MMA Fighting - UFC Fight Island 5 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: October 11, 2020

With UFC Fight Island 5 in the books, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee and E. Casey Leydon break down the top storylines from Saturday night’s event in Abu Dhabi, including Cory Sandhagen’s second-round finish of Marlon Moraes in the main event, and Joaquin Buckley's KO of the year candidate. 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

With Instacart, you get groceries that over-deliver, like when you get groceries that are the same prices in-store. With no markups that select retailers, you get in-store products for in-store prices, and the only thing that isn't in-store is you. That means you could order in-store products at in-store prices while you're in sweatpants, in spin class, in stuffy work meeting, in anywhere but in store. So download the app today and get $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. Ford was built on the belief that the world doesn't get to decide what you're capable of. You do. So, ask yourself, can you or can't you?

Can you load up a Ford F-150 and build your dream with sweat and steel? Can you chase thrills and conquer curves in a mustache? Can you take a Bronco to where the map ends and adventure begins? Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right. Ready, set, Ford. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right. It's part two of our UFC Fight Island Five post-fight coverage kicks off right now.

Live with all of you. This is the UFC Fight Island Five post-fight show here on MMAfighting.com. I am Mike Heck, being joined by the Prince of Positivity himself, who wasn't so positive with this strength of schedule gymnastics scale, which we'll get into in a moment. And, of course, E. Casey Liden joins us as well. A.K., let us just start with you. You said that your ceiling for this card was a six. You compared it to last weekends UFC Fight Island four card.

Clearly, this surpassed that. Explain yourself. My system works. All right, my system works. My assessment of the card was wrong. This, I agree with my assessment of the card was wrong. I definitely scored it probably a little too low. I mean, clearly it was, I think people are calling it one of the best cards of the year,

is fair, I think it's fair. But I will say on paper, my degree of difficulty system is a theoretical hypothetical system. Okay, I did not think this could reach higher than an eight. I didn't think you'd reach higher than a six. But I think people will agree this disadvantage for rating. If you're scoring on a flat 10 point

scale, this was like a 9.5 maybe higher, depending, you know, mileage may vary, I guess, was how some of these fights went. But it's like at least a 9.5. We're going by quality fights, highly real finishes. It was a really good card. So my usage of the scale was wrong, but I still think on paper, you couldn't have thought this was me higher than a seven or eight.

That's what I think. But it was an amazing, amazing card. Well, normally, like a thumbnail will sort of tell the story of the main attraction of the card. And notice that the thumbnail for this particular event was not Corey Sandhagen. It was that man, Joachim Buckley, who delivered one of the greatest knockouts in UFC history. At least that's what everybody's saying. definitely in my opinion the knockout of the year in 2020 best far there is still three months to go so that could change very quickly we'll get to Joaquin buckley at a moment but let us start with the main event a k your hair looks crazy it does i need to get a cut real bad yes i thought you're talking to me and i was like my hair is rough yes i have had bad hair days and what i wouldn't give for another bad hair

Corey Sanhagen did exactly what we all predicted. Spinning heel kick finish and Marlon Maraise in the second round, we all predicted this. Like we're all just joking around on the preview show. Like we knew how this thing was going to end. But man, oh man, that was that was some first round. Both guys landed big shots. Sanhagen was doing some damage to the body.

But Mariah is just no matter what, no matter, you know, what direction he was throwing from, what angle he was throwing from. He found a way to punch Corey Sanhagen in the face at any, points. But Sanhagen comes through in a huge way, look great in the first round, finishes in the second. Your thoughts on the Sandman's big win tonight. And is this the biggest win of his career so far? Yeah, I mean, it's got to be the biggest win of his career. Look, the Dominic Cruz, 2.0 comparisons are there. I guess a lot of, you know, kind of flowy, you know, 135ers get that comparison. Of course, T. J. Delshok got a little bit of that. He himself, of course,

said he followed. He definitely followed the Dominicru style. And so, of course, Sandhagen, He's done the same thing. But Dominant Cruz never scored a spinning heel kick, K-O to the head like this one. So he's got that one up on the Dominator. But there was a lot of, I want to go to the commentary because I think they did a good job explaining right from the start why Sandhagen was so successful was he had to reach a,

I think they said a flow state, which I don't know if that's a technical term. But you can kind of select, I think anytime you have this high movement, you know, a dependent, a style that's very dependent on being accurate and having great timing, you'll know it's almost you'll know right from the start where there are guys in the zone and boy sanhagen you like he said he was getting hit a little bit but man he looks really comfortable every he was starting from all those kind of unorthodox angles and landing he was moving beautifully and then really feel himself early in the second round i thought i loved the call out i loved him

shouting whether it was to his cornered or to someone else or to monice himself to kind of throw him off saying his orbitals broken because it is possible that that made what i just think a little bit I have to think a little bit on defense and that made me why he got caught by that really, really spectacular speeding hill kick right to the top of the dome. So it was just, it is a great performance by Sandhagen, the best version of him we've seen, the one that looks like a world title contender. And I think in one performance washes away whatever doubt there was from, from him getting, you know, getting so clearly beaten by Aljo last time.

So really, really well done by the Sandman. And he proved just how tough he is, how good his chin is, because he did take some big shots in that first round and just ate them all and kept going forward and was able to finish the fight in the second. So Casey, let me ask you, because me and AK are going to talk matchmaking for about 30 to 45 minutes on Monday morning on onto the next one. So there's been a lot of suggestions out there. I have been clamoring for, you know, a Marlon Marais versus Dominic Cruz fight for quite some time now. Maybe we will get that after all. But Corey Stanagan calls out Frankie Edgar and he calls out T.J. Dillishaw. I think the popular people,

opinion is we do Sanhagen versus Dillashah and then Al Jermaine Sterling gets his rifle title shot against Piotr-Yon. Do you agree with this or do you have a different direction for the Bannamweight division, especially in the top five or six right now? No, Corey Sanaghan is correct. He caught his shot and that is the fight to make. I think coming into this, we all said that for Al Jemaine Sterling, Corey Sanhagen was going to be his favorite fighter tonight. Corey had to win, he had to win emphatically and to make sure that it can only be Jan versus Sterling. And I think that's going to have, unless the UFC benches yon all the way until Delishall comes back,

which I think is sometime in January, which I hope they don't. But, yeah, court, oh my goodness, if they really do book, they finally book Jan versus Sterling. And then if they do even have it in January when T.J. is back and have Corey versus TJ has to co-main or at least on the pay-per-view portion of the card. Just excellent because it would just be excellent bite. And yeah, that's the fight to make. And then TJ, I'm sorry, Cruz versus Edgar.

That's the other fight that should be booked. But man, just I'm kind of, I'm still kind of sweating. I'm like, because it was such an exciting night of fights and like just so many good knockouts and things I was just wrong about, but I'm very happy I was wrong about. And yeah, just, it's exciting to watch fights and be excited about it and not feel like sometimes it feels like a chore. And tonight it did not. Yes. And for Mara Marius, he has now lost two of three.

It's been finished in two of three. And many feel that he lost the Jose Al the fight as well. So in a weird way, if one judge scored that fight a little differently, Marias could be on a three-fight losing streak right now. But, you know, obviously back to the drawing board for him. 1.35 is just such a fun division, maybe the best overall in the UFC from, from top to bottom. So, you know, interesting times right now. Poor Marlin. Yes.

Poor Marlon. I'm just going to say it. I'm going to say it. Look, I know a lot of people felt he lost the Aldo fight. But guess what? I don't know. On paper, he didn't. He didn't.

He won the fight on the judge of score cards. He won that fight. And the guy he beats gets a talus shot. And now he's, you know, and now he's so far away when you, when you're a lot of the fight. receiving out of a knockout like that. And he was booked to fight Yon. He was booked to fight him. Like, it was signed and everything.

It was venue and all. He was booked to fight him. And then just, man, what a, what a bummer year. What a bummer year. What a bummer for Marlon Marius has been? Big time. That's M.A. Right.

