MMA Fighting - UFC Abu Dhabi Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Reinier de Ridder's Razor Close Win vs. Robert Whittaker

Episode Date: July 27, 2025

Reinier de Ridder just picked up the biggest win of his career as he outlasted former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker, winning a razor close split decision in the main event of UFC Abu Dhabi to move to 4-0 in the UFC. Did "RDR" put himself in position to fight the winner of Dricus du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319? Following Saturday's Fight Night event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee react to the card, de Ridder's victory over Whittaker, if the right fighter won, and discuss where the former ONE champion goes from here. Additionally, they discuss Petr Yan's win over Marcus McGhee, the bonus winners, Steven Nguyen breaking the UFC knockdowns record and Jason Herzog's performance as the referee in that fight, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Those are the victory horns, ladies and gentlemen. And they sound for Rainier de Ritter gets a done, huge win, biggest win of his career against Robert Whitaker. They also sound for Piotr Yan, with a dominant decision win over Marcus D.P. And there's a lot to break down from UFC Abu Dhabi. Thank you for joining us on the Post Fight Show.

There I am. I am Mike Beck and joining me to react to early day M.M.A. from the Great White North, the one and only, my best friend, Alexander K. Lee. A.K., how we feeling after some early day MMA? This is how I speak now. This is how I communicate now. You're saying it was a fun card. Yeah, that's all right. It wasn't the greatest card, but I had a good time. And that's really all that matters. Nobody got hurt is what I say. It's like most importantly.

I mean, Muhammad, you know, yeah, kind of got hurt, but at least it wasn't as bad as it looked. He got hurt real bad. He only got knocked down seven times, though. So, I mean, he could have got knocked down eight or nine or ten times because Jason Herzog would let that fight go on forever if it was possible. But that's a story to discuss later up. But A.K. Rineer to Ritter gets it done. Super close fight.

Split decision. I actually just looked at M.M.A. decisions because I wanted to get a graphs. to kind of see where I was at compared to everybody else. I do not count the MMA mania scorecard. I think that is just really awful. 4946 RDR is a terrible scorecard. It's just such a bad card. But pretty much everybody else had it 48, 47 one way or the other.

Looks like eight media members had it 4847 RDR. Seven media members had it 4847 Robert Whitaker, including you. And if I'm throwing my score in there, eight people have it 4847, Robert Whitaker. That's how I had it as well. Clearly not a robbery, AK, super close fight, but your reaction to what RDR did tonight, picking up the biggest win of his career. Yeah, huge, man, huge. And we had questions about him being able to gut out a five-round fight, right? Like, he's got a lot of impressive finishes in his career. I think he has one five-rounder in the rematch with Aung-Lansong. I think that was it. Mike, you would said, I think pretty

accurately in your sort of pre-fight predictions that if this goes past round three RDR could be in trouble and as it turns out he at least did enough damage early on I think to make it a little more even those knees to Whitaker's body just like he was diminished I mean that those a couple of those landed clean and you could just see the gas tank just train like that wasn't just normal fatigue I mean I know Rob's a bit of an older fighter I know he's got a lot of wear and tear on him but that wasn't just like oh I'm going five hard rounds and I can't like I'm gassing out now like no he was hurt you know you got a credit RDR for those.

And I think it's because of that work that Whitaker was not able to pull away in rounds four and five as we expected. Instead, we got two pretty murky to score rounds. I don't know if people had a better read on those than me, but you guys can check my live blog and I'm fighting. You can see I was struggling to figure out round four. Round five, I think I was a little more comfortable leaning. Whitaker, I thought he just did more damage.

But it wasn't much. When I say more, I mean a minuscule amount more. So no problem with the decision. And RDR like justifiably keeps himself in line for a tell shot. You know, I think we all want to see him in our DDP someday. And this only increased like the call for that because the style is so wonky. It's so like it's so wonky. It seems slow, but it's so weirdly effective.

And it certainly was tonight as he did enough to get the win. You know, maybe it wasn't an exclamation point statement. But it was a solid, it was a solid period. You know, it was a solid period. Like, I am a contender. And, yeah, if they need someone for the winner of the UFC 319 main event, he's right there, man. He's right there.

And he's ready to go. So one of my questions coming out of this, and I was pretty impressed with RDR. I wasn't, I didn't come out of this fight being, yep, give him a title fight. Absolutely unequivocally, he's the guy because I don't come away with that. And I think if Hamzaa Chameyaf wins, I think pretty much everybody's in trouble outside of Apollo Costa because the UFC likes to do UFC things. things. But I actually thought this is a pretty good night for Nassardine, Imovoff, and Kyle Bahalio, because it was a close fight. Rob, a lot of people thought Rob won the fight. So that

certainly helps the case as well. I think if RDR, I think if most people saw RDR winning this fight, he was just going out and just smushing Robert Whitaker and probably finishing him, oh, him eking out a split decision against Robert Whitaker, I think if you're Emavovov and Baha'uilio, you got to be feeling like, all right. Maybe the door is a little more open than I thought it was. Do you kind of feel the same way coming out of this? Or do you think RDR just threw a monkey wrench in their plans altogether, despite winning the way he did?

Yeah, I don't think he did anything tonight to, like, put a stamp on a no doubt number one contender statement. Like I definitely wouldn't go that far. Like I said, I'm impressed that we saw him win a very difficult five-round fight against a former UFC champion. So that's how impressed. But if the matchmakers, and if you're Dana White, that's not something in your mind you're using to sell it like hey oh we can fans should like we could tell fans hey remember when he got it out that split that split call like there's not it's not a marketable thing so I'm fine with him getting the talent defense but it wasn't a sure thing he didn't

like it sounds so stupid to say it but you kind of brought it up he didn't you know put up a wall between uh paula costa hamza hamzsashima like there's still that heat there and if paula costa is at 319 and cause a kerfuffle with hamzaat and hamzat wins that's the way they're going now it is good for Imov and Bahayu, but the pressure is on them now. Because if they go to like a 48, 47 decision, again, that should be a close fight, I think, on paper. If they go to a decision where neither guy is like definitive, or either it's not an exciting fight or like neither guy definitively, you know, takes over or takes command of that contest, then they're back. They're back.

Like, Bahaio and Imavov are so good, but you don't get the sense that the OEC loves them, that they have been like trying to build either guy up as like, oh, well, we really want Kyobahoglio to be to be to get a title shot we really want Naserdinia about to get a title shot I've never gotten that impression I think they like them I think they think they think they have some their talent wise but they've never really given them that a hard championship push now maybe they will after their fight if one of them stands out but as it is we've got a pretty wide open number one contender field at middleway and I think that's a good thing I think that's good I would be happy to see RDR get the shot I'd be I

would understand if Paulo Costa would got the shot I mean I wouldn't love it. And depending who wins the Ima Flav and Bahalio fight, I'd be very happy with one of those guys getting the title shot as well. It's, we're at an interesting spot, A.K., because in two weeks, we got Fluffy Hernandez, who is on one of the more impressive streaks in this entire division, fighting in a main event against Roman deletes aid. If he goes out there and just Fluffy's all over, Roman, that puts him at a great spot too. So maybe we do Fluffy versus RDR, which would be one of the best fights of all time with those two absolute animals getting out.

after it. That'd be super fun. But I think kind of one of the takeaways here is where does Robert Whitaker go now? Because we're kind of, you know, we talked about this on the preview show. It's not like Rob is in fun fight territory, but he might be now, AK. I think Sean Strickland is kind of like the obvious choice here, but Sean is currently suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission. We don't know how long and we won't know for how long until. he goes back in front of the commission sometime in August. And when you come marching, why I ought to at somebody and start throwing punches at a regional fighter

in a cage during a professional MMA event, it's probably not going to go very well for Sean. It wouldn't shock me if he got like a year suspension or something to that effect. What happens now with Robert Whitaker? Are we just in, hey, let's just do fun things with him now? like it's kind of weird that we're in this position with the guy like that, but I think we have to start having this conversation.

