MMA Fighting - UFC on ESPN 10 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: June 14, 2020

MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alex K. Lee break down the top storylines following Saturday night's UFC on ESPN 10 event, including Cynthia Calvillo's unanimous decision win over Jessica Eye in the main event.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. UFC on ESPN10 or as it was hashtag all night, UFC Vegas 2 is in the books and compared to the enthusiasm shown for this event. I think this one exceeded expectations in a lot of ways as we kick off the official UFC Vegas 2 post-fight show here on MMATFight.com. I am Mike Heck. That is Alex K. K. Lee joining us. As always, Alex, we like to look at these events as a whole before we get into some of these big storylines.

So I'll throw it to you right off the bat. Your thoughts on this event in its entirety. Solid B. Solid B, Mike. And also the first thing I always want to say is thank you for everyone who's tuning in right now. If you guys are tuning in for our Post-Fite show for the sixth event in, six EOC event in the last month and up with us at around 1.30 in the morning, Eastern time. You guys are degenerates.

You guys are true fight fans. And I love you. But this card, I'll give a solid B. I think, I know the big flurry finishes the beginning. A solid. Super exciting. And, you know, there wasn't like any truly, like, offensive cards on the fight. Maybe the, you know, I know the main event wasn't exactly a thriller.

But I thought it was a solid card. That's really the nice thing to say about it. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I just don't want to go overboard with, like, you know, I don't think it overdelivered. I don't think it underdelivered. I think it was a passable card, which I think is all that Dana White really wanted to put out today. A B is better than a passable card, I think. I think this was, yeah, I think this is good.

I think this is like a D student who studied just a little bit longer and realized its potential. That's what, like, this card was. Yeah, again, like, I don't know if there's any fight that we expected to be exciting, that disappointed. I don't think there's any fight that we didn't expect to be exciting, that overdelivered. everything was kind of as it should have been. And then again, you had that bonus of some fighters really stepping up and getting big finishes and making a name for themselves. I guess you could argue my main argument would be I wish the card was arranged in different order. And I did not need a six-fight main card.

It became that after one of the fights dropped out, actually after the Derek Minter fight dropped out. For some reason, they decided to bump two fights up to the main card and then make it a four-fight prelimbs started seven. and that's why we're here at 1.30 instead of possibly 30 minutes earlier. So I wish they moved some things around. Julia Avala, I think, is someone who should have been on the main card. You know, look, I'm not saying anyone could have predicted she was going to get a 22-second finish, but it is the UFC's job to kind of be able to identify star talent and identify who they think is going to deliver in these moments. And I think a lot of people thought Avalo was going to have a strong performance.

She has all the makers of a star. I'm sure we'll talk about her more later. But that's, you know, card order I think is so important. And that's one thing I think the UFC kind of missed the mark on tonight. I would agree. I don't think they'll be making that mistake again with Julia Avila. But let's get right into the main event. Jessica I versus Cynthia Calvio.

I was a big story. She misses way for the second consecutive time. On, you know, yesterday it was 0.25 pounds. We found out a little bit more. Joanne Caldow was saying stuff on Twitter. But Cynthia Calvillo confirmed it in the post-fight press conference that she was like close to 1.30, 30 minutes before she actually hit the scale. and then she missed it by 0.25 pounds. So Tom Fulery was clearly in play, allegedly, at least from what Cynthia said,

so they have text messages to prove it with their management team. But Calvio makes her return to 125 for the first time since her pro debut. She gets it done. I thought she won all five rounds, but it was a big win for her. Another big fight awaits her. That was pretty impressive start to her flyweight run in the UFC. Yeah, no, definitely. I'm probably more of a believer in I being worthy of like, you know,

I think there's a lot of people who looked at the matchup and we're kind of like, sorry, one second. We're kind of thinking like, oh, like they had to almost be reminded that I was the number one contender and that, you know, she is only two fights removed from a title fight. I know what all the people remember about that was a head kick. But, you know, look, I earned her spot there. She won her next fight to kind of hold on to her number one contender spot. So I think it does mean something that Calbio put on such a good performance against Jessica I. it's not the deepest division you know cindic alveo said the same she kind of said the same said as much herself in her post fight scrum afterwards she's talking about why she took so long to move up from

115 pounds and she she almost like a point of pride she said she wanted to work her way up straw weight which she felt was a stronger division and finally she's kind of biting the bullet and moving up to 125 which is not as deep and it's only a good thing for her doesn't have to cut weight has a clear line to a title shot might be getting a title shot right away again she's She did just beat the number one contender. And I think when people kind of look at the rest of the list, there's not a lot of logical fights for her besides, you know, going up, just keep going up.

And you can't go much higher than number one. True that. We were talking, the truck and I have been having this discussion for the last couple of hours now. Obviously, Jessica I does not do herself any favors, all right? Missing weight twice in a row, everything that's been discussed and allegations that have been thrown out involving the weight cut and apparently some proof to that as well. But heading into this fight, especially after yesterday, have you seen in your entire career covering the sport

a number one ranked contender in any division getting disrespected as much as Jessica I has? Boy, she seems to have a lot of enemies, doesn't she? I'm not just talking about the fan reaction to the announcement of this main event. We saw Jojo Calderwood going after her. We know she's had a previous beef with Sejara Eubanks. And then we just saw, I think Sarah Kaufman also jumped in today to kind of back up some of the things that Jojo had been saying about just guys, wait, miss.

