MMA Fighting - UFC 302 Post-Fight Show: Reaction To Islam Makhachev's Thrilling War With Dustin Poirier

Episode Date: June 2, 2024

Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Jed Meshew, and Alexander K. Lee as they react to Islam Makhachev's fifth-round submission of Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 302, Sean Strickland's win over Paulo Costa, and more from Saturday's UFC pay-per-view event. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Ah, yes, the early morning sounds of the victory horns, ladies and gentlemen, and they sound, were the two men on the left side of the graphic you're seeing there, Isl Makhachev still the lightweight champion of the world after submitting Dustin Porre in the fifth round and a competitive battle. And Sean Strickland defeats Paulo Costa via split decision in a fight. You know, it happened. Like the fight took place in Newark, New Jersey, and Sean Strickland won that fight that happened. I mean, that's basically kind of the theme of tonight's.

card in a lot of respects as we welcome you to the ufc 302 post-fights show here at m a mayflying dot com i am mike heck here in new york city we have jenn mishu here mr no gray area the hot take kid himself in the atl headphones with terrible headphones my my AirPods decided to be a but about 20 minutes ago so uh this is what we're working with tonight boys hey we got to do what you got to do i'm rocking the i'm rocking these things from like 1999 and joining us From Canada, Prince of Positivity, Alexander Cayley, aka, how are you, my friend? I like Jets' headphones.

I like, I'm rocking the big cans all the time, as you guys know. Love me some big cans. And love me, love me, love me a good poll, too. Love me a good poll, so let me, let me throw it back to you, my best friend, as I... You can't just talk the show like that, aka. I can't do that. The can, the headphones, the headphones,

headphones cans, headphone cans love them. So back to you, my best friend. Somebody clip that so we can just use it all the time. I don't even know what to say. I mean, if this is George Asanza, we're done. The show is over right there. Yeah, Scott and I know, baby.

That was amazing. That's it for me. That's it for me. Okay, let's get into this thing. Jed, let me begin with you. This was a tough watch. it really was like there were some moments certainly there are some things to discuss certainly most notably some pretty awful scorecards micky gall basil hafez really fun fight

jelton almeda submission win cool but this is a slog man like this was a slog the randy brown fight was okay nico price Alex ronoreno was really really tough to watch. Kevin Holland gave us a nasty submission. Sean Strickland, Paula Costa, underwhelming would be like the most respectful way to say it. And then Islam Makachev and Dustin Porre put on a hell of a fight. That fight saved the entire card. So I guess if we're if we're grading this card as a whole, Jed, what do we give in it? It still gets one star. It was a tough watch. I had a different viewing experience than y'all did. So it was a little easier for me, for being honest.

I was on tap to cover the boxing early, and so I was watching a very different kind of tough slog as I watched DeLy-Zang and Deontay Wilder poke at each other for four rounds before Zhang finally killed him. And so I missed a lot of the... I missed basically all of the early prelims. I saw some of the Lima Raposa fight,

but not enough to comment on it, as I'm certain that that will come up as we go through this. And so then I kind of... of jumped in around Grant Dawson, Joe Selecki is around the time that I got to fully focus. And even then, that was a slog. Like, what we had going there was pretty tough. But at the end of the day, it's always how you finish. It's not really how you start these cards.

Even the best fight cards we've ever had, they start really strong and end with a pooper. Then you kind of leave the evening tough. And so while parts of this were a drag in the middle, and I'm not saying that this is the pay-per-view. missed it to go by and show your friends who don't know MMA and this will get him into it. I do still think the main event was enough to get you over the hump and kind of feel at least somewhat satisfies. This is one of the better fights of the year. Probably not going to fight of the night or fight of the year.

But certainly Dustin Poy exceeded most people's expectations and that fight itself was far more dramatic and interesting than the thing most people have like or at least expected it to be. So I still think you get a star, but it's just. just getting over that line. You know, this was tough in a lot of ways this evening. What did you think, A.K., I think you got the full-on viewing experience. How do you grade this one?

Well, so I put up a poll in the chat. What will you remember most from UFC 302? And I try to start positive. Maconchev-Pourier-Duel, some wonky score cards. It's another option. Holland breaking Michael Alexeach's arm and lack of finishes. I don't want to say lack of excitement, but lack of finishes. People can interpret it how they will.

Fortunately, everyone's focusing on the positive. 76% saying they will remember the Makachov-Pourier duel. And I think that actually speaks a lot to how we always say, the UFC just can't lose, right? They can't lose. You have a good headliner. You have a decent main card. You finish the night strong. That is, for the most part, what people will remember.

Same as how they put on so many, you know, apex cards and fight nights every year. and people tend to not just gloss over the cards that were forgettable, right? That weird misperception of, oh, well, all the cards that the media doesn't hype up, those are ones that turn out being good. And it's like, no, you just don't remember the ones that were bad. And I think if this poll is any indication, I know it's just our listeners who are very educated and very intelligent and hardcore, if this poll is any indication, a lot of people, when they think about 202, they'll hopefully, if you're the UFC, just think of, oh, yeah, Makachev,

third tile defense great fight with dussumporier maybe dust and pori's last fight ever uh they got sean strickland i know a lot of people out there like sean strickland you know he put on a uh fight a sean stricklandy fight if that's your cup of tea then you had a good time uh and uh overall the main card it wasn't like terrible outside of the nico price morano fight because i thought randy brown elizu leski was fine holland with a nice finish so as long as you didn't you're not like us and you didn't force yourself i don't say force yourself but if you didn't have an obligation to drag you your ass through all 12 fights, you probably didn't think the carb is too bad. I personally, Mike, sorry, you asked my grade, this is like a C-minus. Like, I just did not enjoy having to watch

this from beginning to end. And this is the usual disclaimer, no disrespect to the fighters. They go in there. They fight to fight that they're going to fight to survive, to win, to get that extra paycheck. So it really falls in the matchbreakers, falls in the UFC. And, you know, I feel like just not giving us great matchups. It didn't look great on paper and play out pretty poorly. Yeah, this is a C card overall. And the main event is the biggest reason why it's a C and not worse, if we're being honest.

Like, it's just the way that it was. But that's just kind of part of the viewing experience. If you watch from Fight 1 to Fight 12, that's just the experience that you had. It depends on where you, if you started from Gielton, Almeida and then went up, I don't think you hated it as much as people. I didn't, which is almost exactly what I did. Yeah, so probably worked out. It was a better experience for you.

Yeah, which makes a lot of sense. But let's go to where this all capped off, Jedbushu. Islam Makachev gets it done, submits Dustin Porre in round five, nasty choke. Porreux taps and then goes unconscious after he taps. And this is just a good, like a really good performance from Dustin Porreier. He was very competitive, a lot more competitive than people thought he was going to be. even surprised Islam with how much he improved his takedown defense from the Benoit Sontidi fight. Poria had moments on the feet.

I thought Islam looked really good tonight, Jed. I thought his striking was fantastic. Even Islam said like he probably could have trusted the striking more. And I think he had a lot more success. But man, after a really tough first round for Dustin, he was able to turn it around. I thought he'd have really solid round two. I actually thought he won the second round. Islam has a dominant round three.

Round four, like on the watch party, we kind of vibe gave round four to Dustin Porriere, just to add a little excitement to it. But I think there's a case to be made that Dustin did win round four. So what's the biggest story for you here, Jed? Islam winning the fight and getting the late tap,

or is the story the way Dustin performed in what could potentially be his final fight, which we'll obviously talk about in a minute? So then the story is going to be Dustin. He's just a bigger star. The fact that he was not overlooked because I think so many people wanted him to win this, right? Like very clearly we were all pulling for Dustin, not because we don't like Islam, but because Dustin is so beloved.

But I think everyone at least had an inkling or some suspicion. This wasn't going to happen. That this would be a great story. And if he can pull something a la Bisping off here, what a wonderful moment. But he's a, you know, a plus 550 underdog. He's not going to win. And so the fact that he was as competitive and more competitive than he was against Tabib, certainly, more competitive than he was against Charles Alvara. You know, like to think people, that's going to be the takeaway.

I think what should be the takeaway is Islamakachev, though, because he is in this very, very interesting space as a champion where he is the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world by just about anybody who's rational. actor at this point, except for then his boss, who was like adamantly, angrily opposed to his being the number one pound for pound fighter, which is so weird to me, but we don't, we can get into that later if someone asked about it. But despite being the top pound for pound fighter and like everyone very clearly respects his skills, the way things have broken for him, he's not a beloved fighter. You know, Habib was beloved and he comes in, and has the shadow of Habib over him. And then while managing that, through no fault of his own, like he can't control that,

managing the, hey, you're not Habib part of it, still becoming the best pound for pound fighter in the world, he has to do it by fighting two of the most beloved fighters in this era in Volcanovsky and Dustin Porre. Like, there was no way for people to be behind him broadly. Islam fans and, you know, Habib fans will like him, but that people will graviv will gravette. towards folks, they gravitate towards Porre. And so he has been cast as the villain, though he is not villainous. And so people aren't going to talk about him in this way because it's not, man, look at what Islam dealt with out here. Islam, you know, whether he overlooked him or Justin Pori was just so much better than we all anticipated.

