MMA Fighting - UFC Jacksonville Post-Fight Show: Reaction To Ilia Topuria's Ferocious Win Over Josh Emmett | Title Shot Next?
Episode Date: June 24, 2023Ilia Topuria is the real deal. The Spanish sensation tore through Josh Emmett in an eye-opening performance at UFC Jacksonville, but is a title shot next? MMA Fighting's Shaun Al-Shatti, Alexander K. ...Lee, and E. Casey Leydon break down all the post-fight angles coming out of Saturday's action-packed card. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti 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
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Ghosts in the Machine.
The Earth only has a few days left.
Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,
but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.
Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster.
The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide.
Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,
What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?
The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine.
Available now, only from Audible.
Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine.
The Earth only has a few days left.
Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony
have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,
but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.
Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian
in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster,
the downloaded.
It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide.
Robert J. Sawyer does it again
with this much anticipated sequel
that leaves you asking,
what are you willing to lose to save the ones
you love? The downloaded
two, ghosts in the machine.
Available now, only from Audible.
We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.
What sound?
The victory horns are here.
What is up, my friends?
I hope you're out there just
enjoying the hell out of your afternoon.
Like goodness, you need to tow me off
after that one. The sun is still out and we're hitting the post show so you know that it has been a good one.
My name is Sean Lashaddy and this is the UFC Jacksonville post fight show here on MMA fighting.
We always appreciate y'all for joining us and I'm excited for this one. I'm here with my co-pilot,
the Prince of Positivity, he's the Kingdom of the North. He's Alexander K Lee and of course also
joining us the most fears of the producer in the business, the undefeated E. K. Cyladen.
Man in the boards.
Oh, that was good.
I liked that, Casey.
That was nice.
Thank you.
Guys, fights.
Afternoon fights.
That was pretty fun.
That was pretty damn fun.
A.K., we just, I mean, I'll just jump into it.
Because we poured plenty of gasoline onto the flames of the Ilya Hipe Trane when we set
this up on Friday, when we previewed this card.
Afterwards, I was a bit worried if we overstated things, right?
Because we've done this before.
we've been on the Andre Muniz train.
We've been on these different hype trains.
And we've sort of propelled people to places they are not at yet.
And then we see what happens.
But man, we did not overstate anything.
What we just saw from Ilya to Poria, that was a star making performance.
The defense, the power, the precision, the jabs, the calf kicks.
Good Lord, the technique.
Just the sheer ferocity of all of it, he gets it done lopsided, unanimous decision.
even gets a rare 50-42 scorecard in there from Chris Lee,
courtesy of an even rarer 10-7 in the fourth round.
I mean, we can heap all the credit in the world to Josh Emmett for his toughness.
I think 99% of men would have been broken by the end of that fourth round,
yet he still came out firing in the fifth.
But good Lord, A.K., I'm like out of breath.
Like, what the hell?
What do you think about what you just saw from Miliat, Taboria?
Doesn't that's what you want to see when these kind of fights are made.
We were talking about how they put together these UFC on ABC cards.
And we said they have a pretty standard formula, we feel like, of, you know, current, relevant contenders, maybe someone you want to put over in the main event.
And then, you know, and then another contender fight in the co-main.
And we'll talk about Macy Barbara and Amanda Hebas later, I'm sure.
Again, also very, very exciting fight worth talking about.
But this was Aaliyah's coronation.
There was a lot of, well, I guess top of short of him eventually fighting for the title.
but, you know, again, it's uncertain when that will happen.
So for now, this was the, if you didn't know who Ilya
was before, if you had doubts about some of his previous performances,
thinking like, well, you know, oh, he beat, you know, he beat Damon Jackson.
He beat the goat, Ryan Hall.
You know, what does this really mean?
He goes up to lightweight.
He fights Chai Herbert.
What does it mean?
He beats Bryce Mitchell.
Bryce Mitchell started saying after, oh, I wasn't 100%, blah, blah.
I mean, these are all good wins, convincing wins.
I'm sure there was still some who were like, yeah, but is he really a top 10 guy, you know,
if you were a little more of a casual viewer
or a fool like myself,
he also doesn't have ranked in the top 10
before this event.
And man, he put it.
At least you added yourself.
I was going to do it later, but I'm glad you.
I do.
It's so bad.
I think five, no, I stand by it.
I think five rounds also is the best thing
that could have happened to him
because let me tell you something.
If he smokes Josh Emmett in the first or second round,
super impressive for sure.
And, listen, because a lot of people don't finish Josh
Emmett, I think only two people have.
And that would be amazing in its own way.
But seeing the five rounds,
there's no,
There's no like, ah, he just caught Josh Emmett or Josh Emmett's totally washed.
Like, so, you know, Ilya, anyone could have put him away in those first two rounds.
Josh Emmett looked super dangerous tonight.
And Ilya navigated everything he had to offer beautifully.
You could really see him doing this against almost anyone in the top 10.
And I'm pretty sure a lot of people were imagining, boy, how would this skill set,
this striking skill set look against the man himself, Alexander Volcanowski.
So mission accomplished for the matchmakers, if their job was to get Ily over,
big time mission accomplished for Ilytoporia.
We have a poll.
We have a poll.
Oh, oh.
Is Elliott Topporia the number one contender at featherweight after USC Jacksonville?
Not quite as definitive as I thought it would be.
You know, I thought recency bias would put this way over the top, but still a very strong
number so far, 76%.
I'm interested to see the results of that poll in a little bit because that's, I think,
the big question coming out of us.
But we just need to talk about what we just watched, right?
Because we spoke about it a lot on Friday about the platform that was being
given to Ilya
here, right?
Like this ABC platform,
not for nothing,
it is the biggest platform
the UFC offers right now,
right?
The most,
the highest viewing audience,
the most number of eyeballs
are watching these type of fights
on these type of days.
And all those eyeballs
just got introduced
to Ilya probably
in an extreme way, right?
Like if you're that guy,
if you're the UFC,
if you're just all around this mix,
you couldn't have asked for better,
right?
Because I 100% agree with you
in the respect of,
it kind of felt like the five rounds was a better outcome than a first round or second round stoppage.
Like what we just thought was brilliant.
It really was, right?
Like you could not have asked for more on a platform like this.
Yeah, it was beautiful to watch.
And from a sporting perspective, because I think sometimes, I don't know if people feel like we don't give other fighters their flowers enough.
Like when we talk about their striking, like we kind of sometimes make fun of MMA striking or at least like the boxing.
like we always have like a caveat like oh this guy's a great you know boxer but like mma boxer
and ilia today that like the striking was so textbook and so on point and so like consistent
he was he he he got emmets range super early uh figured it out was locked in for pretty much the
entire of the the whole fight emitt could not take a step forward without being met by a hard jab
or or counter punch from ilia uh i i know emmits you know left to
hands looks dangerous, but man, like, I think Ilya had, had, has mastered that art of like looking at, it
looks like he's getting hit, but he's actually, if you watch the, probably if you replay the
fighter in slow motion, some of those lefts from Emmett were like just glancing. Like, he's rolling
with the punches and, you know, and staying right in range, talking about Taboria, where he can counter,
you know, do whatever he wants. I would have liked to see some body work. We didn't see a lot of that.
But hey, the headwork was working really well. So I guess he, I guess he didn't feel he needed to.
