MMA Fighting - UFC Qatar Preview Show: Is Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dan Hooker A Lightweight Title Eliminator?

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

The UFC is making its debut in Qatar. Fresh off the heels of UFC 322, the world’s leading MMA promotion follows up an exceptional Pay-Per-View event with a monster Fight Night card, traveling to the Ali Bin Hamad al-Attiyah Arena in Al Rayyan, Qatar, for the first time. In the main event, Arman Tsarukyan puts his No. 1-ranked lightweight contender spot on the line against the surging Dan Hooker, while in the co-main event, former welterweight champion Belal Muhammad takes on “The Future” Ian Machado Garry. MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee preview Saturday’s fight card, discussing the main event between Tsarukyan and Hooker, what’s at stake, and whether Tsarukyan’s faceoff headbutt changes things. Additionally, they break down the co-main event, Muhammad’s curious pre-fight comments, Waldo-Cortes Acosta’s last-minute heroics to save a fight, the return of Kyoji Horiguchi, answer listener questions, and much more. Follow Jed Meshew: https://x.com/JedKMeshewhttps://x.com/JedKMeshew 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

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Hey, we're live, pal. We're live, pal. That is, hello, everybody. Ooh, I'm getting a little bit of hearing myself on stream. I heard a little bit of an echo. Do I hear an echo? A little bit of an echo? Yeah.

I hear less an echo now. I'm going to guess that that was. Jose uh because Jose is now our producer extraordinaire that's alexander kaley i am jed ken mashu the second esquire and this is the u.c guitar preview show mixed martial arts mixed martial arts how do we like our martial arts aka separate separate but equal that's how a k keep them apart keep them apart i say keep them apart uh there's a real chance that the martial arts won't be all that mixed this weekend as we head to al rean katar for ufc guitar the promotions debut in uh sunny beautiful guitar i'm sorry if it's actually pronounced cutter i've never been

clear on that so i'm going to continue to go full american with the pronunciation of this card uh and a k a lot to dig into this weekend we are fresh on the heels of uc 322 This is also a good card in its own right, though. A lot of times we leave a pay-per-view event, and we're back in the apex, the world's mightiest apex. Not this time. The debut in Qatar, as we have seen with the promotion, pretty solid when they go break new ground somewhere, especially somewhere, which I don't know.

I'm assuming is giving them a handsome site fee to attend. So, A.K., before we get into the Armand Sarukin, Dan Hooker, Belal Mohamedi, and Machado, Gary, and the rest of it, let's just start top down. how are we feeling about this weekend's card you know you've semi-retired the gymnastic scale but give us some grade some concept of how this card is in your opinion a plus jed it's a plus i don't know i know listen i i need to work i i think i'm moving on from grading systems in general though i love listen the fart scale top notch the michulin star system top much but myself i don't know i think i've moved on from grading i think i just like i plus

it's kind of pointless with me i think anyone who has watched me on any of these preview shows and i've done a lot of like vagus you know just uc vegas cards knows i'm pretty like cloyingly optimistic anyway so you're just not getting a good gauge i think for me yeah i'll i'll i'll i'll like there are moments where i'll poop on some cards you know there's some cards that are just like nearly indefensible on paper so i'm not i'm not made of stone but for the most part i'm very optimistic so people should really be like when you when you throw to me i think people should just expect i'm going to try and find the silver linings i'm always going to be trying to find the good on these cards not hard with this one certainly not the main card if we're just talking

main car which i think it's we'll spend the bulk of the show discussing i'm excited man this this main card looks just top to bottom of things is really intriguing and it could be a lot of fun or not actually I guess I'll get to get to that it could definitely possibly that one I'm so proud of you it's so bohemian of you do you know we don't do grades we don't do scales that no scores good nor bad it's all I want to get rid of I want to get rid of scoring Jed no more scores just vibes is all part of the great tapestry of this wonderful sport um that is that's so future thinking of you you've really galaxy brain this in a way way that i respect i still firmly believe in scores because i'm a caveman and i need numbers to tell

me if something is good or not and this is good seven fights above replacement which is a high high mark in the concept of these things if this were a michulin which it's not that's only the numbered events we'd even be getting a star you know if you are in katar uh you should go to this event if that's an option for you. I am very, very pumped to talk about this. Two weeks in a row, I'm excited to talk about fights. That is such a rarity, AK, and we have a lot to talk about because, as you see over my shoulder, there's our seven, seven fights of our replacement scoring.

But AK, you're the way end guy. You weren't this morning, sadly. So you woke up and you got to see the way ends after the fact. You weren't live and in the trenches as it was happening. and A.K., what might you have seen? Yes, you saw that all fighters made weight. That's terrific. We're big fans of that.

But you know what else you saw this morning, A.K. One Armand Syrucian, who is in your main event this Saturday, taking on Dan Hooker in a bout with potential lightweight title implications. He did a thing. I won't say he did the thing, but he did a thing as he headbutted Dan Hooker in their faceoffs at the way ends. A.K. Armin is a guy who can't seem to not get in his own way at times. Most recently, in January, he was supposed to fight for the lightweight belt before an injury, potentially, potentially weight issues. I know he has claimed it was a back injury suffered, but the timing is certainly suspicious if nothing else, kind of pulled him out within 24 hours of that event.

Now this happens. Seems like everything's going forward, nothing too bad. happened but uh okay give me your thoughts on the headbut from armin serukin and what exactly is he doing i think he's kind of he's kind of leaning into being the heel and all this and he has been for a while if we're being honest um armin is very happy to sort of troll people uh the headbut i thought it was a reaction we should say uh if we want to break down the footage as a pruder style that like dan hooker kind of flinched into his space first and i think armand takes that as like a Oh, you want to flinch at me? Well, I don't flinch.

Yeah, you want to get close. I'm going to give a little, just a little nudge, a little head nudge. I think calling a head butt is almost, it's almost like it's a head all head nudge, but definitely made contact. Definitely an active. Look, it was not a Zenadine Zadon World Cup head, but, you know, it was somewhere between Zadon and how Henry Suhudo starts every boxing combination of just putting the head out there, you know. uh and potentially can create problems here okay like thank goodness nothing bad happened but like i mean one dana is already inclined to be mad at this man and let's say that something bad did happen and dan hooker gets a cut on the bridge of the nose or something and suddenly everything's

thrown into chaos because arm and sruki and can't not be a bit of a knucklehead uh this was just i don't feel this fight needed heat and this feels like bad heat what's the there's a pro wrestling term for that what is it yeah like go away like go away heat or or a x-pac heat that's the term that's x-pac heat well do they one i agree the risk of a cut is hilarious i was actually more concerned with what if what if armin had cut he had the one got that got the cut like got a cut his forehead that would have been comical and let's hope that's not the case i'm assuming he's fine we have heard anything in the hours since we never know so hopefully that's issue i think this fight did need a bit of heat jed and i'm okay

I can't believe I'm saying this because you guys know I abhor outside of the case like antics for the most part well especially when it becomes to to getting physical because fighters getting physical outside of the cage is like the dumbest thing ever like just wait a day wait a day and you can almost you can do almost literally anything to each other and guys who can't do that and jeopardy fights are just dumb but I'm also okay with this because probably because like you know nothing has happened they seem okay it caused a little bit of a scuffle Dan hookers are maniac he just like laughed it off that it was hilarious i didn't mind it i think adding the heat was kind of nice and and again

armon is leaning to this heel act because ever since what happened with the 311 in january um you know dana white did suggest that it had something more to do with weight cutting possibly than a back injury as it were and since then i think armin at least once a month releases some video of him eating like this just like enormous amount of food and just kind of winking at the camera and being like ha ha ha i'm i'm going to make weight the next time i show up and i'm normally like that's a very bit thing to troll people about but if you are going for like this thing where hey i i i'm strictly i want people to hate me that's the kind of intention i want i want people to hate me but i want people to hate me to the point they want to see me get beat up i actually think he's done okay with that

i don't think he has go away heat i think people do want to see him fight i think whether you're a fan of his or not i think like people want to see him you know possibly get his get his ass kicked maybe uh first shout out to david shatry uh giving away 10 subs the best every time the best at any he sent a message with it happy birthday a k that's a message we can all get behind also a k i don't want to call you out but i pulled it up again and i'm rewatching it and i think to suggest that this was a a reactive headbut in any way is is not an accurate he fainted he fainted at him he fainted and when they walked towards each other he didn't think it was a reaction he fainted at distance then they walk in for a face off and all sides the opposite the

offside flag has been thrown it is on the offense if the offense moved first jett i saw that i saw the offense twitch the offense move first but in in mma terms they would not count that as a counter strike because there was enough gap between the the faint and the attack uh i don't know maybe it's not Because I will say people don't like him. People already didn't like Armand. They are certainly going to continue to not like him. And if you are going to do some shenanigans like this, Dan Hooker's a great guy to do it again against because like I don't know what would prevent Dan Hooker from fighting. But that wouldn't be it.

