MMA Fighting - UFC London Post-Fight Show | Is This Frontrunner For Best Card Of The Year?

Episode Date: March 20, 2022

Following star-making performances from Tom Aspinall and Arnold Allen to close out Saturday's incredible UFC London event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Jose Youngs, Alexander K. Lee, and Jed Meshew react to the promotion's return to the U.K., Paddy Pimblett's submission win, Molly McCann and Ilia Topuria's KO of the Year nominees, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee 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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Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Backstage, dealing with the ambiance, and he looks like he's frozen right now. Okay. So Jose is there, and I swear to God, I swear to God,

like two seconds ago, look perfect. Oh, he's moving around. around? Yeah. You're right. I don't think I was frozen. I think I was sitting really still. I mean,

that's tremendous stuff. I also, it's also very loud back here, so I muted my microphone. So there's so many people screaming. So maybe that's what happened. Being trying to be polite. This is a hell of a card, Jose.

We'll get your thoughts on it. Because I know you don't have a ton of time to spend with us. It was capped up by a tremendous performance from Tom Aspidol. Ice cold. So ice cold that it's kind of frozen you in place. where you sit right now once again. So we can hear you, okay? Your thoughts on Tom Aswell's,

just as a whole, because this was something special for the London crowd. Yeah, it was absolutely electric all night. I mean, from the second, the first fight of the night to the last night, it was electric. And I tweeted this out, Tom Aspernel's a rock star. Everything about him this week. The fans were just buzzing about him. I saw him.

I asked for about 1,000 pictures around the fighter hotel. He had a massive pop when he walked out. He had the second biggest pop of the night, or third biggest, I should say, Patty, and Molly obviously got a big, big, big obvation. But Tom Aswan's a rock star, and that dude is ice cold. And from here on now, I said this at the press on our preview show, it's main events only. It's either main events on fight nights and nothing else or until he fights in the title. So the UFC has a bright, bright prospect in the heavyweight division. Did you like the call out of Tai Tui Vasa?

I mean, those two can make some magic together. You liked it? I like that. I know Aspinall, I've talked to him often, like, not impressed on myself, but like, out of, out of, like, various other, as they break down the table in front of it. As they, various other outside fighter, he says, I don't think they're going to ever match me in Dawkins stuff until we're both, like, number one, number two contenders because we're so young in this division for the brightest prospect. But now Dawkins has lost. Tie is kind of taken that spot as, like, the future young contender, and Asperol has kept winning. Now they're there. Now's the time to do it. Either make that, a number. number one contender fight in a main event here in the UK because he didn't say he's coming to the UK. I would imagine he also said the UFC's going to go to France in 2022. Cyril Gone is going to be fighting for the interim title on that main event or France or whoever.

But if it's Cyril Gone versus the winner of Taitoibasa versus Tom Aspinall, come on. That's about as good as you can get. So sign me up for all that scenario. Of course, A.K. and I will talk about matchmaking ideas on onto the next one. I do want to ask you about Arnold Allen, Jose. We'll talk indefinitely about this card, the other three of us. But Arnold, now, we've been waiting, okay? We even titled on our podcast for the preview show, Tom Aspinall and Arnold Allen have the chance to have star-making performances.

Aspinall check. Safe to say Arnold Allen, check plus with the way he performed tonight, the way he competed tonight, the way this night began, I was like, uh-oh, this is probably not a style he wants to go to. But the man comes through and got to do that. done. Your thoughts on Arnold Allen's performance and the reaction he got and the ceiling he has in this division.

Yeah, pause. I'm going to say for a second. They're literally taking the internet away. Something happens to like MacGyver, a whole bunch of stuff. But yeah, Arnold, I, go watch the previous show. Remember what I, remember my prediction for that fight? I do. Man, was I wrong? Like, Arnold Allen just made me eat a fist

full of crow. Like, my God. I said Dan Hooker was going to be one-way traffic, and Arnold Allen just beat the soul out of him. I spoke with Dan. hooker outside the fighter would tell him. He's like, the only way Arnold Allen is going to beat me is if it's a brawl. And he doesn't want to get into though, getting to a brawl with me. And I was like, yeah, that's probably true. And then, man, I'm stupid. I'm silly. So Arnold Allen is a bad dude, wants Calvin Cater, inject that fight right into my body for a top fight fight. Arnold Allen's probably

going to be, I don't know what he is in our ranking, but I know in the UFC ranking, I think he was eight or seven. And I think Josh Shem is right above him, and Calvin Cater was above him. I love Josh Shemitt. He's a great guy. Forgive me R. O'Alice and Caldlicator all day. Obviously, Calicator's manager seems to be on board. They were booked at one point before, so, yeah, inject that fight on my body too.

But yeah, he was also, like, he was a rock star. He also said, like, they're not going to push me because my accent isn't out of control, like Darren Till, Connor, Conrader, Patty Pill. So he is hyper self-aware of being a British fighter. And he, I love it. He's great, and he has an awesome personality. And then last thing, before we let you go,

let's talk about the, the UFC European mixed tag team champions, Patty Pimbley and Molly McCann. Those two tremendous performances. They come through, they got the crowd, absolutely bananas. Patty Pimlet did what he was supposed to do. And then Molly McCann delivered probably the knockout of the year in 2022 so far. So just the atmosphere, the ambiance, all of it, their performances. Give your perspective on that.

Oh, I mean, Molly got obviously a massive standing ovation when she came out. She was probably the second biggest star pre-fight outside of Patty Pimlet. Yes, Tom was the main event. But something about Molly and just her bravado and her accent and everything she says. Like, the English crowd just connects with her on a spiritual level. It's very hard to describe. I loved Molly as a fighter. I didn't think she was going to do that.

She's not really known for just, I don't know, sent someone into the netherworld with an elbow. So Dana White said it himself, he asked me, point in blank, what was the knockout of the night? I'm like, what was Molly McCann? That's a knockout of the air. Ilya Tepora had the knockout of the year for about 30 minutes. And so Molly McCann, who was spinning back elbow. And Dana White was like, really? And then he literally went down the line in the media room. It was like, what performs the night?

What's performance night? What's performance tonight? And everyone said Molly. And he was like, huh, I thought you'd all say Arnold Allen. We're like, no, man. Malin McKin made a human being die on national television. really. But when when Priscilla was like taking in the back, it looks like she didn't know where she was. It was genuinely scary seeing her leave because she was on her feet. She was not mentally

in the O2 in London. That's one of those knockouts that I was generally scared for her opponent. So yeah, Molly was a rock star. And what can you say about Pat? The man puts his head down and walks into punches, got clipped ones and still won. Don't think he can do that in the top of I know he doesn't want to fight Ily he doesn't want to fight Ily Tabor really wants to fight him Obviously I wouldn't say no to that fight but I don't I have a feeling that fight won't get made Because like I always say the US never both fights that makes sense I would like I said on the previous show I would really give Paddy Pimlet a fight like not this fight specifically but like a fight of like the winner of cowboy versus

like a legitimate veteran that's not gonna be fighting for the belt any time suit that he could actually beat I think Paddy's I'm I think Patty versus someone of that caliber is the way to go. Like get him, maybe not in the main. If they go to like Liverpool or Manchester or anything in a white night, Patty could headline. Tom could headline. From here on now, Tom is the guy. Tom, Patty Pimble, is a rock star.

And according to our social and Twitter numbers that me and Eric are seeing, it's right. And like the early days of Conrader, the man is a rock star. Jose, well done out there, my man. Go get some sleep. Try to get back on the, uh, The old time frame that you're used to, get rid of that jet lag. We'll speak soon, my man.

I will not, solid two, three hours of sleep in night. I highly, I do not recommend it unless we get fight nights like this again. I will take two hours of sleep a night for an entire week. You can promise me that. Tonight was top five events I have ever covered live. See you guys. Thanks, man. There he is.

Jose Youngs. Well done. Traveling the globe for MMAfighting.com. So there you go. We got the, sorry about the Wi-Fi. I don't know what it is about the London Wi-Fi and trying to stream here. It just doesn't. It's taking it away from him. Yeah. I mean, they basically stole his internet and McGuver Young's just made it happen.

