MMA Fighting - UFC Columbus Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Curtis Blaydes' Statement Making KO Win

Episode Date: March 27, 2022

Curtis Blaydes changed a few narratives with his ferocious knockout of Chris Daukaus in the main event of UFC Columbus. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and E. Casey Leydon react to Blaydes' big win, callout, and impact it may have in the heavyweight title picture, Alexa Grasso's first submission win over Joanne Wood in the co-main event, Kai Kara-France's upset win over Askar Askarov, and other storylines from the UFC's return to Ohio. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc 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. Curtis Blades. Nocto Chris Stock is Curtis Blades. Curtis Blades. I don't know what to do with this music, but it just made me want to say Curtis Blades over and over again. Is it the new Tommy Aspinall? Curtis Blades.

No. No, not working there. Nah. Try to give him the rub. Try and give him the rub. I mean, many, many have tried. We'll see if maybe this performance gets it done.

But Curtis Blades said, you know what? I heard what you all have to say about me. You said the only way I'm going to beat this man is if I just wrestle him to death. So I'm just going to go out there and knock him out. And that's exactly what he did. He knocks out Christakis in the second round, wasted very little time once the action resumed in round two. And a big win for Curtis Blades. And it caps off a pretty darn good UFC Columbus event.

Thanks for joining us for the post-fight show. We are live. I am Mike Heck. We got E. Casey Ladin with us as well. This time last week, he was, I think he was fighting, or he was, like, about to make the walk. Actually, this time last week ago. No, I was, I was sweating profusely backstage, nervous. I was just like, that was doing that last week.

This week, I'm chilling at home, getting fat, watching fights, and talking about fights with you. The wonderful fans of MMA on our stream right now. So thank you for being here. the mixing of the martial arts. AK will be joining us momentarily. He's just doing some back-end, MMA fighting work, recapping Curtis Blades' big win.

So he'll join us to hop on in, jump into the discussion. But Casey, Curtis Blades, goes out there and gets it done, shuts a lot of people up. Most people thought, including myself, that he was just going to just kind of be boring

for three rounds. and then finish him with brutal ground and pound curses like, I hear what you're all saying, and I'm just going to go out there and blast him at 17 seconds into the second round. So your thoughts on Curtis Blades' performance. Did that doubt? And this is the big question. Does a Curtis Blades win do anything for him,

considering the state of this heavyweight division right now where it all stands? So the reaction to the knockout and did that win do anything for him? Did it move him up at all? My reaction to knockout was, holy moly. That was awesome. That was a heavyweight knockout. It was technical. It wasn't sloppy.

Curtis Blades looks like a legit, you know, A-level heavyweight. And, you know, it takes time. Wait, how old is Curtis Blades in his young 30s? Right? He's not. So he's just, he's not, honestly, he's not even in his prime yet, because by heavyweight standards. So I think we have to kind of just reevaluate who we think as Curtis Blades.

We just got to accept that he's getting better and he's becoming a much more complete mixed martial artist. And the whole, you know, he's just going to wrestle, he's going to wrestle. I really think that worked, that really worked in his advantage because I'm sure in Dawkins' training camp, they're smart. They're like, oh, he's going to take down defense, take down defense, take down defense, get off our back, get off our back, you know. That's probably like 90% of their camp. And they go, oh, no, no, Chris has the hands, you know, we'll just, no, fine tune him. but I just don't think they were prepared. I don't think we were prepared as just as journalists, as viewers, as fans,

that Curtis Blaze was just going to be like, no, let's do this. Let's throw hands. And he did it. And we thought Chris Dawkins was going to be just a faster, no, better boxer. Not tonight. Curtis Blades. Answer your second part of the question. Does it do anything for him?

I don't know what was possible. I don't know what he could. have done, that would have been better than this, honestly, unless it ended like on the first minute. And I think the first minute would have been bad because I think if it ends in the first minute, we kind of go, oh, lucky shot. The fact that he got this in like, what, like 10, 15 seconds to the second round or something like that, the fact that we got a full five, yeah, we got a full five minutes of him

quality of striking. So it wasn't a lucky shot. We know it wasn't a lucky shot. This is just him clearly being a better striker in there. And we know he's a better wrestler. So the fact that he was a better striker. and with Chris Dawkins who we consider probably one of the, we think is one of the better strikers at middleweight,

sorry, heavyweight. No, I mean, I don't, this is the best case scenario of, with no real best case scenario really out there. But he did everything he did. He had the call out. Gone was kind of, we're talking about the call out a little bit later, but yeah, it was a perfect night for Curtis Blades, as perfect as it could have been, I guess.

Well, we can talk about it. the call out now because it's significant because I mean Chris Docus just tough night for them and a lot of people are saying I think the UFC just kind of brought them up too quickly they gave him too big of a push and you know listen there's

there's a little bit of truth that there might be a little bit of truth to that in hindsight but the Derek Lewis fight considering where Lewis was and where Doccus was Doccus is on that nice run like the fight made all the sense in the world it made perfect sense Docus wins you shoot them up

maybe he gets a title fight he gets right in that conversation and if he loses then Derek Lewis wins and everybody's happy about it so I mean it was kind of like a win-win scenario the bounce back with Curtis Blades tells me that

the UFC just doesn't think he's going to be a title contender because that's a horrible match it was just a terrible matchup for him we actually thought like he might have a chance against Derek Lewis like maybe he can lend a big shot maybe he can extend him but this fight

it just didn't seem like anybody thought he had a chance to win. It just seemed like really strange matchmaking. This is like, we really need a main event. What can we do? Oh yeah, we got Curtis Blades. Who's available? Okay, let's throwing Christakis.

It just, I don't know. Was this always on the card? Was this always on the card? Was it a replacement for the main event? It became. Did it get bumped up? I don't think it was always in the card. Yeah, I don't think.

Yeah. Once they lost the other main events, they were trying to work on something. else. They try to pull the old rabbit out of the hat, trying to do Holloway versus Emmett. And then once that fell through, for sure, they put this one together. So they

had some sort of main event. I think you see got lucky in the sense that it was a very big performance for Curtis Blades because it couldn't, this fight, this main event could have kind of stunk up a really good card. And it didn't. So credit to Curtis Blades for

exceeding all of our low expectations in terms of entertainment. So, uh, yes. So let's talk about the call-out because this is one of the, this is one of the things that you need. You need to leave the fans remembering the performance and then remembering what you did after the performance. So Curtis Blades, little passion, little vigor. I felt it. Calls out.

I want that interim title fight. I want that interim title fight with you, Gahn. And I'm like, gone just lost to Francis. and he's going to be out for most of the year. I mean, cool. And then DC's, you know, being that little kid on the playground, poking the bear, trying to, you see that guy? Where's Stee?

Yeah, trying to take Hohani's job as the instigator, stirring the pot. Yeah, DC's like the terminate. He's like, boop, boop, boop, boop. There he is. There's Steepay. Maybe you should fight that guy. And Curtis, I mean, good stuff from Curtis. I want to be just like you

So I think I'm going to have to fight you Like I like the line But Stepe's like Yeah cool Takes a sip of beer Taking pictures with the fans And then Curtis is still trying to like say things To get Steepay's attention

Steepish is like okay And then walks away Like literally no sold everything What did you think of the callouts The post fight stuff? Not bad It's just I think DC actually screwed him Yeah me too

I think DC put him in a bad situation He wasn't playing Like calling out Steepay in the hometown town, the home state arena, I guess. It was just never going to go over well, honestly. Especially, Stebe is not that guy. He's not that guy.

I think calling for the interim belt was a smart call. Being specific and wanting to fight gone, I think it was kind of off. But that's just a little detail. I mean, he couldn't have said, give me John Jones, give me Steepet, give me whoever. I don't know. It's like, Francis, do your little thing, and I'm going to get that interim belt, and then we're going to rematch and, you know, whatever, or something. But definitely calling for the fact that we're talking about Curtis Blades fighting for interim belt is a good thing.

It's an excellent thing for Blades. Because before the fight, we were just kind of saying it's a holding pattern no matter what happens. But now we're honestly talking as like, oh, okay, well, I don't know who Blades will fight, but Blades should fight for the interim belt, you know? So I guess the more to think about it, you know, just kind of saying this out loud. I guess, no, great situation for Blades. I mean, yeah, it wasn't sensational callout, but he's not that guy. But the fact that there's a serious conversation about him fighting for the interim belt, I think is very good for Curtis Blades and his future prize fighting career. And we have another person who just called in.

