MMA Fighting - UFC on ESPN 13 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: July 16, 2020

MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jose Youngs break down the top storylines following Wednesday night’s UFC on ESPN 13 event in Abu Dhabi, including Calvin Kattar’s unanimous decision win over Dan Ige in the featherweight headliner.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs 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. We're live, pal. All right, we're live. Welcome to the UFC on ESPN 13 post-fight show here on the MAAfighting.com YouTube page. I am Mike Heck. That is Jose Young's. We have Casey Liden in the truck providing us your comments and questions about tonight's event. In the headliner, Calvin Cater, defeats Dan Ege via unanimous decision.

Jose, I thought Cater won four of the five rounds. I thought two of the judges got it right. I'm not mad about 4847, but we'll get to cater in a moment. But thoughts on Dan Ege's effort tonight in his first main event. I thought he served himself very well tonight. Yeah, it's one of those performances where he got the – he didn't – we talked about this on the 8 side. He loses half of his fight check because technically he did lose. But it's one of those performances where he grew in the eyes of the fans and probably with the UFC matchmakers,

where including myself, I thought he lost Edson Barbosa. and then I thought Calvin Cater was just maybe a notch above him in terms of skill and maybe talent. So I knew Dan Ige was an uber talented, tough fighter. I just thought Calvin Cater was a league above him. And my God, Dan Ike proved me wrong. He looked every bit like he belonged in there with the top, the upper echelon of the featherweight division. I thought Calvin Cater came out looking unbelievable. His boxing was looking super crisp.

We were just looking that straight, that cross right or left. I can't remember digging to the body stuff and takedowns. But Danny Gage just never went away. He stayed in there the entire fight. Lent showed he belonged to. Even when he was taking damage, he was still pressing forward. He was still shooting for takedowns. He was making adjustments, switching stances and everything.

So hats off to Dan Yegay for proving me wrong and proving that he does deserve these big matchups in the featherweight division. I agree. Calvin Cater gets the job done, gets another victory. He moves up in the featherweight momentum department. No doubt about that. He's clearly one of the top 45ers in the world. world. There's no doubt about that. And something about Cater, when you watch him fight, it's almost like terrifying to watch him fight. He just, he just looks for those openings and he just throws

with such ferocity. But Dan Ige, tougher than a three dollar stake that you find in Las Vegas, unbelievable tonight. But, you know, what did you think overall of Calvin Cater's performance? Because I think most people thought that as the fight progressed, maybe once you got to the championship rounds, Cater would probably be able to finish Dan Ege. But that wasn't the case. Ege proved his toughness. But Cater comes out and has a pretty solid performance. What did you think of overall. Yeah, like I said at the beginning, I just thought, I've been super impressed with Calvin Cato's

specifically his boxing in every fight. I think he's, like, I think now more people are starting to come around, but forever I would just pray, I would tell people, like, watch this featherways boxing. It's unbelievable. And in a division with strikers like Josealdo and Max Holloway and even

the Korean zombie, you get like these these, these, these, these over flashy, talented, slick strikers. And then here's this kid from New England, which is stellar crisp technical boxing that is just such a joy to watch. So he looked unbelievable in the first few rounds. Like I said,

Dan Yegay just stayed there and just stuck to his game plan and adjusted and just gave, I don't want to say he frustrated Calvin, but he just proved to be more difficult to put away than I think a lot of us thought. And I kind of figured as the fight was going on that Calvin's power just, I think, kind of played a huge factor at the end where maybe they were like Dan Danny Gay and him were kind of neck and neck going in. Calvin Cater was, of course, maybe a step ahead, but not like he was running away, and Danny Gay was making adjustments to staying in there.

But I think by the fourth and fifth round, his output was matched by his power, and I think that kind of was the turning point where it seems like he would step in, and then his last punch would just be huge. It's like that D.S style of fighting where the whole fight, they're doing like 30, 40, 50 percent, all these strikes. and then by the fourth and fifth round, instead of doing 30, 40, 50, 50, they're like 60, 70, 80,

and then their last punches 100. And then that proves to be the, it's like killing you with mosquito bites and then a bomb at the end of it. I think that's what Calvin Cater really showed in the end. And it proves to be successful because he merged victorious.

He got the W and Abu Dhabi. I can't hear you. Oh, lost it, Mike. Sorry, sorry. The reason why is there's one fly just buzzing around the command center right now and it's driving me crazy. And it was buzzing like right around.

here and I don't want to start smacking things and have it on. But what do you do with Calvin Cater right now? Because this is such a tough division to matchmake, especially at the top, because there's five guys ranked above Cater right now. Four of them are rumored to be matched up, but nothing is on the books and nothing is official right now. So the only guy that might be available over the next few months if these other fights get made is Max Holloway.

Could that even be a possibility right now? Like, what can we do from here? Like that fight is a fight, I just don't know if the UFC wants to book that. I mean, I know Calvin Carrier to want that fight. I'm sure Max Holloway would take that fight because he's one of those guys that are just down to scrap. But I don't think the UFC will make that fight. It's similar to when you have Kalan Chukagian and all of a sudden Jessica Ai emerges, not Jessica I, Cynthia Calvio emerges as this legit contender.

And now she all of a sudden you feed her to the number of a contender and then you lose. And then all of a sudden you have someone that's already lost the championship right where she was, well, she knocks off of a contendent. So I don't know if they give Calvin Cater the Holloway fight. But there's a ton of fights for him to take. The Iaird Rodriguez's rumor to fight is a beat. I know Calvin beats a beat. So if Yair wins, maybe you run that one.

