MMA Fighting - UFC on ESPN 14 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: July 26, 2020

MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Jose Youngs and Alex K. Lee break down the top storylines following UFC on ESPN 14 Saturday night in Abu Dhabi, including Robert Whittaker’s unanimous decision win over Darren Till in the main event. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome to the UFC Fight Night Whitaker versus Till Post-Fite Livestream. And now your host, Mr. Mike Heck. All right, we're live. And the first trip to Fight Island has come to an end with UFC on ESPN 14. We're reacting to this jam-packed event with all of you on the official live UFC on ESPN 14 post-fight show. right here on the MMA fighting YouTube page, and maybe you're watching or listening after the fact,

which is all good by me. But I am Mike Heck, being joined by Jose Young's. E. Casey Leiden is here as well, and maybe Alex K. Lee will jump in in a little while. But just a reminder, this is like the A-side after dark, so questions, comments about the event, matchmaking ideas, if you will, throw them out there. And we're here to chat with you guys and gals.

And the main event was a great fight. We're going to talk all about that. But Jose, you know how I like to start. We like to start with the whole shebang, the whole kitten caboodle. And I have to tell you, if you told me that this 15-fight card would end at like 11.30 Eastern time, I probably would have laughed at you, especially with the main event going all five rounds. But here we are. I'm feeling pretty fresh right now.

So let's start with the overall grade here, capped off by Robert Whitaker, pick it up a unanimous decision win over Darren Till. What's your grade of 15 fights on UFC on ESPN 14? Oh, my God. I hate giving grades. I'll give it like a high B. I don't, I'm not quite sure I want to give it a. It's still fresh. It was a lot of times I felt like I was paying attention, but I kept getting distracted by like there's some, I was just getting distracted a lot by the, by having to do the work that comes with an MMA journalist. And of course, you pay attention to the fights that are marquee and everything. So, uh, those first three fights, uh, go, like those first few fights going to do decision really spooked me. I thought we were going to be doing this post-fight show at like, 11 o'clock Pacific time, which I wasn't going to, which I obviously would not be in favor of. But after that, the fight's picked up, of course, a lot of big stoppages, a lot of big star-maker performances. So not quite ready to give it an A, but I'll give it high, high B's mid-Bs. That sounds fair, especially with the pacing. I thought the pacing was good.

There were times in the main card where it slowed down a little bit, but then it picked right back up and I was pretty happy with the pacing. But I'd say that's a pretty fair grade. I'd say B plus would be a definitely be a fair grade. Casey, what do you think? And I think A.K. might be joining us as well. Actually, AK, can I talk? Can I hear you? I can talk right now. Oh, wow.

Up everybody. Hold on. Let me get A.K.'s very handsome face on here real quick. Hello, everyone. He's rocking a Sean Hunter shirt from Boy Meets World right now. Oh, no, that is not cool. not cool Alex at all. Oh, can we keep that?

Let's keep that. Sorry. What's up, A.K. Well, like, since you asked, since you asked, I give the show a solid B, I give the show a solid B. I don't know. What, Jose, what did you say? I said high B's not quite ready to give it an A. Yeah, I think I may have been overly generous to some of the other cards.

I think this might be the lowest, I think, of the Fight Island cards, but only because I didn't think the highs were super high. I think there was a lot of solid fights, one great one in the co-main event. And I didn't think any of the finishes were either, like, necessarily all-time, like, oh, I should I say best of the year finishes. I know there were some nice submissions on there. But, yeah, I think everything was really good, not great. And the main event, I thought was fine.

I think its mileage may vary with it, but I thought it was fine. I thought it was what we expected. And Casey, what did you think sitting there in the West Coast? Solid B. I mean, I think the good pacing. Good pacing. And I got to see that Contender Series 30-minute promo one more time. So that's always great.

Those guys go through a lot at the end of that show. Man. I do. I like how they tell the stories, though. I feel like the Flyweight Division can benefit from whoever produces those segments because we learn more about the Contender Series guys than we do some of the full-time fighters on the roster. I mean, I'm being a little joky, but yeah, yeah, it was a very long promo that we've seen multiple times now. It was.

But we're starting to see some of these cards start to pick up. And I'm very excited for the Contender Series to kick off in a little less than two weeks here. But let's talk about this main event. We saw a technical fight between two of the best and 185 pounds. Robert Whitaker gets the win. I think John Gooden said it best. You could actually see the calculations going on in the minds of Rob Whitaker and Darren Till. And in the end, the Reaper gets a huge victory.

A.K., welcome to the program. How did you score this fight? and what did you think of the main event tonight? I agreed with the scores. I think 48, 47 was accurate. I really enjoyed the fight. I mean, I know, I think it kind of set a weird tone because the first two were so action-packed,

you know, the knock-down for Till in the first one, and the knock-down for Whitaker and the second one. But, I mean, both guys were respecting each other's power the whole time. You know, they just happened to catch each other in those first two rounds. And then once they figured each other out, then it actually made it harder for them to kind of land anything substantial because they're both so skilled and so smart.

And we saw in the later rounds, I was breaking out a lot of, what do we call those dodges? Jose, not just like, you know, we were, I said, Matrix Dodges or Fizievs, I guess, or they sent on the, sign shy. I think they referenced on the broadcast. So we were seeing a lot of kind of spectacular defense in the later rounds, which I know that doesn't necessarily, like, appeal to the casual fan. But yeah, lots of.

Defense. Thank you. Boo. Not a lot of just bleeding from a sweet, from a sweet dodge. We were seeing a lot of good evasion and faints. All the fainting and misdirection was just awesome. Like, if you really were kind of paying attention to some of the subtle things they're doing, it was like, holy crap.

Like they're right in front of each other and just doing these little things. I know to some people it looks like they're doing nothing, but they're actually doing a lot. It's just kind of invisible. So, you know, I enjoyed it. I don't think it's a classic or anything, but very solid event and main event. And just great to see Robert Whitaker fighting again. Yeah, I think the scoring was right. I had a 48, 47 for Whitaker, but I had no idea how the judges were going to score this fight because of the two knockdowns.

The fifth round was interesting because Whitaker got the takedowns, took the back, but he wasn't able to do much with it. And then Till just busted open Whitaker's ear. and that was pretty nasty as well. So I had no idea how these judges were going to score that fight, but they went with the same way that I had scored it. And it was a fun one. It was, you know, it wasn't the action-packed fight for 25 minutes, like AK just alluded to, but I was on the edge of my seat.

I was waiting for a big shot to land pretty much the entire time. And, you know, sometimes it came, sometimes it didn't. But props to Darren Till, man, that guy got kicked in the leg so many times and he just kept a straight face the whole time or smiled, which is just wild to me. But it was a great fight at 185 pounds. It wasn't an A-plus main event, but it was pretty darn good. Jose, what did you think?

Yeah, I actually love this fight. It was just a high-level technical violent chess match. And that kind of, it's become a trend with these type of fight, especially in the middleweight division. Like it's similar to the, the, when you just said, like you're just waiting for this one big punch to land. You know it might not happen, but the fact that the threat is there makes it that much more exciting that every single punch, every single kick, every single dodge could hold a deadly

implication similar to when Israel-Azania fought. Anderson Silva, I kind of got that same sense, or I was just waiting on the edge of my seat for something to happen. But that's how every Darantil fight is, and Robert Whitaker's no difference. His fights against Joel Romero were very violent, of course, and then his fight against Israel-A-Sanya was like that. It was a lot of back-and-forth until Israel-A-San that took advantage of those openings before he unloaded with that left hook. So, yeah, I absolutely love this fight. It wasn't the barn burner epic back-and-forth. war that I'm sure people were expecting from two top middleweights. But I think that just shows how talented these two fighters are, that they're so skilled

and they have to make adjustments on the fly. And they have to adjust based on the adjustments put in front of them. So I absolutely love this fight. I give this, I personally gave it an A just because I love these weird high-level technical chess matches. Casey, I'm going to throw this one to you because I feel like between the three of us, we've had this conversation a bunch of times on what could happen next, depending. on who won the fight. Now, if Darren Till had won that fight, I still believed that he would

fight the winner of Adasani and Costa. Whitaker is now at an interesting spot right now because he just fought Adasani, he got knocked out, and now Adasani is about to fight Costa? So, in your opinion, is Robert Whitaker the biggest Paula Costa fan in the world right now, or is he still another win away before getting back to a title fight? No, actually, I don't think, I don't really think Whitaker's next, his career path really depends very much on what happens

in Adesania Costa. To me, I think the big winner tonight was actually Costa. Because now, imagine if Whitaker had knocked out till the first round

or Till had knocked out Whitaker. I mean, remember, that fight isn't official, official. Nothing is official, nothing is official, and I can have totally

seen if Whitaker would have knocked out till early, that who knows, maybe the UFC kind of sold that contender, the right to fight at Assania for the

the belt to the lowest bidder. And it can easily go back to Whitaker again, you know, and maybe have that fight in New Zealand, you know, because where they can't have crowds and stuff. But I think with that type of super close fight, there wasn't, there wasn't like a, there was a winner, but it wasn't like, oh, this guy is like just needs that title shot next, you know.

So I think the big winner was Costa. And for Whitaker, I don't know, actually. I think he's just kind of still. there. I think the biggest winner of the night was Jared Canaanere, honestly. I think he probably gets the winner at this point. I've heard his name forever, man. But the timing of his injury, his recovery, it actually works out really good here because, you know, both of these contracts are signed, by the way, for September. The UFC may not have made it official, but both guys have signed the contract. That fight is going down in September. Just the UFC hasn't officially

announced it yet because they want to make us wait because they got out scooped. That's what happens it that you have to see from time to time. But Whitaker versus Hermanson sounds good to me. I thought Jack laid it out pretty good last week. But we'll talk more about that on onto the next one, the podcast, episode two coming out on Monday. But co-main event, great fight between Maricio Shogunhuah and Antonio Rogerio, Nogarra. Those two guys beat the living hell out of each other. In the end, Shoggat gets the nod via split decision. He moves to three and O in the series, and Little Nog rides off into the sunset. Jose, you were probably more. excited for this fight than anybody on planet earth your thoughts on the co-main event well my first thought

is i i'm so disappointed that wasn't a crowd and i'm disappointed this fight wasn't in a ring and i'm disappointed this fight wasn't didn't have yellow cards and i'm disappointed this fight wasn't under pride rules and i'm disappointed this fight didn't have pride gloves and i miss the crazy pride lady those are all of my thoughts this fight was so fun this is my fight of the night i think it lived up to i wasn't expecting this high-level technical masterpiece i was expecting two fighters who's bodies are clearly just ravaged from not just fights and years of fighting, but years of wars, years of some of the best fights we have ever seen. So this is a fight where experience has to play a factor.

Like, yes, your body may be hurting. Yes, your knees are falling apart. Your hands hurt. Your head hurts. And you have to adjust on the fly and use that veteran wearerthal. Like you can't really do that against a fighter. Like when Antonio Noggera fought Rumble Johnson or Shogun fights, Anthony Smith, where it's these fighters that are just physically quicker, faster, strutely.

stronger, younger. Their bodies haven't been through the ringer, and they just succumb to youth. These were two veterans that had to rely on veteran wearerthal, and it showed it. This was a MMA fight, and it was pretty much how the first two fights played. Like, if you just told me, if you show me this fight, and they weren't wearing Reebok, and you could have told me this was the second fight, I would be like, yeah, that makes sense. This looks just like it. So I really like this fight. It's obviously now that Little Nog is riding off into the sunset. We'll never see O'Garabr brothers fight in MMA ever again in Shogun. I don't know what's next to him.

