MMA Fighting - UFC Abu Dhabi Post-Fight Show: Reaction To Umar Nurmagomedov's Statement Win, Ferguson's Historic Loss

Episode Date: August 4, 2024

Umar Nurmagomedov delivered the best performance of his career, taking a unanimous decision over Cory Sandhagen at UFC Abu Dhabi to stake his claim for a bantamweight title shot. The MMA Fighting team breaks down Umar's big win and the rest of the Saturday's card, including Deiveson Figueiredo continuing to climb the bantamweight ranks, Shara Magomedov authoring the best performance of his career, Tony Ferguson finally (maybe) calling it quits, and Mackenzie Dern getting back on the winning track. Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What is up? That's right, everybody. It's the UFC Abu Dhabi Post Show. And those, what you hear right now in your earballs, those are the victory horns. And they sailed for Umar, Nermaggo Medov,

the undefeated prospect is a prospect no more. He did the damn thing, a 5045, 45, 49, 46, 49, unanimous decision win over Corey Sandhagan. Plus a whole bunch of other stuff happened. And we're going to talk about it. Hey, everybody. I'm Jedmishu of M.AFight.com.

Great website. And this is the UC Abu Dhabi Post Show. Mike Hacks usually in this chair. He's still out on vacation. I'm still taking over the ship. But helping me on this wonderful journey, the crew for us as we move through this evening, I'm joined by two esteemed members of the MMA fighting staff.

First of all, on the preview show, we talked a lot about things. Mr. Jose Young's. How you doing, Jose? Oh, life's a blessing, man. It's absolutely torrential rain outside in Manhattan. So what a wonderful Saturday to stay inside and watch high-level martial arts. I was about to say, man, life is a blessing. We just got some real high-level martial arts happening out there.

Vivian, thriving, surviving. That's our motto. And the man who is always thriving, who's always surviving, who's always survived. whose birthday it was on Thursday, and I didn't even know, but he came away with a dub on BTL anyway. New York, Ricky, how we live in? It's a beautiful day. I'm glad to be here with all of you.

I enjoyed the high-level mixed martial arts. It's not quite torrential out here on Long Island. It's dark and gloomy, but hopefully we can brighten up everybody's days with this show. Man, let me tell you, in the South. I mean, you can see it for yourself. exceptional even made all the better by the fact that I'm going to get out of here with still daylight to to be made made use of but that comes later first we got to talk about things before we get into it so you guys know we'll do a Q&A afterwards I'm sure you guys got thoughts

you got questions comments concerns pop him into the chat we'll answer some questions and we're done talking about all this stuff and of course super chats get that priority now that's out of the way fellas fellas and Armagometov. That was a heck of a performance, boys. We're talking about high-level mixed martial arts. And Jose, Umar delivered a performance. I don't think anybody saw coming in that regard.

But, I mean, dominance is not quite the word, but he did win most of the rounds, and he walks away still undefeated. What's your big takeaway from watching that fight and how it unfolded? It basically felt like one 25-minute round. Like, you know, a lot of high-level, like fainting, striking they were both landing when they found those even small minor openings both just

elite footwork in there from both men it just seems like the what would I say like the adjustments throughout the fight were slight but very noticeable and they they were basically was just like I hate the term high level chess masks because it's thrown out way too much but this basically was umar would lay a trap Corey wouldn't bite he would lay a trap umar wouldn't bite and but then like it just felt like core umar would go for the take down, clinch up, body lock, kind of take it down, take the back, look for something, and Corey would just do one of those rolls. So the grappling, it just felt like rinse and repeat, paint by the numbers, but the

striking was very, very, very fun. If anyone just likes to watch, you know, like I said, elite footwork, feints, hooks, uppercuts, all that, jazz. This was this was the striking clinic strikers dream. It wasn't the bloodthirsty war that everyone wants, but I think this is what most people that followed the sport and especially follow Corey Sanagan, Umar and Magamatov's career. This is probably what you expected, just high level striking, not necessarily the violent brawl that some fans like to watch.

But enjoyable all around and Umar, Numagamatov was just uber impressive in there. Incredibly impressive, Rick. I mean, look, we all knew that Umar is the, the book on him is, oh, a Nermanamehmettov with hands. That's a fun thing. But this was a level up because while he got, he won the grappling and we can talk more about that. I have thoughts. He won this fight with the striking. This was this was kind of like we've seen with Islam lately. Like yeah, he's an

unbelievable grappler, but where he is actually winning fist fights is in his ability to win striking exchanges. And I at least certainly didn't see that coming. So how did you, how did you react to watching Umar and Megamatov go out there and not, there's a little much to say it, but the words I have, kind of box Corey Sandhagan's ears. Yeah, I can't say I'm surprised just from the fact that as Habib's career went on, this is kind of what happened as well, right? As he became more comfortable with the hands, the threat of the takedown and the, and the preparation that fighters who are facing him go into that fight with,

planning to defend takedowns, leaves them open to the striking that continues to improve, right? The wrestling, the wrestling base is always going to be there. So as the Nirmaga Madov clan and the associated people that are part of that team continue to improve their hands, that's the thing that's going to be the glaring difference in a lot of these fights because everybody is going to be so focused on not getting taken down and not having their back taken and not getting out grappled that all of a sudden they find themselves in space and the striking is the thing that's the difference. And we saw, as I said, we saw this kind of with Habib. I would say Islam, not as much just because I think Islam is kind of more respected as a striker earlier in the game. Like I think a lot of people recognize that like his striking and grappling are both at a relatively high level.

But I'm not surprised from that perspective. I think as everybody comes in thinking, I cannot let Umar take me down, you're going to open yourself up to be outstruck. That's just how this goes. And it's why it's such a dangerous game to play with the Dagestani wrestlers. especially the people who are trained by Habib. I think that's a great point, Rick, because, I mean, you heard Corey Sanayton. He got the post-fight interview, all class, said, man, dude, beat me. And kind of the first, you know, quick assessment.

But, you know, I maybe spent a little too much time focused on defending the grappling and wrestling. It's hard to say that because I think if he spends any less, that's probably still a bad night for him because Umar still had success in that phase. but they just get you coming and going with what happened there. And Omar's now in the UFC rankings. He is going to have a number two next to his name, Jose. We all talked about it. It was one of the predominant storylines coming in. The winner of this is going to go on.

Will they get the title shot against the winner of Sean O'Malley versus Marad Valyh. Coming on this performance, that call out, you know, first main event? Do you think that's happening? Did Omar just solidify his claim to a title shot? not next. I still think so. I was very adamant on the preview show that I was, you know, extremely confident that the winner of Sean O'Malley and Marav de Valle's really would get, would fight Umar and Magamatov. If it's Marab, I can't see why he wouldn't. I don't think Maraub has made any, uh, I don't think he's laid any plans out to move up to Featherweight anytime soon

or Chase, these big money fights, especially with his team at Al Jemale and Sterling move up to featherweight and Sean O'Malley is, uh, I think I saw, uh, an interview his coach did where he even brought up like Umar is a big name, the last name, Nirmagamada. An undefeated fighter named with the last name, Nirmagamadov, is a draw, is a big deal, especially if Habib is in the corner. And, you know, Sean O'Malley and Connor are on the outs right now. They don't really seem to like each other. But if Sean O'Malley, who, you know, has that O'Malley last name, goes in there and fights

a guy, an undefeated guy named Nirmagamatov, that is a big money fight. Sean O'Malley is a popular fighter. Umar Namagamanaev is a very popular fighter. Both of their camps are popular. They got a loyal fan base. Sean is a smart guy. It's going to be a very dangerous fight, but I still think he takes it. But that's if he gets through Marab, which I'm sure we'll talk about at some point on this preview show.

We'll obviously talk about the closer we get to the fight. But yeah, I'm pretty confident the winner is going to fight Umar. And I'm pretty sure the UFC wants another Namaga Madov in a title shop. I agree. I think given what happened. We'll talk about another fight on this card that maybe had an outside chance to sneak in there, but seems very likely Umar has set himself up for that. And Rick, is that, I got to be honest, that's my most anticipated fight for the rest of this year, I think.

Whether it will happen this year, we'll see. But I'm assuming you're on board that that's one of the five best fights you can make in MMA right now. I love the fight. I'm definitely into it. I don't think it jumps ahead. I'm particularly interested in Marab and O'Malley. I really want the resolution to that. I still have that above Umar.

I certainly want to see you Mara got a shot. But for me, Maraub and O'Malley is above it. And certainly for me, Ilya and Max, like that is a plus plus plus plus. That's the one that I'm dying to see. It's what I wanted to see even before, Ilya fought Volcanowski. So it's not quite up there. But if you give me top five, I think I can come along with that. I definitely think I can come along with that just because of how,

exciting bantam weight is as a division and it feels like finally the contenders are starting to move right we cleared the Sean O'Malley versus Cheeto Vera bad blood out of the way and now we're getting some guys that we believe are going to truly be a real threat to Sean O'Malley's title reign in Marab de Valishvili and Umar and Amagamatov and umar versus Marab is also a fight that I'd be excited about so um yeah I'm I'm anxious for it I'm excited about it and I think Umar look good enough to really solidify himself in that contender position. Yeah, I mean, all around just a great performance, particularly because, you know,

suffered that sort of weird ankle thing that happened early in the fight. First round, we was looking a little tight. They kind of made reference to it as it looked like he had drop foot for a hot minute and then just kind of battled through. Good call out, good mic performance. Good work all around. The other side of this, of course,

Corey Sandhagen, fall short on the precipice again you got to give core sanagan a ton of credit there are many reports out there of dudes straight up just not wanting to fight umar and corey has been about that life from day one kind of the refrain coming in here was i'm here to be the best fighter in the world if i don't want to fight somebody like what does that make me it's not that and took his loss on the chin at the end but hosey where do we go from here with cori sandhagan obviously still talented. It's not like he lost this fight by a ton, but another

setback from kind of title aspirations, where we go with Corey? That is a good, good question. Because he's pretty much fought everyone in the top ten at Bannonweight already. Fought a good. Figueroa 1, so I feel like

that would be, and as much as I would want to see that figurato fight, I just can't see Figurato taking that. That is a dangerous fight against someone that is coming off a loss. Let's see. Marab is taken. He already fought Jan and lost. Yon's already also coming off a win, so that'd be a weird thing for Yon to fight. Beat Chito.

I mean, the Sohudo fight is there. That'd be fun. And then I think, I mean, Jose Aldo's already booked up. Rob, already beat Rob Font. Carla Phillips is booked up. Already beat Song-in-Dong. I mean, I'm down to see Henry Sehudo or Dominic Cruz versus Corey Sanhagen. Either of those fights, I'm down to clown with Corey Sanhagan has made it known that, you know,

Dom is one of the guys he's modeled his fighting style off of, especially early in his career. And Henry Sehudo is, yes, he's lost back-to-back fights to Al Jermaine and Marab. He is still an elite bantam weight. I would, stylistically, I would love to see Corey Sanhagan versus Dominic Cruz in a five-round fight. I think that's a lot of fun. I don't know if Corey wants to fight another wrestler-based fighter like Henry Sehudo. He's kind of, you know, that seems to be his weakness at this point, like Al Jermaine,

like Umar, Namaga, Madov. So if it was up to me, I'm down the clown with Corey Zanagan versus Dominic Cruz in a main event, hopefully in front of a crowd with the big cage because that means we get to see all kinds of fun footwork in a lot of open space. But that would be, in terms of rankings, I would imagine, if he is ranked, he is probably way down the list to Corey's saying. But he seems like him and Aldo seem like one of those names that people don't have a problem fighting down to face given their prominence in MMA lore. I hope it's Dominic Cruz, but who knows? Dominic Cruz is ranked somehow in the UFC rankings at number 13. I would love that fight.

