MMA Fighting - UFC 325 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Alexander Volkanovski's LOPSIDED Win Over Diego Lopes In Rematch

Episode Date: February 1, 2026

Alexander Volkanovski not only convincingly beat Diego Lopes for a second time, he did it in an even more dominant fashion in the main event of UFC 325, delivering a lopsided title defense in front of his home crowd in Sydney. The biggest fear in booking the rematch so quickly came to light, leaving most in the MMA space to ask, why did the UFC go back to this well? Following Saturday's numbered event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to Volkanovski's dominant victory over Lopes, what "The Great" gained by defeating Lopes in back-to-back fights, and where he sits in the featherweight GOAT conversation. Additionally, they discuss Benoit Saint Denis and Mauricio Ruffy's statement stoppage wins in the co-main event and featured bouts respectively, Tallison Teixeira vs. Tai Tuivasa being way more fun than expected, Quillan Salkilld's quick finish, 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

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The morning will begin when passenger fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 18665-3-3-1-2-60 or visitcomex-xonterio.ca. Bet mode activated. The scorebed app here with trusted stats and real-time sports news. Yeah, hey, who should I take in the Boston game? Well, statistically speaking. Nah, no more statistically speaking.

I want hot takes. I want knee-jerk reactions. That's not really what I do. Is that because you don't have any knees? Or... The score bet. Trusted sports content, seamless sports betting. Download today.

19 plus, Ontario only. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to conicsonterio.ca. Ladies and gentlemen, there they are. They're back, the victory horns. And they sound for Alexander Volcanovsky, who dominates Diego Lopez in the rematch. I scored at 50-45. One of the judges scored at 50-45.

Two other judges scored at 49-46. And Alexander Volcanovsky is still the UFC featherweight champion of the world as we welcome you to the... not watch party. I'm telling you, I got a graphic for this. There it is, right there. The UFC 325 post-fight show here at Mbiting.com. I'm Mike Heck. That is Jed Bishu.

We are back at it following the watch party, which, you know, look, we had fun. Fun was had at times. Was it as fun? Was it as fun in memorable as UFC 324? Not really, but in the end, Alexander Volkovsky. gets it done it was more dominant this time around than the first fight was

but Volk did it and Diego Lopez went in there and fought and had a smile on his face and came in with a more positive attitude I guess I guess he enjoyed the moment more that was one of the big goals for him but now that we've had a few minutes

to digest what we saw what is the biggest takeaway for you when it comes to this main event was it more on the Alexander Volcanowski side? Was it more on the Diego Lopez side? Or is it more on the UFC side of why did we do this? I mean, it's that.

And I don't want to be that negative because in general, people don't want us to be negative, right? But my overwhelming sense, midway through the title fight and a little bit leading up to it, like a little bit, I was trying to be optimistic. But it was just like, this was, it's not meaningless because title defenses are never title fights are never meaningless it's pretty like this is in the scale of meaning much closer to the meaningless portion of the

thing like we didn't learn anything teagle lopez obviously didn't deserve this in any respect um and he he fought less interest like he the one selling point to the fight was, well, it's going to be fun. Stigalupus fight. It's going to be super fun. Because their first fight was really fun. I think Volk mainly beat the shit out of him, but there were moments enough to make it a fun fight. This didn't

even really have that. Like, Volk just kind of cruised. He mostly was in like third gear all night. There were a couple of times where he would ratchet it up and had some big moments and then just sort of dialed back and just was never in real danger. Diego

didn't seem interested in like forcing the issue much. And so I don't, we didn't, like this is the most frustrating way this fight could have gone. And really makes it look like even worse than the matchmaking itself look. Yeah, it's a, it's a bummer, man.

Like, because, I mean, look, the announcement of this fight set off such like a weird, wacky chain of events for like me personally. Because I hated this matchmaking. I made it very, very. very clear. I hated this. I didn't just dislike it. I hated it. It made absolutely no sense.

The fight just happened less than a year ago. Volk just beat him, had not fought anybody else, and they were going right back to this fight. And the biggest reason why I didn't like it, and I understand why Diego Lopez got this opportunity. And as much as his manager at a time, and we're obviously better now, was upset with me, I got it. Like, I got why he got the fight.

Because the main reason was there was a little bit of frustration with the UFC matchmakers because apparently John Silva was offered to a lot of dudes in that division. A lot of dudes in that division said no. They asked Diego Lopez. Without hesitation, he said, yes. Took the fight. And they basically told him, like, look, man, you take this fight. You go in there.

You have a good performance. Like, you're back in the title conversation. They didn't expect him to just be next. and then he went out there and had a fight of the year contender and finished John Silva. And then they thrust him into a title fight. Like, again, there's no blame to Diego. There's no blame to his team. What are you supposed to say?

