MMA Fighting - UFC Las Vegas Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Merab Dvalishvili's Dominance Over Petr Yan

Episode Date: March 12, 2023

Despite being a sizable underdog, Merab Dvalishvili didn't just defeat Petr Yan in the main event of UFC Las Vegas, but he swept the scorecards against the former bantamweight champion. With title aspirations in play, and his close friend and training partner Aljamain Sterling holding the 135-pound title, where does Saturday's victory put "The Machine" in the championship discussion? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to Dvalishvili's dominant performance against Yan, what could be next for both guys, and the surprising changing of momentum in the career of Yan over the last couple of years. Additionally, they discuss Alexander Volkov's quick stoppage of Alexandr Romanov, Nikita Krylov's first-round submission of Ryan Spann, Bruno Silva and Davey Grant's sensational finishes on the prelims, and more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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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Podcast Network. What's going on, everybody? We are live here on the UFC Las Vegas Post-Fight show. We're trying to throw in some bells and whistles. I know a lot of you were sad, a little hurt, a little upset. They didn't get Casey's mixed martial arts chant. for the preview show. I should have done it.

But I mean, look, he made it happen. And now UFC Las Vegas is in the book's massive win for Marabda Welsh, Willie. He was a pretty sizable betting underdog heading into this fight. And he just, Peter, Peter Jan just had nothing for this, man. His pace is unbelievable.

I think he attempted like 50 takedowns in the fight. Oh, there we go. I love it. Just keep that looping. There's be the background for tonight. We're off to a tremendous. I forgot to uncheck the loop thing. But thank you for joining us. I am Mike Heck.

That is Jed Michoud. Jed, I thought AK was going to be on. I was not going to bury the lead. I was going to lead off with the Pleasure Man. I don't know what number was higher. Marab's takedown attempts or the Pleasure Man's fence grabs. But that's neither here nor there.

But dead heat. Dead heat. But Marab de Welsh, really, man. He just goes in there. and just melts Peotreryon all over him from the jump. He was, uh, the first round was, he did more in that first round to Peyreeryon than any second against Jose Aldo. That was like what I tweeted out.

It was very impressive. He was striking. He was hitting Peodorian. The leg kicks were nasty. He was getting the takedowns. And that pace just continued on and on throughout the fight. Obviously, the striking slowed down a little bit, picked back up in the fifth round. but this was a Marab times two kind of performance

and he just blew the doors off of Peottyon swept the scorecards. This fight was not even all that competitive. How surprised were you to see it play out the way that it did? I was very surprised. I mean, we talked about it in the pre-fight Q&A. I didn't think he'd be able to get Jan down all that successfully and was correct in that. He didn't, but I just sort of didn't think that he'd, be able to do this, to put his cardio wrestling game, you know, to bear on a guy who has proven

to be extremely well versed in 25-minute fights. So, Peleerian gets stronger as fights go on. Like, that is the hallmark of his game. And it wasn't there. And I don't know. It looked like he caught, got hurt in that second round from a leg kick. The commentary team was saying it at Marav had been throwing it a ton of those. I don't know if he just, just blew a tire and could never get back on. Or if Marab is simply, you can't stop the cardio monster. But, I mean, he whitewashed him. It's 50, 45 officially.

Probably should have gotten like a 10-8 for that second round, too. Like, it's, I was just pillared to post, man. Marab doesn't seem like your favorite fighter. Oh, no, I hate him. No interest in watching this man fight. Why? Yeah, no, because that fight was awful to watch. And, like, people are going to reflect you're like, you're a big Peirion guy.

I'm not actually, I'm not super into, I respect Peoria Yon's game in the same way. I respect what Mara Bav Valshili did as an achievement and is very difficult, not here to say that he didn't win that fight and that wasn't hard. And that there were stretches of it where he was compelling. The first seven minutes, the first two rounds, Marab was very compelling. And then in that fifth round, he dialed it back up. you got a little more excited to actually causing damage. I, he, he was, that is almost the textbook definition of fighting to win a contest, which is what they are doing.

And I understand that that is the job and that's how you do it. But I don't, that's the least compelling way of fighting for me. I'm not saying it's easiest by no means. There are not like three people on earth who could do it more opted tonight. but it's making it a cardio competition. I'm not here to watch CrossFit. Like that's not what I'm here to do. And that's in large part what that fight was.

And it's a very effective way to go about it. But I would like all of your offense to be leading to something in a substantive fight-ending manner or damaging way. And I mean, during the middle of it, it wasn't we weren't even pretending that these takedowns were trying to get to a position to hold. they were strictly to make Peotreon work and tire him out. And like, I'll give you some leeway. You know, if you're doing that round one to get a guy tired in round two, but then, you know, round two, round three, you are scoring those takedowns,

you are advancing to position, you are threatening with stuff. Okay. But when you're in round four of a fight, you're clearly up. Again, I'm not saying it's not smart. It's obviously very smart. It was very effective and worked. I just, it is the least compelling way of fighting for me to watch. Did you think the take down attempt record that being made such a big deal out of?

I thought that was just kind of funny. I mean, like the take down record would be great, but oh, he attempted the most takedons ever, but landed, what was he, six of 37, which again, he made Peoria got work, but I just thought that six of 37 is what UFC stats has right now, but they don't have that fifth round up. He did score several in the fifth round. So I believe he will have gotten up to double digits, but it will be on like almost 50 attempts. Yeah, that's nuts.

