MMA Fighting - UFC Fight Island 8: Chiesa vs. Magny Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

With UFC Fight Island 8 in the books, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee and E. Casey Leydon break down the top storylines from Wednesday’s event. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. You know what that means. It means we are live on YouTube. UFC Fight Island 8 post-fight show here on MMAfighting.com. Hope you guys enjoy the card. We just heard from Michael Kiesa after his big win over Neil Magny, five rounds, 4946 across the board. You call it Colby Covington.

Not sure he gets that fight, but as Wayne Gretzky once said, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. So there you go. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us once again on the other end of our post-fight coverage. Casey Leiden is here. And also joining us is the Prince of Positivity, Mr. Alex K. Lee, aka, hope you enjoyed the card. There you go. Some branding. Where's my check? Where's my check? Lyddy. It's what seven hours of fighting will do.

Where am I? I'm gone. Oh, no, I disappeared. Silhouette. Now we're all gone. am I? Yeah. All right, we'll sort this out. You guys can still hear us. Okay, perfect.

Yeah. Seven hours. Okay, I want to hear your thoughts. First. Oh, God. Oh, I'm just saying. Go ahead. It actually, but I mean, it kind of

was not a bad card. I think any 14 fight card, you could have like three fight of the year, you know, fights in the first like seven fights. It's still going to drag once you hit that like 10, 11 marks. So I don't know.

Yeah, I actually thought for as long, as it was pretty good pretty good for wednesday morning wednesday morning north america card well let's get your take on oh go ahead gaisie yeah wednesday morning for us but over there so right now it's one it's one 30 a m so that's kind of a normal east coast fight card i would think well except for the length but as for in terms of times for um local time so um yeah it's hard it's hard man those those fights i felt like especially during like say Tyson uh what was it Tyson nam and uh Matt Schnell even though that was a really good fight I felt the announcers were just kind of getting a bit loopy and not really paying attention but that's going to happen in big cards

long big cards like this long cards rather I agree uh AK by the way if you're watching right now we want to hear from you this is going to be mostly a fan question listener submission type of show. So send them in into the live chat. But, AK, before we get to our wonderful listeners and viewers, your thoughts on Michael Kiesz's big win. Fourth one in a row, 170, dominates Neil Maggi from start to finish. What did you think? Great. He looked like a guy. I think it's like a top six top contender. Like, undefeated of Alterate now,

four and a no against really good competition. You just beat a half-Fa-Ladon-Eus. That's legit. And now getting this a commanding win over Magni. It was certainly helped by the fact that Magni accommodated his greatest skill. He, after the first round, he really, it seemed like Magny said, right, well, you know what, if we're going to grapple, we're going to grapple. I might even engage some. I might even throw you down to the mat every now and then.

And Magny, you know, has pretty good offensive grappling. But against Keiz, you know, this was clearly somewhat of a tactical error. You know, I don't want to, I don't want to play backseat cornerman here. But I think, I think we know. of this fight, we would have all said, well, if this fight takes place primarily on the ground, it's a Kesa win for sure. And we were not surprised in any regard, because that's what it turned out to be. Kaysa won four out of five rounds.

Again, and Magny had a good effort in a lot of times, got out of some tough situations. Again, got a slam in there somewhere. But every time you just knew that Kesa was going to figure things out, get the better of most positions, and just control the fight. So I don't know, you know, maybe Magny saw something in round one that he didn't like, saw something in the striking that just wasn't working for him. or his team thought, again, maybe if they initiate the grappling

and they're the aggressors to kind of beat him to the punch in that regard, either way, it didn't work out for Magni. But Keiza looked fantastic. We all know he's an elite grappler, and he showed that against a really, really tough, better an opponent in Neil Magny and a lot after as well.

I agree with everything you just said. So get those questions, and we're going to get some in a matter of moments. But before we do that, the UFC Fight Island 8 post-fight show here on M-AFinding.com is being brought to you by ESPN Plus. Conner McGregor makes us long away to return in a rematch against Dustin Porreier at UFC 257 this Saturday, January 23rd, only on ESPN Plus.

UFC 257 is exclusively available to ESPN plus subscribers for 6999. Or you can sign up now to get UFC 257 and an ESPN Plus annual plan for 8998. You're going to save some buckaroos by doing that plan. So go to ESPNplus.com for. slash PPV, ESPNplus.com forward slash ppv and order UFC 257, Jorge versus McGregor 2 right now. Save yourself some time. All right. With that being said, I thank you.

Hey, you earned it, bro. You earned that air horn. You earned it. It reminds me my radio day is doing these reads. All right. So let's get to the peeps, See what they have to say about this 14 fight card.

Destimation Jones. Main event was whack. It was one-sided. You know, it was one-sided, if we're being honest. But, I mean, if you appreciate grappling, there was a lot to like fights. No, it was pretty much the antithesis of the main event that we got on Saturday with Axe Holloway and Calvin Cater, you know, which was just a stand-up war. Again, also mostly one-sided. So maybe Desimation Jones here is fine.

one-sided striking beatdowns a little more palatable than one-sided grappling competitions. But I don't know if I'd go as far as it was whack. Maybe it wasn't exciting if you're looking for stand-up action. In terms of competition, because coming into this fight week, I think everyone was an agreement that what do we think the most competitive main event was? Was everyone pretty much saying Kiesa Magni as far as like the three main events, this was going to be like the one that's going to be really competitive, we thought? That's what I recall.

Of the three main events? Yeah. Was it the most competitive? Yeah, I would have, yeah, I would say this. We were on the fence. You know, no one had like a real like, oh, this guy's going to win. And in terms of competition, yeah, after about two rounds, you kind of, you knew where the fight was going. So whack is, that's pretty harsh, but, nah, I wasn't whack.

But competitive, no. That's a bummer. The photo of Domation Jones was excellent. It was Dave Chappelle from the Chappelle show, the trading trading spaces skit. Outstanding. So kudos to you. Well done. Oh, he's back.

No, I'm just, yeah. Oh, just to get another look at the photo. Yeah. Okay. Well, if you're going to compare everything to Nick Diaz, Diego Sanchez, that's something pretty high bar. So, I mean, okay, fine. It was, you know, no, but I agree. It was not the most exciting main event.

let's not, you know, frame it in a way that it, that it wasn't, it was a great performance by Kesa and, you know, and a solid competitive main event, but, well, not that competitive, but I mean, at least it went the distance. But yeah, I don't, I won't go with whack, but it wasn't super exciting. AK, this question is for you because Casey and I talked about this on the other side during the press coverage stream.

Thoughts on Michael Kiesa versus Colby Covington, should the UFC pull the trigger on that matchup? Kiesa, nice little fiery. one-line promo calling them out? What do you think of that matchup if it does happen? Love it. Love it. For anyone who might have missed it, he said,

the election is over and schick is done. Colby Covington, let's go, let's fight. So it was good. It was timely. Obviously, you guys had the inauguration in the United States today. So he was on point. It was obviously something he had thought of beforehand. He usually is pretty thoughtful with his callouts.

