MMA Fighting - UFC 305 Post Show | Reaction to Dricus du Plessis Submitting Israel Adesanya, More

Episode Date: August 18, 2024

Dricus du Plessis backed up all his talk, submitting Israel Adesanya in the main event at UFC 305 to retain his middleweight title on Saturday. Now the “Stillknocks” era is well and truly underway as the MMA Fighting crew reacts to the massive pay-per-view event from Perth, Australia. Following an wild pay-per-view event, Jed Meshew, and E. Casey Leydon react to du Plessis’s big win, and just how good the middleweight champion actually is. Additionally, they discuss where Adesanya goes from here, how Alex Pereira fits into everything, Kai Kara-France’s impressive knockout of Steve Erceg, Dan Hooker taking home a split decision over Mateusz Gamrot in one of the best fights of the year, and much more. Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow E. Casey Lydon: @ekc Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Yeah. The victory horns, ladies and gentlemen, and they sound for Drickus Duplessi and still knocks. That is right. Driches Duplice defeats Israel.

Yesonia fourth round rear naked choke submission. And we're in the still knocks era. We were there earlier, but he is now officially has a title defense under his belt. Hey guys, I'm Jedd Rishu. This is Memefinn.com. And this is the USC 305 post show. Took us a while to get here because the post presser lasted

a very long time. And as a result, skeleton crew this evening. Mike Hack is actually, on his way to the airport right this moment. He was planning to be here and in this chair. But he's going up to New York because there's a press conference tomorrow that we're going to be covering as well. So you got me and you got the baddestash in the game, the man without sleeves. So I actually think you might have sleeves on.

I wasn't really paying attention. Mr. 3024 himself. He. Casey Lydden with the sleeves with the sleeves. Look at those sleeves. Yeah. I was like, I don't know. I'm the, I'm not, just you and me.

I felt like, you know, having the gun show, but, you know, I don't want to take the attention away from the champ. This is, you know, it's the Knox era. What is this nickname still? Still Knox. Okay. I'm not, I'm not going to recognize that. His nickname is DDP, which is totally fine.

Plus, I appreciate it. You're not, you didn't want to intimidate me since I'm in the host chair and distract me with, with the big biceps. I understand it. But Casey, we got a lot. lot to talk about tonight. So before you, same as always, guys, we'll answer questions at the end. So pop your questions down into the chat. Super chats get priority. But we got to talk about U.S. 305 and what went down because this was a big event, Casey. Not the biggest pay-per-view of the

year, but we talked about it a lot this week. And the buildup maybe felt a little demure until kind of we get to the press conference and then that heated things up. But this this main event was a fight I was personally extremely interested in. And the fight delivered. I mean, it was a very, very good main event. But in the end, Drickus Duplessi backs up all the trash he's been talking for 18 months, two years, and finishes Israel Dyssinia in a fight that he was having sort of a tough time working through. And so Casey, I'll give my thoughts in a minute, but I do want to ask you, like, what do you make of DDP and sort of this incredible run he's on right now? I think everyone's kind of saying the same thing.

It's like he's an incredibly ugly fighter, the way he fights, and it works for him. I don't quite get it. It shouldn't work. He seemingly just runs in like this and like, how does that work? But yet, for some reason, at middleweight, at his level of toughness, his strength, Um, his heart he has, he does it. And I'm, I'm, I'm not shocked. I picked Izzy to win. But I, like I always say, I love being wrong. And dude, DDP did it. And he did it the same way he's always done it. Once he made that fight ugly and made it his type of fight. And, um, yeah, he broke Izzy and eventually Izzy wilted and he got this admission. Um, I, I, I, I, I'm actually very, very impressed with DDP. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm on board now. I get, I'm, I moved him up. I moved him up. He's my, he's my guy now. And, um, I did it. I did it. And I, I, and I hate changing opinions. That's not me. But, but, um, it's just, it was weird. But, um, no, um, uh, uh, I thought Izzy was the guy. I thought he had a bad night against Strickland. And, you know, I, I think, I think, he did but I don't want to say this was the best Izzy we've ever seen but this was a much

better version of Izzy that we saw tonight that fought Sean Strickland and DDP handled it took his lumps made adjustments and made it his fight and he finished Israel out of Sonia and finish of a submission of all things and rather I want to say easy we're a naked choke but once it happened it happened yeah once it happened yeah he he broke him down and just constant just i don't want to say is he broken sounds like a bad term i don't know like broken but no it's fine you you're in the commentator chair you got to be more okay with saying yeah you got to be more comfortable being like hey because because it's true and like here's i have been leading the ddp bus for a very You have, you have, man.

I'll give you credit for the, yeah, you have been. And I wasn't on board. I was like, it's just too sloppy. I don't get it. So I like, I like that. It's funny. I like that. I love that slick, like, highly technical kickboxing.

And I thought that ain't him. That ain't him. Exactly. And which is, it goes back to kind of why I think we all love this stupid sport is because DDP and that style of fighting. is now the middleweight champ, the defending middleweight champ. And it's unreal, something I didn't foresee a couple of years ago when I first saw him enter the UFC. But here we are.

And I think it's kind of awesome. It's, I mean, you kind of hit the nail on the head. One of the big reasons I love this sport is that's an entirely unique style to him. Like really, like nobody else does or probably even can do what he does in there. and I have been very high on him this whole time, partly because I think he's funny, but I also like, he is exactly the kind of fighter who just breaks everyone's brains.

And even after this, a ton of people, they still are sort of begrudgingly having to accept that he's the best middle weight in the world right now because, and the most distinct way that it came up to kind of put this through is he is technically bad, but he is tactically brilliant.

and I loved his post-fight presser. We just finished with that, not that long, and four-minute live, where he was just talking about the game plan. And, like, it's probably not a game plan most people would come up with, but it also espels like a very clear understanding of the fight he was getting into because he was like, yeah, we knew that Izzy was going to come in here and not make the same mistakes that he did against Sean Strickland.

I also want to be pressuring forward. So we knew Izzy was not going to do. that. He was going to make a point of trying to hold this ground in the middle and try to back me up. And so we use that because sure, he can do that. But that's fighting against his type and fighting against the way you want to fight is a very difficult prospect round over round. So Izzy would come out and I would hold my ground in the center and make him be uncomfortable. And then as the round progressed, my coach would tell me, all right, now it's time for you to push him back. And so I was just wearing on him and wearing on him.

And then as the fight goat went on, all of that started to add up. And I started to have more success. And it's like, that's honestly, like exactly what happened. If you're watching the fight, like, yeah, actually, this all makes sense. He sussed out a, like a brilliant game plan. The minutia of it is tough, right? Like a lot of that's ugly. A lot of what he does is not what you would teach anyone to do.

but it's all part of a cohesive thing that works together and makes him really hard to beat. He is one of those fighters, Casey, who I would not be shocked if anybody beat him. Like almost anybody in the weight class. It would not be like, I can't believe that they beat him. But I will pick him over every other middleweight in the world right now because he's got a really good fight IQ and he has enough tools and knows how to deploy them super well.

At some point, like, it probably will hurt him that he is just technically atrocious in spots. But all I'm saying, man, the two best middle weights of this generation, he stopped them both. So this dude is a top five pound fight in the sport right now. And it is the best thing in the world. So you all got to start. I'm glad you're on board. The rest of you if you're not there yet, you got to start respecting him because at the end of the day, it's not about. how pretty it looks.

It's about how effective you are. And he has proven to be extremely effective in the cage. I will say I did enjoy the way DDP handled himself after the victory and the post-presser. I think, I don't want to say the word classy, but it didn't leave me of a bad taste. No, after the victory. I thought he was like, oh, okay, he won. He gave the proper respect. I think is he deserved while also, you know, saying, but I'm freaking DDP.