This was like the opposite result of what we just saw at UC318, where we're like, you know what, Dustin Poirier can walk away knowing like, yep, I understand where I'm at my career now and I can take this loss and I'm at peace. Rob, he said his exact words after where I'm butt hurt. I'm a little butt hurt about the decision and you can't blame him. So if you're him, he probably doesn't feel like he's lost.

much off his fastball. He has always been saying, I want one more run towards the world title. And there's not a lot that happened today. Other than, again, if people want to question the gas tank, but I still feel like they had a lot more to do with the damage he took as opposed to any difference between his fitness

from where he was a year ago, where he was two years ago. I still think it's top notch. I think DeRater just heard him. So, yeah, he remains in limbo, which is kind of where we said he'd be with a win. I remember before the fight we were saying, Let's say he beats De Ritter.

Does that make him the number one contender? Definitely not. He's probably still one fight away, maybe two fights away, depending what goes on with a lot of the other names we mentioned. So, yeah, in some ways, like, a good result for him because he didn't get blown out of the water. You could make a case that he won the fight. And some ways a really bad result because if you're him and you're his team and

your his family, you're really questioning, like, is it still worth going through the grind? I think when I was doing the predictions for the website, that I kind of described it as just like the miserable experience of like getting back in the gym, starting that climb again, hoping you can string together enough wins to like, you know, make an unassailable case for a title shot. And again, even if he thought he won tonight, that that's not what this was. Like he wasn't getting a tell of shot if he got the split decision, right?

He kind of would have been in a similar place. So I don't think he's going to give up. I don't think he should give up. I think he's going to keep putting off this sort of any talk of like a last dance run, a, I'm just searching for fun fights run. I just want legacy fights run. This isn't going to change that. And I actually really like the Sean Strickland suggestion

because maybe he gets here, Mike, but I don't know if we see Robert Whitaker again anytime soon. So he could certainly wait for it. He could certainly wait for that fight. I think it is one that is just for both guys where they're at in their careers. It really makes the most sense. This might be a hot take,

but I've been talking about this ever since their second fight. If DFC wanted to do a third fight between Robert Whitaker and Israel at Asanaa, wouldn't hate it. I know they're like buds now and they've trained a couple of times. So maybe they won't fight each other again. But if they made that fight, I'd watch it. I would definitely be intrigued by it. But we'll see where Whitaker goes. We'll see where RDR goes.

That was a tough grueling fight for him. Gets it done. We'll see if he gets a title fight or if he fights Fluffy Hernandez. As Jed likes to say, there's no wrong way to eat this Reese for RDR. the middleweight division. Piotr Yan goes out there and beats Marcus McGee. It was a very fun fight. A.K., we have bonuses.

We have bonuses. Care to take a little guest if you haven't seen them? Yeah, I have not seen them. I've not seen them. Before when we were doing the preview show, I said I was expecting no fight of the night. Now, I could be wrong. I thought we had some pretty entertaining contests here. But let's stick with my four-finished prediction just to make it easy for myself.

Bogdan Goosekopf, for sure. Muslim Salakov for sure Oh, maybe they did do a fight of the night Because I'm not sure Like I think top of the reach he deserves one I don't know if she got it They did do a fight at night They did do a fight at night

Okay, so it is Bogdan, it is Muslim I mean you give the fight of the night To the main event, right? I'm gonna go to logic here Not what I think the UFC would do I'm gonna go what I would do You give it to the main event Well if we're going by what the UFC typically does

They give it to like the fifth best fight Okay I don't think they did it here because otherwise I'd give it. And I think Casey would agree with me on this. If we're going by the fourth or fifth best fight of the night, Martin Boudai and Marcus Bichetcha should probably have gotten fight of the night. Because that was electric. They didn't.

Electric. Nope, they didn't get it. That was the best bet of the night. That fight to go the distance was the best bet of the night. I'll tell you that right now. Oh, yeah. The only bet I hit was that going over one and a half. It was the easiest money I've ever made in my life.

Fighting the night. and I'm going to pat myself in the back of touch here because no one believed in Power Bar no one believed in Mark Andre Barrio even his fellow Canadians didn't believe in him but Mark Andre Barrio is getting $50,000 for being one half of the fight of the night of UFC Abu Dhabi against Sharra Bullets

a shout out to Mark Andre Barrio I said that line was a little too crazy and he would be more competitive than the odds suggested and he was Muslim Salikoff, 41 years of age, 41 years young, 42-second knockout, $50,000 in the bank account. Bogdan Guskov, no bonus.

Stop it. Stop it. The record shattering Stephen Wynne. I'm giving him seven knockdowns because officially in my book, he knocked down poor Muhammad Yaya seven times. and finally everyone had seen enough because Jason Herzog had the over one and a half

or something and he had to have. Had to have bet on the over one and a half. I'm just joking, but Stephen Wynn with his record setting seven knockdowns or six officially by the UFC, although I'd like them to rewatch that fight, gets the other performance of the night. And I think that is pretty fair.

When you're breaking knockdown records, you should probably get a bonus. I would have gone the four bonuses. Now that you've given me there. With respect to Shara and Mark Andrebelio, my fellow Canadian, I would have gone four bonuses. Because I thought Top of the Ritchie's elbow was frigging sweet. Like she, I don't know if people, some people missed the freelance.

Man, she snuck in this like elbow at a weird angle and just in the eyeball. In the eyeball, man. That wasn't good. So she should have gotten a bonus. And Bogdan definitely should have gotten a bonus. He just took out a top 10 guy in under and under a round. What does Bogdan got to do? I also think the main event was way was better than charr bullet and mark andrew barrio like

mab gave me some hope in round two hurt char a little bit and i was like oh my god this might happen and then char just kind of like took him out in the third round just kind of beat that ass r d r wittaker was just fun and compelling it was kind of edge of your seat stuff uh but hey grats to mark andre barrio for getting extra 50 50 gs uh 50 gs two consecutive events for mark Andre Barrio. How about that? Got a performance bonus in his last fight. Now he gets a fight of the night. Things are looking up for Power Bar

these days. We mentioned Peter Yan gets a decision winner by Marcus Begui. He wants a title fight. He told me he will weigh in the backup for the Marab Sandh Sannhagen fight if that's what they want, but he's not fighting anybody else unless it is the winner of that fight. And I got to tell you,

I think it's the right choice. We mentioned Sharra bullet. Asu Amabayev defeats Jose Ochoa. I didn't actually see a 3027 coming from Asulamabaiy, but gets it done, bounces back. It was not a fight. We're going to go back and rewatch it for being honest. We mentioned Bogdan Goosekhov. Some fun at 205 pounds, AK, Anthony Smith's lookalike, the doppelganger, going in there, just icing out Nikita Krilov like it was nothing.