No, Lorone and Mowazar deserve it more than I? Of course not. But I hated the matchmaking. And the biggest reason why is because Diego Lopez is so over. After the John Silva win, you just throw him back into a title fight with a guy who dominated him. Like had moments when Volk made a couple of mistakes. Yeah, he stung him a couple of times. a couple of times, but for the most part, like, Volk won that fight pretty cleanly, and then

we're going to do this again. And, like, my biggest fear was, like, Volk was going to make it look even easier and do it by a more widespread margin. And he did that and then some. And now, like, is Diego just, like, fun fighter territory? Because I feel like putting him in this position now and having him fight Volcanovsky twice in a 10-month span, like, it was a big risk on the Lopez team. Is it not? Like, I feel like he's insane. such a, such a tough spot at this point. Like, I don't, he's, he's fine because Volt, Chorafasi, he's going to be there forever.

Churifossi fights for a UFC title again. True. He's fine. That's the thing like, why this is sort of stupid too is like, if he loses, he's going to fight again. And that one will probably be the make or break. But like, folks on a young man. Volk himself was like, I would like to fight, defend the belt one more time and then I'd like to go up to lightweight. and try that again. Volk is out of this division by next year, which means Lopez is fine, right?

Like if Jean Silva gets the title fight and wins it, like he's obviously right there. So he doesn't really lose much by losing this. He would have gained obviously a lot by winning. I don't, I honest to God, don't know what Volt gained. I wish that if he was going to win this fight, he would have finished him because that at least would feel like something more substantive for me to be like,

great but this was this was just the same fight they had 10 months ago like the last like we just did that again and I don't I don't I don't know why this happened like I don't nothing happened here and it's it's frustrating it was a frustrating experience watching this yeah I mean maybe maybe it'll be fine but like he's got he's kind of have some work to do man and like look he can't just keep fighting John Silva over and over again. He's going to have to fight Lorone or Movesar or guys like that who, I mean, fight a year. Yeah, you can fight a year and wait.

That's insane. I mean, it worked out for him once before. I say it might work, man. But you can't go back. You can't go back to Volk. You can't do a Volk fight again. You just can't. No, but again, Volk's not going to be there.

Vogue is gone and Vogue will no longer have this belt. By October He's going to fight once more And he'll either lose it in the next fight Or when he wins he's like I'm done I'm gonna take my talents to lightweight For one final run up there By October this belt will be empty

And he can fight for it If he gets one more win So which is frustrating and kind of silly But that's sort of the UFC run these days Who would you match make Diego Lopez with? Yeah, you're 100%. You do the air. fight that fight's been there forever you do the and then if you do that is not the easiest

trying to give yeah he's not the easiest guy he might lose the i your fight yeah and that's sure but you just you book that fight and you hope it happens and then also they won't do volk yair in two which they tried to do last year a shit they might still try to do again you book those two dudes volk fights the winner of the rumored mob star versus uh murphy fight and we see where the everything has fallen out after they're made Maybe, maybe shouldn't happen, but maybe Jean Silva sneaks in instead if the timelines work right. Where does Al Jermaine Sterling fit in all this? I completely forgot that he exists.

Al Jardin Sterling should, Al Jardin Sterling should fight Jean Silva. That's 100% the fight I would make. Yeah. That's absolutely the fight over here. Let Bobzar on the Roan fight. Why has that fight not been announced? That's, I mean, why are we not? They haven't announced anything.

for that card. Like anything of significance? I don't understand. We're less than two months away. Don't have a clue. I don't know what the USC's doing with anything anymore, Mike. They are constantly confusing me. I got nothing.

But I hope that they at least know they're fighting each other probably. Maybe. Maybe Lerone's, I mean, I've tried. Like, Lerone's team is usually pretty good at, like, confirming stuff with me. They have said nothing about this. the first time I asked about it when the report started coming out, they were like,

eh, not really accurate. But that fight makes all the sense of the world for London. So I truly don't understand why we have not had anything announced for this card. You have to assume at some point we're going to get a day in announcement, like an IG thing where he announced a couple of main events. Like you have to think so, right? Probably this week.

Because now, like, this week's, uh, now, you know, we're after the fight night now or the paper. overview. So now we're on to the apex. They don't really care about that. So we can do some announcements this week would be my guess. He's not in Australia. I'm pretty sure. So he won't be doing like them. Oh, no. He's in Vegas because they get Zupa boxing tomorrow. Yeah. So maybe it's even there, you know, like maybe tomorrow he does it. But maybe it's just I suspect this week

we'll get the London main event because it's six weeks away, man. It's like right around the corner. How would you grade UFC 325 as a whole? That's a good question. On what scale? Give me a scale to use. Whatever scale you want. The scale of one to ten. And I guess we...

