MMA Fighting - UFC 310 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Pantoja's Nasty Submission, Rakhmonov's Grueling Win

Episode Date: December 8, 2024

MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to Alexandre Pantoja's incredible submission win over Kai Asakura to retain the flyweight title, Shavkat Rakhmonov's hard fought decision win over Ian Machado Garry, and more from UFC 310. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody. We don't have the victory horns, but we get the victory drums. Yes, following UFC 310, and the drums, they sound, they snare, if you will, for Alexandra Pantosia still the UFC Flyway Champion of the world. They also sound for Shafcott Rachmanoff, who, for the first time in his career, was truly, truly tested, went to the scorecards for the first time in his career. But ultimately gets the win over Ian Machado Gary.

And he keeps... Still undefeated. Still undefeated. Still undefeated, Shafkaa Rakhmanoff. Ian Machado Gary comes through with an impressive outing of his own, if we're being honest. But we welcome you to the UFC 310 post-fight show. I am Mike Keck, that is Jed Bishu, out of the holiday garb into the post-fight show garb. And Jed, let's talk about it. We hyped this card up quite a bit heading into it.

We said that on paper, this was one of the better offerings that, the UFC could put together when we talk about depth from fight one to fight 14 in the end after pantosia just did the thing and it was a fun fight with ascicard he looked absolutely fantastic in it what do you grade the card as a whole it's a really good question um it's a rock solid B right like and it'll depend on the metrics you want to go with like this is not going to do well on pay-per-view um if you are like an on the fence sort of fan like you're not locked in, locked in. You may feel a little, some sort of a way with how the main card unfolded.

A couple of, you know, the, the flat earther bowl was pretty lame. Until the end, the finish was cool. The opening Friday of the evening was fun, but not as fun as certainly probably got built up to be. The co-mate event was obviously high level. I know Casey was a big fan. I enjoyed it, but I'm not going to lie to you guys to say. I'm going to go watch that three times a year or whatever. Like that fight had a lot of nothing happening for big stretches.

So I thought we got good outcomes. I thought we largely got the outcomes the UFC would have wanted promotionally. We got some good setups. It's really set up a lot of cool things. And it was fine, totally fine. And top to bottom, like if you're factoring in the totality of it, pretty good. Like the undercard, very, very nice for the most part. Yeah, it was very, it was very.

fun and then there were some really sad moments the wideman fight the anthony smith fight you know the results were not great but you know we get to the main card and i think the expectation we kind of put on him because of some of the fights on paper we're sort of almost unfair but we got us we got to start with pantosia because we noticed it from the moment we saw him on camera when many men played the 50 cent jam he just had this look in his eyes and you're just like oh boy this man is locked in and then even when he got into the octagon he's sitting there sort of skipping around and moving around and he said something asakura that he came in hot yeah he came in just hot and then during the phase off he is just like tractor beam all like he would it is as focused as

i've ever seen pantosia he came to set the tone set a message and did from the opening bell and he just went in there and punched kaias kura right in the face as hard as he could Asakura throws the jumping knee, seeing it on the replay, he landed it as flush as you possibly could. And Pantosia just ate it. So like, all right, cool. Caught the leg, took him down. And then it was sort of rinse and repeat. I'm just going to annihilate this guy.

He beat him in every facet of the fight. And I know Pantosia's had some great wins and great performances. This has to be the best performance of his career. Was it not? I mean, to me, this was, this is essentially a bantam weight. who you even said heading in and others were saying this as well the vibes were totally with kai and if you told me that hey pantosia is going to go out there and finish him but he's also going to beat the hell out of him on the feast i don't think a lot of people would have believed me so

to me this is the best fantoja performance and maybe it's prisoner of the moan maybe it's not but this is the one i'll remember the most i think you can certainly make an argument for it um the first Roy Val when I think I would still put that just like oh Pantosha hasn't fought for the belt yet like is he ever going to get to do it and it's like oh yeah I'm I'm kill him in 90 seconds or whatever it was just ran over him um and a little part of that is that we know how good brandonovall is we all think kaiosikur is very good at this weight class we know at bantamweight he's been competitive but we haven't seen him fight it this is his first fight at flyweight at flyweight since 2017.

So while we're a little bit of this is projection, it wouldn't entirely, like, I think he's going to have a successful career here. But since we do know Brandon Reval, I'll take that first Brandon Reval over this. But, you know, Joe Rogan said in the post fight, you're getting better. And I think that's pretty clear.

It's the best he looks striking ever. And Pantosha has never looked bad on the feet, but he is not super defensively sound historically, and he can be a bit reckless. And he charged in, but, I mean, he looked so dialed in in every facet here. I don't think there was a person that weighs 125 pounds on the planet that was beating him tonight. And unfortunately, for Kai Saqura, he was the one task with that. It was an outstanding performance.

And apparently, and I didn't hear this, but apparently social media is buzzing about this. I interviewed Pantosia, I think the very next, actually it was the same day we found out of Muhammad was out of the fight. Once that was out there and everybody knew about it, I talked to Pantosia and he was like, let me be the main event. I want to fight this guy. It's going to be great.

Very end of that conversation, I was like, you know, since you were, since you won the belt and started defending it, once Demetrius Johnson retired, one of my first thoughts, like, man, Pantosia versus DJ would have been a crazy fight.

