MMA Fighting - UFC 331 Post Show | Reaction To Joshua Van & Arman Tsarukyan's Big Wins, Gable Steveson's KO Loss

Episode Date: September 20, 2026

UFC 331 delivered one of the craziest cards of the year, and in the main event, Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja put on a classic, but it was Van that emerged as the better man with an impressive fifth round to close the show and retain the flyweight title. Arman Tsarukyan also earned himself a shot at UFC gold with a brutal knockout win. Will Tsarukyan finally get his day in court? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to UFC 331, Van's sensational performance, Tsarukyan's cold-blooded knockout, and what's next. Additionally, topics include Sean Sharaf knocking Gable Steveson unconscious to pull of the biggest upset in UFC history, Patricio Pitbull's standout performance, Marlon Vera's throwback outing in his stoppage of Charles Jourdain, and much more. 📱 iOS: ⁠⁠https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sb-nation/id6789240983⁠⁠ 📱 Android: ⁠⁠https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbnation.app⁠⁠ 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, Mike Heck here from MMA fighting and my good friend Jed Mishu is here with me as well because Jed, the day has finally arrived. It's App Day, the all-new SB Nation app. It's live now. It's live, Jed. It's alive. Yeah, man, I'm really excited. And it's awesome, man.

Combat sports, like all sports, but combat sports fan especially, you guys are going to have your voices heard like never before within SB Nation. MMA boxing, not me, but you pro wrestling, Mike. it's it is a community-based app it's all about community with the USB nation app it's so easy to use and it can keep obviously combat sports fans connected to their favorite teams and all of sports too across the board so I can keep up with the Red Sox the Patriots and the Bruins all on my phone and it's so simple to use yeah like you you mentioned those teams but uh there's so much more because I don't care about Boston sports Mike but I get to follow the NFL all the other sport

F1, the various sports that I care about outside of combat sports. And then there's the live experience because that's, to me, that's one of the coolest things. You can chat with us during fight cards every Saturday. And you can chat with other people in the communities as big events are happening. So it's, it's a really good time. So ladies and gentlemen, come fight with us over on the all new SB Nation app. Download it today. Download it right now.

What are you waiting for? Download it. All right, everybody. The victory horns. They are back. And they sound for Joshua Van, who is still the UFC Flyway champion after a hellacious battle with the former champ, Alexandria Pantosia, a rematch and needed to happen. And it lived up to my expectations, that's for damn sure.

One of the best fights of the year, if not the best fight of the year. Unbelievable stuff, which capped off an absolutely chaotic night. The horn sound for Armin Sarukian, who's going to get. his day in court after a brutal knockout. They sound for Patricia Pitbull. They sound for Alonzo Menafield. And they sound for Sean Sharaff. Holy shit.

UFC 331. What a wild event. What else can we say? And I am Mike Hack and joining me fresh off of a widely fun and successful watch party. He's wagging his finger like Dekembe Matumbo. He is a one of which I have to do. The whole sounds.

for Cheeto Vera as well. Cheeto Vera. Look, we could have gone, Casey O'Neill, Joanna and Brito. Yeah, the rest of those or whatever. Cheeto, Chito deserves to get called out to. Yes, he does. He did the thing.

He did see what thing, man. See what happens when you throw punches in the first round. Look at you do. You go out there and get wins. It's crazy. You win fights. Crazy. So much to discuss here, Jed Mishu.

As we said, Josh Van is still the flyway champion. Armand wins, Sean Sharaff wins. And we just said this coming off the watch party. And I know this is a very recent-se biased sport. And sometimes we jump to conclusions. But I feel quite confident in saying this. I think this is the best event of the year. This is the most, I mean, it's not the White House.

Yeah. White House is a different feel. If you're going to put it in a different box because it's so special, okay? White House is still the event of the year. But this was a great event. But I'm going to go, here's the reason why I think this is. the best event of the year. Yes, we're going to get what Justin Gaghi and Ilya did in that, like that fight. That's going to be what it's all sudden done.

We're going to think about that fight and what it meant. Like literally coming out of this event, we're going to have a top five submission of the year nominee, two top five knockout of the year nominees at worst two top tens and an absolute fight of the year nominee. Like when we do our awards, every, every category is going to be represented by what happened here tonight. So good. White House is obviously like, I think you just can't really count it in this conversation because it's so special. But I understand the impact and it was an unbelievable car. But in terms of like just your typical run of the mill UFC quote unquote pay per view event, like it's just I don't think you can get better than this one.

Like especially with what the main event delivered. I mean, it's going to be pretty tough. Right, like, the only way you get better is you scale it bigger, right? The White House was bigger. But like, as much as we love the main event and the fighters involved, if this was a pay-per-view, like a traditional sense of pay-per-view, I'm unclear how it would have done numbers-wise. So, you know, you could get bigger if, like, if 329 had not had the, what it was,

like, maybe that's bigger. But yes, as far as, you know, AK used to have the gymnastics score. And gymnastics are you have the maximum amount of points that you can score for the difficulty level you've assumed. I mean, this card maxed its points out, right? Like, this card couldn't really have done better for what it was. And I'm very comfortable calling it the best card of the year, non-UFC White House division.

Yeah. Unbelievable stuff. and like we knew even when we looked at it like, yeah, it's one of those things where like the UFC had to scramble and get Ruffy in there and, you know, and credit to them. They, they had people doubt in a little bit.

You know what? He might go out there and beat Armandsurgent. Like, he might just go out there and knock them out. The real ones knew that wasn't going to happen, but it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Like, it's just so fun. Like, we looked at the lineup and we were like,

we didn't look at 332 and we're just like, ooh. This could be like super duper fun and overexceed expectations, but we looked at this lineup and knew like, ooh, we got, we got the right ingredients to make a really fun stew here. And boy,

did this overexte expectation. So let me ask you this because there's so many big moments. And poor Casey O'Neill is just going to be kind of forgotten about. She might get a bonus, but like all in all during the next week of coverage heading into arguably the worst UFC event of all time, which it's not even being negative. of like it's just what it is.

It's you can make a case for it. What will you remember most? Like at the end of the year, when you think back on UFC 331, what's the first thing you think you're going to think of? It shouldn't be. I want to be really clear it shouldn't be. Because the first thing we should think of is the main event

and what an exceptional fight that was from these two men. I hope we get it again. I know that, you know, we've technically had two of them, but we can all be adults and acknowledge, while the first fight is valid, it wasn't a fight, it was what it was.