So that's always a point in case of favor. Yeah, I love the matchup stylistically. I don't think, I mean, I was supposed to say out the top of my head, I would probably, if you asked me to bet right now, I'd probably pick Covington. But nothing that Keyes has showed me says that, like, he wouldn't have a chance. He's a really, really strong grappler. How he would deal with the nonstop pressure and wrestling of Covington, it'd be a real test. But that's why this fight should happen. So I want to see this fight.

The trash talk leading up to it, I could probably do without if it ends up happening because Kay is a really nice, guy. Like I said, I know he's game, he's game to talk back if something comes up. But Covington, I find his trash talk so dull. And I would not want to see Kay's to kind of lower himself to that level to match it. But seeing these guys on a main event, it'd have to be a main event, by the way. I don't want to, I know they'd probably want to put it on a pay-per-view card with something else. I think this has to headline a fight night show, EOSC on ESPN show, whatever. And I think it has to get five rounds. I think you want to see these guys a grapple. And I think we could kind of get, we could get a grappling matchup that would make even Desimation Jones happy.

I am very, I'm really kind of curious what Colby's stick will be now. Is he still going to go with that stick? Go with the whole stop-still stick for the next four years? I don't know. So we'll see. You like to, but you like, you like the call out, okay? Was that the proper? Yeah, I like when, I like when anyone has the name.

I think we discussed it on either in the Q&A this morning. It's hard. All the days are kind of melding together, right, guys? We are. I don't know if we discussed it on the, Like Q&A or the preview show, but we did say, we did a preview show for this card, right? Okay, honestly, honestly, everything is just a blur. People have seen, so I've seen my face way too much in the last like 48 hours.

But no, I, yeah, no, I did like it. I think it's the right name for him. There's certainly other guys in the top 10 he could fight, and probably more realistic callouts. But this is a shoot for the moon and you land in the clouds or land in the stars, however you want to phrase it. And again, if he doesn't get the fight, he's on the U.S. radar. They should give him a top six, top seven guy, which is kind of where he is right now. and just keep in and keep on that short list for a title fight in the future.

It's possible. Alejandro, like, knew where my head was going, because I was literally going to ask this exact question to Casey. What's more likely, Worley Alves versus Nate Diaz or Michael Kehasa versus Colby Covington? I think you guys, I think we know where your head's at, but let's hear your reasoning behind it. Did you catch why Worley wants to fight Nate Diaz, though?

I don't know Basically because Nate Diaz Smokes the green Was it The smoky letter What do people call it? I don't know Devil's lettuce

That's what it is Yeah Thank you Esther Thanks Esther How do you know that Esther? I don't know about her Suspisher Yeah

So that was why Warrley wants to fight Nate Because of Nate promotes the devil's lettuce and children watch cage fighting, which is weird. So that was why. So unless Nate really takes offense to that, hell no, that fight's not happening. So, yeah, obviously, Kiesel Colby is a 10,000 billion times more likely to happen than Worley versus Nate Diaz.

Yes. Thank you for the question, Holly Dandro, but I'm really having trouble envisioning a scenario where Diaz accepts this fight. Again, and this even stretched my concept of people should always have a name. You should always have a name. So I liked it. I thought it was funny. I thought it was funny. We're talking about it.

I just don't see. I'm struggling to connect the dots beyond the real fighters don't use drugs. I'm trying to snarer. Like I'm trying to pull myself in the matchmaker's shoes. Would I want to put this on a pay-per-view? What I want to have a lot of fight night? Is this when can we? Is this a summer?

Would it be better? on a summer show, it's about on an island at the apex. And already, like, that's too far. Already, it's just like, no, it's not worth thinking that far ahead. Dias, there's no realm where these two guys intersect, unfortunately. How do you feel having a six-hour show? I hope it doesn't happen again. I love the fights, but this is too much. I hate to say this, Prince of Mischief, excuse me, but it's going to happen again on Saturday. And it's going to happen again next week, and then it's going to happen again the next week and then it's going to happen the next week.

That's what happens. And it all spreads up. It's been happening. Yeah. I felt like the six hour show is kind of normal. I felt like that was almost short. It's short. Yeah, I feel like we have a longer.

Even though there are 14 bytes, I feel like we've had longer cards. Was this not longer than six hours? I think it was. First broadcast started six. Is that about six and a half hours? The broadcast started six. And then it was done by six.

No, by... 12.30. 12.30 a.m. Well, 12.30 a local. Okay, fair enough. 12.30 p.m. Yeah, you're right. Sure. Sure. Sure. Okay.

Yeah, look, we've had longer shows already. So I wish that the six hours was the norm. Again, this is, you know, Prince and Bishop is asking, this is really only for people who watch from fight number one on the prelims all the way to, to the final fight. So, again, to everyone out there, it's, if you love MMA, by all means, watch everything. But if you're feeling just a little casual these days, maybe you've had changes in your life, maybe you got married, maybe you had a kid or something, maybe you're going back to school. I don't know. You do not have to watch every fight. You don't have to. We'll have highlights. We have recaps on MMAfighting.com. We'll have videos of all big finishes. It's okay. I know you want to keep up. I know you're hardcore. I know our listeners and our viewers and our readers are the biggest best fans in the world. But you've earned your right to rest and not watch every fight on a 14-fight 50 fight card. It's okay. Lay down your swords.

Whatever casual. I'm really curious how many people watch, watch, like today's got. They watch Fierro, her walkout all the way till Kies's post-fight speech. I don't know. I don't know. How many? I have no idea. I'm just kind of curious.

Shout out in the chat if you watched everything. I would say less than normal because I had a lot of people hitting me up being like, I'm watching the live, I'm watching everybody's live tweets and I'm working. I haven't been able to watch any of it. And I'm just like, well, stay off Twitter. Like, what do you want me to say? Like, don't go on Twitter if you don't want to know what happened. Well, funny enough, I'm glad you asked this, pull this question up, Casey.

Roku Slatich asks, what is next for Neil Magni, okay? Now, as people may know, you and I host the matchmaking show onto the next one. We're going to record tonight for tomorrow morning, the episode, which follows this card. we're having a conversation whether or not we should say what's next for Neil Magni and this is no disrespect because Magny is in a very interesting position right now where you could kind of mix and match

and everything sort of make sense but we're here we might as well just do it now what is next for Neil Magne after that loss to Michael Keyesity what do you think in AK? It's got a big smile on my face because first I'll say the sensible answer would be

maybe a Santiago Ponziadinevio rematch maybe let maybe give give Neil Magni a chance to get that win back. It was a long time ago. Now it was over two years ago. And again, you know, Ponziadio won that fight by Keo is kind of what propelled him into the top ten. But, you know, again, we don't know. It ended so quickly.