But, yeah, this was like just a technically superb performance. There was nothing about this.
for you sily and go like, well, he just, you know, he just like outslugged him.
No, no, no, no.
This was a quality outstriking, legitimate outstriking.
And it was just beautiful to watch for 25 minutes.
It was a privilege, really a privilege to watch it.
I have to say one thing that I was most surprised by, I don't know why my internet.
My internet is so reliable until I'm doing something like this and then it just craps out.
Apologies for that.
Just bear with me.
The one thing I was most impressed by, and Dominic Cruz actually pointed this out a couple
times on the broadcast.
At least his defense, man.
I think that was one aspect to his game that a lot of people still had question marks about.
And they were justified, right?
You go back to the Jai Herber fight.
He got in a little bit trouble there, especially some of his early UFTI fights.
He was very free swinging.
He's very wild with it.
And he would eat some shots for his troubles, for sort of the aggressive approach that
he's bringing.
Tonight, though, it felt like a different level of defensive improvement and almost
showcasing the evolution that he's had over these past few fights, right?
Would you agree with me, were you impressed by the defense that Ilya was putting on tonight?
Yeah, listen, it's the defense is, I don't know if I say it's the only thing that makes a champion.
It's a huge part to becoming a champion and definitely holding on to your title.
Like we saw this with Charles Oliveira, for example, I mean, a great offensive fighter, not the best defensive fighter.
And that's, that's going to cost you.
That's going to cost you.
But we look at the all-time grades, guys who could avoid taking damage, Andrews de Silva, George St. Pierre, John Jones, Demetius Johnson.
Yeah, they had their fair share wars.
Yeah, they had fights where they got rocks.
but generally over the course of 25 minutes, the defense sustained,
and that's why those guys were able to hold on with their tails for so long.
I mean, that's one aspect of it.
And Toporia showed a lot of that today.
Because for a guy, he's what, 26, 27 years old,
you can win a lot of fights early on with raw talent, athleticism.
He's absolutely a plus athlete, I think one of the more athletic guys at 145,
and just like sheer punching power.
You can win a lot of fights like that.
It's when you get to this level, you really do have to show that you can avoid
taking it as much as you dish it out
and he showed that.
I guess the guy again,
I think very dangerous up until the last minute.
Like Emmett was not just tough.
He was throwing like leather in that last round.
And again, I don't think Ilya was ever in any serious danger
and once he got the takedown, you know,
that defused pretty much diffused it for good.
But this was a fight where if he was not more defensively sound,
definitely could have been right for an upset.
But it is on point.
And man, it's just exciting to see.
I just can't wait to see what he fights next.
I want to talk about what this means for this division.
And also just what a division this is right now, like between Arnold Dallin, who just put
on a hilarious performance with Max Holloway and Mosaer of Lov and just Ilia now and just all
this talent coming up at 145, the future at 145 is just so, so bright.
I can't wait for a lot of this.
But I do want to bring Casey, I want to bring you in early here for this because you're
a resident fighter as well, right on this panel, undefeated, ferocious in there.
I know how you get.
You've tapped me out of a few times.
When you saw from Ilya tonight, the technique or the technical improvement, I should say.
Were you impressed?
Oh, yes, absolutely.
I wasn't as obviously I knew Ilya Tuporia as a, is that I thought him as a really good featherweight who hasn't proven himself yet.
Not that.
I think he, I don't know, I'm not trying to disparage his past opponents.
But like he he exposed Ryan Hall, but he exposed Bryce Mitchell a bit.
But I took that more as like a negative to the opponents rather than a positive to Ely.
Tonight, this was just a great performance.
And I like you pointed out the defensiveness about it, his defensive awareness tonight,
because that's what you have to be afraid of, of Josh Emmett.
He's not a big combo puncher.
He's not going to, I mean, he can't take you down.
He can't grind you out, I guess, if you wanted to.
But that's not, that's not his bread and butter.
he's going to hit one big shot that would change the fight.
And Ilya never let that happen, no matter how dominant he was.
And that's his scary part.
You can be so dominant, but like you just have that one lapse in concentration.
And that's how quick the fight can change for you.
And I think that's why this fight was so exciting, even though it was one of the most thorough ass kickings we've seen in a while.
It still got fight at a knife because we know Emmett is so dangerous constantly.
And Ilya just never, never lost concentration, never let his, never literally let his guard down.
And, yeah, it was just, yeah, I was just, God, I was just so impressed within the first, I would say like 90 seconds of the fight, he just had Emmett's range so well.
And he just, you just, there was little, like, those little tiny back steps he did and he countered real quick, which, which made, which made, which made Ilya just seemed so much quicker than Emmett because his counters was just so fast.
It was really incredible.
And yeah, he is now a legit, legit title contender.
And I'm so excited to see who's going to face next.
If it's going to be for the title or not, I hope so, because it was freaking awesome.
Yeah, you know it's a bad night when already by the second round,
they're crediting someone for toughness.
Yeah, that's not what you want to be credited for.
Yeah.
When you're spending 20 minutes talking about a man's toughness,
it's probably been a really, really rough night.
When you survive, when you go to the decision and you get a 10-7, yes, you are tough.
So I guess 50-40-2.
50-42.
That is, that's a hell of a score.
You mentioned it, the title talk now.
That to me is the most interesting part about this moving forward, because we mentioned this on
Friday when it came to just discussing the stakes for this fight, what was sort of up for grabs
here.
Could a title shot be on the line for Ilya if he won?
And AK, you and Jose and I, all of us were sort of, I wouldn't say uncertain, but we were flippy, floppy with it.
Right?
Like this is a very weird division right now.
It's very apparent that Volk wants to go back up to 155 and try to get that rematch with Islam.
I don't like that right now.
I said it on Friday.
I think that's way too early.
You got a lot of young talent come out of 1405.
Do the Anderson Silva.
Do the GSP.
Do the John Jones.
Sit here and defend your title and become just an all-time legend by doing that.
that being said what you just saw from iliot tonight
a is that title shot worthy and then b i i want to mention this up front
because i'm already seen people do it and it's it's very frustrating as i don't say it's
conversation please for the love of god if you are the ufc do not match up iliot to poria
against max paula no don't need to do that you so don't need to do that it's one thing if you
okay if you don't want to give him the title shot that's fine i get it there's other stuff going on
division other stuff going on with Volka don't give him the title shot but do not match up
every exciting young contender in this division with Max Holloway and just make him the final like
the goro to the Shang Sung that is Alexander Volkanowski it's it's unnecessary and it's it doesn't
prove anything it doesn't prove anything even if he beats Max he still gets the title shot and it
doesn't get that I don't you know I'm trying to say like like beating max it's not it's very
unnecessary that's just that's not need to beat Max yeah you don't need to beat Max
yeah you don't need to be Macer Rodriguez did not have to beat Max Holloway to be able to fight
Alexander Volkanowski, you were setting up unnecessary barriers in front of these very interesting
fights just in the same way that we're probably not going to get Izzy versus Dracus 2.
Please, he's because Robert Whitaker is going to force the trilogy.
That all being said, title shot or not after this?
What do you guys think, AK?
It sucks that this is even a discussion because it lines up perfectly.