I haven't even looked at the rankings yet. The Light Heavyweight Division, as Dean Thomas says, is shallow because he says, everyone is afraid to call it that, so I'll call it that. The UFC Light Heavyweight Division is very shallow. I don't know what's next to him. I haven't looked at the rankings, but really happy that both guys got the fight they wanted, but you have to feel for a little knock going out on, because everyone keeps thinking this was a 1-1 trilogy.

He's 0-and-3 against Shogun right now. So let's not forget about that. So all respect to Lil Nog, I was doing the Twitter reactions for the site. And it was universal praise for that fight specifically for Lil Nogu's going out on his shield. So, yeah, props to both Brazilian icons. Ah, there's the media score. It's pretty split. It was very split.

I would say I didn't stick either man just straight up. Nine to eight. I didn't have an issue with either man winning. I don't really know. I can't remember how I scored it. I wasn't really watching it like that. I was just kind of watching as a fan of mixed martial arts. So at the end of it, I didn't really have an issue one way or another,

but Shogun got it at the end. A.K. True or false? Because Jose mentioned not having this fight in front of a crowd. But true or false, this was the loudest empty arena fight of all of them so far. Nogara's team, I believe it was Nogar's team, was jazzed up. He would land, he would throw anything hard or land anything. And they were just like, yeah, yeah, you're doing great. And, hey, I don't blame him.

Like I said, if this is the last time he's going to fight, you've got to be all in there for your boy. You can't just treat it like any other fight. That's what's so cool about it. I do want to ask Jose. So, Jose, let's say fast forward, 17 months, rising year-end, 2021-year-end show, Shogun Noguera for it.

You're all for it? Just have it. I don't want, so, no. So I laid this out on Twitter. I just want Shogun to go out there and just close out all of his rivalries. Like, he can go to Belator. He can throw down with Rampage.

You can throw down with a cheetah. Bring both guys over there again. Go over to Belator throwdown with Vandralee, for all I care. I don't care what Marisa Shogun, who it does. He can do whatever he wants at this point in his career. If he wants to win the big one again, stay in the UFC. I don't think he'll ever win it. But if he wants to fight his way back up, all power to him.

But at this point in my career, at this point in his career, I want to see him just finish up all of his rivalries and trilogies and rematches that we've been calling for for a long time. Yeah, I believe he said what's most important to him right now is he does want to fight. I think it was an interview with, with Iawwani that he said. He does want to fight one more time in front of people. which makes sense because as great as this fight was, and I'm sure he knows clearly watching,

there's nothing that quite captures that vibe, right? So, yeah, I agree, whatever he wants to do next, and I do hope, I don't know how many more fights it's going to take. Maybe he can wait until next year, who knows, because it does feel like it's going to be a while? And when he says a crowd, does he mean like a full capacity crowd or kind of, you know,

who knows how the world will look for now if we have partial crowds, which I know the UFC doesn't want to do. So I do hope he guys get to fight in front of a full crowd before he's done. But again, it could be a year from me. now if that's the case. Casey, you're rocking a pride shirt.

What do you think? What did you think of that fight? That was fun. Better than expected. It could have been 15 minutes of two old guys, but it was 15 minutes of two old guys beating the crap out of each other. So, no complaints here. I did have Shogun winning, but I don't really think that mattered, other than Noguer's

paycheck. That sucks for him. But outside of Noguerre not getting that extra money, I thought it was a great. great, I thought it was a great trilogy, and it's one of those strategies. I don't think anyone actually cares that it's Shogun 3-0 because every single fight was competitive and very fun. And it does kind of suck to, for that fight to kind of end in some airplane hangar on a beach in Abu Dhabi. So, yeah, that's the time we live in. But yeah, I wore the shirt. I just, I don't know what Shogun goes. Like, I just looked at the top 15 of light heavyweight.

Don't really care to see him fight anyone there. Don't want to see him fight Jura Pahasca. Don't want to see him fight Corey Anderson. Don't want to see him fight Johnny Walker. I want to see him fight a lot of guys that aren't in the UFC, like the Machitas and the rampages. And if Rashad Evans wants to come out of retirement, like we never got Shogun Rashad rampate.

Like imagine if he got Chal Sun to come out of retirement to run that back. Like there's a lot of fights I want to see, but none of them happen to be in the UFC. Shogun Rampage. That sounds good. You know what, go back to what Jose said. A couple minutes into this. this fight. I was like, oh, they're really hitting each other hard.

But the whole time I was like, this would be so much cooler on the ring. I was just thinking of it all the time. That's what I'm saying. They could have brought a ring and chest for this fight. Come on, guys. Dana, come on. Think outside the box. I can't believe you guys are forgetting Paul Craig, all right? Unfinished business. You're talking about wrapping up his rivalries. I was going to say that. Come on. Paul Craig. Run it back. I was surprised they didn't rebook that fight, but I'm not going to complain.

I wanted the little knock fight. Unless I can just imagine the UFC bring OSP back down the light, heavy. way because they keep trying to rebook that. They keep trying to rebook that rematch and that rematch keeps falling apart. You know, it would be fun and I threw this out for Bukakis last week, but that was silly now I think about it. Gokon Saki Shogun, how about that?

Oh my God, I would be so into that. Let's go into that. I would be so into that. In a ring. In a ring. Oh, yeah. I'm not to tell Bukascus you reneged on that, A.K. He got a little fired up when I told him about that one.

He liked that idea. I like it. Sorry, Baudestis. Sorry, buddy. Again, we're here talking to you guys. If you guys got questions, comments, thoughts on whatever, we'll get to all of those in just a minute. But we have to talk about the chaos that ensued before that. And the heavyweight division, Frasio Verduem entered the final fight of his deal.

And good Lord, did he set himself up for free agency in a big way? Submits Alexander Guffisson in the first round. Looks like his UFC run is over. What did you think, AK? I mean, especially after this last performance. against Alexio Linnik. He didn't look great. There wasn't a ton of faith in Mr. Radoom tonight,

but he looked pretty darn good tonight, did he not? Why do we even bother predicting the fights? I hate anyone who's seen my predictions of the site. They're just a weekly disaster. I'll kind of paraphrase a tweet I sent out earlier. So I have a classic AK Lee move in my predictions where I'll explain very clearly why someone's going to win. And then for almost no discernible reason, pick the other person.

That very much happened here. I wrote, hey, Alexander Gustafson, welcome to the heavyweight division. Your first test coming off submission loss, a former UFC champion with one of the deadliest ground games in MMA, have fun. So very sarcastically saying

that I think he's going to have a very difficult fight. And then somewhere in there, there's some word salad explaining why I think Gustafsson has a chance. And then I ended with Gustafsson by decision. My pick is Gustafs. So Verdum looks great.

Let me put it that way. Coming off that Olympic fight, I had no idea what to expect. I thought Gus, it was a great campaign. to move up to heavyweight. People have said that for years, that it should be an option for him. And the worst case scenario happened, it went to the ground. Verdom is still one of the best ever in MMA down there, and he got the arm bar. So I don't want to give up on Gus as a fighter yet.

I'd rather, you know, lavish more praise upon Verdum looking more focused in his last fight with the UFC and getting back to his specialty and doing way does best. Agreed. Jose, what did you think of Verdeum's final rides, I guess, here in the UFC? Well, I said when we did the previous show that when you described this fight as chaos, I viewed chaos as I just don't know how this fight is going to play out. This could have been 15 minutes of nothing like we saw in Jacksonville, or it could just be one guy tearing through the other person. We just didn't know.

It just happened to play out in that Verdume just decided to come in in better state than he has. He wasn't his last fight. And then shows Jiu-Jitsu and just tear off Alan Augustine's arm. Now, Guston's on a three-fight losing streak. oh and won in his new division. So, yeah, you set it. You set it yourself. Radoom set himself up for a big,

a big free agency run. I doubt he comes back to the UFC, which is a bummer because I think a lot of the fights I want to see and throw down are in the UFC. But he had a good win. It just doesn't really matter for the UFC rankings right now, if it mattered at all, because one of them is leaving, and one of them will probably go back down to light heavyweight.

Casey is the answer here, Fabrice over Doom versus Fador and Bellator. this thing back. Oh, he's shaking his head. Nope. What is it? Ryan Bader versus Verduim for the title. Here's, it's going to be Bader, and if it's not Bader, it's Brandon Vera in one championship. It's one of those two.

Speaking of Beltar, our own, Damien Martin, just dropped a lovely tweet saying, it will never happen, but if the UFC and Biltor ever want to co-promote Shogun versus Fador to determine the King of Pride FC, tell me you wouldn't watch, so. I want to see it. I want to go back to wire. I would do it.

Yeah, but not wait. But I'll watch Fedor fight anybody and I'll be excited. See, that could have been the answer. I'm sorry. That could have been the answer to the final between the links question last week so we can make that fight happen. Yeah, we don't want to talk about that. No, we're going on.

That's... Go ahead, Casey. No, but, no, that was a good suggestion, though, Fador versus Verdum, a rematch. If somehow the Bader-Verdom fight doesn't get made, fade-or-Vardom is the fight to make, though. and that'll be an awesome fight. Hopefully in Japan, we'll see.

Yeah. Carlos Sparza gets another split decision win over Marina Rodriguez. That was a fun fight. It was. Marina needs to get her takedown defense, you know, situated, or it's going to be a long road because she is so talented on the feet and even off her back throwing those elbows. She had her moments, but Carla is just a dog.

She looked great. Yeah. I mean, Marina, I think the thing is, I think, you know, her and her team were going to have to decide whether, whether they want to make her, you know, play to her strengths that she has, because she has those long limbs. She's very aggressive from the bottom. Very fun to watch from bottom position. But as we know, in MMA, the way the unified rules are, it's just never going to favor you in that situation. So they have to decide whether they want to encourage that or kind of just improve her

defense, her ability to get out, her ability to neutralize, you know, her opponent's offense. Well, she did at times, but, you know, you could see she couldn't help, because she was having some success from bottom and she she couldn't help it uh i think this is why if there's if there is any controversy you know it's it's it's the scoring it's the scoring on strikes i'd like to see the scoring numbers after it because it did feel like Rodriguez was doing a lot of damage from the bottom um and uh i'm sure that people who thought Rodriguez won i'm okay with the 29 28 as far as the score but uh i can understand why ever as we've seen the media scores there very split the 9 9. uh it's it's pretty split it might be it might not be 100 percent split but uh it's it's it's

It's within range, yeah. Yeah, I mean, either way. I scored it for Rodriguez. I scored it for Carla, but like no confidence whatsoever. I think 37, 37 Spars is crazy. I can't have one of the judges. It's a little weird to me. One for MMMA Brazil.

