MMA Fighting - UFC San Diego Post-Fight Show | What's Next For Marlon Vera After Monster KO Of Dominick Cruz?

Episode Date: August 14, 2022

Marlon Vera picked a great time to earn the biggest win of his career, and he did so in ferocious fashion on Saturday night against former UFC champion Dominick Cruz. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, José Youngs, and Alexander K. Lee react to Vera’s main event finish of Cruz at UFC San Diego and whether or not that could lead to a title shot for “Chito” in his next fight. In addition, they discuss where Cruz could go following the tough loss, the insane co-main event between Nate Landwehr and David Onama, the fantastic strawweight bout between Yazmin Jauregui and Iasmin Lucindo, Nina Nunes announcing her retirement following her victory over Cynthia Calvillo, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jose Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

All right, we are back, everybody. Part two of our post-fight coverage for UFC San Diego. This is the UFC San Diego Post-Fight Show live on the MAA Fighting YouTube channel. And if you're listening after the fact, thank you very much. I am Mike Heck. We got the Prince of Positivity, Alexander Kay Lee in the building. We'll hear from him get his thoughts on this very fun card in just a few moments. But joining us right now from the backstage area in San Diego.

There he is. Mr. Jose Young's. Hi, Jose. Did you enjoy the festivities today? I missed a lot of the fights because the stones are going back. here it just felt like it was like one after the other after the other but you can't really tell but there's like a black curtain right here and then behind that black herd is underneath actually you can't all above us and going down the side is the seats like where the fans sat so like when people

were walking we could hear above them so like for example the co-main event going into the third round everyone started stamping their feet and it just felt like the roof was going to fall up I didn't watch almost a second of the co-made event fight because Yasmin was back here talking and Gerald Murchard and Asimat was back here talking like back to back to back so I missed almost all of it but it felt like the entire building is going to collapse on top of us and you can hear the fans like literally like five feet over from this that's why I was really hoping where the audio would come through on these post-fight scrums that things wouldn't get demonetized for like entrance music because it was about as clear as day it was a very unique experience here

and cover them in the fight in San Diego. Well, that seems like a lot of fun. It was kind of like Jacksonville when Shemaya fought Gilbert Burns. I was basically in the back. You were out front. So it was like an earthquake back there as that fight was going on. But let's talk about the main event. Let's talk about Marlon Verra and his performance.

Dominic Cruz and all three judges' scorecards is up two rounds to one heading into that fourth round, Jose. And none of that really mattered because Cheeto Vera closed the show with a vicious left high kick to the nose, to the face of Dominic Cruz, gets the knockout win. The guy is just surging right now. He wants a title fight, but he understands there's just so much going on at 135 right now that patience is a virtue. And that's how he fights as well. So your thoughts on just the whole day, the whole week for Marlon Vera,

just chill, cool as a cucumber, and gets the biggest victory of his career tonight. Yeah, I don't think he's going to get a title shot off of this. I mean, I guess he could, especially if Marob wins, because obviously Marab's not going to fight Algeman Sterling. So if Maraub beats Jose Aldo, I feel like Chito could just... We'd have to see how the shoot of Sean O'Malley versus Peter Yon fight plays out. But he could be just, I guess, the last man standing. I personally, I think he's one win away.

But depending on how the dominoes fall on these next two band-in-white fights, you could find himself in the title fight. But with UFC announcing they're going back to Rio, I would imagine they're going to want to put Jose Aldo on that fight. which I doubt a champion's going to want to go to Rio to fight Joseo but you never know. Crazier things have happened. But you'd have to imagine if Joseo Alto wins,

then beats Maraub, who's Algeman's teammate, that he would get the title fight, especially because he has the win over Marlomera. But, yeah, Cheeto is at worst one win away from a title fight. And if they do make another Bannonway fight, I would probably put Cheeto on that same card outside of headlining another fight night because he was a super-star. in this arena. I mean, Dom got a big pop when he walked out and Marlin got booed when he walked

up. By the end of the night, there were a sea of Ecuadorian flags in the arena. Like, people were literally trying to climb over the barricades just to get to Marlin there. This man is a rock star in every definition of the word. He might just be a big enough deal to just will himself into a title shot. So good on him. Yeah, I feel like we're on the cusp of something really special at this guy because we've literally sort of, we've basically seen him grow up in the UFC. We don't realize like he's still super young in fight years, but he's got a ton of UFC experience behind him.

And what's crazy about him is that he can lose rounds, but every time he lands, especially recently, every time he lands, it is with devastation, drops his opponents. And it's like when he shows up to these post-fight press conferences, it's like he's not even in a fight, Jose. There's not a mark on this man's face whatsoever. and he's just such a powerhouse at 135 and he's been saying for the last couple years just it's the evolution the evolution adding new wrinkles to the game and i feel like we're like in the middle of prime cheetah vera right now and i feel like the the best is yet to come if that makes

sense considering the run that he's on right now do you agree with that as well do you feel like we're we're at the tipping point almost for for cheetah vera that we still haven't even seen this man's best yet. Well, I mean, he seems like the type of individual that, specifically with Jason Perillo, they really do kind of put together a perfect game plan for his opponents and specifically using Cheeto's strengths. Like, we all heard Marlon Vera say, Jason Perlow texted him a photo like six days ago with Dominicru's head down in a similar manner that they capitalize with a head kick. We all know Cheeto Vera kicks extremely hard. Ask Frankie Edgar about it. So to use those openings, but to tailor make these openings specifically for Marlin.

