MMA Fighting - UFC Atlanta Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Kamaru Usman's Dominant Return To the Octagon

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

Kamaru Usman entered the UFC Atlanta main event against Joaquin Buckley as an underdog for just the third time in his UFC career, but delivered a vintage performance in his first fight in nearly two years. After dominating Buckley, is Usman officially a threat to regain UFC gold? Following Saturday's UFC Fight Night card, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee react to the event, Usman's lopsided win over Buckley, what we learned about both fighters, and what Usman needs to do to get to a title fight. Additionally, they discuss Rose Namajunas' win over Miranda Maverick, Malcolm Wellmaker's sensational knockout, the weirdness that happened in the Rodolfo Bellato vs. Paul Craig fight, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. I was going to say happy Saturday night, but it ain't Saturday night anymore. Happy Sunday morning to us all. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there and the victory horns. You hear them. They're loud. They're proud. And they sound for the former UFC welterweight champion Kamar Usman, first fight since October of 2023.

A lot of questions surrounding what he would look like and what this fight with Joachim Buckley would look like. And in the end, we got a lopsided win for Kamara Usman, dominates Joaquin Buckley for the first 20 minutes of this fight. Buckley shows a little bit of life in round five. He was able to defend some takedowns. But in the end, Kamara Usman gets it done. M.A.

fighting's official scorecard was 49 to 46. Two judges agreed. And some judge decided to give Joachie Buckley two rounds. And I just don't know what fight that person was watching. It is okay. We are here to react to UFC Atlanta. And boy, there was a lot of, a lot of stuff happened and happened very, very slowly, it seemed, on this Saturday night at State Farm Arena. I am Mike Hack.

And joining me to react to this card is the Prince of Positivity, my best friend, Alexander Cayley, aka, how are you doing after UFC Atlanta? I don't know what your gymnastics score was for this card, but something tells me it did not live up to what it probably was. was. Is that accurate? It was, you know, I'm a positive person. The Prince of Positivity, as someone called me. And it was, that was boring. Shit, man. I mean, I was, I don't know, man.

That was tough to get through. That was tough to get through. Anytime we see like a 13 or 14 fight card, we're always a little nervous. Even, even like the most stacked cards. When you see 13, 14 fights, you're like, okay, a lot has to go right. for this lineup to like deliver to its full potential. And it's not like this was, this card was like 13 straight up bangers.

I think we all saw, we like the main card quite a bit. I think we saw potential on the prelim, some of which paid off like in a really fantastic way. So we'll get to that later. I think definitely some positives there. But the main card for the most part did not carry its weight. I say this is what happens sometimes when you make competitive matchups.

But like I felt like they put some of these fighters in really good positions to show out and have dynamic performances, and they just didn't. Credit to their opponents, I guess, you know, they're not going in there to be walked over, right? So some guys put out really good competitive fights, and that's how it goes. But from a spectator standpoint,

for a lot of people there live at State Farm Arena, I have to imagine that's not what you paid your like $600, $700 ticket for, however much it costs. I know, again, they're probably breaking into their gate record today with whatever the ticket cost is. So, yeah, not the best card, my best friend. Not the best card. Always good to be outside the apex for sure.

But this felt like, this felt like an apexy card, which makes no sense. And yet so it is. I ask you all not to be distracted by the Father's Day balloon floating around behind me. We have the fan on. It's 100 degrees in here. And my wife is like, yeah, I'll leave that on there for the show. I was like, fine. I don't want to.

It's not a hill. I'm going to do. die on. So we'll just leave it there. Just don't get too distracted by it. But let's start with the main event, which by the way, A.K., I got a gripe right off the bat. Mara Rusman, Joaquin Buckley, was a

fight that certainly occurred. The fifth round was very fun and it made things much more interesting than the first four rounds were. This is not the fight of the night. Rose Domit Unis and Miranda Maverick was a much more entertaining fight than the main event was. Like, am I crazy that this one fight of the night?

And not the co-main event? What were our other bonus winners? Well, we know Malcolm Wellmaker is getting one because that was one of the best knockouts of the year. The other one went to Jose Ochoa for the finish of Cody Durdon. I don't mind that one. I kind of thought Phil Rowe would get it for two reasons. One, because he was about to lose. And the UFC usually rewards a comeback knockout.

And then two, Phil Rowe at the post-clay press conference and his emotional speech, speech in the cage, like talking about his mom having cancer and stuff. I'm like, all right, you got to give this guy a bonus. That's just heartless if you don't give him one. And then they gave it to Jose Ocho, which was a great finish. Like, Jose Ocho showed out tonight. That was a great performance. But I kind of felt like, I mean, there weren't only three finishes on the card.

So you could have just like given the three finishes, the bonuses and then did a fight of the night. But I thought Rose and Miranda, especially now finding out Miranda had a torn ACL. in the fight too. I don't think the main event should have got it. It's not like the end of the world, but one round should not give you fight of the night. Yeah, it almost feels like they're rewarding more like a moment.

They're almost just, it feels like they wanted to give Usman a performance bonus, which would have been fine with me. If they had just given him performance bonus and then given Phil Roe the other performance bonus, you know, you do the four performance bonuses, no fight of the night. I mean, it would have been tough for Rose and,

Miranda, who I thought put on a really good fight, but I don't think anyone would have been, like, heartbroken if that didn't win the fight of the night, like, if they just went with the four performance bonuses. Because that would have made a lot more sense. I think Usman was deserving of a $50,000 bonus tonight. That was vintage, Kumar Usman. I know it's a cliche, but there's no other way to put it. I think the crowd, from the most part, enjoyed it.

Like, we saw other grappling heavy contests where the crowd was not into it. I think they appreciated seeing Kumar Usman against her turn back the clock. I'm sure they would have seen some striking too, but they got some of that. Joaquin did have his moments, so that that lit up the crowd as well. So maybe you can call a fight of the night, but I think it really goes more for Usman and him sort of overcoming this layoff, overcoming this losing streak, overcoming a top 10, current top 10 welterweight. So yeah, not really the fight of the night.

If you did have to give one out, it should have gone to the comain. Well, let's talk about this main event. Kamara Usman-bound comes back, first fight in almost two years, 38 years of age. He's watched this division just develop into kind of what it is right now, being super interesting. Maybe the deepest the division has been in maybe ever,

if we really go top to bottom through the top 15 and seeing some of the guys coming up as well. And he comes back and he takes on Joaquin Buckley who called him out and I thought it was a brilliant call it after the Wonderboy fight. I thought it was a brilliant call it after the Colby win. And this thing kind of built up heat throughout the week, built up heat when they got into the octagon,

and then they started getting after it. And Kamar Usman secures an incredibly easy takedown in round one and has four minutes to work and just makes Buckley pay for it, busts them up, cuts them over the eye. Round two, same exact thing happens. A relatively easy takedown for Usman in round two. Round three, rinse and repeat. Round four, things got a little more interesting.

Buckley decided to go Southpaw a little bit. Usman eventually gets the takedown, ends up winning the round, and then round five, Buckley is able to thwart some takedowns and land some good shots, got Usman's attention with a couple of big punches at the end. But in the end, Kamar Usman wins the fight. So let me ask you, A.K., because this is something that I have been discussing internally with myself,

and then Casey and I were kind of talking about this back and forth before we went live here. A.K., was this, is the headline in your mind with this fight, Kamar Usman is back, baby, or Joaquin Buckley's good, he's just not that guy. You're asking the Prince of positivity. I got to focus on Usman. You know, Kamar Usman is back.

I think Kamar Usman is back. I was a huge doubter. I laid it out pretty plainly in my predictions for this event. I picked, sorry, I picked Buckley. My intro was all numbers, man. So this is, let me just tell you, going into this. 602. That's how many days it had been since Kamarov had fought.