And his response was, well, he retired from one so the UFC could just bring him back and we could still fight. He goes, I really want to fight him. It's a dream fight. But if I just at least get to train with him,

that's something. So I guess he's being cool there. And then he called out DJ. He goes, hey, you want to see, let's do go first. Let's do number one versus number two, all time fly weights,

because I think Pantoja certainly is the guy being the second best flyweight of all time. What do you think of the, is this doing the thing? Totally. We missed it in the live thing. I, at least I certainly did. I think this was the best thing he could have done.

I don't think he's going to get it, right? Like, I don't think DJ, basically you hear DJ talk. He is, he rides the line between not being disrespectful to the UFC in his time there, but also making it pretty clear that he not feel that he was entirely treated well, that he has no regrets about leaving the organization, that he thinks that it was the best thing that could have happened in his career. And really does not seem at all interested in, doing business with the U.S. in the future.

So I think it's extremely unlikely it happens for that reason. Also, I don't think that like retiring from one, I think the USC would probably have to make something happen to even get him back. Maybe not. I don't really know what the contract is. There's a world where he was expiring and could leave,

but it's unlikely to happen. But there's no one for him to call out. The only options that Pantosia has because there's not another contender for him is the issue. He's beating them all and he may have to fight them again because that's the job of the champions to just keep defending. But there, why call out Brandon Revolve? Like, why call

up Brandon Moreno? Like, you already beat him. You beat, you beat Moreno three times. You be Revolved twice. It would be silly to call them out. The only other option he really has is reach outside of the USC. I think I would love to see him fight Keoggi or Gucci, but that's also a weird thing to really call for in his circumstance. And the, you know, only thing else is to call to fight Marab, but obviously he can't fight Marab. The Bannon Weight title picture is a mess. I'm glad he didn't. You know my feelings on the whole champ champ thing. But like that's that's the only call out he has left to him at this point except for, and I wouldn't have even thought of it, frankly, the DJ one. Because if it does happen,

great. If not, like, that's who you're aspiring to when you're him. Not to fight dudes I've already beaten. I'll do it if I have to, but you know, that's a big fight against an all-time great. Like that I think it is exactly right. And which is no surprise because the man is extremely good at his job in all facets of it. So shouts

the pants, terrific performance. The exact quote was, I'm the goaten here. If you want to prove you're the goat, come back. Love it. Short, simple, to the point. Probably not going to happen, but who cares? I mean, so the

other thing that I think he could have done, which would have been a little weird, but he could have called out Figgy. And like, hey, last guy who beat me is Davis and Figuerado. He just, you know, he was up doing great work at Bannon Waite. He fell short. Come back down. I want a chance to avenge that loss. If you can still make the weight, let's run it back.

You could have maybe done that and that wouldn't be terrible either. But like, I think calling out DJ is pretty, pretty solid. I got no issues with him. Yeah, and Pantosia is just going to fight whoever they put in front of him. So, Kaiskura, not a fun dude all week. UFC did a great job putting him over and promoting him and at least introducing him to the audience. And the swagger he had when he walked to the Octagon, the vibes are shifting in a lot of respects. But this is not competitive anyway.

This is a, this is one-way traffic from Pantosia. So the question I have for you, Jed, was this the last time, we will see Kai Asakura fight in the UFC flyweight division. No, I don't think so. You think he stays there? Do you don't think? I think no chance he moves up. I mean,

he could, but why not run it back? Like you lost to the best dude. That's okay. Like, Pantoja is 35, like maybe 34. He's not going to be around that much longer,

just historically speaking. He would be an enormous outlier to maintain the belt for another couple of years. I thought he would have trouble making the weight. It does not seem he did. He didn't look that bad on the scale even. He seemed to me he got massive. That would be a pretty big weight advantage for him moving forward. So if I'm on his corner, I'd say at least run one more.

Let's see, you know, pick a dude out of a hat, whoever it's going to be. If the UFC does go to Japan somehow next year and they want to do Kaiusikour versus Tetsuotira, you know, in Saitama, cool. Like whoever it is, it really doesn't matter. Why not run one more and see? If you lose then, you know, you think you lost because the weight cuts too much, your chin isn't holding up, your cardio isn't there. But those aren't the reasons he, he did not lose because he got took to deep water and his cardio suffered. He didn't lose because he got jawed because he cut too much weight. He just lost to a guy who was better at fighting than him.

So, you know, I would say run it one more. See where you go. Because I think he will have a successful career if he sticks around. Yeah, I mean, Kaius Kerr versus Brandon Marino's fun. Kaiuskir versus Brandon Roy Val is fun. Kaius Kerr-France is fun. The list goes on and on. Minnell Kopp wins next week.

Kaius Kerr versus Minnell Kopp 2. A little run back in the UFC. Actually, isn't that three? Oh, three? Is it three? I'm not 100%. I want to say that that's three, but I'd have to look that up. I think you're right.

You might actually be right. But either way, I remember the second fight, and it was fun. And then cop did cop things, at least back. then. So we'll see what happens with Kaya Sukkur. We'll see what happens to the Alexander Pantosha. We know what's happening with Shafat Gott Rahmanoff. He is going to fight Bala Muhammad for the UFC Walter Way championship. And that fight is a little spicy. If you believe Bala Muhammad, who said at the Hall, not the Hall of Fame, the World M.A Awards red carpet that he is cleared and ready to get back into the gym and start training again. I don't know

if that's true or not. Because just based on like conversations I've had and like, how bad this infection actually was, but perhaps he is just a doctor, but I looked at that photo, and it's the most disgusting thing I've seen all year. It looks real bad, but maybe like April, May we get this fight cooking,

but Shafcock goes in there. He beats Ian Gary, who is a huge favorite to do so, but Ian Gary showed a lot of gusto, showed terrific takedown defense, great grappling. Sure, he did get taken down at certain points, paid for it a little bit,

but for the most part, this is a solid showing from Ian Machado, Gary, who was supposed to fight walking buckley next Saturday and a fight he probably would have won convincingly, at least on paper, who knows what can happen in the fist fight. But Shafcock gets it done, gets tested 48, 47 across the board. How are we grading Shafkat Rakmanov's performance tonight in this victory? Well, so would be.