I think this combination of Jason Perlo and Chito Vera is just a thing of beauty right now, especially for that whole Rupa camp. So I would say the best is yet to come, but I think it's going to be opponent by opponent. Last thing I want to ask you both, before we let you go. I know you have a million things going on,

but I know you in particular were very high on this featured boat, the Battle of the Yasmin's, and again, you're in the building. You got to hear it all go down. You mentioned on the Slack channel that Yasmin, Yergwe was over like Rover there. So just talk about what you heard, what you felt,

what you saw in that arena with these two women, especially Yasin Yergwe, the performance she had and the reaction from everybody from it. Yasma was a Roth star, for sure. She got, without a doubt, the biggest pop of the entire night. There was a reason she was a media day, and she was oh and oh in the U.S. She's very, every definition of the word of prospect,

and she said that herself, like she wants to fix her weaknesses leading into each fight because she has so much to learn. But outside of Dominant Cruz, honestly, outside of, I take that back. Dom got a big pop from just being San Diego and Marlin got a big pop for the finish. I think Yasmin's pop was bigger on the entrance. She was a rock star. She was a big deal. She had the longest post-fight scrum. There was a lot of Mexican media here, Hispanic media from Marlin.

and I think they putting her in that position with Marlon headlining was just magic. It was perfect for how the fight played out, the placement on the card and everything. Because everyone that was whining about the placement on the card, it made you pay attention. You might have been annoyed that she was the third fight from the top, but then you tuned in to see what the big deal was,

and now you're a fan, so don't judge a book by its cover, because I think I'm not calling her top. She's far from the top 15, but she's going to, moving forward, she's going to be a prospect that you're going to want to watch. And I would pair her with Moreno or Marlon or whoever and keep her in this area, in the Southwest area, for sure. I don't want to probably the Apex. She needs the full, disbanded crowd here, for sure.

And if they go to Mexico, stick her on there. If they go anywhere in the Southwest, Southern California, Texas, Arizona, T-Mobile Arena, put her on that card with another big, Hispanic superstar. Completely agree. 23 years of age. The future is very bright. Jose, thank you very much, my man.

I know a lot going on. They're going to shut everything down back there. And onwards to Salt Lake City, right? You will be there? Correct. I will be there. I'll be there. I'll leave Tuesday morning.

All right. Thank you, Jose. Great job, as always. And we'll see you. UFC 278 fight week. There he is. Jose Young's, very busy man. Hello, AK.

Hello, my best friend. Oh, I'm not busy. No, that's why you're here. I am free, I am free to talk about this card. So let's, so talk about Marlon Vera. Talk about this knockout and did you watch it in slow motion a bunch of times to see the impact of that kick? No, I did not.

That's right up your alley. That is, I am not bloody elbow freak Kristen King, all right, who wanted. I also, I don't remember, did, maybe I wasn't watching closely. Did they go to Dom after? They took him out of the cage as soon as they could, right? I don't recall seeing his face after, or maybe I just wasn't looking. I didn't see much. Okay, good.

Good. And, you know, when he got hit, obviously he immediately went down. That's why he was so vulnerable to a couple of those follow-up shots. So I did not see the aftermath. People don't send me pictures. I don't want to know. I don't like seeing these things. I don't need to see a man who doesn't have a nose anymore after a kick like that.

So just amazingly well-timed, yeah, the stuff about, Eric Nixik, just sending him a picture. He said, just send him a screenshot from previous Dom fight to show his habit of sort of ducking in the same direction every time, I guess, at a similar angle. Amazing, amazing, the sort of thing that I don't even know if Chito Vera, like, practiced it, because he said he got it about a week ago that Eric Nixig just sent him this picture. Or if it's just instinctual, because I'm sure it was in the back of his mind at the very least something he thought about going in.

I mean, you're fighting Dominic Cruz is probably a lot of things you got to think about. But once it actually started manifesting itself during the fight, I mean, Eric Nixick tweeted it. You know, he tweeted again to everybody tonight as the fight was happening. Like, oh, watch how, watch how Dom reacts when he gets, you know, kind of, kind of, you know, rolls a punch with his arm, hits his arm, and then he's always going to exit, sort of go a little bit further. And then it happened, you know.

I mean, the fight game is unpredictable. Especially, you know, when you're the guy in there, you're trying to make live reads, live adjustments. But, boy, some coaches, they're really on the money. and there is a lot of data on Dominic Cruz. This is probably something he's probably done all his career and maybe we're just a little bit faster at pulling back out of that position. But he lingered there.

He lingered there tonight and Cheeto Vera did not miss. Did not miss what is quickly becoming one of the most feared pair of legs in all of MMA. Yeah, the man is just on fire right now. And we talked about this because earlier, on the press conference stream, there was some Dom slander. There's some Dominic Cruz slander. And we weren't accepting of the Dominic Cruz slander because he actually looked really good in this fight. He won the first two rounds on all three judges scorecards. It's 29, 28 heading into the fourth round on all three judges scorecards. And he was looking pretty good. Now, was Marlon

Vera landing and dropping him? Sure. But Dominic Cruz was winning the fight and had that fourth round ended and we go into a fifth, there's a very good chance we're looking at a two-two fight heading into Ron number five, and things would have been really interesting. So what did you think of Dom tonight? Because he was a pretty sizable dog. You said even on the preview show,

and I think a lot of people agreed, like we would love to pick Dominic Cruz, but as you lay out sort of all the intangibles that both guys bring to the table, we just felt like Vera, it was more Vera's time at this point in both of their careers, and that's exactly how it played out. but I mean, Dominic Cruz looked pretty damn good

up until he got kicked in the face. Did he not? He looked great. It was vintage crews. We were talking about it in the Slack. I was tweeting about it. Man, like this guy's such a, he's so unique. He's such a true original.