So Jedmishu, A.K. Lee, sticking around. Listen, I'm seeing it all over the place. So let's try to try to answer this. The Casey Lydden fight. Everyone wants to know what's happening with Casey Leiden fight. Yes. The answer is I don't know. From what we understand, the promotion, which is Celtic Gladiator or South the Gladiator,

C-E-L-T-I-C underscore Gladiator on Instagram, they're going to stream the fight live on Instagram when it happens. The question is, when is it going to happen? I don't know. we don't know Casey is I believe the to compare it to the UFC he's the featured prelim okay he's the last amateur fight before they go to the pro fights he's the featured prelimbout

I think he's the sixth fight of the card we are supposedly going to get an update before this fight happens that it's going to be live and if it happens during this show let's just say in the next 10 minutes that this fight happens we're going to pick up the damn phone and we're going to watch the fight

and we're probably going to do some play by play live here on the post fight show. So you can't watch it. If you don't have Instagram, if you don't have any ways to watch it, we will walk you through it, okay? Yeah, podcast listeners, we will guide you. We'll try to guide you.

Our pal, Mark Romandi, is on site with Casey and his team. He's also been saying he's going to possibly stream. So guys, yeah, Celtic underscore gladiard on Instagram, as Mike said, and Mark Romandi on Twitter. Keep track of both of those. Someone's going to have some sort of live stream. And we're going to see, we're going to see the man himself.

Make the walk to the cage. It's unbelievable. And anyone, please, check out Casey's message if you have time. Casey, the last thing he tweeted was just sort of a thank you to everyone. So I will pass that along to everyone who I know who is watching so many positive messages. I know he's seen them. We've seen them. People just asking, when's the fight going to happen?

What's the fuck going to happen? And watching the video on M.AFighting.com and all the documentation they've been doing. It's such a cool moment. So, yeah, I'll just pass along that thanks from Casey to everyone. All the everyone who follows in M. mary Fighting, really, really great to see that so much positivity. and yes, we're all wishing him luck, whatever happens to think. Yeah, we're not going to stay on here for two hours or anything like that.

But if it happens while the show is going on, we're going to roll with it and make it happen. So let's try to focus on UFC London and then- There's a poll. Change gears. Let's change gears. A.K., there's a poll. No freaking way. There's no poll.

I have to say, okay, there's no poll during the people's free fight show. And people were sad. It's not that hard to do, guys. It's not that hard to do. In this setup, it's kind of tough. I'm not trying to slip on your corner, A.K., like that's your thing. Listen, listen, my polls, other guys' polls, I'm a fan of all of them. I got no problem with it.

But yes, while you guys, while Jose was doing his part, I did slip a poll in there while nobody was looking. I'm known to do that from time to time. So it is, how would you rate UFC London? 10 right now, 10 is leading the way at 69%. Hugely 7 to 9, 28%, probably closer to 9 than 7, I would imagine. I bet most people are picking this as a as a nine or ten card. It was just, I mean, it was just fantastic. And the other scores are barely registering 2% and 2% for the other two lower scores.

So yeah, a lot of positivity, as Jose was saying, one of the five best cards he's ever been to in person. Probably one of the best international fight nights. I think any of us has ever watched. I don't think that's a stretch. Best card of the year, Judd? This has to be, right? Yeah, I think so.

I mean, I rarely am like, oh, I wish I was out. at this event like i really like to go to fights but it can be tiring like that's a really long time to be on site and working i distinctly had that feeling about halfway through this card like right after the toporia mccan like one two i was like man i i am jealous of hose right now because that that place has to be absolutely buzzing and yeah i i suspect that being because on tv it was best car of the year i suspect in person that would have been right at the top of my favorite events I've ever been to. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss.

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It's week two of Canadian tires early Black Friday sale. These prices won't go lower this year. So you're lying on the floor? Save up the 50% November 13th to 20th. Conditions apply, details online. Well, the crowd was ruckus when Tom Aspinall went out there and just rolled Alexander Volkov, Jedmishu.

That fight was not competitive for even a second. When Volkov made the walk and he had that sort of psychotic focused look on his face, I thought to myself for for mere seconds, this guy's ready to go. Like we could be in for a banger here. This guy's ready. And then Tom Aspidal landed that first take down

and started beating him up and he stood up and he was cut on the top of his head. You saw the demeanor of Alexander Volkov change for the rest of the fight. That look was completely off of his face. He realized right then and then, this is a different dude that I'm in here with. This is a bad dude in Tom Aspinall.

Tom goes out there, takes him down again, finishes the fight shortly thereafter. Tom Aspinall is a problem, is you not? Oh, hell yeah, man. Like, we talked a lot. I thought Aspinall was going to win this fight. I don't know of a single person outside of, like, hardcore British people who are just like all in.

Look like that. Because, like, the thing, honestly, the thing that impressed me the most, I knew he'd have a speed advantage. He had more speed advantage than I even thought. And he'd tuned Volcroft up on the feet a little bit. but his ground and pound was absolutely vicious. And that's not saying that he hasn't shown that he has got a very good top game.

He obviously has before. But like Curtis Blades didn't do that to Volkov. And Curtis Blades is a much better wrestler than Tom Aspinall and like a pretty ferocious hitter in his own right. And he spent a lot of that time, you know, holding Volkov down while Volkov kept trying to get back up. But Aspenov got on top of him and went to work. Like that he, one, we're going to, I don't know if it's here or somewhere else,

we're going to have to start having some conversations about how y'all need to get on the Jedd-Mishu style of ranking things. Because I had Aspenol way higher than everybody else. And I'm feeling great about that right now because like this dude, I think he's even higher than I had him. I had him ranked, I think seven, maybe six in my heavyweight rankings. He's higher than that. Like, I now believe that he could actually win a UFC title during his. his tenure, which I thought he would challenge for one before, but not win. I think winning a belt is not a very real possibility for this man.

Hell of performance, AK, from Tom Aspedal. We already have our onto the next one suggestions, just flying in. He calls out Tai Tuivasa, calls out a guy who has become very popular. He's become a very big name in this heavyweight division. Your thoughts on Aspinall's performance? Did it kind of get him over that hump into being, sort of in that star conversation. Do we feel excited about him and just the callout in general?

How would you rank his night? How would you grade his night overall? Man, I mean, I mess with you. Like, I said, we have to start calling this guy, the gentleman heavyweight. I know, I know we're in North America. We think everyone with a British accent is like super classy and super intelligent.

I understand. I know it's, it's, I'm just being ignorant. But like, there's just, he has such a calmness about him. And he's so easy going with the media. Like, some people are easygoing and boring. Like, you have some people who are like, they're easy going, but they give like really short answers. He's like, feels like super laid back.

But he's also giving these like really thoughtful responses. And this is going back to the media day earlier this week. So I'm saying like, so his performance before Fight Night, I thought was excellent. As like, this is what you want. If you're in the UFC, this is what you want a headline to be like, yeah, he could talk a little more trash, I guess. But as far as like his ability to handle the media and answer questions, like, man, he's just so eloquent and so it says all the right things. Especially about like, oh, I'm not looking back. I don't, you know, we in the media, we try to get base.

We're trying to get bait. We're trying to go to him into the usual stuff. Like, call somebody out, you know, but even before you're done, what are you going to do after Volkov? And how quickly are you going to finish Volkov? And it's like, he just doesn't bite on that stuff, unfortunately for us. But as a fan, I think I would hope people find this act kind of refreshing. And then he goes in and perform, more most importantly, then he goes in and performs. He did it now.

I had said in my prediction that like the mixing of the martial arts, as much as I disdain it, would be key, would be key to him getting a win here. I thought it would go to a decision, which is I know most people like unlikely there said it's got to end in the first three rounds of heavy weights, which I understand. But I thought he gets to like mix it up a lot, mix and take downs and just, you know, put on a convincing win that way against Volkov. I didn't expect him to mix the martial arts and just completely wipe him out. Wrestling, jiu-jitsu, Jed mentioned the ground and pound.

We know he can strike. He said afterwards the post-fite press conference like, damn, I wish I, I know I still didn't get to show up my arsenal like I wish I had, but also I prefer it this way too. He's like, I want to be the biggest mystery at heavyweight. So like if people, if it's just first round finishes for the rest of his career, he's like, and people never get to see my whole arsenal. He's like, great.

That's great. I want to show more if I don't get to. It means I'm winning fights, right? So, yeah, this was such a, such a, such, I can people, I remember. He wasn't originally going to be the headliner, if I'm not mistaken, right? He was, he was going to fight Sharmil Abduarachimov, probably on the main car, but not in the heavyweight, not in the headliner. So he got this main event spot.

and it went so well for him, so well for the UFC, not so great for Alexander Volkov, but I'm kind of with Jed. I'm not saying I agree with his ranking system, but he was very high on Aspinol going into this. And Aspinall, oh, I just want to ask, Jed, did you have him ranked higher than Tuivasa? And if not, will he be ranked higher than Tuivasa next time?