Dan Hooker's already over. You know, fans already like him a lot. And so he's, he is the the face coming into this. I don't know if it's going to matter. But let's talk about this, AK, because the main event tomorrow, pretty. pretty big fight not i think the fight most people sort of saw on their radar until it got booked dan hooker was previously booked against justin geachie and that fight fell apart obviously uh and then he had some hand issues some hand injuries he's been promoting his one minute scraps or whatever

he calls them and now he comes in against armin serukin who weighed in as the backup fighter earlier this summer you know a bit of persona non grata the lightweight title picture right now i is fascinating because everybody believes that Ilya will be defending his belt and largely the belief is that it will happen in January. But we are less than two months from that sort of timeline and still nothing has been said. Is this fight determinative for who Ilya Teporea faces? Because Patty Pimblit, both Ilya and Patty are in Qatar right now. Actually, Ilya is there cornering his brother who maybe we'll talk about later

so a lot of moving parts here but let's just talk about the main event what are they are they fighting for a title shot is the winner of Armands Rukin Dan Hooker are they potentially the guy that Ilya will defend his belt against next they definitely could be they definitely could be I mean even Dan Hooker I'll start the Dan Hooker part first

because I think he's sort of just kind of being rolled out like I think people assume oh he wins like it's great win but it's not going to put him in the number one contender spot but why not it'll be it'll be four straight ws some really good wins in there i know there split decisions but still impressive performances i think i'm pretty sure two fights he was an underdog the jalen turner fight and the matush gamrod fight he's a fan favorite he snapped out of this like you know one in four skid we were all just i think we're all just kind of like ah maybe that's it for hooker like maybe he's just not going to he's much closer to retiring than contending but three straight fights again

a couple of them against ranked guys that turns things around real quick and he's very he's for the most part available he does have to work out these hand issues i think that's one thing that's really holding him back is uh depending how this fight goes if he tweaks one of those hands again i mean that's just another six to seven months on the on the shelf and completely removes it from the equation but health permitting yes he deserves a hell shot surrequin of course does if he wins he was the number one contender um that uh earlier the year he kind of never lost that spot i don't think in the uc rankings that he ever is has been out of the number one spot i think they they acknowledge him as the top contender so uh he has

take care of business again but as we always say like making there is no real number one contender of the ufc it will come down to who is healthy who is available who is willing to uh take the lowest i'm trying to dance right who is willing to fight for the cheapest i think the ufc also really likes i don't know if they're going to they're going to feel the need to skim for ilia but that is a pretty effective rule like if you have to pick from the ufc katar winner and Patty Pimblit, and I don't know, is there another contender I'm forgetting, and I'm sure there is.

Justin Geichie, thank you. If you have to pick one of those guys, I'm sure they'd be happy to take the guy who's willing to take whatever, like a little bit less than the others. That's how these things go. Justin Gechie, I think himself said this in a recent interview. I believe it was Gaichi who laid it out perfectly.

And he was like, yeah, there's no real number one contender. And I think he's right. But is the winner, like, in play for that? And maybe in pole position? Yeah, I think they're in a strong position. But by no means guaranteed. There's no like, oh, you win and you're a lock, I don't think so. Very briefly, I will say there was a short period where Armin was not the number one person in the U.C. rankings because Islamakov was still in the lightweight rankings.

He has since been removed as he is now the welterweight champion of the world. And Armin was always functionally still holding that top spot, deservedly so, right? Like he has not lost in a meaningful way, but for his U.S. debut. and then the Gamrot fight that people have different, differing opinions on. But, A.K., let's continue to dive into this main event because I agree. I think that potentially the winner of this could be facing the Tuporia. I'd say it's unlikely, right? But Armand Surukian has came out this week and was like, I'm happy to fight him in January.

I'll make that turnaround after I beat Dan Hooker. I do think some of it will be. Armand needs to make a statement, especially after the shenanigans. he can't sort of eke out a win over dan hooker like he did against charles olivera i don't think that will play for him but is he going to need to okay how do you what do you think this fight sort of turns on how do you anticipate saturday's main event going i mean i kind of give away my prediction now i know we sort of like wait to the sure let's just dive into it seriously it's just like i mean did you guys enjoy have you guys enjoyed some of these sort of high profile

contests we've had in recent, well, definitely this year, and I would even dip into a little bit last year, like, that are very dominated by wrestling, that are very, you know, one fighter kind of struggling to get up their back and kind of having to just getting really frustrated. I, I, you guys may have heard of Islam Makocha versus Jack Della Madalena, Valentina Shovchenko versus Zhang Wei Lee, Habla Shemaya versus at Drix Tuplissi. And I would even go as far back as like, uh, uh, Balal Muhammad and Leon Edwards. Like, I just feel like that's kind of how these things are tending to go i know that's a small sample size compared to how many main events we've had but i cannot shake the image of those and i cannot shake that especially when i'm thinking of arman and

dan hooker like dan hooker is pretty good at not getting dominated the ground like you know what brings to mind is when he fought islam for example and i'm not saying armand is the same level as islam i'm not saying he wrestles in the same with islam it's certainly different but is armand's best route to victory putting dan hooker on his back and neutralizing him for either five rounds or until he can snag a submission, clearly, clearly. And Armand is not a bad striker at all. Armand's a very good striker. Like, you have to be the same with Islam.

People always talk about him just being a wrestling, great striker. These guys are great strikers. But why would they risk their great striking against another great striker when their great wrestling can neutralize the great striking, right? It's an unfortunate thing to say, and I hope that isn't the case. I hope Dan has solutions for some of, you know, Surukian's takedowns, the grappling, the clinch work. But I'm a big Surukian guy, and I just think his skill set is just next level.

Um, so a lot of, you know, listen, so I should say no pressure on Dan, uh, he's not expected to win this. I don't think. Um, so yeah, I'm expecting a little bit of a little bit of a drag here, Jed. I'm going to be honest. I do think this will be either five rounds of wrestling in favor of Surukion, or quite a bit of wrestling and then, uh, maybe a submission later on. So give us your official prediction then before I give you fine. Uh, Surukian by decision. Surikian by decision. Okay. Uh, our friends at Fandul do agree, Arm and Surruki. very, very sizable betting favorite. Not the biggest on the card, but way up there. Minus 600, they come back on Dan Hooker at plus 420. And I think this is very likely to be a showout fight for Armand Sarukin. I am a little bit more optimistic on the entertainment level of this fight. One, Dan Hooker is simply not in boring fights. Dan Hooker famously took Matush Gamrot to a fight of the night.

and people hate Matush Gamrot. I don't actually quite like Matush Camrod. But Dan Hooker made him have an absolutely unbelievable fight. Some of that was also, I think Gamrot had a little bit of Canello hands ball all to him, was a little too willing to exchange on the feet. I think that that could even happen this weekend, though. I think Saturday that is possible AK, but the difference is Armand Sruki, and I don't think is a good striker per se, but he can be an effective.

one, I think he has more power and can just be a little bit more of a dog than Gamrod is in those instances and thus, I actually like his chances to get Hooker out of there. Maybe take a little while and certainly if he has to rely on the sort of

quite call it lay and prey but it's adjacent. He can do that, but I think this might be a lot more fun just because Dan Hooker is not boring. And Armand Surukian, I think he wants to make a statement, okay? Because I straight up do think he needs to make a statement if he is going to get the Ilya Tuporia

fight. It seems to me that Tuporia is not really interested in fighting him. Don't blame him. That's probably the toughest fight in the weight class form. I'd avoid it if I could do. And, you know, Patty Pimlet, Justin Gae, they kind of feel ahead of Armand in the packing order right now. And he needs to come out here and make a statement.