Volkanovsky is fighting Yair in July, and then this fight just July 8th, so not even,
so what, two weeks from now?
if he comes if vulcanowski beats you a year and he comes out of that fight healthy and ready to four i mean these guys should be booked with it like to fight in three months it's it's right there for the ufc it's this it's this handed to them intriguing title fight then you have wokenowski again possibly one to go back up 25 you have the possibility that year beats volkanowski and then they're going to give bulk i would guarantee you if you want it that they give bulk an immediate rematch so there's two outcomes right there bulk wins goes after islam or yaya year goes uh a year year year wins and then they're going to give bulk i
to run that one back and then there you go if you're to pouria sorry but that's three months of
your career you got it's that's off those three months are gone if you're hoping to fight one of
those guys and you want to wait and then you wait another three months and hope that again one of
these title contenders is ready for you but you don't know you really don't know what's going to
happen so so so it's there's so much uncertainty which is so stupid because I do feel like if this
was the the quote unquote glory days when noobs like myself got into the UFC around like you know the
mid 2000s things like that it would just be they would just this title shot be lined up already
You know, and Volcanovsky would just be trucking along and defending that 145 pound title in a very, very, very good division where there's a lot of worthy challengers either there or coming up.
But this is the new UFC where fighters, to their credit, have a lot of, you know, have more feel like at least they have more power and don't feel like they have to take what's on the plate for them.
But if I'm Volk, I hope he's at least was aware, you know, was watching this fight and says, okay, this fighting this guy could be good for my career or dangerous for his career depending how you look at it.
Yeah, I don't know that fighting
Elliot Toporia is good for anybody's career.
What do you think, Casey?
I mean, do you need to see,
do you want a title shot after this?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I'm with you.
I'm with you.
I do not like immediate rematch.
Okay, if I year wins against Vogue in two weeks, two weeks.
It's in two weeks, yeah.
Is that really?
Is that right?
Yeah, two weeks.
Is that, am I, don't have that messed up?
No, international fight week here, right?
Okay, yeah.
Wow. Yeah. I don't want to, I don't want to direct rematch. Voke lost at 55.
If Vogue wants to fight one more, like Vogue loses, fight one time, get your title shot again.
But I think, I hope, I know it's not going to happen though, but Ilya's next fight should be for the featherweight title.
He's earned it. He's fresh. He just fought main event on ABC. The biggest audience the UFC really can get.
And what is that for if you're not going to throw him in a title shot after that freaking amazing performance?
So what are we doing if we're not?
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
We'll see.
I mean, again, there's no much uncertainty around this division right now.
But I so badly, badly want to see Volcanowski versus Seporia.
That to me is one of my top fights now.
I just want to see him.
I just want to see him.
I think he's earned that title shot.
I don't care of his yaya.
If Yaya year beats Volk, then I want to see that fight.
I just want to see.
Yeah.
I know what you mean, though.
but I just want I he's he's earned it I want to see it that's why we have these big fights on ABC main event that's why we do this it has to mean something so let's make it mean something that's all and if you can't do that if you can't do that do that
do like Arnold Allen versus Ilya or something else do not do Max Holloway please that's all yeah and oh you mentioned this earlier
you know there's been a lot of debate on what's the best division ban on weight or lightweight we always kind of forget about the feather weights they're kind of in this middle but man
this tonight, new blood, new blood, and especially if you hear of Volk, kind of,
I know, who knows how it goes, but the featherweight division is coming back.
It's coming back.
I like it.
Otherweight division used to be my favorite.
Used to be my favorite, but kind of, maybe dominance kind of made it a bit boring.
I don't know by Volk, but I'm excited about it.
Yeah, 1.55 to 135, you cannot go wrong.
I think even flyweight, but flyweight under is taking a bit of a hit these days.
That's unfortunate.
One last note on this fight before we move on, because we set it up yesterday when we were talking about this.
This is probably the make or break moment right for Josh Emmett.
He's 38.
This division historically, lower weight classes generally historically are not kind to men in their late 30s and early 40s.
You just have never seen once really someone make a title run that deep into their career at that sort of age.
And this is now where Josh Emmett is.
Again, he sort of had that one opportunity against the Iyer Rodriguez for the UFC.
title didn't work out for him and then gets thrown to the wolves that is ilia tuporia on this one
i mean it sucks to say but guys do you think is this the end for josh emitt as a title contender
do you think is this sort of the end of that chance for him to make one good run
yeah it's yeah i know it is it's just it's it's a shark tank and and again all the credit of the
world for tuporia for his win today um i don't think it anything to do with emmett being like oh
he's i mean i'm sure he's a little bit you know as he's 38 years old
I'm sure if you want to break down every fight, you know, his pass your rights, he's mid, whatever, a step slower here, steps slower there.
But I don't know if the best version of Josh Emmett beats, you know, Ileta Puria.
But that said, we have to acknowledge age.
And even if you still consider Emmett to be like, you know, a top 15 guy, this division just isn't getting any younger.
I mean, there's getting any older, excuse me, it's getting younger.
There's Arnold Allen's in there.
Moser of Loya.
Where's Giga?
Giga's out there somewhere.
I'm not saying that Giga just runs through Emmett, but I'm saying that's another tough guy who's coming up.
Ortega.
Brian Ortega is still out there.
So there's just so many good names.
And I'm not even looking at like the middle of the pack where there's some good Jack Shore.
I keep forgetting Jack Shore.
Jack Shore is coming up.
So Bryce Mitchell.
Bryce Mitchell, I know he lost to Ilya, but it's not like Bryce Mitchell.
I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon.
So listen, there's a good fights here for Josh Emmett.
Some of the names I mentioned, I'm sure Josh Emmett would be competitive against something he could beat.
But can he beat enough of these guys to get himself a title shot again?
That's a huge ask.
That's a huge ass, man.
Like we said, he's 38 years old in a division that just keeps getting better and better and better.
And again, there's guys who I probably didn't even name that are coming up at 145 pounds who he's going to deal with at some point.
So, yeah, this is the end of his run as a title competitor, I think.
But that doesn't mean that, you know, we won't still see if he choose to still compete, we won't still see him on main cards,
co-main events, things like that.
Because UFC likes him, he puts on exciting fights.
Again, he was the B side in this one.
He's the guy who had to lose, but he was the, you know, it takes two to tango.
And, you know, he was the losing part of what was a very memorable, I think, UFC on ABC main event.
Also, just the man has taken a lot of damage in his career at this point.
A lot of damage, especially after tonight.
I mean, this is someone who has already missed a lot of time with injuries.
We saw when he broke his face like five years ago, right?
He was out for a long time for that, too.
It's a tough, tough road for Josh Emmett.
But I guess that's what this game is.
Let's move on because there was a lot to hit on this card.
and it was a very fun main card.
And AK, you called it.
I think a lot of people were sort of questioning the card quality of this one,
but AK, you were high on it.
And you were high on this co-main event.
You gave it the AK Lee rubber stamp of approval as a co-main event and not a penultimate fight.
And boy, you were right.
Macy Barber, Amanda Hebas, Macy Barber just came in there.
And that was spectacular, right?
Left head kick, follow right hand.
And then just a barrage of violence, hell of a finish by her.
It was almost like she got her.
a little bit and it just pissed her off.
And it was quite a scene.
At the end, she's getting blood all over Daniel Cormier.
There is no question now at this point in my mind that Macy Barber has improved tremendously,
right?