Yeah, look, I is a fighter with a strong personality, very active on social media, very open in interviews. Anyone who saw her media stuff this week or even any other, her other fight weeks, she's very open. She's very open, very honest, very willing to speak her mind. And sometimes that leads to a lot of exposure and a lot of publicity. which can be good, and sometimes at least to making a lot of enemies, which, again, can also be good, but I'm not sure how her eye feels about rubbing so many people the wrong way. Yeah, it is crazy to see someone who is officially ranked number one by the UFC almost seem universally disrespected. I don't want to say disliked, but definitely there's this big animosity towards her. I would agree with that 100%. And this week will be my debut of doing on to the next one solo for pay-per-views. You and I, team. up on these things, but I'd love to get your thoughts on where Cynthia Calvillo goes from tonight's win because she just dominated the number one rank contender to the division. All signs are pointing to Joanne Calderwood fighting Valencia Shepchenko next for the belt.

Caitlin Chican is there, called her right out. And then we have a big fight in the division next weekend between Murphy and Roxanne Mataferri. So where does she go from here if you're the matchmaker? Yeah. I mean, as I was saying before, I was looking at the list. I've got me on my own sort of personal rankings here. she's beaten Joanne Calderwood already. Again, I know Jojo's fighting Shochenko,

but I mean, that's not really, so that's another name that she could fight after they're done, but she has a win over her already, so it almost feels like she doesn't need to. Then you have Caitlin Chukagian who called her out, but then you run the risk of,

you know, Chukagian also recently fought for the flyway title. What if she beats Calvio, then suddenly you're knocking Calbio back, and then no one is campaigning for a Chukagian in Valentina Strachenko rematch at this moment anyway. So I like that fight on paper. I like the call-up by Chikagan. I thought it was very timely, very smart.

I think it would be a decent fight. But I don't like it from a matchmaker's perspective because you really need that Calvio win. Otherwise, it just makes your life harder. So I think she's going to have to wait for some of the dust to settle. Montefari Murphy, the Modifari-Murphy winner might be a good way for her to keep busy. But otherwise, I really wouldn't be surprised if they decided that Calvillo has enough kind of charisma and showed enough.

tonight to just throw her right in there, right to the shark tank with the champ Valentina Shepchenko. Wow. So you think there's a chance that she jumps the queue here? I think there's a good chance. I wouldn't do it. But again, I'm not Sean Shelby. I'm not Dana White.

I'm not McMaynard. I don't make these decisions. You know, the division has some issues. And he said, look, he seems very bullish on not doing a third Nunea Schofchenko fight, which seems like a very logical way to keep Chfchenko busy while also allowing the flyweight division to kind of sort itself out. But if the champ wants to keep busy and they got to get her a fight, look, Cabillo makes a lot of sense. If not, you know, one of the winners from these, after the Calderwood, of course, from one of these upcoming flyweight fights.

Okay. So you want Shevchenko versus Calderwood and then Calvio gets the winner. Yeah. I think, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm not campaigning for Calvia. Okay, all right. I was like, all right, you want Caldia just jump right in there and fight for the fight. And with respect to Jojo, I, you know, I'm speaking as if it's a, it's fair complete that Schochenko is just going to go into, going to. to beat Jojo. I'm not saying that at all, but I think most people would bet on Shetchenko winning

and should that happen, then I suppose, I think Calvio would make for an acceptable, if not ideal next challenger. And what about Jessica I, Alex? Back to back weight misses. She's lost two out of three. I still have no idea where this 48 to 47 scorecard came from tonight, but I has to go back to the drawing board. Where does she go from here? Is the drawing board lead her back up to 135 or, you know, what do we do? It's crazy because, I mean, I don't, you know, it's hard to say where these issues come from. Back-to-back weight misses, it's hard to ignore, you know. It happens once, that's fine.

You know, these things happen. You know, these fighters put their bodies through a lot. And again, she spoke of sort of, you know, the issues as a woman that she had that may have complimented her weight cut last time. I don't know if that mattered this time. She said it shouldn't have been a factor. So we don't know what went haywire this time around. But two straight misses at 125.

Again, she'd been abandoned wait for the longest time. But she made championship weight to fight Shevchenko. She's had great success at 125. It seems almost silly to go back up to 135. But she's 33 years old now. I don't know if these cuts are just getting harder. She does have a lot of fight mileage on her. She's entering the 10th year of her pro-MMA career.

And it just seems like going up to 135 would eliminate a lot of, you know, the factors that are making her life hard. the division is different now. She just kind of had some bad luck to do it. It wasn't like she was getting dominated at 135. She was losing a lot of decisions. So I think that would definitely be the most logical thing to do. Go back up, take another crack of 135, see if you can get some favorable matches up there,

and then see where things go for you. Yeah, I don't know how favorable they'll make the matchups after back-to-back weight misses. Maybe they just throw Julia Avula right at her and make up there. But co-made event, Marvin Mottori, kind of going from someone who had a bad, night to someone at a great night. First round submission win over his rival, Carl Roberson, got to get some of that adrenaline out, got to get some of that frustration out, if you will.