It would be like back in the day Street Fighter when you've just got pallet swapped, sub-zero and Scorpion facing off. That's just what San Diego Cruz would be. It would be dope. I would watch the hell of that fight. I know Jose Aldo got booked. Scrap that booking. Let's do Jose Aldo versus Corey Sanhagen.

I'm super down on that too. A lot of fun things you can do with him, but it will be interesting to kind of see how that rolls. Rick, do you have any thoughts to add to this main event before we kind of keep moving on down the line? Because we got a lot of things that happen that we've got to talk about. Only to say for Corey, I would love to see him fight Sean O'Malley.

So if Sean O'Malley can't get it done against Marab, Sean O'Malley versus Corman is the fight I really want. At the same time, the climb back to the title is just going to be rough for Corey Sanhagan. Unfortunately, every time he's kind of on the press, of the number one contendership, there's a guy there that just is slightly better. And he gets into an amazing fight with them, but he's just a little bit short. We'll see how many times he wants to make that climate bantam weight.

I wouldn't mind seeing him maybe potentially try to beat bulk up a little bit and maybe take a crack at featherweight. We just saw Al Jermaine Sterling move up to featherweight. It doesn't seem like he has quite the difficult cut that Al Jamein Sterling has, but certainly can't be easy with how big a frame he has. I wouldn't mind seeing a fresh coat of paint. I don't think he's out of the conversation because it takes a while to really get out of a conversation for a title. You can hang around for a good bit as long as you can beat the next guy.

If he beats a guy like Sean O'Malley, he'll still be in that combo. But once you're still in that combo, then you're facing Umar or you're facing somebody else or you're facing Marab. You're facing somebody who's like that. And maybe you just need to have some new faces and new opponents. But there's a lot of good options for Corey. So I don't think this is, you know, a disaster situation for him. But yeah.

I would also be, I am pretty in on the either O'Malley or Marab, frankly, whoever loses. I don't generally like to do that because I'd like there to be a little more motion at the top of a weight class than letting guys who are already in top spots just kind of rotate. But given how successful core was stopping the takedowns and kind of fending off the grappling of Umar, wouldn't mind to see him in there against Marab. see how that goes. So still plenty of things to be done. Still a young man. Still obviously extremely talented. So it will be a long road back for him,

but I got nothing but respect for that dude for taking this fight because there are a lot of dudes in this weight class who specifically did not do so for a very clear reason. But we got other things to talk about in the co-main event, Sharra Bullitt Magamatov, win the unanimous decision over Mikhail Olegsecich in the best performance. of Sharra's UFC career, arguably the best performance of the entire career. I liked Michaela O'Lixacek's chances to pull up an upset, and Sharra just kind of dog-walked

him for most of that fight. Impressive for Olegsac, not to get finished, but Jose, we talked a little bit about this co-main event heading in. You know, probably shouldn't have really been the co-main event, but it ended up delivering a very exciting fight, and like I said, Char's best performance. So where are you on Sharra coming off of this performance against McKillow? little bit Oleg Seychic. I mean, it, it sort of played out like I thought because

Michelle O'Lecichick likes to just kind of stand and bang, and Sharr Bullitt does that to an extent, but he's much more of a dart in and out guy. And there was a lot of kicks from a lot of weird angles. As I said, a lot of spinning shit was thrown in there from both men, fists and kicks. Shar Bolle, I just think he's a more refined striker than Mikhail Olochekic. He's, Mikhail is a very good fighter, but he obviously loses to a lot of elite fight he loses to a lot of elite fighters and it's usually by submission it's rare that he gets out pointed like this and shah bull it did it uh where i stand with him in his ufc career i i still

don't know uh he's obviously an exciting fighter but it's not like he's melting people like i know he'd be antonio tricoli but that was anthony trocoli took that on super short notice uh he fought bruno sylva to a decision in his ucdbue and he fought mckello cheshik to a decision and those are two guys that are never going to sniff the top 15 but they're probably on the tail of like that 25 rank like 25 24 so I don't know he's got to fight a grappler at some point and he's got to fight a guy who is a competent striker at some point I I don't want to shoot him up the rankings too quick I know bow nickel called him out definitely don't want to see that at this point in their careers because I think bo nickel will just eat him alive I don't know questions are

out there but he's an exciting fighter and more importantly he generates a lot of traffic on social media for us and a lot of interest so wherever he fights people will tune in which is very important i just i don't know how good he is at mixed martial arts until he fights a guy who because bruno silver is not a good wrestler and bruno silver took him down a ton and just didn't do anything with it and shah bull had just kind of elbowed him from the bottom and route to a decision win you get a guy who knows what he's doing down there which the middleweight division has a lot i'd be curious but tbd but i'm always going to want to watch a fight well um If he has his way, that won't happen because following his reign,

Sharra gets on the mic and calls out Nick Diaz. Nick Diaz obviously was supposed to, originally scheduled to face Vicente Luke on this particular card. And then that fight fell through because it's Nick Diaz and it's Abu Dhabi, and that fight was never going to take place. Shara now hoping for Nick Diaz to fight him at the upcoming U.S. Abu Dhabi Pay-Perview event. Rick

What are we doing here? What's happening right now? Oh man, with a dream and wanting to fight a big name is calling it out. I'm not interested in that fight. But I get it. I mean, we don't have to rehash this every time we have a show. But like, I don't believe that the call out is the be all end all. I don't think you have one shot and you have to get the right guy every single time.

sometimes it's okay to just call out a name and maybe it doesn't work out and then behind the scenes you negotiate for somebody else. I don't think he'll be fighting Nick Diaz. But F it. Go for it. I don't care. He's not going to find out. We're not talking about this from like he wasted the call up. I'm talking about it from like purely a human standpoint of he called to fight a dude who has literally not got a win in over a decade.

he's calling for a guy who he knows will stand with him, which is smart, because we've seen what happens when somebody wants to wrestle with him. So yeah, good, good smart call out. Call out the guy who will guarantee him. He has not fought in four, three or four years, three years, three years. And he has not having a win since 2011. Like, that is one of the most shameless callouts of all time. Like, obviously this is never.

going to happen, but that was ridiculous. It will never happen. But look, he's just a pirate doing pirate things. You know, he's, he's a scallywag. It's okay. I'm good. I'm okay with it. Waste the call out, call out a big name.

Get the social media people making graphics on it. And that's it. It's great. Good for you. Good for you, Shara Bullitt. Again, totally fine to waste the call out. Totally not okay to try to fist fight Nick Diaz in the year 2024. Moving on then, because here's the real people's co-main event.

And there's just not that much to say about the co-meat event, I don't think. I think there's plenty to say about the feature fight at Bantamweight contest where Davis at Vigorado, former Flyweight champion, 3-0 up at Bantamweight now takes a pretty clear decision win over former title challenger Marlon Cito Vera. And Jose, again, lover of the high-level mixed martial arts. not quite the same contest as the main event, but still,

what we're seeing from Figgy kind of try and put that into context from me because this dude has been exceptional since moving up to Banimoyt. Yeah, it just seems like he has, I know Sean O'Malley said that, you know, Davidson was trying as hard as not to gas, but it just seems the weight cut to 125

just depleted his end. Like that would catch up to him. And yes, getting punched in the eye against Brandon Moreno, anyone will probably stop such when your eye swells shut but it just seems like a much more measured approach like he know he he he fully under it it seems like and i don't i'm not gonna say this is exactly what is just from the outside looking and it seems like he is aware that abandam weight yes he's healthier but yes they hit harder and his opponents will be you know bigger he can no longer

be that quote unquote weight bully where he's just physically stronger longer and more powerful than fly weights and he can walk through damage he's not going in there guns blazing. It's a much more measured approach. And I, I, I appreciate the, I appreciate the adjustments to his career because it will only prolong his career. Like, yeah, he'd go in there, he can get in the slug fest with Marlon Barra. But that might not go his way, especially because he's going to have to get through that long reach and that teep kick that Marlon Verra always seems to throw throughout the fight. He did take downs when he needed to. He did clang and bang at the end. And apparently he was the first person to drop Marlon Vera in the UFC. I don't know if that's true.

Sean O'Malley doesn't seem to think that's true either. But he didn't blow Marlon Verre out of the water. I thought I had him winning. For whatever reason, Shito thought he won the fight. He was raising his hand at the end. I didn't see him complain. I didn't really pay attention to him too much after they read the scorecards. But Figuero's finding a way to prolong his career and just pick up smart, easy victories.

And I appreciate that. He's not going to fight for the title next. I would love to see him fight Peter Yan in a five-round fight at 135 pounds. I think that would be a ton of fun both striking, grappling, wrestling, just another high-level martial arts contest. But well done by Figurato, picking up another win against a very tough, very difficult guy at 135 pounds. So officially, that was the first knockdown that Cheeto has suffered in his UFC career. Sean Amalley beat him Pillar to Post.

And I have a recollection that at some point it felt like he got one, but not per the stack keepers. So officially, Davis and Figurato does something that's never been done before. which is pretty damn impressive, Rick. Afterwards, he called for the title fight. Obviously, we've already talked about sort of the future of the Bannonweight Division. How does Davis and Figurato,

first, you know, certainly give us your thoughts on this fight, but then how does Davis and Figuero get to the title fight? Has he done enough to simply wait? Can he just hang around for Umar to get his chance and then be next in, next in line? So I was very impressed. I've continued to be impressed by Bantamway Figgie. Like he just looks like he belongs here.

Like it's been a decent run. Knocking down Cheeto Vera is no small task. As we talked about, like his chin is legendary and he cracked it. It's not like he blew the doors off Cheeto, but he looked damn good. And so I was impressed again with Bantamweight Figgie. He can't wait around. He needs to be calling out Corey Sandhagen. He needs to be calling out.

loser of O'Malley and Marab. He needs to be really campaigning for somebody who's going to be that one next step that he can get before he jumps into the title conversation because he needs one more. And so while they wait and Umar then fights the winner, he needs to be calling out the top of the division. But if he gets past that one, I can see him getting a title shot. I don't think there'd be many obstacles between him and a title shot. Former champion has looked really good since entering the weight class. can talk a little bit of shit when needed.

So I don't think he's far away. I think it's one more. Jose, I mean, you mentioned it. Do we think Peoria is the move here for our guy? Because I don't know that's a fight. As a fight, I'm pretty pumped about it happens. I know Peerion got hurt after his last fight against Song Yadong. And I know he needed, I don't know where he is in his career.

But did he call, have they had? calls out on social media. I know Cheeto's been calling out Yon for a long time. But I don't know. So, yeah, I hope so. I mean, it'd be a fun fight, but like, I'll see, I'll see

Davidson Figuero fight Cory Sannagan. I'll see him fight the loser of the title fight. I'll watch him fight Peter Yon. I'll watch him fight Dominic Cruz. I'll watch him fight Song Yadong. I'll watch him fight any of these guys. They're all this Davidson Figuerreto, and like Rick said, he can't wait around. He's not

the youngest guy. Yes, he changed white classes. Yes, he'd probably prolong his career, but he's not in his late 30s, if I remember correctly. So I don't think he can wait around. And as we've said many a time, the best ability is availability. And if he just keeps racking up wins, he'll be undeniable, especially if the UFC wants to go back to Brazil anytime soon. I think that would be a lot of fun. So, yeah, I hope so. And like, hey, if Josealdo wins, who doesn't want to watch Figurato fight in Brazil?

That'd be a stellar fight night main event for a Brazil card. Oh, my God. Now you're speaking my language. He is 36. Yeah, he can't wait. So don't think the man can wait. Got to find the right opponent. I wouldn't say get in there with anybody, though I sure would watch him.