I didn't strictly because, like, I made an exception out of my general rules for Tuivasa just because the win. It was hard for me to figure out where to put him because I wanted to put blades over to Evasa still and just kind of couldn't. So I had him right beneath that little core section. In fact, I think I had him one spot in front of Alexander Volkov. So that's looking like roses right now. He might get a bump because that, he probably will get a bump because that was just, that was awesome.

Tom Aspenol crushing it. Great performance. Star making. type of night for Tom Aspinall. Another guy. The gentleman nickname, though. We got to come up with something better. Oh, what?

Like Bobby Knuckles? Bobby Knuckles is an incredible, organic nickname. That's a whole other debate. The media, it's not organic. The media has been shoving it down Robert Whitaker's throat for so long, and he finally said, fine, I guess on Bobby Knuckles. That's the definition of organic. It's what people nickname.

Nothing we do is organic. That nickname he chose because he thought the Reaper sounded cool. Or whatever. Most of my nicknames are not organic. That one, Hick Diaz, isn't organic. That is good. I'm not going to hate on Hick Dias. Nick Tiaz is one of the greatest nicknames ever been in sports.

Well, the Reaper, I call him the Reaper. Yes. I mean, I kind of like the gentleman aspect. And if you ever fought Cyril Gone, the way you, the way you promote that fight is instead of doing like media days, you sit them both in the room, the smokers jackets, have a little cup. Have a little cup. A place is going.

They're sharing, you're having cups of cocoa. And they're doing a, um, little face-to-face interview, maybe playing some, some cribbage or something. Like, that's just amazing television. He said he saw Cedil Gahn during Fight Week, I think. And he said, he was like, he wants to hang out with Cetyl Gond. He said, that's a handsome man. He said, Cidogon is very handsome.

And I'm like, that would be a very handsome. That would be a handsome matchup. The handsome heavyweight matchup. We got to make this happen. I don't particularly think Tom Aspenol's all that. No, I think so. I think he's an ugly dude, but I don't know, not my cup of tea, I guess. Your cup, not your cup of.

Not your cup of. Shout out to Dana for all the bonuses, which kind of leads. Do you that every time. Yes. Like that a regular thing. Bob Asphidall was one of nine bonuses, nine bonuses. Anyone who got a finish got a bonus tonight, which you kind of feel bad for Jack Shore and Timor Vallev,

who had an incredible fight. Yeah. Absolute, incredible fight. No bonus money for those guys? I mean, come on. I don't even, the thing is, I don't think they would have won fight. of the night. Like, as good as that fight was, if they had done traditional bonuses, like, is that your fight of the night? I think I'd give it to Arnold Allen and Dan Hooker for that two minutes of chaos. That was awesome. That was awesome. That was awesome. Unbelievable two minutes.

That's my fight of the night. I don't care. All right. Well, let's talk about that fight. Arnold Allen, coming out party. We've been waiting for this. Eight wins in a row heading into the fight. Had some finishes early on. Had dominant wins along the way some fun performances very technical like i said he was like the tim duncan of the featherweight division for a while just very serviceable workman like gets the job done gets his hand raised moving up the ladder but kind of slowly but we're waiting for this moment to come to come out against a high rank i name someone people know tough guy and just get a big finish and that's exactly what he did

tonight. So, Jed, your thoughts on AAA, the job he did in the co-made events. What a performance. It was, this was what he needed. He needed this to break out

of the Leon Edwards zone. Tim Duncan is a fine comparison. I've been going featherweight, Roy McDonald, because I feel like there's a lot of overlap in their styles of fighting. And people forget that

Roy McDonald had like a really big portion of his career where he just won sort of tepid decisions and people weren't stoked on him, even though he was the next GSP. And so I think he kind of put all that to bed. Like this is, this was the highlight. We talked about it.

I don't remember where we talked about sometime this week on him needing, he doesn't have a highlight that sticks out that's like, oh, yeah, this is the thing to point to. He got it now, baby. Like that was in spades. He came and put the boots. to Dan Hooker and the most exciting two minutes and 30 seconds of fighting you're going to ever watch. And that is it. Give him.

I echo everything Jose said. Him and Calvin Cater, just hook it up right here, baby. Let's go. Straight shot. In. Yeah. I mean, AK, you've been listening. I mean, you're the co-host of onto the next one.

Mike checks, Mike drops on the show, been telling you guys for months the UFC is trying to put together Arnold Allen versus Calvin Cater. Talked about main event in October, main event November, main event December, even main event January. They were trying very hard to put those guys into a five-round main event. But Arnold Allen just, the hand injury just wasn't cooperating. That's why he was out for so long. Heard his hand, trying to get cleared.

It just took a long time. Cater got Chikaze and now Allen gets Dan Hooker. This kind of worked out pretty damn well for Arnold Allen because he got to do it in England. and he got the big huge star-making pop from the crowd, and he gets that finish. So I think although 11 months is a long time to see this guy fight, and we hope he's a little more active moving forward, this worked out pretty damn good for both guys, right?

Cater gets the big win, and then Aral Allen comes out and gets a big win like that. This actually worked out great. Yeah, I mean, look, that's the next logical matchup. It's a great fight. Wherever it lands this year, it's a great fight. We need to see it. It's crazy.

and this is going to be the story of most of the card, including the main event, how all this stuff that we said needs to happen for certain fighters at this event kind of happened. Arnold Allen was the biggest one. Arnold Allen was like, man, this guy's 8-0. He's pretty good with the media.

He wasn't so great earlier this week. He seemed a little sedated, not down, just like sedated. And then, but we said, we said he needs a marquee name. And I think Dan Hooker certainly fits that bill. He's been on a lot of high-profile lightweight contest, very well-liked fighter by the fans and the media.

There you go. So that was the big name. He needs a signature moment. You know, I think he has like one finish, one or two finishes in the UFC. It hadn't finished someone in so long. First round knockout within a scrap with hooker, fantastic. The only thing that he needs now is to stay busy, which again, well, we'll see. We'll see what happens.

Like we said, if he gets a cater fight later this year, even two fights in a year for him would be really good. Because this was, sorry, guys, I don't have my nose. His first fight since last April. Before that, he hadn't fought since January 2020. And if you look at his record, it's like one fight a year tops. I think there might have been one, in the last five or six years, there's maybe one year where he fought twice. So that's the next question needs to be answered.

But like you guys said, if everything falls correctly, him and Calvin Cater in a high-profile fight somewhere later this year. And that's it. If he gets that way, we're talking 10-0 in the UFC. So 9-0 now, 9-straight, he is tied with the champ of Volcanowski for the longest active streak at featherweight, that's including one catch-weight belt that Volcanowski had with his, I think it was either was opponent missed weight or was a planned catch-weight.

But depending on you want to say, it's either they're tied at 9, or if you're just counting featherweight bouts, then Arlen Allen has the longest U.S.A. Winstreet right now with the 9th Street. So pretty good is what I'm saying. Pretty good. Another man, y'all are sleeping on in those rankings. This is a big weekend for the Jedmishu ranking system. Just saying, I got Allen at 7.

Mike, I think you got him at like 10. I'm still waiting for Charles Oliver to be number one in your rankings. I'm still waiting for that. That wasn't a big weekend for you when he smoked Dustin Porier. I'll tell you that. He adjusted by one spot. good for him. He should have been number one.

Still hasn't beat Islam or Gachie. I need to see either of those wins. They haven't beaten him. Anyway, that's a whole other debate. This was a big weekend for the Jed rankings, but let's be realistic here, Jed. Let's wait for, you know, let's see the weeks that aren't so great.

I want to see you bring those up. They're not great for the Jed rankings. I'm just saying, I happen to have Arnold Allen one spot above Calvin Cater, and when those two fight is going to be a banger, and Arnold Allen will be fighting for the title after he beats Calvin Cater later this summer. Oh, my goodness. That's a goal.

10 wins in a row in the division. Yeah, I mean. There's nobody else up for him. He beats Cater. I think he's a lock for a title shot at that point. All right. What about Dan Hooker, Jedmishu? This is a guy who going into Michael Chandler's debut, right?

Michael goes in and fights Michael Chandler. Does a great job at the press conference. Looks like a star. and then everyone actually thought it was a really good match of him against Michael Chandler and then Chandler knocks him out and from there it's just been a rough go for the hangman

now he's at a new division, gets stopped in the first round now what? Now what do we do? So remember when before we were talking and you were very confident that no matter what happened Dan Hooker was probably not going to lose a lot of stock here and I'm not so sure about that.

