MMA Fighting - UFC São Paulo Reaction | How Do You Grade Jailton Almeida's Win Over Derrick Lewis?

Episode Date: November 5, 2023

Jailton Almeida dominated Derrick Lewis over 25 minutes in the main event of Saturday's UFC Sao Paulo card, yet, a lot of people seem to have left the event with far more questions than answers, and found Almeida's performance as somewhat of a letdown. What grade does Almeida deserve for his second straight main event win? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and Eric "New York Ric" Jackman react to Almeida's sweep of the scorecards against Lewis, if the surging heavyweight gained anything with the win, if the community actually learned more about Lewis in the loss than Almeida in the win, and where Almeida goes next. Additionally, they discuss Nicolas Dalby's gritty comeback stoppage win against Gabriel Bonfim as the biggest underdog on the main card, Elves Brener's sensational knockout, Angela Hill continuing to pick up victories and her importance to the UFC roster, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. 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. I got to tell you, ladies a gentleman, didn't think we'd be starting the show on what is Sunday morning here on the East Coast. 12.9 a.m. Eastern time. We thought, if you guessed that Derek Lewis and Jailton, Almeida was going to go to the full five, congratulations to you because you probably won a whole bunch of money on that bet. And secondly, you're probably incredibly surprised. You probably just said that and didn't actually believe it.

But here we are, ladies and gentlemen, the victory horns are sounding for Jailton Almeida after a dominant performance against Derek Lewis, a somewhat frustrating performance against Derek Lewis. So it depends on who you ask. And I have a feeling things are going to get very spicy here on the UFC South Paulo post-fight show. It's going to be like a little mini episode of BTL here

responding and reacting to what we just saw from Jailton Almeida against Derek Lewis. We saw some really great performances. We saw a couple of fun fights. This all in all is just a very weird card. And we're here to talk all about it. I am Mike Heck. And joining me is,

is my best friend, at least for right now, the Prince of Positivity, Mr. Alexander Cayley, aka, hello, buddy, how are you? I'm thrilled. My blood is pumping for that main event. God, I don't know how you got, how you're so calm, my best friend. I guess you're more professional than I am.

I can't believe you settled down after what we just saw. And joining us this week, it's, it's a very special and rare occasion, but it's always exciting when New York Rick joins us for the post-fight festivities. New York Rick, that's, the face I have. How are you, my friend? You're muted. I can't hear you. Speechless. Oh, no, I can't hear you. No. I would be too. I would be too after what I just witnessed, New York, Rick. What if I'll, we had, we had a conversation. Jumping or quick,

um, New York, right, can we hear you? Can we hear you? What's going on? No, do we not do any test B.O. for you? Was it just us complaining talking about the vice before? It was. He was talking. I was wondering why he wasn't chiming in before the show. All right. Let's make sense now. Casey, do you want to work on this and we'll get, well, I'll talk to A.K. for a minute? Yeah.

Do you want to do that? Yeah. Sounds good. Go for it. Sounds good. All right. My best friend. Yes.

My best friend was going on. You have been very vocal and very public about how high you view Jailton Almada as a heavyweight contender. You made no secret about it. this was a five-round dominant performance. I saw some people on our website. I actually believe you did as well. Scored it 50 to 40.

50 to 40. Yep. Let me ask you this, A.K., and I want, you're my best friend. And you won't lie to us. You won't lie to the world. How do you grade J-Lton-Lam-A's performance here? How do you grade this win? My best friend is, funny, you ask, because I've thrown up a poll.

I've just won man's opinion. So I've done to a poll, and it is not going well for my boy, Jelton. I'll tell you that right now. And you've got quite a few votes in already. Two minutes in, we've got more than enough votes for a reasonable sample size. Obviously, I did A, B, C, D, or lower? D or lower, way ahead right now at a solid. Wow.

So I'll tell you right now, the voice of the people, not happy with what they saw in. I mean, I don't think anyone would argue he won the fight. Did he put on a great performance? clearly that is up for debate, or at least it's somewhat up for debate, not with a lot of our commenters and some of our viewers. I see the comments already.

People not happy, Mike, people not happy with Cheltenlemena. I would go, I'll go B, I'll go B. I won't go A. I won't go A. Don't worry. Obviously, I'm a little more, I'm a little bit higher,

I guess, on what we saw tonight than most, but I can't go A. A would have been if he'd finish the fight. He should have finished the fight. That I won't tonight. He should have finished a fight. He should have at least done more damage so that people, you know, so that we could say 10-8 with more authority, right?

Because I've been, anyone who reads my robbery reviews, I'm one of the, you know, proponents of like preaching, damage is so important. Even though, by the way, we need to tell people, again, damage is not really a word in the criteria, but when we say damage, people know what we mean. We want to see people throwing punches, impact. Impact is the word used in the rules, the official rules. But I think a lot of us interpret that as damage and not unreasonably so. I think that's a fair interpretation of the word impact.

You want to see someone doing something to try and finish the fight. And outside of a couple of submission attempts, I will say, it did suck that Almeda didn't really come close. I think there was one of those armed arm triangles, maybe a couple of arm triangles look pretty good, but the commentary did a really good job of sort of breaking down what Derek Lewis was doing, the techniques Derek Lewis was using to survive. So I don't know if anything was really that close. But I feel comfortable with a sweep of 10-8s because, Lewis, like, did nothing, like did literally nothing and gave up multiple dominant positions.

If it had just been, like, in guard, if it had just been even just sitting in back control and like literally nothing happening, I would have been fine with saying. And by the other, I'm okay with saying some of those rounds were not 10-8s. I think round four, I was very close. People took the live blog. I said 10-8 all the rounds, but round four, you could definitely say it was a 10-9, probably one of the other rounds at least. But I would have like seen more 10-8s because you don't need to have, this is one of the, misconceptions people have. You don't need all three criteria still.

That's like an old thing. You need all three criteria to get a 10-8. You just need to show off at least a couple of them. And dominance is one of them. This is about as dominant as you can get without really getting hurt at all. So for me, this is what a 10-8 looks like if you can't finish a fight. I never thought I'd see a 50-40. Most people don't feel they saw 50-40 tonight.

But if there ever was a 50-40 card, this is what it would look like, I think. Neerick, do we have you? No, I see him I heard you for a second I heard the button Why is it not working I think it was AK's button Oh it was AK's button

Oh it was AK No it was me yeah I'll continue just over I do want to clarify that I do want to clarify it We'll get New York here in a second Don't worry guys He has he has a take on it

It needs to be heard I can counter I can counter some of this If you'd like Well before you count it though I'll ask you this though I'll ask you this If just one of those rounds

Look like that I think it's because the whole fight looked like that, people got frustrated. And you don't want to reward a guy for, again, just getting those positions and not finishing with them. So I understand. But if one of those rounds had looked like that, I think you would have been comfortable giving that a 10-8, right? Like, were you okay with a 10-8 round one? I was teetering it. I kind of felt like round two, which I think was the only 10-8 round, scored by anybody in that fight from the three judges. I think that was a 10-8. Like, I felt, I think that was actually more dominant than, because I actually

thought Jelta was like, I'm going to get him out of here. Like, this is it. There's no way he could survive all these submission attempts here. And Derek literally did nothing in that round. He at least threw some punches, threw a couple of elbows in round one. Like, he did something. Round two, he didn't really do anything. Round three, he did some stuff.