Like, this is one of those cases where you can't let all of the initial hype and really
like the overhyping that was done to her cloud our judgment of what we're seeing here
because the heart, the will, that has always been there for Macy Barber.
But today it felt like she showed that technique and it felt like her overall game is leveling up.
she now has the second most knockout wins in UFC women's flyweight history behind Valentina Shipchenko, which is very bizarre to think about.
But AK, I mean, after what you just saw today, are you a believer in sort of this Macy Barber 2.0?
Yeah, definitely.
Listen, her improvements are very real.
That's sort of the thing I've been saying all week.
Her improvements are real.
I think this is, I'm going to, I'm not calling anybody out in out there in the public, but like you cannot judge a fighter by their Wikipedia page.
Okay.
It's so easy to look at someone like Macy Barber and say, oh, well,
Oh, she got finishes in her first few fights in the UFC,
and then she stopped getting finishes and was winning decisions.
What happened to her?
What did her skills get worse?
No.
The Macy Barber that we saw in the Andrea Leifite,
whether you thought she wanted or not,
the Andrew Leafite and the Macy Barber that we saw on Saturday
are way better than the Macy Barber that started off her UC career
with three straight knockouts, okay?
She was getting by, I think, early on on, listen,
raw power, athleticism, and just good old-fashioned,
you know, go get her enthusiasm, right?
That can take you a long way early in your career.
At some point, she's getting older.
She's refining her skill set.
And listen, there's growing pains.
Okay, it didn't look great in some of those fights.
It didn't look great against Roxanne Mata Ferry.
It didn't look great in the split decision.
She went against Miranda Maverick.
There was a, I'll never forget the Maverick fight.
Not just that being a robbery, her own corner, I think it was that fight.
Her own corner was like, you have to hit her.
Because she was doing a lot of, like, she was hitting the air a lot with some of restraint.
I remember that.
And I'm like, and it was true.
It was true.
She looked bad in those fights.
This is, this is not, you know, as she was trying to try,
to round on her skills and I guess become a more technical striker.
The early returns were not great. The early returns were not great.
She had great success being a berserker early on.
But when she stepped up to fight the Roxanne, Alexa Grosos, and random Mavericks, there's a lot of bumps.
But look at this Jessica I fight.
Look at the Andrew Lee fight.
Look at this night.
You can see the talent catching up with the skill.
And she's one of the women at 125 men.
She is throwing to finish.
She is throwing to finish.
I know people love to performance tonight.
Awesome fight.
Great performance by Mandahoebus as well.
but I want people to go back and watch the Andrew Lee fight someday.
And when she wasn't being taken down and having to defend herself in the ground,
anytime she was on the feet, she was throwing with intent.
And that's a huge, huge thing in this division.
So it's very real.
Five straight wins now for Macy Barber.
She can't become the youngest UFC champion ever now.
You know, that ship has sailed.
But man, could she fight for UFC titles someday?
It's totally the realm of possibility.
It was just a really, really fun and enjoyable night for her.
Absolutely.
I'd like to enact, if I can, a moratorium over everyone in the UFC, future people who are in the UFC.
Let's stop with the John Jones thing, the one of the break John Jones record.
But can we just completely stop with it?
Like every young prospect who comes up says the John Jones line.
And I just so badly want you to not do that because it puts so much unnecessary stress, pressure,
ridicule, just all of that on you.
And it is exactly what you said, where like early in Macy's career, it felt like she had become a meme.
in a way for some of these fights and it's just it's another lesson and sometimes it takes patience
with a lot of these fighters right like a lot of these young fighters you got to grow with them you
got to let them get their sea legs in there become who they will finally become and not judge you know
the level one version of them they're not judge the ball besom before it becomes a venusore you know
like come on you got to let things materialize here huh uh she you know by the way you know
exactly what i don't i didn't get that reference at all listen raoul rosis junior i'm just saying has
It still has like six more years if he wants to.
So Royal Roses, if you're out there, don't listen to Shaheen.
You keep saying you're going to become the youngest champion.
You got a long time.
You got a big window, big window to hit.
35.
I do want to ask about this fight, though.
Because I threw this out on our Slack page for MMA fighting.
It seemed like everyone kind of consensus on it.
Is that the best women's fight that we've seen in 2023?
Like, am I missing something?
Or is that the best women's fight we've seen so far this year?
How many women's baton way fights?
Oh, why are you doing this?
Oh, I'm sorry.
You just can't help yourself.
I can't help yourself.
It was, to me, it was fighting the night before.
Actually, I want to say it was fight at night.
I think it was a fight of the night.
It only gets performances in the night, right?
Yeah, I mean, I think the main event officially got fired at night,
but the co-main event was my real fight of the night.
Is that right?
Did the main event get fired at night?
Am I making that up?
I have not seen bonuses yet.
Hold on.
We do.
I think you are correct, though, Casey.
Yes, Emmett-Teperriot.
a fight of the night.
Macy did get,
Macy did get a performance of the night.
Amanda Hebas deserves 50K for that.
I know.
That sucks for her.
He does.
But was it quite,
oh yeah,
best,
best ladies fight at the year,
as far as a skill set,
high stakes,
action and a big finish
and high stakes too.
And best performance
Macy Barber's career too.
And on the biggest stage,
too, I feel.
I think when she,
she might have been on a pay,
was she on a pay-per-view
when she lost against Roxanne.
Was she?
I don't.
Yeah.
Yeah.
U.S.
2.46.
That was a big pay-per-view.
That was the Connor Cowboy paper view.
Yeah.
But was she actually on the pay-per-view card?
No.
Featured pre-lim.
Featured.
Okay.
She was featured pre-lim.
Okay.
So I would say this was her actually highest profile fight.
And she performed fantastic tonight.
She was.
By the, she was the co-main event of UFC 258.
Wow, with Grasso.
Oh, really?
And that was after all.
And that was after.
That was after the loss to Rock.
That's weird.
No way.
Okay.
I had to look it up.
I don't remember this all.
All right.
Well, that was not combative.
I don't believe you.
I don't.
It was comane to me.
No, no.
He's right.
He's right.
Jeez.
Okay.
Not remember.
But I'm not as high.
I'm not going to go all the way out and say like I,
Elia, like deserves a title shot or I'm not, I know,
I know when I say Macy deserves a title shot, but I still don't, I know, I know, I know
not saying Macy deserves a title shot.
But I still.
don't know if she's a title contender yet, but it was a giant improvement for her.
And I think this is the sign for Amanda Heba's to go back to straw weight.
That's what I kind of took from this.
She just got just, she just got, Barbara was just way too physical for her in there.
I mean, I know, I know she just punches harder.
And yeah, she's just way too physical for Heba's in there.
And it showed tonight.
And Barbara really used her physical advantages to her perfectly.
And it's just a great finish, great violent finish.
And that's why I think fans, like, and the UFC especially, Dana, love, love Macy because, man, when she smells blood and there was a lot of blood in that cage, she freaking will murder you.
And that's what the UFC likes.
And yeah, and the national audience got lots of violence tonight for free.
They got something on ABC.
Yeah, lots of blood.
Yeah, a lot of blood.
Different types of blood, too.
You got some high blood in there.
Casey, you're so right about the size too.
I don't want to, God, I don't want to talk with the eye blood.