And so I'd love to see them run it back. Not immediately, no cops there, but like, that should be the first thing. The second thing should be, and I think, honestly,

even over that main event, the second thing for me really is, Armand did it. Like, you can't deny him. It's undeniable. But the thing I'm going to think the most about is quite obviously. Sean Cheroff did it.

Like, that's one of the biggest upsets of all time. One of the biggest, I think mathematically the biggest upset in UFC history. And it's not the most significant. It's the most, well, in hindsight, yeah, sure, this could happen. But it's just like, that's what I think of this card at the end of the air. Like, that will be the thing. I'm like, hey, he. Yeah, well, Steve's got knocked out in 11 seconds.

And then was a petulant little child and took his ball and went home. Like, that's 100%. my I can't I can't help it it shouldn't be it's not right but it absolutely is what it is it is what it is it's like it literally is the answer yeah it shouldn't be like you you'd like to believe that it's the things that should matter and are more meaningful but I can't he talks an enormous amount of shit all week uh but also like while trying to be the good guy and then looked like literally looked past him at ceremonials because he wasn't worth his time I think it's not out in 11 seconds and isn't even man enough to stand there and watch Sean Cheroff get his hand raised like everybody has to do. I can't not think of that. Yeah. It's just just the way that this sport is just so dangerous and humbling and just, I don't know, like it just turns you into there's so many different ways you can go. You could take a loss like Dominic Cruz and have like the greatest post-fight press conference of all time.

You could take a loss like Connor McGregor did a Nate Diaz. Or you could do what Gable Stevenson did and just can be on the complete opposite side of the fence and try to come back from that. I mean, I don't know how you do you go in that. Like, do you go and fight tattooed boss? I don't know. But I think like that's the impactful moment. Like if you go on social media right now, it's everybody reacting to Gable getting knocked out more so than an arm in two. But I mean, on that note, Mike, UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland.

shared some text messages he had with Sean Sharaff earlier this week, uh, showing Sean Sharaff's, uh, living arrangements, which is what appears to be a yoga mat on an empty floor that he is sleeping on. And, uh,

Strickland telling him, you can buy a cheap mattress on Amazon for 300 bucks. So the feel good continues because he's going to, I assume he's getting all the bonus money right now. Give him 500. He can buy a least. He can buy at least to buy a bed That former U.S. Marine can buy a bed

He can buy a house, a car, he can buy it all He should get multiple bonuses For what he did tonight But Josh Van man This guy is a dog We want to see what happens like Unbelievable, right? That fight banged

Like it's just, it was so good I can't wait till we watch it again tomorrow Because I'm absolutely going to It was just so damn good But Van like I wanted to see what would happen like we knew he's a dog but pants is also a dog and he's unkillable van almost got him almost got him out of there but to see josh just continue to get better at such a young age just such a mature fighter like when you watch his performance tonight did you like if you had never seen him fight before

and he was like yeah that kid's only 24 years old you'd be like no he's not he's 30 he's just so wise beyond his years. Your reaction, man. It's just like the fight, not just the fight it's up, but like what Josh did to be able to like kind of overcome some tough moments and out dog a man that is really tough

to out dog. He is so yeah, like so ready for the moment. Right. Like and sometimes it comes off a little arrogant, right? Like the way he carried himself. Even up to the fight like he could not

have been more unconcerned. But there is a fine line between arrogance and just being correct, right? If you can back it up, it's not that arrogant. And the big takeaway from that main event for me. And there's a million things to talk about, a million interesting pieces to it. But the big takeaway, as I was watching it, was like, and I didn't have any questions. Like, there was not a concern. I didn't learn anything new, but it really solidified.

that dude in the fifth round is a problem. Like in the fifth round against Tetsu Tair, he finished him. And the fifth round against Pantoshi almost finished him, right? Like he, this is after 20 hard minutes of fighting. A fight that I had scored 2 and 2, I think you had at 3-1. Most people, I'd say not most, but I think a majority of the scorecards I've seen thought that that fight was even or maybe van up 3-1 heading into the 5th. but he puts a statement on it in a way that champions do, right?

Like they are called championship rounds for a reason. And in the fifth round, in a fight that could have, now we know in hindsight it wasn't up for grabs. He was, he was ahead already. But a fight that could have been up for grabs and like the biggest moment of his life, two times in a row he has shown all the way the F up in a way that is very, very special and very rare in this sport to see somebody

could you blame him if he showed up and was just like that fifth round and was like all right I'm tired this dude's not going away I'm just gonna stick a jab and move and as long as I defend takedowns and I jab and I jab and I throw the right hand

a couple of times I can probably win this on the margins and eke out of nope and who he is he puts the hammer down when it matters most and that's championship shit Like that is, that's what you want. And I've seen it twice in a row now. And from a kid who's 24 is really, really impressive.

I mean, just it's, it's wild then. And I wanted to see this fight just because like I want to, I've been one of the guys that's been like, this is a legit win from Josh Van over. It's not like what you want to see from those two guys in particular. but at the same token, it was like a legit whim. Josh caused the injury.

It wasn't like pants slipped and fell on a banana peel and it hurt his shoulder. It was something Josh did defensively that sort of led to it. But I need to see what Josh could do in a five-round fight against Pantosia. He showed me everything. This guy is in two fights of the year contenders.

Like if you wrote down a top 10 list right now, the Tire fight and this fight are on that list. They just have to be. And just think, Jed, like look at what we have to look forward to now. We're going to get him and Menalcop. If he wins that,

we're going to get, we could get, like, him and Royval again. Like, if, if the stars align, him and Osul Mabayev, him in Ramazan Tamarov, maybe Van Horaguchi down the line. Like, Sumedharji,

Ray Saruya, Charles John. Johnson rematch, like Alessandro Costa, like, flyweight, Josh fan is going to fight all these dudes. And to put the belts on the line, like, I am so excited. I was already excited for the flyweight division.

Now look at us. Now look at what we have to look forward to. It's incredible. It's, I mean, I've, I called this a couple years ago. I was like, I think in a few years, flyweight's going to be the new Bannamweight. There are people like, hell yeah.