Through a little more damage. And then he landed stuff. Like, he landed the most impactful shots of like rounds four and five, but just happened to be like while he was falling down again because he kept getting taken down over and over again. And so I don't know, man. Like, this was, this was to me, this was a, I would, look, I took some things away from Jelton. I made it.

There's no doubt about it. This was very McKenzie Dernish to me. This was a McKenzie Dernish kind of main event performance. And I'm not talking about the Angela Hill fight because that's what happens when, like, because we've been saying, we've been before the Angel Hill fight. We're like, damn. That's good thing. And McKenzie Dern could just actually like throw punches.

Like, she's going to be really good at this fighting thing. Like, this is the one thing she's missing. If Jailton, and Jailton, like, landed punches in this fight, but like, geez, Louise, man. If he just, like, in some of those mount positions, after Derek Lewis defended the 3174th arm triangle attempt, like, just throw some punches. And when he was throwing punches, he was hurting Derek Lewis. There was a point, I think, I don't know if was the end of round three or round, I think it was the end of round three. Derek, like, if there's another 30 seconds and he get punching, like, the fight would have been. stopped.

Like, that fight would have been over. And if Jelton just threw some punches while he had Derek in such bad positions, like that fight would have been stopped in round one or two, I think. If he just got up and landed punches, but he didn't. And that's what was so frustrating about this because he could have got him out of there. I don't know why he was so like, I have to submit this guy. If he just threw punt, like I even picked TKO on this because I felt like Derek Lose's submission defense was a little bit underrated.

And it was actually more underrated than I thought. but if Jailch had just threw some punches while he was in Mount like the fight would have got stopped I just it was very frustrating to watch because one we were seeing the same thing over and over again and I get your point there

but there are many many opportunities for him to finish this fight and he just chose not to and it was very frustrating to watch from that end especially since I've been very high on Jailton Omitted this is supposed to be like a showcase fight in some respects he did showcase his superior wrestling and getting in

really good positions, but he was supposed to go out there and melt Derek Lewis, get him out of there and have a short night at the office and he didn't do it. So, B is, it's tough to say for like a dominant performance like that, getting 21 plus minutes of control time over the five-round fight,

but this is like a C-plus for me, man. It really is. It was just kind of frustrating to watch, man, as dominant as it was. I think, though, I think it's, like, it's easy to say, oh, he should have, just poured it on, should have punched more. I think it's, like, harder to hold Derek Lewis down than people are giving Almeida

credit for. And I think, like, the moments when he, like, I think he picked his moments carefully when he could throw punches. And, yeah, maybe he was, he was definitely super cautious. There could have been moments where he could have taken more risk and probably gotten a finish. I agree. If people read the live blog, you can almost see me kind of rolling my eyes at some moments. And I'm going like, well, he's not, you know, Derek Lewis doesn't do anything.

but Almeida's not exactly lagging the octagon on fire right now with his offense. But again, I'm just trying to put myself in his shoes where it's really hard to hold Derek Lewis down. The moments where they are on the feet were a little scary. I think you said,

and I know Damon was saying in the slack, that like Lewis kind of threw some shots that might have connected. And I don't think he'd landed anything too impactful, but it always feels like he's a moment of a way. So if you're Al-Meda, I think, I don't think. Clearly, the emphasis was on control and holding on two positions

as opposed to, you know, pouring on the ground and pound. I have a feeling they probably emphasized like not, like only doing enough ground and pound to, you know, avoid being stood up, which is a shame, which is a shame. That's, that's not how these things should go. But holding Derek Lewis down is hard. And there's a big size disadvantage. We're talking like 30 plus pounds difference. I think, I made it was 236. Lewis was 265. And again, that's just their way and wage. I think Lewis is a little bit more than that. So probably more than 30 pounds heavier. It's hard to keep people down. And he has good submission defense for the most part. He got, he got taken

up by Speed Back. That was like one of his worst career performances. But I think that was more of an outlier than anything else. So he's not like super easy to submit. It's not super easy to finish on the ground. I choose to look maybe a little too optimistic, but I'm looking on the bright side here and saying like what he did was actually really impressive, just holding him down as long as he did.

Could he have done more? Yeah, that's why I go for the B. A C plus, I kind of understand that too. I'm not going to hate on that score. But give him a lot of credit. He's a much smaller man fighting bigger guys. And if you want to make the case that that's his choice and he should be fighting a light heavyweight, that's more than fair. But if he can keep winning it heavyweight, which he did today

definitively, then I see no problem with him fighting the way he fights. Eric, Rick, I think you're here. I think we have. I'm here. I'm here. Yes. Welcome. Welcome. So you probably heard everything AK had to say there. He rated Johnson Almeida. He gave Jelton Almeida a B for this performance. He understands why some people might have been frustrated, but he gave him a B. I actually thought he's got to go higher than that, but he went with the B. I went with the C plus, and I think that's probably being a little bit generous here. What do you give Jailton Omeda for this performance? It's dominant, yes.

An F. An F. Whoa. The highest possible order, an absolute F. Oh, why? Please share. I'm so excited for this. Why?

I mean, do I need to explain? Like, this was a showcase fight where a guy who's not a grappler was supposed to come in there and get submitted, and he laid on him for five rounds and threw no punches. and didn't do the showcase part of the showcase. And then asked everybody in the crowd after the fight, did I give you a show? The answer is absolutely not. There was zero show given.

And I couldn't be swayed away from an F. There's nothing you could do to convince me that that was anything other than an F, in fact. A.K., how do you feel about this? An F. That's harsh. I will say Jelton's post-fight line, that was clearly they were going to sit there,

like they had that pre-written. obviously that's like what they were going to say if he won by first round submission but they had it in the can anyway so they're just like yeah you know what just still say it and I'm like okay I enjoy this performance somewhat I wouldn't say you put on a show by any measure certainly not by the UFC's entertainment standards so

I think F is a bit crazy I think I don't know if you can fail someone for putting on a dominant performance if we're just talking about wins and losses I guess you're coming in it from entertainment and also how this might have affected his stock? No, I mean, yeah, certainly in those regards, but when the fight is set up for you to do one

thing and you failed at doing that one thing, that's an F. You failed. It's not about, like, did he win the fight? If all the question is, is do you win every single fight? The answer is no, because no fighter wins every single fight except Habib. But when you have the guy who is set up to come in there on short notice and get submitted and you do not see. submit him, you failed. It's a failure of the highest order. Now, could he have won by TKO, ground and pounding him? Sure, that would have been an acceptable outcome as well. But by all measures, this was not the outcome that was ordained. And yeah, I don't care how effective he was at keeping control of Derek Lewis. Like, that's not a metric for success for me for Jolton Amita.

