked over because he wasn't doing
anything. He was just walking
into Rackich with his hands down and not like firing a bunch back.
And Rackich is like, oh, look at me being well-rounded and skillful.
I'm winning this fight.
Ha-ha, this is so easy as you keep walking into my punches.
And then you're like, yolo boss and just killed him.
He just turned it up.
I'm no longer respecting you at all.
And as soon as he did it, oh, the fight was over.
And Rackich was suddenly dealing with a whirling dervish of lunatic.
the seed that is Yuri Prashka.
He is the most fun fight.
He and Alex Pereira can fight a million
times and I will love it every
time because Pereira just boops people
and Perashka is a lunatic
and it's always going to be something
awesome because look at what happened.
Alexan Rackich was winning
every phase of that fight and then got
knocked out violently because
the other dude just decided
that punches don't hurt.
It's the best.
Damn it.
That's what happened.
He's like, actually, you know what?
Punches do not hurt.
So I'm going to hit you and I don't care if you hit me back.
And I'm like, no, punches hurt a lot.
This sucks.
And then loss.
It was awesome.
Why band crapped in the chat saying,
Yuri just inputs a cheat code wins.
And good Lord, that is about as correct as you could possibly.
Dude, don't question that man's samurai spirit.
It's just don't do it.
You know what, Alex Pereira didn't? Look what happened. Look who won the fight when you don't
question the man, St. Right Spirit.
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I legitimately enjoyed Samurai Gates so much.
That is like watching Rackage's utterance.
bewilderment this whole week at just like this crazy Chechch Republic dude calling himself a samurai.
And then like Geary, who's always just so stoic and always you can't get under his skin,
watching him try to contain like the obvious fury just bubbling within him all week long at the gall
of this accusation that he is not a samurai, it was too pure for this world.
Like that's the best kind of fight game magic to be.
And the fact that it all kind of comes full circle with Geary just kind of say, screw it.
I'm just walking forward.
I'm going to burn you alive.
Like, I'm pretty sure that Yuri is actually legally a samurai right now.
Like, I don't make the rules.
I'm pretty sure.
That's how it works.
That's what's the best part about Samurai Gate is it is a perfect microcosm for the fight itself.
Where Rockich is like a reasonable person is like, yeah, he's clearly not a samurai.
He's a dude who lives in the Czech Republic.
He's not a guy like an hereditary lord of Japan.
He just read a book.
What are you talking about?
Clearly, you shouldn't fight with your hands down.
You should have good technique and you should cut angles and you should hit people.
And then actually, no, bro, it doesn't matter because I am a samurai and you're dead.
It's just one guy is reasonable and the other dude is a lunatic and lunatics win fights.
That's how, that is the simple breakdown of this battle.
That's really the big takeaway from UFC 300.
lunatics win fights.
Don't fight the crazy.
Just don't fight the crazy person.
It doesn't go well for you.
Mike,
Mike, outside of the people we have already
talked about, who's the biggest winner in your mind tonight?
I mean,
I'm kind of what Jed, the Lohing fruit
is Kayla Harrison. As a matter of fact,
I was having some lunch
before the watch party with the fellow media member.
And while all the fighters
were doing whatever they needed to do to prepare,
we saw one person
with a very angry look on her face
with headphones in.
She's shadowboxing.
She looks incredibly focused.
She has a look on her face.
Like, she's about to annihilate somebody.
And that woman is Kayla Harrison.
A couple laps around.
Everybody was clapping for her.
She didn't even acknowledge any of them.
It was like they didn't exist.
And she took a couple laps around the busy parts
there, the T-Mobile arena.
And she just didn't pay attention to anybody.
And I knew at that moment that Holly Holmes in big trouble.
It was just some feeling that I had.
but yeah she she comes over big bannamweight division takes a big step up because of this performance
but to me i'm going to bring up a man whose name is just probably not going to get talked about enough
how about freaking hanata moikano today go boy oh boy and well i will say he got pretty lucky because
jalen turner hit him really really hard and then just kind of walked off like he thought he won
the fight so questionable decision making there but then hanaumoyano just took over that fight in the
second round got Turner back down and just beat the breaks off of him until the referee stopped it
and then he cut just an incredible promo like it was just unbelievable he had the people in the
power in the palm of his hand he was just like I don't care like I'm not going to get a bonus tonight
so I'm just going to say the F word 7000 times and boy did he and then he uh it was just classic money
moikano like this guy's on another level I didn't think he was going to beat jail and turn
tonight. I thought he could maybe use his durability to extend the fight and maybe he gets to the
cards, but that just didn't happen here. Jalen hit him like a truck and then was like, yeah,
I won. And referee's like, no, you didn't. What are you doing? And Hanata took advantage of it.
Now he's got a big fight coming his way. And now it appears that Bobby Green and Hanata Moikano
are going to have to out promo each other to get the Patty Pimbled fight in July. But I think
money Moikano is going to get it. And if this worked out about his
as well as it could for Hainato Moikano,
but with everything else that happened tonight
and all the craziness, I think this one's gonna get buried a little bit.
So I wanted to give him some shine because he deserves it.
Do you think that Moikano's almost too good for the Patty fight now?
Like he's almost above it.
Because I almost feel like he's like, Bobby Green is almost at the level
that like that fight should be.
And like Moikano's like he,
like kinda should be fighting real dudes now.
Like I don't, that feels like such a step back.
