MMA Fighting - UFC 324 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Justin Gaethje Battering Paddy Pimblett In Chaotic Main Event

Episode Date: January 25, 2026

Justin Gaethje was counted out by many heading into his last opportunity to capture a UFC title belt, and he proved all of the doubters wrong, hurting and knocking down Paddy Pimblett several times to capture the interim lightweight title in the main event of UFC 324. Following the first UFC event of 2026, and of the new UFC on Paramount era, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to Gaethje's punishing performance, discuss what they learned about both fighters, Pimblett's eye-opening toughness, Gaethje likely facing Ilia Topuria next, and where Arman Tsarukyan stands. Additionally, they react to Sean O'Malley's bounce-back win over Song Yadong in the co-main event, how the first Paramount event came across, bonus winners, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. All right, everybody. Those are the victory drums. I know. I tried to find the victory horns. I don't know where that file went. So we had to give you the victory drums, and they sound for the brand new interim lightweight champion of the universe.

His name is Justin Gaichie. Again, again, the interim champion. Again, the interim lightweight champion. He batters. Patty Pimbleau over five rounds. A tough as hell, Patty the Baddy Pimbleed, if we're being honest. We will put some onus and shine on that fight. Throughout this post-fight show,

Shotomalley is on the UFC post show. He gets a big win in the co-main event. Waldo Cortez-Acost. Stops Derek Lewis in round two in the feature bout. Natalia Silva defeats Rosnami Unis. And the main card kicked off with an incredibly fun fight between John Silva, who defeated Arnold Allen. via unanimous decision.

Welcome to the post-fight show. Hope you guys enjoyed the event. Hope you guys enjoyed the watch party. I am Mike Heck. That is once again, Jed Mishu. And Jed, I know we will typically have a post-fight column about sort of our grades and our thoughts about UFC 324 and the ins and outs and the storylines that came from it.

But Professor Mishu, a letter grade for the UFC 324 event and the UFC debut on the Paramount Plus platform. Let's go B minus Let's go B minus The main event did a lot of heavy lifting That's just the simple facts on the ground here I was as high on this card coming in I think as most people like as anyone

Because looking at it on paper I was like yeah I know what they're doing here They are trying to put guaranteed bangers together fights that are very likely to result in in high action because they're going to have a whole swath of new people tuning in for the first time. It's Paramount. There's less of a paywall, certainly here in America. And that's why you put Justin Gathe and Patty Pimlin in the main. It's incredibly exciting, right?

That part worked out. The main event, that worked out. Sean Amalei Song-Iong-e-Dong was a good fight, not great fight. you know, Waldo Cretace, Costa, Derek Lewis, we got a finish, but it was a real weird finish, too, and the fight was awful before the finish.

I think Natalia Silva and Rose Namuunus had the worst fight that they can have, right? Like, as far as excitement goes. And then Arnold Allen, John Silva was good, but that's, again, John Silva and Justin Gates of the two most bankable action fighters. On this card, you know,

they are arguably two of the seven most bankable action fighters in the UFC so you knew what you were getting there the rest of the prelims were a little slow if you are a new fan tuning in to paramount for the first time for this because i got paramount plus i watched landman i got nothing to do i don't really care about this uh whatever basketball games on kentucky versus whoever i'll fire up some fist fights there's a lot of delay so uh the pacing was a bit of a trouble if you were certainly a casual fan and most of the the fights didn't deliver how I expected them to, but if you stayed to the end and you're a new

fan, or you're just a Patty guy because you, you know Patty from Barstool, Patty is a fairly big star in general, and you stayed to watch that, you got, like you, you've had fun. You're like, man, that was pretty dope at the end. And so it can't be less than a B, but it's the lowest B we can give it because of the other issues going on. Yeah, I think there's things need to work out. I know we read Zach Indito's tweet. He's like the main production guy for these broadcasts because

it took while the main card started an hour early, we didn't get the first walkouts to like 930. Like it took forever to get that first fight going. Zach I love Zach. He's incredible of what he does and a very nice guy. Tweeted out

look, this is the first event. We had to do some special stuff. Guarantee you, it won't be this long for UFC 325. So that happened. A lot of people I know we're complaining about the ads. For both tiers of the product, when it comes to the Paramount thing, we kind of expect to that. Hopefully, the pacing can be a little bit better overall because there is a lot of time in between some fights. But again, at the end of day, no matter what the rest of the card looks like, we save this all the time, Jed, you especially,

if the main event delivers, all is forgotten. And if the rest of the card is the greatest thing, the greatest 10 fights you've ever seen, but the main event sucks, it takes the event down some notches. So I think a B is a pretty fair grade only because that that main event was so eventful. It was so memorable. It's going to probably be on the fight of the year list.

It probably isn't going to win it, but I think it's a very good job. I don't know if it'll be on the list because it's so early, but it could be. It's the frontrunner right now. I would say this is not unlikely to win it. It could get some votes at the end of the year

depending how things shake out. But yeah, man, it's just the truth of the matter is always. If you have a great meal and the dessert is awful, that's the last thing you remember. This is the last thing everyone remembers. It's the thing the card is built around. I mean, there are a lot of people who skipped the other stuff anyway because they were just tuning in. Oh, Patty's on Paramount. Let's see.