If you ask me, do I think that Jolten Amita can control Derek Lewis for five rounds if he wants too, yeah, the answer is yes. And I think I knew that heading into the fight. So I didn't really need an affirmation. I didn't really need that to be confirmed for me. Okay, let me ask you this. There's a lot of time. Wait, Mike, sorry, I want to say, we had to remember this was not the original assignment, right?

The original assignment was Curtis Blades. So we're failing. This is the easier assignment. That's fine, but this was also the assignment that he had so much less to gain from. Because, yes, look, we would have all been much happier if he had taken Derek Lewis on around. That was the expectation. That was probably the odds on. I can't remember the odd,

free fight odds. That's probably the odds on, you know, favorite thing to happen. But also, if he had just run through Derek Lewis, like, would he get an A grade for that?

I don't know if he could even get an A anymore once the matchup was switched up, right? It's just, it wasn't a lot to get in here. Yeah, he wouldn't get something, but it wouldn't be enough. But there was a lot to lose here, too, right?

Like, I understand sort of why he fought safer. Like, there was a lot to lose here. If he takes risk against Curtis Blaze and he loses, then we're all like, okay, well, it's Curtis Blaze. Pierce Blade's a top five guy stylistically, the matchup we want to see Almeida tested against. And he lost, it's like, we'll move on.

If he gets knocked out by Derek Lewis, which really, again, could have happened if he had kind of messed around and again, maybe taking some risk that he had not game planned for, that's an F. I mean, that's beyond F. That's we might never talk about this guy as a contender again. I'm excited with a conservative mindset. That's why the fight was made. The fight was made to save the main event. I think they could have found anyone. I mean, Derek Lewis was just the name that pulled up. Yeah.

They could have found anyone. and you should have finished anyone who was found on short notice in that position. I'm completely sympathetic to the idea that you don't look as good as you normally would on short notice. I'm okay with that. I talked about that when it came to Islam and Alex and Hamzat and Kamaru.

I'm okay with an outcome that doesn't look exactly the way we're expecting it to look. But this was the exact opposite. it. This was so far from what was expected. This was so far from what success actually looks like that I have no alternative but to, but to grade it harshly and it was an F. And right before the heavyweight division gets put on display a week later when you have this interim type of life, this could have happened before John Jones versus Stepe. This could have been the guy everybody's talking about because you know how this sport is.

What is the most recent thing you saw in this division from a high level? And if this is the performance heading into that, then it's just like, well, he's out of the conversation right now. So I ask you, A.K. And could I just say, by the way, I just want to clarify one thing. I don't think that Jelton Almeida should be ashamed of his performance. I don't think Jelta Jelta ammada is sitting there going, oh, I messed up. What did I do? But we're not Jolten Almeida.

And I can very easily just say that that was not what was expected of somebody who's supposed to be an Uber prospect. And I get that he's fighting bigger fighters, but that's what the heavyweight division. is if he wants to fight smaller fighters and we're going to give Derek Lewis credit for being cagey and defensive and being able to get out of that because he's so large, then fight light heavyweights, quite frankly. Yeah. And I agree with you on that end. I mean, he did win the fight. He did it without really breaking a whole lot of sweats. And he got two paychecks. And that's very important. So I ask you, A.K, because there was a lot of talk heading into this fight about what sort of questions we have about Jelton Almeida

because he really hasn't been tested at all. He's just running over people. We had some answers. He was able to go five rounds. And some people tweeted out, oh, that Jelton Almeida needs to go for bro because he might lose the fight

and that didn't really age all that well. But that's beside the point. What I mean is, do you still have more questions now? Like, did you come out of this with more questions? And is his stock higher after this? Do you feel like his stock is higher or it's exactly where it was? Or did it perhaps drop a little bit after this performance?

I think it has to be the same. I think if you're the UFC, you're definitely not jumping for joy at this. Thank you for the card itself. And I know we'll talk more about the rest of the card later. Actually, it was pretty good. So if the rest of the card had been bad and he had put on this performance, I think he would have taken a lot of the brunt of the blame. That would be a real problem.

He would have become sort of the face of what went wrong with UFC, Sao Paulo, as it was, pretty good card, pretty memorable card. So the rest of the fighters might have helped a little bit to bail Jailton out of, I'm not going to say it, out of trouble, as it were. So I'll say mostly neutral. And I say this also, again, sort of playing off what I said before, where there's just not a lot he could have done against Derek Lewis that would have increased his stock a lot. He should have taken care of business, should have put himself in line for a performance bonus.

I won't say them now, but spoiler. Jelton Lomaena did not get a performance bonus. So, yeah, he could have done more, but I think he did enough given the situation he was put. Again, I'm not jumping for joy saying this in A plus. I think F is way too harsh. And I would think A is also crazy. I think if anyone gave him an A, I would also say that's way too far the other way. So that's kind of why I'm in the middle with B.

Mike, I thought C plus was a very solid grade. But he very likely was not getting a title shot off this fight. He could have flying arm triangles. Let's make that up. Derek Lewis in 15 seconds, he's not getting that title fight. It would have put him on the short list more, whereas this performance maybe didn't, but there just wasn't a lot to gain. So there's one thing I learned, actually, I was a little bit impressed with his game planning

and with his ability to conserve energy because he should have gone for broke, but the fact that he didn't and last that 25 minutes, it actually was like, I think, a tougher, again, a more draining, tougher fight than people think. That impressed me. that impressed me because I need to see him be able to ground out those wins. Because I think even at Curtis Blades, I don't know if he would have finished him either. And I still want to see that fight made. And I think he'd have to fight a bit like this.

If he couldn't put Blades away, I think he'd have to go 25 minutes with him. And now I know there's a chance that he could. I actually think you did have a little bit to gain here. I don't think he would have got a title shop, but he even called out the name that he probably would have got if you finished Eric Lewis. He would have bypassed Curtis Blades had he gone out there and finished Eric Lewis. He would have got the Cyril Gone fight, which I think he probably would have done really well in. but instead, I think he's just going to have to fight Curtis Blades anyways, because he gained nothing from this in a lot of respects.

Do you agree with that, New York, Rick? Completely agree. You've nailed it. Like, there was a lot to be had here, and he left it on the table. And there's a very real chance that he still fights Cyril gone. I don't think his stock took, I'm giving him an F grade, and I still don't think his stock took that match of a hit just by product of the context and the circumstance that the UFC heavyweight division,

you're two fights away from a title shot at any given point. Like you get one impressive performance and you string together another one on the back end of it. And you could be sitting in a title picture. He's fortunate to be in that division. And maybe that's by design. Maybe that's why he's not electing to potentially go down to Light Heavy Way where it seems like he could potentially go. And now granted, nobody wants to take a weight cut. And this might be just somewhere where he feels more comfortable.