It doesn't really give us a great gauge if who's a better fighter. It was so long ago, Ponziabio needs to bounce back from that fight with Li Jing Liang. But I just realized, Mike, now that Magni's coming off a loss, you know, there's another fighter coming off a loss right around his spot in the rankings. And they were previously matched up. And I had almost given up on the stream, but why not? It's time to bring back, hashtag, Neil on Neal. Neil Magny and Jeff Neal.

Hashtagging, Neal on Neal. Let's bring back. I don't know if I can take Jeff Neal away from another fight. Like on to the next one, I feel like I put Jeff Neal in five different fights over the last five weeks. But yeah, Neil on Neal, the dream is alive, AK, the dream is alive. It was probably never gone. I shouldn't have given up on it. Do you have a thought on this, Casey?

Magnet is in that position where, yeah, with his ranking, with the loss, with his, I'm assuming he's not, he doesn't get paid. He's not in the top tier as far as making, as far as, you know, salaries for the UFC in terms of Walter Waite. So I think he's pretty easy to matchmake. I'm just more, I'm kind of curious what the UFC wants to do with him. Do they take this as just a loss against a top 10 guy and maybe his next fight, Magny will get back in the top 10 or is Magny now that guy they used to build up the next generation of great Walter weights? I'm kind of curious how – oops, sorry, notifications are going off. I'm kind of curious how UFC will handle that.

But I personally would like to see – I don't know, man, someone like Neil Magny – No, Magnet versus Michelle Pereira? Is that crazy? I don't think it's crazy. I don't think so. There's something I kind of like about that fight to really test Pereira's, maybe not his wrestling cardio, but just as cardio in general. I know we've seen, we've seen Pereira have trouble with just being held, but I don't think

Magnie's that type of guy, but he can just push it with his volume striking and just general pressure. So it'll be, I think, an interesting stylistic matchup. Only if it's crazy Panetta though. I don't want to see mature technical banana.

Nobody wants that. I want crazy care Yeah. Yeah. I don't want winning. I don't want this player that cares about winning fights.

What are we doing here? Why? Oh, sorry. Ugh. Yeah. Fighting. Disgusting. Get out here.

Oh, here we go. You can't go wrong. That's what's kind of interesting about having Magny in the spies. You cannot go wrong. You can put them against anybody and it all makes sense. From Sheila,

AK, if we didn't watch all the fights, we would have missed Davis versus Jones. It was the most fun fight on the card. That's a great point, Sheila. That's a great point. And again, look, if you stuck from this card from beginning to end, you were rewarded. You got some really good fights.

That was the best of, and there was several good fights in this card, some good highlights. You were rewarded if you watched it. But I'm just saying for people who have, I have no life. It's my job to cover our main. So it's a perfect. storm and I and I love MMA so those three things like of course I don't mind sticking around but again some people have lives some people have things so I'm saying if you miss you can always catch a replay that's the other beat of it we live in an age guys where everything is recorded there is no oh I missed it

I'll they'll never show that again it's like no you can probably if you missed davis versus Jones definitely uh whichever way way you have ESPN plus a fight pass whatever you have whichever method you have to rewatch it go go watch it but if you miss it live okay you missed a moment maybe but again life's too short uh hopefully uh if you if you didn't catch the fight so you're doing something else productive, catch the rest later. But Sheila's right. If you watch this from beginning to end, you reward it.

It was not a bad card at all. No. Casey, let me ask you this question. Let me ask you this question. Right now, I know the sample size is very small because we've only had two events in 2021. But as of right now, January 20th, 2021 is Mike Davis

versus Mason Jones the fight of the year? Absolutely. That was a great. great fight. Will it win fight of the year once we have the other 6,000 cards we're going to watch later on? No, it would not win part of the year. It was unfortunately just too low in the card, not enough stakes in the fight, but it was

an extremely competitive fight, highly technical, highly violent, had everything, right? Like I said, there's so many free. I knew the fight was awesome, but I'm trying to go back in my memory. And I, other than punching, other than them hitting each other than each other lot, I can't remember the fight. to actually see highlights of it again. We saw just so many fights. But, yeah, fight of the year.

It was just great. You know what? It was the best fight of the year so far, but I'm really hoping it's not the best fight of the week. I'm really hoping we're going to get something on Saturday that's going to even outshine that amazing fight. So I'm being positive. Yeah, I mean, I certainly could.

But yeah, it was, yeah. Is this number one or is it number two? Yeah, that's the best one we've had so far. I think the Holloway cater fight might be more memorable. It might be a fight we certainly look back on. Again, if just for the name power. But I think any time it comes up, someone else might say, hey, do you remember a few days later when Mike Davis and Mason Jones had that fight?

He'd like, oh, yeah. You're like, yeah, that was a better fight. So the Holloway cater fight is always going to come up first in conversations. Even by the end of the year, I'm sure I'll be talking about that fight instead of Davis Jones. But if you're just talking about pure entertainment, ignoring where, you know, card placement, stakes and the names. Davis Jones was so good. And Casey, I know you're saying it was kind of hard to remember what happened.

But what made it great is it wasn't like a brawl. It really was one guy was winning the fight. Then the other guy was winning the fight. And then sometimes they'd be evenly trading. But there was a real, well, there's a real ebb and float of it, which you don't always see in the UFC. Often you see once one guy takes control, it's kind of, that kind of starts telling the whole story. Somehow these guys, they never quite, they would get stung. They would get shaken by a hard shot and never quite back down.

They'd find a way in the next minute to recover. It was really advanced stuff for Davis, who's only in his third YOC fight and Mason Jones coming over from Cage Warriors, but only his first YOC fight. Oh, I do not think Halloween Cater was even the second best fight of the weekend, the second best fight of the week. I thought that was the most brain damage we're going to see all week. But yeah, for a fight of the year, it needs to be competitive. And that fight, unfortunately, Cater Holloway was not competitive. but are people are people saying

Hollowie cater is like a fight of the year contender? No, I think a lot of people were excited in the moment. I'm seeing a lot of comments I didn't think you were the fight of the night.

Yeah. I saw some people who didn't enjoy I saw plenty of comments to people who did not think the fight was that great. No, who thought Holloway's performance was amazing.

But like, yes, as far as it being like a competitive fight, obviously it wasn't. So there's some people who were kind of saying like they didn't understand why one fight of the night they're like, shouldn't he have just gotten a performance bonus?

And, you know, but I mean, Mike and I have made a point that. We think Cater was rewarded for his toughness. And the fact that he kept coming back and was in the fight for so long is kind of what allowed Holloway to style. I know that sounds almost like a backhanded compliment. But in this situation, it did take kind of two people for Holloway to get to show out like he did. All right. What's your number two, Casey? Carlos Felipe versus Tassi Tapa.