I get, I don't, you don't really want to take too much away from him because you can't judge him by the standards of, well, you've finished everybody else. because that is just an outlandish, like, standard to hold someone to is that you are going to finish everybody you fight. Nobody doing it 18 times in a row is insane. Like, that is nobody's ever going to do that again. So it's ridiculous to be like, well, he didn't finish me sucks.

Same time, certainly the most cautious, I think we've ever seen him. Very tepid. I don't know if that was because it was the first time he's going to fight five. So I want to make sure he had the gas tank. it's down the stretch. He certainly did open up the throttle a little more in the championship rounds. We saw Realm 4, round 5. He came out and pushed the pace a little bit more.

So maybe it was just a management thing. Maybe, you know, he had an injury. We'll find out if any of those sorts of things. But, and look, during the watch party, did nothing but give Ian Gary credit. I think even Chado Gary put on a terrific performance, super prepared for the clench work, et cetera. you got to give Gary a lot of credit for making that fight hard on Chavcott.

At the same time, you know, he won 48, 47 and all three scorecards on our scorecards as well. I thought it was pretty straightforward. But he did not win two of those rounds by a large margin. You know, like he slightly edged out the first two rounds and that was enough to win the fight as a result. I think even he would say not his best performance. So I do think after watching it, uh, there's a good. good argument that Michado Gary may be one of the more difficult matchups for how Shropkaat wants to fight, particularly what we saw from the clinch work there. And so, you know, maybe give him a

little credit there. But solid B, he gets a passing grade. Most important thing was that he got the win, uh, A for the post fight, not like that he did something amazing, but, you know, the UFC wasn't going to bring Ballal in. He said, hey, Belaw, get on in here. And Ballal comes in. They get to do the face off, set up the fight, like, that is just a rock solid performance that doesn't dazzle anybody. Yeah. This is a dude who put his title shot on the line and did enough to keep the title shot. Like he won.

And Eat Gary's very good. Like, he is very, very good at this. Probably one of the five best welter weights in the world. Yes. And on paper right now, this is the best win of Shopcott-Rachmanov's career. Certainly is. In terms of name value and where guys. or ranked and all that.

Like, I think we needed to see this. To the future of this division, the next two guys that are going to take this thing over, fight each other a little earlier than the UFC probably would have wanted them to, but they went in there, fought their asses off, and Shafkat wins. And now he's going to fight Bilal Muhammad. Does the performance change anything for you in terms of how you view the fight?

Because I think you've been pretty confident since Shafcott tapped Wonderboy. And when Belaw won the belt, you're just like, yeah, Schofcard is going to cook this man. And it's not even going to be very competitive. Do you still feel the same? I still largely feel the same. Maybe slightly less confident. I'll also just add to the previous point,

just you mentioned it. I think in hindsight, we give this outside of the night of when we're thinking about the fight, people will just remember, oh, shopcott did not have to fight this fight. And he will get the credit for putting a title fight on the line. line because he could have just waited to fight Balal in April and done it.

So he'll get that. I think he's going to win. I'm still going to pick him to win. I think it is less likely than I previously thought. I still think it's going to happen. Stiles make fights. I think I'm Machado Garrier is a more difficult style than Bala Mohammed. You saw them in the face off. And Machado Gary is bigger than

Chavkat. He is an enormous welterweight. Chavokot is pretty clearly a bigger human being than Bala. The way B'all fights. Like, I think Shofcott just has nothing to really be worried about on the feet with Bollollall.

But if the reason Shafcott was so kind of conservative is that he was trying to manage his gas tank as the fight went on, particularly in extended grappling exchanges like he was getting into, then, I mean, we know what Balaamah's about. Like, that's okay. Suddenly the championship rounds, if we get there, are very, very interesting with Bolaahman, and how he gets down.

So I would say that I'm, you know, I think Ball is a better shot now than I thought he previously did. I still think that ultimately, Luke Thomas said it on BTL this week, and I've said it a bunch in various matchups. Ball Muhammad does not finish fights, and it is very, very difficult to consistently win over 25 minutes,

especially in a fight against a dynamic finisher, like Schofkat. It can be done, but it is just much harder to assist. essentially play perfect for 25 minutes. And there is no real threat that Bala will get him out of there earlier. So I will still favor Shavkov. But it is the fight that must happen.

There is no more nonsense talk about Kumar Usman, which is great. We're getting this. It is just meritocratic and awesome. And I'm very excited to see it. I mean, it would be a quick turnaround, Mike, obviously. If they did it in March, I think they probably won't. I think we're probably looking April. would be my guess, maybe even a little later.

But if we go 311, which has Islam Umar, uh, title fights, 312, which tonight got announced as the Jekis D.D as the DDP, uh, as the DDP, Strickland 2 and Wiley Zhang Tatiana Suarez. And then into 313, I guess it would be is like, that's a pretty damn good slate to start the year, man. Maybe you get Valentina in there. Sure. Just throw title fights on everything.