And yeah, you know, like I am super stoked to see Van fight cop. I'm super stoked to see Van fight Pantosia again, hopefully. Maybe not. Maybe it doesn't end up happening, but I'd love that. Also, Omabayaev gets one. That'd be sick. Somebody in the chat mentioned it. It's a shame we don't have Maham Mahayev, but that would be great.

I mean, people aren't talking about this. Brandon Royval is right there. And their first fight was fight of the year. and Van won a three-rounder, but like, let him fight two, ten more minutes. Let's see what happens. Like,

that's, we get to have a lot of fun with him over the next couple of years. And then, you know, if he can run through this gauntlet, and it is a gauntlet, right? Like,

I know Lonnie Kavanaugh just lost, but he'll be coming up. We've got some other younger talent in the weight class a little further down that can build. Like, this is what I always want. I want a champion who can put together

a sustained run against generations of fighters, year, you know, risers and fallers over time. And Van seems poised to do that, right? Like, he's super active. I don't know if he can honestly just keep this up. Like he can keep fighting at this clip as champion. We don't see it a lot.

It's very difficult. But the next two, three years, it's all bangers for Josh Van. Or if somebody unseats him, then that's still all bangers. Like, Flyweight is in such a wonderful position. and it was not that long ago the Dana White was trying to kill it and there were like 14 people in the UFC in the weight class like

crazy how far it has come but I'm it's it's amazing it's one of the best way class in the sport right now and Blah Sons coming like oh my God man Flyway just it's so good get excited future of this division

looks very bright congratulations to Josh fan and and Pantosia too man like those two guys did a great job selling this thing and making it more intriguing. I know a lot of people will sit there and complain about like the lower weight classes and stuff. And you still see it with kind of like the newer generation of fans that the UFC is trying to cater towards.

But shout out to pants, man. Dude just battle all the way to the end. Incredible fight. They did the damn thing. I'm sure they're going to get at least, I'm sure they're both walking away with an extra 100K. As well, Armands. It has to be.

Yeah. I mean, that's the fight of the night. There's just no other way around it. As well, Arm and Sarucyan. he will absolutely be getting a bonus. He did it, man. He did it. He's going to fight for the belt.

He called in Mauritia Ruffy with an elbow. That is going to be in the fight of the year discussion or the knockout of the year of discussion for sure. What else do we need to say, Jed? My guy, it took us a really long time to get here. A couple of Olympic cycles. But now, Armand Sarukian is going to fight for the lightweight belt and it's spectacular.

What, what, oh God. Have you seen what Armourie? Norman Sarukian is wearing post-fight. Is it a bunch of you? I'm going to send this to you in Slack right now, and I would like your live reaction to this. Oh. I mean, what's a spectacular fit.

The dude looks like the champion of the world. This is a spectacular fit that Arm and Sarukian has. Bright, bulldog red and black, love it. Unbelievable word from him. Oh, this is great. You asked me a question. I don't remember where it was. I mean, what else can you say?

But I was, I was too busy, distracted by that. This is a terrific suit from him. He's about to fight for the belt. Whether it's against Justin Gates, you should fight him. It is probably the biggest fight he can realistically get right now. I think this is a bigger fight that I'll get at the moment, because no one will complain about it.

Armand is over. You heard the L.A. crowd. He was the most popular fighter by far on that. entire card and he did the damn thing man like this is this is the one get it done yeah i was i mean i made no secret about it this week mike like they've been talking about ilya fighting gaichi and i i think people thought it was a bit and it was not like it was very serious if they do book a media rematch between ilia and gaetchi i i will have to genuinely reconsider my career and my i don't know if i can possibly stick with a sport

That's that far field of being a sport at that point in time. And the concern, especially with the way some of the conversation had gone, was like, it's obvious, Armin. Like, people would be like, who, who deserves it? It was like, Armin. Armand deserves it. Very clearly, Armin deserves it. And the concern is, what if Armin loses or what if Armin just is boring in this fight? Like, he just has to score a bunch of takedowns.

It's not exciting. And none of that matters now. They're, I don't have, we don't have to talk about this. We don't have to pretend that Ilya or Max or Charles are getting to fight Justin next. No, Armand's fighting Justin or Armand's fighting blank for the vacant belt because Justin is retired or is doing something else. Like this, we got, and I know you got on various programs, I got on so many programs, preview shows, DMs. Does Armand have to do something spectacular to get a title fight? And I kept saying no.

I think justice will out. It'll be fine. Didn't matter because he did the spectacular thing. He left no doubt. And on the watch party, I've been comping him to Habib all week. I think he is. I know Islamakchev is Habib's successor, but I think Armin is the spiritual successor to him.

He fights more like Habib. His journey is more like Habib. He's probably been the best lightweight on earth since the day Islamakish vacated the belt. I know you think that was before that. but like he hasn't been able to fight both because of circumstance and his own errors like Habib also had happened and this was his Michael Johnson I got a I got to fight your chicken moment like there's we can't there's nothing else to do nobody can deny it you have to let this guy if they're gonna let mobsar have to fight for a belt they got to let arm and fight and there's just no way around it and I'm so grateful for him to take all this ambiguity out of it Joe rogan after the fight with a guy in his ear said title next right like everybody's on on board arm and

sir rumin suruki and fights for the belt next i think he's going to win i think he's going to be the new lightweight champion of the world same finally the crowning moment will happen been saying it for so long that guy's going to be a ufc champion uh we did it he went out there and did it congratulations to arman sirrucian and uh marisha roofy will be back and you know armin hasn't really been that active, like in the UFC, obviously he's been super active this year with, with the grappling and the wrestling, with RIF and everything. But I mean, he had so much pressure on him, man. Like, this is literally do or die. There's, I mean, every fight heading into this was do or die. Like, you can't lose again. And he went out there and just, and delivered the hammer. Just

unbelievable stuff, man. Especially because right before it happened, go watch our watch party. or you'll clip it and put it out there right before it happened. They had broken from a clinch, and that was the first time I got to see the almonds eye. I was pretty jacked up. Now, allegedly, that was from a headbutt. I don't know if that's confirmed or not. But he had a fairly swollen left eye,

and I was like, this could get bad. The round's almost over. They go to round two. Ruffy just starts jabbing that eyeball. It puffs up. He can't see this. I was like, this could go and then didn't matter. He, I don't know whether he felt it and decided to hit the, you know,

the extra. But it was like the timing. It was everything you want. In the same way I just said, Josh Van did everything you want to see from a champion in a champion performance. Armand Serukin did everything you can ask from a guy making his claim to fight for the belt.