I'm the champ. too. And yeah, I like no shade man. It was like great performance, great fight. Great fight by both gentlemen. And I was just, it was just, I was enjoying just being a fan for the time and just just watching the fight. It was, it was, it felt good. And this was a fight week. I was kind of dreading. Because I thought it could get really ugly. And luckily it didn't get that kind a weird Colby Covington kind of ugliness feel it's just these guys had beef but you know the bigger you know overtones of Africa weren't really playing this week I think it was just all right we're just going to fight this week and I kind of enjoyed that and it was good it was good fight

they tried to distance themselves from that a little bit I think so I don't think either they wanted to go there this week yeah they both pretty clearly didn't want that to be the main narrative here. But they leaned into it a little bit, so pay reviews do the thing. But you're right. At the end of it, they, you know, there's a big clip going viral. They're hanging out backstage. Both men gave a ton of respect to each other in their post fights and their postpressors.

Credit to Izzy, handled the loss super gracefully. And, you know, obviously credit to the champion because he is still the champion. And along those lines, Casey, we theoretically. radically have a next opponent for him. And I'm interested to see your take on if you think this will happen because Dana White said heading into this that Sean Strickland's up next, he's the guy who deserves it. We could argue about whether that's true or not. Alex Pereira even kind of threw out a little troll there of, I got one more trip to 185

left in me, but that's clearly not happening right now. Pereira has a title fight booked against Cleo Roundtree. But it seems like Sean Strickland is next, even though DDP said at his postpresser, I think Robert Whitaker deserves it more, particularly if he beats Hamzot, I believe that he should get the shot. But the thing I'm interested in, do you think this will happen? Because Dana White said that if DDP wins, they're going to South Africa. Dana White was not there in Australia. But DDP won, and he won convincingly. This was not a split decision or no controversy.

That was a stone tap, a clean win. Is his next fight in South Africa? Oh, in South Africa? No. I mean, Dana promised. So. Definitely no. No, I just, it should be in South Africa.

I thought this fight should have been in South Africa. But if DDP's next fight will be in South Africa, cool. I just don't believe it. I just don't believe it because that would be that's something I would like to see. And I don't get good things from the UFC very often. So I'm going to know, but unless, what's the, is it, I'm not, I mean, I know Johanisburg. I don't know any other cities in South Africa. I know there's got to be other cities, but Cape Town.

Oh, Cape Town, yeah. I don't know. Are they paying a tourism? That's the extent to what I got for sure. Yeah. I don't pretend to know more. Yeah. No, because the UFC only goes to places that pay them money.

So that's the reason I'm saying, no. But if the South African Tourism Board wants to write a check, heck yeah, the UFC would be there. It seems unlikely. I wish it would happen. It would be really cool. They could do a bunch of ton, like a ton of promotional stuff that's really interesting and really lean into the Africa stuff. I would say by far the most likely outcome is this man fights in Las Vegas next. And they do Sean Strickland, DDP, 2, and Las Vegas.

But that'll be okay. But I do also want to talk about Israel Dissia because, one, you've touched on it. I thought this was a very, very good performance from him. I was not unsure what we would get. I don't think that this is the best version of Izzy we've ever seen. But he did say in his post fight that this is the best he's ever felt. And for a lot of this fight, he looked really, really good. until the wheels kind of fell off.

But at the end of it, Casey, he gets on the mic and DDP kind of sets him up to possibly retire. Daniel Cormier kind of puts the ball on his court, hey, are you trying to retire after this? And he hits him with the Wolf of Wall Street. I'm not going to leaving. Seems like Israel Dissian is sticking around for the long haul. And even in his post presser said he's not interested in trying 205. He was going to stick around at 185. Didn't have a name, didn't call anything specific.

talk to me about you know kind of isy's performance and sort of where you want to see him go from this coming into the fight if if the same izzie that fought sean strickland came out in the sense that no he got hit once and he just clearly didn't he just didn't have it in him to to to take it back um but i don't think that was the same as he i do think we got the best version of izzie that we could possibly get right now tonight. And that's why I don't think he'll retire. But that's not the best version of Izzy we've seen. But I think that's the best version of Izzy that we can possibly get at the age of 35.

And what would you say 140 something? 144 fights now, I believe. Yeah. So he's cut weight and made the wall. Sanctioned fights. Sanctioned fights. 140 times. That is that is just stupid unreal.

But it was an average. of 10 fights a year. Yeah. And I think they said this was his biggest break from professional fighting and what? This is biggest. This is biggest break from professional fighting since 2009. Jeez. Yeah, 15 years.

In 15 years. 15 years. And during those 15 years, he was averaging 9 to 10 fights a year. That's wild. So if we had that got that kind of version of the Strickland version of, the Strickland version Vizzi, if he came out tonight and he lost a tepid decision, a tepid, you know, his decision, he would have retired. But I think, I think this version of him, no, I, he'll come back.

He'll come back. We'll get a couple more fights. I'm who he's going to fight next. I don't know. I don't, I don't know where Izzy is. Is he the second best middleweight in the UFC? I don't quite know because he's not going to, I don't think he's going to get better than this tonight.

That's the issue. He's just going to get older, more war-torn, battle-torn, just from all the camps and everything. So we will see him back, but maybe kind of like, I don't want to say, kind of Anderson Silva-esque after he lost the titles. What was it? Yeah. Yeah, kind of like just fun fights, I guess, not really into contenders. Some type in some other contenders.

Yeah, and I'm just interested. I don't know where. I don't know. I guess we have one more fight to see where is he really is. Is he the second best guy or is he just, you know, a good middleweight now? I don't know. I mean, he's pretty definitively the third best guy, but you can't put him above Stricklander. No, well, okay.

Yeah, two, three right, right, yeah, right there. But, you're not second best, but, you know, a contender, rather. Like Anderson was fighting for a while in the UFC not as a contender I'm interested to see how Izzy wants to handle that Is he okay with just remember even I guess a BTL we're talking about Could Izzy be like another like Arlofsky where he's okay with just taking fights and stuff? Which I don't think he will be I know I know it's very different You know you have to change your fighting style but I expect Izzy to come back one more time because of his performance tonight and I think he still thinks

he has it in him. But, yeah. Oh, I saw I'm reading the comments. Yeah, kind of comparing Izzy to Wydenman, you know, when Wydenman lost, you know, it's like a little bit. And that's the thing it can be. So like this, because I, one of the reasons I picked DDP to win this fight coming in,

outside of DDP is my boy, is I do believe that Izzy is just not, not at his best anymore. I was very impressed with how good he looked, which means he, still has plenty of juice left in the tank. It's not his best. He's never going to get back to there because that's not how time works, frankly. And I would say that he probably wore damage a little less well in this fight than, you know, he has historically, but showed a lot of good things. I am enthused enough by this that he should continue fighting.

I'm glad he said so. And I think he will, but there is always the chance that the next time out they give him somebody tough. I've seen some people throw out bone nickel. It's kind of weird, but like, okay, if you want to do it, sure, and kind of see how that goes. And there's a world where this precipitates a really bad decline. Or he goes out there and he just

has some cool fights. The one I would love, Yuri Praska is saying he's coming to 185. If he can, I don't believe that man can make 185, but if he does, let's have him fight. Is he? That'd be fun as hell. So, like, we can do fun things with Izzy. And this was a good enough performance where I am to steal Michael Chandler's word, emboldened by his choice to stick around and continue competing.

Perhaps not on the same schedule he used to, three, four times a year is a lot. But, you know, a couple of times a year, just fight some fun dudes in middleweight. I know he said he didn't want to do 205, but maybe take a flyer up there to 205. Before we talk about the next thing, I do you want to ask you very. very, very quickly because it doesn't matter now, but I am just interested. First three rounds of this fight were extremely competitive. I saw scores all across the board. Officially, the judges, two of the judges had DDP up two rounds to one.

We here at the watch party all had it two rounds to one for Izzy, though, like I said, really competitive, no issues with any scorecard. What was your scorecard before the finish happened? I'm looking on our chat right now. I had two won Izzy. So I think round one and round three. Add for Izzy and round up until like the wills came off for Izzy, was he winning the fourth round or was it kind of just competitive?

