MMA Fighting - UFC Fight Island 2 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: July 19, 2020

MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Jose Youngs and Alex K. Lee break down the top storylines from Saturday night's UFC Fight Island 2 event in Abu Dhabi, including Deiveson Figueiredo's submission win over Joseph Benavidez to become the new flyweight champion in the main event.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs 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. And welcome to the UFC Fight Night, host show, live stream, and now your host, Mr. Mike Heck. It's just so soothing after a night of fights, isn't it, that music in the background? The UFC anyways has put together a very deep card for their third of four Fight Island events, and this one had a little bit of everything tonight. In the end, we have a brand new UFC Flyway champion in Davidson Figuerino. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the UFC Fight Island 2 live post-fight show on the M-Mayfiting.com YouTube channel.

I have Mike Heck being joined by the greats, Alex K. Lee and Jose Youngs. We have a new champion in Davidson, Figuero, A.K., finishes Joseph Benavitas in the first round. But you know how we like to do things. Before we get to the main event, a little more in depth, thoughts on the card in its entirety. How would you grade this one from top to bottom? Okay, you can go first. Yeah, all right. man I'm always hesitant to go above B plus

like my default answer but I would almost call like a strong A minus I don't know I'm just looking at the card again I don't know if there was a bad fight I'm not saying it was all barn burners but I don't know if there's a single fight in the card that I saw and I was like oh well that was a you know that was a snoozer like this was a really really solid car from top to bottom so maybe I'm just high off of sort of that exciting

those exciting performances we saw those last two fights I'm going to go A minus that was that was good that was good M-May stuff. What do you think, Jose? Yeah, I'll go B plus A-minus. I was saying this on the way and show with Esther that just looking at this fight, like the actual records of the fighters, Joseph Benevita has had six losses, I think, leading into this fight, and that was the most losses by a fighter on the entire card. There were a lot of undefeated fighters, one-loss fighters, two-loss fighters. So this seems like a card that the UFC could use to build stars.

And I think they knocked it out of the park with that because we had a lot of really excellent performances by fighters that, a, needed wins or needed introduction maybe to the fans that don't watch all these fights. And when those sports are going on, and Dana White, he said, like, what, the most recent, one of the most recent scrums, like, the sport has never been healthy. The sport has never been talked about more. I think if that trend is carrying over fight to fight on Fight Island, this was a home run for a lot of UFC prospects looking to make a name for themselves.

Listen, when you have a fight card that ends before 11 p.m. Eastern time, that autumn automatically knocks you up a notch or two. So I'd say this is a solid B plus, all things consider, because the formula was there, not just because it ended at a decent time, but we had some great fights. We had some painful yet memorable finishes. We have a brand new champion. This is a damn good event and some breaking news for those tuning in right now.

The bonuses are out. Fight of the night. Marcha Casey versus Raphael Fiziv performances of the night. Of course, Davis of Figurato and Ariani Lipski, which I'm sure we're going to talk about both of them. Definitely got to talk about Davis and Figuero right now because we have a brand new champion. He dominates Joseph Benavides. He knocks him down three times and then finally put him to sleep right before the first round came to an end.

Alex K. Lee, got to give it up for Davis and Figuero, not just because of the performance, but what he had to go through just to get there, right? Yeah. It's been a crazy ride for Figuero. Look, some of it self-inflicted, of course, from the first time where he missed the way, know, and, you know, he's the kind of person he owns that, right? He's not making excuses. And then he gets the knockout in that first fight, but there's a controversy with the headbutt,

completely accidental. So, so not only he gets that win, but somehow doesn't walk out with the title. It remains vacant. Thankfully, they rebook it quickly. Positive COVID-19 test turns out only to be for the antibodies. Thankfully, not the active virus. He's got to fly to Abu Dhabi, get more testing. We don't know what's going to happen.

The Tungo Brain, Alexander Prentoian. Is Davidson figurator going to make weight, you know, making 125, very difficult? somehow he does all that and then puts on arguably, I don't even know if it's arguable, puts on the greatest performance of his career so far when he needed it the most. So it's a hell of a story. Jose, what do you think? Because, you know, we don't really appreciate the power all the time of Davis and Figurato, but then when you see him in the octagon with the guy like Joseph Benavitas,

he is massive. Like he is a massive individual to get down to 125 and to be able to compete the way that he did. Your thoughts on Figurato becoming the new champion in his performance tonight. I mean, the UFC needed a, they needed a reason to keep the flyaway division around. And once Henry Sehudo beat Demetrius Johnson and Demetri, Henry Sehudo was saying, like, oh, I saved the division, this and that. And then he vacated after holding the bell for a long time.

Then the first fight ended in such drama. The UFC flyaway division needed a fight or a finish that was good enough to, quote, save the division. And my God, Davidson-Figuero has already proven, in my mind, because I've watched all of his UFC fights, that he is must watch television if you're just a fan of violent, awesome fighting. If you're just a fan of face punching, he's your guy. He's not the most charismatic guy if you can't speak Portuguese.

He's not big on social media. Of course, he has that famous picture of him and his bull. So everyone kind of knows him from that from his viral photos. But my God, man, every single fight he's in, we're talking about it at the end. Because remember, you and I were as fight in Edmonton against Pantosia. And we were both talking like that fight absolutely ruled and we were like imagine if this fight was on the main card. The flyways would have a new superstar. And then he gets the fight against Joe B.

He misses way, headbut, this and that. And then everyone is just vilifying him. Like in the N. A.K. said all the drama leading up to the fight. And then it seems like every time he touched Joe B. Joe B just fell down. And it was one of those fights that was just tough to watch. And the fact that it was so one-sided in a championship fight, I don't know any flyways out there who are going to, who are going to pose many problems to a guy with that much dynamite at the end of his hands,

125 pounds. Because honestly, he could go up to 135 and probably be just as dangerous. So if he sticks around at 125 and continues to make that weight, I don't see a lot of fighters that are going to pose many problems to him. Jose, I want to go back to you because we were talking about this a little bit before we went live. What about Joseph Benavitas? I mean, this guy has been around for so long.

He's one of the very best to ever do it to not become a UFC champion. He's so well respected. He was the sentimental favorite coming in, especially here. in the United States. And I don't want to take anything away from Davis and Figuerrego because he threw a perfect game tonight. But that was heartbreaking to watch, wasn't it, especially, you know, someone covering the sport, somebody who's followed Benavitas for so long.

And especially if you're a Benavita's fan, that was rough. I mean, it goes without saying that you talk to a lot of media members and they say, like, who's your favorite fighters to interview? A lot of them will put Joe B on that list. Like, he's very understanding with his time. He gives great answers. He has interests outside of fighting. he's so passionate about and we'll talk about but he's he you'll you can't find i don't think you can find

anyone in this business that doesn't have a good thing to say about josephinevita's uh i mean i was doing pros reacts like the twitter reacts on our site and the amount of crying emojis like the emojis like the amount of sadness i saw just in his fellow fighters tweets it was that the the if you make a ratio of people say congratulations to figurato and people lamenting the fact that joe b lost, it was maybe three to one people upset that Joseph Benavita's loss. So just the fact that his fellow fighters are that much heartbroken that Joseph Benavita's loss is telling on how the sport views him. And where he goes from here, I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if he hung it up, but if he wants to keep fighting, just because he wants to keep fighting, I'm not going to tell

him not to. I'm never going to tell a fighter that they have to retire. But he's not going to get a tile shot anytime soon. He's two, oh and two against the current champion. He's not had, I still think he's the best fighter to never win a belt in any sort of major promotion. He's too small for 135. So if he wants to just keep fighting, just because he loves to keep fighting, by all means, keep going. But I don't know where he goes from here if he still wants a title. A.K., anything you want to add to that?

Look, it's no secret that we like Joseph Benavides around here. He's been a fantastic guest on a coffee talk with Esther and Casey. You know, so not just a good dude, as Jose says, as everyone in the media, will acknowledge, but a friend, a friend of the site for sure. And it was hard to watch, you know. For me, I don't know, I don't know him personally, but I will say I'm a fan of his work. And the story would be such a good one, you know, to finally win it. Figurato is a great story too.

I'm sure when we, you know, people dig a little deeper in his background and where he came from. They'll say, yeah, you know, it's just inspirational as any athlete that has to struggle and then make it to the top. But Benavita, so much of it has happened in front of us, you know, so much that story has happened in front of us. And to see him fall short one more time. And in really such brutal fashion, I mean, there's visuals, the finish with him getting choked out. Unfortunately, that's now going to be a meme.

That's going to be something of replay that people are going to see for years. You know, and that's the business, right? But if this is the end for Joseph Benavides, I'll quote cocktail here and say, everything ends badly. Otherwise, it wouldn't end, right? So sorry to bring everyone down. But congratulations, though, of course, to Davidson Figurato. That was awesome. That was awesome.

We're not going to do any matchmaking talk for this particular fight because, Alex, some breaking news here. If you feel like you haven't heard enough of myself and Alex Cayley from a podcasting front, we are adding another podcast to the network starting this week. On to the next one, that was a column that was like 2,000 words every week. We're now going to condense that into like a 20 to 25 minute podcast every week doing the matchmaking that way. So that's going to launch.