If you don't, if you are a person who thinks he doesn't deserve it, you're insane. If you're a person who thinks that like, it would be okay to pass him over. We're just watching a different sport. like we value different things in life. This man did what is asked.

Pay him his money. Pay that man his money. I can let him fight for the belt. He's going to get to fight for the belt. I don't know who it'll be. I don't know if it's gaecchi. I don't know if it's vacant with Ilya. I don't know that part of it.

Let that man fights for a belt next. You cannot say no. He is going to be the lightweight champion. The second he fights for the belt. I'm very excited. We did it. It took a long time. I was, I was, we have bonuses, Mike.

We have bonuses, okay. Would you care to, would you care to take a guess? Yes, I don't get to play this game very often. I'm usually setting it up for you guys. Is there a fight of the night? There is a fight of the night. Remember, there's a fight of the night. There's two performances and there's the chaos bonus.

Okay. The special mobland chaos bonus. Well, the fight of the night is the main event, obviously. That is correct. performance bonuses Armand Surukian and Sean Sharaf Incorrect What the fuck? Armand Surukin did get a performance bonus

Sean Shoraf did not Are you fucking kidding me? Would you care to try again for a performance bonus? I'm stunned by all this by the way Casey O'Neill Correct Chaos bonus Sean Shoraph

Correct So they didn't give them the performance, they gave him the chaos and apparently according to Nolan King who I believe is on site said Dana White says the UFC is matching the Mobland chaos bonus so it's 100K

and I think that comes from Paramount to as a promotional four thing so apparently UFC is matching that so Sean Shoroff got 200 grand for knocking out Gable Steveson so wait wait I think the chaos bonus is 50 wasn't it? Oh maybe that's it maybe that's why it says 100k next to it then.

All right, good. So he got 100K. I would have been friggin livid that the moment, like the memorable moment of the year is only gets half, half of the money that everybody else got. Biggest numerical upset in UFC history, I'm fairly certain. So good for, good for Casey O'Neill getting a bonus too, because she deserved it.

That's the submission of the year nominee. Maybe, maybe the submission of the year. Definitely one of the top five. Also, she asked for it. And you know that asking for it is pretty tough. So I wasn't sure she was going to get it, but she did good for. And I think I honestly, I think they got it right. Those are those are the bonuses I would have given.

Yep. So now that no complaints. No complaints. Like if Sean didn't get a bonus, that would have been an absolute disaster. So I mean, it's been fine if they said instead of giving you a bonus, we're just giving you all the money. We're, Mike, I just came up with a wonderful idea. I think that what the OSC should do and what would be. way better, way more entertaining.

Instead of giving flat bonuses, the bonus winners should get to go in the money tornado, but it's all $100 bills in the money tornado and you get 30 seconds or whatever to grab as many of them as you can because that would just be

electric viewing, you know? I love that. You know, I love those gimmicks. Hey, key, MMA. That one's on the house. Call me if you want other ideas. Yeah. Spin a wheel. You know how much I love this. We love a wheel here at M.A.

We need more money tornadoes than life. We do. That should be like a round, you know? Yeah. I mean, everything that's old is new again anyway. So let's bring back the money machine and let people go in there and do the damn thing. Good win for Patricia Pitbull.

Shout out to him. That was a fun-ass fight. And then he goes out there and gets a knock out of do Ho-Joy. Main card opener, Iwo Baranuski, loses to the thumbless Alonzo Meadowfield, just some nasty shit. You want to see something gruesome. go to the MA download the SB Nation app,

which you should be doing anyways. And you can chime in. You can still chime in if you want. We can still talk about what happened to UFC 331. So go to your iPhone, Android, whatever you got, SB Nation app.

It's a great app, the best app. And there was like 1,300 comments in the thread for the fight with all of us and all of you guys. It was super cool. That was good community. Good community.

Marlon Vera did Marlon Vera things. We shouted him out earlier. but before we go to the peeps and I want to make sure we get some time with the peeps and you sort of mentioned it, Jed. Sean Shoraph, like good on him, goes out there and gets this huge upset win

he is a made man like he's taking it off and like even if he even if he goes 0 and 6 the rest of his UFC career, he's the dude that deaded Gable Steven and gave everybody what they wanted apparently. Like he was getting booed out of L.A. He was getting booed everywhere he went

and Sean was a hero with all of this. But Gabel Seafson also became even more of a villain because of how he handled the loss. This wasn't him breaking his arm or his leg or anything like that. This was a guy who got knocked out as bad. As bad a possible way to do this as could be it. And then said, F this, I'm not staying in the cage, even though like it seemed like Justin Gagie and other people were like,

dude, get back in the cage. Apparently Daniel Cormier was just on the post show. ripping Gable Steveson for sure it's a shreds for leaving. Obviously like a lot of the pros and the pros reacts all ripped him as well. Is this is this the worst night for a prospect in the history of the UFC? Probably. It's hard to imagine one much more. I mean, just the whole week was quite poor for him.

I do very brief time out and this has come back on Mike because this is important for you. Oh, you must have left. You threw me. Oh, no, you are there. This is very important for you. We're going to put a pin in Gable for just a moment. Per Dana White. Oh, Jesus.

Speaking on Armand Syrucian, when you F up, then come back and do everything the right way, I mean, he couldn't have had a better comeback after the things he had done. And then to go and perform the way he did, incredible. Seems like Dana White Seems like Dana White's in on the Arm on Sarukin train here, buddy Did he say? Yes, he's next.

I don't see that anywhere, and I'm not watching the full Dana Scrum. This is just the quote I'm seeing, but all of that was highly praising of your boy. I feel really good about him getting his due. So just wanted you to know about that. I think here's something we have to make crystal clear here. Dana White does not make this decision. It is not up to date away.

It is not even, to some degree, it's not even up to Hunter Campbell. If Ari Emanuel and TKO want Ilya to Porte, I'm in that fight, Illyatipori is going to be in that fight. That's why today was called crypto.com UFC 331. It's not their call. That's what TKO wants. This is what TKO does. It's all about generating money and selling tickets.

