MMA Fighting - UFC London Post Show | Reaction To Tom Aspinall's Devastating Win, Molly McCann's Stunning Loss

Episode Date: July 23, 2023

Tom Aspinall couldn't have written a better story for his return to the octagon in front of a home crowd at UFC London, and to top it off, he even got the attention of the heavyweight champion of the world in Jon Jones. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Eric "New York Ric" Jackman react to Aspinall's 73-second finish of Marcin Tybura in the main event of Saturday's card at the O2 Arena after a year away due to injury, his callout for the winner upcoming UFC Paris headliner between Ciryl Gane and Serghei Spivac before wanting his shot at Jones, Molly McCann's upset submission loss to Julija Stoliarenko and what her future now looks like, Stoliarenko's potential at her new weight class, Paul Craig's exceptional debut at middleweight, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping. people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting

all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. The victory horns are live and they're loud. And I think a lot of people heading into this afternoon's festivities thought that they'd be sounding for Tommy Aspinall, which they are.

And also, meatball Molly McCann. That is not the case. As Julius Stoliarenko stunned the O2 arena with a quick submission win over Molly McCann, a lot of this. It's got us here on the. UFC London Post Fight Show. It's a beautiful thing. It's not even 6.30 p.m. Eastern time.

And we have a UFC event in the books. Thank you for joining us. I am Ikech. And history is being made, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very excited for this. Joining me on this post-fight show is the man who graces us with his presence on BTL multiple times. I believe he is actually the BTL champion. And he has the best theme song in the history of mixed martial arts.

Let us welcome in the incomparable Eric, New York, Rick Jackman. Eric, what an honor. Thank you for joining us. It's my pleasure to be here, Mike. Thank you for hosting this and having me in the seat. Yes, it is great. So, look, normally we just get right into the main event and all that. And we will certainly discuss what Tommy Asman all did and what happened in the co-main event.

But let's just talk about this card, New York, Rick, as a whole. Because we tried to sell this thing as best as we could. not a ton of stakes in this fight main event obviously had stakes as tom as pen also turn a lot of local fighters local talent on the card who want to show out in front of the o2 arena usually we're expecting very loud boisterous crowds that are just singing from start to finish we didn't really get that and a lot of the sort of low-key bangers the the fights we expected to be ultra fun and energetic just really weren't. I mean, let me just say this.

The MVP of UFC London is not Tommy Aspinall. It's not Julius Doliarenko. It is Paul Craig because Paul Craig changed the momentum of this card. We were going to slog city real fast. And then Paul Craig decided to get real pissed off after getting headbutted. And he changed the entire momentum in the crowd. But New York, if you could give a grade to UFC London, start to finish as a whole, What do you get at it?

Yeah, it's like, I'm going to wax poetic here instead of just giving a number, but it feels like a movie that was kind of like not great and then had maybe like a pretty good twist ending where like everything else was kind of disjointed and it wasn't great. And then all of a sudden, the ending kind of brings you back. So I'm going to say I like, I personally like those types of movies. I'm going to say seven. I give it a seven Tommy Aspenall capped off the night in the perfect way. and I think for me that's kind of enough at this point. That's kind of what I expect from these fight nights is like if I at least get a main event with stakes where Tommy Aspinall is now saying I'm one or two away from a title shot, that works enough for me.

So seven out of ten. So C, C minus that neck of the words. Sure. It passes, but like I'm not writing home about it. We'll not think about anything other than Tommy Aspinall again. Yeah. So, I mean, this card was a 16 and a half year old in Massachusetts that may not be able to parallel. Park but still got their driver's license. That's what this card was.

Like, all right, fine. You did enough. There you go. Enjoy the road. Just drive with adults if you could. Please, I'm begging you. That's kind of what this card was. Very sloggy.

But yeah, it did end in a very electric way. Like I said, I think Paul Craig is the MVP of this card for multiple reasons. But let's talk about Tom Aspinall because he's going to be the man making all the headlines. 73 seconds was all this man needed. The matchmaking was picture perfect. It would, going to answer some questions. Marching Tibera is very durable. He is very tough.

And Tom Aspinall hurt him immediately, like the first kick he through, Taibora was like, ooh-oh, don't love this. And then Aspedal just went bananas landed the big clean shot. Killer instinct. Boom, boom, boom. Mark Goddard had seen enough. 73 seconds after it started, it was over. You could not write a better story for this return.

Could you not? No, it was a perfect return. I will say just for a quick diversion, I just had like PTSD as a bald man, you saying that he's tough and durable, that like Dana White flashed in front of my eyes because that's literally what he says about every single fighter on the roster when he doesn't really know what to say. They're tough, they're durable. They go out there and fight. Sorry, I had like a moment there. As far as Tom Aspinall, yeah, you can't ask for a better script to be written than this. To look not only just like how quick the finish was, just not even to reestablish himself as as one of the heavyweight fighters that you talk about in this division, but to do it a year removed from a devastating injury and to look as light on his feet and as quick and as agile and as game and as ready as he did is like can't be understated. We really don't see, in my opinion,

like fighters that have had the injury that he had just come back in there and start blitzing people like that and looking the way he did. So that's the cherry on top. Like the dude could not have done better. If we're scoring that as opposed to the card, that's a 10 out of 10. If not, that's an 11, 12 out of 10. Does not get better than that. So officially the striking numbers, Tom Aspinall, 13 of 18.

Martin Tabora, it says he landed four strikes. I don't remember a single strike landing for Marchine Tybora. So I guess Tybore did better than I thought he did. But what a performance for Tom Aspinall? Michael Bisbing doing the Michael Bisbing thing. when, who, what do you want next? And Tom says, give me that Michael, microphone, Mr. Bisbing.

And Tommy Aspinall says, I'm taking a trip to Paris. I'm sitting front row for Cyril Gunn versus Sergei Spivak. I'm going to beat the winner of that fight, and then I'm going to beat John Jones. Perfect. I think he nailed it. Bisbing and Felder both said,

nah, let's just give him Sergei Pavlovich. I kind of like the direction Tom Aspinall went more than the direction that Bisbing and Felder went. Where are you at with the callout and what's next for Tom Aspenov after this win. Here's what I love about that callout is that's the better, that's the preferable path if I'm Tom Aspinall. I think that Cyril Ghan and Spivok are better matchups for him,

like easier paths to the title than Sergei Pavlovich. So call for that one, hope that the UFC goes along with your game plan. And if they don't, I have a feeling Tom Aspinall is not going to turn down a Sergey Pavlovich fight if number one. contendorship is on the line. So shoot for the path that you really want. If you if they don't go for it and all of a sudden Sergey Pavlovich is on the sidelines too long and they want to get him a fight and Tom Aspenal gets to step into there because it feels like that's a that's those are the two names right. Those are the ones that are going to be out there. Um, why not? Just do it. So I like that. I like calling your shot,

making the road the way you want to do it and then calling for John Jones at the end to make sure he knows that you're thinking about him. And hopefully he's thinking about you. So, I'm with you. That's how I would have handled it. And if he ends up fighting Sergey Pavelvlovich, great. That's an awesome fight. And he would have done that. Yeah, heavyweight's interesting because we got Jelts and Almeida,

getting ready to fight Curtis Blades right around the same time as Jones and Steepa are going to fight. And then obviously we had this fight. We got what's going to happen with Gahn and Spivak. You mentioned something I want to get your thoughts on because you said, let him know that you're thinking about him. And hopefully he's thinking about you. and you're obviously talking about John Jones.