819 was the last time he fought at Welterweight because of course he took that short notice belt with Hamza Shemaya at middleweight. 1029 was the number of days since he was UFC champion. 1,316 days was his most recent win before tonight. That was Kobe Cumberton. It had been a long time. And I get it, you can't, you can't just take those numbers because it's how many times did he fight during that time? What were those fights?

You know, it was just three fights. It was just Hamza and it was Leon twice. And you really have to dig in a little deeper and remember like, again, in the Hamza fight, yeah, he lost. But after the first round, he looked pretty damn good. I mean, he gave Hamzat a real, real battle. Both Leon fights, the first one, definitely, he was winning three rounds to one before getting kicked in the head at the end. The second fight, you know, I think a clear win for Leon, but it wasn't. like a blowout. It wasn't like he just dominated

Usman. It was still a competitive fight. So even though he had gone so long without winning, it's not like there was this precipitous drop-off for Kamar Usman, right? Like his losses were pretty explicable. So for me, that is the focus here that we had, he's

38 years old, again, that's old for any division. I'd say for Welterway, it's definitely not a good place to be, but he looked to be in an incredible shape. The gas tank was there, maybe slowed down a little in the fifth, but I also would say he kind of knew he was up in the cards and so he could kind of let the pedal off the gas a little bit for better for worse.

So yeah, I'm a huge fan of what he did. Seeing him almost blubbering when he had to do the, but I think a lot of us had that moment where you're crying, you're about to cry so much. You can barely get the words out. And he pulled it all together, which was great. So for me, the focus is all, Oosman. But just to touch upon the Buckley stuff.

Yes, now he's reached this point where, you know, you're questioning how good he is. Can he get past the number seven ranking or whatever he was, the UFC, he was number seven for us. I remember when he was, when he started, you know, it was two wins in as a welterweight. I was thinking this guy could be a top 10 guy. So my expectations were really, really high. And now there, I think they do have to be a little bit, you know, you do have to rein them in. But I don't think Buckley's bad. He has a lot to work on. He is pretty deep into his career. I get it. It's not like he's some young prospect who can just totally change his game. It does, you know, we, I think when he beat Colby and was on this great run,

think even though it was Colby and it wasn't like the most difficult opponent in that moment, we could all picture Buckley fighting for the title. It seemed really, really close. And now with one performance, it seems really, really far away, fair or not. Yeah. To me, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's column. There's some column A, some column B. And Buckley is, is, Buckley's very good. Like to be in this division and be the seventh, eighth he's a top 10 guy like in this division right now that is incredibly impressive like it really is he is very good he is overachieved at least in my eyes but i think we got i think we found his ceiling tonight i think we officially have gotten to the buckley ceiling and it's there's still

big fights for him there's still names for him he could still fight he could still do like him and kevin Holland running it back. Like, people would love that. Him and Carl's Prakis would be interesting, but that's like a really competitive fight. Him and Michael Morales would be really fun and interesting. Like, I would wonder what would happen with the fight like that. But then as you kind of look up the division

and you see the styles of some of these guys, like, Amichato Gary? I think that's a rough night for Buckley. Leon, maybe he can beat Leon. But I don't know. Like, if Leon just decides to be D1 Leon, What does that fight look like?

Shafcott, he's going to have a horrible night with. Sean Brady is going to have a horrible night with. And then Balal would, I would assume a Balala would look similar to what we saw tonight. So again, still big fights. Still, he's one of the seven, eight, nineth, ten best guys in a super deep division. That's incredible. But unless something just insane happens, I just, this performance showed me, Okay, it's probably not going to fight for a belt.

And that's okay. That is totally okay. Fighting guys who get to fight for belts in their division, when women who get to fight for belts in their division, the percentage is so low. Like it is, it's not easy to do. It's very, very difficult. And especially in a division like this. So I think I learned a lot about Buckley, still very talented.

He is dangerous at any point in this fight and in any fight that he's in. But I think we've discovered the same. ceiling. And it's still high. It's just now we know where it is. We know how many rungs we need to climb to actually put the hand in contact said ceiling with Joaquin Buckley. So yeah, good win for Kamarhusman. And there's no shame in it. There's no shame in it. But Buckley is part of this very exciting new wave of welterweight contenders that we keep talking about. Yamichata, Gary, Shavcott, Michael Morales, all these guys. But not all, we know this all the time, guys, with every crop of stars is not everyone's going to get a title shot, right? Not everyone's going to

going to make it into that number one's contender spot, number two contender spot. So Buckley just might be the odd man out, but that's okay, that there's nothing wrong with that. When we look back on this era of welter rates, like 15 years from now, if we're,

God willing, if we're all alive, we'll look back on this era of welter rates. I'd be like, oh, yeah, remember this guy, this guy, remember Buckley, went on that six-fight win streak and made all these great callouts

and saved his reputation. Like, this is a very, this is a positive anime story. This is a positive anime story. Yeah. Yes, I'm sure a lot of people will be disappointed like man he this was a chance you know he's he beaten he was beating all these veterans and he beats wonder boy he beats colby like this is one more veteran and and like the best

veteran of those three like by far is kamar usban and he had gotten past it boy the sky's the limit but we always knew it was a possibility that this could trip him up but this was a great matchup I think this is what he he wanted or what he should have wanted anyway after beating colby and and you know what you just fall short of that opportunity but the door was there he he helped open that door for for himself. Buckley did a lot of this good for himself. I just couldn't get past that last hump. So you're right, Mike. Again, nothing would surprise me in the sport anymore. Crazier things have happened. But realistically speaking, yeah, maybe this is the peak of the Buckley story. And that's not bad. That's not the worst thing. Yeah. I mean, this isn't me like pooping on him.

This is not be just what I saw. Like still, very impressive what he's accomplished. Ranked number seven in the UFC's rankings in this division, which is amazing. And he's going to be a perennie he's going to be a top 10 guy for years to come in this division so that's a good place to be it really is him and michael morales rocks i know we're not going to match break for buckley on on to the next one but that is absolutely the fight to make that's the one we're doing and i hope that's what we get now for kamar usman aka i see people trying to like get real cute with this in the media space trying to match bake this could not be more obvious i know in kamar usman's eyes he thinks that this win is just going to insert him into a title fight between the winner of Jack Del

Madalane and Islamachachev. I think that is just insane. I think that is an insane line of thinking. I think he's going to need at least one more win before we even start having this conversation. And we do Bilal Mohammed. Like, I don't understand. This is so easy. And I'm actually stunned that Camaro just keeps like no selling him. Go fight Bilal. There's heat there. This is the biggest fight for you that is at least realistic right now because while you are a name and you are a former champion and despite the strength of schedule you're still one in three in your last four fights and the win is against buckley who's very good and has six five win streak he was ranked number seven but you still get sean brady who's just on a tear just beat the tar at a leon edwards

I mean, just might have ended this man's career with the type of beating he gave him. Just ragged all them. Shafkat is up there, but we don't know what's going on with him. And then Balal just lost the belt, but he had like a fight of the year contender in doing it. I think Usman is going to have to win one more before he gets a title fight. Why is he so hesitant for this Bilal fight? I just don't understand it. I feel like there's just no other way to go about this.

We do Brady versus Gary. We do Usman versus Bilal. Shafkot's a wild car. don't know what the hell is going on with that man like it's just this just seems so simple am i crazy yeah you know let's spoil on to the next one for everyone i think we're both going to agree that it should be usman versus bala al-mohmad it's it's not a spoiler because you said this uh when bala lost you said he's going to you said he has to fight oombe because it's just this is this is the logical thing to do yeah there's so much heat there they're former champions it's age-appropriate matchmaking

Usman still has this sort of what's this this podcast appearance in his pocket that he and Sehudo keeps saying they're going to release apparently got very contentious they tried to have Balal in the show so many months ago so I don't know if like nothing happened and they just want to sweep that under the rug now

but they talked a lot about it and we're hinting like oh this was like a really like tense interview we don't know if we should release it and if that fight got booked guys there's your moment you want to their podcast I think is doing pretty well but you want to really put on the map you hype up this this Balal clip.

