MMA Fighting - UFC on ESPN 11 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: June 21, 2020

MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Alex K. Lee and E. Casey Leydon break down the top storylines from Saturday night’s UFC on ESPN 11 event in Las Vegas, including Curtis Blaydes’ unanimous decision win ...over Alexander Volkov in the main event, along with the exciting featherweight co-main event that saw Josh Emmett defeat Shane Burgos. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hey, we're live, everybody. Hope everyone enjoyed the fights tonight. The fourth of five straight events at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. And Alex K. Lee, it was so close to the camera. How about that? But that's just the excitement of the post-fight show. Come down, Alex.
Starting point is 00:00:20 Calm down, A-K. G. Larch and in charge. We love the excitement. We love the excitement. But Curtis Blades, end of the night with a big win, pretty dominant win over Alexander Volkov. Things got very interesting towards the end, but we're going to talk all about it because this is the UFC on ESPN 11 post-fight show live on the MAAfighting.com YouTube page.
Starting point is 00:00:39 I am Mike Keck. That is Alex K. Lee. That right over there, E. Casey Leiden. Let's get right into this thing. Of course, since you guys and gals are hanging out with us, we want to hear from you as well. So if you have questions, thoughts on the event, matchmaking ideas, fire them out there. We'll get to as many as we can in a little while at first. AK, it's funny how we look at these cards on paper, right?
Starting point is 00:00:59 Like last weekend's event, not a ton of excitement heading into it, but it delivered in a big way in the cage. This week, a lot of hype surrounding it. What's your overall letter grade for UFC Vegas 3? Okay, well, first of all, I'm going to give it a lower grade than I gave last week, which I think I gave either a B or a strong B plus. I'm actually going to go B minus this time, but I do feel like the quality of the matchups was better.
Starting point is 00:01:24 I mean, I think anyone just looking at the card on paper could tell you that. So no, we didn't get that kind of cool flurry of quick finishes that we got to open up last week's card. But there's a reason for that. These were higher caliber fighters. And I think the matchmaking actually did a good job. The minus is really more for the pacing of the event. I don't know why after a decision. I understand if there's a knockout, you got to fill time.
Starting point is 00:01:47 You got to feed the bulldog. This is a business. I totally understand. After a decision, which we had a few, several on the main card, man, you don't kind of wait 20 minutes between fights. This is crazy. Our show could have been on 45 minutes ago. What was your favorite commercial
Starting point is 00:02:00 that you saw 30 times? Just watch me now! Wow, that was really good. That was super impressive. It's burned my brain now, so sorry to everyone else now who now has that in their head. I was watching on ESPN Plus.
Starting point is 00:02:14 I can't believe they did a throwback Sports Center commercial with Peyton and Eli Manning. Peyton was wearing a Colts t-shirt, by the way. Indianapolis Colts T-shirt. Not even the team he ended his career with. So this is like, what are you filling time with at this point? But I totally agree with you there.
Starting point is 00:02:30 Casey, what say you? What's your grade? You know, the big commercial breaks really kind of, this is a weird fight night for me because normally during all fight cards, I'm actually working. And for the first time in, honestly, years, I actually just sat down to watch fights without really typing or doing video. So those commercials, yeah, it's hard to grade it because I just felt like,
Starting point is 00:02:55 you know but um yeah solid be it's all to be great it was uh for a fight night card an a level a minus fight card a b plus a minus fight card on paper b on in reality yeah i'm good to be the into to alex's point the prethums it was like a tornado it was like one fight after another we couldn't even like even if there's a finish we got right into the next one and there were some great fights some wild finishes pacing in the prethums was tremendous then the main car and man, did things slow down. The fights were very good. We'll get into some of those, and we'll do that right now.
Starting point is 00:03:31 Starting with the main event, Curtis Blades gets another big victory. He's won four in a row, had about 7,000 takedowns over Alexander Volkov. Both guys got pretty tired down the stretch, but in the end, Curtis Blades gets a big win and a big fight coming up. So what did you think of Curtis,
Starting point is 00:03:46 Raise Your Blades' Performance, A.K. Lee, in the main event tonight. I mean, look, it's a good win. It's a good win against a good opponent. It doesn't tell us anything new about Curtis Blades, unfortunately, Blades himself said, look, you know, with this tweet that recirculate tonight, of course, we put it on the account that you're saying, look, this is going to be 25 minutes of me, I mean, holding this guy down.
Starting point is 00:04:05 I'm not, I'm not going to stand and bang with him. Volkov's a good striker. He had a lot of respect for it. So, and we knew Blades could wrestle. I don't know if some people thought Volkov would be like that's a good test for that, but Volkov has never faced a wrestler on Blades's levels. So for me, that was not surprising at all to see Blades control the fight that way. And unfortunately, I think, I believe this is his first, uh,
Starting point is 00:04:25 five-round fight, at least in the UFC. His first time going five rounds, period. He did, the JDS was a five-round fight. It went at the end in the second. So his first time going 25 minutes ever in his career, and it didn't look, he didn't look like a champion by the end. He looked like, you know, he wanted to vomit. He was wobbly during his post-fight interview.
Starting point is 00:04:46 He won the fight for sure. But if you're trying to sell yourself as someone like, I'm going to give you five excellent rounds. If you put me in there with Stebei, you put me in there with Cormier, man, this just got to be some hesitancy on the part of Dana White and the matchmakers. Casey, you know, what did you think Curtis Blades performance? I think AK makes a pretty good point. Like, we didn't learn anything new here.
Starting point is 00:05:05 And when you're in a position like Curtis Blades where you get a heavyweight title fight coming up, you get a guy that's ahead of you that's already finished you twice, you probably want to go out there and just have this completely outstanding performance to sort of separate yourself or at least, you know, make sure that you're in that conversation once things sort of played themselves out. Did Curtis Blade's stock improve a lot tonight? Or just a tiny bit or not at all? It improved a tiny bit.
Starting point is 00:05:33 I disagree when you say we didn't learn anything. I think we learned that Curtis Blades isn't built for five rounds. I mean, he lost, I think he lost those last two rounds on two judges' scorecards, I believe. Is that correct? It would have to be, yeah, because I assume there was 10-8 in there somewhere, but it looks like someone had two rounds had to be given to Bullock. Yeah, so in two judges, he lost the last two rounds on it.
Starting point is 00:05:58 So clearly, you know, right now he isn't a five-round fighter. He's trained for five-round fights. This is his first time he's actually had to do it. So there are some issues on that. As far as his actual fighting style or, you know, his, yeah, I mean, that's Curtis Blades. We were kind of, I think we were kind of hoping in that second round when he came out and didn't go for the takedown. Okay, this was the game plan. No, tire him out in the first round.
Starting point is 00:06:21 and then whoop up and vote off, get that cool knockout, give me my title shot. But it just turned out, he actually, him standing up, you know, was kind of a, it was a, you know, it was false hope. And then he actually went, yeah, and he was, but he stuck true to his tweet. He sent out yesterday about, I'm just going to rag dog, rag dog this guy for 25 minutes,
Starting point is 00:06:41 or at least attempt to ragdoll him for 25 minutes. Yeah, my older brother who is a, I would say a casual MMA fan at best, text to me, he goes, this Russian dude is about us to get his ass kicked, right? That was the Texas Emmy at the beginning of the fight. I was like, well, he's probably going to get taken out a whole bunch of times, and then we'll see what happens from there. But we have some breaking news for those watching right now.
Starting point is 00:07:02 The bonuses are out. Performance bonuses goes to Justin, or as they said in the broadcast, Jesse Janes. The road dog, Jesse Janes. So the rookie gets a bonus, and the Wiley Veteran, Future Hall of Famer, Jim Miller gets a performance bonus. the most shocking revelation of the night was the fight of the night went to Josh Emmett and Shane Burgos. I mean, I don't know what they were thinking about there. But holy crap, what a great fight that is.
Starting point is 00:07:29 Perfect segue. Because what else needs to be said besides fighting out? That thing was ridiculous. So kudos to both Josh Emmett and Shane Burgos. I mean, holy potatoes. I'm still clapping. What a freaking fight that was. Josh Emmett has a massive third round on one leg.
Starting point is 00:07:46 He dropped Shane Burgos twice and gets the win. Casey, talk about as advertised, right? Oh, yes, yes. You know what? I saw a lot of people saying this should have been the main event. I'm a nice, I don't want fighters hurt, hurt, hurt. And I thought if this one had gone five rounds, there would have been like some serious brain damage
Starting point is 00:08:07 for both these gentlemen. So I think the way these guys were hitting each other, 15 minutes was actually perfect. But, yeah, has advertised. Actually, yeah, Emmett just, that was the Emmett that we kind of, kind of we've known, we've seen now. And he'll take a beating, and he just, man, he just, I can't, who has, maybe Jeremy, Jeremy Stevens, maybe, that just one punch.