I mean, it's, it's a fight.
they both won. Even Patty wants it. So, I mean, I don't know how Patty's going to feel after watching
what he did to a guy like Jalen Turner, a person that if I'm a UFC matchbreaker, I would keep as
far away from Patty Pimble as possible. But Panato went in there and weathered the storm and won. So
like, I like Panato's really good. And if he wants bigger fights, great. But if they want to
pad that UK card, especially going to Manchester for the first time in a hot minute, throwing Patty on
there with the guy like Money Moikano, who is going to build this fight up.
up to the best of his ability, he will be the, maybe the most hated man in the UK,
but then maybe the most beloved when it's over.
That's just the kind of emotion, Hanata Moikano brings to the table.
If he wants to fight Patty Pimbley, I'd say just let him, let him fight Patty at this point,
because he's still probably, even as popular as he's getting, with the state of the lightweight
division where it's at, he is still got like three or four more wins before he realistically
is going to be in the title conversation because Dustin's about to fight for the belt.
You got Sarukian.
You still have Gatjean there.
We don't know what the hell Max Holloway is doing right now.
It's just going to Charles is still there.
You know, whatever happens with Connor, Michael Chandler especially, like,
Moikana is still got a lot of work to do even though he's really good.
And we've seen how long it takes some of these emerging guys to get up to the top of the,
top of the ladder.
And if you can get a little buzz by beating a guy like Patty Pimblit and hand him his first L
and doing it in enemy territory at the same time,
it's just only going to raise his stock a little bit higher in terms of.
of the fan base, especially the ones who don't like Patty Pimbley.
So I think it's fine for him to fight Patty right now.
It's certainly two good options.
It's like either way you go with it.
I don't think you can go wrong because you're right.
I think the lead up for Moikano Pimbleau would be quite funny.
But also like the lead up for Bobby Green Pimbleau would be, I think, more funny to me.
Like I think those dudes would understand maybe not even like 50% of what the other is saying,
but it would still just be hilarious in a lot of really great ways.
So I don't know.
I could go either way on that.
But I think I leaned towards Bobby Green.
But hell of a performance night from both of them.
I do want to just shout out.
Can I briefly say a thing about Hanato Moikano in his post-fight speech?
Why could Hanato Moikano say the F word 1800 times?
But Bruce Buffer couldn't call him Jim fucking Miller.
Because that's my thought.
That's great.
That was weak nonsense, Bruce.
I hope to clip it, send it to Bruce.
You're the reason he lost.
I'm just saying if he was introduced as Jim fucking Miller
or even Jim and a pause to let people do it
instead of your intro,
Jim Miller probably wins at US 300.
You brought all the sadness to Mudville, Bruce Buffer.
I blame you entirely.
It did feel like a big best opportunity
to not even take the pause.
Like take the pause, the crowd would have picked up on it.
Crowd would have known what to do that.
And then literally like 20 minutes later, Moeconi fires 500 of them out.
Like, it feels like you could have done it one time, this one special moment for a special man.
But no, ridiculous.
Moikano really making the ESPN sensor workover drive on that button.
Getting a workout in.
I do want to shout out.
He said at the start of it, I'm not going to win a bonus because I'm about to say the F word a whole bunch.
So we let him know it was coming.
He gave him
That's super fair
That's super fair
Just quickly I do want to shout out
Kayla Harrison because both of you mentioned her in passing
But to me she was the biggest story outside of the big ones tonight
Because I had a weird feeling of like how I thought this was going to go right
Like I was always just mostly concerned about the cut
My imagination for this fight had always been
She makes the weight
She looks pretty rough making the weight
It ends up draining her pretty hard
it ends up being a really ugly, grindy fight.
Maybe she wins.
Maybe she moves onto a title fight,
but it's not something that sticks with us,
not something really impressive.
And like half of that was true
because she made the weight
and she looked really rough, making the weight.
But God damn, she bounced back quick
and she bounced back hard.
Like, if you could have painted Taylor Harrison's first official UFC round,
I don't know if you paint a better picture than what she did.
I think the number was 46 to 1,
edge insignificant strikes,
46 to 1.
That's not great if you're Holly home.
And then that second round,
just like an instant rear-naked stroke of, you know,
a future Hall of Famer.
Like, there was obviously never a question in my mind
of whether she belonged in the UFC or not.
That was always dumb to me,
the people of the morons who were out there,
what calling her, you know,
saying like,
she's just a can crusher.
She's not really that good
when she was doing what she was doing in PFL.
Oh, man.
This women's bantamweight division is suddenly very, very interesting.
If she is able to consistently make this weight in my mind,
because they obviously have something here.
The fact that she was able to even tempt Amanda Nunes to come back,
the goat, to tempt her, to plant the seeds for that.
And Amanda Nuda's posting videos about her and things like this.
Like, this is what gets me excited.
We are reviving a division that used to be a marquee division for the UFC.
And if Kayla Harris can make 135, that is my big question now.
If she can make 135 and make championship weight,
because she looked really rough at 136,
and she was being very open with how hard and how difficult and challenging that last pound was to get to 136.
If she can get one more and get to 135 and do it safely and healthily and good enough to fight a couple times,
I think the UFC has a superstar on their hands here.
Like that was impressive tonight.
I think Kayla Harrison, Kayla Harrison, a great week.
To me, and I said this multiple times, I thought Jamal Hill was the MVP of Fight Week.
he made that fight more intriguing to people
just with his self-belief and confidence
but Kayla Harrison her media day was great
she has the pro wrestling terminology
down you don't sit there and you
treat your opponent like they're nothing
you put them over like they're legends
so that it means something when you beat them
and even after the fact put over Holly
I thought Holly's
game plan was
maybe even more questionable than Jamal Hill's
game plan she went right into the clinch
and Dale Harris is like
it was terrific we'll go ahead
and do that.