I really want people to appreciate it, you know, as long as this guy is around. I see if you all, anyway, I got to trust some trolls in the YouTube in a bit. I hope he'll appreciate him while he's around because there just is nobody like him. And again, I know we can say it. I know we can write about it all the time.

But until you like every time, I think people forget until they watch him. And I know he hasn't been as active as he could be, you know, over the past few years, injuries, other obligations, whatever. So when you see him, it's so special. And I get it why people forget in between, there's eight, ten months a year between fights. They don't remember. There's just nobody can do his style like he does. They can't. Like there's people have taken elements of it.

Some people have evolved it, have evolved the style, like made it better. You can go like T.J. Dillashai. You can say there's some of that in Cody Garbrand. That's fine. I understand that. But the way that Dom does it is special. Again, the problem is you get older. His style requires so much precision.

And because he was the only guy that could do it the way he did it for so long, that's why he was so successful. But when you're losing just a step, you know, you're just a quarter of a second slower than you were before. You're a quarter of a step slower than you were before. Now you see the difference. He's getting hurt a lot more. he's getting he's got this is this first time we've seen him straight cold knocked out in his career

um it it's not that he didn't ever got hit before if you look at um a lot of his best fights in the past even during his dominant times he could get clipped he could get clipped he could get hurt in the feet um look at the demetius johnson fight uh fighting a smaller guy he he i don't think he got knocked down but he was getting hurt a lot before he just realized oh wait a minute i'm like twice the size of dj i'm just going to throw him around um but there are past fights here i favor heard him in their second fight there are past fights we got hurt but he could recover fast He wasn't quite as Couldn't get caught quite as clean as he did

by that head kick tonight. So he's had a history of, again, people could get him, but he could recover fast and just immediately get back into his own game plan. Now he's getting hit a lot and it's taken just a little bit longer to recover or as, as it happened tonight,

getting hit by a strike that he certainly, he and nobody else at 135, I think, could recover from if they got hit by it. So yeah, he looked really good. one up on all three judges scorecards heading into the fourth. And the tide was certainly turning. I think Vera would have gone on to win a decision anyway.

But up to that point, Dominoa Cruz was doing just fine. So Marlon Vera has four wins in a row now. Davy Grant, unanimous decision. That was a crazy fight. Davey Grant gets everybody tough fights. Frankie Edgar, we all remember how that fight was going. The knockout was absolutely ridiculous.

Rob Font, great win for him. and then this was the biggest win of his career knocking off a former champion in Dominic Cruz. So we have a, it's a mess right now, 135. It's not like a bad problem mess. It's a good problem mess. We have a lot of intrigue. We have a lot of contenders at 135.

We have a title fight book between Algeman Sterling and T.J. Dillishaw for UFC 280. We have Jose Aldo, Marab de Wallis, really getting ready to fight next week. On that same title fight card in October, we have Peodor Jan getting ready to fight Sean O'Malley, We have other interesting 35ers who are making their way up the ladder. So let me just say this.

Let me just ask you this. I know it's hard to tell what's going to happen. We have to wait for all these other things to happen, A.K., but true or false, Marlon Vera's next fight will be for the UFC Bannamway title. I don't think so. We said before, this was asked a couple of times, we brought up in the preview show and on the Q&A, you know, if he has a dominant five-round decision or at least convincing win over Cruz or gets that highlight real finish.

Does he immediately jump to the front of the line? And I just don't think he has that level of popularity yet. And I don't know if he quite has. I mean, I think he has the resume. But again, there's a lot of, 135 is so deep. It does help that if Marab beats Jose Aldo, again, Mara, very likely will not fight Al Jermaine Sterling. But if Aldo beats Marab, I think he's ahead of, I think he's ahead of Cheeto-Bara.

We've said Sean O'Malley, if he beats Piotr-Yon, is definitely head. So that's two names right there if they get wins. If both those guys lose, it does kind of clear a path, but that's two ifs already. So if this is a yes or no question, there's a lot that has to fall in the place for Marlon to definitely get the next title shot. And I'm saying, no, I don't think that happens. I also don't think it happens. And I have the matchup ready for on to the next one tomorrow for Marlon Vera.

And I'm excited to get your reaction to this matchup, AK. Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more. DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond.

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Feel the fun! We'll begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-1-2-60 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. Let's talk about this co-made event. I'm just going to let you go, AK. I'm just going to let you go because... You were very high on this.

You wanted to take a victory lap. David Onama, taking on Nate Landware, the fight is absolutely ridiculous. It is bananas. And if you haven't seen it, there is not enough words that I can say into this microphone right now that will do it any kind of justice. You have to go back and watch this fight. It's just absolutely insane. But victory lap away, AK, victory lap away. Penultimate fight, co-main event, whatever you want to call it.

That fight friggin ruled, and it was the fight of the night, even over the jazz, the, the, the, the jasmans tonight. Yeah, it was, it was, listen, it was at times super sloppy and, like, objectively terrible. But that's how some great fights are, some great fights. I mean, we talk about, you know, one of the front runners for the fight of the year, Glover D'Sheera and Yuri Prakashka. Some of what we love about that fight is how many, like, pull your hair moments are, like, why are they going for that, or how did he get caught by that? and how is this guy not finished and why is this happening?

And that's some of what we love about fighting, right? From a technical standpoint, the Haragi and Lucindo fight was definitely better. But boy, that quality of that Landwehr Onama fight is something you cannot train for. I think it was Casey. I think you said in our Slack the best that, like, fighting exhausted is such an important skill to have in MMA. And that is something like Nate Landwer can do to a T. He has just been through the wars. And David Onama, maybe someday will too.