He gets it done, does it quickly, gets an extra 50 Gs to boat. This was a pretty good night for Mr. Vittoria, was it not? Yeah, look, I don't want to, I don't know anything about Carl Robertson personally, so I don't want to say that he's, I don't want to say making any aspers about his character, but he was in some ways the bad guy going to this fight. I think Bureau well aware, you know, their fight being canceled the first time and they have a run in the hotel lobby. And then, you know, it's, it's, it's, Roberson wasn't exactly like the most apologetic. I think it's fair to say he didn't have the most apologetic attitude. Maybe because Vittori came at him so hard, you know, was so, uh, frank about how upset he was about the last

by getting canceled. And then missing now. And Vittorio, of course, was all over social media after just posting memes and pictures, mocking, uh, Roberson's, another failed, uh, weight cut. So, So it was, aside from the personal factor and Vittor, seeing Vittori get some sort of vindication after, you know, struggling to even just get a fight for the last like three months, having bad luck in that regard. It was also just nice. It was a strong performance from him. He is a sleeper, middleweight contender.

You know, he fought on your four. It was a somewhat close fight. He mentioned, he's been mentioning he's always wanted to get that rematch. He mentioned again tonight. So he certainly did enough to get himself back up in that contender's stream. He's probably one or two fights away, but very, very strong performance against Roberson really showed off his whole striking submissions everything. So good for Vittoria in that regard. Well, where would you send him next?

I don't know if he gets into the 15 after tonight. He probably should, but if he doesn't, he's like just outside of it. And there's some fun fights out there for Marvin. And he's only 26 years old, which is pretty shocking as well. But what do you like for him next? I think Brad Tavar's sounds like the same. I don't know. Just throwing that.

out there. Yeah, and Brad DeVarro's always, it's kind of that mid-range gatekeeper. He's been in my sort of top 20. Oh, he froze. Oh, hello. He frozen. Man, they aren't sure looking

looking glorious as well. He's there. He's just there. All right, well, yeah. So Bradtivars, that sounds like fun. Truck, what do you think? What would you do in those shoes if you're booking Marvin Vittori's next fight. And what the hell's happening to me?

Are you frozen too? I'm scrambling. Maybe it's just my screen. Yeah, it's just your screen. All right. All right. Let me, let me, um, let me, um, reconnect with, um, Alex. Um, my, oh, Alex, I'm cutting you off, Alex.

Um, we got to fix your audio. So, um, Mike, if you just want to go solo on this for a little bit or ask the stupid truck what he thinks, but don't matter, but we're going to, I think, Alex, um, go ahead to hang up, but we're going to try to, reconnect to you. I'll try to reconnect. We'll try to reconnect. Okay. So we're going to try a whole bunch of different things. And that's the beauty of live television, ladies and gentlemen. So we're trying to be professional here. I want to go and I'm just going to looking at some of the comments here and see if there's any questions,

anything we can go with. Yep. Lots of Alex has no sounds. Alex has no sound. Can't read lips. Esther fixed this. Esther fixed this. Bald man speak only Alex me who had not heard the last three times he was said. Ha ha. I don't think any questions are being asked right now. Let's say. Fans in media picked the bonuses. That is true.

That is one thing that did come out tonight. Dana White took to social media and said, hey, you guys picked the bonuses and there you go. Can't hear Alex. Media. Make Alex the truck. Let's see. Julia Avila, super exciting.

Correct. Yeah, so there you go. Let's see what else is going on. All right. While we're going to Alex to reboot his computer. Yeah. Just looking at comments here. Let's see.

Media picked bonuses. Eastside San Jose stand up. Scy Calvillo getting the win. Carol Rosa Kavado was her opponent four times. That is correct. Can we talk about, um, I'm a mispronizing thing? How about we answer this question? This is a good one from Ryan B.

Raviswili. Marad Duolishwili. What is next for Marab de Walsh Willey after that performance tonight? I love that performance. I thought, I was like, that is a guy. He, until he is ranked in the top five, I think, he, that he is a matchmaker's nightmare. Because I just don't see anyone going, yeah, I want to fight that guy. I want to fight that guy.

It's just like, it just looks like 15 minutes of hell. He just, he just, he reminds me of a, he has. all the makings of a of a bantam way Habib he just has that same style just relentless just like that grindy wrestling just style like

when he had um uh gues got to say Gustav was his is it is it by Lopez when he had Lopez in that scarfold and he was like twisting his arm I was like man this guy is just

you know you know you put on one hell of an ass beating when all the announcers are going man And Lopez is tough. You know, when that's kind of the story, just like how much your opponent is just alive. So.

Yeah. That's a scary man. That's like, that might be literally the worst guy to have a debut against on 48 hours notice, like in any division. Just because, like, and obviously there's very talented and dangerous fighters out there. So if you think about it in that context, you might think I'm crazy. But if we're talking like risk versus reward, ranking, merit. autocracy, all that stuff. And then you have to go in there and fight that madman for 15 minutes and just get

constantly taken down and smothered. That is a tough matchup. But, Bravo Lopez, very game guy, very exciting fighter. We didn't really get to see him do what he does because it was short notice and you're fighting Marab.

But, you know, give that guy a full camp and give him a guy. I saw this on Twitter. Give him a guy like Lewis Smoker or something, someone that'll push him and get him into an exciting fight. So I like that idea. Alex,

So we get a mic check here? What's up? Why are you smiling, Alex? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just concerned about our technical difficulties, all on my end, by the way. So you guys, you know, you're in a crack job. You apparently live in a microwave, you said. Your internet router is inside of a microwave. I do live inside of a microwave. Yes, I put it inside of a microwave, and I always said it for 30 minutes when we start these broadcasts.