I don't know at the time I was going to work out for March. That would be a bit quick, certainly for sure I've got to turn around. But if it did, that'd be cool. And even if, you know, 313,

something else, you know, I'll say Pereira, I'll say Pereira, I'll fight at some point. We do that. And then at 3.14, 2025,

starting a hot. Oh, yeah, there's a lot of fun things happening. By the way, Demetius Johnson, respond to the call out, says,

guys, I got offered $2 million to fight. I turned it down. I don't care to fight anymore. YouTube video dropping. soon. I mean, just great promotion right there. This guy understands the biz. But still, I think it was a good call out. It was a good call out. There's nobody else to call out. There's nobody else to call out.

We'll call back. I'll call back. Nonsense. Last thing on, I mean, Ian Gary, I will get to Ian in a second. But last thing about Chafcott in particular, if you're Kamar who's been watching this fight and how this played out, are you like, son of a bitch, I should have taken this? Yes. And he should have done it anyways i think he's insane for not taking it it's not because i don't think chris to not take that fight i don't because his his road back to a title just got so much longer by not taking that fight and after seeing how this fight played out i think kamar wasman's pissing himself for not taking it yeah i think kamar isman uh needs to uh start making callouts to i'm a chado gary like hey because he has to

fight somebody yeah he should be like hey man i i i'm let's go like like you're You lost, but I was super impressed. You didn't lose anything in my eyes. Let's fight. Because I think he's just like, okay, I can, I could have been very competitive in that fight. I could have won that fight. I think I had a chance to win that fight.

And if he does, I mean, a huge feather in his cap. He's immediately fighting for the belt again. Now there are a couple dudes in front of him. And I don't think he's, I don't think he's that close to a title fight. He's not that far away, but I don't think. think he is necessarily locked into getting one next year he's going to need at least one win if not to oh yeah he and earlier this year like when we're having this conversation i was like just fight anybody now it's not even now it's not even like that because of this whole situation now he's he's kind of

screwed himself by not taking this fight because shop got's going to get a title shot eing gary loses nothing and if we are to believe what he and gary says that they offered him oosman and oosman turned it down for the Tampa card because he's being strategic. Gary is ahead of Usman in this conversation just for doing the UFC a solid. Not to mention Colby Covington, who isn't fond of a year, is about to, who steps in to help the UFC and save a main event, whether you like him or not, he beats Joachim Buckley. He's ahead of Kamara Usman right now, which is crazy to think about it. If walking Buckley beats Colby Covington, who is a popular star like he's there, and I know

that nobody cares about him and I don't either I want to be very clear when I say this Leon Edwards is going to fight in March when they go to London is basically the talk and whoever's going to fight you know it might be Sean Brady I don't know he's got two wins over Camaro so if he wins

he is also in front like Camaro is quickly running out of dudes to fight so he needs to get one because if Leon's like hey I'll fight Ian Gary let's do it in England I got maybe it doesn't happen maybe the lamb fights or whatever while I was running out of real estate here.

And I can't blame him. I don't know his injury situation. It's tough to cut the weight short notice. But I think he should have tried hell or high water to get in there. And he is probably regretting that right now. Yep, 100%. And that road back is going to be a tough one for him. Unless, like, somehow it's heating up.

Yep. Walter weight is heating up. Ian Gary, like, I think we're both in agreement. Didn't lose a whole lot here. He's probably still in line for a big fight. what that is. I think we have to wait and at least see how next weekend goes

with Buckley and Covington and see how the pieces sort of fall, but I don't think Gary loses a whole bunch from this loss for stepping in and having a performance like he had. Rest of the main card, we had Cyril Gahn and Alexander Volkov.

Robbery. Thieving. The fight is just ridiculous. It's one of the sillier fights you'll see. Yes. Speaking of silly, Bryce Mitchell, knocks out

the silliest with a slam and then a couple of elbows. Yeah, that's a fight that occurred. That's a fight that happened. A fight occurred there and it featured those two guys.

And then we had Du Ho Choi with the best performance of his career. He just nuked up Nate Landware until he just did it and there's a mercy stoppage gets the TKO win

and Du Ho Choi is now a fun player at 145 pounds. So before we go of the peep shed outside of the main and the co-main and some of the wacky stories that we had how will you remember this card whose performance shine brightest for you that when we look back on this card six months from now he goes oh yeah that's the card where this happened oh so outside of the main and co-main this is not the answer anybody wants to hear but it is the truthful answer i'll give you like the better answer and i'll give you the truthful the truthful answer is the

thing I will remember is that Alexander Volkov came out in Cornrose which is the dumbest thing I've ever seen the man has luscious locks beautiful hair like he got over in his last fight because fighting Sergei Frickin Pavlovich

the murderer himself he's just in the corner in between rounds getting a part put in like co and there's just cool as this other side of the pillow and they're like what if we get rid of all this good will by corn rowing this dude up like your eye a favor. It was

ridiculous. And then one gets busted out and he's fighting with like half of his hair. It was insane. I thought he won, but not a robbery, like competitive fight. That is like the thing I remember is when Alexander Volkov lost his mind and got coronerose and then

had a very fun, very silly fight. I think the best answer, well, the best answer is a fight I can't speak to because I actually still haven't seen it. I did not see the mob, so I have a Valjo fight, but I here that it was a great fight. Eve Love's now 19-0, probably deserves

a title shot. I'll let you speak to that. Very good fight. I will say the thing that I'll think about probably outside of that kind of context is a couple of sad ones tonight and seems like maybe a couple of retirements for Anthony

Smith and for Chris Wyden maybe not. Anthony Smith was reticent to commit to that into the cage, which I get. He just went through a personal tragedy So we don't need to force it to them, but it sounds like Dana White may be trying to retire them based on kind of their performances. And Claygwita from what I understand. Well, Claygwita, fake retired like three times. So I think Dana's probably ready for him to be done.