But it's smart because this is a division, as I said, where you can get a title shot very quickly. So I don't think his stock takes a huge hit just by nature of that. But yeah, if I'm Cyril gone, I'm not taking that fight. Like, why would I take that fight against the guy who's obviously a very successful and elite grappler when I have the take down defense that I have if I'm Cyril gone? And by no means, do I think the UFC is going to force me into that position if I'm zero gone? So yeah, like nobody's going to be clamoring for that in any way.

And he's going to be right back there with Curtis Blades, if all goes a. according to what we expect. So, yeah, I think he left a lot on the table, but I don't think he takes a huge hit, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think he's like where he's at heading in. I don't think he gained anything. He might have lost like a little bit short term. I think people are going to give him a little bit of crap for it.

But it's because we just expect a lot from him. That's all. Let me ask you to New York, and then we'll reveal who the bonuses are. If you had the choice, if the UFC put out a poll right now and said, hey, this night ain't over yet. We're going to give you one more round of action. In New York, Rick, you had to decide. One more round of Almeida Lewis or one more round

of the most heated rivalry in the history of the heavyweight division, Rodrigo Nassimento versus Dantel Mays. What are you picking? I mean, that's a no-brainer. Like, prime me up for the trilogy. Forget one more round. Do three more rounds right after. And don't give them any oxygen between.

Just let them go. No, I mean, what, like, we're joking about it, but truly, if that fight had five more rounds, what are we going to see out of Almeda and Lewis that we didn't see? Like, am I confident that he's going to finish him in five more? I'm actually not. Like, it seems like he's kind of stuck where he's at. And Derek Lewis has the capability to prevent him from doing much more.

So yeah, not interested in any more rounds of that fight. That can be tossed in the trash heap and never shown again. Mike, I'll tell you some, 10 rounds. you would have gotten 96, 93, Fury. Oh, sorry, that's a wrong post-by show. I've already pissed people off enough with that take. Now I'm making people, now with 50, 40. You would have seen 190 if there was a 10-round.

Yeah, every round would have gone the same. I want to believe Jeltson would have found a finish in there somewhere, but that's purely speculative based on what we saw tonight. So, listen, 190 would have been impressive in its own way. People would have been 180 on your card, AK. By 100 to, that's right. It would have been 100 to, wow, that would have amazing. By the, I mean, by the ninth round.

they would have been performing in front of an empty arena, but still, you know, it would have been impressive in its own way. Shout us to the comments for pointing out, this is the first time Derek Lewis has gone 25 minutes in his career. He's been scheduled for many five-round fights, but obviously almost none of them go the distance. So first time for, let's have a little applause for Derek Lewis. I mean, you could argue he was probably, he was even worse than Jelton,

but this is his, what, 40th, 40th, 40th, pro fight, 28th in the UFC, first time. time he's ever had to go the full 25 a lot of it was spent just lying down but still kind of impressive right his stock his stock goes nowhere either his stock might even have gone up the tinge because Derek Lewis's stock is is impossible to ding you cannot his stock never goes down it just keeps going up it goes down it goes up and then it goes back to like a reset point which is like again two shots two fights away from a title he goes in there and knocks out joltan omeda he's one more it's one you get one more and then he gets a title shot you're

shot. So his stock is hard to ding. And also, let's be honest, he's in there to potentially try to knock somebody out with the few punches that he's going to have on the feet against Jaltenhammeda. And everybody saw him try that. Like he did exactly what he was intended to do. He did exactly what he was expected to do. So yeah, that was what it was from Derek Lewis. And now he'll get booked against somebody fun and try to take their head off too. And maybe they're not going to wrestle him as much. And that's what Derek Lewis is. But I don't, I wasn't. I wasn't. like overly impressed. That was just how Derek Lewis fights.

And that was what I expected out of them. And sure, he did, he did well in that circumstance. Last thing before I reveal the bonuses, Jelton Almeida's quote of, oh, did I put on a show for you? Was like the third most egregious thing that was said. You were not happy with some of the, you were not happy with somebody. What are one and two? Reveal. What are one and two?

Number two is, number two is Rodrigo Nassimento asking for a $50,000 bonus. because I just got insanity. And number one is Kyle Barallo calling out DDP and then saying, oh, you're running from me. DDP could be getting a title shot next. He's going to not, you know what? Hey, Hunter, forget the title shot. I'm going to go back to like the 28th rank guy and,

and fight him instead because he says I'm running from him. Just a bad call. And I'll, I'll reveal. I'm telling you right now on to the next one. He ain't fighting DDP. That's your day you are. And we'll talk more about that. But the bonuses.

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Yes, I have. Okay, New York Creek, do you want to take a guess? There is a fight of the night, by the way. There's a fight of the night? Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. What was fight in the night? Oh, my God.

The guy who got the 10-8 in round three. Who, what was the 10-8 in round three? Fokritinov and... Yes. Yes. That fight, Fight of the Night. And Dalby...

Wow. Really? Okay. Actually, there were some other good ones that I'm... Continue on. You started with the fight of the night. You just said one of the names. Dolby?

Yep. Oh, wow. Okay, interesting. I would have thought that would be a performance. But, okay, Dolby and Bonfim get Fight of the Night. I guess I can see it because, you know, it was the tale of two different, like,

rounds and performances. So I get that. I would have probably given it to the draw. Performances. Eduardo Ronda. Nope. She missed wait.

Wow. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That probably would have earned it. Brenner, obviously, right? Yep. And then one more. I don't know.

I'm blanking. Vitor Petrino. Oh, yeah. Another one shotter. Yeah. Those all make sense. I would have probably given fight a different spot, but it's hard to also feel

bad about that. That was an awesome fight. Yes. Nicholas Dalby, man. I mean, this man, he just, he said the fourth most egregious thing saying, you know what, I don't need to fight in Brazil anymore. I want to fight closer to home. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You need to fight in Brazil every fight. The rest of your career, though, because they want the Brazilians to show out in front of the hometown. I wouldn't book them. Get them as far away from Brazil as possible so they can keep the Brazil guys winning in front of the home crowd. If he fights in Brazil for his next four fights, he's

going to get a title shot for before Bala Muhammad does. Like that's just keep winning and putting on like electric fights. It's absolutely insane. But what a performance from Nicholas Dalby. The guy is just tough as hell. He is a he's a fighter's

fighter. Can I do a, can I just read a comment here from Daniel Grigg? That I'll make a fight is how you ensure nobody ever wants to watch you again. The UFC just can't ever book him on a pay-per-view now. Oh, yes, heavyweights never have boring fights. Or heavyweights never have boring fights and then are booked in big spots again. Oh, wait a minute.

Derek Lewis versus Franciscan Gondu. Derek Lewis's headline, many cards is then. Francis and Gondu, literally the biggest name in combat sports right now. This is what we're up. You understand? This is what I'm up against here. People make these wild claims at one fight. This is MMA.

Elmada can finish the next guy and people won't even remember this. I mean, they'll bring it up. They still bring up Lewis and Gano. I just did. But no, this is, especially heavyweight MMA, it's so easy. A lot of great heavyweights that people love have been in some stankers. And trust me, they have moved on just fine. So let's be, let's not overreact here.