And then even in the aftermath, she planted it perfectly.
She goes, I want my title.
I don't care if it's Raquel.
I don't care if it's Juliana.
She laid it out perfectly because she basically just said, let these two ladies fight.
I'm going to take some time.
I'm going to figure this stuff up.
I'm going to spend some time at the PI.
And then I don't have to cut the way for a hot minute.
Like, we'll just let these two ladies fight and I'll get the winner.
So she has time to kind of put this all together.
Because if you guys recall this, like Kayla signing to the UFC kind of came out
of nowhere and it happened very quickly.
So it's not like she had like eight, nine months to prepare for this.
She was a free agent.
She fought in November.
And then she comes back, what, five months after that and she's a bantam weight,
even if she knew after she beat Aspen Ladd at 45 that she was signed to the UFC,
like still not.
Wasn't even 45.
That wasn't even 45.
That's right.
It was a 50 fight.
It was a 50 fight.
So, yeah, I think she learned a lot from this.
And now she's going to have a little bit extra time.
and then when Raquel and Giuliana fight
is like one of three title fights on a pay-per-view
or a co-main event or something,
Kayla's just going to plan her happy-ass cage side
and she's going to go on and have a little face off with the winner
and build a fight.
Like Kayla Harrison's very good at this.
So I think all in all this is a perfect night for her
and I think the way she handled the fight week heading in
and the way she handled everything coming out
was absolutely perfect.
Totally.
No digital scales.
Just no digital scales.
Just get her up there, do the old classic one.
get a guy who's doing the way-ins, who knows the deal.
We're not here trying to wait until the bar gets there like,
oh, it's not touching metal.
Fine, we're good.
Set 135, we're clean.
Let's go about it because no one really cares about the pound.
We care about the fights.
It's going to be awesome.
We're back.
When it's Ben and we're so back, boys.
Also, shout out to Holly home.
Well said.
Shout out to Holly Home.
Shout out to Jamal Hill.
If there's one thing we learned tonight,
it's if you have a chance to stand with a two-time
going to kickboxer or to clinch with a two-time Olympic gold medalist, you should definitely do it.
Like, there's no reason not to.
When else are you going to get a chance to test your skills against the best in the world?
At the thing they do best, you got to take that opportunity.
They don't just get handed out.
And consequences be damned.
This is bad.
This card was awesome.
This card was so dumb.
It's so good.
It's so good.
I just remember.
Casey wasn't you?
Who wasn't who was it?
who was like, Holly is definitely not going to clinch with her.
I was like, she's definitely going to clinch with her.
It's all she knows now.
And immediately she clenches with her.
I picked Holly.
I thought she was just going to circle for 15 minutes.
But nah, opposite.
Immediately engaged.
Immediately.
I was like, I had to, actually, I had to rewind.
Did that happen accidentally?
Did, do, no, no.
No, no.
Did Caleb force it somehow?
I was like, no, no.
It was a choice that you made multiple.
Like, you could legitimately see Kayla Harrison surprise, like in the moment.
I'm like, this is what we're doing.
What's happening?
Okay, well, I'm going to put my leg here and you're going to go for a ride.
It's so fun.
I had so much fun tonight.
And we didn't even talk about the opening fight of the evening.
Oh, my God.
You're right.
Guys, who saw Davidson Figurato submitting Cody Garbrandt with ease?
Did anyone have that on the bingo card?
A lot of bingo events this year.
Valentina Shepchango and Kyler Murray hanging out.
Just a lot of things that I didn't expect to see tonight happened.
Oh, man.
What's going on, Casey?
You feeling good?
I'm exhausted.
I'm so tired.
I'm so happy to be here.
I'm so happy to be here.
I'm just so at the longest day and the most incredible fights.
And it's just wonderful hearing you guys.
talk about this and seeing the comments.
It was just, it's, it's, it's, like, I think you talked about earlier.
It's just, it felt good.
My life felt good tonight.
He's like, this is what I'm doing right now for a living.
Yes.
I'm watching this with my friends, watching it, like, like, oh, my coworkers.
It's just, it was just, it was great.
It was great.
Like, I posted a freaking reaction video.
I've never done that before.
I was like, oh, I'm doing one of those stupid reaction videos to see what happens.
and I tried it for the Max Holloway fight.
Let's see what happens.
And then that was a good one.
I picked a good one.
I picked a good one.
I did pick a good one.
It was like I'm a big guy.
I feel like just drunk with like.
It was awesome.
Sure.
I don't even know.
Yeah.
Just, you know, it was just, it was just one of those nights.
It felt great to be a fan.
Felt great to be a fan.
Yeah.
Totally.
It felt great to work.
Feel great to work in this.
Yeah.
I got paid tonight.
Type out.
Oh, my God.
Max Holloway pointed at the ground
and Justin Gage's dead.
That was my job tonight.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
I want to...
You're 100% right, Casey.
And let's get to the peeps.
I'm sure everyone has lots of questions,
but just something I want to say before we get to them
and carry off of what you said,
because I've been thinking about this a lot just throughout the night
and once the card ended.