Starting point is 00:08:30 Holy crap, that is very scary. And man, that first round, God dang, does Burgos have one of the best poker faces? He couldn't keep it up with the whole fight. But he was just eating monster shots that should have put him down. And it was just like, whoop just messed up his hair and he kept going. And Burgos was mixing up his attacks, you know, to him to head, doing a lot of leg attacks. which looked great, and I thought those were going to really pay off. As the fight went on, it turned out it didn't as much as I think Burgos wanted to.
Starting point is 00:08:56 But great bite by Emmett, great bite. Just great. It was even a little more frightening, talking about Burgos' chin, was when he was dropped the first time, he was smiling. Like, he was literally smiling as Josh Emmett was jumping down upon him. I had to see the replay. I had to see the replays. I thought, because of your smiles, I thought, oh, maybe it was a slip or something. Because the original angle on the broadcast, you know, it was kind of to their,
Starting point is 00:09:19 back so you weren't you weren't a hundred percent but then he showed the replayed no he got hit and then he smiled what a weirder I love the guy that was a that was a oh that was pretty good Josh aka as as everybody knows you are a wizard with your word so can you articulate your thoughts here into how this fight played out tonight look I picked I picked Emmett to win but I also picked him to win by knockout because I you know you do a little bit of research in these guys you see that burgos good technical fighter but as you guys said he's almost happy to get hit He was kind of like that with the Amir Kani fight as well. He got hit and he's like, yeah, okay, good.
Starting point is 00:09:53 This is what I want. I want to get hit. Wake me up. So I thought Emmett would win, but I thought he was being able to knock him out. I could not believe how many shots Burgos was taking. And I guess that's why he's okay with getting hit, because if you got a chin like that, it wasn't until the third round when we finally saw, he finally looked human and it was actually put on his back a couple of times.
Starting point is 00:10:12 So, boy, I was very impressed by Emmett, but also it's one of those fights where I really feel like Burgos did not lose much. And if you're high on Burgos as a prospect, you should not watch this fight and be like, oh, well, no, he was exposed. Nothing was exposed. I mean, he looks like a future world title contender still. As does Emmett, again, who I thought did a really good job with a guy who might be a
Starting point is 00:10:32 better technical struggle than him. He made a joke after about how people were saying it's precision versus power and power one. But I think Emmett's got a lot of technique too. And I think he showed that in addition to, man, that just like, like he said, that one of a kind, almost like only him and Jeremy Stevens, that kind of power. 145 pounds. Pretty interesting post-fight interview with John Anick afterwards because apparently
Starting point is 00:10:54 Emmett's not too happy with the media. I don't really understand why, honestly. Like, I honestly don't know any media member who flat out disrespected Josh Emmett and counted him out of the fight at all. But if they did, they're certainly not anymore, right? I picked him. Josh, if you're listening, if you see, I picked you, buddy. I gave you so much respect.
Starting point is 00:11:15 And you just see the stuff I got from the car. commenters on our website. I look like a fool. I look like a fool backing you up in the eyes of these internet trolls. And I took this damage for you, Josh. So, Josh, I hope you appreciate that I, unlike I guess the rest of this media, I'm not sure. You know, I can't speak from all my peers. But I definitely picked you.
Starting point is 00:11:35 And I don't want to be lumped in with all the people that were involved in that post-fight call-out. Was he specific? Like, what do you mean? Like, we just in general, just don't media, just didn't pick me in it? What was his beef? He just wants a little more coverage. I think there was some, odds-wise, I believe Burgos was the favorite, so there's always that aspect of it.
Starting point is 00:11:57 And I think Burgos, I don't know if he's doing the media rounds more. I'm not sure. I did not see him more. No, I did not see that. That might be how Emmett perceived it for whatever reason. But, yeah, he just seems to think he's not getting enough coverage and not being viewed as a serious contender. I think he thinks that people thought Burgos was going to.
Starting point is 00:12:16 This was a step-up fight for Burgos and not for him. But, you know, maybe he's one of those guys just needs a chip in his shoulder, get that had that Michael Jordan mentality. And whatever it was, it paid off tonight. Yeah, one thing he said in like kind of falling up on that, he was like, everyone said it was technique versus power, power one. So like, I mean, I don't think anybody was wrong in saying that. Like Burgos was, I think with Burgos was like a minus 160 favor heading into that fight.
Starting point is 00:12:41 A slight favorite. But I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I thought the line, the odds bakers got it right. I feel that even after tonight, like, Burgos may have lost, but I think Burgos is the more complete fighter overall. Maybe, I mean, he didn't win, but Emmett proved that he can change the course of a fight very, very quickly. Josh, are you hearing this? Josh. Hey, Josh, if you're out there, Mike Heck just said,
Starting point is 00:13:04 Shane Burgos is a more complete fighter than you. He is questioning your well-round. He's questioning your wrestling. He's questioning your jits. He might even be questioning your boxing. I'm not sure. But I'm just saying that is a, let's clip that later. truck can we oh sorry the truck's with us but let's click i want to clip that he said it himself power
Starting point is 00:13:21 won it was a great fight and he in the fact that he might have done it on like a torn ACL or something is even crazier like i've i've so much respect for that guy i think i think um a k hit it he's just one of those guys that he just needs that chip he needs to you know you see every championship fight and every guy and both fighters were say what they will say i'm the underdog, but I always fight better when I'm the underdog. I was like, well, how are you both the underdog? You know, like, no one ever believed in me. He's like, what are you talking about? You know, you know, so I think, I think this is just one of those things that he needs motivation for because, you know, just, I don't know. It's just, I don't know. It's just, but it's like, they fight really
Starting point is 00:14:03 tough. They do some crazy things in that cage, but it's just, it's, it's, this is weird. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, I'm a lot. I know, look, I know Mr. Dana White is going to say it didn't make a difference, but that was a huge thing in me picking my fight. I think, I think, again, Burgos is just a little bit faster, and again, would have a little bit easier time of avoiding that power of Emmett with an extra, what is it, five feet or something, or all around. It's significant, yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:31 Yeah, to work with. It really is significant. When they start the round off of that white shot and you see both fighters, and then you kind of go back in your memories how that white shot is when they do a paper view, you're like, whoa, those guys are close. Yeah, it's like two-step. You know, Emmett's like two steps in, you're in the range of my power, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:48 Yeah. So it makes a difference. Sorry, Dana White. How did you score that fight, Alex? I went, I had it, how did I score? I mean, obviously 29, 28 last round for Emmett, clearly. I think I also gave Emmett the, I think I went second and third. I think I thought Emmett started picking it up in the second round.
Starting point is 00:15:05 So I think I went to second and third. I wasn't, I wasn't really actively scoring in my mind at the time. That second round was, yeah. That second round was. I gave. Again, I gave, I thought Bergos was clearly. really won the second round. Okay.
Starting point is 00:15:16 First round was, first round was the point of it. Both rounds are super close. They were super close. But definitely Emmett with the third round, so. I think, I think the line is like, did Emmett have a 10-8 and the third?
Starting point is 00:15:27 I believe he didn't have a 10-A. I know Mike thinks he has a 10-A. I think, I think, I think, it was possible. I mean, obviously it was possible. I mean, it was, yeah. And I think the first round is, I think, um, Burgos has such a good poker face.
Starting point is 00:15:41 Um, from taking those big shots, but really, like, you look like you, they were just like, whatever and he just kept attacking his legs and then you know so but i think once i realized that that that knee the knee issue that emma had was pretty much on his own it was like a non-contact thing wasn't it like wasn't off a kick or anything yeah it was weird yeah so i think i was like i was like wait was that from a kick so i thought maybe there was some damage involved but no it was just a non-contact
Starting point is 00:16:04 injury um but uh i know you didn't ask me yet but i gave um emmett the first round and burghers the second round and then um a 10-9 for emmit and uh round and um a 10-9 for emit and uh round on three. I thought the Craig person won. Yeah, I have no argument with that. I didn't score to draw, but I was thinking it might have been a draw because, I mean, one knockdown is one thing, but when you get dropped twice, the second one was like a legit, like, whoa. No smiles. No smiling from Burgos that time. Yeah, there was no smile on the second one, but, you know, hats off to both guys. What an incredible fight that was. That's going to be in the conversation. Our own Jose Young's will riot. It will, it's probably
Starting point is 00:16:39 will scream. Maybe he hears me say that that, that, this fight was anywhere near Zhang and Yachachik, but it's a great fight. It's at least in the top five. I'm not saying it's better than Zhang Yajik, but it is up there. Let's at least have a conversation, please. Yeah, it could be a nominee. It's not going to win, but it could be a very strong nominee. If we're talking like best male three-round fight, very much up there.
Starting point is 00:17:01 Empty Arena, yeah. It was a great. It was a very good fight. It was a very good fight. I think Jeremy beats Josh again in the rematch. Hey. I'd like it at some point. At some point.
Starting point is 00:17:16 I think I think Josh is moving past that at this point. Really? Yeah, I would say he's probably already ahead of Stevenson. I had to look at the right. Who did Stevens just lose to recently? He lost to a top 10 fighter. Won't both these guys unranked? No, Emma was eight.