You play it. Hopefully it is something that's like actually intriguing and sort of like explosive and not just like barely audible exchange between Kamaru and Bilal. So all sides point to this guys. This is easy booking. It should be on a pay-per-view. It should be on a pair of view. I have to admit, it was a little weird seeing Kamaru on a fight night card.

This has to be his first time. I'm going to look right now. Boy, his first time on a non- Maya. Yeah. You're close. Yeah. Hafeiados Agnes, but same year, 2018.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, he headlined against Maya. And then I think he also headlined, yes, a tough finale against RDA. So, yeah, he graduated from headlining fight nights to pay-per-views. And it was weird. It's weird. So it was seven years ago that Kermak Usman fought on free TV. So I don't think we'll do that again.

I think he's earned himself a pay-review spot. Depending on the strength of the card, it could even. can be a him and Bilal is absolutely a co-main event fight. So, yeah, UFC, just do it. Don't overthink this. Don't even wait until Tuesday. Don't even do the whole while. We've got to wait until Tuesday's matchmaking.

Just announce it tomorrow. Announce it Sunday. Announce it Monday, whatever. Just get this done. Let's go. I mean, I don't know. Look, Oosman just fought. So, like, there's no way this could happen.

And Balal just had a war less than a month ago. If we could somehow, some way, make this the co-main event for UFC 319 in Chicago, like that would just be incredible. That would be a terrific co-main event. But it's too soon for Usman, I'm sure. And it's probably too soon for Bilal, if we're being honest, after that fight with JDM.

So we'll see what happens there. I think Usman Bilal is about as obvious of matchmaking as it can be right now. And we'll see how the chips fall. Rosamie Unis, AK, gets the win over Miranda Maverick. Good competitive fight. I really enjoyed this one, because it was a slog, man.

And I'll admit I was watching. At one point I had three screens going at once because I had to watch my guy, Paco Porter, headline BKFC. Someone reminded me, I had no idea that if I was starting. There it is. No idea that BKFC card started so early. So someone was like, oh, it was right when Mutino

and Wellmaker were about to fight, someone was like, dude, Parker's fighting. I thought, like, I'm disappointed in you. I'm like, what? It's like 8 o'clock. How is this possible? and then I went and turn it on and the second I turned it on,

Parker knocked the dude out. So at least I got to see that. And I had dirty boxing on at the same time and there's some weirdness going on with that card. And then the UFC main card happens. And first we start with the Paul Craig Hedolfo Blato stuff, which is super weird. And Balato with the floppity flop flop flop.

Umar Sai and Alonzo Menafield, maybe the worst. It's one of the worst fights I've ever seen. I mean, it was just that. bad. It was that bad. I'm like, oh my God, this, this is, this is just real bad. Mansoor Abdul Malik, Cody Brandage, not bad. Ended in a weird way. So like left a bad taste in people's mouths. Haini Barsely's Cody Garbrandt was fine. Edmund Chabazzini, Andrea Petroski, boy, someone had asked earlier about who the middleweighty, middleweight champion could be now, now that RDR is going to

fight for UFC belt at some point more than likely. Perhaps Edmund Chabazzian is the new middleweighty middleweight champion. A workman like win. Not the kind of like smart. If you're going to beat Andre Petroski, that's how you do it. Just not thrilling. And then Rose Domitinus and Miranda Maverick to me were like the MVP's of this card. Because they like, they boosted everything back up.

They got us back on track. People were starting to fall asleep. They woke everybody up. Rose has a good first round, very close first round with Miranda Maverick. Second round gets all sorts of wild. Looks like Rose might get a submission. Then Miranda almost gets a submission.

And we're like, oh, man, did Miranda steal the round? And then round three, Rose lands that little cheeky left hook. Miranda goes down, but it turns out might be a torn ACL or an injury. There's just so much that happened there. I scored a 3027 for Rose. but it was a competitive fight and Rose did the thing, AKA, at least in the Octagon.

We'll talk about her not doing the thing with the microphone after, but thoughts on Rosamai Unis's performance against Miranda Maverick in the co-main event. Yeah, yeah, Rose is great. I think the only unfortunate thing for Rose is that we've already seen her go up against some of the top contenders.

So this doesn't change like, oh, how would she do better in a rematch with Aaron Blanchfield? Would she do better in a rematch with Menolfo? Or, like, I don't know. I'm not convinced. And, again, not like, you know, if people go back and watch that Madnail fight. It's not like Rose totally got destroyed. It's just in both those fights, you felt the size difference.

You felt the strength difference. You felt like she wasn't going to win those fights. Now, Miranda Maverick is plenty strong. Don't you're wrong. And it's probably part of the reason like she did well why it was such a competitive fight. But it felt winnable too. There's a big experience gap.

There's a big, like, quality of opposition gap just to go to fight, the huge fights that Rose has been in. and like the good solid fights that Miranda Maverick has been in. And that stuff matters, right? That stuff matters. She's, I think, Rose is about four or five years older than her, so there's a maturity issue as well. Like, if you've ran this fight back two years from now,

I could totally see Miranda Maverick taking it. I think Miranda is still not quite at her athletic peak yet. So I know kind of to tie it to the main event, we're saying like, do we feel like we've seen Buckley's ceiling? Yes. I'm still not convinced we've seen Miranda Maverick's ceiling. I thought she looked really good in this fight. it sucks if she injured her leg

that was my initial thought when she got caught by that sort of hook was I mean we've seen fights that look like uh sorry punches that look like they don't land super hard knock people down but that's not what I thought this was it looks like she stumbled just a shot caught her

and then when she got up she didn't seem to be having some issues with her knee so let's hope it's just like a tweak or something and that's not a torn ligament otherwise it could be well before we see um Miranda Maverick again but again fortunately she is young uh she's got a lot going on at home I know her and her and her husband, her boyfriend.

I know they recently have, their parents now. They recently have a child. So she at least, if we don't see her for some time, we at least know there's still time for men and maverick to like have a really good career. Because again, she's only 27.

I think she turns 28 maybe in a couple months for next month. That's a lot of time. That's a lot of time. So props to Miranda for the tough fight, but big, big, big props to Rose Navajunis. Who reminded us like when she's at her best is so fun to watch. And it's really a great matchup for everyone. But, like, honestly, part of me couldn't help thinking, like, can we just get her back down to 115?

I know the weight cut sucks. I know she's competitive at 125. But I feel like her only deficit up here is the size that she's given to some of her opponents. I feel like she could be championed again at 115. We know she's beaten Zhang Wei twice. When she beat her third time, I don't know. But there's nothing I've seen in any of her fights since she moved it to 125. that tells me like she could not go back down to 115 and continue to have amazing success.

So it was a little, it's a little odd for me. Maverick posts, Facebook second round to Rory C.L. Yep. Oh, second round. Oh. So before, before the shot, way before that shot. That sucks. Yeah.