But yes, also Claygwita is turning 43 tomorrow. On the East Coast. On the East Coast, he is technically. Cleggwita is 43 today. Maybe he's 44, actually. I'm not entirely sure. so a couple of retirements and they were all like,

bummers. Like Chris Wybin looked real bad and then got just it was a million shots to get him out of there. We finally got out of there. Anthony Smith took literally, I think actually literally 100 unentered strikes in the second round

before they kind of got final mercy stoppage. Clay Guita just kind of ran over by Chase Hooper. A lot of you know old yellowing happen out there and that was not as tough certainly and for a lot of guys that are pretty popular too like Quiguita

is probably the least popular of them now though certainly at the time the carpenter was very very popular but like people love Anthony Smith people love Chris Weigman and they got it was tough to watch in point so that's probably actually

the thing that we'll kind of stick out of this card is the sadness total strikes in that Reyes Smith fight 172 to 24 yeah that's a lot significant strikes 121 to 21 significant strikes per round 48 21 Reyes round 1 703 to 0 703 yeah those are the significant strikes I just I honestly felt more than 73 that's a lot I bet it was like 135 or something crazy like 73 133 is what that is because when he lands 0.73 unanswered.

Go do 73 of anything right now and you will be tired from doing it. We got bonuses. I don't know if you saw them. I did not. I have not seen bonuses. There is no fight of the night. I was going to say there's probably not a fight of the night tonight. What do you think? Performance. I mean, I

certainly hope Pantz. He choked him in unconscious. So I hope Pantoja gets performance. I'm having to go down the list in order. I'm co-main events. going to get one no finish there uh gone thing uh Bryce Mitchell chaos slam put him out and say Bryce gets one he did not well okay I respect I don't necessarily think he needed one but I thought it um we'll table the land where because like it cruciface not necessarily a bonus

wing uh the Reyes one is sad so I'm gonna hope that that's just a no what was prior to the Reyes fight. My memory is shit. Leukee is for sure getting one. That's not a question. Leukee Aljo Mov. The others are early on the early pre-lims. I say Aljo Movstar is not getting one thing. Early prelims is Kenny Nunchalk's getting one for killing Breski?

Sure is. I mean, he killed Breski. Are we really that excited about that? It was best knock out of the card. I mean, I guess that's true. Van did not get a finish of Van won't get it. a second fight I guess Chase Hooper got one then sure did

okay insichuku Hooper luke Pantoja I don't hate it I think it's fine so there you go those are your bonuses I just feel a little bit

like chaos like slam knockouts which that kind of was cool so maybe I would have given Mitchell a little deference there but that's fine no issues no no real issues

okay let's uh to the peeps let's go to the peeps uh we'll take some questions for a few minutes And then we can get back to regular schedule program apparently Dana White is at the post-vary press press conference from max block. Question for Jedd who wins in a battle of wits Bryce Mitchell or Thelonius from Shrek. Oh, that's a terrific question.

Oh, look, Bryce Mitchell won and so we're going to say that Bryce Mitchell wins tonight because we are being positive. I certainly have made fun of Bryce Mitchell quite a lot this week. And none of it's wrong. I want to be very clear about it. But as I said, a lot on the watch party, I do, his heart is pretty clearly in the right place.

I think he's misguided deeply, like a deeply misguided person. But when he talks, I mean, in his post fight, I thought his post fight was pretty nice, actually. You know,

he leads with a quote of scripture, which, you know, fine. And then Joe Rogan comes up there. And he says some of, he talks about the fight. And,

but then he says to Joe, Joe, Joe, I want to apologize to you, man to man. I called you stupid because you said something that I didn't disagree with. And I want to apologize to you. And also when I got hurt by Josh Emmett, you're the only person in the, in the whole arena. I was really concerned after my well-being. And so like, I love you. And I just want to let you know. And like that's, that's a, like that is a legitimately nice, thoughtful, heartwarming thing. And so my issues with Bryce Mitchell are that I think he is, like I said,

deeply misguided and incurious in some ways that are i would say is not like a great quality but i do think his heart's in the right place and so like i don't i am poking fun at him when i am making fun of him i am this is not me um and my assaults on john jones i i am at least internally drawing a pretty clear line and so given that he gets to win over the loniest tonight because he won in the octagon when it mattered most. Look at you putting Bryce over. Let's go to another super chat. Is there a, this is for Borg,

is there a world where Pantosia gets shot at the 135 belt? Who in the top five would you pick him against? At 35? There is no world. He gets a shot at the 35 bolt soon. No. Eventually it could happen and he probably doesn't need that many more. Because this is a situation where it would make sense.

if the 35 belt was also open, right? Like, because there's not a clear-cut contender for him right now in his own weight class outside of endless rematches, I think it would be fine for them like, okay, yeah, but 35 is a cluster right now. Marab is fighting Umar, is trying to fight Peyotryan for reasons that remain unclear. Once they settle that up,

if Umar wins, it's probably Sean O'Malley Umar next. Purea is actually pretty close to getting back there. Bantamweight's got a little bit of a thing. So I think just because of the situation at Bantamweight right now, there's not a likelihood that Pantosia gets a chance. The top five right now, like at Bantamweight, I don't know that I would pick pants.