We're going to record that tomorrow. Probably to launch Monday morning. I think that was the plan. But maybe it'll launch tomorrow. I don't know. But we're going to turn that into podcasting form. So we'll talk all about the matchmaking stuff a little bit later. But this is also like the A side after dark.

If you guys got questions, comments, thoughts on the event. We will get to those in a little bit. We'll get to as many as we can. You know, and it's early. We could do this for the next five hours. We want to. We probably won't, but we could. Let's talk about the co-main event, Jose Youngs.

Jack Cramanson submits Calvin Gasselham in just over a minute. That was pretty surprising to see it end like that. Because we thought if anyone was going to finish this fight in the first round, it's probably going to be Kelvin Gasolum. If Hermanson was going to win, at least in my eyes, I thought he would have a well-rounded decision win. Turned out, Hermanson finishes the fight quickly, gets a quick paycheck. And then he match made for all of us in the post-fight press conference.

I know AKs a little salty about that. But your thoughts on the Joker's performance tonight. I mean, it's awesome. It's the fight. It's the performance he needed, especially coming off that devastating loss. to Captain Crystal Jared Cananier in like his backyard was matched up against Chris Wydenman who former champion is supposed to be another test

as the main event I believe in Oklahoma City and then he loses that to the pandemic and he gets bumped down to a three round co-main event against a guy coming off back-to-back losses and my God like Jacker Manson like you said if anyone's going to finish that fight quickly I thought it would be Kelvin Gaskell and be like he's shown in the past

and as Jack Hermanson has shown he also can finish fights quickly but it's usually by his Padsden guillotine, or he just gets a well-rounded decision win like he did against Jack Rory Soza, but I don't know anyone that had Jack Cermanston tapping out Calvin Gassum with a heel hook on their 2020 bingo card. Because if you claim you did, you're lying.

You're lying because that was unbelievable. Calvin Gasselms already apologized on his social media. I know we're going to talk about it later, but two leg-locked style submissions on one fight, truly as a fan of the just wackiness and goofiness of MMA. I loved it. But yeah,

Jackramanson, the biggest one of his career in the most stunning way, I would say. A.K., outside of Jackramansen, playing matchmaker and stealing your thunder, what did you make of his night tonight and on Flight Island? Well, first of all, guys,

I was thinking outside of the box on this one. You guys were all saying you thought if Gaslam were to win, it would be by a first round finish. I, in my predictions, which are printed on MMAF fighting.com, it cannot be changed. I thought that Gaslum was going

to win by decision. So I was super wrong. You guys were kind of wrong. I was super wrong. I went all the way the other way with it. It's tough, it's so tough for Calvin. We all know what a talented guy is. And man, it feels like on any given night he can hang with anyone. We saw it. He went five rounds with the current champion. So we know he can. But it's when you're facing someone with, with Hermant's skill, man, he makes that one mistake. You know, we've seen people do it. They try to get up off the ground and they just, they just leave a leg or they leave an arm and just in a little, little moment. And you think it couldn't happen to someone with Gastilum's experience, but it can happen to anybody. And he got caught. You know, it's essentially getting caught by a punch. He got caught by the

submission. And by the way, by no means, am I saying that this was lucky? Hermanson has a great, great submission skills. It is absolutely a finisher. And man, yeah, like Jose mentioned before, really bounced back from that cannoneer loss and has himself right back in the thick of that title picture, as he himself illustrated after doing all the matchmaking for us, Mike. I mean, it also, I want to add, like, we talk about it not being lucky. veteran wearerthal to when you're dry, because that was the beginning of the fight. There's no sweat. There's no, there's no blood. There's none of that. So if you see a leg and you know your opponent's dry, you're not going to not grab it and try to snap their ankle in half. So yeah, props to Jack Hermanson for just showing veteran Warthal to take advantage of a hang and a heel in front of him. And Jack Ramanson said in the bill up to the fight that he was glad that he got Calvin Gasolm over Chris Wybin because Gaslum is the more relevant guy in the division. And that's just a huge notch on the old belt for Mr. Hermanson. But that's the winner.

We got to talk about Kelvin Gasselum, Jose, because now he's lost three straight fights. He lost to Adasagna. He lost to Darren Till. And then he gets finished in just over a minute to Jack her Manson. So, man, we talked about Joseph Benavita's being in a pretty tough spot. Calvin Gassel, with the landscape of this division right now, he's in a really tough spot. Is he not? It's, he's in a tough spot.

But it's rough because his loss, it's, it's looking at his trajectory. It's been, it's bizarre. His fight against Israel out of Sanya is what I consider one of the five greatest title fights I've ever seen in MMA. It's right up there with Lawler McDonald, with Jones, Gusin, Yawanna, and Zhang Wiley. That was the one of that performance is unbelievable. If he didn't shoot him for that takedown against Kelvin Gastilum, he could be champion after he rocked him. Or if he had gotten the ability to fight Robert Whitaker when Robert Whitaker fell out in down in Australia, he might have been champion. So to go from a fight of the decade-style fight to laying an egg against Darren Tilling,

a very flat fight and very bizarre fight in Madison Square Garden, no less, to now getting heel hooked in less than, what, three minutes in the first round in Abu Dhabi. It's like every step. It's not he's taking one step back. He's taking like 10 steps back in terms of his actual performance. So still relevant in the division. It's still a guy that could headline a fight night down the road. Speaks both two languages.

Hopefully he has his USADA situation in check going. forward, but very, very bizarre trajectory for Kelvin. But I'm not taking any way from Jack Romantic because, again, he took advantage of the situation and capitalized. But, yeah, I have no idea what the UFC can do with Calvin Gasol at this point. All right, I can't know if we're going to touch on this fight on the new show because we're going to be breaking out Wednesday at its card as well. So we'll probably break down like six, seven, maybe eight of these bad boys.

So if you are the matchmakers, if you were in the matchmaker hat right now, how do you book Calvin Gasol moving forward? I don't know if I have a specific name for him. I do feel like he has now fallen into that sort of high-level gatekeeper role, which, again, there's no shame in that. Like Jose said, you can still have high-profile positions on cards. You can still have high-level opponents. But as far as the UFC viewing him as a serious contender, it's really, really going to be hard to do. Now, again, he's young.

You know, he's fairly aged in fight years. He's been around for a while. But he doesn't actually turn 29 until October. So, you know, as much damage as he's taken and he has been in some pretty high octane fights, he's not out of his prime by any means. Again, the results are tough and a three-fight losing streak in the UFC is, I mean, normally a death sentence, you know, when you're not, when you're not as high up ranked as he is, because he is going to get more opportunities. So, again, I don't have a name, but I do feel like he, unfortunately, will, is in that position

where guys will just be looking to make their name off of him and he'll be a quality opponent for future up-and-comers. But, you know, he's not an easy fight by any means. So he'll be a test. He'll be a test for people. I just don't know if we ever see him get another number one contenders opportunity or title shot. Yeah. And it's kind of too bad that Brandon Allen got hurt so badly in his last fight because I think Brennan versus Kelvin Gassum would be pretty interesting at 185.

You know, Ian Hinesh is there. So that's a lot of, there's also a lot of middleweight fights that are pretty much booked like Romero and Uriah Hall. Like, what if they ran Kelvin and Uriah Hall back again? They fought in the tough finale. If you all are married to Sarai Hall, they could run that back. If you all Romero loses, what, that's four in a row for him or something like that? Like, that's a fight you can make right there.

Shabazzian has a fight against Brunson. Supposedly, Karen Neers still has shoulder surgery. Akmanoff and Wydenman have a fight. So I think if the UFC wants to decide what they want to do, they got to wait for a few fights to play out first. Does anyone think he can return to 170? Is that completely impossible? I'm not going to let, I'm not going to put that on him. he hated that cut and then i'll think you throw another thing like that's bad

hit and robert whittaker coach tough together they were supposed to fight if robert whittaker loses to darren till like they've already been books before like the history is there like i'm still going to want to watch robert wittaker fight calvin gassel at some point in my career if if whittaker comes up short to daren till i'll make that fight too but yeah uh no matchmaking for kelvin gassel for at least the next two months fair enough let's uh let's get to the the featured bout at one 55 marcia casey versus hafiel fazeeveeveevee Holy cow. Fiziv, that is a madman. It's like watching the Matrix when that guy fights. And he's been doing this forever. So this is nothing new if you follow this kickboxing career. But, man,

he came in. I think a lot of people overlooked him in this fight against Mark Jukasee. I know that I did. Jukases look great in his last couple fights. But man, Fiziv looked great. And if there's one guy who shined in an empty arena setting, hearing his shots land, it was that guy. What a performance from Fiziv tonight, AK, your thoughts on a great performance and a big spot for him. You know, I was a big believer in the more mature,

more wizened Maraq Jasey, but guess what? Maturity doesn't mean anything it never made when you're dealing with an insane person, okay? Fiziev, I knew he was a good striker, but I think in the last spot I watched,

just the one before this one, I was like, okay, there's a little, there's a little bit of wildness in him, but he's the kind of guy he can afford to be wild because clearly his fundamentals are so strong. So when you see him doing stuff that looks like unorthodox, you know, the matrix dodges, that's not something anyone could do. That's someone that what you have to have experience,

you know, you either or the opposite. You're so inexperienced that you don't know that it's bad, but he's on the other end of it. He has all that, all that common sports experience. He's a striking coach for, I think, Piotrion, I believe they said that on the broadcast. It tells you the kind of, you know, the kind of base this guy is working from. You know, this guy teaches the best in the world. So, yeah, in retrospect, I mean, obvious pick should have been phizia. the guy looks fantastic. And he stopped Jekheese's wrestling. That was really good to see. So it wasn't just like a straight up striking battle. A lot to like there from Vizia. I definitely wanted to watch 155. So many exciting matchups ahead for him. And Jose, on top of his great offense,

we talked about the great defense too. The man's got a chin on him because he took some big shots in that third round, especially. What did you think of a Fiziv's performance? This is definitely a breakout night for him. It was. And I'm really disappointed that he didn't get a post-fighted media scrum. Because it's like I was watching this and the whole time I'm like, my God, this man is terrifying because I picked against him. Not because I didn't think he was a good fighter, but in my mind, like he got what spinning back kicks by Magumann Mustafev. I think back in the one of like the St. Petersburg or Moscow cards, I can't quite remember. Like he got decimated in that fight. Like that was a violent finish.