Six. Yeah. I guess maybe there's like a touch of a curve here. One of the big discussions I was having on Twitter, I'm sure you saw the spin-in-back fist post that garnered a lot of attention of. Well, we haven't had UFC in six weeks. Oh, yeah. That was very silly. And people are saying this is ass

I'm like, my response is like, I don't think people are saying this is ass. I was like, the main card's pretty fun. I was like, obviously the prelims aren't as good

as last week's was and the card qualities were strong. The prelims on paper were kind of ass. Yeah. But of course, the people's main event, Torres Finney and Jacob Malkoo and like,

what are we talking about here? That was like the fight of all fights. It was a title fight for God's sakes. That fight was stressful and kind of fun. So yeah. Yeah. So there you have it. But this is,

And what I'm informing people of at this point is like, well, we deserve better. I'm like, well, where were you when Jed and I were towing this line five years ago when we're asking for better quality cars? And now, like, I'm past all of this. Like, I have just, I'm past it all. I'm still going to tell truth. Like, if something's truly deplorable on paper, like, I'm going to say it. But for the most part, I'm just going to find positives and stuff because for the next seven years outside of the White House. cards and an even numbered event like UFC 350 or UFC 400 or if they go to Miami.

Like this is what we're getting. Like this is the quality of card we're going to get for the most part. Is there going to be a card that's going to be a notch higher, maybe a notch lower? Absolutely. But the days of just getting like super stacked top 10 fights fucking slap cards are over. Like they're just over. So I see a lot of Cs, some C minuses. You gave it a six out of 10, which is a D, right?

I believe that's correct. I haven't been in school in a while, but that sounds right to me. Yeah, a 60 is like a D minus, like barely passing. Yeah, and that feels right, man. The prelims are pretty tough hang for a lot of it. There were some spots of brightness in this. The main event, like, objectively, I give you pull everything away. it's a fine fight.

It's not one that I think anyone will go back and watch again. Also, why is that the graphic you're putting up? That's so stupid. You see that they're doing a Volk interview. And the graphic is 1.25 of his last 28 fights. There are a lot of other better graphics you could put up for Volk than that one,

which is also like meaningless. Because like that is just saying, since he lost his first fight, he's gone 25 and 3, which is like a very stupid thing to do. This is an idiotic graphic. 25 of 28 just sounds. It's just really like you do any number of things. You could put the somewhat erroneous thing

that he is the most titled, tied most title wins in featherweight history or whatever. Like that's a better graphic than that. Yeah, man, like I, what are we going to be talking about tomorrow from? this, right? Like, that's always sort of the big thing. Like, what is the, what's the, the big storyline coming out of this is, God, that's a good question. Why did that happen? Like, why did that happen, you know? Um, it's, it didn't have a lot of juice and it didn't deliver with whatever juice it could

have had. It's not bad. Some of the fights were good. And, but it's just, I think this is going to, at the end of 2026, this will probably be one of the more forgettable pay-per-views of the year, is my guess. Yeah. I think it's kind of going to get around that way. I guess my biggest takeaway is like Australia deserves better. Like, they've got two tough cards back to back, man. Like at least this one, you know, it's Volk main event. And the crowd seemed banging on it.

Though Australia's paying a lot of money to have a card at noon or whatever time. time it is. Yeah, 9 a.m. I believe is when the prelim started. I feel like that's trash for them. 312, you got two title fights. Neither were competitive. And the rest of the car was just not good. Not great. I think what I will remember honestly, the most shed is big baby. Big baby in the hair. I mean, 100% that is like when I think of today, I'll be like, ah, I remember watching 325 because We spent like 10 minutes talking about big baby getting his top blow off. I'd be just the greatest, the greatest screen grab. That's a photo of the year right there as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, nothing's stopping that. Nothing's stopping that. That's what I remember for the watch party is like the 10 minutes we spent just going back and forth on, on those screen grabs. That was pretty, pretty fun. The, I'd look, do we think it's going to happen like? Do we think Talison versus Ty is going to get, get the fight of the night? Dude, it should.

We had fun with that. I don't know if anybody else had fun with that. We had a great time watching that fight. We have not gotten bonuses yet. Yeah, that was, I mean, that was, it was as much fun as Kevin Holland versus Daniel Rodriguez, but it was pretty damn close. Only because we're on like opposite ends of the spectrum. And it would have been absolutely filthy, hilarious of Ty two vases somehow found a way,

to dig deep and snap the five-fights skid. There were moments where it looked like that was happening. But we'll talk more about that coming up, I'm sure. C-minus for me is what I will grade it. And the only reason this is a C-minus is honestly because of how much fun I had watching Tai Tui Vasa Talosin DeShera. Was that a technical masterpiece?

But I had a damn good time watching it. Risha Ruffy rocked. That was an incredible performance. That was a good fight too. It was a very fun fight. That could end up getting fight of the night. Like, that wouldn't shock me. And then Ben Wassentanyi just running Dan Hooker.