Casey, you're so right with the size too because the way she countered those leglock
attempts was just plant plant down on her, get heavy.
Yeah, just heavy.
And then just start punching her in.
And I'm not saying that can't happen at 115, but definitely at 125.
It's something that's going to happen more often than not.
So, yeah, that the size mattered.
The size.
Yeah, obviously, he was made a, made a giant tactical error fighting for those leg locks
and when she shouldn't have given up on them way before.
but I felt that yeah he was I think immediately felt oh this this lady is stronger and hits way harder
than me and I got to do something different and yeah her strength her strength the way she's
developed at this point like you could see it in the way these fights play out I agree with you Casey
and that like this isn't we're not talking about her in title contention yet it's five in a row
though I will say this feels like the fight that will propel her to that next fight where she wins
that then we're talking about her in title
contention. I would love to see like a Lauren Murphy or like a Caitlin Chukagian or something like
that for her next to sort of push her into that next level, see if she's ready for sort of those top
five flyways. Yeah, the classic Chikagian fight. Let's see what happens. If she avoided Chukagianning.
It's the question. Chikagianning. Yeah. But if you just if you just go to Macy's Tapology page and
just look at what's red and what's green, take away the, no, the catastrophic injury that she had them
a fight,
model fairy fight,
she's only lost to the champ.
Yeah.
You know?
She's only lost to the champ for,
and so for all this kind of grief fans
and maybe the media give Macy,
she's really only had one legitimate,
one non-injury loss.
And that's your freaking Alexa Grasso.
So if she wants to get on that,
on that soapbox and say,
I'm the greatest,
I'm the new,
I'm the next champ.
This is my division.
Go for it.
That's all.
She,
she can do it.
I'm ready.
for it. I'm ready for that second, second wave of that overhyped, overhypness that she kind of gave
us, gave, gave, gave, gave, gave, gave, gave, so supportive of the youth, Casey, so supportive.
So you're so, you're so, you're so hip and with it. Yeah. You're so hippin with it.
Well, let's hit the rest of this, this main card now, because it was very action-packed. I mean,
Austin Lane, uh, with one of the worst eye pokes I have seen in my life on Justin Taffa for the no contest
there that was just gruesome man went like a full digit deep with those things into that eye he was
we got to monetize he was like trying to he was trying to scoop the eyeball out of that guy
uh it to me that was just example 435 of why this show win model in m ms is so stupidly stupid and
dumb and outdated because that is not someone who should get punished for again nearly getting his
eyeball scooped out of his skull um also david onama just a gorgeous uppercod comment
there on Gabriel Santos. Then he hits him with the Izzy bow and arrow celebration,
drops a couple F bombs on ABC. Hell of a performance by him.
Not great. Real quick, yay or nay on cribbing the Izzy celebration. Where are you guys
start with this? Big nay. I'm with you. A.K. Is there a connection? Was that like,
are they buds or something? Oh, did he just do it? I guess he said post-fight that in his press conference
that Izzy beat a Brazilian and did that over Brazilian. So he wanted to beat a Brazilian and do that
over Brazilian, which is to me the most tenuous connection you could possibly make to justify
his move.
That's so.
I think he did five bows.
You did five arrows, not like three.
Like it went for a while.
Like he kept going like his corner brought him a new quiver more of arrows.
It was just like, geez.
If he just got like, see, the fact that he planned it makes it worse.
If he just got like caught him in the moment, he's like, oh, crap, like, oh, whoa,
I got to celebrate something out.
That's a sick knockout.
And then did it.
I'm like, okay, that makes sense.
You caught with him.
That was a recent thing, you know, whatever.
You steal from the best.
He says he planned it.
He said post-fight in his scrum, credit to Mike Keck, by the way, Mike Keck,
Cubanus updated on site that he had planned this ahead of time because, as he said, the Brazilian thing.
And I'm like, that's so dumb.
It's whack.
That's a dude.
Onama, oh, no, listen, this guy, it could be a stud at 14.
Again, we're talking about 145 being a sick division.
Guys, I forgot to mention, you know, being future contenders.
Onama's right up there.
The guy is ridiculously talented.
But you got to work in that celebration stuff.
That's, that's tacky.
It's tacky.
It's hard to be tacky in the NBA.
They gave him 50K for it too.
I mean, it was a crazy knockout.
It was awesome.
It was great.
The knockout was great.
I don't know, but you got to take a point away for the celebration.
Can you imagine if they, that would be the most unjust thing in MMA today if they took a point away.
He gets 45K.
He doesn't get a full 50K, $5,000.
$5,000 for swagger jacking.
It's just, you can't.
I need justice.
And he does this in the world.
It was weird.
Even if that's something you do plan, don't tell us that you planned it.
Yeah, that was for the moment.
I felt like Izzy in there, so I wanted to get it.
Like, Kendall Grove.
Remember Kendall Grove?
You used to do the Tito Ortiz Gravedger thing.
But that's because he was like, he was like Tito's like, they're a team player.
Yeah, he was he was born.
That's what I was asking.
I thought was there a connection between the guys?
But okay.
All right.
Nothing.
Also on the main car.
Brendan Allen, continuing to just.
He got Rob 50K.
I thought he should have got the other 50K.
Yeah, man.
He is sort of this unsung dark horse right now at middleweight.
He runs through Bruno Silva less than around.
Calls for Jared Canaanere.
Calls for Drickas Duplice.
He calls for some purple shorts.
Calls for a Louisiana event.
Calls for some Chipotle.
I'm pretty sure there's a few other things I don't remember.
But that was five straight four.
Four stopper is over that run.
He really fitted all in in that post-fight interview.
It was just tremendous.
Just wait until your boy can talk because it's what you'll be getting
every time you go to the mall like, oh, Dad, can I have this and one of these?
Can I have one of these?
Can I have one of these?
Oh, can I have one of these?
So be ready.
That's what Brandon Allen was like that.
But listen, I shouldn't say anything bad about Brendan Allen.
Casey, do you have the clip?
I don't know if you have the clip handy, but I shouldn't say.
Oh, wait, wait, wait, oh, yeah.
Brendan Allen has already called me out for the last time because I said Andreneemonez was just going to run through him on the ground.
If he goes to grand and he goes to grand and he's going to smoke him,
and then he included me at a little wrong media members month.
So I did him a favor.
Casey, if you have the clip, you'll feel free it.
I did him a favor.
Wait, he didn't see this.
This is only there in like half a second.
He included you in a wrong media members.
Yeah, people doubted me.
Yes, it was after Muniz.
But that's not the clip we want.
We did him a favor.
Brendan Allen, you just became one of my guys.
That's, I don't know here for that.
Someone on the free fight Q&A asked us for locks.
And I said, I'm doing this as a favor for Brendan Allen.
I'm like, I don't believe in this.
But I'm saying I'm picking Brennan Silva first round knock out to be my lock of the night.
and I said, Brendan, if you're out there.
But then Casey had me record a bit of propaganda to make me look bad.
So whatever.
We can pull the club up later.
But congrats to Brennan later, yeah.
Yeah.
Who, by the way, you know, again, talk about judgment about Wikipedia entries.
People look at that, go back and look like, oh, he submitted him.
No, no, man.
He went brawling with the frigging world-class K-R-Rists on the feet first,
and then he finished them on the ground.
