MMA Fighting - UFC 303 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Alex Pereira's Brutal Knockout Of Jiri Prochazka

Episode Date: June 30, 2024

Alex Pereira's meteoric rise continued on Saturday night as he viciously knocked out Jiri Prochazka in their rematch for the light heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 303. Following another highlight-reel finish, does "Poatan" remain in the light heavyweight division for another title defense, or does he move up to heavyweight for the chance to make history? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Jed Meshew, and Eric Jackman react to UFC 303, Pereira's performance, the adjustments he made from the first fight with Prochazka, and if a move up for the chance to capture an unprecedented third divisional title could some sooner rather than later. Additionally, they discuss the chaos surrounding the co-main event, Dan Ige stepping in on just a few hours' notice to face Diego Lopes to replace Brian Ortega, Lopes getting another win in the process, Ian Machado Garry's stock following his decision win against Michael Page in the main card opener, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-by 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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Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Yes. There they are, the victory horns on this earth. Early Sunday morning falling UFC 303 and they sound. I just can't get enough of this photo, by the way,

but they sound for the man on the left. Alex Pereira still the UFC light heavyweight champion after just viciously knocking out Yuri Brehashka in the second round. Seemed like the fight was very close to being over. It seemed final second knockdown in round one. Phrashka recovers, makes it to round two. And then round two begins. and seconds later, the fight is over.

The incredible story of Alex Pereira, rising up the UFC, not just light heavyweight rankings, but just all-time rankings just continues on what a story it is. Not to mention, the Coal Main Event gets a last-minute change, and we'll discuss those stories and much more following the International Fight Week extravaganza. Welcome to the post-fight show, everybody. I am Mike Heck.

What a crew we have first, the man who, hosted the UFC 303 watch party tonight from Mansion Michoud. He is back with us, the one and only Jed Michoud. Hi, Jed. Good to see you again. Boop! Boop! Boop! Ladies and gentlemen, it's the word of the day. It's the word of the year. It's the last three years is boop.

And it keeps on going. I'm excited to talk about Alex Pereira, guys. It can be fun. It will be fun, and it's always fun to talk about Alex Pereira, and everything else that happens on a UFC card with the one and only New York Rick, Eric Jackman, preview show and post-fight show. Look at this guy. Big. I'm going places in the world.

Hello, gentlemen. It's nice to be with you and all the people watching out there. It's a pleasure. It's a joy. Alex Pereira brings me joy. And hopefully he does the same for many of you. So, yeah, I'm just as excited as Jed is to talk about Alex Pereer and the rest of this card.

well let's get into it jed because i mean we'll talk about the coal main event and all the chaos because that obviously deserves a lot of discussion but the show was closed in a big way alex perera here at pahashka there's a lot of talk about the short notice a lot of talk about the toe injuries for alex perera a lot of talk about adjustments that could be made yuri having success early in the first fight and then perera as you like to say booping him we're wondering how this fight was going to go if Prohashka was going to get it done maybe these could have been the best circumstances

for it to happen. Nah man, Alex Pereira was just on. It seemed like he made some adjustments. Lands the big knockdown at the end of round one and then that friggin head kick in round two was just unbelievable. Your reaction to what Alex Pereira did tonight and just continues to do, man.

I mean, come on. It was awesome. Look, this won't be a pure love festival. for me. I've got some takes guys. I'm excited to infuriate people, but that comes later because the first part of this is to celebrate Alex Pereira. Because that was dope. Like, Poetan's awesome.

Even though, like, probably the outcome we all should have expected, it doesn't matter. It's still really cool. And Mike, you said the thing that is my biggest takeaway from this fight. We talked about it on the preview show. You, me, Eric, we sat here

and we said, I don't know, I'm not really sure what old year he's doing here. He's talking about the spirits and how Alex needs to fight him honorably and in a pure manner as opposed to, you know, doing the things necessary for the rematch. Even saying outright, I didn't change a thing. We had a great game plan the first time when I got knocked out. I'm running it back.

And I certainly hoped with part of me that that was a lie that that year he was doing the thing where you lie so your opponent maybe doesn't know he was not he he did exactly the same thing like he very clearly was just being honest i'm not changing shit i'm going to come out here and fight this dude because i think this is the way it's going to win and he just used the spirit creatures and this time i've asked him not to do it he didn't even like rick pointed out in the preview show he didn't even have something to counteract the spirits I don't know what his plan was, but he came out and did the exact same thing. And Alex Pereira did not because, yes, he did all the good stuff.

He did this exact same. I'm going to kick this lead leg out from under you. I'm going to counter you as you step in. But you also saw him land that dipping jab because he clearly went back and watched. Here's how Erie enters. Erie enters with this sort of weird duck. And so he's not jabbing up at the head. He's jabbing down at Yri's chest.

and he kept walking into that jab. He made like legitimate, good tactical adjustments that were actively beneficial. And Yuri did the same shit and got knocked out quicker and almost got iced in the first damn round. Like, Yuri Pajka is my large adult son. I've called him that on many occasions. I still love him to death in the same way that I love Justin Gachie. But like, my brother in Christ, what are you doing? You cannot do the same thing and expect different results.

And credit to Alex Pereira. He could have done the same thing and didn't. Brought new tricks to the table. And they all worked. And he continues to be the greatest anomaly in MMA history. Your reaction to Alex Pereira getting it done. And just how this fight looked compared to the first one, especially with all the circumstances involved.

I mean, as Jed mentioned, like this trio discussed this fight on the pre-fight show and said, this fight's going to look exactly like the first fight with some minor differences. Maybe there's some adjustments made. Even if Yuri is going to win, it's going to look pretty similar. And it looked pretty similar, right? Like, you know, Alex was seemingly getting to Yuri chewing up his leg. Maybe not, maybe, you know, there would have been more to come of that. It wasn't exactly like, you know, Yeri was hobbled by the end of that round.

But he obviously landed that hook right at the end of the bell and then coming into round two, the blood was in the water. And Yeri came in and got finished. So it went the way I thought it was going to go. You know, I'm not about to sit here and pretend that like every time there's a fight, I'm calling, you know, what it is. I did think the line was a little closer on this than I would have expected, just. because of how violently the first one was finished, the fact that stylistically, this is always going to be a tough matchup for Yuri

and Alex Pereira kills people. Like, that's just what he does. He puts people out cold and Yuri is a prime candidate for that because of sometimes how reckless he can be. Now, certainly I don't think that was like the biggest factor here. Like Alex just landed an absolutely beautiful head kick here. So I don't think it was a situation where I'm blaming Yuri for anything he necessarily did in the finishing sequence.

But we saw, you know, some of the holes in his game come to the forefront where he leaves himself exposed and Alex Pereira is able to capitalize on that. So I can't say it was a shocking result. But Alex Pereira is the man and he's a star and the UFC has something with him that is very hard to achieve in terms of how he's willing to risk everything and put it all on the line even though he has status. You don't often see that.

When you get to the level that Alex Pereira is at, you're often trying to fight less or you're often trying to pick your spots better. And he just seems to be a guy who doesn't care about any of that. So they're very fortunate to have him on the roster and have gotten him thanks to Israel to Sanya saying that he would have had that one moment that he beat that guy once. I mean, that changed the course of MMA history, of UFC history, of Alex Perrier and Israel to Sanya history, and we're all better for it. Completely agree.

One thing I want to correct you both on, I can't take credit for being part of the preview show that was my bald brother, Shaheen Al Shadi. But luckily, it's okay. It's late. Dude, it's 30. I say this. I say this because I had quite the journey to Atlanta. So it gave me some time to listen to some programs that I haven't had the chance to listen

to, one of which was the preview show. I got to listen to the preview show. It got to be a listener. It was a long one. Yeah, it certainly was. And there was a portion of the drive where it came in handy. get to tell you. But Jed, there's one thing that that you brought up that I want to kind of go back to you on because you said it wasn't exactly like the Islam Makachev Alexander Volcanovsky

rematch where, you know, this is rivalry. They had this great war because you were stanchly against that fight when they rebooked it. Everyone was so excited, but you were just like, this is dumb. This is really stupid. And when it comes to this, like the circumstances weren't exactly the same, but you felt like there was, you know, a little piece of that thought because, because these two were expected to fight later on in the year. There's a rivalry. Of course, the face-offs, like these iconic moments that these two guys had before they even put hands on each other. And now two and a half week notice, here we are.

We get the fight. And you're just not sure that you felt like if the fight ends the way that it did tonight, that maybe you would feel a little bit cheated on the result because we didn't get full camps and all that. Do you feel that way in the aftermath of this? Or do you feel like, you know what, even if they fought in August or September or whenever, the same result probably would have happened. Maybe like a smidge, you know, like, and that's why I said it wasn't exactly like the Volcan Islam rematch. Because I do think that largely the texture of this fight is just what it is. Like, Yeri's not going to be, even if Yeri came in with a better game plan and did other things that I think would have behooved him.