So I think he's going to try. I'm going to pick Armand by TKO in round three. We won't even get to the championship rounds. So that's our main event breakdown, but we have just an infinite number of other things to talk about. And specifically, the- Jed, let me say. I like that you teased that Armand is not the biggest favorite

because the person, I'm going to tell you on the chat, without looking, if you guys can guess who the biggest favorite is. And it is by a, like, it is by a mile. Literally double the face. favorite that armin is this is a crazy i guess depending where you look crazy crazy favorite uh anyway so in the chat guys without looking go ahead let us know but i'm sorry jid go ahead uh so we have a co-main event that is i think equally as good a matchup if frankly not a better matchup than the main event the only quibble i have with it it's only three rounds aka it is three rounds in the

welterweight division as the former welterweight champion belal mohammed gets back in the oct the first time since losing his belt to Jack Delamadellana as he takes on Ian Machado Gary the future the future trying to be now as he takes on the former welterweight champion and so AK similar to the main event uh though a different dynamic if you will what's at stake in this one because the welterweight title picture is messy right now is the machachev just claimed the belt dominant performance in Jack Delamadena last weekend and a lot of names are in the mix kamar oosman has been making his case i personally believe shavkat rachmanov should get it but there's a contingent and that contingent is spearheaded by both men this weekend

coming into this fight have said you know we are going to put on a statement victory to convince everyone we are next in line over the michael morales as the call those practices of the world is that what's at stake is a title fight on the line here can either guy get to a title fight with a win on saturday uh belal's zero chance we'll just get that ball has almost he could spinning head kick uh ian machado gary in seven seconds uh he will not be getting the telos shot next unless other options fall out like as is what i mean for bala like there's nothing he can do to just solely jump to the front and say yes i am the number one contender it's just not going to happen especially after some of his media day comments where at least the one that jumped out and

has kind of gone viral i've got a note for us to make comment about that okay we'll get today i don't know how to address it i don't know either i don't know to talk about it i don't know either uh so volal no chance well essentially no chance um which it sounds so crazy because it's like when you hear a former champion and then like oh it has a chance to put on an impressive performance and get back you're like oh yeah that makes sense there's a new welterweight champ there's a new welterweight chairman not the guy he lost the belt to yeah the UFC loves giving and the UFC loves giving title shots to people who like uh once you're in the championship circle the UFC loves like cycling through champions and doing rematches of blah blah blah blah ball ball ball is not

on that list uh I don't think they ever expected to become champion in the first place so no uh he could he can certainly stop i'm machado gary but he cannot do much to do of his own stock sorry ball um im chado gary obviously is on the other side of it uh you know pretty popular guy from the beginning came to the ufc with a lot of hype for the most part has lived up to it got some finishes here and there grinded out some tough wins certainly has lost to shopcott which should keep him behind shopcott in the line but shopcott has had some really bad luck and uh you know the ufc moves on without you unfortunately whatever the circumstances are for like why you're not fighting the uc doesn't care they have dates

to fill they have uh title contenders to book and i'michada gary will certainly be in the middle of that conversation with i think i won't say any kind of win i think like a dull Obviously, I think keeps him behind Michael Morales, probably keeps him behind Shavkat, almost definitely keeps him behind Kamar Usman, which sounds so depressing, but gosh, they keep talking about that fight so much. So for me, just talking about the two headlining fights, like I said, I actually think Surikian, like I said, just has to do enough to win, and I think he'll be okay. Jed disagrees.

I do think Imichita Gary has to impress, either like a dominance five-round decision where he gets to show more, you know, can show a diverse skill set. or a finish of Bala al-Mahman, which would be incredibly impressive, definitely, definitely keeps in the conversation. But as I said before, it's going to depend who's available. When is Islam going to want to fight again? How much is it going to cost to get this person to sign on the dotted line? But yeah, I do like Ian Machado Garry's chances of fighting for the title.

I don't want to say in 2026. I want to say sooner than some of the other names we've mentioned. Because, again, now that Islam's champion and there's this Khmeru talk and White House talk, I don't know if any of these like great contenders who have stepped up in the last couple of weeks I don't know if any of them are guaranteed anything which sucks

but I would hope Ian Machado Gary or Shafcott or Michael Morales would get the title shot I just feels like they're behind Camaro so yeah support for this show comes from Odu running a business is hard enough so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other

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and discover how easy it is to build your own whole home audio system. I don't know if they're behind Camaro. They might be. It's very, very interesting. I'm going to stake a claim here. It's a bold prediction. I do not believe that either man can fight for the belt next. Doesn't matter what happens on Saturday. I believe that for a couple of reasons. But the biggest one, AK, is the thing you alluded to. And very simply, you know, they're not fighting for a title shot this weekend, but the great Henry Suhudo is, uh, I don't know if it's been confirmed that he is retiring against Peyton Talbot, but that's certainly been the scuttle butt that that is going to be the final fight of his career, uh, next month against Peyton Talbot. And when he goes, AK, he will take with him a notable title as the king of cringe. And so I ask you, AK, Ian Machado Gary, basically his entire sense of being and everything he says strong argument that he will take over his king of cringe but below mohammed aka he made a push

he made a push at media day this week with comments that i wish i could like had them up to have a direct quote but he functionally invoked the name of geoffrey epstein as relating to his training partners in i think the weirdest thing i've ever seen from a media statement right like what was going on there and who is frankly who is more cringy and who who do fans want to win this fight can you put a poll up not who will who do they want to win let's let's let's put that pull up now yeah guys uh who do you want to win the uh uc katar co-main events is it do you want belal muhammaud the former champion you want if i was a better host i'd have those those comments pulled up let me see a

if I can find it. Yeah, I was also, I want to review them real quick. I got you right here. This is Jose Young's long time first. Oh, Jose, please, please. Clem Fandango, can you hear me? No, we're also here. Bilal Muhammad's exact.

U.S.C. Qatar Media Day quotes wars, I'm training with young monsters. I got a 17-year-old now. It feels like the Epstein files without the sex. It feels good, the energy they bring. It makes me feel younger. I don't. I've listened to it, hoping that the written would be different.

I don't know what he was going for there, A.K., but it's safe to say he missed the mark. And, yeah, how are we feeling about that? Okay, first I'll say he's not the king of cringe. Because as much as I dislike Suhudo's personality as annoying as I find him, I do feel like he's in on the joke. I mean, he embraced the king. And he called him, didn't he coin King of Cringe? Like, he called himself the King of Cringe, right? That wasn't a given to him, right?

He said he probably, I believe that. I believe he, he certainly owned it, whether he coined it or not, might have been somebody on the internet, but yes. Yeah. Which is even more cringeworthy. And like, like, think about Sehudo doing the snake. Remember the snake with Dill's show? I don't know if that's where it started, but yeah, yeah, slamming down the snake and that's so horrible.

And I was pretty near the beginning of it. I believe it really started when he fought Dom because he brought out all the pillows when we were in Jacksonville in the bubble. Oh, my God. I'm feeling uncomfortable now to talk about these moments. But those are cringe, the definition of cringe. And I think Suhudo's in on the joke. Bilal, I think he thought he had a banger with that line. I think, like, he had had that line for parent and I thought like, oh, man, when I break this out of the press comments, he's like, he's getting such a laugh.

Because Belal, like, if you follow his social media, and even, like, if you watch some of his, like, his YouTube channel where he breaks. Like, I think Balala actually can make funny jokes and actually has like a, like, I think his social media is really funny and quirky. I actually think he has a decent sense of humor. So when he drops something like this, it's not intentionally, I don't think, to make people go like, oh, that was so bad. It's funny. I think he thought it was really funny. And that's just sad and disappointing. So no, no king of cringe, Balal Muhammad for me.