It was so impressive.
Yeah, man.
Five in a row now, six, I mean, seven out of his last.
eight really good run mokey really good run in the UFC for brennan allen also i'm just here
for all chapolet shoutouts i'm very basic i love chipotle i eat chapolet way too much i'm here for it
let's just support support the good guys uh and i give me some more chippole uh all right i mean we
that's the main card i'm sort of hit everything lots going on on the undercard too neil magni
gets a win uh maybe not the most exciting way that was a bad fight right that was that was not a good
fight.
Yeah, that's about what we can say about that.
Yeah.
It's a split decision.
It was what it was.
Maybe the card placement on that I questioned it beforehand.
Maybe they knew what they were doing on that.
Randy Brown gets it done.
Tap at the Ritchie.
Joshua Van pulling off a splitie as well.
Jack Jenkins, maybe getting a little questionable one.
Good performances all around.
Also, Jose Marisol in the Trevor Peak fight.
That was a lot of fun.
That was a lot of fun.
A couple fight of the year.
contenders here on this night, or I guess afternoon in Jacksonville.
Let's see the peeps.
What are the peeps talking about, Casey?
All right, oh, it on one moment.
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I have to show this clip.
I think I finally got it.
Hold on.
See, you can pull this up.
Again, so the context, this was, this was, this was made.
It's going to sound weird in support.
There we go.
We've got no chance against Bruno Silva.
Bruno Silva's going to knock him out round one.
He can't last two seconds on the feet.
We got no chance against Bruno Silva.
Bruno Silva's going to knock him out round one.
He can't last two seconds on the feet with Blendado.
Brendan Allen, you're going down.
I disagree.
Brennan, you will win.
You would.
and you will win.
You will be the next UFC
middleweight champion.
Looks like Casey
knew a long.
I hope he just uses your clip
if he digs these up.
I hope he just a consistent
Brennan Allen Hater.
I am,
listen,
I'm hating him.
I'm doing him a favor.
I'm hating him all the way
to UFC gold around his waist.
I'm telling you,
I'm just going to keep picking against him
until this train stops
because he's been doing real well.
Doesn't need my support.
So ready for questions?
Yeah, what are the peeps talking about?
All right, what we got?
Where we got, people?
Come on.
Let me see.
Sorry, I was talking about.
I didn't get to go to the comments too much.
Uh, do, do, do, do, do you.
I'll, but I'll end the poll.
Uh, 75% to Poria is the number one contender, 75%.
75%?
Was there a, was there a, I don't know third option?
No, no, I don't do that bullcrap.
It's, I only do yesterday.
Lay in the law.
Bring it down.
I don't know.
I don't do that crap.
J.N. asking, what was the Chipotle thing all about?
Who knows?
Chipotle is delicious.
I'm not here for slander.
Yeah, we're bringing positive here.
Also, J.N. Was Dana at the event?
I could see Hunter, but I didn't see Dana.
That's a good question. I'm not sure about that, to be honest.
I don't think he's there.
I don't think he's there.
You know, it's only a show on ABC.
Why do you need to like, you know, that's not a big deal.
That's what I mean, that's what these network cars.
just aren't like they're just they're just you can never get it done without dana man he's
integral to the whole operation serje ramos in the building though rial madrid sirs
spanish spanish soccer team legend football team excuse me guys football team legend sergey romans
is that a top three most famous human being who's ever been at a ufc fight yes yes unequivocally
and i know this may a lot of north americaners he's a sportsman he's a sportsman he's a sportsman
Casey, very famous sportsman.
Listen, this guy.
Spanish football, Spanish.
He's won a World Cup.
He's won a World Cup.
He is very famous.
Probably, again, I'm sure in North America.
One of the greatest soccer players of all time, basically.
Yes, the golden generation of Spain, football, Sergio Ramos.
Yes.
Don't worry, Casey.
All of this was just explained to me like an hour ago, too.
Don't worry.
This is coming from Dana Blanco.
What do you think about the double DC commentary duo?
we were actually talking about that amongst ourselves before we went live.
I'm not a fan.
I'll just be honest.
I'll just say it.
I'm not a fan.
I really don't like it.
When Dom said,
when Dom said you get cauliflower ear so it protects your brain.
Did you hear that when he said that?
Yes.
Uh-huh.
Yes, I did.
Yeah. Okay.
I was making sure I wasn't imagining that.
I was like.
No, that was the thing that was said on ABC.
Not as best.
I will say, this is, this is, we've been critical of both these guys.
Casey, I know you're more of a fan of Dominic
most of the time.
I'll compliment Dominic today for a couple of things.
One, and this is stealing from, I think Sean Sheehan pointed this out,
that he did a great job kind of explaining the intricacies
of what Toporia was doing in the main event.
Like, that's exactly, when you're on ABC,
that's exactly what you need.
You need a guy who, if someone just so happens,
to casually be tuning in and kind of like,
oh, this Topori guy looks good,
but I'm not sure, like, what, you know,
I'm not sure exactly why I'm so hyped about it.
You need a guy pointing out those things.
And that is something Dominer Cruz does really well.
which is why we kind of always say like he's made better as like a desk analyst than like live on the mic but you do need a guy like that
like maybe bring in dom like like when they bring it when they used to do like Trevor Whitman or Dean or Dean Thomas now yeah
they just kind of come in for these like low 30 45 second bits and he just kind of focused on one very technical part of the game
I think it's when he kind of just when he gets free reign for eight hours yeah yeah when he gets very like a watchalong type of you know not really
Compton Tampiating the bite, they're just kind of talking.
Then you're like, uh, this is getting...
And he, uh, I don't know, fun of not buried the hatchet, but for a second with the, uh,
Macy Barber stoppage, right?
Yeah, Pearson.
And he said he did a good job.
No, no, no, he said the ref.
He goes, because, the ref did he.
I was like, oh, he didn't say his name.
He said his name.
It still counts.
It still counts.
He still counts.
He gave his promise.
Oh, I know we kind of skipped over that, but, um, was that controversial to stoppage?
Because I thought that stoppage was actually, I thought, I thought,
I thought it was a perfect stoppage.
Which one?
I thought it would be.
I didn't see that much.
The,
the,
Barber stoppage when she stopped Hebas.
I didn't feel like that was going to.
Yeah.
I thought it was fine.
Yeah.
I thought there was.
I like,
I did like a preemptive tweet like,
oh, people aren't going to like this.
But then I had a lot of replies like,
what are you talking about?
It's fine.
I'm like, oh, okay.
I guess I've just come to expect the worst from the discourse.
That's, that's on me.
Yeah, I don't know people were saying it's too late or just perfect.
I thought it was a perfect stoppage.
They gave Heba's a proper amount of time to recover.
take too much damage, but also you, uh, the ref respected he bus is, he was has a fighter as a
a level fighter to, to kind of take that much damage to get herself out.
And once I think, whatever, uh, it was, I can't try to remember exactly how the stoppage
worked, but, um, it was fine, it was fine, but.
I will, I will say just anecdotally, and this is completely anecdotally.
This is the power of these ABC cars, right?
I just got a text from someone who,
a buddy of mine who's not really a fight fan
who was sitting watching this at their parents' house
and their parents stumbled along right when Austin Lane
decided that he wanted to invade that eyeball.