Korean zombie, Brian Ortega, which you know I want to see that fight more than any other fight on planet Earth. But him in Korean zombie and Alexander Volcanowski have been going back and forth, kind of chipping away. And whenever the champion in any division has a name on his lips and he's kind of responding and saying, like, well, maybe he deserves a beat down too. You know the U.S.C. is going to pay attention to that. You know the Korean zombie is such a fan favorite. Dana White and the U.S.C. matchmakers love him. So I wouldn't be surprised if maybe they scrap that Ortega

a Korean zombie fight and maybe give the Korean zombie Alexander Volkanowski fight. And then you could do Brian Ortega versus Calvincator, which is, again, that fight is an absolute banger. There's a million fights of featherweight to happen. And Max Holloway just happens to be 0-and-2 against the champion. He's kind of in that no-man's-land fight right now. but if they announce in a week that Cater and Holloway are throwing down in the main event of a fight night,

I'm going to be excited for it. I still would favor Max Hollow in that fight. But so I don't really think the U.S. he's going to try and pull that fight anytime soon. Yeah, it's just a tough spot for him to be. But knowing Cater, like they could offer him like Edson Barbosa be like, sure, I'll take it. I don't care. Yeah, I mean, I'd watch that fight too. Just Edson Barbosa's 0-and-1 in the division and he just, Calvertier just beat the guy who beat him.

So I guess Josh Emmons out there, but he just had what? He had knee surgery or something like that. He had a whole plethora of surgeries. Arnold Allen's undefeated. He already beat Shane Burgos. I mean, Ryan Hall's out there. He has a fight. Sadiq Yousf is out there.

There's a million fights for Cater to take that I would be excited. In terms of matchmaking, if they do Korean zombie or Algin Volcanowski Korean zombie, then I have to be Cater or take it. That would be the only fight that I think would make sense matchmaking-wise. I wouldn't hate that fight either. That division is so good right now, especially at the top. We're not going to have, like, we're not going to like get this thing in line for like another year, 18 months, which is a beautiful thing because you have so many contenders. I mean, every division between 135 or 170, you can make an argument that there's two or three deserving contenders in each division.

I know Al Jaleman Sterling at 135 is the guy that we all agree with, but for whatever reason Dana White doesn't want to say anything. And then 145, we just talked about 155, anyone in the top 10 could fight for a title. I think we'd all love it. And then 170, we're having this argument between Burns and Edwards over who deserves the next fight and Clinton and Woodley. So 135 to 170, that quote-unquote average-sized man fight weight division is super exciting right now. Cheap plugs, and she said Gilbert Burns, I did speak with him yesterday. So once what the heck drops later on this morning here on the East Coast, you're going to hear that conversation. It's always great catching up at Doreno.

Again, if you're just tuning in, this is the live UFC on ESPN 13 post-fight show. on our YouTube page. I am Mike Heck. That is Jose Youngs. And we want to hear from you guys and gals who are watching right now. This is like the A-side after dark. So get those questions and comments in.

We'll be happy to talk about all of that stuff. But the co-main event was a lot of fun. Tim Elliott gets unanimous decision over Ryan Benoit. And I was on the play-by-play duties for the MMA fighting Twitter page tonight. And I have to say, of all the fights tonight, this one was met with the most controversy in terms of the judging. A lot of people scored this one for, Brian Benoit, what say you, Jose Young's?

I think it was pretty 50-50. I think I can't remember who I had a score. I'm not going to lie because I was doing some other things for the site and it was on. So I would keep looking up. And it seems like every time I would look up, there would be someone was in a precarious situation, whether it be Tim Elliott stuck in like a knee bar or Benoit stuck in a deep guillotine. And they were always defending. So I'm not going to, I can't lie in sitting here and said I watched that entire fight scientifically and breaking it down.

But at the end of it, I think I was pretty, I wasn't comfortable, but in my mind, I was like, I think Benoit won that, but I'm not going to call it a robbery. Like, we love calling things on this site. So I don't think it's a robbery. I think in my mind, Benoit probably did enough to win. But I say that with no confidence, because I'm not a judge. Tim Elliott, I mean, he was out there. He was, he like, what was going into around two or three, he basically walked out with his back to Ryan Benoit in his weird, awkward stance. I thought he was going to tap to that, what was that, that D bar, that leg lock.

You could just see the pain on his leg. And I think it seemed at one point, his veteranship kind of kind of took over. He got that guillotine. He adjusted. He got full mount. And then he escaped the knee bar. But then Benoit also defended that guillotine. So it was a fun.

It was a fun scrap. I'm surprised that it went to fight of the night. That's the fight I watched that. I found the most joy in watching, even though I didn't watch super scientifically. But, yeah, I think Ryan Benoit should have probably should have won that one. But I'm not going to sit here and complain that it was a huge controversy. virtual decision. Yeah, it just depends on like what you favor as a judge because like, I mean, Elliot just is such a weird guy to watch to switch his stance into so many things. Like I think

his finger dislocated on his right hand at one point in the third round, he just kept playing with it and then he started throwing it. Like the guy is such a, such a wild man. He's never in a boring fight. I mean, even when he fought Demetri's Johnson, he, he caught Demetri's surprise in that first round. Yeah, he, Demet Johnson ended up dominating by the end of it, but he is at the time the greatest fighter on planet Earth. So it's, uh, Tim Allen, it's never in a boring fight, but I feel for Ryan Benoit. He lost half his paycheck in a fight. A lot of people think he wins.

Casey just threw up the score cards. It looks like the majority of people scored for Benoit. So I got to feel for fighters like that where they're probably not making a lot to begin with. And every win and loss is huge when you're not in the top 15. So yeah, you got a feel for Ryan Benoit. Yeah, I think I see a 3027 in there. I didn't score 3027, but it is what it is. 29, 28 is close.