I got a lot of questions about Dan Hooker and his future. And I felt that that was possible. I want to be extremely clear. Did not think on and I was going to run through Dan Hooker like this. But I thought even a loss still is really tough. Hooker isn't lost four or five. He ostensibly makes this drop to a new weight class because this is where he thinks he can put together a title run.

Because after fighting his Lamarachev, he's like, yeah, I'm not beating that dude. ever so 155 is a fool's errand and now he you know gets got by a guy who most people wrongly have ranked at you know the top 10 spot instead of a top 5, 7 guy like I do. So that alone is tough for him and the way he got beat like I don't I don't want to throw it out there too early but there are I think there are at this point legitimate questions about whether his chin can hold up at to the action that he is going to have to face. Because the biggest thing I noticed outside of the fact that he got rocked a lot by

Arnold Allen, who has not historically been a big finisher, is he was glacially slow compared to Allen. Like, Alan looked like he was on 1.5x speed in there against Hooker. And so if his chin can't stand up to the shots, he's going to eat a lot of shots at Featherweight because he's not going to be that fast with the division. So I don't, I don't know. If I'm him, I think he goes back to lightweight. That's where he by far out his most success.

But he might should just take some time off and develop for a little while. You know, Calvin Cater took a year off after getting dinged up by Max Holloway and came back, looked as good as he ever has. I think maybe you just take some time off. If you're Dan Hooker, do some work, you know, improve, figure things out, reset, and then come back with fresh eyes. because tough scene. I think Dan will end up staying in 145, and I think Dan Hooker fans are going to hate my on to the next one suggestion that he could find himself in.

So stay tuned for that on that program when that drops. So other notable performances, we got to talk about Patty Pimblet because this card, even though it wasn't the main event, even though it was in the co-made event, this is the Patty Pimbleau fight week, stole the headlines, got into the skirmish with the man he called, his hand sanitizer boy with Iliotiporia.

He goes out there against Kazula Vargas, biggest favorite on the card, treats him accordingly, gets the finish, gets the big pop, has the foist fight promo. Dana White puts him over. I mean,

this was to be expected in a lot of ways, but AK, did Patty Pimblit exceed your expectations? Did he meet him or did he not match him? I mean, absolutely nailed the expectations. First round submission, I think, was one of the easiest calls. I don't know if people got worried,

when Vargas was like on top at first. I'm like, Vargas is an aggressive guy, but his ground game is not super strong, especially compared to Pimblit, who a lot of people stopped Pimbley's first fight and weren't familiar with him and thought like, oh, this is another McGregor,

there's another stand-up guy. And it's like, no, he's a grappler. He's primarily a grappler. He does like to throw leather. He's got some natural power, but definitely his best bet is to go to the ground. So once it got, even when he was on his back, I'm like, this isn't going to go well for Vargas.

And it certainly didn't, and, you know, Pimble ended up getting the submission. But, yeah, look, he's he's the perfect kind of star that the UFC likes the international star the UFC likes to have some people love them some people hate him everybody's talking about him I see a lot of comments on our website and on social media like man why is the media cover this guy so much it's like there is a legitimate it factor there we don't we don't create patty pimblitz you got understand I mean we have some influence on what people see

and read about but patty pimblit was one of those guys who when he was in cage warriors there was we if you wrote if you wrote a story about him it would like it would be on par with some of the mid-tier UFC guys. That's not normal. That's not a normal thing. UFC, as you guys know, is like the biggest brand of all UFC just by nature is going to be, you know, 80% of 80, 90% of the stories you read. So when someone like that registers on their own, you have to take notice. And what is it that makes him special?

I don't know. Is it the look? Is it the bravado? He's been in some exciting fights? Yes. Has he beaten good names? Yeah, but hasn't been like amazing names. Even in the UFC, the way they're handling him is, let me just say.

the way the UFC is handling him, perfection. You are supposed to be, if you think someone has some sort of mass appeal, even if you can't quantify it, it is your goal as a promotion, which sometimes we forget, because Dana White is not the greatest promoter in the world. It is your job, him and the matchmaker is everyone involved, to put him into positions to succeed.

This is the definition of it. I mean, you could have put him in the co-main events. I'm glad they didn't. I think Arnold and Hooker deserve that shine. But you could have done it. Nobody would have complained. And this is how you showcase this guy with his skills. I don't even think, I don't know how good he is.

I don't have him ranked in my top 50 at lightweight. That's how like maybe I'm being disrespectful, but just kind of based on his level of competition and what I've seen, I think he's really good. I just, but lightweight is super deep. I don't have him in the top 50. Some people might have him, I don't know, top 25. I don't know. And maybe you're not wrong.

But it's that, it's that discussion that it creates. It's this range of opinions you can have. Like I said, he could be ranked anywhere from 25 to 50 depending on who you're talking to. You can't say that about a lot of. of people and then putting him in his home in his home country putting him in london just brilliant and uh again love him or hate him he's someone we are going to be talking about for a long long long long time and uh you see just keep handling him the way you're handling him don't do them into anything crazy definitely don't book him with ilita purria what do you think jed would a plus for patty

tonight or not that high i mean it's an a plus because he he nailed the assignment If we're grading on a curve, you know, it's much lower because the assignment was fairly easy. But, you know, he did everything he was supposed to do. And everything AK said is right. Like, there's not honestly too much to say beyond it, except for, you all have heard from me a lot this week. I don't think Patty's all that good. I think having him outside the top 50 is totally reasonable. But it doesn't matter if he's good or not.

He is compelling. People are interested in him. And again, like AK said, we're not making a narrative here. Like, we, the media does not drive narratives. We follow the path to produce the content that you people want it and are interested in in a lot of ways. And Patty Pimbleau, for whatever reason, is that I don't know why. I don't think you can ascribe anything to it. It's, it's the it factor.

It's what he has. So, you know, he's not great, but keep doing what you're doing with him. And it's perfect. It's 100% exact. exactly how you book him. This man should never fight outside of the UK again. There's no reason for the UFC to book him in a Vegas event in Abu Dhabi anywhere. Put him in the UK and don't feed him anybody worth, you know, worth their salt.

Like, just keep giving him wins. Full on Michael Vindam page this man and ride this plane until the wheels fall off. There ain't nothing wrong with that. It's a great, great answer, great point. I was giving, I gave him like, I was in the B plus A minus range with Patty. I just, I mean, it was a fine performance. He did what he had to do. It wasn't like a big shock or anything like that.

I actually dug the post-fight interview and the fact that he completely no sold Iliate Aporia and shut that fight down, that brings it to an A plus for me because this guy gets it. He's not dumb. He's, he's a smart guy. He knows that Iliotiporia is a. terrible fight for him. He will lose that fight and he probably knows it. So good on him for having for having the wherewithal because it could have been very easy to get on the mic and just rip Iliate to pour you apart for a fight that probably isn't going to happen. But he was just like,

he just knows all of him. Like this guy's shooting up. He's a sheep. I'm a lion. F that guy. Brilliant. He also said, he also said, I'm not fighting anyone in the top 15 until they've paid me more money. Correct. That was so good. I'm like, wow. promotion. Sean O'Malley said a similar thing and more fighters should go with that. Yeah. What does ranking mean to me? Losses hurt me.

Losses to, someone in the top 15 hurt me more than me just getting a fight in the top 15. Like, no one, it doesn't help my bank account if I fight someone in the top 15 and lose. If you're going to pay anymore and I lose and that's fine. But let's talk about the pay first and then I'll fight whoever you want. But I'll fight whoever you want.

No, he just said in general. He said like, he said, I don't want to fight and I don't want to fight anyone in the top 15. He's like, both. He's like,

I don't care. He's like, keep beating the guys. I don't care. Like we talked about before. He's not beating anybody in the top 15, so he's a great choice. He's great. He does everything correctly, all in on Patty Pimlet being a promotional monster, just not all in him, you know, actually being a good enough fighter to become the next Connemerregor.

Yeah, he called on Mark of Zuckerberg instead, and that was smart on his part. He can beat up for Zuckerberg. Yeah, he'll win that fight. I'll give him that one, yeah. I think he can take that one. Gunner Nelson, nice performance. Good to see you. I mean, honestly, that just goes to show you how good this card was because Gunnar Nelson just rolled poor Takashi Satu and nothing for him.

I mean, this was an absolute one-sided ass whooping. And that was like the worst thing that happened all night when on any other card, he'd be a top storyline for after the long absence coming through and 30-26ing to Kashisato across the board. Congratulations for him. Again, on to the next one. Many of you are not going to be, especially if you're a fan of Gunner Nelson, you're going to hate the matchup that I have picked for Gunner Nelson.