And then they ended up for some reason watching it
and the parents were blown away by Macy Barber
and Ilya and they've never heard of either of them.
So there you go.
This is the power of that at work, right?
Like this is just such a bigger audience
than normally would be watching.
And people who are, I guess,
and people who really aren't even,
fans of the sport at all, just really flipping channels who don't have cable.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's the worst kind of blood guys?
Because eye blood is up there.
I'm not in.
Eye blood.
I have such a thing with eyeballs, man, like for my entire life.
Like ever since I was a kid, don't raise your eyebrows in that way.
I don't know where this is going.
I don't know where it's going.
Well, I just, I can't handle violence done upon eyes in any respect at all.
Like you, like, even like torture.
like horror movies with like torture and stuff you know like the things anytime it's like eyeball
included i just i'm out man i cannot handle it whatsoever do you wear i was contact
oh yeah i could do that okay okay so you so you so okay because some people are like they even
weirds them out when they even touch their eye or like so i was just kind of wondering yeah i was
it took me a while to get over that it took me yeah i i was like eye blood is what you say way up there
I was like ass blood, not a fan.
Not a fan.
I just want to throw that out there.
I just want to say, I just want to say ass blood on a show.
And now it's out there.
It's on the record.
Thank you, Casey.
Can you clip that, please, Casey?
Can I make a poll?
Should I make a poll?
What's worse?
Please don't.
Please don't.
Can you just say it one more time?
Say what?
Say what?
As blood?
It's the new park reporter.
Oh, God, I hope not.
I don't know.
That emoji is going to be in our smack room.
Great nickname for a final.
Off the rolls.
All right.
Yeah.
It's the worst orifice to bleed, says VJ.
Yeah.
It's not my favorite.
Yeah.
Also, I will say Justin Taffa
like handled that incredibly well.
Like the dude was kind of nonplussed by the whole situation.
He's kind of like just annoyed at it.
Oh, his corner apparently was super pissed and he was just kind of like, sorry, boys, like, relax.
Like, apparently he had to calm his corner down.
They were pretty mad about it.
He's like, you got mad after a couple things.
A, couple of things actually, but that go back to the top of fight.
A, should that have been a DQ?
No, I like the no contest.
Because it was such a, right?
It was such a, it doesn't have to be in purpose.
Like, it was such a reckless eye poke because it, I wish I had to.
But it does have to be on purpose.
That's what the difference is between a DQ and a no contest.
If it's accidental, it's no contest.
If it's seemingly done with malice, then that's a DQ.
I just think that's weird.
So you go like this.
I go like Mo Larry Curley on a guy.
But I don't know that that's what that was, right?
Like that was two guys sort of swinging in opposite directions.
He pushed off.
I remember.
It was with his left hand.
He pushed off with his hands, fingers out, like right in the pocket.
And just.
Okay.
Can we put the, can we put the still?
of it on the screen so everyone can stare at it.
No.
No, let's please not.
Fingers drilled right into the eye socket.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
So I had an issue, I had an issue that.
Exactly. You got, you got eye gouging.
You got like, there was a lot of blood on network TV.
Lots of swearing. Lots of swearing in these post-fire interviews.
Lots of swearing like blood from many, for many, there was ear blood, eye blood, a lot of
nose blood. Yeah. It was like, every orphus pretty much.
I mean, I said we had some ass blood. It would have been a hell of a show.
I would expect this from Casey, but I would not expect this from you, IK.
Listen, this is early evening, early afternoon, early evening, M.
A.m.A. All right.
If this was, if this was usual, us frigging like two, three in the morning, I mean,
I wouldn't have the energy for this kind of, this kind of talk, but what kind of talk?
It's kind of Tom Fuller.
I won't, I won't, I won't do it again. I won't do it. I won't do it.
You're thinking it.
I'm thinking it. Everyone was thinking about it.
All right.
Let's get a few more.
But back to the ref thing,
wasn't it super weird that Dan
Murgriato was telling Taffa,
it's going to be a no contest?
I thought that was like really weird.
He kept telling him, it was like,
if you don't want to fight,
don't worry, it's just, it's a no contest.
I've never heard a ref.
I don't think they're supposed to do that.
You know, like, you're not,
you're not supposed to be.
Okay, I wasn't 100% sure
because first of all, the rep doesn't,
does ref decide that?
I don't know 100% no.
I don't know why I don't know that.
Who decides if it's no contest?
Is it the ref?
Was he already telling
top of how I'm going to decide it if the fight's over?
It's the commission official.
Like not like not the ref,
but like all of the commission official sort of conversed and settle on it.
Okay.
It was weird.
But yeah.
One that actually I want to get to that has nothing to do with what we just saw tonight,
but I've seen it asked a couple times by Saul Goodman.
He says,
PFL committed a dirty, dirty piece of business today.
Oh, yeah.
And I'm curious for your guys' thoughts on this,
because this is obviously not to do with this UFC on ABC card,
but this is the Housh Manfield, Natanz Schulte,
fight that we saw fight, I use in air quotes,
that we saw on Friday.
And if you guys don't know the backstory to this,
essentially these two dudes, both former PFL champions,
best friends, like best best friends,
I think they're, you know,
god's sons to each other,
or godparents to each other's children type of thing,
training partners, like main training partners,
like I think, I can't remember which one,
but I think Schulte maybe like paid for Manfio's rent or like put him up as a place to live for like a year when he was almost homeless.
Like really the closest people you could possibly get to.
And PFL matches them up together for some reason with the winner basically getting a shot at the playoffs.
Both were one and oh in the season.
Meanwhile, the new PFL signing, Shane Burgos has mashed up against another fighter who was 0-1.
He was Owen one as well.
And the winner of that would get into the playoffs as well.
felt like a little weird matchmaking there,
just matching winners and losers up with each other.
And then, of course, it plays out exactly how you'd expect
between two best friends.
It's barely a fight.
It's like a sparring session.
And now, PFL just unilaterally yanking Natanzholti
out of the playoffs and inserting Shane Burgos,
just on their own accord.
What do you guys think of this?
It's bad.
Bad?
So bad.
Yeah, so bad.
It's so bad.
It's so frustrating because people were saying,
I know Aaron Bronshire was one of them.
A lot of people were talking about, like earlier this week, like, wait, like when they reminded this card was coming along.
Like, why was this fight booked?
Why is this is a bad idea?
It's not like this is something that happened like as the fight was happening or after.
This wasn't like in retrospect.
This was ahead probably months ago when the fight was booked for anyone who like, you know, was aware that it was happening.
It was like, wait a minute.
Didn't they try to book these guys before?
And then they were kind of smart enough to not make it happen.
And Manfiel went on to fight and beat Anthony Pattis instead.
And that was like two years ago.
Let's never revisit this.
And then somehow they matched them up again.
And again, this isn't the tournament yet.
You know, this is the second flight of the regular season.
So the PFL is free to match up whoever they want, as long as they haven't fought before.
They fought in the first fight of the season.
They didn't, they had a lot of options.
They didn't have to make Mnfio and Schulte fight.
And these guys, like you said, they're super, super, super close friends, like life buddies.
You know what I mean?
This isn't just guys who trained together.
Like, we've seen people who have trained together or previously trained together,
fight in other organizations.
And yeah, they can usually put it aside.
But these are like close friends.