But hey, look, you know what? People could say he should have taken care of business against Henry Sehudo. Maybe he should have had a more definitive finish. Like, there's things like to say. People are going to say, he should have just won every fight. What's the big deal? Just win. Anytime a fighter complains about anything, I just,

I just go like, yeah, but why didn't you just win all your fights? Why didn't you just win? Yeah. And then really there's no counter to that. But no, I do. Like I said, I'm sure there's things Marlon could have done to not be in the position, but I think he did a lot to put himself into position for a second title shot and wasn't given it. So that's, I really, I do feel sympathy for him. But really, again, congratulations to Sanhagen because that performance tonight was amazing.

Absolutely. And big win for Edson Barbosa gets his first win at 145 pounds. he looked fantastic. And we all said that this could be sort of that showcase fight for him at 145 pounds with a matchup like Makwan Americani. And Americani just kind of like Sandhagan was in that first round, super tough. He gets dropped a couple different times, but hung in there, went the full 15 with Edson Barbosa Jr.

It was a great performance. He wants the top five, top six guy. Does he get it? Casey Liden. Do you think he gets a top five, top six guy? someone threw it out there. I'm trying to remember. Yeah, someone threw it out maybe in the other show, in the,

the post-fight presser that Barboza versus Calvin Cater. I don't think that's necessarily where we go here. I think Barbosa probably needs another winner two to be put into that category because Cater's like the next guy to break through. It's probably a winner two away from getting up to a title shot. He's on a nice streak right now. But do you think a top five, top six guys coming Barbosa's way? Or do you think he's going to have to win another one before he gets,

there. I thought he beat Ege. I don't remember if I thought he beat Felder, but I remember it was extremely close and it couldn't have gone either way. Okay, real quick on Edson Barbozo, you brought this up. His strength of schedule is insane. And I would like to point out, if he wants to say Edson Barbozo's back or whatever, to me, he was never gone. Because Marquan, I mean, I think I'm going to go ahead and go to when he fought Evan D. Dunham in July of 2014. 2014. That's the last time I felt he fought a guy that was ranked as far down as

Machuan is. And Machuan is obviously a very talented featherweight, but he's not a ranked featherweight. He's not, I won't call him an A level, an A level featherweight. So, so for, so Edson's like, this is the lowest competition that Edson has had in, what, six years. And he just, and he steamrolled Mach one. And so to me, Edson on the right day, I think we felt this for a while. And the right day, he can win.

I don't know if he can win the title, but he's obviously competitive against anyone at the top right now. And, yeah, actually, I'm not against the Cater fight, but you probably have throws a couple more names out there. But absolutely, Edson is a premier A-level featherweight, and I'm very excited to see him fight again. Maybe my answer will change on Monday morning, but I mean, I think you just have to. go back to the Siddik Yusuf well and run that fight. I think that's the reason Yusuf couldn't make it to fight Island was a passport issue. So it wasn't an injury or anything like that. It was a simple thing like that.

And Barbosa wants to get back quickly. Yusuf obviously wants to get in there and fight. I think this is the natural progression. It's a ranked opponent. For a quick turnaround, that makes a lot of sense because they can both fight in the States. I'm assuming Edson doesn't have issues fighting in the States since he lives here. lives in. Yeah. Yeah. So even though he's a Brazilian citizen, I'm pretty sure that's

not an issue. So, yeah, yeah, I would love to see that. What did you think, A.K. of Barbosa's performance, and I thought he looked fantastic. How, you know, well, first of all, look, if we, if I told you there would be four or five highlight reel knockouts on this card and Edson Barbosa was not one of them, you'd think I was crazy. So it's kind of, it's kind of amazing that we had all these amazing finishes, two spinning kick finishes and one of the was not Edson Barbosa.

But yeah, he looked great in there. Man, it was real tough for Amirconi because I think a lot of us, the storyline going in was this is the biggest fight of Amirica's career. Like we said, a guy we always know has been talented, great with the media, just looks like a star,

but you look at the resume and he's got some okay wins on there, but just no big name. So this was a really, this was his chance and a good matchup if you could get to the ground. Unfortunately, he found out very early in the fight that getting Barbosa to the ground is not easy. Getting even close to him is not easy without eating like a savage leg kick or one of those rib-crushing body kicks or a lightning fast jab to the face.

Like getting close to him is just the prospect is scary. And then Amir Khani also obviously knew even before going in, he's probably not going to beat him in the stand-up. So that's why there's a lot of inactivity on Amirkanisat. I'm sure there's all people saying, why isn't he doing anything? And I just want people to imagine being in there. And within the first 60 seconds, the first two minutes, realizing, holy crap, I have no way. of initiating offense against this guy. And then imagining you had to be in that cage with that person for another 13 minutes.

Okay, so before anyone criticizing your Connie, you know, maybe it wasn't a great performance. But that's what you're dealing with when you fight a guy at the level of Edson-Rabosa. And you find out firsthand how outclass you are. So really credit to Barbosa for proving what he is. Like we said, a top 10 lightweight for years. Now maybe a top 10 featherweight already, even though he's only two fights in. Future matchups, I know that we think this guy is going to be matched up with Zabit. at some point, even though the fight keeps falling through, but man, why not Barbosa and Yaira?

If that Mago Medcherepop fight never comes around, which I'm pretty confident at will. But if it doesn't, Yajir Rodriguez and Edson Barbosa. Be fun. Be fun. I don't know if it's kind of like you meet the love of your life, but she wants to be single for a little while. Like maybe you're Mr. Wright, but just not Mr. Wright now. I think that's kind of where I see that fight. But we'll talk more about that, obviously, on the Monday.

Obviously, the heavyweights had a heavyweight fight. It was great. Martine Tibera defeats Ben Rothwell. It was everything we hoped for. And it was fun. It was a fun heavyweight matchup. I think we're kind of at a point where we just love Ben Rothwell. We hope those two guys would go in there and have a 15-minute war.

But in the back of our minds, we're like, oh, this has the potential to be kind of a snoozer. But it was fun. It was a fun fight. Tiborra gets the win. I thought the placement in the card, It was great for that heavyweight fight, too. I felt like it was... I felt like we needed a bit of a slowdown, but still a good fight,

and I felt like, good job matchmakers. Because I was complaining a lot last week with the... What was the Castro and Felipe? Was it? Yeah, in the Comian event, I was like, ugh. But this was, this was perfect. This was good. That's sweet spot.

Yeah. And it was a fun fight. And, man, I got to give so much credit to DeVour for not getting dragged into a dog fight, because if that was Rothwell's plan, It really wasn't a bad plan because he came. I mean, Ben Roswell can be pretty unpredictable, but I did not think he would come out high volume. I did not think that would be the plan.

I thought he'd maybe want to use someone's grappling. Maybe I'd try and submit at some point. But he came out just Diego Sanchez, just straight punching at Tabura. And Tabura just, look, I'm going to get my defenses up. I'm going to let you kind of tire slow down a bit. And I'm going to counter. It's not it's not the sexiest strategy. It might look like my, it might look like my opponent's doing more.

but, you know, he trusted that the judges would see. He was the more effective striker. I think other, I think in both rounds two and three, at least the on-screen stats, I haven't seen the official ones yet. Tobor did outstrike him. It was only the first that Rothwell had a pretty decent lead in strikes. But again, how much of those did a lot of damage? I don't know.

I think Tobor was really smart. I think he knew what he could take. And he just fought it. He fought a great fight. And then went to his grappling in the third and sealed the deal. So very solid for us for the veteran. Absolutely. And then before that, Dreykis duplasi with a left hook finish of Marcus Perru.

And I have to say, we're going to get into, you know, the man who deserved the bonus the most in a matter of moments. I thought DuPlesi got got the big fat hose job on the bonuses. I'm not going to lie. Like, I feel like if we're talking like strength of competition and, you know, I mean, Marcus Perez, that was the first time he'd been finished in his entire career. And DuPlessi took the fight on two weeks notice and got the finish. I thought he should have got the bonus night over Tom Breeze. Like, I just think, I think the matchup for Duplessi was, was a tougher matchup. No disrespect to KB Bullar, who's obviously a fun prospect, but look at the guys that KB beat on the way up to the UFC.

Nothing like Marcus Perez has stepped into the octagon with. So I kind of thought he got the whole job. Christakis got a bonus. I thought he deserved a bonus. And that was a super cool knockout, too, that hook. Yes. Was Marcus, like, was he falling over or getting up at the time? I can't.