And even if you're a Patty fan, I don't think you saw that and we're like, that sucks, Patty lost. I hate this. You're like, man, that guy was beating the crap out of it. So, you know, it's a B-minus. I don't think this is the foot they wanted to put forward, especially given everything else that happened. But I'll tell you, Paramount, they got into the UFC business and they got the full experience right away.

Amanda Nunes, Kayla Harrison, falls apart and falls off the card. We had some super shenanigans at the way-ins and a fight falls off. Josh Hokit did some stuff on. television that I suspect some people probably wish wasn't broadcast live on their multi-billion dollar platform uh some snoozers of fights some slow pacing and then justin gaichi so you got the full experience if you were paramount so it's a very honest representation of of what this deal will be and again there's some negatives overall you in the night feeling pretty good i think yeah the The beta of it was great.

Justin Gage just batters Patty Pimbley. I thought he won four of the five rounds. If you want to score three, two, I'm okay with that. Not a single 10-8 was given, which is absolutely insane to me. If you don't want to give round one a 10-8 because Patty was able to sort of close some gaps, I'm okay with that. Round two was a clear 10-8, and I think round four was a clear 10-8. Correct.

Justin hurting and dropping Patty multiple times. Realm four, if you're not scoring round four is the most agreed. just won to me. Yeah. Because at least in round two, I didn't see it real time. We saw it afterwards. I just saw it. We got the replay up right now.

The thing that did initiate it was a thumb to the eye. It was very hard to see in real time. I thought it was just a punch to the eye in real time. And so like at least then I can feel okay. They're like, well, I'm not going to reward him because it started off with an illegal thing. Round four, he dropped him like three times and then was just beaten the sucks. the soul out of him

with elbows and punches and like guys it didn't ultimately matter and we don't need to harp on it but like just let him out let some 108s out it feels good it feels good in your chest to score 108 embrace it and it will love you back tenfold

did you learn more about Justin Gagey at this point in of his career or did you learn more about Patty Pimbled at this point in his career like what did I'm more about Patty. What was your biggest takeaway overall? Like if you could give a take about this fight on either side.

Maybe Scalcers really can't get knocked out. It's like my honest, my good, my big take, if you're asking for a take from both dudes, my take from Gai Chi is, I think that he is just going to go down in history as one of the most underrated fighters because he is a great fighter. It's not just that he's the most exciting fighter who has ever lived. He is also a great fighter. and people don't talk about... That can't be true.

What happened? The stat on the screen said that Justin Gates, you only got credited for two knockdowns. That's insane. That's absolutely ridiculous. Is it like at least five? At least five. There's a lot of knockdowns, frankly.

God, Lee! Yeah, that seems insane. But, like, watching him compete is like, man, he really is a great fighter, not just as the most exciting fighter. And I was very clear about this. beforehand this is not you know me retroactively saying this I believe he had staff and was compromised and he still just wailed on batty like and he was pretty tired

early it's always hard to know what Justin because he looks tired sort of constantly but he does the ddp thing where he can be tired and still fight really hard but like I believe he entered this fight compromised I believed it before the fight I still believe it now and to perform like that at age 37 with as many miles, as many wars as he has in the odometer against the guy who less big than I thought, but Patty still was a little bit bigger than him in there.

He is a truly great fighter, even if I don't think he's the best lightweight in the world. And for Patty, it's like, man, you are tough as nails, dude. Like, I would have bet a lot of money if you had told me how the fight would look. I'm like, Patty's getting knocked out if he's going to eat these sorts of shots. And I think he can do better.

They'll never rematch Justin's too late in his career But you know, Patty can make his way back to the top He's not that far away from a title shot Even if maybe he doesn't deserve it But yeah, that was just really fun man Like that my big takeaway is really nice to have fights back And that was a fun one It's a very fun fight. Patty is all worldly tough

I think he has a ceiling I think the UFC is still going to try to make make him champion In some way shape or form but I think we've discovered yeah it might be one of the five, six, seven best lightweights in the world but a guy who's gonna make a ton of money and be very popular and probably

there's a better chance that he doesn't win a belt than he does get one but he is way better than I ever thought he would be that was true before this fight even but yes for sure and dude is just so tough man there's no way to me

because it again Paddy's not like 25. He's 31. He's had a lot of fights. And I know since his UFC run, like he hasn't been in like a ton of wars, but he had some like pretty tough fights in cage warriors. The Julian orosa fight is one of those fights that really stands out to me. But this is going to be a absolutely huge pivotal moment in Patty's run, right? Because I know you compare it to the Patriots and I know I can find some holes. And I get that. Watch out. But this was, watch out for those. Broncos. To me, this was, and this is what I kept telling everybody, because we talked about how

this continued to pass the mom test and people kept reaching out about the fight. Really did. Oh, Patty's going to kill Justin Gagey was the question I kept getting. I'm like, I don't know, man. Like, this is, this is a dude who, I mean, this is by far the toughest fight of Patty Pimble's career. Like, Michael Chandler is like a step up from King Green, obviously. And King Green was a step up at the time of their careers from Tony Ferguson.

but this was a ginormous step-up in competition based on, and even though Justin Gaichi is on like the 17th hole of his career right now, we're gonna find out for sure. If this, this would be like the legit, legit win on Patty's resume based on the time that it happened. And you could still make a case like, eh, you weren't getting the best Justin Gaichi of all time,

but still it's a great win skill wise. And he went out there and got beat up, but fought his ass off. I learned a ton about Patty Pimblit. Dude's good at fighting. He's tough as hell. When the chips are down, he kept fighting through it. And people are just going to rip Patty to shreds.