People, I feel like people get on.
us a lot for complaining, right? Complaining about things the UFC does or things the UFC doesn't
do, just maybe events, fights, whatever, like just complaining in general. I feel like that is a general
topic within the fan base of how the media treats this sport, that some people feel like the media
doesn't even enjoy this sport. And I think, you know, it's easy to say that the U.S.
to talk about how the UFC has grown complacent because they clearly have, how talk about how
they're creatively bankrupt in a lot of different times because they clearly are and like how things
are different in this post-pandemic era. I feel like all of that is always a fair complaint because
the UFC won the race year after year that the most successful combat promotion in the history of
humanity, like there is no Pride FC pushing them. There is no strike force pushing them.
It's why we get these paint by number apex, slop fest every week just shoveled to us with no
urgency to make things feel special or even meaningful.
But then to me, that's why a night like tonight, a night like Saturday stands out, right?
Because like this felt special.
This felt meaningful.
This felt cool to be a part of.
This felt like you were being a part of something.
And this felt like obvious care was put into it.
It felt like they really cared about this product.
The broadcasts the entire way through was full of awesome nostalgia.
You had old school graphics.
And Gladiator Man came back.
You had face the pain.
You had like all of these just cool nods to what this is and what this has been.
And all these sweet video packages that would give you chills.
And then just like the Mark Coleman walk out where we're celebrating Mark Coleman.
And it was just like such a broadcast of love and like again, nostalgia and celebration of like what all this is.
And it just takes you back to like, yeah, man, this is why you love this.
This is why we follow this.
This is why we dedicate our lives to this.
because this sport at its best
is the best fucking sport in the world.
There's nothing even that comes close to it.
And it's why we do complain.
It's because the UFC is capable of these things.
The UFC is capable of making things feel,
making you feel something.
They're capable of making things feel unique and special
when they just tried to put in the effort in the time.
And it's just like, God damn.
Like, Bravo.
Bravo UFC, you guys crushed it.
This was magical.
You couldn't have done this better.
You did the thing.
I just don't want to have to have to.
to wait another couple years
for you to try to do the thing again.
Please.
This is such an obvious example of how the UFC did the thing,
but the fighters did the damn thing too.
Oh, for sure.
The fighters did.
The UFC sets it up for them,
but the fighters did the thing.
And yeah, people complain, oh, we hate this stuff,
but like, dude, we love this so much that we love this so freaking much.
That's why we complain.
because we love it too freaking much.
And yeah.
Yeah.
Everything was great.
The production was fantastic tonight.
Like I felt like T-Mobile Arena had 100,000 people in there at certain points the way they were shooting it.
Like when some of that, like when the fighters are coming off for the title fights, the way they shot it, the way they had the different light structures, like everything they did tonight just felt huge.
It was awesome.
Like A-plus.
This is an A-plus across the board.
You can even tell like we got giddy Dana White at the time.
the press conference, like smiling and laughing and having a good time, at least for the clips
I saw, sounds like it wasn't all that the entire time. But Dana, like, showed up in a good mood
and, like, like, everything about it was just what we, we just haven't had this in a while.
Like, 299 was great, but it didn't feel as anywhere near as special as tonight was.
And this is, this is all we ask for. Just give us this. Give us this as much as possible.
Just give us this one thing, it's like, it's like, not everyone.
be UFC 300 right like obviously
there's different significance with nice round
numbers like that but like
not not everything needs to be
you know
UFC 301
just like something that's going to come and go
and just there's going to be nothing around it
that makes it interesting or special like there's
happy mediums and you don't it's not like we have to do
this every time but can we just
do it a couple times a year
at least once a year like just like
yeah make things
you're from WrestleMania
yeah yeah yeah
Yeah. And this doesn't sneak up on us too. This was the fact that this had so much, the expectations are so incredibly high. And for the UFC itself and the fighters to match it, this just doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. And it happened tonight. Yeah. Yeah. That's just awesome. It's just awesome. And when I haven't complained about pay or anything stupid like that, it's like, because we know they got paid. Actually, people got paid. You know, this is.
You know, so like it's just
Max coffee
Well, you're right, you're right.
Max did take the money from everyone, but you know, I'm trying to say.
Everyone got pumped about the 300k bonuses.
But then it went to Max and Justin, which everyone knew, and then Max and then Yeri.
And if you just had to blind pick people who'd get it, those would have been the choices.
Like Max, Justin, Yeri and Alex would have been like everyone's blind to pick.
And yep.
the 300k bonuses just benefited the people everyone knew would get them anyway.
But Al Jirley lost his mind when it was announced and he's right behind Dana in that clip.
And did you see that making the rounds?
Because that cracked me up.
The clip filed backwards like Aljo must have been really excited about something else because he jumps out of his chair and is pumped.
And then he goes out there and has that stank of a fight.
It's like, I don't know what he was excited about.
It wasn't the bonus.
I mean, I'm kind of looking at this whole card top the bottom again.
And yeah, I got to say top first fight, the last fight,
with the quality of fighters on this card.
Yeah, I have a hard time not saying this might be the best card.
Quality.
In UFC history.
I'm very comfortable.
Yeah.
I mean, we didn't even talk about Diego Lopes fight, DeGio Lopez fight.
Did we even mention?
in his name.
I mean, that dude is a freaking star.
I almost forgot that fight happened.
Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned
Monty McConnell.
I actually forgot that fight happened.
It was an awesome fight.
And freaking Androge Marine Rodriguez,
that was a super high level quality straw weight fight.
And like,
we didn't even mention it.
Because the car is just so much of freaking talk about.
It was freaking awesome.
I don't know.
We barely talked about Armand Sruki and Charlesville.
Oh my God.
We, yeah, we didn't like, we barely talk about it.
We barely talked about it.
We barely talked about the co-main event.
Co-made, but it was a great co-mainment.
It was just so much awesome around it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right, questions.