But honestly, I've been incredibly impressed by this run. I thought he would have success up at Bantamweight. I didn't think it would be as clean as it has been just because he is on the older side. But Figgie Smalls, the ageless wonder. next up and not as sad as it could have been boys the fight we're all dreading tony ferguson loses his eighth in a row a record number of straight defeats inside the octagon michael kiesa after a tepid opening few minutes gets to a take down hoist tony into the air throws him down takes the back and chokes him out for a first round submission rick could have been certainly could

have been worse, but Tony is still on an eight-fight losing streak. Afterwards, Daniel Cormier goes to him in the cage and is like, hey, are you done? And Tony says, I don't want to retire. I don't want to fight anywhere else. I'll half retire, basically, putting one glove down. Is this it? Have we finally seen the end of Tony Ferguson competing in mixed martial arts? We've seen the end of Tony Ferguson and the UFC.

I'm fairly confident to say that. of the fact that he broadcast like I don't want to retire but I don't want to fight anywhere from the but the UFC which tells me that the UFC told them Tony like this this is it big guy like we got to move on from this so we so this will likely be the end of Tony Ferguson

and the UFC that's my reading the tea leaves of what's going on there I'm concerned about the idea of Tony Ferguson saying I don't want to retire because I think we all believe like hey this has been a great career Tony it's time but to your point like it's not like you got roughed up.

It's not like it got beat up. He got out grappled and subbed. But I'm not like, does anybody, if you're a Tony Ferguson fan, do you want to watch Tony Ferguson fight anymore? I got to this point with BJ Penn. Like, I've been here. I have felt what you feel if you were a Tony Ferguson fan. I watched BJ Penn just get Maliwopped every single time out.

And it was, it did not feel good. There was a point where no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that there was going to be a change and he was going to look a little bit better and oh now he's back with Marinovich and it's this way class and it's that there's never going to the sun is not coming out tomorrow it is done the sun has set and it's not coming back up and if you're a fan like do you even want to watch him

and if you're not a fan I couldn't imagine why you'd want to watch him because all he's doing is going in there and getting beat up so I don't know I don't know what who this is for at this point anymore the UFC has rung everything they can out of Tony Ferguson he's wrung everything he can out of being a UFC fighter. Maybe there's a world where he goes to a BKFC or a karate combat or something.

He said he only wants to fight in the UFC. I think if they pay him enough, maybe he will find, you know, another outcome there. Maybe he'll arrive at a different conclusion. But I'm not interested in seeing Tony fight. And that's the worst indictment I think you can have on a fighter is like there's lots of guys win or lose or girls win or lose. Like you still want to see him fight. I don't want to see Tony Ferguson fight because it's not particularly. competitive or compelling. So I am done, you know, with the Tony Ferguson experience, but it doesn't

seem like he is. Yeah, considering Tony Ferguson was must see television for most of his career to now be in a spot where it's like, oh, I must not see this is pretty tough. And as you correctly pointed out, us BJ Penn fans, we know. I've been, I've been trying to tell Shaheen for a long time, you just got to, you just got to let that part of you die because it's. not it's not fun fortunately this time though Jose like I said it didn't go as bad as it could have he didn't suffer a lot of trauma but I do kind of want your thoughts on what Rick and I just sort of spoke to is is there a world where the UFC brings him back this is still a guy who was one of the most popular fighters there this week you heard the crowd when when Daniel Cormier gave him the mic

and sort of overcome by emotion the crowd doesn't want Tony to stop and he doesn't want to stop but should the UFC keep letting him do this? Probably not, and I don't think they will. I don't know how, yeah, he's one of those popular fighters of all time. I don't know how you can justify giving a guy on an eight-fight losing streak another shot. Dana White has already said he wants this and he hopes this is his last fight and retire. I can't see a world where Tony Ferguson ever lets Connor McGregor write his checks at BKFC. just knowing the history between those two.

So I think we can cross out BKFC real quick. PFL, I don't think we'll take him either. I don't want to see Tony Ferguson in a tournament. And I especially don't want to see him fight these young guys in these super fight leagues. I just don't know where he can go. There's not really anyone I want to see him fight in PFL either, all the fighter. And I don't even, who would you give him? Like say they do bring him back to the UFC.

Who would he fight? Who's out there? Like the Michael Caves fight, I made a known. On the previous show, I thought this was a good match of just for based on where they both are in their careers. Like Michael Keyes isn't close to a title shot. He's not ranks. They're both tough winners from over a decade ago that were matched up at one point. Like, who do you give him Nick Diaz at Welterway?

Because I don't think anyone really wants to see two old guys that aren't as limber as they were fight in an octagon. I just don't know who you give him. Do I want to see Tony Ferguson fight? I want to see Tony Ferguson fight. I want to see Tony Ferguson fight for the rest of my life. Life. I just don't know who you can justify giving him. There's no one outside of the UFC.

Like, if you fall Connor McGregor, BKFC, then now we're talking because Tony Ferguson is going to make a boatload of money, and he deserves it. Outside of that, there's really no one else I want to see him fight at all, in the UFC or not. There's certainly no one I want to see him fight. I mean, as it. Go, I mean, fuck it.

Do him versus Habib and freaking Craig Jones's thing. The next time I do Craig Jones's thing, just do that or have him do the fight as grappling. I'm all good with. I'm finally, I'm all good with. Yeah, grappling is fine.

Grappling's great. I am all in favor of him and Habib doing a quintet, like the dog of standing crew versus Tony Ferguson and his crew. I'm down to clown with that. I don't know if his fighting. I don't know if Habib can make a weight class that Tony's going to be in these days, but maybe they can grapple at an open way. He was looking stout in there.

Hey, they did that. They did it in the quintent that Casey and I covered before the Colby Covington Usman won. That was the Pride versus WC versus Strike Force type situation. And it was like you lose, you get eliminated. They had Hector Lombard grappled Sean O'Malley. Like, fuck it. White classes, bro.

Hector Lombard was leaking juice out of his ears and Sean O'Malley was still on suspension for that weird drive. He was like a 200-pound man grappling 150-pound man. Fuck it. Just do that. It's grappling. You said there's two.

You said there's two. There are two that I would accept. Again, I don't want any of this to happen. I would have liked Tony to say, guys, don't have it anymore. I'm done. Spinning honor, privilege, etc. There's not a day that will ever happen that Tony says this.

Ever, ever. You're living in fantasy land here, Rick, where I was like, I would have liked that, but that wasn't going to happen. I would accept Nick Diaz. Like, if that is the one that if you're like, okay, I'm like, all right, sure. I don't know who that's for other than Tony. and people who haven't watched MMA in five years. But that's at least doesn't make me feel icky, you know?

It's never going to happen because Nick Diaz is already on record saying he's not going to fight anyone that is brother. It's the brother thing. Yeah. It's never going to happen. Well, then that just leaves one. And Rick, I threw the job in Slack and you were very upset about it. And it's Dustin Boree.

This is so crazy. This is so crazy. I have said for two years now, Tony needs to retire, but the only way he's going to and retires if someone beats him into it. He can't have moments of success or like not getting hurt. He needs to get bludgeon to where everyone's like, you gotta quit, dude. Dustin will deliver that and then Dustin gets to leave. Dustin clearly is like pretty ready to retire.

And so if he just gets a W, he can end on a good note. It'll be kind of sad, but double retirement and that'll be fine. It's cruel, but sometimes you got to be cruel to people because you love them so much. And that's for a matter. That's besides the fact that Dustin will beat the living hell out of him. There's also the fact that like Dustin Porriest has very finite amount of fights left. And I don't want to see one of those wasted on beating the living shit on Tony Ferguson. That feels like a waste of a Dustin Porriere fight.

Correct. Sometimes you got to do it, man. What I predict will happen is he's going to fight like Anthony Pettis in karate combat. Some nonsense that like, yeah, we're calling back to legends and they're going to do it. and nobody is particularly interested in it. It's time. It's time for Tony. And, you know, everybody but him seems to be on the same page.

And look, at the end of the day, he is a grown man who makes these decisions. And, you know, he's going to do what he's going to do. Hopefully the team around him is advising him and making sure that he's as ready as he possibly be for these competitions. Look, he seems there's a weird, like, Tony Ferguson seems to be principled to a certain degree, right? Like, as an example, when the fight got moved in the pandemic, he went and made weight randomly, right? He was like, I said I was going to make weight on this date and he just decided, hey, he's going to make weight. He was downfall. Yeah, that was not a great. He fought like six weeks later, I had to cut weight again and got clubbed. That was not a great move for him. But I say that

all to say, like, he has been pretty consistent about I don't want to fight anywhere but the UFC. Let's take him at his word for now. Hopefully that is the case. And, the UFC says, Tony, we can't keep doing this. And then he does not fight MMA or fight something similar outside the UFC. Grappling would be sick. I'd love the idea of Habib versus Tony in a grappling match. So let's just give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Hope that he sticks to his word there, does not fight outside the UFC.

And then we can celebrate Tony and stop making this the story of Tony's career. I don't know. We shouldn't take fighters. There were plenty of fighters have said that. and fought their happy asses outside the octagon. I just predicted Pettus versus Ferguson is what we'll actually get, but I hope we can take him at his work. I think let's do Tony versus BJ.

Let's bring BJ out on time for the saddest fight in the history. Jesus Christ. The sad is pretty up there. You know who's not sad today? The few of us, the proud few still on McKinsey, Dern Island. Because she comes out and she gets a win over Lubbigo Dines, unanimous decision 29, 28 across the board, had some moments grappling, as she always is wont to do.

Even finish like a real grown-up double-egged takedown. It was super proud of her for that. Didn't get a lot of takedowns, though, and mostly won this with aggression and a pretty decent showcase of her jab on the feet. She's kind of outworking Godinez. Jose, we obviously talked about this fight on the preview show and kind of how McKinsey Dern has not really, risen to what is clearly a very high ceiling for her.

Does this, you know, performance against a tough up-and-comer change your opinion on where McKinsey Dern can go? Is this like, oh, it's good to see her developing or is this just a win in a career that will be full of many? Mackenzie Dern is going to be one of those fighters that is always going to be in an exciting fight. She's the opposite. She gets punched and it reacts.

So it seems like any time she's in a fight, whether it's against a grappler, strike, or whoever, it's going to look a lot more exciting than maybe it is because she doesn't seem to be getting hit hard. She's just reacting to everything. I don't think she's ever going to fight for a UFC title. And if she does, it might just be because a long-reigning champion is kind of cleared out the division. And McKenzie Dern just is the last woman standing that she hasn't fought yet. But she's gone on these long. win streaks and she falters like she's lost to the jessica and drudge of the world that just

beat the crap out of her and it seems like every time she gets there she's like oh and then she loses and she's like oh you know i'm going back to my roots i learned how to wrestle and grapple i don't i'm not in love with striking anymore and then she gets knocked out by jesskan drudge and then picks up a win over lupe go dinah so i don't know i'm always going to watch her tune in i haven't really changed my mind on where she's at in her career because this wasn't one of those you know standout performances by her blood. I'm always going to want to watch her fight. She's, she is in a division that people kind of look down upon for, unfortunately, because the woman's strawaway division is very exciting. She remains one of the more exciting

fighters, win or lose. And she's always, she's down to seem, seems down to fight anybody, so which is also important. She's one of the more exciting fighters. She is tied currently for second most post-fight bonuses in the weight class. She's only behind Jessica Andragi, who has, you know, been doing this forever. and also one of the most exciting fighters ever. So great performance from her. Rick, are you swimming back to McKenzie Dern Island?

Do you want to join me and Cheyne-Alshadie? Because there's room. A lot of people left. What? Eric, before you answer, Eric, why are you swimming? Why are you swimming back? Where did you go? I was never there.

I never even took a visit to McKenzie Dernard Island. And I will not be, I will not be starting now. So you can count me out. Go ahead, Jose. Who is her, who is she beaten? Like, who are her last few wins? It's not about who she's beaten. It's about who she's looked good against in moments.