I've seen it all over social media. I see it all over the chat. A little bit in the chat. People are ripping this guy. We knew when they booked this fight that the best lightweight in the world was not involved in this fight. That the rifle number one contender

was not involved in the fight. Armand Sarukian was not in this fight. So we got the fight. fight that the UFC should have made they just slapped an interim belt on and now iliate seporea is going to fight justin gaecchi and it ain't going to go very well for him i don't think and and and this is this is a tremendous performance from gaichi winning this title is awesome hopefully he gets a whole bag of money from it and gets paid a ton of money to fight iliott seporea he's going to beat him who is gachy's going to beat ili to poria i'm going to speak that into existence that's all you said

literally 15 minutes ago on the other shot. I can't remember what I said. That doesn't matter what I said. He said, I'll say it doesn't matter what I said. We're going to speak this in to existence. Gachi beats, oh,

there's Armand on TV. I'm sure he's going to say I'd beat those dudes, and he is correct. Oh, yeah. Look, man, I'm not willing to write Patty off. He lost that fight unequivocally, not remotely close, frankly,

to winning that fight. I think he had some good tactics and some very poor strategy, and I think tomorrow morning he's going to wake up and be like, oh, I really did try and win a stand-up fight with Justin Gachi, and that was a bad choice. So he didn't really shoot.

He was moving backward the whole time, and that's it. Like, I wouldn't pick him against most of the top 10, but there are certainly matchups in the top 10. I think he can win. And he is tough enough to win fights, right? Like, he is not going to lose a fight because he is not built of the right stuff.

He's going to lose because he doesn't have the ability. You don't have the technique, the skill, the athleticism, but it's not going to be because he's not tough enough. And that's, look, that's the baseline you need. If you got toughness in this sport, you can build on that. That is a good foundation and Patty's got that. Arvin Sarukian called Patty Pimlet a trash can said, didn't know, understand the game plan, didn't try to wrestle, he tried to strike. That was bad. I agree. And then by the time, like, he thought like, oh, maybe I should do this. It was a little too late.

Armin said he would knock Ache out in the second round. He said, he just asked about Ilya's, or Justin Gaechie's pace in the way he fought. He's like, well, Patty, let him do that by having a terrible game plan. I also agree. Justin would not be able to do that against me or Ilya. And I would kind of agree with that as well. I mean, I think Justin can get that fight against Ilya. I think he'll knock out Ilya.

but like theoretically Armand won't let him fight that pace that's not up but Almond like I'll let him fight that pace you just try and kill him in the process of fighting that pace I think we know obviously we know what's next for Justin Gage

he's gonna fight Iliate's poor Two time interim champion first in the history of the UFC I went looked it up I'm actually fairly certain Justin Gage is the first two time interim champion UFC history Is the Patty is the answer to the Patty Pimbled

what's next for Patty question Dan Hooker I believe I believe it's Dan Hooker. I think you have to do it. If you wanted to do BSD, if BSD wins, I'm not opposed to that. But I think Dan Hooker just makes a lot of sense. Unless you said this on our watch party,

and I think it would probably not be ideal because I think Dan Hooker is a very winnable fight for Patty. Also, I suspect A.K. Lee might be on the, let's do that Hanato-Moycano fight that was around for a little bit. I think that's also a winnable fight for Patty that there's some juice to. But if Patty wants it, Armin versus Patty is like sellable. I think that's a bad fight for Patty. But, you know, if he somehow pulled off an incredible upset, he's right back in the mix.

So there's some upside to it at least. But I think Dan Hooker is the right call. My number two option would be Money Moikano. Dustin Porre, tweets out, welcome to the big. league's Patrick one up for the legends I mean it's actually a pretty good tweet dude it is so wild to watch just a bunch of old ass lightweight still have the juice like this isn't supposed to happen like it's you're supposed to seed ground to the younger generation and BSD and Fiziv and Patty and Armand to some extent has gained ground but like you know he didn't look great against

Charles Alvara and then he's sort of screwed up like the fact that dudes like Charles and and Gachi and Dustin just kept holding on for so long is so impressive uh man lightweight what a division uh we have bonuses tell me we did it tell me we did it double up Justin Gachi please fight of the night Gagy Pimbley John Silva. I'm just kidding. I just didn't even believe you. I was like, that's just not true.

I'd be more willing to believe they just gave two fight of the nights than they gave bonuses. Performance of the night. Justin Gagee? Ty Miller. Oh, good for time. I didn't see it. And Josh Hock is. Okay.

$100,000 each. $25,000. Dude, that seems insane. You should 100% Nikita Krilov should go and he got to finish at the end of a fight. He was clearly winning. 25,000. dollar bonuses for waldo courts as a costo and niquita crylov does wado get extra points for the 25 000 bonus i don't think so because we already have a baked in you get a finished but you get

a finished bonus but that is a good like had we talked about it beforehand because it happened hours before but since you're already getting finished points i don't think so but interesting i'm looking at aaron bronsetters i mean i mean i mean a hundred percent J-Mond. 100K for Ty Miller is legitimately life-changing money. Like the dude was on a 10-and-10. He just made 10 contracts.