He had to gut through a tougher fight than anticipated and didn't win by the skin of his teeth, didn't take home a decision, but showed, one, a sick-ass setup to that. finish. I forget who put the clip up, but like, I was live blogging so I didn't catch it. The whole finishing sequence is unbelievable technical shit going on. Like Islam has the single leg, is very aware that Poir is going to punch him. As soon as Poir starts to try and punch from that position, he steps back, slings the leg and that initiates the sequence that gets him to the guillotine into the darts, into the finish. It is unbelievable technical brilliance when he is very clearly tired after a hard fight. And to have that kind of of metal intuition, grit, stubbornness to say, I'm going to win this and I'm going to finish this

dude right now. That is, that's championship shit. And that's the shit. Like, we should all be hanging from the rafters that this guy is an all time great. And no one is downplaying him. Like some, maybe some people are. No one is, you know, saying, well, that's trash. But he doesn't get to be the centerpiece.

And I do think that that's a bit unlucky and unfortunate for him. But it's just sort of how things have broken. When you look back at this main event, AK, is the story, because the story in the bill was all about Dustin. Can he do it? Can he slay the dragon? Can he pull off the big upset? Can he finally say, I'm the undisputed champion of the world? Is the story about Dustin now in defeat?

Or is the story about Islam Makachev gutting through a tougher fight than anticipated? Same thing with Volcanowski. He gutted through some really tough moments in that fight. There are a lot of people still to this day who feel like Volkadovsky won that first fight. I'm certainly not one of those people. But to Jed's point, he mentioned the names that he's beaten, Volkadovsky, now Dustin Pori. Not to mention Charles Olivera, who he won the bell from, and Charles Oliverer was super over and continues to be super over. So is the story about Islam defending the title for the third time successfully, or is it about Dustin putting forth a hell of an effort considering where the betting lines were and how people viewed the fight in general?

To set up my answer, I do want to say, I think, and pat ourselves in the back quite a bit, I do think Jed and I kind of nailed a couple of pre-fight predictions. One, Jed was really accurate with, on the topic of, will this be Dustin Porre's last fight, that he won't retire in the cage. It could be his last fight. If it does happen, it'll be like an announcement down the road. And that's pretty much what Porre said verbatim in his post-fight. This could be the last time you see me.

If it is, you know, thank you, et cetera, et cetera. I need to go talk to my family and make a decision. And so Jed nailed that one. And I think, I guess it still has to play out, but I said if Islam sticks around it lightweight, and I know that's looking remote now, looks like he wants to at least tip his, try his hand at welterweight sooner rather than later. If he does rack up a couple of more lightweight title events, though, let's say five or fingers crossed six, you get like six televences, which is so rare in today's UFC landscape,

then we will look back on this as, this win as part of Islam story. We'll remember it as one of his best, most exciting telemed events is the poring aspect will not be forgotten, but it'll be fun to tally and look at Islam's like, oh, Volkanowski one, again, it beats Charles, then Volcanowski 1, Volkanowski 2, beats Dustin, and then maybe Cirqueon 2 down the road, what we think is going to happen, then some other top five, top seven lightweight, right? It's, I've really, again, I'm projecting a lot. I really want to believe that Islam is going to, even if he goes up to, welterweight and wins it, or loses, will return to 155, will rack up mortal defenses. We've seen people do that before. We saw Izzy do that, right? He went up to fight Yon. He lost.

He came back, defend the title. So tonight and this week, it was while Poirier. There's no denying that in the future, I think this is just, this is a pivotal part of Islam's legacy. Please, Islam, just don't run to welterweight and never defend your title again. I don't ask for much. Yeah, Islam saying that, you know, the post-fight presser, it's the first time I've ever been cut. And even him just having to deal with something little like that, which is not all that little considering where that cut was. Like there are some fighters who, yeah, it was nasty.

It could have got real hairy there. But he battles through it and gets the win. And to me, it's a no-brainer. Go fight Armin Sarukian, whether it's at MSG or do it in Abu Dhabi. I do not care. That is the fight. And to me, I have no interest in seeing Islam go to Welterweight until that fight happens. He goes out and beats Armin for a second time.

Go to Welterweight. I have no qualms with that whatsoever, especially with the current state of the division right now. Max Holloway, sure, it's a name. He's there. Justin Gachie's kind of out of the picture right now, but still an interesting fight stylistically. Even Javier Mendez feels like Justin Gachi is like the toughest matchup that could be for Islam Machachev. But he's the best fighter in the world, whether Dana White wants to say. it publicly or not. And sometimes you got to go through hell to do it. Dust Porre is a tough

out for everybody. So that leads me to go back to you, Jed, because I've heard your predictions. You called it. You nailed it. Like AK said, shuts the door. He closes it, goes inside his, the house of retirement, but he's not locking the Deadbolt. Deadbolt staying free. He can open door and walk back outside into the fighting world. Anytime he pleases, at least that's how he's left it. So now that you've seen the emotional post-fight interview, saw the moment with his wife and daughter in the aftermath of the post-fight interview, the interview with Megan Olivie, which is super emotional,

even the post-fight press conference. If you had to take a guess right now, was that the last fight of Dustin Porre's career? Nope. I would love it to be, honestly. And I didn't think I'd feel that way coming in to this. Like, I was pretty adamant. Like, I don't, I think we're going to see him again. And I want to see him again.

He still has so much left to give this sport. He still has obviously plenty of tread left on the tires. Like, he was very competitive against the best fighter in the world. That's the, he is not Tony Ferguson, who we need to leave the sport. He clearly can compete. But I also, I'm very happy if a fighter wants to. step away and leave with all their faculties because that happens so rarely. And honestly, this is like a really, I mean, it's not ideal.

It's not perfect. It's not the storybook ending. But it's a really fitting retirement for Dustin Porre to go out like this. Great, but never all time. Like, look at what I gave Islam more difficult fight than most. And I was in it until the end. And then I lost. And that's kind of the story of his life in a lot of ways.

and that's maybe harsh, but it's true. And to go out on a, like an unequivocal good performance, I think would be pretty decent. I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think we're going to see him any time soon, though, because he doesn't need to, but it just never pays to bet on fighters staying retired in this sport. Chuck Liddell came out of retirement after like 13 years on the sidelines or whatever. The call to get back in one last time is so strong. It is so hard to leave fighters.

I don't think Poyer will compete in the rest of this year of 2025, probably. Seems unlikely. But he gets a little older. He stays around the gym. He stays training because that's ingrained in him. And he thinks, you know, my daughter's a little bit older now. And I didn't get to go out on a good note with her. And maybe Nate Diaz comes back to the UFC and he just immediately says, yeah, because he was very clear in his post-fight.

What am I fighting for? I don't want to fight just to fight. He and A. Diaz have unfinished business. That's a fight that would interest him. Maybe that happens. Or maybe it is just something, you know, my kids are a little older now. They can understand this more what this is as my profession and career. And it's not just, hey, daddy got beat up in a fight.

But now they can be a more proactive part of this whole fight week, this journey. The UFC comes to New Orleans and I get one siren song. I just think that there's a very high likelihood he fights again because he's still only 35 years old. then people don't retire from the sport. What do you think, A.K.? Maybe you fell one way heading in. Do you feel any differently coming out? Do you feel like this is it for Dustin Poria?

No, I think this was the scenario where the Luz scenario where we could assume he was still going to come back. Because I said the only chance that he was going to retire is if Mazvostov just trucked him, like just first round 90 seconds, like 10 seconds, takes him down like 45 seconds of ground and pound and then just chokes him out like I think you know where he's so discouraged and he's so convinced like oh okay like the game has passed me by like the elite like the Justin Gachis I can't beat them anymore the Islamakshops I can't

beat them anymore then I think there's a chance he would say okay I'm taking damage here I'm not having fun anymore I know there's still my teammate I know there's still big fights but I'm going to walk away. But that didn't happen. That didn't happen. He made it further than he's ever made it in a title flight. We were saying in the comments we were watching when the third round rolled around, we're like, well, this is where it ended for him against Charles.