This is negative, this is negative thinking. And that breeds negative outcome. Yeah. And if they do this, and if they do this, you as fans who live in the area that they're going to book that bullshit fight, or tomatoes. Don't go. Like, don't buy a ticket. Don't do shit until they get it right.

You have a voice. Use it. Okay. Armisturikins fighting for the belt. Anything else is absolutely insane. Be done with all of this. But back to Gable, Jen. Back to the gable.

I think he had the worst week I've ever seen a fighter have in the UFC. The only relative comparison I can think of is, this is, I know, I know where you're going. Where do you think I'm going? Jamal Hill. No, but that was bad, but I think this is significantly worse. The only one that I think is up there is Rhonda ahead of the comeback fight. Oh, good call. The Amanda Nunes won where she refused to do media was like surly and concerned.

contemptuous, then got knocked out and was just, like, ran away. Like, that, that was, she had hired a fall, but boy, did she fall. She fell so far that she didn't fight for a decade, you know, like, that's, that might be worse, but the thing about Gable is some of this will seem, and is, it's probably even true, some of this is a little bit hindsight 2020, but the receipts have started to come out almost immediately from Fight Week of Gable. And there are just so many of them. There's a video of tonight,

John and Gable driving to the event saying they're there to take heads and laughing, you know, cockily. There is the copious videos of Gable talking all Fight Week about who is Sean Choroff to tell. And he's speaking third person. Who is Sean Choroff to tell Gable Steveson what I am in? can be. After Saturday, he goes back to being nothing. And I go on to being a legend or however he phrased it. This is also coming from a guy who ostensibly like as, you know, it has the same

sort of like, God bless our troops energy. This is a former Marine you're talking about. Looking past him at ceremonials and then commenting about it afterwards being like, yeah, because he, he's not worthy of my acknowledgement. Being so. visibly upset by the crowd reaction to Sean Shiroff calling him a word I cannot say on our YouTube stream. Google Gable Steeveson loophole and you'll figure out what Sean Shroff or Google what Sean Shroff called him. Like all of that was handled about as poorly as possible. But everybody was like, yeah, this is, he's not doing this well. He's still going to slaughter him. So it kind of is whatever, you know.

And instead, he gets knocked out in 11 seconds by a dude who's 0-2 in the UFC. And then all of that would be as bad as possible. But to not have, like, the dignity, the respect, like, the just basic human decency to take your lumps, to stand in the cage and stand, like, in your spot. and let Sean Shraf have his hand be raised to walk out and like grin and just be a bad person. Like I have almost never seen something like this as far as tanking any like credibility, respect. Like it is as bad as could be handled. There's no coming back from this.

Honestly, like this is, it's so. bad and whatever goodwill, which wasn't a lot with the UFC fan base, whatever goodwill he had with the UFC fan base is gone. Like, it's just all gone. There's no goodwill

now. And I mean, honestly at this point, just be a, just go full heel, man. Like, just be who you are. You want to be this guy. Like, this is who you are. We saw it at the press conference. We saw

the darkness in the eyes. Like you are, you are that guy. So just let it out now. Let it out. No one's going to cheer for you, especially after what happened here. There is,

there's just nothing left in that department for him. I'm not saying he can't go and win a belt and all that stuff because obviously like the talent is there, the athleticism is there, the pedigree is there. Dude needs to learn how to strike and learn how to take a punch,

which is the question. we had all the time. Like, what are you going to do with the dude who can actually hit you? How are you going to take it? And, you know, first fight, you got hit a whole bunch. But he got hit clean. He had no defense for it. And he went out, out. And unfortunately for Gable Steven, like, he is, he's going to have to live with that. He's going to be the guy who got knocked out by Sean Sharaf. He's going to be a guy who got knocked out in a lot of people's opinions by the worst heavyweight in the UFC. It's not like a mean thing to say, like, but that's Literally, like, if almost true.

If you look at a ranking, if you look at your rankings, like he doesn't have a win in the UFC. He's 0 and 2. And then just nukes Gable. It's not like you want a split decision and Gable got robbed. He fucking got obliterated. Maybe the knockout of the year on the receiving end. That knockout is going to be played till the end of time. It's just, it's one of those knockouts.

So I don't know how Gable. I just, we'll see how he bounces back, man. let's see what he has to say. How does he react to it? Are you going to put Sean over? Don't even fucking put him over. Like be the biggest asshole on earth right now. Like just go do it.

Everyone thinks you that anyway, so just be it. Just be it. You're not going to get anybody to like you. So just stop it. I'm not ready to bury Steven as like a prospect. I felt the same way. Of course not. Like he can still come back.

I'm with you. I think he probably should just lean into this full. because the caveat there being and I don't think it's possible but the other way is to like genuinely look inward and reckon with why this is because that is like it was so evident to me all week that like the reason people hate him

he has not like does not has not spent any time thinking about or being like maybe I'm like maybe I'm not a good person maybe the things I have done are not like something to be hand waved and there people are people are mad at me for reasons not just whatever but that is a level of introspection that if he had he wouldn't have walked out and left here but maybe he goes on like he's still a relatively young man I believe in second chances if he could go home and be like hey I handle that super poorly uh and maybe I'm going to like rethink my life fundamentally

That would be great. But he's also the same dude. Like, this is going to feel a little shitty. And maybe it is. Like, if it is, I'm sorry. He's the type of dude with his background and pedigree, who when he was looking at getting into MMA was like, I'm going to reach out to John Jones and not Daniel Cormier.

And like, if I'm him from his background, I'd be like, I think I should reach out to Daniel Cormier. he's a significantly more accomplished coach we have a similar background you know like two time Olympian like there's a lot honestly our bodies are fairly similarly structured John 6 4 and lanky

you're not like if I was him and be like I'm going to think I might make a move in MMA it's too obvious to be like you just go be better Daniel Cormier but he is the type of person who sought out John Jones and all the commensurate parts of that and it feels instructive here. We'll see if he comes back. Again, we don't have to throw him out as a total

prospect, but it's very possibly the worst week a name fighter has ever had in the history of this sport. He is, he's, he's probably right now, like if you look at it from like a cue rating perspective, he's probably the most hated fighter on the roster right now. I was astonished at how much, like I thought he wouldn't be loved, but like people really hated him, which was shocking. to me honestly. I mean, in LA where, you know, a lot of people like appreciate like Olympians and what they accomplish especially for the U.S. But

yeah, man, it was like 100% against them and especially after this man, like literally every show every influencer page is going to be about Gable being a you know, being a, like a whiner about all this. Like that's just what it lets off.