That sucks, man. Here's, when I say like Rose did the thing in the octagon, I thought she did. And I'm with you. because here's the difference between where Rose is and where Kamara Uspin is. Where Kamara Usbitt is, there's like, there's guys in front of him, certainly, and there's a lot of them who have like better cases at a title shot than he has right now. And those guys, all of those guys that are in front of him right now, have all agreed collectively like, okay, Islam Makachev is the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. he is definitely unequivocally 1,000% moving up. So because we respect this man and what he is accomplished

and that he is the number one pound for pound fighter in the world, we will step aside and we will let this man, we will pay this man the respect he deserves, and we will let him fight for the belt because this is what the UFC wants. There is no effing way that they are going to sit there and let Kamar Usman leapfrog them without fighting again. Apparently Kamara Usman was at the post-fight press conference and doubled down that,

No, I'm fighting for the belt. I'm not fighting Balal, which is absolutely insane. Now, for Rose, for Rose, yes, from a meritocratic perspective, there are some fighters that are in front of her right now. Aaron Blanchfield, who has a competitive, close win over Rose not that long ago. There's Natty Ice. And then the lingering one is Zhang. But again, we don't know if she's actually moving up or not.

has told me in interviews that, yes, I want to move up. But the UFC keeps saying, well, we don't really want that right now. And Zhang's just kind of like looking at it like, all right, whatever the UFC wants, this is what I'm going to do. Right now, there is no clear cut. This is the next fight for Valentina Schofchenko. Because Rose is who she is and because this division in particular needs a boost real bad, if Rose is, if Rose is who she is who she is, and because this division in particular, If Rose Nama Yunus got on the microphone and said, Hey, Valentina, so much respect for you, but this is the fight people have been asking for for the last five years.

Best straw weight of all time against the best fly weight of all time. Let's do it. Let's fight for the belt. May the best woman win. If she had done that tonight, there is a world where I think the UFC would have been like, you know what? This might not make sense, but it's going to make some dollars.

Like, Valentina's your Jacob versus Rosamai Yunnan. is even still is a big fight. I'm kind of surprised she didn't at least go the respectful route, AK. Instead, she went with, my dream is to fight for the belts and whatever I need to do to get there, that's what I'll do. And I was like, oh, now you're not going to get it. I really wish she dropped Valentina's name at least to get the little sound bite there, but I don't know.

That's just me. What do you think? I don't know. know if I'm totally on that. You're right. You sold it in a good way, Mike. And if she, like, she maybe could have at least put it in their heads. But I also don't think that would have got a great reaction from social media, if that matters at all. The crowd, I think would have loved it. I think the crowd would have been got some pop pop from the crowd for sure. I don't know if the people, I think she would have taken some crap on social media. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong.

But I don't think she wouldn't take it that much, man. Like there would be some people would be like, look, there's no way she should be fighting for the belt right now. But at the same token, if the UFC made that fight, is anyone going to be like, okay, I get, like, I don't understand why they're doing this. Like, just think about it. What is the biggest fight? Valentina Zhang is the biggest fight you can make right now for Valentina, like realistically. But let's just say Zhang isn't moving up.

Valentina versus Rose from a business sense is the biggest. title fight you can make right now for Valentina Shibchenko. Is it not? Natty Ice, I'd love to see it. She deserves it. She deserves her opportunity. She deserves her day in court. But that's not a big fight.

That is a co-main event. That's the first of three title fights kind of a fight. Valentina versus Rose is a big fight. Two women fighters who pass the public's test more than you'd think. So, and this is a fight the UFC would be like, oh, okay, let's do it. Rose called for it. I love it. We love Rose.

Let's do it. The Aaron Blanchfield fight was not long ago. It was not long ago. I think that's still. There's a lot of people who thought Rose won that fight. Did they? I can't imagine. I think that's silly.

Yes. I remember the fight. It wasn't like Aaron destroyed her. And I remember, I actually, I remember we were very annoyed with Aaron for parts of that fight because, okay, I think she chose to winning and then she chose to stand too many times, yeah, and we were like, what are you doing Aaron? What are you doing? Just Haas this woman down.

But she lost, but that was not long ago. Manaw was a while ago fine and I guess Manaw would be out of the picture because she got her shot that's fine as she's out of the way. What really still kills Rose, I think, is the Carlo fight. I know that's the longest away of all the fights I just mentioned. That fight left a really, really bad taste in people's mouths. And I

honestly that fight alone is what makes me think like the interest in having her fight Shev is not as high as it as it could be and maybe should be it you're right Mike based on the reputation so I don't know I'm assuming for myself personally I know you said if it can't be Zhang Wei Li then it should be Rose but like even if for some reason Zhang didn't move up it's just the fight everyone would still be thinking about you know even if it was if it wasn't like Rose's fault that she got the opportunities to have Zhang everyone would just be thinking

why is the Zhang and not her they wouldn't care that Rose beat her twice That's what people want now. So I don't know. I don't know how much interest there is in that right now. I see what you're saying, but I don't know. I think it's, um, I think the moment is past. I just think the moment is, and it's not like tonight was such a spectacular performance that she called for.

It was good. It was a good performance, fun fight. But she wasn't so dominant that you're like, oh, man, I'm really curious what will happen if you fights Valentina. Like, I don't know, just didn't do that for me. But it was weird is like immediately after the Carla fight, when I interviewed Rose and she started teasing that she wanted to move to 125 and possibly fight Valentina Shepchenko.

This is like literally before she fought it flyweight and just tease the move and would love to fight Valentina. People are like, oh shit, okay, let's do this. That was like immediately after, like maybe a year after. She lost, though. She did, but still, I know. The moment would have been earlier, but I think the moment has passed. And I just want to be crystal clear here.

I am not advocating that this, if I was the matchmaker, that I would make this fight. Because I wouldn't make this fight. The same reason I wouldn't put Kamara Usman in the title fight right now. But if Rose did the thing and the UFC Brass heard her do the thing, they would ponder it and maybe make it if it's not Chong. That's all I'm saying. At the end of the day, like the UFC says we only make the fans the fights the fans want to see.

We know that's not true. We know that's not true. They want to make the fights that they think does the best business. And right now, women's MMA as a whole needs interesting things to happen. Is it Rose versus Valentina? I don't know. But Rose versus Valentina is a bigger fight bottom line wise than Valentina versus Natty Ice, even though I would prefer the Natty Ice fight.

That's all I'm trying to say. But Rose gets the win. Hope Miranda Maverick is doing better. We'll heal up and get back soon. we mentioned some of the other performances and yeah Michael Kiesa court McGee had a fight

Michael Kiesa won that fight so crowd loved it crowd loved it they sure did before you move on I'm sorry I want to just real quick our own Jed Mishu did score Rose Nominyu

over Banchfield because you were talking about the scores that fight was actually quite contentious that he was very angry on that day I remember he was very angry with Aaron Blanchfield's performance that night. I don't know if this was no Best Bard related, but he was not happy with what he saw. I'm sure if we go back to our Slack messages, you can find a lot of like what is Aaron Blanchville doing. Sorry, you can move on.

I just want to put that out there. So I'm just going to put this out real quick, break the fourth wall, AK just kind of like yelled at me. I'm not done with the ranking chat. Okay. I'm at like copy paste mode and like moving things around. We're doing some behind the same thing. I know that Gene. I know that Gene beat Jason Jackson.

That Gene will be going into the rankings. Don't you worry. Well, let's let's let's let's ask people's opinions on this then. Mike, should we ask people? Where would they, may I do a poll? Like, where would they? So obviously, as we're talking about, you know, you can expect a ranking shake up this week now that Kamaro is back.

He had been removed for inactivity. He fought Hamzaa, but that was that middleweight. So he had not fought at welter rate in however many, I think almost two years by this point. We have an 18-month cutoff. Comar was removed some time ago. So he was unranked. Now he beats Buckley, who was number seven in our ranking.

So clearly, Oisman, top 10. I'm wondering with you guys, where would you rank Oosman? I'll do a poll. I'll do a poll. What should our ranges be here, guys? What should our ranges be? Obviously, I don't think you would rank him number one. But let's see.