He was winning the, he was winning the beginning of every round. And then he was winning that round. But then like the, that was why it was so competitive is Izzy won the beginning of every rounds and DDP won the back part of. most of the rounds. So it was very, very interesting and really glad we didn't have to go to the judge's scorecards. I think those could have been absolutely wild. But it didn't because the finish was a little weird. We had trouble figuring out exactly what happened. I thought that he was hurt

pretty quickly. I think that he was, but just it happened so suddenly and whatever did it, whatever took busy out of it wasn't very clear but then he started running away and turning his back and you can never do that and so yeah he was getting clipped of a few shots that that we just have to assume

look that DDP just hits harder than it looks because he kind of hit is he kind of the top of the dome so kind of shook his equilibrium but didn't really like give him that kind of even that visual rocking back and forth but it hit him right here and clearly when he kind of took just a couple of steps

his feet which just weren't there so the takedown was rather easy. And I think his ground fight, his ground game or defending the submissions, even in the second round, it was second round, I think. It was just, yeah, yeah, just something didn't look right.

Just, he had with my old, he had with my old jih Tzu coach, used to call, I'm trying to remember the exact phrasing, a problem with getting fucked where he would let it get too deep. and then start defending.

It's like you should have been defending five moves before where this happened. And credit to him, he fought out of that first one. Like I honestly am still not really sure how he kind of got out of that first in the second round, how he got out of that situation. Like that was just great effort. But that's easier to do when you're, you know, six minutes into a fight and still fresh as opposed to 18 minutes into a fight. And you've been fighting your ass off this whole time.

and that's the stuff that starts to drop off. And to me, that's the big thing. What Izzy doesn't have anymore is that, I hate saying it, this is for A.K. He doesn't have that, he doesn't have that dog in him like he used to have. Like that fifth round Kelvin Gasolm, Izzy, that does not exist anymore. That version of him just isn't there. Technically, when he's winning, he can throw a strike, he can move like he used to. But when it gets dirty and he just gets like, oh,

Technique doesn't matter more. Technique that doesn't mean we're just fighting. He can't beat the top guys when it's just a pure. We got to fight right now. And that's what that fourth round came down to. And DDP has it. Strickland has it still, but it's not with Izzy anymore. And that's the difference.

I honestly think that that's just age and the chin going. Yeah. There was a moment at the end of the third round when DDP started to come on strong. and Izzy decided, okay, I'm going to bite down. Like, I am not going to give ground and try and angle out. I'm going to throw as hard as I can and sit in this pocketing fire a shot at him. And he landed it. And Izzy and like, I mean, that killed Robert Whitaker when he did that, you know, so many years ago.

And DDP ate it and then kept bombing on him. And I could physically see as he'd be like, that's not what's supposed to happen. I have to leave here now because I can't. I can't get rugged in here in the way he wants used to because a million fights, but we got other fights we got to talk about because this is just the main event. Obviously, we will have spent the most on this. But co-made event, Kai Karra France, showing out a first round knockout of Steve Urseg, aka Vinnie Siggs.

This was a weird fight coming in, great fight. Everybody was excited about it, but the question kind of was, what are the stakes here? Erseg's coming off a title loss, you know, losing to Alejandro Pintosh in a very competitive fight. Kyakara France had a big layoff, had lost two in a row, sort of weird to see where we go from here.

But none of that matters anymore, Casey, because that was awesome. Steve Erseg has a very good first round until he doesn't. And a left hook floors him, and KKF follows up, gets enough good shots in, gets the fight finished.

So, Casey, I mean, tell me how impressed you are with Kikara France after that. I've been a KKF fan for a while. I'm glad he took the time off, take care of his health, just get his life back in together. I think he said six months of zero contact. And he still got it. That boy brought the violence that the heavyweights are supposed to bring earlier in the car. I love these little tiny 125ers are bringing the violence, not the giant heavyweights.

But yeah, KKF, man, Kikara France, still got it. I hope he gets the title shot. Thoroughly impressed. Hey, Vinnie Siggs won't have won this fight. Steve gets knocked out, and that's what happened. Steve, you get knocked out. Steve got knocked out. And KKF, man, just he looked great tonight.

His timing is good. And, yeah, once he adjusted, you know, Steve's range and just, you know, just being the bigger fighter, KKV got in there and the man's got heavy hands. And congratulations to him. And I hope he gets a title shot. May legitimately be the biggest puncher in this weight class. Really impressive because, like, it's not a long fight, you go back and watch it. But it is basically KKF figures out, Steve. of Erseg in four minutes because he makes that kind of blitzing he can't figure out the range

and then he makes that sort of charging I'm going to throw big long combinations and Erseg kept backing up on a straight line and KKF was like if I had one more punch to the end of this that left hook's going to get home and it got home and that was the end of the fight unbelievably good impressive performance from KKF and to your point that you just made Casey title fight seems like it could be an option. It would be weird, given that he's lost two in a row, but Amir al-Bazi is in purgatory. I'm unclear exactly where he is, but he's not fighting. And the rest of Flyweight is a bit up in the air. KKF did not call for a title fight. He, you know, didn't really want to put himself out there specifically, though he

definitely made it known that if they offered, he would be very interested in that. And so Casey, you said you'd like to see him get a title fight. Is that, Is that because you think that he is the best answer or like it would just be cool because it feels like honestly at this point in time unless Tatsuro Taira goes out here beats Roy Val and they want to do a quicker turnaround. It feels like Kai Asakuro probably has the inside track for getting Al-Alanra Pantosia next. Kai versus Kai then. So a double Kai fight.

Kai Kara France did mention that in his post-fight presser. So he's the one true guy. Yeah. Yeah. There's really up to Pantosia in the UFC's schedule. I think they gave it to KKF off this. I mean, he was a co-main event, a flyweight co-main event and a big pay-per-view. That's got to mean something.

I love Kai Asa Kerr. I think he's a great fighter. But this is the UFC, and he doesn't have a name over here yet. I think it'll be just weird bringing a guy in who, I mean, even Anderson Silva had a fight one fight before he got a title shot in the UFC. So I would expect just one fight for Kai in the UFC, Kai Asakur. So I think it's lined up for Kai Kar-France. Big knockout.

You have the highlight road. Momentum is there. Just do it. I mean, see, Versaig didn't call for a title shot and he got one. Yeah. I would love Kai versus Kai. I think that matchup. But Kai versus Kai makes the most sense.

I like that fight a lot. But if maybe Elbaughy returns and gets a title fight. maybe he's like I'm ready to fight now screw it let's chuck him in there when you said al-Bazi I kind of had to go through my head real quick and like who he hasn't fought in a lifetime it feels like I kind of forgot who was his last who's his last win against was it was it I think it was the

let me look this up I was but say I think it was Kikara France yeah and I remember yeah it was a questionable decision correct it was a contentious splitie yes yeah yeah so yeah I think both guys are in the driver's right now. I think there's a very real chance Kai Karanx gets it. It will all depend on timing.

But all these things depend on timing. And that's the kind of performance that it kind of makes everybody forget about the other stuff. You can say, yep, this is pretty cool. Let's put him in there. It's popular dude, not like a massively popular, but it would be an entirely reasonable match to make. Your business doesn't move in a straight line. Some days bring growth, others bring challenges. But what if you or a partner needs to step away?

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This one was dope This still wasn't the best fight of the day That actually happened over at CGI But so was a very very good fight Between Dan Hooker and Matush Gamrot Stunningly Matush Gamrot showed he had some hands Getting saucy with the mitts in there

But Dan Hooker takes a split decision When in a back and forth war Dan Hooker on Tuesday Will be top five ranked in the UFC But before we get to there Does he deserve it? How did you score this one, Casey? I think we gave it the same score.

I think we both scored it for Mr. Gamrod, two rounds to one. Which two did you give him, though? They were all up in the air. I don't actually. I got a lot. Okay, the fight itself, I kind of got lost in the fight because I was like, this fight is freaking awesome. It was.

I'm not going to say it's fight of the year, but like when we kind of have. our list for fights of the year we're going to talk about this fight and it was um it was just a great fight it was a great mixed martial arts fight it had everything in it um was okay the no the first round first round i had to give the gamrott and i think i know i gave the first round to hooker oh i went oh so we had two one gamrot um yeah yeah so we had the same final score but we had different rounds okay that's interesting yeah because i'm pretty sure i gave the first round of gamrott Either way, I wasn't, I had no issue of hooker winning.