And if this is the same kind of delusion. Who she looks good against? Who she looked good against? Didn't look good against Amanda Lemos. Didn't look good against Jessica Androj. Didn't look good against Janjan. Didn't look good. No, she looked amazing against Janjanon.

The first round, she spent the whole time in Mount. and then she looked bad. Great. She looked great in one round. And then she lost it bad. And then she was locked beat loopie, never going to fight for her title. Angela Hill. I love Angela.

I love you. You know. And then Tisha Torres, who's probably going to retire soon and then Nina News who's is retired. Yeah, she'd be Vernon. She was a good one. Yeah, exactly. And Verna is a good one. I will give her that.

Verna's a good one. Hannah Seifers. She'd be Hannah Seifers, Jed. Do you know who that is? Probably not. And Randam Marcos. Was retired. Excuse me.

Rick. But it's we talked about this. It's the same Tony delusion where there were moments in the fight. We're like, oh, that could be the best fight. If she could do that all the time, that would be great. And so that's why it's just me and Shaheen sitting on this island. And apparently, Rick, you've never joined us. And so I guess you're not joining now.

I've never even come close. I've never even looked at flights. I'm out. I've never been interested in this. The loopy wins good, though. I rate that. I rate what she did today. I think that's solid.

But again, it depends on what your expectations of McKenzie Dern are. If your expectations are UFC champion, I think she's going to ultimately fall short of that. I just think there's too many good people in these weight classes that are going to be able to expose her to a certain degree. While she continues to improve her aggressiveness with the striking, and she continues to kind of short up some holes, like at the end of the day,

it still just never looks good on the feet. Like she tries her best and she's tough as all get up. Like she is, she is gifted an incredible chin and an incredible toughness. So that allows for some mistakes to be made on the striking, but it just never looks too fluid. It never looks too clean. It never looks like she's able to kind of mix the two together. But damn, when she gets you on the ground, it is, it is hell.

It is held. You are in moments of real panic when she's got you in the ground. Either she's, she's on her back or she's on top. They're equally dangerous. And so she just, the only way it usually gets there is like she gets knocked down, she knocks somebody down. The wrestling is just not there. The mixing of the phases is not there. Ultimately, I don't think she'll have the complete game to be a UFC champion.

But she's going to put on fun fights and she can hang around the rankings. And that'll be a great career for her. I don't think there's any shame in that. One of the most decorated female jujitsu competitors turned really exciting UFC fighter is a damn good career. So it just depends on the expectation. I think the championship dreams have finally sunset and maybe did, you know, two or three fights ago. Hey, there's one and all. The last fight on the main card.

We don't have to talk about this a lot because it's obviously not to the same level as the other ones. And it was such a just one-sided ass beating. Joel Alvarez continues to be my favoritist boy by clubbing Ellsbrunner just around the cage. It was the first man to stop Elbsbrenner. and made career with just a bevy of knees. Jose, we were talking a little off air about this. Joel Alvarez, he rocks. Yeah, he's real good.

I don't think he's ever going to fight for the title. I don't think he's ever going to be a top five fighter solely because the lightweight division is just supremely talented and the best division in mixed martial arts. But, you know, if he fights anyone in that like 7 to 15 range, it's probably a 50-50 fight and that's just because lightweight division is so talented and you could be ranked

15th and just still be an elite fighter Joel Alvarez his beating Tiago Moises was a big deal I do remember that but losing Armis Suruqi and I was always like was the hype train did was it just a hype train

and then he'd be he choked out Mark Dea Casey with a Bravo choke which is uber impressive and then beat Elvis Brenner with about a thousand knees to the face and body, which was just supremely impressive. Like, anytime you can go from submitting a guy, because Mark D. Casey has a grappling background,

to beat a guy with a grappling background, and they go out there and beat Elvis Brenner, who comes from shoot to boxing in the clinch with knees, very impressive performances by Joel Avers. And he's going to be a guy that I hope, I called out King Green. Don't like that fight. Didn't like that callout.

I don't care about callouts. Really don't. But if you are going to call someone out, Maybe don't call out a guy who had his arm broken while also getting choked unconscious the week before. Don't know who he's going to fight next. Don't like the King Green call out. But I'm sure the UFC is going to try to book that at some point. Maybe Jaylen Turner have a fight because they're both like seven feet tall in the in the 16th.

I found division. Let me look if Jalen Turner is a fight. That's where I was going to go with it. I'm not convinced he's a lightweight. I'm not convinced him and Jalen Turner are a lightweight. Like they feel like Jalen Turner is not a lightweight. They're so small. Jalen's like 6-3 and how tall is Joavar's it's got to be close if not the same light he's six

he's six three I could be yeah so let's watch you know what I'm down to watch two walter whites fight 155 pounds he's a little lighter in the ass than than Jalen Turner like he's he's got some real twigs for legs he's not like he's not particularly like yoked out kind of dude but he's just too big and and I can't imagine that's a really nice weight cut for him but man he's he's he's exciting as a as all get up like he's just so clean he's just so crisp and and he's kind of nasty with it too. So I'm a big fan. Again, I'm like, O'Say, I don't have championship aspirations for him.

But he can be in so, and lightweight is a great division to be in so many of these. Hey, I'm going to fight BSD and we're just going to go to war. Hey, I'm going to fight Dan Hooker and we're just going to go to war. I love all that. I want to see him fight Drew Dover. That's what I want to. Drew Dover, let's go to war. I love them.

I love every single one of these. I'm down to find with that. There's so many guys that he can do this with. So yeah, let's do it But I don't know I mean is he gonna be a lightweight For much longer who knows He's missed weight before unless I'm mistaken

I believe he has but I don't know off the top of my head I think he has but I'm Yes he has yeah twice maybe Correct Yeah twice I mean look I don't I don't want to I don't want to prematurely push the guy to

to welterweight because he made weight you know, this fight, so I'm not particularly like concerned about it, but... He hasn't missed weight in three years, so... How many times as he's fallen those three years, though? Four. Oh, three, sorry. Yeah, I mean, look, maybe it's premature to even be talking about that, but he just looks so massive for the weight class. It can't be comfortable.

But either way, as we've all kind of said, there are so many of these guys who are just going to stand there and throw with him, and he's going to be willing to stand there and throw back. Although he does have that sneaky grappling game, Like he really is sneaky once you get into those submissions. I like him. I'm a big fan and we'll tune in every time. Alvarez versus Tony Ferguson.

No, that's just mean. I would very much like them to pull Hanato and O'Nano out of the BSD fight. Let's do BSD and Pat. Or let's do Moikano and Patty. Let's do BSD and Alvarez. Hell yeah. Like that fight would just be so goddamn fun. Let's do it.

I'm in. care. I love this plan. I love this plan. Let's do that. It would be unbelievably fun. Yeah, the Bobby Green, or the King Green, sorry, a callout's a bad one. King Green's not even ranked anymore, but who cares? There's a terrific performance. I like the thought process, though. Like, he needs a name, right? He has the loss to arm it, but he needs like a performance that people are going to be like, oh, I need to pay attention to this guy. Because, you know, this is happening. We all, as people who consume this at the highest possible level, know how good Elvis Brenner is. Like, Like he's a savage.

And so that, but that's not going to move the casual. Like you get on the opener of a pay-per-view card and you beat a guy like King Green or in the featured prelim on ESPN. And all of a sudden people might go, okay, I'm going to pay attention to that guy, especially if he hits some kind of insane submission or nasty knockout. So I get the thought process. Probably the wrong name, though. Probably not the guy. What's, what's Benile Darius doing? Oh, man.

That'd be interesting. That'd be a fun fight. That's a step up. You just can't go wrong. There's no wrong way to eat the lightweight pieces. Yeah, because lightweight rules. Lightweight does rule. Guys like Joel Loverz are why I think that it's the best way class.

And more importantly, he's from a, he's Spanish, which is a market. That's true. He's really trying to break into it. And speaks great English. It's true. He's got a lot going for him. I'm excited to see him keep going. Love that dude.

Rest of the results rundown. And then, boys, we got bonuses. We'll play the guest to bonus game. Osamao Mazzikanov, or Mazzikanov, I don't know why I got real Southern right there. Knocks out Alonzo Menefield in the second round. Pretty nasty finish there. Yeah. I don't remember how to pronounce it.

Kai, Fernandez, stops Mohamed Yaya in the first round, TKO. The first finish of the card, because we had a whole lot of decisions to start tonight. Shemio Gazziav takes a U.D. over Dantel Maze. Goram Kutata Ladez takes a UD over Jordan Bucinich. Sam Hughes upset split decision victory over Victoria Dutukova. Jai Herbert takes a UD over Rolando Badoia. And in the event opener, Sadryk Dumas, wins a UD over Dennis Tallulin. Fellas, we got bonuses.

Would you care to guess who takes home fight of the night and the performance of the night bonuses this card? I'm going to say Umar and Corey for fight. I'm going to say Joel and Mirzikanav for performances Jose do you agree I'll say Joel and Azamat for performances for sure

and for fight I bet it should be Corey and Umar but based on how the UFC gives out performances they basically use them as marketing at this point I bet they gave Deshaar a bullet just so we could get a bonus oh god I hope not Jose is 100% correct Joel Alvarez Osamaerzikanov

See, this is why this is why what I always, when people ask me, who do you think want to fight based on judging? Who do you think to this? I never look at it like a reasonable person. I try to look at it as if it doesn't make sense, which is what MMA is. Silly. How? I mean, credit to Lick-Sah-Stich. It's so stupid.

Yeah, credit to Lick-Tick-for-taking-ass beating, but that was not a competitive fight and certainly the main event. did it live up to the expectations of that fight? Like that fight had expectations that they were going to stand in scrap and it just didn't live up to that. Like I can't I can't imagine how Umar versus Corey wasn't the highest level MMA we'll see in in the next couple weeks. Like I don't get it. I'm fairly surprised.

But Jose nailed it. And I mean, that's the that's the full card. So let's go to the peeps. Casey hop on in here. Best producer in the game. Man's been made in the show all day. and now we're back. Casey,

you are supposed to not be here tonight because you are supposed to be watching some very good boxing that is starting soon or has started. I'm not certain if it's started. Undercard starting. I don't think the pay-per-view portion has started. Yeah,

I was supposed to be sitting down at BMO Stadium right down the street and preparing to watch Eminem, you know, set the stage for the main event, you know. But no, I got to. a email this morning from the wonderful people at, I don't even know, Matron, maybe I'm not even sure who the PR company was. Yeah, they just said, Matrum. Yeah, they just kind of said, yeah, turns out we don't have any seats for you guys. So here's a ticket, but you can't actually

bring any equipment into the arena because you're coming in as a fan and you are not welcome to come to the actual post presser to, you know, even shoot on your phone. I don't even know. So yeah, so I'm here with you guys. And so I missed some of the fights. Even though I was so hyped for this card, I actually missed some of the, um, the big fights on this Abu Dhabi card because I was like, oh, I might as well get some lunch, you know, because I'm going to have a long day. Then when I come back from lunch, I go, oh, I guess I'm here with you. So that's the story. First time that's ever happened. And, uh, 18 years I've worked in this sport. You know, I covered all the pre-fight events and then fight night. Like,

Nah, he can't come in. First time. It's a, yeah. Riyadh season. Riyadh season after a great start. I thought our experience at the Jake Paul event last month was tough. But this one, this one seemed to. I got to go to the Jake Paul event.

So that was. We did at least get to a dead. Yeah. And you took a photo with the little airspace. Yes. That's the thing that happened. The W can. The W guy.