Yeah, that's nuts. And again, I'm not here to, I'm sure people are mad. I'm not here to say that's not hard as shit. It's impossibly hard. I couldn't shoot 50 takedowns on my punching back right now. Like, it is hard to do that, much less to do it against a caliber of fighter like Peodor Yan. But we cannot protect.

that any of the takedowns in round three or four were meant to do anything other than make purely on work and to kill time. Because that's all they were. And again, it's an effective strategy, but like, it is not a thing I, I am not, when they said,

a contender is made tonight, or what was their phrasing? They said a star making performance. Maybe I can't, I mean, all the other composite parts of it were there. You had a very good post-fights, Beach clearly has galvanized the Georgian fans that they showed out.

That's awesome. So maybe it is in totality, but I'll ask you, Mike, are you stoked to watch the next Marabh Vah Vah Svili fight? Are you like waiting? Like, can't wait to see this one. I'm intrigued because

it's not going to be a title fight. Like it's just, unfortunately, because might be. You think so? I don't know, man. If Sterling if Sterling wins and leaves, it might be. Maybe, but if Sterling wins and leaves, it's going to be O'Malley. And Cheeto beats Corey Zanagan.

There's no way Marab's getting that title shot. There's no way. They're going to do Cheetos. A star making performance, Mike. What about star making is not landing? I've been saying the same thing about Marab for like three years now. There is not a Bannamweight on planet Earth who is going to be excited to see that man's name on the other side of a contract. It's the risk reward is.

just not there. Now he can't be denied. He's won, what, nine in a row now? He's a win away at war, maybe two. At worst, he's two wins away with this division being what it is. But he's in a great spot because no one does to Peyodor Yan what he did to Peyodor Yan tonight. Not even Al Jemite Sterling could do that. And that was friggin impressive. So may not be the most compelling thing. May not be a fight. We're going to go back and watch again and again and again.

But the dude just went in there and got it done. And that's the thing. It is undeniably impressive. I don't want anyone to misconstru what I'm saying here. Yeah. But in the exact same way that George St. Pierre just positionally controlling the hell out of Dan Hardy is not compelling fighting, large stretches of that fight were not now. There were parts of it that there were. As I said, the first two rounds were pretty good.

There was back and forth. He was actively trying to damage him. And the fifth round, he picked it back up again. But he marobbed real hard during the middle sections of that. fight and I was just like okay oh spam I was doing live blogging and at some one point there I'm just like yep shot a takedown stuff punched on the break shot again stuff rents and repeat just like that's not it's not my favorite thing to watch Mike if you like it then buddy marab is the fighter for you and I even better there aren't I'm trying to think of people that I think in this division

that can stop him from doing that at this juncture. Maybe two people in this division that I can see an argument for being like, they can have success in stopping this from happening. So you're going to be in store for some good fights if that's your particular brand of vodka. Yeah, he's a tough matchup for everybody. So we'll see where he goes from here.

I saw some people in here saying, oh, you just fight Sean O'Malley in Newark. There is no chance Sean O'Malley takes that fight. zero he's next in line why would he take that fight unless it's for the belt and even then i don't think you would he would lobby for somebody else yeah i wouldn't take that fight for the belt i'd just wait until chito fought sandhagan and i'd fight the winner of that for the belt because i don't have to fight marab yeah i can fight the winner of that for the belt i would rather fight that i would i would never sign to fight marob de vilech really just straight up like if

i was a abandon weight of quality i would never sign to fight him. Not in the same way that, like, I would never sign to fight Francis Ngano, because I would like to keep my head on my shoulders. But like, there is nothing to be gained here. Just nothing to be gained. At best, you're not going to look good in a win. And at worst, you're going to get cardio wrestled to infinity and beyond. So I would just, I would never fight him. He would be, he should be the most avoided fighter in the entire sport. Like, I would, I would rather fight Shavkat Rockmanov as a welterweight than fight that dude. It's tough.

It's a tough, tough damn matchup. So we'll see where he goes from here. Again, he's probably going to need another win unless the dominoes fall exactly where they need to. But what about Peter Yan, man? Tough spot to be in. Sheesh. It's so funny. I love the career arc of Peleon is one of the funniest things that's happened in the last.

five years, man. Why is it so funny? Because it's incredible. This dude was the second coming. He was it. Henry Suhudo thought he was doing something by being like, I'm going to retire. The UFC needs me. And at the day he retired after that fight, 20 minutes later, Dana White, just like, yeah,

well, Henry's out the door. We got a new guy. Piotr Yan is going to be fighting. somebody for the vacant belt in a couple of months. He wins the belt over Aldo, great performance, and this is supposed to be the Peoria era. It's like who a lot of great fights, who's going to beat him? He's tuning up Al Jermaine Sterling,

throws the stupidest knee in the history of combat sports. The dumbest one. I was on the record. Then that it was dumb and he should have been decued. I haven't changed my mind in the two years. then he he is punching this man standing over top of him and just whacking him says eh i'll throw a knee now throws it gets dekewed loses his belt instead of losing his belt that night if he had just been a normal person and followed the rules he goes on to win that fight then he fights corey

sandhagen gets a title defense under his belt and then who knows what's happening he's fighting somebody else says next title defense. Instead, Sandhagen, great performance, great win, loses the rematch, loses a Garbo-splitty to Sean Amalley, and now loses to Marab. He was supposed to be the next big thing, and now he's lost four or five, and it's all half of it. Half of it is due to his own stupid decision-making. If he just hadn't done the most hilarious, a legal thing in in this sports history his whole career his whole legacy would be vastly different than it is now and instead this is the room he's in this is the room he's in it's hilarious who is he in a fight now oh final man uh loser of sandhagan vera um umar i don't know that he would have

Omar's good one. I don't know that he'd have much appetite for that after the Marab unpleasantness. Has Adrian Yannis fighting anybody? Rob Fon. April 8th. Oh, yeah, winner of that. He fights the winner of that. That's it.