I think there must be another way to describe what he's doing. But whatever he did this week was really bad. just not funny just i don't know that like guys listen i like edgy humor as much as the next guy i know there's some people out there like ah he was just being edgy it's hilarious he's referencing epstein it's like i don't i don't think anyone thinks it's hilarious it doesn't even really make sense like i don't even i honestly don't even get the joke correct i don't think the single person thinks it's hilarious which like it's rare to see a joke miss that hard um i don't i've never disliked below mohammed and

And I think he's actually not bad on the mic when he's not trying to be funny. I think he, he strikes me very much as a person who is just not funny and wants to be funny. And that is a tough look. Like, it's a tough to be like to want to be a funny person and you're just not. Some people aren't, but the rest of his mic work I don't have any issues with. Like it's not, I don't feel that it's cringe enforced in this one, but this one. was it was tough man it was a really really tough scene we all know that person or persons who like you can tell when they're about to like start telling a joke and they're just like loading it up

they're just like loading it up and you're just like you know you already know the punchline is and they're just loading up and like you said these are people who are like they want to be funny so badly and they put so much thought into it and when it's time to deliver the joke it is just excruciating for everyone around and it never lands and somehow somehow jed never discourages them though because they want it so badly they're going to get in that funny horse and and try again shoot or shoot man shooter shoot which takes us to my last topic of discussion on this co-main event will ball hall mohammed shoot this time around because that is the big narrative coming off the title win that's how you transition ladies and gentlemen by the way professional segue

Balaah Muhammad, he's made remarks about embracing the Canelo hands again this week, that he wants to, you know, knock out Ian Machado, Gary. Gary said a lot of things that you should put no stock into because he says so many things all the time that are just never true. I don't think it would be smart for Bala to come in with a boxing heavy approach as he did against Jack Della Madalina. But the question, A.K., will he or will he have learned his lesson and go back to the drawing, and the thing that got him to the welterweight title he'll definitely mix it up more he'll definitely mix it up more again is he going to go full you know islam or full you know valetina and just try and tackle and throw gear around for three rounds uh maybe not and he doesn't need to like we said because he has less uh because there's less time to work with like you actually reminded me jed

that it's a it is a three round fight not a five round fight um you know he doesn't have to necessarily play it safe the whole time um i think he can afford to take some risk if if if the wrestling working that's great for him obviously because it means he can always fall back on it but if he is trying to make some sort of statement we're like hey i got the canella hands and i've got the old you know sort of more grinding bala mohammed style that'd be awesome that'd be awesome if you could put out a performance like that i'd be so impressed um if you again was to chain the wrestling into the striking uh you know have the threat of the wrestling benefit him if he decides to stand up with the imichado gary because i'm sure if you're gary you're thinking oh if balala stands to me i'm

gonna just knock him flat out and he might be right but it certainly won't be as effective or as straightforward if bala can put him this back a few times hold him against the fence lance score some trips some stuff like that just wear him down um so yeah i think we'll that we'll definitely see him mix it up because if he just comes out striking he's not he's definitely not a bad striker like bala's not a bad striker i loved the jackdella madalana fight um but definitely he's at his best when he's mixing it which is what he did a lot in the way up he didn't just wrestle his way to the top right he wrestled a lot but he also mixed and striking so let's hope that that's the ball we get if just for entertainment purposes because otherwise this fight he's

it's probably getting a little ugly if he doesn't mix things up but i don't know i don't know how it's going to go but um yeah he's he's got a lot to prove here and let's just hope he remembers it's that he's an m-ma guy he's a top-notch amma guy and not a great not necessarily even elite in either i would say he's not elite in wrestling or striking yeah but he's very good at them like combined he's good at mixed excellent and i i believe that he will not come in canello hands i think that that to me that aka is belal being in on the joke understanding the narrative from the jdm fight and you know doing throwing a wink to the crowd of like oh yeah i'm going to do it again i think this time he will come with a much better game plan especially because like

that's just a proven way to have some success against him of chado gary so the moment of truth here aka the co-main event who's getting it done how are they getting it done give me your breakdown on prediction of the matchup you would think i would have learned my lesson from the leon edwards uh debacle last week i had picked leon edwards i said i can't believe this former champion is being disrespected uh i think leon was a bigger underdog than belal i'm not sure again i guess depends where you look i think leon was a slightly bigger underdog and i was like shame on all of you odds makers uh leon edwards is still like a good fighter yeah maybe you know the mental game isn't where it needs to be and that's going to cost them.

And boy, everyone who thought that was a hundred percent correct because he just straight up, straight up got knocked out. Got knocked out the second round. Did not look great. Did not look great really at any point in the fight. First round wasn't bad. So, yes, but I don't know why. I'm sticking with this mindset.

I just cannot. I'm not ready to shovel the dirt on Balal Mohammed's career yet. The three rounds is interested in me. I do think he can win at least two out of three rounds. If he mixed things up. So yes, he will not be fighting for a title anytime soon. but he also won't be completely wiped out of the title conversation, guys. You know, maybe 2028, maybe after, I'm sorry, 27, excuse me,

maybe after next year, see if he gets strings together two or three wins, see where the landscape of the division is. Maybe there's still a chance for him to fight for a title. So I've got, I've got Bala Muhammad by unanimous decision. I am also taking Bala Muhammad by decision. I don't feel great about it because there's just very obvious worlds where he loses. And if this were five-round, I'd feel really good about it. We don't know the truth. This ball has claimed that Ian refused to accept a five-rounder. He would only take it for three.

I could believe that's true. Some people in the comments are bashing Ian for that. And I understand the sentiment. I will say, as much as I would like this to be a five-round fight, no fighters should take a five-round fight unless they're getting paid commensurately for that. That's just more work to not get paid need more money. And I strongly doubt they were paying more money had this fight been five rounds. So I don't blame him for not doing that. But that's just more like a problem with the way the UFC operates. And they should have a lot more five rounders than they do. But that's a whole separate soapbox. I don't need to get on, AK. Still in a three round fight. If Belal comes in with the appropriate game plan, uh, Imichato Gary has never been, doesn't have like the best footwork.

He's got fine footwork, but he can get backed up. can just sort of put that pressure on him. Ian has been saying that he's going to knock him out in the first round if Ballal stands with him. And I've got to tell you, I've watched a lot of Ian Machado-Garry fight. I would not say that he hits as hard as Jack Delam, Adelaena, and Ballal walked through a whole load of shit from JDM. So I find it hard to believe that Ian would actually light him up that bad on the feet.

He might be winning, certainly. But I think Belaw can just sort of force a grimyer fight. and this may be very close right like the first round Ian probably wins ball comes on a little stronger and that second round is a swing round but I let's go below plus if ballol wins then my perfect scenario plays out okay where ball all can fight kamar oosman shavcock can fight islam

protest can uh fight um michael morales and then jdm i would like jdm to fight sean bradyy but i don't think that will happen for reasons that i believe are obvious but jdm versus i'm machado gary as the you know sub 30 year old dudes in the weight class who were up near the top but then lost in a poor way that fight just makes so much sense to me so i'm pulling for belal mohammed aka how's the poll looking how do how do the fans how do the fans want this to go it is it is it is damn near split down the middle i mean it's been fluctuating bala had a brief lead there where he was like close to like a little over 55 percent now it is just fluctuating 50 percent you know 49 51 49 so

i don't know if this means people like both guys or if it's suggesting um the opposite i think it's probably the opposite a k uh we've got one more fight before we get into some odds and ends things that i want to talk about it's not the feature about of the evening the feature about the evening's volcanoos demire sloanzo minute field that's not the more we're going to talk about we've got to spend at least a little bit of time on the heavyweight main card fight as waldo cortezza costa steps in on 72 hours notice less than a week's notice certainly uh out of nowhere a k flies to kattar basically at the drop of the hat to take on shemil gaseyev gaseev was originally supposed to face sergey spivak uh spivak was injured and

withdrew and wca answered the call you know he fought earlier this month right is that november 1st that he fought i'm confirmed november 1st he knocked out auntie delia uh at whatever that apex card was and now he is back in action the fifth time he will be competing in 2025 only the second heavyweight to ever fight five times in one calendar year uh how are you feeling about salsa boy stepping in on short notice because frankly shemu gasea that fight had no juice to it and now it feels like people are interested just because of the dynamic of salsa boy stepping in the vibes are so good the vibes are so good man i mean uh what what can you say who saw this coming uh it looked like if you're wca you look like you kind of put a nice little bow on your