And again, not even in the tournament, not even like, oh, they're in the semifinals.
And like a win puts them one away from winning a million dollars.
Or, of course, the finals itself, which Manfeo had said in the past, I'd be fine with fighting Netanylchel.
If it was in the tournament or in the final.
Instead, if you get this random fight, why I don't know, they got what they deserved.
Do the fighters take a little bit of responsibility?
Of course, you know, they have a job to do.
But at the same time, if I was the same position as them, I wouldn't want to beat the crap out of my best friend for, you know,
such low stakes either.
So it's, for me, the onus is on the promotion.
They shouldn't have made this fight happen and suspending them.
And I don't even know what else is this going to mean.
Does this also take away Shultes win purse and things like that?
I don't know where they're going to go with that.
It's ridiculous.
And now, Homeboy, he can't make the million dollars.
No.
He's not, he's like out of the running now.
Yeah, he's out of the playoffs.
They yanked him out.
It's the only, so the way they worded it is, you know, they have a certain standard of
performance and that neither guy met it,
is fine but I that's going to be I don't know how
the must have been enforced that and if there's the implication
that the fight was fixed as in like who the
winner was I mean they better be able to prove that
because they really have no evidence that that was the case
right you and I guess they were saying like my
sparring session between two guys who didn't want
to hurt it. It was just an entertaining fight
dude Magdie versus Magny versus Roe
that fight was horrible
but like his but what are you going to do?
Take away their win bonus? I don't know
it's like that's just how fights go sometimes
if guys don't want to
kick their crap at each other, you know, until they're dead.
They don't have to.
Now, the promotion afterward can go, okay, we're going to release you, not signing you for another fight or whatever for the loser or whatever.
But they have a tournament system.
They have a season, you know, he won.
He goes on.
I don't get it.
You can't.
That was the whole point of their whole thing, that this is all based on meritocracy.
You know, we have a rule set.
You win, you advance.
and now they're like,
meh,
yeah,
turns out,
it turns out.
Listen,
if your whole,
ethos,
that's their whole,
yeah,
your motion is the merit,
merocratic nature of it.
Come on,
man.
I like Shane Burgos a lot.
I like him as a person.
I like him,
sort of the move that he made for his career.
Yeah.
And the ball said it took to do it.
He had nothing to do with this decision.
He benefits from it.
But this is,
yeah.
is is extraordinarily ridiculous all of us guys magni and row didn't exactly have the most
crowd pleasing fight tonight so is the ufc can they go to those guys and go like you know what
you know what neil we're gonna take away your win bonus because we didn't yeah we weren't entertained
by the fight we got you guys didn't because i'm sure i bet you the ufc i wonder if they have similar
language in their contracts like you know plead you know whatever you have to do this amount
of effort or something and then say eh you know really match a little effort we want to keep the
win bonus neil you know you can have the win in the record but you're like where do we like
it's such a slippery slope it's such a silly thing to there is there is timidity but that
That's for the commission and the ref to decide during the fire.
That's for the referee.
Yeah.
And the referee, as far as I know, didn't decue them for timidity.
He warned them.
He warned them.
But, but.
God, it wins a win.
Can you imagine a world where the UFC claims that sort of unilateral power to just be like,
ah, you know what?
I didn't like your title defense, Tyron Woodley.
You're no longer champ.
Yeah.
That's it.
That's it.
It's bad.
Actually, I can't imagine that.
I can.
Oh, I can't too.
I can't.
I can't.
We're not, yeah, we're, yeah.
all right let's hit one more and then we will get out of here
all right uh oh here and then everyone here involved watching performing
we all have the rest of our day to get to like this is tremendous item okay big one here
we go oh j n coming in with is allan no longer the most middleweighty middleweight
aka i mean i have i have some thoughts but i i feel like i have to give the floor to you on this one
you are you and mike heck are the purveyors of sure this middleweighty middleweight
belt. So what do you think? We should know. My best friend and I have been in disagreement on this
one for a while. I don't even count Brennan Allen as a middleweighty middleweight. He's he's,
he's too distinct. He finishes fights. He has a personality. His performances are memorable.
Any one of those things disqualifies you from being a middleweighty middleweight. No,
you have to be fighting to meandering 15 minute decisions or late, uh, TKOs where one person
just is too tired to get up, uh, to really be in the middleweighty, middleweight discussion.
maybe you could say before the Munis fight he was in the running but even then
Alan's pretty memorable he has he has a distinct skill set or did anyway I always thought of him
mostly as a grappler but now he's showing he can certainly mix the martial arts in a beautiful
way but I never liked calling him a middleweighty middleweight again I butted heads with this
with my best friend many times so yes you could say whether he lost it on Saturday or just he
isn't was never in there yeah he's he's not a middleweighty middleweight that's for the
Mark Andre Berios and the Armand Petrojians and these are my people.
These are the sadly departed.
I mean, not dead, but another promotion.
Christoph Jochco, long time middleweighty middleweight champion.
You need to, he has too much personality and too much in cage personality.
And you can't have that if you're going to be a middleweighty, middleweight.
So he'll just have to settle for being a top 10 middleweight and a future title contender.
So sorry, Brennan.
And he has a cool hat.
And he has a really cool hat.
Yeah.
There you go.
A.K. Hath spoken.
I feel like you just rubber stamped that.
You've evolved and graduated out of the middleweighty, middleweight conversation, Brennan.
I'm sorry, Mike Eck, the decision's been made.
All right.
Casey, you can hit the music.
Oh, yes.
What a night.
I mean, not even a night.
What a day?
What an afternoon?
Look at the sunlight.
It's, what is that?
I don't even know what you're talking about.
That's crazy.
Ah, you absolutely love it.
Thank you, everyone who has rode with us this week, tuned in yesterday, today.
throughout the week as we have given you.
The coverage you come to expect from this wonderful website.
That man is Alexander Kaylee. He's gone. He already took off.
Oh, there it is. Look at that. What a scamp.
Look at the plant.
Shining. Shining.
That's a cool looking plant.
I like the cuts on the leaf. That's good.
That man's Alexander Kaylee.
That is the best producer in the business, the undefeated E. Casey Leighton.
I'm Sean O'Shaughty.
Keep it locked to MMA fighting.
We love you guys.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
We'll see you soon.
Happy birthday, AK.
Thanks a lot.
I'm AK. It's my birthday.
When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners,
I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list?
Like this designer fragrance for my daughter.
It's just $39.99? How could I resist?
This luxurious wool throw for my sister, this gold,
watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle
for my niece? Leather gloves for my
boss? Ooh, European chocolate
for the crossing guard?
At these prices, could I find something for everyone
at Winners? Stop wondering.
Start gifting. Winners, find
fabulous for less.
It's the matcha, or the three ensemble
Cadoce, SEPORA, of FACET, that I
just deniers, who energize
all the time? Mm, it's all
all right, but the envelope,
and the embalage, too
beau, who is practically pre to donate.
And I know that I'd love them, but I
I'm going to see the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez.
I'm just a couple of the co-dough of the ftesse.
See, Cifora, Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way, Cifora collection, and other part of
the vites.
procurre you, corma, mini, regrouped for a better quality of price.
On link, cifora.ca or in a magazine.
You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.
You're almost at the finish line.
But first...
Ah, there.
The last one.
Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.