I certainly wouldn't pick him over Muram. I certainly wouldn't pick him over Umar. I wouldn't pick him over any of them. and I like Pantoja a lot. Did you pick him over O'Malley? I think O'Malley is the best chance. I do not. I would not pick him over O'Malley.

I think he's giving up. We saw him right. He's not a massive flyweight. Like he's, he's, like this is a perfect suited weight class for his size. I think the bigger dudes at the weight class would be problematic for him in general.

And yeah, I mean, the grapplers, I think, are bigger than him. And so it's, it wouldn't like stun me. if you want.

I think you can beat some dudes in the top 10 because we're seeing Davis and Figurato do that. And I think Pants is as good as Figurato, certainly. But like, Pentosur could beat Piotrion. I don't think I would pick him. But he could beat him.

David Zipgarito gave Pioriani a tough fight. So I think he would be competitive with all of them and I would pick him to lose to all of them. Dana White, I don't know if you still. speaking or was speaking. Shout out to Aaron Bronsetter. You always like threads everything.

White on Pantosius, call it to meet Demetius Johnson. You can hate it. That's interesting. I was the one beating the drum about to beat yours Johnson a long time ago. Sure. Yeah.

Go back in the annals of time. I like it. Let's do a time. Whatever case is, let's do a timeline on Dana White putting over Demetre's Johnson. There are no facts anymore. It'll be 90 seconds.

There are no facts anymore. You just say whatever you want to be true. and that's fine. White says 2024 is the best year in UFC history. He feels like every subsequent year ends up being the best in the company's history, record breaking. White says he doesn't have a comment on the verdict of Connor McGregor's civil trial and says that McGregor hasn't fought in the UFC in a long time.

Wow. I am stunned. I am genuinely shocked at that. Like that is the correct answer. Did not see that coming. Yeah. I mean, that is the object. Like, that is the answer that PR clearly sat him.

clearly sat him down and said, you will be asked. When you do, you say, don't have a comment. And maybe even create some space between us and Connor. White says that Chris Wyman, Anthony Smith and Clay Gwita should all retire. Yeah. White felt that Alexander Volkov beat Cyril Gond tonight. I agree. He apologized to Volkov.

He apologized to Volkov after the fight. He said that the head of the commission spoke to White that they felt like the second round was very close. Both guys got rocked and provided an explanation on why gone. the nod. I mean, and that's true. That's the thing. Yep.

I, the second round was very, like Volkov was winning for the first three minutes probably. And then he also got hurt and down the stretch if you want to favor Gron. I can't fault you for it. It's not what I chose, but I, it was a very competitive round. And then the last real thing here,

uh, white says he's unsure. Well, I'll read this because we found out Tatianosaurus is fighting Zhang Wei Lee. Uh, White's unsure why Tatyadosaurus is removed from tonight's card, but it doesn't really matter because she's fighting for the belt. White says that Marab de Wallis really is that guy when it comes to getting into altercations with people that disrespect him. He says that they had to seat Marab in an area where he wouldn't get into those situations.

White says that fighters are a, quote, paranoid bunch and they always think people are conspiring against them, which they may have to do to keep a chip on their shoulder. White calls him a rob his mini Strickland without the mouth and says it's going to be. going to cost Barab a lot of money if he keeps fighting with fans. He says these sort of things happen in the fight business, which is I want to be very clear here because I'm not like a big defender of Sean Strickland. I do defend him from time to time for specific reasons. Sean Strickland doesn't fight fans. He like very clearly in the most like notable thing of Sean Strickland doing that.

He app like it was the O DDP's here. Hey, can you please you fans in front of me. Please exit. And then I will attack. He did not, like, he is very rational and, like, pretty clearly internally draws the line between fighting fans. And Mariahlebe, apparently, I haven't seen the clip, so I don't want to, you know, say too much about it. But apparently just fought some dudes. So.

Didn't he get into some sort of skirmish of the fan before the Izzy fight? I don't think so. I have to go back and look at that. Because I remember Eric, Eric Nixick telling that story. Because it was in Australia, I think it was. And something happened. It was a guy like went up to Strickland want to take a picture with him. And Strick was like, yeah, man.

And at the end, he was like, I can't wait to watch Izzy knock you out. And then like something happened. And then Nixon had told the story and said like, up until Sean actually walked to the octagon, he like wasn't sure the five was actually going to happen. vaguely familiar. Maybe that's right. Yeah.

I don't know. I'll have to go back and look at it. But yeah, but it's not like like every event Marabreux goes to. He gets into a no fight with a band. Like even just like a grappling. Well, because apparently. disrespecting him just can mean anything it's i'm still unclear because he did not clarify when umar asked him how did i disrespect he's like you're not a man you're not a man be you got to be a man

okay but how did i disrespect you got to be a man okay i don't know i don't know it's crazy all right let's go to some questions here uh joseph was aljo rob versus bovesar looking at the stats would say yes i say no i scored it for bovzar uh i scored it 29 28 for him i thought you won the first and the third. I don't know. Second and third. I bet he went two and three. One, I actually don't,

because I know Casey scored at 3027 for Mozar. I don't hate that card at all. I really don't because while Aljo had a lot of control in round one, he did nothing damage-wise. Oh, the classic Aljo got it. Did nothing. Movesar landed a big, big punch in that first round that got Aljo's attention, he did not like it at all.