But it was a very fun first round. And then BSD just kind of BSD all over him. C minus. I mean, I think that's fair. Wasn't all terrible. It was just like, I don't think, Ruffy winning was kind of surprising, but not like an overall shock.

But everything else was kind of like, we kind of expected the outcomes to be what they were. So there's no like huge surprises. It was just kind of like the card we expected on paper. So now I have to ask you, Jen, Mishu, because this is the question everybody wants me to ask. I've got multiple jams about this.

I think it's the only thing that people are going to talk about because there's nothing else to fucking talk about on this fight card. Is Alexander Volkanowski officially the greatest featherweight of all time? I don't think so. Plenty of people thought that before this fight. It I'll tell you the thing that it was very frustrating. I mean, a lot of this was frustrating. I've sort of touched on it.

If he had really like just blown the doors off Diego, I'd be like, okay, you got a way better case than you had yesterday, right? Instead, he just, he beat the guy that we already knew he could beat in the exact same way that he beat him. Like maybe a little bit better. This is the exact same way. Like, I don't know what to ascribe that. to. And so I think if you thought he was the goat beforehand, you already, you still think, if you didn't, this didn't change your mind and I don't think it should have. What I have found

interesting, Mike, is because obviously this is a topic that I've talked about a lot, people immediately come at me with it. I have found it very interesting that people are speaking these two sentences back to back and they don't see, in any incongruity there. Man, what a pointless and stupid fight. We shouldn't have done that. But it proves that he's the goat. Okay.

I'm not entirely sure how that logic follows. Because like either that fight, the reason that I'm frustrated that he is not, like if he just beat Mavsar, I'd be like, okay, it's totally reasonable. I cannot argue with the point anymore. So probably not what I believe is true, but I can't argue it.

But he's just beat this dude again, which I already knew he could do because we already saw it. And it is impressive. And I do not under any circumstances want to downplay. Late career Volkinovsky is still having success against, you know, top five guys. That is the hallmark of a great fighter. I don't know how if you didn't think he was the goat before, you watch that fight. I'm like, sold. done. It's like I feel exactly the same way I felt yesterday because I learned nothing new about him.

What does what do you need from him to get over that hump? I don't, I beat another dude. Throw juicy Jake's count. He's done a couple of these up. And I again, I think people deeply misunderstand my relationship to Alexander Volcanowski because the hardest thing to do, yes, I am the one who said that and you're throwing that in my face as if that's a testament he still isn't at Aldo's numbers

so this argument doesn't do shit for you like it proves that he's over there and he's like I don't need to fight this battle I've just fought it enough and I've made my case if you believe he's the goat I can't convince you otherwise like that's just and you're not going to convince me

that beating Diego Lopez a second time solidified it or whatever I'll the last point I'll make in my favor is I've had this argument about a lot of people in the last five years and I've been right every fucking time because I was I was making this argument when y'all tried to tell me max holloway was was the featherweight goat nobody's trying to fucking do that anymore I was making this argument when people were trying to say Kumar Usman's the Walterway goat I was doing that anymore like I was here I was here last year fighting every one of you trying to say Marabs the goat. And Peoria on whoops his ass. And ain't nobody talking about that anymore. Because, like, it's a little different because Volk is just so much further down the line of his career.

But I have been on the right side of not prematurely calling goat. And y'all just really want to do it. Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. This is. I can't convince you and you can't convince me that beating, you. Diego Lopez. Again, if he'd blown the doors off him, I might have to be like, shit, man. Okay. He was the same fight. We learn nothing. It's hard to, it's hard to change my opinion because of that.

Because yes, it is the most difficult thing to do. He's still too behind Aldo. Like, okay. A lot of people are asking about the hat, Jed. What can you tell us? My house is freezing because it is. Let me look at the weather right now. It's eight. It's 18 degrees outside and it feels like zero. And my house is cold because I can't turn my heat on because my heater makes a lot of noise. And it is basically directly over this area. So it will just be a oppressive background noise. So I am wearing long sleeves and quite cold.

I got to tell you something. I have on my screen muted the UFC on Paramount Post Fight show. And John Gooden is interviewing Ben Wassentini. Benoit Sontanee looks like a gosh darn superstar right now. He's got the sport coat on, one button, white t-shirt underneath. I'll take the hat off for you, boys.

He's got like stylish sunglasses on, and he's wearing the Aussie hat too. He looks like a couple of Billy. Shout out to Benoit Santini, just looking like a friggin superstar. So good autumn. Yeah. He's in a tough spot because I don't know who he fights next.

still waiting for bonuses I'd love to share them with you because there's no Dana because why would I mean Dana is the one that said if you don't like it don't watch the event so why would he be there?

Everybody hates my beanie my beanie is quite warm and comfortable I'm going through fashion statement because I'm not making fashion statements I mean the thing about going on to Twitter right now is I'm seeing scorecards from people and I'm just absolutely flabbergasted by some of the things

and I'm seeing. Were people giving Lopez multiple rounds? Because that's wrong. At one point, I saw a couple of people show their ass and say, it's Diego Lopez 29, 28 after three rounds. I'm just like, what are we talking about here? Good Lord. Let's see.

