MMA Fighting - UFC Paris Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Ciryl Gane's Chaotic KO Win vs. Tai Tuivasa

Episode Date: September 4, 2022

Ciryl Gane and Tai Tuivasa left it all inside the octagon during the main event of UFC Paris with the former interim heavyweight champion coming through after overcoming adversity. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and Jed Meshew react to the incredibly chaotic battle between Gane and Tuivasa, which the hometown native earned the victory via third-round TKO. In addition, they discuss where Gane goes from the win, if he can get a title shot next, Robert Whittaker's masterclass showing against Marvin Vettori in the co-main event, if Vettori should ponder a move up to 205, Nassourdine Imavov's ceiling after his dominant decision win over Joaquin Buckley, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed K. Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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

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You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. That is the parade music for one Cyril Ghan, as he mercifully puts away a very game, a very tough, very exciting, Thai Tuwipasa in the third round, huge win for Cyril Ghan. Tai Tui Vasa is officially not a human being. And that fight was way more fun than I think a lot of people believed it would be. both guys stocks rose it was just a lot of fun so congratulations to sierra god he got the rock star treatment when it was all said and done called for a title fight afterwards and we'll see if he

gets it but thank you for joining us for the ufc paris live post fight show i am mike kak jed bushoe is in the building georgia bulldogs putting the boots to the oregon ducks the bulldogs just just kind of them up there's 10 minutes left there's 10 minutes left and we were winning 49 to 3 this has been this has been a huge beat down just unbelievable I'm having a great day if you can't oh my okay will be here momentarily to react he's doing multiple things there he is the shadow the hologram if you will they can grow out the hair got the lettuce going for a k huh yep the world traveler look at that all angles it's got layers as uh as the adults like this day,

both let's get to this thing. Jed, that main event, paint us a word picture. If there's anybody watching this right now that actually didn't watch that fight, paint a word picture for this main event because it was, it was just a lot of fun.

It was so much more fun than I thought it had any chance to be. I was doing the live blog, so if you want another word picture, you can go read my words. They turn into very garbled mess. in the middle where it's just all capitals being like, I don't know what's happening. What is going on? So the first round was exactly the fight I thought we were going to get.

It was Cyril Gan being just a way better fighter. And Tai Tuvasa being tough and doing some good things, honestly. But like, clearly gone was just outworking him. And the second round, you know, in between the rounds, Ty's corner was like, it's your time to shine, buddy. This is where you get him. And I was just like, whatever. This is not where you get him because that's not a thing you do.

And then damn if he didn't do it. He lulled gone into a sense of security or so. I don't know what sorcery he did to land just a monstrous right hand on gone. But gone fell over and I was like, oh my God, he's done it. Because our Slack chat was like, everybody in there was like, yeah, this is Eric and N. AK were like, yeah, second round chaos. This is where it happens. And I was like, oh, damn.

You guys were right. Look at that. But then gone got up. Like, we're going to talk a lot about. about Tai Tuivasa's chin, and we should. And the same for Marvon Vittorian a little bit. We should. Nobody, nobody needs to discredit what Cyr-O-Gan showed there,

because to eat a clean shot like that from Tai Tu-Ivasa is not a thing that happens. Ty said it himself before, and if I dink him, I sink him. He dinked him, and he didn't sink the dude. Zero-Gon shot a takedown. He was on wobbles for the rest of the round, but still somehow had the temerity to land. just a vicious body kick that then doubled Tuivasa over. And now we've got the change of momentum and Gans charging it.

And then Tuvasa swings a monster right hook that lands. And now Gons backing up, but Tuvasa can't follow because his guts are trying to fall out of his body. So it was just an unreal second round. Like, I am stunned that it got out of the round. And then both dudes were like, okay. Like, I have no idea how they pulled it off. Both guys at the end of it were just like, all right, well, one minute rest. let's go. And then round three starts and Ty tried to make an effort of it. But at that point,

he had his window and the window was closed. Certainly the body shots he ate, I think were too much. And then ultimately, they had some really fun exchanges in the third. Ty slanted a couple of really big shots of his own, but none that were kind of the same. Oh, he's like, I mean, Don said it himself, he was knocked out in that second round, basically. And Ty couldn't replicate it. And then Ty is. starting to really get picked apart by this jab and he sort of recklessly charges forward and Seagon landed the cleanest right hand I've ever seen in a fist fight. I mean, he pivots off, off to Ivasa charging in and his, if you watch the replay, which I've already watched like 10

times, he's reacting as if Ty's going to turn and fire back. And then when he sees the just as a clear line to Ty's chin who is turning into him, boom, just a short little. right hand, but with all of his body weight thrown into it, it is the most technically pure and golden right hand I've ever seen. I am astonished that Tai Tuva's head stayed attached to his body. But that's it. We found what it takes to knock out Tai Tuvass, and it was apparently that, because Ty was functionally done. He still stood upright, which I honestly am amazed by, but then there was a left hook and the fight was over after that. But unbelievably fun of it. fight way more entertaining than I ever thought it could have been.

Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of takeaways there. One, the right hand that pretty much was the beginning of the end. That was, to me, like the MMA equivalent of a Kobe Bryant step back jump shot. Like, it was just perfect. Step back, kind of feigned, and then boom, just landed that thing. It was absolutely beautiful thing. Tai is pretty much all done. Ty two Voss is not a human being.

That's not the thing that we took away. that fight was so incredibly fun and i don't know man cyril like i thought when tie landed that right hand i thought cyril was done like i thought when he hit the mat he was unconscious and somehow his eyes just opened up and he was willed back to his feet it was just it was just such a crazy fight it was unbelievable and do you agree like it sucks to lose if you're tie to ivasa and outside of that right hand tie was like somewhat competitive at range in the first round, which kind of surprised me because I thought Ty was going to be a lot more aggressive, but he actually had a pretty smart game plan and hung in there, lost the round.

Second round was just wild. And then the third round was what it was. Cyril just kind of picked him apart in the third, although we were still sort of on the edge of our seat. It's fair to say that, I mean, Cyril, this is probably the most entertaining fight. This is the one we're going to remember for Cyril gone for a while. but Tai Tuivasa's stock rose tremendously despite losing. Like this is a huge fight for him, but his stock still rises in defeat in a pretty significant way.

Would you agree with that? Oh, yeah, for sure, man. I mean, you heard me on the preview show and BTL this week. I thought that there was zero chance to Hevasa won. Turns out I was right. He didn't win. So don't comment me with that. Jed, you were wrong.

Check the scoreboards by guys. But I didn't think it would be. be this competitive. I didn't think Ty would be able to find a way to even land a big shot, much less one that like legitimately moments from winning the whole fight. And I mean, we all knew it was tough, but honestly, I don't even think we knew it was that tough. I mean, this dude ate some. That head kick he landed in the, I don't remember if it was the third or the second because it all blurred. The, the head kick that landed like clean on him that got him again on skates, but still didn't kill him was like, nobody.

What he can take that. Like you can hit, Marvin Vittori couldn't take that head kick. Like, I don't know what Tyo Tuy Voss is made of, but it is some incredibly stern stuff. And like you said, he showed a little craft in his game plan.

He, my estimation of him, Roe is a great deal. I still don't think he's ever going to hold the title, but it is far less of an insane prospect to me than it once was. The other thing that I took away that I think is a lot of fun, and I think you would appreciate this. And I thought this boat.

halfway through the third round, you have come up with one of the greatest ideas in the history of the sport when it comes to televised mixed martial arts that your idea for the professional fighters, which is your organization implementing the damage bar on the television screens. This would have been the perfect damage bar kind of a fight

because you could have saw the levels just change back and forth and then that third round, it's almost like in my own brain, I could see Ty to Ivas's damage levels just continue to drop and drop and drop. And like it would try to, it was like he got a mushroom that gave like a little bit more energy. And then he got kicked in the body and the levels just started to fall down. This was a great damage bar example. So you obviously never played the fight night games because the way that their damage bar works is when you land like a clean,

when you rock somebody, you get a temporary like stamina boost. So your damage bar goes back to full bars for like while they're in rock. mode and that's what like that's exactly what happened when tie would land a really big shot he would be like i'm back baby and then he would eat just a monster shot to the body and he'd be like i'm not back baby it was it was that honestly was the most fight night esk fist fight that's ever happened at the oc in that regard completely agree there's one moment where he got kicked in the body like real hard and he started to keel over and i thought he's just going to like collapse to the mat and then all of a sudden he takes a step back

and throws the hardest right hand I've ever seen in my life. He missed wildly, but it was just like, I couldn't believe it. I thought, I didn't know if he was playing possum, but there were two moments in that fight. I only he was playing possum. I think his brain is just wired like that.