Oh, I thought you were talking about Aslan Al-Kana when you said fun at 205 pounds. I thought you meant a preliminary bout between, uh, oh, my God. Ebo and... Honestly, I don't want to be a jerk, but that was one of the worst fights of the year. It's bad. It's real bad. I actually laughed, I think, early on. One of the commentators was like, well, I didn't expect the fight to go this way.

And, like, I know Aslan's a knockout artist. I get it. That's why you book a fight like this. This is the state of light heavyweight now. That going to decision actually did not surprise. I don't know if I thought it would be such a stink bomb. But light heavyweight and heavyweight, I mean, these are just bad divisions, man. You have literally almost any matchup outside, well, outside of maybe the top five of those divisions.

You have like a better than 50% chances going past the second round or something. It's rough. It's wrong about there right now. Tough scenes. Bryce Mitchell gets a win over Syed Narmaga Madoff. I'm sure we'll get questions about that fight and where Bryce Mitchell goes. We mentioned both in Salakov would a win. Davy Grant.

Got that dog at him, AK. Got that dog at him. 39 years of age. He just makes, he just got. that grit that the DeBan Black Shears of the world just don't have. That's what one Davey Grant this fight. He made DeMond uncomfortable. DeMond thought he was just going to bully him.

And David Grant's like, nah, not happening, not today. And Davey Grant gets another victory. Tab of the Ritchie, you mentioned, gets a finish. Probably the fight that was least likely to get finished on people's cards was that one, just because people thought it was going to be really, really close and just sort of typical fights for both of those ladies. but good on tap at the Ritchie. Billy Al-A-Cana,

Ibo Aslan, it's the last time we'll probably mention that fight. Stephen wins seven knockdowns. I'm still giving it seven. No 10-7s in that round, which drives me fucking crazy. What? People are like,

there are other meeting members like, yeah, 10-8s, great job. Like, he knocked him down five times. Five times? Like, what does it take to get a 10-7 round in MMA? In boxing, if someone gets knocked down five times and there's no three knockdown rule, It's a 10-5 round, but at MMA, you can almost kill a guy five times.

You don't get a 10-7. It's insane. I did not. One 10-7. I did not. I have to go look at this now. I did not see the scorecards up to the point of the finish. Hold on.

This is the second five of the night. Wow. Wow. That is, that is interesting. No 10-8s in round two, even though when docked him down twice. I thought we would see like the first 10-5. in U.S. history. That's how bad that first.

Like, he was. I'm really disappointed in Jason Herzog. I'm really disappointed in Yaya's Corner. I just, like, I don't even know why I'm disappointed at this point because we know corners and there may just don't stop fights. It's not a thing that's done. Like, I don't know who you guys are. I don't know your names.

I'm not going to call you out other than calling you, Yaya's Corner, but like you guys effed up tonight. Like, you got to protect your guy. He was, and I know what, early in round two, he kind of caught Gwyn with something, but like that dude at that point is just an autopilot like he is he does not remember I guarantee you he doesn't remember 90% of that fight he will watch that footage and he'll be like oh oh oh like that happened to me oh like I got knocked down there I got knocked down again like

it is just a blur and you guys have got to look up for his health this was genuinely like uncomfortable to watch like I'm glad Stephen Gwin got a bonus because really he should have gotten a first round finish for being honest so I'm glad he got that money but whoever yeah he had this team. He may be done with the UFC. I think he's 0-1-3 now, I believe, after that fight. So that might be the last time. Maybe that's why they went all out. Maybe that's why they didn't want to stop the fight. They're like, oh, this is his last chance. But it's like, where are you guys going with this? Do you have to you? I'm not a doctor. How did you guys not see how badly hurt he was? It's clear as day. You are there with him. He's on your stool. He barely made it to

the stool after round one. Yeah, that was that honestly, out of everything that happened in that fight was him, him stumbling back to the corner and Herzog literally walking beside him and not stopping the fight there. It's just like, bro, what are you doing?

Like at that point, just be like, all right, I'm stopping this. Like, I gave you so many chances. You can't even make it to your corner. Like, enough is enough. Five, six knockdowns, however you want to call it. Like, it's rough. It only got stopped because, the swelling, right? It was just that he couldn't see out of the eye. That's the referee

stoppage, right? Too much swelling he couldn't see. Not that they were like, oh, he's taking a savage beating. Probably should not be fighting for another five minutes. They're just like, oh, he can't see. As a doctor stoppage officially, yeah. Oh my God. Guys, we got to do better. We got to do better. That's just, it's 2025. We've been watching anime for a long time. Like, I don't know how, I don't know how we're still allowing this stuff to happen. I hope he's okay. Congratulations. and I hope, I hope Mohammed Diaz is all right, man. I hope he doesn't, uh, it doesn't

Yeah, I guess he's okay. Uh, he had a cat scan. I guess, like no big damage, no facial breaks or anything like that. So I guess all things considered about as good of an outcome as you can get. But welcome next week, Mike. Welcome next week. I heard, uh, I heard that there's, Hey, you got some cards coming out. Welcome to me.

You know how I feel about fighters who get or get got and get got really, really well and how there is value to that. I'm not, I'm not playing that card for Muhammad, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think he needs to go back to like UAE warriors or something like that. and it just not take beatings like this. Like this featherweight division is just full of absolute killers. So yeah, tough, tough scenes.

Tough night for Jason Herzog wasn't great. But what a night. The electricity was in the air for Martin Boudai versus Marcus Buccce. Casey and I watched that fight with the peeps live as it went down. We had, I had more fun watching that fight than most fights I've watched in 2025. But Mario Boudai gets the win. Over Marcus, Chetra. I'm only sad it wasn't this flitty.

I think when this fight was first announced, I'm like, this is Martin Budai's split decision. All of them. But I underestimated it. And my key was even better at blocking a lot of that grappling that I thought came out. Every takedown where he just like fell on top, like just stuffed it and just fell on top of Chetcha, I just started laughing because I'm like, like, like what?

I'm sorry. Who? I guess Cron Gracie. Crown Gracie was what the last like, oh, this guy's a crazy ass, you know, grappling champion and is going to come in and, him and he bought Alex Casares is UCDB, right? So that was it. I think that was like the last time. How many guys

do we have to see who are like, oh, I'm 12 time ADCC champion multiple gold, whatever. And then guys, MMA is not the same thing. It's not the same thing. And we see them come in and they put on these performances and it's just like, maybe I remember, maybe we Checha learns from this bounces back. He's 35 years old guys.

He's not, which I had heavy weight. Yes, it's young. But he's been competing just in martial arts for a long time. There's not like some young Buck was like, oh, he doesn't have much mileage on. I mean, he's like, we kind of know who he is. And I hope he gets 10 UFC fights mixed in a few highlight real submissions, but this debut was so predictable. I couldn't believe how people out there.

I saw like, oh, man, first round submission. I'm like, how? How are you going to do this? There are people who work with us who felt like, all right, finally, the heavyweight division's got to get like a refresher because Marcus Buchet is here. I'm like, have you watched him fight? Like, he can get good submissions when. he's fighting like one and 12 dudes.

But this is Martin Boudai, ranked UFC heavyweight. You know how deep this division is? There's like 19 fighters on the entire roster right now. But Chetia knew, man. Like he said it. Guy spoke to him. He spoke to his interview.