Starting point is 00:17:34 No, it was eight, Turkish is 10. Yeah. Oh, they were. Okay. I thought they were like outside of the top 10. Yeah. So naturally the progression is. Storyline cell.
Starting point is 00:17:43 He's just ahead of. Stevens. Stevens is ninth, so he's literally one spot ahead of Stevens. Yeah, so Burgos versus Stevens sounds like the fight to me. Ah, yes. And just a, we'll give a little teaser here. Emmett's got to get the winner of Cater and Ige. Like, it has to be, depending on how bad his knee is hurt. Because nothing else makes sense.
Starting point is 00:18:00 On to the next one teaser? On to the next one teaser? Yeah, this one's too easy, though. Like, nothing else makes sense. So, so clearly both those guys are ducking Ryan Hall. Oh, God. Everyone is. Ryan Hall's not fighting anybody right now.
Starting point is 00:18:13 He's made that perfectly clear. Until he can train in his gym and things open up and he's good to go. He's not fighting anybody right now. He's being, uh, yes, the merciful, the merciful Ryan Hall. He's letting the featherweight division play out a little bit before he gets back in there. They're not to worry about him lurking, lurking at any moment to take their spot. That's a very kind of, very kind of him. The gentleman, Ryan Hall.
Starting point is 00:18:33 All right. Nice. Uh, had a nice win for Rick, uh, nice one for Raquel Pennington tonight. I thought she looked really good picking up a win over the, I had no idea. I had no idea Marion Renaud was 43 years old. No clue. Whoa. Hey, 43 years young today, all right?
Starting point is 00:18:47 This is her birthday today. 43 years young to go three rounds in a UFC fight against a previous world title challenger, Raquel Pennington. And she had her moments, too. This wasn't like a domination by Raquel Pennington, by the way. I mean, Pennington had a convincing win, but Renault certainly had her moments. She's in ridiculous shape. It's super tough.
Starting point is 00:19:04 And again, 43 years old, God bless her. What a fighter, right? What an athlete. I'm just looking at our Slack Channel, Ripok. apparently Dana White is like, is ripping, he said, we got a message Dana crushing blades. I don't know if that's like, he's my favorite fighter or? Or maybe, maybe he meant crushing like, like, you know what, Curtis Blade, he is a cutie pie. Valentine's Day.
Starting point is 00:19:31 Oh, crushing on him. Yeah, crushing on him. Our buddy Aaron Bronstetter, he said that he's just, he's got some quotes. He said, Blade said, I don't have anything against the kid, but when you talk, can I swear on this? When you talk S, like he talked this week, you'd better come in and whoop someone's ass. So that's just part of it. I don't know. That might not be the super mean part.
Starting point is 00:19:51 All right. But anyways, we'll probably get more from that conversation. It was nice to Raquel and her fiance, Tisha Torres, get wins on the same card. I thought Tisha looked great. Brianna Van Buren is going to take this one and go back to the drawing board and she'll get better because of this. Bilal Muhammad gets a big one over Lyman Good. I thought Bilal looked awesome. Movement was great.
Starting point is 00:20:13 Volume is great. Fight IQ was on point. Big win for a member of the name. And then he goes on with sunglasses intact to talk to John Inick. And he calls out Santiago Ponziabio, said something to the effect of, you haven't fought for like 25 years. How are you still in the rankings? Which he isn't in the rankings looking back at.
Starting point is 00:20:32 He's not in there at all. But I like to call it nonetheless, A.K., is this the fight to make? First of all, I will say the glasses, normally glasses indoors. I would say is a no-no. I think it's an embarrassing to do. But this guy has just been a fight. His eyes are probably swelling up.
Starting point is 00:20:46 He had a nasty cut from a headbut that happened in the fight. So I was all, I'm like, Balal, you've earned wearing sunglasses indoors and on a nationally televised interview. So well done, sir. Yeah, I think that is a good, I don't know if it's a fight to make. It is a very good callout. Very, very smart call out. I think I saw someone suggest, I won't take credit for this.
Starting point is 00:21:05 Neil Magny, you know, who just fought recently and picked up a win. That would be I. Someone, Michael Heck. So, and I think that's a great matchup, so I'm not going to disagree with that. Love how Balal looked tonight. I was a little disappointed in Limon Good's performance. I was kind of using the same small cage theory that I used for Josh Hemmer because I had also picked Lyman good. And I was disappointed that he didn't get those hands going until later.
Starting point is 00:21:27 On the other hand, I'm not the one in there with Blah Muhammad getting repeatedly jabbed in the face and punched from every conceivable angle. So take my criticism with that with a grain of salt, Lyman. So, EKC, what do you think? What's next for Balah Mohamed? Oh, Muhammad, either Ponsanibio, if he's still in the UFC,
Starting point is 00:21:46 I have no idea. And, yeah, Magny, that's, he's just kind of just building his way up. I think there's no real gotta fight this guy
Starting point is 00:21:54 for Muhammad right now. But did, you know, every once in a while, you watch those, you know, you watch enough fights and sometimes you just,
Starting point is 00:22:01 you watch something totally different. And at least one, one person thought, agreed to me. Not that I thought good won the fight, like, dominantly or like 100% you won but I thought those first two rounds were super close
Starting point is 00:22:14 between him and uh Muhammad and in the last round to me clearly was good that was the most dominant round of the three rounds so like I know Mohammed won but um yeah I thought liming good I thought that was like you the best linem good we've seen in the UFC so um unfortunately you get the win but um especially that third round like um yeah so um yeah yeah Muhammad's hard to figure out that's the thing is I think of my thing is I just thought good to figure about sooner but it definitely took a while Watching that fight, Muhammad is not an easy guy to hit. He has zone power.
Starting point is 00:22:43 I mean, I know Good had the power advantage here, but Muhammad can definitely bang. So, yeah, like I said, I want to see a little more from good, but I think you're right. It was a good performance, for sure. Yeah. And by the way, feel free, throw your comments, questions. We're here to talk with you guys as well. UFC on ESPN 11. Do we have something coming up?
Starting point is 00:23:05 Oh, no, no. Do it go through the fight real quick, then we'll hit some questions. yeah. All right. Yeah, Jim Miller. We got to talk about Jim Miller. Do we have to? What did he really do?
Starting point is 00:23:17 Of course. What did he really do tonight, Mike? We got to talk to it. Is that a new nickname? Is that a new nickname? No, it's old. A10? I always thought his nickname.
Starting point is 00:23:26 It's never used. Okay. It's never used, yeah. But it is. He's had it for a while. Okay. What a win. I don't approve that.
Starting point is 00:23:32 Oh, what a barbats. Awesome arm bar. Oh, my God. That arm bar was just, that was MMA experience. That wasn't like, that position they're in, you can kind of train for that, but that's just years of fighting at a super high level.
Starting point is 00:23:46 And Roosevelt is just not having that experience, honestly. And, uh, man, I was picking Roosevelt in this fight. I thought this is one of those, okay, this is a new, a new contender type of fight,
Starting point is 00:23:57 you know, beat at the vet, but nope, I was wrong. Jim Miller, man. Anti-antile disease, Jim Miller is, who, he's a,
Starting point is 00:24:06 he's a badass. Now he wants to go to Fight Island. You got to respect that. He just wants to keep going. He just wants to keep rolling. He's unbelievable. I also picked Roberts. I think Roberts became a very trendy pick this week.
Starting point is 00:24:19 I think I saw someone say there's a lot of movement on the line for Roberts Miller in favor of Roberts. He became a bigger favorite before fight night. And in my classic fight tradition style, I said all the reasons why Jim Miller would win and then picked Roberts. And it was really just saying, Roberts, if he's going to go to the ground with Miller, needs to hurt him on the like it has to be one of those like knock him down first and then go to the ground and you know ground and pound thing don't just try and grapple with jimilla that's insane sure enough it was miller who initiated the grappling but roberts should have been in emergency i got to get out of
Starting point is 00:24:50 here mode as soon as that happened instead he probably lingered in that position too long and by the way too long with the grappler of jimiller's level is like half a second if you're in there for half a second he's going to get you and sure enough threw up that arm bar it's just a classic classic move what what a phenomenal fighter this guy is, and he took out a guy with a lot less experience. Red Pill says, expected a little more from Roosevelt, maybe too quick a turnaround.
Starting point is 00:25:14 Big weight cut. I think it's more about the weight cut. Sure. Because he's like, he cut back down 55 back to back weeks, and he talks about, no, these weight cuts aren't easy.
Starting point is 00:25:22 So I'm just, I don't think that changes a fight, but I'm sure that didn't help. Yeah. What's next for Jim Miller, AK? Does I have, I have one.
Starting point is 00:25:34 I have one. I think I have the perfect one, but you go. The March, well, I mean, gosh, he just wants to continue that, excuse me, that March to a 40 UFC fights. This was number 35 today, I believe, which is insane. That's, that's way more fights than most people have in their MMA careers, much less in the UFC. 21 out of 35, 21 wins. That's not bad. That's really not bad.