Who is this handsome fella? Who is this handsome fella? Hello. Hello. Can you hear me? Silhouette. Oh, there we go. Oh, there is. There is.

Long time listener, first time calling. Mike, I love a big fan of your work. Casey, you're okay, too. Mike, big fan. Ah, look at that. Yeah, there, there is. Hey, guys. Guys, where's the pole?

Where's the pole? No one did a poll. I don't want to take that. I don't want to take everything you've worked for. No, you guys can, I encourage everyone to utilize their polls. That's necessary. That's what I say all the time. I don't want to be the only one who's, you know,

doing the polls around here. All right, all right. I don't even know what that. Sorry, guys, I'm sorry to interrupt. Let's, yeah, what were you guys talking about before I hopped in here? We're talking about mixed martial arts. Yeah, the mixing and the martial arts. So, I mean, you have to play ketchup here, so you get the two-part question.

Jeez. Thoughts on Blades' performance. Yeah, she's more of a three-part question. Blades' performance, did it do anything for him grading the call-out afterwards? Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, I think it did a lot for him. We kind of said before, I think we were a little bit flue. about what, you know, what this could do for Blades' chances.

I think I think maybe because we were just predicting a kind of a five-round, a five-round grinded-out decision, like dominant but not highlight real worthy. Like, this was awesome. This was a highlight real knockout. We talked a lot about how he's improved his striking. And like, obviously, you don't want him to get away with what brought him to the dance. But against an opponent who, you know, he's so heavily favored against, I think it was smart.

And also, who's a good grappler. I think it was smart of Blake. to kind of show that, yeah, look, I've been working with boxing. I'm working on my all-around, all-around striking game. And it looked great. He looked really good in the first round. It wasn't the most exciting round, but it was a clear 10-9 for Blades without even the hint of a takedown.

He said afterwards, of course, my wrestling and my opponent's awareness of my wrestling is what kind of helps my striking. It slows them down, I think was the phrase he used exactly. And I thought that was a perfect description. It's very true. He's well aware. He's not, you know, is he a disignia out there? But he knows that his striking right now was good enough, plus his wrestling.

that he's legitimately a top four, you know, top four, top five guy in the division, right? So, yeah, I thought the performance was great. And he proved us all wrong by, again, scoring that knockout when a lot of us were thinking either late, you know, third, fourth round, ground, and pound or decision. This was an on-the-feet, K.O.,

awesome highlight for him. And the call-out was so well done. The assist hat tip to D.C., of course, for pointing him out to Stipe, that Stipe was in the building. Of course, this was in Ohio. And that was great, too, saying, I respect you,

but I also have to be, you. And it was it was in character, but it was also, it was also, again, showed like a different side of him. It was aggressive, which we like to see. It was someone who said, I'm not just waiting. I'm not waiting. I'm not happy with my spot. I'm not happy with just being this guy who, who gets, you know, wins over like, you know, guys like Chris Stachis and guys who aren't top seven, eight guys. I want to be in that top four discussion with Cedil Ghan and Fransignan and weirdly John Jones, I guess. So he did everything he could tonight, I think, to improve his position. How much did he improve it?

That's another question, but I think indisputably he did improve his standing. You know who we're not talking about? A heavyweight that won last weekend. That's the guy. That would have been the guy I would have called out if I was Curtis Blaise. I would have called out Tommy, Tommy Aspenol. Tommy Aspenol. Because that guy, there's so much momentum behind Aspinall right now.

Asperol, like all the Taito Evasso momentum, it's like Aspenol took a little bit. of that. He's the, you know, he's, he's the guy. Like, he's the guy with the momentum. The ball's rolling downhill. It's snowball and it's getting a little bit bigger. That's Tommy Aspinall right now. It would have been a brilliant move if he called out Tommy Aspinall. Tommy, don't be, don't you be calling a, don't you be going for these number one contenders or these interim title fights. Uh-uh, uh-uh. Before you think about that, you got to go through me. You got to go through me. Shut up, D.C. I'm not calling out Steep A. I'm calling out Tommy Aspinall. I would have A-plus. I thought, I actually, I, I told, I told,

Casey and he kind of agrees to me. True or false, Daniel Cormier kind of screwed Curtis Blades over tonight by doing the Steve A stuff. I think Curtis handled it well, but I think D.C. I think D.C. kind of screwed him. I think D.C. kind of hurt him. I don't think so necessarily. I get the whole Tom Aftan all

thing. Obviously, his name is Whitehot right now, but I think most people would agree in the rankings. He's behind Blades. He has a lot to gain from taking Blade spot. Blades certainly would gain from again yet defusing the sudden hot name at heavyweight, but Blades is ahead of him. I mean, Blades is more accomplished than Aspinol.

I don't know. Aspinall should want that fight more than him. And if you're Blades, I think you know that. So if your Blades, you're selling for nothing less than the interim title fight. Now, it's an interim title fight with Tom Aspinall, fantastic. But you're not looking for anything less than that right now. I think that's what I was trying to sell. Just as long, Blades is like, I don't care who it is.

Just as long as you weigh 206 pounds and up, you're going to fight me for the belt. That's all that matters for Curtis Blades. I don't think he shouldn't care. I think he just doesn't care. just as long someone signs that contract, but whatever it is, I'm in that cage. I think that's all Blades has to do. And coming into this fight,

that conversation wasn't really there, but after that performance, I think, I think there's a serious talk, serious conversation now. True. Okay. 1 to 10, AK, 1 to 10. Chances Curtis Blades gets an interim title fight,

his next fight. When they book an interim title fight, Curtis Blades is in that fight. I'll go a hard seven. I'll go a hard seven. A seven, wow. Yeah. Okay.

Well, this is considering some of the names that are involved, that are in the mix and how reliable they are, by the way. This is not like, oh, if everyone's healthy, how good, healthy and not in jail, how how good are critical cases? No, no, no. This is, I mean, look, this is reading the tea leaves of some of these heavy weights who, let's be honest, that we've names you just mentioned, are not the most active fighters for whatever reason.

That includes steep A. Obviously, that includes John Jones. Gone, I mean, would it would be the other likely. option, of course. So yeah, I'm fine going seven. I'm sure someone to go higher. Casey? If this was a company that, in my opinion, paid its fighters fairly, then I would give it a good four. Sorry, four. But we've seen the UFC do BS interim title fights, and I think they're not going to pay steeply what he wants, and they're not going to pay John Jones what he wants. So I think Blades versus whoever will make financial sense for the UFC.

So actually I'm going to go for that four to a solid eight. Before this fight, it was at a 0.0001. It has jumped up quite a bit from there. Yeah. I give it a 1.2. One point two. I'm sorry, man. It's just it's not fair.

It's not fair. If this was Bellator, Curtis Blades would be fighting for the undisputed heavyweight title. If this is Bellator, if we did things in a meritocratic way, by the rankings, Curtis Blades would be fighting for the Bellator heavyweight title in this next fight. Unfortunately, it is not Bellator. It is the UFC. And even though we had a great win, Blades is just so far down the list. It's not fair.

Like, not the rankings, just the way, like, who do we want in this fight? Who do we want is a business in this fight? It's Steepa and Jones. Let's just say one of them doesn't happen. It's Tai Tui Vasa. Like, no ifs, ands are butts. It's tied to Evasa. He's the guy.

They're going to put him in that fight. If it's not tied to... When another guy's out, they'll do Cyril gone. If Cyril's gone, they'll do Tom Aspedal. Then if Tom Aspidal can't make it, then Curtis Blades gets his shot. Like, that's just the position he's in right now. And it's probably not fair. But that's how the UFC's kind of looking at this right now.

Unless it is just like a big money thing. And everyone just wants like zillions of dollars. Blaze is like, I'll do it for way less than that. We're kind of saying the same thing, honestly, because I'm basically, I'm saying Blaze is going to get it because he's probably the cheaper, the cheapest fighter maybe to get that spot. And that's the reason I'm saying it too, because I know the UFC obviously wants to put butts and seats and sell paper views, especially for their heavyweight title fights.