Exactly. That's what I thought at first. And there's AK, AK, who went on the preview show. He was on the People's Prefight show as well. We were in the Slack Channel, as you mentioned earlier. And we thought heading into second round that Tai Tu Ivasa was going to come through for our man, AK, that he was going to make him a genius, and he was so close to doing so. But I got Jed's reaction. We had a lot of

fun with this, but you're here. What is your reaction to the main event, Cyril Gan's performance, Tai Tuivasa's performance. And I mean, obviously I'm a little disappointed he didn't finish. Nothing against Seidel Gan. Seidel Gan is fantastic. I said after the fight was over. This dude's a rock star. He's so classy. He just looks like he's a superstar fighter. He was amazing tonight. I mean, it's not like, you know, him getting hurt and showing his resilience is like such a plus, such a plus for me. Like, I want to see a guy like him face adversity. And damn, those shots from Thai would have ended many, many other fighters.

So he's legit tough. Again, we talk about us athleticism all the time. And that's what, man, I'll tell you, athleticism helps you a lot, you know, when you're taking hits like that, just being an amazing shape. So, yeah, fantastic. But I had been riding Ty by knockout for so long that he was going to, he was going to knockout. gone. I had narrowed it down to round two on our preview shows and pre-fight shows.

So yeah, when it happened, boy, I even, no one would have been more surprised than me if I was right. I'm occasionally right about things, but never that accurate. So calling a second round knockout for Ty and having actually happened would have blown my friggin mind. I would not be on here going like, oh, I told you so, so obvious. I would have been just

like the rest of you, like, holy crap, how the hell did that happen? But yeah, what an awesome main event for both guys, gone, superstar, and Tui Vasa, legitimate heavyweight contender. I hope that this loss, the way he fought in this loss, confirms to people that him beating

Derek Lewis and taking his top five spot was not a fluke. It was not an over correction. He's a top five heavyweight. And this only backed that up for me. It would have been really cool if he could have gotten the win. But look,

gone himself looks like he might just be the champ next time he fights in Gano or anyone else. My goodness, that was amazing. We're waiting on bonuses. we will let you know. I'm sure the fight of the night is made it. I can tell you fight of the night.

I don't know if you need that. I can also give you at least one of the performances. It's Koppelov. He's going to get one. Maybe. Yeah. And you got to give it to Maka Badoff. Oh, in Alice.

Yeah. So we're done. That's it. Those are your bonuses. No, if that's correct. Those are my two performance picks. That's great picks. You said Koppelab.

I, shocking. I know you're not lying because when you said Koppelab, it's stuck in my brain. Because as Jed Mish, to paraphrase, Jed Mishu, when he's appraising certain fighters, Coppulov is not good. Or I didn't think he was good. He was good. He was not good. He beat Lesseo of DeKirko.

That doesn't make you good. He was good enough to be to Lesseo de Kierko. So Roman Koppelov, for one night only at least, I certainly owe you an apology because you are very likely about to get an extra 50 Gs for an awesome finishing combination. I believe on the cards he was up to, is a pretty good performance for him overall, and then capped it off really nicely. So good for you, Koppelov.

He was an amazing, super exciting finisher before the UFC. That's why I mean I was so hard on him. It was like his first two UFC fights were just bad. Like they're real bad. So, hey, if this is the start of the next wave of Koppelov, more power to him because, yeah, he looked really good today. And the heavyweight over cash, right? Two and a half.

Oh, yes, it did, baby. I mean, sweaty. Super, super sweaty of a cash. But we cashed. We did it. The science continues. It's not a done deal yet. We don't have a scientific conclusion on this.

I don't know. I'm kind of willing to call it a done deal. I'm willing to call it a done deal because if tied to the punch tie landed on gone didn't, didn't break the break it, break it. And the head kick gone landed. The fat, here's the thing that we're not going to talk about enough that is truly mind-boggling to me. If you get hit in the head and everything gets scrambled, it really, really sucks. But you can recover and get back.

If you get hurt to the body, that doesn't get better. That's just there forever. And somehow Tai Tivasa got rocked to the body multiple times and was just like, never mind for a minute. I'm just going to keep doing it. stuff. That's, you don't see a dude ever, ever. I've watched fighting for damn near 20 years, I guess at this point now. It's been a really long time. And when you see the dude do the this, that's it. Like, how, A.K., how many misfits have we done where the guy eats a rib roaster? And it's just like, oh, his whole life flashed before his eyes. And he's like, what have I done to

myself? He's done. And Ty did that like four times in that fight. And then just straightened up and was like, cool, let's go. That is unbelievable to me. So if those shots didn't make a heavyweight under cash, ain't nothing doing it, baby. Heavyweight overs and flyweight unders, live the dream. Man. And I thought, like, I thought I heard Tweet Vossus. Oh, is that the breaking news, Mike, or you said you have breaking news?

No, that's the breaking news. No, that's the breaking news. I thought when Toy Vasa got hit by that first, like, body kick that like sent him just, like, running a background seat, I thought he said something like, you got me or like, okay, okay. Like, it sounded like he was talking like he was, he want, like, not just something he wanted to quit, but the kind of talk that you, I don't know, you only say when you're like, you're done fighting. That's what I thought I heard. But it was probably just, he probably just swearing or something or just like, or maybe he did say you got me. Yeah, but like they were.

They were just very happy in there too. That was the other thing that was lovely about it. They were just beating the hell out of each other. But being all friendly, hey, good, good almost appendectomy you performed with your shin there. Way to go, buddy. This is very nice. Jed, I'll ask you, AK, we'll talk about this tomorrow and on to the next one. But Cyril Ghan said, I don't care who the champion is, my next fight should be for the belts.

That's what I want. I want to fight for the title next. Is there a chance after just the momentum he's going to gain from this fight and the performance and everything surrounding it that he might get his wish? Or is he just the best he's going to get is what I think is going to happen. He's going to have to fight Curtis Blitz next. But you think that'll be an interim title fight? You think, yeah, you think there'll be interim, right? No.

Oh. Yeah. No. It's, it's September. I think for certain that's not an interim title fight. No, no chance. Were they going to have two interim titles? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. I mean, that would be sick. I would love it so much. Either Ingana's going to fight Jones or he's going to get, either in Ghana is going to fight Jones or they're going to strip him with the belt and Jones are going to fight somebody else for the title. Probably Steepay. It's not, I don't think it's going to be serial. Although I would really like to see that fight, I think they would do John Steepa.

You think so? I think Cyril has a chance maybe because, mainly because I wouldn't say it's the most likely scenario. I think you have outlined the most likely scenario. But there is a world where, I don't know, steep just doesn't fight people. So it's hard for me like he's definitely going to fight John Jones because he's just going to sit around. And like I personally would far, far, far more like to see John Jones. Jones versus Seorgon. And I think that that can build some momentum here, right?

Like, I think that that is the case. I wish gone had been a little more proactive in calling specifically for John Jones, as opposed to just being like, I don't, I'm not going to fight Curtis Blades. I think that would have made a better case for it. But if Stipe sits on his hands, because that's a thing Stipe sometimes does or whatever, I think that there is going to be a fairly good appetite for Jones versus. is gone and in some ways though obviously it's not really the same there are some there's some a lens through which you can view it that that's a poor man's john versus francis and that's the

fight that people actually want is john francis so i think he's got a chance i just don't i don't think it's a very good one but i do think there's a chance he doesn't fight curtis blades next we shall see what happens we'll get a k's shoot a i mean we'll just do this live i'll ask you because we should we should we match fake for tie tomorrow and on to them next one? Yes, we should. Yes, we should. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. He's earned it. He's earned it. Yes, he has earned it. Speaking of erding, go ahead. Did you talk about his, no, did you talk about his walkout? I know I came in late. Did you talk about the walkout song?