Is that your number two? Yeah. Tapa Felipe. That fight ruled. That by. And, dude, about the weight classes, I, actually heavyweight, men's heavy weight, is probably like my least favorite weight class too.

And the fact that I'm saying that fight was awesome, just go watch it. Go watch it, Sheila. You're probably, yeah, I'm assuming she, I don't know why I'm saying Sheila didn't watch the fight, but if you haven't watched that fight. Oh, she watched it. Yeah, she watched.

She's hardcore. Oh. Is it over for Marcus Perez? AK, I have a feeling that Marcus Perez will not be the only one in this conversation from this afternoon. card is is that a fair statement he did he he did them a favor though didn't he wasn't this a short notice fight uh let me check he too he did this he did this on short notice right i don't know yeah you were playing was short notice okay yeah for easy easy fatigue of foo so i i i and by the way

that doesn't need i i i'm nearly certain we have seen guys take fights on short notice and if it was like their third or fourth straight loss in the UFC, I think they were still, they would still end up getting. So he's not saved. I would just hope that the fact that he took this on short notice would give him some leeway, you know. He's an exciting guy to watch.

He's almost like, I kind of compared it to Paheda, where it's like, I don't really want to see him fight smart. But if he's not fighting smart, then he's not winning. So he's in a tough spot. I hope they give him another chance. I hope we see the Joker makeup come back. Apparently that was a conscious decision not to wear the Joker makeup anymore. This is sort of a new beginning for him.

But I don't think we'll see him cut, especially considering how much rope they gave to Benicia's Morera. So if Venetius Morera can get a fourth fight after three straight losses, then Perretti could get another chance. Can we talk about him, Benetius? We certainly, yes, we should. Go ahead. You tweeted some stats.

Can you share some of those stats you tweeted about the moment? Yeah, based on my own numbers that I keep, there have been several fighters who have gone 0 and 4 in the UFC some of them in one stints, some of them over over two stints and only four have been finished in all of those appearances Venisemarra obviously is one after the end. We saw him and then Tiki Goshen back in the day across three separate stint so so Tiki a little bit longer

he got a bunch of chances and was finished every time. One by injury which isn't as like nominous but but yes, four more had a dubious record one of two fighters finished finished every UFC appearance. And I assume, I'm assuming that, when I said that record,

I'm like, yes, he's done at 0 and 4. Who knows? Maybe they give him a chance to go 0 and 5, it finishes. But hey,

at least he made it past the 4-minute mark. All right. He never made it past the 4-minute mark of a UFC fight, and he did that. He just barely did that tonight. Yeah, he almost broke six minutes.

Yeah. Give him one more chance. Yeah, you know what, one more chance. Yeah, let's go, you know what? We're so close to breaking the record.

Was it, O. five finishes. We're so close. And this opportunity won't come very often. So I'm really hoping the UFC books them again. So, yeah, I want to see it. Yes. And by the way, we joke, we joke and we mock out of love. Vinicius, you're a tough guy.

You know, but maybe you're just skills. There aren't quite at the UFC level yet. I think the best thing would be probably to part ways of the UFC. Who knows, maybe go out there, pick up some wins in the regional scene, pick up wins another promotion. And maybe we see, we see Vinish's more to come back. So as much as we laugh, you know, of course, all respect to him for stepping in there four times and putting on the line because man that's that's that's tough that's tough that's tough

that's tough that's tough run yeah it is I'm just yeah yeah yeah was it a busted rib or liver shot that heard that hurt Lizez's I think it was I don't know if I can be I don't know if we could answer that question but the broadcast team seemed to think it was a broken rib that was they would probably they would know much more than I would but I have no I don't really now. Usually from a kick like that, it looks like he just hit the rib really hard. I don't even know if it was broken, but just taking

three kicks, even were they all blocked, or it was a couple of them blocked, or they kind of hit the elbow and bounced off. Either way. I think all three of them made it through to some degree. Some degree, yeah. Yeah, we, three kicks like that from Mr. Warrley Alves, yeah, that's going to break something.

And I just want to thank Mr. Alves for not kicking one of the most handsome men in the UFC in the face. I was very, I was very generous of him. He didn't, you know, ruin his moneymaker. So, um, and then I'm sure that's why the UFC

rewarded Elvis with a performance bonus. So, um, yeah, this was like one of those, those high school, uh, back, back at high school scraps where it's like, oh, okay, yo, we're going to throw down, but no face shots, right, bro? No face shots. We're just going body shots, right? No face shots. Yeah. Yeah. We got to, we got a semi-formal next week or something, but, um, no, I, uh, first of all, warly was a

man possessed. You know, our own, Nicky Cruz, of course, spoke to him before. And he, you know,

he was saying all the things about like, oh, I kind of feel bad. I've become a mediocre athlete. I kind of became, you know, lackadaisical and, like, lazy in my preparation.

And I read that article, and I was like, every fighter says this. I mean, it's very, you know, I don't know if I buy it. He came out like,

who really was like, I'm tired of people who have, you know, not talking about me anymore. I was a top prospect once. And he really put it on, put on it on the ads. It was amazing.

But Scott, thanks for me. First of all, always, I'm a crate. And that we're not going to diagnose this from here. We're not Joe Rogan, who sometimes, sometimes. I remember one time he was like, he was a fighter and he was like, oh, she tore her ACL or something. Like, or she tore her ligament. And I'm like, what?

Like, that's amazing. How did you diagnose that from from Cade's side? It's incredible. So we're not quite a skill as Dr. Rogan, unfortunately. Can I get that on it cat scan from wherever from his angle? Yes. Yeah. what are your thoughts on umar is he potentially mini-habib meaning he will retire undefeated in a champion

AK what do you think how I can't even begin to make stuff like that he first of all I batonate which is right now I know we'll still kind of overlook it it's one of the most low divisions in the UFC so I don't know if he'll be undefeated by the end of the year much less by the end of his career there's so many good fights for him he looked amazing he definitely lived up to the hype. Moor's off, it was a super tough guy to make your debut

and he had his moments as well, but Umar was, was his, more than his match in the striking, more than his match in the wrestling,

in the grappling. So all the hype around this kid was, was very well earned. Will he become a champion? Oh, yeah. Oh, I could see that for sure. Undefeated,

I don't think anyone retires undefeated except for Habib. So, no, I'm not, I'm not quite willing to predict that. But he's got the skills to be a UFC champion for sure. But you really think that.

You, You saw in the second fight of the night, you looked at him and you go, that guy will be fighting for the title. You really think? I'm saying he could. He could. Potentially.

I answer the parameters of the question. Potentially, yes. But again, I can say about a lot of guys 135. It's such as like I would say that about, I would. Because I could be asked me like, oh, would Marab de Vallechevili?