And for some reason, it causes problems. I don't know why, but there we go. Are we getting them? Is he good? now is fans fans YouTube commenters uh commenters uh they were they're about 30 seconds behind so okay so we're you know what we're gonna go and if we have a problem so we're you know what we're going to do alex we're throwing we're throwing the game plan out the window okay we're throwing the game plan turning i guess not we we tried but uh we're going to the people that's what we're

going to do one of the people oh dear um and i don't care mixed bag we're just going to ask everything here Gustafson and Verdume Do you like this fight? Yeah. Yeah, that's MMA. When I think of those fights like that, I think that's MMA. I love to look like that.

I know people probably don't want to see this like exodus of light heavy weights go up to heavyweight, but Gustafsons is always, he's a big guy, he's always someone I thought would do well at heavyweight. He might not quite have the power to go up there.

That's probably one reason why people would be concerned and maybe not the chin either. But I guess a guy like for Doom, you know, that might not be an issue. It's more of a style clash here, striker versus grappler, that sort of thing. So, yeah, I love it. It's like the kind of fight I certainly wouldn't have thought of,

but now that it's been brought up, I'm like, yeah, you know, just kind of cool, kind of cool matchup. I am all in for any kind of chaos. And that fight for some reason when that was announced, that created chaos. And I love when people react as such. So thank you, Sandy fan.

Great question. Who should Marvin Vittori fight next? We cut you off there. I say someone like a Brad Tavaris makes a lot of sense. sense. Maybe even your eye Hall makes some sense. What do you think? Yeah, there's a lot of good, like I said,

there's a lot of guys, good guys in that middle of the pack. I would love your eye haul. I think it is time for, you know, to really test him against a bitter. And I think I was saying Derek Brunson, the winner, maybe Brunson Shabazian, I don't know, unless you know, Shabazian, that puts him on a fast track, but yeah, that's

a good matchup. And I said maybe like Christoph Jock was some of that. I think it's time for and I think it's definitely time for him to step up and out of the sort of mid-range prospect area. Sandy fam another question. Rosenstrike versus JDS. Yeah. Why not?

Like, who do we think is going to win or is it a good? It's a great matchup. Yeah. Yeah, I think we talked about this. I think this came up on the way ends the other day. This is where this is where Junior is. You know, he's a former champion, but also someone who makes for a good gatekeeper and a very strong challenge for any up and coming heavyweight.

He's lost a step, but the skills are still there. So for a guy like Rosenstruck, he needs to bounce back. This is this chance. He's got to prove he can take out a hundred. high caliber technical fighter like JDS and that his hot start, you know, wasn't just that, you know, it wasn't a flash in the pan. All right. Carol Rosa is now fighting a UFC 251 versus Vanessa Mello.

That is correct. We answer the Marab question. Heck, have you ever cosplayed as Dana White? No. That's a lot of you guys. Don't look anything alike. All right. You guys don't look anything alike.

And I say this is a bald thing. My dad's bald too. I get, I get, I get, I get, I get, I get, uh, Jackie Chan and I get Bruce Lee. and I get Jeremy Lynn all the time. So I am defending you, sir, for just because you're bald. You do not look like every other bald man. You're not Dana White. You are not Telly Savalas.

You are not any number of bald celebrities out there. You are Mike Heck. You're your own man. And I won't have people making these base comparisons just because you're bald. I'm going to tell a really quick story. My wife is obviously a fan of mine because you wouldn't have married me. I would hope so. She's also very protective.

So while I don't look at the comments that often, like when between the links day, I looked at the comments and once in a while I'll peruse them but she likes to every once in a while like if she can't sleep she's just going to go on on the M.A. fighting and go on the YouTube page on the comments and she sees no no no no way things and I was like oh what do you think of that and she goes you know what they're not wrong

I can see that so thank you thank you for trying Dana likes a very successful man so yeah you know what not the worst comparison yes and he does a very good views so if I can get Dana White views I'll be happy should should Sean O'Malley fight Marab next

No, you can't do that. Cannot shake my head hard enough. You might lose my audio again, but you just, this is my, if I lose my audio again, this is all you need to see. You cannot do that. Please don't do that. Protect him. O'Malley versus Cheeto Vera's fight to make.

I've weighed this out. It's been a week now. That's the fight to make. Yeah, it's an exciting style matchup. It's a guy who's, I think, would still be ahead of him in the ranking. I don't know if I saw the updated rankings. week, but certainly in the same area, just outside the top 10. No, he should not fight Marab. Look, we talked about how much they protected McGregor before, and there was some truth to that,

like Connor McGregor and his rise to the top. They did give him like favorable striking matchups, and that's not a bad thing, people. When we're trying to develop bankable stars, yes, sometimes you have to give somewhat preferential matchmaking or at least matchmaking that doesn't expose their weaknesses, because why would you do that? I'm sure Amali is, very confident in his ground game, but against the wrestler like Mrab, man, I don't know. You've got to have elite, elite take down. I'm not sure anyone in the division can stop his takedowns. He might be the 135-pound Habib.

We'll see. And I don't think you need to throw O'Malley in with anyone like that right now. Let's see. What else we got here? Umar and Amaga made off for DeWalish Willie. He's fighting Nathaniel Wood on Fight Island. So that'll be interesting to do what comes out of that. That's his UFC debut.