It was a great fight. What was the question? I just want to know how you scored it because scores were all over the map. Yeah. We were doing the watch party here and both Mike and Connor had it to one Gamron maybe. But they gave Gamrot the first. I didn't. I actually thought hookers work at the end was the more significant blows.

But it was one of those fights where any. scorecard was acceptable. Very rarely do I say that, but literally any scorecard you put up there is fine. 30, 27 either way. Both rounds were hard to score and extremely competitive.

But ultimately, Dan Hooker wins. Biggest one of his career, he is now top five afterwards. He was the most excited boy that ever there was. He was screaming all sorts of things in the cage calling to fight everyone that ever has lived and just celebrating like,

this very major accomplishment for him because kind of out of nowhere. Dan Hooker is going to be top five lightweight and frankly on the short list for a title shot right now given how the top of the lightweight division is working out. So since he wasn't specific with any callouts, who do you want to see Dan Hooker fight next? There are three obvious choices possible, really probably two obvious choices possible for him. Oh, it's very late right now. Remind me who the kind of give me your list. The three, the three people above him in the lightweight rankings are, uh, well, I guess the four, but he won't get on on Srucun, but Charles Olivera, Justin Gaethe, Dustin Porier.

Obviously, the Porre would be a rematch, but, you know, was a very, very good fight. No one would be upset about that rematch. But it seems very like the obvious, obvious ones are Gaetchi or Olivera. Yeah, I getcha Oliver. personally I do you can't lose of both those I mean there's a reason why you guys yeah there's yeah there's yeah there's like what am I arguing what am I trying to argue like this is super awesome or this is super duper awesome I don't know um kind of the gate chief I kind of want to see the gate you fight a little bit more um but dude there's Dan hooker but just this just this career this career

I'm back for Dan Hooker. I mean, I know you haven't been high on Dan Hooker. You kind of thought the man was done. I still think he's done. I think Gamrod was an exceptionally good matchup for him. Oh, you think, okay. I picked him to win this one. Oh, you did.

You did. Because I was like, because Gamrock can't hurt him on the feet. I, and genuinely, Gamrot heard him on the feet. I really do think Hooker is not there anymore. Gamrod is just not the dude to show that. And Gatji will kill him if they make that fight happen. Okay. But we'll see.

We'll see if it agrees. Absolutely be wrong because he's tougher than a $2 steak, man. Like he was getting hurt. Crazy enough, yeah, to get in there. He's just too crazy. He out-craised it. And that's so impressive from him, you know? And that might be his number one attribute at this level.

You know, we talk about DDP just having that just relentless, I'm just going to do this no matter how many times you punch me. And Hooker just has this kind of like, I'm just crazier than you. tonight. I'm just going to be crazier. And I can- Pumping up the crowd before the third round just almost over in Gamrod's corner because he is just so hyped about doing this.

Dude, Dan Hooker is like, he's in that kind of, that, I want to say, almost like Derek Lewis-type level. We don't even care anymore who he fights us. Just put him in there. It's exciting. And Dan Hooker's that guy right now. And I thought, I thought Gamrod was going to steamroll him tonight.

And that didn't happen. And, and man, Dan Hooker, man, I don't know. You can't, yeah, you can't go wrong. Personally, like the Gaichi fight, but yeah, I do fear for, you know, the Dan Hooker's, you know, brain in that fight. But I fear for that for anyone that faces Justin Geh. So, yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. And a shout out to Matush Gamrot, who once upon a time Casey Wade in as the backup up, fight it for a lightweight title fight. And the only fighter in history who weighed in for one and didn't get one, as Dana White once famously said, if you weigh in, you get next. And Gamrot does not appear to be getting next. And I would guess is unlikely to ever fight for the belt after that. But I also thought he was among the best he's ever looked.

Certainly with his striking, this was the best we ever saw. And nothing to hang your head about. Like we said, we both actually scored it. for him very competitive fight damn good one and a very exciting one so shout out to you matush camrod awesome fight awesome fight uh last thing we'll talk about before we uh just do a bow on the rest of it uh very very quickly gyrzini rosenstrike wins a terrible terrible fight and not terrible not a good fight and not the fight we're expecting though there were some high moments tie to evas was very tough but uh jarzina

Rose Drake wins a decision. But the talking point of this fight is not about the fight because it doesn't matter. Like, Jarzino winning this, he moves up like two spots in the UFC rankings. He's not fighting for a belt anytime soon. There's some questions about what Tai Tui Voss is going to do, but we could talk about that later. That doesn't need to happen on this show unless one of you asked for it. The thing to talk about here is the scorecards, Casey, because I do not say this lightly.

one of the worst scorecards in UFC history. It has a very strong case to being the worst scorecard in UFC history. Not in May history. Chase Bibi Mike Easton will always end forever have that. But 3027 Tuivasa in a fight where Ty got just bludgeoned for most of it. The scorecard is so bad that the judge who, let me see what I can find it. Howie. It's Howie something, but I don't remember where it is.

The judge who authored it was removed from the arena and withdrawn from his duties on the card afterward. It was that bad. And so, Casey, the question very simply, is that the worst card you've ever seen, a scorecard ever seen submitted in the UFC? We've seen singular rounds be horribly scored. Three rounds where it was such a easy ten. nine. There was no grappling. There was no like, well, he held him against the cage for 30 seconds, so I'm going to give him that round. None of that. I, two, two reasons, two excuses for this fight. One being he simply put the 10 and the nine on the wrong side of piece, wrong side of the piece

of paper. Yep. And I, and I hope that is the issue because the other issue, the other option would be, I don't know, I don't even want to say it out loud because it gave it a split decision. It gave it a split decision. and we do have a lot of gambling involved in the sport and there are lines on split decisions. So that's all. I just hope he just didn't understand what Red Corner and Blue Corner meant when you put the 10 in the 9th.

That's all I can hope for. It's so, there's a lot of like, oh, judges are so bad. I'm actually one of those people. I don't think judging is as bad as people want to say it is, but this card might be the worst three-round card. But for judging three rounds, ever seen especially at this level maybe it on a lower regional level whatever but

ufc pay-per-view i can't i don't understand it there's no excuse for and and the commission or whoever the regulatory body did um the only thing he could do the only responsible thing they could do is pull them out for any that any judging that night and um hopefully there are so yeah they yanked him and swapped it around so hopefully there's going to be real uh consequences for that type of egregious scorecards. Seems unlikely he'll ever work again. But it, yeah, the only two rational answers are skullduggery or he just mixed up the inputs of the boxes, which is incompetence to a level that should not be tolerated.

But also seeing a lot of people being like split to see, he bet on split decision, very obviously not guys. because if you're betting on split decision he gets scored a 29, 28. He doesn't have to go 30, 27. Which is still weird, yeah. So, like, you just, that's very easy to just be like, no, I'm 29, 28. And then that looks less egregious than 3027. He, 3027, if you're trying to go that, it's because he took a point spread bet. Oh, okay.

Well, never ascribe, yeah, never ascribe malice what can be solved by incompetence. And it's just deeply, deeply likely that he screwed up in. major way but it was a very big thing that happened because not every day judge gets fired with fight card casey so history was made today is he got submitted for the first time and then by judge got fired judge got fired in the middle of the card uh we'll just do a rundown now the rest of it uh carlis prattis knocks out li jean ling the open main card opener a very very attractive finish right there callos protest is probably going to get a top of 15-ish-ranked dude next.

And Guy has been a revelation since coming off the contender series. Walter Walker submits Justin Taffa. A bit of weirdness on this one, mainly because the commentary team is garbage. But Tafa gets in a heel hook, screams out in pain.

I forget which referee it was, in fact, but stopped it because that is what you do. It is literally in the rules and has been in the rules for 20 years. Every fighter knows that. If you scream, they will have stopped the fight. And he may- Scream is a verbal submission.