Like five wins. That bonus to him, because I'm sure he's on a 10-and-10 contract off-contender series. So he just got five times what he got in pay today. That is down payment on a house. Like that's a huge difference for him.

So good for Time Eller. Love that for him. Dana speaking for the media. The UFC 324 quote exceeded expectations beyond belief for Paramount. He says it exceeded it by double. I mean, if we're talking about views, that is totally possible. Yeah. Patty Pimbleau told Data White that he would knock Justin Kachie out, says that's exactly what you try to do.

Gachie told him that he's 100% and that he feels better than he has after most of his fights. White asked for Pimblit to be transported to the hospital immediately. I mean, I believe that about Gachie. He didn't get hit that much. He had hit some, but mostly he was just tired. So, like, I believe he doesn't feel physically that bad after that. I mean, obviously, if something weird comes up, we'll keep you posted. The other one is discretionary bonuses.

From 5 to 25K had been the norm following events in the past, and those would be replaced by the new standard 25K bonuses. Yeah, this is a way better idea. It is a way better idea. Very better idea. Let's talk about Chalamalley. We'll go to the peeps and talk about. Oh, apparently, per Marcel Dorf, I assume this is going to.

off the Dana so we can confirm the Michael Johnson Alexander Hernandez got pulled because of the line the betting line movement Dana got a call again and he said we're not doing this again so there was if you don't know obviously the Michael Johnson Alexander Hernandez fight got pulled like an hour hour and a half before the event started some suspicious betting lines happened a ton of money came in on Michael Johnson Alexander Hernandez who was like close to a two to one favorite quite dropped to a pickam or a slight underdog because of the money that did come in. A couple of books had already pulled props on the fight.

We're not doing props because this line movement is sus. And then shortly after that, that fight was announced as canceled. They didn't give a reason. Now Dana White, the post-fight press are apparently saying, yep, that line movement was suspect, and we did not want to risk it, which I think is just frankly smart. like that's just correct. The exact quote, quote, we got called from the gaming integrity service

and I said, we're not doing this shit again and we pulled the fight. Correct. Which is very smart. And something like that happens in the main event. Maybe you feel a little more like a big fight, but that is a prelim fight that you can yank. Good call on them.

Rumor has it that Alexander Hernandez is going to try and fight hurt. It's deeply not confirmed. So don't take that as gospel. But yeah. Some Tom Fool. or happening or out there, Mike. Yes.

Sean O'Malley defeats telling you dong. Sean O'Malley does. And a fight that was a lot more competitive than I thought it was going to be. But Sean had a good third round. That third round was how I saw that entirety of that fight going. But Sean gets the win. Calls for the title fight. Calls for Piotr Yan.

We mentioned the Pejorian interview that made the rounds that said, oh, no, we promised Mirob this. We promised Mirob that. Yada, yada, yada. You believed it. one hour ago jem machine peyodor yon tweets

just woke up anything important happened and then immediately tweeted after i don't choose my opponents whoever the ufc puts in front of me next is going into deep waters so after hearing those tweets how are we feeling about

peyodor yann versus maraud de walsh really three versus peyter yon versus shana mallee two peyoteer and marab are fighting a third time next yes Sean has he spoke with Megan Levy He's on the desk I assume on the desk he was saying the same thing He doesn't really have another play

Frankly, but he is He is acting as if he is going to fight Purefeyon It's not zero percent If Morab gets hurt or something He's definitely the first call I think that performance was so Mundane

Perfectly fine win I thought he won the fight Some people scored that fight for song And I don't think that's crazy The first round's a swing round but we both scored it for Sean um but that was just not it's not a fight that anyone is going to remember it's going to be excited about and so like it's i think they're just going to do morab and Sean can be waiting if something goes wrong and if not uh I think it is very obvious

maybe it's not obvious because the UFC just doesn't want the outcome here but you just pair Sean O'Malley up against do mar and magamatov no doubt about it That's a title fight and you get your own baby, you know, version of Connor Habib. But that's what I do. I don't know that that happened. I would not bank on that happening, but I think that makes plenty of sense. I mean, that's what I would do. Sean ain't taking that fight, though.

He'll just not fight. He'll just sit back and not fight. He can't do that. He's one of the few who have like the benefit of doing that. I would look. The optics of that. would be quite tough yeah but if you just did i mean is it about the white house or is it about yon what's more important because if it's the white house you could fight core stanagan at the

white house i say cori san an called and he could do that instead of umar and i think that also makes some sense so that's fine too um and cori called for it at the white house i think that'd be fine kind of feel like shons is not going to fight anybody you could still give marab a title fight though look i think that sean may wait because if peter beats marab he's just very very obviously there. But if Mara beats Piotr, I don't, Sean Zinn's going to have to fight somebody. He's not going to let him fight Marla the third

time, I don't think, after that win. So, um, I'm going to bet he fights. Maybe it's Corey at the White House. I think it's fine, too. I think it just should be Umar, but, you know, I agree he shouldn't want to take that fight. But maybe he does.