2025 campaign, right? You had this bizarre eye poke situation with Delia, come back for a knockout, made sure you end in a win, you know, he was coming off that that Sergei Pavlovich lost, which was probably disappointing for him. And he got back in there pretty quickly already. Like August, November was not a long time. He already got back in there quick. He kind of did what he had to do. Then this opportunity shows up to fight in Qatar against a pretty dangerous, like, heavyweight. I always has to say, it's a prospect of any of these guys because all these heavy weights are like sort of 40 than they are to 30 but yeah a guy who's clearly coming up i think he was i didn't see that i'm pretty sure favored to beat uh spivoc i'm certain he's favored

to beat waldo as well yes um and we should also know you know activity does not guarantee success because kevin holland also got in there what five times this year and i think he went like two and three right um yeah two and three and two or two and three one of the two yeah not great right so it's like the vibes are cool like we love fighters who get in there and are active and seem to pick like smart matchups but this is a really dangerous like a situation for woldo theoretically nothing to lose right it obviously loses on short notice ufc's not going to hold it against him he's going to maintain his ranking i think no matter what uh except for maybe because he um jumping ahead of him but he's not going to plummet out of the top 10 right he's going to hold on to a top 10 spot and because

he will just take his spot which is fine um again a nice paycheck close out the year like it's just all good stuff for waldo so like i think it's a great decision he's you know uh making making the most of he can of his of his athletic prime as it were and he has a chance to win like i think he actually again basically what we've seen from waldo he's been counted out a few times like he finds ways to pull things off we saw in the last fight show that he could still hit hard we've seen him wrestle we know he's very happy taking a fight to the ground if he has to um i mean it might it might be the right thing to do uh or he's going to get knocked out in like 10 seconds either way uh either way i'm laughing but uh i'm picking waldo man i pick waldo uh waldo uh waldo is in fact

the very slight betting favorite here around minus one thirty five the vibe a shift in the odds for gaseyev was a it's not a huge but a like a legitimate favorite over spivak and now wca stepping in i am again i'm just way more interested in this fight than i thought i would be because it's a different fight and you know i don't think gase is very good frankly but wca off of a fight you know he'd been back he wasn't really preparing for a real fight it's it's just an interesting dynamic here uh he is doing a little bit of trolling as well the man is setting himself up as best he can he rocked an eye patch to i think the ceremonials today uh a little a little jab just a little jab at

heavyweight champion tommy aspinall and trying to put himself in position to you know fight for a title so uh i still actually haven't decided who i'm picking in this fight i'll probably pick waldo grotescoosta because i just don't believe in shmogaziev but i was i was on spivak before this so i'm interested okay uh i did not know i did not know that's where you were going by the way with the mate when you said it was one more i thought you were going to talk about i thought you got i mean jack hermats and it once or the returning kioguchi i was like i did not expect the waldo thing i was like i'm happy to talk about it no because no because that's the thing that has taken nobody's talking about keoggi and tegiro will no one literally no one the the conversation around

that fight has entirely been why is it on the prelims and then it got bumped up and everybody's like okay good good like that's correct moving on we did the right thing now we're done keogu's back and that's awesome and he's an option that you can talk about because the last segment well we have two more segments but the penultimate segment before we go to the fans and bring jose and is pick your pick your best thing we go you we go got you know there are 14 fights this weekend i think seven of them are above a placement level we have talked about three of them so pick one from the remaining 11 fights that we have not spoken about that you are particularly interested in that has your eye above anything else is if you're

picking one of the of these fights you get to watch this weekend which one is it going to be i'm actually like going prelim i'm going prelim here uh i am prelim I mean, there's a lot of weird stories. I can go in so many different directions. Because I kind of want to talk about this weird Dalby, is a Gakmaev fight? We can touch upon that. I have feeling maybe people will have questions about that, or we'll just dig a little deeper. I really doubt people are going to have questions on that.

I think America wants to know who is this guy that's fighting Nicholas Dalby that used to fight for one and hasn't fought in three years. I think people want to know. But no, I'm interested in the Bexat-Alma Khan, Alexandre Toporia, James. you know i love me some phantom weights right um sorry guys my lighting's going crazy i'll close the lines in a second um i i don't think this i haven't seen the odds for this jet but i assume this is not like a crazy uh favorite for alexner to pori is it or is he no this is uh okay toporia has money has come in on him he is now a favorite earlier this week it was pretty close to a stone pick him sure because i think i think other than the

coria right now vr friends at fanduel minus 136 uh bexat is plus 116. I think other than the name value, and the fact that after Chimbra is very good. I mean, from what we've seen him, clearly a very good fighter. Like, he's not just coasting on his name. He is a UFC level guy. He would have more pro fights if it wasn't for him being so, of course, dedicated to

focusing on Ilya's career, right? They've spoken about that many times, and Ilya has just been sort of the more, like, he's been in the bigger fights. He's been in their bigger fights. Alexander has put his career on the sidelines. Very talented guy. Maybe a guy who strings wins together, future band to a contender. Totally, I can believe that.

but alma con is uh is really good i mean people remember him they don't even remember his last win they remember him as the guy that rocked umar um and went to a pretty competitive decision right so uh this is not i saw maybe one or two people thinking that this was sort of like um a fight that was meant to kind of help get you know to pour you further over and i don't think that's the case at all so i think this would be a really competitive fight exciting love me that 135 division and i think like alma kana is a sleeper for sure to like be a uh a bantamweight contender someday like i strongly do he's he's not even 30 there's a lot of growing to do um i love him to be a ranked guy someday too and same with tippur i think that's what i like about this fight so much is

this feels like um two guys who could be in the top 10 someday fighting now and that's always that's always kind of enjoyable to see uh i i i you could have given me 11 guesses and i don't know that that's where I would have gotten to it. My answer, I'm going to take, I had another answer because I thought you were going to take the low-hanging fruit. It is Kiyoji Ullumbekov. Kioji-Hur-Guchi is back and that rocks. I don't understand why this is the fight the O.C. has been so keen on.

It was booked. Kioji pulled out. Now we're doing it again because we've just got to have the world must see to get Ullumbeckov fight Kiojuji, but I think there are a flyweight title. I know Keoggi and pants train together and are very friendly, but they have both been like, we will fight each other. That's fine. If Keoggi wins and Pants does defeat Josh Vann, like unless Pants is moving up to 135, which he doesn't seem that interested in, you know, why wouldn't you just roll that out? Who else is going to friggin fight him, man? Pants beat everybody

at 125 already. To get Rulambeckoff, this is a huge opportunity for him. He is gigantic. If you saw the photo they took at Wayans, it looks like a featherweight is about to fight Keoggi Hoaguchi. The fight is pretty awesome. And Keoggi has looked really good at flyweight. His failures have been, you know, in the last little bit, have mostly been up at 135, but Olin Bekhov is enormous, Necrapler.

So, like, I'm fascinated by this matchup. It's really great to see Keoggi back. It's a shame that he spent the bulk of his career, not in the like his of his prime years not in the ufc but glad to have him back because keogi rocks and so very much looking forward to this also on the main card a k yeah did you see did you see the uh way in controversy with mr ulan beckov oh that they that the guy on this doing the way ends did his job was a little he was he was a he was a little uh jeff maloney a little uh jeff with the scale. There's a clip out there, guys. I only saw it because someone, someone tagged me in it.

You know, the scale wasn't exactly settled when Ulan Bekhov, his weight was registered. It seemed to be shaking a little bit, but close enough, apparently, close enough. Jed, you're okay. You seem okay with this. You seem fine. Yeah, I've never really cared that much about weight in the thing. And I think everybody like, this is one of those things where obviously the appropriate answer is why aren't we just using digital scales there's no room for interpretation it's a digital scale um this isn't you know the 1890s we we can just use that and that would solve all all of this you know boxing does it be fine uh but i don't have an issue with it for exactly this instance like i just need you to be is as long as you guys are close enough i'm okay with it because you

know like that seems fine to me like if everybody who's ever trained you know like you'll train with all sorts of people people are way bigger than you way smaller than you but if you're looking for like an actual training partner it's not like hey we both need to be within a pound of each other it's like we're roughly similar that's all i'm looking for i'm fine with it that guy did a great job as far as i'm concerned so uh either go to the digital scale or exclusively employ people like that guy let's not spend an hour to get the weight on those things it's just no need for it um but yeah if you know if you were asking me do i think on a digital scale would tiguel lumbikov have come in at 126 pounds i do not but that's not that's not the rules we're playing with you

can't say you don't know you can't say that you don't know i said do i think i don't think so but that doesn't matter it's not the rules we're playing with here officially he made weight and that fight goes forward and that fight's going to be awesome and i got no issues with how that goes uh the rest of this main card a k we mentioned vulcanus demure lanzum in the field i doubt anybody cares about that fight but shout out to your boy vulcanus demure jack her manson successfully makes weight at welterweight for the first time as he takes on mickdebec or by aka i will say very briefly did you see hermanson on the scale this morning have you seen seen what he looked like i don't know i i might have missed it i thought what i saw he looked at

Okay, right? I mean, he looks skinny. Yes. Considering this was never, he was never like a small middleweight. But he didn't look like he was dead to make it. So credit to him, I was genuinely curious how that would look.