But Nate Landor has been through the wars that David Anana has not been through yet. There's really no way to train for fighting through that kind of adversity. You can spar a million rounds. It doesn't matter until you've actually done those. Until you've actually done that in a live fire setting, you're just not going to be able to do it. Anyone who's seen Nate Landward fights other one with Darren Elkins and his fights before in M1 Global. He had like at least three of these kind of wars in M1 Global. I don't think he won all of them either, but he went the distance in them.

That's how you pull off what he pulled off tonight because he was probably K-Oed in round one. I'm not sure how he came back. People said David Anama punched him so many times that he woke back up. It kind of looked like that. It was so messed up. But I was really happy to see this fight deliver because even me, even my official prediction, both on the shows we did and on MAAFighton.com, was I thought Onamma is probably going to get a first-round finish.

And my alternative to that was like, oh, but if it goes to the team, distance. I mean, we're going to get a classic. I just didn't think that Land War would be able to survive. Somehow he did. And to credit to Onama as well, listen, he survived a lot of stuff too. I mean, Landware was what's threatening with submissions. He was landing some classic Nate train bombs. I don't even know if Onama wanted to come out for the third round, but he did and actually finished the fight pretty strong. So it's going to be a long time, I think, until you see a fight like this again. Though I guess I would have said the same thing about Yuri and Glover and we just saw like the featherweight version of that. So all I got to tell people,

as listen, when Nate Landware is on a main card, you got to tune in. The guy does not have boring fights. He does not have boring fights. He gets knocked out sometimes. He ends up on the other end of highlights, but he does not have boring fights. So, yeah, him, credit to him and David Onama. And referee Mike Beltron for letting this insanity go on because I don't even know if he should have. But he did.

And we got a closet for it. It's one of those fights that if you haven't seen it, you're going to watch it. You're just going to laugh out loud, but cheer. and it's just got a little bit of everything. Great fight, clear fight in the night. The Yasmin's had a tremendous featured bout. Haragi gets it done, unanimous decision. Lucindo, 20 years old, bright future ahead of her as well.

I'm excited to see these two prospects develop at 115. Great performance from Osamatt, Mirzikhanov. This guy's going to be a problem. Wait to see this man wrestle on top of the striking that he has. That body shot was nasty. Finishes Devin Clark. Priscilla Catioera. Wasn't messing around.

65 seconds puts away Ariani Lipski. And then Gerald Mirchart kicks off the main card with a sub, a club and sub of Bruno Silva. Good stuff. Real good stuff. And then the freedoms are good too. Angela Hill, Luby Godin has great fight. Martin Boudai.

Lucas Breske was interesting. Nina Nunez, happy trails. She retires after her win over Cynthia Calvillo. Mowgli Benitez, back on track, needed a win badly. knocks out Charlie on Ovaros, some brutal ground and pound. Tyson Nam is back after about 19 months away. Man takes O'Day Osborne's flying knee attempt,

counter-right hook, knocks out O'Day Osborne. Josh Quinlan should get the sportsmanship bonus of the night as well for that incredible knockout of Jason Witt. Could have been worse, but he was able to hold back and then the first fight, Yusuf Salal got going in the third round, majority draw against DeMond Blackshear. And that was your card, A.K. What fight, which fighter that didn't get a bonus or anything like that stood out to you

and pressed you the most before you go to the points? On a solid cart like this, I mean, there's a lot of people you feel like could have gotten bonuses. But I thought the ones they picked for fine. If you're only going to pick one fight in the night, they should have just given out two. Why not just give out two fight in the night bonuses plus two performance bonuses? I don't know. Because Houdigee and Lusindo definitely should have got one. It was a really, really great fight and an awesome debut.

I think it was Cody Stamen on Twitter. who said, like, that's the best debut fight I've ever seen. And I'm sure we could find other examples. But, like, yeah, this was really strong for, especially for two fighters who only one of them kind of has a track record with another, you know, notable promotion, Combatschi Global also. And even then, I didn't think the UFC did a great job promoting Yasmin Haredi's debut. But, and definitely not Yasimine Lassindo, who I think was barely mentioned. And of course, our own Guillory Cruz, what a great, great piece. last year. So it could have been marketed better, and I think they could have, their failure to do so,

they could have made up for that by giving them the $50,000 bonus, but whatever, there's a lot of people in, I don't know who's involved in this decision making. So definitely would have given them a bonus. Otherwise, I'm pretty, oh, I mean, Josh Quinlan, one shot, K.O. I mean, holy crap. That was awesome. I don't know how you choose me and him and Tyson down. Both are great. Again, I say don't choose and just give it to them both. And freaking Gerald Mearshirt. He outstruck Bruno Silva. He outstruck him.

And it's not like Gerald Mearsher, it's a terrible striker, but Bruno Blendado, that standing and cracking people, that is your specialty. So, a perfect game plan by Gerald Mearsher and his team, they figured, they solved his puzzle. Outstruck him. This is not a lucky shot that set up the submission. Outstruck him, heard him on the feet, finished him in the third. It was masterful.

So, yeah, they could have given bonus. to a lot more people. Again, all finishes should get bonuses. All fighters should get paid more. We'll say at every show if we have to, but come on now. Gerald Mearshardt, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. I mean, he's slipping punches? This man's out here looking like freaking Floyd Mayweather.

I thought he was asking for so much trouble. I thought like, he can't pull. I thought he can't be just like slipping like Anderson Silva Matrix dodging punches. I'm like, that's not going to last. It worked. He did it enough that it worked. Yep, that Christophechakow fight sent him down to South Florida, got his head off the center line, moving well, slipping punches. He's now four and one since the 17-second knockout against Hamzaa Chamaev.