I look about two-thirds of the journalists had Benoit winning. But, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was a close fight. It was a close fight. I scored a... And for our picks, we do like a little... Our little group fight picks thing. That would have been a huge one because I was the only one to pick Benoit,

and I was feeling pretty good about it. But, you know, here we go. I lose yet again. But featured bout of the night, then we'll get to the bonuses that we're going to fire it off to you guys. Jimmy Rivera gets back on track. He stabs a two-fight skit against Cody Stead. Damon, wins by unanimous decision against a very tough guy, a surging contender in Cody Stamen. Jimmy Rivera spoke to John Anick after the fight.

Wasn't thrilled with his performance, but, you know, it was his first fight in both 13 months' time. And on top of that, it was like less than two weeks notice to get to Abu Dhabi, double quarantines, and then you have to fight and you had a performance like that and you get a win over a surging guy like Stamen. What did you think of Rivera's performance tonight on such short notice like that? I mean, his take-down defense was unbelievable. It looked like Cody Stamen was going for every round.

He was just throwing take-down after takedown for takedon. He'd even go, he'd have that like bodylock take-down from behind against the fence where he would just dump Jimmy Rivera down. Jimmy Rivera would pop right back up. So Jimmy Rivera was on defense for, I would say, a vast majority of those rounds. And he was looking pretty unbelievable. It was hard for him to take down. I wish he would let it.

He had let his hands go a little bit more. It seems like he was finding success with that, but he just wasn't sticking to it. Like he would go from the bite of the head and get that hook and the counter. And he was final success and he was defending all of his takedowns, but he just wasn't letting his hands go.

Like he would stuff a takedown. And I feel it would be a perfect time to just explode with Cody Stamen, looking frustrated and using all this energy to try and take it down. And he just didn't. So I know how good Jim Rivera is. And he obviously at one point he had like that super long windstreet, beat your eye of favor.

He was on this big tear until he got head kicked by Marlomerase. So I wish he got the win. That's the most important thing. Getting half of your paycheck. Getting the rest of your paycheck, which we're going to talk about forever, how it's not fair. But Peter Jan was like tweeted a video of him like giving the middle finger. He was responding to Jim Rivera's response to his last fight over Josealdo. Sugar Sean O'Malley tweeted a bunch of yawn emojis.

So a win is a win. That's the most important thing. Get paid. But I don't think it did a lot for him in terms of getting a big fight for his next. fight, if you know what I mean. I just don't know what you do here. I mean, I think Hafeel Asunso seems like the most logical choice, because I don't think those two guys have fought. And I think Asenzo's ranked like one spot above Rivera. I mean, there's Dominic Cruz and then there's Corey Sannhagen, but I don't know if that performance merits a fight

quite like that. So what would make sense for a Jimmy Rivera as he looks to sort of make up for lost time after missing over a year? It's hard to say. I would, I would want to see how how the UFC would shake out moving forward because of course Munoz is a matchup with Frankie Edgar Assum Sal's literally right above him at 7 so I guess that would make sense Rob Fon Cruz Dotson has a fight

Sugar Sean has a fight Marab has a fight. I don't think Song Yadong has a fight if I remember correctly and he fought to Cody Stamon to a draw so if they want to make that fight I mean that's a fun fight but he's what five like it's five rankings down from Jim and Rivera so a sense I would seem

seem fair, but if Jim Rivera wants to just wait and see how the rest of the division plays out, because technically the champion doesn't have a fight booked. Cody Garber doesn't have fight books. Munoz and Edgar, their fight was re-booked. So if you want to see how the rest of the division shakes out, I wouldn't blame him. But a Sunsauer song, Yadong, would be the two that I would pick, just because I don't think Cruz is going to take that fight anytime soon. Pun completely intended, but it was a heck of a night for the UFC debutante tonight.

Yeah, seriously. Some shining performances. I mean, the bonuses themselves. Fight of the night was Abdul Razan against Munir Lazazaz. Al-Assan missed weight, so he's not eligible. So I wonder if Munir gets 100K. That would be cool. Performances the night. Laron Murphy, he looked phenomenal tonight. What a huge win for him over Amos. And then Comzat Kamaev. Holy cow.

What a performance from him. And then Medesis Pekoskis gets a bonus as well with that first round flurried. of elbows, referee stopped the fight. That was kind of a weird ending to that. Yeah, super weird. But honestly, like, even with the door opening

and him kind of like stumbling over, I didn't think he was good enough to fight anyways. Like, he took some damage in that round. I think the only thing would be people complaining. I saw it online. People complained about the strikes

of the back of the head. I don't think, I don't think that was the case, but he said it, right? He obviously fell out of the, he felt out of the octagon. So it's unfortunate that, he was probably on his way to lose to begin with.

But the fact that there was some sort of controversy, at the end of the day, how do you pronounce his last name? I'm not even going to try. Bacoscus. Yeah, Modest is won. He got the W. You got the rest of his paycheck. He gets the bonus.

So he got paid. It's just unfortunate that there's any time of this controversy, it's unfortunate. But especially that it being his UFC debut, you know people are going to be like, well, he didn't actually win because of X, Y, Z wait until his next fight. So I'm fortunate that way, but he got a lot of money for his first UFC fight. so I don't think he really cares. Absolutely. And I thought the production team did a great job going to different angles on those elbows.

Because at first, I think we're all in agreement like, those looked a little sketchy. And then as you saw the different angles, you're like, okay, maybe not. Maybe like one or two went to the back of the head, but most of them were legit elbow. So how many, sorry. You only need one or two. It's like I got one or two illegal shots of the groin. It's just, it only takes one or two.

That's not the same thing, though. Oh, elbow to the back of the head? Yes, sir. Casey, do you even train UFC? Yeah. Do you do UFC, bro? Do you even lift, bro? Come on now.