Sorry, sorry.
Let's give the questions.
It's already 5 a.m. Eastern.
So let's see it.
Yeah.
Also, cross, where are you at?
Cross, there are only four good fights on this card, cross.
Huh?
Where are you at, son?
Yes.
All time bad tape.
All time bad tape.
Oh, yeah.
Way to pull.
You are in a movie fighting YouTube legend at this point in time.
Truly one of the worst takes I've ever heard.
Legendary.
It's only slightly better than Jamal Hill's take
that he's to levels above Alex Pereer as a striker.
Oh, boy.
Oh, boy.
All right.
All right, this one coming from Max.
More shocking.
Max K.O.
or Dana complimenting.
Aljo. What do you say? I didn't hear this one. Dana actually did a good,
Dana actually did a good job promoting. He didn't go. He didn't trash out. He actually said,
basically, it wasn't the greatest fight, but what Aljo did was awesome. He came up,
came from the loss, went to 45, and actually put him over. He put him over.
Yeah. Tough opponent. Look at you promoting. You know it's a good night. If Dana's promoting,
that's all, that's all. The answer on this is Max Kato is the most shocking thing.
Yeah.
Humanity.
No one's, we're not uploading reaction videos of Dana complimenting out.
I love my actual child because of the Max K.O.
Because I stood up out of my seat and just roared louder than, and need to be at this later.
I, I, I would be sure.
Yeah, yeah, what, yeah, had Kio of the year locked up.
Oh, my God, you're right.
That is no longer locked up anymore.
That's, that is no longer locked up.
that is probably not his stuff.
Actually, let's talk about the CO.
It's probably has to fight him.
Max has taken everything he worked for.
This one's coming from,
It's your boy.
The win was so needed for Max.
People were starting to call him washed
while losing the top guys.
Has to be a top 50 KO in the company at minimum, right?
I mean, you're greatly underselling that with top 50.
Top five, at least.
I respect that you went 50 because you're not wrong.
You played it way too safe.
It's got to be top 10.
I would have to sit down and really think about it and make a list because you have
see history.
There's a lot of good, good, good, good, good knockouts.
But it's got to be in that.
Yeah, yeah, year's back elbow, like those three are in there, right?
I mean, don't even try to do this right now because it's just.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's not.
10 feels like, 10 feels decent.
It feels pretty solid.
Yeah.
And wherever you want to put in that 10, go for it.
But 10 at minimum.
Not wherever.
I'm not going to allow anything to surpass your back elbow in the 459 or whatever because that was ludicrous.
But yeah.
Leon Edwards is on that list too, probably.
Oh, yeah.
Terry Adam, Edson Barboso, like this.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
That was great on the broadcast.
Just reliving all those.
Especially with G.
You hadn't seen half of them, which is always fun.
Oh, dude, I was watching the fights tonight of a friend who's so young, he had never heard face to pain before when it came on.
And we were all flipping out.
Was he like, this, this makes me want to fist fight people?
This should be here.
He was like, look, straight up, that was like one of my low key favorite parts of the card.
I don't want face to pain all the time.
But like when it hit, I was like, it hit me right in the nostalgia feels.
And I was like, oh, hell yeah.
I hope Goldie pops in.
And yeah, they need to go.
That was missing.
I just wanted to the tail of the tape.
I wanted to come and be like, the rest of it is virtually identical.
And then just slide off and no one even say anything about it.
When Gladiator Man showed up on my screen, actual goosebumps.
Like actual, actual, I didn't know I missed this until that happened.
Dude, and like at the beginning of the evening when they had the original original, the UFC dude who stands like this in like between the face.
to faces for Pereira and
Hill and like
doing the graphics. It's like this.
What are you guys doing
doing cool stuff? This is great.
Yeah, nice to protect.
Next one's coming from Nick
with how he fought tonight. Could we be in a world
where Justin Gachie retires now.
Wash party rocked from start to end and love y'all.
We appreciate you, Nick.
I don't know, y'all. We didn't talk a ton
about this, but Justin Gachie might not
ever be the same.
I think, okay.
He doesn't have.
have many more left than him.
But he's also just been really transparent about that this whole time.
I'd be pretty shocked if he hangs it up just off this because I think he can wait
around and fight Connor.
Like, I think that he can wait around and at least get one more or two more.
He's going to be real choosy.
He doesn't have to just fight whoever's up and coming because the title shot's probably
out there.
But I would say at the minimum, he can just sit back for a minute and wait.
for a Conner fight to maybe materialize.
And if not,
BSD, baby, let's go.
Yeah, I don't think he retires,
but he's always talked about having this punch card
of like wars that he had left.
It wasn't fights that he had left,
but what he considers a war,
which his definition of war,
compared to our definition of war,
is not the same.
Because he talks about the Michael Chandler fight,
we were like,
holy shit it was the fight of the year what a war
Gates is like that wasn't a war
that doesn't count as a war like he counts
Charles Olivera that one round
fight is a war he's probably going to count
what happened tonight as a war
so I think if
I think if Justice sticks around I think it's pretty safe
to say even though as much
as much as we revere Justin Gagie
at this point I kind of feel like
the title window unless something
and I know we were saying that was about
Dustin Porre too but it kind
feels like after this performance
that door is probably close.
He's probably in fun fight territory,
and I'm sure he'd love the Connor payday.
But I think if they,
if I honestly believe this,
as much as the Connor payday would be cool,
I don't think Justin,
like I don't think Justin cares about Connor.
Like I don't think he wants to even give him that attention.