Do you think John is now thinking about him after this performance? Or did this do enough to at least open his eyes and acknowledge Aspinall's existence? I think Tom Aspinall at Media Day this week said that he thinks John Jones might not even know who he is. I think John Jones knows who the heavyweight contenders are. Do I think John Jones is up at night in a cold sweat about it? No, but I definitely think he knows how good Tom Aspinall is.

and is paying attention to this performance. So he's got some guys lined up that look extremely impressive. Pavlovich, Almeda, Aspinall, these guys are all very, very young and very, well, they're different degrees of young and very, very impressive, young in the fight game, let's say. And I think John Jones knows that they're out there. I'm not sure he's thinking about how to tackle those problems yet. I'm not sure it's keeping him up at night. but I don't think that he's oblivious to some of the talent that's coming up in this division.

Yeah, I don't know if he, I'm waiting to see if like John even tweets out about this. We'd be like, oh, very good, very good. Nice performance. I think it's early. I think it's early. I don't think John Jones is somebody who likes to give breath and like attention to people that early. Like I think he's going to need a little more proof before he does that because why elevate them, right? It may not be Tom Aspinall.

Why am I giving Tom Aspinall air time and shine? if maybe Sergei is next or maybe there's a fight between the two and we see who's next. I have a feeling he's not going to come out and congratulate Tom Aspinall, but maybe if Tom amplifies the volume a little bit, there's a way to get that, but he seems very respectful and classy. He's not really the like agitator type. He's just confident, as he should be after that performance, and we'll see where it goes from there.

But I'm sure he's on the radar, but I don't think John's losing a wink of sleep yet. What's the bigger fight right now if we could be made? John Jones versus Tom Aspinall or John Jones versus Sergei Pavlovich right now. What's the bigger fight? What puts more butts and seats? What gets more pay-per-views? What do you think? It's going to be Tom just on the basis of like he's going to be able to sell that fight.

He's going to be, you know, somebody that when sitting at a press conference can make you believe he's going to win. I said this a while ago. I don't even remember what it was in reference to. Actually, I know what it was in reference to. He did a panel for the UFC. It might have been one of those like 30th anniversary. Q&A is a while back. And just hearing Tom Aspenall talk, he makes you believe in him.

He has a very unique ability when he says things that even if they seem far in the future, you believe that they're possible. And there's other fighters like that, Connor McGregor notoriously like that every time he said something and then obviously he manifested it and actually made it come true. But there's a certain element to some of these guys that when they say something, they say it with the confidence that makes you buy it instantly. And Tom Aspinall is one of those guys for me. That like when he speaks, I believe what he's,

what he's saying is true. And if he believes that he's going to be fighting for the title and believes he's fighting John Jones, there's a certain element of me going, maybe. Okay. And so I just think if you put that in a press conference as opposed to Sergey Pavlovich with a translator, there's a different energy there. So yeah, I mean, you know, no fault of Sergei's. The performances that he's putting on definitely.

make you believe the way he's absolutely starching people um but tom aspinall i think is going to add a different dynamic um by being able to kind of talk to talk as well tom's just so likable man like when paul craig walked to the cage the thing i tweeted out was ball craig just looks like a guy that if you don't watch mma but you just saw paul craig walking across street you would say to yourself that dude fights tom aspinall i would buy a car off tom aspenal i'd buy a house off tom ass but i'd buy anything I just want to hang out with the guy. He's just so likable and happy and positive. And the dude is athletic and he's fun.

And he's a damn good fighter. So we'll see. Looks like the hype is back where he was a year ago. And let's see if he can go to Paris and get the attention of God or Spivak, whoever wins that fight. And maybe John Jones will stick around and maybe that fight will happen. But this is a great start. Successful return for Tom Aspinall. It was not a successful return to the O2 Arena for Molly McCann, New York, Rich,

She takes on Julia Stoliarenko. A lot of questions heading into this fight. More so for the matchmaking itself, because Julia Stoliarenko was struggling to make 135. She infamously fainted on the scale, canceling a fight with Julia Avila. Moving under 125 people were trepidacious about it, not feeling good about it.

Even if she makes the weight, is she going to look horrendous on the scale? Not the case at all. And she looked great on the scale. then real quick, she takes Molly McCann down, no effort, gets in top position, Molly sweeps out of it. It looks like she was going to maybe lock in a rear-naked choke. Molly gets on top.

Stoli-Ranko saw a comment, slaps on a beautiful arm bar. Referee, kind of slow to get in there and stop the fight. And Julius Stolieranko silenco silences the kind of already silence O2 arena crowd, at least this time around. Your thoughts on Julius Stolieranko's performance, how did you react to how that co-main event ended? Yeah, not surprised from the perspective that like if Molly McCann's going to put herself in a bad position, Stolioenko is somebody who can capitalize on that. You know, you laid it out very nicely that there's some concerns there. It should be a fight that's winnable for Molly McCann. She closes as a two to one or greater favorite at most sports books. It was a disappointing performance if I'm going to be honest about it. And I'm sure, you know, Molly, Molly has a. a lot to think about after this fight. But yeah, it's a fight that she should have at least been competitive in and got completely blitzed. And for Selyarenko, like, she's had a rough go in the

UFC. Now she's put together, you know, it was she lost four out of her last five, but now if you look at the ledger, she's won two out of her last three, right? So it kind of shifts her opportunities in a major way. And I think it's good for her. Like she'll now be able to kind of see where she hangs in a different division. And for Molly, I think there's a little bit of a reset needed. Now, don't get me wrong. Like, I don't think this is like, oh, my God, you lost to her. Like, you can't fight anymore.

Molly's always going to be popular. Molly is always going to have fights out there that people are going to want for her and people are going to want to fight against her. But I think it's time to, you know, reset a little bit and figure out where she stands and how she could be competitive again in this division. Yes. And by the way, John Jones has responded to Tom Aspinall. Very short and sweet.

Just tweets up, sounds good, LOL. And you know who didn't get a response like that? Sergei Pavlovich did not get a response like that. Well, Tom did something right. For sure, but it also goes to my point. Like, Sergey Pavlovich is not hopping on the mic and being able to cut the promo, whereas Tom Aspinall is. And look, it's a good advantage for him.

If he can continue to apply that pressure and do that, there's a chance that Sergey gets left in the dust. It's a what have you done for me lately sport, and Tom Aspinall has done it more recently and done it very impressively, and then hopped on the mic and took his shot. So yeah, it's a rough spot for Sergey. I'd probably start my Twitter fingers going if I'm him. I don't even know if he has Twitter, hop on Instagram,

hop on Twitter, hop on TikTok, hop on threads, do whatever you need to do and start reminding people who you are because Tom Aspinall has the momentum right now, and you need to take some of it back. But yeah, John with a little short but sweet one. Yeah, I mean, if you just get the man's attention, that's absolutely massive. So big win for Julius Deliorenko, happy to see that happen.

She really needed this win. She gets it done. She's now one, two out of three after a tough start to her UFC runs, arm bars in both fights, first round finishes. Nathaniel Wood, Andre Feely, great fight. We're still waiting for bonuses, by the way. As soon as the bonuses come up, we'll let you know.

Great fight with Wooden Feeley. Feeley was just absolutely heartbroken after the decision was read, but I think the judge has got it right. And New York, Rick, how about Paul Craig? How about Paul Craig? When you need life, when you need something big and fun and energetic to happen, you call Paul Craig the hero we didn't think we needed, but we got today. Tough first round, we got middleweighty, middleweight kickboxing from Paul Craig and

Andreem Unees. Then we got some fun scrambles. Paul Craig just like football tackled on Dreamer Monez. It was just not your catch-catch-catch can take down. Just rumbled them over. Monez slaps on the triangle. Looks like things could get a little hairy. Craig escapes.

Menees gets on top. And then he just delivers a bam-bam-bighalow headbutt. Referee steps in. At least he stepped in to separate them and change the position. To be fair, they probably should have taken a point there. But all that day was just pissed poor Paul Craig off. You headbut Paul Craig. You better be ready for some repercussions.