Oh, yeah, oh, they do not like Rodriguez. Yeah, there was just a story there. And MMMA mania, I don't trust those guys. That's not a real sight. But good win for her. I think her and Amanda Heba, so I think that just books itself at this point. I know she called for Claudia,

but Daly's got a fight coming up in September. Or a title fight like Dana White said. Dana said that Rose probably isn't going to be ready because she's physically beat up and her eye blew up. Tatina Suarez is still hurt. So he basically said the winner of this fight could get a title shot or Yonana could get a rematch. So if Carla wants to imagine if Carla gets a title shot,

on the next fight on card. I mean, who's going to, like, if you look at the rankings, people are either tied up, hurt, pregnant, or have fights. So if Carl's the next one in line, then so be it. Yeah, and if people can say what they want about it, oh, it's going to be a mismatch or whatever. But look, I just want to see champs stay busy. I just want see the champs cook sometimes.

When did it come? Like, of course we want every championship fight to be like as close equal as possible, like an epic fight. But that's not how prize fighting works. We will. Prize fighting is filled with entertaining blowouts. I'm sorry. So if you think, no, so if you, and that's no,

respect to Asparza. If you think Asparza is a good competitor, guess what? Then that's an appealing fight. If you're on the totally other side of it and think Zhang Wei is just going to blow out of the water, you should look forward to that too. I mean, that was part of Mike Tyson's appeal when he was a big star. They didn't care about, oh, I really hope this guy challenges Tyson. No, if you want to see Tyson, take someone out in like 50 seconds. So Zhang Wei should be built up the same way. I know she wants, we all think she wants to stay busy. So yeah, that's why it's a good reason to book of Sparza. Those were her fourth straight win. She has a former champion. She's fought some very tough competition. I think she absolutely deserves a child.

Yeah, and then you get fights like John Jones and Tiago Santos or John Jones and Dominic Ray is where you have such a dominant champion and then they get like, oh, next body up and then the fight turns out to be awesome. And there's a lot of controversy, lots to talk about. So Carlos Benon was the inaugural champion. People seem to think Yowana was the first champion ever just because Carla's first title defense, she got the brakes blown out of her after she submitted Rose on the ultimate fighter finale. So if Carla gets a title shot, I don't really care. Of course, there are fights I would rather see, but if she's the next woman up, so be it. Do you remember how...

I think they're going to do the rematch. Rose was a giant underdog. I'm sorry, Carla was a big underdog. I know. Carlo was a big underdog when she fought Rose. I knew what she meant. It's because Dana basically was pegging Rose to be the next Ronda Rousey,

right out of the gate. But Carla was the invicted champion going and she was the number one seat in that tournament. She won that tournament with ease, and then just got fed to you on and Jachuk, who was probably an underdog too. coming off that narrow fight against Claudia. So, but Carla's, she's fought in pretty much everyone in the division outside of Whaley and outside of Whaley.

So I have no issues if they want to give her the title shot. Of course I'd rather see Rose. Of course they'd rather see Tatsiana. But if they're tied up, Carla's the next woman. All right. I personally don't think Carla deserves a title shot because I really, really, really, really, really want to see Yowana versus Carla too. I want to see that rematch. I want to see this new Carla.

Because remember, people forget that Carter, all her fights were in Invicta. Then she fought in the house. Then she fought in the palms. And then her next fight, and this is all in the span of like six, nine months. Her next fight was in a sold-out arena in, I think Dallas, in front of 15,000 people on a big pay-per-view. It was just, I get it. It was a big jump. And she looked like that.

I'm not, I wouldn't pick, I wouldn't pick Carter to beat Yohanna. but I predict a much more competitive fight. I think Carter deserves that rematch too. Yeah, I'd like to see that one again. I don't know how excited she would be for that one, because that one took a lot out of her. Like, she didn't even want to talk about it. I don't even know if she still really addressed that fight all these years later,

but that one took a lot out of her. I know that for a fact. But I think the road to a title is through Yuana, but if Rose isn't ready and Tatiana's not ready, can't really book that fight right now, especially if you want to get Zhang Wei Li going and defending her title once again. So we'll see what happens there.

Unless they run it back with Yohanna. That's what I think they're going to do. It's so easy to sell. And then Carla, I don't have an issue with Carl and Amanda Hebas either. Yeah. So there you go. I think we've laid that out pretty well. But who knows is probably all wrong.

Moral of the story, as we all agree, straw weight is far and away of the most competitive women's division out there. Oh, God. That's not even glad. I love it. I love it. Paul Craig gets another triangle, choke submission win. Alex Alivavera gets a winner of Peter Sabata, but we got to talk about

Shemayev. Good God Almighty. True or false? And this is an open question for everybody. Is Hamzat Jamayev the MVP of Fight Island? He's the breakout star for sure. If there was one guy that like how many fights were on Fight Island like 6,000? If there's one one fighter I'm going to remember who I didn't know anything about coming into Fight Island is that guy. Like I can't I can't asking Esther, okay, how do you say his name again? Because I'm going to have to say his name a lot. I feel like pretty soon. And what's interesting is Yahoo Sports's Kevin Ioli tweeted out that he spoke with Dana White.

And Dana White wants to book Shemaiah at UFC 252. Who wants to turn him around again and put him on that card on August 15th? If they can get the visas. Wild. They can, yeah, if the travel visas are good to go, then strike with iron's hot. I love that guy. He hasn't taken any damage. No.

I think he got... Zero strikes absorbed. I think John Phillips glanced. I think, oh, really? I thought John Phillips glanced on the Phillips fight. It was like 119 to 4 or something crazy. Yeah, I hear he stubbed his toe in the way out of the cage. Yeah.

And, like, it was bad. It was like, like, his pinky nail kind of bent backward a little bit. It was gruesome. And, yeah, so I think that was all the damage I have took this weekend. He's pretty confident, too. This guy is not a, this guy is not like a wilting flower or anything when it comes. the interviews. I think he said, so, you know, the English was a little rough, but he did, he did do the interview in English credit to him. And he said, like, oh, if I can fight,

if anyone in the next hour, if it says, you know, if anyone in the next hour gets injured, yeah, put me back in, I'm ready to go. I want to fight again. I'll smash everyone. I'll smash anyone at 170 or 185. I want multiple titles. He did, he made some, some, some good use of his promo time today. So I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll have to rain at the parade a little bit in a second, but I'll let you guys keep, if you want to throw any more, I have a phrase out there before I play a Buzz Killington. In the scrum, in the scrum, he said that he thinks MMA is too easy. That's what he said in the scrum.

That's so crazy. I like that guy. But here's the thing. Well, we have guys like this, all right? A lot of times we talk about like with Hebas and some of the other stars, we like to slow roll them a little bit. Not with this guy. Throw him to the wolves.

I want to see if he can sink or swim. I mean, if you're coming out and you're saying that you think MMA is too easy, that you're ready to smash everybody at this point, that you're ready to be, that you are ready to become the pound for pound best fighter in the UFC, I think he's ready for a top 15 guy right now. I really do. Absolutely. Throne to the wolves. Let's go.

I tweeted, I want to see him face the top 15 guy. I tweeted, I want him to see, I want him to face Anthony Pettis, who's a top 15 guy, former title holder. He was a top five Walter White until very recently. And then, and seriously, I must have got like 90 replies going,

why do you hate Anthony Pettus? What did Anthony Pettus do to you? You know, I was like, so man, so like people are like, I don't know, I don't know, like, who, they wouldn't go, a title shot. I don't know what they want. I mean, because essentially, Chama have beat, he beat two UFC welter weights, but two, oh, I sorry, one middleweight, one welterweight, but he beat two guys. Reis McKee is a lightweight. Oh, he's a lightweight? Yeah.

Reis McKee is not actually. Okay. So he still isn't beating a UFC, I don't know when he got, a UFC veteran. He hasn't beaten a welterweight yet. He hasn't been able to watch right yet. He beat a middleweight and he beat a lightweight. I think, honestly, I think they're going to book him and Saroni. That's what I think they're going to end up doing.

Because Seroonies got a fight booked from all indications. There's no opponent yet as far as that's concerned. But he's scheduled to fight at some point. I would not be surprised to see, especially with Shami of saying that Seroonio would be, quote, easy money. I think he got something there. And then we'll see what happens. I think you're shaking your head. Jose. Big time. Go ahead, Jose. It's like, I like the fight, but God damn, Donald Sorroti

just sometimes needs to call. Like, it just reminds him when he's like, yeah, I'll fight Dary and he's massive. He's a welterweight. I'll fight him overseas and then he just gets crushed. Or like the Leon Edwards fights. I'm like Donald, Donald, at this point in your career, you can get big name fights. You don't have to get, you have to fight young woodchippers all the time, but I like the fight, but Donald Soroni never gets easy fight. I would still favor him in that fight, but Shamiya is a monster, so if you just tore through him, it wouldn't surprise me. What is he, like, 8 and 0, 7 and 0? He'd have an 8 and 0 fighter fighting Donald Soroni who has more fights in a month

than he has in his career. I don't know. Shama has had more fights this week than Donald Zerone has, so. It's true. It's true. Well, technically I've had more fights than Donald Seroni this month. He's also, Shemaya, is the rare prospect who, if you just glance at the records of the opponents, he was running through people

and actually facing more experienced opponents than him. Most of the guys we see kind of the UFC like 8-0-0-0-0-0-10-no. You look at their record and they're kind of just having to get whoever they can get and you'll see like in their seventh pro fight

they fought a guy who was like 0-and-3 and you're like, how did that happen? And that's just kind of how it is before you get to the major leagues. Shemayev was fighting for brave combat federation, very, very, you know, credible promotion. And he fought, I'm going to struggle with his name,

Mzwandale-Hulangwa. who was undefeated at the time and then he fought an 8-0 guy before that and 8-and-3 guy in his fourth pro-fights. So the resume looks good. It's certainly less padded than most prospects. Now, I will rain on the parade. Phillips, John Phillips, and Reese McKee

are not exactly the strongest wrestlers. They're not. To put it kindly. Phillips has no ground game whatsoever. I'm just going to be harsh there. McKee isn't quite as bad, but I certainly not someone I would consider to be a strong, especially at the UFC level.

So you took guys who their weaknesses are grappling You put them in there with a guy who was clearly in Chamaia An elite, the elite of the elite at wrestling. So I would want to see him face a solid wrestler Outside of the top of Dean first. I know that's so lame, but I think Shemaya is great and I think he's a future champion.

I need to see him face someone with some takedown defense first. Those guys have takedown defense. They're just not known for their wrestling. In fact, like, John Phillips definitely does. John Phillips does not. That's a last part of the time. You don't get this far with no, wrestling. But the fact that he just

destroyed these guys, like it was like their first day on a mat. and I think that's why we're so excited about him. And of course, you know, he talks, he talks, he has that little broken English that kind of is fun to listen to. It's fun and violent. It's cute. He's a terrified man.

Yes, that's a terrifying man. Yes. That's what I'm looking for work to. No doubt about that. So, well, obviously, huge fight island trip for that guy, massive. So I'm looking forward to seeing what's next for him. Francisco Ternaldo, with a nasty knockout. If we're talking about MVP,

the MVP, the least valuable players, probably Herb Dean for letting a couple of these fights go on a little too long. Jesse Rodso with the nice win, Tom Aspedal at the good finish. How about Mavzar Evloev, AK, I know you are excited about this guy. I think you might be more excited about him

than Shemayev, for being honest. I don't think anyone's more excited about Shemaiah than it. I do think, you know, I don't think Evelov is going to get pushed as hard. That's why I'm a little less critical of him. He looked great. I mean, Grundy is just an awesome, awesome wrestler. And Evelove, you know, that's just sort of the question.