Interesting to see how he looks at Welterway taking on a former lightweight. It makes a back oral by moving up. The prelim card Bogdengrad takes on Luke Riley. I know Lazy Bad in the chat, very high on Luke Riley. So we'll probably get some questions there. Uh, as you mentioned, uh, is a Gakmeyev, Dalby fight. One now flying into the radar, the fight they got bumped to the prelims in place of

Ullumbekov Kiojur Grucci, a top 15 flyway matchup, Alex Perez, Asuamabayev going on. Uh, that's just a rock solid fight. The biggest favorite on the card, minus 1,200 Abdul Rachman Yaakiev, taking on Raphael Cirqueira in an absolute squash match, uh, Ishmael Nordiev, taking on Ryan Loder. Nurulu Aliyev taking on Shem Rock, very popular internet fighter Shim Rock, and opening proceedings, Marek Buzlo, taking on Denzel Freeman in a fight, AK, that is a contender series matchup that is somehow snuck its way on to the USC guitar card. That is your full UFC guitar card.

Before we go to the peeps, AK, every time I host, we do this. Let's play the game. Four bonuses will be given out Saturday afternoon. Who is walking away 50K richer on Saturday? Waldo Cretace Costa. He's going to finish Kazee. He's going to finish Kazee. He's going to finish Kazee.

Yep, I said it. I think we're going four bonuses here, by the way. I think we're going for bonus, for performance ones, excuse me. I'm trying to see if there could be a flight of the night. I don't know if I could spot that. Yakiyev is going to get one after he runs through Segar and 30 seconds. That's a good bet. that's a good bet uh boy maybe there will have to be a fight of the night i don't know i just i just

i'm not sensing a lot of finishes or at least not a lot of finishes that like will be memorable so i guess that doesn't necessarily matter when you are handing up you know what um al-a-biov al-a-bio's going to get one oh okay and luke rightly uh i mean lazy bed loves to hear that i'm going sirukian like i said i think he's going to stop hooker so i'm going to give him one i'm going to make de back oral by i believe uh i jacker manson feels like his durability's going at this point and dropping away class is not going to help that so i'm going to go micdbeck or by gets one as well um just for i don't know that this will happen but because i want it to happen keoguchi makes his return in style and uh yeah

yakyev is going to kill Sarkyara and sometimes they don't give you a bonus because like this is the most obvious Cirqueira's lost three in a row and Yakev is a very very good prospect off the most recent contender series you know this this is what it is uh they'll probably give him one anyway because I like him I think he's a pretty good prospect that is our USC guitar breakdown which means it's time for you guys to take over already has seen a bunch of cues come in keep firing them in as always superchats get priority and joining us the producer extraordinaire i mean probably the hardest working man in media not just mma media but media and apparently he was born in the darkness mr jose young this matches the this matches my soul right now he is shrouded i'm also

working on jake paul anthony joshua stuff while producing this show so my soul soul is dark and matches why why can you not put on a candle why does that what are candles a k all right you okay is that better no light him up light him up Jose light is your friend uh achillas junior happy birthday aka super chat thanks achillas we love that from you happy birthday aka bexat and armin getting chaos tomorrow uh like i said i think armin actually will i don't know if it'll be like a standing K.O. I do things you get a stoppage. It wouldn't shock me if Bexot did it, A.K., I mean, he dropped Umar. He slaughtered. Who, who was the, um, the tough winner that he killed last time out?

Oh, come on. Tough winners never lose. No, uh, Brad Gatona is, yes. Oh, that's, that's only because Brad won it too many times. Let's say he won it. He won it. He won it. He won it. He won it. That's the first time he'd been finished in like 10 years or something. I know. That was crazy. I know. Didn't that?

Oh, wait. Didn't that kill your climb, did it? Didn't kill my climb, but I didn't. You're smart enough not to use it. I think I tried to kill your climb with it. I had a bet on it because it was like Katona doesn't ever, ever get knocked out. And then you got knocked out. So it wouldn't shock me if this happened.

But I don't know what to make of Alexander Trabria. You talked about this fight already a little bit of AK, but I am really interested tomorrow because I like Beck's at and I don't know is most brothers are bad right like in the history of the sport there are very few where both brothers are really good and obviously Ili is so good that even if Alexander Taboria is like the bad brother he could still be a totally fine fighter but I feel like I'm going to learn some things about him tomorrow when he takes on bike's at all right r s 40 thank you for the super chat r s oh i don't know why that got really big uh okay that was a lot i think arman i think armin will do the same he did to joel alvres

against hooker is armin the most underrated fighter in the ufc look at his resume a k before he answer let me run the resume off for you just appropriate split decision over charles olivera benel dariush knockout win in 64 seconds tkko win over wakim sylva in june of twenty twenty three unanimous decision win over damo isma gulov a loss to matuch gamrot that many people are on my keck included firmly believe he deserved to win tkio to joel alvarez tkio to christos u d over mat for vola ud over davy ramos ud over olybian albem mercier and of course his ucd debut a lost islamakchev on short is armand the most underrated fighter in the ufc i don't i should let people know i almost i cannot stand the phrases like overrated

and underrated because a lot of it's like a matter of perspective right like there's people who will tell you armand's the best fighter like in the world there's people who will tell you oh he sucks ass uh so it's always weird to me because it's subjective i know i know i know the question is asked from like you know the general vibe we get from the emma community and twitter and social media and blah blah other media members so i guess from that perspective is he I would say no. Like, I don't even think he's underrated. Like, I know people don't like him, but I don't think it has anything to do with what he has

or hasn't done in the cage. I think he's pretty widely respected. I think that's why there's some people who I think a lot of people don't have an issue with him still being like the number one or number two contender, even though he had that debacle in January and technically hasn't fought since, what was the old of air fight? Was it April of last year? No, it was 300. 300.

April, April. Yeah. So it's been a long time. And even considering all that, he still has. plenty of people saying like, oh, yeah, he's either should have gotten the title shot anyway, or is one win away from the title shot, which is, I think, a lot of the narrative going into Saturday. So I don't think he's underrated at all. He is disliked?

I guess the question would be, is he one of the most disliked fighters relative to his in-cage accomplishments? He's probably up there. He's probably up there. Is he number one? I don't know, but he is up there. People do not care how many fights, wonder who he's beaten. They just don't like him. And a lot of that is his own fault.

a lot of that is his fault let's be let's be honest yeah i don't think he's underrated um i think you nailed it i think people don't like him but i don't think anybody disrespects him right like the only way he's underrated is if you believe he is one of the very best pound for pound fighters and that could be true but he hasn't been able to prove it because he missed the islam right like if he'd beat an islam okay but he didn't get that and now he's getting an opportunity to again show out you know if he gets an iliet fight people might there you might get there but um i think he's properly rated he's just a little disliked because to your point a k he's courting that you know support for this show comes

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I don't like people going off records. R.S. Who follows up. I think he's underrated because how people are trying to give Patty or Gagy a title shot. He's clearly better than them both. RS 40, I would say that that's true. I don't think anybody would argue that he's not better than both of them at this stage of their respective careers. But title shots aren't given to who's the best fighter.

They're given for a variety of reasons. Sometimes that's it. But nobody's giving Patty or Alia a title fight if they get them because they are better than Norman. there are other you know situations at play here yeah i i think um uh i think even the people who are saying they want to see patty or just didn't get the shot over armin i don't even think they actually think they're better than him i want to see patty get the shot over armin and i don't think armin is better i don't think patty's better than armin i just think like it just makes more sense to give him the shot now so uh yeah maybe just underrated isn't the right word but um who is

underrated jed i'm just kind of going to my rankings here really quickly i think like because i think you kind of have to go almost outside of the top 10 to really find underrated people. Gillian Robertson kind of comes to mind. Like, I don't people don't realize she's literally like won away from a title shot. You know, Gillian Robinson is a really good. Yeah.