Could he be a future champion? Hell's yeah. Hells yeah. I'd say that about Maraub de Walsh Sheli. So there's literally like seven or eight guys. So you asked me, could they be a potential champion?

I'm like, yeah. Right. Mike, you know. But Umar isn't even, I wouldn't even have him ranked in what in the top 30, maybe top 30, maybe, definitely not top 20. But you already think he's that good. Yeah, you, I know you're saying, how many bantam weights are there? Yes. How many bantamates are there in the O.C right now even?

Um, you know, I will. Oh, I will say this, though, with his connection to Habib and the fact that he got the 50K tonight, he will most likely get. get very favorable matchmaking. So I'll give you, I'll give you, I'll give you that one. So there is potential that he might, I wonder how fast you're going to push him though. I'm not, did he say anything post-fight? Is he, is he a guy that wants a slow roll or is he like, I'm ready? No.

No, I think he was one of several fighters today who said, I was not pleased with my performance. So, you know, he thought he saw a lot of, a lot of mistakes he could have corrected. He had a nice little moment, Habib, after where Habib was like a year ago today, or eight years nine years ago today i finished a guy with the same move same choke but it took me three rounds and it took umar two rounds so that was a nice little moment but casey if you're if you're if you're asking me where i would rank well you didn't but if you're asking me where i'd rank umar out of about 80 uh baton weights i would put him right now amongst all the the one and no bantam weights i'd put him right at the top so he'd be like uh 53 he's my 53rd ranked bantamate

right now that's a big that's a strong that's a strong day you out of eight and it's be viewing 53 okay that's really high he's taking Adrian Yanez's spot wow Umar versus Ascarot one day sure

well that would be at I mean the Ascarot would have Yeah But yeah I sure sure Ascar goes up or Umar I don't know I don't know about Umar

would go down I'm not sure if he has multi-divisional aspirates. He looked like a pretty healthy-sized 135 or, but I don't know. What is going on with Jorge versus Colby? Are they going to be the coaches of tough? I have no freaking idea. No idea. I think you and I talked about this on the prediction show for onto the next one,

AK, tough does not work, in my opinion, unless these two guys are involved. And unless for some reason, Connor McGregor is like, you know what? I'm feeling, I'm feeling generous. I'll do tough. outside of that happening, you have to do Mazadol and Covington as the coaches or no one's going to watch it. No one's going to watch it,

except for Alex Keeley, because he loves the Elspite fighter. He loves it. I watched the, I watched the Edgar Penn season that set up their third and pointless fight. I watched that season. Horrible. Horrible.

And I watched it. Yeah, look, I'm, I've said many times, I wish they would change the format. and just go with actual coaches as opposed to having to film a show that puts off a fight. A fight that may not happen

because a lot of times these fights get derailed by injuries or other things. But this is one situation where both guys are so inactive anyway and clearly don't plan to stay busy in the division and fight more than once

or twice a year at the stage of their careers. So in that sense, putting them on a show is we've waited long enough from them to fight anyway. I don't mind another, again, whatever six weeks, however long it takes for them to film and show to actually air. And like Mike said, these guys have the personality for it.

They would bring in viewership if this was, if this was to be put on ESPN or put on some sort of, some, you know, some sort of programming that they want to draw eyeballs to. Then this is one of the very few messups, right? You still like your coach versus fighter coach. But other than that, I kind of like to soon play the forum. But yeah, we don't really know. Colby has said many times he wants to do it. Has Horat, has Mazved all mentioned it at all? I don't think.

He just hashtag super necessary and then he moves on. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I don't recall Maswell to ever publicly mention it. Yeah. I know that's the fight the UFC is working on. That's as much as I know.

But it's interesting because as of right now, looking ahead at the schedule, there is a main event attached to every single fight card through March right now. Through March. This is a main event fight. Unless you're paying these guys. good money to co-main some sort of pay-per-view. Right now, the first UFC fight on the schedule, fight night on the schedule that does not have a main event

is the April 10th card. So, I mean, if this fight's happening, it's not happening until at least April. And that wouldn't even work. That wouldn't work. They couldn't, yeah, so it won't be tough. Yeah, that won't work. If they're in tough, I mean, as soon as it would be like

during midsummer at best to shoot the show. I remember they shoot it I still think what you three four months too after yeah so yeah you know who they should get to be the coaches you know they should be the coach Worley Alvese and Nate Diaz let's go there we go there's your next

ultimate fighter season see we were struggling before what's the road we can take together Mr. No don't do drugs crack is whack up with hope Hope down dope Willie Alves

versus Nate Dees on Nelson Sure. There we go. Thank you, Sheila. I know. The tough is great. Tough never die. Tough hasn't been great since it's been a long time. It's been a long time. It's not the show. It's not the fighters. It's just the reality show concept of like following these guys and gals like in a house and doing the basketball juries and all that. Like there has been no evolution to the show. Like you look forward to the fights and maybe the coaches challenge depending on what it is. is. Outside of that, I don't care about any of it. I don't care how many beers Chris Lieben can drink. I don't care who peas in the backyard. I don't care about any of that stuff. I just want to see the

fights, maybe the occasional training montage and the coaches challenge. Like when they play air hockey against each other for $50,000 or whatever it is. See, I'm going to say you're wrong. I'm just say you're wrong because, yeah, I like fighting. I like mixed martial arts. But what I really like is I want to know how good these guys are at being roommates. you know, that's why, I want to know, it's like, oh, is, is this potential lightweight prospect? Does he choose to sleep? Does he choose to go in the top bunk? No, does he, is he, you know, is he cleaning up after himself?

Is he doing the dishes? You know, that's why I need to know, you know, anyone can fight, but, you know, can you keep up with your daily chores? Just saying, that's. Yeah. And we even lost, like, I think part of the appeal of some of the early shows in a sort of morbid way was. Remember cutting weight when cutting weight was still kind of so mysterious. And cool. Yeah. Look how tough they are. They're almost dying. Right. Yeah. We even thought it was cool. And there was there was so many chances of people like missing.

At the first like at least six or seven seasons, there's so many times where like guys are just not prepared for how different it would be, how different it was in the house to make weight. And then as you got into the later seasons, it was almost never an issue. They might still show a little bit of, oh, here's a guy chilling in the sun. But it's like, it's just another avenue of drama that was kind of lost as as things went on. Yeah. And then the better fighters realized, oh, I just fight, if I want to get, if I want going tough, I go in tough a weight class up, win it, then go back down a weight class, you know, that's what you, especially if the women, that's what happened. One of two weight classes. Yeah. So, yeah, what it. You,

Sheila and AK, just get out of here. The only, the only season I actually cared about what happened in the house was the season Matt Brown was on because everyone was, like, terrified of him. It was just hilarious. There you go. I like the pranks. Remember, what do they do? Put lemon, lime juice in his, is, it is, in his dip can or something.