It's on the fight. You guys can go find that interview, the pre-fight interview. And he was like, yeah, you, Boudai is like a legitimate black belt. He's like, I am not expecting to run through this guy on the ground. Like he knew. He knew this was going to be a tough fight.

So I don't know. I don't know why we all thought we knew better than him, I guess. All right. Let's go to the peeps. I want to see what you guys are all saying. We probably got like 15 or 20 minutes to rifle through some of the topics here. And we'll do exactly that. So, oh, there he is.

Wow, that was a shuffle. I went left. I went right and now I'm back in the middle. I just want to point out that I thought Bucccia won. I thought it was a robbery. How? What do you mean? I thought go to MMA decisions, man.

More media. I'm going right now. The fans thought Bichita won. That was a robbery, man. Do your job. Do you know robbery of you, man. And correct this injustice, A.K. Lee. Do it.

Eight people stopped Wuchat won that fight. Yeah. Including Mike Heck and E.K.C. Liden. We thought Puchatio won. So, AK, I'm so mad to you, A.K. I need to watch this fight again. You know what? I look forward to watching this fight again.

It'll be my pleasure. You should watch it while watch it. While watching Casey and I watch it. Yeah. Just watch our watch party of it. And then don't even watch the fight. Just watch us react to the fight. And that would give you a better impression of how amazing.

Yeah, yeah. And it wasn't, okay, first of all, it wasn't even like the judges clearly robbed the and the UFC clearly stole $50,000 from both those gentlemen because that was fight of the night. God dang it. That was so elected. That was more electric than Brett and Alarmamentary. And credit to the UFC for opening the card with the real main event. Let's just say that.

That was the real main event. I don't know what these middle weights are doing at the top of the card. But the real main of win. This is Hamdi and Mo's mine all over again. All I have to say is, uh, bike goes a distance was plus 205 on Banduel. And I have a lot of people, I have a lot of people made money off of this because I certainly, I certainly enjoyed it. I'll just say that. I'm not, don't bet on MA, but let me just say I enjoyed that line.

and what it may have potentially produced. That's all I'm going to say. I've gotten cream the last two weeks, but over one and a half and minus 130 was like the best bet. It was the easiest and safest bet of my life. And before we go to the questions, I just want to throw this thing because I know that was a really hot, but like correct take.

My cold take is I did agree with MMMA mania, and I did score the fight for one for RDR. Wow. I don't agree, but I think it's not crazy. I actually, I get what Casey's about to say. Sorry, Casey, go ahead. Yeah, I thought, was it round three where RDR almost got knocked out? When Whitaker almost, when Whitaker had RDR, like, almost out.

Yeah. You gave RDR that round. I did give RDR that round. My point, my point is, I know everything's based on damage. Yes, there was initial damage from the big shot. All credit to Whitaker, you almost finished the fight. But I feel the. The wrestling and the knees to the body actually did more damage overall to Robert Whitaker.

And that eventually led to, to me, him winning the last two rounds. That's my thing. I totally understand how, if you think the knockdown gave him the round, I have no issue of that. But I think it's one of those rare things where I think that the, because after RDR got dropped and everything, he really, there wasn't any, to me, there wasn't any long-lasting damage from that shot. He kind of recovered and he was back. the wrestling and the takedowns and the knees that RDR gave to Whitaker that round, I felt that did longer lasting damage throughout the fight in terms of cardio and just terms of,

you know, just Whitaker's performance. So that's just a bit of a take from me, but no issue. I think the right guy won the fight. I think that's what really matters. I think I know it was a super close fight. It was a great fight. Yeah. But I'm just throwing that out there.

It's fine. If you score it for RDR, it's fine. I don't, I don't, I, I, I enjoy the compelling nature of your, of your argument. And if we're in the Casey Liden sort of hindsight scorecards, you're probably right. Like the damage that was inflicted at round three to Whitaker probably gave RDR the victory. And if we could go back and be like, you know what, round three, because of what I saw in round four, in round five. I'm actually going to give that round RDR

because of what he did in round three despite almost getting knocked out. But good fight, man. It was a great fight. I learned a lot about RDR. I thought after watching some film on Whitaker last night that Whitaker was just going to clobber him all over the place, but that knee just kept landing.

And RDR looked like he weighed 50 pounds more than Robert Whitaker did fight in there. Yeah, I think RDR, like, he, He moves so slow and kind of just unathletic. But I really feel it must be like a freight train. Freight train is only going like 10 miles an hour, but if it touches you, boom, you go flying. You know, I just feel like that's what RDR must feel like

when he's in a basically, I want to say, he's probably 220, I don't know, 22 in there. He's probably at least 10, 15 pounds heavier than Robert Whitaker. And those shots must feel super heavy for those middle weights when they get him from RDR. So, yeah, it's, he's a super unique fighter and, yeah, he is now an elite UFC fighter and maybe future title contender. I'm saying. Yeah, he's, he's strong as hell, Casey, because even the takedown attempts that were, like, stuffed, you could see, like, just Rob almost just like getting, if it wasn't for his amazing, like, take down defense and balance, like, he's just getting pushed all the way back.

Like he's just, like he said, it is literally in the way. Yeah, he's literally in front of a train and just do, like, okay, I got to just. push against this thing to not go down. Like it was it was quite divisional some of those take down attempts like yeah it's a problem man rob is so good. Yeah and much like yeah much like DDP like just this and I don't know this only exists a middleweight where you can just be just super weird and just super just super weird and somehow it works at middleweight.

I know I can't explain it but that's like the perfect weight class between like martial art skill athleticism and just craziness. We're so bad. I don't know. It's so bad. It's like one of those movies. Like, this is really so bad, but it's great. That's middleweight.

It's spectacular. Middleweight rocks. It's so good. I'm on board. I'm on board. Yeah. All right. All right.

Let's get to some stupid chats. Thank you, everyone for. Back to back of the nights. Back to back fight of the nights, right? No, 318 and it's the hottest division, man. It's got everything. It's red hot. It's red hot.

I'm telling you. Third is the second and the best division of the sport. Keelis Jr. Not sure who's judgment is worse. A.K. Mike's scorecard for Rob or Herzog letting Yai lose many, many brain cells. There's many with A.K. and I like a lot of people who are with us

on the Whitaker scorecard. So it was a close fight. It was close fight. I mean, I can name three or four guys who are on Herzog's side, and they were all in Yaya's corner. So I don't know what the hell is going on there. Yeah, I thought Rob won. I thought Rob is up 29, 28 hitting in a round four.

Like, that's how I looked at it. And then round four is real close. That ended up being the swing round of the fight. And I think all three judges gave RDR5? Yeah, all three judges gave RDR5. That is correct. And yeah, I think I gave Rob four. And two judges gave round four to derritor.

So round four was the swing round. Yeah, it was round four. Uncertainly intended. Yeah, that's, I leaned Whitaker after four. I had Whitaker up three rounds to one heading in round five, but did not feel great about it. And I actually thought RDR won the fifth round. Yeah. Yeah, going, I think, I noted going to the fifth round, I had it 3-1 for RDR, but I acknowledge that three, rounds three and four couldn't have gone both ways.