Starting point is 00:26:00 Okay, Mike, I don't know if you tweeted this earlier. I didn't see it. Where does Jim Miller go? I'd like to see a match up with, and I don't know if this is good for the guy I'm saying, but I think Benile Dereux should be interesting, just for the grappling aspect. I think it would be so much fun.
Starting point is 00:26:18 Gosh, so using time, I'm just kind of looking at my list, my internal, my secret internal rank. Yeah, this is my secret internal rankings here. Diego Faheda. Oh, he's in the top 10, though. He's not going to want to go back and fight Jim Miller. Bobby Green?
Starting point is 00:26:30 No, that's just going to be random. I don't know. Bobby Green's next by your set. I'll throw my own, I'll throw what I just, my first, my first suggestion. I think, I think Darius should be a fun one. I don't know if Darius should want to take that, but I'd like to see that way. Here's, here's mine. It's a guy who fought B'Neil Daryush.
Starting point is 00:26:45 Jim Miller versus Alexander Hernandez. Oh. I like it. I like it. I approve. I think it's perfect. Why another young gunner, Michael? Who else is the whole?
Starting point is 00:26:55 Who else is he going to fight? There's a lot of veterans, a lot of people, his age. Like, Roosevelt Roberts was like, was getting up there. He's starting to slowly climb. So Jim Miller's going to, Jim Miller's a guy that it's kind of like a test. Not that he's a, I don't know the word I'm looking for. He's not a, he's not a, he's not a gaykeeper. No, there's nobody like him. There's nobody like him. There's nobody has his resume. Yeah. But Hernandez, I think, I think's a good fight. Like, I think it's a, it's a good one. We can see Hernandez on the ground. You know,
Starting point is 00:27:27 Hernandez may have the advantage in the standup. Could be, you know, a win to get him back up there as well and Jim Miller could just continue to impress everybody if he beats a guy like Hernandez. So I think it's a good matchup. Hernandez is probably like top 20, top 23, 24, 25 and that neck of the woods. I think that's like right around where Jim Miller is right now in that weight division. What about Jim Miller versus Gregor Gillespie? I was just looking at that. It's a very good one too. It's a very high jump for Jim Miller.
Starting point is 00:27:57 But yeah, obviously the style. But Jim Miller used to be that high. I mean, he was, you used to be, you know, and maybe this new. this new Jim Miller and there's no parasite-free Jim Miller. You know, is it a parasite? I'm not a doctor for me. Well, I know you get bit by tick.
Starting point is 00:28:11 He's anti-tick, you know, but, like, he's been talking about this a lot. Like, he's like, I'm a different fighter now. Like, he's like, my body's, like, I don't have, you may think I have wearing terror, but I feel fresh. So I don't, I don't think Jim Miller is ever going to be a constant top 10 guy anymore. But I think anyone of the top.
Starting point is 00:28:32 15. He's a tough, fun, challenging fight for a lot of people. So, um, yeah, he has the name and the resume that you could put him up with almost anyone and no one's going to, no one's going to say, oh, that Jim Miller doesn't deserve that fight. It's like, no, he's Jim Miller. He's been around forever. He's fought so many top 10 guys that you're right, putting him in there with another one after a win like that. I don't think anyone would complain too much. Yeah. When does anybody seem Jim Miller, like a Jim Miller fight announced and they're like, oh, this matchup sucks. No, never. You never hear that. It doesn't matter. Like, Roosevelt, Roberts most people probably like ooh I don't know but they're like ooh this is a good
Starting point is 00:29:06 one like doesn't matter who they match him up with you want to watch it because he's Jim Miller Jim freaking Miller that's a much better that's a much better that's a much better yeah freaking Miller yeah I like that I'm gonna I'm gonna call up Wikipedia and change it there you go Bobby Green gets a win over Clay Guida in a very bizarre weird awesome fight just like everything you'd hope for Tisa Torres beats Viet Brana Van Burenne Mark Andre Barrio Get to win. Tisha Torres in the small cage.
Starting point is 00:29:35 Fireworks. Fire. It's where this fight was meant to happen. Yeah. Do not ever put Tisha in the big cage because she is just too, there's too much room for her to kind of bounce around. Small cage,
Starting point is 00:29:45 like, boom, just lightning. It's like, or like, or has Dominic Cruz, she fights like, Tisha Torres fights as if she's a little tornado. Very, very good. I was like, hmm. Dominic Cruz dropped up big fat, what the heck during the COVID. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:02 Yeah, shout out for the show. Nice. Thank you, Dominic. Appreciate it. Much appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Starting point is 00:30:06 Former guest. Courtney Casey versus Jillian Robertson. Julian Robertson, the nice submission win. She looked pretty fantastic. Yes, Canadian content. You also meant you were about to mention Mark, Monterey, Barreou before. And picking up a much needed, a much needed U.S. when he was big prospect coming out of here.
Starting point is 00:30:22 0 and 3 to start his U.C career. It was definitely, and now facing up Piokota. So I can do Barrio, but I can go Pagota. Pihota, thank you. Who started off two and no in the U. and then lost three straight. So this was essentially as crude as it sounds, loser leaves town. So congrass to Mark Andre for getting that win. And also, like as you were saying, Gillian Robertson, Canada, baby. Yes, big night for Canada.
Starting point is 00:30:43 Because I think the, someone put it up on Twitter that Jillian Robertson was trying to break the curse of Canadian fighters in the UFC apex. Hadn't happen. We hadn't had one single Canadian fighter win in the apex, even on the contender series. So there you go. Congratulations of those to for getting it done. Wait, wait. That curse was like only like, what, like six months? How long was that? We're approaching a year, Casey. Contender series is like two, well, it has been going on for, like two years.
Starting point is 00:31:12 Oh, so you're up, but the Apex. You're right, you're right. Pay attention, okay. Although I don't know if a Canadians ever, I think, I don't think a Canadians won on the Contender Series at all. No, that he was counting that as well, yeah. Yeah, I forget. Yeah, there's one who got in there and lost like right away.
Starting point is 00:31:27 I forget, I forget his name. He got to start. I want to say it's like, I don't remember. We'll move on. Justin James, awesome debut. Did what he needed to do. Just went out there and went blitz mode and got the job done. But you know what?
Starting point is 00:31:39 We're going to talk about a fight that got underappreciated since it was books. And even tonight, they're talking about they're previewing the card. And they're like, oh, we got this great stacked preliminary card. It's going to start with this fight. And then they just continue to skip over it. Lauren Murphy versus Roxanne Motifery. Huge fight at Women's 125. no love at all.
Starting point is 00:31:59 No post-fight interview. No post-fight interview. And Lauren Murphy gets another big win. Clear win for Lauren Murphy. Roxanne Mout of Ferry. What are you going to say, Alex? I think Murphy did get a post-fight interview, just for the record. I believe she did.
Starting point is 00:32:13 From Annik? I believe she did. Nah, bro. No, she did. Nah, bro. I was waiting for it. I was going to call out Valentina. What's going on?
Starting point is 00:32:22 Nothing. She called out Cynthia Calvio and the scrum. Which is the fight to make. There's no other fight. I stand by my statement. I'm not crazy. I know what I saw. I stand by my statement.
Starting point is 00:32:33 I have no proof. I have no proof. They definitely had no Tia Torres. That was, there was no Lauren Murphy interview. There wasn't. Like on ESPN Plus, there definitely wasn't.
Starting point is 00:32:42 Well, maybe it was a TSN exclusive. That's quite a quality content we get up here in Canada. Okay, I'm sorry. So I think we actually did get one on TSN. I guess you missed out. It was incredible. Yes. Tell us more about it.
Starting point is 00:32:56 What did she say? You know, it was really not enough time for that, guys. I think we just got to move on. Let's move on to the next, what were you saying, Mike? I think we're moving on to the next fight, I believe. No. Shout out of MMA fighting. You know, definitely not.
Starting point is 00:33:08 But I definitely would have remembered if she had done that. No, definitely not. We should say also Murphy won great performance by her. She's moving up those rankings, you know, those fly-out rankings. But poor, we were saying the fight being overlooked. Roxanne, who just coming off that win over Macy Barber, who's getting so much publicity from the UFC, I believe she's been on main cards already.
Starting point is 00:33:28 And it's fine. Macy's a great prospect. But for Montefari to beat her convincingly, and they get bumped down to such a low spot on this card, a very stacked card, but still, it's just the optics are so bad. It can't be the second fight of the night.
Starting point is 00:33:42 It can't be, especially when you're starting a fight card at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard time. So you're expected, and I remember Aaron Bronsetter, who everyone thought beat Jose Young's on between the links. He said, a place one on the card doesn't matter.