What else do we have? Another super chat while we wait for bonuses. Would Jed think Volk is goat featherweight if he beat Ilya? Yeah, you could maybe be able to find me saying that. I think he would have had a really strong case. I think just beating Ilya, that would have been like his six title defense, right? Because he has five. Now he has six.

I think that's right. I think just beating I would have been like no. But I would have been like, dude, one more and it's a rap. And that's partly why this is so weird. because like at least when he lost Ilya and then came back and beat Diego there was a parallel with Aldo of Aldo lost to Connor

and then he beat Frankie and got the belt back but so like that was that felt that's equal right that's an equivalent thing but then Aldo had fought Max and lost in the next one and so now that's not for Maxx or you know

it's not not the same thing that's happened here And so it's very hard to know how much to wait this. It's not nothing. Is it, I don't think it's a lot. I don't, I don't know. I truly, I've been grappling with this since the fight got booked how much to, because this was like, assuming this was the outcome. It's like, I still don't know what to meet, make of it.

I don't know if I'll ever know how to rationalize this victory. It's a very weird one. It is a very weird one. still waiting on bonuses uh harmon ufc 325 was fun hope y'all stayed safe and warm out there p.s i liked your beanie jedd no thanks it's right here

it i mean it might come back because i'm cold put it on man mostly my feet are cold but um i got socks on we'll be all right anything else you want to Lucas Skinner we're not forgetting that Volpeed out though because that has little to no bearing on this conversation. I have been incredibly up front with my belief that Alexander Volcanovsky is a

better fighter than Jose Aldo. Greatness is not the same thing as better. Greatness is a measure of accomplishment. And I simply believe that Jose Aldo has accomplished more than Volcanovsky has in this sport. And I do not believe that beating a dude you just dumped up 10 months ago. That hasn't changed my opinion on that matter. Bo Moe-Mode says Aldo was washed By the time he fought. See, he wouldn't wash. And that's like, honestly, one of the more impressive things that Aldo will probably never get credit for is his post career. But this isn't a Jose Aldo podcast.

This is a more interesting question that I have considered. Duke Madduck asking if Volk's higher than Habib. And I think he is higher than Habib. But Habib is also a weirdo. Habib's career is deeply curious, like, flogical. But I think Volk, yeah, I've, I think Volk is one of the ten best fighters of all time. One of the ten greatest, not just best. One of the ten greatest fighters of all time.

I've said that for years at this point. I just, I simply don't think he's accomplished as much as Josaldo has. I mean, Joseph, what a run Josie had, man. And he put, Jose Alto has 11 title wins. was functionally undefeated for like the same time Volk is was the head like was the champion of the featherweight division for seven years and has nine title defenses it's incredible this is truly incredible shit

dude couldn't make it at 1.45 somehow made Bannam weight fought for the belt yeah that was always super weird yeah fought for the belt and arguably should have fought for the belt a second time actually not arguably. He absolutely should have fought for the belt the second time.

Instead, instead the UFC did their worst matchmaking in history. They booked a man, they booked the man against Marab de Walsh, Billy, in Salt Lake City for some friggin reason. While T.J. Dillashaw with one shoulder got a title shot and fought Al Jermaine Sterling and got dummied all up in Abu Dhabi. Why do we do that?

Just the worst thing I've ever seen. And then Marab won a fight that gained Marab, like literally zero fans. Still, still the only man who Marab Delageville has never taken down. What a king. Yeah, honestly, it would be sick if Vol had like a post prime like that in another way, it would cause that rule. But, yeah. Look, if he keeps winning, at some point, like, it just has to happen.

Like, it's just like, if he keeps doing it. But it's, it's tough. It's very, very weird. This is technically not correct, by the way. Mufasa, according to the UFC, outside of the first max fight, this is bulk's seventh defense at featherweight. So that's technically true, but also technically false. This is his sixth title defense, successful title defense. He has defended it seven times.

He obviously lost one of them. those. This was his eighth championship victory in the UFC counting the so he's got six title defenses and two title wins. But six defenses because one of the seventh one he lost.

Sorry for insigating, says Juicy Jake. No, because you weren't the I mean you were instigating but you're not the only one like every time Volk has fought and people have because my stance is so very clear and we work with somebody who actively tries to instigate

because people like to ruffle me at this point I'm just this just happened so much it doesn't really bother me but it is deeply weird to be like that fight was useless but he's the goat if you thought he was the goat and you still think he's the goat fine that's an okay position

the the second Diego Lopez win being the thing that puts you over I have questions let's just go to the peeps for the rest of the time here are we still not bonuses come on bonuses tell me my my big silly boys are getting a fight of the night how are we not who's who's doing it is it shawl uh it is but i don't think he's gotten up there yet apparently marisha rofi had a terrible fight week

in terms of like his health or whatever and apparently tfema lopez is getting cooked uh that's kind of what we expected Let's see. Let's go and pull some questions. What were the odds on that? I didn't look at that. Let's see. Pull this down. I'm trying to get. There we go. Now I can see it.