Book that. Okay. So nobody will be taking him down in that one so he can get past the PTSD of 50 frigging takedown attempts and just chuck the mitts, baby, or score his own takedown. So, and that fights a banger. So sure, do that. Yes, that is, that's probably, that's probably the way to go. That's probably the way to go.

That's the on to the next one kind of stuff right there. So, yeah, great night from Marabda Wallach, really not a great night for Alexander Romanov, who looked like Jose described him. Alexander Volkov just, just killed him. Two minutes and 16 seconds. This fight was competitive for the introductions. and that was about it. And then Volkov just took his back

and punched him in the face over and over and over again. And the fight was over. So what can we say about this, Jed? The battle of the Alexander's, there was no battle. There was Volkov's night, and Romanov was just there to kind of take a beating. One of two things happened. And I'm leaning towards one way.

The way I'm leaning, the thing I think is the simplest and makes the most sense, is Alexander Romanov had an injury coming into this fight, and he needed the money and so he took it. That is the one that makes the most sense to me. It would explain why he went from being fairly slim, certainly much slimmer than the big bag of soup he was in this one, but still rolls out here and doesn't even put up much of a resistance or fight there.

Based on no knowledge entirely speculative, that would make a lot of sense if it came out that he was injured and just needed the money so he took the fight, didn't want to pull out, whatever, whatever you may have. The other is that losing the Marcyne Tibera just broke him, and now he will never recover. And we've seen fighters have that happen before. You know, they're hot shit when they're undefeated and the world's their oyster and nobody can touch them.

And then they have to deal with losses, even though that loss probably should have been a draw or whatever. They still just have to grapple with the reality of not being the baddest man in the world or whatever. And it could be that one, which would also explain the bad change in physique coming into this and the relatively inert fight that he put forth. So credit to Volkov. He's a professional. Showed up, did his job, got a very big win for his career, continues to just, he's going to continue to be the gatekeeper to the stars at heavyweight, it seems like. if you beat him, you're a top five dude, and he will hold, he will be the great filter for anything beyond that. But good, good win for him. He has the rights to the name Alexander,

if he would like, or as Jose Young said, he can adopt ampersand now if he, if he would so choose. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, Or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

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They were all over the place. Jonathan Martinez. upsets Saeed Narmogamayanoff, which means the Nirmie Parley, uh, kind of fell apart for you, Jed. Uh, good win for John Martinez. We talked about it in the pre in the pre-in-the-fired Q and a was like,

I think that this is a bad bet. I think Jonathan Martinez is a very live dog, but it's a gimmick and I got to stick to my gimmick, but I don't feel comfortable about it. And as the fight unfolded, even though I think there was an argument that Nermagamatov won, I don't feel strongly either way, frankly. I was just like, yeah, this is exactly what I thought.

This is why I didn't feel massively confident that Saeed would win this fight. Yeah, I thought it was close. I thought two and three were, I scored both two and three for Martinez, but look, have you scored two for Saeed? I ain't mad at you. Mario Batista lived up to that massive betting line, submits Squido-Kennetti in just over three minutes. Vitor Petrino.

Donked all over the pleasure man. The pleasure man cheated his ass off and putting win. Our Slack channel was hilarious for that fight. It was so silly hilarious by that fight. Carl Williams, good win. Josh Fremt's submission win. Yeah, that was, it was a win. And he got Josh Frem submits S.D. Dumas.

Not a lot of people saw that coming. Great win for Josh Frem. Victor Henry, Tony Gravely, who's a great fight. Victor Henry gets the win. Ariely, Lipski, beating J.J. Aldrich. Not a lot of people saw that coming.

Yeah. It's real good. It's one of the best performances of her career. Carlson Harris beats Jared Gooden to start today. Bruno freaking Sylve, Edmishu. What a finish that was. Kick Tyson NAM in the face with a front kick. One of those gnarly images.

And then puts them to sleep with the rear naked choke. Flyweight under hits once again. It wasn't even the best finish on the undercard. I know, we're going to get to that. I believe you're intentionally skipping it, but that finish was sick, and it wasn't even the best technical submission on the underguard. I know.