Starting point is 00:33:54 the UFC's just, they're sprinkling things around, so everyone sticks around from beginning to end. You expect somebody in California that is at a barbecue having the time of their lives to be like, oh, it's 2 o'clock. I need to go home and watch these fights. I don't want to miss Lauren Murphy versus Roxanne Mettifery. Come on, dude. At least put it in that, like, featured prelim spot or somewhere up there. Open up that main card.
Starting point is 00:34:17 Whatever, they deserve better than that. But Lauren versus Calvio, Craig Barn, is the fight to make. although I will throw this out there Lauren Murphy versus Jessica I I don't hate that fight either there's some heat and has gone on for years between those two I like that fight better
Starting point is 00:34:35 I like that fight better yeah but I think I think if we're looking at Calvio is like next in line and we have to give her like a contender fight like winner moves on to fight the winner of Valentina and Jojo it's got to be Lauren Murphy so it just depends on how they look at it
Starting point is 00:34:49 that's what we got to do. But I do want to see Laura Murphers, Jessica, at some point. You mentioned it. And I was like, I was like, I just assumed that fight had, it happened. But I guess, I guess it hasn't, it hasn't happened before. So I'm for sure, that's a good matchup. But I know Laura Murphy would have some hesitation, not because she doesn't think she could be just guy,
Starting point is 00:35:07 but she'd be afraid that Jessica would miss weight again. And Lauren's had to deal with that. Roxanne said to deal with that a lot. So that's something that both of those women preach about. And, you know, that's why they're excited to fight each other because they knew they were both going to make weight. So, and then Austin Hubber with a nice win over the newcomer. Are we going to talk about that?
Starting point is 00:35:26 I think we got to talk about this. Go ahead. I mean, I think it's one of the reasons why, you know, I'd love to talk about some of the other prelims more, but I think there's a reason we kind of carved out some time for this. I'm sure most people, well, I always say most people, not everyone might have seen this, but they've at least seen the story by now that Max Roscoff, UFC Newcomer taking this fight on, I believe, six days notice. Very short notice.
Starting point is 00:35:47 Yeah, it was really, really, really taken to be. beating near the end of the second round from Austin Hubbard, a much more experienced opponent. He's a five-ed-hout fighter, only five professional fights. Yeah. Yeah, and the broadcast gets right in there, right into Roscoff's corner, and you hear him just go, call it. And it's a little unclear. I'm watching the broadcast.
Starting point is 00:36:03 I'm just a call it. Okay. I'm like, well, I'm not exactly sure what he's saying, but he repeats call it. He's at least seven or eight times. And then you can definitely hear his corner kind of protesting his sentiment and saying something to effective. No, no, no, you've got to get out there five more minutes. Give it all you got.
Starting point is 00:36:17 You're a champion. Yeah, you're a champion. be in direct, definitely saying no. I believe one or two times they said no, no, as in we're just not going to call it. And thankfully, the referee and the ringside position stepped in and just straight up asked Roscoop, do you want to continue? And he stuck to his guns.
Starting point is 00:36:33 No, I want out. And the fight was waved off there. But it was called like a kind of a doctor stoppage or from the doctor's, you know, advice the fight was stopped. But that really wasn't it. It was really just Roscoop saying, I'm done. And of course, I understand there's a lot of controversy, which is, I guess, why we're talking about now.
Starting point is 00:36:49 I'm glad he knew he was done and the fight was stopped, but I don't know what you guys think. Yeah, I mean, it's a tough conversation to have because one, I'm not a fighter and two, I'm not a coach nor a cornerman. So I understand that fighters sometimes getting these positions, like Robert Drysdale has made some comments about this saying, like, listen, I'm trying to fire up my fighter. Like, I know him.
Starting point is 00:37:12 I know him a lot better than you guys do. And sometimes you just need that verbal kick in the ass. And that's what you try to give him. Max wanted nothing to do with it. So eventually you get to a point where you realize, like, all right, it's not happening. Let's just, let's just call it. But Max just did it himself, which, you know, you can't really get mad at him for that. And I don't think Robert Dreisdell deserves a ton of criticism for trying to get his fighter back in there.
Starting point is 00:37:38 At least, I mean, but to your point, Alex, because, again, I was watching ESPN Plus. I didn't see they went to commercial between rounds. so we didn't catch it. I didn't catch that conversation until like they got back from break and they're like, this just happened moments ago. And then we saw Max Collett himself. So I didn't even see the rest of that conversation. So I may not be even the person to answer this.
Starting point is 00:38:02 You got you, what did you think of it? You guys didn't get the Annette Murphy interview or the live corner. Man, that ESPN Plus. That ESPN Plus is a gyp. Yeah, 499. And I just kept getting the same Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. All night luck. Casey, what did you think of how that first fight played out?
Starting point is 00:38:22 How did he say Max's last name? Roscoff. Rosscoff. I thought Roscoff did it. I thought Roscoff was great in the first round. He clearly is a jiu-jitsu guy. And he was going for those leg locks. But obviously, he just doesn't have the full,
Starting point is 00:38:37 he just has enough weapons to beat Hubbard. When that second round ended, you were like, dude, this guy comes out for that third round. He is going to get not. knocked out bad he was getting just hit clean in that end of that second round the last like 45 seconds max had nothing hubbard was just teeing off on him it was just nothing there and like say you want to compare this to um the rakel pennington situation for when she came up around five when she said she was done and um mark montoy the what was her corner pennington's corners
Starting point is 00:39:10 i don't remember was the time was it was a mark montoya no i may have that mixed up sorry i forget It was. But her corner, because Raquel said, like, basically it's something to me, I'm done. And the corner's like, no, you're blah, blah, blah, you're going to go out there. And she's like, okay. And she went out there. Max, this was not a title fight. This is like, first fight in the UFC.
Starting point is 00:39:28 You came in on basically like 15 minutes notice. You know, you're expected to lose this fight, to be honest. And the fact that he said, call it. He had to whisper call out nine times to Robert Drysdale. That's a sign, bro. Like, it's okay. And, like, that's why we have the towel, because, like, the refs, the refs want the corners to tell the, they go, hey, this guy, our guy is done. They don't want to, it's, it's not cool to put your fighter in that position to he himself say, I quit.
Starting point is 00:39:58 That's kind of the corner's job. They're like, dude, my guy wants to fight, but I'm not going to let you fight. You see him boxing all the time, you know, like, I'm going to give you, like, one more round. If you don't punch back, I'm calling the fight, you know, their own corner. So the corners are saving the fighters, and that's what the corner should have done. like did Robert Dreiser really think that Max had enough in him to defeat Hubbard in that third round? I think that's, I think that's even crazier, you know? So, and I'm not saying Robert Dreiser was a bad coach, I'm just saying he made a mistake.
Starting point is 00:40:26 That's all. He made a mistake. And yeah, that's about it. And big props to ESPN for the great coverage and providing that for us. And so, because that's, you know, we see these fights and everything. these are just no two gladiators going at it but like but that's that's just kind of that's all BS these are just two dudes who are just trying to trying to make a dream come true you know that's what it is like these guys like they have roommates you know it's not like they're these big millionaire
Starting point is 00:40:55 fighters just two dudes have roommates they have they have second jobs you know this isn't even their primary living and for a guy like max yeah just dude come on come on come on mr dry so he was done yeah it is it is it is it is the corner's job not just to protect the fighters' health, but to protect their reputations. That's, that was one of the real tragedies here was it's they left him alone, essentially to make that call. You know, he's alone now. All this talk, all these trolls that are coming out now and criticizing Max and calling me a quitter.
Starting point is 00:41:25 It's all targeted at him because they know that he, that his corner did, they weren't with him. They didn't have his back on this decision. They said, all right, they essentially said, Max, do you want to quit? That's on you. Okay. I don't mean to put words in Robert Drysdale's mouth there. And I don't want to throw. Robert Drysdale too much under the bus.
Starting point is 00:41:42 He's been in combat sports for a long time, you know, a great grappler, a brief MMA career. He knows more about fighting than, of course, any of us ever will. But I think it's just common sense to see that it wasn't there. Now, I'm glad you brought up the Pennington thing because afterwards, you know, she said she was fine with it. She did not make any negative comments on her corner. She said, you know what?
Starting point is 00:42:02 It's what I would have wanted anyway, even though it ended so poorly. Roscoff, we haven't heard from yet. his manager Brian Butler did give a statement to ESPN saying Max was suffering from fatigue, which is backing at what Drysdale said. Drysdale was saying that he was tired, not hurt, which by the way, it can be just as bad.
Starting point is 00:42:20 I think it's the biggest knockout. Those are so dangerous. Like your jaw is hanging like, oh my God. He might have just collapsed out there. Can you imagine just going for some Iminari role and just not getting him back up just being like, I'm done? Like how embarrassing would that have been? And then having to quit mid-round,
Starting point is 00:42:33 just like, you know, I'm just not getting up. I'm not getting up. Like a Knicks-Sera. I was going to say this here. I'm done I'm not getting up. But that would even worse, right? Plus, you're at the possibility of just getting punched more and getting knocked out. But yes, Brian Butler said fatigue, the short notice weight cut.