So stay tuned for that. Molly McCann, front runner right now, leader in the clubhouse for knockout of the year. That's spinning back elbow of Luana Carolina. What a crazy fight that way. She came out of bad out of hell in the first round. Started the slow little in the second. She won the second round. And then the third round, she just finished in an emphatic fashion.

You ever winning the second? I had her winning the second. It's close, but I had her winning the second. I thought the momentum was shifting, though, for sure. Iliate Sapporia right before that, the aforementioned Iliot Soporia, had the knockout of the year in 2022. Like Jose said, for about 30 minutes, probably less than that. Guy Herbert looked pretty damn good in that first round, but now, man, I don't know. I mean, they'll probably keep him around for another fight, but that's probably do or die for him at that point.

like beating comma worthy i mean comma great guy great fighter but you could tell if you touch that chin you know it's it's it's kind of done for him so we'll see what happens with jai macuanamir connie you know he kind of you look at us to the best topology photo in the business no doubt about it's him just sitting in the lounge with with the women hanging off him the the mamacitas if you will and he just came in looking scraggly you know had the neck beard and just looked like he didn't even take a shower all week. And maybe that's the guy we've been waiting for. You know, he looked like. He looked like a dad. He looked like a dad, which is what he is,

which is what he is now and says he's, it's changed him. He's a mature man now. He has other other responsibilities. A lot of sleep was nice. That's right. A lot of motivation. Of course, Mike Grundy shooting in for a takedown and putting his head in between. Hey man. Take my neck. Put it right there. You don't have this. Probably not. Is a gift. Consider it a gift for you and your new one. Maybe. Probably not the best strategy.

Welcome back Sergey Padovich. Welcome back Sergey Pavlovich. Nasty knockout. Paul Craig delivered the best Twitter spaces moment we've had because we had a gentleman who came on and said, I got a five-fight parlay, including Paul Craig, who at the time were watching this. Nikita Krilov is on top of Paul Craig, just lighten his world on fire, just landing these big shots. And the legs come up.

Paul Craig gets the submission out of nowhere And Chuck Mendenhall Delivered the tweet of the night When he said, quote, Paul Craig is now 8 and 2 In fights that he is lost. So, or fights he was losing or lost or something like that.

So quote unquote is wrong. It was a great tweet. Tremendous stuff. Tremendous with Paul Craig. So now the man who bet on the underdog And his five-fighter parley, he was very happy. And unfortunately,

Mike Grundy, another underdog, cost him his five-fight parley. Oh, you don't parlay underdog. people take the underdog value and be happy when it hits read jedd ms shoes guys jett machine has a column every friday he has a guy of a column it's a really big one this week too yeah mhmat fighting dot com guys i mean you've only been doing it again for last like this this year basically yeah like okay but people it's back and you used to i think you used to do it before it's back follow jem msews

gambling call i don't encourage gambling guys i don't encourage gambling on mbamma but if you're going to i'm just saying i encourage when you hit the long shot of the week a plus 30 500 bet. Colin McCann, third round TKO, baby. Let's go. By the way, the Grundy thing, this was Americani's third anaconda

choke in the UFC, and I'm looking at the fifth in his career. So when you guys say he really gave him his neck, he's like, you've got to know. I just could not believe it. You got to know. That is his move. That is his move. That is that is like his sharpshooter. That is like his signature finisher.

Like, he's I mean, would you like this? Let's see how this goes. I mean, Mike fighting with a very heavy heart. So maybe that was in there. He gave his dad a hug who's terminally ill. And he was there. So it was a very big moment for his family.

So, yeah, I mean, tough transitions from that. Jack Shore, Timor Valiev. Again, I tweeted this out and I stand by it. If there's a person in the world who comes up to you and says, why do you watch that disgusting sport? You show them the Jackshore, Timor Valley of Fight, and you will make them believers, because that was a tremendous battle. It was good stuff. Jack Shore, the real deal, gets unanimous decision to win.

Ted, can you crack your top 15? No. Not yet. It's one of the deepest divisions. It's so tough. It's just impossible. The best division in the sport. It's not lightweight, but, you know, it's either second or third.

Would you rank him about Sean O'Malley? No. It's close. We would pick shot. So let me get the straight. Oh, that's a good question. If Sean O'Malley and Jack Shore were fighting next week and you're making your tapology picked, you're picking Sean O'Malley to beat Jack Shore because this is this is your

thing. This is how you do it. I think I am. I need to like go rewatch Sean O'Malley tape. Look, I'm not like the biggest Sean O'Malley guy. He has a lot of flaws. He's good. He's a legitimately predatory striker.

And I am not, frankly, a huge team of value of guys. Like, I think he's a good fighter. I think he was getting a little bit too much smoke coming into this one. And he had some real moments on the feet against Shore. And with some real basic stuff, I think that fight's really close to a coin flip. Because Sean Amalley could light him up on the feet if he can get rolling there. But I could also see Shore not letting him get rolling. So that would be a great fight that will not happen, but great fight.

Someday, maybe. I'll ask him a poll. I just threw up another poll for that guys. Will Arnold Allen be booked to fight for a USC title in the next 12 months? 60% no, probably because either they think he's going to lose to Calvin Cater or it's going to get pushed back by what, you know, Volcanovsky and Holloway has time to resolve their trilogy. Like there's a lot that could push, like, even if Arnold Allen beats Cater,

that could push it back like so far. So that's probably the one. If Holloway beats. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Then we're doing like six of those fights. So, yeah. And then just never gets the fight for the belt. And what's interesting is,

is if Jack Shore, if Jack Shore was fighting any other bantam weight, except maybe from Marab or maybe Piotr, yeah. If Jack Shore is fighting somebody besides Timor Valleyev and the shots he was actually landing, he probably gets a bonus tonight because he probably finishes the fight. But Timor Vallev, I don't know what that man is made of. Shout to Tiamov. Because that second one that dropped him,

I don't understand. Like, that was a nasty shot. And then he got up and waved him on. Like an absolute monster Just like whatever Unbelievable effort from team value Jack Shore's got to be like Oh thank God it's a third round after seeing that

Because he's like I can't I can't do this anymore The only flaw of the night Was the fight that happened before That Jackshore fight Elise Reid defeats Corey McKenna Be a split decision Which was fine

I mean the decision was fine The winner was fine The winner was fine Elise Reid won that fight But Derek Cleary, shame on you. You suck, dude. You suck. 3027 McKenna?

Were you taking it? Like, were you taking a piss? What are you doing? That's a terrible. That is, that's the worst scorecard of the year. Beyond, without question. We've had some really bad. I feel like last week we had.

3027, McKenna, that's horrible. Worth a really bad 3027 in some fight too. that I can't remember there have been we should make this a category in the awards Derek Cleary and Sal DiMato should fight

because I mean the loser cannot judge anymore I think that's the fight you make that's that is a god awful scorecard I don't know

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To Dubai. A city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination, from world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers, and epic desert adventures to museums that showcase the future, not just the past. Choose from 14 flights per week between Canada and Dubai. Book on emirates.ca. today. But I do want to mention, I've seen the name pop up a few times, the man who kicked off

the night's festivities. Muhammad Mahayev, to less than a minute, absolutely destroys Cody Durdon. I mean, this was a brutal flying knee or switch knee into just a sick, tight, nasty gilly. And Cody was dunzo. I mean, less than a minute. This kid is 21 years old, Jen Mashu, 21 years old. And he's not even, like, he's eight years away from his prime. How scary is this?

This is a bad dude. He's a future champion. He's going to crack my top 15. highly in this next round of rankings. Look, I had some questions coming in. He obviously had a ton of amateur experience. I was interested to see how he would essentially handle the big bright lights of what this card was going to be, you know, 18,000 screaming fans in the O2 because everybody was going

to be there from Jump Street, you know, all of this and how he'd handle it. And Cody Darden is not like the world's greatest fighter, but he's a veteran dude. He's game and rolled through him like Tisholm. paper man that one dusted him up like it was nothing smooth work this dude is a problem 21 assuming he gets better which he will at least improve um but if he improves rapidly like men the young men of that age who are committing themselves to this can do dude is going to be an absolute monster uh i'm staking it right now future champion uh and like i said he's going to be just outside my top 10 at Flyway in this next round of rankings.

Great addition to a division that wasn't even around a few years ago, AK, they tried to take it away from everybody. It is now back. It's better than it's ever been. And now you have a future face of this division in Maham Mahamahia. I mean, just, holy come. Just unbelievable. It was just unbelievable.