And Paul Craig delivered him. Big shots, ground and pound, big elbows. Paul Craig, one and no with the finish in the middleweight division, New York, Rick. Bairdew gets it done. What did you think of Paul Craig at 185? Yeah, like it. Think he could be a real problem in the division? I think Andre Monez is somebody that people thought,

okay, he could be a problem in this division. And all of a sudden, after I lost of Brendan Allen and I lost of Paul Craig, now he's slid further down. There's no doubt that he could be ranked in this division. There's no doubt he probably. I'm not saying there's no doubt he is, but he probably will be ranked somewhere very shortly. And so, yeah, I like this new coat of paint for Paul Craig.

He looked absolutely incredible. Once it hit the mat, like the dude was just on fire. if the weight cuts not too much for him this is fun this is a lot of fun in a division that I think is really fun right now like I like the injection of him into the middleweight division so yeah a you know a plus plus debut at middleweight a fun fighter always like he's the type of guy that you know as we saw like dangerous even in the third round he's always able to kind of be competitive and pull off late submissions even when it seems like it's dire so yeah I'm excited I'm excited about the prospect of Paul Craig in this division, and it's a fun division right now.

So I think there's some really fun and interesting matchups for him. And if he can put together a streak, I think it's the type of guy that Israel, Asana might be a fun, like, see the fun in the challenge of if he remains champion. And the other contenders might as well. So yeah, kudos to Paul Craig. I like, it couldn't have, it couldn't have gotten better. It couldn't have gone better for him. And I like how it's going to shake out. This comment is hilarious.

Stop putting me knees against guys with two first names. That's just a tremendous comment right there. But great win for Paul Craig. Needed that. Sometimes you need the fresh coat of paint and got it and looked damn good. Support for this show comes from the audible original, the downloaded two.

Ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Roscoe Cadulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer. but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster with the Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide.

Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two ghosts in the machine Available now, only from Audible. Sacks 5th Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's finding the right gift or the right outfit. Sacks is where you can find everything. From the perfect Chloe bag for your hard-to-shop-for-sister

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Lorone Murphy, solid performance, almost got Josh Kulabah out of there in the third round, sweeps the cards, got a couple 30-26s. I didn't hate the 10-8s in the third round because there was that one side in. Murphy almost got him out of there. What did you think of the Daniel Marcos Davey Grant fight? Like, close fight. I thought Davy Grant won 3027 watching it live, but I'm not going to sit there and scream robbery

because it was pretty close, but do you feel like Davy Grant wearing the crimson mask affected the way this fight was scored? Because I was stunned to see Marcos win this fight, if I have to be honest with the New York, Rick. Yeah, I do think that that affected it in a major way. I think it was a look, you had it 3027. I can't say I was watching it,

closely enough to say definitively a score, but I had Grant winning, right? If I'm if gunned to my head, I think I would have had a 29, 28 as a live watch. But you know, I'm working here. I'm looking away at certain times. But I don't think it's the type of fight where we're called. It just, it just does not feel appropriate for this circumstance. But but if you're Davy Grant, like yeah, you have reason to to kind of say, hey, I thought I won that one. But yeah. But yeah. It's one of those fights where it, God, I hate the expression. It could have gone either way, but it could have gone either way. And Grant was on the wrong side of it.

And I think they'll both dust themselves off this performance and move on from here. But yes, I did score it for Grant, I will say, in my distracted watch, I believe I would have had a 29, 28 grant. We also had Johnny Parsons, successful UFC debut. Took a minute. He got his contract on the contenders shares. I believe it was October of 2021. He told my good buddy James Lynch, concussion issues, kept him out for a while,

goes out there, has a crazy-ass fight with Danny Roberts and gets the finish with three seconds left in round two. And then he called up Patty, and boy, was that a rough call-up, man. And apparently he went to the post-fight presser or his post-fight scrum and was like, yeah, didn't really think that one through.

I'll fight somebody else and say, I forget who he actually called out at 170. Oh, he called out MVP, called up Michael Page instead, which would have been more interesting if he actually did that with MVP being in the building and him just announcing his free agency. But what did you think of Johnny Parsons in the mullet and the energy this guy brings? And what did you think of the call-up? Because he tried to do the thing, but he didn't do the thing. performance great like fun um kind of playing with the crowd a little bit like embracing the idea of of being unliked um in london enjoyed all of that the call out just fell flat for me like you're

not fighting patty pumbit it's it's a bad call out the rhyme was corny like just not for me much prefer the idea of hey can i lure MVP into a fight hopefully the ufc signs them wish he did that in the arena wish they cut straight to MVP and had a reaction shot. That would have made for some much better viewing. But look, good performance. Like the dude is going to have some fun fights ahead. And I like that. But yeah, the callout fell super flat for me.

Like there's no chance, Patty Pimbley. We were talking about like, is John Jones going to respond to Tom Aspinall? I don't think Patty Pimble would even look down at his phone to think about responding to this callout. Yeah. Patty probably was looking at his phone while Johnny was talking. talking because there's no chance he's going to call me out we're not even the same friggin division why would he ever call me out uh the mp won't have been great let's be clear he ain't getting that fight either but it still would have been cool and in good imagery to see if mp would

react to that joel alvarez gets the submission went over mark jackey clash of heads probably jacquesa kind of got hosed a little bit fight should have been stopped at least given the fighters a chance to recover but didn't happen there mick parkin wins mock moon meredoff a new contender for the middleweighty middleweight title. Didn't think I would say that into a microphone after fighting Brian Barbarina, but that's what we got. Ketland Vieira wins against Panic Key Anzad.

That was a fight, and that's all I'm really going to say about it. Chris Duncan, nice performance against Yanal Al Ashwish, Yonal Ashwes, that dude's born for this fighting thing. I would have loved to have seen that fight go 15 with him having the usage of like both hands and both arms

because that would have been crazy. And I was like backing this dude up with one hand. It was insane. But Chris looked good. He's evolving. What did you think of that fight? Yeah, I will admit like, you know, I would say I hope he didn't recognize that the hand was compromised. It's almost hard not to.

I'd like to see you finish a dude who's clearly like defenseless on one side of his body and carrying that one hand like super low. I would have probably like to see a finish out of Dunkin there. If I'm if I'm being completely honest, he's fighting around and. change with one arm, maybe even two rounds, actually. It seemed like, yeah, it seemed like two rounds just completely throwing, you know, lead uppercuts with one arm while his other side is completely open. So I would have liked to see a finish. But yes, the toughness of Ashmoo is there, like next level.

You know, Dana White and it loves and the UFC love guys like this who just like don't look for a way out and are willing to fight to the bitter end no matter how compromised. So yeah, I think he'll be in good standing even though. I think that was his first loss, but he'll be in good standing and somebody that I think they'll look to book again and hopefully, you know, not, not huge damage to that and can heal up and fight again soon. But yeah, my honest takeaway was like I was thinking Duncan should finish this guy if I'm being honest. That was my that was my takeaway. Good performance. Like no, you know, I'm not trying to be overly critical, but he had one arm.

Yeah. Bruna, Brazil stops the the hype of Shauna Bannon. Bannon loses their first fight. I don't think John Waley or any ranked straw weight lost any sleep over this fight. But Shauna showed some stuff. She came back, nice little third, nice third round there.

But she's probably like two or three more wins before, like too early, I guess. But, you know, you're going to the O2, London card. Not a bad name to put on there. The fans know who she is. I didn't hate it, but

I don't think that that loss is going to very well for her. And then the first fight of the night was really, really good. Daniel Barras looked like a world beater at 125. And then Jafel Fiel is like, all right, had enough of this. And then just ran them over and tapped him. What a comeback. And I was like, Casey and I were like just, we're watching the beginning stages of that fight at the end of the People's Free Fight show. I'm like, man, if this is how this thing is going to start, we are, this is going to be fantastic. And boy, did the pendulum swing the other way real quick. but there you go.