So, yeah, so no issues of any scorecards. Yeah. Thank you, Keats Jr. RS 40. Let's be honest, a real contender in middleweight. Fluffy Hernandez. He's the one who matches the best against DDP and Shemayev. Who do you give to RDR now? I mean, this is Samaun to the next one stuff for show.

Do you give anyone to RDR? Or is he just wait? I heard someone say Izzy, right? Didn't someone tell Izzy out there? Was it was on the broadcast? Henry Sehudo. Henry Sehudo throughout Izzy. And I couldn't hate, I could not hate that idea anymore.

Like, we don't need to be feeding Izzy to RDR right now. Like, come on. We don't, we don't, we need to see doing like fun stuff. Uh, yeah. If fluffy beats Roman DeLidez, that's the fight to make. I feel terrible that I repeated the words of Henry Sehudo. Now I feel really bad. Yeah, it's fluffy RDR.

That's the one. Like, it's, if he needed, if he needed a big name to beat to like get him over the top, yeah, but he just beat Robert Whitaker. In a main event. He doesn't need another big name. Like, that's, that's a good win. That's like, okay, this guy. this guy might fight for a belt right now.

It's very possible. But Fluffy's just on a roll. He's got terrific wins. Like really good wins on the resume right now. And if he goes out and just batters Roman DeLidezay around, who is also on a really nice streak, I love, dude, Roman DeLidez A versus RDR would be absolute.

It'd be, it would be an appetizer for RDRDDP. Because whoever wins that fight versus. DDP is got to be incredible. So I love that idea. I'll give my out-no pickaway right now, but I think Fluffy beats Roman DeLidez A, and then he can fight RDR, and the winner gets a title fight.

All right. Thank you, RS 40. Super chat from David, 199 super chat, because he just wanted to be a meany. Oh, no. Wow. What it'll take for visiting to, shut the front door for two seconds.

I thought commentary tonight was fine. I thought it was fine. Yeah, I didn't. Normally, I like the Bispingfelder combo. It was just a little flat today. I don't think they said anything. I don't think there was any moments where I was like rolling my eyes or like, oh, this is like,

oh, you know, as I often do with like Joe Rogan and Gail Corme and all that stuff. But, yeah, I don't know. Something about the commentary was just a little, a little dull. Maybe that's a good thing. Like, I feel like they didn't get out of it, get in the way. though clearly, David McCaslow disagrees for his a little too much Mike Bissing. He does talk quite a bit.

Yeah, I continually complain that when Felder's there, why is Felder at doing the in-cage interviews? Yeah. I just agree with that. Yeah. But props to Peter Jan for totally not answering anything of Bisman was asking. Just like, I just coming out of things to say. So, God bless that, man.

Yeah. It's, it's just tough. man he's he's he's he's a you there's no gray air with mike you you you either enjoy i don't yeah it doesn't you either enjoy his commentary and think he's the best or you don't think he's good at all um there's really no middle ground when it comes to that and it kind of there are certain commentators like i know especially there are people are at our website who just cannot stand dominic cruz on commentary and there but there are certain times where i think dominic cruz is really really good like there was one fight night at the apex or it was just Cruz

and Anac, no third man. And I thought that was by far the best dominant cruise we've ever heard on commentary. And then if you put Cruz with Cormier, it's atrocious. If you put Cruz with Rogan, it's atrocious. Put Cruz with Bisbing, it might be the worst

broadcast you've ever watched. But if you put Cruz with Paul Felder, he's excellent. He's excellent. Because Felder will lay out sort of like, here's the meat and potatoes. And then Cruz will find like the intricacies of like each individual moment in a fight that like Felder sets him up beautifully for. It just all depends on like the flow and who's with them. But yeah, I, I get it,

man. Bisming's great at the desk though. I actually. Yes. Yeah. Spectacular at the desk. Like just the five minutes of the post show I watch with him, Dean Thomas, Karen Bryant. I was like, he's really good up there. Like he's so much better at the desk that he is doing commentary. But people love Bisbing. So. Yeah, I think one of the one of the biggest mistakes we see in broadcasting and it's not exclusive to the UFC is like people thinking that the roles are interchangeable They're like oh, this person's really good on the desk, but then they could they think then they should do Rick caseide commentary too and it's like there's very different skills same with doing what like Megan O'Leafie does like I think she's she's awesome but like I don't I wouldn't want paul feldor trying to do one of those stand up you know fighter intro things like it's extremely difficult like it doesn't mean that they're not capable of like filling in at times but it's not the same you can't just say oh well broadcast broadcast teams, broadcast team,

anyone can do any role. Like, no, that's not the case. You got to play to people's strengths. Agreed. Okay. Yeah,

a couple of things about Bisman, but I'll move on. Be nice, Casey. I know. Thank you, David. A couple more super chats before we get to some other questions.

CPAC, yes, big news with the PICO fight added to 319. How does that change your opinions of the overall fight card? So, yes, we were wondering, they were playing the promo for Drickist Duplice versus Hamza Chabayev, set in the tone, and I was literally about to tweet, are we about to get our answer for TBD versus TBD?

Are we those massive spots? When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. It's just $39.99. How could I resist? this luxurious wool throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss?

Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. And making his UFC debut against not Movesar of Lov. He will do so against Lorraine Murphy, which kind of threw me off. threw me by surprise a little bit, AK.

So your reaction to Murphy versus Pico and also, what does that do to this card overall for you? Is it go up a notch, go down a notch, stays the same? Where are you at? I feel like it kind of has to stay this. No, no, I mean, based on TBD versus TBD, which is where we last left this situation. Yeah, I guess it has to go up a little bit, right? Like, I don't know if we're comparing it to, if we're comparing it to Pico versus of Loyaev, then obviously, like, it's a bit of a step down with respect to Lerone Murphy, also an

undefeated featherweight. But, you know, Lorone, great fighter, not exactly known for having the most exciting fights. I know people criticize a Vloia for having the same, for the same reasons, but I do think of Lov... I do think of Lov versus Pico on paper. And again, I think the wrong one of Lov. Actually, if Lov has at least like three fights that I would consider very exciting in the O.C., but it's all because of, again, yes, he doesn't have any finishes. That's one.

to Dana White, like roasting him that one time for a fight that I think Dana White clearly didn't watch or was stick with another fight, so that was bad. And he hasn't like outlived that. So great job by promotion by Dana White as always. But it's a bit of a step back from the Vloia fight just in terms of, I think whoever won Pico of Lov, we knew for sure would probably get the title fight.

Abloia, definitely, Pico, I think they would have fast-tracked him, especially if he won either an exciting decision or knocked a Vloya out, keep him the title fight. Murphy, I mean, I'll say the same thing. Like, if he scores a highlight, real knockout or a submission for like the first time in his life, then yeah, maybe they give Laro the title fight. It just seems unlikely. But, but maybe Pico is one of those guys who will just guarantee excitement no matter where he fights. That is the hope when you're bringing a guy like this, right?

Is not only going to be a contender, is he going to make other fighters who are not necessarily the most exciting, you know, just add a little bit of juice to those matchups? So we will hope that is what happens. I'm hoping for my fantasy team that Aaron Pico gets a big knockout. I was worried him, but not even fight this year, depending on how they have a Floyd's situation shook out. And otherwise, this could get ugly if we get a Lorone Murphy decision win. Oh, could be bad. Well, look at Lorraine Murphy. I know you complain.