How high you guys can be clicking and clack. I apologize. Where was Ozumon ranked before? Or he had to be number one. Was he ranked number one? Well, we ranked the champions still. So we would have had, I assume we would have had him number two only behind Leon. I could be wrong.

I can't imagine who. Jed might have had Schaub caught above him. I honestly had job. I had shop got up there too. Oh, okay. Okay. So he was two or three. He was top three through four.

He's top five. Top five at worst. I think our consensus was that he had to have been, I ended up a two. Yeah, two or three. Two or three. I'm trying to find the, the welterweight rankings that he was still part of. Yeah, he would have been in the top five. So I'm wondering, does he make the top five now?

So let me ask the people, how high do you rank Kumar Usman? Number two, let's say number three to four, number five to six, and then seven or lower, which I think would be a bit strange, but let's let's let the people, let's let's let people have their opinion. I should tell people what our rankings are going into this event. guys. We had, again, I said, we had Buckley at seven. Here's, here was our top five going into UFC Atlanta. Number one, of course, JDm, number two, Ballal, number three, Shavcott, number four, Sean Brady. And number five, Ian Machado Gary. So, uh, the question is, guys, would you rank, would you guys rank Usban ahead of any of those guys right now? I think there's

a strong argument you made to do it. I also think there's arguments you made not to do it, because this is his first time fighting there. I will, I'm curious. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, Peep's, no. I will not be doing it. You won't, he won't be in your top five. Ousman will be number six. He will be behind Jaddy, Schaftat, Balaw, Brady, Gary. That's what he'll be behind. Damn. He'll be right there at six. Yeah. So, so mine right now is J.D.M. Ballal, Shavkot, Brady, Edward.

So I still have Edwards in top five. I have Edwards behind. Well, yeah, and I have Gary six. I do have Edwards behind Usman. I understand that Edwards does have two wins against Usman. But Edwards, he's lost bad twice in a row. Uspen at least has a win over Leon, and he has a more recent win than Leon. So that, I'm going to keep Usman at six,

but I could easily drop him to seven because of the Edwards fights. But if they fought like right now, I would pick Usman to be, I would pick Usman to win. True. I think most people would. Yeah, yeah, this is tricky one.

MMA math is not so simple on this one. So, yeah, I'll not let the people speak because I still have to figure this out myself. I got to figure this on myself. This is a weird one. And something else we need to discuss too. I'm not supposed to do this now. We're all here. It's an open forum.

We have three of the rankings panel. Is MVP out of the welterweight rankings now? He must have competed. Two middle-aid fights in a row. I know, I know, I know. When is his last? He's taking up a spot. I want to move him.

He's taking up a spot. He's taking out of a spot. He is taking a spot. I bumped him out of my rankings, not from disrespect, because I don't think he's a welterweight anymore. I mean, how high was he in your rankings anyway? He's, he's actually, he's in a high amount. I had MVP at 12.

I got him at six. I have him at six. What? Yeah. He loves MVP. He's always had Michael Page. Not about being Gary. I thought he beat Gary.

Oh, right, right. I did it. No, I mean, I know, but I scored it for, I scored it for MEP. So I haven't been, again, that was that his last Walter White fight? That was. That was June. So that was still June 29. So less than a year away.

He competed at Walter 8 less than a year ago. But we may have, we may have to be bigger. Yeah. And he's fighting Jared Canaaner. If he beats Jared Canaaner, he's going to be a top 10 middleweight. So he can be ranked in both. He can be ranked at both like Amanda Hebus. You know, I'm just saying.

Maybe maybe he's the Amanda Hebus of the men. That's what we call him. That's what we call him. That's what most of the whole column, I think. MVP stands for male Amanda Hebus, I believe, if my spelling is correct. What? Just think about it. Just think about it.

No, no, just it works. It works. It makes sense. What time is it? It's almost three in the morning. Yeah, we're all over. Yeah, I think for going forward, we need to have some sort of policy of like, if someone fights in a different way class two fights in a row, then we can kind of have a vote of like maybe this person.

Because we've had this happen before, right? It's just vibes, basically. Now we're just taking them out because of vibes. No, no, I think we set a number. They don't feel like a watch weight anymore. I think we set a number. I think it's two fights. Two fights in a different weight class is like, yeah, okay, you're out.

Now you are temporary out of the other. Even if it's within 18 months, we can take you out after two hours. That's what I'm saying. I think we need to consider that, yeah. Yeah. The only reason I didn't take him out after the Sharabolo win was because he was so steadfast on, this is fun and it was great not cutting weight, but I'm a welterweight. My next fight will be at welterweight.

One million percent guaranteed stamp it, Noah Racy's. My next fight's going to be a welterweight. And now he's fighting Jared Kedaneer. So now he can pull him with all the movement. And I don't feel guilty about it. And if he beats Jared Kahnier, he put him back in. And if he fights at Welterweight at all again, he jumps back in. It's okay.

You're right back in. Let's go to the peeps. I wonder what they're saying on this lovely Sunday morning at 2. 45 a.m. Guys, we're 40 minutes into. We're just going to blow past the 30 other decisions and weirdness on the card. We didn't even talk about Jamie Lynn Horth and Vanessa Demopoulos. She's Louise.

Good win for Jamie Lynn Horth. I mean, yeah, that was a fight. That was a card. That was a card. And I got to tell you, looking at UFC Baku, I am fired F up for that card. Early card. I love. It's like the opposite of this card.

Love. Early card. Is it less than 13 fights? It's a solid 12. I don't even care. 12? 12? No, I do care.

I can't imagine. I can't imagine someone being at State Farm Arena from the very first fight to the very last fight and having a good time. I cannot imagine. Yeah, unless you're literally getting paid to do that as an actual fan, can imagine sitting your one seat. I'm going to sit right here if I paid my 500 bucks and section 228 row X

I'm going to sit there and watch that is hard 13 fights look at this fight card Oh next week next week You know what the first fight of the night is as of right the second

your main event AK you don't even need to watch the rest of the card Mo Newsman versus Handy Abdelahab is kicking things off as of right the second that could obviously change They can bump that to the co-main event at any time. They should fight like three or four times.

The main card is like so good. It's so good. Naimov Bogdan grad's going to be insane. Satikov against Motta is going to be wild. Mick to Beck-Oryl-Bai versus Tofique Messiah. God, good Lord. Tofique Maasif and Casey's rank gets if he wins is going to be the second ranked lightweight on planet Earth.

Oh, dude. If he wins big, oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You're out of there, Pimlet. You're out, Pimlet, you're gone. Dude, if he wins big, I will bump Pimlet out, just because. We have, hold on, we have Hymdi and Mo first and two women's bantamweight fights. This is.

What is this? What is this? Christmas? This is unbelievable. This is fantastic. And then we get Fizzieb Baja Mondays in the co-main event, which absolutely slaps. And then Jamdi and then Jamdi. It's no Hamdi, Mo.

It's not Hamdimo, but yeah, sorry. I love this Baku card. I like this card way better than the Atlanta card. I like it way better. Oh, no, no. It's a better card. We know that. No, it's definitely better card.

On paper, the Lanark card wasn't. It had names, you know, like, okay. You know, I'm going to recognize these dudes, you know, but it just, you know, it was what it was. The third, the, the, the second, the fight people wanted to watch more than anything outside of the co-main event was Chris Boutinho and Malcolm Wellmaker. That tells you what UFC Atlanta was. Before we go to the comments, can we get everyone's opinion on the, the Balato, Belato experience? Oh, man.