That's a thing that occurred. Tough scenes Well, because we're not there, that event doesn't exist So nobody watch it Nobody pay attention to boxing Because obviously they don't want anyone To pay attention to it If they can't have media there

But we do have We have lots of super chat So we'll hit the super chat I'll say truly insane But I know I've seen Super chats rolling And I know the peeps have a lot to say About this card So let's get to it

Superchat from Mr. Signior Pets what could Sean slash Marab do to beat Umar? I think it's a really good question. I think the game plans would be very like straightforward. The execution of them is going to be extremely difficult. Like for Sean, it's using angles, moving, not letting him get in on his legs, not letting him close the distance, and just peppering him with kicks and punches from the outside. How easy that's going to be is like, you know how they have like the meme like difficulty level,

impossible, that's the difficulty is difficulty level impossible. I just don't see a world where he's able to keep Umar off for five rounds. Like that just seems not possible. For Marab, I think it's probably doing what Umar is trying to do, but in reverse. You know, using his striking to

make it rough and dirty and not a clean fight where somebody can settle in, using his pace and weaponizing it as he does to everybody and being the aggressor when Umar is trying to be the aggressor and putting it back on him. Whoever, whoever takes the backward steps in that fight is probably the one who is going to lose. You need to be on the front foot and you need to be pressing forward. I like his chances. I like Marab's chances against Umar a lot more than I like Sean O'Malley's. Um, but they seem like, it seems

like obvious, right? It seems like the game plan to win is obvious. The actual, can you do it is where that becomes a hell of a hard problem. Jose, do you agree? Yes, I, look, because I, umar is probably the more well-rounded fighter against Sean O'Malley. But I have seen Sean O'Malley grapple against extremely high-level black belts. And it's training camp or it's in camp. So, of course, everyone gets tapped. But he is more than holding his own. So I think Sean O'Malley is a very underrated grappler.

Umar just mixes it up very well. We haven't seen Sean have to do that at all. So it's kind of a mystery when he's in there, how he can use his grappling with his striking because we've seen O'Me do that. But I do agree with Eric's assessment against Marab. first person to step back is probably going to be on the back pedal for a long time in that fight. And we've said it a million times, like, can he stop the takedown? I'm not saying that about this fight.

I'm just saying that as a broad answer. Great. You stopped one. Can you stop it again? Because stopping the first one and then getting taken down seven times is not great. So if you fight Sean, I am confident Sean will stuff several takedowns. Doesn't mean he's going to stop trying for it. And stuffing takedowns is exhausting.

I am very interested, like, interested to see both matchups now. I am going to differ and say, I think Sean has a better chance to beat Umar than Marab does. I get what you guys are saying. I just don't think that the way you beat Umar is to do his game better. I think that that's just not not going to go very well for you. That makes sense. That makes sense. Whereas I think Sean O'Malley can, particularly after this fight,

can now, he has a lot to go and look and be like, I have a similar body type to Corey Sandhagen. And how did Corey Sandhagen fight this off? As soon as he got in, he'd turn and give up that back, but then he started rolling because Sean O'Malley can grapple. He now knows some effective weapons to break the hands, clear, get back to space. And he is a more potent, dangerous single shot striker than Corey is. So I'm super clear, picking whom are to beat anyone in the world at 135. but I am more interested in the Sean and Malley fight than I was before just because Corey had so much success in certain phases that Sean I think can replicate. So pumped, just super want to see him fight these dudes, been one to see him fight the top guys

in this weight class for a long time. And now it looks like we're going to get that, which is awesome for all of us because it's pretty dope. Yeah, it's weird. I think O'Malley, like I think O'Malley has a better chance of finishing Umar, but Marab versus Sumar, would actually be a more competitive fight, if that makes sense. No, it does. It's my thought on the, like, I've come down pretty firmly on the, I think Armand Syracian's great.

I think he has very, very little chance of beating Islam. He will be competitive for five rounds and just kind of lose all of them and lose the fight. Whereas, like, somebody who has just explosive one-shot offense has a better chance of winning the fight, even though when they lose, it will probably look a lot worse than when Arm and lose it. Yeah, we're kind of seen the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. I think we can all actually agree on that sentiment.

But I will say, I think on a bad night for Umar, he can still probably defeat the one-shot guy, right? Like, versus if he has a bad night against Marab, that could go south real quick. Because if Marab is able to do an impersonation of Umar better than Umar on that night, then he's going to pick up some rounds. And so I think it's all in the risk management and all in like the percentages. But I mean, I don't know if I'd pick either of them against Umar right now. Like he impressed the hell out of me. And it's just as we said at the top, like that wrestling is so good that it just defeats all the other parts of the game. It falls apart because you're so focused on it.

And it's such a load. And it's not like this is catching anybody by surprise because we saw Habib and then Islam and maybe like the first half of his UFC. run do this successfully to so many people. Yeah. I'm going to nerd out for a second. What I really like about Umar is that and what I kind of like about like all of the the Abdulmanop guys. They're all different.

Like the broad strokes feel the same. But like Habib's game was a lot of power and athleticism and singles into doubles. Like that was his primary thing. And then like chain wrestling in sequences. Basically every takedown Umar hit is like a. a snatch single to a snapdown and then just like a roll. Jack Slack did like a breakdown on his thing. It's awesome.

It's just like he's going about the same core concepts in very like stylistically different ways than the way Habib fights or the way Islam fights or the way Usman fights. And it's just dope to see them all be unbelievably good, but with their own kind of panash to it. Usma definitely feels like the biggest outlier. He definitely feels like the biggest outlier of that group. And even Islam to an extent, you definitely don't get the sense when Islam's fighting that like he's hunting the takedown as much as the other guys are. He's so comfortable on the feet and he just mixes it in when he needs to and it's always perfectly timed.

Islam is exactly the, if you just think of Islam as the dude who fought Habib every day in camp, then you figure it like, oh, you're like, yeah, your style is exactly what it would be if you had to fight Habib every day for your entire life. I never thought of it that way. It's all just makes sense that way. It's like Nick and Nate Diaz are like exact polar opposites because all they did was fight each other all the time. And so you're like, yeah, I see how this. I see how you develop. That's very funny. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Sineau, thank you. But real quick on, Umar, um, I didn't get to jump in earlier. But man, uh, man, give credit to Jed. Everything you're, everything you've kind of sold me on Umar, it showed up tonight. I picked Corey to win. not because I didn't believe Umar couldn't win. I just love Corey Sanagan, but Umar was super impressive.

His striking was impressive. I think that just going five hard rounds was extremely impressive. And I think that's just, yeah, he's, he made better adjustments too. Like, Corey Sanagan gets lauded for being like a tactician and a really like good mind and fairly should. And I straight up, I think Umar just made. better adjustments as the fight was going on. Yeah. And I think we all think of Corey Standing as a very intelligent fighter of a high fight IQ.

And Umar beat him at that game too. And it was a competitive fight, of course, but Umar was just a step, a little step ahead. The whole fight. It's just such a crushing style. Like, it doesn't matter how good you are at the other things. Because once they can implement their game plan, you really don't, you run out of options. There really isn't much you can do at that point. I mean, every time Habib is on you, like you, you just have.

nothing else. It doesn't matter how good you are at the other things. You need to be, you need to be really good at that thing and they're just better. It's a, it's a brutal style. Shout out to that for just being that good at that. I say it all the time in one of these guys' fights. I don't think the MMA world stood up and took enough notice when Abdul and not passed away. That dude has produced the best lightweight of all time, arguably the second best lightweight of all time the next guy coming down the line in Usman and now very possibly the best ban on earth and to just them as a team and to Habib in taking over the reins and to Javier Mendes in welcoming Mendes a.k.a. like they're just that good they're all this good and I think a lot

of the people picking Corey or the questions around Umar were like are they this good and every time the answer has been yeah they really are this good and it's it is insane I think you're right like he deserves a lot of credit there just an unbelievable crop of fighters that's come out of that and uh it's awesome i love watching them um another super chat from uh signor pepe we can't answer this already but doubling up for signor pepe if tony fights again who would you like him to fight we pop to that so we don't really need to touch on it again but i think we all agree we would prefer him not to fight again correct what about this someone mentioned this Tony versus Jim Miller

if you had to like it's not the worst idea I've ever heard but you know I would like that if you're making me fight one I would like that if they both agreed it was their last fight but if it's just a fight for a fight

then nah it has gotten it has gotten to the point where we are struggling to find fights that are compelling or interesting or competitive for Tony Ferguson that's a very clear sign that it's done That's what I'm saying. That's a really good argument.

We don't need this anymore. We don't. When you're having to scratch your head, your head to find one that isn't awful, we should probably just cut our losses, literally. Who's this on the UFC though? For keeping around too long, you mean?

Like letting it go too far? And putting them in high profile fights constantly. Well, I don't think they're going to anymore. To my understanding, this was the final fight on his contract. And I would be surprised if they received him. Like the Gaci fight, he was still on his win streak, so I don't think anyone. Yeah, Gagosk did that.

Charles Olivera was in the middle of the pandemic and he took that. He just kind of took that fight to stay fighting. It was a fine. The Olivera and Darius fights were not close. He just got out grappled. And he looked good against Michael Chandler until he got kicked in the face. The Nate Diaz fight was sad, which, but that was like. It wasn't supposed to be Nate D.

which was a real sad part about it. I think the Bobby Green loss is when I was finally like, okay, enough is enough. Because Bobby Green is not known as a high-level grappler, and he chokes Tony Ferguson unconscious, who has always been called a high-level grappler. That's when I was like, eh, I don't think we need to see Tony fight anymore. I don't think anybody's to blame, ultimately. Like, Tony wants to fight.

The UFC has opportunities for him. They pay him and try to recoup their payment, right? He has a contract that they need to be able to say, when we pay him to fight, it has to be in a fight that matters and people are going to tune in for. Otherwise, we are wasting our money. It can't just be charity, right?

It can't be like, Tony, we're going to give you the worst guy on the roster and you're going to fight on the prelims. It has to make sense financially for them, and it has to make sense for Tony. And so, I mean, this one seemed right. This seemed like the best option, right? I didn't think, oh, Tony's going to get particularly hurt

in here against Michael Kiesa. So I don't know. I don't think anybody's to blame. I think it has just run its course and did quite a while ago. And now it's time. Last thing on Tony real quick. Is there a way Tony can do the Arlofsky thing in the UFC? Oh, hell no.

Nope. Way class is too good. Yeah, that's the way class is too good. Arlowski's thing worked in part. And I've watched all of it. I've loved all of it. He's fighting a lot of garbage-ass fighters to get wins also. So it's not like Andre's also not like Andre is cutting weight and just shows up and fights.

Well, but you know what I'm trying to say. I'm just like because Arlowski was getting paid good money, which I'm kind of argument against, you know, they say, you say, you say they say they pay Tony good money so he has to put a good opponent against him. They were paying Arlowski good money and throwing him on the second fight on apex cards. Putting on the prelors is a life. I'm just they already have the UFC already has the lightweight on Jarlofski and Clay Gwold. That's basically what he's doing. That's not bad. So you're Tony Ferguson McLeague,

Guida? Nah. Here's the big difference to be. Just keep running you over and over. Arlowski got discarded because they thought he was shot and his chin was shot and they thought he was just shop worn and that there was no, there was nothing left in him. When he came back and then this extended run, it's not like he's like deteriorated. Like he's kind of looked the same as he looked for the last five years. It's just not particularly good.

It's just the same. Tony looks older and older. older and older and older every time we see him. It just does not look good. And so it's that degradation that is making it different. It also seems like every time he shows up, he has like a new corner. And then he was in the corner. And then David Goggins is in his corner.

And then he went back to his high school wrestling coach. It's like he keeps trying to find the answer and nothing's working. This feels a lot more BJ Penn than Andre Arvlovsky. Oh, I'm going to go to featherweight. I'm going to try this. I'm going to get back with this person. me and Perillo, we're going to do it. He's searching for something that just is not there anymore.