He's not boring or me he's boring and everything. But his last exciting fight was when he fought a wrestler when he knocked out Marquana, Ameriqani by that giant. knee. So all Pico has to do is shoot in recklessly and then make Lerone Murphy look like a goddamn, you know, Justin Gagie out there. So this is great. Maybe. This fight actually makes more sense, honestly, than the Mosefar fight. Yes. Yes, true. Yeah. I mean, I know of fans, we want, I think we won the Mosevart fight just because we kind of, I don't know, want to see him fight again and get tested. But this fight actually, ranking-wise, makes, I think, more sense. And Lerunerner-Murphy, based on his resume,

has earned this shot and I actually like to fight a lot and I'm a weirdo I thought the Murphy Emmett fight was fine I enjoyed the vinyl everyone complained about it I thought I really enjoyed Lorone Murphy's performance in that 25 minute shutout of Josh Emmett so just saying I like to fight a lot and the card is very good yeah it's fine I mean I think this is very smart on Lorone Murphy's part because if he just continues to wait he's he would have fought He was fighting like Steve Garcia next. Like that was as good as it was going to get for Lorone Murphy. He wasn't going to be fighting. I know he was calling all like every top rank featherweight. You have to see zero interest in booking any of those fights for him. So he was going to get like Yusuf Zalal or Steve Garcia or something like that. Like it literally as good as it was going to get for him.

So him stepping into an opportunity like this for a guy. I think he's going to beat as well. Like this is big. Like this is a smart move. This is about as big of fanfare, eyeballs. that he was possibly going to get. I will also say this. I know Jedd really dumps on him

and a lot of people think he's boring and I don't think he's like the most thrilling guy of all time. Having said that, that Edson Barboza fight, he beat the shit out of Edson Barboza. Like that was, that was not what he did to Josh Emmett.

He annihilated Edson Barboza. The Danny Gay fight was pretty fun too. I actually thought Danny Gay won that fight, but I'm that's just me and then Josh MFite was what it was like not every outing is going to be like the most thrilling fight of all time but we'll see we'll see if he if Aaron if he wins a boring decision against Aaron Pico if he somehow makes Aaron Pico like a boring fighter that he has a superpower yeah yeah that's some weird superpower that's like he can make the most exciting guys just like that i will say and that in itself should be applauded and i'm here for positivity

just just to go back to the original question how does that change our opinions of the overall fight card i'll say this i would spend 80 dollars to watch hamzat versus ddp no matter what so i mean that's technically it doesn't really change my overall yeah that's that's the that's like one of the five most exciting fights the year that is a i would absolutely 80 dollars 90 dollars my first my first reaction was I had a couple. The biggest one was, man, Abloa must be really badly hurt. Because if they,

I would have waited. I just would, I would have waited like, I would have waited another month or two. I would have thrown on 320 if we had to, Pico versus Obloia. If we had to wait two extra months, like I would have been totally fine with that.

But that's not what happened here. So, yeah, I don't think this deed, I don't think 319. Like, is it the greatest pay for you of all time? No.

But it is that main event, rocks and that's the biggest one of the biggest fights of the year so i would rather just use that fight for another card but that's not what happened here it's fine does it doesn't change a thing for me because of the main event i think to me i think it adds a lot to the card because um i was saying this is a very boxing card and i don't like i don't like one-fight pay-per-views um i don't like boxing paper views that are one-fight cards and this would have been a one-fight card um if it have been a if you don't put pico on that card so uh i don't think it's like that bad though kios and kairk coming off a bad loss unranked i mean he's ranked kis kis kerskir is ranked

he should be he just fought for the title and lost pretty badly i like karskar a lot you got ranked uh jerry did an air michael page jeff neil carlos pratches two right guys create a service that's it's coming off losses but what if i can't Casey, what if I'm framing it for you this way? There is no fight on this card, 2 or 5 pounds or higher. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Almost every fight. It sounds horrible.

This card is going down. No light head. Are you trying to sell this car or are you joined me? I'll take some PTO that Saturday. No, light heavyweight fights. No light heavyweight fights and no heavyweight fights. We do have what could be one of the ugliest middleweight fights of the year when Jared Cannonier fights Michael Page.

but but it balances out because you got gerald meershard versus mckel ozachuk and no one's not you know what battle in your sultan the card itself is good actually actually i like the card i do like uh i do like i like watching chase super fight it gives me fun uh jess con draj and lupy yeah that's a really good i hope that's on the main i know then i can put that in the main card but i hope it's the main card because i love loopie's one of my favorite fighters to watch and you know bobby green uh see uh diego frere just fun fight you know barboza close guys we just we know you know yeah fun stuff so the whole card is good i think the the part you have to pay for it's kind of weak but you know great main event great main event great co-main event thank you

whatever your name is see see bag see bag see bag see bag let's get through these couple more super chats we'll bounce um chase 999 super chat my friends and i were discussing the heavyweight division and in an inebriated thought, we discussed if Tom got hurt would the UFC strip him or allow him the same grace John got? What do you all think? Oh, right now, he'd be stripped for sure.

It's been over a year since he last fought. They would strip him without a second thing thought. So gone, Alveda for the vacant heavyweight. Derek Lewis, baby. Oh, Derek Lewis. Oh, it would be Derek Lewis. One anniversary of me Derek Lewis. would be thrown in there.

Yes, of course. He's not getting the same grace John got. That was such a screwed up. I don't even know if it was grace as they were giving John. It was just such a screwed up situation where we'll never know all the like the discussions that were had with John and with John's management and the UFC and the UFC matchmakers and other people in the OC. I'm sure they were like, oh, there's, he'll be, he might be back this time.

He might back this time. And it just dragged on and on and on. And the thought of like stripping him probably just kept getting pushed back like, oh, well, let's wait until this month. And then if we really get no update, we'll, we'll, we'll, vacate the title. And then it was like, ah, but he said this, let's wait another couple of months. And then before they realized it, it just got like completely out of control. And then you had this nonstop back and forth between John and Tom, Dana White getting involved. And

they didn't know what to do. At this point, the situation was in limbo. And they had an interim title holder. So the thought is always like, well, okay, the heavyweight titles got undisputed is not available. We can book the interim guy. But it didn't make sense to book Tom against anybody else. So we are not in that situation now. We do have a undisputed champion. who you'd be the guy who's been the undisputed champion this whole time. But they would totally strengthen. It's not a murky situation. Oh, yeah, easily.

Yeah. Yeah, that's just a rumor that Tom's injured, master. What? I'm still upset. It's not Aspinot versus Derek Lewis, actually. I'm just like, I'm coming to terms. I have to accept it. I have to accept it.

It should be Derek Lewis. I just need to get that out there in the universe. But, um, He knows Val, baby. I know, he knows ball. He knows ball. All right. One more super chat.

I see Pico's fight going the same as the patchy mix fight. These guys can't sit out over a year and debut for the PFC from PFL. The sit-up for a year does suck. Sitting out for a year does suck to come out to a sold-out arena and, you know, dealing with a high-level opponent, probably Pico's toughest opponent he's ever faced. after a year out, new crew, new cage, new lighting, everything's new. Yeah, that is, that is a tough one. That is tough.

He is considerably younger than Apache. I think we should add that, right? I'm not crazy. Oh, no. He's not for 20s now. Pico is like, in my mind, is 21-year-old super bus back there. He's still 21 to you. Yeah, he is a bit younger.