No, he was trying to throw. a Yair-esque back elbow thing. Yeah, that's going to look lovely on that, but the little box on the screen. I can see it on YouTube now. Back elbow thing. So if you watch the replay, yeah, that's clearly and that's not uncharacteristic of Perez. Perez is

mostly a grappler, but when he's on the feet, he loves to just throw wild stuff. So that was in there, and he just straight up turned his back to him and just lingered there for like a half second too long, and then boom, do you see snuck in that beautiful left-hand shot. I just want to point that. It was a very creative have super cool knockout.

Yeah, he should have got a bonus. He got screwed in my opinion. Tom Bree's good win, though. Not taking anything away from you. Maybe we give a fifth bonus. But Chris Dawkus, nice win. First band to defeat and or finish. Rodrigo Nassimento.

And then, Waukeem Buckley. I mean, my God, the star of the show, the star of the night, the star of the year when it came to finish is AK, you are, I think you are higher on walking Buckley than anybody. I don't know if you picked him to win. Casey was too. Casey actually picked him to win. Oh, yeah. In terms of just like being excited to watch a fighter compete,

I think Joachian Buckley is like one of those guys that is on the top of your list. I don't know if he's in the position of some of the fighters that you like to watch and that you favor and you speak about all the time and on the various programs here. But he might be getting up there, especially after that knockout. Let me just ask you this. Knockout of the year. I think it's definitely there right now. if not, it's top two or three,

but there are people saying that this is the greatest knockout in UFC history. Is this in the conversation for that? Do we feel like it's there? Yeah, I mean, even taking into, obviously, recency bias, you know, takes as a green and salt. It has to be the top five I've ever seen. I just never seen anything like it. And it's one of those, I saw a lot of people saying this on social media.

It's one of those clips, and thank goodness the UFC put this clip out there twice. I think they put it at the original and then a couple of other different angles. This is the kind you show to people who just, a passing interest in sports or a passing interest in anything in action movies you would show them this clip right that's this is the definition of a viral chaos we put it on our own account of the activity was crazy over a thousand retweets yeah yeah i think yeah i think the ufc said it was the the most retweeted i think most like they said this on the broadcast i think the most uh interacted with tweet in their history uh so this is this is a bigger you know this is a bigger than just

m m m m m highlight this is a all-time possibly great sports highlight again we can be seen on those Rocky World of Sports highlight shells like 50 years from now. Or our faces a death video. You know, one of those. Oh, that's old school. Yeah, yeah. Back of the mental store. Blockbuster.

Yeah. Behind the curtain. Yeah. That's where you normally see this. People were the old UFC videos used to be. Yeah. There's people who are so much younger than us. I've known.

Blockbuster video. What is this? It was such a cool chaos. I think some people were saying it has like, you know, roots in Taekwondo, something you might see in Taekwondo competition. which sounds right and but definitely not the kind of strike you would see someone attempt in an actual fight people can say cassangana i made a mistake but he didn't hold on to the leg that long it was like maybe a half second longer than they should have but he was letting go as buckley was getting

this wild torque and just spinning and kicking it right in the jaw the the color went out of uh went out of cassangana's face the way he fell back was incredible it's just everything the eye roar yeah yeah he got he woke up as soon as he hit the ground which is i guess good to see but also kind of scary because he bumped his head. And later posts on Instagram, you know, some positive message. So thankfully, Cassan and I had not heard too badly. And I'm sorry, I know I'm ranting here, but I will say we talked about all these great finishes and how much it sucks that some people got snubbed.

Get rid of the, well, I mean, performance posts in general are a little silly, but get rid of the four bonus limit then. Why is there a four bonus limit? Well, the UFC is like a, what, a billion dollar company now? This bonus limit is absurd. I'm not saying reward every finish, but I'd say almost with only a few exceptions, just reward people for getting knockout submissions. Don't you want to encourage knockout submissions?

So bizarre. So, yeah, I mean, congrats to people who got it, but more bonuses should be handed out, and hopefully they do with that secret, you know, locker room, discretionary bonuses they're always talking about. The only way that,

the only way that Duplice wouldn't have got host is if you gave, if you gave Joaquin Buckley all four bonuses. Like, it was kind of like the 30 years of Jericho and like they did the credits and all the names are Chris Jericho. Like, give all the bonuses to Walking Buckley.

And I would have been okay with that. I'm glad you brought up pro wrestling, Mike, because I feel like, I'm honest to you, this K-O, it was so spectacular. I think it was a little stage. I think they called a high spot in wrestling, hoping that they would get fight of the night and knockout of the night. And then they take $50,000 each, all right? I've been watching pro wrestling for a long time.

I know a high spot when I see one, all right? This is like a young buck's super kick thing or something like, I don't know. Now I'm a little fishy, but now I'm kidding. It was just once in a lifetime knockout. You've got to be good to be lucky. You've got to be good. It was so awesome. Tony Kelly gets a win.

Giga Chikaze, big win over Omar Morales, Tracy Cortez, defeat Stephanie Yeager, and then Tagir Ullambakov defeats Bruno Silva. That was a really, terrific fight. That was an excellent fight. Any other night, fight of the night. Yep, any other night, fight of the night. Yeah, that was like yesterday, I saw that fight.

And I remember watching this is like one of the best curtain jerkers I've seen all year. Very solid. All right, Casey, this is an excellent question. And it's a funny one for me, too, and I'll explain momentarily. Which spinning knockout was better? Is it tonight by Joaquin Buckley against Impa Kasanganii or Edson Barbosa against Terry Edom back in 2012?

And I have a little brother. He's four years younger than me. When Terry Adam was like making his way up in the UFC, he is like my little brother's twin. Like tall, skinny, same face. Like so when I saw Edson Barbosa knockout Terry Edom in that emphatic fashion, it was like almost seeing like my little brother. are getting spinning head kicked like that. So just that's my little interesting story on that. Casey, let me ask you, what was the better knockout?

Was it Barbosa? Because that one's etched in history. That's Bobo O'Reilly, K.O., Wachian Buckley's obviously going to be there at some point. Which one was better? Well, the Terry Edom knockout was so amazing. I mean, as much as I want to give Barbosa credit, you got to give just as much credit to Mr. Edom. Because the way he fell back, that whole stiff,

you know just straight back just couldn't be topped and that's what made the um how did you say casagan because casagana because casagana yeah that he deserves all the credit too because the way you went down the eyes rolling back but i got to go buckley for the better knockout mostly because it was a better fight if you remember the barboza edin fight i think that happened in the third round and the first two rounds were kind of yeah it was just and then the knockouts kind came out of nowhere Buckley Kasagina was just a great man that first round

It was just a great fight So it all kind of built up And it made sense So Buckley you got it Maybe like I think I need I think I need to let this one stew For a little while before I can answer that question Because this sport

Like we see something right away And we're like yep that's the one So maybe you have to watch the other one again But like if you're asking me right this second It's definitely by me Like, it's definitely Buckley, but if I go back and watch you on the fight, maybe it'll change. N.K., what do you think? Yeah, this is like, this is like, what's the best Taylor Swift album?

It's like, yeah, the last one I listened to, obviously. But whichever one's the most recent one that came out, it's obviously the best one. And then you just go back in order. Unless you listen to another one out of order, then your mind's scarble. Oh, wait, where you're talking? Oh, yeah, sorry. Yes, Edson Barbosa versus Terry Adam, you may lay down your crown. We have a new greatest spinning knockout in the MMA history.

It is Joaquin Buckley versus Infocasankan. This was, you know, this was jazz, baby. I mean, if you want to, if you love, if you love, this is jazz, baby, can we get the jazz fluted here? If you loved, if you loved Barbosa, Adam, because of just like, I mean, just how, how methodical Barbosa is and sort of setting these things up, this was just improvisation on, on Buckley's part. I mean, when we saw in the fight with Holland, like some potential for that, and if anyone seen any of his sort of pre-U.C. knockout some stuff he did in LFA.

Like he's, he's, some, some creativity there. Some wildness, some raw, raw power. We saw something on the Holland fight, but I mean, a fight that he didn't have a lot of time to prepare for. This was, I mean, you don't plan, you do not plan to give someone a spinning kick off of a, your like getting cocked. You just don't do that.

Why would you? You end up falling on your butt like Ben Rothwell did later in the evening. That was awesome. Buckley, I'm sure in the moment, again, I didn't even think. I have to watch the post-fight. He did, he did, he did, joke on it. It was Wakanda, Wakanda-style knock-up or something. maybe he does this more often than we think.