Look, if they book him with Curtis Blades and he just ices Curtis Blades in like four minutes, then this would just be like a, remember Cyril Gahn was a boring heavyweight for a little while. You remember those day and away post-fight press conferences? Not people forget about those. Remember the Jarzino fights? Some would argue still is. He's been fun in his last couple. He's been fun in his last couple fights.

Maybe not the John fight because he never really got to fight. But the Paris, both those Paris fights were pretty fun. He just killed Sergei Spieback. But the time two Voszni way was incredible. So good. It was a great fight. So good. Maybe not as good as Rodrigo Nassimento, Dantel Mays 2.

I can't wait for the trilogy in 2026. It's going to be spectacular. Did we ever figure out why? this happened? New York, you're a smarter man than I. Why did they book this? What was this? It was a good fight. It was fun fight. Why? What do you mean? The clamoring online for the re-match. I'm not on the forums. I'm not on the forums. Yeah, yeah. You got to get on, you got to get on social. I'll compile the tweets for you so you can see like how many people were just like, I need it, I need it. This. Too many unanswered questions. Too many

unanswered questions. And we walk away with more. So let's do it the third time. There are still unanswered questions. Oh my God. I want to answer question. How many times can they do this fight? And people forget that it happened before because there's probably a few. There's probably a lot of time. Topology did.

Topology added the two to the end of the matchup today. I see you tapology. I know you forgot because I did. I see you tapology. They added it like today or yesterday. I think after our preview show, they added it. It's going to be a time honor tradition. Every three years, these two dudes are going to run it back on a main card.

And it's going to be electric. It's going to be electric. Let's see if Dontail Mays can make the adjudy. adjustments heading into the trilogy. Kyle Barallo improves to 5 and O in the UFC, defeats Abuse Magamadoff. That happened. Elvis Brenner, dude might be the rookie of the year this year when we do our voting. Three and O in the UFC, some really good wins and a walkoff freaking knockout.

Absolutely nasty stuff from Elvis Brenner. What a year he is having. Renat Valkertinov, Eliza Zaleski, fight to a draw. Fun fight? kind of a weird fight. Renovac Routacritinov was like so friendly. I didn't really expect that to happen, but friendly,

we're not a mythical fighter, apparently. Vitor Petrino, knocks on Modestis, Bacoscus. How about Angela Hill? Just live in the dream, A.K., and I thought you had the tweet of the night, A.K., in regards to this fight. Repeat, repeat that tweet, A.K.,

or at least paraphrasing. Yeah, I mean, this is why you keep fighters like Angela Hill around. I know she takes a lot of flack. Oh, she has like a sub-finding. 500 record in her like overall and she's like barely above 500. Her second stint at the U.S. It's like she fights killers.

She has one of the toughest strengths of schedules of any active fighter right now. It's just nothing but it's either killers or again, up and comers that they match her up with like Denise C Gomez, who they think are just going to run through her and make a name of her. Experience goes a long way, man. And I should have known this with the co-main where there's a similar age gap between Dalby and Bomb Feme. I pick Bomb Feme because I'm a fool.

But same with Angela Hill. It's like a 14, 15 year age difference. but a gap of like 20-something fight. It's not just 20-something fights. Like the level of competition is so big. And you keep Angela Hill around to test fighters like this and to push them to be better. This is not the end of Denisi Gomez.

Angela Hill said the right thing after in a post-fight. Denise is going to be a contender someday. I totally agree. If they met at a different stage of their careers, I think Gomez was favored here. I think she'd be favored again. But right now, this version of Angela Hill was just too much for this version of Gomez.

And that's fine. That's the quality of Angela Hill. So now you know where Denise and Gomez is a prospect and you can adjust accordingly. And meanwhile, you got an entertaining fight out of it, one that I think could have could have also been worthy of the fight of the night. It was really, really enjoyable to watch. We had the first finish of the card coming by the aforementioned Eduardo Maura, who missed weight by a lot. But boy, Monsterat, Conejo, Ruiz, these two looked like in there in different weight classes. It was like a Bannumweight versus an atom weight in there.

It was crazy. are they really are they're she's montserrat is just not the right size for this weight class that's that's the reality they literally were different weight classes she tried her darness i'll give her that and she's game if you guys missed it um you don't need to go back and watch the first fight of the night mark jackey um d1 jacese to the ninth degree this was uh isn't it wild how that's just become his style like it's just that at this point it's very weird no Like he was a guy coming up that was a striker And now he's just become a wrestler

Just completely opposite game plan Yeah The one time he really didn't wrestle He tried to strike with Michael Johnson And Michael Johnson beat him And then he thought he won And just one of the weirdest reactions I've ever seen But Casey gets back on track

And look if you lose two in a row Heading into that third You gotta do what you gotta do to win But he I guess he'll stick around And get another fight at least but yikes that was not that was just mark keep those checks coming in 15th ufcc fight got him back over 500 eight and seven down the ufc mark jakezy keep those checks coming buddy that's that's the name of the game really that's the name of the game so keep mixing those martial arts

can't believe i'm saying it but keep mixing i guess he's really not mixing them i guess that's what we're saying he's not he's not mixing the martial yeah so there you go hashtag keep the martial arts apart good job mark yes this is a very strange card but it is over and done with it ended with Jets and I'm a getting a win. You heard from us. Let's hear from you. Let's bring in Casey.

I'm sure he has thoughts. Actually, I know he has thoughts. Our Slack channel was just us being like, what the hell are we watching here? And then Casey being like, this fight rules. This is the best. The best. Which heavy weight by are we talking about? Because I was like the.

Um, but what a night. What a weird card. I loved it. I loved it. Okay. What do we got here? Did you?

I think it's interesting. Let's see. Andrew F., too many people wanted to make it a fight to Derek Lewis style of fight. How many took that route and lost the fight? Okay, look. Fair question. Fair question.

But again, as I mentioned, and I'll let you guys chime. No, no. But no, but here's, what we're saying is, like, New Yorkerick and I are pretty much of the same page. I didn't drop, I didn't give him an F for the performance. I was a little more gracious, I guess, or a little more optimistic. But no one is saying that Jelton Almeida should have a kickboxing match at Derek Lewis.

No one's saying, Matt. What we're saying is when you have a guy mounted and the arm triangle or any other submission you have tried has not worked, why not you try punching him a little bit and maybe you'll get a victory? That's it. Like be a little more, be a little more ruthless down there. Yeah. Not reckless.

I think that's the issue here. Is it ruthless or reckless? And I think that's... No, reckless would be him having a kickboxing match with Derek Lewis and trying to like spinning back elbow him unconscious. But when you have full mount and nothing's working, punch him. Like that's what's cost McKenzie Dern style points in a lot of her performances. And when she punches, she does very well.