Everyone thought, there's no way this man could come back from that. And now we're seeing continued evolution in the game of GM3, calls out Andre Petroski. Didn't really call him out. You basically answered Petroski's call out. You want some, come get some. Good stuff. just classic pro wrestling promo

he will fight anyone good night of fights he will fight anyone because like because for me I think Petroski would be a protoski

has had a really great start to his UC career I consider him like behind Mier Shirt in the rankings so he's just giving a guy I even actually and had Bruno Silva

behind him in the rankings those are two dangerous guys behind him in the rankings and Gerald Mirashar's just like yeah bring it on bring on I don't care I don't care about rankings I don't you know

just give me exciting fights and he bought He bought Muradov. A lot of people did not want to fight in Macamud Meradov. And the guy was on like a, what, 18, like 19 fight win streak or something? And Jeremy Scher was like, yeah. Yeah, game Murdov. And he beat him.

So I don't know, man. A fighter's fighter. Absolutely a fighter's fighter. Absolutely. All right. Let's go to the peeps. Let's go to the peeps. By the way, if you want to check out what these fighters got paid,

you can check it out on MMAFighting.com. Because we got all those figures because the event was in California. And God bless Andy Foster and the California. and the California State Athletic Commission for being open, disclosing that information, so you guys could see it for yourselves. That's always a good thing, too.

If fighters know how much their other fighters are getting paid, then they have a better idea of their own value. So good job, Mr. Foster. First up, we got some trolls here. Some troll comments. Oh, my God. Yeah. Can you just block and ban that guy?

Just whatever. I wish I could block and ban him from my life. Love you too, Jen. Oh, I have to apologize to America. I apologize to America. I was, yes. No, no, not for the Jenman. I don't apologize for the Jedman shoe stuff.

That I'm doubling down on that. No, I was saying before, I thought that Chito Vera had said that Eric Nixick had sent him pictures for some reason before in the press conference. He was talking about, and people in the comments were not so kindly correcting me saying it was Jason Frillo, you idiots. And they were right, both about Jason Perillo and me being in case. That wasn't a misspeak. You actually thought that Eric Nixig is just. No, I thought, yeah, just randomly. I thought he had slid into Cheeto Ver.

Thanks for helping me out on that one, producer Casey. Mike, I mean, I thought you were just making a mistake too, but. But you really thought it. Mike, you're my best friend. This is, this is, where were you on that one, uh, dip shit moment, I feel? I mean, really, I'm the dipshit, but, uh, anyway, so thank you people for the rude corrections. Sometimes I need to be slapped around apparently But

All right Well I'll go and put this up But I take it back now No no no yeah Not tonight Not tonight No you gotta revoke the bonus The post-fri show bonus

Well since we talked about pay real quick This comment How the hell is Cruz's purse I only want 175,000 I have no idea I know That was That was kind of shockingly low

For someone who we consider The goat Of the Bantam weight division, you know, but... Yeah. I don't know. That's a... Hey, you know what?

Dominic Cruz says he doesn't have a manager. So, uh, maybe. You have, so you have to imagine, you have to imagine that, um, you know, he probably was very happy with his contract when he was getting title fight. So this is his third, his third fight in a row that wasn't a title fight. But I wonder if this was all, it's all part of a longer contract, like an eight fight contract and say that he signed when he was still champion. So at that point, it's like, oh, I'm going to,

any paper view. I'm winning fights. I'm getting double, you know, a lot of my, double. And if I'm not winning fights, I'm getting pay-per-view points from the Sehudo fight. I'm getting peer viewpoints from the Cody Garbrand fight. So it doesn't matter. Then he loses the belt. Then he's just back down to his base pay, uh, probably not getting pay-per-view points, I assume for Casey Kenney, Pedro Muno's fights. Then, then suddenly it doesn't look that good anymore, does it? The contract doesn't look that great anymore. But he probably signed this when he was champion. So he's like, oh, great. Yeah. Paper viewpoints. Champions, champions, salary, I'm killing it. I'm killing it.

I'm not going to lose the belt any time soon. What do I care? I don't know. I saw an interview and Dana White said that buyers are getting paid what they are getting paid. Yeah. Well, listen, that's the way it deserves now. He's not a champion anymore. How can he work with me? Was it you, was it you Casey who said in our Slack

that Gabriel Benitez has made like $100,000, I think? No, it was a $100. Someone mentioned that. Damon's mentioned that 100. I guess 50 plus 50. Yeah. That's not that's not That works, yes.

Yeah. Well, I don't know. I don't know if it was. Wow. Oh, yeah. Let's all assume it's show and win, Casey, right? Because nobody gets paid just show, right? Right?

Dick. So it is show and win that it is 50. All right. Guys, let's be professional. Oh, my gosh. So 50 to show. 50 to show. And then he did win.

to win for Gabbyo Menitez. He is a veteran too, but it is kind of weird to hear like Gabriel Benitez made 100K with the win and Cruz only made 175, considering their sort of gap in star power. But that is the UFC pay system at work. You know, got actually a nice chunk of change tonight. Angelio.

Hey. So we got 190. She walked home of $190,000, I think. Is that what it was? Yeah, good for her, good for her. Is that right? Did I not see that right? Maybe I messed that up.

You are correct, sir. Yeah. 95, 95, yeah. Nice. And good for her, because again, she missed down on a lot of win purses in the last few years. Yeah, so. And just great fight. A fight I wasn't expecting her to win.