I just don't think they want to pay those other gentlemen what they want. So that's why I think Blaze will get the shot. but so I agree I understand what you're saying Mr. Heck, yeah. Yeah, I still, yeah. I mean, Steve A and Jones are the big, the big contracts. Like, those are the big ones. But even if, let's just say,

everybody else gets the same amount of money, the other names, Blades is still like fourth or fifth on that list. I think so. Tie, it's Ty to Ivasa and Tommy Aspinall. Those are, or even serial gone. I think he could be ahead of tie and Tom Aspinall. I don't think it's so clear cut that they're above.

Be ahead of tie? No way. He's ahead of both of them in the rankings. Oh, well, not tied to Evas after the Derek Lewis knockout, but. Right. Who are fans more likely going to be like, you know what? I have to spend 75 bucks on this paper free. Yeah, but the UFC is always great.

Let's be honest, the OEC isn't always great about listening to the fans here. Right. It's 50-50. Sometimes the UFC is like, oh, man, they did this amazing thing where they gave the fans they want. And then half the time I was like, what the hell, why did this person get this title shot? And I don't think Blaze would fall in the what the hell category. He certainly got a strong enough case and resume to actually be, again, the number one contender to an interim or heavyweight title.

Again, we have some recency bias going on here with Tom Aspinall. That was super exciting. He was a god in London. How is that going to play in other markets? I don't know. I don't know. Obviously, if this title fight happened in Europe for some reason, yeah, Tom Aspinall it all the way.

There's no question. I mean, that's undisputed. He's number one. He rises above everybody. But I don't think it's so clear cut. Toie Vasta is a little bit of a strong case, like you said. One, we're kind of removed from that fight now, and I do think there's still a buzz there. And he knocked out, you know, MMA math.

he knocked out Derek Lewis. Derek Lewis knocked out Curtis Blades. So in that sense, it isn't to a Vosphere. But I don't think it's so far ahead. I do think there's a cluster of those three guys, and I don't think Blades is that far behind. If Curtis Blades... There's an odd no point on the line, by the way.

Otno points are on the line. Big time. If Curtis Blades is not in that title fight, a.k. hands an Ottoe point to somebody else. It's gone. You lose it. It's gone. Wait, so how many options do you get?

I get all. I get all the other. I'm just kidding. Oh, then I got two to one. Two to one, I get two points, then if I'm right. Okay.

Yes. If it's, I said, Steep A Jones or Ty. Like that, it's tie. Ties, ties the guy.

If it's not tie. All right. If Tye Tuvasa is not in and Curtis Blades is in, then you get, I'll give you two auto points. I want three points. If you're getting the field versus. Oh,

your confidence? No, no. I'm going with Taituivasa. Just tie. Oh, you're saying, oh, you're saying, just tie. Oh, interesting. I'm saying just

tie. I'm saying Ty gets overblades. We have to give our points to Casey. But tonight, was there anything that Curtis Blades can have done better tonight as far as, like, the fact that we're talking about this. Like, if he won't have won how we thought he was going to win, we're not talking about this at all. We're talking. Okay, he's in the same spot. Aspinall,

you know, he'll get the next shot or tie or whatever. The fact, I mean, to me, that Curtis Blaze, this is like, this is, I don't know, it couldn't have gone better for him outside of the weird steep kind of call out. well forced call out it was a good night for him

yeah that's what I'm just saying it went so much better than I thought it could have gone yeah I'm just uh it was a great night for him and he did a good job at the post fight stuff DC made it a little weird Steepay no selling it sucked I mean if Steve A just

and we knew Steepie was gonna no sell and DC knew Steepa was gonna no sell it he's been I mean he freaking was in a rivalry with this guy for three years of course he knew Stepe was gonna no sell it like he just kind of said Curtis up to fail like if Steve Stepe was like, did something, like invoked some sort of emotion.

He literally turned his back on Curtis Blades to take pictures with fans. Like, while he was on camera. Like, it just, it just ruined it. It's just, like, he would have been a much better spot if D.C. didn't do that. But it doesn't matter. Neither here or there.

Good win for Curtis Blades. We'll see what happens with Chris Dawkes. I know a lot of people are saying, he should go down, just go to the PI and go to 205. And I made this point on Twitter Spaces. this is cherry. Like, this is cherry on top of the Sunday.

Chris Dawkes, like, when he came into the UFC and fought Parker Porter, they brought both those guys in to make their UFC debuts, and they fought and he knocked out Parker Porter, did you think five fights later or four, three, four fights later, he would be in back-to-back main events? Nobody thought that. This is great. Like, what a great run he has had.

Tremendous run. Way better than anybody could have expected. So if he wants to fight heavyweights and not have to lose 40 pounds and cut all that weight, I mean, if he wants to do it great, but if he doesn't, he can make a pretty darn good living, just fighting heavyweights. Oh, stay at heavyweight. Winning a lot of those fights. Yeah.

Be a fast heavyweight. Be the, yeah, don't go to 205, Mr. Dawkins. Stay at heavyweight, be a small heavyweight, fast hands, good on your feet, good takedown defense. You'll do fine. You might not, you might not be a title. contender, but you're going to make a damn good living. I wouldn't completely rule it out a move. I mean, this is two really devastating

knockout losses. Two top five guys. Two top five guys. But if there's any chance that dropping down to 205 could somehow improve his durability, or at least it increases chances of not getting smashed like this, maybe he's a much better fighter at 2.05, we don't know. He might be worse. We don't know. But I do

think when you take two really, really vicious, like knockout losses like this, you at least have to be thinking about making some sort of changes. If not, and division is one of the easiest ones to do, right? So I agree he's overperformed at heavyweight, like Mike said. He's been a nice run. Four straight knockouts to start off his UFC heavyweight run.

Pretty fantastic. But now there's this reality check, and it's like, it's not, it's not that he's just losing. If you're just like losing decisions or competitive fights, he's like, okay, he's taking like serious, serious damage. And again, it might be the same case like heavyweight. It might not. But I do think it's worth exploring if that might be a, it's just a healthier option

for him. I saw the performance bonuses. I think the easiest option for Chris Dawkes is just to fight lesser competition. I mean, obviously, I think that's the easiest one to do. But that's the crapshoot with the UFC, right? I mean, now I don't know, right? Yeah. This is the Arlowski fight.

Like, this is, you fight, you put him against Andreolovsky. That's the fight you make. I like that fight. Right? Yeah, that's the one. That's the one. We got performance bonuses. They awarded two.

who wants to guess? Wait, just the performance so far? Just the performance? Just the performance? Actually, I would go, I know it's not going to be the way, but I'll go gross on blades, top two fights,

and then fight at night, obviously Matt Brown and Bam Bam. Yeah, yeah, fighting night's got to be a shoe in. But I'll go Blades and Gutierrez. And the winner. And the winner. Go for it.

A. K. Lee. A. K.K. Lee gets done. They hate submissions. The UFC hate submissions. I mean, that was a great. Alexa Grasso should have got a should have got a freaking bonus tonight. Okay.

The Goetheera. First finish in seven years. Wait a minute. That's fine. Her first finish in seven years, her first submission ever. Uh, but it wasn't like the prettiest submission.

Let's be honest here. The Goodyera as knockout was way there. It was a beautiful submission. What are you talking about? That was a beautiful. How it started? How it started? They just, they just, they just,

they smashed into each other and fell into the fence. Yeah, she, she switched. Dude, that was a high technical submission. That was awesome submission. No, No, no, when it finally got to the ground, it was great. But the way it got there was really MMA. No.

They emmaid it. How dare they mix the martial arts apart? Keep the martial arts apart. I agree. You remember that you remember how they got to the ground? It's like smashed into each other. And like it was very, it was very awkward. It was not like a smooth like transition.

It's not like she was Damien Maya taking the back there. It was like they crashed in the ground first and then Grasseh was a better grappler and she and more athletic. She got the better. It was a good submission. The Gutierrez. finish was like one of the knockouts of the year. Are you going to,

are you going to tell me that Grasso submission one of the submissions of the year? It was a, she didn't get touched in the fight. She went out of no bruce. I highly applaud very technical submissions and that was a beautiful technical submission. The way she switched arms on it,

it was great. It was, I would have given it. No, was Gutierrez not deserve? Gabe, give Goodyearers some money. No, Goodyear should have got one. Yeah.

Yeah, Goodyear should have gotten one. I would have not. deserves it too. Everybody deserves it, okay? Everybody in London got bonuses. Really, everyone deserves that. I know. To get bonuses.