Can he keep a guy like that off him? And he got stronger as the fight went on. He wore Grundy out. Grundy was going for takedowns all throughout the fight up until the end of the fight. And Evelweb was so calm, knew exactly when to start opening up with the striking. You know, he realized, okay, this guy cannot hold me down, cannot keep me down. I'm just going to open up. And he looked great.

Yeah, I picked Grundy. So I was very pleasantly surprised with Evelev. He's absolutely a top flight prospect. I liked his callout of Arnold Allen after the fact as well. That's a great call out. I don't know if they're going to book that fight, but that's a great fight. Where's our Alan been? I feel like he just kind of disappeared.

I haven't, haven't I heard his name? It's just, you just waiting to get a fight back? It's a pandemic. It's a pandemic. We're in a pandemic, dude. I'm waiting for that guy. I love him. I think we fought in, he fought in January, and then I don't know what sense.

Yeah. Yeah. Tanner Bozier, very nice performance against Pisoa, finished him second round. I think that was the one fight I called, like right on the dot with our picks. He wants Maurice Green. I think the timing works out great. Maurice Green went away until the fall, so now you can book that one maybe in October. I'm down for that one.

Panic Kanzad gets a win. Ramazana Meev did what Ramazanamiv does, got a decision win, and then Nathaniel Wood against Sean Cassonada. That was a lot of fun. Wood gets a decision, but Cassonata, pretty good show. for his UFC debut overall. Nathaniel Woods has got those like Tony Delk arms, if you're a basketball fan,

where it's like if he just hangs his arms down, they're like down to his shins. That right hand of his, it's like a piston. And he could throw that thing, go-go gadget style from anywhere in that octagon. So he looks great in 15 fights, man. Pretty good pacing.

I'm happy for it. So what do we think? I'm still waiting for bonuses. I haven't heard anything on the bonuses yet. And I guess Dave Shaw is at the podium right now. So what a good. Good for Dave Shott. Can we do quick predictions of bonuses?

What do we think we got? Oh. Shamiyev, probably getting three bonuses. Mayneville probably get fight of the night. I bet Colman. No, I think Colman. I think Co-Maine gets a fight at the night. I think it'll be, if Verdume wasn't a free agent, they'd probably give it to Verdum.

Oh, yeah, he's not getting it. It would be Kazmat. Trinaldo missed weight, so he can't win. Shouldn't know. Craig might get it. Bozer? Bozer, Shemayov. Tom Aspenol's K.

was pretty good. I don't know. Paul Craig got his third triangle choke from the bottom. Like, why don't you give it to him, you know? I'm going. So I'd say Craig. Go ahead. I was, yeah.

No, you go ahead, sir, you. I'd say Shogun Nag fight in the night. And then Craig and Shemaya performance of the night. Yeah, that's mine too. That's my prediction. And very rarely, they very rarely go who I think. she get it, so. Yeah, I have a,

the co-main event should get the fight of the night. Let me just throw that out there. Yes, respect. I don't think it will. I don't think it will get the fight of the night, though. I think the UFC will throw a curveball and give it to the main event. Not my pick, not my pick. But Shamiab's definitely getting a bonus.

There's no doubt about that. And it comes down to who gets the other one. I think Craig's probably a good, maybe Jesse Ronson. What a story that was. Oh, right. My fellow Canadian. My fellow Canadian.

How can I forget? A lot of Canadian content to him and Bozer. 15 fights on this card, guys. It's hard to remember. It's a lot. I know. Oh, we have bonuses.

There are six bonuses. Oh, we might all be right. No, this official suite. Tanner Bozer, Tom Aspinall, Jesse Ronson, Shemayev, Craig, and Verdume. So no fight of...

No fight in that. So pretty much just if you got a stop which win, you got a bonus. Wow. Yes. I hope they also give a fight of the night bonus to the co-main events. I guess not? No, it's six performance bonuses.

You crazy? What are they made a money, AK? It's a pandemic. When you're in Abu Dhabi, you do as the Abu Dhabians do. And let me tell you something. Those guys just let the cash flow. So, yeah, good for all. My two Canadian boys got cash in.

Aspinall, who I was trying to say. You guys all forgot about Tom Aspinall. Hell of a debut. 45 second knockout for him. So cool, that's cool. Six bonuses. I hope this sets a precedent that they can give more bonuses in the future.

Jake Collier is a heavyweight. I just was like, oh, God, this guy is in such trouble. They didn't give out more bonuses, okay? They gave out the same amount of bonuses. They just didn't do fight in the night. No, they gave six bonuses. Oh, six. Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah. So pretty much if you got a stoppage win, you got a bonus. Unless your name was, oh, no, they did give her. Oh, there you go. That was very, very respectful. The only one that didn't get a bonus was Trinaldo who missed White. Huh. That was a terrifying knocko, too.

That was rough. Was that a TKO or was that a TKO or? It was ruled a TKO, but that's a knockout. Should have been a K. That's a knockout by any other name. 100%. Finger of shame, Irby. Erb Dean, nothing but the greatest respect for Irb for some of his previous work with the UFC.

I mean, he's been at the center of some of the most memorable fights. the fans have seen, but it really feels like he's lost his fastball over the last five. I don't even know how many years you want to go back. I mean, it's not even, he's consistent. It's not even like consistently late. He's sometimes is way too early, sometimes he's way too late. It's dangerous for the fighters. It's horrible for the fans.

It's horrible for the fighters as well as far as them wanting to, you know, get their work in. So, yeah, that was really bad. If I see anyone, I've seen, of course, this internet, you'll see some people arguing, oh, it was fine. and he waited to see if the guy's going to defend himself. No, the guy was like sideways. His hands were up like this. That's not an intelligent defense.

Erb is an expert. He's up there closer than any of us, and it's his job to know that the fight's over. So finger of shamer. I don't know what's going on, but again, he's either going to have to go back to school or move on or, no, honestly.

Go back to school. Go back to John McCarthy, refing school because nothing but respect for the guy. Again, the guy's forgotten more about MMA than I'll ever know for sure. but if anyone can't see that there's an issue with this officiating at this point I don't know you got to examine that

Oh I just got to update Herb Dean has just stopped the fight You just Right now I'm looking at the The score cards Came in for Whitaker versus Till Two of the judges were on the same page

Whitaker got rounds two, three and five That's why I scored it Yeah Didn't oh Till got the knockdown That's right Till got the knockdown The first round But yeah, you got it. For my, this is how I wrote, I scored it.

I had 10-9 till in the first. And then Whitaker taking two, 10-9s and three and four. I mean, two and three. And then I just wrote a question mark for round four. Because that was such a close round. And then I had Whitaker taking five. So in the end, I just decided I remembered more of what Whitaker did in round four than Till. So I gave him round four.

So I had three rounds to two, Whitaker. Yeah. So two judges gave Whitaker two, three, and five. and then Anders Olson gave Whitaker 2, 3, and 4 and gave Till the fifth round in the first round. Right. Right. So 4847 across the board. There you go.

Ben Cartledge, Anders Olson, and Clemens Werner. That's a judge name right there. And those were definitions of 10-9 rounds. Like we all talk about what's the 10-9, once a 10-8, let's use all of the 10-point muscle. I thought those were all perfectly judged 10-9s. No one blew the door us out of someone. Clemens Warner sounds like, and I'm sure Jose will appreciate this, like a 1920s pitcher for like the Chicago White Sox or something like that.

Sure. Maybe not a pitcher, maybe a third baseman. What do you think? No, yeah, it's true because Clemens, was Clemens Warner? Yeah, he was, he was, he played shortstop for the, yeah, that team that got, yeah, for the Washington generals. Yeah. He was like the best bunter in the league.

What do we say? What do we say, E.K. Should we, E. say ECK, there we go. Should we go to the peeps? Yeah, let's go to the peeps. Let's go to the peeps. This is where we get like a popery of all sorts of crazy stuff about coffee and pasta and fights from three months from now. I can confidently say I've never thought the phrase popery would ever be using a UFC post-fight show. There we go. That's from Jeopardy right there. Welcome to the team, Mike. Okay.

John Gooden had the line of the night describing the swelling over Carlos Sparrow's eye. He said, some facial furniture. I'm like, I love it. I'm a big John Gooden fan. He's solid. He's really, really good. And I like Dan Hardy. I've always liked Dan Hardy.

I know there's a mileage may Barry. I'm a fan. Dan Hardy is polarizing, isn't he? I never had an issue with him, but every time he commentates, everyone is either loves him or hates him. And I was always indifferent. I loved him shouting at Irv Dean. I know that's, some people thought that was unfurbed.

professional, but I thought, look, he's human. He's a fighter. And he called it like he saw it. That's all we can ask of guys in the broadcast team, right? So I think he was, he yelled out, what did he yell at right after right high? Oh, he's out, stopped the fight. And then I think there was people saying, and I didn't hear this problem. He said, no, he said, I'm doing my jobs. You do yours. Yeah, yeah. Because I think Irp Dean said, let me do my job or something. Yeah, let me do my job. And I think, I believe Hardy replied, yeah, I'm doing my job. I'm doing my job. So there's a phenomenal photo. Yeah, it was like. There's a phenomenal. photo of Dan Hardy yelling at Herb Dean,

doing, giving like holding up two fingers or something like that. Yeah. What a, this night had it all. Had it all. Let's see what the peep said to say. Real quick,

before we go to the questions, did you feel the commentary, like when I was judging, when I was watching the fight, I had the fight up for grabs until basically that last minute of the fifth round. When Whitaker finally kind of got

side control, but he kind of had control. but he kind of had control of Till in the cage. I was like, okay, I got to give it to Whitaker now. But, like, I felt like the commentators were kind of, I don't know, they were, I think they were overselling Whitaker. Like, what did you feel? Like, did you feel like they realized it was such a close fight into that fifth round? I think they have the, I don't know.

I feel like with this empty arena stuff going on, I feel like we've seen that a little bit more. You know what I mean? Yeah. Keeps us on our toes in a weird way that. you know, they're overselling and thinking of judging in a different way. And I, there have been times where I listen to them and I'm like, really? That's how you guys saw it? And I'm pretty much wrong every time.

So I don't know why I even say anything, but I just thought it was interesting. All right. Let me get Alex's face up here in a little bit, but let's go to some questions. Talk amongst yourselves. I'm not on screen. I'm picking my nose right now. I'm not on screen. My fingers right up my nose, like right now.

I'm not on screen. Oh, oh, no, I got it. Oh, gosh. All the way up there. Sorry, guys. Sorry. Very classy. Casey said I wasn't on screen.

What hell is that? Come on. There we go. Is light heavyweight to heavyweight too big of a jump? We've seen success in lower classes, but not in heavyweight. I'd say probably too big of a jump. Yeah, we had Hurricane Shane Helms on the A side a few weeks ago. And we spoke in depth about this, that we all kind of want to cruise.

or weight division between heavyweight and light heavyweight, maybe 225, just because you get those massive, it's too much of a disparity because then you get like Fador versus Bigfoot Silva, which is like a 225 pound heavyweight and Bigfoot Silva who like cuts down from 300 pounds. So yeah, I really want a cruiserweight division, but I think if they do add a cruiserweight division, that's just another belt for John Jones at this point. And I think that's why we consider like guys you mentioned like Fador and Dalai, to be such marvels is because Maybe Kane.