That's one of the more tame one. Natalie, Natalie, shout out your favorite pranks. Oh, or Natalie or anyone, shout out your favorite pranks in the comments. I will read some of them if they are PG,

which many of the, uh, in the show were not, unfortunately. Is this a tough thing? If Diego Sanchez, we'll throw away Stephen Bonner's asparagus. Oh, man.

I mean, listen, in that first season, I was in, I mean, that first season is what made me the fan I am today, and for being honest. And Diego Sanchez is a big part of that. So that's interesting. You're one of those, you're one of those fans who came in through tough. Mike, yeah.

No, I mean, but to become, to go from, yeah, no, to go from like a casual viewer of it, like UFC 40 when Ken Shamrock, like left WWF and fought Tito, like, I couldn't miss that one. There's no way I was missing that one. That was the first paper view I ever bought. And I would watch, like, when it was on, like, best damn sports show and, like, they were on these, like, random networks doing, like, random shows. I would watch what I could, but I could not justify in my brain dropping $4 on a UFC pay-per-view when I didn't know half of these people were.

Putting them on a cable show, doing that show, and getting to see it, like, a whole different lens of it brought me in. Like, I could not miss a Monday night. It was like, whatever show was on, I might have been Monday Night Raw. And then it was the ultimate fighter right after. And I could not miss Diego Sanchez every week. I couldn't wait to see what he was going to do. Like what kind of weird things he was going to say?

Like what kind of meditation mantra and chant he was going to have? Like, I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. And then just learning more about the sport in that way. That's what it turned me from like casual viewer to like big time fan. You know, that's really interesting. That's really interesting because, and I completely see what you're saying. Because, but like what you just said now seems completely. irrelevant for today's mixed martial arts world because when you were watching it like you

said you didn't know who these guys were but now they all have four different social media counters embedded there's there's this show they're they have their own video blogs walking around with them you know there's so many more ways to find out who these guys are before they enter the cage when you know 15 years ago dude there were dark fights remember like ufc you've see shot fights and they didn't even air they were just there were there was there was there was There were dark fights. Can you imagine that now? A dark fight?

Like, oh, so after Keyes and Magni, there were three more fights after this that you had to be in the arena to watch. That's how it used to be for UFC fights or any, any, Bellator still has that. They'll have fights after the post limbs. Yeah. So that's why I just think tough

is just not necessary because we can know the fighters other ways about making a silly reality show. It certainly doesn't work as a vehicle for exposure anymore because as you mentioned, we see the real fighters now, right, on their social media. We see videos. In the house, you're actually limited, right?

In the house, you have no TV. You're not with your family, no friends. It's actually a really artificial environment that probably shows nothing about who you actually are. A lot of guys, again, I said, they have completely different personas in there. Maurice Threen, Matt Matrione. That's just, I think Tony Ferguson obviously had some rough moments in there. He keeps his set afterwards, like, I was not indicative of who I am. I just, you know, I was just a bad guy in there.

Josh Coschak, I mean, he kind of carried that over. But so sometimes it doesn't. But for the most part, you're really getting this TV version of a guy that is nothing like the actual fighter. So it really doesn't provide the right kind of exposure anymore. Some pranks are corny. Some pranks are corny. Many. Jessica.

Um, let me see, you know, unfortunately the YouTube comments have gone, Hey, Wyatt, now we're just talking about tough. When we just saw six million fights in a row. So, uh, let's see if we get. Yes. Questions about the name card, people. Yeah.

Hold on, hold on. All right. I, I get, I, I get a question maybe turn the tide here. I think it's, it's a great question to do so. A.K. How, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a hose job did Ikeville and Oweva receive by not getting a bonus? all right uh while i'll wait for some more questions before and um it i do you say out of 10 out of 10 mic solidate yes solidate but that's as far as i'm willing to go solidate

it was such a great moment it was on the main card he's fighting for his job it's a legit walkoff he he smacks the guy and then does the sign of the cross uh which my mother would love god bless her um and uh there's a great his post fight speech He's, he's, I love the UFC. UFC number one. Gosh, I, I, you know, I got to go back to work on Monday. I'm just a humble, I'm just a humble, hardworking guy, which the UFC usually eats that stuff up. And usually the game, I was, I was almost crafting like a tweet.

And I was going to write something like, oh, Dana White's going to use this kind of show, to show the generosity of the UFC giving an extra 50 grand to this, you know, this humble, just hard working guy. And they didn't even do that. So I, I don't know. He should have gotten a bonus. It was, and I would argue, it was the most impressive finish of the night. If we're just going by aesthetics, like what was the best finish?

The walkoff knockout was the best finish. The only thing I'll say to justify it, I think we've said, Norma Gamedov, Umar, probably a little bit of favoritism because of his association with his relationship to Khabib, but he was facing a tougher guy. Morozov is a much, much tougher, more skilled fighter than Mariah for being fair. And if you asked me, like, who actually showed more in their fight? obviously Umar did. So playing, giving both sides of it, I can, I can somewhat rationalize why Umar got the extra 50,000.

But who should have gotten it? I could vote all the way. I could for sure. I feel like to know if it would come on. I thought Fierro was more, Piero should be talked about too. That was very impressive. She looked great. She did.

Yeah, she's legit, man. She looked great. And when she was talking to the media. afterward and if you watch her post-fight scrum sounded great too she knows um i think she's speaking she's speaking french but um she's someone she's someone i'm excited to see again i want i want to see a pre-fight interview i want i want to see training footage of her i want this is someone i want to know more about and um i i'm excited actually you know these early fights you know you know you like whatever no i kind of you see these fights and i might forget about him in a couple

weeks, you know, but I think she's going to stick out. And I mean, I was excited about her. But you know, show us to Derek. Show us to Derek, by the way. The point normally the Portuguese transmitter for the UFC stepping in, showing up, showing off he speaks a Francais as well. So there you go. Good job. Excellent work by Derek. You know what we didn't talk about yet today? I'm surprised. Who's next for Lorone Murphy? Well, Casey, we're going to let you answer that question because me and AK, we have to craft our answer in the correct way for on to the next one, which will drop tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. by the way.

So he's a 45er. Okay, first off, I was very impressed of Lerone Murphy. Very, very impressed. He fought a very good opponent. Who is? Andrade, how do you say is? Is it Androge? I just call him De Silva.

De Silva. De Silva. De Silva. De Silva. De Silva. He's got the only. loses to premier fighters, elite fighters. And Loroma Mofrey is a competitive fight, but he beat him. So I was just, I just think we have a new, a new, he'll be a future top 15. And hopefully,

I think he's good enough to be a top 10. I don't know if he's a title contender. But I was just, I was just, I like the way he fights. I like this, I like his story. I like, um, it's like, I like that guy a lot. Um, who, who for him next? Man, oh man, oh man. it's a deep division yeah you can't it's real it's real deep yeah oh boy i wonder if someone i wonder if someone like darren elkins what's darren elkins up to someone he's booked i think right yeah he's booked okay i don't think so yeah i i see someone like someone like darren elkin someone right outside of top fizzing someone we know we know his name and someone like if you be if you be like you beat the Silva, you beat Darren Elkins,

you're going to be around that. You're going to be in the USC for a while. And, yeah, you can't really go wrong. I just think he's a, I think he's, I think he just saw that. I just think people are excited to see him and, I'm excited. I agree. Do you think we'll see Francisco Figurato be a title contender? And get you go?