So I think if the UFC called him and they were like,
what do you think?
And if Justin said he had one more fight and he said,
pick the fight,
I think he would pick Charles Olivera.
I think you would pick the rematch of Charles.
He talks about that fight so gloat.
knowingly how hard Charles hit how much respect he has for him sharing the cage with him even
for that short amount of time I think if Justin had his choice he would try to run it back
with Charles and try to get that one back before he walked away I need Tom though I'm not
saying anything that you said is wrong I need it it completes me Mike and I need to see him
kicking Connor in the legs and Connor just firing left hands into Keatshi's head
but needed.
I need y'all to prepare yourselves for Connor jumping everybody
and just fighting for the title after Michael Chandler
because that's probably going to happen.
He might jump below my homage at Walterweight.
At 70 or 55 you think?
Whatever he wants.
I think you got a Michael.
Like if you're Connor, you got to try and get back.
Oh, poor Sirukin.
Man, that's a really no-win fight.
Let's have it first.
either Connor gets to fight for a title or Michael Chandler wins.
That's too bad outcomes for me.
That's too bad outcomes for me.
That tickled you.
I want to talk more about it, but we'll go to the comments.
We're in the fan Q&A part.
All right.
Stephen coming in with Super Chat.
Where does Max's K.O. rank all time?
What are you guys' thoughts on Islam versus DDP and Costa versus Strickland fights?
Do you honestly think Amanda returns?
Stephen, you're getting your money's worth with this one.
All the questions.
That's how you do.
That's how you super chat.
I will say that speaks to how utterly ridiculous this night was in that we finally know that
Connor McGregor and Michael Chandler are actually fighting and we have barely talked about it.
And also we got Islam Dustin announcement.
And again, we barely have mentioned any of this.
Like, that just speaks to how crazy tonight was.
Where does Max's K-O rank all the time?
I think we've all kind of touched on that a little bit.
What do you guys' thoughts on Islam, DDP, and Costa Strickland, though?
What's the date on that again?
June 1st.
June 1st.
Wow.
It's right around the corner.
I think I should get multiple outno points for this.
For two reasons.
One, obviously, this seemed like the right.
thing. But if you listen, even if you listen to heck of a morning, like two, three days after
UFC 299, I said, this is what you do June 1st. You do Islam versus Dustin Porreier.
I was like, and you do Sean Strickland versus Paul Costa in a five round co-made event.
That's exactly what you do, because that's going to put asses in seats. And I feel like the UFC
owes Newark after that shitty card they gave them last year on pay-per-view. So you put those two,
those two fights on there. This is got to do bonkers. Everybody wins for the most part. The only
people who really lose are the people putting funding into the Nate Diaz, Jorge Mazadol boxing match,
which took a significant hint with these two fights being announced for that card on that same date.
So, yeah, this is a perfect one-two punch for that card. June is going to be awesome.
June is going to be great. Two big pay-per-views. Yeah, I think it's a damn good one-two punch.
And what a story would be. Dustin Porre was the hero of the world after UFC 299.
could not do no wrong.
He was my fighter of the year in and out of the cage.
Everything he had done was A-plus.
And then that damn Max Holloway had to come along.
And now he's got the A-plus-plus for the year so far.
And Alex Pereira doing Alex Pereira things.
Like, Dustin goes out and beats his amokachev.
Holy shit, man.
Like, this might be outside of a business perspective.
This might be like one of the crazy issues we ever see if that happens.
I kind of hate it.
If Dustin wins that fight, Connor or Dustin is going to be the title fight.
It sure is.
Yeah, okay, but that's just Dustin's not going to win the fight.
And that's okay.
Strickland Costa is great, and I totally get it.
I'm not opposed to Islam, Dustin.
I think we all knew this was coming sort of the way it shook out.
Today does make me sadder about it just because, like I said, at the top, in July,
Gaichi knocked out Dustin to get himself a title fight,
but because of the way MMA works right now, timing matters more,
and it was more important to the U.S.
to get him on 300 against Max,
as opposed to give him what he earned in June.
And so despite knocking out Justin or Dustin less than a year ago,
Dustin's going to be the guy who gets on,
and that just irks me a little bit.
Makes me certainly sad for Justin Gaci.
But no one's that upset about Dustin Porey getting to do cool stuff.
We love Dustin Porey.
So it's cool.
Also, Amanda, 60, 40, Amanda comes back.
I said this coming in this week, I thought Kayla Harrison was going to show out,
and then she was going to lay the groundwork for Amanda.
She actually didn't lay the groundwork for Amanda,
but Amanda laid the groundwork for her.
I think that that is, that's rising up the level of probability for me
to becoming much more likely for a thing we see in 2025.
Nah, screw 60.
It's 100.
It's 100%.
Amanda Nunes returns.
If Kayla Harrison becomes champion, that is 100% happening.
I threw this on Slack, but I'll ask it here.
Assuming Kayla can make 35, assuming she beats Raquel Pennington, is Kayla versus...
Wow.
Wow.
Casey has never done that.
Yeah.
I have trashed Rocky and Gates.
It's like, oh, she's a really good fighter.
I said really good.
She is a really good fight.
but she's going against freaking Caleb.
Just saying.
I knew Canada was amazing at 45.
I had to see it at 35 and I saw it.
So, all right, I'm there now.
My number one ranked abandon weight.
Is Kayla, assuming those things happen?
Is Kayla and Amanda in his return?
Can that headline a pay-per-view?
Yep.
For sure.
Yes.
Okay, that's all I was double-checking.
I was like, that's awesome.