Armand, what are your guys' early thoughts on UFC 326? Do you think it has potentially be a better card than tonight was? Oh, my God. Yeah, does that better? Well, when TBD versus TBD match up, I do want to give this thing one big, big up because there was something tonight that I really enjoyed. I thought the gap, the difference in pacing from 324 to 325 was very noticeable. And I don't know if that's just, you know, they said at 324, we're trying some things, it'll be different. I don't know if that's just what it was or if they heard the criticism.

But like, that was huge. It was absolutely huge. It was once, it took a little bit to get going because they did really drag their feet for that first fight. But once we got going, we were rolling, baby. And so big ups to them for that. Yeah, much better. I think we got every walkout on the main card too. Mm-hmm.

Also that big, big ups. So well done. The 326 question. Yes. Do you think 326 is... We talked about this a little on the watch party. Weird that there's a TBD versus TBD co-made event. Yep.

And it was in the specifically co-main event spot. So are we... Do they think they need something to juice this thing up a little bit? What are we thinking here? I mean, I don't think you need to juice this up because the main events got a lot of juice. Are we chucking? Are we chucking on this?

I just thought we were doing Kyle versus RDR as the co-main. But that apparently is not what's happening. And so what was the original co-man? I thought the original co-man was Kyle R-D-R. The only fights is Paul and out is Moikano Ortega. I thought like Paula, what are they going to do? Paulo Costa versus Bruno Ferreira is the co-main event? Something weird fight.

That's happening somewhere else. No, well, Paul is now fighting Asimat Mirzikonov. Oh, he's fighting Merzikhanov, yeah. I know there was something that was originally there that is no longer there. Let's see. What is no? No. Maybe, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know what they're nothing But it will be significantly better Because the main event is much more interesting And that main event's going to rule No matter how it goes It's going to be fun as hell There's no chance the main event isn't banger Even though I think Max Holloway

Is going to probably win that fight convincingly You know They're two of the seven most exciting guys Who are stepped in the cage So that's great I will say I just pulled this up I do not realize that this is a fairly weak card Main event got the juice

Kyle RDR I think it's a great fight Rob Font, Robert Ruses Jr. Really good. Some interesting, like that's just pretty interesting matchmaking. Robocop Bruno Faheta should be fun. Very fun. I mean, that's also like technically a decent fight but it's just a fun fight.

The rest of this is pretty, eh? Depends on who they get to repeat. placed Brian Ortega. I know Esteban Riebevich has said yes. I don't know if that, you know, if Riebevich versus Moikano happens, that's a really fun fight. But if that falls off, I will say that this, this is, has a better main event. It's, it's maybe just like a hair better than 325 on paper. Should Armin Surukian just step up and fight head out to Wicano? I mean, just get just get one in, man. Look at 100% he should do that. Go get that fight, man.

Just go in there and smush that man. 100%. He should do that. Yep. I mean, I don't think, I'm trying to think, like, if Ruffy could turn it around, that'd be good for him. Yeah. I mean, it's a fast turnaround. But if he could do it, I mean, that's a, get him good graces.

That'd be pretty good. Lucas, could I also just say it's not simply a numbers game. Volcanovsky has fought almost inarguably better competition throughout his championship Ray and the Jose Aldo. Yeah, this is where I have the biggest disagreement with most people. I think, I mean, it's inarguably very good. I also disagree with that take. He beat Max Holloway three times.

That's sensational. I do think beating the same dude over and over again is a little less impressive for me than for other people. But like, I got to tell you, the rest of the dudes he's beaten, they're all the same dudes. Like, they're the same level of dude, right? You, many people either weren't fans since they don't know. But like, one of our coworkers today, an hour ago was like, man, that Ricardo Lamas win was really impressive. I'm like, dude, in 10 years, that Ricardo Lamas win is the exact same win that Volk just got. like they're all the same level

Brian Ortega is I personally think he's awful so I think he's actually worse than a lot of dudes Jose fought they both beat Korean zombie they both beat Frankie Edgar right we'll be Frankie Edgar that's one of those right or did he not I can't remember who he beat

at this point if you look it up he beat like the cornerstone of the argument is Max Holloway is a great fighter and he beat him three times and that argument absolutely carries some real water to it. But I hold that slightly less than esteem than other

people do because I think styles make fights and when you beat a dude once and then beat him twice, you're probably going to beat him a third time. You know? We officially have bonuses, Jed.