I got to see some other angle. Now I see a version float around. Piers were saying the kick didn't really catch them. And I admit, I probably only saw it in like full speed. I see some people going like going to a slow motion replay and saying it just glanced them. Strange scenes, man. Strange scenes. I mean, when I was doing the write-up for it, I was just laughing because I was like,

how did I phrase it? I was like, this fight was already done under strange circumstances because it was rescheduled due to Balato getting herpes last time, which is just fantastic. That's even the weirdest part about this. Now, yeah, now it's not. It's been greatly surpassed. Oh, man. His reactions were so, they were confusing, but like, fights are weird, right?

weird stuff happens to fights. Yes, it looked a bit odd that he didn't react right away to the guy. He went down. He kind of looks at the ref. He flops back. He suddenly resuscitates back to life. He does the, oh, I'm so hurt. I'm grappling the referee thing.

Like, but that to me is like the sign of a guy that is genuinely disorient. Yeah. He can't be that well-burst in MMA. Acting. Acting and chicanery. then he's like, oh my God, they're not buying it. Oh, they better grab the ref. Oh, they're not buying it.

I better. If he is, then he deserves the no contest. I think it's, it was a real legitimate, he was legitimately hurt because it was just so weird. Like, if you're going to fake it, you fake it like it looks like, oh, oh, God, I'm hurt, you know. You don't fake it like, hey, ref, then, ugh. It was weird. It gave me that when Shane Burgos got. knocked out by Emmett, maybe, who was it?

When you got hit hard and you kind of stood there for a little bit. Edson Barbosa. Sorry, Barbosa. But the Burgos knockout. It's just like weird things happen. I don't know if you've, weird things happen. Your brain acts weird. You wake up.

You're kind of not there. You like, you don't understand anything. I've never been knocked out that bad word. The person in front of me, I think that's the guy trying to kill me. But it's the ref. So I don't know what it's like. it was weird I don't know

I was actually I don't know it was just weird I don't know we're going to get a real answer on this it was weird for sure he has to have been genuinely disoriented otherwise again

otherwise he put on a real like performance that again is worthy of a DQ which he was probably hoping for or a no contest not getting knocked out I see people showing the like the replay like it's

in a slow motion. I'm not seeing a glancing blow. It looks to me like he really got kick in the face. But maybe I'm a sucker. Mike, I don't know. Mike, Mike, did you see something where you a little like, it was a little suss to you?

I'm open to all discussion. The way I see it is, if this is a trial in front of peers, like a jury who watched it and like saw the world and everything, Belato's found guilty of flopping. Like, that's just how it's going to play out in a court of law. I've never seen flop like that. That's the craziest part.

Like, why would we've seen flopping. That's not how you fake flop. I mean, all the fighters are all saying it. So, like, if they're saying it, then, like, we have to consider it. This is kind of how I look at it. So I will listen to all arguments. And that's just kind of where I'm at right now. But I think in the court of public opinion, not, it's not looking good for Mr.

Belagher, who's, having the weirdest start to a UFC run, maybe in the history of the UFC. I don't know if he would have been found guilty in like a criminal trial, Mike, but he probably, you know, when they went after him in the civil suit later, they probably would have found him liable for flopping.

He would have been found liable. Not the same thing. 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He would have been found liable and would have had to pay some sort of fee. But I don't think I would give him jail time for that. It's a weird.

Fights are strange. I've seen so many weird knockouts that didn't seem like knockouts. I've seen hits that looks like they should have knocked someone out. The guys barely get touch off, something they're out cold, you know, like, yeah, hits you in the right spot. We see weird stuff. Yeah. The knockdown in the Namajunis Maverick fight, we didn't know what that was.

We didn't know that she'd had a knee injury heading into the third round. Like, that looked like a weird knockdown. And I think according to the UFC stats, I'm pretty sure they scored a knockdown. But now we know it kind of wasn't a knockdown. Her leg just gave out on her. So, yeah. We see so much crazy stuff in MMA. This looked, I admit, it looked very comical.

I do feel the bad for Balato because he now has two incredible memes. He got the Herps and this extended performance, let's put that way, of after getting, after getting a legitimately up kicked. I still feel like he got legitimately up kicked. It was, dude, that's Paul Krazer, a 2005 pound athlete kicking right here. That's not a spot you want to get hit.

Do they run it back? Do we see the trilogy? Yes. I say, yeah, they have to do the trilogy. They have to do the trilogy. That's all I want now. Just to see what could possibly happen next. I don't know what could happen next.

Exactly. Let's just do a card full of rematches. We could put Mansour and Cody Brandage on there. No. We have them run back. Like, let's get some finality on some of these, some of these rivalries here. All right. God, Atlanta was a tough card.

Jesus Christ. This is a tough one. Okay, you're so low in your shot, mom. He's trying to give you more. I'm slouching a bit, aren't I? Hold on, you want to let me straighten up. Watch that. It's going to mess up my angle.

Hold up, hold up. There you go. All right. There we go. Sorry, guys. Bad, terrible posture. Yeah. All right.

Let's get to super chats real quick before it's late. Shouldn't be next, but JDM versus Ousman is compelling. It's compelling. It's compelling isn't Ousman's a star and look great tonight, but I guarantee you, JDM's take down. defense is better than walking buckley's that's policy you want you want to know you want to know what makes that fight compelling if kamer usman beats belah mahomed the way he beat walking buckley tonight then that fight's compelling yes not saying it's not like if they booked it like whatever

but you go out there and do that to belal then i'm then i'm all in on this fight i'm not i'm not all in the fight i mean i think the fights is the same as just there's just two different two different skill sets to beat Blaw versus beat JDM. But either way, Boozboan needs to get one more win regardless. Yeah, I feel.

Yes. I think that's all that really matters. But yeah, all right. Thank you. Hi, SNAS. And one more super chat. $10 super chat from Stephen K. Always appreciate you guys for these post shows

only because holy shit, did that feel like an 11 PMPM? Wow. Wow. See, at least PFL had the decency to give us a four-fight 11 p.m. main card. Yeah, I think their main card this week was

more watchable than this arguably, but they had some good highlights on that PFL main card. The main was like, I don't know, we'll see, but I don't know if I want to judge it, it was fine. But the rest of the card, it's good highlights. I don't know if you can even say that about this main card.

Yeah, but see, here's the thing, and it's very fair to say. the UFC might win by default because as Jed so nicely pointed out on Twitter having Logan Storley fight on a Thursday night at midnight I believe he said it should be a war crime versus exact words I'm not really to go that far but Logan Storley did not fight on this UFC card tonight and that gives the UFC a little bit of a leg up how about that umalata though huh how about that umalata though huh how about that umalata

lot of guys come on give me some let's see some of malta of love um yeah tough week tough week for yeah i want this comment i don't know tell what we think about this comment snoozeman is back now i know we are excited that ozman looked good tonight but is that version because i haven't i haven't heard this name in a while i kind of forgot about that nickname I remember that was like his basically his thing. What was it? What was the fight that I fought 70% and because I don't can't. It was still long ago.

Yeah. Yeah. Is that, do we have that Ouzman? Because that Ousman wasn't exciting. The fans were not excited about him. They only got excited to know during his title run, but the road to the title was very, you know, you were there. Oh, that was.

Amil Weber Meek. You guys remember, Amel Weber. Weber Meek, that was a 70% fight. Very excited. I remember Emil Weber Meek because he came in with a lot of hype. He had like, I think before the O.C, like two like sick knockouts in the regional scene. And then obviously he ran into a really strong wrestler and just got neutralized. And yes, there was a lot of booze for Camaro that night.

And he's like, that was 70% of what I can do. And it's like, oh, Kamaru. Yeah, that became a meme. Don't become a meme. Don't become a meme. So I, it was fun. It's like, I heard that interview, that post of an interview. And I saw like the world just like shit on him for it.

I actually got a great kick out of that because I had interviewed him like two wins before that. And he said he was only at 40% of what he was after those wins. Wow. Like literally. I think I actually wrote an article that said, Kamara Usman's only 40% of what he's going to be for like one of the sites I was working for at the time after that conversation. And then he went from 70. So I was like, all right, well, he's evolving.