I legitimately think if Kail Eriskin make championship weight and win this title,
she will be a star in the O.C.
Yeah.
Cool.
Like legitimately headline pay-review, not like, you know, like 301, you know, that's a headline, but, you know.
Okay, cool.
Let me talk about Vinnie or so.
Vinnie six?
Vinny six.
Yeah.
I also, in our rankings, I changed his name to Vinny.
I hope you all follow suit.
I will do that.
They kept promoting the Steve guy on the broadcast.
I didn't know what I was talking about.
I was like, that must have been a typo.
Yeah, all right.
I got to tell you, those promos, they tickled me a little bit.
Just seeing young Vicenza Erzeg up there in a promo for a main event fight at UFC 301.
What a world.
Poor Blow Muhammad can't get a title shot.
Steve Ersson didn't even ask for one and he gets one.
It's just unbelievable.
Oh, sure.
I mean, I can't say no.
Why not?
Why not?
What am I doing?
It's going to be funny when he wins.
I'm picking him to win.
I've already decided.
This is an invocation of the insanity theory of last year where something real silly is going to happen.
He's going to win.
All right.
This one's coming from Weidenhoff going to bed, but you guys are great.
late, Max rules,
Yuri is nuts,
Jamal's liar,
and Bobby Green broke my heart.
Sorry for no left hook on Cody, Jed.
We appreciate you.
Thank you.
Like, on the one hand,
Figgie versus Cody was still fun
and it was something wildly different,
so that was cool.
But on the other hand,
all I wanted were hooks,
and there were no hooks to be thrown,
and I was sad about it.
That's what I knew tonight was going to be wild
when that happened.
And I was like,
everything's going to walk.
today. It was so funny how Davis and Figurato and Yuri Prahashka had the same game plan in round
one, which is just do nothing but get hit and then smile at your opponent the entire time as he's
like landing good shot on you, but you just keep smiling at them and letting them know like,
no, you truly are not hurting me in any way. And like, I'm going to get mine real soon. So enjoy this
moment while you have it. And that's, and then the second round, both guys just completely took over and
just the ways they wanted to. And it was, oh,
like they knew it was going to happen as they were getting hit in round one.
Just funny stuff, man.
Good performance from Figgy and very excited to see where he goes from here.
It's the Roershack, Mike.
I'm not stuck in here with you.
You're stuck in here with me.
I am a crazy person.
And that's like who was the dude who like literally won by being crazy,
who lost two rounds and then just started barking like an insane person?
Mike Greed and Roswell?
Yes.
Being crazy, no, it's Mike Breed.
Being crazy is the second strong style.
Hoss is the strongest style.
Being crazy is the second strongest MMA base there is.
Ben Rothrell definitely had the one where he was losing pretty thoroughly.
And then he came out just doing real weird stuff, kind of like.
Yes.
Like one instantly.
Yeah, because being crazy is the second strongest martial arts style.
If you can't be a hoss, be crazy.
Yeah, dude, you see that hairy 300-pound monster jiving at you in that way?
Like, you're going to be scared to.
Also, can we talk about crazy for just a moment?
Because this really struck home with me as I watched my medium adult son, Justin Gachie,
and my large adult son in your Phrashka fight.
And I was like, why don't all fighters just fight like them?
Like, if you're just some dude who's, you know, picking up some wins,
maybe winning a little more than you lose, no one's going to care.
Like, you're not going to be, like, if you're the Cody Brundages of the world, just fight like a lunatic.
And at least we will love you forever.
Yes, your body will pay the price.
But like, look at how much we love these absolute lunatics.
Do that.
You could do it.
Just make the choice.
Just throw yourself preservation out the window and be cool.
That's all I'm asking, guys.
Before we go back to the questions, oh, before we go by the questions, I have a question of you guys.
what do we think of Bo Nickel tonight?
First of all, was it a mistake to put him on the pay-per-view this fight?
I know it's 2020, sign-site.
And what do we think?
Is the hype train still there?
Is it just really slow?
We didn't really talk about Bo-Nickle.
Before we answer that, just real quick, before we move on,
I want to mention also just a moment of crazy that we haven't even mentioned that I really enjoyed.
Was Charles Olivera in like the last 10 seconds of that fight,
having the head and arm triangle in
and then just kept doing like
it's tremendous
I'm always here for that
I scored the phone
Crazy would be 3 and 0 on my car game
yeah I mean it definitely
it did seem like the bone nickel
it was a mistake to put that on the paper view certainly
I like I understood the setup they were trying to do
but I don't know that he
like anybody came away from that being like
oh I got to wash more bow nickel
even if he would have to run
roll through him.
Like what is,
even,
even then,
I don't know.
I mean,
he kind of did
make sense to me.
But we,
like,
it's in hindsight.
It's like,
you put him in
the Al Jermaine
Sterling Calvin Cater spot.
Like,
not the prelim
main event or whatever,
but like,
more eyeballs watch the prelims
because they're on ESPN
and you don't have to,
they're not paywalled.
Like,
that's kind of the spot.
He still gets the rub
of being involved with this card,
but I'd never understood it.
I think a lot of people commented about it.
It didn't make a ton of sense.
But,
But, you know, it's fine.
I think the hype train will slow, certainly, and there are reasons for it, too.
But, look, man, he won dominantly against an opponent who knows a lot more about fistfighting than he does at this point.
The sort of things just happen.
We should, in general, always slow our role with prospects who are just coming in.
Because, like, go back and watch Daniel Cormey's first, like, 10 fights.
He sucks in half of them.
They're ugly.