Well, there's a lot that went into that best technical submission, but this finish was ridiculous. Flyway and unders continue to rule. Bruno Silva, what a freaking finish that was. The front kick into a put you to sleep rear naked. That was frigging insane. It was super, super good. that fight was very fun

and it was exactly what we all expected it was off for two years too coming back so hell of a performance we have bonuses you're not going to believe this I hope you're not looking at it I hope you're not looking at this okay don't look at it don't look at it okay so we know the performance award winners are

we already know it Bruno is there going to be a side of the night oh there's a fight of the night Jed there's a fight of the night there's no way they did it I don't believe they they did not give the main event fight of the night no they did not okay i was just said refused to believe which fight do you think it was uh okay so it should be i don't think they did it it should be krillof's band because that fight was just lovely it's not going to be that it's not going to be that um did they do that oh they gave it to patrino to college didn't they they gave it to the pleasure man

to give it to the pleasure man. Unbelievable. Look, that fight was fun. That fight shouldn't exist on a UFC card in the modern era, but it was undeniably fun. Because neither man had any concept for holding position, which makes it fun. It's like they basically flow grappled,

but for real. So it was like, it's like, all right, well, now it's my turn to take dominant position, but I can't hold it. So now I give it back to you. And around and around we go. Poor Victor Henry, Tony Gravely. That fight was really, really fun.

Oh, come on. Everything's coming. That was fun. That was fun too. That was the fight of the night. But everything's coming up, pleasure man. Even when he loses, he wins. So 50K for the pleasure man.

50K for Vitor Petrino. There you go. There's your bonuses. The other performance award obviously goes to Davy Grant, who, I mean, that was just unbelievable. with 17 seconds left of the fight, a reverse inverted triangle out of nowhere against Hafeel Asunso who ended up retiring after the fight. But the whole sequence leading into that was very strange because Davy Grant is about to be

taken down. He grabs the fence. Keith Peterson lived up to his moniker of no nonsense. Take the point. Keith Peterson. Stop the action. Stopps the action. takes Davy Grant,

tells David, demands Davy Grant get to his feet, walks Davey Grant to the center of the cage, takes a point. And then they just let him fight. We don't go back to position. We don't do anything. We just start fighting.

And Davey Grant lands a spinning back fist, hurts Hafeel Asunso. Then he gets on, a Sunsa looks like he's trying to dump him. But David Grant slaps the inverted triangle choke on, and Hafeel Sunso falls asleep and retires. that was insane. That was a crazy, like, 45 seconds to, to a minute.

What do you have to say about that? Because that was nuts. That was insane. It was super wild. I don't know if you've ever grappled to this extent. It's impossible to finish inverted triangles anyway. Like, they're not easy to finish, particularly not against a BJJ black belt. And so the fact that he, like, slept him with it was just,

unbelievable. That whole sequence was very weird. I was like, oh, a Sunsau's going to pull out in a Sunsau fight. Like, I thought he probably had won the first two rounds. They were a Sunsau-like rounds, but I thought he probably squeaked him. Davy Grant came out, you know, throw in caution to the wind in the third. But he gets the point taken away. And I was like, okay, well, this should seal in a Sunsau win.

He just got to, you know, keep scrapping or whatever for a little bit. and then back fist ending. We're done here. It was out of nowhere probably necessary. I'm not sure David Grant's winning that fight without the finish. So incredible comeback. And honestly, I mean this very seriously, shots to Keith Peterson.

I think you are mostly a terrible ref. I just really feel that he's not a very good ref. But that is the correct thing to do is to take a point there. I would like them to restart the position, but that's not really how it works. But take the point because Mark Smith, how ballpark it? How many times tonight did Mark Smith say, don't grab the fence? 13.

A dozen. Yeah. If Keith Peterson is no nonsense, Mark Smith is all the nonsense. Full nonsense, Mark Smith, just going to allow you to do whatever you would like. Look, Volkov was winning that fight. He was going to win that fight based on what Romanov looked. Volkov very clearly held the shit out of the fence to keep from getting taken down

and won the fight shortly thereafter. If the pleasure man had any ability to maintain a grappling position at all, when he repeatedly aggressively cheated with fence grabs and moved into dominant position, he also would have won the fight. Like it is, Mark Smith was terrible tonight. And so if I'm going to point out when somebody's terrible,

I'm going to give credit to Keith Peterson. That was a good point take. I wish we saw more of that. I wish, I mean, this is pretty simple how we do this. We've already talked about this a million times. I'm not saying you have to take a point every time, but it should be a completed take down. You would continue on.

If it happens the second time, it goes to the center of the cage. Third time to take a point. And you get the position, all that stuff. I wish that- Take a point every time. Take a point every time for every case. foul. That's my stance. I've been radicalized. Previously,

I was like, well, we could do stuff like that. Take a point every time for every foul, be an adult. Don't cheat at your job. They ain't know. I'm calling it. But yeah, I wish Keith took the point while the action was continuing on

a la the Joe Selecky fight. Where like it was clear that there were glove grabs and fence grabs and all that. Take the point while the action's happening. and then maybe the ending sequence doesn't happen and Haphe's final fight ends in triumph,

but that's not how it would. This was much cooler, though. It was much cooler. That was freaking insane. Yeah, rule of cool. It stands. Play stands. Back, there's a very good chance

that's submission of the year. That'll be in the top five when it's all said and done. I would guess. It will definitely be in the top five. I am not confident that that's the mission of the year because it is going to take an astronomical effort to knock off

Rosso tapping Shepchenko. Yeah, that's true. That's going to take. And frankly, I don't know if I'm even putting that above Rachmana Bulldog choking the just throat out of Jeff Neal. 285 gave us two bangers for some of the year. So it's going to be in the five.