Yep. It's been that way since Chale Sondon did it, and this was the whole thing. Tafa loses his mind a little bit after. He's complaining about it. He's very upset with the decision. Dominant Cruz blames the referee in his, like, doing commentaries. Like, it's why this is the problem. The referees just can on a whim take things, take opportunities from us.

and nobody checked him. They just let him say absolute nonsense. But Walter Walker appropriately gets the W. Cotto Ramos takes a split decision over Josh Kulabal. In a fight, I will be honest, I did not watch any of it. Dude, we're not going to talk much about it, but man, Kubel just gave away that fight. I've heard that.

I have no idea what happened. I was doing CGI stuff. Oh, gave it away. No, I don't need to talk about it too much, but gave it away. So congratulations of Ramos. He dropped Ramos with calf kicks. And, you know, he dropped Ramos twice. One time we've a calf kick, but then he went down with him and almost got choked out and

when he losing that round when he can easily want. And in the second round, he dropped him with a calf kick too. And then instead of just telling him to get up, he sat there and did that little game where you just kind of kick his legs for like two minutes. And so that, and actually, Dominic Cruz, Dominic Cruz said a good. point is like, why is he doing? Like, this, those nerves come back. It's not like, like, they start working again.

It's not like forever. And then sure enough, Ramos, after like two minutes of doing that little leg thing on the ground, got, got, gets up, loses that round, but then wins the following round. So he wins when, when Kubalao shouldn't easily, that fight should have been over in the second round. Just insane what he was doing. Like, just made no sense. And he gave a fight away and he deserved to lose, unfortunately, for him. I think my actual biggest pet peeve is fighters.

accepting Ali Anoki leg kick. Like, unless you were actively just trying to burn clock away to win a decision that you're already head on, like, just let them up. Like, we're not, you're not doing a single thing by like standing there and kicking. You are wasting time. So that's tough. I'll never go back and watch that fight. So that's a shame. Casey O'Neill gets back in the winning track.

It takes a unanimous decision over Luana Santos. Again, I did not watch any of this. I was doing CGI stuff for us. Jack Jenkins stops Herbert Burns. I watched a little bit of this. Just kind of beat the brakes off Herbert Burns finally gets a finish in the third round. Tom Nolan, my guy, is a harder than kind of anticipated,

but a very clean win over Alex Reyes in the early prelim main fight. Song-Kanon, UD over Ricky Glenn in the fight opener. Jesus Santos Aguilar pulls off a slight upset with a guillotine choke. Another Dom Cruz special in this one, as he adamantly declared, that Stuart Nicole was not unconscious, despite Nicole face up and unconscious in the cage. No, he's not.

He's not out. He's fine. And he's just staring at the lights with the vacant. Wasn't Dom's best fight or best evening. But before we get to the peeps, Casey, it's very early. Everything. It's very early morning. Fair point.

Also forgot to mention our bonuses that were given out. Unsurprisingly, Dan Hooker and Matush Gamrock get fight of the night. Kikara, France and Carlos Prat. get performance bonuses, I think all of those would have been exactly what you have guessed. A rarity. A rarity when UFC actually gives out the performance bonuses that makes sense. So, yeah.

They nailed it. Yeah. Nailed it. Casey, before we go to the peeps, one, you know, pick one performance outside of the big four that really stuck out to you that you want to give a little shine to.

Carlos Prattis. He is good. Let me double check. I think he is the first. first person to finish. Yeah, he's the first person. No, the finish to finish Lee Jean. First to knock out.

Yeah, of strikes. And it beat the freaking breaks off him. Man, that was just, that was vicious. It was beautiful. And I, that man's a, that man's a, a future star. I don't know. I don't, I don't, I don't know how high he goes, how high he goes up the Wall's right ladder.

But he is super exciting to watch and just, yeah, just violence. violence violence i like it he's really fun coming off the contender series he was in my b tier of prospects because he's older but i was like this guy's awesome he's just a little old so uh hard to be like he's gonna i think he's like 30 oh 31 31 31 he's 31 so yeah exactly so he's not old old but like 31 is not prospect age you're a fighter yeah you're a grown ass person right now this is who he is yeah he is who he is is is a fighter he is he is awesome as hell it was incredibly fun from him. And yeah, like, honestly,

there's not a ton of other people I would give, like, huge props to. Early prelims were tough, but shout out to Heizantus Aguilar. Just open the night, did not expect that to come and, you know, got a good finish on the resume. So, Casey, let's bring in the peeps because it's 420 where I am. And that's fairly late because Drick is 2.5i, God bless him. I love him. he took two hours to get to his post-fight press conference, which wasn't the coolest thing ever.

So if you got any super chats, this is the time to put him in. So first super chat is from Chase. Chase. DDP is like the UFC in 2024. Horrible, but on top. Chase, I disagree. I mean, it's a great comment.

And I think primarily you're just making a joke here. it is deeply funny to watch everyone struggle with with who DDP is as a fighter but he's really just like the he's the the er version of like a pretty common thing and it's like oh this dude has a flaw but it doesn't matter like Jack Slack was writing about this the other week

honestly in regard to Umar where Umar has a couple of tendencies that like oh he just kind of like leaves his hands out there and retreats backwards. clip him. And that's not a flaw if no one can take advantage of it. It is, but like, it's not until somebody makes you pay. That's DEP. He has a lot of flaws, but no one's taking advantage of it, so it's fine. Like, he has a built-a-style that's very unique and is working extremely well because of the things he does well. He does really, really well. He is very,

very smart. He's a hoss and he's tough as hell. And he is not just physically tough as hell. He is mentally tough as hell because it is hard to not get like deterred. Izzy was ripping him to the body. Like just digging in with the nasty hooks to the body. It was so good. It was so smart of him because DDP likes the high guard. And and DDP would eat him and a couple of them he would sit back for a second, but then he'd be like, okay, recompose. I am, I am back to doing the thing I want to do. You are not taking him out of what he wants to do. And that is like a lot of fighting.

And he is very, very good at staying committed to how he wants to fight, despite whatever the hell you do to him. He has a little bit of that, what we, I think what you and me love about Yeri, where like pain ain't real. Pain ain't real. Pain, it's snake. He has a lot, like, he and Yeri is one of my dream. I would love that so much.

Oh. Yeah. It would just be the most fun anarchy of all time. And it is so silly, but it really is just him being like, yeah, that hurt, but it's okay. Like, I'll just keep doing it. And that is, it's not like, because you can see him get hurt and get tired. It's not like when you hit Max and Max is still just there. It's like, and that's kind of even more daunting to be like, I hurt that dude.

and he's told me it hurt him and then he's still just in my grill doing this that's fucking exhausting man I think what guys like DDP kind of I love it because like if him and Izzy like some fights you know all these guys fight 10 times

this guy's winning you know 10 out of 10 I'm not sure if DDP's victories his last victories of Whitaker victories over Strickland victories over Izzy I don't think he wins 10 out of 10 I'm not even sure he wins five out of five, but somehow he wins him that night. And that's what matters in this game. You, you, the best version of you shows up that night.

It just needs to be 1% better than the guy across the cage from you. But somehow he's on that role and he's just that 1% better and he wins these fights. And it's, it's very unique to watch. I like it. He is genuinely one of the most unique champions we've had in a very long time. and I hope he puts together a run because I've said this a bunch this week. He is a cross of Yol Romero and Justin Gaci, and those are two of my favorite fighters of all time for very different reasons. And I love this dude.

Like I hope he reigns for a little bit so we can keep having this sort of just absolute absurdity. Like even I implore all of you, go find the clip of the finish. The finish is the ugliest best finish of all time. Like he's throwing the just grimyest right hands as he's running away. They're just like whipping arm punches. Every single one of them lands to a retreating. Is he every one of these things lands. And then Izzy just kind of falls over.

And he immediately just steps into the hooks. And it's over. It's over. Like I was watching it. I didn't even have time to get like excited out or even like I was just like, oh, it's over. Yeah. Did you be one? I was just like, oh.

It was just like, it was so weird. It was such a weird finish because Izzy starts stumbling. Then he gets up and does the max point to the ground thing. And then immediately tries to run away. And then that's when he starts or that's when DDP started throwing the like weird right hands and it all ends. I get it. It was so out of nowhere for it's all in. But, uh, yeah, he's horrible, but he's great.