We'll see. We're still waiting on bonuses. This is like the longest we've ever had to wait for bonuses. But oh, wait a minute. We got bonuses. Breaking news. You want to take a guess here, Greg? Yeah, I was going to say, do we want to play a guessing game?

Fight of the night, Feeley, and Wood. Is that correct? Keep going. That is not correct, actually. Okay. Interesting. Okay. There is a fight of the night.

It is not that, which is shock. him. Interesting. All right. Um, I'm going to say Paul Craig performance. Checkmark. Okay. And Tom Aspinall, other performance. Check mark. Fight of the night. What is fight of the night? If not Phelian would. Johnny Parsons, Danny Roberts. Okay. You know what? Look, I don't hate it. That was a good fight. Like, they, not the most technical affair, but they were scrapping in there. And I enjoyed that. So yeah, you know what, I'm, I'm okay. That was a perfectly fine choice.

I would have given it to Philean Wood. I think there was a little more at stake there and a little more technique on display. But yeah, those two, those two slugged it out. So no issue, no issue with that one. Fair enough. Fair play, as they say, across the pond. Did Julia Ranko, did Julia Stoliarenko get hosed here? It's a good, it's a fair one.

You know what? It's a completely fair one. Maybe, yeah. I kind of feel like Aspedal shouldn't have gone. I mean, look, I mean, oh, come on. I mean, what is he, a minus 475 favorite? Like, this is how that fight, everyone expected that fight to go. First round finish for Tom Aspedal.

That's fair enough. If they don't give them the official performance, that's one where you hand them a bag of money in the back. Yeah. Because that arena, that arena was on life support. And he was the only thing. He was the only thing that gave that thing any life. And when he did what he did, it came back alive.

and you could actually hear, like, it was dead silent in there. You could hear pin drops, the whole card. They're showing Patty Pimbled on screen. They're showing MVP. They might as well have not even cut to them. It sounded like nobody gave a flying F. Patty, I mean, Tom Aspinall got that place rocking. So if he doesn't get the official performance bonus,

that's one where he gets the paper sack with some money in it. But you're right to ask. You are definitely right to ask if Stoliarenko deserves something there because in the comane to be a big underdog that way and get it done that fashion, it's fair. It's completely fair. I don't look, maybe she gets something in the paper bag too. So maybe that's how it works.

But she deserves it. She deserves it. Filio should probably get a little paper bag too. Maybe not as big as still your aunt goes, but a little something. Nice. A very nice comeback. And, you know, I would and Philly put it all out there. There's some cage side angles of Philly kind of being a little bit devastating.

another close fight, right? Like he had wood in a really rough spot second round. It seemed like it was one of piece going into the third. They were a little more trepidacious, right? Nobody was wanting to kind of leave that opening to get finished. And I thought that what did a little bit of the better work. Feeley busy, though, like it's a tough one and a performance where you feel like you both showed a good account for yourself and it's just a razor thin margin. So yeah, you know, even though this card was.

wasn't it like fantastic from bell to bell there was some moments there were some pockets in there where you're getting some some fun action and then the crescendo with tom aspinall yeah what was good was really good and what was bad was really bad that's right that's that's that there this is this is a no gray area card for sure so there you go let's uh let's bring casey in and we'll see what the peeps have to say it'll take a few questions from the peeps uh i am i will say this i did nail the stolier ranko pick Nailed it. Let's talk about that. First round, first round submission, set it.

We got, we got proof. I got receipts. You can just go on the video right before this. My official prediction was Stolier-Ranko first round submission. I was confident in Sodoranko, but you were even more confident. You caught. Yeah. So good for you.

Yeah. If she was, if she was going to win that, to me, that's how she was going to do it. She was just going to tackle Molly and submit her real quick. And she did. Well, she did that. She definitely. did that. As soon as she took her out, I'm like, oh, my God, this is actually going to happen right now. And 30 seconds later, it did. Good for her. Is Molly, I mean, I, okay, losing the Aaron Blancho is one thing. But to basically get Aaron Blanchold again by Stolaryenko, like, is this, like, is this just a bad streak from Molly? Like, I don't remember her being this poor on the ground previously. I wouldn't be bad on the ground. She's pretty bad on the ground. She's,

pretty bad on the ground is my takeaway i wouldn't like overly compare the levels right like where it goes like okay she lost a blanche field but now she's losing to somebody who's way lower and what does that say about her dominance and the same dominance too i mean but to me it's the same method right it's the same deficiency deficiency like if you gave her somebody around stolierenko's level who's going to stand on the feet and slug with her she'll she's going to look better that's just how that that's just how that goes style may styles make fights there's certainly something that I will take away from this. Like, look, the, the fight against Blanchfield to me was Molly McCann's ceiling, right?

Like, that was where she's going to net out where you just can't go any higher than this. Like, she's not championship level. That's where this ride is going to end. And it did, right? Now she, I think she has to assess, like, what is the level? Is it Stoliorenko? If it's a more favorable style matchup, if it's a striker, maybe it's a little bit higher, right? So I think it's still TBD in my opinion.

I think there's still some fun fights that she could have. But she needs to have a look and see where she's at, you know? I think it's still a TBD on how this fight looks at maybe a year from now. Because we actually don't know how good Solorenko will be at flyweight. That's right, too. Because she is a talented banditweight who just kind of hit her ceiling at the UFC level. But a flyweight, who knows? but yeah

yeah question I know I know Ariel hated the Molly versus Aaron Blanchfield fight I absolutely loved it I thought that was

really a matchmaking because you had to do it you had to take the shot you had to there's no there's nowhere left for Molly to go it's either

we just got to push her to the moon we'll throw in there with Blanchil she wins we give her Shevchenko we just give her the freaking title fight in London

like you could do it and it would make sense that's exactly right the storyline at that point Okay, yeah. You have to find out, look, she's probably not going to win this fight, but this is the only shot we get to push her that way. So let's do it.

And it made perfect sense to me too. Like, this is how you're going to get to that shot. And we found out her ceiling. And that's fine. Like, not everybody is a UFC champion caliber fighter. But now I think there's a little bit of ambiguity. I'd like to see where she actually is. I'm not 100% sure.

I want to see how she is in a more favorable style fight. because this was not a favorable style fight. The odds were a little off, in my opinion. And obviously, there's people like you, Casey, who were kind of like pointing to that and thinking about that. I just think most people just didn't really know who Stora Rinko was. That's really it. I think if she had more higher profile fights that people kind of remembered,

then I think they've been like, oh, this isn't that's so good. This isn't that great a matchup, you know. To be fair, she lost four or whatever last five. And that's the thing. if you don't really look at the names she lost. Yeah, if you just look wins and losses, yeah, she's on a losing streak. But those are, if she's,

if this whole time she was actually a fly weight, fighting at Bantam weight, like, you know, that's what I mean. A lot of it had to do, a lot of it had to do with the weight class too. Yeah, the weight class was big. Because no one thought she could make the weight. Everyone's like, what? She can't even make 135 like in a healthy way. There's no way she's going to make 125.

And then she did on Friday. And I was like, oh, what I said earlier? She trains in Lithuania. That means she has to travel across the world to fight in Vegas and everything. And, you know, your weight cuts just sit on a plane for 12 hours. It's going to mess up your weight cuts. So, and I think this fight being in Europe, it's only a couple hour flight, a couple hours to get there. I think it changed a lot.