I mean, look, he's clearly skilled. He's clearly skilled. He's probably made the choice to drop him back down to 125. I know his brother is the champion in that division. But if anything, it'll give him, you know, it'll give him room to grow. You know, I think maybe at 135 if he came out of the gates and, you know, got a little, got came out hot.

People just because of his name would be saying, oh, shoot him into the, against the top 15 guy. At flyweight, obviously that's not going to happen. I think, you know, you kind of let him simmer for a bit. He showed good skills today. He had grappling that he could rely on, which is always, is always something that you want to see from someone that's just entering the.

but I don't know if we saw a championship potential today. It was a good performance. It wasn't overwhelming. Jerome Rivera is a decent opponent, but not someone who like, if you beat him, I don't know, it's completely blown away. But if I have to answer this question, yes or no, Prince of Mischief, I don't want.

I'm a fence sitter. Everyone here listens to me knows that. But I'll say no. I do not think we'll see Francisco, Regato compete for a UFC title. I'm going to have to go over no also at 20, Maybe he bulks up a little bit and becomes a solid 35er, but I think at 25, I didn't see it yet. But congratulations on your victory, sir.

Prove me wrong. Prove me wrong. Well, I mean, he's he'll be the first one to mimic everything you guys just said. He thought his performance sucked. I mean, I don't even remember if he ever fought a 25 before, before this. If he had, it was a long time ago. He spent a lot of time of 25.

I remember when me and Guillermo Cruz confirmed this fight, everyone's question was, are you sure it's fights at 25? Because he doesn't fight at 25.

And then we found out that it was. So I am going to sit on the fence. It's way too early to tell, but throw them into a matchup and test him. Like, throw them in there with Tyson NAM.

Tyson NAM will fight anybody. This division is, this division is deep in talents, but there's not a lot of fighters. So you could put him in there with, like, anybody. So if you want to throw him in there with a guy like Tyson, NAM, I'd be down for that and see how that thing plays out and we'd get a better glimpse of how good this guy is.

That sounds about right. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I like that. There's a little on to the next one freebie guys, because we're probably not going to talk about Francisco on the show, so there's a little freebie for you. Can we call on Figgy Taws? Is he taller than his brother?

All right, I'm going to go. No, some of some of them said small, Figggy Smalls or something, but we got piggy we got piggy small he doesn't like that name though so i don't know i'm not going to use it you can't i'm not going to say to his face geez man okay i mean i'm i'm i'm a keyboard warrior sir geez uh we have a question from dr allen grant i love this question by the way because then i get to humble brag a little bit is omari akmeda a legit contender he beat widened albeit super close this he did not be wyatman he lost that fight um But he learned a lot from that fight.

There's no doubt about it. And that's why I picked him so confidently against Tom Breeze. I figured third round, that's when things get a little sketchball for Akh Madov because he gets tired. But I just needed to see it from Tom Breeze first. Like, this is the fight that he needed. Like if Tom Breeze is going to be like a legit 85er,

this is the fight he had to show it in. And I had a feeling he wasn't going to be able to. He's got skills, great boxer. He's talented. But Akhmadav is a tough, tough dude. And I want to thank Omari Akhmadov because I believe I was the only one in our staff picks that picked Akhmadav. And he made me look like a million dollars. And because of that win, I got to outpick everybody on the staff this week.

So I was very happy about that. So thank you to Amari Akhmadav. But the question is, AK Madov, is Omar Yakh Madov a legit contender? Is he a contender at 185? No, the cardio was so questionable. The cardio is a legit problem. He sounded gasped after this fight. And it was, I mean, it was a pretty, it was not a slow fight.

I mean, there was quite a bit of action in the duration of the fight there was. But man, I don't know. I don't know if you can be breeding that heavy after, if you can keep consistently sounding like that after fights. And the Wyman fight, he gassed, obviously. The Wyman fight, I remember it's really, really grueling first 10 minutes. And then the last round was, whoever gets a take down first was going to win. and it just happened to be Weidman, and then neither guy was going to get back up

once they hit the ground. So that's a problem. That's a real problem for I've made up. He showed some striking in the past, too, but I mean, wrestling really is sort of his A skill. Is it at the level to be a contender at 185? I don't think so, considering how strong that division was this year?

No, I don't see him becoming a legitimate contender. That's two nose for me. I feel so bad. he's I think he's like a consistent top 15 guy you know what I mean he'll be in the top 15 for a long time I don't think he exits that I think he's one of those guys I think he's one of the best top 15 185ers in the UFC right now I feel confident in saying that but I agree with what you're saying aka the cardio is a is a question but that fight was bananas that that fight was crazy it was a different pace fight than you've seen him in the past like he had Breeze in trouble then Breeze had him in trouble and then by the way Wait, let me just say this before I go to you, Casey. A man who probably also should have got a performance bonus was referee Lucas Posaki. What a great job he did in that fight. Because even with the commentator screaming, he's out, he's out.

Stop the fight. Stop the fight. Breeze was still in it. He was still there. And then he tapped. I thought he did a phenomenal job. So I wanted to get him a show. But what do you think of Ahmed off ceiling, Casey?

I agree with you. I think he's that. top 10 gatekeeper. I don't expect him ever to fight for a number one contender fight, to fight for a title especially. But you have to, in the middleweight division, you know, every division has this. In middleweight division,

you have to beat a guy like Akhmadoff. You have to beat him convincingly if we're gonna, if the fans are going to think that you're a future title contender. For every card, you know, every card, you know, I like to brag, oh, I know that pick, but every card is also one pick, you were very confident on and you just

bleh Tom Breeze was tonight I thought this was going to be a showcase fight for Tom Breeze I thought Tom Breeze was like okay this is the Tom Breeze that we've been hearing about I mean a guy that just looks great coming off the bus he knows and nope

as much as it was a great win for Amari tonight it was a horrible loss for Tom Breeze yeah I think like the Tom Breeze hype trained if it wasn't already seriously direct derailed it it was off the rails and like pushed down the hill more so unfortunately yeah uh it's funnly enough i mean yeah sorry go on yeah if we i mean if you'd asked us we like who would be

talking about as a potential contender after the show we would have like before the fight we would have said tom breeze not omari ak mad off so that's what's kind of fun that's why i guess what we're acting kind of such a weird way to this question is it just wasn't the outcome that uh we expected the way the way it went. And so, yeah, it's funny. I, I, do Breeze is like the higher ceiling prospect. He's not a prospect anymore, but higher ceiling prospect to become a contender.