This word ended for him against Khabib. It kind of looked like it was again. Makachev took him down very early in the third, immediately went to the back. And I was like, oh, wow, like this really is. Like, he really cannot make it past the third round. But no, he fought to the fifth. He may have won. You can make a case that he won.

two of the first four rounds. I think I gave three of the first four to Makachev, but it was not an easy fight for Makachov at all. Porriet showed he could still hang with the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. So it wasn't discouraging. He has nothing to be embarrassed about. I think when he watches

this footage, he'll be very proud of his performance, and I think it's one of the reasons why he will fight again, other than the fact that, like we said, there could be a Nate Diaz fight out there. God help us, there could be that fourth McGregor fight. I think the ship has sailed, but you never know of McGregor he's he's always been so sour about it he's the one who's

pushed it the most and he wants he will fight for you again so I think we get at least one more I think you get at least one more uh what it would surprise me if he continued after that yeah maybe a little maybe a little I do think one more is a limit as long as it's a good name big payday big event uh but no he's he's not done he's not done and he shouldn't be business types performance he should not be done I'm torn here because I felt like this is going to be his last fight either way, even if he won the belt. And he even kind of said at the post-fight press conference, if he had won the belt, that was it. He can't leave any more satisfied. I think he would have been done even with the belt. I know a lot of people didn't agree with that, but that's how I felt

then Dustin sort of confirmed it. But I know hindsight's 20-20. That's just sort of how he felt. That's the only way he'd be satisfied with this career. $25 million. There's a lot of money. Yeah, but you're still banking. You need a lot of shit to break your way. for that too happen. He needs Connor to win and then he beats Connor's ass again. And he needs Connor to resign because they're not, no, they're not going to give Connor a title fight. It doesn't matter. We're talking about a thing that we'll never have now. Exactly. Exactly. He's fighting Nate Diaz or he's not fighting at all. That's the way I view this. He seemed very sincere to me that if he doesn't have a goal, he's not fighting. And I completely believe him here.

And I know he's addicted to the game and I get that. But I think he's more addicted to his family. and the fact that he's sort of, you know, they've been a big part of his run. But I think he's realizing how important, like, that part of his life is right now. And yes, is it going to be a hard transition for him? Certainly. But if he's not, like, he's not going to fight Jalen Turner. He's not going to fight any of these guys. He's just not.

He's just not going to. So to me, it's if somehow Nate re-signs of the UFC after the Mazadol boxing, match. Yeah, I think Porre will stick around a little bit longer and try to get that fight, because I think that's like the last box he can realistically check off right now. Because I don't think he'll do the McGregor thing again because he doesn't need the money. And at the same token, I don't, I just think it's Nate. Like, there's just unfinished business there. I don't think he has unfinished business with McGregor.

He went out there and finished him two fights at a row. Like, that's it. I think he feels like he's done with all that. But Nate, I think you would come back for that one. So to me, that's just how I leave this thing. So if it was the final fight of Dustin Porre's career, it's a damn good one. It's a damn good one, even though you didn't walk away undisputed champion. You know, you weren't able to accomplish the dream.

It doesn't seem like he's going to want to go back to the well one more time. But who knows? Maybe something happens. They book a lightweight title fight. Who knows? Maybe they book Islam versus Armin, Sarukian. Sarukian gets hurt or something. and they need somebody to step up,

maybe it's Dustin doing it to save the day. Who knows? Maybe he steps back in there for one more. Maybe Max Henry becomes lightweight champion. Yeah, maybe. He wins over Max. You could sell me. Maybe.

Didn't seem like Dusta was all that enthused to fight him again. I mean, if he has lightweight belt, maybe he's more thus. Or maybe like he just goes home and he spends two years doing nothing but hanging with his family. He's like, I got to do something else. I can't. I can't do this anymore. Every day they're here. I'm looking at them every day.

I need to go to Coconut Creek. I mean, he could still go to Coconut Creek, but we'll see what happens. I mean, good, good, good main event. Islam's completely correct. That fight saved this entire card. And it was a damn good one. It was a damn good one. Boating for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

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Sean Strickland versus Paul Acosta, and Casey and I built this thing up on the People's Free Fight show as just this heavily entreeing matchup. We weren't really sure how it was going to go. And what we got was a very Sean Stricklandee. the decision. I was going to say unanimous decision. Not what happened. Frick David Trelley cost me a winning bet with his horrendous scorecard of 4946 for

Paul Ocosta. But be that as it may, Sean Strickland gets it done, Jed. Your thoughts on the performance. I mean, look, he went out there and won. He slowed Paul O'Costa down. He frustrated him, kicked him in the body, 17. million times and then started jabbing and then when paul costa started to get a little momentum in round five kick paul costa in the face and knocked him down so strickland goes out there i thought he won

every single round you want to give costa a round of two i don't i don't have an issue with that what do we think here how did how did you leave what were your thoughts at the in the when the final horn sounded and sean strickland gave his post fight interview give me the title shot let's go how did you feel about Strickland's win? I thought that fight looked very much like I thought it would. I mean, there were some differences and push comes to shove.

Like, I kind of thought Costa would steal one, but I was very clear in our preview show that it would be a robbery that he would steal a split decision win that he probably didn't deserve. And boy, was I close. I was one judge's scorecard away from nailing it.

Like, that fight, I was surprised by how quickly Strickland got Costa backing up. up and backing up freely because that is not largely coast his game. But other than that, it was exactly what I thought. Sean Shookland's going to do what Sean Shookland's going to do. And it, like, we're very aware of what he is doing. He's very effective at it.

I'm not here to downplay that. But he's not going to change come hell or high water. Like, he's not going to smell blood and start going for it unless it's the last 10 seconds of a fight that is functionally over. Then he may get out of his cocoon and try to actually hurt someone for real for real. But prior to that, he's going to march forward with his weird little high stepping knee out, which actually ends up working really well for him. Yeah. And his, you know, cross guard and moving and sticking the teep as much as he can and jabbing a bunch. And that's what he's going to do. I thought that Costa was going to hit the body a whole lot because he does that. And Strickland is very attackable in the body because of his defense, probably kick a whole bunch. And I thought he would like sit in the body.

pocket more and just fire big hits right back at Strickland and kind of not get pushed around the cage. But he never did that. He just stuck to hitting the body and kicking the legs. And so we got that fight. That's just, that's going to be every Sean Strickland fight. And if you're new here and you like Sean Strickland because of the stuff he says and because he's been this boisterous, intriguing personality or whatever, welcome to the Sean Strickland show. He is a much more interesting fighter on the mic than he is in the cage. And there's nothing wrong with that. But, but, but he does have a bit of that Israel Dissan. I say that I'm going to murder you

and then I win a split decision over you because I am not going to risk anything bad ever happening to me. I will play firmly in defense and my offense will only accentuate my defense. It is not the primary focus of my game. And that's what happens. Because Sean Strickland at any point in that fight after the first six minutes,

because there's a very noticeable, Sean Strickland is advancing the way Sean Strickland does. And Sean Strickland is just like running at Costa because he knows that Costa is not going to sit down and counter. And so he can freely chase him around the cage. And at that point, if you know Costa is not going to do that, you could start trying to hurt him real bad. But that's not what he's going to do. He is not going to be a fun and exciting fighter unless you create, you make it happen. You give it to him on a platter like Abbas did.

and then he will take it, but it has to be the most lined up, because otherwise it's going to be jab, it's going to be cheap, high volume, high pressure, and that's it. And so that's it. Like, it was a fine fight. It dragged.

It didn't need to be, you know, 25 minutes because the fight was the same for the whole of it. But it was fine. I was impressed with a lot of what Costa did, despite losing. I scored one round for him, and we'll get into this, but I'll set the table.

I don't think it is impossible to score four rounds for Costa. I did not. Again, I scored at 4-1 Strickland. I do not think that it is a good scorecard. I do not think that the 4-1 Costa scorecard is the worst scorecard that happened this evening. So it's just part and parcel of Husson Strickland fights.

A lot of his offense is muted. It doesn't look that impressive. And particularly from a cage side seat for a referee who does not have a screen in front of them, that can come off looking real weird dude so if he wants to get out of Splitty City he needs to change his game and I don't think he's ever going to do it.

Okay, did you leave this one thinking Sean Shrgen got himself a big head start in this sort of middleweight Grand Prix because we have Canaaner versus EmoVoff next week we have Robert Whitaker versus Hamza Chimaa for the week after that was this the type of performance that said to you yeah, Sean's got a big lead here

and he might just end up getting a title shot after this one. I don't know if I want to say it gave him a big lead, but I think he's pretty close to the front of the line anyway. I don't think they were ever seriously entertaining the thought of giving him an immediate rematch after the DDP fight. It was definitely a close fight. Again, I don't think of robbery. It could have gone either way.