This is the perfect fight to start the night off because I don't know, like the matchmakers get at A plus just for booking this card and putting it in the order that they put it in. But starting it off with this fight, they just knew something that, that the, I mean, they knew something that a lot of people knew,

but I don't think anyone expected him to go out there and just blast Cody Durden under a minute like this. Yeah, it's a perfect spot for it. Look, if Mahia, for some reason, comes out and drops a stink bomb, then guess what? No one's talking about it tomorrow. It's just, oh, the opening fight of the card.

Durdon, like, grinds out, you know, a three-round decision. It's whatever. Kids 21 years old, book him for him, another fight doesn't matter but when you get what happened and he dominates cody durton and submits him in under a minute then you've suddenly got this great great starter to what turned around again to be probably the best card of the year what will go down is you know one of the best cars of the year very likely in nine months unless we have a truly truly insane a year which is possible but yeah it was a great way from the start like you said mike this is this is how you book a card properly you build up uh you have

prospects at the bottom then you've got some competitive fights in middle Craig Krillov probably could have been a little bit higher, but when you look at the main card, you really can't argue maybe Gunner Nelson Sato, but that was sort of a welcome back, Gunner Nelson. He's a known property, he's a veteran, so almost respectfully putting him on there. Other than that, I don't know what cards you would,

what fights he would have taken off the main cards. So Craig and Krillov is really just a victim of the numbers game. But we barely talked about Sergei Pavlovich, who looks like he's a contender at heavyweight. My goodness, the guy is a beast. He's only lost to friggin' overreem, in his UFC debut, no one, I mean, he came in, no one expected him to win that fight.

Holy crap, what a great night. And Bukhaya, yeah, I look, 21 years old. Again, a ton of actual fighting experience when you count as amateur. He's something on like a 30-fight win streak, if you count his amateur fights. So, you know, I know whatever, amateur is amateur, but winning fights, winning fights in any circumstance is difficult. And if you're winning 30 in a row, boy, you're doing something right. And I kind of agree with Chad.

Like, it's a good thing. He's probably, what, like three, or four or five fights away from a title shot because the guys at the top right now are you know figurato morano whoever you're kind of just counting the days until this kid comes for you because by the end of 2023 he's definitely going to be saying hey i'm about right of maybe we're hyping it up too much but if he continues along this arc he just looks really composed and really talented um he does seem to have the right infrastructure behind him and around him maybe some questionable characters you guys can check kreem zadon's twitter feed to see mchia if maybe not

associated with the best people, unfortunately. But if we're just talking strictly in cage in gym, you know, his talent level, it's undeniable. And even some good mic skills, too, kind of sticking it to Cody Durden for the, you know, telling how you're a keyling up to China. He said, hey, go to the U.S. Embassy and they'll fly you right back to the United States. So, hey, he is prepared, given that. 21 years old, so much poise. It's really scary. You wouldn't know he's only had, whoever, the seven pro fights and he's only 21 years old used to debut. He looked, it was a hell of a debut. one of those guys that's just super long super loaded up amateur careers

kind of like when shorty torres turned pro there was a very similar sort of vibe because shorty was like 30 and one as an amateur and won a bunch of world championships and i think in the same weight class as well and now we got mohammed coming up and did something similar and this guy's just an absolute fireworks display for sure so and again if you missed it two things. One, everyone who got a, who got a finish got a bonus. So congratulations to everybody. Hopefully this is not a unicorn. This is something that happens consistently. And two, because I keep seeing the questions, and some of you're just jumping on right now, where's Casey, where's Casey, where's

Casey? Casey hasn't fought yet. I don't know when he's fighting. He's the sixth fight of the card. I just went to the Celtic Gladiator Instagram page and it looked like their card like just started. Like it just began. Yep. So, and these amateur fights like if you've been to amateur MMA cards six fights it could happen in 10 minutes from now like that fight could happen 10 minutes from now because it just depends but

I don't know if all the fights are the same but Casey's fights three two minute rounds so it could happen in an hour could happen in an hour and a half could happen in 30 minutes but we'll let you know I promise stay tuned to our social media is again this happens after we jump off we're all going to be tweeting about it

you will not be able to miss it if you're on Twitter social media trust me you will not be able to miss it and I just want to say there wasn't update on Lewana, Carolina. I don't think you read the update yet, right? No. From our pal, Nolan King. He said, she's doing well.

I spoke to her manager. She's at the hospital, awaiting CT scan results for full clearance, but cognitive, motor, physical abilities, all normal. So, yeah, that was extremely scary the way she was just down in the cage. And hopefully, fingers crossed, she's doing okay, about as okay as you can be anyway

after taking a knockout like that. All right. So if you got questions about the card, now's the time. Okay, I'm not Casey. I just want to throw a quick shout. We breeze past it. It was Gunner's first win since 2018.

Yep. Yeah. Like we've talked about a lot, sometimes you just need to get on base. That's what this fight was. He just got on base. Didn't show anything new, but got the ball rolling again. So good for you, Gunner, even if you are the most forgettable thing that happened this entire time. All right.

First question from the peeps. bigger upside umar namagam adov or mahometh maqayev jed jad mcayev um i mean at this point i'm just sort of all in on the mkaiv thing umar's big advantage as far as i am concerned at this point is the name niromadov which is a very helpful thing to have um and i don't know maybe he'll be a better fighter but he's 26 whereas mcgayev again is 21 One, I think at this point there's a real chance, Makayev becomes the youngest champion in UFC history, taking that title from technically John Jones, but actually Jose Aldo.

And, like, that's in play. Because honestly, the Flywood Division is actually pretty open right now. Like, you've got Figurato and Moreno at the top doing their quadrilogy, however many times they're going to end up fighting. But the rest of it, it's not like anybody is really shown, like, that guy, it would not blow me away if Mikhailov next year could beat anybody in that division. So I think he just has a path to getting a championship and potentially holding that championship for a while. Whereas, again, Nirmahmedov, he's fighting in a much tougher division, frankly.

And so he's just got a harder road to hoe. He's already 26. He's really good. I think he probably we'll fight for a title at some point, but, you know, give me the, give me the younger guy in the easier division as far as upside goes. Do you agree with that, okay? Man, he is that, that is all in. He did it. He sold me. I like to be on floor.

Unlike most debutants, again, there's all that experience. He fought for Brave. We're talking pro. He fought for Brave. Brave's a pretty tough organization to go through, and he was excelled there as well. I'm obviously I lean towards Umar I think I think I just probably just because I've seen more yeah he's he's older but um I've just been seen more of his 26 I he's a geezer um but no I've just seen more of him and uh you know sort of his all around his all around ability and yeah I don't have a strong feel for it I don't get you wrong it's just because I've seen more I'm not quite ready to jump in a macayev yet I do think he did be a tough guy in Durden like as much as I dislike Durden's like personality I think he is actually pretty decent test um for a 21-year-old. So for him to beat him in under a minute was like, it's super, super impressive. But, uh, but yeah, again, this is just a, this is just a amount of data thing.

So for me, Umar, but, uh, boy, both guys probably have, it would, like what I was, I'd be surprised if neither, if, if we didn't see both guys fight for a UFC title at some point. So, Mike, we've got, we've got the stodgy conservative pick of data and numbers and yeah, proven performance and me, all in on the young fun guy. Feel, you're a feel guy. You're a feel guy. feel. I'm about man analytics, not analytics.

Oh, did you make that up? Don't tell me you made that. Don't claim that. Don't worry about it. I think what I have is the correct answer. I think he's the total package. I think he's got it all. He can speak.

He can fire up a crowd. He's exciting to watch. He's got it all. And Normaga Madoff might be the better overall fighter right now, but you can put the promote, I mean, you could strap the rockets to Mahathe. Mikeyaf right now and it's all good to the moon baby to the moon roy the commentary team is missing john annick today now let me address this okay first of all john annick you know how highly i rate

john annick i think he's not only the best in in in m m m a the best in maybe the best in combat sports right now he's one of the best in all of sports right now i think he's that good having said that John Gooden is tremendous. I thought he was excellent tonight. Excellent. And he's got to be, like, John Gooden has to be the guy on these cards.

In fact, I want to see John Gooden more on these broadcasts. That's how good I think he is. Dude, just, I agree. I'm a fan, yeah. Everything you said,

also, you're categorically insane. If you have a, one, who we missed was Dan Hardy. Like, I'm sorry. I know that he fell out.