Sure, in Kane Velasquez. They're so clearly undersized against a lot of their opponents, and yet Fador, of course, went unbeaten for, God knows how long for, you know, years. Even Steepa's not the biggest guy. No, I wouldn't call Steepea a huge heavyweight either. So when you see the guys succeed against some of these larger fighters,

it's actually incredible to watch. So it is a big jump, again, because it can be anywhere. You know, you might be stepping in there and be giving up anywhere from 15 to 40 pounds. Who knows, depending what you weighed in at, right? So go ahead, Casey. I mean, I disagree because it's not, it's who you're facing. Like, say when Wydeman went up to light heavyweight, he faced Yon, who turns out

is the top two or three guy. Like, he's not facing Joe Ray. He fought right. He fought Red, Rockhold, uh, fought Yon. Oh, well, actually, Rockhold, sorry, Rockhold and Wydenman, both of those guys. Same story, you know, but like, maybe those, I think, I think it's the UFC. If you're, if you're fifth ranked at, uh, whatever weight class and you go up.

You don't fight a fifth ranked guy in a weight class above. You got to go backwards a bit. And with Gustin, what was he ranked in light heavyweight at the time? Really? Top today. Into going tonight? At 205. What was Gus's in?

Seven. He was around seven. So we're on seven. And Verdum was like, he was probably around that. He's like top 10 heavyweight, right? I actually think going, I think because after the Atlantic fight kind of messed things, I actually think he was only, I believe he was only 14th. Let me just double check.

I actually think he was 14th. That's okay. I think that's just a bad, you know. F.C. ranking, but I think we can assume that Verdoom is still a premier heavyweight. And I think Gus is, give Gustason the guy that,

one of those heavyweights that lost tonight. I don't even know their names anymore. Collier? Yeah, Collier. Oh, no. Like, does Gustafin beat Collier? And then, kind of the storylines are totally different. That's all I'm trying to say. It's like, I think it's who they're facing and not, they just can't jump to these elite guys in the first fight to me. Yeah, but I, I,

I think most people picked Gus to win that fight, just based on what we saw when we were doing the last fight. I think that's a lot of reason to be biased, though. Yeah, big time. Yeah, that's what the sport is. Oh, MMA. That's what we do. Casey, truck, truck, can I read a question that I see from Javan? I don't know if you have this already queued up?

No, I don't. But where is the question? It isn't the YouTube questions, but it might be pushed. I don't know how far down. Oh, Javon. Is it the Betchkoheah one? Yes, yes. If you could get that one up on the screen.

screen. Okay, so there it is. Thank you, Javan. So for anyone who didn't see, oh, yeah. So the reference to spite Carlisle who in his fight with, I'm sorry, who was he fighting again? He fought, Billy Quirontillo, thank you. He seemed to think that the 10-second clapper was the round end, and he just turned his back and Quirnillo rocked up with a shot, which was hilarious. And then, not for Spirrano. And it seemed like Bats Cohea had the same mistake today in her fight with Pani Kansad, where she heard the, she closed. Clearly reacted to the clapper. There's no mistake.

She heard the clapper, and you see her immediately stop and turn and start walking to her corner. And Kianzad got in more than one shot. She got a combination in the last 10 seconds. So my theory was that normally it's so loud. I wonder if some of these fighters don't even hear that clapper and just kind of react to the, you know, they were actually wait for the final buzzer. So that's why she thought the clapper was the end of the round. Maybe she thought, that's me being generous.

I'm not sure. What are you guys think? It's probably about right. I think the clapper is more for the referee. just to show that to get close in, so when they hear the horn, they can kind of separate them. Because how many times, like, do we see fights where the referee is kind of on the outside looking in? Because there's so much action doesn't want to get tangled up. The clapper signifies him that he needs to get closer to the fight to break up the fires once the horn goes on.

So what was what was Caheyer thinking? I don't know because there's no excuse because she's fought for a championship. So she knows how MMA works. So I have no idea. But it's not, you felt to mention, not only did she turn around. round. She held a fist up to fist bump saying good round and they got punched in the skull. So that's how that's how that moment played out. I'll just say this, A.K., if there was one fighter in the car tonight and I told you,

hey, they thought the 10 second, they thought the 10 second clapper was the round in. Who would you pick? I'm not. I can't. I'm not going to answer. We don't know the answer. We have no idea. It's just a hypothetical.

I think Casey sold people wolf tickets in such a way. on Bechkehaya. It's not even funny. I have to say, like, when I was making a hall of fame. She's a hall of favor. I'm like, Casey's right. Like, she's, look at who she's lost to, but she's, look who she's beat. You know what? I'm going to take a, take some chalk on Bechkehaya.

What a terrible mistake. That was like picking the guy that Paul Craig submitted. I did the same thing you did, Jose, and I was disgusted by it. Watched on that played out. Is she one of the 10 best bantam weights in UFC history? Excuse me? Is Bettsch? I'm just asking.

Let's look at, you know, like you do, now, now I'm thinking about it. Is she one of the ten? A.K. You're grounded. Go home. I'm just asking. I didn't say either way. I'm asking your question. That's just a journalist.

It's just a question, man. It's just a question. I'm just asking a question. That's it. I'm just asking a question. No. I'm not going to do the math, but I'm just going to, yeah, simply no. I'm a Betzkoheah fan for life.

For life. he's like top three. Look, it's an aggregate list. I'm saying if we all put our list together. All right, next question. Would Francis start to Redoom or would Redoom be style poison for Francis? Chuck D.L.C.

That is what MMA is all about. And that fight's never going to happen. So why talk about it? I wouldn't like for Doom's chances of getting in there before getting his head knocked off. That and Gano, man, in the first 30 seconds, it made me the most exciting if you're just in the first 30 seconds of the fight

maybe the most exciting man in all of MMA and uh but you know did look good tonight though with that takedown though didn't they I don't think that looks real good I guess let's go Verdum at whatever you thought was the best Verduem we've ever seen

does that prime Verdum beat the Francis we have today I don't think we're prime verdum I'd love to see that fight yeah I'd love to see that fight I don't know I've I have a hard time pick it against France against like the verduem that stuff Travis

he pieced up who did he beat Travis Brown and Tapskin and Kane of course Yeah but that was That wasn't sea level cane let's not forget that That's true Yeah I don't know it's a good one It's an interesting question

Chuck DLC I like that might be the question that might be tough to be That was like last week's trade for Demetre Johnson question Well, watch between the links. I think, like, looking at off the top of my head, Verdoom's last win over, like, an elite heavyweight, I think was Kane. Because since after that, he's beaten Gus,

who I'd still consider a light heavyweight. And who's he being Tabura, Harris, Travis Brown, and Kane? Like, those are his last four wins, and then he's lost to a Lennox, Volkov, Overeen and Stipe. So I consider, like, Brown, Harris, and Tibura are all great. but if you're talking like top five heavyweights, I think the last one he beat was Kane. It was a split decision lost against O'Lennan.

It goes a close fight, guys. You started. Yeah, so the win over him, I'm pretty sure it was a majority decision. So they were both, but what do we talk about? Win is a win. L is an L. He lost.

Prime for Doom, though. I'd still pick and gone out. I'd still pick and gone in. I think he's just, he's a bad match for almost everyone except again. Where is the fight taking place? Because let's also not. small.

No, his two wins over Kane, Mark, when he beat Mark Hunt, Mark Hunt took that fight on like 12 days notice going from Australia to Mexico. And then, Kane's like, no, I don't need to go train in Mexico. So I'm going to go down there a week early while Verdume was living there for months at a time. So if this fight is in a small octagon or a huge octagon in Mexico City, maybe, but I'd still favor Francis anywhere else. Yeah, Francis needs to like breathe on him and he's going down. Like, do you remember when Mark Hunt on him?

took that fight, he was like IG-living videos of him cutting weight in Mexico like laughing in the middle of the streets he was going crazy. Like, Barcon was not having a good time. Who does Darren Till fight next? Jose, I'm going to throw that to you. Who does Darren Till fight next?

I think we have to wait for these next few middleweight fights to take place because you got Romero and Rott v. Ryderall. I'm down and watched Till Fight the winner of that. I'm also down to watch Till Fight the winner Shabazzian and Derek Brunson. I'm down to see him fight any of those cats. Like I think Jack Ramon's should fight Robert Whitaker.

Cairdonnair is healthy. I wouldn't mind seeing Canada versus Till, but there's a lot of middleweight fights that happened. So I'm going to say either the winner of Shabazian, Brunson, or the winner of Yerai Hall in Romero. I think the winner of Hall in Romero sounds great. Can you imagine Darren Till versus Yol Romero? And that's,

I'm not saying that I'm picking him to beat your eye hall. I'm just thinking of just what a poster would look like and just seeing the reactions to people. If we, if MA fighting confirmed that Darren Till is fighting Yo-O Romero, good God, almighty. Or who was it? Jacques Carrizo. If he recovered some COVID anytime soon, he was supposed to fight your eye haul down in Jacksonville. So he's obviously, should be free at some point.

So there's a lot of middleweight fights to make. Yep. I'm going to be more specific. I actually think he should fight the Hall-Romero loser, especially if it's your eye-haul. Actually, now I'm really intrigued by this Till-Hall match-up. So I think if Hall loses, I think that's the fight. That's definitely the fight to make for Till. It would be a weird, it would be a weird memorable striking battle for sure.

But I think the bigger thing to discuss, Till is a legit, a legit A-level middleweight. Yeah. They look good tonight. I mean, like I thought he was only, the fight was still up for grabs until the last minute. You know, I mean, I mean, opinions vary, but regardless, it was a very close fight, and Till was extremely competitive the entire time. So, yeah.

Yeah, I think even with the loss tonight, Till is, he's right there still. He's one fight away from. I like the winner of Shabazzian and Brunson. I think they're what, eight, nine, and Darren Till is five. I'm sure he'll drop to six or six or seven or maybe even stay the same

because I'm sure Kelvin will fall and Hermantel will come up. So I like the winner of Brunson or Shabazin. Because then if Shabazzian wins, which I think he will, Shabazzian and Till, that fight is awesome. And the winner that could still get right out in their Fritalist's track, those are two guys the U.C. wants to get behind.

And Tilly's 27. Mm-hmm. Like, Robert Whitaker's 29. I know, it's crazy. It's crazy. Whitaker is like, like, of all these fighters we're talking about, like, is he's the oldest at like 30 or 31. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, Till's just going to get better. He's not even, and Whitaker, too, like, neither of these guys. I mean, Whitaker's fought Romero twice. So you're going to lose some. Your pride's going to start a little bit early. if you go through that, but Till has been his time yet. When you fight your Romero for 10 rounds, you don't use years off your fighting career.

You use years off your life. So, like, Whitaker's feeling that, you've got to feel that forever. That's true. Yeah, I think Till, I think no matter what happens between Romero and Hall, I think Till Romero is, like, that's still the fight. So good.