I will say that he is a few years younger. Oh, he is. Okay. matters um like what three like three i think pico's like 28 28 so like three years yeah um and i think pico was in slightly better form uh because people remember the magomad megal megal meadow fight there were already some like some holes being poked in patchy's game right and maga mega megal mago med meadow is a really good band too uh really good excuse me but like there was actually was a short notice it was a short notice fight for patchy fair enough fair enough uh but i do think the

circumstance but it's not a bad comparison because leron murphy could easily hand pico a loss and then and then people could still be as good as we think he is even coming up yes yeah yeah uh yes uh yes we'll see we'll see that if it happens jason what is Aaron pico's best win just um just out of is it honestly I think I think Justin I think Justin Gonzalez is his best win let me look at is um I don't know um I think it's a really I think it's just, like they're playing. I like Justin a lot in the regional scene, and he had a couple of Bellator wins.

I think he was like 14 and O or something when Pico fought him. And Pico, Pico beat that ass. Like, he dominated him. They didn't finish him, but it was about as lopside of a 30, 27 as you will see.

And like, yeah, he had the Edwards and like, you know, the solo Hatley juniors of the world. But like, I just wish. he fought like better guys.

But that's not on him. That's not on him. I know that. I know. I know. Sorry, sorry. I'm not trying to. Lorone is a big jump up from a lot of these guys.

Oh, yeah. This is by a hundred trips around the world, the toughest fight of Aaron Pico's career. Like, without question, the toughest fight matchup of his career. I personally think one of his best victories was actually his last victory over a year ago was actually his rematch against Corralis, considering Corralis. knocked him out cold and to come back and face a guy who just iced you and to dominate him and knock him out in the first round, I think that says a lot for someone to the mentality of a fighter to come out and do that. So I'm going to give a little bit of that. But also your three-round domination is super important to the development of Pico too. Sure. Yeah. The crowd's fight,

like, the crowd's fight like it's a great, it's a good win and it was nice like see him fight. The problem was like I don't even count that as a real fight. Like, if two guys are in the occasion, Krause took that fight on like literally 48 hours notice and had to fly to Abu Dhabi from California on like less than three days notice to fight Aaron Pico. Not ideal.

When Aaron Pico was getting ready to fight, I think it was Gabriel Braga or something like that. Yeah. And it was like, hey, we got to have Pico on this PFL versus Bellator card that is falling apart by the day. And then Henry Correroero, because he's such a dude such a G.

It's like, sure, I'll go over there and fight this guy. Two days notice around the world. Absolute savage. But hey, look, it's a fight. Pico treated Henry Carous accordingly for the situation. But Pico's guy, we base Picos on our expectations of him are just kind of how he wins his fights, not necessarily who he's beat. So he's kind of like, and the Leroux fight will he finally,

okay, now it's who you beat. So yeah, we'll find out a couple weeks. I got a million questions. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. Let's see what he's got. And those are, that's, Aaron Pico's the guy that the team at Jackson Wink, though, they, they've got behind them.

Like, you know, just like they got behind John Jones, like, no, this is our guy. And they have Aaron Pico's in that same level to them. You know, like, no, this is the dude. So we will see. Very exciting, though. And one last super chat before we, oh, sorry? I was going to say, I don't like my chances of getting fantastic. points here with Premier Pico.

But, but, but keep mind. Listen, we mentioned the name. What are you talking about, man? His only loss in his last 10 fights was the Jeremy Kennedy shoulder injury. So. And that was, yeah. He's not a pretty damn streak. He's not a pretty damn history.

He threw a monster hook and his arm just left his body. That's how hard he throws. So, uh, one last super chat before we get out of here. Um, thank you for all the questions, but we are not going to be able to get to all them. Sorry, everyone. My fellow wrestling fans, can you separate the ARF from the artist with Hulk.

I can't. Same with, you know, fat, race in a firefighter. Yeah, we kind of talked about Hulk yesterday

on BTL. So, complicated career. Obviously, super valuable to the wrestling industry. He's probably the biggest star in the history

of the sport. You know, was the huge star in two different eras while in two different promotions, which is pretty darn impressive.

And then Steve Asa came along and just like just had that just lightning at a bottle with Austin 316 and stuff. But yeah, obviously incredibly important to the wrestling space. And, you know, that's what it is. I'm going to go ahead. And I'm with you. I'm with you, Terrence. Sorry. He crossed a bridge too far for me to go back on.

And I acknowledge he is without a doubt the biggest wrestling star ever. and he, like, created millions of pro wrestling WWF fans. No doubt about that. But his actions outside the ring and who he is as a person was too much for me. So, yeah, I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to go into all that. But, yeah, Hulk Hogan died and he was a very famous figure. And if he's your dude, you know, I hope you, you know, send him prayers of wishes to his family and all that stuff. I like the question because I'll say this.

I can always separate art from artists no matter what, no matter what the artist did, no matter what the, you know, I can always do it. But that doesn't mean that I'll always put the art before the reputation of the artist if that makes sense. Like I completely acknowledge there two separate things. But when I talk about Hulk Hogan, the first thing I want to talk about is that he was a racist and a liar and a union buster and just an overall piece of crap. I will, I will, I will, I, that has, for me, that's the first thing that's going to come up. Then can I talk about his career and say, oh, this, he had these great matches and he was, his influential figure and I really enjoyed this moment when I was a kid and I really enjoyed this moment when he came back and as an adult and blah, blah, absolutely. I can, I can absolutely do

that. So I am separating the two. The question is, which one do you feel comfortable? Which one do you put in the forefront? Because there's a lot of athletes, a lot of entertainers who, depending what they did, if I'm talking about them, if it was something bad, the first thing I'm going to do, I'm going to do is bring it the bad thing they did. And if you want to have it, and And then if you want to have discussion about their body of work, let's have at it for sure. Like I said, I can separate it. I don't need to be that guy at the party who every time someone's name comes up and I know they did something bad.

I go like, oh, you guys shouldn't like this person because they did this, blah, blah, blah. I don't have to do that. But again, if we're going to sit down and have a serious discussion, I'm going to let you know, like Casey said, some people just cross a line to a point and where the reputation comes first and the work comes after. And a lot of people have done that. So, yeah, so to answer to your question, I absolutely can separate. it's just a matter of which one takes priority when bringing up this person.

So there you go. And I love New Japan, Hulk Hogan. If you ever get a chance, maybe. Oh, what a hipster. New Japan. What a hipster, brother. New Japan, Hokogen, man. I'm telling you, man, that boy could wrestle.

That boy could wrestle. He could wrestle. I'm just telling you. Yeah, it was like Ray Mysterio versus psychosis in the ECW arena watching Hulk Hogan and New Japan per wrestling. But before we get out of here, A little Twitter debate going on. Our BTL alum, one time up here, a fellow journalist in the space,

Aaron Bronsetter put out a tweet that I responded to, and it's created like a little bit of some back and forth. This is Aaron's tweet from an hour ago. RDR gets a split decision win, and quote, has to be the frontrunner for Fighter of the Year, with wins over Holland, Nickel, and now Whitaker, and it's only July. My response was over Marab, who has two title defenses, a win over the undefeated boogeyman of the division that he was a heavy underdog in,

just nuking Sean O'Malley in a non-competitive way, and now he's fighting Corey Sandhagen. Are your thoughts on Aaron and others saying that, If the year ended today, Reinhier de Ritter is the fighter of the year over Ilya, Rob DeWisville, Josh Van, or anybody else. He wouldn't be my number one choice.