But I think they saw something in his popularity at UFC 297, and that's what kept him there. They like him. He fights often, too. He's a good company man. He's politically aligned with Dana White and, you know, some of the other, I guess probably have some of the other higher off the UFC, which can't hurt. And I think he only need to hold serve here, which is pretty much what he did. Now, if he had found a way to really put an exciting fight and finish Costa, that probably would help him even more and increased his chances of getting past the Whitaker Shemayev fight, who I think we all think of Shemayev wins. He's a lock to get the title fight. Whitaker, if he beat Shemayev, also was very likely to be ahead in line of Sean Strickland. But again, if you're Sean Strickland, he, I think in his mind, thought he didn't even need to do another fight to get his talism. I think he assumed a rematch was going to come and that he would get either DDP or he would get Izzy because he beat Izzy. He beat Izzy to win the title. So even if he hadn't fought, he probably thought he'd get it.

But I think it was kind of smart of him to take another fight and to take an guy like Costa who I thought it was a nightmare. match for Costa from day one. I understand the rationale of like, well, we've seen Strickland get knocked out before, but I mean, that was Alex Pereira and that was his only knockout loss in like 12 fights or something. And I also understand the logic. And I think Jed, when we were doing the preview for the show, I think it was you and Shaheen.

I think you both said the way that Costa could win was, you know, have bigger moments, right? Just, just the way Sean Strickland fights, one good flurry. You catch it with one good flurry and around, one good flurry. and you know 20 seconds of sustained offense you can take a route from stricken like that and Costa just didn't do that and I didn't have faith he could I think that was the thing is I just didn't have faith he could

I just didn't see how we'd figure out Sean Strickland I'm I feel bad about being right about this one not because I care about whether Strickland or Costa wins a fist fight but because in my version the way I figured the fight was like the most boring version of the fight possible and that's pretty much what played out so not not happy to be right here

I would have loved to see either guy put on a dominant performance or score a knockout or something, just put some exclamation point on it. But yeah, I would be surprised if Strickland leapfrogs the winner of Whitaker, Shemayev, unless somehow one of those guys, whoever wins, it just drops a complete egg in victory. But yeah, he kept his spot near the front of the line. And I would expect him to get another shot at the UFC middleweight title

at some point, though I think he will have to fight again. he'll get it if izzie beats ddp and whittaker and whittaker beats shemeyov like those those two have like both have to happen right if only one of them happens and he will be next in line and probably honestly have to fight jared cantony again um assuming jared canonyer beats nosternymy imbovov um just to stay busy but if both of those things happened they would run back izzie is he is he strickland two immediately sure i could see that happen Yeah. Rest the main card, Kevin Holland gets the nasty arm bar submission win over Michael O'Zecheck.

It was kind of like a needed fight in that spot because of all the sloginess. We needed a quick finish. Kevin Holland delivered it, gave some people some things to talk about. We mentioned Nico Price beating Alex Morano in a fight that would probably never go back and watch again. That's so bad. That was real bad. That third round was out. Sorry, Nico.

I described it as me fighting myself in a dream. That's what the third round was like. Here's how you know it's bad. In case you just tuning in because you love the content, you didn't watch the card. They didn't give Nico Price a post-fight interview, and they almost never don't give fighters a post-fight interview on a paper view because they ain't got nothing but time.

Yep. That explains it. And then Randy Brown, Elizes Leske. not a tremendous fight, but a fine fight. It was a fine fight. That's a good way. That was pretty fun. Good fight.

Good fight. Yeah, good competitive scrap. And there you go. And then obviously the prelims, Roman Coppulov gets a win over Cesar Alnada via split decision. Jesus Christ. Worst card. The year, I think.

Yeah. No, I think Reposo was, I think the Raposo one was worse. Again, I didn't watch that whole fight. But I'm both of you say it, so I trust that that must be true. But of the fights I sceit with my two eyes, who that was, I could not believe that scorecard. Real bad, yeah. Stinky.

Very stinky. Jeltsin Omeida gets back on track. He's back. We didn't get funny, the funny heavyweight fight. We got Jelta Leda. Shout to him. Yeah. I think we needed that after Jake Matthews, Phil Rowe and Grant Doss and Joe Solekke.

Basil Fez beats Mickey Gall and a super fun fight. Yeah, that was a good one. That was a really good fight. Eileen Perez, Jocelyn Edwards, squash the beef. And then Andre Lima beats Mitch Roposa via split decision. But if we're being, like, truly honest, Mitch Roposa probably should have won that fight, like 26 to 24 due to the amount of points that Andre Lema should have lost in that fight. No, Andre Lema fought smart, fight smart.

Oh, man. Cheat. cheat. It only helps you cheat. And he missed weight by four pounds. He was essentially a bantam weight in there. He went into as an abandoned weight for a flyweight. Veteran savvy is what we're talking about.

You guys should be praising Andre Lima for understanding the game at a deep and intuitive level like he does. I mean, look, I mean, I'm not not praising him. I'm just saying from like a technical standpoint, Mitch Rupport was probably should have won 2724 because they're about six points. They should have started cheating a little more. My favorite one was Herb Dean saying like, look, this is, this is the final hard warning of giving you.

And then literally two seconds later, he grabs the fence. And there's no point. Herb was on one tonight, man. He had a tough night. He had a tough night. And then the bonuses, Islamachchev gets two bonuses. Fight of the night with Dustin Porier, performance of the night. And then Kevin Holland gets the other performance bonus.

So that's how it was, right? Yes. Islamov is sneakily an incredibly exciting fighter. And again, no one talks about, no one thinks about it because they assume he's boring because he's from Dagestan and he never loses. Seven of his last eight fights have been finishes. And hey, the one that wasn't, it was the fight of the fucking year. Again, it's Stag's Intervolcanobsky. Dude's actually awesome.

Like, full stop, dope at all parts of being an MMA fighter other than saying, you know, quirky things on the mic. So, shouts to him. He's also a- Him and Syracian is going to rule. It's going to rule. I cannot wait for that fight. He also has to fight this weird, this weird misperception that every time he doesn't get a fight to the ground, he's struggling. Like, there's a lot of like, oh, I can't believe he couldn't put away poor it.

Like, he couldn't dominate it. It's like he was effing him. He's actually winning most of the striking, not all of it. It reminds me so much of the Volcanowski fight. We're like just because he couldn't hold. We're just tuning Volka. Yeah, people are like, oh, wow, it's an even fight. I'm like, no, watch the, like, are you watching the fight?

Like he's effing Vulcanoscis. He's effing Dustin. And Dustin was doing fine too. Like he said, Dustin put on a good performance. But Makachep does not get enough credit for his striking. Like he is, his striking is outstanding. And he hits hard. Like he hits real hard.

So I don't know. He's got like, like I said, hopefully down the road, we learned to appreciate this guy more as it is. There's always kind of these narratives. They are more centered around his opponents than him. But this was just another great performance night. This is the best half-bound fighter in the world. Don't go to Walter Way, bro.

that please don't don't do it not yet I know it was coming I don't don't ever do it do it for the last fight of your career like that's that's where I want it to be just like you got to retire afterwards if you like you're just done

because he's he's tied the lightweight title defense record and AK when you're like what if he gets to six was like yeah he'd be the greatest fighter of all time if in the modern lightweight division he puts together six title defenses. It's actually like an impossible thing to do.

It would be unbelievable. And it would be much cooler to me than going and fighting Leon Edwards. Like, come on. Just do your job. And shout out to him though, because he said very out loud, the thing that I've been saying for 10 years or whatever, it sucks to be a champion and it's hard because it's not fun to be the champion. He is very explicit.

it. I want to fight for that belt because this is hard and it's not as exciting to just defend the belt against people. I want that feeling again. And that's why it's so hard to defend a belt 10 times like I've been telling all of you forever. True that. Just bring defense. Fight on Max Rook and fight Matush Gamrott. And I don't know who else will fight Max Holloway. that would be dope. Honestly, pretty pumped about watching that fight. We'll see how it all goes.

Let's bring Casey in. The first Armand Thrukin gets the shot. And then we can talk about the other stuff. But let's answer some questions. Hey, Kay, do you have the jet? Is that the, I heard a siren. I think I have to run. I think they're, they come for me.

The cops are coming. You guys, this conversation never happened. I'll see you guys later. You don't even, you don't know me. No, they're heading to Newark to go find David Torelli. to try to get the money that you store for me. I hope there's questions about that. Yes, I've got to go do some M.A fighting stuff, guys.

Have fun. Thank you everyone for tuning in. Great website. Yeah, send in your questions. All right, see you guys. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats.