He went from 40 to 70 in two or three fights. So he's moving on up. So I don't think, I didn't think he was lying. If only you could have been in the cage with him that night, Mike, to explain that to people. He did the thing, AK. I'm sure the crowd. That was a case where, like, Kamar was like, an intelligent, eloquent guy. Like, that's, that was too intelligent thing to say.

The crowd is not going to take that the right way. And, but, yeah, as far as the same of it, Dana was, like, right in one that. Yeah, Dana hated hearing that. Why would you say that? Why would you say that? As far as the snoozement stuff goes, like, yeah, with a different crowd and a different situation, this probably would have gotten some booze. Like I said,

it did get booze. They were definitely booing a lot. Okay, okay. Oh, the main event. I mean, it was like booing him out of the building, but they were definitely booze.

Like when he was getting takedowns, especially after that first round, because they, people realize that if he takes Buckley down, he's not getting up. Yeah. Like, that's,

the round is over. So people were booing. Like, it wasn't like 16,000 strong, like, booing and throwing cups at him, but they were booing. I was live blogging and I had the volume up.

Okay. So I could like live blog and hear what was going on. There are definitely booze. Yeah. Definitely. So I guess he's back. If Buckley didn't make those adjustments, I mean, it could have been a really bad 25 minutes.

I mean, Buckley. Yeah. And that's why I was saying like that's why the co-main event should have won fight of the night. I had someone on Twitter saying that it was like a crazy ass take for me to say that. And I was like, what are you talking about? Like the co-main event from start to finish was a more exciting fight and a more competitive fight. And the response I got, which just ends the conversation, there's no need to respond because we understand what kind of fan this is. Quote, Rose was absolutely terrible, gave the same

underwhelming performance against Carla Espazo. So that ends the conversation. Game over. There's no need to respond anymore. That's just your argument is defeated. So crazy. Next. Buckley faced someone as athletic as him with more experience. It's part of the game to lose, but I bet you in two or three years, Buckley is either champ or fights for the belt, but I also believe Usman can win the title. I'll take that. I mean, there's so many caveats with all this. I would take that bet that in two to three years. I would take the better than two to three years. He doesn't fight for the belt or is not champ. But again, that's okay. Hey, that's okay. Doesn't make him a bad fighter. So my argument, of course,

Buckley though would be that I could picture him as long as he doesn't end up getting thrown right back into the shirt tank with the shop cost, the Imichita Gary's like all the other contenders, which I'm sure that's what he wants. If he was fortunate enough to get like maybe some people lower and not be used as a stepping stone for like a Michael Morales or something. But he already fought all those guys. That's the problem. He already fought the Wonder Boys and all those dudes.

Oh, I don't mean him. I mean, let me see. He's going to have to fight Michael. He's going to have to fight Michael Morales. Like that's the fight he's going to have to take. He already got Colby and Usman. Like Burns? Like no, I have no interest.

I don't think anybody has any interest in watching Gilbert Burns fight Joaquin Buckley. Oh, I'm talking outside. That makes sense. Yeah. Proches. Outside top 15. Oh, outside of top 15? Yeah.

Oh, we know. That's not going to happen. I'm talking about like a Jeff Neal. Well, he's in the top 15. Let's say, let's say, yeah. Vicentee Lik already beat. Like you said, college protest, yes, very interesting. RDA.

Kevin Holland Ream. RDA? Kevin Holland rematch would be nice. RDA. You just watch an RDA fight. You just watched Jeff Neal RDA fight not, like, not that long ago. And it was like the saddest thing we ever watched because RDA got like severely injured in that fight. I'm just trying to find names that like he could read to the Daniel Rodriguez or Michael Keese.

That's probably, no, he's making, like at this point, he's probably made. he's main eventing cards now, so he's probably making, like, good money. So he's not going to, like, he's not going to take it that big of a step back.

I mean, Kiesa, like maybe, but I have no interest to that. I would say, best case scenario for Buckley. And even this would, like,

could be a tough one to Kevin Holland rematch. He fought Holland, like on short notice for his UFC debut, like on days that he, I don't even think he had a corner, like really had a corner that fight because it happened so quickly. and because of like the timing of it happened during like the COVID era and all during Kevin

Holland's like five and oh fighter of the year campaign that year like you can do that like Kevin's on a nice little run back to back wins finish Vicente Lucille as well like that would make sense yeah but that far back is you could go with him like I don't know the names are I don't know who the names are but I'm saying if they if he can find a way to string together get another win streak let's say two or three wins he's the kind of guy that they would call to like they really need like a last like a replacement guy for a title fight I don't think he ever fights his way to like

oh I am the guy you have to give me the shot I think that's completely out the window but I think if in the next two years he can stay in the winner's circle I can see a world where it's like well this dude's injured these two people have fought the champion recently blah all this

we need an opponent to fight in six weeks or something Buckley gets the call So that's really not the most, I'm not giving him a lot of praise here, but I'm just saying if he were to fight for a title shot, get a title shot, that's kind of the circumstance that's going to happen under. There's just other options off the table. And he's like,

oh, look, he's on a three-fight win streak. People like, walking Buckley, he knows how to sell a fight. Let's put him in there. So, yeah. But no, he never becomes like the number of like a top three contender. I just, I just don't see that happening. So you're saying there's a chance, okay?

There's always is. There always is. I mean, look, I mean, who knows? I actually feel Buckley has, I don't think he's going to win the belt, but I think he has a chance in two to three years to fight for the title more than I believe Usman can win the title at his age. Oh, if I had to pick one. Yes, if I had to pick one, I say Buckley fighting for a title is more likely than

Usman getting back. And obviously Buckley could win, you know. He hits hard, you know, you never know. But man, what an amazing career comeback if Usman can not only get a title shot, but win a title at that age. That will be... It would be pretty incredible. That would be one...

That's why the snoozman thing is interesting to me because it doesn't really matter at this point because at that point he had no story. So you can be boring. He can actually fight boring now as long as he wins because the story of the Usman kind of career comeback is what sells, not the actual fight itself. So that's why he doesn't need to be exciting anymore.

We wanted to be exciting, but as far as like moving up to that championship fight, he just has to get that W. So it's just since I mean, I'm not trying to throw away any fighter right now. I'm not, I basically, I still think Buckley has a chance. There's still a chance. Right. He needs to, I mean, he needs to get a geek. He needs to get the singlet on and just, just go.

Like, just wrestle three dudes at once for like the next year. And then like when I see that, then I'll. Okay. You're trying to shore up this gaping hole in your game. And big fight experience, five-round-big fight experience is, you know, that's a big, that's a big chunk of experience he didn't have tonight. And even Uzma noted that, you know, experience won the fight tonight for him. So I'm going to be positive. He just had a main event before this.

So he's been there. That's Colby, right? Colby, right? Right. But it's supposed to be Gary, too. So he was preparing for. But that didn't happen. It didn't happen.

It was still a main event. Like, you're still in a five-round fight. That's Colby. This is, it was my, it was my look good tonight. Colby,

we know Colby's like, and you know, actually I think that Colby was taking him down in that fight. Colby was taking him down. He was starting to get something, I'm not saying he was going to win, but he was starting to get takedowns.

But, and that's why I feel, I feel like Buckley under, I think actually the Colby fight actually gave him too much confidence in a weird way. I get to, yeah, take me down,

but I'll get up. I think he kind of felt, oh, I'm going to get up. Because every time those rounds ended, you know, Buckley's like, whatever, whatever, I still got four more rounds, you know? And Buckley's confidence looked great all the way till the last second of the fight, you know, so I think maybe the ease that he beat Colby, and nothing's easy. But I think the easy he beat Colby with, maybe looking kind of, looking, re-looking at things, maybe gave him a little bit too much confidence in his training camp going into the Usman fight. Because I think we all, we all kind of expected more.