So in the back of my mind, that's all I'm thinking about. I knew he has over 200 amateur mojtai fights. He's like a three or four time champion. He's a silver medalist in a moitai tournament in like a morti. championship tournament too so unbelievable striking i didn't know how great he would be in m m m mcassie like like alex said uh has has been talking about how he's matured he's he's he's he's confident still of course but he's matured he's more cerebral with his fighting so in jocase he's he's put some people to sleep in incredibly violent fashion like there his opponents have literally toppled over so in the

strapped m m m mary fight i've assumed uh dea casey would hold the advantage but physiev just blew me away he looked like a completely different fight than we've seen in the UFC. We knew he could do this, but I am curious to see how he can, if he can keep this up against a completely well-rounded mixed martial arts feather. That can threaten grappling,

threaten better takedowns. That isn't just looking for that one like-like. Because we all know, D.A.C. He needs one touch and you go to sleep. If you can avoid that one touch, you're fine. If he can avoid, if he fights someone, Fisi that can present more than just that tool,

it could be a big problem for him, but in terms of this night, A plus performance, very disappointed you didn't capitalize it and do a media scrum, but it is what it is. But yeah, star making performance right there. By the way, Fizio's chin, how about Jacizzi's midsection torso area?

Yo, guys, those abs are not just for show, all right? Those abs saved his life. Because if I took a kick like that, freaking mortal combat, all right? I'm getting split in two. I would get, and it would explode all over the place. I would get Splint and have blocking one of those.

So he could tell me, He could be like, I'm going to kick you in the abs. You can block it. And I would block it and I would still die. So that's how hard those puns, those kicks come at you. Maybe if you have one of those sparring paths. No, it's not going to make a difference. Like that little girl in that clip, we're over, over, over, over, over,

kicking the little girl. She goes flying, that would be, that would be me. I would just go flying across the room, probably into a wall. 100%. Those kicks insane. All right. I'm going to give a spoiler matchmaker pick here for Fiziviv, Drachar Close. I think that's, I think that's a good one.

You know? I will take your car close, Mike. I will take your drug car close. I will raise you a comma worthy. Ooh. Well, that's a fun one. I'm not going to say no to a Landauvinata fight either. Yeah.

I want to see Kamaworthy fight, Landovanada. Oh, there you go. Yeah, I don't hate that fight either. But there's a, someone said David Tamer, one of the Tamer brothers, whichever one is out of that weight class.

I wouldn't mind seeing that fight either. Again, that weight class is so stacked. I'll see him fight anyone. I would agree with that. And then before that all happened, we got to see one of the nastiest submissions I've ever seen. Ariana Lipski against Luana, Carolina. Good Lord. That leg lock was nasty.

We're sitting there watching it. We're wondering how this is all going to play out and how she's going to be able to pull this off. Because she was working for something and she was in such an awkward position. And then once Caroline's leg went straight up in the air, I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And it just got worse and worse. So, AK, what was going through your mind is you're watching this submission actually unfold tonight? I don't know if we can get the, get the picture up. I don't know if the truck can get the picture up there of this, but it was, it was a beauty of a submission. I said it was the

most effed up position I'd ever seen in MMA, just not the top man. Because it wasn't just the, it wasn't just the end of the fight. It wasn't just how it finished. Lipski's own leg was like twisted inward. If people watch, it was twisted into her at like this weird angle. I guess she looked fine, you know, she's a flexible person, so it wasn't the worst thing in the world for her. But, I mean, it looked like she was going, there we go. So I don't know where even her, oh, there, okay, now you can see her own leg. It was in a worst position, I think, before she got the submission going. That's lovely.

But that is, the other thing I want to point out is that just before, you can find the clip on her website. It's all over. It's all over the internet right now. Just before she did it, she kind of looked to her side, maybe to her coaches for instruction. But if you look at just a clip by itself, it almost looked like she was looking for permission. Like, is it what I'm about to do here legal to do to another human being? And then it's just, well, I'm going to do it. And then she cranked on it.

And it was absolutely horrifying. We've seen some slick submissions, some really memorable submissions over the years, Jose. I think Demetrius Johnson and the Mighty Whiz Bar always sticks out to me in memorable submissions. But in terms of like painful looking submissions to watch them live on television, is this a top 10 for you? Or is that to give it a too much? That's a good question. I can't answer that right now because I can't really.

because there are certain submissions I've seen live, like a fight that no one talks about ever, because it's not like one of those great submissions, but the Anthony Burrchak's heel hook submission loss, I think to Ian N-wistle or something like that, that was on the Phoenix card. I was about five feet from that, and Anthony Burchak looked at me in my eyes when it happened.

He was like, he was like freaking out. It was like that would be burned into my eyes forever. But in terms of a female fight, this has to be up there. I mean, it was a weird angle when she was getting the angle. I'm like, why is she just giving up her back like this? Like I was very confused by the whole, the whole situation. And then she grabbed her leg and basically used it as a joystick pulling it back. It was it was brutal.

It was absolutely brutal. So in terms of women's MMA, 100%, but in terms of overall MMA, I'd really have to sit down and think of it. Because like, what was that? UFC 228, we had like two Suvalov stretches in the span of like an hour with Zabit and Alzormay and Sterling both getting those. So yeah, but I'd have to think about it. if it is, it'd probably be closer to the 10 range than top five. Yeah, I would agree with that. And I think what made that one worse was the empty arena.

You could just hear Carolyn a scream not just during the hold, but like 30, 45 a minute after the tap, which she was still screaming at the top of her lungs. Like, she was in some serious pain. There it is. I mean, look at that leg. Oh, my gosh. Mike, I couldn't tell if that was her screaming or if it was me. That's the problem.

You say the scream went on for a while. I'm not sure. It might have just been me. I just, it would surprise me. The submissions and knockouts that stick in my mind are usually the ones I'm there because I can hear it. Like I was in the arena for UFC 157 when, oh my God, I can't even remember. Was it Brock?

I can't remember. He got like the muffler stretch on like the leg. That looked brutal. So it's the ones that you can hear that. Like I was about five feet away from Anderson Silva's legs snapping in half too. So that will all never. That's like the grossest finish I've ever seen. But yeah, that's that's.

that are in a Lipski fight, Queen of Violence. I mean, she lived up to her name, I'd say so. Yeah, but she proclaimed during her scrum that the Queen of Violence is back, and she definitely proved that. So big things coming for her. I think she's, I wouldn't say she's like, Amanda Hebas, like that sort of level, but I think she's someone that the UFC needs to use with kid gloves,

just slowly build her up. I think she could become something for them. She could, but they, like, she had a lot of hype coming into the UFC. She was a KSW champion, right? Yeah. Yeah. So she was KSW champion. Then who she fights like Joanne Calderwood and like Molly McCann like right out of the gate.

And I was like as soon as she lost to Molly, I was like, this might be too big for her. And now that she's there kind of giving her opponents not quite on that level. I think like you said, handle her with care if they want to build a star. Agreed. Ask her. Ask her off. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead.

Want to throw a name out there? Again, I don't know. Sure. Stepping on her own toes. But I'll just throw the name out. We can elaborate out of a later date if we choose to. Sabina Mazo. Oh, I love that fight.

I think that fight is super fun. There we go. Wow. Done. Well done. A lot of fun. We don't even need to talk about that fight because I'm 100% in agreement with you. Maybe we'll just mention it in passing when we record the podcast.

But good win for Asker Asker. Asker Off. That was a statement win. It was a great performance from him. And then Roman Dahladze? I would say, Delitzay. Delizze? Good Lord.