Arlowski was just like, yeah, I'm going to keep doing what I do. And it just looked the same. It just looked the same the whole time against really bad competition. Oh, man. Except Tom Aspinall. Except Tom Aspinall. Well, then that was the moment where they're like, oh, you got some wins. We'll do it.

Casey, it can't ever happen outside of the heavyweight thing that is the biggest factor. The other factor is like, I don't know if Andre would admit this, but pretty clearly, Andrew, Karolovsky recognized his limitations and then changed his entire game around them. Like, because his chin did go. He can't really take damage. And anybody who hit him killed him. But then his style entirely became about not taking damage and winning these awful clinch infested things.

And Tony does not have the introspection to be like, I can't do this anymore. He's just Tony. So even if he were at a worst weight class where maybe he could do it, I just don't think it's not in him to pull that off. in the way that it was available to Andre to do. Yeah. Yeah. Just asking. So, so Tony Ferguson versus BJPen.

I see it. I like it. Oh, that's God. That's right. Please, Jesus Christ. You're only five years older than Tony. Both men have not won in their last eight fights. Let these men.

Let these men. Those things lining up there. I beg you. Please. Let my heart. Let my heart die. Who's got a live watch party. It's just you on one side and Shaheen and the other.

Just who cries first? Just a terrible moment. I think we'd just cry the whole time. I think it would just be crying. I don't know what else for me on that. All right. Sorry about that. Okay, we have a lot of super chats.

Okay, here we go. Steven, boys, it used to be Tony Time. Tell me some good memories. Also, can we get G. G.C. on BTL, please. I didn't even think to ask G. GC to hop on BTL this week and I will no longer be in charge of that next week because Mike will be back.

But I'll talk to him. I don't think that that would be prohibited certainly. As far as good Tony memories. So now's the point of the broadcast where I tell you guys, I actually never cared for Tony Ferguson. I was always a Habib dude from day one. And so he was my natural enemy. And while I respect a lot of what Tony did in the cage, like none of his fights jump out to

me is like, oh yeah, that was a particularly like a memorable one to me because I just wasn't a fan in that regard. but what about y'all uh Rick I know you were also kind of of Habib corner but do you have some particularly happy memories yeah I was definitely I was never one who thought Tony Habib

was this like holy grail Shangri-la thing because I always thought Habib was going to beat him but I was definitely fond of Tony like the style was just incredible I'm trying to I have to look go back quite a ways to find kind of find what it was I mean the the Kevin Lee interim title win

was a pretty damn good version of Tony, right? You kind of saw all the Tony things on display. The RDA fight was pretty great. I think RDA is his best performance. Yeah, there's not one that I'd say where it's like, there's not one moment of Tony that it's like, this is one of the greatest moments in UFC history.

I think it was more the vibe. Tony was a vibe. Tony was the guy who, on the way up, you just wanted to get behind. And it was such a clash with what Habib was that we all kind of like, loved the drama of these two guys coming up at the same time and and just winning so many consecutive fights.

But to your point, like, I don't think I have like a, this was the best Tony moment or the thing I'll never forget. It really, I mean, it's more probably the press conference stuff, just saying like weird shit and carrying baseballs and doing, being Tony, just Tony being Tony is the stuff I'll remember and not necessarily the, the fights. But there was plenty of performances where I was like, yeah, that dude's, that dude's nasty. the elbows have always been such an important and brutal weapon for him. But yeah, it's hard for me to say like this one pinpoint fight moment.

But I love Tony's character. I love Tony's personality and always have. Anything from you, Jose, in this regard? I was never, I don't really take sides in rivalry. That's for fucking squares. But I think the time I thought, like he won the old, when he beat Ranzi Nidjim the ultimate fighter, I thought that was like, oh, cool.

Like I kind of assumed he was going to win. I always thought he was the best fighter on that. I actually watched that season because I was the Brock Lesnar JDS. It was that because they were going to fight and I was more interested in, you know, this rough and tough Brock Lesnar facing off against like the nicest human being in the world against JDS. And by association, I got a lot more Tony Ferguson than I thought I was going to get. And then I can't remember who he beat in the second fight. But his third fight I know for a fact was against Eve Edwards.

And Eve Edwards had like 60 fights or something like. that when they squared off. And at one point in time, I thought Eve Edwards was the best lightweight in the world. And I was like, oh, man, they're giving Tony Ferguson Eve Edwards after two fights. And then Tony Ferguson beat the shit out of Eve Edwards. And then he lost to Michael Johnson, I'm pretty sure. But then I think he beat Katsunor Kekuno, first person to knock him out. So those early Tony Ferguson fights were really fun. And my favorite memory of Tony would probably be, because I've been interviewing Tony for about 14 years at this point. He fought Justin Gage in the empty arena and there were two media members on planet earth who had a cade side seat me and john morgan

and then when he left the ring he we were just sitting there typing and he looked at us and he nodded and then he came over behind us and gave us both big hugs and said don't know how long i'm going to do this for more thanks for me and i said great and then that was what four years ago oh jesus yeah that's just a little wrong tweet yeah so that was that was cool like tony like because it's rare when fighters come and say positive things about the media but tony coming and saying hi to me and john after he had just lost the biggest fight in his career was a good memory okay i just thought of something i this is this is a monumental duff by me my favorite tony moment is like the tony moment which is the hold on i'm talking brother don't make me ankle pick you to fribricio for dune i was there i was there

yes i mean that moment at that at that you know the the iv um california thing where they used to do those media days. That's the, that's the Tony moment. It's not in the cage, but that's the Tony moment. And I'll never forget that. And I was just thinking about that recently because somebody said, we should have those, those as a soundboard. I sent that audio to Frank. So he. Look at you, Casey. Yeah. That was what that's why still one of our biggest videos ever on our YouTube channel. Yeah. And I think I think the thing for Tony too is I think a lot of like, yeah, there's not been that big spectacular moment in the. Cage, but he's really one of those fighters that, because like, MMA fans are very weird,

and Dana White, they just believe everything Dana White says and usually take Dana White's side, but it seems like everyone was every pro Tony Ferguson when he wasn't getting those title shots. Like every fan Q&A, there'd be like four fighters, be like, oh, when's Tony getting his title shot? And Dana White's like, well, I don't know. So I feel like Tony was the first fighter that the fans were like, yo, fuck you, Dana White, give him his title shot. Oh, yeah. I mean, if we go back in time, it was Habib, pull out merchant.

this and that the fans the fans were with tony if we go back in time and and go back to that moment it was it was habib who was the the ire of the fans um and tony was the hero of the story um but yeah i dug up my favorite tony memory because i i was trying to find it what you guys were talking and it was uh at like one of the pre-fight media days before before the pettist fight or is like it's life's a rat race i'm a fucking turtle ninja turtle which one's your face I like Michelangelo. Next question. It's just like the most insane secret. I'm so happy. I was about I was about to say that. I was but to say that. I was I shot that. I was just like, that was my, that was my first. That was my first week at MMA fighting. And so you guys were all on site. And then so

Casey would send me the footage to edit. And I remember there was someone that won't be named that was like, this is dumb. We're not putting this out. I'm like, no, you're incorrect. I know this is like my sixth day here. but I'm going to post this and it took off. It's so, it's the most insane quote that's awesome. This is, I'm right. I lose the logic and then I'm back. I'm like, what? Okay, I'm back.

I love the ending of my favorite Michael Angelo. Next question. This is why this sucks so bad though is because his entire thing was he makes us also happy, right? The whole Tony thing was like, he says something that makes you happy. He does something weird. that makes you happy or we think is weird that he thinks is perfectly normal. His fights are thrilling. He's just this guy that brings so much joy and did bring so much joy to so many people.

And so it is hurtful and sad to see it end this way where it's like nobody's enjoying this. His fans are not enjoying this and it's difficult. And I can't imagine he's enjoying it. Like getting prepared for these fights every single time and then not getting the result he wanted. So it's the juxtaposition of like how good it was when Tony was good. Like it was just so good It was so much fun The vibes were fucking immaculate

Go on Fight Pass And rewatch Tony Ferguson Versus a prime Edson Barbosa Oh that was a good one too One of my favorite That was a fight for me Because I was like

I was big on Barbosa at the time I was like And I'm pretty sure it was a good comeback By Tony Some crazy fight I was just like These people are not human You know

There's just there's They're built different I mean that was one of those fights I'm like These guys are just built different And that was one of those moments. But thank you for the question. It was fun talking.

It was fun thinking of a happy thoughts about Tony. It was. If he'd ever fucking retire, we could do a damn on him. Yeah. All right. Oh, somebody's super chats. Let's do this. Your business doesn't move in a straight line.

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Get no frills delivered. Shop the same in-store prices online and enjoy unlimited delivery with PC Express Pass. Get your first year for $2.50 a month. Learn more at PCExpress. Let's do this. Michael Harris admitted Jed. McKinsey Dern is the Michael Chandler of women's M.MA. I will not admit that. It's not bad. It's fun and I like her and Michael Chandler sucks and I hate him. It's not bad. Not bad Michael Harris. This is this is decent by you. Like part of me hates to say this. Michael Chandler is substantially more accomplished than McKinsey Dern is. I guess

substantially better, more meaningful wins than McKinsey Dern has an M.A. Um, so yeah, no. I refuse. Also, there is a world where McKinsey Dern puts it all together and challenges for a title. Oh, yeah. Michael Chandler is not putting anything together at this point. His career is down. Yeah.

Let me live my dreams, Rick. I love that. I love how you had to give some kudos to Michael Chandler. Good for you. I didn't like it. I didn't care for that. Didn't like it. Felt weird.

Lob cited. Who won worst call out? Shara or Alver. I mean, Charos was substantially worse, but we kind of already touched on this. Neither of them are like, man, you wasted your opportunity. One of them was so bad that it literally offended my years. And the other was just a missed opportunity, but it's fine. It didn't really make a huge difference for him.

Who did Alvarez call that? I forget. Oh, Bobby Green. King Green. Yeah, King Green. Oh, King Green. My bad, my bad. All right.

Which get it together, Getty. That's, he's still listening. Oh, yeah. Getty's not on top of that. Nathan Andrews is grabbing a fistful of drawers, the new strat. Did that happen tonight? I missed that. That was the heavyweight.

Was that the Ghaziev? Was that the Ghaziev? Did that? Okay, I didn't see that. Oh, he did. I think they both did it. I think they both did it. Oh, wow.

Somebody did it. So, no, it was Dantale did it because Dantel did it so bad that Keith Peterson went up to him. Stop the action in a clinch. Went up and was like, hey, I gave you an opportunity to let go. I'm going to take a point. and Danto Hayes was like, no, don't do that. And he was like, okay, I'll just give you a warning,

but you're going to lose the position. Like, Dotto Hayes effectively lobbied to not have a point taken from it. And he was like, okay, fine. Don't make me enforce the rules. Don't make me enforce the rules. Yeah, we just keep learning. Referees really don't want to do it. They're like, please don't make me do anything.

Yeah. I'm my favorite quote the whole year. Don't make me enforce the rules. I love it. I'm going to say yeah, until proven otherwise, like, yeah, go grab those drawers and just pull them up.

And that's what happens. Or down, I know that Jose disagrees because cheating is bad. It's not even cheating. It's just legal. They don't tell you not to do it. So it's legal. Yep.

All right. Oh, something's going on outside, Jose. This one's popping off. New York, baby. New York City. They never sleeps. That's what they say. say.

They love apples. Particularly not at 7.50 p.m. Yeah. Okay, this is weird. Akillas, I'm sorry. I do owe you an apology. I lied to you and said Eric wasn't going to be on the post show at the pre-fight Q&A. But Achilles has showed up.