And he's still fundamentally a guy who does not put a premise on defense and doesn't protect his legs. And both those are really bad against Alex. And I will argue just a one tiny point with Rick. Yes, the head kick happened. But like I think at least I certainly believe that the head kick was set up by year he just running his ass into a left hand right before the end of the first round. Like just sort of recklessly charging in with his hands by his. waist and getting jawed. Like it's just who year he is and against 99% of the fighters in the world,

he can kind of pull that off. Well, you can't do it against photon. And so a piece of me wishes that they had a full camp. Maybe Erie's coaches with like a full training camp of expectation could have conveyed upon him the seriousness of how he needs to change. But ultimately, if these dudes fight a hundred times, this is probably going to be the outcome just the way the styles match up. But that being said, I'd like.

to I'd like to pitch something to you guys because I was thinking. And you guys remember when you play like football in the neighborhood or whatever and you'd have an odd number of kids and you'd just do like the one kid who could throw the ball would be the all-time quarterback. I am suggesting that we make Alex Pereira and Yuri Perashka the all-time replacement fight. Just with just Blake baseline. Any fight pulls out and we need the card to be saved. Just throw these two dudes in it.

I don't care what else is. happening in the weight class because any reservations you and I might have. And even if Yeri's got knocked out five different times, when these two dudes make the walk and spend five minutes staring at each other across the cage, I don't give a shit about the rest of that. I could not be more hyped for the fight when they are just looking locked in like statues at one another. And so that's all I need. So I'm nominated now, all time. replacement fight just keep it it's always there and then we can get like six of these and then that's okay because then we really won't have been robbed of anything what do you think about that

new york rick and as a man who comes on these programs and says i just want the best two dudes to fight each other all the time yri prashka goes in like wins two or three fights and alks perrera just happens still be the champion are you interested in round three here yeah so one thing um I don't know if this was regional. We used to call that designated. We used to call that designated quarterback, right? When we would play in the backyard. I don't know if that's a regional thing.

I don't know, but that's what we would call it. We'd say designated quarterback. I'm okay with Uri versus Alex being the designated fight. Like, hey, you want to throw that on any card, anytime, anywhere? Like, perfect. I'm in. I love that. The one thing I'll say is my position has always been the two best.

and I'm not sure if Magamad Ankalive like belongs in that conversation above Yuri. Like I think there's a world where maybe he does and that. And unfortunately, that kind of like defeats my stance on it and how I've always kind of viewed it. But I'm okay if maybe Yeri and Magamad sorted out. And if Yeri proves like, yeah, I can beat everybody but Alex. Then I'm cool with that. Yeah, let's just keep running back Alex and Yuri forever. Cool.

Totally. Totally great by me. until Alex decides he wants to go up to heavyweight and pursue that, which I think will happen sooner rather than later. But totally. Yeah, I'm in. Run it back a thousand times. Jed, you're nodding your head.

You had shakes, by the way. I think it's a great idea. Yeah. We're going to get to them. We don't have to force this. These will come and I don't want to poop on the fun parade. I'm going to poop on some parades, but we're having fun right now. Alex Ferrell boop somebody.

He did it again. It was awesome. I love Yuri to death. He is a wonderful idiot of violence. And I'd never change. Never change. You made this fight week so fun with your nonsense spirit talk. And I mean, he obviously should not have gotten interviewed post-fight.

But the amount of money I would have given to have a camera on him when he gets lucid. And the first question he gets asked is, so like, do you think it was the spirit? It would be so much money. I would give so much money to get Yeri's thoughts tomorrow morning on whether Alex was again cheating by invoking the or summoning the ancestors, whatever the hell he said, because it was the best part of this fight week by far. Completely agree. So now it comes to where do we go with Alex Ferrer now?

Because it seems like the popular choice, T-Mobile Reno is into it. Joe Rogan was certainly into it. let's just cut the bull crap and just have Pereira go up to heavyweight and try to be the three division champion. He's 36 years old. He's not getting any younger. He's as hot as he's going to be.

He might even get a little bit hotter. But I mean, a lot of people say like strike all the iron's hot because if Pereira goes out and fight somebody else and loses, then the smoke kind of fades away a little bit can probably get it back because he's freaking Alex Pereira and nothing is impossible with this man. But you think if it's going to happen, now is probably the time. So Jed, as a man who believes Magamonank Goliath is long overdue for a title shot,

even Dana White was asked about it at the end of his 17-hour post-fight press conference scrum about Magamadank Goliath. And Alex expressed some sort of interest in Dana's like, yeah, sure, maybe. Maybe we'll do that, which is better than, nah, don't want to watch that guy fight. So what do you think happens? Like, I know what you want. and you can tell people what you want personally, but what do you think actually ends up happening here? I think they are the same thing.

I will also just say to your point, look, it doesn't really matter if Alex goes out and fights Magerman and loses, who gives a shit? Whatever I'm trying to do the math here. What, like 14, 15 months ago, this dude got knocked out in the knockout of the year. Look where the hell we are right now. like who like this man got iced as hard as anyone has ever been iced and this is where we're at time moves

differently for him does like if he goes and fights magma and galayaev and loses he could still just be like all right i'm done with light heavy now onward to heavy and that would be fine and i do think he is going to go and fight magma and coliyev and he should go and fight magma and coliive because here's where i'm going to poop on some parties and i'm real sorry for you guys i know we're all having fun this is great Alex Prairer, look at him. He's a great and firefighter of all time. This is so sick. Look what he's doing.

He's three-time fire at the year. It's great. I don't want to, you know, have fun. Everybody should have fun. M.A. supposed to be fun. A.K. says it all the time. Here's the thing. What Alex Prairie is doing is absolutely

unquestionably unprecedented. Like, this is amazing. It is also happening at least 50% if not more because he's just getting the opportunity to do this because the UFC is being like, screw it, fast track him. Like, let's go. We got to get him to fight Izzy

because if he has to fight anybody real, he might lose, and then we lose that cash grab. And they get him to fight Izzy, and it's like, okay, well, now he's up to 205. Garbage division, he beats he on. Everything's going wrong.

We like him. Let's do it. Let's see this happen. Okay, we need to throw in a fight. Here it goes. He's willing to fight Yeri on four days notice or whatever. Awesome. He is taking advantage of these operations.

opportunities. This man has three wins at light heavyweight, four wins over three people at light heavyweight. They're great wins. They're awesome. But this talk of like, is he the second greatest light heavyweight champion of all time? No. No, he's very obviously not the second greatest light heavyweight of all time because he has four wins in the weight class, guys. Like, I know we want to have fun. Magman and Goliath is the number two dude in the UFC's rankings. hasn't been beaten since Paul Craig pulled a miracle out of his ass that still kind of doesn't make sense and it just keeps beating like relevant dudes.

I know he had the draw with Jan, and we've talked about it a lot on various programs. Fight wasn't bad. Dana hates him, whatever. That dude deserves his day in court. You at the bare minimum have to give him his day in court. And then you can do the heavyweight thing, particularly because heavyweight is.

is a foster cluck right now. John's fighting a retired fireman theoretically in November. We still don't know if that's going to happen. Tom Aspernel is defending the true belt next month. Like, is he going to go up and fight for the interim heavyweight title? Are we going to sit Pereira on the shelf until God knows when? John feels like fighting again?

No, you just do the normal thing. I am begging this sport to get back to being recent. and you have him fight the best dude in the weight class who's sitting right there. And if he beats him, then we can have the conversation. I would still argue that it's wrong, but we can have the conversation at that point. And if he doesn't beat him, then he can do what he did in middleweight and be like, you know what, I don't have that long left. I don't want to chase to get back this.

Screw it. I'll go up and fight whoever. I'll fight Alexander Volkov, knock his ass out, and then you can fast-line me to a third title shot. This is what we do with him. I'm sorry to be the party poop, but we don't need to run him into a champ, champ fight because we're excited. Okay.

I mean, I get your side of things. New York, Rick, do you agree with Jedmishu here? Do you feel like ankle-life? Okay. True or false? Ankle-lives, the next fight will be against Alex Pereira. False. Continue.

No, that's all like, what more do I need to say? Not happening. Like, just not the fight that anybody wants to see or cares about. Like, there are just better and more interesting fights for Alex Pereira and fights that what are they? Anybody a heavyweight? Like, name a heavyweight?

You would rather see him fight tied to Ivasa? Yeah, well, they're friends now, but that's somebody else. That's a fucking insane. Yeah, but that's a fucking insane take. No. Derek Lewis. Sure. Done.

Sold. Book it. Let's go. Like, you even know that that's just not. going to happen though. Why? We talked about this on the preview show. The UFC doesn't have active champions fight out of weight class unless it's for a belt

anymore. They did it with Anderson 20 years ago. John Jones. Done. Good. Perfect. Let's do it. So Alex isn't fighting again until hopefully next spring?

No. Yeah. No. He'll fight a... What do you mean? No. No. John has made it super clear.