Yeah, I just, I felt that the ref, I felt the only mistake was that the ref should have just let the one minute run out, the in-between rounds. And then if he can get off his stool, ready to fight, then you let him fight. That's all. That was my only issue. It just let him, let his corner pick him. We've seen that plenty of times with the corner, picks him up, carries them over. And then as soon as the round starts, then you. you go, are you ready? And then if they're not ready, then you stop the fight. So that's what

the, that's what the end up break is for. You don't have to go to your corner. If you want to sit in the ground and just like, I'm good here, you know, or whatever, you know, it's, I mean, it doesn't look good visually, but, you know, that's just, you know, you can do that. It's just, yeah. What was interesting as well is that they said on the broadcast that they wanted to maybe look at it on replay. They asked the referee if they wanted to check it on a replay. And the referee said, nope, I know what I saw. No need for the replay. So that's a very, I didn't know Yeah, so there you go. So good on Modestis Pekoskas, one of the friendliest guys in the sport gets his win, long-away to debut. He's probably should have got that call a while back. But,

but he's in the outright signy gets a win. Good night for the, uh, for the debutants and the Rome Murphy. I know, uh, Jose, you posted that clip, that crazy story of him getting shot in the face and spinning out bullets and then driving himself to the hospital. What a madman. What a, what a breakup performance for him tonight. Yeah, that, that, So shout out to Peezy Carroll for that question, because I didn't know that. I think that was before his fighting in Abu Dhabi. And I forgot he was even fighting on this card. I love watching him fight.

And yeah, that story is insane. He's outside of a barbershop. And he's just like, yeah, I was outside of a barbershop. And I just kind of got shot in the face. And I woke up. I spit the bullets out and just drove to the hospital. And it is what it is. And I was like, it is what it is, man.

You got shot in the face. And you are alive. So I tweeted that video. And a lot of people were like, oh, I wish you tweeted this before I made picks. because I would have picked him to win. I have no idea why I thought Ricardo Hamos was going to win by knockout. I just in the back of my head is performance at UFC 217 when he had that spinning, it was a spinning elbow, spinning back fist when he knocked out,

was a Fraza Hobby's brother or whatever it was. That's in the back of my mind, and that was the last thing I could really remember. I know he's had a win since then. But, yeah, Lorone Murphy, man. What a performance. And good for him. He got a bonus, right?

He got a bonus. Yeah, he got one. Yeah. So good on him, man. Beautiful performance. Yeah, he's gotten like a murderer's row for his first couple of UFC fights. I forget, who the hell did he fight the first time? He shouldn't know.

No one thought he was going to win, and then he ended up fighting to a draw. I think, yeah, it was tough first round. What was it? Byer, right? He was one of the guys that was involved of the brawl. I forget. Fryer, right? Wasn't that his name?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it was. That's it was. He was like a heavy underdog. I think he was at like a 10-8 first round. Then he won the last two and it ended up being a draw. Yeah. So good on. him.

Yeah. He looked. Actually, that's why I picked him because I thought he looked so great in his draw the last time we saw him. So I know nothing about him other than this whole, I got shot in the face and he fought to a draw. Yeah, Zubair was his first win.

That was a three-round draw in Abu Dhabi. So 1-0-and-1 in Abu Dhabi. Meatball, Molly McCann. That was a surprise. That was a surprising one. Santos did not look good in her earlier fights. She came out the Contender Series. People were, like, questioning her completely.

People were throwing her record out and screenshoting it and putting it on social media. Be like, oh, look at this record that she built. Look at the fighters that she beat to get there. But, man, Santa's look fantastic tonight. She looked phenomenal. Sometimes you just, you get to the UFC and you get that one out of the way and you'll lose. And then you just reinvent yourself when you come out wins. So, yes, you look terrible on her first fight.

And yeah, I don't want to call her record patta because that's disrespectful. Because how many wins does she have? like 14 or 15 or something like that. I think she's 19 and 1 now. Yeah, like 19 and 1, and she had like 19 straight wins before making the OEC. So that's a, that's a quote, heck of a heck of a record to have entering your first UFC fight. So she did have a very pad record. Her victories were over.

Sure. Lots of O&O's, 3 and 1s, 0 and 1s. And actually a lot of O&Os. So, so it'll be a padded record. But, dude, that looked like, I wasn't even sure that was the same woman tonight. honestly compared to the different fighter yeah sometimes you come in and just lose your first UFC fight and you go back and you come back and you get a big performance uh you get you shake the octagon jitters out and uh mylan mccan got in her face at the wayans uh she tried twice and

santo's just stood there it's not like she got shook or anything she's like okay we're going to fight tomorrow what's your deal uh lady so uh yeah Santos looks like she physically looks like she belongs in the division two it doesn't look like she's a blown-up straw weight. It doesn't look like she's a sucked out Bannonweight. It looks like she's perfect for the flyweight division. So yeah, real impressive performance. I thought Molly was, I didn't think Molly's going to dominate because

Molly's not one of those fighters that goes and just blows the door off you, but she has a good pace. She has a good, I think she had like her last fight in Boston. I brought her to 10. She was like the first female fighter to have like, or first or second have like three straight performances with a hundred plus significant

strikes. And she, the only other one was like, Iwana and J-Chic and Angela Hill. And Ioanna and Jake was like a championship fights, and Angela Hill is, Angela Hill fights like every other day. So, yeah,

I thought it would be a, not an easy win, but I was pretty comfortable picking Molly and Santos, proved me wrong. Yeah, especially thought, like in the wrestling department, in the ground game,

I thought that was going to be Molly's, Molly's world, but man, Santos got a lot better in that department. We all, we know her tie background and her striking background, and it's top notch. But I thought Molly would be able to win those exchanges,

to get it to the ground. When was Santos' last fight was, what, January or March, 2019, something like that, January February of March? So it's been more than a year. Yeah. So it's been more than a year since she fought. And you have to imagine those, what, 14, 15 months, she's just completely worked to get better at her craft because I'm sure she was embarrassed after coming in with a stellar record

and laying an egg in her first performance. So if you really put in the work and came out like that, I don't want to call her contender right away, but she could pose a lot of problems in that division for sure. She's very rangy too, and she uses it very well. So, yeah, she looked great tonight. Let's, okay, so let's turn it over to the peeps. Yeah, let's do that. Hold on one moment.