And she, she, it was loopy that was doing the more strikes. And Angela Hill, that kind of, I don't want to say grappling one or the fight. but the just the mixing the martial arts won her that fight and just a great performance and I don't think Lupi lost too much I mean loopy office lost a half a paycheck but as far as her stock in the strawweight division I think it's still there and um angela hill definitely needed that fight definitely needed that win so a big win for her um tonight um huge huge one yeah oh let's talk about a bummer maybe I mean, it was one of those things where I felt like the question is, is Cynthia Calvio done in the UFC?

It's one of those questions where I was like, nah, I don't know, but it all kind of depended on the performance. And yeah, she went the distance, but man, she looked real gun-shy tonight. She looked real gun-shy. And I kind of understand because her last two fights, she got bolted by Jessica Androge, real violent finish. And then her last fight was a very, very violent loss to Andrea Lee, like a really bad, brutal loss where she had, the fight had

to be stopped on the stool because her face was just an absolute mess. So I understand, I guess the gun shyness when you take two brutal finish losses like that and back-to-back fights, but Nina Nunes isn't really like a big knockout puncher, big knockout striker. So you felt like if any fight was going to kind of get you loose again, this would be the one. and she just didn't have it. She just didn't have it. I'm stunned a judge gave her a card.

Even Nina Neon is like, what the hell are you talking about? I didn't think there's any chance that Di Calvio won that third round. But I think they will give her one more shot at 115, but it ain't going to be a fight that's going to do her any favors. But what do you think, A.K.? Yeah, it has to be at 115.

I don't think I have any interest in, and she gave flyweight to try and she faced some tough opponents of flyweight don't get me wrong. It's not like she's the worst fighter ever because she couldn't beat the names that she fought at 125. She fought some really tough opponents. But it's obviously not happening there.

And straw weight, I mean, I dropped down to straw weight is not going to solve all her problems, but at least as far as making it sort of interesting for the UFC and kind of, you know, the give me one last chance fight at a new, you know, back at 115 if she can make it. No guarantees. It's a weight class.

She's missed, I want to say, I believe, three times she's missed a one of Dean Marks. So it could be tricky proposition, but that is her best shot. Otherwise, listen, there's a lot of strong. If she wants to stay at 125, the UFC ends up parting ways with her. There's a lot of other promotions there with decent women's flyweight divisions. So, yeah, maybe she has to go that route. But I do think she should, if she can make a real commitment, is dropping back down to straw weight, give it a shot, give it a shot.

All right. Why can't they supply DC with the fan with enough batteries for a whole card? Oh, man. Yeah, so apparently everybody, apparently it was very human in San Diego. I think that was the word that was most used on the entire broadcast was humid. It's been humid in Southern California for a few weeks, uncharacteristically humid. So, yeah, so San Diego is about two-hour drive south from here. So, yeah, it is very human.

And that is an older arena. And I guess I'm pretty confident that the air conditioning in that arena was probably from the 70s. And it wasn't it wasn't quite anticipating the temperature rise of the world. So I don't think it could match the weather outside. Yeah. So poor DC. Poor DC. DC and Bisbing.

Yeah, not a great prelim for those two guys. It was a little uncomfortable at times, but I thought they were better in the main card. They improved. We made it through. We made it through. Is Hargi the best Mexican prospect yet? I don't think it's more so than Yiair Rodriguez.

I think Yeru Rodriguez was very, very hyped when he came in. More More More Moreno. Yeah, or even Brandon Moreno. So there's a lot of good ones. Yeah, I mean, we, Electra Grasso was supposed to be the co-main event. Yeah, so we have Grasso. Aldana is. Adana's fighting soon, right?

Is she fighting, is she, is it coming? Is that next week? That's not next week, is it? Is that next week's card? Yeah.

But regardless, she's a great Mexican prospect. She's not from Tijuana, though, right? I think she is from Tijuana. Oh, yeah, she is from Tia. Okay. So, yeah, so that's just exciting. Do you have seen needs to have another card soon

somewhere in Mexico, right? Yeah. They've got the names for it. They've got the names for it. Yeah, like, it's just, they just need it. I mean, the crowd was awesome. Even like, I was down, I was down in TJ about a month ago and just going through us. I drove by just, just randomly random streets.

I drove by two jujitsu gyms in TJ. I'm like, whoa. It's just like, I was just, I mean, I saw more, I saw more MMA gyms than I saw boxing gyms when I was in Mexico. Maybe I was just, maybe my eyes were just looking for that, you know, the kind of like when, whenever, whatever car you're driving, you seem to see that car everywhere. maybe you're just looking for it, but I did see more MMA gems and Tijuana. So, yeah, it's an exciting time

for Mexican MMA. What we got here? Is she the best? I don't know, but she's really good. Yeah. If Josh Quinlan hits follow-up shots, you'd think he would have had a better shot at a bonus. Probably not, but I understand the question.

Yeah, I wish, I would think his, his pulling back is his pulling back is what should have got on a bonus i love that i love that he like went in it's like he had to pull that punch he could have thrown his own shoulder out he could have damaged himself yeah i don't know how he did that that was like because he was right like it was whoever uh mr witt's family needs to send uh josh quinnon a thank you card for only only knocking the only knocking out jason uh whit once that was that was that was that was that was now yeah i know I know we kind of talked about Jason Witt's, you know, is his chin not the best? But he got hit of such a hard shot.

Boy, I hope he's okay. I hope he's okay. Do you think Breskees should have won or did I listen to too much to the commentators? Yeah, it was a weird one, wasn't it? Breske was looking like a flyweight, the volume he was thrown. But he did definitely slow down the second half of that fight, A.K. I thought anyway. He did.