Just ask Angela Hill what happens when McKenzie Dern starts punching? I'll tell you the difference, though, to me. McKenzie Dern is actually a much bigger straw weight than Angela Hill. She has a lot more weight on top. Now, we can, we can, what Eric said about, Almeida isn't a heavyweight. He's a two-o-fiver. And we saw that time. We saw a two-o-fiver winning a fight against a true, true heavyweight.

And this is what's going to happen. That's just going to happen. He's just too small to stay on top and throw strikes. Because every time he throws a strike, that is when Derek Lewis is. explodes. Derek Lewis doesn't explode when you're going for the arm triangle, or you're going for any commures or anything like. Very rarely, though, um, what he's looking for, he's looking for you to explode, bringing that elbow up. And once you get that elbow up, then you lose your balance. That's when Derek Lewis does this whole anti-jujitsu. I'm just going to stand up.

That was my impression when I'm watching the fight. And I think Almeida, who took this fight on short notice, he's like, so he's at very little, very few rounds training in the gym for a type of grappler like Derek Lewis, which is extremely unique. There's no, there's not too many bodies you can bring into the gym that are going to defend your submission attack like Derek Lewis. And I'm like, that's why I give a big, kind of a big molligan to Almeida in terms of entertaining us tonight. Okay.

I will raise you another point though, because. And I, and I, I don't disagree if you guys are saying. This is just kind of my kind of vision of the, my view of the angle of it. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. No, no, I get what you're saying. My raises, it wasn't all that long ago. It was in the same country.

It was earlier this year. Jailton Almeida fought an actual heavyweight, a big, huge heavyweight, arguably as big as Derek Lewis. Six foot three, 263 pounds, Shemiel Dharahimov. And you know what won him in the fight, Casey? He didn't submit Shemiel Duraimov. He tried. And when it didn't work, what did he do in round two? He punched him in the face.

lot until the referee said, okay, fights over. That's what he did. He didn't do that here, but he did it and held a very big, strong, actual heavyweight down and punched him and won. Was that the guy, was he trained for that fighter? Was that, was that the scheduled fight? Yeah. Yeah.

It wasn't even rebooked. Yeah. It was rebooked. Yeah. Three times. Oh, yeah. He had a lot of tight. He had a lot of times.

And these guys are human. I'm sorry, these guys are human. I'm sorry, these guys are human. He knows what Derek Lewis does to people. Nobody wants to be on that end. And I think that the Shamil, I don't even know his last name. The Shamil, like he doesn't have that highlight real. He doesn't have that fear.

When you're in top of, I assume when he's in top of Derek Lewis, he's seeing these replays in his head. And these guys, brain damage is real. And they do not want to get knocked out cold by this man. I think that plays a lot into it too. It's a great point. So if you finish him in the second round, you give them three, four less chances to do that to you.

If you finish him in the second round because you took him out of there with a TKO, he's not starting on the feet in the third round, in the fourth round, and in the fifth round trying to separate you from your consciousness. You're in the back enjoying your cake and pizza and on your way to enjoying it. And Derek Lewis is sent packing.

So I don't have sympathy for the idea that like, he's worried about getting knocked out well then finish the fight and then you're not going to get knocked out if he gets knocked out he just he becomes Curtis Blades 2.0 if Alameda gets knocked out finish him

finish him in the second round I just don't I just don't think it's that easy I just because Casey's right I mean Derek Lewis is a gigantic man he cuts to 265 Almeida is a bloated 230 something so then

then there's another 45 pounds of giant muscle and that's on the UFC there's an answer for that one that's an answer for that one I'm a heavyweight. Yeah, that's on the UFC. You know, you know the Adam Silver, like, enjoy China Buddy meme whenever somebody has a bad NBA game?

Jalton Almeida, enjoy 205. Dana White, put a Dana White meme out, Jalton Almeida, enjoy 205. If that's the answer that he's not capable of finishing Derek Lewis at 265, enjoy 205, buddy, enjoy it. Go back, go down and do it there. He thinks he dominated a two-time heavyweight Heavyweight title challenger like he legitimately like top of fame He dominated and and Casey's right

Casey the best one of the best points Casey brought up is Is that it's so we what we see is Louis Mada just hovered Lewis Lameda there is a Lewis Almeida there is a Lucas Alveda It sounds like a yeah I know that guy Anyway Jelton Almeida what we saw and this looked bad I said I said in our chat like if someone just kind of tuned in to any random moment of this fight, they'd be very confused of what's happening

because there were moments where Jelotin's like, literally kind of hovering over him either in Mount or some really weird moments, like inside control, where he didn't appear to be administering that much pressure, but Derek Lewis was still kind of just lying on his back. So it was a funny-looking fight at times. But I think when we, Casey's right, when we see Derek Lewis lying on his back almost like he's doing nothing.

He is waiting. He is waiting. He's waiting for Amita to like throw, you know, overextend on a, you know, a ground strike. It changes balance because he's going to throw a ground strike. And Almeida should be good enough. I agree. I get it. Should be good enough to overcome that because, but Lewis is very rare.

Like he is equipped in a unique way to defend against, you know, ground offense, right? So I'm, I think we all agree would have like see a finish. I think Casey and I are just a little more sympathetic to why that just didn't happen tonight. The other thing I'll say is a lot of times in MMA, there's like the word domination is only applied to like a long. extended control slash period of delivering damage, it's not more dominant than finishing a fight. And that's the most dominant thing you can do. And I think we lose sight of that at times. And I think that phrase like domination is thrown around a lot.

No, Islam Makachev dominated Alex of Okunovsky. That's what domination looks like. This wasn't that special. I'm sorry. Like it was fine. It was what he needed to get the job done. It was not special. It was not a good performance.

I understand, I understand Eric's logic, but honestly, I'm on the other end of that. And if I'm in a fight and someone chokes me out in the first round, or I get completely dominated for 25 minutes, that 25 minutes, I go, I'm going to come out thinking that guy is better. I don't know. I'm more impressed by someone dominating me for 25 minutes straight. than kind of getting me. But I get it. We're all kind of seeing the same thing,

but just kind of a little bit different angle. Yeah. And I think the 10-8 scores, I think they're pretty defensive because we all say all the time. Well, the first thing we say is M.A. Scoring sucks, which is true. And the second thing we say is like, okay, well, how can we like figure things out

within the system that we have to deal with? And like we all talk about all the time, like some listless rounds that are scored 10-9s that are so indefinite. And we have to differentiate between that. right so some of the like i don't know some of those um nassimento maze rounds some of those bohalio magumano rounds were like okay but not like nothing you would score a 108 right and they're they're kind of a nondescript they're fine you can sort of tilt it in one way when you have rounds

like this that are so clearly tilted one fighter's way i know it's frustrating to not see a finish but how can you score those the same way right like we have to make 108s we have to use 108s by the way i would obviously i was having the mic issues in the beginning i have no problem with 108s across the board if you wanted to score a 108s across the board great I'm still saying that he failed what his mission was, but that's fine. You can score those 10-8s. I wouldn't argue with you at all.