I mean, that'd be sick if he did. It'd be a lot of chutzpah. A lot of hutzpah. A lot of hutspah. I don't think that fight happens. I actually, I don't feel as good as I did,

like 12 hours ago about Sean O'Malley fighting for the belt of the White House, but I would stay 60-40. They go with O'Malley on, and then Marab just fights the winner. Maraub still gets his shot. I think Peoria

and Maraud de Valsh really are going to fight in May. Not the White House. I'd be fine with that, honestly. That's what should happen. I just, this is a total pivot. There's a total pivot from where I've been all week, all month. But I think Peyodor and Marab are fighting in May.

And that's, it'll be, they're going to do Peota versus Marab and Val versus Natalia Silva in May. That's, that's the pay-per-view. See if we get any more fun stuff here from the Dana White tweets. was addressed he doesn't match make after fights bro white confirms and talia silver was told that she would get a title shot if she were to be rosed on me unis yeah again that just makes total sense to me which i think we should just transition into that then we can talk about the

waldo curtained derrick after because i mean we just go to the peeps at this point because i'm sure all this stuff is going to come up but uh yeah what i would like say about natalia and uh robbery Robbery of the worst kind. Not a robbery. I think Natalia's silver one. I saw plenty of people score up for Rose. Tough loss for Rose.

Rose is apparently just never going to fight for the flyweight title. But now is probably too big to even go back to 115. So sort of just in no man's land. She should just go fight Jessica and drive. Man. And just end that right. Just do the trilogy. What she needs to do and she'll never do it.

Just go Go to a new camp to do something new and different, to change something up. Not that your camp is bad. They're not. You got to championship level there, but just get something new. It's always helpful when you're in a doldrum,

when she appears to have hit a ceiling at this weight class. So I don't think that fight's going to go very well for Natalia Silva against Falton and Shibchenko, but it is very hard to argue that she does not deserve it. So I think they are going to fight in May as the co-main event to Marab versus Peottyon 3. If they want Valentina to fight in May, that's the fight they're going to make. Shout out of Ace Boogie. Thanks for joining the team, buddy.

That's the fight they're going to make. If that's what they were like, we have to have Valentina to fight in May, that's the fight they're going to make. Natalia Silver gets first call. She says, no, then we can open the door up to Macy Barber maybe. Yeah, I think Macy's fight with Alexa Grasso, the stakes have just jumped up a little bit. Gotta make a statement If she goes out there and just beats the hell out of Alexa Grasso And Valentin is like, I'm not fighting until July or August

They're gonna go Macy There's a note out of my mind Gotta make a statement It'd be kind of unfair But yeah, that's what I think Let's go to the peeps We'll talk to you guys for like 15 minutes or so We should run down the other results

Did we do that already? Yeah, well of course, Costa beats Derek Lewis TKO round two We mentioned Natty Ice getting the win John Silva are a round great fight super great fun uh honestly they should have just done two fight at the nights instead of performance bonuses and just given the other Friday night to John so completely right absolutely agree absolutely I should have done that um

umar Nagamadap defeated davis of figurate on a fight that's probably a little more competitive than the betting odds suggested sure was a fight that happened yeah atabogadier gets a decision win over andre pulia ruined the climb like a big dumb idiot just ruin the climb again and it's okay now we climbed again it's not okay we're down another hundred bucks but we climbed again uh how about Nikita kreilov dude did i am finishing my deskest bukasus three seconds left man three seconds left not even a comeback who's winning to fight but uh just like no it's gonna get the finish of all the people who needed to win on this card i don't think anyone needed to win more than he did and he sure did it um so good on you to

keep one of his best performances and quite some time that was that was a great win uh speaking of upset wins Alex Perez just beat the hell out of Charles Johnson. That was crazy. A lot of people saw that coming. He did miss weight, so he was not eligible for the $25,000 bonus. And then we mentioned the two bonus winners, kicking off the early prelims, which shrunk to two fights.

Josh Hokit and Ty Miller are getting first round finishes. So congratulations to them. Josh Hokit did stuff. And sure did stuff. It was quite the thing. All right, let's go to the peeps. Lachlin. probably wait for the hooker fight no matter what he needs time to heal anyways armin to fight b sd if he

wins that's never happening or winner of fizzi versus uh uh ruffy in my opinion i think bsd is very likely to fight the winner of uh oh he was saying armin to fight the winner no bsd's gonna fight the winner of physique foffi yeah armin's not fighting either of these yeah i would like there to them to find a way for bsd to fight justin but i that seems that that fight won't ever happen and i'm very sad about it I love this. Dana Blanco is Travis Barker, the official drummer of the UFC. I think he is.

100%. I mean, who else would it be? Buddy Rich? Please tell me you saw Dana's quote about Tom. There's definitely some hostility between the camps based on the way you said that. I was just deeply unsurprising that there's hostility. Let's see. Let's see.

Because I know my guy Aaron. I know my guy Aaron would come through. I don't see anything. White says, that he did not hear the comments made by Connor McGregor regarding his contract situation. By the way, I don't believe one second of that. Yeah. Let's see if he said anything that we can find.

If anybody can tell us what he said, I'd love to know. Let's see. Dana White said he believes Tom Aspinall had a second surgery on his eye or injections, but he didn't want to talk about it too much. God effing forbid I say something about it was the quote. because, you know, stuff. I mean, the whole thing has been tough for them.