But for me, it was just this beautiful in the moment thing. And boy, I would love to. I don't know if he'll ever be able to replicate that in practice or in any other situation again. And it doesn't matter because he did it when it matters. Most of him in the cage for everyone to see. And it's recorded and now immortalized and part of the UFC intros and whatever pilot practice forever. Damn. I want to see if this is going to be in the Bobbo O'Reilly montage next week.

It better be. Yeah. They're already putting it in. in there. I will tell you a little peep behind the curtain, like 90 seconds after that knockout happens, I get a private message on our Slack channel from A.K. Lee, who says, quote, we're matchmaking for Buckley. I don't give an F.

Like, we're match for onto the next one. Buckley makes it because normally we have a pretty, you know, formulaic thing way that we do the show. Main card, main event, winner and loser. rest of the main card and then we pick a wild card, maybe the featured prelim if it's a big one. But AK said,

nope, we're throwing the rules out the window. Buckley's not a wild card. Buckley is a guy that we're going to matchmake for. So I'm here to tell you right now, AK, we're going with your suggestion. You turn right. If I had to choose between Waukeen for Joaquin Buckley and matching for Martin Taborah,

all respect to Martin Taborah. I'm going with Buckley after tonight. I'm sorry. I sent out a reader call for Subbara. So they go, readers, check out our Twitter account. You guys can have, or just tweet us. You can have your voice. If you've got hot Martin-Tubera matchups,

which is dying to talk about, please. Let us, yeah, spicy Martin-Tubera matchups. Please, let us know. All right, we'll stay on the show. I feel like this is one of those cards that we can match make, like, a lot of winners from this card against each other. Like, I feel like that's very possible.

We'll see. Before we leave Buckley, though, I want to, we were comparing it to the Edson Knockout. Okay, and this, I know one has the answer for this. I'm sure Buckley has an answer, but is Buckley going to have the staying power in the UFC that Edson Barboza has? Don't know. We shall see. Yeah.

I mean, I think that's what's going to, yeah, I think that's what's going to decide if this, if this knockout will be considered one of the greatest knockouts. Because maybe this is like the first knockout to lead to many more great showings and stuff. So, or is it, if it's just, you know, just a random, you know, flash in the pan? We'll see. It's true. I mean, look at your right hall. It has had lasting power in the UFC, but if you ask a lot of people, maybe the Moussasi knockout is probably the biggest one he actually had in the cage. But before that, people still just talk about his knockout of Adam Sella on Ultimate Fighter, right?

And that highlight was so long ago. I mean, again, he's proven to be a legitimate middleweight. But you never know. That could have been the beginning of, you know, nothing for him. But he has proven now staying power. we'll see if Buckley does it goes out the same way. Yeah, I just kind of want to see them. I don't want them to like rush him too much.

No, no, no, no. You know what I mean? Like don't be throwing him anything crazy at this point. Let's just slow our roles. Let's put him in there in fun fights. Kind of like we've seen the last two. Do that. Like we don't need to throw him up against the top 25 guy right now.

Like just keep slowly building him up. And then eventually he could get there. the, you know, let's just, let's see him do these insane fights. Let's just see these fight of the night kind of battles over and over again and just throw everything with with vigor and power and just violent intentions. I love it. Let's, I want to see him again. I'm on the, I'm on the AK-Walky and Buckley bandwagon right now.

Two for two so far in my books, because that Holland fight was, I don't think, I don't remember if they won fight a night, but that fight, oh, no, Holland won performance night. That fight with Kevin Holland was super, super exciting. That could have been a fight of the night for sure. Yeah. All right, what else we got for questions? Let's go to the peeps. Oh, we ready for questions?

Okay. Yeah, let's do it. So, yeah. Yeah. Let's go up this one real quick. Do we think Dana signed John versus Sterling? I think they have to now. I think Marius, I think Maraul Marais was like the piece in the puzzle that didn't

quite fit yet, but would kind of shrink down to fit in that size and that place, depending on how tonight went. and Corey Sanhagen, the man who probably couldn't earn a title shot tonight, finished him in the second round. So I think this opens the door. Now, like we talked about, like we've talked about, there is the T.J. Dillishaw factor in there. Who knows where he goes?

I think that the right thing to do would be to do Sanhagen versus Dillishaw. Winner gets the winner of Yon versus Al Jermaine Sterling. But this is the UFC. There is a lot of heat with T.J. Dillishaw. When you hear T.J. Dillishaw, When you hear T.J. Dillashah's name, there's not a lot of, not a lot of love for Killishaw Dillah. So he could be the perfect heel to Piotr Jan's baby face. But I think we should do things fairly and based on meritocracy, AK, when is T.J. Dillashaw coming back is the other question.

His suspension is supposedly up in January, so he could fight any time after that. So we could book him right at the beginning of the year. we could do I think you put both of those fights on the January pay-per-view card done and done. Yeah, look, I think we've laid it out. Okay, I mean,

I think we've laid it out earlier in the show. I think Casey did, but I mean, I'll just repeat it because our own, our own, you know, I'm loath to give Jose Youngs any credit. But he laid it up pretty clearly in a tweet. Okay, you've got to go Yon versus Sterling, Sanhagen versus Dilleshaw in January, Cruz versus Edgar,

Marais and then Marais can fight Pedro Munoz. They're both coming up losses. And then he also threw in a little extra with Jose Aldo versus Uri of favor too, which as long as both guys are active, I feel like as a fight you should book at some point. But yeah, anything, gosh, it's going to come down, though. We keep saying anything besides Sterling Yan makes no sense, but we all know it comes down to contract. So I don't know how the negotiations are going between Sterling and the UFC and Jan and the UFC. I don't know how ugly it's going. going to get. We haven't seen anything too bad so far, but it's just, we're kind of trying,

we're kind of reading between the lines here with Sterling. You know, Sterling's very vocal on social media, Dana White, not being particularly vocal about Sterling getting the title shot. It's very frustrating. So, but even Sandhagen post-fight was like, he was talking about as if the fight had already been booked because he said, give me the winner of that fight. Because the only other options are what? He said, Frankie Edgar and what was the other? Oh, Dominic Cruz or something like that, right? Remember, I mean, at least five years ago, but remember Sterling, I think he was a free agent or he fought out his contract. I don't remember the details. It was a while back now, but there was a lot of negotiations, even resigning Sterling.

I mean, there's a lot of talk of him going to Bellator and stuff at the time. This is about five years ago or so. So this isn't unfamiliar territory for Sterling and as far as contract stuff. And I think at this point, we have to assume it's some money thing. It has nothing to do with it's starting the guy because we know that. It just has to do with money and contracts, so. Yeah, it sucks to say, but it is the reality of the situation. That fight has to happen.

Again, anything else happening, I think the deal shuffing would be a travesty. I think it's, I've said it's on other show, so I don't repeat too much. Is it possible what it happened? Of course it's possible it could happen. Should it happen? Hell no, it should not happen. I'll be, you know, I'll, I'll do our jobs here. I'll cover it.

I'll cover it with my, with biting, biting my tongue. But I'll say now I don't approve of that matchup at all. I'll be happy watching it, I guess, once it's happening in the cage. But as far as deserves the worst word, one of the most useless words in M.A., it's Aljo all the way. And I'll be writing a little bit more about this whole situation for a column tomorrow. But I think Korsanagan did the U.S.A. favor and painted a very, very clear picture for what needs to be done. So don't overthink this. Get that, make these people whole, right?

Make that money right. And let's see these things happen. Agreed. Did you gentlemen get to watch MVP's fight? I did not. Did not? I watched the second half of it. Okay.

Just because we got, we got to talk about a little bit about MVP. That was the debut of a major promotion in Paris, France. But here's the thing. I would not call Ross Houston a jobber. Yeah, absolutely not. Not a jobber. Not a jobber at all. Absolutely, no way.

Was it the most aesthetically pleasing fight to watch? Absolutely not. It was not a good fight. But we're past the Michael Venham Page prospect phase. Like we're way beyond that. We're like three years beyond that. Enough is enough is enough. Ross Houston, not a jobber.