And he lost. So now I don't know what to think. Yeah, I just, yeah, it was a bad loss for Breeze. But someone suggested this. Watch my 666. Mm-hmm. I like it. I think that's right.

That's not bad. I might steal that for the show. We're right about at an hour, so it's take a couple more. We talked about this a little bit, but I don't know if you have any opinions? She's a monster. She is a monster. I picked, like I said earlier, I left our Q&A, and I think the last thing I said besides a goodbye is I'm picking Victoria Leonardo in an upset.

And then probably 35 seconds in that fight, I immediately regretted that decision. Like the fact that Leonardo didn't immediately charge at her and throw her up against the cage and shoot a double and change levels, I knew she was in big trouble. That's why I said like probably 55 seconds of the fight I tweeted out, she needs to get this fight to the ground ASAP. And she didn't. And that's what happens when you fight somebody with those kinds of credentials.

Manon Fioro is a legit striker. And she gained probably so much confidence from that win because not only was she landing her shots, but one Victoria decided, you know what, I'm going to take this fight to the ground. She just outmustled her. Victoria couldn't get near her. And that was it.

And then she just picked her apart. She is nasty. She's long. She's strong. I'm not ready to say, give her a title shot or she's going to be a future champion, but she's someone we're going to keep an eye on, no doubt about it.

And I hope the UFC progresses her the right way. Like don't throw her in any crazy fights. Slow, slow, slow, slow. Let her build her way back up and just get even. even more legit and get onto more television sets and into more living rooms and eyeballs can watch her. Like, slow roll her, let her do her thing. What did you think of her performance, AK? Yeah. Thank you, Peyton Marfell for the question. Yeah, feel, oh, first of all, Leonardo is really,

really tough. I know we said about every fighter, but I mean, if they haven't seen her in Victor, she's super tough, a really great athlete as well. So I kind of know what I'm saying is like, he's a little surprised she didn't just kind of jump out of the gate. But I think she definitely saw very quickly what a skilled and also unique striker that Fiore is because when you have that karate I mean a lot of fighters have had karate

obviously they can't actually bring it into the cage of course Wonder Boys and one example of a guy Machita that people will be used karate fighters but her her style is distinct and that is we're talking about potential like star power that's a big thing if people see her they're going to remember her fighting because she fights

she has a striking style that's effective but also stands apart from other women in her way class she's the first French fighter, a French woman, excuse me, she's the first French woman to win a UFC fight, and that's big two. So there's already a couple of hooks there. I'm sure she's going to work on her English. Again, that's not her number one concern right now.

You know, she's only in her seven pro fights. She's got a lot of other skills to work on. But I'm sure there's already people in your ear saying, hey, you know, Manaw, you could seriously be a star in this division and in the UFC. Let's work on the English a little bit, and then let's keep those skills going and just keep any of your name out there. And I wouldn't be surprised if the UFC was so high in this performance that they threw her on a fight night main card in her next setting. Fierro versus Justine Kish.

Sure. I think that's love that. It's a fun fight. I think, yeah, that's not pushing her too far up the ladder. And, yeah, I think Justin's coming up a loss. I think this works. I think, yeah, it's an exciting fight. I'm just excited when I see new, new prospects.

And you know, it's like, oh, how old is, how old is, how old is this, is she? I think it's 30. 30. Okay. So she's right. She's being that athletic prime right now. So, yeah, I'm, I make, people have been, people crap on the women's flyweight division. And I, I've always been just give it some time.

Give it some time. Because for the longest time, it just wasn't like the premier division. It was always about the, it was always about the bantam weights, Ronner Rousey. Then it was about the straw weights of Yonah, forever. So there was just no big push. No rivalry. No rivalry. Yon had rivals.

Rhonda had rivals. From her Valentina, she's really had no rivals at 25. So it seems kind of like this, this division that just exists at the top. And after that, it's just whatever. So I've always just,

just give us some time. These things take years to kind of develop. So, but I think now it's coming. These women are developing their skills. So Valentina's going to have some stiff competition coming up pretty soon. But a couple more.

fights for Miss Fierro. Yeah, poor Victoria Leonardo had a fight. Chelsea Hackett and get kicked in the body by her. Then had to fight Man Fioro and get kicked in the body by her. Good God Almighty. Fioro versus Ariani Lipski, too soon. Too soon for that fight. But hey, yeah, like what you're thinking, though.

But that just means that people at home, when they saw that fight too, they think they saw big things in her. It wasn't just a win. It was just like, all right, this lady is special. uh one more one more one more do do do do do do do

do do no pressure no pressure last question no no no no pressure final question they're all excellent

all the questions you guys have are excellent you guys are always bringing it yeah but yeah if you have a hot one now is the time guys now is the time

drop a hot one in there come on give us a hot one come on because it's going to be a while before you see it's again Oh, no, no, no, no, it won't. You're going to see us probably in like 36 hours for another preview show.

And it's not like you don't have enough car and three days. Sandy fan disagrees. You have to be up between the links tomorrow, too. Oh, yeah. Tune to that guys. Remember, guys, between the links now on Thursdays and what the heck's now on Mondays, Mike? Tuesdays.

Tuesdays. What the heck on Tuesdays between the links, which used to be on Tuesday? So they switched around, right? So remember that, guys. Fix your local program. We'll switch real. All right.

I'm just going to put this on. What is this like? Yeah, this is directly for you because I don't remember this. What was? Super random question. Remember the interview? Oh, yes, I do. Well, I was really sure read these questions before I put them up there.

That had to be, that had to be, that had to be Sousa, right? Yeah. That's Livy Asusa, Livy Asusa, the Brazilian gangster. Yeah. Livy Asa, I like hip-hop and girls of big, it was big butts. But watch your language, Jessica Crystal. Yeah, but Liby Asuza, she loves hip-hop and the girls of the big butts. So, don't we all?

All right. So there we go. There you go. What a way to end it. What a way to end it. We're not getting better than that. Yeah, nowadays. Yeah, that was home run.

And there's the music. They're pulling us away. They're stopping us short. Finally. Yes, UFC Fight Island 8 is in the books. Michael Keesick gets a big win. We'll see where he goes from there. On to the next one drops tomorrow morning 9 a.m.

Then we'll officially put a ball in that car. You get between the links tomorrow. 5 p.m. Eastern time. Get ready for that. to Shoe versus Stephen Morocco. What a battle that's going to be. We also got the press conference for UFC 257 coming tomorrow morning as well. It's just so much stuff.

Just so much stuff. Just go into the YouTube page on the UFC and just look at where the streams are scheduled and you'll know what the hell is going on. All right? So for A.K. For Casey, I am Mike Heck. Good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.