He's fighting the older tired dude. Like he's not fighting. another motherfucker other than Steepa in November. And then he'll fight after that. He'll get the next shot after that. Yeah, in the spring. So Alex is sitting until the spring of next year. Well, no, November, March, maybe.

You could do it early. March is the spring. I don't know. I don't know. Is that when spring starts? Is that the beginning of spring? So yeah, the beginning of spring. So that seems crazy to me.

Well, let me ask you this, New York, Rick, because you are. But why is that crazy? by the way. Like, why can't Alex Pereira like fight at the in early next year? Why is that like so crazy? Because Alex Pereer fights all the time. Or or why couldn't he fight a non-championship heavyweight? Just fight a just fight a heavyweight.

Because the U.S. He doesn't do that. Literally the last time that they did this was Anderson Silva in like 2011. Cool. So now do it. That is outside of being outlanded. disrespectful to Magamenekelyev. This seems really dumb.

I just feel like people would be more interested in him fighting the next best dude in the weight class than him killing. Who are these people that are interested in the Magamene Kalayaev fight? Who are they? Do they exist? Him. He's in the room with us. Him.

He specifically said it. Who? Alex? Alex specifically wants to fight the dude. Yeah. I mean, it sounded like it. He seems very passionate about it. It sounds like Magamad's top of.

his list. Let me tell you, what does Alex Pereira seem passionate about other than Chama? Winning belts? Does he, does he seem that passionate? He seems like, I'm just doing this. He likes that quite a bit. He does that often and likes it. I think a heavyweight belt would be something he'd quite like. He'd quite fancy that. I mean, if so, you would think he would have made a little stronger of a case for it, like, by your own argument. He will. And he will fight for it. Alex is also a guy.

He's also a guy that, yes, he did get booked beautifully to get to the first out of son of title fight. There's no doubt about it. Like, we all knew what was happening from Jump Street. You give him Andreas Michaelitis. You give him a step up. Then you give him Sean Strickland. Like, we knew exactly what they were doing, right?

But along the way, he has fallen into some operative. opportunities. Like luck has, he is just found a lot of luck. And he's keeping this positive juju alive. He hasn't really asked for anything. He just falls into these incredible opportunities and delivers. So, near Greg, as a man who knows John Jones and supports John Jones and considers him the goat, and I know you're not as manager or his handle or anything of that nature. But let's just say in two weeks, Dana White goes on Instagram and officially announces that John Jones versus Stepe is going to headline at Madison Square Garden. And let's just say five weeks later, it's like mid-August heading in to late August

into early September, we find out Stipea tears his ACL training. He's not going to be fighting. He's going to be out for a year. Does John Jones pivot to Alex Pereira or does he not fight at all in November? I think he'll fight. I mean, I don't know. That's a hard one. I don't know.

John seems very, very dead. said on this steep thing. I don't know what will happen if ultimately steepa can't go. The last time, now, this most recent time that this was called off, it was because John got hurt. So I don't know if John will say, okay, I'm going to give Steve some grace this time and we'll book it one more time. I don't know what ultimately I would do. I can answer the question. If I was John Jones, I would rather fight Alex Pereira than I would rather fight Tom Aspinall. I would definitely think that Alex Pereira is a better matchup for John Jones than Tom Aspinall. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't be a if they came to me with that fight.

But I don't know. It's too tough to say because of the weirdness of the fact that like nobody seemingly wants to see this Steepa fight other than John, the UFC and Stepe. Yeah. And it's a bigger fight than Stepe. It just. Oh, certainly. Certainly.

I think that's the only way it happened that Alex doesn't fight Magma at this point, honestly. If that happens, I 100% believe they would book it. If Stepe pulls out, I think John would take it. Alex would step in. They would do that. Does he hop over Tom? Like does he, does he become the guy before Tom?

Yes. John has already functionally anointed him over Tom. John is never going to fight Tom. Like, he's just never going to fight Tom. And I'm on board that everybody else needs to catch up. But he's never a fight Tom. But if Stipey pulls out, the UFC,

be like, Alex, you want to do it? And he'd be like, sure. And I think John would accept that fight. It feels like a really good style matchup for John. It feels like a like a good, a good opportunity for John there to really take advantage of Alex's hype and in a matchup where if the wrestling is as good as we believe it to be for John Jones, like that would be very good for him.

So it's a plus, it's a plus prize fighting. This man loves nothing more than beating up middle weights and getting lauded for it. And he would have an opportunity to do so again and still not fight Tom. Like, why do you think he specifically was tweeting Alex Pereira is a more interesting fight than Tom Aspinall to me? I get it. More money, easier fight.

That's smart. That's good business, baby. I don't want to backtrack too much and maybe spend too much time on something that I tried to outright dismiss. But like, we've seen people go without getting a title shot longer than Magamette on Kalayev. Like, I don't know why you, like, why is it that you feel so strongly that Magamed like will get this opportunity, no doubt? Like, why are you so set on that? I just don't believe that. We've seen guys get past them many times.

Because I do not believe Alex Pereira is going to sit out until the spring. You could just fight anybody else. No, the only light heavyweight that makes sense for him to fight is Makamana and Kalliav. He has specifically called for the bout previously, is still open to the bout today. It is just, look, it's not exciting business in the way that the Anthony Smith grudge match would have been. But this is just how the sport plays. Like this is how actual sport works. And in the absence of if there was another person clamoring for it, I could absolutely

believe Magna Muget gets passed over. I don't think the U.C. is trying to do him any favors. But there isn't. I think there's not another option. I think DDP is a viable option. I think. Izzy is perhaps a viable option if he beats DDP, which I am not certain that he is going to do.

DDP has to do more middleweight before they do this bullshit. I'll lose my and I again my my middling adult son I love DDP like a child I'll lose my mind if they let this man go up and we're just like what the hell is happening at this point in time so he's just gonna fight before the end of the probably before the end of the year and when he like when he does is this is just a plus B equals C not every fight has to be the thing that makes us the happiest and most excited in the world because it's also good fucking fight. Like, I genuinely believe, and maybe this isn't conscious on your part, Rick, and maybe you're not part of the group. I truly believe that the people who are like, don't really care about Ancolaev, and a big part of that is, this is too much fun, and I don't want to see him wrestle Alex for five rounds.

And that could happen. Alex could also beat, like, he could beat him. think he has a really good shot at beating him because we saw uncle have deal with low kicks really poorly against yombovich let me tell you who's better at that Alex is better at that Alex's takedown offense keeps getting better guys like he has a very good chance to win that fight and if he does then then he's at least has an argument that he's cleaned out the way class I would still say he hasn't but like this is just how business is supposed to be done and in the absence of a clear alternative, I think that I am really, really confident of this going to happen,

barring a steep A injury, or maybe Izzy, you know, beats, beats DDP and decides that this would be better business for him. Would this be the co-main event at MSG? Because I'm trying to figure out where you actually put this fight. Yes. I would assume co-made event because then, yeah, I mean, maybe you don't, just because he's big enough. If you do it as co-main event, then he, then when inevitably the John Steepa fight dies, that can bump up. Or if the fight dies because Stepe got old, then Alex is already preparing for a fight.

And you just like, suck it, Magibed. Get out of here. Alex will fill in even if he's not on the card. So you don't have like that part doesn't have to be as as lined up. Like you just call Alex and he'll fill it. We're all assuming that by some eventuality, Connor is theoretically the December headliner. Yeah, it seems that way. Well, unless they create, I know he wants to come back sooner. He's talking about it.

Anyway, I don't want to get bogged down on the counterpart. I think Alex is too big to be a co-headliner at this point. Like, he's somebody who's going to make you money as a main eventer. Like, you have to, you have to just put a main event. It's like maybe he can be December when inevitably it's not Connor and Chandler. There you go. Like, you just line that up. But yeah, I don't know.

I just don't think it's, I will say, for the record, I am not trying to preserve Alex Pereira's like winning ways. That is not the approach I'm taking. I just am coming at it from a, from a more general like business and excitement standpoint and not necessarily because I feel like, oh, we got to protect this and Magamette's going to beat him. Because to what you saw, like, yeah,

I saw a pretty decent path to victory that Jan Blahovic laid out. I don't think it's an impossibility. But I think he's pretty, I think Magamette's pretty good. I think it'll be a good fight. if it happens. It could happen. I have no problem if it happens. I just,

I'm not that interested. Are you, let me ask you this, Rick, if it happens and my own wins, and Alex is just like, cool, I lost,

I'm not going to try and fight him again. I'm just going to go to heavyweight. Are you any less interested in him going to heavyweight? Because I'm not, I don't give a shit. No, but that's almost, but that's my point,

Like, if it's that inconsequential, if it is not, like, really important, then I don't really care. Why should I care? Like, if he wins or loses that fight, my feeling is the same. That doesn't really do anything for me. Oh, no. If he wins that fight, that does a whole hell of a lot for me. Why? I think that is a sub, I think that is arguably the best win of his light, everyweight career is an exceptional win if he wins that fight.