What we learned tonight, if we learned anything, is that when you're fighting this man and the way ins are done and you're about to square off and face off with Roman, don't, don't act crazy, bro. Don't do it because bad things will happen, violent things will happen. And that's what happened tonight. He looked great. Grant Dawson, that guy is such a monster. That he's so big. If he wants to go to 145, if he gets like his post-fired scrimony, he's eight, to 12 weeks, eight to 10 weeks or whatever, if you can get back to 145 healthy, it's basically

like when Anthony Johnson fought a welterweight. The dude is too big for the division, but if he can do it healthy, why not? I'm not going to tell him not to, but my body's going to hurt watching him weigh in, but dude's going to be a savage in that weight class if he decides to keep going back down there. Yeah, he's, I've been following this guy for years and he just gets better and better with each fight. And, you know, Nad landed some big shots. We got to see Grant sort of tested a little bit in the chin department. And he took things pretty well. And then it just became the Grant Dossett show.

He put him on his back. He bloodied him up and just warm down for 15 minutes and gets a big win. He looks like an incredibly unpleasant person to fight. I mean, fighting anyone is unpleasant. But he has that kind of top game where he's not going to sit in your guard. If you throw your guard, so I've thrown my guard up. It's okay. I've slowed down.

No, he's not slowing down his attack. He's going to have your guard. He's trying to pass. He's throwing crap down on all kinds of crap down on you. I mean, your cardio better be on point. Otherwise, I can see why his last two fights, second round submission because he's just for like those first, if you get that first round, you have top control that he usually gets. You're done. And your gas tank is just drained.

So we like to call that getting big brothered. Yeah. That's what he's what he's been doing to people. I'll tell you. Holy cow. He's a welterweight fighting at 145. If he fights these 145ers and he said like I'm bigger than a welterweight right now. So he's walking around like 179, 179, 180.

He's fighting featherway. It's like it's going to be a big issue because no one's going to be able to control. Like you said, if he gets on top of you, that's a wrap for most fighters. He's definitely a guy to watch. Joel Alvarez had a great submission win, finished Joseph Duffy. And it was the final fight of Joe Duffy's career tonight. That was some sad news to come out of tonight's event. So good win for Alvarez.

Joe Duffy's always been a fun guy to watch. Jose, any good Joe Duffy stories over the years? I've seen, I've never watched him win live, but I've obviously seen, because all the fights that he's won, I've not been off. So I was at his Jim Vick T.O. I was at his Dustin Porre. Decision loss. So I have not had the fortune of interviewing Joe Duffy off a win, but I vividly remember

watching his UFC debut. I think Jake Lindsay was his name and he had like that. Left head kick, which like stunned. him and then he followed up with like a left hook to the body and then he crumbles down and then he just unloads like another uppercut to the face and that was a wrap so joe duffy's most violent win was his ufc debut and i really wish he had made the jump to the ufc sooner and not just kind of i don't want to say piggybacks but he kind of joins the ufc after the conno greggar show kind of exploded if he was there for the whole irish rise with m mbama he could have been a lot bigger of a deal but uh if you

haven't watched joe duffy's previous career before the ufc like he's beating connor mcgregor he's beaten Norman Park. He's a great fighter. So don't base your thoughts on Joe Duffy off his last three losses because he was an extraordinarily fun fighter to watch in the past. And a good win for Joel Alvarez. And I thought his post-fights scrum was pretty funny. He wants to be the underdog for his whole career just because friends can bet on him and he can make them some extra money. So I thought that was very unselfish of him. But a good win for him. He sends Joseph Duffy off to, you know, off to greener pastures onto another thing. But what did you think of his performance tonight, A.K.

Alvarez, yes. I thought he looked great. He's got really good measurements for a 155er. I think people were telling Esther on the weigh-ins during the live way-ins that we did on Friday, that Alvarez was a lock, and I'm not sure if they were just trolling or they knew something that I didn't know. But, I mean, he certainly looked like a lock, first round submission of a tough veteran in under two and a half minutes. So I don't have a lot to say about the performance other than, man, 17 and 2 now.

You can't argue against the results. I think I'm just looking here. He's six feet tall. He looks like a solid, rangey six feet tall. So there's a lot to like about him. And I'll just add on to the happy trails for Joseph Duffy. He was one of the last opponents of a Canadian guy, Mitch Clark, who was a big Canadian name heading into the UFC. And so now Duffy himself sort of an honorary Canadian.

So we certainly welcome him if he decides to stay and make a life here. Yeah, I do want to add. I think Joe Duffy was the biggest betting favorite at one point. I don't know if that's how it ended, but at one point he was like a minus 350, which was the biggest betting favorite. But I don't know how those lines ended. So, yeah, a lot of people thought Joe Duffer was going to win that fight.

Is Alvara the one, I'm trying to remember, because there's so many things to remember here in terms of fights and all these different events. But is Alvarez the one with the crazy leg tattoos? Oh, that's it. I don't remember. Did you have to bring that out? Yeah, I think you're, I think you're having to bring that.

That was a bad one. someone said i think it was a bloody elbows trend ryan smith don't get a mesh tattoo like that if you don't want it to look like you're wearing fishnets and uh and there was other stuff too it wasn't just that below that there was all kinds of other stuff it reminded me also of the predator i guess in a way but not in a cool way like the like how the predator's legs look weird way so uh you know what you can't whatever you know what i've never won a ufc fight before and if that's the kind of tattoos you have to beat to be to go to god like joe duff beat live your life joel alfrey's you know what you're doing There you go. Brett Johns gets a nice win over Montel Jackson. And that one kind of surprised me. I think we learned something about Montel Jackson tonight. That guy has potential up the wazoo. But he's just got a, I don't know, there's something there's something there's just kind of blocking him a little bit. That's just kind of holding him back. But he's just a massive guy. His hands are just huge. They're so strong. But Brett John's great performance was able to neutralize Montel Jackson. Amir, Albaazi, great triangle. fantastic. Token over Malcolm Gordon. And I think I think the sentimental star of the night from the prelims was, was Sarukian.

100%. 100%. I ever met. So I watched when he fought Islam Makachev, I thought Makachev was going to destroy him because I think was that Sarukin's what, first or second? First you see. His UFC debut in Moscow. Habib sitting there.

And then after the fight, he lost. But Habib even went up and shook his hand. We're like, you're a good fighter. This might have just been too big of a bite right out of the gate. And then I think his next fight was at USC 240, right, in Edmonton, he fight Olivier Obam and Mersier. And you, of course, I think AK picked OAM. I did not.

I did not. Really? Okay. I definitely, yeah, I picked him. A lot of people were talking about like, what's it upset? I'm like, I think Sarukian is going to be a big issue in that weight class. Just because of his U.S. debut, he looked. It was one of those fights.

He looks phenomenal, but he lost. And not a lot of people. watched it because it was on a Moscow car. So it really did him a disservice because I think a lot of people overlooked him in that fight. And he, me and Esther were like on the way and show. Someone was like, what fight on the prelims are you most excited for? And we were both like, Sarukian is an problem in that division. And my God, he looked, he looked physically like he's perfect for the weight class,

lightweight. And Davy Ham was, of course, a big, a name veteran. He's fought in Abadabdabwe before. But yeah, Sarukian is going to be a big issue of 155 pounds. Yeah, I love that performance. He fought a beautiful, beautiful fight. Ramos is a very, very dangerous guy. Surukin, he's only 23.

He turns 24 in October, I think. People got to know, before the UFC, he had wins over Takenari Sato, Junior Assun Sao, Philippeo O'Levary is also a former UFC guy. So he was beating UFC level talent before. And this was when he was like 21 or 22. And then so I knew he wasn't going to beat Makachap, but I was like, he's going to put up a fight. This kid is super talented. I didn't know his stand-up was this good.

Like he showed off some stuff in the stand-up today. sensational and the way he's going to he's just going to get better and keep mixing the open with his wrestling which is already elite it is not an exaggeration to say this guy's a future world title contender he's as long as they keep matching him upright and don't rush him in anything too soon but he is written he's at this level now unfortunately for him I don't think anybody wants to fight him yeah it's a tough matchup it's going to be a problem yeah it's going to be a big issue because like I want to see him fight a ton of guys like I want to see him fight like the Alexander Hernandez and the Drew Dovers of the world and the Benio Dereujas.

But like, who wants that fight against a 23-year-old unranked? That's a monster. It's a great point. And then I kicked off with Sergei Spivok defeating Carlos Philippe. And it was funny because I was, I'm in Boston right now visiting my family. And I was watching that fight with my little brother. And he watched that third round. He goes, oh, Spivak's usually going to get a decision.

I go, Brian, mark my words. There's going to be a draw in there somewhere. I guarantee it. And there was one judge scored in a draw. I was like two, one judge is going to give Carlos the first two rounds. It's going to be hilarious. Sure enough,

that's what happened. So that was kind of a weird fight to watch because Spebac just kept hitting Carlos over and over again. He just kept shaking his head saying no and walking forward. But that was an interesting heavyweight matchup to start things off. Oops, we're shaking. Sorry. Let's go to the truck. We have questions.

We get comments. Oh, that's an old question. Dean's ice cream choice It was the correct answer I listened to the A set on the way down Hello gentlemen Okay, C, are you wearing a Mirko shirt? Yeah

Look at that. That's sick. It's got a little A foot, you know, for the gun. Okay. As a foot. I get it. Yeah, I get it. Get it. He's a cop with his head kicks. Yeah.