And then Mobsar had big moments at the end of the round. So to me, despite not having the control, I think there is a case to be made he won that round. I didn't score it that way, but I think there's a case to be made. I think Mobsar clearly run round two. And then round three was very similar to round one, except if Loyab did a little bit more in round three. So I don't think it's a robbery at all.

I think it's a very close fight. Most people that I've seen score it for Mobsar. There are some who scored it for Aljo as well. It's just one of those very close fights that it just is what it is, man. Obviously, still haven't seen it, so can't speculate it. We'll say Aljo tweeted, he responded, said he thought he did enough to win, but he does not seem to appear hard done by, you know, close fight. I felt competitive in there.

So I would be hard pressed, having seen no part of it, to think that it was a robbery just because of these two dudes fighting it's probably just a close fight. All right, let's keep the questions and the thoughts coming. Keep them coming, folks. Keep them coming. Keep them coming.

Because we're doing this not at four in the morning, which is terrific, but I actually have energy as opposed to being like, hey. Yeah. What else we got? Super Chat. Fighters should have a point deduction for missing weight. Yeah, so that's obviously a discussion as well.

I also don't think this is a robbery, but I thought Randy Brown beat Brian Battle tonight. And I think for sure that Brian Battle not having to cut down to 171 clearly had an effect on this fight. Seems likely. Clearly had an effect on this fight. So I don't think Randy Brown's wrong. And I'm not saying that Brian Battle,

like purposely went into fight week. He's like, yeah, man, he's going to cut the 175 and be done with it. But I do think there was a part of him on Friday. It was like, yeah, man, this is miserable. I'm just not going to do it anymore. And just, I'll just eat the penalty. And to Randy Brown's credit, he still took the fight.

I thought Randy won it. I thought he won. Brian Battle had a Mario Batista type win tonight, where, yeah, it's a win. It's the best opponent you've beaten, but you will gain absolutely nothing from this win. It's the thing, like, I definitely think that.

that that happens a lot. Exactly what you said. Like, if you ever worked in the service industry, I'm trying to think of other examples, like in my everyday life, like the one that comes back to me is like, you're like,

have you ever wait tables for the people out there work service industry or dead? Like, the only way you make money is to stay and work. Like you've got to wait tables. But there's some days you just go in and you're like, man, today sucks.

I just like, I'm making, I just want to get out of here. I want to be first cut. I don't care. I could make $5. dollar sticking around. I will eat that you know, 300 more dollars I'd

make if I stuck here. I just don't first cut. I want to go home. I don't want to be here. That happens a lot more than you think. We're like I could probably gut this out and make this weight cut four more pounds. It sucks. And when you get into the

depths of it, like how do I really want that 10 grand right now? Like fuck it. I got just no. I'll eat it. I will eat it. And it's okay. It is worth it to me to say no on this one. I feel like that happens a lot, especially when it maybe even you're to a point where it's like, I'm not even sure I can. But if I can, it's just going to suck too hard. I'll quit. And then if I can't even get there, why even stress it?

Why press myself like that? I don't really like the idea of taking points away. We talked about on the watch party. It feels weird in a fight this close that pretty clearly the edge like an active edge was gained by not cutting the weight, by being a bigger man in there. I just, I don't think the point deduction makes sense. It's kind of weird. Maybe it does.

I don't know. I would love a way to resolve this equitably. And truthfully, the way that I have said forever and it will never happen is that fights don't happen. If you miss weight, the fight does not happen. The UFC pays the other person there win and show. money. It is, you know, not treated as a win on the scorecards, but it's treated as one elsewhere.

Because they were a professional. They did their job and they competed. They did what they needed to do. And now they are not being disadvantaged by being kind of cajoled into taking a fight that they are now at a disadvantage in. That we're just never going to be there as a sport. The UFC does not want to be there. And so I don't know. I think it's just kind of a thing we have to live with, even if it sucks. Um, Joseph had asked, does Brian Battle get a ranked opponent next time we see him he's four? No, absolutely not. He's getting a step back more than likely, I would say. He's going to fight a very dangerous dude who's on the come up that a lot of people don't know about.

That's what's going to happen here. If there's one thing the UFC hates is dudes who not only miss weight, but don't even try. And that's kind of what happened here. So sort of make light of it. Like, yep. And the fight wasn't a good. It was not a fun, thrilling affair. especially over the rounds that Brian Battle won, which were two and three.

It was, it was not a fun fight. So you can't trust him. Like you can't, he's had weight issues, missed by a good, like, didn't miss my pound, missed by four. Like you can't really trust him. He's got to fight back, fight somebody, you know, beneath him, earn the spot. Prove he can make the weight, you know, be a professional. And then maybe we can talk about it if he moves to five and over.

But I think there is almost no chance he gets a ranked opponent next. No, I don't think so. Like, he, I don't know. It's, I was going to say, like, maybe like a Neil Magny or something, but even then it's like, Neil, Neil's not ranked anymore. I know. That's what I'm saying. I mean, that would be a, a coup for him if he got Neil Magna at this point.

I don't think he gets that. I really don't. Was Volkov robbed by the ref not taking the point for guns, horrendous? 100%, actually, around one. 100%. Because, like, that is, especially because in round one, the round that, uh, gone won unanimously. Like, gone blatantly grabbed a fence and prevented a getting swept by doing so. He was going ass over tea kettle down to the canvas.