This is way less. It's so silly. It's so silly not to just give everyone bonuses. I don't understand. They gave nine freaking bonuses last week. We got one, two, two, three, four. We had four finishes on this car. We couldn't have given four performance bonuses and a fight of the night.

Come on. I wish they gave two-fighted a night because Fronz and Ascaroff, car of Carronson-A-off where it was a great fight. Hind this fight, dude. That should have been 25 minutes. Oh, so good. It should have been 25 minutes.

Yeah, that would have an amazing way. Great win for Alex de Grasso, by the way. Tremendous win. Three-fifty seven. First to seven, ever. First to, she'd never seen any one before. First submission ever. I mean, we'll see what happens with the last.

I do want to talk, just real quick on Joanne Wood because, I mean, we've talked about, quote unquote, falls from graces in MMA in the UFC. the story of Joanne Wood is an interesting one because this is a woman who had a title fight lined up with Valentina Shofchenko Shifchenko gets injured

Wood could have waited like another two months and gotten her title fight instead she said no I'm tired of waiting I'm going to fight Jennifer Maya and then gets submitted by Jennifer Maya and it's just all been downhill since man

like this is just a crazy crazy, crazy story. It's one of those ones that's going to fly under the radar and may not be like at the top of everyone's list, A.K., but I mean, this is, Joanne's like still game, like she's still out there, like doing the right things and wants to get in there and fight, man. But, I mean, to go from a title fight to just taking a fight because you're, you just didn't want to sit out any longer instead of waiting a couple extra months to fight for the belt. And now we're here. I mean, where does this one compare? She was winning the fight on the feet.

I thought, I don't know, Kay, I don't know, Casey, you're probably a little better at judging this stuff than I am. I thought she was winning the fight on the feet. It wasn't like a blowout, but I did think she, no, no, Jojo would. You know, Jojo was, was beating up Grosso on the feet? I don't think she was beating her out, but I think she was winning. I don't think it went long enough, honestly, to give a fair assessment. I was, I was, I was scoring it on the feet for, what is it was happening, right?

There wasn't a lot to score. It didn't, it went to the ground a couple of times before the finish. But I do think that she looked good. We all know her Muay Thai, it's fantastic. It always has been. But, you know, if she's getting older, the division's getting younger, pulling that trigger just, you know, just gets a little more difficult.

But I thought technically she looked fine. I don't know how it would have gone on the feet if it had gone three rounds. But I think she was kind of winning that first round. And then again, it all just went to hell for. Yeah, she's a very difficult situation. And again, we keep harping on it. But, man, if they just paid fighters more, I feel like we'd be telling a very different Joanne Woodstock.

story because yeah, you're right. She took that fight because I don't think, like, you know, we say, oh, she was bored. She wants to stay active. She wants to stay active because she wants to get paid. I mean, I mean, a girl's got to eat. That's just, that's life, right? I mean, look at guys like Steve A. Mayoches, should we mentioned earlier in the show who's like, he's taken years off?

Like, he just hasn't fought for 11, 12 months. Fortunately, I'm sure he'd like to be making more money, but he's in the position where, you know, he's a former champion. He's made enough cash he can afford to sit aside. A lot of fighters like John Wood, she's more representative of the rest of the roster. or they can't afford that. So it does suck. I'm sure fans are tired of hearing about Jojo's missed opportunities and all that and blah, blah,

but it really is like one of those what-ifs that we're going to think about for a long time. So I don't think she gets cut. I do think they keep her around because, like I said, I think she looked okay on the feet. The Tyler Santos fight was like a blowout. I mean, Tyler Santos is fighting for the title soon. Alexa Grasb, I thought she was doing well against and I don't know. I think they still give her another fight. I think this was as much as a blowout as the Santos fight, getting knocked out and getting stubbed that easily.

I think it's equally just as devastating. But again, she was doing well on the feet. And again, the tickdown. I want to watch it again. I don't. Watch it. There were two takedowns. There was one takedown.

The first one was glad. I remember Grasso had that, no, no, someone had a chin and kind of pulled her down. And I didn't like the way, actually, I did not like the way Jojo looked on her back, the way she looked very content closing that guard. And to point, Grosso was like, this is boring. Grosso actually stood up. Like, let's just do this stand up. You know, let's keep this standing.

And I remember, actually, I don't remember how it got to the ground the second time. You said it. It really is like, yeah, it was like this really awkward stumble. And Grasso got the better of it. She got the better of the scramble. So credit to her, but it was a very awkward stumble. It wasn't like a single leg and just, or body locksling it took her down. It wasn't got at all.

But that's the sport, man. People tango up and you. It is. But you're asking me. I know. But that's not an indictment of, of Joanne Wood. I don't say, I would. Actually, I think, I kind of think it is.

I think, I think, I think. She's a step behind on the ground now. And those scrambles, those transitions from striking to the ground, which is basically what MMA is the transitions from martial art to martial art. Grasso was just way faster and way cleaner in those transitions. Sure, sure. But I'm saying this specific, yeah, this specific exchange was very, was very random. And I give credit to Grasso for taking advantage of it, but it was really, just watch it.

Everyone, I think people who can know what I'm talking about. It was a very awkward. stumble for both fighters and then Grasso you know she got better but again it's not luck she got but the it wasn't anything that made me think like oh Joe and Wood can't defend against take downs it was just like oh shit she well it's not really to take downs but once she was on the

ground jojo just the first time she was on the ground the way she just held guard like that and that closed guard I didn't like I didn't like I didn't I just didn't like the way she looked on the ground and obviously when she got submitted I didn't like I mean she made Grasso

Grasso who I think is a very underrated grappler she made Grasso look like you know, Damien Maher type of grappler. You know, that's, I'm not, but that's,

I give all the credit to the Grasso, but Jojo, yeah, I like, I think we all like Jojo. She's a step behind. And I said in the,

I said in the Q&A, I hated it saying it out loud, but I thought this fight was going to be, I thought Grosso won my decision, but I thought it was going to be one-way traffic. And, you know, it was even more one-way traffic than,

you know, than I even I thought, unfortunately, for, for what. unfortunately joan wood will probably have a date with kacey o'neill next no matter what happens in casey o'neill's fight with jessica i because according to the ufccings will drop to like number nine jesk i's number ten there's a beef between o'neill and wood and the ufc's going to try to make that fight happen and try to milk that for all it's worth as casey

tries to climb the division uh prime barboreena matt brown what else can we say tremendous fight matt brown Transport of the hospital. Brian Barbarina spoke with the media after the fight. So look for that on YouTube a little bit later. Neil Magny, good win against Max Griffin. About the judge has got it right. Split decision, Mark J. Casey. Veteran workman-like performance against Orsha.

Fight IQ to the nines. Well done. Good win for him. But we got to talk about Kai Kar-France versus Asker-A-Asker-R-Off. Unanimous decision win. Tremendous fight. Really good fight. listen, Barbarina and Matt Brown

is just a wild car wreck and I loved it, but the mixing of the martial arts was on full display. KKF versus Asker Askeroff. This is a KKF win, right? Like, this is no robbery. I mean, there are people on Twitter

who thought this is an actual robbery. Because I said the judges got around and people are like, what world do you live in? I'm like, are you kidding me? What friggin fight did you watch? We have Liam Mahoney in the comments. Clear win for Ascaro. clear. How? How is that a clear win for Ascroft? I love to hear. I love. Is this Ascroft's cousin? Like that, that I would understand and I apologize.

Liam, let us know. Liam, let us know. Okay, I'm looking at MMA decisions and looks at, there were five, no, four journalists that had Ascroft, but about 15 journalists had Carfranz. So I guess it was, I thought it was pretty clear Car France. And we look up, like it looks like about 80% had a Carre France. So I guess, yeah. I mean, it was not Robbie. Carfrance one that fight, we're going to move on from that. I think, I think, no, it's pretty clear. Well, let's, you know me, I'll play the advocate here because I do do the robbery reviews where I like to, you know, where I always look at kind of why something's being called a robbery. So, so two big ones, very dominant first round for Ascroft with the grappling. So I saw some people saying was the first round at 10-8. And I'm like, no, he didn't do enough damage. He didn't know enough damage. He didn't know enough damage. Great, a great grappling. He was in control. He threatened with submission. But I think, and I think people think a near submission is like getting a near finish in that sense. But one, I don't think he was that close to finishing it. And two, you actually don't,

you're actually not supposed to reward like a 10-8 necessarily for a near submission. So I'm not sure to know that. The three-Ds. You get two of the three-d-s. Dominance. Dominus in duration. Actually, I had no, I would have no,

so I'm kind of jumping in, sorry. I would have no issue calling that first round 10-8 for Ascroft, actually. Because I thought- That is a good point, yeah. So I didn't score 10-8, but I was actually expecting someone to kind of push the 10-8 narrative. And I would actually, yeah, sorry. I think they're putting a much heavier emphasis on damage now. I don't know if they should, but I mean, damage is supposed to be first, right? You're right. There's the 3Ds, but damage is supposed to be first.