But Hardy and Gooden had great chemistry. and no disrespect to Paul Felder, who I think is pretty good in the booth, one of the better ones that they've found, honestly. But like, give me three British dudes talking about fights in London when it's the first fight in three years. Like, that's just what I don't want, I love John Anick. John Anning should not be the dude doing play-by-play for a UFC London card. That's insane to me.

And I agree. I think Gooden should get more run, but for certain, This was all good. And he did a great job. Yeah. I mean, get good on, you know, if you can't put him on the, in the play-by-play spot, put him on the desk, do something with him. Utilize his talents more because he's very good at what he does. I know the UFC's using a little bit more doing some different European stuff.

But, you know, use that man as much as possible because he is really good at his job, maybe the most underrated guy in that position. Zuzelik, does Paul Craig deserve more respect? in the light heavyweight division. AK. Yeah, yeah, probably, probably. So I have him, I actually, I think I had him behind Krillah, literally one spot behind.

So obviously he takes his spot. I also had him jump over Tiago Santos. I still had him behind him behind Santos. So yeah, for anyone who had him already ahead of those guys, I probably was being a little disrespectful. And yeah, and by the Jeddology, if you would put Paul Craig and Tiago Santos together, I probably would have picked Paul Craig to win,

so he probably should have already been ahead of him. So that's top 10. I mean, that's top 10 in the UFC. In the global rankings would probably be just outside because, you know, you'd have Nemcov in there. You'd have Corey Anderson. Maybe Brian Bader, I don't know. But just in the UFC rankings, which for me includes the champion, I have him ninth.

So I don't know if he'll be disrespect anymore after this. Maybe it's the whole kind of bit we mentioned before where it's just like because he doesn't dominate his fight. Like, you know, sometimes seeing a dominant like three-round decision tells us a lot more about a fighter then scoring these kind of come from behind submissions or a lot of submissions off your back. But I mean, look, he's on, he's six fight unbeaten streak that's including the Mauricio, the Shogunhuah draw, excuse me, split draw, four fights in a row, four wins in a row since then, all finishes. He does, he does need a little more respect and he just kind of like

we're saying with Arnold Allen now, he doesn't know the problem with signature finishes. He's got a ton of those, his highly real is insane. Now he needs to show he can kind of get that signature win. Anthony Smith call out made a lot of sense a guy who's fought for the title before he beats him I mean that again that puts him one away and puts him probably on the short list for a title shot if

if you know someone else drops out so yeah he does need a little more respect I do think he's been he's been disrespected for sure Jedden you have a you have a look in your eye that says I love you AK but I don't agree with anything you're saying I don't know

I just I agree honestly in principle with everything AK saying. But I just don't know that Paul, it's hard for me to give Paul Craig more respect. It's one of those things where I'm probably wrong here. And I'm hand up, I'm going to be wrong here, but I'm going to die on this hill.

I gain less respect for Paul Craig. I just lose more respect for the rest of the light heavy wage. And that's hard, and that means I'm wrong. Oh my goodness. And I started this off by saying I was going to be wrong. But like, Nikita Crylo,

decided, you know, not dissimilar to Mike Grundy, if we're going to be honest, he fought in the way that most gave Paul Craig an opportunity to win. He immediately hit him in the face, hurt him, and then went to the ground with him and stayed there until such time as he got tapped. Whereas he could have just been like, nah, dude, and stood up and kept beating him in the head until Paul Craig fell over and didn't get up. It's just one of those things were like, you have to respect what he has done, the accomplishments, you cannot take the wins away from him, because he's done it. But it is hard. Like, if they ref, if he refought Krilov tomorrow, I would probably pick Paul Craig because I think Krilyle's just going to be stupid again, because that's kind of baked

into the pie with him. He, like, really wants to grapple now, even though he's, like, only okay at it. And not, honestly, not great, because Jan Blavich was sweep tapping him. So you're not like, the world's greatest if yon's hitting a butterfly sweep on you dude but like i don't know if he refought jama hill again that fight jama'll probably could have won easily but did a real dumb thing and i just don't like it's hard for me to give him full credit when part of why he is succeeding is the direct bad decision making of people he's faced and that's wrong like i'm that is obviously a personal failing for me but it's just hard like i've got I think I had him ranked at 14.

I had him one spot behind Krilov because I thought Krilov would beat him. They're going to swap now, but like I'm not going to put him above Anthony Smith, who I think would beat him. Maybe we'll get that fight. Seems like that's where they're going. I mean, Tiago Santos, maybe he could beat Tiago Santos. But like Phil Davis, I'm not putting him ahead against any of the other guys. So it's harsh.

I'm not sure that I need to give him more respect. I respect what he has accomplished. I just still don't think his game is replicably good, if that makes sense. I will say, I don't know if I've ever seen a triangle be so cleanly thrown on so quickly. Right? It was like, it's like you said, he was, he's he's literally crouching down sort of into Craig's guard, like potentially into Craig's, because he's trying to posture up, you know, do some ground and pad, do some other stuff.

But like he's hanging there for so long. He just left it. And Craig has amazing, this isn't saying like taking him, Craig has amazing jujitsu. But man, he threw those legs right up and locked in. And it was, I just, I don't think I've ever seen. I don't, I can't last when I saw that. Like it was so instant. Locked in and turned the position to look in the year.

Like instantaneously. And yeah, full credit to Craig because he was half conscious when he did it. But like at the same time, I don't, I honestly don't know what was going on, Carlis's head. And he was like, I'm just going to hang here for a minute. And let's see what's good. Like, it's just. It baffles me how he's able to pull it off.

But at some point in time, like I'm Paul Craig, I feel very much like Brian Ortega for being honest. Like it, it shouldn't work. And I look at it and say, this should not work and it keeps working. So obviously I'm the moron,

but I can't unsee the things I know, which is that should not work, even though it continues to succeed. Do you think Ilya planned that running with Patty? Cameras were already like they wanted to go viral. didn't seem like a genuine. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

100%. He didn't have beefing for a while. He was trying to find Patty to beef with Patty. Yeah. Did you, were you guys thinking in that first round, like when, when Jai heard him real bad, maybe he shouldn't have had all the Patty talk? I mean, because that would have been a bad loss. I mean, that would have been a really bad loss.

No, I don't think I don't think I do the talk. I think Jai Herbert is actually like a tough. I think Tupori needs to, I hope he goes back down to 145. I know it's tough weight cut, but like he's not a super big. You could see, and Jai Herbert has like a ton, is like a, is it kind of a big, ranger lightweight. He's going to be at a reach disadvantage in a lot of his fights. Now, I mean, he throws bombs, fortunately, and he has, once he gets you up against the

fence, you're dead. But, you know, I think, and Jai Herbert did well in the first round. So it's not like, oh, well, Jai Herbert had a bad game plan. He's like, no, he did well. And then Tupor is really tough and fought through it and got, you know, took the fight where he wanted to eventually. But this is going to be tough for him at 1-5. So, yeah, I don't know about him.

Like that, that worries me. This question on the screen, will you see keep Patty Pimbley away from Toporia? God, I hope so. So Ilya said afterwards, he's like, he himself said, Dana White's going to have to feed a separation from me. Dana White's going to have to hold a gun to Patty Pimlet to force him into the octagon with me.

And I'm like, that's, yeah, that's pretty accurate. Ridiculously not accurate. You're going to have to hold a gun on Dana to make him book that. To make him hold a gun. That's the exact thing. I'm trying to slaughter my cash towel on the altar of good prospect. I'm trying to moat the Patty Pimblet money for all I can.

Does Molly break the top 15? I don't know, I don't know J-Teno if you mean like right now or ever. Not a Stactivision by any means. So can you see Molly in the top 15, Jed? Is she someone that you rank to that level or has that kind of potential to you? I'd to pull up.

I mean, I might throw her a shot just like 15 right now. mainly just because that chaos was so awesome. And like the bottom of that division does not inspire a lot of feelings from me, from my rankings. Like there's, you know, it's like the end of my rank is Macy Barber, Elimelea McFarlane, Joanne Wood. Like I think all those women would probably beat Molly McCann in a fight. But I'm also not like geared up on these are obviously 15 of the best flyweight women in the world.

It's just like somebody's got to fill in the latter end of the rank. rankings for me. So, uh, I could, I could see her throwing it. No is the like long term answer to her, her being like a long term top flyweight. Like she, Patty are like very similar in that they are beloved. They seem like they're really fun hangs and people are super into what they're bringing. They got a great vibe. They have very serious limitations as fighters that are going to hold them back from maybe they won't. Maybe they won't. Maybe they won't hold them back from being stars because Barstall Sports is signing them both and giving them a ton of money. But it's going to hold them back from being Connor McGregor-esque.