Who do you give O'Malley? next. I think we talked about that. I don't want Marab v. O'Malley just yet. Greed for Doom fights. Where Doom fights, the way he did his last fight, he's going to get wrecked. That's very true as well. What else? There is.

Oh, good. They can hear you, Alex. So that's good. That's the most important thing. Tell the joke again, Alex. Back to Lumar. Dana said to Lorisanko, he expects all fighters to make weight during the pandemic. He was pissed three missed and Derek Minner dropped out.

Thoughts on that. This is, we've talked about this before. And the easy fix, Alex, and this is just easy. And we don't make sense in it, man, because why would we do that?

But the easy fix is outside of title fights and maybe like co-main events that have pivotal impact on the meritocracy of a division should all be up a weight class. Like we saw that tonight. We saw three fights that were up a weight last night. And four,

if you actually think about Dvalish Willie and Gustavo Lopez fighting at 140. And then maybe if you throw a just guy in there as well. Maybe there is five, considering where she ended up weighing in. But is that the like, it's, it's really hard to expect these guys to cut weight and make weight on three days notice, nine days notice. I mean, what do you expect these people to do? If we're just putting cards together just for the, just for the sake of doing it, which is, and for, you know, keeping your ESPN deal intact, which is what the UFC is doing, then yes, there's no reason to be a hard ass about sticking people

within those 135 pound, 125 pound, 125, 145 pound distinctions. It's just, it's not necessary. I know they want everything to be like in division and have rankings, implications and title implications, but you don't need that. Like, okay, look, we know Murab de Valsh-Fili is a 135er. Him fighting 140. We're not going to go like, oh, don't count that fight because it's happened at 140. We know he's a phantom weight. We know Brian Kelleher and Cody Stamen. Okay, they fought it featherweight. We know their phantom weights. I know Keller, It was his second straight, 145. But we know it was essentially a bantamweight fight that was bumped up to accommodate both guys because of the short-noticed nature of these.

Hold on. Hold on. I'm hearing something from the truck. Truck, go ahead. I've seen dozens of dozens of comments just complaining how these 35ers are fighting at featherweight, but they can't tell. Actually, no, no, not one person. Not one person in the history of the universe. I was like, the chat feet are you reading?

No, no, no. No, it's just, this, just, it's just, it's just, it's just, they know I and Mike Heck, um, look like, uh, form. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, like, not one person, even as a viewer, when you're, even as, when we're watching these fights, these fighters are going up and wait, which I've been professing so much in this, during this pandemic. Um, like, when you're watching, uh, um, Cody Stamon, um, is it Cody statement? Statement. Is it Cody Stamann? Who? Well, Keller, Calleran's statement. Yeah. Same. Last week, yeah. Like, you're not going, look at these fatties. They look exactly the same. It's just like, except they can actually just train healthy and fight better.

So I have no idea what Dana White is doing, sticking to this weird. I want them to suffer if they want to get paid type of thing. Yeah. And he definitely shouldn't be throwing people into the bus again who are taking fights on two weeks notice, three weeks notice, four days. Like, I hope he wasn't mad at the newcomer Adash. Because that guy took the fight again in like five or four days notice. Great. Yeah.

And again, sure, he's normally a flyweight, but it doesn't, look, some people are in shape all year around. Some people aren't. So he's doing you a favor. So I hope he's not one of the names that Danae was kind of lumping in as being upset with them because how is he supposed to make weight? He just got off the couch probably. Yeah.

It's crazy. So if you're joining us right now and you're just jumping on the street and you're like, what the hell is going on here? Chaos ensued early on. We had some technical difficulties. We seem to be going well. We broke down some of the fights tonight. And now we're just kind of free-flowing and giving it back to you after some technical problems early on in this thing.

So we'll run through a few of these comments here before we put a bow on this. Cool, the Fool said we're going with the flow tonight. That's exactly what we're doing. That's what live TV is all about. Lucy Goosey, baby. Lucy Goosey. Can we talk about Kevin Aguilar's inexplicable strategy of letting Rosa kick him for three rounds? Okay.

Well, look, again, let's give credit to Rosa instead and not criticize Aguilar. He's a home run hitter. Okay, this guy's a home run hitter. He landed some good shots in the fight. If you watch the fight, he definitely looks like he's kind of loading up for that big shot. And Rosa and his team had a great game plan. They did not let him get into any sort of rhythm, did not let him get comfortable. And they had a great game plan.

So credit to Rosa's kicking and not to, I'm sure Aguilar's defense could have been better. But that's not what I think people should fix it on. I think really all the credit should go to Rosa and his performance. Yeah, honestly, I don't like throwing the word dud out. And I'm not going to here. I wouldn't say he's a dud, but I expected a lot of Kevin Aguilar. A lot of best idea. On the contender series, and I expected to be a little moot for more far along.

And I don't know, I mean, I can't go into the mind of Kevin Aguilar. I don't know what's going on in his life. I don't know. But it didn't look great tonight. He just didn't. This is an interesting spot. The matchup was kind of preferable for him. but the styles turned out that they didn't match up at all.

But not a great performance from Kevin Aguilar. Charles Rose against his first win outside of Beantown. And in fairness, Egular, he's faced some very good competition. Sure. It was to Kugov and then before that Danny Gay. So, you know, no shame in losing to those guys. It's a tough three-fight losing streak. I do think I wish they would give Aguilar another chance.