And he just didn't do it. He did doing some nice elbows too. It was really a dominant first round for Ascroft. It just for me, didn't quite hit that damage thing. So I don't think you can call that a 10-9. I'm sure he thought it was an Aftarv and his team probably thought it was 10-8. Oh, sorry, yeah, you can't call 10-8. I'm sure his team thought that.

But obviously first round for Ascroft, obviously second round for Kau-Kara-France. Now the third one was, competitive, and again, you had takedowns from Ascroft, but he did even less with the takedowns in the third than he did in the first round. Kai landed so many of the big shots. He just did more damage. So, again, remember guys, damage is first as much as, as confusing as that can be sometimes when you see a guy who's such a strong wrestler like Ascarov controlling so much of the fight.

He just needs to do more damage in the ground and stuff like that. But really, really difficult fight. Should have gone two more rounds, as everyone's been saying, but not a robbery at all. Damage won the day. It was a car france that did the damage. and he doubled them up in the third round in strikes. Significant strikes. And strikes total.

Doubled them up. What did Ascar do? Just about 23 to 12. Why would Ascarp get the third round? What do we? He took the back again. He took the back again. He got like, almost took the back.

He got like the body triangle. It wasn't quite on the back. But there was a mission attempt and he had, no mission attempt, really. Nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No damage on the ground from strikes. Yeah. I was, I was. No. No. I didn't understand the argument. It made no sense.

It was a clear third round for Kai. Me too. And the clearest round of the fight was the second for Kai. And Askeroff won the first, yeah. But guess what? You know what's crazy? Kai Kar-France still outstruck Asker Asgraf in that round. It was four to three, but he still outstruck him.

So, I mean, that's it. It was like this is not a robbery. This is not a discussion. Kai Kar-France won that fight. As-R-Fripp's a good fighter, man. That was a tough fight. But he got out of that first round, survived it, and you could tell Asgraf's getting a little frustrated in there.

So great performance from Kai Gar-France. Well done. That was the best Kai Kar-France we've seen in the U.C. I know people are going to talk about the first round knockouts. That was the best version. He had to be the best version of himself to deal with Asgrov. Ascarov is – I said to the first round, I was really scared for Kai. But I also thought he would lose the first round when we were predicting the fight.

But, man, that guy is scary. So I don't know. We definitely haven't seen the last ask Rob and KyCraft France. I don't know. Could get the tell shot. And a shout out to my prediction, picking KKF for the decision victory. I remember Jedd bit rolls eyes. That's a crazy one.

I was like, and that's kind of how the fight. That's basically how I saw the fight. It would be tough first round, but I felt Kai is just, he's actually just a really good athlete. And he just was just a better just athlete in there. He was able to, once he, you know, Stop the takedowns, Ascroft slowed down a bit. The big weight cut is always going to hurt Ascroft.

No, it's just the first round, he's going to be freaking dangerous. But if you can get past that first round and you still have really high energy levels like Carra France does, there's a strong chance of victory. But you have to get past that first round. It is going to be tough getting through that first round. Two things. First of all, Jedmishu being wrong about something, I don't believe you. That's shock. Secondly, listen, we asked for Liam Mahoney's take on this.

He said in the comments, Ascrov landed clean. harder shots in the third, KKF was hitting air. I would watch that. They're not true. Yeah, you should probably re-watch it. Maybe look at the stats, the stats as well, because we've literally doubled them up. Stats, I test highlights, I don't know, whichever metric KKF was landing, some very, very hard punches in the third round.

Ascroft wasn't like, it's not like a dead duck on the feet, but he was getting constructs. No, no. But he lost, he lost the fight. Yeah. And our own judge, shoe scored at 2928 for Mr. Car, France. So there you go. And he's never wrong. And he picked Ascaroff.

He got the, Kikar Friends got the champion, Davis of Figuerado's attention, took to Twitter. I mean, I kind of would put this with the same sort of discrepancy thing, like I did with the Habib tweet about the Colby situation. It might have been Davis of Figurato, but there's a good chance that it was somebody else on behalf of Davis of Figurato. So congratulations, you dirty Kiwi Kiwi, Kai Kar, of France. You just punch your ticket with the god of war.

Brandon Moreno, you just took the back seat. You're 0-and-2 against Pantosia. If you could beat him, I'll give you the next title shot. So he's trying to put Moreno in the back burner. Unfortunately, Figuay doesn't really have that clout. So he's still going to fight Brandon Moreno and Kai Kairfranza. He'll wait for the winner. Or if something were to happen to one of these gentlemen, you could slot him in there.

We don't know when this fight's going to happen, by the way. I assume it's going to happen sometime in July. He should have used that Pentosia line on Moreno. He should say, Marino, you're O-N-2 against Alexander Protogia. You should beat him for getting a fourth fight. That line works for both those guys. So I was confused when I read that. I'm like, is he like diffused?

Yeah, when you said it was, I didn't know, is this Perino saying this or figurino? Oh, wait, sorry. I'm sorry. I misunderstood. Mike, wait, he did say that to Marino, right? The Pentosia thing is from, is for Marino, right? Yeah, that's what I just said. Okay, okay.

I'm sorry. I mean, I totally missed it. Yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I, I've, and one of the comments, feel free to roast me. I'm misunderstood. Yeah, sorry. So he said he wants a Kajara, France next. I don't think that happens, right, guys? I think there's money to be made in the Tetralogy, right? You can say quadrology. Whichever you guys are comfortable with, you say, Tetrisology. I got to remember this word. You can say quadrilogy. I think quadrilogy is informally correct, right? You can say quadrology. Okay. Whichever you guys are confidual with using. We've been saying tetralogy and like headlines and I always see comments like, what's a titrology? Why don't you guys mean quadrology, right? Yeah, okay.

I guess. These aren't real words. We're making up words regardless. All words. Really all words are made up. Yeah. What would you rather see? Oh, no.

The quadriology. The quadrology. The fourth fight. The fourth fight. The fourth fight. Apparently, this is the according to, to the UFC. The UFC Columbus is the highest grossing

U.S. fight night in history. And they're not paying extra money for these guys. They still get this thing, 50K. When they have 20 people showing up with the apex cars, they have a sold-out arena in Columbus, Ohio. And they, God, dang.

Hey, you don't make record profits if you give away money. That's all I got, yeah. This is true. That's true. It is, look, I made the case for Gutierrez and Blazers before, but like, it is senseless that you don't give Alexa Grasso, an extra, I mean, really more than 50,000, but if we're just going whatever, their bonus designation, that she does not get an extra 50,000 for the first submission

victory of her career, her first finish in almost eight years. And like I said, a pretty slick finish over a long-time contender. I know she's coming off a submission loss, but still, I mean, Joanne Wood is a tough out. I don't care. I don't know how much time. Yeah. Yeah. It is silly. And what was the other, there was another good finish. Even Kizari had was kind of like, that wasn't a bad, oh, man, yeah, it is silly. Give these people more money. Give them more money. You broke box office records, apparently.

Yeah, yeah, they're breaking records. Yeah, they're breaking freaking records. Geez. All the records. All of them. All of them. All right. Good night of fights.

Let's go to the peeps. Yeah, let's go to the peeps. All right, right. Oops. Wrong question. That's from last. Oh, what was that question? Oh, I mean, oh, we lost.

No, no, yeah. Okay. Oh, sorry, why are you doing that? My poll. Sorry, my poll. What, I mean, the poll in the chat. What did you think of Curtis Blades is promo and call out tonight? It's not that late.

What did you think of Curtis Blades? We're not after dark. It's not a favorite of view. What did you think of Curtis Blades's promo and call out tonight? I said, I gave three options. Hot fire. Didn't do much for me. Actually hurt his position.