He's a cop, yeah. All right. They're sure for Asia, too. What do the peeps got to say? I'll see, I'll just do this informally right now. Some said, Jose, did you see your tweet on TV? You had several on TV. Yeah.

I think I was on once or twice. Let's go. Okay, Mr. Hegg, how many tweets have you gotten on a broadcast? Several. Probably like three or four. Really? And it's always like, like, I got a bunch, like, in the first couple of cards. And then it just stopped.

And it has to be, like, clever tweets for me to get out there. Like when, when, uh, Maurice, Green submitted John Volante. I said, Maurice Green just crocheted himself a bizarre submission. Oh, that's making it for sure. My Sarukian tweet did make the broadcast. What did you say about Sarruki? Oh, Star Rukian. Yeah, I said if you were, in the next year or two, you're going to have to reverse the

S and the T in his name because this guy's a problem. It took me a minute. It took me a minute. It took me a minute. I retweeted that from our account. And I think I think people just got mad because I think I don't think I think I think our readers are like, whoa, whoa. I'm here to watch fights, not spell. Come on, Mike. Hex. So strategic mistake. It's all right. Hey, I, too, okay. They came in the broadcast tonight.

I did. An incredible insight about Armand-sur-Ru-Kin is serious. Hashtag U.S.C. Fight Island, too. Boom. Throw it up there. Throw it up. That's all you need. Some deep analysis there, Alex.

Serious. I need that Ryan Frederick love. That guy gets tweets on every fight, every round. Casey, you were saying your own efforts, your own efforts to get on? What's the problem? I tried my best. I mentioned otter pops like five times.

Nothing from otter pops. I didn't get an RT, didn't get a favorite from otter pops. Those guys, the social media team of otter pops, whatever flavor that social media member is, like, sucks.

It's the Casey is to otter pops, as CM Punk is to the WW ice cream bars. I hashtag stay curious, even though no one knows what that is. Nothing. Nothing. Is anyone working over there in Abu Dhabi? This is insane.

There's only room for one mustache journalist on the tweets, Casey. There you go. Casey, you just need to say, like, I can't wait to visit Abu Dhabi someday. Hashtag UFC Fight Island something. You'll get on the broadcast. I even said, oh, I can't wait to jump on a flight to Fight Island and fly beautiful Eddie Hot Airlines. Nothing.

What are the peeps got to say? Maybe there are tweets to me to the broadcast. All right. Chuck, get it together. We're your favorite fighters. Wow, we're getting... Just general. Just generally?

So, Rukin, one of my new favorite fighters after tonight. I mean, Joseph Vannevita still is. I mean, was one of my favorite fighters, for sure, heading tonight, still is. You know, we've said before about how great his story is and just how, what a good character is. seems to be, and he's always put on entertaining a fights. Let's not just make this a sentimental thing. You can go through Joseph Benevita's whole fight library.

His fights are awesome. I will say that, like, before I started covering the sport and was like really watching as a fan, Frankie Edgar was my guy. Yeah, still. Oh, yeah. Still. I picked him to beat zombie. That's right.

That's right, YouTube. I picked him to beat zombie. All right. You also picked him to beat Max Holloway. I think I picked the Vemax Holloway. I don't think I've ever picked against him. Because I remember in our preview show, you were like, I can't, wait, I can't wait to ask of Frankie Edgar.

I can't wait to ask Frank Edgar what it feels like to have a featherweight championship around his waist. Oh, I got, I got to ask you to say, okay. Let's just, let's just say, Frankie Edgar doesn't do well, 135 and has to go back up to 45. Who would you, who would you pick in a fight between Ryan Hall and Frankie Edgar? That is about as sentimental as it gets for you, buddy. Like, who do I want to win Frankie Edgar?

Who would you pick? Who would you pick? Who would you pick? Who is going to win Ryan Hall, because Ryan Hall is unbeatable, all right? I'm, I like Frankie Edgar, but I'm not. I'm also a quote unquote certified MMA expert. And Ryan Hall doesn't lose. So, I mean, I just have to say Ryan Hall by default.

Did you say he's serious? Let me tell you. That's getting on the, Ryan Hall is serious. I thought you'd abstain from that fight altogether. No, no, I don't pick against the wizard. We're going to backtrack a little bit for what we talked about. So for the newer viewers, but here we go.

Jose, who do you think should be next for Hermanson? I like the scenario he laid. out. I really want to see him fight the winner of Robert Whitaker and Darren Till. It just depends. Because the cost, the Autosanii fight was also announced during the broadcast, usually 243 in September. Of course, the Till Whitaker fight is next weekend. So they're not quite on the same timeline, but close enough. If they, like, like Adasania at cost is just an insane fight, and it goes back and forth and someone gets hurt. And they just, you know, it's hard to match to make before fights even happen. So Hermannsen versus the winner of

Whitaker, I think makes a lot of sense. And like you said, the winner of Costa and Adasanaio will fight, Canoneer. But I don't think that's what happens to Canada's hurt. And Adisaniers on record saying he needs one more fight. So Canonier versus whoever when he comes back. So I kind of like Hermant's little scenario he laid out. It's interesting because I honestly think if Darren Till goes out there and finishes Robert Whitaker, he's next line regardless.

I agree. But it depends on, I would say it depends on how he wins. Because Adasania Costa hasn't happened yet. Because we just saw Kamar Uzman fight Jorge Mazurah. Kamar Uzman now has a six months medical suspension. And he won. He's still the champion and not an insane fight. So it's really hard for me to make fights over fights that haven't happened,

considering we don't know what their medical suspensions will be. That's true. I would like to see Hermantin versus the winner, especially if it's Edmund Chabasian versus Derek Brunson. Don't forget about Shabasian. You took it for me. That's good. good. Yeah, look, I'm just going to split the middle with what the two guys just said.

Obviously, if Till jumps the line with an impressive win over Whitaker, then Casey's absolutely right. Then you have to either Hermanson will wait, which I don't think he wants to do. He seems like he wants to stay active. And he'll have to take on Shabazzian, Derek Brunson winner. Yeah, I would agree. We also have Raq. Hall and Romero coming up, Jacques-Rae's has to come back at some point after his COVID scare. And then Wyden and Akhenov are also throwing down. So there's, again, we said this before. There's a lot of middleweight fights that have to happen before you. And there's a silver. Anderson Silver? Where's Anderson Silver?

I'll watch Antisylify to anyone. The Joker versus the spider? We didn't. Silver 3, make it happen. You mentioned earlier, but we didn't get this question from the, from our commenters. But for Kelvin, I would like to see Kelvin versus Marvin Vittori. Oh, I know, they're same camp. Same camp.

And they have the same everything. Yeah. One, one. Wait, wait, yeah. More. We need the prices right. Loser. this is classic we already got fans asking for um to go up and wait oh we're going super

fights already there are davis's chances against yon um i don't want to answer this question because yon has to fight alger man next and davidson has to fight someone to fly away so what is chance is great because like the dude kids hard but i think yon's better i think yon wins but it's not like davidson doesn't have a shot that dude has dynamite in his hands What do you mean that he has to fight Al Jermaine next? That's not what Dana White has said. Dana White has made, I haven't heard Dana White say that he has to fight Algini. He said women would never fight in the UFC.

All right, Jose. Let me ask you this. Who should Davidson's first title defense? Who's, who's earned that shot? Is it Alex Perez? Yeah, I would say Alex Perez. It's going to come down to Perez, Moreno, and of course, Ask her Asked off Perez. If Pantosia had won, maybe, but they had already fought, well, David's a figure

Red already beat into the U.C.C. 240. So it's going to come down to Ascroft, Moreno and Perez. Perez had an awesome win over Hussia Formiga at the apex. So I personally would love to see Perez throwdown with Figurato. I think Perez is still like, he's not, he's a flyweight, but he's still a bigger flyweight than a lot of these other guys. So yeah, I like that fight a lot. How long will the 125 pound division hang on by this thread? Oh, how dare you? I love the flyweight division. I'm sorry. I love it. This question is insulting, but.

In Fairness, I understand what's coming. Yes, exactly. I think he means, I think the worst popularity, the worst case scenario is figurato Mrs. Wade again for a title fight as a champion. I think that would be horrendous. Yeah.

But you know, I feel like until that happens. I feel like it's Groundhogs day with this with this whole men's flyweight division. We go, like, remember Sehudo versus TJ? We're like, oh, this is, this is for the flyweight division. And then it had the most exciting knockout and the quickest finish.

And then we're like, oh, the flight weights are here. And then we're a year and a half later. And now we're the same thing. Oh, the flyweight division again. And then we had the most brutal knockout and one of the quickest finishes of the night. And we're still, we still have to have this discussion. And we're going to have this discussion again in a year again, you know. So. Listen, they're not, they're not going to headline pay-per-views.

And I'm okay with that. If we're going to head, we're going to headline the ESPN Plus car with the flyway title fight or make it a co-main event or a third title fight. I don't have a pay-free card. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm down for all of that. We got some good flyweight fights coming up. We got Tyson-NAM versus Matt Chanel.