So I'll have to go back and watch the clip to really, like, make a judgment on it. Spencer, be beautiful to have you all in UFC back. Be a beautiful. After a nice break, boys, loved stream quality and video packages, but too many ads as fans, one to ten. How excited for the future of the UFC are you guys after the first Paramount event? I would like them to work on many things that I did not care for

I will say production-wise is probably the worst of the debuts where like the other like when we shifted to Fox when we shifted to ESPN those two shifts it was like ooh these are new and different this did not feel new and different

and it did feel felt a lot slower the pacing was pretty bad tonight a lot of ads lazy I saw your comment unless I'm mistaken the UFC doesn't get the ad money from commercials

the UFC gets money from Paramount Paramount are the ones who are profiting from commercials so the increase in ads was not the UFC offsetting pay-per-view cost it's paramount offsetting the purchase price for the UFC sort of how broadcast works they're paying a billion dollars a year

1.1 actually So, but yeah, like there are some things I would like to work. I don't know. We're not on the super premium. So I'm going to. It seems like it's still very similar. Yeah, I'm going to upgrade to C. But I, on the one hand, I'm more okay with getting ads because at least I'm not paying for a pay-per-view.

And one of the things that I was the most angry about was paying for like paying money to watch something and still getting advertising. Um, but yeah, I, I wouldn't say, I'm not unoptimistic that things will be fun and good, but I didn't have like a lot of optimism. This would be a new day of difference. So kind of feels a little bit like business as usual. But hey, man, we didn't, you didn't have to spend 80 bucks. If you live in America, if you lived elsewhere, you maybe did. So worth it to me. To the hear, Armin's guest, he thinks Ilya will run away to Walter Wade and he and Justin will unify the title. I think that's entirely possible.

I think I think I think I'm going to absolutely fight Justin Gaci. I think that's the more likely scenario. He's probably going to obliterate Justin Gagee and then. He's going to lose. And then he will go up to Al-Torah. He's going to lose Justin Gagee, but yes. The UFC is just going to, the UFC has decided

You have to run with this, dude. The U.S. has just decided that Ilya gets to do whatever the hell he wants, which is a ludicrous thing to me. I'm not even kidding. They should strip him. He should not be the lightweight champion. but they're not going to do that. They let him leave featherweight with at least two, at least two fights on the table. Realistically, three full fights that he should have been like, no, stick it featherweight.

He's not remotely a welterweight. If he, by some miracle, does go up and beat Islam to win the title, it's not like he's going to fight in Morales. Like, he's not a welterweight. They're just going to let him do whatever the hell he wants, which is insane to me that they've decided to do this. but it does feel like they have decided to do this. So they're going to let him get Justin Gae, which looks to be an incredibly favorable matchup for him, not fight Arm and Sarukin,

which at the minimum is a difficult fight, and then do whatever he wants, which is crazy, but okay. I'll have no idea how good Ilya is at the end of his career. I'll truly have no idea. I'll know that he was extremely good, but how good is he in, relation to other great fighters no clue because he's not going to he's not going to do the things

great fighters do just sit and defend a belt and ring over a weight class bonfish doesn't feel like a pay-per-view is the issue more like a fight night honestly like it felt like a pay-per-view to me it felt big like it felt big they treated it big um they did three different like promotional packages to start the event which is a little weird but i think I think next week we'll get the full taste of like what they're all going to be like. Like this one, they even admitted, we mentioned the Zach andito. It's the first time. We're doing new things.

We're doing special stuff. It's the debut. Don't worry. Next week, it's the first fight on the main card is going to start like 10, 15 minutes sooner. Like these are things that it's okay. I think we'll get a better gauge of things next week of what 326, 327, obviously the white. White House car will look a lot different, too.

I'm sure that'll be the longest card we've ever watched, the way that they're making it sound. So, you know, they might do some bells and whistles and be fun there. Yeah, it is, you always reserve judgment because there's just, it's the first time. So you never, you know, first impression is a first impression, but we'll see. They haven't been done for six weeks. And again, I'm leaving this night having had mostly fun, even if in the middle portion of it, There were a bit, I was like, man, this feels slow.

These fights aren't that good. But, you know, it's okay. It's the first one. Let's give them some time to get their feet underneath them and see how it goes. Don't think, I don't know if this is a troll or not. Connor was at least willing to fight Habib. Ilya is essentially hiding from Islam.

That must be a troll. It was very obviously just trying. I literally moved up to lightweight to fight Islam. Unless you meant he is literally hiding from Armin, which I actually do believe is true. Yeah, he's not going to fight Armagh. He's never going to fight Armand. Dana Blanco says, don't upgrade the super premium.

It is the exact same. Oh, wow. See, that's why I didn't. When I bought the yearly subscription, I was like, it says that I still might get ads on some premium events. Like, well, that doesn't mean anything, then why am I spending 50 more dollars

or whatever it is? So, yeah, I buy that. Thanks for that info, Dana Blanco. Appreciate you. Armand the Dominic Cruz Hall of Fame, and Atsma, it was fun. The rest of the breaks in between fights seemed a bit repetitive.