Stylistically is a tough matchup for Michael Van Page. And you could tell that he had a lot of respect for Ross Houston in that fight. And that's why the game plan and the way of the second and third rounds went were based on the first round. There was a lot of respect there. Michael Venom Page is not an idiot. He knows that Ross Houston is a tough out. And this is a tough matchup. And I think a lot of fans, especially from the European scene, thought, oh, boy, this guy could give MVP some fits. And in the first round, he certainly did. So, I mean, listen, not every fight is going to be a knockdown dragout affair. Like Israel out of Sonia fought you old Romero,

and people thought he was like a boring fighter after that. And then look what happened. He goes out there and starches Paulo Costa. And let's not forget, the Lima fight, MVP looked pretty damn good in that fight until he got knocked out. So, I mean, it's time to, like, throw him in these big fights now. Like, if he's going to chase Douglas Lima and we're going to play that game, like, you have to put him in a position to fight guys that will get him there. Because I actually want to see the rematch. I want to see what that will look like down the road.

Of course, Lima is going to fight Gagar Musassi for the 185 pound title. But I think MVP's right there, maybe give him one more and give him that fight with Lima and see where he's really at. I mean, he's 32 years old. Let's, you know, shit or get off the pot. Let's just throw him to the wolves. Let's just throw him the toughest competition we can do. Yeah.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that he took such a huge step back from the Lima fight because it was kind of getting okay there. Like, David Rickles, I think is a very tough better. And then that led to the Paul Daley fight, whichever won it forever. That fight unfortunately proved to be a stink bomb. Not through any, by the way, through any fault of MVP. If we all remember, Paul Daley suddenly turned into like the second. company of GSP and tried to initiate a lot of the rest.

MVP didn't like press the action that much either, but it was an awful fight, but Paul Daly had a lot to do with that after like years of saying like, oh, I wish people would, you know, which is stick up, stand up like men. And then he showed off his very, very subpar wrestling and lost the fight. So it looked okay there. David Rickles, Paul Daly, Douglas Lee, but there you go. It suddenly looks like, oh, Bellator is matching this guy up with, you know, the level of hype that we built him up to. And then Richard Keely, a fight with Derek Anderson falls through. so he gets another relative unknown in Gianni Malillo, Shinsho Anzai, not the most exciting name. So it was such a huge step back from Lima, which makes it even more frustrating than if they had just kept, you know, if they had never matched them up with these quality bell to turn names.

Because now it's so confusing as to what they're doing with him. Again, Ross Houston, again, maybe not the most well-known guy, but a very tough person. Hopefully, and I think better than the competition he'd been facing before that. So hopefully this is the direction. He's trending back upwards again, but I absolutely understand the frustration that I think. think Al Mack is, is expressing here. Yeah. I mean, what do you do?

Do you wait? Like, at this point, do you wait for Lima, Musassi, and then just have MVP in, in the weight? Like, if Musassi wins, Lima is still the 175 champion. Do you just immediately give him MVP? Or, I mean, we're at this point now where, like, you have to give them the scary matchups. Like, do you throw them in there with, like, a Neiman Gracie?

I mean, I mean, what else can you do? Like, Neiman Gracie just retired John Fitch. He's in that conversation, too. Where is Lorenz Larkin? Why have they not fought? That's the fight. That's the fight. That's the fight for a year and a half.

Yeah. I mean, that's absolutely, it's a fight. If you beat Lorenz Larkin. And Lorenz Larkin, remember when he left the UFC, he was a top 10 Walter White. Like, people just kind of forget about these guys, you know. But actually, I want to blame Bellator on the fact that people are, the fans are even saying that Houston is a jobber. Because Houston is not one. but Bellator, I feel, did not do a proper enough job selling the casual fan who Houston was

because he is quote unquote UFC caliber easily. He's just not in the UFC. And I want to say too, I thought MVP actually looked good tonight, well, this morning or whatever you want to call it. I thought Houston was just way too conservative. And I thought MVP looked good on the ground too. He actually won the grapany exchanges in the third round. So, I just, I call it NB. I like to call Michael Van Page Anderson Silva Light in the sense that you get amazing highlight wheels.

But you kind of, when you think of Anderson Silva fights, you kind of, you kind of, you want, you forget all the bad fights Anderson Silva has. The Tata St. H.S. fights. The Patrick Cote fights. The Damien Maia fights. Andrew Silver has had a lot of stinkers as far as entertainment value. that he fights 81 so um that's why like he's he's um MVP is anderson of a light yeah i sort of i sort of see the comparison again i think obviously the overall level of competition is so different but i get what you're saying uh there's it looks great in highlight

rails you know yes uh as as did the uh the great spot i was just trying to figure out where lorenz larkin has been i know he did he did interviews the thing as recently it's like may i think he was doing some press uh when built or with people were whatever they're hosting some sort of event But other than that, I don't know why. I don't know why he hasn't booked. The Larkin thing has certainly, sorry, the MVP thing has certainly been brought up to him. And I guess he's amenable towards it.

And I think they've said maybe for an interim title, depending how long Lima's away. I guess if he wins the 185, they're assuming. I don't know. There's a lot of moving parts there. But yeah, I think a fight with Larkin makes the most sense. So I'm sure that'll happen at some point. All right.

Yeah, I mean, I interviewed him after the Koreshkov win. And, you know, they're part, I mean, they're both managed by the same company. So there was like a little bit of hesitation on that sense. But then the Nakamura win was just so ridiculous. Like Larkin looked outstanding in that fight. It was like one of his best performances of his career. And then we're just like, all right.

And then MVP had like a sick performance on that card too. Like, let's just match these guys up. Like, what are we waiting for? Like that's the fight to make. There's no other, there's no other fight to make. So there you go. There's your MVP. There's your MVP talk.

There we're on Raymond Daniels. Oh, coming off of that. It was a no contest. Or DQ? It was a no contest. Yeah. But he really won if we think, I mean, who kicked who in the balls?

Who won? Who showed up? Who showed up with a post-fight interview? So, that's true. I mean, he's talked about fighting every few. I think they're friends, though, but I think, like, like, in a friendly way, I think he wants to fight them. So, yeah. I think MVP needs, I mean, I, sorry, I think Raymond Daniels needs one more legitimate victory.

But, yeah. Those are more legitimate to that, buddy. You're right. You're right. That wins on the streets every day. You're fighting in for a long time. I'll tell you that. That was a great Friday night cover on the sport.

Did Edson save his UFC job by beating Makwanamir Kani? Entering today, he's lost five of his last six fights. It's funny because we talked about this multiple times. I think mostly on the way in show we touch on it. Look at the, just look at who Edson Barbosa has fought in those six fights. It's ridiculous. Like his strength of schedule is amongst the toughest, like in the sport right now.

It's, it's insane. And I thought he won the Danny Gay fight. And he clearly won tonight. Like, it's just, no, I don't think he saved his job. I think he was fine. He was fine. There's no chance he was saving his job. I mean, they threw him in a co-main event fight.

It was supposed to fight Suduque Yusuf in an interesting matchup. Then he gets Machuan. It's still the co-main event. So obviously the UFC is still invested in this guy as 145 pounder. And I think, I don't know if I'm, accurate 100% on this, but I think Dana White even scored that fight for Edson Barbosa against Danny Gay. So most people thought Barboza won that fight. I don't think, I don't think his job was on the line. I didn't even, that never even crossed my mind until I saw this

question. You're talking about his resume. I'm just looking back to see one was last thing he had a quote unquote easy fight. And by the way, there's really no easy fights in the UFC. At least, I said 2014. I said, I said, Evan Dunham? Evan Dunham? That's his far back. But it was, I wasn't Evan Dunham in the top 15? He might. Oh, they didn't have rankings. They didn't have rankings back then. But I believe.

Do they have rankings now? I mean, they have them. Do they matter? Evan Dunham at the time. Oh, okay, he was a little bit of a slump. But I mean, Evan Dunham also was a guy who only fought kind of high-level competition. So I wouldn't even call Dunham. And then before that, Donald Soroni, I think he'd go back December 2013, Danny Castillo.

And Danny Castillo, stylistically, was a tough matchup for him. So, man, this guy, you're right. I mean, you went to have him with some of the toughest rest. This guy, when they will look back on it, will go on us having one of the toughest, toughest resumes at 155 pounds. So, yeah, and exactly. He could be on a three-fight win streak right now. So, yeah, definitely wasn't fighting for his job. So well-liked by the company.