That's going to be a ridiculous fight at 25. I can't wait for that one. That's going to be violence and quickness and bizarro world. I'm excited for that fight. Yeah, I still think it's a division that they can push a little more. Look, people are always going to have, the casual fewer, I guess, is always going to have this bias against a smaller fighter. I don't believe that.

I believe you have the right personality and you push them right. I think you can make anyone a star. but again, whatever, that seems to be the sentiment among people. Because I mentioned before, how was this the first time, Alexander Pantosia was on a main card? Can you mean how exciting is your finisher? He's a contender. You have to push, like, I know there's not as big a difference between televised main

card and televised prelims anymore. I understand that. But there is still, it still sends a message, a subtle and unmistakable message that what you think of this fighter if you don't put them in the main card. And fans pick up on that. So I wish they'd done more, like this is exactly how things you'd go. You have two contenders on there with two guys fighting for a championship in that division in the main event. And then it's so easy to form a narrative from there. But when you keep

shoving these guys in the prelims and not building them up, that's why we have people like Noah White here, of course, asking this question, is this division always hanging by a thread? And in some ways it is, but it doesn't have to be. There's nothing inherently wrong with it. It's just a marketing issue. I don't think it can add any more to that. Who's next? Ask Rob, Marino, or Perez? Triple threat match. if they I watched any of those three fight Davidson

Figurado Ascroft and Reyno fought to a draw if I remember correctly in Mexico it was in Mexico City was it that card so if they want to run

that back since they fought to a draw and Perez fights Figurato as like kind of little final four I wouldn't hate that whatsoever yeah I agree with that 100%.

A.K. must as well save it. Oh I didn't know you through to me. I'm sorry. I like the Prez option that was mentioned before as well. But Ascroft really showed me a lot tonight.

I wouldn't object at all to Ascro just getting that title shot outright. I'd be like, yeah, cool. I think Perez is the right choice. Well, according to Guillermo Cruz, figurato is already angling for Suhudo at 135 or asking the UFC to bring back Demetrius Johnson. So, say what you will, that the UFC champion is not calling

out as contenders again. Who would you guys trade for? Oh, look at this question. Who would you guys trade with the UFC to get Demetrius back and fight figurato? Now we want to trade back. Now, that's good. That's good.

Who would you trade to one? Hmm. Well, it seems like most people aren't putting the flyway division on this high pedestal, and that it would include Demetri's Johnson. So where do we value him? I mean, it was Ben Asgren for Demetrius before. Can we sign and trade PVZ? Anthony Pettis?

That's actually a really good one. No, can they re-sign? When someone said, if you, if trade, if trade. were allowed and this doesn't have to do with Demetri's Johnson. I was like, if you can make another trade, who would you be? I was like, I would trade Anthony Perez for Lance Palmer right now. USC to PFL, but it's obviously never going to happen. But yeah, Anthony Pettis or Jameson, why not?

A.K., do you have a response to that? Well, I'm sorry, I was just interrupting there. I was saying, can they not sign and trade, page Van Zanzan, sign her back just to trade her? Wouldn't that be hilarious? Because everyone is saying, like, oh, well, they sent Sage over there. So maybe one wants someone like Pace. Because there's, I don't know, I guess they're always going to be associated with each other.

The Page and Sage Show, just because I guess their age and how they were pushed and their names rhyme. We're as simple people. But so, I mean, I think that would be that would be sort of like the equivalent of what happened with the Ascgren, Demetius Johnson. I shouldn't say that. You know, Van Zand, as skilled as she has, is not as accomplished as Ben Ascran was over in one. He was a world champion, of course, in multiple promotions. But I mean, as far as from a marketing perspective, it could kind of work that way. You could easily say that Page Vanzant is more well known to the average Joe than Demetre Johnson is.

So that's really the first name that came to my mind. You want to sign and trade, Page Vandandt, Johnson? Yes, sign and trade. They do this in real sports all the time. Yes, a sign and trade. I think you're going to have to include more in your package to get the number one flyweight in the world. Jerome Toro, this is a really good question. Can we linger on this for a moment?

moment while you guys share it. I'm looking at the roster right now. That's a really good question. I would like to trade. I know it's not going to happen because this is never going to happen. Trade Demetris for Sehudo's contract. So Sehudo goes to one. But then he's allowed to box, but he can do MMA over there.

So he can still do other things like pro wrestle. Because the UFC contract is so restrictive. So I'm just saying. But it ain't going to happen. I love the padist idea. I actually think that makes a lot of sense. Do they really need Connor anymore? Can they trade Connor?

Tell the least he's... You don't need him. All these retired fighters. Just give him all these... What about a son's... Dosanos, RDA? Doesn't he train it, evolve MMA a lot over in Singapore? I think that was a relationship for a while,

but I'm not sure if that still goes on. You know what I mean. Yeah. I think Jose's got a couple... Jose is on the right track. That's a good question. You can just start calling the general manager of these chats. That is a great question.

Okay. such a good question. This is a long time commentary. It doesn't have to do of tonight's card, but she really wants us to talk about this, so we're going to go a little off card. All right. Which scenario is more likely?

Sugar Sean knocking out Cheetah Vera or Cheetah Vera submitting Sugar Sean? Ooh. Probably the former. Probably the former. More likely? I think Sugar Sean can knock on anyone at 135 right now. And Vera gets better as the fight goes on.

So if he can survive, survive that storm and get it to the third round, I don't know if he finishes sugar Sean is really good on the ground. Yeah, I was really saying. Yeah, if you pick one, I mean, I'm picking, I'm picking Sugar Sean over knocking out Vera, unfortunately for Vera, but I would actually pick him on the ground too, most likely to. Sugar Sean is so long and lanky and like he is so big for 135. He reminds me of Connor fighting 145.

when he emerged. Like, the dude cracks. He's huge and he's going to be a superstar. So, yeah, Sugar-Shon, I favor him in both of those on the ground or the feet. I love this fight a lot. I think we're going to, you know, and I feel like Connor, I think every fight Connor had, it was like, oh, now we're going to see if he's for real. And I remember there's like this one meme that was put out.

It was like, Connor just, oh, now he's going to fight this guy. Now he's going to fight this guy. And then the last thing was after he beat Aldo was now he's going to be the Undertaker at WrestleMania. and he can do it all. So I like, this will be a good test for him. This is like a legit test. Wyland was a good step up.

I think this is like the perfect step up too. So we're going to see where Sugar Sean really is because Vera is a is a savage. And he's going to, he's going to test Sean, no doubt about it. So, but I favor O'Malley in that fight. Question for everybody on the panel. Who has the flyweight strap one calendar year from right now? Valentina Shepchenko. men and women

so should take both belts easy easy question that's weird all right we'll go with the men all right we'll go with the men oh I guess context wise I should have known he's probably

okay referring to the men's so on July 18th at 837 p.m. Pacific time Davis and figure eight will probably have the flyweight championship of the world if there's still a division according to some of our viewers are no white

I'm going to say Brandon Moreno will be the champion one year from right now I want to say that assassin baby No it'll be Demetio Johnson after he comes back And the Anthony Pettus trade To the sign and trade For Anthony Pettis Page Van Zanzan signed a trade

And Henry Sehudo's contract It's big trade If Brandon Mareno wins the flyway Change of the world I wanted to put in a what do you call it A comma after the assassin So it's just the assassin baby.

Not the assassin baby. More of a statement that. I'm an assassin guy. This is the best post show ever. I'm going to say in one year we're going to have two former rising champs as the UFC champs. Mano Kaye. I don't have the flyweight title. And then Yeri will have the 205 title.

I don't know if people heard that. He's like Manel Cape and Yeree Prakashka. Manel Cape, I was thinking of him. I just don't think it will happen in a year. That would he would have. shoot up there quickly. Yeah. I think in like two years, for sure, he could be there, but I don't think in one year.

You don't believe. Yeah, that's tough to ask. I mean, there's a lot of kids. I mean, there's three, there's three guys who could, who could fight for the bell right now. So there's at least two title defenses you're going to have to make before Cap's even in that conversation. I've been out, okay, fight Joe B. There you go. He's fighting, he's on, he's on two, he's on two, right?

Yeah, he has a, he has a fight against a name I'm not familiar. you're with, actually. Roder von Bontorin? Yeah, I'm not Is he fighting Rogerio Bontorin? Oh, he is. I think so, yeah. Yes, he is.

Correct. Yeah, U.C. 252. There we go. I don't know very much about his opponent. It's good. It's tough fight. That's tough fight. What else we got?

What else we got? What else we got? Joe B says he's not retiring. Good for Joe. Sir Rukian impressed me today. I think you impressed everybody tonight. man he's a 23 years old and man uh lightway right yeah what i am 14 years older than that guy

that frightens me what was this why did he get a late notice fight to fight mark at chaff i believe it was don't quote me on that i i will look right now i do i do believe it seems a weird matchup i think he did have to step in uh for some of the i'll let me just check that right now uh talk amongst yourselves well i do uh do you know what we in the in the MMA media business call research for you guys watching at home. What type of milk do you use in your coffee? Listen, D125, no milk. Zero milk.