The belly flopper, a Celtics and Red Hulk fan, the undefeated MMA legend, and then the TEMU version of Ariel this week. Bing, Rips, Flame emoji, Cruz, Ruiz, Crawford. Yes, I mean, all three of those are going to win. But Rick, we know that Achilles is really speaking to you specifically, so please take the floor. No, there's nothing to say. Timo version of Ariel, I accept it gladly. Timo's great deal.

Yeah, Timo's great. I love Timo. I order from Timo all the time. So, yes, thank you, Achilles. This is high praise and a high compliment. I did not expect that from you. So thank you. Thank you much, Achilles.

Boom. Thanks, Achilles. That honestly, one of the nicer ones, you've fired out as Achilles, so support that. Nathan Andrews, should Javier Mendez be the first coach in the UFC Hall of Fame, literally coached from Umar back to the first light heavyweight champion in Frank Shamrock? I don't know if he should be the first coach. Also, like arguably Pat Militich is already in the Hall of Fame and is a substantial coach

in MMA history. But I would certainly be open to Harvey Mendez getting, they don't really do this, but I would love to see Harvey Mendez. Frankly, I'd love to see Abdulmanop get enthrined in the UFC Hall of Fame. I think it would be well earned. I think a handful of coaches should eventually go into the UFC Hall of Fame. They'll never do it. They might.

I mean, they have the contributors wing, and it's like, at some point, that would be a fine thing to do, you know? Yeah. Matt Serra also in the in the... Matt's area is also in there. Though, I would say that he's... That's not... I don't...

I don't think it's the primary reason Militich is in there, but I think that there's more of an argument that Militich is, his coaching career is doing some heavylifting. They haven't enthrined Mike Thomas Brown, have they? I would say MTV 100% at this point would also deserve it. They just need to do a WEC class and he can get in. Yes, that would also be dope. But yeah, maybe one day.

We gave a lot of love to Javier earlier. Like, I think we all here respect the hell out of all the different eras of fighters that he's coached and what AKs. has been all about. Yeah, man. You don't see, like, when you think about it, Javier did this Militich had a moment and is no longer really a thing. What A.K.A. has managed to do for 20 some odd years is incredibly impressive in the space.

All right. Thank you. What always happens with this, though, is, like, people don't know how much credit to give to Javier and how much to give to the Dagestani side of things. And it just becomes this, like, who gets the credit? And the reality is, like, all your coaches get the credit. That's how this should work. I had a dude in my Twitter be like, yeah,

don't, the Javier doesn't deserve any credit. He just brought them over. I was like, who do you think taught them how to kickbox? Because I don't, Habib, I've watched Habebe strike. He did not teach these dudes how to kick and throw hands. Also, who gives a fuck? Like, bringing them over, coach of the year. The moment you brought them over, you're a fucking legend.

An unbelievable collaboration. Yeah. It's this is the thing Like the the share of the pie thing is like so stupid to me Like they're all his coach they're all their coaches That that is how that works like they and they have not left right If they if Javier was in every corner every time responsible for it then they wouldn't use them

Like if he was providing nothing to them they wouldn't use them And so it doesn't make sense to me Yeah shout out to Hobby Yeah Have you guys have you ever talked to Mendez just kind of one-on-one I've been on the record just kind of chit-chat of him Several times. When we were trapped on Fight Island for all those weeks,

he had a lot of fighters there. Yeah. Man, he's a dude that. He, like, my hobby, my Mendez story, the guy doesn't bullshit. And he was one of the guys,

like a long time ago when Luke Rocco was like his second fight in strike. Maybe he was like a Strike Force Challenger's guy. And I was at AKA, he was like, hey, Casey, you might want to film this guy. He's going to be good. He's like, trust me.

He was like, really? He's like, I'm getting to tell you, this guy. And he was just doing these little spin kicks. I remember just him. He knows. Like he gets his eye for talent.

Like he knows he was telling me because I was there for actually shooting Kane. And it was, but he was like, he's like, Casey, where you're here? You want to shoot this guy. So, yeah, I remember that moment. Yeah. So Harvey Mender's a great guy. Great eye for talent, great developer. Understands limit.

Like, he's a really, really good coach. So shout out to Hobby. Matt Metzger. Sharra Bullitt doing side quests as an assassin, L.O.L. I don't know if you guys. had the commentary on, but the fight was, the fight that became fight of the night was not interesting enough because it was so one-sided and repetitive, that they then talked about how Shawar Bullitt accepted the fight while shooting a film of some kind in Los Angeles where he plays a laundromat owner slash assassin. I have no idea what any of that is about, but Sharra Bullitt, he's taking over Hollywood apparently. Yeah, neat.

Good to see. All right. Guys, let me. All right. Super chat coming in from our friends in Mexico. Hmm. The sole reclop. Hello from Tijuana.

Jeddin guys, what do we need to get Darren to train so she can be what we think she can be or she needs to go train? Love you guys. Armano Jose. Thank you for representing. Brown part, baby.

I mean, Rick, since you don't believe in McKenna, Dern. How can we get you to start believing in McKinsey Dern? No, the train has left the station. Let's be real. Like, she is what she is. Like, I don't think there's any, like, camp she goes to to all of a sudden be a thing. What about Javier Mendez? No, it's too late. We're too late. I don't think her coaching is subpar, right? I think she surrounded herself with decent coaches. And so it's just it's she is doing fine. Yeah. Like,

if you're going to do striking, like there's a lot worse coaches you could go to, than Jason Perillo. So it's just like, I don't think she has it in her to mix up the game the way she needs to mix up the game. So I don't think it's a coaching thing. I think she is a fighter who is who she is. And as I said earlier, it's good enough to have been a highly decorated jiu jitsu player, one of the most decorated ever in the female ranks and then become a really, really exciting UFC fighter. There's nothing wrong with that career.

That sounds like a great career. Yeah, she's consistently, after she kind of, you know, at her, did you have bumpy start? Yeah, I guess bumpy start of weight cuts and everything. She's consistently been a top 10 fixture at straw weight. And that's a hell of it. You're one of the 10 best women in the freaking world of what you do. That's a great accomplishment.

Just because she might not be number one, she's still a heck of a fighter. And I think she's had a great career. And I'm excited to see her fight again. And if she continues moving up, I'll be impressed. But I don't see her breaking the top five. But I was picking loopie tonight. And, you know, she won.

congratulations to her and she's she's a good fighter i mean i know people just had maybe just unrealistic expectations maybe but man i'm a very realistic i still i mean we've seen fighters flash brilliance before and just never be able to put the package together she's not the first it's very go train with abe look it look what it did for balla we got it there um but yeah no she's probably she is who she is sometimes fighters don't get it like and that's just like that's just like it's just the world over. Sometimes fighters can't get to that spot. And like Casey said, I say all the time,

hey, nothing wrong with being one of the 10 best people in the world at your job. That's a pretty damn good accomplishment. Nate, no bill, no billy. Is Crawford the best boxer Ussick? I don't know what you're talking about. Are you talking about Terrence Crawford? It's pretty tough because we were going to have coverage on site, but now we don't.

Is the event even happening? That's funny. If the media's not there to cover it, is it happening? I don't know. That's funny. I am interested in this question, though, because I have Bud number one pound for pound. Do you guys? I have, I think Jose.

Oh, you have Bud? I thought you had to Usik, Jose. I had Usik 1 and then Crawford and then Inouye, but I said on the preview show, I have no problem with any combination of those three being one, two, three. If you want to put Usik 3, Inouye 1, Bud 2, you want to put Bud 3 inouye 2, Usik 1. I don't think there's a real wrong answer. They're all amazing. I agree.

As long as those three are your three, whatever your order is fine, no wrong way to eat that, Reese is. I personally have Bud won, but that is pretty fluid. It's just the performance against coming off was just so unbelievable against Spence. That, like, yes, it's incredible what Usig has accomplished and it's incredible what it's incredible anyway's done. and the most incredible thing any of them has done in a single fight is that one. And so that that reigns supreme for me at the moment. Cool.

Yes. Same. No arguments. Matt, Matt's good. Thoughts on Bud by K.O. Tonight need to make some chicken back after that Corey fight. There's boxing tonight?

I know it is. We never know what happened. It's true. I can't tell you whether he will win or not because we'll never know if he does. If they do fight, I mean, I would lean K.O., but I am interested to see him moving up and wait.

Still think he might be bigger than Madrimov, but it's an interesting test. It wouldn't shock me if he just styled on him for the whole thing. I could see a world where Bud just doesn't want to take a risk, right? He is on the precipice of a Canelo fight, and I could see a world where he's fighting smarter than the usual aggression we see from him. At the end of the day, he's always going to be aggressive because that's just how he boxes and he is going to be the one pushing the pace and throwing the damaging shots.

But I could see a world where it's maybe 20% less, 30% less, whatever that looks like, to just not put himself in position to blow this Canelo fight. So I don't know. I don't know what we'll see. I'm a little bit curious to kind of see how he looks, but I think there's a world where he tries to tries to put just the right amount of pressure on that gas pedal to not get himself in danger. Yeah, I have a Anderson-Ruiz Crawford Parley because I want to believe that Anderson is the future of American Heavy

Boxing. I think he beats Pocoli, but if he gets knocked out in like four rounds, it won't shock me either. But that's the only betting action I have for tonight. So I can't guide you on the bud by K.O. thing. It's too tight for my liking. Is Ruiz going to style on Big Base? I think so. I mean, if it goes more than three minutes.

He's coming off of two years not fighting. Yeah, but man, big, big baby's got three, big baby's got three minutes in them. If you get outside that three minutes, you're probably... He also hasn't fought in like a year, so maybe he's got like four minutes. Maybe he's been, he's been harvesting energy for this year off. Who did he fight? Who? Big baby?

Yeah. Miller. He just got, he got smashed up by Daniel Du Bois. Daniel Dubois. Yeah, Dubois. Was that earlier this year? Am I just crazy? Yeah, yeah.

That was, well, that was late 20, that was late 20, that was late 20, that was late 20, that was late reckoning card. And in that one, he had, but yeah, he had like seven minutes in him. It was kind of impressive, but that's my God. He got knocked out halfway through the final round. So he almost made it. He almost made it. But by made it, it was like him clenching every opportunity and falling into the ropes.

And, uh, but I will always. He's my local guy, and I know him and love him, and I don't care how many steroids he did before the Anthony Joshua fight. He's my guy forever. Shout out to Jarrell. Jarrell's my guy. By the way, I mean, nobody is a thing. Andy's so fun to me. Oh, Andy's great.

But nobody's going to know this. But, like, Jarell Miller, like, beat Miracle Crow Cop in a straight up kickboxing match. Yeah. Like, this is a thing that happened in real life. Like, I'm, again, like, who knows what, you know, what? what kind of supplements were involved in this? I thought Croco beat him. I thought Crocoe beat him, but he lost.

Yeah, he lost that fight. Crocop very clearly lost that fight. Okay, I don't remember the details of the fight. Isn't he technically he owned two? He did. He got, in the second one, he got knocked out. Yeah, in the second one, he got knocked out. But in the first one, straight up beat him.

Jerk job, like bad decision. He beat Mirgo, Krokoop and kickboxing. If you watch it, you'll come to the same conclusion. He beat him. Two important. things to note. This is also Crowe Cop in 2014. Like we're not talking and two, I love

how you said, who knows what substances were involved? I think we all know what substances were involved both sides of that thing. I'm going to pretend. I don't know. Who knows? I don't know. And there's no way to find out according to Chale Sonnen. So no way to know. But he did

yeah, the end of Crowcop's career certainly but like near the tail end, but like it was impressive. It was impressive at the time. And, you know, I think he's, he's the type of boxing guy that you need because he can sell the shit out of a fight. Like, he gets in the mic and he really tries to bully these guys. He's, he's fantastic in that role. He was the perfect foil for that Anthony Joshua fight before it fell apart for him testing for everything under the sun.