Pretty firm. Didn't do much for me, 50%. So kind of what we thought going in, not a lot to be. 38% hot fire. So that's kind of nice. But 50% didn't do much for me. 11% actually hurt his position. So if you want to lump those things.

guy that you can say 62% kind of like, eh, didn't love, didn't love what they heard from, from Curtis Blades tonight. But I thought it was right. I think 38% is a nice number for hot fire. It's tough. It's better that I thought it was going to be. That's what I'm saying.

This is just such a fantastic night for Mr. Blaze. The fact that we're still talking about him and like, is he past that? I don't know if he'll ever get over that boring fighter label, but he could be on his way. That's all. Yeah. What's crazy about this whole situation is that he might be the best heavyweight in the world.

He might be the best guy. He might stylistically beat any of these guys. Like this is a very good chance he beats all the names that are ahead of him. He beats all of them. Aspenol would be interesting. Like if Curtis Blades fought Tai Tu Uvasa, he'd be a minus 700 favorite against Tai Tuvasa. Easy. I mean, just he's as good as everybody in the first.

division. He got knocked out by Derek Lewis, which if you get hit by Derek Lewis, you get knocked out. It's just, unless you're tied to Yvesa. But he's very good. He's a very good fighter. And in Bellator, he would be the freaking champion right now. It's just, he's just in a tough spot, man. Timing's always been his worst enemy, and it's not his fault at all. If Francis and Garner didn't exist, he may be the UFC champion right now, you know, just of the timing. You're very true. Very right. Before we go to the questions, actually, sorry, can we talk about a fight that should have been on, that could easily could have been on the main card,

Ms. Faroe and Maya. Yes. Yes. Menon Firoro, who I thought was going to win by knockout. Scott McCrae, by the way, is his, I know he's watching, he's going to freak out now that you're brought it.

Thank you, Casey. He's sweating. Has he been DMing you? Anyway, huge, huge menel. He's right here. First of all, I was a little, present, Anik is the god of announcing and pronunciations.

I'm a little surprised that the commander team was going with Menon Phil. for her name pronunciation. Now, one, I will say it is easier, definitely easier to say. And two, I do wonder, I don't know, Anick to, he must have spoken to her team

and just kind of run it by them. Like, is this okay? Like, you know, and they're probably just like, yeah, this is, they're probably tired of people of mispronouncing her last name. So they are just like,

just go with Fior, it's fine. This is, this is, this is acceptable. We just don't want people tripping over it. But it is, a feiro, people, if you can roll your hours a little bit too, it would be nice. But, yeah, we'll just go with men now

for simplicity's sake. She looked really good. you know that because she didn't get she didn't get to finish I guess they were a little disappointed but like Maya is a former title challenger a super top top eight in her division I think this I think this told us a lot about Menlo and she has a lot to work on for sure has a lot to work on

she's not anywhere near the top you know again I would say maybe I wouldn't like her chances against Chukagian I wouldn't like her chances against Jessica Andraj and obviously I wouldn't like her chances against Valentina but that's it. Other than that, I think she's on her way. I do want to see her, again, tested a couple more times.

I kind of disagree. I kind of disagree. I wasn't, I'm not in the Scott McCrae, you know, leading the bandwagon for federal, but she impressed the heck out of me. I thought Maya was going to win tonight. I thought it was going to be too much too soon for her. But she beat Maya with the same,

with the same dominance that Chef Janko beat Maya with. You know. And I'm doing little MMA math, but as far as I'm comparing wins. But that was incredibly impressive to me. Yeah, it wasn't maybe the most exciting knockout finish. But I think knockout finishes are kind of a bit overrated. As far as the quality of Manone has a fighter, I thought this just showed me a lot. And I was just highly impressed with the performance.

And that's why I said, such a big night for new flyweight contenders, both male and female. So I was just like, I wasn't sold on her before. I'm sold. Now, is she going to beat Valentina? No one's saying that. Is Grosso going to beat Valentina? No one's saying that.

But I think we have legit title contenders, though, coming up with Carre France and the two women. And that's the fight you book, right? Not to spoil onto the next one, but that's the fight, right? Fioro versus Grasso, though, like you think you have to do it. that you're not more contender fight.

If you can guarantee the winner fights for the title, if they just do that fight and without any sort of guarantee that the winner fights for the title, otherwise, no. Because, well, yeah, I mean,

I have to wait. We do have to wait. We have to wait. We have to wait two months before we can't even discuss this. Because if Misha Tate beats Lauren Murphy, then Misha Tate's fighting for the title. Oh, just four.

Like the first chance they give her. Yeah, first sheds they give her. But if Lauren Murphy wins, that we do manage her. Fioro versus Alexe Grasso number one contender fight

and go from that? I almost kind of hope that happens because I want to put off Valentina going having to go up against the likes of Manor and Aaron Blanchfield

and Casey O'Neill I wish we could hold that up like I don't want any of those women fighting for the title before the end of this year I know it's very possible one of them does I understand that

even Alexa Grasso I feel like well she's got a lot of experience so she's got a lot of high level experience Grasso would probably be of all those names I just mentioned the one I'm like Yeah, if she fought for the time at the end of the year, I wouldn't be surprised.

Yeah. She's funny. I kind of still view her as that young 20-year-old in Invicta, right? Yeah. I was thinking that when I was watching her, I was talking, I was like, oh, my God, I've known her. I was at her first fight in Invicta. We hung out and talked. She knew to know English.

I was like, I was talking to her Papa Grasso, her dad and everything. And it's just been a pleasure watching her kind of mature and to this just awesome fighter. She is now. Yeah. Her getting a title fight soon will make a lot of sense. Those other names I mentioned, again, Blanchefield-Oneill, Fiorreau cluster. But the thing is, now that, again,

Fioro just beat Maya and Casey just got that win over Roxanne McFerrier, so that was a nice win. She might give a Jessica I now. They're knocking off the bets. They're knocking off the former title challengers. At some point, there's really no choice but to throw them in there with Chichenko, when really I feel like all of them are like a year away, at least a year away from being even somewhat of a challenge.

But Valentina likes to fight. She likes to stay busy. She likes to add those jewels to that belt. So there you go. That's a Valentin is now getting to that little second crop of new lady flyweight. And it's awesome. I'm super excited about the ladies flyweight division. Don't forget Miranda Maverick too.

She's in there, too. And a maverick, amazing. There's a lot of super good talent who are chasing the queen right now. I think flyweight has been an overlooked division in MMA right now. And I think it's going to get very exciting. Hopefully the UFC gives it the proper push. That's all I hope. But don't worry.

Don't worry, A.K., they will still have to wait a year. Yeah. Because Valentina, if she beats Tyler Santos, she will be moving up to 135 to fight for your second title before the year is over. So don't you worry? Of course, of course. That's worry. By the way, props to Brandon Moreno because this guy just gets it.

This guy just gets it. No, he said, he said, eh, Davis is outside on the contract. Hey, Kyle, let's fight for an interim title. Yeah. Oh, well done. Well done, assassin, baby. Let's go to the peeps. To the peeps, two of the peeps.

All right, what we got here. We got this question. We kind of talked about it, but just real quick. Oops, sorry, that's tiny. What does Curtis Blades game with that win? Heavyweight division is still a mess. Do we still think the UFC will try to do John versus Steve for an interim title?

I mean, I'll give my quick answers. Very little, which is unfortunate because he deserves better. Yes, heavyweight division is still a mess. Do we still think the UFC will try to do John Verstipe? Yes, I think they will try. That's the operative word here, is try. Will they be successful? You're asking a lot, but they will certainly try.

So that's my thoughts. Yeah, no, I mean, the exact wording of the question, of course, they're going to do everything in their power to make that happen. They got to put a low jack on John Jones or something or they got to just or hire higher private investigators to keep an eye on this guy. A shock caller. I don't know what it's going to take, but we need to keep this guy from misbehaving and just from doing dumb stuff

because, of course, that's the fight they want. It's such a sellable fight, even once against Steepaid not having fought for so long, John Jones not having fought for so long, just being in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. I mean, they want that more than. than almost Anganu coming back, other than, of course, to make an Ungano-Jones fight. But they would love a Stevie-Mio, which is John Jones fight.

The greatest heavyweight champion ever. The greatest light heavyweight champion ever. It's just so easy from the throwing a poster. So, yeah, they're going to try. They're going to try their damnedest. I'll tell you that much. UFC can make this fight tomorrow. They just got to pay for it.