You just got to learn how to do it.
and somebody posted this on Twitter.
I don't remember who it was, so sorry.
But it's like absolutely correct.
For guys like Bo Nicol who like in Aaron Pico don't have them like move up the ladder.
Just have them fight 10 dudes real fast just to get the reps in.
Just like every couple of months, here's Bo Nicol on a pay-per-view card fighting some dude who is a warm body and he can continue to learn how to fight people in real time.
That's just what we need to do with them.
I feel like they're doing that with Tyra.
Yeah, they brought Tyro along much slower, which is great.
That's actual prospect of element, which is not the game the UFC is truly involved in.
All of which speaks to how utterly ridiculous it is that Alex Pereira is just doing what he's doing while basically being a prospect.
One of one.
One of one.
One of one.
Chama.
All right.
Let's see a couple more and then we'll get out here.
It is crazy.
This one, I don't even know what currency is that.
It's Shale Sunnan.
It's Shale Sunnan, so.
It's the bad guy in the comments.
Tell us, I'm curious where you're from, where you're hitting us up from.
Yeah, I don't know what that is.
Yeah, I've never seen that.
Fair to say female 125ers will be staying at 125.
Yeah, I don't.
If Kayla Harrison's able to do this, man, I don't know the Exodus to 135 that
we have been suggesting for a while,
I don't know that that's going to be coming now.
That was something.
There was.
And our last super chat.
This one's coming from Zach loves cats.
Glad you guys love cats.
Movesar of Loia versus Diego Lopez and Jamal Hill versus Alexander Rackage,
our fights to make.
Y'all have to sleep on that.
That was the wind streak.
I don't agree with any of this.
Maybe, I mean, Hill Rackage.
you could maybe make, but Mowicear of Loya
versus Al Jermaine Sterling is the fight to me.
Yeah, that's correct.
Nailed it.
Yeah.
Mike, consider that my official Otno submission.
Well, that's Spick.
100% spick.
Valjo won, that's who he's fighting.
Wasn't getting a title shot.
Didn't even get the chance to get a microphone
to call for a title shot.
Yeah, you're right.
Interview.
Yeah, I forgot.
Omba of Lov is the fight.
That's exactly what the UFC is going to do.
And Jamal Hill is not fighting Alexander Rackich.
Jamal Hill is fighting freaking Yuri Perhashka next and it's going to be the best.
Let's have Jamal Hill fight.
Yeah, it's fine.
I like that fight.
That's fine.
I don't know.
But what do you do with Alex then?
I mean, Aguilat should probably get a shot but he's going to play in any ways.
Alex is fighting Derek Lewis at UFC 301.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a correct answer.
He's fighting at heavyweight at UFC 301 against anybody.
I don't care.
or two people at or two lightweights i don't care
Alex should be fighting at 301 in a handicapped matter or something
and then after that Alex is fighting calillo roundtree
because we all know the that's supposed to happen
for Diego lopez though there's two options
and we mentioned this in our internal slack and both them are good
Arnold Allen and manchester
that's or yeah you're rodrigo
oh you're right that's also the uh very good answer
I like both those.
Also, the bad guy telling us that he's from India.
So thanks for watching India.
I think that's Indian rupee.
I googled currency symbols across the world, and it looked like the rupee symbol.
Awesome.
Thank you for watching from India.
I appreciate that.
And I think that's it.
It's almost 6 a.m. my time.
This is, this sure is the thing that's happening right now.
It sure is.
I can think few more questions.
You can see that sun come up.
I was going to say, we said we'd go until the sun came up.
Where are we at on it?
Oh, my, I got it.
It's still dark out, but yeah.
I mean, we keep going.
I'm awake at this point.
Whatever.
I got to the airport.
I need to go to sleep.
Yeah.
I had a long day.
We all had a long day.
We all have long days.
I have almost been working 12 solid hours.
So, yeah, I'm happy to go to sleep.
Yeah.
I'm going to watch Silver War tomorrow.
Yeah.
Oh, are you?
Yeah.
Oh, nice.
So, sorry.
I'm like, I started passing out.
Oh, I also wanted to know as we exit.
You can keep playing music.
We're good.
I posted the Sterling Evlovak thing to like Twitter.
And by far the overwhelming response I got was,
it's a great matchup because now there's only one fight
we'll have to skip on that card.
People are pretty pumped about watching that one.
It's tough.
Guys, go to mabfighting.com.
Champions prediction article.
Who did I pick for the featherweight champion?
So don't be saying I'm sleeping on Mavzar's winning streak.
I picked him to be the freaking champion at the end of the year.
So I might have two.
I bet him.
I know you bet him.
I bet him.
I might have picked him.
I don't remember what I did.
I'm not doing great.
And Shane, you're killing me in our new chance.
I wasn't.
I'm with me.
Anyway, anyway, anyway, let's shut it down here.
Y'all are insane for doing the sole.
You rule 300 rock.
Thanks, Jens.
We appreciate your pro-fights info.
What a week, you guys, what a week.
We made it.
We made it.
It's done.
UFC 300 in the books.
We've been talking about this for more than a year and it is over and God damn it delivered.
It was everything I needed it to be.
It was everything we wanted it to be.
Keep rocking with M.A.
Fighting.
We appreciate y'all for rocking with us throughout the
this entire week throughout this entire lead-up in this whole process.
I'm Shuttle Shottie, Mike Heck, E. Casey Layden, Jen Michoud.
On to the next one tomorrow.
Then the M.MA hour Monday.
We love y'all.
Love y'all.
You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.
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