Let's get all our pretty faces up there. Oh, yeah. Of course, you're in the middle. What a surprise. Oh, geez. Just kidding. Oh, look at you. There you.

The one with the man. without the mustache. All right. First question. Oh, it's not a question. Those are just reactions. Jessica, Crystal Crew, is obviously sad because Molly McCann was a proud member of the

the Crystal Crew, so I'm sure Queen Crystal is very upset right now. I'm sure Alex Kaylee is watching this right now, laughing away, because he thinks it's all afires. I don't think it is. Although I still haven't gotten my crystals yet from my first appearance on the A side before. I was with that MA fighting, but that's neither here nor there.

Alex Cayley hates fun and joy and only sees the colors of gray and black. Yeah, Canadian. The reigning between the links champion now, Alex Cayley. E. Roids. Who does Cater match up with Best that's ranked higher than him? How do you think Cater matched up against a beat in a five-round fight? Two questions there. I think we know kind of the answer to the second question.

I mean, it happened last year, so things could have changed. But I think most of us feel that if that first fight between Cater and Zabit went five rounds, that Cater had the momentum and probably would have done well in four and five. But gentlemen, I'll pose the question to you. Looking at the guys who are ranked ahead of Calvin Cater right now, who does he match up with pretty well out of those top five? Well, for Zabit, you also have to remember that he went from fighting Zabit in Boston. So all of a sudden getting pulled from that car.

So Cater's from New England. He's going to fight to be in his backyard to all of a sudden getting the fight pushed back to fighting in Zobite's backyard in Russia and then getting elevated to a three-round main event after Junior Josantos pulls out. So that's a lot of things going on in that fight. So, yeah, I would love to see that fight run back in five rounds. I think he did pretty well against Ortega. Ortega obviously got pieced up by Max on the feet. So if Cater can keep the fight standing, which is, of course, no easy task against a fighter like Ortega. Because even if you do keep the fight standing, Ortega can just snatch up that neck like he did to Cubs Watson with that standing guillotine.

So I think he could do pretty well against Ortega. Jaire is a very similar fighter to Zabit. And then I'd favor Holloway against him. And then Chan Sung is just an anomaly. You can't really predict what kind of fight you're going to have with him. So I think he matches well with anyone in the top five, top six, whatever he's ranked. But I would favor – I don't think I'd favor him heavily against anyone. But I think he'd have a good shot of beating Ortega or –

uh yeah air for sure i thought cater yai year was like the fight to make after two forty nine like after kater knocked out jeremy stevens i felt like that was the obvious fight to make but i i agree but yairns a beat have had history for a long time and i selfishly i really want just a long rangy spinning shit style fight between this crazy mexican and this crazy russian just throwing down for five rounds can't argue with that logic kisi uh hosey your thoughts on those questions My bad. Geez. No, I think Cater for me right now is like,

he's clearly, to me, a B plus A-level featherweight in the world right now. But I just, against the guys ahead of him, I just don't, I just don't see him. The question was, what was the question? Like, who do we see him like in a favorable matchup? I just don't see him beating anyone in front of him. And if he does, good on him. But, like, it's just, I just see it. Everyone looks slightly better than him that are ranked in front of him.

So I don't know. But I like the Yai'er fight the best of all the people in front. I think Yai'er is the most entertaining fun matchup. But cater against any of the top guys, I think he's going to be, he's just an entertaining fighter, so no matter what. Yeah, I don't know if he beats, because he's, I just pulled up the ring. He's six after this fight. And then above him, in order would be Yair, Korean Zombie, Brian Ortega is a beat Holloway and Volcanowski. I don't think I'd, I don't think I would favor him in any of those fights,

betting-wise, but I think if you're going to put money on him pulling out an upset, I'd probably put Ortega, maybe Ayer would be the two. I would say Calvin would have a good chance of pulling off the corner of upset. I think the biggest upset would probably be Ortega only because of we just, he's been out for such a long time. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like if they fought, like, if they fought just like, if they, fought in October and a Calvin Cater

beat Brian Ortega, I wouldn't be shocked. I would still favor Brian Ortega entering that fight but Cater's boxing is unbelievable and that's exactly how Max Holloway beat Brian Ortega last time. He just kept it off the octagon of canvas and just pieced him up on the feet and you just saw Calvin Cater's output is unbelievable

and he really knows how to control his energy levels through five rounds. I think he would, if he beat Brian Otega, it wouldn't be a surprise to me. And Cater's take down defense is really good. And if you're fighting Cater and you end up on your back, you're going to get cracked really hard. So that makes a game makers.

What was, Ege was like 0 for 7, 0 for 8, something like that. But you also have to wonder like, Dan Ige is not the biggest featherway in the world. Like if Dan Ege announced he was cutting down to 135, I would be like, you okay, you're not that tall. So like you could probably make it. So you do have to wonder if fighters like the IA Rodriguez is and then there's a beats that are super rangy and can keep Calvin from boxing would play a major factor. because who else has he lost to him besides to beat Moikano, right?

And Moichano's good stand-up, good grappling. What was it? It was like that was an Anaheim, I think, or I can't quite remember. So you just have to wonder what type of fighters, Calvin, would not, would present Calvin with the most problems. Good problems to have. All those matches would be fun. What else do you got? Thank you, Beroids.