We didn't talk about the walkout song, but I will say this. Shout out to the Peeps in the People's Pre Fight Show. A lot of people predicted he would walk out to Moulon Rouge. I have to say. I think, I think Sean Sheehan had that too. Yeah, a lot of people picked that one. A lot of people picked that one. The Paris crowd just completely no-sold it,

which I thought was kind of hilarious that like not one person even reacted. It was just all you could hear is the song. Not one human being even was like, they weren't even booing them. That song is not popular. That song is not a shot. I don't think that songs is a popular Parisian song.

It's a very American song about France. It's an American song about France. Yeah. Well, it's a, it's a, British song, but yeah, it is what Americans and British people, I guess, think, Christine Aguilera singing. Screw, screw a British song. The song was written by, it was written by the Beatles.

I don't know, but, but I'm sorry, was that the Beatles version? No, but it's not. You can't call it. You can't call it an American. This is like if someone covered, like, if someone. I can't, but people singing it are the ones who made that song. Yeah, they didn't write the lyrics. It's not an American song.

It's not an American song. You guys. So American. We took it. So. We took it. Sorry. But yeah, this is like what we were saying with like iPhone 65 at the beginning of the,

also in the pre-fight. We're like, I don't feel like that's probably not a song. That's popular in France either. Like these are global hits. But yeah. So when they didn't react, I was kind of like,

yeah, that makes sense. I think this is more for the rest of the world, all the Vulu Vu, all the Vukééééééééé stuff. French people probably get that all the time from tourists too. And they're just like, oh, God.

Frigin lady marmalade. So, you know. So, yeah, It wasn't surprising to me that they didn't react super positive to it. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Ciceroa of the FACTA that I just finished that denichie who energize so much. It's the ensemble. The form of storema, mini, regrouped,

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But don't wait, like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. So let's move on to the co-made event because we talked about the legendary chin of Tai Tui Vasa and the legendary chin of Marvin the Italian Dream Vittori

was tested and tested and tested over and over again by Bobby Knuckles, Robert Whitaker, sensational performance. I'd scored at 3027. I thought Vittori was somewhat competitive in the first. It was a close first. But Whitaker just ran him over the rest of the fight. It was a great performance.

This guy is clearly, it's Adasania, Whitaker, and then like far down unless Alex Pereira is actually the best middle way in the world. It's everybody else. What did you think of his performance shed? Robert Whitaker, Bobby Knuckles, thought this might be a competitive fight, thought things could get close, a little hair, but he beat the hell out of Marvin Vittory for the final 10 minutes of this fight. I'm sorry, I was just taking a drink of my Georgia National Champions mug

because we officially beat the piss out of the Oregon Ducks 49 to 3. Almost as bad as Robert Whitaker put the wood to Marvin Vittory. I don't remember what your question was, but this fight was honestly more entertaining than I thought. I thought it would be a lot grindier and more back and forth. there's a good opening round from Vittori. I think you could score it for him. I know one judge did, and I don't think that's egregious.

But Whitaker really showed his class in the back two there and looked, I mean, as good as ever. It is, he is destined to be this generation's Rich Franklin. And that's, you know, unfortunate. But maybe he can go on to be a vice president one or something. I don't know because I don't think he's ever beating Israel disson. So now he's just desperately hoping. that Alex Beheada can knock easy out. But I got to be honest, man.

If Alex Bejaro goes and knocks Izzy out, then maybe Alex Bejara is just like really good and Robert Whitaker's in like a similar world of trouble. So I don't know what you do with him. I think you, the problem, the biggest issue, honestly for Robert Whitaker right now, outside of the fact that there's a blocker is there's nobody fun. Right?

Like at least when Rich Franklin could no longer beat Anderson Silva, could fight Chuck Liddell and Van der Le Silva. There were fun middleweights that or like light heavyweights, that kind of area, 195ers, who he could have good fights with or entertaining scraps just because they were in similar situations or they're a little past their prime. Like who is a fun guy at middleweight for Robert Whitaker? I know you guys have to do this tomorrow and on to the next one, but like Luke Rockhold could have been cool until Rockhold lost to Costa and retired.

Like, I just don't know what we do with him because nobody, unless he's just going to keep beating ranked middle weights, which I guess is like, it's fine. And that's a good way to go about your life. But I want more from him. And I don't know what that more can be at this point. Casey, we are breaking news. You can hit the breaking news music. We have bonuses. Fight of the night.

A stunner. The maid events. Cyril Gunn versus Tai Tui Vasa. performance of the night, Avis Maga Madaev and Benoit Santini. There you go. Yeah.

Koppelov got screwed. Yeah. I think so too. He got screwed. You're right. He got screwed. He deserved it. He got scured.

Santini was a big, big, big, big, big, big favorite. He did exactly what everyone thought he was going to do in that fight. And he looked good. He looked good. And also wasn't a cinematic of a finish. Like, what are we, how do you base? that. That seems weird to me. Got to please the French crowd. Got a please the French

crowd. You know, listen, he made, he was the first he got the ball rolling for all the French fighters who went 5 and 0. They hit the jet. The first fighters were 5 and 0, including hitting an underdog in that. That ain't, just take that. They don't need 50K for BSD. Give it to the man who reserved it.

Yes. So there you go. There's the bonuses. 50 Gs for all of them. Of course, when the UFC went back to London, all the guys who got finishes and gals who got finish has got bonuses. Not the case here and in Paris, but that's neither here nor there.

A.K. Bobby Nucks, what did you think of his performance? Loved it, man. I loved it. You know, first round was, I think a good feeling out process for him. I don't know how people scored the first round. I didn't see the official score. What was the scores again? Did someone get, there was definitely a 3027 in there for. Somebody, there were 230, 2027.

Oh, okay. Yeah. And I think that's fair because the first round was like kind of close, but I mean, you definitely could have gone to Whitaker, definitely could have gone to Vittory. So whoever scored that first round for Vittory, fine. But it did feel like sort of classic kind of Whitaker, it's feeling things out.

And then, man, once he got his number in rounds two and three, so fast, so accurate, just beautiful distance and control. I mean, man, when you're fighting someone who's, you know, that much bigger, when you control the distance like that and you're just able to score so much and do so much damage, it's amazing. There's just, there's so few fighters on the planet like him. And Votori, look, I mean, tough as hell. You know, I actually thought Wittaker could put him away.

and I still believe that as a fight was going on. We were praising his chin on sort of our online chat. And in my mind, I'm like, oh, I still think, I still think like, Witterger can do it. But boy, he hit like three, four head kicks right on the money, was stinging him with combinations, like right down the pipe, straight shots down the pipe. And Vittori, was he even knocked down?

I don't think he even got knocked down, right? Sure did not. Oh, my goodness. I know it. That's just not possible. And I don't care about the size difference. Those shots are, those are kill shots that were Robert Wooder was connecting with.

So yeah, praise to Vittorra for the toughness. But this is just vintage, vintage Reaper. And I don't, I'm kind of with you. I don't know what to do with him. But whatever keeps him fight, you know, just keep him in there, co-main events, fight night main events, and hopefully well paid.

I hope Robert Woodacre is on the higher end of the pay scale. As long as he's happy, I'm happy. To me, there's three options for Rob Whitaker. I'm not going to reveal any of those. There's what, there's like a bronze medalist, the silver medalist and then there's a clear path in my opinion but jett had the finger up so

maybe the light bulb i like it i figured out he's going to have to sit on the bench for a little while and that's okay he's been very active um but what you do with him is after leon edwards knocks out kamar oomore usman again you do oosman wittaker for wittaker uh wittaker uh ozman's o'sman's first fight up at 185, especially if Izzy is still won it because I think if Izzy beats Beheada, then he's going to make his way towards 205. And so then Whitaker can hold on, wait until Izzy vacates the division. And if he fights, you know, fights our guy Kamaro, then that's a hell of a fight. That is a good idea as well. That could be the fourth choice. That wasn't even one of my three options. So that's a lot of fun. Last thing. And then we'll talk about another middle.

a weight fight fight that got a lot of people's attention. Speaking of Olympics, Jed, on this card, if there is an Olympic event for best chins at UFC France, how are they on the dais? How are they on the blocks? That's a really good question. I think I'm taking tie as number one overall because I think Cyril Gahn

hit him so very, very, very, very hard. and was unable to get him out of there until after he had already broken the man's body down. But I'm willing to hear the argument for Marvin Vittori. It's clearly 1A and 1B in some respect. And then who's number three? I'm trying to think... Cyril Gaon?