Starting point is 00:42:47 He had turf toe injury, which of course was just all sorts of discomfort. So that's a statement from the management so far that he needs time to heal up. And it was all these things added up, not just necessarily what we saw on screen. So a lot of stuff going on. I do agree. I hope Drysdale would also take this as a learning experience. but we'll see we'll see i think in the coming of week statements from drysdale and rosscoff and everyone else and hopefully max can bounce back from this because he was a highly touted
Starting point is 00:43:15 prospect very talented and this is one of the things people were concerned about like if you go in there and just get starched by a guy like austin hubbard i mean that just stunts you in a big way and this one just did not go his way in a lot of different ways contender series would have in a perfect spot for him just to slowly build them up but again i mean look look at justin joseon He comes in on like two days notice and knocks out Frank Camacho. So I mean, each, each story is different. Each individual is different. It is what it is, but you know, Justin has a ton of experience, a ton of fights.
Starting point is 00:43:49 Max has five pro fights. So Max only has now one loss and no concussions, no major major head trauma. So like, does anyone, did anyone think that Max was going to come back and win that third round? That's the thing. No, he looked ejected at the end of the first because he couldn't get a, because he couldn't get the submission. Hubbard looked good though. We got to give him some credit.
Starting point is 00:44:13 He's come a long way. His striking was great. Normally he's like, he just gets right after you and is very, very aggressive, but he was, he stayed back. He was patient, landed his shots effectively. And, you know, I give Max a lot of credit too. He took some big ones and was able to, I mean, he didn't look pretty at the end of the second round, but he took some big shots and, and, you know, obviously,
Starting point is 00:44:34 he couldn't keep he didn't want to keep going but here we are this isn't about this this isn't about toughness you have to know when it's just not your day you know this is some this this kid showed self-awareness he's the youngest fighter in the car 25 years old he showed self-awareness okay and I know that's not an aspect that's necessarily valued at this level of MMA so you know whatever I don't know what that means for people but if he really felt like his body could not continue why would you even risk going out there I'm sorry this there's going on your shield and they're just being flat out dumb
Starting point is 00:45:04 So Max was not dumb tonight, and I think we should applaud that. Gilbert Doreno Burns. I like both guys. Eminem Burgos, the real main event. Yep. Fire, fire, fire, fire. So, yeah, let's turn it over to questions and that stuff the rest of the way. If we could.
Starting point is 00:45:20 I want to talk about this. I like this. Julie Avila. Okay, so who do I've talked to get rainbow walkout gear? Very nice. I like the rainbow walkout gear. And, hey, Curtis Blaze, main event are walking out of the pride colors. Good on him.
Starting point is 00:45:37 I will say, I'm not going to say it out loud. I'm not going to, but Julia Avila had like the most shocking tweet of the night. Just go to Her account. Well, let's, we can at least reference. We can at least reference what there was a low blow in the Pennington-Renau fight. Okay. And someone asked, I believe, I believe this Mukki Alexander from a bloody elbow, asked what do you, you know, we call, he said we call a male when the house
Starting point is 00:46:03 a low blow. What do you call the female? or something. Yes, her response cannot be, cannot be said on air right now. Though she did also say, these broads are swinging, oh, geez,
Starting point is 00:46:15 right in the baby maker. So, yes. Julia Avela continuing to be a solid quote. Yes, she is. What else we got? Oh, yeah,
Starting point is 00:46:23 that was just from yesterday. Sorry. Oops. Oh, ah, sorry. Go away, screen. So much going on here. Too many screens opened up.
Starting point is 00:46:31 Sorry. Big, big shout out to Anthony Smith as well as well for joining us. It was, what a day. There's the Curtis Blades tweet from yesterday. He pretty much called it. Because I fully intended to ragged all my opponent.
Starting point is 00:46:44 Just figured I'd let you all know ahead of time. That's such a savage tweet. I love. Like, that was good. Yeah, that was good. Good job, Curtis.
Starting point is 00:46:53 Took him down three seconds into the fight. It was great. I think that's the kind of thing that's rubbed, rubbed the big boss the wrong way. I think he's, I think he's not getting it. That was more salesmanship of the whole. the whole week in that one tweet, man.
Starting point is 00:47:08 I think he's saying he didn't live up to the salesmanship. I think he doesn't, you know, I think if he had actually ragdolled him and like been like kind of throwing him around for 25 minutes, it just looked bad at the end. That interview, someone made it, someone said that's going to be, I think, oh, a guest of the A-Chyber recently had, Sean Ross Sapp, bifle.com said, boy, that post-fight interview is going to be a meme because poor Curtis Blades, I wish he didn't have to do the post-fight. He was clearly exhausted. But I mean, his mouth was, his mouth was busted open.
Starting point is 00:47:33 He was wobbly. He just needed air. he just needed to take a break, you know, after 25, 25 tough, tough minutes. And unfortunately, he's out there on national television. It's like Nixon, you know, when the flop sweat, you know, it's a clip that's never going to go away. So, unfortunately, I think Curtis Play is kind of being a little wobbly post-fight. You're going to joke about it and stuff. No, but I will say that it's kind of, that's kind of BS too, to criticize Blaze for that
Starting point is 00:47:58 because that's how you should fight. when those last 10 seconds of that round, 30 seconds of that round, if you got any energy left, you put it out there. So when that final 25 minute after the fifth round, that bell rings, you should have zero in the gas thing. That means you worked your cardio perfect for five rounds. So if you still have energy up to 25 minutes, you actually didn't fight hard enough. So I don't, that's very, he should be exhausted.
Starting point is 00:48:24 But I didn't see the interviews. I didn't know how bad it looked though. And look, let's be fair here. Unless Curtis Blades, like, did a moonsault off the top of the cage and finished Alexander Volkov in the first round, there's no way. You were going to over, you were going to take over what the co-man event delivered. It was like WrestleMania 18 when Hogan Rock wrestled and tore the house down. And then poor Triple H and Chris Jericho had a wrestle. And it was, and if you go back and watch it by itself, it's a pretty darn good match.
Starting point is 00:48:53 But nobody cared because Hogan Rock was so good. That's basically the position they were in tonight. I don't think Curtis Blades blew the doors off anything tonight by any stretch but he went out there and won. Even if you finished the fight in the fourth round, we'd still be talking about the cold main event. This is Izzy versus Romero in a sense.
Starting point is 00:49:12 Yeah, kind of. There's more action in this fight. Well, who came right before that? No, that was like the fight of the year. So no matter, no matter what happened Izzy versus Romero, even Holloway versus Poirier that came after
Starting point is 00:49:26 Castlem. Is he? Is he? And that was an amazing fight. And people don't even consider that one of the best fights of the year because I just saw the best fight of the year, right? 15 minutes, 10 minutes before that. So it was an unfortunate, yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:41 I was a happy camper that night watching that Atlanta card. Good Lord, those two fights back to back. Unreal. It's a Gano. Blades definitely deserves title shop, but I'm first in line. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Starting point is 00:49:53 Yep. What else we got? We got one more. Hold on, one more from Twitter. He's... I like this one. Blades would have way more chaos if UFC had pride rules.
Starting point is 00:50:09 True story, Angela Hill. He would drive knees to people's domes. Yeah, I mean, he'd be stomping people. I could see him throwing the occasional sucker kick. Oh, the way he gets it back and just stays on the side, if he can start throwing knees to the head, oh, you'll fight it out. Like, blades would be much... I don't know how well he would do in a ring
Starting point is 00:50:25 because he presses so many people against the cage. But in a cage of pride rolls, knees on the ground. Yeah, he'll be a much more dangerous fighter, much more dangerous. He landed about 100 knees to the dairy air while he had bulk off on the ground. All right, let's go to some YouTube comments. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear, indeed.
Starting point is 00:50:46 Just kidding, love you guys. I love our YouTube viewers. So guys, ask some more questions. Sorry, I know it's so backed up. Here we go, ask me a question. I want to talk about Justin James while we're looking, while we're searching. He was a, you know, I like Frank Camacho a lot. This just seemed like just a rough week for him.
Starting point is 00:51:13 Losing a guy opponent for Vola, and then he missed weight, of course. And facing a guy like Jane, so I knew stylistically he was going to come at him. I didn't know if I quite expected him to rush him like he did. But, I mean, that was the perfect game plan, as I kept saying on the commentary, it was just like, you know what? You're coming in on two days notice. He was on two days notice, right? Just go for it. Just go for it.
Starting point is 00:51:34 And I honestly like what they said that. Camacho looked like he was coming out and wanting to fight a more technical fight, which is not what he does. I think we've both spoken to Frank probably before in the past. And he said, my corner always has to tell me not to go out there and bang. My instinct is to bang. So it looked like tonight he picked the wrong night to kind of try to be more tactical. And he faced a guy who was going to go in there and swing with them.
Starting point is 00:51:56 And maybe if Camacho had fought his usual way, he would have got the knockout. But it was just, you know, it just wasn't Frank's week. I hope he gets another chance. but he has had trouble making weight and he's just really, he's really small for 170, so I'm not sure what's going for him, but I'm really excited for him.