Correct. Good for Dominic Cruz. Absolutely deserves to be in it. You know, I don't, he's on the desk working right now, but like, in my opinion, still the greatest bandwidth of all time. And yeah, dude, like, obvious choice to include since he retired last year officially. So well on him. And those are always the things that have been better on broadcast when it is fight-centric

stuff and it's not just ads. Like nobody likes ads unless it's the Super Bowl. Josh Hogan says he wants WCA next as he gets WCA. He does not Joe Bosa. That was a terrible call-up. It was one of the worst callouts I've seen in a long time. Frontrunner, I mean,

certainly the worst call-out of this year, because there weren't that many of them. I think he could have, like, if he had been smart, he had a chance, he had a chance to get Derek Lewis, especially off the loss. Like, Derek Lewis could happen.

I still don't think it would, but that is at least on offer. Like, he was never getting Walter Gatosikosta. And so I think he should have just stuck with the gimmick of calling out Walter Walker. Because that is a fight. That's the one. That's the one he can get as far as surging heavyweights go. So I thought that was just truly bad all around. And I think it speaks a lot about this sport that, like, it's so.

It was just so cringy and hokey. Let him fight Gable. Well, actually they train together, so no, they can't. But like he just straight up ripped off. And that's the thing. Like, when Chale ripped off lines, he at least was kind of charming with it. There was a little bit of a knowing, winking tongue and cheek to it. But like, guys like Hokit and Colby are just so ham-fisted.

There's no, there's no art. There's no grace to it. They are bulls in China shop. It's just like that comes off as incredibly cringe. So I thought there was a horrible post fight from him. But I'm, you know, I guess it's, it is better than nothing, which a lot of other fighters give you. Yeah, it's ready to go.

Mike drop or mic check callout worthy. I mean, what? I mean, that was the worst one. Who had the best call out tonight? Trying to think. This is a little harder. We don't get to hear the callouts because we're doing the live stuff. Like Crowell calling out Jan was fine.

Oh, that's probably the best one. That's a very good call out. That's a very good call out. That was a good one. I don't think Umar called anybody out. Oh, Gote called out Mar and Vittori. Yeah, we talked about that. I don't think that's bad.

I don't think he's going to get it, but it is possible. I would not say this impossible. I agree with what you said in the watch party. He's a, it's a fight too soon. I say it's one fight too soon. That's his next one. Yeah. But the next one, like the next next next one. The next fight is Michaela Loxacek.

That is the one. That's pretty solid. Because Michael Ozecichick is just going to get shot out of a cannon, and he is going to get his head knocked to clean off. Pretty likely. Pretty likely. It's pretty likely. That's perfect matchmaking. And then you could do Marvin Vittori, who you can't hurt or knock out. It's very tough to hurt.

Waldo stuck with the Curtis Blades call out. I think it's a good call out. People kept saying he was calling out Derek Lewis. He wasn't. He was always. Curtis plans. Always Curtis. Curtis was always the call-out.

It's a good call-up. Derek Lewis has made a lot of sense because Derek kept calling out Waldo. Yeah. So that was tough for Derek Lewis. That was tough. It was very tough. But it's Derek Lewis.

It kind of doesn't matter. Yeah. But yeah, that was a really good. I think the sticking with Waldo or Waldo calling, that's it. Ooh, I get to see the knockout for Fuget. All right, here you go. I have yet to see it.

Yeah, I thought, the only bad call it was that was a really nice right hand from time Miller nice elbow oh there's a spinning back elbow yeah that elbow was saucy right on the right on the forehead and then you just bounce right back in the good right hand

yeah yeah a lot of a lot of killing soul killed in that guy for me yep um though all right good performance there I'm looking at time Miller putting the mitts on them all right one more super chat uh how much did Justin

stock go up tonight and how much did sugar stock dropped tonight someone had a similar question about umar so i'll throw umar in that i think umar fits did umar stock drop as well i don't think sugar shan amelli's stock drop i think songy dong stock rose um if if sean's dropped it was just a very modicum um because by the third round he looked good i think he entered that fight a little weird a little passive It's also his first three-rounder in a long time, and maybe he's so used to five-rounders, you have more time to get into fights.

So I do think that was a bad performance from him early, but he did enough to win. And by the third round, he looked exactly how he anticipated him to look. So I don't think his stock dropped. I just raised my song stock a little bit, not a lot, but a little bit. Since you threw Omar in there, I think Umar's stock has been on not a steep, but a steady decline of, because his stock was way up here.

And his stock was way up here in part because of the name and in part because his performances were so exciting, right? Like about what he could be. Oh, this dude is an elite, elite grappler and he can box. And then the Morab fight was still like, oh, that's probably the second best Bannon way, because he barely lost to Marab, but he did lose to him. And then the Mario Batista fight was like, man, he's just not separating himself. And now again, that's an old, fairly washed figgy. He was in no danger of losing that fight at any point.