Oh, yeah. I don't... See, even I did it. I said earlier that we're going to disrespect Don by not doing it. And I even forgot it. It's those three dudes. That's it right there. And you can put them in any order.

I don't care. Nothing. No order is wrong in those three because they, none of them can be killed by man or God. It required something truly special from Cyril Ghan to, to finish Tai Tuivasa. And really, probably only happened because Ty's body was wrecked internally. So any of any order you want to go is fine.

Casey has an idea for Rob Whitaker that he put out on Twitter. We'll discuss that in a moment. But let's move on to actually, we could just talk about it now because he's talking about the guy who won the fight right before it. Nasredine Imovov who beats Joachim Buckley, wins the first two rounds easily. Third round, things get a little hairy. I actually didn't think the 3027 was all that bad, honestly. So I actually went because I knew there was going to be time in between that fight and the

co-main event. So I actually went back and watched the third round of that fight. It is, there are way more egregious scores on this, on this fight night than the, than that one, than that 3027, because Buckley was landing and he was coming forward. He was more aggressive, but Eamboff saw 90% of those shots coming from a mile away and got his guard up and blocked almost all of them.

And he was cracking Joachian Buckley with counters. That right hand, that lead uppercut, anytime Joachim Buckley stepped in in that third round, he got uppercutted right in the face real hard, real clean by Dashadini Eubov. This is a great performance. If you scored the third round for Buckley, I can get mad at you,

but I don't think that giving the third round at Ymovoff was all that out of nowhere. But, A.K., we've all been very high on Yemaboff here at M.A. fighting. We have been for a while. Was this the kind of performance that you were expecting? From what your expectations were, did he over-deliver?

Was it right where you were at? Or did he somewhat under-deliver because of that third round? No, I thought it was just right. I think it's more of a credit to Buckley how that third round went. I saw a lot of commentary saying, like, you know, he left it all out there. I know it's a cliche, but that's what Buckley did. He knew he was down.

He knew he was down the cards. He had to get a finish. He is a finisher by nature. So for him, it's just like, hey, turn it on, whatever. And look, as you said, Mike, I'm probably going to have to take some shots, which he did, which is why, you know, there was that 30, 20 and 7 score. Clearly, Imov was still having success in the third round. But, yeah, again, if you're Buckley, it doesn't matter.

You were either going to lose the decision or you were going to get K-O'd. So I gave a lot of. credit to Buckley for that. But no, I thought Imovov looked great. I guess some people were going to be critical because Buckley is a bit, of course, an undersized. 185er. EmuVob is probably on the bigger end of the 185 scale. And we saw that. We certainly saw that tonight when you just were looking at them standing across each other. It looked ridiculous. But putting aside the size, I still think Imov looked really skilled, really patient. Definitely looks like a top 10 guy. I don't know how high he's going to go up in our rankings. Not because it wasn't a good performance, just because

you know, Buckley's not super high ranks. So this keeps, for me, this keeps Imovov his hype alive. And hopefully, as we were discussing before the show in the pre-fight, someone in the top 10 will accept a fight with him. Maybe the Brunson-Hermanston winner or loser, we don't know. But he should, he has the opportunity to crack the top 10. Probably by early. I don't know if he's going to get another fight in this year, but early next year, it really feels like Yimov is on his way. So I thought delivered just right. I wasn't disappointed at all. I just thought it was a really good fight against a very tough opponent, and he took care of business. Jed, how high are you willing to put Nasdaid Nemovov?

I'm going to read the tweet right now from E.K.C. Liding, because my tweet was responding to Robert Whitaker. What I think should happen and what I'm going to talk about and on to the next one is basically, I'm just going to say it. I don't care that he lost to Adesadne twice. If Adisadio beats Alex Pereira, do it again. I don't care. Adisandia Whitaker 3 is just fine,

because that second fight was real. close. But I mean, listen, I'm kind of with New York, Rick, especially in this division when it's just one and two and everybody else is so far down the mountain, it's going to take like a long time to climb the rest. But there's no other option right now. I don't really care. It's neither here nor there. Casey's idea, Jed, Robert Whitaker versus Nassardine Imovov, number one contender fight, winner gets a title shot. Would you do that if you had the pencil? If I had the pencils for sure, no. I don't hate it. It's not the worst that you've ever heard. but I don't know what the UFC has Nasredine ranked

because that doesn't matter and I don't care. But I mean, this is, look, it's a solid win, but I was also just talking shit about Alessio de Kiroko and Joaquin Buckley beat Alessio to Kiroko. So it's not like beating walking Buckley is the greatest thing that's ever happened in the world, you know? It's a very good win, great performance. Lost to do Carrico.

I said that wrong. I think that's what you meant, though. Yeah, that is what I meant. I said that. Yeah, that's what I think meant, yeah. Yeah. So, like, the point being that beating Joaquin Buckley is not unbelievably incredible. Good solid win, good, you know, good enough fighter.

But it's, this is not the, all right, let's give him the number one dude in the division. Because, like, I don't know. I also, I hate the idea of Robert Whitaker getting a title fight again. Like, I'm not opposed to him ever getting one, but I need three wins. This is one. I need two more. just because like let other people get a chance. And if he knocks off all the other people, then okay.

But let Andre Monez fight somebody to get in line for it. Like let other things happen instead of just like, these are the two best guys because I agree, they are the two best middleweights. One of them is much better than the other. At least stylistically, that's been proven. He clobbered him the first time. I didn't think the second one was close.

It was competitive. Thought Robert Whitaker very clearly lost the fight. And I think that's how it will go every time they fight. Like it just is the matchup. And that's unfortunate for Robert. But a lot of people have that in the history of the sport. And you just kind of got to move on. So I'm not opposed to him ever fighting for it again.

But I do think he's going to leave the division soon. And I don't want to see another Whitaker fight. I've seen it twice. I'm covered. If I'm booking it, I don't know. Let me look at the rankings right now. That's the other problem is Whitaker's beating a lot. the other dudes kind of in and around the area um who isn't sean strickland fighting somebody soon

supposed to fight cannon air but that fight's scrapped i also don't care about that uh what stricc is du plus c doing i'd rather do that like that's more fun to me than whittaker or hell just do moonez like that's cool too um at least that's a sort of different fight i don't know that's my issue with rob wittakers i don't know what the hell to do with him i think we just put him on until Izzy loses or leaves the division. And if he wants, I know he doesn't want to do it. We talked about this on BTL. I'm cool with it.

Go up to heavyweight and take a fun fight against a rando there while you spin your wheels. Like that's, don't put on the weight. Just go fight. Paul Craig. You can beat Paul Craig without adding bulk, Robert Whitaker. And that's at least a fun thing to do. I would way rather do that than be like, hey, Nazarine and Imelov, you look fun and

interesting. Let's ruin you as a title contender. I don't want to do that. Like they did with Edmund Shabazi in the past and others like that. I mean, middleweights, I mean, there's a lot of the similar names at middleweight, but you named off some fun ones, Jed, that are climbing the ranks right now. You know, Bob's one of them, DDP's one of them. And there's more than that as well.

You do Imov-DDP. That's a fight. That is a fight. Andre Mede's might be the most dangerous of all three of those guys with what he does very well. And then even Aba, like, Avis Magamadoff is a problem. And that was, that was a scary freaking knockout. I know it's Dustin Stoltzvist. It's not a guy that's even like a top 40 middleweight,

but I mean, 19 set in that front kick. Yeah. It was like he initiated go-go gadget legs. His, he might have the longest legs I've ever seen. Because he, it was like, it was like his back was against the friggin fence on the other side of the cage and he threw the front kick and still kicked him in the face. just ridiculous. There's nothing you could do.

He put his foot in his mouth. His foot was in his mouth. Like actively. Yeah. His foot was in his mouth. And again, you guys mentioned the speed. Look, we all expected like Stolt's fist, credit to him, came on on a short notice. Like not super short notice, actually like a couple of months, but he was the replacement

opponent to save this fight. And as we all thought, Abis is a huge prospect, was expected to run through him, and he did it. That's all you can ask for when you're facing someone that you're expected to run through. he ran through him. So you can say, oh, he just beat Dustin Stalcers. But yeah, he did it in 19 seconds. He did he dismissed him as expected. Yeah, so give him credit for that, right?