And plus Mike, we talked about this on the thing. the downside to calling your opponent ass and being like he's really bad and after tomorrow he's going like nobody's going to think about him ever again if you lose to that guy it looks a lot worse than if you were like Sean Strauss actually really good guy you know like people don't know and that that's a lie but like it did they can't just pull a clip being like yeah on Sunday he goes back to being a nobody and I stay Gable Steven. Like that just lives forever on the internet.

Tough scenes. Oh, man. Really bad week. I mean, just, just awful for Gable Steven. And by the way, I've never seen a thread of fans of any sport celebrate a singular result more than we saw on the SB Nation app. I mean, it was just a celebration.

as Rick James said in the app so make sure you download it be part of the celebration you even jump in right now if you want so uh let's go to the peeps actually before we do that i do want to run down the i mean so much happened on this card that i forget most of it at this point uh i forgot forgot about the alonzo minfield fight and because wouldn't get the thumb and i was just like we're done and then that yeah that was wild nasty thumb uh rebella's to spain it's tied to evi I told this story. I thought was super fun. I had a great time.

Yeah, I told the story on the Q&A. I'm so I got to drop names, but I had dinner with a couple of media members who were like, rebellious to Spain's the best heavy weight in the world. He could win the belt right now. And I'm like, dude, he might not be tied to Evasa. And they looked at me like I was crazy. And I'm like, all ties to do is tackle him and he's competitive.

And guess what you did? He went out there and tackled him. And I went and texted these people and laughed at them. And they misread what I said. You said Ty was going to win. I was like, no, I didn't say that. You said Rebellus to Spain is like the best heavyweight in the world. And clearly he's not.

And it was a hilarious fight. Shout out to Ty to Evasa. Give him another shot. He's going to lose, but who cares? Rebellis to Spain is back. And it's not, it's just not good. Unfortunately for Rebellis, like, I think back is a relative term here. He is physically.

present again. Well, the biggest, the biggest point I made to these two gentlemen was like, you don't sign rebellists to win titles. You sign rebellists to fight bad heavyweights and let him just obliterate them. Like, that's, you're the, it's WWE superstars. What do you, what happened? So the wonderful Aaron Bronsetter, a friend of ours, uh, attended the, uh, California Athletic Commission debrief following this event.

So instead of doing the posting, I think he was, uh, out there. with Andy Foster and the like. This is obviously a California card. A little bit different, a little more access, honestly. And per Aaron Bronstetter, Andy Foster opened the meeting by calling Ron McCarthy's 5045 scorecard

in the main event, quote, not possible, particularly scoring round four for van. He said that it took him some time to calm down about it before coming to the start to start the meeting. So,

for all the, very obstinate and aggressive people who were adamant that round four in particular and that 50-45 scorecard was not just defensible but absolutely 100% correct and you don't know what you're talking about. Andy Foster, who is in charge of the biggest athletic commission in the country, does not agree with you. So I would say at least consider that you might not be correct. this has been a night of vindication for me it's been really good you're just feeling wonderful right now i don't care that i lost our head to head like every every long term take even like the stupid super short term i need one more i need one more this is a follow up from bronzetter and this

drives to the point that i think these people who are so damage bro he landed more damage bro that is like marginally true but here is from bronzetter paraphrased foster felt judging should defer to the secondary criteria and value control because there was not a lot of significant offense from either fighter. And that's the crux of it. Yeah, Van landed more damage. The point is not if you land one more punch, you win the round. It's if you land a like real, real difference in substantive damage, yes.

But if you land one more punch and are controlled for four minutes, you don't win. And I think everybody should be able to just look at it logically. Like, yeah, that's, that's a more appropriate way to score a fight. Yeah, that makes sense. So. Yeah. Just because you, you're on your back and you're, like, landing these, somebody's, like, back. Like, that's not damage.

Like, that doesn't hurt. It's annoying. But it's not going to, like, it's not going to effectively finish the fight. Like, damage is, like, how close are you to finishing the fight? That's how, like, you quantify damage. And I tell people this all the time, especially if you knew her at the sport, go watch two fights in particular. to talk about the difference in the word damage and what it means.

And coincidentally enough, both fights involve the same fighter. One is Marlon Vera versus Rob Fon, and the other one is Jose Aldo versus Rob Fond. Like, Fon tripled up them on numbers the whole time, and he got dropped a whole bunch in all those fights with single shots. Like, easy fight to score, but the numbers don't matter at the end of the day. Like it's just one of those things where like quantifying damage is super easy. It's,

I mean, it's just the basic definition. If I flick you in the eyeball, sure, I did something, but it's not damage compared if you hit me in the head with the baseball bat. Like that's damage. That's quantifiable damage.

So let's go to the pimps. Oh, please. Yeah, like, you know, like I scored round five, a 108 for van.

So I thought there was just significantly more quantifiable damage in that round. Sure. But people were getting, quite like some people were just very upset about the like i which is so weird because it seemed like most people were all on the same page 50 45's bad it's fine right guy one no one's upset that's a bad scorecard but some people were very adamant like you guys are stupid yeah damage over everything bro any foster disagrees and he is a little bit at least somewhat knowledgeable he's pretty much the golds i mean you can talk about alliances and

such, but in terms of like commissioners and such, he is the, he is the gold standard. He's the guy. He's the best in the world. He's the best. Among, if not the, uh, very short on the list of most influential commission like commissionals without questioners in the country. So take a lap. Take a lap for all you people who are defending.

And shout out to you, Aaron Bronstetter for going to that and giving us that quote that made me happy. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah. Thank you. Uh, rebellists of spade. Want to fight.