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Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. There is literally like just sirens going off on something in window right now. It's Jersey, bro. Yeah, this is New York, bro. Boy, that makes sense, honestly. I mean, Newark, there would be like 18 alarms going on at one. going off at once.

So, yeah, we'll take questions for the next week. I don't know, 15, 20 minutes, get to it through as many as we can. We are knocking on 4 a.m. Eastern Time, so we don't want to sloggy slog this all out. Stephen, thank you. Boys, one, poor a losing is my parents saying Santa Claus isn't real. Two, what's next from my guy, Jake Matthews? Three, Casey, what does the other half think of that unit of a mustache you're reping? So Casey, we'll start with question three.

How does the iconic voice feel about the mustache? If the other half, the iconic voice, didn't approve of it, I would not have it. True. Also, you've had it for a long time at this point. As long as I've known you. Yeah, I've had it so long, people forget that I never not had it, you know. So, yeah. Yeah.

As long as I've known you, you've had it. Jed, I'm going to go to you with question two. We're going backwards here since, I mean, man, no one, no one rated Jake Matthews higher at any point during his UFG run. He was right there with me. At the Andre Fialio. And yes, you guys praised him, but you're the one that actually put, you put him in your rankings in a pretty high spot at one point. That was an unbelievable performance from me. inside your top 10, if memory serves it correctly.

Never wrong, only early. Look at him. He's still dealing. He had a fight that happened with Phil Rowe, and he won said fight. So how would you matchmake for Jake Matthews after this victory? It's a great question. Also, here's the important thing. It's less about how you matchmaking.

It's where. because Jake Matthews, I figured out the problem that Jake Matthews has, actually. He can't win in Las Vegas. He is 0 in 4 or 0 in 5 in Las Vegas. Something about the dry desert air doesn't agree with this system. And he just can't put the Andre Fiala who fights. That was in Singapore. Very, very different climate than Las Vegas.

So keep him out of Vegas. That's the critical thing. And I don't know, some top 30 welterweight. Like he's just been doing the win loss, win, loss. thing. He's still young enough that he could put something together, but it feels like he's just going to be the welterweight Mikhail Olegsachicich,

you know, only not as fun because Mikhail is dope at least. But, you know, just a guy like that who can maybe hang around the fringes of top 15 if he catches a couple of breaks, if he improves because he's still young enough that he could go on a run and welterweight has some

availability for stuff like that could get there, but pick a random dude out of a hat. It's not like he deserves a top 15 fight right now. So just some other. I'd have to look into it. And that's your job, Mike, not mine. Let me just drop a little spoiler on all of you.

My wild car will not be Jake Matthews tomorrow. So just throw that out there. Shocker. But the answer is probably like if they can't find somebody for like Michael Morales to fight, like if like the 21st ranked Walterway doesn't say, they will probably throw him in there with like a Jake Matthews. On a related note to that, I was catching up on last weeks, or maybe it was this week's, whichever when you did the on the next one, on to the next one, like Q&A,

I was catching up on this today. And when you guys were doing that and you said Michael Morales, I wanted to jump through my AirPods to be like, you're not wrong, but the actual answer at Welterweight is Jalen Turner when he moves up to well to wait because he is going to be the next Gilbert Byrne. And that's the corner I'm currently living on. So, uh, yeah. Jalen Turner got called out by Grant Dawson.

I actually really, I actually liked that call out. Grand Dawson's a smart man. He understands that if you can tackle Jalen Turner two to three times, you have a very good chance of winning. And Stephen, I'm sorry that you, you know, had a tough moment with the poor A loss. What's Chaos Williams doing? He booked? I saw someone through that.

He just won. He just won like, yeah, I know that's, I was going back through like recent things, but I don't know if he'd like got a quick turnaround or whatever. I think chaos is probably like, chaos probably should get like Neil Magny or something.

Like he's he's about that's that range, top 20-ish. You could convince me on like Zeletsky as well. Like anything like that is fine. Yeah. I don't think there's, anyone outside of the top 20 is good for Jake Matthews. I don't think there's any matchup.

It's like, okay. Oh, Brian Battle. Let's do Brian Battle. Yeah. That's not bad. Brian Battle seems like the right answer as I'm looking through like just lists of dudes. Yeah. That's not a bad one.

Thank you, Stephen. Thank you. I got one more. Oh, we got more super chat from Stephen. Dana going hard on that John Jones bandwagon, Jed. it's just weird shit man like not like all gimmicks and my you know

shenanigans aside it is just deeply weird to me that Dana has decided this is his corner to be on and I'm not even saying it's wrong like if you want to argue that John Jones is the goat that is not a wrong argument there are clear arguments

to be made but yeah if you even want to argue that he's a top pound for pound fighter I think that is objective but I can at least squint my eyes and understand your position. But to be on this night when you can be getting your guy over, the guy who is the pretty much consensus across all places, top pound for pound fighter in the world, which you frankly promoted a fight as pound for pound versus pound for pound a year ago. Like you did that to not just be like, you know.

know what? He might be. You don't even have to see him like, you could just come out. I'm like, you know, I still think it's John Jones. Look at what John Jones say all the same stuff. But instead, Dana's position is, if you don't think John Jones is the best pound per pound,

you don't know what you're fucking doing. You shouldn't be allowed to breathe oxygen because look at what he's done. Islam has only beaten feather weights. John Jones beat the best heavyweight in the world when he went up. Well, Dana, you know, Islam's asking about going up to Walterweight. do the same thing. We're not going to talk about that. He's never mentioned that to us. Really? Because all he did was fucking talk about it in the week up. Like, why is this your position so strongly? And frankly, for a dude who you have numerous times heaved under the bus,

you have said that you will never let this man main event again. You have spoken very poorly of him. And so it's not like, I could get it if he was like here on Connor, who he has. He has loved Connor since day one. But it is just so odd for him to be in, like, so staunch about it. Because again, not even saying he's wrong. Just saying that he is wrong to do that tonight in the manner he did it. Because it was very easy to be like, you know, Islam might be. John Jones, he's still active, sort of, but he's not really.

And like, you know, John's not fighting that much. John's been injured. And look at what Islam's done. He beat the top pound for pound fighter in the world. at the time, comes in, you know, knocks him out in the first round next time. Like he's 13, 14 fights in a row, whatever it is now. Third longest streak all time.

You can big up this dude and still show love to John Jones. You don't have to trash your lightweight champion and top pound for pound fighter to do it. It's so weird to me. Yeah. It was, yeah. It was bizarre. Bizarre behavior.

I don't know what John Jones Like I just this this stance on this court like this is the hill to die on and doing it so passionately. Like this is more passionate about this that is weight loss journey this topic. Like it's crazy. It's crazy. What's yeah. I think what I thought it was weird too. But then as soon as he said that, of course, John tweeted about it.

You read the tweet. And there's also like a wrong tweet. And wrong. Yeah. When I saw the tweet from John, I was like, oh, this, there's some negotiations going on. To me, it was all, there's some weird negotiations going on behind the scenes. And that's just buttered John up publicly. That's all it felt like to me.

Yeah. That's, you can do that without trashing Islam, though. It's just not that hard to, two things can be good. Many things can be good at one time. It is not a zero-sum game. to us, not to Dana. I don't know, he likes UFC and like slap fight or whatever it is. Does he like UFC?

I think he just like slap. Like, you could really speak to Dana as a child and be like, hey, Dana, you know how you love the UFC and you love slap fighting? Why can't Islam be that with John Jones? Like, why does it have to be? He is terrible. Hey, Dana, tell us what you think about Islam. Well, he's no John Jones. So weird. So weird.

Oh, man. This is good. Please ask anything. Please put more questions about John Jones. And I want more. I need more this day and night. John said Steve A and Matt MSG in November. I think that's great. You think it's great that your heavyweight champion won't have fought in 20 months?

That doesn't seem great to me, Dana. I don't know. God damn it. And is not fighting the interim heavyweight champion who is now being forced to defend his interim championship. Oh, God. There's like literally John Jones, Stebe, and Dana White are the only three people on planet Earth who want to see that fight. Come hell or high water. They're going to give you that goddamn fight.

Oh, it's happening. And you're going to like it. Yep. Doug his heels in. It's ridiculous. Thank you for the question, Stephen. Thanks, Stephen. Super chatting with you.

Spencer, me or Islam. What? Is it me or Islam looked impressive, as always, but beatable in this fight. I'm now very convinced Armand, Gamrod and Welterweights have a real shot at him. I think about this.

I believe Walter weights have a shot at him. This fight is the first fight that makes me now question, what a Leon fight looks like, though I think I still favor Islam. Because again, like, just kind of needs to be said all the time in this sport. You can have an off night. Like, everyone can just have a bad day in the office. And I don't think that that was Islam's best day.