Like, look, again, I love-year. The next group is heavyweight. To what end or all ends? Like getting good wins and building a legacy is the whole function of the sport other than making money. Like that is a meaningful win in the way that Max Holloway beating Justin Gachy is a meaningful win because he's dope and that's cool. Like that seems a weird question.

Again, no, it's not a weird question. That win by Max put him into title conversation. Like that wasn't insignificant. That was very significant. Like if Alex, if Alex, I agree. That's a significant win. Well, that's what I'm saying. I agree, it's a significant win.

Beating Magrameh is a significant win. Because it does what? What is the end result? It's a title defense against one of the three best dudes in the world. Okay. That's meaningful. I know that other people don't give a fuck about title defenses anymore, but I still do. I still think they're meaningful.

We don't. I know. And I don't understand why when literally every fucking champion tells you it's so hard to defend the belt. When Islam gets up there and is like, dude fighting Porreier sucked because I'm the champion and it blows to be the champion. It's so hard to do this. You guys should listen to him like, man, title defense is kick ass. That's what I would love to see.

And again, I love to hear you. Large adult son, one of my favorites. Terrible style matchup. Like him beating Magamad, which is arguably a bad style matchup would be a really significant win in his legacy and his argument for being an all-time great. light heavyweight champion or whatever like it's just this is all of the hey this is a new fun exciting thing and we're all so excited about it so shiny and we want to we want to have it and we just want to do the this part of it and let's rush and just like i dude come on like let him be let him fight magamette it's fine sure it's just it's just a pit stop support for this show comes from chase

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Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Yeah. Well, you mentioned things that kick ass. So let's transition to Diego Lopez and Dan Igay, because those two guys kick ass. because this was just absolute insanity.

We find out with like 30 minutes left in the prelims that there's a real world where Dan Igay is going to step in for Brian Ortega on like three hours notice, not even, to fight Diego Lopez and the co-made event of UFC 303. And then we find out with like 15 minutes left in the broadcast on the prelims, that that is what is in fact happening. Ariel kind of laid it out there. There were some hints going on on Twitter.

with Eric Nixick and Dan Ege and Diego Lopez and Lopez's manager Jason House, all putting out some, somewhat cryptic tweets, but we kind of figured out what was going on, and then Ariel put the report out. And then the way that the UFC actually announced this on the broadcast, I thought was absolutely brilliant because they're like, hey, here's Diego Lopez, still fighting on the card, and who is he going to fight? You see Dan freaking Ege pimped his ass into that building, just looking like a couple of Billy ready to go.

You see both guys stepping on the scale. You see Diego Lopez weighing 161. You see Dan D.N. He's weighing 165. Then they had Jeff Mullen do an interview with Megan Olivi explaining how this all came together. And then the fact that the UFC was able to put together a promo video for the fight, like everything about this was absolutely incredible. Then these two guys go out and have a fight.

Diego Lopez looks like a dude that's preparing for a fight at least. And then Danny Gay for a couple rounds looked tougher than. a $2 steak, but looked like a guy who took fight on three hours notice. And then in round three, Danny Gay starts to turn it on. And he's landing big shots. And he wins the third round, which is absolutely insane. And these two guys go up there and they beat the hell out of each other. And the one thing that I truly disagreed with Dana White during his post-fight press conference was,

hey, I was coerced into giving two fight of the night bonuses. So we gave one to Cub and Andre Feeley, but we didn't give one to no other fight, deserved fight of that. The whole, it was just so crazy how this all came together. So New York quick, let me start with you. This whole situation, unprecedented, coming together, Diego Lopez, a gangster all week with everything he had to deal with with Ortega and the weight cut, the lack thereof, the rehydration, and now taking another fight, a new opponent on three hours notice, going out and getting a win, your reaction to everything that happened tonight in regards to this co-made event, because it's absolutely ridiculous. Yeah. Uh,

wasn't sure it was really going to happen just based on the fact that, you know, he didn't weigh in prior, right? Like when we've typically seen these replacements, even on fight night or whatever the case may be on very short notice, it's often somebody who's on the card who weighed in and then they can go, okay, we have their weight. They're filling in. The scrambles crazy and everybody's excited. This was a dude who was on his couch at the moment he got the call or he said he was getting a massage at the time he got the call. and fills in in the co-main event of what was once a Connor McGregor card, but is now, you know, an important card in International Fight Week. It's wild. It's crazy.

I, while it was happening, I couldn't believe it was happening. I still wasn't sure it was going to happen just based on that. Kudos to the UFC broadcast who had the commission give comment on why it was happening and the circumstances surrounding it and have them weigh in. and make sure everything's okay. I know there was a lot of concern about the medicals, and I saw some reporting regarding the fact that the medicals kind of last for a certain amount of time with the specific commissions.

Just shout out to Lopez and Ige. Like in a world where I feel a little bit bad because I want to really go in on Brian Ortega and call him on professional and all these things, but it sounds like he's just having like a rough go of it and got sick. And it's not quite as flagrant as I would hope in order to, to be able to go off on him. Maybe Jed will be less sympathetic to his favorite Brian Ortega.

But I'm going to leave that to the side for now and just give credit and kudos to Ige and Lopez who are just gangsters. Everybody has the same feelings on this. We've seen 10,000 different tweets on it. We've heard Dana White's comments on it. We know how the fighters feel about it. They're gangsters.

They did exactly what you would hope that fighters, you know, what that fighting spirit would do. and they delivered a great fight too. Like Dan Ige sometimes when we have the short notice fights, you see that the guy was there to collect the check and get the props for stepping in on short notice and then use that to springboard and leverage the next thing. Dan Ige was trying to win that fight

and looked pretty damn good doing it for somebody who was just popping off the couch. And Lopez, like he's been through the ringer this entire week from the things that were happening with Ortega and then getting the IGA opportunity. they're gangsters and I love them for it and I think this will kind of like become a footnote at some point but they should be appreciated for this for a long time

100% Jed we watched this fight together and like 10 feet away from each other not even a few hours have passed your reaction to everything that happened because we may not see anything like this happened again I had to look this up I can't believe they didn't get a bonus that is astonishing to me that Dana heaped praise upon them totally right like rightfully like this was awesome everything eric said everything you said i cannot believe they didn't be like yeah and these two dudes are the other

fight at the night like okay what are we doing guys seems freaking nuts to me uh i won't go in on brian ortega not because he doesn't deserve it not because i don't want to um but i've just said my piece on brian ortega i said it before he did this, you know, Buvale bullshit here. But, you know, man didn't have to take the fight. That's just what's up. Like, they called him two weeks ago.

He could have just said, can't do it, guys. Sorry. Or I could do it at 155, but I can't do it at 145 as opposed to accepting it. Then literally the night before when his opponent already did make weight, be like, actually, JK, 155, actually can't even do that because I got sick. Like, it's just garbage and everything I've said about him forever is right. And I hope more people get on board. But this isn't about him.

This is about Danigay. It's about Diego Lopez. It's about them doing something like this. And it's awesome. And I wrote a note here because I wanted to remember this. There's no mechanism that currently exists. And I don't even know what the mechanism would be to memorialize and commemorate. something like this, something cool as shit, that this man took a fight not on a day's notice.

This isn't ally of Quinta jumping in to fight Habib on a day's notice because he was also on the card. We're talking a dude who was just at home a few miles from the arena, getting a massage and like, hey, can you come scrap with the number 14 dude in the world in your way class in the next two and a half hours? bet. Like that shit is so awesome. And Danie is not going to be a UFC Hall of Famer. So this isn't going to get to be some like immortalized thing. And it like it deserve like this moment right here deserves to go in the UFC Hall of Fame.

And I don't know how because the fight wasn't going to like I sat there and watched like I hope this becomes the greatest fight of the year. So maybe one day can get in. And it can't. And instead it's what Eric said. This will be a footnote. And that's, sucks because this shit is cool as hell and we're never going to see it again at the bare minimum at the maximum i guess somebody could do the same but even that is just extremely unlikely to think of the confidence events that got us here and so uh shouts to dan ege he fought his ass off looked amazing i got some concerns about Diego lopez from this fight but at the same time you're seeing some comments out there like what can you take from from a fight like this like can

you really judged Diego Lopez who weighed in three times this week and then fought a different dude on two hours notice. It's just, that's just how this goes is awesome. And I hope we don't forget this. I hope we remember this in some capacity because it deserves to be lauded. Yeah. Diego wants to fight in the sphere. Ege wants to fight it sphere. Dana said, I'm down.

Let's let them both fight at the sphere. Whatever they want. We'll make it happen. They should literally get whatever they want. Outside of something like, hey, I want to fight for the title next, like they should get whatever they want. Fight at the sphere seems very reasonable. Rick.