You know, they just aren't good enough as fighters to do that. But it doesn't mean they can't put on fun fights and, you know, do some stuff. I don't know if Mom Ken has like, I'm sure she has some interest in pursuing a title, but I don't know if she would just be comfortable having fun fights against people she can beat in England because that's what you should do with both of them. But both of them in England, every fight card together, they should always be. Because for me, unquestionably, everything else that happened was dope. The end of the patty fight when Molly hopped in the cage and it's them just getting everybody going and both of them jumping up onto the fence.

Like, that is the iconic moment. There's a couple images of the two of them in the cage celebrating together. That's the thing I'm going to remember about this event months from now, even on top of all the other dope stuff that happened. Have those two fight together every card and they only. fighting England. If you're doing anything else, that is promotional malpractice, in my opinion. Yeah, I wouldn't put it in the top of 15 either. She's the victim of one, some MMA math that's not in her favor and just some odd losses. Like, I mean, so, I mean, Julian Robertson, that was a while ago. So if you want to ignore that, that's fine. Lara Procopio, that was just

last year. Lara Procopio isn't even the UFC anymore. Talas Santos, that's fine. Talas obvious is like a top five in her division. So that's not terrible. But yeah, she just doesn't really have super great. Luana Carolina, I would have ranked below Molly McCann anyway, so it's not like she can take her spot. So yeah, I just, I just, she needs to string together either, she needs to put together a really impressive win streak. I think she's earned herself a top 15 opponent. So if people want to count that as her being ranked top 15, that's fine. I don't think she's top 15 yet. But yeah, I have no problem with them trying to throw in there with somewhere in the top of Dean now and see how that goes. Like Jet says, she has a certain style, which is super entertaining. great really fun to watch but probably does put a cap on her actual um championship aspirations

and if she cares about that that's unfortunate she it doesn't seem like she does at least not the moment we'll see if she strings together another couple of wins um against the opponent if they don't give her top 15 maybe she strings together more wins against you know people in her range then we start talking about hey four straight wins maybe she's the title contender and all that but it's way too early and uh yeah i don't i wouldn't have her in the top 15 right now molly mccan to me is like Like Nico Price. It's like a Nico Price type fighter at 125. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Because when Nico Price is on a card, you see his face on a poster against anybody. You're like, sweet. Dengro. Nick Price is fighting. This is going to be a fun fight. I feel like that's kind of where Molly is. And she can win a lot of them. Nico won some crazy ass fights against some really good fighters. I feel like Molly in some really crazy ways.

I feel like Molly could be something like that, like make a very good living, be a popular fighter. I don't think she's going to be fighting for titles anytime soon, but that's okay. That's fine. Maybe that's not her. And that's good. That's okay.

But she could be very successful in this business without fighting for titles or being a top 15 fighter, very successful. It doesn't, when your star, it doesn't matter who you're, like, you don't have to be on a title track. You can just fight people that people will, watch because you're going to do a fun thing and people like you. Like, just have a fight to anybody in England and people are going to turn,

tune in and turn up. It's going to be done. Listen, nobody knows who, nobody knows who that poor dead woman is until today. And they're never going to know forever because Molly McCam won and that's all that mattered. You just do that forever and you should because it's awesome.

I had a great time watching her fight. Listen, we should have the same principle with Dan Hooker. Dan Hooker is only 32 years old. He has a ton of mileage on it. I will say, I do see, I saw a lot of comments earlier asking, like, is he diminished or is he on the way down? I'm like, I mean, in fairness, yeah, he probably is. He's been in some crazy ass, what, Dustin Poirier, Paul Felder, the Barbosa beatdowns, like, one of the scariest, like, beatdowns.

That was horrible to watch. So he has a ton of mileage. So he's 32 years old, but probably about like 50 in fight years. But he's the kind of guy. You stop putting him against up and coming contenders, one. He's such an entertaining fighter. Let's get him back in fun. Don't put him in there with Islam Makach.

And I mean, Arnold Allen was kind of a good matchup, but also he obviously is a young, hungry guy who's on his way towards a title. That's not how I would describe Dan Hooker right now. You wait until they can get cards again in New Zealand or Australia again. You put on one of those, give him a stand-up battle. There's a lot of good fights ahead for Dan Hooker. He fought his way into the elite. I understand. And that's so it's like, oh, well, we've got to match with just the elite.

But now I think he's fought his way out of the elite to put it nicely. And so guys like him and women like Molly McCann, again, it doesn't have to be able to titles. It doesn't have to be rising into the ranks. And if you happen to win enough fights to get there, great. But if you don't, just give us fun fights. Who cares? Okay.

I think we're good, right? Well, there is one more poll that I threw up, which I'd like people to, if you haven't. It's the most important poll. It's the poll. Do you guys not watch the YouTube stream while we're, come on. No. I'm watching YouTube.

Oh, you've got to have the YouTube stream on. I mean, we have the comments on our thing, but still. This is the most important poll. How does E. Casey Leiden win tonight? All right, guys. So people, please get your boats in the last minute here. All right. Don't all rush in it once.

Right now, leading Peruvian necktie, 28%. Rolling Thunder kick, close behind, 27%. And then Flying triangle choke, 24%. Showtime, Superman Punch. Chad, you like Flying Tangle. Showtime. punch just behind 22%, but pretty evenly split. I think people are expecting a spectacular finish.

And that's, he's not going to throw a Rolling Thunder or a Superman punch. Like that's, he's a fundamental guy. He's nuts and bolts. He's not going to do that. When you're in there, you know,

it just shuts instincts kick in, you know? No, I just don't think so. Think about how much he's been filming. All the fights he's, no, I guess he doesn't really film the actual fights.

But he has his brain is like a camera. He's internalized his techniques, Jed. And he doesn't even know he knows them until he's just going to throw one out tonight. I hope. I hope you're right. I hope he does a spinning wheel kick, K-O, because that would be savage.

And we could lead missed fist with him. That would be... Yes, that's... I'm waiting for us to lead miss-fist with him. I just want to say before we click out of here, I think it's telling and interesting that we didn't spend

all that much time talking about Tom Aspin on this card. It was, you know, we did some main event, but this was really... This was a collection of people, not a, hey, Tom Aspinall is the next dude, even if he might be the next dude. This is a card. This is a card we'll be talking about like two years from now. We'll be like, man, can you believe Mojayev, Jack Shore, Sergei Pavlovich and Tom and Aspinon, whoever were all in the same card? And like three of them, like this is one of them.

What are you throwing shade at my boy? No, he's already in the, but he's already established. Like he's already in the co-main, right? This is like one where like these guys all to be UFC champions or they'll be top five. ranked all and they were all in the same card like that's crazy and like three of them were on the prelims like holy crap you know so we'll we will look back on this one for sure yeah man to purrity all right so yeah jesus a k and i we have more content to record what very soon very soon what um we're getting out of here from all accounts casey is like four fights away

from fighting so uh yeah wait Celtic gladiator promotional Instagram is also streaming it he said so and Ramandi is streaming it as well so there you go so like those pages

get ready turn those notifications on and one one of them goes live that probably means Casey's fighting so best luck once again for Casey we're gonna try to distract ourselves AK we're gonna record onto the next one

in the matter can see as long like Patty the Batty has because I'm not gonna lie The patty, the batty chant is awesome. What do they do? They use the, what do they use it? Oh, Paddy. Oh, so good.

That was dope. Like, that place is rocking with that. Yes, as Scott McCray is saying, this is literally the last call. If you don't get one, if you don't get your honor, no suggestions in the next two minutes, they're not going to be right on the show.

By the way, congrats, Scott. He was one fight away from a perfect card. I think he picked Hooker. I think that was one mistake. So Scott, congrats to you for Brandon. Oh, yeah. I think someone else had a 12-1-1. You got two.

Oh, you got off two. He did really well. And you got to help us. He got like several perfects. This card was just so predictable. What can we say? Mike, you did Mike, Scott McCrae, you guys are... If I had the stones to put Paul Craig, I bet on Paul Craig, but I didn't pick him more face competition.

If I had the stones, it would have been really good night. What was the other, what was the other miss? You picked up? Oh, everyone, I'm convinced nobody picked not what I'm in the team today. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That cost you the perfect. All right.

We're out of here for Jed, for A.K. I am Mike Eck. Good night, everybody. Go Casey. Love you guys. And you, Casey. By the way, Instagram. Instagram, Celtic Gladiator, CELTIC underscore.

Gladiator. Good night, everybody. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.