And I think that really benefited, Julia. Yeah. She questions. And she's only 30. And she's only 30. Yeah. Mike had come. Hey, listen,

even a clock is right twice a day, you know? This is your, I've been wrong about so much. And I'm mad enough to get out of this. I'm going to throw, I'm going to throw every compliment up there for you. We get them right.

Take a victory lap. Don't be so humble. Take a victory lap. I was wrong about a lot of things in this car. I mean, a lot of the ways I broke, I broke this car down. Like,

it could have went the way like the Jai Herber fight I was like the only way Jai Herber is going to win this fight is if he wrestles and gets takedowns and he was actually doing it but he just couldn't get an actual takedown on a guy who has like no takedown defense so I was stunned that Jai couldn't get him down

yeah I got a lot of things but the takedowns from Jai left a lot to be desired let's just say that there was some there was some work to be done there but look this is the beauty of live shows and the internet Mike we don't even have to talk about the ones you got wrong.

We can just pretend that you got them all right and just move on. Like nobody's, nobody's checking this. There's no fact checkers out there. I heard you got every single prediction right. I didn't. I didn't. God, just help me here. Help me.

I was over 500, so I'll take that. Okay, there we go. We'll look at the silver lining. I'm a Hall of Famer in baseball with these types of numbers. Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports, you're always looking for ways to get closer to the action. And your Chase card can get you exactly that. With a Chase card, you can experience more.

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This is, uh, what do you guys think about this comment? Uh, Jones is planning to, Jones is planning to duck every heavyweight in their prime that can grapple. We want him to fight Pavlovich,

Aspera, R. Alameda, not old in Wash Dipe. First of all, Pat, like, where, seen from Sergei Pavlovich that makes you think he is going to be a better grapple than John Jones because I think most people who view Sergei Pavlovich from a grappling perspective feel like that

John matches up incredibly well with Sergei Pavlov and feel like John is going to easily beat him. That's how most pundits view that fight right now. Aspinall, Almeid is a different challenge. Aspinall is at least fun and has personality and can at least sell fights and could possibly make John money down the road. John is in prize fighting mode right now, New York, Rick. And he ain't ducking anybody. You think the baddest dude on the planet in a lot of people's?

One of the greatest fighters, arguably the greatest fighter in the history of the sport is ducking anybody? No. But he's a prize fighter. It's about making money. And right now, in terms of making money and putting butts in seats and getting gates and selling pay-per-views, John Jones for six. Stipe is a bigger fight than all three of these names, and it's not even close. So do you agree that Jones is

going to try to avoid these guys? Or do you feel like John, if he beat Steepa, which I think he will, he will just take a sabbatical, wait and see if somebody emerges as the next big thing officially, and then you know what? Now I'll give this guy a shot. Let me just say this. Kevin, appreciate you. This is not a personal attack. at you, but I'm going to go on my soapbox here because you're not alone, Kevin. There's a lot of people who think that fighters who have fought their whole careers and took a very hard road, some of these guys and girls from like completely disprivileged backgrounds or like war-torn countries and things like that, fight to the UFC level and just are like scared or ducking or looking

for easy way out. There's none of them. There's none that exist at this level of fighting. They are going to take the matchups that are presented to them. They're going to look for the quickest ways to the title. They're going to look for the fights that make the most money. And that's just the nature of this circus. John Jones, the greatest fighter who's ever lived in my opinion. And right now, one of the pound for pound best in the world, is not ducking anybody, is not scared of anybody, is not looking for an easy route.

He's looking to maximize his earning potential at the very end of his career, which he deserves to do after probably being underpaid for quite a lot. long time and making a lot less than he could have in a different era, is now going to fight Steepi Miochitz in a fight that the UFC knows will sell and John Jones knows will sell. And then we'll see from there. Maybe he fights Sergei Pavlovich. Maybe he doesn't. But like if he doesn't, trust me, it's not because he's scared of Sergey Pavelovich or ducking

Sergey Pavlovich. It's because the fight wasn't going to generate the income and not be worth the risk and he's set and he can walk away. and his legacy is completely finished and defined. John Jones is if not the goat, and some people will not have him there. I think there's some asterisks to be considered, which is fair, one of the goats.

And yeah, no, John Jones is not ducking anybody. And nobody at this level of fighting is ducking anybody. It's just a business. It is a business. And that is the thing that people forget. Like when Hamzat Shemayev is calling for everybody and all of a sudden, Oh, like, why didn't Hamzat fight this guy?

It's not because somebody from Hamzot's portion of the world is ducking or scared of anything. Or Colby Coventon's making up narratives, like, that's just not a reality. So John Jones, not scared. You know, it's wild. If John fights any of these guys, the narrative will not be that at all because to peak John's interest, one of these guys will have to win the title that he will vacate and then run off like three or four devastating title defenses in a row where they look like absolute world beaters. And then John will be like, okay, now I'll come back and fight.

Like, John will get them at their best and when it makes sense and dollars. So, well, this is, it's what it is. It's exactly what it is. At their best? I don't know. Or in the middle of their zombie run. Like if John wins and vacates and Sergey Pavich just annihilates the next four guys he fights, wins the belt, defends it three times, and gets a.

over, John could come back for that. Like, Sergey has put himself in a position to be the guy. Rack up three title defenses, get on the top of that record book list. To that point, then John would be like, all right, now I will fight him. We just said the, we understand what you're saying. We said the best because I, he is not fighting the best deep. That's, oh, no, no, no, no, no. This is, this is, this is, right.

If he vacates, yeah, I got you. Sorry. That's why when I said best, I was like, whoa, on. Yeah, there's no, there's no Francis. So this is the biggest fight he can get right now. If I'm being honest, I think Aspinall is more likely. Not that I think Sergey's going to lose, but I think Aspinall just, to me, he has the whole package, right? Again, I've already talked about this, but the mic aspect of it being able to kind of like kind of hold your own in that regard, I think is going to be major and call your shot.

Like just that promo he cut. Hey, I'm going to go sit cage side for gone and Spivak. I was kind of like, okay, let's see where this is going because that's not exactly exciting. And then I'm going to beat John Jones. He wins. He wins you. And it works. It's kind of Charles and Habib, right?

Like, Charles and Habib was a fun fight that people were kind of like thinking about. But all of a sudden, Charles racks up all those wins against the cream of the absolute crop at the lightweight. And now all of a sudden, Charles and Habib is a pay-per-view box office attraction. If somebody can go on that run, John Jones is going to be in that Habib seat where he has a consideration to make. Now, we're assuming that John is going to walk away after this. I think the chances are high that that happens because I don't think these guys are a box office yet. But if all of a sudden, John walks away for a little bit and sits on the sidelines and somebody becomes a box office attraction the way Charles Olivaire did, now you've got a decision to make. Do you come back and put that O on the line?

Or do you ride off into the sunset and keep the legacy intact and not risk it? I think there's a real consideration to be made. But man, it's going to have to be a big money fight. It is not just going to be like, oh, Serbigate Pavilich is the next up. If John Jones does that, kudos to him. And, you know, he's the goat and he's the goat for a reason. But I just don't see it happening. Like he needs to make money in these fights.

And I don't know if that's the box office draw. Real quick. You said none of these guys are a box office yet. What will it take for Aspinall to be whatever you want to call a box office? Like the guy. I mean, what does he do? Because he's main event of two sold out arenas in London. Or it's three?

Is it three? Three. Three. three, three sold out events. Tom asked me. Those are headlines. I'm just wondering like what does it take for him to get that next level in your eyes? It's a fair question.