If it's not, that means we have had a hell of a year of submissions, but it is going to require something really both technically special and from a mean something like being a momentous occasion special to knock off Grasso coming out of nowhere and the image that came from that. Yep. Always cheat. We've been telling you. Coaches should have cheating practice for 15 minutes after every after every practice because they're particularly if you know the refs who are like you can now definitively say Mark Smith is never going to take a point from you for grabbing the fence.

If I'm fighting and I know Mark Smith's the referee, I'm a thousand percent going to grab the fence. I will act like that will actively be something I will be trying to do if it is in a if I'm in a situation where I'm against the fence because why wouldn't I? There's no downside. there is no downside. All right. Well, if you guys have questions, let's get to them.

I mean, this was a fine card. It was nice to... It was pretty fun. I liked the setting. Hearing Joe Martinez said, if you're excited, make some noise

and hearing people actually make noise, that was, that was good. That was good. I liked the setting. I like the walkouts. I like seeing the,

you know, they walk out. The doors were kind of weird because it was basically like, it just didn't seem like they're in the arena and then you realize they were in the arena. Yeah, the venue's a little odd in that way. But yeah.

But I liked it. I liked it. I was like people. It was obviously much cooler to see the Georgian pride there for the main event. That was cool. So, yeah. And the fights were fun. Like, what was the worst fight on this card?

I was looking over it very quickly. Carlton Harris, Jared Gooden or, no, I mean, it's Carl Williams, Breske. It's Carl, Carl, Carl Williams, Brezky. was very obviously the worst fight. I had a particular reason to enjoy that fight, so it's fine. But that fight was terrible. But the rest of it was mostly good, or at least interesting to some extent or another.

So good card, good fight night card. And we're done at nine, you know? Oh, yeah. Love that. Love that. All right. Let's take some questions. If you got questions, let's get to them.

Oh, let's start here. Marab won't fight Aljo, but if he did, who would win? It's actually a really good question. I would defer to Aljo in this one, but I can't feel wildly confident in it. I'm going to forever underestimate Marab's chances against anyone because I don't like the way he fights. That's a prejudice that will exist. And so I also, I have him ranked number three at Bannamway before this fight. I clearly respect that what he is able to accomplish,

but I don't, if he's getting into grappling exchanges with Aljo, I'll just going to take his back and then he's going to be stuck there for the next four minutes until the round end. So I don't think cardio wrestling is a particularly good path forward against Aljo. Yeah, I would lean Aljo myself for that reason. And plus Aljo is probably by the time they would actually get in there and fight. Oh, 20 pounds bigger? Yeah, at least. he'd be at least 20 pounds a year.

He's so he's just, he's a gigantic Bantamway. Mara was one nine in a row. Should he be ready for UFC 288? At some point, teammate versus teammate may happen. It's never going to happen. No, it won't.

Ever, ever going to happen. Those two are never fighting. What else does Maraub have to do at Banim weight to get a title shot? He's got to beat somebody else. He's probably a win one more. We just sit. If he just sits, he'll get a title shot.

He can sit out and never, he's not going to. Yeah, he will eventually. I don't know. I think he would get one eventually just because he's, who else is going to do it in the next, like, either way. If Sterling wins,

I think he is out, it appears that he's leaving, Sterling wins. It appears that he won't even do the O'Malley fight. He'll just bounce. That's sort of how I'm reading the T leaves. If he loses, we all know what happening.

Henry's fighting O'Malley, and then he's never fighting again. So. Not at 35. Yeah. So we're just, it's going to be Sean O'Malley, Malinvera are in there, and then Marab's also. So if Sean's getting a title fight in one of these instances, then the next guy up pretty much falls to him. So he can just wait. I don't think he's going to do that. Seems like he'll fight anybody. He seems happy to be the shogunhua to Al-Jos Vandali Silva, if you will. So, yeah, you know I see some people saying that They should do Marab versus Umar

That that was the fight I wanted to see before they booked John I was like just give him just after Ramar's last win Just give him to Marab and that actually probably is the most likely fight to happen next to him frankly You think so? Umar will take it and nobody else is trying to fight Umar So Umar would take it but why would Marab take that fight? Because Marab doesn't give a shit he'll fight anybody

Oh, interesting. I don't think he would. I think he would actually take a line in the sand for that one. I don't think he just doesn't care and will fight anybody because he thinks he's the best fighter in the world, which he might not be wrong. And so he like nobody else is fighting New Mar. I think he's the only one who might at this way class.

That's ranked. Yeah, you're probably right. Unless the UFC makes them do it. Ain't nobody else fight New Marr except for maybe more up. Because they law, I mean, They friggin' love Corey Sanhagan. They're going to keep giving him chances. Cheeto obviously is over like we're over right now.

If Cheeto beats Corey Sanagan, he's in front of Maram. Just, I don't think of this from a U.S. From a business. 1,000%. Yeah, definitely in front. So if Cheeto wins, Marab can fight Sanhagen. Bad it would be enough to get it. And Marab would probably win that fight.

Most people would probably pick him in that matchup. It would be a good one, be an interesting one. But you got Adrian Yonaiiard. is fighting Rob Font. That boosts him up in a big way. If he beats Rob, if he finishes Rob Fon, I mean,

they're strapping the rockets to Adrian Yonnas. That's why he's getting this fight. He's going to fight Peotryon. Yeah, sitting out is probably not the best thing to do from Maraboy now. Get one more in there and go. What did you make of the announcers already laying the groundwork for the winner of Chito Sandhagging having to face Marob next?