And shout out, shut up, by the way, to Harmon in the comments, who actually brought this up with being in the chat. We didn't have a chance to get to it. He's definitely in the running. Harmon, when they brought up, the comments, mentioned the Gerald Mirashard fight. If that had also happened this year,

like that was late 2024, that was November, then, like, would have been a much stronger case. But even with the wins he has, like I do think it's in the conversation. I'm with you, Mike. I can't put it over Marab. Because also just because I valued that Omar wins so highly. Like you guys know I was saying like, Umar is going to beat Mara.

Um, Um, we're going to become the new king in the Bantaweight division. So the way Marab handled that fight weighed very, very heavily with me. But, uh, but I don't think it's fair to rule RDR. If it ended today, I, again, like I said, I'm with Marob. I'm probably in the Marob train. But like we said, man, if RDR managed to get one more fight, Like, we think he's probably not getting at the title fight.

We don't know for sure. If he gets one more win for the end of 2025 against a ranked guy, he's really in the conversation. Because, listen, I'm not putting Bo Nicol on the level of Umar at all, but there was a lot of hype in that fight for Bo. And RDR was a underdog in that fight. So that definitely, you know, that definitely matters. And like I said, I was really impressed by the grit he showed in a five-round fight

that we weren't sure he had against a guy the level of Robert Whitaker. So not my number one choice. Top three? I think maybe comfortably in the top three. I have no problem. I just think people confuse fire of the year versus breakout fire of the year. That's all. Maraub has done amazing things.

Two dominant wins, being undefeated Umar. And finishing O'Malley. Finishing. But no one wanted to a true finish on the injury finish like dominating O'Malley. I think that by easily, just easily, it's like not even a question who the fight of the year for the first half of 2025 is. Now, RDR, as far as breakthrough and, like, creating new fans and whatever, dude, he's only beaten one ranked fighter. It's just, just keep that in mind.

One ranked fighter and a very contentious split decision. So RDR, incredible run, incredible run, but Marab, I mean, dude, we, Maraub, we, there was no goat for Bantam weight a few months ago. Now we're like, hey, maybe this is the greatest 135 pounder ever. Huh? Marab, I will say, though, Marab, his case is hurt by the fact that. no one and i don't agree with this but no one wants to see the second shan fight he he and and i and i think again shan is a top for me it's like top chan is a top five bantamate so if you beat a top five bantamate

i don't care about the circumstance i don't care if you just beat them whatever less than i'm finished them i don't look bad in the first fight i totally understand but people did not want that fight you know people a lot of people are overlooking that fight just because there's a thing of oh he already beat him so i'm not giving him points again for for beating him again even if it was more impressive. And I mean, this is just me devil's advocating it. I think that was a huge win. I think it totally matters. But this is like, you know, people want to see this fresh lineup of like, oh, well, he, you know, RDR beat Bo Nicol. He just beat a former UFC champion. He beat Kevin Hall and who's been pretty good this year, I guess. But yeah, to me, you add that up. If you add that up,

it's not, it does not outweigh two top five phantom weights. That's it, right? Two top five bantam weights. One, which, which I think Mara was the underdog. He was the underdog. He was the underdog. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's a big underdog. Okay. So there you go. So that, that, I mean, you got to get extra points for that. So, but, yeah, RDR is in a conversation. But Marab is. Rob. Marab, I'd probably throw JDM up there,

despite just one win, just what he did against Ball and Muhammad, one of the best fights of the year and winning. Josh Vann, I would probably put higher than RDR right now because of the wins he has. It's just a better resume. Yeah.

And the way his stock flew up. My God, like he is now the number one contender at 125 pounds. He's going to fight for a belt before the end of the year. in his fourth fight of the year. If John Silva beats Diego Lopez, he immediately jumps over RDR. Yeah, that's big. A lot of fighters having great years.

That's all. Ardard is one of those fighters. This is going to be one of those years. We've had years where we've struggled to pick like five, five logical fighter of the years. That won't be a problem this year. We're going to have like a, we're going to have some snubs,

like some unfortunate snubs. There's some really, really good campaigns going on. Wait, wait. Have RDR's fight fight's been this year? No, no, no, no. No, Jared Miershire, it was November. Okay, it was in November.

Okay. I was just saying, is he rookie of the year? Which I... This young whippersnapper. Yeah, we'll talk about that later. Our whole... I don't know. Yeah, we have rookie at the year.

We don't even talk about that. Yeah, yeah. You might have to reinstitute breakout fighter of the year. The only reason we got rid of breakout fighter of the year is because you people got so mad. But you're so vocal about it. People are getting death threats. at the site.

Oh, not us. You mean the reader? Me? I did. I did. I wrote up, all I did was write up the tabulated votes that Hamzat Shabayev was the breakout fighter of the year in 2020 over Kevin Holland. And people lost it.

I mean, that was the right decision. That was the right decision. Easily. It was. It was. And people were so mad. Like the amount of like, I mean, just hurtful shit that was set in my direction.

People were like, you should die because you wrote this. Like, look at the chart. I'm like, I actually picked Kevin Holland, I think. But like, I was like, but it's totally fine. Like there's ways you break out. Breakout is like, whoa, this do win from unranked to ranked and might fight for a belt. Yeah. But people knew who Kevin Holland was heading into 2020.

no one knew who Hamzat was until the end of that year. And it ended with him knocking out Gerald Mirchart with the first punch he throws in 16 seconds. And just from where he started, from where he started that year, just like fighting randomly short notice on a fight island card in front of no people. And then fighting a week later and then knocking out Gerald Mirchart in 16 seconds, like he was the boogeyman. People already, they offered him Leon Edwards after that win over Gerald Beershard. And then it was so crazy that Leon got pulled from the rankings for like a week because of Hamza Chabayev.

Like Kevin Holland wasn't getting people removed from the rankings. So, yeah. So maybe we'll have to bring it back. I think we just have to because we can't have Marcus Buccecha being the rookie of the year, you know? He got robbed in his first UFC, a robbery in his first UFC fight. I feel like Budai has really broken out, if we're being honest. Like, I think he might be the breakout fight of the end. Actually, how many times he fought this year?

Am I even being, am I even being sarcastic? Didn't he like, am I being sarcastic? Isn't he like, hold on. Budai is 2 and 0 this year. You know what? Let's revisit this in four months. Let's revisit this. Two and O'n-0 so far.

Who else did you meet? I can anyone in the comments get this if you give me the first nobody knows nobody knows the mystery nobody knows i'm looking at it right now as i was researching for this card i was like i don't i know i watched this fight i don't remember this fight at all there's no way i can remember anything from this fight i just want to see if anyone can get okay it is oh my god yeah i would have never got i don't know youron yoron salte baldiav your run sati baldia of course we all remember this Oh, you know what? I can remember this.

He was like a middleweight taking a featherweight fight. Yeah, he was the LFA light heavyweight champion. He took the title short notice. I actually picked Dior to win that fight now that I look at my topology histories. But we're done. With the first Dyerr Nurgasai mentioned, have a good night, everybody,

a K-9 match. Youron. You're on. Let's go. You're on. He's fighting DR August 23rd. Don't miss it. I'll be there.

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