And even historically, if you like who she's beaten and she owns all these like UFC records in the Straweigh Division and it's like, you know, your average fan does not know Julian Robertson. She might fight for the title next year. So that's like one example. I'm trying to find out of something.

the men's divisions it's hard it's um somebody i think it was master of the universe put arnold allen i like that call i think honor allen yeah um is pretty fitting i i if you'd ask me this two days ago i would have said shafkaa rakmanov because everybody just buried him after 32 uh and then i tweeted about it and then a lot of people were like no shafkat should fight Islam and so I think maybe he's not and it's there's just like a weird some people have memory hold him but a lot of people haven't because a lot of underrated AK does feel like just when you aren't competing people forget about you in the sport right which kind of what's happened with armand right yeah I mean Arnold Allen has happened with all of them like if you're not if you're not

fighting every couple of months this the memory of this sport is very very short and so but Gillian Robertson, I think, is a great poll because she's been really, really good for a long time. Yasmin Yazadavish, honestly, I know she just got lit up, but, like, has historically been pretty underrated, I think. Yeah. Thanks for the question, R.S. 40. That's a good question. Another super chat. Chase.

Is there anything to the fact that every double champ except Islam won their second belt by finish? Does it make Islam's win not as strong? as others. Is this true? Jose, is this true? Well, by Double Champ, you start with Connor, knocked out Eddie, Suhudo knocked out Dom, Amanda No, no, I assume he was asking about people who have,

oh, oh, oh, all right, double chat, you think, oh, right, double champ only means people who were, like, did not lose their title. So not like Randy Couture, not like BJ. I mean, I will, I, I mean, Randy's weird in that he won the Tim's, like, he won so many belts so many times. but he got finishes in title fights at both weight classes yeah yeah just like the gym and uh dc uh i mean gs p gs p too like he he finished being

gs p zhudo do i didn't even think about that yeah i didn't realize this but that is actually true wow um wow had it did not know this at all it i don't think it makes a difference frankly oh not at all not at yeah like maybe there'd be something to it if that fight was competitive right you're like well okay those were dominant and this was still a win but like a bad decision uh he won

25 minutes of 25 minutes that were fist fought so um I don't also the other thing I'll say um man he won it in the the weight classes to win it in right like lightweight and welterweight are historically the best weight classes in the sport. I know the pantom weight has its supporters and featherweight has always

also been a great weight class, but light weight and welterweight have been amongst the premier weight classes. And it is substantially more impressive in achievement to win the lightweight and the welterweight titles than to win the light heavyweight and the heavyweight title, for instance. Or frankly, the middleweight and the light heavyweight title. Like his accomplishment is much more impressive to me than John Jones's champ championship,

Alex Perez champ championship Amanda Jimenez's champ champ championship Kormier's champ champ champs shit Like this is This is it right up there With any of them ever Yeah And can we remember

I hate it because it's gonna be looked back on As like oh Islam was given like an easy win To become a two-divish champion Jack Della Madelana was like 18 fight win streak You fight who you fight Yeah and he didn't look amazing in all those wins I don't you're wrong

There was some close calls in there there was some he had to kind of pull out uh you know pull the win out the last second but he still won 18 straight fights in an i don't care who you're fighting is amazingly difficult and was what uh 7 and 0 or 8 7 and the uc or 8 no something like that so like this was not a layup for islam i know in hindsight's 2020 you could you can certainly view it that way but jack was a very very accomplished fighter coming into this um so yeah i think the way islam dominated i'll always say is like way more credit to islam uh than just like saying like oh oh jack sucked that day i mean certainly wasn't jack's best fight but he didn't i mean islam i think is just great so okay but i do

think this a fair question because i actually did not know that about the i didn't know yeah yeah happy to learn something another one from chase this isn't a question but he sent us money so well we love it when you do that we're big fans chase shout out to jose for being cool enough for letting me interrupt him editing a video at the 322 way was he cool chase beyond dm me i am i'm very confident that i looked in I'm incredibly burnt out, which is the story of my life. I'm usually burnt out, editing a video, and or both. Did you take a selfie?

Is there a selfie with you going to Chase up there? Yeah, I took a photo with him. Chase DM me that selfie on. Shout out to Jose. Unrelated to anything, but another super chat. From Yomique Vassell, Laura Murphy just teased a move to 155. I didn't see this. Oh, well, Jose shared it with us in our.

I'll throw it up on the screen i'll throw it up on the screen oh that's dumb there you go jad i think this is a very bad idea uh i don't believe this is true i think this is him just tweeting the this is him being mad about something because like the division is super stagnant i thought i was fighting in december okay like you already fought this year so it's not like you've been on the shelf

forever uh and like theoretically you're the guy in line or one of the guys in line for a featherweight title fight there's just I don't believe this at all he's just tweeting yeah if he wants to be active take a fight it but moving to 155

like I get it he doesn't want to have to fight another top 10 guy at 145 he's done all the work there but then you know to tell them you'll fight whoever like defend your top 10 spot I guess he thinks going up to lightweight and if he lost it wouldn't matter but I think it would like I just think there's not definitely matter yeah there's very little to gain from it

and still plenty to lose so i mean a cool idea i know he just he's essentially going to give me a wider range of opponent options uh if you're not going to give me a title fight but i think this is bad idea he's not a huge like another weight either i just don't think this is that's fine every piece of this seems silly and i i don't know what's going on at one 45 i it's it's very confusing he had so much momentum it seemed locked in that he was fighting volk in december and then that didn't i don't know why that didn't materialize now it looks like bulk's probably going to wait until february when they're going back to australia are they um well maybe that's also gonna go somewhere outside of united states

but like yeah that's maybe a thing that's happening so many things have kind of been shifted and it's not like he had the most like oh we've got to give him he just sort of wrote like oh that was a great finish sure and this reads to me like he's not getting the title fight and so he's tweeting about it Yes. Yeah. It's frustrated. You don't have to tweet, guys.

Nope. We'll do. Never tweet, what I would say. We'll do a couple quick. We'll do a couple quick ones because we're up past an hour now. Champion Zurichato. Armine is lucky he didn't cut hooker. He's a loose cannon.

I think he is lucky that somebody didn't get cut. Yeah. But, Jed, how am I on the, I am the most pearl clutchingy, I feel like, of the NBA fighting. or possibly the entire May community. How am I on the other end of this time? I'm shocked. I'm just like, that was just some fun, like, playful rough housing. I said, boysly boys, I said.

I am equally as shocked that you are of this because, like, I, again, this is, he is not like the UFC's favorite guy. And you're just assuming risks you don't need to. Looks like nothing bad has happened and this will all work out well for him. But like, can you just imagine? had he busted open the bridge of hooker's nose like the absolute storm of crap that would rain down on him from dana white had that happened jett he's daring to be great yeah and he's not gonna let you hold him back he's daring to be the uh before i move on the entitled rich boy moniker that everyone keeps calling armin including den hooker you know fair play to armin because when he that was like brought up at media day he was like yeah i am he's like Okay. I'm like,

Fairfrey, it's honestly the best thing he's ever done. Yeah. Because it has cottoned on so much with the community, in part because like he is. He does carry himself like that and like he is. But like him just owning it was legitimately good. Like, yeah.

Oh no. I'm rich. That's such a terrible thing. Okay. Yeah. Like that's the correct answer, man. Yeah. I think this one's directed at 4.

lazy bed Xbox was actually great I'll bronco buster anyone who disagrees Of course Lazy bed that's why I said I prefer the term go away heat I don't like to designate to the great Xbox I love Xbox

I love shout out Scott Walman Scott Walman What did I just say? What move is a bronco buster This one you jump up in the face And you put your junk in another man's face And then drive their back in their head Into the canvas

Oh yes So you have to be hyper You have to be like It is what It's got to have bounce It's what Vince Carter did to that tall dude in the Olympics. There you go. Sean Walden.

I was getting Scott Hall and I was melding Scott Hall and Sean Waltman together. I know who Scott Hall is. Yeah. Blaine Henry. Oh. Hi, Blaine. I was up and coming whippersnapper. I have it on good authority from Blaine that he has inside sources that says Iliot

Tupuria will fight someone. So he actually has. has a question. Blaine, do you guys think Dan Hooker is kind of a trap fight for Armin? That's an interesting concept. I hope not, but AK, is it? You say it could be. Look, I don't think so.

I vaguely remember, and I might just need completely making this up, that there was some of this talk when Islam fought Hooker. Do you remember that? I almost feel like there was a similar talk. Yeah, everybody had every thought about Islam fighting everybody. He just slaughtered them all. Yeah, yeah, it's true. There was a lot of people saying, this is the banana peel.