I know what we're doing with Whitaker. I know what we're doing with Whitaker. I just figured it out. I don't know why I didn't see it. It doesn't matter. It's win or lose. He's fighting Alex Pahetta. If Pahela Loses, you just run Writaker versus Paheta.

If Pahedah wins, you run Whitaker versus Pahedca. It just happens to have a belt on the line for it. Like, win or lose, he just gets Pahedda. after he beats Beheada, then you do, is Muniz booked? No. Then you do Muniz, Eamov, and then the winner of that fight,

if Izzy still has the belt and Whitaker beats Beheada, then the winner of that fight can have a number one contenders fight against Whitaker. Then Whitaker will have gotten three wins before he gets another shot at Izzy. I'm much happier with him having three wins

and just beating two more dudes and running this back and running this back because I'd rather new people get opportunities. That's what that is. What if, what if Paulo Costa resigns of the UFC before they renegotiate, get them locked up to a new four-fight deal where he's making a couple extra bucks?

Would that, would that take the spot? No, I mean, I think you do Pahedda anyway, but then instead of doing Whitaker versus whatever you can do after that, Whitaker takes on Paulo Costa. Like, that's fine as well. Okay. Last question before you go to the people. That was some on to the next one level matchmaking.

It is almost as if you have been hosting a matchmaking show recently. I've had to step in a couple of times lately. Your matchmaking skills are sharp. It has never been my strong suit. That has always been y'alls. But I've learned a couple things. You know, I listen every week, and I was lucky enough to join in. So I've learned a few things.

That was impressive. I might just, I will credit you, but I may steal that for. You should. It's one of the last. It's the right fight, I think, like honestly, truly believe. that. It's a good answer. I can't wait to reveal my other picks.

I think you'll dig one of them. Oh, your other picks. So that was one of the three then. Yes. I'm getting so good at this. No, not that one. Well, kind of. Kind of.

There's parts of it. But the silver medalist is actually a really interesting pick. And I would actually really like to see how that would play out. It's hockey season. And you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice?

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Last question, because I know a lot of people talked about this on Twitter and have brought it up on the comments here before we go to the peeps. A.K. True or false, the UFC Paris crowd was better than March's UFC London crowd. Better than March as UFC London. That was the first UFC London? Yeah. Nah. No, they were good. They were really good. I thought they were fantastic. There was a few moments where they kind of dropped off. And again, I don't blame them. I don't blame them. This had a lot of, this card had a lot of like new faces.

Yeah. And some of those faces were where they're countrymen. Of course, William Gomez, very, very, very solid win, solid win, and, you know, got his mic time after. I think he really made the most of his opportunity. But again, this is a, this was, what, a 12 fight card. There's going to be natural ebbs. So, I mean, I just, I don't think they quite hit that level of London. Also, there's their first event. So, you know, that London crowd is ingrained.

I mean, they've had events in London before. There is a set UFC fan base there. This is the first one in France. Clearly, they do have a fan base. But let's, let's wait, let's wait for a little further in the future. but credit to the UFC's matchmakers and everyone who, and the fighters, of course, who put this card together because this is about as well as they get.

I still stand by, like, you know, it's not like the most exciting, most memorable card, but you got what you, 5 and O U.S.C. fighters. I cannot stress enough how, like, how valuable that is for the promotion. And the next time they go to Paris or somewhere in France, like, man, the thirst and the demand will be even higher. you're getting called out for the poll here I'll talk about it after I'll talk about it after I'll talk about it before

let me know when you're about to go into the questions and I'll explain it before all right we'll go into the questions because I have to I have to understand what's going on okay I just want to I want to piggy back on to AK very quick to just say this card was way better than I thought it was going to be and if we had had Furrow versus Androj and Sedge and Sedge Dubek on it this card would have this card would have delivered like a nine point 5. Like, those two fallouts weaken the card.

We talked about it in the preview show. But after what happened, if you add those on top, man, this card would have been chef's kiss good. Yeah. Yes. So the poll. Okay. So I, uh, in my, I, even worse, and I just responded to this guy, even worse, the poll did not go my way. I simply asked, how do you determine the nationality of a song?

Who is singing it is winning 54%? I'm upset. Even if it had been the other way, who wrote it 54%. I'd still be upset that it was close. Like, this should be like 80% like nationality of who wrote the song. It is. And I will say, I will say, however. Who is the song? However, however, I will say I was wrong about who wrote the song.

And thus, in a way, I'm right that the nationality of the writer should matter for it. So I was stupid. I was getting Lady Marmalade confused with Lady Madonna, which is a Beatles song. which sounds nothing like Lady Marmaline, by the way. I was confused with the Beatles part. I was like, yeah, thank you. Thank you. I was just trust.

I was the first thing I was going to look up when we got off. You said it so confidently that I believe you? No, I was thinking. Lady Madonna is a Beatles hit, not Lady Marmalade. Mary Marmalade is written by, I'll say Marmalade. I'll say Marmalade. That's Americanized it. Lady Marmalade is written by two American gentlemen, Bob Crew and Kenny Nolan.

So it's really American. It was written for the American. song group. So you're doing a lot of gymnastics instead of just saying you were right, Jed. I was wrong. Listen, I'm happy to say it.

You were right. I'm happy to say you were correct. I was totally lost on this. However, I stand by the nationality of a song is the term by who writes it. So the people don't agree with me. Pretty sure they're trolling.

I'm pretty sure they're trolling because that's insane. But the people have spoken right now firmly, and it's been like this most of times. It's been pretty firmly in favor of who is singing it 55% right now. been around there.

And I'm angry if you right now, too, because we said the Beatles, and I believed you for some reason. Yeah. Why are you guys were all talking about surreal gone and ties awesomeness? I was like singing Lady Marmalade has the Beatles in my head. Yeah. That's just a sound like John. Like John Lennon.

Ranged out, huh? Oh, I loved writing Lady Marmalade. That's John Lennon. It's not bad. I'm doing John Lennon. All right. John Lennon. Okay.

Peeps, let's take some questions from the people. I think you lost your own poll. I want to... It's who writes a song. That's what the song... God, just forget. I'm just going to be... It doesn't even bother me for a long time.

Okay, so you guys are rules or rules. Rules should be punished, right? If you break a rule, you should be punished, correct? I have one major caveat to it, but I largely agree. The major caveat is, and this goes for all sports, if you do anything that's dope, it's okay. I don't care if it's legal. So let's talk about the finishing shot with Zrogon,

a clear strike to the back of the head on that finishing kind of sequence. The overhand, like he kind of did overhand. Very clearly illegal. Yeah. But obviously, Thai, 99% of the damage is already done. But we've seen this before. Fighters who have maybe lost a fight by throwing an illegal hammer shot at the very end when they're trying to do a finish. Do you think that should have been punished?

Do you think is this just like, yeah, whatever, everyone's having good time. And you think. Don't forget. You guys are rules of rules, people. And don't forget. JDS. God had accused this before by, by. And I thought that was a very illegal shot.

I'm not kind of gone a cheater, but that wasn't a legal shot. And JDS had a very good argument for that, I thought. Do these not fall under, you know, the guy's kind of turning away? I guess he's fully turned. So I guess that, like, that does change the scenario. But I feel like when someone turns away, it does make it a little bit. Well, I guess the point you turn away is so that you can't get punched. But yeah.

Yeah, I see what you're saying. There's a trend. There's a trend. I won't go as far as to call it dirty. I will say there's, it's tough. I mean, the referee, if we're going by the book, should step in. But I mean, I'm thinking about the JDS situation too. Stepping in in the middle of a fight ending flurry to call it like no contest.

Yeah, you got a no contest or a DQ, I guess you get right, if you determine. Or it goes to a technical decision. I think JDS would have. gone to, oh, they both would have, right? I mean, they were over that. I don't, I don't think this goes to technical. This would have been three full, right? You need three full rounds.