Yeah. Yeah. Horrible, but on top. Just like this. Thank you, Chase. What I really like about him, Casey, is, and I was talking to Shaheen about this in Slack earlier, he, everybody else's reactions to him is my reactions to Brian Ortega. Or I'm like, he's bad. He is bad. How does he keep winning?

Everybody else feels that way about DDP. And so it makes me feel like, I get this. now you guys understand where I come from. Imagine, yeah, and Ortega was this close away from being featherweight champ too, you know? Yeah, Ortega was extremely close to being featherweight champion. And I was just going to be like, he's bad. What's happening? And there he goes.

This sport makes no sense. The sport makes no sense. It's the best. Hammer Parsa. DDP fights like a gorilla on roller skates. honestly that's actually a fairly good approximation. How are you going to stop a grid and rotor skates? You can't.

How are you going to stop? Not. I'm like, and that's it, man. He's a physical hoss in there. He hits really hard, even if it's ugly.

And that's, that's a really damage. Like, that's a dangerous dude, man. Just, I'm going to charge in. I'll throw,

I'll throw like six punches. One of them will land and you're not going to like it. Because like, Izzy was doing such a good job. of like not retreating in straight lines and pivoting out and dipping and blocking but just like a reckless five punches the last one would get home and then you'd see as he get hit and be like ah shit it's it works you throw enough one of them will land thank you hammer all right uh super chat from a $10 super chat from Stephen Dawson 10 dollar super chat from Stephen Dawson 10 dollar do you do you think we'll see more judges getting pulled for questionable scores like with tie and tair zino and didn't watch hooker and gamrope because closing in my work but hooker seemed like he stole a win uh we talked a lot

about this i don't think we'll see more because they're not going to pull unless it is so egregious that it is truly one of the worst score cards ever authored which this one is um i hope we don't see more because that means we're just letting any jackass uh get in there and judge a fight but But I like the precedents out there now. Yeah. I like that they did it. Yeah. Because ultimately wouldn't have mattered as Kikara France ends up, but I believe he was scheduled to judge the co-main event.

And if if like you know that happened and then, okay, this dude's judging, okay, like buckle up. Let's see how this goes. It would have been very, very bad. So like you said, Casey, I think the precedent being set very good. I doubt we'll see it all that often. And we talked a lot about the hooker-gamer-up fight. It's not stole the win. There's no wrong answer to who won that fight.

Like, how the scoring system works means someone had to win. And I would even suggest that, like, pride rules hooker did win. Under non-pride scoring, I scored it for Gamron, have no issue with how it broke out. Yeah, no problem. What else was I wanted to say about that? Um, just yeah, uh, oh yeah, I want, I want a media, uh, the great website, MMA decisions. And it was actually split 50 50 between the media. That totally makes sense.

Yeah. So I was like, oh, okay. So I like saying I kind of go there. Sometimes I'm like, man, am I, am I just seeing something different? And I looked and say, okay, you know. So. And MMA decisions doesn't obviously track this. I would be willing to bet a whole lot of money that if they went and got the round by round

breakdown of everybody they accumulated. You are crazy too. all over the like it would not be like everybody agrees that this is the swing round every round would be up for grabs they were all very competitive and in different ways you know you're right yeah I didn't even think about that yeah most times you know if a close fight is usually one round three rounds it's a swing it's gone either way yeah yep thank you much it is one of the very few fights at 3027 either way totally fine where do you put this on fight of the yeah on top of your head what do you put this as in terms of fight of the year I think it's top 10

because this year has been fairly weak for fights of the year thus far. Not like a ton of standouts there. And this was a really fun scrap. I don't think ultimately it's going to kind of keep up with some of the other ones. Let me pull up my list of what we're looking at for fight of the year. Along the fight of the year thing, I will also shout out. I know that this is not a grappling podcast and like half the people watching. They don't care.

CGI had a lot of issues and it was fun enough and it was free. Shout out to that, YouTube. The Cade Ritolo, Andrew Tackett, semi-final in the under 80 kilogram, legitimately one of, Casey, did you watch it? Because I was legitimately going to be best. I was watching two things at once, but I was like, oh, my God.

Yeah, it was, I'm a big cave. I saw Cade's match yesterday, and I caught like part 50% of the match. And, yeah, it was an amazing match. Yeah. It will be on my top five, legitimately one of the very best combat sports competitions

of this year. No questions asked. Hooker Gamrod, but kind of looking at this, there's not like a ton of them. Like, I think off the top of my head, Max Gaichi is going to win it. Even though I'm actually not

really sure how good of a fight that is, frankly, like... It's one-sided. It is a... It's less one-sided than I remember when I re-watched it, but also the end is just so iconic that I think that that is going to buoy it up and it's going to win. And I don't really have any issue to that.

But there just haven't been that many good ones is on Porier. Like there's some stuff, but this one could easily saw it in the top five. And I don't think anybody would be wrong for that at this point in time. Yeah. Yeah, no real great standouts this year. Just give me a lot of good fights. Like, Porier BSD is really fun, but it was also seven minutes. So, you know.

Yeah. We had Umar Sanhagen. Yeah, Umar Sanhagen, good fight, but that's one of those that wasn't that fun of a fight, but it was very high level and good. So it'll kind of just depend on your flavor. I would say it's almost certainly in the top 10 right now, though. Yeah. Okay, cool.

All right. But thank you, thank you, Stephen. All right. Thank you, Stephen. We got another one from, I think, a different Stephen. Looks like a different, Stephen. Jed, take your lap, nose job. DDP is a.

thing. Where does he stack up on your hot takes? Also, I think people would agree big Mike heck is the best interview in the game. Respect Ariel, but Mike's McGai. I respect Ariel and I will say that Ariel is the best interview in the game. I love Mike. Mike knows that I love him, but I don't know. It's just Ariel, man. It's nothing wrong with losing to the goat, baby. It's okay. I won't be taking a huge victory lap. I will just continue to love him. But Man, DDP, I've been rocked with DDP somewhat ironically at first because like he is just a deeply funny fighter to me. But also like I love dudes like him. Like I love fighters who care more about winning than they do about losing.

Like that is my favorite part of a fighter. And like at his very core level, that is DDP. He is trying to win a fight. He is never trying not to lose a fight. and I love that. Like, that is my favorite thing in a fighter, and he's got it in spades. That's a great description. I like that.

I like that. I literally just thought, like that just crystallized in my head. You have never watched that dude fight to not lose, which is just, that's like the highest praise I can give somebody. Justin Gaichi is that way, and it's why I love him so. Carlos Condit, that way, loved him so. Casual fan. Jed the goat, the cannonball and the bellyfob and the pool are goaded moments. Used to this like you and you takes now I see the light.

See, DDP wins and everybody just comes around, man. We're going to have more goaded moments. Mike and I were talking about things. When I take over the M.A. hour, we're going to make a lot of things fun, guys. So it won't be this week. You know, we got some time. But when that happens, we're working on a lot of other things, mine scenes, maybe a return of swing rounds.

you know maybe uh maybe some on locations watch party some things are in the works guys so uh keep you be locked here for the coming weeks but i appreciate you casual fan yeah you know and that's one of the thing is i felt i felt way the the fight ended with kind of izzie and ddp kind of with just being a great fight and them kind of showing respect to each other i think yeah lots of respect i felt like it just gave us good vibes coming out of the fight you know And sometimes you don't get that. And yeah, it's just, you know, it's kind of strange. It was.

Yeah, he's just got good vibes from it. Yeah. I was a big, I don't. Please go on. Oh, no. And I said, I just mentioned this earlier. I didn't have that vibe coming into this week. Coming in.