That's still the fight. Wydom is coming back the middleweight, too. Doesn't he have Akhmudov coming up, too? I know that by one. If Wyman wins, Like, Wydman's still a big name there. Yeah, that's a tough fight for him. Anderson Silva.

There you go. Oh. Till made the right move. I think he moved to middleweight at the right time. I think he's, like you said, he could get guys to former champions that still have big names that are good style matchups for him. And also, we have these fresh contenders coming up like Shabazzian, right? So he really made a savvy move, especially with how difficult it was to making 170s.

So you're right. Whatever happens, yeah. I do want to see Till just fight a behemoth of a middleweight Because Kelvin is not the biggest middle weight People still think he cut to welterweight And then Till, I mean, let's not forget Robert Whitaker's also welterweight Darren Till Mike Perry, where? In the street, I'm in for it That's the only place that fight's happened at this point

I don't want rules in that fight Yeah, that's a what's that felony fights? Oh my gosh I got all that I think you think it's a coincidence they have a backyard is an option to fight in UFC 4. Till versus Perry is one of those, you find that fight like on a DVD

at a gas station. Like they're fighting over the DVD? No, no, you know, you just go to a random truck. And that too, a little both. The DVD is there among the smut. It's like surrounded by smut. Yeah, it's in the steel grate you have to dig through to find it. It's one of those DVDs you're checking out.

Like, I got my monster energy drink and you're just waiting in line and you're like, I guess I'll buy this packet gum and be like, wait, what's this weird DVD of these two people with bad tattoos fighting? I guess I'll buy this too. 499. You can't go wrong with that price. I'll just slip this in my coat. Is Little Nog and other legends had never become a lineal champion in a major organization? Is that a question? I would put Little Nog, top fine, light, heavyweight ever, but he's by far one of the most respected names you'll see in MMA. So I think that's, I think that. That means a little, even to the fighters, I bet that means a little more because I don't think there's a single fighter out there that has anything negative to say about either no gare.

Unless you're Chale-sunnan in the bus story, but we all know that's Chale being chale. But I wouldn't put Little Nog top five, light heavyweight ever in terms of what he accomplished, but he's by far one of the most respected names. Shall we read off some of these names quickly that Little Nog has beaten? Guy Metzger. God, Tito, Medsker. Yeah, Guy Metsker. Sakaraba. What year is this?

Tell the year, too. Sorry, this back in 2002. 2002. Guy Veshaerabha in 2003. Overeem. Unanimous decision went over Overeem. Pride 29, 2005. Was there two wins over Overeign?

He has two wins. Yes, a corner stoppage in 06. In between there was an arm bar, first round arm bar submission of Dan Henderson. But then he has lost just to So could you. Which is still, I think, one of the biggest. upsets in the history of M.A. So could you is still getting fights based off that performance.

Well, he also knocked out Arona, right? Like, he went nuts there for like two. What was his run? Yeah, Little Nog in 23 seconds and Arona in under two minutes. So he went nuts for a minute and just had everyone. Forget a Little Nog's K.O. win at Affliction Day of Reckoning. Let's not forget that. Edwin.

Was his name Deweese? No, that was that. Oh, that was an affliction ban. So he has two knockout wins in Affliction. and then as Jose mentioned before, later in his career still doing well. 2011, Tito Ortiz, dominant win over him, and then Rashad Evans in 2013. So, an awesome looking resume, really. I still wouldn't put in top five.

No, no. He's an icon for sure. I don't think the fact that he's not top five. I think the fact that he's been a top, it's called him top 10, a top 15 light heavyweight for almost 20 years. Yeah. That's insane. That is insane.

20 years at premier light heavyweight. He's also a guy that he wasn't looking for super fights all the time. He just wanted to throw down. Like, Shogun's the same way. Like, who was Lilna's last fight before Shogun? Was it Ryan Span? Before that, it was Sam Alvey. And then it was Bader.

And who was it? Patrick Cummins, he knocked out. So, yeah, he'll fight. He's done to fight whoever. He's on a legend's tour. He's like, I'm seventh. He's six. Let's go.

Yeah. So could you's last fight, by the way, was for Valor Bear Knuckle, and he fought Mighty Mo and got knocked out. Oh, Jesus surprised. What else we got? So could you. What's his record? 19 and 19? Close.

19 and 18. Brazilian Mount Rushmore? Wow. I would say, hoist Gracie. Anderson Silva. Wait, wait, Brazilian Mount Rushmore? Say it right. Oh, Mount Hushmore.

Thank you. So Hoyst Gracie, Anderson. And then this is where it gets tricky because you could have Hickson in there. You could have Jose Aldo. You could have Bignog who's like very iconic and important to the sport. You could have Shogun Fanderle. Like there's there's Amanda Nunes. Do you want to throw her on the Brazilian mouth?

Yeah, she should probably be up there. Or do you want like even? Helio Gracie, like the godfather of this all, so it's tough. But I think Hoyce and Anderson are locks. And then right there it gets three through seven could all be up there. I got Hoyt, Anderson, Aldo, and I don't know the fourth one. I go Aldo Nunes, just up the top of my head. I don't.

I wouldn't disagree with that. I wouldn't disagree. The only reason I wouldn't put some of, like, a Helio on there is I would want to put just a little bit closer to modern MMAs. that's why hoist kind of just makes the cut. And, of course, it hits that level of name recognition, popularity, and then competing against at least some names that we, you know, that competed close to today.

As you said, Anderson, for sure. And then it's just, but then, like, there's a lot of Brazilians in Bellator that are phenomenal, too. They're obviously not going to be around Rushmore, but you got to just give them all, like, the Patricio Pitbull and Lima. You've got to give honorable mentions. They've been incredibly dominant in their promotion. I think Vanderlea would make mine. I think Vanderlay, boy, that popularity in pride.

There was a point in time where Vandale Silva was like the most popular fighter on planet Earth. In the number one promotion of the world, right? In the number one weight class in the world. So if you want to argue that like Vandrale and Shogun, just because there was a point in time where they were the two hottest fighters in the world in like the most stacked division, if they're over Aldo and Nunes, I wouldn't have an issue. But I think Hoyson and Anderson are the two lost.

We forgot a big name. Thank you, Jonathan Ram in the comments. Cyborg. Oh, yeah. Not to say she's a better fighter than Nune necessarily, but what is, you know, more influential and maybe even more sort of... Yeah.

Definitely more popular. I mean, I think she's still one of the most popular fighters, not just in Brazil, but in the world, right? I think she still is a more popular fighter. I would agree with that, yeah. Yeah, and so many people still call her, like, the champ, right? They still, for some reason, yeah, but disrespect, Nune and still call Cyborg,

I can't believe we forgot her, but would definitely easily be a candidate for that fourth name. I think we need two mountains to answer this question. Oh, for sure. If we're being honest. Joseph Boza, what about next week? Edmund Shabazian versus Derek Brunson. The new-made event, as you guys have heard,

Irene Al-Dana, Tessa Pazza for COVID-19. Her fight with Holly Holm is being postponed. Looks like October could be the lineup for that one. But we get a new-made event. Three rounds, Shabazian versus Derek Brunson. And I thought the proline. was was was pretty good. Derek Brunson has said it pretty much hit it right on. He's lost to some tough guys, but when it comes to matching him up with some of the the young buck up-and-comers

that are trying to make a move, Brunson usually is the guy that's the speed bump, so to speak. So I like the matchup. I think it's perfect matchmaking. I'm excited. We finally get to see it because I feel like this fight's been booked for like a year now, but now we're going to see it in a headline spot next week. What do you guys think? Love it. I love these type of fights. I actually think the small octagon plays in Derek Brunson's favor. I think he has a higher chance of winning with a smaller octagon, but I still favor of Shabazzian. I absolutely love this matchup. I love this fight.

Even if these were two unranked fighters, just the fact that I've seen them fight so much and they're so enjoyable to watch, this is, like I said, just a high-level martial arts competition that I am very much excited for. It's a good test for Edmund. Yeah, I mean, you just want to talk about the narrative they're pushing. I mean, some of the names that were brought in that I think people thought were Brunson was like the B-side. Lorenz Larkin when he came over, I don't remember Ron Carrero. I had quite a bit of hype around him.

Uriah Hall, of course. Rai Hall, always always has a lot of hype behind him. And even Ian Hinesh. I think even Ian Hinesh in his last fight. A lot of us are high in Ian Hinesh. I think he's a future top 10 contender. And yeah, and he lost to Brunson. So Brunson has a very good point.

His only losses recently, Izzy, Jacaree, Anderson Silva, Whitaker, Robert Whitaker. Which I think he'll remember. Which I think he. he beat Anderson, and he was like three minutes away from beating Romero. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. He beat Anderson Silva.

And like Casey and I interviewed Brunson after his losses to Izzy and Jacques Ray. It was at the Dominance Media Day, and then before his Heinish fight, he was completely different. He was so different in his manner. He's like, man, I just got to stop worrying about what's next. He's just to get a focus on winning tomorrow, which to most fighters sounds cliche. But then if you go back and listen to Brunson's old interviews, he's like, after I knock out Whitaker, I'm fighting for a title. And then he goes out there and he just tries to dominate.

And he gets his head caved in because he leaves his chin out up in the air. So Derek Brunson is a totally different fighter. And he refers to himself as Mr. Brunson in the promo, which I think is absolutely phenomenal. Yeah, the gray hair going too, which I dug. I think it's salt pepper going on. I like it. Is it blonde, do you think? Because he was dying.

He was on that Cisco. Sheld Benjamin style. Randleman, Randleman. Randleman style. It's on that glott for me. Is this a better main event

than the one that was already scheduled? Is this more... It makes more sense. I don't know if it's a better main event. It makes more sense. Yeah. I mean, I was... I think, like,

I thought this was the most intriguing fight on this card. So, I don't know if I'm the minority there, but... You want, Home Adana was wrong with that? Other than it just didn't make sense. It just didn't make sense as far as a title.

because Adana already earned it. Like, I like that fight a lot, but like Aldane didn't already earned it and I think Holm shouldn't be near a title shot anytime soon. Especially against Adana. It just didn't make sense. Yeah. Yeah, I would favor Holm in that fight too.

So like she's risking a fight, a title shot that she already earned. It's like Joanne Calderwood. Like I get why she wants to fight, but she's risking a lot to throw down with Jennifer Maya. Yeah. That's, I'm so surprised. Well, I didn't see, what did, I saw she did an interview of Aero Hwani. Why did she say she took the fight?

Because Valentina pushed back what they were, what they were planning. So I think they wanted them to fight on a fight Island card in the early fall. But then I think Valentina said she wouldn't be ready. So Joanne Cullough would just wanted to fight and not wait. Girls got to eat. Girls got to eat. I know what to tell you, but it's like when she fought, she probably could have got a title shot against Joanna,

but she wanted to fight on that Glasgow card and then lost. Yeah, Jojo's wrist style shot for sure It's risky, but yeah So is Valentina, is her injury public Or she's just out or she's been kind of secret? I think she said she hurt her knee in the Shukagian fight And I don't know I don't know what type of injury

I just heard injury Yeah, she's she's posting on IG a lot And doing a lot of workouts Just as you're getting close to 100% So maybe the end of the year We see that Next year sneaky, sneaky good card, man.