In my opinion, that's friendly territory, right? Like that's the best circumstance and that's where your guy is going to succeed. When you start headlining pay-per-views in Vegas, now you're a box office attraction, right? When they say we can take you anywhere and put you anywhere and sell, now you're potentially a box office attraction. I don't think it's far away. I think he could be one. Look, if he fights the Cyril gone, if he fights the winner of gone and Spivak,

gone, I think, with a little more juice to him, that could be a co-main on a really strong pay-per-view, or I wouldn't be surprised of all of a sudden. They're like, this guy's a number one contender. Maybe we put that on a pay-per-view, not dissimilar to what we're seeing with Gaichi and Dustin Porier. We're like the stakes that are kind of on the line there or the status of that fight is something to think about,

I think that's where you start becoming a box office attraction. When you're high up on that pay-per-view card, that's where the UFC is now saying, we can bank on you and we can make money. And especially if it's in Las Vegas, if it's Charles Olavera can fight anywhere now. He didn't used to be able to headline any card anywhere, but he can now.

And now he's in a headline fight against Islamakov in Abu Dhabi. Yeah, I agree with you. I remember it was just a couple of weeks ago when people were asking, why is Bo Nickel on the pay-per-view? You know? And I was saying, because the UFC is conditioning you to start paying money to watch Bo-Nichol. The problem of Aspinall, you watch him for free. You're not used to paying money to watch Tom Aspinall.

Once you start paying money to watch him, that's when you become box office. Yeah, totally agree with you. And this is the right fight. This is a perfect fight night headliner because, like, he's a tough guy. He's durable. Thanks, Mike. He's tough and durable. And he's going to have.

have the performance that you want to see. And now the next one feels like it's ripe for a co-main pay-per-view or even potentially like if things get sparse in the calendar year and you've got to up the number of pay-per-views, you could do worse than Tom Aspinall versus Cyril Gahn. Cyril Gahn's been in pay-per-view headliners. He's headlining in Houston against Derek Lewis, you know, like, and he's headlining against John Jones. Now he was on the wrong end of the John Jones one, but he's been a paper view headliner

before, Francis and Ghanu. So yeah, you could do worse than that. I wouldn't be shocked. Or if all of a sudden, John Jones is out of the picture, maybe there's a belt somewhere on the line somewhere soon. I could see Tom Aspinall on that spot. So that's when I think the threshold gets crossed, you know?

I'm with you. If you're Tom, do you offer to be the backup for MSG? Steep A is older and could suffer an injury. And let's hope John has no antics. Tom should offer to be the backup. What do you guys think? I think Tom's kind of got his mind made up right now. I don't think Tom's,

Tom is more confident now in New York, Rick, but it wasn't all that long ago when Tom Aspinall was sitting up at press conferences and in the post-fight interview saying, I'm in no rush, man. I'm in no rush. I want to fight number 15, then number 14,

then number 13, and number 12, and we'll go one at a time until I get all the way to the top. Obviously, the timeline has moved a little bit forward. I feel like Pavlovich is probably going to be slotted in

as the backup at this point. But if you're Tom Aspinall, are you calling the UFC right now being like, I'll come to New York. I'll be your backup. It's a no harm, no foul situation. Like, this is heavyweight. We're not even talking about a weight cut for Tom Aspinall here.

What did he come in like 258? If he stays in shape, we're not even talking about like the situations where you look at some of the other guys who have been backups where they have to put themselves through a weight cut and then not have the payoff and not actually even fight. Tom Aspinol could roll into MSG and just be like, yeah, if you need me, I'm here. So yeah, why not make the call? No harm, no foul. Although, I will say, to your point, you've pointed something out very astutely that I was also going to point out, which is Tom Aspinall has been very vocal about I'm not in a rush and there's a path here and I'm not worried about taking the slow road.

So it could be a situation. Was that pre-injury? Was that pre-injury? Because tonight, he was saying, he was saying, I am a different person. He made a point of saying that. Like, I'm not that guy from a year. I don't know. I'm just saying. It's very fair.

It's completely fair. But most people in that situation still go, I want John Jones. And he went, I want the winner of Cyril Ghan and Sergei Pavlovich. And then I want John Jones. He's a different. 10 fights to two fights. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

He's shortening it. But he's still the guy who kind of like sees his route to it. And I think he was, honestly, I feel like we kind of got robbed and he got robbed. And he got robbed a little bit in the Curtis Blades fight because I really think he wanted to see where he stood in that fight. And Curtis Blades is a really good measuring stick for that, and we kind of lost that opportunity. And I think he wanted to see that himself as a fight that could potentially be somewhere

where he learned something about himself. I don't think that this fight in particular was the one where he goes, okay, now where do I stand? I think he knows he could have done what he did tonight. Cyril Ghan, Sergei Spivok, now we're a little closer. Even a Sergei Pavlovich, now you're starting to like learn things. But yeah, look, it's not. no risk in my opinion.

If you do that and he's young enough in his career where let's say he did fill it, let's say all of a sudden the UFC is without a fight for either John Jones or Stepe. And they go, Tommy, we're putting you in. He's young enough that if he does that on short notice and loses it, two more. And he's right back there. There's nothing that there's no shine that comes off him for losing that fight. He could build himself right back. So I say, make the call, take the shot.

why not and then see where it goes. Although I have zero belief that John would ever take the fight if Steepa was doing if Steve A falls off. Yeah. Yeah. It's fair. If John fell off, then I could see Steepa taking it. You know, I don't know, maybe.

But either way, yeah, no harm, no foul. Just do it. No, you're right. You're right. John Jones on one day being like, yeah, I'll fight Tom Aspinon. One day's notice doesn't seem as likely as most to do it. I think we're in agreement maybe, are we in agreement that Aspinall would be a tougher fight than Stepe? Or?

Oh, yeah. Okay, okay. I was just making sure. I'm not confident that this fight is going to be very competitive between Jones and Steepa. I just don't, I just don't think that Steepa is there anymore. And I think John has looked fine in his 30 seconds at heavyweight. What else I got? Who gained the most besides Aspinall on this car?

Who stock went up the most besides Tommy Aspen on New York, Rick? Yeah, that's a great question. I guess it's Craig, right? Yeah, he puts himself into the rankings of a new division. But I do honestly believe, like, just like Stoli Ranko, like fresh coat of paint, she has some new life and some new legs. She's probably coming from further, right? Like her distance from where she was kind of viewed to where she might be viewed after this

is further than Paul Craigs because I think everybody kind of love Paul Craig. and thought of him as exciting fighter. So, yeah, between the two of them, it's one of those two. Yeah, because if Stolary Rico loses tonight or lost tonight, she easily could have been released. And I think she's gone, no doubt. Okay, yeah, cool. She had a run.

If Paul Craig would have lost, I think we would, you know, we still like him. You know, he'll come back one more. That's it. That's right. By the way, I didn't actually see this. Did anyone pick Molly on the parley pals? Funny you should ask that. We went three for four tonight.

There was somebody who picked Molly McCann in the Parley Pals. And it was Ariel Hawani. Now, to be fair. Oh, no. Now, to be fair, not to be fair. Obviously, the Patty and Molly and Graham stuff has put a strain on the relationship with Ariya. obviously that's more Paddy and Ariel focus, right? There's not a thing between Patty, but between Molly, but look, Paddy's our teammate.

That puts the strain on thing. He's extending an olive branch saying, Molly, I've got faith in you, I'm picking you, I'm backing you, let's get it done. It didn't end up in his favor, but there's heart, there's sentiment behind it. And I can ride with that. But yes, unfortunately, we busted on that one. Look, I also picked over one and a half Feeley and Wood, and it looked at seven different times. Like, that was going to bust two.

So I was sweating that one out, not a great minus 450 addition to the parlay. So, yeah, we, we unfortunately fell short, but look, we'll be back just like, just like Molly. What chalky, Chalk did G. C pick? G. C had a good one. He had, no, no, he had minus seven something. he had Tom and Tom and the main event to go under three and a half.