And maybe Volcro doesn't get up to his feet and consolidate position, get top position. But like, as egregious a fence grab to stay upright as you will ever. see and just totally got away with it. There was no negative to cheating in that regard. And possibly, I'm not saying it

certainly did, possibly won him the fight because if he falls over and Volkov gets on top, maybe Volkov just spins the rest of the round on top. You know, Volkov unanimously won the third round where he didn't do really anything, but was just

on top of gone. And he wants, so if he just gets on top and spends, you know, a minute and a half on there, maybe he wins that round and suddenly, oh, well, gone lost rounds one and three on all the scorecards. Different, like, absolutely a penalty should have been applied. It never will be. That's how the sport works. No. Rester cowards. And the precedent was set when Eric Anders threw a pretty vicious, a terrific illegal name.

Yeah, a terrific illegal name. The most illegal knee you've ever seen. And in any other world, that's a point. Sure. And it wasn't. It was just a stern warning. And DC was like, great job,

Mark Smith. I'm like, no, that is a clear point. It's not even a new rule that was broken. It's a rule that has been there since the beginning. And no points are taken. So you should all,

like, you should all be cheating. Take points for every foul. They should all be cheating. Every single one of them should be cheating. I would actually, I will take points for every file. Spence grabs,

you should just lose position. That's, that's an easy. thing to adjudicate. Oh, he grabbed the fence and gained an advantage. Stop. Gone is in top position now. Like that's, or gone is in bottom and go full card.

Set it like like a freaking jiu-jitsu does this shit. It's not hard. But no, so you should cheat. There's no reason not to cheat. All right. I take a couple more. Dave asks, well, it's not really an ask. He's just demanding. Let's matchmake for Chase Hooper. Match make.

We kind of did this on the watch party. I don't know if this will be how you would go if you, you know, like I hear you have a program where you matchmake. I mean, he's, I don't know if we get to it. I don't know if you get to him, but I hear you do. I don't know if this is what you would do, but I think either you threw it out or somebody threw it out on that thing. I think the Jim Miller matchup is terrific.

I think it makes a ton of sense. Jim Miller is certainly more game than Clayweed at this point in their careers. We do not need to rush Chase Super. I think he has looked great since bumping up a weight class. I think this suits him better. is still clearly developing, right? Like he's both physically as a human being and as a, as a fighter. He has some talent.

He's got personality. They like him. I think that that fight just makes a ton of sense. And so I really like the Jim Miller matchup. I like it too because there is no rush. If the UFC decides to be like, all right, we're going to take a run with this kid right now. What are your thoughts on Chase Hooper versus Bobby Green? Is that too soon?

Yes. I think Bobby Green probably After what happened with the Patty fight? Yeah, I think Bobby Green probably hurts him. Okay. Maybe not. Like,

that is the upper end of our, we're going to try and slingshot him. I would not do this. That is really like the furthest up you could do. Like somebody on the thing, on the live show or watch party was like, BSD is like, no,

BSD will hurt him. Don't do that. Yeah. Bobby Green, you can squint your eyes and kind of tilt your head and be like, okay, for chase here, even if I think it's unlikely. That would be very ambitious, though.

I would strongly encourage not to do that. Chase Hoover versus Tony Ferguson. That is sad, but yeah, I'm okay with that. Okay, fair enough. Maybe Tony can win one. You never know. Yeah, I mean, I don't think he's winning that one, but... I know Joe Lozons wanted that fight.

That's the fight he wanted his chase. He wanted to Chase Uber? His chase. Shout of Joe Lozon. Joe's on this freaking man. Let's see if we got anything else. I think we're good. We're like we've talked about.

Jared Gordon versus Chays. We've talked about most of the things that happen. We've sort of hit everything. I'm trying to think if there's like a standout. Kenny Nunchucks getting her done. Way to go. Michael Keesa. Happy birthday.

Clay Guida. Happy birthday. Now Clay Guida, happy birthday. Marco Keesa did the thing. Birthday boys. Just nailing it. Nailing it. Nothing else really is.

I'm now just going through the old X. Josh Van. Shout out of Josh Van. That guy's really good at this. He's 23 or something insane. Flyweight's going to be so good, Mike. So many talented people like just starting their UFC careers

who are super young. A bunch of dudes out of Japan who were like 23 and just hot shit. Flyweight is going to be awesome in like four years. Oh yeah. And there's more coming. It's just calming down the pipe, man. It's got to be so good.

It's a great division. It's a lot of fun. Great champion. It's a lot of it. It's just getting better. Great champion. Yeah, that's it. Last watch party of 2024.

January 18th is going to be super damn fun. Man, I am. That's a good one of it. Kevin Holland, RDR has to be out of it. There's no world. That's not. It's Kevin Holland. They love Kevin Holland.

It's got it. And that is officially my most anticipated fight of 2025, that's far. That's right. It's going to be. So it is my wheelhouse to a team. Oh, my God. It's so perfect. Kevin Holland's going to be getting choked out and talking shit.

And RDR is going to just look like a goofy, doofus. Ah, it's going to be real. Lots of fun. AK and I back here tomorrow, 11 a.m. Eastern for some matchmaking on the next one. We'll be live. It's after a pay-per-view. So we go live. And we'll see you then.

Thank you all very much. We love you all. Have a good night, everybody. Love y'all. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.