I think he needs the three full. It depends on the, I guess, what the ref said. The ref said it was intentional, which we all. Oh, yeah, it does depend on that. It depends on that. I'm just, I just think that's interesting how we, like, groin shots, fence grabs, back at the head shots, knees on the ground. We all kind of judge them differently as far as, like, automatic point deductions,

you know, things like that. I saw a lot of people, know, mentioned. about the illegal shots to the back of the head. Ty didn't seem to have the issue of it. He may not even know when he got hit in the back of the head, to be honest.

I just think it's a stupid. He was basically, so I don't care about it. He was basically on the way down and it was like using Fred Flintstone. But that doesn't make it illegal though. That doesn't make an illegal strike. But I mean, this is not a fencing graph.

A fourth poke in the eye. This is not a third kick to the ding ding. This was a guy falling down after getting absolutely rocked for 10 minutes. And that's basically what happened to Ty to him. Vasa. Like, you just saw him collapsing multiple times. And at this point, it was just like, it was just, he was falling down. And yeah, his head turned. It was just a weird, like that standing

hammer fist, I was like, ooh, that's, that was an interesting shot right there. But I mean, listen, there's, there's different things here. And to me, like even, I've said this a million times. I talked to Eric Nixick about that in that interview. A fence grab is not a point. If you do it like four times it is, but a fence grab should just be. an automatic improvement of position. If a guy's doing for a take down, the guy getting taken down, grabs the fence, referee stops the action,

you put them down in that same spot. It happens the second time you do it again, but this time you do it in the middle of the freaking cage. And if it happens again, you get the same middle of the cage treatment and you get a point. There's nothing wrong with that. That's fine. That's fine. I just like, I mean, it's just... I'm fine with that. I just think this back of the head thing is a stupid rule. So I just, I just genuinely don't give a shit about it.

It's the same where, like technically if some dude is playing the game with his hands and the knee to, like, I don't care. It's just a dumb. But we've seen that so many times guys who are getting their butts kicked and they're, and the guy who is about to finish the fight goes, oh, I'm just going to knee him in the head now, illegal knee, and then he winds up losing the fight. But for some reason, it's just a weird thing.

I'm not saying God deserves to lose a fight or is gone deserves anything. I just think it's. You've seen that once, by the way, not so many times. Oh, no, we've seen that lots of times. We've seen a guy lose the fight once that way. everyone else is like, we've maybe seen a handful. The knee on the ground? Okay, what focus on that?

Sean Woodson got to keep fighting. Yeah. Yeah. I just think this is a really dumb rule and it exists probably for no real reason. And if it's a really dumb rule. Like, it's a fucking fist fight, man. Sorry for the cursing. I didn't mean to say it there.

But like, oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, why can't hit people and like you hit them? And that's just the thing that happens. If you want to make a very narrow rule that you can't 12 to six elbow a man in the back of the skull when he's right here. I don't even know what we're doing. This has always been one of the stupider rules to me because nobody is ever like, I've never seen somebody actively target the back of the head.

They're trying to do. Beaudo Belfort made a living, made a good career off that for a while. He made a good career off TRT. Yeah, that's very different. It's just like, it's always some dude is covering up and this, he's like, here, I'm giving you my arm and I know you can't hit me in the back of the head because of rules or it. It's just dumb. Like, just, I never cared about this rule and I'm just not going to.

I didn't care when JDS got hit a much more egregious virgin, if you consider this real thing. Yeah. I'm just never going to. Like, yeah, if you don't get hit in the back of the head, don't turn your back to the dude who's punching you. That's, that's on you, my guy. That's not on the dude who's just going to knock you out because you turn tail. Cool. All right.

Yeah. And I will say one, I think one of the major differences between, again, like, oh, why is it so easy to call the, you know, the illegal knee in the ground? It's just easier to see. I mean, when a guy's... Like I said, that gone flurry is just so fast. You know, for sure, for sure, the overhand strike, I think even if you're the ref will kind of jump out at you, but you wouldn't right away go like, ooh, did he catch him in the back?

Like, right there, you're just thinking about should I stop the fight or not? You know, that's the whole thing. Once reps are very trained now, once they see someone go like near into a ground position, then they're switching to that mode. They're switching to like, okay, okay, I got a page of ground it. I'm looking for a knee. I'm looking for a kick. And then, so it's a little bit easier to call.

Again, it does happen sometimes in a weird flurry and it gets missed, but probably much easier to see than one of these just punches flying and did he get him in the back of the head or not. And as Jed said, the junior one was much easier to see and arguably more controversial. Are you guys going to talk about Vitori for onto the next? Oh, that's a good question. Probably not. Let's go to this question then. Yes.

First thing I thought when I watched him walk out. If it's a choice between him and Whitaker, it's Votori. By far for me. Because he's got, I mean, I could see, I could see a world where Whitaker gets another title shot. It might not be next. It might be like two years from now if Adasania decides to stay at 1.85. But eventually, if he keeps winning, they're just going to have no choice but to give him one more shot at it. For Vittori, he's going to have to win like 10 in a row before he gets another title shot at this point.

I don't think so. I mean, if Izzy stays, Izzy's not going to stay in thing. Votory's only 28 is the other thing. Like, he's still very young. No, I meant two fight, Izzy. I meant two fight Izzy. And he's still a long way at 185 once a big guy. Is he's not going to stay forever at 185.

Like, he's just, he's going to be gone within next year. I think staying is okay for him. I just would like to see him at light heavy weight. Me too. I think, I think, yeah, I think it's between him and Whitaker and one of those guys go to 205. It's Vitori, easy. What do you think I get, yeah?

Yeah, I like the idea of Votory 205. I'm not sure he necessarily needs to leave middleweight. But again, I'm a very kind of patient person. And it's the same thing I said sort of about Whitaker. I'm like, yeah, I don't know if it gets a title shining time soon, but he's great at Middleweight. I don't want to see him go anywhere. I think Vittori's pretty good at Middleweight, too. Again, I thought that went against Costa was really nice.

So he can't beat Rob Whitaker. He can't beat Izzy. I mean, that's it, right? Has he lost to anyone else at Middle, Antonio Carlos Jr.? I said he lost his shoe face. I have no. I have no. It was like his UFC debut or something.

It was time of the early. BFL, Vandren. Sure. Future PFL champion. But outside of that, I mean, I just don't know if that's reason enough to leave the division because he can't be Robert and Israel. And the age is important, 28 for sure. I think his best years ahead of him.

I think you keep chugging along at middleweight. But if he catches some kind of weird loss to, again, to someone that he shouldn't, someone below him in the rankings, you know, then we might be talking at least a temporary move. It might just be good for him to get a change of scenery. I feel like he can always come back to the middleweight. He has options ahead of him. So this loss revealing, probably a little humbling. I mean, he felt the need to go on the mic after and just apologize.

He looked pretty shaken by what happened. So maybe a change of senior would do him some good. So I think it was interesting coming in our Q&A before, me and Mike kind of agree, all of us agreed that if Whitaker lost, he should definitely go to 205. But you don't feel the same for Vittory, though, as far as definitely going to 205. Because he seems to be in the same situation, but even, worse than Whitaker would have been I don't know he also I just had that hasn't beaten as many people like in the world that ranks I yeah let me

doesn't have a lot of fun matchups I though if I was in his corner I would tell him to move up I think he's huge I think he would probably I think he'll do very well at light heavy if he goes up I mean because we've seen a bunch of other let's just call it what it is guys in similar to frankly worst positions in Marvin between Tori was as a middle weight, moved up and had tremendous excessive 205. I think his frame can put on even more weight. I think he can do quite well in that division. I would counsel him to move up. I would like, yeah, I don't know why I keep using Paul Craig, but yeah, Vittori versus Paul Craig. Paul Craig takes a lot of strays. Yeah, I don't know why. I don't know why we always use

he's in the bottom of our ranking. He's in the bottom of our rankings. It's strictly a numerical thing. No, it's more of the way Paul Craig fights. He seems like you could be. him. Maybe you can't because he's a wizard, but he feels beatable. By the way, I forgot to mention, while we're sort of still talking Whitaker and then the grounded knee rule, one of my favorite moments of that, the Vittory fight, Vittori's grounded. And the refs like, oh, no, no, he's ground, he's down, you can't kick him. And Whitaker just loads up and it's like, okay, loads of an uppercut and just cracks them. And I'm like, yeah, I saw that too. I'm like, yeah, that's how you deal with it. That's how you do it. Obviously,

I'm not saying it's like an easy thing to do. But boy, when you're as good as Robert Whitaker, you're like, okay, oh, I can't kick him. No problem. Upercut right to the jaw. I thought I thought Buckley was going to drill an illegal knee at one point in that Imabov fight because there was one point where he had his hands in the back of his head and like but he was still kneeling and Imov was trying to figure out like when to actually stand and almost did it like you could tell he wanted to but he didn't so good on walking Buckley for the good sportsmanship let's talk about the fight of the night before the main event actually happened the thing I would versus Charles Jordane that was a

an excellent fight. I was awesome. That was just a good high level fight. No one, there's nothing, I don't know, what did you guys think about, Mr. Wood? He looked, I thought, freaking, is he a contender? I forgot how bad Charles Jordan is at wrestling, which would have made me feel more confident picking Nathania Wood going into this way, but he kept getting pushed over. Jeddie kept getting pushed over.