I mean, you got great pictures of dogs. with Christmas ads up. Anybody be shocked if Calvin got a title shot depending on when Alex comes back? I would say, God, yeah, you go first. I would be surprised if he skipped the line, but it's not because Volcanowski would say yes

over someone else. If they took Calvin Cater's name to Alexander Volcanowski first, Alexander Volcanowski is going to be like, no, he has to have another fight. Volcanowski is going to fight whoever they put in front of him. him. He's one of those champions. And he's going to fight Calvin eventually, I think. Because if Volcanowski really wants to be the clinical go and run through the gambit of fighters, it's only a matter of time before they make that fight. I think the only way they would make the cater fight is if fighters can't get into,

can't leave certain countries or matchmaking wise someone gets hurt. Like if Ortega's ready to go and they make that Korean zombie fight, so Beets fighting a year, or they don't make that fight or make that fight. And Calvin's just next in line, processed by elimination. Sure. But if they skip, So beat Ortega, Karin Zambi, Ayer to go to Kater, to fight Volkanowski. On purpose, that would surprise me. If Kater went out there and, like, blasted Dan Igay and finished him in the first two rounds, like did what he did to Jeremy Stevens to Danigay tonight, I'm not saying it would happen, but there would have been a chance of it

because people would have been clamoring for it. If Kater went out there and just Shane Burgos to him, like he did the Shane Burgos to him, like he did the Shane Burgos of the UFC 220, and then took the mic, and he's like, that's how a featherway finish his fights, and then throws the mic down on leaves the octagon. on, yeah, that fight is 100% the fight to make, but that's not what happened. Yeah.

There you go. I'd be shocked if Kater got the shot. I'd love to see it, but I'd be shocked if he did. If they purposely skipped the top five to go to him, I'd be a little surprised. Casey, your thoughts? I want to see other fights for Max Holloway, but in my mind,

Max Holloway versus Calvin Kater is pretty dang awesome. I think that's what Kater is missing right now in his resume. he's beating good fighters, but not the fighters that we consider you have to beat this guy if you want to fight for the belt. And so I think that's the problem where Cater's out right now.

He's just beating all the guys he's supposed to beat. It's really unfortunate that Josh Emmett is hurt. Because I think that would be a good fight because they're ranked right there. They would be, because Frankie Edgar is, I'm eliminating because he's sitting at seven. So it would be seven and six.

Cater and Emmett. Because I don't think they're going to give Kater Max, because Max has already Oh and two against the champion. I don't think they want to knock off future contender, especially if Max goes out there and just blows him away. Yeah, I just don't think the fights going to happen, but I didn't have to see it. I agree. I agree.

So if Emmett hadn't gone under surgery, I think Emmett caters the fight to make, but that's not going to happen. Actually, yeah, I just talk about the other guy. Ege. What's nice for Ege? You can do a lot of things with Deney. What about Ege versus Burgos? I love it. That's that fight.

There's our own. It doesn't have a fight either, right? You might give him a fight. Sadie Kusef. Ryan Hall. Oh, no, Ryan Hall's fighting Lamas. Give him the winner of that fight, the loser, whatever, one of those fights.

With Jose Aldo wants to jump back out to featherweight, that'd be a fun fight too. So, yeah. Again, Dan Ikegay didn't lose anything in the eyes of the fans, I think after that loss. Agreed. Yeah, there's a lot of good fights for Ege, honestly. I think...

I like the burgos. Let's fight a lot. I think that's the fight. Or Jeremy Stevens, they're sitting at 9-10. I know Jeremy Stevens has fought everyone, but EGay Jeremy Stevens would be a banger, too. Or Borgos versus Stevens. That's the beauty of having a Jeremy Stevens there. So you can fight any of these guys, and it's fun.

What else we got? Did, has Andre Feeley been booked? Rumored to fight Bryce Mitchell from what I heard, but that's not official. Yeah, not that official. but that's those are the rumblings in the street right now. And they both tweeted, give me the contract. Like with our graphic, like Andre Feely goes, I want to fight Bryce Mitchell and I made a graphic out of it. And then Bryce Mitchell was like, done, give me the contract. I was like, all right, there's the fight. That's what happened with the Rosa fight, too,

exactly the same thing. Right. So I'd be, Bryce Mitchell did say he has, he contract to sign, and he's got fight news coming. So I've been trying to work on it. I assume it's Feely, but I don't know. They both want to fight each other. They're both not ranked. They're both awesome, interesting characters, and I think that's the fight to make. And the winner gets in the top 15. 100%. Ege versus Stevens, Burgos, Sadiq Yousaf, any of those cats, I'll watch them fight.

We'll watch. Let's talk about this gentleman. Monier Lazz is the real MVP. Yes. He was awesome. He was awesome. And the post fight was great. the calmest call out of Mike Perry you will ever hear in the UFC.

It was just so soft-smoking. It was so quiet. I was like, did you just say Mike Perry? I wasn't sure, actually. If you watch the post-fight press conference that Guillermo sent over when he was back there, they asked him, like, why do you want to fight Mike Perry? And he said that he wants to fight because him and his teammate, Darren Till, have issues. And if you have issues with one of us, you have issues with all of us. And Mike Perry and Darren Till are obviously not in the same weight class. So if Lazez, is that how he pronounced his last name?

Lazzes, if he wants to fight Mike Perry and Mike Perry whenever he returns from whatever he's going on with his blonde friendly hair, I was going to put it out there. Why not? Did you see that photo, Casey? I did. I saw that photo.

This guy calls my hair friendly and makes fun of me and all of the same hair as me. That was very amazing. Maybe he wants to be on the A side with you, Jose. I don't think he does. I truly do not think he wants to be on the inside of me. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I like the callout.