Starting point is 00:52:11 Does Max's corner get suspended? Ariel Hawani reported that Bob Bennett said they will investigate why Max stopped the fight himself. Again, I kind of gave my take on it, but I also didn't know the whole story because watching it on ESPN Plus, I didn't get to hear the entire conversation. All I saw was Drysdale saying,
Starting point is 00:52:29 come on, you're not heard you can do this, and then Max, and then they cut to Max, stopping the fight. So I didn't see the whole thing. What do you think? Does Max's corner get suspended? Does Drysdale get suspended? I don't know. I'd be shocked. I'd be really surprised. Has this ever happened that a corner being suspended like that for basically disobeying your fighter? Or I don't know? No. This would definitely set a precedent. Yeah, I just, I don't think it's suspension. I think it's just, I think, yeah, I think you just. You'd really have to be able to prove negligence. Don't you
Starting point is 00:53:03 wrong. Of course, watching in the moment I was definitely outraged, you know, if you want to you for lack of a better word, and I was like, oh man, what is the corner doing? I know a lot of people were. Social media reaction, of course, most people were like, what is this? Most people who heard it live were like, whoa, what is going on? Why are they sending him out again?
Starting point is 00:53:19 But I don't think you be able to prove negligence. I think, again, I do think Drysdale, as he's kind of said his initial comments so far, TSPN, he said, you know, again, I'm trying to motivate my guy. And I think that right or wrong that really was what he thought and I don't think he thought that Max was in
Starting point is 00:53:37 any immediate danger again I don't know if I agree with that but he's out he's in the he's in the cage of them he's making the call I really don't know if you call this like gross negligence based on what happened there though I am teaser I am writing something and that that's going to have a little a little give a little more perspective on it so we can't confirm this but people are saying that I guess in SAC said they are investigating it so This is just what we're hearing.
Starting point is 00:54:03 Yes. Yeah. Who knows what's going to happen. But they'll look at it. I think he'll probably just get like a warning perhaps, but I don't think they're going to suspend them. I'd be shocked. I don't know anything that's necessary to suspension. I think, yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:18 Yeah. I also think we'll have a statement from official state from Roscoff at some point. That'll, you know, I think he'll, I don't know if he'll kind of say the same thing that Pennington said in the Nuneas fight, but certainly to the effect of like, of course, you know, I don't put blame my corner. and whatever, you know, we talk about it after, and this is part of the plan, and I'm glad they tried to motivate me, blah, blah, I'm sure we'll see some comment like that, and that will kind of, you know,
Starting point is 00:54:39 that'll be the end of the issue. Why not disgusting? Let a commission investigate. We just did. We've done it for a separate of it. I guess he has been had on the ticker, so I'm just, yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:54 Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out. Austin Hubbard had some interesting things to say, too, um, basis saying I kind of felt bad she shouldn't have been there you know but what's he supposed to do that's kind of long and short of it
Starting point is 00:55:07 he took care of business did enough to save her job Brianna needed the hell to grow as a fighter in the UFC completely agree Tisha look great and let's and let's not count Tisha out completely okay look at the losses she's had they're all murderers like every single fighter that she lost
Starting point is 00:55:22 on that four fight winning streak from Juana to Zhang Wei I mean Marina Rodriguez Andres. And that's three UFC champions. That's three UFC champions in that list of opponents.
Starting point is 00:55:36 And Brianna was like probably the highest, one of the outside maybe Swar is maybe the highest level prospect out there. And she defeated her. And it was an excellent fight. Yeah. I actually, I didn't do very well on my picks tonight. I did pick Tish Taurus to win by decisions. I don't want to talk about my picks. And this is no disrespect to Brianna.
Starting point is 00:55:58 I think Brianna is super talented and has a very bright future ahead of her. But it's just a tough matchup. It's a vet. The small cage factored into the pick as well. And the fact that Tisha has just been in there with like the very best in the world consistently, like every time she fights. And Libyanada, Susa is very tough. And it was a very impressive win for Brianna. And the Phoenix series night, that was impressive as well.
Starting point is 00:56:23 But sometimes you got to get in there. You got to take that kind of vet L and you'll go. grow from it and get better. And this is this is that lesson for for brianne van burench and I have no doubt that she's going to come back better than ever. And she'll she'll take this loss and she'll learn a ton from it. And she'll come back and we'll see her, you know, potentially fighting for a title in the next few years. That's how good I think she is. We definitely had some instances tonight where we're experienced range. Jim Miller, Tisha Torres, Austin Hubbard. Experience matters, guys. I mean, don't you wrong. There's some, some, you know, white hot blue chip prospects out there that can come in
Starting point is 00:56:57 and in their second or third fight, take out like a, you know, a 15-fight UFC veteran. But that's the exception, not the rule. You know, we shouldn't be expecting that. So, yeah, nothing bad at all to say about Breonna Van Buren. Yeah, she's still a top, a top-plight prospect and coming from a great camp.
Starting point is 00:57:11 And only big things ahead for her in the future. And I mean, if Tisha went out and got 30, 20, 25s on three judges' score cards, yeah, I could see them. But if she lost, like, a split decision to Brianna Van Buren, I don't think the U.S. was going to cut her. I just don't. Like, it's not like she's getting destroyed in all of these fights. She's competitive in pretty much all of them. She just wasn't winning. It's, there's a difference between just going out there and getting smashed and finished three consecutive
Starting point is 00:57:41 fights than losing four decisions to just a murderer's row of fighters. So, and I think the UFC likes her. I think they like Tisha. I think they like the way she fights. She's never in a bad one. So it's hard to release her, especially in a division like that, when you have all these, young up-and-coming fighters, she still would serve a purpose, is what I'm trying to say. And a great moment. Yeah, a great moment for her in Pennington as well. They said this, I think there's a third time that actually fought in the same card, but the first time since they became a couple. So, you know, obviously that's a completely different dynamic. Unfortunately, Tisha was not able to be in the building because, you know, they've got very strict COVID-19 protocol. So as soon as her fight was
Starting point is 00:58:21 done, it was off to the hotel room. I think I saw some report that she did try and re-enter. But, you know, they said, hey, sorry, we can't. You've got to go to the hotel room. So they're sticking to their guns on this, and I applaud that now. If we can just get a mask on frigging Dana White, you know, what is that? What is that?
Starting point is 00:58:39 And we know what it is, but I'm just saying, hey, come on, if we're going to be strict and not allowed Tisha back in, can we try and enforce all these rules, please? But, hey, at least you got to watch Raquel get a win. And that's probably, that's all that matters to her, I bet. You don't be talking about my dad like that.
Starting point is 00:58:53 I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. My older brother, whatever. Or you. You or me. Actually, we're now starting to get questions about next. That's not a real question. Okay. That's not a real question.
Starting point is 00:59:08 Well, Poria versus Hooker be exciting or another snoozer of a main event? I can't believe this is a question. Yeah, it's going to be terrible. We all know that. Like, why would you even ask? I don't even want to get. Oh, God, I can't wait for that fight. Wait.
Starting point is 00:59:18 I cannot wait for that fight. A snoozer of the main event? Do these, do these people not appreciate world-class wrestling? Oh my goodness. This is mixed martial arts. If you want to watch K-Borkebox and go watch Glory. Go watch K-1 reruns. This is mixed martial arts.
Starting point is 00:59:34 If you can't stop a takedown, get out. Chuck D.C., you blew my mind with this question. Who wants? Go ahead, AK, let him know. What is there? It's going to be a great fight. It's going to be a great fight. I mean, yeah, the only way it couldn't be exciting
Starting point is 00:59:48 is if it's like a first round knockout or something, which, again, is exciting in a different way. But if this goes three, four, five rounds, of course, it's going to be a great fight. These aren't the kind of guys who can ever as as skilled as they are, as technical as they are. You're never going to see them in a fight where they're not active, where there's not a lot of volume. It just doesn't happen with, with Poria Hooker. So, no, it's been a great fight.
Starting point is 01:00:10 People just be optimistic about it. Great booking. Great main event. Yeah, I was looking to see what the co-main event was. Mike Perry versus Mickey Gall. This is the co-main event. So it's not Shane Burgos versus Josh Emmett, but it is an interesting one. But Poria Hooker, that's going to be a great fight.
Starting point is 01:00:25 It'd be a huge win for Dan Hooker if he could be Dustin Porier. Jackson Bass, what do you think of people comparing blades to Habib? I don't agree. Does anybody agree with that? I wouldn't compare him to Habib. Casey? Habib-ish? I mean, in the sense that, you know, 99% of the time, if they win their fights,
Starting point is 01:00:47 it's going to be through the wrestling and ground the pound and top control. So, yeah, but that's a lot of guys. So Habib ask, I think. Let's go, Habib-esque. Ish. Ish. Habib ish-ish. Here's the difference between Habib and Curtis Blades.