They're not Alex Pereira. Rick, no, no. You and I have little tension. We've had our issues over the years. Not that long ago. UFC 300, in fact, we had a bit of a discrepancy, a bit of an issue. We argued on this show about this very young man, Diego Lopez. So let me extend an olive branch to you, Rick, because I, again, correctly said Diego Lopez's win.

It's a terrific win. Call him for Movsore Evlev. Not going to get Movsore Evlev. My officer would never take that fight. And the UFC has no incentive to make him take that fight. Never will happen. It's totally right. Didn't happen.

I thought, hey, he beats Bronner Tegan. Now he can get that. You said it'd be funny if he didn't want it. Notably, he didn't call him out. But, U.S.C. now has a big incentive to make Mavsul shut the hell up and fight that dude again. So my olive branch, Rick, let's do Movsar. Let's do Diego Lopez, too.

Let's do it in the sphere. I like it. I saw where this was going, and I can appreciate you taking this tact as opposed to being more combative on it. I like this. I hope he fights Brian Ortega and jumps Mobsar again. No, you don't.

No, you don't. You don't hope that. No one hopes that. No, I don't hope that. I think Mavsar and Lopez is a great fight and should be made. Look, for all intents and purposes, like, I don't think Brian Ortega will fight a featherweight again. Like, why? What would even be the point?

Like, even if this fight week, he was like, I was sick as a dog. I couldn't do it. And it sounds like, you know, it was some kind of version of that. Like everybody's kind of been talking about it, like a badly kept secret that he's not feeling well. Don't even try it anymore. Like, just be a lightweight, which it sounds like he was already preparing for that world. So, yeah, in the absence of that, like, you look at the rankings, the biggest opportunity that Lopez could get at this point. I imagine he might jump up some spots in this.

I don't know how far. It probably will not be to like Ortega's position in the rankings. He'll probably jump up. The highest, you know, name that he's going to be able to reasonably climb to right now is going to be Evelwe. So, yeah, that booking makes a ton of sense. Yeah, I guess like the one. tremendous stuff from both guys. And I agree.

If they want to fight at the sphere, if that's like their big ass, they both should get it. And Diego should absolutely get that 1,000%. The one thing that stings in all of this is that he didn't fight Brian Ortega. Because if he beats Brian Ortega, it ain't Mobzar. He's fight.

Like, he could have gotten Volcanowski. Like, he could have got a fight like that if he went in there and starched out Ortega tonight. Especially after the weight miss and going up to 55, he would have looked like a friggin' rock star tonight if he had done that. And still, he looks like a rock star coming out of this. And he's got to get a big fight next. I just, maybe he gets a Vloyaf.

He could get that. I can assure you, at least as of right the second, when we do on to the next one tomorrow, I'm not picking Mobser of Bloyaf. I'm not. Who was Islam booked a fight when he ended up fighting Bobby Green? Van Nailed Ayrush, I believe. Yeah. So this feels like a situation like this, like that, right?

Like, you were supposed to get the one that was going to be the stamp. You were supposed to get the one that was going to go. I'm the guy. Look at me. I'm, you know, I can't be denied anymore. And it ended up being somebody who ultimately, like, you know, wasn't as highly ranked and doesn't do that for you. But I think you still get the cashé. I think you still get enough of that boost.

It would have meant more, certainly, if Ortega was in that cage and he took his number. But I think Diego's got so much momentum behind him. He has so much goodwill based on this. Like, I don't know if it. it definitely doesn't get him to exactly where he was, but I don't think he'll fall that short. Like I think his next. No, I agree.

We'll put him in that conversation again almost no matter what, you know? Yeah. Like, I'll just give it away. I'm picking Josh Emmett. Like, that's a good fight for him. So it's a guy who fought for a belt or an interim belt not that long ago. It's a guy that will deliver an exciting fight. And it's a guy who, you know, can just scratch and claw and go.

I mean, look at the Iliate to Poria fight. Ilya Teporia beat the brakes off him for 25 minutes and he just kept fighting. That's the kind of opponent that opened up people's eyes more so about Ily Tuporia. I was watching what he did to Josh M at that night. So, you know, maybe we do something like that. I'm cool with that. Something in that level I think is perfect. So great job by both guys.

Shout out to both of them. Shout out to Roman DeLidezay. Now he's going to be ranked in two weight classes. Shout out to Macy Chieson, big win, nasty, absolutely disgusting cut over the I admire Buena Silva. But I think the other big storyline coming out of this main car, we'll touch on this real quick

and then we'll go to questions. I'm Chado Gary remains undefeated as a pro, remains undefeated in the UFC. Hard battle. We knew it would be with Michael Venom Page. Dana White scores the fight a draw. When it's all said and done, I thought Ian Gary won 29, 28 pretty clearly.

I thought he won the first round. I thought MVP won the second round. Round three is very, very close. And then I thought Iemichato, Gary, what he did in the last? last like two minutes of that round was enough to win the fight and gets the win. It's not a fight. We're going to go back and watch again, but it's, it was a fine fight. And we knew it would be a kind of a grind and just a grueling battle. So New York, Rick, biggest takeaway from

IMA Chado's Gary, E Machado Gary's win. Were you impressed? How much did his stock rise with this one in your eyes? Not a lot. He did what he needed to do, but I have to be honest, like a lot of Ian Machado Gary fights, I come away saying he did what he needed to do, which is not what you, with the way he talks about himself, with the company that he puts himself in, with the aspirations and the things that he says, your takeaway can't be like he did what he needed to do every single time he fights. Like, that's just, that's just not how this goes. Like, if you want to be that guy, if you want to be the superstar, if you want to be the one that is in the post-fight press conference or the scrum,

he said he's going to enter the goat conversation and be alongside John Jones, Anderson Silva, GSP, and be in that company. Like, those guys weren't coming away most of the time with fights where I go, yeah, he did what he needed to do. Like, that's just not how this is going to play if you, if you inevitably want to end up there. And so I wasn't that impressed. I thought it was a good performance.

I rate MVP, right? Like, I don't think he's some can. I think he's been kind of like really like drastically underserved in, in terms of how people think about him. He's a tricky fighter. Every time you're somebody's fighting MVP, you can kind of see that moment where they go, oh shit, this guy is a little bit different than it is weird to kind of like stand and strike with him, whether they win or lose, right?

Like I'm not saying that like he frustrates people to the point where they can't fight and that's how he, you know, dominates them. Like, there's people who beat him who still face that moment and realize, like, okay, this guy's a little bit different and it's hard. I'm going to give him grace on that part of it. But, like, when he had that choke in the first round, he should have finished that. And he did what he needed to do, but like, I don't know. The way Ian Machado Gary talks about himself is not commensurate with the performances that he has.

Where about you, Jed? Because we do this. be a tough stylistic matcher for him and a lot of people were just like if he just beats mvp this is really impressive so did this impress you were you blown away i mean probably weren't blown away by ian's performance but how big how big of a jump in his stock do you think he got tonight he's a tough one man because i am impressed by the performance you strip everything else away i said going in i think this is going to be a tough fight for him i do not think he is going to win the standard up because I've never watched a person win the striking battle against MVP.

You may hate him. Some people do. Some people on our staff think he's terrible. If the man gets the fight he wants, he wins that fight. And for the fight, this fight, that was true. In Gary had, you know, he wasn't getting his doors blown off. He was comfortably losing the striking part of it, but he did show layers to his game. Credit to him.

I should be leaving this fight saying, hey, that was an impressive performance. Like, good on you, kid. Still 27, well-rounded skills. You took the path, the least resistance credit. And then he goes out there and he says the dumbest shit in the world in his post-pright presser. I snake charm the snake charmer. No, you tackled him. You didn't hypnotize him.

You tackled him and took his back at the best you mongoose the snake. Like, what the fuck are you talking about? about with that shit. You didn't win any of the striking. You won because you got a great dominant back position and you held on for two minutes in the end of the round to secure a win. Like, that's fight, that's smart fighting. It's not what you're saying. And then the, I looked this up because I wanted to. Do you know where John Jones was in his 15th fight? Rick, John Jones, your boy, do you know what he was doing in his 15th fight? I got to tell you, it wasn't scraping and out barely getting to win by MVP or winning a very controversial splitie over Jeff Neal.

He was Beezu Shogun Who and Quentin Jackson. You're not going to, no, like you got to believe in yourself and I get that. But you don't have to believe so much in yourself or you don't have to vote a lot. You could just be like, hey man, I'm trying to do the best I can. But it is very clear to me that I still think very highly Vian Machado Gary is a prospect. He's only 27 years old. He's a damn good fighter as he is. It is not lost on me that the moment he started facing true top-in competition,

his last three fights, Jeff Neal, Neil Magni, MVP, tough decisions, you know, like not impressive wins. And so- Not the Magni one. He beat the hell out of Neil Magne. Fair, but it's also a Neil Magny. You know, you know what I'm saying? Like the best two dudes he fought has not been convincing. And again, he's still 2070s development. to get good, but like you, the rubber meets the road at some point.