Vicente, Lucay, Randy Brown. It's been a fun one. Land of Vanada, Bobby Green, rematch. That should be fun. Kevin Holland and Shrevin'Ill. So, main card looks good. Preliminary is a little shaky, but Eric Spicely and Marcus Prez

could be some weird wild fight. Randall versus Bobby Green, too, is next week? That is next week, yes. What did that get announced? Like three days. Last week, yeah, three days ago. When you said that, I was like, what?

Eric Spicely, pride of Rhode Island. It's always fun to watch. Always fun to watch. Always want to watch. Chris Gutierrez, I believe, will remain on that card. Someone said that he has a fight now. I'm not really sure. He was social fighting Luke Sanders, but apparently is not Luke Sanders?

That is not happening. Okay. They try to get the kid from LFA, and after talking to, like, his coaches and his team, they said they're going to wait a little bit because he took a lot of leg kicks in the LFA fight, and you don't want to be dealing with Chris Gutierrez when your favorite. in the legs already. With the UFC heading back to Vegas, what would you guys add and subtract

from the fight island format? What is the fight island format? We talked about this in between the lengths, just like the overall flow of fight island, and we didn't find a whole heck of a lot wrong with it. Or that different from what they usually do. Yeah, my whole thing, it was just a big marketing gimmick. It's like, when I was watching the main event,

I was like, I was like, oh, this is the final fight island fight. And it looks like it's in any other. place anywhere in the world. It was just, okay, everything's, I see a couple people in the background. That was it. No, no, I didn't see any palm trees. I didn't see, you know.

Stay curious, Casey. Hashtag in Abu Dhabi. Hashtag otter pops. I got, I got a retweet from otter pops. This is awesome. I didn't get in the broadcast. No, on the broadcast. I didn't get in the broadcast yet.

But, um, me, me and the social media manager for otter pops, we're, we got it. We're good. Uh, I dissonia, I think, with the best, one that got on the broadcast. I'm tweeting this just so this gets on TV. And he got on TV, which is beautiful. Excellent.

My favorite one they posted was Kevin Ayoli's one, and it was like two paragraphs. It was all like social media stats. I was like, what? It was like taking up half the screen. Like, what is that? Can't win them all. Let me ask this, because we've seen the UFC run so many cards at this point. Would you guys think of Bellator's fight sphere set?

up last night. I dug it. It was similar, but they did some things that were a little bit, that were a little bit different. I liked, uh, I liked, what did you think of the mic, like the boom mic, like the long extended microphone so that McCarthy could still do the, the, the post-fight interviews, like in the cage. I think they could have held the mic.

I don't think they needed the boom mic. I think they can just held the mic, the other guy, the fighter. Yeah, I thought it was, I thought it was weird. You thought it was weird? I thought it was real weird. I like the UFC with the headset. that's just me though. Yeah.

I enjoyed the walkouts. They had the same walkouts. The guys were hype coming out. It wasn't just like, yeah. Oh. I liked it all except for the boom mic thing. Why do you need to have him stand over there? Just have him go off to the side with the headset.

Mike Goldberg was taking shots of the UFC like all night long too. We do the testing the proper way, the safe way, the correct way here at Bellator. I'm like, oh, all right. I got to say the one thing that I really enjoyed because Bellator normally doesn't do the three-man booth

they usually have McCarthy and Goldier you know McCarthy and Marrow but I like the addition of Josh Thompson calling the fights last night I thought he was great and they were giving Goldie shit

like so many times which I really enjoyed too when Goldie said San Hagan had the same body type as Pettus and like I was why I was like

yeah that was yeah sorry did I say San Hagan Anthony, he's like, you said they have the same body type, Mike. Oh, well, yeah, he got me. That was great. I liked Josh better in that role than in the booth. Yeah, I thought, I thought Josh and John, I think all their work they've done in their own podcast really translated well to the booth.

And honestly, I mean, I don't want to put, honestly, I felt Goldie was kind of the one that didn't really fit in. Goldie should be at the desk. Yeah, and just re-promote. and things like that. I felt John and Josh were kind of doing pretty good just doing color and commentary right there by themselves. But actually, I'm glad you mentioned that. I was actually, I was very impressed with Josh Thompson.

Yeah. It did what they could with what they had. It was, the main event was fun. You know, for Pettis look great. The rest of the card, you know, it was, you know, it was. Yeah, it was. Yeah. So I ran, I did.

Ego was great. Yeah, Pico. As I was going to say, of all the fighters this weekend, including Bellator UFC, our social media, the guy got the most terms of retweets, like, retweets, like, and everything, was Aaron Pico. For sure. For sure. Outside of Darren Tilly, yeah, as I did that. Pico dominated our social media in terms of, like, which tweets performed the best. And I know for a fact a lot of the comments were negative, but it doesn't matter.

They're talking about you. Yeah, that was, that's a scary man. Why would you be every... I'm just a very man if he keeps fighting that way. We've all talked to Aaron. Like, how could you be negative about him? Like, he's the most honest guy in the world. Yeah, like...

Yep. Yeah, I just... Like when we were at the second dominance M.A., I was like, so there's a couple injuries in the Grand Prix. You want it in there? He's like, no. I do not want to fight in the Grand Prix. I was like, don't you want to fight for the time?

He goes, that'll happen. I just don't want to be in it. I was like, all right. Yeah, he gets it right now. He's learning. He's an honest young man, and I think But gentlemen, I think we have to understand in our business, honesty is not always the best policy or the most respected, unfortunately. So that may explain some of the animosity towards Young Pico.

I tell you what, though, him and Brandon Gibson are going to be an issue for that division. Like the combo of those two, Brandon Gibson holding the mind of Aaron Pico is going to be a problem. Yep. As I'm watching five, six fights a day. And I dig that. That's good. We'll do two more, Casey. Do we have two more?

Yeah, yeah. Lie down here a quick. here we go apparently darren till by the way said in the uh in his post-fight interview that he's going to need knee surgery yeah i was gonna i was gonna bring that up but we didn't there was no way to bring it up uh during between rounds he said i can't bounce that much after eating like that's what he was telling his coach to the point where um who i can't remember which commentator was started to whisper he goes i don't don't want the corner to hear this, so I'm going to whisper, but Darren Till made mention of his

right knee being hurt. So, like, the commentators were even whispering about it so Whitaker's team couldn't hear it. Interesting. So he said, he said, quote, can't bounce on it that much. Also, anyone noticed Darren Till, like when, so he found a lot of success in the first round. We all agree that Darren Till won that first round. And then Rob, you made adjustments. Darren Till does all of these movements with his hands. And then right when he's going to throw, he tightens it up and then throws. And I'm like, I can tell every punch he's going to throw now after that first round. And I think Robert Whitaker got like when a baseball, you have a pitcher has that tell.

Darren Till's tell was very apparent after round two. Those like kicks definitely made a difference in that fight. 100%. Like he hit it well in his facials, but clearly the movements and the way he fought the rest of the way. I wasn't a big fan of, was a round two when Robert Whitaker got on top. and Darren Till used every single limb to defend instead of like moving. He just like locked up and Robert Whitaker

just like powered through and dropped an elbow. So like Darren Till wasn't moving or defending his head. He just tried to lock him up with all four of his limbs. And then Robert Whitaker just powered through and then crushed him with an elbow. I just like Darren Till is an amazing fighter. His tells, I think we're a little too apparent and off of his back, I think Robert Whitaker was just too much for him on top.

Yeah, I thought Till's take down defense night was awesome. Yeah, great. He was, he's an unbelievable fighter. I just think Robert Whitaker made the right adjustments, and Darren Till was maybe a step behind after a little bit. Yeah, I would agree with you on that. The question I saw from DREC was, who do we got in O'Malley versus Cheeto coming up at UFC 2502? That's such a great, great, great piece of matchmaking right there.

I'm all in on the Sugar Show. I was skeptical. I'm always skeptical with prospects, but boy, and I know people are saying, oh, he beat Eddie Weinland, and he's fine, Eddie Wan's not his prime, A-Wyand is a former world title contender and a very, very good striker. Former W.C. Chan. Right? And O'Malley, man, that knockout was sensational.

And his striking really is just, just he has those instincts you just can't teach. Obviously, he's very well learned, but he has those instincts you can't teach. And I think, you know, Cheetah's a perfect opponent. It's going to test a take down the fans. It's going to test them in a lot of areas. Shea is so well-rounded. But it's going to come down to striking. And I think just O'Malley is superior in that category right now.

And I like this matchmaking in the sense that it feels like, like, I thought Cheeto beat Song Yadong in Jackson when I was there. It feels like they're treating this fight as if Cheeto won, which I'm happy with because I think most people, everyone in the media room thought when I was there in Jackson thought Cheetah won. So the fact that they're still giving them this big money fight, this high profile fight coming off a loss, I think is great. My take on it, I'm favoring Sean O'Malley.

So am I. But he needs to do it in the first seven and a half minutes. Because if that goes, if that goes midway through the second round, that's when Cheeto becomes Cheeto and things will get real interesting in the second and third rounds. I do believe that O'Malley has the power and the technique,

especially on the feet to finish the fight early, but Cheeto is tough as nails. And if that fight gets midway through the second round, we're going to have a very interesting last half of that fight, I can tell you that. That's the way I'm looking at it. I have a feeling we could see McGregor-Porriere all over again with O'Malley winning.

I think O'Malley is unbelievable. And I think Cheeto is incredible. And I think people are really sleeping on O'Malley's cardio. And I think they're really sleeping on his grappling. O'Malley is unbelievable grappler. And his cardio is like that cat runs like seven to ten miles a day. Just because Pim moving around is such a big part of his game that he needs cardio. And when I asked him, like, what about a main event soon?

he seemed to get excited about preparing for two more rounds. So I think O'Malley is wired differently, too. So I think we could see a replay of McGregor, Porre. Yeah, this is a different story than the Shamiyev's of the world. Like, Shemayev's going to be a, like, definitely a breakout 10 days for him and you get excited about him. But O'Malley, since he was on the contender series, we've been waiting for this. You know what I mean? Like, I guess I read this, and I don't know if this is a fact, but O'Malley put out

these like NBA style like O'Malley custom jerseys that he was selling for $200 a piece and they sold out in 39 seconds, 39 seconds. This is like WrestleMania 14 at the garden. That's like sold out. Those are sold out 90 seconds those tickets sold out. He's a popular. He's a popular guy right now. And he did the smart thing of when he had that injury and the USADA suspension and everything. He stayed active on social media. He got really big on Twitch and now he has all these marketing games, he knows what he's worth. He's also an interesting-looking individual. Like, as much as we, and he also has a name that, like,

a whole country can get behind. Like, he's not Irish. But the last name, like, O'Malley, we have people like, like, Pizzi and Ned McGrath talking like, oh, he's Irish and this and that. He got his name dropped on the broadcast. Who? Ned. Ned?

Yeah. Good and mentioned his name. Yeah, I know, because they want to keep him as relevant as, as possible. So whenever he gets his head cut off, then at least he had some, Sean. Jesus. Yeah, O'Malley, the fight, the way he announced that fight too is brilliant, sitting on the throne. The guy's got it. He's like, he, he's got it. Um, Chimae versus who next? I think it's, I think they're going to give him Saroni. That's my, that's my thought, but I don't care. Give him anybody in the top 15. Give him any name.