Starting point is 01:01:01 Habib could have done what Curtis Blades did in the first and second rounds, the whole fight. Just kept him on his back, but landing a lot of shots and making it very, very uncomfortable. Not that he didn't make things uncomfortable for Alexander Volkov, but Habib's just a different animal. It's just a different guy. I think, yeah. I know people, a lot of people in comments are kind of, you know,
Starting point is 01:01:24 they're kind of, you know, whatever, Blaze, Blaze is boring. He just big Volkov. Volkov had the highest takedown defense in the heavyweights in the roster right now for sure. Volkov is very freaking good, you know, and that's why it was a tough fight. And that's why Blades barely made it out, just, you know, be able to walk because he's so tired holding that giant Russian man down. So. Bookoff took him down.
Starting point is 01:01:47 Volkov took him down. That was crazy. We didn't even talk about that. That's tough. Yeah. He's tough. That was just like. Screw this. I'm going to take you down.
Starting point is 01:01:56 But, yeah. If that happened like the middle of the round, he could have done some serious damage. He was getting some punches in against the cage. Like, he was really hurt. That's kind of part where plays got busted up. How about, how about Vokoff when he had, he was on top of a blazing?
Starting point is 01:02:09 He was kind of telling his little shots under the arm. He was kind of told her, hey, I think he's done, I think he's done. Oh, that was funny. That was hilarious. He got the ref. Come on, dude. Come on, dude.
Starting point is 01:02:17 He's done. If he got the right ref on the right night, he made me going to, I would have a, I would have a. plotted, people would have screamed. I would have been applauding the whole time. Like, that is how you steal a fight. If he had gotten the stoppers there, oh, I would have loved it.
Starting point is 01:02:32 Mario Yamasaki or Steve Mazagati were in the cage, there was a very good chance that fight would have been stopped. Very good chance. Yeah, I think that, I think, because Bokhov has fought his lot of his big fights overseas. He just, he hasn't been a prime time fighter. And when he was a prime time fighter, you know, he was dominating Derek Lewis until he wasn't. You know, so that's the. That's the problem. We just, I think the most part, for the most part, even the hardcore fans just don't know how good Vokov is. And so it was a very impressive performance.
Starting point is 01:03:03 I really wonder how different this fight would have been in a big cage, though. Yeah, I actually, I kind of haven't seen Bokov fight in a while and I forgot how much, how important his kicking game is. And like, you can't throw a kick in that cage, the size of those guys and the takedowns, the takedown threat that Blades had. So, yeah, it was, it was always going to be. be a tough night for Volkov. Man, he's... Yeah. So, I mean, I think Volkov was a plus 3.30 underdog
Starting point is 01:03:30 by the time the fight started. So, I mean, there's a reason for that. And you kind of saw it on display for... And he still won two rounds. It wasn't like... Yeah, he did. People acting like he was blown out of the water. Like, I mean, if you looked at...
Starting point is 01:03:41 If right now in the hotel, I guarantee you Volkov looks like he won the fight. You know? Like, Volko, I'm sure he's happy. He's just, you know, he's not happy. But I'm sure he's healthy. He feels fine. but it's Blaze still like you know because it's just
Starting point is 01:03:56 that's blade style that's how he has to fight though um do you have any more no no next week's card looks pretty good
Starting point is 01:04:05 I like it a lot a lot of prospects this is my kind of card I feel like I'm gonna come back and reclaim my title as the MA fighting picks champion
Starting point is 01:04:14 Jordan Griffin's use of Zalal just got added yesterday Miranda Maverick Ryana Maverick on the card Sean Woodson's back that's a a guy who's just a beast at 145 fighting Kyle Nelson. Luis Pena versus Kameneworthy. That's a great fight.
Starting point is 01:04:29 Tanner Bojure's back against Philippe Lins. We got Brennan Allen versus Kyle Daucus who makes his debut. He was on the contender series. Probably should have got a contract. Boris Green versus Jean Valante. That's just going to be wild. Gall versus Perry. I can't wait for their little face off on Friday. And then Porre versus Hooker in the main event before we had to fight Island. Oh, hold on. We didn't mention Ramiz. Did you mention Ramiz, Brahimaj? Oh, I forgot about that one.
Starting point is 01:04:57 If you want to see the greatest, like, what was the third? God, who was the fight against? He had, oh, I might be getting mixed up with someone else. Either way, he is a good prospect, but I was thinking of him as, I thought he was involved in this, like, crazy highlight. I'm sorry, go on. You were saying Fight Island. You was an LFA guy.
Starting point is 01:05:12 Yes, yes, yes. And he is a very good prospect, yeah. Yes. Yeah, I do not know. He was a very good prospect. Yeah, next week. And then we go to Fight Island. By the way, I kept seeing Fight Island commercials on the ESPN blog.
Starting point is 01:05:22 plus broadcast. And they're still trying to sell these shirts, like they're going to the tropical islands and the face, even the face masks, tropical face masks for Fight Island. And they're still showing promos of like water and waves going over the sands of beaches.
Starting point is 01:05:36 It's hilarious. It's so hilarious. You told us where it is already. We know where it is. We're not in Costa Rica. It's a little fire fest-esque, isn't it? It's hints of fire fest, except we already know the truth.
Starting point is 01:05:50 And yet, you're right, They're still trying to sell us this fantasy. And some people are still buying it, I guess. Otherwise, they wouldn't be. So it's bizarre. The four fight cards are awesome. They're all really good. There's some great fights.
Starting point is 01:06:04 So I am excited. I'm not complaining that we have fights coming up. I'm just, I still think it's hilarious that we're trying to. I will complain about this fight island because this fight island is apparently big enough to have the fights in the big cage, which we know sucks because we have a small cage. We know rules.
Starting point is 01:06:23 Why can't everything be my way? I wonder if Dana got asked about that in post-fight. I'll have to go back a lot. I think Curtis Blades up there now saying, Curtis Blades, apparently what he's saying is, I'm embracing being a heel now. You don't like what I do. I like to make you, yeah, I don't know.
Starting point is 01:06:42 Good job. I'm trying to retwitter. Yeah, be the heel. Be it. Do all that. That's a hard role to play. by the way happy father's day to all my fellow dads out there it is at least on the east coast east coast time and happy father's day to all the single moms yes and them too pulling double
Starting point is 01:07:00 duty absolutely i've seen that many many times so kudos to all of you as well aka any final thoughts on uh on ufc on esPN 11 i'll say this and i know people are gonna people are gonna hate the sentiment of back oh why it's your job uh i'll be happy to have a little break after next week i think we get one, no, we get what, one week, two weeks after, before Fight Island? One, I think. Well, I could use it anyway. Because, look, I-Ly. Again, kudos to the UFC staff, all those guys and the fighters, of course, for putting
Starting point is 01:07:32 these cars together. You guys are incredible, incredible human beings and so hardworking. So, kudos for that. But definitely, I'm starting to feel a little burnout. I will say, with all this hot UFC apex action, we've been getting, the fights have been very, very good for the most part, I should say. So this is a spoiled, this certainly spoiled man talking here.
Starting point is 01:07:53 We've had some great cards. But, yeah, I think next week's going to be a really good way to cap off sort of this run of UFC Apex shows before we get a little bit of a breather. And then head to Fighter Fest or Fight Fest, whatever you want to call it, Firefest. Sorry, sorry, all lead wrestling. That's a, yeah. It's AEDW. AACW is copyrighted.
Starting point is 01:08:12 But, yes, hopefully what is not the fire fest of MMA, Yaz Island, which again, I know they've been to before but now there's kind of this new arrangement and uh i don't know it's probably not as glamorous as people are hoping but hopefully it'll be a good time anyway i hear the water park is closed and that's like the best part of abadabab. oh man if you guys ever if if the world ever gets normal and we can all all you youtube commenters want to say hi in real life let's talk about the water park in yaws island it is awesome i'm down yeah it's the best water park i've ever been my life it's so cool and there's just like three people it's inside I guess the last thing I'll say is if you haven't checked out what the heck this week, it's pretty darn good.
Starting point is 01:08:53 And, you know, normally we do these what the hecks and then like five or six days later, we have a fight card. And then it's almost like it's irrelevant because the card, it was about the card that just happened. But it's all like most of these interviews are like future fights are like guys that are fighting next week or on Fight Island. So Jan, Edgar, Cater, Gall, Kamoworthy, Luis Pena. they're all there. And then Cynthia Calvio, so we didn't even have anybody on this card tonight. Maybe we will for next week.
Starting point is 01:09:22 So there you go. So go back and check that out. Some really good stuff from all those guys. But that's it. We're getting out of here. For A.K. Lee, E.K.C. I am Mike Heck. Thank you all for watching.
Starting point is 01:09:32 Hope you guys enjoy the card. And have a great rest of your weekend. All right. I'm going to go play some Last of Us part two. Oh. Video games. I heard that's an uplifting fun time for all. Yes. Spoiler.
Starting point is 01:09:49 You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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