But, you know, it's a cut-told business. We could very well see him, unfortunately, get his walking papers after this fight. I know you're looking at questions. I did before my computer inevitably explodes again. I got to talk about Agapova. I don't know if I missed the Agapova talk. Funny enough. The question we got from AL is how legit is she at 125?

And what is her ceiling? Readers, I feel you. I feel you. Even when my technology isn't working, I feel you. Just like we did before laptops and before phones. I feel you. She is sensational. Her, so, you know, she fell short in the Contender series.

to Tracy Cortez is a good fighter. So she didn't get the contract with that. Hits the ground running with Invicta. Two first round finishes against some tough competition. She beat Alexa Connors inside her round, very, very tough fighter. So she came in ideal circumstances for her. You don't want to get an opponent switch, but she did end up with Cyprus,

who had just fought two weeks ago, is considerably smaller than her. She's an Adam white. She's an Adam weight. She's an Adam way. She's an Adam way. And Agapova is a big flyweight. And she has all the makings of a top prospect.

She's only 23 years old. Physically, I think a lot of people say she looks like Yawanna Yachachic, which is an amazing comparison. That's an amazing person to be compared to. And she certainly live up to that hype. All credit to Cyphers for taking this fight, but it was definitely a mismatch on paper, and it turned out that way in practice as well. But again, I want to shine a line on Agapova. I hope they're careful with a matchmaking with her.

But she's got a huge, huge, huge, huge future ahead of her. Yeah, I think I was going to say that you may have to, I mean, we've seen. see lots of fights, but that was one of the biggest mismatches on paper and in actuality. And it showed and but you know what though? In a couple of weeks when she fights again, we're not going to remember that was a mismatch. We're just going to throw those highlight rules on. You're like, yeah, let's see her fight again. So for just great matchmaking actually by the UFC.

Because in the moment you're like, ooh, this is a bad matchup. But a couple weeks from now, a year from now when she's no fighting higher up on the card, Yeah, we don't, we won't care. Yeah. Hannah Seifers, you are too tough. You're too tough for your own good. I hope you can take a break because two fights, two weeks against McKenzie Dern, amazing grappler and Maria Agapova, top prospect.

Please, I'd take a rest. Yes, there are some holes on the June 27th car, but that doesn't mean you have to fill it right now. Take a breather. Take a breather. Have a Coke. Have a smile and eat some pizza and just chill out. You've earned that for sure.

Did we talk about Tyson, Nam? We tried. I don't know if anybody heard you talk about Tyson, Oh, no. I'll let you, now that we can hear you, Tyson Nam, brutal knocko win. Okay. It took him, I mean, it took him, what, 13, 13, 14 years to finally get to the UFC. And when he does, takes a short notice fight against Sergio Pettus.

And then he fights Kai Kair of France. And then he gets a short notice fight tonight. And we got to see vintage Tyson Nam. Like, if anyone had just seen Tyson Nam compete only in the UFC, like, this is the guy that we've seen fight around the world for a long time. Like when he wins fights, that's normally how he wins. So you got to see it tonight. He gets a $50,000 bonus, gets his first finish in the UFC, his first win in the UFC. Go ahead, Alex, take it away.

Mike, I think you and I, you've interviewed Tyson before, I assume. You've interviewed everyone. I've also had a good fortune of interviewing Tyson, a customer professional, a very, very decent man. And for the longest time, you know, he was just known as that guy who knocked out Eduardo Dantus. You know, that was the Tyson NAM, the quintessential Tyson NAM pilot. The guy who knocked out Dantus got into kind of a weird, a contract spat with Bellator,

which unfortunately kind of hindered him for a while. And that Dantas knocked out was eight years ago. In between, there was some good performances. He knocked out Ali Bagotinov, who if you remember, he once fought for the UFC flyweight title. So he has these, like, huge highlights in his career, but never could quite make it to the UFC and could never, and then made it, and they just couldn't get that win.

And I was very concerned for him that he would be released after those first two fights. But gets this fight at Bantamweight, much like Agapova, very favorable short notice matchup and takes care of business as he should. Just like I said, constant professional gets a first round knockout against a guy who he is so much more experienced, have more experience over 30. This was his 31st pro fight. This was Adishev's fifth.

So kudos to Nam for taking care of business and for getting that elusive win, having that feather in his cap because he's just been around forever. And he can now cross that off among the many other things he's done in every. may yes and then the uh uh jordan s jordan as binoza called out tyson nam after his win i think that's good matchmaking love it do it a 35 do it a 35 why not fight fight island both guys are on two fight losing streaks both guys needed to win both guys got it both guys had their best performances in the ufc to date that's good fight island make it happen i'm cool with that a couple more questions for you wrap this thing up it's it's not an island it's it's yas island it's Are you trying to sell some U.S.C. Fight Island shirts here?

Do you have some commission here, Mike? Yeah, you're under the table. I am Dana. I am Dana. I am Dana. Yeah, I can't get to get into a lot. I'll start to wear it on you. So a couple last things.