It got attention, it got buzz. It probably won't happen any time soon. Definitely not. That guy against anybody at 117 makes me happy. Yeah, I think you give him someone, like, kind of right outside the top 15, maybe a, like, maybe a Blah Muhammad, someone like that. I think that's an exciting fight. I think, but he's a, you know what?

He's just, I'm just happy. He's on the UFC roster, and he's obviously a super action fighter. And, ooh, man, so many knees and elbows. So many knees and elbows. I loved it. Those stepping knees, oh. He took a, he's got a chin on him, too. Holy cow.

He took some big shots early. But he let, what was his opponent's name? I forgot. Haven't said his name out loud in a while. Abdul Razak Al-Hsan. Al-A-San, yeah. Yeah, I picked a son first round knockout. I thought this was a showcase fight for a sign.

I thought they'd feed him a local, you know, but nope. That man is legit. So what about, so I'm just pulling, I'm just thinking, I'm just pulling up the U.S. U.S. U.S. U.S. and Reagan is right now. Fights that I would like seeing him fight that wouldn't be in the top 15. I'll watch him fight Nico Price. I'll watch him fight,

Mike Perry, Bala Muhammad, Jake Matthews, Dalby, Cowboy Oliver would be a banger. Regular cowboy would be a banger. The leech. the leach would be awesome gunner nelson uh roco martin vicente lucy already has a fight obviously so yeah there's a there's a million fights uh for lizz to take but he's what he's won and own the ufc something like that so i don't think he's going to get any huge names right away yeah and he just being a guy who hasn't fought in what two years yeah yeah c20 was the last time he fought right

that is true so i don't think he's going to get a major fight any time soon i don't think there's a need How about Alan Joban? There you go. There's a fight. He's like, he fought. Exactly. Yeah.

And he's not in the boring fights. He's primarily a striker. So Alan Joban versus Lizzie has a be a fun fight. He has a win over Mike Perry. You beat him. That's another knock that you can just jump on that Mike Perry trying to fight. So Joe, Joe, there's the fight. Go ban.

Nico Price is probably my one B. That's fun. Diego Sanchez would be a weird fight too Oh man Yeah that's the beauty of him Man like you can put him pretty much anywhere And like just Just you know

Yeah he's awesome You could slow roll him too Just slow roll him and just let him Keep putting on highlight reals Let's answer a couple more questions before we You okay you're okay Mike That's like getting you Frigin fly

One fly I told my kid Shut the door Don't leave it open. Of course, he opens the door and won't shut it. What's the school situation out there? Nothing's been determined yet, but they're thinking that they might be able to get back in September, but the kids are going to have to wear masks in the classroom. We'll see. I don't buy it, but we'll see what happens. I hope it happens. I love my kid, but I've spent way too much time with him.

Um, do, too, too, too. Yeah, just a lot of comments about the fights. Um, do, do, do, step in elbows. Tonight was a great night of fights. Uh, I think everyone's just kind of sleepy. Yeah. These Wednesday nights are weird. I feel for Guy. Yeah. That's one. Even though it's not about, even though it's not about tonight's card. I just got to talk about her. Can we all agree that Amanda Heba's is the next female superstar? I mean, she was the only VIP that got featured on the, uh, on the broadcast tonight. But, but yes she is why do you think she got the page fight to begin with

this is this is a it went exactly the way that Dana White wanted to go that's why she got the VIP seat they sent page off to Bellator or wherever she's gonna end up going Amanda Hebus gets a big boost because she beats a big star and the sky's a limit for her

there's lots of great options for her moving on up about like who are Amanda Hebas's last two wins Paige Van Zammekylln McKenzie Dern two of the most popular female fighters on the roster They might not be the championship level caliber fighters, but in terms of people tuning in and knowing names, it's those two of the biggest names out there, probably Macy Barbara at one point, too. So, yeah, Manejiboss deserves a huge step-up in competition.

She called out the winner of Espaza, Marina Rodriguez. I want that fight. I think Marina Rodriguez is an awesome fighter. I think she is super violent. Carlos Sparza is super difficult to fight and makes people fight badly. think that is a talent to have that she completely takes you out of the fights that you shine in. So if Marine Rodriguez somehow gets past Carlos Sparza, Amanda Hebos versus Marine Rodriguez is just a violent female straw white fight. And I want to see that fight so badly.

I do. I mean, I want to see it. I don't want to see it right now, though. I don't. Slow roll her. Like, give her a big fight. Give her a step up. But we don't need to push her up that high yet. Felice Herrig's fighting. Who's Felice Herrig fighting? I don't even know. Johnaroba? Sure. You could be making that up, and I would believe you. Oh, yeah.

There's so many good. Yeah, I think the winner of that, maybe the winner of that fights. They'll be like right around the same place. What about Tisha Torres is right above her? I think they train together, don't they? She's a, yeah, ATT. They're both ATT, yeah. I see, I saw that a lot on Twitter, and I was like, I don't think they fight.

Andrew Hill and Michelle Watershunter fighting. That's not a bad one. Who's Mizuki Inouye fighting? She just has a fight coming up. I'm like Amanda Limos. I'm not sure that is. Jan Jow Nan is fighting Claudia. The winner of that too

could be a bangor of a fight. Strawway is the best, I think, the most stacked female division out there. That's not a matter for debate. Yeah, it's the most competitive too. Nina is off the list. She's pregnant. Rose, probably fighting Jane Wiley.