But he just, I said on our live show, he lacks the little bit extra. He's got all the composite parts of a great fighter, every piece of it. but he just sort of lacks the genussecois to really get over the hump like Islam, like Abib, have he's still young enough, maybe he can get it, he can add a little fire, a little meanness, just frankly more dynamic offense. But I think he is steadily declined, not steeply, but most people this time last year, or roughly this time last year, like, Umurna Magumato was probably going to get the belt,

and he's going to rain for a little bit. And now it's like, not saying he won't get the belt. That's still in play I don't have the same level of confidence Who's the other person that we were talking about? Oh, Gachie's stock going up Gachy stock didn't go up in my estimation too much It went up a little bit because I get

I think of It's tough He's tough I can't have more respect for him than I already do His stock went up a little bit For the same reasons I said at the top of this There's like Justin Gachi is never going to get the credit

He deserves for being a great fighter. He's going to get the credit he deserves for being the most exciting fighter of all time. But he is also a truly great fighter in a way that very, very few fighters are in this sport. And this was a showcase. He's so far past his prime. Like he's so obviously not at his prime anymore. And he's still beating top 10 dudes in battles. Like that's the sign of greatness. I'll tell you what, Mike. I'm going to put this out there I want to be so clear not going to happen I know it's not going to happen

I'm okay with that I want before he said done I want to see that man Justin Gitchie fight Alexander Volcanovsky that just seems like it'd be super damn fun to me like that's why I don't like

vote going back to featherwood is so stupid I was like dude I don't like it just felt so dumb to me it's like dude what are you going to do like you're just going to be the guy who's holding the belt because ilia is not here until somebody beats you dude just go fight do the legends tour fight yeah you lost to islam but go fight charles olivera fight dust and poor you can he retired fight just in gates you like that would be way more fun like what max is getting to do now like he so i'd love to see that but yeah that's that's where i'm out on that whoever asked that question uh

jesus jake his kid rock walking josh took it out at the white house probably not i mean i wouldn't say that zero percent not zero but probably not we both get the bandana rocket there you go uh there's one other question we'll end with this oh okay uh are people going to give ilia credit for beating gaigi the same way media overhyped islam for beating a semi-retired dust and poria buddy they've been giving ilia credit for doing the same thing also uh i gotta tell you i don't was semi-retire he wasn't semi-retired he had just beaten bin walsam he On Deny.

Finished him. I don't, Ilya fans are so, like, you're so wild to me. Like, nobody has ever said Ilya is not a great fighter.

Probably before you liked him as a fighter, everyone was like, that dude's a really good fighter. It's just, like, you have such an inferiority complex about Islamak. It is nuts.

Like, it's okay. We got one more super chat. You guys just chucking them in. It's a, it's a I Jedda Volk wins next weekend

is he the featherweight goat honest question like it's a totally honest question um I think it's a legit question right now I know how you feel about this I do not believe it's a legit question right now my biggest

my single biggest issue with this fight booking is I don't know what this means I because like I didn't I don't know what his win over Lopez already means it's but it's it's fine because at least with Alder there is the comparison of Aldo also beat Frankie Edgar after losing the belt.

When he's clearly not the best featherweight, he's just the guy holding the belt right now because the guy who just beat him left. It's the same exact thing. But now he's getting a rematch with a dude he already comprehensively beat and hasn't fought anybody since. And that dude is not the number one contender. He's not even the number two. Like he's just a guy. A good guy, a top 10 guy.

So it's not a nothing win, but I don't, I just don't know how to rate this victory in the context of the featherweight division. If he gets it, I don't know that he will. Because again, it's not nothing, it's impressive. In the same way, it's impressive what Justin Gachie did tonight to fend off father time. But I don't know how that translates to the greatness of actual achievement. Because Diego Lopet, he shouldn't be.

fighting Diego Lopez. Like he, Mavisaravlo is the number one contender and he's not fighting him. And I believe Volk would fight him, but he's not getting to. And so it's real weird, man. Undeniably a real weird situation.

We'll see what happens. Ily's going to fight Justin. Illia's going to probably win. And then he's going to go fight his one. He's going to retire. Justin Aegee is going to change his stars. He's going to wrestle Ilya to take him down a bunch.

and he's going to knock his head off. And Justin Gichi is going to walk away as the lightweight champion of the world in a Disney fairy tale story. Hell yeah. I mean, that would be pretty sick, though. It would rock. It would be incredibly cool if he got to do that.

I mean... And I'll tell you, I'll go one further. Vulcan I's going to beat Diego Lopez. I don't actually think that's true. Then he's going to beat Mavsar of the Left. And then he will fight lightweight champion, and Justin Gachee in a double retirement fight. Wow.

Well, we were wondering if we were going to get some extra stuff. We already mentioned Dominic Cruz, the UFC Hall of Famer. We wonder if we're going to get some fight announcements. Not a single one. We still don't know. You broke a fight. I did break a fight. I did break a fight on the watch party.

I think it's the first time we've done it on a watch party. Edmund Shabazzian versus the Iron Turtle, April 4th. Agreements on both sides, no contracts just yet. So we did get that fight broken. No UFC London main event. Hopefully we get some more answers on that. But we're out of here, folks. Thank you so much.

We appreciate you. A.K. and I will be back tomorrow. On to the next one. I believe we're going at 11 a.m. Eastern. Do a little matchmaking. And then onwards and upwards to UFC 325. And the New England Patriots go to the Super Bowl. We're out of here.

Don't exit quite yet. Play the music. It's fine. Play the music. I already played it. Oh, Juicy Jake just asked who's the greatest band and wait with the super chat. I am still of the belief it's Dominic Cruz and I'll believe that

until someone puts together better all our own resume and I don't think that's happened. Love you all. Bye. Co-sign. Peace out. Bye-bye. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.