Interesting. Performance of the night. How happy am I? There's two performance of the nights. Okay. Quillet Killance for sure Yep Who else would get a performance of the night bonus

Ruffy? Yes Okay Fight of the night I won either way Because either the main event or it's the heavyweights They did give it to Volcanovsky? They gave it to Volkinovsky It's kind of uh

It's fine Kind of a robbery Kind of a robbery Taitu Vasa deserved it I honestly think BSD Ruffy was more fun Personally, but yeah, uh, as was Barisha Ruffy Rafael Fazeev. I mean, happy birthday lazy bed. Boom.

Yeah, let's go. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Lazy bed. Uh, all right. Let's keep this going here. Finally got our bonuses. Uh, juicy Jake.

Uh, how many more does he need? I know we just discussed this, but let's throw the super chat up there for Volk being the goat. Look, I mean, I assume the question is for me. It is at least needs. I mean, because other people, we already think it if you do. At least needs one. Like, I need him to, like, if Mavsar fights Lerone, and he beats the winner of that, if he beats John Silva, I mean, I guess maybe if he just totally dummy Jean Silva,

but, like, it's just, I need, he lost the belt, so I need him to fight the best dude in the weight class that's not the guy who beat him. And right, he hasn't done that. So one, I have, I'll tell you what this fight did, not because it did it for me, but because I am simply exhausted with the battle. If you want to say it, you can say it. I think you're wrong. I just, I don't have the bandwidth to fight you on what I think is pretty clear at this point. If he gets one more, I still probably won't, but maybe, like, maybe you will.

Like, I don't know. I think if he fights Mowzar and wins, and, like, he gives Mosaar's first owl, I think that's almost indisputable. I mean, that would be really, really big. It would be really, really big. Um, so yeah, like, that's, it. Uh, is Belichick the goat?

Yeah, fucking, just fucking question. Yeah. Are we crazy? Belichick has a, Belichick, I don't know if he is the greatest coach in sports history. I just, there are a lot of sports out there. I don't know. John Wooden or whatever. But like he's closer to that being an argument than there being an argument that there's a better NFL head coach than him ever.

Yes. The fact that he's not getting a Hall of Fame, nod is absolutely ridiculous. Like he'll get there and it's all going to be for not. And this is like some people who think they have like gigantic Cajonis being like, let me take a stand here because he did stuff that other teams did for. decades and never got punished for it. I think I think no Patriots fan should be upset about this. I think that actually Bill Polion gave you a gift because it doesn't in any way diminish Bill Belichick, but it doesn't diminish.

He's now more over. I know. Yeah. And it absolutely diminishes like Tony Dungey and Bill Polian and all those people who did it. Bill said he voted for him. Bill Paulian said he voted for Belichick. No, he didn't.

He said, I can't remember what I did because he's a lot. It's pretty obvious. I heard clip saying that he did vote for him. He, I've, the clip is Bill should be in. I don't remember who I voted for. I think I voted for him. Which is like, you don't remember? Okay, sure. It's just, it's very silly. And the only people who come out looking bad are not patriots. So you should all be banging about that. And Bill Belichick should someone through this takeout. I don't remember who. who like originated, but Belichick should get in and then just not go. That would be incredible. He should definitely think about doing that.

Just it would be the most. Oh, God. That. I mean, I would be annoyed to no end, but that would be so funny if he did that. All right. Spencer, hey, boys, thought the main car was solid. Happy for Volk getting his moment, but agree with both of your thoughts on the main event, not needed and was surprised Diego was not more aggressive thoughts on ruffy nasty finish

um ruffie is a strange one for me i i thought and still kind of think he's the worst of the fighting nerds core for right um but he has really high ceiling right he he is probably as or more violent than any of them um but i mean like we just saw huge flaws into his game and even he still like struggled a little early with Viziv and just putting pressure in his face and then he found his window and good on him um as a dude who's probably in a fight for the belt I don't know if he wins it um but like and he's still pretty young I think he's in his 20 still so I don't feel compelled to rush him but the UFC seems very interested in having him

around because he lost a BSD and he got the guy ranked right behind BSD. So they're they're giving him some some love. Fire off couple rapid fire if we get out of here. Joseph Boza, Taijuvoss last six in a row. Is he done? Probably. I think they keep them. I could, I could be convinced.

I think they keep him. Would you just please throw him versus Derek Lewis at the White House? A little rematch. I don't hate it. could do worse. Stop throwing him in there with anybody who will try to grapple with him. Like find a guy in this division

who has like no grappling at all. I mean, he'd had some moments that he could have beaten Dallas. It looked like that could be real. Question, we'd get more cards like this ahead of the White House. Yeah,

probably. Maybe worse, honestly. This was not a card like, this was a card like that because we just put all the Anzac fighters on it and they're like a couple of good ones and so it just sort of is what it is um but yeah i mean the card quality in may and april is going to be pretty low if they're if they're stacking

white house like they say they're stack especially if they're doing title fights like they say they're doing a white house i still don't think that's going to be the case but if it is i mean the the may card quality is going to be quite poor i just don't know if they go to miami with with a garbo card. I think they'll have one okay one, but everything else. And honestly, where you're going to notice it more

is the apex. Like the apex shows are going to be just rancid. Because they're going to rob any talent that would go on the apex, and that's going to fill other things. Agreed.