I don't think that's the case. Maybe if Corey wins, I think that's probably what happens. But if Chita wins, he's not fighting Mara. I don't think. I think the announcers were just talking because I don't. There's a 0% chance they're making more than verify Marab next.

That's just a 0% chance happening. And I think it's probably unlikely that Sandhagen has to do it if you wouldn't either. Maybe. Maybe they still do it because they just, San Hagan's already had an interim title fight and they've just got to burn through contenders to some extent. But I think they were just saying stuff. Is Umar the only person in the division who would give Marab a tough fight? No.

I think he would give him a tough fight. I can't say that with certainty. We haven't seen enough, even though I have imminent faith in Umar. Corey Sandhagan would be interesting. Corey Sandhagen, the thing I learned from this fight more than any of, if I learned anything from this fight other than unbelievable cardio that Marab has, and that he can do it for 25 minutes.

You can't play the game with him. You can't be trying to edge him out. You've got to hit him with real offense. At a baseline level, that's where Yan screwed up tonight or where he failed. He had nothing to make Marab think twice or prevent Marab from doing his game. And that sort of game, you're not going to be able to dissuade by simply stuffing the takedown and pivoting out because Marob's cardio is too good. He's just going to shoot 50 freaking times. You got to hit him with something. You got to hit him with something that hurts

and makes him think, I don't want to be firing in here recklessly. Rob has proven to be durable. He has been hurt before, but he's proven to be durable. But Corey Sandhagen has a heavier level of artillery to bring to bear than Peter Yan does. He's not as good at grappler, but he can hit him a lot harder. And I think that's a much more important. than just outright ability to stand up and grapple as we saw tonight. So mixed reviews on your thoughts on Marab, but this is the one I keep seeing. So how is Habib one of Jet's favorite fighters? He spams takedowns as well.

If he can't get them, he keeps going in, but he hates Brab. I don't think you hate Marab. You're just not a fan of the style. I think Marab is actually a pretty cool dude by all accounts. Seems good. Loved his post-flight speech. It's really good. If you can't tell the difference between the way Habib fights and the way Marab fights,

I would encourage you to watch more fights because there's a very clear difference. And as I explained in my thing, you have some grace period. I wasn't opposed to Marab spaming takedowns early in the fight. It's when you continue doing it and it doesn't lead to substantive offense. Outside of Gleason T-Bow, which was not a fight that anyone was raving about, Habib from afterwards. In what fights did Habib spam takedowns

fruitlessly to yield no results? The first round of Connor is the only argument you can realistically make there. He just held him. Yeah, he held them to purpose. Connor was tired. And then what happened in the second round? He beat the bejesus out of Connor

and had Connor going, dude, I was just saying stuff. Calm down. Is Marab came out in round three and had Peter Yan being like hey I'm going to call up Putin I'm so

sorry Russia invaded Ukraine chill the F out I wouldn't have a bad thing to say about that performance I'd be like oh he just beat he literally beat Peter Yan into submission that's sick and awesome it's not what happened

just not how it goes Farrer versus O'Malley 2 is inevitable Volvo, who does Marab taking the end? We kind of figure that out. Seems like Sanagan, maybe Umar, but I just, Ram might just end up,

yeah, that's probably it. Because it will never be O'Malley. Rob Fawn is fighting Adrian Yanez, and if Rob Fonn wins that, you could maybe do that. If Adrian Yonnas wins, why would you possibly want to sacrifice

a dope new prospect to Marab doing Marab things? Like, that would be an awful matchmaking. So, yeah, it's one of those two. It's one of those two. So do we just ice O'Malley? No, Sean O'Malley's next fight will be for the belt. Yeah, we ice him until the belt, if that's what you're saying.

Yeah. Whoever, he's either. I'll just think. Yeah, he's either fighting Malin Vera for the, for the belt, for the vacant belt, Henry Sohudo for the actual belt, or I guess there is some, if Vero loses and Sterling wins and vacates, then he's fighting Marab for the vacant belt. It's one of those three. Yeah, but I,

I just don't know if Aljo jumps to 45 before getting that O'Malley fight. It's the biggest fight he can get at 135. Do you make the cut one more time for, for the bag? I don't know. I, I'm leaning towards the jump up. Honestly, to me, I think the calculus is less about fighting Sean O'Malley. though I'm sure that that is an incentive to say certainly

but they have a real friendship even the way Maraub spoke afterwards you know he's a true champion I'm here until he leaves they know that this is coming you play you're running a wrist the longer you wait and Sterling wants Sterling wants to move up

I think the bigger factor is what moving up looks like for him because obviously Alexander Volkanowski theoretically should be fighting Yaya Rodriguez. I know he is trying his hardest not to because he would rather rematch Islam again. But all signs point to that being the fight that's going to be made. The things that have been said by the UFC, certainly what Volcanovsky's clear intentions are, if he's going to have to do that, he wants to fight that fight, and then he wants to move on.

He wants to go back after thing. So if that's the case, convincing him to fight the Bannon White champion moving up, seems like it's going to be really hard. That's not even factoring in if Arnold Allen beats Max Holloway and where we go. It's a muddled 145 picture in some ways for Sterling moving up, which I think probably plays more into his decision because he's not going to move up to not fight for the belt. You know, like why in God's name would he do that? So I think that's more than the Amali fight at this point.