Yeah. Yeah, coming in. Because I thought it was going to get kind of ugly. But it got there a little bit, but didn't go all the way. But actually didn't get ugly, really. It just got like, they just got at each other. But it wasn't like, oh, I'm. this is this is latently racist in a way that's tough like it it may be touched on it but it wasn't there

so it was fine uh i don't give a shit about them making up and being friends like that's just never a thing that i care about i didn't i enjoyed that it clearly it meant like winning and losing means something to them both but neither man felt defined by these actions in their post fight and like izzie was pretty cool with it was like yeah man like i lost props to him for being meeting me and I don't think they're going to be like best friends but it you know they they were adult about stuff afterwards I just love when fighters are adults yeah I don't need you to be best buds and put your beef behind you but if you could just be adults that's great yeah all right thank you much super chat from Stephen Stephen Stephen Dean Thomas on ESPN saying is he looked bad GTF

Oh, I didn't hear him say that. I did he? I did. Yeah, he can't. Yeah. I heard it make like a crack about DDP, but I didn't hear him say that. Dean, Dean was kind of, he thought, he thought it was going to be a pretty confident, pretty one-sided victory for Izzy. So he was just really, he just thought Izzy didn't look good.

Stuck in his priors. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Just thought it's just, so Izzy just didn't look good and that he stuck by. He said, credit DEP showed up, but he said, this is, he said, he just, he sounded more I get disappointed dad. He said he had a year away and I expected more from him. No, he's a coach. I get it.

No, it's his opinion. I'm not hating on it. I would just firmly disagree. I was very, was we talked about it in BTL and the preview show. I thought there was a real chance that this fight would be miserable to watch because Izzy was so bad. against Strickland and not just bad against Strickland, which I think you could ascribe to he got hurt early and never recovered. But also he has been over the past several years just more timid in fights. He has been less willing to engage, to open up. He has fought not to lose so often that

he has retreated and rescinded in some ways. And I thought coming off a loss like that, man, And if he just keeps, if this is just a slope that he is going down, this fight might be a terrible watch. He didn't fight like that at all. I thought he looked really, really, he looked as good as I could have imagined him looking, frankly, not perfect. And certainly as the fight went on and he got more tired, you know, a couple of bad habits broke out. But yeah, I just firmly disagree with Dean Thomas.

I thought he looked really good. and it's just that DDP is really, really good, man, and no one can see it. Yeah, I think, I think Thomas just put a little bit unrealistic expectations on Izzy coming out of this. Because like I said, Izzy's 35, 140 plus fights. Izzy's a human, you know, we've seen him. He's a human. He cries. You know, he's got emotions.

He's got a life, you know, and just, and we're just watching him for these 25 minutes. And, yeah, and just, you know, it's time. You know, not time for them retire, but it's just, you know. You can't stay at the top forever. You can't. 144 fights or whatever is just. There's so many fights. It's so many fights.

Left lane. Pretus is a problem. A lot of guys going to be shooting. Man, that's true. It's really, really true. Like, I thought he could be good. I didn't think he was going to be this good. this quickly.

Just kind of all finishes in the UFC at this point. Casey, I think it looks to me like Prattis is going to get a ranked dude next because growing in popularity, if you just come out and you knock out your first three dudes in the UFC, all of them this year, by the way, just so we're clear, there are a lot of good contenders. Carlos Prattis is going to be in the rookie of the year list for 2024 for us. and I would say that he is still behind Silva, Gene Silva, to me, as our rookie of the year, hands down right now, but Protest is making it a race, maybe.

Looking at the bottom of the top 15 right now for well to wait, you got Kevin Holland, who is now booked, you got MVP, you got Vicente Lucke, who was booked, fell out, Neil Magny, and Walking Buckley, who is now booked against Stephen Thompson, And Jeff Neal is number 10. Any of those float your boat for a protest matchup? Let's do the classic Magny. If you want to get, if you want to do the Magnet Keeper fight.

Gate Keep test. Yeah. I, uh, it's a go to. I want Vicente Lucke. I, because that fight would be fun. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, the Magnet fight might not be fun, but as far as just testing him to see if he's truly a problem. I think, no, Magnus guy the UFC puts out there.

So I would go Magni. I think it's time for that. But if you want to go fun, yeah, go Lucke. Also, shout out to the camp because fighting nerds, they're just, I mean, they got the, they have two of the best dudes this year in Gene Silva and Carlos Protest and Kyle Borallio, you know, I'm still cooking right now. Like, that camp kind of broke out out of nowhere. and they are making things happen for them.

So big, big shouts to fighting nerds. All right. A couple more super chats. $10 super chat from our friend Spencer. Spencer Ruda Minor. Jed, moving up in the world. First new M.

Our host and now on a UFC pay-per-view. I know, right? Like, I'm just taking over. I'm going to be a very different vibe on the M.M.A. hour, guys. So, Settling. Professionalism, out the door. We don't care about that anymore.

DDP, great trash talker, set up fights with Sean, Rob and Alex at the Presser and beats these guys with indomitable Will became a fan this week. Been seeing a lot of that on Twitter, a lot in the comments, Casey. Right here. I think, yeah, I mean, from you, I think I do not believe you are alone this week because I can totally see how the win over Strickland that many people don't even agree with. Maybe that doesn't get you over in the way that you want, but it seems like people are really coming around. Not everyone. Certainly some people are still going to be there, but it feels like this was a big weekend for Drickus Duplice as far as kind of growing his star power, et cetera. Yes.

And I think from our predictions for champs this year, the whole staff, I don't think anyone had DDP, correct? They didn't. and I am astonished that I didn't have him. I don't know why I picked Chimae of, but I did. I can't remember back to January when we did those, but when Guy put that in our slack today, and I was like,

that can't be right. There's no way I didn't pick DDP is my boy. And damn sure I didn't. I don't know what I was thinking. I think, I mean, I picked Izzy to get it back, but good try.

But yeah, DDP, man. He's the man now. He's doing it. Pretty likely he's going to end the year as champ. too. Yep. Yep.

And one more super chat from... Thank you, Spencer. Don't thank you, Mike. Thanks, Spencer again. One more from Spencer. Still thank you, Spencer. Spencer, Runeiter. Loving the Jed Casey combo.

Completely agree with your guys analysis on Izzy. Look good, bit older. Got to hear a breakdown of Poeton versus DDP boys. Fun fight thinking Alex, but not sure. So I mentioned this at the top of the show, Casey. Right after Alex Pereira.

Always the man who knows how to build fights, make sure things are happening. tweets out a photo of the fight that he was watching, saying, I got one more trip to 185 in me. Obviously, that won't happen next. Pereira is somewhat surprised, not even somewhat, extremely surprisingly facing Clil Roundtree later this year.

And in the post-show or in the post-press conference, DDP kind of even downplayed it at the moment saying he's got stuff to handle. I got to defend my belt a couple times. And frankly, I'd rather go up to 205 to fight him. which, you know, makes sense. Of course, he would want to do that. But let's say they happen. Let's say this fight gets booked somehow.

Kaleo Rountry falls out. They decided we're going to do this full-steam-head. How do you see DDP versus Pereira going? At what, at 205? Let's call it at 185, but I think it, you know what? Do both. If you think the weight's going to make a difference, let us know. Honestly, I feel at 185, D.

DDP does have a good chance to be Poeton at 185. I just don't think a proton's got the enough fluid in his brain from that big weight cut that he will get hit in the head a lot. And I'm excited to see the fight. I think 205, I think 205 will be an issue for DDP though. I don't want to see them. I don't want to see it at 205, honestly. 185 though, I am very interested.

And the great thing about Axe Pereira, honestly, if he gets through Roundtree, a potential fight versus the winner of DDP and Strickland 2 would be awesome either way. If Strickland's a champ, then a rematch of Poeton. And if DDP's a champ, you know, whatever. This this Magamette Ancalae of Eracier will not stand. Who is that? You say that name. I've never heard of it.

He's fighting Alexander Rackich later this year. I totally agree with you. I think a 205 is a real trouble for DDP. I think I might even still pick Pereira at 185, but DDP has a much better chance. Just a much better job. Yeah, I still pick Pereira both ways, but obviously a much better chance at 185 because you just, I don't think. I'm not sure. I don't know if I'd pick them at 185.