I like my coffee so black there's an event horizon, okay? Take it from the pot, put it in the mug. It hands me. It's so black that I can send a shift through and it pops out on the other side of the wall, breaking the space time continuum. I do not put nothing in my coffee. I'm not going to get as to as a, is described. scriptive as that, but I was saying what you spoke for all of us black coffee drinkers.

The barista. All right. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Casey, what is your incorrect answer on what you put in your coffee? You're going to skim milk it, are you? Barista is the brista brand oat milk. That's incorrect. It's black coffee.

No, it's not. You can have the second best answer in what you put in the coffee. Just have the second best. What did you say? Esserie's yelling at me. I'm saying you're wrong. Yeah, she's saying, why did I marry you? Who put stuff in the coffee?

Oh, wow. Everyone settled down. Everyone settled down. Everyone's waiting to hear the Armin Srukean is on Machu. He was not replacing someone, but the fight was not, I believe, booked until about a month before the card. So it was essentially some sort of shirt notice thing they had to put together. Do you want to file? What type of bad liquid do you put in your coffee?

Oh, let's just go of oat milk. Oh, we have some very funny answers that I will not read out loud. What else we got? Oh, you know, you didn't talk about, I mean, as much as Lipski's knee bar was freaking awesome and so violent, dude, her manson got screwed. Oh, as it from a bonus perspective. Wow. I mean, I mean, bigger spot. Bigger spot, much higher ranked opponent, underdog.

I mean, geez, guys. surprising yeah i mean you had to give it to figgy you know figgy as a great submission as well a great moment but uh yeah it seems wrong not to give her mansum this is like that night when those two a sulewef stretches somehow didn't get bonuses right it's like sometimes it's just a math doesn't work out in someone's favor but let's hope the uc takes care of hermansan it's as shocking as learning someone puts things in their coffee oh no oh god uh uh uh dvs or whatever 120 thanks thanks thanks thanks guys thanks for bringing up that question because now hose will not shut up about this for at least

a week. So thank you guys for bringing it off. What is the G-stand for a good idea? This is the 2020 variation of pineapple and pizza, ladies and gentlemen. That was there for that. What's doing? What do you think?

I know. I was there. I sat right next to him in New York as this whole freaking conversation was going on. It was doing. Yeah, that's also an incorrect way to eat pizza. I think Volcanowski was on record saying he liked it. I was like, wow, it's unfortunate that he's going to be championed and wrong.

Yeah, Hermann is definitely. definitely earned it 100%. But listen, well, let's, A.K. kind of answer this, maybe answer this question for us. Do you ask the truck to pull up the photo of Hermanson's submission tonight, AK? Or did you have the truck pull up the photo of Lipski submission? Correct. Yes, you're correct.

There you go. You know what? I think Carolina, is it Carolina? Or opponent? I think she deserves maybe 10% of that bonus for making that face. Seriously. Because if she just went, oh, knee bar. tap tap, thank you, good fight.

No, she doesn't win the bonus. The fact that you got the pain, you got the real, you felt it inside, yeah. Oh, yeah, that was a bad one. It takes two to create a horrible MMA moment, much like the main event, like we said, Joseph Vena's not tapping, and unfortunately, passing out in grisly fashion,

the camera right in there, getting that shot of, unfortunately, that vacant look in his eyes. So screenshots all over the place, I'm sure someone has a good photo of it as well. So, yeah, it takes two, like Casey just said. Move on, Casey. Move on.

I'm telling you move on. Matias Martinez, you are a buffoon who likes terrible things in this world. No. Matias Martinez, I will not let him ban you from the chat. You'd say whatever you want. I will not let him. Martinez, well, not whatever you want, but any pizza takes you out. You are my favorite friend.

I love you. I get it. I will say that a couple weeks ago, my wife got a pizza with pineapple and bacon on it. And you threw it away immediately, right? It was delicious. It was awesome, which I got to say. An Alphen-Begg is good. Another 10% for that scream.

Correct. No, it added to it. Yep. What else we got? I like that. We're all over the place tonight. I'm surprised none of the panel has used. Whoa.

Whoa, that's a shot. That little winky face, that's not going to make me feel better with that comment, D-125. I see what you're saying. I didn't say a bad thing about you. Yeah, what's going on, man? Casey. That's a shot of Casey specific. That is a shot of case.

I use oat milk. MMAs. Yeah, what do you drink? What do you have a subscription to on Amazon? Soilent. There you go. I'm getting lean. I'm getting lean.

You're walking like to. As soon as the gyms open up, you know. What weight class are you in right now? Um, very close to Walterway. Wow. Walking, almost walking at waterway now. Wow. So now I'm always like, I was like, oh, I guess I can make lightweight.

I guess no, after a weight cut. That's what I'm at, I'm like right above lightweight right now. I'm not mentioning. I'm not talking about this. I'm not joining in. Well, I mean, we're getting questions about just mixed martial arts in general, but, you know. Yes. We'll throw a few more up there. Why the hell? Oh, hold on. Oh, I like, okay, go ahead.

Do you think Mazadal sells more pay reviews than Marty? Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Marty McFly, probably. Every Marty in general. Marty Funkhauser? Every single Marty in the world.

I'll combine all the marty's. still, yeah. Camaro Usman, Camaro Dianzman, yes. Yeah. I think he might as well sells more pay-per-views than everyone not named

Connor or John Jones right now. I think he sells more than John Jones. At this point, yeah. I agree. Maybe. Depends on who John Jones. John Jones has never done a million pay-revis, has he?

The DC, the second DC fight got real damn close. It was like 8, 75. Which is really good. I thought the Rashad Evans fight. Oh, the Rashad fight probably got close. I don't shot a rampage up real hard. I think it's John Jones, it's his dance partner that'll help him.

But the draw will be John, but he needs a guy that's going to push his buttons. Like if John fights Francis, that could do crazy numbers. That could do a million. That's what I'm saying. But John by himself is still one of the top five draws right now. But yeah, you're probably right. Mazdael is probably the bigger star right now. I'd even put Mazel over Style Bender, unfortunately.

Right now, yeah. Jones Evans, apparently 700,000. So actually well short, well short. Still a very strong number, but definitely short of the number in 2020. Yeah. I really wonder, and this is a tough, I think it's a tough, this tough answer. But like Mazuradol, John Jones, all this kind of hype is still based on this kind of pre-pandemic world. In this post-pandemic world, no press conferences, no open workouts, no world tours, no face-offs, no real face-offs.

You know, so like, how is UC going to really create new stars without being able to just, I mean, all they can sell is just empty arena fights? I think it's just, you know what I'm trying to say? Like, how long can we kind of continue this about just relying on the past? Well, I'd say, oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. You're going to need fighters. Yeah. Yeah, 100%.

You're going to need fighters like Amanda Hebas who are like their personality just like oozes out of every, like. Like, that is who they are. I think now that you're not going to have like these. Sound like John Jones did open workouts anyway. You're going to need fighters that, hey, fight every day like Donald Soroni. So he's just, he just is on TV all of the time. So you're going to recognize those names over and over and over and over and over. Or you're going to have to fighters like Shurashon, a man of he boss.

Who's the guy that just fought like two days ago? Now he all of a sudden has a fight books next Saturday. What's his name? Chamada. Yeah. Like, you need guys like, you need men and women like that where you're only going to see him once and they're going to stick around in your mind forever. Like there's no choreographed press tour anymore.

This is who they are. It's with performances to go with it. I will say this. I feel like at least over the last three months, more seeds have been planted for potential stars than I've seen in the last couple of years, especially these fight island events. I mean, just look at Wednesdays card alone between Munir and the guy that's coming back and next week.

And, you know, we've seen, we've seen some seeds planted. I mean, Amanda Heba's, that was a breakout performance for her. Sean O'Malley, Star is in a much bigger spot now because of that knockout. And now, you know, some of the guys who fell off, they're starting to make a comeback. But even like Dan Hooker is going to be a big deal now forever because he had that epic war. And like, unless he goes on like a Kellyn Gassel, one where he just lays two eggs in a row. But like Dan, Dan Hooker could headline the next three fight nights. He fights in it.

And I wouldn't be surprised. So a UFC can still do it, but it's going to be much more, it's going to be up to the fighters much more to take advantage of the platform that they're given. Bryce Mitchell, another guy who's 100%. He's on the cusp. Yeah. And even aside from personalities, I hope that, you know, the ESPN does a good job of propagating these highlights as much as possible. Like show people that Ariana Lipski highlight or at least the visual as much as you can before her next fight. And let people know, this is how she's, see the woman who did this, she's back this weekend, you know?

or she's been back in two weeks, like really, really have ESPN just replaying these things nonstop, that O'Malley, K.O, whatever Frances Ngano's last performance was, anything. I know they do a good job of this already, but I think now more than ever, like you said, without the lack of sort of these opportunities for fighters to show their personalities verbally and things like that, really kind of emphasize this new generation of highlights and these guys who can finish these fights in these crazy ways. And try and get, you know, try and get the new audience, try and get some of that younger audience back. I don't know how the UFC is with the younger crowd.