Well, Malley did nothing to earn a title shot. He beat Peoria. It is a win. He beat Peodorian. He officially beat Pejorian. It's in the record books as a win. And Sean O'Malley is the biggest star in the division. They're going to give him a title shot.

That's it. This is the UFC people. If you're newer to the sport, which some of you might be, and that's cool. This is how the UFC does things. They've been doing it forever. It's about the money. It's about biggest fights possible. Al Jemaine Sterling or Henry Suhudo

versus Sean O'Malley is a million times bigger than either of those guys fighting Maraub Boel is obviously not going to fight Maraub Sean O'Malley is the biggest star in the division he's the biggest star in the division right now so he's going to get a title shot after beating Peyodorian whether you scored

or not. That's why he's not fighting anybody right now he's waiting to get a title shot they're going to give him a title shot. If you want to talk meritocracy obviously I would say that Tvalishvili's run his current something better. Yeah, I agree. If you want to say that Sean Amali lost, which I think he did, you can also say that

Peoriae maybe shouldn't have beaten Jose Aldo. You can't play in those games. Officially is a win. I agree, on paper, DeVosvili has a better case for it, but it's just not the world we live in. And I will also even say, Sean Amali had Peoria hurt more. He didn't win the fight nearly as convincingly as Morop did. He damaged Piotr didn't. you're on a hell of a lot more with 10 less minutes to do it. So, you know, however you're playing this game of ifs and what's, it's not the real world that we live in. Who wins Aljo versus Sean O'Malley?

I would strongly anticipate Aljo wins that fight. It seems like a very, very good fight for him. Yeah, which is why I found it so utterly stunning that Aljo just didn't go for the O'Malley bag right away. It's why it's so important when that microphone is in front of you, be ready to go have a name set aljo is right there shan o'malley you just beat peter yon dana said winner that fight was getting a title shot i'm the champ let's go boom that's the fight we'd be getting right now and aljo would probably like a minus 350 favorite right now but now he's

going to fight henry sehudo and that's happening a fight it's tough fight that's happening that is happening but rob's going to be there and he's going to be there and he's going to to get his shot and he's probably going to win when he gets his shot. But that's just the way that it is. That's how the UFC does things. This ain't Bellator. This is Belator. Marob's fighting for the belt next. He's fighting for the title next. But this isn't Bellator. It's why Sean doesn't have a fight booked. This is how it works, people. It's how it works. Somebody asked earlier, who did you give a shot against Marab?

I would love to watch him fight Patchy Mix. I think patchy mix would patchy mix would give him some struggles and that fight would be very, very, very fun. I mean, Shannon still watched the Stots fight. I think he has a pretty good chance against Stats,

but still watch the hell out there. The mixed Stats fight will obviously be great, but I think Patchy Mix could low-key be the best band-of-way in the world. So it's a good division, man. It is a good division. Second best one in the sport. That would be fun.

That would be fun as hell if we could get that fight. Church is doing. Cross over for this one. No one cares. It's been a wait. You think Henry Sehudo is a smaller fight than O'Malley? Most of O'Malley's fan base is illegally streaming every paper of your man. You can't be serious in this question.

Who is Henry Sehudo's fan base? I mean this very seriously. Who's Henry Sehudo's fan base? That's a great question. You know how I know Henry Sehudo isn't a star is a very simple answer. I already referenced it. The day he retired and explicitly said he was retiring because he wasn't getting enough money, the UFC's answer was not, we'll talk to him.

You know, we'll see about it. It was by, we have a new title. It's going to be Piotr-Yon versus Josealdo. That happened within 10 minutes of him announcing his retirement. Do you know what happened when Habib Nirmagim Medov said he was retiring because his father died? and he was like, I don't want to do this without him. My father passed away. I fought this one last one because it was my duty and obligation.

They spent six months denying that he was done and desperately trying to keep that man in the fold. Dana constantly was like, we're still talking. He wants to. We hope. We hope not. They built it a belt. It was all nonsense because that dude was a star. Henry Sehudo was like, I would like slightly.

leave more money, please, or I'm going to leave. See you, Henry. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Man, it's not a star, people. He just isn't. Incredible fighter. All time great. Unbelievably accomplished, dude.

Nobody cares about it. Like, nobody outside of the bubble of hardcore MMA fans are stoked to watch him fight. That's just how it is. If I went to the grocery shirt down the street right now, and I asked 30 people who, Sean O'Malley was and I asked 30 people who Henry Sehudo was, I don't think a lot of

those people would know who either of them were, but I would bet pretty confidently that more would know who Sean O'Malley is over Henry Seudo. That's a good bet. Ain't much. It ain't much, but it would be more. It would be more. Just casual people

that I just run into. Hey, you know who Sean Amalia is? Yeah, he's the UFC guy. More people would say that than more people would know the answer than Henry Suhudo. 100%. That's just that's just it. And Henry's a great fighter.

I am looking forward to this fight with Al Jermaine Sterling. I am looking forward to this fight. I just wanted to see Henry prove that he gives a shit. That's what I wanted to see. I wanted to see him fight one person. And then you go fight whoever you want. You could go fight out. You could go fight Volk.

You go fight Aljo. You go fight for any belt you want. But just show me you're just you're going to stick around for a fight or two. And I don't know if he's going to. I just don't know if he's got a zero percent chance. He'll fight Aljo if he wins, he'll fight O'Malley. And then he may never fight again because he's going to sit out. He's going to say, I can't fight again until I fight Volkanowski.