Let's talk about next week's card. Ryan B. asked this question a few times. Let's get to it. Why give Volkov to Blades? Does it help Curtis Blade stock if he wins next week, Alex? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Look, I think I know we get fixed at on the ranking sometimes, and it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's, he's fighting to hold on to his spot, essentially more so than, than build his name. But it's, look, it's always good to face high level competition. If your blades, I know he's done more than enough to earn a title shot. It's enforcement that he's kind of got stuck in the, the, you know, the Miochich, uh, Cormier limbo, which thankfully is scheduled to be resolved soon. But it's, look, a man's got to eat. I know.

know that's a that's a very base way of looking at why people fight but a man's got to eat and he's got to keep busy um it's a somewhat favorable matchup you know again he's a great wrestler he should be able to take bullcob down and control the fight that way on the other hand volcom is in a very very dangerous striker and and a big guy so um i don't know i i is it is it super beneficial for him to get this win should he defeat bolkov uh no it kind of just maintains the status quo but again if you're guy like blades everything's an opportunity for you to kind keep building your brand and keep building awareness about you. And hey, maybe he gets the win and does a huge callout and really, really builds up that interest in a fight with whoever walks out from that Kormier.

Well, I mean, if it's Miochich and not Kormier, who's probably going to retire. Yeah, he's in a pretty tough spot. So you just got to take fights and just stay active at this point if you're him and try to stay relevant because Francis, he's already got knocked up by Franciscano twice. So Ngano is definitely going to get the winner of D.C. and Stipe. So it could be like another year before Curtis Blades fights for the title, even if he runs off two wins, like in this year. So if he fights Volkov, then what do you do? Like give him like a Derek Lewis or something?

Like, I don't know. But he's in a- Rosenstruck and Rosenstruke beats JDS? I don't know. It's a very unfortunate situation to be in. You run back the, you fulfill the Nengano Blades trilogy. So many unanswered questions. So many answers.

Just go right back at it. But we can't wait real quick, but that heavyweight matchup, can we just talk about how comically awesome it will be to see these two giant gentlemen fighting in the small apex cage? I think that cage, I think the cage is only like maybe three feet high. I mean, they're going to just roll out. Look, Dana said the case. It's an illusion. It's an illusion, Michael.

It's an illusion. It's very vagus. Yes, it makes it an illusion. It makes no difference apparently It doesn't affect the quality of the fights at all I actually do agree If he was saying it doesn't affect the quality of the fights Okay, but if he's saying it doesn't lead to more finishes

I think he's off I think the stats tell a completely different story Yeah I think he turned I actually think Dana White turned into Do you guys ever see rounders The movie rounders? The parts of it I don't remember

The poker parts I've seen that is that with John Malkovich? Yes He turned into Teddy King KGB talking about the illusion of the cage. It's bullshit. You just changed accents. You became Teddy KGB from Rounders, which if you haven't seen Rounders, you've got to go out and see that movie.

What a weird thing for Dana to rail against. Why? I was trying to think of like, why would he not care? Why would he want to spin this in a way that the small, like, shouldn't he be saying the small cage is awesome right now? And people need to tune into every UFC Apex event because they're using the small cage. Like, what a weird non-sell of this, like this change that they've had to do, but that you can kind of make a selling point? I don't know. That was odd.

He did the classic Dana deflection, too, where it was just like, what, the Jacksonville fight sucked? Is that what you're trying to say? The Jacksonville fight sucked? My older brother, Dana. And you puts you on the spot, like, you're going through your mind. Like, if you think of Jackson, like, we think of the Jacksonville fights. There were three cards. I can only think of one fight for some reason.

I just think of Ferguson and Gaichi. Like, if you go, Jacksonville fight. It's just, but there were 30-some fights. I was like, I don't know. And then last question before we wrap up, co-main event for next week. All the feels. Emmett versus Burgos, what a fight that's going to be. I am super excited for that one.

That is, I'm looking more forward to that. No offense to Volkov and Blades, but Burgos versus Emmett just gives me goosebumps. I'm very excited for that fight. It's a huge fight at 45. Big spot for Shane Burgos. The last time he was in a position like this where he was in a high-level marquee fight was at UFC 220 in Boston when he fought Calvin Cater, and that fight was bananas for two rounds until Cater finished it. But he gets right back. He's run off some wins.

He's a top 10 guy now. And he gets a top 10 guy. This is what he wanted. He gets Josh Emmett, a very powerful guy. So it's power versus technique. I am looking forward to this one. I have your thoughts on the co-made event. And the dog's excited too.

Man, that featherweight division. I think we've said it in recent shows. Bantamweight, featherweight, from bantam weight to featherweight to lightweight to welterweight. Man, it's just so, so strong. And Shane Burgos, like, it's funny you mention him because I almost just, like, hadn't thought about him in a while. But it just shows you how deep this division is. I'm just looking at his resume now. He has some big names in there.

Charles Rosa, Godafonto Pepe. I know people don't remember Pepe as much anymore, but he was actually a really highly-touted prospect at the time. And then Cubs Swanson and won a decision over him and then beat Macquan and Mercani, another kind of up and coming guy in his last fight. So he's got a fan-friendly style. He's a good interview. I think he's very good with the media. And like you said, now he has an opportunity to face Emmett, another real slugger, very, very dangerous

opponent. But it'll be four straight wins if he picks it up next week in the co-main event. And there you go. You have yourself another contender at 145 pounds. So, you know, only good things for that division and for the fans. Yes, that is a great fight. It's a pretty good card. I've still dumbfounded that Murphy versus Modifery is the second fight of the night.

That's a big one at 25. That's an important fight. Like, I don't think it's anyone's jumping the queue, but winner could probably put themselves a position to fight Calvio to take on the winner of the winner. I mean, we're jumping ahead here. But that's a big one. These are two top five, top six flyweight, getting ready to do some battles. It's an important fight and buried on the prelims. What is up with getting buried in the?