50-40, great failure. Submit and finish Eric Lewis. Damn. Yeah. I just, I think I saw a different mission for Al-MATA. That's all. Sure.

Whatever that was, wasn't the mission that I saw. He needed to accomplish. Yeah, look, he won. He won. And that's really the most important checkmark, right? But to answer that question, I don't think any of us wanted him to kickbox with Derek Lewis. I wasn't interested in that. Yeah, yeah, no.

Nobody wanted to see that. That's not what we meant. Yeah, that's not what we meant. That'd be silly. I know it's silly, but would him kickboxing of Derek Lewis, would that be the only way we learn something new tonight about Almeda? Really? Maybe. Because if he wanted to say finish from the first round, whatever, this conversation is different, but we still don't learn.

We still didn't learn anything about Almeda. I learned something about Almeda that he can't finish Derek Lewis across five rounds. I think that was something I learned. They ain't going to fight again, so I don't think we're going to worry about that. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

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Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. I just want to read that. I closed the poll. A lot of votes came in.

And it wasn't changing much. So, D or lower grade for Jail's Mameda, 47% way ahead, and then C, 26%. So C or lower, 73%. So there you go. The people have spoken. I can say what I want. The people have spoken. People graded Derek.

Okay, whatever. See, I'm just saying. Casey, this is the voice to people. I'm not saying I agree. I'm not saying that they had to explain it. This guy right here. I speak for them. I hear you out there.

I'm taking your energy. I'm taking your energy and giving it. 73% C or lower. I wonder, honestly, and I'm actually kind of curious about this. I wonder how the people would grade Derek Lewis's performance. Oh, should I do a minute? Should we make this official? Okay, I'll throw out the point.

All right. I kind of feel like he might get a higher grade. It's pretty tough. But why would he? It's so crazy. We have to grant that some of that is like expectation, sentiment of like feeling like I didn't get my money's worth or whatever, you know, on ESPN Plus. I didn't get my time sufficiently filled, but yeah, I wouldn't be shocked. He didn't get rid by Jalton and Albeda.

That's a win. That's a win for him in some people's eyes. The one thing about this fight, though. You were a test by his submission defense, Casey? You learned more about Burke Lewis than you learned about Jailton Almeida tonight. I learned I learned there's a little bit more to his ground game than I think we want to give him credit for. Dude, I have to watch the video again. I think in the last 45 seconds.

against of the fifth round or something. Almeida had side control. And it literally looked like he forgot what he forgot that he was in a fight. And it looked like Lewis just kind of like snuck out. Like, I'm just gonna stand up. And Almeida's like, oh crap, we're still fighting. And like it was just like, there were definitely motioned

that fight. They were just like, just it was a weird fight. It was such a weird fight. It was. It's a joke at this point, but there are literally moments throughout Derek Lewis's career where he just stands up. Like it's even though it has become a meme

and become a joke. He has done that effectively multiple times. Like, it's real. And we know how good Alameda is on the ground. So that much, I don't know how he does it. I think that's one that Derek is just lying there. It's almost kind of just looking at the lights, just looking around when he's,

I think it really just, I don't know, like Almeida just kind of just forgot what he was doing for a moment. Yeah, the lack of urgency lulls people into their own lack of urgency. There's a reality to that for sure. Derek's face didn't, like his face. didn't change at all in the entire fight. He didn't grimace.

He didn't take a deep breath. It was just like this the whole time. Yeah. To Casey's point strategically, like there is method to the madness and he knows what he's doing when he does this stuff. It's not just like it became a joke.

It became a joke, but there's real concepts rooted in the way that Derek Lewis defends himself. Yeah. And Almead was ready for that. Because as soon as Derek Lewis got up, he just tackled him right back to the ground.

That's right. It's the same thing again. The fact that Derek Lewis got that far up is super impressed. I think there was like one round where Derek Lewis almost stopped the takedown. And it was like this incredible scramble, actually. And I think if you take that 25-minute fight and kind of make a one-minute highlight or a 90-second highlight, it would be really exciting, by the way. But there was lots of definitely minutes and minutes in between. We're like, okay.

You could cut this into an incredibly exciting performance for Almeda. What did you guys make of Goddard, like, potentially threatening to stand them up in, or I don't know if he was potentially threatening to stand them up, but like asking for activity in Mount. What did you make of that? I'm kind of, I'm kind of, as long as he never actually stood him up.

I don't mind them. Hey, we got to keep going. We got to keep going. I don't mind that. Okay. You never actually stood them up. So I'm kind of. I only ask because it's so bizarre to see in those types of positions,

but that's, that's all. But yeah. So far, early returns in the poll guys. Dear lower still, obviously Derek lost the fight, but only 32%. 18%, 18% saying A. If I recall the, if I recall it all made a poll, if I recall the Almitapol, it was like 8% A, 14% or something like B. So.

8% A? Who are these people? Who are you? I swear it wasn't me. I did not, I cannot vote. Wasn't even AK. It wasn't even me. But Derek Lewis, A, 18% A, 23% B. So doing much better than I'll make it as great.

I'll say that right now. Derek Lewis gets a performance bonus. Oh, my God. Listen, he's got an eight fight contract. So you think he's not just happy to just keep like just getting these show up, get a fight off contract, get these checks, like. Derek Lewis is going to fly back home, go to Houston tomorrow. And he's going to be able to buy a brand new Lamborghini in cash.

Yeah. And fight against him. I'll probably see him in Toronto. Derek Lewis has MMA figured out properly. Derek Lewis is doing it correctly. So, yeah, no shade to Derek Lewis at all. Yeah, Derek Lewis actually, yeah. Derek Lewis won tonight, no matter what.

He won. Yeah, he probably made five times more than Jailton Almead made tonight. Yeah, he's going to go home. He's not going to go home and he's not going to watch any MMA at all. And the only time he's actually going to pay attention to what's going on in the UFC is when he flies to his next location to get ready for a fight. That's it. He's going to go live his life.

and cash a big fat paycheck. And he didn't get finished by Jelton Almeida. Not a bad night at the office. Not a bad night. No marks in his face. Doesn't even look like he was really in a fight. Sounds like Mike has an A for Derek Lewis from Mike. Yeah, it was all Mike.

Now that think about it. It is an A for Derek Lewis. Now that think about it. He did survive. He did survive. Again, we got more questions answered. We learned more about Derek Lewis tonight that we learned about Jailton Almeida, which is insane. Absolutely insane.

25 minutes. Derek Lewis, we never got it before. We've seen Derek Lewis. History. We saw history. History. Where were you?

Where were you when Derek Lewis was about 25 minutes? Never seen it. Oh, man. Okay, there were other things tonight. We'll take a couple. I mean, I don't know what else we could say here. Oh, wow. Tough night for Gabriel Bond theme.