Michael Aswell Jr. beat Ju-Sang-U, split decision, close fight. Ryan Ganger got the squash match treatment. Edmund Chabazzian won a fight against Bruno Faheda. It's interesting to see what's next for him. That's the weirdest on the card, huh? 100%. Casey O'Neill with a submission of the year contender

and Joe Anderson Brito probably ended the UFC career of Giga Chikaze. Seems likely. Anniolating him in 90 seconds. Seems likely. all right let's go uh we'll take some questions for the next you know 10 or 15 minutes armand thank you again a night feel with so much buzz and excitement i know it'll be difficult to just choose one thing but if you had to pick one standout moment tonight what would it be for me it's probably sheriffs chaos we kind of touched on this but i will say so shirass kio is it um

i do think for me the next thing i will think about will be the fifth round from josh fan And I like we can quibble about parts of that fight. I don't like the headbutt in the second round. I think that bothers me more than most. Okay. It doesn't. It kind of all, it all comes out in the wash because like that fifth round from Van is,

I think people will start to come around to a little bit more. Just so much has happened tonight. So much discourse, so much talking points. I think people will start to appreciate that more as they like have a little time to take a breath, look back and think. that fifth round is really special.

And I think that there is a little piece of me that it was disappointed in how Pantosia approached that round as well. It felt like he didn't have the same intensity. But again, a 24-year-old man, potentially with his back against the wall, he doesn't know that that fight is where the scores are in that fight. All he knows is that I'm going to come out and I'm not going to coast to a win.

I'm not going to try and win on the margins. I'm going to put my signature on this and dropped Pantosia, tried to submit him a couple of times. Like, that is, it's so, it's so rare, especially, and maybe it is also rare because he's so young. But like that is,

that's how John Jones used to fight, right? At the beginning of his career, that's how George St. Pierre used to fight when they were like at the start of title, runs. And then your champion, you realize how much there is to lose, you begin fighting more safe than that way. And you, you know, John Jones spent the back half his light heavyweight career jabbing people and avoiding conflict at all costs. George St. Pierre became a really control-based grappler from the back end of his career. But Van is at that sweet spot where he's just

like, no, the point is not to win. The point is to win. I said I was going to submit. I said I was going to submit this dude i'm gonna try and do that and so i think as time goes on the shraff thing will always be tops but that is it's a really special thing man you don't get a lot and we should appreciate it 100% i'm just just unbelievable stuff uh my my other biggest takeaway neon's the coach of the year undefeated undefeated i was shook i was really concerned about that honestly yeah i think hamzaa jama i like showed up and was like neon just sit there and shut the hell up. Don't say a word.

The logical part of my brain is like four cornermen, the fourth person does not really matter. Like they don't have to. He's not doing anything. He's just going to sit there and that's okay. But the lizard, lizard Jed was like, we just saw a man's hubris get punished in the most visceral way.

Is that about to happen, Armin? Didn't happen. It's a great take though, Mike. Coach of the year. Coach of the year. But Armin, obviously, the way he did it. And then the tweet after from Armand, just some stone cold, some stone cold shit by the best light way in the world. You just got slept by a streamer.

Oh, nice. Just an unfriken believable tweet. I mean, just, just an all-timer. Mike Brown, can we please be done with Gable at heavyweight? The man is 511. Let's be real. His coach is Jones. It's clear his day.

He needs to cut to late heavyweight. What do you guys think? I don't know if that man can can make 205. I don't know if he can either. I would be interested in seeing him try. Again, like, he's Daniel Cormier. Like, there's, he's way more Daniel Cormier than he is, realistically, Brock Lesnar, though there's a lot of similarity there in their overall

arc. But, like, Daniel Cormier was at his best at heavyweight. He does not appear to have the chin. You know, he got caught well, but, like, you do have to be more durable at heavyweight because everybody, like, even the guys who suck can. still hit kind of hard just because they're big. So it might be tough. You know, I'm not,

heavyweight is probably a worst weight class than light heavy weights. It might still be better. But, yeah, you know, if he can make it, I'd be interested in seeing it. He needs to learn how to box without putting his chin out there to get hit, especially if he doesn't have like a, like, world. class chin.

What do you think is going to happen at 205 when you're cutting all that weight? Like those, you're going to be able to take damage way worse, cutting all that way too. So we'll see, man, like the next fight, it's not about,

it's all the cliches and everything, but like, it's not about the results how you bounce back from it. Can he get back up and, and get back on track? I don't know, man. I don't know.

But again, like, even if he can't, you can just go wrestle for RIF. Like he's got to be fine. Can you make another Olympic run? Maybe. Yeah,

maybe this opens the door for that. Who the hell knows? I don't know. Maybe I'm really interested in seeing him Russell Wyatt Hendrickson now because he didn't take that loss particularly well either. And it's continued to not take that loss well. And it's like, he hasn't.

I mean, buddy, you got to figure out how to lose. Everyone does it. You just got to be better at this. Grow up, Peter Pan. Yeah.

We'll see what his statement is too. Trent, how do you feel about Hokit versus? is gone. Of course, if you missed it, we have, your thoughts on this. How do you feel? I get, I get it. I get it. I know why they're doing it. Hoke, it's the breakout fighter of the year by far. Dude, super over. Good and bad. There's no gray area. It's not even like, it went from like, straight up, I hate you heat. I don't even want to see you on my screen to just like,

oh, I love this guy. No, I absolutely hate this dude. It's like the visceral reactions that you want if you're in like the sports entertainment industry no one like doesn't very few people are like yeah I don't give a shit about him at all it's either like this guy's the best or this guy's the worst and so he's doing everything right I am intrigued by the matchup I think God like honestly like and I have to dive into a little bit more I think God's gonna I think God's gonna have a I'm not gonna say an easy night I think God is gonna I think Gond's a really tough matchup for Hokeet. Like he is just going to be so undersized.

He's going to be so undersized in that fight. Like the athleticism is like, it's pretty close, but Gond is like a freak, man. Yeah, I think Gons actually is a better athlete than Hokeet. So like what happens if, you know, what happens with the takedowns?

Like this dude had Francis and Gano on top of him. This dude had John Jones on top of him. Josh is as impressive as he's been. He ain't going to be at heavy on top of a Ciro gone. Like, I don't know. It is concerning to me that gone can't wrestle. That's quite a problem. But maybe he can wrestle by the time they fight.