It's like Perez and Formiga. And we saw what happened there. That was a great fight. Build your divisions, UFC. Build your divisions. Please. Build your divisions. Build your stars like Julia Avila, who we said tonight,

certainly someone who should have been on the main card. And yes, build your divisions. Put flyweight fights on the main card. Men's flyweight fights, women's flyweight fights. Put them on the main card. They're not going to harm you. They're very exciting and they need exposure for people to take them seriously. Well, we're going to get one on Fight Island for the title.

though not on a paper view. I forget what date that one is, but fight out. We get four cards. Yaz Island. Casey, Casey, Fight Island. Casey, Casey, oh no,

this is going to make him sad. Brawlhammas. The dream of the Brawlhammas is over. It was right there. It was right there. I know. I'm sorry. The dream is the Brawlhamas.

251 is a great car. I don't care if it's on Fight Island, Yaz Island, Plum Island. I don't care. That's a great card. I'm very excited for that. In fact, I spoke with Mr. Piotr-Yan this morning, as a matter of fact.

So you'll be hearing that interview Thursday on what the heck he had some interesting things to say, especially in regards to our colleague, Garemay Cruz's article with the interview with Eduardo Dantas. Who was there when Piotr Yon and Jose Al used to train with each other in Brazil when he took a little trip over there. And Piotrion gave his side of that story as well and had some things to say about Dantz's prediction of the fight. So you'll be able to hear that. Where was John training? Where was it?

Where was he located when you made the call? Or was that still everything? No secrets yet. Oh, uh, well, when he went to. No, when you called him. No, right now. On the interview. Right now.

Where is he? Bangkok. He's in Bangkok right now. That's, oh, yeah, sorry. Yeah. Interesting. Is he trained? I guess that's where he's training.

Is this camp in Bangkok? Yeah. Yeah. Very fun. Oh. He's a man of many nations. And I will say his, his English was coming along. We got probably like the first.

three questions, all English. And then he apologized, and I was like, no, no, no, no, we're getting. Take that, Henry Sehudo. Yes, we talked about that. He gave his thoughts on Algo, gave his thoughts on O'Malley, gave his thoughts on Cody. Of course, the fight with Jose Aldo. So there you go.

So that's coming up, a little teaser for you guys out there. Good for Yon, for working on that. English is hard, all right? I struggle with it. You guys have been watching me talk for the last, like, hour. I know. Trust me, it's very hard. People are all over pronunciations.

I got I got crap. Someone hit me up on Twitter because I because I said Israel Adisina. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's what he wants. How he wants it. That's how he wants it. Sorry, guys.

Addisni? Oh, man. The one that threw me off today was I thought. Adisania. I thought someone said Charles Chardin, like a silent S, like George, like George, St. Pierre. I thought I heard when they were announcers say, Charles. I'm like, I'm like, you know, I'm from Canada.

I'm not from French, French Canada, but, like, is that a thing? Charles with, like Charles with an S of the end and it's Charles, Charles Jodin? But I'm like, I think it's Charles. Anyway, that's our little pronunciation. What a high note to end this video on, talking about pronunciation. This is what we bring to you guys. The Yon, people. Piotrion, but lots to look forward to on what the heck.

But so this thing kind of went off the rails. And it happens. You know, it happens. We made it work. We turned it into the People's show. I mean, the People Show is really the ASI Live Chat, but we just did like a mini Saturday night post-fight fight talk show. And that's what we did. So, Alex, any final words in regards to tonight's event, UFC Fight Night, I v. Calvio?

I just want to say, holy crap, how many more events do we have coming up in the next few weeks? By the way, I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. We have our jobs are frigging amazing. I'm never going to complain about being here to talk about fights and to provide this dialogue for you guys. I love it. Love doing it. I love watching fights.

But holy cow. Yeah, we've got Blaise Volkov next week. Then a June 27th card as well. Okay. And then that is the last card. So eight cards in six weeks, I think, is the, if I'm doing my math correctly. And it's great. Great to have all these fighters in action.

Glad to see all these fighters getting put back to work. But thank you guys. everyone for sticking around. I always have to say this every time. And I know tonight's card, it didn't have the, you know, the best build. I know you guys weren't, it wasn't exactly highly anticipated, but I know a lot of you guys tuned in and commented on the site and, you know, checked in on our coverage. So I hope you guys enjoyed some of it, because there were some great highlights, some really, really good highlights, Nate. Yep, absolutely. Casey, what would you like to say? Yeah, just Alex, fix your internet, get a new computer. No, that was my laptop. I've, I've, I, I, I,

I've asked the mighty people at box media to help us, and I am still, I'm a ticket. My ticket is in the system. Bro, we're in a pandemic. I've said this before, bro, we're in a pandemic. We're in a pandemic. Right? Right. So there you go.

For A.K., for the truck, Casey Leiden, the dog that chimed in as well. Esther Lynn behind the scenes making things happen with the graphics. I am Mike Heck. We'll see you tomorrow. We'll see you Monday. And then between the links back on Tuesday, we got a very special guest, which we revealed on the last show. Jose Young's is going to defend his Between the Link's title against Aaron Bronstetter. We're bringing in an outsider for Between the Link.

So that should be a lot of fun. So guys, have a great night. Thanks for dealing with the technical difficulties earlier and hanging out with us. And Godspeed, have a good night. Heck of a night. Oh, that's got to be your sign off from now on. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.