It seemed like, it's so funny. Like, even on Twitter, everyone was like, dumping on Israel, Bonfeme, especially when the fight was canceled because he missed weight because Vince Michelle was like, no, I'm not going to give this guy the chance to make money because he didn't even try to make weight. And everyone's like, don't worry about it. Gabriel's the better Bonfeme anyways. Like, he's the guy we need to pay attention to. And boy, he looked good in that first round. And then it's just he fought Nicholas Dalby in Brazil. And that's just a bad, that's a disaster

waiting to happen. So much is on Dalby's side. But I don't know. Where do we, New York Creek? Where does Gabriel Bonfim go from here? Tough loss. Yeah, I don't think this affects him too much. Like how many guys have we seen that start out as sprinters in the UFC? And then all of a sudden kind of settle into like the idea that I'm not just going to go in there and blow the doors off guys. I think this is more just like, you know, Connor Burke's for one. And I think a few people were all over the line.

Like this was just a mispriced fight. Like Dolby is too tough and too good that if he was able to weather that storm, he was going to give Bonfim hell. and Bonfeme was sprinting like he's done in his UFC career and it has served him well and it has made him successful and it has made him a name that like we talk about right he's a name that if he had just gone out there

and had three listless wins we wouldn't be talking about but he stamped himself in the UFC with these first round finishes he'll learn to stop sprinting and he'll be absolutely fine and he'll still be very lethal and I'm not concerned about him at all I think that the Bonfeme guys are both really good like I'm I'm confident that they'll learn

to the pace. And let's, you know, let's call it what it was. Like a lot of his fights, he's snatching up next and taking opportunities. If those fights went longer, we probably would have learned more. Tonight, we got to learn more. That's all. Like, that's all I take away from him. I'm not concerned about his long-term prospects.

Yeah. The guy is an incredible talent, but Nick Estabee's the one guy, you're not going to overwhelm. You're not going to bum rush him. He's never been finished. He has one finish that was overturned. And that was shocking when it happened. I remember I think Jesse Ronson's, Jesse Ronson. Jesse Ronson.

So that one got overturned. So fine, he's got finished once, whether you care about it becoming a no contest or not. Other than that, man, he does not get overwhelmed. He'll get hurt. He'll bleed. He'll bleed his fair share in some of his fights. But you cannot just pour out, like,

you cannot just pour it all on in the first round and think you're going to get him out of there. Because it is, I pick, I actually picked Bonfim by decision because I thought he was going to win, but I didn't think he could finish Dalby. Dalby, you know, winning was definitely like a great call, like you said, a New Yorkerick, he was way higher and underdog and he probably should have been. But this, yeah, this is a learning moment for Gabriel Bonfim because there's guys you can do that too, for sure.

We've seen it. He's taking a lot of people out in the first round. But a guy like this, you've got to be a little more tactical. You've got to get, you know, we've got to test the waters a little more because Dalby has been in it, man. And Gabriel Bonfim just experienced that firsthand. But yeah, a very important fight for both guys. There's literally levels to this. Like he's used to just going in there smoking guys.

now he's at a level where that does not work. You cannot just go in there and empty the tank in round one. You have to be smarter. You have to have more strategy to it and you have to be able to last longer. I'm not, I'm fairly confident he will figure that out. But this was the fight he needed to figure that out. You need to hit the wall one time and then you recover and you figure it out. Yeah, I agree.

Every fighter like this needs to, they need that moment to go, oh, I can also be the nail, you know? Yep, exactly. This is going back in time now, but this reminds me when John Fitch beat Eric Silva in Brazil. And remember Eric Silva was like just the hyper, super prospect. And John Fitch is like the veteran. And just basically the old man John Fitch won. And Nicholas Dahlby being, I think he was like 38 or something like that. I didn't realize he was that old.

Pretty incredible performance, inspiring performance from Nicholas Dahlby. Yeah. I mean, look, we saw it. Not exactly the same, but we saw it in the Angeles. Hill, Denisi Gomes fight. Like very, very similar. Gomes started off good and he'll use that veteran savvy and got over the top. And how about Angel overkill Hill getting it done?

Give her her her flowers. Good shit, man. I think what I took away from that was like not only to Angel Hill win that fight through experience, but she's evolving. She truly is evolving. She probably lost the striking overall, but it was her full MMA game, her wrestling, her submission defense, which won in that fight. And that's, I think this is Angela Hill we're saying this about.

And that's pretty dang impressive. I think she's 38, 39 right now. You know, she's clearly kind of past her athletic prime, but she's still gaining knowledge about mixed martial arts and still becoming a smarter fighter in that cage. And, yeah, awesome. I think there's a tendency in MMA, and especially as it relates to the UFC,

to kind of like, only think about people in their time. title prospects and kind of discard them if they're not going to be a champion or don't look like they have opportunities to be a champion. But like Dalby Hill, they're examples of like, there's people out here who just are making careers and continuing to improve and continuing to be like high level good fighters. And there's no shame in that path. Like that's a really cool kind of path for people to take that aren't going to necessarily be a champion. But that's not like if we're only thinking about who's going to be a champion, there's like three fights that are going to happen on each card and the rest get discarded.

And tonight was a nice, like, little reminder of that. We get these occasionally where it's just like, yeah, there's like lots of really good fighters in the UFC who are not going to be a champion, but kick ass. And that was cool to see. Yeah, look, with if we if we had that line of thinking, we'd have no Danny Gay fights. We'd have no Edson-Murboza fights at this point. We'd have no, no Neil Magne. We'd have no Tisha Torres.

We'd have no Angela Hill. And the list goes on and on and on of. litmus tests that are very important to the evolution of certain fighters. Some fighters are ready to get to that next level, but you got to go out there and beat that person. Like you got to go out there and get a win over like the 15th ranked person or the 16th ranked person, the veterans at the Andre Fili's of the world. Like that's how you know that like you're ready for that next step up for the upper

echelon of the division. You have to pass those little litmus tests and they're important. They're important. What a performance, Ryan Gila Hill. She's just, she just grinded it up late in that fight, and it was good stuff. It's just good stuff. I think we're good, gentlemen.

Nice. Yes, we did a great job. We did a great job. Give us an A. We got an A plus. Solidly. Okay, fair. Results of the poll.

Results of the Derek Lewis Bowl, please. Oh, okay. Sorry. I mean, it didn't change much from the last reading, but yeah, 32% dear lower. He did lose. but B, 22%, A, 19%. So 41% saying he did, he more than passed.

He more than passed. I knew it. Eric Lewis. Hey, congrats, Derek Lewis. Great victory tonight. Hey, what a win. What a win for Jared. Bill.

Got a fat paycheck, first fight or a second fight, I guess, of his eight-fight deal, whatever it is. But, you know, I'm sure he's sitting pretty going home without much damage, that beautiful face. And the dude's doing all right. What a crazy night. Well, listen, we, We're officially on the road to UFC 295.

Not quite yet. A.K. and I will do some matchmaking tomorrow. We'll have more thoughts about the futures of these fighters and where they go and how to actually call out the right names and not meet bad callouts. More on that tomorrow and on to the next one. But until that, everybody, for AK, for Casey, for New York, Rick. I am Mike Keck. Thank you for watching. Good night, everybody.

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