Let's see if we had anything else. Daniel, what was your idea? Miami doesn't have a main event because London doesn't have a main event. Well, you have to assume that some sort of light heavyweight title will be on the line in Miami. Whether it's Pereira versus Allberg, which, you know, I would rather see

Pereira just vacant go to heavyweight and we just do Alberg versus Yerry for the vacant belt. I think that goes over much better. So I would do that, but I would assume that we're defending the late heavyweight belt on that card. I don't know. I mean, yeah. Miami's April, right? Or is that May?

That's April. Doesn't seem like Peyodor Yon can fight in April. Yeah, Yon's going to be out until summer. At least. Maybe Pioter's maybe May, but that seems ambitious. Maybe they just throw an interim title fight, which would be insane. But if you're doing, U.S. He's whiling out these days.

With Bannamway? Who'd you do? Sean O'Malley versus Corey Sandhag him? You do Omar versus Marab two. No, really? If you're going to do an interim belt, that seems like the one. I mean. Because you can't do, I mean, unless you did Sean versus Umar and just really screwed

rob over. I don't think you do that. So it's, yeah, I mean, it's tough. I don't know. I think the light heavyweights in play. I think an interim heavyweight belt is very much in play. Women's flyweight is obviously there for the taking. Zhang versus Dern ostensibly will happen sometime in these next few months.

Oh my gosh. I can't wait for that fight. McKinsey Dern, baby. Let's go. Is this your, is this your Giuliana Payne? Yeah. Part two. I'm going to try and speak it into existence, is what I'm going to try and do.

I picked her officially in my champs predict. I was the only reason we didn't have a single unanimous choice for champion because I picked Dern at Women's Straw Weight. That would have been our only weight class where everybody on staff agreed. One more super chat and we'll get out of here from Spencer. Jed wants you know. I agree. I still have Josiah's featherweight goat, but close. And if Alex gets one legit title defense more, I'll have them tied and two more he passes.

Is Vol close to turning the pound-for-pound pantheon of six to seven for you guys? I have two more. I can't argue the point if he gets two more. Even if those two more are like fucking John Silva and Aljo, it's still. like okay man sure um if one more is mopsar or florin beats mopsar so he has a really compelling case at that point um it'll just kind of it'll have to see we'll cross that bridge when we come to it um i've been thinking about the pantheon a lot lately i don't think he does yet but like it's pretty tough there are there are a lot of dudes sort of really trying to crack

that my issue is the people the in my pantheon of six i believe like i think you can make a credible argument for any of those six to be considered the greatest fighter of all time and i don't think you could do that with volk yet but if he if he passes aldo then he doesn't change the pantheon he just sort of takes the aldo spot in the pantheon um and like i thought marab was getting close to getting into that pantheon. He's not. Technically the pantheon is actually what said eight people

because you have Nunes and Chfchenko are in the pantheon for sure too. But like it's Islam and Tuporia are the best bets right now to crack into the pantheon but folks possible he's in the mix.

And we will leave you with this ladies and gentlemen from Juicy Jake Volk Jed Mike Hack Timmy Brady all goats love you guys, great website

Timmy Brady is the goat it is a great website a terrific website the best website dare I say but thank you guys very much we are not done talking about this event

I don't think we're going to talk about this way too much more but AK and I will do some matchmaking on to the next next one 11 a.m. Eastern tomorrow morning on this here YouTube channel because I'm going to be stuck in the house for the next day no matter what because we ain't going anywhere it's going to be the frozen

tundra outside here in South Carolina and snow so we're be stuck in the house for another day I'm so excited to turn my heat on yes you get started to you can't turn your heat on and we appreciate all of you was we did we made the best with what the UFC offered us That's all we could say. And look, we're back at the world's most famous meta apex next week, Mario Batista versus Loak Dog inside the world.

That fights really fun. That is really fun. There are a couple of really fun fights on that card. A lot of Garbo, a couple of really fun fights. Yes. But we thank you so much for joining us. I had a great time, Jed. I really did.

So thank you all very much. We're playing the song again. Love you all. We're playing this song again. Bye, bye, everybody. Olivia loves a challenge. It's why she lifts heavy weights and likes complicated recipes.

But for booking her trip to Paris, Olivia chose the easy way with Expedia. She bundled her flight with a hotel to save more. Of course, she still climbed all 674 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower. You were made to take the easy route. We were made to easily package your trip. Expedia, made to travel.

Thank you.