Can I make- Go ahead, go ahead, Kate. Can I make a weird comparison? And I-an another one? You already have one tonight. I thought we had two. You told me two earlier. I'll show him that. Go ahead.

I understand what Joseph Bose is saying. I don't agree with it at all. But let's compare Edson Barbosa to say a John Dodson. John Dodson had an incredibly tough strength of schedule too. And he got cut from the UFC after losing to Davoschili. Does that he say his name? Toilogy. That's, yeah.

Exactly. So what I mean is so. So Edson in a sense, when you lose, if the price tag was too high for Edson or the fan interest wasn't there for Edson, which I still believe it is, unlike it was for Dodson. I felt like the fans just kind of didn't care about Dodson. That's why their UFC released him. It wasn't because Dodson is a crappy fighter

or that he was way past his prime. I mean, he just knocked out Nathaniel Wood, you know, talking about Dodson, and he lost a competitive, but decision fight to Mahab. God, I got to pronounce this guy. Marhab. Marab. So I do believe,

maybe payroll-wise, Barbosa was on the chopping block in a sense, payroll-wise, but as far as fan interest and just if he's still a top fighter, no, that's just ridiculous. Now, I will say, what about his own interest

if he had lost another fight? If he had technically lost three straight fights, six of seven, if he'd lost time of year, Connie, he's 34, he's 34 years old, he turned 34 this year, he'll be 30.

in January. So that's too long from now. And he has a lot of mileage on him. I wonder, I don't know if he, I'm not saying he would have retired in the spot. I wonder how much that would have hurt his motivation for the future, for the near future, if he had lost another fight. So in that sense, did he save his job? Then I'd say, yeah, maybe he did. So his motivation to keep doing it. All right. There you go. I mean, just look at this. From 2015 on, Michael Johnson, this is like the streaking, almost title shot Michael Johnson, right? Paul Felder wins that fight. Then he fights

Tony Ferguson loses by Dars Choke of the second round. One of the fights of the year. Yes. Beats Anthony Pettis.

This is 2016 Anthony Pettus. Yeah, Prime Pettus. Gilbert Melendez, like three months later, then he knocks out B'Neil Darius with a flying knee.

Then he fights Habib. Then he fights Kevin Lee who had the best performance of his entire career on that thing. And he came very close to beating Lee. Yes.

He only has a Yeah, he almost finished in the first round in that fight. Dan Hooker, who he beat the brakes off of. Dominates. And then he fights Justin Gaichi. Which he loses. Paul Felder again. And a lot of people think he beat Paul Felder.

Then he fights Dan Igay. Most people think he won that fight. And then he fights Makwanamir Khan. I mean, the strength of schedule for this guy has been ridiculous. So maybe, like, I agree with AK when he says that maybe in his own mind, he was fighting for his job. But in terms of like how the UFC views him, putting him in a co-main event like this, I mean, I know this wasn't the deepest card of all time, but they like to throw the heavyweights in there in the co-main event. They said, nope, we're putting the feather weights up there.

So I didn't think so. I didn't think so. Hey, and props for Amir Connie for taking that challenge, too, because that was a bold challenge. Demanding it. Demanding it. I wanted this fight. It's like, I've never heard anyone say that about Edson Barboaston before. He's a tough, he's a tough dude. He took some big shots in that fight. What else do you got? What do we got?

Who we got? Hold on, hold on. Do, do, do, do. The people are speaking. We've got people watching on a relatively early Saturday night for us, not for those. Abdubian and Fort San Ar, and our Jose Young's, hopefully getting a chance to crawl somewhere and find some sleep. I think this is just, go back to Edson right here. What can the UFC do to help catapult Edson?

into a title shot before he ages out. Well, I mean, you have him fight. Unfortunately, he's going to have to, I mean, unfortunately, Featherweight is a very exciting division, and it's much more loaded than people, than some people even give it credit for it. I mean, there's some surging up-and-coming 45ers. I know he wants the top five, top six.

I just don't think you could justify it right now, because even though people think he beat Dan Igay on paper, just like the Mariah Zelda fight that we talked about earlier, he lost that fight. Like, it goes down as a loss. But there's still fun matches. I mean,

Edson Barboza versus Shane Burgos would be a ridiculous fight. That's a ridiculous fight. Jontas is ranked number 10, I believe. Mike Johnson Ram is asking what gets him closer to a title shot. Shane Burgos? Dude, you're not going to put him up there. He doesn't be, he's not fighting Max Holloway.

I said, yeah, he's not fighting. Yeah, year. If that does a beat fight, doesn't happen. Who will Max Holloway fight? Calvin Cater. Is that the fight? That's not booked, right?

That's just a fight to make. That's the fight to make. Unless if Zabit Yair doesn't happen, which it should happen. Oh, I know. Then you do Kater versus Yai Yer. Okay, that's the fight to make. Barbosa, Josh Emmett. Yeah.

Is Josh Emmett book? I was just looking at his name. Is he not booked? Does he really not have an opponent lined up? No, because he tore his eight. ACL in his last time. Oh, so he's out for a while? As far as we thought Burgos towards ACL in the fight. So that wasn't that wasn't long ago.

He seems to be moving along and progressing quickly. So I would say, you know, to be on the safe side, mid summer of 2021, seems like a roundabout guess. Yeah. And here's a tough thing. It's not like Barbosa ever earned a title shot at 155. So he doesn't have that like former like or that one time title. contenders shine to him, which you can carry over to the division.

And then it's kind of like, oh, we fought for a title once. We can, he's, you know, whatever, he gets two wins. That's really, I mean, frankly, how the matchmaker's thinking, how the UFC works, unfortunately, it shouldn't be that way. He's a contender for a long time, 25, but actually never challenged for the title. So we had to keep that in mind. I can't imagine any scenario where he's closer than two wins away. So it's a little bit hard to answer because whatever happens, you know, I mean,

we can kind of figure out maybe, like we said, maybe a Josh Emmett or a, uh, uh, Shane Burgo for his next fight after that, I have no idea with the rest of the feather rate, the top 10 of the federal ratings will look like. So it changes the question, changes the math completely, right? So he's definitely not closer than two fights away. And that might even be generous. Actually, I think... I think, yeah, I think... You got some big fights coming up, too.

Yeah. We got Bryce Mitchell, who's ranked number 15. He's fighting Andre Feely on Halloween. Bryce Mitchell wins. You know the UFC's pushing that guy. You got Ryan Hall and number 13. No, no, no, no. Antimarbose ain't crazy.

He wants fights he can win. He wants fights he can win, bro. So let's just. There's Burgos. There's Ege who already fought. Jeremy Stevens and Arnold Allen are about to fight. Emmett is, I mean, maybe, maybe Emmett. I think Emmett's the guy.

But I know he's not going to want to wait that long to fight. He wants to get right back in there. So I think they end up with the Sudik fight or they do the Burgos fight because I think anything above that at this point with how competitive this division is, especially in that top six range, it just doesn't make any sense. Yeah. So I think the answer to this question is, John, I'm sorry, if you're Barbosa fan. I don't think there is a lot that UFC can do, frankly, to help him right now get a title shot,

other than, again, just kind of give him entertaining matchups, hope he wins them, and strings the other, maybe three straight wins gets it. But again, it really depends how the rest of the division shakes out. I mean, the answer is keeping him active. That's the answer. Or what do we say at the beginning? Always just keep winning. Yeah.

Just win all your fights. Yeah. Just don't ever lose. And you get there. I mean, it doesn't work for algebra. Sterling or a Tony Ferguson or a number of other people, but, you know. Just win, just win, bro. But I think Yusuf is the fight, unless he's injured or got the Rona or something,

if it's really just a passport issue, throw him at apex. We're good. Yep. That's the one. Yeah, I totally forgot about Yosef, actually. I just, like, he won and he just kind of, I don't know. I just haven't heard him, his name out there at all for a while. Casey, while you're looking for another question, I just say, I want to apologize.

to everyone who keep paying sense to our other shows. I'm sure no one who watched this show, watched our other shows. I was very heavily pushing, I think that wasn't the only one, heavily pushing sort of Stephanie Egger as a potential upset candidate to beat Tracy Cortez.