And he still got a finish and defended his belt. And honestly, looked very good and won most phases of the game. Certainly did look more beatable in this fight. Like, absolutely, that's undeniable. this point. This was, I scored more rounds for Dustin Poirier than I did in the two fights with Volcanovsky for Volcanowski. I gave Porier two rounds. I don't think that that's necessarily true. Maybe it could have been, you know, 3-1, anything from 4-0 Islam to 2-2, I was okay with. I had it 2-2, but I did have a 10-8 first round. I think undeniably he

looked more human and certainly just the relief that his corner had with the finish makes me feel like they knew that as well, sort of Habib's statements after the fact, you know, saying Islam's going to learn from this. He had to go into a pretty deep place to get there, and this is going to be a great experience for him. I think everyone's acknowledging that this fight was more difficult than they anticipated, and he still gutted through it, and that should be commended. This week, I really came to the idea that Islam is a horrific matchup for Armin, and I think the same thing applies for Gamera. I've always thought that he would be a very bad match. for Gamrod. I think he is exceptionally poor matchup for both of them. Because Gamrot really and

truly, and Armin to some extent, are kind of just versions of what Habib wants to do. And Islam has spent literally his entire life fighting the apex predator of that methodology. And his game is in some ways very well built to combat that. And so I don't, I don't think either of them are going to have much success trying to grapple Islam. And I think he is a superior striker to both of them. So I don't think either of them will beat him. They will be fun competitive fights if they happen. Welterweight, where he is giving up more size, is genuinely very interesting because he is not

like the ultimate athlete Habib was that I thought would have made a move to Walterweight insignificant for him. Islam not being like a supreme athlete might cause him a little trouble with dudes who are bigger than him. Yeah, I don't think Gamrod matches up horribly with Islam. I was really bad. I could certainly

see Islam being like a pretty significant favorite over Armin, but man, much alike Islam, Armand striking incredibly underrated, incredibly underrated. It's way better than you give it credit

for. I have to see that fight again. that's it. There's no other fight in this division I want to see more than these two guys fight. Full camp armin, like do it.

Let's just see. Let's just see. I have to see that fight. And maybe Islam just goes through and kills them. Like, it's very possible. I think we're going to get it. So you'll get it.

Yeah, we need it. We need it, my friends. It's not going to be an MSG. It'll be in Abu Dhabi. Unless Islam wants to be the co-main event to John Jones versus Stepe. And I don't know if he wants to do that. Not after tonight, probably.

Yeah. All right. Thank you, Spencer. I've also, by the, very interested in Max's fight. I again, think Islam would win, but... I want to say it. Max looked real good against Gaci, and I'm always down to watch that dude fight. Though it seems like we might be getting Max Charles.

Maybe. When Dana was like we're working on something with the BMF, Max is a champion, and honestly, there aren't a lot of... other BMF fights that makes sense for him. And it does make sense not to do him Ilya because Ilya and Volk are going to rematch. Like I know we all got excited and we're like, yeah, it would be really fun because it would be dope. Don't get me wrong.

But like the UFC is going to give Volk that chance and they're going to do it probably at Perth, maybe a little later. I would be, I'd be shocked if that fight happens at Perth. I mean, yeah. And honestly, from all the time. And from everything that I'm hearing, I'd be shocked if it's not Max. I'd be pretty surprised but because the BMF belt

then this is I want to jump off a bridge dude just go just go do max do that's what everybody wants and then Volk gets the winner like if it's Max so what if it's Ilia then we get Illia anyways like either way that's what we're going to get

but I feel like Max is probably I don't want Volk just have vote be a lightweight he'd be a fun lightweight Yeah, I don't hate that idea either. I don't hate that idea either. Am I too late to point out? This is from Widenhoff. The fight Jed hated on was the only finish in the prelims.

I was stone wrong. Stone wrong. Good work on Jailton. I thought he would win the fight. I did not think that he would submit Romanov as easily as he did. Like I said, I thought he would take him down very easily. I did not think that would be the issue. Romano was a big dude to accomplish grappler,

and he just gave up his back and got tapped. It was no more complicated than that. So Shouts saw made a dude's probably going to be a champion at some point just because you can compete at heavyweight forever. But it is pretty tough that I think Tom Aspinall is a really bad matchup for him in their similar ages. Yeah. Cut weight, homie. Light heavyweights trash. Mike, we're, no, on our fan Q&A, we're talking about the fighters who have the most to lose tonight.

I feel like all those fighters that we said had the most to lose all wind up winning. Islam, Strickland, and Almey. Yeah. I think it's interesting. All three of the one that. And Dawson. And Dawson, yeah. The four fighters that we thought like, ooh, they lose tonight.

It's tough to get back to where they were. But they all won. So I thought that was interesting. SWF-24. How does Islam match up with Leon? I think we kind of touched on this, but. I still think. think that I would pick him

but it's a lot. I'm a lot more conflicted now. Islam's clinch versus Leon's clinch are very different clinches and so that would be interesting. That's the thing. Islam just wants to take people down but he doesn't need to and I think against Leon he'd probably be kind of forced to give that game up

pretty soon because Leon is a very good defensive wrestler and so there's just be a striking match and I know that Leon is maybe on paper a better striker. throws about three punches around. So it's not that hard. Like that's slightly hyperbolic. His punch stats are obscenely low and not low because he knocks dudes out.

And so he's not throwing that many. He is consistently putting decisions where he's landing 40 some odd strikes in. Like that's an imminently beatable style. Balmah Muhammad can absolutely witness fight strictly by doing stuff. So like I think Islam has a chance because he will. be more active than Leon. Let's keep it rolling. Gabriel, DP should move up.

He could fight Colby, number one, a contender. I don't think that fight interests is Dustin in any way, shape, or form. I am extremely certain it doesn't, as he's said that exact thing several times. No. Yeah, that fight's not happening. Yeah, I think as fans you want to see it, but for DP, Dust Boyer, just as a person, the emotional crap he would have to go through to fight someone like Kobe. we no yeah that wouldn't be worth it to him it's just not enough money involved in that one no way

uh do do oh another super chat from our super chat friend stephen stephen stephen random one i asked a couple weeks back literally at the end of the show what you thought about anthony pedis's career top 10 all time or nope what it lightweight or in general doesn't matter not not either yeah i agree great career one championship on the fucking Wheaties box, which is pretty wild. And he's still doing it. It's about to go box on the Mazadal Diaz card. He's going to go fight Cedric Dumebe for PFL, where he's making probably a shit ton of money.

I think he's won prize fighting in a lot of respects. He's a good prize fighter. He's a lot of money. You kind of a generic question. Is he a UFC Hall of Famer? He should be. Yes. Yeah, he should be.

Champion. WEC, the showtime take a loan. Including his WC especially if including his WC career, yeah, without a doubt. Sure. Just double checking. Just double check. Benson Henderson should also be in the UFC

Hall of Fame. Agreed. Also, Benson is a top 10 lightweight all time. Agreed. I agree with that as well. That's not even, I mean, if you want to put him top 12, but I think it's pretty incontrovertible.

Yeah, I think doing damn they were good on Benson And Anderson solidified that for me after going back and watching his career. It made me, he is probably the fighter that I changed my opinion the most on in doing that show. I really reevaluated him hard. Yeah. I think I was just, I've, just like you hated Frankie for so long. Oh, yeah.

I think I've hated Benz, you know, I hated Pence in for the Gilbert Melinda's decision, which, you know, that's not his fault. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. So I kind of maybe dismiss some of my square because I was just upset. But yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I also crunch the numbers, boys, because I'm a committed doer of that.

In his title reign, Leon Edwards, again, he has gone to the fifth round in all three of the title fights that he has been in. And he is averaging 15 strikes landed per round. That's just a beatable number of activity. Yep. It's not a lot. It's not a lot. Forrest Daniels, Mike Eck and CB on the YouTube fight companion was the best part of UFC 302. I have to tell you, and as I said, I had the People's Revivey show, there are no two people in the same room who are going to have more fun watching UFC 302 than the two of us.

And boy, did we have fun. We had a great time. How'd CB do? How'd CB do today? I think he lost all the singles. I think he won. You did? Okay. I'll talk to him on Tuesday, but.

He didn't make a ton of bets. I hit the most passive parlay in history where I had my biggest bet. And like, I'm not even proud of it. So I won, I had a Jed night where I think I won like enough to buy like an ice coffee, not even at Dunkin' Donuts. I did the same thing. I've been, that's been my entire 24. It's great.

I won like $3. Thanks to Islam winning inside the distance and the most passive parlay of all time. Go back at a watch party and hear all about it. Part of the parlay, just to give you a little bit of a taste, was Grant Dawson, Joe Selecki, over a half a round. And I just swept that out a little bit. That was minus three. I was say that got fun. That was at least, you know.