Great pick. I mean, that's the, that's about it. Could have gone under half. Could have gone under one and a half. But, you know, look, we're just trying to, we're just trying to get over the, into the black here. And unfortunately, we took a step back. But it was. How did it absolutely not win fight in the night?

That was a fantastic fight. High low. I mean, I'm with you. And how does Solorino not get performance? and I, sorry, I just, er, annoyed. Because chaos, chaos wins out on these, these conversations.

Yeah, I hate that. Tell me what you think of this matchup. So apparently Paul Craig went to, so apparently Paul Craig went on the post-fight show and called up Bo-Nichol. Did he really? Yeah. Oh, my God, you know,

he's just so easy to root for. He's just, like, I love everything about Paul Craig. I truly, like, I love everything. about Paul Craig. The face paint works. When he gets on the mic, he's doing impressions works. The Scottish accent works. The submissions and latent fights work. The getting it done from top and, you know, in the second round of a fight works. And then you call out Booneckle. He's just brilliant. Like, this is exactly who you should be calling out. Maybe they're not ready to push Bo Nichael into a fight with a guy like Paul Craig yet. But this is exactly what you

should be doing. Like you don't aim for, I want to fight Israel out of Sanya or Robert Whitaker, right away. Like, that's just not how you do it. This is a perfect callout. This is a perfect call out. I hope he gets it because I think that'd be some fun grappling there. I like it. I like it. I like that. I mean, although I will say, if Bonickle decides to kind of keep this one standing, it could go rough because his hands to be, it seemed to be coming along pretty well. That's the fun part about it, you know? That's what's fun. Yeah, that's what's fun. And by the way, Paul Craig, even if he gets clipped a time or two, is still going to be on his back trying to get you down there to lock you up in something. This is perfect. This is absolutely perfect. I love this.

Wrestler versus a jiu-jitsu guy. That's, I kind of, that's going to be fun. Do you think it'll be too soon? Do you think they might say nickel needs somebody who's not as experienced as somebody like Paul Craig? This fight's not happening next. It's not happening. I could see it. I could see that being the case. Yeah. But, but I love, I do love the call-out because at worst, we're planting seeds for the future. Because, I mean, Paul's probably going to stick around and probably fight like back half of the top 15 guys for a little while, which is fine. But if you're, if the whole focus is every time you bring up Paul Craig's name, you bring up Bo Nichols name, that's great. Because if Bo gets into a top 15 fight and wins, then the Paul Craig fight becomes big.

And if Paul beats Bo, he gets a huge rub off of it. And if Bo beats Paul, he probably gets a title fight. So I do like the call out, but it's not, I don't think it's going to happen. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Progression-wise, this to me feels like, I always kind of think of Bo and Hamzaat as like comparisons, because in my mind they were like as early on that I was like, yeah, from fight one, I was like, yeah,

that guy's going to be a future champion. Like, those are the dudes. This feels like the Mearschart fight. This feels like that level. Like it feels like, okay, Mirchart was like kind of like a stick where I was like, okay, he's fighting a guy who's like super, super, super, experienced in the UFC, kind of dangerous in the submission game, and now he'd knock them out and took that level. To me, that feels like the Paul Craig fight comp for Bo Nicol. Like, maybe he's

like one away from this. Maybe it's the next one. But he's in the range. He's in the range where all of a sudden you get this fight and then you kind of take the ceiling off. Yeah. Paul Craig and Mershardt ever fart? They didn't do that and they haven't fought because there are two of them. Well, I mean, Paul's been at 205 this whole time. Oh, yeah. That's it. Okay. Sorry.

Okay. Yeah. So the name I keep throwing up for Bo. Because Bo, like, dude, but Bo has not fought. Israel-A-Sanya. I know. You're right. Yeah.

You're correct. You're correct. You think. Hey, look, Izzy may still lead an opponent for September. So, I mean, he's right there. He's available. UFC, it's not too late. Let us, let us not do this Sean Strickland thing.

And please, let's do Bo. Let's have fun. Please. It's not too late. It's not too late. So my pick for Bo Nicol, Puna Soriano. Like, let's just see a dude. He's going to go right after him, be a hammer.

Bo will probably beat him. But it's a step up. Like, it's just so tough to like go from the, you know, the fifth to last best ranked middleweight to like a guy ranked even lower than that. It's not his fault. Bo was supposed to fight somebody else. It's supposed to fight Trejong-Gore, which is a nice step up, I think, from Pickett. And now we have to, we have to make a progressive lead.

but not, I guess I saw people saying like, oh, he should fight Jun Yom Park. I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? Like that dude, Iron Turtle deserves to fight a rank guy at this point. And now we're going to make him fight. Oh, dude. If I'm Iron Turtle, though, I beg for that Bo-Nichael fight. Yep. I've been saying that repeatedly.

If I am a high-ranked middleweight, if I am Israel-A-Dazania, I face Bo-Nickel right now, now, not tomorrow, not a week run. I face him now because he is only going to get. better that is it's yeah paul craig you absolutely you go to bo nichols place in his house and give him a contract you make that fight happen everybody from like six to unranked top you know top five aside everybody from like six down should be calling for bo nickel like you should you should want to fight this guy be the one to beat him and halt his progress um and yeah let's just make izzie let's just make Izzy versus Bo.

I don't need to see this John Strick runs right. Let's do the right thing, UFC. I would love that. Oh, I love that. That's crazy. By the way, I just saw a tweet from ESPN. It's from ESPN stats and info. Tom Ashtonall right now has the shortest average fight time in UFC history

with a minimum of five fights. Two minutes and 19 seconds. Average fight. Somehow not Rhonda? No, I guess not. I guess later in Ronda's run. Some of them started getting longer, but wow. The Tate fight got extended a little bit and then...

Yeah. Three rounds. But yeah, Asconol... Has to Ashton all gotten out of the first? Yeah. I feel like he's been in a second. Even in the loss, right? Maybe I'm wrong.

But I feel like he's been in a second. The loss was like the first 15 seconds of the fight or something. I mean, that'll certainly help those numbers. Yeah. I mean, the dude is an absolute buzzsaw. Yeah, he went into the second against Arlofski. which is what I thought the fight was that he went into the second. But God dang, some of these numbers, yeah, I get it.

45, 135, 135, 2.30, 15. Yeah, I mean, the 15 second loss is what puts it over the top. Unfortunately, that's what kind of gives in the record. That's a weird one. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. Take a couple more. Man, like sometimes I feel like we're under rating Aspinall.

I know we just need the names, but like if I just look at the statistics and the dominance, and take away the fluke the fluke loss you know because that is a fluke loss that but that was the one that was going to i think make people believe that was the one that you you take out curtis blades and i don't think anybody underrates him anymore i i think this is a star make a performance like i think the narrative on him will change a little bit but blades was the one blades was the one where he would have he would have vaulted in my opinion yeah and now jailton's getting that fight so jailton It's he's get jail is going to be super interesting in this conversation if he goes out there and just bushes Curtis Blades.

He's the one I'm not as sure about if I'm if I'm looking at the at the guys. I'm fairly certain about Pavlovich. I'm fairly certain about Aspinall. Jelton I want to see a little bit more. I'm not a hundred percent ready to like just be like yeah, he's in that mix yet. But from what he's shown so far, he is. And Curtis Blades is a great measuring stick. we're going to find out how really is.

Yep. I just want to bring this fighter up because we respect the rankings and she deserves to be talked about. Yeah. Yeah. I know, I know. I know. It's just this division. It's not her.

It's not her. It's not her. It's awful division. De Kellynnevere do enough to insert herself in the title picture. Man's Bannon Way did she maintain her number four spot in the rankings? The latter? No. Like she's definitely not in the title picture right now.