I still feel like Cortez being a near two to one favorite was a little crazy. I still feel like Eggers actually pretty decent fighter. I know she didn't, I know Cortez did a great job today. Eggers did not look good in there in her U.S.A.D.U. That's fine. Anyone seen her for the first time was like, oh, she's a can, whatever.

She doesn't. I think that's very unfair. I also, I always encourage you to not gamble on MMA. So if you put anybody on Stephanie Eggers because of me, I do not take responsibility for that. But I do apologize for maybe lying, not misleading America, okay, maybe perhaps misleading America a little bit as to Eggers' chances. But I do think Cortez, I think, was a little too heavily fair. But she did, she backed that up.

Whatever was the motivation behind these odds makers being so high on her, she backed it up. Grappling looked great today. Looked like a legitimate prospect. I think she'll be even better when she drops down. I think the plan is to drop down to 125s. So Cortez, one to watch again. Far, far away from contendership, but I think she has the right attitude.

And I think she's set herself, she wants to fight her way up. So certainly one to watch. And I think that someone, a lot of fans are already kind of taking a shine too. I thought she looked good tonight against her level competition. I thought I, actually, I picked Edgar to win and Eggers to win. And, yeah, Cortez, I pleasantly surprised me.

I kind of want to see her stay at 35, at least for a little while. Like, one, just because of the times you're in. And two, that division needs a boost. It's true. 35? Yeah. There's probably more winnable fights in that division for her.

So there's no reason to leave right away. Like, I don't think they're going to throw it on crazy yet. The other name. Isn't that just a weird twist, not a twist of fate, but just how things turn out to be now, now it was always the women's flyweight division, which is kind of this forgotten division. but now we're like, oh, what about, we forgot about Banton weights. Yeah. Well, some of the Bantam weights left and went to flyweight.

That probably changed things. But again, I know there's another question coming up. But while we were talking about Broposa, one thing, name we didn't bring up, and which Jose Young said brought up before, I think in the preview shows, is Giga Chikaze. That's obviously the fight Barbosa would not want to take right now. It's not something he would see as closer to a shot. But they both want tonight, Chakadze, now 4 and O in the UFC. Chikaze is still looking for that signature moment.

I thought he looked great tonight. But I think you'll still want to see that finish. That's four decision wins for a Chikaze, which does not light Dana White's non-existent hair on fire, unfortunately. So I think if you want to see – and I'm not saying a fight with Barbosa would necessarily guarantee a knockout either. They're both so technical you might just get again and really entertaining three-round fight. But I would be so down for that fight. If Robosa was okay for it, I would love to see it. It does not get him closer to a title shot, but it certainly has to be considered Chikaze and Barbosa.

Just thinking about it. Very exciting. That was a great win because I thought Omar Morales. is going to piece a mob. Yeah. He was tough, though. Omar's tough. Yeah.

Just because, yeah, Omar's huge. He was walking through stuff. He was a huge, by the way. He's big. Yeah, he looks huge. But great. The one betting,

the one, like, betting line that I thought was, like, ridiculous was the first fight. With a lot of a cop. Yeah. I'm like, I'm like, minus 500.

Yeah. I'm like, are you watching this? I mean, yeah, he won. But, I mean, like, if he watched his fights, like he's, he's good, but he's not a minus 500 good against a guy. Bruno Silva who looked like pretty good in that fight too like it was not a minus 500 performance

but nothing against him it was just I just thought the line was her donk it was odd yeah it was odd yeah it was odd what do we got did I see next week yeah I would be I think people are already moving on well I mean next week I mean next week I mean when we looked at this this slate of file island events it was obviously the two pay per views and then this fight I mean this Jose Young's his dream fight. Like the fact that he's on Fight Island and this is like a week away, he must be so nervous right now. So I saw the news briefly, but Hinner and Gracie?

Yes. So he will not be there. Asymptomatic or is he sick or is he just got the Rona and he can't come? Sounds like it. Yeah. That sounds like all we know so far. Yeah. Okay.

But I'm assuming Ortega is good. though because I'm assuming they train together. So cross your fingers. Well, yeah. This is a, you know me. I'm the ultimate optimist. I don't believe in jinx this. I've been saying like forever like this fight's happening.

This fight's happening. Jose keeps telling me to stop and shut the hell up. But I don't care. He says, I just say it more because I believe in the power of positive thinking. It has not always worked out in M.A. Because I've also been on the Habib Tony train for the longest time, which I still think will happen. But I'm very confident this fight will happen, not as confident as I would normally be because

of the age that we're working in now with COVID-19 testing, it wouldn't shock me at all of any of the fighters. Who knows, you know, somehow during all this traveling around this testing, unfortunately, you test upon. Fingers crossed, I don't know how this is now. I don't wish this upon anybody. But, yeah, I have to temper my optimism a little bit. There's just things that are out of the control at this point, right?

So, but, yeah, that fight looks great. I mean, I'm obviously my quick pick. I'm going, I'm actually going to go, zombie only because I interviewed Ortega and I'm a jinx. Not that I believe in that sort of thing. Whatever you just said, don't listen to it. Yeah, it's completely contradicted to everything I said. It's a great fight.

It's a great matchup. I'm going zombie too. I think the odds makers have it right. Right now they have Korean zombie at minus 175, Ortega plus 150. I think that's pretty spot on. So that's a fun. I mean, it's just a fun card overall. some interesting matchups.

Cyril gone in the co-made event? Wow. That's a great main card. I look the main card now. Jessica Androge? Why would debut? Jessica And Raj could create some wrinkles in that division. If she beats Kailen Chuggan,

because Cynthia Calvillo and Lauren Murphy are fighting the week after that. And most people would agree that the winner of that fight would probably be next to fight the winner of Valentina, Shavchenko versus Jennifer Maya. But what if Jessica And Rajhage goes out there and finishes Kail and Chukagian, that could that could. they could mess things up a little bit. Oh, if Andrade whoops up on Caitlin,

I would not be shocked if she gets the next title shot. I think it actually makes sense depending how she looks, but if she can actually put a weapon on Chikagian, I would be okay if a title shot, you know,

after Chichenko Maya. Yeah, I think, yeah. I mean, if I'm Calvio and Murphy, I'm pissed if that's the case. But I'm why, I think they're big, they're both huge Cayland Chikian fans. Yeah.

I mean, obviously, you know, you have the former champ aspect of it. I mean, it's a lot. Jessica Andrade's a lot going for her. She just has to win. That's a good card, man. Almeida versus Jonathan Martinez is a fun fight. Oh, I made. I made an, um, Casey Kinney didn't get made.

What happened to Casey Kenney? Did he get booked? Case Kenny's fighting Nathaniel Wood on October 24th. All right, all right. Uh, crude book up that I didn't even know I wanted until I saw it. And I was like, yeah. That's a great fight. But that's just Buchaniel Wood.

Yeah. Gambrot versus Kraus is a good one. I spoke with James Krause on Thursday. So you'll see that on what the heck. Very interesting stuff from the James Krause. I think that's the most I've ever heard him speak in an interview out of all the times I've spoken to him. And some interesting things that happen behind the scenes that you'll get to hear about. Gillian Robertson's back.

Saeed Namaga Madoff on the car. I mean, it's just a top prospect. Gamrod making his debut. Gamrod's making his debut? Holy crap. And a guy who I've dragged a little bit of the past for his complete lack of a ground game, John Phillips, but they matched him up with the Jun Yong Park, which should have no grappling at all.

And we'll probably see someone knocked out in the first 35 seconds. So I'm giving my preemptive ranking for this card, by the way, just looking at it without having to done any deep dive into sort of the matchups. This looks like a potential nine. This will have potential nine. Nine. If it lives up. And I'm probably, again, now my whole scale is messed up.

I'm probably going too low because this looks like a lot of. There's not, Malarkey, we didn't even mention J.M. Malarkey. Malarkey is, he's a brawler. This is good. I thought you were saying your score was Malarkey. And I was going to say. I mean, obviously, that's also true. But yeah, this card is good.

That's fun one. Are you leading right into the pay-per-view? All right. Got one more question for tonight's car. One more question for tonight's car. We'll wrap it up. Justin Gordon, that's getting a lot of play, I feel like. Yeah, man, you.