On paper, I think gone should beat him. I do have. I don't feel like major confidence in it. Yeah. I mean, what I saw in the Aspenol fight, like, yeah, it was all whatever. He's able to get through the big moments, which is like the question I had. and not lose. So he's had back to back

like massive moments fighting for some shares of belts and didn't lose either of them. He lost it in the court of... He didn't even lose by cheating. Everyone hated Tom Aspinall for that ipogue, not Cyril. Like he got away with murder essentially

when it came to that. Like, just crazy stuff. But it did ultimately shift. I think that everybody is fully off that now. After the Pereira. because everybody are such fanboys for Poeton that they're like actually screw Cyril gone now and now they're retroactive like oh yeah he did cheat against Tom what an asshole I'm like you guys weren't saying this in October you are not saying this in October

I I get why the UFC's doing it I personally would not have done this fight I would have I would have put Cyril gone against Volkov is the main event or even the co-main event of MSG still do Kayla and Amanda and then the featured fight five rounds Pereira versus Hoken number one contender fight, Tile Eliminator, boom,

you got it there. And Dana said at the press conference that there's news coming for Pereira so it's not like Pereira's waiting for the winner of the fight. Pereer's going to fight somebody else and he's probably going to fight Alexander Bolkoff which nothing else makes any sense.

What are you talking about? Tie two of us was right there, baby. I mean So like He hasn't he hasn't want to fight at heavyweight Why would he deserve to give Volkov? He in fact got cooked in his lone heavyweight fight But he's got to be in the title picture

So yeah So they're going to do that instead and like I don't think I don't know if I I think he loses to Volkov I can't think he does too That would be a really bad fight to book him in I kind of think you lose that fight as well So like

You just you just you just took your just took give you just took give him like vitor petrino do that give him vittor belford i don't care like get him in there get a win like but yeah they're probably going to throw him in there with volkloff and it's going to be he might lose like a tepid kickboxing he not fun decision and and then he's just out like he's just done in that in the conversation so i would have done hockett perera hoaget really doesn't lose too much by losing that fight Prayer loses everything if he loses. You could do this, and I would like this a lot.

Poetan Pavlovich. Oh, yeah, you could do that. Poetan, Sergei. I like it. Do that. Book that. And Volkov just never gets to do anything fun. God, that'd be so rude to Volkov. It's terrible. Look, I believe in Merit.

I would have done Volkov gone three. I never thought they would. I assume this would be, as soon as they stripped Tom, I assumed it would be Cyril versus Hokit, and then I heard some things that it looked like that. It's where we went. I'm not upset about it because I'm actually genuinely fascinated by the fight, and I think it's not unreasonable to book it.

So, yeah, the whole heavyweight situation sucks. It's unfortunate, but it is where it is. I'm comfortable with it. I'm super stoked on the co-main event. Like, we already talked about it when we thought we were getting Kayla, Amanda. I'm still pumped. for us to eventually get it. Kind of now feels a little weird

because it's just been so long with them both out for so long, but it's great fight, stoked. Card looks good. It's fun. It's fun. And MSG like brings a lot out of it. So. Bullcobs literally rebooked,

but everyone's saying he's pulled, he's been pulled off that fight. So. Yeah, he, that was announced this week that it looked like he has pulled off the Cooniette fight. If not, or if that ends up happening, I mean, I would have pulled him to do it, but whatever. I would still pull him from that fight because him fighting Kunev makes absolutely no sense at all. It's a stupid fight.

It's bad matchmaking. He deserves way better than this. I'm not saying Kune, and this is like not being destructive to Kuna, but like, dude should be fighting for the title. That's my fantasy heavyweight. Calm down. Calm down. don't disrespect

Riz van Kunev and my 250 points that he got me which by the way more points to Gable Steveson got you Oh fuck I didn't even think about that Riz van Cooniev is currently a better pick At heavyweight than Gable Steves Holy shit dude

I got a garbage bonus Both of my keepers Both lost tonight Real tough She's Wow. It was very difficult. I fucking even,

with all of it, I did not factor in the fantasy implications whatsoever. Yeah, it was tough. I was just looking. I was like, oh man,

heavy and light heavy with it. That's tough, Mike. Cheez, that's a situation. Wow. Absolutely brutal. All right.

I think we're going to be done for a couple of reasons. One, we have a lot of work to do. And two. I don't have to drive though, which is nice. I can actually just do work.

So I hope you guys enjoyed the watch party. For the next couple, it is going to be just like this, I think. Right? Yeah. I don't think you need to drive here. I don't think you need to drive here for 332. But I agree. But when I said that, you were like, no.

So I'm glad to see that you've come around. I get it. It's not worth it. I understand that. And then 333 will probably be on two opposite sides of the country. World. Yeah. Not the world, but opposite sides of the country.

country. The world. The world is America. Mike, we all know. Before we get out of here, I just want to throw this up from Lopsided. Jetty upset about the climb or does the Chaden Freud bounce it out? Yes, the climb failed tonight. The climb was Gable Steveson under one and a half.

That would have been for 15, the halfway mark. Still my second longest climb run. I, you know, and I'm okay with it. It's, it hurt. It wasn't great. but Mike asked me before it happened, like before the fight, he was like, are you, is it like fine? I was like, yeah, man. If I, if this is how it goes down, I can be okay with it because it's pretty funny and good.

And so, yeah, if that's how we had to lose it, I'm not like had losing it on Gaichi winning in the White House. I'm okay with that. Same thing here. Holy moly, what a night. And we're not even really, we're not even done with it yet. I mean, we're done with the night, but we're, AK and I are right back here in like less than 10 hours from right now, 11 a.m. Eastern.

Dang. And then we have next week, which, uh, apple picking. Well, I'll say it's not quite Apple season. We're getting there, though. It's the end of September. It's literally, the next.

Yeah. Yeah. If there's a there's a house project you want to do, if there's a trip you wanted to take, there's a roller coaster you wanted to ride. That's probably the time to do it. Because there's a couple of things you can do. One is you can follow us,

SMAFighting.com, we'll tell you what happened. You can just jump on the app. You can be there getting real-time results, baby. And you can just hang out with everybody else. It's unbelievable. And that's at least it's going to make 332 fun. It's like that card on papers is absolutely miserable. but at the same token,

no one's going to have more fun watching it than us because the espadish day. I had a blast. We had a lot of fun tonight. I had a blast. More fun tomorrow. We'll get A.K.'s reaction to everything that we saw, some matchmaking.

Josh Van and Pantosia hugging it out backstage. You love to see it. Love to see it. Dana White, by the way, at the press conference called the greatest grudge match in UFC history. Well, that's probably not true, but good on him. Milk on that.

See you later, everybody. Love y'all. to the Vox Media Podcast Network.