Oh, yeah, like he was in the very beginning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But then once Joe Rogan said it was tight, you knew that you were safe. And in fact, this card would go to the decision. J.R.E. Leon handled much bigger wrestlers. Usen, Colby and Abelah. I think you will take Islam a little easy.

I agree that the wrestling would be tough for Islam. Offensively, I don't think Leon's going to have that much success wrestling him either. The clinch is where I think Leon can win. Striking, I actually think Islam will simply do more. and thus win. Yeah, I can see that. What did you think about Islam's clinch work against Dustin? I think he is an exceptional clinch fighter and Dustin was super well prepared for it.

And that was the most impressive part of Porre. I know it's going to get a lot of, hey, look at his defensive wrestling. And it was great. It was way better than the BSD fight, frankly. Like he was very disciplined. He clearly worked on a bunch of stuff. He did a lot of the same stuff he did against a B. but he was not against the cage ever.

So Islam couldn't start chaining. And then most of his takedowns did come when he got into the defense and could start doing that. I think no one will notice it. But Islam is a monster in the clinch in like very obnoxious ways to compete against. I go watch the Charles Olivera fight. And Oliver had nowhere to go. Like we watched that fight dozens of times. And he is not winning the striking.

He can't go to the ground because Islam is better there. And so he is trying to find. refuge in the clinch and he's getting need in the gut over and over again because Islam has spent his entire life having Habib Nurmugam Medov put him into a fence and learn how to fight off that and Porier was really good every time Islam got the plum he was moving out and rip into the body as hard as he could and just making it halacious and not giving Islam a chance and so you started to see Islam do like reaching plum knees, but not like be in the space because if they were there, Porre was working.

I was an unbelievable effort from Poria and one of his less like least effective clinch works from Islam. Yeah. This is a fight. I definitely want to rewatch in a few weeks. I'm very excited to rewatch it. Just for the technical aspects. I think I was so emotionally involved in the watching the fight.

But like I knew technically it's like, this fight's amazing. I was just so impressed by actually both fighters. There's awesome. Yeah. Go watch the finishing sequence because somebody pointed it out on Twitter and I apologize. I don't remember. Like the whole, the chain wrestle that gets him to the spot is like very, you can see it as he's setting it up. You can see the gears turning.

It is unbelievable work. And credit to Poria, because Poria hit a switch on Islam. He tried the same switch twice on Habib and got nowhere. Habib shut that shit down and moved to mount off of them. He tried it on Islam and got it. Like, it was a technically really fun fight, man. It was a really good.

Yeah. I was actually, I don't know if I was, I would, when that fight ended, I, in my mind, I was like,

that's like one of the best fights. I wanted the best fights ever, but like that was like, that's going to be like top two, three fight of the year. And I don't know, I was just kind of caught up in it. But I,

I was just, I loved it. I was just, I was, I was, I love. I had the same feeling. I agree.

I don't know if it actually will make my list because there have been some good ones. Yeah. But I immediately was like, that's one of the better fights of the year. Yeah, I loved it. Was that the best, was that the best Dustin Poirier that we've seen? Ooh, good question. I think it was the most. All around technical, probably.

Yeah. It was the most disciplined for sure along with the technique and everything. And you can tell to after the first round. I mean, the Eddie fights, he's really disciplined. Eddie fights. He is, but just different. With, I mean, Islam is just a different animal, man.

And you could tell after the first round, he was super frustrated after the first round, because he knew he made mistakes. And then he like, you could see the wheels spinning as Mike Brown was talking to him. And he was just said, and it was perfect advice because we had talked about it during the first round of the fight.

I was like, anytime that Islam Machachev hits Dustin and he moves backwards, he's getting taken down. Like, that's immediately what he's going to go to. and that's exactly what Islam did. Anytime he was effective and got Dustin to react to getting hit, Dustin would move back

and Islam would tackle him immediately. And there's nothing he could do. Once he was down, he was staying there. And that's why he got battered up in the first round. But he realized soon he got back to the corner and locked eyes with Mike Brown, he's like, all right, don't worry about it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. And it is just, it was a very clear difference, too, like with the Habib fight. Because very, like, one of the things it stuck out to me maybe the most of like the last few years. That first round, he goes back after fighting Habib and he looks like he got mulled by a

goddamn bear and he just looks at Mike Brown goes, not a lot of space out there, man. And you're like, you're not broken, but there is a question in your head if you can even do this right now. And it was not that. It was like he was frustrated, but he was still here. His mentality was clearly better. Like, I don't think it's wrong to say that that's the best point that we've ever seen. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, Max 2 is also, that was an unbelievable. Yeah, he was great in that fight. Oh, that was so good. But, yeah, I, yeah, after that fight, I was like, I don't think Dustin, I don't think I've ever seen Dustin fight more disciplined and better. And he just ran into a better fighter no matter what happened tonight. But it was just one hell of an effort. And yeah, I was just, I was just so impressed by both of them.

I loved it. I think he knows that too. Because immediately after he wasn't, like he, at some part of him thinks that this might be the end of his career. Yeah. Exactly. Like he was not like, he was like, hey man, that was a great fight. It was all smiles. Like you guys did a great job.

Congratulations. Like, I don't think he left that thinking. I could have done more. There was something left to give. And so he can have a little more peace of being like, yeah, man, I just happen to be competing at a pretty. Because one dude in the mountains of Dagestan trained the two best fighters. I've ever seen. It's so unfair that Abdulmanab did that.

It's so ridiculous. And Omar right. Like, Umar's still here to keep it going. Like, it's so unfair. That's great. I miss Abdulmanab for what he gave us.

Last one, Boyd's from Stephen, Jed, you bring you back the ponytail. My hair's long now, but probably won't let it get that long again. At one point, At some point I just had it long enough that I was like, I'll grow it long enough for Locks for Love.

And then that took way longer than I thought it would. But I don't think we'll be doing that that longer rock again. But getting haircuts annoying. Why aren't you asking me that question, Stephen? I dare you. Why don't you super chat that, Steven? Super chat. Hey, Mike.

Yeah, I ain't. It's not happening. No trips to turkey. You're not happening. I am so disappointed in our viewers. God, no, I'm not a Stepe fan. That's hilarious. That's hilarious.

No, I am, I don't know if I dislike Steepay. I just think he's boring and sucks. Whereas I, like, I actively dislike Michael Chandler, and I'm in a real pickle for 303 because there are no good outcomes for me at that fight event. No, I'm just, I'm now, Steppe is nothing to me because he's not a fighter. He doesn't compete anymore except this one time, maybe. Disappointed in our viewers, though. No one has brought up Roman Coppola of the coward, and I'm upset about it.

Oh, come on. Come on. What a coward. Mixing those martial arts, how dare you. He drops Lameda. Yeah, and then he started tackling him. You dropped him, believe in yourself. If you don't believe in you, why should we?

And you didn't. You then also, like, you know, gimmick aside, it's pretty tough that he couldn't finish that fight. That's not good. Well, you can tell he doesn't do that often because he was cooked at the end of round two. Very gasped, man. Yeah, very tired.

Just full on count. artists and I don't respect it. And my Almeda Parley died because of him. And I knew it. Like I knew when I made the Almeida Parle, I was like, for sure, the first time in his career, Robo Koppelov is just going to take him down. And he's going to Waldo Cortez-A-Cost of this. And I'm going to hate it.

But I certainly did not Waldo Cortez-A-Coste. I mean, he at least like did have the first round. But, I mean, he Waldo Cortez-A-Costed rounds two and three for sure. I think so and two. three certainly but he was either that or he was just going to get knocked out because he had yes i mean he had to for survival sake also i think herb did pretty bad a lot i've never been more angry at her than him just repeatedly going do something do something do something like either shut the hell up or stand him up either one is fine but don't just like be vocal about how you're

not doing your job. Yeah. Hokey-pokey herb once in a while you get empty threat herb and that's what we got tonight. Wasn't hokey-poki-hub. It was empty threat herb. I think that was just herbding talking to himself. Just like, hey man, please do like.

Herb, do something. It's not me of poking like the stick figure poking some of the stick, do something. Do do something. But then he is the one who has the power to do something about it. So either just don't say. it because you're fine with what's happening or stop it. Yeah.

And the good news for Herb Dean is that, you know, much like we're talking about the worst rap for the night. No, he wasn't. No, he was not. I don't even know who that gentleman's name was. But all he kept doing was smirking. Gaspar Oliver. Oh, my God.