You write good. They're quality questions. Quality questions. With Chris Doccus winning tonight, using his speed and great technical striking, what do you think of him in the heavyweight division, and who do you think he should fight next? This is easy to answer. I don't think anything of him in the heavyweight division because he should drop down

to light heavyweight. He weighed in at 227 pounds. I think his first fight, he was, what, 241? Yeah, round about. I don't know the exact dimensions of Chris Dachas. This sounds to me like someone who's trying to make a move down to 205 pounds, so I don't I don't know. At, uh, he, is he tall?

Is he, like, super tall? He's in his 30s, I believe. So, I mean, that's, I think, I think, I think he just dropped some LBs to, you know, for, for his own health, his own health and safety, you know, trying to. 27. Be, you know, be a little light on his feet, but you know, I think, I think, I think, Tom Aspinall laid it out perfectly. He said, I want to fight Sergei Spivak or as he said, I want to fight low-key,

Chris Dachus. Like I said earlier, this was the kind of card where we can matchmake fighters that competed on this card against each other and they all make sense. I think Dachas versus Aspinol

is a good fight. I think it's a good fight. I think Aspenol's a lot bigger. This is what I'm saying. I think Dacus needs to get out of the... Daccus, I guess he's not small. I'm probably looking at that way in way too much.

I get it. I know. 45 seconds. I know. I he is tall he's six foot three I was pretty tall if he can make two of five I say go for it

I think he's making a move this is what when you this rapid weight loss he's making wow I guess pooch disagrees with you no that was a bark of

whoa that was a bark of acknowledgement whoa I would say or you could do like or you could do like or can do like Daucus versus like the

loser of Mory Screen versus Greg Hardy. Yeah. I think we got to get Docus on what the heck. I think we need to make this appearance happen. I think we have answers to questions about the incredible shrinking Chris Dawkins. I think Mike Heck needs to get the answers for this. Every Thursday, people tune in. Every Thursday, you never know it's going to show up.

Or if we lose power and have to do shit this day. But, yeah, I don't think he's staying in heavyweight. So, that is my answer to your question. I do agree with speed and great technical striking. heavy weight? I don't know. 205, I think 205. Maybe. If you can get there healthy, why the hell not?

But I think you looked, I mean, we talked about this a lot of the way and so we're like, holy crap, not cementos made championship weight fighting just 227 pound guy and man, just doc has looked great. I'm a big advocate for extreme weight cutting. You guys know that. So I want to see these fighters as drained as much as possible, uh, stepping into fight night. I want to see them stepping into the scale looking skeletal.

that is that is what I'm all about I'm just that kind of person it makes me it makes me laugh who's great who's Greg Hardy fighting next Greg Harry's fighting Maurice Green wait is that fight oh god that's Halloween that's suitable Halloween fight when I think Halloween MMA I would say yes

Marie Green in I think Docis is at the point in the UK no that's a horrible idea of him going to 205 first of all I think I love that I love that I want him to go to 207. I want him to just be one pound above the limit. And then I want him to be the smallest heavyweight in the UFC. And now I want him to whoop up on fat 265ers.

That's why I want. That's what I want. That's what I want. That's his story. That's his gimmick. He had a great walkout. You could drop down. You could drop down.

Look, Jared Canineer was a heavyweight once. Remember that? Remember Jared Kenanier was a heavyweight? He's considerably shorter than Chris Dockin. I'm not saying. Dawkins doesn't have crystal power. He doesn't have crystal power. We know that.

Oh my gosh. I swear if you, if you interview him, Mike, and he brings up crystals and says, and says, like, yeah, I've got these weight loss crystals here. They really help me keep the pounds off. Really help me control my cravings. I will, I will not watch that episode out there. I will tell people not to watch that episode. What a bold threat.

Twitter needs to put up one of those, this tweet contains false information warnings. Oh, yeah. A Twitter violation? Yeah. I'm going to flag that video, that clip, which I'm sure you'll clip off, Casey. If Staka says that he's using. Well, we'll just run it on Facebook then. Oh, my gosh.

There you go. Do not. Doc is. Or you do Dacca's versus like Chase Sherman. That's fun. Yeah, it's Chase, man. He had a great fight. Where has he been?

Get back in there, Chase. I miss you. Chase Sherman is our break glass in cases of emergency heavy way. There's like so many guys who, like, debut and there's like second or third U.S. We're like, yeah, Chase Sherman. It's the next logical test for them. I mean, this is a different Chase Sherman. from his first UFC run because if like if we're going back to the first UFC run

Chase Sherman would have four times already against in like ridiculous fights that made no sense which he knew he admitted that he did that but he's on a he's on a different wavelength these days do you have anything else or no I'm ready to I'm ready to call it a night yes this is like three hours earlier than last week yes great let's look again we normally air what we're normally on it like uh what with the 132 in the morning. So let's not force people to stick around until that time. I think we,

I think we talked about this card enough. It's a good one. It was a really good one. How about that? Hey, real quick, how about that Buckley knockout? Unreal.

I don't think anyone's talking about that, Casey. Buckley knockout. I think I would have heard of that if people were talking about it. I don't know. I saw it mentioned on social media. That's all. That finish is why we is one of the reasons why we still do this stuff. You know what I mean?

It's like every, I love that. We love MMA. We love the daily grind of it. We love, you know, we will love conscious decisions. We love competitive fights. We love all that stuff. Every now and then, though, there's magic. You know what I mean? There's a magic moment, which, of course, it comes to the expense of another fighter. But there's that magic moment that you know you're going to end up talking about it for, again, the rest of the moment. Again, the rest of the time, for the rest of the night. I think a lot of people were. Thank goodness the rest of the card. There was so much action after that, like, lived up to that moment as well. So, yeah, it's just, it's left me feel all warm and fuzzy, which, uh, which doesn't always happen, I think, when we're covering this sport. But tonight definitely did. There you go.

I mean, we had Shamiya from the first fight Allen trip emerges a star and now, Joaquin Buckley could be the next one. So we'll see what happens. Shemaiah versus Buckley. There you go. Easy, easy, easy, easy, easy. All right, I'm going to start playing. The next one canceled for this week.

No, I'm just kidding. A.K. and I will be back on Monday morning doing on to the next one. Between the links, we will record that on Monday as well. Brian Kelleher versus Phoenix Carnarvali for the strap. Very excited. The match has been three weeks in the making. It's finally going to happen. So I'm very excited for that.

And then lots of cool stuff going on throughout the week as we get you ready for Ortega versus the Korean zombie next Saturday. And then, of course, all hell is going to break loose. UFC 254 the following week. Habee versus Justin Gachie. And by the way, what is with the spelling of Gaghi's name? On the post, that was outlandish. Was it a fake person? Was it a typo?

What happened? I didn't know. It was real bad. Could not have spelled Gagie's name worse. On the cage? Yeah, the in cage advertisers on the post. Every time the camera, like, saw it every time. It's supposed by that.

G-A-E-J-T-H-E. So, like, I mean, I guess now it's a way I can sort of understand why, but come on, people, this is your job to do these things right. So no, Jessica Crystal Crew, no. They couldn't have spelled it worse. They spelled it G-A-E-J-T-H-E. Yes, G-A-E. So, again, maybe you'd pronounce it the same way, but people, we are better than this. We've got to have standards.

Mike, I know you're going to sign us up, but I always like to say on my part, thank you everyone who's watching. You guys are, I love everyone who's watching live, anyone who's watching the replay in the coming days as well. You guys are the best. Don't use crystals. Can you, can you wrap us out, AK? What round is crystals? Yo, don't use crystals. I was going to say, don't use crystals.

You'll end up on the wrong end of a pistol. I swear I'd never do that again. I'm so sorry. We can edit that out later. I apologize for everyone who saw that live. That will not be in the final. We'll edit that out. We'll edit that out of the final.

I apologize to all 800 viewers. Yeah, I'm sorry, guys. Earth to cool Alex. Earth to cool Alex. I don't know what the timestamp is, but clip, clip, clip. No, and cut it. Yeah, clip it and cut it out. Yeah, and don't show it to anyone.

Yes, that'll be up there with views with Joaquin Buckley's knockout by tomorrow morning. So thank you all very much for watching, listening, whether it's live or after the fact. You appreciate it very much. You have C. In the Books for Alex Kee Lee, for E. Casey Lyden. I am Mike Heck. Thank you very much. that everybody you're listening to the vox media podcast network