But I know, I mean, I don't know that many young people. I'm old, but based on the chat. The TikTok generation. Yeah, yeah. You know, the talk, the talk tick, whatever. But, you know, based on the chatter that I hear on the streets, you know, I do keep my ear to the streets sometimes. There really isn't, uh, yeah, MMA is not like a sexy young person's sport. Maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe it's just the, maybe it's just kind of the circles I move in. But as far as I know, definitely like NBA would be number one, I think, as far as sort of what a younger generation watches. And then I'm not sure it would be second. but it's not side of me well i think we're gonna ufc ufcqqa3 the winner of that main event could be a huge deal considering costa and adisania are going to sell the hell out of that fight they are two very genuine people where they're just like crazy people like in and out of the octagon like they're very fascinating people to follow on social media and interviews uh they both have ties to a lot of different cultures like adasasana like nigeria and new zealand he's getting a bigger deal

in America and then Paulo Costa obviously is fluent in Portuguese and in English. They're both, the primes of their career, they both fight super violently if given the opportunity and I think the bad blood leading into that fight, the winner is going to be a big deal.

I still think something's just, something's still missing because we still, if the UFC continues how they're promoting fights, how they continue this way, like we're never going to have that face-to-face, ever.

You know, there's like, Yeah. It's just never going to happen. So I don't understand. Remember that very famous and awesome CNBC interview with the, is this the Money Channel with Nate and Connor? Remember that? Yeah.

I don't understand why we're doing more of that with two guys. They're in separate rooms, but there's, but we're still talking to the, D.C. and John Jones. John Jones going, you think I'm just going to let you do that to me, you know what D.C. said that. Or call me, Garber and Cruz, where Garber and. tried to leave the room and find Cruz's room. And Cruz is like, is he coming? Glenn is like, let him in, let him in. I just think the UFC is going to have to change something because I think this is going to,

they're just relying on past press conferences, past performances. I think at some point it's just going to be this, no, empty arena type of setting where no, it's just, it's hard to sell big pay-per-views and just highlights, you know. That's why Francis deGano isn't. you know Jorge Mazvedol. Obviously his highlight was amazing

but you know he still needs you know what I'll just get it's going to take like I think someone like when the rock tweets about Jorge Mazudal

people are going to see that it's like when Shaq puts out those clips of Francis and Ganu picking him up people are going to like grasp onto that it's going to take a big star to really help push the UFC two

outside of the MMA scene. Yeah I'd agree at that. And then And then they're going to have some competition again very soon. NBA is coming back. Major League Baseball is about to kick off. The NHL playoffs are about to kick off.

So then the NFL is kicking off. I think personally it's going to help because we're going to get a lot of games on ESPN and you're going to have U.S. commercials right between like the NBA Finals. I know everyone hates talking about professional wrestling. The NBA Finals is a ratings juggernaut, like viewership juggernaut. They're going to have AEW wrestling commercial. commercials during an NBA finals, they had better not lose any of those rating wars on whatever

night they're on. Thoughts on Zhang Wei Li versus Rose Damby Yunus. If you had to bet money, who would you bet it on? I was just thinking about the side. I mean, we got to do this. If we're doing a straight pick-em, it's, I've always been a big believer that to be the man or the woman, you get to beat the man or woman. So until Zhang Wei-Lee is defeated.

I'm picking her against anybody. That's just me. Unless the fight's Valentina and then we have a different discussion. And look, Rose is hitable. All right. Rose is hitable. And, I mean, she did a great job avoiding Androz for the first two rounds that last fight.

But we saw how much damage could be done. I believe Rose had a broken nose from it. I think a Zhang is a little bit quicker than Andrage. I think she hits just as hard. And we're talking about a five round fight most likely, you know. Yeah, I can't see anyone. Is this fight in a tiny octagon? I think if it's in a tiny octagon,

Wei Li has the advantage, and a bigger octagon, I think Rose has the advantage. I agree. I think it's Zhang has advantage in the bigger one and an even bigger advantage in the smaller one.

Rose has the style to potentially frustrate Zhang Wei. And anytime we could see Rose Namu Unis fight, especially when she's in a great place, it's just beautiful. Like it really is. I was thinking about this fight the other day

and it's like, this is my most anticipated. fight that hasn't been booked yet that's going to be booked like most anticipated championship fight I mean more than Habib Gagee yeah yeah my I want me I want to see that I want to see that fight but now even like Habeeb I'm kind of kind of I'm kind of worried about but be honestly you know just where he is and how how you know that's another thing but yeah but I think I think Waley and Rose are just like why not why is it this over these these may be the two best straw weights you've ever seen you know so yeah I agree but

I think like we've said, literally every single A side that Gaichi has the most tools to beat, to do the thing no one has ever done. And Habib could be the greatest lightweight ever, and Gaichi is the most violent man ever. And that, to me, is the most anticipated fight. Like, like I said, just, Zhang Wiley and Rose is just haps to be the second. It's just has to be the second most anticipated for me because Habib is not looked beatable ever. And Zhang Wiley and you want to just have an epic war.

But an epic war means it was a back and forth fight. Habib's never had that. And I think Gaju's the man to give it to him. And we got to keep in mind, too, we don't know when Rose is coming back. Yeah. We have no idea. So if Jean-Wey Lee and her team calls Dana White in the next month that says she's ready to go, what do you do?

You book the rematch with Yohanna, run that one back and wait until roses is ready to go? Or do you just hold out on one of your rising stars, global? until Rose is ready. That's, you know, I don't know. That's the process. That's the kind of place we're in right now. Do you get Dwight Whaley out there just to fight against? I think everyone would be excited to see her fight,

Yohanna one more time, is one of the greatest women's fights of all time, if not the greatest women's fight of all time. Oops. Habib is done. No, he's not. He's not done. I'd rather watch Whaley and Rose than Gachi Khab.

There you go. There you go. Everyone's spoken now. Well, this person has used, has mixed and matched first and last names all across the board. So if Zhang, if Zhang has to fight again before Rose is ready, I guess you go winner of Gadalia Shaunan. I guess it's not like the best.

I mean, he's got as far as the Marina Rodriguez coming out too. Okay, exactly. Yeah. It's really, I think a man, the He-Boss is going to get the winner of that. Yeah.

Really, Namajun is such the obvious choice that anything, any other name we mentioned is clearly just kind of like a sort of a stay busy. Not to say that it's an easy fight, but definitely to stay busy for Zhang has been so dominant. Sure. So many awesome straw weights. Yeah, everything's going to get repetitive.

Most anticipated fight is me versus Donald McGrath. There you go. Is that going to be a real fight? Is that really a fight? What is that, Jose? It's not going to be a fight. Yeah, you're right, because the fight's evenly matched. I'm going to throw him into a wishing fountain.

And then he's going to get a wish. Why did you just desecrate this wishing found? I'm going to like, look at this man. And then be like, oh, yeah, he probably hasn't taken a shower in like a year. So you probably did him a favor. I'm like, yeah, you're right. So you're welcome, planet Earth. Gosh.

Most anticipated fights for me. Ryan Hall versus Ricardo Lama's, number one, obviously. Number two, Frankie Edgar, Pedro, Benos. Everything else is dissing third. Michelle Pereira. Oh, my God. Whoa, number three, Michelle Pereira, Zileem. Emma Emma

Amadaya I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I apologize knowing your lap I was right Did you reboot right now No

Pahetta and Amadaya I was right I got the name right I'm sorry I apologize for thinking for you muddling it up in the first place

So there you go There's your top three Fights to look forward to people Okay I'm not even going to say Ortega and Korean zombie Because I don't want to think about it Oh it's definitely happening

It's definitely happening Shut up All right. I think we've done enough here. Oh, yeah. We're over an hour for sure. But that's the beauty of ending these fight cards early. So more time to chat with the peeps,

even though you say we're all soy boy drinkers or whatever. You can't tell me that because I drink my coffee like an adult. Me too. See what that says? I had an iced black. Right there. You guys are amazing. I know you guys, I'm talking about the not the people I'm working with the time,

with the people watching. You guys, I think, I'm pretty sure many of you have been here from the beginning of this broadcast. So, bless you guys. I don't know why. They're probably screaming at the camera, butt in your butt, butt in your shirt, AK, but in your shirt. No, no, they've been screaming for me to unbutton the shirt.

And I've tried very hard to ignore those comments. But I don't know how these guys take, 25 minutes in. I wanted to leave. So I don't know how you guys do. I want to do to leave too? Yeah. Do we have the rim shot? We don't have the rim shot.

okay we got it here goes okay also also appropriate they're waiting for Jose to talk about Nyamograph and we got that done

and there we go yeah I'm glad I stuck around for that and everyone else did too but yeah you guys are crazy I love everyone who's watching on YouTube and watch these shows

you guys are the best that's that's I'm getting emotional it's like I just want to say so I'm white drink is ha ha false also NileMograph looks like T.J. Detweiler

make it trend that's true really good. I'm glad so much. Good night. Good night, everybody. Thank you. Thank you for all the questions. Thank you all for watching, you crazy animals. Hope you guys enjoyed the fights. And we're back at it next Saturday. What a great card that's going to be. Bellator is back next week. A lot to be excited about for AK, for Casey Liding in the truck, for Jose Youngs. I am Mike Heck. Have a good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.