Look at what he's done. Look at what this man has done. If you told me after he beat Nersault and Ruzabaya that he'd be the seventh ranked welterweight It's shocking. 18 months later, I'd be like, I'll bet you a billion dollars. That's not true. And I'd be poor right now. I know like and look what he's done. Like this is what he has done is incredible. Like me saying that we have we have his ceiling is not me shit talking him. It's me just like it's me just being. impressed by the turnaround and what this man accomplished to get to the point where he's fighting

Kamara Usman in a main event fight. That's crazy. Like that I there's no way I saw that coming. And look at what he's done. Like this is spectacular. But another thing we need to really take into consideration here is yes, Buckley is 31. But Buckley has had more professional mixed martial arts fights than Kamara Usman has. And that's crazy to think about. he is battle tested he's got miles on him for even at 31 and in great physical condition and all that the man has miles on him so while he's 31 in age he's probably like 34 in five years which still gives him like four three four five more years because of like how physically fit he is but he it's not like he's 11 and 1 right now he's 21 and 7 like he's had a lot of fights it will catch up

Yeah, sure. You know what the one matchup we're not thinking about? Hear me out. Buckley versus Connor McGregor. Next question. You know what? That fight may be more realistic to know. Hey, who knows?

Maybe Buckley is the man to get Connor out of retirement. Yeah, I don't think Connor wants any. I do I hear that, man. That's so funny. He should call it Michael Chandler. That would be funny. To steal Connor's food and maybe Connor will get mad at him. All right.

Two last super chats and we are going to let these gentlemen go to bed. Yeah. Jesus. Zhang Vitzvail, Rose Beach Dang. Ooh, Terrence. Bringing the heat. I like it, Terrence. I like it.

What's your 26 spoiler? What is that? 2006. Oh. John Beetzvowl. And then Rose wins the flatway title by Beardt. eating Zhang for a third time. That's a story, baby.

There, you know what, Mike, there is your logic to Rose sticking around at 125, right? You know what? I'm just waiting for Zhang to come to me. I'm waiting for Zhang to come to me. I couldn't convince them to give me a third shot at Zhang at 115. That would be wild. This isn't that great. This is.

That would be pretty crazy. Oh, yeah. Okay, working your posture. You keep sinking. I can't. I don't, it might be the chair too. It shares not as low as it can go. It's the card, man.

I might have a, I might have a slippery bum. And our last super chat before we go to sleep. Tala versus Lena Niga versus Smith. Van versus Royval, thoughts and picks. Casey and I talked about this on the People's Free Fight show. Wicked weird matchmaking for Peyton. And I'm sure like that's going to be the biggest talking point of all of this. Jacobi Smith is going to destroy Nico Price

We all know why this fight is happening Van versus Rod Dog man That is fun as hell Could be a little much too Tim Maybe it isn't A big raw dog but who knows Who knows Dude Van is van is so good man

He's really good I think Roy Val is going to win But that fight's got a rule But AK As One half of the greatest matchmaking show Of all time in MMA Peyton Talbot versus Felipe Lima?

Did you see this coming from a mile away? Because I sure is hell didn't. You should be happy. I know he's on your fancy team. I know the fantasy, you're like out of contention at this point. But it's nice. At least you might,

you might still get points out of Talbot yet. You may get points out of the young man yet. No. Is it after? When's that date? No, this is June 28th. June 28th. Oh, it's on the last card.

So I'm going to get two Peyton Talbot fights in probably zero. points. So I'm just saying you may want to, you may want to try it. He might win. I don't know. That negative.

Look, hey, Honey Barsello's is good. Look what he did tonight. He looked great tonight against, against, uh, yeah, Garbrand.

So, it's like, it's late. Jeez. But the thing is like, so I have, I have Lima in the top 25 of the UFC featherweight division right now. I had,

because I mean, it's a bandamweight fight. It's a Bantam weight. Oh, boy. This is his first Bannem White is going down. Maybe that's a good thing for Talbot then. Maybe the weight cut, it won't be good for Lima, or he's going to get the best version of Felipe Llema we've seen yet,

which is kind of scary because the guy's really good. Yeah. It's not what we booked, Mike. I don't remember if we did a matchup for Talbot, but I would not, that's not the direction I would have gone in. Like, I would have taken to someone fresh up. Wherever is like the lowest ranked Bannam Wade in the world is who I picked for Talbot. Something like that.

Like, because Payton is obviously a talent. He's also a marketable talent. The guy's hanging out with Frank Ocean. The guy can appeal to a different, like a young demographic. Like, again, I'm not hip and cool. I don't understand half the things that Peyton Talbot is doing on a social. Believe it or not, I'm not hip and cool. I don't understand half the things that Peyton Tal was doing in social media.

I have to ask Jose half the time. Like, what does this mean? What did Peyton tell me in this video? And like, I don't think he understands either, but at least he can fake it. So anyway, we need. need unique stars. We need guys who are a little different. Like that is what makes amazing. If anything, I think tonight's Atlanta card, I don't agree with Aunt Devons all the time. Like, you know, Aunt Devons is a lifer in this game. And I think he had it who I just saw

recently just calling this card boring and saying, God, everyone just fights the same now. Everyone has the same kind of like, like just the same tone. Like it all wear the same outfit. We have a they all. And he's not wrong. Like he's really not wrong. Even if you want to criticize him and other members of the media for like, oh, they're just too hard in the UFC. They hate everything the UFC does. I don't know if you could watch Atlanta today and not be like, yeah, man, a lot of these people are so indistinguishable from one another. Like, Manor Abdul Malik, Cody Brundage fight was not unlike the Alonzo Meneffield,

Umar C fight, was not unlike the Michael Keese, a court McGee fight. And that's not good. This is bad for the business, right? They were not unlike the Jamie Lynn Horace Vanessa Moplo's fight. And like physically, obviously, I'm looking at them, they could be more different. But if you just took their silhouettes and you ran all those fights together, you'd be like, I can't tell who's who. Like these fights are just so, so bland. So you need guys like, they made the biggest gate ever tonight.

Oh, man. Another record. The numbers don't lie. Numbers don't lie. The numbers don't lie. We love seeing the same fighters over and over and over and over and over. You need guys like Peyton Talbot who are unique, who are going to bring something different. And you need to match stuff a little bit smarter than this.

But maybe he shocks us. Maybe he smokes Flipe Lima and just that hype train right back on track. I don't know. Not where I would have gone was it though. Not where I would have done it. Oh, the poll, the poll, Casey, the poll. The poll. You still play the music.

You play the music, yeah. I'll end the poll now. You got a very good sample size. 43% saying Camaro's in that three to four range. 26% say up to number two. So a quarter of the people saying he's the number two guy again. Number two in the world. Number two, 26% said that.

One out of four people. One out of four also said. number five to six, 24%, and 5%, 7 or lower. So there's a few people who won't put him even near that top five. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. I wanted the UFC will do. I think the UFC, I'll predict UFC will put him in their top five.

He will be back on the UFC to top five. He was already at five. He's already there. Oh, they never took him out. No. Good one, A good one. Steve A. Steve A.

He was ranked in heavyway when he fought John. Bold prediction, A.K. Casey, I nailed it. Casey, I nailed it. I nailed it. You're absolutely nailed it. You're so smart. A.K., get some sleep. I'll see you in about six and a half hours as we matchmake following this card. And then we're on the road to UFC Baku. I will have interviews with Rafael Fiziv, Ignacio Bahamundes, and Khalil Roundtree to get you ready for Baku coming up next week. So stick with us to www.com. Good night, everybody. Thank you.