Those are quality judo sweeps, quality judo sweeps. Give him good respect. Absolutely. Respect to wood. It just looked, it really looked like he would just kind of get tripped so easily. And again, if I'm, listen, I'm not a fighter. He fell a lot. Yeah, that judo trips probably.

He fell a lot. It's probably like knocking me out. So I shouldn't criticize, I shouldn't criticize Charles Jodain. But it did seem like Nathan Wood was getting that move a little bit easy, or at least that Jodain was kind of like, okay, you know, I'm going to just, it's easier for me to just go back down and try and get back up than resist it. But it worked. It was a slick move.

It was one of the things that helped. would keep, you know, keep control the fight, keep control the pace of the fight, deal with a much, look, a considerably larger opponent, Jodain, a former lightweight and would a former bantam weight. Speaking to the size thing, I mean, I do think that is going to limit him somewhat at featherweight. Because again, Charles Jardin is good,

absolutely good, middle of the pack featherweight right now. But I'm going to that top 20, top 25 of the featherweight division. There's some seriously, like, Like, there's some guys who that size is really going to make a difference in addition to the skills that they bring to it. So I think Nathaniel Wood is a super talent. I'm glad he made the decision to move up to 1.45. Apparently, the phantom weight cut was just absolutely miserable for him. So, yeah.

You see his body when he took photos of himself at 35? It was disgusting. Yeah. So, yeah, I hope he stays in the division. I hope he can get the right matchups to move him up the rankings. And I'd love to see how he fares against the top guys. Again, I think he has a ceiling. But I also picked Jordane to win this fight.

So my gauge on Nathaniel Wood's success clearly isn't that great. Yeah, I have the, I have the, there's only one choice for me for Nathaniel Wood, and it's the perfect pick, and you'll hear that tomorrow. Oh, that's my next one. All right. Where are we at? I lost the question. Do, do.

While you're looking in case, I was, I will just say, I put up a new poll. Did Stadiel Gond get away with an. legal shot to the back of the head. Literally right now, 50% even. Yes, people thought he did get away. 50% said no. So, dude, I didn't notice until like the fifth walkthrough of that replay. I, I instantly thought it's like, oh, they're going to, they're going to, the ref's going to go like, you can't do that. I've, I've seen that lots of times. Like, it should, it should be noted. Yeah. These are the same people who voted, uh, these are the same people who voted, uh, in favor of a song's nationality being determined by who sings it. So.

Again, you know, I'm just saying, take these polls. Take these poles with a grain of salt. The scholars, they're well-read people, taste makers. They know the lay of the land. All right. For the betters, what underdogs went tonight? Frasiam. Nathaniel Wood.

Oh, what is it underwriting? Yeah, but. Kinone has a slight. I think Kinona is a slight. I think Zams obviously the choice here. Mm-hmm. He was a, I think he was the biggest dog that won on the card just off the top of my head. And he looked awesome.

Like, I did not expect him to look that good again. And it's not like Figlock is great or whatever, but he controlled the striking and the grappling of it. Sort of won that fight pillar to post. Great performance for him. Five O for the Frenchman. Like, that was, he was the one who was going to ruin the French sweep. And then he super did not. So I would say he's the most impressive underdog in the card.

Yeah. I can't prove. I can't prove that the crowd helped him get out of that triangle at the end, but I really feel like there was a little extra, there was a little extra juice in his performance when he almost threw the fight away with a very bad shot. He then almost really threw it away too, because he kept turning into the triangle,

which was driving me insane as I had him in a Frenchman parley. I was like, hmm, stop turning into it, stop turning into it, go the other way. And then he finally did and got out. If this was in the UFC apex, he was toast. I'm telling me right now. This was just in the sterile environment of the apex.

I mean, probably. He was done. He was done. The sterile environment of the apex. It's a vacuum. I like that statement he said because tell me what you think. Does Ty to Ivasa win this fight if that was in the small apex cage? In the small apex cage, you got way better chances.

Way better change. When I was watching that fight, my God, God, God, Gond uses that big cage so well. So, Wittaker, too. Whitaker, Vittor, actually, I think it would be much more competitive. to fight in the small cage too. More competitive. I still pick Whitaker. I think Whitaker is just too far away from Vittoria as far as.

Whitaker just ranges so good. I just think he's better at that. But maybe Gond's just inexperience, lack of as much experience than Whitaker. He just uses that cage really well. I think for sure with Gond. I will say the thing that impressed me the most about Whitaker and Vittory is the first round was competitive.

because Vittori was coming forward and Whitaker was allowing him to. That stopped. Whitaker took the center of the cage for the remaining 10 minutes and Marvin Vittory didn't win a single second with the fight from that point on. And that's the dynamic a lot in fighting because most people aren't very good fighting off their back foot. But I had no expectation that Whitaker would be able to take the center and be the one pushing Votori back. And so, I mean, honestly, that fight may look worse for Vittori if you put in a smaller cage because Whitaker could have really just closed, closed everything down on him and teed off like he started to do at the end of the bout.

I can see that too. I agree. It was a really impressive performance from Whitaker is what I'm getting at. Yeah. Oh, so good. Even more impressive than I thought, like, could have been. He really impressed a hell out of me. Those top two fights were.

He made Marvin Vittori, he made Marvin Vittori bleed his own blood. And Marvin doesn't, yeah, he made Marvin, like, and I agree with you. Like, seeing Marvitori take backward steps. Yeah. looking like that. I've never, even, the guy spent 40 minutes in a cage of Israel, out of Sanya, and not for one second did Adasania ever put him in that position. And boldly thought he won the fight. Like, at the end of it was like, I clearly won. What are you guys talking about? Yeah, this one, this one, he said he lost. Yeah, he owned this one. He knew he lost.

And even in the middle of the fight, you could see on his face, he was like, I don't have the tools to do anything here. Like, I am, I think Robert Wittaker's post-fight speech is like fundamentally incorrect because the most dangerous dude in the division is obviously the champion but like is he fought fought for 40 total minutes and he didn't make him look that confused and bobby knuckles did it for for 10 and had had vatory just questioning his entire fighting existence so it was incredible performance from him it was yeah super yeah i think everyone was super impressed by it uh he actively humbled Vitori, which is something Israel did not do.

That deserved a bonus, yeah. Like, yeah. I didn't think anyone could do like could just make Votori be like, oh yeah, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not good at this. Take like two more, maybe. Bring them all.

If we have any. Just bring, well, we, okay, let me just see what we got here. It's just, we know the answer to this. Let me find the, put the silly question up there before I find something better. Would Cyril Ghan be two Demetrius Johnson's? No. No.

I don't think you would. No. We've answered this. Yeah. We've answered various questions. Watch fight circus, yeah. Yeah. They've done the research.

Okay. Could Cyril Gond be two Chris Montignos? No. I don't think so. No. All right. Just wondering. It's really hard to be a two professional.

I'm most. I'm most. Ryan Benoitz. No. Do you pick any. two professional fighters against one I'm going to pick two professional fighters. Could two Shiro Gons beat three DJs? Ooh.

Oh, this is changing the math. This is changing the math. This is a way more interesting question. I think theoretically, one of the Gons could take out one of the DJs early and then turn it into two on two on two. Two to three, two to three favors the Gons pretty, I think pretty substantial. That changed. Because it, because it, because the, it.