You can't be saying this shit and then doing the shit that you're doing. Like, at least just know when to say these statements. Because if he had blown the doors off him, if he said that after the Daniel Rodriguez fight, you know, we could be like, hey, probably a little early to suggest this, but what an awesome performance kid, credit to you. Losing on some people's scorecards, oh, I think those people are insane, and like barely beating MVP is just like you're saying all the wrong things all the wrong moments and it's it makes the story not about hey this is a really really good win for this guy you know and so it's

tough yeah there you go those are the big storylines other things obviously happen but i want to go to the peep since it's almost 430 in the morning on the east coast uh so let's bring casey in who's been very busy tonight producing like an absolute savage good to see you again Casey. Let's hear. What did Casey get a bonus, performance of the night bonus? That's what I want. Yes, Casey should get a bonus along with Peyton Talbot, Macy Chias on Joe Pfeer, and Alex Pereira, who got performance bonuses,

along with the lone fight of the night, Cubby Sonson, Andre Feely. I owe E.Michita, Gary, an apology. I'm sorry to hand up. I just looked it up. In his 15th fight, GSP, was already the champion, but was getting knocked out by Matt Sarah. So, you know, maybe he is. Maybe he is the next GSP hand up, my mistake.

He's not the next John Jones, though, the goat. He's not the next John Jones. Boy, is he just. He loves that. That is so weird shit, man. I don't get it. Screaming at Kevin Ioli. As the number one John Jones stand that's ever lived, like I, even I don't understand

that one. Even that one's too far afield for me. He's screaming at Kevin Ioli who is agreeing with him. No, he's the best. I agree. But he's the best, Kevin. To me, the weirdest part of this. And you know I don't even like him.

To me, the weirdest part of this is that it almost seems like nobody's like really pushing that hard against it. And he's the one continuing to bring it up. And it's on nights that like, UFC 302. There's other shit to talk about. Like amazing performance against Dustin Porre. And he's like, by the way, it's something's great. But you know about that John Jones guy? and then just screaming at people.

303. Alex Pereer steps in for Connor McGregor. Amazing performance. Legend. This guy's going to be the freaking shit. He's going to go up and fight at heavyweight. Oh, my God. By the way, John Jones freaking rules.

Don't forget, it's John Jones. Like, it just feels weird to me. And you don't have to press me that hard to talk great things about John Jones's fighting career. Even I find this one weird. Yeah. At least with this one, Dana was at least asked about John, unlike 302 where he wasn't asked about John at all

and just brought it up on his own, which is incredible. So he's the first. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new terms and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams.

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I can lose crack of this shit. so quickly. Jessica, holy cow. Let him go to bed. All right. My girl. Shout out to Jessica.

What's up? Jessica. All right. Super chats. First one from our wonderful friend, Akuta's Jr. Oh, simple one.

Oh. How about that? Shama. Got to get one out there. We can all get on board with that. We can all get on board that. We all agree with you. Spencer, boopers.

Yuri is right, he is magic, starting to feel how I did during Prime Anderson Silva. You know something amazing is about to happen. Rank these three for best UFC strikers ever. Spider, Poetan, Izzy. Jed, go first. It's a good question.

I still probably go Anderson, Poetan Izzy, but there's not really a wrong way to eat that, Rees. I was going to say, like, it really just depends on what you're, valuing, right? Like, it's not like, I don't think it's a cut and dried, like best striker thing. I think they all have like advantages in different areas that will work against different

opposition. And then obviously you have Alex and, uh, and Israel who, you know, have a rivalry even. Like it's just a, I don't know. It's a hard thing. I don't think it's as, I don't think it's as simple. I think it's a hard thing to rank because they're kind of like so different. Those three are very drastically different. any given day the rankings could change depending on like where they're on their careers and

some of the performances they had because there were certain nights where and his solo was like the best striker like just it was just poetry to watch and there are other nights where he was horrific to watch Anderson Silva was so far ahead of everyone else and Emma striking that it is hard to even explain I was literally going to say I defer to that Yeah, if you're, if the way you want to figure this out, which I think is the only way at the moment is who was better relative to their competition, who was more advanced than the striking relative to their competition, it's Anderson Silva just even like made more clear by the fact that Israel and Alex exist at the same time, right? Like those two guys exist at the same time so you can't go. One is the best while the other exists. So yeah, you'd have to go Anderson. He was just. so far ahead of everybody at that time. Paul is also, if you're just talking about striking and not MMA striking, Poetan certainly ups his argument as a multiple glory kickboxing champion.

I gotta tell you, we don't make a big enough deal of the fact that 50-year-old Anderson Silva beat Julius Caesar Chavez Jr. in a boxing match. This shit is wild. That's dope as hell. Yeah, I still go, I still go Anderson if we have to rank him. If we have to pick one, I go Anderson. Because much like this comment says, when I first started watching the mixed martial arts, Anderson was the first fighter where I went, that's cheating.

You can't do that. You know, like, that's not, that doesn't make sense with the body. He moves his body. So I'm still going to go Anderson. But it's a fun, it's a fun discussion to have. To me, I often start spinning my wheels when I get into the conversation about best grapplers, right? because grappling is so diverse and so varied in the same way that striking is so diverse and so varied. And then you've got jiu jitsu and then you've got wrestling.

And then you, yeah, like Habib is Habib or is it somebody like Charles who has the submission? Like you, it's, it's, I would lean toward Habib. I'm with you, Jed. But I do think that the nuance of the conversation makes it a difficult kind of thing because of how like of a catch-all striking or grappling are as terms. Yeah, of course. And like I said, if you have any of those dudes above, I don't, I'm not going to argue with you. It's fine. How lucky are we that we got to witness all three?

It's pretty sick. Yeah. Nope. If there's a Mount Rushmore of MMA strikers, who's the fourth one? Are these for sure the three, I think, is a question. I don't know. I was actually, I was trying to think if that is true. They certainly have a case to be three of the four.

We can come back to it. It's a really good question. I'll think about it as we're talking. I'll see what you come up with. All right. Thanks. Thank you for your question, Spencer. Now, super chat from Stephen.

Jedd takes her fire. Protect the span at all costs. There you go. Magum and Angolaev joined the bandwagon. You just wait. That's going to be his best title defense. Steven's going to super chat back in and be like, Oh, God.

I cannot believe you just. just asked this. We literally right before it went live Jed was like, I'm glad we had this angle so I could show all my wonderful cert. So what are the search, Jed? It was just all my degrees.

I moved my desk from, my desk is usually on this wall, but I moved it because we were doing the watch party here and I wanted to be able to see and be part of it. And so now you can see my diploma law school, college, my state bar of Georgia or whatever

it's just all that shit there you go all right left lane prayer is him Lopez and Ige are BMF Smith Cosby going 13 and O and Picks again 13 and O nice good for you

Sylva and Venetia's all here yeah our cool Piper is very angry yes Piper is very angry the Piper thing happened like right when we're about start the watch party and we would like we had the TV like completely muted at the time so all we saw was just Piper yelling but we couldn't hear what he was saying and then based on what I read in Slack Joe Piper was trying to start a USA chance and like six people joined him but I don't know I

didn't hear any of it why why what was the reason because he said we need more USA chance I guess oh more we don't have enough of them in the we don't have enough of them. Okay. That was, that's been the issue of mixed martial arts. Okay. Yeah. Got it. But yeah. I mean, we talked about it Casey on the pre-flight show. We were asked which, which prelim fighter had the most to lose and I, we both agreed. It was probably Joe Pfeiffer. So that was a good bounce back win. He, I mean, he did not lose. He certainly did not lose. MAB was out. That was nasty. Mike, don't distract from the real premise of this conversation here. Anthony Smith lost and guys I came up smelling like roses today.

We talked about it heading into this that this could have sucked for me because I might have to watch Brian Ortega win and I might have to watch Anthony Smith get a light heavyweight title shot. Brian Ortega didn't even fight and now people hate his ass and Anthony Smith lost is the best. I'm having a great Saturday. We did have one retirement and then at the press conference seemed like Dana retired like five fighters on the card. Like Arlovsky. Did he say Arlowski's basically cut? We'll see.

He said it was his last fight. Last fight. I think he said Andre Feeley. It was Andre Filii's last fight. Did he see that? I have to go back. I have to go back. I thought you mentioned.

Oh, no, Andre Arlofsky. Andre Lofsky, not Andre Fili. Maybe it was Cubson, or Cub Swanson's. He said maybe it was his last fight. I don't know. So. I know who's last, though. You know who's, yeah.

42 he's been getting it done he's been looked pretty bad tonight yeah yeah yeah he's just a point change whatever you know

yeah it just title run coming baby he looks he looks he looks bad he's been looked old though yeah this is tough yeah

you can't pull the trigger anymore yeah that was the thing that was the that was the big takeaway from that fight is just Roman just did whatever he wanted and didn't really have to work hella hard to do it and Anthony wasn't doing like anything in return.