So that's all. It's just, if the UFC decides to cut back on their profit margins or whatever, this fight can happen tomorrow. It's just a money thing. That's all. I think it'll happen. I think it'll get done. I mean, there's not a lot of...

There's not going to be, like, a ton of options for July. I mean, Aesania will fight on one of those cards, and you have to think with Strickland Paheda being booked for July 30th, that Aesanya Canaanero will probably headline that card. That would make a lot of sense. So, I mean, now you're talking to International Fight Week. I don't know if Camaro will be ready for,

Leon for that card. I mean, I don't know what you, maybe Connor's return. I don't even know if July is even possible at this point. I mean, you have to think International Fight Week, maybe trying to make that fight, the main events.

I don't know what the hell they're going to do, but I think, I think it'll get done. Unless somebody gets injured or something happens behind the scenes that John makes another mistake or something, which we hope doesn't happen. But other than that,

think they will make. I think they will get this done. As long as John isn't behind bars, I don't think there's enough mistakes he can make. As long as, as long as he's a free man and he gets paid right, I don't think the UFC has any issues with getting him in that case. I think they'll get it done.

I think they'll get it done. I think a Mr. King of positivity. All right. That's a go. Can we not do this question with the Buffalo Bill's logo? Just kidding. Just joking. KKF and Asgraf deserve fight of the night.

What did you think about the decision? I felt Ascroft may have done enough early in the third to tilt the decision in his way. Ascroft seemed sluggish this fight, though. I mean, we talked about this already. From a mixing of the martial arts standpoint, this was the best fight of the card. It's like no question about it. Matt Brown and Brian Barbarino was just super fun. And it just had everything you needed, right?

Like you had two bloody veterans just literally giving their souls to everybody. Like Matt, both those guys are done. They had nothing left to offer. They left it all in that cage. Crowd went bananas. I mean, it was just everything. There's no way that wasn't going to be the fight of the night. Decision was the right decision.

Yeah. Kai Kar-France won. And Ascar, I'm not going to say he seemed sluggish. I just think Kai was, Kai beat him. Like, Kai just beat him. Yeah. Yeah, Ascarp, he's always going to start really hot, but he has a big weight cut. And I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say sluggish either.

He's just going to, he's just going to slow down. And Kai is just a very, very, you know, prime athlete. And he was just, he can go 110% every round. So, yeah. Yeah, he, you slow down when, I mean, he doesn't do a lot of wrestling. That's going to slow you down. You got punched a lot, too. You got punched a lot.

That slows you down. Michael Visping always says that, right? is like, man, nothing drains your cardio like getting hit, right? Like, because there's a lot of people who like Bisping outworked and people like, man, that guy looks tired against Bisspian. I'm like, yeah, because Bispin punched him in the head like 50 times. Yeah. But it does, it doeserve five the night.

It deserves something. Deserve something. Asgraw, we'll be, we'll be back. This guy is. He's good. He's a good, man. Ascrap, I mean, Ashcroft is a really good fighter. Yep.

It's a really good fighter. His title window is still very open. Let's put it that way. It was just, it was just Kod Carr's night, car France's night. what did you think of Mana Firo's call to Kalyn Chukagan? For those who don't know, Kaylin Chikagan fight Amanda Hewis Bay 14th at 125.

What did you think of the call at AK? I mean, it's the right name. It's the right name. She clearly believes she's only won away. Chukagian is the gatekeeper at 125. And so if you beat Chukagian, you get a title shot. This is pretty much a lock, right? And also, I think that's a hell of a tough thing to do, right?

So, like I said, some questions were answered in her winner-over-maya. some were raised. This would answer even more questions if she could, especially if she could win. I mean, if she knocked out Chugan, great, but kind of like Casey said before,

like, man, you'd learn a lot more from her going three rounds at Chukagian than you would if she, like, kind of caught her with some bomb in the first round. I'm sure if she'd love that, and all her fans would love that as well.

So I don't mind it. Now, this fight isn't until as, thank you, Joseph Bow's, May 14th. So there's a, we're a bit of ways from there. If you're met Nolf Bero, you're definitely staying in shape.

If something to happen to Chikian or Hibas, you jump right in there. Either one of those is a great fight for her to take, and it wouldn't shock me at all if, again, fingers crossed, one of those fighters wasn't able to make it to the May 14th card, and Manil stepped in. Is he was going up to 20,

going up to 25? Is she leaving in Straw Wait? Just for this fight. Oh, just for that fight? Okay. She was supposed to fight Michelle Waterson. She was booked against her a couple of times. Oh, okay.

It's a decade and coming in at late notice. Well, not late notice, I guess. Or kind of. Not really. Just a fight. Yeah. Okay. I got you.

There's just two women, two women who need fights. And they're just like, okay, we'll just fight it. We'll just fight. And Kagan's probably never getting another title shot. So she's just, you know. Maybe an interim title fight in time. Who knows? Who knows?

I have a feeling we're going to get like 14 interim title fights in the next year. Like, I'll say that. Sorry. I hope Bellator does interim title fights on both side of the brackets. Oh my God Don't get me started Brick up Benators title fights Don't even get me started

Poor Josh Hill I feel so bad for Josh Hill All right Another one from Mr. Boza So Chris Stalk is going on A light heavyweight I think this fight told us He has screwed against the best heavy weights

I think we knew that anyways though Again Here's the thing with Christakis All of this stuff This is Cherry On top of the Sunday No one expected this to happen. Did you think we'd see Chris Daucus in a main event ever, A.K.?

Can I just say, though? I think getting badly concussed in back-doubt fights is not a cherry. I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying, but I do think calling it a cherry is a bit, I don't know, it doesn't quite reflect what happened to Christoccus in the last two fights. And again, as far as we know, he's probably not getting paid that much more for fighting in the main event, if at all. So I don't know how much he really did gain from, you know, getting thrown into these top-10 matchups. I know what you mean.

If he had won, fantastic, right? Like I said, no one thought he would make it this far. But I don't know about Cherry. I think that there's changes that have to be made in his career now. And there's no way he regrets taking out of these bites. But I don't think he's going to look back on these experiences fondly. Yeah. I just don't know if he could.

I don't like the light heavyweight idea. And unless like Chris Dawkus wakes up in the morning and there's a picture of a UFC title hanging on his wall and he just stares at it and it's like, I need this in my life. my career is unfulfilled if I don't win a title, then you just take a year off and you just figure out a way to get a 205. If you really want to be a champion, if you want to just fight and make money and not kill yourself to like get down to a weight and just sort of enjoy the in-between time,

still work hard but not have to cut 50 pounds, you stay in heavyweight. There's still fun fights for him there and fights he can win. And he's only lost to top five heavyweights. One of his, one of his, one of his the sixth best, six best heavyweight in the world. That's a wonderful accomplishment. If you're the sixth best at whatever you do for your occupation,

you've done a great, you're doing great. So I just, yeah, he's not losing to rando, you know, with those guys. You know, he's losing the best. And yeah, because Doc is isn't ready for that. He's not an elite heavyweight. The UFC was trying to push it. He gave him two chances at main event. You know, went bad for him.

You know, there you go. Take a break and come back and, you know, right, Andre Arlowski, see where you're at. I like that matchup, but I'm also all in on light heavyweight Chris Dawkins. Chris, if you're, let me with us, you're even thinking about this change, I encourage it. All right. We care about your well-being, Chris.

Was Brown Barbarina decision fair? your opinion. It wasn't a robbery, but Brown looked good for the better part of the third round, maybe not the end of it, but could have done enough to steal it. So was this a robbery? I mean, is this even, uh, his take down is enough. Robbery's such a big word, but his take down. How did you score it again? I definitely had a 28, 29, 28 barborena. Um, the flurry at the end, obviously was huge. I think that was the biggest moment of the third round. Other than that, the striking was, I don't know if it was that even. I do think Barbarina actually was getting the better of the striking him in the third. I think people are,

looking at the takedowns. And Brown did get a few punches off while Barbarina was getting up. So it's not like he didn't do any damage after getting takedowns, but not enough, I think, to overcome what Barbarina did in the other parts around and especially at the end when he really, really, really, I don't want to say come close to finishing, but he was putting it on him. So I thought the judges did a really, really great job because I did see comments saying, like, oh, Brown had the takedowns, you know, and I'm like, yeah, but he just didn't do

enough with them. Take downs don't mean anything unless you get some sort of dominant position or submission or do damage. They mean zero. It's just a change of position. It's simply just a change of position. They mean nothing. The punches he landed while Barbarina was getting up from the takedowns were more important than the takedowns themselves. So if there had been more of that, maybe it's a Brown round.