The I poke, the guy got the one that the I poke won and he just went to deal of it. Five minutes. All that shit. I mean, it was just so bad. Herzor got mad at him, which was... Yeah, Herzog had to go, had to between rounds tell them how to ref. That was while.

I was just, like, the second one was dumb because it was an eye poke, but like, I at least understand you thinking that's not a poke fight on. I truly don't understand what happened in the first one. Where he stops about and is like, eye poke, all right, go.

What? Yeah. I'm sorry? What? Was that, which right was that? Which fight was that? That was the Reddy Brown. Yeah, Randy Brown.

Yeah. And then one, also may actually like have legitimately impacted that fight as Zaleski lost, who loses 29, 28. And then Zaleski got just like livid mad because he got poked twice and got no break and just charged in swinging really hard while blonde. Yeah. It was quite the scenes. Quick.

No super chat. One more. I guess we aren't going to talk about his own staff infection now. Like, what do you want to say about it? We talked to, we mentioned. I'm not certain that this is for us more as a statement about the pre-fight talk of the staff. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm not sure that this is chastised of us.

It's tough with the text. I could also be wrong, but I view this as, yeah, it was kind of dumb for the staff story to be a thing. And yes, as we said, it was a bit dumb. It was very dumb. I kind of knew that coming in. Because also we're still not certainly had staff. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think we kind of nailed it where it was just,

it was just an old one. That's just kind of there. If he had it, it seemed like it's been quite some time ago. And we're still not sure because it could just be Matt Byrne or whatever in ingrained hair. The firest fight was staff all the time. Oh, one more after this. All right.

Which fight you enjoy the most from Alex? I mean, okay, let's take the main event out of it because it's very clear. It's Bezla Vez versus Biggie Gahl. Is that worth going back and watching? Because I saw zero seconds of that fight. It's fun fight. Okay.

Yeah, it's fun. I will say that one. Outside of that, I probably have to go Randy Brown, EZD. Because these weren't good fights. They're fine, but they weren't good. Yeah. And maybe the first round of Eileen Perez and Jocelyn. Edwards or maybe the first like seven maybe seven and a half minutes of that fight first round

was you was really fun if you can give me rounds one five and like four of strickland Costa and it's cut two and three out then that would be okay wasn't a bad fight it was just the same fight for a long time yeah and our last super chat our last question Thanks, Alex. Steve again. Oh, you're literally getting a hair transplant in a week in turn. Go get it, man. Go get it.

I was saying it's a bad, I'm not saying it's a bad choice for you. It's a bad choice for me. That's all. That's all. Like Eric Nixick pulls it off like a champion. I'm sure you do too. I can't. I just, I can't do it.

Can we shout out Nixick because, I mean, a terrific coach in a great cornerman always. exceptional work with Sean Shooka. I mean like, dude, what the, this is so much closer than it needs to be. I need you to go out there in round five and beat his ass, please. Was like, yes, that is appropriate cornering for what's going on right now. Yep. It's great work. And no wrestling.

We thought we thought we might see some wrestling. Zero. Yeah. I mean, it's so fun. It's so fun. It comes to like half-heartedly attempted. Yeah. Like half-heartedly kind of would charge, but he was never.

anywhere close and Sean immediately pivoted off. So he just like gave up. Oh, yeah. And we know why Costa was doing it because he was getting kicked in the stomach a million times. Strickland did catch a kick and almost go for it once. But that, you know, there was not a lot going on for sure. Yeah. It would have been interesting if Costa did land the takedown because that's where I think

Sean would have been at his most effective because he's apparently a wizard in transition in those grappling exchanges. but we don't ever get to see it. And I was hoping we were going to get to see it just so I could see how good he is in those spots, but we didn't get a chance to see it. Yeah, I think that fight was just so frustrated me because I wanted to see more.

But, and like finally, finally I get to learn nothing. Welcome to a Sean Strickland fight. Yeah, I know. It's like, oh, we got 21 minutes. That was frustrating because he was just going in second gear. Yep. That's Sean Strickland. He just added. He was good enough to beat the shit out of Izzy, though.

there were 20,000 people in that arena and there are moments if it sounded like they were in the apex yeah it was it was it was odd and particularly because they were like really pro-strickland and they really keep up he's like i see i need someone to figure out the the march thing because to me like and i'm not a pro fighter it's deeply interesting how he weirdly marches for and just lifts his legs like like a walking tie fighter it doesn't he doesn't angle him out they're just straight it's just no but there's straight and so then people don't kick him but also because they're up you kind of can't work his body well either but he's at a long and like he's sitting along enough range that no one's trying to shoot I think the answer honestly is to kick the rear leg

which is a hard thing to pull off but if he's on one leg and you just kick the shit out of that leg he can't check it but like i got it's a really weird thing that only he does and i need someone to do something to counter it because no one has yet yeah i kind of felt like striculent like he was almost like machida in the sense like like how do you stop leota machita until people dead and then like oh okay that's how you do it like you know what i mean until the answer was you hit very hard you just hit it yeah which we kind of talked about the beginning that's a huge punch yeah or you kick him body a bunch, which also, like,

Costa was wildly effective with his bodywork. So do think that that's a move, but. Strickland is a fascinating fighter to watch. The Sean Strickland poker face was A plus tonight. Like, Costa was thumping those legs. And then Strickland figured it out and was

checking like 85% of him down the stretch. But Costa was ripping him in the body and Sean was just like didn't blink. There were points in that fight where Sean Strickland didn't blink once in an entire route. Yeah. And his toughness really does allow him to pull that sort of stuff off, which is yeah, integral.

Like it's very key for sure. Before we head out real quick, so I'm interested in your opinions. Where's what do we think about Costa right now? Is he washed? Did he just did he just not perform tonight? Is he still a top? I don't know. I thought he'd fall well.

Yeah, I don't think he's, I didn't come out of that. I think he was washed. I think he's just kind of suffered the same thing that most guy, Sean Strickland, fights, suffer. They think it's going to be a way easier fight than it actually is. And then once they get in there and experience it, Sean could just frustrate you real fast, man. And it's really hard to cover from that. And that's what happened in this fight. Sean, I'm with Jed.

Probably my biggest takeaway of the fight was how quickly, like early in the first round, he had cost him moving backwards. Very immediate. For 90 seconds, Costa was constantly moving. Yeah, that one shocked me because I think going into me and Jed kind of agreed, like, if Strican and costa makes him go backwards, he should win the fight. And he didn't move backwards. He couldn't get to go backwards. I was just, I was not hard to not go backwards. And that, that I think is the thing that drives me crazy while like, you can just stand there.

You don't have to take a backward step. And then he'll just run into you. And then you're doing that thing, like, you don't have to keep giving ground. You could just be like, no. I refuse. You can't goose step through me. Like, we're just here clinching now. I don't, I don't get it, but no one seems to be able to resist the urge to back away from him.

Yeah. Like, I get running away from some dude who is trying to murder you. He's just trying to jab and tip you. Like, it's fine. I don't know. he's a fascinating fighter to watch because he's so unique and he's absolutely befuddled everyone

it's shocking oh but to answer your question Casey because it's like a top 15ish dude he was never as good as he kind of like maybe looked like he could be when he get a title fight but he's still a very competent middleweight I thought he did a lot of good things I would still watch him fight

but yeah I've got some limitations cool cool Agreed. But like, Policosta versus Michelle Pahedoh. That's not bad. That'd be pretty fun.

Fluffy Hernandez, Paula Costa is a lot of fun. There's lots of fun fights. Lots of fun fights. Bo-Nickel Paula Costa someday, sometime. Yeah.

Not yet. That's going to happen. Like, we can book two fights. Two fights. We're two fights away from that. Yeah, for sure. Okay.

you guys rule thank you very much we are done we get this up take a quick nap and then up in a few hours because AK and I will be live back here on the channel at 10 a.m. Eastern for on to the next one live show it'll be fun. Do not submit your matchmaking suggestions like you typically would because we're not going to answer them we're just not because we're just going to do them live just do them in the chat That's how we'll do that. And then we'll be back next week to get you ready for UFC Louisville. Yes. I don't know if you guys have taken a look at this company, but.

Yeah. It's a really bad guard and it's capped off by He Who Shall Not Be Named. And there's like, it's give me a tough Saturday for me, boys. There's like, go back and watch the watch party. There's one of the packs that Carter ripped open and like every fighter that he pulled was fighting on the Louisville card. He goes, oh, what's this card? He goes, Lidovic Klein.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, Ladovich Klein's fighting on the card. Oh, my God. I'm going to have to go back and watch this because I'm going to make him bet all of those fighters this week. Yeah. The watch party pull. Like, he's got to do at least a parlay with them.

The pack ribs are incredible. Good night, everybody. See you. Love you. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver, so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it.

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