He would land the occasional jab. But when he pressed forward and like through stuff like he was landing it, he just didn't throw anything. It was just kind of- Coaches are screaming at him to do something. Literally screaming at him. Like you've got to finish this bad and he didn't, I don't know. It was tough to watch.

That's like the biggest sign of being old other than like a clearly broken chin. If you can't pull the trigger more like watch, watch Prime Anderson and watch old Anderson. The difference is Anderson stopped punching people because you just lose, you lose that part of it. He's old and that, you know, stuff. That's where we're at. You know who's not old though?

And rules? Loke dog. Loke dog is the shit. I love Loke dog. Yeah. I'd go back and watch that one. I missed a lot of that. Oh, man.

He looked real good, man. There's a scary moment of the end of the second round where he threw a hard, because he was leg kicking the crap out of. Ricky Simone. Like, they were nasty. And then Ricky checked one of the end of the second round. And it looked, it looked horrible. Pretty brutal.

It looked like the fight might have, like, may have gotten stopped before the third round started. But they let Venetius go and Phoenius kept going, man. It was nice. Dude, it's tough as shit. I can't recall seeing that before where the, where the commissioners and the doctor were, like, checking that he was able to walk. Like, it was a, I don't, I don't recall seeing that before unless. it was like, yeah, you got an obvious leg injury. Because it wasn't like he was like, you know, limping or stumbling around.

He came out in the third and actually, you know, admirably kind of fought with a clearly injured leg. But they were like checking that between rounds just to make sure he was okay. I can't recall seeing that off a off just a hard check. But shout out the lop dog. Good performance. Definitely somebody to watch. She's going to be in for a big fight next. Shout out to Ricky Simone, who I threw my weight behind and immediately started to suck out.

You and Jake Matthews start a club of people I hate Stephen Dawson Can we agree Peyton Talbot is a superstar in the making? I think we can all agree They definitely got something with him What's Alex's all-time rank in fighter history? You can include storylines,

excitement, build up, and support in your metrics I have number six. Let's talk about Peyton Talbot real quick. My 16-100 favorite, but that guy was supposed to be a test didn't you hear dana yeah this supposed to be a tough test for him i mean he obliterated this dude obliterated him and then he called it adrian yannes which i really liked that call out

it was an excellent call out yannes gave him the eyes on the on the tweet gave him the eyes might it might it happen great fight love to see it yeah it's kid rocks um so so so does jean Let's just be real clear. Both of them off Contender Series. Both of them among my favorite prospects from Contender Series this last season. And both of them doing big shit. But yeah, Talbot really has the look of a dude who will at the least fight for a title one day. All right.

Spencer, loving the growing Jedi-Mishu New Yorker rivalry. It's been here for years. I feel like we've, New York versus the South, baby. The war of northern aggression. I feel like Jed and I actually agree a ton, like way more than we disagree. It's just that we're so strongly,

firmly on our corners that when we disagree, it's kind of just, you know, that's what it is. Time to throw it out. The stubbornness we all have collectively at MA fighting is incredible. Because when we believe in something, we will fight to the death for it. I am maybe the most stubborn on the site of all of us.

Do I have one? I'm super stubborn about something. I can't. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. What? Dude, come on. You are.

Oh, God. Oh, God. Any of your rankings, Casey. Take a look at any of your rankings. I love Cigazawa. She's terrific. Come on, bro. Yeah.

Oh, okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay. He was about to launch a defense right there. Okay, we don't want, yeah, we don't want this show to go six hours, so we'll move on. I don't know why I brought that up. It's all good. It's about to be Dana White yelling at Kevin I. I agree, Dana.

Fourth quarter's fourth. Alex is officially the boogeyman now. Yeah. Boogie. He's been for everyone. We didn't answer, dude. other question though where do you guys have Alex all time oh I don't I I'd never do that until the career is over it's just impossible it's yeah it's so weird too he's just such

I mean number six is an insane take but well like top 25 I'm open I think we as far just one of a kind he should but more than anything definitely one of one of a kind one of a kind super unique to walk out the stare the stare that his fighting style, his look, the way, the way he dresses for the press, the way he dresses for the way ends and the way he dresses for the press conference. And it just seems so authentic and it's a gimmick, but it's not a gimmick. It's just, it's all. And he doesn't talk trash yet he does this whole thing.

He talks trash, but it's, but it's the right amount. He doesn't, he doesn't go over the top. He's not trying to, to do it. He's just taking the opportunities. He, he is 100%. of one of one. Nobody has shown up to the UFC as like ready as him just to jump into title contention and just be the guy and then capitalize on those opportunities. The speed with which he's knocking off these all-time historic things is incredible. Then you think about like combat sports

more broadly and he was a two division champion in the premier kickboxing league at that time and a two-division champion in the UFC and possibly even more. Like, he's, he's one of one in every regard. Yeah. He's, he, like, he's his own category. Like, he's literally his own category. I can't rank guys because, like, you look, like, I think we, and I think this came up in a conversation around like Anderson Silva and others, Jed, where, like, we're okay

for giving losses and not necessarily making that something that dings you toward the end, whereas I think many will look at. some of that and take away, right? Like, Fador, I think, gets dinged unfairly in a lot of conversations. Anderson Silva gets dinged unfairly in a lot of conversations because of how the end goes. And so everybody's ranking is going to be different and all that. So I don't know. Let's let the career end and then we can kind of like sort all this out.

The best, my favorite moment of Alex Perr's post-fight presser was the shortest answer he gave because he was asked about the Jamal Hill thing and he just did two syllables and then Flattie just goes, okay and that was it. It was so good. And that's just like... He had himself a week, boy. Yeah, man.

That like that is worse than Alex Pereira going off on a 10 minute tangent about Jamal Hill. Totally. That is so much worse for Jamal. Totally. Just outright dismissal. For the context, it was Jamal Hill saying on Twitter basically like,

great win, tremendous knockout. Our business is not done. And then they relay that to Alex and Alex goes, okay. That's it. That's holy game. No, it wasn't even like that. It was like, okay. Like just the complete no cell brush off of all of it.

And even the way it was translated was a complete brush off. It was, that's going to sting, man. Like that's got a sting. Just in two syllables, you got so much further away from a rematch with Alex Pereira in just two syllables. I'm still watching Jamal Hill before. Welcome to Med out alive. That is it.

We saw that. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I was just kidding on that one. That one wasn't serious. That one wasn't serious. I mean, if you're doing it because you want to see him get hurt, okay. That's the thing, man.

I said it afterwards about Jamal. Like, you got to keep the same energy, dude. And this is not the same energy. This is not the pre-fight energy. And it's just tough. scenes. Like, do you think he's losing sleep? Because I have to tell you, I don't think he's losing sleep, man.

Yeah. He knocked your ass out and then memed you. He don't give up. You're right. The Jamal stuff has big, like, I'm coming for you energy. Like, it's definitely like, like, like, I'm still looming. I'm coming for you. And I don't think Alex, like, even interprets it at all like that.

Like, I don't think he even considers that for one second. Yeah, you're right. You're 100% right on that. He has zero interest in that fight. I think of all like the potential even like if he had like 15 options on the table and Jamal Hill was one of them. Jamal Hill was probably like the 13th or 14th at best. See, I don't even think they're like 90 seconds.

I don't even think it's that. I think it's worse than that. I think it's actually worse than that where like he could be option 15 or two and and he's still unbothered. I think it's almost that. Like I don't think it's like you're down here and I'm not even like considering you. I think it's like, yeah, you could be next and I still don't. give a fuck because I'm not worried.

I'm unbothered by you, which is like pretty, like, bad. It's the old trope. I think about you every day. I don't think about you at all. Okay. Madman. I think about when Alex knocked out, you know, Hill, you know, he did his thing. But then when he knocked out Yeri, spectacular knockout, he immediately checked on him before

he said everything. He thought he killed Yeri, though. Yeah. But you know what I mean? Yeah, I don't know. I just, it's funny. But it was a whole different thing. And the vibe was, yeah, and Jamal talked a whole heap of stuff and called Alex an easy fight, all that.

Like all, all these things like Alex, Alex, Alex, Alex beating Yuri. This is, this is a direct quote from Jamal Hill. Alex beating Yuri was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. That was a direct quote. Crazy. A lot of funny shits happened in the past couple of years. And for my money, the funniest thing still is Sean Strickland thinking the way to fight Alex Pereira was to walk at him with your hands down. Because I got to tell you, that's still hilarious.

But it's, Jamalah Hill saying pre-fight, I'm going to, I'm going to outstrike this dude easily is really cool. creeping up in the funny part. Like, you guys don't understand. I'm going to show that there are levels to this is some peak funny shit, man. And I will also note, Magermanangeloiv's talking that same shit. So if he actually does fight him and stands with him, he's getting knocked out and it'll be also hilarious. Yes. All right.