But again, I don't think it's like if Brown had won, I don't think it would have been the worst decision ever. But I'm pretty strong. I feel pretty confident that Barbarina won that one. Again, we're telling the same story with the Kai Kar-Franstein, though Ascro's grappling was much more dominant than Matt Browns was, I think. But same idea. Who did more damage? I think this was, again, Barbarina took that. third round.

Just why, again, it's not, it's not that the last 30 seconds override everything else. It's that plus maybe again, how ineffective the takedowns were and plus other work Barberina did in that round. So, yeah, not a robbery at all. And hey, hey, crowd that, crowd that booed him. Boo, yeah. Boo, you crowd. F yourself.

Boo that crowd. Get stuffed. Stuff you, people, all right? These men, I understand it's a home crowd. People, fans love Matt Brown. He's from Ohio, so they really love Matt Brown there. But, man, don't boo. Brian Barbarina after something like that.

That was a really great fight. I mean, that's exactly what people pay their money for. So you're supporting your boy, I understand, but you don't got a crap on somebody else. And it really went, too. It wasn't even like they just booed him right after. And I'm like, oh, he started talking. They were like booing him throughout his post-fight interview. And I'm like, yeah.

Ohio, get it together, man. Come on. Don't be like that. So a loser. That was a great fight. Great, great fight. Barberina won that fight, though. Yeah.

I mean, listen, if this fight took place in Lincoln, Nebraska. we'd all be talking about what a fight it was and Brian Barbarina won it. We're just, where's location and the crowd and it does things to us that happens from time to time. But Barbarina won that fight. The third round, clear, let's just go look at the numbers. Clear Barbarina win 53 to 35 significant strikes for Brian Barbarina. Matt Brown was badly heard in that third round.

Very close to stopping. There's another 30 seconds. Brian Barbarina would have knocked Matt Brown out. So, yeah, win from Barbarina. You know, great fight, though. Great fight. Last fight on Barbarian's contract, too, he revealed to the media after. So we'll see what happens.

So that could have been the last fight. Oh. He said he mentioned the R word, right? He said in the post-fight interview or the scrum afterwards, last fight in his deal, the UFC wants me back. I'll come back. If they decide, nah, don't want you back, then I'll retire. I'll retire and work at the farm.

It's kind of guy. I believe him, too. Yeah, exactly. I believe it's such a prime barbarian thing to say. Casey, do you see the question from John Guy? Because I actually just about to mention this. Because I think Mike might have mentioned it when he was running, like kind of in passing as we were running down the main card results. Yeah, this totally, like, we talk about a card flying under the radar.

How about a momentous, like, milestone flying under the radar? I'm sorry, people who are listening to this. John Guy asking thought on Magny. He didn't beat GSP record. He tied the record for most UFC Walterade victories at 19. He's got to beat it at some point. He'll beat the record. Probably, I'd be very unlikely.

Because, again, he's in that range of guys where he's not necessarily always fighting, you know, top seven or eight. He just fights. Sometimes he goes up, fights top seven or eight. And sometimes he's fights in that mid-range where he is just the class of that mid-range, I feel. He's been in the top 15 around the top 10 for the last, like, three years. Like, he's just a great, really consistent fighter. his performance against Max Griffin was classic Magny. Max Griffin looked awesome in the first round.

And then like Magny just finds a way. He doesn't stop. I mean, he fights as hard as he does in the third as he does in the first. And just finds a way to win. So it was great. Yeah, but this is what you have to do to reach 19 wins. You rather have to have this dominant run like GSP or you hang around. And it's not like he's a 500 fighter.

I think he's 19 and 7 in the UFC, I want to say after night, 197, 17, 17, 198. So he's well above 500. He's clearly an elite welterweight. I get it. For some reason, Neil Magny has never made sinalating headline material. I get that. But boy, you want to call it a sign in longevity or just being stubborn or just sticking you around long enough. There it is.

But officially tied with GSP. And I think it'll be a bigger deal if he breaks it. I will say, I think if he hits 20, it's a nice round number, surpasses GSP. I think the UFC and everyone else will be a lot more aware of when this happens. All right. Congrats, Neil. Well done. Well done.

Real quick, because the Idaho skates and really wants us to talk about this. So real quick, I got to give the man. What did you think of OneX this morning? Who watched OneX this morning? I didn't watch it live. I didn't watch it live. I watched the DJ Rotang fight. That's all I watched.

And it was fun. I'll say it was a, from what I saw, it was a spectacular mixing of the martial arts. there was kickboxing, there was grappling. Jen Michoud's number one middleweight ranked fighter, Rainier DeRitter had a grappling match. I don't know if you won or went to a draw or something, but I know as a draw, which essentially, which for him is like a win, I mean, considering, you know,

he's a great grappler, but it was like a straight juitsu competition. Very cool of DJ. I don't know if this affects our rankings for him, guys, because it was great to see him in action. Obviously, it wasn't an actual MMA fight. He fought Rod Tang, and he won, he choked him out. He's one of the most well-rounded fighters in MMA history. So he managed the Muay Thai round and then took over in the MMA round and choked him on.

So that's fantastic. Sexyama. Knocking out Shinya-oki. That's great. That's great. Listen. That was a mean knockout too. Knees on the ground.

I don't know. Who else mean? I saw the clip. I didn't see the whole fight, but that looked pretty mean. I said this in the slack. 40 plus fighters. That's where it's at. That's where it's at.

All right. Sarah McMahon? Sexyama. Every man, yeah. 40-year-olds, every man. Olinick would have had it tonight. Matt Brown, I mean, he didn't win, but would have a performance. And of course.

Oh, there we go. I don't need Casey Leiden. Undefeated. The epitome. So, listen, I think Alenic would have gotten it tonight, too. I think Olinic finally would have win number 60 if, unfortunately, Alianna P. Lillian is sort of non-CO related to us.

Yeah. So, hey, 40 plus. That's one to start your MMA career, man. I mean. Did Sarah, is Sarah McMahon? Is she the oldest woman that have a UFC victory? I think, man. on Brno.

I believe Mayor Minow. I think Mary Minow lost those fights, though. I think she had one. I think she did get a win in there somewhere. Okay. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Because she's 44 now.

Ooh, she beats Sarah McMahon. I got to do some math. You're going to make me do some math now, Casey. I don't know. She was probably around the same age of Sarah McMahon as now when she beat. What's Michael Carroll saying? You'd think he'd have that stat.

Oh, MJC. All right. Oh, wow. I'll look it up. I'll look it up. Are we done? We've got an hour 10 on this wonderful fight night. Yeah, we're done.

Wait, wait, hold on. Oh, here we go, here we go. Let's do this for the hometown guys. Oh, H. No, the booing. Oh, yeah, yes. I know. I don't know.

I don't know. I tell you spell Ohio, by the way. Oh, the last poll result, guys, the last poll result. What flyweight boosted their stock the most tonight? Kai Car France, big lead, 69%. I mean, that's not a surprise. But grasslow right behind, not right behind, but a respectable, 24%, and then Manalfiro, 4%,

Mateus Nicolao, 2%. I know a lot of people weren't thrilled with that first round with Nicolao and Devorak. Nicolao, I think, is a little bit on forcing the Arnold Allen range right now where he needs a finish or something because we know he's good. He was so low on the card, too.

He was so low on the car. It turned out a decent fight, actually, in rounds two and three, but not super memorable. But took out a guy in a 16-fight win streak. Like, I think Nicolao is, I mean, people know I'm a huge fan of his, so I've been on that train for a while.

I think he fights for a title someday, but this isn't the kind of performance that I think is going to have people knocking down the doors trying to get one for them. Yeah. That unfortunately was the letdown of the card. Sad. I was looking so much forward to that fight.

That first round was so bad. So no O-H-I-O-Champ for AK, but no UFC next week, but the week after that, they are in Jacksonville, Florida. I will be in Jacksonville, Florida. Jose Young's will be in Jacksonville, Florida. And we know what that means all week long, AK. What are we going to say all week long? We're ready to be a shout at the Duvall!

We're out of here. For the undefeated Casey Liden, the Prince of Positivity, A.K. Lee, AK and I back tomorrow for on to the next one matchmaking. I am Mike Heck. Good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.