And when Volcanowski says, I'm not fighting you, he's just not going to fight. That's my concern. Mike, quick, guess the number of insults. Instagram followers Sean O'Malley has. Not that this is like the most scientifically established thing, but just take a ballpark guess at his Instagram followers. 1.4 million. 2.8.

Oh, Jesus. 2.8. Henry Sohudo is actually doing much better than I would have thought. Would you care to take a guess? 775,000. 790. So you were very close on that. It was, I would have thought he was.

is like 600. So Sean O'Malley is, I'm not a math guy, 37 times more popular. Man, is almost 3 million Instagram followers. If you think that those are the same level of stardom, they're just not.

Henry Sudo, far more accomplished fighter, far more accomplished athlete, undeniably so. It's not the same. It's going to be a good fight. Who are you picking right now in that title fight? Which one? Sohudo Aljo or?

Yeah, Aljo Suhudo. Sehudo. I haven't watched tape much, but I feel like that's a pretty good fight for him. Yeah. I mean, I'm probably going to pick Sterling for a lot of the same reasons that I would pick Sterling against Marab. Just that he's just, he can match the hoodo athletically in a lot of ways. Plus he's going to be much bigger and stronger. So Hudos can strike better than Al Jemps because Sterling just still looks really uncomfortable when he throws punches.

but I don't know, too, like, so uncomfortable. I can't get past it. The layoff concerns me, too. The game is different. And I know he hasn't been sitting on his ass, and he's been training with some high-level dudes. There's no doubt about it.

I don't know. I don't know if Sterling. I'm not confident in the day. Yeah, I'm not confident in the pick. You're also forgetting, Henry Suhudo has a secret weapon that is one of the most effective weapons in MMA. It's called the headbutt.

And he's really good at leading in and ducking his head and just jaw on you with it. And then referees never catch, like never catch the headbut. So really good strategy. So again, I haven't watched tape and I'm not confident in it. But my very simplistic breakdown is Al Jamein will not have a lot of wrestling success. If he can create scrambles and get to the back, maybe. But he's not going to be able to pull off a lot of that, which means it's going to spend a lot of the time striking. and it will be his kicking game versus a much more disciplined

and effective striking game of Henry Sehudo with headbutts. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think at this point we have... It's a good fight. I like the fight. Yeah. By the time we get there, I'm going to be into it more. I've never said I never wanted to see the fight.

I just... I think I have because I don't want to see Henry Sehudo fight again because I know where it goes. Yeah. If I knew Henry Suhudo was hanging around, but this is a leverage play that I don't want to be a part of. The good news is, Sean O'Malley, but Sean O'Malley being the position that he's in, almost guarantees us a second fight at 135. It does. If he wins.

It does. I mean, this is true. I don't. I would rather just him stay. You know, you know my stance on this. My stance has been forever. I just want to see the best fighter in the division fight the best guys in the division

over and over and over again until one of them beats them. And then the new guy gets to do it and round and round we go because that's what the sport should be. It's not what happens anymore. It's not what most people are interested in anymore. I'm weird like that.

That's what I would like to see. And I know with Henry Suhudo, that's not what we're going to see. at best he will win this fight fight, fight one other dude and we won't know if he's the best bandweight in the world will know that he beat these two dudes and then he's going to hold out to fight Volkanowski

if Volkanowski is still the champion which who knows maybe he won't be him and Yaya is going to be a bangor that fight's going to be sick I can't wait for that fight all right I think at this point we have we are done we have done a pretty good job here in talking about this fight the ins and the outs

and. Music plays this off, Mike. Give me a little tease for tomorrow for on to the next one. Not for Nikita Krilov. What's next to Ryan's band, though? I need to know, because we were lied to. He didn't win, though.

He didn't win. I know, so you can't do it. So tell me now, because they told me that he tried now. I'm not sure that he's trying based on that fight. They told me that he was focused and took this seriously, and then he grappled with Krillov. for reasons known only to him. So what are we doing with

with Ryan Span and light heavyweight? Kaleo Roundtree? I'm for it. Okay. That's why you have the show. Something like that? Yeah. I don't know.

That's a fun. A fight is fun and we'll be done in under four minutes. Take the under. Slam it home. All right. Flam the under. A.K. and I matchmaking tomorrow. On to the next one.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, in about an hour and 57 minutes on the East Coast, it'll be officially UFC 286 fight week. So get excited. Lots of coverage going away for Jedi. And it's a short fight week, isn't it? Because aren't we changing hours? So we'll get one less hour.

That's true. And the other piece of good news, the main card for UFC 286 starts at 5 p.m. Eastern time. How about that? Unbelievable. And it's pretty decent. I won't say it's pretty good. It's good.

Main card's not bad. I think it just covers the good horizon. But the main card just, the main card just got a little, the main card just got a little better. What did it get bumped? What did it get bumped? The Joanne Wood, Luana Carolina,

Carolina fight is now in the early, early prelims. And the Casey O'Neill, Jennifer Maya, fight just got bumped to the main card. Okay. I kind of thought they might go with Jack Shore there, but that works. Anyway, this is for later time. That's the feature prelim.

This is all for next week, talk. This is not today talk. Yes. Okay. Good night, everybody. Love you all. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.