I like, uh, I like either the winner or loser of the Luke A, Randy Brown fight. Yeah. Because Randy Brown's not even. ranked. Like the, when they made, the Monsente-Luke is like, sort of like, what, 8, 9, 10 somewhere in there. Win or loser, I'm down to see him fight that cat. Randy Brown might be the most underappreciated Walter Wade in the UFC

right now. Everybody sleeps on Randy Brown. Everybody. I agree. I have a very random name that people are not going to like or maybe care about it, but I don't know why it's just jumping out of me from my rankings that I keep. This is a guy who just beat a very

respected veteran recently. And I'm in, and keep in mind, again, I'm not of the camp of rushing Shemayev up the rankings. Shemayev? No. Yeah, Mar Uzeman. Shemayev versus Miguel Baezza. Yes, I know. No, I don't like it.

There's a lot of who's, I think, that's going to pop up in the YouTube comments. But I think I don't want to rush Shemaiah in. I want to see him built up properly. Seroonie's a fine, fine opponent. I mean, look, they threw Alexander Hernandez in there after, I think he was 2 and O as well. Yeah. I think we had a hot start, right? Same idea, right?

Same idea. So, um, and he also had a really hot start right to his twosies. No. What's, uh, what's Gunnar Nelson doing these days? Nope. He's not two fight losing streak. No, but I think that's a logical matchup. Nope. Gase, you got to say Pettus. No, no. I've moved on from Pettus.

He's changed his mind? I moved on from Pettus. I got to hear this. We go higher. I'm tired of this, though. We got, we don't want, we don't want to rush these guys. Like, screw that. Let's rush these guys.

Let's do it. What do we got to lose? Let's just that. see what it happens. Shemaya versus Maya. Let's do it. Yeah. I'm getting, sure.

Maya's ranked number seven right now. That's a legit ranking. That's not a BS ranking. That's number seven. And now we've got that ground. We get the test of this ground against someone. I get it. I think Maya wants,

I think this will be Maya's last fight, and I think you should fight Diego Sanchez because he's been calling for that fight for 10 years. Sure. Hopefully they'll be the Eagles last fight as well. Or you can do Shamaia versus Diego Sanchez, Or how about this, AK, Shamiyev versus Michelle Pereira? You could have said Michelle Perra or Ryan Hall.

That would have been excited. But yes, Michelle Perra, of course, of course. Bring it on. Just stop. Who cares about experience? Just give Shamiya of Carl's Condon and call it a day. Oh, boy. Shemaya versus Michael Kiesa.

That may happen down the road. It will not happen any time soon. What about Cowboy Olivera? He won tonight, too. Screw it. No, go to the top. You know, I take that no Maya, no Maya. Shemaya versus Tyron Woodley

Why not? They're going to book him and Colby first That's if I never happened Shemaya versus Shemaya versus Colby's Jorge. You know what? I want to see him versus I don't want to see this slow build anymore

I'm tired of this. We're not going to make it to 2021. We got to figure this out quick. He's got to get a name. It will not be Michael Kiasa, it will not be Michael Kiasa. It just said surgery. When Jeff Neal

T's fight news, everybody assumed it was Michael Kasa. Kasa is not going to be for a while. Mosvedal was the most talked about man heading in the fight island, and then suddenly this no-name kid comes along and takes his thunder. I think he's taking everything he's worked for. I think you're going.

I see who you're going. Mosvvayev is the way to go. All right, Kay. Let's just do Shemaya and Nick Diaz, the original M.F. There you go. Shemaya versus GSP. GSP will come every time right to pay Shemite. Handicat match.

What happened? Guys, what happened to this? Abed finally moves up to Welterweight to fight Shibaya. Oh, man. Is it the Spider-Man thing when they just pointed at each other? Yes, the gauntlet.

Have him just run the gauntlet. He would love that, too. So I haven't been this excited about a prospect in a while. Like, but those two, those two beatings he put down, I was like, that shit was impressive. That was, um, now I just want to see him face the top tier guys. Let's see it. He wants it.

it let's do it. When he walked to the octagon tonight, like, I just knew that was going to happen. Like, you had that look at his face that goes, and you can just tell, I'm just going to walk across, I'm going to lift this man off of his feet, I'm going to slam him down, and I'm just going to beat the brakes off of him. That's exactly what he did. That is a frightening, frightening guy at 70 or 85, because he said he would fight at both, too, so maybe, you know, maybe he's thrown back up to 85. Who the hell knows? Why don't you give him, like, would you be surprised if he got a main event? like Izzy got a main event fight in his third fight. I can see it.

If it's the right opponent, I'm sure. If it's a, if it's a... Shemaya Phaezza. Saroni could headline. No. I love how we A.K. went from Miguel Baezza to Jorge Mazzado. First of all, thank you in the comments.

Watch my 666. Shemaya V 8 and O versus Biaza 8 and no. And then classy Monaco Man emoji. Right, the math just makes sense. You almost have to match him up. And Nick Bergen, Shamiv has a better resolution. Shemayev has a better resume than Mazvedal. Ooh.

Listen, you don't, I don't want to see prospect versus prospect. Throw him in there, all right? He wants this. This is what he wants. Throw him in there. You think M.M.A. is too easy. Throw him in the top 15. Let's see if he swims.

Top five. Top five. Top five. Leon Edwards looking for a fight. Leon Edwards looking for a fight. Come on, man. Well, no. That won't happen.

Wouldn't hate it. But it wouldn't happen. saying a lot of things aren't going to happen, but... Yeah. GSP comes out of retirement to fight Shmaiof. Not against Usen, not for the belt, not the... This guy. But Shemayev.

There you go. Got to get him excited. Do we have anything else or is that it? Yeah, that's about it. That's about it. It was the Shemaiov show. I mean... There you go.

Is he the biggest star coming out of Fight Island? Yes. He might be. He made the biggest jump. The guy, like, someone I've never heard of, and now... Yeah. I want GSP to come out of retirement to face him. That's a pretty big number.

So as far as going from here to here, yeah, by far. Yeah. All right. Bigger, we'll end with this. Bigger star in Fight Island. Shemai F or Amanda Hebas? I knew who Amanahibas was, and I was always excited to see her fight. But just the fact that I can, I, I'm learning how to spell and say Shamiya correctly.

So, yeah, that's, he's, he's the star. What about a fighter like, like we had a, uh, Sauru Kian, was a big, name we were talking about. That was a good one. Yeah. Was everyone talking about Leszaz too? How many times did they fight once? Yeah, but how many Zs do Shemayov have in his name?

That's three Zs in his last name. That's true. And he should fight Nico Price. There is no other fight to make. That is the fight. No other fight. It makes any sense at all. And I love to everyone's calling on Mike Perry.

It's hilarious. Even though he's not going to be fighting anytime. Mike Perry is great prize. fighter. Yes. Everybody wants a piece of Perry. But my second star of the weekend, or the Overheba is

my Risen 205 champion, Yuri. Yuri Prohastka, man. Sensational. Yeah. They did a lot of good work getting some names out there on these Fight Island shows. They really did.

They did. And then we get another Otterpops. Former Rise and champ fighting at UFC 252. Man L. Cape. Yeah, I'm very exact. excited by that young man too. No opponent yet, by the way. They almost pulled the trigger on Cape versus Pantosia at UFC 252,

but too many travel restrictions hindered that from happening. But that was very close to being a thing. And then it turned out it was not a thing because you couldn't get there. It bums me out that Shorty Torres and the UFC kind of ended out such bad terms because Shorty Torres would inject a lot of fun into that flyaway division. like Shorty versus Manel Cape would be such a scrap. I would love it. You know what I think they're going to end up doing because the man is just such a wild dude is,

I have a feeling we're going to see Cape versus Tim Elliott. That's what I think we're hand up seeing. I'd be down for that. It's fun. Sign me up. Sign it. You know who's always a star guys? Our readers and viewers, I have to say, I've been keeping a little bit of an eye on our view count from when we started the show.

and it's actually gone up, which surprises me. Like our viewership has actually gone up as this show has regrets. I don't know. I think maybe it was all the Shamiya talk. I'm not sure. So I think they're all talking about your shirt. Everyone's hat with my shirt. So you guys are, I say this every time and I don't care.

I'm going to say it every time I'm doing one of these. You guys are crazy. You guys watching crazy staying up with us wherever, whatever time it is where you are. And it's just awesome when people tune in live and watch us just ramble about Shamiya versus matchups that are just never going to happen for literally, literally 30 minutes. So, so much love for everyone watching right now. A.K. The Mick Foley of M.M.A. fighting fighting fighting before we wrap up. Right here on the M.A. Fighting YouTube page. Yeah, there you go, A.K. Nicely done, man. I think that's it. Any final thoughts on the

Strip to Fight Island? Yes. Go ahead. The true star of the Wee of the Fight Island. Guillermo. Gilaireme Cruz. Yes. M.B. The dude was away from his lovely Brazil for a whole month to fly over to fight island and jet ski and drive Lamborghinis with supermodels and cover fist fighting. Get top shelf COVID-19 testing. I mean, just live in the dream, but also putting it in those miles and put it in those I don't know if he slept.

I do not because every time he was, we were slacking like every second of the day about video stuff. And I'm like, dude, go to sleep. Yeah, he's a bad man. That's the fourth guy in my Mount Rushmore. All right. It's, uh, hoist, crazy. And there's a still. Cyborg.

Guillermo. That's it. Well done. Much more. Well done. Giam A is, of course, the most handsome one of the lot. He is a good, like a man. No question.

Thank you, Gary. He looks like he's a stone. All right. Sign us off. Before we wrap up, one more thing before we go. I know we're, this is the time where you cut your promo on, on Mr. McGrath. Oh, yeah. Well, let's talk about Mr. McGrath. Everyone wants to, so, what are you going to say about Ned? What are you going to say about Ned? What are you going to say about Ned? I'm sorry that I'm picking on him. Okay. I still want to get Nile McGrath looks like T.J. Detwylis trending because he does. I don't know how you can look at the man and not be like, wow, look, that's clearly the, you know what they put? And they put the dots on the people when they're doing the W. W.R.B. Games, they clearly did that with Nile McGrath and T. T. T. So let's keep that trending. Now, you know where I am, there's not going to be a fight. So, yeah,

they can talk about on the broadcast and this and that and blah, blah, blah, we can fight. I'll still throw you in a wishing fountain. I'll still do whatever I want, and that's a wrap. This is the dream matchup for Between the Links, by the way. No, because it can't be. The first throwdown is going to be a physical confrontation. It's going to be a full one-sided martial arts exhibition. It's not even going to be a fight. The Darren Till versus Mike Perry at between the Lings matchups. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

We're going to have a fun between the links matchup this week, too. AK is going to defend against Jedbushu. This is going to be great. Oh, my God. It's like there's going to be so much salt coming through the screen. I know. It's going to be exciting. So, all right, we're getting out of here.

It is 115 in the East Coast. We're done for Jose, AK, EKC. I am Mike Eck, Gerema, Cruz. You are the Brazilian beast. Thank you for your coverage. Thank you for watching. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.