But he's a really good kind of like talk the shit, build the fight up and then put the guy over if they're, if they can pass that test. So this could be a real like, hey, Andrew Ruiz's back type moment. and that'd be fun and I really like that. And more importantly, Jared Anderson can win then we can do the big baby off and that fight. That's all I was talking about

off the press conference. It's like, making pay him pay off. We'll get to do that if Jared can beat Bacoli, it'll be great. Heavyweight boxing's fun. Yeah,

I can't wait to find out when these matches happen because I have no idea, so it's going to be. Yeah. Who knows? We'll never know. Who knows?

Last two super chats and this one is specifically for Mr. Jose Jungs. Jose CT Cook says, what's your thoughts on R.D.J. Robert Downey Jr. as Doom. I think it's a bummer. We need new blood in the MCU. What are your thoughts? That's tag what's MMA. I'm gonna sit over my chair.

He's doing the meme. He's doing the meme right now. I'm very confident. It's a meme. I'm very confident. a smokescreen. If it's not, it's, I think, very silly, but I, again, it's, I am not the target audience for this. I don't quite understand why you bring back R.D.J. He, you know, played a totally different character, both morally and, you know, antagonist, protagonist type situation. I don't quite get it. I'm a massive Dr. Doom fan. I think he is very easily one of the, on the Mount Rushmore of Supervillains and comic books.

up there with Joker, Lex Luthor, and Magneto. I think those are the four. Green Goblins probably fit. Is that even up for debate? No, because I will hear arguments for Green Goblin. I will hear arguments for Two-Face and Kingpin. I think those are, and Doc Ock specifically. I think those are very much in play as well.

I think those are all very much in play. Green Goblin is also there. But that is neither here nor there. I think it's weird because Dr. Doom is Romani. He's from like a European country. I don't, and both two iterations we've had. by Dr. Doom on movies have not been that, which is very silly because it's, you know, part of his, he's the leader of Ladvary. He can't just be a dude with a California accent.

I don't quite understand why they would make him R.D.J. if he's going to wear his mask, considering he is probably the most aesthetically cool characters ever designed. And the mask just represents, like he has a scar on his face from one of his experiments blowing up. And rather than live with it, he covered his whole body in metal, which is just kind of represents his outlook on life. If it's not perfect, it needs to be torn down or covered forever. So you're not going to cover RDJ. That would be stupid. So again, if he's going to have no mask, that's stupid because that's the most compelling part of his background. He's also a fantastic four villain.

Let's not forget that. A lot of people think, oh, it's going to be this Dr. Doom versus the Avengers. That's stupid. He is first and foremost, a Doctor Fantastic Four villain. He's, you know, that's where he was introduced. He's what separates him from the regular villains of the MCU. He's not a super villain because he's evil. He just solely hates Mr. Fantastic Reed Richards.

And by extension, the rest of the Fantastic Four, so he's not just your generic. I want to take over the world. It's, I want to prove I am smarter than the smartest man in the world. The Russo's are also directing. I don't think, I think they're very overrated. I think, you know, Thanos is a quote unquote morally gray villain.

That is very dumb because his sole purpose in life was to just kill about half the universe. There's nothing morally gray about that. And more people are excited to see RDJ. Like it has nothing to do with Victor von Doom. I'm excited to see Victor Von Doom play on the big screen. I don't really care who plays him. I don't think it had to be an AILA celebrity. Are you more excited to see RDJ or are you more excited to see Dr. Doom?

You can't really have both. a variant of Tony Stark, that just undoes the entire ending of end game where he sacrifice his whole self because Iron Man is a morally questionable hero and Dr. Doom is a has a strict moral compass and he is a supervillain. They are just polar opposite ends of the spectrum. Combining them just makes a generic supervillain bent on World Conquer. It's just I don't quite get it. I truly don't get it, but it is what it is.

I wish they would just do superior. If they're going to do evil Ironman, just do superior Ironman. It's right there. He can look like Tony Stark because it's just another multiverse of Tony Stark and he's evil. So just do that. I don't quite, I don't get it, but do you if you're excited about it. End of rant.

Cook got it's five dollars worth. There you go. It sure did. I think it's going to be fine, guys. It might be bad. It might be good. Watch it. Dr. Dune deserves better.

That's all I'll say. I mean, I would I would posit that R.D.J. is the best Dr. Doom has gotten from anyone in Marvel cinema thus far. Should have been Gary Oldman. That would be terrific. There's also a lifetime between that movie coming out. So we'll see how it shakes out. I also, and as I said at the beginning, he's not going to play the real Dr. Doom. I am confident in that.

He's going to play variant. All right. And our very last super chat, it's a simple one. David Sandine Favorite candy bar Don't know where this came from I don't know Are we sticking specifically to bar

Does it have to be actual bar Like can it be a Reese's or does it have to be Like it has to be in bar form I think Reese's probably counts Yeah I would say Rees count I don't think Skittles counts But like Reese's Okay, Skittles and like Starburst don't count then

That's not even remotely a candy bar is neither is Reese Riesis. Yeah, I don't count Rises. These are candy bars. If you don't want to count Rieces, that's fine. They are definitely closer to candy bars than Skittles are. Now we're just back into the Dr.

Zoom versus Tony Stark, Morley Gray. What's a good bar? Butterfinger is a pretty solid bar. Butterfinger is a nice bar. I like a butterfinger. You're an almond joy guy. Come on.

I hate mounds and omensioidic. Yeah, I don't like popin up flakes. I don't like pop enough flakes. Yeah. Fuck mounds. They're just the Will Smith of candy bars, overrated and terrible. I don't like them. Twix are good.

I mean, there's a lot. How do you eat twigs? Do you do by layers or you just? I just eat it. No, no. Bite, bite, bite. I change it up. What do you mean do it by layers?

What kind of psycho shit are you doing with twigs, Casey? Like licking off the chocolate, right? And then you kind of... Yeah, they take the caramel and leave the nugget part or whatever. Yeah, the nugget. It's too much science. That is some Dexter-level cereal stuff right there. I like, there's no outside of Mounds and Almond joys are trash that can be cast into a lake of fire for the rest of attorney for all I care.

But any other candy bar, if you give me any other candy bar, I will eat it. But I think the one that I seek out the most is three musketeer bars. Those are good. The musketeer bar. Too sweet for me, but I get it. Crunch is a good. Crunch is a good bar. But I'm so much more of a fruity candy, like a starburst, skittal, dummy bear type guy.

I'm a big, I'm a big baby Ruth fan, too. Big time. I think if I only get to. Go ahead. If I only get one and nobody ever shows love to it, but I love just a straight chocolate bar, like just a straight Hershey's is fire. but if I get a 1B it's probably a Milky Way super underrated because nobody really like goes for it 100 grand is a that's right I was not saying

100,000 dollar bars true of a candy bar yeah mounds bars are good too they're all good outside of mounds and almond joys yeah I actually all the way agree 100% agree with everything and if you and if you choose to eat and now if you go to a bodega and ask for an almond joel or Mounds bar, you probably also ask to get hit in the shin by a razor scooter. I just saw a video of a guy doing that a thousand times in a row recently. Like that guy probably likes Almond Joy's and Mounds bars. Dude, one of the worst jackass stunts, like for me to physically watch was a razor guillotine,

where they just hung a razor screw up and then they just dropped it on to people. Wasn't it just a skate deck that they did it with? Maybe it was just that. I don't know. but it was like the most horrifying thing I've ever seen of all the things that did it on Jaggers. I was like, I want to do that the least.

Yeah. Yeah. Put my shin in this and just get it dropped as, uh, nightmareish. Um, also shout out to Reese's fast breaks. They're absolutely delicious candy bars as well.

That's a bar. That's a bar. That's a, I also, unquestionably a bar. I'm a big dark chocolate fan. So if I see a dark chocolate twicks, I'll 100% eat that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the dark chocolate variations I'm down with. Alchemist, I'm sorry, but an airhead is not a candy bar. You got to get out of here with whatever that. Whatever that's. It is.

It might count technically. Not only by definition. I'm not. I'm rejecting that. There's no rigidity to that. The word bar implies some form of sturdiness to it. I'm glad you drew a line. I will draw the line there.

not calling Airhead's candy bars. This guy was doing Reese's before, before we object to that. I'm open to calling Reese's. That's more of a bar than a head is. No, what? No, physically form-wise, an airhead is much more of a bar than a Reese's. Airheads of no structure. They just flimsy.

It's a noodle. It's a candy noodle that we are describing. You can try and tell me a Twizzler's a candy bar. Get the hell out of here. More than a Reese's, I would say. Oh, wow, wow. It's an insane take. Dude, we're going...

We need to leave. We've been doing it for ever. Okay. We were friends before the super chat. We were friends and now... If somebody said, if somebody said I got hit by a bar, right? You're picturing like a pole. Like there's some length to it.

It's long. If somebody said I got by a bar and they told you, oh, it was actually baseballs. Like that's the comparable for Reese's like two circular objects. It's not it. When someone says they got hit by a bar. She said Frisbee, not baseball. Frisbee. Okay.

Frisbee. When someone says someone got hit with a pole, I picture a pole on a ball. Now we're just cutting hairs. When someone says it gets hit by a paw, I don't think they got hit by a floppy whatever an airhead is or a twistler. Then they got hit by a frisbee, though. It's not a frisbee, and it would be closer. Resey's, hey, hey, Jed, what's the full name of that candy? Risi what?

I have absolutely no idea. Oh, Riesie. What's that second word? Peanut butter cup. Cup. Cup. I didn't fight y'all. You guys are acting as if I stripped tin to those.

It's a candy bar. Here's one. Is a York Peppermint Patty a bar, even though it's circular, but it has closer to the properties that we would be disgusting. I would also say that a York Peppermint Patty is a candy bar, but it's technically a patty. I can go more with that. I can go more with that. Pepper and batty is stuck, so it doesn't matter. No one.

I don't know. I don't know you people anymore. The old son is KC is horrified. This is hogwash. I should have a super chat. The airhead thing, but that offended me when I saw it, it hurt me. It's not candy bar. Get out of here with that.

Eric, I saw a little human poking. Yeah, that was my daughter. Shout out to Cici. He heard us talking candy. I wish. She needed me to unlock the iPad so she could I'm gonna smash her hair or something. Are we good though?

Cici's good? She's great. She's fantastic. All right, okay. All right, we can wrap it up then. Boom, let's wrap it up because we've been doing this for a hot minute. UFC Avedobie's in the books, y'all. It was a good card.

And it's only 820 here on the East Coast. If you're on the West Coast, you got just a lifetime in front of you. Formally, I would have told you to stay tuned to me fighting and watch some boxing, but I don't think the boxing is happening. anymore so i think it's yeah not happening right they're just not boxing canceled it's a shame um you can't just check in maybe mamifighting dot com has some coverage

of if it happens otherwise you can watch summer slam apparently summer i had no idea that was happening until somebody slacked about it a few you know a little bit ago summer slams happening imammyfinding dot com just has all the goods you need for everything on to the next one comes out tomorrow I will be joining Alexander K. Lee in just a little bit to record that. And then we're back in action on Monday doing whatever we doing. Eric, are you on the MMA hour Monday? We're going to have an MMA hour on Monday, yes. MMA hour on Monday.

So make sure you're in for that. Otherwise, it's been an honor and a privilege to be with you all this evening. Had great fun talking about what is and is not a candy bar. And, oh, Umar and her Megamatov. That guy was fun to talk about him as well. Until then, Jose Young's. Eric Jackman, E. Casey Leiden, I'm Jed Mishu. Love y'all. Dr. Doom deserves better.

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