She maintained. Maintained. Yeah. Yeah. She's in a spot. Yeah. She's way back. You go.

She's way back. She's way back. Even though she's number four, like, I think Arrini Aldana is ranked behind her. I think Altona is still ahead of Caitlin, of Ketland Vieira. That's what I was going to say. That's what I was going to say. She's in a spot where her ranking is not represent. of how far she is in the pecking order.

Like she is further back like, you know, Myra Bueno Silva, now we've got the potential fight. It seems like it's taking a while to kind of sort us out, but Pennington and Peña, freaking Macy Barber's chirping at Giuliana Peña. If she came up, she'd get a title shot before Ketland-Berra.

She'd fight a contender fight before Ketland-Vierra. So like, not her fault. Again, like, it's getting on the mic. there's a certain element to this that like calling your shot getting on the mic being able to kind of put yourself for even like myra bona sova a plus in her post fight interview english is not her first language but a plus in her post fight interview she did a baby face she's she's talking about you know other the the injury suffered on the card she's calling out juliana pania like that helps that goes a long way and when it's like 29 28 over a penny and that's all we get It's easy to kind of fade into the background, you know, unfortunately. But it's not on the merits of like what she's doing. She's doing well. And she belongs in the spot she's in.

But there's more to this game than just that. But it is not her fault, but she's further back. Yeah. Vieira is a great athlete, good fighter. Yeah. But she is not a very good prize fighter. And that's what the UFC is interested in. Yeah.

Yeah. That fight certainly happened. Yeah. And none of us are, I know none of us are trying to craft on her. It was a smart. It was a smart performance. It was a smart performance. It was a fine.

It was a good performance. Good top suspicion the whole time. There's just not one we're ever going to see again. Yeah. It's not moving her anywhere. That's the unfortunate truth. It's not going to move her anywhere. Yeah.

It's one of those wins where you actually might go backwards in the rankings. Yeah. Let's just say other things happen around you. Yeah. Yeah. Let me ask you this, New York, Rick. And I feel like this is a pretty obvious question. Let's just say the UFC booked,

Raquel Pennington, Julianna Payne for the vacant title right now. And let's just say one of these ladies couldn't make it. Myrona Silva couldn't make it. But we got to get somebody in it to fight one of these women. But there's only two available. There's only two in the conversation that could get it. Who is the UFC call first? Ketland Vieira coming off of a win or Holly Holm.

coming off of the second round submission lost. I was hoping you were going to say. Yeah, you'll be Holly at home. Holly home. Or, you know what? I think you're right. Quite frankly, I know you said there's only two names. I know you said there's only two names and yeah, Holly Home will get it.

But I think even if you opened it up and expanded it, I think Misha Tate would get a call before Ketland Vera. I think if Pennington. I'll think Galdaona would get a call. I think if Pennington. Both of them. Veers beat both of those women. That's not what this business is. This is for the title and this is for a paper viewpoints

and they're just not going to hand it out like that. You know the fights I really want to see? I really want to see Pennington fight Winno Silva just so I can get Pena versus Macy Barber. Those are the fights that I want to happen just so I can see that. I really want Macy Barber and Giuliana Pena.

Can you imagine Macy Barber Macy Barber ends up being the Bantamweight champion afternoon? Why not? Why not? What a turt of events it would be? Because Macy, like I was in Jacksonville and Macy fought Amanda Hebas.

Amanda Hebas was over like Rover in Jacksonville. Like, Macy was not a fan favorite and she hasn't been for a while. But man, if she fought Julieta Pena, I think a lot of people would cheer for her. And if she became the Bannamway champion in like a baby face win,

like it'd be one of the greatest turns from like healed a baby face maybe in the history of the UFC. There'd be a lot of heat on that place. And would she become the youngest, she'll become the youngest female champion, right? How old is, who else would be in the running?

How old was Rhonda? How old is Rose? Yeah, how old was Rose. Maybe Rose. But I don't know, just saying, she'll be the youngest bantamweight champion. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know. Rhonda? I don't know. Yeah, I actually don't know the statistics on this. The only one I always know is the John Jones 22, 23 years and X number of day is like, that's the only one I know. We're good? More, one more questions? We'll take one more. Give me one more.

It was the best one you got. All right. Oh, best one. Hold on. Let me get rid of this one. Chad. It's not that one. Yeah, not that one.

Yeah, we got AKs on vacation, Damon's on vacation. we got shit to do, you know? All right, last one. Are you watching Barbie or Oppenheimer this weekend? You're watching both? Barbidheimer all day. Arbenheimer. What are you watching first?

What are you watching first, though? See, I feel like this is the correct answer. I don't feel like it's a debate. You must watch Oppenheimer then Barbie. That's the order. Okay. You have to have your meal and then have your dessert. That's just, that's just,

common sense right there. You have the meal and then you have your dessert. So I'm all in on Barbenheimer. Oh yeah, you better bet that Oppenheimer is getting watched and then Barbie's getting watched right after it. That's the move. See, I'm in a bit of a dilemma because tomorrow, I'm actually doing a jujitsu competition tomorrow.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, so I've been cutting away. I'm done. I had to make 165. So I'm 165 pounds right now, slim. Yeah. So does that mean you're not eating right now? Like, are you just going to try and carry it through all the way until tomorrow?

Oh, dude, it's not fun. It's not fun. Well, good luck. Yeah, thank you. But I won't have time to watch two movies. So I have to, but I told my wife, Esther Lynn, the great Esther, Lynn, that we can, we have to watch one because she leaves for Vegas to go work the Spence Crawford fight Monday. So, all right, we have our Sunday evening. We have to watch one of these.

So we haven't decided. Which did you choose? Oh, it's still up in the air? It's still up and there. Still up and there. I have a feeling we'll probably see Barbie, but I really want to see Oppenheimer too. Does it depend on how your Jiu-Jitsu tournament goes?

Like maybe you win and you're in a good mood and you're like, you know, oh, wow, like, I want to get really like reflective and watch Oppenheimer. Or you win and you're like, oh, it was so much fun, amazing. I'm in such a like happy-go-lucky type mood and you watch Barbie. Like I feel like the vibes of how you win, because I'm not even accounting for like the potential, the other potential. But after you win, after you win, maybe the vibes of how you feel after your performance, you're just like, yeah, let's go do one or the other.

I don't know. I don't know. We're going to play by ear tomorrow. Let it ride. Let it ride. Yeah. See how you feel after the tournament. It is a dilemma.

It is a weighing on me. Or you find some rando drive-in somewhere where you can watch both back-to-back. I don't know if I have the time. Yeah. I mean, they usually start pretty late. So you just sit in the comfort of your vehicle. You put a little Bluetooth speakers and just load up on food and you can eat that popcorn. See, Barb had a drive-thru.

It does sound kind of cool. I'll let you guys know Monday. I'll keep us updated. Show us the gold medal. Show us the gold medal that let us know what you picked. Yes. Hopefully you're at. Yeah.

Go on the MMA hour and give us an update on everything that happened. I think that's the way to go. All right, you can hit the music. Thank you very much. Matchmaking, going down tomorrow, on to the next one. As of right now, I'm doing the show solo with your picks. So just submit them. And we'll just get through it.

And then A.K. I'll be back next week. And things will go right back to normal right here in the MA Fighting Network. And then, of course, next week, everybody, UFC 291, Dustin Porier, Justin Gachie 2 for the BMF freaking title. That card's pretty damn good. Well, main card's really good. Prelims are kind of meh, but the main card's incredible.

It is incredible. So get excited. It's going to be a car crash of epic proportions for the BMF title, just the way it should be. So thank you all very much. It's going to be a fun week for New York Rick, for Casey, I am ICAC. Hope you guys enjoyed UFC London. We'll see you later on. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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