Boudai, excuse me, was landing some. some good shots. He was definitely landing the more impactful shots, but like early on, Breske was looking, he was looking real good. I think he landed like 50-something

strikes in the first round. Something crazy like that. Yeah, I don't think it's crazy at all if you thought that Breske won the fight. It's, I don't want to, I wish I was watching a little bit closer

to tell you whether like I thought it was a robbery or not. Where they con. I'm probably leaning towards not robbery, but I mean, looking at M.A. Decisions. Oh, it's a robbery

if you go by M. decisions. I believe this is. There is one score for Martin Boudai, 2,928, and then there's what looks to be at least 11, 12 media score. 13, thank you, Casey. Media scores for Breski. And 92% of the fans had Breski winning to, and they don't know anything.

And they don't know anything. It's tough because Boudai's output just wasn't very high. It just wasn't very high. And the argument for him would be that I guess he landed the more damaging shots, but, man, It's not like he had like Breschi had like super in trouble. He did clearly hurt him a few times. Don't you run there. He landed some really good shots in there.

If you're if you're just saying like, oh, the top, the top 10 hardest punches of the fight, yeah, Boudai probably had like seven of them. But man, he didn't land like just Breski was landing a lot more. But he did tire out. So again, I don't think the worst, the worst score. But it does, if you're Breski, I'm surprised it wasn't a little more complaining on his side. He seemed kind of like, you know, annoyed but not like, okay, he just kind of like walked it off. But I'm amazed.

a little more of a protest. Presky, I'll land him in every single round. 41, 25 in round one, 43, 19 in round two, 34, 22, in round three. But the tide was turning a little bit in round three. Yeah. But those are stats. Stats, right?

What does stats mean? What does stats mean? What does stats? All right, what we got here? Ah, we just saw the question. I lost the question. But, oh, just more of a comment. And I think this is fair.

And we were kind of criticizing D.C., but I think during the main event, I felt D.C., you know, and even with his relationship of Dominic Cruz, I thought I didn't get any of that sense. I felt D.C. did actually a pretty good job breaking down the fight while it was happening. Oh, I thought he was talking about Dominic Cruz in the question. I thought he said, I thought Dominic Cruz did well during the minute. Oh, you.

Oh, you. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Mike? I don't know. No. But yes, I thought, I thought, I thought Bisbing and D.C. were really bad early,

and then they got better as the main card went on. They must have got like some kind of talking to. Like, I don't know how you could listen to that broadcast and I'd not be like, come on. Like, I compared it to the beginning of Peewee's Big Adventure with Francis and Peewee here and argue it over the bike. Like every single thing. It was like, oh, yeah, well, I landed seven punches. Oh, yeah. Well, I didn't eight punches.

It was just back and forth bickering. Just it was like two brothers just over and over in the backseat of a freaking minivan during a family vacation. It was just brutal to listen to. And then they finally got cooking in the main card. And yeah, I thought they did much better in the main event. And I thought they were great in the co-main event because there was just. Yeah. They reacted like I was just laughing hysterically.

Like I can't believe it wasn't too much to break down. It was just a ridiculous fight basically. It was just like, I don't know what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but going to D.C. and Busby, I think a lot of it has to do with just their, their, how is the word I'm looking for it? They just don't know those fighters.

And I don't, maybe Dom's kind of onto something. They just don't do enough research on those early people. And obviously, like, the top, the co-main event was freaking awesome. The two, the Yasmin versus Yasmin fight was just awesome. So you really can't mess that one up. And in the main event, they just know. know those fighters so well, both because of the ranking and just, I think, just the friendships they have behind the scenes, they just did a good job on it.

So, yeah, the more invested they're in the fight is better. But, yeah, as far as the prelims, they just seem very unaware of what was going on. Yep. Cool. Anything else? Sorry, my ears. We take a couple more. Yeah, I got a couple more.

All right, here we go. that's an interesting question do you guys Ralph Madrid do you guys think it's time for Dom Cruz to start thinking about retirement and not get to the point where it can affect his legacy I mean I don't know how you felt about this AK but did you end that

did you end the night thinking man maybe Domina White needs to have that conversation with Domina Cruz I don't I didn't really feel that way but what did you think? I don't think he has to have a conversation I think like we said he seemed to be fighting fine but he just has a ton of mileage on him. He's been fighting since he was pretty young.

He's been fighting at a high level since forever, since I don't even know about it. It's like seventh, eighth pro fight. He's been fighting against, you know, people with Wikipedia entries, however you want to gauge, you know, what is a high quality of May competition. However you want to gauge it, he's been fighting high quality of amma competition

for the better part of well over a decade. And again, we say for the most, you know, a lot of people, like when they say why he's been fighting for so long, it's like, oh, he's avoided damage, avoid damage. That's true. But think about all the camps he's been and all the rehab from injuries. Like it's the stuff, all the stuff in between,

all the travel, all the work he does in between. You know, he's, again, he's an analyst for the UFC now. He's done a lot of traveling, not even to fight, not even to train, just in his work for the UFC, right? This stuff, it all takes its toll on you. And he's getting older and older and older. I think we said 36, 37 next month. And again, not 37, you know, years like this guy

where I've never been to real fight in my entire life. 37 years where this guy's been fighting and sparring and training and wearing, just wearing everything. down in his body and it just adds up. So whether you think his chin is gone or not, it doesn't really matter. It cannot be what it was five years ago. It has to be worse. And in that sense, there's the health aspects.

I will say, I don't think any fighter should take their legacy into account when deciding whether they should retire or not. Legacy is, obviously, if you're a fighter, you want to have this amazing, flawless legacy. Everyone wants to go on a high note. You never want to have that slump like BJ Penn has had. You don't want to go out that way. But if you're a fighter, you really cannot worry about that. You cannot worry about your legacy.