Let's see even the taking the shots just to like being fully recomp, like really back up to strength to defend takedowns because all that, yeah. I believe DDP is a very durable man. I don't believe people can get hit by, like clean by Pereira. And if DDP doesn't immediately dive on the legs and get a take down, he's going to get hit. And I think he'll die. So I would pick Pereira at light heavyweight for sure. I think he would be compromised enough that I would pick DDP, but I wouldn't feel confident in it. Great question, though, Spencer.

Thank you. Thank you, I honestly, I want to see. that fight. The fight I want to see the most is I want DDP versus Yeri. I want that. That's now in my top six fights that I would like to be booked. But I would love for us to see DDP Pereira at one time if it makes sense, you know? If it makes sense, yeah. I want to see Yeri win a fight at 85 before obviously throwing him into a title shot. Yeah. Just to be weird. Yeri versus Izzy. If Yere beats Izzy, do it. Just make me the happiest person alive. Oh, man.

Yerry versus freaking DDP would be so fun, boys. It'd be so fun. All right. Two quick more super chats before we get out of here. Boom. Love that for us. Casual fan. Pointing at the ground and running is the best.

Yeah. Yeah. Izzy's catching in the teeth a little bit on the old Twitter machine right now for legitimately there's a post out being like, Izzy does the Max Holloway point at the ground? and gets submitted 17 seconds later because he immediately just starts moving away, trips over, gets tapped.

Like it is, it was very weird. I don't, I missed a little bit of Izzy's post-presser, so maybe he got asked about it. I'm unsure, but it didn't seem like anybody was like, hey, did you get hurt in there? Like, what, because he put it off on, I made a mistake and let him go to the gable grip on the choke, which sure, that was the last of the mistakes that was made there.

there were others beforehand that I didn't see him talk about and I don't know if he ever did or if anyone followed up but yeah that's not that's not that's specifically yeah no yeah very very weird image like let's do the max thing after he gets tagged all right let's stand and bang never mind oh we're actually going to do it I was just joking right I thought I just wanted the cool photo and I don't know we're going to do this shit all right And our very last super chat

before we go to sleep. Can you both give early thoughts on the full UFC 307 card? Thanks to left lane, we certainly can, but I got to pull up 307. So this is the card that was announced this week. It is the Salt Lake City, Utah card. Alex Pereira, as we mentioned,

taking him Cleo Roundtree Jr. A very weird fight that I'm super into because I was calling for that fight like two years ago. I love that fight a lot, even if it makes no sense. It's deeply undeserved. I still think it will be fun.

Co-main event we've known about for some time, though it did get officialized. Rocco Pinnionton defending her Bantamweight Belt against Juliana Pena. Announced this week, Stephen Wonderboy Thompson taking on Joaquin Buckley. I think this has previously been announced, Josaldo, Mario Battista. Weird fight, don't understand it. Roman DeLie taking on Kevin Holland, that one got put together a little bit slapdash there. Al Jermaine Sterling, Mopsar, Evluav, we already knew that was happening. Kelon Vieira, Kayla Harrison, again, a fight we knew was happening.

So, Casey, early thoughts on the full, there are a couple of other fights, but this is the Carlos Parja retirement fight. I get teaching Pinnington is there. And a couple of other fights rumored and or associated, but they aren't significant compared to the ones we've spoken about. So how do you think Salt Lake City is shaping up here? Man, that's so weird. It's, man, I don't know.

Honestly, it's like, it's weird, but I like it. Yeah, yeah, I do like it. It just doesn't seem right. Like, like, Roundtree just shouldn't be in that title fight, but if yeah, that's going to be an awesome fight. I get, I mean, it's going to be super duper. Huh? Yeah. No, I'm super pumped for it.

But like, but also like, man, the title should mean something. Just not because it's going to be cool, but I guess, I guess, I guess. read that maybe maybe i don't know i don't know i don't know oh man um auto batista like why it's really weird that that's the only fight that i'm like i don't care for this i just think it's very weird well i don't why isn't harrison in a title fight why is because they have to give the pain yeah i don't get it well i i don't know why harrison's taking another fight other than f it let's do it maybe they want to see or make 135 again just to you just to do it.

But yeah, it's kind of, I think it is the, we already had the Pena plan. Then Harrison came in afterwards and we're just, we're staying the course for the plan we had mapped out previously, which I think is a little bit silly, but it doesn't matter that much. It's fine. Yeah, I just, I just think that's weird. Yeah, just weird. I mean, the most are.

Several weird matchup here. Yeah, this is a lot of weird matchups, but a lot of really talented fighters and weird matchups. So yeah, UFC 307, Salt Lake City. It is a, we will think of this as the fight card that was not deserved, which is okay as long as the fights deliver, because

Payne doesn't deserve a title fight, like, by literally any definition, she has no wins over actively employed UFSI fighters and hasn't fought for a lifetime and it just doesn't deserve this, but clear round tree obviously doesn't deserve it. That fight at least will probably be fun.

Buckley Thompson is fine, but like nobody's pumped about it, but good matchup. The Batista Aldo fight is the one that is the real head scratcher to me. I just don't know what we're doing with Jose Alto there. Delizze Holland is whatever. Aljo Evel is a very good fight and the winner of that will fight for a belt. So I'm behind that. That's like the one fight that one like non-title fight that kind of just really makes sense. It makes total sense.

Yeah, okay. Total sense. Yeah. Easy. Mvierre Harrison, a little bit. weird but again i i would like to see harrison you know fight at 135 again uh and you know make the way she can do it twice she can do it forever and uh yeah so i think it's going to be a card we're very excited about because alex preera is fighting and alice perrera has earned the privilege of

if he is fighting we are tuning in and we're pumped about it and uh so yeah i like it real quick what happens if round tree boops alex so very possible clear roundtree is the glory killer. That's why I originally pitched this fight, I legitimately think, two years ago, because Cleo Rountry has beaten basically all the glory kickboxing people in the UFC. He is undefeated against former glory kickboxers, and now he gets the end boss of him. It is the funniest thing since Sean Strickland beating the brakes off of Izzy, because he probably isn't like the seventh best light heavy weight in the world realistically, but he will be a clean and deserving champion and it'll be anarchy.

Like, I don't know what happens after there, but it would be incredibly funny if out of, when this fight got announced, I was talking to, I think Mike, and I was like, man, we got to come up with a new category because like we do breakout fight of the year and fighter of the year. And Cleo Roundtree of V knocks out prayer, won't be fighter of the year. But he deserves a special category. Same way as Sean Strzland is of what the F moment. Like, how did this happen?

Nobody would have ever bet Cleo O'Roura Rountry to be the champion. And he's got a 50-50 shot at it right now. So it'll be awesome if he does it. Can't Pereira be fighter of the year if he loses the roundtree? No. I don't, I do not believe Pereira will be fighter of the year anyway. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, well, yeah.

I am deeply confident that the winner of Ilya Taboria versus Max Hall, will be fighter of the year. Because it's either Max did what he did to Gagy at 300 and then reclaim the belt in this unbelievable story or Ilya beat Volk and Max in the same year. And if he does that and you don't pick him, I'll fight you. That's an unbelievable run. So I believe that is just straight up the winner of fighter of the year. Yeah.

I think that's a fight. We've all agreed that's the most anticipated fight for the rest of the year. Without a doubt. Yeah. I think very easily the most anticipated. Spade for the rest of the year. Casey, is that it? Do we have any more super chats?

Are we out of here? Because it's 5 a.m. where I'm at, and I still have things to do. And I have to wake up to work in the morning. So, who-hoo. I don't know how Mike does this. Every pay-per-view, credit to him. But he's on a plane somewhere.

Not yet, but in a moment. But guys, that's the UFC 305. Thanks for sticking around with us. You got 1,200 people here at the wee hours in the morning, talking about 80s. and the rest of these shenanigans. We love you for being here. Stick around.

We got a lot coming. We will have Otno. I will be on Otno this week because Alexander Lee is on vacation. Congrats AK. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. All day is not going to be tomorrow, though. We're probably going to do it Monday.

New rankings update coming out tomorrow and or Monday plus a ranking show next week, I believe. A lot of things coming. And then, of course, I'll be taking over the May hour very soon. Congratulations. Everybody should be very excited about that. I appreciate you. Until then, next to your name, love y'all.

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