He's going to slip on. I was like, oh, no, he's killed them again. And again, I hate to keep comparing Armand Islam. But listen, their careers are tied together in a way. They're somewhat stylistically. They do have some similarities. So, but yeah, the concept of being a trap is for sure because, you know, Dan Hooker is just so tough. And there is that element of if it stays on the feet, of course, Dan Hooker has a chance.

Like I said, outside of the Islam fight, it is pretty difficult to just manhandle Dan Hooker with wrestling. It's not like he's something like crazy-ass submission throughout his back or something, but he is really well attuned to making the fight go where he wants it to go. That's how he's had as much success as he had. If he was just getting wrestlers to death all the time, everyone would do it. But I do think Armand, like I said, is another level of wrestler, and he'll have enough success there to sort of grind out a win.

By the way, guys, Blaine, you see his name on the screen. He has a YouTube channel as well. He has a YouTube channel. Please subscribe. Please subscribe to Blaine's YouTube channel. He's dropping takes, dropping spicy takes and analysis all the time. So shout out to our, shout out to our boy, Blaine. I feel like this is for you two because I'm not involved in it.

Shamil from Dave and Shatry. Shemil is going to be 26 JBR draft MVP that none of us pick like Marab in 2025. I assume this is for your draft. What's JBR? I don't know. I'm going to guess that that is the Just Bleed Radio. I believe they do. Oh, I see.

I see. The draft as well. And I don't think that's true for any draft because Shmiel Ghazev's not very good. Marab, I don't know how Marab didn't get picked in any sort of draft. So then this one's better than, this one specifically for A.K. Joseph Boza. Can we get A.K.'s thoughts on Salta Boy making his fifth walk this year. And Mike loves it for draft purposes.

Yeah. Well, that goes with the last question because I was going to ask, if Salsa Boy, like, first round, K-Oed, because he, I don't think that's going to happen, but by some chance he did, is salsa boy the MVP of our draft best he can do is tie carlos protest who has 500 points salsa boy is 250 right now yeah um if he does get a first you know if he knocks out gaze have uh that's a 250 burger as well so because he has a couple of decision wins in there that are just like unranked people right so that's just like 50 points that's on this season he's only won one in this season he fought twice oh r c yes yes but he lost as well he lost as

well so if you got points just for fighting he would be up there because this would be his third fight i believe of the season um third of the season yeah okay right yeah but um yeah carlos protest is almost half your team's points right now carry me he's doing great uh which is shocking i mean marab can't quite get there but marab can get pretty close um steve garcia loki MVP for casey um was so close with Kevin Holland who fought a bunch and just never won you had the right idea yeah it was a good process poor outcome all right uh another another quick one because we're getting a bunch of the same questions now this is honestly i saw this joke earlier and i'm glad you pulled it because it's a pulse work from b has he not has waldo himself not done this like a social

media post or meme or like you know no say whenever that's really whenever a heavyweight drops out from now on one we'll be asking where's waldo he's too busy doing the pirate eye patch gimmick to poke fun at Tom Aspinall to be where of Waldo right now Joey Bosa is Alex Perez who's ranked

number seven fighting for his job at flyweight he's lost four of five also coming off a fairly long layoff not like a massive one but the knee injury against Tatsu or Tyra last year actually good question

A.K. Right like four or five is a lot of loss is even for a top 10 guy yeah i will say i think only if um if this last finance contract that's it i don't think let's get cut i think i think last my contract i mean he is in he is in huge trouble uh i'm so i'm looking at the last uh i hated to do it guys but we always got to talk about money you know when we're talking about will someone get cut or not so some years back uh there's a long time ago alex prez made uh 40 000 and 40 000 to show 40 000 to win to beat um juicy for mega so like 80 000 so he's probably not like in the six-figure range i don't think he's getting like

i don't think he's getting like 100 000 that'd be very unlikely but probably when he wins he's getting over 100 000 that's a lot to the ufc guys it's a lot that's a lot of scratch the ufc uh it's a lot of contender series people they can sign with that money so yes and you combine it he's had one a lack of success and frankly and it's struggle to even get in there you guys go to his topology he has the most the most gray you have ever seen on any ufc virus topology phase is a lot yeah some of it's his false Sometimes his opponent's fault, but sometimes just bad luck. So, no, I don't think he gets cut, but if it's last win in his contract, almost, almost zero chance to bring him back.

Yeah. That is probably the correct take. You know, they just won't re-sign him because apparently we're doing double contender series next year. They got to clear up space. Oh, my gosh. Have mercy. From Scott McCrae. Still waiting for Perez to get back to his Jose Torres fight form.

Aren't we all, man? Like, Alex Buzz had a very, very strange, very talented guy. just kind of lost a lot. Unlucky. He fought for a belt one of those one. He did. He lost a figure, Figgy and then Figgy,

quick turned around. And he lost the quick, the quick turn on Figgy lost. Yeah, like, a talented guy, just, uh,

the knee injury against Tyro. The fact that he was, I'm curious, he was booked earlier this year and then with Drew. I don't know if that was related to the knee injury, needed more time. Um, but yeah,

he's got, he might have the most lose on Saturday of anybody. And that includes the main event and co-man event fighters. All right. Yvonne, flyways pretty thin. Oh, Jose, do you get an actual weekend off next week? Tell me, what is, what is weekends off? That is a foreign concept.

Thanksgiving. Impossible. Here in America. Nah, don't. I get to meet Jose for, in person. I think the first time ever. I've ever met in person next week. All right, we've gone almost 90 minutes.

Yeah, we're good to close it up now. So before we end, though, Most importantly, there was an actual, there was a different main event that happened today. Oh, just watch Jose destroy Ben the Bain on prop quiz. I've yet to see it because that obviously dropped shortly before we went on to do this and was doing other work things. But Jose Young's doing the NBA fighting team proud. And frankly, I would have bet a lot of money that you were going to win that. And I love Ben, but I would have a lot of money you're going to win that.

It was like minus 100 to 2,000 before I got a question wrong or something like that. Like, I think he was mathematically eliminated by the time he got his first question. I've never seen something more suited to your skill set than you were born to nominate prop quiz. What the game, what like the actual game changer was was I thought that whatever question you got wrong is how many points you lose. so if you get the 500 point question wrong you lose 500 but no matter what question you get wrong it's just minus 100 so i just ran through the 500 400s and then bain was like well that's a wrap can't do anything about it yeah uh i have yet to make money on prop quiz i've played twice and uh i'm really bad at it uh so shout out to you shout out to lazy bed for the super chat

and Jose Young's a champion. Brian Campbell is probably in a bit of trouble whenever they match up. I try to get it in person because the morning combat studio is in New York, but apparently that's impossible because you have to like book it. It's like you have to like book it and do a whole thing. Oh, yeah, they do because it's the all you all the smoke production studio. It's the one that's public where it works out of and stuff. So impossible, but we tried our best.

Yeah, you guys, but you should do it in person somewhere. I'm doing a Vox studio That's just easy to look Probably You should do that in person That would be That would be terrific I should probably show up

At the morning Combat studio and just throw something at Brian Like lay the gauntlet I'm going there fairly soon I'll let you know All right That would be banging

It was fun I On a different I broke the all-time score record Against our former colleague Danny cigar Nice

So we're 2 and O against junkie most importantly just dominating right now way to go uh folks hit the music jose there is no music i don't have the music i'll just play the intro music i'm hum a song a k just as we as we get ready i just played the intro again okay that's fine you should play it in reverse can you can you flip it i can't i can't impossible not miss yel it we can't put it and flip it and reverse it uh uc guitar tomorrow early m m i believe when's that kickoff 10 a ms is that when the start time is eastern uh so wake up get yourself a robust breakfast

pour a cup of orange juice and lock in for some fist fights early in the day and uh all the same things that you've come to expect i don't know if we're doing a pre-fight Q&A i assume mike is doing that no no pre-fight Q&A that's important information to have we will do a post show to be immediately Mike Heck after the event. And then, of course, there's also boxing going on tomorrow for those inclined as David Benavides and Devin Haney get back in action. Shout out, my boy, Brian from Decatur, defending his W.C. belt. And, yeah, Brian Norman, Devin Haney, let's go.

Other than that, thanks for sticking with us, y'all. We will see you tomorrow. Keep it locked in May fighting for everything you need. Thanks, Jose. Thanks, A.K. Thanks to you. Happy birthday, A.K. Thank you.