It breaks into a two on one versus a one-on-one, and the one-on-one wins, and then the two-on-one, they're not going to win as quickly, probably. Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to derail us entirely, but on this same concept, I have been in a, I don't know, a year-long, vicious disagreement with some of my friends, because I maintain that, and I'm just going to pick, I'm going to pick you, AK, just for the sake of it, that me and AK could defeat Aaron Donald in a fist fight because there are two of us and there's only one of him.

And I recognize that we could also lose miserably, but I don't think that we're like never, we have zero chance. I think we have a pretty decent chance just by the virtue of being two on one. And all my friends think I'm insane. So please weigh in on if me and AK could beat up Aaron Donald. As long as he's not...

You'd be dogs. You'd be dogs. You'd probably get used up. I don't know if there's being dogs, but I think we have a real shot at it because it's two on one, which is an incredible advantage. I feel like you should be under plus 200 in a betting on scenario. That's good enough for me because my friend's like, no, that you have a 0% chance of us to beating up Aaron Donald's.

I think you guys don't have any idea how fighting works. Is he swinging, is he wildly swinging two helmets at us like he was recently? In that, no, we can't beat weapons. I'm out. I'm out. That's a great question. Did all the French fighters win tonight? Five and no, baby.

Jordane, French-Canadian lost, but French-Canadians not real French. Yeah, they don't count. So how much was the parley for? Let me tell you, it was plus seven. I think it was plus 747, because that was my long shot of the week on the gambling preview column. And it cashed, baby. Wow. Good job.

It was plus seven and change. I think it was 747, but I'll pull it up right now just to be confirmed on that. But it was 7 and some gas on it. 787, sorry. So almost plus 800. Did those... Sorry. Ooh, now this is...

This is the one. My personal friend's chat, Esther, threw this out there because she actually tagged and she's like, Casey, take on Zuck. And we, and I have a friend that works... 3024, baby. That works high up on Facebook, so meta. So I'm down. I'm down. Oh, I love it.

I love it so much. I am training at CMMA right down the street, a great mixed martial arts school under Chad George and Josh Burnett. Josh Burnett is one of my coaches now. Oh, no, not even 3024. 30, 20. He's getting a key lock. You can't get in a key lock, getting some catch wrestling? Catch wrestling?

It's done. Quite a bit of size on him, I think. I think he's not a big guy. Because you're fighting, you're an ex-fail probably close to like one. 60, 155? I'm 170 right now, so we'll fight at 155. 155. I think he said in the video, he's responding to, like, Aljo compliments him in the video,

and he says something like 135 is tough. Like, 135 vision is tough, but I don't know. So I don't know if he was saying he's 135 or not. I don't know, I don't know Mark Zuckerer's physical dimensions that, well, I could be wrong. He could be a heavyweight as far as I know. I somehow doubt that. Casey washes him. I mean, Casey would definitely beat his ass.

Washes him. Okay. All right. See, I even got like a good little, look, I got a good cut. my forehead the other side yeah yeah yeah sucks not doing that he's not like he can't doing that yeah he gets one cut he gets one cut he's he's got he's out of he's yeah yeah uh all right gentlemen i think we're good uh i do i well not i took up one more pool could could be in a k yeah could jett and a k beat aaron doll in a fight uh very strong uh 68 percent no right now

so it was wow wow it was like well around 70 it's probably going to go back up to 70 at some point. So the people do not believe in us. You guys have no idea how difficult it is to fight two people. They really don't. Literally, if all I do is grab Aaron Donald's arm and hold it, he is screwed because it's impossible to fight with one dude, with one arm. Like, it's just so difficult.

I think about thinking like, you know, there's probably some other people out there with like two, multiple children or something. And I'm like, oh, I can manage my children climbing all over me. It's like, it's, we're talking like adults here. I'm an adult. I'm a weak, frail adult, but I am an adult. And Jen has if he, if he can't,

If he knocks one of us out immediately, the odds shift infinitely. Just an infinite shift. I get it. But as long as both of us are conscious and willing to participate, if one dude's like, no, screw that. I'm going to abandon you. Obviously the two guys lose.

But like, I can't stress this enough. Bank and no money, no money is the worst fist fighter that has ever existed. Go watch fight circus. This man is actively the worst human being that has ever tried to fight a person. And they clearly are beating. people because it's impossible to fight two people at once.

And they're fighting real. And they are fighting trained. They've done it twice. They fought trained heavyweight heavyweight martial artists. Aaron Donald's not a trained heavy martial artist. They've done it three times, by the way. He's a, well, they actually did lose one of them. But he and look, Aaron Donald is a bad mother, obviously, super bad mother.

In a one-on-one fight, he'd eat one of us. There's a zero-per-s chance I can beat Aaron Donald in a fist fight by myself. Yes. And that number dramatically rises if another human being gets involved. The comment, Jed has a wrestling background, aka that basketball. Jed is also trained in kickbox. Oh, Jed has fought in kickboxing.

So, I mean, Jed has more martial arts training than Ann. And I'm a purple belt. So I would, I would definitely be, I'm not entirely out of dead. I would definitely be the grabbing guy that like just kind of grab him, annoy him, like jump him in his back, and Jed would be handling a lot of the punching,

a lot of the body work and things like that. So our strategy would be pretty clear. Yeah. This isn't under siege. It's not like Stephen Segal is fighting 10 dudes. People see too many movies. Everyone really thinks so. That's not how physical.

This fights work. If you've ever been around one, it's just really difficult to fight more than one person at a time. You find a corner and just hope for the best. Back into the corner. If you watched Chuck Ladell had a video once of him, like getting into a street fight against a bunch of dudes. And this is Chuck Lidale.

And he is like actively swinging and running away because fighting three people is impossible if you don't kill them every time you touch them. Because as soon as you miss, three dudes are on you and you're just. done. Yeah, watch any movie. It's always like, yeah, it's one guy versus 10 guys, but for some reason, the 10 guys attack one at a time. And the, or the guys in the background are, like, fighting the air while one day's

fighting the one. It's just very, very different guys. And again, Aaron Donald is not a trained martial artist. He's not a train martial artist. Again, it's very tough guy, obviously, super tough guy. I bet he punches pretty hard. He's not a trained martial artist. And there's a reason he grabbed the two helmets when it was time to go into that practice

fracas. So if he'd gone in, I might be a little more. intimidated if he had gone in bare-fisted, but clearly he thought he needed a weapon. So I don't know how, you know. He was fighting a lot of people. This is true. That was a smart move. That was a smart move.

Yeah, I think we're good. I just want to say real quick. I mean, we can't get better than that. Can't top that. Yeah. I just want to say like, man, Thai Tiavasa has some of the just highest pain threshold I've ever seen in MMA. Those freaking kicks to the stomach.

Hill up from coming from surreal freaking gone. I remember like Joe Rogan used to say a lot. Like, oh, if you don't know how hard a leg kick feels, you got to take one and really know how it feels. Take one of those kicks with a hill up right into anywhere below the ribs. It's like, good Lord, they hurt so much. And yeah, I just like unbelievable pain threshold. These guys are insane. So a hell of a fight.

Hell of a hell of a card. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. And we always get props. We get props to all of them. But good stuff, good card. Next week, ladies a gentleman.

It's UFC 279. It's Hamzaa Chimayef versus Nate Diaz. It's Tony Ferguson versus Lee Jingleong. It's Kevin Hahn. You watch your dreams go to die. Take all the old people behind the barn. Well, I mean, hopefully it would be a little bit better than that. We'll come out with some better vibes than that. But I strongly hope that Chamaia

pulls out of this fight like in the next two days. And we get Tony versus Nate. That is clearly a much, much better use of everyone's time. That's the fight we wanted. He is. He's 100% in Las Vegas right now and looking pretty ferocious. So I don't think he's pulling out. But we'll talk about that then. If you're in the United States, enjoy the rest of your long weekend. And for everybody else, enjoy the rest of your regular. weekend. So for AK, for Jed, for Casey, I am Mike Eck. Thank you for watching. Thank you for

following our coverage. Good night, everybody. Vive la France. Happy birthday, AK. Hit the post. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.

You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.