Andrade, who knows, rematch her against Joanna if they want. Tatiana is who knows Nina's out, Claudia has a fight book Sparza's a fight book, Michelle Waterson the fight book, Marina Gianne, Tisha Torres

Alexa Gross was not in the division anymore Angela Hell's a fight, Felicia Harrogat's a fight so she's gonna have to wait for something you can't book her a fight right now without a bunch of fights happening already Yeah, yeah just I think the opponent I mean the opponent matters but I think the placement on the card matters even more

Like she's gonna go to main events on a fight night definitely on a main card of a big pay-per-view, like, just keep featuring her and throwing her out with as many eyeballs as I can watch her as possible. And the amazing thing about, she has two weight classes you can fight. She doesn't get a straw weight fight, and she goes, all right, fine, I'll fight a flyweight. Like, I'm not going to say no, watching her fight anybody, a flyweight either. She's obviously not the size of that weight class, and eventually she could bulk up to do it

because she does want to be champ to have eventually, but there's a million fights I watch her flyweight too, but if she wants to take a straw away, she's going to have to wait for a lot of these fights to pan out first. I would agree with that 100%. Looking forward to seeing more from Amanda Heba. I think we can all agree with that. I can't see a lot. There's so many.

There's so many. There's so many. But the answer to that question is, yes. She is the next potential big female MMA superstar. I would have to agree with that. Anything else in the truck, Casey? No, just a couple of people.

You know, Danny Gay should try 35, maybe. He's not the biggest guy at 145. He's standing next to him. no, out of, out of, uh, fight camps, he just, yeah, he doesn't, not featherways there, yeah, he just doesn't seem that big. Like, even when he fought, uh, Bechtick, when we were at that Houston card, Casey, and Bechtig stood on the face off and, like, lifted his shirt up, and Dan Ege, he lifted a shirt off to play along. I'm like, Beckett looks like a whole other way class than Dan E.

But Danny gave, again, it's, like, when we, when we talked to Michael Keesa in Edmonton, Casey, and we were like, why did you ever fight it lightweight, if you're this good or welterway? He goes, because I was doing well. If you're ranked in the top seven, you don't want to restart. So if he doesn't want to restart, put all this work at Featherweight. Like, why not? But he would be dropping down.

Michael Cayso went out. So that's what everyone was going to say. So then he can do whatever he wants. All right. Great. Let's talk one question. Take one question about Saturday. Looking forward, does Joseph Benavitas get it done?

I don't know. Let's see if Vigaredo makes weight. Well, according. to our video that Guy shot that he was like 130 pounds landing. Is that what he said? Was he on a scale? That is what he said.

I'm just telling you what he said. If he truly is 130 and he makes 125 comfortably that's another conversation we can have later but that's a tough fight. I still favored Joe B. I think he was winning that fight until they clashed heads. But Figueroa hits so

hard and he's only lost Formiga who's pretty much beaten everyone outside of like the top three. So, uh, except Joe B except Joe B. except for Joe B and Alex Perez most recently. So it's tough fight. Real tough fight. I hope that fight gets a lot more buzz.

I hope that. I'm super excited by that fight. And, uh, one more comment before we get our, our everything else done in our lives. And let's be honest, by the way, with Figurato, he lost to Jared Brooks too. Let's throw that out there. You know the judges were terrible that night. He lost a fight.

Question for Jose. Remember when you called Nile a human-sized onion? Yeah, I do, because it only happened a couple hours ago. His child, Nile McGrath, keeps going blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He keeps talking and talking and he's bad at it. He doesn't know what he's talking about. He doesn't know anything about nothing. So if he wants to flap his gums, come up to the original.

I don't know if you saw John Anick was asking for suggestions on a new tattoo he wants to get. Did you see this? Either of you guys? No, I saw that tweet. Because John Ang is going to get a game. red tattoo and they might get the F.E. for Frankie Edgar. He's like, what else should I get? And I suggested a very

tasteful, massive backpiece of me dunking a basketball on Nile. I figure a full back piece would be most appropriate. And John Aik was like, yeah, duh. And everyone was like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I was like, it does make a lot of sense to see a bag of soup getting dunked on by

me, Jose Young. So make it happen, John Aik. I mean, who and why? You should IG live that tattoo being I mean, if we want to start a crowdfunding for John Nancey get a big back to lose and be dunking on Nile McGrath and Pete to Carol fainting in the background, who's just going to argue that? No one.

Jeez. I mean, what a good way to end the show, right? There you go. Trash Nile where he can't defend himself. But that's all right. How would he defend himself? There's no difference. Maybe he's watching right now and he wants to chime in.

I definitely think he's not watching. Future between the links matchup, perhaps. We could settle it in there. No, if we're ever going to. to match it up, it'll never be through a computer. Five foot rims. 50 foot rims, more like it. Even if it was a five foot rim,

now I wouldn't be able to reach, man. He gets tired just bawling his fist up into a fist. I have to see this. I think this is a perfect way to end it. That's it. The night is in the books. Our second of four fight island cards. It's a wrap.

We're back at again on Saturday with the aforementioned flyway title fight Joseph Benavita. versus Davis and Figurato. We had Kelvin Gasolum on that card as well. Yes. That fight is so good. That's a good fight. Jackermanston, that fight is so good.

That's a good one. And then, of course, next Saturday, that's the one that I think everyone's really looking forward to with Darren Till versus Robert Whitaker and that whole chaotic card from top to bottom. It's going to be a lot of fun. So that's it. That's all we have to say.

So stick with us at M.A. fighting for all the coverage. We'll have virtual media day, I believe, tomorrow. and then we got Wayans on Friday. We'll get the card on Saturday. What the heck's going to drop in around seven and a half hours from right now, which should be a good one with Gilbert Burns and Devante Smith and Rob Font and John Castaneda, the newest member of the UFC Bannamweight Division. He'll be fighting Nathaniel Wood next Saturday on that July 25th card.

So for Jose Young, Casey Lydon in the truck, Esther Lynn on the graphics, I am Mike Heck. Hope you guys enjoy the fight tonight. We'll see you. Godspeed. Good night. podcast network.