A couple more questions. Bear crawl at that dude. Don't fucking strike with it. I don't know what to tell you jump right and hopefully jumps guard on you did we even talk about the boogeyman thing he's not the boogeyman right he's kind of the one that you know everybody's kind of trying to come after

I don't think he's like haunting anybody it was easy yeah champs can't be boogeyman yeah yeah including all combat boxing kickbox VJJSA I bet Ali Tyson Forman GSP Anderson then Alex Oh if you're including all all combat then uh

they're not in it I would not have an MMA fighter in it so it's just different things yeah yeah uh

did boxing has been around 120 years that's just a lot of time oh god oh that was violent shit I'm watching full metal dojo and a dude

just got stomped out oh okay stomps rock but that was tough they also had a wheelchair boxing which is exactly

what it's sounds like earlier. So full metal dojo, just live in life. Hey, give us a call. Give us a call. Hey, we talked about this on the preview show. I love it. Spencer, I have Poetan number 23 all the time.

Ian probably lost Fempe, didn't give up position to the third. Is Ian Loster gains the team with his last two fights? We kind of touched on this already. He still gained some, just not a lot. You won. So you have to gain something, but not as much as he would portray it. Like, comparatively. to what he thinks he is with those two performances.

Ultimately, they don't match. Yeah. There's two things happening here, right? Here's the thing, guys. Here's the thing. There's two things happening here. There's what Ian Gary thinks of himself and, like, you know, is projecting for himself. And then there's the reality of the situation.

Those two things don't mesh. But ultimately it doesn't really matter. Like what Ian Gary thinks of himself. is independent of the reality of the situation. In reality, he's undefeated, winning fights, still somebody who the UFC believes is going to be somebody invests in and puts in good positions on cards, and they will continue to do that.

So, like, ultimately, he's getting toward where he says he's getting toward, and he will continue to. I just don't think he's, he is where he believes he is, but that's really, like, it doesn't really matter what that part of it. is like he's he's still advancing and still climbing the ladder and the UFC still sees a lot of value in him people pay attention yep uh mr heck we talked about someone who has a lot to lose on this card on the main card um we talked if MVP loses did he lose a whole lot tonight or did he just lose um good question look he's he's not fighting your belt that's it

I think the door shut on him fighting for a UFC title He needed to win this fight in order to keep that door alive He's 37 man Like he's The UFC like is obviously brought him over They saw some value in him Um Doesn't seem like like Dana hasn't really put him over all that much

Honestly Dana kind of sounding in the draw Yeah but still It's not like he put the fight over As this like classic or anything like that But I just, he's going to have, he's going to have fights with names with people that people are going to be intrigued with. But yeah, like the whole, listen, if MVP Leon, UK versus UK, like, it's just so far away now. You know what I mean?

This is tough. I think you needed this one. And I think, yeah, I think that door is shut. I think that door is officially shut. Now, we can still fight the Wonder Boys. And, you know, maybe the Ushmans of the world and such like that. But I don't want to see that fight either. Go ahead, Jed.

I'd say it's 90% he doesn't. I still think there's a clear path for him. Like, losing this really took the options away. But, like, what's Gilbert Burns doing? You know, like, it wouldn't astonish me if they just booked him versus Gilbert Browns. Oh, is he? Okay.

I mean, either fights the loser of that wouldn't astonish. me and then suddenly that's still a move up for him in the rankings. Like he's still two wins away like depending on who those guys are to maybe sneaking in. So like I don't think it is likely now certainly. But I'm not his best. His best chance right now is like Ian Gary gets booked to fight Chofcott and has to pull out and he steps in and beat Chofcott. Like that's probably his own chance.

Get him right back in there. I mean, obviously, yeah, just But that would be MVP facing a higher, even he moved up in a loss. I don't know what tomorrow Oussman's doing, but like, maybe Oussman wants to finally win a fight. And it's like, I'll fight this dude because he's popular and threw a pokey ball at a dude one time. I don't even know if O'Sman's a welter way anymore.

Like, I don't know. So there's a path. Options got limited, but he's not all the way dead yet. I agree with Jed. Like he's too notable and he's a name and people care about him in the same way I'm talking about Ian Gary. The problem that he is facing and it's specific to him is it seems like he's reached the level where he can't style on guys anymore. Like even when he's doing his best, it doesn't really look that good. And so if he gets into those opportunities, like he's not going to go in there and just smoke somebody.

And unfortunately, then that kind of puts you back in the same spot. So it's a real tough, it's a real tough thing for the style that he has where I feel like he's reached a level of competition in the UFC where like he just can't style on people. Like it's just not going to happen. And so. And everyone has a good chin above him. Everyone's got a good chin. Nobody's chin above him is like old like Luke is, but like beating Luque doesn't move with the needle much anymore. No.

Try to like maybe he could just fight an old guy who's chin to shot, but everyone's chin's fine. It's a great point, Rick. if they have any wrestling, like what are we looking at then? Like it's just a, it's just a real like this this was the shot. This was the opportunity

and it's going to be tough. But I, but if he go like you laid out a scenario, if he goes out there and beats Shavcott like yeah, he'll be back. He will be back. I would cry. The level,

the level that he's fighting at right now, I, there is no more cracking people throwing pokey balls. Like that's just not MVP's future. Is infinitely, Is MVP versus Buckley Interesting? Or does that not make sense?

Sure. That just seems like a good thing. Seems reasonable to me. It would have like after the St. Louis win or even the A.C. win. That was the one I wanted. Like Buckley should get on the mic and call for MVP on the Manchester card. Like that was the way to go. Yeah.

I just don't see that says like a loss loss because he didn't get knocked out. He just got like, he didn't even get like after the first round. He just, it was on his back. It wasn't even a submission. It was just, I mean, it wasn't even a submission attempt. It was just like this weird like two minutes. We're like, okay. And that's why I think David took out of it.

You can't have to fight Buckley is one of them, Randy Brown. Like that's kind of where he's going to have to fight now. He's going to have to fight a surging guy who is looking to move up. And it's not magnia-ish, but it's in that realm where he's going to have to sort of of defend his spot against someone that's on the come up. That's the position he's in right now. I'm with that. I can buy that idea that it like wasn't like a devastating loss loss.

But he to the point I was trying to make, I don't think he gets win wins anymore. Like even when he gets a win, it's not a win. It's a whatever, you know, like the Holland thing, like nobody was that inspired. Like it was kind of. Okay. Actually, I was good. I got a different vibe from what I. I got it was fine.

I got a different vibe from what I read from the general audience, but you know, whatever. I'm just you know what to do. You know what to do? You know the fight. You know the fight. Oh, Jesus. No. Yeah.

No. MVP has a really good chance to beat Jack Della and you should super not make that fight happen. Nope. All right. Well, since we've gone almost 90 minutes. Do MVP versus Kelvin Gaslam? How about that? New Yorkerick had children

You want to go to bed I got children too You know Yeah but you're not With your children I know I'm not right now Yeah I don't care about bed

I'm watching full metal dojo While we do this I'll do this forever You're sick man Oh hey hey Well do real quick Shout out to Happy Trails to Michelle Waterson

Yeah Happy trails I really like that They gave her like a piece That was fun Yeah, that was really good. We didn't talk about it. I was already in the card, but yeah, just yeah, happy choice.

And guys out there, girls, watch Michelle Waterson versus Jessica Penny. Oh, my God. Just a fantastic fight. But yeah, I just want to make sure people hear that. And yeah, yeah, Michelle Watson. Good for you, Michelle. I think that's a really important point about going back to that fight because what's interesting about Michelle Waterson is like she's really an atom weight and not like a straw weight and you know had this

really respectable and reasonable reasonable no just respectable career um in the ufc and like probably wasn't in that weight class um maybe by the end you know certainly like she filled out more and was you know having she looked a little gaunt as she would continue to make 115 but that's just naturally going to happen as you get older but like in her prime she was a 105er and that's a great fight to go back and watch and she's awesome yeah michelle's michelle's really cool yeah shout out to race arruya who's fucking sick which shins be in the corner yeah i like kids gonna be so good man how do you do the thing i forget years old and awesome yeah i don't know when it happened but japan got some hot shit prospects right now and it rocks

wait that was a fun fight too they couldn't have given that a fight of the night that was a that was a pretty fun it was a great fight yeah what the hell Very strange. A lot of good fighters out in Japan. Yeah. Half a pound woman. Wow. There he is.

There he is. He's digging his heels in. Well, the good news for all of you, if you're like, oh, man, I want more live content. As we are live right now, five hours and six minutes right now, AK and I will be back here on this channel for a live edition on to the next one.

So we'll do some matchmaking following UFC 303. Then we get a rare weekend off from UFC action. But next week, Nate Diaz versus Jorge Mosbidal, part two. And then the UFC heads to Denver for Rosenomi Unas versus Tracy Cortez, the new main event for that card. So get ready for that for Jed, for Casey, for New York Rick. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for watching.

Good night. Or should I say good morning, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.