That is for fans. That is for maybe, I don't know, other people who know you. If you're fighting, you think your health, your health, your money, and also just like, do you still want to do it? Do you still enjoy doing it? Because once you stop, yeah, it's MMA, you can kind of always come back in some capacity. But really, once you stop doing something at the highest level, and this doesn't just go for M.A. This goes for any sport.

You never get to go back to that world again. you know i always bring up coi brian as an example not one of my favorite players but a guy who played for a long long long long time and near the end was like battling injuries but but that's a guy who knew that like once i stop once i say i'm done with the NBA i don't get to play an NBA game ever again i can go play pickup basketball maybe i can do a playing a pro league overseas or something who knows you know there's other options but i never get to do it at the highest highest level that i'm used to and that's the same with dominic cruz is like even if he came let's say even if he retired and came back in like two or three years he wouldn't be

He wouldn't be in that mode that he's in now, which is just this prime mode of competition and training and focus. It wouldn't be the same. So once you accept that, you can't go back. And that's, I think, the thing he's going to consider the most not legacy. Even though for us as fans, yeah, we'd love to see, we'd love to see him go up now instead of on three, four, five straight losses. I think it just has to do with what Dom thinks of is legacy important. and how much legacy is going to affect his

his income for the rest of his life. Like, if he does this again and say he loses four more fights, he gets knocked out bad, then we're going to kind of forget how great he was. And it's slightly different, but I almost think of like Hennon Burrow. Hennon Burrow was, there were talking about him or out being the best ever,

but now we barely talk about who, I bet new fans who came into the sport, maybe the last three or four years, have no idea who Hennon Brow even is. And he was such a dominant fixture in the Bantamweight Division. But once he lost the T.J., his, he just continued to lose over and over. And say like he lost once the T.J. He may have been just retired. There will be still conversations about it, but he went on to lose, like, six fights in row bad.

So his legacy is completely ruined. And, you know, in a lot of these fighters, they use that legacy for future seminars, future autograph sessions, fan expos, you know, making DVDs of, you know, how to do guillotines, you know. Those things matter. So it's really up to Dominicruz and how he just wants,

how he looks at it. And also, is he okay with not being the best or not even thinking he can't be the best? Is he okay going, well, if I can just compete with these kids, you know, as a guy in my upper 30s, that's good enough for me. Is he okay? Like, whatever, like I think of,

say like someone like I don't follow sports too much but I used to love Akima Lajuan you know he finished out his career on the Toronto Raptors on the bench magical and yeah and um and I guess you know in those fights we don't get punched in the face is a little different but how is Dom gonna be can Dom just be you know a guy on the roster is he is uh their ego is able to take that I don't know does you see even want that him being a commentator that's a little different too so um that's a little different too so um that's for a dom to answer, to ask himself an answer.

But Dom looked good tonight. He didn't suck. He just lost two freaking one of the hottest bantam weights in the world right now. You know, he lost a guy with a non-human chin. You know what I mean?

So, like, I put Dom against someone outside of the top, well, in the back end of the top 10, rather than, like, maybe one of the hottest bantam weights in the world right now.

now I think maybe we'll have a better answer. It's, but I think it's a very fair question. That was a bad knockout. And it's one of those knockouts that it's hard to, it's, it's going to be hard, it's going to be hard,

it's going to be hard to get that mental image out of our mind. Yeah. First time we've ever seen them knocked out like cold like that. Yeah. We've never seen, we've never seen that before. When we saw Anderson get knocked out by, I know it's not the same thing,

we got, we saw Anderson get knocked out by Wyman. Mm-hmm. It was just like, that mental image was never there. And then we saw it, like, oh, it turns out you're human. You know, so, you know, that's just, that's a question for him.

Agreed. I think we're good. Anything else you want to add? What a somber note to end on. How great was that Onama Landwer fight, my goodness. It was crazy. I want Landwer. I keep leaving Onom out of it.

El Nama was amazing in this fight as well, by the way. But Landwer, for me, again, is the guy who's had like sort of the Shrack record of these insane fights. I want him to be, at some point, if his health permitting, he should be mentioned along that, like, and not as, he's not as high ranked as these guys and may never get there. He should be, he belongs in this conversation with the Vicente Lucay's, the Justin Gates'is, the guys who are like, you see a name, you see his name on a main card, you get super excited. I am not joking.

That is, like, that is the level for me that this guy is at. Maybe I'm getting ahead of it, but I hope, I hope that that is the respect he earns over the next couple of years if he's able to stick around the UFC, string together just enough wins, put together just, you know, exciting performances. And again, stay alive. Stay alive, stay alive, stay alive. I don't know how many, I don't know how many of these fights he can go through, to be honestly.

Like I said, he was doing this before the UFC. So I don't know how many of these he has left in him. But hopefully enough that people recognize that, yes, he is pound for pound, one of the most exciting guys in all of MMA. It's crazy. I like someone called him the non-problematic Mike Perry. Yeah. Yeah.

he is just he's just 100% Tennessee and if you have a problem with that then listen that's your own thing all right yeah there you go there you get the music AK I'll see you in the morning we will do some matchmaking I'm very excited to reveal my match my matcher for for Cheeto tomorrow very excited very excited to reveal this and who knows maybe maybe it's a good idea or two for mr. Cruz as well but that's on on to the next one, which will record tomorrow, and then you'll find it on the NBA Fighting Podcasting Network. But until then, for AK, for EKC,

I am Mike Keck. Thank you for watching. Hope you guys enjoyed the card. I know I did. Good night, everyone. Oh, I ran a poll. Who's the biggest star of USC San Diego? Chita Vera, 71%.

Happy birthday, AK. Sorry, great day. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.